GTA 4 is a great game, but not the perfect game that many reviews would lead you to believe. It’s extremely playable and great fun, with multitude of different gameplay elements crammed in there. You’ll also get somewhere approaching 40+ hours of entertainment from just completing the core missions (i.e. following the main game’s plot). I haven’t even factored in the multiplayer aspect, which is another game itself and a very welcome addition too. But there are a few unsavoury bits in GTA 4, and I’m not talking about the dodgy characters! I’ll discuss these bits as part of my look into 2 of the main elements of GTA 4; in-game artificial intelligence (AI) and in my next post the in-game graphics.

The AI - A bit dim, me:

If GTA 4’s AI was asked to hand over its end of year report to its parents it would show a D+. Shows glimpses of intelligence but spends too much time asleep in the corner, dribbling.

Although to be fair, the GTA 4s AI had a mountain to climb to be anything remotely good when all the previous games were a bit thick. That’s not to say that the AI hasn’t improved. It has, but not as much as I’d expected, or even felt was needed. I can’t help but feel that Rockstar has been a bit lazy in this department. Given the ridiculous budget ($100 million depending on who you believe on the internet) that was available to develop this game we should be marvelling at the realistic, living, breathing, sprawling metropolis populated by realistic inhabitants. Instead, we get a bloody great city populated by idiots. As such I present to you 2 examples of GTA 4s rather stupid behaviour:

It wasn’t me Officer - There I was sitting in a taxi, enjoying the sights and sounds of Liberty City, when my ride came to an abrupt halt. I could see that we’d stopped because of all the traffic ahead waiting to get over the bridge. Fair enough, citizens dutifully paying their tolls. But as the minutes ticked past, and we failed to move an inch, I became just a little bit board. So I paid the nice taxi driver and decided to go jack the car at the front of this toll booth queue. It’s the done thing in GTA, trust me. However, as I got closer to the toll booth the actual cause of the gridlock became clear. A police cruiser. I stood there and watched the pathetic sight of this cruiser gently rocking back and forth stuck between a concrete wall and a toll booth. It was mildly funny until I realised that it never looked like it was ever going to escape. I hadn’t expected the games AI to trip itself up so easily. All very disappointing, even if a little funny to watch.

I seem to be missing a gear – Your character is the only person in the whole of Liberty City that is able to put any car into reverse. I’m serious. I’ve not seen a single, damn car try to reverse itself out of a tight spot/pile up/around an obstacle. Due to the AI being generally rubbish, these situations occur all the time. Also there always seems to be one of these traffic jams when you’re trying to outrun the cops or tail/chase/kill someone. Mmm, suspicious. Couldn’t Rockstar have engineered with a better way of challenging the player than using lazy AI?

Here’s a video illustrating some of the more interesting “features” of GTA 4. As you’ll see it’s not just the AI which is a little bit buggy, its affected many of the vehicles in Liberty City as well:

So that’s the AI covered; lazy and frequently buggy, but hey that’s part of the GTA charm! For my next post I’ll cast my eye over GTA 4s graphics. Next-gen lovelyness or another case of Rockstar being lazy?

Age rating:

3+ (PEGI)

What is it?

A Mario game - 3D-platformer.

Is it fun?

Yes.

Is it worth the money? £29.99

Yes.

Why?

I’ve always been rather indifferent when it comes to Mario games until I played Super Mario 64, which was brilliant. Unfortunately the GameCube’s Mario extravaganza (Super Mario Sunshine) was well, total poo to be honest. However, I’m pleased to say that Super Mario Galaxy tops even the great Mario 64 for sheer enjoyment. I can’t even complain of the total lack of imagination shown by Nintendo when it churns out the same games for each generation of Nintendo console when this incarnation of Mario is just so much fun.

The graphics look great (by Wii standards) and complement the game wonderfully. Sure there are some iffy looking textures and a few jaggies, but I didn’t care as the whole game is amazing. The sound is a perfect mix of chirpyness and classic Mario sounds and themes. It also has a brilliant, brilliant music track for the Battlerock galaxy that I challenge anyone to play this galaxy and not have a giant smile on their face.

I loved the whole playfulness of Mario’s new galaxy environment. Flying, flipping, gliding, jumping and catapulting between all the planets on each of the levels is just awesome. The attention to detail that the designers have lavished on every planet, however small is a joy to behold. I loved the way that seemingly simple puzzles were brought to life by splitting them over lots of mini planets and great use of the Wii controller. This is probably the first game after Wii Sports where the control method just feels right. From rolling around on top a giant ball, to flying through the air as a little bumble bee, the Wiimote and nunchuk make controlling Mario something to be enjoyed.

Bad points. Well, swimming underwater takes a bit of getting used to. The camera has a habit of choosing the worst time to change its viewpoint, which usually happens when you’re negotiating a really nasty sequence of platforms.

It took me just over 14 hours to get to the end of the game and finally beat Bowser, but that still leaves me with another 55 power stars to collect. Then I’ll have finally completed the game. So Lordy knows how long that’s going to take with some fiendish and very dexterous puzzles lying in wait.

In summary:

A wonderful game in every way. Mario is the easily the best game on the Wii.

Screenshots:

Age rating:

3+ (PEGI)

What is it?

Futuristic racing game, with lots of lovely weapons.

Is it fun?

Yes.

Is it worth the money? £22.99

Yep, every penny.

Why?

Like anything in life, practice makes perfect. So given that Wipeout Pulse is the 8th incarnation of the futuristic racing series does the same analogy hold true? I’m pleased to say it does. Everything that was good about Wipeout Pure has been built upon in Pulse with the following additions:

• More tracks - 12 new ones
• More teams - 12 teams in total
• New Mag-strip track surface - Tracks can now have loops and super sharp turns.
• New weapons - Repulsor, shurikens and cannon
• Team loyalty system
• Adjustable AI difficulty
• Custom soundtracks
• Custom ship skin creator - via wipeout-game.com
• New tournament structure
• Photo mode - Take your own pretty pictures, as I did for this review
• On-line racing

Yep, on-line racing is there for the first time. Now I get my butt kicked on-line as well as off line and I can see just how slow my times are via the wipeout-game.com site Yay, I think. It is a welcome, if slightly overdue addition to the series.

The adjustable AI (easy, normal and hard) opens up a lot more of the game to most people. In the previous games, increasing the difficulty by increasing the speed resulted in few people actually completing all the tournaments. Now, at least, the Wipeout tourist setting (aka easy) allows you to experience the whole game. However, it doesn’t prepare you for the harsh reality of on-line racing though. For that set the difficulty to hard. Well, technically you need an evil setting (aka human) to be fully prepared.

It’s not all sugar and spice and all things nice in Pulse. To my mind the balance of time trials to races during tournaments is a bit off. There are simply too many time trials and not enough races. I like races, time trials are just boring. Also enough with the Zone races. I know this was quite a cool addition to Pure but Studio Liverpool had gone a bit OTT with the number of Zone races you have to complete. Tons of them, again with the boring.

It seems Sony have decided to start squeezing every last drop of coin out of Wipeout. How? Well, the previously free downloadable content for Pure now costs money in Pulse. These expansion packs vary in price from £1.99 to £3.49 (4 have been announced - Mirage and Icaras are available now). It’s another case of micro transaction infestation.

Finally, it’s a Wipeout game without any CoLD SToRAGE music. Bad, bad, bad. At least I can now create a customised soundtrack (something also available in Wipeout HD) with lots of my own CoLD SToRAGE tracks, so it’s not all lost in a savage pit of mire.

In summary: The best Wipeout game so far on any system.

Screenshots:

Wipeout Pulse is available now on PSP

Age Rating:

12 (BBFC)

What is it?

A Bioware RPG witha futuristic space-colony setting and third-person-cover combat

It is fun?

Hell, yes.

Is it worth the money?

(£39.99)

Yes, yes, yes. At £1 per hour, it’s very good value for money.

Why?

I love western-style RPGs. I love sci-fi settings. And I love taking cover during combat. I love Mass Effect. This game is almost made for me :)

There are flaws. I talked about Mass Effect’s dialogue issue back in December. The inventory interface is quite possibly the worst I’ve ever seen, as is the party selection menu. Still, I had so much fun playing the game itself that I don’t really care.

The Good:

• Purpose - You have actual goals throughout the game that aren’t simply “shoot everything in sight”. Sure, that’s generally the means to your end, but at least there’s a purpose behind it.
• Combat - The combat system is great. It’s like Gears of War but less frustrating. Gears feels like you’re wearing a huge chunk of magnetic armour and everything else is made of iron. Mass Effect gives you more control when running and it’s far easier to go around things.
• Breadth - You have a giant world to explore. This isn’t a sandbox game but you can spend hours just exploring the Citadel and pick up lots of side-quests
• A useful journal! Longtime readers will know, I’m a bit fanatic about RPG journals. This one does the job, though could have done with listing the target locations more prominently. Iinstead, you’re forced to open up every single item repeatedly, to find the nearby missions.
• Force powers Biotics - These mysterious powers are great fun. There’s a little something for everyone - healing, direct damage, disabling, shields, sharpshooting… I love it. None of them look quite as spectacular as KOTOR2’s Force Storm, but the combination of Lift and an assault-rifle-wielding teammate looks impressively violent.
• Advancement - I’m not sure if BioWare did a sneaky enemies-level-up-with-you but if they did, it was very subtle and much more satisfying than Oblivion. In Oblivion as you got more powerful, it never felt that way because even the lowliest grass-dwelling bandit mysteriously sprouted glass armour and would kick your sorry ass unless you specialised in combat. In Mass Effect, you can do the majority of the game in any order and it’s always challenging, but you still get the feeling of becoming more powerful.

The Bad:

• The interface and dialogue system. The interface will need a whole post to explain, so I’ll save that for another time. Just trust me, it’s rubbish.
• Uncharted worlds - These are fun to start with. The first time you get dropped on an uncharted world, it’s a breathtakingly beautiful scene. The next hundred and fifty seven times start to grate. Ultimately, the uncharted worlds all feel the same - drive around from way point to way point, drive in circles shooting something, fall off a mountain, find building, kill everyone, search back room (or for variety, upstairs back room), play unlocking mini-game, The End. But it’s the only way to get that level 50 achievement so, for some insane reason, I did them all. There’s no way I’m going for level 60 on another playthrough.
• Repetition - The endless combat in corridors for the main quest does get a little samey after a while.
• Achievements - If you collect gamerpoints compulsively, Mass Effect will swallow you for days. Assuming that you play as efficiently as possible, you’ll have to play the game all the way through twice and the middle four planets at least once more with different allies. Considering it took me around 40 hours to hit level 50 with almost all the sidequests, that’s something in the region of 80-100 hours to get all the gamerpoints. I’d advise you to rent Avatar: The Burning Earth instead, but you probably already did.
• Tower of Hanoi - Has BioWare ever made an RPG that didn’t feature the Tower of Hanoi? I’ve been solving this puzzle for at least 15 years now. I know it was in KOTOR and I’m sure I saw it in another BioWare game. Here’s a compromise; show us the puzzle and have a character ask what it is. If we answer Tower (or Towers) of Hanoi we get a free pass, okay?

In summary:

It’s a brilliant space-shooter RPG. Mass Effect would get my vote for Game of The Year 2007.

Mysteriously HUD-Free Screenshots

Age rating:

16+ (PEGI)

What is it?

A 12th Century Grand Theft Auto, but with horses and parkour

Is it fun?

Yes.

Is it worth the money? £39.99

Yes.

Why?

Just for the sheer enjoyment of being totally submersed in a beautifully realised game world. This really is a game that you can play for hours and hours without really noticing. It’s quite easy to spend an entire day leaping around the rooftops, collecting flags (for gamer points on the 360) and killing guards. The whole thing is so much fun. Your character, Altaïr, has a wonderful array of moves at his disposal which allow you to climb and leap over pretty much anything. This is the main attraction of the game and provides many, many hours of climbing fun. Also as Altaïr gains more skills you really feel him develop into an incredibly lethal assassin. This coupled with a simple control method (with quite a bit of help from the game) results in some spectacular looking kills and moves.

However, it seems the effort of creating this beautiful environment has resulted in Ubisoft skimping on the game play. It all seems so fantastic at the start. You initially travel to a lovely looking city (by horse) and complete some or all of the following tasks:

• Climb all the viewpoints
• Save the citizens
• Eavesdrop on a conversation or two
• Pickpocket someone
• Collect a set number of flags within a time limit
• Kill 3-5 targets within a time limit
• Kill your main assassination target

And that’s it. Repeat about 11 times (4 cities x 3 main targets to assassinate) and then some battles at the end. Surprisingly, I didn’t find the crushing repetitiveness of the game play annoying at all. In fact, it was all quite relaxing. You see you don’t have to think about what to do next, you just know what to do. This means you can sit back, enjoy the scenery and get on with the killing. Oh, apart from the unbelievably annoying voice artists they hired for the beggar women. Grrr, after you’ve heard them beg for the 10,000th time it really does grate.

Also you can’t skip any of the dialogue in the game, and believe me there is A LOT OF DIALOGUE. It’s so bad that I used the talky-talky bits as bathroom/food/phone a mate breaks. What’s worse is that everyone’s an asshole. They are all thoroughly unpleasant people, even your character. I didn’t feel the slightest bit of empathy, or desire to help him in anyway.

Another gripe, is the totally unnecessary scenes set in the present day. You see, you are actually playing a game in a game. Not only is this silly and pointless, but you can’t do anything other than walk around 1 room and sleep in your bed. Why? I fail to see what this adds to the game other than to annoying you even more. Oh, yeah, everyone’s an asshole in the present day too.

And finally, it’s a next-gen game without a single quick time event (QTE). Oh, the joy!

In summary: A good game (even with its many flaws) that could have been an amazing game had the developers spent more time on the game play.

Screenshots:

Age rating:

7+ (PEGI)

What is it?

Another Zelda game.

Is it fun?

Yes.

Is it worth the money? £22.99

Yes.

Why?

So the mega franchise that is Zelda finally makes it to the DS. Therefore it must use the stylus, which to be honest, it does very well. Controlling Link is a breeze (after Zelda gets kidnapped, as usual) and so is using all the weapons that he collects along the way. Also the cell shaded graphics look pretty good too, with great use being made of the dual screens (especially during boss battles). But underneath these fine new clothes, beats the heart of every other Zelda game ever. Same moves, same puzzles, same temple based game structure and the same weapons. It’s all the same. Again.

Don’t get me wrong, I really enjoyed playing (most of) the Phantom Hourglass. It’s a game I’ve been wanting for ages (even bought a DS in preparation of it being released). But, there are some really annoying bits which keep recurring just to annoy you even more. Yes, I’m taking about you Mr Temple of the Ocean King. Whoever in Nintendo thought that making the player go through the same dungeon (temple) multiple times and against the clock, should be be forced to watch every Uwe Boll film. Forever. This single temple almost, and I say almost, ruined the entire game for me.

The are other problems too. The save system still sucks balls. It doesn’t quite save the game state, so you can’t resume part way though a temple. Instead you resume at set points throughout the map, sort of near where you last saved. But, isn’t meant to be a portable game? Play and save anywhere? Except you can’t, and because of this limitation I never once played through a temple whilst travelling. You can quite happily play the rest of the game, just not the temples. Also some of the puzzles (drawing ones mainly) are impossible to do unless you’re perfectly still.

Then you have the great little puzzles to solve and the fantastic boss battles. Drawing on the maps is a lovely addition and really helps the game as a whole, especially during each of the temples. Some of the cut sequences have some great comedy moments hidden inside them that just made me laugh. So there is lots of fun to be had from playing this game.

In summary:

It has all the good and bad bits of almost every Zelda game before it. If you’ve played one of those you won’t come across too many surprises in this DS version.

Screenshots

The Legend of Zelda - The Phantom Hourglass is out now

Age rating: 15+ (PEGI)

What is it?

The final part of the Bungie’s kill-em-all FPS.

Is it fun?

In parts.

Is it worth the money? £34.99

No, it’s one to rent.

Why?

Over-hyped and underwhelming were the two defining features of Halo 3 for me. The amount of hype layered (lathered and maybe a bit of smearing too) on Halo 3, by Microsoft, was pretty impressive. The problem is that when you separate the hype from Halo 3, you’re not left with a terribly impressive game (contrary to almost every other Halo 3 review available).

I really enjoyed Halo (apart from the idiotic last level). I wished Halo 2 was a lot longer, as I felt it was not only rushed but also a game too far for the struggling Xbox. So I approached Halo 3 with lots of optimism, as the Xbox 360 seemed to be the perfect vehicle for Bungie’s imagination. This optimism was all but obliterated after playing the first few levels. Boring and quite frankly lazy level design was the order of the day. Going back and forth over the same bit of a level is not a way to make it seem bigger. Heck, did Bungie forget they designed huge, and enjoyable, levels like the “The Silent Cartographer” in Halo? Sure there are glimpses of this kind of level design throughout the game. But all this good work is quickly undone with dull, pedestrian and repetitive levels.

The fight is finished in about 6 hours (for single/co-op mode), which is disappointingly short. You will clock up a lot more game time if you try to play it on legendary difficulty which Penny Arcade summed up perfectly with this comic. The graphics vary between pretty good to frequently poor (oooh, some of the cut scenes make your eyes bleed with all the jaggies). Sorry, but Gears of War has raised the bar in terms of FPS graphics, and sadly Halo 3 hasn’t quite caught up yet.

And finally the whole Halo 3 multiplayer experience. Well, I found it a bit sterile and boring to be honest, but it’s all very well done even so. Bungie brings you up to speed nicely with a newbie map at the start, so you’re not flapping around getting blasted by those Halo 3 veterans (that happens later). But I really wanted more variety in the game play, and not just from from playing different maps. When it came down to it I wanted Team Fortress 2 and its class based killing (and healing if you’re an overworked, and underused medic). I really tried to like Halo 3’s multiplayer game, but it just left me cold.

In summary:

A disappointing end to the hype fight (didn’t stop 8.1 million copies of Halo 3 being sold).

Screenshots:

Update 21st Jan 2008: Here’s another Halo 3 review that doesn’t get caught up in the hype.

Age rating: 15+ (PEGI)

What is it?

First person shooter set in the Half-Life universe.

Is it fun?

Yes.

Is it worth the money?

PC - £26.28 via steam, Xbox 360 £26.99 (inc. p+p)
Not on its own, but as part of the Orange Box. Yes, yes, hell yes.

Why?

I absolutely love the Half-Life games. I’ve completed everyone so far (including Blue Shift) and enjoyed every minute. So it’s hardly surprising that I also love this latest episode of Half-Life fun from Valve. It’s liner. It only has a couple of new enemies to blat. There’s the same puzzles to solve with the gravity gun but on a much grander scale. Gordon’s mate Barney Calhoun is notable by his absence and finally you’ll complete the whole shabang in about 6 hours. But what a great way to spend 6 hours.

You can actually feel the love and attention that Valve has (typically) lavished on this game. It has pacing, intelligent, properly scripted dialogue and believable characters. Take for example Alyx. Ever since she appeared in Half-Life 2 you actually care about her survival. I wonder if anything “romantic” will happen before the end of Episode 3, as she seems to have a soft spot for old Mr Freeman. The fact that I’m wondering this speaks volumes for Valve’s realisation of Alyx.

As far as the different versions are concerned, they are the same. I’ve completed Episode 2 on both the PC and the Xbox 360 and I haven’t noticed any differences at all. Apart from Alyx refusing to get out of the car on the 360, even though she was crucial for the next cut scene. The result, cut scene didn’t finish, so I couldn’t progress. Reload. Bah. Also I did play though the game on the Xbox 360 with a garden gnome in tow. I’m not mental honest! It’s so I could get the little rocket man achievement. Yes, you have to play though 85% of the game escorting a gnome. And yes, this made the driving sections even more of a git trying to keep the damn thing in the car. But isn’t this the kind of thing that achievements were invented for, and not awarded just for completing the game and such like? It certainly made me want to play the 360 version after finishing it on the PC.

In Summary

It’s another 6 hours incredibly polished, well scripted Half-Life 2 action. Lovely.

Screenshots

Age Rating

12+ (PEGI)

What is it?

A detective-cum-lawyer game. Lots of reading required.

Is it fun?

Yep.

Is it worth the money? £24.99

Yes, if you like reading and don’t mind struggling with syntax problems. Otherwise, no.

Why?

The Phoenix Wright games are probably unique for their outlandish characters, odd dialogue and wild settings. You play as the defense lawyer who has to interview the most unexpected mix of characters you will ever find in a game (unless you’ve played Psychonauts). Even though a lot of the character motivations are fairly simple clichés, I love the way everyone has his or her own crazy personality quirks and manners of speaking. Even the really annoying ones have a certain masochistic charm.

Storylines for each chapter follow wildly convoluted paths and are always entertaining. The problem with Phoenix Wright games is that the true story often isn’t that difficult to figure out. It’s the technical execution that is so frustrating. You frequently find yourself sitting there desperately wanting to scream “It was the bloody butler! Look at my video!” but in the courtroom you can only present evidence at set points during the testimony. Several times, the witness has been blatantly contradicting my evidence in an aside comment but I can’t object. It drives me absolutely nuts, but for some reason I still played both Phoenix Wright games obsessively to the end. I find their train-wreck plots incredibly compelling.

IMO, the first English-language game, Ace Attorney, was the better game. The information-gathering segments feel quite different to the trials as you gather clues and piece the story together. In Justice For All you’re given items and then have to struggle with the witnesses, showing the items at crucial points during conversations in order to reveal enough of the story to trigger the trial.

If you like reading quirky stories and with bizarre characterisations, you’ll probably love both Phoenix Wright: Justice For All and Phoenix Wright: Pet Detective Ace Attorney. If you’re not into reading fantasy-fiction stories, give these games a miss.

Screenshots

It’s officially approved by the Olympic committee for the upcoming Beijing games. They had a lot of influence over the gameplay and their input helped ensure that this isn’t the crappy Wii Sports clone it could have been. Wii Sports is a great game but its lack of depth means that we rarely play it unless we have visitors. It’s just not that engaging compared to… well, pretty much any other game we own.

The Game

Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games has over 20 different Olympic sports to play. They’ve chosen a good range of them, too. You have the basic track and field events, like hammer throw, triple jump, sprints, hurdles and relays. There’s also skeet shooting, trampoline, archery and a bunch of swimming and gymnastic events. To top it all off you can unlock Dream events which use the skills you learn from the Olympics and drop you into a more traditional Mario/Sonic fantasy setting. And yes, there is a sprint version of Mario Kart so you can get your fix of cheating flinging lightning bolts at your friends.

The proper sports event are much more detailed than Wii Sports. In general, Wii Sports only modelled a small aspect of the games - for Wii Baseball, you didn’t have to worry too much about the game. You just smack the ball with the right timing and you’re off! The game did all the running and fielding for you. In Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games (or MSOG as I shall now call it) they’ve put a lot of work into properly modelling the events.

For archery, you use the Wiimote to draw back your arrow and aim, much as we expected for Zelda: Twilight Princess but didn’t see. You have to worry about the wind direction as well as keeping your aim steady. For Pole Vault, you don’t just run and jump. You have to run, lower the Wiimote to plant the pole at the right time, struggle to spring yourself up to the right height and flip your body over the bar. Each section has its own control style. Passing a baton between relay runners means raising the Wiimote as you would a real baton; rowing needs you to row with the Wiimote and nunchuck; and trampolining involves swinging the wiimote up and down to bounce you to greater and greater heights. Once you’re high enough you have to pull off a complex button combo to finish the acrobatic routine in time for the next bounce. I played it once. And scored a perfect 10. Click on the picture for photographic proof. I like the trampoline section ;)

As for the characters - you can play with your Mii, though I have yet to see how an armless, legless Mii can cope with trampoline or fencing. You can also choose from sixteen characters, eight from the Mario world and eight from Sonic. Each character has its own advantages. Sonic is, unsurprisingly, very fast while Princess Peach is, more surprisingly, good at skill-based events. It’s still balanced so playing Sonic doesn’t mean you’ll win all the speed events. Shadow is just as quick, so playing with your friends doesn’t turn into a race for the best character. Even playing by yourself is entertaining. There will be online leaderboards so you can attempt to beat everyone’s “Olympic” records.

In Summary

It’s great - a fantastic step forwards from Wii Sports. I fully expect Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games to be this year’s family Christmas title. It will be released in the UK on 23rd November 2007. You can preorder it from Play.com

The Bloggers’ Event

As for the event itself… the Wii flat is nice in a crowded kind of way. If you’re going to use a domestic setting to demonstrate a game to seven people, for heaven’s sake put a futon or sofa bed in the tiny bedroom! Sega also had a video camera and did a few interviews with us. With any luck mine, won’t be uploaded anywhere since I’m not much good at off-the-cuff diplomacy. They asked me what I thought of the event and the only thing that came to mind was “You hired people in Mario and Sonic costumes? Seriously, how old do you think we are? Six??” Thankfully, I didn’t say that but all I could come up with was a slightly confused expression, along with a mildly patronised “It was very exciting”. I’m definitely not cut out for videocasting. And I still posed for photos with Giant Mario and Giant Sonic.

It was good afternoon anyway. A fun game and it was nice to meet up with our fellow UK games bloggers, who are apparently all male. The other woman in the photo below was part of the marketing team.

Other blogs there

• Nintendic
• Zath
• British Gaming Blog
• NTSC-UK
• Binary Joy
• Nintendic
• NekoFever