It has been some time since I wrote an editorial,and I wasn't really expecting all the new trackers. So just wanted to first say to those people that I don't automatically track back but don't take it to heart; I don't blog on Gamespot as much as I used to and I do find it hard to keep up with all my friends blogs (and to those friends, I don't always comment but I do always read!). If you do comment on my blogs, then it makes it much more likely I will have a look at yours. Or if you write something and you get the inclination that I might have something to say about the subject, you can always PM me and I'll head on over and have a look.

Just a quick thought; I don't give a crap about gaming 'news' as much as I used to. It doesn't mean I'm completely out of the loop or anything, but I used to read every scrap of news unless it was something to do with the PSP. Now I skip probably half the stories. 'Uncharted sells 1 million' I don't need to click that link. Finding the ins and outs of how much it sold in each territoryisn't going to make my gaming life any better. I haven't read top 10 charts in I don't know how long, and I only gloss over the more business oriented information now if for some reason I think it will matter to me as a gamer.

The PS3 is a damn noisy beast when the fan is going. It's 39C degrees here today, and my air conditioner isn't working. It broke down at the end of last summer and I forgot to fix it (Australian for those that don't know, we are coming up to the hot weather and have a scorching weekend). It's the second time I've heard the PS3 do it. The first time I thought it was broken or something, it's that loud.

I finished up Pikmin on the Wii today and felt like reviewing it right away. I've still got some games I completed a while ago I might still review too. And Super StarDust HD and Everyday Shooter. I haven't completed them, but I've given them another whirl recently and I've played them enough to review. On with the review.

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Pikmin is an interesting take on the real-time strategy genre. Instead of some omnipresent being managing the battlefield from the heavens, you take control of the alien Olimar as he searches for the lost pieces of his ship so that he can complete his trip home. He discovers the world inhabited by creatures he calls Pikmin, small plant-like creatures, and he uses them to overcome obstacles in the area and defeat enemies, and most important of all carry the discovered parts back to his ship.

The game eases you in with tutorials that are easy to understand. While you discover them one at a time, eventually you will have 3 different types of Pikmin, each with their own attributes. Red Pikmin are fire-resistant and make the best attackers, yellows can be thrown higher and are able to pick up bomb rocks, and blues are the only ones that don't drown and can traverse water areas. Time is measured in days, and at the end of each day Olimar will fire up into orbit, and so will onions (what Olimar calls the pods that store Pikmin).

All Pikmin are capable of performing a number of tasks, used to solve the environmental hazards that are placed in your way. They can complete bridges that have been eaten away by Shearbugs, knock down walls, cause certain tree limbs to grow so they can climb, attack enemies and carry items back to your ship or their pods. Primarily this is how to progress in the game; command your Pikmin to carry pellets or deceased enemies back to their pods. Once they do, this will sprout new Pikmin that can be plucked from the ground. Strategy is involved here as different items take a certain number of Pikmin to carry back, and non-ship items will be taken to the pod that corresponds to the most Pikmin carrying the item. Enemies produce the same no matter which onion they are returned to, but pellets are coloured and produce more new Pikmin if they are taken to the corresponding onion. You need to weigh up which colour Pikmin you are going to need more of in future with getting the maximum number.

Unlike many games these days, you only have a certain amount of time to complete your objective; find the 30 missing parts in 30 days. Once the 30 days is up, it's game over whether you have completed your ship or not. This makes it important to complete as much as you possibly can in each day (about 20 actual minutes of gameplay). You will be warned as you approach days end, and you will need to have all of your Pikmin back near your ship and onions; any Pikmin outside of that vicinity when the day ends will be left behind to be dealt with by the local wildlife. Any damage you have dealt to enemies will be restored, and carcasses that could have been brought to your onions to spawn new Pikmin will disappear. Also interesting is that as the days pass, some of the smaller enemies can grow into larger ones, or if you return to an area cleared some days ago it may have a few smaller enemies that have come back to haunt you. Bomb rocks are usually also in short supply and integral to blowing up walls to open new paths or shorten travelling distance when carrying items, and these respawn each day.

Pikmin can also get stronger. While they start with a small bud above their head, this can grow into a leaf, and then a flower. This can be done by leaving them in the ground for a period of time before plucking them, or by finding nectar around the levels to find them. The stronger forms move faster and can perform tasks faster. You can also only have 100 Pikmin out at a time, and that includes those that are planted in the ground. You can have more available than this, but these will remain in their onions and you will not be able to bring out anymore unless you put some of another colour back into their corresponding onion.

There are a variety of enemies, and as mentioned above if you leave some of them alone for a while they may grow into larger versions. Some are simple to defeat with a few Pikmin, while others will take a big longer to take down. Some of the larger enemies can also be attacked a variety of ways, such as some attacking the feet to slow it down, or throwing them on their back so they can't be eaten with a bite. A few of the enemies are unique and act like bosses, and will drop ship parts when defeated. Once defeated, enemy carcasses can be carried back to the onions, and some enemies will also drop additional pellets. Some also have particular behaviours which can disrupt your strategy. Shearbugs can eat away bridges that you built on previous days if not dealt with, and the ever-annoying Swooping Snitchbug will follow you, pick up your Pikmin and replant them back in the ground.

Smart management of your Pikmin is key to getting the most out of your day. While there are only 5 levels, they are quite large and due to the number of obstacles in your way will take a while to fully explore them. As Olimar collects parts for his ship, it gains the ability to cover more ground and he can land in new locations. On each day you can land at any location that is available, and don't need to collect every part from each area first. So you might have 30 blue Pikmin wade into the water and work on completing a bridge, 20 fire resistant reds attacking Fiery Blowhogs (as they won't be hurt by their flames) while you take a few yellows to grab some bomb rocks and start working on taking down a wall. When there is a task that you want performed, you can throw a Pikmin at it, or you can group command all of your avaiable Pikmin to do so.

In most aspects the controls are great. While I've not played the original Gamecube version, it seems apparent that the Wii control update is an improvement. You can control Olimar with the analog stick on the nunchuk, while aiming at the screen with the Wii remote to throw Pikmin or issue a command to the group. You can dismiss Pikmin with a button press, which has them stop following Olimar and separates them into colour groups, making it easy to reselect one group if you have a task that requires a specific colour of Pikmin. You can call inactive Pikmin by selecting an area with Wii Remote and pressing B which creates a growing circle; tap it if you only want to select a few, or hold it for a couple of seconds if you want to select a larger range of Pikmin on the screen. There are some camera options as well, and it can feel a little awkward turning the camera but generally this is fine. The only issue I had was that when holding the down button to issue a group command, it didn't seem like all the Pikmin were responsive, or sometimes not at all, meaning I would throw each Pikmin individually at the task.

While I found the game thoroughly engaging, two points may prevent people from enjoying it. The first is the strict time factor. At times I felt like I was behind, particularly when you have a day or two where you are clearing parts of the level but not recovering parts, but I managed to complete the game on my first playthrough right on the 30 days. Had I not managed to complete the game, it was certainly fun enough that I would have played it through again, but this may disappoint players late in the game when they realise they don't have enough time to collect the rest of the parts in time. This is somewhat compounded by the save system. You can only save at the end of the day. There are 3 save slots and you can copy a save to another slot if you want a backup from days earlier. I found the lack of saving mid-level a little annoying. Sometimes I'd come across a unique enemy and not know how to attack and lose a lot of Pikmin on my first attempt, and have to restart the day; if I was still stumped this usually meant I looked at a FAQ as I didn't want to waste all that time a second time. Similarly it can be very annoying to get to the last second of a day and have your Pikmin carrying a ship part inside your base but not quite make it in time, whereby it will respawn in its original place (including the creature if it was retrieved from one) the following day. Despite this annoyance, I found that once I restarted a day I was much more efficient and productive because I already had a plan in place. Whether this frustrates you or drives you to do better depends on your own mentality.

Overall Pikmin is a great game. The time limit and lack of free-save may frustrate some, but the strategy itself is unique and engaging. It keeps a record of your stats, so you can replay in future and see if you can complete the ship in the quickest time possible or spawn the most Pikmin. There are also challenge modes, which seem to do away with most of the creatures (I have only attempted one thus far) but fill the level with pellets, and see how many Pikmin you can grow in one day. The whole package is presented in a colourful cartoony styIe, with enemies with bulbous features and cutsey sound effects and ghost images when your Pikmin die. If you like real-time strategy games and are looking for one with a difference, Pikmin comes highly recommended.

Score 8.5

I posted a review as well if you care to thumbs it up if you like it. Now I've got to figure out what's next. I've been working on getting my unplayed games down before buying any more, so I'm left with

Army of Two (PS3)
Burnout Paradise (PS3)
Lost Odyssey (360)
Lego Indiana Jones (360)

plus I've got Overlord and Splinter Cell Double Agent which I tried some time back, but I don't know if I really want to give them a full go. It comes down to what I talked about in my last blog; I don't know if I will enjoy them as much as just buying some other games instead. Anyone want to convince me these are worth trying again?

In the meantime I think I will gofinish Fallout 3. It's been that long that I think I've forgotten how to play it but it should come back pretty quick.

EDIT : So I finished Fallout 3, turns out I only had a half hour to go because I chose the mission that would end the game for me, and the autosave is now inside the final chamber that I can't get out of. So I fired up Lost Odyssey which I've played for about 2 hours. Got to my first boss-type fight and have died 3 times in a row. I think that about ends my time with that game. Needing to grind for the first boss fight? That does not bode well.

Value is an interesting proposition when it comes to games. Before we get into the meat of the article, here are a few quick questions:

You have 12 hours to kill. Someone locks you in a room and you have the option of playing Call of Duty 4, Gears of War 2, or Bioshock. You probably have enough time to play both COD4 and Gears, or Bioshock on its own. Which do you choose? Now take that option and for each game that you choose to play, you have to pay full retail price. How does that affect your decision? What if Jericho was also included but that was free, would you choose that instead of the other options?

There are of course no right or wrong answers as to which games you enjoy, or for how long they are enjoyable to you before you would prefer to either be playing another game, or doing something else entirely. The above example is loaded with my own perception of those games and the value they represent to me. How often do we hear friends or blog/forum posts saying 'It looks decent but it's not worth full price' or '1200 points/$15 is too much for that game'. I've found it interesting how we value games, as my own perception has changed somewhat in the last year. I used to own a video store, and besides a game being rented by a customer, they were all available to me whenever I wanted, and did not cost me any money. I haven't owned the store for a year, and now I have to purchase my own games. So how has that changed how I perceive the value of games?

I see two main values of any individual game; the intensity of the enjoyment, and the length of time that it is enjoyable. Which one is more important to you? Are you looking for the very best experience? Or do you prefer to stretch your dollar further and make sure your games last a long time before you have to go and buy another one? As I play primarily single player, Call of Duty 4 was a short experience for me. However, the intensity of that enjoyment was incredible, I thoroughly enjoyed the 6 or so hours that it lasted. I tend not to replay many games, so that is where the enjoyment ended for me (though it was great enough that I probably will replay it at some stage). Fallout 3 was a great game. I've yet to finish it, but I've put in over 30 hours and that time was enjoyable. Not at the intensity I enjoyed Call of Duty 4, but that's a decent period of time to be enjoying a game.

I imagine most of us don't sit in the equilibrium; we are either time poor or just plain poor. If you just plain don't have much money to spend on games on a regular basis but you find yourself with plenty of time, you may be more inclined to go for a game that offers longer playability at the expense of intensity (of course finding a game that you enjoy immensely and lasts a long time is possible and that becomes the obvious choice). Those of us who are time poor may be able to afford all of the games we have a desire to play, but simply don't have time to play them all; when we finish a game, there are a bunch more that we are interested in. So while there might be 5 games released a month worth taking note of, if you've only got so many hours to play games you might want to buy the 3 games that offer you the highest enjoyment possible instead of the other 2 that might be longer but be less enjoyable. Sure, you've spent more, but you are having a better time.

Of course, games do go down in price as well. This never used to be an issue for me, as all the highest profile games were usually available to me. Now that I have to spend money on my games, I tend to wait til games go down in price. This is not a primary concern of mine when purchasing games, but the list of games I want to play is pretty large, so games released a year ago are still as desirable to me to play as those released today. If I perceive that an older game is going to provide as much intensity and longevity as a current game for half the price, that's a pretty good incentive to go for the older game, and use that extra money on other interests.

I'm also surprised at some of the flak that has been sent towards the downloadable services when a 'premium' game sells for 1200 points or more. To me it still comes down to those two main issues; how much am I going to enjoy the game, and for how long? Castle Crashers was a great game that was more enjoyable to me than a number of full retail games I've played, and is one of the few games I've replayed so provided me a longer experience than some other games as well. Would I have purchased this game if it was a full retail product? Yes (although like usual I probably would have waited until it came down in price or purchased it second hand). Would many other people? I'm guessing not. And probably not because they perceived they wouldn't enjoy it; which brings me to another stigma.

Games can be enjoyable without developers having to invest millions. Yet even those smaller games do cost the developers time and money to produce. It is not my own perception, but I get the impression that there are some people out there who perceive that if a game costs less to make, then it should sell for less. But at the end of the day, you aren't paying because you want to invest in their development tools; you are paying because you want an experience you can enjoy.What if game A offers 8 hours of enjoyment at an intensity level of 7 out of 10 which cost $10million to make, while game B offers 10 hours of enjoyment at an intensity level of 9 out of 10 but only cost $100,000 to make with a small development team? Maybe game B has lower production values, but if the game itself is still great and both these games were offered at the same price, why would you choose game A? Clearly the choice for you, the gamer, is to spend the same money on a game you are going to enjoy more.

I've certainly not covered every aspect of how we perceive value in gaming, and I'd be interested to hear your thoughts. Remember that the games I've listed above are just my personal opinion on their value to me, and they don't need to be shared by everybody. And to poke the bear a little, how much should longevity factor into a gaming review score? Or should they only focus on how enjoyable the game is for as long as it does last? What if the best game in the world lasted 15 minutes?

I was watching some Robot Chicken lately, and a discussion with someone prompted me to get out my He-Man figures, take some shots and add some funny captions. So I decided to post them here for your perusal. I'm no Seth Green, but it's a start.

"Hahahaha, I am going to enjoy torturing you He-Man!"

"How do you like my snake staff nipple clamp He-Man!"

"Now you will taste my purple sword! I Bet-"
"Buttercup! Buttercup!"
"The safe word already? Ok, I guess it's my turn."

"...."

"Yes, MBF? Do we have full dental cover? Excellent. How about optical?"

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Not brilliant, but I enjoyed brainstorming nonetheless. I've got a few other ideas with the figures, I'll see how those pan out and I might post some more. It acutally led to me looking some of these up online as I'd forgotten a few of the characters names. There were some weird characters in the later sets from which I've got very few or have no knowledge of. Apparently some of these sell for a pretty penny if they are still packaged.

Here's hoping that the movie that is apparently in the works does the series some justice.