DLC

Videogames have always offered something unique when it comes to the entertainment industry, enabling an even more complete immersion into the world with which you choose to entertain you.  You can genuinely feel like you have become the World Class racing driver you always wanted to be or lose yourself within a fantasy world where your actions have consequences on the story.

This is the kind of immersion that has lead to Videogames becoming one of, if not the major industry within the entertainment industry, but as games have progressed over the years so have the demands from the gamers themselves.  We've gone through single-player, multi-player, online multi-player, brilliant stories and characters and downloadable content.  It is the downloadable content where one of my main gripes with the gaming industry occurs.

Let me start by saying that I am not against DLC but there comes a point where it's not so much to keep gamers happy but instead an easy way to take some more money out of our pockets; Call of Duty Elite being a great example of the latter.  You don't need to release new Map Packs every month in order to keep people interested in playing your game, nor should we as gamers have to pay in order to view some more in-depth statistics of our gaming.

The Battlefield 3 'Battlelog' online is a brilliant statistics site; free, in-depth, shows upcoming unlocks and individual stats for each weapon/vehicle.  Surely anyone who needs even more detail, heat maps and the like is spending way to much time on their gaming and should be putting more effort into actual real life.  If you make a game with good shipped maps/vehicles/tracks etc and a good online experience you will retain gamers without the need to constantly churn out somewhat half rate content.

I can only guess that the Call of Duty DLC explosion is more to do with Battlefield 3 having a more complete online War zone feel, with players helping each other out, playing the objective and the draw of flying a jet into someone's face (all things that are non-existent/rare in Cod).  I used to be a hardcore Cod fan but over the past few iterations in the series I have lost all interest in the series with each game lasting less time in my collection before being traded in.

Some games have understandable DLC, games like Forza where a tonne of content is available but it is nothing more than a personal preference if you choose to download them.  It's an example of a game that would still be a great game even if there was no downloadable content on offer.  This is the kind of DLC that we as gamers should be provided with; content that might not be overly required to enhance the game but would do so if you chose to download it.

I would like you all aware that I know making the game in the first place costs money and DLC is often a way to repay the money spent on it's creation, and that it is a business at the end of the day and the aim for any business is a profit.  I know this is true but sometimes (and more often nowadays) videogame companies are taking this mass attempts for profits a little to far, and sometimes a great game can become a greatly disliked game because of this.  You don't need to ply us with more content than we could shake a rather large stick at to keep us gamers happy, instead spent a bit more time on making a great game at launch, release one or two content packs to tie us over while you work on the next game.

It's not like we have to pay film companies extra to download the deleted scenes from a film.

The Decline of Gaming Classics

There have been many videogames over the years that have been classed as 'Classics', from Pong to Super Mario Bros and even up to games like Grand Theft Auto Vice City.  Some of these classics have been around for upwards of twenty years and some of them have been more recent but are games that you know will become classics; games that will always be played by someone, somewhere in the world.  But the other night whilst trying to get to sleep this thought hit me, a thought that there are very few, if any, games that have been released in the past few years that I can see becoming a videogame classic.

NES Classic Super Mario Bros.

With the advent of the internet and playing online against your friends rather than playing split-screen in the same room has placed the general perception of what a videogame needs to include to a different level.  Most gamers in the current gaming world will generally look to see if the game has online capabilities before buying a game, because online multiplayer has now become one of (if not the) major selling points when making a game.  I personally feel that we gamers who look for a good single player game, with a great storyline are a dying breed; slowly being eradicated by the social gaming youth.

It's the need for online gaming and an adequate single player section that is the main contributor in the lack of potential gaming classics around at the moment.  The one thing pretty much all current gaming classics have in common is that they have no online capabilities, and the only chance of playing with friends was to have them on the same screen sat next to you with another controller.  All the classics currently around generally have a good storyline to them, granted some of them may not be long or written to an award winning standard but the stories were good.  The gameplay is usually easy to use and easy to just pick up and play even if it has been years since you last picked up the controller.  The visual are dated and in honesty look terrible but that doesn't matter, because you play the game because of a deep rooted love of the game and it's that love of the game that masks the graphically power (or lack of it) in an old game.

Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 Online

Obviously it would be difficult to keep many of today's current run of games online and running because running the servers to play the game costs the company money, with most games having a certain amount of time after release before the servers are cut off.  Evidently if hardly anyone is playing the game online then it makes sense financially to cut the servers and spend the costs elsewhere, either developing new games or adding new online features to current games of the moment.  But with cutting off the servers you leave the game to stand alone on it's single-player which is generally not good enough on it's own feet and fails to lift the game above the shoulders of all the other games around, generally condemning the game to videogame oblivion.

There are a couple of games that I think could make it into the videogame classics of the future; games like The Elder Scrolls and Fallout series but that is mainly because these games have no online.  Sure enough these games have downloadable add-ons but these are not essential when the games stand on their own feet without them.  Games like Call of Duty will gradually fade into the distance with every new game in the series pushing the older versions further away from our minds.

Red Dead Redemption

The video game industry is a strange place and anything can happen; maybe in 20 years time games like Call of Duty 4 and Red Dead Redemption will be viewed as classics with private firms/people paying for workable  servers so that a select few can still play them online and relieve the good old days when you first picked up the game.  Feeling that nostalgia fill you up in the same way it does today when you pick up a Mega Drive controller to play the original Sonic or when you pick up an N64 controller to play a round of Goldeneye.

I know it is an old and well overused phrase but it is true, because only time will tell.

Netflix launched in the UK and Ireland

This weekend saw the launch of unlimited film & TV streaming service Netflix here in the UK, available now on the PS3, Xbox360 & the Nintendo Wii.  Having previously only been available in the US, Netflix's subscription costs £5.99 a month or €6.99 in Ireland with each new subscriber receiving the first month free. 

The subscription cost matches the lowest priced package available from UK rival Lovefilm, with its unlimited streaming package costing more.  Netflix has already announced plans to launch its service on further platforms in the future, with the service available on the 3DS, PCs and Smart TV’s in the US.

The service includes thousands of films and TV series with films such as The Expendables, Saw V & classic films like Reservoir Dog's.  The wide range of TV shows available includes 24, Shameless, Doctor Who and even The Only Way is Essex.

Kinect Fun Labs

Kinect Fun Labs launched last year with little mention of it's release but you'd be hard pressed not to know it exists as it's is continually advertised in the bottom corners of various screens of the new Xbox Dashboard.  So what is the Fun Labs, well simply put it is a collection of little gadgets that you can download and use with your Kinect sensor to show the sort of things that the Kinect is capable of.  In fairness the gadgets are not what you would call amazing single games but more technical demos of the Kinect's abilities that you can play yourself.  Here are the gadgets available and a quick overview:

Kinect Me
This gadget is essentially a full body scanner where you first scan your head and then your body and Kinect Me will create an generated version of you to the best of it's abilities.  After creating you pose for photos with your virtual you, can add a voice message to go with the snaps and finally can upload it to the KinectShare website.  There is no much else to this gadget but it demonstrates the capabilities of face scanning within a game to quickly and effortlessly put your face into an in-game character.  That said maybe with better lighting, my avatar would have looked alot more like me.

Googly Eyes
Much like Kinect Me, Googly Eyes involves scanning things into the gadget but instead of yourself this time you scan in objects.  Once you have scanned in the front and back of the object, it will attempt to render the object as best it can while also adding a pair of Googly Eyes.  Once created you can control your object with your body and then record a short video skit to upload.  If your children are a fan of the kids TV show Ooglies then there is some fun for them in creating there very own 'ooglies'.  This gadget does however have limited lifespan to grown ups and it is advisable not to play it for to long or the Googly Eyes song will be stuck in your head for days.

Those two gadgets are your starting set but there are a few more that you can download to further experience the Kinect's capabilities.  There is Bobble Head where you use the same scanning method as in Kinect Me to create your very own BobbleHead Figurine of yourself and record an audio message which plays whenever you smack your figurine upside the head.  Build-A-Buddy consists once again as an updated version of Googly Eyes where you scan in an object of your choosing.  This time round you can choose 3 either-or personalities traits for your object and once your choices are made and your buddy is 'hatched', you get to play some very basic repeat the action games with your buddy.  Unlike the others there is some aspect of gameplay to this gadget but the same visual issues of to much movement and your buddy becomes some deformed evil dead looking creature are still evident.

Other gadgets include Microsoft's avatar chatroom suite showcase Avatar Kinect, your own personal carnival house of mirrors effect gadget Mutation Station, Kinect boxing but with a twist by using your scanned objects as fighters in Battle Stuff and perform 5 songs in your own air rock band in Air Band.  Each of these gadgets are currently free to download and play with 2 other gadgets available but at a cost of 240 points.  These two priced gadgets are Kinect Sparkler which is the first gadget that tracks finger movement and allows you to create sparkler drawn pictures, and Musical Feet which can be thought of as a virtual floor keyboard which allows multiple people to play the keys and create music to share.

Although none of these gadgets are overly amazing or awe-inspiring, unlikely to divert your attention from real games for more than 15 minutes they are however great examples of what the Kinect can do and a look into what the future may hold for the Kinect Sensor and it's abilities.  If you are also looking to an easy 400 gamerscore to add to your collection there are few easier ways in which to get them, even though it will take a little while of your time.  The only other thing worth mentioning is that Kinect Fun Labs does not appear in your Games or Apps menu and the only way I've found to access it is to go to the point of downloading it again and once the prompt appears to download, select Play Now.  This in itself can be infuriating but if you want to see what the Kinect can do and fancy an easy addition to your gamerscore total then it's something you'll get used to.

WWE '12

The problem with a game series that releases yearly titles is that the games tend to stagnate. The next game is generally just an update rather than a completely new and renovated title, a few minor tweaks packaged a something new and amazing.  So after 7 yearly updates to the Smackdown vs Raw franchise of games, it is well overdue for a revamp and a new look and hence we've ended up with WWE '12.

The new game from WWE game staples THQ and Yukes is being sold as 'Bigger, Badder, Better', and a chance to 'experience the new WWE'.  So does it live up to that hype, is this a totally new direction for the somewhat stale series and the answer is no.  At the end of it all the game is still created by the same companies that have been making wrestling games since the very first WWF Smackdown way back in 2000, so there are no completely new and fresh faces in the series.  But it is not all bad and same old, same old as there are a few nice little touches to the game that show that with pushes in the right direction the game series could go onto the next level.

The first of these new touches are the new camera system that recreates the TV world of the WWE in the most realistic way yet.  The new system removes the HUD, uses all the camera work & action shots that are used in the TV shows to make you feel more like you are watching a show, opposed to playing a video game.  The camera system accompanied by a more TV presentation style WWE Universe & Road to Wrestlemania story mode make the game fell more real and like a TV show.  This does however lead me to the RTWM game mode which I personally don't like.

The Road to Wrestlemania could have been so good but instead it is a game mode where you don't get to select your character, you do a bit of fighting, press a button when prompted and then the cinematics take over.  It is a mode that is cinematically driven and when you are playing what is essentially a fighting game, watching videos isn't what you want to be doing.  It is also rather infuriating when you beat down on an opponent and press the button when prompted only for the cinematic to cut in where your character then takes a beating and/or loses to a guy you have just destroyed in the ring.  This game mode could have been so much more and if they had spent a bit more time integrating this mode into the Universe mode then there could have been something truly amazing to kick this series revamp off with.

The control system is also not to far removed from the previous series and with a bit of time and even a control layout shake up you can make it feel even more like the previous games.  The controls are not really anything new or revolutionary in all honesty, the reversal system has been changed and can get take awhile to get used to but you'll either pick it up with no problem or spend most your matches infuriated with the game while getting your ass handed to you by your opponent.  The computer A.I. has also had a tweak and has a tendency to be too aggressive but then again how often do real wrestling stars stop during a match to look blankly at the other wrestling whilst waiting for a grapple or slap to the chops.  In general I think it can be said that the opponent A.I. has been developed to make it more realistic to a real match, now if only they could sort out the referee and the commentary then it would be an almost brilliant package.

There is also an extensive Creation mode where you can create a superstar, moveset, complete entrance, finisher, arena and storylines, all of which can be uploaded online for others to rate and download your creation.  There is everything here to create classic ECW arena's, storylines from old or current shows and play them out in your created arenas.  If you don't fancy the Smackdown show in the Universe mode then you can change the brand to something you have created.

In overview this game is not a completely new invention in the series of wrestling games but it has the potential to be something amazing if pushed in the right direction and providing the makers listen to the suggestions from the ever loyal fanbase.  If you like wrestling games and want a game that makes it feel like you are in the show and a game where have almost complete control over the world of WWE then this is the game for you.  You may have noticed that I have not mentioned the online aspect of the game and the reason for that is the server's are unavailable on such a regular basis that I don't feel it worth me talking about.

What to expect this week (09/01/12)

This week is a considerably sparse week for games but that is expected as the gaming community settles from the big game releases over the Christmas period.  However there are a few titles due for release, which are:

• Angry Birds Seasons (PC) - The same old addictive & infuriating game but with seasonal themes from Halloween, St. Patrick's Day and more.
• Choplifter HD (PC, PSN, XBLM) - A updated reboot of the arcade classic featuring some cameos from some of gaming's most recognisable faces including Duke Nukem.
• Deadliest Warrior: Ancient Combat (PS3, XBox360) - A combination of first two games of the series (based on Spike Tv's historical combat simulation show), in one retail disc.

As always game release dates are subject to change & release date information obtained via IGN and HMV.