With the sequel released in a few days , I've been playing Bioshock on the PC after buying it on the Steam sale.. That's even after I completed it twice on the X-box 360. Why? Well for starters I Bioshock has become one of those special games to me, in the same way GTA: Vice City and Deus Ex are. I can go through the game almost in my sleep, but just to exist in the world they present is so intoxicating that even though the story and gameplay are familiar, the game seeps into my imagination and it becomes a welcoming place despite all the danger and death. And just like the Hong Kong stage in Deus Ex, there is one special level in Bioshock, the kingdom of Sander Cohen, Fort Frolic.

Fort Frolic is interesting because as you arrive, Cohen manages to take you away from your quest to meet and kill Andrew Ryan. Cohen blocks out all radio messages from Atlas and Ryan, and instead commissions you to finish his new work of "art". The word art being used loosely there, as after you arrive Cohen kills a young man playing at a piano by detonating a load of explosives strapped to the piano. Urged to take a phot of the young man's corpse, you then are charged with taking a photo of his remains and posting it on a jumbled collection of frames. Cohen tasks you with killing 3 other individuals who he favoured before they became doubters. Deliver the pictures of their corpses, then you can proceed on your journey.



So let's talk about Fort Frolic the place: if I were to show someone a single level from Bioshock to sum up the game's visual appeal, it's this level. Bioshock art design is beautiful all the way through, but the other levels all have their functional purposes at the forefront, as they should. The Fisheries, the medical bay, the forests of Arcadia all look great, but Fort Frolic takes the noveau and art-deco stylings and runs with it. Fort Frolic is about leisure, shopping and entertainment, so why not go whole hog on the neon and the posters and the decadence? Fort Frolic almost demands an over the top visual style. It's also one of the most homely levels; most games suck me into their world by asking me "Do you want to live here?". The shady lanes in Hong Kong are dangerous, but inviting; the main strip of Vice City would be an over-crowded tourist trap, but it's bustling with activity. Most of Fort Frolic is un-touched by the chaos in Rapture that you find yourself wanting to visit for a browse. Why not look around the cigar store? I mean, I don't smoke but when I see the Native American statue, I can smell the sweet aroma of a cigar. It's a bit of a shame the Record Store is burnt out, but all the shops, bars and clubs all portray a suitable and unique vibe.



Fort Frolic works so well because it immediately detaches you from the story to a large degree and asks you to absorb the area you're in and the task you've been set. Just like designer Jordan Thomas' other signature level, Thief 3's nightmarish Cradle Asylum, it's a level that changes the rules a bit. Fort Frolic gives you three, almost mini-bosses to be taken out one at a time. It also benefits from Sander Cohen's strong personality; his delusions or grandeur, his artistic pretensions, hispsychotic outbursts, his "art" strewn all over the level. He makes more of an impression than Steinman or Peach Williams, because he dominates his level. His audio diaries detailing his feud with Anna Culpepper, his rants about the doubters, his deranged outbursts about his obsession with taking the ears off..... even the little touches like the spot lights following you around the levels give you the impression of simply being an actor in his performance. Surely the best part however, is after delivering the second photo Cohen has a, le's say, psychotic episode and sends waves of splicers after you. The first time I experienced the level, I was running around, gunning the white-clad spider splicers as theyback flipped and danced around me, all the while classical music blared all around me. It was surreal and suddenly I realised I truly was in one of Cohen's performances.



Replaying Fort Frolic has proven it to be much more enclosed and smaller than other levels in Bioshock, but it's so much more unique and filled with standout moments. The plaster clad splicers stalking you in the basement of the Wine shop. The ghostly and revealing flashbacks in Jasmie Jolene's room, the pac-man cheese on the ground..... Fort Frolic is packed with more character and standout moments than a dozen lesser games. What has me excited about Bioshock 2 is that Jordan Thomas, the level designer behind Fort Frolic (and Thief 3's masterpiece level, The Cradle) is the creative designer on Bioshock 2. If he can fill the game with the same atmosphere and smart designs from Fort Frolic into Bioshock 2, then I'm gonna be a happy man come Thursday.

With 2009 now past,and seeing how I'm the only semi-sober Australian based Dtoider near a computer and my bottle of Suntory vodka is slowly emptying, it seems fitting to look back briefly at 2009, before realising that 2010 could be even better. 2009 was the year of the Q4 exodus, though some brave souls like Dragon Age, Borderlands and Left 4 Dead 2 stood against the behemoth that was Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. It was the year of motion controls beingunveiled by Sony and Microsoft, a year of unsuccessful boycotts and some awesome games that came out of nowhere.

Now 2010 is here and it's time to look forward at what's to come and what surprises may be in store:

May we find time in Q1 to play all the fabulous games that will be released...
May Batman: Arkham Asylum 2 not be a rush job...
May Valve not announce Left 4 Dead 3....
May people still remember how good Bayonetta will be when it's time to give out the awards for GOTY 2010...
May we all go to PAX this year. PAX!
May Sports Sarkar please, please play Portal.....#goddammitsamitplayportal
May Retro-Force Go! refrom, refreshed for a new decade...
May jhitcher42 continue to be the coolest 14 year old Dtoider...
May the Aussie Dtoid group get it's shit together so we can party!
May Bec make me one of her special cakes!
May the newly engaged Princess Megatron have a great year....
May Zombielifecoach ask that pretty blonde girl out...
May zombutler get over his January Jones obsessions...
May you all have a drunken, sloppy make out session with the person you find yourself attached to come midnight...
May Niero, Hamza, Collette, Jim, Topher, Anthony and all the Dtoid staff have a great 2010....

and finally, may you the Dtoid community have a blast, play videogames and have a damm good time doing it....

One of the problems I find with end of year polls, is that most of the time I can't remember what actually came out this year. In other media, like film or music, it's maybe a bit easier to associate releases with the seasons or time of the year, but by the time we get to October gamers seems to develop a kind of tunnel vision where the accepted "best games of the year" candidates are all released within about a month and a half period. But when we look at the actual releases, there was plenty to like at the start of the year, like Street Fighter IV and Resident Evil 5. Also, with high profile delays, likeBioshock 2, Splinter Cell: Conviction and Diablo 3 pushed into 2010, this year's list of candidates probably isn't as big as people would think. So what did I pick? Modern Warfare 2, Brutal Legend, Left 4 Dead 2 or Curse Of Monkey Island Special Edition? No, my game of the year is Plants Vs Zombies.



What? A $10, downloadable casual game? That's right, and do you want to know why? Because I've ploughed more time and effort into PvZ than any other game this year, apart from TF2: hey, old habits die hard! (Just so we can quantify this statement, I didn't play SF4, RE5, Prototype, InFamous or a number of other big releases). So what made Plants Vs Zombies so compelling for me? Well for starters it was very simple to pick up; I had never played a tower defence game, mainly because I assumed my sucking atRTS games would have some bearing on this. However, PvZ is very easy to pick up and the difficulty level rose at a natural level, so I never felt out of my depth or unfairly up against it. With new plants and new zombies every level, it was imperative to work out what worked and what didn't. Often the flashier, more expensive plants weren't needed but a solid lineup of cheaper plants was the way to go. Differing my strategy for the night, pool and rooftop levels was a great way to keep the game interesting. Throw in some fun mini-games too meant it never got boring. Plus there's a shop where you can buy upgraded plants and other goodies. Once you complete the game, there's Mini-Games, Puzzle Modes and Survival-games to play. Also, you can replay the game with a number of plants already selected for you.



Plants Vs Zombies was one of the few games that almost everyone I know personally, got into. For starters, the guys I work with all bought it; first Phil in IT went and bought the game on Steam when it was on special offer. After hearing me and Phil talk about it nigh on end, Ry and Pete went and got it for their Macs (yes, Macs play games too) and Ry even finished the whole game over the weekend. Dave picked it up to after it was released onXBLA . Plants Vs Zombies was the game that people on all formats took on board. If my mum and dad's PC was working, I'd get them a copy. My wife's cousin, who's a married mother of two loves the game (in between her crippling addiction to Defence Grid: The Awakening). I'm getting a copy of the game for my dad as a belated Christmas present.



Plants Vs Zombies is the game that proved that so-called "casual" games weren't worthy of attention or coverage by the hardcore press. What madePvZ a casual game was the fact you do a round in just a couple of minutes, so it was great for quick games. I think PvZ was also thought of a casual game for no other reason than it was a $10 downloadable Pop Cap game. But it's a game that I find myself inexorably drawn to. 5 minutes to spare? Fit in another round of PvZ! That's why it's my game of the year; whereas I grew quickly tired or frustrated with other games, PvZ always drew me in for more zombie bashing fun.



Best ending song since Portal.

Merry Christmas to all my fellow dtoiders! Hope you all have a good one and are showered with good games, or at least buy shitloads of cheap ones off Steam (which is what I did)....

and now! Music!

The Flaming Lips - Christmas At The Zoo



The Pogues fet. Kirsty MaCall - Fairytale of New York



Run DMC - Christmas in Hollis



Joy Zipper - Christmas Song



Ed Harcourt & Mark Lannegan - In The Bleak Midwinter



Rufus Wainwright - Spotlight On Christmas

[Contains plot spoilers. Like really fucking big ones. Either don't read this, or read the article but don't bitch how I spoiled the story for you]

With the announcement of Dead Space 2, I thought I'd post some thoughts about the original game. Which is handy as I've been playing the original all week after buying it on the PC during the Steam sale. I did have the game for the 360 originally, but I never completed it and it sat on my shelf with my other late 2008 releases that I never finished (Fable 2 and Far Cry 2 still there folks). So with the purchase of Dead Space on the PC for a really good price and some momentum to play it, I ploughed through the game this week finishing it on Sunday night. Here's what I thought of the game.

Is it survival horror?

When Dead Space was released, I remember a lot of angry Internet folk dismissing the game as not being "proper survival horror".... probably because protagonist Issac Clarke can move and shoot at the same time. Well move very slowly and shoot but..... move and shoot yes. At the time I remember thinking that this wasn't a problem with the game, rather people's narrow views of what survival horror games were. I mean, we're talking of a genre of game that really consists of a handful of franchises and some spin offs. I feel Dead Space was unfairly maligned for not being "survival horror" enough for some people, which is a shame as that game scared thebeejesus out of me on more than one occasion. Mainly due to the sound design; the ambient sound in the ship was brilliantly orchestrated. Machinery and steel groaned and clanked without the presence of any enemies. One time I went into a corridor where machinery was griding nosily away; it was such a contradiction from what I'd heard in the previous room that I just ran from one end to the other even though there was no threat. At the opposite end of the spectrum, the vacuum sections were wonderful; exiting onto the outside of the ship only to hear Issac's breathing and the reverb from his boots on the ships hull was genuinely unnerving. Seeing his air meter go down and hearing his breathing becoming more and more strained was almost as scary as theNercomorphs.



Is Dead Space survival horror? I'd call it that; it may have none of the Silent Hill series psychological bent or Resident Evils' limited player limitations, but it still puts you as one man in a scary place and leaves you to fend on your own. Plus you get to drop kicknecromorph babies....

Weapons and HUD

After getting used to the slightly strange over the shoulder viewpoint, I quickly became used to Dead Space's HUD and presentation. The angle didn't make shooting difficult, but turning whilst aiming was really hard. The actual HUD was brilliant; I love that the inventory was up in front of Issac's face, meaning there was no break in the action if he wanted a health pack. It was wonderfully executed I though. The "breadcrumbs GPS" was really handy, but that's because the mini-map was too small to be of much use. It also made sense, syncing up an in-built guidance system to Issac's HUD, rather than Fable 2's magical glowing dust trail.



The weapons were interesting too as they tried to be based on engineering tools you could see a guy in space using. The Plasma cutter was obviously the best as it excelled in the strategic dismemberment the game boasted. With it's alternate fire mode, you could use the horizontal cut for enemies' legs and the vertical one for cutting arms off at the shoulder. Be patient and steady and you'll be slicing necromorphs with ease. What was also great was the fact you didn't necessarily have to ditch the plasma cutter for better weapons. Using power nodes to upgraded the plasma cutter meant it fared just as well in situations as the pulse rifle or flame thrower. The onyl thing that was a let down was the alternate fire modes in the other weapons which seemed either superfluous or useless.

Originality?

The idea of a guy almost completely alone on a space ship being hunted by alien monsters isn't very original. It's an idea that's been around for a while, even if only a handful of examples come to mind. Alien is the most obvious, especially with the idea of a mining ship bringing on board an alien menace that proceeds to kill almost all the crew. Dead Space manages to feel different to me thanks to the surprises it offered and the various cast members that show up. For starters, when you show up on the ship you don't know what's going on; you're just as in the dark as Issac, Hammond and Kendra. The religious angle is interesting too; Unitology is an interesting idea that's fleshed out really well in the game and gives more of an idea of the motivations behind what transpired before you arrived. The tie in comic and movie (both of which are worth getting a hold of) both fleshed out some of the details that happened before Issac Clarke's ill-fated arrival on the Ishimura. The characters were well fleshed out and I like how they change towards the end; Hammond, the strict mission-orientated, calm head becoming panicky and "fuck the mission" on you; Kendra the pessimist and cynic becoming the cold and calculated manipulator (until her quite grisly smeared end). I never bought into Nicole being alive, here video messages were too weird and freaky for it to be anything other than the Marker reaching out to Issac (wanting itself put back onto the planet to contain the alien hive mind?). Also the chapters spelling out NICOLE IS DEAD was a bit of a giveaway.



So Dead Space's plot elements aren't original, but the execution is where the game shines for me. I'm surprised it didn't get compared to System Shock 2 more than it did; I suppose that everyone burnt out that comparison withBioshock the year before.

Overall

I remember Dead Space being considered a poor seller at the time, but later figures said the game pulled in a not to shabby 1.4 million copies, so of course the sequel was guaranteed. I'm totally interested in seeing what Dead Space 2 can come up with. A new setting would be the thing I want to see. Put Issac on an more open space but see how thenecromorph threat will adapt to that challenge.

Over the last few weeks, there seems to have been a shift in the tides of popularity of people's opinions of Vavle and Steam. For a while, it's seemed that both Valve as a developer and owner of Steam have seemed almost impervious to criticism, seemingly offering great games and a digital distribution service that has won many converts. So what's changed? Maybe we can point the finger at the busy end of year schedule and three games in particular; Borderlands, Left 4 Dead 2 and Modern Warfare 2. The release of all of these three games has seemed fraught on the PC, but how much is Valve's fault?

Borderlands

At first things looked rosy; an hybrid of co-op FPS mechanics and Diablo-esque levelling and loot. Indeed, Borderlands was offered as a four-pack offer similar to Left 4 Dead 2's offer, so it encouraged buying and playing with friends. Then Gearbox president Randy Pitchford blasted Valve's ownership of Steam as being "untrustworthy" and that Valve "exploited" smaller, independent devs. His latter criticism was rebuffed by Tripwire head honcho, Jason Gibson who insisted that he didn't feel, as an independent developer, exploited in any way.

Although there is some sense in what Randy is suggesting, I do question the timing of the comments. As Valve undoubtedly own the means to distribute not only their own games but any other developers, how are they different from Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo's own downloadable channels? True, none of the big three are offering triple A titles through their services, but there's still plenty of competition there. It's also not like Valve are releasing numerous games every year. Considering Left 4 Dead 2 is the first game Valve have released a quick sequel, it doesn't feel like that they're taking advantage of Steam to push their own games. As Jason points out in his rebuttal, Tripwire released two games, Red Orchestra and Killing Floor that were in direct competition with two Valve titles, Day of Defeat and Left 4 Dead. Yet both Tripwire games received good publicity, special offer pricing and post-release support for new maps and content. That hardly sounds exploitative. Of course, there's a whole legal and business hotcake that we gamers don't know about; do all companies do so well on Steam, because there's some crappy games on the service that you'd have to really twist my arm to buy? Jordan mentioned in his original article that it maybe hard to rationalise Randy's comments as a businessman, rather than our gamer-centric viewpoint, but really isn't that all we have? (Borderlands online multiplayer fucking blows however, just thought I'd put that in here Randy)

Left 4 Dead 2

Of course, everyone knows about the planned boycott of Left 4 Dead 2 by gamers who were disgruntled by the swift announcement of a sequel, but those protests seem to have faded away now. No, what irked people was the delaying of the demo by an extra 24 hours. I know, 24 measly hours. Gamers right now have an amazingly bloated sense of entitlement when it comes to what they want and when they want it. I can understand if you want to play something and it's been delayed, then you'd be a bit pissed off, but if you look at the Steam forums, this seems to be another minor issue that has gamers coiled into little bundles of rage. Yes, the demo was late, but we all played it eventually and I think by all accounts most of us really enjoyed it.

The censorship of L4D2 in Australia..... Jesus, don't get me started on that shit. That too hardly Valve's fault; Australia's archaic ratings system banned the game, and if Valve had refused to make the changes they did to allow the game to be released in Australia, we'd all be splitting blood at their refusal to release the game here, despite having their hands tied by the classification board. It's a stark choice; either have the neutered version available for Australian gamers to have the option whether or not to buy it or have it banned completely.

Modern Warfare 2

Modern Warfare 2's alienation of a section of the hardcore PC gaming community has been stated many times already, so I'll forgo many of the problems with the game's release and focus on the boycott of MW2 by digital distribution services like Gamersgate, Impulse and Direct 2 Drive. The claim by Direct 2 Drive was that by installing Steam as a mandatory part of MW2's installation, users were installing a "Trojan horse" and that other games like Dawn of War 2 and Empire: Total War would also be boycotted until Valve "decouple it's retail side" from presumably the rest of Steam's features.

I can see why these companies would want this. Steam provides a one-stop retail/community service. You can buy a game from Valve, have the community features that you want plus things like achievements, auto-updating for patches and backup utilities. But is this not what consumers want? Having my all games in the one place tied to a single user account in making PC Gaming much more user friendly for me. At this point, having a download only service that I purchase games from isn't appealing. I might as well just buy the things at retail; there's a GAME and EB about 10 minutes walk from my house, so it's not like it's truly more convenient. Steam's added features enhance the value of a game, beyond making it simply a purchase.

Oh, and people complaining about MW2 on the PC need to just shut the fuck up. Don't like it? Don't buy it. Easy as that. Next!

So what now?

I'll be the first to admit that Steam isn't perfect; right now the download manager won't recognise my ISP and therefore downloading anything from Steam is a big hassle when it comes to my measily 20GB bandwidth for the month. Then there's the sometimes high prices, which has actually improved recently for me anyway. Right now, the Aussie dollar is doing really well against the US dollar; I got Borderlands and Dragon Age for $5 more than the US price, drastically under-cutting Aussie retailers. If I try and buy MW2 I get a price of $88 ($97AUS) which is about the retail price which is what I'd expect, but why a great price from some companies and a higher price from others (ok, just Activision.....).

However, it does seem as if there are just average gamers who are turning against Valve. Reading the reader's correspondance page in this month's PC Gamer magazine, one person wrote in to complain how Valve was "conning" him into making purchases with the weekend sales. Whilst I think this guy was a blethering idiot, how many people out there are feeling unhappy despite seemingly getting a good deal through Steam? It seems not much right now makes people happy.