Showing posts with label GamesTM. Show all posts
Showing posts with label GamesTM. Show all posts

Friday, November 25, 2011

GamesTM 116 – History of Metroidvania


I take a look at the latest issue of GamesTM, which includes a 6 page feature on Metroidvania games.

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This month’s issue of GamesTM features the following (copied from NTSC-uk, courtesy of PrinnySquad).

Reviews
Skyrim - 9
Battlefield 3 - 7
Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary - 8
Uncharted 3 - 9
Assassin's Creed Revelations - 8
Batman: Arkham City - 9
Dance Central - 360 - 8
Shinobi - 3DS - 4
Kinect Sports: Season 2 - 360 - 5
Modern Warfare 3 - 8
Saints Row: The Third - 7
Rayman Origins - 7
Ultimate Marvel Vs Capcom 3 - 7
Kirby Mass Attack - DS - 8
Sonic Generations - 7
Real Steel - 360 - 6
The Adventures of TinTin - 6
Raving Rabbids Alive and Kicking - 6
King of Fighters XIII - 8
Disney Universe - 3

Features
2012 Preview Special
Chat With Naughty Dog about the past, present and future
A Look at the new SSX
A look at the trend for remakes, reboots and rebirths

Discuss
GTA V
Operation Raccoon City
Backstage with the people behind Zelda's 25th Anniversary Concerts.
Chat with Tood McFarlane about work on Kingdoms of Amalur
Tim Schafer on his new thing and the merit of Kinect
thatgamecompany talk about Journey.

Retro
Behind the Scenes: Legacy of Kain Soul Reaver
Year In Review 1985
Conversion Catastrophe - Kung Fu Master on Speccy
The History of Metroidvania - the forerunners to the genre.

My main reason for posting though is my 6 page article on Metroidvania games. No credit as usual for the writer of said piece – though I was technically asked to write it as a favour, so I don’t begrudge this too much. The first dps is hi-res enough to read, though seeing as I’m getting paid for the article (at least I hope I get paid!) I don’t think I can get away with making the entire article free to read online – at least not until they put it on their website or the next issue is out. Of course if someone else, somewhere, has put hi-res scans up, by all means read it and pass the links around.

With it being the 25th anniversaries of Metroid and Castlevania, it seemed time to cover the portmanteau they went on to create later with Super Metroid and Symphony of the Night. Ironically most entries predate these two titles, showing that the genre classification is erroneous. But it’s still fun. There’s 24 entries, one for each year of the anniversary, with the 25th title to be voted for on GamesTM’s forum, or discussed here. I also quote Jeremy Parish, which I’m sure he is not pleased about! Sorry Jez, but at least you got credit whereas I did not. I also included interview quotes from several key people.

The list (year of release, then alphabetically):

Pharaoh’s Curse (Atari 8-bit, C64)
Below the Root (C64, DOS, Apple)
Brain Breaker (Sharp X1)
CrossBlaim (MSX)
Sacred Armour of Antiriad (Spectrum, C64, Amstrad)
Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest (NES)
Codename: Droid (BBC)
Legacy of the Wizard (NES)
Zeliard (DOS, PC88)
Zillion (SMS)
Blaster Master (NES)
Euphory (Sharp X1)
Exile (BBC)
Predator (MSX)
The Scheme (PC88)
Wonderyboy III: DT (SMS)
TMNTIII: RR (GB)
Takahashi Meijin Boukenjima IV (Famicom)
The Divide: Enemies Within (PS1)
Vigilance on Talos V (DOS)
Cave Story (PC)
La Mulana (PC)
Aquaria (PC)
Treasure Adventure Game (PC)


It’s not perfect, but I had around 80 titles on a rough list covering anything even remotely similar, which I whittled down to about 50 series entries, then 40, then 35, and then it got tricky requiring many redrafts.

My goal: differentiate the list from everyone else’s.

That’s why I’ve got silly stuff like the MSX release of Predator, and lots of obscure games. The trend? Metroidvania style games are predominantly on computers, followed by the NES. A reflection on the perception that console titles need to be simpler? Could be why console Metroidvanias are so well loved – they filled a desperately empty gap. Because admit it – how many other games like Super Metroid are on the SNES? Very few.

As for omissions, I left out some popular titles because I just can’t stand them. I absolutely hate Tombi for example – the jumping, where your guy flails forward in an uncontrollable belly flop, is unbearable. How can anyone stand playing that? It feels broken and uncomfortable. Metroidvanias are all about the jumping, and with Tombi every time I press the jump button I want to break the controller. Another omission was Shantae. I don’t care what anyone says, it looks great but the level design is dull, linear and really not much fun. Shadow Complex was on the list, but then I thought: that’s a little obvious. Why waste space on something people know and are enjoying, when something like Treasure Adventure Game can do with the publicity instead?

My big regret?

I never included Link: Faces of Evil, or Zelda: Wand of Gamelon, for the CDi. They just slipped my mind, but they actually follow the Metroidvania template quite nicely. And I love them dearly. For starters, for all the complaints about the controls, when using a wired controller (as opposed to the crappy infra-red remote) the jumping is more comfortable than the jumping in Tombi. I can actually dictate the direction for Link and Zelda, and they don’t lunge forwards with that moronic belly flop.

The rest of the world continues to spout vitriolic hatred for the Link/Zelda games, and people on various Zelda forum boards openly state that they 1) absolutely hate the games for existing and 2) will never, ever play them because they’re not true Zelda games. Their kind of passionate, blinkered, refusal to accept any other-point-of-view mentality, is something I’ve mainly seen with religious extremists. You know, the kind who claim dinosaur bones were put in the earth by the devil to deceive humanity.

How can you claim to hate something, and then refuse to examine it on the grounds that it’s inauthentic, when in that same sentence you admit that you have no idea what it’s even like? That’s like me saying: I hate apples, I’ve never eaten apples and I never will eat apples or even think about what apples are because I know that apples aren’t really fruit and so don’t even need to know what they are because I already know what they are not (ie: not fruit).

Really?

Bottom line: obsessive Zelda fans who claim to hate the CDi titles while simultaneously refusing to play them are retarded. To form an educated opinion on something you need to understand it first. Otherwise it’s just a mob mentality, no better than those crowds who wanted to burn women for witchcraft.

I suppose I would have removed Below the Root to fit Link/Zelda in. Interestingly, they were both by the same man, the late great Dale DeSharone. May he rest in peace.
Posted by Sketcz at 5:32 AM 14 comments
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Friday, July 8, 2011

History of Ys interviews by John Szczepaniak

Issue 111 (one-hundred-and-eleven) of GamesTM features an 8 page History of Ys feature by me, John Szczepaniak. As usual they didn’t credit the author, and they also spotted my attempt to hide my name in screenshots, so sadly no one will know I wrote it. But, since there were a lot of unused interview answers, I’m going to post them here for your reading pleasure. Includes interview answers from Toshihiro Kondo (president of Falcom), Hiromasa Iwasaki (creative director on PCE), John Greiner (localiser on PCE), Ken Berry (director of publishing at XSEED), and Jeff Nussbaum (official localiser and fan translator). If you like these snippets of unused interview answers, consider reading the actual issue of GamesTM in your nearest newsagent/shop, and while you’re at it, email the editor demanding writer credits! – (blog entry written by J Szczepaniak II)
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I’ve also included some low-res scans of the article. Someone on the Ancient Land of ys forum though has posted HI-RES scans, if you want to read it but don't have access to the magazine.

Since I was over my word limit, there’s every chance that interview answers were cut from the final version (I’ve not seen it, I’m still waiting for my freelancer copy to arrive!), so I may add more here later.


TOSHIHIRO KONDO

JS: What was the inspiration for the red-haired hero Adol Christin, and the world of Ys he lives in?
TK: He’s a young adventurer and even though in his profile it states that he later writes over 100 adventure journals, in-game he never speaks and you can never tell what type of person he is. This is because we wanted Adol to portray the player within the world.
Now Adol is beloved in the same way as a popular historical figure. He is a very mysterious character who never speaks, but fans still have their own interpretations of, “This is like Adol,” and, “this is not like him.” Throughout the series players have been imagining who he is through his actions and adventure journals, and now that common thought has become part of who Adol is. In that sense he is a character that has been fostered and molded by the players.


JS: Is Falcom shifting more to consoles than PC development?
TK: Recently, we have been concentrating on the console side too and getting a lot more fans that may not have played any of our PC games.


JS: What was the reason for outsourcing development of Ys IV to both Tonkin House and Hudson? How much influence did Falcom have on each game?
TK: I’m sorry but I do not have any details about what happened then and cannot comment on this question.



JS: English speaking fans are so passionate they’ve made unofficial translations of Ys – what does Falcom think of this?
TK: We’re really honored that people are interested in the Ys world so much. However, at the same time we always felt guilty for not being able to bring an official product to their hands. We’re very pleased that after a long time we were finally able to bring over an official English version for this audience.

JS: The popularity of the Ys series has endured for 24 years. Why do you feel this is? Are you planning a surprise for its 25th anniversary?
TK: In Ys lore Adol is said to have left hundreds of adventure journals. The latest adventure we released was the 7th adventure so there are a lot more adventures to cover. It might be the excitement of wondering what adventure Adol tackled at what age that makes this series possible.


JS: What happens next for Falcom, the Ys series, and your partnership with XSEED??
TK: We were able to release the first chapter of the “Trails” series in the States. The European version is schedule to come out later so please keep an eye out for it. We announced that we will be releasing the latest iteration in the Trails series, “Ao no Kiseki” (direct translation: “Trails of Blue”), for the PSP in Japan.


JS: Do you want to say anything else to your English fans?
TK: For a long time we have been getting requests from the English speaking fans to publish an English version but we couldn’t fulfil their wishes in a consistent manner. This time we were able to develop a partnership with XSEED Games which provides us with a pathway to release our titles in English territories. For the Ys series we were able to publish Ys SEVEN, I & II Chronicles, and Oath in Felghana so please give them a try if you haven’t done so already. We would love for more people to play our titles and get familiar with our work, and in the meantime we’ll strive to create more titles.



XSEED (Ken Berry, director of publishing)
JS: Can XSEED comment on working with Deuce to bring about the official localisation of Oath in Felghana and Ys I&II?

Answered by Ken Berry, Director of Publishing at XSEED Games:
As we were getting ready to start on the translations for these projects, our newly hired Falcom fanboy, Tom, stated that there were already some great English translations created by another Falcom fan that went by the name “Deuce” on message boards. Since Tom knew Deuce he reached out to him about us using his translations and Deuce was immediately onboard. A lot of companies, including us when there’s too many projects for our in-house staff, outsource their translation so we figured why not outsource it to someone that’s intimately familiar with the material while also saving us the time of taking a couple months to do it since it’s already done? We always have our internal team proof and edit any translated scripts, but this saved us some time in our localization process to be able to allocate any time usually reserved for the translation process to the editing side for a more polished final product.

JS: What are XSEED’s future plans with Falcom?
Ken from XSEED: We have a very strong partnership with Falcom where we’re always discussing potential projects, both new and from their great back catalogue of games, for English localization. Though we haven’t finalized the terms yet for either of these titles that Kondo-san mentioned, we will continue to have discussions with them about these and other titles to determine together which ones make the most sense to bring over.


JOHN GREINER – head of MonkeyPaw Games and localiser on the original PCE-CD/Turbo Duo version of Ys I&II.

I remember Ys of course. In fact, it was one of the first games I ever worked on. I helped Iwasaki-san with the English version. The game producer was a guy name Iwasaki, a freelance to Hudson. Although I don't know how the title came to Hudson, he just might. Well, Hudson's CD ROM-ROM add on to the PC Engine was the first time that a CD drive had been attached to a dedicated videogame console. Its hard to imagine games before large format media but CDs offered the chance to do real voice and deep cinematics.
Ys was the first game to really use the space and the effects were dramatic. Iwasaki-san was the Hudson producer. He was a near-genius and was very talented. When the game came out, it opened a new era in the industry as now the bar was set much higher and the way to make games was changed forever. So in some ways, Ys was a precursor to what games have become today.



HIROMASA IWASAKI – freelance programmer for Hudson and creative director on the PCE port of Ys I&II (image taken from Facebook)

In Ys book I&II, one of the original artists “Tomoo Yamane” had joined and created with us. But for some reason, his name was tilted as “Hideyuki Amagi”. This is true story. I had written all the story of Ys development in my Japanese BLOG

(JS: apologies for the brevity of this section, but I used almost all of Iwasaki-san’s answers ion the print article)


JEFF “DEUCE” NUSSBAUM – official XSEED translator on several Ys games, freelance fan-translator on older Ys games.

JS: Briefly describe yourself and current occupation. You’re an official translator, correct?
JN: I'm a generally disagreeable and highly opinionated sort of fellow who is very fond of inflicting his tastes on others (sadly, I’m not joking... just ask my wife). My current daytime job is as data analyst for a multinational corporation. A boring title which has no bearing on my passion, which is, of course, games. Officially, I’ve translated two Ys releases for XSEED (Ys: The Oath in Felghana and Ys I & II Chronicles), and about 1/3 of the text in Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky. Unofficially, the only Ys title I haven't translated at least 90% of is Ys Seven, and that’s just because XSEED's deal with Falcom was announced before an Ys Seven fan translation project could get off the ground, beyond a 30-second proof of concept video that was never publicly released.


JS: How did you first get involved in translating the Ys games?
JN: Very much by accident. Back in 2001, I was poking around the internet and found place called RIGG, dedicated to preserving old PC Engine and TurboGrafx CD games. It was run by a fellow by the screen name of Nightwolve (which, to this day, makes me think of “Nightwolf” from Mortal Kombat). I found out that he was doing some tinkering around with Ys I Complete for PC, which I had recently purchased. He had put up the Japanese script file for anyone to mess with, and so I downloaded it and decided to see if I could translate it. I did, though it took a while. This was my very first serious translation work of any kind, so it was a pretty sloppy first draft, by my standards, though more for translation errors than anything else. I’d made no announcements regarding my intention to translate the script, and the fact that I literally popped up out of nowhere with a translated script was a little jarring to NW.

JS: From here you partnered with Nightwolve, correct?
JN: [We eventually worked] on several other Ys titles, most of which saw an English patch release. We actually were about 95% done on Ys VI: The Ark of Napishtim before there was a lawsuit between a Falcom licensee and a Korean translator/hacker, which resulted in us halting the project entirely. Soon after, Konami announced their licensing deal to bring the game to the United States on PS2 and PSP, so our PC patch got shelved indefinitely.

It’s worth noting that Nightwolve and I could not have been more different without making a concerted effort to do so. He was (and is) an extremely conservative Republican... your prototypical Bush-supporting, flag-waving, God-fearing, go-get-‘em sort of fellow. I, on the other hand, have more liberal-leaning, radically-atheistic views. It’s no stretch to say that our only common ground was our mutual love of the Ys series.

The turning point came with the release of Ys: The Oath in Felghana for PC. I was incredibly excited for the game, bought my limited edition copy, and pestered Nightwolve (henceforth called NW) for a script dump from day one. Once I had it, I burned through the script and had a 100% completed rough draft in seven days... a record for me.

So, NW took the script and built a beta-test version. Given his then-current financial state, he had been partially relying on donations from his web site to defray some of his basic costs. So, he had the idea of making the Oath in Felghana beta available exclusively to those who donated, then publicly available once the donation period was completed. This idea did not sit well with much of the fanbase. He was called every name in the book, and then some. But everything didn't truly go south until someone donated to receive the beta patch, and then immediately distributed it online.

NW kind of lost it at that point. He felt his trust had been betrayed, and he obsessed over finding the source of the leak for years. He schemed to find ways to punish those responsible, spoke openly of hacking the pirates, planned out ways to mess with people who were using pirated copies of games with his patches, etc. He could never let it go and move on.

In the end, it was that, more than anything else, which proved to be the dissolution of our partnership. He simply became more interested in obtaining revenge than in translating the games, which was always the point for me. At the time of this writing, I believe it's been a little over a year since I last spoke with him. I hope he's doing better.

Outside of that whole matter, I've also [worked with Gideon Zhi of Aeon Genesis http://agtp.romhack.net.


JS: You’re very much connected with the fate of the Ys series in the west due to unofficially and officially translating several games – how did you discover the series?
JN: I first discovered the series like many of its long-term fans did: the TurboGrafx-CD. Back around 1991 or so, there was a local store named “Power Up” where they actually rented out game systems and games, including imports. They did this well in advance of Blockbuster catching on to the idea. This store was, incidentally, how I first discovered the Super Famicom (ahh, import ActRaiser) and the Neo*Geo (thus creating another expensive obsession).

I actually heard the music for Ys Book I & II well before I ever had a chance to play the games, and I was blown away. When my finances allowed one Friday, I rented a TurboGrafx-16 and the CD attachment, a copy of Ys Book I & II, then took it home to play. I then spent the entire weekend glued to my television, completely riveted by what I was seeing and hearing. It was official: I was in love. I did eventually purchase that same system from the store, as well as a copy of the game, and I still have them, to this day.

At that time, I was utterly charmed by the music, and the way the story unfolded really kept me going. I was particularly enamoured of the fact that Ys II let you turn into a monster and talk to other monsters for original dialogue, and to villagers for alternate dialogue (some of which was quite funny). Of course, there’s also the voiceovers, which were mostly well-done: a revelation in the early 1990s, and (sadly) still pretty impressive, even now.

My favourite entry is kind of a toss-up. I was extremely impressed by how well Falcom handled the new party-based combat system in Ys Seven, and I loved the new skill system. I liked the story better than most of the reviewers (who have apparently been playing games with the plots of Amadeus and Schindler's List combined, to judge by their comparisons and criticisms), though I'll concede that it could have been more in-depth than it was. If not that, then it would have to be Ys: The Oath in Felghana. Ys III was always a game I never really liked much (at all), and I was more than a little amazed that Falcom was able to take the worst game in the series and turn it into one of the best.


JS: Most of the canonical series is now available in English. Falcom have mentioned they feel honoured that the fan-translation community has handled their games. Apart from Ys V, are there any other Ys games you hope have a translation released?
JN: Well, there's really not much left. Ys Online was available in Europe for a while, but obviously, it never showed up in the States. Ys Strategy was only in English in Europe. I have a copy of that, and I can say that U.S. fans really aren't missing out with that one. I'd like to see Falcom-made and officially-localized versions of Ys IV and V, as well as Ys Origin. Perhaps PSP versions of all three? But that's just wishful thinking on my part.

JS: In the course of fan-translating, have you ever come across content which wasn’t normally accessible in-game?
JN: Indeed, I have. The PC-based Ys games have been full of debug menus that one cannot access via normal play, which would allow one to skip through the game to specific places in the story, set the amount of experience and gold possessed, as well as inventory. I've never encountered a means of actually accessing these menus, however.

JS: Is there anything you personally want to comment on?
JN: I’d like for gamers to know and understand just how much goes into translating/localizing a game. If you're lucky, you get someone like me and the Ys games: I do it because I genuinely adore the series, and I want non-Japanese speakers to be able to enjoy the games as much as I do.

With a fan translation, one has the benefit of time and an extensive beta period. If glitches, context errors or just plain old bad grammar are found, one can go back and correct them, generally without a deadline hanging over one's head. This is where most of my experience lies, but after Trails in the Sky, I know how the other half lives. There’s constant deadline pressure, a daunting amount of text to be dealt with in a startlingly small amount of time, and depending on how long the project goes, it can really start to wear on a person. And then there are the other people on the project who have to lose sleep over it (poor Jess). It’s not always done by people who care about the source material, but in my limited professional experience, it has been.

I try to maintain a pretty neutral stance on the whole piracy debate, but it really does hurt a small company like XSEED. Then you have the phenomenon of the “undub”, where enterprising fans remove any English-dubbed audio and replace it with the original Japanese voices. This, I feel, is just adding insult to injury, given that these “undubs” can’t be played on an unmodified system. A lot of work went into that audio, and personally, I consider it to be rather callous to remove it on a whim. I went through my phase of thinking everything from Japan was automatically better than anything from America, but I’m 37 years old, and that phase was almost two decades ago.

I know, from personal experience, that it’s frustrating when a company does a lousy job with translating a game you like and you get a botched mess. On the other hand, I also know how it feels when you put in the effort and some folks just can't appreciate that it’s just “not Japanese enough”. Some of us do our utmost to respect the original work... so it’s always appreciated when the consumers respect ours, too.


JS: I recently played through Ys IV on the Super Famicom with your translation patch and found both the translation and game to be excellent, despite fans criticising it slightly. Can you tell us about the translation?
JN: It is still what I consider to be my finest work. The nature of the script enabled me to manually rearrange the text at my leisure, so I could put everything in chronological order. This basically eliminated context errors, and resulted in a final product that I could cheerfully stand behind. I think part of my motivation was that, since MotS really isn’t as good of a game as Dawn of Ys, I needed to really pump up the story and make the translation sing, so it would feel more worthwhile to the player.
Posted by Sketcz at 4:05 AM 7 comments
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Thursday, May 26, 2011

GamesTM issue 109

Another issue; another blog entry. Actually, I’ve now decided to subscribe, since I don’t want to rely on my freelancing to guarantee me a copy every month. If you read EDGE or EGM every month, you’re doing something wrong. Those magazines suck, especially EDGE for not crediting its authors. GamesTM doesn’t either, but I will criticise them for it every issue as a result. After the last issue, which was written by porn stars, I’ve been told by the magazine’s editor (who isn’t Rick Porter, that’s just a pseudonym, it’s actually Ricky Gervais), that this month’s articles were written by sentient inanimate objects bought from Tesco!. And you can’t prove me wrong, because it’s not like the articles have credits anyway!
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Contents. Click the pick to see it enlarged.
Written by: Tesco’s budget range toilet paper


Region locking feature. Now online, CLICK HERE.
Written by: a bottle of Southern Comfort (the mini sized bottles).
The online version doesn’t include the Nintendo boxout where James Honeywell is acting like a total and utter **** (there’s no way that C&T word’s being printed uncensored). So here it is, typed up by me:

“Handhelds, traditionally, have always been region-free, and with good reason. If you take your DS abroad then you should be able to do so safe in the knowledge that you can buy a game in that country and play it while on holiday. 3DS is the first system that takes this common sense luxury away from the consumer, and Nintendo’s justification is once again unconvincing. “People can still take their Nintendo 3DS and software to enjoy on holiday with them, this hasn’t and won’t change”, says James Honeywell. “We will communicate this to purchasers in interviews like this, on hardware packaging and in-box information in Nintendo 3DS hardware and software. This model has existed for DVDs for a number of years now so we’re confident consumers do and will understand how it works.” Now, how many people do you know that take a DVD player on holiday.”

Like I said. Nintendo = absolute *****. I hope everyone who thought of region locking the 3DS gets trapped in an office fire. If I ran a multiformat mag, I would have every 3DS game that was region locked receive 1 out of 10. Man, screw that bullshit.


Dragon’s Dogma. Made a nice cover but in-game looks horribly generic. I can’t even be bothered to read the feature. I’m bored of hi-fantasy, I want more sci-fi in games.
Written by: a wilted lettuce from the vegetable aisle

Minipreview. Love this page. Wish it had more pages.
Written by: a packet of Durex condoms (extra small).



Angels and demons, a look at morality in games.
Written by: rolls of flypaper – by 2 get 1 free!

Was looking forward to this feature, but was sadly disappointed. It says most of the criticism against Bioshock was due to its morality system. No, my criticism was that the mechanics were simple / the mechanics were dumbed down / the mechanics were for stupid people with short attention spans / the mechanics were geared towards casual console play. I hated Bioshock because it was a lacklustre, simplified trod through ineptly designed levels with insipid functionality. For hell’s sake, it didn’t even have an inventory! System Shock 2 on the other hand was laden with complexity and intelligence. Bioshock was like System Shock 2 after being lobotomised and having its testicles removed. No critic – EXCEPT ME – ever seems to make this point. I don’t care about its morality system, I care about the fact that it’s a game designed for simple-minded people with simple minds. Bioshock is loathsomely awful – I despise its mere existence.

The rest of the article is so-so. It doesn’t mention either the Zettai Zetsumei Toshi series, which featured the best morality system I have yet seen in the gaming medium, BAR NONE, nor does it mention Pathologic, which GTM reviewed and gave an 8 to. Pathologic has an excellent morality system – trapped in a town where people distrust you, it’s not about simply black or white choices. You can kill innocent people to help your own survival, but you must be prepared for the townspeople’s reaction. Ultimately though, whatever you choose, it’s for the greater good of stopping a plague which threatens an entire country. Sacrificing one man for his organs to research the virus is surely worth the price, right?

Instead the article talks about Bioshock, The Witcher, Fallout 3, Heavy Rain, KOTOR and a few other games. Maybe the author didn’t play Zettai Zetsumei Toshi or Pathologic?

Fez article. LOVE THE DESIGN.
Written by: a pair of men’s Y-fronts from the clothing section

Indie game review. This is why I love the mag. Not many other publications will give 2 whole pages to this kind of game.
Written by: a tin of dog food

Another indie review, from XBLA. Love the opening paragraph. Genius.
Written by: a bottle of Fairy washing up liquid

Guardian Heroes. Six pages, with input from Treasure. Sadly the amount of interview answers could have filled only half a page. It’s passionate, but a little lacking in insider information. Shame.
Written by: reduced price pork sausages (sage and onion)

Gala Networks Europe
Written by: a copy of Marquis from the magazine aisle.
I’ve only included this here because of the artwork used. Who doesn’t like a bit of elf-girl on elf-girl action, eh readers?


BONUS:
artwork from the Guardian Heroes article. Click for full size.
Posted by Sketcz at 6:08 AM 5 comments
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Monday, April 25, 2011

GamesTM 108


The latest issue of GTM which, as per usual, I received for free. So I am totally biased here as a non-paying reader, plus they send me cash monies every month for writing stuff. Even so, I think the quality stands for itself. Infinitely better than that utterly worthless garbage that was the relaunched EGM (I paid for my 6 issues – I’ve earned the right to bitch until hell freezes over). GTM still doesn’t credit their writers, which is both stupid and unforgivable, but that doesn’t detract from the anonymous people who write this. (I would have put an entry up for 107, but my inside contact was very busy and couldn't post it until recently)
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The cover is an in-game screenshot from Epic’s new Next Generation hype nonsense everyone is talking about. I know they’re very proud of their cover, but I inherently dislike CG renders, even if it is in-game and therefore real-time, and I’ve never quite understood the obsession over increasing graphical muscle. I’m still happy playing my retro consoles – which has led to me being viewed as a Mr Retro figure among the gaming press, but I like to think of myself as more all-encompassing, able to play Perfect Dark on the N64 in the morning before playing Metro 2033 on my killer PC rig in the evening. FUN FACT: both aforementioned first-person shooters are excellent, despite the disparity in their graphics.

Taken from Twitter, posted by alialsawaf, another mag cover with in-game screen.


Also, as for the names of the authors, I managed to get the truth out of a mole I have at the publisher of GamesTM. So now we can really know who wrote all these. Bolded for convenience.


This is a sumptuous opening spread detailing all 108 Suikoden characters, because, you know, this is issue 108 of the magazine. In a way I hate this spread, since I many times pitched something similar for Retro Gamer's double pages, but was always shot down because Suikoden is apparently too obscure. So in a way, seeing this is like seeing someone else fulfil my artistic vision. Still, it's a bit goregous, innit?
GTM Author: Tori Black



This 4 page feature on Catherine is reason enough to buy this issue. It's an in-depth, extremely intelligent feature (it could be the most intelligent thing I've read in a games magazine this year), and not only is it fascinating, but it moves beyond mere games. It looks at Japanese cultural trends, their "elevator society", norms and values for the young and older generations, Japan's declining birth rate, the fact that young Japanese are less interested in getting married or having kids, and a decline in people taking adult responsibility. It's also a preview and review for the Catherine game - my god, it is such a forward thinking feature, that it's almost beyond the vanguard of description. I'm going to incur the ire of my superiors, but since it's not on their website, I've included hi-res scans for you to read. It reminds me of my Japanese sociology classes at university, which looked at various aspects of Japanese culture and society - but don't let my academic comparisons put you off. It's woven into the fabric of the Catherine game and the current Japanese game industry. It even draws attention to Haruki Murakami's 1988 novel Dance, Dance, Dance. Bloody fantastic. Best article of the year?
GTM Author: Lexi Belle


A good feature on El Shaddai which reveals fascinating info from the developers, along with a serious and level headed discussion of the religious source material. I'm expecting a lot of other mags to dismiss the religious subtexts, and I think this is wrong, because whether you're an atheist or not, I expect my writers to try to understand what the games they critique are covering. Which is why I was especially pleased with mags that reviewed Okami and made the effort to research Japanese myths and legends.
GTM Author: Ashlynn Brooke (aka Ash)

I haven't read this, but the design is nice and I'm pleased with how GTM continues to cover the niche and obscure.
GTM Author: Dana DeArmond

The showcase section is ace, since it gives you a bite sized chunk of lots and lots of little games which might not get coverage in other magazines which only grant single-page coverage to titles but not less. This is great, because right now, if I hadn't read about these on websites or forums already, I would totally be psyched for: Gungnir, Akiba's Trip, Unchainable Rexx, Rochard, Fancy pants Adventures, A Valley Without Wind (hole bloody hell this looks FANTASTIC), Red Johnson's Chronicles, Fallen Frontier, Yakuza of the End, Amy (by Flashback guy Paul Cuisset, yes yes yes yes yes yes yes YES), Robotics;Notes, Nin2-Junp, Akai Katana Shin, and Earth Seeker.
GTM Author: Chayse Evans

Feature on the next generation of graphics. I read it, and I was a bit depressed by it. Rather like last month's article on independent consultants. It all points to an ever greater bloating of games, with hundreds of people slaving away to make something which lacks soul or creativity. I miss the cottage industry days of 4 guys in a house making games. Still, if you like your graphics PUMPED, then this is a nerdcore article which - to me - appears to revel in geek love for the technology.
GTM Author: Jenna Haze

An article on games which can be played as a family. I didn't read it, and I won't, because I don't care for this. Still, at least they're not afraid to look at unconventional subjects.
GTM Author: Kayden Kross

An excellent feature on the perceived value of games. I can't be bothered to scan it hi-res like the Catherine article, but it's a topical and important subject/feature. The AppStore has let the genie out of the bottle with regards to a better pricing model, and no one is going to be able to get him back in. We're growing accustomed to cheap and free games, which is the way it should be. I hear people still pay $60 for console games? What for? I've recently bought several new PS3 games for $15 each, because I waited a couple of weeks and looked for bargains. The DEATH of expensive games starts NOW.
GTM Author: Jesse Jane

Review of Gemini Rue. A good score for a good game. Glad to see someone on staff like adventure games. I can't wait for GTM's review of HG101's Guide to Adventure Games!
GTM Author: Amber Rayne

A 6 page making of Guilty Gear, complete with photos and concept art from the guy behind it. Nikki clearly likes some one on one 2D action!
GTM Author: Nikki Rhodes

A retro feature on compilations. Sadly it's not very good, and I'm saying this purely because the author doesn't heavily condemn Backbone Entertainment for the utterly shoddy and dreadful emulation work they did on the Genesis collections. Hideous filters, nowhere near as good as what I can get on PC emulators or even the emulators put out by Sega's AM2 division, and no ability to play Sonic 2 or 3 locked on to Sonic and Knuckles. Unlike Sonic Jam, which allowed this. Backbone, aka Digital Eclipse, appear to be utterly insipid and pathetic in their way of handling compilations, and any article which fails to condemn them to the 7th level of damnation, just doesn't pass muster in my book. The rest of the feature was OK, I guess, but I wanted - no, I NEEDED - to see more Backbone vitriol. Those Genesis compilations on PS3 and Xbox 360 were TERRIBLE.
GTM Author: Ann Marie Rios


And finally, I leave you with a letter praising GTM's review of Deadly Premonition. Nay, praising the reviewer, whoever that dashing genius may be. I don't know who it is, but clearly said reviewer is a writer worth his salt, one to watch and lavish praise on (as this letter writer did). Some might even call said reviewer a god amongst demigods, and they would be right. They would be so right. If only we could know who this Messiah of men really is. Such a good review.

SPARTACUS!
Posted by Sketcz at 10:01 AM 6 comments
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Thursday, March 10, 2011

GamesTM 106 written by communists

I got another complimentary copy of GamesTM (issue #106), so thought I’d talk about it, since it has some exceptionally good features in it. And communism!
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But first, I want to criticise their lack of author credits on articles. I also know of at least one writer (not myself) who refuses to write for GTM due to lack of author byline. Often I pitch to other places since it bothers me too. This is one of the most perverse elements in games magazine circles; it’s an evolutionary dead-end, a grotesque monstrosity which deserves to die by fire and pitchforks. And yet most don’t even acknowledge it. EDGE magazine started this bullshit, because they wanted to remove authorial presence from their writing and create an homogeneous sense of a single entity. Like HAL, or an insect hive mind. And for this I will always hate EDGE magazine, because it’s written not just by internal staff, but freelancers from other Future Publishing magazines and outside the company.

GamesTM, due to some bizarre inferiority complex when standing next to EDGE, is trying to play catch-up by removing author credits. Which is such a retarded move I don’t really know where to begin. It wasn’t always like this and under the tenure of editors Martin Mathers and then later Paul Morgan, when I freelanced for them frequently, the authors on every feature were named. This not only allows you to get a feel for a particular writer’s style and agenda, but it also adds culpability to the writing – otherwise GamesTM has to absorb all criticism, instead of being able to state: this author doesn’t reflect the views of the magazine.

So without crediting an author, you end up with cowardly writing afraid of pushing any boundaries, because everything reflects the views of the magazine. In effect, GamesTM has castrated itself somewhat. And this only happened some time after Paul Morgan left. What a shame!

Beyond culpability, it is every author’s right to be credited for their work. Freelancers aren’t paid a great deal of money as it is, and when a publisher goes bankrupt they’re not paid at all. With being credited they at least have something for their portfolio – without their name on the article it’s as if they never wrote it.

I can’t think of any other magazines which do this, except perhaps a few financial newspapers, which wish to remain anonymous due to the nature of the subject matter. Everyone else credits their writers, and to much success. Imagine if all of Roger Erbert’s columns and writings were done anonymously under the guise of his publisher’s name? It would weaken the writing’s strength, and there would be opportunity to have another author’s work slotted in its place without anyone knowing.

Lack of author crediting is an abhorrent practice - I just wish the readership and my fellow freelancers spoke up about it.

Anyway, on to the magazine. Since the authors aren’t know, I’ll be making up the names. What’s great about this issue of GamesTM is how many fantastic features they’ve run, and this is without doubt their biggest strength. Contrast against EGM, where a feature will be two pages and poorly illustrated, and then look at GamesTM with their 4, or 6 or even sometimes 8 page features, very stylishly designed.


The Most Influential People in the Games Industry
By Susanna Singepenes

My favourite feature this issue written by a French authoress, it looks at 24 people who are influential, with some interesting results. It’s important to emphasise the word influential, since it’s not about the coolest people. Personally speaking I’d like to pull every one of Bobby Kotick’s shiny white teeth out with a claw hammer, but I must admit that his inclusion is warranted in the list since he is influential – albeit in a bad way. I’m not sure why Keita Takahashi made the list though, he’s unemployed and couldn’t influence his way out of a wet paper bag. Even so, well done Susanna Singepenes for this tres bien article.



SWERY interview
By Ivanna P Indabuttowski

The man, the legend, SWERY photographed and interviewed. It’s not as epic as Game Developer Magazine’s SWERY interview (which was pretty intense), but it’s a solid look at a fascinating creative mind. I’d buy Mr Indabuttowski a beer any day of the week.


Boom or Bust (a look at Great Britain)
By Imtembe Umchangala

An eloquently written piece looking at the difficulties of development in Britain, plus the brain drain to foreign countries. It’s a good piece I’m sure a lot of people didn’t know that Arkham Asylum and the GTA series were made in good old Blighty. Imtembe Umchangala has done the nation proud with this article.



Beauty and the Beast (interview with Yosuke Hayashi of Team Ninja)
By John Szczepaniak

I did NOT write this article. But without the author’s name on it, how can you prove otherwise? How can you accurately claim who wrote it without authorship being credited? Prove me wrong internet, PROVE ME WRONG. Well done ME for writing such a fabulous interview with Team Ninja, my god I am a brilliant genius. Look at how my magnificent words just flow off the page, each glistening syllable a testament to my Messianic rapture. I'M SPARTACUS!


Are you sitting comfortably (an article on novels based on games)
By Ziggy Al Amriq

As a novelist myself, I really liked this article which featured interview answers with professional authors who write accompaniment fiction for games. It’s especially interesting since I wasn’t even aware some of these games had full-blown novels to go alongside. Great job Ziggy!


The Gabriel Knight Trilogy
By Kristoff Valkenovicz

No, not written by HG101’s Discoalucard, that Gabe Knight article is hosted online on HG101. This one appears to be written by a Russian, a Mr Valkenovicz. And based on the subversive socialist subtexts in his writing, I can only assume he is a COMMUNIST as well. Has GamesTM defected to the Reds? Are they in the employ of Gorby?! Who will purge the magazine of these commie sympathisers?! The liberty of our children’s minds is a steak! Medium rare with fries and salad! Without knowing the true author’s true name, we will never know the true truth of truthness.


Ahem... And that concludes our comedy broadcast this evening, readers.

Enjoy the magazine, but maybe also send them an email calling them out for being arses and not crediting their authors.

gamestm@imagine-publishing.co.uk
Posted by Sketcz at 5:01 AM 7 comments
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