Sunday Supplement – 8th January

Comic courtesy of Fat Gamers.

It’s always hard during the first week back after the Christmas break. Most of us have spent bucket-loads drinking and eating, have put on loads of weight, then spend bucket-loads buying D-list celebrity fitness DVDs trying to lose it all. Madness I know. Us gamers, however, are a different sort. We have a means of salvation. We hole ourselves up, take advantage of the week off and game until our eyes bleed.

That said, there’s no rest for the wicked, and this week there have been some extremely interesting announcements in the gaming world, primarily erupting from the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, where all the major players in the technology world gather to premier their latest gadgets. There’s no ‘give me a few days to get back in the swing of things’ for those guys.

Get out of my shop!

Late in the week, Sony Corporation chairman and CEO Sir Howard Stringer demoed some of the ways you’ll be able to expand your PSP’s multimedia functions. You’ll be able to stream audio and visual content and local broadcasts via a Wi-Fi connection, using their Location Free TV technology. Sony is also re-launching its Connect music download service in March, which will allow users to download music, games and videos direct to the PSP. With all those options, will there be any space left for traditional gaming?

It’s a compelling product for mainstream tech-heads, but gamers might feel a little aggrieved. Is it wrong to be nostalgic for a time when a game console was just that? It seems that each new hardware release has more multimedia functions than the last. You’ve got photo and movie viewing, music playing and web browsing. Is there a danger that gaming will be squeezed out in this maelstrom of digital entertainment?

Some would argue that as it becomes increasingly simple to download files to mobile game devices and home consoles, the opportunity to play innovative old-school arcade games of the type currently available on Xbox Live Marketplace is greater than ever. It’s a compelling argument indeed.

Don’t say the M-word

Not Mutha-truckers, but Mega-CD. That’s right, the early 90s add-on for the Mega Drive that some would argue set the cogs in motion for Sega’s demise. At CES this week, Bill Gates confirmed that the 360 would support HD-DVD with an add-on drive, out by the end of 2006. It marks the culmination of months of speculation – Microsoft will support Toshiba’s HD-DVD standard, in direct competition with Sony’s Blu-Ray.

As soon as the announcement was made, Sony and Nintendo fan-boys lit up forums with laughter and mockery. “The beginning of the end” they said. “Remember the Mega-CD? That started all Sega’s problems” they cried. Well, relax. The Mega-CD was a gaming add-on that was practically ignored by developers, fearful of supporting a device owned by only a fraction of Mega Drive users. This HD DVD add-on is merely for movies, so gamers can take it or leave it without the user base becoming split. The Mega-CD was also far too expensive (£270 in April 1993), which is an area that Microsoft could fail on if they don’t launch the device at a competitive price point. A relatively cheap price could make the add-on highly attractive to those thinking about HD DVD.

So comparisons at this stage are unfair. A comparison with the Xbox’s DVD remote (which enabled DVD playback) is far more valid. The remote was merely adding a new non-gaming function to the console, adding nothing to the gaming experience. Sure, it won’t be compelling to those without HD televisions, but you could argue the same for Blu-Ray movie playback on the PlayStation 3. It’s hard to argue that an Xbox 360 plus a HD DVD drive for the same price as a standalone HD DVD player isn’t attractive.

The end of the magazine (and other apocalyptic predictions)

Future Publishing, the specialist magazine publisher, will be quaking in its boots. Microsoft has had a very successful time making available free game demos to download from Xbox Live Marketplace. One enjoyed by staff at Pro-G recently is the demo of Fight Night Round 3, the excellent boxing title from EA Sports. While gamers are enjoying free demos downloaded straight to their 360 hard drives, the move has serious implications for the videogame magazine.

Increasingly, covermounts loaded with demos are the most compelling reason to buy a game magazine. As editorial content between the front and back pages starts to look more like cleverly disguised press releases than independent critical thought, disillusioned gamers spend their six quid primarily for a chance to play a new demo. But why bother if you can download the demo for nothing, saving the money for a few pints instead?

The game publishers will look at both avenues with a commercial eye. Microsoft can boast X number of Xbox Live users the demo would potentially reach. Future Publishing’s game titles are already battling against dwindling readerships and competition from game websites. To see one of their last remaining ultimate selling points slither away into the online domain will cause at least a few executive brows to sweat. The world is changing peeps. Gaming is changing. We are on the cusp of a new wave of electronic entertainment, and no one is safe.

A triumph of innovation

I know they haven’t cured cancer, or ended world poverty (maybe they’re leaving that till the end of the Revolution’s life cycle), but Nintendo have had tremendous success with the DS, and it’s all down to a slice of courageous innovation.

It has been claimed that Nintendo is on its last legs, and to be honest, there is some justification to the scaremongering. The clunky design of the DS doesn’t stand up well to the sleek modernism of the PSP, and no one has yet figured out how to make a game that works brilliantly with the stylus and the dual screen format. The GameCube might be considered a failure, crippled like the N64 before it (although overall sales of the N64 compare favourably with both the Xbox and the GameCube), by a lack of third-party support. The Revolution isn’t immune from criticism either, with many reluctant to embrace its controller, confused and sceptical by the thought of re-evaluating their tried and trusted generic game designs. But this week, Nintendo reported 13 million sales of the DS – bravo Nintendo.

I’m no fan-boy, but I feel it’s essential to applaud risk taking within the games industry when it works. Nintendo’s success has been driven by a desire to change the way we play games, and at the same time recapture the magic that got a generation hooked in the first place. All this in a gaming culture obsessed with processor power, high-definition and free-roaming gangster adventures. The DS’s biggest selling games are prime examples of how Nintendo has tried to merge classic gaming action with cutting edge portable technology. In Nintendogs, a game with one of the simplest premises ever – train and look after a dog. In Mario Kart DS, the classic arcade racer, you can race other gamers over a wireless internet connection from your local McDonalds.

Sure, DS games might not look so good against the stunning, crisp beauty of the PSP, and it seems inevitable that the Revolution won’t be able to produce graphics of the calibre of the 360 and PS3, but when it comes to having fun, Nintendo still rule the world.

This week on Pro-G

If you haven’t checked out the site this week, here’s what you’ve missed.

Reviews

GripShift (PSP)

WWE Smackdown! vs RAW 2006 (PSP)

Prince of Persia Revelations (PSP)

Previews

Dead or Alive 4 (Xbox 360)

New releases

Absolutely nothing new this week. It’s January, so it’s no surprise, but surely someone could have released something. A week all to itself could have done a lesser-known title wonders, but no. You’ll just have to make do with the games that are on offer in the January sales. The bargains aren’t as numerous as we’d have liked, but if you shop around you could probably pick up five or six quality games for the price of a new release.

At least next week will be better… won’t it? Well, technically, yes, but not by much. The Sims 2 is set to hit the PSP (hold back your excitement) and King of Fighters 2002 should arrive on the Xbox with Xbox Live support.

Next week on Pro-G

With new releases rarer than a recognisable face in Celebrity Big Brother, we’ll be taking a look at more games that slipped through the net late last year. Plus we’ll have a preview of TOCA Race Driver 3 and start our feature looking ahead into 2006.