GAME's administration: A gamer's view

I'd be lying if I said I was an expert in economics, but there are one or two things about the coverage of GAME's potential collapse which I - as a gamer and consumer - find it hard to accept. There's lots of talk about credit terms and competition with supermarkets - which is the downfall of so many high street retailers - but for me this doesn't cover GAME's failings.

Years ago there were two specialist high street retail chains: GAME and Electronics Boutique (since I'm digging out brain cells that have been dormant for a while, I think EB was Futurezone before that - that's going back a bit). GAME successfully bought out all of EB's stores, but never consolidated them, resulting in the current situation in which most major retail-oriented city centres have two branches of GAME. This must have meant a lot of staff and property overhead for little extra profit. Buying games isn't like wanting an overpriced coffee, you don't need to just turn your head and see a branch.

Some time later, a new chain emerged which specialised in the then-fledgling trade-in market, Gamestation. GAME decided to buy out the competition again, acquiring all of Gamestation's branches, many of which were - again - in cities which already had two branches of GAME. Additionally, by this time GAME had also adopted a major pre-owned strategy of their own and for most gamers, to be honest, GAME and Gamestation had become interchangeable.

It never made sense to me why GAME continued to maintain so much duplication on the high street. In many cities they effectively had three stores, often within a couple of streets of each other. I always though it was the perfect opportunity to compare which branch enjoyed the most footfall and conversion and to close the lesser locations.

The talk of supermarket's undercutting GAME is also confusing. As a gamer, I have to say that I find neither supermarkets or GAME to be a particularly competitive option. Play.com and Amazon pretty much set the standard best price for new game releases. GAME's best feature, for me, was the regular weekly deals and occasional discounts they would offer. There was always a good reason to visit GAME regularly and for me it simply wasn't the new releases.

Obviously the high street struggles to compete with online. What is particularly irritating about GAME's practices over the last few years is that they don't even compete with their own website. The same titles would regularly be £5-£10 cheaper on their website than in-store and local staff were powerless to price match. Perhaps the branches were having to pay for their multiple presence in the high street?

I think it would be a sad day for gamers in the UK if GAME and Gamestation disappear, leaving HMV left as the only struggling retail chain to specialise in entertainment products. For those towns with a decent independent game shop it will be a good season, but I fear many gamers will be left with only online options and for the casual gamer it will be a very confusing time.

Does the PS Vita add any value?

Today marks my last opportunity to pre-order Sony's new handheld console, the Playstation Vita. To be honest I'm still uncertain as to whether I want it or not. To get my own thoughts in order and to provide you with some food for thought, below is the summary of my current thinking. This is not consumer advice, nor is it an analysis of the specification of the console; this is purely my experiences as a buyer and as a gamer.

I have a lot of games systems. Currently vying for my attention are the Playstation 3, Nintendo Wii, Xbox 360 and Nintendo 3DS. Really I need to consider what the Vita offers that these do not.

Compared to the 3DS

On the one hand I love the 3DS as a portable games system. Poor battery life aside, the increase in power and resolution over the DS makes it a highly credible machine for more serious games. By "serious games" I mean bigger adventures, with deep stories and levels and cinematic presentation.

Having said that, the 3DS (as is often the case with Nintendo platforms) still lacks a generous quantity of these kinds of games. Ghost Recon: Shadow Wars (3DS) and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (3DS) have been good examples of the kind of excellent games at which the system can excel. However, I still haven't caught up with Super Mario 3D Land or the new Resident Evil and around the corner is Rhythm Thief and the Emperor's Treasure and Heroes of Ruin, so I still have plenty of opportunity for decent adventure games on the 3DS handheld.

But with the PS Vita I wouldn't have to wait ages for good quality singleplayer adventures to appear. The PS Vita will allow for much the same kind of games as are released for the PS3. Uncharted, Killzone, Unit 13 - these are all the kinds of games that can and will make a regular appearance on the handheld. If I'm going on a trip and I want a single game to really involve me and keep me company, I know that with the Vita I will be able to walk into a shop and find something I fancy, whereas the 3DS library may possibly let me down. The 3DS is still unable to deliver comparable ports of big console titles, as is demonstrated by the Lego games. The 3DS versions tend to be upscaled from the DS, rather than downscaled from the Wii.

Online

Multiplayer is a possible issue. Multiplayer gaming on any Nintendo system is usually a horrible experience, and online is often not offered at all - except in a few excellent exceptions, such as Mario Kart 7 or Tetris 3D. The Vita will benefit from Sony's existing expertise with PSN and most of the Vita games look to be highly supportive of online multiplayer.

Having said that I don't really like multiplayer all that much. Shooters aren't really my thing, although I do love anything that offers online co-op. Ironically (apart from Uncharted 2) the most fun I have had online has been with Nintendo's Pokemon and Animal Crossing and also the Wii diving game Endless Ocean. I'm certainly not interested enough to fork out for a 3G Vita so I'm really only going to do multiplayer on my home wireless (where my PS3 and 360 are already located).

Backwards compatibility and watching movies

I did have a PSP once, until it was stolen. I still have cartridges of a few games which I dearly loved on the PSP and would love to play again, such as Metal Gear Ac!d 1 & 2. It disturbs me that the only way I will get to play these games is to pay to download them again from PSN, IF they ever become available. Sony are very bad at offering backwards compatibility because it cuts into their profits, hence why my PS2 is still connected to a TV in the house.

I liked my PSP at the time because I could transfer DVDs and music to it and use it as a portable movie player. At the time this made it a killer machine. I'm still hugely disappointed that Nintendo have not made good on their promise to bring full 3D movies to the 3DS in Europe. Times have moved on since the PSP, though, and now my phone now delivers all of the peripheral benefits the PSP once offered. Now the Vita must stand up as a games machine alone.

Remote and cross-platform play

The remote play feature looks interesting, but from what I have seen around this will be extremely limited. I love my PS3 games and I would love to be able to sit in bed and play them on the handheld. I think I would be more committed to the Vita if Sony sounded more like they were going to follow through on the promises of universal remote play.

It will also be good to be able to engage in multiplayer across the Vita and PS3 networks. Although, as with the remote play feature, it remains to be seen how extensive this will be in practice.

Conclusion

I really like the look of the PS Vita as a piece of kit and its ability to play great games without compromise to limited hardware. If I didn't have a PS3 or Xbox 360 I would definitely get one to use as a serious games machine.

But most of the games I would really enjoy are available in some form or another on the PS3 or Xbox 360. Sure I'd like to play the Vita Uncharted game, but I do already have three Uncharted games on my shelf. Is it worth paying over £200 for another one?



If you'd like to join the debate, feel free to post below or find me on Twitter as @holdmykidney.

Novel Gamer Episode Four - Costume Quest, or "The not-so-famous four do hallowe'en"

This is the fourth episode of the popular online alternative review column "Novel Gamer", part of Game People, which specialises in real world, alternative and artistic reviews. Don't forget that a podcast is also available from the source of this article, here.

This week, The Not-so-famous Four do Hallowe'en: The protagonists of Costume Quest are visited by their old-school British cousins and have a thoroughly chipper time!

It was the first time the Parker children had visited the United States of America. It had also been many years since James and Alice had seen their cousins. What with the excitement of travelling, unsupervised, across the Atlantic on an aeroplane -- although James had suspected the air stewardess had been tipped to keep an eye on them both, much to his chagrin -- Alice was quite beside herself!

"Oh James, isn't it simply too wonderful?" Alice bounced on the back seat of the car, sent to pick them up by their American uncle Victor.

"I say, Alice, do calm down," James told his younger sister. When the two of them were out together James always put on an air of superiority and sophistication, as if he were automatically in charge when Mother and Father were not around. Alice found it most irritating. James paid her be-freckled frown no heed, "we're being seen in this fine country for the first time and I shan't have you making us both appear to be a pair of country bumpkins."

Alice stuck her tongue out at him; an action which she knew would put his back up. She crossed her arms and pouted. She did hope her brother was not going to be a pompous Billy for the whole fortnight!

It was noticeably much warmer here than at home, Alice thought. James squirmed uncomfortably in his seat. He was wearing the sweater which Mother had knitted for his last birthday and it was clearly making him too hot yet he refused to acknowledge this and take it off.

They arrived at their cousins' home quite quickly and were greeted by a pair of unfamiliar faces running down the path in front of the house.

"Gosh, is that them?" James exclaimed despite himself.

"Of course it is, silly," Alice nudged him in the ribs, "it has been many years since we saw them. I dare say we must appear very different to them as well!"

The two cousins stood on the pavement and stared at them; One of them appeared a scrawny but agile looking young man with a mop of brown hair and the other a girl with a short crop of black hair. The boy was called Reynold and the girl Wren. It was apparent to any observant passer-by that they were twins.

Alice simply stared at the girl with her mouth open. The girl's hair was cut quite short at the sides and back and she was wearing jean trousers and a T-Shirt. She couldn't help herself but was terribly aware that she was making ‘O' faces like a goldfish.

Wren came over to her. "Gaht a problem?" she said to Alice, the drawl of her accent totally unfamiliar to the newcomers.

Alice composed herself and looked down at her own attire. "It's just," she began, nervously running her hands down her own green gingham dress, "don't they have pretty girls' dresses here in America?"

"Ha!" the other cousin laughed, giving his sister a firm slap on the shoulder, "it'll be a cold day in hell before this one pretties herself up. I reckon she's more of a guy than I am!"

The girl gave him a reciprocal punch in the gut. Alice looked genuinely horrified.

"Whatever!" the girl said, "I ain't got a problem with dresses. They're just no good for runnin' and fightin'!" She gave Alice a huge grin, once more exposing her missing tooth.

"James Parker at your service," James stepped forward and offered Reynold his hand in a formal handshake.

"Mighty fine to meet you, cuz," Reynold clapped his hand fast and shook it vigorously. "You've picked a great time to come and visit. Y'all can help us make costumes!"

"Costumes!" Alice clapped her hands, delightedly. "Oh I say, whatever for?"

Wren beamed broadly again and whistled through her gappy grin, "you got here jurst in time for Hallowe'en -- we's going Trick or Treatin'!"


James wasn't sure he understood the fascination with All Hallow's Eve, but Reynold and Wren seemed to be excited enough for the four of them. Alice got stuck into her dressmaking of course. It occurred to James that as Alice sat under the tall lamp, with a lap full of material and sewing needles held between her teeth, she was the very image of their Mother.

The costumes were assembled as follows. Reynold had insisted on a Robot theme as he was fascinated with the subject. He had fashioned an outfit from two cardboard boxes with a visor cut from the helmet and a pair of wings drawn on the back. Wren wanted to wear something dashing and heroic, so with a little help from James had creating a medieval knight's costume, complete with a shield and sword made from aluminium foil and wrapped around cardboard. Alice wanted something elegant, so Wren's mother had found her a length of green fabric which she had swirled about her person in the manner of the Statue of Liberty. James had found an old dress cape and attired himself as a vampire.

"That's creepy," Alice told him, "I don't know why you want to wear something so horrid!"

James protested, "I thought this was meant to be a scary holiday. I'm just getting into the spirit of things!"

Reynold came over. "Ahh we'll show you the real meaning of Hallowe'en," he said and handed them each a small bag.

"What's this for?" Alice quizzed him.

"That's for the Trick or Treating, silly," James told her in his authoritative voice. "We're going to knock on the doors of local houses and ask them for sweets."

Alice huffed at her brother. He always had to be a know-it-all!

"He's right," Wren spoke up, "by the end of the night we should have bags full of candy!"

They headed out into the night air and were waved on their way by Reynold and Wren's mother and father.

Alice was astonished. "Really? We're allowed to stay out all evening unsupervised?"

They had not been out for long before they noticed that something was not quite right. There was a suspicious looking gentleman skulking near the gates to a nearby cemetery. James thought he might be a foreigner. He was dressed in sackcloth and his skin was a dark green. He looked quite monstrous and his costume was far too realistic for Alice's liking.

Suddenly, he rushed forward to attack them and as he came into the light they could all see that he was an actual goblin!

Alice's instinct was to drop her bag and run. The others, however, reacted very differently. Wren and Reynold seemed braced for a fight. Before they could react, another goblin from out of sight had grabbed James and had run off with him!

That was when the queerest thing occurred. It seemed to Alice that they all grew tremendously in stature; it was as if she was the Alice in the Wonderland and had eaten the mushroom. As they grew their costumes seemed to shift and change. Also, where one goblin had stood for some reason there now were three!

With a clank of metal and pistons, Reynold now stood a hundred feet high; his limbs were polished steel and his eye a vicious camera. He leapt high into the air and pointed his arm at the attackers. His fist came loose and launched at the first goblin like a rocket.

Alice turned to comment to Wren and instead came face to face with an armour-clad knight. Where there had been aluminium, now there was steel. A gruesome helmet covered Wren's features. She leapt forward and smote the second goblin with her large sword.

One of the goblins made a move toward Alice. She was most perplexed at being this tall and really didn't know how to fight. With a gasp, Alice realised the toy torch that was part of her costume now bore a genuine flame. She waved it at the goblin to ward it off and was most surprised when a flame, like the breath of a dragon, leapt from her torch and burned the goblin.

Reynold drew himself out and puffed up his chest. Miniature red tips appeared in his armoured metal chest and shot forth: a wave of rockets weaved and arced toward the assembled goblins. There was a flash of fire and a shower of tiny wrapped sweets and the goblins were no more. As ash fell and the debris settled the children felt that they were returning to their normal size and attire.

Alice wasn't sure what to say, but settled on a heartfelt "gosh!"


It was the most wonderful adventure, Alice would recall later.

They had set off to rescue James, of course. There could be no other course of action what with him being kidnapped by suspicious individuals.

With some guilt, Alice had to acknowledge that they hadn't exactly taken the quickest path to rescuing her brother. The thing was that there were simply so many exciting things to do around Hallowe'en. They found themselves involved in a game of hide and seek with six other children; there was bobbing for apples (Alice did very well at this game on account of the village fete some weeks before when Alice had gotten plenty of practice) and lots of picture cards to find and even trade with other people.

Eventually they had gone after James and found him being held in what Reynold and Wren called a "Mall". There were lots of things to do here, too, but Alice couldn't help but feel that all of the games were quite similar. They played another game of hide-and-seek, did more apple bobbing and traded some cards.

The trail led them from the mall to a carnival outside town. It was very pretty and nice to have some different scenery but Alice was beginning to grow weary. There was another game of hide-and-seek! And another round of apple bobbing! It seemed that no matter where they went they were being forced to play the same games over and over.

Alice did find that she was enjoying herself greatly, however, in spite of the repetition. "Perhaps people over here don't mind doing the same things again and again," she mused to herself.

One of the things that had kept their adventure lively was that as they travelled around they were given designs for new costumes. They also had a bit of a treasure hunt to find the items to make these new costumes. They looked the part now! Alice was very pleased to have a pretty horse outfit which could shoot rainbows from its mouth. Wren had fashioned herself a jack-o-lantern outfit which blazed with fire whenever they had to fight more goblins. Reynold was dressed with little cat ears that made him look most amusing and adorable -- however when they fought he became a giant black panther that tore into their enemies.

It was, Alice thought, all totally spiffing!

They'd had to get James back, of course. It would have been totally unthinkable to have returned home without him. "What would Mother and Father have thought?" Alice mused to herself as she, James, Reynold and Wren sat on the pavement thoughtfully chewing on the night's takings.

James was, of course, acting very stoic and pretending he was in charge of the whole affair.

"I shouldn't have been in any trouble," he told them all, "I should have escaped before long. You chaps just saved me the trouble by arriving sooner."

"Sure," both Wren and Reynold said at the same time, and then looked at each other, surprised.

Alice began to laugh at this. James joined in too with big hearty belly laughs. Wren and Reynold looked nonplussed for a moment and then a smile cracked across their faces and they laughed with them.

They were all still chuckling as their adventure ended and they found themselves once again at home.

Concerning PS3 Trophies, 360 Achievements and Nintendo not joining the party

I had to confess recently to being something of a Trophy Whore.

For the uninitiated, Trophies (on the Playstation 3 - the XBox 360 equivalent is Achievements) are a ticklist of tasks which can be completed within a game. However rather than simply existing within the game itself, these awards are connected with your online profile. Even if you uninstall and sell on the game, the legacy of your actions in that game live on through your ID.


There is a great variety between titles as to the kinds of trophies offered and the skill required to achieve them (more on that later), but they typically involve awards for getting through certain parts of the game, completing the game on different skill settings, unlocking all in-game features and trying all of the game modes. Genre-dependent, other trophies are for things like winning a set number of online matches, beating a target speed-run time, getting all the women in the game to like you...

Then there are the random trophies which are even genre dependent, but based upon the title itself: I've got trophies for everything from "flipping the bird" to a cop in Mirror's Edge, performing a successful barrel roll in Wipeout HD, flying a helicopter under all the bridges in GTA IV to spending a target amount of money on courtesans in Assassin's Creed II.

Generally speaking, gaining all the trophies for a particular title will gain you the Platinum trophy on PS3 - or similar accolade on XBox.

The top trophies are meant to be an indication of real skill, but sometimes that doesn't work and the skill required to beat all challenges varies greatly from game to game. Prince of Persia - The Sands of Time (HD re-release) features a platinum trophy which can be gained in a few evening's careful play. Wipeout Fury, on the other hand, features trophies which are pretty painful. Complete 20 Zones without hitting the sides of the track? I should co-co!

My PSN card. I have a surprising number of trophies for a fitness game.

I can generally tell at a glance if I'm going to try for the platinum having taken a look at the trophies on offer. I'm currently playing Brutal Legend and I'm pretty sure the challenges offered aren't for me, heavily reliant as they are on multiplayer success: not something at which I excel these days and also a viral trophy dependent on find another player who already has it.

I didn't think I was a trophy whore for a while, because in my mind trophy whores are people who play, buy or download games specifically because they offer a cheap or easy Platinum trophy. There's something very arbitrary about playing simply to boosts one's own player score.

However I did find myself recently choosing to not bother playing a game because it didn't offer trophies. That sounds a bit trite - actually I had a choice between two games in a series and I chose the title with trophy support over the older title without. I also felt a little pang of disappointment when I realised that neither Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light or Costume Quest offered a platinum trophy for 100% completion. (especially since Lara Croft GoL presented a steeper challenge than many other games!)

It led me to wonder where my own fascination with trophies comes from. Also, having read recently that the Nintendo 3DS will not feature an achievements system I found myself disagreeing with the sentiment, feeling that the system will be somehow incomplete without this peripheral feature.

In that article, Nintendo's Bill Trinen is quoted as saying "When they create their games, [Nintendo's designers] don't tell you how to play their game in order to achieve some kind of mythical reward... Basically, the way the games are designed is they're designed for you to explore the game yourself and have this sense of discovery."

I disagree with that statement for the first reason I love achievements and trophies. I find they encourage me to attempt things in the game it would not have occurred to me to try unless someone had suggested it. That's not to say that the trophy system diminishes my sense of intelligent exploration - it just shapes it into a target to hit.

Costume Quest + Platinum: What I'd like to see

Take GTA IV for example. It doesn't take a genius to realise that one of the first things you are going to attempt when you first grab a helicopter is to fly under one of the city's bridges. That "sense of discovery" comes naturally to gamers - it's why we love the medium. However, without a pointer (and a system to keep track of progress) would I have spent a very entertaining hour or so flying around the city to try and fly under all the bridges in the game? Probably not.

Similarly, GTI Club+ offers a couple of trophies for the following: get a carwash and still win a race and win a race by turning around and reversing over the finish line. This adds a great sense of fun to the experience and really enhances the challenge available.

Done well (and we'll all played games with trophies clearly added as an afterthought) the trophies available for a game add to the game experience - they integrate with the gameplay, provide additional replay value and expand your skill with the game. Batman Arkham Asylum is a great example of Trophies implemented well. The combo achievements encourage you to raise your game in terms of melee fighting accuracy, and some of the trophies help expand side plots featuring the ridder and the Spirit of Arkham.

It is true to say that you can implement these kinds of objectives and rewards in-game. Batman Arkham Asylum would be the same game without trophies - you could simply move the achievements to an in-game menu and live without a unified achievements system.

But what is fun about the trophy system is sharing your achievements with others. If I have a friend playing the same game as me I can look at their trophy list and gauge how far along they are with a game - even provide a bit of help if they need it.

Sure there's an element of competition - but isn't it nice to be able to add a bit of friendly competition even to games with little or no multiplayer element?

Metroid Prime 3 had quite a nice idea - when you complete the game it posts a screenshot of the "game complete" screen to your message board on the Wii with a percentage of completion. Unfortunately, the Wii's message board is a bit useless and can't be navigated with ease or readily shared with friends. But I like the idea - beyond trophies or achievements - that you can take a snapshot of your experiences with a game and record them for posterity.

You only get a view like this through trying to get all the trophies

I think my love of trophies comes down to a feeling of completeness; of closure. This is purely a personality issue, but with so many games offering replay value and open worlds to explore (even after the main game is completed) I often feel that there I some games I never finished - just abandoned. Having a checklist of specific tasks to complete does at least give me a sense of closure with a game.

It's also a way of recording memories. We all play so many games and have so many experiences. If you have trophies, take a stroll down memory lane and take stock of some of the things you have achieved and experiences in the games you have played.

I'd like more games to capture memories. I'd like to be able to play back what I just did and take photo snapshots of incredible moments I witnessed, hilarious mishaps I encountered or poignant beats that spoke to me. To quote Blade Runner, "I have seen things you people would not believe ... all those moments will be lost like tear-drops in the rain."