Our editor blogs on what to expect here
To vote on what you think the tablet will look like, and to see poll results, go to guardian.co.uk
2009 was an undeniably eventful year for the video game industry. Countless surprise announcements, delays, controversies and, most importantly, many releases of fantastic games ranging from big-budget releases such as Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 to unexpected sleeper hits such as Demon’s Souls. The overwhelming fact, however, is that 2010 looks to be just as big, if not bigger. So, I present to you now, dear readers, my own list of what to look forward to in the new gaming year…
Starcraft II
It’s been a long time coming but gamers are finally within grasp of the sequel to what many consider to be the finest real time strategy game ever made and Korea will finally have an update to their national sport. Gamers may be frustrated by the numerous delays but rest assured that, from Blizzard, delays only mean that the game is not yet perfect and they will not let it hit shelves until it is.
Taking away the fiddly hero mechanic of Warcraft III, which has become ever so trendy in many rts games since, Starcraft II will shift the focus back on amassing huge armies and out-strategising your opponents with those familiar factions we all know and love; The rough-and-tumble human terran, the vicious and beastly zerg, and the mysterious and powerful protoss. The story of the single player campaign promises to have that Blizzard signature level of quality and intrigue and with Blizzard’s rock solid Battle.net system the multiplayer is guaranteed to smooth, accessible and FUN!!
Golden Sun DS
While the release date is strictly TBA 2010 there should not be a DS owning RPG fan on the planet who is not excited for the third instalment of the Golden Sun series. The first two games were standouts for the Gameboy Advance and the genre of Japanese RPGs in general. The innovative Djinn system made combat and character progression far more involved than the usual grind-fest found in other games of the same ilk and with the added muscle power and dual-screen/touch functionality of the DS, I see no reason why Camelot Software shouldn’t make this game a handheld adventure to savour and remember.
Zelda News
We have seen a teaser poster and little else, but we know that there is definitely another Legend of Zelda game making its way to the Wii. It is very unlikely that the game will see a release next year, but we can bet with fair certainty that we will see a substantial Zelda related announcement at E3 2010. This should excite gamers everywhere as there are scant as many long-running and consistently brilliant series as The Legend of Zelda. It is most likely that the game will feature Wii Motion Plus functionality, possibly bringing a whole new realm of interactivity to the combat controls. Interestingly, in the teaser poster Link is seen without his trusty master sword. Fans already have noted the similarities between the legendary blade and the mysterious female figure standing behind Link, so just what is going on? I look forward to finding out…
Mass Effect 2
Obviously.
Bioshock 2
What more can be said about the sheer scope and imagination behind the setting and story of 2007’s Bioshock? Next year gamers will have a chance to step back into the dank world of Rapture and stalk splicers through its deco halls, this time as one of those armoured, hulking behemoths known as a Big Daddy! Although 2K has shifted this series from their Boston studio to 2K Marin, meaning Ken Levine is not at the helm as he was for first game, impressions so far suggest that the sequel stays true to its predecessor and will expand the world of Rapture into even deeper political and philosophical complexity. This is another game that has been delayed from a 2009 release, meaning that gamers should be guaranteed a polished and balanced experience.
Metroid: Other M
This could be something really special. The combined efforts of Nintendo and Team Ninja (of Ninja Gaiden and Dead or Alive fame) are hard at work to create a Metroid game that takes the series back to its roots whilst making a brand new and unique experience. Footage so far has shown first-person gameplay as seen in the Metroid Prime series as well as 2D scrolling action as if straight out of the 2D Metroid games of old. This is not to mention the acrobatic combat action that would be right at home in Ninja Gaiden. It looks as if Samus is learning some new moves to complement the ice-beam and screw-attack, exciting news for any fan of the series. A game that promises to be challenging, engaging and unique, the wii needs more titles like this.
So, there you have it. I failed to mention so many more such as Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, Alpha Protocol, Dark Void, God of War III, Dante’s Inferno, Darksiders, Command and Conquer 4: Tiberium Twilight, the list goes on and on. It is going to be huge year for gaming. Gamers, strap on your utility belts, save your pennies and ready yourselves!
Jim Dixon
Did you know that there are over 30,000 apps in the iTunes app store?! The exact number is unknown but that’s the number the Apple marketing team churn out.
But which apps are best? Well , I’m going to guide you through the deep jungle that is the App store. You’ll thank me when you decide not to spent 59p on those 18 pets in 1 apps that you were lusting for.
Here are the best 8 apps as chosen by someone who’s had their iTouch for a few months:
Best for: Twitter
Tweetie 2
I have all the Twitter apps that were ever released and I have spent £20 in all on my Twitter obsession. But out of all of them only one has impressed me enough to use it more than once and that is Tweetie. On Tweetie you can do everything that you can do on Twitter via the web, but on the go. That means you can flip out your iPhone and share that oh-so-hilarious advert to all your twitter buddies as it happens. Tweetie’s sleek interface makes reading Stephen Fry’s tweets that much easier.
Price: £1.79
Best for: Sorting your life out
Things
Things has made my life easier and has saved me from a year of re-takes. Before Things came to my life I was a lost soul trying to make sense of university and the traps it set me (read: essays). I needed something to help me keep in track. Now with Things I have never missed an essay deadline again. The great thing about Things is that the number of stuff you have to do is on top of the app, so you never forget. You can also add notes to the to-do object to remind you. A bit pricy, but it is a lifesaver.
Price: £5.99
Time Table
I am always losing papers and when I find them, they are scrunched up and flattened by my bag. My uni timetable was an unfortunate victim but I have replaced it with an electronic version. Time Table looks like your standard timetable but in technicolour! You assign a colour for the chosen subject, ste the time/notes and voila, instant timetable. Guaranteed to be neat and crease free.
Price: £0.59
Best for: Understanding the Tube
London Tube Deluxe
This is so far the most useful app I have come across in the App store. When the rare chance comes around that travel into inner city London is in order, I like to check which trains are running and what time they arrive at the station. The full map of the Underground comes in useful too. This app has saved me a lot of bother and that’s why I am featuring it on this list. I don’t need anything back from it in return. I can’t get it anyway. It’s an app. It does not live.
Price: £0.59
Best for: Wasting time
Cooking Mama
The iPhone version of the DS semi smash hit, Mama squeaks at you to do better with you flame eyes as you try to cook 12 virtual dishes. They range from Japanese fare to cupcakes but like a discounted doughnut, it leaves you really empty.
Price
Full version: £3.99
Lite: £Free
Tetris
The classic comes to iPhone, now with items, the ability to hold pieces and special effects to appeal to the youth. Still addictive and the definition of the time waster. Shame this version doesn’t come with the coffee break symbol.
Price: £2.99
Tamagotchi: Round the World
Instead of an annoying virtual blob to look after, you have to help the blob look after the whole planet. Dance, sing and poop your way through nine worlds, each with unlockable bonuses and pastel visuals. It burned my fingers and that is worth the price.
Price
Full: £2.99
Lite: £Free
Solmaz Farad
Hype is surely the most effective marketing tool in any company’s utility belt. When the public are so excited about an upcoming product that they are willing to trawl the Internet for a slightly higher definition version of the teaser trailer and flood Amazon with their pre-order cash before a release date has been announced, you know you’re onto a winner.
This year there has surely been no single work of entertainment that has induced such ravenous hype as Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. The game has now been available in stores for almost a month, sales figures are astronomical and the servers are filled with happy gamers. But, is the game really worth the extraordinary amount of hype that precluded its release?
The hype machine for Modern Warfare 2 first kicked into gear on March 25 of this year when the teaser trailer containing the now infamous line “Remember, no Russian” (more on that later) was first shown at San Francisco’s Game Developer Choice Awards. I could not name a category from the Awards show, never mind a winner. The big news from the show was that Modern Warfare 2, sequel to the amazing Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, was on the way. More trailers, interviews and gameplay clips were released at a steady clip as the months rolled by, all of them doing downloads in the hundreds of thousands. The game was secure at the top of every gamer’s to-buy list.
Several weeks before release news hit headlines of the infamous “No Russian” mission. In this mission players take on the role of an undercover CIA agent infiltrating a group of Russian terrorists as they massacre civilians in an airport. The player can choose to join in on the civilian shooting gallery or just watch it unfold. Multiple times before reaching this stage the game warns you of its disturbing content and gives you the option to skip, but this didn’t stop the media circus. The controversy even sparked discussion in the House of Commons. True to form, The Daily Mail had a lot to say about it at the time and Sam Leith’s review of the game on their website is 435 words long, 269 of which are dedicated to describing the scene in detail and piously condemning it. Still, if the Grand Theft Auto series has taught us anything it is that moral outrage does little to hurt a game’s sales and can indeed be an important cog in the hype machine.
On 10 November the game was released. To date it has had the biggest launch in entertainment history, grossing more on its first day than Grand Theft Auto 4, The Dark Knight and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I, like many gamers, was lined up behind the counter of my local Blockbuster waiting to get my hands on it. Unfortunately due to a broken right hand induced by an angered punch to a couch sparked by an accidental bite of the lip whilst eating a lovely slice of bread pudding (true story), I was not able to play the game very much during that first week but since I have made up for lost time.
What I can safely say after my time with it is that the game is superb. The graphics are gorgeous, the controls are unmatched and the game runs at a surprisingly solid framerate. So, does it live up to all this immense hype? The issue here is not with the game itself but with the whole phenomenon of hype. How can anything justify such borderline hysteria without being some kind of cultural revolution? Surely hype should come after release when people have been exposed to the final product, reviews are up and word of mouth has spread.
At the age of eleven I was personally stung by this phenomenon for the first time. It was 1997 and toys, fast food promotions and television specials were abundant for the ill-fated Joel Schumacher opus, Batman and Robin. Finally the film hit theatres and even at eleven years old it struck me as a camp load of nonsense. The next year TriStar Pictures began marketing Godzilla and the whole process began again. Modern Warfare 2 is certainly not a Batman and Robin situation. The game is excellent, but I am still left somewhat cold and empty, like a child on Christmas morning whose toy fire engine is great, but doesn’t fulfil his every dream as he had hoped. I have once again been battered with the hard lesson that hype is not intense public excitement for a product that has proven its worth, but the workers’ tool of the skilled marketing executive.
Those of you who have yet to learn the brutal lesson of succumbing to hype only to have your dreams shattered may not need wait too long. James Cameron’s Avatar is just around the corner…
Jim Dixon
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Remember Tamagotchis? No? Well the beeping nightmares that got you suspended from primary school are back (well, they never went away) but in colour!
On November 23rd, Bandai will unleash their second colour Tamagotchi to Japanese schoolgirls called the Tamagotchi ID. The ID improves on its big brother in many different ways; one is that you can customise your pet’s personality. This means that you can have the perfect Tamagotchi and sail through school/job/unemployment. But Bandai hopes to draw in its core audience by offering the choice to change the outer shell of your Tamagotchi, so that yours will be somewhat unique.
But what can they Tama itself do, you ask? Now it can do all the things you do, like go to the shopping centre, send and receive letters and get in touch with its inner Alan Titchmarsh with its very own garden! So that makes it like a less perverted version of Second Life. Price is TBA and is only available on import as a European release looks unlikely.
Solmaz Farad
More on Tamagotchi at www.tamatown.com
As with the sleeker update of the Curve series, Blackberry has also updated the 3G Bold. Now flatter than its chunky brother, the Bold 9700 is designed with the lady commuter in mind.
Other features is the new trackpad, advanced media controls and a hi-resolution screen. Competition to get first hands on the new model is already hotting up as T-Mobile and AT&T all want it for their network and it looks like T-Mobile is winning. Billed as yet another iPhone beater, the Bold 9700 hits stores late November.
On November 21st, Nintendo will release the sooner than expected upgrade of the DSi, called the DSi LL (XL in the US and Europe).
Priced at the credit crunch friendly ¥20,000, it boasts a 4.2 screen, which is 93% bigger than the DS Lite’s screen. Plus it comes with an executive style pen so you can feel extra important while you play Cooking Mama 3 on the Tube.
The console is more geared for the types who need more than three gadgets at their person as the huge screen can project clear lettering. It comes in three colours: black, white (called ‘Natural White’) and wait for it…burgundy. I predict huge block stretching lines when it comes out in Japan and trade in deals when it hits UK stores in Spring 2010.
By Solmaz Farad