Player Two came over last night and we spent a fair chunk of time playing Rainbow Six Vegas in split-screen co-op terrorist hunt. It was fantastic! Admittedly we didn't manage to complete a single mission and we were disappointed that we couldn't re-spawn and there was no AI backup. Admittedly you've never been able to re-spawn in R6 (except in Lockdown if I recall) but that was why the AI backup was always great because if your main man went down you could just jump into the next one and carry on. Good stuff regardless though and I can see us playing it a lot more. In fact I am going to give GRAW another chance to see if it can change my mind!
I have been hearing a lot lately about Fable 2 (mostly on the Gamer Dork podcasts!) which to be honest I hadn't really paid attention too, having never played Fable. The enthusiasm I am hearing for Fable 2 has made me want to check it out and I am now actively looking for a cheap(ish) copy of Fable The Lost Chapters to play on my 360. I have put Fable 2 on my wishlist and taken it off several times already, so who knows what will happen there...
As we close in on the release date of FIFA 09 I am finding myself panicking slightly yet again over whether or not I am doing the right thing in going with the Wii version. But after another top night of playing Euro 2008 with Player Two I keep coming back to the same thing. If they had just kept the Be-A-Pro/Captain-Your-Country mode from Euro 2008 it would be a sure thing.
Without it... Well, let's see what the Wii version can offer!
Tuesday, 23 September 2008
Saturday, 20 September 2008
Another Bubble
Loaded up Blue Dragon this morning for the first time in ages. I didn't have a clue what I had been doing last time I played it or what I should do next. I don't think I can be bothered to start over so it's on the At Risk list.
If I'm going to play a role-playing game I think I'd rather play Mass Effect which is still sealed on my shelf. I also quite fancy Fable 2, but may pick up Fable The Lost Chapters first...
In other news, Player Boy has discovered Star Wars The Force Unleashed. I fear I may never get to play it again!
If I'm going to play a role-playing game I think I'd rather play Mass Effect which is still sealed on my shelf. I also quite fancy Fable 2, but may pick up Fable The Lost Chapters first...
In other news, Player Boy has discovered Star Wars The Force Unleashed. I fear I may never get to play it again!
Thursday, 18 September 2008
Bubble Update
I've decided to slide Tomb Raider Legend into the To Trade pile. Life's too short to play games that you're not really into! I must remember that in future, it'll probably save me a pile of money...
Speaking of money, CEX will give £5 trade for TRL so I've not lost anything on it at least.
No decision yet on WWE or PDZ, they both only get £3 trade value at CEX so I'm thinking I might as well keep them at that price. For now at least...
Speaking of money, CEX will give £5 trade for TRL so I've not lost anything on it at least.
No decision yet on WWE or PDZ, they both only get £3 trade value at CEX so I'm thinking I might as well keep them at that price. For now at least...
The Force Unleashed
I've just spent the last hour or so playing Star Wars The Force Unleashed on Wii. I had pre-ordered it from Game a couple of months or so back and it turned up today, a day early!
First impressions are very positive. I'm thoroughly enjoying the game and the storyline. I had played the 360 demo and was very impressed by that and having just played the corresponding level in the Wii version they are completely different, so I may end up picking up the 360 version too in due course. (Actually there seems to be a lot of negative feeling out there towards the 360 version and the game in general on all formats, so this could be cropping up in sales or relatively cheap pre-owned sooner rather than later. I will have to keep my eye on it...)
The reason I plumped for the Wii version was the two-player duel mode that's exclusive to the Wii. I am slightly disappointed to discover that this is two-players only, i.e. there is no AI opponents to fight against, but I guess this is due to Clone Wars Lightsaber Duels arriving in November.
The force is strong with this one...
In other news I spent a few minutes cancelling some pre-orders at Game to replace them with cheaper ones over at The Hut. Every penny counts!
First impressions are very positive. I'm thoroughly enjoying the game and the storyline. I had played the 360 demo and was very impressed by that and having just played the corresponding level in the Wii version they are completely different, so I may end up picking up the 360 version too in due course. (Actually there seems to be a lot of negative feeling out there towards the 360 version and the game in general on all formats, so this could be cropping up in sales or relatively cheap pre-owned sooner rather than later. I will have to keep my eye on it...)
The reason I plumped for the Wii version was the two-player duel mode that's exclusive to the Wii. I am slightly disappointed to discover that this is two-players only, i.e. there is no AI opponents to fight against, but I guess this is due to Clone Wars Lightsaber Duels arriving in November.
The force is strong with this one...
In other news I spent a few minutes cancelling some pre-orders at Game to replace them with cheaper ones over at The Hut. Every penny counts!
Tuesday, 16 September 2008
On the bubble...
With my "To Trade" pile drastically reduced after Saturday's visit to CEX I have started to build it back up again. I currently have three 360 titles sitting in a pile halfway between where they would usually be (neatly slotted into a wall mounted storage unit) and the "To Trade" pile. All three are "on the bubble" and could find themselves back in their slots or in the pile.
The three titles are:
I'll start with Perfect Dark Zero. It seems a sound enough game but I just found it all very uninspiring. I never played the original Perfect Dark on the N64 so I don't know any of Joanna's back story which may have helped, but also the setting of the opening level and the action incorporated in it didn't really excite me like I would expect a FPS to.
My only major complaint is that I did find the little changes from first to third-person perspective and back jarring. Just make up your mind, first or third!! Now I know other games do this, Rainbow Six Vegas for instance, but there it just seems much smoother and less obtrusive than it does here.
Tomb Raider Legend was purchased on a whim when Game had it in their sale. It cost me all of £4.99 brand new. Interestingly I had purchased TRL previously, it was one of the games I stockpiled prior to receiving my 360 at Christmas last year. Unfortunately I originally had my 360 rigged to a 4:3 VGA monitor and for some unknown reason TRL was squashed on the screen as if it was in the wrong aspect ratio, so I traded it in. I've since switched to a 16:9 CRT (sacrificing the lower quality image for the aspect ratio) with an RGB scart cable so I decided to try it again and picked it up when I spotted it in the Game sale. The game displays perfectly now, but I am finding the action in the game very frustrating.
I don't find repeating the same section over and over because I was just a teeny-tiny bit out on the jump that made up the very last bit of the section enjoyable. I also find games like this, i.e. where I am controlling a very acrobatic and versatile character, frustrating when I want him/her to do something that hasn't been planned for by the designers. Yes, I know that rock is slightly taller than Lara's waist, but it's not exactly smooth I'm sure she could manage to clamber onto it if she made an effort! No? Oh well...
Finally WWE. Me and Player Two have a long history of wrestling games, mostly purchased in an effort to recapture the fun on an old N64 wrestling game. The name of the game itself has been lost in the mists of time (but I believe it was one of the WCW/NWO titles) and Player Two was recently speculating that perhaps we remember it a little too fondly and if we went back to it now we would find it to be terrible.
What I do recall is that you could take on a series of fights in two player to ultimately try and win the tag team titles. If you then decided to go for the titles again with two different wrestlers, the last pair that you won the title with would remain the title holders until you fought them. I always thought that was brilliant!
Hideously complicated controls meant that myself and Player Two gleaned little enjoyment from our admittedly brief playtime with WWE. The big question is whether we can be bothered to apply ourselves and learn the controls in order to get anything from the game? I think we will need to explore the range of matches available to us within the game first. If we can embark on a series of bouts in pursuit of the tag team titles, it might just be worth it!
The three titles are:
- Perfect Dark Zero
- Tomb Raider Legend
- WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2007
I'll start with Perfect Dark Zero. It seems a sound enough game but I just found it all very uninspiring. I never played the original Perfect Dark on the N64 so I don't know any of Joanna's back story which may have helped, but also the setting of the opening level and the action incorporated in it didn't really excite me like I would expect a FPS to.
My only major complaint is that I did find the little changes from first to third-person perspective and back jarring. Just make up your mind, first or third!! Now I know other games do this, Rainbow Six Vegas for instance, but there it just seems much smoother and less obtrusive than it does here.
Tomb Raider Legend was purchased on a whim when Game had it in their sale. It cost me all of £4.99 brand new. Interestingly I had purchased TRL previously, it was one of the games I stockpiled prior to receiving my 360 at Christmas last year. Unfortunately I originally had my 360 rigged to a 4:3 VGA monitor and for some unknown reason TRL was squashed on the screen as if it was in the wrong aspect ratio, so I traded it in. I've since switched to a 16:9 CRT (sacrificing the lower quality image for the aspect ratio) with an RGB scart cable so I decided to try it again and picked it up when I spotted it in the Game sale. The game displays perfectly now, but I am finding the action in the game very frustrating.
I don't find repeating the same section over and over because I was just a teeny-tiny bit out on the jump that made up the very last bit of the section enjoyable. I also find games like this, i.e. where I am controlling a very acrobatic and versatile character, frustrating when I want him/her to do something that hasn't been planned for by the designers. Yes, I know that rock is slightly taller than Lara's waist, but it's not exactly smooth I'm sure she could manage to clamber onto it if she made an effort! No? Oh well...
Finally WWE. Me and Player Two have a long history of wrestling games, mostly purchased in an effort to recapture the fun on an old N64 wrestling game. The name of the game itself has been lost in the mists of time (but I believe it was one of the WCW/NWO titles) and Player Two was recently speculating that perhaps we remember it a little too fondly and if we went back to it now we would find it to be terrible.
What I do recall is that you could take on a series of fights in two player to ultimately try and win the tag team titles. If you then decided to go for the titles again with two different wrestlers, the last pair that you won the title with would remain the title holders until you fought them. I always thought that was brilliant!
Hideously complicated controls meant that myself and Player Two gleaned little enjoyment from our admittedly brief playtime with WWE. The big question is whether we can be bothered to apply ourselves and learn the controls in order to get anything from the game? I think we will need to explore the range of matches available to us within the game first. If we can embark on a series of bouts in pursuit of the tag team titles, it might just be worth it!
Sunday, 14 September 2008
XBox LIVE
I have an XBox LIVE Gold account, so would I recommend it to a friend?
No.
Of course, it should be quantified that my recommendation is based on my own personal experience and different people will have different feelings to me, but this is my blog and not theirs so I will now attempt to justify this...
Firstly I am not particularly "big" on on-line play, whether I have to pay for it or not. I have a fairly decent PC, by no means cutting edge, but able to comfortably handle something like Unreal Tournament III. Looking at my shelf of PC games I have around 10 popular on-line games that are free to play on-line but I have only ever played off-line. Why? Well, for starters I don't think I am skillfull enough to compete with some of the players out there and my idea of fun is not to a game of, say, Quake Wars Enemy Territory where I am constantly killed and re-spawn only to be killed again. I have better ways to spend my time, so games such as this I play in any available single-player mode and/or botmatch modes where I can tailor the difficulty to suit myself.
Of course, the reverse can be true and my opponents aren't as good as me and throw their toys out of their pram when they lose. On the Wii I have Mario Strikers Charged Football which has an on-line play mode that I have used exactly once on the first day I got the game. You play a series of 3 matches. My opponent won the first game but I won the second and the third was a tense affair that I won in sudden death extra-time. As soon as my goal went in my opponent disconnected from the match which meant I wasn't credited with the win. Ho hum, sore loser.
So if I'm not really interested in on-line play, why did I get the Gold account in the first place? The answer is FIFA 08. You see, EA made the roster updates only available to those players with Gold accounts, which I think is a pretty poor thing to do. With me switching to the Wii version for FIFA 09 I expect that I won't need to have any special account and/or have to pay for the roster updates on that version, so I am happy to let my Gold membership lapse to a silver account when it comes up for renewal.
The only other benefit is getting access to game demos a week early with a Gold membership, but I'm sure I can wait a week, can't I?
No.
Of course, it should be quantified that my recommendation is based on my own personal experience and different people will have different feelings to me, but this is my blog and not theirs so I will now attempt to justify this...
Firstly I am not particularly "big" on on-line play, whether I have to pay for it or not. I have a fairly decent PC, by no means cutting edge, but able to comfortably handle something like Unreal Tournament III. Looking at my shelf of PC games I have around 10 popular on-line games that are free to play on-line but I have only ever played off-line. Why? Well, for starters I don't think I am skillfull enough to compete with some of the players out there and my idea of fun is not to a game of, say, Quake Wars Enemy Territory where I am constantly killed and re-spawn only to be killed again. I have better ways to spend my time, so games such as this I play in any available single-player mode and/or botmatch modes where I can tailor the difficulty to suit myself.
Of course, the reverse can be true and my opponents aren't as good as me and throw their toys out of their pram when they lose. On the Wii I have Mario Strikers Charged Football which has an on-line play mode that I have used exactly once on the first day I got the game. You play a series of 3 matches. My opponent won the first game but I won the second and the third was a tense affair that I won in sudden death extra-time. As soon as my goal went in my opponent disconnected from the match which meant I wasn't credited with the win. Ho hum, sore loser.
So if I'm not really interested in on-line play, why did I get the Gold account in the first place? The answer is FIFA 08. You see, EA made the roster updates only available to those players with Gold accounts, which I think is a pretty poor thing to do. With me switching to the Wii version for FIFA 09 I expect that I won't need to have any special account and/or have to pay for the roster updates on that version, so I am happy to let my Gold membership lapse to a silver account when it comes up for renewal.
The only other benefit is getting access to game demos a week early with a Gold membership, but I'm sure I can wait a week, can't I?
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