What's next for next-gen?

The Xbox One and the PlayStation 4 are here to stay, software and hardware warts and all. Everyone can now take joy in not needing to say ‘next-gen’ and start saying ‘current-gen’ (and yes, I get the irony of the headline). But even now, we’ve got to look to the future, because this may be the last generation of the console.

On the quantity-of-games front, PC gaming is resolute, with more indie titles filling it than references to deceitful cake on a Portal forum. The term “PC Gaming Master Race” is being flung around the Internet to describe those with the disposable income to build their own top of the range ‘rig’ and keep it that way, with the Steam Machines being released to increase the portability of the PC gamer.

A Steam Machine.

On the other end of the spectrum, casual gaming on smartphones and tablets is on the rise, with AAA companies releasing tie-in games to link the casual gamer to the console like Fifa 14 by EA Sports and Batman: Arkham Origins. The Ouya is offering Android gaming on a movable, high-definition screen.

So with the high price bracket aiming for PCs, and the low going for the handheld, where does that leave the console?

In the past, this was simple: it was a middle ground. While handheld gaming in the times of the PlayStation 2 and original Xbox was limited, this was still clear to see.

The PC required some knowledge to set up the games, and was more for those that were interested in its mechanics. This was perfectly balanced by the console, which boasted speed and simplicity – disk in, game out. But now the install times of the XStation One match the PC, but unlike a PC, can’t be ‘Alt+Tabbed’ out of to go on the Internet or work.

With Assassin’s Creed 4 and The Wolf Among Us pushing for episodic gaming (and Half Life 3, in theory –all those prayers of gamers have to go somewhere) the priority for quick loading speeds and more compact games becomes paramount. This is especially true in light of 320GB-gate, the discovery that the Xbox One can’t hold the 500GB that it promised.

Could Mario make it to iOS devices?

The solution to this problem would be to focus on Cloud storage, but with the vulnerability of online gaming, as seen by the PlayStation Network being hacked, this seems unlikely.

My prediction? Despite the recent bad news about its poor sales, Nintendo will make more money than the GDP of Bulgaria releasing iMario, iPokémon and iZelda for everyone’s iDevices, as their focus isn’t on being the best, but on the reliability of being the ‘family console’.

Microsoft will make a console with the capabilities of a PC – one that allows the installation of Microsoft Office and access to games while others are installing. A console that you can work on.

Sony, on the other hand, will fuse with its other hardware and release PlayStation Television (PSTV has a nice ring to it), to rival the home-media omniscience the Xbox One is currently pushing for. Within ten, fifteen years, we may see the end of the Console Wars.

The next-gen is dead.

Long live next-gen.

 

Adam Smith (@webnym)

Review: The Binding of Isaac

😥

With 2014 fast approaching, The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth is in production. And in order to be ready for that, let’s look at its predecessor: The Binding of Isaac. No one can say we’re not ahead of the game (sorry, couldn’t resist).

When I was a child, various adults in my life would expound on me that old saying: “Crying never solved anything”. Those people, I’ve now found, were wrong.

In The Binding of Isaac, you dive into a basement filled with monsters all based on more abortion imagery than a scaremongering pro-life campaign, to escape your über-Christian mother bent on killing you in the name of God. And your only weapon to fight your way through these monsters and eventually face ‘Mom’ are your projectile tears.

In the words of Calvin Candie, “Gentlemen, you had my curiosity… but now you have my attention.”

The game is a dungeon crawler of the best kind: random generated levels that get more expansive as the game goes on, and in order to complete the game you must traverse eight of them without dying, else you get back to the start. Of the game. The entire game. Did someone say “difficulty curve”? For the first few playthroughs it’s akin to trying to ride a bike through quicksand and then hitting a brick wall.

Obviously, that makes you want to keep going.

Seems fair.

And to help with this descent into your own personal hell you do have various Power-Ups: Bombs to explode the baby-faced spiders (I don’t mean ‘look innocent’, I mean ‘have the heads of children…upside down’), Pills you find on the floor that can either help or hinder you (or send your three year old body forcibly through puberty) and Tarot Cards that vary from teleporting you into hidden rooms for bonus power ups to summoning the spirit of Death to vanquish your enemies.

Once you’ve amassed enough of these items (or rushed past them because you’re impatient and can’t stand any more baby-headed monsters) the boss fights are made…well, actually, they’re not made easier at all. Each boss is also randomly generated, except for Mom, and can vary from a giant blob monster, aptly named Monstro, to versions of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, if both the horseman and the horse were small children that had been dead for a few weeks.

Happily, all of these terribly graphic images are juxtaposed by a cartoony aesthetic. Binding of Isaac comes straight from the developers of Super Meat Boy, which means that even though you’re going through Isaac’s personal psychological hell, you can still smile as he cries his way through.

I particularly recommend this game to anyone with a PC capable of running games but neglected to bring a mouse to University, or anyone with Mac who didn’t want to spend £60 on a mouse for their gaming, because The Binding of Isaac needs only the WASD keys to move and the arrow keys to shoot, making it feel almost like a nostalgic offspring to arcade gaming, and a damn fun way to kill an hour or so with little space for mice and power supplies.

The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth will be available on PC, Mac, Playstation 4 and the PS Vita in 2014, but not on the Xbox One because if you’re gaming on an Xbox One then you really don’t know enough about games, or gaming, or have the sufficient brainpower to make reasonable purchases. Frankly, I’m surprised you made it this far in the article. And no, I’m not just saying that to get a console war going and push my views up…

 

 

Adam Smith

Follow Adam Smith (@webnym) on Twitter to win some delicious cake.

Indie Spotlight: Risk of Rain

To even give you an idea of what Risk of Rain is like, imagine you took Super Metroid as a base, sprinkled in some Cave Story and The Binding of Isaac and then mixed in Superbrothers: Sword and Sorcery EP. Then, put in an ever-increasing difficulty, randomly generated levels and 4 player co-op and you may get an idea of how Risk of Rain plays. It can get controller shatteringly frustrating at times but if you like roguelikes or action platformers, Risk of Rain is definitely worth picking up.

Risk of Rain is the product of Hopoo Games, the student team of Paul Morse and Duncan Drummond (with the help of Chris Christodoulo for the soundtrack), where your aim is to survive as long as possible and get off the planet you are stranded on by fighting your way through hundreds of monsters and various different levels.

The game starts off fairly easy, with your character standing outside of their crashed ship as enemies start to trickle in, giving you bits of cannon fodder as you try to gain money, level up and grab items and upgrades (akin to The Binding of Isaac’s trinkets and power-ups) as you try and find the teleporter to get to the next level. However, you then notice the meter in the top right hand corner of the screen, which causes the game’s difficulty to rise every 5 or so minutes, going from Very Easy to HAHAHAHAHAHA over the course of about an hour.

This feature is what sets Risk of Rain apart from other roguelikes, with the game getting progressively harder as you fight through each level, making each section not only a chance to grind XP and gold to buy power-ups but a mad dash to the teleporter in order to get to the next level before the difficulty rises yet again.

This constant stress of balancing grabbing items and getting to the teleporter gives Risk of Rain a unique spin on the ‘risk or reward’ formula, as players have to choose between making a godlike character in the early game but risking annihilation by the horde of super-powered monsters coming your way. Or you could dash to each teleporter, trying to beat the boss at a low level but not having to deal with the possibility of two bosses with ridiculously large health bars, as well as a gigantic horde of aliens.

Risk of Rain gives you the opportunity to play any way you want but bearing in mind that once your character dies, they are permanently dead and you must start again with a brand new person.

Don’t think you are playing just one class though, Risk of Rain has 10 different characters to choose from like the agile Commando which has the ability to dodge roll, fire a piercing shot through lines of enemies or lay down suppressive fire to the sword wielding Mercenary who can cut enemies to ribbons. However, you only start with the Commando and must unlock the other classes by getting certain achievements which range from the mildly challenging to the outright ridiculous. For me, this is where Risk of Rain turns a lot of players off on just how hard it is.

Even on medium difficulty, the game sends armies of aliens at you which can easily overwhelm you if you do not have decent enough items, which is somewhat down to the luck of the draw. Even a run with great items and decent health can be quickly ruined by a fast moving mob of jellyfish and imps which pop up out of nowhere.

In single player, the game can be impossible in the later levels but when playing with friends, the game can become an absolute breeze. At the moment, the game is not correctly balanced for multiplayer, making it easy for a dedicated team of 3 players to blaze through the campaign with no major trouble. Also, certain elements like the inability to see a friend’s health mar the experience, as players have to gauge the healthiness of their teammates whilst trying to balance their own life which adds further pressure to an already pressurised experience.

While suffering from some balance issues as I have mentioned, some other problems exist like the fact that some classes like the Enforcer and the Sniper are vastly underpowered compared to the Commando or that the game can suffer from some weird hit detection issues when fighting certain enemies and collision problems when trying to climb ladders and ropes.

I have lost count how many times I have died because I was standing a pixel off a rope when trying to escape a horde of marauding aliens. The sarcastic quips when you die do not help dull the pain either.

Furthermore, even though the levels within Risk of Rain are randomly generated, many areas seem to repeat themselves after multiple runs and the lack of a mini-map gets irritating as you try and find that teleporter you swear you saw early when you were being chased by hundreds of angry sand crabs.

Also, this may be a personal gripe but having falling damage in a platformer seems counter-intuitive, especially when you can easily fall off platforms when you are using jump pads but that’s only a minor problem

Besides these gripes, the game looks great with the minimalist pixel art and the Metroid-esque score helping to create a great feeling of isolation and often panic as you try and escape from this hellish planet. Moreover, the chaps at Hopoo Games are continuing to patch and add things to the game which will more than likely correct the faults I have brought up in this spotlight.

It is remarkable that a game made by such a small team has such a high level of polish and challenge so kudos must be given them for making Risk of Rain the game that it is.

If you like roguelikes or action platformers or if you are a bit of a masochist, Risk of Rain is definitely for you which will give you hours of fun as you jump, blast and swear your way through its well-crafted world.

However, if you are new to roguelikes or are looking for something a little bit lighter, Risk of Rain will kick you in the balls and leave you crying in the gutter as aliens eat your skin. Happy hunting and don’t forget to pack an umbrella.

 

 

Sam Foxall

Unseen Indies: Don't Starve

The first time I ever saw this game was when my brother bought it from Steam. Of course, being an overly-confident gamer, I was certain I could survive.

However, surviving in this gothic hand-drawn art-styled indie survival adventure game developed by Klei Entertainment isn’t as easy as it looks.

Upon entering this game you are hurled into the role of Wilson, a scientist mysteriously transported into a randomly generated monster-filled world of nine different biomes, each of which have their own vegetation and creatures. With no tutorials or instructions on how to survive you must use your wits and innovation to survive the night.

Dying is an inevitable factor in this game. It is through death that you learn rules and delve into the fun of experimentation.

Most of the essential crafting requires only your initial in-game knowledge but you need to build science machines in order to craft better equipment to ensure your prolonged survival. This is an essential part of the game but don’t think that you can just survive on the basics alone no matter how easy they may be to create.

Over time everything you create degrades, each having a different lifespan. As the game progresses the monsters become more difficult to kill, the seasons change and throw you into new environment complete with new monsters and challenges (winter is difficult to stay warm in). If you become completely insane the once passive shadow monster hallucinations become aggressive and attack.

In addition, low sanity causes whispers to be heard, makes your character incredibly skittish and the screen becomes shaky and sometimes quite dizzying.

Taking on elements from Minecraft and (in my opinion) the Amnesia series, your aim is to survive for as long as possible, trying to regulate three main physical components: health, hunger and sanity (but where’s the fun in being sane?). Regulating these three things consumes a lot of time and can become quite tedious after a while.

Food resources are often scarce unless you can find the right area (there are often lots of berries around pig encampments) and some of the resources you find aren’t renewable. While it is possible to create a sustainable food source through the construction of farms the possibility of starvation is a constant threat. As you starve you lose health and losing health is always easier than regaining it, making the task of healing yourself increasing frustrating and tiresome. Eating food provides minimal health boosts of about 3 points but your best bet at regaining a good portion of your health is by making certain crock pot recipes which you can’t make without the use of the Science Machine.

If you don’t know how to deal with certain situations you’re more than likely going to die, making it immensely frustrating when you are sent back to the beginning of the game just like the multiple times before. It’s a shame that a game as good as this can be put down by the slight repetitiveness and the actions which, at first though exciting and fun, become tediously mundane as you repeat the same process over and over because you just died.

The first time I played the game I died within seven days. Firstly I was attacked by some weird-looking one-eyed blue ostrich before having my equipment stolen by some ominous looking frogs (because apparently frogs do that). I came across some ‘friendly’ pigs in the hope that it would increase my sanity but was attacked because I went too close to their berries.

After these ordeals I was low on health and realised my character was on the verge of starvation. When this happened I started panic-searching through the forest biome for a nibble and lo and behold there it was; a shiny beacon amidst the shadows of my insanity – a red mushroom. Bloody thing killed me didn’t it? And all because I ate it raw (note to self: avoid raw mushrooms).

Of course I suppose looking back on it now I should’ve just stolen some berries.

There are nine playable characters, unlockable as you gain experience; the longer you survive the more experience you gain. These characters have their own unique abilities and characteristics but note, these attributes can be both a hindrance as well as a blessing.

Willow is the first unlockable character of the game and comes with her own lighter. This lighter has infinite durability and, although it has a much smaller radius than either a torch or a fire, it is helpful if you find yourself panic stricken when it’s almost night-time and you realise you can’t craft a fire. In addition, she is also immune to fire damage, especially useful if you ‘inadvertently’ set the entire forest on fire.

Willow is what you would call a pyromaniac but then, in this game, burning trees is just awesome, especially when you’re being chased by various monsters. Although most don’t die by fire they tend to run away leaving you standing amidst the ruins of ashen trees feeling satisfied at the destruction you’ve just caused. Or maybe that’s just me. If it is that’s quite worrying.

Although there is no significant plot to the game this is not a bad thing, immersing you in a gothic world of mystery and danger from the get-go. Adventure mode offers certain maps to complete such as complete darkness and continuous winter. This gives more of a storyline to the game, requiring you to assemble five portals over five different maps.

Don’t Starve’s  imaginative and unique gameplay and art-style combination provides many hours of enjoyment and creativity but after a while the novelty of scavenging and battling monsters to survive wears off and you’re left without much motivation to continue playing to survive until the end of the game.

Despite this, it’s a small game that packs one hell of a punch and it’s a game worth experimenting with. Luckily Don’t Starve‘s cult following has secured it a port to the PS4, and so the game looks set to receive a lot more attention within Sony’s push for indie games. A word of caution however: make sure you don’t get caught in the darkness because there are deadly monsters that lurk within the shadows of the night. Lights on, you’re safe. Light out, you’re dinner.

Stay safe and remember, whatever you do, ‘Don’t Starve’.

4/5 Stars

 

Rebecca Jones