10. Frolf
Game: Ribbit King
Format: GameCube, PS2
Developer: Bandai

Pickwick, Pan Pan, Sluggy and Snork. No, we’ve not made up some nonsense words; these delightful aliases are in fact characters in Ribbit King, the crazy golf-like game for the PS2 that is, itself, based on the fictional sport of Frolf – we kid you not. It’s fairly throwaway yet heart-meltingly charming fare, with frogs having to be catapulted into the end hole by hitting them with a mallet. Other than that, our aim to get Pickwick – our favourite anthropomorphic videogame basket and one of gaming’s cheapest characters – into the public eye has finally been fulfilled.

9. Pokéathlon
From: Pokémon HeartGold/SoulSilver
Format: DS
Developer: Game Freak

Rather a compilation of imaginary sports (from Block Smash and Ring Drop to Hurdle Dash and Relay Run), the Pokéathlon event as part of HeartGold and SoulSilver comes in as one of the best uses for your Pokémon traits, reinventing the gleeful pocket monsters as energy-drinking, muscle-pumping athletes and giving them varying strengths based on how they are perceived in-game.

8. Discs Of Tron
From: Discs Of Tron
Format: Arcade, XBLA
Developer: Midway Games (Arcade) Digital Eclipse (XBLA)

Although the first Tron arcade videogame had minigames itself, it was spin-off Discs Of Tron that used an original jai alai sequence from the 1982 film as the basis for a game. In keeping with the authentic, neon-glow and vector-based symmetry of the Tron world, Discs Of Tron’s reinterpretation of a binary sport was not only a brave attempt at a movie tie-in but an intelligent and capable twin-stick throw-’em-up too, and a stylish way to derezz an opponent.

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10. Stacking

Developer: Double Fine
Stacking proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that Double Fine’s reinvention as a purveyor of downloadable software was a smart move. The kind of quietly kooky concept that would have sunk without a trace at retail, this story of Matryoshka dolls seeking social revolution isn’t just an inherently clever idea, but also expands into a highly entertaining puzzle adventure. Stacking’s long-term success comes in its immense replayability; problems can be replayed in a number of ways, with considered logic and knee-jerk stupidity all catered for within the matrix of possibilities hardwired into the game’s heart.

Stacking review

9. Groove Coaster

Developer: Taito

After reinventing Space Invaders with Infinity Gene on iPhone, Taito is now on a roll with what is undoubtedly the rhythm-action game of the year. Audio and video come together in ways that would make Tetsuya Mizuguchi weep with envy, while the exemplary game design – particularly the hidden notes that force you to instinctively follow the beat – is up there with the likes of Ouendan for its ratio of challenge to satisfaction. And at just £1.99, there’s no reason why this shouldn’t be at the top of your ‘catch up on 2011’ list.

Groove Coaster review

8. Batman: Arkham City

Developer: Rocksteady
The expansion from the claustrophobic corridors of Arkham Asylum to the desolate sprawl of Gotham City provided one of the richest open-world environments of the year. While the oppressive omnipresence of Hugo Strange simmered under the surface, every street corner potentially revealed another member of Batman’s rogues gallery, a new threat or an undiscovered nod to classic lore. Furthermore, Rocksteady refined the Dark Knight’s pugilistic prowess and acrobatics to such an extent that the inherent empowerment made true every pre-pubescent fantasy: you actually felt like the Caped Crusader.

Batman Arkham City review

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1. E3 2011: Why Halo Anniversary deserves recognition

While remakes of classic movies and music are often approached with caution (read: dread), videogames are often embraced when revisiting hallowed territory. Obviously this is mostly due to technological advancements that allow developers to enhance their original vision, but occasionally a remake goes above and beyond the call of duty. Here’s a list of some of the top 10 videogame remakes.

10. Silent Hill: Shattered Memories

Format: Wii

Developer: Climax Studios

Less a remake and more a complete reimagining, Shattered Memories lessens the focus on panicked, bullet-starved combat and replaces it instead with simply running away from skirmishes with the game’s weird otherworldly horrors. In addition, multiple-threaded decision-making moments could alter the scope and outlook of the whole game, changing enemies, characters and, most importantly, endings, in a game that resembles less a survival horror experience and more a deep and surprisingly enlightening personality profiler for anyone who plays it. A Silent Hill game really only in name, Shattered Memories deviates beautifully from its subject matter with an elegance rarely offered by a revisiting installment.

9. Bionic Commando: Rearmed

Format: Multi (DLC)

Developer: GRIN

Faring decidedly better with the masses than its main console update of the venerable NES platformer, GRIN’s Rearmed reintroduced the world to the charms of the amputee hero that the big 3D adventure perhaps overlooked, recreating Spencer’s two-dimensional sidescrolling adventure lovingly, and with the minimum of fuss. While the Japananese original’s references to the Nazis have been reduced to still-hilarious, barely-veiled sendups, every other facet of the game has been either preserved or improved upon. The weapons in particular have been tweaked, meaning the rocket launcher no longer rules the roost, and giving every facet of Nathan’s armoury a useful place in the adventure.

8. Resident Evil

Format: Gamecube

Developer: Capcom

Another standout remake exclusive, sadly, only to the Gamecube is Capcom’s own readdressing of the original survival horror classic. Stated firmly by series creator Shinji Mikami as being “70% different to the original”, the game is indeed almost unrecognisable in its slickness, replicating the 1996 PlayStation version’s rendered environments with glorious photorealistic pomp, reserving the rest of the disc space for equally impressive zombie models that almost literally ooze undead menace. Top notch lighting converts the original’s almost comedic shufflings with genuinely terrifying shock moments, and the package is completed by weaving gameplay enhancements – such as the essential 180 degree turn – from later series instalments to bring everything bang up to date.

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10. Sensible World Of Soccer

Format: Amiga

Developer: Sensible Software

It was during the 2007 Games Developers Conference that Henry Lowood announced the game canon – a list of videogames chosen by the likes of Warren Spector and Steve Meretzky to be considered for preservation by the Library of Congress. Among titles like SimCity, Super Mario Bros. 3 and Doom sat Jon Hare’s Sensible World Of Soccer. When a game is put forward as an assertion of the medium’s cultural and historical significance, you know it’s done something right. In this case, it was the game’s absolute comprehensiveness when it came to documenting the sport, with some great gameplay to boot.

9. Fable II

Format: Xbox 360

Developer: Lionhead Studios

Led by the ever-ebullient Peter Molyneux, Lionhead Studios has never been short of ambition. It would be a disservice to this list were we not to give an honourable mention to some of Molyneux’s past successes – Populous, Syndicate, Theme Park, Dungeon Keeper – but it’s Fable II that’s the quintessential British game; a collection of Molyneux’s earlier ideas wrapped in dry wit and delivered in familiar voice acting. Of course, it didn’t live up to the promises made and Fable III diluted the formula further, but we can always hope that Fable: The Journey will deliver on Molyneux’s increasing ambitions.

8. Burnout 3: Takedown

Format: Multi

Developer: Criterion Games

The series that made crashing as much a part of the game as the racing itself, Burnout is the finest example of its genre, colliding reality and fantasy in a high-velocity, kinetic racing experience that we think is yet to be bettered. Need For Speed still has a chance, of course – both Criterion and fellow UK studio Black Rock  continue to juxtapose big-screen action with nitroglycerin-powered racing through EA’s flagship racing series. It’s possible to argue that the UK has the edge when it comes to racing. Japan may have Gran Turismo and the US Forza, but with the likes of Codemasters, Black Box and Criterion on British soil we can boast some of the most incendiary racers on the market.

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games™ has decided to settle this age-old debate by asking you, our readers, to have your say. Simply fill out our quick online survey, and become a part of the definitive, argument-settling answer, for an upcoming feature in the magazine.

State your case at the following link: http://www.gamestm.co.uk/topmachine/

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10. StarCraft

Format: PC
Developer: Blizzard Entertainment

Blizzard is just good at multiplayer. It’s as simple as that. Whether it’s the group play of Diablo, or the extensive support of 11.5 million gamers in World Of Warcraft, Blizzard continues to perfect its craft from the micro to the macro. Somewhere in between sits StarCraft, one of the most finely-tuned RTSs ever released. A whole nation of players can’t be wrong, after all, with South Korea having turned the game into something resembling more a national sport than a bedroom-based pastime. An incredible harmony of balance, strategy and depth, StarCraft’s is a multiplayer that takes time, dedication and ceaseless practice to master.



9. Team Fortress 2

Format: PS3, 360, PC
Developer: Valve

This spot could just have easily gone to Counter-Strike, but games like Modern Warfare and Battlefield have arguably surpassed Valve’s effort in the realm of tactical shooters. Team Fortress, however, has rarely been emulated, with few other developers having the guts to try cramming so much into one game. It only comes together when your teammates stick to their roles, of course, but when they do matches can be fast, furious, calculated and deliberate. The dedication shown by Valve to its players through continued and imaginative support for its game illustrates just how much confidence the developer has in its product. And rightly so.

8. Pac-Man Vs.

Format: GameCube
Developer: Nintendo

Re-inventing Mario is all well and good, but the inherent simplicity in Pac-Man would surely make any attempt to alter the formula a reckless and irresponsible act? Maybe for most, but when Shigeru Miyamoto’s on the case there’s little need for concern. Miyamoto did what he does best, taking the game’s core concept and evolving it without overcomplicating the mechanics. One of the few games to use the oft-fiddly system link between GameCube and GBA, it’s also one of the best; the decision to allow humans the control of ghosts resulting in what is arguably the definitive Pac-Man experience.

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10. Isaac Clarke

Game: Dead Space

Developer: EA

Isaac Clarke’s journey across space should be a straightforward mission, but from the moment he steps aboard the floating spacecraft it’s non-stop for the put-upon engineer. An endless and thankless series of repairs await, not to mention the blood-curdling Necromorphs stalking the ship’s walkways. ‘Fix this tram, sort out that antenna, protect the ship from asteroids, eradicate this poison’ – you’d expect Isaac to break his silence, but no. He keeps his composure, never once opening his mouth, not even to complain. That is until the generic pretty-boy revealed himself in the sequel.

9. Samus Aran

Game: Metroid Series

Developer: Nintendo

Samus Aran may have stepped out of her armour to reveal herself as a female,but she’s yet to unveil her voice. Like Master Chief, Samus prefers the confines of her Power Suit, hiding behind its dangerous facade and allowing her weapons to do the talking. This makes the isolation of her environments feel more oppressive – out on the edges of the galaxy, completely alone, with no one to come to your aid. It’s a nice design choice that, since her first adventure on NES, has served to make Samus’s surroundings some of the most atmospheric ever explored.

8. Crono

Game: Chrono Trigger

Developer: Square

The interesting thing about Crono is that when people are told he barely utters a word during the game’s 20 or so hours, they’re often shocked. Such is the care put into the characterisation of those around him, it’s easy to forget the lead character himself tends to stay quiet. Like Link, the other characters act as though Crono has spoken, but we never get to hear his utterances, which is fine. The quality of character – Marle, Lucca, Robo, Frog, Magus – is enough to make anyone forget that the person they’re actually playing keeps his lips sealed.

7. Sonic

Game: Sonic The Hedgehog

Developer: Sega

We remember a simpler time. A time when two-dimensional platforming was all the rage and anthropomorphised hedgehogs kept their mouths well and truly shut. Then something went horribly wrong. Along the way, someone, somewhere, decided that the blue erinaceid should open his mouth. Oh how we long for the days when the speedy blur of blue spikes did nothing but run, jump, and collect rings. Now we have to put up with a hedgehog who seems to have jumped right out of MTV – an annoying little brat who we would rather see and not hear.

6. Claude

Developer: Rockstar

Game: Grand Theft Auto III

Grand Theft Auto III’s Claude is one of the only characters on this list who could actually be considered to have a physical disability. Many of the characters in the game refer to him as ‘mute’, such as CJ in San Andreas, where a younger Claude makes a cameo appearance at a racing event. Perhaps he simply chooses not to interact with the various low-life scum that inhabit the hopelessly immoral streets of Liberty City, or maybe he really cannot speak. Either way, the fact is Claude refuses to open his mouth. This is something that many consider a detriment to the game – a game that’s part of a series now famous for its character development through the likes of Grand Theft Auto IV’s Niko Bellic.

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10. DUNGEONS & DRAGONS: SHADOW OVER MYSTARA

Year: 1996

During the mid-Nineties, Capcom had a habit of taking film licences, such as Willow and Alien Vs Predator, and moulding them into excellent scrolling fighting games. Each was good in its own right but it was the Dungeons & Dragons titles that really added the most to the genre. By using the RPG tropes of experience points, upgradeable spells, secret weapons and branching stories, this underrated brawler redefined the arcade experience, but nobody seemed to notice. The game was ported to Saturn as part of a double pack in 1999 but was a far from perfect conversion. Stick to the arcade version for the real deal.

9. VAMPIRE HUNTER

Year: 1997

Made some time between Street Fighter II and Street Fighter Alpha, the Darkstalkers series, tends to be one of the most overlooked franchises in Capcom history. It really doesn’t deserve such treatment, though, as it’s just as good as either of those series. Classic horror character designs and suitably fantastical special moves mark this out as a more playful 2D fighter. Vampire Hunter, the second in the series, is arguably the best.

8. Marvel Vs Capcom 2: New Age Of Heroes

Year: 2000

While filling Street Fighter Alpha 3 to bursting point with characters and features didn’t have an adverse effect on that game, the same cannot be said about Marvel Vs Capcom 2. Riddled with balancing issues and suffering from the overuse of ‘shake out’ moves the superhero/fighter crossover is hardly the game for fans of technical beat-’em-ups. But, much like its visually-sumptuous (and some would argue better) sequel, when there’s a screen filled with tons of over-the-top characters and ridiculous special moves, it’s hard to care too much about that.

7. STREET FIGHTER IV

Year: 2008

After patiently waiting for eight years, Capcom finally released the next numerical addition in the Street Fighter canon. Street Fighter IV’s return was painted in broad strokes, both visually and in its new approach to gameplay. No doubt more accessible to newcomers, it didn’t come at the detriment of the fanbase, who found one of the most intricate and rewarding entries in the franchise to date.

6. POWER STONE

Year: 1999

For all their technical excellence, the likes of Virtua Fighter and Tekken barely make significant use of the third dimension. That accolade belongs to Capcom’s all-but-forgotten Power Stone, a three-dimensional beat-’em-up game that took the emphasis away from purely physical attacks and shifted importance to exploitation of the environment. Feel free to spring from a wall back into your opponent, hit them with an uprooted telegraph pole, or just fling a nearby object at them. It’s just like a bar room brawl… except you get to do it with super powers.

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2. Super Street Fighter IV: 3D Edition review
3. Worlds Collide: The History Of Videogame Crossovers
4. DmC Devil May Cry dev: “Things aren’t as hopeless as some people assume”

What exactly is a ninja? Depending on what you watch, read or play, chances are your perception of these fabled warriors will be very different – while traditionally they were masters of stealth, sabotage and subterfuge, modern media goes even further than the romanticised folklore tales of old to paint the ninja as some kind of sword-wielding superhero. Tekken’s Raven teleports all over the place to confuse his opponents, as in fact do many of the oh-so-common beat-’em-up ninja characters – Ibuki, Taki, Hokutomaru and even Ninja Gaiden’s own Ryu Hayabusa play to the OTT Hollywood ninja stereotype, while Virtua Fighter’s Kage keeps things a little more grounded as the nature of the series would suggest. Their portrayal elsewhere is equally confused, games like Ninja Blade showcasing the fairytale ninja that throws wrecking balls at giant enemy spiders for massive damage while Tenchu plays up the historical angle, focusing on old-fashioned gadgets and gimmicks rather than ninja magic.

Rather than conform to either ideal, Team Ninja’s 2004 resurrection of the Ninja Gaiden franchise straddled these two extremes. On the one hand, the game was drenched in fantasy lore and outlandish set pieces while Hayabusa and his foes fling magic at one another. But the other side of the coin was arguably the more impressive, punishing difficulty (many players struggle to clear even the first level) and relentless AI perfectly conveyed the mortality of the ninja hero and the absolute importance of timing his every block, dodge and strike to avoid an early grave. In passing this power from Hayabusa to the player, the result was something truly empowering – an adventure just and balanced enough to be cleared without so much as denting your health bar but at the same time one that actively wanted you dead. Itagaki famously stated that the key difference between Ninja Gaiden and its peers was that while the enemies in other games were there to be killed, Gaiden’s were there to kill you. A perfect summary of what is widely regarded as one of the most challenging games in recent memory from the former frontman then, though it seems that much has changed since Yosuke Hayashi seized leadership of the Team Ninja clan.

With Itagaki leaving shortly after Ninja Gaiden II was released, the PlayStation 3 port (Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2) was Hayashi’s first opportunity to step up and make his mark on the franchise. And he did, in a big way. The previously insane levels of violence and gore were stripped right back, decapitations and dismemberment reduced while fountains of claret were replaced with a curious purple mist. Fans went nuts. Enemy counts were lowered to compensate for the upscaled visuals, their health buffed to make up for the reduced forces. Fans went nuts. Entire sections were removed and/or replaced in an attempt to shake out the cheap deaths and unbalanced sequences. Fans went nuts. The whole weapons system was tweaked to remove some, alter others and prevent any from being upgraded until story progress allows it. By this point, you can probably guess how the fans reacted but for the benefit of those not really paying attention, they went nuts.

There were certainly a host of changes that needed to be made to elevate NGII to the same standard as Black but for the most part, Hayashi seemed to have targeted areas of the game that were out of line with his vision of what Ninja Gaiden should be rather than addressing the glaring issues the sequel had. We put it to Hayashi that the original was far more of a test of skill than its explosive yet frequently unfair follow-up. “I would say that this is a fair assessment, actually,” he admits. “The first game focused on fairness in gameplay and reward, whereas the second was more about flashiness more than anything.” And while some of the changes he saw made to Sigma 2 addressed these issues, the real proof of his convictions will come in the form of his first proper sequel in charge. “Ninja Gaiden 3 is more of a combination of these two elements, coupled with the fact that it is a Ninja Gaiden for this day and age. Regarding the extreme difficulty that the series is notorious for, yes, you will get that in Ninja Gaiden 3. We also want players not used to games such as this to have a good time as well, so we are thinking about their experience as well regarding difficulty.”

This much was clear from the early build that was shown off at E3, reduced difficulty and on-screen tutorials and prompts causing both hardcore gamers and people that call themselves such to take to the internet in fits of rage to protest about a game they haven’t even played. Downplaying challenge to try and ensure everyone can get a feel for a game is common during large-scale shows, though it’s arguably not the right way to go for a game so famously tough as Ninja Gaiden – sending players away feeling three inches tall with their tails between their legs certainly didn’t do Dark Souls any harm, anyway. Still, this might just be provisional but it’s still the first of many signs that Team Ninja’s direction for the series has changed pretty radically since Hayashi took charge.

“Simply put, the main core value of development was shining the light on the sword and the action of using the sword to kill,” he states. “What this means in more detail is that Ninja Gaiden games up to now have set a standard for fast paced action which felt good when you were playing the game, but this time around we really wanted to take the game a step further and focus on what it would really feel like to cut someone with a sword.” This emphasis is apparent even at such an early stage and where NGII’s reveal was awash with talons, scythes and mislaid body parts, the third chapter so far appears to be significantly stripped back both in terms of gore and weapon variety. “We were thinking about what worked in previous Ninja Gaiden games, and we really enjoyed the katana,” Hayashi continues. “Historically, it is a visceral, up close and personal weapon. When using it, the end result is commonly a lot of blood and guts, and so we thought this one weapon summed up Ninja Gaiden as a series best. Focusing on the violence and action in this way underlines these values further. This is something, I believe, that is deeply embedded in Japanese culture.”

What is strange, though, is the clear contradiction between Hayashi’s vision and the game in its current state. The introduction of the ‘Sword On Bone’ mechanic is the culprit behind enraging so many serious Gaiden players, a feature that arguably panders to the cinematic at the expense of gameplay fluidity. Hayabusa’s blade will sometimes get lodged in an enemy mid-combo, a button prompt (which apparently only appear during the early stages, which should delight all those worried about some kind of QTE takeover) asking you to repeat the last button of your combo in order to force the sword through as the camera zooms in on the eruption of bodily fluid. The problems with this should already be clear – randomly triggered kill events completely break the flow of combat and crush any kind of combo planning, with the extreme close-up also making it difficult to plan your next move with such a reduced view of the battlefield. The worst part, however, is the utter lack of payoff. NG2’s most powerful attacks would leave the arena carpeted in limbs and gallons of blood, so the explosion of claret that accompanies Steel On Bone looks strange by comparison when forcing a katana all the way through an enemy in slow-motion leaves them visually unscarred as they bleed out or crawl away. It’s the Soul Blade to its predecessor’s Bushido Blade and for a game so keen to place emphasis on the might and wonder of its main weapon, Ninja Gaiden 3’s leading blade just doesn’t cut the mustard – or anything, for that matter – at this stage. Disappointing.

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2. games™ Issue 111

“Very close to where we are standing,” says Minister for Culture, Communications and Creative Industries, Ed Vaizey, “There are geniuses at work.”

The MP for Wantage & Didcot is in attendance at Creative Assembly’s Horsham-based studio, in a graphic show of government support for the UK industry as Sega commemorates the expansion of the Total War developer.

As well as the expansion, which has seen Creative Assembly occupy another floor of the unit, studio director Tim Heaton has also just announced a game; it’s based on the Alien franchise, and it’ll be on console. No more is being revealed for now, but it’s an interesting move for a company previously associated with the PC RTS genre.

“I’m sure it’s going to take the world by storm and be another legendary British-developed game,” says Vaizey. All gathered must hope he’s right, as it’s been a particularly bleak year for the British industry. As the community still mourns the demise of Bizarre Creations, Disney’s Black Rock racing studio is shaken by critical downsizing, and even Microsoft-owned, Kinect-powered Rare saw redundancies in February, a flash of good news is a welcome change. It’s also an excellent opportunity for the government’s spokesman on the matter – particularly after the numerous criticisms laid out by Ian Livinsgtone and Alex Hope’s recently published report on the declining state of the UK development scene – to try to reclaim some ground.

“All I can say is, I remain a massively enthusiastic champion of the games industry,” says Vaizey. “We’re going to do what we can to help the games industry, constantly work with the Treasury to look at ways we can make it easier, whether it’s reforming the research and development tax credit or Enterprise Investment Scheme. There are other issues as well, such as recruiting the best talent. We’ve had to look at doing skills reviews, to make sure that we can really grow talent at home, so I know it’s a real challenge, particularly for companies as successful as Creative Assembly, getting homegrown talent to help build these fantastic games.”

Vaizey’s strategies here, he says, involve more greatly publicising the industry to attract private investors, and encouraging schools to involve their students – potentially as young as 12 or 13 – in educational projects directly with games developers. Noble aspirations, but Vaizey won’t be drawn on a far more pressing matter. Only the day before this grand reopening, MPs Tom Watson and John Whittingdale publically called for improved assistance for the industry in the form of greater write-offs of R&D tax credits, a move vocally backed-up, and long campaigned for, by industry watchdog TIGA. It’s the real issue on everybody’s minds today.

“There’s no reason why we can’t have a discussion with the treasury about what that motion says,” he offers, “But ultimately these are always decisions for the Treasury.”

The Treasury clearly unavailable for comment right now, there’s really no politics left to talk. Studio director Tim Heaton, however, is just as happy to elucidate the wider promise this expansion of Creative Assembly’s console wing holds.

“We’re sort of known as a strategy studio to some degree, says Heaton, “but we’ve had a console team and lots of console titles on the way, so the reason why we’ve been quiet for maybe two years on that console team is because we’ve been thinking about what we should do next.”

“And we delivered a demo that showed what we wanted to do within the Alien property to Sega, and since then when they said ‘Oh, we absolutely get this, we really want to make this game,’ we’ve grown that team, fairly quietly, in the background, and we’ve worked on technology that’s really bespoke for the genre of game we want to make. And as part of the massive budget that we’ve now got from Sega for the Alien game, we also need to give this team space to make the game. And so that was part and parcel of it. We’re ready to go now, we’re ready to move it to this floor. And let’s take an opportunity just to say ‘Hey, we’re making this Alien game, and we’re recruiting as well. And, you know, getting people queueing up at the door!”

A console game of unknown genre, with a full development team yet to be hired. The mysterious Alien title still clearly has a long road ahead. In the meantime, does this new emphasis on console gaming by the team signify a loss of faith in its PC-based bread and butter?

“We’ve just delivered Shogun, and now we’re working on the next title,” reveals Heaton. “We’re looking at other opportunities with Total War, different platforms, different business models, whatever, although we will continue to do what we do best, which is these big tent pole releases. He adds: “And the longer it goes between next console generation and where we are with PC, there are in many ways more interesting things we can do with PC. Because it’s a really high-powered set of hardware.”

Speaking of high-powered hardware, we quiz Heaton on his view on [we should retcon this later when the Wii 2 or whatever’s been announced, and other consoles too, if necessary]:

“Taking away some of the technical constraints while moving along might actually make it easier to make games, or a lot harder,” says Heaton. “There’s a lot of discussion going on about, now budgets are so high, and might have to double again next generation, how it becomes untenable to make those games. I’m not sure that’s true. And having a wider opportunity means you can innovate in very specific areas as well. And so I think tech-wise, there’s lots of interesting things to be done. Interface-wise, clearly we’re entering that phase where people are really experimental. That’s going to be super interesting. I don’t think the past’s going away any time soon. And timing wise or whatever, that’s the $64 billion question. They’ve got to get it right. I know what I’d be doing if I was with any first parties…”

While we wait for more concrete words from Sega on the Alien title, and bed in for rather less likely progress on the tax credit issue from the Treasury, Creative Assembly’s announcements prove at least that it’s not all doom and gloom for a UK games industry increasingly under the spotlight as a post-industry nation looks more carefully at creative financial solutions.

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