Grand Theft Auto V Delayed

The fifth installment of the ever popular open world crime-em-up Grand Theft Auto has been delayed to a September 17th release.

Rockstar acknowledge that this is roughly four months later than the game was expected and hope that the fans of the series will not be too disappointed and ensure the fans that the extra time will be worth the wait.

I personally haven't played much of GTA IV, but I have played many of the other GTA games, and many other Rockstar titles, I fully believe that if Rockstar think they need more time with GTA V then they probably want to make it a really special game.

The team behind GTA have issued a statement which can be found here.

Already on the comments for the statement released by Rockstar, fans are in uproar. One fan even goes as far to say "Honestly , I am very disgusted with this , I mean sure I understand gotta make the game the best it can be , but seriously R* don't give out false information if you're not even too sure of it yourselves!" - username: Infumous

Four in February

A lot of gamers are looking forward to February, it's the month we all get chocolates, flowers and other assorted gifts from the ladies, or indeed men (girl gamers and all that) under take the challenge of completing four games in the month of February. My four are Devil May Cry 1 - 4 in chronological order.

I have completed a couple of the Devil May Cry games before but this seems like a good chance to play through them all again, and because I don't have the new DmC yet. If I did... I would leave out 2 or 4, the to weakest of the four, but still good games in their own rights. 

I will post progress reports every now and again to let you all know how its going.

What will your Four in February be?

Kickstarter Saturday - Artizens

I've decided on a new weekly article, Kickstarter Saturday, so I will be discussing games that are being funded by Kickstarter. For those of you who don't know, Kickstarter is a company that  provides, through its website, tools to fund raise for creative projects via crowd funding. A multitude of games, independent films, music and stage shows.

Artizens by Artizens Inc. is an currently at 436 backers, and have more than half of the money they need pledged, with 22 days remaining. The closing date for backing Artizens is Sunday February 17th. The game seems to be inspired by games such as Monster Hunter and Shadow of the Colossus. It also features a high level of customization for character gear "Artizens' developers promise that the game will feature an "unprecedented" level of customization; each piece of equipment is visible on your character, and players can create and import their own gear with unique properties. The game will also include an online trading feature, to encourage player-drawn creations." - IndieGames.com

What follows are the benefits from backing Artizens: 

•  $15 - The Gamer - Get the game and access to its early versions. This is a great way to get early backstage access and get the game for less money than when it’s released!
• $25 - The Music Lover - Get a digital download of every song produced during the lifetime of the game plus the rewards above.That's right, this isn't your ordinary soundtrack. Since we're an ongoing game, we're going to have a whole lot of music over time and each time we master a new track, it'll be sent to you.
• $40 - The Team Leader - Get the game and soundtrack for you and three friends, enough for a party of adventurers. Because all of our missions support cooperative play and many of our monsters are quite challenging, you’re going to want to play with your friends. It's a great way to show off all the cool gear you make as well. 
• $60 - The Immortal - Get all the game expansions as soon as they are available. For life. Plus all the rewards above. We plan on releasing new monsters, missions, crafts, and mods for as long as we’re in business, so this will add up fast. This is just for your account, not for your three friends, so you'll have some sweet bragging rights.
•  $100 - The Pioneer – *Kickstarter Exclusive* Get a specially made set of equipment with custom art and modifications which are only available through Kickstarter. Plus all the rewards above. We plan on releasing our alpha with 6 weapons/tools and 6 armors. As a Pioneer, you'll get a specially made set of all 12 equips with custom art and mods. This includes Sword and Shield, Bow and Arrow, Potion, Air Bursters (let you double jump or air dash), Repair Turret, Mini Trittentrat (little creepy pet), Helmet, Shirt, Chestplate, Gloves, Pants, and Shoes.
• $250 (limit of 20) - The Chosen - Let our illustrator produce custom art for an equipment of your choice, just for you. Plus all the rewards above. You can choose one of the starting crafts, tell us what you want it to look like, and we’ll have our illustrator draw it up for you. Check out the list of crafts above to see what you can choose from.
• $500 (limit of 10) - The Alchemist - Design a new modification to a craft with our team. Plus all the rewards above. We have a virtual office and we’ll give you access to it, so you can meet up with us online. We’ll work together to come up with a new modification to an existing craft of your choice. For example, maybe we don’t have a mod that makes swords hit twice instead of just once, so you could help us to build the ‘double-hit’ mod. The only restrictions are that we all think it’d be fun for the whole community to use, it will work on an existing craft, and that it has balanced pros and cons, otherwise it can be anything. You’ll be added to the credits for your contribution. 
• $1000 (limit of 5) - The Craftsman - Design a new armor, augment, projectile weapon, or tool with our team. Plus all the rewards above.  This is a much bigger deal than modding a craft. A craft is a whole new object you can use in the game. It will change the way everyone plays the game and you could be one of the devs! You’ll join us online to design a new craft that we all think will be fun for the whole community. You’ll be added to the credits for your contribution. 
• $2000 (limit of 2) - The Virtuoso – Design a new melee weapon, pet, or monster with our team. Plus all the rewards above. These are very complex crafts and require quite a bit of animation, scripting, and design. You’ll join us online in our virtual office and help us make this new complex craft as fun for the whole community as we can. You’ll be added to the credits for your contribution. 
• $5000 (limit of 1) - The Visionary – Design an entire mission scenario with our team. Plus all the rewards above. This is a huge deal. Missions are the core of the game and involve a lot of different things coming together: level design, background drawings, NPCs, big and little monsters, win conditions, time limits. You’ll join us in our virtual office to design a unique mission that will be fun for the whole community. You’ll be added to the credits for your contribution. (Taken from the Artizens Kickstarter page)

If you are able to contribute at all, the game looks and sounds amazing. So I highly recommend it, I will keep you updated on Artizens as the closing date approaches.

Sequels. Franchises. Reboots.

More and more nowadays games are one of the three things the title of this post describes, a sequel, part of a franchise or a reboot of an old series.

Now, I'm not saying all sequels or reboots are bad, that would be ridiculous. If there were no sequels, gaming would go nowhere, no new ideas would be birthed and we would still be stuck with the stuff we played back in the 80's and 90's. Now those games weren't bad but by today, those games have spawned a myriad of sequels, spin offs, movies, collectible card games, you get the picture, there is a lot of excess.

When did gaming become about churning out more of the same stuff over and over again? Well, it's really always been like that. Mario, The Legend of Zelda, Sonic, Metroid, Mega Man, Street Fighter, even my beloved Final Fantasy... They are all guilty. But that's because people buy it! The worst offender, to me, is Call of Duty. Every year, there is a new CoD game, now tell me that isn't slightly obscene?

The same, I have noticed can be said for the movie industry, the amount of remakes of classic movies, or even some movies that didn't need to be rebooted as soon as they were, I'm looking at you Spiderman. The Toby Maguire ones aren't even that old for Heaven's sake!

For my liking, there aren't enough original ideas and when there is they are over shadowed by that years sequel or remake/reboot. Even if that idea is a complete masterstroke! If the world would celebrate creativity and fresh, original ideas more, we would see more new games but then the cycle self perpetuates... A good game, with a lot of fan feedback is likely to get a sequel then turn into a trilogy and then BOOM! We have a franchise and a movie and a TCG or CCG, figurines, special edition consoles.

I guess, when I really think about it: Sequels and franchises and reboots are necessary, they keep the industry churning... But wait! What about indies? Ah, the lovely independent game studios, they aren't afraid to take risks, look at Fez or Minecraft! Both widely different from anything on the market at the time and they killed the markets. Even Super Meat Boy, although a tad formulaic still destroyed the market. Purely because the game control was tight, the story was creative (I am aware Minecraft had no real story, but that was the beauty of it, you created the own lore for your world.) 

If independent games companies aren't afraid to take risks when more than likely they can't afford to fail, why don't big studios take more risks?     

Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance Demo Review

When I got home from seeing the amazing Hobbit movie yesterday and checked my Twitter feed, I noticed that people had been posting about the Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance demo. I had no idea it was even due to be released, so today when I eventually rolled out of bed I decided to download it, seeing as how it was the second game this year that I was excited about, the first being Ninja Theory's reboot of one of my favourite gaming franchises ever, Devil May Cry.

When the download was complete I launched the demo right away and what I was greeted with was a visual and auditory treat. The demo is gorgeous. I was blown away by how polished it looked, and it plays just as good.

Now, I'm not saying it's perfect but it is damn close. It's a refreshing removal from the tried and tested Metal Gear Solid play style of stealth espionage and is much more action orientated.

Now, let me talk about some of the things I liked before I get into the things I didn't like so much.

Things I liked: Blade Mode - Blade mode is just... Wow. It's just wow. Honestly. The way you it slows time down so you can decimate your opponents with Raiden's high frequency katana. There are two ways you can do this, with the right thumbstick or with the X and Y buttons (Xbox 360.) The right thumbstick gives you free control over the direction of the swing whereas the buttons just totally mess everything up.

The Graphics - Now, gorgeous graphics are to be expected in this day and age but MGR:R just seems to push the machine to deliver a completely stunning visual. Also, the way the codec works now - as a Borderlands 2 or Dead Space inventory screen, not taking you out of the gameplay like it used to in the older games, letting you walk and look around while communicating with who ever is on the other end.

The Music - I don't know who composed the music, if I had paid attention at the end of the demo I'm sure i would have seen. But I didn't. But it was a treat for my ears. Especially the music in the last fight of the demo.

Now, Things I didn't like: The Length - The demo was far too short. You are just getting into it then BOOM! It ends. Sad times. I know it is only a demo but even the (equally as good) DmC demo was longer, and most other demos I have played have been substantially longer also.

Blade Mode - The only downside to Blade Mode is that as you are running around and then suddenly feel the urge to hit Left Trigger cause some destruction. If you don't take your hand off of the left thumbstick quick enough the camera will go right down so you can see Raiden's feet. As they are the feet of the character you are controlling, I doubt you want to cut them off.

Honestly, I'm just clutching at straws for things to dislike about the demo, purely for objectivity but I cant find enough. I love this demo and my excitement for the full game has been renewed.

Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance releases in February 2013.

It's Finally Here!

After an inordinate amount of pestering from my co-author, I finally get around to getting this site together, as it is, in a very rough form, at least until all the graphics get made up and what not.

Coming later today (or at least should be) are a couple of demo reviews, I will be reviewing Metal Gear Rising and I believe Sean will be reviewing the Dead Space 3 demo.

Along with that we both hope to have an article of some description posted, say stick about for that.

We both hope you enjoy your time here.

Also, I would like to add that I just told Sean I was typing this up and asked him if there was anything that he would like me to say on his behalf. His reply - "That we are sarcastic bams." So that's a thing.

Welcome to Fair Play.