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The Edinburgh Interactive Festival concluded this Tuesday at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre after three days of fun, frolics and chicken tikka massala. A smaller, Scottish equivalent of E3 the event featured game-themed film screenings, an industry conference and a free-to-enter consumer section where a number of commercial and indie games were on display. While there was a definite casual slant to the games on the main show floor (with a live DS Indian cookery display, and Wii Fit demonstrations attracting the biggest crowds) there were a couple of gems to be found for the more discerning gamer. Of these gems, the biggest and shiniest was the first UK showing of Media Molecule’s PS3 exclusive – Little Big Planet.

I approached the demo booth with a hearty dollop of trepidation. LittleBigPlanet is a key title in Sony’s 2008 release schedule and a family-friendly counterpoint to the rather more traditional Resistance: Fall of Man 2 and Motorstorm Pacific Rift. However, while it has a U certificate vibe, the ability to tweak and alter anything about the game (from changing existing levels to creating brand new ones from scratch) is at the core of Sony’s “Game 3.0” strategy which is designed to appeal to everybody. While the show floor of EIF was a difficult place to present the sheer volume of creative possibilities within Little Big Planet, the small sections of the game I played firmly reassured me that not only is the game solid and fun to play, it has also integrated its more technical user content design tools in a slick and easy to use way.

During the 30 minutes I spent with the title, I almost exclusively played in 2 player mode. Controls are simple, using a single button to jump and another to “grab” items. The levels are 2.5D allowing some movement backwards and forwards, but largely forcing the player progress from left to right. None of the levels I played were overly challenging, being simple tests of using momentum or environmental features to progress, however what can’t easily be conveyed through screenshots or videos is just how fun the game is. It has a breezy, chilled-out vibe, and a great sense of pace and motion. There are tinges of Mario and the original Prince of Persia, but does feel unique and different, even if it hard to put your finger on quite why.

The game really shines when it introduces controllable objects. On one level we were introduced to a cartoon car which could go forwards and backwards by moving the gear lever. There then followed a chaotic and riotous race against the computer, which was far more fun than controlling a car with just forwards and backwards gears had any right to be. Another level featured an oversized skateboard, which when jumped on careered down a hill with both players precariously balanced on it, before it finally came to an abrupt stop at the bottom of the slope, crashing and scattering objects and the players in such a ridiculously silly way that it raised a few chuckles from the watching audience. Adding to the sense of fun was the presence of Stephen Fry as the voice of the in-game help, his mellifluous tones fitting the vibe of the game perfectly.

Overall, I spent only minimal time with the creative and customisation sections of the game. During that time I looked at some of the fundamental ways of building objects and environments to play in. While simple to use, I imagine the time investment to make creations that rival the levels the game ships with will probably be beyond most talentless people such as myself. However, I can see the tools available creating a storm of creativity from a certain artistic subsection of the PS3 audience. There was also confirmation that “celebrity” levels were under construction, either for inclusion in the game or to be made available as downloadable content. When we dug deeper about which celebrities these were, only one was mentioned – Lily Allen. The mind boggles as to what a Lily Allen themed Little Big Planet level will look like. A general consensus from a lot of people who saw Little Big Planet was that Terry Gillingham would be an obvious person to talk to about doing custom levels, as some of the objects on display already had a very Python-esque vibe to them. I only hope they listened to us!

Interestingly, feedback on the game from other player at EIF was mixed. Some people claimed serious bugs were in evidence, and that the framerate was choppy, and certain modes incomplete. I personally didn’t encounter any glaring bugs and found the graphical performance to be near perfect. I did notice a couple of PS3s seemed to be playing up, requiring restarts (possibly due to them being stuffed in small, unventilated, boxes), but whether this was hardware or software problems is hard to say. In any event, with some time before the game is released (allegedly “October”) hopefully any lingering problems can be resolved before the game goes on sale, as it would be disappointing if the title failed to live up to expectation because of technical issues.

Overall, I was extremely pleased with Little Big Planet. For a game with such lofty ambitions, to see them so beautifully realised was extremely impressive and a credit to the developers. On what I’ve seen so far, if you’re already excited at the prospect – then remain so. If you’re not yet excited, then check this game out and become so.

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Related: Little Big Planet, Little Big Planet Xbox 360 version

Tags: Lily Allen, Little Big Planet, LittleBigPlanet, Stephen Fry, Edinburgh Interactive Festival

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Critically panned. Disowned by its own development team. Marketed as a sequel to a game nobody bought. It’s hardly surprising that Blacksite Area 51 can be found nestling in many a dusty bargain bin. However, with the new X-Files movie hitting cinemas it seemed prudent to go back and asses whether Blacksite can provide a fix of cheap alien killing fun.

The game starts off in war torn Iraq, with absolutely no aliens in sight. The controls are tight, the weapons are satisfying and Iraqi soldiers dutifully stand next to explosive barrels and/or stock still when you’re trying to shoot them (which is always nice). There is even a decent squad control system that allows you to direct fire from your squad on particular targets and order them about with an intuitive single button press. Nothing that would trouble Ghost Recon, but a good addition nonetheless.

During this first hour the game is just engaging enough to keep you playing, but not so immersive you won’t simultaneously be planning your grocery shopping. Because of the linear level design there is never any real confusion about where to go, so it is easy to play the game when tired, distracted or drunk (or all three). As the Iraqi level unfolds you get the vague impression there may be some sort of sophisticated political message behind the game. But just when you start thinking Blacksite might be trying to do something intelligent, along comes a badly drawn half-alien geezer with a tentacle growing out of his head and things begin to go rapidly downhill.

In a sudden switch from reality to fantasy the game quickly becomes a blur of laughable aliens, bad dialogue and a nonsensical story which wouldn’t trouble a made-for-TV scifi drama from the late 1970s. Without giving away any twists, somebody in your squad has a nasty exobiological encounter at the conclusion of the Iraqi chapter while everyone else decides to run away. Predictably, he pops up again later on and isn’t best pleased about being left for dead and turned into an alien-human hybrid. Which is understandable. Added to the plot blender is some other general stuff about aliens taking over the planet and mysterious goings on at Area 51, but fundamentally when playing Blacksite all you need to remember is to follow the objective arrow and shoot anything with tentacles.

One thing that slowly begins to become apparent as you play is that the game has more than its fair share of bugs (of the software problems sort, not the creepy crawly kind). In many ways Blacksite is a stroll down memory lane to 1994, where getting stuck on scenery in a game or hearing sound being blasted out of speakers at the wrong time was par for the course. Taken individually no one issue is too serious, but over the course of the game they begin to seriously grate. In one particularly bad example my entire squad of highly armed special ops soldiers became trapped in the back garden of a suburban house entirely unable to escape because the game refused to unlock a small wooden gate. In reality, I imagine the soldiers would kick down the gate and continue the struggle for humanity’s survival. Sadly, in this case they decided to stand around pulling faces like a cow trying to do algebra.

Further disappointment comes from the fact the game was clearly designed for co-operative play. Many areas are clearly set up for two players to flank the enemy, share vehicles or man two side-by-side gun turrets. It is widely believed that this feature was torn out at the last moment, and while the game is never broken by this decision, there are sections that are badly balanced and rather boring when playing alone. One other issue with the game is the vehicles. While the handling is not quite as bad as it could have been, the twitchy vehicles have very little inertia and a tendency to get grounded on even the smallest pebbles.

Blacksite does have a couple of redeeming points. One of these is the way the sniper rifle scope is handled. In many games using scoped weapons can block out nearby threats and cause a loss of spatial awareness. Blacksite features a sniper rifle that progressively zooms in depending on how hard you pull in the left trigger. It works brilliantly, allowing threats to be prioritised and then taken out with a combination of speed and accuracy. Visually the game also has a few moments of grandeur. Some of the larger alien foes are particularly impressive (in one memorable sequence you fight a gigantic alien triffid sprawled across a huge valley spanning bridge), and indeed the entire game is never less than graphically acceptable. The campaign is also blessedly short at about 6 hours, and never really outstays its welcome.

Multiplayer modes are included. While very simplistic the basic deathmatch and capture the flag modes are actually surprisingly solid and enjoyable. Sadly, on both Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 the lobbies remain about as sparsely populated as an American war memorabilia shop in the middle of Basra.

So is the game worth a punt at a bargain price? Probably not. There are plenty of better games on both the Playstation, Xbox and PC, but if you absolutely must have a game that involves shooting aliens, then Blacksite has enough substance to make it at least worth a rental. A slightly sub average 4/10.

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Related: STALKER review

Tags: Blacksite Area 51, Blacksite: Area 51, Blacksite Area 51, Xbox 360, PS3, PC

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As far as my aging brain can remember, geometry is the mathematics of lines, curves and surfaces. Geometry Wars 2 (now available on Xbox Live Arcade for 800 Microsoft Points) also features lines, curves and surfaces but thankfully pairs this with the far more entertaining mathematics of smart bombs and laser guns. So is Geometry Wars 2 a damp Tuesday afternoon stuck in a GCSE maths class learning about indeterminate polynomial equations, or a Friday afternoon the moment the school bell goes?

If you have never played Geometry Wars before the idea behind the game is simple. You control a small spacecraft (that looks a bit like a crab crossed with an octagon) which scoots around an enclosed play area and comes under attack by a variety of peculiar geometric alien craft. Some of the enemies are benign and float aimlessly about, while others act more aggressively or erratically. Evasive manoeuvres are controlled by the left stick on the controller, fire is directed with the right and screen clearing smart bombs can be launched by pressing one of the triggers. As things begin to hot up the game quickly becomes a merciless test of reactions as the screen fills up with things to shoot and avoid.

The biggest change for those returning to Geometry Wars 2 from the original Xbox Live Arcade title is a new focus on “Geoms“. First introduced in Geometry Wars Waves (a bonus game in Project Gotham Racing 4), Geoms form the basis of the score multiplier system and radically change the dynamic of the combat. In the original Geometry Wars, racking up a big score depended on how quickly the player could shoot down enemies. In Geometry Wars 2, dispatched enemies drop one or more Geoms, which are then hoovered up in order to push the score multiplier upwards. While a seemingly simple change, it makes for a tactical game where risk and reward balance on a knife-edge.

Geometry Wars 2 also introduces six new modes of play. The entertaining Pacifism mode removes the ability to fire, gives you a single life and litters an arena with enemies and a series of floating gates which detonate when flown through. Clearly a riff on a popular Achievement from Geometry Wars 1 (which was awarded for surviving 60 seconds without firing) this mode is chaotic and riotously entertaining. King Mode (which only allows the player to return fire from “bubbles” that appear and slowly vanish across the arena) and Sequence mode (which rapidly delivers a series of 30 second challenges at the player) are both interesting additions. There is also a timed mode (called Deadline) which gives you unlimited lives and 3 minutes to rack up a high score and Waves mode (which originally came with project Gotham Racing 4 as a bonus extra) which involves big squadrons of enemies sweeping across the screen from all four points of the compass. Deadline in particular is highly compulsive, and has a real “one-more-go” feel to it, but the sheer sensual pleasure in mowing down a screen-wide line of enemies in Waves is hard to beat. Finally, there is a “classic” mode called Evolved which delivers a more traditional Geometry Wars experience, with added Geom collecting.

Each mode has its own distinct music, with the timed Deadline mode being an aural highlight (the soundtrack comes to a heart pumping crescendo as the timer nears zero). Graphically the game is a feast for the eyes. Colours are pinpoint and vivid (especially at 1080p) and the screen warps and distorts beautifully. Geometry Wars 1 was always seen as a poster child for High Definition console visuals, but Geometry Wars 2 takes things one eye-watering step further.

Geometry Wars 2 also fixes two big issues with the original title. Firstly, death does not remove the score multiplier in Deadline and Evolved modes and secondly, the game reaches a frantic pitch far quicker than the original, which makes restarting a level less of a chore. The pad chewing frustration of Geometry Wars 1 is significantly reduced as a result, and while some masochists will probably be disappointed, these two subtle changes make for a far more balanced and entertaining game throughout.

The game also takes every opportunity to display the scores of your friends-list rivals, both when you are playing, and on the main screen when selecting a mode. There is no better feeling than jumping to the top of the heap on a particular mode and crowing about it, but also no worse feeling than logging on to find a score you thought was unbeatable is now a laughing stock among your mates.

Geometry Wars 2 is not entirely flawless. One notable omission is the loss of weapon power-ups. In previous Geometry Wars the ship weaponry would be upgraded as you played into a couple of more powerful variants. Geometry Wars 2 drops this feature, and it is possible to face more enemies than it is physically possible to shoot. The graphics are significantly improved from earlier entries in the franchise, but the additional bells and whistles sometimes make enemies and Geoms hard to spot among the sparkling haze of light trails and explosions. Geometry Wars 2 also neglects to include any online modes, though it is possible to play multiplayer offline.

Considering the price point and plus points, these are minor criticisms, and taken as a whole Geometry Wars is a slick, highly entertaining game which has once again set a benchmark in its genre.

When my maths teacher said I would appreciate knowing all about geometry one day, he was right. A vivid 9/10 .

Related: Geometry Wars Galaxies review

Tags: Geometry Wars 2, Geometry Wars, Xbox 360, Xbox Live, XBLA

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It is a curious fact that vast portions of the world’s oceans remain unexplored. A dozen men have walked on the moon but only a couple have ventured to the deepest point in the sea. Not surprisingly, saltwatery milieus also remain a largely unexplored frontier for gaming. Recently, while Wii gamers have had the tranquil and beautiful Endless Ocean to fulfil their fishy fetishes; on Xbox 360 the closest you could get to the sea was being chased by police speedboats in Grand Theft Auto 4. Attempting to redress the balance and bring a little less Nico Bellic and a little more Jacques Cousteau to the average 360 gamer is the niche Xbox Live Arcade title Sea Life Safari from Sierra.

The game puts you in the flippers of a marine photographer hired by a professor to fill up his fishy scrapbooks with photos. Meeting his brief involves selecting one of five underwater locations and letting the game move you along automatically through the sea as you snap furiously with your camera at passing fish and crustaceans. While the game is largely a passive experience, you can get a reaction from most sea life by throwing “lures” at them. If the animal notices the lure, it will perform some sort of action for a split second that you have to try to capture on film. If the subject is centred; nicely framed; facing you and is reacting to a lure you can score up to three stars for a photograph. If the fish is upside down, ignoring you and partially obscured by a rock you score nothing. They key to unlocking new locations is to get as many stars as possible. As your film is limited on each run, and creatures can easily be missed (or not turn up at all), levels need to be played a number of times to get a good selection of high scoring photographs.

While the game initially appears simple and rather limited it has a strange hypnotic addictiveness as you obsess over snapping the perfect shot of a seahorse stuck in a bottle or a group of breakdancing lobsters. Compared to the pad chewing frustration of many hardcore 360 games Sea Life Safari is beguilingly idyllic, and a perfect late night comedown after battling hordes of objectionable potty-mouthed 12 year olds on Halo 3.

It is hard to be too critical on a cheap download game, however it is worth stressing that the visuals are patchy in places. While the cartoon fish are charming, and the different locations are varied and interesting the game suffers in comparison to Endless Ocean which still remains the graphical benchmark in its class. One other big problem with Sea Life Safari is while it has some vague educational value the lack of any decent information on the fish and creatures you are photographing means that ultimately the underwater setting is incidental to the game rather than a key part of it. Once again, Endless Ocean trumps it here, with a full background for every species you encounter. If you have kids, Sea Life Safari may entertain them for a while but don’t expect them to learn a great deal from it as they play. The game also suffers from a lack of depth (ho ho). Beyond an additional distraction that involves finding 10 well-hidden golden secret shells on each level and hitting them with your lures this isn’t a game that will keep many gamers interested for long once each location has been unlocked and most of the species have been photographed.

Nevertheless, while it lasts, Sea Life Safari provides a tranquil, innovative experience that is a welcome addition to the 360 Live Arcade library. Whether it ends up an unloved Mariana deep-sea trench or a popular inflatable crocodile filled inlet at Cancun beach depends very much on whether the Xbox community are willing to dive in and try it out. I’m giving the game a 6 out of 10.

Related: Microsoft E3 Highlights, Free XNA Game Studio

Tags: Sea Life Safari, xbox live, xbla, xbox 360, sea life

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Writing down what makes Civilization Revolution a great game is almost impossible. When broken down into its component parts it sounds deathly dull, like a cross between watching BBC4 and taking a GCSE History exam.

As with all great games, the idea at the heart of Civilization is quite simple. The game is turn based and takes you through 2000+ years of human history, from lowly beginnings as sword wielding barbarians, up to a civilization capable of taking to the stars and launching nuclear weapons. Obviously, as you are building your own civilization others are too, and the game is all about the balance between strategically maintaining peace or fighting well-timed wars to make sure that yours is the civilization that prospers and wins. Each turn plays out in a similar fashion – a mixture of moving units around the map to perform actions, deciding which new technology to research, what buildings to construct, and what alliances to form or break. The strength of the game comes from the addictive feeling that there is always something else to do, somewhere to explore, something new to research or a new type of unit to build. “One more turn” is a phrase every Civilization player knows intimately. “One more turn” is the phrase that usually results in the player watching the sun climb up over the horizon as dawn breaks.

Almost uniquely for a videogame, it is theoretically possible to win a game of Civilization without committing a single violent act. Peace can be bartered, and the game won by achieving scientific, cultural or economic victories rather than just defeating your opponents in combat. This is the theory. On the PC, games could take many hours (or days) to complete. Due to large map sizes, and heightened complexity turns would take longer and direct contact with other civilizations might not happen until very late in the game. On console, Firaxis made the sensible decision to drastically shrink the map, speed up the clock and streamline the interface. This makes the game considerably quicker and more suited to a console audience, but does rather force the player down a route of military conflict. Opposing civilizations tend to clash very early, and while bartering for peace is occasionally successful, the AI players often display something of a psychopathic George Bush style preference for bloody combat over the trade of technologies and culture.

The changes to the interface will be of little consequence to players without experience of the PC version, but it is reassuring that the entire game has been rebuilt from the ground up to support gamepads. Within minutes most players will be navigating around the map, moving units and tweaking production lines in cities without a second thought. The interface is effortlessly slick, and never feels like a poor mouse substitute. In a further bid to entice console players the game features large animated advisors who humorously jostle for position on the screen when offering advice or asking for player input. This is less irritating than it sounds (it can also be switched off if it becomes annoying) and gives the game a playful charm, which offsets the rather dry subject matter and probably makes the game more accessible to younger age groups.

Another big draw of Civilization Revolution is the inclusion of online play over Xbox Live or PSN. Sadly, here the game falters slightly. Even with the reduced game time (a typical Civilization Revolution game might take 2-4 hours) it still faces a console community which by and large has the attention span of a concussed bee. There is an even bigger problem online with the 1-vs-1 and 2-vs-2 modes, which automatically fill empty spots with AI players to make the total player number equal to five. Because the AI skill level is random, it is possible to have one or more murderous and highly intelligent computer players on a map causing chaos and disrupting the balance of the game.

Overall, however, these problems are minor. Civilization Revolution is a successful translation of a well-loved PC franchise, which brings much needed variety to the PS3 and 360 software libraries. Firaxis have said that this is the Civilization game they always wanted to make. With the success the game is enjoying at retail, and the potential to make an even better sequel hopefully it will not be the last Revolution title we will see this console generation.

To sum up, I’m giving Civilization Revolution a fantastic 9 out of 10.

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Related: Age of Conan

Tags: Civilization Revolution, Civilization: Revolution, Civilization Xbox360, Civilization PS3, Xbox 360, PS3