Ain't nuttin' happenin'. Too much work to do!

• 29Jul 09

  Grey Britain: The Game

  This was inspired by the long walk back from my girlfriend's house which gave me time to listen to Gallows' album Grey Britain almost in it's entirety which inspired what I think (or did at the time, I've chosen not to think too hard about it since in case it now seems crap) would be an waesome game:

  The protagonist is a guy with long dark straggly hair, wearing a leather jacket zipped half-way on top of his bare chest; black jeans and a pair of black DM boots.
  The opening scene is a bar fight, in which someone pulls a knife on the protagonist, resulting in the protagonist breaking the assailants arm and head butting him simultaneously. Protagonist uses this knife to cut open his hand and drink the blood before spitting in the face of an oncoming security thug, sucker punching another and striding out of the bar. This sequence exemplifies much of the game fluidly transitioning from gameplay (fighting people in bar) to intuitive QTEs (disarming knife-guy) to cutscene à la MGS4. In terms of fluidity there would be some kind of fight mechanic, where if the player performs a relatively simple counter at the attempted stabbing then the QTE is triggered, other similar events would happen throughout the game.

  I should explain that the basic premise is the United Kingdom in a state of riotous disarray as described by Gallows, the inciting incident should be something obvious creating some kind of mutated zombie freaks (or something less clichéd, but I can't think of anything). The protagonist can choose from numerous paths, either seeking to get to truth, attempting to aid those in need and restore order, or just revel in the chaos and accelerate the country's downfall. The character himself starts of from a pretty instable position of anger and violence and is a distrustful cynic to begin with, however his personality can be altered according to the player's actions.

  The game takes place as a journey across Britain starting in the small city of Carlisle (just cuz that's where I live) and ultimately leading to London via other major cities such as Newcastle, Leeds, Liverpool, Birmingham etc. Along the journey the player encounters various groups of people ranging from Raiders/Reapers intent on destruction to people just trying to survive to those trying to preserve some sense of civilisation and help those in need, the player's actions affect how other characters respond to him i.e. raiding a hospital is going to make Raider's more likely to trust you, but "good, honest" people will regard you with hostility, this is affected by geography and the size of your reputation - a small time thief in Carlisle may not be trusted in Carlisle, but in other parts of the country no one will know. The player could also affect people's opinions of him through Mass Effect ****dialogue which has the mood, or general gist of a response rather than the dialogue verbatim - if you're rude or aggressive obviously people are going to like and trust you less.

  Another idea I had for a gameplay mechanic is some kind of anxiety system where when the protagonist is in secluded areas, especially at night them the protagonist becomes anxious which has a negative effect on combat and on dialogue options available. The player should also be made to feel more anxious through use of sounds and visuals in a similar way to how The Path becomes much more tense the longer the player runs.

  An image I had in my head for a possible ending is the protagonist with a group of thugs swarming on innocents outside of the Houses of Parliament which is on fire, with the protagonist just revelling in the chaos and the violence.

  This is an extract from my blog http://benraidingkvatchherringblog.blogspot.com/

  • Posted Jul 29, 2009 7:27 am GMT
  • Category: Games
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• 14Mar 09

  Fighting Games

  Firstly, I suck at fighting games; second the fighting game genre is awesome, they're goofy, melodramatic and totally epic. Also they're pretty much the only genre of game I will keep playing after endless perpetual defeat.

  My first memory of fighting games is playing MK4 on my dad's (now ex) girlfriend's son's (complicated I know, but step-son would just be inaccurate) N64. He's a year older than me, but I was always bigger (dunno if I still am haven't seen him for years) so I could usually just beat him down when he was being snotty (which was most of the time; however I digress). He returned from wherever the he was with his friends and they started taunting me about how much I sucked. So playing as Reptile I proceeded to beat all three of them as I had figured out how to switch to Reptile's weapon. We then spent the rest of the weekend working out weapons and fatalities for all the characters. Thus began my love affair with fighting genre.

  The first fighting game I ever owned was Tekken 2, which I still love. I first beat the game with Jun and her scissor kicks. My friend Stuart and I then went through it until we'd beaten it with every character. Over the years I've enjoyed many other fighting/boxing/wrestling games, but have never been particular brilliant at them (with the exception of Def Jam: Fight for NY, which I was easily the champ amongst my friends at).

  Anyway the point, if there is one, is that I have recently bought Street Fighter IV due to the huge hype around it and the fact that (upcoming blasphemy) I had never played a Street Fighter game before. Having finished arcade on the easiest difficulty with Guile, I decided to open myself up for some online play. After having played approx 30 matches I have won a grand total of one ROUND, not even a single match, yet I keep coming back for more. Now I love Halo 3 and Gears 2, but if lose more than a couple of games in a row at either of those games I get bored and quit; so I guess the point in amongst this rambling mess is a testament to how awesome SFIV is to keep making me come back for more.
  Now if only some of my friends would get it so I could at least get beaten by someone I know.

  • Posted Mar 14, 2009 7:34 pm GMT
  • Category: Editorial
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• 14Mar 09

  I love Method Man

  F 50 "G-Unot" Cent, the Ticallion Stallion himself, Mr M.E.T.H.O.D. Man, should get his own game, he's awesome in the Def Jam games, and has further shown his acting prowess as Cheese, nephew of Prop Joe, in HBO's brilliant show The Wire. Seriously Johnny Blaze (yes I am going to use every possible name for him) would be awesome in some kind of action/adventure, shooter, brawler game i.e. Butcher Bay meets Gears with problem solving. Plus you get to have a squad including Redman and members of the Wu-Tang Clan as selectable sqaudmates (Red should be the default co-op character). The game would have an amazing soundtrack with choice cuts from, Meth (Meth vs Chef is a personal favourite), Red and all the Wu-Tang posse.
  Somebody please make this game

  • Posted Mar 14, 2009 7:27 pm GMT
  • Category: Editorial
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