The Codec Call

Games often use situations of unanticipated peril for the protagonist as the basis for the action about to unfold; but how realistic is that?  If you were thrust into an emergency situation with little or no warning, let alone preparation, would you be able to survive on your wits alone?  More importantly, have the games you’ve played taught you anything about survival?

On this episode of the Codec Call, Roger (@afro_gear), Cev (@cevynscott) and Graham (@tech_father) are given survival scenarios by the Survival School‘s Jonny Crocket (@survivalcourses).  They will use the skills that they’ve picked up from gaming in an attempt to survive against all odds; hopefully they’ve learnt more than just circle strafing and rocket jumps!

The scenarios, which are all based on real-life events, are:

• You are driving from Canada to Nevada.  You drive up over the hills and into the mountains.  Your SatNav leads you down an ambiguous road.  Nobody knows which route you have taken, but you are expected at a Hotel in Las Vegas.  It is March and there is snow everywhere.  Your car becomes trapped in a snow drift.  Your travelling companion heads off for help and is never seen again.  You have only packed a small amount of food as you assumed you’d be staying in a motel that night.

Will the team make it out alive to join the next Codec Call, or will Andy (@clinicalandy) have to find a whole new bunch of willing victims recruits?  Join in the discussion by tweeting how you would survive to @CodecMoments using #SurvivalSchool.  You can also detail your survival plan or thoughts in the comments below, or hit us up on Twitter, Facebook and Google+.

Survival School was established in 1997 by Jonny Crockett to provide a place of learning for those who wanted to know more about bushcraft and the wilderness. Jonny Crockett still runs most of the courses himself. It is his personal attention to detail and his enthusiasm for the subject that has helped to make Survival School what it is – A place of good fun and good learning.

Jonny went on his first survival course when he was 14 years old and has been learning ever since. He has frequently been invited to work with the Royal Marines, the Royal Navy, the Army and the Royal Air Force. However, his style is not military and he teaches with a common sense, logic and down to earth style that is not found in most Survival Schools in the UK. A lot of his techniques he has learnt from around the world where the skills are still used as a way of life. Jonny is a broadcaster, columnist for magazines and author, as well as appearing on television on a regular basis.

Air Tycoon 3 is not Pocket Planes and it’s not for the faint of heart. It’s as complex as say interpreting NMR spectra or… running your own airline. You don’t just buy your plane, unlock a few airports and take to the skies. When buying an aeroplane, amongst other things you need to specify how many seats it will have, how much legroom and the proportion of business class and working class seats. Then you need to buy slots at airfields, staff check-in desks and management offices, bulk buy aviation fuel, choose your in-flight meals and accoutrements, set and adjust your fares, not forgetting to set your marketing and staff training budgets and run a hotel and limo service. The list goes on and on. That’s not to say it isn’t fun, but if you’re the kind of person that would rather gun enemies down in a first person shooter, than say, perform the ammunition stocktake and negotiate savings from suppliers by ensuring your soldiers equip a battle rifle and sidearm that both take 5.56 mm rounds, it might not be for you.

At the moment Professor Kelvin Harris in away at an international conference, so for this week’s ‘Cost of a Coffee’ we asked him to pre-record something that we could use in his absence.  Sadly, this is what we were greeted with when we opened the files he sent us:

 “Hello my name is Brian and I work for Professor Kelvin Harris.  I mostly put the little bottles in the round thing on top of that machine and press the green button, but this week the Professor is away at a conference, so I’m going to play with his phone.   He only lets me play the free games, so this feature is called ‘Cost of a Tap Water’.

Today’s game for nowt is Tekken Bowl on iPads and iPhones, which is a free-to-play bowling game based on Tekken which is a bit like Street Fighter in a business suit.  Apparently this was originally a minigame from the game of Tekken, but I was never allowed to play computer games when I was little as my Mum said they were ‘of the devil’.  The game is good because unlike actual bowling, you are unlikely to injure your elbow unless you get frustrated with the ‘tap to select speed and accuracy’ game mechanic, and hurl your phone at the wall.

For the inaugural Codec Call we invited @lordbritish and @hodgepodge42, aka Dexter Jaekel and Richard Hodges of the Tech Fixation, to join us for a Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes Spoilercast.

Please be warned:  This is a spoilercast and as such, may contain traces of spoil for Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes!

Discussed in this show:

• The look and feel of MGS V: GZ (spinning in circles and staring at spotlights)

Ridiculous Fishing: A Tale of Redemption, to honour it with its’ full title, is a marvellous medley of minigames wrapped up in one delightful package.  You are Billy the fisherman, who is on a quest to drop his tackle deeper and faster into the fishy depths than any man before him.  You cast your line and the first part of the game’s triple threat has you using the tilt controls to avoid fish, crustaceans and aquatic mammals as you drop your lure as deep as you’re able, limited only by the length of your line, the ocean floor and your own ability.  When you strike a fish the second phase of the game begins, as you reel in your line and attempt to hook and bring to the surface as many fish as you can, whilst avoiding jellyfish.  Once you hit the surface, your catch will take to the air and you’re tasked with shooting the flying fish out of the sky. 

Surgeon Simulator is to Surgery, like Pilot Wings is to flying an Airbus A380.  It’s fair to say that it’s not an accurate representation of how complicated surgery should be performed.  You play as a surgeon whom I suspect is called Nigel, going through his basic training, which consists of a game of operation where you smash the ribs with a hammer and rip out some organs.  Once this extensive induction is completed, you sign your disclaimer and off you go to perform a heart transplant on your poor patient. Bob.  The game consists of four operations to be unlocked as you progress, starting with a heart transplant before progressing to a double kidney transplant, eye transplant and finally the teeth transplant.  Now I’m not sure that a heart transplant is the easiest of all surgical procedures and I don’t think a teeth transplant is actually a thing at all, but we’ve already highlighted Surgeon Simulators patent disregard for accuracy, so let’s not dwell on that.  

The premise is simple, you are a cyclist who must negotiate a series of dynamic levels, of increasing complexity… tackle out.  Yes that’s right, a naked cyclist.  The last time that I tried to ride a bike in the buff I wound up on a register and suffering from exposure.  Dennis, our modern day Laddie Godiva, returns in this sequel to the flash game, Icycle.  This time he’s on a quest to find love in the post-apocalyptic ice world and he’s about to snog a snow woman when we first encounter him.  Sadly events take a turn for the worse and/or hallucinogenic and he’s off on an adventure through ice floes, under water and even across a petrified battlefield.

This week’s Cost of a Coffee game is Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days, which was universally panned upon release.  However seeing it for £2.99 at our local GAME store, we purchased it in lieu of our usual caffeinated pick-me-up.  It’s the game that everyone thought IO Interactive shouldn’t have wasted their time developing.  When I heard this was getting development time rather than a new Hitman game, I was more disappointed than the time that six tonnes of leaking liquid helium damaged some 50 superconducting magnets and contaminated the proton tube with soot at the Large Hadron Collider.  Things didn’t start well when the install corrupted before the menu had even loaded.  Not good.  Deleting and restarting fixed the problem and we were treated to possibly one of the prettiest menu screens I’ve ever seen, which consist of handycam images of scenes from Shanghai.  They are very nicely detailed and some of them are difficult to differentiate from real footage.  This aesthetic flows through to the game itself with all the areas you visit having a nice level of detail to the environments, which we’d expect from the pedigree of the developer.  Unfortunately that’s about the best of it.