Gamespotting 026 - Birthday Wishes To The Blue Individual

Well; the character of Sonic The Hedgehog has been involved a lot of my gameplay time over the last few weeks due to my University dissertation and according to the official Sega Blog; today is his 18th birthday.

So; I just wanted to wish the blue speed freak a happy 18th birthday; and now he is officially an adult; maybe he can be part of more mature games or even better some more 2d classics like Sonic CD (which I once again am officially addicted to because of Metal Sonic)

So I hope the series can continue another 18 years and get back to his roots quickly before more crap titles with his name on them can be released (Sonic and The Dark Knight; what is that????)

Gamespotting 025 - I didn't feel old until 5 minutes ago

Today; I have finished my Student Accociate position and have enjoyed it; most of it was teaching but in some occations I was talking to some of the younger students about playing games and what they were playing at that time (Most of them playing Resident Evil 5 and GTA 4)

But when talking about some older games on consoles like the Mega Drive; they had no idea of what I was talking about and when mentioning some more well known titles like Sonic the Hedgehog and Ecco the Dolphin; some of them said is that where he comes from and my jaw nearly dropped to the floor.

I thought everybody would have played a Sonic title in some point of their gaming lives; but it shocked me that they have never played these titles. It just might have been my age and when I was their age; the playstation 2 was not even out and the Dreamcast reigned supreme for the year that it was alive (RIP) and all I remember was these classic titles.

But this got me thinking about the modern age of gaming; are modern gamers being spoiled with powerfull hardware and software rather than focusing on how good the graphics are or how many people you can shoot; not saying they said this but it has become commonplace to mention the bodycount when talking about games (mainly FPS).

When the Mega Drive was out; there were no fancy graphics (compared to todays standards); no Hard Drive to store vast ammounts of media on and only being able to play games with a few friends (Rather than millions on games like Warcraft) it was all about the game and the ability to get to the end in one sitting and the experience and social experience of being a gamer expanded with the evolution of the console market with players swapping Memery Cards with their mates and using their saves.

It might just be me; it might be because I have been on a Video Games Course for Two Years and have learned to play and appriciate games in a different way than other people have; but I hope people will look back on these titles and see what games used to be like and not to be discarded because they are not as shiney as modern day titles are.

Gamespotting 024 - Mass Effect Post Mortum Report - Bring On The Reapers

Well, today when I finished work. I completed Mass Effect on my first runthrough and it blew me away. I was hooked; but the final act of the game had me glued to my TV Screen for around four hours.

Defeating Saren wasn't easy, as he took out the rest of my team within the first minute and it was me on my own; but when looking in my weapons upgrades page; there were upgrades with tungsten rounds which inflict more damage and get through Shields in which Saren was hiding behind; after this it only took one shot of my Sniper Rifle and the job was done until Saren Mk.3 arrived.

I got the good ending (As I do with most games that I play) and am extreamly satisfied with this game and the ammount of work that went into it; the only problem was that I want to play the second title already; but have to wait.

So I urge 360 owners of the world to go and get this game; for a 20 hour experience that I have not enjoyed as much as when I played Code Veronica for the first time. now if you excuse me; I'm going to Bring Down The Sky and effect the masses for a while longer

Hidden Level 05 - The Joy of the Freebee

Well I have been doing some research today for my Dissertation and I have found some good bits of the internet today which will be usefull for the project.

But when looking at my latest blog posts in Blogger, I was looking at one of my favourites called Applied Games Design and they have updated their blog with an entry which has a link to a free book; now I would not say no but in this case it is a games related book; so I thought I would spread the joy and give a few more people the link to this book.

It is called Well Played 1.0 by Drew Davidson and has a few essays that could come in usefull and enjoyable at the same time.

The link to the page is

http://bbrathwaite.wordpress.com/2009/06/07/drew-davidsons-well-played-1-0-available-for-free/

So have a good read and enjoy the credit crunch

Gamespotting 023 - Captian's Log C-19882 (Jump starting a spaceship with a text box)

Well I have been playing a few games at the moment; the last Phoenix Wright game on my DS; A few Sonic titles for my Dissertation Project and Finally Mass Effect.

Now I picked up the game on several reccomendations from Uni people and picked up at the Bargin price of £9.99 along with a copy of Bioshock for free and I have been hooked on the title since I have bought it.

The gameplay is one of the classic examples that can be found with previous Bioware title such as Knights of The Old Republic and it provides a simple gameplay system that is harder to master than it seems. I only found out today that you could modify your characters weapons even further and this did help when taking down some huge plant thing with Zombies following me everywhere.

The characters are rearly well designed and all of the characters have their own backstory (even if they are on the screen for five minutes)and the one mechanic that impresses me the most is the speech system which allows you to talk your way to being a good or bad character without having to play the game any differently.

But I have only one problem with Mass Effect and that is would it be classed as a Video Game in the traditional sense or is it a piece of visual fiction. I came to think about this when I was playing the first few missions and most of my time was being taken up in cutscenes with various lines of dialogue to choose from (Very Monkey Island Me Thinks) and thinking when is the gameplay going to come and when it does; it just shoves it at you unexpected which is a bit weird.

But this is only a small point and I am absolutely hooked with this title; I am going to play this to the end and can't wait to take down Saren with my Avenger 3 Assault Rifle with its umlimited pots of Ammunition