Video Games

Random Encounter #1 – Girls, Guns ‘n’ Games

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Welcome to the very first edition of Random Encounter. Running as a counterpoint to our retro games column Visual Memory, this new monthly feature tackles the issues facing gamers in the here-and-now. Podcaster, reviewer and hardcore gamer Olivia Cottrell kicks things off with a matter very close to her heart…

All the Mass Effect news lately – especially the trailer featuring the female version of Commander Shepard – has gotten me thinking about the first game in the series. Mass Effect introduced me to gaming as a hobby (some might say an obsession), but why did I latch on to that particular game when I had played others before it and have enjoyed others since? What made Bioware’s space opera so special? Which buttons did it press that others didn’t?

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Visual Memory #1 – ‘The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap’

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The Legend of Zelda celebrates its 26th anniversary next week but Christopher Bell is looking back, not forward, in the first edition of Visual Memory – a brand new monthly column exploring classic games on extinct systems…

Legend has it that the kingdom of Hyrule is protected from an ancient darkness by the Picori Blade, a sacred sword entrusted to the royal family by the Minish – a race of Borrower-sized folk who can only be seen by children. Every century, the people of Hyrule celebrate their victory over the forces of evil by holding a royal tournament, at which the winner is allowed to touch the sacred blade. It just so happens that this year’s winner is an evil sorcerer by the name of Vaati, who shatters the sword, unleashing a tide of monsters on the land. To make matters worse, he turns the young princess Zelda to stone. It’s up to her young friend Link to track down the mysterious Minish, re-forge the Picori Blade and restore the princess…

 

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Video Game Review – ‘Doctor Who: Worlds in Time’

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For such a diverse show, Doctor Who has always stuggled when it comes to video games. Could Worlds in Time be the one to buck the trend? Olivia Cottrell takes her virtual TARDIS for a spin…

Pity the Doctor Who fan who also happens to be a video game geek. While the Doctor might initially seem a perfect fit for the video game world – his universe of strange aliens, dramatic stories and quirky characters is already one with a touch of the virtual about it – the franchise’s attempts to cross into video games have so far been decidedly lacklustre. While perfectly decent for free titles, a clunky control system and broken AI meant that the recent range of downloadable 3D Adventure Games were frequently frustrating experiences.  As someone who considers herself both a video games nerd (I’ve spent too many hours shouting at dragons over the past month to successfully argue otherwise) and a Doctor Who fan, I was ready for something more satisfying.

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Video Games Review – ‘Mortal Kombat’ (2011)

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Beat-em-up classic Mortal Kombat rose from the dead earlier this year, looking better than ever. But, after almost twenty years and some bad mistakes (including those dreadful movies starring Christopher Lambert), has the game that launched a thousand headlines retained its power to shock? And, more importantly, is it any fun to play? Christopher Bell finds out…

I’ve been playing the Mortal Kombat series since it made its gore-soaked, parent-and-politician-bothering debut way back in the early 1990s and, considering that I’m now 27, that would put me at around nine or ten years old when MK1 first arrived.  Don’t panic; my folks were OK with it, and I didn’t become the ultra-violent little so-and-so that the naysayers claimed I would.

Skip forward to the here-and-now.  The digitised actors have been replaced by fully Unreal Engine 3 rendered, three-dimensional punch bags, albeit on a 2D plane; the ninja costumes are no longer re-colours (the original suit was white, and the colours changed depending on the character), giving a greater sense of visual identity and, last but not least, the series’ trademark Fatalities are much more grisly.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Because the biggest change is not merely technical.

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Video Games Review – ‘Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine’

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Olivia Cottrell gives us the lowdown on Space Marine, published by THQ for Xbox 360, Playstation 3, and PC and released on September 6th 2011.

Well, it was inevitable, really. Having reviewed the promotional game Kill Team, it seemed only natural that I try Space Marine when it came out- at least, that’s the excuse I used. Released on Friday last week, Relic Entertainment’s vision of a grim, dark far future where there is only war is a surprisingly enjoyable romp that incorporates some of the best things about the Warhammer 40,000 universe.

The story of the game is simple enough. The player is put in the clunky armoured shoes of Brother-Captain Titus, an Ultramarine (the best kind of space marine, apparently) captain tasked with liberating a strategically vital world from the orks. Things develop quickly and, though I won’t spoil the climax, there are some pretty fun action sequences that have to be seen to be believed. Combat is standard hack and slash/point and shoot, though the game’s decision to omit the now-ubiquitous cover mechanic means that unwary players can quickly find themselves mobbed. You can only regain health by performing finishing moves on enemies- initially this seems alright but you can still be attacked while doing so, which can be very frustrating.

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Video Games Review – ‘Warhammer 40,000: Kill Team’

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This week, resident games geek Olivia Cottrell indulges her inner (and outer) nerd in the franchise that swallowed so many of our adolescent hours. And there’s no need to fork out for a new Codex…

Impossible Podcasts, I have a confession to make. My name is Olivia Cottrell, and I am a former Warhammer 40,000 tabletop gamer. Yes, some of my most formative years were spent hunched over tiny plastic figurines huffing more paint fumes than was probably good for me. I can tell you why painting an Ork vehicle red makes it go faster. I have read no less than five Dan Abnett books. I even, Emperor help me, know what a Krootox is. The Warhammer 40k universe, with its bold strokes of evil aliens versus grim (but noble) bald men lends itself exceptionally well to a certain style of tongue-in-cheek video gaming, and I was excited to revisit that world without accidentally gluing my hand to the table.

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