Become a Games Tester!

I use to really want to be a games tester.

I still do sometimes think it'd be an interesting profession to take up, even though spending hours doing structured testing and writing bug-reports maybe isn't that apealing...

Having a small voice in the gaming industry, it's still something people ask me on a regular basis - how do I become a games tester? I really want to be a games tester!

The thing is, despite being low pay, long hours and potentially boring, a games tester is a rock-star job. Everyone and his best mate wants to be a games tester, every gamer you speak to talks about becoming a games tester...

I suppose it makes sense, smoeone who spends 6 hours a day gaming, realising they could get paid to what they do already, and get games for free and get to play games before they come out!

Of course - I don't want to allude that it's really like that, sitting in an officer trying to find walls you can walk through in a graphically unfinished glitchy game, then writing a detailed bug report afterwards is more 'interesting' than fun, and probably not that interesting anyway...

Of course there will be times when being a games tester IS all it's cracked up to be, when you're asked to play the latest game and just give an opinion on it... I guess you can take the rough with the smooth...

If you are serious about becoming a games tester, if games testing seems like the career for you and you're prepared to put the work in to be a games tester, then I strongly recommend you read this.

World of Warcraft.... To play or not to play?

I am frankly amazed that I still see so much media about World of Warcraft so long after release. They say subscribers are falling, but it's certainly not down to some new MMORPG coming in to steal the show.

I did play the free-trial for a bit, and then I played solo using Mangos for a while...

I could just never get into it though. I think part of the problem, is that something which on the face of it so simple, to play properly is quite challenging. Starting at level 1 with zero gold, the mountain ahead of you to climb is massive and playing casually, just doing what you feel and enjoying the environment is going to mean it takes years to get to the good content.

It struck me that it might be worth buying a decent World of Warcraft Guide so you could speed up the process. Time is such an important commodity in WoW, particularly during the earlier levels, that anything which can speed up the process of levelling and farming has to be worth having a look at.

Even if it's quite expensive, if it cuts the time to get to a level where you can actually start playing properly rather than just grinding and farming.... Well, it can then work out to be cheaper!

Let's say it normally takes 2 years to get to a level of XP and gear to do certain raids? And a World of Warcraft Guide can reduce that by 6 months? That saves 6 months subs, so the guide is worth at least 6 x monthly sub.

Something to think about...

Flight Simulators...

It's been a long time since I've played a Flight Simulator... I'm trying to think back now, Warbirds on the PC was one, that was good actually...

And an Atari ST game which had you flying an F-29 I think, I liked that game... Hmmm, what was it called? Falcon! Falcon F-29 Retaliator!

Brilliant... Except I could never land, I'd shoot down a few bogey's bomb some targets - then crash in a ball of flame as I tried futily to land.

I never really got into the non-combative sims. The funny thing is though gaming is all about challenge, and any Sim I've played - the challenge is in landing the damn thing!

I saw this Flight Simulator the other day and I was really tempted, I just want to see if I can land a plane in a flight-sim. Over 30 years of gaming under the belt, I've slain demons, dragons, zombies, vampires, destroyed all manner of starships and bases and killer robots...

I've managed to set insane records in digital sports - my Track & Field PS1 100 metres of 7.09 seconds was a definite 'drugs test' run...

Yet I've never landed a digital plane successfully... I'm itching to try now!

Games Computer Games : The Future of Games.

The Future of games is going to be very interesting.

Games have evolved at an exponential rate, as a veteran gamer from the early 1980's I can remember a time when the future of games might considered colour graphics. Or when the future of games might have been though of as, 'something more sophisticated than a text adventure'.

Of course things have moved on a bit since then, coming from someone who remembers 'the joystick' coming out - it could be construed that from my point of view the future of games is already here. The trouble is players have evolved with games. We can all pick up a controller that has 10 buttons and threee direction controllers and play a modern game without reading the instructions or playing the tutorial.

What worries is me is how modern games feel to a person who is not a seasoned gamer? Personally I can imagine it being quite overwhelming, you have all these buttons to remember, and some of them do different things depending on what is happening in the game. Simply controlling the game could be challenging, let alone playing it.

I always used to worry that the future of games would see a drop in quality game-play as publishers focused more and more on 'wow factor' graphics and popular licensing deals. As it happens though this never really happened. A few companies tried it over the years, who can remember the likes of 'Virtuoso' and 'Rise of the Robots' ? I think the graphics reached something of a xenith though, and improvements are now gradual. It helped that players voted with their feet and games which chased spectacular graphics but ignored gameplay were almost always complete flops commercially.

In some respects the future of games is looking bright, companies tend to focus on good game mechanics and solid gameplay. There are mistakes made, but I tend to think modern games which fail on gameplay tend to because of mistakes, rather than laziness.

A concern for the future of games is the issue of quality control. As games have gotten bigger and more complex, it's been more and more difficult to erradicate bugs, glitches and code errors. Thankfully this isn't the problem it would have been ten years ago - simply because so many consoles are internet connected and modern games are patchable.

A surprise for me, which I believe will further shape the future of games is the modern prevalence of casual games, things like Bejewelled and FarmVille and phone games. Gaming is now pushing in two directions, the hardcore games and the casual market. The casual market didn't even exist as recently as the mid-nineties, the danger is that developers and publishers start investing too much in chasing the casual market that they start to neglect the core market - the hardcore gamer. Microsoft at the moment seems obsessed with pushing it's Kinnect Peripheral and until the technology is able to provide precision control, hardcore gamers will always prefer a control pad.

A couple of decades ago I would have said the battle for the future of games was going to be fought between style and substance, substance I think won that battle. The battle for the future of games in the next two decades will be fought between casual and hardcore, personally I hope it can end in an amicable truce, with both markets supporting and augmenting each other as they should.

Games Computer Games : When not to game?

I stumbled upon this article on the BBC news site recently: -

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-15923438

Now I'm all for gaming, and trying to get a game in where I can. In these child and work ridden days I'm often forced to resort to a quick chocka on 'Brick Breaker' on my Blackberry while 'dropping the kids off at the pool'.

It's sad I know... But it's how it is...

Having said that I can't imagine ever deciding it was appropriate to tweet my highscores on a game which is essentially measuring the accuracy of my 'peeing'. I suppose if I was visiting a friend who - fearful of the typical male 'spraying all over the shop' event happening hangs a polite notice in their bathroom, requesting men sit on the toilet in their flat... In that situation it might be useful to convince them that their bathroom floor was safe...

Not likely...

The question is what next? Gaming while you sleep? Gaming whie under General Aneasthetic and having a bowel resection? Actually that could work - you could play the Atari ST Classic Life and Death and your success in-game could influence the success of your operation?

I can only think the designers decided to implement this to stem the boredom of standing there peeing into a urinal... The trouble is, personally I'm never actually there long enough to get bored... And ultimately it could be an uber frustrating game - you start to play the ski-ing sim, and rack up an amazing score, are about to top the leaderboard and what happens?

You run out of pee...

So then it's back to the bar, another five pints, while desperately trying to hold it all in so you can have another go? That's encouraging sensible drinking for sure!

I suspect this idea will go the way of the Virtual Boy, interesting concept - but low take up will kill it. Having said that if I walked into a public toilet and this game was there - would I have a go? I'd probable go back for another pint while trying to hold it in, then try to top the leaderboard...

Games Computer Games : Spending time with Forza 4 and Gears of War 3...

Well my wife was poorly last night, so were the kids so I got to sit down for a good game last night! (Evil aren't I?)

Well, it gave them all a chance to get some peace and quiet and if anyone needed anything I was only on single player so paused and ran up.

The thing is despite my criticism of Forza 4, having started it to try and get a clean KIA C'eed Top Gear Test Track lap - and managing a fairly poor 1:46 something... I started finding it hard to put down... I played some challenges to unlock the Autovista cars then did some world tour... And the inevitable happened.

It happens with every Forza like game I ever played - I end up making a bloody stupid car. In Forza 3 it was my Fiat 500 Abarth and Mazda MX5 that took the biscuit. The 500 had a huge Punto Engine, Rear Wheel Drive and was 500 rated - so classed the same as Ferrari F360's and similar... The MX5 had an RX8 Renesis Engine and every upgrade going - it was rated R3 class at 900 or something... The trouble is you turn traction control off and it was impossible to drive in a straight line...

For Forza 4 I'm already started on an Abarth 500 Essesse. It's currently nearly 200 HP, RWD, with Race Weight reduction and a few other choice mods. It's competitive at the moment - but it's only a class D 350 Rated. It gets harder and harder to keep the car upgraded and competitive as you take it from it's design spec.

One thing that does worry me - I really like the Abarth 500 Essesse, when I need to buy a car in real life I might get one... But after driving 600 HP full race spec, RWD converted ones in Forza 4 is the 160HP FWD stock car still going to be exciting ?

Eventually I tore myself away for a little Gears 3... Dom, Dom... I won't say any more - I don't want to spoil it. Gears 3 is great, really loving the story, the mechanics and the new weapons and enemies. It's a shame the series is ending - so far it's got better and better with each installment. It's definately a game I shall miss... And I don't know if the prequel series covering the pendulum wars will do it for me...

Games Computer Games : The Christmas Reportage

Well, unfortunately I still don't get to game much...

The kids have been pretty ill most of Christmas and I've had a few days of sickness too. I did get a couple of games though - so I've been taking a break from Left 4 Dead 2 to try out something a little fresher.

First up is Gears of War 3, probably something everyone else has already played and finished - but that is not possible for dual children spawning 35 year old gaming veterans, certainly not this one :(

So far I'm as far through the campaign as the [*SPOILER WARNING*]



[Human Lambent appearing, which is something I predicted would happen.]




[*END SPOILER*]

I am enjoying the story, it's a really polished game and the story is well written. The new weapons are great and add some real variety.

I'll be back to comment more once I've played more of it.

Second up is Forza 4, which I sort of have mixed feelings about. On the one hand it's great, seems a really polished game, plays well, handles well, looks beautiful - but at the same time it's hard to pinpoint what it offers over Forza 3, the obvious thing is the Top Gear content is the obvious - but is it worth buying a new game to hear Televisions most contraversial irritator 'Clarkson' carrying on about cars? If you want to do that you can always turn on Dave!

Of course there is the Top Gear Test Track, which is sort of fun - you can even do it in the reasonably priced car (I got an uncertified 1:39 something) But there isn't really a game mode I can see whereby you set a lap in the same way as the TV show which is dissapointing. You can compete for a flying lap time which is all very nice, but it would have been nicer to be able to compete in a specific standing lap race.

I've yet to get deep into the new career mode, but I will... I still love playing Forza, it's still a great game, but I question how important it is to play Forza 4 over Forza 3? I might even venture that unless you are huge fan of the worlds most irritating motoring journalist 'Clarkson' you might be wasting your money.

I've report back if my opinion on this changes.