Concept album: Palimpsest - Live Excerpts

Kicking off an idea I had to pass away the hours on dull weeknights, this is the first of my 'concepts'. It is a fictional compilation of excerpts from Palimpsest's live recordings and was released in the year 2212. This artist has built up a reputation as one of the best live performers since the turn on the century with intense sets of industrial beatwork and brain-melting melodies. His shows are also famous for the incredible accompanying lighting and the revolutionary Airdrug system, which fills the air with legal highs. Available on nanochip for 20 Eurasians or digitally for 15 Eurasians from all good retailers.

Tracklist:

1 | Verwandelten Kernkraftwerk, Berlin, 2200
2 | Music & Arts Festival, Somerset, 2207
3 | Endurance, Montreal, 2210
4 | Snø, Oslo, 2211
5 | Oscuridad Ligera, Madrid, 2202
6 | 竞技场, Beijing, 2209
7 | Machine, New York, 2203
8 | занятый американец, Moscow, 2208
9 | D, Nottingham, 2201
10 | 兵舎〔バラック, Tokyo, 2212

2008 Top 10 albums with mini-reviews

A little late I know, but here nonetheless.

Tragedy, trite and injustice

In a remarkable day for video games in mainstream news on Wednesday, reports of the previous evening's Bafta video game ceremony sat alongside stories that inevitably blamed shooters for the latest school shooting. Carried out by a 17-year-old in Germany, fifteen people were killed. Some journalists were extremely quick to point out that the killer was obsessed with shooters. The infuriating trite awkwardly shared the headlines with pictures of triple Bafta-winning shooter Call of Duty 4.

The teenage gunman, Tim Kretschmer, was described as "a quiet and reserved boy who enjoyed playing Counter-Strike." That sounds like me, but I'm not planning on doing something similar anytime soon because I've managed to retain sanity, much like 99.9% of the legions of PC gamers and console kids who love nothing more than shooting digital faces purely to let off steam and have fun.

On a lighter (albeit still cynical) note, I was disappointed with the results of the Bafta video game awards. The fact that the very best games of last year didn't actually win anything (bar Left 4 Dead) compares to the corrupt, non-bourgeois nature of music and film award ceremonies.

Super Mario Galaxy shocked everyone by taking the game of the year award, proving that mainstream appeal counts for more than the incredible technical and creative achievements of games like Fallout 3. Even more sickeningly, Spore managed to fight off competition from Bethesda's chef-d'oeuvre and Grand Theft Auto IV for the Technical Achievement award despite the seemingly universal agreement it was the most disappointing game of 2008. Perhaps strangest of all, Call of Duty 4's contrived story and forgettable characters helped it win the, err, Story and Character Bafta despite it being in competition with absorbing epics such as Mass Effect and, again, Fallout 3. People are silly.

Quake Live is packed!

Join the queue and "hold on" while id Software "let some people in". I'm currently in line for the third time to play the revolutionary browser-only version of Quake III Arena. The number of people in front of me stands at 12775 as I write this, so I'm about two thirds of the way in from where I started.

It's like queuing for Oblivion at Alton Towers on a hot Summer's day, but free to join and not as ultimately disappointing. In fact, Quake Live is a masterfully executed reincarnation of id's 1999 classic multiplayer shooter. It runs smoothly, plays as beautifully as the original and looks great, even on my knackered laptop. The website is extremely well-designed and intuitive, with a skill-matching system approving the most suitable servers with a big green tick. Also included are global statistics and player awards, a friends list (which will hopefully prove to be as convenient as Steam's) and a bot-driven practice mode.

id have taken browser-based gaming into an exciting new era and this is surely one of the best things to do on the web. Oh, I've reached the front of the queue, time for some more Firefox fraggin'...

Various news

F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin

This one's not really news, I just felt like making it known that I ran through the single-player of Monolith's sequel at the weekend and, predictably, enjoyed myself. While not original or innovative, F.E.A.R. 2 is a beautifully polished and smooth game, with awesomely stylish combat and weapons. It's linear, patronising, shallow, short and without an ending, but it's still marvellously fun to play. Definitely one to keep you occupied for a little while until the release schedule picks up.

Mass Effect 2

BioWare has released some information on the sequel to the astounding sci-fi RPG. More on that eye-opener here.

Quake LIVE

This free-to-play browser version of Quake III Arena goes live tomorrow. It's a big step for shooters and from what I've read id seem to have got it right. Play it here.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R., Stalker and Richie Hawtin

Having thoroughly enjoyed both of the engrossing S.T.A.L.K.E.R. shooters, Shadow of Chernobyl and Clear Sky, I was especially excited last night when sitting down to watch the 1979 classic sci-fi film Stalker for the first time, which the games are loosely based on.

Andrei Tarkovsky's brilliant, tense masterpiece lends it's concept of 'The Zone' to the endearingly dog-eared series, however as it was made seven years prior to the Chernobyl disaster, the focus is not on an irradiated power plant, but a place called The Room deep within challenging terrain.

During the closing scene I was left not only understandably freaked out, but also wondering where I'd seen it before. Then I remembered. Minimal techno superstar Richie Hawtin, clearly a fan of the film, used it as a music video for his track We (All) Search and featured in his own homage to it for his track The Tunnel. I've embedded videos of both below. Enjoy.

Thoughts on Valve and their lessers

A number of recent occurrences have compelled me to share my views on the lovable Washington-based software giant and a company whose quality of service is almost a polar opposite.

Firstly and most urgently, the exciting announcement of Left 4 Dead downloadable content, due out in Spring, which will include a new game mode called Survival and add the two missing campaigns to Versus mode. All for free. And in relation to this, the increasingly warm feeling I have towards the honest and generous developer at a time when corporate corruption is rearing it's ugly head and revealing the faces of Bill Gates and co. Microsoft's Games For Windows LIVE software has been a compulsory feature in some of the finest recent games, including Fallout 3 and Grand Theft Auto IV, and so far it has done nothing but dampen the experience (see the 'Fallout 3 DLC' post). It has been improved recently with an interface change, but still falls woefully short and remains an annoyance rather than a useful tool. A million miles away from the efficiency and convenience of Valve's Steam software - Microsoft need to understand that what is OK for Xbox 360 plebeians is not OK for demanding PC gamers.

I also want to comment on my current enthusiasm for one of Valve's less glamorous products. The fantastic Day of Defeat: Source has been easily outdoing my other online staples in terms of playtime for the past few months. The intense, deeply satisfying combat is bolstered by the meaty-sounding weaponry, which is fiendishly difficult to handle thanks to the high recoil. New players find themselves spraying and praying, but those who put in the practice can acclimatise to the necessity of clinical burst fire. The maps are brilliantly designed, most of them delicately balanced and consisting of exciting battle zones. They look good too, the settings not as bleak and colourless as they could be in a World War 2 game. DOD: Source provides superb variation to Valve's other online offerings and can be picked up for measly £6 - possibly the best of that amount you'll ever spend.

Finally, a word on Team Fortress 2. News on the phenomenal shooter has been scarce for a while now, but there has been official word that the Scout will be the next class to get Valve's special treatment in the shape of new weapons and achievements. And you can feel safe in the knowledge that it won't cost 800 Microsoft points.

Fallout 3 DLC

Three packs of downloadable content are planned for Bethesda's masterpiece in the early months of 2009. The first, Operation: Anchorage, was released on January 27. It triggers a map marker and a new quest line in the Pip-boy that lead the player to a Brotherhood of Steel Outcasts base. Upon arrival, the player enters a virtual reality simulation pod to embark on a battle with the Red Chinese army for the liberation of Anchorage in Alaska.

It's split up into four missions, each with a new achievement. In all they only take a meagre two to three hours to complete. It's pretty linear fare, with straightforward level design and little scope to explore. There are some new weapons and equipment, including a powerful Gauss Rifle. The missions are enjoyable enough, without ever being exhilarating. The final battle, however, borders on embarrassingly poor. It's a fight with an ageing Chinese general armed only with a sword whose only real defence is having a huge amount of health points and therefore being able to take around two dozen shotgun blows to the face.

Unfortunately, the purchasing process is painful, with PC players being forced to use Microsoft's clunky Games for Windows LIVE service. Not only does the trickle of content cost 800 Microsoft points (with a set amount of 1000 costing £8.50, making it around £7), but I found that I had to shift hidden files and folders around to get it working. This travesty of an installation is, of course, simply not acceptable, and it made me realise why Microsoft were so quick to point out there is no chance of a refund for the add-on. It is this kind of service that is driving more and more people to piracy.

The other two content packs, The Pitt and Broken Steel, will be released in March and April respectively. More on those when they're out.

Soundtrack of our lives

A feature by Pavel Barter of PC Zone magazine about game composition.

Preview of 2009's PC shooters

2008 will take some beating, but if enough developers can sneak their games out before Christmas, it's possible. Not that I want them to of course, I'd prefer the release dates of big titles spread evenly rather than them all being pumped out in the space of three hours, please. Here are the games I'm looking forward to playing this year, although several of them will probably be delayed until 2010.

Alan Wake
This heavily delayed 'psychological action thriller' from Remedy (the team behind Max Payne) promises a massive free-roam world and a true cinematic experience. It could raise the bar if the Finnish developer pulls off both.

Aliens: Colonial Marines
Details are scarce on this squad-based shooter but innovative gameplay ideas have stirred up interest.

Bioshock 2: Sea of Dreams
2K recently said that Bioshock could get several sequels, so there is a worry this could be rushed out. Surely a franchise with this much potential will retain it's brilliance and not become a shallow cash cow.

Borderlands
Intriguing alien-blaster with RPG elements being developed by Gearbox. The main thrust of the game's promotion is the random weapon generator, with 600,000 possible variations!

The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena
The criminally under-rated original probably suffered from a lack of hype and it's apparently poor film cousin. It came out of nowhere and turned out to be excellent. This time we're ready.

Deus Ex 3
The game I'm looking forward to most of all. After the second in the series took a battering from critics, hopes are high that this can come closer to doing the original justice.

Fear 2: Project Origin
Reviews are already rolling in for this one, and while it doesn't seem to setting the world on fire I have no doubts it will be a solid, exciting shooter.

Mafia II
Probably the second most exciting sequel due out this year. I loved almost everything about the gangster film-inspired original so this could be easily be my game of the year.

Operation Flashpoint 2: Dragon Rising
A shiny update to the brutally difficult and realistic original is a dream come true for gun nuts.

Prototype
This sandbox action game will give the player superhuman abilities with which to run riot in New York and regain his wiped memory by consuming the bodies of those he kills.

Splinter Cell: Conviction
Another installment of this consistently great Tom Clancy series is always more than welcome. The first four managed to deliver the goods, this will too.

Wolfenstein
Reaction to details on this WWII shooter has been lukewarm at best. The inclusion of aliens came as a nasty surprise to many, but I am quietly confident iD will get it right.

AFX - Konklaver

Read today on two heavyweight electronic music forums that a new AFX album is due out in March on Rephlex (possibly as the label's 200th release). Cue two months of fanboyism debating on the quality of the music before anyone has heard it, whether Richard is past his best and whether the rumour is true anyway.

The track lengths look appealing, and the timing is perfect for electronic music's most important artist to rejuvenate the ailing IDM scene with a long-awaited new album, so an official announcement would of course be the most exciting news in the world ever. I'm going to leave the speculation at that for now, and live in hope.

Tracklist:

1. Flan Ard (4:10)
2. Saint Water 2 (5:59)
3. Gatelewn (5:43)
4. Mist In Storage (2:57)
5. Konklaver (8:41)
6. Fashionable Headpiece
7. Kashing For (5:03)
8. In (Fank2) (9:37)

CliffyB: Console sellout

It would seem everyone has got their opinion on what the outspoken lead designer of Epic Games has said about the state of PC gaming. Xbox kids finally have the chance to mock their superiors for a valid reason after it was revealed that Gears of War 2 would not be released on PC, and PC gamers have been left reeling after CliffyB's explanation why. He claimed that "PC gaming is in disarray". His connotation of 'disarray' being that piracy is affecting sales, nothing to do with the quality of the games, which of course continue to lead the way.

I've reluctantly given in to corporate selfishness and given half of the money to my brother towards buying the game. I feel like a dirty little child when playing it of course, so the sooner it's completed the better. Throw in the fact that it's too similar to the original and therefore somewhat uninteresting and I start to wonder whether PC gamers are missing out anyway (not just sour grapes).

If Cliffy wasn't so blinded by greed he would have noticed that the PC still enjoys a stronger release schedule than all of it's kid brothers combined. If he's abandoning the PC for good, I hope he refrains from attempting to damage it's reputation with his desperate PR.

Memorable experience 5: No One Lives Forever 2: A Spy in H.A.R.M.'s Way

This game holds a very special place in my heart. It was a close call that it even made it into my pile of Christmas presents in 2002, as my Mum told me she'd been asking shop assistants if they stocked No One Ever Lives. I'll be forever grateful that she was alerted to her ignorance. The undoubted quality of the sequel came as a surprise after the flawed original had split opinion down the middle.

I mainly remember NOLF 2 for it's slick, fluid gameplay, glorious graphical style and it's wonderfully imaginative weaponry. Also, the female protagonist, Cate Archer, stands as the coolest female to ever appear in a computer game. A factor which set NOLF 2 apart from other shooters was its locations. Hugely varied, and always a joy to be part of, they ranged from a trailer park in Ohio during a tornado to a Japanese ninja village. Beautifully lavish with colour, they were a relief from the usual bleak, grey corridors. The game tells the best secret agent story I've heard. It's delightfully tongue-in-cheek and unpredictable.

James Bond meets Austin Powers, but without the lameness, NOLF 2 is an outlandish masterpiece that stands out as somewhat of an anomaly among shooters. Technically, it's aged magnificently, to the extent that returning to it wouldn't dampen the nostalgia too much. If you missed it when it came out, pick it up for a pittance and be thankful you're a negligent enough gamer to have not enjoyed it yet.

The tricycle chase

Recommended game and music combinations (Part 4)

Thanks to the well-publicised feast of top quality shooters that were released at the end of 2008, my earlier recommended game and music combinations now seem very last-generation. It is a homage to the strength of those few months that I deemed this update necessary. Judging by the vibrancy in the industry at present, expect to see part 5 in a year's time.

Single-player

Fallout 3
The best game in years, this RPG masterpiece has you roaming the wastes of a bombed-out Washington DC after emerging from an underground vault. Satisfying, absorbing and at times breathtaking.

Grand Theft Auto IV
Rockstar have edged slightly closer to free-form perfection with the latest in their brilliant crime series. Still flawed in some ways, but wildly fun nonetheless and packed with things to do.

Far Cry and Far Cry 2
I've used the recent arrival of the beautifully realised sequel as a chance to add the glorious original to my recommendations. The first is set in paradise, the second in harsh African wastelands. Both will make you feel very lonely and can be brutally difficult.

Memorable experience 4: SWAT 3: Close Quarters Battle

From a time when games were delightfully fresh and magical for me as a 12-year-old (1999, to be exact), I remember SWAT 3 as far and away the best tactical shooter of them all. In fact, the evening in which I spent hours replaying the demo's single mission (video below) is one of my most sacred gaming memories. Games seemed to last longer in those days, so I think I was still playing it in 2001, but have not returned since. SWAT 4 was brilliant, but didn't quite have the same charm. I certainly wouldn't be giggling nostalgically at YouTube videos of the 2005 sequel in the way that I do its predecessor's.

Another of my treasured memories from the game is when me and a friend spent every night of several weeks replaying one of the best missions on the hardest difficulty setting. The randomly placed AI, who when given the smallest of chances will down you, meant the player had to be meticulous tactically. Progress was always slow, tension was incredibly high and completion was hugely rewarding. There was a feeling that Sierra had simply nailed the tactical shooter experience, and I couldn't imagine it would ever be bettered. In my opinion, it hasn't.

Unfortunately, as a preteen I never possessed the tactical nous or patience to complete all of the missions, as they became frighteningly difficult. I'll always remember SWAT 3 as the first game that had me thinking tactically and sparked a worrying interest in weaponry. If there is a developer out there planning the fifth in the series, I beg you to get a move on. I promise your game won't be compared to SWAT 3, that would just be unfair.

The game's third mission



Music wise, try dark ambient for the slower missions or dark drum 'n' bass for the faster ones to ramp up the tension even further

Fallout 3

I now realise my unforgivable mistake in dismissing what I now consider the second best single-player game of all time (after Deus Ex, of course) from my Christmas recommendations. Fallout 3 was the glaring omission and my excuse is that I had not gotten round to playing it among the bounty of great games all coming out at the same time. 43 absorbing hours later (including eight on Christmas Day, stopping only for turkey and presents) and I'd reached the almost tearful climax. If you haven't already, play it to completion.