Disposable's Games Editor no longer biased towards handhelds

GAMES/SELF-INDULGENCE

Let me take you back to, er, late 2004: the specialist gaming press had lifted the lid (no pun intended) on Nintendo's DS system; the console was due to launch in the states on the 21st November, and promised to offer inventive gaming experiences that we had never experienced before, rewriting game design books and opening up a whole new way of thinking about what makes a game. From the moment it was announced, the DS was ripe with potential - the question that followed this announcement was, of course, "how soon will this potential be realised?"

Personally, I was excited about the potential of the system, but unimpressed by the launch line-up; games that you knew would be perfect for the system (Wario Ware, Polarium) sat alongside more convential material (Spider-Man 2, Madden and of course the ubiquitous (read: "just fuck off and die already") Rayman.) This mix of creativity and convention left me unconvinced of the DS' immediate appeal: a few games of Wario Ware Touched and Yoshi's Touch 'n' Go on a friend's DS proved to be a nice distraction, but at the time I was still enjoying the more conventional 16-bit ports on my GBA: with a gaming structure I was comfortable with, those games had a more tangible sense of progress than the gimmick games in the first wave of DS software. So it wasn't much of a surprise that I soon found my gaze drifting towards a forthcoming rival.

With structures so familiar, so comfortable, the games in the PSP's line up were an immediate draw for me. Here were titles that had that sense of progress I'd loved in the GBA software and longed for in the DS' library of games. Avoiding something as risky as the DS' design gave Sony the opportunity to play it safe and deliver the kind of games they already knew there was an audience for, and this approach proved to be effective in my eyes - I was fascinated by the promises, by the Sony classics I loved playing at home that could potentially be played in my hands. So it's obvious which handheld I ended up buying first. Isn't it?

Well, as you know, Disposable rarely gets the chance to review stuff for free (apart from my Freeware column, of course :P) and as much as I liked the PSP's line-up I couldn't justify spending that much on the console. If I recall, it launched at around £180 in the UK; something of a joke when you consider that the announced price for Japan was a shade over £100. The GBA market had pretty much dried up, save for a few ill-advised licenses, and I was casting my eyes towards a new handheld. Any new handheld. Suddenly I feel a pinch on my bum - it's the bite of Karma, letting me know that as much as I loathed the launch line-up, I would end up buying into the potential of the DS, hoping against hope that the future was brighter than this shaky beginning. Actually, I'll confess, it wasn't just the price difference that sold me a DS - it was Ouendan. But that's another story.

So I have my DS and a copy of Polarium, and I later bought Ouendan and enjoyed it. A lot. Maybe there is something to this "gimmick" console after all. However, the DS was still getting out of it's "1. Implement any form of touchscreen interaction 2. ??? 3. Profit" phase, and in the end it was inevitably the games with more conventional structures that won me over. Sonic Rush. Portrait of Ruin. New Super Mario Bros. Even Phoenix Wright, which can be played entirely with the DS' gimmicks, is (bonus case aside) a port of a game originally developed for the more conventional GBA. I was a DS convert: Nintendo had once more won the battle for my palm sweat. Well, until last Tuesday.

At £70 - a shade over the average price of a 360 or PS3 game if you shop at the wrong places - a local indie was selling a preowned PSP. Delightedly, I snapped it up a day after I first saw it and have since been enjoying the system I had originally planned to buy all these years ago. I have a lot of catching up to do with my games library - so far I only have Wipeout Pure, GTA: VCS and Tekken: DR to play - but I haven't felt so happy about a new gaming purchase since The Orange Box. Which arguably is still quite recent, but whatever.

So, as an afterword to that happy ending, I'll say that you can expect a bit more balance with regards to the handheld reviews in Disposable, and I hope that this anecdote has served as a reminder to the jaded old folk (trust me, I'm one of them) of the joy that gaming can bring. Happy playing.

RECRUITMENT

HELP WANTED:

If you've seen the Disposable Media magazine, then you'll know how great our design team are. Unfortunately, there's not enough of them. So rather than an ill-advised cloning project, we're looking for designers.



At the moment it's unpaid, but goes great on a CV, and is also a good way to get into the world of film, music, games, art and online...



So if you're interested, email dan.thornton at disposablemedia.co.uk

Man vs. Microsoft.

Simple bit of advice: If Microsoft detect that your 360 has been modified, even though it hasn’t, just follow these simple and hassle free procedures in order to get your Live account back. It is exactly the measures Desktop Support Technician Craig Stewart had taken before Microsoft finally decided to take a look at his console.

1) Spend over eight hours phoning customer support, talking to brick walls and call-queue-voiceovers.
2) Send over 15 Emails to the very same support centre, who’ll, in turn, advise you to call them.
3) Repeat Step One for a few more hours.
4) Contact a Barrister, one that understands consoles.
5) Get the barrister to contact Peter Moore.
6) Wait for Peter more to suggest taking a look at the console.
7) Wait for Microsoft to get cold feet on the idea, and refuse to look at your console.
8) Repeat steps 1-4, going slightly psycho in the process.
9) Compile indisputable evidence that your console hasn’t been modified.
10) Contact the press.

And that’s all it takes.

Please remember to pen this down in your 360 manual, because Microsoft’s detection system appears to be so paranoid that even if a DVD/RW so much as brushes along next to the console, you’re banned.

Here’s Mr Stewart’s compelling evidence.

GAMES

Halo 3 nonchalance: part one

Am I the only one?

Am I the lone voice that actually is more excited about the upcoming Forza Motorsport 2 launch, than the Halo 3 Beta tonight? And that's assuming I can actually download the thing.

That's despite me buying an Xbox for Halo, and being in a supermarket at midnight for Halo 2. And that's even despite the fact a good friend even bought Crackdown for me today, as he didn't want me to miss the Beta!


The reason? Look at any of the threads of Bungie.net... Those same guys will be online tonight, and I'll want to strangle them all.

Badger

RANDOM

The games (and music) we play

Idea! We can use the faster publishing of blogs (compared to magazines that take weeks to create and then spiral past their deadlines) to talk about the brilliant media that all you lot are buying. Off to ChartTrack to check out the games!

TOP 40 ENTERTAINMENT SOFTWARE (ALL PRICES), WEEK ENDING 11 March 2006

1. FIFA STREET 2

On second thoughts...I can't think of anything good to say about that. Never mind, what's happening in the world of music? Let's find out from HMV: the winner is...



Oh Christ. No comment.

qazimod

Well hello to you there!
This is a Blog. Yeah, we know, another one.
This one's different though. Honest.
This blog you see, is an offshoot of Disposable Media, the all encompassing, uh, Media magazine. If you're yet to read, take a look at disposablemedia.co.uk We cover all sorts, but mainly VideoGames, Music, Art, Film and Comics. The point of this blog therefore, is to cover things that we just can't in the magazine itself.
So then, expect to find here short nuggets of joy, wisdom and often nonesense about anything we notice and we think is worth telling you about. They'll be a few of us on here, so exepct some differing opinions, but if you like what we do or what we say, have a look at the magazine.

Cheers,
BlinkyBear