Having mentioned a number of possible games I was considering spending my CEX voucher on, I thought I would look at them in a little more detail to see if I can make a decision...
Virtua Fighter 5 (360) - Now I'm not entirely sure why but I suddenly really fancied getting this, which is a bit odd as I've already had it. I downloaded the demo and quite liked it, so I ordered it from Game on Christmas Eve for £17.99, a bit of a bargain at the time! It duly arrived before New Year and slipped into it's place in my rack still sealed. And there it sat. And sat. And sat. Eventually I started to believe that I would never crack the seal and decided to stick it up for sale. An offer eventually came in and I had second thoughts so I downloaded the demo again and gave it another whirl. No, I decided I didn't really like it and it should go so it was packaged up and posted off. On Saturday I had the game in my hand at CEX but eventually slipped it onto a shelf amongst the PSP games whilst I was in the queue. I've since downloaded the demo again and... well, I'm glad I didn't buy it as I don't think I like it. I think my desire for a good fighting game will hold until I can get my hands on Street Fighter 2 HD and Street Fighter IV.
Burnout Revenge (360)/Burnout Paradise (360) - I'll tackle these together, for obvious reasons! I've wanted a good racing game for a while and was thinking Burnout Paradise would fit the bill. I had tried demos of both of these and was very impressed. What impressed me even more was all the fantastic additions that have been released for Burnout Paradise, including the recent release of the bikes pack. That's amazing for a freebie! Paradise was another one I had in my hand at CEX, until I flipped it over and read the back and realised that there was no split-screen multiplayer! I can't understand that, I really can't. I still have the original Burnout on my Gamecube and think it's brilliant zipping in and out of the traffic and THAT version has split-screen multiplayer, so why is it missing from the latest version? When I realised this I checked whether Revenge had split-screen multiplayer and found that it did so it quickly came into contention. Unfortunately I couldn't find a copy in the store, but next time I'm in there (or another branch) I'll be checking for it again and am sure to be picking it up.
Army of Two (360) - Now this was more of a whim than anything. I play a lot of games with Player Two in co-op and I figured a game that is built from the ground up around co-op play could be pretty good. Reviews I have seen have been good rather than great so I felt that this was a bit overpriced (at £25) in CEX so didn't pick it up. If I'd seen it under £20 it would almost certainly been on my shelf now.
Conan (360) - At £10 this looked like a bit of a bargain. I've tried the demo and quite like it, although I can imagine it will likely become impossibly difficult at some point and will be one of those games that I never finish, which put me off somewhat.
Call of Duty 2 (360) - Another one I couldn't see on the shelves (I could see Call of Duty 3, which I've completed on Wii) but will be looking for again next time I'm in there. There has been quite a shift in FPS games towards multiplayer in recent years, with single player experiences suffering. There are a number of games where singleplayer mode is effectively the multiplayer mode with bots which I find becomes frustrating when your efforts don't seem to amount to much, or worse, when the team manages to win in spite of you! This is what helped to rule out Battlefield 2 and Frontlines.
So there you have it, it looks like the voucher is destined to be spent on Call of Duty 2 and Burnout Revenge next time I see them...
Wednesday, 15 October 2008
News
I'm thoroughly enjoying FIFA 09! Most of the matches I play are in the Manager Mode and I am ploughing through my first season at the moment in League Two. I also have a separate career going, playing the matches in co-op with Player Two where we are approaching the end of season one in the Championship. It's not been a great season, but we still have a slim chance of making the play-offs!
In other news I traded in a few games at CEX and picked up Fable The Lost Chapters (XBox) which I am loving! I've also got Battalion Wars 2 (Wii) but I've not had chance to try it yet. I still have £24 of credit to spend but couldn't decide what to buy with it. Possibilities are/were; Virtua Fighter 5 (360), Burnout Revenge (360), Army of Two (360), Conan (360), Burnout Paradise (360) and a couple of others...
It's a hard choice because funds for new games are becoming ever more limited so if I am going to get a game I have to be sure that I will enjoy it.
In other news I traded in a few games at CEX and picked up Fable The Lost Chapters (XBox) which I am loving! I've also got Battalion Wars 2 (Wii) but I've not had chance to try it yet. I still have £24 of credit to spend but couldn't decide what to buy with it. Possibilities are/were; Virtua Fighter 5 (360), Burnout Revenge (360), Army of Two (360), Conan (360), Burnout Paradise (360) and a couple of others...
It's a hard choice because funds for new games are becoming ever more limited so if I am going to get a game I have to be sure that I will enjoy it.
Tuesday, 7 October 2008
More on QoS
That's Quantum of Solace, not Question of Sport, but anyway...
As I said I am currently in a quandry, trying to decide between the PC, 360 and Wii version of the new Bond game. I was aware that there were different developers for different platforms, but I must admit that I had assumed that the 360 and PC (and PS3) versions would all be by the same developer, with the Wii being developed by the same team that's working on the PS2 version.
Not so!
The PC and Wii versions are being developed by Beenox, with the 360 and PS3 versions by Treyarch. For the record, Eurocom are handling the PS2 version. I have to admit that this fills me with hope for the Wii version. Too often Wii versions of cross-platform releases are based off the PS2 version with added motion controls, with the quality of the graphics on the Wii version suffering as a result. Hopefully with QoS the visuals will be more on a par with the PC demo I played recently, which has improved it's chances of being my chosen platform for the title no end! I do still want to try the 360 demo though as I can see it controlling wonderfully with the 360 pad...
As I said I am currently in a quandry, trying to decide between the PC, 360 and Wii version of the new Bond game. I was aware that there were different developers for different platforms, but I must admit that I had assumed that the 360 and PC (and PS3) versions would all be by the same developer, with the Wii being developed by the same team that's working on the PS2 version.
Not so!
The PC and Wii versions are being developed by Beenox, with the 360 and PS3 versions by Treyarch. For the record, Eurocom are handling the PS2 version. I have to admit that this fills me with hope for the Wii version. Too often Wii versions of cross-platform releases are based off the PS2 version with added motion controls, with the quality of the graphics on the Wii version suffering as a result. Hopefully with QoS the visuals will be more on a par with the PC demo I played recently, which has improved it's chances of being my chosen platform for the title no end! I do still want to try the 360 demo though as I can see it controlling wonderfully with the 360 pad...
Monday, 6 October 2008
Quantum of Solace
I've been uhming and aahing over this one for a few weeks. I'm a massive Bond fan and have the four Bond games released on the Cube on my shelf. (For the record; Agent Under Fire, Nightfire, Everything or Nothing and From Russia With Love!)
I found out that Coke were doing a promotion with codes on bottles of Coke Zero to allow you to download the demo for the PC version of QoS so I popped into the local shop on my way home and picked one up. Played some FIFA 09 (fantastic game!) while I waited for the download to complete and then had a quick bash.
I say quick, it was actually VERY quick as it's a very short demo. Disappointingly so actually, after all that downloading! Anyway, what was there was very nice and encouraging and I am fairly certain I'll be picking up a copy of this in due course, likely pre-owned or in a sale when the film exits the cinemas and sales of the game correspondingly lose momentum.
The big question is... which platform? I was really hoping that the game would be super smooth on my PC, but sadly that wasn't the case. I had to tone down a few of the options and although it still looked good I had been spoilt by seeing it run (albeit not particularly smoothly) with the settings ramped up. I'll keep an eye out for a 360 demo on the marketplace and will also consider the Wii version, although I'll be wanting to see a few reviews of that in the absence of a demo to try.
I found out that Coke were doing a promotion with codes on bottles of Coke Zero to allow you to download the demo for the PC version of QoS so I popped into the local shop on my way home and picked one up. Played some FIFA 09 (fantastic game!) while I waited for the download to complete and then had a quick bash.
I say quick, it was actually VERY quick as it's a very short demo. Disappointingly so actually, after all that downloading! Anyway, what was there was very nice and encouraging and I am fairly certain I'll be picking up a copy of this in due course, likely pre-owned or in a sale when the film exits the cinemas and sales of the game correspondingly lose momentum.
The big question is... which platform? I was really hoping that the game would be super smooth on my PC, but sadly that wasn't the case. I had to tone down a few of the options and although it still looked good I had been spoilt by seeing it run (albeit not particularly smoothly) with the settings ramped up. I'll keep an eye out for a 360 demo on the marketplace and will also consider the Wii version, although I'll be wanting to see a few reviews of that in the absence of a demo to try.
Sunday, 5 October 2008
Co-Op
No, I'm not popping out for a bar of Fair Trade chocolate, I'm just throwing up a link to a site I just discovered which focuses on co-op gaming; Co-Optimus.com.
I love a bit of co-op action personally, me and Player Boy have played through Eragon, Halo 1, Halo 2, Lego Star Wars The Complete Saga and a fair chunk of Castle Crashers all in co-op mode. I'd far rather co-op than compete as nobody ends up a loser... or you both do!
It's one of the reasons I'm currently enjoying Rainbow Six Vegas with Player Two so much and why I'm so looking forward to Lego Batman and LittleBigPlanet!
I love a bit of co-op action personally, me and Player Boy have played through Eragon, Halo 1, Halo 2, Lego Star Wars The Complete Saga and a fair chunk of Castle Crashers all in co-op mode. I'd far rather co-op than compete as nobody ends up a loser... or you both do!
It's one of the reasons I'm currently enjoying Rainbow Six Vegas with Player Two so much and why I'm so looking forward to Lego Batman and LittleBigPlanet!
Updates
I tried getting a bit clever with my blog the other day, changing the template and generally making it all fancy. Epic fail, in fact I nearly destroyed it altogether! You'll notice my top 5, my trade-in list, my pre-orders list and probably a couple of other things I forgot used to be here are all gone! I'll try and rebuild it over the next few days...
I've been playing a bit of FIFA 09 over the last couple of days and I have to say that it really is fantastic. So much better than FIFA 08 in so many ways! Yes, I'm (still) disappointed that you can't do Be-A-Pro mode with multiple players offline as you can in Euro 2008, but the rest of the package makes up for it. Highly recommended!
Player Boy and I completed Halo 2 yesterday so we'll be starting on Halo 3 in the near future. I'm starting to look out for other co-op games we can play through once we've completed that, but I'm also really hoping that the upcoming new Halo game will retain split-screen multiplayer co-op.
I finally lost patience with Vista on Thursday and have since installed a new drive and reinstalled Windows XP. I've got most of my apps reinstalled, but no games so far. I'll be installing Company of Heroes later though, I am anticipating a game of it with Player Two when he comes over this week.
I've been playing a bit of FIFA 09 over the last couple of days and I have to say that it really is fantastic. So much better than FIFA 08 in so many ways! Yes, I'm (still) disappointed that you can't do Be-A-Pro mode with multiple players offline as you can in Euro 2008, but the rest of the package makes up for it. Highly recommended!
Player Boy and I completed Halo 2 yesterday so we'll be starting on Halo 3 in the near future. I'm starting to look out for other co-op games we can play through once we've completed that, but I'm also really hoping that the upcoming new Halo game will retain split-screen multiplayer co-op.
I finally lost patience with Vista on Thursday and have since installed a new drive and reinstalled Windows XP. I've got most of my apps reinstalled, but no games so far. I'll be installing Company of Heroes later though, I am anticipating a game of it with Player Two when he comes over this week.
Friday, 3 October 2008
Sega's new console?!
As a former Dreamcast owner, it warms my heart to see news of Sega making a new console. I thought the Dreamcast was a fantastic little machine with some great games.
Okay, the controller design was questionable at best, but the idea of the VMU and the portable games downloaded to it was great and I'd love to see this revisited in the future! With the advances in technology since the Dreamcast launched (November 1998 in Japan, fact fans!) this could work brilliantly.
Anyway, read the details here.
Okay, the controller design was questionable at best, but the idea of the VMU and the portable games downloaded to it was great and I'd love to see this revisited in the future! With the advances in technology since the Dreamcast launched (November 1998 in Japan, fact fans!) this could work brilliantly.
Anyway, read the details here.
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