When two tribes go to war! - 10 Crossover fighting games to keep you occupied!

With the newly announced Street Fighter X Tekken, the strongly hinted Tekken X Street Fighter and the upcoming Marvel vs. Capcom 3 on the horizon, and the relatively recent and hugely playable Tatsunoko vs. Capcom and Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe still on the shelves, it would appear that the Crossover Fighting Game genre is making a bit of a comeback. So if, like me, you're just counting down the minutes until you can bray Thor as Chris Redfield, or shatter the jaw of Kazuya Mishima with Chun Li's unfeasibly huge thighs, here's ten games in no particular order that might help pass the time.

 This is simply the greatest screenshot. Ever.

Capcom vs. SNK 2: Mark of the Millennium 2001 (2001 - Capcom - DC, PS2, GCN, XB)

If you were to ask a fighting game fan what the best 2D fighter was pre-2009, it's a 50/50 chance you'd be told without hesitation to seek out this absolute gem of a game. Featuring 49 characters from across the board of Capcom and industry rivals SNK's respective catalogues and an accessible Street Fighter style fighting system, it's virtually unbeaten even now, nearly a decade after it's release. And it provided me, at least, with a means to get to know SNK's cast with a familiar control method, instead of admiring them from afar in the past.

Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes (2000 - Capcom - DC, PS2, XB, PS3, 360)

The other half of those fighting game fans would direct you to this stroke of genius from a year prior. MVC2 featured an even larger roster of 56 fighters including three original Capcom creations and 28 of Marvel Comics' expansive roster of heroes and villains, and an over-the-top fighting system featuring screen-filling special moves, strikers and tag fighting and a higher y-axis for super-fast midair combat. It's a little bit rare and pricey to find on disk now, but was re-released on XBox Live Arcade and PSN last year with a shiny HD filter, so it's readily available without even leaving the house. Nope, you have no excuse.

Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe (2008 - Midway - PS3, 360)

I was convinced my home was bugged for a while after this was announced, as Mortal Kombat and DC Comics are too of my favourite things. Almost a polar opposite to the last game, and 8 years too late really, this 3D fighter pits the furious, visceral Scorpion, Sub-Zero and co against the heroes and villains of DC comics, led by the iconic trinity of Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman. The game was derided by players for the unlikely setting (because MVC2 was far more believable) and toned down gore, but was actually a very solid fighter, the best in the Mortal Kombat series in years in fact. It featured a cinematic story-driven single player mode, a solid multiplayer only flawed by a certain Superman move, and some fantastic universe-bending artwork in the endings. And most of the people who sneer haven't even played it, so give it a chance.

 And before that, this was the greatest screenshot ever.

Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars (2009 - Capcom - Wii)

The latest in Capcom's versus series features a smaller cast of 26, but is the first to make the transition into 3D visuals. At first it seemed there was little chance of seeing this game released in the west due to licensing issues, but when it finally arrived we got an updated game with extra characters and a more refined system. Capcom draw on characters from games new to the Capom vs. series, such as Lost Planet, Dead Rising and Viewtiful Joe, And the Tatsunoko side is filled with legendary characters from classic 70's anime like Hurricane Polymar and Science Ninja Team Gatchaman (Battle of the Planets to us). The gameplay harks back to the MVC2 system, so if you're a Nintendo purist it's unmissable. But you really need a classic controller to get the most out of it, so things could prove pricey.


SNK vs. Capcom: SVC Chaos (2003 - SNK - PS2, XB)

Much like Namco is threatening to do, SNK released this retaliation to CVS2 using their own system and mechanics. Although it featured a drop in the roster count and was less in-your-face presentation-wise, SNK showed a willingness that Capcom hadn't by redrawing all of the characters' sprites, and drawing from a more fantastical cast including Metal Slug's Mars People, Red Earth's Tessa and Darkstalkers' Dimitri. I'll admit, I still haven't gotten my head around the SNK system, and they don't seem to have gotten the Capcom characters' personalities right in the conversation scenes, but it's still enjoyable, especially if you appreciate the art style.

Super Smash Bros. Brawl (2008 - Ad hoc - Wii)

Still one of the best Wii exclusives, SSBB pits characters from all of Nintendo's franchises against each other, from major players like Mario and Zelda, to lesser known games such as Mother and Fire Emblem, and even some from 3rd party games like Sonic the Hedgehog and Metal Gear. The game offers a unique fighting experience, focusing on ring-outs instead of KOs, the chance of which happening is displayed as a percentage instead of a health bar. Characters can also pick up and use powerups and weapons in the field, and the action is broken up by some absolutely beautiful FMV sequences. And it's another good reason to own that classic controller too.

 But before that one, this was the best. Ever.

SoulCalibur II (2003 - Namco - PS2, XB, GCN)

Though not technically a crossover game, SCII has one exclusive character for each system, all from other franchises. The PS2 version has Tekken's Heihachi Mishima, the XBox homes Image Comics' Spawn and the Gamecube version naturally features Link from The Legend of Zelda. Most of you have played a SoulCalibur game, so you'll know all about it's weapon-based combat and genre-crossing story modes, but for those who haven't, think Tekken with swords and ring-outs. If you're looking for something more recent, check out SoulCalibur IV on the PS3 and 360, which features Darth Vader, Yoda and Galen Marek from Star Wars, and SoulCalibur: Broken Destiny on the PSP, which plays host to God of War's Kratos.

Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects (2005 - EA - PS2, XB, GCN, PSP, DS)

Basically Marvel vs. EA, this game was largely forgettable on all versions except for the PSP, which dropped the scrolling fighter levels in favour of an experience similar to Power Stone and Ehrgeiz, and gave the Marvel Characters more of an iconic look. The EA side of things, the titular Imperfects, weren't classic EA characters, but rather a team of superhumans created by EA specifically for the game. Possibly not an essential purchase, but it is still the only fighting game that features Marvel characters such as The Thing, Elektra and (in the home console version at least) Daredevil, unless any of them make it into MVC3.

Jump Ultimate Stars (2006 - Ganbarion - DS)

A Japan-only release due to similar licencing hell to TVC, JUS would have fallen through the 24HG net had it not been for the absolutely monstrous character count; 305 (56 fully playable, the rest as strikers and support characters) of the protagonists and antagonists of the insanely popular (in the west also) Shonen Manga label, including Dragonball, Naruto, Bleach and One Piece, are crammed onto a single DS cart. The game plays similarly to Super Smash Bros., only with a completely baffling (especially so considering the Japanese text) card-based system. Even thinking about it makes my head hurt, but this is a grade-A fanboy wet dream.

MUGEN (1999 - Elecbyte - PC)

Apparently, to those pedantic competitive fighting game purists (read: wankers), MUGEN is an unbalanced abortion. But to the rest of us, it's a wonderful bit of freeware. Out of the box, so to speak, it's a basic 2D fighter with only one character, the generic Ryu-alike Kung Fu Man, but MUGEN offers those with a little bit of know-how to download and import a plethora of user created characters, some ripped from other games, some edited to become new characters, some created from scratch, and all with AI and a quality only limited by their creator's expertise. This is, however you look at it, the only place where you can see Sub-Zero decapitate Knuckles the Echidna, or Lobo stove in Thundercats' Lion-O's face. And that should be enough to sell it to anyone interested in the genre.

So, there are ten games to keep you occupied until Spring rolls around once more. There are more if you look for them too, like Capcom Fighting Jam (Capcom vs. Capcom), NeoGeo Battle Coliseum (SNK vs. SNK) and Spectral vs. Generation (Spectral Force vs. Generations of Chaos, me neither) all worth a play. So go forth, fight fans, and collide some worlds. Excelsior!

What's in a name?

So as the site increases in popularity (We had 300 hits in one day the other week, so it's either that or Michael J. Fox was stuck on the refresh button), It's come to my attention that, well, 24 Hour Gamer is a popular name. A quick search on Google returns 24-HRGaming.com, 24HRGamer.com, and, perhaps the worst of them all, 24hourgamer.com, which all spell disaster for our little bastion of constant gaming when it comes to the inevitable task of getting a proper domain name, and possible clashes over intellectual properties in the future.

So, the burning question is; should we here at 24HG towers give up the name we've been lovingly referring to ourselves for over a year, confuse our Twitter followers and annoy the NowGamer forum staff into changing my user name once more, for the sake of keeping the future bright? I think, as much as it pains me, the answer is pointing to yes, swiftly followed by registering a domain name and copyrighting the fuck out of it. But what do we call ourselves then?

That's where you guys come in. I'll be having talks with my counterpart Trev about it, but every suggestion sent to the usual channels is wholly appreciated. 24hourgamer.co.uk is still open, but I think a bit of individuality goes a long way. That's all for now.

STOP! Warhammer Time! - A Dawn Of War II Review.

Firstly let me just say, I used to be a big fan of Real-Time Strategy games; Command and Conquer was one of my favorite games, and Red Alert really improved on the series. One of the things I enjoyed most was creating a absolutely huge army and taking over the map. At the time, I did not think "Wait a minute, this isn't really strategy is it?" although "Create maaaaaaahoooosive army and take over the map" is a strategy in itself.... Anyway back to my point, things have changed in RTS world. This was first apparent to me when I played Company of Heroes, gone were the "build massive army and absorb map" gameplay types; you now had to constantly think - DEFEND - ATTACK - REGROUP, constantly on the move. Well I loved this for while, but I began to feel anxious in missions, thinking "Can I actually do this?" About a year later, enter Dawn of War II... Which may have roused me from my RTS slumber.

Gone are the days of base building and hording, say hello to smaller much more customisable teams. Want your force commander to take out cover and terrain like a bad mofo with a missile launcher? No problem! Want him to crush skulls with a thunder hammer? Go for it! For this game think "What if an RTS mixed with Diablo?" and you have a pretty good understanding; there be stats to increase and loot to grab, creating a stronger team as you make your way through the game.

If you like Warhammer, you will love the story in DoWII, also as usual the voice acting really shines through, and your armies feel "Alive" as they comment on situations at hand, and the evil that must be crushed. Another great aspect of the game is the cover system, terrain can give you various bonus to cover when you are positioned there, but don't think you're safe if your in heavy cover, sure you won't be taking much damage, but a well placed explosive and that cover is GONE (Although the same applies to any enemies that feel safe, until a demolition charge flies over the wall into their laps lol), you can blow up quite a bit of the world in DoWII - Walls, sandbags, trees, buildings, everything really, as these things also make cover, so if you can use it as cover, it can be destroyed.

Your "Squads" also have special abilities, which can dramatically change how a fight is going. These can range from something simple like the "Rally" command to break suppression on your units while increasing their health regeneration to an almighty orbital strike raining fire from the sky scorching the land (And anything on the land) into dust. Also bringing back the RPG feel, we have end of level bosses, no really! These monstrosities can REALLY do some damage, and you can see how well you are doing by a bar on screen letting you know how much life this boss has. And believe me it helps as these guys have a LOT more health than regular enemies, and also have their own powerful abilities, but you always (More often than not anyway) have time to get out of the way of an ability due to onscreen hints or troops saying "GET OUT OF THE WAY, IT'S GONNA CHARGE", which makes it much more fun than just guessing when things will happen; which would also lead to dying many....MANY times.

Missions take place on various worlds, which also have strategic points you can capture during missions. Taking these points leads to bonus abilities, for instance taking Imperial Shrines gives you an ability that shields your squads for a few seconds from all damage whereas every Automated Foundry captured grants you the ability to call in gun emplacements, to help mow down the enemy. These bonus abilities are planet based, meaning you can use any of the abilities you have unlocked on a planet, for any missions on said planet which can really help out later on. Also these points have to be defended from time to time in a "Defence Mission" which are optional, but if you don't do them, you will lose the strategic point, and any bonuses that come with it. Defence works very well too, showing you where each wave of enemies will make an attack from, so you can try and counter it with a bit of good planning and tactics (Exploding a group of enemies with a well placed explosive charge is a VERY satisfying feeling).

All in all DoWII is an amazing game, with a very deep atmosphere; play it for a while and you will be sucked in, "Just one more mission" will be said again and again, until you look at the clock and realise it is 2AM and your due for work at 8AM... A good reason for this is because you want to try on that new armour, see what this new ability does in a battle or just to get that little bit of EXP to get that level up. DoWII is one of the greatest games I have ever played, it has given me the RTS itch again, something that has been lost for quite a while in me, thanks to this game I feel I can actually do RTS again, especially ones that do not have a pause button (I would have LOVED a pause button!!!).

If your a fan of Warhammer, RTS or even an RPG gamer, you should try this out, it's RTS at a very high level of immersion. Now forgive me as I have to go, Orks are raiding my Communications array, the BLEEDERS!

Uhh, so this is your big day, huh? (24 Hour Gamer is 1!)

It's hard to believe, but today marks a whole year since my first post as a fledgling blogger, a three-paragraph effort with very very brief looks at 24: The Game, Assassin's Creed and The Punisher: No Mercy, which, quite understandably, nobody read. With a combination of no paragraph spacing, a lack of the html skills to add pictures (before Blogger improved the user interface) and nothing particularly interesting to say, things didn't exactly look rosey for 24HG, but I didn't mind.

See that right there? That's paragraph spacing. The extent of what I've learned is astonishing. So anyway, with the blog slowly picking up momentum, and readers of course, over the last year, I'm going to go over the good and bad times, some of which will be new to you guys.

Firstly, the most mentioned game over the whole year. I checked a few months ago, and the clear winner was Epic's erm... epic, Gears of War, obviously down to every game that involves a gun chiefly taking place mostly behind a waist high wall. But it has since fallen behind games like The Elder Scrolls, Assassin's Creed and Mass Effect, the latter of which I had actually assumed would be the most mentioned, as I've actually played both ME and ME2 twice each over the last year. But the actual most blogged about game, deservedly so, is Uncharted, with the series' second iteration taking the game world by storm just before Christmas. If I'd have known how terrified I would become of Dragon Age back then, U2 would have most definitely been my Game of the Year.

 Uncharted: Officially the most popular game on 24HG.

E-mails. I've taken the e-mail button from the site now, since 24HG is no longer a one-man operation, but for a while it was there and I had a few pretty funny messages. Firstly, an offer was extended to me, following my use of lyrics from 'Borderline' in the title to my Borderlands-centric post, to join a Madonna fan club. I quickly declined, as the version of Borderline that I had in my head throughout the whole 35 hours of play that Borderlands offered was in fact a cover by pop-punk stalwarts Showoff. But the offer was nice. I had an overwhelming amount of e-mails (like, three of them!) asking me to review Final Fantasy XIII, and I still haven't. And let's just say my treatment of Modern Warfare 2 didn't go down well. And finally, I had a very politely worded e-mail asking me to give up the name '24 Hour Gamer' and my login details for my Twitter account. Needless to say, I didn't.

 I'll review it one day. Probably. Possibly.

Speaking of Twitter, I set up my account (@Pete_24HG, or follow Trev @TjStan if he ever tweets again) alongside the blog to whore my posts out to anyone who'd listen. It's seen me post about everything from Blockbuster pricing the first Fallout 3 Expansion disk at £40 to awesome fictional metal bands in Alan Wake, but perhaps most noteworthy was my 1000th tweet, which read like a Shakespearean sonnet: "@MarkySharky Kiss my ass :p".

So onwards and upwards then. Hopefully, with Trev on board, 24HG should continue to expand over the next year, potentially with Podcasts, video reviews and joint pieces, maybe even a forum or something, who knows? We're open to suggestions too, anything YOU'D like to see, just pop it in the comments box, tweet at us, or e-mail one of us at the24hourgamer@googlemail.com or thetrevstan@googlemail.com and let us know.

Finally, a big thanks to everyone who's helped out: To Trev 24HG for extending his hand in aid, like Elika catching the 2008 Prince of Persia as he plummets into a chasm for the 4000th time (one day I'll compare you to a male character). To Susie, my wife, who not only actively encourages me to game, but also soundly kicked my ass on Guitar Hero Arcade on our actual honeymoon. To MarkySharky and CtrlAltKill of Twitter, for drilling into me the need to space paragraphs and add images respectively. To Paul and Raz7el, for always offering good videogame chat. To 30-Something Gamer for being my first follower and providing a great blog for me to read. Imagine Publishing's Dan Howdle for inadvertently mentioning the site in his Podcast a few times. The guys at the NowGamer forums. Paul_LFC at VideoGame Space. And everyone who's read and/or commented here at 24HG. It's been a good year.

New Tech Level Available

In a bid to be able to actually review some of the newer games on PC (Or run them at some sort of decent speed), I have decided to buy it a new processor.

I SHALL not bore you with my specs, at the same not humiliating myself by giving them you... But I should, after this upgrade, be able to give you at least a real review of Dawn of War 2, which is supposed to be great, however when it runs at 8 fps when a lot is going on, it kinda sucks, and makes me think how bad it would be if I were Superman and the world went at 8 fps (I don't know the exact Superman fps of life... lol). Also a review of King Arthur, which runs fine at the moment, but I want it to run BETTER!

SO YES I will let you know how that goes, as my PC is the Highlander of all PCs, it destroys lesser ones to become more powerful.

THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE!

Buster bowl me over with your bogus dance, shuffle me off my feet, even though I'll keep on runnin', I'll never get to Orange Street...

Thought I'd have a bit of a catch-up on what I've been playing recently, as with all of the changes and what have you I've barely had time to post about the awesome, average and absolutely arse games I've been playing. So, for old time's sake, here goes.

Firstly, for the sole benefit of Paul, Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles. A sequel to last year's Umbrella Chronicles, TDC is an on-rails shooter that follows the events of Resident Evil 2, Code: Veronica, and the mission that was alluded to in RE4, the first meeting between Leon and Krauser. Firstly, it seems that Leon has a very selective memory, as the story is told through Leon's flashbacks, and everything seems to revolve around him. Even the bits of RE2 where he wasn't even canonically there, are retold with him as some sort of action hero. And he does it all in his husky Batman voice, not the pre-pubescent whinge that he actually had back then. And while I'm on it, he had nothing to do with Code: Veronica at all, yet still recalls it.

Surely there are better ways to pierce your naval, Claire.

Okay then, good news first. The game is a far, far better play than it's predecessor. It's a lot more intense, and the fact that you can actually see your allies around you makes it feel far more cinematic. As a nostalgia trip it's unequaled. The graphics are absolutely astounding for a Wii game, and the Havok engine powering the physics makes the environment come alive in a way that the console isn't used to. But the visuals do have their faults: Both Leon and C:V sidekick Steve Burnside look identical (a lot like the tranny from Hollyoaks now you come to mention it), and probably shouldn't have been in the same game. But I suppose that's more down to poor character design than anything else.

But every silver-lined cloud is pissing on somebody somewhere, and none more than I. While the graphics are great, they push the Wii a bit too far, and as a result the shadows look awful. The dialogue is terrible, with characters repeatedly stating the obvious, spouting lines like 'I hate this' (no shit) and 'They won't let us through!'. They're Zombies, Leon, not fucking bouncers. The 'shakey cam' makes aiming a nightmare at times too, and the awful treatment of Robert Kendo, one of my series favourites, sent me into a rage. Lastly, for an on-rails shooter, the game is too long, a far cry from the throwaway 10-minute fun fests like House of the Dead and Ghost Squad.

Errrrrr... ModNation Racers! The PS3's premier kart racer is average at it's core, but saved thanks to it's user-friendly creation tools and fantastically creative and talented fanbase. I find myself spending more time downloading characters and karts than actually playing it, exactly how I was with M.U.G.E.N. on the PC. The create mode is easy and accessible too, which is great, because I never got to grips with LittleBigPlanet's tools at all. MNR had me creating like a pro within minutes.

That's right, creator, you stick it to the man!

So the game tries to be a perfect marriage of LittleBigPlanet and Mario Kart, yet fails to encompass the charm of either. It's relentless attempts at being 'street' alienate those who don't buy into that crap, and Mario's game engine is far simpler and accessible to a younger audience, with MNR confusing matters with drifting, stacking powerups and an accumulative boost meter. So for these reasons it stalls at the finishing line. Good, but not great.

Alpha Protocol then. Basically a merging of two of my favourite things, the gameplay of Mass Effect and the theme of 24, it stands apart from other games of the RPG genre by being set in a contemporary real-world setting, packed with espionage and action. Strapping on the shoes of Mike Thorton, you are the newest recruit of the titular government agency thrust into a world of combat and subterfuge when you are forced to go rogue.

Keep your gun on him, he's definitely a terrorist!

Below average graphics and stereotypical characters and dialogue are the only tarnishes on an otherwise brilliant western RPG, with a twisting plot that genuinely does revolve around your every action. The developer, Obsidian, has constantly bragged about the game's ability to channel the 'Three JBs'; James Bond, Jason Bourne and Jack Bauer, but truth be told, mine was more like a very Torchwood-esque John Barrowman: morally ambiguous and shagging anything he can get his hands on.

I'll not go much further with this one, because my colleague Trev and I are planning a joint review, but I'll just say, I was greatly saddened when I read that Sega have ruled out a sequel thanks to poor sales. The Man wins again. Sigh.

Finally, I've been hopping, skipping and wall-running through the Wii version of Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands. Far from a port, the Wii version is a completely different animal to it's HD cousins, with a whole new, unrelated storyline and different powers and a more strategic combat system more akin to that in The Sands of Time. And while it takes cues from the main TFS release and TSOT, it also has a few throwbacks to the 2008 PoP too, with the power plates helping you to traverse the environment, and a 'never die' mechanic replacing the time powers once more (although you can only be rescued a few times before being sent back to a checkpoint). It's great for fans of the genre like yours truly, but a lack of classic controller support harms it in a big way once your arm starts to ache.

And while I'm on the subject, I saw the Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time movie to last week. It's enjoyable, but not particularly close to the source material in any way, save for three scenes which are nearly identical to key moments in the game. Jake Gyllenhaal is truly awful, with his sad puppy looks and dialect-hopping English accent, but fantastic turns from Alfred Molina, Ben Kingsley and a surprise appearance from Richard Coyle (voice of Keats, the protagonist from PS3 RPG Folklore, and the infamous Jeff Murdoc in BBC sitcom Coupling) who absolutely steals the show, all is forgiven. And if it does anything right, it's the boy/girl chemistry thing that I loved about the TSOT game and the 2008 PoP. Good, disposable fun.

He may look like a dejected Labrador, but he's still more attractive than Maggie.

Right, back to my cave then. This Saturday 24HG hits it's first anniversary, so I'll see you then. Ta!

Here comes a new challenger!

Hello everyone,
This is just a quick post to introduce myself, I'm Trev 24HG!
I'll be posting my thoughts and features up here on 24HG as they come to me; so I won't really have any structure.....

I would have introduced myself earlier but due to the freaking Steam sale on PC games, I have spent quite a bit on amazing PC games, even though I'm sure SOMEBODY won't agree to how epic the games are, as they are for the PC.....

I own many consoles and games, and old computers too. I will try and take you through some of the amazing times I have had with gaming past, present and future (Even though I can't really take you through the future....).
So I am hoping to write about retro and up to date news, and also maybe some features along the way!
I warn you now that I am no writer, but I will get better as I get used to this stuff.

I have varied opinions on a lot of games, and knowledge of quiiiiiiiite a few! If anyone wants me to look into a game and review one, for any console or computer, I will look into it. BUT nothing obscure (Atari Jaguar), nothing I would have to sell my soul or mother to own (3DO) or something that would eventually make me look like Judge Doom the Toon with prolonged use (Virtual Boy).

But anyway, glad to be here, and my posts will get better as I get used to this shiiiiiiiiiiiit!

Anyways I'm off to play an amazing game I got on the Steam sale, King Arthur, it's freaking AWESOME!

And remember, the princess is always in the last castle you check.....

Yeah, that's right baby! Ergonomic management keyboard... (or Why PCs Suck for Gaming)

Recently, while surfing the net on my laptop, one of the hinges holding the screen on just dropped off. Sensing this was an indication of said laptop's imminent mortality, I dusted off the old credit card and fired up the Curry's website. A couple of days later I was the proud owner of a refurbished Packard Bell EasyNote TJ71, with a 500gb HDD, 4gb of memory and some kind of AMD gubbins or whatever. I was reliably informed by Trev that it was a good machine, especially for the price, a cool breeze under £400.

So, after a couple of days of getting used to it, I signed up to Steam. Eager to see what the machine could potentially do, I quickly downloaded the Mass Effect 2 demo, and fired it up. To my joy, and honest surprise, it played the game, out of the box so-to-speak, perfectly at it's default settings. Which is, to say, as good as the 360 version.

So yesterday I had a look on Steam again, and they were offering Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas at 75% off, a meager £2.49, so I got my wallet. Now, the game ran perfectly, it has to be said. With the detail set to 'Very High', there wasn't a stutter. The problems came when I decided to try out my 360 joypad with it. The right analogue stick wasn't detected, the triggers didn't work, and the game couldn't differentiate between the left analogue stick and the D-pad. Tried out a PS2 controller through a USB adapter, the game didn't even acknowledge it.

A quick search on the Internet told me that GTA:SA was riddled with such controller issues, and downloading a program called SAAC would remedy it. So I did, but lo and behold, SAAC wouldn't work. Apparently it was made using Visual Basic 6, and when Microsoft brought out Windows 7, they decided that nobody in the whole universe would ever need to use that again, and thus got rid of it.

So I turned to a program called XPadder (which I had to download two versions of, thanks again to Microsoft making everything obsolete whenever they upgrade their OS), a program that allows you to map keyboard keys and such to another imput device, such as my XBox360 pad, which worked well enough. I fired up GTA once more, and entered the controller set up, and copied the PS2 control scheme to the best of my memory. Finally I was cruising around Los Santos without cramping my hands over the touch pad and forgetting the functions of endless keys.

But the fun came when it came to taking a corner, as XPadder didn't cater for analogue controls, and as such a simple tap on the left analogue stick equaled to full-lock on the steering wheel. Conversely, on foot I could do nothing but sprint at full pelt. The triggers, too, only functioned properly if I fully released them between shots, which sounds obvious, but I guarantee you never actually do.

So, call me over-precipitous, but PC Gaming sucks a lot of arse. A whole night wasted trying to get an ancient game to run in a half-decent way, when a decade-old games console can handle it without complaint. Sorry, but I'm a console gamer.

Two heads are better than one, it's double the pleasure, baby, triple the fun

As I mentioned a few weeks ago, there were to be changes made around here. And, as I mentioned, I was looking to take on a young ward, to keep things interesting here and give a wider spectrum of gaming views.

So enter Trev 24HG, the Yorda to my Ico, only with a beard. Being as my gaming takes place mostly around the Wii and PS3, It's very convenient that Trev is more of a 360/PC man, so there will be more coverage where it was lacking before. He's also into a few pretty niche games that I wouldn't ordinarily play, stuff like Dynasty Warriors and Role-Playing Games like Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey, so I believe he will make the 24HG experience all the more richer, as it shakes off the loner image and becomes a family. That's a family in a very literal sense, you see, I'm married to his sister after all.

So, as 24 Hour Gamer ventures into it's second year of existence, you (and I) can look forward to the same shit from me, and a fresh you outlook on things from my new partner in crime, Trev 24HG. Who knows, we might even surprise you with some new features here and there...