Looking at a long argued point about gaming, what is the most important element?

Ever since Pong, games have only advanced in every area and these are game play, graphics, story, presentation, sound and music but it is often argued which is the most important element of a game. Is it that the graphics are so good that it looks like you are looking out a window? Or is it that it has the best soundtrack ever? Or maybe even amazing gameplay? In this short blog, I am going to briefly discuss what I feel are more important elements and what really defines whether I will buy a game. First I will describe each element.

Gameplay:

It would make sense that this is the most important element of a game, it is playable, is it fun? Can I play it with friends, will I get much replay value out of this or is it a one time deal? A game that has good gameplay is a much smoother and better experience that you are less likely to want to get to the end, but instead enjoy the game while you are playing it. If you aren't having fun while playing the game you may as well forget all the other categories as chances are, you aren't going to be playing it for every long. It is also important to note how different is the gameplay from the norm, is it just another COD knock-off or obvious attempt at Need For Speed? In an industry like this it is very easy to go with what sells but that isn't in the best interest of the players, which is why indie games like Journey mix things up a bit and give us a new way to play a game. It is hard to gauge how good a game is without another to draw comparison from, but if the game is engaging you in it and you are having fun, the gameplay is working.



Graphics:

Games like Crysis and Battlefield can be argued to be some of the most realistic games in terms of graphics. However, it is unfair to merely compare games by how much they look like real life when some games want a certain look or art style. So in this category I find that I am less picky than any other category, if a game has terrible graphics but is fun I will still buy it, but if the game has perfect graphics but dull gameplay I won't give it a second look. In my opinion, it is more important when looking at this category to consider, does the art style/graphics in the game suit the style it is going for and if it does how successfully does it do that? If you are playing Super Mario you aren't going to want photorealistic graphics but you still want it to be appealing to the eye and in that way it is what the developer does instead that matters. Any game can make a world look like real life, that requires no imagination at all. But instead it is when the create a game with an outer world look about it and while playing the game you are sucked into it. That is when graphics are successfully fulfilling their role in a game.



Story

This is probably one of the most overlooked category in gaming I know of. Why do I say that? Because often developers create their game and get writers to create the story after the fact which is a bad practice and is why a large majority of game storylines fail to impress. They also often try to make the story just a 6 hour version of a hollywood film which also doesn't work. Bioware and Telltale games have a great approach to this area of gaming, not only do they tell good stories but the story drives the gameplay and visa versa. Allowing the player to actively make decisions during cutscenes makes them feel more like an extension of the game itself rather than a tacked on element to give you a break from killing enemies for 10 minutes. Interactive storylines, if done well also add huge replayability to the game with the ability to go back, play the game again and get an entirely new experience out of it.



Sound and Music

A bad soundtrack in a game can kill the experience just as fast as broken gameplay, it can make the feel awkward, slow, clunky or cheap. It can sometimes be the difference between a great game and an amazing game, this is best described with Halo, Halo 1 through to 3 had an orchestral soundtrack created by Martin O'Donnell which added some great emotion and one of the most memorable theme songs of any game. But when it came to Halo 4 the changed the composer and went with a more electronic soundtrack which actually damaged the emotion and carefully crafted story and made it feel cheap. Another example of this is Far Cry 3, a game with amazing gameplay, story and well done graphics but the music has been said to be the Achillesheel of the game. Instead of being a memorable and impacting score it was full of dubstep and electronic music, now please understand that I have nothing against Dubstep or electronic music but there are games that work well with it and some that don't. A good soundtrack will add the perfect tone a game is looking for.



In Summary

So what is the best element? Short answer: There isn't one, but instead all elements of a game working together is what makes for a great games. If you have graphics without gameplay people won't be interested but at the same time if the soundtrack is horrible but the story is amazing it is very unlikely you are going to be able to successfully convey the needed emotion in the game. When all elements of a game work harmoniously you get masterpieces like Mass Effect 2, Uncharted 2, Super Mario Galaxy, Far Cry and more. So even though gameplay is important it certainly isn't the only factor in making a game great.



What are your thoughts and opinions on this topic, do you think gameplay is the most important, or maybe graphics or an epic soundtrack? Sound off in the comments below.

What game got you into gaming?

Do you remember the first time you ever played a game, the graphics were amazing, the gameplay was astounding and you were in the moment. Whether it was an all out brawl in a split screen game of Mario Kart or an intense session of Pong they all bring back their own great nostalgia. Now when I was younger I used to go over to my friend's place and we would play Mario Kart on his Super Nintendo, I thought this was the best thing ever and an absolute blast but I'll admit this was not when I decided to become a gamer.

In fact it didn't come until the first time I played Perfect Dark, a first person shooter game with aliens, split-screen multiplayer, co-op and amazing graphics. At the time I thought I was playing Crysis in terms of graphics and the game play was revolutionary. I remember versing my brother and bots in games of death match, using the guns that could shoot through walls and the pistol with a rifle scope. It wasn't til this point when I fully realized the true potential of gaming and it would definitely be in my opinion the game that I can safely say made me the gamer I am today. After playing the game for years, I went through the stages of owning a Nintendo 64, Game Cube and even a Wii. Nintendo ran in the blood and both Mario, Metroid and all the great Nintendo IP's were amazing an fun.

Sadly enough the Wii couldn't quite live up to its amazing predecessors, because in many ways it felt like a gimmick. There were still some really good games released including Zelda: Skysword and Super Mario Galaxy but in a generation so defined by HD graphics and an over flooded market of first person shooters trying to imitate Call of Duty my move to Xbox was soon to come. It was a great move as I discovered games like Halo 3, Mass Effect and many more. But I can't shake the feeling that Nintendo is in some serious trouble this generation. They are already behind in processing power and now more than ever there has been an increase in children and younger audiences playing multiplayer first person shooter games like Halo and COD.

Now I am not saying that you can blame Halo or COD for this, in fact it is clearly bad parenting but this really is starting to hurt Nintendo considering they could be considered as the console for the whole family. Hopefully this year at E3 the announcement of some new games will give them the edge they need as the head into the battle for next-gen. I would hate to see such a great company that my gaming roots came from come to an end like this.

Anyway, that is enough talking from me, what game got you into gaming? Any interesting stories?

Top 10 Webseries of all time.

1. The Guild

At first, I didn't really undestand or like this show. In fact I thought it was cheesy and boring but after watching the whole of Season 6 I went back and now I not only have a new opinion on it, but it has helped me to understand MMORPG players much better. I highly reccommend you check out this show, it is funny and smart and it has Felicia Day in it(which makes it instantly a must see)


2. Red vs. Blue

You can't go five videos on Youtube without finding a Machinima video, Roosterteeth started it and this show has run for 10 seasons. Which is more successful than most TV series and best of all, it is hilarious whether you play Halo or not.


3. The Flog

A show where Felicia Day talks about things she likes and an interesting take on doing wierd and wonderful things like gameplays of 80's games or playing crotchet or training her dog. And she occasionally gets in her friends to host, plust she even has her dog Cubby host one of the episodes.


4. Written By A Kid

The stories in the episodes are formulated and narrated by kids and then taken by a bunch of directors to interpret into random stories that usually end up with people dying or doing wierd and wonderful things. All things are possible with a child's creative mind.

5. Halo: Forward Unto Dawn

Halo fans have dreamed of a Halo movie ever since the first game was released, and though no this is not a movie. It is pretty close and provides some great backstory to Halo 4, definitely worth watching if you want to learn what the link is between Master Chief and Commander Lasky.

6. VGHS (Video Game High School)

A webseries about a school which is entirely structured around gaming. Sound cool? It is and the best part is that it is created by Freddie Wong.

7. A Simple Walk Into Mordor

To celebrate the release of The Hobbit this month, two super nerds will do in six days what took Frodo and Sam three movies to complete. They will walk the 120+ mile journey across New Zealand from the filming location of Hobbiton in Matamata to the filming location of Mount Doom, Mount Ngauruhoe. They will sleep on the ground, cross rivers, and of course, eat Lembas Bread. Documenting the entire journey on video, the two Lord of the Ring fans will prove that one does simply walk into Mordor.

8. Game Shop

Clerks meets Workaholics meets your local gaming store in this new original comedy series from START!

9. Jake & Amir

A comedy series from College Humor about two colleagues who have an interesting work relationship.

10. Honest Trailer

A great way to make fun of movie plot holes in a lighthearted silly way that keeps the audience entertained with the fast pacing like a real trailer and the epic voiceover.

In the next generation (PS4 & Xbox 3), should services like Xbox Live and the Playstation Network charge for online play?

This is a topic that is often hotly debated and often no conclusion is made. It is important to note for all those who are pro-free and say "Why Should I pay for Xbox Live when PSN is free?" the answer to that question is difficult. People who argue that now the PSN is almost identical to Xbox Live are mistaken. Xbox Live has a much more robust system, adding friends, parties and chatting is all much more seem-less and seems to be built better into the Operating System and network. Playstation has long suffered catching up to the level of social interactivity that Xbox has had which could be a major reason for the share button in their new console.

It’s true that the PlayStation Network is free and that you’ll need to pay to access online features with Xbox Live. But the old adage remains true: you pay for what you get. Xbox Live remains a more secure platform than the PSN, subject to far fewer hacks and other problems. And while the paid PlayStation Plus service is certainly a great value, the fact remains that if you have security concerns the Xbox 360 is the better of the two. No network is going to be perfectly secure, of course, but Xbox Live has never seen a month-long hack in which tens of millions of users were affected. Live is a great deal for third parties then, but less so for gamers. On the plus side, it means Microsoft get the lion’s share of online-enabled games, with even the most low-rent of independent developers able to support online matchmaking in their games. Meaning, overall, it makes online play in multi-format titles far more likely on the 360.

In the future we are probably going to see even more levels of membership for paid online subscription like so:

1 Free -You can access online but can't play multiplayer.

2 Small Yearly Fee - Access online and play multiplayer on all titles.

3 Mid priced Yearly Fee - All previous perks and free games monthly and bonus content, plus more deals.

4 High priced Yearly Fee - All previous perks and also will pay for entertainment content like TV shows and movies. This will try to be your entertainment hub.

THE TRUTH

The best asset of a paid subscription fee is that it allows even small developers to support online play - the value of which can’t possibly be denied. Without it, we’d never see online play in small-budget XBLA titles or even marginalised full-price games. The question to ask is whether or not that’s worth the precious money from your pocket, on rotation, every 12 months. From the player’s end experience, Live is the leader, but it’s hardly a full fifty bucks/forty-quid ahead of its competition. The market has changed since 2002 and so long as the PlayStation Network and Steam Community threaten to match Live feature-for-feature, Live needs to be obviously better in some other way, especially Australia where it costs a whole $30 more for a yearly subscription than the $50 cost over in the U.S. At some point in the coming months, PSN will rob Live’s Friends List, completing its mimicry of Microsoft’s system. It’s at that point where questions must start to be asked of Live. It’s certainly easier for developers, but as gamers, perhaps we should rightly expect just a little more from our Gold subscription. So if more isn't doesn't to improve the premium service gamers will start to question whether the extra money is worth it but for security reasons and the support of developers premium services must continue on Consoles if they are going to exist into the financially demanding future of gaming.

What game do you think has the best soundtrack?

I love soundtracks in video games, they give it the mood, atmosphere and can help immerse the player in the world. To me the best soundtracks are the ones you don't notice because the fit in so well with the game and story. It is games like Halo that have such great composers like Martin O'Donnell creating such amazing music for their games. Just think back to the first time you played Halo, you booted up the game and there at the menu was some of the most amazing music in video game history. The Mass Effect trilogy has also had some amazing scores because of the amazing composers behind them including Hans Zimmer and Sam Hulick. This also explains why the Call of Duty games have such great music. Games like Battlefield 3, Bad Company and even the likes of Just Cause 2 also have amazing soundtracks that add to the atmosphere of the games. I have also always liked the soundtracks of Nintendo games from Super Smash Bros to Metroid Prime through to the likes of The Legend of Zelda and even Super Mario itself. Rayman has also had such a great soundtrack with the latest entry, Origins even changing the soundtrack when you activate certain powers in the game. But the winner for me has to be the new Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon. The games has such a great soundtrack with the combination of Daft Punk, 80's Synth Music and arcade style scores all transitioned into one amazing sounding composition that fit the Cyberpunk genre perfectly.

My personal vote goes to: Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon.

What is yours? Let me know in the comments below.

My Top 10 Videogame Trailers of All Time

Here is my list of the 10 best trailers in my opinion, I tried to get a range of genres and publishers ranging from the epic cinematic trailers of Mass Effect 2 over to the fun, to the amazing character trailer shown at E3 of Super Smash Bros Brawl.

10. Mass Effect 2

9. Super Smash Bros Brawl

8. Battlefield: Bad Company

7. Halo 4 Trailer

6. Skyrim Trailer

5. Halo Wars Trailer

4. Red Faction Guerilla

3. Borderlands 2 Trailer

2. Tomb Raider Trailer

1. Assasin's Creed Revelations Trailer

Why we should be excited about the next-gen Xbox reveal.

The jury is out whether the next-gen Xbox will be able to beat the PS4 in specifications, features and elusive titles but one thing is for certain, there are a lot of rumors that are about to be busted. So here I am going to put what I see as the 10 most talked about rumors, some which have truth to them and some which are very unlikely but we won't know until the release. The announcement will be streamed live on May 22nd at 3am(+10 GMT) on Xbox's website or Xbox Live. So without further waiting here they are, I will also give a rating out of 5 how likely they will happen with 1 being unlikely and 5 being very likely:



1. At number 1 we have "Next-gen Xbox will be Always On" meaning it will require a constant internet connection to run it. For starters I want to see I don't believe this one for a second, I know that Microsoft employees have been very vocal about being fine with that feature and even saying "Deal With It!" if you don't have internet. But we have all seen how the Sims launched with Servers problems, crashes and is even still unplayable. So I would be very surprised to see Microsoft take such a huge bet and our internet speeds haven't quite hit the speeds yet to be able to handle the constant connection needed. Instead, it is more likely that individual games will choose whether to be Always On or not. (Likelihood of happening: 1/5)

2. There will be no disc drive. In March 2012, British trade magazine MCV stated that Microsoft's next Xbox will not use an optical drive. Instead, a solid state drive will be used to store games. (Likelihood of happening: 1/5)

3. The next-generation Xbox may not only be accompanied by a new and improved Kinect, but may actually require the sensor to function. Rumors from Kotaku about Microsoft's forthcoming console, every Xbox 720 will ship with the next-generation Kinect and will require the sensor to be connected in order to function. The company is apparently building Kinect functionality into the framework of the system, using the sensor to identify players and even accept Siri-like voice commands. This marks a bold new push for Kinect integration, which has been slow-growing for the Xbox 360. As we've heard in the past, Kotaku says that the emphasis on Kinect will come paired with substantial performance improvements, with the sensor capable of tracking six simultaneous players and detecting even the smallest of gestures and facial expressions. (Likelihood of happening: 4/5)

4. There is also a rumor that unlike the Xbox 360, the next Xbox will ship in only one configuration with 500GB of storage, allowing players to install games from discs. Using its powerful new internals, the Xbox 720 will be capable of installing games as you play them, limiting lengthy load times. (Likelihood of happening: 4/5)

5. The new hardware will support multitasking. The system will make use of "suspend" and "constrained" states to run multiple games at once, making it possible to pause one game and launch another. The same goes for apps, such as social networking tools and video software, which currently require fully closing down another program. (Likelihood of happening: 3/5)

5. No Used Games. Sources told Kotaku on January 25, 2012 that the Xbox 720 will have a system that will not allow used-games to be played on the console. While this claim hasn't yet been corroborated, more rumors surfaced on April 2, 2012 that the next Xbox console will need to be fed off a constant internet connection, which might be one way Microsoft plans to combat used and pirated games. (Likelihood of happening: 2/5)

6. Micosoft IllumiRoom, whether this will be for TVs in general, added in one of the Xbox bundles or an accessory is unkown. During Samsung’s keynote at CES 2013, Microsoft unveiled IllumiRoom, a new technology that turns the entire room around your TV into an extension of the screen. As explained on Microsoft's official site, IllumiRoom uses Kinect and a projector "to blur the lines between on-screen content and the environment we live in allowing us to combine our virtual and physical worlds." (This feature will release in some form or another so here is the Likelihood of it being an Xbox item: 3/5)

7. Disc Drives will now be Blu Ray. I feel as though now that HD DVD is out of the picture Microsoft will need to use Blu Ray in their next gen console to handle the storage requirements that would be need to play a next-gen title like Destiny. Unless they bring out an entirely new drive or only use the games discs to store the content and then it extracts when it installs onto the Xbox this is very likely to be a new addition to the Xbox and could be one of the contributing factors to no backwards compatibility with the Xbox 360 or original Xbox. (Likelihood of happening: 4/5)

8. On February 11, 2012, Kotaku reported that the new Xbox controller was a "natural progression" of the Xbox 360 controller, but claims that the 360 controllers will not work with the new console. The new controllers are said to be using a "new wireless technology." On February 10, 2012, Xbox World magazine reported that the controller will be "an HD screen surrounded by the traditional 360 buttons and sticks" and that it “could be a remote control when you're watching TV, a browser when you're on the internet, extra buttons and information when you're playing a game or a portable display when you want to take your game with you." On June 17th 2012 shifted2u found a leaked document concerning 2 new devices working together called "Xbox Surface" showing the specs of a "tablet computing device" and a separate "stationary computing device". It has been speculated by Jeremy Kopchak that this is indeed the specs of the new Xbox 720 console and its touchscreen controller, WiiU style. (Likelihood of happening: 2/5)

9. No Backwards Compatibility. Out of all the rumors this is the one that I am most likely to believe, this has been reported so much it is almost confirmed and now that Sony has said the PS4 will not be backwards compatible the Xbox will lose nothing by saying the same. Though this feature may not have a huge weight in sales, it could certainly boost their chances of bringing more people to the console earlier as they would instantly have a large library of games to play when they buy it. If they choose not to have it backwards compatible here are two things they can do to make up for it: 1. Have all games that are currently available on Xbox 360 and a large library of Xbox games available to download on release at a considerably low price with all DLC included. And maybe even bring out HD downloadable editions of previous gen games. 2. Make them cross playable, so that if you own an Xbox 360 and your friend owns the new Xbox you can still play together, but there are features that only the next-gen console has that would slowly bring reluctant people to the next gen. Because as it currently is, there are so many good games I still have to complete that I will play before going next gen so that I can wait for the first price drop and a good bundle that will hopefully have a larger Hard Drive and a selection of games. Until the point where a solid library of next gen games come out or it is backwards compatible I will wait before buying it. (Likelihood of No Backwards Compatibility: 5/5, almost certain)

10. Two versions, one that will be like a media hub where you can watch movies, TV, netflix, go on Facebook and the internet and possibly have a Kinect. The other version will have a Kinect and be able to do all the media one can and also play games. I am unsure what to think of these rumors, because I know that many people automatically associate Xbox with playing games. So if that feature was removed it would seem like a downgrade and also there would be the risk that parents would buy the wrong version and their kids couldn't play games and they would damage the discs. Or it would turn out that you could use an exploit to play games on the Media Hub Xbox like they found out that it is possible to play Sim City offline. All this does is gives bad press and unnecessary risk for Microsoft, advantages would be that it would give a lower price tier and maybe pull in people who don't play games. (Likelihood of happening: 2/5)

Let me know in the comments below whether you are looking forward to it and what other crazy rumors you have heard.

My Experience At the Gold Coast Supanova

 

I attended Supanova this year as a volunteer and had an absolute blast. I thought I would share my experience with you guys as Supanova is really only known well in the Australia/New Zealand region but it is pretty much like a small version of Comicon. Last year when I was there I got to meet Felicia Day and some of the staff from Roosterteeh and had a really good time, that is where I got my avatar from with Felicia Day. I hope you enjoy.

At Supanova in Brisbane with Felicia Day

This year I was really excited to meet the stars and also reunite with the crew of volunteers I helped out with last year and it was interesting seeing them again and only thinking it was yesterday that I had last spoke with them. Anyway, for stars this time around I was looking forward to meeting Adam Baldwin and going to his panel, Eliza Duschku and Jack Patillo and they didn't disappoint, in fact they were really friendly and funny which was great. Adam even did reenactments on stage of scenes from Firefly and phones calls with Nathan Fillion. Plus I even got to ask him a question in his Q&A part.

At Supanova in the Gold Coast with Adam Baldwin

There were some pretty awesome moments during the weekend that I would love to share, here are some of them. Including the fact that I got to meet and chat with Sylvester Mccoy who was the Seventh Doctor in Dr. Who and Radaghast in The Hobbit movie. He was really friendly and happily shared his experience on set and told me how little time they had to read the script before they would have to perform. I was line managing for Alex Kingston for most of the Saturday and there would have been hundreds upon hundreds of signatures signed by her. I have no idea how their arms don't get tired from it, but I guess at $40 each it is easy to forget the pain of signing and easy to remember how much money your making by writing your name on a piece of paper and saying a few things to your fans and complimenting their costumes. But in all seriousness she gave each fan a few minutes of her time and genuinely cared, sadly enough she got food poisoning on the Sunday but still signed pictures and posters from her hotel room and they were driven back and forth to the convention centre. I am not sure whether I would have that much dedication to my fans personally but I am not famous anyway so I guess it doesn't matter either way. On the Sunday I did line management for 3 of the actors who played some of the hobbits in the new movie. They were nice guys and fun to talk with, when I looked over to Ray Parks line he didn't really have too many people so he go up and took pictures around the convention centre and talked with fans even if they didn't have anything to sign. It was nice to see and on my break I got a photo and signature with both Adam Balwin and Eliza Dushku(which can be seen below.) They were both very friendly and appreciative even though I incorrectly credited Eliza as Alex from White Collar when she only appeared in one episode. But other than that it was pretty good, I also bought a poster and gave it to my friend to get signed by Jack from Achievement Hunter as she was a volunteer at the Hanabee booth but somehow she accidentally sold the poster so I had to find a different one for him to sign. After that I went back home and was pretty tired, all in all some of the other volunteers and staff were a bit frustrating at times but it all worked out in the end.

At Supanova in the Gold Coast with Eliza Dushku

So if I was going to rate it the convention like a video game this is what I would give it:

9.5/10

+Over 50 stars/celebrities including David Haselhoff, Eliza, Adam, Jack and even the actor from I dream of Jeannie.
+Panels were great and very spacious.
+Lines were long but never overly excessive.
-Layout was a bit disorientating and the map didn't explain the fact that the panels were on the top level well at all.


Let me know in the comments below your thoughts, if you have ever been to Supanova I would love to hear what you thought about it, if not feel free to share you experiences you have had at other conventions and maybe even a funny or weird story to about the con. I would especially like to know what it is like to attend Comicon or E3 as I would love to go there at some point in the future.

Daybreak Season 1 Review

AT&T has created an interesting attempt at a Webseries called Daybreak as an advertisement for the HTC One X. Was it a good web series read below to find out.

As a loyal fan of Chuck since season 1 of the show Devin aka Awesome played by Ryan McPartlin was always a funny brother/in/law in the show. Now he stars as the villain in the web series Daybreak, a sci/fi action thriller series of five 10 minutes online films. The show is linked to the Kiefer Sutherland-led FOX series Touch, by a storyline following the mysterious dodecahedron introduced in the last three episodes of Touch. The show gets of to a good start and has you hooked in with high production value chase scenes. The series stars Ryan Eggold and Sarah Roemer, along with supporting talent Ryan McPartlin, Eugene Byrd, and Shannon Lucio. Much of the narrative in Daybreak is driven by the use of technology including AT&T’s network, devices, and even some not-yet-available innovations from AT&T Labs.

Even with the great talent and talented writers the show still seems to suffer from a very predictable plot of a father who left something for his son, that he must now go on and use to save the planet. Meanwhile an evil organisation is trying to stop him and will go to great lengths to take the Dodecahedron and harness its powers for their own reasons. This is one of the downfalls of the show and also the awkward love story between the main character and his ex make up for some of the screen time that starts to feel cringe-worthy and slightly frustrating to watch on screen. However, it is worth noting that overall the set design and scale of the show is up there with Hollywood and TV shows and less like what has come to be expected from low-budget web series of the type.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Unxyp-G17A?start=0]

In Summary: The show is good and for free content it is well worth watching if you can get past of the predictable story and the obvious product placement. But for a web series it certainly has potential and maybe even enough substance for a second season.

Concept for a Mass Effect MMORPG.

Setting: Beginning of Mass Effect 2, Shepard had just died and a team has been ordered to recover the remaining parts of the Normandy and hopefully recover Commander Shepard after he/she was shot and killed by the Collectors. But when you get there Cerberus is already there and escape with Shepard's body and the rest of the bodies. From there the Alliance believes that Commander Shepard is dead and so now your team must go and investigate into Cerberus and other enemies running havoc in the galaxy. The game would work similar to Borderlands with a drop-in/drop-out system to join games and the galaxy map would be used as Travel stations to other areas of the galaxy. You can play as all the races included in the Mass Effect 3 multiplayer with more depth put into characters, higher level caps and a new system of customization for weapons including the ability to dual wield smgs and pistols.

Enemies include: The Collectors, Cerberus, Blue Suns, Blood Pack, Geth, Reapers, Rogue Turians (angry over first conflict war), Rogue Alliance Soldiers, Thresher Maws, Yahg, Varren, Rachni, Mechs, plus now every race has an indoctrinated form including the Krogan, Drell, Hanar, Elcor, Salarian, Volus and Quarian.

The timeline of the game would go through the defeat of the Collectors and up to the end when Shepard finally defeats the Reapers. You would travel to familiar places like The Citadel, Mars, the Moon, more of Earth before and after the Reapers attack, Palaven, and many other planets. There would be hundred of missions, plus a new library of vehicles both ground and space for space combat.

You would also play side-by-side familiar allies including Ashley Williams or Kaiden, Wrex, Legion, Liara, Anderson and many more. I am not sure what the overall storyline would be but during the game you will get the opportunity to talk with Commander Shepard and you can import your save so that the Shepard you meet will be either male or female and look how you customized them.

Which brings me to my final point, customization with each playable race would allow for in-depth customization including gender, facial features, many more armor types and the what class you play as. All this would make for a great game while keeping all the current lore that has been created and with the addition of the DICE engine being used for the next Mass Effect game it would be possible to have destructible environments with biotoc abilities doing damage to structure.

Motion control “a gimmick” that “adds nothing” – DICE. Do you agree?

An often highly debated and never resolved element of gaming is motion control. Ever since Nintendo brought out the Wii; both Microsoft and Sony tried their hardest to take a chunk of the market with their own devices. First was the Playstation Move, an obvious attempt at taking on the Wii with a very similar controller and an eye toy to help track players in real time. Few games truly took advantage of it though and most gamers still preffered using a standard controller. Then came the Kinect, very similar to the Eye Toy, the Kinect could track two people in 3D space at around 30 fps and also had the addition of voice control which allowed you to open disc trays, change songs, navigate menus and even turn off the console. The problem with the Kinect was that only a handful of developers ever made games for it and they often had poor tracking and were very buggy, some games got it right like Dance Central which finally proved that Kinect really did have good tracking and could be accurate. But even after it was released no game or developers seems to be able to get the accuracy they achieved and even a simple game of fruit ninja on Kinect was annoying because you would often slice a bomb when in the touch version you would have missed it. Below is DICE’s opinion on motion control.

Most new Xbox titles brag "Better With Connect" but are they really better?

Motion control is a gimmick that players won’t see anywhere near Battlefield 4, says DICE executive producer Patrick Bach. Speaking with Edge, Bach said that additions to the game were only considered if they improved it and simply put, motion controls do not do that. “There are a lot of gimmicks – people throwing money at us – ‘can you implement support for this quirky control thing’. No, it doesn’t make the game better,” said Bach. “We are extremely open to innovation, but if it’s a gimmick, there’s no point unless it adds value to the player.” Not all alternative control methods were out of bounds, however. The iPhone had proven that touchscreen technology could be implemented well, said Bach. “It adds to the experience, and now everyone is doing it. To us it’s the same with motion control and perceptual gaming in general; if it adds, great. If it’s a gimmick, ignore it.” Battlefield 4 was revealed at GDC 2013, and will feature three playable factions as well as Command Mode. It is expected on the usual platforms along with PlayStation 4 later this year.

Do you agree with their opinion that it is a gimmick or do you think that they just haven’t found the right way to use motion control yet, let me know in the comments below.

My thoughts on Nintendo's current status and some possible ways to get them out of their trouble.

I am sure I am not the only one who grew up with an Super Nintendo playing classic games like Super Mario, Mario Kart and Metroid. Nintendo used to be the gaming giant, they pretty much dominated the console scene especially up against the Sega Dreamcast, at least in my opinion. All of my friends had a SNES and we would often play split screen Mario Kart against each other. Then came the Nintendo 64, what could be argued to be one of the biggest leaps in gaming technology with the introduction of 3D games like Super Mario, Donkey Cong, Perfect Dark, Goldeneye, Star Fox, Super Smash to name a few of the great titles on the platform. This was around the time that the Play Station was introduced and when I look at them in comparison their lineup for N64 was much better than the PS1 and more reliable, even though the Playstation 1 saw the introduction of the disc. Then they made a slight misstep with the Game Cube, the discs were an awkward size which meant it couldn't play DVD's, games were still really great with Super Smash Bros Melee, Goldeneye Rogue Agent, Super Mario Sunshine, Mario Kart Double Dash, Star Wars, Star Fox Adventures, Metroid Prime and many others. This is when competition really ramped up for Nintendo with the introduction of the Xbox and PS2, both cam with very strong titles and had DVD players which games them an edge over the Game Cube, and they also allowed for online play and System Link. That was an area the Game Cube lost out with no online capability and also only the Japanese version of the console allowed for System link meaning that you were limited to 4 players in a game.

Next to come along was the Nintendo Wii(originally know as Revolution) and sold extremely well as they were first to release, had good graphics and has motion control like we hadn't seen before. Everyone was really excited to play games like Tennis on Wii Sports and Lego Star Wars where were would be able to aim the force and swing the lightsaber with our hands. Sadly enough though, coming out first had its problems in the longest running Console Cycle with still no DVD's being able to be watched on it, pressing buttons was easier than using the motion control and very unreliable online play. They still had some very strong IPs to come out on the Wii including Super Smash Bros Brawl, Super Mario Galaxy, Metroid Prime Corruption, New Super Mario Brothers, Zelda: Twighlight Princess and Skyward Sword. But that wasn't where they lost out, Xbox 360 launched with HD graphics, Xbox Live, and games like Halo 3, Forza, Gears of War and Mass Effect to make a very strong list of exclusives to battle against the Wii and also Xbox Live Arcade which allowed for downloadable Indie games. PS3 came out a year after the Xbox 360 and has the selling point of having Blu Ray but had major problems including the excessive price, unreliable internet and one that most gamers know the Cell technology that was used to power the graphics and games which had major drawbacks due to the way it delegated power and many developers didn't quite understand how to make games for it. The Wii still survived pretty well as the Xbox 360 suffered from the Red Rings of Death and the PS3 was both excessive in price and had its own issues and did not have a great selection of launch titles. This was not were Nintendo found themselves in trouble, it is in fact now with their current status we see them suffering from multiple issues, some which are completely out of their control and some they need to fix or they will soon be in a very serious financial state and we may even lose them from the console space come the end of the next-generation.

This all sounds doom and gloom and like I am hating on Nintendo, but the reason for this article is due to my love for them and not wanting to see them go. Let's start with their first issue, Mobile gaming: Nintendo had been doing Mobile gaming since the beginning with the original Gameboy which had some great titles like Star Wars, Pokemon and many others. They continued to see success in their DS and DSL range but suffered with the Nintendo 3DS for a few reasons. Mobile gaming has changed a lot in the last five years and nobody could have imagined that the majority of mobile gaming, and gaming in general is now done on mobile phones like the Iphone and Samsung Galaxy. Why? Because it is convenient, cheap and there are so many million to choose from with a huge range of free games as well. This, along with the fact that the 3DS hurt many people's eye, didn't work for some people and it turned out that Nintendo stole the tech from somewhere else and were recently caught and had to pay up a considerable amount in legal fees because of it. Plus the Sony Playstation Portable became popular and the new Playstation Vita, while not entirely commercially successful has a great cross-play feature with the Playstation 3 which Nintendo should consider doing with their Wii U and 3DS in the future.





Now we have Nintendo's big problem: The Wii U, it isn't a bad console by any standards, in fact it is pretty darn good but there are many reasons why this console has had very poor sales and little interest from the console market. Nintendo has never named a console the same as a previous one, what do I mean by that? Well there was first the Super Nintendo, then the Nintendo 64. the Game Cube and the Wii, then suddenly this one is the Wii U. I feel they did it to try and get some traction from the success of the Wii, but it failed due to poor marketing with most people who aren't Hardcore Nintendo Fans or IGN/game article readers have been confused thinking the Wii U is just another controller and not a new console. Their ads don't show the console off properly and it is something that came to my attention when I first saw their ad and it was brought up in the IGN Game Scoop Podcast. Now the second reason it isn't doing well is that there isn't a high level of 3rd Party support with games already saying they won't be making Wii U versions and even some of the exclusives coming for the Wii U including Rayman Legends was delayed because Ubisoft did not think it would be commercially viable to make it an exclusive so they went back so that it can be released on Wii U, PS3, PC and Xbox 360 losing another lot of potential customers with a very solid exclusive. Which brings me to my next point, launch titles and exclusives, Nintendo had very poor planning with their release bringing out a console without a "New" Mario game and a few other exclusives that would have boosted sales. Instead, we have seen a Mario game, ZombieU which didn't review well and a few other titles. But nothing that really convinces me to go to the store and buy it. They are also not having an E3 conference and instead having closed doors announcements and small press releases with most of their new content being announced directly. Now I know that E3 has become less relevant now, but I will leave that to another post but I am not sure whether the fact that they will be having a smaller presence than Microsoft and Sony will damage them in the long run. But I guess we will have to wait and see how they deal with E3 when it comes.





Though it seems grim, there are some ways that Nintendo can almost instantaneously get sales back up on the Wii U and bring them back to the green:


1st: Bring out the exclusives, you buy a Nintendo Console for Nintendo games but so far there haven't been many to actually buy. Luckily for them they have backwards compatibility and aren't blocking used games but their library is still to small of next-gen titles. What would be good for Nintendo is to have the following games developed and released this year and next year:
A new 3D Super Mario game, I would be good with Super Mario Galaxy 3 but I feel they are going to try and utilize the gamepad so they will probably have a whole new system in place.
Metroid Prime, either release a new Metroid Prime game or reboot the franchise with more focus on story, combat and have more current gen mechanics like customization for suits, abilities, perks, wave based game, decent length campaign with a an open world, good puzzles, the ability to swap between 3rd and 1st person, and the ability to swap between Zero Suit Samus and with a Suit to allow for mechanics like the whip to be used like the grapple hook in Just Cause 2 and also allowing for more weapon variety. Plus different environments, snow, lava, forest, swamp, desert, and have different hazards that you need to use certain suits for like Radiation, Poison and no oxygen. Plus a multiplayer that takes into account all the greatness of Metroid Prime with inspiration from games like Halo, COD, Battlefield and have different classes depending on the suit you were with an infection mode were it is metroids infecting Human survivors.
Super Smash Bros, we know it is confirmed and more details will be released at E3 but I am hoping for big things from this game. Many people were very dissapointed by the last game, I really loved it and thought final smashes were a great addition to the game. But I hope they bring back some of the characters from Melee that were missing and get rid of duplicates for other people to join. Add in more 3rd party game characters like Banjo and Kazzoie, Johanna Dark, Commander Shepard, Captain Price, Team Fortress players, Angry Birds, The Dragonborn, Chell, Bayonetta, Sam Fisher, Mega Man. Prince of Persia, Hitman, Lollipop Chainsaw girl and the list goes on. For duplicate players, or ones from the same franchise like Mario and Luigi have them categorized under on thing and then choose the character to make the library less clutter when choosing characters. Plus bring back Subspace Emissary, it was a great addition that added a story line to Smash like we haven't seen before and gave us a great variety of characters to play with, it would be great to see this turned into a 4 player co-op mode and have some more customization in multiplayer including the ability to have more human and AI characters and a reliable online versus mode. Also more maps would be great, maybe even ones where you can interact with the environment and some destructible environment would be nice. They also need to fix the balance issues as some character had much more powerful attacks and Final Smashes than others.
Mario Kart, bring back some of the old tracks and have a much larger selection of tracks, bring back first shells and add more items. That, more characters and better balance between characters and cars and it will be a great game. Another addition to help it from feeling stale would be the addition of special abilities that only certain characters have like invisibility for a limited time, extra boost, reshuffle and item and maybe add a health system like Blur to the cars to make the bigger cars seem more useful.
A HD Zelda game, a new game using everything people have liked from the previous games but on a bigger scale. If they could develop it like a scaled-down version of Skyrim with more diverse gameplay it will soon become a fan favorite.
I am sure there are many more games I could list but they need to make sure they can get third party support and make sure it is on par with the other versions on the different consoles. Developers like EA, Gearbox, Activision, Bungie, Harmonix and the others need to get on board.


2nd: Add an open marketplace like Apple App Store where Indie Devs can submit their games to be made and then charge a small licensing fee and get more games onto the online marketplace. Bring the virtual console marketplace to a new level with the ability to buy games from all Nintendo generations spanning from SNES, N64, Game Cube, Wii and Wii U games to help them take advantage of the length of time they have been in the console space and give them a huge push with hardcore fans and maybe even do HD versions similar to Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary Edition.


3rd: Invest into a bigger and better marketing strategy to ensure people know exactly what the product is by first explaining it on ads, billboards etc. then hit them with ads that demonstrates its capability and the games that will be on it.


4th: Take advantage of the gamepad, some uses for it that would have interesting points for gameplay include, using the power wheel and switching weapons for Mass Effect and other games, along with maps, codexs, choices on the gamepad, inventories, menus, skill trees, subtitles, used for the eagle vision in Assasin's Creed, to see through walls or like an X-Ray, augmented reality, touch games like cut the rope and angry birds among other can be brought to this console and map making to accurately place items, plus it could be a great screen capture tool where you could post screens to Miiverse, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram among other sc. Plus it can be used to watch game walkthroughs on Youtube when people get stuck or as a music player that you can change your music around with. Nintendo getting a deal with Apple to implement the App Store and Itunes into the Wii U would give them a great advantage. And maybe making a gamepad that can have a single game stored on it to play when you aren't at home or stream though your 3DS. If these functions utilised the gamepad has a big selling point and doesn't just seem like some Ipad Knock-off.


5th: An Ultra Version of Wii U needs to be released with a bigger hard drive, this will mean you can store more games, footage and other content like DLC considering it has become a much larger part of gaming these days. They should also consider adding cross-play functionality between the Wii U and the 3DS like Sony has done so successfully with the Playstation 3 and Vita and will continue doing with the 4.


So that is it from me, there is much more I can talk about but I will leave it at that as I don't want people going to sleep reading my post and I know this one was super long. If you made it this far congratulations and thanks for taking the time out of your busy day to read my thoughts on Nintendo's current status. If you aren't following me yet, feel free to and I am pretty sure future posts won't be quite as long as this one. Hopefully this is a good year for Nintendo and I look forward to seeing what they have to say both directly and at E3.

This could be the year that makes or breaks their future and with PC gaming never being more accessible with the Steam Box coming out, the PS4, Xbox Durango, PS Vita and all the smartphones including Iphone and Android it has never been a more intense climate and gamers have never before been given so much choice with what to buy. If each of these services has their own premium services on top of their console/games prices, Nintendo will have to put forward a pretty good argument for people to want to spend the next-gen with them.