Phil Brannelly, brand manager for Avatar: The Game in the UK, was unfortunate enough to be the one demoing the game at the Eurogamer Expo – and therefore, the one subjected to my questioning. Easy one first: How did Ubisoft first come to pick up the Avatar license?

“When James Cameron was pitching the license we went to him with our own story, we wanted to offer something a little bit different. The game is set two years before the movie but in his universe. That’s one of the reasons why he selected Ubisoft for the job, because everyone else was just doing ‘the game of the movie’, and he liked what Ubisoft Montreal had done in the past; that’s how we got the gig basically. Ubisoft Montreal have been working on it since 2006 in close collaboration with James Cameron.”

Just how close an eye did Cameron keep on the game’s development, though? Were there certain things the team couldn’t do?

“Everything has to get approved. It’s a long process, but they’ve done a really good job on what they’ve produced.”

Have Ubisoft gone for the ‘interactive movie’ angle with the Avatar game?

“It’s a difficult one. We really wanted to get a very good game! That’s what we wanted the most. It is a movie experience, but it’s also a really good game in its own right; it tells its own story as well.”

Of course, Avatar will be the first game to make full use of 3DTV capability. I presumed that incorporating the 3D effect into the game was a significant hike in the development budget. Was it worth it, I asked, considering that so few people will be able to take advantage of it on the game’s release?

“I should clarify that Avatar: The Game is not a ’3D game’. 3D is definitely not a requirement to enjoy Avatar: The Game. Our objective from the beginning has been to develop the best game possible so all gamers can truly enjoy the Avatar experience, regardless of the TV you watch it on. You can think of 3D as the ’5.1 Surround Sound’ for gaming visuals. You can have a great gaming experience without it, but the experience is definitively heightened in 3D. In terms of budget it wasn’t overly excessive. With the demo we’re showing here, the console feeds two sets of images to the 3DTV, which then overlaps them, and with the polarisation tech creates the 3D effect; so it’s quite simple really. In terms of numbers of people that can view it, we have to remember this is a global market that Ubisoft develop games for and 3DTVs were released this year in the US and have been in Japan since 2008; so there are plenty of people that will be able to take advantage of it. For the UK, 3DTVs look like they will be available in retail next Spring. We see it as giving longevity to the product.”

Is 3D the future of gaming?

“Yes; TV will go 3D as well. Sky have announced their 3D channel; it probably won’t go mainstream for four, five years, but it’s definitely the next step. In the future, we’ll be saying to our grand-kids ‘I remember playing games in 2D’, and they’ll just tell us to shut up!”

Realising that my questioning had strayed away from the game itself, I brought things back on track by asking what the gameplay differences were between the two factions.

“The main difference is that the marines mainly use projectile weapons and technology. They’ve got vehicles they can use, grenade launchers etc. The Na’avi use nature – you can call in a storm. They’ve got big axes, bows and arrows; it’s a different experience altogether. They’re about twelve feet tall as well, so you really feel that difference.”

But will the game live or die on the success of the movie?

“Well if the film bombs then we’ve got a problem there; but we’re marketing the game in its own right to stand on its own two feet. I’m sure the film will be a huge success though, judging by reactions to the recent movie trailer release.”

Generally speaking, does a box office smash equal a hugely successful tie in game?

“I don’t think that’s happening any more. Transformers 2, the film was a twenty five million pound box office movie; the game didn’t live up to that. Gamers are smart these days, the general public are smart. One of the problems is that when you get the license to the movie, generally you have a really short development phase, maximum of two years. Some of them are rushed out over twelve months. It doesn’t give you the chance to create a really good, quality product with depth. These days it has to be a good game in its own right, and so because we’ve been working on Avatar since 2006, we’ve got a really good product on our hands. If you provide a substandard product, it’s not going to go the distance.”

So if gamers are ‘smarter’ now than they used to be, why is that?

“That’s a good question. There’s a lot more information for gamers, and more accessibility to information online. Websites all over the place, MSN are providing information, Yahoo are providing information. As the industry has grown, understanding of the industry has grown. There’s still a perception of games as geeky in some quarters, Daily Mail etc, but that perception is changing.”

I had to ask; isn’t releasing Avatar and Assassin’s Creed 2 so close together commercially dangerous?

“It’s a difficult one, because you have to look at the size of the Christmas market. I know retail can do 40 – 50% of the year in that quarter. Although they’re two big games, the revenue is there to support them. Even with Modern Warfare 2. They should all still do good numbers. There will still be the ones that fall foul. Last year there were so many good triple A products, just too many for the market. But if you look at this year, there’s less. Avatar’s a different behemoth. We have the movie to pull that through. Assassin’s Creed 2 is much more hardcore, it has its heritage to pull it through. There’s enough revenue for all of them.”

He refused to be drawn on whether or not Modern Warfare 2 was the main reason many publishers (including Ubisoft) have pushed back games previously slated for a 2009 Q4 release, but he was more talkative when I asked: Are they worried releasing games so close to Modern Warfare 2′s street date?

“No.” he said; he paused for a full five seconds (perhaps hoping I’d move on to the next question, poor sod), then laughed, and continued: “No. Assassin’s Creed 2 is a different game and experience. Everyone knows what they’re going to get with Modern Warfare 2. There’s an element of tiredness in that. Assassin’s Creed 2 is a completely different experience. You can play both.”

In the current economic climate, however, will the Christmas market support several different games as it has in previous years?

“The Wii market’s been interesting, it’s been tough for third parties, anything not branded the last few months. As for PS3 and Xbox 360… we’ll have to see, I can’t really predict that. We’re seeing that the market has dropped off on last year, it is lower than last year, and it’s bordering on being the same as 2007. We’ll just have to see; people are focusing more on sequels, on what they know, so Assassin’s Creed 2 and Modern Warfare 2 are good for that. For Avatar, we have the movie. It could be the biggest movie of this decade.”

And on a final note: Does Avatar mean that we can expect more collaborations between James Cameron and Ubisoft?

“If he’s pleased with what we’ve done, then I think there will be a future there.”

Luke (right) looking gormless; Grant (far left) looking suspicious.

The Art Director at Hello Games (you can see why their first title, Joe Danger, is going to be so ace here), Grant Duncan – who is one out of the grand total of four members of the team – was the first person at the Eurogamer Expo I demanded an interview from. Ever the professional, I left it up to the interviewee to point out it would perhaps be better to conduct the interview somewhere slightly less noisy (I like to keep my interview subjects on their toes). I’m rather old fashioned, and like to start at the beginning. So first of all I asked how and why Hello Games came about in the first place.

“We’ve all worked at big studios in the past. Some of us have worked at Criterion, I worked at Sumo Digital, Climax, Kuju… we’ve all worked at various studios in the UK. We all started round about the same time too, about five or six years ago. Dave [Ream], one of the guys I work with, I actually went to school with; we always used to talk about this sort of thing, we always used to make our own Quake levels, come up with our own game ideas, that kind of thing.”

“I started as a level designer for Quake, I used to make maps for leagues to play on. He was working with Sean [Murray] and Ryan [Doyle] at Kuju at the time – Sean and Ryan previously worked together at Criterion. He basically let me know he was thinking of starting up with them, so I started talking to them early on; and when they decided to do it, I left Sumo and moved down to Guildford, a… year and three or four months ago now.”

Lots of lovely money aside, what’s the main difference between working for a big name developer and working in a small indie?

“Well the thing we found is that you have to be incredibly efficient, because there’s only four of us; you can’t afford to be wasting any time. So I could have an idea, pitch it to the guys, and in a few hours we could have an idea working, if we think it’s worth pursuing. Normally in a bigger studio, you’d have an idea, and you’d then have to go through multiple levels of management, for them to actually commit people to something. It’s wasting money, whereas for us we’re very quick to do things.”

Their first game isn’t even out yet, and they’ve already got a regular column in Edge! How did that come about then?

“We all went across to Bath with our PC and our getup, we’d had a playable demo for quite a long time. We showed Alex Wiltshire, who is the editor of Edge. He’s the first journalist we showed it to. They were really positive; they seemed to like us, they seemed to like the game. They said they’d been thinking for a while about doing something interviewing developers, about how a game gets made. We seemed to fit the bill, and obviously we were more than happy to do that, that’s incredible!”

Anybody who goes to the Hello Games website – as they should – will find a wonderful sense of humour thrown around all over the place. Will we see this sense of humour in Joe Danger, I asked?

“Definitely. It’s almost like we can’t help ourselves. Because there’s no-one to tell us not to, it’s quite scary… I could put whatever I want on the website! I could insult anyone if I wanted to – but obviously I’m not going to do that! I could make stupid jokes about Sean’s mum, but of course I wouldn’t dream of doing that. In the game we have that; we’ve got billboards in the background with possibly the worst puns you’ll ever read, and that’s entirely my fault. I did it, and nobody told me off. So it’s in the game now.”

What influenced Joe Danger? The obvious comparison would seem to be Excitebike…

“I never actually played Excitebike. I know Sean was a massive Excitebike fan, but I was a really big fan of Kickstart on the Spectrum. You went over obstacles, it had a level editor; obviously quite basic because it was the Spectrum. Where the initial idea came from, is I basically just brought a load of toys in from my attic on one of the first days. We knew we wanted to make something that captured that childhood feeling of, though you’re just playing with a plastic car, in your mind it’s the most exciting thing. That’s what we’re trying to do with the game, we’re trying to capture what you were seeing as a child. Sean had an Evel Knievel stunt cycle, which I’d never even seen before. We kept coming back to it, you could lay things out, you could smash things about. We knew we wanted to do something with physics, it seemed perfect.”

Joe Danger features a level editor, which is actually used in gameplay in order to complete the single player ‘puzzle’ modes. It’s such a great idea, why hasn’t anybody used a level editor like this before? Well this is Grant’s view, and be warned, he says a naughty word:

“When you’re doing lots of things at once, there’s a tendency to concentrate on one aspect. There’s a lot of games that have multiple modes. You know, ‘this is the driving mode, this is the shooting mode’ and then the driving mode will be absolutely shit. Whereas the shooting mode will be amazing. So if you spread yourself too thin, I think there’s a danger of not developing it enough. We pretty much started out with an editor, so we’ve been developing that along with the game. As the levels have been made with this editor, we’ve been polishing the editor the whole way through. Whereas if you were to add an editor right at the very end of development, you can imagine the amount of problems you could possibly have. I’d be sitting next to Dave, who is the main coder behind gameplay, and I’d be using the editor. So if I had any problems with it, and I was cursing and pulling my hair out, he’d see me doing that and that motivates him considerably to fix it! And once you complete the game, you can then unlock the event levels for the editor so you can then go and edit them yourself if you want to. So you’ll play through the levels once, and then you can go back and… just play around, basically. We want to encourage people to play our games in different ways, and there’s something fun about the editor. It almost feels like you’re breaking the game, you’re making your own fun.”

One piece of information about the game that one would consider rather important, is the format(s) it’s to be released on. There’s no sign yet of which machine you’ll be able to play Joe Danger on, though. Er… why?

“Yeah. We really want to be sure, it would really help us! If it was up to us obviously we’d release it on everything, we want as many people to play our game as possible. We need approval from whichever company, we haven’t decided which one we’ll go with. We have an Xbox 360 version, a PS3 version, and a PC version, that we’ve been developing in parallel. We have all the versions. What we’re unsure of, is the order they’ll be released in. I’d love to see a version on Steam, probably after the console release. We’d love to release it on the PC, because the market is so diverse. When we were showing it at Leeds, a lot of the people who came round were PC gamers, they seemed to really enjoy it.”

A level editor brings up the subject of user created content. Does Grant think that this will become a huge part of gaming’s future?

“I feel it already is, but I think so far as consoles go – I used to do that sort of thing on PCs all the time – it’s getting a lot bigger. Valve started as modders and things. A lot of people who have made levels on LittleBigPlanet, I think, have gone on to be hired as level designers. I think that’s awesome.”

There’s a good chance that some people reading this are hoping to become developers themselves one day. So I asked for any advice he could give to such people… who haven’t already worked at multimillion pound studios.

He had a little chuckle at my cheekiness, then replied: “It’s tricky. Obviously see if you can get into the industry. It’s valuable the experience you can get. Anything, anywhere. You can learn so much about development, how to work quickly and efficiently, that kind of thing. I don’t think there’s any way the four of us could do what we’ve done without being dropped in the deep end with these various big companies in the past. Having said that, I think the best advice I could give to anybody is just to do it. Even if nobody’s paying you to do it, do it because you want to do it. That’s what’s so good about mods, flash games, all that kind of thing. Just because it shows that you’re passionate about what you’re doing; having a background of development like that will really help you.”

What’s the battleplan for Hello Games? Stay as they are, get a little bigger, eventually go back to working for big studios?

“I think right now, we’re all really happy doing what we’re doing. Obviously we’ll probably expand a little bit, because four guys doing what we’re doing is utterly exhausting! I think we’re all on the same page, we’d like to expand to be able to turn stuff over even quicker. We’re keen to keep things like the humour you were talking about, and also with our game we’re trying to be very colourful. We’ve all been inspired by Sega and Nintendo. It’s a game, and it’s not ashamed about that fact. It’s happy to be just stupid and silly, just to make people smile. We want to keep that, that’s definitely going to be a thread you’ll see running throughout our games.”

We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: Visit www.hellogames.org. Well go on, what are you waiting for?

This was one of my most anticipated games of the expo. It’s a cool license, that has been exploited surprisingly rarely in the world of video games. So when I heard another game was coming – and it was by Rebellion, who made the excellent PC Aliens vs Predator game – the geek in me was threatening to break out and start buying toys in their original packaging for five figure sums. Well, not quite, but I was chuffed to bits to see it would be playable at the expo. I was slightly disappointed to find that the single player story mode wasn’t present, but trying out the multiplayer against other human beings – albeit just three of them (the final build will support 18 players) – was the next best thing.

The playable demo had been finished just nine days ago, so I could be sure of playing the very latest version. The available map had an ancient ruins/jungle theme, with the interior sections being rather dark. This was intentional, to help promote the horror – style atmosphere (which isn’t easy to maintain in a multiplayer experience). This atmosphere can’t be explained properly without discussing the differences between each species:

The human marines are a victim of the popularity of the Alien movies. The ‘space marine’ has become the most overused, unwelcome cliché in FPS games; but at least here you have the satisfaction of knowing you’re playing as the original real deal. The marines play largely as you’d expect; point and shoot, pick up ammo and weapon pickups, sprint at the cost of being temporarily unable to draw your weapon, use melee in an emergency. You also have a torch (do you leave it on for a better view, or turn it off to make yourself less of a target?) and – of course – a motion tracker. You can at least feel instantly familiar with the controls and playing style playing as a marine.

Aliens play almost exactly as you might remember from the previously mentioned PC game. They’re fast, can hide well in the shadows, and can leap onto unsuspecting enemies from a distance. Best of all perhaps, they can scamper up walls and even along ceilings – though it’s easy to get disorientated whilst doing so. They have no projectile attacks though (no acid spitting, not in the demo build at least), so have to make the best use possible of their speed and agility.

Then there’s the Predator, who thankfully is every bit as cool to step behind the mask of as it should be. You get the cloaking device, the different vision modes, the lock – on missile (which kills anything instantly), the glaive and, though nobody seemed to have found them whilst playing the demo, apparently mines. On top of all that, the Predator can leap huge distances in any direction.

These three very different characters turn the bog standard deathmatch into a brand new experience. Did I just see an Alien crawl round the top of that tree? Damn, I just spotted a Predator at the top of that Pillar training its laser sight on me! I just heard an assault rifle and a shotgun; how close are those marines?

Another game mode I tried seemed to go under the name of ‘Predator Hunt’. The basic premise is that everybody playing is a marine on the same side, with the exception of one player who is cast as the Predator. The marines work together to hunt and kill the Predator and, when it’s taken down, whoever got the kill is taken off the map and respawns as the new Predator. This idea of pitting one player against all the others is nothing new; but if whoever plays as the Predator stalks the marines, it can be a tense and exciting experience. The marines must rely on their motion trackers, which doesn’t differentiate between friend and foe – unless the Predator is very close, in which case its blip glows slightly brighter than the others.

One thing that threatens to overpower the multiplayer is the presence of ‘stealth kills’ for the Predator and Alien. Play as one of these, and you can get a one – hit melee kill if you get behind or to the side of any character (at a generous distance). The problem is, the game makes no attempt to distinguish between stealth kills that are made by players that haven’t been spotted, and stealth kills that result from dancing round the opponent till the button prompt appears. In addition, each ‘stealth kill’ involves an animation of five seconds or so that leaves both players wide open to attack.

Nonetheless, it was great fun and, with tweaking in all the right places, could make for an excellent online experience.

Left to right it's (still) John 'Johnee' Beech, Danny Leaver, and Martin Lynagh.

If you missed part one of the interview, how can you forgive yourself? Go read it now! Okay, everybody ready? Here comes part two:

Ross asks Martin what I really should have thought of; will we be seeing more interactive music DLC?

“There definitely will be more interactive music. Whether that’s standalone in a music only pack… I don’t know yet. We’ll see how the first music pack does first. We’d love to do that; as with everything we do we’ll listen to the community, and see how it goes.” But how come the only level pack we’ve seen so far is the Metal Gear Solid one?

“We may be level designers, but most of our time is actually spent testing other features that come into the game.” explains Danny. “These things only ever get announced when they’re nearly complete; most of our time is spent prototyping these things. Our studio is quite small, about thirty five people; we simply don’t have a distinction between designers and level designers. So most of our time isn’t spent making levels, which is a bit of a shame.”

“But we hope to do more packs of that nature in the future.” Martin assures us.

How about more physics based additions such as the water beta, I ask him? Such as zero gravity?

“There are quite a few. Is that something that you’d particularly like to see in the game?”

I babble on, and it’s when I say that zero gravity seems like the natural progression of physics based packs, that I realise they’ve started to interview us.

“It’s certainly something to bear in mind.”

“There’s so much we want to do, we forget things like that.” says Danny. “And it’s always nice to hear -”

Danny is rudely interrupted by Ross saying ‘goo, goo’. Momentarily thinking that perhaps Ross has reverted to a childlike state, I then remember that this is a pet idea of his for an LBP addition.

“Goo?” asks Martin, intrigued.

Danny asks “What does the Goo do?”

It’s a viscous substance, I confidently declare. Ross however – the fool – thinks that he understands his idea better than I do.

“You can bounce off it.” He explains, which is met with a general ‘aaaah’ of understanding from the Media Molecule guys. So when the zero gravity goo pack comes along, you know where they got that idea from.

I move on to the now infamous fifty layer glitch, which was present in a community level I’d played just a few days before. So presumably it’s been left in intentionally?

Danny explains: “Well, anything you find like that… with a million people, I guess it’s always going to happen. Unless it’s damaging to the game, we’re going to leave it. It’s part of the creative process. The fifty layer bug doesn’t sit very well with me on a personal level, because it can make levels very hard to read, as in where you can go and what you can do. Some people have done it very well and made it very clearly defined.”

“I think it’s a testament to people’s creativity that things that are unintentional get used in such innovative ways.” says Martin, before Johnee gives us the fascinating revelation:

“My levels that got me the job had numerous glitches and bugs which I’d found in there, which I utilised to make the level look better.”

The fifty layer glitch allows players to, unofficially, create their own backgrounds. Are there any plans for an official pack to allow the community to create their own backgrounds?

“We’ve actually never heard that as a suggestion.” Martin tells me; though the highly intelligent Danny says “It’s a good idea.” But user created backgrounds probably won’t happen because, as Martin says, “They’re quite involved assets, the backgrounds. That could be problematic.”

Despite it being such a unique and incredibly innovative game – given huge backing by Sony – LBP met relatively disappointing sales on release. How did that make them feel, I ask him? Were they disappointed?

“I don’t think we are disappointed.”

“I was overwhelmed!” says Danny, and it’s clear he means it. “One thing that’s important to remember is that a lot of games, especially new games, don’t make a profit. But because our team was so small and we were quite good with our time, and produced well; the game cost a relatively small amount; we were profitable from week one.”

“We did very well for a fresh IP.” Martin points out. “It’s all relative. That is something that people have said, but to be honest we’re very happy.”

“It’s a game that if you buy now, you’ll still get as much out of it as if you’d bought it on release day.” Johnee adds. “Most games if you buy a long time after release you’ve missed the hype, you’ve missed the buzz; everybody knows all about it now, it’s all been seen before. Thanks to the community levels, I could go back and play LittleBigPlanet now, and see hundreds of things I haven’t seen before.”

And what level of input did the guys have in Cambridge Studio’s PSP game?

“We haven’t been terribly hands on, but there’s been frequent viewpoints. We’re delighted with the product.” says Martin. “Those guys are brilliant. They really ‘got’ what LittleBigPlanet’s about. They obviously don’t have the horsepower of the PS3 behind them, so they’ve made very smart decisions about what to do.”

Danny agrees. “We probably would’ve been more hands on if we weren’t happy with it. It’s a testament to the game that we literally got builds and said ‘that’s really fun!’ and that was it.”

Can we expect to see LBP in Home?

“Like a space?” Danny asked me, turning the developer – journalist relationship on its head again. These guys go against the grain without even thinking about it! So off I went again, burbling something about costumes and something viral that could pass from player to player.

“It’s a great idea.” said Martin, my new favourite. “There’s nothing I’m aware of regarding Home though.”

How will LittleBigPlanet grow in the future? It’s previously been said that the plan is to ‘expand the game without partitioning the experience’. Does that mean more DLC in the vein of what we’ve already seen, or something else? Does that mean there’ll never be an LBP2, I ask?

“It’s a good question.” It’s official: Martin is man of the match. “I think what you’ve seen so far from LittleBigPlanet, that’s the way it’s going to continue. We’re evolving the community, listening to them, carrying them with us. That’s something you’re going to see a lot more of.”

“We’d never fragment the community.” asserts Danny. So that means we’ll never see another LittleBigPlanet disc, because that would create two sets of LBP players who couldn’t share with one another? “We’d never want to do that. That’d be the most counterproductive thing you could do I think.”

Get involved! Throw yourself into the LittleBigPlanet community by visiting www.mediamolecule.com. On a regular basis.

Speaking on a purely personal level, news thus far released of Rogue Warrior had inspired nothing more than apathy in me. It wasn’t one of the busiest games at the Eurogamer Expo (though it never seemed to be adandoned), so perhaps many other people felt the same? Was it an exciting shooter that made good use of the experiences of the real – life Navy SEAL character, or was it a brainless shovelware piece destined for the bargain bin? Time to sit down and find what it was really like.

As soon as the opening cut scene had ended and I was given control, I was instantly put in mind of the Rainbow Six games. It’s difficult to say why; good as they are, they don’t have a particularly distinctive art style. On top of that there are no squad mechanics (certainly not in the portion of the game I was allowed to play); the appeal seems to be very much one of you against the world. And that’s no bad thing.

My Rainbow Six comparison seemed justified the first time I took cover against a wall however when, as in those games, the camera switched to a third person view. And what a view! I’m not talking about any technical wizardry, but the fact that I got a good look at my avatar. Not only did he have fantastic facial hair, he had a ponytail as well! What a combo! Hilariously this character is, as previously mentioned, based on a real life person – ex Navy SEAL Dick Marcinko.

And doesn’t that name just go perfectly with the hair and face glove?

Marcinko is by all accounts… well… nuts. Crazy. One issue short of a Deagostini magazine collection. Very much in a way that means you’d never say it to his face however, and this comes across in the game. During cut scenes and gameplay alike, he’s constantly swearing gruffly (via Mickey Rourke) and talking about those damn “commies”. You can’t see his face while he’s shooting foreigners in either first or third person, but I at least imagined that to be the only time his face threatened a smile.

Then there are the instant knife kills.

The game introduces these to you by inviting you to sneak up behind enemies, implying a stealth kill mechanic. The truth is that it doesn’t matter what angle you approach the doomed communist scum from. Get close enough, hit the right button, job done. You’ll activate a brief cut scene showing Marcinko take out the worthless commie marxist satanspawn with his knife in an unerringly brutal manner, and then carry on your way. While these kills are almost laughable in their overly macho presentation, they can be seen as a nice reward for getting close to an enemy without being shredded by bullets.

Some restraint is required; trying to run through the middle of the levels spraying bullets everywhere will certainly get you killed. A recharging health mechanic is in place, which means that you’ll be taking cover little and often. One thing I noticed, which didn’t prove to be a problem but did annoy me, was that you can’t move whilst reloading in cover. You can thankfully move whilst reloading outside of cover, I’m happy to report.

You may by now have gathered that Rogue Warrior isn’t the most subtle or intelligent of games. That said, good use of cover is important as I’ve outlined above, and standard FPS tactics – such as firing in short bursts and aiming down the barrel of your gun for more accuracy – look to be still rewarded (and sometimes necessary). One potential issue is one of difficulty. I breezed through the one mission I was allowed to play and, while I like to think that’s because I’m an unbeatable FPS god, I must reluctantly consider other possibilities.

Before being thrown ungraciously from the TV, I asked about difficulty levels, and found that I had been playing it on the second of three. So there is one higher difficulty level; but as I wasn’t able to test it, I have no idea just how much the difficulty is ramped up.

There will be eight player online – only multiplayer (which wasn’t available at the expo), but no co – op. Given the whole ‘on your own behind enemy lines against impossible odds’ atmosphere of the single player (which I can only presume carries on throughout the story) that’s excusable. How will the game as a whole pan out? From what relatively little I played, it’s impossible to say. It could be dumb fun… or just dumb.

The clock was ticking, the event was closing, and myself and Luke had only just managed to get on to the New Super Mario game. To be honest I wasn’t all that fussed about it at first, which is why I left it till last. I have been playing Mario games (much like many of you) since I can remember, and have seen it go through numerous changes over the years. From its humble barrel jumping capers through mushroom power-ups, raccoon suits, Yoshis to ride, metallic Marios and flying through space; and figured I’d seen it all. What could they really do to make me want to go back to playing with Mario?

Bring it back to its roots, that’s what. I don’t care what the other critics say, Mario Galaxy was rubbish! It was so far removed from the Mario I knew and loved I truly felt that if you had put Crash Bandicoot or Sonic in there instead of Mario nobody would bat an eyelid. It just didn’t have the ‘feel’ of a Mario game to me, to add to my frustration I had to keep my mouth shut about how I felt because everybody else seemed to think it was genius. As a result I left Mario behind, and expected to never look at him the same way again. It’s been a long time since I’ve gone near the Peter Pan plumber and I had honestly forgotten how much fun a Mario game could be! As Luke and I picked up a remote each, we began to play, and as we both jumped our way through the classic looking level I had a rush of memories flood through me. Past times of quick yet precisely timed jumps and jolly tunes that instantly stick in your head came pouring out of the screen at me, all emphasised by Luke being in the level with me and spurring me on to either catch up with him or help him. It was as if I had gone back to being eleven years old again, that competition and co-operation meshed together like when I used to play with my best friend – only this time, we were in the level at the same time! And it’s this that changes the old Mario dynamic entirely, being able to play with your friends; and helping them or just being annoying and getting in their way is so much fun. Ah ‘fun’, where have you been?

The last time a game made me smile was when I swallowed my manly pride and downloaded Flower off the PSN (true fact). New Super Mario Bros. on the Wii did the same thing to me that day, made me remember why I’m still gaming. It’s the classic Mario all over again, only this time re-created with sumptuous and detailed graphics, colourful deep backdrops and full-sounding melodies to fill your lug-holes! All the things that I remember about the ‘old skool’ Mario yet enhanced in almost every way. Now don’t get me wrong, I’ve certainly downloaded a few older titles off the Wii store and used the Wiimote on its side for retro titles before, but the pad has always felt a bit like a NES pad that’s been mashed in a car-crusher with these titles, and yet this time it felt ‘right’. So much so, I wasn’t even aware of holding it. This is how Mario should be, a game that pulls you in with the power of ‘fun’ alone.

Nintendo’s senior product manager, Rob Lowe was heard saying “It’s like a cross between Super Mario World and Mario Kart. Dosen’t that sound amazing?” Indeed it does Mr. Lowe, and he’s made a great analogy there too, it is like a cross between the two. You have the back-to-roots fun of the classic platforming Mario games with the push/pull competitive nature of the Mario Kart games thrown in from the co-op play mechanics. We only spent a short time with New Super Mario, but that was enough to make me want to keep playing, much like a child being told to turn off the lights and go to bed, the reluctance to put down the pad because of the Expo closing made me want to throw a fit on the carpet.The Mario franchise has seen some great ideas and some awful ideas (Mario at the Olympics, pa-lease!) but this time it’s a nail-on-the-head time for the little rotund plumber, a proper 1UP x 10 moment for Nintendo. I expect that when this hits the shops, it’s going to sell bucketloads.

There’s a depressingly good chance that you, dear reader, have never heard of Joe Danger or Hello Games. You should have though; you really should. And I’m here to tell you why.

Grant Duncan (former Climax and Sumo Digital employee, now 25% of Hello Games) had the dubious honour of being my first interview victim at the Eurogamer Expo, and he also took the time to show me through his company’s first game, Joe Danger. Now only the most preposterous of gaming snobs would instantly turn their noses up at an indie game; but when that indie game comes from people who have worked on the Burnout series, Black, Virtua Tennis 3 and a bunch of other big name games, you really should be sitting up and paying attention.

Who or what is Joe Danger? The short version: bloody brilliant fun. The long version:

Joe Danger is “the world’s most determined stuntman” – on a motorbike. What this means for us is a wide range of side scrolling race tracks of varying lengths, littered with things to jump over, crouch under, leap through, and crash into. The easiest way to get excited about this game is to be lucky enough to play it. I guarantee you will be hooked within ninety seconds of playing it.

The most obvious influence here, for modern gamers at least, is probably the Excitebike games. The title that Grant repeatedly uses as a point of reference however, is Kickstart on the Spectrum. Nonetheless, the biggest influence on Joe Danger is not a video game at all.

The biggest influence is playing with toys.

The best example is the infamous Evel Knievel toy of yesteryear. Evel Knievel was of course a world famous motorcycle stuntman, and when the distressingly fast (for parents) motorcycle toy was released, children across the globe appropriated tables, chairs, books, toys, and small animals for makeshift stunt courses. Hideously unstable ramps and obstacles prepared, the bike would be sent to shoot off to glory. Or, more often than not, to veer off to the left and traumatise the cat, before smashing into something made of glass the child’s parents had forgotten they had owned. Anyway, the point is, children put their imaginations to use to create their ideal stunt courses.

Fast forward to the space year 2009. Joe Danger allows children (and adults) to do essentially the same thing, but with infinitely more power and flexibility. The game also offers a level editor you see which, like the LittleBigPlanet games, is the exact level editor the developers used to make the preloaded levels. Though I didn’t use the editor myself, Grant showcased it several times. In one instance he dumped a few dozen cars on the ground within seconds, dropped a suitably meaty ramp in front of them, and made the jump. Making your own levels looks to be quick, easy and – most importantly – fun. You’ll also be able to swap levels with other people – though whether this will be with Joe Danger fans in general, or only amongst your friends, has not yet been decided. This is mainly due to the fact that even the game’s format(s) is still up in the air (I played it on a PC, using an Xbox 360 controller, with a PSN release still being discussed as a possibility). A firm decision on formats should hopefully be made in the next few weeks.

In an example of ‘why hasn’t somebody already done that?’ thinking, Hello Games encourage use of the level editor in single player races. ‘Coin Dash’ races are all about getting from start to finish, performing stunts, and collecting coins. The ‘Puzzle’ levels however, require you to use the game’s editor along the way. That wall too high? Call up the editor (which freezes the action), drop the right ramp in the right place, then unfreeze the game and carry on. Can’t jump those spikes? Drop something to land on.

There’s so much I haven’t even touched on. The scores and combos, which will clearly lead to obsessive leaderboard chasing; the split screen two player mode (which I frustratingly never had time to try); the Super Mario influence in both art and gameplay; the forward flips, backflips, bunny hops, wheelies; lane changing that sees you move in and out of the screen to avoid obstacles.

“Er…did I just see ‘I made a stunt that looks like a cock’ in the menu?” I asked, questioning my sanity.

“Yes, well spotted.” beamed Grant. “I know somebody’s going to make a stunt that looks like a cock as soon as the game’s released. I can’t wait to see how they do it.”

Joe Danger has been made by fun loving realists. You need this game.

Visit Joe Danger’s home, where you can check out the developer blog and even jump into a forum, at www.hellogames.org

As Britain laments the passing of its few summer days and moves on into the winter months, most of us find ourselves becoming a little down in our nature. However, for gamers this is a time of anticipation, a time we can look forward into the coming months with great expectations for what’s to come. Myself and our glorious CG leader; Master Luke (see what I did there?), found ourselves at the Eurogamer Expo, filled to the brim with new up-and-coming games, developers, and PR people, most of whom would soon find themselves being bashed around the head with a rolled-up sheet of questions until they told us what they know (yes, we believe in tough love at Critical Gamer HQ). One of the first places we decided to venture to was the PSP lounge area, where we were greeted with odd shaped seating and umpteen PSP Gos attached to tables and large Sony branded cereal bowls.

The main attraction on the PSP (for us at least) was the chance to get some hands-on time with the PSP version of LittleBigPlanet, and before I say anything about the game I’d like to point out it was also my first hold of a PSP Go. Now, I have small hands and have always been comfortable holding smaller gadgets, but the Go seemed too small even for my girly sized digits! In its defence though I should point out it was attached to a table via a tether-wire, which meant I was playing tug-of-war whilst trying to play. Not to be put off by this I continued with the LBP demo I had found. The first thing to hit home was its similarity to its bigger brother. The character animations are smooth and move around the screen with the same enthusiastic bounce as their PS3 counterparts. The backgrounds are also bright, vivid, and share the same art style we have become accustomed to from LBP. The theme of the demo levels were of the Australian persuasion and although it was hard to hear those little PSP speakers, I could definitely hear lots of didgeridoo twangs and kangaroo-type noises. So, all very cute and lovely then? Well, not quite. One of the things that has frustrated the LBP community is the way that Sackboy/girl moves between the three planes, sometimes getting stuck next to 3D objects for example; and while the PSP version only has two planes, on the smaller screen this seemed to be a bit of an issue. Although my contorted fingers were wrestling with the size of the Go (and I was still playing tug-of-war with the selfish table that clearly wanted its PSP back), which probably didn’t help matters. I think the only real hindrance here would be if you were playing a level as a race or chase.

Unfortunately there wasn’t any option to have a go at creating a level on the demo either, which is one of the things that concerns me the most. We’ve already heard from Luke how Cambridge Studio have overcome the ever elusive second nub problem on the PSP, but it would have been nice to be able to see how creating a level works without that all important second stick. We’re assured that it will become second nature, and I’m sure if focused on just the PSP version, newcomers will be none the wiser. Though having never tried it, don’t take my word as gospel.

My thoughts on the PSP version of LBP? A smooth transition from the big screen to your pocket. Controls for the most part seem tight and responsive, costume tailoring is also quick and easy just like the PS3 version and from what we hear, there will be an extensive costume catalogue to come. The graphics are a little rough around the edges in comparison, but obviously the PSP does not have the horsepower of the PS3, so this is to be expected. It’s unfortunate that you have to download levels rather than just play them while connected, although this also means you can keep your favourites and take them anywhere with you. If Cambridge Studio put as much effort and support behind this as Media Molecule have the with the PS3 version, then this will quickly grow into a must have for PSP owners old and young. Maybe even a reason for those without to buy a PSP.

Left to right: John 'Johnee' Beech, Danny Leaver, and Martin Lynagh.

Media Molecule were at the Eurogamer Expo for one day only, which just happened to be the one and only day we were there too. Resisting the temptation to fall down and cry “We’re not worthy!” in a Wayne’s World stylee, we kept what little dignity we had. I’m sure Media Molecule felt the same.

Cornering producer Martin Lynagh and level designers Danny Leaver and John ‘Johnee’ Beech, we began the assault. I started off by asking if the whole community idea was there for LittleBigPlanet from the very beginning?

“The original game concept was to be a purely multiplayer community experience.” said Danny. “We weren’t even sure that there was going to be a single player story.”

Why haven’t other developers embraced their communities in a similar way?

“That’s a good question.” added Martin, proving himself to be a remarkably handsome man. “It does take a lot of effort, and it’s not a model that the games industry is really comfortable or familiar with yet. People are used to shipping the game, then working on the next thing. We are definitely very very different.”

“You know, everybody’s got good ideas. A game’s community is such a giant thing, that a lot of developers would be hit with all different opinions, it would be quite hard to sift through. But we…” Danny stopped, and saw the perfect example sitting next to him.“John is actually one of those community people. He was a community member that was excellent at level designing.”

“He’s somebody who was hired from the community. That was his job application, if you like.” said Martin, making me wish my levels didn’t tend to look like a half finished Bagpuss set. So as somebody hired on the strength of his levels, does Johnee think user created content is the future of the industry?

“I definitely think so. I think people who play LittleBigPlanet say ‘this is amazing, why has nobody done this before?’. And as more and more community based games come out, and people start making more and more interesting ideas that developers just don’t have the time to make..”

Danny picks this up by adding: “It’s weird, because I got into the games industry by modding, which is taking the tools that the pros use and making your own thing with them. Unless you’re really focused on it, it’s quite hard. I think we’ve made a pretty easy system to make levels and stuff. I’m sure that people are working on even easier ways now. I’m sure it’ll only get more accessible.”

“I think it’s definitely something that’s still evolving.” agrees Martin. “In ten years, it may be that it’ll be the norm.”

“A good example is Modnation Racers.” This is first suggested by Danny, but all three nod enthusiastically. “The way that you build tracks in that is by actually driving the track. So if you’re good at driving in the game, you can just pull off some awesome moves, and build the track through gameplay! I really like that idea.”

So modding is still a great way to get into the industry. Could LBP be used like that, to get a job not only as Johnee did – even with a different developer?

“Absolutely. A mod is just user generated content. Say I go for a job with a developer, and I made a bunch of levels [in LittleBigPlanet]. I’m not using the same tools as them, but they’ll look at that and go ‘wow, that’s a great example of work using other tools, so maybe you could make something like that for us’. LittleBigPlanet is just another tool. It does all the rendering for you, all the lighting for you.”

Talk about modesty! Danny thinks LittleBigPlanet, or the level editing part at least, is ‘just another tool’?

“It’s just a tool that’s been repackaged in a user friendly way. That’s all it is, it’s a tool.”

Though they’re less common than they used to be, nobody who’s played LBP can have failed to notice the so called ‘heart for heart’ levels. These are sometimes no more than one – second affairs, where anybody playing them instantly drops onto a level exit. They exist only so the people who made them can ask fellow trophy hunters to play and ‘heart’ them. When I start talking about this, Martin and Johnee start laughing at a rather sheepish looking Danny, who answers:

“John probably has a different view, because he was a community guy. I feel largely responsible for this, because…” he pauses, facing more laughter. “Well the thing is, we looked at the trophy system – I’m a trophy addict, I love trophies – we thought, ‘how can we reward creators’? Because rewarding players is quite easy. But creators, I thought ‘let’s make it so that if you get a level published, and enough people play it…’. However, some people who aren’t that creative want the trophy – which is fair enough -” The other two agree on this. “And the way to do it without creating something of worth, is to ask…” yet more laughter cuts off the end of that sentence. “I respect them for doing that, because I want the trophy, I want all the trophies.”

“If they were clever enough to think of doing that, why not?” says Johnee.

“It was entirely our fault.” declares Danny. “You can’t blame the community for it.”

“You can’t blame the community.” Martin agreed. “I mean, I suppose the real reward of creating a great level is the actual acclaim and comments, and the fact that you’ve created an experience that other people have enjoyed.”

So the ‘heart for heart’ level phenomenon is unfortunate, but if any blame is to be apportioned, it lies solely with Media Molecule?

“Absolutely. Send me an e mail!” says Danny, to yet more laughter. “John at…”

“What?” cries Johnee. The laughter is more powerful than ever now.

Moving away from the sticky subject of levels made just for trophies, I ask about downloadable content. There’s been a nigh on perfect mix of free and paid for DLC, but what do they have planned for the future? Martin signals that community support isn’t going to stop any time soon.

“We have a lot of stuff coming out, especially next year. We can’t really talk about specifics for a lot of it at the moment, because a lot of it hasn’t been announced.”

“That would’ve been a good exclusive for you!” smiles Danny.

Indeed it would and, on the spot, I come up with an ingenious plan. I try to bribe them with Maltesers.

“I’m cracking!” wails Johnee, shaking with pure temptation. When I offer to throw a boiled sweet into the deal as well, he damn near spills the beans. Unfortunately for Critical Gamer, Martin steps in.

“Be strong. Be strong, Johnee.” sadly, Johnee is brought under control. Martin continues: “We’re working with…” he didn’t finish that sentence; perhaps if I’d had a Mars bar? Martin Lynagh looks like a Mars bar guy. “We’re looking forward to some really good original content, and some really strong brands we’re working with. There’s a lot of cool stuff coming. We haven’t stopped making the game. This is what we’re talking about, when we talk about different business models in the games industry. We’re still making LittleBigPlanet.; the amount of DLC is a testament to that. I think there have been more costumes after launch than there were in the original game. There’s more of pretty much everything; it broadens creators’ talents.”

That’s all folks… for now. Don’t miss part two on Monday, where the MM guys talk about, amongst other things, what was unusual about Johnee’s levels. You know, the ones that got him a job…?

Ross and I found our time at the Eurogamer Expo to be surprisingly limited once the interviews (including one with Avatar: The Game’s UK brand manager, coming next week) had been done. So far as Avatar went, we had a choice. Did we try it out on one of the 2D screens, or the whacking great JVC branded 3D monster complete with special glasses?

Well, duh.

I don’t want this to become an advert for 3DTV technology, so I’ll get the 3D side of things out of the way first. People watching me play, once they’d put the surprisingly ungeeky looking glasses on, constantly came out with comments like ‘that’s amazing!’. Even Ross declared it to be ‘incredible’. And yes, Avatar in 3D is very impressive. Rather than the game seeming to jump out of the screen at you, the optical illusion here (created by combining two different sets of images) is one of depth. You don’t feel that the characters are going to reach out and touch you – but you certainly feel as though you could reach into the TV and pull out a handful of grass from the lush jungle environment.

Avatar’s being released in December but, er, 3DTVs aren’t arriving in the UK until spring…and when they do, the very cheapest will almost certainly be dangerously close to £2000. Oh well.

I was tearing through the aforementioned jungle as a human marine; the ten foot tall Na’vi were not playable in the demo. The very first part of the demo however, had me piloting a small gunship. This brief intro sequence consisted of nothing more than moving forward, and shooting missiles to blow up rock formations that were in the way. The falling scenery did look particularly lovely in all that 3Dness though.

After touching down on the landing pad (having first bumped the craft on a piece of scenery due to my cack handedness) I continued on foot, again in third person. All was quite, until I started coming across the enemies, which were…

Alien dinosaurs!!

Well, they’ve probably got a better name than that. But aliens are awesome, dinosaurs are awesome, so alien dinosaurs are super awesome. Their bold colours – particularly noticeable on the huge beasts – make them look like something my daughter’s made by sticking play doh onto rocks. That’s not necessarily a criticism; I much preferred these bright and colourful beasts to the dank and uninspiring design of the Helghast in the Killzone titles.

My primary weapon was a machine gun type rifle. This picked off the smaller alisaurs (see what I did there? Eh? Oh, please yourselves) with ease, and even proved effective against one of the huge horned creatures that acted as a mini – boss (“you’ve got a grenade launcher” said the guy walking me through the demo, taking pity on me). Talking of weapons, which one is always great fun to use no matter what the game? Shotgun? Nope. Mech? Not always, but you do get a go in one here.

Flamethrower.

Turns out I was carrying one of those as well. Sweeping the flame across the ground, the grass quickly caught fire in a satisfying and realistic manner. It came as no surprise to be told that this was built on the Far Cry 2 engine, as that game of course contains fire that looks and behaves equally realistically.

There’s a promise of more than ‘run forward, shoot everything that moves including the foliage’, too. Another feature was a Predator style cloaking device. At one point I employed this to sneak past a group of what I was warned were particularly dangerous alisaurs (I like the word, and I’m sticking with it) and activate a ‘repulsor’. The repulsor did pretty much what you’d expect from the name; it repulsed the alisaurs, creating a small area of safety where I could catch my breath.

I will at this point remind you that people watching me play were oohing and aahing at the 3D effect of the TV, and add that as well as things such as “Wow”, I was also hearing things like “haha” and “He’s rubbish!”. This is because my experience of the game was hampered slightly by the inability to invert the Y axis for aiming. Aiming in this way felt awkward and unnatural to me, as writing with your left hand would feel to you. Er, unless you’re left handed or ambidextrous. Anyway. The point stands. I’m not that bad at games! I was assured that the option to invert will be in the final code, however.

The game will also feature multiplayer, which did not feature in the demo. Avatar is bursting with potential; but how much use it makes of this potential remains to be seen.