Store Detectives: 15/11/08

Apolgies for the delay to this weeks Store Detectives, unfortunately it was out of our hands. Anyway, this week was a bumber update, but with no new games or demos, it is very much an "if you have this game, get the DLC" week.

Neither of us have Guitar Hero, Rock Band, SoulCalibur or Star Wars, so all that DLC is wasted on us. I grabbed the PAIN bits, Aquatic avoided the Dead Space stuff, our friend with Everybody's Golf reports that the character pack is pretty overblown price-wise, and another with Civilisation says the map packs are very cheap for a lot of content. The new PAIN expansion pack adds a whole new level, and although its not as interesting as the Abusement Pack at first glance, spend some time messing around with all the interactive elements, as well as the three launcher positions, and you'll find there's a lot of depth there. Oh and Hasslehoff has some fantastic lines. The Wanderer's reasoning for not getting the Dead Space costumes and weapons is that he doesn't want to cheapen the game by using an easier/tougher suit. Everybody's Golf wise, the costumes are kind of meh, and on the CivRev front, the continual flow of DLC is apparently keeping the game surprisingly fresh. LBP costumes this week include the free competition winner one, and four quite cheap anmal costumes available either together in a pack or separately (none of them are as good as last weeks).

Video-wise there's a lot going on this week: trailers and the first of the Shoot content. Shoot is a series of short films (made in HD) created by some upcoming directors from across Europe, and backed up by leading filmmakers such as Jerry Bruckheimer. This week there's a trailer for the whole series, as well as very interesting trailers for each film, that talk a bit about the premise, the style and the people involved. Elsewhere, the Bioshock 2 trailer looks even better on TV than the internets, the SWS trailer isn't that exciting, SoulCalibur is still boring, Tomb Raider behind-the-scenes are still tedious, and the EndWar and MotorStorm vids are both pretty sweet if you're on the fence about getting either game.

There's also some pretty awesome FarCry 2 wallpapers, and a kind of plasticy-looking GT5 theme. My reccomendations this week are to grab whatever free DLC is applicable and for paid bits get the CivRev, PAIN and LBP stuff if you have the games, everythign else is a bit rubbishy. Here's hoping for some demos or games next week.

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

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.