Jackreyes' Gaming Blog

Football Director DS may well be one of the worst games I have ever played. It barely even warrants a review. It is clearly trying to bring the football management genre (of which I am a fan) to handheld consoles, in this case the DS. Sports Interactive and Eidos have done this somewhat succesfully with the PSP versions of the Football Manager series and Championship Manager series respectively. Whilst they are just watered down versions of the PC games they did still impress me. Football Director DS does not impress me in the slightest. At first I was pretty excited about the game being announced, after all, a portable football management game with touchscreen controls should be great, right? Seems this isnt the case, im not sure whether this is their fault or the DS’s.

The DS was never going to be able to handle a huge database of players and clubs, but it seems pretty halfhearted. You can only manage english teams – fair enough I suppose, but players from teams you may face in the Champions League or European Cup seem severely underrated. Does this make said teams easy to beat?.. No. the match engine seems to be mostly random and all down to luck. the best example was when i was managing Arsenal with no available keepers, about to play Chelsea. I  put Fabregas in goals for the game, I won 3-0. I can possibly see a 3-2 victory perhaps, but, not conceding a single goal? What is wrong with this game?? My list of complaints doesn’t end here, this is just my biggest complaint I suppose, the rest I can cope with. If you are already bored of reading this and well and truly put off buying the game, then I suggest you just scroll down to the final score.

Now for a more in-depth look at the game, I’ll start with the interface.

Nothing to do here…

As I said earlier, a football management game with touchsreen controls should be pretty great, but then.. that is if they aren’t hidden behind bizarre menu’s that don’t really seem to fit the requirements for… menus. Simply tap something on the touchscreen and you should see some information on the top screen. Hold down L and tap, and you’ll go into a page especially for that team/player. Seems simple enough, turns out to be fiddly and on the whole, not worthwhile, after all, you don’t really need to look at who you’re signing, the chances are they’ll deteriorate wildly in a few days at the club. Tactics seem pretty useless as well, nothing in-depth, nothing that seems like it would make any difference in a match.

Now back to the ‘database’. Quite simply, it just isn’t good. It could be worse, but not much worse. Some players have been transferred from their old clubs to new, some just haven’t. Shaun Wright-Phillips is a good example. He remains at Chelsea, when in fact he had moved back to Manchester City. The game has an editor, but it only allows you to change player and team names. There is a ’stat’ for each player type, Handling for Keepers, Tackling for Defenders and so on. Then Pace and Overall are supposedly distributed in the same way to all players. Some defenders look like they’re just as good at ‘Passing’ and ‘Shooting’. Its all rather mixed up and confused, and the rate at which players can deteriorate is ridiculous. The overall rating just skips around.

The match engine is just broken, and purely text based which also appears to be randomised.

Overall, this is the sort of game I’d expect to find for the PC years ago.. on floppy disk.

Maybe someone will make a decent football management game for the DS at some point, but until then, make sure you DON’T buy this awful product.

Ratings:

Graphics: 5/10 – Nothing special, no graphical match engine, but they’ll do..
Controls: 2/10 – Far too fiddly to work well, pity.
Sounds: 1/10 – Not mentioned in the article, not worth it really, just a few crowd cheers during games. Very poor.
Accuracy: 4/10 – Sure this rating only applies to certain types of games, but here, its probably the most important.

Overall: 2/10 – A huge letdown. Bring on Imagine: Packed lunch making, can’t be worse than this.
16%

~Jackreyes

This year’s E3 happened just a week or so ago, and there were a lot of announcements by a lot of people as usual.
This is a roundup of the main announcements:
Microsoft:

‘Project Natal’ – A motion sensing camera for the Xbox 360.

Halo 3: ODST

Halo Reach

Metal Gear Solid: Rising – Will now also be available on Xbox 360 when released.

Xbox 360 Games on Demand – The ability to download full games onto your hard drive.

Sony:

PSP Go! – Probably the one thing everyone knew about before E3. It will feature 16GB onboard memory and no UMD drive. This means all digital downloads for the PSP in the future.

PS3 Motion Controller – Yup, another motion controlling announcement.

Resident Evil Portable

God of War 3 – To be released… March 2010. just 9 months to go.

MAG (Massive Action Game) – Bad name, yes. True name, also yes. This (FPS) game will feature 256 players online at a time. Sounds… massive.

Nintendo:

Super Mario Galaxy 2 – Rather than Sony and Microsoft, Nintendo’s biggest announcement seemed to be software in the form of a sequel to the very sucessful game, Super Mario Galaxy.

New Super Mario Bros. Wii – Continuing the Mario theme (surprise, surprise), Nintendo also announced a new 2D Mario game for the Wii with multiplayer aspects.

Metroid: Other M – Not continuing the Prime series, a new Metroid game for the Wii from Nintendo.

Wii Vitality – This was the only peripheral/hardware announced by Nintendo. And they weren’t too keen on sharing the details. Seems strange to me, and they’ve said its targeted at the people who still refuse to become gamers…

Its not that I just haven’t included it, there really wasn’t much announced for the DS, other than Golden Sun.

Best of the rest:

EA:

FIFA 10 -  Whilst it was to be expected, the graphics seem to be sublime. I will definitely be looking into getting it.

Scribblenauts – DS – This was my highlight of the convention, it seems to be an almost perfect game from what I’ve seen. You need to watch videos to see the extent of the brilliance of this game!

Ubisoft:

Splinter Cell Conviction – Looking like it will be a great game.

Valve:

Left 4 Dead 2 - Who didn’t enjoy L4D? Well, its already causing quite a controversy because fans think that this should be released either as DLC for L4D, or an expansion.

Well, thats about it really. I might have to write an individual article for Scribblenauts soon, but for now, I think I’m done reading and writing about E3.

~Jackreyes

So, I’m really looking forward to this game. The first Uncharted was a very good game and had superb graphics. The sequel has nothing to do with the first game, its a whole new story. But the greatest thing to look forward to is probably the multiplayer. There’s not much released yet, but we know that it’ll have a capture the flag and team deathmatch modus. The game will also contain a co-op modus up to four players. If you look at the screens you can see they implemented the climbing into the multiplayer, this could be something awesome!

Check back for more news! (upcoming post: review of SOCOM: Confrontation)

-Svenn

On October 2nd Nintendo announced a new handheld. The DSi, which is really what the DS Lite is to the original DS. The new features are:

• Gameboy Advance Slot taken out.
• SD Card reader
• Music player (reads from SD)
• 2 Built in Camera’s, one 3 mega-pixel, the other 0.3 mega-pixel
• Both screens are now 3.25 inches rather than 3 inches
• 12% thinner than the DS Lite
• Built-in web browser
• Downloadable DS Ware (Games and Applications)(Some costing Nintendo Points, some free)
• Internal Memory (unknown amount)

Pictures:

Personally I think this product is a bit of a waste of time. It doesn’t really add any ‘key’ features. Sure all this stuff is useful perhaps, but its not exactly revolutionary. This seems like a slightly more worthwhile update that the DS Phat to the DS Lite but, as far as I can tell it will make some games such as; Guitar Hero: On Tour obselete because of the lack of a GBA Slot. The DS Ware features of the DSi WILL be region locked. Which means anyone who imports a Japanese DSi most probably won’t be able to get any English DS Ware titles onto their DSi.

Either way, I won’t be buying a DSi unless some really groundbreaking stuff is released as DS Ware. Even then, £100+ is a lot of money to pay for an upgrade that doesn’t really add much if you have an MP3 player and camera already.

- Jackreyes

If you check other gaming sites then you’ll probably heard about “bob’s game” which is a DS game made by only one person. It took him 5 years, he was originally going to make it for the Gameboy Advance but then the DS came out and he made the switch. This is obviously a great achievement for anyone, especially seeing as he (Bob) is self-taught.  He is now looking for a publisher. To read more about his motives and thoughts on the game click here.

Below is his trailer followed by 2 demo videos.

It truly looks like an interesting game. Curious, but interesting.

I emailed Bob because I had a few questions to ask him about the game, and his reasons for making the game and here is what he had to say:

1. On your site it says you made this game because you always wanted a game like it as a child. Do you think that games these days are all too similar?
I think that the majority of what gets released or funded pretty much has to be similar to what’s already come out. It’s good business sense to stick with what works, and there’s no marketing data for a new idea. A lot of independent games have unique ideas, but they don’t sell well even if they’re great, because there’s no advertising campaign and a publisher still won’t take a risk on pushing it really hard. Then, because it hasn’t sold well, it gives the publisher negative marketing data towards that kind of idea.

2. Was there anything in particular that triggered your start in making the game?
I was sitting with some friends, drinking coffee at a 24 hour restaurant, when the subject of games came up. I mentioned the idea I’d had for “the perfect game” since I was a kid, and started scribbling on napkins laying out a basic outline. I spent the next few weeks desperately trying to get a pixel to move on a GBA emulator, and it just kept going from there.

3. 5 years is a significant amount of time. What motivated you to carry on working for this long?
The more work I did, the more motivated I was to keep working. I really liked the idea, and I was hellbent on making sure it came to existence.
I think it’s different coming from my perspective. 5 years actually passed very quickly for me, because I was very busy the entire time trying to beat the clock and cross off the next thing on the list. The next thing I knew, I was 25 years old, and it was done.

4. Did you ever think about dropping the game to work on anything else?
I was tempted, sure, but I wouldn’t have been able to even if I wanted. I kept imagining myself as an old man, looking back and wondering what would have happened if I had tried a little harder. I’ve got notebooks full of ideas for other projects and other games, and I’d just fill a page or two and set it aside. That was good, because I know exactly what I’m going to work on next. It’s not “bob’s game 2,” it’s very different.

5. Is there anything about the game or its storyline that you can tell us that isn’t in the Trailer?
Nope, just that there’s still a lot that hasn’t been shown, probably a majority of it. I haven’t shown the second half, and I haven’t really revealed the storyline at all yet. The in-game “bob’s game” hasn’t been revealed, nor has the touchscreen or many of the characters. I think that when it’s ready for review, almost everyone is going to be extremely surprised by a lot of things. I can say that there’s a narrator, and that the game doesn’t stay set in the same time period. There’s also more games than just “bob’s game,” and those are played throughout the game.

6. What other games do you see Bob’s Game similar to, if any?
I’m told it’s similar to “Shenmue,” which is pretty amazing considering that game took $70 million to make.
I would say it’s sort of similar to “Harvest Moon” or “Animal Crossing,” but with a story and an ending, which makes a pretty big difference.

7. What games do you think Bob’s Game will be as popular as?
I have no idea. It would be great if I could sell as many copies of Pokemon, but it’s far more likely I’ll sell about as much as any other unadvertised niche game. That’s fine with me, I really didn’t make it for the money- I made it because I wanted it to exist.

8. Did any publishers contact you during your work on the game?
Nope. Nobody knew about it until I released the first video.

9. Can you tell us which publishers you have spoken with, or have spoken with you up until now?
Nope. Every company so far has had the same policy- Don’t say a word. I think that might have something to do with stock prices or something, who knows.

10. What makes Bob’s Game different from every other DS game?
Of course, it’s by one guy- which matters! A lot of people don’t understand why it’s relevant, they just think I’m talking myself up.
First of all, it hasn’t been done before for a retail console game, and it’s been called impossible by a lot of guys in the industry- so right there you’ve got something relevant on the video game timeline.
More importantly though, it makes it more like a book, or a graphic novel or comic, or an independent movie script. Video games are big productions, involving a lot of money and a lot of people. During the development of these games, the dialogue and story is tested constantly through market research, and the whole thing is engineered to appeal to the largest group of people. It loses all of the individual quirkiness that makes it unique- and it ends up being this sort of bland story that doesn’t offend anybody, but isn’t very exciting either.
It’s like those TV commercials with that really unfunny, corporate sort of humor- that’s the result of strict market research.

All that aside, it’s also a genre-crossing type of game. There’s really not anything like it on any console, besides maybe “Shenmue-” which I haven’t yet played, so I’m sure it’s quite different than even that.

Personally, I can’t wait for this game. Looks like it has the potential to be a great game.

I’d also like to wish Bob the best of luck finding a publisher, and to thank him for taking his time to answer my questions.

- Jackreyes

After looking for something new to review, I decided upon DS Flash Cards.

These are essentially media reading cards for the DS. With the right software, you can watch videos, view pictures, read text files and even read Comics. This sounds pretty much like the new, just released in Japan, licensed by Nintendo, DS Vision right?

Well there is one big difference: the DS Vision doesn’t allow you to play backups of the DS games you own, which as far as I know is legal, but then the problem is with others downloading games that others have backed up which is illegal.

Also the DS Vision doesn’t let you play homebrew applications. Homebrew applications are either games or useful tools made for the DS and are available for free -usually- though some people request donations.

Disclaimer: Any backups that I test, are backups of games I own, such as Pokemon Diamond, New Super Mario Bros, Nanostray and many others. If you would like me to prove that I own the game by taking a photo of the original case and game with a piece of paper saying Jackreyes on it next to the items then please feel free to ask, I do not condone piracy and will not give anyone

Coming up tomorrow:

Acekard 2 Review, Review sample provided by the kind people at Acekard.com. So a special thanks to them.

N for the PC is a flash game released in March 2004. So why am I reviewing it?

The answer is because N+, a sort of sequel to the game is coming to the DS and PSP shortly and it has already been released on the Xbox Live Arcade.

N is a game in which you are a ninja and the aim is to complete the level in the time given. You usually have to get a key for the door and then go through the door to complete the level whilst collecting Yellow squares on your way each giving you plus 1 second to complete the level in and avoiding mines, falling from great heights and things that look like they want you dead.

Screenshot:

Controls:

Left and Right arrows to move and Shift to jump. Nothing special. Average controls, but easy to use and work well with the game.

Graphics:

They’re… nothing special, in fact they’re not that good on the flash version and I imagine they’ll be pretty much the same on the PSP and DS, but the Xbox graphics are supposed to be next-gen.

Download Link:

http://www.thewayoftheninja.org/n_downloads.html

Ratings:

Gameplay: 9/10 – Very enjoyable.

Graphics: 6/10 – Below Par, but you can’t expect too much for a free flash game. Though they do work with the game.

Controls: 8/10 – Work well enough, nothing fancy, nothing bad.

Overall: 7/10

76%

I’m sure that if you’re a fan of the DS then you’ll probably know that Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars was announced at E3.

So far we’re pretty clueless about the game. No screenshots, no gameplay footage and not even a good description.

However, they’ve now got their website set up, and it does at the bottom of the page have a Wi-Fi logo.

http://www.rockstargames.com/chinatownwars/

Now this may just be there temporarily and they may decide to take it out later into development, but usually, any Wi-Fi is better than no Wi-Fi.

- Jackreyes

Which DS games made 2007 for us?

The categories were chosen  mostly by me but the other writers also had the chance to add categories. Expect lists for other consoles soon.

So the results are as follows…

DS:

Best storyline:

Winner:  Hotel Dusk: Room 215

Runner up: Phoenix Wright: Trials and Tribulations (Third in series) (USA, Europe release expected soon)

Best Sports Game:

Winner: FIFA 08

Runner up: EA Playground

Best Racing Game:

Winner: Ferrari Challenge

Runner up: Race Driver: Create and Race

Best WiFi:

Winner: Pokemon Diamond & Pearl

Runner up: Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass

Most Addictive:

Winner: Pokemon Diamond & Pearl

Runner up: Geometry Wars: Galaxies

Best Arcade Game:

Winner: Geometry Wars: Galaxies

Runner up: Arkanoid DS (Japan)

Best Puzzle Game:

Winner: Picross DS

Runner up: Prism Light the Way

Most Engaging:

Winner: Phoenix Wright: Trials and Tribulations

Runner up: Geometry Wars: Galaxies

Best Music/Rhythm Game:

Winner: Elite Beat Agents

Runner up: Jam Sessions

Overall Best DS Game

Winner: Pokemon Diamond & Pearl

Why Pokemon? Think about it… this is the game that had people addicted for probably a quarter of the year. Looking at the concept of Pokemon it seems childish but young and old were playing this game. Well done Nintendo. Geometry Wars: Galaxies just missed top spot. I may not be playing it every time I go on my DS like I was with Pokemon but it entertains me and never gets boring, unlike Pokemon once you’ve beat the Elite 4 and got a great team. Both games have great replay value though, Pokemon will be a game I will most likely pick up again soon, Make a new team from scratch. And Geometry Wars, I’ll probably just keep playing that a couple of times a week.

Runner up: Geometry Wars: Galaxies

It has been another great year for the DS, lets hope for more in 2008.

Jack

.

I earlier previewed Mario Party DS, My views on it weren’t too positive, after playing the game for longer will my views have changed? Well the straight answer is no. This is yet another cliched, boring Mario Party game. It lacks one vital feature, Wi-Fi, this was promised to us by Nintendo but they failed to deliver.

That was negative… but the thing is, maybe I’ve just played too many Mario Party games. If this is the first Mario Party game you intend to play then you’ll probably love it, story mode, free play and unlockable… stuff. Usually the things that make a game good, and despite me being negative about it earlier, thats what this game is, good. I just expected a lot more from it. The mini games are all pretty cool I must say. And this game would be good to play in the car I expect.

Gameplay: 8/10

Graphics: 7.5/10

Controls: 8/10

Multiplayer: 4/10 – I haven’t used multicard or download play yet, I’m basing this score on Wi-Fi, or the lack of it anyway.

Overall – 6.5/10 – 65%

Anyway thats another review done, I’ve been meaning to do a follow up for a while now.

Have a good Christmas guys.

My next post will be an announcement.

Jack