the daily inxling!

And we are now well into the next generation of video games. But while the graphics have changed, and the loading times have decreased, and the finances and time required to make games has skyrocketed a lot of corners are still being cut.

I recently tried to play Flatout Ultimate Carnage with a friend. I’d been telling him about this slicker, grittier version of Burnout and we were both looking forward to it. Oh, wait, no splitscreen multiplayer.

That’s right. A game that does XBox Live multiplayer to the nth degree (8 players) doesn’t allow a couple of buddies to kill some time on the one console. So we ended up playing Burnout: Revenge instead.

As a result of my disappointment at this, and the desperately cut-down Unreal Tournament 3 (which was in many peoples’ opinion, many steps backward in gameplay from Unreal Tournament 2004), and many other instances of shoddy game design that I’ve seen lately, I’ve drafted the following requirements for games to be considered “next-gen” in what actually matters: the gameplay and usability.

Gameplay:

1) Games which offer “Deathmatch”, “Team Deathmatch”, “Capture the Flag”, and “Last Man Standing” game modes have to include other game modes as well to offer a variety of gameplay - too many games are offering these three as the bare minimum. Other popular ones include Assault, Conquest, Assassination, and Mutation (UT 2004).

2) Flexibility in multiplayer. These may include (the following are examples, not specifics) an optional regenerate health setting, an friendly fire setting (including friendly fire modifiers such as 50% of damage), an optional penalty for winning players, etc.

3) Games must offer an offline Instant Action mode. Too many gamers don’t have online access either temporarily or permanently to not allow this.

4) Games that include blood should include a “no blood” feature, regardless of age rating.

5) Missions in story or campaign driven game modes shouldn’t be simply “walk from A to B then back to A”, even if this is disguised as “fetch x for y”.

Interface and accessibility:

6) Plenty of gamers play with the sound off or are deaf. All in-game speech must have subtitles.

7) All subtitles and onscreen text must be clearly legible on Standard Definition televisions, widescreen or otherwise. This includes the amount of time that text is onscreen for.

8 ) Loading screens should have something interesting for the player to watch, read, or do, as well as clearly showing the relative amount left to load.

Multiplayer:

9) Games that offer online multiplayer have to offer it in such a way that an inexperienced and spoilt child can set it up without a tantrum.

10) Console games that allow network multiplayer modes must allow splitscreen multiplayer modes to either the same amount or the maximum amount offered by the console.

Stability:

11) Games on a console mustn’t crash - there’s no excuse for it. Across PS1, PS2, and PS3 none of the Metal Gear Solid series has ever crashed on me, and if Konami can do it…

12) Games that crash on a PC must send a bug report (with user’s permission) for evaluation, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. style, and this should be a rare occurrence.

Are you getting annoyed with next-gen games not being up to par? Anything you think should be added to the manifesto?

- John

john@inx-gaming CO UK

The inevitable has happened.

Jack Thompson has been permanently disbarred. He’s got 30 days to get his affairs in order, and then he’s out. Oh, and he’s also got a fine of over $43,000.

The Florida Supreme Court supported the accusations against Jack Thompson including that he:

* Made false statements of material fact to courts and repeatedly violated a court order
* Communicated the subject of representation directly with clients of opposing counsel
* Engaged in prohibited ex parte communications
* Publicized and sent hundreds of pages of vitriolic and disparaging missives, letters, faxes, and press releases, to the affected individuals
* Targeted an individual who was not involved with respondent in any way, merely due to “the position [the individual] holds in state and national politics”
* Falsely, recklessly, and publicly accused a judge as being amenable to the “fixing” of cases
* Sent courts inappropriate and offensive sexual materials
* Falsely and publicly accused various attorneys and their clients of engaging in a conspiracy/enterprise involving “the criminal distribution of sexual materials to minors” and attempted to get prosecuting authorities to charge these attorneys and their clients for racketeering and extortion
* Harassed the former client of an attorney in an effort to get the client to use its influence to persuade the attorney to withdraw a defamation suit filed by the attorney against respondent
* Retaliated against attorneys who filed Bar complaints against him for his unethical conduct by asserting to their clients, government officials, politicians, the media, female lawyers in their law firm, employees, personal friends, acquaintances, and their wives, that the attorneys were criminal pornographers who objectify women.

[source: gamepolitics.com]

His response was his standard threat: he sent an email to www.gamepolitics.com entitled “Now the fun begins”. I remember a similar scenario when he threatened to “deconstruct the Florida Bar”.

For a timeline of Jack Thompson’s demise click here.

- JForce

If a bloke with too much of the old fake sun tan and with more gold than a Swiss vault, tried to sell you a cheap as chips game server, you’d wonder whether it’s hosted on an antique server. Never mind hosted from an amiga, you’d expect the gameserver to be powered by a Spectrum. Or maybe a BBC micro? Any suggestions for a worse case scenario? Antique-host. Now there’s a business idea!

So it does amaze me the amount of people that are obsessed with the word ‘cheap’. We as a nation, and as individual consumers, are obsessed with it. Where it’s arguably valid is when you are shopping around for the best price on a product. As an avid amateur mucisian and wannabe rock-star, I recently treated myself to a Microkorg, which I must say is a rather cool little synthesiser. Apparantly the lead singer of the Killers uses one. How cool!

Narrowing down the best

What was the first thing I did? I went onto Google shopping. And then you guessed it, I sorted by price. So here sits the biggest hypocrite writing this post like an old woman. Now, the average price was around £250, and I had tabbed in Firefox around a dozen possible companies to order from. I wasn’t going to pay £275 for it, when I could get it for £250 or less. So out went those companies charging an arm and a leg. Windows closed.

I was then left with around half a dozen sites. And after that I started doing a little homework. I asked the following questions

• Do they have a full contact address listed?
• Can I get hold of them easily if there’s a problem?
• Does their website look nice, or is it a horrible template. Something a Turner Prize wannabe has shat on my monitor?
• Do they have what I want in stock?

And from that I was left with three websites.

Choosing the winner

I then contacted all three by phone. Two of them didn’t answer. Funny enough, I was left with the one I liked at the beginning. It was a bit more expensive, but firstly they really knew their stuff, and secondly they were going to put my keyboard straight in the post after I ordered. Which they did, to their credit.

So why didn’t I go for the very cheapest one?

Pricing is a very thin line. If you price too high, you don’t get any customers. If you price too low, while you’ll get the hordes of customers, you don’t make enough money to sustain growth and offer a good service. I chose the one that was going to be least hassle. I wanted my synth for the weekend. I didn’t want to be let down. I wanted to be able to get hold of the company I’d paid £250 to if there was a problem. For the £5 extra I paid over the cheapest one, it was completely worth it.

The relevance to gaming servers

Very simple. The same people that wouldn’t listen to this advice, will have stopped reading this post after the second line.

It amazes me how people will choose a game server provider, a couple of quid less over INX-Gaming (and other reputable hosts) even though:

• No contact details are on their site
• The grammatical and spelling errors, are quite frankly embarrasing. Stinking of kiddie-host
• They only appear to host a couple of game servers
• Yet they lie, and promise 24/7 support
• Because they get something free they don’t actually need

My dad taught me something when I was younger. When buying something, think, what profit that provider is making? Can they sustain service at that pricing?

I’m well aware that INX aren’t any longer the ‘cheapest’ (we were once!). But I can tell you that the pricing is based on sustaining top support, and excellent server quality.

If a competitor drops their prices to compete with us, something has to give somewhere.

If we halved our prices we’d double our bills for:

• bandwidth
• rack space
• power
• hardware
• networking equipment

And with that, twice as much as support. And at the end of it, we’re making the same “profit”. But we’re not.

It’s not my job to tell people what to charge, but we have been around coming up to 6 years now, and we’ve not gone bust like so many with silly pricing.

While some game server hosts might want to charge 75p a slot, we know their support sucks. We know they aren’t making the profit. We know it’s not sustainable.

So we’ll be sticking to our guns, and we’ll stick to offering the superior service we do. And really, at the end of the day, all for another 25p. Even Mars Bars cost more than that now!

-Olly

Look mate, it’s http://www.inx-gaming.com.

It’s not some weird affiliates link.

Really, you do puzzle me sometimes. Please, sort yourself. We’ve changed to www.inx-gaming.com. Thanks

Your child wanting that 18 rated game!

This is just coming from experience, and still narks me when I think about it. Was a few months back a relative came over with his swanky Xbox 360 (which I am jealous of cos I STILL don’t have one!) and I saw him playing a game. Me being naturally interested in games (And Xbox deprived) I am to games like bees are to honey so I swung on in there and wanted to have a go.

The game revolved around you stealing and driving cars and doing tasks of taking out people with various types of weapons (I think you know which one game I’m talking about here!). I was staggered to learn he had managed to obtain this game and so I interrogated him by how he managed to get this game.

Me: “Hey lil dude, what you got there, oohh Xbox 360, me wants to have a play!!”
Relative: “Sure!”

(Not like the poor kid has a choice mind you, I swoop in like a hawk and nab the controller off him! And after few mins of playing I’m just a bit concerned…)

Me: “Eh, Dude, this game is a bit violent no?”
Relative: “It’s cool though, you get to shoot people and steal cars and stuff!”
Me: “But eh… it says on the packet it’s an 18 rate…”
Relative: “Yeah?”
Me: “You’re 11 years old!!”
Relative: “Yeah???”
Me: “well how in hell did you buy the game!?!?!”
Relative: “Oh, *Insert grown up person of age 18 and over here* bought it for me for my *Insert special event here!!*”
Me: “WHAAAA???!!??” *shakes fist of rage*

Now usually I’d be shaking the parent/relative vigorously, asking them why and what in their right mind are they doing, but unfortunately they weren’t available!

But one thing I have to say is this…

IT’S AN 18 RATED GAME FOR A REASON!!!!

>_< <—- Yes I am pulling that face as I type this!

I mean you wouldn’t give alcohol or cigarettes to a child now would you? The same reasoning should be applied to the games rating system. If they’re not of age, then don’t buy it for them. It is common sense after all.

And you hear on the news “games blamed for child violence on others” etc etc. Well, how did they get their hands on the game in the first place? I would assume that game stores and sellers have the sense not to sell an 18 or even a 15 rated game to someone who looks underage to play it. Do they even ask you for ID when you’re buying a game and you happen to look younger? (I got asked once for ID when buying lotto tickets, 16 is the legal age, I was 21 at the time! Ha! I find that quite flattering *n_n*)

But then there is the internet. Children can seemingly buy games with ease with their own pocket money just as long as they have an account and a bank card, then it’s all hunky dory. They get the game. No questions asked.

It’s good that the rating system is going in for an overhaul. But i just hope thye don’t go too overboard with it, as in for example, take a good game like Super Mario series and put it a rating of “12″ because it contains “Mild head stomping of animals, pyromania and drug induced growth by mushroom eating” !

Sometimes I hear “But it’s only a game Sooz, kids play on them all the time! What’s the fuss?” You are kidding me!?? What kids’ game do you know that takes you where you have to slice baddies with a overly sized sword or makes you go on a gun totting killing spree to say the least? Games aren’t just for kids, they’re for us adults too and with the market focus widening it’s audience, all the games are varied in nature.

I think exposing a child to that kind of violence and adult related content at such a young age just desensitizes them to a degree that what they do and play holds no value in the game or in real life. Kids are growing up far too fast. Let them be innocent for a while in their lil fluffy safe haven bubble until they fully understand the values and morals of life.

- Suzie

Being a woman myself i grew up on games, I’m not your A typical gal who looks goes nuts on shoes and hats and clothing. (Only when I need to! :P) But a lot of the time growing up, weight has always been an issue and magazines and the media, don’t exactly help in telling a young girl growing up what is “normal”. When I say norma lI mean healthy, a bit of meat and bone on you, not so thin that a stiff breeze could blow you over! You see what I mean? So I look at magazines at my workplace. They’re all tall and thin. And now the size zero phenomena is hitting the UK (size 4 in the UK). Magazines, adverts, billboards. Flat chested, no boobs, no bum, legs like twigs and arms to match.

And since us women are obsessed (including myself) with our weight, it’s all weight loss pills, miracle diets that make us prick up our ears and get easily reeled in by it all. We’re all surrounded by this media and there’s no way of getting away from it. Now, computer games, being part of this media, is also a source of influence for the modern day child, but how about the modern day woman? You may sometimes hear men going “PHWOAR!! Her boobs jiggle”, the average woman saying “*Gasp* But that’s sexist!” I kinda look at it and go “Hmm that’s actually quite impressive but is it necessary in game-play or enhance the game-play experience?” Fair enough the game is promoting “realistic physics” but if you’re viewing the game-play as a FPS or an over the shoulder 3rd person, then what’s the point? But compared to what women are faced with the advertisement media, promoting emaciated looks and thin shapeless bodies, at least over sexed women in games have body shape.

Now some glamour-zons may say to me “But Sooz, they’re not real, they’re not real people.” Neither are the faces and bodies you see in adverts. They’re all artificial in some way and no doubt they have had touch ups done here and there! At least in games they show you “yeah this is a man’s ideal of what game women look like” but you rarely get to see that kind of thing in the main stream media. It’s even my ideal that women should have boobs (at least!) and a curvy figure and be healthy looking (Unless she’s a zombie of course!) But in all fairness, you don’t actually get to see many thinner woman or larger ladies who have more to love (Stick thin zombies don’t count, nor do the Jabba the Hut variety mutant of the female kind!). Maybe games companies should make women with different body shapes, like larger woman or slimmer women characters which play a substantial plot in the game. At least it would level the playing field and make it more realistic, and isn’t that what nearly all games companies are aspiring to do? Not every woman has the same body type. Everyone is different, but everyone should be healthy! So all in all, at least Computer games are promoting “meatier” woman, and not woman you just want to buy a sandwich for! I’m glad that games do promote curvy figured women, at least I don’t feel pressurised to “fit in” while I play.

Suzie

Lock and load guys!

gamepolitics.com reports that gamers are forming protest groups in order to exert political pressure on developers. I decided to take a look down the list and subject each of them to harsh judgement. Why? Because I do that.

1. Boycotting Battlefield: Bad Company

Sarcastic Gamer are calling for a boycott of Battlefield: Bad Company on the basis that Electronic Arts plan to sell extra weapons over XBox Live. Selling extra content for games isn’t new (enough people raged when it was done with Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion), but it’ll be interesting to see how this one pans out. At the time of writing over 540 people have responded, almost all saying that they won’t shell out for it.

It’s worth noting that, when you have convinced someone who has bought every previous incarnation of a game not to buy your latest one, you have clearly gone very badly wrong somewhere along the line.

2. Boycotting Rockband

Not a happy day for EA - UK gamers are furious at the £180 price tag on the full kit of Rockband (in the US it’d cost about £85). This price hike seems difficult to justify, and no one from EA has yet attempted to.

3. Missing Replacement XBox 360

It’s difficult to encourage people to boycott a console that they’ve shelled out hundreds of pounds for and fortunately the consumerist aren’t trying to do that. But they are rightly drawing attention to a case of Microsoft being sloppy - in this instance they didn’t send a replacement XBox but did send an invalid tracking number for a package that never arrived. In the consumerist’s latest article they recommend that the complainant take the matter to the small complaints court.

It’s important that as consumers we look out for our own interests. Fanboy rage, no matter how impotent it may seem, is important and does get heard. If you have a complaint against a video game company do write to them, and if they ignore you do write to the consumerist, sarcastic gamer, gamesindustry.biz gamepolitics.com, or us! If you want to get heard by other gamers and members of the games industry just kick up a fuss on our forums.

John

john@inx-gaming.co.uk

Play nice. After all, it’s your money.

We’re going to see great things from the PS3. I recently had the pleasure of playing Silent Hill: Origins on the PSP. Since SH:O’s release, Climax Group has been inundated with requests to make licensed PSP games, because they do it properly and consequently make loads of money doing it. As an industry it has taken us just too long to get games of that calibre on what is, essentially, a powerful large-screened mobile games device.

Why? Because you haven’t tried. Shame on you developers, not actually putting in the effort to get such awesome lighting effects, shame on you for just churning out the cheap and tacky ports that characterise the vast majority of the PSP market instead of designing from the ground up for it. This is why we’re going to see some good things from the PS3. When games developers stop making games for the PS3 based on the X360’s specs (go on, you know you do, don’t lie to me) and start making proper PS3 exclusives we’ll see some great stuff. Look at Konami’s Metal Gear Solid 4 and Free Radical’s Haze. Both are PS3 exclusives, both look like absolutely awesome gaming experiences.

So quit your fanboy whining and realise that we’re about to see some great stuff, and all of it PS3.

- John

Play nice: play PS3.

Where we differ most from past generations isn’t just in haircuts, or dress sense. The question that’s being asked is, are we going too far, and more importantly. Where will we end up?

The media is currently in a frenzy over online gaming website Miss Bimbo. I use the phrase online gaming loosely. Because for those of you used to playing Counterstrike online or pwning Call of Duty 4 servers, you might find this game a little odd.

The web-based game offers players to buy (virtually, for their online character) breast enlargements, dieting pills and face lifts.

Now, nothing new you might say. In fact, I’m offered breast enlargements on a daily basis by email (I always email back to ask if they offer reductions, but they never get back to me :(()

What seems shocking is it’s claimed that girls as young as 8 play the game.

My auntie looked over my shoulder watching me play COD 4 at the weekend, and looked disgusted when I head shotted some noob out in cover. Watching the players head explode, she seemed to insinuate I’d somehow be tainted by this and go out and really shoot people.

I wonder what she’d make of Miss Bimbo….

Ok…

So it’s not as if I am new to screaming gaming kiddies. First, as a pro-leet CS 1.5 / 1.6 player, I remember fondly each night the abuse over voice chat. Then as director and support staff at a big game server provider. So, do I get all boo-hoo and upset at a 13 year old calling me a fag? Water off a duck’s back, mate!

Yesterday (Sunday) was my first day off in a long long while. Having not really played much, I decided to get out the XBox 360 I bought some months ago, now with the exception of my PES2008 addiction, gathering dust. I purchased my Xbox Live gold membership, and hooked up to a COD4 server. After pwning for a while, I thought, Why not try that headset they provide?

So on it went. Rather comfortable too. Not like those cheap headsets that brand your ears.

Now, please I’m not a prude. My friends will confirm far from it! It takes a lot to make me blush. Like the cheap moisturiser I thought would make me look good, the other day. Ouch. First impressions, Xbox Live is packed full of nasty, rude, obnoxious little ****es. Of course, not to discount those normal friendly people on there. There are a few, such as the guys added to my friend’s list. Nice to meet you guys

In 5 minutes, I came across:

- Nasty homophobia (gay, faggot…bovved. Let’s face it, kids use the word gay like they do the word want. That doesn’t bother / offend me). I do object when it gets personal and nasty.

- Anti-semitism. Personal jokes about the nazis, the holocaust. One young lad actually piped up really upset…Hey guys, do you mind, I’m Jewish only to be laughed at, mocked and insulted further.

- Complete lack of sportsmanship. If you block or TK, you say sorry. You do not spawn camp.

- Complete lack of skills. How on my first go, did I manage to obliterate the noobs so easily?

- Absolutely no discussion, friendliness, or niceness.

I played on several different ’servers’…all the same.

Sunday’s conclusion? Stick to the PC for playing Call of Duty 4 game servers. So I’ve put the headset back in the attic, and won’t be taking it back out. Pro Evolution Soccer on Xbox Live is fine. I enjoy that. But for FPS, I’ll have my PC back please.

I do hope this isn’t where online gaming is going.

- Olly