I have moved

Hey all, just wanted to let you know that I have moved here!

I'm in the process of tweaking the new site but hopefully you will enjoy reading it.

Thanks for following so far, Paul.

Survival of the Fittest

So as some of you might remember one of the original reasons I set up this blog was to track my fitness, the blog has evolved to be a little more than that, but unfortunately the fitness side has been sidetracked somewhat, until now!

I've entered the 2010, Men's Health Survival of the Fittest race that takes place in Nottingham, Edinburgh and Cardiff, I'll be taking part in the Nottingham race with a few friends.

It's a 10km race with 10 obstacles like crossing a river on ropes, an army assault course and a step climb in my football teams home stadium, Nottingham Forest's City Ground. You can see more information at the official site should you want to take part.

I've got until October to get myself in shape, I'm 3 weeks into training now and it's fair to say that I have a long way to go.

Facts, figures, charts! They never sold a newspaper!

There has been a lot of talk in recent months about the impending death of games as we know them. Murmurings about how the big 3 year projects will die a terrible death as we give way to the surge of new games and ideas via online stores like the app store, and even talk and hard evidence of Facebook as a gaming platform.

Now I welcome new gaming ideas and innovations as much as the next game designer/raving fan boy, but do people really think that these will be the downfall of massive AAA titles? I'm not so sure.

Just the other night I was having a good catch up chat with an old friend who has been in the games industry for a loooooong time, and we both agreed that there is certainly change in the air, I think most of us know this. In the next couple of years we're 100% certain that gaming's business model will see some massive changes mainly down to the previously mentioned digital distribution and new digital platforms, but another big factor is how much easier and cheaper it is to produce games again.


We're seeing the welcome return of the bedroom developer with fun little five minute games, 2D sprites and highscores! and do you know what? I like it. But the point I was getting to was that the death of multi million pound epics, your GTA's, Halo's and Call of Duties of this world, for me simply isn't going to happen. And I'll tell you why...

For years we have been striving for movie style production values, games that put us right in the thick of the action, where we relive the Normandy landings or the heist scene in Heat, and finally we are starting to get there. Yes it costs a monumental amount of cash to produce these games, but have you seen how much money they rake in! Modern Warfare 2 pulled in a phenomenal $550 million in it's first five days on sale, the best five day launch of ANY entertainment product ever, that includes books and movies. I have no idea what the sales figures are like now, but you can guarantee it's just as astonishing as the first week sales.


Now this simply isn't going to wither away and die, especially when the games being produced are arguably getting better and better and better. This sort of income is clearly the lifeblood of most major publishers and developers and they wont just stop producing these games as A) that would be madness and B) the public so ravenously lap up these great games, and whilst this is the case someone will provide them.

Now what awesome little games like Doodlejump, Pocket God and geoDefense bring to the table is pure gameplay and the ability to have your five minutes of fun, switch off and think nothing more of it until the next time you want a quick blast. Which is great and some would argue is what true gameplay is all about. But clearly these games cant replace the epic scenarios we see in some modern games today.

My take on this new wave of gaming innovation is that it will live alongside the more established and typical production methods. You only have to look to companies like EA to see proof of this, yes they have the clout to dip their fingers in many pies but they also have a board to please. So whilst EA are still developing their big hitting IP's further they are also developing mobile and social networking games as seen with their recent acquisition of Playfish.

For me what it boils down to is that there has never been a more exciting time to be a gamer, you can take your massive games and plough hours upon hours into them, but fantastically gaming seems to have rediscovered it's form and we can also play contemporary games like it's 1989.

Player Investment (Clever Title Pending)

I'm pretty sure that most of my friends and colleagues will attest to the fact that I prefer to get my points across in a frank but considered manner.

Be that as it may, I tend to avoid buzzwords or catch phrases but recently one has caught my eye, not least because it interests me immensely.

Player Investment.

Now yeah it's been kicking around a while but it's definitely coming to the forefront of modern game design. Almost all modern games have a sort of standard player investment system in place, thanks to Microsoft's achievements and Sony's trophies. But developers are taking this and sprinting off with it, and with good reason too.

Games like Halo, Call Of Duty, World of Warcraft and many others are all supplying us with that carrot that tantalisingly teases us and keeps us ploughing hours upon hours into our games, which previously we would probably finish then leave on the shelf, trade in or flog to a mate.

A few years ago I began to play World Of Warcraft for a number of months in an effort to improve my understanding of the whole MMO genre, I was totally new to the experience and I found it very enjoyable. That said I didn't get hopelessly addicted and I was able to walk away without turning into a gibbering wreck.

The one thing that I have noticed in recent years is how other games have latched onto some of WOW's (and other RPG/MMO titles) fundamental mechanics. I think you could put up a strong argument suggesting that it's down to games like WOW, Ultima and Final fantasy etc that we find ourselves devoutly attempting to climb the ranks and brag to our friends and peers in games that you wouldn't normally associate that kind of system with.
Games like Modern Warfare 2, Halo 3 and numerous others. Can you imagine this back in the days of Quake 3, back then you didn't need any proof of your gaming prowess, you'd just let WASD and the left mouse button do the talking. And even that has changed with the introduction of Quake Live!

Don't let that last little rant fool you though, I definitely approve of all of these "Player Investment" mechanics. These relatively simple systems have been taken and used very successfully to ensure that we're still playing that "one more game" before we log off at the end of a Wednesday night whilst the wife and baby are asleep.

I already briefly mentioned Halo 3, for many there was always a strong desire to reach level 50 ( I never persevered) but Bungie are also taking this much further with Halo Reach, check out this link to see some of their impressive and I think exciting plans.

I guess one negative that does come to mind is that whilst all of these developers attempt to turn their games into huge time sinks, it leaves little time to mess around with other games so in that respect it could well be a very bad thing.

At the end of the day our desire to prove our superiority over others has well and truly been tapped into and I honestly believe that gaming in general is much more interesting for it. I just wonder where does it go next? I don't want to play one game for a year until the next one comes out, though the cynic in me tells me that's exactly what some developers want.

Heavy Rain vs Road Avenger

So recently I played through Heavy Rain and a great game it is. One thing that did strike me was how much it reminded me of an old school classic, Road Avenger on the Mega CD.

For those not familiar with it, the game saw the player play an interactive anime movie by pressing the correct sequence of buttons in time to the on screen activities, you played the roll of a sort of Mad Max crossed with Kurt Russel in Death Proof in a speeding red sports car. The title does a great job of getting the protagonists activities across.

Now clearly Heavy Rain is light years ahead of Road Avenger in terms of tech and art etc, but design, hmmmmn not so much.


Some might say well Heavy Rain is on foot and so has more in common with the likes of Space Ace and Dragon's Liar, which is a fair comment but Road Avenger was better, it felt like the timing was right and that the actions you had to perform were more in context with the on screen action. Most importantly if you messed up it felt like it was your fault, which I'd say is one of, if not the most important things in any video game.

Heavy Rain also does this pretty well, granted there are times when it slips up a little, but for the most part the quick time events seem well authored and sensitive towards the onscreen action. Consequently they can have you on the edge of your seat.

Now I don't know if it's purely rose tinted glasses which has me making this comparison and please don't get me wrong I'm not holding Road Avenger up as a beacon of gaming achievement, and I'm sure that the timing I mentioned previously probably doesn't hold up as well as I remember. But I guess the point I'm attempting to make is that it's refreshing to see developers taking influence from other and often ill thought of areas of gaming's history and importantly improving the formula.

Road Avenger may or may not have given Quantic Dreams some inspiration, the highway section on Heavy Rain certainly suggests to me that it did, but I think it's also fair to say that other similar games of old, like Dragon's Lair etc would have popped up in the Quantic Dreams studio at some point.

Heavy Rain was a brilliant breath of fresh air, but elements of it are ingrained deeply in gaming's past.

Something I intend to bring into play as I continue to expand my repertoire.

Result!

I just found out that I was runner up in the Eurogamer God Of War 3 competition, apparently I've won a GOW3 T shirt and poster.

Well happy with that!

So as I've mentioned a few times I'm looking into learning more about the code/script side of game development.

Recently I came across Flixel essentially a library of Action Scripts put together by the chaps that produced the excellent Canabalt and Gravity Hook HD.

For some reason I seem to have taken to using Flixel and Flex Builder, maybe it's because it's a little more straight forward than coding in C++ and doesnt feel so extensive. But a large part is because of the great effort the Flixel guys have put into making things easy for new starters.

So thanks to the Flixel team and hopefully I'll be able to make more use of my ideas and have something to show soon. Work and being a Dad aside.

A Belated Happy New Year

Hmmmn bit late with this one, I've been sooo busy in my private life and not had time for much at all.

My little daughter is growing up so fast now, she's nearly six months old and about to start eating real food, Awesome!

I'm hoping to take a leaf out of my friends book and start blogging a bit more, so expect to see more bloggage, if you're the gaming type, you might want to check out his page here.

Don't say I told you but he can be quiet witty and presents a good read, he also gives some valuable insight into developing XNA projects and such like.

Just got hold of a couple of new books as I really should read more. I've got part 2 of the Dark Tower series and I also bought Magician, looking forward to getting stuck into those.

I recently completed the excellent Heavy Rain on the PS3, if you have a PS3 I recommend you give it a try if you haven't already, really is a breath of fresh air. I seem to be developing an obsession with upping my PSN score, i cant see that turning out well for me.

Christmas, Bambino & Borderlands!

So my 29th Christmas approaches, going to be an interesting one that's for sure. As most of us know life has a funny way of throwing us a few curve balls from time to time, and it's certainly done that recently!

Nevertheless I carry on marching forwards, my baby girl is growing up so fast it's scary. You hear parents say that fairly often but it's mad just how right they were. She's started smiling a lot now and there is nothing better than seeing that face after a day at work.

My wife Jodie has been an absolute legend looking after Summer whilst I work in Leeds, hopefully I can give her a much needed break when I break up for Christmas. Though I'm sure the recent beauty treatments for her birthday got me some brownie points! :)

I recently played through the COD MW2 single player campaign and really enjoyed the game, some bits were a little OTT as I always thought that COD was relatively grounded, but hey it's a video game. I guess if I was to be picky I could pick out the re spawning enemies as a downside but I still enjoyed the game regardless.

Been online a few times and that's really where it's at, was slightly disappointed that Boot camp from Treyarch's previous attempt was seemingly ignored I thought that was a great way of getting into online play gently. With having Summer it's much more difficult to put the time in like I used to so my friends march on ahead whilst i try to grab the odd hour.

I also recently purchased Halo ODST and Borderlands, really looking forward to giving both of these a whirl, I always lap the Halo games up and Borderlands looks to bring something interesting to the table. Looks very nice too.

My team Nottingham Forest seem to coming along very nicely, sitting pretty in 4th position level on points with 3rd placed Cardiff. We've seen some resounding victories too not to mention against top of the table Newcastle. I'd love for us to make the Premiership again, but only if we can compete and become a steady mid table side. The yo yo'ing a few years back was awful to see.

My gorgeous little girl

So a lot has happened since I last posted. Myself and Jodie are now parents to our beautiful daughter Summer, and may I say that being a dad is the most amazing thing that has happened to me.

In my work life we've released Chinatown Wars on the PSP to much critical acclaim which I'm very happy about as we all put everything into ensuring that the game was rocking regardless of platform.

I got rid of my BMW at the weekend which was a sad moment but my new car, a Seat Leon FR is very nice and has softened the blow considerably.

I'm always trying to improve my game design mad skillz, and as previously mentioned I've started learning a little more about coding, I don't want to be a programmer I just like knowing what I'm talking about so this can only help and more excitingly for me I've been getting back into pixel art at home, having much fun with that too.

Today I visited the Eurogamer Expo in Leeds with a few colleagues, some great games were on show and I was especially impressed with some of the stuff I saw in the Indie Games section.

One game called VVVVVV by a guy called Terry Cavanagh was much fun, I recommend watching the video link.

Another great effort was a title called Plain Sight, this will be released on Steam pretty soon and again it's well worth checking out.

Although I did enjoy the show I did feel some things could have been done much better, apart from the games the event was relatively low key. There were hardly any freebies given out and there was generally a lack of excitement, that said it is a new event so hopefully it was successful enough to make them consider another and they will have a steady platform to build upon.

A Week In Boredom

OK so I've been trying to find things to do with no money (thanks to Ibiza and the car) and being stuck in the house. So mainly all I've done this week is watch films and play games.

Watched Charlie Wilson's War the other night that was a really good film that both me and the wife enjoyed, very entertaining.

I was told by a friend of mine to watch a film called Session 9, he said it was one of the scariest things he'd seen. We put it on the other night and it was possibly the worst film to grace our DVD player. It felt like I was watching an Aussie soap rather than a US film, and it was about as scary as my dog.

Our dog may be named after a popular TV serial killer but believe me he isn't scary. Suffice to say we didn't watch the whole film.

Another film we watched was Son of Rambow which was very good, the kids in the film are very funny especially Lee Carter. Definitely reminds me of my childhood, me and my brother always used to grab our folks video camera and make our own movies....

I downloaded the demo of The Secret of Monkey Island Special Edition on Xbox live yesterday, I love the new look of the game and cant wait to spend some time with it again. I didn't see the demo through I'd rather wait until I grab the full thing and start from scratch.

Better now

Feeling much better than I was now, all I have left is a tickly annoying cough. Not allowed back in to work for another week, so it's fair to say I'm more than a little bored!

I'm not officially house bound anymore so I went for a couple of drives around in the beast listening to the new Subliminal Sessions CD mixed by Eric Morillo. Well worth a look if you love music of the house variety.

For Better or For Worse?

OK I admit it I committed the cardinal sin in the world of football I switched allegiances, last year I turned my back on PES for the first time since the great war started.

Now I've always dabbled with both games throughout their history but I would often not buy FIFA, however you could guarantee I would buy every PES or International Superstar Soccer (as it was once affectionately known) released.

Last year however I didn't buy PES not even on budget! I got hold of the PES demo and quite frankly I was disappointed, now it's very shallow to judge a game on a demo alone but with PES 2009 it was difficult not to. Some might say it's even harsh to judge a game on it's presentation and for the most part I agree.

I just felt that after so many years of putting up with the cheesy front-end and woeful commentary, I thought I deserved more, yeah the game-play has always been the jewel in PES's crown. But I've been playing this game since I was a teenager, PES has little to prove here. That aside I did think the demo felt a little unresponsive, but I think you always feel a little like that when the annual update comes along.

The one thing that FIFA does well time and time again is the presentation. You have great music playing throughout the menu system and everything looks very slick and polished.

PES on the other hand looks like a mid nineties Sky Sports broadcast, whilst great back in the 95 /96 season, these days it's simply lost it's edge and isn't good enough.

The debate has been raging for over a decade now and I think we can all agree that as a games player you takes your choices. I mentioned I switched to FIFA I think it was more in protest than anything else, as I don't enjoy FIFA 09 as much as I enjoyed PES 6 or PES 2008 on the PS2 or 360 (yeah I even had both versions of PES 6!). Yeah I know, cutting your nose off to spite your face is not big or clever.

That said I firmly believe you have to give credit where credit is due. And EA to their credit have clearly pushed and pushed to bring FIFA in line with PES and in all fairness they are about there.

I bring this up because it's nearing that time of year where once again the great debate will crack open. In my opinion PES needs to do only a few minor things to get itself back in shape and I will be a loyal follower all over again. But it looks like FIFA has some great ideas up it's sleeve such as the 360 degree control of the players.

It will be interesting to see how they fare this autumn.

Breaking News:

Alien Breed is on it's way back.

Our good friends over at Team 17 have today released 3 screens on Eurogamer from the Alien Breed remake they are currently working on. It's titled Alien Breed Evolution.

I'm very excited about seeing this, I'm sure my brother will be as excited as I am, we spent many weeks on the original game as kids.

See all the pics here..

Eurogamer

Nottingham Forest

As most of you know I'm a massive Nottingham Forest fan. Looks like we may even get a strong enough side to push for a playoff spot in my opinion.

We made the signing of Paul Anderson permanent which was a genius move. One of the best players we have.

We also managed to capture Lee Camp from QPR who had a blinding loan spell with us last season. After his magnificent performance in that infamous game against the sheep I think most Forest fans will be happy to see him sign.

On top of that we signed Dele Adebola from Bristol and David McGoldrick from Southampton with apparently more signings on the way. I hear on the rumour mill that a young Jermaine Beckford may be City Ground bound.

Defiantly looking forward to the new season.

Yoooooou Reeeeeeeds!

Fitness Update

As some of you may remember I set up this blog to track my fitness amongst other things. I kinda failed with that, but I now plan to get that all back on track.

Clearly this will have to wait until the pig flu has subsided but I'll be hitting the gym hard in the coming months, not least so our little daughter (when she arrives) can say "My Dad is bigger than your Dad" with some pride rather than embarrassment.

I plan to do this with a steady diet, regular games of squash and football and hitting the gym at least 3 times a week.

I'll keep you informed.

Nursery

My wife and her sister have recently finished our nursery wall for when our baby girl arrives around October. I saw some amazing pictures on Deviant Art by a guy called Orioto

http://orioto.deviantart.com/gallery/#Videogame-Remakes

We particularly liked the Yoshi's Island image Orioto had produced so we got Jodie's sister Hollie to paint a picture on the nursery wall inspired by Orioto's original work. The image at the top of this blog shows the results.

As you can imagine we were very happy with the results.

Man Down, Man Down!

Well apparently I have swine flu. Or at least I'm a suspected case so I'm now officially house bound for the next seven days.

I feel quite shocking, tiredness, head aches, upset stomach, aching limbs and a very sore throat amongst other things. But the main thing I'm bothered about is my pregnant wife! She's my designated flu buddy.

She's adamant that she is staying around even though I have the plague, bless her. Don't worry though any sign of oinking and we'll get her a flu buddy and house bound like me. :)

The funny thing is I was working out in San Diego for 2 months when the whole swine flu thing kicked off. I spend a week in Ibiza and three of the nine of us come down with the virus.

Damn you piggies, damn you!

Back from Ibiza

Well I got back from Ibiza in the early hours of Saturday morning. We had a great time out there and went to some amazing club nights.

Highlights for me were Harry Choo Choo Romero's set at Pacha and the legendary Sasha at Cream. I really enjoyed Tiesto at Privilege too. As much as I hate to say (if only because my mate Bob was right) my long time favourite DJ, Paul Van Dyk was a bit of a let down.

The Ibiza Rocks hotel was pretty poor, they just seem to be set up to suck money out of their guests in any way possible. And whilst we weren't expecting an amazing room it would have been nice if the theme of all the rooms followed the vibe of the actual hotel. Simple things like having pictures of the Ibiza Rocks branding in the pics on the walls rather than some chintzy riverside scene. Ours was clearly left over from before the place made the transition to Ibiza Rocks.

That said the facilities were half decent and it didn't put a downer on the holiday.

Stuff

So I've been playing a lot of inFamous on the PS3 recently. I really enjoyed motoring through the first island clearing up all the areas and doing the satellite runs (blatantly ripped from Crackdown!) but I'm not really feeling the urge to go back to it again. I'm sure I will though.

I love powering up the main guy but I always felt that he just wasn't quite powerful enough for me, maybe that develops later. I am playing on hard mode too, so there is every chance that this is the reason for that.

Off to Ibiza tomorrow so I will be out of touch for at least a week! Hopefully I will return with some Hangover style photos to show. :)

Here's a question are Transformers 2 and Terminator Salvation actually worth going to see on the big screen?