Why I love… The Sega Saturn

There were choices to be made in the year of 1994 and Sega or Sony was it. The new kid on the block, and the ex-new kid on the block. In the years leading up to the birth of the true 32-bit era (the Amiga Cd-32 doesn’t count) the world’s largest video game home console companies made many mistakes. Thanks to Nintendo’s reluctance to enter the cd-rom market earlier in the decade they inadvertedly created the monster that would become the Playstation brand. Sega blundered their way through a series of peripherals for the Megadrive as a stop-gap before the release of its secretive new 32-bit console and in an attempt to ward off the upcoming 3DO, CDI and of course the blooming PC-CDrom scene.

But Sega’s biggest mistake would be their reluctance to anticipate the blooming 3D polygon market. The Sega Saturn was at first a primarily 2D-focused console, and upon the news of the super-powered Sony Playstation, Sega hap-hazardly implemented 3D chips into their new console’s motherboard. I’ve heard stories of how the machine operated like two different systems at once and struggling developers were forced to learn to utilise its two processors and the many chips at once to harness the true power of the Saturn. Sadly it is this very architecture that would hinder the system throughout its life span. So much so that even executives within Sega denounced its technology.

In an attempt to halt Sony’s growing momentum, Sega released the Saturn several months earlier at a standard price of £400. This was indeed expensive and the sole reason why many early adopters waited for the Playstation instead after Sony slyly announced their console would be £50 (or was it £100?) cheaper. The launch window of games for the Saturn would not help either. Many third party releases were not on the shelves from day one because of the suddenly shifted release date. I seem to remember Virtua Fighter, Daytona USA and Clockwork Knight being the only launch titles, and the two arcade ports were incredibly choppy and visibly rushed to meet the date. I was initially blown away by the sight of these two arcade stalwarts on a home system, but when the Playstation appeared soon after in Keddies sporting its excellent conversion of Ride Racer, the difference in graphical horse power was instantly apparent.

Sounds like a depressing story doesn’t it? Going from slaying the dragon (Nintendo) in Europe to being beaten at the starting line by Sony, Sega was in trouble. However what the Saturn lacked in mainstream success and games, in retrospect, it more than makes up for with a quirky and interesting catalogue with some excellent titles. As I mentioned earlier the frustrating hardware forced developers to be creative and some truly unique games were born out of this frustration. Panzer Dragoon was the first of these, and truly wowed all onlookers in my local game stores with its unique setting, stunning music and movie quality CGI cut scenes.

There were naysayers however. The console wars continued from the 16-bit era and many a Sony fan mocked the Saturn for its rubbish 3D potential despite the beauty of Panzer Dragoon. It took Sega Rally and Virtua Fighter 2 to shut everyone up. Both conversions were absolutely stunning, with Virtua Fighter 2 particularly looking incredibly smooth. Tekken may well have been the more successful of the original 3D fighting game franchises but the secret was out. The Saturn could do 3D, though without transparencies and all of the fancy effects of its rival sure, just with a bit more hard-work.

And here is what killed the Saturn. The hard-work. Many developers shunned the system and opted instead for Sony’s fancy, trendy and more user friendly rival and the third party support began to dry up. Sega tried to make it up to their fans for the lacklustre conversions of Virtua Fighter and Daytona by releasing new, improved versions in Daytona USA Championship Circuit Edition and Virtua Fighter Remix but the impact of both games was minimal. Sony’s marketing campaign was so strong, in television and magazines, that it made the Saturn look like an uncool, ugly brat stuck in the corner of the playground. Aside from a slightly improved port of Sonic 3D from the Megadrive, the company’s primary mascot and sole reason for kicking Nintendo’s ass in the early 90’s was curiously absent thanks to the cancellation of Sonic Extreme, the touted first foray into 3D for the hedgehog. Fans were left with just a hint of what a Sega Saturn 3D Sonic game would be like in the over-world of 16-bit compilation Sonic Jam and forced to make do with an enhanced port of the isometric Megadrive game Sonic 3D. During a period where many developers were transitioning from 2D to 3D the difficulties are understandable in moving from generation to generation.

Funnily enough certain Playtation games began to appear on the Saturn. Die-Hard Trilogy, Destruction Derby and Wipeout were all converted much to the pleasure of the core Saturn audience. But when the Nintendo 64 finally hit the shelves, Sega were left with a paltry 9% of the market share and began to look towards its next console and make a series of mistakes all over again. Both the Saturn and the Dreamcast were home to a slew of excellent arcade conversions which were always improved over their iterations of the arcade. The problem was that arcades were dying in the late 90’s. Home converstions were better than their arcade counterparts. Console gaming was becoming more involved. Pound a credit influnced fifteen minutes of fun was yesterday’s news and sprawling epics were the new trend. Nobody cared about Sega’s port of Touring Car or Manx TT Superbike.

So where do I stand on the fence? At the time I was a proud Playstation owner who was very happy with Tekken, Final Fantasy and what not. But every so often, out there, over the fence, in the pages of C&VG, Sega would make me insanely jealous. Their ports of 2D fighting games were miles better than the Playstation’s own. Street Fighter Alpha 2 and Marvel Super Heroes had me foaming at the mouth. Panzer Dragoon Zwei, Nights into Dreams and Fighters Megamix were all incredibly interesting console exclusives that made me so jealous that years later I just had to own a Sega Saturn. And now I do and have become something of a collector.

The Saturn Japanese market was also much more populated and many, many conversions and exclusives never made it to the west. Certain games were only released in small quantities in the U.K and U.S and now reach ferociously extortionate prices for collectors, yet their ntsc Japanese releases still fetch acceptable prices for the most part.

In fact the system sold far better in Japan than anywhere else, probably thanks to Segata Sanshiro, the closest the system got to having its own Mascot. The ads were frankly brilliant, and featured the dude threatening the public for not owning a Saturn. Why did Sega not apply this most excellent marketing campaign idea to the west?

Sega also released a Ram-Cartridge for the Saturn that enabled arcade perfect conversions of X-men versus Street Fighter and Darkstalkers 3. Might I add these conversions were the only arcade perfect ports at the time and featured no in-game loading times whatsoever. Future conversions included Marvel Super Heroes vs Street Fighter, King of Fighers 96 and 97 and Samurai Showdown. If you were into 2d-Fighting games (like me) importing a Saturn was the only choice. A niche choice I must add.

Regarding peripherals, I would strongly suggest owners opt for the second Japanese arcade stick, as the world-wide release variation was an inferior design. The multi-tap is also a must for multiplayer action with Guardian Heroes, the sublime scrolling fighter from Treasure, and of course for the very famous Saturn Bomberman, which allows (with two multitaps mind) ten players to battle!

The Jap only design…

The world wide released, original design.

So to finalise, aside from the reasons above, why do I love the Sega Saturn so much?I think partly it was to do with never owning one myself as a kid and the jealousy I felt towards certain games. It’s common knowledge but the true jewel in the crown for Saturn owners always was Panzer Dragoon Saga, the third in the series. Moving the francise away from its shooter roots and embracing rpg elements, Saga is one of the greatest games of all time and a true artistic triumph for its team and the console. In comparison to the most popular games on the Playstation, like many of the Saturn’s top games, it was creative and a little odd.

For a console to succeed it needs a wide breadth of various titles in many, many genres to please as many people as possible, including an array of triple-A titles and a large, well thought out marketing campaign to advertise the facts. The Sega Saturn quite frankly lacked many, if not all of these facets. As I mentioned earlier however, to its credit it does have many diverse and unique games that the mainstream owner would see as just curios, but for the hardcore, or perhaps more open minded gamer, would lap up in complete excitement. It deserved its fate sadly, for artistically Sega were in many ways on top of their game, but from a buisness perspective they blundered over and over again.

Women in Refrigerators

By Silicon Lemming.

Spoilers everywhere!

Okay, I’m gonna level with you. Women get the short end of the stick in comic book universes, for the most part. This is an ongoing issue that is only recently started to be truly addressed by the industry. The long and short of it is that women as supporting characters will often be brutalised and even killed in a bid to give the Cape a sense that “This time it’s personal”, and thus create cheap drama.

The depiction of this hit a crescendo during the 90’s where one of the most egregious examples took place. Here we are introduced to the newest Green Lantern of the DC universe, Kyle Rayner. He had just been revealed as a wielder of one of the most powerful weapons in existence, and had gone-off to have all the adventures that such a gift would allow. On his first day he returns home to his flat that he shares with his girlfriend,Alex. It is here that he finds that the super-villain, Major Force, has brutalised and dismembered her body, and packed it in the fridge. The resulting rage gives Rayner the edge he needs to take down the bad guy. The fact is, Alex was a character created specifically to die and give the origin story a dark twist. And this is not an isolated case.

The killing off of a character in comic books is always tricky. The revolving door that is the afterlife of most major labels shows that the line between dead and alive can be danced over, as long as the potential sales are high enough. It used to be said that the only people not to come back from the dead are Uncle Ben Parker, Jason Todd and Bucky Barnes. They have all, in some capacity or another, since returned from the dead. Threatening the demise of your main character or sidekick just doesn’t have the same impact, the most recent to note was the departure of Batman, though it was pretty much a given they were never going to permanently dispatch such a big draw. Supporting characters are a little more uncertain, and often the most likely will be the significant other. With such a high number of male heroes, the likelihood is that the SO will be female, and often non-powered.

It is at this point we meet Gail Simone. One of the biggest female writers in a significantly male-orientated field, she has received critical claim for her Birds of Prey series, of an all female force comprising of some members of the Bat-Family, headed by Oracle and operating out of Gotham City. In 1999, what with the like of Alex’s passing, she created “Women In Refrigerators”, a site dedicated to highlighting this trend. This is a polarising issue as some feel this is an issue the relates directly to feminism and the depiction of the female gender in media. It cannot be denied that the depiction of women in comics in the past has been less than complimentary.

The best example would be Wonder Woman. Here is a character that is currently held in high regard in-universe and out. She is a symbol of Truth, complete with super-strength, flight, and fighting prowess. The character started rather differently. One of her early weakness was that if her hands were bound by a man she would lose all her abilities, and she conveniently brought a lasso along as well in case you didn’t have any rope. This lead to many early issues depicting her bound and helpless on the cover in a bid to boost sales. Whilst comics these days are a little more subtle, there are still major events and stories that are perpetuated through the likes of assault, rape and even murder of characters purely for a cheap reaction. The most notable recent example was Identity Crisis where Sue Dibney, the wife of the elongated man, and a loved character from the quirky Justice League International was killed off violently. The eventual reveal still leaves questions.

Now make no mistake, whilst this is a cliche that is associated with a lot of negative aspects of story writing, there are writers that have utilised to some success. Alan Moore’s Batman: The Killing Joke is a very dark and violent Dark Knight story, depicting the events that led to the former Batgirl Barbara Gordon being in a wheelchair. In itself a grim tale, with not much of a happy ending in sight, it was these events that resulted in her becoming Oracle, the heart of the Bat-Universe. She is much-loved character and the recent DC52 reboot that found her character reverted back to before she lost the use of her legs was poorly received, with some campaigning for a return to her Oracle days.

The essential point is that some of the best stories involve sacrifice. True victory can only be appreciated through loss and gain. The key is in establishing when the sacrifice is warranted, and if the person you are sacrificing has run their course. It is easy to kill someone off to obtain a cheap reaction from the reader. It is more difficult to create a sense of loss that will resonate with individual long after they have put the comic down.

Additional: Decapvada.

It’s the classic trope: ‘fire the bullet in act 2, show the gun in act 1.’ Sacrifices for dramatic impact require time setting up for the ultimate pay-off.

(What could have been…) Twilight of the Gods by Alan Moore.

By Silicon Lemming

This is intended as a series of articles that looks at the what-ifs of the comic world, where situation or circumstance prevented potential classics. It is with this in mind that our gaze falls upon Alan Moore. Undeniably gifted, and undeniably mental, the self-proclaimed comic writer/musician/magician (among other occupations) is responsible for many critically-acclaimed works. Responsible for the likes of Watchmen, V is for Vendetta, Batman: The Killing Joke, and a favorite of mine, Hellblazer: the series that gave us John Constantine, and in my personal opinion, the definitive Anti-Hero.

Seeing as a significant portion of his creations have been developed for the big screen, there have been some…issues when it comes to Moore’s relationship with Hollywood. He has had several successes in Watchmen and V is for Vendetta, however has an ongoing request that film-makers are respecting that his name does not appear in connection to the adaptions of his works. This can be attributed to some of the earlier movies, such as From Hell and League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. These suffered significantly in transition, resulting in the former misrepresenting the lead so as to allow Johnny Depp to step into the role, and latter which appeared to barely skim the source material.

We find Moore in 1987, where he has recently been making a name for himself for his work on Swamp Thing. It was at this point whilst he still worked for DC that he pitched the concept of “Twilight of the Gods”. This was to utilize a still relatively new idea on comics, previously explored in The Dark Knight Returns. The standard formula was that heroes in comics were fixed in time with a return to the status quo by the end of the issue. In recent decades, arcs were being utilized across running series and crossovers were starting to arise. Moore put forward TOTG as a Ragnarok, so to speak, for the heroes of the DC universe.

The tale would start with John Constantine and Rip Hunter (time police style character). Travelling back from the future to the present day to warn of a future where the world is falling in to ruin. This is a place where significant social collapse has resulted in the heroes becoming the only source of support for communities, and they start to rise, often unwillingly as representatives of those areas. Several Houses form representing alliances that have arisen between heroes. Those of note are The House of Steel; Headed by Superman and Wonder Woman, The House of Thunder, consisting of Captain Marvel, his wife Mary Marvel and Captain Marvel Junior, who is now fully grown and every bit as strong as the patriarch of the house, and growing bitter at the lack of recognition. A potential union looking to merge these houses between Superboy and Mary Marvel Junior is not being viewed favorably by some. The power held in these two houses becoming a singular force is too much to consider for others.

The House of Titans is headed by Nightwing, who has not aged well. The loss of Starfire years earlier has forced him to become cold and withdrawn to the point where he seems to be actively emulating his former teacher. The House of Justice brings us the survivors from the Justice League of America, including the likes of Captain Atom, The Flash, Wonder Girl and Blue Beetle. Other houses include The Houses of Mystery, Secrets, Tomorrow and Lanterns. As you can imagine, The Dark Knight would not exactly have been happy with the concept of capes becoming feudal lords of the masses , but the story would find a world where no one has heard from him in years, though rumors circulate that he is working underground with several other non-super powered individuals

Moore intended this to be massive crossover in the present day DC comics, where in the appearance of Constantine and Hunter would spread across all the main series and they would warn the characters of prospective disasters in their futures to prevent them from going down the same roads. The houses and events depicted would be recounted by the time travellers to the present day, and out of fear of the future they would take their advice. The eventual twist would be that Constantine and Hunter are ensuring that future does come to pass as the events will eventually lead to the heroes wiping each other out and humanity being able to reclaim control of the world.

There have been leaks across the net that have been verified as legitimate that show the initial Moore-penned treatment that presented the idea. Its release would have been only a couple of years after the events of Crisis on Infinite Earths, and Moore’s intention was to reverse the decision to fuse all parallel universes into a singular ‘verse. There has been a lot of conjecture over the years as to whether this may be something that could have surpassed all his previous works, though unfortunately we will probably not find out (though never say never in the comic industry). If you would like to read the original treatment, it can be found here. http://fourcolorheroes.home.insightbb.com/twilightfree.html

Why I love… Classic Gaming Magazines

I’m a complete nostalgia freak. So much so I would maybe inform you that it’s dangerous. Classic games, movies, music, comics, books, magazines (of course,) the lot. It can be an expensive hobby, but buying old magazines that I have thrown away in the past is a brand new obsession of mine. And downloading them on such generous websites out there such as Outofprintarchive and Retromags.com.

As I am in a sort of mid-move period while I write this article I can’t photograph my collections, but I can list them. I’ll also tell you what it is I love about some of them too.

Issues owned: 1-40(ish)

The obvious first choice for a lot of children of the 90’s in the United Kingdom, Gamesmaster was the tie-in magazine for the hit show of the same name. I remember seeing issue 2 in my local newsagent stand and was amazed at how much the front cover stood out with its painted, dark and moody art (the Chaos Engine I think?) Originally edited by Jim Douglas, I thoroughly enjoyed the juvenile attempted at being edgy and cool. They were also quite honest, but perhaps scoring Sonic 2 so low in issue 1 was on purpose? Speaking of honesty…

I guess that all ended with their Mortal Kombat 3 coup? My god not until Maximum and Tekken 2 or CVG with Tekken 3 did a magazine give so much coverage to one game. To be fair, as an avid arcade goer at the time, it was quite exciting for me! The staff’s love of Street Fighter 2 was never lost on me either, being such a fan-boy myself I loved reading the constant coverage. I remember their maximum difficult guide for Street Fighter 2 on the SNES. Some of those strategies I still use to this day, such as vertical jumping to keep Zangief at bay.

With varying articles including regular spots with Dominic Diamond, forcing celebrities to embarrassingly play whatever game was hot at the time (just like the show!) and tips galore, the first thirty issues are a great read for a 90’s retro fiend. They were also very good at writing the odd scathing review and their Aliens versus Predator stub on the Super Nintendo was a good one!

Aesthetically it was always pleasing. I especially loved coloured text on a dark background, and the art ripped straight from the Tv-show for the various sidebars and fonts. Overall this was just a very cool magazine and a real stand-out on the racks.

Issues owned: Various from the Paul Davis era.

Not placing C&VG at the top of the film is surely an act of heresy? But for me it wasn’t until Paul Davies took over the (then) aisling magazine in the late 90s that I grew to love C&VG. For the few years leading to this moment C&VG was dull, boring and very corporate looking magazine and what it transformed into was anything but.

C&VG became so popular at the time, so important, that supposedly certain game developers were scared of their passionate and brutality honest reviews. The High-Five scoring system was a revelation to me, and influences me even now on this here blog, and the idea (taken from Japanese arcade magaziness supposedly) to include a pullaway section for fighting game move lists and cheats was genius. I can still remember clutching my Virtua Fighter 3 guide the second time round I played the machine in Southend’s arcades.

Covering games that were not getting the media attention of more mainstream (official) press was also a great feature. Did any other magazine dare to give Castlevania: Symphony of the Night such a blinding review at the time? I can’t think of many. The now highly sort after classic was scathed in most publications for being 2D! Long live the spirit of the mad gamer!

Issues owned: None sadly 😦

Mean Machines Sega was born from the split of Mean Machines, a magazine dedicated to the booming console market during the latter days of the dwindling dominance of the home computer. A feature I always really, really liked was the caricatures of the reviewers that would be copied by many other publications. This was the best exclusive Sega magazine, I’m not even sure if Sega had an officially licensed magazine at the time. That is until…

Issues owned 1-20 and various

Any self-respecting Sega Saturn owner must know of this great magazine. Although the sleights towards over consoles I personally do not welcome, it was a well written and grown up magazine with incredibly in-depth features (perhaps because of the lack of a games library compared to the shovel-ware of the PS1?) I was never a Saturn owner at the time and I was always so jealous of some of the amazing games that were released, including the better versions of many fighting games thanks to the Playstation’s limited 2D architecture.

Now, as a born-again Sega Saturn owner, I’ve bought many of the issues. A must!

Issues owned: The last one 😦

Another endeavourer of Richard Leadbetter, editor of Sega Saturn Magazine, Maximum was an interesting and short-lived magazine that differed from much on the market. Page layouts were unique, the general sorting order too was different as it placed reviews at the front. With a mature tone like Edge, but with the passion of Paul Davis era CV&G, Maximum was a truly great read with incredibly in-depth features. Its such a shame it never found its audience.

Issues owned: Several

Super Play had two elements that worked for me. Nintendo Gaming and Anime! Featuring the excellent artistic  talents of Will Overton and more in-depth features on Japanese import gaming than any other magazine at the time. It had a unique look and tone. Helen McCarthy, founder of Anime UK and various other publications, was a regular contributor as well. My personal favourite cover featured Ryu from Breath of Fire and influenced my eventual purchasing of Breath of Fire 3 on Ps1 years later.

Issues Owned: Several

In a time when Nintendo went through its first dark period, N64 magazine was a breath of fresh air. The successor to Super Play, I personally was not into the official Nintendo Magazine (NMS) at the time as they had become a little bias and desperate for my tastes. N64 for the most part, were honest and passionate and incredibly funny. The many volatile reviews of games such as Superman 64 and Clayfighter were very enjoyable to read. On a more positive note seeing the first screenshots of Ocarina of Time and Perfect Dark were revelations. They also including guides to some of my favourite games on n64 such as Quake 2, Turok Rage Wars and Star Wars Episode 1: Pod Racer.

Many many over the years

How can you not mention Edge? The only magazine on this list to still be on the shelves with its integrity intact. Its original, unified tone, writer-influenced columns and articles and harsh rating system were really forward thinking at the time. The rating system in particular has become as coveted as Famitsu’s 40/40 system, with the small selection of games to receive perfect scores becoming famous for just that. Many magazines copied, including the majority of the officially licensed publications, but none have ever come close to the effective tone of Edge. Some would say it is far too corporate for its own good, and I would agree to some extent.

Honourable mentions:

SNES Force was only available for a few issues. I’m pretty sure I bought it because of some cover mounted cards, possibly Street Fighter or Mortal Kombat? However it featured the only competition I have ever entered and won!

My one claim to fame.

I wouldn’t go as far as saying it was a true victory, just look at the questions! I must say that I still have that Mario alarm clock sitting on my shelf fifteen years later!

Issues owned: None, but forever shall it live in my memory

Now here is a real guilty pleasure. It saddens me to know that Teletext has been forgotten forever, a poor man’s pre-internet and a relic of by-gone (analogue) technology. In an un-policed landscape, Paul Rose otherwise none by his Digi-moniker of Mr. Biffo, set out to write the worlds first daily games magazine purely for the sake of free games. Years later, with the development of surreal humour and characters, Digitiser had 1.5 million regular readers. Look out for a fully formed feature in the future.

Steam Sales and Heavy Metal

As I’ve been really busy this weekend and not had the time to post any updates I thought I would at least list my excuses:

My Band, Grave Existence

I performed at my band’s début gig this Friday just gone and the days before where I usually spend time writing I spent being nervous.

The night before was relatively sleepless so I watched some concert footage of my favourite band (Marillion) to reinstall some composure. It kind of worked.

The day After i was rehearsing the set throughout the afternoon and an attempted nap resulted in failure. Fortunately the gig went well, we received a good reception and many kind words.

Now its all over and looking back my actual time on stage is barely collectable. Guess that means I had a good time.

Black Friday on Steam.

So like every series of Steam sales I promised myself I would not indulge as I have enough games to play across my systems already.

I failed.

So in repentance here’s a list of what I bought.

Gone Home

From the moment I heard about this adventure I was seriously interested. I loved Dear Estha and with promises of 90s nostalgia, a large empty house to explore and a heart warming story I snapped this up the moment it went 75% off.

Counter strike: Global Offensive.

Sadly my Counter Strike Source playtime is abysmal but it’s a game I’ve always been interested in. What a good time to try the latest iteration?

Super Street fighter IV: Arcade Edition.

With the release of the next update to this ongoing series happening next year and the fact that I’ve been meaning to grab the base game on pc for a while the time has come. I own the original on xbox360 but I’ve become so sick of that platform it is a struggle to switch the system on for anything but Netflix or Youtube.
With promises of a more aggressive game (a huge gripe of mine of the original) I’m willing to give the newest edition a chance.

Fallen Enchantress

After a lacklustre latest edition of the Heroes of Might and Magic series I’ve heard great things about this game. Looking forwards to trying it out.

Dishonoured.

With comparisons to Thief, this game just looks awesome and I’ve wanted to play this for ages.

Dark Souls: Prepare to die edition.

Having not played a single perma-death style game (ZombiU is still on the shelf sadly) and loving the art style this was an obvious buy.

Deadpool

I rather enjoyed the Transformers games so I’m looking forwards to the Merc with a mouth’s video game début. I am not however expecting to be blown away with its originality!

The Witcher.

Another classic rpg I have always wanted to try.

So there you go. Enough games to play next year and all of them off my wishlist. Damn you Steam. I keep meaning to go back to Nintendo but you are so hard to resist!

First Person Shooter or an adventure from the first person perspective?

By: Shelved Gamer

I want to talk about something that’s been bugging me a little lately and that is just how much the FPS genre has changed in such a short space of time. Now I’m no PC gamer and I’m sure that the PC follows different rules but if you consider today that the multiplayer component is the focus for any shooter and then you think back to the last generation of consoles when you had stuff like Timesplitters which had a heavy single player component. Now I’m not saying that multiplayer is not important… I’m not even saying that it shouldn’t be the focus but don’t you find it a little bit of a step back to remove the rich single player component we used to expect from most of our games?

Timesplitters, Goldeneye and Perfect Dark pretty much nailed what makes a good FPS back in the day. Would it work now? No. Not without a heavy amount of nostalgia drive but I think that the design point of view for the single player still would. The controls need to be modernized to keep up with the standard. To face facts, the FPS genre was never able to survive outside of the current gen on its own merit alone. Yes Perfect Dark and Goldeneye were highly rated on the N64 and god knows I love the N64 but it was limited in games. So yes it was logical that good games would become great. Though I personally still feel Ocarina of Time was one such game that would have been great no matter the circumstance.

Objective based gameplay that we saw on the N64 and the PS2 are already quite missed to me. I find it tiring to run from point A to point B over and over again on what is pretty much a rail shooter that just doesn’t force you to hold the forward button down. Now the multiplayer, that’s all good. At least in theory it’s all good. I’m sure it has its fair room for improvement but what I’m trying to say is – Is the multiplayer component enough that the single player is allowed to suck? Wouldn’t it be better to just strip out the single player and put the money into a better online experience? You could argue that you still need a single player mode. But can we just have a good one? Please? EA, Activation…Can we have it so when your next game comes out that your old one does not automatically become obsolete? Perfect Dark got released on XBLA with a multiplayer component improved. I’d sure love to see someone pull that with modern warfare and it still succeed after its day.

The Age of Comics

By: Silicon Lemming

The comic book industry is often described to have passed through several ages, each a product of their time. Political and Social influences would often shape the message that the original writers were hoping to convey. We start with the first era, fittingly know as

The Golden Age of Comics 1938-1954

This age was acknowledged to start in June of 1938, with the publication of Action Comics No. 1, alongside other titles by National Allied Publications. At the time comics were a new industry, being used to convey all sorts of tales from horrors to westerns to science fiction. There was no governing censorship body to restrict the content of stories, and they were often surprisingly serious, with adult themes and with early renditions of the likes of Batman utilising guns and killing hoods.

With the start of World War 2, comics became a widespread form of propaganda, with numerous different heroes being depicted punching Hitler out, and various countrymen of the Axis powers being reviled and satirised to the point of absurdity. This was a trend that would continue for several decades, especially with the image of the Japanese. As the world recovered from war, tastes and opinions in media began to change, including comics.

The Silver Age of Comic Books 1954-1968

In 1954 came the publishing of “Seduction of The Innocent” by Frederick Wertham. This was an alleged exposé of the agenda of comics, that the industry was peddling sex and violence to the young and innocent. The public backlash from this resulted in the formations of the Comic Code. This was a non-government organization formed with the intent of holding comics to a high moral standard. Acceptance of this meant you could display a seal on the front of the comic that assured of decent content.

This had the unfortunate side effect of making comics more immature, with some insane stories being created. This was the era that gave us Superman’s Pal: Jimmy Olsen, and all the turtles boys and elastic lads that entails. With few franchises surviving from the previous era, several notable titles made their beginnings here, from both DC and Marvel. Stan Lee started to make his mark, birthing the likes of the Fantastic Four and Spider-man. This era was influenced by its perception of science, in equal measures terrifying and hopeful, where a radioactive spider bite could allow you to swing from skyscrapers and a chemical laden lightning bolt would accelerate you to untold speeds. The toning down of violence lead to more introspection on the parts of the protagonist, and the true character of these heroes started to be explored.

The Bronze Age of Comic Books 1968 – 1986

This age more than most was inspired by the general feeling of the public. This was a time of protest and free speech, and comics that had only recently started to be used as a social commentary were suddenly being used to make statements. Some examples are issues 96 and 97 of Amazing Spider-man. Now Stan Lee had been requested by the Government to write a story referring to drug use and depicting the negative aspects. Despite the obviously beneficial tone, the Comic Code refused to allow the seal to be placed on the issue. This was due to the fact that narcotics were present in the story, despite being in a negative light. Stan Lee ran the story anyway and the resulting boom put the first cracks in the Comic Code.

Exploitation in comics mirrored the movie industry with characters being introduced of different races, and women starting to be written in stronger roles. Some portrayals were more complimentary that others. With the weakening of the code, comics started to take a more adult tone with epic arc spanning many comics being released. X-Men is a child of this age, despite starting in the silver age, as the themes of diversity and the demand for acceptance and equality were ones that resonated through every segregation.

The Dark Age of Comics 1986 – 2000

This era is officially marked with the release of Crisis on Infinite Earths. This was DC’s attempt to clean up mass of assorted different worlds they had created, and fused them all into a singular, more mature universe. The two comics that would go on to inspire this age were The Dark Knight Returns and Watchmen. Both played the idea of the superhero painfully straight, taking the once simplistic ideas and placing them in a much grittier world. What happens when Batman gets old? How would we really respond to all-powerful supermen? Vertigo was later formed to explore similar ideas through other old DC franchises

With this came the rise of the Anti-hero. The earlier renditions had morally questionable individuals making morally questionable decisions. Characters went through trials and suffering, Superman died, Batman was paralyzed, Green Lantern turned evil, Spider-man was cloned (a lot), the list goes on. By the time the 90s were in full swing, Rob Liefeld was putting his stamp on the age, leading to an art style that polarized the industry, and attempts to emulate the anti-heroes of the previous decade were creating over-the-top psychopaths with a predisposition for large guns and high body counts. There is a reason why this era is only half-jokingly known as the “Dork” age.

The Modern Age of Comic Books 2000 – Present

This is the current era, and would be the most difficult to define as we don not have the benefit of hindsight. It is said to have started at the turn of the millennium, when Marvel launched their Ultimate universe, with a more upbeat and simplified style, and writers being allowed more free reign in what they write. This has led to the multiple occasions where a next writer will be brought onto an established hero, just to have them scrap everything the previous writer was attempting to build up.

Writers also seem to be using their opportunities now to give shout-outs to previous eras with the silly and the ridiculous of the silver age being brought up to date. After years of chipping it down, and with significant help from all the violence the Dark Age provided, The Comic Code was eventually disbanded in 2011, and the general consensus is that with the recent DC reboot, the New 52 marks the starting of what will eventually be view as the stat of the next Age.

Names already abound regarding what this age would be referred to. My personal favorite is the Aluminium Age, as a reference to the sheer amount of recycled material at this point.