A new Hitman Absolution trailer blasted through swathes of people and found its way out into the open over the weekend.

It didn’t show us anything gameplay related but definitely bigs up the action angle, with Agent 47 strolling from room to room eviscerating crowds with his trademark dual Silverballers.

There is no trace of 47′s more subtle traits that fans of the previous games hold close to their cold, professional hearts. IO Interactive’s Hitman initiative with Square Enix is definitely shaping up to be a very different kind of beast to what we have seen from the series so far.

Image from KrebsOnSecurity.com

Hmmmm.

MCV reports that, as detailed over at KrebsOnSecurity, Square Enix have suffered hacks over at the Deus Ex and Eidos websites. On Wednesday evening, both sites displayed a banner reading ‘Owned By Chippy1337′ which also included names and handles of several other hackers (above); shortly after, both sites went down until mid-late Thursday morning.

Anonymous have been accused of the hack, as the handles given are known Anonymous members. In an interesting turning of the tables however, KrebsOnSecurity claim that they managed to get hold of a transcript of the hackers’ online chat. Fuel is added to the long-running fire that Anonymous is fighting itself here – the hackers are not those named in the banner. Part of the hack’s aim, it seems, was to act as a frame-up.

For full details and a full copy of the transcript, head to KrebsOnSecurity. The hackers apparently use the Ids ‘evo’, ‘nigg’, and ‘e’. They claim to have stolen data including details of 80,000 Deus Ex site users, 9.000 Eidos resumes, and – possibly – Deus Ex source code. They plan to publish some or all of this information online.

They originally planned to booby trap the site; evo at one point says (unedited) “there security will be responsible/for like/thousands of fucked up computers/and it would make the news” before being told it wouldn’t work. Later, nigg says “leaking the sql will cause a stir”. It seems fair to say that they’re after publicity.

This further evidence of Anonymous splitting and turning on itself – added to the fact that it’s videogame related sites being attacked – puts the notorious hacker collective in the spotlight for the PSN hack again. What if Anonymous hacked the PlayStation Network and then, when the extent of the laws which had been broken became apparent – to the extent that the FBI became involved – the hackers responsible became scared, and refused to admit to the hack? Or perhaps the files implicating Anonymous left on Sony’s servers were part of a frame-up…

• Format: PSP
• Unleashed: Out Now
• Publisher: Square Enix
• Developer: Square Enix
• Players: 1-2
• Site: http://www.dissidia012game.com

The original Dissidia is amongst the most bizarre genre mixing games in existence. It mixed heroes and villains from every generation of Final Fantasy and pitted them against one another in extravagant battles under the pretence of being chosen to fight for one of two rival gods. Ever one for making things needlessly complicated, Square Enix has now released Dissidia 012 [duodecim]: Final Fantasy which, other than having a terrible title, is in fact a prequel and a re-release of the original game.

The story mode once again places players on the side of Cosmos fighting against Chaos, in an overly ambitious plot that acts as no more than a means to service fans. Still – your favourite Final Fantasy cast members are stuck in an endless cycle of war. The new cast of the game in Cycle 012 band together to give themselves a better chance of ending the war in Cycle 013 (the subject of the first game) by halting the creation of manikins.

Playing as Lightning, Laguna, Vaan, Yuna, Tifa and Kain through their struggle to prepare for Cycle 013 will take at least 15 hours, but after that you also gain access to Cycle 013 should you want to replay the first game (or see it for the first time). There is also an unlockable Cycle 000 that acts as a ‘what-if’ where you can create a party of any characters you want, regardless of affiliation, to tackle the highest level manikins.

The inclusion of the whole of the first game was quite surprising. The plot, cutscenes and most of the content has not changed, but along with the familiar chessboard style dungeons are new open world areas, as introduced in 012. These allow you to hunt down manikins and also include optional dungeons, treasure, and smart-mouthed Moogles that sell rare equipment and summons.

Outside of the story modes the plethora of other options available on a single UMD is quite staggering. You have standard 1-on-1, and also team matches for up to 5-on-5; a labyrinth which is part card game, part random dungeon exploration; an arcade mode; a time attack mode; a friend card system and friend card ghost battles. Enjoying these does depend on not tiring of the battle system (which will happen sooner or later) but from a content-to-price comparison, Dissidia 012 scores highly.

It’s a challenge to accurately summarise the battle system in Dissidia in this space. Beyond characters having their standard HP (health) they also have Bravery and two types of attacks based on both. When an HP attack is successfully struck on your opponent, the damage to their HP is directly proportionate to your current Bravery. Upon expending your supply of Bravery it resets to zero, slowly building back up to your base amount, leaving you exposed for a counter attack which may lead to a Break happening.

A Break is when a character with no Bravery has their Bravery attacked. During this status a successful HP attack will deal no damage and the person who managed to inflict Break on their opponent is also granted the accumulated Stage Bravery, giving them a significant advantage in battle.

Summonstones return as do EX Modes (special transformations that give access to a character’s best attack) and last is a new addition to the formula: Assists. As you attack, a bar will build up within two segments. If you activate with one segment filled, your chosen Assist will appear and launch a Bravery attack. If activated while both segments are full they will launch an HP attack. You can also activate Assists to escape brutal combos or otherwise fatal blows.

One thing of interest to note for those who did play the first game is that Square Enix has fixed an exploit that used to be present. If your EX bar was filled you could wander up to your opponent, allow them to start hitting you, and then break out by activating EX Mode and landing an unavoidable EX Burst attack. In Dissidia 012 doing the same thing will instead use up the whole of the bar to activate EX Break, which slows down time for a few seconds. You can still land a free hit; but it will not link into an EX Burst, balancing things out well.

As with the first game, Dissidia 012 competently makes use of all of the PSP buttons. Uses of the shoulder buttons in combination with a face button can be a little daunting at first for a new player, but in time and with practise become second nature. What can get frustrating is the combination of the shoulder button and the triangle button in order to dash – as if you are slightly too fast you will defend in mid-air instead, leaving you exposed for a few seconds afterwards.

It is safe to assume that an interest in the characters of at least a few generations of Final Fantasy games is partially required, but regardless of who it is that you’re smashing through a pillar of rock you’ll still enjoy the feeling of doing it.  Those less familiar with the games that the cast originally came from will probably offer up the most variety with their selection and will not just switch between Cloud and Sephiroth.

Unfamiliar players may enjoy the strategic battle system of Dissidia 012, but it’s worth trying it out first (either by purchasing Dissidia: Prologus on PSN or downloading the demo of the first game). For those who like Final Fantasy and want a lot of fan servicing content for their money, they will not go wrong with this game.

The phrase ‘JRPG hero’ conjures up a certain image in your mind and, whilst I may not have every last detail, I have a pretty good idea of what you’re seeing in your mind’s eye right now. Young, male, probably blonde, sharp hair, almost certainly holding some sort of sword. It’s like I’ve ripped your head open and I’m staring at your brain! Does it hurt?!?

The point (I think) is that pretty much every lead character from every JRPG so far produced share many similarities. Thus was born this deconstruction of the JRPG stereotype. Depending on how sadistically minded you are you may, if you wish, replace the word ‘deconstruction’ with one of the following: examination, dissection, autopsy, exhumation.

Gigantic Eyes

A JRPG with cartoon style visuals will feature a hero with gigantic eyes. There’s a law in Japan about it, passed in 1992, the breaking of which is punishable by death (they kill you until you die). What good are eyes big enough to beat a small dog to death with? Well for one, only eyes that big will be able to fully comprehend the gargantuan breasts the female characters will inevitably be carrying around with them.

Whacking great eyeballs are great for spotting enemies too, of course. And if the hero blinks really quickly, it produces a gust of wind strong enough to knock back all but the biggest boss characters. Finally, enemies will hesitate before attacking; taking as they will a moment to say to themelves ‘crikey, those eyes are enormous’.

Spiky Hair

Oh yes. Cartoony or realistic, the heroes and heroines of JRPGs have more pointy haircuts amongst them than a planet full of nu metal bands. Why so many spiky haircuts? Well the boring (and possibly correct) explanation would point out that the JRPG is one of the oldest videogame genres; that the first titles were made when sprites consisted of a small number of pixels, and spiky hair was the quickest, easiest way to distinguish hair from head. It would look a bit silly if everybody was bald, or wearing hats. The hairstyle came to typify the genre, and so survived over years of technological advancement.

Yes, I know they're not usually in RPGs - you're missing the point. Geddit?

I prefer to think that it serves as a last ditch melee weapon. Each spike is also, obviously, an antenna that picks up solar radiation in the atmosphere and converts it into magical energy. Spiky hair even acts as a kind of camouflage. Stand still, and enemies who see the top of your head over a wall will think they’re seeing distant mountains.

Legs On Show And Impractical Battle Bras

This usually only applies to female characters. They do have very very short or incomplete skirts generally speaking, don’t they, the JRPG heroines? Not to mention boobs bursting out all over the place, more often than not. There is a reason for this of course.

There’s a certain type of adolescent male who levels up when he sees a cartoon lady in revealing clothing. He then engages in a brief yet intense training fight, until his stamina is gone and he showers the screen with XP.

Something like that, anyway…

Oversized Weapons

I shall not stoop to Carry On jokes here (unless it gets a laugh). I’m talking about guns large enough to fire elephants out of the barrel or, more traditionally, swords big enough to hide a Vespa behind. The benefits are obvious; maximum destruction and it looks really cool.

It's made of polystyrene.

Naturally, just carrying huge weaponry implies strength and skill. For the female characters, it’s also a matter of balance. A massive sword carried on the back counteracts the two crimes against God carried on the chest. If a JRPG heroine draws her sword too quickly, she falls flat on her face.

Well, she would if her knockers weren’t so perversely huge.

So there you have it, the JRPG hero/heroine ripped apart and the gory dangly bits thrown around for your pleasure. Did I forget anything important? Let us know!

Mistakes can sometimes be a good thing. If you can take the mistake and then move on and learn from it, then at least something positive came out the other end. The second MMO in the Final Fantasy franchise however has been making substantial mistakes since before day one – and has yet to make any effort to learn from them.

Though they have yet to learn from their mistakes, the team behind Final Fantasy XIV (FF14) have at least taken steps to admit them, as seen in a rather desperate and pitiful public apology to the players of the game that we reported on here. It has been just over a month since that apology and the game has seen one large patch of extra content, which did little to fix core problems that should have been caught over six months ago.

FF14 follows a certain form of pedigree established by Final Fantasy XI (FF11). Though it isn’t what many Westerners would consider to be the standard MMORPG archetype, a game originally released for the PS2 in 2002 continues to thrive with a substantial player base well into its ninth year of existence (one year less outside of Japan). It is a sad indictment of just how appallingly sub-standard FF14 is that its predecessor manages to remain significantly superior to it.

So where did things start to go wrong? I would surmise right at the concept phase. As a player of FF11 for more years than I am comfortable admitting to, I saw the game change as the development team reacted to what I would call Western influence. FF11 started as a game with a forced community, by which I mean after the first few levels there is little that can be done alone. Slowly additions were made to suit the more solo-based or small group based players, and in the last two years this has been a particular focus.

At the development phase for FF14 they appear to have taken this desire to do things alone to extremes. Grouping is still possible of course, but there is little point to it due to the lack of content requiring it. It feels like they failed to see the balance that people wanted. Subscribers didn’t want to be forced into being a team player, but they didn’t want to be encouraged to be alone either. It is, after all, an MMORPG.

Even more fundamental than that is the inability to really listen. The development team appears to think they have heard what the player wants, but really they haven’t heard a thing. I was shocked at how the closed and open Beta phases of FF14 were handled in regards to this. A beta phase, whether open or closed, is to test many things; the server load, gameplay mechanics, fundamentals, bugs and so on. The role of a tester is to report on that kind of thing.

Why then only (seemingly randomly selected) members of the Beta could report bugs is beyond me. The rest, myself included, could only hope that our reports would be seen in the mess you could barely call a forum within the Beta Member site where anything of value was quickly buried beneath many threads complaining about something I will move onto in a moment.

As far as gameplay (as in core, basic gameplay) goes there was one common complaint made over and over during both phases of Beta: there isn’t enough to do. Gone were the cutscene-laden quests of FF11 and instead generic, word filled daily fetch quests replaced them. When the player was bored with them there was a broken and entirely too random crafting system to frustrate themselves with briefly and then…nothing. There was nothing else. There still isn’t anything else in fact. Not even Chocobos.

Even on a more basic level there are many things missing: without previous experience from FF11 new players will be totally lost. The so called tutorials within the game are pathetic and you will feel lost within an hour of play without any idea of what to do. Well, there’s nothing much to do actually, so perhaps not. Wander around aimlessly.

It’s hard to tell if it is ignorance or arrogance that is to blame, but clearly the development team (now largely replaced, as you will see in the post linked to earlier on) thought something else could carry the game. What could it be? What could carry a shallow game with nothing to do in it and gameplay that even by MMORPG players’ standards seemed boring and repetitive?

Graphics.

Have you heard the phrase ‘priced out of the market’? It’s a basic business expression when a considered purchase is outside the threshold someone is willing to pay against comparable product. FF14 is doing something similar to this. FF14 is ‘specing’ itself out of the market.

To make FF14 look good, by which I mean to make it not look like it is playing through a screen filter composed of badly rendered slime and cut out squares, a pretty hefty machine is required. Though, as a side note, I’d like to point out that even playing on a beast of a machine only the cutscenes show real quality and the game world itself is barren and dull no matter what settings you use.

While there are graphic whores amongst MMO players, that is rarely the priority on their list of things they want from their games. Among the demographics I played alongside in FF11 were housewives and family men, far more interested in the escape into fantasy than how well rendered a rock wall is.

Assuming you have a decent machine and want what was meant to be a top quality MMO that is currently still free to play, by all means take a look at FF14. However – to really fix the game, to bring it to the standards already established by long running MMOs or even some released in the last few months, I honestly cannot see any hope of that. All MMOs begin unfinished and are built up as time goes on; but FF14 is starting from such a broken and boring beginning that trying again from the ground up makes the most sense.

I would not be surprised if the new team brought in to fix the game either just brings it down or goes to the free to play forever model hoping then that the poor quality standard is partially ignored. The ones to blame are those in the original development team and it is good that they are gone, but it is still shocking that – given the previous experience of some of them – FF14 turned out so bad.

There’s always that bit of hope though, isn’t there? Let’s use some examples. An update on January 18^th adjusted points rewarded by Regional Levequests! One just before Christmas added the ability to actually search for items within player’s bazaars (the previous method being to check them all manually)! An Auction House would make more sense or shops that actually sold decent equipment at reasonable prices but hey, everyone’s allowed to make a few mistakes, right?

The latest instalment of the Final Fantasy series and the second to be of the MMORPG variety has had a rough time since release a couple of months ago. The game was ripped apart by reviews, which cited a clearly unfinished, sloppy product filled with boring mechanics and simply not enough things to do. In order to combat this the free trial period for those who purchased the game was extended twice to give players a taste of the November update. This was not enough, it seems.

FFXIV players will be waking up this morning to an e-mail from Square Enix apologising for the state the game is in and the rather drastic steps they are taking to fix it.

CEO Yoichi Wada states; “While more than two months have passed since the official launch of FINAL FANTASY XIV service, we deeply regret that the game has yet to achieve the level of enjoyability that FINAL FANTASY fans have come to expect from the franchise, and for this we offer our sincerest of apologies. After thorough deliberation on how to meet those expectations, it was decided that the most viable step was to approach improvements under new leadership and with a restructured team.”

Below is the statement’s list of objectives and changes. The most shocking of which is perhaps the further delay of releasing the game for Playstation 3.

Changes to the Development Team

Producer/Director: Naoki Yaoshida

Assistant Director: Shintaro Tamai (FFX, Front Mission 5)

Lead Game Designer: Nobuaki Komoto (FFIX, FFXI)

Lead Combat System Designer: Akihiko Matsui (FFXI)

Technical Advisor: Yoshihisa Hasimoto (Next Generation Game Engine Development)

Lead Programmer: Hideyuki Kasuga (FFXI, Dirge of Cerberus)

Senior Concept Artist: Akihiko Yoshida (FFXII, Vagrant Story)

Lead Artist: Hiroshi Takai (FFXI, The Last Remnant)

Lead UI Designer/Lead Web Designer: Hiroshi Minagawa (FFXII, Vagrant Story)

Extension of the Free Trial Period

The game is currently free to play due to constant extensions of the original 30 days free with a purchase of the box. This will continue until the team are confident that they can provide “a plan that outlines a level of enjoyment that will satisfy both us and our customers.”

Delay of the Playstation 3 Version Release

Originally slated for March, the PS3 version is on hold for an unstated period of time. The stated says; “The Playstation 3 release will be delayed until we are confident that the game has reached the level of enjoyability and service befitting the FINAL FANTASY name for users on all supported platforms. We offer our sincerest apologies to any fans anticipating the Playstation 3 release, and humbly ask for your continued patience and understanding.”

There was also further promise of the content being added in the final update of the year later this month which, among other things, introduces Notorious Monsters (NM, a concept from FFXI). The statement by the team then ended with a promise from Naoki Yoshida to do everything they could to improve FFXIV under the new management structure and a further personal apology from Hiromichi Tanaka to fans.

Square-Enix are returning to the Parasite Eve canon in the form of The 3^rdBirthday on the PSP. A spin-off of sorts, it’s a third person over the shoulder shooter set in the near future, featuring our familiar heroine Aya Brea. The 3^rd Birthday was one of the most impressive portable demos on show at TGS, looking and controlling great on Sony’s portable.

The demo is situated in a desolate city overrun with the Twisted, strange organic creatures, all spikes and tentacles. Doing away with the Twisted isn’t particularly challenging as the R button provides a convenient lock-on feature, and an automatic cover system allows for simple duck, pop and shoot progression. The difficulty was amped up slightly for the larger bosses but they aren’t really a match for Aya. And just for the record, I didn’t notice the lead’s jeans wearing away as she took damage, though I trust it’s in there somewhere.

Despite a linear urban setting, Aya is able to traverse the streets and rooftops, eventually ending up in a helicopter to provide a spot of cover for her beleaguered allies. The weapons are mapped out to the analogue buttons, and it quickly becomes apparent which ones suit which situations best. At one point you are ducking behind barricades firing off your machine gun, while the next you are providing sniper cover from up high. There was a good range of equipment on offer, though the demo could be completed quite easily without relying on anything but the standard machine gun.

Aya’s main tool in felling the Twisted is her Overdrive ability, which sees her teleport from one area of the map to the other by swiftly inhabiting the body of another NPC, be they civilian or military. This is achieved with a quick press of the triangle button and is accompanied by a red mist and a moan from the displaced ally who then occupies the space in which you previously resided. By doing this, you inherit your new host’s weapons, ammo and health. This system encourages you to tackle each section tactically, enabling you to outflank enemies, get yourself in or out of the action, or achieve a better line of sight to snipe a rampaging monster. The other option is to utilise Overdrive mode to escape danger, removing you from harm’s reach but sacrificing a comrade in the process. Finally, by following an on – screen prompt, it can be used to finish off a wounded enemy as Aya overwhelms the creature and it explodes with a satisfying splat. From what the demo showed, we can expect Overdrive to play an increasingly vital role as the game progresses and the levels become more challenging.

Desperately fighting your way through swathes of the Twisted, 3^rdBirthday comes across as darker and more violent than previous Square-Enix PSP titles. Throughout the demo and in impressive cut scenes, our heroine is shown as distressed and invariably in pain, resolute in her struggle with the Twisted menace. Via flashbacks, the pre- demo cut scenes hinted at a storyline surrounding a possible younger sister and Aya’s struggle to protect and/or reclaim her.

The 3^rd Birthday looks extremely promising, but with a yet to be announced Western release date (due 22/12/10 in Japan), we will have to wait a while before we can enjoy the experience in full.

Gun Loco is an Xbox 360 exclusive, third person shooter from Square-Enix. It’s set on a prison planet inhabited by a number of extremely disturbed individuals, where inmates entertain themselves by dressing up and massacring each other. The tone and appearance of the characters, along with the mix of humour and violence, initially reminded me of the Timsplitters series. However, a 15 minute hands on with the singleplayer campaign quickly tempered such comparisons.

During our hands-on, Gun Loco was plagued by random enemy spawning, terrible ally AI and “who can shoot the other person in the face more than five times wins” stand-offs. Other frustrations included being one shot killed by an unannounced mini boss, and constantly finding one of your rabbit headed allies wandering in front of you for a slug to the back of the head. It remains to be seen whether Gun Loco will be better suited to multiplayer, which was unavailable in the demo, removing the annoyance of sub-par AI friendlies.

On the plus side, the weapons have a nice ring and kick to them and the sprint and slide moves are enjoyable, allowing you to traverse different surfaces and slide under others at speed. When combined with the trigger, you can discharge a super powered shot which makes short work of the enemies and bosses alike. Run and gun seemed to be the most effective way of progressing through the demo’s urban setting and vicious finishers became available when close enough to your target. The opposition, unlike your comrades in arms, are pretty handy with a gun. They keep you on your toes throughout, wary of straying out into the open for too long lest you get shot in the chin.

Gun Loco is a good 6 months from release, so we may remain optimistic that there is time yet to fix some of the issues which clouded what is still an interesting premise. Only time will tell, but from what we saw at TGS, Gun Loco still has a fair way to go.

Each entertainment medium has one advantage over the others, that the very best examples exploit. Some music, through a process nobody fully understands, can instantly provoke feelings such as sadness or elation through sound alone; literature, connecting directly with your mind as it does, is capable of making the most preposterously unrealistic situations not only acceptable, but incredibly gripping and immersive; while TV & cinema can bombard the viewer with a mixture of highly evocative scripting, sounds and visuals (employing the finest writers, actors, musicians, and technology) to create an experience they’ll never forget. What is gaming’s advantage?

Interactivity; and it’s amazing just how underexploited this element has been over the past two decades or so.

Notoriously, big budget games have been pathetically desperate to emulate movies this generation. The problem is that developers try to emulate the movie industry via their cut scenes (and sometimes incidental dialogue); forgetting the fact that the budgets put aside for casting, direction, scripting, and cinematic computer graphics will never allow them to compete with the best that cinema has to offer. Also forgetting, of course, that games are meant to be played rather than watched. Nonetheless, there have been titles that have taken advantage of gaming’s interactivity in interesting ways.

Bioshock is a good example of this, though only in two instances; the moment you finally come face to face with Andrew Ryan (which I shan’t spoil for those yet to play the game) – and the first time you have a Little Sister at your mercy. Sadly, it is now virtually impossible to experience Bioshock as the developers intended; that is, with no idea of the details of the story including, crucially, the true nature of the Little Sisters. I was careful that this was how I first played the game. Therefore, when I was forced to either save or ‘harvest’ a Little Sister, I had to make the decision on very little information. One character was telling me this was a twisted little girl I had a chance to return to normality; another was telling me that this creature was no longer human, a monster beyond all help. I didn’t feel that I knew either person well enough to entirely trust one or the other, but I had to make a decision. I could be saving a little girl, or murdering one; destroying a dangerous monster, or setting one loose.

In case you were wondering, I saved every Little Sister in the game.

There’s no denying that Bioshock 2 is inferior to its predecessor, but it’s still a good game in its own right. The Little Sister choice returns but, now that the choice is clear cut, with little emotional baggage. What you decide to do with the Little Sisters you meet on your travels affects the ending, as with the first game; but it also decides what happens during a brief yet memorable moment toward the end of the game. All I’ll say is that the impact of this moment is strengthened immeasurably by your participation – and once you realise that your actions have decided what is about to happen, you will almost certainly feel either relief or terror.

The flawed gem that is Nier makes you aware of your participation in a very clever way… after your first playthrough. Once the twist in the tale is laid bare and you’ve seen the first ending, the game allows you to replay the final third of the adventure with all of your weapons, XP etc. intact. The knowledge you now have – combined with extra incidental dialogue and cut scenes the second time around – give you a new perspective on your actions, and a deeper understanding of previously confusing events. Nonetheless, you are doomed to do everything exactly as you did before.

Jumping back a decade to the year 2000, we see the release of Deus Ex. Here was that thing that is still so sadly rare today: a game of true intelligence. A mature game in the proper sense, i.e. no bare breasts and/or gratuitous gore and/or profanity every few minutes purely for the sake of it. It dealt with deep and interesting issues and, most importantly of all, was great fun to play. You quickly found yourself wondering if you were on the right side; indeed, as the game progressed, you found yourself wondering if there were any ‘right’ side at all. The next Deus Ex game, Invisible War, was well received by professional critics; but seems to be universally spat upon by Deus Ex fans (though I have previously admitted that I actually rather enjoyed it). So strong is the hatred for Invisible War, in fact, that Square Enix are touting the upcoming Deus Ex: Human Revolution as ‘The true sequel to Deus Ex’ (despite it being a prequel).

Another way Deus Ex leaned on the interactive element of videogames was to truly empower the player. Wherever possible, it was up to the player to decide how the protagonist progressed. Did he jump into a fight guns blazing? Set a trap? Or simply sneak past? Or perhaps he took the long way round, seeking an alternative route. I’d like to see Human Revolution expand on this idea further.

What frustrates me about moral choices in games is that, 99% of the time, it’s simply a case of being told ‘do this and be good, or do this and be evil’. How is that challenging the player in any way? How does that enrich the experience? A game carrying the Deus Ex name is the perfect opportunity to show the industry how it should be done (the next perfect opportunity, of course, being Bioshock Infinite). I want to see choices similar to the initial Little Sister concept; moral dilemmas with potentially disastrous consequences, which you are forced to make on the bare minimum of information. Even moral decisions where the consequences are clear can be difficult and thought provoking. Would you sacrifice your dying child in order to save the lives of a hundred healthy children? Would you sacrifice yourself to save him/her even if it meant that, without you around, his/her chances of survival would be close to nil? Could you choose one country to obliterate in order to save another? Would you go back to kill Hitler before he even joined the German army… if it meant you could never return to your own time? These are just a few ideas off the top of my head and yes, I’m sure you can do better. I certainly hope developers can.

I don’t expect Hitler to appear in the next Deus Ex game, but I would certainly hope challenging and thought provoking choices will. Unfortunately – from my point of view – Human Revolution is already showing signs of leaning on gaming clichés in order to appeal to Johnny Average. A regenerating health bar, a third person cover system, instant kill melee moves… if a lithe scantily clad female sidekick makes an appearance accompanied by a tweenrock soundtrack, I may not even bother buying it.

The bottom line is: a game doesn’t have to have artistic, cinematic, or literary ambitions to be a good game. However, surely I am not the only gamer becoming tired of having stories told at me? I want to see more stories being told with me. I’m in your story, traversing your world and meeting your characters. I’m there – let me help.

• Format: Xbox 360 (version reviewed), PS3
• Unleashed: Out Now
• Publisher: Square Enix
• Developer: Cavia
• Players: 1
• Site: www.niergame.com

Nier is a strange, flawed, and fascinating game. It’s an action-RPG that could only come from Japan – with strange characters (a talking book and a girl whose bare ass is almost always in sight), some heavy melodrama, and the kind of slow burn that’s becoming ubiquitous with games from Square Enix.

Though the pacing isn’t nearly as offensive as it was in Final Fantasy XIII, Nier’s plot doesn’t coalesce until about halfway through the game. Until then, it’s riding on the promise of a twist, with a curious intro that places the hero and his sick daughter in a present-day apocalypse. Fast-forward 1300 hundred years later and the hero is seemingly still alive, still trying to save his sick daughter, and carving out a meagre existence in a small farm town.

The town is constantly threatened by shades, creatures of darkness that lurk at the boundaries of the village and serve as something for you to beat up. As the game proper begins, you’re tasked with a few simple quests and fights. You’re encouraged to take odd jobs around town, and if you don’t catch on to their triviality, you may find yourself grinding out dozens of fetch-quests MMO-style.

It’s hard not to feel like some lunatic errand boy. As your daughter slowly dies, you’re out hunting sheep, gathering seeds, or fishing. While completing dumb quests can be satisfying for some, you’re best off skipping as much of Nier’s optional content as possible. If not, you may find yourself burning out before the game even gets started.

Following the main plot, Nier takes you through dungeons, open fields, and towns that wouldn’t be out of place in a Zelda game. But it’s more than an action-RPG, going out of its way to bend genres at every turn. As the story and cast of characters get rolling, and that opening twist is left on the table, it’s the wild turns in the moment-to-moment gameplay that keep Nier enjoyable.

When you aren’t running around killing monsters from a third-person perspective, you’re 2D platforming, twin-stick shooting, text-adventuring, and more. Each diversion is a loving nod to the genre it tackles, often including cute references to classic games. While these moments aren’t as good as the games they reference, they’re still elegantly implemented. The control scheme never changes in service of these moments, so they feel like a bit of variety rather than a cheap gimmick.

Nier’s story features what may be gaming’s ultimate rag-tag bunch. The best of them is Grimoire Weiss, a floating, talking book who seems to be channelling a cartoonish Alan Rickman. When a character or situation seems a bit dumb, Weiss is there to make fun of it with his pompous, nasally hilarious accent. Along with him is Kainé, a pissy, trucker-mouthed, lingerie-wearing bit of Japanese fan-service that Weiss is all too happy to call a “hussy” at every turn. Then there’s you, the hero (technically his name is Nier, but you can name him whatever you want) – he’s a big dumb oaf, endearing to the core, and he always has the simplest solution to any situation.

Their journey is filled with drama, heartbreak, weirdness, and heroism. When it’s all said and done, and you get your answers (with a dash of cliché, but satisfying where it counts), the credits will roll, but Nier isn’t quite over. In one of the more brilliant bits of game storytelling, Nier allows players to start a new game from just about where the story really starts to pick up. With the player now aware of how it all ends, the game fills in the blanks, giving some shocking insight into the characters and their motivations.

If it were just a proclivity toward pointless fetch quests keeping Nier down, it’d be an instant classic. The creativity shown in the gameplay and storyline are undeniable, but bad design decisions and a clearly limited budget stifle its greatness. The presentation can be a mess at times, with the voice-acting cutting out in favour of text dialogue at seemingly random intervals. This is especially bad since the characters just stand there when they talk, so there’s nothing to get their emotions across. And it’s even more disappointing when you consider that, aside from a few awkward lines here and there, the voice-acting is fantastic.

Nier’s graphics are a tough call. They’re a bit plain with flat textures covering the land, simplistic enemy designs, and very little in the way of modern effects. Still the look is clean, and the blown-out sunlight gives the world a unique charm that may still leave you immersed. Not to mention the soundtrack which, while repetitive at times, is often beautiful enough to fill in the blanks your eyes are seeing.

Lastly, for all the cool attempts at variety Nier makes, its base combat is extremely shallow. So shallow, in fact, that it gives up on challenging you towards the end. Some of the later boss enemies can be dispatched in a handful of strikes. It feels a bit disingenuous considering the hardcore pedigree Nier consistently references, but it also might be for the better. While Nier plays like Zelda, it’s not nearly as polished. The fact that the block button is nearly useless, or that it’s too easy to miss your enemies could have been disastrously frustrating if the game was too difficult.

For the most part, it seems the developers were aware of the game’s flaws. They didn’t exactly fix them, but they made them as inoffensive as possible. Nier is always enjoyable, even when it isn’t exactly firing on all cylinders. Propelled by a unique, absurd, and heartfelt story, great characters, and clever gameplay nods, it’s a game that a lot of people are going to fall in love with.

7/10