As for their nerdy cousin, the aging and boring book, who really reads anymore? Books have their own strength regarding introspection, but the average media consumer doesn’t want to spend 30 minutes reading a scene that takes two minutes to plow through in a visual medium. In addition, videogames have had an era of text-based games that could effortlessly compete with the various novels out there, so who really needs a bulky tome cluttering up their domicile? To put it clearly and simply, videogames are the most attractive and challenging medium to write for and are, in my opinion, the most rewarding to the consumer. If you need any convincing, look no further than the mind-boggling possibilities that accompany the ace-up-the-sleeve of all videogames: interactive storytelling.

Imagine this: you’re a scruffy, pimply, self-conscious teenager taking a girl out on a date for the first time. You have no idea what to do that you’d both enjoy so you end up falling back on the stereotypical movie date. You grab some soda for you and your date and you get seated. The dark of the theater and the booming bass of the speakers get you stoked for the film. The woman on the screen is navigating a dark hallway. You know that she has two little children back home who rely on her.

She’s human to you, and for some reason you feel responsible for her. You WANT to make sure she’s ok. Then, out of the shadows, a robed man with a knife appears and brings an immediate threat into the picture. Your date screams out “turn around!” The girl on screen responds, sees the robed man, and starts running! She finds two doorways. Your life is in her hands. What now? Two hours later you step out of the dim theater after safely guiding your heroine to safety and your date asks what would have happened if you chose the other doorway. You say you don’t know, but you’re curious to find out.

This scenario is a basic look at how videogames are superior to film: a sense of ownership over the characters and the need to constantly be paying attention in order to guide them safely through their challenges. If this film were a normal movie, you’d just be vacantly staring and watching the action unfold, but having control adds a layer of enjoyment.

Now imagine comparing the outcome of your viewing with a friend who also saw the movie. You both ended up with different endings and different relationships to secondary characters. This concept builds curiosity and inspires folks to go back and see what they could have done differently. What if Al the plumber lived through act 4? Would the heroine have married him instead of Steve the used car salesman?

It doesn’t have to stop there though. Downloadable content has made episodic storytelling possible for the gaming scene. We can see this in action in the recently released The Walking Dead game by Telltale Games, where the player guides the protagonist through the zombie apocalypse and his actions have reaching effects in the following episodes. The popular Mass Effect series by Bioware has the same appeal, although each installment is a full length game. Even the recently announced Black Ops 2 is rumored to have a branching storyline. Developers are just now catching on to this wonderful tool and I think it’s going to catch on like wildfire soon.

As videogames have challenged our hand/eye coordination and strategic skills in the past, they are now poised to challenge our morality and worldviews, forcing us to make difficult choices outside the realm of good or bad or black or white. In the wake of the conclusions we earn for our characters we reflect and wonder “what if”.

Your move, film.

Here’s an unusual thing – a video game that is in the pre-release stage but isn’t quite finished!

Developers Fatshark have announced that Krater – coming to PCs via Steam in June (a Mac version is coming in July) – is missing names for some of the weapons in the game.

“We have three weapons that have one thing in common, besides being badass, and that thing is that they don’t have a name. There was some bad communications between the weapon designers and the name creators. And then Gunnar came up with naming them The Gunnernator I, II and III – that gave us all brain freeze.” says Martin Wahlund, CEO and Executive Producer, Fatshark. “Please help us out with naming these three weapons – or they might just end up being the Gunnernators!”

Check the trailer below for an idea of what is to come…

Great news for whoever is lucky enough to have their names adopted (submit your suggestions at www.kratergame.com/gamedesigner) – you’ll appear in the game credits!

“The three best names will end up in the game, which means that anyone picking up the game will be able to use the weapon you named. And better yet, you will be in the official game credits under ‘Senior Lead Weapon Name Creator Director’ – or something shorter.” Says Victor Magnuson, Game Designer, Fatshark. “Now be creative and save us all from the Gunnernator!”

Meanwhile, you can head to http://store.fatshark.se and pre-order the game to get instant access to the alpha build!

That mystery game’s review will come later, mostly because I haven’t worked up the courage to pop it into my console yet, but for now lets take a look at Deus Ex, and see how Square Enix did with this seemingly amazing looking game.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution is a prequel to a game that was released back in 2000, and while the original game was welcomed with open arms, many speculated at the announcement of a console release for this prequel, but me, being the optimist I am, was pumped, because the original was amazing. So I dug down deep, and I held onto the faith that this game might just turn out alright. Well, I can say beyond a shadow of a doubt that my faith was not misplaced, because DE:HR never failed to deliver in game play, story, and “holy crap! Am I watching a movie?” graphics.

You play as ex-cop, and head of security at Sarif Industries, Adam Jensen. All around bad ass, complete with the leather trench coat and gruff voice. To say that the game starts off with a bang would be an understatement. You are instantly thrown into the fray after a few brief cut scenes, and your mission is to find out what the security breach is. As you roam around the building, you run into a few enemies, nothing to shake a stick at, and all seems to be going well, until BOOM! Attack of the crazy augmented man! You’re thrown through a window, forced to watch your girlfriend die, and get shot in the head, all in the span of 5 minutes. I’ll give the game credit, it wasn’t pulling any punches with this introduction.

Fast forward 6 months. You’ve been outfitted with the latest and greatest augments, in order to save your life, although your character never wanted to be augmented in the first place. This may not be the beginning of the story, but this sure as hell is where the game began to take my attention. The RPG style game play of it was flawless, with the very first mission giving you the chance to choose how you want to play the game, slow and sneaky, or fast and gun-blazing! Not many games could handle being a FPS and an RPG, but Deus Ex does it flawlessly.

Game play is what you would expect from an FPS. AI’s duck into cover, flank, and retreat all according to how you play, which means nothing is ever scripted, and you can always play the game differently no matter how many times you play through.  If you want to snipe from a distance, expect enemies to try to flank, or if you prefer the close range combat, expect enemy snipers to begin to chip away at your health.

The mix of cover and gun play is phenomenal here, with both you and the AI making use of any cover available. Cover is not only for combat, however, it can be used to hide your presence from enemies, cameras, sentry guns, and any other nosey annoyances that happen your way. There are implants that can assist in your stealthing abilities, but it will almost always come down to the players’ ability to time their movements, and read the enemies’ movements as well, and on the hardest difficulty, even being in cover isn’t enough sometimes. If even a speck of you is showing, enemies will become instantly alerted, its a challenge, but a fun one at that!

Let me touch on the ending just a bit before I finish up, so hopefully it goes without saying, but

*SPOILER ALERT IN THE NEXT PARAGRAPH!*

With a game so wrapped up into conspiracy, it wasn’t a surprise when a name as big as the Illuminati was dropped. I’ve read other peoples opinion on this, and some frown upon it but I personally believe it takes a pair to bring up something as controversial as The Illuminati in a video game, and more developers should take notes from Square Enix because they nailed an amazing story here, and although it was meant to be fictional, I’m sure I’m not the only person who was thinking about the ending for a couple days after I beat it. You know its a good ending when it sticks with you, and this one most certainly does!

If this game wasn’t a prequel, I would be in the streets demanding a sequel to it. Deus Ex: Human Revolution plays flawlessly, looks beautiful, and has characters that are not only memorable, but iconic. The “One man against the system” story may have been done before on numerous occasions, but Deus Ex does it right here, and does it uniquely enough that it won’t soon be forgotten.

Included under the auspices of providing “break time” for users, the ads are set to appear between video and TV apps on the service, with providers such as ESPN, Last.fm, GameSpot and MUZU.TV adding their commercials to existing in-app promos from names such as UFC, TMZ, and Crackle.

Microsoft’s Ross Honey said:

“With the growth of Xbox Live, advertisers no longer have to choose between digital and TV advertising – we’re offering the impact of TV and the interactivity and addressability of digital in one platform.

“As more and more industry leaders like ESPN work with us to help monetise their content on Xbox Live, TV media buyers win with the ability to extend their standard TV spots to this highly engaged consumer audience.”

However, he and M$ (once again the acronym is apt) are completely missing the point. Users pay enough for the service as it is without being bombarded with adverts, while PlayStation 3 users enjoy a service that remains commercial-free zone (and yes, sometimes it is an uptime free zone, but let’s stick to the point).

This is a massive #fail for Microsoft, and they need to go into a quick reverse on this decision if Xbox Live is to retain any credibility as an entertainment system. After all, people opt to stream video to avoid inconveniences like advertising.

What next, news bulletins in the middle of Halo 4?

Dropping onto Xbox Live and PSN on the 25 April in Europe, the Dragon’s Dogma demo will offer players the chance to take two of the nine classes available in the full game through two unique and exclusive prologue sequences to the main games story.

The title will also introduce the ‘Pawn’ party system where you can create a party made up of characters from the game world and those created by other players via in-game connectivity. Both the melee-based Fighter class and the stealth-savvy Strider class will each offer a unique environment and final boss encounter that will showcase their unique strengths and abilities.

Aiming to mix RPG elements with more traditional hack & slash and horror staples, Dragon’s Dogma will also offer the standard avatar customisation feature but will neatly let players port their customised demo character over to the main game.

The full version of Dragon’s Dogma will be available for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 on May 25.

IOS users will now be able to bring the pain on the move when the Marvel vs. Capcom sequel arrives today on iTunes!

The insane, hurricane-paced 2D-fighter mash-up will bring its full 56-character roster to the iOS version so you’ll be able to lay waste with favourites such as Ryan, Wolverine, Mega Man and Spidey. Marvel vs. Capcom 2 will also bring back the popular ‘Variable System’, so players used to playing the older versions on Dreamcast or Xbox Live Arcade will be able to hot-swap between a team of characters at the touch of the screen.

Being one of the fastest pace entries in the crossover series, the pressure will be on Capcom to make this arcade classic translate onto the touch screen interface of Apple devices.

Marvel vs. Capcom 2 joins other classic and popular Capcom titles on iOS such as Street Fighter IV, Mega Man X and Resident Evil 4: Platinum Edition.

Marvel vs. Capcom 2 will be available for download on the App Store from April 25th.

I AM ALIVE is a unique gaming experience, definitely in its own class for game play. But does the uniqueness of this particular game add or take away from its desirability? Let’s take a closer look at I AM ALIVE and see what makes this game tick shall we?

The game starts off with a video camera playing, showing our main character, Adam, making sure the camera works, and immediately you can feel the dread in this game. It’s a story of a man trying desperately trying to get back to his family, who was on the other side of the United States when the shakes began. Even the soundtrack is sad and ominous, creating the atmosphere of desperation, and determination. The little we know about Adam tells us he spent the better part of a year walking across the US, trying to reach his family, and instantly i can feel a kinship with this man, and the story has me within the first five minutes, being a family man myself I know what family does to you, how it can drive you, and the loss of it can drive you as well.

Adam is a climber, a modern day Ezio Auditore, and these skills are invaluable, as many of the walk ways are cut off, or collapsed, forcing Adam to take to the buildings, climbing up rafters, scaling ladders and poles. To make this climbing more realistic, players are given a stamina bar, which slowly empties whenever Adam runs, or climbs, forcing players to pay attention to where they are going, not having all the time in the world to sit there and decide on a path. This aspect keeps players on their toes, and keeps the  game play exciting.

Now this game isn’t without its flaws. The combat of this game is a very simple aspect, but also a very difficult one to master. You will almost always be outnumbered, so taking your enemies by surprise is the one thing that can give you a tactical advantage. Now this wouldn’t be so bad if the AI was made to compliment this. The AI are very ruthless, and when they see you they will come running, or shooting, not giving you very much time to plan your assault.

Later in the game this is fine because you receive more weapons, but early on this can be frustrating as most of the time you need to bluff to get out of situations, and if they call your bluff you are left with nothing but an empty gun and 5 pissed off guys with machetes. Not a very ideal situation to be in. The turn out of most fights are almost always the same, as one approaches swing your machete and kill him instantly, and then everyone else will attack you. Bluff with your gun (unless you have a real bullet), and when they get scared, knock them out. It can get very tiresome when everyone has a gun on them, then you need to time your kills so you can take their weapons and shoot them before they can shoot you. Overall, not a terrible combat system, but definitely one that can frustrate, and at times, cause a good amount of rage to be had with the game.

While this game doesn’t shine in combat, the overall, the game play and the storyline that goes along with it was enough to hold my attention for the 6+ hours it took to complete. Mind you, that was with finding and helping 15 out of the 20 people in the game. I didn’t spend time searching out people, but the ones I came across I did try to help as much as I could. Overall, the game kept my attention, and while the combat was a bit sluggish and repetitive, I AM ALIVE succeeded in creating an amazing world, a story that drew you in, and characters that are memorable, and to me, that makes the game shine and stand out from all the rest.

First up is Grimlock; with his “space dinosaur mode” and multiple attack methods, he’s pretty fearsome, if a little slow…

Rescuing Dinobots, smashing Insecticons – it’s like the 1980s never went, isn’t it?

It’s good to see that the original Transformer designs are being used here (albeit embellished considerably). Although the later versions (notably the Michael Bay movies) are particularly impressive they lack the basic genius of the original toys that was always well represented in cartoons and comic books.

Transformers: Fall of Cybertron is out on August 31st, 2012.

A video was briefly uploaded to YouTube confirming the games existence early last week. Capcom were quick to have the video taken down, but not before the internet was abuzz with surprise and speculation.

Not one to waist an opportunity, Capcom quickly added the new third-person shooter installment to its already crowded announcement list at its annual showcase event, Captivate, in Rome a few days later.

Development duties for Lost Planet 3 have supposedly fallen into the hands of Spark Entertainment, who have previously released the equally disappointing FPS titles Legendary: The Box and Turning Point: Fall of Liberty.  A bold move considering the studio’s previous FPS-focused experience, but Capcom are clearly hoping Spark will find their stride in such a rich and established universe.

Both Lost Planet and its 2010 sequel were developed internally at Capcom, so the decision to outsource the games development to a third party is something of a risk with such an established title. Using Western developers to work on Eastern IPs has had mixed results in the past, from the success of Dead Rising to the reboot car crash of Bionic Commando.

The unexpected reveal came at rather unfortunate time as the gaming world’s attention was focused firmly on the new Resident Evil 6 and Devil May Cry reboot trailers showcased at same event. With further information on both these franchises trickling out of Capcom HQ, you can expect further information on the sci-fi threequel in the coming weeks.

Lost Planet 3 will be released for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in 2013.

This week, we’ll be kicking off the inaugural edition with Capcom’s sci-fi flight combat-cum-third person shooter Dark Void.

On paper, Dark Void should have been a colossal success. Developed by Airtight Games, a studio made up the core staff that gave us the addictive dogfighter Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge on the original Xbox, it also had a score composed by Bear ‘Battlestar Galactica’ McCreary and the might of goliath publisher Capcom to boot. It even had the repetitive but normally dependable Nolan ‘Nathan Drake’ North voicing the main character. But somehow all these elements managed the quite impressive feat of cancelling each other out into a broken mess that received an overall metacritic score of 59 out of 100. Even sales of the game mirrored the savage mauling it took from the gaming press, essentially condemning it to the crowded ‘flop’ pile.

Dark Void follows Will, a pre-WW2 cargo pilot who flies into the Bermuda Triangle and is sucked into another world called ‘The Void’. Will finds himself stranded with his ex-girlfriend, like you do, in a conflict between a band of surviving humans (known rather originally as the ‘Survivors’) and a race of cybernetic aliens known as the Watchers (think of a cross between Mass Effect’s Geth and General Grevious from Star Wars). Throw in the presence of real-life scientist Nikola Tesla as the token-scientist who-happens-to-be-there-to-build-all-your-gear and you’ve essentially got Dark Void. No, that’s really it. It seems the idea of a coherent, emotionally investable narrative was jettisoned long ago.

There really aren’t many positive things to talk about when it comes to Dark Void, because the game manages to throw together a handful of different genres yet somehow create something instantly forgettable. The opening few hours are some of the most frustrating I’ve ever sat through. I say ‘sat’, on quite a few occasions I almost threw my controller through the TV thanks to the abrupt opening dog-fight with no narrative explanation, twitchy controls and meagre spattering of hints. What followed was a good hour or two of cover-based shoot out with no aerial shenanigans whatsover. If the first and years older Gears of War provides more dynamic and rewarding gun-play – even with all those original bugs – then Capcom should have thought twice about unleashing this game on the world.

Even when the game finally gives you the chance to hover and flit from nook to cranny with the first version of the jet pack, Dark Void manages to strip it of all the possible fun it could be. Being able to use ledges in vertical cover shoot-outs up the side of structures should be a fast, dynamic and genre redefining experience. Instead, it’s a slow and boring as the gun-fights back on the ground. Even, the weapons are near useless until you collect enough ‘tech points’ (which are Crackdown-style orbs scattered aimlessly around levels) which allow you to upgrade the piss-poor things into something approaching useful. Which help with the shocking aiming, inevitable deaths and mercilessly sparse check-points.

The thing is, there’s a part of me that desperately wants to love Dark Void. A self-confessed Rocketeer fan-boy, I haven’t properly enjoyed a good old dogfighting game since I played Crimson Skies to death all those years ago. Dark Void should be like Gears on War on four-dimensional acid, effortlessly combining aerial combat with cover-reliant shoot-outs. But it sadly misses that opportunity entirely. The power of current gen consoles means there’s no excuse to not fully realise a concepts full potential, only the limits of the design team or time given to make it. Airtight Games strength is clearly show in the flight controls, but these are sluggish at best. Even the mediocre Blazing Angels games feel more responsive than this painful genre pile-up.

Dark Void, as you’ve probably gathered by now, isn’t some misunderstood gem. Usually the omission of multiplayer would have me scoring off points for such a title, but in this case it’s more a blessing than anything else. Dark Void feels a lot like Peter Jackson’s King Kong tie-in, a game with all the potential in the world, executed with all the grace of plane crash.

Avoid, like the plague. You’ll thank me one day.

TSCC Score: 4/10

Year of Release: 2010

Version Reviewed: Xbox 360

Alternative Formats: PS3, PC