1352: Critical Urgency

I can’t remember if I’ve talked about Velocity here before, so here I am talking about Velocity.

Velocity, in case you’ve never come across it before, is a game from the Brighton-based indie developer FuturLab. It began its life as a PlayStation Minis title for PS3 and PSP, then was subsequently ported to Vita with numerous enhancements as Velocity Ultra. So positive was the reception to the first game, it seems, that the team at FuturLab is currently in the process of putting together a sequel — a sequel that’s looking rather fab, if the early version I had the good fortune to play at the recent <a href=”http://www.usgamer.net/articles/egx-turning-up-the-velocity” target=”_blank”>Eurogamer Expo</a> is anything to go by.

But I want to talk about the original today, or rather Velocity Ultra. I reviewed Velocity Ultra a while back for USgamer and enjoyed it a lot, but I must confess that in the process of reviewing it, I didn’t make it through every little bit of content it had to offer — largely because doing so would have taken significantly longer than I had time for, and also because I’d already seen a lot of it in Velocity’s previous incarnation as a PlayStation Minis title.

I’ve been going back to clean up what I missed in the game recently, though, and I’m reminded of what a fantastic game it is. Beginning as what appears to be a relatively straightforward top-down shooter, the game gradually evolves, changes and grows in complexity as it progresses; firstly, you get the ability to teleport over short distances (including through walls); then you get the ability to drop telepods at strategic points in the level in order to teleport over long distances and take alternative routes. By the time you get through all 50 of the game’s main levels, you’re practically playing a different game.

Things are mixed up along the way, too. Sometimes you’ll have levels that are filled with enemies; other times they’ll be complex maps with multiple paths. Other times still you’ll have a very tight time limit and have to get through as quickly as possible. Different types of level require different strategies.

Where the truly addictive gameplay in Velocity comes in, though, is medal-chasing. Upon completion of a level, you’re ranked according to how many survivors you rescued, how many points you scored and how quickly you successfully completed the level. Attain the highest accolade in all of these categories without dying once and you’ll earn a “perfect” medal, and it’s chasing these “perfects” that is so ridiculously addictive. The reason for this is that the difficulty of achieving the goals is pitched just perfectly; it’s always just tantalisingly out of reach rather than seemingly impossible. Pretty much anyone with a good handle on the mechanics will be able to attain at least a few Perfects along the way, though it does get significantly more difficult as the levels become more complex.

And then there are the secret levels. Secret levels! I can’t remember the last modern game I played that had secret levels, and yet here they are in Velocity, unlocked through getting your tiny Quarp Jet into places you wouldn’t normally expect it to go, usually as a result of checking the map and spotting something out of place. There are a further 20 secret levels on top of the 50 main levels, and not all of them use the standard game mechanics. There’s a 10-level Thrust-inspired minigame, for example; there’s a twist on FuturLab’s earlier game Coconut Dodge; there’s even a version of Snake. Successfully contend with all those and you have the incredibly challenging but rewarding and addictive “Red Zone” and “Blue Zone” levels in which time limits are tight, the pathways tighter and the slightest clipping of a wall will destroy you.

I was delighted that the upcoming Velocity 2X felt so much like the first Velocity when I played it at Eurogamer Expo — and particularly pleased that the brand new sections where you get out of your ship and run around for some platforming sections make use of pretty much the same mechanics, with the only real difference being that you’re now affected by gravity. I’m really looking forward to playing the sequel, but in the meantime, I’ve got a whole bunch of Perfect medals to try and attain, so if you’ll excuse me I’m going to challenge a few more before I go to sleep.

1349: Zeds

I am tiiiiiiired. So tired, in fact, that I very nearly forgot to write something today. That would have been disastrous. (I’m sure no-one would have minded if I “caught up” tomorrow, but that always felt like cheating somehow, and after 1,349 days it’s a matter of pride.)

Here I am at 1am, then, wondering what to write about before I fall asleep. I could talk about the Eurogamer Expo again, I suppose, since that’s been occupying literally all of my time since Thursday.

It’s the last day of the Expo tomorrow. I’m probably not going to hang around until the end because I want to get home, but I am going to catch a couple of last developer sessions and spend some time with my friend Mitu’s game Redshirt. It’d also be nice to actually have a chance to fiddle around with a PS4 and/or an Xbox One, but the queues for those have been so ridiculous it hasn’t really been practical up until now. I had to lurk around the Nintendo booth before the show opened to be able to play Bayonetta 2, so I shudder to think what hoops I’ll have to jump through to see the things that people are really excited about. (Aside: Bayonetta 2 has been drawing an impressive queue of people each day — thought obviously not on the scale of something like Call of Duty or Titanfall — which was nice to see.)

What else? Today I met Mike Bithell, and he’s a thoroughly pleasant person — a preview-cum-interview type thing I did with him will be up on USgamer on Monday. I also had the good fortune to meet both Damien McFerran and Johnny Cullen, both of whom are people I have, until now, only known through Twitter. It’s nice to put names to faces, and Damien in particular had some very kind things to say about my work that pretty much made my day, so thanks for that, sir, if you’re reading.

I’ve eschewed the evening social gatherings while I’m here, much as I did when I went to Gamescom. The workload has been less insane here than it was at Gamescom, but I’ve still been working into the evening most nights. I’m also not all that great socialising with people I don’t know all that well who do know each other, either — I know there’s no way to fix that aside from actually jumping in and getting involved myself, but frankly I haven’t quite felt up to it! I do like the Eurogamer lot on the few occasions I’ve met them, though, so perhaps some other time I’ll have the opportunity to hang out with them socially.

I’ve remained relatively swag-free from this visit, with my freebie acquisitions being limited to a T-shirt that’s too small for me from the The Evil Within presentation the other day, a poster from the indie game Cloudbuilt that I was awarded for being only the second person to beat a particular level on display, and some flyers from FuturLab for their upcoming PS4 and Vita game Velocity 2X which, in all honesty, has been one of my favourite things I’ve seen at the show. I’m thinking of framing both the poster and one of the flyers, since both of them have super-distinctive artwork that would look great on display. We’ll see.

Anyway. I’m yawning my head off and it’s getting hard to concentrate so I’m going to leave that there. Tomorrow’s entry will be from back in my own home rather than this not-all-that-bad-really-but-I-can’t-believe-how-expensive-the-tariff-displayed-in-reception-is hotel room.

1348: A Part of It

I’ve been on and off the show floor at Eurogamer Expo over the last couple of days, with more to come tomorrow and Sunday.

One thing that struck me today is an immense sense of pride to be part of such a vibrant, enthusiastic and exciting industry. Speaking with developers like FuturLab about Velocity 2X (day one purchase for me) and Witch Beam Games about Assault Android Cactus as well as seeing Sony’s legendary indie guru Shahid Ahmad speak on stage just gave me the overwhelming sensation that the business has never been in a healthier place — particularly from a cultural perspective.

Today, I played a variety of different games, each of which was a markedly different experience. I played a peculiar abstract game in which you guide a cube through a floating tunnel-like structure; a platform game in which you can independently control your shadow and use other shadows as platforms; a third-person parkour platformer inspired by Sonic and Mega Man; a first-person psychological horror adventure with low-poly textureless graphics combined with gorgeous lighting; the newest Final Fantasy; and a game that purports to be a spiritual successor to Flashback while successfully combining both top-down shooting and side-on platforming.

At no point did I feel the sense of fatigue or cynicism people sometimes direct at the industry; the show floor was a vibrant place filled with creativity and experience for all ages and ability levels. Even from the press office where I was doing the majority of my writing, I could look one direction and see Surgeon Simulator 2013, look the other way and see Microsoft’s representatives jumping, whooping, hollering and cheering on stage as they showed off new Kinect games, look another way still and see people staring intently at a multiplayer digital card game.

It’s easy to get lulled into a sense of thinking that “all new things are the same; everyone’s risk-averse”, but it’s not until you see a significant proportion of the industry spread out in front of you like that that you realise that no, that’s not the case at all; the risk-averse triple-A sector is just one of many parts that make up the whole — and, judging from the number of people who attended Shahid Ahmad’s talk on indie games on Sony platforms, one that’s quickly being caught up to by other sectors.

So well done, games biz; you’re all right. Now it’s just a case of successfully countering the cynics with reports of fascinating, intriguing, creative projects that people from all over the world are doing. You can start by taking a peek at my coverage from the Expo over at USgamer.

#oneaday, Day 258: More Eurogamer Thoughts

Apologies to those of you who don’t give a damn about teh gaemz. But, well, I’m spending the weekend in the company of lots of new and shiny ones so I thought it was probably worth sharing a few brief thoughts on the noteworthy ones. Of course, there are also some “official writeups” around the place for you to enjoy – today I wrote about Dragon Age II, for example.

Dragon Age II, incidentally, is simply marvellous. I loved the first one (and am, in fact, currently replaying it) but only felt mild interest towards the sequel for some reason. I felt exactly the same about Mass Effect 2, in fact, and ended up absolutely loving that. Having played the demo of Dragon Age II… yeah. That’s now a day-one purchase. They’ve fixed the niggly graphical issues of the first game, added a protagonist that actually talks (and is player-designable, like Mass Effect‘s Shepard) and made the combat make a bit more sense with a controller.

Some PC gamers have been a bit sniffy about this, thinking that it’s evidence of the series “dumbing down”, especially after the first game was a proposed return to BioWare’s roots. But the cinematic nature of Dragon Age makes it ideal for playing one the couch via the big screen. So why shouldn’t it be designed with console play in mind?

Regardless of your opinions on these decisions… it’s looking solid, and I’m very much looking forward to it. It is to Dragon Age: Origins as Mass Effect 2 was to Mass Effect. That is to say, a massive improvement in almost every way.

Besides Dragon Age (which I had to wait for ages to play, and then had to play standing up, which made my shoulders ache) I also had a go at Motorstorm Apocalypse (which let me sit down, but made me wear 3D glasses). This was good fun. There were elements of Split/Second to the “driving amidst chaos” gameplay, though, there was less of the unpredictability of Disney’s title. It was very clear that Apocalypse‘s environmental hazards are scripted rather than triggered by players or AI. It’ll be interesting to see how this works in multiplayer, as many of the effects seemed to be timed conveniently to happen just as the player passed.

Apocalypse was notable for having probably the best 3D effect that I’ve seen so far; that said, the technology is still clearly flawed at the moment. Graphics are low-resolution, jaggedy and run at a poor frame rate. They also seem to flicker quite a bit, and it’s easy to feel yourself going cross-eyed.

Dominating the show floor near the entrance was Def Jam: RapStar. The Eurogamer Expo, which was mostly filled with white nerds, was probably not the best place to show off this game. You couldn’t fault the booth’s staff for their enthusiasm, though, as they kept up a constantly energetic and noisy display all day. Of course, being not the world’s biggest fan of that type of music (to say the least) I found it incredibly irritating. And I wasn’t alone. Still, at least a few people seemed to be enjoying it.

But seriously. That game has fucking N-Dubz in it, which is enough reason to curse its name for all eternity. Not only that, but an N-Dubz song about Facebook. Seriously. Watch this. It’s an embarrassment.

Do you really want to stand in front of your TV and sing that? Yes? Then I don’t think we can be friends any more.

Settling down to a quiet night this evening before stepping back into the breach for the last time tomorrow. To anyone else attending, apparently there’s a Tube strike tomorrow evening, too, so you may want to consider leaving the show early.

Normal business (well, as normal as it ever gets) will resume tomorrow evening. Possibly!

#oneaday, Day 257: Away Message

I’m away for the weekend. Specifically, I’m attending the Eurogamer Expo, the UK’s answer to gaming conventions like PAX. It’s been running for a good few years now apparently but I only really became aware of it this year. I decided to attend, as I thought it’d be a good opportunity to get hands-on with some of the latest hotness that I’d missed out on at PAX, as well as catch up with a few friends from Twitter.

Eurogamer Expo has a way to go yet before it can even think about competing with PAX in terms of scale, but it’s certainly got potential. There are plenty of high-profile companies in attendance with their big games, and tickets sold out completely, so people are certainly interested in events like this. They need to sort out their non-existent press provision and look at more in the way of “special events” to make it a truly excellent gaming convention, though. Some evening concerts wouldn’t go amiss; or more in the way of the few developer talks and presentations that they do have already.

Day 1 has so far passed in a most pleasant manner and I am looking forward to tomorrow. I wrote an article about Fable III today, you should totally go and read it, as it’s awesome. Here’s the rest of the day in one-word summary format:

Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood Multiplayer: Tense.
Killzone 3: Loading.
Killzone 3 in 3D: Migraine.
Gran Turismo 5 in 3D: Cardboard.
Peter Molyneux: Entertaining.
Fable III: Amusing.
Dead Space 2: Frightening!
Gears of War 3 Beast Mode: Multiplayer?
Fallout: New Vegas: Fallout.
Saw II: Bloody.
3DTV: NO.
Rock Band 3: Realistic.
@jenjeahaly: Yay!
@shoinan: Fun!
@lewisdenby: Brief!
@LinkYeah: Freshers.
Eurogamer’s press provision: Horseshit.
Being told off for taking a coffee while wearing the wrong wristband: Bewildering.
That redhead girl I saw at one point: WOW.
Tonight: Surprise!

So that was my day. Tomorrow will be another day and hopefully I’ll get a chance to try out a lot of the things I didn’t get to see today. There’s a lot of really good-looking games on offer, most of which will be well familiar to people who went to PAX, in all likelihood. Fable III in playable form was the big deal for those who like that sort of thing, and it’s looking lovely. Peter Molyneux’s talk on the history of the Fable series and its influences from movies and games was particularly interesting, as you’ll know already if you’ve read this like I suggested earlier.

It was great to finally put a face to some Twitter usernames, too, and meet a few new ones as well. Hopefully over the next couple of days there’ll be more of that until we’re all one nice big happy games-loving family of awesomeness.

And, of course, tonight. Surprising a very dear friend was totally worth it. Even if I got called a few rude names along the way.

For now, I bid you good night.