I really liked Deus Ex: Invisible War.

Perhaps I’m squinting through the rose – tinted monocle of nostalgia; but I remember Invisible War as being a game with an excellent script, interesting moral choices, the ability to be as violent or as non-confrontational as you liked, and as being set in an atmospheric future dystopia. So far as I can tell however, everybody else on the planet hates it. Perhaps in the foolish days of my youth I existed in a chocolate hob nob fuelled sugar rush haze, which warped my perception of reality. That would certainly explain why I spent two years married to a washing machine.

To make matters worse for my reputation and I, I foolishly blurted out my opinion that Invisible War is even better than the original Deus Ex. This is a statement I now retract, but for a reason that may well make you spit at your monitor in disgust even more; I never finished the first game. Please, please, let me explain.

I wrestled with the WSAD – mouse combo for months about five years ago because, at the time, I discovered several PC FPS games that interested me that my Babbage – esque PC could just about cope with. The most famous, and easily the best, of these games was Deus Ex. Deus Ex was in fact the reason I carried on trying to use a keyboard and mouse to play videogames for so long. I liked what I heard and, when I fired up the game, I certainly liked what I saw. I do not dislike Deus Ex. I played more than enough to realise here was an incredible game, whose release (years before I first played it) was an important moment for the videogames industry. The problem for me was, I was playing it on a PC.

The first thing I did after installing it was look for a gamepad control option which, much to my distress, did not exist. Or perhaps it was there, and my gamepad wasn’t compatible. I’m not sure; my washing machine wife was moaning at me to do the ironing at the time. The point is: I had to play using the WSAD – mouse combo, which I still hated.

My ex - wife, Michelle

Perhaps I just can’t get over the fact that keyboards and mice were never designed with videogames in mind. I tried though, I really did. With several games, over a long period of time. Nonetheless, to this day, playing any kind of action game with that setup feels awkward and unnatural to me. Like pretending to drive a car with a dinner plate for a steering wheel and an umbrella for a gearstick, making preposterous ‘brrm brrm’ noises with my lips all the while.

Early on in the game, I was trying to sneak past security somewhere. Fumbling with the controls didn’t make me very stealthy though, and I was soon caught. I had some pretty damn ineffectual weapons at the time (a pistol with one clip and a half eaten cheesestring. Possibly.) and soon found myself trying to weather a storm of bullets. To add insult to injury, the game quickly decided that not just one but both of my legs had been ripped to shreds. There I was, the hero of the adventure, crawling around helplessly like Ironside tipped out of his wheelchair. Here however, Ironside was up against an 8ft tall robot with twin Gatling guns.

I gave up on the game soon after that.

A year or two later I picked up the PS2 version of the game, and got considerably further before my attention drifted away from it. Now come on, don’t look like that; can you honestly say you’ve never failed to finish a game you were actually really enjoying? If so, then kudos to you. Also, you’re lying.

Perhaps those who are solely or primarily PC gamers have a different mindset? Half – Life, for instance. Another legendary game that I braved what I considered to be a ridiculous control method for. This time however I didn’t enjoy it all that much, which is why I eventually gave up on it. Yeah sure, it’s got some great ideas and some clever moments. Overall however, I found it a little… boring. There, I said it.

How do you people play Modern Warfare with these things? Seriously?

Nonetheless, I tried Half – Life 2. In fact, I completed it. This is because, as you may already have guessed, I played it on a console. The first console version to be released, in fact, on the original Xbox. A good game, an atmospheric game. Definitely not the second coming of videogames that many assert it to be however. I also can’t let the subject pass without saying this: I don’t care how many times people say the Half – Life games tell a good story without cut scenes, because they don’t. The Half – Life games tell their stories as coherently as a drunken preacher screaming about the end of the world. You can certainly see the overall picture, but a lot of important details are missing.

Do you think I’m dismissing much – loved PC games, or perhaps just much – loved Valve games, in a pathetic attempt to be fashionable? Well sorry, but I’m just being honest. In my defence in this regard, I’d like to say that I bought The Orange Box before my 360 died (again) and thoroughly enjoyed Episode 1. I thought it held together much better than the ‘proper’ Half – Life games, in fact. I also played and absolutely loved Portal. That game deserves every syllable of praise it’s enjoyed since it was first released.

After giving up on FPS games, I turned to the only genre that it seemed the PC was best at which actually interested me: Point and click adventures. I’ll always have fond memories of solid gold classics such as Beneath A Steel Sky, Curse of Monkey Island, Sam & Max Hit The Road, and Broken Sword. I also enjoyed lesser known but still excellent titles such as Discworld Noir and Toonstruck. Once these games discovered the third dimension and turned into ‘walk and click’ adventures however, they ceased to be the exclusive domain of the PC gamer. The final such game to remain PC exclusive at the time was Grim Fandango. Despite the awkward controls all walk and clicks seem doomed to suffer, I was completely enthralled by this unique world. Pray to the god of your choice that somebody tells Tim Schafer to make a sequel (with a version on at least one console, of course).

The latest instalments carrying the legendary Monkey Island and Sam & Max games can be found across the Wii, 360, and PS3 (though frustratingly, I’ll admit, no one console has all the relevant seasons). There’s even a ‘director’s cut’ of the original Broken Sword available for the DS. The last genre that interests me now has both feet firmly planted in the world of consoles, which is why I haven’t even tried to play anything on my PC for over a year.

Is it even justifiable to class any one game or genre as ‘PC’ or ‘console’ nowadays? RTS games, perhaps. Developers have made an effort to bring the genre to consoles via Command & Conquer, Stormrise, Civilisation, and more. All of these titles have bombed at retail however due to lack of consumer interest and/or inept execution on the relevant formats. MMOs are tentatively dipping their toes into console waters, but have a long way to go before they needn’t fear drowning. These games aside however, it seems to me fair to say that we no longer have ‘PC games’ and ‘console games’; we just have ‘games’. And I think that’s a good thing.

Virtually all major releases hit retail on console and PC simultaneously. If a decent game is initially released as a PC or console exclusive then, so long as it’s a third party title, it will almost certainly cross over to ‘the other side’ eventually. Consider these facts for a moment. No matter what your primary gaming format is, it’s ridiculous to defend it against the owners of other machines – we all like and play the same games.

We're all gamers together. We're all as cool as this guy.

The difference between a PC gamer and a console gamer nowadays tends to come down to what machine you spend most of your time playing on. Looking at it like that I always have been, and probably always will be, a console gamer. Why can’t I just be a ‘gamer’?

Audience participation time, now. What was it in the differences between PC Gamers and console gamers that used to exist that meant I was left underwhelmed by Half – Life and impressed by Invisible War? Do these differences still exist, despite the seismic shift in the gaming landscape? Did I just type almost 1600 words just to defend the fact I enjoyed Deus Ex: Invisible War??

It’s the return of the musical war montage trailer with a new Gears of War fan video that looks as good as anything official that we’ve seen.

After a glimpse of the horrors of war from the Cole Train’s perspective, we get to see a wave of gears complete with Marcus and Dom charging a line of various locust behemoths such as the ever familiar Brumaks, before the screen fades with a reminder that the series is coming to an end.

The very convincing trailer (that is labelled as Gears of War 3) was made using a mod for the PC version of the original Gears of War and some very creative flair. It’s well worth checking out, even if it is in no way official.

Gears of War 3 still has a fair way to charge towards us, with the return of chainsaw bayonet revving coming to Xbox 360 in April next year.

King of the Iron Fist meets the man with fireball wrists as two of gaming’s great titans collide for the first time in two different games for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Street Fighter X Tekken was announced at Comic Con over the weekend to the excited screams of many fans.

The first of the two games which share the same title is being developed by Capcom and uses similar technology from Street Fighter IV. Characters from the Tekken universe will be given the Street Fighter makeover and placed in the game’s universe to do battle on a 2D plane.

The trailer above shows Kazuya and Ryu having a tense stand off right before some kind of kicking begins we assume. Nina Williams has also been confirmed as a Tekken character making the jump to the Street Fighter Universe.

Much less is known about the other game apart from that it has the same title and is being developed by Namco Bandai of Tekken fame. It is assumed that in this title, characters from Street Fighter will make their way to the 3D fighting grounds of Tekken with a more realistic lick of textures applied to them.

No release date has been confirmed yet but this is definitely one to watch. This is probably the biggest cross over project we have seen yet, with two different worlds colliding in two separate games by two veteran developers. Fight!

In a bleak city, down an even bleaker alley, sat the bleakest bar in the world. Desperate glimmers of light slid under the gap between the old wooden door and the street outside, only to be swallowed and drowned in a mixture of darkness and rainwater. A slim figure wearing an ageing mud coloured trench-coat sloshed through puddle after puddle, eventually reaching the dull dark door to somewhere no one wanted to be and reached for the rusted handle. With an easy twist and an ear splitting creak, the door opened.

“You found your way back. That’s an Achievement,” someone remarked sarcastically upon his entrance.

A haze was forever present in that horrible place. A murky yellow and brown. It stunk of open beer bottles left in the sun, but there was no way that place had ever been graced by daylight. It was tiny; there were no more than four tables cast adrift in the visible stench, and the bar on the opposite side was manned by a barely visible barman who recreated the picture of Bigfoot to a tee.

The trench-coated figure glared at the source of the voice, finally working out from where it had come. Through the haze he went, to the source of this sarcastic, bloated voice. At the table in the corner, the dirtiest corner, the corner that somehow managed to smell even worse, was another man. The man at the table, wearing a white shirt with a green segmented circle decal, nursed a nearly empty bottle and silently toasted the success of finding him in that mire. A grunt came from the bulky barman, confirming the significance of the event at a level the trench-coated man didn’t care to comprehend.

With another gulp of the unfinished beer the man spoke again, “Don’t see you in here often…”

Taking the seat opposite him, the trench-coated man slid into a damaged looking wooden chair. It creaked almost as much as the door did, confirming the state of disrepair the place was in. Occupied it may be, but cared for it was not. In one smooth motion he let the coat slide down his broad shoulders, revealing his black shirt and matching trousers below. He regretted introducing his favourite coat to the floor – a floor that by the looks of it could tell a thousand stories, and none of them clean. He was left with little option though as the omnipresent stink carried a horrible heat behind it, reinforcing, defending and persisting.

“Felt like a change,” he said to the drinker.

“Got some money to spend now, right?” the drinker replied with amusement.

The animosity was obvious. It had always been there whenever they met. At some point, long before their first meeting in that disgusting abode, at a crossroad where they took opposing paths, a subdued dislike was conceived. That bar, that bar with the intimidating barman and post nuclear war décor, had become the incubator for their mutual dislike. The dislike was brewed, mixed, encouraged to grow and eventually gave birth to hatred. Yet they both kept coming back.

The drinker smirked with the bottle hanging out his mouth, “How does it feel? To stoop to my level, I mean.”

He glanced to the side of the table, to the pocket of his trench-coat filled with money. He looked back at the other man, to the beer bottle still hanging from his mouth despite clearly being empty. In the pit of his stomach he knew there was no retort to the accusation. There was no defence, no easy way to escape the obvious. For the first time in a while there was no counter argument. There was no support in that place either. The barman was neutral, an equal opportunity purveyor of liquid escapism. The bottle still hung in that mouth, an Achievement in itself given the slouched angle. Or should that be Trophy?

“It isn’t the same,” he managed to say at last.

A straw grasped at the last second was held tightly in his fist. The last one. The only one. Desperation epitomised. There was still a difference between them, they were not the same person. He looked at the drunk, the sloppily dressed drunk that stunk of that place, enjoying the filth his wealth had bought. He looked at his glazed-over eyes and smirk that could so easily morph into a sneer at any moment and knew; they were not the same.

The drunk leant across the table, “Really? People pay me for my services. Always have. It’s the best way to do things. No, you said. No, it isn’t. You need to offer the service for free. Yet here you are with your pockets full of guilt and broken promises.”

A sigh escaped so fast that there wasn’t time to try and stop it. A frightening chuckle came from the towering barman, now playing the part of the audience. The drunk, his enemy, his friend, confident that he had won this argument, the last argument setting them apart, lay back in his chair with his hands behind his head. A beaming smile appeared out of nowhere, a surprise attack, a Fatality waiting to happen. The money filling his pockets suddenly felt as dirty as everything else in that place. No wonder he felt at home.

“What choice did I have?”

It was a rhetorical question, signifying that he had given in. Surrendered to the obvious, the thing he could not retort, surrendered to the lure of money. It was one thing they had always had in common even when they were enemies. But now the line between them was as blurred as the drunk’s vision with anything distinguishing them from one another gone, lost, forgotten.

He turned to the barman. “Two beers.”

Two dirty brown bottles were opened, carried, and placed onto the dismal table they shared. The drunk eagerly took up a bottle, toasted once more, and started drinking. The other looked at the other bottle, at the plain label that could be any brand, at the foam dripping down the sides, at the fingerprints left on it by the barman’s unclean hands. The desire to drink was strong enough to stomach the horrible ale. He took a gulp and toasted back.

The drunk nodded towards the barman’s open palm. “Pay the man.”

A collection of coins, small parts of a greater evil, the proof that he had given in, were retrieved from the mud stained trench-coat’s pocket and given to the barman. There was no acknowledgement, no thanks and no appreciation. Still playing the part of the audience, the barman only scowled at them both with equal disdain and then returned to the safe haven of his bar, away from the stench, the haze and the two fools.

They drank together, they drank that horrible tasting ale, and shared stories for an hour. They weren’t happy stories, they were admissions of guilt more than anything else. It made him uncomfortable to think about it; but that was what the beer was for. He was new to this, the exploitation of people, but the drunkard was an old hand, he’d been doing it for years.

“Do you want some advice?” the drunkard slurred at the end of the evening.

The man was too tired to turn the offer down. He’d been treading water since he entered that place, but now he was drowning. He’d sunk and at the bottom he had found this person sitting across from him, the person wanting to help him, to help him sink even lower.

“…Go ahead,” he said with the second accidental sigh of the night.

The drunk smiled and leant forward, filling the air between them with the putrid smell of his breath escaping through the gaps in his rotting teeth. The barman, pretending to clean a glass with an equally dirty cloth, smirked and shook his head, predicting what would be said.

“Give the people what they want.”

The drunkard laughed out loud.

“And then charge them for it.”

Adventure game fans will get their first playable taste of Jane Jenson’s latest, Gray Matter, at this year’s GamesCom. Jensen is best known for her critically-acclaimed adventure series Gabriel Knight, and Gray Matter marks her long-overdue return to the genre.

With companies like Telltale and Lucasarts revitalizing the genre for a new audience, they’ve paved the way for genre superstars like Jensen to make a comeback. The game, developed by French developer Wizarbox, is slated for an October 2010 release on PC and Xbox 360.

Grey Matter’s publisher dtp plans to feature several other titles at their booth at GamesCom including Black Mirror III, Drakensang: Phileasson’s Secret, TNT Racers, and Summer Challenge – Athletics Tournament.

Microsoft has finally put the definitive rubber stamp on the price of its venture into arm waggling game control, with Kinect set to hit the shelves at a staggering £129.99.

The steep price tag for the motion sensing camera comes as a double ouchie to us in the UK, with the US price set at $150. We’re not banking mathematician superstars, but we’re fairly sure that isn’t the fairest currency conversion rate in the world.

Trying to put the expensive device into context, an analyst from EEDAR (Electronic Entertainment Design and Research), Jesse Divnich says; “Kinect should not be viewed as a typical video game peripheral that is retired from one’s active playlist after 90 days, but rather a consumer enabling device that has the potential to revolutionize the way we interact with all forms of media on a daily basis.”

So as well as being an arm flailing game controller, it could also be a limb floundering DVD remote.

It’s going to be interesting to see how Kinect will be taken up by the majority of Xbox 360 users, especially with the casual angle that Microsoft played up at E3. The release date is slowly creeping towards us, but so far there have been no concrete announcements of more hardcore games that involve Kinect in a major way.

Having said this, it was reported yesterday that ‘hardcore’ games for the device are apparently 18 months away. Only 18 months people! That’s definitely put our mind at ease…

• Format: XBLA
• Unleashed: Out Now
• Publisher: Microsoft Game Studios
• Developer: PlayDead Studios
• Players: 1
• Site: http://www.limbogame.org/

Limbo doesn’t justify its worth the way that most games do. “Replay value”, “unlockables”, and “online multiplayer” are concepts absent from its vocabulary. Yes, it does carry the few odd secrets that are worth seeking out, but ultimately Limbo tries to win you over with sheer elegance.

Bereft of filler, nearly every moment of Limbo is unique and beautiful. You are a boy. You walk left, right, jump, or grab your way through a dark, gloomy world. You are looking for someone, but the game never says who. Limbo never actually says anything – it simply exists and leaves you to interpret its meaning.

From dark forests and caves to flooding factories and mysterious villages, Limbo’s world is stunning. Thanks to the silhouette style, depth-of-field effects, and smart use of greyscale, there’s really nothing like it. This is a game that will look beautiful forever – it’s a graphically timeless work of art.

There are no tutorials or hints, but they’re not needed. You’ll discover everything through experimentation. The poking and prodding at Limbo’s rules will often lead to painful death for your character, but it only sets you back a few steps. Limbo will challenge you but it will rarely, if ever, frustrate.

Constant checkpoints help, but what keeps the more challenging moments of Limbo enjoyable are the controls and the feel of the world. Your actions and interactions are judged by the best realistic physics to ever grace a 2D platformer. You’ll never question a missed jump, and beyond some of the game’s lessons of danger there are no cheap deaths to be found. It’s both modern and sophisticated, while carrying a polish on par with Super Mario Bros.

The puzzle design is often on par with other XBLA platform-puzzlers like Braid and P.B. Winterbottom, but Limbo stumps its audience without any gimmicks. You don’t acquire special powers, you just interact. The game’s physics handle the rest, giving Limbo a natural, logical feeling that’s almost indescribable.

Taken at face value, Limbo is essentially one extended, beautiful puzzle. Whether the story goes beyond that is really up to the player, but there’s a mood to the game that’s hard to deny. Limbo is dark – borderline disturbing – with death scenes that subtly rival games that actually show realistic gore. Fog, thunderstorms, derelict buildings, and danger at every turn keep the experience unsettling and oppressive throughout. The emotions Limbo evokes are simple ones, just as Limbo itself is ultimately a simple game.

If there’s one thing wrong with Limbo, it’s that it takes its simple elegance a bit too far. Forget price-point and hour-count – Limbo’s ideas simply feel underutilised. The ending comes abruptly, and it’s unfortunate to burn through such polished gameplay so quickly. There are a few secrets, and some of them are incredibly tricky to find, but it’s not enough. It almost seems like the developers ran out of ideas.

The short time you’ll spend with Limbo is magical. It’s a smart game that makes you feel smarter for playing it. It offers control and feel that may be a new watermark for the genre. It’s an experience that demands the attention of every gamer – if only it tried harder to keep that attention.

4/5

Last week, I wrote an article regarding the connection between videogame consoles and computers, and the war in the Congo – more specifically, people’s reactions to an article in Kotaku on the subject. Now, I am able to offer you a chance to show that you care.

I chose to treat the subject of ‘conflict minerals’ – in this case, minerals mined to fund the widespread rape and murder in the Congo – as more than something to update the site with one day. I contacted the international charity Oxfam with a view to supporting an existing online petition on the subject, and they kindly pointed me in the direction of Raise Hope For Congo. As part of their campaigning, RHFC have set up an online form where you can, with just one click of a mouse button, tell Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo that you want them to ensure their machines contain no minerals from conflict zones.

It needs no more than thirty seconds of your time, if that – though you can personalise the message sent in the e mail if you wish. All you have to do is give your name and address, and click a button. That’s it.

The form is currently US-centric, but I live in the UK and I’ve filled it out. Simply mark ‘State/Province’ as ‘Other’. RHFC have told me that “We’re working to fix the functionality of the webform to make it more accessible for activists outside of the U.S.”.

Conflict minerals are not unique to videogame products, and RHFC are well aware of this. This is why your message will be sent to the 21 biggest electronics companies, the list of which includes Apple, Nokia, Samsung, IBM, and LG (as well as, of course, Sony Ericsson, Microsoft, and Nintendo).This is the link you need; if the link doesn’t work on your browser/device, then please copy and paste it into your browser:

http://www2.americanprogress.org/t/1684/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=6265

It’s not your fault that you own devices which have, in part, funded the horrors in the Congo – and believe me, the sad truth is that you do own such devices. But wouldn’t you rather be part of the solution than part of the problem?

To find out more about who Raise Hope For Congo are, what they do and why they do it, visit http://www.raisehopeforcongo.org/.

Rockstar San Diego, the team that brought us the western smash hit Red Dead Redemption, has announced that they have cut “about” 40 employees from the dev team.

Responding to the cuts, Rockstar San Diego studio manager Steve Martin said; “As is typical with game development, our team sizes have always fluctuated over the course of the development cycle. As Rockstar San Diego transitions from the launch of Red Dead Redemption onto future projects, we are realigning our resources in order to continue to develop games as effectively as possible.

“We are ensuring that all employees who are affected by these changes are being treated with care.”

Red Dead Redemption is still staying strong with a lot of us, and the recent announcement of four DLC packs due for release over the next few months shows that the title still has plenty of life left in it.

Speaking at this year’s Develop conference (as reported at Develop Online), Sean Murray of four – man team Hello Games has revealed that over 30% of XBLA titles are so called ‘casual’ games; but that such titles make up less than 5% of the digital market.

He lays the blame for this at the door of Uno, claiming that publishers failed to understand the game’s popularity was mainly due to the fact it was given away free with the Xbox 360 Arcade. A very good point – but something’s missing in this discussion of digital stores.

Why single out XBLA? In the article at least, no reference was made to Steam, PSN or WiiWare (not even to compare them favourably to XBLA) nor even DsiWare – and the Dsi store must have a similar proportion of casual titles, if not even higher. Perhaps Murray has an axe to grind?

Nobody outside of Hello Games or Microsoft knows exactly why Joe Danger didn’t end up on XBLA. Perhaps Microsoft flat out refused to publish it? Murray also gave the audience a list of bizarre reasons that several (unnamed) publishers gave him for their lack of interest in Joe Danger. One was even “We want games that are less about fun right now”. Remember: when a dud game hits the shelves – or indeed, your digital store of choice – the publisher is most likely more responsible than the developer…