Tuesday 31 May 2011

[Played] Your Not Telling Me the Truth!

Like many folks at the moment, I'm enjoying the delights of L.A. Noire. You don't need me to tell you it's a fantastic piece of work (see Metacritic) or even that its a commercial success (see ChartTrack).

Whenever I play GTA, I always wonder what it would be like to play as a cop for a change, so L.A. Noire scratches that itch. Playing as a detective based in the 1940s is a heck of a lot of fun.

Now, the reason behind all the new facial tech within the game is to assist you when you interrogate folks. By watching the persons facial animations and using your own knowledge about how people react in various situations you should be able to work out whether or not that person is lying or telling the truth.


Now, I thought I was good at this. And after the first proper case I thought I had interrogations nailed. So why is it I suddenly can't seem to select the right response? What does this say about me?
Perhaps I'm a little naive.
Maybe I'm over-thinking about the statements they are giving.
Could it be possible that the facial tech just isn't as good as people say it is.
Or..I'm just terrible at reading people.
I'd probably say it's the latter of those 3 statements. I'm not the worlds most observant guy (as many friends, family and work colleagues would agree with). I've had no issues with finding all the clues/evidence, so I guess that means I'm quite patient and leave no pixel unturned. However, perhaps I don't read between the lines enough when I ask people questions, both in real life and in L.A. Noire, or in the back of my mind have come to expect people to tell me the truth.


I'm going to keep working my way through the game regardless (as it's nearly impossible to fail even if you constantly ask the wrong questions), and perhaps during the course of the rest of the story I'll develop my face-reading skills to the point where it helps me out in the real world.

Or not, as the case may be.

Tuesday 17 May 2011

[Update] Test Chamber Completed

I'm not going to lie...I very rarely complete videogames.
I sometimes refer to myself as a magpie of the gaming world. I start playing a new game, get into it, enjoying it...but then whats this?! Oooooohhh! A new game!

Needless to say this is usually an endless cycle, playing lots of games but never fully finishing one. That cycle was broken tonight by Portal 2. (Don't worry, I'm not going to throw out any spoilers during the rest of this article so you should keep reading, seriously, you should).

The original Portal for me was the best part of The Orange Box, and currently stands as one of an elite few games that I've completed so the announcement of a new Portal game was music to my ears! It was a day one purchased, and this evening I finally finished up the single-player side of the story.

OK, so some of you maybe thinking 'wait a minute, he's only done half the game!', and yes, I guess your correct. Your probably also thinking Portal 2 isn't as long as other popular videogames. Alright, so that's true too, but I don't really care.


So why the urge to finish this game? Obviously I enjoyed the original, so that encouraged me to buy it on its release day. From the get-go the humour of Portal 2 hits you with the inclusion of a little robot called Wheatley, voiced by Stephen Merchant. The game holds true to its sarcastic sense of humour which GLaDOS introduced in this first title. In fact, although Portal 2 doesn't have the largest cast of characters in the world you've got to give kudos to Valve for the voice talent they signed up. Stephen Merchant does a stand up job, as does J.K Simmons who voices Cave Johnson later in the game. Ellen McLaine returns as the voice of GLaDOS.

The puzzles use concepts and ideas from its predecessor, choosing to introduce new elements such as 3 different types of gel later in the game which have various effects and must be used in specific ways to make it through the new test chambers. While some puzzles are quite straightforward...others require more than a few moments to think about how the heck your going to progress with any sanity left.

The plot twists and turns in a couple of places, and after managing to not hear about them from work friends/customers/Facebook/Twitter made the story much more enjoyable. It delves deeper into the story of GLaDOS and Aperture Science the further you progress in Portal 2, answering some questions while offering up new ones. As tempted as I am to point out a couple of interesting moments, I shall resist, but I will say make sure you take time out between each section to check out the posters and hidden places dotted throughout.


Completing Portal 2 has revitalized me into wanting to finish other games that I own, although the reality is I'll probably fall back into my cycle. When I finished Bioshock I had the same feeling, but have failed to 'fully' complete a game since. Sometimes I've come incredibly close (so close in fact, I don't have a clue why I just didn't finish it off), while others faltered much earlier. I loved Bioshock, but didn't finish Bioshock 2, which is further testament to Portal 2 for keeping me engaged as much as the original.

It's not very often I get to see the credits at the end of a game so I feel like I've truly unlocked more than 20G worth of achievement points in managing to do so, and after that ending cutscene it made me a little sad that I'd come to the end of what the game offers single player-wise...

...good job I've still got Co-Op to get through then!

Wednesday 4 May 2011

[Interview] Insert Coin Clothing Interview

I've uploaded a new interview filmed from The Gadget Show Live!

Me and PJ had a good chat with Jon (and another chap, but sadly I can't remember his name!) from Insert Coin Clothing. He kindly agreed to answer some questions on camera. The video interview has been posted here on Blast Process.

I realized once the camera started rolling I hadn't really thought of what I was going to ask! I'm happy with how the interview turned out however, and I can't wait to do plenty of interviewing at the Eurogamer Expo (with more preparation!).