With Christmas fast-approaching, we thought it’d be a bit of fun to find out what’s on YOUR Christmas list for this year. Think of this as your wish list; and if anyone asks what you want, just send them here. I of course will be passing this link on to my ever-loving girlfriend in the hope that she actually gets me what I want. I mean how difficult is it to buy a short, slightly-overweight man a ninja suit?

I’ll kick things off; although I might actually be revealing a bit too much about myself in the process. I’ve also added some handy links off to some online stores that you can purchase my gifts (other internet places of retail are available) if you’re feeling a bit generous.

- Apple MacBook white 2.16GHz (or 2.2GHz one)
- Tamron AF 70-300mm Lens F4-5.6 Di LD Macro 1:2 Pentax
- Calumet 7100 Tripod with Three-way Quick Release Head
- A nice flash unit for a Pentax K10D
- A case for my LG KU900 Viewty phone
- RockBand PS3 bundle from the USA (well I can dream)
- Remote gun holder for the Wii (ready for House of the Dead and Ghost Squad)
- The Comic Strip Presents DVD boxset from HMV (currently on offer for £16.99)
- Blade Runner: Ultimate Ltd Briefcase Ed Blu-Ray (US Import)
- HD-DVD player for Xbox 360 (Only because Heroes isn’t on Blu-ray)
- Heroes season 1 on HD-DVD (US Import is cheaper)
- Stardust on HD-DVD (from the USA)
- Tabi Boots size 7 (from a Japanese store on eBay)
- Ninja Suit size short ‘n’ fat (you can buy these on eBay)
- The QI Annual 2008

I’ll be updating this regularly when other members of the team get me their lists. After Christmas, we can all return here and show off pictures of us wearing the sweaters we received instead. If however, I do manage to get a ninja suit and RockBand on the PS3 I’ll post a video clip of me, the drumming ninja just to prove it.

We catch up with The Club developers to discuss the different multi-player modes in the game.

Design Goal
“Our goal when creating The Club’s multi-player was to create an accessible and compelling multi-player experience which was consistent with the game’s setting while offering something new and fresh to the genre.”

Kill match - This is a tried and tested death-match mode. The player with the most kills at the end of the game is the winner.

“We really wanted this core game mode to be included in the design for it’s ease of play and simplicity however it’s granted an extra lease of life due to The Club’s interesting suite of characters, environments and weapons.”

Score match - This is a points based death-match where players rack up points for kills using the same scoring mechanism which is used in the single player game. As with the single player game, the key to big scores is combo.

“We wanted a free-for all game which was close to the single player experience but with real human opponents. The scoring system works well in a death-match environment. Quick, successive kills are the key to winning a score match and hunting for an opportunity to gain multiple kills adds excitement.”

Hunted Killer - When the game begins the first player to make a kill becomes the Hunted. While hunted, a player’s score ticks up constantly. Only one player can be the hunted, and if a Hunter player manages to kill the hunted, the hunted status will pass over to the killer. Becoming the hunted and surviving for as long as possible is the only way to score. The hunters are equipped with radar which shows where the hunted player is all the time. The hunted player does not have a scanner so he must keep on his toes to avoid his pursuers.

“Hunted killer is all about being the hunted. It captures the spirit of The Club in a frantic death-match game. The feeling you get when you become the hunted and run for your life with all the other players trying to hunt you down is what this mode is all about.”

Team Kill match - This is a regular team kill match. The team who scores the highest by killing their opponents will win.

“Team Kill match is a regular “Team DM” game mode which (like Kill match) we wanted to include because of its simple objective.”

Team Fox Hunt - In Team Fox Hunt one player on each team is assigned as the “Fox”. The objective is to hunt and kill the enemy team’s Fox without them doing the same to yours. All players begin with the same amount of health however the fox player can use health packs dotted around the level to bring his health up to a maximum of 400%

“The “Fox” player is so much tougher than a regular player in The Club. We wanted to make sure that players could not exploit the game mode and one of the ways that we found that the game mode could be exploited is by simply holding out in the team’s spawn area and force the enemies to advance. We countered this by changing the Fox’s health mechanism and placing the best health and weapon pick-ups in the middle of the level to draw the fox players out from their initial spawn areas.

Another problem which we had to overcome was the fact that your whole team’s performance relies on the ability of the fox player. We didn’t want to have a situation where players would resent a poor Fox player and so we made it so that after each round the Fox player status was assigned to the best players on each team.”

Team Capture - In this game mode, both teams have a base objective. The aim of the game mode is to capture the enemies’ base objective while defending your own. Bases are captured by standing on them and holding for 30 seconds. The team who manages to fully capture the enemy team’s objective or the team with the most capture time when the game timer runs out is the winner.

“This was one of the more straight-forward game modes to develop. We spent a lot of time with the team-game modes ensuring that the maps were balanced for both teams (even though the areas are not symmetrical) We carefully tweaked spawn positions and weapon pick-ups to ensure balance.”

Team Siege - This game mode is inspired by the single player “Siege” game mode. In Team Siege teams are assigned the role of either attack or defence. Defending players have only 1 life whereas attacking players re-spawn when killed. The game plays out and the attackers must kill all of the defending players as quickly as possible. The teams then swap roles so the attackers become defenders and the defenders attackers. To win this round teams must survive for longer in defence than the attackers did.

“This game mode started out as probably the least favourite of the bunch here at Bizarre however we took a step back and addressed key problems with the flow of the game mode. We realised that the original level design didn’t accommodate enough strategy and different plays from the attackers. We fixed these issues and what we have now has become one of our favourite game modes.”

Team Skull shot - The aim of this game mode is to destroy all 5 of the enemy team’s skull shot targets while defending your own.

“The challenge for us with this game mode was the levels. The concept of the game mode was simple enough, however there are many ways in which the levels could be made. Initial attempts to create the concept of a ‘base’ area for each team were not good enough and made the game mode feel similar to some of the other modes. In the end we opted for a topology which promoted a “tug-o-war” style of play where attackers would push back the defenders as they destroyed their skull shot targets and vice-versa.”