split/screen co-op

I got around to playing Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune. I started it yesterday and only played a short while (I never even got to the first real shoot-out, after the one on the boat). However, I already have stuff to opine about.

Although I expected to like the game, I really struggled to keep playing it even as long as I did. Frankly, if so many people haven’t said so many nice things about it, I’m not sure I would be continuing to play Uncharted.

After much delay, I finally did myself the favour of playing Braid. I’m always skeptical when people lavish too much praise on a game, because such titles tend to disappoint by not living up to the hype; but Braid isn’t really like that. It’s beautiful, it’s clever, it’s heart-wrenching at times. I loved it.

Yet, it is over-hyped. It was impossible to go on all these years after its release without constantly coming across Braid in the critical blogosphere. Together with Flower and Ico, it has become one of the favourite pieces of evidence for the “games are art” bunch. And in that respect I found it lacking.

Word cloud of 5 Fallout intros. Click for larger view.

War, war never changes. It is one of gaming’s best-loved catch-phrases. But what does it mean? In what sense does war never change? Certainly, warfare — the ways in which a war is fought — has changed dramatically in the millennia leading up to Fallout’s fictional 2050s. Weapons, tactics, scale: every aspect of conflict has undergone transformation. Fallout’s world is not that dissimilar to our own and we can safely know as much.

Death and destruction are a staple of war but their scale differs vastly from conflict to conflict. Even the most advanced of energy weapons found in the wasteland is a relic from a past that is being forgotten and a far cry from the nuclear war that caused all the desolation. The game’s primitive, back-to-basics setting also suggests that the presumably constant factor may lie much deeper and closer to the roots of conflict than something as superficial as tools and means.

Why do people go to war? Perhaps there is a single fundamental reason underlining all conflicts.

I like this pillow by ~sardonyxweapon on deviantART

I woke up the other night at half past two with a headache. I took a pill and it got rid of the pain but left me insomniac. I decided to play myself to sleep and fired up the demo for Infamous 2.

I had vaguely positive expectations because I remembered somewhat liking the first game. And, although the game seems to be a more-of-the-same type of deal, I was disappointed.

The other day a friend asked my advice about what game she should buy as a gift to her partner who liked the Assassin’s Creed franchise. My immediate response was that she should go for a Prince of Persia game as they offer similar acrobatics-based gameplay. Then I had a flight home — and thus time to ponder the question — and came up with this: A List of Games Any Xbox 360 Owner Should Have.

I only recommend games that I have played so don’t be surprised if some of the best known titles are missing from my list. I just haven’t gotten around to playing them yet.

The latest issue of games TM has an interesting piece on Nintendo’s worrying decision to region-lock the 3DS. While the Nintendo spokesman contacted for comment by the magazine gives a predictably crappy justification, I was more taken aback by the opinion of one Shinji Enomoto, a producer at Konami, who seems to believe that region-locking can help prevent piracy.

Surely, that can’t be right, can it? Region-locking will prevent gamers from importing games that have no official release in their own part of the world. Right now, with region-agnostic platforms, people can buy those games legally from retailers in the regions where they are published. In a region-locked future we will be forced to turn to modding our consoles or using boot disks.

Ubiquitous internet connectivity has made it easier for platform owners to spot such “breaches of the T&C” and punish the “perpetrators” by bans or firmware updates. But in the case of region-locking, they will be fighting against an enemy they have created themselves by limiting the use of their platform in the first place.

Am I the only one who thinks this makes no sense?

Resident evil dark chronicles by ~MissDawson on deviantART

If the idea for a 100-word review looks like it’s been lifted from the No Added Sugar blog, it’s because it has. I was contemplating joining that site and writing a 100-word review was part of the application process. Unfortunately, it looks like the blog is on a prolonged hiatus. The last post is from February and an email seeking contact went unanswered.

Anyhow, I’ve got the review and it would be a shame if it went to waste as I’m quite happy with how it turned out. Here it is:

An early scene from 1999's Discworld Noir.

This post will be about football (soccer). Eventually. But I’d like to start somewhere else: point-and-click adventures.

Do you remember the game Discworld Noir? It will not be unexpected if you don’t. The game was released only in Europe and Australia back in 1999 and it hasn’t been patched so newer machines are likely to have trouble playing it.

It is one of the most memorable games that I’ve played.

I genuinely liked the movie Sucker Punch in the most unfanboylike way possible. I found it a deep, thought-provoking piece of cinema that must be lauded by everyone who cares about the quality of how they spend their spare time. To say that I was surprised by the negative reviews it received is an understatement. I was shocked.

Try as I may, I can’t get my head around this hostile reception. To me, Sucker Punch was a brilliant movie and I firmly plan to rewatch it multiple times after I buy the inevitable collector’s edition DVD.

Of late much of my iPod listening has been devoted not to music but to the rather excellent GameCritics.com podcast. So should have yours been and if it hasn’t you now have the opportunity (and moral obligation) to renounce your excellent-podcast-defying past.

As one would expect from a gaming podcast, the GameCritics.com show brings together a bunch of uber-nerds who sit around and chat over Skype about games for about an hour and a half. There are lots of podcasts with the same format and lest you are confused, I give you 5 reasons why this one is better than most after the break.