Future History

Greetings all.

It has been a very busy period for all staff at Churchy's Gaming Corner (the team comprising only of myself!) but here is a little explanation that could prove to be an exciting one. Also some more views and focused looks on games will be coming with some more great gaming music.

New Ideas That Lay Underneath

The future. Yes. I know. A galling thing for any living entity. But at the minute I have been thinking about my own. Now as a younger boy with both the stomach and the imagination to prove I played a lot of video games, I also wanted to make them. Today the stomach has gone but the imagination remains. For a long time I dreamed of being involved in video games development but my strength is mainly in the conception of ideas and writing. It was only brought to my attention recently whilst searching for courses at universities that there are ones which give a more general approach and look much more into the artistic area of video games design, supporting the best prospect of all: writing video game scripts and stories. This is something I hadn't considered before but the more I thought about it made sense. All of my favourite games all have a story, however simple and complex, which gave birth to what I saw in the screen in front of me. The likes of Max Payne and Alan Wake written by Sam Lake or Shenmue written by Yu Suzuki are just two examples of games that would have required great and lengthy scripting. If I could get into such a position, it is something I would love to do.

Of course I would need to brush up my drawing and learn how to program properly but that is something I have an interest in anyway. It has just always seemed slightly out of reach. I often think that video games have taken a slight down turn over the last few years (although 2010 has been better I must admit!) and what better way than to be involved in that change or help that change come about?

Of course a video games course isn't the only way to do that. I have been looking at writing courses that aren't full of close minded people. I've been looking at courses which welcome all medium for which writing is a crucial part of. There are writing courses which look at video games scripts. Of course if I were writing professionally, there are many things I could write for on the side, but the thought of ideas I've created for games being put into script form is immensely exciting. About most things I write multiple paragraphs but for some reason this different. It seems so exciting vast and new but so simple and obvious at the same time.

This isn't a definite future plan or even a declaration that if I were to go on such a course or learn about video games in more depth, that it is the only thing I would do. But it is just another exciting avenue of life that I wanted to share with you. Also if you yourself are thinking about wanting to write for video games or looking to do a more artistic video games course, then please comment or contact me and I'll share with you what I know.

Expect to hear more about this. If I do go down this road, I imagine this blog will become an insider's diary of sorts.


New and Improved

As I'm playing a lot of games and there is so much to get stuck into, I've decide to invent what I call Snippet Reviews. These are reviews which are concise, to the point but which give you a good description of the game I'm reviewing. Sometimes I think it's nice to read a shorter review too! Anyway here are the first couple of Snippet Reviews.

Snippet Reviews:

In my snippet reviews I haven't played anything that bad recently. Don't worry I can go into the past for that but I'm sure something that is new will raise it's ugly head for me to blast it off in rage.

Hydrophobia.
A great game that was as exciting and fun as I had originally hoped in my preview earlier on in the year. Some wonderful and original ideas are brought into the game whilst also showing influence in video games of old. A lovely mix of action, platforming and sci-fi all topped off with interesting characters and some nice subtle humour. It's nice to see a new developer coming up with new and exciting ideas. (something a lot of big devs forget about these days!)The only downfall. The map is ridiculously hard to navigate and get used to. But it never ruins the overall experience. The best thing is, we're guaranteed two more episodes of it so hopefully the niggles will be ironed out with the next release. If you haven't got it already, then get it now. You won't regret it. Give me this over Call Of Duty Black Ops anyday!

Dead Rising 2
There are very few games where the sequel betters the original. Dead Rising 2 does it superbly. It feels as though the concept is now fully realised here. All of the things that plagued the first Dead Rising are now gone. The text is now readable (shock horror!), survivors will stay where they are after cut scenes and are not just zombie fodder when they're not by your side. Not to mention everything feels smoother with better graphics and gameplay. The game can handle so much more. More zombies, more weapons, more of the lovely blood and guts. The addition of combo weapons is pure genius, making for some inventive and downright hilarious options. My favourite still has to the ultra powerful guitar which makes zombies heads explode! Also the story in Dead Rising 2 is better and Chuck Greene is a more entertaining and likable character than Frank West. I have nothing against Frank but Chuck brings the attitude and heart in spades. The only problem is I wouldn't describe the location as a city. It it is more a much larger mall so don't expect going around the streets like in Case: Zero. If you haven't played the original. You don't really need to. This is the much better game and if you're a newcomer then you won't get lost at all. If you have a 360 I recommend downloading Case: Zero along with it as a great introduction too. Again this is a must have for this year.

Goldeneye 007 (Wii Remake)

Hmm...interesting. With development and remake hell for several years we all expected Mr Bond to die. It's had great scores and reviews but are they on the money...penny (No, I am not apologising for that joke!) or are they are just a load of old Oddjob?

*rotten tomatoes are hurled*

Thank you! I'll be here all week!
Check back in the next couple of days to find out (I mean it this time!)

For this week's music we are going back to the old school and obscure:

This is the start up to a brilliant game which never got the praise it deserved. Hired Guns for the Commodore Amiga 600. The music here is fantastic like the game itself and a review will be coming very shortly!

Please try to refrain your laughter when you read that this was run best with a machine with 2MB of graphic memory. It was a lot at one point!