Current Gaming List

So then, I thought I would just have a general ramble about some of the games I have been playing recently and my opinions on a certain upcoming one.


Let’s start with the upcoming one.

Rock Band:
Ah yes, Rock Band. Guitar Hero on steroids. My co-blogger earlier posted his opinions on this game, which contains a lot of information, so I’m not going to labour the point on the technical side. Suffice to say that I will not be jumping on the Rock Bandwagon, for three prime reasons.
First reason is money - £140 for a game. Seriously, are you kidding me?
Second reason is dedication – I never played Guitar Hero enough to justify £140.
Third reason is space – Where the hell would I put all of that crap?
If I want to play guitar, I’ll load up Guitar Hero III, or, you know, play a real guitar (but that takes effort). If I want to sing out of tune, I’ll go down to my local pub on karaoke night. As for the drums… Well, there are always the tupperware tubs in the kitchen and a wooden spoon, I guess.

Golden Axe:
A real classic. I realise this has been on Xbox Live Arcade for a good while now, but I only just got around to downloading it. I first played this one on the SEGA MegaDrive, many, many years ago. The game’s a lot shorter than I remember it, though. I can play through the whole thing in about 10 minutes. Still, the “Beat the game without dying” achievement will keep me occupied for a while. This was well worth 400MS Points, in my opinion, for the nostalgia factor if nothing else.

The Bourne Conspiracy Demo:
Thank God, they didn’t give the character Matt Damon’s face. I mean, let’s be honest, celebrity faces in games always look awful. Regardless, this demo has actually piqued my curiosity, which has marginally surprised me, as there is a lot wrong with it. For starters, the cover system and the targeting are awful. Completely and utterly awful. Using cover in games isn’t exactly a new concept anymore, so I’m shocked they managed to mess it up quite so badly. The targeting is similarly abysmal; no auto-lock to speak of, which would be fine if Jason Bourne didn’t move his gun around like it was made of solid lead. Top-secret CIA assassins are supposed to be able to aim their gun quickly and efficiently, not spend 10 seconds swivelling (take that whichever way you choose).
What I feel the developers have got right is the hand-to-hand combat system. It plays and feels like Jason Bourne fights; fast, heavy and lethal. You can really feel the thuds as Jason lands those punches, and the takedown manoeuvres are excellent; a couple of times they made me wince, such as when you see a US Marine’s head being smashed into a stone wall. Ouch. Now if only they’d let Niko Bellic fight like that.

This brings me on to…

Grand Theft Auto IV:
The daddy. The don. The dog’s bollocks of today’s gaming world. I’ve been playing this game a lot recently, as have been most gamers for that matter. The game is not without it’s faults (such as the hand-to-hand combat), but it is nevertheless an excellent game. Even after having completed the main storyline twice (I replayed it to get the Liberty City Minute achievement for 30G) I’ve still not got sick of playing the single-player mode. I’m dutifully striving towards that elusive 100% completion achievement. The achievements in Grand Theft Auto IV are a lot of fun to get, too. Surviving 5 minutes on a six-star wanted level was a blast – I can’t believe some people cheated to get this one. I mean, fair enough, I’m all for achievement whoring, I want those gamerpoints as much as the next junkie. But seeing an achievement unlock after having done it the ‘right’ way is just so much more satisfying, and the methods are arguably a lot more fun, also. In my case, I was gunning it through Algonquin in an Inferno, dodging cars, Police, SWAT, FBI, military helicopters and bullets while shooting people with a pistol through my broken car window, blazing through Star Junction at break-neck speeds with explosions and mayhem all around me and Liberty Rock Radio pumping out Heaven and Hell by Black Sabbath. For me, that’s what this game’s all about. Pure ADRENALINE, baby! (That’s Brucie, if you didn’t guess).

Or, you know, you could sit under a bridge for five minutes. Whatever floats your boat.

Jumping on the (Rock) Bandwagon?

Rock Band is but days away from it's European release, and I'm starting to get rather excited (It looks like Play.com aren't going to screw up my order and I should have it by Friday).

Rock Band's main competitor in the rhythm based music games would be the Guitar Hero series, ironically created by Rock Band developers Harmonix, which they developed until being bought by MTV Games after the release of Guitar Hero II. Activision, who owned the actual Guitar Hero IP decided to pass on the duty of developing Guitar Hero III to Tony Hawk's developer Neversoft.

Now Activision have begun publicly discussing their plans for Guitar Hero IV, and guess what? It's going to come with a drumkit and microphone. Sounds an awful lot like Rock Band to me. Not to be outdone by the team at Harmonix though, Activision have stated that their drums for GH4 will have no less than five drums and a bass drum pedal, that's one more than Rock Band, which has only four drums and a bass drum pedal.

Don't think the competition for Rock Band ends there though. Only last week Konami announced Rock Revolution, which from early reports looks like it's going to combine Guitar Freaks, Drummania and Karaoke Revolution, the games that start the whole rhythm based music game genre in the first place. And of course, Konami have to go one better than Guitar Hero IV, and have announced that their drumkit will have six drums and a bass drum pedal. I can't help but think that six drums is going to get awfully confusing.

Rock Band has been selling very, very well Stateside, so Harmonix have very little need to worry, for the moment. Things will mush tougher when Activision and Konami bring their efforts to the market. Rock Band 2 is already rumoured to be in the works, ready for release around Christmas time in the States, and as long as they stick to their proven formula, then I believe they'll be onto a winner.

One final thought for today. If Activision do go down the Band route that they're talking about at the minute, they'll not be able to call it Guitar Hero any more, since it's not just guitar based. They'll have to call it something like Rock Ba....oh, wait.

Unleashed

On the 19th of September (or the 16th in the United States), the Force is being unleashed. Taking the role of Darth Vader’s secret Sith apprentice, players of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed will assist dear old Anakin with the extermination of the remaining Jedi throughout the entire galaxy.

Set between Episodes III and IV, the storyline is completely endorsed by George Lucas himself – Although these days that could be seen as both a good and a bad thing, depending on your view on the matter.

The trailers and videos of the game play look outstanding though, truth be long. The environment is as realistic as possible, brags LucasArts, thanks to something called Digital Molecular Matter; wood splinters as wood would (no pun intended), and metal bends appropriately. Not only this, but the characters and enemies in the game are under the control of the Euphoria engine – the same engine that influences the people in the recently released Grand Theft Auto IV.

As the Official Site says on the topic of the Euphoria engine, “Imagine a simple Force push aimed at stormtroopers on a narrow bridge. With Euphoria in action, characters visibly attempt to balance themselves: Their feet stumble, their arms flail, and their hands reach for security as the force exuded towards them threatens to send them plummeting to their doom. Perhaps they all survive. Perhaps they all fall. The use of Euphoria means the action isn’t scripted – it’s simulated – so you’ll never be able to predict exactly what will happen, no matter how many times you’ve experienced a certain scenario.”

Sounds damned good if you ask me. If you’ve not seen any of the videos of the various powers and combos available to you as an apprentice of Darth Vader, check out the official site, they have many of them up there. Star Wars: the Force Unleashed looks like it’s going to be an extremely fun game to play, and has the potential of having some very original achievements, too - “Throw 10,000 Stormtroopers” type of thing. And if you think that would take a long, long time, think again. In order to counterbalance the “over-the-top” powers you’ll have at your command, enemies will be thrown at you left, right and centre.

There is one downside to this game, though: The exclusion of a multiplayer mode on the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions. I think LucasArts have missed a real chance to make this a truly great game. I was much looking forward to duelling with a friend over Xbox Live. However, you may have noticed that I only pointed out the 360 and PS3 versions. This is because the Nintendo Wii, Nintendo DS and Sony PSP versions will all have multiplayer capability. A little unfair, if you ask me, and completely unexplained; to quote a LucasArts spokesperson, “So, there isn’t multiplayer and that’s kind of how it is.”

Nevertheless, the game looks set to be an excellent jaunt into the Star Wars universe, using your powers to wreak havoc wherever you go – Because as everyone knows, it’s simply more fun to be evil.

Fable II is approaching…

… And I am mightily excited. I am looking forward to this game perhaps even more than I was looking forward to Grand Theft Auto IV.

The original Fable held my attention for a long, long time. While it was a slight disappointment in some areas, the game itself was still a masterpiece, giving a level of freedom and character customisation never before seen in an RPG.

The second instalment in the Fable series seems set, once again, to push the boundaries of what RPGs can do – that is if Peter Molyneux hasn’t just been blowing smoke up our arses.

I am very interested in the three Xbox Live Arcade games, which are going to be released in the weeks running up to the launch of Fable II. Entitled Keystone, Mage Dice and Wizard’s Tower these games will allow you to earn gold before the game is even out, allowing you to potentially becoming rich without even playing the game; an innovative feature if ever I saw one.

The Developer Diaries offer a tantalising glimpse into the offices of Lionhead Studios, covering such aspects of the development such as love and emotions, combat, graphics and magic. There are even more to come and I’m looking forward to getting a more in-depth view into Albion.

The one aspect of the game that I feel a little dubious about, however, is the inclusion of guns, but I hope they’ve introduced them in a tasteful manner, rather than making characters with guns ridiculously overpowered.

Either way, this is the main game that I have been looking forward to this year, and with only a few months left until release (sometime in the ‘Fall’), the excitement is growing.

Welcome Belmat22.

Just though I'd take a minute to indroduce the newest (and only other) member of the writing team Belmat22.

He'll be contributing as and when he has anything interesting to say, which may be never, we'll see.

Be gentle with him.

Balanced on a Mirror's Edge.

Taking the gaming community on the internet by storm at the minute is a little video that was shown at the SCEE PlayStation day a week or two ago. That game is Mirror's Edge from EA's Digital Illusions in Stockholm, Sweden.

From what's been released about Mirror's Edge we know this. You play Faith and faith runs. And jumps. And slides. And climbs. And kicks the living shit out of heavily armed guards. And it looks awesome.

Just from watching the trailer you really get a good feel for the momentum of the game. Well time jumps and slides will allow the player to keep moving, eventually reaching full speed. It's all about movement, and how you really should keep it up. There's a real sense of urgency about it, like you really need to get away from those who are pursuing you. It really does look very promising.

For those of you who haven't seen the video yet, GameTrailers.com have it in High Definition for your viewing pleasure. And make sure you have the sound turned up. The music is simply amazing.

Mirror's Edge is due to hit Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC sometime this year hopefully, and it's definitely one to keep an eye on in the coming months.

Grand Theft Auto Bore?

Okay, so this is my first entry, and it's likely to be a controversial one, and I might recieve some harsh criticism (if anyone actually reads this), but I'm going to carry on regardless. So here goes.

As with (seemingly) the majority of people who own an Xbox 360 or a PS3 I've been playing Grand Theft Auto IV lately. For those of you who have been living under a rock or on another planet for the last few years GTA IV places you in the shoes of the Eastern European immigrant Niko Bellic, fresh off of the boat in the increasingly New York-esque Liberty City lured by the promise of the American Dream, something he has heard much about from his cousin Roman. However Niko soon realises that life in America is not all fast cars, big houses and loose women that he was promised it was, and ends up gradually finding himself more and more involved in Liberty City's criminal underworld.

And so starts Grand Theft IV. Sounds somewhat familar right? But that's to be expected really. It is Grand Theft Auto after all, and Grand Theft Auto has a way of doing things, and it does these things very well. Most of the time.

So the game arrives on the day of release, and I eagerly make the journey home from work so that I can finally see what all the fuss was about, and why it was getting near perfect scores across the board from both internet and magazine reviews. A few weeks on and I'm still trying to work out exactly why GTA IV deserves these perfect, or near perfect scores.

Yes, it's a good game. No one can argue that it's not. Yes, it's an amazing technical achievement. Liberty City has never felt more alive (or should I say lived in?). Yes, the characters have much more personality this time around, and are far less two dimensional than the characters in previous GTA games. Yes, the missions are (almost) exactly the same as every other GTA game since Grand Theft Auto III.

"But it's GTA, what do you expect?" I hear you all crying. I don't know exactly. I did expect to be able to play the game for more than an hour without getting bored and turning it off. I expected to play the missions and no have a weird feeling of deja vu, as if I'd done them all before. For all the cool new things Rockstar have put in, it all feels a little too samey for me so I just can't get into it.

Oh well. At least there's multiplayer, which is great fun when playing with a group of mates.

In other news, Rock Band hits the UK next week after an excrutiatingly long wait. With any luck Play.com will come through for me and deliver it on the day of release. That should be good.