Review: Infamous

Release Date: NA: May 26, 2009, EU: May 29, 2009, AUS: June 4, 2009, JP: November 5, 2009
Developed By: Sucker Punch Productions
Genre: Third-person Action-adventure
Platforms: Playstation 3

It's hard to believe that I had shaky first impressions of Infamous. The shallow characters, dodgy animation and mediocre beginnings of the story were almost enough to put me off the game. I'm glad I stuck with it, though, as it turns out it has a lot more to offer than it first appears to.

Infamous literally starts with a bang, as the main protagonist, Cole MacGrath, unwittingly activates a mysterious object known as the ray sphere, creating a blast that devastates the surrounding city. Cole wakes from the explosion with electricity surging through his body, giving him superpowers. The city becomes a war-zone, with gangs of 'reapers' roaming the city causing as much chaos and destruction as possible. With his new powers, Cole is put to the task of retrieving the ray sphere by Moya, a government agent, while restoring order to the city along the way.

Characters are a strong component of a good story, so it's a shame that the characters in Infamous are so bland. Cole has little personality other than being a hardened badass with a gruff voice, and his comrades are no better. His best friend, Zeke, is your typical cocky (read: annoying) sidekick and the sort-of-ex-girlfriend Trish has almost nothing to contribute to the story other than being the mandatory love interest for Cole. The plot was making some effort at trying to draw me in with a few intriguing questions, but the one-dimensional characters and otherwise predictable storytelling held it back from becoming involving.

In fact, it's not until the latter parts of the game that the story picks up pace, and it wasn't until the very end that I was actually surprised by a plot twist. It was definitely becoming a good story, but sadly, it was too late. Similarly, the villains of the game were far more interesting than the good guys, and it would have been nice to see them have more screen time, especially in the early parts of the game.

Visually, it's a good looking game with a rich setting of apocalyptic urban blight. You get a good sense of the magnitude of the devastation as the citizens display feelings of despair and hopelessness, and the cityscape is littered with ruined buildings, broken roads and general rubble. The cut scenes are played out in a striking, moving comic-book style that fits in well with the game's superhero theme. Unfortunately, the presentation is marred somewhat by often inconsistent framerate and awkward animation. The characters move stiffly, especially when speaking. In a game that looks so great, the sub-par character animation sticks out like a sore thumb.

Don't Judge a Book By It's Cliched Gravelly Voice

Despite my qualms in the early stages of Infamous, by the time I finished the game, I was surprised at how much my opinion had heightened. What it may lack in story and presentation, it more than makes up for in gameplay.

The game resembles a third person shooter, only with electrical powers in place of guns. Many of the elements of a shooter are present, such as cover, grenades and sniping. Mixed in are a few extra powers that allow you to blast away in style, such as a shockwave that sends enemies flying and a ground slam that knocks down all enemies within a certain radius. Some of the later abilities are a real treat and it would be wrong of me to spoil the surprise. Powers can be upgraded with experience, gained from defeating enemies and completing both story and side missions.

The combat is the meat of the game and never really lets up from being challenging. As you progress and gain more of your powers, several variations of enemies enter the fray. When you move on to a new segment of the city, you face more powerful, tougher to kill versions of the enemies you've been fighting so far. Enemies will also use turrets and armoured vehicles to try and shred you into tiny pieces. The steady stream of new powers and enemies ensure that the combat never gets repetitive and remains enjoyable right to the very end.

If there's one niggle, it's that you sometimes find yourself in seemingly impossible situations that cause temporary spikes in difficulty. To then later acquire a power that's designed to combat the obstacle in question makes one wonder if the difficulty curve could have been somewhat smoothed by introducing these powers earlier. Sure, it's a lot more satisfying to develop a hatred for certain enemies before being handed the tools to fight back, but at the same time, if you've already learned to deal with them without the new power, it becomes relegated to a mere convenience.

The combat is aided by tight, responsive controls, which also shine while you're moving around the city and scaling buildings. One of the perks Cole gains from the ray sphere blast is the ability to climb buildings as effortlessly as some sort of arachnid-based superhero. Control-wise, it's as simple as tapping X and directing Cole to the next grab-able object on the side of the building. Along with the absence of fall damage, this makes traveling around the city a breeze.

Welcome to the Desolate Sandbox

The game follows a similar structure to that of the Grand Theft Auto series. You can roam around the city at will and progress the story by picking up missions in specific locations. At any time there can be one, two or three story missions on offer, along with a plethora of side missions. The main missions put you in various combat situations that get crazier, and as a result, more challenging, as you progress through the game.

It's during the main missions that the bulk of the "karma" decisions come into play. Infamous has a good/evil system, allowing access to specific powers based on your actions. Story-wise, these moral dilemmas aren't particularly deep or thought provoking. When a decision comes up, the action stops while Cole's inner monologue explicitly, and almost patronisingly, considers which option is good and which is bad, resulting in a moral system that's very black and white. With little effect on the overall story, it seems that the karma system is mostly a function of the gameplay. Since the most advanced upgrades to certain powers can only be obtained by becoming fully good or evil, the intended way to play is to choose your path at the beginning and stick to it. It does give the game some replay value, however, as there were a few choices I would have been interested in seeing the opposite outcome to.

The side missions are connected to small sections of the overall map and completion of each one removes enemy influence, in a similar vein to the gang warfare missions in San Andreas (though capturing territory in Infamous is permanent). While the types of side missions do repeat, there's enough variation to keep them from becoming stale, and the fact that they're short and simple means you can knock out a fair amount of them without straying from the main story path for too long. And with an obvious reward for completing them, seeing a side quest icon pop up on your mini-map is far too tempting to ignore.

Overall

Despite it's flaws and a mostly uninteresting story, Infamous is a game with a lot of potential for enjoyment. Though it starts out slow, stick with it and the precise controls and collection of awesome powers turn this game into 15-20 hours of entertaining, electrically charged mayhem. It's proof that sometimes, solid gameplay is all you need for a game to radiate greatness.

I'm happy to say that I'll gladly be going back for a second play-through in the near future, to explore the evil side of Cole.

Rating: 8/10

If you like the sound of it, Infamous will be on offer for free when the PSN Store returns!

This Week, I 'Ave Been Mostly Playing... (29/05/2011)

Infamous

I finished it! I'll be posting a review within the next couple of days, so I won't say any more about it here.

World of Warcraft

I take back what I said about Un'goro Crater last week, as we ended up rage quitting the zone due to some truly terrible quests. One such quest involves taking an NPC knight around the most densely mob-populated area to complete various tasks. Of course, he loves to aggro everything in sight, so you spend most of your time wading through unnecessary combat to reach your next goal. You can dismiss him, but for some reason you have to run back to the random place he's standing in to have him follow you again. Other than that, there just seems to be a lot of needless running back and forth. What a shame that one of my favourite zones is now one of the most annoying.

We decided to go all the way to the other side of the world to the Swamp of Sorrows next and plowed through all of the quests there this evening. It's good to see that there's actually something there these days. It makes me wonder if any of the other previously 'empty' zones have been updated with more quest-lines.

We're now level 54 and just starting on the Blasted Lands. The Dark Portal looms...

Lego Pirates of the Caribbean
 
I've played this a couple of times this week and I'm almost at the end of the second film. I don't really have any more to say about this other than that I'm still enjoying it.

Team Fortress 2

Even more shocking than the fact that I dabbled in an FPS game is that I actually went back for seconds! I've been mostly sticking to the soldier class because it seems to be a general all round killing machine. Now that I've got into the habit of shooting the rocket launcher at the feet of my enemies rather than over their heads, I'm actually getting some kills in.

While it's great to play on maps that involve a lot of teamwork, it was fun to jump into a small map with around 32 people playing, where the team objectives were mostly being ignored in favor of a massacre. Picking the heavy almost felt like cheating. Fun, though.

What's Next?

Before starting on my next main game, I'm finally going to play Sonic 4. I have no idea what to expect as I made a point of not reading any reviews before playing it, so as to not go into it with any preconceptions.

After that, I think I'll finally, FINALLY, play Dragon Age: Origins. I've had it for over a year, and whenever I've tried to play it, something has always got in the way. Mostly it was the fault of my last PC, which broke down on a regular basis. Lesson learned; never buy a pre-built PC; always build. I don't know what possessed me to do so in the first place.

Happy Places

To stop us all from going completely insane from the stresses of life, we human beings seem to have developed a defense mechanism known as the 'happy place'. This is a place we can picture in our mind and is usually our own personalised space in which we can be in complete tranquility. Sometimes, this place can be inspired by locations in books, films or video games. One bonus that comes with video game happy places is that you can actually walk around in them, developing very strong memories that can later be invoked by a number of stimuli, such as colour or music. Video games are a form of escapism which isn't necessarily confined to when you're actually playing the game. Find that perfect happy place in a game and you may find yourself returning there in daydreams.

Below are some of the happy places I've become attached to in the games I've played.

The Moonflow - Final Fantasy X

The Moonflow is a rather beautiful place. A massive river that sparkles with the light of pyreflies is quite obviously a spectacle. But it's the paths on either side of the Moonflow that I find the most serene. You travel through this area in the early hours of the morning while the sun is rising, creating a brilliant orange sky. The trees on either side of the trail hang overhead and allow small specs of warm amber light onto the otherwise shaded path. This, coupled with a perfectly atmospheric arrangement of the game's main theme, means you can almost taste the fresh morning air.

In fact, this is a case where the music really makes it for me. Like many of the pieces from the Final Fantasy series, I can listen to them and instantly visualise specific moments or locations in my mind. Listening to this particular track creates a relaxing image of early morning sunlight trickling through tree branches and leaves.

Nagrand - World of Warcraft

Gameplay wise, Nagrand is mostly terrible. The quests are long and repetitive, partly due to the presence of the hunter Hemet Nesingwary, who gets his thrills by sending out the heroes-in-training of Azeroth to mindlessly slaughter ridiculous amounts of the local fauna. Dull isn't the word.

It's odd, then, that Nagrand is actually one of my favourite zones. Taking a step back from the quests and looking at the landscape of the zone reveals a hauntingly solitary place. Nagrand is one of the only areas in Outland that isn't a hellish wasteland and sits, tucked away, in the corner of an otherwise devastated world. The luscious green hills give it the feeling of a preserved paradise, but the wondrous floating islands and curious native wildlife add an extra layer of an alien place, far away from home. And because Outland is two expansions old, Nagrand is mostly bereft of other players, meaning it's a place in the massive World of Warcraft in which you can be mostly alone. Sometimes you just need to get away from the bustling streets of Orgrimmar/Stormwind.

Typewriter Rooms - Resident Evil Series

Up until the fifth main game, typewriters were the only means of saving your game in the Resident Evil series. Typewriter rooms were a safe place; a stark contrast to the typical survival horror setting outside, where you were always one step away from something leaping out of the shadows and ripping your head off. It's the nature of games such as these to be as far from relaxing as possible in order to imbue feelings of dread and terror, so Resident Evil might seem a little out of place in this list of 'happy' places. But the reason I chose to include this is that I'll never forget that massive feeling of relief every time I managed to reach a typewriter room and save my game, knowing that there were now a few less horrors to face before finally escaping this nightmare.

The Normandy - Mass Effect 2

This really applies to both games, but the redesigned Normandy in the second game is just so much better. The Normandy is an example of something I love to see included in any exploration-based game; a place to call home. Bioware really went the extra mile to give the Normandy that "home sweet home" feeling. Commander Shepard has his own private quarters, complete with a variety of chill-out music, a place to display his collection of model ships and of course, that lovable companion, the space hamster. Outside of Shepard's quarters you have all the facilities you need, such as a laboratory to conduct research and a computer to check your emails.

Each member of your crew has their own space that they like to hang out in. Encouraging you to frequently wander about the ship is the fact that quite a lot of character development comes from on-ship conversations. It's nice that it's not all business with them and that you can actually develop friendships with your fellow squad members, to the point where they almost seem like family. Home sweet home, indeed.

The Outer Continent - Final Fantasy IX

Similar to Nagrand, I find myself drawn to this area due to how far away from the more populated parts of the world it is. That's not to say I don't enjoy places of bustling civilization, as they actually enhance the contrast between the more populated and unpopulated locations of the game. After spending the first third of the game traveling around the various towns and cities of the Mist Continent, having war and strife follow you at every turn, it's a breath of fresh air to find yourself so far away from it all. The Outer Continent is mostly deserted, and the few small settlements you do come across know only peace.

There's also a nice amount of culture shock to further distance yourself from the war-torn continent you've come from. You've got the dwarves of Conde Petie, with their charming mannerisms and language, and the denizens of Black Mage Village, who almost appear childlike in their innocent curiosity. It's definitely one of the more peaceful sections of the game (for a while).

Do you have a 'happy place' inspired by a video game location? Do share!

This Week, I 'Ave Been Mostly Playing... (22/05/2011)

Infamous

It's been a busy week, so I've only played this a couple of times. I still haven't finished it, but I get the feeling I'm about three quarters of the way through. I've come to accept that the characters are never going to be particularly interesting, so I'm just going with it and enjoying the gameplay, which gets better and better as more powers are acquired. It does seem like some of the powers I've gained would have been massively useful in some of the previous sections, but I suppose that only adds to the satisfaction of finally having the tools to fight back against the more annoying enemies.

I'm glad to see that, in such a combat heavy game, the enemies have become increasingly difficult to overpower. There's a modest amount of variety in types of enemies that attack you, and even though the later enemies are just tougher versions of the existing ones, they still ensure that the challenge curve is maintained enough to remain engaging.

Perhaps I'll actually get Infamous finished this week. For such a short game, I seem to be taking my sweet time with it. I suppose the distracting side quests are partly to blame.

World of Warcraft

Level 50! I noticed a new ability popping up that boosts your stats if you're wearing the armour type (leather, mail etc.) that your class is supposed to be wearing. That's a rather sneaky way of stopping restoration druids wearing cloth and fury warriors wearing leather/mail. That is, if that was still happening at all, but I can't think of any other reason why this new ability has been implemented.

My little band of levelers has reached what has always been one of my favourite zones; Un'goro Crater. I love how much it strays from the traditional Warcraft areas of the RTS games while still, somehow, fitting in just fine with the rest of Kalimdor. I'm happy to see that it remains mostly unchanged by Cataclysm. We've only made a small start on the quests, but they seem to have been somewhat updated, and there's always the possibility of some new quest lines later on. The landscape, however, is still very familiar to me, and for that I'm thankful. I was worried that Cataclysm was going to change Azeroth so much that I'd actually miss the older versions of some of the zones, but Blizzard have done a good job of giving major overhauls to the zones that needed it, while only making subtle changes to others.

Lego Pirates of the Caribbean

I've played a few of the Lego games and, despite their simplicity and lack of real challenge, I've always enjoyed them. It's probably a mix of nostalgia at being able to play with Lego again (sort of) and being a fan of the source material. I love the Pirates of the Caribbean films (yes, all of them), so I was very happy that this was the next series to be given the Lego treatment.

I started playing today and got through the first three levels. So far, it's pretty much the same gameplay I've come to expect from a Lego game. That's not necessarily a bad thing, however, and I have already noticed a few smaller improvements, such as some of the puzzle elements being a little more obvious. One of the problems with past Lego games was that you'd occasionally find yourself completely stuck, simply because one or two of the puzzle elements weren't clear enough. You knew what you had to do, but how to do it could sometimes be a little too confounding. Lego Pirates includes some handy on screen prompts, showing which parts of the environment you can interact with using the item you're currently holding. Sure, it makes the game a little easier, but challenge never was the point of the Lego games.

What's Next?

Hopefully the end of Infamous is what's next. Other than that, I'll continue playing Lego Pirates, power on towards the ever-closer Dark Portal in WoW, carry on wondering if I'm ever going to reach the end of the first chapter in The Sims Medieval and maybe even finish that Napoleon game in Civilization V.

Happy 20th Birthday to Sonic the Hedgehog - Thoughts on Sonic Generations

To celebrate the 20th anniversary of Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic Team have recently announced a game that will pay tribute to the blue blur; Sonic Generations. The game will feature both 'classic' and 'modern' Sonic who must team up to defeat some sort of time traveling adversary.

Gameplay will be divided into classic Sonic's traditional 2D style of the Mega Drive/Genesis days and modern Sonic's 3D on-rails style of the past decade or so. It's a popular opinion among gamers, and especially Sonic fans, that while the 2D games of the 90s were the speedy hedgehog's finest hour, the shift to 3D was rocky at best. Focusing on the main characteristic of Sonic, speed, meant that shifting to a behind-the-character view made it a little more difficult to see what was ahead and react accordingly. As a result, levels had to be linear, and many of the platforming elements of the 2D games had to be left behind as they just wouldn't have worked in a 3D environment. What was left was a major example of style over substance that barely felt like a platform game anymore.

From the sound of it you'll be able to choose which style you want to play each level in, which begs the question, why would anyone pick modern Sonic? It's an interesting idea to include both approaches to the same level, but it's likely that the main draw of the game will be the chance to revisit the golden 2D days of the character that used to compete with the likes of Mario. What we may end up with here is half a good game and half a so-so game.

Of course, the main interest to Sonic fans will be the reworking of classic zones. Watching the trailer, Green Hill Zone looks fantastic and hopefully quite true to the original. Something I hope Sonic Team doesn't forget is that while the 2D Sonic games did contain sections of pure speed, there were plenty of sections that required more careful precision platforming like any other action game of its time. There are parts of the trailer that lead me to believe that Generations will include such sections.

I'm very much looking forward to more classic zones being announced for a makeover. I'm fairly certain iconic stages such as Chemical Plant and Casino Night will also be featured, but if anyone from Sonic Team happens to be reading this, I'm quite partial to Mushroom Hill and Flying Battery. Hint hint.

Apart from Sonic 4 (which I will get round to playing eventually), I haven't purchased a Sonic game since Heroes, but this is looking very interesting. For someone who's first console was a Sega Master System and who grew up on the 90s Sonic games, the opportunity to revisit this hedgehog's glory days will be much too tempting to pass up on. I'll be keeping an eye on this with cautious optimism.

This Week, I 'Ave Been Mostly Playing... (15/05/2011)

Infamous

Last week I wrote about my shaky first impressions of this game. When I picked it up for a second time this week I was very pleasantly surprised. Now that I know not expect much from the still shallow and mostly uninteresting story, I've focused all my attention on the gameplay. It turns out that it's a lot of fun. As I've picked up more of the powers I've really begun to enjoy the overall feel of the game.

Also keeping me interested are the abundant side missions which are short enough that, depending on how many of them you do, don't detract from the main path. It's due to these that I found myself able to play for a good few hours without feeling the need to stop. Usually I like to save and quit a game when I've just completed what feels like a complete 'section' of the game, usually ending with a boss fight or the conclusion to a major mission. With Infamous I've actually found myself immediately running to the next yellow exclamation point on the minimap to start doing some more of the side missions. It's GTA syndrome all over again.

The Sims Medieval

Still addictive but the old Sims flaws are starting to show. The camera controls haven't been well adapted to the complex buildings of medieval times. Zoom out too much or rotate the camera the wrong way and you find yourself staring at the outer wall of a building with no way of getting back inside other than auto-zooming to your Sim. But the main annoyance is the reliance of some quests on the non-playable Sims. Sometimes you need them to be in a certain location to complete a task and they'll be bumbling about halfway across the kingdom. This isn't too much of a problem if you can invite them to your abode but if you're playing as the King and you need his wife to be at the castle, you can't exactly invite her over to her own home.

I imagine these sorts of kinks will be ironed out in forthcoming patches. It's not the first Sims game to be released with bugs and gameplay issues and others have been fixed up in subsequent patches.

I don't want to be too negative about the game though. I am still enjoying its RPG qualities and I'm impressed with how much there is to do. I've completed a fair amount of quests and I'm still only in the first chapter.

World of Warcraft

This week, me, my other half and our friend in Norwich got back to leveling what I suppose you could call our 'main' characters. This is my first time leveling through the newly improved old world zones and "improved" is indeed a good way to describe them. The zones I've enjoyed the most are the ones that include a story arc that spans the entirety of its questlines, similar to the Dragonblight in Wrath of the Lich King. Storylines like this allow some involvement in the quests and at least give you a reason for killing x number of this mob and collecting x number of that item. Thousand Needles was the last zone we finished and was a good example of one of these story heavy areas.

Team Fortress 2

I played a first person shooter this weekend. Anyone that knows me likely just spat coffee all over their screen, even if they weren't reading this. FPS games are something that I've just never been into. But, I have a weekly multiplayer session with an old WoW guildie and after finishing Portal 2 we found ourselves stuck as to what to play next. I already owned Team Fortress 2 as it came with the Orange Box but I'd never had a proper look at it. This weekend we decided to give it a shot.

Though I say I've never been a fan of FPS games, I did have one insane moment in my youth when I played the first Team Fortress for a while. I was never any good at it but it at least means I knew a little bit about TF2 before jumping in. To my surprise, I had a really cool couple of hours playing it. I still have an issue with my shots mostly missing other players but it was satisfying when I managed to score a kill, even if it was a lucky shot.

I'm looking forward to getting into this some more. Who knows, maybe it'll be my gateway to the FPS genre.

What's Next?

You've probably noticed that Civilization V isn't listed this week. That's because I haven't found much time for it, which is why I'm loading it up right now to get my fix.

Assassin's Creed 2: San Andreas - Thoughts on Revelations

In the last couple of weeks it's been revealed that a third Assassin's Creed game in the Ezio saga (essentially Assassin's Creed 2: Part 3) will be released in November, this year. Though we don't have many details to go off, we do at least know that it'll take place in Constantinople and will feature Ezio, Desmond and Altair.

I'll say now that I didn't play the first Assassin's Creed but it's no secret that Altair wasn't well liked, so the decision to include him as a major player in Revelations is likely to be controversial. The word I often hear when people describe Altair is "blank", so perhaps he'll be receiving something of an overhaul so as to not be completely overshadowed by Ezio's lively and more colourful persona.

On the topic of less-than-popular characters, Desmond will also inevitably return. Since this has been described as the final chapter of Ezio's story, it's likely that the focus will still be on him with Desmond only appearing a couple of times throughout the game. But with the attention also shifting to Altair at various intervals, one can't help but wonder how that's going affect the game's immersion. The transitions between each story are going to be tough to pull off while allowing the player to retain a suitable amount of involvement in each one.

Giant Bomb brought up a rather frightening concept in their latest podcast; what if the shifting of time periods ends up becoming a game mechanic? For example, Altair could open a gate in his time which would then remain open in Ezio's, allowing access to a previously inaccessible area. The problem with that is that it's been done plenty of times before and would be such an obvious and unoriginal thing to do. It would go against the story telling greatly and further the feeling that you're just playing as Desmond playing a video game of his own. Can you imagine? "Desmond, to access this temple you'll need to go back to Altair's time and locate the 3 hidden switches that open it. Only then can you complete the assassination as Ezio. If you need help, open the strategy gui... I mean, DNA information... archive from your Animus desktop." Thankfully, with Assassin's Creed 2 and Brotherhood both receiving such critical acclaim, we can have a little faith in Ubisoft Montreal.

Revelations will continue the now annual release schedule of Assassin's Creed games. While this has caused certain video game franchises to be bled dry, I think we're far from that point with Assassin's Creed. In fact, it was almost surprising that Brotherhood was so exceptional despite being released only a year after Assassin's Creed 2 (I should also note that this also based on reviews; I'm still yet to play Brotherhood having only just finished Assassin's Creed 2). It's almost as if Ubisoft Montreal struck gold with the character of Ezio. His likeable and interesting personality has probably served as a large part of the success of the last two games and at this point it feels like he deserved a trilogy of his own, to do the character suitable justice by completing his story before the series, one can assume, moves onto a new assassin in Assassin's Creed 3.

Social Networking - The Next Step in Online Integration?

Recently it was announced that Uncharted 3 will make use of social networking integration with services such as Facebook, Twitter and Youtube. Players will, presumably, be able to have their Facebook and Twitter feeds automatically updated with achievements and upload replays of their most impressive moments to Youtube. Social networks have been showing their faces in games for a while now. The latest Need for Speed games include an autologging system (referred to by Criterion as "Facebook for the game") that allows players to keep track of game progress, compare best times with friends and share screenshots. More recently, the heavily community-based Little Big Planet 2 was released with features such as commenting on user-created levels and activity feeds for yourself, your friends and your favourite creators. I'm sure it's no coincidence that you now rate levels by either "liking" or "disliking" them.

The Rise of Facebook Games - So Many Lost Cows

Games companies are turning their attention towards social networking more and more. And why wouldn't they? The popularity of Facebook and Twitter has exploded in the last 5 years. There are millions of people using both services, meaning a lot of potential consumers outside of the existing gaming audience. In particular, the success of Facebook games must have turned a fair few heads. Back in March 2010, 32 million people were playing Farmville on a daily basis. That's 3 times the amount of subscribers World of Warcraft has and that's already considered a huge market. Being able to reach that many people has to be very tantalising to game developers. In fact, we're already seeing some big developers working on Facebook games of their own. Firaxis are currently developing a Facebook version of Civilization that'll be free to play and will make use of similar social features of other Facebook games.

Also drawing developers in is the business model of free to play games with micro-transactions. Making a game free to play draws in a much larger audience who may find the price tags on the shelves of game stores intimidating. Companies still need to make their money, however, and that's where micro-transactions come in. Progress is limited per day and players are given the tempting option of spending a little pocket change to get something extra out of the game. While many players will stick to playing the free content only, others may see the cost as so small and of little commitment that it's an easy decision to make a few transactions every now and then. Even if only half of the 32 million people that were playing Farmville in 2010 regularly made micro-transactions, that's still a massive amount of income for Zynga. Whether or not Firaxis and other companies developing Facebook games will follow a similar model is unclear but with the opportunity of high profits in a market that is mostly untouched by their usual gaming products, it's difficult to find a reason why they wouldn't.

Specialisation

Of course, this means very little to us gamers as we prefer a little more complexity in our games that Facebook just doesn't offer. However, the focus on social networking may have quite an influence on the next generation of consoles. For a long time, multiplayer has been used as a way of increasing the longevity and overall value for money of games and the increasing online integration in our consoles and PC gaming platforms has made multiplayer much more accessible to players. We may very well find games moving beyond the simple feed-updating tools that exist now and into online services that are more dependent on social networking ideals.

That doesn't necessarily mean we'll be logging into Facebook when we switch our consoles on. Facebook and Twitter, while popular, are not focused on any particular audience and contain many features that just wouldn't work well with a console's online service, to the point where it could even be frustrating to have to put up with it. Sony and Microsoft (and Nintendo, depending on how much online integration their next console has) may benefit from designing their own exclusive social networks. The next PSN and Xbox Live could end up closely resembling Facebook, only catered to gamers.

The advantages to games companies would mostly be to do with advertising. For starters, with a news feed feature game developers would have a much easier way to deliver news of updates and upcoming downloadable content releases, keeping players interested in their products. Users talking about games or posting updates of their achievements could be followed by a 'learn more about this game' button that conveniently links to the game's page on the online store. Of course, with social networks you also have the most powerful advertising tool there is; word of mouth. Games that are trending in conversation or receiving a lot of 'likes' are likely to create a lot of buzz and increased interest that could lead to a boom in sales.

Not All Doom and Dislike

But what's in it for us? So far I've painted a picture of corporations rubbing their hands together in glee as we're led to line their pockets with cash by their automated sale-making system. Thankfully, we could get a lot out of social networking too. We'd get more tools to share our finest gaming moments by being able to share screenshots and videos of our antics. With activity feeds we'd be able to flaunt our achievements more than ever before. Finding like-minded people who enjoy the same types of games as you would be easy and there'd be the potential for tools that allow you to arrange multiplayer events with your friends.

Recommendations of games could be offered by looking at your most played games and pointing out titles that you may also enjoy. Yes, this is another way you could be fooled into emptying your wallet but it could also be a way of finding some of those lesser known gems that usually get overlooked.

How Close Are We?

Some companies are already dabbling in this concept. Bioware have a social network for their own games that includes many of the features mentioned. Due to the limited amount of games that use social networks such as this, it's unlikely that they'll be successful with anyone other than hardcore fans of the developer in question. Steam is probably one of the closest platforms we have so far that resembles the social network that online gaming services might become. It has news feeds, friends, groups, community forums and event planning, as well as a wish list and gifting system that, once again, promotes sales of games. Since it supports releases from a wide variety of publishers and is already a good template for a social network, Valve shouldn't find any difficulty in keeping up with Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo if this is the route they take.

Like it or not, social networking is big right now and is just waiting to spread to other mediums. The potential for its success on games consoles and in PC gaming all depends on how it is handled by respective games companies. Too much of the advertising aspect and it could result in a lot of resentment from those who have been gaming for several generations. A balance between profit for the company and benefit to the gamer will be vital. It'll be interesting to see just how much of the social networking craze makes its way into future generations of gaming, especially in the next one that's set to occur during the current height of the frenzy.

This Week, I 'Ave Been Mostly Playing... (08/05/2011)

Civilization V

I'm still cracking on with the game I was playing last week but I seem to have reached the 'mop up' stage where I'm almost guaranteed to win. My massive armies of musketmen and cannons have been unbeatable so far and upgrading them to foreign legion units and artillery is going to bring the world to its knees.

This assured victory has come a little early for my liking. I seem to remember the AI opponents putting up at least a moderate fight in the later stages of Civilization IV but since I started my world conquest in my current Civ V game, I've done nothing but steamroll my enemies. There were some issues with the AI's performance in war when the game was first released which has since been tweaked in numerous patches. Hopefully it's just a case of the difficulty setting being too low. I think I'll try moving up to Emperor level (2 above medium) for my next game and see how it goes.

World of Warcraft

My other half returned from Easter break this week so we've re-entered Azeroth for more leveling goodness. We weren't really feeling it with our goblins, mostly due to the classes we picked, so we've started a couple of Tauren instead. It's strange that I've never leveled a Tauren before; I've loved the race and their lore ever since Thrall first bumped into them in Warcraft 3. I've leveled a Shaman up to about 70 before but I decided to start a new one anyway since it's a class I enjoy and Cataclysm has refreshed the leveling experience for most, if not all, classes.

Infamous

I've been meaning to start this all week but didn't get round to it until Friday evening. So far I'm not really sure what to make of it. The story is mildy interesting but the characters seem quite shallow. Cole, the main protagonist, is particularly one-dimensional, sporting a typical 'hardened badass' persona. Perhaps it's intended for you to fill in the blanks yourself with the good/evil decisions the game presents you with. Either way, I am only about 2-3 hours into it so there's still plenty of time for some character development.

The gameplay is pretty fun. After Assassin's Creed 2 it's quite comforting that I'm still able to climb up buildings and run along rooftops. I think seeing all those tall buildings and having to stick to the ground might have brought about feelings of withdrawal. The powers are also interesting and I like the electricity theme. It seems the developers have put some thought into how the electrical properties of Cole react with the game environment. I wondered why I died so quickly when I first jumped into a pool of water before realising I'd apparently forgotten basic physics. Trial and error; it's how I play.

The Sims Medieval

Despite telling myself I was out of the Sims addiction cycle for a while and also that I didn't need to buy any more games right now, I still 'accidentally' wandered into Game this weekend and purchased The Sims Medieval (the collector's edition, no less).

It's so good to see that The Sims has finally admitted that it's a closet RPG. Even though I'm still having to feed my Sims and let them sleep at night, I'm spending most of the time completing requirements for quests. That's right, quests! Quests with rewards, experience and gear! The Sims finally has a point.

I was concerned that this game was just going to be The Sims 3 with different skins and occupations but after spending quite a lot of time with it this afternoon, I feel that this is a fully justified standalone Sims title. A good first impression, then.

What's Next?

I hear Infamous is quite short so I might get it finished this week. That is, unless Civ V retains its titan-like grip on me (which it probably will). Then there's the fact that I've just started a whole new Sims game with a ton of things still to discover. It's a wonder I get any games finished at all with the hour-killing stuff I get into.

Review: Portal 2

Release Date: Steam: April 19, 2011, Retail: NA: April 19, 2011, EU/AUS: April 21, 2011
Developed By: Valve Corporation
Genre: First-person Puzzle
Platforms: PC, Mac, Playstation 3, Xbox 360
Platform Reviewed: PC

Fear not, this review will not contain spoilers. Any plot points mentioned here were revealed by Valve in trailers prior to the game's release.

The fact that I've felt it necessary to assure readers that this review will be spoiler free speaks volumes about the powerful effect Portal had on the gaming community. All over social networking sites and gaming forums people are being extra vigilant in what they read about Portal 2, begging those that have completed the game not to blurt out any details of its story. Portal received huge amounts of praise for the combination of its unique logical puzzle-solving gameplay and its brilliantly intelligent and witty story-telling, despite a confined setting with just one speaking character. The element of surprise was a core part of the Portal experience so it stands to reason that gamers have been looking forward to having the sequel throw everything they couldn't possibly have expected at them.

GlaDOS and Aperture Science have left a lasting impression on the gaming community. Portal 2, then, has the extremely daunting task of remaining absolutely true to the fiction and personality of its predecessor while introducing new elements to keep it from becoming 'just a sequel'. Almost immediately it's apparent that the story goes much deeper than in the first game as you're introduced to a new character in the first few minutes. Already the dynamic has shifted; Chell, the silent woman you'll once again be playing as, is no longer alone with GlaDOS. There's much more of a narrative this time round with some rather delicious and completely 'out there' plot twists that will genuinely keep you guessing as to how it's all going to unravel.

This is supported by the return of the dark humour that made the first game so memorable, with a well-written script complimented by fantastic voice acting. GlaDOS remains as chillingly menacing as ever, while the new characters are introduced with equally strong personalities. No one character ever steals the spotlight and it's likely you'll come out of the game finding it difficult to pick a favourite, as they each have a substantial effect on you in their own way. It's also interesting to see Aperture Science itself given a little more attention by allowing you to explore its history, but at the same time, you're not given so much that it loses any of the mystery that makes it such an intriguing company.

The voice actors for Portal 2 have been well chosen for their respective characters. Timing and delivery are spot on and allow for some genuine laugh-out-loud moments while at other times sending shivers down your spine.

Also noticeable is the increase in music over the original. The score includes a range of ambient background music as well as appropriately dramatic pieces for some of the more eventful moments. An interesting touch is the extra musical elements that are injected into the overall theme when interacting with specific objects in the game's environment. Even though they occur at the moment you perform a certain action, they somehow feel like they're a natural part of the music.

After becoming enthralled by the introduction and being taken back into the laboratory you've previously grown to love (and fear), you could be forgiven for almost forgetting that there's an actual game to play here too. Portal laid the foundations of a simple premise that facilitated some truly complex logic problems. For those that missed out, Portal and its sequel equip you with a device that allows you to place two portals on certain surfaces within the Aperture laboratories. Enter one of the portals and you exit through the other. It's simple, but add in puzzle elements such as blocks, buttons and lasers and you end up with some wonderfully tricky but logical conundrums. Portal 2 gives you a quick reminder as to how your portals work in some 'classic' test chambers before moving on to the new mechanics designed to further test your brain-power.

Like the story, the gameplay of Portal is fragile. Mess with it too much and you could end up losing whatever it was that made it work so well. Thankfully, Valve have struck a good balance of quantity and quality as only a handful of new elements are introduced, each working very well with the existing tools at hand. Some of the test chambers are truly devious and getting into the 'thinking with portals mindset' is definitely required to come up with solutions. There are plenty of those satisfying moments where, after you've been looking around a test chamber, prodding buttons and scratching your head for some time, it all suddenly clicks into place in your mind as you exclaim a triumphant "Oh... I get it!"

The single-player mode clocks in at around 7-8 hours, give or take depending on how many times you find yourself stumped. This may seem short for a full priced game that has been in development for so long but when I reached the end, it felt about right. It's clear that every one of those hours has been lovingly crafted as the game is consistently enjoyable throughout. Furthermore, any longer and it might have run out of steam* as the story could only tease you so for so long before rewarding you with a conclusion. It's also best to play Portal 2 in sessions of a couple of hours at a time as thinking with portals can be mentally taxing if engaged in for too long.

If you've got a Portal playing friend to bring along, Portal 2 offers a cooperative mode that, thankfully, never feels tacked on. Entering this mode makes you realise just how 'meant to be' cooperative Portal gameplay is. The addition of another player with an extra two portals allows for some interesting twists on the puzzles you experience in the single-player mode. The thought process that's usually confined to your mind now becomes a back and forth conversation of collective thinking, as you each work together to come up with a solution. Though voice chat is highly recommended, you're given tools, such as a countdown timer and the ability to place a marker where you want a portal creating, to facilitate the basic communication you'll need to get by. There's no less of the charm that makes the single-player great either, as GlaDOS is along for the ride once again to offer much needed sarcastic masochism.

Every now and then a sequel comes along that feels more like an important event than just a video game. Portal 2 is one such sequel. The original saw such huge popularity that the follow-up had to be no less than superior in every single way. Valve have excelled in pulling this off and it was a genuine pleasure to be able to experience a game that has had such a powerful emotional impact on myself and hopefully, many others.

Rating: 10/10

*Not a pun. Too predictable.

This Week, I 'Ave Been Mostly Playing... (01/05/2011)

Assassin's Creed 2

It turns out the platinum trophy in this game is very easy to get. Only a couple of sessions following completion and three trophies remain. I need to grab all 100 of the feathers dotted about the cities and find a few more of the glyphs as part of the intriguing 'Truth' side story. I'm looking forward to seeing the conclusion to that one.

The combat trophies were a little too irritating for my liking. Trying to throw dust in the faces of four guards at a time proved difficult when they were all busy relentlessly poking me with swords. Sweeping five guards at once with a long weapon was even more difficult because you had to actually find a guard with a long weapon to begin with. Thankfully, the rest of the trophies have been a little more enjoyable. The assassins' tombs in particular are a lot of fun, especially those with timed climbing sections; they were a refreshing challenge in a game that's mostly easy.

The Sims 3

 I finally got my ghost-busting Sim to the highest level of his profession. Unfortunately, I seem to have come to end of another Sims addiction cycle. Once or twice a year I'll get a sudden urge to create a new Sim and I'll play it solidly for two or three weeks. When I get to the point where my Sim is at the top of his or her career and rolling in cash, my motivation to play drops considerably. The beginning of a new cycle usually coincides with the purchase of an expansion pack, so I'll probably return to it when Generations hits the shelves.

Civilization V

Whereas I've recovered from my Sims addiction for the moment, I've caught full on Civ fever in its place. It's been a few months since I last played and a few patches have been released since then. There's a very noticeable improvement in the balance of the game. Production speed seems to have quickened to a point where it feels reasonable and balancing happiness and gold seems much more possible now.

I'm in the Renaissance era of my current game and both my happiness and economy have stayed in the positive all the way up to this point. This has by no means made the game too easy; the reason I've had such success is because I've aggressively pursued a strong economy, while at the same time sacrificing my potential military power. My AI opponents have tried to take advantage of this by attempting to 'pick me off' but with my powerful infrastructure and gold reserves, I've at least been able to build up a competent defensive force to hold them off. Now, I'm on my way to victory as all this preparation has resulted in an empire that can crank out the most advanced units very quickly. Domination of my opponents will be swift.

I love it when a plan comes together and that's exactly why I play Civilization.

Portal 2

This week I finished off the cooperative mode. It's incredible just how well Portal style puzzles lend themselves to cooperative gameplay. I've had a real blast with it. That's all I'm going to say for now since I'll be writing a full review for my next post, though I will point out that no matter how many more steps Atlas has taken, P-Body will always be the superior droid.

What's Next? 

I've got a copy of Infamous waiting for me to play it, so I'll be starting that this week. I've heard some good things about it and with the sequel set for release next month, I thought I'd play it and make sure I don't fall behind on yet another series (Another Assassin's Creed game rumoured so soon? I've only just finished the second one!).

Other than that, more Civ. If PSN comes back up, maybe I'll grab those last few Assassin's Creed 2 trophies so that I have another platinum to show off.