I bought SS2 for my cousin last year as a computer alternative to whatever other shooter I got him for Xbox. While he was pleased with the gift he did tell me later than after their last 3 computers had all broken due to game related issues (I believe it was Canon Fodder that caused the issues on all three counts) he was not allowed to install a game onto his family computer mainly because his Dad's entire job pretty much existed on it.

Of course I already knew this so it was with a slightly winking grin that I suggested to my cousin to bring the game while he came round to my house for the weekend. Now, I had heard that there were troubles with old games and vista, I also knew that SS2 was itself a game that had problems running on XP as well as Vista, so I didnt expect the process of allowing myself to play the game to be smooth running. What i didnt expect however was the fact that I would have to make such intricate changes to the games files, practically adding failsafes and codecs to allow the thing to even work.

Initially things looked promising. The actual installation seemed to work very well with no problems and I was having hopes that I may actually get a clean installation for once. Unfortunately the moment I attempted to play the game a warning message came up saying that

"System Shock 2 needs 35MB of memory to run, you only have 27 MB of space free"

Noticing that I had 176 GB of memory in my drive I was a tad perturbed. However a trip across internet lane and I discovered that the way to solve this problem was to just restart the system. I did so and the game obliged in its end of the deal to allow me to progress to the main menu, unfortunately that was as far as I would be getting.

Well that's not really fair to be honest. On my first attempt in the main menu i did actually get to starting a game. But no sooner had I walked off the train (there's a train at the start (like the one in the beginning of half life)) the game froze and task manager read the application as "not responding". I would be seeing alot of that over the following days.

My travels through the internet with my 35MB problem had shown me several highly complex ways of solving the problem, and as I really didnt feel like editing the games program files I looked for the most basic alternatives available and they werent particularly helpful. The most frequent of responses was the problem that people were running the game on two cores. A quick look at my system information confirmed that Ihad two cores as well. Hopeful, I restarted the game like it said, Alt-Tabbed to something else, brought up task manager, went to processes, selected SSHOCK.exe, right clicked, clicked on "set affinity" and unclicked one of the CPU's. Praying this would work, I went back into the game and got a black screen when I clicked on start game. Black screens would also prove to be a frequent sight while trying to fix the thing.

The next, and perhaps most obvious solution was to change windows compatibility for the program. This just flat out broke the game for me, sending up "not responding" screams from windows, without even a glance at any loading screens. I was disgruntled, as well as slightly sweaty (I really shouldn't have selected "run in 256 colours"). But I came to the conclusion that I would have to do something major and fix the game myself, and not rely on any quick and easy solutions to fix what would prove to be a fairly hefty task.

picture break time:

Basically, what follows is what I found out through various sources of what I had to do. It's divided into 3 sections so this should help anyone who's having problems installing the game.

1. Running the game

(This is what everyone wants, and this should stop the game from crashing. It's quite a short process but it does require you to follow the steps exactly as written)

-Download the official SS2 patch to upgrade the game to version 2.3

-Search the folder containing all of the installation files. Search for a file called "cam" it should be a .cfg file or just a CFG file.

-Open the file, windows will say it cant open the file, ask it to let you choose a program to open it manually. Open the file in notepad.

-You'll see some writing that you shouldn't concern yourself with. Beneath the other sets of writing (I left an empty line beneath the writing already there and my own) type in:

safe_texture_manager
sfx_no_asynch_all 1

-Save the file

-Create a new, blank notepad text document and simply save it as "safe_texture_manager"

-Download this file http://www.sshock2.com/files/shock2fixed.zip

-Unzip it, and save the application inside of it into the installation folder you have currently been working within.

-You will notice that this looks like another application file you have in this folder. Rename the application you just downloaded as "SHOCK2.exe" and rename the old application as "SHOCK2.old" (this is to make sure that if you click play when you insert the CD it will choose this new application rather than the old one)

-You will need the CD to play the game.

-If the game is still giving you problems make sure you only have the game running on one CPU. If you didnt read the top bit of my post:

-Start SS2 as normal. Once you are on the main menu Alt-Tab out of it. Start task manager. Go to Processes. Find "SHOCK.exe". Right click on it. Click on "Select Affinity...". Uncheck one of the CPU's. Go back into the game.

2. Fixing your binds

(Some of you may notice that when you go into the inventory screen you are unable to drag or use items there. This will occur if you made your own binds (your own button configuration). To check if this is the problem, load up the default bind set and see if you can drag and drop now. You should be able to and even if you still can't it is more than likely that the following will fix the issue.)

-In the installation folder find and enter the folder named "Binds"

-You should see various "BND Files". You will notice that there are two main names for each file "cfga" or "cfgb". cfga stands for the button configuration while you are in shoot mode and cfgb stands for the configuration while in use mode. The numbers represent which bind it is. bind 0000 is for the default layout, 0001 is for the standard fps layout the game supplies you with, and 0002 should be your binds.

-Open both 0002 files in notepad, and check that at the top it says "My binds" or whatever you saved it as. You can do this with the other files as well if you want to just to make sure.

-In the cfga (shoot mode) file scroll down and make sure that the following is correct, if it is not correct then edit it accordingly:

bind mouse1 +fire_weapon
bind mouse2 frob_object

-In the cfgb (use mode) file scroll down and make sure the following is correct, if it is not correct then edit it accordingly:

bind mouse1 +drag_and_drop_mode
bind mouse2 frob_object_inv

-Save the file, and load up these binds in the game to see if their functions now work.

3. Making the cutscenes run

(There are 10 cutscenes in System Shock 2. Only 3 of them are worth watching as the other 7 are quick 10 second scenes that show your ship coming in and out of dock with space stations, and the credits, and the intro showing the logos of irrational and looking glass. The three cutscenes that are of interest take place firstly when you start a new game, then when you first wake up on the Vaun Braun (this takes place after your third year of training and when a womans voice starts speaking too you), and then there is the last one at the end of the game. I am telling you this because I could not get this to work so if you cant get it to work you can pause the game and find the videos on youtube. But this does seem to be the best solution to the problem.)

-On the System Shock 2 CD locate and double-click on a file called iv5play. This application should install the codec required to play the movies.

-You now need to register that codec with Vista. To do so type "cmd" into the search box. Right click on the program that comes up and select "Run as administrator".

-Type in the following and press return:

regsvr32 "C:Sshock2LGVID.AX"

BEFORE you do so however you may have to change the C:Sshock2 to wherever you saved the installation files containing the LGVID file.

-Cutscenes now should work.

So yes, that is my story and the results are clear. I can run System Shock 2 really well now, although I can't view the cutscenes. He went home on Sunday so I get to keep it for a while. Hope to see you on board, it's really fun.

-Dr. Janice Polito

With the first quarter of 2008 already well and truly gone it feels slightly pointless describing games that I will no doubt be playing very soon. Indeed there are some games on this list that many of you will already be playing and if you feel that this is a waste of time then you are more than welcome to come and live over in England where writing blogs about super smash bros. brawl is the only way to pass the time. So without further ado, let's start the countdown.

(part 2 can be found here)

10. Okami Wii

Clovers beautiful swansong returns at last to a new crowd, and the console it was always meant for

The PS2 had some of the most artistically beautiful games of the last generation, proving that a consoles technical ability is never a fair measure of the limits to its art. The most distinct of these was Okami a game that graced the ps2 just as the xbox 360 was being released and at the time presented an interesting comparison between the more technical beast Gears of War. Now, the game is being released on what many are calling its true home, with the wii-mote forever being the ideal candidate for celestial brushwork. I held off buying Okami for the ps2 because I was fairly sure that it would be released on wii and it turns out that I was right. Okami's distinct blend of Zelda-like puzzles and dungeons combined with an art design that is truly special and you have a game that simply cannot be ignored. While many have undoubtedly played and finished the game already, for me it's like 2006 all over again, and if the original could be compared with the like of Gears of War then there's no question that it could do so again.

9. Grand Theft Auto 4

"What we lack in size we make up for in scale" says Rockstar as their ultimate vision for Grand Theft Auto finally comes to fruition

I have to be honest; I don't particularly like the GTA series. While I undoubtedly had endless fun with my friends copy of GTA III that was restricted to short 20 minute play sessions which often resulted in mass killing sprees and heroic getaways. While I never had the opportunity to play Vice City, my return to the series with San Andreas was disappointing to say the least; the murdering had lost its interest and there wasn't much else of the game that I liked either. Come the impending hype for the first GTA4 trailer and I was as disinterested as the next hater. When the trailer did arrive however I was surprisingly shocked. In the space of 1 minute and 3 seconds I was suddenly genuinely keen on finding out more about the game. Enormous credit goes to Rockstar for this; as a teaser trailer it was perfect, revealing and hiding everything we wanted to know. We were presented by Nico, a character arriving in the newly renovated Liberty City telling himself "perhaps here, things will be different..." Rockstar know how to write games it seems, with inspiration from the Godfather, Scarface and Goodfellas ever present in all their previous titles. But only here in Grand Theft Auto 4 does it all seem to feature. With the huge critical success of Vice City and San Andreas it is difficult to comprehend exactly what Rockstar intended for the genuine successor to its landmark ps2 opener. Whatever happens, it is clear Rockstar have put all of their creative output into this one title and their decision to cut down on many areas that fans expected to be extended (area size, planes) reveals a company who know exactly what they're doing.

8. The World Ends With You

and now for something completely different...

For me to explain to you why I am so interested in this game would be impossible because I genuinely don't know why I'm looking forward to it. If you asked me what the game was about, you would be greeted with a similar look of vacant blankness, because I truly don't understand this game and perhaps this is why I am so excited about it. With so many games you are delivered the experience before you ever get the chance to try it out for yourself; be it through videos, previews or forums. The World Ends With You suffers no such pain as every video, every preview and every forum post simply adds to your own confusion. You might say that it is therefore ridiculous for me to be excited about a game I know nothing about, "how do you know its going to be good?" you may reply. I would again say that it is exactly this kind of unknowingness that attracted me to the game in the first place, and it is this continued sense of strange mysticism that keeps me hooked to the game, because even though I know otherwise; I still look for every new video, preview or forum post about this game, and it will hopefully prove likely that I will still remain nonplussed about the game until I am holding it in my hands. And if that moment ever does come, then I can honestly tell you that it will be my most exciting gaming moment in years.

7. Super Smash Bros. Brawl

Release date EU: TBA

"A delayed game is eventually good; a bad game is bad forever". This famous quote came from the refining king, Mr Miyamoto himself. However when the game in question has already been out in 2 other continents for several months, the likelihood of Brawls delay actually meaning something beyond localisation is about as likely as Nintendo ever being able to release a game simultaneously. To be fair, it makes sense to stagger the launch, with even the US' release crippling brawls online it would be difficult to comprehend the amount of lag if the entire world came in to play. However negativity aside and I must admit that the US release of the game raised my level of anticipation to its highest point, and justly so seeing the scores the game has been given. As is ever the case with internet hype, the game has been utterly spoiled for me (well characters and stages at least) yet I remain ever itching to try out all of those characters so dutifully revealed to me by friends, posters and magazines. While I'm sure you'll agree that the preview to this title has been fairly predictable so far let me end on perhaps a more surprising note. While the gamer does indeed have many reasons to play this game, the thing that I am most looking forward to in this game is the music. Whereas I was disappointed by Halo 3's superfluous orchestration of its music, the quality of those tracks were already fairly decent to begin with. Twilight Princess' midi files most certainly require an orchestration however as do the various hits from the past. As well as this is the contribution of metal gear solid and sonic the hedgehog, with both these series' having some of the most recognisable themes in history. Combine this all together and you have the only game of 2008 that I would by for its score alone.

6. Spore

The most ambitious game of 2008 will soon arrive as Will Wright offers the world his own slice of creation

Calling Spore "ambitious" is doing a severe injustice to the game. Whereas many other games this year have been noted under similar terms Spore easily outdoes all of these games in terms of what it is trying to achieve. Whereas most games only offer the tiniest amount of history to be covered, be it a world war or a single period in history, Spore ousts them all with a design so grand that it would be theoretically impossible to go farther. Covering the entire life cycle of a single species from microbe to interstellar race Spore charts your progress as prey to predator and coloniser to invader, from inception to destruction Spore sets itself apart by presenting a million different possibilities to the player and a space setting so large that Will Wright himself has said that there are "over half a million different stars, each one having its own planets, more than anyone could visit in a lifetime.". While the scale is definitely there Spore now needs to live up to its claims; the idea of controlling a creature from its very beginning to its more advanced stages presents different game types for each stage of the creatures evolution. Each of these is going to need to be played differently enough to feel like progression is being made but each is also going to have to feel familiar enough so that alienation doesn't set in at every stage. While this is the first game in the countdown to not receive universal enthusiasm that is only because the game is so ambitious to begin with that it will require an enormous amount of effort to match the enormity of the task Will Wright has set himself. However, this is not a review and as such we should certainly give Spore the benefit of the doubt so far. Mr Wright has certainly proved himself, but this will undoubtedly be his greatest challenge yet.

Who would have thought GS had a word count limit Who would have thought i'd actually find that out

(I did part 2 below because part 1 would be seen by people first so it would be easier to have them follow onto 2)

(part 2.)

(looking for part 1?)

5. Left 4 Dead

Valve offers the Counter Strike crowd something new to aim at, lots of things actually...

Zombies are great enemies in videogames for a number of reasons. They are slow enough as foes to be gruesomely disposed of by any means of visceral combat. They are also simple enough for developers to chuck many, many zombies into the screen at any one time, without a stutter in the frame rate. However, Left 4 Dead offers a rather terrifying alternative. Here, the zombies are faster than you can run, there can be no careful planning, and no sneaky stealth kills. In this game, the zombies will find you before you can find them. The other half of the games formula is that even though the enemies are faster than you can imagine, no sacrifice has been made for their number. Zombies will pour out of houses and down from roofs and will incessantly pursue you for as long as the games maniacal AI deems necessary (the game features no fixed zombie spawn points. The game calculates when best to press the player with enemies and when to leave them alone, the most important thing to remember is that it's dynamic. You won't experience the same spawning twice). The impossibility of your task is aided by the necessity of team play. Valve have designed the game to be played with 4 distinct characters and it is clear from gameplay that this is absolutely necessary for survival.

Left 4 Dead is not the most impressive game of 2008, neither is it the most audacious, neither is it the prettiest, nor the most moving, nor the best looking. It does however look to be easily one of the most intense experiences of the coming year. Relentless, punishing and altogether furious in its blood count, Left 4 Dead will undoubtedly leave few players unscarred and all the better for it. With the delay of Resident Evil 5, few would have expected another zombie game to be able to deliver the same intensity as Capcom's newly revived series. What Left 4 Dead looks to be doing is to provide an entirely different philosophy to the zombie genre. If Resident Evil is Romero's Dead series, then Left 4 Dead could easily be the 28 Days Later alternative. And with the strength of the games promise so far, it is more than ready to accept such a comparison.

4. Infinity: The Quest for Earth

Because no list would be complete without a vapourware space sim

I have been playing Endless Ocean recently, and as a piece of relaxation it is pretty good, though somewhat limiting by the size of the game area. While the ocean you can explore is indeed large you can only explore a section at a time before you move your boat to the next area you wish to look at. I have always wanted to play a game with a near infinite scope; where the ocean would never run dry and where your only limit would be your own sense of exploration. Infinity: The Quest for Earth is a game that wants you to delve into this massive universe. With a story based around simply finding Earth (the population has been hit with a massive dose of infertility and the populous will be extinct unless they find the mythical cure that exists on their home world) the game certainly doesn't seem very impressive, "how hard can it be to find a planet in a videogame?" you may ask. Very difficult it seems, the game is created through using data created procedurally (essentially, computer generated content), this allows the game to feature literally tens of billions of different planets per galaxy. Additionally this game is also an MMO so it will feature buying, trading, team-work and various missions that you can choose to complete. The game is certainly for those looking for a bit of relaxation and it will obviously not be to everyone's taste. But when every game under the sun involves combat of some kind, the option to just sit back and explore is surely something that should at least interest some people. The idea of a limitless game space is something that should appeal to everyone who feels constrained by current storage techniques, and you never know, you may just find your own little corner of the universe to call home.

3. The Path

Gaming again grows up in a dark retelling of Little Red Riding Hood

Now here is an interesting concept for you. This is a game in which achieving its goal means its game over, where the ending isn't the discerning factor; it's the path you take to the ending that is most important. Based on the Red Riding Hood fairy tale, The Path sees you playing as the titular character in her travels through the forest and too her grandmothers house. However, as I have previously stated the game is not so much about the final act in the house but the journey along the way and this is where the game gets its title from.

The story of Red Riding Hood is about growing up and the game consists of 6 playable chapters all played using a different version of Red Riding Hood, each of these Red Riding Hoods represents a different aspect of growing up and these will include; Goth, Kid, Sexpot and Virgin. It's an almost intoxicating combination of characters, and given the setup of the game it seems to be judged perfectly. Even more interesting, is the games control setup which is split into 3 control schemes for each section of the game. The starting section exists in a modern day apartment and will be controlled like a point and click adventure. The second act, which takes place in the forest, is told through the 3rd person perspective and the final act which takes place in grandmother's house is viewed 1st person. It seems that as you get further into the game the feel shifts you into a closer connection with Red Riding Hood, in a similar way to your own emotional attachment to the character. Although it may seem a bit alien if you are reading this for the first time, if it works then it could prove to be a mighty addition to videogame story telling.

Every aspect of The Path is simply seems astounding when you first consider it and none more so than the central dynamic that I have mentioned before. Nothing really sums it up better than an extract from the games website:

There is one rule in the game. And it needs to be broken.
There is one goal. And when you attain it, you die.

So in the same way that Infinity has a quest that cannot be completed and Spore has an idea that can never be exhausted The Path offers an adventure that you do not want to finish. So it all really comes down to how you reach this conclusion, either way your little girl is going to suffer, (if that wasn't apparent to you then it is now) it all depends on how you make her suffer. In the words of the game

"Will you take the path of needles...or the path of pins?"

2. Dead Space

Doom 3 meets Alien meets the Thing meets everything else in EA's solace at the ass end of space

Dead Space has taken inspiration from a lot of things but when has that ever made a game any less compelling? Heck, for all the System Shock 2 b****ing Bioshock remained more unique than any other shooter released that year. So while Dead Space certainly doesn't hide its inspirations, it certainly has its own ideas to share with the gaming world. The first thing to notice is that the game has no HUD. Everything is produced through looking at the character. See the blue line running down the guys back, that's his health meter, want to view your ammo counter draw up your weapons sights (also in-game), the game also presents a more natural and organic way of dealing with combat. You yourself play as a repair engineer so you're only real weapons are your engineering tools. The most famous so far being the plasma cutter which acts like a 3-pronged laser. It is in this initial gun that Dead Spaces visceral and organic combat shows most prominently as your mutated enemies will react differently where you hit them with the laser. Cut of a leg and they may slide toward you dragging their body on their hands. Alternatively this may cause another enemy to drop to all fours (now all threes) and run at you crawl like. There seems to be a wide range of monsters to deal with judging from initial media and hopefully as your arsenal expands the variety will not flatten and hopefully if the game does eventually deliver guns that they do not dilute the visceral experience demonstrated so far.

Much of Dead Space rests on how it ultimately ends up. At the moment it could be any number of things, from Resident Evil 4 like shooter to a System Shock type horror the game could at the moment turn into any number of different genre specifics and ultimately you will either be disappointed or pleased by whatever route the developers take and I am praying EA don't forget about what they first said about the title. I desperately hope the game sticks to its horror roots rather than the resi4 like action seen so far. What I ultimately want from Dead Space is an Alien type game about fear and isolation. I hope that ammo is scarce, I hope I will have to use the enemies own limbs as weapons because of a lack of ammo, I hope the game scares me s***less and I hope the game continues to provide the sense of claustrophobia that seems could be apparent if the developers stopped showing constant arm lopping. If all this sounds negative then it probably shouldn't because this is a game that will no doubt please fans with whatever direction the developers choose. However it remains in a state of limbo for me because I am so unsure as to where EA are going with this. You may ask why I have placed it so high and that is simply because I know I will enjoy it either way. Out of all the games on this list Dead Space is the game that I know will bring me enjoyment no matter what. It all now rests on how much Dead Space wants to impress me. Should the game stick to its unabashed primal violence and the game will rank as a worthy Resident Evil 4 imitator. Should Redwood Shores go for the horror route however and bring to the table a real "Alien" game, then it will have a high probability of being one of my favourite games of all time. If you think I may be holding onto false hope then I will leave you with a quote executive producer Glen Schofield said when answering the very question I have posed this entire time:

"This has been to show you some of the mechanics-we also have more 'psychological' areas... you may go 20 minutes without an encounter...but we want you to be scared s***less within that 20 minutes."

Bring on the s**t.

1. Mirror's Edge

DICE jumps head first and pulls us along for the ride as they reinvent the first person perspective

Concepts are wonderful things. They provide belief in something that you know may be impossible, but you can't help believing in them anyways, such is there ambition. Mirrors Edge is one such game, its idea of reinventing the first person perspective seems so bizarre, so disorientating, so wondrously brilliant. The idea of a game that has forced players to totally start afresh with first person genre seems ridiculous given the amount of first person games out currently but evidently it seems to have done so. A recent hands on demo with EDGE magazine immediately started by saying "And running is the first problem..." The preview then goes off into the weight and momentum of the character and how this affects you. Forget Portal with its fancy positional shifts, this is a game that leaves you disorientated from the get go and will continue to make you feel so until you can control the character properly. This leads to the more pressing problem which is that the games fundamental design is built around running and jumping and climbing, it seems that even changing the perceptions of perspective where not enough for DICE, now they have to implement Assassins Creed into it, the game seems almost to good to be true and indeed when videos arrive I will no doubt be slightly disappointed, but that only comes through waiting for videos to emerge for over a year. My hype for this game, I believe, simply cannot be met and I guess that goes for a lot of the games on this list, but based on concept alone and Mirrors Edge is already up in the top 3 (the path may beat it) based on the screenshots it most definitely takes top honours (even in stills the games sense of speed is ever present), in terms of previews the game has me far more excited than any other game (when a magazine as respected as EDGE simply trails into a 6 paragraph narration of what they are seeing then you know that whatever they are seeing is simply astounding them) and in terms of comparisons with other games in the genre Mirrors Edge surprisingly takes top honours again. Whereas games such as Spore wont change how we view strategy games and the likes of Brawl wont alter our outlook for other fighters, Mirrors Edge will prove to be a nasty thorn in the side of many modern first person shooters should it succeed. If the perspective works then future first person games may have to follow Mirrors Edge's design philosophy if they want to be compared in the same technical margin. This all really depends on how Mirrors Edge handles shooting which doesn't seem to be a major part of the game yet, but if the perspective shift works then we may see a first person revolution not seen since Havok invaded the physics system of Half Life 2.

Even the games visual theme seems to demonstrate a distinctive prowess. The games colour coded palette is vital to the games movement system. All red objects are those that can be useful to your ever desperate fleeing from police or your ever increasing need to get to a target. This apparently proves to be vital when the game is at its most hectic and will undoubtedly help those who so often get stuck in places we were never supposed to (i.e. all of us).

Mirror's Edge is a daring game that perfectly suits the games rebellious lead. If nothing else, it will prove that there is still life in the now very overused and underdeveloped first person perspective. If DICE do manage to produce something special with this game then it will surely change the perceptions of the genre and in that sense DICE's game could well enter the realms of the Half Life's and the Quakes. Again this is down to nothing more than the stills released so far but again concept is what makes this game so interesting. Now all DICE have to do is match it.

(I should probably point out that I dont own a ps3, so that is why I didnt put any of them in my list. if I did own one, props would go to MGS4 and littlebig planet)

Now that so many games are being quibbled for having a single player that's over all too quickly; is this the work of publishers simply wanting to cut costs, or developers finally realising the limits of their ideas.

Half Life 2: The Orange Box has been called by IGN as "The best deal in videogame history" proving that a single vision for a game is not the only way to go. The collection of puzzle, adventure and multiplayer components make it one of the year's most easily lovable games, simply because it appeals to everyone. Now consider an alternative; instead of the Orange Box what we instead have is all of the games being available separately (which they are currently on steam), suddenly the deal doesn't seem to be so appealing. With Portal at £10 and Team Fortress 2 at £15, one wonders whether these games would have sold very much at all, sold entirely on their own. Indeed one of the main criticisms of Portal even when it was part of the Orange Box is that the game was still too short and at only 2-3 hours long, it remains one of the shortest buyable games out there.

It seems that the ideas of value and longevity are inherently tied to each other. The phrase "you don't get what you paid for" being repeatedly used for various titles released over the past few years. As game prices go up year by year, the expectations for these prices to be met by an equal value in production values also increase. The length of a game is also now considered as part of these "production" values because many gamers now feel that an increase in polish should be met with an equal measure of time. It is a theory that is not impossible to understand. Games often have the ability to draw us in and make us feel part of the game we are playing. The idea that we want to be part of this world for as much as possible is the primary reason that most gamers see longer games as automatically good. But here is where the problem lies; when does a game stop being enthralling and start being tedious, when does that moment of connection and association fall apart when a game tries to stretch the limits of a games plot. It is something that has happened consistently in a number of games that have proclaimed themselves to be "30 hours PLUS" and it is something that will only be realised when a developer acknowledges that certain sections was simply "a filler".

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess is a prime example of this. From the second third onward, the game constantly veers dangerously towards monotony by throwing dungeon after dungeon at the player in the most unconvincing of areas. The dungeons in Zelda games have always been places to test your skills, AFTER you've explored some impressive scenery and dabbled in a bit of adventure. In Twilight Princess the areas that should be the most impressive aren't because they are incoherently forced into dungeon design that lengthens the game but suffers at the player's expense.

For a long time, JRPG's have been at the forefront of epic 40+ hour's story's, with this comes the inevitable drab sections and this has somewhat developed into a tradition of the genre. It has become expected that all JRPG's suffer from some sort of "grinding" in a sense familiar to those of MMO's. The recent JRPG Eternal Sonata focused this style of play more than any other game I have played in recent times. The first few hours of the game are entirely dependant on cut-scenes and dungeon crawls; often your adventure along your set path is merely to get you from the end of the previous cut-scene to the next boss fight which will then lead to the next cut-scene. Eternal Sonata's progression again highlights the continued focus of many games that involve long areas of forced progression that result in a small piece of story development that could have taken half the time had the designers controlled its story arc in a better way.

However, games of this nature have never really taken precedent over games that simply opt for a fairly modest 8-12 hours single player. Various games; such as Heavenly Sword, Halo 3, Uncharted- Drake's Fortune and Call of Duty 4 have all been hurt for a lack of story time. It appears that First Person Shooters tend to get off more lightly than other games and this is certainly the case when comparing Call of Duty 4 and Heavenly Sword. The fact that Call of Duty 4 had a multiplayer mode that was generally exceptional allowed for the failings of its short single player to be balanced out by the near limitless amount of time that one could spend online. Conversely; Call of Duty 4's campaign has also been described as "relentless" and "a campaign that never lets up": surely then, if the campaign was stretched out to a greater length, it would lose the impact it had from being so short. If you look back at Call of Duty's campaign, could you honestly find an objective or set-piece that would have improved it?

Several games; such as Halo 2 and Gears of War have also been called short, even though their campaigns stretch to around 10 hours they are still noted for their short adventures. The trouble with Gears and Halo 2 is that, although decently stretched, the way that these games end that seems to be their most published failings. Both Halo 2 and Gears of War ended with a presumed set-up to a sequel title and this is what left most players feeling dejected. Halo 2 in particular had a fairly similar run-time to that of the original Halo, a game that has been praised for its single player campaign. It seems apparent to me that it is not a games length that affects how well-valued a title is but how it successfully it uses the time that it gives itself to create something memorable. As the ending of a game is often the most lasting of images a game will have on a player, the way any game ends will ultimately determine whether the player feels they have gotten value for money. Surely if Halo 2 had not ended on that cliff-hanger but on a more closing finale then many would have felt that their purchase had been worth it.

There are rare games however that have been able to blend a long single player structure with a satisfying ending all with a lack of grinding. Both Resident Evil 4 and Half Life 2 are masters of pacing and it is in pacing that the idea of longevity comes from. Longevity in a game sense is the ability for a game to make you want to keep playing to the very end, it is different from lifespan which is the specific measure of time it takes to complete the game and it is of course different from re-playability which is how well the game makes you want to play the game again, even after you have completed it before. Though all entirely different these 3 areas are all covered in some way by Half Life 2 and Resident Evil 4. The nature of these games lengths is such that they must remain consistent in difficulty and playability as well as varied in their challenges and environments. Both do so surprisingly well and both offer some of the best examples of pacing in any game. It is in this consistency that many "grinding" games tend to fall apart, because they simply can't match the events that take place within talking or cut-scenes with the progression system from one section to another. Games that are short tend to inherently lose this sense of boredom by cutting out these longer, more torturous areas in place of more snappy and more enjoyable because of this sections that test your skills while still keeping you interested in the story ahead. Bioshock especially suffered from this because its form of progression and its objective system in particular stopped you from fully appreciating the main story arc because it essentially sent you on more and more diverting routes that made the games main story less and less focused, to the point where it was at times difficult to remember why exactly you were in this specific area in the first place.

On the opposite end of this scale is Portal. A game that, as has already been described above, is evidently short. Portal is perhaps the best example of a game that makes excellent use of its short single player by making as much use of this time as possible. It's excellent at what at it does, and in terms of longevity, pacing and re-playability it's simply brilliant, and all this without even going over 4 hours. As part of The Orange Box it's difficult to judge how worth it Portal really is but in relation to the primary question of longer games equalling better games and it can't help but disprove that theory.

It seems that many reviewers don't know how to review a games length. When was the last time you read a review that explicitly cited that a game was too long. It seems to work oppositely in the movie industry. Critics were more than happy to demerit Lord of the Rings for its excessive run-time, but game critics seem to be obliged to rat on a game for being less than 12 hours in length. Of course, films and games have different criteria when being assessed but when a film critic criticises a film for being too long it is often because it lacks proper pacing or because it peters away because it can't successfully complete the script without boring the audience. These same criticisms should be more focused on games, particularly now as longer games are more explicitly being asked for.

My birthday came and went two weeks ago and I have been since participating in one of the most varied gaming sessions in my relatively short lifespan. I feel I should tell you of my gaming pursuits because, frankly i think it shows just how varied gaming can be.

Our tale begins in September when I bought a 360 with a little old game called Bioshock. 4 months later and im still playing the f***ing thing. Through no fault of my own I bought into the fate of Halo 3, and have consequently spent most of October completing it to the best of my ability. When I had finally quelled the beast within the xbox I promptly started to continue on into bioshock for fear of losing any connection i had with the game. I had roughly 2 weeks to finish the game. 2 weeks and then the big .1.7. would bestow itself upon me and that really only meant one thing for me. Mario Galaxy.

I had greatly resisted the urge to buy mario galaxy some 15 days before my birthday as i have a strange belief that by somehow waiting until my magical yearly update my appreciation of the game would improve somewhat. This did not prove to be the case as i spent countless hours reading message boards telling me how great the f***ing game was. My constant scurrying over to gamerankings only exasperated my anticipation as the portly plumber remained resolutely at the number 2 spot for longer than i deemed humanely possible. My expectations therefore were incredibly high and were finally maxed out when my copy of EDGE gave it a perfect 10. Though I was more relieved than anything (my high regard for the EDGE 10 has somewhat diminished in recent times as both Halo 3 and orange box also received the score this year, and although I haven't yet played the orange box I know with a heavy heart that halo 3 in know way deserved the score it was given.) the review itself was brilliant as expected and had me hyped for areas I did not think possible (Rosalina's storybook for example).

I do not want to turn this into a hype/flop blog however so that will be the end of my mario galaxy rant. When my birthday finally came and I was greeted by the starry lettering of "U R MR GAY I was thankful enough. Having not had time to play the game before school I quickly glanced through the instruction manual and after being disappointed to realize that I could not find the french translation for star-bits i proceeded on my giddy way to what would become a fairly tiring day of day-dreams and AS Physics. A spot of luck did cross my path however when my kind friend presented me with a birthday present. i was even more impressed to realize that my friend had bought me ICo, a game that I had been interested ever since Shadow of the Colossus. My friend (who i know would rather be kept anonymous)was also very pleased with himself and I responded by hugging him rather than slapping him round the head which was my usual greeting.

So, we have mario galaxy, the incomplete bioshock and ico, there's only one game left. My family came round the following weekend and between the usual bouts of drunken singing and hurried door shutting (I was attempting to show my cousins the "Steinman" scene of Bioshock, while trying to keep several 4 year olds from coming in (the screaming and banging did add to the mood however)) I managed to open my one present from my various cousins and realized that it was Eternal Sonata, a game that i had put down on my birthday list, but didn't think it would have much chance of materializing. After the massacre was over and my family had left the house, violin cases dragging behind them I promptly put in the game disc and realized with about as much joy as humanely possible that the game had japanese voice-overs. Huzzah I said (literally) and I immediately started to plough through the opening mass of cut-scenes which see you play as 2 characters for about as much time as you can peel a lemon. Indeed the cut-scenes were so long that my 360 controller had turned off, and this was only when I realized that I needed the toilet.

So what does this all mean? Well for me it's given me a choice I never thought I'd have. The 4 games I have to play; mario galaxy, ico, bioshock and eternal sonata are all completely different and they represent all of my favourite genres; platforming, shooting, adventuring and rpg'ing. For me it's absolutely fabulous because all of these games are really, really good. All of them look fantastic, each with a different art style that simply works; gritty dystopia with a phenomenal art design, a child-like imagination with fantastic variation, beautiful isolation with brilliant character modeling and a game which looks like a frickin anime. What more could you want. The sound design of each game is also amazing; mario galaxy has my favourite soundtrack this gen, bioshock is my second favourite with some beautiful violin playing (I play the violin, hence the connection), Eternal Sonata is fairly obvious and ico is just simply stunning. It's ironically the gameplay which is the biggest failing of all the games, mario galaxy less so, but for bioshock the gunplay just really isnt very good, ico controls as clunkily as Wander did and eternal sonata is a by-the-number rpg. But in an artistic sense these games are just at the top of their game and for that I'm very grateful.

I guess the last question i should answer, for any of you who haven't gotten bored and started looking at pictures of DOA girls is what game I'm enjoying the most. Well I guess mario galaxy, as im now ready to face bowser. In terms of play time its outdoing bioshock which I really should have finished by now (I have just got my plasmids back in apollo square so the annoyance of the last hour or so has passed). Eternal Sonata is the one i've had for the least amount of time but im enjoying it enough and shall probably be playing it after bioshock. Ico is a very slow starter and a very slow game, it's taking me a while to get into it and it suffers somewhat for not being as loud as the others. Still, it took me a long time to finish shadow of the colossus so this isn't much of a surprise. Incidentally "the child's fate" is referring to ico in ico and not the little sisters in bioshock. it was only after I realized that I had not finished bioshock that the connection became apparent.

Thanks for reading; I will probably do a review soon of either mario galaxy, bioshock or shadow of the colossus. I know you all cant wait

A little late to the party but whatever.

Attention.

Please do not go on GameSpot, GameFAQs, CNET, Download.com, TV.com, et cetera... do not go on ANY CNET site. Logout and DO NOT GO ON AT ALL from 12am EST on Monday (that's midnight tonight) until 12am EST on Tuesday. Don't come on the site, don't Google the site, don't click on a link to the site - don't do ANYTHING that generates a page view, search engine hit, or *anything*

A lot of Gamespotter's more prominant posters will be taking this action to show solidarity with the staff (and Jeff) who have to fear their jobs being lost if they speak their mind. So for their inability to speak on this issue *we'll show CNET our silence*.

This issue is bigger than you, it's bigger than me - it's bigger than GameSpot. This is about big business being able to use *buy* public opinion. Rather than live in a world where the media is controlled entirely by those with the most money, I want to live in a world where gamers who are living for their hobby (these guys truly work because of their passion for gaming, not the paycheck) can say what they truly feel about a game.

So let's do the right thing and show solidarity with Jeff Gerstmann - if he can't go to work on Monday at GameSpot then neither will we.

I know im technically breaking the rules but this is the first time since thursday that ive been online.