Amazing GTA IV Fan Art!

Just when you thought the GTA IV posts had ended I hit you with another one. This time around it's worth it just to appreciate this lovely fan art created by Patrick Brown.

Pictures like these just make me wish I could draw myself.

You can check out his other GTA IV creations and the rest of his gallery over at deviantART.

Releated Posts: A few GTA IV Impressions.

'It Wasn't Us!' Say Limbo of the Lost Developers.

You can't really say that you're tuned into video game news when you're a few days late posting a piece of news. In this fast-paced world of online media you'll get a cry of 'OLD!' even if you're only a few hours later than everyone else. In the case of this piece of news I read about it when it was first posted on the 24th June but I didn't post about it due to sheer laziness (although, to be fair, I've only just graduate and I've been contemplating my less than stellar result).

Well, for the two of you don't don't already know the developers of Limbo of the Lost (that adventure game that has scenes you clearly remember seeing somewhere before) have finally commented on accusations of plagiarism.

In response to the shocking notification that some alleged unauthorized copyrighted materials submitted by sources external to the development team have been found within the PC game Limbo of the Lost, we (the development team) have given our consent and full cooperation to both publishers who are recalling all units from all territories immediately.

Please be assured that we do not condone in anyway the use of unauthorized copyrighted materials and if we had been made aware earlier, we would of course have ceased development of the product and rectified the issue prior to the publication process.

Sigh.

Ok, so even if some assets were outsourced to some lazy art guy they should really have people who check these sort of things out. Honestly? I think it's a blatant - yet carefully worded - lie and the longer they deny that they stole from others the longer the embarrassment will continue. You see, if they just admit it and disappear then maybe no-one will really care. The longer they drag it out means it's more likely that someone they stole from will take it to court. I'm not entirely sure something like that will happen though, since the game has been pulled from distribution meaning they can't profit from it anymore anyway. Besides, their financial status will be so meaningless that no-one will get anything out of it if they try to sue.

One thing's for sure - these guys will never be getting a publisher again!

Meanwhile you can follow this guys excruciation walkthrough of the game

Limbo of the Lost devs respond to plagiarism charges - Gamespot.

Related Posts: New PC Adventure Game - Limbo of the Lost - Accused of Plagiarism.

A Selection of my Spore Creature Creator Creations.

I've been messing around with the Spore Creature Creator f0r a few days now and I'm loving it. I initially created some creatures with the trial version but I loved it so much that I purchased the full version. The full version gives you full access to all the parts and features of the Creature Creator (though I expect they may be further parts to unlock when the full game, Spore, is released) and it's high flexibility pretty much allows you to create any type of creature that your imagination can come up with.

My creations aren't amazing and, hopefully, I'll get a little better at it. Here are some of the creations I've made so far (you can add the creatures to your own Creature Creator by clicking on the name links, which goes to the Sporepedia):


This guy is known as Yurak (I know, it's a strange name) and the idea was some deformed version of a giraffe. I suppose I should probably have made him yellow but I thought orange went better with the black (it's a tiger giraffe!). Here he is with his kids:



Next up:



Limar!

And...



Deara!

Finally here's my attempt at creating a vaguely humanoid creature:



Homor (not Homer) also has his own video:



Check out my YouTube account for a few more! You can also visit my Sporepedia page.

Feel free to share your own creations in the comments. You can download the free and paid Creature Creator over at the Spore site.

SocioTown's Novel Way of Dealing With Uninvited Guests.

If you've ever played Second Life or Habbo Hotel - as two examples - then you'll eventually have to deal with the problem of uninvited guests appearing on your 'property'. Sure, you could just allow certain people in or, as in the case of Habbo, simply set a password but those are just totally boring, right? Why block people from entering your virtual home when you’ll miss out on the fun of punching or swinging them out of the room? Before you know it you’ll be punching your friends outside just because it’s funny!

If you want to try these nifty moves for yourself SocioTown is now in public beta. I'll be posting some of my impressions soon.

Related Posts: SocioTown - A New 3D Browser-Based MMO.

New PC Adventure Game - Limbo of the Lost - Accused of Plagiarism

Pretty much all ideas today are influenced by a previous idea in some way or another and, to an extent, this is completely acceptable. This is especially true in the video game industry as there are already established genres that are simply adapted to create something new. For example, the first FPS game (commonly thought to be Maze War) established the conventions that thousands of games since its development have used. No-one can be accused of directly copying the game in this sense as each successive game (for the most part) has built upon the genre in its own unique way. However, there is a difference between being influenced by a previous game and directly copying off a previous game - which is where the recently completed Limbo of the Lost comes into play.

You see, Limbo of the Lost is a point and click adventure game which, of course, has been done a countless number of times before and, of course, there is nothing wrong with this. What IS wrong with the game, however, is that it directly steals parts of level designs from other games. This includes backgrounds, textures, and even text. Let's see an example:


This is a scene from Limbo of the Lost which looks innocent enough, right?


Well, not when you compare it to a scene from Bethesda's 2006 game The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. Even the painting in the background is exactly the same as the painting in Oblivion.

Here's another example:



It's pretty much blatant theft of copyrighted scenes and textures and it makes it especially worse when Oblivion allegedly isn't the only game that has been stolen from. Other examples include scenes from Thief III, Unreal Tournament 2004, Painkiller and Diablo II amongst others. You can find them all over at this forum post on NeoGAF.

The US publisher, Tri Synergy, told Kotaku that they have "discontinued distribution" of the game and are "just as shocked as everyone else" following the revelations. I still don't see how they - Majestic Studios - could have got away with this in the first place. Secondly, they did really think that the gaming and Internet community wouldn't notice this? We have way too much time on our hands.

The game looks pants anyway (check out the two incredibly awful trailers) and, hopefully, legal action may force this sham of a company out of business. I have absolutely no respect for people who are so uncreative that they have to steal other people's creations just to make some money.

Limbo of the Lost stole from Oblivion, Morrowind, UT2K4, Diablo, Silent Hill, more? - NeoGaf (Via Kotaku)

Sporepedia Is Now Live!

You'd be forgiven for thinking that Spore was vaporware because, after-all, we haven't been hearing all that much about it lately. This makes it all the more surprising when, seemingly out of the bloom, the previously announced Sporepedia is suddenly released by EA.

The Sporepedia is basically an encyclopedic collection of the millions of creations that players have made in their own copy of the Spore universe - well, that is what it's supposed to be eventually. For now the Sporepedia is only populated by the creations the people of Maxis have designed but, once the game is released, you'll eventually be able to easily download them and add them to your own copy of the game.

The release of Sporepedia comes just a week before the Spore creature creator will be in the players hands (on June 17th). I for one can't wait - especially now that the system recommendations show that my aging PC can handle it!

Sporepedia - Maxis/EA

Tobioriya (Or, Um, Something to do With Arrows).

Now here's an odd one. In Tobioriya you fire arrows at naked people jumping from a building. Yup, and that's about it. There's some sort of score system but because it's in Japanese I don't actually have a clue what any of it means.

Oh well, pinning some naked people to a wall is a nice way to kill five minutes. You can download it from here (it's the second from the top).

Got a game you want me to take a look at? Email me or comment in the comments section!

A Few GTA IV Impressions.

So time got the better of me and I never actually wrote about my impressions of GTA IV. It's been a tough few weeks and, to be honest, updating this blog has been the last thing on my mind. However, I'm not here to talk about my personal life so let's get back to business. This isn't a review so I'm not going to cover everything, I just want to pick out a few of my thoughts about the game.

Playing video games has really been my only escape lately and it was a pure god send that a new GTA game was released during this time. I've always adored the GTA series, mainly because I can get lost in a whole new city while doing pretty much anything I want in my new home. GTA, as usual, didn't disappoint in this sense. As Niko Bellic steps off the boat at the beginning of the game you get a feeling his experience is the experience that many players feel when beginning a new GTA game for the first time. You're effectively a new immigrant to the city, just like the character you play in any new GTA game, entering a strange new world but also excited about the possibilities this new world presents. This links you from the start and, in the case of GTA IV, it's even more so with the character of Niko - an Eastern European immigrant. He's also an instantly likeable character, besides all the murdering he'll be doing, and you really get a feeling that he's doing what he's doing because he has to, not because he wants to. This attitude means that going on the usual GTA rampage seems out of character for Niko - it doesn't stop you doing it though!


For me the city is always the star of a GTA game. You can have a superb cast of characters and the best storyline ever but if the city isn't fun then it's not going to get me playing for long. You only need to drive down a single street in the revamped Liberty City to notice just how much care and attention has gone in to creating the immense detail that makes the city incredibly life-like. In the first few hours of play I saw a preacher spouting about the end of the world, workmen laying a new drive on a housing estate, people having conversations on their cell phones, random conversations everywhere, cops arresting and pulling people over. All this, and more (such as the radio stations and the incredibly detailed Internet), filled me with awe. It finally feels like you're living in an actual living breathing city instead of a bunch of buildings with empty lifeless husks walking around them. Couple this with some absolutely breathtaking scenery on behalf of it's New York City imitation and you're on to a winner.

This level of detail is also covered in the sheen of a totally new engine. Yeah, the game isn't the best looking game in the world but that's never expected from a GTA game and, besides, with a world like GTA IV's you can't really compare to other games that don't have the sheer level of detail but have incredible graphics. The game is by no means bad looking and it looks more realistic than ever. The weather effects are brilliant and each time of the day has it's own unique look. The character animations are incredible (although Niko can be a bit over-dramatic when he's nudged by a car) and, as such, gun fights now never feel like the same old point and shoot that the previous games had (although I love the new cover system it can be a bit awkward at times and the game still has a few targeting issues. Overall though the system is vastly improved so the few flaws can be forgiven). Everything just feels far more realistic.



There has been a few complaints about driving but I really don't see the problems myself. It's been described as being like 'driving on butter' but this is completely senseless in my opinion. It was far too easy to drive on previous GTA games, far too easy to scream around the corners when trying to escape from police. Scream around the corner in GTA IV without proper handling and you're going to end up hitting the nearest wall. Sure, it takes time to learn how to handle each car properly but that's the beauty of it. It's actually fun driving now because you have to think when approaching each corner. It's by no means at the standard of a racing game but it's getting there.

Multiplayer has been a bit up and down for me. The first few days after GTA IV's release saw me and a few friends playing it non-stop over Xbox Live. I hardly played the single player at first as free mode with a few friends was incredibly fun. It's just that it seemed to be a passing fancy for the friends I was playing with, whom have pretty much gone back to Call of Duty 4 while I play through GTA's singleplayer. Playing GTA IV with the random masses on Live is not half as fun - largely because it's full of asses but mostly because GTA IV is a game which is designed to enjoy with friends. 'GTA Race' is the only mode that I can really enjoy when I'm not playing with friends. Maybe it's because my friends love COD4 and I get easily bored of it that always leaves me in this situation as I'm the only one who seems to want to play GTA IV's multiplayer modes for an extended period of time. GTA IV's multiplayer is by no means bad when not played with friends but I feel you're missing out on a lot of what it has to offer if you're just playing with strangers.

It's not a perfect game by any means, but what game is perfect? I'm not the kind of gamer who'll get annoyed by a bit of pop-up and the odd glitch (although some of the glitches in GTA games can be incredibly fun) and no game is without it's flaws, specifically a game where an open world means it's harder for testers to cover every base. Although the storyline is absolutely stellar in this installment it's the city that's the real star and Rockstar North just provides the highly tuned tools to play around within its creation. The new generation of consoles doesn't just mean shiny graphics, it means adapting tried and tested formulas to fit with the tools the developer has at its disposal and also making sure that gamers will get something new and not just the same old game (no matter how much the said franchise has sold in the past because this streak will not last forever). At its core GTA is the same game it has always been but there's enough new and adapted quality as the crust to make GTA IV one of the defining moments of the current generation and maybe even the entirety of video game history. I, like many gamers, can't wait to see where Rockstar North takes GTA next.

Sorry.

Nope, I'm not dead.

I'll be back posting again when I've had some sleep. Bet you can't wait can you?