Shame-porium

The mother-lode this weekend - Eurogamer Expo in London. Actually not as painful as I feared, less fan-a-thon more slick trade show. The queues were short, the games were good - the whole thing was well worth the attendance.

Went to one presentation on Brink, which looks very promising as a realisation of the potential of Quake Wars (also from Splash Damage). There's some heavy Modern Warfare inspiration but that's no bad thing, and the emphasis on co-op buys into a very encouraging multiplayer trend (cf Borderlands, that I hope to write about soon). On the floor Left 4 Dead 2 looks promising, though there doesn't seem that much of a development of the graphics from the first one. More of the same is still a pretty good deal there. More gorgeous were Dark Void (which quite brilliantly has implemented Gears of War cover fighting in a vertical axis) and - surprisingly to me - Bayonetta. Previously I couldn't have cared less, but it actually won me over, just for its sheer mental-ness. Honourable mentions to Lost Planet 2 and Dragon Age.

Good fun. And two free t-shirts. Result.

Quiet time

Bit of a shift in my life recently, and one which renders the title of this blog even more anachronistic. Bascially have moved back to Bath for the foreseeable future though am still commuting (or reverse-commuting) back to London at the weekends. The South-West is lovely and peaceful, and should allow me to catch up on a brutal reading backlog, however lack of an Xbox (still undecided whether to ship it down) is going to seriously impinge on game time. Eternal optimist pragmatist that I am have seized this as an opportunity to get acquainted with my neglected PS3.

Wallop!

DLC-ya

Went a bit stir crazy last week and, fuelled by cheap white wine, splashed out substantially on Microsoft points which I then blew on Peggle, Fallout DLC and Lost and Damned for GTA IV.

I've picked up a few bits of DLC in the past, but mainly these were functional expansions (new maps for Halo, the new weapons and vehicles in Crackdown and expanded multiplayer content in GRAW). This is the first time I've bought extra campaigns for existing games and, at present, have the zeal of the convert. In the case of Fallout I'm still tip-toeing around the new content, currently making the most of Broken Steel's lifting of the level cap by polishing off the various incomplete missions from the original campaign, but am looking forward to the mutant hillbillys of Point Lookout. Lost and Damned is instantly gripping however, and particularly exciting for the way it forces a reassessment of GTA IV as a whole.

I was a little disappointed with the game, it lacked the scale and anarchy of San Andreas and the gritty seriousness of Niko's story clashed with the neon silliness of Vice City. However Lost and Damned really brings home the idea of the game as a vehicle for storytelling. There's something compelling about the same setting with completely different characters and - crucially - a totally different storyline. In a sense narrative is the one thing to have radially changed about GTA (compare the Liberty City of IV with that of III, then compare Niko Bellic with the unnamed protagonist of the original) and it seems the one thing that Rockstar are genuinely interested in. They've built their stage, now they can change the players. I've not got too far into the missions, but doubt they are radically different from all other GTAs but the sense of playing as part of a biker gang certainly adds something to the gameplay.

I deliberately avoided the Mass Effect DLC as it sounded lacklustre and slapdash - a new planet is not the most thrilling prospect once you've landed on the first twenty or so in the original game. However what Rockstar has done really seems to push the potential for new content (and even at about 15 quid doesn't feel like too much of a rip-off).

Abandon all hope you who play this game

I'm as atheist as the next man who's an atheist, but nonetheless couldn't help but applaud this response by Christian gamer groups to EA's shoddy attempt to stir up controversy-based publicity for the still baffling videogame adaptation of epic poem and cornerstone of Italian civilisation Dante's Inferno. My favourite line: "So instead of engaging in a shamelessly anti-Christian stunt to promote your poor excuse of a product, maybe you ought to work on making this game, you know, something better than a blatant God of War rip-off "

I still can't believe this is being made at all: the choice of genre (platformer? point-and-click adventure?) seems almost arbitrary once the main offence of adapting the work has been committed. That said it's laudable of these people to look past the breathtaking dickery of the game-makers to focus on the painful lack of thought and innovation behind the project. I'm still holding out for Dispatches to be adapted into an first person squad-based shooter.

Great Lies of Our Time, No. 1

Left 4 Dead 2: The Most Important Subject in the News Today

The biggest news for me out of E3 was the announcement of a sequel to the mighty Left 4 Dead. My initial reaction was positive and has pretty much remained so, basically because any new content along L4D lines is good news to me. This has not been echoed across the internet and seems to have culminated in this. Videogamers do not have a reputation as the most tolerant or balanced of enthusiasts but surely this marks a new low in the indignant, self-important sense of entitlement that manifests pretty much any time a new sequel, franchise or system is announced. To quickly run through the manifesto of this organisation:

• Significant content for L4D1 was promised, and never delivered

And Valve have said that L4D1 will continue to be supported (and that's not even considering the fairly major changes - introduction of Survival mode - that came with the update a few weeks ago).


• Valve put little faith in L4D1 since they almost certainly started working on L4D2 right after release

What has faith got to do with anything? What does this even mean?


• The fact that L4D2 is nearly identical to L4D1 will decimate the community for both games

OK, this is a fair point in theory, but it's important to bear in mind how popular L4D has been as an online game. Look then to Call of Duty 4, another popular online game which has retained a sizable community despite its age and despite a sequel being released last year (the sequel also has a good number of players so there's little indication that either L4D game would suffer).


• The announced date is not nearly enough time to polish content or make significant gameplay changes

Perhaps - and this is just a thought - some dick with a broadband connection is not quite as well-placed as a member of Valve's development team to make this judgement


• The new character designs seem bland and unappealing so far

Yeah, I can see that: riverboat gambler, TV newsperson, high school coach voiced by Cutty from the Wire. Bland and unappealing indeed.


• L4D2 is too bright to fit in with L4D1's visual aesthetic

This criticism sounds familiar


• The fiddle-based horde music is extremely disliked, though the differently orchestrated music is otherwise welcome

Well, it's nice of them to make the latter concession. I for one love fiddles. And banjos. More of both please.


• L4D2's release will result in a drop in quality and frequency for L4D1 content, even compared to before

Well, leaving aside the slight contradiction with their first point this at least makes sense. It's also the crux of the decision that any consumer has to make and of the warped sense of entitlement that is the reason for all this whining. Fact is that Valve put out L4D1 and you (and I) bought it. Played it. Liked it (or disliked it, but in the case of those people I doubt their getting too het up about the sequel). Anything that comes after that is a bonus - nothing more. True, the game is short, and that was highlighted by pretty much every review. Not literally every review - some, like Eurogamer didn't bring this up, but if you are obsessive enough to form a petition against the sequel, then you would have known this before buying the original.

In that case it's caveat emptor. To rely upon any non-specific promise of future content is naive and petty: anything that does come out (like the Survival pack) has done so wholly through Valve's goodwill and was not owed to the community, however much you or I may want it.


• The community has lost faith in Valve's former reputation for commitment to their games post-release

This is the most egregious complaint, and one that sums up why the petitioners are wrong. Basically the lesson Valve should take from this is never exceed expectations. Never support your products. Never give away anything for free. Because the second you fail to do these things subsequently, the spoiled horde of the internet will descend.



For my part I look forward to the sequel. Anything which brings about more Left 4 Dead is a good thing, and if this does happen to take the form of a full-price game then I will go into that with eyes open as an informed consumer. The game is big enough to rely on sufficient people doing that so as to build a decent online presence (and in any event many people- such as myself - play only with friends who they can rely on to buy the new game). Does that make me a sucker on a par with those people who buy Madden year after year? Possibly. But as long Valve make Left 4 Dead 2 as fun as Left 4 Dead 1, I'm happy with that.