Most popular deal posts: Multiformat
1. Deus Ex: Human Revolution, PC – £6.85
2. Borderlands, PC – £1.99
3. Saints Row: The Third, PC – £11.99
4. Deus Ex: Human Revolution, PC – £7.99
5. Dreamcast Collection, PC – £2.84
6. Swift*Stitch, PC – 67p
7. Final Fantasy 7, PS3 – £3.99 on PSN
8. Batman: Arkham City, PC – £16.30
9. Serious Sam 3: BFE, PC – £10.19
10. Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine, PC – £9.99 delivered

PC top 5
1. Deus Ex: Human Revolution, PC – £6.85
2. Borderlands, PC – £1.99
3. Saints Row: The Third, PC – £11.99
4. Deus Ex: Human Revolution, PC – £7.99
5. Dreamcast Collection, PC – £2.84

PS3 top 5
1. Final Fantasy 7, PS3 – £3.99 on PSN
2. Dark Souls, PS3 – £14.95 delivered
3. Mass Effect 3, PS3 – £29.97 delivered
4. Fallout: New Vegas [Ultimate Edition], PS3 – £19.22 delivered
5. Hunted: The Demons Forge, PS3 – £4.98 delivered

Xbox 360 top 5
1. Crysis 2, Xbox 360 – £6.60 delivered
2. Dark Souls, Xbox 360 – £14.95 delivered
3. Deus Ex: Human Revolution [Collectors Edition], Xbox 360 – £19.98 delivered
4. Sonic Generations, Xbox 360 – £8.99 delivered
5. Gears of War 3, Xbox 360 – £13.42 delivered

Most popular games by search
1. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
2. Battlefield 3
3. Saints Row: The Third
4. Anno 2070
5. Dark Souls
6. Batman: Arkham City
7. Rage
8. FIFA 12
9. The Old Republic
10. Dead Island

Review by Will Templeton

Quarrel’s been through a lot on its journey to XBLA. Rejected several times by publishers everywhere, Denki’s taken the stance that the publishers are playing it safe rather than playing the market – that their little word game could stand on its own two feet in the land of guns. Finally, following its success on iOS, Denki was able to secure a publisher and release a much more full-featured version, including the simultaneous multiplayer that was so tragically cut from the mobile app.

For those who haven’t had the pleasure, Quarrel is a delicious mix between the best parts of Risk and the best parts of Countdown. Players occupy a board filled with territories, are given troops on those territories, and then battle their neighbours for domination of the board. In battle, each player is given the same jumbling of eight letters that have the potential to form an eight-letter word, but the length of word you’re able to form depends on the amount of troops you have in your square. You can see that the word is EQUALITY (29), but you only have two guys? Tough. Looks like you’re stuck with QI (16). At the end of your turn, you get reinforcements based on the amount of territories you hold and the amount you took that turn. And that’s where the comparisons to Risk rear their heads once more.

Despite the aspect of words scoring points based on their constituent letters, it’d be a mistake to think you were playing anything similar to Scrabble – even though it uses the official Collins Scrabble dictionary. Whereas Scrabble tests your vocabulary, Quarrel expects you to guess at anagrams that have already been preordained. It’s a different feeling altogether to know that somewhere in the set of tiles you’ve been given is a word waiting to be set down with a flourish, and often you’ll find yourself glancing at the letter scores rather than the letters themselves. With four spaces, and a G and M sitting there, you’d be much better served using GUM (11) than GRIN (8). It’s tempting to give in to a Words with Friends-style guessing game of Is This A Word, but a three-guess limit and a very well-adjusted timer ensure that the emphasis is on vocabulary knowledge, not guesswork. Wonderfully, it supports both USB keyboards and the ill-fated Xbox Chatpad, which prove to be invaluable tools when you both have a stab at SKY (12) and it relies on a “fastest finger first” scenario.

The vocab, though, is where Quarrel XBLA fails significantly – and it’s a problem that the iOS game does not share. XBLA certifications are notoriously stringent, and every game must adhere to a one-size-fits-all set of similar rules, with very few exceptions – every game, for example, must have a menu formatted in the same way, support online leaderboards (even if in name only), and crucially, if any content can be user-generated, this content is subject to even more guidelines.

So, say I’m making a word in Quarrel online against a friend. I can’t tap in the word MINGE (11). Fair enough. I have GEM (6), or maybe even GEMINI (9). But later, I have the opportunity to use the word SHAT (7). Apparently, that’s fine, I get points, and the game even tells me it’s the offensive colloquial past participle of defecation; it’s not some odd alternate meaning. My opponent tries TRAIN (6). It’s disallowed, as is CUP (8). We’re given an anagram to which the only solution is SEXUALLY (25), but we’re prevented from submitting SEX (12), SEXY (17), SEXUAL (18), or even solving the anagram itself. AXLES (15) is the only useful option. And then the game chastises us: “Nobody made SEXUALLY (25).”

Evidently, this cripples Quarrel. Even Countdown, a programme well-known for its conservative audience, won’t often blush at a racy or inappropriate chance encounter with the language, but in an increasingly child safety-conscious Live environment, gameplay is affected as a result, often with no chance of a comeback from a valid word due to the time limit. According to Denki, they’re forced to use Microsoft’s own uncompromising whitelist – meaning that a word that works one day might be disallowed the other, or vice-versa. And while this means Quarrel won’t accept some of these, it will accept a wide range of things that Susie Dent would sneer at, such as NAETHING (14, Scots variant of ‘nothing’), YOGHOURT (21, archaic spelling of ‘yoghurt’ presumably only known to overzealous autocorrect algorithms) and RIVETTING (18, variant spelling of ‘riveting’ and denounced by every style guide imaginable). While it’s commendable that Denki are trying to increase the already expansive wordlist as much as possible, it invariably leads to frustration. “It was CRAPIEST (12)? Most like a crepe? Really?”

It’s such a shame that these issues exist, because Quarrel, fundamentally, is great. An unabashedly brilliant game that gets friends forming alliances and laughing at their own mental blocks, and even with the aforementioned reservations (including a very reproducible crash bug, which should be stomped out with a swift patch) I still recommend it very highly. It executes extremely well on the promise of Xbox Live Arcade, allowing that board-game atmosphere in a more convenient form for a fraction of the price, and crammed full of that lovely Denki charm. But, just more often than is comfortable, it stumbles, and that’s also due to Arcade’s inflexible guidelines. If Quarrel fails to prove that gamers want brilliant innovation, it’ll be the fault of the platform, not the game itself. And IRONY only scores 10.

[UPDATE - January 27th 2012, 22:14 pm - It's come to my attention that a little clarity is in order. As the main selling point of Quarrel XBLA over iOS is its competitive multiplayer, I have focused primarily on this mode in this review. The censorship issues I mention here are in sole regard to play over Xbox Live, and do not apply to the single-player modes when playing against bots unless Family Settings are enabled. It should be noted, though, that Quarrel against AI-controlled dictionaries is a far duller affair then against devious human opponents.]

Quarrel, XBLA – 400MSP

I’m a member of the inaugural BAFTA Youth Board, a team of young people BAFTA have assembled (in their words) “to discuss BAFTA’s Learning & Events programme, Communications and Awards Ceremonies and their relevance for young people in today’s competitive jobs market.” I mainly just pleased that they still considered me to be a youth.

As one of the two games people on the board of 18 members, it’s a fair old bit of responsibility. We’ve already met once, and are going to meeting throughout 2012 to discuss all sorts of things. Hopefully you’ll all keep an eye on BAFTA’s activities, particularly the games awards in March, and send any thoughts or feedback you have my way.

Details on the BAFTA Youth Board here, including all the interesting people that make up the rest of the board.

1. Tesco – 23.6%
2. Amazon – 22.64%
3. GAME – 13.09%
4. ASDA – 7.62%
5. play.com – 7.3%
6. The Hut – 5.55%
7. Zavvi – 5.03%
8. Gamestation – 4.4%
9. Gameplay – 3.2%
10. HMV – 2.9%
11. ShopTo.Net – 1.44%
12. GamersGate – 0.7%
13. The Game Collection – 0.68%
14. Coolshop – 0.65%
15. Best Buy UK – 0.4%
16. Origin/EA Store – 0.21%
17. Direct2Drive – 0.19%
18. Choices UK – 0.14%
19. Bee.com – 0.13%
20. PC World – 0.077%
21. Dixons – 0.022%
22. Woolworths – 0.017%
23. Sendit – 0.0086%
24. Currys – 0.0048%

I hope you find that somewhat interesting, I thought it was worth sharing. Any interesting trends you noticed? Surprised to see Tesco at number 1?

Based on traffic to posts about games on Steam, I am fairly confident that they would be high up on this list, if not at or near the top. It’s worth noting that GAME group would be at 20.69% and The Hut Group at 11% when you combine their constituent parts.

I’ll do this next year too, I reckon.

Most popular deal posts: Multiformat
1. Saints Row: The Third, Professor Genki’s Pre-Order Pack & DLC Season Pass, PC – £14.99
2. Crysis 2, PC – £3.75
3. Saints Row: The Third, PC – £13.99
4. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, PC – £19.99 delivered
5. Saints Row: The Third, PC – £14.50
6. Batman: Arkham City, PC – £11.98
7. Saints Row: The Third, PC – £9.99 delivered
8. Brink, PC – £3.74
9. Serious Sam 3: BFE – £7.49
10. Limbo, PC – £1.75

PC top 5
1. Saints Row: The Third, Professor Genki’s Pre-Order Pack & DLC Season Pass, PC – £14.99
2. Crysis 2, PC – £3.75
3. Saints Row: The Third, PC – £13.99
4. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, PC – £19.99 delivered
5. Saints Row: The Third, PC – £14.50

PS3 top 5
1. Rock Band 3 & Keyboard, PS3 – £19.97 collect in store
2. God of War 3, PS3 – £2.99 in store at GAME
3. Batman: Arkham City, PS3 – £17.99 delivered
4. Killzone 3, PS3 – £9.99 delivered
5. Gran Turismo 5, PS3 – £9.97 delivered

Xbox 360 top 5
1. Rock Band 3 & Keyboard, Xbox 360 – £19.97 collect in store
2. Saints Row: The Third [Professor Genki Edition], Xbox 360 – £19.99 delivered
3. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Xbox 360 – £22.49 delivered
4. Mirror’s Edge, Xbox 360 – £1.79 delivered
5. Batman: Arkham City, Xbox 360 – £17.99 delivered

Most popular games by search
1. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
2. Saints Row: The Third
3. Battlefield 3
4. Dark Souls
5. Batman: Arkham City
6. Star Wars: The Old Republic
7. Uncharted 3
8. Rage
9. Anno 2070
10. Dead Island

However, they have accidentally set it up so that the coupon applies the discount to your current basket contents, then you can modify your basket, without it updating the discount to reflect the new contents.

You could, for example, add all of the used consoles they have in stock here, apply the coupon, then remove all the consoles but one, to get a massive discount applied to the console.

Have fun, they might update the website in the morning.

Whatever your plans are, I hope you have a lovely Christmas, and that you and your loved ones stay safe. Have fun stuffing your tummies with delicious Christmas food and drink!

2011 marks the year where SavyGamer has developed from being a fun hobby with an ambition for the future, to a proper job that I earn a humble but comfortable living from (alongside my other work). As such, in January I’m going to be making the bold step of moving out of my parents house into a nice little flat in London, and it’s you lot who are going to be paying my rent (mostly). Thanks for that!

As we enter SavyGamer’s 5th year (The 5th anniversary is the 3rd of May, mark your calenders), I suppose I should reassure you all that I am in this for the long haul. I’m totally committed to the cause of video game frugality, and really my brain isn’t assembled in the right way to cope with many proper jobs, so I don’t know what else I could possibly do. You can expect this site to have a long and healthy life into the future, and in fact, I’d say I’m just getting started.

Thank you dearly for your continued patronage of SavyGamer, your words of encouragement and support, and for spreading the SavyGamer name about. Don’t think it goes unappreciated. Extra special thanks to all the SavyGamer subscribers. You’re the best.

-

More love than you’ll ever realise,
Lewie Procter

PS

Aren’t Will & Tony doing a brilliant job of the Steam sale this year?

Most popular deal posts: Multiformat
1. Burnout Paradise: The Ultimate Box, PC – Free
2. Batman: Arkham City, PC – £14.95 delivered
3. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, PC – £24.98 delivered
4. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, PC – £22.30 delivered
5. Rage [Anarchy Edition] – £13.99
6. Saints Row: The Third [Professor Genki Limited Edition], PC – £18.90 delivered
7. Medal of Honor, PC – £3.75
8. The A.Typical RPG, PC – 66p
9. AssBro, PC – £5 delivered
10. Dead Space 2, PC – £3.74

PC top 5
1. Burnout Paradise: The Ultimate Box, PC – Free
2. Batman: Arkham City, PC – £14.95 delivered
3. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, PC – £24.98 delivered
4. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, PC – £22.30 delivered
5. Rage [Anarchy Edition] – £13.99

PS3 top 5
1. Prince Of Persia Trilogy HD, PS3 – £4.99 delivered
2. ICO & Shadow Of The Colossus HD, PS3 – £17.99 delivered
3. Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception, PS3 – £22.97 delivered
4. Demon’s Souls, PS3 – £11 delivered
5. Modern Warfare 3, PS3 – £30 delivered

Xbox 360 top 5
1. AssRev [Collector's Edition], Xbox 360 – £29.99 delivered
2. Modern Warfare 3, Xbox 360 – £30 delivered
3. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Xbox 360 – £30.38 delivered
4. Child Of Eden, Xbox 360 – £5 delivered
5. Sonic Generations [Special Edition], Xbox 360 – £18.99 delivered

Most popular games by search
1. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
2. Battlefield 3
3. Saint’s Row: The Third
4. Modern Warfare 3
5. Batman: Arkham City
6. The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
7. Deus Ex: Human Revolution
8. Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary
9. Rage
10. Uncharted 3

SavyGamer has always been fiercely independent, and will continue to be so, as long as I’m in charge.

This is a part time position, and will still leave me plenty of time to run SavyGamer.

I’m going to be doing my best to catalogue the best deals available, as always, but if there are any specific things that you’d like me to keep an eye out for discounts on, let me know in the comments and I will do my best to help you out. Make sure to include what format you are after with any game requests.

Then make sure you’re subscribed to SavyGamer (either by RSS or Twitter), and I’ll post the best deals for people’s request as I see them. It’ll be a Christmas miracle.

Most popular deal posts: Multiformat
1. Deus Ex: Human Revolution, PC – £9.99
2. Batman: Arkham City, PC – £14.95 delivered
3. Battlefield 3 [Limited Edition], PC – £25.17 delivered
4. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, PC – £25.09 delivered
5. Child of Eden, Xbox 360 – £7.50
6. Batman: Arkham City, Xbox 360 – £30.39 delivered
7. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, PC – £24.85 delivered
8. Project Zomboid, PC/Mac/Linux – £4.99
9. Grand Theft Auto: The Complete Package, PC – £8.74
10. Dino Run SE, PC/Linux/Mac – Free

PC top 5
1. Deus Ex: Human Revolution, PC – £9.99
2. Batman: Arkham City, PC – £14.95 delivered
3. Battlefield 3 [Limited Edition], PC – £25.17 delivered
4. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, PC – £25.09 delivered
5. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, PC – £24.85 delivered

PS3 top 5
1. ICO & Shadow Of The Colossus HD, PS3 – £17.99 delivered
2. Battlefield 3 [Limited Edition], PS3 – £30.57 delivered
3. Metal Gear Solid HD Collection, PS3 – £25.20 delivered
4. Little Big Planet 2, PS3 – £10.10 delivered
5. Deus Ex: Human Revolution, PS3 – £14.85 delivered

Xbox 360 top 5
1. Child of Eden, Xbox 360 – £7.50
2. Batman: Arkham City, Xbox 360 – £30.39 delivered
3. Battlefield 3 [Limited Edition], Xbox 360 – £30.57 delivered
4. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Xbox 360 – £31.47 delivered
5. Battlefield 3 [Limited Edition], Xbox 360 – £31.99 delivered

Most popular games by search
1. Battlefield 3
2. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
3. Dark Souls
4. Rage
5. Batman: Arkham City
6. Deus Ex: Human Revolution
7. Dead Island
8. Modern Warfare 3
9. Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception
10. Football Manager 2012

Most popular deal posts: Multiformat
1. Any game for £1, OnLive
2. Portal, PC/Mac – Free
3. Dawn Of War II Retribution [Collector's Edition], PC – £7.99 delivered
4. Deus Ex: Human Revolution, PC – £16.58 via serial reseller
5. Time Gentlemen, Please!, PC – 43p
6. Frozen Synapse, PC/Mac/Linux – Pay What You Want
7. Paradox Complete Pack, PC – £74.99
8. Indie Strategy Bundle, PC – £6.99
9. CODBLOPS: Rezurrection, PC – £4.99
10. Deus Ex: Human Revolution, PC – £19.96 delivered

PC top 5
1. Portal, PC/Mac – Free
2. Dawn Of War II Retribution [Collector's Edition], PC – £7.99 delivered
3. Deus Ex: Human Revolution, PC – £16.58 via serial reseller
4. Time Gentlemen, Please!, PC – 43p
5. Frozen Synapse, PC/Mac/Linux – Pay What You Want

PS3 top 5
1. Dark Souls [Limited Edition], PS3 – £28.99 delivered
2. Bulletstorm, PS3 – £7.85 delivered
3. Metal Gear Solid HD Collection, PS3 – £26.99 delivered
4. Yakuza 4, PS3 – £10.99 delivered
5. ICO & Shadow of the Colossus Collection, PS3 – £24.99 delivered

Xbox 360 top 5
1. Red Dead Redemption [Goatee Edition], Xbox 360 – £24.85 delivered
2. Deus Ex: Human Revolution [Limited Edition], Xbox 360 – £24.99 delivered
3. Gears Of War 3 + 800 MS Points, Xbox 360 – £39.90 delivered
4. Shadows of the Damned, Xbox 360 – £15 delivered
5. Child of Eden, Xbox 360 – £10 delivered

Most popular games by search
1. Dead Island
2. Deus Ex: Human Revolution
3. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
4. Battlefield 3
5. Dark Souls
6. Space Marine
7. Torchlight
8. Rage
9. Fifa 12
10. Gears of War 3

Here’s the August charts:

Most popular deal posts: Multiformat
1. Deus Ex: Human Revolution [Augmented Edition], PC – £24.97 delivered
2. The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings, PC – £11.40
3. Deus Ex: Human Revolution, PC – £19.99
4. Humble Indie Bundle 3
5. Magicka + Magicka: Vietnam, PC – £1.99
6. Super Meat Boy [Ultra Edition], PC – £12.85 delivered
7. Pirates of Black Cove, PC – £1.99
8. Borderlands [Goatee Edition], PC – £4.99
9. Saints Row 2, PC – £1.74
10. AssBro, PC – £6.99 delivered

PC top 5
1. Deus Ex: Human Revolution [Augmented Edition], PC – £24.97 delivered
2. The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings, PC – £11.40
3. Deus Ex: Human Revolution, PC – £19.99
4. Humble Indie Bundle 3
5. Magicka + Magicka: Vietnam, PC – £1.99

PS3 top 5
1. Child of Eden, PS3 – £13.85 delivered
2. God of War HD Collection Volume 2, PS3 – £22.97 delivered
3. Deus Ex: Human Revolution [Augmented Edition], PS3 – £41.85 delivered
4. Homefront [Resistance Edition], PS3 – £4.97 delivered
5. Battlefield 3 [Limited Edition], PS3 – £34.90 delivered

Xbox 360 top 5
1. Metal Gear Solid HD Collection, Xbox 360 – £28.85 delivered
2. Driver: San Francisco [Special Edition], Xbox 360 – £21.97 delivered
3. Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary, Xbox 360 – £27.78 delivered
4. Battlefield 3 [Limited Edition], Xbox 360 – £34.90 delivered
5. Deus Ex: Human Revolution [Augmented Edition], Xbox 360 – £41.85 delivered

Most popular games by search
1. Deus Ex: Human Revolution
2. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
3. Battlefield 3
4. Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine
5. RAGE
6. Dark Souls
7. Brink
8. Dead Island
9. Frozen Synapse
10. Portal 2

For the most popular posts, I am only including posts that are for an individual game (or pack of games), so the most popular post by far in July was the Steam Summer sale, but I’ve excluded that because it doesn’t seem worth comparing to other games. I’m also just charting software here, not hardware or accessories. If any of the deals are still available, I will include links.

Here’s the July charts:

Most popular deal posts: Multiformat
1. Dark Souls [Limited Edition], PS3 – £23.89 delivered
2. Mass Effect 3, PC- £14.99 delivered
3. Total War: Empire: Total War & Total War: Napoleon: Total War [Goatee Edition], PC – 47p collect in store
4. Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines, PC – £3.74
5. Dungeon Siege 3 [Limited Edition], PC – £8.98 delivered
6. Assassin’s Creed 2 [Digital Deluxe Edition], PC – £3.74
7. Battlefield 3: [Limited Edition], PC – £23.19 delivered
8. Brink [Special Edition], PC – £7.98 delivered
9. Cthulhu Saves the World & Breath of Death VII: The Beginning, PC – £1.79
10. Battlefield 3 [Limited Edition], PC – £22.96 delivered

PC top 5
1. Mass Effect 3, PC- £14.99 delivered
2. Total War: Empire: Total War & Total War: Napoleon: Total War [Goatee Edition], PC – 47p collect in store
3. Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines, PC – £3.74
4. Dungeon Siege 3 [Limited Edition], PC – £8.98 delivered
5. Assassin’s Creed 2 [Digital Deluxe Edition], PC – £3.74

PS3 top 5
1. Dark Souls [Limited Edition], PS3 – £23.89 delivered
2. Infamous 2, PS3 – £15 delivered
3. Child Of Eden, PS3 – £14.99 delivered
4. The Tomb Raider Trilogy, PS3 – £9.99 delivered
5. ICO & Shadow Of The Colossus Collection, PS3 – £21.59 delivered

Xbox 360 top 5
1. Dark Souls [Limited Edition], Xbox 360 – £23.89 delivered
2. Silent Hill HD Collection, Xbox 360 – £17.85 delivered (I later discovered that this game doesn’t actually exist, it’s PS3 exclusive).
3. Portal 2, Xbox 360 – £16.25 delivered
4. Battlefield 3 [Limited Edition], Xbox 360 – £28.91 delivered
5. Trials HD, Limbo & ‘Splosion Man, Xbox 360 – £6.98 delivered

For search, I’ve fudged it a little. The human revolution result there includes searches for “Deus Ex”, “Human Revolution” and “Deus Ex: Human Revolution”, but I’ll just be using my common sense here.

Most popular games by search
1. Deus Ex: Human Revolution
2. Battlefield 3
3. Portal 2
4. Skyrim
5. The Witcher 2
6. Fallout: New Vegas
7. Civilisation 5
8. Brink
9. Crysis 2
10. Mass Effect 2

I’ll probably play with the format a bit over time, but I’m planning to do one of these every month going forward.

I let them know what I thought, and to my astonishment, they responded by changing this policy, and making standard shipping free. Good on them.

This got me thinking, I bet there are dozens of things other retailers with policies or rules which are either annoying, or harmful to their customers. I’d love to hear from you lot about what you’d like to see changed. We probably have to pick our battles here, it’s easiest to change the world a little bit at a time.

If you lot all let me know which particular policies retailers have that you are not happy about, I will pick what I think are the most worthy and realistic causes, and initiate a dialogue with the retailers in question to see if I can get anything done about it.

Please share any ideas in the comments.

Who knows, maybe control over GameStop is the extent of my powers, but I think it’s worth a try.

The profession of writing words about video games has rapidly changed over the last few years, largely disrupted by the internet, and technological progression shows no signs of slowing down. Convincing someone who runs a magazine to give you a job is still a viable route into employment, but there are plenty of opportunities elsewhere, and that’s what I’d like to talk about here.

Here’s my guide to becoming a ‘Games Journalist’ in 2011, primed for some whippersnapper to consign it to the history books in another five years time. I’m going to focus on passing on things I’ve learnt from my own experiences, and looking at what’s been going on around me. Currently about 1/3 of my income is from writing for other places on a freelance basis, and over the years I’ve written for Rock Paper Shotgun, VG247, Eurogamer and a few others. Hopefully I’ll have something to say that is useful to some people, but I look forwards to seeing what my peers have to say too.

Here it goes:

Create interesting, useful or funny things on the internet

In the 21st century, the nature of the internet means that anyone who wants to can have their own platform. Whether it’s a wordpress blog, a twitter account, a Youtube channel, or whatever amazing things haven’t even been made yet: You share the stage with everyone. You can’t shut down the signal, the open infrastructure of the internet isn’t going away any time soon, so your job is to make your signal louder and clearer than anyone else around the world with an internet connection.

How do you do that? You need to make things that are worthwhile and put them out there for everyone to see. Writing about games does not need to be as narrow as doing written reviews (although those can be very good). If you can corner some niche that has not yet been filled, come up with a unique angle on something that hasn’t been considered yet, or make people laugh, you are off to a good start. If you are the only source for something that is in demand, success will come to you. Specialisation is definitely a good idea.

You don’t need anyone’s permission to get started. There’s nothing that you need that isn’t available somewhere for free on the internet.

You are selling yourself and you are selling your reputation

The quality of your copy is one factor that you need to be concerned about, but your reputation is probably far more important.

Qualities like integrity, professionalism, good communication, good engagement with your audience, reliability and knowledge are all things that will make you highly employable, and will endear people to support you.

Many of the opportunities that have been presented to me over the years have been from when one person I have worked with has recommended me to someone else. Behave in a way that makes people want to recommend you.

Only work for free if doing it is beneficial to you

There are lots and lots offers to contribute to web sites for free “at the moment”, with an offer of pay further down the line. The reality of the market is that even with the best intentions, not all of these websites will grow into profitable enterprises. Working for free can be an excellent stepping stone to getting paid work, but I would recommend caution in choosing who you will and won’t work for without getting paid.

I’d strongly suggest you only work for people who’s work you are happy to be associated with. Are they doing a good job of the site they run? Are you impressed with their editorial outlook? Do they look like they are going places? Are they interested in building a respectful relationship with you as a writer? These are all questions you should be asking before ever giving away the fruits of your labour for free.

There is plenty you can get for working for free, but I’d certainly like to know specifically how they intend to get you exposure. Have they got a sizeable audience? Are they well connected within the wider industry? Do any of their other writers get paid work at any other publications? Are they going to link back to your blog?

If you’ve got a clear idea of exactly what you are getting out of it, you are far less likely to be taken advantage of.

Speak to people

Go to where the people who are doing what you want to be doing are, and talk to them. Whether it’s twitter, forums, comment threads, community events, industry events or the pub. Everything I’ve learnt has been either from experimentation and making it up as I went along, or advice directly from all the other writers out there.

Games people are generally lovely, in my experience. Everyone remembers what it was like starting out, and if you approach them in the right way, lots of people will happily dispense valuable advice.

Carpe diem

It’s a pretty cool job, and the number of people looking for work vastly outnumbers the amount of paid work going, but if you want to do it then you should absolutely go for it. The barriers to entry are lower than ever before, and you can very easily get started whilst holding down another job.

Q&A
This is the internet, so it is interactive. Questions in the comments please.

Other people’s guides:
Lewis Denby
Mike Rose

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Registers on Steam.

Review by Lewie Procter

I often feel like I’m too old to properly get into multiplayer shooters these days. I’m only 23, but in my teenage counterstrike heyday I could keep up the pace in online games, whereas I just get slaughtered playing CS these days. It’s hard to say whether Brink having successfully sucked me into a team based FPS is a huge success of design, or just it being a game that is in tune with my skills, or a mix of the two, but I’ve been kicking ass at Brink online, and thoroughly enjoying myself in the process. Here’s why.

Brink is a team based versus shooter. It has bots for single player, but if you are looking for a single player shooter, I highly recommend you look elsewhere. There’s been a glut of brilliant FPSs with solid single player campaigns over the last year or so, and Brink’s single player mode does not outdo them.

However, if you aren’t terrified by interaction with other humans, Brink is a very nicely refined class based shooter, with lots of unique touches. Occasionally everything comes together, and when you have a particularly good match, Brink is peerless.

Set on the Ark, a near-future floating city. Brink tells the story of a conflict between the Resistance and the Security, one side fighting to escape the Ark, the other trying to keep it under control. Most of the story comes in the form of skipable cut scenes before each mission, where you see the lead up to the battle from the perspective of whichever side you’re on, but there’s also things hidden amongst the levels that add to the narrative. The story is interesting, and the setting is unique, but it takes a backseat to the manshooting, and if you’re anything like me, you’re not going to be watching any of the cutscenes more than once.

You start off by building your character. There’s a whole bunch of cosmetic options that gradually unlock as you play through the game, but the elements that affect gameplay are: bodytype, weapons and abilities. You don’t have to make any permanent decisions here, bodytype, weapons and abilities can be changed at any point in the game (but only between matches, not mid-match). I’m not exactly sure what technology Splash Damage are expecting to be developed between now and when we live on floating cities that will let people switch from this to this like changing their shoes, but sign me up.

The three different body sizes represent a trade off between manoeuvrability and beefiness. The light has lower health than the rest, and his limp wrists are too feeble for the heaviest weapons, but in return has the fastest sprint speed, and can wall jump and climb up higher ledges. The heavy has more health than the other bodytypes, and has access to the full arsenal of weapons, but has a slower, more deliberate pace, and is a bigger target. The medium is a compromise between the two. I’ve been almost exclusively playing as the light since I unlocked it, the increase slide length is both highly badass and highly useful, and reaching areas and shortcuts around the levels that the other classes can’t is a tonne of fun, and is a great way to sneak up behind a big group of enemies and rack up a lot of easy kills.

There’s a decent selection of weapons, SMGs, rifles, pistols, shotguns and a grenade launcher, although you have to unlock them by levelling up. Each weapon is also customisable with various add ons and tweaks that affect stats like accuracy, range, clip size and damage, so if you feel like tinkering with your gun you can tune it to suit your playstyle. The sounds the weapons make is a little inconsistent. Some of the pistols make a delicious “BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!”, but some of the SMGs could do with packing a bit more punch.

The abilities system links up with the class system. Classes are the four roles you can occupy, that each have different special abilities, and are able to tackle different specific objectives needed to accomplish a mission. These classes can be switched on the fly during matches, so if a particular role required for a task is under-represented in your team, you’re able to head to a command post and instantly swap. How the abilities work is that there are five categories. One for abilities that will benefit you no matter what class you have currently selected, and then there is one category of abilities for each of the classes. It’s impossible to unlock all of the abilities with one character, they’re purchased with credits earned as you level up, and once you hit the level cap that’s it. For any given match you need to have made a commitment to your particular set of abilities beforehand.

I opted to specialise as a medic, so only bothered investing in general skills and medic specific skills. This means I’m at a disadvantage when I switch to any of the other classes, but have got lots of fun tricks whenever I am a medic. The whole system could be made a little bit clearer, because it’s not entirely clear exactly what a character actually is. You use the same character no matter which side you are on, and the separation between which things you can change, and when you are allowed to change them, can be a little counter intuitive, even if there are solid design reasons behind the distinctions.

With the goal of facilitating teamwork, Brink uses an objective system that gives every player instructions of what they can do to best help their team win the match, each appropriate to their class and overall team objective. It then rewards players with experience for carrying out these objectives. For instance, as a medic, you might get the choice of reviving fallen team mates, escorting a mission critical player, or capturing command posts (which give your whole team supply or health boosts). The idea is that players can always have a range of instructions for how to best support their team, and if attempting one objective they keep hitting up against a brick wall, you can avoid frustration by trying something else. There’s plenty of times when I’ve found my team keep getting killed at a particular bottleneck near a mission critical location, which is a perfect time to switch to an alternative objective to tip the balance in your team’s favour.

There is a button to instantly select the most important team objective, or you can bring up a radial menu to quickly pick from the 4/5 different objectives available to you.

The objective system isn’t perfect, there has been several times when it’s given what I would describe as strategically questionable instructions. For example, on one level, you have to prevent the other team taking some fuel to a plane. I saw many of my teammates just standing next to the plane, because they were being drip fed experience for “Guarding the plane”, when really they needed to go and help kill the baddies that were on their way, which was not one of the objectives. As a framework for how to learn the ropes though, it works, it’s just that going outside that framework will mean missing out on experience, since you will only get the boosted experience for a specific task if it is your current objective.

There’s a balance between independence and interdependence, where working as a team together is essential for winning, but breaking off from your team to be a solo hero from time to time is also viable. Players can give each other buffs to stats like weapons, health, and refill each other’s ammo, depending on which class you are, so working well as a group can give you an advantage over your enemies. On the flipside, the right person in the right place can turn the tide of a whole match, and my favourite moments have all come from solo achievements.

Brink successfully removes a few of my major frustrations with traditional online shooters too. Instead of simply dying when you get filled with bullets, you get incapacitated. Once incapacitated, you lie on the ground feeble waiving your hands in the air. You’re then given the choice to either wait for a medic to lob you a healing syringe, which lets you revive yourself, or you can choose to respawn when the counter hits zero. This means that, as long as your medics do a good job of reviving you, you’ll spend less time hanging around waiting to get back into the fight. Later on you can unlock abilities that let you use your sidearm whilst incapacitated, and medics can (at the level) self revive. You can also finish off incapacitated enemies with a few more bullets, or using melee attacks, which prevents them being revived, but it’s quite fun to down a few guys, then wait for an enemy medic to come to heal them, then kill him too.

The melee attacks are nicely implemented too. When you’ve got your primary weapon equipped, you use it to knock people off their feet. It doesn’t take off a huge amount of health, but it temporarilly prevents them shooting back at you, and it’s pretty easy to finish people off whilst their knocked down. When you switch to your sidearm, instead you’ll use a knife for stabby action, which won’t knock people down, but does a bit more damage.

The smartly backronymed S.M.A.R.T. movement system is several flavours of brilliant. It’s essentially a sprint button that does a lot more than sprinting. There’s a bit of a learning curve to it, but once you have got to grips with it, it gives you a lot of options for movement, and you’ll be able to get from A to B in style. It’s no autopilot, that’s for sure, you still have to think about how to best move around, and combining well timed jumps with the smart button is absolutely faster than just relying on smart. It’s not as elegant as Mirror’s Edge: the animation for your bloke climbing up things is not as good as it could be, but it makes up for it in ease of use and enhancing, rather than getting in the way of the shooting.

I’d be very happy if waves of future developers outright steal the smart system and stick it in their games. It seems ripe for plagiarism, and aside from the level design challenges posed by enhanced freedom of movement, I can’t really see any downside to it.

Brink is a melting pot of good ideas and well implemented systems that, if you’re good enough, can let you be the hero that wins the game for your team, and if not you can still do your bit to help win. Not every match is going to be spectacular, but the more abilities you unlock the more interesting it gets, and if you are willing to experiment and take a few risks, it will produce plenty of incredible moments. The selection of just 8 maps (Update: Although there is a free update out next month, which will include, among other things, 2 new maps), and no real single player campaign, is a little content light for my tastes, especially for a full price game. But in the time it’s taken me to formulate my opinion on it, it’s received a decent price drop, and for under £15 I have no trouble heartily recommending Brink to anyone looking for a online shooter that offers something a bit different.

Brink, PC – £14.85 delivered

Registers on Steam.

Note: There was a few bugs at release, but almost everything that affected me has been sorted out now. I still get odd text glitches where some characters are just grids of random pixels, seemingly at random.

Review by Ben Tyrer

When I heard that Darkspore was comparing itself to Diablo, a favourite series of mine, I immediately knew I would have to take a look and see what all the fuss was about. I was surprised that Maxis had decided to have a stab at creating something a little more daring than their usual expansions of the never-going-to-disappear Sims franchise. I just didn’t think Maxis had it in them to create a visceral action RPG, but was I counting my loot before it had been identified?

When I was younger, I was a big fan of The Sims. Then, as I matured, I started craving games with a more guided and structured narrative. I would occasionally return to Maxis’ colossal Sim games but was sorely disappointed with Spore, which I felt was a substandard (albeit ambitious) game whose stages were not fully developed enough to sustain long term interest. In short, it sounded great on paper but when the game loaded up, the magic Will Wright had described to us all just wasn’t there for me. Understandably, then, I was feeling pretty cynical with regards to Darkspore. Was it a lame attempt at rebranding a tepidly received game? How could Maxis of all people be the ones to deliver my next dose of high-octane alien smashing, loot rolling and stat building action? You can almost imagine the board meeting in which it was decided Spore could be re-programmed to appeal to the angst-ridden youth of today (step one: add Dark to the name- they’ll go mad for it!), but let me tell you: I’m hooked.

There’s a particular element to games like this, a sense of hefty responsiveness that allows you to feel every attack your character makes as he totters around levels dishing out the pain. It’s a crucial aspect of the action RPG – If you can’t feel the weight of your character’s movement, it’s hard to be invested in them. Diablo had this remarkable sense of connection between player and character, and – luckily- so does Darkspore, to an extent.

A notably slower paced affair than most other games of this genre, each of the one hundred heroes I activated- You do not create a character á la Spore, but rather pick from a curated selection of monsters- had a palatable sense of oomph about them which otherwise would have rendered the characters feeble. It’s a bit like playing a role playing game with the cast of Monsters Inc., but once the action begins this is thankfully easy to overlook.

Rather than making a choice of Class at the beginning of the game, you are free to select up to three Heroes, the requisite amount which comprises a squad. These chosen few will be who accompany you through the game’s levels, though only one will be active on the field at any given moment and you must swap them on the fly. If you ever find yourself tiring of a character during the course of an RPG, this mechanic may be the solution. You’re free to mix and match heroes however you choose, and the necessity of ensuring you have access to a variety of Hero ‘types’ in order to prevent same-type conflicts (in which you will sustain double damage) adds an additional layer of depth to the game. If you’re worried about having to level each Hero as you unlock it, don’t – Your account has an overall level which permits you to purchase upgrades and items, but individual Hero levels are calculated via the quality of their equipment (think World of Warcraft item levels). Essentially, you can activate a hero which will start at level 0, gear him with all the goodies you acquired during your last session, and he will be good to go with the rest of your squad. It’s an interesting system, and one that completely removes the need to grind laboriously just to be able to get into the game with some friends. It also means you aren’t stuck with a single character and filled with regret ten hours in, so it’s a great move in my books.

There are some niggles, however. From what I’ve played, levels are little more than ploughing your way through opponents before reaching a stand-off stage where you must survive waves of increasingly tough enemies before battling an end-of-level boss. Don’t get me wrong – this is still enormously fun, and the stand-off stage genuinely gives Diablo a run for its money with regards to excitement and difficulty, but it would have been nice to see objectives other than ‘See alien, kill alien’. Rather than being compelling, Darkspores narrative is easily – and honestly, preferably- ignored. I’m glad Maxis attempted to create a backdrop, a reason for the sci-fi carnage that ensues in Darkspore, but that’s all it really is. And no more. Narrated video clips often interrupt crucial mid-level stages in which you and your friends must equip your heroes with freshly acquired loot, and so are often skipped. This brings me to another problem.

You are not able to equip loot as it drops. This is presumably due to the difficulty of loading the much-hyped creator toolset in the middle of the game, but when a vastly superior Celestial Cutlass finds its way into my inventory, I want to equip it right now. Considering you can’t create your own characters, the Spore Creator feels somewhat wasted on Darkspore. Sure, you can position your loot on your character and change their colour, but is that worth being unable to immediately better them in the heat of the moment? From what I’ve heard on forums, Maxis are looking into a way to rectify this issue.

With regards to abilities, Darkspore operates largely how it would appear Diablo III is set to function: A spell is assigned to the right mouse button, with a bar of abilities running along the bottom of the screen. Sadly, you are unable to remap the right-click power, meaning it will only ever perform your hero’s unique default attack. Also, as characters do not level in the usual manner, there are no skill trees. Instead, your heroes are pre-equipped with four unique abilities, the fourth of which is added to a shared pool of spells on the ability bar. Essentially this means if your hero’s fourth ability is a life-draining ability, you will be able to cast that power even when another squad member is activated. The result is the typical ability bar showing both your Heroes four innate abilities and two other powers sourced from the other Heroes in your squad. There’s also the Overdrive ability, charged over time by killing enemies, which vastly increases the potency of your attacks while halving all damage received for a short time.

While Darkspore may take some getting used to – its menus are cumbersome at times and the behaviour of the ability bar, while justifiable, can be jarring– it is undeniably fun, especially when played online as such games were always intended to be. Thankfully, a brilliant matchmaking service is provided alongside a Friend system which enables easy play. The music and ambience bring levels to life with a cool sci-fi edge, and the graphics are pleasing to the eye even if not the most advanced to grace your screen. You’ll see plenty of blood; something that surprised me considering the clinical censoring of Spore. It’s almost possible to see Darkspore as a letter of apology to disillusioned Spore devotees – Maxis have focused on one particular play style, honed it to near perfection and have utterly surprised me, to say the least. If you’re into action RPGs, and have been waiting for Maxis to whisper sweet apologetic nothings in your ear, Darkspore will give you plenty of incentive to stay a while and listen.

Editors note: Darkspore requires you to be online all the time when played, whether you are playing multiplayer or single player. The devs claim that this is not DRM, but I don’t actually think people selling you games get to redefine what counts as DRM and what doesn’t. They say its more comparable to an MMO model, but I’m not really convinced. If there was an MMO which was possible to play to completion in a single player mode, but didn’t support offline play, that would be bullshit too. EA have tried this stealth always-online DRM before, and it seems to me that rather than technical or design reasons, it is motivated by business reasons. They’ve likely seen the bad PR Ubi got for their batshit insane DRM, and have tried to implement something that is in practice exactly the same as far as end users are concerned, but is a much less controversial headline – Lewie.

Darkspore, PC – £23.49 delivered

So if round the clock deals from SavyGamer, and my RPS Bargain Bucket every Saturday aren’t enough for you, pop along to Eurogamer every Wednesday for a selection of the best deals across all platforms.

Big thanks to everyone at Eurogamer.

Steam on the PS3 provides access to all of these features once the player has linked their PlayStation Network account with a Steam account, which is done right within the game. A Steam user can login to an existing account, and anyone new to Steam can create an account with the click of a button. In the spirit of Steam Play, linked players of the PS3 version of Portal 2 can also access and play their copy of Portal 2 on any PC or Mac by redeeming an in-box access code on their computer. The Steam client verifies the linked customer and then lists Portal 2 among their library of Steam games for PC and Mac.

So, it sounds like you need to have a PS3 connected to the internet, and to pair your PSN account with your Steam account (with Portal 2 in the PS3). Once you have a Steam account that is linked with a PSN account, you register the single use serial on the PC version of Steam to get Portal 2.

This indicates the following:
Two people can play co-op together (One on PC/Mac, one on PS3) with just one copy of the game, as long as you used a different PSN account to the one paired with the Steam account being used.
You will need to own (or have access to) a PS3 to be able to register for the free PC version.
Once you have registered the PC/Mac version, there shouldn’t be anything stopping you trading in the PS3 version.

You can get the PS3 version for £29.99 delivered here.

Edit: This is somewhat speculation on my behalf, I don’t have any more information that you, but I guess we will find out for sure soon enough.

Trading games in is damn convenient, but it is an easy way of haemorrhaging money without even realising exactly how much you are spending. There is a technique that you can use to massively improve the return you get on trade ins, that makes it almost good value.

Gamestation have a policy for trading in games, called “We won’t be beaten on trade-ins”, just check the back of any receipt. They are pretty good at plastering this policy over their shops and printed materials, but not so good at explaining what it means.

I spoke to my local Gamestation’s manager to find out exactly how it works. He said that if any store within 40 miles from the Gamestation in question will offer a better or equal price for a trade in, they will match it, and then beat it by one pound.

Examples:
GAME offers me £5 for “Manshooter 7: The bulleting”, but Gamestation only offer me £4, I can tell them that GAME offered £5, and then Gamestation will offer me £6.

HMV offer me £8 for “Car wot goes fast 2: Off-Road”, and Gamestation offer me the same £8. I can then tell them that HMV offered me £8, and then Gamestation will offer me £9.

However (and this is just for my local store mind) there are a few conditions:

• You must bring some form of written/printed out evidence of what the other shop offered.
• The condition must be acceptable.
• And importantly, it is entirely at the managers discretion. If they decide they don’t want to honour this policy, they don’t have to.

Seems mostly fair. He said that generally they would only refuse to honour the policy if it was a game that they sold for less than the price they would have to beat, which seems like a good compromise. I imagine in those situations you could negotiate a compromise if you wanted to.

This policy would be a lot easier to use if Gamestation published their trade in prices online, or even told you them over the phone, but they make you take games in to find out how much you would get for them.

And here is how to exploit the system.

CEX are transparent with their prices. They publish them all online. They also have a bit of a different pricing structure to Gamestation, they give measurably better prices for trade ins, but in turn generally charge more for games.

HMV also share their trade in prices, but bizarrely only via a free android and ios app. I can’t find any way of checking trade in prices on their web site.

Using Gamestation’s policy on beating trade in prices, you can check whether CEX or HMV offer the best trade in price, and get them to beat the highest by another pound. More often than not CEX prices are better than Gamestation’s.

For evidence of CEX prices, head to the selling section of CEX’s site, add all of the games you want to trade in to your basket, and then print out the basket (and make sure to include the date). Then take the printout and games to Gamestation, and you should be able to get the prices CEX quoted + £1 each.

For evidence of HMV prices, I suggest taking your mobile device with you.

Tips:

• Be friendly to the Gamestation staff, since this policy is at the managers discretion, the more they like you, the more likely you are to pull it off. Chat about games with them, and be patient (trading in lots of games can take a while).
• Don’t go in with a big stack of games near closing time. Ideally if you are doing a lot of trade ins, go when they are least busy
• Typically the best games to do this on are the games that don’t have a huge amount of resell value (on eBay or wherever), but are still worth around £5 on CEX. I traded in 7 games that Gamestation wanted to give me £28 for, but I got £65 by doing this.
• Remember you don’t have to spend it there and then. It might be nice to go crazy and just buy a full price game just because you have credit, but if there is nothing you really want there and then, don’t fell like you have to spend it straight away. They can just put the credit on a gift card for you.

Let me know if you have any problems with this policy.

You can watch it on 4od here, and parts 2 & 3 are on over the next two weekends.

Well done Will.