Ideas for Life: "Unpasswords"

This is an idea I've come up with, though I'm sure I'm not the only person to have thought of it.

Wherever there are accounts, there are reports of scamming, hacking and stealing. On Facebook, people can have their identities nabbed or false statuses/etc posted under their name. On things like Habbo and Second Life, if you've put any money into them, your account is seen as valuable. If you follow some kind of notorious "get free credits/money" link associated with these games and give them your password, it takes one guy just a few seconds to empty your character of everything he or she has. On banks and PayPal... well, I'm sure the huge amount of phishing you've heard about, or even noticed through dodgy spam emails, has shown you how scammers are out to get your money.

So my idea for life for today is the Unpassword. When you sign up for an account with any website, you put in both a Password and an Unpassword. What exactly is an Unpassword, then?

The idea's this - if somebody tries to sign in with your username, and the Unpassword as the password, they get shit for it. It could be their IP on the site's blacklist, some sort of tampering to their computer, whatever you like and whatever would be most feasible (I have no idea what'd be best).

So what do you do with your Unpassword? Simple - if you ever get one of those spam emails, virtual life free-credit website things, anything like that, you don't give them your password. You give them your unpassword. They try logging into your account with it - they lose, and you could be notified when you next sign in (properly) that there was a dodgy attempt.

Especially for minor-league scammers this would be a massive deterrent. I'll use Habbo as a good example, as put simply, anything you scam off people in Habbo is only of any use in Habbo. Imagine every item/credit you'd ever scammed, locked out of your reach because you'd tried logging into someone else's account with an unpassword. Are you going to want to keep doing this? Heck no, you're not.

I'm sure high-end scammers would work their ways around these things, but the more they did, the more websites could pile crap on anyone that used an unpassword. After all, 100% of people trying to log in with it are doing it for negative reasons. It's not like the massively flawed thing you see on some sites where 3-5 incorrect logins place a quarter of an hour lock on the account itself.

That's my idea for the day anyway. If it's of any interest, my PayPal password is "saybyebyetopaypalaccess15".

Ripoffs

If there's one thing that irks me about gaming, it's the sheer number of ripoffs of other games that exist. I'm not talking about games that are similar to one another (eg any FPS and Doom/Wolfenstein 3D), games that take popular (or even unpopular) games, change a few things then slap it out to the public and smile.

The source of inspiration for this is an iOS game I bought out of intrigue a month or two ago and have only just gotten round to playing, the uncatchily titled Pirates vs Ninjas vs Zombies vs Pandas. Yeah. It was 59p and I was interested to see what sort of odd game that title could hold. To my deep disappointment, it's basically Angry Birds. The premise is that for each level set (near-identical to the sets you get in Angry Birds) you're one of the four different titular groups, taking on another one. Essentially, each one has its own little traits (like the different birds in AB), and the enemy sits stationary (like the pigs) in a physics-affected castle (guess), waiting for you to be slingshotted/slungshot/whatever at them. Every mechanic is the same, down to the bonuses for unused "ammo" characters and for the number of blocks you break/damage.

The worst thing about the game is that for quite a while it was sitting very, very high in the iOS charts - above Angry Birds itself at one point. These guys were profiting quite heavily off someone else's concept. This sickens me - it's not quite as bad as just selling the game with ripped sprites, but it's damn close.

I don't get the mentality behind it at all. I struggle to imagine the concept meetings the PvNvZvP team members had.

"Let's think of a great new game!"
"We could rip off Angry Birds to get lots of money!"
"Well gee whizz, you're fantastic!"

I guess from that perspective it pretty much worked. But that brings me onto ripping off within free, independent development. There's no monetary gain to be had from this, so anyone that's a part of it is in it for two things - the fun, and positive reception.

Now, where along the line of thinking is it even remotely plausible that stealing somebody's ideas for your own use will garner positive reception? 95% of the time, the person you stole from will be well-known in the development community. Within ten plays someone will have recognised what you've done, and you'll start eating the backlash. From there you can either apologise and either credit the original developer or take the game down, or you can deny it's a ripoff, shoot your reputation in the foot (which you'll have done anyway, but this makes it oh so much worse) and never get it back, or at least not for a long time and a lot of making up for it. Both the fun and the positive reception die during any of those routes.

Note that this doesn't include fangames, where you are showing your appreciation for the original game (though this is still pretty unimaginative when you could show your appreciation by referring people, then put your skills to better use), and instances where you take the idea, turn it into something of your own accord, then credit the original developer (much better, as it shows initiative and appreciation in one).

It's a mentality I will never understand, and thankfully have never had in the past myself, though I've definitely been inspired by people before - see Ne Touchez Pas and FKR, inspired by Mark Essen's "Flywrench" and Cactus' "xWUNG" respectively, but I've always given credit where credit is due and have had a reason to create both (simplification of a complicated concept, and a different take on a similar concept respectively).

Nintendo 3DS still rocks, by the way. But the games are currently a bit shit - mine serves as a Pokémon Black upscaler at the moment! If you also own a 3DS and would like my Mii gurning on it, then scan my current YYG avatar with Mii Maker's QR Code scanner. (Apologies to readers in the future that are interested in this after the next YYG avatar change, whenever that inevitably happens!)

Nintendo 3DS: First Impressions

Nintendo's 3DS, their sixth (as far as most people would concerned) portable device line following the Game & Watch series, GameBoy, Virtual Boy, GameBoy Advance and DS, goes with the standard Nintendo formula - family friendly + interesting gimmick + relatively cheap + relatively low-end technology. It's also their second attempt at 3D following the disastrous Virtual Boy. Thankfully, it's learnt its lesson. No more red and black games. No more goggles on legs. No more "portable, but not really". And no more Waterworld.

I'll start with the bit that is the main focus, naturally - its 3D capability. Now, I hate that phrase that always gets attached to the 3DS - "you have to see it to believe it". Unfortunately, it's right. Although the viewing range is feeble (tilting up and down is fine, but go five degrees left or right and the 3D will turn into a weird graphical effect similar to those little Pogs (or whatever) with scratchy plastic surfaces that you can tilt to get different images. The slider is a nice addition - you can fine tune it to your eyes very, very easily, or turn it off if you start to get a headache (some people get them after five minutes of 3D, I find that I can watch it for around an hour as long as the slider's adjusted properly). It's worth playing in 3D when you can though - the polygonal graphics, which aren't fantastic (PS2-Wii-ish looking maybe?), suddenly burst into life and look really good.

However, 3D isn't all the 3DS has going for it. It also features a number of "Augmented Reality" items, including built-in games and general fun. Two front-mounted cameras allow for the 3DS to map out the area infront of you in 3D. It can then "add" objects or items to that world. A set of six included physical cards enhance this further, allowing specific items and models to be added accurately to your surroundings. The first game you get when using the first card starts with target practice, dotting targets around your desk or whatever you have infront of you. You move the console, and indeed yourself, to aim at these targets and shoot them. It is VERY, VERY intuitive - I cannot state that enough. There's none of that slight pausing if you're using the likes of a Wii remote to make sure you're on target - you can just judge it perfectly, as the game world is your world.Just as you think it's reached its peak with plopping targets around, you realise that there's a hole been dug into the desk, and you still have one target left to shoot - but there isn't one. It's not until you reach over the virtual hole that you discover one last little target down there. THEN, it goes another level. A dragon spurts out of your work surface - it's long and fast. (Woof.) Then, out of the blue, it lunges at you - with the 3D effect on, this can make you jump until you're used to it. You actually have to get out of its way sharpish, shooting its neck until it bites the dust.

The other feature of the double-front-mounted cameras is to take 3D pictures. These are saved to the 2GB SD card that comes pre-inserted into the 3DS' SD slot (mouthful), or whichever SD card you've replaced it with. As with everything else, the 3D works a treat on these photos, though the pictures taken are disappointingly pretty low-resolution. You can then whip out the SD card, stick it in a computer and look at them there. Mike discovered a great website, 3dporch, where you can then upload these photos, and others can view them by saving them to their own 3DSes, with a pair of red/cyan anaglyph glasses, or just in 2D. This is a picture taken by Mike of the YoYo Games office with a 3DS - gives you an idea of the resolution it takes pictures at, or the effectiveness if you have the glasses or 3DS.

Onto the actual games. The launch lineup is... poo. Thirteen games, three of which are Nintendogs and one of which is Rayman 2. That's nearly a third of the launch lineup which can immediately be laughed at then ignored. I personally got Pilotwings Resort and The Sims 3 with mine - the game I felt would be best for trying the 3D (though it's trumped by the AR stuff packed in!), and the game I felt I'd be likely to play the most, respectively. Both games are alright, but when alright is the best the system can offer, meh. The future of 3DS gaming looks far more promising, though. While Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and Metal Gear Solid 3 are both old games, they're also both very good, and should be given a new lease of life with the extra stuff (though I'd rather have seen Wind Waker than OoT - personal preference). The new Mario game in production is almost certainly going to be strong, if familiar, as is Mario Kart 3DS. My personal biggest looking-forward-to is Professor Layton and the Mask of Miracle. A new instalment of the game that single-handedly made me give a shit about DS again? Yes please!

If it's of any interest, the boxes are pretty similar to the DS'. In Europe at least, it uses a white box, and has a number of rounded rectangles cut out of the plastic so you can poke the inside of the coverart. The cartridges themselve are weird - they're a much lighter grey than DS games (though not white), and they have a single little tumour-like dimple protruding from the top right hand side to prevent trying to stick them into original DSes. Could probably cut it off and try it anyway, but it'd be a waste of time.

Hardware-wise, a couple of complaints. The entire thing is shiny. Y'know what that means? Fingerprint vacuum. It's very pretty for the five seconds you don't touch it, after which it requires frequent wiping to keep clean. Even the buttons are shiny. The design is a downgrade from the likes of the DS Lite - the lid is very slightly bigger than the body, which produces a weird aesthetic to it. It's miles ahead of the original DS though. The hinge also feels a bit of a downgrade - while it goes to default positions fine, it's loose in any other position and so difficult to adjust to the angle you may want it. I quite like the analogue nub/stick it now has, though I question why they didn't one-up the PSP and give it two of them (PSP2 now going in the double-stick direction). It renders the D-pad awkward to use though - it's too far down the system so you can't grip it properly AND use the pad.

The stylus on the other hand is a major improvement. Gone is that thin, short bit of plastic - in its place comes a sleek, thicker metal number that, with the magic of telescopy, can double in size with a quick yank. It also feels more solidly held within the system when not in use too, producing a satisfying click when both removed and replaced. Lastly, the docking station that comes with it is flat-out amazing. You can still plug the 3DS straight into the wire if you'd rather, but with the dock it's a quick plonk to charge it, and a grab to get it back. Either charging method still lets you use the system.Its battery life isn't great, taking more time to charge than the 3 hours of use you'll get with using it normally. It's a little stingy, though if you're at home or just stationary in general, docking it when not the main focus of attention becomes second nature very quickly.

So, final verdict? I love it. Well worth the £187. If you're tempted by it and have the money, I can't recommend it enough. It doesn't have a good library, but that's only now. It will improve drastically in the future. And with all the packed-in features and games, I can confidently say you could actually get hours of fun out of it without even having a dedicated game. Call it an investment if you please. The 3D is immersive and unobtrusive, being compatible with nigh on everything (except original back-compatible DS games) and easily removed or tweaked. The AR is just flat-out amazing to use. The potential of the games to come for it is undeniable. It is just a very high-quality system in general. I'd put it as the single most-improved Nintendo hand held I've bought (I've been around for the GB, GBA and DS before it) - fun, interesting, often amazing, feature-packed. And that's just first impressions.

Ideas for Life: Relative Rating Scale

It seems every piece of media in the world gets rated nowadays. Magazines, websites, all sorts of things exist to get reviewed and a number slapped onto them. I'm personally a big magazine fan - I get Official PlayStation Magazine and PC Gamer UK every month, and magazines like PSM3, Xbox 360 World and Official Xbox Magazine to fill the empty half of the month where I've read the two regulars.

But the rating systems irk me a bit. A great game will get the perfect rating, then a significantly better game will be stuck to get that same rating despite being better. An instance of this - Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty was given a 10/10, with 10 rewarded in each individual aspect too, in the old Official PlayStation 2 Magazine. This was, like, 17 issues in - the magazine ran for 100, covering the entirety of the PS2's popular lifespan. Sure, it's a very good game. But perfect? In comparison to some of the other stunning games PS2 got? No way.

Another annoying thing with current rating systems is they falter when non-significantly-different sequels to games come out. Dynasty Warriors is the perfect example - there's been, like, seven of the main games, and they differentiate so little it's almost embarrassing. But magazines, peeved by this, kept rating the sequels lower and lower. This is despite them being technically superior!

So my idea is this - a relative, uncapped rating system. There is no perfect score. It starts with 100 being as high as is expectable at the time, and 0-10 being god awful. So you could have given Metal Gear Solid 2 a 95-100, yeah. But by the time games like TimeSplitters 2 and GTA: Vice City come out, they could start nudging 105 or so. The stellar games late in the console's lifespan could be getting 150-200, with even the lesser games in the 100 region thanks to their ability to get more out of the system. Then, when the console's successor comes out, the games could continue to be compared to this system, with the likes of Metal Gear Solid 4 perhaps getting 250.

This would also be good for the repetitive sequels. Dynasty Warriors 193 could get the same score as Dynasty Warriors 192, which is fair - but all other, more original games would be constantly raising the average bar, leaving that game behind.

While it's true there's no "maximum" to aim for (and it'd mess with aggregation sites like Metacritic), the highest-rated game at the time could be the one to beat. Anyway, I just feel this would be a superior way of handling ratings to the current "GTA: San Andreas - 100%! GTAIV - wait, shit, 100% as well I guess!".

Karma Shmarma

Though it's been around for a long time, a recent popularity boost seems to have been administered to the "Karma" system - instead of ratings on things, a thumbs up/down system often not only on the primary content of a website, but also on its comments. And it's a load of crap. Why is this?

If you've been on YouTube at any point within the last several months you can probably answer that yourself. Karma clearly means very, very little, yet as a result of these arbitrary numbers and thumbs, videos get inundated with junk comments. The most annoying by far is the one from people that seem to need karma to be happy with themselves - "Thumbs up if _______". Since the Game Maker Community got a Karma (well, a +1) system, numerous people's signatures contain a little or large arrow trying to steer people to clicking it. Furthermore, you can tell there are people that are just commenting for the Karma, even though they don't mention it.

Another YouTube commonplace annoyance is "[number of people that dislike a video] people are [something bad mentioned in the video". This isn't just trying to vacuum thumbs ups, it's also a prime example of the internet trying and failing to be funny. Sure, it may have been mildly amusing at first, but on popular videos 20% of all posted comments could be people with their repetitive quips.

The ability to "thumbs down" just attracts attacks too. Take any video by the likes of John and Edward Grimes ("Jedward") or Justin Bieber. Though I can't hate Jedward - I find them far too hilarious - Bieber's music makes me want to go deaf (not that I hate him as a person, I'm sure he's a friendly little girly-voiced boy and if I could be in his position I'd be singing songs about how I'm considerably richer than you!). But because I don't like Justin Bieber, I don't watch his videos. As a result of this, I don't thumbs down his videos. The vast majority of people would be in the same situation - not rating down his stuff purely because what's the point? Yet, thanks to the "net-minded" - people that find it hilarious to try and ruin a successful 16 year old kid's life - the thumbs downs match or even beat the ups.

And it does genuinely steer what you say. The dicks will try to collect thumbs downs by going around dissing everything everyone else likes. The people worried about their reputation to any extent will change their opinions so people don't go against them. The sheep will just reiterate what other popular people say to get those same thumbs from them.

It just all seems so stupid to me. You're welcome to comment on this with your opinions on Karma systems, but keep your thumbs to yourselves.

Favourite Games On... PS1

Following on from a discussion in Game Jolt, I thought I'd make a blog entry on my favourite PlayStation 1 games. Really fun system, I was just old enough to catch the "first ever *cool* game console!" wave which meant that forever after I just couldn't enjoy Nintendo's systems as much. I still do, but their games just don't appeal to me half as much. That's off-track though. PlayStation games!

Ape Escape - my favourite PS1 game. The first, and one of the very few, in which using an analogue controller instead of the stick-less digital pad was mandatory. As a result, it used a unique and intuitive control system - left stick to move Spike (the protagonist), face buttons to quick select between four items in the inventory (which could be customised in the pause menu), shoulder buttons to jump, crouch etc, and most importantly, the right stick to use the item. With the net, you could swing in any direction by moving the stick in that direction, or swing the net around in a circular motion to "scoop" up monkeys by turning it. Spinning attacks with the light-saberish weapon were possible by rotating the stick. The catapult worked by holding the stick in the opposite direction to the way you wanted to fire (as you'd expect - if you hold a catapult, you draw the ammo back so the elastic pings it forwards). Though the camera suffered a bit - L2/R2 and the right stick were all taken so your only camera command was "snap to back of Spike" - Ape Escape was an excellent game. It was followed up by two sequels (2 and 3) and numerous spinoffs, mainly on PSP, and is apparently coming to PS3 as Ape Escape 4. And yes, to end on a pun, if this is genuine, I will go apeshit.

Tombi - as fantastic as the demo I had years back suggested. Tombi mixes platform adventure with RPG to bring an original and genuinely brilliant fun game, which is loaded with content too. You can save up experience points, kill pigs with frontflip flings, learn languages, get high on mushrooms and have your weapon replaced with giggling fits that make poisonous mushrooms nearby start giggling too, making them vulnerable. It's apparently coming to PSN - I can faithfully say that Tombi was worth the £65 it cost me to obtain, so it will sure as heck be worth the £5 or so you'd have to buy to play it on PS3 or PSP.

Spyro 2 & 3 - I wasn't a big fan of Spyro 1, but its two PS1 sequels hit the nail on the head perfectly. Amazing soundtracks, a deeper-voiced Spyro, some of the most memorable levels I've ever seen (Cloud Spires! Zephyr! Okay, the names aren't memorable but I can truly visualise at least 20 separate levels from each of the games). Infact, just thinking about these games, which I've already completed at least twice each and at least once each to 100%, makes me want to play them all over again.

Crash Bandicoot 2 & 3 - not including 1 just because I didn't get a PlayStation until after its release, and didn't really grow up with it. I owned 3, and my cousin owned 2 - both absolutely fantastic games. A little on the difficult side for me - I still struggle to get to 50% and am very hard pressed to ever see Cortex as a boss - but nonetheless some brilliant games that knew 3D was a new thing, so kept it nice and simple and used it well.

Crash Team Racing - maybe I'll get lynched for this, given the game is basically Super Mario Kart with Crash characters and that I said up top that I find PS games generally more fun, but this is a near-perfect karting game (certainly my favourite in the genre), and I'd even go so far as to saying it's my favourite Crash game. As well as being a lot less difficult than the platformers that proceeded it, CTR was an absolute blast in multiplayer (as well as single player!). Plenty of variety mean this game is still played by me and friends to this day.

Gran Turismo 2 - my age when I got this was actually very helpful. GT5 has less than wowed me if I'm being honest (I guess I should expect that when I try and put a Burnout-warped mind to a realistic sim racing game!), but back in 2000-2001, a brand new PS1 game was the only new PS1 game I was seeing for three months. I ended up getting hugely far in the game, built up a massive garage of cars and was completely in love with the game. One of my fondest silly moments was blowing my entire starting fund on a crap car. Instead of having the intelligence to just start again, I entered it into a 50-lap endurance race. I was lapped 30 or so times and it took around five hours to finish, but the last-place consolation prize was enough money to buy a better "first" car!

Grand Theft Auto 1 & 2 - more 2 to be honest. As a 9, 10 year old kid, a freeform game in which you got to go around running people over with stolen cars was essentially naughty heaven. GTA1 is included as it was the first one I owned (which was after GTA2 was released - I remember getting it because a friend showed me 2). A couple of years later though I got 2 and the memories from that one stuck with me far more. I actually nabbed both of their soundtracks from the discs - I love them. (I think "Sterlin - Standing On My Own" is the name of my favourite song.)

Hogs of War - along with Crash Team Racing, Hogs of War was a multiplayer-is-best game that is still often played between me and friends. Infact, me, a friend, his girlfriend and his sister played it for a couple of hours at the end of December last year! It's essentially a 3D version of Worms that is far superior to the actual Worms 3D that came out in 2003 or so. Brilliant game and very funny (mainly thanks to the voiceovers provided by the hilarious Rik Mayall), damn shame it never got a sequel or rerelease.

Worms - these days it's easy to make a level. Throw LittleBigPlanet 2 at the level and start Popit-ing things like nobody's business. 12 or so years ago, I was doing it by setting the turn time limit in Worms to infinite, allowing infinite uses of both the ninja rope and girders, and going around making girder forts. The game largely fell out of multiplayer favour thanks to Hogs of War, and Worms Armageddon/World Party (more fun, but lacking the ability to set turn time to infinite, making creation more of a chore).

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 - fond memories like no other. For a large chunk of my childhood I had a "girlfriend" - we played THPS2 to the death. I haven't properly played it in years and I can still mentally map out the vast majority of the maps, even the secret ones like the in-space level. It's taken Skate 2/3, released ten years after, to finally bring a skateboarding game I've been able to play as much as Pro Skater 2.

Rugrats: Search for Reptar - okay, now you're getting silly. Or am I? While an absolutely poor game, even in its time, there's a weak nostalgia with R:SfR. But added to that, there is the fact that I've actually completed it about ten times. Why? It only takes 30 minutes to do! Half an hour of nostalgia and a game completed 100%? Oh, go on then!

V Rally - on the opposite end of the spectrum to Gran Turismo 2 comes strictly-arcade V Rally. Played this an absolute ton. If I'd had my current mentality on racers back when PS1 was a current console, I have no doubt this would be my favourite racer.

Vib Ribbon - I always feel I have to justify how much I like Vib Ribbon. But it's great - stylish, odd, and so simple it can store the entire game in the PS1's RAM and generate a level for absolutely any piece of music on any music CD you own. Replayability to the absolute extreme.

Bishi Bashi Special - the worst thing about Bishi Bashi Special is that none of my friends loved it as much as I did. When it's predominantly made for multiplayer play, it's not great. But I'm still very, very fond of the game, have sunk tens of hours into it just by myself, and recently it saw a new bit of life when I bought it on PSN and was able to play it anywhere on PSP. If you're unfamiliar with BBS, take WarioWare. Increase the length of the microgames to around 20 seconds each, include a little video introduction, and pump the game full of Japan-isms.

Overboard - one of the first games I played on PS1. Simple, but very fun - topdown-ish pirate ship shooting game that somehow mixes puzzling and strategy into itself. Very originalThere are so many others that deserve honourable mentions. As a kid, having a game like "Oddworld: Abe's Exoddus" with its own button for letting rip was always going to be a winner. Was also one of three first games I *owned* for the console, along with the slightly crap "B-Movie" and the slightly crapper "Sensible Soccer". Speaking of football, "Soccer 97" was one game I did enjoy. A game I'm just buying on eBay now, that I haven't seen in over a decade, is "Star Gladiator Episode I: The Final Crusade", a very fun and very Street Fighterish beat em up in 3D (better 3D than Virtua Fighter). "MoHo" was original and funky, as were the two "MediEvil" games. "Devil Dice" was an amazing demo. Never saw a copy of the game anywhere sadly. Same with Kula World, though that's out on PSN. And also same with Bugs Bunny's Lost In Time - another fun demo, but the game? Where are you?!

Oh, who am I kidding? The PS1 had so many noteworthy games it's not even funny. Next time, I'll either cover SNES or PS2. PS2 will be a danger zone. I have tons of favourites. Eep!

How is This Game so Addictive?!

Seven pence says you thought I was referring to "Minecraft". Wrong! I'll start my story with it though.

Back in August-September 2010, all I ever saw was Minecraft. Minecraft, Minecraft, bloody Minecraft. So I bought it. Four or so months and what I wouldn't be surprised to be upwards of 500 accumulated play hours (~21 days), LittleBigPlanet 2 finally came along and wrenched the diamond pickaxes and 64-cobblestone stacks out of my mitts, replacing them with cute faces and versatile level editors.

To my strong annoyance, I lost "something" halfway through the storymode and one published level into LBP2. I don't know what it was I lost. I'm not tired of the game, I'm not disappointed by it. I just can't quite pump up the energy needed to play it. My interest has dwindled.Cue Tombi, the £65 preowned PlayStation 1 game. Amazing, amazing game. I got a bit stuck in it, and plan to finish it. But, while it completely knocked LBP2 out of my schedule, I then got a little craving. A craving I'm all too familiar with. A game which just keeps on coming back into my life, demanding more and more attention. A game I've probably played more than any other (I've certainly sunk hundreds of hours into the entire series), of which I just cannot get enough of.

Skate 3.

I just don't know why, but the realistic physics, the freeform gameplay, the ability to hit grannies around the face with a skateboard and watch as they taser you for revenge. The ability to video silly clips and upload them to YouTube. The L2+R2+L3+R3 command that makes your skater fall off their board, and the ability to subsequently, or after a running jump, do moves that let you roll around the ground, do headstands or dropkick people. The observatory with a big dam/sewer/deep-rampy-pipe thing that gives you enough momentum to cross the entire goddamn island, hitting the low point, a sports area great for tricks, without actually kicking off once (I love doing this run holding L2+R2 to make the skater hold onto their board with both hands and squat).It's just... argh. Grand Theft Auto IV can do this too - freeform, completely replayable, physics engine that allows for some cracking things (pushing people down stairs or over kerbs or fences and seeing them fall over comically). But I don't know why, but Skate 3 always seems to be "the one". I guess it's the ability to pillock about without fear of death. Hit by a car? Respawn immediately at the same point. Fall off a cliff? *Whack bam smack!* *gets back up*

It's a cracking game, and has given me a level of fun Tony Hawk hasn't achieved since Pro Skater 2 - and I'm pretty sure that's just nostalgia, now. It's cheap as hell to buy (I often see brand new copies of Skate 3 going for £10-£15, and nearly-as-good-and-just-as-addictive Skate 2 is even less), and I would whole-heartedly recommend it. The story mode is cack, but you get the entire world to play in and never HAVE to do any missions or tasks. That's where the fun lies.I bet you seven pence I'll preorder Skate 4. You lose.

Dundonian Relocation

Any YoYo Games users reading this will have more than likely read the website's latest glog entry, on a job offering to work within Game Maker at the YYG Office in Dundee full time. I know for some of you, it's a very tempting offer - a full time wage to use Game Maker! I also know that for most of the tempted ones, the "big thing" that's holding you back is the need to relocate to Dundee, Scotland.

This is a blog entry to try and convey exactly what I went through, and still do, having done that relocation from a quiet village in eastern England to the city centre of a Scottish city. It will be a little similar to a previous glog entry, I Would Drive 500 Miles (Nearly), though that was written just six days after I arrived and five after I'd started work. I've now been here nearly seven months.

I won't lie, the relocation is hard. If you're close to your parents (I am) and your relatives, friends and pets (again, yes), it's a little difficult at first. But MSN, Skype, or even just your everyday telephone alleviates that quite significantly. There's also the travelling to Dundee with your belongings - by train works if you don't have to bring too much, though without the car space of my dad's Ford Mondeo I would've had to shed 90% of what I did end up bringing. If you're not within Great Britain you'll probably have to factor in a plane too. These aren't hugely expensive; a return train ticket this Christmas from Dundee to my home village (450 miles each way), bought two weeks in advance, cost me £100 (about $150 or €150, I'd guess. Don't quote me on that). This was without any special discounts, just the fact I bought in advance. Plenty of websites will let you gauge the fares of whichever method of transport you think you'd end up taking.

Dundee itself is a very nice city. It's far from a massive metropolis, but it has everything you need. There's about six different Tesco supermarkets, including a nice large one by the River Tay and a Tesco Metro (the store I use weekly) within the city centre, essentially a half-sized Tesco which has everything you need to live off, just a bit less of it. There are three malls in the city centre with everything from clothes shops to Argos (for those unfamiliar, it's like Amazon.com but a shop of it) to Starbucks. They vary in "quality", with the Overgate being predominantly full of well-known brands while The Forum (I think that's its name) seems to be more leaning towards independently owned shops. Both have a Gregg's bakery. For pubs, Japanese supermarkets and pretty much any mainstream chain you can think of that operates in Britain, Dundee is more than adequate.

On the entertainment side of things, I haven't done much research, but there's a large, swanky Odeon cinema and Dundee Megabowl, with its 36 or so bowling alleys, pool tables, arcade area and a little Wimpy's segment so you can stay in the place for several hours and let the fast food bit cover a meal. Both of those are a couple of miles away from the city centre, but it's only around £10 both ways for a taxi. If you're a fan of sightseeing, Dundee is great. There are a number of points of interest (it's the "City of Discovery", y'know!) including the permanently anchored RRS Discovery ship and the McManus Gallery, which includes some DMA Design-related tidbits from Russell and Mike (including a collection of Mike's old business cards!).

Weather is a common complaint, and is fairly understandable. Being up north, and part of the UK in the first place, it can be pretty cold. It doesn't rain a huge amount though - certainly no more than England. There was some very heavy and disruptive snowfall this year, which also caused one instance of the rare but cool thundersnow, and at least one day when every road was like a giant footpath. I've been told by Russell that it's the worst case of snow Dundee has seen in decades; it isn't regularly snow-coated here. But generally, if you own a coat (hypocritical of me, I know, given I don't!) and you didn't live in a permanent sauna before, you'll be fine.

Last part I should probably get to mentioning, and probably the most important too, is the job itself. The next thing I'm going to say, I have to reiterate is 100% my own words. I've not been told to say this, I'm not lying, and I'm not doing anyone any favours. I absolutely love the job. I'm getting paid a very liveable salary to do what I spent seven and a half years of my life prior to starting doing for nothing. When help is needed with something I have some very experienced and very friendly people all around willing to give it. It is just an amazing atmosphere. Casual, but not jokey. Productive, but not overly-serious and not strenuous.Yes, the distance from home is a bit of a kick in the balls. Yes, I miss my daft cats, and my little bedroom in the little quiet English village. But can I go back for a visit whenever I want? Yes. Is it a great city I'm in with plenty of convenience and friendly citizens? Yes.

And do I love my job? F**k yes.

To Catch a Predator - Why Don't You Take a Seat?

Many popular US shows have a UK equivalent, regardless of which is the original. Both have a different version of Whose Line is it Anyway, Britain has Dirty Sanchez to US' Jackass (though the latter is more popular here, being the original). US has had pilots of Red Dwarf and Top Gear that have been poor compared to the original UK series and failed, and an Americanised version of the British The Office which is better than the original. Finally, there are the likes of Wheel of Fortune, which is still running in America, though was sadly cancelled in UK long ago. I don't know which country's version of that came first.

But recently I've been watching an American show online of which there doesn't seem to be any British equivalent - Dateline: To Catch a Predator. And while I'm a massive fan of the general dry satirical comedy of any British comic, I don't know if it'd be the same without the voice of the presenter, Chris Hansen.

I find it enjoyable and hilarious to watch To Catch a Predator, and I think it's mostly him that makes it so. Seeing people that go around wanting to shag youngsters brought to justice is all well and good and certainly no joke, believe me. There are some guys that are "ill", who I can feel sorry for, but for the most part (and mainly when they go through the pathetic excuses - "We were just gonna talk", "I always have these condoms", "I was drunk/high when I set this date up") it's great to see them gone from the planet for a good few years.

But, come on. Just seeing perverts thrown behind bars wouldn't be the same with that voice that you could distinguish in a crowd from a mile away. From the "Why don't you take a seat?" to the "you're free to leave any time", with the "I have the transcript", "I'm Chris Hansen", "You wanna try again?" and everything else in between, he's the only person I know who can be deadly hilarious and deadly serious 100% simultaneously. How the paedophiles can resist laughing, I don't know. (Yes, that was joking!)It's also fun to think what Hansen is like when off-camera and in casual mode. Does he really have that elocution? No idea. It's like imagining Joe Pasquale in social settings, though if I had to spend any extended time in the hearing radius of that squeaky voice I'd chop my own ears off.

I don't really have much to say, other than I kinda wish there was more To Catch a Predator. Since I've been watching it quite a bit over the last few days, and I still have an odd desire to blog, I thought it'd be worth doing. Have to stop writing now, footage of a guy that's being caught a second time by the show is being shown and I sure as hell don't want to miss him taking a seat.

Tombi, The £65 Preowned PS1 Game

I have no idea where this sudden urge to blog multiple times has come from, honest!

Being in employment, I finally have some money I can use to "complete" my video game collection. When I say complete, I mean of all the games I've ever wanted to own as opposed to absolutely everything (nigh on impossible!). In the last eight months or so I've been able to acquire such games as Gitaroo Man and Amplitude (both the sequel to a game I was lucky enough to get early, FreQuency, and the precursor to Harmonix's more famous games Guitar Hero 1 & 2 and the Rock Band series), two games that next to never appear in game stores and cost a good £20 pre-owned on sites like eBay - rather expensive for an old PlayStation 2 game. Kula World, sealed copies of which can sell for £200, and Bishi Bashi Special, another firm favourite game of mine (which I stupidly bought new but sold), were lucky hits as they both appeared as downloadable games on the PlayStation Store.

But there's always been one I've never managed to own, and arguably the one I've wanted most. Tombi, known in America (AFAIK) as either Tomba or Tonba, has never appeared in any other application or on any other console. It's not on the PS Store, the franchise has been gone since Tombi 2 around ten years ago, also on PS1, and copies of it are about as common as days Paris Hilton isn't blowing some random bloke off.

I've scouted eBay for months now, always looking for a cheap copy of Tombi. It's never happened. Copies usually sell for £60-70 for a working, used copy, new copies cost upwards of £300. It's scarce as all hell. But goddamn, it's a beautiful game. I'd happily recommend it if it was more readily available; alas, it's not, and I doubt I'd persuade many people with "It's a great 2D platformer, well worth the $120", so all I'll say is "if you're a lucky enough bastard to find a cheap copy, get it".

But today I caved in. A copy selling on eBay for £72 (£1.99 P&P, £69.99 game) sat in my eyeline, longing for my money. So I put an offer in at £53.01, which would with P&P total £55. I got counteroffered - £64.99 for the game. Counter-offering with £58.01, bringing the total game cost to £60, I got it one more time with a final offer of £62.99. I accepted.

I figure there's some sense to it all. If I truly love the game (which I suspect I will), I can keep it and it'll be a little personal treasure. If I complete it and have no desire to do so again, or if I don't even like it as much as the demo I used to replay continuously made me think I will, I can put it back on eBay and essentially get my money back!

Whatever happens, all I'll know is the moment it pops through my letterbox, before I give it a PS3 to run it, I'll give it a hug. It cost me enough to warrant one!