Solatorobo: Red the Hunter DS Review || Novel Gamer column on Game People

Solatorobo: Red the Hunter provides an incredible journey in a huge fantasy world with a great story. This is one of the biggest adventures by far to be had on the DS.

The hallway echoed with my booming steps as the heavy metal feet of the DAHAK carried me forward. As I continued on, two robot security drones came to attack me. I leaned the DAHAK down and picked one of the droids up by its feet. Leaping into the air, I hurled the terrified machine into its partner, destroying them both in a shower of sparks.Reaching the darkened end of the corridor I saw that the way forward would be impassable for the suit. I gulped and stared bleakly at the tiny ladder, as I realised I would have to dismount and continue on foot. I took with me a small hand weapon. In comparison to the DAHAK's mighty form, I knew I represented a pitiful opposition to any enemies lurking the darkness. I felt very alone. I gripped the pistol tightly and began to climb into the shadows...

The pleasure I got from playing this game speaks most strongly to my love of animated Japanese movies. Not so much the building-destroying, explosion-leaping or motorbike riding anime, but more the wistful, child's-dream fantasy of Studio Ghibli, the company behind Spirited Away and Laputa. While resolutely science fiction, the floating cities in Solatorobo are stone-cobbled and the next character I meet may as likely be a pastry chef as an amorous cargo-trader.

Solatorobo creates a fantasy world of sky pirates, brigands and treasure. The costumes are flamboyant and operatic and the action equally melodramatic. Red, the hero, is a (ed: Dog) mercenary looking to earn a living from taking on jobs for the menagerie of interesting supporting characters. He fosters an intense rivalry for the local security forces and before he knows it he is embroiled in a bigger plot with conspiratorial twists and a magic secret. It's like Han Solo's journey in Star Wars if it had been directed by Terry (The Adventures of Baron Munchausen) Gilliam.

While Solatorobo's quests are largely variations on being sent to find an object or kill a certain group of enemies, the basic mission structure is kept lively and enjoyable by the brilliant fiction and cast of memorable characters. The settings are varied, from a giant-bee-infested jungle to a subterranean sewer. The game's narrative always manages to keep bringing fresh ideas and locations and remains an engaging adventure throughout.

Solatorobo features a highly unique combat concept

It also benefits from a fairly open-world structure. While there were certain quests which advanced the story, I found that being able to explore each new location at my leisure helped connect with Solatorobo's world. A clear sense of location is a hugely important factor in immersing a player or audience in a narrative and this game achieves it.

Another element which reinforces that sense of space is the requirement for Red to dismount his powerful robot suit occasionally to explore less traversable terrain on foot. Compared to the god-like robot, Red on his own feels very small and vulnerable. As my story above suggests, I found these moments were loaded with sympathy for the character along with a real sense of suspense.

The game's unique selling point is also its weakness. Solatorobo features a highly original combat concept. Enemies are fought in real-time by lifting them and throwing them to cause damage. Multipliers can be added by jumping into the air before hurling and hitting another opponent with a flying victim. Red's robot suit, which allows for these activities, can also be upgraded to increase lifting strength, speed, attack and defence. The battles are kept interesting by a variety of enemies that have to be approached in different ways to allow Red to get his cunning claws into place to lift the enemy.

It's like Han Solo's journey in Star Wars if it had been directed by Terry Gilliam.

But, despite that stream of varied encounters the basic approach of lifting, throwing and returning attacks becomes repetitive very quickly. I can't put my finger on it, but I feel that somehow the combat needs a couple of extra strategic elements to provide a truly addictive experience.

In true Zelda tradition there are also some mini-games which can provide a welcome distraction. The mech-fighting and fishing games are highly enjoyable. However, there is an aircraft racing side-game which I found to be fiddly to control and is visually messy and unsatisfying.

The air racing does opens up into 4-player races for players over Wi-Fi and this may provide a more entertaining challenge than I was able to experience. However I couldn't help but feel that the basic handling lacked fluidity and the collectible weapons never seemed to be as finely tuned as a combat racer like Wipeout or Mario Kart.

Those flaws are minor, however, in the face of Solatorobo: Red the Hunter's undeniable charms. In addition to all that this game has to offer there are even 12 additional quests to download, providing even more adventures. With sun-bleached fantasy castle towns and pantomime characters it feels every bit like getting immersed in a dreamy cartoon escape.

Chris Jarvis writes the Novel Gamer column.

"I write stories to say what I think about games, for me it's the only way I can really communicate what I feel about them. Do you ever have a response to something that's hard to put into words? I find that sometimes I have something to express that can't be communicated by trying to explain how I feel, directly."

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Nier PS3 Review || Intimate Gamer column on Game People

I have never played a game quite like Nier before. But it took a while for me to realise what exactly that meant. Characters, relationships and story overtake its gameplay mechanics, and invite us to intrude on the painful loss of intimacy between a father and his sick daughter.

Part of my unusual reaction to Nier was how the game handled its characters and how they drove the story. Unlike many hack and slash adventure games I had played before, Nier offered me a wonderful, promising and sometimes interactive storyline.

From the offset, you are plunged into a weird and post apocalyptic world. It looked familiar at first, a grim world plagued by snow and cold, cluttered with devastated buildings and the colour grey. From that moment I saw the shell of a man, at first any typical forlorn and tragic hero, having lost everything, it looked like he had nothing to live for. But he got up and he fought, and it was quickly revealed that he was a father, and from that moment on, that was exactly how I saw him.

It became a story about a father striving to protect his sick daughter, and about a daughter who only wanted to spend time with her father, and not be a burden to him. I expected the girl to die, and our hero to become that tragic figure, wondering without a purpose. But unlike other games I've player that didn't happen, and I found that really refreshing.

Nier's daughter's name is Yonah. The dynamic between father and daughter meant I was instantly attached to her, which doesn't happen often. Children in video games rarely prove to be a driving force, more often a hindrance or a sorrowful plot device, and although Yonah may have been exactly that - a way to bring the magic and mystery to Nier's small village and give him purpose, it didn't feel forced.

The dynamic between father and daughter meant I was instantly attached to her.

It felt tragic in the loss of their parent-child intimacy. Through surprisingly believable reactions we see how Nier wants to make certain of what exactly is wrong with her. Searching for an answer he struggles to keep them afloat in a dying world, needing to spend time apart from his sick daughter in order to secure their future.

When Yonah's disease, the Black Scrawl, begins to makes itself known in full Nier is finally lost in his determination to find a cure. It becomes difficult to interact with anyone, such was his single minded intent -- the will of a man driven to find a cure for his daughter.

The architecture of a forgotten world, this bizarre landscape of bridges that lead nowhere and abandoned military bunkers turned junk heaps, creates a unique place for this intimacy to be played out.

But more than the world, it is the Neir-Yonah relationship that really makes the game work. The diary entries on the loading screens were a beautiful way of keeping Yonah present in her absence, bringing forward little details about her and her father that could not be expressed elsewhere.

It was already clear that Yonah loved her father, but through these messages you see her loneliness, and how in order to keep her alive Nier is almost negligent in his love. It is a sad dynamic that speaks for itself, something that rarely gets explored in video games.

It is a sad dynamic that speaks for itself, something that rarely gets explored in video games.

It's odd, but very realistic. Yonah, despite her illness, just wants her father around more. We are let into the innermost mind set of both Yonah and her father, and throughout the game I felt it push me forwards.

My only regret is that the gameplay mechanics weren't able to match the weight of the relationships. It often felt more like reading a novel than playing a game. In these terms it suffers next to more mature handling of characters we find in books. Many of the other characters were stale, and weren't terribly original. Despite the unusual world setting the people were all terribly familiar, almost type cast.

Although there are lovely touches here and there, characters like the hard-done-by outcast and spoilt-young-king detract from the father/daughter experience. I had such high hopes for the game, and although it did offer a different story and way of playing through it, I think that in the end, these ambitious actions may have been its own downfall.

Neir will always be special for me though. It may be one game that I've played where the plot and characters truly overtook everything else. The game-play was not exactly challenging, just awkward, so I kept on playing for the story alone, and I think that is both wonderful and a little weird too.

Hollie Simon wrote this Intimate Gamer article under the watchful eye of Emma Boyes.

"I thought it would be interesting to write about sex and relationships in Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, DS lite and PSP games. I'll also touch on other areas like how women are portrayed, gender roles, and being gay."

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Ms Splosion Man 360 XBLA Review || Intimate Gamer column on Game People

Ms Splosion Man may be pink but is no more intimate than her masculine counterpart. The same formula is fun for a while, but in the end I went looking for interesting characters and conversations elsewhere.

Arcade games aren't exactly known for their in depth plot-lines and diverse characters. Their uniqueness is in their ability to tell a fulfilling story on a smaller scale.

However, whilst playing Ms. Splosion Man, I didn't feel that there was much more than an original premise. I had wanted to discover how Ms. Splosion Man fitted into the universe established by her boyfriend (or perhaps husband) Splosion Man, but it was not exactly the most intimate or deep of games. It was fun to play, but it didn't really offer me anything more than that.

I have not played any Splosion Man games before and had no expectations, or in fact very much idea of what might happen. I had, however, hoped to find some sense of reason within Splosion Man world, but discovered quickly that this wasn't going to be the case. The story is essentially just: Splosion Man is captured.

It had it moments when I thought that there might be something beyond the explosions, when faced by new enemies and certainly in the very opening level when being chased by a giant robot. BUt amidst the tension that put me on the edge of my seat Ms. Splosion Man seemed almost entirely unaffected, completely oblivious to events around her.

I know this is just an arcade game, but a little bit of relational intimacy or characters to engage with would have got me through the battering gameplay. But without this, I never really became involved in the game or the character of Ms. Splosion Man.

It was not exactly the most intimate or deep of games.

Sure, she was entertaining with her singing and dancing, in a pop-culture referencing kind of way, but there was no substance beyond this, no personality of her own. It made it difficult to like her, she reminded me of a classic Loony Toons character, entertaining but not exactly unique. Fun for an entertaining evening, but certainly not someone to regularly date.

She left no food for thought, I was not for a moment interested in what she had to say or indeed if she had anything to say at all, it felt to me that she was not even aware of whatever goal she had.

Although Ms Splosion Man may not be for everyone, at least it didn't pretend to be anything more than what it is - an exciting, exploding, puzzle, platformer. For whatever reason, it lacked characters and conversations, but the game itself seemed to make up for it.

It lacked conversations, but the game itself seemed to make up for it.

Ms. Splosion Man didn't leave me hungry for more. I experienced it, and left it at that, it was easy to just leave behind. Male or female it appeared as though it wouldn't have made a difference to the game, to me, it just looked like yellow had been traded in for pink.

Hollie Simon wrote this Intimate Gamer article under the watchful eye of Emma Boyes.

"I thought it would be interesting to write about sex and relationships in Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, DS lite and PSP games. I'll also touch on other areas like how women are portrayed, gender roles, and being gay."

© GamePeople 2006-10 | Contact | Huh?

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Inazuma Eleven DS Review || Novel Gamer column on Game People

Inazuma Eleven combines Anime-style roleplaying with a quirky football simulation. I really wanted to like it. I really didn't.

It was one of those matches that the crowd would remember for the drama as much as the final score. Our own plucky team had set out on a personal underdog-to-hero story and this was the game that would prove our potential.With only seconds left on the clock, the score was one-all and the ball was deep within my own half. I deftly tackled the opposing striker and cleared the ball to the left wing. I tapped the ball forward through the enemy, skilfully guiding it from player to player. My striker was onside; he picked up the pass and charged for the open goal - the opposing keeper was no-where to be seen. My star player pulled back his foot and cannoned the ball toward the net.At which point the enemy keeper appeared from nowhere and summoned a magic sword which cut the ball in half, denying the goal. I couldn't help but feel cheated. It didn't even count as a foul.

Inazuma Eleven attempts to use Football as the action element in a cartoon role-playing adventure. In narrative terms it understands the passion well, weaving its rags-to-riches story about an enthusiastic young player in a run-down school club without motivation. He rallies his friends and recruits fresh players to take on a series of matches which will save their club and prove their worth.

It's very well presented, with great quality animation and voice talent. It's from the same developer as the Professor Layton series and all the production hallmarks are on display. The Football sections are controlled by drawing lines with the stylus for players to follow. I found this initially confusing compared to other, more direct Football games; however once mastered it provides a great insight into the movement of players on the pitch and the need to set up strategic plays to confuse the defence and the goalkeeper.

The smaller encounters are fairly entertaining, replacing the random monster battles of an RPG like Dragon Quest VI with sudden four-a-side challenges to gain possession or score first. Where Inazuma Eleven really fails is in the incorporation of 'special moves' into the main Football match challenges.

Inazuma Eleven fails to overcome the challenge of combining player skill with character stats.

The drama created by a Football match revolves around possession of the ball, the effectiveness of player positioning and prepared set pieces and ultimately the skill of eluding the keeper. Inazuma Eleven actually succeeds in simulating Football very effectively, in that it provides the tools for a player to position team members, define a strategy and then see that strategy play out.

That would be fine if that is as far as it went. Unfortunately, each player has stats which affect the success of tackles, saves and the like and skill points can be used to unleash special moves. These add a role-playing progression to each character as new abilities are unlocked but I found it detracted from my enjoyment of the Football challenges.

The magic skills undermine the drama of Football. The story I related above is my own experience of running an extremely successful play against the opposing team. The keeper was wide, my striker was onside and I had a clear shot at the goal. However, the hidden mechanics of the game decided to deny my achievement.

To make matters even worse, most of Inazuma Eleven's statistics are calculated behind the scenes. I don't even know what factors contributed to the special move which ended my game. This also applies to fouls, which seemed to be decided in a random fashion. The only calculated statistic which is presented to the player is in tackle challenges.

In narrative terms it understands the passion well, weaving its rags-to-riches story.

The problem here is the way the game provides difficult action sequences for the player to overcome, but then decides the outcome using in-game stats. The player is already given a considerable challenge in having to wrestle possession of the ball, guide it through the opposing lines and make a successful challenge. Having done this, however, the fruits of the player's skill are then arbitrarily decided by in-game mechanics. It would be like a driving game introducing random engine explosions in the last lap of a race, or a golf game introducing teleporting holes.

I'm not much of an ardent Football fan myself, but I still felt enormously cheated that my efforts in-game had been negated by an arbitrary role-playing mechanic. This actually blocked my progression in the game, having failed to beat the same match four times in a row. Each time I was ham-strung for the same reason, by a special move which cancelled an almost certain goal. Inazuma Eleven left me feeling so frustrated I actually struggled to sleep after playing it.

The creators of Phoenix Wright and Professor Layton have made a good stab at trying to create a stirring cartoon Football drama, but fail to overcome the challenge of combining player skill with character stats. Inazuma Eleven is neither an enjoyable role-playing adventure nor an entertaining or accurate Football simulation.

Chris Jarvis writes the Novel Gamer column.

"I write stories to say what I think about games, for me it's the only way I can really communicate what I feel about them. Do you ever have a response to something that's hard to put into words? I find that sometimes I have something to express that can't be communicated by trying to explain how I feel, directly."

© GamePeople 2006-10 | Contact | Huh?

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Dark Souls 360 Review || Returning Gamer column on Game People

Dark Souls asks if you are hardcore, then sets about proving you wrong. Returning to games after so long away, it was refreshing to be reminded days when hardcore was a label you had to earn.

Perhaps it's because I'm back after a break, but to me it's obvious: hardcore gaming isn't what it used to be. It seems to be under ever increasing pressure from casual games. Platform holders like Sony and Microsoft often seem to have forgotten the unspoken vows they made to the people upon whose backs they rest: the core gamer.

Demon's Souls, the previous game, was one in the eye for the casualisation of gaming, and set a new standard for core gamers to aspire to. It quite literally took great delight in frustrating even the most committed of gamer, testing their metal to the limit.

Dark Souls continues this role play game tradition, and then some. In fact it turns what is usually considered an entertaining pastime into something solely for the masochists.

This sounds quite negative I know, but as you spend time with the game - if you manage to prostrate yourself on its unforgiving alter for long enough - it actually starts becoming something you enjoy, and eventually don't want to give up on until it's finished. What starts, after choosing to be a knight, wanderer or thief etc, as a slog against an unending undead infestation actually turns into a finely tuned balance of risk and reward.

Don't get me wrong, as you progress there is some help along the way. Bonfires offer safe havens (a little like light spots in Alan Wake) where your health and life-renewing Estus flask are refilled. There is then a wide range of weapons and character advancements to invest in. But before you can really dabble in all this you need to put in some serious hard work, and not a few hours.

Onto this chaffing gameplay Dark Souls pours all sorts of irritants.

A breakthrough moment for me came as I realised that combat is as much about timing as it is about wielding the best weapon. Time your strikes to perfection and suddenly you can attack and parry enemies night and day better. This is all well and good until you meet the next boss. These are, as you would imagine, ridiculously difficult.

Onto this chaffing gameplay Dark Souls pours all sorts of irritants. You are only able to have one save file per character and when you die (when, not if) you lose the souls you've collected that haven't been spent on character development. The enemies often swarm you from all angles which make timing attacks almost impossible. You also have a lot of manual camera control to contend with -- often finding yourself staring at a wall as you are bludgeoned to death. Finally there is the stupidly high difficulty level the game has in the first place.

But with all this challenge and difficulty comes a lot of satisfaction when (or if) you defeat a particular level. Progress in Dark Souls is hard won, but when it comes it is with a rush of relief and excitement.

The people who are prepared to make this sort of investment are who Dark Souls is made for: that (maybe) dying breed of gamer who wants the hardest of challenges. Those few people who relish the unforgiving experience. I dabbled with Dark Souls, but I know there will be others who will lose themselves in it for months.

This is a game that truly defines what a hardcore gamer means.

There are other games that do this, but they (unlike either Dark or Demon's Souls) try and sugar coat the experience in fancy visuals or high falutin gameplay. Dark Souls does none of that. Simple, straight forward and honest -- and it's hard not to respect it for that.

But actually, it's the people who will play Dark Souls through to completion that gain my respect. I enjoyed my time with Dark Souls, but all the time I was aware that I wasn't numbered with the players who would see this experience through to the end.

By this measure Dark Souls is wonderful. Casual gamers, mums, dads, girlfriends even your XBox Live or PSN friends may not understand it, but this is a game that truly defines what a hardcore gamer means -- and by doing so uncovers how diluted that badge has become, and what it used to mean in days gone by when I used to be numbered with the hardcore.

Sinan Kubba writes the Returning Gamer column.

"As an 80s kid I was obsessed with gaming. But university, stress and life relegated my hobby to the backseat. After years in the wilderness, I'm back into video games. I don't just want to play games that remind of a happy youth though. I'm just as excited about games that take things forward, experiences that re-ignite that curiosity and fascination I had years ago."

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Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Reverie DS Review || Novel Gamer column on Game People

Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Reverie is a perfect piece of classic role play action, with a narrative that sets it apart from the crowd.

From humble beginnings in my home village, to world-straddling travel with epic stakes, my journey was well-trod and well-known. I'd been away for a long time, but coming back to these lands felt instantly familiar.I'll be honest, when travelling alone I find the hero thing a bit of a chore. But once I have a team together it's a whole different story. Each member has their job; each moved timed to perfection, often the enemy are sprawling at our feet having barely had a chance to strike.Our battles are a dance, each move practiced by rote and honed to a deadly precision...

On the one hand, Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Reverie (known as Realms of Revelation in the US) seems to be a very by-the-numbers role play adventure. The adventure starts with the solitary young hero in his home town, then moves on to gain companions and grow into a globe-trotting adventure. From that perspective, it's pretty standard JRPG fare.

What sets Dragon Quest VI apart - and what I think sets apart every Dragon Quest game I have played - is the brilliant approach the narrative takes to telling the story. Dragon Quest always seems to a structure which lifts it above the crowd. As a storyteller myself, I can appreciate how equally important it is to frame the story as it is to tell the story.

Inhabitants of Dragon Quest VI are a window into a world populated with families, trysts, hopes, dreams, regrets and secrets.

The game actually opens with the player taking control of a troupe at an advanced point on their journey. The companions all know one-another and are preparing to face their ultimate enemy. However, the battle does not go to plan and the characters become cast away. At which point our hero awakes, alone in his bedroom with only fragmented memories of the visions just seen. As the audience/player, we are given important questions that draw us into the story. Is is a vision? Time travel? Or something deeper?

In fact, the brilliance of the narrative that Dragon Quest VI weaves is that just as the player is given clues to one mystery, another begins to unfold. Its a perfect cycle of suspense and revelation that keeps the story addictive and exciting, as with all the best fiction.

It's a fiction which even wrong-footed me, turning into a far more involved and lengthy adventure than I had expected. I was convinced I was facing the game boss at one point, only to discover that what I had played up to that point was a prelude. The game suddenly opened into a wider adventure with a developmental skills tree for each character and a far deeper mystery than I had guessed. In filmed drama terms, it was as though my entire adventure to that point had been the pre-credits teaser.

The world is such a pleasure to explore, too. Far from filling the world with bystanders that spout random clues or repetitive text, it seems as though every individual met has a relationship with another character or a view on the situation. Talking with the inhabitants of Dragon Quest VI gives a window into a world populated with families, trysts, hopes, dreams, regrets and secrets.

With a well practiced team each battle becomes a satisfying set-piece.

Of course the basis for the story is some of the best role play battling around. At the end of the day it is classic turn-based combat with random encounters; if that isn't to your taste then Dragon Quest VI isn't going to challenge that. As the short story above depicts, the joy of battling in Dragon Quest is the mastery it offers the player. With a well practiced team each battle becomes a satisfying set-piece, with specific approaches for familiar enemy groupings. Rather than becoming stale, it is a testament to the monster and battle design that it always feels fresh and exciting.

The icing on the cake is that Dragon Quest VI looks and sounds fantastic. I wouldn't say it has catchy enough tunes likely to spawn a musical offshoot like Final Fantasy Theatrhythm (3DS), but from the opening bars it is an epic and orchestral treat for the ears, especially for the DS. The graphics are also beautiful with wonderfully constructed towns and environments. I often find myself using the 360-degree rotation just to look for incidental details. If there is a downside it is that the visual design differs very little from each of the other recent DS Dragon Quest titles. It is an unnervingly familiar world.

Every great role play game series has its unique appeal. The thing which always has me returning to Dragon Quest is that the way that even the most conventional fantasy story is told with a unique viewpoint. Whether it's Dragon Quest IV's coup of casting the player as the shopkeeper in the weapon store, or Dragon Quest V's family-spanning lifelong quest - there is always a fresh perspective here which keeps the adventure genuinely exciting.

Chris Jarvis writes the Novel Gamer column.

"I write stories to say what I think about games, for me it's the only way I can really communicate what I feel about them. Do you ever have a response to something that's hard to put into words? I find that sometimes I have something to express that can't be communicated by trying to explain how I feel, directly."

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Pucca Power Up DS Review || Story Gamer column on Game People

Pucca Power Up DS is a high octane traditional platformer with lashings of cutesy Korean style.

Love stories, or at least stories that contain a strong aspect of romantic love, are predominant in virtually every medium, except for videogames. In the west at least, it's very rare for romantic love to be central to a game.

Well, Korean media tie-in Pucca Power Up is all about a romance, albeit a stalkery and cartoonish playground romance. Although not very well known in the UK, Pucca is a bit of a media phenomenon across the world. It's the story of ten year old girl Pucca, who lives in a noodle house, and her romantic attachment to Garu, a twelve year-old who is the scion of an ancient ninja dynasty. While created for a card game, the property is now best known as an animated series.

As a game, the story is about the pursuit of love, literally a pursuit as young Pucca chases her unwilling beau, and that constant movement from left to right drives the game onwards. When Pucca catches Garu, he struggles away from her kisses only to run off again. On alternate levels, the player gets to play Garu running from Pucca.

As Pucca chases Garu there are platforms to jump on to and hazards to avoid. Romance remains the dominant theme, with hearts to collect as an in-game currency, and Pucca knocking out enemies and hitting switches with a cupidesque bow and arrow. There's even a minigame where Pucca has to rescue Garu from drowning, reviving him with a smoochy kiss of life.

The core of the gameplay is side-scrolling platforming, and it plays well with the action nimble and precise. But it's the presentation that really makes the game, an effervescent sense of bouncy joy to Pucca and Garu's cartoon world that provides the momentum a game like this needs.

Love stories are predominant in virtually every medium, except for videogames.

The visuals are great, with lovely clean character designs and colours that really pop. The music is relentless and frothy, and at intense points the game becomes a rush of candy colour and bubbling sound.

It won't be for everyone, but if you like 16-bit era platformers then Pucca Power Up is energetic, charming and, yes, a bit romantic.

Mark Clapham writes the Story Gamer column.

"I love a good story. Games tell many different stories: the stories told through cut scenes and dialogue, but also the stories that emerge through gameplay, the stories players make for themselves."

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Torchlight PC Review || Scared Gamer column on Game People

Torchlight PC may be reminiscent of older RPGs like Diablo, but it also makes many improvements to the genre.

Torchlight is a spiritual successor to the Diablo games. Indeed so close are the two games ties that many of the team responsible for Diablo left Blizzard to form Runic Games, Torchlight's developer.

Similarities run deep,right down to the intro music, which while not identical, conjures a very similar feel. The more similarities I see the more I am forced to consider why I have found my time with Torchlight so much more enjoyable than my brief stint with Diablo 2.

Both titles appeal to a number of my gaming idiosyncrasies. Each offers a stylized fantasy setting that drip with atmosphere, as well as the constant draw of improved weapons and equipment, which provides much of the motivation to keep returning to the game. Foes regularly drop unidentified items that my obsessive-compulsive side is all too content to compare meticulously with everything else I have acquired to assess which is superior.

Maybe the reason I now find Torchlight so entertaining is because I have matured as a gamer. Today I am more eager to experience a variety of different games and play mechanics, rather than feeling the need to viscerally disembowel every opponent I come across. But I don't think Torchlight appeal stems solely from my changing tastes; I believe that it is Torchlight's refinements to the point and click, loot hording model that has me so enamored.

Torchlight adds a number of small innovations that separately seem inconsequential but combine to transform the grind associated with this dungeon crawling style of RPG from a chore to pleasure.

Torchlight adds a number of small innovations that combine to transform the RPG grind from a chore to pleasure.

Cosmetic changes came first and foremost in grabbing my attention. With ten years separating the releases obviously improvements are to be expected, but it isn't Torchlight's visual fidelity that is so impressive, it is its style. Moving through the caverns of Torchlight is like walking through a cartoon.

The changing appearances of areas as I explored the caves keep the game feeling fresh while chunky featured characters, seemed joyous at their inclusion. Their bulky appearances managed to stop the game from feeling oppressive, but never prevented a growing darkness in mood as I descended through the level.

In some games this darkening mood would dampen my spirits, forcing me to limit my playtime, but Torchlight's brighter aesthetic allowed me to muster significantly more endurance to continue my games.

In conjunction with the visuals giving the experience more longevity, slight tweaks to gameplay also took prominent position among the alterations made to Diablo's formula. Streamlined character classes made starting the game less intimidating, limiting me to just three archetypal classes, ranged, melee and magic. While pairing down the classes may have limited some of the depth, with no time to replay the game, the three classes on offer more than kept me entertained as I plundered the game's depths.

Torchlight's dogs and cats bring with them a host of abilities.

But most welcome of all of Torchlight's additions was the inclusion of pets. Torchlight's dogs and cats bring with them a host of abilities. Firstly they are cute companions whose presence serves to alleviate the loneliness of the majority of the games solitary quests. Their loyalty also meant that they attacked anyone who wished me harm; a talent made all the more effective by the ability to bind spells and other powers to them. Soon after starting thegame I found myself with a furry friend who could summon skeletons and turn into a spider to help them savage any attacker that dared come near me.

Pets skills in combat however paled in significance when compared to the their primary skill. Take anyone who enjoys loot hording games and ask them the most frustrating thing about the genre and they will tell you it is the constant backtracking to stores to offload items. I still remember the stress of playing Oblivion, too far from any area where I could sell or store excess items valuable items. Forced to jettison items I may never see again I would become incapacitated by indecision. Panicking that I may make the wrong choice and loose forever a valuable item.

Pets relieve some of this stress by acting as a personal seller. My dog would happily carry as many items as I and, when required, would return to town alone to hocking any goods I didn?t want. It may not be ideal, in this equation after all I may unwittingly still offload something that may prove useful later (I am still unable to tell the superior option between a level 189 cutlass with fire and healing, over a level 191 saber with frost) but knowing I will at least acquire something from the loss went some way to easing the stress I find in these dilemmas.

Every change made to Torchlight has made the game more accessible. By reducing the complexity of initial decisions, and by removing unnecessary back tracking the entire experience becomes more pleasant, while retaining the core of what made Diablo so popular to this day. While it is not especially long, its bargain price makes it hard to not recommend.

Alex Beech writes the Scared Gamer column.

"Games connect us to exhilaration in various ways. I love mine to scare me. Although the shock, horror and gore are all pretty unnerving, nothing comes close to the sweaty palms of playing games that take you to ridiculously high places - InFamous, Mirror's Edge and Uncharted to name a few."

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Hot Wheels Track Attack Wii Review || Story Gamer column on Game People

Hot Wheels Track Attack Wii has simplistic racing, but plenty of customisation options for lovers of over-the-top toy motors.

Any sufficiently popular toy range will inevitably move into other media, including videogames, regardless of how appropriate they are to that transition. At the most absurd edge of this phenomenon, someone once tried to make a Saturday morning cartoon about a Rubiks Cube, just because the puzzle toy was hugely popular at the time.

Taking the Hot Wheels toy car range into videogames isn't quite as absurd as making a cartoon about a talking magic Rubiks Cube, but neither is it the comfortable fit that a 'toy cars = racing game' formula makes it seem.

At heart, Track Attack is exactly the game you would expect: a straight-forward arcade racer featuring the kind of souped-up, cartoonish vehicles found in the toy range. It's brightly coloured, bold and clearly aimed at relatively young gamers, with simple controls and not too much of a challenge.

There's no frills or supporting narrative to the action, which is slightly off-putting but fits with the idea that the game as a playbox of virtual toy cars. Track Attack doesn't welcome you in, but rather throws options in your face.

And there are plenty of options, with a plentiful supply of game types, cars and customisation options. The environments are less enticing, with four generic areas to race in: a tropical beach, a rain forest, a desert and a post-apocalyptic city which has the odd alien in the background, but otherwise looks more like a run-down dump than the atmospheric wastes of Fallout.

Pick a car, fiddle with the colours, and head into the first environment and you're thrown straight into the race, with no tutorial, story introduction or cut scene other than a pan-across the cars. There are no visible drivers, or anything living: Hot Wheels is cars cars cars, and that's it.

Does that mean they're supposed to be actual toys in-game? Well, the environments aren't toy-sized like in the much-loved Micro Machines games, although they are cartoonishly unreal with surreal touches like the aforementioned aliens, or a T-Rex crossing the track. Is the Hot Wheels world a cartoon land based around racing, or a super-detailed toy room? It's hard to tell.

Isn't quite as absurd as making a cartoon about a talking magic Rubiks Cube.

This uncertainty of purpose applies to the racing gameplay itself, which falls uncomfortably between straightforward classic arcade racers like Out Run, and the wackier, sillier fun of Mario Kart and its clones. Track Attack's combination of serious-faced, muscular cars and sharks bouncing over the road feels disjointed.

In spite of these reservations, Hot Wheels: Track Attack's racing handles well, albeit simplistically, and in many ways is a throwback to the simpler arcade racing of an earlier era, before Gran Turismo or even Test Drive raised the level of realism and simulation.

One way in which Track Attack tries to play with the big boys of racing games is the number of options. In terms of gameplay there are three tracks for each of the four environments, and five types of race for each, making for a total of sixty individual rounds in the single player game.

That's not bad value, albeit repetitive, especially as the variety in game types is not as deep as it seems: Race is the basic racing mode, while Elimination is the same but with the last racer knocked out after every lap. Hot Lap is against the clock, Checkpoint is a slalom weaving to hit targets on the track, while Token Grab isn't really a race at all, just a timed chance to grab the in-game tokens needed to upgrade cars.

There are plenty of cars to upgrade, but to be honest I've never been terribly interested in different kinds of car, so I picked one I liked, turned it bright pink and boosted its stats. After that point the tokens just piled up unused. The more motor-minded may enjoy tinkering with the various types of cars.

Unpretentious cartoon racing with no frills or narrative.

There are some interestingly extreme cars to unlock, and theoretically you see them in-race before you unlock them, but as the game is fairly easy you won't see much of, say, the car that looks a bit like a shark, as it'll be eating your dust with all the other opposition. I'm fairly bad at racing games, but managed to get Gold or Silver in most of the rounds on my first go.

There's also a track creation tool, for further digging into the game's possibilities, and a trophy system to reward the gradual completion of the game.

The depth of customisation just adds to Track Attack's disjointed feel, as it's hard to imagine anyone who enjoys tinkering with cars to this extent equally appreciating such straightforward arcade racing. Nonetheless, if you want a lot of unpretentious cartoon racing with no frills or narrative, but a lot of secondary toys to play with, Track Attack might be for you.

Mark Clapham writes the Story Gamer column.

"I love a good story. Games tell many different stories: the stories told through cut scenes and dialogue, but also the stories that emerge through gameplay, the stories players make for themselves."

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The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion 360 Review || Intimate Gamer column on Game People

Oblivion is a timely reminder of the intimate experience a role play game generates. How I felt about the game mirrored Oblivion's complex character relationships, but like real life these were at times slippery and contradictory.

The Elder Scroll's series is known for revolutionising the fantasy role play genre with its previous titles such as Morrowind. With the Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim out this year, I wanted to go back and play The Elder Scrolls IV, Oblivion.

First thing that strikes you is that this is still a spectacular game and has aged gracefully, crammed with lore and character diversity. I took my time, revelling in the dynamic character progression and the enthralling world itself.

Your character is paramount in the Elder Scrolls IV, and the game goes through a great deal of effort to make you feel important and unique -- capable of making many different choices. Your personal preferences are paid great attention to, your character is involved in everything, and recognised throughout the world of Oblivion for the skills you develop.

The game had such broad character capabilities, I felt almost overwhelmed by the amount of options available to me. There are hundreds of things I was able to do, and my character choices felt liberating rather than limiting. I was able to play the game the way that I wanted, which created an experience that was intimate because it was unique to me.

With different ways to complete missions and routes in and out of dungeons and houses, I could carve my own path through this world. Oblivion met me in this desire and actively encouraged me to play to my strengths. I was able to be as stealthy as I wanted, creeping my way through castles without being seen and striking from the dark, these were the talents that I had built up simply by playing the game. I really loved that it rewarded me for being consistent.

But like in any relationship, commitment and identity are complex and slippery concepts. I became head of the Brotherhood of Darkness, I became defined, I was someone, the leader of a secret order having crawled through the ranks. I was proud of my character and what I had achieved. But then almost unexpected I fell into the exact same role in the Fighter's Guild -- perhaps the total opposite of the sinful assassins that I had previously aligned myself with. It all felt a little wrong, I shouldn't be getting away with that, surely?

An experience that was intimate because it was unique to me.

It seemed like my actions were truly without limits, but at the same time these achievements accounted for nothing. The game was blind to what they ment in relationship to each other. It was simply a title placed in my journal.

Once reaching the head of the Fighter's Guild and the Brotherhood of Darkness, I too conquered the Mage's Guild and eventually went on to climb to the top of the Thieves Guild too. Such large accomplishments that seemingly amounted to nearly nothing.

In the end it felt disappointing. I had enjoyed climbing these towers, aiming to prove myself to this created world -- but I had fought for no reason. I came to realise how little my actions counted in Oblivion, and was disheartened by it despite how much I had achieved.

Oblivion is innovative, vast and challenging. Despite being a little overwhelming at times, the gameplay was enthralling and engaging, and the main quest line was enough to let you to trawl your way across mountains and through dungeons and long forgotten Elven Ruins.

Every action has an equal and opposite reaction, but Oblivion often forgets this.

You make your own destiny and the game respected you for it, even if it didn't manage to make your successes feel worthwhile. Every action has an equal and opposite reaction, but Oblivion often forgets this.

The game fought for its marvellous balance of entertainment and challenge. The non-playable characters were engaging and I could frequently overhear conversations that lead me to secrets and treasure. I felt comfortable and welcomed by the world, my character, even without a voice and background seemed a firm part of it.

If Skyrim can continue to build upon this foundation, and establish a stricter relationship between the different roles, it will be an experience not to be missed.

Hollie Simon wrote this Intimate Gamer article under the watchful eye of Emma Boyes.

"I thought it would be interesting to write about sex and relationships in Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, DS lite and PSP games. I'll also touch on other areas like how women are portrayed, gender roles, and being gay."

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