The official source for all Eothein's musings, ideas and opinions be what the may.

• 20May 09

  Games should have more than one good idea.

  Hot off the heels of playing Red Faction: Guerrilla it got me thinking, what is it with games this generation just milking one idea?

  This game's main selling point is the destructibility of the environment, the developers obviously spent a lot of time working out the quirks of the engine and when it comes down to it, its rather magnificent.

  But all the other aspects of the titles fail to stand out, whether that's the graphics themselves which are hardly anything special, the shooting mechanics which feel very archaic, the enemy and NPC AI which is beyond retarded, a camera that is seemingly fighting me every step of the way and many other issues.

  It seems that this game had a lot of time spent making the physics as versatile and realistic as possible, but everything else was not given the same degree of attention. This could issues of time or budget but regardless they stop a title like this becoming a must have game.

  Having a unique selling point is always good thing to have in the crowded video game market but not at the expense of having every other aspect of the title be extraordinarily average.
  

  • Posted May 20, 2009 2:48 am GMT
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• 25Nov 08

  Game reviews, it is time to lead the way.

  After listening to the latest episode of 1Up Yours, the presenters expressed their concerns about how many game reviewers are out to chastise games trying to make a review objective and based around criteria rather than what it is, a subjective opinion piece. However it just happens that it is exactly what those presenters do, a certain sense of hypocrisy.
  
  On the majority of game podcasts I listen to, and it is a lot, the presenters are concerned and annoyed about the review aspect of games journalism, whether that is the arbitrary score or trying to be subjective and repress opinions.
  
  However nobody tried to change it my question is why do they make no attempt to change their ways and what do the average readers and listeners want out of a review, I think we need a change. It's all well and good complaining but if you make no attempt to change then you will stagnate and become obsolete.
  • Posted Nov 25, 2008 4:43 am GMT
  • Category: Editorial
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• 20Oct 08

  Please sir can I have some more DLC?

  
  
  With the advent of digital distribution has changed the way we now receive content. DLC on consoles is something that picked up steam with the launch of the Xbox 360, it saw many attempts to monetise content with incidents like horse armour for Oblivion and paying for cheats in The Godfather.
  
  But now publishers have worked out that players are willing to pay for better content like extra characters and levels. For the majority of customers it comes down to a question of value for money and the majority of publisher are now offering good downloadable content.
  
  However it is becoming more and more common for a publisher to take content out of a game and save to become available later on as downloadable content. Tomb Raider Underworld is one such example where a few weeks after the game is released Xbox 360 owners are able to download exclusive levels and a new character.There is very little doubt that this content could have been included on the disc. The content being exclusive is not the issue the fact that they expect the player to pay for something that should and could have been included on the disc is.

  Bioshock's release on the PS3 was originally designed to come with time trial esque levels but instead they have been pushed back to become downloadable content it's the same issue.
  
  There was a similar issue with SoulCalibur 4 with both versions having an exclusive character and the only way to play as them, it was promised, was the buy the specific version. Yet now a few months later the characters will be available as downloadable content. It was excepted and expected at the reveal of the exclusive characters that they would available later on but it was promised they would not, put simply they basically lied.
  
  Downloadable content can be done fantastically to help make an old game a fresh experience, the two best examples being Burnout Paradise and Team Fortress 2 both of which feature updates that add completely new ideas to help bring back people who stopped playing to experience the new content. It helps that the updates are free, too.
  
  DLC is still a relatively new idea that publishers and developers are testing the waters with but it is becoming somewhat commonplace for a publisher to abuse it by expecting the players to have to pay for content that would have been on the disc.

  The easy solution is to say vote with your wallets but the that doesn't seem to help, after all hundreds of thousands of people decided to pay for the Oblivion horse amour and while new levels for Tomb Raider Underworld is certainly better value for money the problem is exactly the same.

  • Posted Oct 20, 2008 7:24 am GMT
  • Category: Editorial
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