“Alain Tascan is almost certainly not the image of an EA employee that most people would have in mind; he’s emphatically French, and resolutely not afraid to speak his mind. It was speaking his mind at the recent Montreal International Game Summit that led to headlines across the specialist press for the charismatic General Manager of EA Montreal. Speaking during the roundtable discussion that ended the summit, Tascan said he felt the recent Xbox 360 title Gears of War brought ‘nothing in terms of innovation to the shooter… Like, zero,’ adding, ‘myself, I prefer something more creative.’”

It didn’t take long before people brought up the irony of an executive at EA, most famous for their annual sports franchise titles, making a comment about innovation. The day after his infamous comments, Gamasutra had a chance to talk with Tascan and tour the EA Montreal Studios.”

The last of my reports from the Montreal International Game Summit, I rather like Alain Tascan, even if I’m not sure he’d remember me. He’s got surprisingly strong opinions and is passionate as hell. I think Army of Two is definitely going to be one to watch out for.

It’s that time of year again! When the Eurogamer ‘massiv’ all get together and have a big argument about their favourite games of the year. Over the last week the top 50 has been uploaded on Eurogamer and I took part in the compilation.

Eurogamer’s Top 50 Games of 2006: 50 – 41- A few words on Harvest Moon: Magical Melody.

Eurogamer’s Top 50 Games of 2006: 40 – 31- My thoughts about Yakuza and Chibi-Robo (the both of which should be way higher in the final list.)

Eurogamer’s Top 50 Games of 2006: 20 – 11- I spotlight Outrun 2006: Coast 2 Coast, We Love Katamari and Canis Canem Edit (Bully).

Eurogamer’s Top 50 Games of 2006: 10 – 1- Opinions of Gears of War, Dead Rising, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and Guitar Hero.

Unlike last year, the top game on my personal list wasn’t the last game I made comment on in the official list, as thought I do love Guitar Hero it isn’t as high in my estimation as Dead Rising, which is probably my game of the year. Probably. I find it rather hard to pick favourites.

“So it’s Christmas next week, which means, as per usual, not very much going on in terms of independent cinema in Toronto but shed loads of films shoved out in the multiplexes to get that much sought after cash of people who want to sit in a darkened room.”

Merry Christmas, folks. Also this week:

Toronto Film Critics Association Announces 2006 Awards – I am not a member of this organization; not sure if I should be. I probably won’t become one unless they ask me (hilariously unlikely) or it’s totally free to join and has some kind of benefits (pretty unlikely too, let’s be honest.)

By some strange and terrible twist of fate, this happens to be the most recent issue of Plan B I own, despite the fact that I’ve been in practically every issue since. I guess I’ve been lost off the mailing list.

Actually, I moaned about this the last time I posted about Plan B here, so I am sorry. But I miss getting issues of it terribly. Perhaps I’ll just splurge and buy all the back issues I’m lacking, or something.

Anyway, this was a playful little article; I reference the Controller: Artists Crack the Game Code exhibition that I did a lot of interviews for Gamasutra on (see here) only this time I dare to have an opinion on it, and decide I don’t like any of it very much at all. There’s an absolutely brilliant graphic to go with this that is exactly what the title implies – a Super Mario Brothers take on Magritte’s The Human Condition. If you want to see it, of course, I’m afraid you’ll have to buy the back issue.

“At E3 this year I got to try out the demo of Elebits. At the end, I turned around to hand the controller to the next person in line (who happened to be GoldenEye designer Martin Hollis, but that’s neither here nor there), who asked me what I thought of it. “It’s alright,” I said, “but the final version better have more to it than just zapping tiny creatures and flinging objects about.”

It turns out I would have preferred it didn’t.”

Fortuitous indeed that today I’d finish archiving all of my Eurogamer work to date on this site, because here’s a new review! Yep, I’ve been away for a while but it’s rather nice to have something new up on what may be the only readable (consumer orientated) games site online. Certainly it’s one of the few that I bother to check every day.

Anyway, I really did struggle with this review. Everything in me wanted to like Elebits, as it has a nice idea and I loved chucking objects around and making a hideous mess, but as the game progressed it just got more restrictive and less interesting (I didn’t even bother to mention the rubbish boss battles in this review.) Perhaps if this game was more charming I might have liked it more. I know asking every game to be as lovely as Katamari Damacy is a little unfair, but can’t they at least try?

“The critical requirements of a Monster Rancher title, that monster-raising be streamlined and rewarding, and the RPG sections be challenging and playable, are miserably out of reach for Monster Rancher EVO, with almost every part of the title a confusing, tedious mess that should make the average player ill with boredom. Much like a circus, a very dull kind of child might enjoy it, but just like that child, Monster Rancher EVO stinks of sawdust and vomit.”

Oh good lord, how much I hated Monster Rancher EVO. The worst thing was this review clearly came too late for poor Persona-Sama, who I discovered had purchased the title when I stayed at his house during E3. Every copy of this game should be burned in a big fire, and, to avoid the toxic gases released by the burning plastic getting into the atmosphere, the development team should be forced to stand around the fire and breathe in. Deeply.

What a lovely cover for a lovely game, eh? Well, this is, as you might expect from the date, an article about E3. The title in English was “Beware the Quiet ones”, and as such I spend most of it discussing how loud and bombastic both the PS3 and Wii were compared to the Xbox 360, and how, in the end, the only machine with a game which truly blew my away was on the 360 (the excellent Dead Rising, of course.)

Rather a fair thought, really. The Xbox 360′s online aspects blow away both the PS3 and the Wii, and I have more of an urge, absurdly, to go back and play Gears of War again than I do to start playing even Twilight Princess. Some people might argue my tastes have changed, or something, but I think that’s a load of pants. Microsoft might just, you know, have actually got it right this generation. I don’t doubt that the Wii is going to carve its own (very secure) niche, however.

Ah yes, E3 2006. A trip down to sunny LA to do nowt but play video games and hoover up free booze at lavish parties sounds like a fantastic deal, but actually, it’s beyond horrible. I say that, of course, because I was stuck in the claustrophobic, sweaty, overcrowded Wii booth for almost my entire time, but when I wasn’t having to work (which includes being on the show floor as well as writing) I genuinely enjoyed my time with many of the people I had a chance to meet and hang out with. Sadly I didn’t get any time to do interviews (gutting, when you bump into folks like Eugene Jarvis.) I also lost my badge at the end of the second day, but that’s another story.

Am I glad E3 is gone? I’m not sure. 2006 was my first year and it was as ridiculously over the top as I could have imagined, but as far as I could see the only real problem with it was that the organizers had absolutely no idea how to work with the press and industry delegates to ensure that things went smoothly. If they had even the slightest amount of sense they could have easily kept out all of the blaggers without making life more difficult for the people who were there on business. So I guess I’m not sad it’s gone as a huge, unwieldy behemoth, and I never saw it when it was smaller, more intimate, and surely more bearable, so there’s not much for me to miss. But a lot of good writing has come out of E3 over the years, so that’s to be missed, at least. Like all of this writing here!

E3 2006: Activision – My first piece (now wrongly attributed to Rob Purchese, for some reason) discusses Tony Hawk’s Project 8 and Downhill Jam, Marvel Ultimate Alliance, World Series of Poker: Tournament of Champions 2007, The Movies: Stunts and Effects Expansion Pack, and Enemy Territory: Quake Wars.

E3 2006: Konami – An article in which I discuss watching Hideo Kojima take a widdle (how much would some people pay for that, eh?) Coded Arms: Assault and Coded Arms: Contagion, Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin, Lunar Knights, Metal Gear Solid: Digital Graphic Novel, Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops and Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots.

Super Mario Galaxy: First Impressions – I complain about the loss of my badge and then gush about how lovely Super Mario Galaxy is. Starts a theme of self indulgence that the comments threads soon get really bitchy about. But then, I would always read E3 coverage to hear about the experience as much as the games, so that’s the way I wrote it. I can understand why people might disagree, but you can’t say I don’t discuss the games fully in any of these pieces, no sir.

Wii Sports: First Impressions – This is a review of all of the Wii Sports titles at E3, which includes the airplane game not included in the final pack-in, and I also jammed in a quick review of the terrible orchestra game as well.

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess: First Impressions – Now, I actually have a finished copy of this, but, um, I haven’t really had any time to play it yet. Whatever happened to that simultaneous launch on Gamecube and Wii you boasted about at E3 then, eh, Nintendo? You naughty boys. Anyway, this was quite a divisive article as I just was not impressed with Twilight Princess at the time. Remains to be seen if I am when I finally get some time to play it properly, I suppose.

Metroid Prime: Corruption: First Impressions – And, um, yeah… I wasn’t that impressed with this either, which again led to the comments getting rather heated. Things I learned at E3 2006: You must slavishly love everything Nintendo do, not think critically, otherwise people WILL COMPLAIN.

Wario Ware: Smooth Moves: First Impressions – Interestingly enough I say this would be the ideal pack-in title long before any pack-in title was even hinted at! So I got it wrong but was at least thinking in the right direction.

Now, I’m not going to open old wounds here but this review was one of the first to say “hey, you know what, the Wii Remote isn’t a magic wand. The Wii can’t actually sense the exact point in 3D space where the controller is positioned.” But this was so shocking at the time quite a lot of people went mental. But look at where we are now. The Wii Remote totally can’t tell where it is exactly in 3D space. Sure, there are a lot of tricks possible to fake it quite closely but I do argue that we were all sold a bit of a lie with the Wii initially.

I do honestly think the control system, as it is, is a great idea, but it’s not as impressive as everyone thought it was going to be (to the point of sticking their fingers in their ears and going “LA LA LA I’M NOT LISTENING”.) The funniest thing is, though, that despite saying all of that, I thought that this game was totally great. You just can’t please people, eh?

Excite Truck: First Impressions – To be honest, even here I was pretty sure that Excite Truck was going to be a load of old bobbins, but I tried to be as positive as possible (and it paid off – the comments are a lot nicer on this one.) Shame that, yeah, in the end, it was a bit rubbish.

Dead Rising: First Impressions – Game of the year. Need I say more?

Okay, I will. Just to prove that they’re all insane, the comments all argued tooth and nail that the game couldn’t possibly be three hours long. Pfft. Yet again I was right! (Oh man, it turns out the comments threads really did have an effect on me, eh? I sure hope I don’t seem too petty.)

Project H.A.M.M.E.R: First Impressions – What happened to this title, I wonder? Has it just been forgotten about? Perhaps I was just completely shagged out after the whole E3 experience but Tom Bramwell did a lot of work to kick this into shape as my editor, and I think it’s a superb piece. That fellow deserves maximum respect.

“The big news this week involves a beloved elder statesman of cinema, whose name begins with R, that is finally reappearing after a heartbreaking absence and an uncertain future. We talk, of course, about the return of, yes… Rocky Balboa!”

This week I joke around; the big news is obviously that the Royal is opening tonight. I thought it,and the new Cinematheque Ontario season, were big enough that this week I should let them be the core of my Film Friday, rather than the usual round-up of what’s on. Also this week:

Canada’s Top Ten 2006

Edit: In other news, I have the best girlfriend ever.

“Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz has a single player mode with an incredibly pleasing control method, and it’s a real shame that Sega spent so long developing a massive range of party games that they forgot to make sure the single player levels were particularly interesting, or that any of the party games would stand out. If they’d limited themselves to perhaps 10 party games and really fleshed them out this could have been a superb package. As it is, it’s for Monkey Ball fans only.”

I think that had I written this review for anyone except the website of an internationally respected newspaper I might have ended it “Banana Blitz? Banana shits, more like.” But that’s probably a bit harsh. Super Monkey Ball’s single player mode is alright (but nothing special.) The party games, though, are a bit like blindly placing your hand in a bag that you know contains about 40 used heroin needles found in the bin of an AIDS clinic, but also 10 precious stones of an ho-hum value, and having a good old rummage.