iOS Game Review:Â Niko
Niko is a platformer from Habbo Hotel creators, Sulake. It is worthy of comment for two reasons: Firstly, it has some level of integration with Habbo Hotel, a hugely successful and popular virtual world that has been one of the innovators of micro transactions and secondly, it resolves a lot of problems that platform games have on a touch screen device.
Happy new year. Â I know it’s nearly February, but that still makes it new and happy. Â The Chaotic Tortoise has had a nice hibernation period and is back and ready to clatter away at its keyboard now.
This is composed of games I have been able to play this year and despite doing quite a bit of work in the gaming press itself, that has been less than I would have liked due to 2011 being a really busy year for me. Â I’m sure there are many other games worthy of inclusion, but I just haven’t played them and won’t pretend that I have. Â That’s integrity for you.
I dislike resolutions. I dislike what they do to my brain the rest of the year. If there is something worth making a resolution about then you probably shouldn’t have to wait until you start writing on a new calendar and you should instead just start doing it and the idea of New Years Resolutions makes me not want to start doing something until I get to a neat round number of a date.
It’s probably the same reason I strongly dislike Valentine’s day. Someone can be a filthy scum-weasel to their significant other all year round and get a free pass if they take them to Paris on Februrary 14th. Similar with “Christmas spirit” (as in good cheer, not drinking before noon), you should be a good and cheerful person all year round, not just when the world tells you to buy a few cards and presents.
With that being said, with 2012 rolling around, it got me thinking about what I would like to change about myself. I considered that maybe doing a bit of exercise might be a good idea, drinking less would also be good and possibly being a little more generally organised in terms of diet and lifestyle, but to be honest I’m in a good place with all of that. The thing that I really want to change is my attitude towards things. It’s not that I have a particularly bad attitude towards life in general and I consider myself optimistic and irritatingly chirpy at times, but when it comes to media and entertainment, I have been passively brainwashed to hate and despise everything without giving it a fair chance.
I very nearly wrote off Saints Row: The Third after about an hour. Had I not been reviewing the game and possessing the professionalism to play through to the end, it might have been consigned to the shelf of ‘things I might come back to.’
Short version:Â I’m glad I kept on playing.
Long version:Â Hit the ‘read the rest of this entry’ button to read on.
In this episode, I have a look at a different side to gaming.
 I know the plan was to look at some more genres, but a good plan is a plan that can change and something more interesting came up!
 Apologies for the sound and lighting.  I’m very much learning by doing, or at least learning by making mistakes and seeing what I can get away with.
In quiet moments over the last few weeks where I have been reading through parts of the gaming press, my brow has become furrowed over the furore concerning complaints about the review score system.
 As a brief background to anyone who has missed the mess, Eurogamer gave Uncharted 3 an 8/10 score and were internet-crucified by a series of commenters claiming that Eurogamer were attention seeking, trying to get extra hits, and generally saying that they were wrong and irresponsible to give it any less than a 9/10. Incidentally, most of these often incredibly harsh and unrepeatable-before-the-watershed comments will have come from people who hadn’t played the game yet.
That doesn’t make a huge amount of sense to me, but then I could chalk that up to the fact that I barely understand the desire to leave comments in general. I do however think it’s fair to say however that it’s insane and sadly not existing in a vacuum. The issue has been discussed and dissected in other places, most recently by Jim Sterling at the Escapist and by Checkpoint on PATV a while back, both worth a look if you are equally perplexed about the issue.
Game journalists complaining about game journalism is actually becoming a bit of a cliché now and is nothing new. The complaining about review scores has been bubbling away for ages. One of the main issues is the conflict of interest that can arise in the course of the symbiotic relationship between PR and journalist with the PRs under no obligation to send review copies of games and journalists needing copies of games in order to review them and maintain a readership. I’m sure most establishments could afford to arrange a game-buying budget to circumvent this but regardless, it can make it a little awkward when it comes to reviewing an absolute stinker.
Putting together a semi-coherent web-show is actually a lot of hard work and easy to mess up. Â Considering my episodes are around the 7 minute mark, it keeps me awake at night thinking about the poor, if not slightly lucky, souls who have to edit full TV shows together.
From my two episodes I have about half an hour of film that I’ve scrubbed through of me messing up and getting things just slightly wrong. Â If you want an exercise in maintaining self confidence, or if you just want to see how long it will take for you to want to punch yourself in the face, film yourself making endless little mistakes and then sort through it.
Oh, also, the music: Â That’s completely my music! Â I made that this morning! Â I’m oddly proud! Â Exclamation mark proud!
I present episode 2 of An Introduction to Video Games. Â In this episode, we have a look at some different genres of video games.
This took forever to put together and I learnt many things, for example my video editing software does not like video files over 3GB in size and when you are 98% done with the editing process, it will crash constantly in a desperate and successful attempt to get your attention and make you want to cry/explode/both.
An Introduction to Video Games should always appear here, but you can also catch it on my blip TV show page. Â I think you can also find it on iTunes…but I wouldn’t put money on that.
Additional Notes:
Incidentally, Blip TV: Â Actually pretty cool and well worth taking a look. Â I think they’re doing something very interesting that could very well be the next big thing.
A while ago, I wrote about how I couldn’t understand why more people didn’t try to make their own television shows. Â I then couldn’t work out why I hadn’t tried to make one before.
As a result of these musings, I bring you my pilot episode of ‘An Introduction To Video Games’.
Making this, whilst fun, has taught me why more people don’t try it. Â It’s much harder than it looks and takes ages to put together. Â I do suspect that if I make another one, it will be produced much quicker!
Production Difficulties
Visit the AITVG show page at http://blip.tv/aitvg
I’ve often seen shows cite ‘Production Difficulties’ for delays. Â I think I see what they mean, or at least I have a rough idea of what it COULD mean.
For me, Production Difficulties ™ are currently encompassing the ‘but it takes a long time’ end of the scale, and issues caused by a reluctance to write a full and carefully constructed script, saying ‘oh I’ll fix it in post’, which is a truly poisonous phrase as anyone who has ever worked on a film of any kind will attest to.
I’m also expecting the production speed of my web-show to speed up with time.  The pilot was a learning experience, this episode will be a slightly more refined product with any luck, and in a few months time, I’ll be able to get them done much much quicker.
Hopefully.
The main reason I’m posting this drivel is actually to say thank you for watching. Â My stats from Blip TV say it has been watched just under 150 times, which is in my mind a big number. Â I realise lots of blogs and sites get traffic in numbers that make my eyes water and my brain hurt, but I’m inordinately proud of my three figure number.