A full playlist of videos from the epic Titanfall, made by @moobit for @gamerdadsUK.
Contains:
*EXCLUSIVE press access behind the scenes from last year’s announcement launch
*A vlog regarding the game and commentary on the state of FPS games and originality in the industry today
*A guide on what to expect in YOUR first game Titanfall
*How to play Hardpoint Capture mode
*Footage from Gamerdads Last Titan Standing game night
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In this weeks gaming themed THOUGHT FOR FRIDAY VLOG, I show you a walk through of the training mode from the new TITANFALL videogame (available 14 March 2014 on XBox One and PC), whilst discussing a question that this very game brings up…
In the modern world of Films and Video Games, releasing known franchise sequels and relatively minor updates tends to take priority over originality and innovation (at least in AAA titles) – there are obvious marketing and profitability reasons for this, but it can mean that the true pioneers in the genre don’t get as much of a look-in with casual audiences.
Where have all the Codeboys gone?
Taking video games into account: I grew up in the era of the ZX Spectrum, Amstrad and C64 – a time where you could open a magazine and find ads for both AAA titles from the likes of Ocean and Codemasters right alongside ads for Indies and “Bedroom Developers” – the same was true in the shops – everything was clearly on view for all to see, and new styles of games were getting published and more importantly noticed all the time.
Due to my blogging for websites and Media Production, I am lucky enough to work within the games industry itself to an extent and therefore get to see details of all sorts of games from all genres. There are also many “Hardcore” gamer fans out there who eat up every morsel of gaming information on the net and frankly take it for granted that everyone knows what they know…
However; look from the perspective of a “casual” gamer and you realise that many people for many years in the last generation of consoles only “see” the big name games out there – the Call of Duties, the Battlefields, and the FIFAs of this world and don’t get to see the hidden gems buried deep within the pages of Xbox Live Arcade, PSN, and Steam – and that to me is a crying shame for the entertainment industry as a whole.
Hello? It’s good to be back!
However, as mobile technology started getting more sophisticated and more importantly cheaper, and with the rising popularity of Android games consoles, we seem to now be in the opening years of a resurgence of smaller dev houses and even the “bedroom developers” of old – we only have to look at the most recent example of the worldwide mobile smash “Flappy Bird” taking the world by storm and then just as quickly being taken down by it’s own creator who claimed he couldn’t cope with all the attention he was getting.
This isn’t to say that tablet and mobile gaming isn’t without it drawbacks, or that every game is truly original (Since Flappy Bird was taken down, hundreds of clones are now available to download from the app store), however apps do offer the best chance of a true original “game changer” to get noticed by the crowd.
Game fashions fit? Put it on the risk!
I believe that via a combination of a direct response to this and also the latest console hardware advances, we are beginning to see AAA companies taking a couple of risks too – Titanfall does seem to be amongst the first of these new IPs to try something new, albeit no MASSIVLY new – and for the most part is succeed brilliantly…
I just hope that this is a sign that there is more change to come and that the latest generation of big consoles are not doomed to yearly update mediocrity like (with hindsight) the last generation mainly seemed.
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Earlier this year, I took a look at the new Forza Motorsports 5 for Xbox One – now that you can officially play the game in the comfort of your own homes, I thought it apt I put up this post to show you how shiny-shiny this thing looks…
Look out for a full review very soon at Gamerdads.co.uk!
*http://www.gamerdads.co.uk – Never Too Old To Game!
*Associated Charity: http://www.specialeffect.org.uk – Game On For Everyone!
Brought to you by the Gamerdads Network – “Never Too Old to Game!”. Check them out at http://www.gamerdads.co.uk
Whilst playing in the Nintendo Street Pass Zone at The Game Pad (Twitter: @thegamepad_ng) at Nottingham Gamecity 8, I thought I’d take a few moments to open a discussion on parental responsibility when it comes to video games…
An entertainment revolution:
With Video Games now overtaking movies in terms of entertainment revenue, and with companies such as Nintendo and the many builders of Android based games consoles making gaming more accessible to the “casual” market, games developers are finally getting the “free rein” as it were, to create new and engaging content for gamers in the same way as Hollywood movie makers have been doing for Decades, and this, like movies, includes content that is both family friendly and content that is very Adult orientated in its subject matter…
And yet, the mass media (read: certain Newspapers who will remain nameless here), Politicians, and even the general public still seem to regard games as “a toy” – and then act shocked when they hear of little Billy being caught playing an Adult oriented game…
Sore Subject?
We’ve covered this subject many time on the Gamerdads Podcast, discussing both from a Parents viewpoint and a Gamers viewpoint – I myself did open quite a heated but very intelligent debate amongst followers of my Twitter Feed only this week when I came across the now infamous “Torture Scene” in GTA5 (more on that in a later blog post).
My question is this – who is responsible for “keeping our kids safe” (as seems to be the rant of many-a clueless Politician/Right Wing Newspaper)? The Developers/Distributors? A governing body? The parents and only the Parents themselves? or a mixture of the above?
Double Standards?
Personally I wouldn’t let “little Billy” watch a DVD of one of the 18-rated “SAW” films, so why do I regularly see parents going into GAME/other shops and buying a copy of Call of Duty or GTA for their kid who they’ve made to wait outside so as not to raise suspicion? Is it a case of offering better education to these people and therefore offering them an alternative from the multitude of age appropriate games out there? Or do you think that games are just that – a game – and therefore it’s OK to let underage kids play 18-rated games and watch 18 rated movies?
Comment below or on the YouTube video and let me know your thoughts on the subject! 🙂
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A vlog from inside GTA5 on the Xbox 360 shot during the height of the Halloween “celebrations”.
I start by asking you all an important question – is it a waste of time to celibate Halloween in the UK, or should we celebrate it in a similar way to the USA? I am on the fence on this subject as a cynical Brit – yes it’s great for the kids (my Daughter and I had a great time Trick or Treating on that night – alongside a large group of “up for it” local people, decorating their houses, etc) – but on the other hand, we get the occasional group of people using it as an excuse to cause a but of Havoc…
What are YOUR thoughts on the subject? Let me know below – I’d love to hear from any American readers too, seeing as the Holiday seems to be a highlight of the calendar over there. 🙂
The other point of the vlog is to cover one of the main changes brought in by Google to YouTube – mainly the insistence of linking your channel and the comments section to Google+
How are you fellow YouTubers finding this change? Has it brought more viewers or less viewers to your channels? I myself having an old account set up with Hotmail waaaay back in the day found the whole changeover a pain in the backside! Not a fan yet – but we’ll see how we go in the coming weeks.
If you want to see my new Google+ page, it can be found by searching for “moobitmedia” or clicking HERE.
A quick un-boxing of the new OUYA Android games console which I was happy to procure at this years Eurogamer Expo.
This is an excellent console and in this humble reviewers opinion (albeit from a retro-style preference for gaming) – the future of gaming for the casual audience…
A full review of capabilities and usability will follow very soon!
As part of my “catch-up” blog posts, (more on my absence later), here is a quick “un-boxing” video of the new Google Nexus 7 2013 tablet.
A full review will be up on this very blog in the near future, but in short I have now been using this tablet for about 3 months and it is excellent! In terms of other tablets I own and use, have one of every OS and I am finding myself reaching for my Nexus more often than the other two – high praise indeed!
What are your thoughts on this and other tablets on the market? Do we buy the “brand”, the “hardware”, or the “Operating System” these days? Comment below or on the YouTube post! 🙂
A review/unboxing video of the Xbox360 Chrome Series Red Controller – originally uploaded to the GamerdadsUK channel about a year ago (I am the Gamerdads.co,uk media manager).
These are getting quite rare in the shops, so if you see one, buy it – they are great! 🙂
As many people who know me or follow me on Twitter/GamerDads, etc will know, I have one the one hand enjoyed certain part of, but on the other hand have been overall a little unmoved and unimpressed in general with the latter half of the current generation of Videogames.
As the years have gone by, I have leant more and more back on my Retro Videogame collection over the Xbox360 and have also embraced Android/iOS for similar reasons – tablets and phones have given a much easier platform to Indie developers and “bedroom programmers” – in my view the scene is as close as we are ever going to get to the glory days of the Spectrum, in which indie and single person developers released fun, original, well thought out games right alongside the bigger name companies.
An Exception to my rule…
With that in mind, there are still a couple games on the main consoles that really did capture my imagination – games that dared to stray away from the usual FPS/sports sequel that dogged both the main consoles –games that concentrated on FUN and playability first, rather than shiny-shiny graphics. Examples amongst others include Mario Galaxy (yes I know it’s a Mario franchise game, but believe me the level designs are astonishing!), Fez, and surprisingly for me a certain EA game – one which although gaining positive reviews and cult status, didn’t do as well as expected commercially at the time – Mirrors Edge.
One of the most enjoyable games of this generation…
I know I constantly go on record as saying that I usually treat FPS games with an air of indifference, but used correctly, this perspective can be very effective – Fallout 3 for example was a perfect fit for me in terms of immersing myself in the RPG storyline – I also loved how you could “freeze time” and select body parts to wound/incapacitate your attackers. However in my opinion the “Faith Connors Eye view” in Mirror’s Edge still to this day remains the most effective use of a First Person Perspective in any video game or movie for that matter, creating a true sense of urgency, peril, and vertigo as you jump from rooftop to rooftop, trying to avoid confrontation with the totalitarian Police force.
Doing it for real…
With the above in mind, I was experimenting with my GoPro Hero 3 HD camera + Head Strap Mount at the Nottingham Riverside Festival 2013 (see a previous post involving First Person Plate Spinning HERE) when we came across a wooden obstacle course – I therefore decided that I would attempt to recreate a Mirror’s Edge style sequence to upload for YouTube’s recent Geek Week.
Before you start with the comments and trollin’ – remember that I’m old and quite unfit… and I was “racing” my Daughter…. she won… 😉
(Video Shot using a GoPro Hero 3 HD Black edition camera, set at 1080p and 30fps, attached to a Head Strap Mount, with “ProTune” turned off).
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