REVIEW: Stolen
Developer: blue 52 | Publisher: Hip | Format: PS2 (Xbox, PC)
Reviewer: Craig Gallagher Anyone
familiar with the Sean Connery film Entrapment should instantly feel at
home playing Stolen. Like wise for anyone who has played Splinter Cell,
as Stolen is yet another addition to the ever growing stealth sub genre.
In the game you play as Anya
Romanov. A super stealthy operative who’s good at getting in places unseen.
Your array of gadgetry is designed to avoid detection, with darts which track
enemy movement and her pathetic hand to hand combat as a last resort. Anya is
no Lara Croft.
The game’s main let down is
the control system. The imprecise feeling serves as a reminder of how sophisticated
Prince of Persia and Splinter Cell are.
Stolen isn’t a bad game,
it’s just that the release of Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory last month over
shadows Stolen’s release, and raises the question why buy a Fiat when you can
buy a Ferrari for the same price?
Digital Hub game events continue in Dublin
The games events at the Digital Hub
continue with ‘Talk Digital: Game Design – Responding to New
Interfaces’, a games industry Careers Expo, and a Wireless Wednesday
seminar ‘Mobile Games – Successful Business Models’.
‘Responding to New Interfaces’ at the Diageo Liberties Learning
Studio at 10-13 Thomas St, is on today from 10am to 11.30am with an
unspecified international panel.
Today and on Tuesday, the ‘Gaming Careers Expo’ in the Digital
Exchange on Crane Street runs from 9.30am to 5.30pm with free entry.
Students from the ICE course in Derry city who have formed the games company ‘Phooka‘, will be there today for their first public showing of ‘Recall’ their first game currently in development.
While the Wireless Wednesday talk and panel discussion at the Guinness Hop Store costs 20 euro and starts at 8am and runs till 10.30am. A currently unannounced person from gamedevelopers.ie will chair the event, with speakers from TKO Software, Selatra, and Opera Telecom.
The games events end on May 18 with ‘Talk Digital: Learning Through
Gaming’, although the Hub’s second games focused exhibition ‘Exhibit 8′
will continue till the end of the month. To register for any of the
events, or for more information, visit thedigitalhub.com.
REVIEW: Gran Turismo 4
Developer: Polyphony Digital | Publisher: SCEE | Format: PS2
Reviewer: Craig Gallagher Gran
Turismo 4 is the latest release in the long running series. As before,
the game is a driving simulator that tries to perfectly capture the
experience of driving in the real world. You’ll fell the sweat
trickle through your fingers as you round the last bend, racing toward
the finishing line.
This isn’t one of those games that you can just turn on and play
straight away. Instead you have to complete a series of license
challenges, ranging from stupid to downright annoying. But it is after
these that the real fun begins. You begin off with a small hatchback
and upgrade to a better car by winning races. And it is just as
addictive and frustrating as the previous games. This game will take
over your life and I really mean it – this reviewer was playing GT4
with some friend from eleven last night until six this morning.
Graphically the game is stunning; it’s easily up with the best to
exist on the PS2. But it is only when racing that their true brilliance
shines through. The handling is spot on, and I’m sure it is just like
the real thing. (I have never driven so I cant be 100% sure) As you
modify your car, you can feel the changes to the car.
GT4 is easily the most frustrating game around, but it is also one
of the most addictives titles this writer has ever played. Some of you
will grow to love the game, those who do should be careful not to be
calling in sick for weeks. It won’t suit everyone, it is a simulator,
not an arcade game.
REVIEW: The Punisher
Developer: Volition | Publisher: THQ | Format: PS2 (Xbox, PC)
PS2 screenshot: taking a hostage can avoid (or delay) violence.
Reviewer: Craig Gallagher The
Punisher was never the most original character; he borrowed heavily
from the Dirty Harry and Death Wish films. The game borrows heavily
from Max Payne, which in turned borrowed heavily from Dirty Harry,
Death Wish and the Punisher.
Anyone who buys the game knows exactly what they’re getting; the
action film clichés – a variety of one-liners, slow motion, and
gratuitous violence.
A quick recap for those of you unfamiliar with the comic. Frank
Castle became the Punisher after his family was murdered, during which
period he rained a campaign of terror on all involved in the murders
and any scum he came across. That’s it really.
[Warning: the following contains explicit descriptions of violence...] What
the game offers is the chance to go on a one man killing spree, taking
out dealers, murderers, crime lords and other assorted scum in as
bloody a manner as you want. Which is a hell of a lot of fun. Many of
you have no doubt read about the controversial interrogation devices
that the game employs. This are all very original and violent, use a
buzz saw to gain information before splitting the guys skull or feeding
him head first to Piranha. But what’s most surprising about these is
that most of them are merely suggested rather than shown, but the Daily
Mail may see it in a different manner.
Overall the Punisher is highly enjoyable third-person action game
that is well worth your time. This is not a children’s game, so be
warned.
Game ad complaints upheld by Irish authority
Complaints about television advertisements for Rockstar’s over 18s game ‘Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas’ have been upheld by the Advertising Standards Authority for Ireland.
Apparently in contrast to the publisher’s stance of marketing
their over 18s games only to adults, the advertisements aired last
December on a Tuesday at 5.59pm between ‘Neighbours’ and ‘the
Simpsons’, at 5.11 during ‘You’re A Star’ on a Saturday, and
during ‘Little House on the Prairie’ at 9.27am on a Saturday
morning; a slot original scheduled for the Premiership – the change was
at the time unknown to the advertisers.
The complaints are in regards to an adult game been advertised at a
time when children were likely to be watching TV. Rockstar, a Take Two label, said they take the complaints seriously; they apologized, but did not think they had breached the advertising codes.
Less recently, the ASAI also
upheld complaints about advertisement for the PlayStation brand
broadcasted around a repeat of the ‘Late Late Toy Show’. The ad,
which mimicked the style of a documentary about wild animals, featured
porn stars attacking golfers. Some complaints commented on the problems
of explaining such to children, while others said the adverts were
totally inappropriate because PlayStations are, in their view,
‘directed towards children’.
“[the ad Agency, Cawley Nea/TBWA] added that the ad forms part of
a series of advertisements for Playstation. Another advertisement in
the series relates to athletes and ventriloquists. The premise of this
suite of advertisements is that disparate and unrelated groups in
society can interact in the gaming world. Playstation brings out
different behaviour in these unrelated groups — competitive
behaviour, play, ritual and so on” stated the response section in a
recent ASAI Complaints Bulletin.
Late last year complaints on television, poster, and radio adverts
for Sony’s ‘the Getaway Black Monday’ were also upheld due to
what was seen as unacceptable condoning of acts of violence.
Games Toaster’s attention was brought to this subject by an
article in yesterday’s ‘the Irish Times’; thought the Irish Times
only featured news of two complaints, in the ‘ASAI Complaints
Bulletin 05/2′ more then 20 complaints are listed, the majority of
which were upheld, including two Reader Travel Offers from the Irish
Times. Although, such – of course — is not as topical.
MTV.com to cover move then 360
In the recent news of the Xbox 360 public unveiling
television program on MTV it was revealed that MTV.com will feature additional
information after the show, as it happens the website has launched its own
games section.
Apparently the site will host original content such as news, feature stories, and columns.
It launched with an exclusive trailer and shots from the upcoming Tomb Raider
Legends.
Meanwhile in other media news, Future Publishing’s original bid
for rival Highbury (gamesTM, XBM, Cube etc) has been dropped due to
attention the proposal was attracting from the UK competition regulator
under anti-monopoly laws. Future is still showing interest in
Highbury’s non-game magazines, but such should not interest the
regulator.
Gamedevelopers.ie gets face-lift
The Irish games development community website, Gamedevelopers.ie,
has just gone through a revamp. The move sees the website further
entwined with the Irish branch of the International Game Developers
Association. Gi.ie is in its second year running, while the IGDA
Ireland was set up just over a year ago.
E3 2005: Any requests?
Games Toaster – or at least one of us – will be in Los Angeles for the week of E3 2005 (otherwise not well known as the Electronic Entertainment Expo) from May 16 to May 20.
Our question for you is – do you have any requests
for information or photographs on any particular events, games, or
hardware? Going on our previous invites for requests, could some
answers possible be “photographs of booth” babes?
Post your requests below (with or without entering
your name and email), or email them to editor@gamestoaster.com
.
As in past years we will be reporting from LA, this year we also plan to publish an extensive daily photographic diary.
Games events at the Digital Hub
On
Thursday, computer games events planned for this month start in the
Irish Government’s Digital Hub in Dublin. Exhibitions, debates, and a
‘Careers Expo’ are pencilled in from May 5 to May 18.
The Digital Hub is home to a number of games industry companies, including middleware company Havok, and mobile games developers TKO, and Eirplay Games. As we reported recently, games developer DC Studios are in the process of moving into the Hub.
The Hub’s latest exhibition, ‘Exhibit8: New Frontiers in
Gaming’ is open office hours, 9.30am-5.30pm, from Thursday, with the
official launch of the events on the same day, incorporating the
announcement of the winners of the student games competition Dare to be Digital Ireland.
On Friday (May 6) a public talk titled ‘Censorship in the games
industry’ is set to debate censorship in games, chaired by the
journalist and critic, Medb Ruane, the panel is to include Ger
Connolly, the Duputy Irish Film Censor;
Dr Mary Corcoran, Professor of Sociology, NUI Maynooth; and Paul Hayes,
a games marketing consultant. Other panel-based discussions lined up
are ‘Game Design – Responding to New Interfaces’ (Monday, May 9),
‘Mobile Gaming: Successful Business Models’ (Wednesday, May 11),
and ‘Learning Through Gaming’ (Wednesday, May 18).
To guide those looking into a career in the games industry, the
Gaming Careers Expo takes places 11am to 5.30pm, on Monday, May 9.
For full listings of venues and times, as well as registration for some events, visit the Digital Hub’s website.
Edited 03/05/2005: changes to the panel of the ‘Censorship in the games industry’ debate.