All aboard the hype train for the new football season

    Ladies and Gentlemen, take your seats and open a packet of minstrels. In just over one week’s time, the 2013-14 Premier League season will be underway. No more watching Bargain Hunt to while away a Sunday afternoon. No more pretending to give two figs about athletics and golf. No more incessant transfer related drivel. The English top tier will be back in full force, so I hope you have your TV’s tuned, your schedules cleared and your fantasy teams picked. I have a gut feeling this one will be a cracker.

    Rarely have we gone into a season following such a period of intense change. The league is almost unrecognisable, with new managers, new players and even new TV channels. Many teams have spent big; others have spent very little. Some teams have been going about their business in the public eye; others have been quietly improving under the radar. There is the potential for this to be the most unpredictable season in many a year.

     None of this typifies these upheavals more than the managerial changes at the summit of the Premier League. Of the top six teams last time around, four now are under new management. Issue number one is how Manchester United adapts to life without Ferguson? It could be a huge culture shock for the team and their fans, regardless of how fast David Moyes makes his mark. And with their two closest rivals spending big with new managers of their own, the title fight could twist more often than a gin soaked grandma playing blackjack.

     Throw into the mix another intriguing fight for fourth between the two North London clubs, and the scrap underneath between the two Liverpool clubs, and you’re left with a potent mix. With the squads these top seven teams have now developed/bought it’s easy to see them all taking points off each other left right and centre. And with the saga of the Three Musketeers (Bale, Rooney and Suarez) yet to be completed at the time of writing, who knows how any of these teams will ultimately line up come September 1^st?

    Yet it’s not all about the top of the table. Swansea have again spent promisingly and will be looking to cement their place in the top half of the table (and whisper it, maybe even nip at the heels of Liverpool and Everton). They’ll want a good season now their local rivals have finally made it to the Premier League. A top flight Welsh derby between Swansea and Cardiff is going to be tasty. Also watch Norwich win Match of the Day’s ‘wow-how-have-they-started-playing-so-well’ award, even though anyone who has been paying any attention will have noticed Norwich make some canny signings.

    Stoke will have to adapt to life without Tony Pulis, and history suggests this might prove a tough call for them. Fulham will have to adapt not only to their new super-rich owner and his moustache, but also to how they are slowly becoming the Spurs side of the late noughties (with Darren Bent potentially joining Jol and Berbatov if you believe the transfer gossip). Up north the Newcastle circus of crazy continues, the bizarre appointment of Joe Kinnear bound to cause some friction with Alan Pardew. On the subject of crazy will Sunderland improve with Paulo Di Canio at the helm from the offset? Will Aston Villa bounce back from their Annus Horribilis, and can Southampton build on their good work last season? We haven’t mentioned Crystal Palace and Hull, and how their spending sprees will see them fair as they return to the top flight?

     Really, when you list the travails and fortunes of all these teams, you realise the only two currently in similar positions to last year are West Ham and West Brom. The occurrences of last season and this summer mean very few Premier League footballers will be having a sense of Déjà vu when they walk out the tunnel. The eyes of the footballing world maybe on a select few superstars, but you cannot ignore the good work done by many of the Premier League teams. So many things we took for granted last season; the magic chewing gum which seemed to grant Alex Ferguson immortality, for example. But with plenty of intrigue yet to come, and with this particularly tedious transfer window about to come to boil, who knows what will happen when we come to actually kicking a football?

    But if you want my predictions, so you can laugh and point at me in twelve months, I would tip Manchester City for the title with Chelsea second, Manchester United third and (unless Arsenal actually buy someone of note) Spurs hitting fourth. Liverpool I can see getting sixth, with Swansea, Everton, West Brom and Norwich making up the remaining top ten. As for relegation, ultimately I think the bottom three will be Hull, Crystal Palace and Stoke.  As for eleventh to seventeenth, God knows.  

How do you solve a problem like the Wii U?

OK, articles with a title similar to that of a Graham Norton reality TV show aside, this is quite a pickle Nintendo have on their hands here. In future generations marketing graduates will be writing dissertations on just how Nintendo went from getting everything perfectly right with the Wii, to getting it so catastrophically wrong with the Wii U in the space of half a decade. Even Nintendo seem muddled and confused as to what their central message for their product is. Hard to generate hype for a console when even their creators seem unsure of what they need to do.

     But now it seems Nintendo have decided on a strategy, and it’s pretty much identical to the one they used to re-invigorate the 3DS. They brought their latest handheld to life with a 3D Mario, a Mario Kart and a Zelda remake. They’re looking to bring the Wii U to life with a 3D Mario, a Mario Kart and a Zelda remake. OK that’s perhaps doing them a disservice, because we’ve got Donkey Kong and Wii Fit U coming too, not to mention the recently released Pikmin 3, intriguing exclusives like The Wonderful 101 and Bayonetta 2, and the irresistible allure of a new Smash Bros and Zelda on the horizon. Combined with third party titles coming from Ubisoft, Sega and Warner Bros; suddenly the Wii U’s library from here on to early/mid 2014 looks pretty solid.

    But is it a line-up that will tear everyone’s eyes away from the impending touchdown of the PS4 and XboxOne? Is it a line-up that will distract from the launch of GTAV on systems of comparative power, larger install base and at a cheaper price? Rather it is a line-up that preaches to the choir. To the millions who buy a Nintendo console for their Mario, Zelda and Smash Bros fix. They seem to believe that they need to tempt those fans onto their console first, before making a push for new blood. Their policy of regular Nintendo Directs reflects this attitude.

     There is a huge flaw with this policy, and it is a problem Nintendo have had since the GameCube. They simply cannot get the ravenous hordes of enthusiast gamers, who wrench Call of Duty from the shelves like piranha’s stripping a cow down to its skeleton, interested in their products. Worse, they struggle to attract the kids who still go nuts over their handhelds into buying their home console over a PlayStation and/or Xbox.

    The reason is that Nintendo have continued to assert, with stern belief almost bordering on zealousness, that they make games hugely different from what can be found on their rival’s consoles, and that this is what their fans want. They have a point, but they cannot ignore how well other franchises and genres are selling. However noble their intentions in not copying the success of Call of Duty and other FPS’s, that’s a huge chunk of the market they have automatically conceded.

     Moreover, the real problem with the Wii U’s current and upcoming library is a lack of diversity. Consider the huge number of platformers which will be out for the system come 2014. New Super Mario Bros U, New Super Luigi Bros U, Mario 3D World, Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze, Yoshi’s Epic Yarn, Sonic Lost World and Rayman Legends will all have been released by then. Now as a fan of platformers, I’m clicking my heels in delight Gene Kelly style. If you’re a fan of racers or action adventures, there ain’t a lot the Wii U can provide.

    The fact is that Nintendo are a company unsure of where they should be targeting the Wii U. At the moment their focus seems to be their utterly loyal fans. Such a strategy is not without merits; Microsoft and Sony are targeting their next consoles by and large at their loyal fans as well. But the Nintendo’s is a shrinking demographic. Any hope Nintendo had that the hordes of people who bought the Wii would stick around were dashed the moment the Ipad came along. And Nintendo can’t win over those who primarily game on Xbox and PlayStation with their existing franchises. Zelda, Mario and their like failed to wow those gamers in the past; they won’t be wowing them now. Yet Nintendo’s reaction to the flailing Wii U is to buckle down and make more of what sold well in the past, and to take no risks at all on new IP’s. It might generate some short term sales, but it won’t solve their long term image problems.

    Nintendo’s problem is really that they retain a primarily Japanese focus in an increasingly Western market. That is reflected by the mixed fortunes of the Japanese gaming giants last generation compared to the vast fortunes acquired by Western gaming giants. Not to mention that their famous conservatism with regards to online features remains a real albatross around their neck. In this day and age a comprehensive online is expected in most titles, not the occasional toe dipping Nintendo are famous for.

     So what can be done? In the short term not a lot more than cut the price, get the games out, market the living hell out of the thing and pray. Yet Nintendo needs a rethink of their long term strategy. They need significant investments in Western development studios, green light a bunch of new IP’s (or at the very least re-invent dormant franchises like F-Zero) and begin a campaign to court back the Western gamer. Many like to portray gamers as tribal brigands battling the cause of one single console, but in reality gamers are actually quite fickle. You bring them games which excite and intrigue them; they will buy your console. That is perhaps the Wii U’s biggest problem at the moment. It’s not exciting enough.

      Alternatively Nintendo could just bring out a Pokémon MMO, at which point they’ll once again start swimming in a vault of gold coins, Scrooge McDuck style.  

Tomb Raider - Review

Survival is very much the word that has been thrown around as this reboot of the Tomb Raider franchise approached. This was to be a game in which a rookie Lara Croft struggled to survive much more gruelling and garish challenges than the plundering of tombs. Yet the word survival can also be applied to what has happened to the Tomb Raider franchise as an entity. At the beginning of this generation Lara began struggling to maintain gamer’s interest. The Tomb Raider games, continuing to produce the same mix of old school platforming with over the top set pieces and a colourful, unrealistic art style, were overshadowed amid large numbers of darker, more realistic action adventure titles. If Lara was to remain a video gaming icon, something needed to be done.

     The development of this reboot has hardly been without controversy, with PR disasters and journalist debacles in abundance. Yet one of the more consistent voices of discontent have come from the Tomb Raider fanbase, who claimed that the essence of the series was being sacrificed to imitate the adventures of gaming’s new favourite treasure hunter, Nathan Drake. And yes, the parallels are easily drawn, but the Uncharted series is not this reboots only influence. From the QTE sequences that give early sections a real Resident Evil vibe, and a Gears of War-esque cover system, to the large yet self-contained map packed with secrets akin to the Arkham Asylum games. Inspiration for this title has been gathered from across the past generation. But give Crystal Dynamics their due, they have combined all these elements seamlessly and still created a game that feels like a Tomb Raider.

 

     While there remains treasure to be plundered, cliffs to scale and the odd puzzle to solve, the themes of this game are a drastic departure to what has gone before. Gone is the super confident, daredevil Lara of the past; in comes a young woman overcoming her fears to save not only her life but those of her friends. In other games this transformation occurs purely though storytelling and cut-scenes, but in Tomb Raider this development of Lara happens in a much more ingenious manner. At the beginning you are bombarded with QTE’s, reflecting a terrified Lara surviving on instinct. By the end, these have all but disappeared in favour of massive action pieces in which you have complete control of Lara, reflecting how she has now taken her situation by the scruff of the neck and is now bringing the fight to the enemy.

     Rarely in gaming do shifts in gameplay also reflect character and story development, and seeing it unfold here is nothing short of masterful. Crystal Dynamics have also ensured the game is brilliantly paced, far from a relentless progression of set pieces, and the learning curve is almost perfect. Not to mention the combat system is seamless and satisfying, even if it’s entirely possible to beat the game while barely touching two out of the four main weapons due to a lack of enemy variety. There are points where you wonder if it was truly necessary to be in control of Lara, like when she’s shimmying up a rock face while you do nothing but push up on the stick, but the rest of the time she responds to your commands with lightning precision, and rarely does she faff about leaping onto unintended outcrops.      

     The story is a departure given how much time Lara spends battling unpleasant bandits instead of plundering tombs, but there are plenty of Tomb Raider staples, such as the ancient empire with magical secrets to uncover. The scripting throughout is solid, with Lara much more of a fleshed out character and a likeable cast of secondary characters, even if they do leap into ethnic stereotypes on occasion. The island you traverse is almost a character in itself, with varying weather conditions and eye-grabbing scenery, often dark and foreboding but occasionally jaw dropping when the elements calm down. The music is menacing and tribal, adding both tension and drama in equal measure.

 

      And everything all comes together to form a great, cohesive whole. Rarely does a game fuse dramatic tension with all out action and see it work. You happily switch from anxious stealth to all-out attack with relish. Never do you feel like a set piece has been forced upon you. And classic Tomb Raider platforming elements remain intact. Unfortunately another franchise staple, the puzzles, are disappointingly easy. What is also disappointing is how these puzzles are completely relegated to the optional tombs dotted around the map, and can be avoided if you merely want to finish the much more action orientated story.

     Tomb Raider is very much a game for the single player connoisseur, with a decent sized adventure for you to delve into with plenty of secrets to uncover and upgrades to unlock. It is shame then that the developers felt it necessary to include an online multiplayer. This addition provides nothing that other games do not already offer. It is an utterly soulless addition, included purely from a commercial perspective and does not add anything substantial that can elongate the games appeal beyond the single player.

        Tomb Raider has gained a reputation prior to release as an old pillar of the community trying to keep up with the modern Joneses. This is an unfair assumption, because while the influences on this reboot are all too apparent, the game successfully utilises them in a manner which is easy to pick up, but fresh enough to maintain your interest. Compare Tomb Raider Anniversary to this title, and you are given an almost perfect example of how gameplay styles and practices have changed within the industry over the past generation. Yet at the same time, the identity of Tomb Raider remains very much in evidence, and you never get a sense of déjà vu brought about by playing a game you’ve already experienced.

    Lara’s new adventure is bold in many ways. Bold in the themes it deals with and the scenarios it presents you with, and also bold in how it is not afraid to take a gaming institution and update it to modern gaming standards. It is to Crystal Dynamics credit then, that you do not feel that the franchise has been sold out, but rather enhanced by this new vision for Ms Croft. It is not a perfect game, with issues relating to the drab multiplayer and uninspiring puzzles, but when you’re guiding Lara through an intense fire fight or helping her leap across a crevasse, these flaws will barely cross your mind. Tomb Raiding may not be as novel a concept as it was in the nineties, but Lara proves here that it can still be just as fun.

 

Four stars out of five.

The Xbox One - Controversial by name, controversial by nature

The rumours and rumblings and misinformation surrounding the upcoming unveiling of a new console are part and parcel of the whole ‘dawn of a new generation’ experience. The enthusiast community and forum goers love nothing more than a good gossip as they digest any potential leak of information. Durango was no different, but what was notable about this phase was how every single rumour about it seemed to be inherently negative. It was generally assumed that the rumours of used game blocking, always online and constantly on Kinect were too outlandish and stupid to be true. Which was why everyone was shocked into stunned surprise when it turned out each and every major rumour was in fact based on reality.

    What followed immediately after the reveal of Xbox One (another bizarre console name choice), was a cluster of titbits, sound bites and throwaway comments that confirmed the worst fears of many gamers. Microsoft have seemingly caved in to temptation, providing a console which requires an internet connection to function properly even for single player and extreme measures designed to curb the used games market, which effectively renders it impossible to rent games or even lend them to your friends; The very definition of throwing the baby out with the bathwater. This coupled with the company’s refocusing on providing a multimedia entertainment device as opposed to a straight forward game console, and how many of their new partnerships and features will only really apply to US audiences, and it has left a distinctly sour taste in the mouths of many an enthusiast gamer.

     The backlash on the internet has been vicious and unremitting. This is a drastic change to the way we buy our video games and the terms of game ownership; a complete change to how video games have always been played, but whether this is positive change is very much up for debate. Microsoft have sought to dictate how you play your games, how you play them with your friends and what you do with your disk once you have finished with it. They say they are working on systems which would allow you to resell games (albeit with a likely cut of the resale value for them and developers), and it looks like you can play games on your friends console if you sign into your profile, but it’s needlessly troublesome. Hardly an evolution on simply sticking a disk on a tray and pressing start.

        Why have Microsoft done this? Well it’s an obvious attempt to court third parties to their side. The likes of EA, Activison and others have been calling for restrictions on used games for ages, and let’s not forget EA pushing ahead with always online for Sim City, among other titles. This is the direction the big publishers have been desperate to go in, and Microsoft has listened. They knew it would cause a furore, they only needed to see the outrage caused when the rumours started to break. Yet they went ahead anyway. Why is that?

      There are three things a console needs to have at launch. A solid, easy to understand and prolific marketing campaign, an affordable price and an array of intriguing titles which show off the consoles capabilities. Their marketing campaign may have got off to a bad start, but that Microsoft can rectify. What Microsoft knows for certain is that games and price are what really matter to their customers, and they will look to elaborate on these at E3. They are banking heavily on their upcoming library of titles to make gamers to admit defeat, accept these new policies and generate some hype. It’s a risky strategy. People have long memories. Not only that, but concealing these anti-used games and always online policies behind a smokescreen of PR jargon will only hurt them in the long term. I wouldn’t want to be on the Microsoft support hotline when a confused parent wonders why FIFA works on one child’s console but not on their brothers.

     So is it advantage Sony and Nintendo then? Not necessarily, they have their own problems to sort out. It all makes for one very, VERY interesting E3 where all three console manufacturers have something to prove. What is certain is we now have three companies trying to take the video game industry in three different directions. How the market will respond we cannot say with any real certainty. But at the very least having three wildly different competitors will surely be beneficial to us consumers…even if used games restrictions fobs us off.