Gaming – David Addis's Blog

Who’s been Going Loco?

Hello! I’ve been hard at work on a new VR game called Going Loco. It’s a fun and accessible puzzle game for the Meta Quest where you have to complete the missing parts of a map to guide the cars, trains and planes to safety.

You have a set of Tiles in your ‘Palette’, which can be opened by flipping either hand palm-up, allowing the other hand to grab a Tile and place it. My friend Gaz had some great suggestions for improvements, like using the face buttons on the controllers to spin the Tiles (like you might in Tetris) before placing them, avoiding some unnecessary re-manipulation of the Tiles to get them in the correct rotation.

You have some control over time. By opening the Palette or placing a Tile, you can slow down time to build enough roads or track for the oncoming vehicles. And once everything is in place, you can press a button to speed up as well, to see the events unfold faster if you’ve been replaying a level for a while!

You’re graded on your performance in real time, so abusing the slowdown system may cost you a Star in your 3-star level score, and likewise by using the speed-up feature, you can improve your speed. But you have to pay attention to the route vehicles will take to avoid some explosive consequences of not clearing the path.

The game uses several “Low Poly” asset packs from Synty Studios, which I feel really set the colourful, detailed and clean aesthetic of the game. I also used over 20 tracks from BenSound for the music, which I play with heavily – adding low-pass filters to make the dialogue more clear, and slowing down or speeding up to match the game speed.

I had the original idea for this game in 2012, and made a very basic prototype for iPhone, which is sadly lost to time now. But I think the mechanic actually works better in VR, where you can physically grab the Tiles naturally using another great Unity asset, Autohand, which handles all the hand-poses and physics associated with grappling the objects. Having these tools available is great, because it means a solo developer like me can concentrate on the gameplay without getting bogged down in the details. I stand on the shoulders of giants, and try to see as far as one person can.

Going Loco is out now on the Meta Quest Store and is priced at $9.99 (there may be variations for local currencies). You can download the press kit here. Please get in contact if you’d like any further information.

Become a Home Detective!

Get the game here:

https://www.oculus.com/experiences/quest/6123516891014614/

Today I released my new game, Home Detective on the Meta App Lab. It’s a VR game that uses passthrough (making it a bit more like an AR game), and lets you become a kind of work-from-home detective, solving crimes from your own living room.

I started off making a passthrough and hand-tracking game only, with the idea that players would interact with their environment in a very natural way, but soon realised that adding controller support would be best, as the accuracy and precision of controller tracking (along with it having real buttons) makes it a lot more reliable. And then recently I added a ‘Pure VR’ mode which you can play standing or even sitting down, so anyone – even those with small play areas – can still enjoy the game.

There are some cool interactions – you can search a body for clues, finding debris under the fingernails, open cupboards and drawers and search them (while they feel like real furniture in your own home), and dust objects for fingerprints.

One feature I am particularly proud of is the ‘Residual Heat Scanner’ which shows leftover footprints, and items that the criminal(s) may have touched. It is basically a Unity light that activates certain objects, but I had to optimise the shader very hard to allow the use of more than 1 per-pixel light on the Meta Quest 2.

Another feature you can’t see in screenshots is the Dynamic Music System. The tracks for each level are divided into instruments (thanks to the awesome guys at https://www.fesliyanstudios.com/), and I layer on more tracks as the scene gets more intense. By the end of the level, when you are picking the suspect, everything is going full blast, but it ramps up so gradually you don’t notice the changes.

The game can be downloaded for free from App Lab, and extra levels are available as IAPs. Please take a look!

Persona 5: A lifetime in one week

Upon finishing the game, I typed “post-persona…” into Google and was both surprised and relieved to see it auto-complete to “… depression.” Surprised because I didn’t expect it to be the first hit, but more relieved to discover I wasn’t alone.

And I say finished rather than completed because I have the option of starting the story again in “New Game+” mode, but I can’t bring it to myself to wipe their memories clean. The story has ended, and I have closure, but I’m not done processing it all yet. I haven’t completed the game because I didn’t see every cutscene or have time for every conversation, but I have finished it. Or maybe the game finished me.

So why did it leave this impact? For two main reasons: story, and characters. These two subjects have been written about endlessly so I won’t roll out the million reasons why they are the two most important things to get right in any form of entertainment. But I will mention a couple of things that were done so well here that it left a bigger impression than any other videogame. The Witcher 3 and the Mass Effect series came close, but this is a whole new level. I spent quite a bit of time in front of the tv playing these.

From this point on, there are SPOILERS! So if you haven’t played Persona 5 yet, do it now! Seriously, it’s wonderful. It takes a long time but it’s worth it.

Persona 5 is a game about time management. That immediately sounds like a boring game, but it’s not. Every day you are presented with a plethora of different options including hanging out with your friends, studying or otherwise improving your character on your own, or going to battle monsters in a strange alternate universe. You are also presented with the ambitious goal of attempting to maximise your social connections, study for exams at school, and defeat certain monsters – all before a time limit. Somewhere in your brain, you are very good at assigning value to these things and weighing up objectively different activities and deciding what to do. You do this in real life anyway (shall I go to the shops and buy milk, or sort out my emails?) – except for the monster-fighting part. Probably. At least, I don’t.

So a lot of the time, the game will move on to the next day and you’ll think, “shall I train with the kid at the arcade, which will improve my kindness and possibly give me a new gun skill, or shall I take a bath and improve my charm?” The game gives you some extra incentives, such as a bonus to studying on rainy days, or in-battle bonuses when your team-mates form a stronger bond, which influences your decision-making.

But the deadlines are tight, and you will find you don’t have time to do everything. This gives the gameplay a frought, tense pace, even though you play an entire school year’s worth of days.

Not all the characters are likeable – I found Haru’s childish voice acting (at least in the English version) to be grating, and Yusuke’s flowery dialogue to be pretentious with none of the intelligence, but it wasn’t a problem. I just didn’t hang out with them. Morgana, your talking cat sidekick, starts off being whiny and conceited but somehow grows on you, despite also preventing you from carrying out extra tasks when you’re tired. “You’ve had a long day – don’t you want to get to bed?” No Morgana, I don’t, I want to go and work in the bar in Shinjuku to raise my kindness!

Slowly though, you improve yourself as a character in the various stats, and strengthen your bonds with the characters you like the most. You start to unravel the story, which has so many twists and turns you never get bored.

But unlike a movie that throws out so many ideas you can’t keep up (I’m looking at you, Star Trek Into Darkness), the game’s ideas hang together really well. The idea of starting the game with a flashback, and slowly showing how you got to that situation works beautifully, and what happens when you finally catch up is nothing short of storytelling genius. The writers combined everything you know about the gameplay with some very clever moves by the characters. And more importantly, it feels like I was a part of it. I decided what to say in dialogue choices, and my character was right there. It’s the kind of immersion I never feel from a film, and very rarely from a book. I feel like it happened to me, and around me. I feel more like a part of a story than a passive observer.

The school setting is very clever. At a time of life when you know your hormones are in full swing, and emotional connections buzz and sting like bees sitting on power lines feeding directly to your heart, your mobile phone becomes a great menu for choosing your interactions and communicating with the cast.

None of this would be enough, if not for the gameplay. While I will say that it got repetitive towards the end, and the last boss is more a test of endurance than of skill, it should be noted that it is very good. A turn-based affair of choosing skills, items and special attacks, it has been finely honed over the course of the Persona games, and is presented with a confident style here. The simplicity of attacking in turn is embellished carefully with bonuses, buffs, debuffs, and rewards for capturing personas from the enemy.

And finally, the icing on the cake: the style. Persona 5 sweats out liquid gorgeous from every orifice, from the harsh zig-zag menus, to the attack animations, the picture-in-picture close-ups of your friends when they emote, and… well, everything. The personas themselves are fascinating beasts, as varied as Pokemon, and not afraid to live up to the 16 age-rating certificate. Some personas are chained women only covering their modesty with their hair, others are demons, grinning as they hide phallic cones. Later in the game, there is what can undeniably be called a penis monster. It literally is a giant penis, that imposingly lurches forward to attack you, and hangs pathetically limp when low on health.

It is not a short game, and requires a significant investment of time. Not just to make it through the story, but also to explore the different activities on offer, and maximise your limited time in the most efficient way possible. By the end of the game, I had got my character stats to max, and got the strongest bond possible with about 8 of my confidants. But it was close.

I went into the final section of the game hoping this was enough, and eventually saw the credits roll on what was an uplifting, bitter-sweet ending. It was with immense joy that I saw my character and my friends go on a road trip together to take me back to my home town, but it left this vacuous gap in my heart as I realised I wouldn’t see them again. They were happy, and safe, but lost to me now. My character might see them again in the fiction of the world, but I won’t.

The incredible irony is that Persona 5 teaches you the value of friendship and connections, and of working diligently to improve yourself as a person. However I looked at the final game timer on my last game save which read “134 hours” (slightly longer than it takes to watch every episode of Friends ever made) and realised I’d been sitting on my arse in front of my PlayStation for a long time. But… having said that, there’s no way I would take it back. In fact, I feel jealous of anyone who hasn’t done it yet.

The best games ever

Lists! YouTube is full of lists! “10 things you missed in Halo 2”, “9 reasons to care about Assassin’s Creed”, “13 aardvarks in turn-based strategy games”.

They’re kind of stupid. But I wanted to do my own, so I pared it back a bit and have produced my own – simple – list.

The 5 best games

That’s right. As a lifelong games player, enthusiast, and developer, I feel I have a great deal of experience playing a wide variety of titles. So here is a list of what I consider to be the best games ever made. This is not really adjusted for time – it’s just what would be the most fun to play right now.

So, here we go, in reverse order for extra excitingness:

5. Halo 3

Halo, the classic shooter that propelled the original Xbox into the mainstream, can be hailed as the first (or at least one of the first, yes I hear you Goldeneye) FPS to successfully bring the genre to console and nail the controls on a gamepad. So much so, that nowadays when I play Call of Duty or Titanfall, I prefer using a gamepad over the traditional mouse-and-keyboard combo.

Halo 2 pushed the Xbox to the limit, and the multiplayer was sublime. But the single-player campaign left people wanting. Personally I didn’t enjoy playing the arbiter missions (I’m the chief!), and the ending was… well, it wasn’t there. They ran out of time!

Halo 3 corrected every mis-step Bungie made on Halo 2, and on a new console (the Xbox 360), the developers could step up the graphics a notch as well. The single player campaign is thoughtfully constructed with some fun maps, and they cleverly focused on the aspects of the game that were the most fun. There is ample opportunity to drive your warthog around, with AI soldiers manning the turrets, fly around in alien ships, and of course the “thirty seconds of fun” often touted by the developer is in plain sight, where you pick off a few bad guys, melee some others, hide from some shots, and finish off the group with a well-placed grenade.

Play the whole Bungie series! Halo, Halo 2, Halo 3, Halo ODST and Halo Reach. Even better in multiplayer! Halo 4 was good as well. I think the internet jury is still out on Halo 5. It seems like the bar has been raised so many times that it’s very, very high, and 343 Industries is having a tough time clearing it.

4. Uncharted 4

You’ll need some high-rated sunglasses when playing this game, because the polish and shine on display is mesmerising. Uncharted made a name for itself on PlayStation 2 with the original, an interactive Indiana Jones adventure, drawing heavily on the Tomb Raider series for inspiration. Uncharted 2 improved across the board, but somehow Naughty Dog couldn’t repeat the success with number 3. It’s still good. If you have the time, play it, for nothing else than the continuity of the story. But the frustrating gunplay (I died many, many cheap deaths) had me tossing the controller away in anger several times.

Naughty Dog sensibly took a little break (working on the technically amazing, but personally not as enjoyable The Last Of Us in the meantime), and when they came back for Uncharted 4 everything has been made perfect. Seriously, I don’t know how they could make this product any better. I really like and care about the characters, the way they play off each other is inspired, and the gameplay is ridiculously fun. Nate snaps to cover satisfyingly, and the forgiving platforming will make you feel like a superhero swinging off ropes and clinging onto cracks in walls.

Graphically, I had to rub my eyeballs several times to drink in the sights. Perhaps this comment will sound dated in another 5, 10, or more years, but it feels like we are pushing our way out of the uncanny valley now. It’s still not photoreal, but it is gorgeous. The colours and lavish scenery will really spoil you, if you have enough time to notice while so swept up in the world of A Thief’s End.

3. XCOM: Enemy Unknown

I’ve covered this before, and my recommendation stands! It’s simply the most effective turn-based strategy game I’ve ever touched. The animations of soldiers as they vault over scenery and pop a shot around the corner is deeply satisfying, and the threat from the aliens is real. When your soldiers die, they’re gone forever. And so without any specific effort on Firaxis’s part, they spun some incredible stories just through the nature of the mortal qualities of my characters. I spent hours with them on various missions, then all of a sudden, they die. In one case I had one amazing soldier who made it through the whole game, only to die in the last mission, but ensuring success and humanity’s survival. It was a specific route that only ever played out in my game, and I felt quite emotional when the credits scrolled by.

XCOM 2 was also great. Probably just as great, maybe even a little more. Just play both, okay? They’re good on iPad, but I might suggest keyboard-and-mouse (or even Steam controller) for the best experience.

2. Mass Effect 2

Much has been said about Commander Shepard and his galactic fight about The Reapers, and it’s difficult to know what to add. The whole series is great, but this felt like the game that raised the bar even higher than players’ lofty expectations after the original was released.

I love the freedom Bioware gave us to shape a hero to our own liking, allowing us to choose the gender of our protagonist, and giving equally valid options to resolve conflicts with powerful words or punishing weapons. In many ways it is Star Wars: The Game, a beloved space opera which is less sci-fi and more gripping thriller, with sexy technological undertones.

The characters you add to your squad are well-rounded and charismatic, and in this release they improved the gameplay competently. Play Mass Effect 3 as well of course, just don’t miss out on this one.

1. The Witcher 3

The first Witcher game was not so accessible, but when CD Project Red came round to making the sequel, they improved their franchise in just about every way possible. The Witcher 2 was a mature, deep adventure game for adults. Combining believable characters with a fascinating plot that you could actually shape yourself – like really: huge swathes of the game were different depending on whether you sided with humans or the other races, and different plots would activate depending how you resolved various other quests. The fighting system was fun, just hard enough in normal mode (to give you that nervous edge while fighting for your life), and the multiple endings were satisfying. This review won’t go into spoilers, but I like how they bucked a videogame trope and didn’t make me do something that all other games make me do.

CD Project was also not afraid to deal with some powerful themes as well. Torture, homelessness, rape and more is discussed, and as a powerful force yourself, you feel the responsibility to take action and correct some misdeeds. The gore is explicit but not sensationalised, and I’m relieved to see they’re not scared to render a nipple or two (and potentially many more depending what you get up to).

In The Witcher 3, it just got even better. Initially dismayed by the announcement that it would be open-world, I found they made the formula work very well. And they ramped up the impact your decisions had on the world even more. You literally decide the fate of nations – sometimes by accident – and the level of interaction with the characters is mesmerising. You will find yourself genuinely feeling something for your fellow witchers and sorceresses, and the quest to find Ciri is powerfully told, along with well-scripted and thoughtful side quests. The loot, magic, potion and fighting systems have all been given another layer of polish and the whole game hums together, taking you on its adventure like a well-tuned motorcycle. Graphically, it has set a standard for AAA RPGs to aspire to. I sunk over 150 hours into this one and its two capable DLC expansions, and I consider it time well-invested.

Games you should play: iPad

This post should, perhaps, carry a health warning. If your spare time is so precious that you can’t afford some late nights spent doing something new, or that new project haplessly discarded as your attention is stolen away, just stop reading now. But if, however, you’re looking for some entertainment on your shiny new iPad, read on. I am here to help.

There is so much software available on The App Store that it’s hard to know where to start. Even if you whittle down by genre (“I like RPGs!”) you may find yourself the victim of developers who have snuck their product (“RPG Game!”) into the top 10, and spent more time on the marketing and sexy icon than programming some engrossing gameplay. And with the charts dominated by Candy Crush and Clash of Clans, the truly great games get squeezed out, much to the lamentation of any serious gamer.

You know those games that steal your time like some sort of hypnotic trick? You remember turning it on, then the adventure happens, and then suddenly it’s 3:30am, your eyes and brain hurt, and you must squeeze in 4 hours of sleep before you get up for work. These are the games that I’ve played recently that are like that – and I’m still grateful I found them!

5. Superbrothers: Sword and Sworcery EP

Originally released in 2011, Superbrothers targetted the iPad and despite a successful iPhone release as well, this is where the game shines. With some gorgeous and atmospheric pixel art, chipper chiptune (chipper-tune?) soundtrack, and a tongue-in-cheek self-aware narration and episodic structure, Sword and Sworcery EP has existed in this kind of alternate-dimension bubble entirely on its own, able to shrug off any pale imitations for 4 years.

This one might not steal an entire evening from you, after about 40 minutes of play it actively encourages you to take a break and come back when refreshed. The developers deeply care about your mood while you start (and finish) each episode and you will warm to the bizarre cast of pixelated characters.

Particularly I loved how they don’t directly identify the player, known as The Scythian. They drop in through other peoples’ comments that you are female. Perhaps if I was truly enlightened I wouldn’t even feel the need to mention this, but I thought it was great that they touch on it and don’t make a big deal out of it – as they should.

4. Game of Thrones

It’s just getting started, but the first two episodes are available now and set the scene nicely. Taking on the helm of multiple characters from House Forrester, you must guide the members of the family in an effort to prevent their House from being overrun and their precious ironwood forests being stolen.

It won’t necessarily become Thrones canon, but it does fit into it nicely, inserting its story at about the time of The Red Wedding in Thrones-Time, and provides the opportunity for plenty of cameos from the correct voice actors, such as Lady Marjorie, Cersei and Tyrion – making a decent year for Peter Dinklage in video games, along with his major role in Destiny. Roose Bolton also pops up as a particularly troublesome and threatening villain, and the game comes alive when he’s on-screen, conjuring up all the sadistic baggage he brings from the TV show.

TellTale’s real-time animatic of the Game of Thrones world intro is where some cracks start to show, it could never live up to the beautiful 3D mechanical vistas we’re used to, and when the characters play some janky animations in particularly hectic scenes, the illusion breaks down. I think they were right to concentrate on storytelling and not aesthetic naturalism, but it still grates nonetheless.

It’s still too early to tell if this will become an epic adventure game, or Just Another Scripted Adventure Game with a nod to its TV big brother, but the first episodes play well and TellTale have shown that they have the chops to deliver a full ‘season’ of entertainment with the biggest and best suprises left to the end.

3. FTL

In Faster Than Light, you command a small Federation Ship with confidential information that must be returned to the fleet. The problem is, the Rebel Fleet are hot on your tail, and you will find yourself seriously outnumbered and severely outgunned if they catch up with you. Using your wily wits, and some clinical multitasking, you must upgrade your ship as your traverse the sectors back to base, and manage the various crises that will break out on your travels.

At first the game might seem overwhelming, but through logical deduction you will find the best combination of weapons, find out how to upgrade your shield, or buy drones – or get a cloak to dodge incoming missiles… (I’m getting excited just thinking about it.) And eventually the once-powerful rebel ships will seem like trifling playthings, sauntering up to you simply to offer up their ship as scrap. And this transformation – the one that will happen entirely in your mind – is at once both empowering and spellbinding, as you become a powerful ship captain entirely through the power of your mind.

Originally a PC game, the port works well on iPad as you click on ship doors to open/close them directly, or paint a fearsome laser beam target across an enemy vessel. Be warned though, as the klaxon call of the captain’s chair is difficult to ignore after you’ve flown through a few sectors.

2. The Banner Saga

Mixing gorgeous 2D art with a compelling story of humans and giants trying to escape an apocalyptic event, The Banner Saga presents an unforgiving turn-based strategy game, where you must tightly manage resources and upgrades.

Restocking your caravan with supplies is vital, but so is keeping your warriors at the peak level, and they both draw from the same currency – ‘renown’. So at times you will choose not to level up just so you can feed the refugees you are leading away from a war. Along with many likeable characters, this makes an empathetic situation where you start to care about the people on the screen. Offering no quicksave/quickload, there are several Choose Your Own Adventure moments where you have to think quite brutally about what will be for the greater good. And often you don’t know if you chose the best path – only that you chose your own.

1. XCOM: Enemy Unknown / Enemy Within

Possibly the most addictive strategy game I have ever played, XCOM perfectly balances base-building with squad command. In a near-perfect balance, you must edge your troops forward to fight the aggressive aliens as you also upgrade your base and train your soldiers.

Everything from the PC game is here, including multiplayer, and support has been added for touchscreens so you can use gestures to rotate the camera and swipe through selections. The game can sometimes misinterpret your gesture, thinking you’re drawing a path instead of trying to move the camera, but I find these annoyances slight and not intrusive to the gameplay.

This game is perfect for tablets; you can play one mission or upgrade your base while you wait out that train journey, it looks good (it’s obviously been made compatible with older devices, so not maxing out newer hardware) and touchscreen controls fit the turn-based nature of the game well since you are never taxed with action gameplay, just thoughtful tapping and swiping. If you play one game in your life, make it this, or The Witcher 2. If you have an iPad, the choice is made for you.

Honorable Mentions

Where is ShadowRun? Oceanhorn? 80 Days, Valiant Hearts, VainGlory?! Well, they are all great games too but I wanted to share with you my personal top 5. Don’t take my word for gospel – have a look through the app store yourself too. Just don’t miss these gems!

A hardcore game developer’s favourite iPhone games

As a games developer, I have a rather high standard for games that entertain me. Staring at their inner workings for 8 hours a day has given me the keen ability to spot shallow game mechanics (not to mention lazy bugs) – and having played videogames for pretty much my whole life, I’ve been exposed to a good spread of genres, from twitchy platformers to thought-provoking RPGs.

I have a dilemma: there’s this awesome games machine I usually keep in my pocket – my iPhone (4S). It’s amazingly powerful given its size, yet the software on it is far too often lacklustre. I’ve trawled through The App Store for many an hour only to come away disappointed that there are no epic RPGs, no fantasy worlds in which I can wonder, and no fascinating characters with whom I can interact.

At least, there aren’t many.

Now there are plenty of very polished quick and fun games – Angry Birds, Where’s My Water, Cut the Rope… Games that require no explanation because you finish a level in one swipe and you’re immediately rewarded with glowing stars and growing, throbbing arrows. I can’t fault them in terms of either presentation or rapid gratification, but they’re never really satisfying on the same level as, say, The Witcher or XCom.

If I was a world-famous chocolatier, these things would be the equivalent of an advent calendar.

Do you find yourself wanting more? Here’s my top 10 list of deep iOS games. It might not scratch the surface of a fully-fledged immersion into PC gaming, but this is the best I can recommend!

10. Words with Friends

The first desynchronised multiplayer game that I remember playing, I chuckled with glee at the thought of sending off my wicked combinations of letters to my fellow players. It’s basically Scrabble by mail, with a slightly ‘Toys R Us’ feel to the user interface. Totally compelling if you like word games.

9. The Lost City

I never really played Myst, but I imagine it’s like this: visually sumptuous views of a forgotten world, and a tiny thread of story which is expounded upon by the clues you discover throughout your adventure.

The Lost City has been lovingly put together and it’s a pleasure to explore and interact with its environment. Tap on the edges of the screen to move in that direction, or tap and drag on the various puzzles to uncover the next secret.

8. Geared

An underrated little puzzler, Geared has you slotting, um, gears into place to connect a starting and ending, uh, gear. They come in different sizes (and later on, with different properties) and you must slide them together and avoid the deadly gearlock.

It looks simple at first but the compulsion to build a machine is quite irresistible, and there’s definitely a wonderful sense of achievement when you slot everything together and the gears turn away. One level in particular got me stuck for ages and I couldn’t rest until I’d solved it.

7. Spaceteam

Aka ‘Spadetram’ amongst my friends after a cursory typo, Spaceteam requires you to work together with 1-3 other iOS-tronauts, and bark commands at each other. You’re given a set of controls and must interpret the bizarre words yelled in your direction as you interleave your own requests that appear near the top of the screen. Above that, your tiny spaceship wings its way through space as you collectively shake your phone to avoid wormholes, and turn it upside down to dodge asteroids.

The tension and excitement that comes with real collaborative gameplay is unique in this game; too many times I’ve nearly missed my stop on the tube because I was too busy refreshing the biotic flange converters. And when you finally make it to sector 12, you will want to high-five like never before – as a Spaceteam.

6. Crimson Steam Pirates

A tongue-in-cheek story of both male and female pirates stirring up rivalries and disorder with the mighty Queen Victoria, Crimson has you steering your pirate ships around and issuing orders in a Frozen Synapse-style turn-based adventure. Set up your orders and special attacks at the start of the turn, then see them play out as the cannons fire.

The developers obviously had a lot of fun creating the missions, and as you are dragged through its preposterous and entertaining story, pictures of what appear to be the team and their friends dressed up as pirates do battle and emote towards the screen in stylised vignettes.

This polished and fun adventure might lead you by the nose a little at times, but it’s so much fun dragging your little ships around, ordering them to full steam ahead then lambaste your rival pirates with double powder cannons, you won’t mind in the slightest.

5. Carcassonne

After the somewhat inaccessible Xbox version, I was skeptical to see how this might play on iPhone. But sticking to a classic 2D approach, the developers nailed the deliciously pure puzzle gameplay of the board game and put in a few graphical tweaks (such as an ‘X’ which appears when tiles can no longer be connected) to boot. Also boasting stable desynchronised multiplayer, Carcassonne makes it easy to have multiple games on the go with your tile-laying friends.

4. Ghost Trick

One of the first things you’ll notice when you start playing Ghost Trick is that its animations are super fluid, and the entire game oozes style – its polished NDS original shows through here as the experienced hands of AAA game developers have clearly been at work before it made an appearance on iPhone.

You can’t fault it for an original concept – the game starts, and you’re already dead. By using your ‘powers of the dead’, you can influence the real world, and even travel back in time in small chunks in order to protect the other protagonists, and hopefully recover some of your memories.

The transition to iOS has worked nicely as you swipe to jump between different objects in the world, then interact with them to make your ghoulish intentions known.

3. Swords and Sworcery

The game itself encourages you to find a comfortable space, relax, and seal yourself into your earphones as you embark on this cheerfully pixel-heavy quest. The art style works perfectly with its retro-flavoured graphics to pull you into its environment and the characters and you will find yourself quite swept up in its fairytale world.

In what is essentially a side-on 2D adventure/exploration/battling/puzzle/wonder game, you will tap on the screen to move your nondescript character around the world and battle mysterious dark forces. The rain clunks down beautifully and the combat, although being somewhat of a rarity, offers up some scintillating interactions as you feverishly tap and rotate your way to victory. The juxtaposition of the epic setting, stylish presentation, and informal descriptions gel together to make something delightfully unique.

This adventure deserves to have been a top 10 stalwart, and not just a top 40 visitor.

2. Rimelands: Hammer of Thor

I was so pleased to find Rimelands on The App Store; finally, a turn-based strategy game with real 3D graphics, and an actual story! Rogue Planet had almost won me over, but the cool setting couldn’t carry its rather mundane combat. Rimelands’ stat-based battles, spread of abilities and intriguing loot kept me dungeon crawling whenever I could find a spare 10 minutes.

In this adventure you guide Rose, a punky and quick-witted adventurer, through several fantasy lands in search of the titular Hammer of Thor. The dialogue is hammy and churlish in places, but does serve to move on the story, and some of the characters (such as Rose’s grandma) are quite endearing.

The game clearly services some D&D roots as virtual dice roll across the screen during combat, which I found very well-balanced and entertaining. I’m still waiting for a sequel, Crescent Moon Games!

1. Civilization Revolution

It’s rare that I get so hooked on a game I count down the minutes until I can play it again, or feverishly check the clock to see how many remain until I have to stop. CivRev did this to me however, and provided a wonderful gaming panacea while I was travelling across The States and enduring some rather long coach journeys.

It captures much of the satisfying feeling of growth from its PC heritage, from the tense beginnings as you poke around with a few warriors, to amassing tanks outside a city ready for a climactic clash. The tech tree, advisors, and cloak-and-dagger negotiations with other leaders is all there, ready to be plucked from your pocket and enjoyed on the move.

So where is Ravensword, Chaos Rings, or Zenonia? The first of the three could be a good contender for a decent and ‘deep’ RPG on iPhone, I look forward to playing it when I get the chance. The latter two, though, I have tried and just didn’t find any fun at all.

Do you agree? Disagree? Have I forgotten anything? Do you desperately want to paste a link to where I can buy Viagra online?? Comment below!

Neglected Sexism – Wreck-it Ralph’s Ruin

This is no doubt in my mind that Wreck-it Ralph is a good film. I laughed, I liked the characters and wanted them to succeed, and went away feeling entertained. It managed to walk a fine line between not confusing casual viewers who know very little about computer games and catering to dorky obsessive nerds looking out for every tiny reference to game culture.

Warning: Spoilers Ahead! If you haven’t seen the film yet, you might want to come back and read this after you have.

Personally I would have liked a few more said references, my eyes and ears were finely attuned to spotting characters and locales I’ve already spent many hours playing through. Q-Bert and Zangief were welcome additions but sadly after the first 30 minutes the movie settled into its original characters and one main location – and a rather childish one at that, full of chocolate and sweets. I feel like Disney missed a trick – where was the Monsters Inc-like scene at the end, with them dashing through different doors (games), pursuing the antagonist and being forced to adapt to different game types? I wanted to see Ralph forced to play Halo one minute, Metal Gear Solid the next, then Puzzle Bobble… But of course just smashing his way through to the horror of the respective in-game characters.

To the film’s credit, there was one scene which touched me on a totally unexpected emotional level. Just when you feel like Ralph is making progress, he is forced into a situation where he must destroy something he has just created. Just as the ray of light is cast, it must be extinguished with his efficient form of destruction. He does it in a classic case of utilitarianism, and you know it’s the right thing to do, but just when he doesn’t want to wreck anything any more, he must: both the physical and the psychological. And he does it with consummate efficiency.

If this was the end of my review, Wreck-It Ralph might be somewhat forgettable; an enjoyable but shallow romp around videogames culture, but it also touched on a subject upon which I feel passionately. It almost excelled, but also totally blundered with its gender archetypes and equality.

You might be thinking, “Don’t be such a dashingly attractive idiot, Dave! There were several strong female characters in the movie, including a space marine and the racing girl.” You have a point, but they’re also overshadowed by their male counterparts at every turn. Oh, just incidentally, do you know their names? … But you remember Felix and Ralph, right?

Sergeant Calhoun is an excellent example of a writer trying to make strides to satisfy feminists like me around the world, and while I’m definitely glad the film wasn’t filled with Princess Peaches (who would inevitably be kidnapped at the drop of a hat), she had to be propped up by the Fix-It Felix character. She was essentially unstable, and while she did at least prove that she was physically strong, she was the only female marine. Couldn’t we have had some others dotted into the squad? On top of this she still had to become the love interest – as if we needed reminding that women are for impressing with our skills (or dorky admiration), and then should be married immediately.

And in an uncomfortable moment of classic sexism-overcompensation, there is a scene where Calhoun repeatedly punches Felix in the face. Ok – there was a contrived reason for this to happen (and the plucky handyman could ‘fix’ his own face with his hammer instantly), but my test for whether a situation should be acceptable or not (with gender, race, or any quality you like), is: does it still feel ok if the roles are reversed? If a burly male space marine was punching a small girl in the face, there would be outcry. We mustn’t try to ‘make up’ for decades/centuries/millennia of sexual oppression by going in the other direction. It just breeds more resentment. Now is the time for equalism.

Does it still feel ok if the roles are reversed? If a burly male space marine was punching a small girl in the face, there would be outcry.

Vanellope was shown to have racing skills, but was ultimately useless on her own. She couldn’t do anything to un-do the ‘hack’ that King Candy had performed on her (and her world). It wasn’t until Ralph appeared that she was able to do anything, thus cementing the idea that the women are incapable without a man’s help. She does come to Ralph’s rescue near the end of the film, but it’s done in such a flashy and unfeasible way I felt a little nauseous watching the scene play out.

I wonder how Wreck-It Ralph may have turned out if it had been a Pixar project. Perhaps they could have managed some of these issues with a little more grace, and ramped up the film in the areas I found lacking such as the cliche ‘action-movie’ ending.

Don’t get me wrong! I still recommend seeing it. It is a fantastically well-crafted story in a cheekily created universe… It meets my needs as a geek – I just wish they had rounded off the edges to please me as a liberal, too.

Digital Whimsy: The death of subscription gaming

I’ve started playing Star Wars: The Old Republic, Bioware’s hefty stab at capturing the MMO market, and I’m really enjoying it. It has a rich story that I’ve come to expect from their elite calibre of RPGs, and has me contendly suckling on their upgrade path teet from humble padawan to master jedi.

And it’s totally free. The decision to make the game free-to-play, while still offering a subscription was a bold one, and no doubt has attracted many new players who were curious but feeling too cynical after other disappointing massively multiplayer games. There is also a one-off purchase system where you can buy ‘Cartel Coins’ to buy in-game items.

I have considered subscribing, but not for any attractive in-game item they’ve offered me, or even to make up for some of the exclusive items available to preferred players, or, for that matter, to avoid the XP drain suffered by free-to-play leeches like myself. I wouldn’t give them money for any of the reasons they’ve attempted to coerce me.

I’d give them money because I pity them.

It’s ludicrous – they are a multi-million dollar company and I am a lone, quite unlucrative dude. But I see this huge product which cost 200 million dollars to make, and I feel the need to reward someone, to pat them on the back. And even though my money is mere pennies down the back of the sofa, I feel like it’ll somehow register in someone’s financial karma books, and a tick will be put next to the things I approve.

You see, the general subscription model is fundamentally flawed on the psychological level: it’s human nature to enjoy the things we know are in limited supply – as we crave those extra 5 minutes in bed in the morning – but in abundance any activity becomes mundane, boring, with the alternatives popping into mind and threatening to steal our attention. Subscribing works for the things we need indefinitely like electricity, water, rent… And extends to the entertainment we see needing forever, like internet service or specialist TV channels. Spotify have just managed to make music an indefinite desired service – but only because their system is very convenient, and relatively cheap.

it’s human nature to enjoy the things we know are in limited supply… but in abundance any activity becomes mundane, boring…

So when you combine a form of entertainment with a responsibility to play it (else be labelled promiscuous with your money), it creates a kernel of resentment which will probably grow as your players sink more and more time into that game. This can be seen in the reaction videos of World of Warcraft players as they delete all their characters. I’ve never played a WoW character to level 70, but I’m fully aware of the amount of time that must have been harvested here – and the cathartic digital self-harm that the video represents.

This is why the World of Warcraft subscriber base is waning – because people realise that they should be able to have their cake, or eat it, but they shouldn’t have to buy a new cake every month.

Star Wars: The Old Republic Cartel Market

Bioware have mitigated this with the ‘Cartel Coins’ system, a method by which they can still earn money from non-subcribers – but this still fosters a slight form of resentment, as you start playing a game on the basis of it being free, then discover that you have to insert your credit card number in order to unlock inventory slots, or learn more skills, or earn experience at the same rate as ‘loyal’ players. It’s not a large amount of money you need to hand over – you can correct most of these things for a one-off payment of £5 or £10, but it’s too late – they’ve already spoilt the sense of wonder, escapism and immersion by linking game features to your wallet. And it is, once again, harder to enjoy an experience when you forget you’re a jedi in a wondrous forest, and reminded that you’re a software engineer sitting at a computer.

It was obviously a very tough decision for them to migrate from subscriber-only to preferred-player and free-to-play, but it might not be enough. To really see their player base boom, Bioware need to make it free in all the ways that matter, so that players enjoy their experience from start to finish, and if they pay any money, it’s a long-forgotten experience when they come to playing the game.

This is no great prediction, but more an observation of the current state of the games industry in early 2013 – as entirely free-to-play games like Guild Wars 2 begin to shift into acute focus. And many more games such as Clash of Clans are free to download and free to play after that. You can still purchase items on the freemium model, but its impact on gameplay is not as vital. And we see games like Age of Empires Online or League of Legends, where you may purchase items but they will only ever have an aesthetic effect – you can’t unfairly boost your character’s stats with real-world cash. We welcome these games with open arms and they are also being churned out worldwide – perhaps the only limiting factor being the combination of words we can fit into the “X of Y” naming scheme.

So what will happen next? No doubt freemium will live on as subscription services are reserved for only the highest-budget games we can reluctantly agree to pay for – but perhaps we will eventually move to another system altogether: micropayments. In fact returning to the prescribed payment method for the first ever paid MMOs, we may see ourselves agreeing to pay per hour of gameplay the same way we rent movies online through Xbox Live or the Playstation Store. We’ll hand over our money at the start of every session, and go about our business free of any sense of commitment.

Alternatively, we may see more adverts creeping into games. And the same way we dive for the remote control in order to turn down the volume when the ITV advert breaks come on, we’ll wander off, or turn on the kettle as our gameplay is interrupted in order to shine shiny new products in our eyes. Hopefully, though, the very original system will live on: we pay money once, and we take our goods, and then we enjoy them without interruption. Let’s hope we can still play them when the internet goes down.