GAMEFest 2011, NEC Birmingham, UK
16-18 September 2011 (Saturday only)

Being a Midlife Gamer entitles you to certain things: one of these is the right to a proper moan every now and then; another is the ability to talk about “the good old days” with something approaching a self-assured authority. So what better place to exercise these entitlements than at a game convention laid on by GAME, perhaps the largest physical retail hold-out in the UK?

I love conventions, me. There aren’t many places that combine so many of my favourite things in one place, namely: long queues, overpriced food, people whose conversations favour volume over sense, and those with questionable personal hygiene. It was with this in mind that I strode bodily into Hall 9 of NEC Birmingham, arms spread wide to stand among my people, and bear witness to the very best the world of games development had in store (pun not intended).

GAMEFest is a convention exclusively for members of GAME’s Reward Card loyalty scheme, which meant that the vast majority of those present were already predisposed to shopping at GAME (whether at one of the numerous stores in the UK, or online). I paced guiltily among the throng, sheepishly avoiding the marketing teams trying to ask me what I thought of my own (non-existent) GAME Reward Card experience. I’m more of a GameStation shopper myself, and not just because I picture the average GAME shopper as a bewildered fiftysomething plucking up the courage to ask where the Ravey Rabbits are kept. Probably more of a dogged refusal to acknowledge that GameStation was acquired by GAME, and a belief that some manner of healthy competition still exists in high street game retail. There was far too much on show that day to possibly talk about everything I saw, so here, for your consideration, are the highlights:

The first game I got my hands on was Capcom’s Street Fighter X Tekken, which as far as I can tell is the continued natural progression of the tried and true formula followed by Capcom’s beat ‘em up series for the past twenty years; that is to say, more characters for habitual SF players to ignore in favour of Ryu and Ken-like combos. All of the seemingly melee-only Tekken characters I attempted were hopelessly outclassed in the face of fighters who could, y’know, shoot fire from their hands. The demo reel looked fancy enough, but even that served to demonstrate the new challengers from Namco’s stalwart game relying on short-range, heavy-hitting attacks that are all well and good when your character is fast or can deflect projectiles, but suggest characters like Marduk may be sadly overlooked for some time to come. Tekken is a fantastic series and I actually prefer it to Street Fighter, but the movesets and indeed entire fighting dynamics of Tekken are absent here, meaning anyone wanting to adopt their favourite Tekken fighter will be at a considerable disadvantage versus a seasoned Street Fighter. In short, while the graphics and some of the mechanics on offer here are quite spectacular, this is a novelty title at best, with numerous well-established characters that it’s safe to say won’t be in many future sequels and are thus hardly worth the effort of mastering.

I got to see a fair bit of Batman: Arkham City, but had absolutely no chance of getting near the consoles. The queue time versus play time was mildly insulting, even for a convention, so I opted to stand back and check out the various screens as others had their go. Despite the characteristic murkiness, the game is visually incredible. Much like its predecessor, Arkham City’s combat combines stalk-and-subdue elements with mass melee and it looks an absolute treat to play. With a wider setting than the original and additional plot devices (such as playable Catwoman segments) the game promises to be a worthy upgrade to Arkham Asylum. Everyone I saw playing it seemed to be having a blast, but time will tell whether it ends up being more than an extended re-skin.

I then spent over an hour in a queue next to perhaps the most obnoxious kid I’ve ever encountered, during which time I got to see Bethesda’s current highlight reel, as I waited to catch an extended glimpse of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. As well as seeing gameplay and promotional media for Rage – which looks like Borderlands-meets-Fallout 3, to be honest – I caught a teaser and trailer for Prey 2. The original Prey completely passed me by, despite being something I had considered picking up second-hand, but what was on show here really piqued my interest. Part one of the teaser involved a first-person perspective of an alien encounter aboard a domestic airline flight, during which many people are killed and others abducted. Later, an armoured man decked out in a multitude of futuristic weaponry throws himself off a roof and lands in a crowd of alien bad-guys, who he quickly dispatches as their leader (the Prey in question) flees. Our hero gives chase through a vast alien cityscape, fighting off various ne’er-do-wells as he goes. The promo suggests a Deus Ex level of gadgetry and versatility to its gameplay, with mass combat versus squads of enemies and giant organic tanks alike. First genuinely surprising premise of the show.

I had read half a novel by the time I got inside the Bethesda booth, which grew louder with the relieved sighs of its inhabitants resting their weary feet. A Bethesda representative gave us the usual spiel about cameras and unfinished products before unveiling a twenty-minute Skyrim demo, which showcased everything from the game’s breathtaking scenery and updated visuals to its vastly improved NPC AI and combat mechanics. One of the big talking points was the dual wielding system, which allows the player to use both weaponry and spells simultaneously, as well as combining various weapons and spells to unleash combinations based on your preferred play style. I couldn’t tell for sure, but the combat engine doesn’t look too different from Oblivion’s, in that chopping someone’s neck still seems to do as much damage as chopping their foot; the ragdoll physics engine, too, looks just as daft in the Skyrim demo as it did in earlier games. These are minor niggles, though, especially in the face of a number of interesting new gameplay elements, including the ability to slaughter gorram Dragons and steal their vanquished souls to power yourself up. I don’t think Bethesda are going to disappoint us here, and fans of the previous titles in the series have every right to get very excited.

Another long queue awaited me at the Saint’s Row The Third demonstration. To THQ’s credit, they’d pulled out all the stops in setting their booth up in the style of an exclusive nightclub complete with rope fences, a real bouncer and a replica bar stocked with mineral water. I queued for less than an hour, but only got to spend about five minutes running around Stilwater (dressed, inexplicably, in nothing but tattoos and a thong) and beating various thugs to death with a gigantic purple sex toy. I discovered that, similar to the police threat levels in the Grand Theft Auto titles, repeated offences against criminal gangs resulted in ever tougher gang members pulling up in their custom vehicles, toting everything from meat cleavers to grenade launchers. It was quite a fun blast, as you might expect if you’ve played the earlier games, but the brief experience gave me no time whatsoever to discover what kind of storytelling was on offer, or whether the insanely hilarious mission style of the prequels had been faithfully replicated. It would have been nicer to see a bit more of the game, as all I saw was little more than an engine demonstration. I’ll be waiting for the reviews before spending any money on this title.

I’m not much for portable gaming, but took a look around the Nintendo 3DS booth all the same. In short, Driver – Renegade 3D was so rubbish it hurt my brain as much as the lousy 3D hurt my eyes. I had a quick blast on Mario Kart 7 and Ocarina of Time and, while they’re both undeniably good games, I couldn’t get on with the fiddly controls and – again – the 3D did my head in. In the case of the former, I’d rather sit around a living room playing against friends on a huge TV screen than against randoms or ‘ghosts’ on a tiny awkward device like the 3DS. It’s great that the techology has come along so far that a game like Ocarina of Time can be played with updated graphics on a portable device, but I can’t help but feel that much of the atmosphere of the original is lost on such a small screen.

Returning to fighting games, I had a go on both Tekken Hybrid and Tekken Tag Tournament 2. The former was more of a gorgeous-looking tech demo than anything, so I concentrated on the latter. Featuring more characters than any previous title, frankly incredible graphics and ultra-slick gameplay, this is everything a dedicated fanboy of the Tekken series could ask for. I found myself trying combinations that appear to have been removed from this version of the game, which is just about the only complaint I could level at it. Enough time has passed since Tekken 6, and enough appears to have been added, that it’s unfair to call TT2 another cynical addition to the series. Capcom could learn a thing or two here.

I stopped off at the Bioware stall to take a look at Star Wars: The Old Republic. I’m a bit jaded when it comes to MMOs, having played about a dozen in the past decade and feeling like I’ve pretty much seen it all. I’ve done the Star Wars MMO thing too, back before Star Wars Galaxies went belly-up. I spent fifteen minutes or so watching various people play TOR and all I can say is that there had better be more at the table when the game finally launches. Everything I hate about modern MMOs was on show in spades, from imbecilic AI to dodgy physics and repetitive, uninspired combat. The graphics were mediocre and the enemies uninspiring. Don’t get me wrong: I want to like this game; goodness knows, World of Warcraft needs a worthy competitor, having obliterated pretty every challenger to its dominance since it first rumbled onto the scene seven years ago. But if anything, The Old Republic looked like it was trying to emulate Blizzard’s monolithic cash cow, which is something time has shown is a poor strategy, with those tempted away to other MMOs soon lured back by what they see as further improvements to WoW’s clearly successful format. Star Wars is losing its sheen, and if Lucas’ mythos is really the most bankable feature of this title, they might as well launch it as free-to-play.

On my way out of the arena, having decided that I’d rather go home and cut my toenails than queue for two hours to see Modern Warfare 3, my attention was caught by a couple of interesting titles I’d been previously unaware of. The first was titled Journey, and is a title in development by the team behind Flow and Flower. The concept behind Journey is that of a nameless, masked individual walking through a vast desert with no directions to follow besides a strange mountain in the distance. The game appears to follow the minimalist design credo of the developer’s previous releases, and features interesting gameplay elements such as the ability to join other players on the PSN without any clue as to their identity (they appear as you do, have no visible name, and cannot communicate by any means beyond a wordless, attention-getting shout). It looks beautiful, its concept appealed to me, and most importantly it seems unlike anything I have played before.

The second game to catch my eye on the way out was Sesame Street: Once Upon a Monster. Created by Tim Schafer’s Double Fine Productions, OUaM is a Kinect-based title featuring Elmo and Cookie Monster as they explore a storybook world populated with weird and wonderful Henson-style monsters. The main reason this game caught my eye was it is the first time I’d seen Kinect used for something that I hadn’t already seen done to death elsewhere. Like Sesame Street itself, the game has the potential to span generations and appeal to people of all ages and genders, making it an ideal candidate for family games the Kinect hardware is absolutely perfect for. No matter how cynical you may be, there’s just something about Cookie Monster dancing in front of a giant troll-thing, causing said troll-thing to join in with the dance, that cannot fail to bring a smile to your face.

And so it was on that positive note that I took my leave of the NEC. Having spent the day either playing or being talked at about the latest sequels and rehashes that keep the modern high street game retailer in business, I was nonetheless reassured that some originality does still exist in the game development industry, despite the apparent best efforts of many developers to prove otherwise.

Soldiers Are Dreams is an interactive entertainment experience created as part of the first arc of the Pause:Continue podcast on the InRetroSpect podcast label, and made by Peter Willington using Adventure Maker. The title can be downloaded for free here.

Soldiers Are Dreamers was created using the Adventure Maker game engine and, save for audio samples, was entirely the work of writer and podcaster Pete Willington. It is a brief, ambiguous experience, less a game and more a multimedia slideshow or “interactive entertainment experience” as Willington puts it. The handful of interactive elements, centred around a plain-looking desk and its contents, reveal little but suggest a deeper symbolism. No doubt the piece’s principal creator had a concept and theme in mind, since clicking on certain objects elicits either a short vocal sample or, in one case, a full song; the whole experience brought to mind a feeling of loss and regret, though everything is so minimalist I suspect each user’s mileage will vary depending on their outlook or current mood.

There’s not a great deal of replayability here once you’ve clicked on everything once or twice, and though there may possibly be a hidden sequence of actions required to unlock something else, I didn’t feel inclined to try. Most of the desk’s drawers contain items which seem to serve no purpose besides perhaps explaining the mindset of the fictitious owner, and appear to do nothing when clicked. The vocal samples are edited in approximation of an echo, suggesting a memory, but came across as jarring, lacking the feeling I suspect was intended.

Although Soldiers Are Dreamers is intended as a stand-alone piece, the fact that clicking on the room’s sole door ends the game gives the feeling that a greater story may yet develop from the project. Either way, it’s a good demonstration of the engine’s capabilities, and Willington has remarked on how straightforward he found the development process using Adventure Maker. Whatever you take away from the experience and however you may feel about Soldiers Are Dreamers length and meaning, you can’t deny that as a first effort, this is a polished and lovingly-crafted affair.

MLG Rating: 6.5/10
Platform: PC Release Date: 08/07/2011

Disclosure: Midlife Gamer were provided a digital copy of Soldiers are Dreamers for review purposes by the developer. The title was reviewed over the course of one week on a PC. For more information on what our scores mean, plus details of our reviews policy, click here.

Lucky then, that James Swallow falls firmly into the former camp. With a decade’s worth of experience penning franchise tie-in novels, Swallow has everything from Star Trek and Warhammer to 2000AD under his writer’s belt. The prose that brings the dystopian near-future world of Icarus Effect to life is clever and fluid, but lean enough that the story never drags. Swallow treats the source material with respect, offering a few sly nods and even a cameo or two that should keep fans of the rest of the series happy.

The first protagonist is Ben Saxon, an ex-SAS mercenary who is head-hunted to join an elite, secretive special ops group by the name of The Tyrants. His new squad offer him access to unprecedented resources and technology, but the price of admission may just be too high for Saxon to accept. His opposite number is Anna Kelso, whose Secret Service unit is wiped out in an ambush that leaves her physically and mentally broken, but alive.

While initially separated by geography and affiliation, Kelso and Saxon find themselves drawn together by a conspiracy involving the burgeoning bionic augmentation industry. As the story bounds along, the bodies pile up and the list of people either Kelso or Saxon can trust dwindles steadily. This is a compelling blend of intrigue and action, with the large cast and their mercurial loyalties ensuring that plot twists – exciting, without feeling forced – are never far away.

Kelso and Saxon are compelling protagonists, simultaneously formidable and fragile, and each haunted by the loss of compatriots. Their adversaries and supporting cast are well-realised and distinct enough to maintain the reader’s interest; though many of them seem as though they were written with ‘video game bad-guy’ in mind, the book is quite liberal in killing them off, meaning the outcome is never clear-cut.

The main problem I had with this book was its ending. Granted, as a lead-in novel for a forthcoming game, it’s understandable that the author was expected to leave much of the plot unresolved. Unfortunately, the conclusion of this particular story was so underwhelming given its build-up, I couldn’t help but feeling disappointed. An ending like this might have worked better if the story had been shorter, but this criticism aside, Icarus Effect is a rewarding read and excellent companion to the game series, regardless of whether you’re a Deus Ex veteran or not.

MLG Rating: 8/10

Format: Paperback. Release Date: Out now.

This sequel takes place in the immediate aftermath of the first game, with Alice being quizzed by her sardonic psychiatrist before being turned loose to wander the grim, occasionally menacing landscape of a depressed Victorian London. Even in this ‘real’ world, the people Alice runs into are vulgar, grotesque and cruel. Alice begins to encounter objects and people from her traumatic past, loosening her grip on reality until she is plunged once more into Wonderland, albeit a Wonderland even more warped and depraved than usual. Alice finds that a tenebrous, insidious rot is spreading throughout Wonderland, corrupting everything it touches and giving rise to bloated, incomprehensible monstrosities.

The original game was praised on its release for its unusual visual style and inventive take on the original characters. There’s certainly no lack of that style on display with Madness Returns, and most of the first game’s cast return in one form or another. Arresting visuals and macabre storytelling can do only so much though, and underneath the smudged black eye shadow, Madness Returns is revealed as a patchy, inconsistent gaming experience.

Much of the game plays like a re-skinned God of War, albeit one with slightly dated graphics. While many of the levels are obfuscated by water, shadows or mist, other times they are revealed to be angled, disjointed and clunky. Like GoW, the combat is essentially an enjoyable, satisfyingly visceral experience hampered occasionally by a twitchy lock-on and dodgy camera. Alice carves and smashes her way through legions of bizarre abominations using everything from a teapot bomb launcher and hobby horse hammer to the infamous snicker-snacking vorpal sword, all of which can be upgraded by collecting glowing teeth throughout every level. The enemies are interestingly varied, but ultimately rely on the player memorising an attack sequence and weak spot. Some weapons work better than others, but it doesn’t take long for the fights to become repetitive and occasionally frustrating.

By far the most aggravating aspect of this game is its seemingly endless swathes of platform challenges. Here, too, the poor camera control infuriates and hampers the flow of the game, although the penalty for falling to an instant death is far less severe than being slaughtered by Wonderland’s hostile inhabitants, which usually results in being sent back a significant distance to the most recent checkpoint. This can often be averted by using ‘hysteria’ mode, triggered when Alice nears death, that allows her to inflict massive damage while shrugging off her enemies’ blows.

The game’s puzzles are reasonably engaging, although most are variations on spotting a breakable wall, hitting a distant switch object, or discovering a secret passageway. Clues are spread quite liberally throughout Wonderland, requiring the use of ‘shrink vision’ to detect. Despite this, it’s entirely possible to find two passageways, one of which you know leads to a secret stash of goodies, the other continuing the main plot and slamming an impassable wall behind you, rendering the goodies lost forever. For completists such as myself, this was the cause of numerous ‘breaks’ during play.

Madness Returns is a long game. Depending on your perspective, this may or may not be a good thing. Certainly, it offers significant value for money in terms of play time, but for a game that serves up little beyond variations in scenery once you pass the halfway point, some gamers might find themselves wishing that the story had been trimmed by a couple of hours.

This game’s primary audience will be those with an unwavering love for the Wonderland story, especially those who prefer the darker flavour of Burton and McGee’s earlier takes (especially as the game’s prequel is available as a free download for anyone who buys this one). More casual gamers are liable to be put off by the game’s repetition, occasionally flaky level design and its marathon length. Had Madness Returns been released five years ago, it might have been considered ahead of its time. As it is, Alice: Madness Returns is a delightfully dark, frenetically fun – if occasionally exasperating – experience.

MLG Rating: 6/10
Platform: Xbox 360/ PS3/ PC Release Date: 17/06/2011

Disclosure: Midlife Gamer were provided a physical copy of Alice: Madness Returns for review purposes by the promoter. The title was reviewed over the course of two weeks on an Xbox 360. For more information on what our scores mean, plus details of our reviews policy, click here.

You play a man by the name of Talon (seriously) who, despite being a flight cadet at the time the game begins, is called upon to single-handedly face down a relentless swarm of Cylons – sorry, ZYLONS – as they threaten to destroy humanity, or something. The gameplay is reasonably solid, offering you a transforming ship complete with numerous weapon and system upgrades that are paid for using ‘salvage credits’ accrued as you destroy enemies and mine asteroids in space.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t take very long to realise that the game is both heavily flawed and extremely repetitive. The heralded “choose your own path” feature offers a grid map with scant actual choice, and you’re regularly forced to pick filler missions consisting of a one-line briefing followed by a cheerless “fly here, kill this many bad guys and fly home” refrain before you’re allowed to move on with the plot. The weapon upgrades are perfunctory and can all be bought early on, assuming you’re willing to fly around collecting asteroids for a bit. Even if you’re not, the mission rewards and kill bonuses will let you fully upgrade whatever your favoured weapons are and soon you’re simply accumulating credits and wondering if you should hold onto them or splash out on upgrading that weapon you hate in case it magically becomes worth using.

This brings me neatly onto the subject of the multi-form spaceship. In the tutorial missions you are introduced to each form and its strengths and weaknesses. There’s ‘Attack’ mode, which gives you speed and manoeuvrability for “epic dogfights” at a cost of weaker shields and low energy supply; ‘Assault Mode’ turns you into a slower, but more precise mecha-like craft that can dodge cannon fire while raining missiles down on enemy flagships; and finally there’s ‘Turret’ mode, which sacrifices nearly all your movement in order to deploy the heaviest weapons and strongest defences. Sounds great, right? In practice, not so much. Attack mode will be used almost exclusively to fly from one place to another due to its speed, Assault mode is where you’ll spend most of your time, since the enemies helpfully circling around you are easily picked off without any need for dogfighting, and Turret mode’s enhanced weaponry is nice, but really not enough of an upgrade from Assault mode to want to spend any great length of time as a sluggish wad of metal in space. Overall, they needn’t have bothered with the third mode in the absence of any real opportunities to use it.

Dying in Star Raiders seems arbitrary; there is no real feeling of threat to be found, since death is punishable only by a short respawn timer. This might affect you if you’re on a particularly tight mission deadline, but I found most timed missions could be completed easily within the restraints. Far more irritating is the weapon and shield energy system. When you fire a weapon, your energy depletes – how fast depends on the type of weapon. As this energy runs out, you will need to recharge at one of many stationary satellites that can typically be found within spitting distance at any given moment, even in enemy territory. I found through trial and error that the only way to recharge your shield – besides intentionally killing yourself – is to recharge your weapon energy, fly away from the satellite and then fly back, and on the second pass your shields are recharged. Improperly-explained gameplay mechanics like this are part and parcel of why playing Star Raiders is such an unrewarding experience.

For short pick-up-and-play blasts, Star Raiders is actually quite fun. The graphics aren’t bad, but being a space sim there aren’t many occasions where you get to enjoy them. Overall, the game’s bad points far outweigh the good, and the experience as a whole feels quite amateurish. The generic, mankind-vs-evil-faceless-aliens plot can be forgiven; so, too, can the cheesy AV segments voiced by a Bruce Campbell sound-alike to introduce certain key missions. But for a game backed by Atari, based on something they tout as a classic, you would have thought a little more pride would have gone into the presentation. Instead, the writing is atrocious and some of the between-game visuals look like something an A-Level student might have cobbled together the night before. If you’re a fan of the genre and have the patience to get past the repetition and occasionally imbecilic AI, you might enjoy this. Personally, I found myself thankful that in space, nobody could hear me scream.

MLG Rating: 4/10
Platform: Xbox 360/PS3/PC Release Date: 11/05/11

Disclosure: Midlife Gamer were provided with a digital copy of Star Raiders for review purposes by the promoter. The title was reviewed over the course of one week on a Xbox 360. For more information on what our scores mean, plus details of our reviews policy, click here.

First of all, before I even started reading I took issue with the plot. I’ve heard the counter-arguments (mainly from THQ themselves) about the fact that this is speculative science-fiction (note the emphasis). Granted, you can get away with a lot in sci-fi, but the general rule is that the more believable something is, the more effective your story.

Only in the mind of the most stalwart fantasist could something like Homefront seem like a remote possibility. The story was originally meant to feature China as the protagonist, but this was changed for fear that relations with economically powerful China might be affected. Instead, the chosen boogeyman was North Korea, who in theory couldn’t hate America any more than they do already. It’s always a worry with real-world nations – regardless of how far into the past or future you set your fiction – that feelings might be hurt, but in my estimation the combination of factors that set the world of Homefront in motion are simply too far-fetched.

Bear in mind that this book is set 15 years in the future. Following the death of North Korea’s present ruler, his son has assumed control and, under the guise of a redeeming progressive, has honed the collective population of what is currently North and South Korea into a vast and unstoppable military giant. Conversely, the USA has been crippled by war in the Middle East and rendered economically bereft. Massive unemployment has created unprecedented crime, homelessness and national stupor.

It’s interesting to consider what the United States might be like if it were the occupied country rather than the occupier, but given the behaviour of the players on both sides of the conflict in Homefront it’s difficult to feel sympathy for either side. In the occupied USA, civilians are randomly butchered, dissenters are publically executed and entire cities are wiped off the face of the map with little or no warning. A lot of people die in this book, so much so that at times it feels like it’s being done for little more than effect. After a while, you can’t help but feel a little preached to.

The main character in the book is Ben Walker, a low-rent journalist who makes stuff up about famous people in order to fuel his bourbon habit. He quits his job just as America falls to Korea, and for the rest of the book he is running for his life from pretty much everyone he meets. As the book skips forward by weeks and months, Ben maintains a diary of his thoughts, which are largely melodramatic and progressively jingoistic. Ben is not a sympathetic character, regardless of the intentions of the authors, and I found myself secretly wishing he’d cop a stray bullet and put me out of this book’s misery. Instead, he travels the breadth of the United States, going from pudgy satirist to passable military man in the space of a few months, surviving despite staggering odds to become the titular Voice of the People by way of his popular radio broadcasts encouraging resistance against the Koreans.

I was bored for the first third of this book, but a couple of interesting developments kept me going. However, the characters are more like caricatures, and with few exceptions are either odious or simply cannon fodder. The Korean agent pursuing Ben across America is an effective bad guy, but even he becomes a little one-dimensional after a while. The prose is cliché-heavy and the dialogue is borderline robotic. The game (and presumably this book) is banned in South Korea, and heavily edited in Japan (who receive a liberal bitch-slapping themselves here) to remove all specific references to the Koreas. It’s hard not to feel a little offended on their behalf, fiction or not. How it took two people – established authors at that – to write this is beyond me.

When you consider that John Milius was allegedly the inspiration for gun-toting vet Walter Sobchak in The Big Lebowski, maybe it shouldn’t surprise you that this book smacks so heavily of right-wing rhetoric. I was half-tempted when summarising my thoughts on this book to simply “mark it zero”, but I thought I might be a little over the line on that one.

MLG Rating: 4/10

Format: Paperback Release Date: Out now