Deals

I'm back, briefly, to tell you about some of the amazing deals going around at the moment. I say some, there's money off pretty much everywhere, so here goes:

PlayStation 3

HMV may not be the cheapest place around but its still managing to keep afloat (ooh burn, Woolies and Zavvi), and they currently have EndWar for £23, and Dead Space and Mercs 2 are £28. Fifa 09 is £22.98 at Game, along with Mirror's Edge for £19.98. Vegas 2, Far Cry 2 (special edition is £24.98), Saints Row 2 and Spyro are £17.98, and the newest Need for Speed, Midnight Club (awesome, impressions soon) and Force Unleashed are all £24.98. Play.com has the new Prince of Persia and Bioshock for £17.99, MotorStorm 2 for £29.99 and the official Rock Band 2 guitar for £29.99 too. Unfortunately, due to stock issues caused by the collapse of Woolworths, Resistance 2 is still full price everywhere, but I'll tell you as soon as that changes (probably cos I'll grab it). And if you don't care about getting top level games, Kane and Lynch is £9.98 on Amazon, Stuntman Ignition is £7.98 at Game, and Dark Sector is between £5-10 in quite a lot of places.

PlayStation Network

The Winter PSN sale that the Americans have been enjoying for a few weeks has finally made its way over to the greener shores of Europe with price cuts on a wide variety of games. Wipeout HD can be grabbed for £11.99 (theres a demo up now too), SSHD, Pain, Toy Home, and The Last Guy are all £3.99, in my opinion the sweet point for PSN games. Echochrome is down to a quite nice £4.79 too. Expansions for Toy Home (hmm) and Snakeball (why would you?) are £1.59 each, the Eye of Judgement set 2 and 3 combo pack is £8.39, and flOw for PSP is now only £3.99.

PC

Over at Game, Frontlines is £5.98, the new Alone in the Dark (like Home Alone, but less festive) is £6.98, Hellgate London (the Tube in rush hour) is £9.98, Far Cry 2 is £14.98, Supreme Commander is £9.99 and Red Alert 3 is a smidgen under twenty quid (thats £19.99, for the morons out there). The Steam holiday sale is also crazy, they've got Portal and Bioshock for £3.49 a piece, Audiosurf for £2.99, Team Fortress 2, Counterstrike Source or Unreal Tournament 3 for only £6.99 each, World of Goo is £12.74, the original Half Life is £5.39 with both expansions down to 99p, GTA3 and Vice City are £5.39 and Beyond Good and Evil can be grabbed for £3.74.

Blu-Ray

And summing up the awesome deals, here are the best on Blu-Ray right now. HMV has got 3 movies for £30, which is nearly as good as the 3 for 2 offers at Amazon and Play.com, but beating them all out is ASDAs new 2 for £20, including hits like Transformers and Cloverfield for £12.98. Just incase you're around, Matalan has Casino Royale, Layer Cake, and a bunch of others for £12 each too.

In addition, the PSP remake of the original Final Fantasy is currently £9.99 on Play.com, and the limited edition Metal Gear Solid 4 watch is now only £97.86 at Gamestation. =O

Please eX-PLane.

OK so i promised to update you on the iPhones gaming capacity. I have promising news.

So I will start with Trace. It's basically Line Rider but slightly more complicated in that there are things the KILL your awesome little guy whom you have to navigate towards the star. Yeah sounds like a pipe dream to me too. Its free, so worth a look.

Second is X-Plane. Now I do like flight simulations. Sad, yes, but also, when done right, oh so liberating. Especially over mountains. Which is perfect. X-Plane has a large area over some mountains in Austria, a choice of weather, day time, cloud levels etc.

But the contols, oh god the controls! Think of a PS3s sixaxis. Done right. And you have the controls for X-Plane. It is incredible. Buy it. Ah yeah, that's its only downside, it costs a bit, but not too much thankfully...

Anyhoo, thats two games you might like to pick up at some point. If not then whatever, your loss. Will get back to you with some more, will try to do a bought one and a free one every now and then, so it might be worth staying up to date with the blog *hint hint*.

Leave comments, make us feel loved!
Pan

A Weekend Like No Other.

So this weekend was a big one for me. After spending Friday evening kicking down with some mates playing Fifa 09 and Guitar Hero 3 on the Xbox 360 (shoot me now!), I awoke on a sofa with a stiff neck and a painful back. The neck, I guess, was because of my sleeping postion, but my back was unexplainable. Until I stood up.

Wait for it.

Underneath me were the pieces of what had once been a Motorolla cR4P phone. My phone. So this depressed me somewhat, especially as I now had no way of calling the mother(ship) for a ride home.

When I eventually made it to town later that afternoon, I decided I should probably get a new mobile. I wandered round for half an hour, pretending to look at phones, but in truth, my mind was made up.

I picked up the iPhone 3G.

Now generally I don't go for this sorta stuff (mainly because I can't afford it), but with christmas coming up, I figured what the heck. After the twenty minutes with 'Nathalie', a short and quite pretty O2 shop assistant, it was a done deal.

So after having the 3G for two days, I don't regret it. Yes it costs me £35 a month, but so what? It has free internet. Which is pretty damn useful. Apart from the obvious 3G, it can connect to WiFi and the EDGE network, meaning you have internet almost anywhere. Amazing.

And of course it plays games too!

I will update you on said games in a later article.

For now, I'm a farming Fryingpan.

Told you Obama would win it.

What Are I Playing

Its been a long time since I blogged here, and although you will likely be hearing much much more from us here in the near future, I thought I’d just update you on what I’ve been playing lately. Although the Wanderer is surviving the credit crunch having spent all his money using illegal means, I’ve taken to new tactics.

Pre-owned games, obviously. I am such a CheapAssGamer (oh snap!). In the past weeks and months I’ve added a significant number of said games to my collection, namely Army of Two, Need for Speed Carbon, Ratchet and Clank: Tools of Destruction, SingStar, Rainbow Six Vegas and Warhawk, many of which you will see us talk about in the soonness.

But there is one other way to get PS3 games that’s been eating up my money too –The PlayStation Store. And yes, £3.50 games are an impulse buy. All ye readers (yes, all 0.5 of you) know I bought PAIN when I first got my PS3, but since then I’ve downloaded High Velocity Bowling, Calling All Cars, Super Rub a Dub, flow, PixelJunk Eden, Loco Roco Coccorecco, Pixel Junk Monsters, Super Stardust HD and all the DLC for PAIN. Please no-one calculate how much I’ve spent there. Seriously.

But anyways, enough debt gloating, I’m here to give the verdict on some games I’ve been playing. First up: Burnout Paradise. And more specifically – the Bikes Pack. I honestly think the Bike Pack is better than the original game (or at least as good as). Riding around the city once through the day-night cycle is a thing of beauty, and the sense of speed is like nothing else, even Burnout Cars. Oh and it’s unlikely I’ll stop playing anytime soon: trophies arrive on Thursday. I’ll have more to say on Paradise soon.

I’ve also really got into Warhawk. I bought the game pre-owned on my most recent spending spree and invested in a Bluetooth headset at the same time (okay and the Store convinced me to get the add-on packs too), but in my opinion it is money well spent – Warhawk is easily one of the most fun games I’ve ever played. More fun than MotorStorm? Potentially. I think the best bit of the game though has got to be that it never takes itself too seriously. MAG might take the “woah” victory for online gaming come its release next winter, but Warhawk will always have a fun community to play against. Oh, and jetpacks.

Elsewhere, the PAIN Abusement Park expansion is endless hours of fun, and I’m running through Uncharted yet again for some trophies. And in terms of playing with mates offline, PixelJunk Eden is the winner, followed just behind by Army of Two, which I haven’t really played too much of yet.

And it can only get better: Wipeout HD, LittleBigPlanet, Dead Space, Bioshock, Far Cry 2, Fat Princess, Resistance 2 and Mirror’s Edge are all on their way too. Now, to find some money…

FO

Vaguely Associated (Or 'The Forgetfulness of an Octopus')

I warn you now: this post is entirely disjointed. Basically, whenever cool gaming news comes out or I get a new game, I tend to add it to this ever-lengthening list of things to blog about. Except there's always one or two things I forget to mention when I stick a post up, so certain things get rolled over until later. Or I forget completely. And so I end up with a list of items still to write about. So here goes...

Quite a while ago, I mentioned that I had brought myself the loveable PSP game Patapon. A number of guys who worked on LocoRoco also worked on this and I quite liked the look of it, so post-demo playing, I indulged myself. And it really is a great game. The graphical style is something new, the gameplay is a great concept (you move/attack/defend by inputting the correct 'beat' on the PSP face buttons) and the characterisation of the little Patapon is fantastic. However (yes, that is a however. And in italics too), it is very repetitive. Playing through levels that are very similar, defeating the same enemies with no real difference between attacks, gets very annoying. And that's before I get to the boss battles: you basically fight a big bad guy the same way about five times in a level, but there's no way to tell how well you're doing, he will just randomly die at some point. Oh and the cutesy music? Does you head in after a while. I assume all the unlockable's add a lot of replayability to the game, but I wouldn't know, because I just gave up through boredom. Great game, well executed, very repetitive. Due to not reviewing games I haven't completed, I wont give Patapon a score, but I will recommend it just for a hire.

And what do I really find weird? That there was one game everyone slated upon release for being too repetitive: Assassin's Creed. And I bought it weekend before last. And it's not as repetitive as Patapon. Maybe it's due to the lack of little critters screeching samey tunes through your headphones, or maybe that there is actually a story in AC. Whatever it is, the 'Creed is the less repetitive game. Ironically, I'm pretty sure I just repeated myself there. Anyways, I've had a little while to get my teeth into the genetically-modified medieval-em-up, and to be honest, I'm impressed. It's reeeeaaallly fun to be leaping around the roof tops (socially acceptable walking be damned), grabbing onto whatever you can find, and it feels like a developed version of the fantastic movement in Shadow of the Colossus. Adding to that comparison, the animation engine is probably the shining star of Assassin's Creed. It basically connects all the different actions together with individual animations, so there is no judderyness at all when changing direction or attacking or whatnot. Also, I'm only up to my third assassination, so the investigation-and-assassination fatigue hasn't set in yet, but if reviews are correct, it should do soon. We'll see I guess, but Assassin's Creed is definitely a great game so far.

How am I getting so many games lately even though I should be completely skint, earning no money like I do? Well that would be down to Aquatic and I's recent discovery: game trade-ins. Basically, we can finish games, then hand them back for monies. Then buy more games with those monies. It's genius! So over the past few weeks I've traded in my PS2, all of my PS2 games that aren't scratched to within an inch of their lives, and my old PSP phatface, and I didn't do badly out of it either; those trade-ins have financed the purchase of Resistance, MotorStorm, Assassin's Creed and the two most recent additions to my game library: Burnout Paradise and Uncharted: Drake's Fortune. I haven't put much time into either as I've been busy revising for this week's shagloads of exams as well as edging closer and closer to the end of Resistance: Fall of Man when I find some spare moments, however I will make some very brief notes. Burnout is great fun, particularly the seamless online. Uncharted is a next-gen Tomb Raider with a green coat of paint, clothes that dynamically dry off, and more shooting, but that's no bad thing. Expect more from me on both of them soon.

PlayStation Home. How I long for thee. Okay, actually that's a lie: I still don't have my PS3 hooked up to the internet. Well not my internet. My neighbours at the moment. Bad connection. Dodgy gaming. Short sentences. Anyways, Home has always seemed pretty cool in concept, and I'm now waiting to get my hands on it. In the meantime however, Sony seems to be quite content with just adding more and more stuff to the closed beta and just taunting the rest of us with it. Bitches. The most recent addition was that of the 'Home Events and Media Space' (from here on that's the 'Event Space', kay?). Basically, the Event Space is where virtual recreations of gaming (and other) events can take place, likely simultaneously with the event in real life. The debut of the Event Space was with the PlayStation Day the other week, and the Space was all decked out in media from the event, with a live video feed from the keynote, screenshots in a literal gallery, along with gameplay footage and trailers on screens. I believe something similar was also set up for UbiDays last week. The concept is a fantastic addition to Home, as it means that come E3, rather than reading liveblogs on the web, you could be seated in a virtual arena set up in the Event Space watching the presentation live, then wandering around Home taking in all the news and games. And it makes me just a little hopeful that Home could really be something impressive and individual.

Other news that caught my eye recently: Bioshock is finally coming to PS3 in October (wahey!), which makes me happy because my poor laptop is not ideal for gaming and I own not a 360; PS3 firmware 2.40 is rumoured for an imminent release adding Trophies to the XMB as well as in-game messaging amongst other things; and Cloverfield is out (in the US) and reviewed on Blu-Ray, so expect me to grab it as soon as it arrives in my fair nation. Juno's out June 9th though, I shall be purchasing that indeed.

Speak soon, lots of gratuitous love, FO.

Yatta!

I got a PS3.

So there.

Blog posts ready to go, but no: just got get myself past this bit in Resistance...then this other bit...oh look, a Stalker! (etc etc)

So, excuses aside, things have been a little eventful for the gaming division of my brain cells over the last few weeks. I got my brand new sexy amazing fantastical sexy console just over a week ago, but prior to that, I rented out Need for Speed: Carbon for PS2 and pretty much completed that before it had to go back (92% ftw). Also, after I found out the arrival of my very own big black monolith, I raced through a couple of PS2 games that I had to complete, before trading them ALL in, along with my PS2, for next-gen game monies.

And then, of course, it all changed. The recently-vacated spot next to my TV got filled by a new friend, one that greets me with the glorious noise of an orchestra every time I say hello. Obviously, I immediately called the Wanderer and we ventured down into my town to buy things: an extra SIXAXIS, Motorstorm and Resistance: Fall of Man (I already had GTAIV and I Am Legend on Blu-Ray in the bundle I got).

Wanderer and I returned to my abode where we promptly spent time examining every single option of the PS3, updating the firmware, downloading (and installing) demos, and finally: sticking in Motorstorm.

My. Fricking. God.

You know how I like to grade games on the fun factor? Well the first game of Motorstorm we played probably got somewhere about 283 out of 10. Needless to say, that was roughly equivalent to our placement in the results of that race too. But it was incredible.

I should probably point out one thing right now: I have a crappy 15-inch standard-def TV. But did that make it any less awesome? Hell no!(no panic, I plan to invest in a 26" Bravia in the very near future).  We played through a bunch of demos, Aquatic became completely addicted to Super Rub-a-Dub, browsed the Store, bought PAIN!, and downloaded whatever we could find for free. After a brief, yet hilarious stint with PAIN!, we loaded up Resistance and attempted to play some co-op. So blooming hard. We gave up.

And then, a little later, came the time to play Grand Theft Auto Quattro. Which is totally awesome btw, but I shall go into that more in-depth in the near future on this here blog.

After that, we watched the cool alternate ending for IAL that came on the Blu-Ray, and then went our separate ways (although not before 'playing' the Haze demo. I think it's best we don't talk about it).

Over the past week (public examinations be damned), I have spent a lot of time playing games, being beaten online on Motorstorm by mates, moving music over to my PS3 from iTunes on my laptop, and yes: still dabbling in a little Starcraft from time to time (also another thing to talk about next time: we are now completely addicted).

Over the last few days, I've also begun the single-player Resistance campaign, and am actually doing pretty well, I'm about three-quarters of the way through now, so expect a review at some point. Also, of course, expect a mega-review of the PS3 itself in the future.

Gotta go, Nathan Hale's busy dying, FO.

Better Than St George's Day By Far

Today is Sony Europe's PlayStation Day in London, and here I am to give you a bit of a roundup of the news coming out of the show. First of all though, remember that this is not a massive event such as E3, TGS or GDC, so there's a lot of updates on games rather than announcements of new ones. Also, bear in mind that the show is only a Sony Europe event, so a lot of the news is Euro-centric. Don't worry if you're elsewhere in the world though, there'll be another Sony event in Tokyo next week and it's likely that America will see something similar in the near future.

 

I guess it's only right to start with our favouritest game ever (and we haven't even played it yet), LittleBigPlanet. There wasn't much new on the game during the press conference, but it was playable on the floor of the show, and PS3 Fanboy has their impressions up here. The build on display apparently felt more refined than previous hands-on sessions, and there were a few new additions. Levels are picked by navigating a globe, and PS3F noted that there were already dozens of levels on the map, showing Media Molecule's commitment to making sure there is lots of content on the disk for those who don't want to get involved with the creating/sharing aspect of the game (morons). Sackboys dressed as the Helghast from Killzone 2 appeared in the presentation, along with tons of other characters and outfits. Also announced: a new October 2008 release date.

Moving on to Resistance 2. Ted Price (head of Insomniac Games) jumped on stage to talk about the four main pillars of the game: Community, Campaign, Co-Op, and Competitive. Community-wise, he talked about expanding the massive online community surrounding the first game, mentioning things like redesigning MyResistance.net, making it more like Facebook (*sigh*) and adding website-based matchmaking. He said he couldn't talk about the campaign mode yet but that it would center on Nathan Hale's return to the US. He also mentioned R2's 8-player co-operative mode, which has a separate story with different characters to the solo game. Then it got to the real meat of the presentation: the Competitive mode. 60-player online matches had already been announced for the game, and Price talked about the "battles within battles" that would make up the online game. With so many players in one match, they are split into five different squads with different dynamic objectives, and each squad is pitched against a rival squad on the other team with the same objectives. You will be able to play as both the humans and the Chimera in the multiplayer, however this wasn't shown in the video at the event. Release in fall 2008 (October/November).

The other big shooter in the works is Killzone 2 (a game I have much more interest in having now nearly completed the original game on PS2). Very little was said about the game, but a new video was shown, and journalists got to have time to play the game at the event, so expect hands-ons from other gaming sites. The release of the game was also announced for February 2009 (yes, next year).

It wasn't just shooters up Sony's sleeve though. They brought out the first gameplay footage of Motorstorm: Pacific Rift, the sequel to last March's successful racer. As well as the usual graphical upgrades, Motorstorm: PR changes the setting to an island inspired by Hawaii, adding new cars, twice the number of tracks of the original game, water, vegetation, more destruction, monster trucks and, most importantly, split-screen multiplayer for up to 4 players. Thank god! Motorstorm: Pacific Rift should be out about the same time as Resistance 2 this autumn.

The next game to be shown was Mirror's Edge, a brand new game from DICE and EA. It is played entirely in the first person and the story is about a courier called Faith. Oh and some kind of conspiracy, naturally. I wont talk much here, as Mirror's Edge is a game I'm very much looking forward to, so will probably be going on about it sometime in the near future anyway. The best bit of the game to be shown so far? The colour. There is blue, and red, and green and white, and sunshine! Happiness! No dull browns here *cough*Killzone 2*cough*. Mirror's Edge should be out in late 2008 (although I wouldn't be surprised to see it put back to next year), and the very first gameplay footage can be seen here.

Sony, as usual, took time to talk about their social gaming products as well as the big hitters. On top of sales numbers for games like Buzz and Singstar, the PS3 versions of these games were shown. Singstar came out in Europe earlier this year, and adds HD music videos, a new sleek interface, the SingStore (for downloading new tracks to your collection), and My SingStar - a social networking tool that connects the worldwide community, with the ability to upload performances captured using the PlayStation Eye that others can then watch and rate. Also shown were new features including a duet mode for two players and Remote Play compatibility which will be added in an imminent update. The PS3 version of Buzz, called Buzz! Quiz TV, was also included in the presentation, which showed not only the new game modes, but the social tools that allow you to write your own questions and then upload and share your quizzes with other players. Singstar for PS3 is out now in Europe (and coming soon to the US), with a track pack disk called Volume 2 out in the not too distant future. Buzz! Quiz TV will be out in May.

Another part of the presentation was dedicated to the Go! peripherals for PSP (what is Sony's obsession with unnecessary exclamation marks?). They briefly mentioned the Go! Cam that was released last year, tying it into the release of Go! Messenger that happened this spring. Messenger allows you to communicate with other PSP and PC users using text, voice (with a headset or the camera) and video (with the camera, duh). They then hyped up the imminent European release of Go! Explore, the GPS add-on, before moving onto a new service called Go! View. Go! View!!!! (sorry, lost it a little there) was announced last year and enables you to download Sky TV shows (that's stuff like Lost, Battlestar Galactica and the new Gladiators) to your PSP via a PC. Shows will be available on a subscription or pay-per-show basis and the service will launch on June 30th. As for a similar service on PS3, Sony Europe president David Reeves said to "watch this space". I am, right now. It's kind of teal.

Other snippets from the event: PlayTV (the PS3 Freeview add-on) has been announced for a September release for 99 Euros, Sony is developing an indie music show for the PSN called "Movement" coming this summer, the next Siren game will be an episodic title called Blood Curse which will start in the Summer, the Gran Turismo Racing Academy will see if players can race as well in real life as they can in the game (vids will start hitting the PSN May 23rd), full PSP UMD games will soon be added to the EU Playstation Store for PC as in the US, and we finally have a description of PixelJunk Eden, the next game from the team behind Racers and Monsters: "Leap and swing between lush alien vegetation in a truly innovative platform game which constantly evolves over time as you move through the perfectly realised undergrowth, hunting treasures and smashing enemies from his path" (from a press release, not the presentation).

Remember that hands-on reports will going up on other site very soon, so check them out.

FO

Carbonated

I'm gonna be honest and say that driving games are not my forté. Well, by that I mean straight-up racing games. Gran Turismo, Project Gotham Racing, etc etc; I'm rubbish at all of them.

But then there's the other racing games. The ones that are different in their own ways, not just pure simulations of track racing. Burnout's deranged mayhem, Need for Speed's nighttime city runs, Motorstorm's off-road chaos and Ridge Racer's impossible drifts. All of which add up to ultimate fun for those of us who don't really fancy day-long endurance races.

This weekend is a Bank Holiday, so I've been using the extra day off to get some gaming done before I return to revising for exams. Therefore, whilst on socialising travels today, I popped into Blockbusters and picked up Need For Speed: Carbon for PS2 (£3 for a week, pretty cheap). I always used to play round my car-obsessive friends house when Underground and Underground 2 came out, and I got Most Wanted with my PSP in 2005. I've briefly played Most Wanted for PS2 on a hire too, but this was my first play of late 2006's Carbon.

The first thing to mention is that the core gameplay (driving around the streets of a fictional city, looking for events that culminate in boss races) is still perfect. It seems to have taken a turn for the worst in last year's ProStreet, but here in Carbon, the gameplay feels solid, the best it has since Underground 2. The next thing to mention is that the game has returned to a nighttime setting. Thank-frigging-god. How much I hated the sun-drenched streets of Most Wanted, and yearned for underground and very illegal racing to return to its seemingly logical hiding place, namely the night. Plus, you just get a much better sense of speed at night, which makes things more interesting.

Obviously, this being a yearly EA franchise, there's the inevitable gimmick new feature. For Carbon, EA Black Box added 'Canyon Duels'. These are set one of the canyons conveniently located around the main city, and involve you and a big bad boss racing down a treacherous cliffside track and attempting to shove each other off the side. I'll make my point brief: it's surprisingly good. Oh, it can be stupidly difficult from time to time, but overall its a good new addition. Another new addition is the 'Risk'-like map. The city is split up into numerous zones, each of which contain a number of events to compete. It actually gives a much more visual representation of 'winning back your rep' than the other games in the series. And my favourite thing about NFS Carbon? They brought back Drift events! =D

From what I've played (the game reports that I'm 20% of the way through), Carbon does feel like the best Need for Speed game in a long time. Graphics are sharp (for PS2), the UI is normal EA perfection, and the combination of licensed tracks and music made especially for the game is fantastic. But, and here's the bastard truth, that's because it's been the same for so long. Since Underground, its been basic improvements all-round (Yay, Autosculpt! /sarcasm) rather than anything new and exciting. And the kicker: when they did change it in ProStreet, it sucked. Big time.

Overall rating: 9/10

FO

(Note: screenshots from PS3 version of the game)

 

Who Needs Sunshine When You Have Games?

Playing: Beats (PSP). Listening to: Skins OST.

Today was an absolutely gloriously sunny day in the North of South Korea (spoiler: not where I actually live), so I took the opportunity to head outside and ventured into my garden armed with my laptop. Unfortunately, my neighbours had decided not to switch their wireless box on today, so I was denied some Starcraft online action. I sulked for some time, before heading back inside and digging around for a prized possession of mine. And there it was: the Total Annihilation disk.

Now for all of those who don't know, which I assume to be quite a lot of people, Total Annihilation (PC) is another ageing RTS, and is one of my favourite games. Although the title would seemingly suggest the opposite, it is in fact a more tactical affair than the aforementioned 'Craft, and for that reason, makes it a lot more fun if you (like me) enjoy playing the 'long game' in an RTS. Which basically means working through the tech tree and deciding which units are the best for your strategy.

Unlike in Starcraft, where you research your way through the tech tree (a la Age of Empires), in Total Annihilation, things are done a little differently. There are three main types of units: Kbots, Vehicles and Aircraft that apply to most maps (there are also Naval units, and Hovercraft that turn up on occasion). Then, after building a Kbot lab for instance, you use it to create a Construction Kbot, which then can build an Advanced Kbot Lab, which can in turn build an Advanced Construction Kbot. Overuse of the word Kbot, methinks. And no, it doesn't go any higher than that, but this does open up a lot of different units. But getting the Metal and Energy levels to be able to build the advanced units does take some time, hence my favouring of the 'long game', compared to how Starcraft's AI will attack quite quickly, forcing you do build a quick defensive army of low-level units.

Point made: I love Total Annihilation. Moving on, I said I'd have some impressions of my recent PSP acquisitions, and although I haven't got far enough into Metal Gear Solid Portable Ops to form an opinion yet, I will share my thoughts on the PSP-exclusive (until the inevitable PS2 port) God of War: Chains of Olympus. However, this is far from a review, that would be cruel after only a few hours of play, so bear that in mind.

Apart from a brief spell with the GoW1 demo, I have never really played either of the previous God of War games, so no, I don't know any of the back story. But that is irrelevant, because at one point in Chains of Olympus, Kratos turned around and said "What treachery is this?" and I was made happy, forgetting the fact I had no idea what was going on. However, from what I've gathered, Kratos does not at all like being the Gods' bitch, which is understandable really.

Story aside, the gameplay is immense.I've never really been a fan of beat-/slash-em-ups (presumably the reason I haven't played God of War games before), but this is really great fun. The combos are slowly unlocked as you go around collecting red orbs to level up your mad skillz, so you can learn them at your own pace rather than them all being there when you start, which is what makes other fighters too overwhelming for me. Also, the fact you have to balance out your magic usage, blade-swinging and health gives the game an extra depth. There is one major problem though. Random insane difficulty spikes. They are the death of me, literally (well at least in the game). I've already come up against two in my playing, and I'm stuck at another one now. It's not a deal breaker, but it is annoying when they turn up, because they take a hell of a lot of time to get past. At least the loading times are fantastically short, which takes away some potential annoyance.

Now to presentation: the music in the game is top notch orchestral stuff, and so I was mightily glad about that. Sound effects are also great, and the voice acting and animation in the cut scenes is also spectacular. And so I get to the inevitable mention of the game's graphics. And yes, they are amazing; hell, they'd be amazing on PS2, on PSP they are astonishing. The first time I booted up the game to be given a fantastic view of the Persian attack on the Shores of Attica, and it was genuinely a moment of amazement. But one thing I will say is, due to the games use of the full-and-recently-unlocked 333Mhz of the PSP processor to chuck out this graphical awesomeness, the battery life of said console is lowered in comparison to playing other games, although not by too much.

And to the final, deciding factor of a game for me: FUN. I will buy games primarily on how fun they are regardless of graphics/story/anything else, as long as they promise a good time. God of War: Chains of Olympus is one game that has fun in spades, especially for someone new to the series like me. Overall, I feel that my playing of the game so far has shown how much work Ready at Dawn have put into this game, and pretty much the only downer is the annoying difficult spikes. Highly recommended: a solid A rating.

Expect to hear more from me soon, on MGS: Portable Ops, Patapon, SOCOM: Tactical Strike, as well as other games.

FO out.

Terran, Spartan, American.

Playing: Black (PS2). Listening to: MGMT.

Hullo again there, I've been off on holiday in Barbados doing coursework and revision for my GCSE's the past few weeks, hence I've been a bit absent on here.

Anyways, I thought I'd update again whilst I have a brief respite from work having handed in the last of my coursework today, and before I begin heavy revision for my German oral exam later this weekend. I'm also using the time to charge through some gaming that I've missed the last few weeks.

First of all, an old friend turned up again in the shape of Starcraft (PC). I'm sure everyone that visits here will know what it is, but just a quick recap: classic RTS set in space featuring three alien races: the Terran, Protoss and Zerg, made by Blizzard, the guys behind the Warcraft franchise. Anyhow, last week I got a message from Aquatic telling me his brother was down and fancied some 4 player LAN Starcraft. Unfortunately, remembering how to play took longer than I thought and we missed the opportunity, but still got some 3 man (and AI) games in, which was sweet. The downside of course is that I am not completely addicted to damn Starcraft all over again. Game is still as sweet as ever though.

Whilst round at the Wanderer's abode hidden away in the middle of nowhere, I took the opportunity to try out Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Wii) for the first time. Now, I've never played a Smash Bros game before, and I have to say it was pretty damn fun. Obviously I can't take into account the 'needing-to-play-for-ages-to-unlock-the-decent-multiplayer-stuff' cos Aquatic had already done that and we just played craploads of multiplayer matches. The thing that amazed me most though? The graphics. Some of the stages looked amazing, and I was impressed that the Wii had no framerate glitches or anything. Overall, great experience, looks like a great game.

Next up, a brief mention of Silent Hill 2 (PS2), another game we played a little of briefly whilst I was there (yes, most of our time was taken up by Starcraft LAN games). I've been trying to get into SH2 since I bought it a little while back but so far, I'm not seeing anything amazing. I shall keep trying though, it's just a little tedious. Possibly the only time I've taken a game off my Most Wanted list (Silent Hill: Homecoming) because I've played a previous game in the series and hated it.

So, its now the weekend again, so I'm rewarding myself for a week of hard work at school by playing some awesome games. Primarily, I'm going through Black (PS2) again, as I fancied blowing random stuff up and I've run through Mercenaries so many times now. So Black it is, now on Normal mode after Aquatic and I beat it on easy last year. And don't take the piss, the last level is fricking hard regardless of difficulty level. Also, I'm playing God of War: Chains of Olympus and Metal Gear Solid Portable Ops (both PSP) that I've borrowed from a friend since my gaming budget for April went on Patapon and those random PS2 games a little while back, so expect first impressions of those two soon!

Byebyes!

I Wasn't Always A Gamer. I Had Friends.

To say my initiation into gaming was a smooth and glorious one would be much too flattering. In fact, my first real taste of gaming was probably nothing more to me than another pass-time in between creating Lego fortresses and riding my dog around the house. I had no idea how such a thing would engulf my life so profoundly.

It's hard for me to pinpoint the first experience I had with video games. Partly due to the fact that it was most likely when I was about 7, and partly due to the fact it's so late at night that the words on this screen have to be appearing by magic since my brain sure isn't doing this. So I'll just start reeling off early memories of "My First Games" and we'll see what we make of it.

The first thing that springs to mind is the Aladdin game on the PC, for Windows 90...-something. You played as Aladdin, surprise-surprise, in a side-scrolling...action-adventure game, where you had to fight enemies...and I'm pretty sure collect some kind of jewel...?

(When in doubt, Google it.)

"Disney's Aladdin is a video game based on the 1992 motion picture of the same name, released in the 16-bit era. The game mostly involves killing enemies with basic swordplay and jumping across ledges. Several levels were very different, including one level where Aladdin must escape from the Cave of Wonders on Carpet."

Paraphrasing this just a tad, I remember now that it really just involved jumping over rooftops in Agrabah, chucking apples at some slightly effeminate guards with very oddly shaven beards.

But I loved it though. 7 year olds must've been a very easy target market, considering I can remember spending months playing that game, (commonly not getting past the first level but shuttup) and not getting bored of it. And then I remember how many times it crashed because our computer could not handle the obvious intense graphics that Disney's Aladdin had to offer.

The second main event in my 'vie de jeux' I've kind of already touched on. It was the first time I experienced a Resi game. I say experienced because it wasn't me playing it at all, it was some friend of a relative or whatever, and there's no way my parents would let me within a metre of the controller. Regardless, I still got to watch what ensued on the screen.

And let me tell you now, the soul despairingly terrifying ordeal of watching low resolution characters get ripped apart, polygon by blood-splattered polygon will stay with me for the rest of my life. Up until counseling becomes an option at least.

I'm not sure, but I think this little event not only stopped me from playing a Resi game for years, but hindered my entire gaming experience. If only for a week or two. By the time my mind wandered back to games after my haunting, I had reached an age where my voice would be heard by my parents, and gaming for myself became an option.

At this point, we had a lot of gaming 'devices', none of which I had gotten into. To name a few (or all) we had a Sega Megadrive, Gameboy Classic (x3), Gameboy Colour (x2), Gameboy Pocket (x3) and a Playstation. Besides indulging in my brothers multiplaying needs, I really didn't see the draw to games. At least, I assume I thought this, but I probably wasn't smart enough at that time to figure out how to turn on most of these confounded contraptions.

This all changed however, when I got a Nintendo 64. My god, I swear that was god's gift to gamers everywhere. Not only did it have the best library of games ever conceived, but it had Zelda. ZELDA. I know we hear a lot about how this series was "the best evar" but just speaking for myself, IT WAS THE BEST SERIES EVAR.

And it all really started with Ocarina of Time. I'll spare going into detail and doing a whole review on it (I've learnt my lesson), I'll just say that I get goosebumps thinking about the time I had with that game. I would trade almost anything I have now to get that feeling of pure bliss, and wonder and utter perplexity that I had when I explored every nook and cranny, every new adventure that game had to offer. I thought nothing could best it. It was impossible. And then Majora's Mask came along. Needless to say, I loved this game even more. Many of you might disagree, but I found this game bigger, better, and prettier than it's prequel and more deserving of praise than OoT.

And it was pretty much "downhill" from here. I bought copious numbers of games for the the N64 and Gameboy, catching up on the years that I should have spent gaming, which I actually spent socializing with friends and playing with imaginary animals and things far less constructive.

I bought every Nintendo console from then on and I bought and all of the flagship games for each system. I became an avid Ninty fanboy after my first stint with Zelda, and it continued from then on, and I'm proud to say I'm still one today.

There's a part of me that would really like to have gone into more depth about all my past experiences with games. Heck, you may find me reviewing games from now that were on systems like the N64 or the Gamecube, since I know of so many gems that are overlooked, it's not even funny.

Next post we will see the introduction of a new feature, which I hope will give me a cause to expand upon more games from the past which I loved, but don't get your hopes up.

Yeah, I know the quality of writing sucked in this. You try acting coherent and suave at midnight.
-Aquatic Wanderer

Octopii Don't Have Opposable Thumbs

Hullo again, Octopus here with another bowlful of cranial excretion!

Now, I mentioned that I'm a Sony fanboiii in my previous post, but I should probably go back a little. I played my first game evar (The Lion King sidescrolling platformer, on a floppy disk) on my Acorn PC running Windows 3.1 for Workgroups (hell yes!) when I was about 6 or 7. I thought it was awesome, and my time was torn between this amazing new phenomenon and my new-found love of the bicycle. I later got some Scooby Doo DOS game, which wasn't nearly as interesting, but alas, I was not deterred. I recieved a PlayStation from my dad in the late 90s and played the collection of EA Sports games, Rugrats Studio Tour and craploads of demo disks (they used to give them out at MacDonalds) until my eyes bled, or I was sent to bed, whichever came first.

The love slowly faded as I paid more attention to girls, and to a lesser extent, school, and my PlayStation began to collect dust from its house under the television. Then, towards the end of my stint at junior school, there was a particularly stormy day. I was petrified of being by myself in the storm in my empty new house waiting for my mum and sisters to get home, so on a whim, I went round to the house of one of my friends at the time. There, I discovered the PlayStation 2, and simultaneously, Grand Theft Auto 3. From then on, I pestered my parents, and I got my very own PS2 (complete with the GTA Double Pack) the following Christmas.

Now, 6 years later, now with a slimline PS2 and slim PSP, I like to think that I can be officially classified as a gamer. But just to make sure, I'm currently working my way through a big list of all the best PS2 games I've missed. Amazingly, I've never played a Resident Evil, Guitar Hero, God of War, or, until last month, Silent Hill game. Oh, but I have played every GTA game. I now sit impatiently waiting for someone to buy me a PS3 (all my money goes on bacon sandwiches from school or miscellaneous games whenever I venture into town), and possibly even more impatiently for Patapon, the new PSP game.

Just because I'm a Sony man doesn't mean I haven't played other consoles though. I love the GameCube; seriously, I love that thing. Super Mario Sunshine and TimeSplitters: Future Perfect for GC are two of my favourite games of all time. The Wii's great (even though I don't own one), and Zack & Wiki and Twilight Princess are both awesome games. There's even an original Xbox laying around somewhere, but the only games my sister has for it are racing games, so I don't play much.

Anyways, that's my gaming life so far in a nutshell! I should think the Wanderer will be around soon with his own gaming history, so until the next time, au revoir!

Come In To Our World (No, Not Like That)

Hullo there, and greetings from me, Fluorescent Octopus!

I am not from the moon, as the rumours and religious writings dictate, but instead from a small village known as Temple Harrington in the west of Greenland. Which is obviously a lie, but I'm not gonna tell you where I really live, am I? Silly you.

Right, I should probably explain what this blog-of-sorts is about. Me and Aquatic Wanderer here (he's waving), are students. Not fantastic ones, mind you; we get quite lazy with ICT coursework in particular. We could do well if we wanted to, but our teacher is the sort that deserves to honestly burn, and so we have grown to detest the subject that, as self-confessed geeks, we should adore with full sincerity. Where was I? Oh right, students. Which isn't remotely interesting.

Yeah, we love games, and so you will see a lot of stuff about games on here. I am a Sony man at heart, but actually growing more of a platform agnostic every day, mostly due to the awesome games coming out of everywhere. That's right, even England. Yes, that's sarcasm, we make the best games: GTA, Burnout and the like are all ours. Anyways, if you're looking for something quirky and fun to play (for free), try either Lux, or the demo of Armadillo Run. Remember, both of us here are always looking for something new, so if you find anything cool on your internet wanderings, do share, and don't be a selfish little bugger all your life. Oh and most anticipated game of 2008? LittleBigPlanet (PS3, Q3 08).

Moving on, Aquatic Wanderer and I were having a heated discussion this week about MP3 players, which are obviously the most important things in the world, and therefore something valid to argue about. My point is that I've had an iPod nano (1st gen) since Xmas 2006, and eventually threw it away in November after I fell asleep whilst listening to it in bed and woke up to find I had crushed the screen. I still use iTunes for music (apart from a brief stint with the Zune Software at the end of last year), so I'm thinking of getting an 80GB iPod Classic. Now Aquatic just refuses to use anything with an 'i' in front of it, so has been trying to convince me to get something else. Thing is: Creative's are nice but the UI are the MP3 player equivalent of a Sony Ericsson phone (as in, it is shit), Archos' are boring and ugly, Samsung's...erm...I'm just not interested in, the Zune hasn't been announced for release here yet, and Sony's have really crappy PC software, so I'm left with an iPod. Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

Now, to introduce a feature! *pre-emptive applause* Welcome to...Custom Soundtracks! Now this is effectively a 'What have I been listening to lately?' segment under a different name, so without further ado, here goes:

• Late of the Pier (I recommend Bathroom Gurgle or The Bears are Coming).
• Cajun Dance Party (Amylase and The Next Untouchable).
• Kimya Dawson (Tire Swing and Loose Lips).
• Antsy Pants (Vampire).
• Sarabeth Tucek (Hot Tears).
• The Ting Tings (Great DJ).
• M.I.A. (Paper Planes).
• Four Tet (As Serious As Your Life).

Right, get that lot down your intertubes, and give us a shout back with what you think!

I think there's just time to sum up, so hope you all have a lovely lifetime, and I'm sure one of us will be back soon to blog some more!

Fluorescent Octopus

P.S.: Pata-pata-pata-pon.