It feels like it’s been ages since the last IVG Podcast. So Nash and I finally decided to get on Skype and see if we still remembered how it was done. As it turns out, we never knew how it was done in the first place, but regardless, we finally have IVG Podcast #12 after a gap of six months.
We’ve tried to keep the podcast as short and crisp as possible. Hit the jump for a round-up of what we talked about this time and to listen to the podcast.
Put this one down as a rumour. A mysterious Twitter persona has spilled the beans on the internal goings-on at Australian studio Team Bondi, the developer behind the infinitely delayed LA Noire. If postings on Twitter account Veracious Shit are to be believed, LA Noire may well be responsible for Rockstar’s new IP – Agent, being exclusive to the PS3.
According to the source, Sony initially funded and was slated to publish the then untitled project by Team Bondi. The studio is headed by Brendan McNamara, the creative force behind PS2 runaway success The Getaway, and Sony wanted in on McNamara’s next project. But after having sunk $20 million and many years into the project with no substantial result, Sony decided to dump the property in 2005, even as Team Bondi started to see a mass exodus of employees, leaving the studio in disarray, the Twitter posts recount.
Darksiders isn’t a very original game. Take, for example, the Zelda-like dungeons and equipment, the God of War style finishers, the Soul Reaver-like wings, or the most blatant example a Portal gun that creates, well, portals… I could go on. But that’s really not the point of this review. Sure, the game borrows a lot from other titles, but it does so rather well. It won’t have you screaming “bloody rip-off!” every time you come across a familiar gameplay mechanic, instead it will have you thinking “how do I cross that bloody chasm over there so I can get to that treasure chest?”. Darksiders is the perfect example of why there is nothing wrong with borrowing ideas as long as you make a great game to go along with it. This first effort from developer Vigil Games is surely a promising one and is guaranteed to leave an impression.
In case you haven’t noticed, we recently announced the IVG Game of the Year 2009 (click here to be read all about it), and now it’s time to name the three winners of the Game of the Year Lucky Draw. Three winners were picked from all those who voted in the IVG Game of the Year. Winners were picked at random, irrespective of which games they voted for, so it really was a lucky draw. And here are the three lucky IVG members:
After a month of voting and deliberations, we’re finally now able to announce IVG’s Game of the Year for 2009. Below are the IVG Community’s top 10 games of 2009 as voted by our members on the forums throughout December. To see the list of games that made up the rest of the top 20, head over to the discussion thread here. Before we announce the top 10, here’s a quick round up of the winners of the various other categories in the IVG GOTY 2009:
Best New IP - Batman: Arkham Asylum
Best Use of Co-op - Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
Best Sports Game - FIFA 10
Best Racing Game - Colin McRae: DiRT 2
Best Fighting Game - Street Fighter IV
Best Strategy Game - Warhammer 40000: Dawn Of War II
Best Multi-player Game - Killzone 2
Best Downloadable Game - Flower
Best Platformer - Ratchet & Clank: A Crack in Time
Best Action-Adventure Game - Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
Best Multi-platform Game - Batman: Arkham Asylum
Best RPG - Dragon Age: Origins
Best Shooter - Killzone 2
Best Handheld Game - Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars
Best Franchise/Series Title - Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
Best Game No One Played - Ratchet & Clank: A Crack in Time
Most Disappointing Game - Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
Best Character - Nathan Drake - Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
Best Story - Assassin’s Creed 2
Best PC Game - Dragon Age: Origins
Most Epic Gaming Moment - Nepal chopper chase/building collapse - Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
One To Watch In 2010 - Heavy Rain
Multi-player gaming is being given more importance today than ever before. So much so that many people now see single player-only games as less value for money. While a negative side effect to the popularity of multi-payer gaming is that many games now come with tacked on multi-player modes just for the sake of it, a few stand out of the crowd as masters of the art, and here is a select bunch that made our list of nominees for Best Multi-player Game of 2009.
Street Fighter 4 did many things right. It remained faithful to the series’ past, it looked brilliant, and it played extremely well offline and online. But just as importantly, it led the revival of competitive gaming in a multi-player genre that was on a steady decline. DICE released the multi-player-only Battlefield 1943 to a thundering response, shattering day one and week one sales records for download-only games on Xbox LIVE and PSN. The game brought back the large scale multi-player battles that the Battlefield series is known for; something that was missing from Battlefield: Bad Company.
Last year was without a shadow of a doubt the Year of the Fighting Games with almost every legendary franchise churning in a contender for the crown. While games like King of Fighters XII deserved to go into the garbage bin straight out of the factory, most of the others were solid heavyweights who put up a quite tough fight in the ring.
The two surprise hits of the year would definitely be the spiritual sequel to the popular Guilty Gear series – BlazBlue, as well as the dark horse, UFC 2009: Undisputed, both packing excellent gameplay elements. The sixth iteration of the Tekken series, going by the tried and tested formula of ‘if it isn’t broken, don’t fix it’, managed to blend in perfectly into the 15 years-old franchise, but perhaps lost its fizzle due to lack of new moves.
The PSP has died many deaths in its lifetime. And the commonly proclaimed reason for its untimely demise is the lack of quality software on the platform. While games such as the recently released Motorstorm: Arctic Edge, LittleBigPlanet and Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars chip in from time to time as counter arguments, it is fair to acknowledge that the story of Sony’s handheld isn’t exactly a fairy tale come to life.
At this point, you must be wondering if this is the review of Assassin’s Creed: Bloodlines or an obituary for the PSP. The thing is, Assassin’s Creed: Bloodlines felt like an obituary to the PSP. For all its flaws (which I shall describe to the tiniest gory details shortly), the fundamental mistake lies in the core design model that many developers have attempted time and again on the PSP and failed at it more often than not. Bloodlines goes down as yet another futile attempt at delivering an experience similar to that of the home consoles.
Getting nominated for the Best Multi-platform Game of 2009 is a tough gig. Not only does the game have to be excellent, but it has to be excellent across all platforms. And that is no easy feat. It has to look good, control right and, if possible, build upon the strengths of each platform as well. Let’s take a look at our nominees and find out why they got the nod over other equally good games.
Borderlands was a bit of a dark horse. Not many people were following it before release, but once word of mouth got around, a lot of people ended up picking up (and loving) the game. Built upon the already successful UE3, it looked absolutely stunning across all the three platforms, thanks to its cel shaded visual style. It ran smoothly as well without any noticeable tearing or slowdowns. Modern warfare 2 was always going to be a nominee. It not only managed to look stunning across both the consoles, but ran at a dreamlike 60 FPS. On the PC side of things, it might have fallen out of favour because of its lack of dedicated servers, but its excellent Steam integration managed to bring back a lot of faithful fans.
The handhelds are often shunned as kiddie or commuter devices. But truth be told, both the DS and the PSP sell by the droves and millions around the world can spend their time better in the train/bus/school/office/plane. It’s not just the portability though; both come with a line-up of fantastic games - some good enough to give their console counterparts a run for their money.
First up is Scribblenauts, with one of the most innovative gameplay designs in a long time. It breaks free from the shackles of linearity and set pieces and truly sets the player’s imagination free. You think of it, and it’s drawn on the screen. Not just that - but it behaves the way you think it would. Where else could you summon a Large Hadron Collider, which creates a black hole, or a biker who goes up against a raptor to save the model? It’s a shame that the controls were finicky and seemed to have a life of their own. Controls are not an issue for The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks though. Everything you expect in a Zelda game is there - fiendish puzzles, dungeons, and a certain hero with the stupidest costume since Peter Pan. Spirit Tracks improves on Phantom Hourglass by leaps and bounds, a tough task in itself, and presents one of the best Zelda adventures in years.
