Developers have to go to greater lengths to make a game deemed right for social gatherings

Following the explosion of internet broadcasting sites like Youtube and Veoh, many opted to record their play sessions to upload onto the internet for all to see. Now, with the steady increase of internet upload and download speeds, pre-recorded gameplay videos are being forgotten in favour of live real-time streams.

Live stream hosting sites such as Justin TV or Xfire allow it’s users to capture gameplay footage straight from their computer screens as they play. Then, almost instantly, the images are beamed onto the hosting site for thousands of potential watchers to tune-in to much like a television show. Just like the game’s played themselves have genres, so do the streams available. Popular streaming site “Dopelives” grew in popularity through the owner’s pure emphasis on humor and comedy throughout his streams. His constant and contagious laughter during each stream lead to a consistent fan base and viewer numbers as watchers could simply sit back and laugh with each other. Other genres range from educational, competitive, record breaking attempts and even charity marathons.

Sean 'Day9' Plott is one man who found streaming his own show to be something very rewarding

Educational streams have stemmed from the rise in competitive gaming. Titles such as League of Legends, Call of Duty and Starcraft have seen a huge burst in popularity due to the ease of tuning into tournaments via streaming websites, most of which are often set up like televised sporting events. Through the interest of it’s viewers, more and more have attempted to get into the action themselves, leaving many profession gamers to stream their personal practice sessions to teach those would-be-pros. The worthy mention here would be of Sean ‘Day9’ Plott, a once active professional StarCraft player, he hung up his mouse to create a series of “Day9 Daily” shows where he discusses tactics, analyses player submitted replays and interacts with his audience in the hopes of teaching them the ropes. His series of over 400 hour-long shows gained him the recognition of the eSports community to become one of it’s most prolific representatives and a popular casting choice at key eSports events.

Many consider the “Let’s Play” genre of streams to be the most easily accessible to those interested in getting into the field. Those without any comedic skills or even a microphone friendly voice can easily set their software to capture their every move and stream as if they were just playing on their own. Viewer interaction is usually the plus-side of streaming to keep it as a social event, but it isn’t a necessity for shy gamers or, perhaps, those scared of insulting their viewers. Most are happy enough to watch others finish their favourite games or scream for hours at Amnesia: The Dark Descent.

Just as the streaming services and capabilities are being used to broadcast live tournament play to rival televised sporting events, professional eSports players and commentators get together on a weekly basis to discus the week’s happenings and player performances in the world of eSports. The show, “State of the Game” garners an average of 20,000 viewers per week and helps the viewers to interact and see a more personal and talkative side of their preferred player as opposed to their monitor poker face the fans would see during matches.

The 2010 Zeldathon team orignally set a fundraising target of just $1,000

Outside of comedic and educational game streaming, even the recent growth of charity fundraising streams have seen huge success. The Zeldathon team are prime examples of this. The Swedish team frequently get together, with one member jetting over from Australia, to stream a marathon session in the hopes of completing a set amount of games in a set amount of hours. Their 7-day live play-through of around 14 games from the Legend of Zelda series has attracted over 10,000 viewers per day while generating a total of $40,000 across the 6 events, all for charity causes such as Child’s Play. Even more recently, players have begun to pull in excessive charity numbers by broadcasting record-breaking play-throughs of games such as Super Mario 64 and speed runs of other retro titles with one such record being broken just before Christmas.

From the steady increase of internet speeds, the declining price of webcams and microphones all paired with the more powerful computer hardware means beaming your games across the world for all to see has become a much easier process. While some opt to shell out for internal video capture cards to take the load off their hardware, a more cost effective method of streaming is used by the masses through the use of software like Xfire, Dynamo and Xsplit. Software streaming generally reduces average gaming rigs to the pace of a turtle due to the heavy resource burden the process takes; but for those emulating systems such as the Gameboy and N64 on their computers, you’ll still see a lag free game with the machine recovering the moment you cease the stream.

So long as it's equip with a dedicated graphics card, most modern PC's can handle software streaming

Those serious about getting into the streaming action can hope to gain some extra income from their continued efforts, or stream something outlandish as a charity fundraiser. Investing into a quality microphone, and perhaps a webcam for reaction shots (or if you plan to make a series) would be a good starting point. Though choose wisely. A live discussion show can be easily streamed with a webcam whereas more demanding games may require some beefed up hardware. Game streaming has really come to it’s own in the last few years, It is essentially the core factor in the Onlive service. Should you have the enthusiasm and determination to get in on it yourself, it’s defiantly a great hobby to partake in, you’ll also learn a lot about computer hardware and software at the same time. And who knows, if you do it well, you could see yourself gathering a healthy group of fans in the process. Just hopefully not the creepy kind.

The game that made the Konami Code famous

In todays world of continually networked consoles, computers, and gaming devices, it’s harder than ever to manipulate a game in ways that go outside the confines of what the developers intended. Now when you cheat you get slapped in the face with a 5000 day ban, or a reset of your stats, however it is understandable when it comes to manipulating multiplayer games at the detriment of your opponents, that is dirty cheating; however what happened to single player cheating? Cheating has become a dirty word for many players, its underhanded, it lacks skill and it’s for those who can’t quite hack the difficulty, but when did peoples conceptions change?

Back in the days of disconnected consoles cheats were a celebration of altering a game for fun, Rare games like Goldeneye and Perfect Dark allowed you to mess around with the multiplayer in fresh and fun ways, paintballs, big heads, donkey kong bodies, etc. A game like Spyro the Dragon 2: Ripto’s Rage had cheats to turn you flat, change his colour, or give Spyro a massive head; the same can be seen and done in practically any other game from the ’90s and early ’00s, and games before then games had even more pointless cheat codes thrown in for fun.

You friend in crime for cloning 99 of an item

The biggest game franchise for cheating has to be Rockstar North’s Grand Theft Auto series of games, even the most recent GTA IV kept the cheats in so you could carry on having fun. The ability to spawn a helicopter, fighter jet, a set of weapons, or even drive on water, didn’t break the game they only added to players enjoyment of the world. By continually including these cheats into their games, Rockstar were making sure that people could enjoy the huge world they had created for players in whatever way they wanted. It’s near impossible to imagine a GTA game without cheat codes somewhere in the mix, a way to just have open world fun whenever you want, it’s likely that the upcoming GTA V will still include them too.

The cheat model nowadays just doesn’t exist, especially not in the way it once used to. Codes have all but disappeared and the model of cheating has evolved into ‘glitching’ and game breaking. As mentioned before, as the rise of multiplayer gaming has grown exponentially the skew in cheating has moved and now focused onto the world of hacking to improve your score or abilities in an online match. Glitching has risen, and in single player game modes, has become the new way to gain enjoyment from a game. Thanks to glitching, new areas can be explored and new ways to enjoy the game become available to players willing to participate. Some games, such as The Elder Scrolls series allow PC users access to an in game console and a creation kit so they can alter the world around them in new ways for them to enjoy; it isn’t quite cheating, but it’s doing what old cheats used to do, it’s allowing for fun and exploration.

Many an hour CoCing could be had in Morrowind

Now for those gamers who want access to cheats that aid them in the games progression, for whatever there reasons, can no longer do that. Cheats that aid progression have ceased to exist, largely in part because of the rise of Achievements and Trophies to track player ‘skill’ and progression, now if they can’t finish a game and yet would like to experience everything the game has to offer you’ll have to pay and download a DLC pack that unlocks it all. It all fits into the DLC market again, only now would you have to pay to unlock a game that you’ve already paid for; it’s absurd. Of course some games don’t adhere to that formula, Crackdown and Crackdown 2 offered up players a pice of DLC called ‘The Keys To the City’ that allowed those players who wanted the sandbox freedom but without the commitment to the story.

It seems that in this modern gaming age we live in, those who for whatever reason can’t find the time to finish a game, or just want to explore and have fun with a fictional world, get punished and penalised by publishers and developers. Cheating has gone from being able to press Down and B to get a Master Ball, or even just about having fun and trying new ways to play a game, into something dark and taboo, something you’d be buying in grams round the back of a nightclub. It seems that cheating as we once knew it has died almost forever and unfortunately there isn’t a lot left to resolve the situation. Here’s hoping that when GTA V launches it retains it’s cheating spirit and drives other games forward into reviving that, unfortunately, retro fun once more.

MMOs are designed to be living breathing worlds like our own. Players constantly run past hundreds of other avatars who are being controlled by people from all over the world who probably haven’t realised the amount of time they’ve invested into it and how much they could have done in the real world should they have stopped when they said “Just one more quest”.

It may be true that some people have actually had their real-life taken away from them whilst playing online games. Sometimes they just stay cooped up in their rooms and go days without coming into contact with direct sunlight, though others have been known to actually die as a result. TV networks and newspapers will often get the wrong idea and blame the game and its addictive nature rather than the individual’s ability to moderate his game time and set a decent list or priorities.

You can leave you character in queues and run household errands at the same time

The focus of this article is World of Warcraft. Players who have reached the level cap will tell you that is where the game really begins. World of Warcraft originally capped the player level at 60. After it’s 3 expansions, the bar was raised to 85. Many curious people interested in dipping their toes into the world are put off by the thought of how much more time they will need to put into their characters compared to what was required back in the early days. This simply isn’t true. After all of the expansions, gameplay refinements and balance patches, it is actually much easier to reach the cap and join the ranks of the elite than it has ever been in the past.

Back then it took a lot of effort to get used to the loss of that speed boost and crawl my way through 8-10 levels of Outland – and that got much worse during the final stretch to 80 within Northrend. I remember after reaching 70 and noticing the huge increase of EXP I needed to reach the next levels pre-70. It took me around 9 hours per day to gain a level equaling around 90 hours in total to finally reach that cap. It was a hell of a crawl and an experience I wasn’t willing to do again any time soon. Though was it worth it? Simply put – Yes.

Thankfully those days are behind us. Even at that time the leveling process was easier than it ever had been before. Jump to the present, the most recent expansion “Cataclysm” and the final patch released a few weeks ago makes that process much more streamlined making the trawl to the good stuff a whole lot easier. The triple EXP bonus “recruit-a-friend” system earlier now lasts until level 80, pairing that with the reduced EXP requirements through those tedious Northrend quest hubs means the time spent getting to the new content is rightfully smashed into the ground. The cap only increased by 5 levels, and these final five are much easier and enjoyable to get through. The time taken between level the new later levels is less than any end-game grind has been in any past expansions. You can safely aim for a level per day with a lot of day still to go.

Getting to these monstrosities is a much more simple affair these days

I, like hopefully many of you readers, already experienced the PvE end-game content World of Warcraft lives upon. Sure the leveling may be a bit tedious at times, but once you reach the end, you were rewarded with the experience of the true PvE system. Though this is probably where the time-sucking menace came full-swing and hit you in the face. Standing in the city and keeping a close eye on the chat channels hoping you’d have the reflexes and typing skill needed to pounce upon a forming group of players to hit up a few dungeons took some determination. If you were to late or unlucky enough to end up in a group consisting of just you and some lonely individual, you’d have to start the search all over again. The task here was to find a group willing to give up their chance of a fast run so that you could actually earn the gear necessary to access the bigger, badder end-game content WoW had to offer. The areas where tactics, story and most of all, fun, really came into play.

The hunt for a group would often take 20 minutes or more, then one of you had to make your way to the decided place to actually summon the rest. Running the dungeon would then probably take an hour or more depending on the groups understanding of the game. Boss tactics had to be worked out by trial-and-error, written up by someone on a website, and then researched by those attempting the fights. It was a drawn out process, but it has gotten far better. The dungeon finder tool was introduced near the end of the last expansion, with it, the game servers match groups together automatically via a queue system and throws them directly into the dungeon when ready. The distinctive rumble of the systems successful organizing of a group is enough to allow you to do other things around the house while you wait. No more pot-luck play staring at chat boxes all day!

The system still had a few issues to address when it came to time hogging. Those who used the system were offered a bonus to the tokens earned from the dungeons. The tokens were crucial to a player’s ability to access the better gear needed to play with the big boys. Once per day users of the finder tool were awarded extra tokens for the first dungeon they completed through the finder often binding people to a daily regime to not fall behind. The introduction of the system should have saved a lot of time, instead many were bound by the need to get their daily bonus. Recently Blizzard went back and fixed this by swapping the daily bonus in favour of 7 bonuses per week. The decision allowing players to manage and moderate their game time more easily, opting for a complete marathon during the weekend, a single day or however they choose.

If guildplay is more your thing, thats easier too!

As to why the Raid system didn’t transform along with the dungeon queue system, we’ll never know, but now it has, and its a fantastic little creation. Complaining about the time required to shuffle into a 5-man group for standard dungeons was nothing when compared to the pain of Raid content. Typically needing either 10 or 25 players (sometimes 40 in the vanilla game) the search was a laborious task taking up a much bigger chunk of time with the Raid itself often consuming hours at a time. Searching for a random group was so risky players had to resort to applying to a high-ranking guild and having to sweet-talk their way into an established raid team. The length of the dungeons and the progression expected from the guild “head office” would bind players to set days and hours within the week. Alas, the Raid Finder system rips this all apart allowing players to quickly jump into a fight against that certain boss who’s helmet they want to proudly wear on their chest and leave 20 minutes later for a jog knowing they’ll be replaced in a heartbeat.

Trawling the internet forums endlessly to research the ideal spec for your class and how to effectively play them has generally gone out of the window. Enhanced tooltips for each ability, simplified talent trees and the mastery system sets you and your character off on the right path by subtly explaining which stats you should aim for with gear, what move compliments another and exactly where it goes in your general fight rotation. The changes cut out the need to rely on math-ridden explanations as to which single piece of armor benefits you by a 10 or so damage per-second on the recount meter. Other bits of essential information have been added into the game by default; Brief boss tactics and explanations, loot lists and story reminders have all been thrown in meaning a whole lot less time digging through the internet fan-sites.

The days spent leveling a character has been reduced exponentially. Acquiring the gear necessary to qualify for the better experiences became a whole lot easier and actually entering them doesn’t take half as long as it used to. You won’t be bound to a weekly rota of raiding like in the past. Warcraft can easily be played without sacrificing your social life or time spent on other games. Hell, in the time you just spent reading this, you probably could have wrapped a dungeon up by now and bought those tier 12 gloves you need so badly.

Modesty is often something that is left behind in the past. It’s something that our grandparents practiced and, when it comes to media, it’s hard to disagree. Watch virtually any music video and you’ll see some ‘booty wurk’ going on. Even Charlotte Church, whose first album was entitled ‘Voice of an Angel’ and was promoted heavily by the Catholic church, stripped it down for her CD ‘Tissues and Issues’ and has been proclaimed to have the mouth of a sewer. Words that would have once been censored out of music and off television are abundant – and it’s no different for videogames. I never played Duke Nukem and I won’t claim to be familiar with it, but every time I saw someone else playing it they were standing in front of a toilet peeing (which was apparently the best part of the game).

Kalypso Media had a preview earlier this week for ‘The Dark Eye: Demonicon’ and ‘Jagged Alliance: Back In Action’ – both titles were stunning and I can’t wait to see the final product for both. We listened to one of the mercenaries in Jagged Alliance call the demonstrator a ‘dumbass’ at least a dozen times in a very outdated, mechanical placeholder voice (updated voice work is under way for the final release) – and we all laughed. Then, at one point during the preview everyone suddenly went running toward the computers, pulled out their cellphones and started snapping pictures. The person who’d been testing out Jagged Alliance had died and we were all staring at his death screen which said, very plainly, “YOU ARE DEAD! PUSSY!”

It took a solid ten minutes for everyone to stop laughing over the unexpected, vulgar diss. We’re all adults and it wasn’t anything that we’d heard before. More often than not when you are working in any team oriented game and someone dies at least one person makes a brash comment – but how often does the computer get to do it? On one hand you’re a little offended about it, while on the other you’re so shocked at the unexpectedness of it that you can’t even manage to be angry.

The fact of the matter is that this is the direction that media is going. Not many years ago it was considered inappropriate to cuss in front of a lady and talking about sex was taboo. Society isn’t taking such offense to things like that so easily anymore, and it is clearly reflected in the things we entertain ourselves with. Movies, music, and videogames are being modeled after behavior as people act now. You’d never have a ghostie from PacMan pop up and say “YOU ARE DEAD! PUSSY!” back in the eighties. Topics that were once avoided with almost a fanatic devotion are commonplace. The other game that was previewed this week by Kalypso, The Dark Eye: Demonicon, started off with what I previously described as being “an almost creepy amount of attention paid to the subject of Calandra’s virginity” and openly said that her family thought she’d gone into a cave with a man to be deflowered in order to avoid her arranged marriage. Mere hours later we are laughing over a screen that says “YOU ARE DEAD! PUSSY!”

BUT we were laughing. To us it was funny, but to others it could be highly offensive. I read an article awhile back about a family being upset over a comment made in Portal concerning adoption. In a day and age where anything could offend anyone you can’t possibly make everyone happy. And, while it may isolate a select number of gamers, I don’t think that it is too farfetched to guess that most will react the same way we did: with humor. If anything, being insulted by a computer was unexpected enough that it was hard to even be annoyed about dying. That may have been the intent, but either way it did the trick. For other people it may be fuel on a fire that doesn’t need to be fed – reactions will vary from person to person. Consider yourself warned. Pussy.

Blizzard took the very term rivalry to a whole new level when it pitted the Horde against the Alliance in World of Warcraft, an MMORPG that has set the standard for games of its nature since its release in 2004. Other games have tried to outclass WoW with better graphics and other perks – such as Aion, Warhammer and Vanguard -  but World of Warcraft remains firmly seated on its throne. It’s estimated that 62% of the MMORPG subscription market belongs to WoW. From the classic, old world setting of Stormwind – the stronghold of the human race – to the dark, dank dungeons of Undercity where the Forsaken dwell, it is the perfect scene for complete chaos between factions.

As the world of World of Warcraft has grown through expansions (Burning Crusade, Wrath of the Lich King, and most recently Cataclysm) the line between the factions has begun to blur. Blizzard gave the Horde the blood elves and the draenei to the Alliance. For those who don’t know the lore, the draenei had been allies with the orcs until the orcs fell under demonic influence and massacred them- thus justifying throwing in with the Alliance. But in Cataclysm we were given two more races: goblins (who have had a presence in the world since “vanilla WoW”) and the worgen.

Some say the Horde was given the goblins because they didn’t have a short race yet, and because the Alliance didn’t have an ugly race. Maybe it’s my own envy that the Alliance got a race I would’ve loved to play, but the history of the worgen better suits the mentality of the Horde than it does the Alliance. Despite them being humans when not in their shifted form, they are the result of magical mishap. They are animalistic, which fits far better into the general personality of the Horde races than it does the Alliance. More lore: Arthas brought Arugal into his service, which means that many worgen are allied with the Scourge. The Scourge is comprised of the Forsaken, a Horde race. Some try to dispute this with the fact that the worgen curse was created by the night elves, thus obligating the worgen to side with them. If I were a worgen, they would be the last people that I supported.

Furthermore, the in-game logic for why the previously neutral goblins were chosen as the Horde race is because a ship of goblins en route to be sold into slavery wrecked, and the survivors found themselves at arms with the Alliance. Going even farther back into the lore, during the second war the goblins were aligned with the Horde until they realized there was more profit in being on middle ground. With them having proved to be so fickle in the past, it makes one wonder why Thrall and the other leaders of the Horde would have welcomed them back.

Maybe the Horde really did need a short race, and perhaps the Alliance needed the bestial ugliness of a species like the worgen. But, looking over the lore and the history, it’s clear that placing the worgen with the Alliance and the golbins with the Horde was, for lack of a better term, a cataclysmic error.

Here is the first installment of a wonderful little idea of mine: Game’s that shaped the world. Have you ever spent an evening shooting bad guys, drifting round corners and exploring a seemingly endless world, and had the thought: where did it all start? This is what I plan to answer today, starting with The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.

This game may seem to be a pretty standard game these days, but in it’s early stages it became a gaming legend.

When the Zelda series first hit the shelves in 1997, the majority of games were still being played as arcade style games (i.e. you play the game to get a high score), but Nintendo accidentally made a game that drastically changed the way that gaming worked. The Ocarina of Time (released in 1998) changed that. This was the first commercially successful game to include a single playable character, a story and (most importantly) an open world. Games of the past had always followed a fixed story line, and if you completed the story then the game was completed. The Ocarina of Time allowed you to play the game along a set story, just like games of the past.

However, the open world setting meant that you could choose to return to a previous setting, or explore new surroundings whenever you wanted to. There was also a seemingly endless series of minigames and off-game challenges that were designed to either help or hinder you through the game. There was also a shop within the game, so you could save up money and buy new weapons whenever you wanted to, or you could just play the game with the standard weapons.

Nintendo made this game as an attempt to think outside the box, and no one could have predicted it’s success. The series continues to prosper nearly 15 years later, as the franchise has topped 50 million sales. And, without realising it, they had re-defined the game. Almost everything I’ve described is standard in modern day games, but this was where it all started. Whether you’re shooting, driving or exploring, every detail of your game’s design has been forged on the backbone of this game, which is without a doubt one of the Games That Shaped the World.

Happy Gaming

Ryan P

Duke Nukem had been comforting eating over those last 13 years...

Call of Duty features so many brilliantly memorable characters, most of whom are a part of the S.A.S or Marines or all of the other badass special forces that can bring a terrorist threat to its knees. But, whilst they may sound like they could kick our asses from here to paradise, could they? Really?

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#5 – ‘Soap’ MacTavish

‘Soap’ is arguably the most famous playable character in the Call of Duty series. Ever since we took control of the F.N.G, we’ve followed him throughout the course of the two Modern Warfare games, adding a little personal touch to his character. When we first got to glimpse him as an NPC in Modern Warfare 2, we saw this big, powerful, British bulldog of a soldier who was barking orders at us. If he had a moustache, he may of even eclipsed Captain Price as the greatest Call of Duty character ever. But, what does his voice actor Kevin McKidd look like?

Oh. Well, compared to some of the other people on the list, Kevin McKidd does have a good build about him. And he has facial hair, which is always a manly feature. Ah, who are we kidding? The guy is ginger. I don’t like to cast judgement on people’s appearance, but if Soap were ginger, we can imagine a slightly more insulting introduction than “It’s the F.N.G sir”. And can you imagine the ginger mohawk? HA! HA! HAHAHAH! HAHAHAHAHAHAH! Ahem…

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#4 – Takeo Masaki

Takeo Masaki doesn’t really play a massive role in the Call of Duty series and unless you’ve played the ‘Zombies’ game in Treyarch’s recent CoD titles, then you won’t have run across him at all. Regardless, the following description of him from the Call of Duty wiki should give you an idea of this guys badass rating.

“Tattooed on the inside of Takeo’s eyelids is the Japanese proverb “Life is light when compared to honor”. For Takeo, life has no meaning if not to perfect one’s discipline and to reveal a warrior’s true character and honor. He ponders this and other philosophical questions as his Katana slices through the flesh and sinew of his enemy.”

So, where does the voice of a Japanese melee monster come from?

Wait… is that a white guy? Hell, he’s not even Asian! Tom Kane is an experienced American voice actor who has also been in …  WAIT… why is it that when I attempt my Chinese / Korean / Chinese / Racist accent, I get told off for being offensive yet Mr Tom Kane here gets paid for it? Does Japan not have any voice actors, or you know, people who can speak English with a hint of their natural tongue? I mean look at him… not exactly a killing machine is he? The only thing Tom Kane has ever killed is his blood pressure. Though I suppose he’s good at his job. And his Japanese accent doesn’t require him to squint so people can guess what his squawking is meant to be.

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#3 – Private Polonsky

Who? Well, in World At War, Polonsky was one of the Marines who fought with you. Anyway… remember that bit where you have to quickly save Sgt. Roebuck from the Imperial Guard? Well, if you manage to save Roebuck, it’s poor Polonsky who gets pwned by the grenade instead. Yeah, he’s that guy. So a Marine who fights with you all over the Pacific is a badass either way, but what about his voice actor?

Polonsky has the scar on the nose, the chiseled war torn appearance and generally looks like he could rip Chewbaccas limbs off. Aaron Stanford on the other hand has to provide his voiceover work on his school breaks. It’s not just a bad photo making him seem to be weedy either. Google him, and you’ll find he looks worse. This is a masculine picture of him, which must make voice actors like Craig Fairbrass (Gaz from MW1, Ghost from MW2) sick to their massively ripped stomachs.

"Yes. Yes it does."

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#2 – Captain Price

Captain Price is one hell of a guy. Now, there have been two Captain Price’s in the Call of Duty world. In the two first Call of Duty games, we had Captain Price number 1 (lets call him Sebastian), and in the Modern Warfare series we have Captain Price number two. So, time traveling theories aside, we have to presume that Sebastian is perhaps Captain Price #2′s father or grandfather. This means that this family has spawned two moustache wielding Captains in the British military, which kinda makes you wonder what would happen if the Taliban had mustaches instead of Gandalf beards.

Forget mustache wielding Captains. These guys have got PIRATES!

Moving swiftly back on topic, each iteration of Captain Price has looked badass; the aforementioned moustache being the main catalyst of the awesome reception he receives in whichever game he is in. So, two guys providing the voice, at least one of them has to look vaguely badass right? Or, at the very least baring facial hair.

AARGH. It’s like Tom Selleck without a mustache! Billy Murray (CoD4) looks ‘weathered’ and seems to have some character to him, quite like he brings to Price in his voice acting. But, Murray’s character is less of a hardened veteran and more of a grumpy grandpa who keeps slipping whiskey into his tea because the grand-kids are round.

And what the feck is that on the left?

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#1 – Viktor Reznov

Russians are typically badass people. They live in a rather drab place which on TV, films and pictures is always covered massively in snow, with the odd Grizzly bear having a wander about. They have a reputation for being vodka inhalers and during World War II many Russian soldiers went to war with a 4-5 day life expectancy. Now you try going about a very pressured job with that sort of thing looming over you!

So, Viktor Reznov when we first meet him in CoD: World At War already has quite a aura about him. As a Sergeant, he is already an experienced soldier which gets some kudos. And after slicing, dicing, blasting and destroying a shit-tonne of Germans (yes that is a measurement), he is promoted to Captain. Hell, he’s still going strong in CoD: Black Ops, set a good 15+ years after the war. AND, as part of the Black Ops storyline – SPOILERS AHEAD – he manages to brainwash Mason into forgetting his previous brainwashing and go on to kill the folks on Reznov’s bitch list, with assistance from Reznov who is dead, but seems to be there and stuff. Make sense? No? That’s because this badass didn’t want you to understand it!

So, who gets the glorious job of voicing Mr Reznov?

This eccentric little fellow here is actually Gary Oldman, the brilliant actor who ruins those illusions of a glorious Russian ex-military bloke lending his voice and experiences to Treyarch for their game. Instead, we get the actor who looks like Elton John with the sort of moustache that Tom Selleck grows on his penis.

"Yes. Yes he does".

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Matthew Gildea spends his time playing videogames and writing about them for TheGamersHub or making videos about them on YouTube.

OK ppl, it’s time to stop what your doing and bear witness to arguably……………… actually, not arguably, but indeed two of the best video games to have ever been released. 2 new trailers (story based) have just been released for the upcoming ICO/Shadow of the Colossus HD Collection.

Now we all know this is the HD & 3D remastering of 2 PlayStation 2 classic titles, but I’m not sure the entire audience realise the gems these games really are.

I came across these titles during my gaming peak (PS2 days), and it is rare a game is so embedded into my heart as these games are.

So I’m going to ask you, no, in fact I’m going to plead with you.

Whoever you are.

Whatever you play.

Please, when this collection is released, take a temporary break from your current gaming trend and experience these two masterpieces of digital artistry.

And no, Fumito Veda has not paid me to write this

Whether 1 person reads this or 1 million, everybody should experience this collection.

It’s a lucky thing we are getting these 2 games again so please do not pass them up again.

Yes, these trailers have japanese narration, but trust me, neither title will need to talk when you play them, just listen and feel you way through.

Whoever you are. Whatever you play. Please, DO TRY THESE AT HOME!

Trailers are here, enjoy, my friends of the gaming world -

ICO Trailer (HD)

Shadow of the Colossus (HD)

Do we need Nudity in Video Games?

So, there it is. That’s the question here.

Do we need Nudity in Video Games?

OK, let’s take it one step further.

Do we actually need Sex in video games?

You have to ask yourself.

Is it really, actually, completely necessary.

No, no, no. I know a lot of gamers want and don’t mind nudity/sex in games, but is it really a necessary addition to the content?

Yes? No? Sometimes? Depends? Oh, Hell Yeah?

Well, I know I could be expecting a lot of hating after this but in my personal opinion,

I do not think Sex is needed/necessary in video games.

Why?

Because you do not need (and Need is the key word here) Sex to make a game a classic, sellable or even profitable (pls read full article before you judge me).

Look at Portal, ICO, Shadow of the Colossus , Flower, Gears of War, World of Goo, Halo, Killzone, Call of Duty, Prince of Persia, and hundreds of other games that do not need nudity or sex to be top rank well respected video games.

By the way, I know I’m getting technical here but eye candy is a different thing and will always be available in games and every other type of media that has, does, or ever will exist. But eye candy is not the issue here. Where do we draw the line?

You see, video games have become more and more cinematic over the past 10 years or so.

Storytelling and characters are vital to the success of entire franchises, let alone a single title.

I for one, mostly play games for their storytelling magic and interactive cinematic edge.

During Heavy Rain, there is a love scene which occurs approx 70% of the way through.

Notice, I said Love scene and not Sex scene. Now, taking into account the emotional state of both characters, and the amazingly deep journey the story thrillingly takes players through, I had no issue with this scene occurring.

Why? Because it played a purpose. It actually fit nicely into the atmosphere of the tale and the junction it had reached.

And even though I was a little hesitant due to the level of interactivity (due to Heavy Rain’s control scheme), this scene was by no means of a vulgar nature. In other words, it made sense to be there.

Now, let’s take another example, God of War.

The God of War franchise holds no punches. It is does what it says on the tin. Extreme violence, rage, nudity, and more can all be found here. And while I have completed and enjoyed all 3 main titles, I have always been weary of it’s so called sex mini games.

I was not comfortable with the concept in God of War 2, and I was definitely not comfortable with it in God of War 3. No matter what extra point, orbs, or shiny objects this mini game would grant me, I refuse to take part.

Why? Because to me, it was simply unnecessary.

Don’t get me wrong. I love the God of War games. But, I did not think these mini games were necessary. I think they went a step too far. Did they suit the character of Kratos? I think, probably Yes.

Did they suit me. Nope. Thus, I chose to ignore them. Pretty simple, huh?

And that’s where developers are showing more responsibility. I had a choice……. and I made it.

It wasn’t a forced sequence. A lesson perhaps learnt by God of War 2 being banned in some countries, such as Singapore due to unnecessary exposure to these…………….ummm……………..unnecessary mini games.

God of War is a spectacle and a half. There are not many titles with such build quality or balanced gameplay. And that’s what I wanted from the game. It has more than enough quality to grant itself success in both sales and critique.

If the mini games did not exist, would the franchise had sold any less? I think not.

In my opinion, the same goes for Mass Effect 2. It was granted Game of the Year 2010 by most award giving associations, and did it deserve it? Of course!

The depth, quality, story, choice, all contributed to the games huge success. But, if the seduction segments were removed from the game and then released, would it have not reached it’s rightful acclaim? I believe it would have.

Now, let’s take Assassins Creed Brotherhood’s early cut scene between Ezio and Caterina Sforza (I hope I spelt that right, I can never find that Thesaurus). Now, most of us know Ezio is a charming man, and Caterina is a….. ahem….. charming lady.

But was it necessary to have a love scene depicted? To be honest. I could never decide on whether this scene was necessary or not. But the music what really good

It was actually a fairly harmless segment, but do you think this scene added to the game or characters?

Again, was it needed from a gaming perspective? Did it help with the games immersion levels?

And, I think that’s the point here. What one gamer thinks is not acceptable, could be fully acceptable to the next gamer (and normally is). I don’t think there’s anything wrong with telling a story, but sex and nudity should only be added if it is a requirement of the plot/characters and will add further immersiveness/depth to the tale.

Not to simply sell the game. I am worried, that with competition becoming so vast within the gaming sphere, mostly due to the growing handheld gaming options and new gaming based products on the horizon, it is quite possible we will see an increase of both sex and nudity in future game installments as a way to make as many sales as possible.

So far, most developers have been smart, and given us gamers the power of choice. So we can choose whether we want to take part in these pointless segments, or not. I just hope that as more titles take the cinematic effect to new heights, creativity takes priority and not controversial angles.

Remember Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas’s Hot Coffee mod anyone. I know this mod had to be hacked to be accessed. But what was the point of having it in the code, anyway?

Again, my aim here was to share my personal opinion here, and not to knock anybody for their personal gaming/entertainment preferences.

But opinions can change, and we are all constantly learning from each other. Atleast that’s what I use the comments sections for.

Do you think I have made a valid point?

Is Sex and Nudity always necessary to tell a story?

We all have an opinion on this, what is yours?

Justagamer…………….. Just like YOU!