My Game of the Year 2010

                                                                           


As the year draws to an end, December is a time to reflect on the events of the past year. 2010 has seen many great game releases like Bayonetta, Red Dead Redemption, Super Mario Galaxy 2 amongst others. With the recession hitting worldwide, it has been widely predicted that the video games industry would be hit hard, as it is one of the many luxuries which people would have to cut. But it has grown stronger and signs are that it will continue to grow into 2011. With some many excellent games released this year, it is hard to pick a game of the year. As mainly an Xbox gamer, my game of the year has to be Mass Effect 2.

While it may have come out right at the beginning of the year, no game has given me as much fun as Mass Effect 2 has this year. With big releases like Call of Duty: Black Ops, Assassins Creed: Brotherhood and Fallout: New Vegas, which i have all thoroughly enjoyed, coming out throughout the year there was only one game which i have spent months on. The second installment of the Mass Effect franchise incorporated everything from great storytelling to excellent third person action. With the many different story outcomes and decisions which will affect how the game plays out, it has got me to come back to it over and over again to see what would happen if a certain event was played out differently and how badass Shepherd is if you decided to take the renegade route throughout the game. The action was vastly improved from the first game, with the gameplay becoming more action orientated like the Gears of War franchise using a similar cover system. This feature plus the levelling up system made this the perfect combination. With the release of further DLCs with additional characters and the excellent ' Lair of the Shadow Broker' content which included a reunion with an old friend from the first game, the whole Mass Effect 2 gaming experience has made it my Game of the Year for 2010 and make the recently announced Mass Effect 3 my most anticipated game for 2011.

Video Game addiction - Paronama

On 6/12/2010, BBC aired a Paronama special on video game addiction. It highlighted the problem of Video Game addiction amongst young adults in the UK. They were able to interview a couple of people who were "suffering" from it, with one spending at least 20 hours on Call of Duty everyday. Although the content in the show caught my attention, the further it went on, the more i realised it was information which i already had previous knowledge of. The two main games which were highlighted in the show were World of Warcraft and Call of Duty and both were shown in a very negative light, with one of the interviewees even comparing WoW to a "disease" which he wouldnt want to inflict on others. The next part of the show, saw the presenter head to Korea, where there have been many cases of video game addiction leading to death, with one case being highlighted where a couple had left their child to starve while they were down at their local internet cafe. The presenter then quizzed a member of UKIE (The Association for UK Interactive Entertainment) on whether the industry was doing enough to help with addiction, whilst also highlighting that their site had no information on helping with any addiction problems. The programme not only did not do the Video Games industry any favours, but gave parents more of a reason to worry about the potential effects that games could have on their children. With recent controversies like Medal of Honor and the naming of the enemy forces and the ever lingering problem of the amount of violence and explicit content in games, it seems like the video games medium is made out to be an evil which needs to be stopped, instead of choosing to focus on the amount of good that video games have produced.


I am not trying to downplay the seriousness or existence of video games addiction, i believe that it is a problem and that it can be very damaging to someone's health, but is it really much worse than someone who sits by the television for the same amount of hours?

The Wayne Rooney saga

                                           

Now  that the dust has settled over the Wayne Rooney situation, lets have a closer look at it. The whole saga began with the drop in form of Rooney, with only one goal so far this season, there have been much discussion over the reason for this drop in form, was this a hangover from the poor performances at the World Cup? Sir Alex Ferguson kept on repeating that Rooney was carrying an ankle injury which had occurred at the end of last season and that he was not 100%. After the Montenegro Euro 2012 qualifier, Rooney was interviewed and he openly contradicted Ferguson's comments about the ankle injury and said that he was not carrying any injuries. This led to Rooney's omission from the next couple of Man United games. At a pre-Champions league game press conference, a devastated Ferguson announced that Rooney had told Chief Executive, David Gill that he wanted to leave Man United. The conference was once in a lifetime thing, with the kind of emotion that Ferguson normally did not show. He left the door open for Rooney to change his mind but it looked like the end of Rooney's Man United career. This seemed to be set in stone, the next day when Rooney himself sent out a statement, citing the reason for wanting to leave was that there was no "assurances i was seeking about the future squad." But 2 days later, Rooney had signed a new 5 year contract saying that his assurances were met by the Man United hierarchy in meetings the past two days.

After one of the biggest u-turn in football, why did Rooney sign a new contract? Was it the money, was it to get Man United a bigger transfer fee in the summer or did the owners actually meet the demands for world class players in the team?

With the numbers which have been banded around the newspapers ranging from £150,000 all the way up to £250,000 a week, money seems to be one of the reasons for Rooney signing a new contract, but the important question is whether Rooney's refusal to sign a contract initially was down to the "low" amount of money offered and that the increase in the offer of wages was the one factor which got Rooney to sign on the dotted line? Another possiblity is that signing a new contract would guarantee Man United a higher transfer fee if he decided to go ahead with his demands to leave next summer, as his previous contract only had 18 months left on it and would therefore command less of a fee if the likes of Real Madrid and Man City came calling for Rooney. Or it could be that Sir Alex Ferguson, David Gill and the Glazers were able to convince Rooney that major investment would be put into the team and the likes of Snejider and Benzema would be headed to Old Trafford.

I personally believe that Rooney did get a rise in wages, but with Rooney's love of football, money must not have been the only motivating factor for him to sign a new contract. Its obvious to see his love for Man United where he has been for 6 years, and that nothing would make him happier than to see United lifting the Premier League or Champions League trophy again. With the power that agents have in football nowadays, Rooney might have been easily persuaded to release that statement saying that he wanted to leave, fully knowing that there would be a queue of clubs who love to have him in their team and hold Man United to ransom over his wages. But with the amount of debt coming from the Glazers' takeover showing no signs of decreasing, it is hard to see where the money for marquee players is going to come from. There was a chance to significantly strengthen the team over the summer but no big money signings were made. Fans wonder where the £80m from the sale of Ronaldo has gone while David Gill always maintained that there was £100m in the transfer kitty if Ferguson needed it, so why not spend on players to replace the aging Gary Neville, Scholes and Giggs?

There has been a happy ending to this saga for all parties, Rooney has his increase in wages, Ferguson is able to keep his star players while the Glazers have kept one of the main players to bring in as much money into the club, but will Rooney's future creep up again in the summer? We shall see if  the assurances that Rooney demanded have been met in the next year before that can be answered.

Mass Effect 2 review

The epic adventure of 2007’s Mass Effect from Bioware had left gamers with an unbelievable experience which consumed many gaming hours. But the question is; can the sequel deliver more of the same? In one word, yes.

Mass Effect 2 is very similar to its predecessor in many ways, with many of the great RPG elements from the first game being incorporated into this incarnation. The levelling up and the conversation trees which have been a trademark for the series are back along with the Paragon and Renegade actions which will affect how your Shepherd is seen and reacted to by other characters. There is also the addition of the ability to intervene in cut scenes which enables you to affect how the scene is played out depending on which way you swing in the morality system. The six character classes are retained from the previous game but now each class having class-specific skills.

Mass Effect 2 also retains a great storyline which Bioware has done an excellent job with. Mass Effect 2 sees Commander Shepherd teaming up with Cerberus; a pro-human organisation fronted by The Illusive Man, to investigate the sudden and mysterious disappearances of human colonies. Shepherd and his Normandy ship is attacked by the Collectors and is torn apart which leads to the supposed death of Shepherd. Cerberus helps to effectively resurrect Shepherd and then gives him the job to put together a team to defeat the threat to mankind. The many different types of crew members you are tasked to recruit are widely ranged characters, from the almost emotionless Cerberus agent Miranda to fast talking Salarian, Doctor Mordin. With each team member comes a personal loyalty mission which gives you a closer insight into the character which can also lead to romantic ties.

While the excellent story telling is retained, one improvement from the previous game is the combat system. The combat has been streamlined with a Gears of War element to it, using the cover and shoot mechanics to full effect. Ammo is found from fallen enemies with all guns using the thermal ammo clips with the exception of Heavy Weapons. If going in all guns blazing is not your style then you still have the option to choose biotic or tech powers as well as being able to command other squad members to do your bidding through the circle roulette style pause wheels for commands and powers respectively. 

Mass Effect 2 delivers what the first game did and more, the same great compelling storytelling through excellent dialogue between characters, whilst giving the power of choice in many issues to the players is an experience which is experienced in few other games. With the improved streamlined combat system making this more accessible to more gamers and the only blemish being the repetitive and boring nature of mining for minerals; it has all the right mixtures to be considered one of the strong contenders to be Game of the Year for 2010.

Tackling in football

Tackling has been a topic of great debate in the world of football in recent weeks. It started with the comments made by Fulham captain Danny Murphy at a football conference, when he blamed managers of pumping up their players so much that it would inevitably lead to strong tackles. This was after the horror tackles from Nigel De Jong and Karl Henry, with the former's breaking Newcastle's Hatem Ben Arfa's leg.  Murphy also named three clubs who supposedly employ these tactics, the three clubs being Stoke, Blackburn and Wolves. After these comments were broadcasted throughout England, it caused a divide in opinion on this issue. In one corner, many have argued that the majority of the tackles in the current game are not reckless but rather mistimed. Blackpool manager Ian Holloway argues the case that because of the fast pace that the game is played in the Premier League, tackles are bound to be mistimed and that accidents will occur from them. While in the other corner, there is a belief that reckless tackles do occur in the game today, and as Danny Murphy says, players are so pumped up and are sent out to stop other teams from playing. Arsene Wenger has been arguing about this for the past couple of years, with Arsenal being at the end of teams with the tactics of "roughing them up" which has led to two high profile injuries involving his players, Eduardo in 2008 and Aaron Ramsey in February 2010.

My personal opinion is that, tackling is a major part of Football, hard and fair tackles are what defines some players, players like Patrick Vieira and Roy Keane were tough tacklers and it was what made them such great players. Getting rid of tackling would make football non contact and games would not have the same amount of  intensity as it would now. Many fans are able to feed off the energy of a crunching tackle from their top defender or centre midfielder and gives the whole crowd a lift. But being able to tackle hard does not excuse tactics of kicking players. I believe that many teams who play Arsenal employ these tactics, because as many pundits say, "they dont enjoy a physical battle and a bit of roughing up." I believe reckless tackles need to be cut out of the game, and anyone caught doing it should be severely punished irrespective of who it is. Even if the referee does see it and does not act on it, the FA should punish the offending player themselves. Reckless tackles are the one of the main reason players careers are shortened and legs are broken, regardless of which team they play for, no football fan wants to see a football player have their leg broken.

Is gaming socially acceptable now?

Video Games are generally associated with nerdy kids with glasses hiding in their bedrooms. But in the past couple of years, video games have started to appear in main stream press, receiving more attention than in previous years. This new stream of media attention can be attributed to the success of the Nintendo Wii. With the Wii's main target audience aimed at casual gamers consisting of titles like Wii Sports Resort and Wii Fit, which uses movement and motion controls not normally associated with traditional games and has led to great commercial success with millions of sales worldwide. The success of the Wii has forced their two main rivals, Microsoft and Sony to adopt the same technology with the releases of Kinect and Playstation Move respectively. The casual gamer market is slowly making a bigger presence  and even over taking the hardcore gaming markets. Games like Guitar Hero and Singstar which makes a group of friends/family play together are great games to bring out for parties and gatherings which could not have been said 10 years ago. The rise of the casual games have been one of the driving forces behind the rise of video game culture with many more people willing to pick up a controller,plastic guitar etc to try out a game for maybe even the first time in their lives.

Although casual games are not the only reason for the rise of video game culture. The success of big franchises like the Call of Duty series and Fifa series have received great amounts of advertising and press coverage, although not all necessarily positive as with the recent case of the release of Medal of Honor and the use of the Taliban name in the multiplayer mode. Many midnight launches of big franchises have been well attended with some people queuing for over 2-3 hours to be the first person to get their hands on their new favourite game. Even the supermarkets have been able to cash in on the hype surrounding these titles and have held their own midnight launches bringing a reduction of prices to attract even more customers than even big specialists high street stores like Game and HMV. These events shows that gaming has slowly become an increasingly popular form of entertainment and could even be placed in the same breath as trips to the cinema.

The rise of video game culture can be attributed to these two main factors, with an increasing amount of advertising for games all across the world, there is no hiding away from video games in this current generation, with the release of Kinect and Playstation Move, which allows first time gamers an easy way to enjoy games without the complicated control systems, this will ensure that even more people will be playing new and fun games, which might not appeal to hardcore gamers but will appeal to the masses  Will it replace film as the number one form of entertainment? maybe in 5 to 10 years time, but films will be looking anxiously behind their backs in the next couple of years at the behemoth behind them, which is video games.

3DS release date leaked?

A German tabloid newspaper, Bild has today reported that the release date of the 3DS is closer than we believed, with the handheld console being released on 11th November in Japan at first with a European release following in Spring. More news about the 3DS was set to be announced this week (starting 27th September) in a Nintendo press conference in Japan, but it appears that Bild has leaked one of the most highly anticipated announcements of the year. Nintendo had previously announced that the handheld console would be released before the end of the fiscal year ending, which ends in March 2011, but no real confirmation has been given.

If the rumour is true, then it only gives Nintendo just over a month to push the 3DS commercially, which begs the question, is it enough time to push such a revolutionary product? It was first announced in E3 2010 in June, but not much else has been said about it since. Microsoft's Kinect and Sony's Playstation Move have had over a year's time to promote itself, but with Nintendo's success in pushing the Wii and the DS commercially, a month could be plenty of time for Nintendo to promote the 3DS.

Dead Space review

There have been many different titles over the years in the survival horror genre, Resident Evil, Silent Hill and Alone in the Dark to name a few. But in 2008, EA released a new IP for the genre, Dead Space.Dead Space is a third person "over the shoulder" shooter which places the player in the role of Isaac Clarke, an engineer sent aboard an interstellar mining ship, USG Ishimura to investigate events which have caused the ship to send out a distress signal. However Clarke also has a personal stake in this, as he also receives a crypted message from Nicole Brennan, a medical specialist aboard the Ishimura and his girlfriend. He is joined by Kendra Daniels a technologist sent to fix the Ishimura's communication system and senior security officer Zach Hammond. What seems to be a relatively simple journey turns into a nightmare for the three characters.

Shortly after you arrive on the ship, you are separated from the other two members of the team by Necromorphs. Necromorphs are the enemies in the game, previously being crew members aboard the Ishimura. As you progress further in the game, different types of Necromorphs will start to appear, needing different strategies to kill them off. But Dead Space is not like your normal third person shooter, but instead uses the idea of limb dismemberment. The guns in the game use laser aiming which allows you to strategically aim at certain limbs to stop the Necromorphs from running towards you and clawing you to death. The Necromorphs usually attack in groups and are well hidden in many different areas, including ventilation systems which makes players check around every corner before going round it. Although melee attacks do not have the same effect. They seem to be a last resort for players when they run out of ammo for all their guns, and do not do much damage towards the Necromorphs. There are also two utilities which will help players progress through the game, Kinesis, which gives you the ability to move objects and Stasis, which can be recharged through recharging points and booster packs, enables you to slow down fast moving objects, like malfunctioning doors and fast moving Necromorphs.

To assist Isaac with his adventure, there are stores scattered around the ship which enables players to purchase new weapons, med packs, extra ammo and suit upgrades using credits which are dropped by enemies throughout the game. The store also enables Isaac to store items which he is unable to hold in his inventory, inventory space is limited but increases with every upgrade to his suit.
You can also purchase power nodes which are used to upgrade weapons at various workbenches throughout the game, with each node used to link each branch of the circuit board. The nodes can not only upgrade weapons but also upgrade Kinesis and Stasis as well as the health bar.

Throughout the game, you will also encounter many areas which are deprived of gravity, and therefore enables Isaac to perform zero-gravity jumps to any surface. This can be used to strategically kill Necromorphs from different angles, but in turn can have the same effect vice-versa. But primarily zero-gravity is used to solve different problems, with the addition of the limited air supplies in certain areas outside of the ship, presents players with unique obstacles.

But what separates Dead Space from the other survival horror games is the environment which the game is set in. EA have done a great job in creating an atmosphere aboard the Ishimura which not only adds tension to the game but creates a sense of isolation with great visuals and sounds, causing players to constantly worry about where the next attack from the Necromorphs will come from and frantically pushing the shoot button. The engaging story and the lack of knowledge of events aboard Ishimura only adds to the tense atmosphere whilst you try to piece bits together through various audio and text logs left behind by crew members.

This increased fear factor makes the Dead Space experience a refreshing take on survival horror with recent releases like Resident Evil 4 and Alone in the Dark becoming more action focused and moving away from the horror aspect.With its immersive story and excellent visuals this makes Dead Space a must buy game for all gamers.

Collectors/limited edition games

Last week saw the announcement of the Prestige Edition of Call of Duty: Black Ops. It comes with the game, a custom Black Ops limited edition medal, exclusive Black Ops Avatar outfit, four playable cooperative maps and a remote control surveillance car. The price you may ask? £129.99. I have to admit that i sometimes am a sucker to collectors edition and would be willing to spend some more money/or pick the collectors edition if the game came with decent extras for example, the limited edition of Tekken 6, which came with a hoody altogether for £70 and the Alan Wake collectors edition which came with book packaging and a bonus dvd which was for the same price as the standard edition. But spending more than £100 for a game and an extra which is no more than just gimmick? No thank you. I would rather spend less money on the standard edition of a game and not have to use up some space to store a gimmick item which does not benefit me at all in anyway. I do not mind if collectors editions come with extra in-game content, but if they come with extras like remote control cars which do not affect the in game experience then i believe that publishing companies are just trying to milk as much money as they can from big franchises like Call of Duty in order to maximise their revenue. Activision have already been down this path last year with the release of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, releasing a £100 Prestige Edition which came bundled with a pair of night vision goggles and many other companies are following suit. Gran Turismo 5 is also being released with a "signature edition"  which includes a model car, a leather wallet, USB key, metal key fob and two books for the price of £149.99. Although prices are extraordinarily high, many people will still buy it, but will I? Nope, ill be sticking to the standard editions.

3DS

The 3DS has caused quite a stir among people in the video games industry, and i am personally looking forward to when it is released here in the UK. Nintendo announced that they will be announcing the release date and the price for the 3DS in late September. The price of the 3DS is a big talking point and there have been speculation that it will cost in excess of £150. The question is: will people be willing to pay that amount of money for a handheld console, which could ultimately go down the same path as the current DS with the lack of any great titles to attract the interest of the "hardcore" audience? In a recent episode of the Gamespot UK podcast (29/7/2010), one of the editors said that he was willing to pay £200 for it, calling it a "slice of magic". I personally would be willing to pay around £150 for the device. Yes, it is a revolutionary piece of hardware, and the 3D minus the glasses is a unique feature, and the titles which have been announced which include, Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Resident Evil Revelations, Starfox 64, and Metal Gear Solid 3: Snaker Eater are A-grade titles, but £200 is the same amount for an Xbox 360 250GB console which provides HD gaming and online gaming with friends. The opinions of the Gamespot UK editor is based on the fact that he has been lucky enough to try the device whilst i have not been fortunate enough, i really do hope that i will be blown away by the Nintendo 3DS when i do eventually fork out the money for this "slice of magic".

Fabregas.....

This is my first post and i will start with something which has been rumbling on for the whole of the summer: Cesc Fabregas wanting to go back to Barcelona. Before the World Cup, Fabregas met with Wenger and told him that he wanted to go back to Barcelona. While many Arsenal fans would accept that he would eventually go back to the club which he was from originally, many Arsenal fans are angry over the way Barcelona are going about trying to force this transfer to go through. Throughout the World Cup many of the Barcelona players in the Spain World Cup squad have been publically “tapping up” Fabregas by saying that he has his heart set on joining Barcelona and even going to the extend of forcing a Barcelona shirt on him when Spain were celebrating their World Cup victory. Yes, maybe they were totally wasted, but it was unnecessary and with all the publicity that this saga has had, it did not make things any better. Now Carles Puyol (Barcelona captain) comes out and says that “He is having to stay at a club where he no longer wants to be for another year…I wonder how intelligent it is keeping a player who doesn’t want to be there.” Im sorry but i did not know that Puyol had become a world class manager overnight. They have had a £29 million bid rejected and plus Fabregas has just signed a 5 year contract last year which means we (Arsenal) do not have to sell him. I respect Barcelona and the way that they play football, they play football the way it should be played, but the blatent tapping up of Fabregas has just made me and many football fans lose some respect for them.

Welcome....

Hi, this is the first of (hopefully) many blog posts by me. First off: Introduction,
For anyone who does not know. My name is Kevin Chan, I am an avid gamer, football fanatic and a history graduate from Queen Mary, University of London. The blog posts will mainly consist of my views on the football (soccer) and gaming worlds, although i may throw in occasional rants and other random assortment of fun. Football and video games are great passions of mine and have been a big part of my life for the past 15 (?!?!) years. My favourite football team is Arsenal and have been supporting them since i can remember. I hope you will enjoy the posts which i will be posting every so often and hope that you will in turn post your own opinion on them!