Eurogamer Expo: GTI Club+

Hello*, and this is my hands on with GTI Club+, the upcoming PSN game releasing on the 4th of December for £9.99.

Not a particularly extravagant introduction, but then this isn't a particularly extravagant game.. Sure, online play, 60fps, 720p visuals and SIXAXIS/PSEye support is just fantabby-dooby, but when reviewing playtime here at TWP, it's all about the fun. And it might just be me but limited boring tracks and stiff controls doesn't translate into 'extravagant'.

I was hoping it would follow in the steps of previous GTI Club games, perhaps end up like the love child of Crazy Taxi and Micro Machines. But instead it feeels like watching a kid play with Hot Wheels cars in treacle, every so often bumping into barriers and cars going ppsssscheeeow (which could very well be my poor driving game skills and overactive imagination) but ultimately feeling very cheap and plasticy.

Which is sad, because it was a game that I'd imagined myself buying, but it's hard not to compare it with WipEout HD in such a respect. For £2 more, you get better visuals, more modes, more vehicles, more tracks and fantastically responsive controls. And yes it may be narrowminded to compare two quite different racing games to each other, but if it ever came to it? WipEout all the way.

Aquatic Wanderer

*Though it would be pointless to say that I'm back from Italy. Kinda obvious.
Also LBP OMGOMGOMG

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.

GTi Club Trophies

This has been sitting in my notepad since Eurogamer Expo when we sneakily jotted them down from the build on show, and although you'll be hearing more about the game next week when the Wanderer gets back from Italy next week, here's the trophies for GTi Club+, which should be launching on the PSN Store sometime this side of Christmas.

Bronze Trophies:

• Photo Finish - Finish in first position less than 0.1 second ahead of an opponent.
• L Plates - Finish any Race.
• Back at Ya - Pass the bomb back to a player within 5 seconds of recieving it.
• Bombtag Bully - Pass the bomb to the same player 3 times in one race.
• Rolling on Suds - Clean your car in the car wash and finish a race.
• Me First - Finish each lap of a race in 1st position.
• Exhibit - Customise a car.
• Dented Pride - Win a race after crashing into all oponents at least once.
• Solo Polo - Win 5 Races using the VW Polo.
• Scorpion Fight - Win 5 Races using the Fiat 500.
• French Fenzy - Win 5 Races using the Peugeot 207 GT.
• Minitastic - Win 5 Races using the Mini Cooper 2007.
• Common Courtesy - Complete 5 Races without crashing.
• New Breed - Win 2 Easy Races with each of the new cars.
• Born Winner - Win 2 Medium Races with each of the new cars.

Silver Trophies:

• Pro - Win a Hard Race.
• Showboating - Finish first whilst reversing over the finishing line.
• Dont Stop Me Now - Finish in the top 3 without using the brake or handbrake.
• Top Dog - Beat the fastest time for a Hard Race in the records.
• Impossible Turnaround - Win a hard race after finishing your 1st lap in last place.
• Leader of the Pack - Win 3 Hard Races with each of the new cars.

Gold Trophies:

• Speed Demon - Complete a lap in less than 37 seconds.

Weekend Roundup #6

Octopus here with a bit of a shake-up to the old "What We Are Playing" Saturday post. From now on, rather than simply being about what we've been jiggling our analog sticks to in the week, I'll give a little bit of opinion on the weeks gaming news.

This week is obviously one all three of us here have been looking forward to for a long long time (since GDC '07 to be precise). LittleBigPlanet finally made it to release, and it took it's fricking sweet time coming, but all of that was forgotten when we got our copies in our hands. The dramatic improvements between the beta and the final are incredible, and the amount of content to unlock is insane. But you'll hear more about LBP from us this week I should think. I myself am now on the first level of The Temples, which I *think* is the pinultimate area. The Wanderer was somewhere in the Savannah before he left for Italy, and Fryingpan is still awaiting his newly repaired PS3.

Bar a bit of Fallout 3 for PC on Fryingpan's part, that's pretty much it for the games this week. Sure, lots of good games just came out, and between us we have most of them, but LBP just draws your attention every single time. Even my sister (10 years old) is a fan (and has been for months), and when a boy in her class at school called LBP "shit" this week, she punched him in the face. I love my sister.

Other little bits of news that you might've missed this week: Ubisoft cancelled their games based on Heroes (probably "Heroes: The Video Game") disappointing considering how much fun it would be, not so disappointing because we all saw how shit the Lost game was. Also, Dissidia for PSP announced that it to (following the latest Monster Hunter game) would support the "Data Install" feature, which allows the user to install some of the game data to a Memory Stick for faster loading. There are a number of differently-sized installs available, and all of them are optional. Remember optional installs? Oh yes I did. And finally, EA amazingly manages to top the Red Alert 3 Music Video with the most recent RA3 trailer - featuring the Hoff (in other Hoff news, his appearance in PAIN has apparently been delayed two weeks or more). Watch here.

We may be a gaming blog here, and although I don't want to turn into later-era Surfer Girl, I think it is appropriate to mention some politics here. Well done to President Elect Obama. And comiserations to McCain and Palin. Good luck!

I think that's about it for this week, stay tuned as there's lots planned over the next week here on ThinkWithPortals.

Store Detectives: 07/11/08

Hello and welcome all to a new feature here at ThinkWithPortals, and one in which we offer a dedicated service to all you loyal PlayStation Store addicts out there. With Store Detectives, which will likely be up sometime each Friday, we shall take a look at the week’s Store update, and offer our (potentially helpful) thoughts on the latest selection of downloadable goodies.

(I’d just like to take this opportunity to remind everyone that we are talking about the European Store update here, not the US. /confusion.)

Firstly: what I won’t be talking about. Sorry Spin Jam, I don’t know you. Sorry Bayonetta trailer, but I watched one of you online and I cried of shittiness. Sorry Rock Band and Guitar Hero DLC, I don’t have either of your overpriced instruments. And sorry SoulCalibur DLC also, when you went all product placement you lost any respect I many previously have had for you.
Moving on to what I have grabbed today, and you know what, it says something about how good the Euro store updates have got over the past while that there’s actually more content that all I just pissed all over up above.

- Theme Park (PSone Classic) is a must-get for me, I loved the game first time around, and if it can maintain the charm like Theme Hospital (already on the store) has, it’s another winner from the days of PlayStation long gone.
- Thank God for the “skip this bit” feature on Alone on the Dark: Inferno. Because in the demo just released (that’s right, the demo, where you show the bestest bit of the whole game) there is one bit which is boring and another bit which the clunky controls deem impossible. One of those demos that make you less likely to buy the full game. Oh and having to press the right analog stick to blink? BAD.
- There's also Metal Gear Solid 4 demo. For once I agree with the general consensus on the internet: wtf. Little bit late maybe? Well not really. After doing its sales on release, Konami want it to do just as well this Xmas, so that explains that. The actual demo? Well, it's good. I can't really elaborate that much because I died a lot - I've never played a MGS game (and a way into the fourth in the series isn't a sensible place to start), and I suck at stealth. But you'll be glad to know you can play it reasonably well as an action game. Just until you have to sneak somewhere. Either way, everyone should at least play this game once to experience it for themselves.
- LittleBigPlanet DLC: yes, I bought it all. Even the £4 t-shirt. But I do have something to say: “Media Molecule, I bought it this week because I really wanted that shirt, but put anything else up (however rare) for that much, and you’ll be unlikely to see a buy from me”. Seriously, it’s mad - £4 for a t-shirt when a full outfit is 99p (MotorStorm) or free (Spaceman). All of the items look exquisite in-game by the way.
- I did get the Enlistment Pack for EndWar, even though I don’t have the game yet, because based on my hands-on at Eurogamer (which you can read shortly) it is a definite buy for me, and when the DLC is free for a week only, it’s nice to have to grab from my Download List when I do get hold of the game. There’s a nice trailer up too.
- The “Launching the PSP-3000” video is not really all that particular to the 3000’s features and is in fact just like any of the other PSP promo vids on the Store already.
- If I wasn’t hyped enough for this game already, the launch trailer for Bioshock would’ve surely pushed me over the edge. Note: it may be £40 at retail, but Play.com and Game.co.uk both have it for £30.
- Tomb Raider Underworld making-of videos. It’s like they want to make the game less enticing. So tedious. Again, Eurogamer hands-on soon.
- One thing I find so very odd about the game trailers that go up on the Store is their timing. Two Need for Speed trailers went up today, yet they are weeks old, and there are in-face at least 4 more recent ones to pick from around the internet.
- Pure trailer? Just looks generic. I recently got a chance to spend some time with the final game and this trailer really doesn’t do it justice. Unlike MotorStorm’s mayhem racing, Pure is a lot more about tricks and, therefore, has more of an emphasis on getting airborne. It’s just a very different experience, and not really all that comparable beyond them both being dusty racing games.
- Aaand finally, I come to you, Mr “I’m a paid Bioshock theme”. The EU store has yet to get a paid themes section like the US one, and so this was a bit of a surprise, particularly considering the Bioshock theme already on the store for free, and not looking to shabby. I would’ve downloaded you Mr Theme, but there’s no preview. Failure. Not gonna spend money on a theme when so many that get uploaded nowadays are quite terrible.

So this week, you need to spend a grand total of £5.58 - and yes that is just the LBP content. But free-wise, if you haven't played MGS4, grab the demo, and if you've got EndWar grab that free DLC cos you can't argue with free.

LittleBigLiveblog Day 2

Hello again internet, it's the Octopus here again giving you my brief thoughts as I journey across the planet of indeterminable size.

Previously on LittleBigLiveblog: I was blown away by prettiness, remarkable gameplay and happy.

(same as yesterday, latest posts at the bottom)

15.45: Home early from school today due to golfing activities, so might as well get some hours in before the family get home and nag me to do my homework.
15.48: Servers down apparently, how annoying :(
15.48: No reason not to continue the story mode though!
15.50: Oh god, only been away a day and I forgot how hard this game was getting.
16.07: However, I am done with Mexico - so much character there - and now I'm on to The Metropolis.
16.09: Just so you know, I'm not rushing through the game not collecting anything, but nor am I hoarding everythign I find. I'm playing through at pretty regular speed, and picking up as many of the prize bubbles as I can (hence my many stickers and decorations on Create mode).
16.10: The Metropolis levels, on top of being ultra-hard, are also ultra-electricky. And about cars.
16.12: Lowriders are fun to bounce on.
16.12: Internet has just informed me that the servers are down again, guess I'll be sticking in the Story mode for a bit.
16.14: Drive some, bounce to collect something or other. Rinse and repeat. Love it.
16.23: For those of you worried that LittleBigPlanet would be too accessible, think again. The early levels (Gardens, Savannah, some of the Wedding) may be softer than a freshly made Mr Whippy, but these later stages are more hardcore than Slovakian pornography.
16.25: Currently wearing a Victorian-style stripy bathing top, pink boxer shorts, and have just replaced my big zebra head with a sombrero I won in the Mexian levels.
16.34: Accepting defeat on this level now, back later!

18.22: Store update with costumes! (Watch out for a new Store-related feature soon). Internet wallet now lighter, Popit heavier.
18.31: In game now, and am decked out in an incredibly sexy pair of MotorStorm-themed leather trousers, the Week 1 t-shirt and Spaceman helmet. Go me! Go capitalism!
18.57: Metropolis done! Jeez, that got a bit tough.
19.11: Online now (servers back up, but actually seem to be worse than earlier, go figure).
19.13: Played a couple of levels - strange lag tonight :(
19.21: Lag gone now apparently, jumping around in a stranger's Pod with the blue-coloured owner, a lion and a hippie.
19.24: Doing a dance routine with a lion on top of the controller in the Pod: best way to distract the person trying to pick a level.
19.26: Having a few issues launching us into the level together at the moment.
19.27: No problem! The four of us having much much muted fun here in the Pod - decorating remote Pods also not working at the moment. I forsee much more maintenance.
19.41: As lovely as all this is, it can get a bit stale without playing any levels or being able to communicate in any way that isnt dragging or slapping. Back to single-player.
19.53: The Islands are even more difficult - all about agility and balance; plenty of swinging and guessign jumps here.
19.57: One thing LBP is really pulling off throughout the Story mode is the theming. For instance, these levels are all Asia-themed (the titular islands being those of Japan), right down to the overseeing Sensei.
20.22: Right, two levels of the Islands down. When you are down to your final life on a checkpoint and realise if you cock up, you've gotta do the previous two insanely difficult sections again too, you relise how long (and tough) these levels are becoming.
20.47: Final Island level beating me for now, and homework calls. Just to warn you, tomorrow's liveblog will be noticeably later as I'm at work until after 9pm. See you then hopefully.

LittleBigLiveblog

Okay, I have my copy of LittleBigPlanet in my hand - join me as I jump into Media Molecule's lavish creation for the very first time!

(latest updates at the bottom)

14.09: Firmware Update apparently.
14.23: Two patches...
14.35: Sackboy is installing game data? Yay!
14.38: Stephen Fry, how I love your voice!
14.40: My first LittleBigTrophy =D
14.43: Introduction done.
14.48: First Steps done - these Trophies rack up quick =P
15.18: And that ding means I've completed The Gardens! Time to venture online...
15.34: Some of these levels are amazing! Great ones here from the beta that I remember too: World of Colour, Mirror's Edge and my own level of course.
15.42: Back into the single player - to the Savannah!
15.55: This game really sucks you in, carrying on to the next level is compulsive...
16.01: "My Patch!"
16.04: Meerkat Bounce is one of the minigames they showed at E3 and Liepzig, tres amusant.
16.16: Right, Savannah done, South America next, but I'm gonna stop for a bit - too much awesome is bad for the mind. Back soon!

20:02: Okay so I couldn't keep myself away for too long - screw you homework! Let's go Create!
20.03: In the beta, you had templates for all the area themes available to begin creating with, in the full game you have to earn them. No fair :(
20.04: Now I'm in the create mode (with a Savannah template, natch) and having spend mucho de time in the beta creating random and downright creepy stuff, I can say for sure that the creating is a helluva lot more stable than it was back then.
20.06: Turns out I've unlocked a lot of content playing through the game so far. I'm gonna have a play in Create now (unfortunately I'm having server issues and can't play online at the mo).
20.22: The enhanced robustness of the tools and the amount of content unlocked has really shown me the potential of LBP. And having seen so many amazing levels with the limited tools available in the beta, I am really excited to see where this game, nay - platform, will go in the future.
20.27: Just so you know, when you publish your first level, any levels you uploaded during the beta will be pulled back down to your account. Handy. And yes, you can revieve the social trophies if they apply to beta levels too.
20.38: Okay, had a bit of a play around - hoping to get some proper building time in over the weekend, but for now back to the solo game.
20.51: In the Wedding levels now (South America) and one thing has become apparent in my move West: this game is beginning to get very, very challenging.
21.02: That Gold trophy for completing the game without dying? We don't talk about that.
21.17: LittleBigPlanet demands nothing but your utmost attention. Anything else -you die. Screw it, you die anyways.
21.27: Okay, Wedding done; Mexico next!
21.28: Mexican levels about some crazy uncle, and revolve around expolosives.
21.47: Tough stuff here. Some genius gameplay using just simple ideas though, can't wait to see what the community comes up with given some time. One thing you do find with original levels vs PSN levels is depth though; obviously I'm not talking about how far down a level goes, or even the level of gameplay, but the way the stages are decorated - there's always something going on - it's this sense of busy-ness that makes you want to replay every level, just in case you've missed something (often you have).
22.01: Okay churning my way through the main game now, but I'm gonna jump online for a bit briefly before finishing for the night.
22.04: So many levels to bring up your Trophy count if you are so unclined (and by the play count a lot of people are).
22.07: Lots of pure genius levels though - I find myself going instinctively to improved versions of beta levels (LittleBigColossus for example), but things like the calculator I've previously talked about and the Gradius-clone you may have seen around the web lately are very impressive.
22.17: I'm gonna head off for the night, a bit of homework to finish before sleeptimes, toodles! See you here tomorrow!

Farming with Fryingpans

And with the AWs departure, a new hero emerges from the ashes, the noble, the rural, the slightly derranged Farmer Fryingpan!

So... me, me, me? Well, being the modest type, it shall be a short piece.

As you can probably guess, I live on a farm, which is sadly nowhere near people. This results in a slight (well possibly slightly more then merely slight) overexpousre to the wonders of the video game. I also have other talents, for example I am an aspiring guitarist! Notice the word 'aspiring'. It wouldn't be there if not for video games.

Anyhoo, enough about me, onto the accursed video games. Currently, I own a PSP, a PS3 and a relatively powerful PC. Sadly, on this day of days ( the day LBP slid through my letterbox ) my PS3 decided life wasn't worth is anymore and died. Well sort of, the nice men in sony coats are gonna give a good go at saving it, but that will take a while...

So that really leaves my PC for my gaming needs. So much choice! Well, some. Okay, not that much quality, but its about quantity isn't it? Okay it isn't. So here be the choices! yarrr

• CS:S - The daddy of all online shooters really, its been around in one form or another for donkeys ages!
• CoD4 - meh good, needs installing, so probably won't get played before I get round to shooting Nazi zombies in CoD WaW.
• TF2 - This game is genius! Funny AND serious (okay I lie). Pyro is credit to team!
• Fallout 3 - Really the last option which I am willing to say for my credibilities sake... Although it may have been dubbed as 'Oblivion with guns', it is so very much more then that, it is like you're own post-apocalyptic space opera all on one DVD. Go fetch. Now

And so ends my first blog. Not much to it really, this blogging malarky. Reckon I can do it proper good. Even with the whole world in a dizzle with credit crunches and the planet getting hotter and all. Cheers for reading.

Obama for President.

Italian Stallion

I'm afraid that I have to announce my departure. No, not from my short-lived blogging life, but just from England. I'll be flying up to (or down to?) cold rainy ol' Italy on a school 'art trip', where my creative juices are sure to flow for an entire 5 days. Quite apt then, that when I return, I will be rubbing my juices all over my new early copy of LittleBigPlanet.

That's right. It's here. Best possible thing ever. Heart attack surely imminent.

For when I return however, expect these things;

-Eurogamer Hands-Ons'es
-Uncharted Review
-Dead Space Review
-Bunch of other stuff that Octopus will surely pester me to write about.

I shall cut it short here since my little(big) Sack person is staring at me willingly as I type, and to that face, I just can't say no.

See you in 5 days.
AW