#oneaday Day 552: My Favourite Bastard: Gary Smith

I mentioned a few days ago that I've been playing Bully again. I have now beaten it again (with 100% completion, more fool me) and have come to the conclusion that the game's primary antagonist, Gary Smith, is one of the finest villains we've seen in gaming.

(Bully spoilarz ahead.)

Gary is every teacher's worst nightmare. He's brash, outspoken, manipulative and has ADD. At the outset of the game, it's clear that he's a bully, judging by the way he treats Pete Kowalski. Pete doesn't stand up to Gary, though, as it's clear that he's afraid of him and, judging by his behaviour towards Jimmy later in the game, prefers to live for the approval of others.

Algie, one of the Nerds clique, refers to Gary as a "sociopath". This is probably an accurate description — as time goes on and Gary becomes increasingly paranoid, thanks in part to him ceasing to take his ADD meds, he manipulates the schoolkids to his own ends without a hint of remorse. He lies and cheats and takes every chance he can get to get one up on Jimmy. Jimmy, being a pretty tough "water off a duck's back" sort of kid, takes all this in his stride and eventually manages to convince the cliques of the school that Gary is, in fact, a douchebag and that Jimmy did not, in fact, do or say any of the things that Gary led them to believe. The early part of the game largely consists of dealing with the aftermath of the various messes Gary creates — messes which we never see him create, but certainly see the consequences of.

All goes well until Jimmy gets overconfident with his new-found fame and power and half-successfully pulls off his biggest prank yet: to tag Bullworth City Hall with the slogan "Bullworthless". He has an audience while he does so, but it looks like he's gotten away with it, until he gets back to school. Gary has informed the Principal of Jimmy's misdemeanour, Jimmy gets expelled and Gary becomes Head Boy of the school — a position he had coveted since well before Jimmy ever arrived.

With his new power, Gary turns all the cliques against each other — and Jimmy — with the help of the Townie school dropouts, and he sparks off a full-scale riot in the school. The teachers are powerless to do anything about this, with most of them being too embroiled in their own matters anyway — particularly Ms. Phillips and Mr. Galloway's attempts to throw off Mr. Hattrick and his crusade against Galloway's alcoholism. Taking advantage of the chaos, Gary takes Principal Crabblesnitch hostage and lures Jimmy to the roof of the school for a final showdown.

Jimmy, being Jimmy, takes down Gary, the pair of them crashing through the roof of Crabblesnitch's office just as Gary proudly proclaims that his masterplan has come to fruition. Crabblesnitch hears this — despite having been tied up by Gary, he's too under his spell to believe him capable of any wrongdoing until he hears Gary confess to his crimes. Gary ends up expelled and we never hear of him again, save for a few rumours that he's living in the school belltower, and others that he's living with the Townies.

The best thing about Gary as a villain is not his manipulative nature — though the constant frustration that Jimmy feels as clique after clique turns against him time and time again is enough to make you hate the little bastard. No; the very best thing about Gary as a villain is that he's just not there. Gary is off-screen for a good 90% of the game and all you, as Jimmy, have to go on is second-hand accounts and "he said, she said" rumours — just like real high school. Because if there's one thing a thousand crap teen coming of age movies have showed us: there's nothing worse than being misrepresented to the whole school.

It's Gary's long absence that makes kicking the snot out of the little git at the end of the game all the more satisfying. While the whole thing is perhaps a little silly, and Gary's motivations are never quite clear, it's immensely pleasing to finally get one up on him.

Perhaps the fact that Gary's motivations for "wanting to take over the school" are somewhat obscured is deliberate, though; we see frequent evidence throughout the game that Gary is at the very least a sociopath and at worst a dangerous psychopath. He's a narcissist and a megalomaniac, and he doesn't care about anyone but himself — he wants to make his way to the top by fair means or foul, and doesn't care how many toes, testicles and faces he treads on to get there. Jimmy finds himself in danger of becoming Gary when he initially manages to get all the cliques to respect him and each other and becomes overconfident and cocksure as a result — but discovers when Gary turns them all against him and each other that he's got too much respect for other people and the community, however dysfunctional, of Bullworth Academy, to continue treating people as his puppets, his playthings. It's for this reason that Jimmy eventually prevails and takes his rightful position as head of the school — this time, without becoming a dick about it, despite his propensity to solve problems through punching them in the face.

So, then, Gary Smith: I salute you. You were a worthy adversary and deserve to take your place alongside the great gaming villains of our time.

#oneaday Day 550: How to Play Pocket Academy

After posting a lengthy comment on yesterday's post, I figured that I'd share what I've discovered about playing Kairosoft's Pocket Academy with a view to potentially making the start of the game a little easier for those of you who haven't tried it yet. So here we go.

The First Few Months

You'll start your new school with a few basic facilities, one teacher and a couple of students, one of whom you design and name yourself. Don't be tempted to build facilities or level up your teacher to begin with, even if they come to you and very politely inform you that their friends get more training than they do. The reason for this is that facilities cost money each month for upkeep, and each level up for a teacher raises their salary by 20%.

Instead, your initial activities should focus around getting your students' abilities up to snuff through special classes, and performing Challenges to raise tuition.

Special classes cost one of the three types of Research Points to perform, and each will raise students' grades in one or two subjects. As you progress through the game, more classes (and more effective classes) will become available. To acquire Research Points, it's just a case of waiting — they come either from teachers using facilities (tap on a facility to see which type of points it provides), from students talking to each other (randomly determined) or special events such as those which occur in the summer and the fall (each event is tied to a particular type of Research Points).

Challenges cost money to take on, but succeeding in them increases your tuition by $20-30 per student. You can perform up to two successful Challenges per month. Failing one doesn't count as one of these two — and in fact, failing a challenge provides you with Research Points, so if you have an excess of cash, this can be a good way of quickly bumping up your stocks. Passing a Challenge is determined partly by random chance, partly by the participating student's Intelligence and Attitude stats, and partly by their grades. Raise grades with special classes and keep an eye on their Int/Att scores as they use the facilities.

At the end of each semester, there's a test. Student grades will be tallied and the school will be given a rating and a ranking. The higher the rating/ranking, the more money you get, so it's in your interests to ensure each class' grade average is as high as possible — tap on a classroom to see the whole class' average as well as students' individual grades.

Building Up

As you pass Challenges and pass other milestones, reports in the school newspaper will be published, increasing your potential catchment area. As this happens, a flow of Transfer Students will join your school. Each will bring an entrance fee with them, and some will also offer a monetary gift from their parents. The more students you have, the more tuition you get per month.

Once your classrooms are full or the flow of Transfer Students stops, that's a signal that it's time to hire a new teacher. Pick one with a reasonable salary but a good range of stats, particularly those which aren't covered by your existing staff member. Teachers' "grades" determine how much benefit students get from the classes they hold at the start of each semester as well as the special classes — each time you hold a special class, one of your teachers is picked randomly to hold it.

Levelling up a teacher requires Research Points — the exact type and amount depends on the individual teacher. Gaining a level gives the teacher a 20% pay rise and 30-90 Education Points to spend on their "grades". Try and specialise each teacher one at a time — all grades carry equal weight, so there's no need to get Eng/Ma/Sci up first, whatever the National Curriculum might tell you. Pick one and try and get it up to 100, then move on to another.

Budget carefully — at the end of each month, you'll see a brief rundown of how much you spent on facility upkeep, how much you spent on teacher salaries and how much income you got from students. Ideally the latter figure should be higher than the former two combined. If you want to check your budget in detail, go into the menu, tap School > School Info then tap on the info window that pops up.

Creating Spots

Once you're making a healthy profit each month, you can look at expanding your school. When building new facilities, the most efficient thing to do is combine groups of three facilities together into Popular Spots. These then get a bonus which they also provide to surrounding facilities, making them more effective. The more a facility is used, the better it gets, too — tap on a facility to see how many more times it has to be used before it will level up.

Known Spot combinations are listed under Lists > Spot Guide. Over time, you'll unlock more "recipes" but not all are listed. Here's a partial list:

Relaxing Spot: Azalea, Grass, Bench
Waiting Spot: Bulletin Board, Big Rock, Rest Room
Power Spot: Well, Woods, Grass
Garden Spot: Grass, Field, Water Fountain
Art Spot: Art Room, Music Room, Misc Room
Study Spot: Principal Room, Library, AV Room
Spooky Spot: Music Room, Lab, Incinerator
Friend Spot: Water Fountain, Nurse's Room, Lounge
Date Spot: Tennis Court, Woods, Library
Exercise Spot: Running track, B-Ball Court, Vending Room
Jealousy Spot: Incinerator, Cafeteria, Home Ec Room
Election Spot: Principal's Office, Teacher Room, Lounge
Homey Spot: Nurse's Room, Home Ec Room, Rest Room
Shopping Spot: Snack Store, Tiny Mart, Cafeteria
Meat Spot: Pig Room, Cow Room, Cafeteria
Water Spot: Water tile, Rest Room, Well
Cooking Spot: Incinerator, Home Ec Room, Water Fountain

In order to create some of these Spots, you'll need to research the relevant facilities. To do this, pop up the menu, go into Admin > Research. Each facility costs a certain amount of money and Research Points to unlock, then each will take a period of time to create. You can't research everything initially — more facilities will unlock as time passes. You'll know when you can research something new by a pop-up saying you've got a "new request". When looking at the Spot Guide, "Can Build" means that you have the capability to research all the necessary facilities, whereas "Cannot Build" means that you won't be able to research or build at least some of the facilities for a while yet.

Career Guidance and Graduation

When your students reach their third year, you need to start paying attention to their career paths, as this will determine how much money you get when they graduate in month 3 of their last year. Use Lists > Student List to view their grades, stats and success rate in their career. Anyone with a yellow success rate (80%+) is likely to succeed, so you can leave them be in most cases. For anyone else, you may want to consider giving them some career guidance.

Students with no career planned will become part-timers upon graduation. This has a 100% success rate but returns a poor amount of money, so if you have the time and resources, advise them on an appropriate career.

To give career guidance, you need to use Research Points to create a Career Change item from the Admin > Items menu. Then tap on a student either on the screen or in the Student List and choose Use Item to apply it to them. You'll see a range of careers, success rates and salaries — pick one with a good chance of success and decent salary. You'll get an award of 5% of the total salaries of all your graduating students when they leave, so it's in your interests to get them into as highly-paid jobs as possible.

Other Ways of Making Money

Certain facilities, such as the Vending Room and Snack Store, gain you money whenever students or teachers use them. This will provide a small income.

Fields will provide a slow but steady income, too. Build fields where students and teachers can reach them, next to paths. They'll plant and harvest crops automatically at regular intervals, providing money on harvest.

Animal rooms provide income in a similar manner to fields, but you can build fewer of them.

All facilities are made more effective and provide more money depending on the amount of Spirit they have — Spirit is raised by planting trees, flowers and other nice things around them.

Where Now?

It's up to you after that. From hereon you'll have a steady string of things vying for your attention — do you prioritise your third years' grades? Research? Build? Up to you — but remember you've only got until your tenth year to record a high score.

If you find your supply of transfer students drying up and your income dwindling, hire more teachers. Four teachers can handle six full classes — you'll need to build another Teachers' Room if you want to hire more.

Hope that's helped. I haven't covered everything by any means, but that sums up everything I've figured out about the game so far.

#oneaday Day 549: Kairo! Kairo! Kairo!

I've been playing a couple of Kairosoft games on iPhone recently — specifically, Game Dev Story, which most gamers with an iPhone have probably heard of, and Pocket Academy which, as a recent release, may be a little more obscure.

These games, while initially seemingly slightly impenetrable, are great, and bring to mind strategy games of the past, complete with super-adorable pixel art. Specifically, stuff of the SimCity ilk, where there were no set goals, no Achievements, no "win conditions", even, save the ones you set for yourself. Unlike SimCity, Game Dev Story and Pocket Academy do end after 20 years of in-game time (you can keep playing but your scores aren't recorded after that) so you do have something to strive for, but other than that, you're on your own.

I hadn't realised how long it was since we've had a game like that until I started playing them in earnest. Do you remember the start of a game of Sim City? "Here's a blank bit of land. Off you go." No tutorial. No "you should probably build this first", no initial setup. Blank canvas, palette of Stuff to Build. Begin building, build too much, lose all money, fail. Try again, pace self better, experiment with big thing, fail. Start again, pace self even better, don't build big thing until you really need it, slowly start making money. Repeat until map full.

Contrast this with one of the modern equivalents of the genre, which is the Facebook/phone-based city-building game. I tried CityVille on iPhone for a little while just to see if there was any strategy or experimentation involved whatsoever. There wasn't. It was an endless string of objectives which theoretically I could have been free to ignore were it not for the fact that you unlock things to build painfully slowly by levelling up like in an RPG — and the most efficient way to level up is to complete said objectives. This is, to misquote Aristotle, "balls".

Now we come to Kairosoft's titles. While they don't quite give you the completely empty canvas to start with, the tutorial is rudimentary at best and barely explains the basics of gameplay — the rest of it is up to you to discover. Why should you level up your staff? Why should you pump money into advertising? What effect does having couples in your school have? Why does a combination of a tennis court, a tree and a library make my students happier?

I don't know the answers to all of those questions… yet. And like in SimCity, my first attempt at Pocket Academy saw me hire too many teachers too quickly and send my school spiralling into debt that it wouldn't be able to recover from because I didn't have the capital to build the things that would make it more attractive to new students. So I had to swallow my pride and start again. Game Dev Story is a bit easier — there's always a means of getting your team out of trouble with some contract work, for example — but still challenging if you want your company to reach the upper echelons of awesomeness.

The nature of these games puts them somewhat at odds with what appeals to a stereotypical iPhone gamer, who wants something that they can pick up and play without having to take time to learn it. The beauty of Kairosoft's games is that they can be played for a few short minutes while waiting for a bus, but similarly they can be indulged in for hours at a time if you so please, too.

#oneaday Day 548: Capcommotion

I'm a bit surprised by the way Capcom have been acting recently. I always used to figure them for a company that had their collective heads screwed on pretty well, and with their Capcom Unity (geddit?) site showing a much greater effort than many publishers to engage with fans, it looked like they were getting 21st century marketing right.

Then came the Mega Man Legends 3 project, where the community would be able to play an active role in the making of the game. The Capcom Dev Room page allowed users to submit ideas — many of which would end up in the final game — as well as see how the development of a game progressed from start to finish, complete with all the trials and tribulations it faced along the way.

The other day, the project got cancelled on the grounds that its transparency was proving to be "quite concerning" for the rest of the company. This, to me, is somewhat worrying, and suggests that Capcom has something to hide. It could be something as simple as the fact that they actually haven't done any real work on Mega Man Legends 3 since Keiji Inafune left last year, or it could be something altogether more sinister along the lines of the Team Bondi fiasco.

This isn't the only mis-step Capcom have made recently, either. The Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D save game issue stank from start to finish. To say that it's "not possible" to erase a save file on a 3DS game card is absolute nonsense — erasing a file involves writing to the card, and in order for the save to be on there in the first place the card must be written to. So there is absolutely no way that it would not be possible to reset the save data, yet Capcom persisted in perpetuating a lie to the community.

And today we learn that there's an "Ultimate" edition of Marvel vs. Capcom 3 on the way, featuring 12 new characters, 8 new stages and a spectator mode. But existing DLC characters aren't included in the package, naturally. And the "Ultimate" edition is a standalone retail product for $40, not a DLC expansion, which it really should be. I should be excited by the fact that Capcom have finally added Phoenix Wright to the game after a considerable amount of fan requesting, but instead I'm left with a bitter taste in my mouth due to them re-releasing a slightly-enhanced version of a game which only came out in February.

Sadly, this practice is becoming more and more common with this generation of consoles. And while I perhaps wouldn't go quite as far as my friend Mr Peter Skerritt in saying that this generation "sucks" — there's a lot to like, after all — I do believe that the obnoxious business practices that more and more publishers are starting to adopt are going to come back and bite both game companies and consumers in the ass at some point in the very near future.

I mentioned something along these lines on Twitter the other day in reference to Rockstar's comments that L.A. Noire still isn't finished despite having released its "final" piece of DLC. The response I got was surprising; the practice was defended on the grounds of it making good business sense. If we're at this stage already where blatant money-grabbing and the cutting of content from games in order to hold it back for subsequent DLC or new retail editions is defended by the community because it makes good business sense, it's a sad situation indeed. We gamers are supposed to be giving money to the software companies we want to support because we like their products, not bending over and asking in what ways they can violate us next. I'm quite happy to buy a game and never resort to piracy, but with more and more early adopters being punished by having to pay full whack for a product and then being stung for DLC down the line, it's understandable if people feel disillusioned by the whole thing.

That said, not all hope is lost — since picking up a gaming PC I've been using the consoles far less. And while there is DLC for PC titles, many PC gamers are a lot less patient with this sort of bullshit — largely because there's an enormous and active modding community out there more than willing to provide content of a higher quality than Activision's $15 map packs for free. And there aren't many PC games I've played recently where there's a big hole for some DLC — I intend on going back through Mass Effect 2 at some point, so I may feel differently after that, though.

The most frustrating thing I find is that people don't seem to realise or care that they are being taken advantage of. We can complain all we like about Capcom releasing the same game twice in the space of nine months, but we all know that there are enough people out there who will happily part with their cash and give Capcom the sales figures they need to justify rolling out this obnoxious business practice again and again. We can bitch all we like about paying $15 for Call of Duty map packs, but people pay it, again showing Activision that it's Okay to Do This. And we can point our fingers and say L.A. Noire's add-on cases should have been in the game in the first place, but I bet most players picked them all up just out of curiosity if anything, giving Rockstar the green light to do more in the future.

It's refreshing to see that not all of the industry is operating in this way, though. Indie developers are flourishing — and the community is taking to them. Indie RPGs Breath of Death VII and Cthulhu Saves the World along with awesome roguelike Dungeons of Dredmor topped the Steam sales charts on their day of release, and in less than a week on sale BoD/CStW has equalled its sales from a year and a half on Xbox Live Indie Games. Minecraft continues to go from strength to strength. And Frozen Synapse proves more popular than its developers could have ever dreamed.

Right now, I'm thankful that the indies exist, because with every day that passes, each new "teaser reveal", each new embargo, I'm losing more and more respect for the big publishers.

#oneaday Day 547: Bully Boy

After the recent Steam sale, I've started playing Bully again. Or specifically, I'm playing the PC version of the Scholarship Edition for the first time — I originally played the game on PS2.

Bully remains my favourite Rockstar game. There are plenty of reasons for this, not least of which is the fact that I like things that are set in schools. I'm not sure why this is, but so far as settings go, high schools are one of my favourites. It's why I enjoy Persona, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and any number of terrible teen coming of age movies. (Mean Girls represent.)

But there's plenty of other reasons to like Bully, too, chief among which for me is the fact that there are no guns anywhere to be seen. The Grand Theft Auto series is great, for sure, but we all get tired of guns once in a while. Bully's arsenal — made as it is of boxes of eggs, firecrackers, stink bombs and a slingshot — captures the slightly absurd nature of high school conflicts and pranks nicely while still fulfilling the necessary "weaponry" function in the game.

Then there's the fact that amidst all the drama and silliness of the storyline, you're still a schoolkid and are expected to not get into trouble and to attend class. You can break both of those rules, of course — this is a Rockstar game, after all — but it's actually to your advantage to attend the classes in the school, as they unlock various special abilities through fun little mini-games. They also provide a means to get to know the characters of the teachers, who actually play a relatively minor role in the story but are still there in the background — discovering the art teacher's insistence on painting her in increasingly slutty poses, for example, is an entertaining moment.

My absolute favourite thing about Bully, though, is the scale of it. It's not that it's huge — it really isn't. It's probably smaller than Grand Theft Auto III. But in that scaling down, you get a lot more density. There's a lot more to do in a much smaller area, meaning you're rarely left wandering aimlessly in the desert like in Red Dead Redemption (a game which really didn't resonate with me for some reason — perhaps I'll give it another shot if it ever gets a PC release) unless you specifically choose to wander aimlessly in pursuit of the inevitable hidden goodies.

Bully found itself on the receiving end of controversy from People Who Didn't Understand It when it was originally released. Such was the fuss kicked up by people judging it purely by its name that the UK version ended up being renamed Canis Canem Edit ("Dog Eat Dog") — later, thankfully, renamed back to Bully for the Scholarship Edition. Yes, it's quite violent considering schoolkids are involved — but there are consequences for your actions, even if it's just "you have to run away and hide in a bin for a bit." And you're punished more severely for hitting little kids or girls — not to mention the fact that indulging in acts of random violence really doesn't achieve anything, unlike in Grand Theft Auto, where it can sometimes net you cash or other goodies. There's no blood in Bully, either — all combat is of the "playground brawl" variety, usually ending with one party or the other suffering a wedgie or a palmful of spit to the face rather than, you know, death. Really, there's nothing in the game that you wouldn't see if you dared to walk through the gates of any comprehensive school in the UK.

Having only intended to boot it up to see what the Scholarship Edition was all about, I find myself wanting to replay the whole thing in depth. So I'm going to do just that, and I'm off to do so right now.

#oneaday Day 541: Kombo Broken

It's a sad day today as I hear from my good buddy Ryan Olsen that Kombo.com is no more, with the URL now simply redirecting to GameZone.com, who purchased the site a while back.

Kombo.com holds some particular personal significance for me, as it does for many of the great friends I made while working for the site. Compared to many of the grizzled old veterans who had been working on the site since 2005, I was a relative newbie, only joining the team last year.

As most of you probably know by now, last year was Not a Good Year. Having been forced out of a job I genuinely loved by bullying management at the end of the previous year, finding employment in a primary school 40 miles away from where I lived, discovering that yes, Aldershot is indeed a shithole, even when dealing with 8 year olds, I quit my job in March of 2010 to attend PAX East (to this day quite possibly the best few days of my life EVAR) and around a similar time I started contributing to Kombo.com as a news editor. A short while after PAX East, my wife and I separated and I found myself alone in a flat I couldn't afford with no job and seemingly no prospects of finding one that wasn't supply teaching — a career path which would have likely ended rather abruptly with me flinging myself off the nearby Itchen Bridge had I pursued it.

As time went on and my finances dwindled, writing for Kombo every day — even if it was at US-friendly, UK-antisocial hours — gave me something stable to cling on to. This was something I desperately needed during those difficult months. There were many days when I found it very difficult to function as a normal human being, so badly was I hurting. But when it came to time to sit down and work my shift at the virtual news desk, that all went away for a few hours. It was just me, GamesPress, a lot of Chrome tabs and the Worst CMS In The World.

One of my favourite things about working for Kombo, though, was the people I had the good fortune to meet as a result, all of whom I'm happy to count among my friends today. All of them have gone their separate ways since September of last year, when most of us departed from the site due to its heading in a direction that wasn't for us (with some of us forming our anarchic rainbow unicorn collective The Big Pixels, still ably maintained by Geoff Calver). But we all still talk to each other daily — through email, through Twitter, through Facebook, through G+. It's great to see that Kombo, despite being a relatively small site compared to the giants out there, managed to give a lot of people the foot in the door they needed to pursue a career in various parts of the games industry. Some went into PR. Some went into development. Some still write on a hobbyist basis while pursuing other careers, and I write professionally.

It's also been nice to see that diverse members of my groups of friends online knew the name Kombo — even people that I wouldn't necessarily have expected to. The site will be missed, and not just by those of us who wrote for it. It's the end of an era and — sadly — the end of some people's portfolios (archive.org notwithstanding) as the old content seems to have vanished altogether.

Kombo.com gave me a leg-up into the industry and it's part of the reason I write about games as my full time job now. I'll miss it, and I invite you to doff your caps and raise a glass as its flame goes out for the last time.

#oneaday Day 539: Rogue Agent

I mentioned a few days ago that I'd started playing Alpha Protocol, one of a number of low-cost acquisitions from the recent Steam Sale, now sadly (or perhaps not so sadly — everyone's credit cards likely want a bit of a rest) over. I've spent a bit more time with it now, so I'd like to share some further thoughts on it.

Roundly panned on its release for its dodgy AI, "crap" combat, bugs and gameplay flaws, Alpha Protocol is a game that many people passed by — and unfortunately, due to its mediocre review scores and poor sales that resulted from said review scores, it's unlikely we'll ever see a sequel. And that's a real shame, as look past the few flaws there are and there's actually a very good game.

Things start well, with a sequence that introduces you to the main game mechanics, including shooting, sneaking, gadgets and conversation. It's pretty early on that you're faced with the game's distinctive conversation system, somewhere between Mass Effect and Fahrenheit in its execution. Possible approaches or "moods" of conversation fill a Mass Effect-style wheel in the middle of the screen, so you're not quite sure exactly what protagonist Michael Thorton is going to say, but you have an idea of the general gist. The twist is that there's a pretty tight time limit to decide what to say next, cutting out any of the usual agonising over decision-making in morality-driven RPGs — here you have to think on your feet, take what you feel is the most appropriate approach and then deal with the consequences, which could range from someone liking you a bit more to subsequent missions being markedly different.

There's a pleasing variety of ways through missions, too, with experimentation being rewarded with Achievement-like Perks which bestow specific bonuses on Thorton throughout the game. In some cases it's possible to talk your way around a firefight, even getting potential enemies on your side as allies at times. In others, it's possible to create noisy distractions and then use the ensuing chaos to sneak round. And it's also possible to go in guns blazing if that's your approach too.

The combat may not be the best in the world — the sticky cover system is a bit cumbersome when enemies move into close-quarters range, for example — but it's certainly not as bad as some reviews I've seen have made out. The problem, I think, is in people assuming it's a third-person shooter when in fact it's executed like an action RPG. In many ways, as it happens, it reminds me of titles such as Deus Ex and even older late-90s titles such as Mission: Impossible on the N64.

In fact, the whole game has the feeling of a late-90s stealth-action-adventure game, albeit one with Unreal Engine 3-powered graphimications. This isn't a bad thing, as I'm of the firm belief that gaming — particularly PC gaming — in the late 90s and very early 20th century — was my favourite era of games. And to play something that seems to capture the feel of those games while bringing the visuals and cinematic presentation up to date? Well, that's pretty much all I can ask for from a game.

I realise, of course, that the reasons I like Alpha Protocol may, in fact, be the same reasons why some hate it. Some may say gameplay mechanics should move on and learn from games that do the whole shooter-RPG combo "correctly", like Mass Effect 2. And they're probably right — Mass Effect 2 is, after all, excellent. But I've beaten Mass Effect 2 before, and I've never beaten Alpha Protocol — never played it before this last week, in fact. And while it lasts, I'm enjoying it a great deal.

So there.

#oneaday Day 534: Who's Buying the Crap?

I'm pretty sure I already knew this some time ago, but I've come to the not-so-startling conclusion recently that I'm the one buying the crap games and listening to terrible music and enjoying awful films. It's not a conscious decision to be contrary, but I do find myself more willing than some to give creative works that have been somewhat maligned the benefit of the doubt — and more often than not actually end up enjoying them.

The first time I recall this happening was one summer when I was home from university. I got very bored and decided that I was going to go to the cinema by myself, just pick a movie that happened to be on, sit down, watch it and attempt to enjoy it. It was partly borne from a desire to prove wrong the unwritten rule that going to the cinema by yourself is somehow shameful (if it is, why is watching a DVD by yourself OK?) and partly just out of a desire to get out of the house.

The movie I went to see? 2 Fast 2 Furious. It was terrible, of course, but I enjoyed it a great deal. And the reason for this was the fact that I didn't feel "accountable" to anyone — there was no-one with me judging my tastes or making me believe that I should feel a certain way about this piece of entertainment that was bombarding me with nonsense. ("Wow, bro, it's like a ho-asis in here!") Judged entirely on its own merits and on whether or not it performed the function I wanted it to at that specific moment in time — to entertain me without making me have to think too much — it succeeded admirably.

More recently, I found similar joy in Duke Nukem Forever. The thing that annoyed me most about the vitriolic reviews scattered around the web was the fact that all the critics seemed to feel somehow "responsible" for their audience, like they had a moral obligation to dislike it because of its more questionable elements or its rough edges. I played it and enjoyed it — genuinely — and was surprised there weren't a few more people willing to stand up and be counted, saying "look, yes, it is crass, it is rude, it is inappropriate, but for fuck's sake lighten up." But that's by the by — if you found it objectionable, that's your business, but it doesn't make me wrong either.

Most recently, the recent Steam sale encouraged me to pick up Alpha Protocol, a game I've been curious about for some time. Roundly panned on its release for poor AI, questionable game mechanics and outdated graphics, most people seemed to think it was one to pass by. But for three quid I wasn't about to let that happen. So far I've enjoyed it greatly. I don't mind that the shooting and the AI isn't great because I'm not very good at shooters or stealth games. What Alpha Protocol has provided for me so far is a 24-esque espionage plot with action sequences where I at least feel like I'm a badass spy, even if the execution means it's quite difficult to mess things up, from what I can tell. The key thing about the game is its story, and for that, I'm willing to forgive its flaws — some may say too forgiving.

This is a pattern I've continued for as long as I remembered. Back when I bought CDs (oh so many years ago) I tended to purchase music on something of a whim rather than with the charts or peer reactions in mind. I bought things out of curiosity, because I liked the cover art, because I thought the singer was hot. And there's very few of those decisions I regretted, because it gave me the opportunity to experience some things that many other people might never have been exposed to.

I'm cool with that. It gives me interesting things to talk about when people want to know about obscure games, cheesy music or crap films. Everyone knows Halo and Call of Duty are good. But how many people can vouch for the awesomeness of Doom: The Roguelike?

#oneaday Day 531: Steam-Powered Sales

One of the best things about a Steam sale is not the fact that you can get packs of high-profile triple-A titles for ludicrous prices (although that's welcome too) but the fact that you can afford to take risks on obscure indie titles that you may not have thought to investigate in the past.

This has paid off on a number of separate occasions for me in the past, with some real gems coming to my attention purely by virtue of the fact that they were either dirt cheap or bundled with some other titles which had piqued my interest. Some of these have become a little more well known since I first picked them up, others haven't.

Let's take a peek at a few of them.

Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale

This utterly charming JRPG-cum-light management game is oozing with charm and character, not least from the protagonist Recette and her money-loving fairy companion Tear. The writing (or rather, localisation) of the game is probably the best thing about this game, but it helps that it's a solid (if slightly repetitive) game. The repetition ceases to matter, though, when the incidental scenes featuring well-defined and well-written characters are so entertaining, and happen just often enough to break up the curious combination of loot-whoring dungeon crawling and shop management.

BIT.TRIP BEAT

I'd never played a BIT.TRIP game prior to this one but was dimly aware of their existence. BEAT is, in simple terms, one-player pong but combined with a rhythm game and the sort of things you'd see if an Atari 2600 took too much LSD. It's a strange, hypnotic game that turns into you fusing with your mouse in an intricate dance, bouncing back the huge pixels in time with the music and going slightly dizzy in the process.

Hacker Evolution

If you've played Uplink, you'd be forgiven for thinking Hacker Evolution was something similar — but it's actually a bit different. Where Uplink was most akin to something like Elite, only you were travelling around the world's computer networks rather than the galaxy, Hacker Evolution is more tightly-focused and level-based. It's also quite unforgiving, and from my experiences so far it appears that there's relatively few "correct" ways to complete a level — but that gives it something of a puzzle game feeling which isn't entirely unwelcome. The fact that you interact with the game by typing authentic-looking commands into a text-based console helps with the whole immersion thing, too.

Altitude

If you've often thought that Team Fortress 2 would be better if everyone was in aeroplanes and it was in 2D, then Altitude is the game for you. Featuring a wide selection of aircraft, each with special CoD-style perks — unlockable via CoD-style levelling up — and a decent mix of game types and levels, this is a fun multiplayer title, even if you're shite at it, which I am.

I'd write more but I appear to have developed an absolutely screaming headache. Night all!

#oneaday Day 529: You Have a Tiny Tower

Have you played Tiny Tower on iOS? This is one of those games that should be complete shite but actually ends up being strangely compelling.

Why should it be shite? Well, because it incorporates a ton of the features that make Facebook games particularly obnoxious — real-time waits for things to happen, monetization allowing you to "buy victory" in the game and no real strategy or depth.

Despite this, though, Tiny Tower manages to remain addictive, compelling and entertaining, even though your interaction with your little people is limited to restocking floors that have run out of arbitrary products, carrying people in your lift and occasionally playing an impromptu game of Where's Wally when someone bursts in demanding to know where Tammy Walters is.

A big, big part of the game's appeal is surely down to its excellent pixel-art graphics. I say "excellent", but they're actually pretty primitive, being deliberately lower-resolution than even the older iPhone screens. The graphics are reminiscent of the late 8-bit to early 16-bit era and have a lot of character about them. The little "bitizens" who populate your tower are all based on the same basic model, but the sheer number of hats, moustaches, crazy glasses and whatnot that they walk in wearing makes each and every one of them seem like an individual — particularly once you get some residents staying in your tower and you find out what their names are. Because then not only do you assign them to a job, but you can also spy on their Facebook… sorry, Bitbook page, filled with the sort of vapid inanity that your average Facebook user spouts on a daily basis along with occasional gameplay hints that you don't really need. (The Mexican restaurant is closed? No shit!)

One of the more appealing things about the game that makes it less obnoxious (though probably less profitable) than anything Zynga has ever put together is the fact that the game's premium currency of Tower Bux can be earned rather than just bought. Sure, you can pony up some real-life cash to get a wad of Tower Bux to make your life easier, but through actively playing the game and participating in its silly little Where's Wally challenges you can get a reasonable income of them without having to pay a penny. This is a Good Thing.

Then there's the fact that you can ogle your friends' towers at any point, with them organised by order of size, so you can get all frustrated when the person you've been several floors ahead of suddenly leapfrogs you.

In short, it's an excellent example of an iOS game. It's simple, easy to play, friendly to both long and short play sessions and, best of all, free. So, err, buy it.