Boss fights are a common element of most games, but are something that I frequently find frustrating. I’d like to take a moment to look at some great (and truly terrible) boss fights to look at how they should be done.

What is a Boss Fight?

A boss fight is a part of the game where the player is confronted with a large, powerful character that they have to fight in order to progress. There should be tactics to the fight, which may take place in phases, requiring the player to use the skills they have learned in the game up to that point. Sort of like an exam to check up on their progress and see what they have learned. The final boss fight, therefore, should be like a final exam, testing them on everything they have learned through the entire game. They should also match the tone of the rest of he game.

It should NOT be an extended version of a normal fight, i.e. just a dragged out battle with someone who is like a normal enemy but just has a bit of extra health! It should also not create random new game mechanics out of nowhere with no prior introduction and expect you to use them.

‘Pulling it out of your arse’: Sonic Generations

All of the bosses in the original Sonic games require some combination of platforming, attacking the target and dodging projectiles, all skills that the player has developed through the course of playing the levels. This is good because it means the player is prepared when the boss fight happens.

Sonic Generations (and indeed many of the modern sonic games after and including Sonic Adventure), kind of get this right during the main game, but the problem comes in the finale. These sequences usually involve Super Sonic, in situations and using abilities that the player has never encountered before. Generations seems to be the worst example though as the gameplay is (not only badly designed, poorly implemented and (it would seem) not QA’d at all!) but unlike anything else from the rest of the game. This is BAAAAD!

‘Dragging it out’ and ‘Breaking the Tone’: Deus Ex: HR and Alpha Protocol

Deus Ex: Human Revolution is a great game that, for the most part, allows you to approach the game in different ways, whether its running-and-gunning, sniping, stealth or up-close silent take-downs. Most of the game can be beaten no matter which of these styles you choose to adopt. The thing that lets the whole game down however is, you guessed it, the boss fights! These encounters not only break the Final Exam principle, but also do not fit in with the tone and style of the rest of the game.

There are several of these fights scattered throughout the game and every one plays out in the same way. Some bosses have different powers that mean you have to adapt your attack style slightly, but every fight is basically a beefed-up soldier that has to be killed in order to proceed. This in a game where stealthing, hacking turrets and talking your way out of situations is the norm, just doesn’t make sense. There should be other ways to defeat these enemies other than just running backwards and shooting them with the assault rifle, which is the most practical way to defeat just about all of them. You should be able to break into their locker and disable their shields, or hack into the system and disable their pet robot dog or convince them that they’re on the wrong team… its things like that that make Deus Ex what it is, and the boss fights should reflect this.

The underrated Alpha Protocol made the same mistakes. A game based on similar principles, but which would also force you into fights where the only sensible weapon choice was the assault rifle, a weapon in which the player may not have chosen to specialise.

‘The Final Exam’: Lara Croft & the Guardian of Light

One recent surprisingly good example of the Final Exam principle (and generally a surprisingly excellent game) is Tomb Raider spin-off Lara Croft & Guardian of Light. The final showdown with the boss doesn’t just involve shooting him, but shooting and dodging waves of enemies, avoiding spikes and traps, and setting off various environmental elements from throughout the entirety of the game (as well as shooting him). This felt suitably climactic as it was testing you on all of the skills you had learned and enemy types you faced throughout the game, as well as being a final showdown with the game’s villain.

Final Thoughts

Boss Fights should be an enjoyable part of the gaming experience and shouldn’t feel like a chore. They should not just be cheaply padded out battles, but should test the player on all of the skills that the player has learned so far. They should also also be in keeping with the tone of the rest of the game.

So, what do you think makes a good Boss Fight? Are there any other boss fights have you found particularly memorable (good or bad)?

I know I’ve already talked about Sonic recently in my Retrospective, commenting on how terrible most of the games have been since the Genesis/Mega Drive era, but pointing out that there were some saving graces amongst the terrible decisions… but that was before I had properly played either Sonic 4 – Episode 1 or Sonic Generations. Both of these games seem to be shedding some of the stuff that has made recent games so bad and trying to take Sonic back to his roots, but have either of them succeeded?

Sonic 4

Sonic The Hedgehog 4 – Episode 1 was released last year, and seems to be an attempt to continue the series from where it left off (after Sonic & Knuckles – the last truly brilliant Sonic game!). It features the classic 2D gameplay, sprinkled with some extra features such as the Homing Attack. It involved the inevitable remake of the Green Hill Zone (now called Splash Hill), along with three other levels, all variations on Sonic Classic and featuring remixed version of Classic bosses.

The nostalgia value of this game is, without a doubt, very high. The gameplay, unfortunately, is pretty bad. Sonic just doesn’t handle right; he stops too quickly (and in odd places), frequently glitches out and drops like a stone out of the air of you let go of the movement buttons mid jump… Generally he feels sluggish and moving/jumping is a lot more difficult than it should be, which ultimately ruins the core Sonic gameplay. Also, one of the levels has you holding a torch, which only illuminates the area immediately around Sonic, meaning you have to move around cautiously and proving that the developers had completely missed the point of the Sonic experience!

The presentation is also fairly weak. Sonic and certain other objects are 3D, but very basic and poorly shaded, while the rest of the environment seems to have been created in 2D, creating a weird miss-match and not looking as good as it could. Also, with the exception of the music for Splash Hill Act 1 (which is addictive), the music and sound design aren’t really up to much. The quality of the presentation, coupled with the dodgy handling and glitches just make the game feel very cheap.

Sonic Generations

Generations is a one-off game launched to celebrate Sonic’s 20th Anniversary (which doesn’t make me feel old at all!). It this, a wierd swirly creature messes up time, causing modern Sonic and classic Sonic (the ‘younger’ version of himself) to work together. Each act alternates between the two gameplay styles; ‘classic’ 2D and ‘modern’ 3D gameplay. The game is made up of zones which are remakes of levels from previous games, as well as remakes of certain boss fights and ‘rival battles’ (feauring Metal Sonic and Shadow).

While the framing story is very cheesy, it actually kind of works (much helped by classic Sonic (who doesn’t speak!), who keeps rolling his eyes and generally looking bemused by it all). Switching between the two gameplay styles can be a bit disorienting, but they are both a lot of fun. The classic levels feel like old-school Sonic used to, with the added bonus of beautiful graphics, music and sound design. The modern levels take all the best elements from recent Sonic games from Adventure through to Unleashed and refine them perfectly.

With the exception of the final boss fight (which is poorly design, unlike any other gameplay in the whole game and just generally frustrating to play), this game is an excellent and very well polished presentation that successfully celebrates the best of Sonic over the years. It feels like quite a short game, though I suppose the extra challenges and side missions (about half of which are actually quite clever or fun, the others not so much) do kind of make up for it. I hope future DLC will add some new content (hopefully more remakes of  levels from the original trilogy!).

Conclusion

Sonic Generations has done a brilliant job of capturing the classic feeling of Sonic, cutting out the fat that has crept into the series and bringing the graphics (and gameplay elements for modern sonic) up to date. A brilliant game and well worth a play, even after the nostalgia value wears off.

RECOMMENDATION: Buy It!

Sonic 4 on the other hand is a very poor game. It feels very cheap, is buggy and the gameplay is just wrong. It feels like an intern was given the project to work on quietly in the corner of the office and is not worthy of continuing the Sonic series.

RECOMMENDATION: Don’t Bother!

The Assassins Creed (should there be an apostrophe in there somewhere?) series has become one of the most popular series of this gaming generation and one of my favourite games… in some ways. I haven’t reviewed any of the games yet, so I thought I would take a look back at the series and offer some opinions.

Assassins Creed

The first game introduced us to the series premise… and not a lot else! We were introduced to series protagonist Desmond (possibly the least interesting character in gaming), who has been captured by the secretive Templars who want to learn about his ancestors, members of the order of Assassins. In order to get the knowledge out of Desmond, the Templars use a machine called the Animus to access the memories of his ancestors through his DNA. Now this is, or course, impossible. But this lie doesn’t bother me, and it does serve as a good framing device for the series. Its also a good excuse for various mechanics like the interface and having to ‘synchronise’ with your ancestors memories to access the desired information is a good plot device.

And so we enter the footsteps of Altaïr, an arrogant, shallow character who was an assassin at the time of the crusades (it seems that un-interesting-ness is genetic!). Altaïr must travel across the holy land, working with his assassin brothers to track down and eliminate Templar agents.

The main problem I had with this game was that you basically end up doing the same mission over and over again (twice in each of the available cities) between the intro sequence and the finale. It was really repetitive, and I ended up having to take a long break from the game between missions, which kinda sucked. And then we get to the ending sequence and we are introduced to the other part of the overarching story, which I’m not a great fan of and is usually a jarringly weird, over-the-top ending to each game, but we’ll get back to that later!

Assassins Creed 2/Brotherhood/Revelations

In the second game, Desmond escapes from the Templars with the help of his fish-faced girlfriend and joins up with a scooby-gang of  fellow assassins. They also have an Animus, and this time Desmond enters the Memories of Ezio, an assassin from renaissance Italy.

Here, the storyline and general gameplay improve spectacularly. Ezio is a character that actually has some depth and goes through some real character development (and clearly a genetic freak in the otherwise bland family line!). Much of the repetitiveness has gone (though there’s always some ‘collect x of this’ or ‘do this x times to achieve y’ missions, there is some variety to them) and the characters and set peices are much more interesting.

Ezio’s (and Desmond’s) story continues in Brotherhood and Revelations. While these are large games, with lots of story and content and some extra features and gameplay additions, they do feel more like expansion packs that proper games. There certainly isn’t as much of an improvement between these games as there was between 1 & 2, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t worth playing!

Gameplay & Storyline

I do really like the gameplay in the series. The free-running and climbing around on the rooftops is a lot of fun, as is planning out and executing plans to quietly dispatch your target. The tomb-raider-esque puzzle dungeons are enjoyable too. There is a slight sense of detachment from the action, as you basically just hold a trigger and the A button and point the character in the direction you want to go, but there is still enough of a sense of control that you don’t really notice it (unlike, say, Enslaved [review coming soon!]).

I love roaming around in the past and fighting the hidden war between Assassins and Templars. I even like the Animus as a framing device for the story. However, the other part of the overarching storyline is my least favourite part of the game! Its a cheesy sci-fi story which was clearly thought up by the world’s biggest Stargate fan. Without giving too much away, it involves another race of beings living on Earth and some magical artefacts that can affect peoples’ minds and give them magic powers. This has the same feeling as the supernatural endings to things like Tomb Raider and Indiana Jones, for me at least, it kinda ruins the experience. But I feel I should point out that this is usually only the last ten minutes of a game that can take in excess of 30 hours to play through, and its otherwise very enjoyable!

Summary

Well, while this isn’t technically a review, I can definitely recommend the Assassins Creed series. They have given me a lot of enjoyment, despite the few issues that I have, and they are also one of the few games that I actually go out to buy on launch day. They are among the best games I’ve played this generation and well worth checking out, if you haven’t already!

In the second entry on online dating I’d like to talk about how to get started using these sites. It can be quite daunting to log in for the first time and its not always clear what you are supposed to be doing…

Your Profile

The first thing you need to do is fill out your profile. There are two schools of thought he: the first is to put as much info as possible on there so that people can learn as much about you as possible straight off. The second is that you should share as little as possible, so that you have something to talk to once you start talking to someone.

Personally I like to put a bit of info and a few examples. For instance, under music I list the genres I’m into and three of my favourite bands. Enough to give an idea, but without simply listing every band I like. You want to say things that are likely to start a conversation, perhaps things that will make others want to ask you questions, without giving too much away straight off.

Keep it snappy and interesting and not go on at length as you run the risk of boring people. Also be reasonably humble as arrogance can scare people off, and try to avoid clichés and things describing yourself as ‘genuine’ as this can make you seem fake and unimaginative.

The other tip is to be positive; avoid saying things about yourself that could be taken in a negative light. For example, my profile used to include phrases like “I’m kinda shy at first” and “I’ve had a rough year so I’m focussing on enjoying myself”. While these may be true, they can carry negative connotations. I lost the word shy, though I do describe my self as a little quiet (but go on to say “but you know what they say about the quiet ones”, which will hopefully raise a smile).  I also lost the “I’ve had a rough year”, though I do still talk about focussing on making the most of life.

Contacting Others

I have to admit that I’m not actually very good at this myself. Both OKCupid and Plenty Of Fish have features whereby you can rate other users (by giving them a star rating or saying whether or not you would like to meet them). If you rate them 4 star or higher, or say you would like to meet them, then it lets them know. In an ideal world then would then either visit your profile and talk to you, or at the very least rate you themselves so you know if you are interested. You then get a message saying you chose each other, a good way to start a conversation. This, for me, is the time I feel most comfortable contacting someone. However, this seems to happen very rarely.

I have had people on both sites make first contact, particularly after applying some of the stuff I mentioned earlier to my own profile. But, particularly as a guy, I wouldn’t sit around waiting for it, it doesn’t seem to happen very often…

The best policy, therefore, particularly if you are a guy, seems to be to take the plunge and make the first move by sending a message. When sending a message, you should also be aware that (again, particularly if you are a guy) the other person may get lots of messages, a mixture of proper messages and spam messages from people who are just looking for sex, so you need to be polite, friendly and ideally say something unique and memorable. The best thing to do is read their profile properly and pick out something, such as a shared interest, that you can start to talk about.

Expecting Rejection

My experience, and that of the others I’ve talked to, is that you have to expect a certain amount of rejection. Some people may have more luck, but I get a response rate of about one in twelve (I haven’t actually done the maths). At first I started only messaging one or two people at a time, but the lack of response I got made me start talking to more and more. This, of course, can lead to a different problem about talking to multiple people, but we’ll get onto that later.

There are reasons that people might not get back to you right away of course, they could be at work or on holiday and not able to… or they may check you out and not be interested (and unfortunately they don’t usually seem to have the decency to say something like “you’re not my type”, which in some ways would be polite and helpful, but might also affect your confidence, so perhaps the silence is better)… whatever the reason, you can’t let the lack of response get you down and you have to keep at it. You will get responses eventually!

Conclusion

That’s it for now. I’ll be back with more about my experiences in the online dating jungle later on, but I hope you’ve found it interesting and/or helpful.

Science is Fun! [Originally Published - 24/04/11]

The original Portal was basically just a tech demo, included in Valve’s Orange Box alongside other titles like Half-Life 2 and Team Fortress. And this was all it needed to be. This being Valve, however, they injected plenty of dark humour and made the game’s AI character into one of the greatest villains and characters in a video game… ever! Not to mention spawning various memes around the internet (most of them involving cake) and making an inanimate object (in the form of the companion cube) another of gaming’s most beloved sidekick characters (or maybe that was just me…).

Now, though, Valve have produced Portal 2. The sequel aims to have twice the content in the single player campaign as well as an additional cooperative campaign. This is probably the most anticipated PC game of the year, and if any developer can live up to that hype, its valve. But have they done it?

The original game was basically designed to show off the ability to use portals in the game. Portals can be opened against certain flat surfaces allowing you to reach places you otherwise couldn’t. The game really started to melt the brain when it introduced concepts such as the preservation of momentum through Portals and required the player to solve more and more complex puzzles. The game was only a few hours long and simply consisted (at least at first) of a series of enclosed test chambers. The player was guided by an AI voice to solve the puzzles in each chamber before moving on to the next one. Yet, as I said, it was brilliant and is one of mine (and so many other peoples’) favourite games ever. Lets have a look at what the sequel has in store for us:

Could Generations be Sonic’s last hope?  [Originally Published - 17/04/11]

With the release of yet another attempt to bring Sonic back to his roots, I began to wonder if going back to the beginning is really all the Sonic can hope to achieve?

I should probably reiterate that I always preferred Sonic to Mario (at least, back in the days when Sonic games were still good). I realise that the Mario franchise has been much better managed, with games like Smash Bros and Mario Kart amongst them, and that there hasn’t been a really good sonic game in recent years, but is Sonic’s future really so bleak?

Tehe, Boobies!  [Originally Published - 10/04/11]

I’ve mentioned before that I have no particular problems with sex, violence and gore in games. I wouldn’t say I’m a fan of it, any more that I am a fan of violent films. I’m not going to try and stop people making/buying them, but it doesn’t mean that I’m going to buy them either…

I was reading an article today about the latest round of ‘M-Rated’ game controversy, which it occurred to me that something is very wrong with the M (standing for ‘mature’). This is not a rant against ‘mature’ content in games, but rather against the use of the word ‘mature’ in this context. Look up the definition of the word and you will find various descriptions including “grown up in terms of physical appearance, behaviour or thinking” and “behaving in a rational adult way”. Does that sound like most M-Rated games to you?

I would never pretend to be any good at dating, or indeed at social interaction in general for that matter, but I have recently branched out into the world of online dating. I thought it would be interesting to chart my experiences and share some of the insights I’ve gathered along the way.

In this first instalment I would like to discuss the sites that I’ve been using and my impressions of them.

eHarmony

I thought I would mention eHarmony as it is one of the most popular ones that you see advertised. I did join it, complete the initial quiz and do some searches, but, as expected, you cannot see any of your matches’ photos or contact them unless you subscribe to the site, and I didn’t want to pay for it. However, if you were willing to pay, it did seem like quite a good, well designed site…

OKCupid (www.okCupid.com)

OKCupid is one of the few truly free online dating sites that I have found, and probably my favourite.

Once you have filled out your profile and basic information, you then proceed to answer a series of questions. There are hundreds of questions and the community can generate more. When you answer a question, you pick your own personal answer, then pick which answers you would except from a partner and how important those answers are to you. Once you’ve answered a few hundred of these questions, the site then matches you with other people based on their answers.

The site also keeps track of all messages you send and receive (up to a certain limit) and also has a built in instant messenger that tracks your conversations. It also has some other nice features, such as the quiver, which automatically suggests matches for you. This is, in general, a very well-designed website and is nice to use.

Plenty of Fish  (www.pof.com)

Another popular free site is Plenty of Fish. POF has a very large number of users and most of the features are available for free.

The matching system is a bit more mysterious to me. You use the ‘meet me’ feature, which shows you pictures (and just the pictures) of other users and asks whether you would like to meet them (yes, no or maybe). It then claims that this improves your matches, but whether this is based on interests/profile information or just on attractiveness is unclear.

The site also has a built-in instant messenger, but it doesn’t keep track of your messages and has a tendency to freeze up and/or crash in the middle of a conversation. It also automatically deletes messages after a certain amount of time, which can be quite annoying if you want to look up information from earlier in the conversation. I also think that the site is clumsily laid out and not as well designed or easy to use as OKCupid.

Summary

So, those are the dating sites that I’ve used so far. I’d recommend OKCupid and Plenty of Fish to anyone looking to meet new people, make new friends and have some dates – its a great way to meet new people you might not normally meet, particularly if your an antisocial introvert like me! If I had to pick just one to recommend, it’d be OKC, but I, like many people, use both. Check them out if your interested.

I have once again decided to potentially embarrass myself by making some more predictions about what the next few years in the games industry. This is a follow on from my previous predictions.

Now, I am very much aware that much of what I am about to say will be controversial, even if it is the truth. Lets just say I don’t intend to spend the next few hundred words complaining about this game just to give it the equivalent of an 8 or 9 out of 10 as many other (terrible) reviewers have done.

I am also aware that there will be a lot of Sony and GT fanboys who will object to this content. They will no doubt want to go into a rage and write the sort of offensive, stupid nonsense they did on reviews such as Justin’s from GamesRadar (in fact this is the main reason I don’t have a comments section anywhere on this site!). No one is interested in your opinions and I fully understand that you may not be interested in mine. If so, here’s the door: [Google]. Otherwise, read on.

If you are a GT fan you probably already own the game (and if you have any sense will have traded it in a few days later!). But for those of you who are on the fence, or haven’t bought it yet because of other reviews, please read on.

You would think that a game that has been in development for as long as GT5 (more that five years since it was first announced) and which had basically had an extended beta that many people paid the price of a full game to be part of (in the form of GT5 prologue) would at least complete, finished and polished. Or you would think that it would at least be functional. But you’d be wrong…