Continuation of an article I wrote back in 2012. View the first part here.

This week I unearthed another old article I wrote back in May 2012. I was googling myself - as you do - and unexpectedly found it in the archives of a website I used to write for. I'd completely forgotten about it. As the blog title suggests, it's looking at the term 'Girl Gamers' and seems just as topical now as it did back in 2012.

There has been talk amongst the gaming giants of cross-network play recently. Microsoft announced on Monday that it will support cross-platform play between players on PC and Xbox One. It is now up to developers and other platforms to support the feature.

Sony replied today to Gamespot today:

"Playstation has been supporting cross-platform play between PC on several software titles starting with Final Fantasy 11 on PS2 and PC back in 2002. We would be happy to have the conversation with any publishers or developers who are interested in cross platform play."

This doesn't mean Playstation want to cooperate with Xbox. They haven't even given them a straight answer. We'll just have to see how this plays out.

Personally, I love this idea. Most of my friends play games on PS4 and I play on Xbox. I think being able to play together on our preferred consoles would be a magical thing.

Sadly, most of the comments I've seen on social media are from gamers saying they don't want to play with the owners of other consoles. It turns into an all out console war - "My console is better than yours" with the cry of "PC master race" over them all. I hope Sony and Microsoft begin discussions soon. Maybe then the stupid one upping between the gaming community will cease. We can only hope.

Lauren

(Image: picjumbo - Viktor Hanacek)

I'm back in the UK after a few months of travelling and I can finally get my Xbox out of storage!

I am so excited for this:





Lauren

Can you always call yourself a 'Gamer'?

Horizon on BBC 2 had a programme exploring whether video games can cause violent behaviour in players; aptly named Are Video Games Really That Bad? This is a question a lot of people have asked and for some reason, can't stop asking. This episode was aired Wednesday 16th September. Various psychologists studied both behaviour and the brain after playing violent games.

One of the first experiments, taking place at Ohio State University, was measuring the aggression of people after playing a violent fighting game. The players were told afterwards they were now playing against another person. If the other person lost they could give the 'loser' a punishment. There was actually no other person; the test was to see how much/or if the player - after playing the violent game - would increase the punishment.

Another test had two groups - one playing the violent game, the other not. Both groups were then shown violent images on a TV screen and the players who had played the violent games had less of a reaction than the others.


During the first half an hour of Horizon I was a bit concerned that we were going to witness another biased 'anti video game propaganda show'. But I was pleasantly surprised. After looking at some evidence of gamers being desensitised to violence, they explored the other side of the coin.

They looked at the state of the brain and the parts that were actually being used while playing a gory video game. Despite the emotional part of the brain being activated during playing, the reasoning part of the brain was also active. This illustrated that the gamers tested knew they were playing a game (duh), and it also proved that video games have an actual effect on our brains, but not quiet as extreme as some opposes think.

Horizon actually explored the benefits of playing games. The constant practise of certain games helps grow parts of your brain. It used the older generation regaining their multitasking ability after weeks of playing as an example. I was surprised to see that a Dr had made a game with custom controls to help train keyhole surgeons. He got the idea after hearing that younger surgeons who had played video games whilst growing up appeared to have better surgery skills.

There are, however as we all know, some cases were a gamer has decided to turn violent. But I think, as a society, we need to look at the deeper problems. Why does that gamer find it difficult to determine what is real and what is behind a TV screen? There is obviously some other psychological problems there. You can't just jump to conclusions that it's the sole responsibility of the game industry. If that's the case, then should we not vilify movies in the same way? Why does it seem to be that video games are viewed in such disdain? There is still a lot of stigma around video games, mostly perpetrated by people who don't understand, or have never played, a video game.

I think gradually the feeling about video games is changing. With the sheer amount of people playing nowadays it seems a lot more accepted than it was. Young children are playing on their 3DS. Commuters are playing games on their phones and ipads. It's not just the job of teenagers in darkened rooms anymore. With the inclusion of so many different ages, maybe video games will gradually come out of the crosshairs of people who don't understand them.


Lauren

My scared face

Warning: Spare pair of pants not included

Alien: Isolation was released on 7th October 2014. I pre-ordered and got it through my letterbox the very same day. Unfortunately due to real life commitments, I didn't get time to play it until the following evening.

As some of my audience may already be aware, I first experienced the Survivor Mode of Alien: Isolation at Eurogamer in September. This was the sole reason I pre-ordered the game. I have been dubious about all the positive reviews; the fact it scored so highly in a lot of publications really made me question whether there was some behind the scenes bribery going on. I don't know why, but if everyone seems to be saying the same things I wonder if they've all been paid to say it ...I needn't have been so pessimistic.

I sat down in a darkened room, volume up high, and booted up the game. However, it wasn't quite as quick as that. As soon as I started up the disk it said there was an update available. My initial thought: 'Already! It's been out just over 24 hours!' But that wasn't too much of a hassle. Then however, it had to install the contents of disk 1, which took about 20 minutes, then requested for disk 2 to actually play it. This was only a minor insignificance and just made my anticipation build.

Amanda Ripley

You play as Amanda Ripley; the daughter of Ellen Ripley who you might know as the protagonist from the original 1979 Alien film. The place of the game in the timeline of the series is made obvious when the title scene is voiced over by Ellen (Sigourney Weaver) herself. Alien: Isolation starts with a man named Samuels - who works for the same company as Amanda Ripley - telling her that there is a possibility they have found her mother. A ship has discovered the flight recorder of the Nostromo; the spaceship where the whole Alien franchise begun and where Ellen went missing. The recovered flight recorder has been taken to the Sevastopol Station and a ship called the Torrens is going to collect it. Amanda has been invited by Samuels to go with them to Sevastopol as he knows she is searching for her mother. You take control when Amanda wakes up on the Torrens.

Straight away I noticed the look of the Torrens; it was very nostalgic of the original film with the shiny white walls, clunky keyboards and retro computer graphics. I liked seeing the return of the rocking bird, sitting on the desk doing it's usual backwards and forwards motion. The graphics are beautiful; even on my struggling 360 it looked wonderful. After an initial introduction to the Torrens, you space walk to the damaged Sevastopol and end up being split up from the other crew on your way to the space station.

Film Screenshot? Nope

When you reach the Torrens, you are introduced to the threat of human beings while they struggle to survive. The remaining people on the Sevastopol have guns, so you need to be weary of them. There are also the unpredictable malfunctioning androids who you need to keep an eye on. Each time Amanda meets someone you need to make the judgment call whether to stay incognito or to trust them. You are given a revolver near the beginning of gameplay, but using it is sort of a last resort. The firing of the gun will be heard by any nearby hostiles and the person you're firing at may have back up and/or a more powerful weapon. I have played the game for 6 hours and haven't even pointed it at anyone.

Not only do you get the revolver but you pick up blueprints as you explore the Sevastopol. With these blueprints you can make new weapons and ways to distract any enemies. These includes things like a noise maker and smoke bombs. There are also flares, a flamethrower and a blast stick. This game is not about combat however. Let me reiterate that - unlike previous Alien games, this one is not about shooting the xenomorph. It is made abundantly clear that there is no way of killing the alien, you can scare it off for a minute or so with the flamethrower but it isn't a 'spray and prey' game. If you are looking for that sort of gameplay, Alien: Isolation is not for you. It's all about stealth. Slow and steady wins the race.

Due to scarce save points, the game almost forces you to be stealthy. You can't run to the nearest save because the alien will stab you from behind before you even come close. I didn't find this frustrating though, I haven't gotten angry at the game (yet) but more at myself. If I happened to step out from under a desk a tad too early and my skull got crushed by two, dripping mouthes, I laughed at my impatience, not shouted at the game.

I have been very impressed by the AI. I have died a lot and every time I re-spawned the enemies never acted the same. I could never predict what was going to happen or what direction would be best to avoid hostiles. In some stealth games you can learn the movement of the AI characters; you know they're going to walk 10 paces forwards, turn their back to you then go 10 paces to the left, giving you an opportunity to leg it. Alien: Isolation doesn't have that. The AI is not predictable; it's so wonderful to finally be left guessing.

Xenomorph in all its horrible glory

Thursday at 10:30 I arrived at Earls Court to attend EuroGamer. As I approached, I noticed the queue wrapping around the side of the building and my heart sank. How long would we have to wait to even enter the arena? Our tickets were for 11:00 entry till 19:00. Luckily the mass of gamers moved very quickly and we reached the inside no later than 11:10. I just had enough time to purchase an official show guide while waiting in the queue. It was more fast and streamlined than I expected, colour me impressed.

First we did a full circuit of the ground floor, scoping the games and areas out. The queue for Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare was already pretty long, and we couldn't be bothered to wait. We moved up to the first floor and into the over 18s area, stopping at the bouncers we expected to show ID, but they waved us through after seeing out wristbands. "You're 25 aren't you?" Don't ask me how he knew that.

Catching Wrist band

Ubisoft's Far Cry 4 queue was short so we decided to bless it as our first game. The queue was so smooth running, and we were even able to get two screens next to each other. I was very impressed with how helpful the Ubisoft staff were. The demo for Far Cry 4 had 3 different modes, you could choose to bombard the fortress on an elephant, death from above or the stealth approach. I started with the elephant mode; which ended rather quickly. Crashing through the front gates on Dumbo, the soldiers are instantly aware and can bombard you. Luckily the elephant goes on a rampage and helps by stamping and throwing with it's trunk the gun wielding enemies. After jumping off the elephant, I ran to hide behind a jeep, cutting the breaks at the same time so it slid down a hill crushing nearby mercenaries. Before I knew it, I was overcome with gunfire and died pretty quickly.
Next, I opted for the stealth approach. I was kindly told by one of the staff that there was a grapple area at the side of the fortress so you could avoid going in using the front entrance. In this mode you were provided with a sniper rifle and a crossbow. Using the sniper rifle, you have the ability to zoom in and hold your breath to steady your hand while lining up a shot. After grappling up the rock face, I crawled behind a bush and shot the guard patrolling at the top of the fortress; then continued shuffling into a nearby hut and headshot an enemy repairing the bottom of a jeep. Over the radio I listened to them say they had heard a noise and they were looking for me. The soldiers sent for reinforcements, and suddenly there was a helicopter circling above and I had to run into the shelter of a building to avoid the rain of bullets with my tail between my legs.

Far Cry 4: Cause riding elephants is fun!

On a later play through I discovered an anti aircraft type gun on the top of the fortress that I had walked straight passed previously. Trying this to defeat the circling helicopter, it took a while for me to find it on the birds eye view, and that slight pause caused me to die.

Overall, I found Far Cry 4 challenging but the gameplay and controls were very smooth; graphics were beautiful and very polished. The one downside I have is more on a practical, set up level. The TVs were big, overly big; it was hard to take in the whole screen at once as the controllers didn't give you enough cable to move further away from the screen.

Poor Dead Island 2 picture

After playing about five play throughs of Far Cry 4 where I died a lot, we joined a short queue for Dead Island 2. Short... I should be playing quickly, so I thought. They only had 8 monitors and staggered groups of 4. After a short introduction from a staff member, these groups of 4 all started the demo at the same time. We timed it and the demo lasted about 12 minutes. The queue wasn't big, but we were waiting for an hour and a half. Was it worth it you ask? Not really. My demo crashed once, just as I was slicing a head off, and my friends crashed twice. The staff were friendly enough but the crashing spoiled it. I understand it is in very early development, but waiting for over an hour and have it crash on me was very aggravating. Maybe that's me just being picky. It was a pre-alpha demo so I was expecting some clunkiness, and it was difficult to swipe and behead the zombies. Similar to the original Dead Island you have a rage meter and can stylishly despatch of the living dead, such as breaking their necks with your bare hands.

During the demo we were given an objective: to collect flammable items to make a weapon with fire, collect electrical items to make a shocking weapon, and reach a place on the map. I managed to collect all the fire items to create a gun that seemed to shoot flame bullets, but I ran out of ammo for that quickly so it was a bit useless. The world of Hollywood looked amazing. The detail of the environments was pretty impressive, and the atmosphere was incredible. Next gen consoles definitely have me sold. The group of four playing next to me were all online and we could see each other in the game. Our kills were being tracked and counted, but having my game crash, my final result was 6... hmph.

AC: Rogue

By this time, my tummy was rumbling and I was thinking about lunch, but not far away was the Assassins Creed: Rogue area. Originally I thought Assassins Creed: Unity would be at the show, but it was only a developer session so that disappointed me slightly. Rogue is out 14.11.14, and I knew nothing about it. We queued for about 10 minutes until the current session finished. Then in a block of 30 or so people, we were guided all at the same time to our seats.

Everyone started the demo simultaneously, but from looking at other players screens, I assumed not everyone's gaming experience was the same. We all started on a boat and had to sink the French ships, who were the enemy. Major Black Flag deja vu. The mechanics were exactly the same; sailing the ship was the same and the firing of the cannons were all the same button presses. The only thing that seemed to have changed was the ships you were firing at and the location. The surrounding area was covered in ice rather than the tropical blue ocean of the Caribbean in Black Flag. They didn't seem to have anything new to offer with this game, and I was very disappointed as a fan of the Assassins Creed franchise. For me, it wasn't even worth the 10 minute queue.

After that  disappointing demo, we went to have lunch. There were a few restaurants to choose from but I was so hungry I didn't care. I opted for Nachos and a 7up - equalling £6 - and was presently surprised at the price. Once filling our bellies, we did another round of the ground floor area to check out the queues. COD: Advanced Warfare was still ridiculous, but right next door was Sunset Overdrive, something I have been wanting to try since watching the eye catching trailer.

The queue wasn't too bad. Xbox had set up 12 screens with 6 people playing together. Staff at Xbox kept the queue entertained with jokes and discussing the other games in their booths. The demo consisted of 3 waves of monsters while you protected large vats containing something or other. We were told by the Xbox staff before we started playing, "Don't treat it like a regular FPS, try out all the different weapons and have fun." So I did just that.

Sunset Overdrive: Colourful Mayhem

Zooombies

Right next door was Dying Light. I was starting to get a headache from being close to screens all day, but wanted to try as many games as possible. I like my zombies, big fan of them, so trying out another zombie game in the day was gonna be good. Except it wasn't. Maybe it was because I was getting tired, but there wasn't much to get excited about. It was zombies mixed with free running. It felt very similar to Dead Island and Left for Dead all in one. The similarity to Dead Island makes sense as the developers of Dying Light are Techland, the developers of the original Dead Island game. The environment wasn't quite as colourful as Dead Island 2 we played earlier, but the mechanics felt very much the same. Maybe in a longer playthrough - not just the ten minutes I got - it might have a bit more going for it, but personally, I wasn't impressed.

Afterwards, we had a peek into The Evil Within area, but the queue was too long and I wasn't that bothered about playing it.

The Ground Floor from above

Reaching the end of the day, I wanted to go and try Alien: Isolation. I'm not one for scary/horror games- I haven't even been able to finish Amnesia - but I couldn't let this one pass me by as I remember watching the original film on the edge of my seat at a surprisingly young age. Alien: Isolation had their own walled in area and I had nervous butterflies in my stomach as we waited outside. Inside it was completely black with around 60 monitors with partitions between them. We were told while waiting for the current people to finish that the objective was to get to the checkpoint. He recommended that we crouch, take it slow and hide. If the alien got too close we had the option to use a flame-thrower but it would only buy us a few seconds to hide. This got me looking apprehensively over at my companion, I was scared. Anyone who got through the level quickly would get their name on the leader board and the quickest time would get a free t-shirt.

Never did I think this game would be the highlight of my EGX.
You can't really put down in words how tense and nerve wracking it was from the start. The ship was dark and the noise in the headphones was fantastic. You could hear the footsteps as the alien moved around, and judge where it was. They had a radar like tracker that shows you where your goal is, if the alien is nearby and where. The first round I looked around the beginning room for a while, then finally plucked up the courage to move forwards. I crawled slowly into the other, pitch black room only to see a flicker of an overhead light reveal the outline of the alien sitting on a gurney. To say I almost weed myself would be accurate. I turned tail and hid in a locker until the tracker said the alien had gone. By this time my friend had given up in fear and come to watch me play instead.

Heart pumping in my chest, I again made a move into the next room. It was then I heard the foreboding footsteps and noticed the creature behind a pile of pipes. I didn't dare move, until it began to walk towards me - not realising I was there - then I crawled around to the other side of the pipes to hide from its view. The alien stopped and sniffed the air. It walked around the pipes again, to the side where I was hiding, so naturally I crawled as quickly as I could to the other side of the pile. We went round and round in circles like this, playing cat and mouse, my hands getting more and more sweaty. It was still sniffing the air... obviously it could smell I was there but not see me. Finally, the alien moved on and I could dodge into the connecting room and hide in a locker. I yelped a few times.

Alien: Isolation. A game I will be purchasing

The second time round I wanted to see how quickly the alien would appear so I started to run towards the objective as soon as I started. Before I knew it the alien pounced, its dripping jaws right in my face and stabbed me with its tail. That told me there is no choice but to be stealthy in this area. I had another round until someone from the crew waved at me and told me it was time for the other group to have a go. I could have played until I reached the objective. I could have queued for round 2, but my energy was draining and we wanted to get home before rush hour.

I had never been to any sort of gaming convention, unbelievably, and I enjoyed my first experience. Everyone was in high spirits and the staff at each booth were friendly and professional as expected. The general queuing times weren't bad, Dead Island 2 being the worst, but then again I didn't bother with any queues that looked longer than 45 minutes. That's why I was so surprised when the short looking queue for Dead Island 2 ended up being over an hour!

My only regret is that I didn't go and say hello to the members of The Yogscast. I love the Yogscast and watch their content daily, so the fact I was a tad too shy to queue up annoys me. I especially wanted to see Hannah, she's awesome. Silly me!

Excited gamer face

Best game that I played: Alien:Isolation and there was no way I could have predicted that.

Lauren

(Images: Far Cry 4, Ubisoft. Dead Island 2, Deep Silver. Sunset Overdrive, Microsoft Studios. Dying Light, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. Alien: Isolation, Sega. Other Images: Jack Livermore & Myself)

This is my first article for Screenrobot.com who I am writing for voluntarily.


Lauren

Bonehilda: The Return

Harry Potter Screenshot?

And a realllly old review of Dead Island that I forgot to share! How awful of me! (Written Nov 2011)



Dead Island is set on the fictional island of Banoi; a holiday destination with blue sea and sandy beaches. You wake up in your hotel room with a killer hangover and no idea of what happened the night before. You are prompted by a hotel loudspeaker to exit the hotel and that’s when you start realising something is wrong. The game does not give you an explanation as to why there has been a zombie outbreak, all you know is that it has affected most of the island but you are immune. We later learn it is because you are -O negative blood group that the virus does not affect.

You can choose to focus on one branch of the tree rather than anything else or mix and match. The branches are titled: Survival, Combat and Fury. With the skill tree you can make yourself run faster, pick locks, have more stamina and learn to crush zombie skulls with your boot.