Category Archives: Game Animal

A Birthday Wish

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It’s probably too late to start faffing about with my Christmas wish-list. Thankfully, my parents had the foresight to conceive me in time for a post-Christmas birthday, which means that I may be lucky enough to get the “History of Gaming” Quartet pack by the end of January.

I can remember playing Top Trumps when I was a child, and in particular having a penchant for the Military Naval Ships version. Just why, I do not know, since I wasn’t interested in war, or, for that matter, boats. Be that as it may, I played with this deck enough times to still have a vague memory of one of the better cards (a British frigate, I think).

A few Christmases ago I bought Jo a Simpsons variant as a stocking-filler. In total we played it once or twice, and the pack currently lies in a box in our spare bedroom. A sad, but inevitable, end to a game with little replay value.

Now, though, the history of videogames has been immortalised by a Top Trump imitator from Austria. Their website looks shite, though the cards look to be of a good standard, and I want a pack desperately. I’ll just need someone sad enough to play with.

Ho, Ho, Holy Crap, It’s A Christmas Invasion!

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There are two ways to a secure a jubilant Jon at Christmas: buy every game-related item on my wish-list, or take any old shit (carpet-fluff, dog vomit, any Guns N Roses CD) and wrap it carefully in Paper Invaders wrapping paper.

Santa Claus and snowy scenes just don’t stand a chance against this must-have accessory, and it almost seems sacrilege to waste it on something that will end up getting ripped/thrown in the recycling bin after its intended use.

I might just check this site again after the Yule festivities have died down, to see if it ends up in the bargain bins.

Your Neck Is Worth It

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The market is awash with gaming-related t- and sweatshirts (with varying quality), but when it comes to surviving the minus 40 winters that the north of Sweden can offer, then there is very, very little in the way of showing your allegiance without freezing your nuts off.

Today I was browsing one of my favourite games-blogs, Wonderland, when I saw an entry that immediately melted my heart. A company called “bits2die4” is selling a range of scarves, all with 70s and 80s style gaming motifs.

Of the five styles being sold, I should like the Space Invaders, Pong and Scramble versions. Space Invaders and Pong are well-known classics of their time, and I have very special memories of playing Scramble in Bournemouth when I had just become a teenager. I have a feeling I played most in the back section of a chip shop, where both Scramble and Space Invaders stole a fair bit of my free-time and a lot of my pocket money.

These scarves ooze style, and the only thing preventing me from fetching my credit-card right now is that they are made of wool. I may find myself wrestling with my vegan conscience over this one, and I wouldn’t be surprised if I were to let slip my ideology just to own these little chappies.

I suppose I could live easier if, say, I received them (notice the plurality) as a Christmas or birthday present. I’m not saying this would be acceptable (it would, though), and I really hope that I don’t get them some time in the near future.

Let’s just hope that no-one evil reads this who wishes me to look wicked and feel shit.

The Family Shall Play Together

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After yesterday’s diatribe about the lack of multiplayer games available, I have some good news: not only has Jo played Pro Evolution Soccer 5 this evening (and actually thought it to be okay, despite the learning curve needed to play efficiently), but there are two more games out that support co-op mode.

Both Justice League Heroes and Marvel: Ultimate Alliance pay homage to Diablo, with their hack’n’slash orientated gameplay. We’ve played (almost exactly) similar games (X-Men, X-Men 2, Champions: Return to Arms, Dungeons & Dragons Heroes, and the Baldur’s Gate brace), and I’m especially happy about Ultimate Alliance, since it’s from the same team as the X-Men series.

The cold, dark evenings where excellent TV series do not occur look very promising indeed.

The Family That Plays Together…

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As I write this, Sweden are bathing in the afterglow of winning the World International Cup, having crushed the Argentinians with a 4-0 victory every Swede should be proud of. And yet I am the only person who knows or cares.

I bought Pro Evolution Soccer 5 at the beginning of this week. It had been on my priority-purchase list for a while, and I managed to find a second-hand copy for 200 crowns (£14.50). Since I’m currently on a week’s holiday, this has meant some quality time in front of the TV.

One of its interesting qualities is a multiplayer co-op mode. This, along with the well-implemented graphics and solid AI, was the main reason for its newfound home. I thought it would be something Jo and I could indulge in, on the cold, dark nights when House, Lost, CSI or Idol aren’t on (meaning, essentially, the weekends), but I was wrong: Jo doesn’t really like football games.

We haven’t been playing together too much recently. LEGO Star Wars was a nice waste of time (though far too short and with a silly fixed camera angle that made for unnecessary guesswork), and before that the distant memory of X-Men 2 still lingers as one of the better co-ops we’ve completed. It is not for wont of trying , though: there just doesn’t seem to be more than a handful of suitable co-ops around, even if one includes the poor-average rated games for consoles.

This is actually an interesting development in my choice of videogames. Before I was was quite happy to ignore the vast majority in favour of those that had been deemed to be brilliant by the cognoscenti. Of all genres, I only “dislike” FPS‘s, so there was still a lot of scope for finding enough games to keep me amused. Nowadays, though, most of my console playing has to be co-op. And the strange thing is, I find a mediocre co-op game to be more enjoyable than a good single-player.

I cannot even imagine a change to this current situation. Whilst portable gaming devices (DS and PSP) offer their form of connectivity, and next-gen consoles are “broadband-ready”, there is no chance that “one console, one TV, two-players” games can ever be better than good. The very medium they work on (one TV screen) limits players freedom: freedom to move and freedom to change angles.

What our gaming experience will be like in 5 or 10 years relies on developers having a major breakthrough in thinking, or simply that we change our method of playing. I’d put money on the latter.

NB: Sweden won on Easy setting.