Gaming Anomalies & Questions

There are loads of things in games that we've all come accept as normal, but give them a second thought and, well, I'll let you decide...

1. It's OK to enter peoples houses, rummage through their stuff taking anything of use, even while they're still in it.

2. Why does nobody do anything for themselves in RPGs? "A big stork stole my basket!" I'm told. So why are you standing around outside your house asking me to go and get it back?! Fight your own stork.

3. Shooting barrel shaped objects will result in a huge explosion regardless of what's in it. Red ones usually have the best outcomes.

4. Who's job is it to go around putting all the extra ammo and health packs into smashable crates and then scattering them liberally around the area? And what are the wages like? I could be interested.

Have you ever fought a stork? Tell us about it and any other gaming anomalies on the Forum

How to save our planet

I’m no tree hugging hippy nor am I a green warrior but I’ve been feeling guilty about these carbon footprints that we all have and I want to do my bit to help the environment.

Lot's of us walk and cycle to work. Some take buses and trains more often, buy greener cars and we do as much recycling as we can. A friend of mine attaches this... to the bottom of all his emails, very commendable, and even our government are going to huge lengths to reduce the nations polluting by adding extra taxes to things they deem bad for our environment. Because paying more for things is really going to stop us doing these things isn’t it?! Where does all that extra money go anyway? I haven’t noticed them repairing the ozone layer lately!

So what can the average gamer do to help reduce carbon emissions? We know our consoles consume a lot of electricity. We leave them on standby so that messages, Mii’s and demos can all be downloaded while we’re asleep. We even leave them switched on when we’re busy doing other things and whether you’re a hardcore or casual gamer you can’t deny the power consumption of our consoles is harmful to the environment.

Well, thanks to one Norwegian Biologist we have a solution which will mean we can leave all our consoles and TV's on all the time and play as much as we want to without feeling even a little bit guilty.

“Shoot a moose and you have saved the equivalent of 2 long haul flights”, says Reidar Andersen after research showed that the animal expels the equivalent of 2100Kg of CO2 a year. 2 long haul flights! Wow that equals that’s a lot of game time.

Grab your shotguns gamers and track down a moose today.

Do you own a gun or live next door to a herd of moose? We need to hear from you NOW!.

When's The Wedding?

Recently I've started playing Harvest Moon Rune Factory on the DS. The game revolves around farming a plot of land, dealing with monsters, selling crops, collecting wood to extend your house so it's big enough for you and your wife. HOLD IT THERE! Did you say wife? What sort of crazy idea of a game is this?!

Soon enough though I found myself eyeing up potential mates. The strange girl in the woods? A little scarey and a tad pale too, potential vampire I reckon, nah. The maid in the big mansion? Down to earth, sweet even but she just doesn't do it for me, another no. I was giving up on the whole idea and then, in a shop, there she was. She seemed to be having a bit of an argument with a guy but 'she's the one', I thought. I don't yet know who this other guy is or how she feels about him but, she will be mine, oh yes, she will be mine.

Suddenly she ended the 'argument' and without even a glance ran straight past me and out of the door. I quickly rummaged through my inventory for a gift to give to her as a token of my love. I was woefully unprepared and had to settle... for a log (give me some credit here, I'd been busy ploughing a field all day I'd hardly had time to get chocolates and flowers had I?!). I hurried out of the shop door but the street was empty. Holding the 'R' button as hard as I could I frantically ran from left to right in the hope I'd find her, but she was no where to be seen. It was no good. She was gone. For good? I don't yet know, but from now on when I go to sleep to save my game, her face is the last thing I see.

To be continued...

Ever fallen for a game character? Invite us all to the wedding on the Forum

Vick's Monday Blues

Yes it's me, from the forum! What do you mean it's not Monday?...
Well just for this week we decided to move this to Tuesday due to the bank holiday.
This will be a regular Monday feature from now on from me, with the sole purpose of trying to help rid you of the Monday blues and get you chirping with jubilation about the first working day of the week.
So here we go...



If that raised a smile let us know on the Forum or if you just can't be arsed, leave a comment here instead

Thanks for watching, Vick.

Sunday Night Insomnia

Why do I always find it hard to get to sleep on a Sunday night? Am I worrying about Monday morning? Am I too relaxed or even over tired? Is it denial because I wish it were still Saturday night?

I went to bed last night at around 1am. I thought I was tired but I found myself staring at the blackness that was swirling around the ceiling while my mind raced hand in hand with nothing in particular. I tried to count sheep but it didn’t help. I’d been playing Space Giraffe earlier in the evening and that freaky psychedelic sheep kept appearing in my minds eye. So, I did the only thing I could and decided I was going to get up. I went downstairs, made a cup of camomile tea, turned on the 360 and loaded up Sonic the Hedgehog. In my sleepless yet tired state I found the blue spiky one quite relaxing. My blurry eyes helping the new HD visuals look extra special. That I didn’t need 30 fingers to play it certainly helped me and this simple gameplay meant I was soon racing through the Green Hill Zone and on to the Marble Zone. 03.50 arrived and with only 4 hours until I’d have to get up for work I had to put Sonic down (not like a vet does!) and go back to bed. A few minutes after climbing into bed I must’ve drifted off because the next thing I know it was time to get my weary self out of bed.

I still don’t know if it was the Camomile tea, the fact I stayed up until nearly 4am or a game of Sonic that helped me to finally get some sleep but whatever it was it hasn’t helped me through the day. I'm shattered!

Do you suffer from Sunday night or any night insomnia? Do you have a cure? Please tell me on the FORUM.

Polishing Turds

There's loads of top 10 lists of the worst video game box art on the internet, but what I want to know is what's going on in the peoples minds that create/choose this 'art' to sell their game?
Now I'm no marketing wiz kid, but for people to buy things they have to desire it right? So I put this to you, who would desire any of the following?

Let's start with this lovely piece:

What's this all about and what's their talent exactly? Not box art I can tell you now.... and who the hell are Drake & Josh anyway?!

Lets move on... quickly!




It struck me while researching this that amongst all the awful illustrations was a huge amount of games with photos on the cover.

Tip number one then: Putting a photo on the cover does not a cool game make! In fact any photo on there creates an instant 'cheapo game' look for you.

See what I mean?



Ok so let's readdress the balance a little with an illustrated cover. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you, Black Belt!


As if the backgrounds used for all these cartridges wasn't bad enough, it's worrying that someone actually thought, 'you know what this needs? A dismembered leg'.
Actually this one goes against the grain as the actual game is not that bad.


Now stop me if I'm wrong but surely if you're trying to fob crap off onto people, you'd try to make it at least look attractive and enticing to trick them? Isn't that the premiss behind the tonnes of little gadgets that get released? The cheap DVD player that looks like a Wii and is even called 'Wee'. Or the cheap DS ripoffs, it looks like a DS but open it up and it's more Game & Watch than 'Touch Generation'.

My only conclusion can be that with game art maybe you really can't polish a turd... but you can still put your game in a box smeared with one.

Show us your favourite worst covers on the GAMEOV3R Forum

Wii Still Sell Like Hot Cakes

It seems people just can't stop queueing up for a Wii... Ok it's an old joke, humour me...

According to figures from VG Chartz worldwide Wii sales have just passed Microsoft's Xbox 360. This is based on actual retail sales and not shipped numbers.

This is the first time that Nintendo has been market leader in the home console and the handheld market since 1994 when the SNES and Gameboy dominated the scene. Another interesting claim is that the Wii is now officially the fastest selling console in history even with all the shortages.

Just look at these guys eager little faces. Scenes such as this are still being mirrored all over the world. It's a Wii phenomenon and all this is happening even while we wait for some of the biggest hitting titles to arrive before Christmas. Lately it seems you can actually pick up a Wii now when you want one but it's looking like Nintendo's cupboard is going to be very bare again for the festive season.

Nintendo are appealing to a wider and wider audience attracting people who've never even bothered with games before. They took a big risk with both the DS and the Wii and it's sure paying off. Was it a lucky fluke or a great game plan?

Please tell us and while you're at it show us your tank top on the GAMEOVER Forum

Giraffetastic!

So Jeff Minters long awaited Space Giraffe finds its way to the XBLA today for the measly sum of 400 points and it has created quite a stir already but not all for the right reasons.

The Official Xbox Magazine review had this to say about it:
The Verdict 2/10 - BROKEN
Just really bad. Lacks a single redeeming quality, or it's busted to varying degrees in its own design, quality or basic functionality. No gamer of any stripe should bother.

Jeff didn't take this too well and launched into the following tirade:
"OK, I found him (the reviewer)on the Partnernet leaderboards. Come to think of it I remember having seen his entries before because they were a bit unusual. He's on as 'OXM Dan' and he has NO achievements at all for Space Giraffe. It's really pretty hard to play SG for any length of time and get no achievements whatsoever; there are a few that are given out fairly easily by way of encouragement. Genius-boy here has managed to get none at all... In short, the leaderboards show that OXM Dan was playing the game in about the most shit way possible, and being absolutely crap at it. The leaderboards also show a lot of other people playing the game rather well, so we know it's not the game at fault here. Basically he was just rubbish."Burn!"

So after taking all that on board I've given the demo a go. I'm not going to do a review here I'll just give you an idea of what it's about in one sentence. It's very Tempest, very trippy (did you expect anything else?) with the big difference being that rather than trying to stop enemies reaching the edge, in Space Giraffe you actually want to gather them there for execution in the most profitable manner. That one sentence is probably more help than the whole of the tutorial!

As much as Jeff Minter is revered as a legend I think this time he only has himself to blame for some of the low scores this has been getting. The biggest reason some people aren't 'getting it' is down to the awful tutorial. The clues in the word surely... 'tutor'! You're supposed to tell me what I'm doing and how to do it well, not just tell me to “stay in the power zone!”, what's the damn power zone and how exactly do I get into it?! Argggh!
I managed to extract a few more clues from the “How to play” section but not much. “Keep an eye on my Power Zone and do the right thing to keep it extended” it says... the only thing I can see extending at the moment is my middle finger towards the TV screen!

Sorry Jeff but if people aren't playing your game right it's because they have no clue how to and there's only one person to blame for that. Having learned one technique 'the bull move', I started enjoying myself even though I'm still not always sure when I'm aloud to perform it! It's a shame as I'm really starting to like this game and I will probably download the full version and find out how to play it 'properly' elsewhere. In fact for anyone that's still interested http://www.llamasoft.co.uk/games/space-giraffe-walkthrough is the place to visit for just that. Now why isn't all that help in the game itself Jeff?

Our Giraffe is in another castle indeed.

Do you have a fondness for furry creatures? Tell us about it on the Forum

Waiting Game

Us European gamers are constantly complaining that we're getting the crappy end of the stick when it comes to game release dates. That we have to wait, wait, wait for the games we want to play as we impatiently watch games get released in Japan and America long before a Euro launch is even mentioned. How long have the US had Super Paper Mario on their Wii’s? Too long. The Japanese get so many Triple A titles from their top publishers that we wait months for and even after months of waiting these games sometimes vanish from the radar and never see the light of day outside Japan. This bugs the heck out of us. We've all heard the reasons why there are delays, let's not go into that here, and no, it's nothing to do with the odd Central European having a poor grasp of the subtleties and use of English, but did you know that sometimes, just sometimes, the shoe is on the other foot? Or perhaps in this case the disc is in the other console?

Earlier this year, a petition from Japanese gamers appeared online. Why? They wanted to play a localised version of the then unlocalised Elder Scrolls RPG Oblivion. The petition worked, those gamers got their wish, and the game has been brought to The Land of the Rising Sun in Japanese.

Famitsu recently brought word that Xbox 360 games Mass Effect and BioShock will be getting full localisation too albeit after the western releases. This news should make the 3,000 odd Japanese people that are buying Xbox 360s every week very, very happy.

Proof indeed that Japanese gamers have to wait for Triple A titles too.

Sometimes.

Are you happy the Japanese have to wait too or would you die for the right to have worldwide simultaneous release dates? Get yourself heard on the Forum.

Dirty, Rotten Cheaters

Recently I've come across some compelling evidence that suggests someone I know has artificially inflated their Gamerscore on the Xbox 360. The level to which this has been done bares comparison to blowing up a small comically shaped party balloon to a size suitable for hanging a small woven basket beneath and attempting to travel around the world in it.

I don't get this at all being a big fan of the achievements system on the 360. While your Gamerscore is ultimately a completely meaningless number, the achievements do encourage me to explore games a lot more than I normally would and I do come away feeling like I've been rewarded for my efforts. Where is the enjoyment in having a big Gamerscore to boast about when you haven't actually earned it yourself? Ask yourself who you're kidding?

I spoke to GAMEOV3R about this very topic earlier and I'm sure you can probably guess his stance on the whole thing. “GAMEOV3R detests cheaters” he mumbled in between shoving another cheese puff into his mouth, “cheating is almost as stupid as introducing yourself to the guy at the next urinal”.

I took it upon myself to find a definition of a cheater and found the following:
Cheater - A bearing angle adjustment which allows ‘indexing’ between teeth. This is usually a worm gear with a knob that is turned by hand.


Hmmm, the United States Faceters Guild dictionary clearly wasn't what I required this time... I tried again.
Cheater - Those unwilling to study or lacking the mental acumen to earn a desired grade.

Oooooh harsh :)

How far is too far when it comes to cheating? We want to know on the Forum.

Mega Delight

I slipped on my glasses, switched on my Wii and clicked on the Shop Channel. 2800 points waiting to be spent, my wife in the bath and with the knowledge that Paper Mario is available it was only a matter of time before this moment arrived. But what's this! My eyes are drawn to something else and Paper Mario is almost blown over as my little blue pointer whisks across the screen and clicks on Mega Man. Mega Man in his most pure NES form. Oh joy! I played this game to completion and absolutely loved it. I have to have it and I click to download. Perhaps my glasses have rose coloured lenses?

The game downloads and I hastily load it up. Waves of nostalgia. This is what being a retro game fan is all about I think to myself. Gamers new to the scene don't know what they're missing! This is great! My huge grin remains as I press start and open the Level Select Screen. You get to play the levels in any order you want but doing them in the right order makes the game easier. Did I remember which level to tackle first? You bet I did, but I'm not telling you in case I spoil your fun. So, off I go jumping and shooting my way through the first level still grinning like a maniac.

Ok, time for a reality check? After all this is an old game from 1987 on an 8 bit NES. It can't be that good! But it is! Sure there are limitations but those limitations are built into Mega Man's character. He can't duck, doesn't shoot vertically or diagonally, he moves a bit slow and his jump worse than a rabbit on a chain gang. But none of this matters as the game works in every respect and is never frustrating. It's never an easy game though, oh no, it's a tough and challenging nut to crack and less experienced gamers may find it too tough. But for those with the skill this is a great game and offers huge bragging rights. 500 points/£3.50 gets you a piece of awesome gaming history. It's a steal. I guess those glasses have only the slightest hint of rose.

Is Mega Man too hard for you? Does he make you cry? Discuss this and much more on our FORUM.

No Freeloaders

So Nintendo have scuppered Datel's Freeloader use on the Wii with their recent firmware update. A deliberate ploy to harm import gaming or an innocent unforeseen result of the minor improvements the Wii has received?

When we contacted Nintendo and asked about their current stance on freeloaders, Nintendo said they don't tolerate good for nothing mooching, blood sucking parasitic leeches on any level. We spent the next eight and a half minutes explaining the type of freeloader we were refering to, only to be met with a 'no comment'.

Are you a parasitic leech? Discuss this and much more on our FORUM.

GAMEOV3R flicked the power button

GAMEOV3R stirred. He’d slept for too long he was grumpy. He prodded Lee, with his long pointy stick, kicked Matt on the shin then stroked the cat to sooth his mood. It was time to gather together and launch the GAMEOV3R Blog and Forum
This was going to be it! Time to say hello to gamers everywhere!

After a group hug, some singing, while GAMEOV3R gargled mouthwash, and a game of Bomberman LIVE they all gave thanks, briefly but respectfully, to the mighty Golden Joypad then the team were ready.

A warm welcome to you all. A lot of effort and time has gone into creating the GAMEOV3R Blog and Forum
and we hope you enjoy visiting regularly. There will be a lot going on over the next few weeks despite us being in our nappies.

The team consists of GAMEOV3R himself and his hosts Matt and Lee, more info on the right under “Who are we?”.

Sharing a wealth of gaming knowledge resident GAMEOV3R writers Matt and Lee have been gamers for over 25 years though the years have not been kind. A lot of writing, more talking and many hours playing games says that they should be experts but GAMEOV3R knows different!

Enough for now but prepare yourselves and we look forward to reading your comments and talking to you all in the Forum


GAMEOV3R -- GAME ON!