Resonance Gaming
Set up by myself and Daniel Clarke of mse360.com, I was responsible for most of the content on the site during its run from January - June 2008, when it was sold. Since selling the site there have been some major database issues, so you can find my work replicated in full on this blog. When the site is stable again, these pieces will be removed in favour of linking back to the site.
Galactic Civilisation 2 Twilight of Arnor
Turtix Rescue Adventure
Elements of Destruction
Frontlines: Fuel of War
Democracy
Escape From Paradise City
Sims Carnival
Conflict Denied Ops
Sunage
Universe at War
Spaceforce Captains
Sins of a Solar Empire
Imperium Romanum
Five Hours of Anarchy [article]
Urban Legends [article]
Top 10 Most Underrated PC Games [article]
Elite [retro article]
Jones in the Fast Lane [retro article]
Alter Ego [retro article]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Acegamez
Acegamez are a very long running UK review site that run many competitions and cover all formats, although I did most of my work for them in PC reviews.
Fantasy Wars
Crash Time
Buzz! Junior - Dino Den
Golden Horde
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gamezine
Gamezine are a reasonably new and upcoming multiformat site based in the UK. Their design doesn't lend itself well for looking at old content, so it's hard to find my work without direct links, unfortunately.
Stalker: Clear Sky [preview]
Leaning Back: The problem with PC sports games [article]
1942: Joint Strike
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Strategy Informer
I've so far only done one XBLA review for these guys, b
Sealife Safari
Read more..
Sunday, 12 October 2008
Gamezine: 1942 Joint Strike Review
Another XBLA title in the form of an updated version of a classic Capcom arcade game.
It’s worth noting that Joint Strike is set in an ‘alternative’ World War 2. This seems to be an excuse to keep the game’s 1942 title, while adding in all sorts of lasers and weird science fiction elements. It’s a bit of a cheap shot, as the game ends up looking more like World War 3 towards the end levels, and purists might feel let down by this. Multiplayer co-op mode is a welcome addition to any game, and Joint Strike offers it both locally and over the internet, with planes able to combine powers to launch devastating attacks, as per the games title.
You can read the full review at Gamezine. Read more..
It’s worth noting that Joint Strike is set in an ‘alternative’ World War 2. This seems to be an excuse to keep the game’s 1942 title, while adding in all sorts of lasers and weird science fiction elements. It’s a bit of a cheap shot, as the game ends up looking more like World War 3 towards the end levels, and purists might feel let down by this. Multiplayer co-op mode is a welcome addition to any game, and Joint Strike offers it both locally and over the internet, with planes able to combine powers to launch devastating attacks, as per the games title.
You can read the full review at Gamezine. Read more..
Gamezine: Stalker - Clear Sky Preview
One of my first previews for the expansion to Stalker, taking a look at the new environments and how the game will work the 'prequel' aspect.
If Clear Sky can show us clear and impressive evidence that our choice of faction affects the overall zone, it has the potential to be a very impressive part of the game. Unfortunately, two big requests from fans – vehicles and a co-op mode – will not appear in Clear Sky’s main game, although the inclusion of vehicles in multiplayer is currently being considered by GSC. Stalker is released worldwide on August 29th, 2008. We hope.
You can read the full preview at Gamezine. Read more..
If Clear Sky can show us clear and impressive evidence that our choice of faction affects the overall zone, it has the potential to be a very impressive part of the game. Unfortunately, two big requests from fans – vehicles and a co-op mode – will not appear in Clear Sky’s main game, although the inclusion of vehicles in multiplayer is currently being considered by GSC. Stalker is released worldwide on August 29th, 2008. We hope.
You can read the full preview at Gamezine. Read more..
Gamezine: Leaning Back - The problem with PC sports games
This was more of an editorial piece than an article or news story, based around news that the head of EA sports has mentioned the market for PC sports game was in decline.
I don’t want to be sitting back on my sofa while trying to play the latest RTS game with a controller when I have a perfectly good desk and mouse that allows me to control armies at whatever speed I choose. I don’t want to play in a massive online world filled with thousands of real people if my only method of communicating is a keyboard half the size of my hand. I want to be able to talk to people quickly and get my point across without having to hear ten years old swearing at me through a headset.
You can read the full article at Gamezine. Read more..
I don’t want to be sitting back on my sofa while trying to play the latest RTS game with a controller when I have a perfectly good desk and mouse that allows me to control armies at whatever speed I choose. I don’t want to play in a massive online world filled with thousands of real people if my only method of communicating is a keyboard half the size of my hand. I want to be able to talk to people quickly and get my point across without having to hear ten years old swearing at me through a headset.
You can read the full article at Gamezine. Read more..
Strategy Informer: Sealife Safari Review
My first XBLA review which was a one off for the popular site Strategy Informer.
Ultimately, Sea Life captures the feel of the ocean and combines it with a very casual, softcore gaming experience that’s more “Free Willy” than “Jaws”. Arcade is in desperate need of variety and originality, and Sea Life satisfies both criteria providing a detailed and peaceful experience that stands out amongst a marketplace full of generic shooters and ports, but the relative length of the game makes it hard to justify the price of 800 points, and the lack of any real challenge or competition will turn off most gamers.
You can read the full review at Strategy Informer. Read more..
Ultimately, Sea Life captures the feel of the ocean and combines it with a very casual, softcore gaming experience that’s more “Free Willy” than “Jaws”. Arcade is in desperate need of variety and originality, and Sea Life satisfies both criteria providing a detailed and peaceful experience that stands out amongst a marketplace full of generic shooters and ports, but the relative length of the game makes it hard to justify the price of 800 points, and the lack of any real challenge or competition will turn off most gamers.
You can read the full review at Strategy Informer. Read more..
Acegamez: Fantasy Wars Review
Here is the beginning of my post.
Fantasy Wars is an involving and satisfying game. Each side feels balanced if not dramatically different, the levelling system for every unit makes the game more addictive than it has any right to be and it hits the difficulty curve perfectly, being very easy to learn and incredibly difficult to master, especially at higher levels. It's only the lack of a good plot to bring all these individual aspects together that stops Fantasy Wars just a little short of being a true classic. If you like your turn-based games to involve diplomacy, management and story, then stick to Heroes of Might & Magic, but if you care more about accessibility and tactical combat without all the fuss then you're in for a solid and thoroughly addictive Orc-bashing experience.
You can read the full review at Acegamez Read more..
Fantasy Wars is an involving and satisfying game. Each side feels balanced if not dramatically different, the levelling system for every unit makes the game more addictive than it has any right to be and it hits the difficulty curve perfectly, being very easy to learn and incredibly difficult to master, especially at higher levels. It's only the lack of a good plot to bring all these individual aspects together that stops Fantasy Wars just a little short of being a true classic. If you like your turn-based games to involve diplomacy, management and story, then stick to Heroes of Might & Magic, but if you care more about accessibility and tactical combat without all the fuss then you're in for a solid and thoroughly addictive Orc-bashing experience.
You can read the full review at Acegamez Read more..
Acegamez: The Golden Horde Review
Another review of a Jowood game with some potential ultimately and quickly squashed by a lack of quality control.
Perhaps the biggest problem with The Golden Horde is far simpler, however. It does have some nice touches; looting weapons from your dead enemies brings a new element to the field and the experience system expands as far as the units who craft your weapons, so it's not just about making sure that you outnumber your enemy. The problem is that for every tentative, stumbling step that Golden Horde makes towards originality, it fails on something crucial. Introducing new gameplay elements is important if you want to stand out, but it's far more important to make sure that you get the basics right. People who are particularly interested in this era of history might find the setting is just enough to see them through to the end, but for the rest of us there are just too many better options out there.
You can read the full review at Acegamez. Read more..
Perhaps the biggest problem with The Golden Horde is far simpler, however. It does have some nice touches; looting weapons from your dead enemies brings a new element to the field and the experience system expands as far as the units who craft your weapons, so it's not just about making sure that you outnumber your enemy. The problem is that for every tentative, stumbling step that Golden Horde makes towards originality, it fails on something crucial. Introducing new gameplay elements is important if you want to stand out, but it's far more important to make sure that you get the basics right. People who are particularly interested in this era of history might find the setting is just enough to see them through to the end, but for the rest of us there are just too many better options out there.
You can read the full review at Acegamez. Read more..
Acegamez: Buzz! Junior Dino Den Review
Buzz! Junior is so far the only game aimed at kids that I've ever reviewed.
Recommending Buzz! Junior: Dino Den is difficult. Ultimately it all depends on the age and tastes of your children. The Wii remains king of the party games and if you're used to having games of Mario Party 8 or Wii Sports with your family then Dino Den might feel a little flat. However, if this isn't an option to you and you're looking for something fun and accessible that you can enjoy playing with your young ones, then Dino Den is good, clean fun and if you've already purchased the buzzers for another Buzz! game then it's good value to boot. However, if you already own one or more of the previous Buzz! Junior titles then (unless your kids are absolutely nuts for dinosaurs) there's not really enough new content to justify a purchase; there's only so much you can do with four colours and a big red buzzer.
You can read the full review at Acegamez. Read more..
Recommending Buzz! Junior: Dino Den is difficult. Ultimately it all depends on the age and tastes of your children. The Wii remains king of the party games and if you're used to having games of Mario Party 8 or Wii Sports with your family then Dino Den might feel a little flat. However, if this isn't an option to you and you're looking for something fun and accessible that you can enjoy playing with your young ones, then Dino Den is good, clean fun and if you've already purchased the buzzers for another Buzz! game then it's good value to boot. However, if you already own one or more of the previous Buzz! Junior titles then (unless your kids are absolutely nuts for dinosaurs) there's not really enough new content to justify a purchase; there's only so much you can do with four colours and a big red buzzer.
You can read the full review at Acegamez. Read more..
Acegamez: Crash Time Review
Crash Time is a budget racing/arcade style offering from Germany, and my first review for long running UK site, Acegamez.
Scanning through the manual and the box while Crash Time was installing didn't fill me with a lot of hope. Any game where jumping over trucks is listed on the back as a 'feature' really worries me. Combined with the random shots of explosions and police cars, the box does a great job of making Crash Time look like a budget Eighties action film starring Jean-Claude Van Damme. In all honesty, I wouldn't give it a second glance in a game store.
You can read the full review at Acegamez. Read more..
Scanning through the manual and the box while Crash Time was installing didn't fill me with a lot of hope. Any game where jumping over trucks is listed on the back as a 'feature' really worries me. Combined with the random shots of explosions and police cars, the box does a great job of making Crash Time look like a budget Eighties action film starring Jean-Claude Van Damme. In all honesty, I wouldn't give it a second glance in a game store.
You can read the full review at Acegamez. Read more..
Resonance Gaming: Alter Ego Retro Article
One of the first gaming pieces I ever wrote, for one of my favourite games of all time. This was originally intended for Eurogamers retro section but they never really got around to sorting it out once I had finished the piece so I uploaded it to Resonance instead.
I’ll get the greatest thing about Alter Ego out of the way first: It has stood the test of time. That may not seem like a huge achievement, but Alter Ego is not only as enjoyable to pick up and play today as it was over two decades ago, but nothing has ever trumped it. Even most diehard retro fans believe that sequels of huge classics like Doom and SimCity brought at least something the table. Alter Ego has never had a sequel, a spiritual successor, or a clone. It’s very easy to compare it with the Sims, but in terms of depth, Alter Ego makes EA’s blockbuster look like a paddling pool. And all this when most games where still mostly dodgy arcade ports.
The game allows you to play through an entire “life”, from birth to death, and everything in-between. This sounds like a rather massive undertaking, but Alter Ego is deceptively simple, at least on the surface. The game presents you with a scenario based on a various aspect of your life, and then lets you choose how you would react to that situation. These situations vary wildly, mostly depending on your age. You could be experiencing your first interaction with another child, dealing with teenage peer pressure or finding solutions to problems you are having with your own children. On the other hand you could be worrying about what practical joke to play on your parents, Alter Ego has a tongue in cheek attitude that contrasts well with its seriousness.
Most of the time you get to choose an emotion, and then an action. The game then shows you the effects of your choice. If the choice was important, it will affect your physical or mental attributes which makes up exactly who you are. The game is text based, and admittedly the interaction is very limited, but the lack of graphics in Alter Ego gives it the ability to provide a choice and freedom that it wouldn’t otherwise have achieved at the time. If there’s one game I wouldn’t have to get a graphical overhaul, it’s Alter Ego.
Much like real life, the scenarios get more complicated and have greater ramifications the older you get. One of the very first choices you make is still in your mother’s womb – do you come out quietly or do you make a fuss? It’s an interesting decision to have to make, but it’s hardly a dramatic one. Things quickly become more serious, and the game is always throwing different things at you and forcing you to think on your feet. While in a childhood stage it will describe things a child might see or experience them, which can totally throw your superior adult brain. While still in the childhood stage there is a chance of being abducted by a pervert - which leads to your thankfully vague death - if you make the wrong choices. If you make the right choices however, you can end up assisting in his capture and gaining an intelligence bonus. The game presents real life problems and solutions, so you start to think in a real life way. Alter Ego’s questions and reactions are nearly all logical and fair, but it has a certain retro harshness about it, and it won’t babysit you.
Although the above example does present an obvious wrong and right way to answer certain questions, the true excellence of Alter Ego is that most questions don’t have harsh penalties or great rewards. Much like in real life very few individual decisions majorly affect you as a person, but your attitude to each event as a whole builds your personality and how others see and react to you. Make more honest decisions as a child and your parents will trust you more as a teenager. The same systems stops you from doing something incredibly out of character, so you can’t spend your entire life being selfish and deceitful and then expect to be allowed to give all your money to charity. It may sound restricting, but it works better than simply being able to change who are every single event.
Alter Ego gives you a freedom of expression and self that modern RPGs have been trying to reclaim for years. Somehow, a game created the year IBM released the first laptop computer has been able to find that middle ground between ‘pure evil’ and ‘pure good’ that cutting edge RPGs today still struggle with. Sure you can certainly attempt to become good or evil in Alter Ego, but just like in real life, these ideals are much harder to achieve then they at first appear. Few people are genuinely evil in every way, and even fewer are totally perfect.
It’s hard to put into words why Alter Ego can engage on such an emotional level without any of the graphics or sound we rely on to enforce immersion in the industry today. There’s just something about reading of your death in the final stage of the game (if you get that far) after playing through a lifetime of different experiences that makes you feel so much more connected to your Alter Ego than you could ever be to any enforced RPG persona. It’s here where you really see how poorly modern games have compared. The Sims has enforced a memory system that lets you keep track of all the experiences your Sims have had in their lives, but in Alter Ego it’s simply not necessary; you remember them by yourself. Your first virtual party, your first virtual kiss, the first time your virtual kids say virtual words. Providing you invest your time and some amount of imagination, watching your Sims dance about in a nightclub or bake a cake doesn’t really compare.
The game is so simple on the surface that the only big issues with the game aren’t to do with what’s already included, but with what isn’t. Both male and female versions of the game are available, with different varying scenarios, but girls have to marry guys and guys have to marry girls, there’s no opportunity for same sex experiences. In fact, most of life’s ‘extremes’ are missing from the game. You can’t become a murderer; you can’t become addicted to drugs, and so on.
These would have been welcome additions, but it may be a little unfair to criticise Alter Ego for not including every scenario available in the real word. Perhaps the only genuine criticism you can level at the game goes back to my introduction; living life may be timeless, but 80s American pop culture references are not. Most annoyingly, occasional ‘general knowledge’ rounds to improve your intelligence rating are almost unanimously about America. I’m not particularly concerned who the 23rd president of the United States was, and it’s annoying having my game stats affected by my lack of knowledge about a country I don’t live in.
Still, these are minor issues that don’t have any great effect on game play, and even those intelligent sections can be beaten by a five second stint on Wikipedia. Ignore the occasional Americanism and understand that the game has its limits and you will experience one of the emotionally connected and replayable games ever made. I’ve come back to Alter Ego time and time again since I first played it, and every time has been a different and interesting experience. What’s more, it’s now available in an updated and improved version for free on the internet, so there’s no reason not to give it a go. Read more..
I’ll get the greatest thing about Alter Ego out of the way first: It has stood the test of time. That may not seem like a huge achievement, but Alter Ego is not only as enjoyable to pick up and play today as it was over two decades ago, but nothing has ever trumped it. Even most diehard retro fans believe that sequels of huge classics like Doom and SimCity brought at least something the table. Alter Ego has never had a sequel, a spiritual successor, or a clone. It’s very easy to compare it with the Sims, but in terms of depth, Alter Ego makes EA’s blockbuster look like a paddling pool. And all this when most games where still mostly dodgy arcade ports.
The game allows you to play through an entire “life”, from birth to death, and everything in-between. This sounds like a rather massive undertaking, but Alter Ego is deceptively simple, at least on the surface. The game presents you with a scenario based on a various aspect of your life, and then lets you choose how you would react to that situation. These situations vary wildly, mostly depending on your age. You could be experiencing your first interaction with another child, dealing with teenage peer pressure or finding solutions to problems you are having with your own children. On the other hand you could be worrying about what practical joke to play on your parents, Alter Ego has a tongue in cheek attitude that contrasts well with its seriousness.
Most of the time you get to choose an emotion, and then an action. The game then shows you the effects of your choice. If the choice was important, it will affect your physical or mental attributes which makes up exactly who you are. The game is text based, and admittedly the interaction is very limited, but the lack of graphics in Alter Ego gives it the ability to provide a choice and freedom that it wouldn’t otherwise have achieved at the time. If there’s one game I wouldn’t have to get a graphical overhaul, it’s Alter Ego.
Much like real life, the scenarios get more complicated and have greater ramifications the older you get. One of the very first choices you make is still in your mother’s womb – do you come out quietly or do you make a fuss? It’s an interesting decision to have to make, but it’s hardly a dramatic one. Things quickly become more serious, and the game is always throwing different things at you and forcing you to think on your feet. While in a childhood stage it will describe things a child might see or experience them, which can totally throw your superior adult brain. While still in the childhood stage there is a chance of being abducted by a pervert - which leads to your thankfully vague death - if you make the wrong choices. If you make the right choices however, you can end up assisting in his capture and gaining an intelligence bonus. The game presents real life problems and solutions, so you start to think in a real life way. Alter Ego’s questions and reactions are nearly all logical and fair, but it has a certain retro harshness about it, and it won’t babysit you.
Although the above example does present an obvious wrong and right way to answer certain questions, the true excellence of Alter Ego is that most questions don’t have harsh penalties or great rewards. Much like in real life very few individual decisions majorly affect you as a person, but your attitude to each event as a whole builds your personality and how others see and react to you. Make more honest decisions as a child and your parents will trust you more as a teenager. The same systems stops you from doing something incredibly out of character, so you can’t spend your entire life being selfish and deceitful and then expect to be allowed to give all your money to charity. It may sound restricting, but it works better than simply being able to change who are every single event.
Alter Ego gives you a freedom of expression and self that modern RPGs have been trying to reclaim for years. Somehow, a game created the year IBM released the first laptop computer has been able to find that middle ground between ‘pure evil’ and ‘pure good’ that cutting edge RPGs today still struggle with. Sure you can certainly attempt to become good or evil in Alter Ego, but just like in real life, these ideals are much harder to achieve then they at first appear. Few people are genuinely evil in every way, and even fewer are totally perfect.
It’s hard to put into words why Alter Ego can engage on such an emotional level without any of the graphics or sound we rely on to enforce immersion in the industry today. There’s just something about reading of your death in the final stage of the game (if you get that far) after playing through a lifetime of different experiences that makes you feel so much more connected to your Alter Ego than you could ever be to any enforced RPG persona. It’s here where you really see how poorly modern games have compared. The Sims has enforced a memory system that lets you keep track of all the experiences your Sims have had in their lives, but in Alter Ego it’s simply not necessary; you remember them by yourself. Your first virtual party, your first virtual kiss, the first time your virtual kids say virtual words. Providing you invest your time and some amount of imagination, watching your Sims dance about in a nightclub or bake a cake doesn’t really compare.
The game is so simple on the surface that the only big issues with the game aren’t to do with what’s already included, but with what isn’t. Both male and female versions of the game are available, with different varying scenarios, but girls have to marry guys and guys have to marry girls, there’s no opportunity for same sex experiences. In fact, most of life’s ‘extremes’ are missing from the game. You can’t become a murderer; you can’t become addicted to drugs, and so on.
These would have been welcome additions, but it may be a little unfair to criticise Alter Ego for not including every scenario available in the real word. Perhaps the only genuine criticism you can level at the game goes back to my introduction; living life may be timeless, but 80s American pop culture references are not. Most annoyingly, occasional ‘general knowledge’ rounds to improve your intelligence rating are almost unanimously about America. I’m not particularly concerned who the 23rd president of the United States was, and it’s annoying having my game stats affected by my lack of knowledge about a country I don’t live in.
Still, these are minor issues that don’t have any great effect on game play, and even those intelligent sections can be beaten by a five second stint on Wikipedia. Ignore the occasional Americanism and understand that the game has its limits and you will experience one of the emotionally connected and replayable games ever made. I’ve come back to Alter Ego time and time again since I first played it, and every time has been a different and interesting experience. What’s more, it’s now available in an updated and improved version for free on the internet, so there’s no reason not to give it a go. Read more..
Resonance Gaming: Jones in the Fast Lane Retro Article
Another retro piece for the ancient but excellent Sierra board game/PC hybrid, Jones in the Fast Lane.
Jones, created by Sierra in 1991, is an odd beast. Board to computer game conversions were very common when the industry was young – one of the first games ever available on the PC was chess after all – but using computer gaming as a medium to make new board games was a newer concept. Many companies started to experiment with the idea and quite a few games got released. However, by the mid nineties most people realised that while solo card games worked very well on computers, board games, which are predominantly a ‘group’ experience, didn’t fair quite so well.
Jones was one such attempt. The basic gameplay works a bit like that of the Game of Life. You select one of four characters to play as – the choice being entirely superficial, they’ve all aged far worse than the game itself – and take turns to move around the game board, which is set out in the form of a simple town. Instead of rolling a dice to determine how far you move, you receive a set amount of time every day in which to complete tasks and then find your way back to your apartment. Each turn leaves you a lot of freedom to decide exactly how to approach your virtual life, although if some tasks like buying food or not returning to your apartment are skipped, you’ll lose valuable time next turn due to fatigue or sickness.
Jones had several different ‘goals’ to achieve in order to the win the game, and the game continued until a player reached all of these to a certain level, which can be set at the start of the game. Really, everything revolved around money, as any of your goals in the shallow world of Jones revolved around money. Even happiness would solely be achieved via a bigger apartment or more modern appliances. The emphasis on money means you need a proper education to get a high paying job. The first stage of the game is normally spent trying to keep a balance between going putting yourself through your academic study while making sure you work just enough to pay for your food and rent.
Depending on the degree you take ( and you can take as many as you like ), you can then get a higher paying job at one of the many buildings on the board – most of the buildings you’ll use such as the bank, shops and even the university double up as places you can also work. Where you work doesn’t matter too much although obviously some jobs pay better than others, and the ones that pay out the most generally take the longest to study; although this isn’t always the case. The game also has a touch of random luck. You’ll occasionally end up spending or gaining money on random events that the game reports you ‘did at the weekend’, you can play the lottery or you can get robbed, which is where the bank comes in handy. The most powerful random occurrence is also the most frustrating; the game will report a surprise ‘recession’, and all players will either lose their jobs or start earning far less money for an unspecified period of time.
Jones is one of the few computerised board games that actually understands what it’s trying to achieve. A computer board game might not be as tangible or nice looking as a real life counterpart, but what you can do is use the power of a computer to do things that would otherwise be impractical without them. For example, the computer can do random events far better than a card system can, it can add up money and divide time quicker and in the background, and it can keep accurate records of exactly how much each player has achieved. Nowadays of course many board games also incorporate electronics into their systems to do these things, but this was virtually unheard of in the early nineties. Jones proved that board games could deal with more data – and therefore become deeper experiences – while still remaining fun and ultimately simple for the gamer.
After all that though, the real genius of Jones isn’t really down to any technical flare at all. Jones is playable solo and the AI is functional enough, but much like normal board games and popular modern video board games like Mario Party, the real fun is experiencing the game with other people, not the computer. The game uses a ‘hotseat’ system where a number of players all use the same computer and simply move out of the way when it’s the next players turn. Hotseat games existed before Jones, and continue to exist long after, even today. However, being able to see your opponent’s screens and having to move every few minutes isn’t exactly the best way to play games. Somehow though, Jones makes it fun. It’s even better if you can sit around a table with a laptop.
It’s because of the simple and fun multiplayer aspect in Jones that I’d rate Jones one of the most instantly accessible games ever. You can fire it up and be playing with three friends in minutes and importantly, in the same place. In many respects, multiplayer gaming has moved on. Games like battlefield allow huge, varied battles along large stretches of land, and there are nine million people subscribing to World of Warcraft. It’s in this huge expansion that multiplayer games have found a whole new market for themselves, but nothing has been released since Jones that comes close to the personality and simplicity of a quick game of Jones. Read more..
Jones, created by Sierra in 1991, is an odd beast. Board to computer game conversions were very common when the industry was young – one of the first games ever available on the PC was chess after all – but using computer gaming as a medium to make new board games was a newer concept. Many companies started to experiment with the idea and quite a few games got released. However, by the mid nineties most people realised that while solo card games worked very well on computers, board games, which are predominantly a ‘group’ experience, didn’t fair quite so well.
Jones was one such attempt. The basic gameplay works a bit like that of the Game of Life. You select one of four characters to play as – the choice being entirely superficial, they’ve all aged far worse than the game itself – and take turns to move around the game board, which is set out in the form of a simple town. Instead of rolling a dice to determine how far you move, you receive a set amount of time every day in which to complete tasks and then find your way back to your apartment. Each turn leaves you a lot of freedom to decide exactly how to approach your virtual life, although if some tasks like buying food or not returning to your apartment are skipped, you’ll lose valuable time next turn due to fatigue or sickness.
Jones had several different ‘goals’ to achieve in order to the win the game, and the game continued until a player reached all of these to a certain level, which can be set at the start of the game. Really, everything revolved around money, as any of your goals in the shallow world of Jones revolved around money. Even happiness would solely be achieved via a bigger apartment or more modern appliances. The emphasis on money means you need a proper education to get a high paying job. The first stage of the game is normally spent trying to keep a balance between going putting yourself through your academic study while making sure you work just enough to pay for your food and rent.
Depending on the degree you take ( and you can take as many as you like ), you can then get a higher paying job at one of the many buildings on the board – most of the buildings you’ll use such as the bank, shops and even the university double up as places you can also work. Where you work doesn’t matter too much although obviously some jobs pay better than others, and the ones that pay out the most generally take the longest to study; although this isn’t always the case. The game also has a touch of random luck. You’ll occasionally end up spending or gaining money on random events that the game reports you ‘did at the weekend’, you can play the lottery or you can get robbed, which is where the bank comes in handy. The most powerful random occurrence is also the most frustrating; the game will report a surprise ‘recession’, and all players will either lose their jobs or start earning far less money for an unspecified period of time.
Jones is one of the few computerised board games that actually understands what it’s trying to achieve. A computer board game might not be as tangible or nice looking as a real life counterpart, but what you can do is use the power of a computer to do things that would otherwise be impractical without them. For example, the computer can do random events far better than a card system can, it can add up money and divide time quicker and in the background, and it can keep accurate records of exactly how much each player has achieved. Nowadays of course many board games also incorporate electronics into their systems to do these things, but this was virtually unheard of in the early nineties. Jones proved that board games could deal with more data – and therefore become deeper experiences – while still remaining fun and ultimately simple for the gamer.
After all that though, the real genius of Jones isn’t really down to any technical flare at all. Jones is playable solo and the AI is functional enough, but much like normal board games and popular modern video board games like Mario Party, the real fun is experiencing the game with other people, not the computer. The game uses a ‘hotseat’ system where a number of players all use the same computer and simply move out of the way when it’s the next players turn. Hotseat games existed before Jones, and continue to exist long after, even today. However, being able to see your opponent’s screens and having to move every few minutes isn’t exactly the best way to play games. Somehow though, Jones makes it fun. It’s even better if you can sit around a table with a laptop.
It’s because of the simple and fun multiplayer aspect in Jones that I’d rate Jones one of the most instantly accessible games ever. You can fire it up and be playing with three friends in minutes and importantly, in the same place. In many respects, multiplayer gaming has moved on. Games like battlefield allow huge, varied battles along large stretches of land, and there are nine million people subscribing to World of Warcraft. It’s in this huge expansion that multiplayer games have found a whole new market for themselves, but nothing has been released since Jones that comes close to the personality and simplicity of a quick game of Jones. Read more..
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
