The biggest announcement at Blizzcon this year was undoubtedly Cataclysm.

Amongst the rather massive array of alterations and additions was the plan to strip out a lot of “unnecessary” statistics from game items, with the intimation being that the entire combat system is being streamlined.

This means that some of the more arcane (no pun intended) player statistics such as Spell Power, Armor Penetration, MP5, Resilience are being removed in favour of a more straight-forward system that focuses on the core player stats.

Cue much bile and fury spewing forth from the frothy bowels of the Internet.

Blizzard have been accused of “abandoning the hardcore” and “dumbing-down the game”. Many players have spent a lot of time learning the relative merits of the various statistics. They peer into oracular spreadsheets that contain vast amounts of gear data, in order to prophesise ideal character setups.

So, who wouldn’t be upset, right? After all, a hell of a lot of the gameplay in World of Warcraft is based on gear. Without the precise gear setup, a raid may be doomed before it even sets out. If the whole sub-game of gear micro-management is removed – hasn’t a big chunk of gameplay been taken away as well?

I’m not so sure.

It would be a foolhardy individual who dares to underestimate Blizzard. While their take on game design has become rather conservative of late, they’re always on a mission to improve what they’ve done before – and, in the 17 years that I’ve been playing Blizzard games, they’ve always delivered.

Looking at where they’re focussing their attention: PvP, Achievements, Guild-based gameplay, and revamping the core PvE game content to make that more appealing.

This is where the real fun is to be had. Not grinding away (in the most efficient way possible) in order to eventually collect the (mathematically-proven) best set of gear, but by actually playing, and enjoying the game.

See, what Blizzard have realised is that by adding these layers of statistics to the game, they hadn’t added real complexity to their “press keys to defeat monster, repeat” core gameplay, they’d just smothered it with an asphyxiating veneer of depth. By burning away this lacquer of tedium, and instead concentrating on WoW’s strengths (Story, Art, Humour, Community, and Human v Human competition) they’re letting the game breathe and develop in a new direction.

Like the brush-fire that clears away the old wood so that new shoots may grow, this Cataclysm may carve a wave of destruction through Wow, taking not only old, rotting gameplay systems, but also the fearful monkeys who refuse to let go of their gnarled old branch of SP+20/CRIT+11.

I got involved in a discussion on Eurogamer today that revolved around this podcast with Glen Schofield, in which he made a passing comment about used game sales in relation to his game Dead Space.

While Glen’s aim was really to highlight the appeal and recognition of Dead Space as a brand, mention of the rather fraught issue of game trade-ins caused (due largely in part to Eurogamer’s rather leading headline) the conversation to focus largely on used game sales.

While some commenters were teetering towards support for used games (many admitting to selling on their own games), almost everyone agreed that a large problem lay in the pricing of games.

With most console games retailing for around £40, most people aren’t in the position to buy that many games each year. Especially with a new, unknown brand like Dead Space, you’re automatically reducing your audience to the very hardcore of hardcore gamers, or those sufficiently convinced by reviews or marketing to make this one of their few game purchases.

Of course, when you drop the price, that really starts to open things up. People who are kinda interested in your game find it much easier to take the risk of purchasing the game when it’s only at £20 or £15.

Retailers certainly know this, and this is why when I walk into my local game shop, 2/3 of the store is dedicated to second-hand product, and the PA system booms pro trade-in propaganda: “THE ONLY DIFFERENCE IS THE PRICE!”.

Publishers have spoken out against major retailers pushing used games, but they seem reticent to take steps to remedy the situation themselves. With prices so very high, they’re really encouraging a culture where the perceived value of a game lays more in its resale price than it does the game itself.

Lowering the price can dramatically affect game sales, and make used sales less appealing for gamers and retailers alike. A permanent and widespread shift to lower game prices is a requisite step to making video games a true mass-market media, and is also a hell of a lot more effective at cutting down piracy than any amount of DRM ever will.

Armed Assault 2 is proving to be awesome despite the many, many bugs.

I’m sitting here watching my flatmate get pummeled by C. Viper in Street Fighter 4. One thing that I notice is that unlike a lot of other fighting games the female characters don’t seem to be as slutty as your typical Dead or Alive or Soul Calibur character.

There are still a few skimpy outfits, pouty expressions and ample cleavages about, but I’d go as far to say that things – not just in this game, but generally – are moving more towards having a healthy variation of women in action games.

Whether its Zoey in Left 4 Dead, Faith in Mirror’s Edge, or even Sheva in Resident Evil 5 (if you put aside the whole tribal bikini debacle), there is an increasing variety of females ready to shoot zombies, parkourinate dystopias or, er, shoot zombies.

Of course, adventure games have had better female protagonists for ages. There’s frustrated art student April Ryan (Longest Journey), plucky photographer Jade (Beyond Good & Evil), novelist Adrienne (Phantasmagoria), and the several dozen female characters in JRPGs that don’t have creative, aspirational vocations and probably just want to be a princess (still a completely valid and worthy life-goal).

Adventure games are one of those genres that have traditionally found a substantial female audience, so it makes sense in having characters that people can identify with in these games.

Whereas in action games, while some folk are quite happy to destroy evil-doers in a swimsuit and pigtails, it’s nice to be able to provide gamers with a little more variety if that’s not their cup of tea.

I remember when I was playing Mass Effect, my Shepherd started out as the default steroid-abuse dude. After about five minutes of playing as this guy, he really didn’t fit my mental image of the bold, suave warship captain and saviour of the galaxy.

So, I went back and swapped him for the female variant. I found her look and her voice a bit more to my taste, and off I went to ride elevators, kill aleins and do not afraid of anything.

Mass Effect: She’s a pretty cool guy.

This evening, out of morbid curiosity, I decided to give the PS3 a bit of a break from its regular video-playback duties and give Home a try.

After signing in (wasn’t I already signed in??) and a little loading, the character creation screen popped up. It’s a rather nice interface actually, you flick through the various body part selectors, as in other avatar tools (like the Xbox NXE system and the Mii creator), and then customise then as you please.

Now, this is a very cool bit: rather than just manipulating a stack of sliders (well, there’s some of that.. ), you can shape your selected body part by moving both analog sticks on the controller. Each stick’s X and Y axis is mapped to a given property, and you can very quickly and easily morph the part to your liking. It’s a simple idea, and it really works. It reminds me of the Korg Kaoss Pad.

However, that’s about as far as I got. I started to browse the (horrifically paltry) selection of clothing, and then Home decided that there was a network error (O RLY?) and decided to boot me out!

Closing Home, the PS3 magically restored all network connectivity as if nothing had happened. Then I put on another episode of Robot Chicken, and all was well.

The other day, I bought myself a new Xbox controller. Unfortunately for me, it was packed in one of those heat-sealed plastic coffins that none of woman born shall harm. Like so many times before, I then attempted to open the case using a variety of knives, scissors and teeth. After a lengthy struggle, and some significant drawing of blood, I managed to get the thing open and pry out my new controller.

The idea behind this sort of packaging is to protect it from criminal scum who would otherwise pilfer the delicious contents. It’s really fucking annoying, and I’m led to draw parallels between clam-shell packaging and DRM. Both are designed to protect the company’s product, and both simply manage to piss-off actual customers.

Then, I was delighted to hear that a few companies are planning to do away with this sort of packaging! In a rather sudden outbreak of common sense, they’ve decided to use easy-open packaging, and opt for cardboard over plastic where appropriate.

I also find it interesting that this revolt is being spearheaded by Amazon.com – an organization that’s also somewhat of a vanguard for DRM-free music sales, via their (actually pretty good!) MP3 music shop.

Steam can be great, you know. Easy to buy, easy to play – what more could you ask for?

Reasonable pricing, that’s what.

Today, while walking around town, I spied Fallout 3 for the PC for the bargain price of £19.99. Great price – after only a couple of weeks it’s been reduced from its retail price of £34.99. If I hadn’t already bought it, I’d have snapped that up.

Even if I wanted to buy it on day one, I could have still picked it up from play.com for £24.99 – again a good price.

But, I didn’t take either of these offers. I didn’t even pick up a standard copy at RRP. Like other mugs, I went and bought it from Steam. The price on Steam was $49.99. Once you figure in VAT and the arcane inner-workings of international currency purchases, I ended up paying £38.44.

Blimey. If one lesson can be learned here it is to check retail and online before even thinking about buying anything from Steam.

If two lessons can be learned here, the second would be to not go shopping online while drunk.

Gears of War is a very grey game. The world is stone and concrete; the enemies are the brown in the greyest way they can be.

Our hero, Marcus Fenix, and his grey buddies are chunky space marines with attitude. Sorry: ATTITUDE.

So far, so ordinary. And frankly, it stays that way throughout. Guns, aliens, concrete, and set of combat mechanics that stay pretty much the same over the course of the game.

However, what Gears lacks in premise, it more than makes up for in execution. Every level of wanton bullet-letting is a carefully arranged space in which cover points are meticulously placed. Set pieces punctuate each zone, providing welcome relief to the constant cover-to-cover gun battles (which – while fun – can grind after a while).

The combat itself is familiar. Health, like most shooters these days, is based on the idea of no putting yourself in harms way for too long at any one time. Stay in cover, and health tops back up. Likewise, your squad-mates will pop-back to life once any imminent threat has passed, or if you really need them, you can dash over and revive them manually at any time.

I’m not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing. It’s comforting not to have to worry about the well-being of my cohorts – especially since these autonomous goons tend to get themselves in to all sorts of trouble.

Of course in co-op mode the usefulness of the marine at your side depends entirely on the skill of whoever you’ve given the gamepad to. Co-op is, for some bizarre reason, still a rareity in gaming. This is a shame, because the co-op gameplay here is probably the standout feature of Gears – and many games would do well to implement something similar.

Like fellow Epic title, Unreal Tournament, Gears is half game, half technology showcase. Other games will look to Gears not as the epitome of gaming, but as a textbook example of how to put a solid shooter together.

I’ve decided to try Age of Conan. Here we go!

1850hrs – System Requirements.. 32GB hard drive space. Christ on a Rhino.
1855hrs – Ok, I’ve got some space on my C: now. In goes DVD 1.
1855hrs – “Installing resources. This may take a long time.”
1914hrs – “Insert Disk 2″
1923hrs – Time for a cherry coke
1945hrs – Hurrah, install complete! Now it’s patch time. Uh oh…
2030hrs – 488MB/631MB
2051hrs – done!

Two hours! Well, hopefully I’m ready for kick-off tomorrow morning now.

Tonight, Manchester United won the UEFA championship. The game itself was a pedestrian affair, but actually wanting a team to win enhances the experience greatly.

My game-related musing, then, is as follows:

MMO games, or any game that pits groups of humans against each other is well suited to encouraging our primal tribal instincts. Even arbitrary partisanship makes any contest that much more exciting.