Custom Game Soundtracks

One thing that paticularly annoys me about the 'next gen' of consoles are custom soundtracks. The Xbox 360 already has this feature available in any game, and users on PS3 forums everywhere are practically screaming for the feature to be added in a firmware update.

Why?

The majority of games out these days are either virtually just multiplayer, or very atmospheric games.

I'll start with the former. If you're playing multiplayer, surely the last thing you're paying attention to is the music. Even if you do notice the music, it's deliberately background music as not to distract you or simply to add to the immersion. Atmospheric games' music has even more importance. Game developers these days must spend a fairly hefty portion of their budget on the soundtrack, many games these days having extensive fully orchestrated scores for the game only for some greasy numpty to kill the mood with the emo flavour of the month. I'll demonstrate this, here's a portion of the wonderful opening level of Bioshock with a 'custom soundtrack'.

Point proven. I do hope this feature is not added to the PlayStation in a firmware update as otherwise we may well eventually lose the fantastic soundtracks we're getting at the moment as the majority aren't listening to them.

That Mitchell and Webb Look - Mid-Series Review

Currently 4 episodes into the series, That Mitchell and Webb Look continues the duo's style of slightly surreal, but always very original comedy.

Unlike the uncomfortably racist Little Britain which reused the same 7 or so sketches over three series, M&W rarely reuse the same sketch over one episode. In fact, so far over the series so far there has only been one completely reused sketch (the Helivets).

Some of the highlights are the occasional 'on the set' sketches where the pair supposedly play themselves and perform some of the wittiest dialogue I have heard in a long time.

Warning - Contains strong language.

Copyright BBC 2008

Without a doubt it's one of the funniest programmes on television at the moment, and is well worth watching.

That Mitchell and Webb Look
Thursdays, 9:00pm BBC 2

World of Warcraft - First Impressions

Firstly, welcome to whiteNOISE! I've decided to kick off with my thoughts on what probably is the biggest MMORPG on the market, World of Warcraft. The review's 'First Impressions' as not only have I only got a 10 day trial account, but also because after a few hours of gameplay I was so mind numbingly bored I had to stop.

Firstly, not usually something relevant in a review is the download size. After 3.91GB of downloading, I'd already lost a day of my trial and just when I thought I could jump in and see what everyone was talking about, I had to wait another few hours whilst it updated itself.

Once I was finally in, there were a few pleasant cutscenes, one FMV and another in-game cutscene. That was where the fun pretty much ended however. After talking to the first NPC I was given a relatively simple quest, to go and kill some particular beasties. One thing the game did not make clear to a new player is that there are multiple types of the same enemy, only one of which are the ones you need to kill. After working this out and taking down the relevant number I headed back to the quest giver and this process continued.


In itself this isn't a problem, but they all seem to be like this. Every single quest I played was 'go here, kill these, come back' with the occasional variant of 'go here, collect these whilst others attack you, meaning you'll have to kill them first, come back'.

I do have some plus points, although they are very minor. I do quite like the graphical style of it, they've made it all look pleasant, nothing special but it's nowhere near unbearable. I also like the long XP bar running along the bottom of the screen and believe it or not, death. Dying was actually quite enjoyable. Unlike some games where you would just respawn, perhaps with nothing you were carrying or reduced stats, you tun into a ghost. Your corpse remains and you have to return to where you died and resurrect yourself. One problem with this is that usually anything that killed you is still lingering around. You can pay a 'spirit guide' to resurrect you in a safe place, but at a cost.


Overall, I really can't see the appeal. Some might say that it's the social element to the game, meeting up and playing but I really can't see how that makes the game worth playing, let alone paying for.

However, despite WoW's terminal case of 'not-being-funorhoea' I do have a recommendation for fans of the MMORPG, EVE Online.

Unlike most MMORPGs, EVE Online is set in the future and in space. You do not control your character but your character is the pilot of your own ship.


Graphically, this game is stunning, if fairly baron. You do not slowly fly to places, you will usually warp to them, which is still a very impressive way of travelling as stars and planets fly past you.

One of the games downsides is the user friendliness. The opening tutorial is a little confusing, and if you get ahead of the tutorial at a number of stages, it will sit and wait for you to do something you have already done, refusing to move on. You are also given a few quests early on which do not clearly explain what to do. The emphasis in EVE Online is less on fighting, more on exploration and building. You need to gather resources to build certain objects, either for quests or for upgrading your ship. Combat still features and I have no doubt that it will become more promenant later on through questlines but it is clear that it is not the sole focus.

It's this variety that makes the quests actually fun. There is an element of thought that goes into them, looking through the menu systems to find where you need to go and what you need to collect. There is also elements of real-time in the game, quests will have additional rewards if you complete them within a certain time frame, and they will expire if left uncompleted.

EVE Online is also set on one single massive server, so there isn't an issue of server switching to contact friends.

These are again, just the first impressions of the game as I only have the standard 14 day trial account. Also, if you're interested, despite the graphical imporvements EVE Online's initial download is 2GB smaller than WoW's at only 1.9GB, and no additional patches to download.

If you're interested in trying out some of the MMORPGs on the market, I'm not writing off WoW as thousands of people seem to enjoy it, but I would say try EVE Online first.