Another week, another blog post.
I've actually got very little to write about this week. After finishing Arkham I went on to start Grand Theft Auto IV from scratch, in anticipation of Episodes from Liberty City, as I haven't actually gotten around to playing The Lost and The Damned yet due to me buying GTAIV on the PS3. Got as far as the second major island now, and have a choice between doing Brucie's infuriatingly hard street race mission, or Elizabeta's infuriatingly hard grabbing-coke-from-old-hospital mission.
And that's my major gaming for the week covered. Downloading a multiplayer beta of Uncharted 2 as we speak, at 89%, which I'm very interested in. Should it reach 100% before the blog is through, I'll break off and try it. Also saw the Uncharted 2 GamesCom 09 trailer that was put on the PSN store last night, and it looks very special. In fact, after this blog is over I'm gonna update my PS3 to 3.01 and play through Drake's Fortune for a third time. 94%.
And that's about it. I managed to acquire a copy of Metroid Prime 3 for nothing the other day from a friend who no longer owns a Wii, I should think about playing the first 2 really. And I saw an old lady who looked like Udnaut Wrex from Mass Effect the other day, which was hilarious. Oh, and I got the other two Dynamic Themes on the PS3. The MotorStorm one is just some douchebag walking around his buggy, but the Little Big Planet one is fantastic. And I've seen the Afrika one that is only available on the Japanese PSN store, and it's great too, if you like Zebras, which I do. They are like horses but with built in Magic Eye. Until someone invents a cow with an Etch-a-Sketch built in, that's the best were getting. Or a Game Boy Advance Pig. Ooh, my Uncharted 2 beta's finished. BRB.
Well, it was entertaining. We were playing a match which was limited to pistols and sniper rifles, so just sniper rifles really, I was on the losing side, achieving the second lowest kill count and I wasn't playing with anyone I know, but I still enjoyed it. Might persuade a few of my friends to preorder with Play.com and cancel their order once the code comes through.
And on that I'm out. No blog post next week as I'll be on holiday, looking at sharks and gracing the slot machines of our beloved coast. Think something else is happening too, can't quite remember ;). See you in two weeks.
Friday 18 September 2009
Friday 11 September 2009
What are you dense? Are you retarded or something? Who the hell do you think I am? I'm the goddamn Batman.
A couple of factors have seen me disband my Shame Pile this week; The first being my XBox 360 rudely flashing three scarlet beacons of hate at me on Monday morning, and most of the games left on it were 360 games, the other being that I finally gave up holding out and went out and got Batman: Arkham Asylum, thankfully on the PS3.
After blagging some free Dissidia promotional postcards from the nice man behind the counter at GAME, I gleefully skipped home to open the box up (Got the Collector's Edition), and was actually really disappointed. Not only was the Batarang made of cheap plastic, as opposed to the metal one I was told I would get (although in retrospect people would die if it was metal), but it doesn't come off the stand either. The second disappointment came with the 'digipack' cardboard sleeve. If I'd got it on the 360 I wouldn't have been bothered, because the sleeve is DVD case sized, but on the shelf with my PS3 games it looked retarded. One click on eBay later and all was rectified, a PS3 game case was winging it's way across the country to me and plopped into my hand yesterday.
The game is actually really good, the demo does it no justice, and when I got it home I spent about 8 hours straight on it, nearly completing it, which I did a couple of days later, the second time I played it. I have no regrets though, the game was fantastic, with the only exceptions being Poison Ivy's Dual Shock 3 throwingly annoying boss fight and the samey enemies. They sorted out the problem with Batman taking up two thirds of the screen too, it zooms out nicely when you're running or fighting, and The Riddler's... erm... riddles are a nice touch, which will definitely see me returning to it to clear them up.
I also got SoulCalibur: Broken Destiny on PSP, which at first seemed disappointing but with perseverance I got into it heavily. Made a surprisingly good Kain (from Legacy of Kain) on the Character Creator feature (which is a bit watered down from SoulCalibur IV's, but impressive on a handheld none the less), using the move set of Siegfried, and am slowly but surely starting to kick ass on it. The difficulty level is harder than the other SCs though, without the option to lower it.
My initial disappointment was mainly with the long-awaited cameo from God of War's Kratos. He isn't actually that good, his moves aren't as fluid as they are in his home turf, although if they were he'd be unbeatable. And I guess that, because he's in that, we won't see him in a 'proper' SoulCalibur game.
And Burnout Paradise, the third and final game I acquired this week. When I initially tried the demo I hated the game, I have a bit of a stigma with sandbox racing games as one wrong turn can prove costly, but I'm having great fun with it. It's possibly to do with the fact that the Ghostbusters Ecto-1 style car I purchased from the PSN store in Fanboy-fuelled delight has better stats than I should have at that point in the game, it might be due to the fact that Burnout Dominator's soundtrack has made it through pretty much unscathed, including annoying-as-fuck anthem 'Girlfriend' by flappy headed mess Avril Lavigne, which is ironically perfect music to smash up a car to. Either way, it's great.
And the rest of the week briefly: Spent a lot of Tuesday night playing Lego Batman, Burnout Paradise and Wii Sports with my 3 year old nephew, which is always fun. He's really starting to get the hang of games now, it would bring a tear to my eye if I wasn't such a hardened perfect male specimen. TESTOSTERONE!
During the week I watched Street Fighter Alpha: The Animation, which was pretty good. I loved the fact that out of his two fights, Dan Hibiki got cut to ribbons by Vega (That's 'Claw' if you're a pretentious fucktard), and failed to Gadouken Birdie and was pulverised for his troubles. Oh, how I laughed.
And the 'dynamic themes' hit the PSN Store last night. I tried the WipEout one, because it was free, and was indifferent. It was completely overshadowed by the two Arkham standard themes, of which the Batman one is gracing my Home screen as we speak.
After blagging some free Dissidia promotional postcards from the nice man behind the counter at GAME, I gleefully skipped home to open the box up (Got the Collector's Edition), and was actually really disappointed. Not only was the Batarang made of cheap plastic, as opposed to the metal one I was told I would get (although in retrospect people would die if it was metal), but it doesn't come off the stand either. The second disappointment came with the 'digipack' cardboard sleeve. If I'd got it on the 360 I wouldn't have been bothered, because the sleeve is DVD case sized, but on the shelf with my PS3 games it looked retarded. One click on eBay later and all was rectified, a PS3 game case was winging it's way across the country to me and plopped into my hand yesterday.
The game is actually really good, the demo does it no justice, and when I got it home I spent about 8 hours straight on it, nearly completing it, which I did a couple of days later, the second time I played it. I have no regrets though, the game was fantastic, with the only exceptions being Poison Ivy's Dual Shock 3 throwingly annoying boss fight and the samey enemies. They sorted out the problem with Batman taking up two thirds of the screen too, it zooms out nicely when you're running or fighting, and The Riddler's... erm... riddles are a nice touch, which will definitely see me returning to it to clear them up.
I also got SoulCalibur: Broken Destiny on PSP, which at first seemed disappointing but with perseverance I got into it heavily. Made a surprisingly good Kain (from Legacy of Kain) on the Character Creator feature (which is a bit watered down from SoulCalibur IV's, but impressive on a handheld none the less), using the move set of Siegfried, and am slowly but surely starting to kick ass on it. The difficulty level is harder than the other SCs though, without the option to lower it.
My initial disappointment was mainly with the long-awaited cameo from God of War's Kratos. He isn't actually that good, his moves aren't as fluid as they are in his home turf, although if they were he'd be unbeatable. And I guess that, because he's in that, we won't see him in a 'proper' SoulCalibur game.
And Burnout Paradise, the third and final game I acquired this week. When I initially tried the demo I hated the game, I have a bit of a stigma with sandbox racing games as one wrong turn can prove costly, but I'm having great fun with it. It's possibly to do with the fact that the Ghostbusters Ecto-1 style car I purchased from the PSN store in Fanboy-fuelled delight has better stats than I should have at that point in the game, it might be due to the fact that Burnout Dominator's soundtrack has made it through pretty much unscathed, including annoying-as-fuck anthem 'Girlfriend' by flappy headed mess Avril Lavigne, which is ironically perfect music to smash up a car to. Either way, it's great.
And the rest of the week briefly: Spent a lot of Tuesday night playing Lego Batman, Burnout Paradise and Wii Sports with my 3 year old nephew, which is always fun. He's really starting to get the hang of games now, it would bring a tear to my eye if I wasn't such a hardened perfect male specimen. TESTOSTERONE!
During the week I watched Street Fighter Alpha: The Animation, which was pretty good. I loved the fact that out of his two fights, Dan Hibiki got cut to ribbons by Vega (That's 'Claw' if you're a pretentious fucktard), and failed to Gadouken Birdie and was pulverised for his troubles. Oh, how I laughed.
And the 'dynamic themes' hit the PSN Store last night. I tried the WipEout one, because it was free, and was indifferent. It was completely overshadowed by the two Arkham standard themes, of which the Batman one is gracing my Home screen as we speak.
Friday 4 September 2009
Transcending history and the world, a tale of souls and swords eternally retold...
How did I get so far in life without the Killzone franchise?
Yes, Killzone 2 is now over, and I loved every minute. Even the bits that were so brutal it hurt, like fighting the ATAC on the roof, or the final assault on the palace, were both great set pieces.
I really don't know what to say about the game, other than it was awesome. The sheer chaos that was experienced during gunfights is unmatched, Gears of War's skirmishes seemed really tame in comparison. To quote a friend of mine; "Killzone 2 really depicts well what happens when the shit hits the fan", and I think that about sums it up.
Since Killzone was over, I've been playing SoulCalibur Legends, which I picked up a while back for a fiver from Blockbusters. After all the negativity, I was expecting the game to be virtually unplayable. Now, while it is shit, it's not offensively so. It's like a PS1 game that you remember fondly, or a mini game tacked on to a 1-on-1 fighter like Tekken Force, or indeed SoulCalibur's own Edgemaster Mode. And part of me is certain that it was originally conceived as the latter.
The game starts you off as Siegfried, and as you progress you pick up stragglers and other Soul Series mainstays. So far I've been latched on to by Sophitia, Astaroth and Dead or Alive reject Ivy Valentine, the latter two I have always perceived as being bad guys. I could have been wrong. Just seem to be strange choices when there's awesome people like Mitsurugi in the wings. Oh, and I decked Cervantes, but he wasn't up for joining me.
The voice acting is hilarious as expected, and every battle can be won pretty much by sellotaping the Wii Remote to an epilepsy sufferer and making him watch anime, but it's fun, and that's what counts. Whether it will still be fun later in the game, time will tell.
Of course if I'd parted with £40 for it, I'd be mortified, but for a fiver it's really not that bad. Could be worse, could be Golden Axe: Beast Rider.
When I tried my wireless PS2 pad finally, it didn't work. Turns out my PS2 had blown a fuse, typically the fuse that supplies power to the Dual Shock 2's motors and any wireless joypad's receiver, so I had to get myself a new PS2, and get rid of the old one. Well, I didn't have to, but y'know. Long story short, if you're going to trade a console in at CEX, be prepared to wait half an hour for them to test it, and bring some ID. And if you get served by the same girl that I did, smack her in the eye, the surly cow.
What else, what else... Oh yeah, tried Guitar Hero III on hard the other day, seeing as I can cruise through World Tour at that difficulty. Failed the first encore. That game is so much harder. And had a go at Motorstorm on multiplayer last night for the first time in ages to christen my mate's new PS3 Slim. There was a guy teleporting. If you have to cheat to enjoy a game, what's the point? Oh yeah, and I'm indifferent to Dissidia. The Final Fantasy VII freak in me will no doubt buy it though.
Yes, Killzone 2 is now over, and I loved every minute. Even the bits that were so brutal it hurt, like fighting the ATAC on the roof, or the final assault on the palace, were both great set pieces.
I really don't know what to say about the game, other than it was awesome. The sheer chaos that was experienced during gunfights is unmatched, Gears of War's skirmishes seemed really tame in comparison. To quote a friend of mine; "Killzone 2 really depicts well what happens when the shit hits the fan", and I think that about sums it up.
Since Killzone was over, I've been playing SoulCalibur Legends, which I picked up a while back for a fiver from Blockbusters. After all the negativity, I was expecting the game to be virtually unplayable. Now, while it is shit, it's not offensively so. It's like a PS1 game that you remember fondly, or a mini game tacked on to a 1-on-1 fighter like Tekken Force, or indeed SoulCalibur's own Edgemaster Mode. And part of me is certain that it was originally conceived as the latter.
The game starts you off as Siegfried, and as you progress you pick up stragglers and other Soul Series mainstays. So far I've been latched on to by Sophitia, Astaroth and Dead or Alive reject Ivy Valentine, the latter two I have always perceived as being bad guys. I could have been wrong. Just seem to be strange choices when there's awesome people like Mitsurugi in the wings. Oh, and I decked Cervantes, but he wasn't up for joining me.
The voice acting is hilarious as expected, and every battle can be won pretty much by sellotaping the Wii Remote to an epilepsy sufferer and making him watch anime, but it's fun, and that's what counts. Whether it will still be fun later in the game, time will tell.
Of course if I'd parted with £40 for it, I'd be mortified, but for a fiver it's really not that bad. Could be worse, could be Golden Axe: Beast Rider.
When I tried my wireless PS2 pad finally, it didn't work. Turns out my PS2 had blown a fuse, typically the fuse that supplies power to the Dual Shock 2's motors and any wireless joypad's receiver, so I had to get myself a new PS2, and get rid of the old one. Well, I didn't have to, but y'know. Long story short, if you're going to trade a console in at CEX, be prepared to wait half an hour for them to test it, and bring some ID. And if you get served by the same girl that I did, smack her in the eye, the surly cow.
What else, what else... Oh yeah, tried Guitar Hero III on hard the other day, seeing as I can cruise through World Tour at that difficulty. Failed the first encore. That game is so much harder. And had a go at Motorstorm on multiplayer last night for the first time in ages to christen my mate's new PS3 Slim. There was a guy teleporting. If you have to cheat to enjoy a game, what's the point? Oh yeah, and I'm indifferent to Dissidia. The Final Fantasy VII freak in me will no doubt buy it though.
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