Happy Christmas Everyone

This will probably be my last post of 2007 so I'd like to wish all the many readers of this fine Blog (you know who your are) a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year packed with gaming goodness.

The "Complete" List - 2007 total.

Canis Canem Edit
Splinter Cell: Double Agent
Prey
Crackdown
Tiger Woods PGA 07 (career completed)
Call of Duty 2 (regular)
Double Dragon
Resistance: Fall of Man
Loco Roco (All Stages Cleared)
Colin McRae DiRT (Career completed)
Daxter
Forza Motorsport 2 (Career & Arcade 100% complete)
Medal of Honour: Airbourne (Casual)
Halo 3
Bioshock
PGR4 (World No. 1 Career & All medals silver Arcade)
Half Life 2
Episode One and Two
Call of Duty 4 (Normal)
Uncharted: Drakes Fortune (Easy)

Finished this yesterday although I'm rather embarassed to say my girlfriend finished it first and on Normal so she's better than me.

It's an enjoyable game. For me it could have done with a few more puzzles and maybe a bit more platforming and a bit less shooting but it's a great game.

Review of the Year - Part 2

The second part of my review of the year is probably the most important. It's the album of the year. I'm doing them in top five, reverse order, to fit in with part one but readers should be aware that there isn't much difference between position 4 to 1.

5. Kanye West - Graduation

There seemed to be some dissappointment surrounding Kanye's third album. Not as far as I'm concerned. What it lacks in out right killer singles it makes up for by being a more concise body of work free of skits, filler and that other common hip hop problem of quantity of quality. It's got a darker more synth based feel, less reliant on the samples of old, and some of the rhymes are a little ropey but he's still the most exciting talent in commercial hip hop by some margin.

4. Kings of Leon - Because the Times

The single 'On Call' was the first song of Kings that I really loved so I wasn't sure what to expect from the album. It's as lean, snake hipped and down right rocking as the Caleb brothers themselves. The first track is an epic opener and it's pretty much foot to the floor all the way to the end. Rock doesn't get much more exciting.

3. Stephen Fretwell - Man on the Roof

In a sea of male singer songwriters awash with averageness (stand up Blunt, Morrison and Faulkener) Fretwell should be massive. Probably my most listened to album of the year. The kind of record you want to put on as soon as it's finished. Thoroughly recommended.

2. Arcade Fire - Neon Bible

Was so nearly my album of the year and the would of gotten away for it if it wasn't for those darn meddling kids...

1. Arctic Monkeys - Worst Favourite Nightmare

Probably the best british rock album since Definetly Maybe. Anyone of 10 tracks out of 11 could probably of been a single. The songs are packed with ideas, tunes and great lyrics. It also get's better and better as it goes along. Loved it.

Currently Playing : Quick Round Up.

A quick update on the games I have on the go at the minute.

Ratchet and Clank: Tools of Destruction

I'm basically at the last boss and it just needs polishing off and adding to the list.. Probably followed by another play through trying to hoover up all the gold bots and plan pieces.

Uncharted: Drakes Fortune

Hit the last level (22 for those that want to know) only to find it's bastarding hard as nails even on easy and lacks a decent checkpoint.. Put to one side for the moment.

Assassin's Creed

I've done 7 of the nine assasinations and about 3/4 of the side quests.. It's a very frustrating game to play. Compounded by the 8th assassination being based in the harbour. Which has a number of walkways, some boats and some poles sticking out of the water. One wrong move and you're in the drink. Guess what? Altair can't swim. Very annoying. I'll probably try and battle through to the end having spent as much time as I have already on it.. But it's not fun.

Super Mario Galaxy

I now need 19 stars to provide enough power to get to the centre of the universe (or some such). It's like the Anti-sassin Creed. Can't say I'm putting in massive sessions a la the EDGE fan boys but it's fun to switch on, collect a couple of stars, and switch off again.

Purchase Power

God bless the Play monster sale. I've ordered Overlord and Sega Rally for £18 each.

I had my eye on Sega Rally prior to launch but found myself all driven out with DiRT, PGR4 and Forza 2, but at that price it's got to be bought. Besides I'm all up for some driving action again now. I nearly bought it from my local HMV the other day for £28 off the shelf but figured it'd hit the online sales soon enough.

Overlord is more of an impulse purchase.

Why do my hands sweat so much...

... when playing my Wii.. I should point out that I'm not a particularly sweaty person. I'm fair skinned and I'm only playing Super Mario Galaxy so it's not like I'm putting huge amounts of effort in either.. And yet half an hour or so in my hands are sweating like nobodys business. It's made the shiny surface of the Wii-mote and nunchuck rather mucky too.. I don't get this problem with my other consoles..

On the subject of SMG nice to see EDGE print 3 fanboy letters regarding it in this months issue (184) all pretty much raving about how it's re-ignited their love of gaming. I mean obviously I expected it to clean up at the awards (funny how it even wins best audio the day after I complain I can't turn it off) . Not sure what's meant by 'rim lighting' either. My favourite letter is the one where the guy compliments it on the cartoon style trees.. Apparently realisticly rendered trees are just getting in the way of good gaming..

After the EDGE message board went mental after lasts months PS3 cover story (mainly suspecting bungs or pro PS3 bias from EDGE) it'll be interesting to see if anything is said about this months Ninty love in. I'm not holding my breath

Review of the Year - part 1

And so the time has come where we traditionally look back on the year. 2007 has been a very solid year for games. I've had plenty to get stuck into and really it's been the year of the 360 for me. While it's still no where near breaking into the mainstream market (to my way of thinking anyway) the steady stream of excellent driving and FPS's has been a gamers wet dream. Well perhaps not quite that exciting but not far off.. It's not had it all it's own way though as the PS3 has finally had some games to smile about.

So in reverse order here are my highlights.

5. Ratchet & Clank : Tools of Destruction

Far and away my favourite PS3 game of the year. It's always nice when something comes out of nowhere to provide one of the most flat out entertaining experiences of the year. It doesn't do anything particularly new but it's been polished until it shines both graphically and more importantly gameplay wise as well. A must have PS3 game.

4. PGR 4

Probably the game PGR3 should've been. For me neither of the 360s efforts have captured the multiplayer magic of the second game on X-Box but as a single player driving experience it's hard to beat. A great selection of cars and tracks and an awful lot less dry than Forza 2. Combine a great career mode with a fun arcade mode and many happy hours where spent on this in '07

3. Super Mario Galaxy

My first (And still only) experience of Wii delights from the first wave of teh Wii-mote. Yes there's an annoying ice level, Nintendo still insist on giving you 'lives' in this day and age, you still can't turn the music off and it's very annoying to have to press teh 'A' button about 30 times per conversation... but somehow none of it matters. The thrill of navagating the worlds and collecting star bits helped by a fantastic in game camera makes for a joyful experience.

2. Bioshock

Notably the only new IP to make my top 5 Bioshock submerges (haha) you in it's world right from the off. Exploring Rapture and gleaning details about the world you're in is every bit as much fun as shooting and using your plasmid abilities.. Some may say that it didn't fulfil it's early potential but that's rather to miss the point of what it does achieve. Great characters, Great enviroments, A involving plot that doesn't lead you by the nose and some solid gameplay.

1. The Orange Box

It was going to take a lot to better Bioshock this year and it's not just the generosity of this package from Valve that means it takes the top spot. I haven't tried Team Fortress yet (there's been a lot of stuff to play and this year has seen multiplayer gaming take a back seat for me) but from the surreal voice over of Portal to the cliff hanging ending of Episode Two there isn't a duff moment in the Box.

Currently Playing : Uncharted: Drake's Fortune

I've put a bit more time into this than I normally would before posting my first impressions purely because I so wanted it to be good. It's not like me to get carried away I know.. But better safe than sorry.

Technically it's a very accomplished looking game for PS3 and proof again that whilst it may not be easy to programme for there's very little excuse for shoddy PS3 games apart from lazy developers. There's some great graphical touches such as Drake's outfit drying in real time and the foliage and fauna is very pretty.

The acutal game itself is pretty much a mix of Gears of War style duck and cover combat and the recent Tomb Raider adventuring. There's not much in the way of puzzles and if your stuck for too long hints pop up on screen steering you on the way. I wasn't a huge fan of the combat at first, especially seeing as I think the amount of ammo you can carry at anyone time is a bit on the tight side, but after a bit of practice it turns out to be quite good fun. All sorts of weapons are left lying around but you can only carry one pistol and one rifle size weapon at a time. This leads to lot of scavangeing on the fly as the bad guys pile in a t quite a rate of knots. The grenade launcher has become a particular favourite of mine.

The exploring is reasonable fun and fluid. I've just reached level 10 and so far the various levels have been varied and good looking. At first I was a little dissappointed with the game. Possibly because my expectations where so high... But it's winning me over. Certainly the plot, whilst hokey, is enough to drive me on and has plenty of Naughty Dogs humour sprinkled about. So perhaps not a classic but certainly a worth while purchase.

Purchase Power

Being very unlikely to get any game based action for Christmas I thought it was fairly safe to rush out and buy Uncharted: Drake's Fortune today.

Despite trecking all round town though I couldn't find it a penny under £44.99. I have great faith in Naughty Dog. We could be seeing the beginning of a golden age of PS3 gaming.

Crowded House - Brighton Centre.

It's been a long time since Crowded House split. In that time Neil Finn has released a couple of solo albums and one with his older brother Tim. All three have been competent but none have quite had the magic of his work with the band. Sadly Paul Hester, the original drummer, commited suicide a couple of years ago. Although he'd already left the band before they split the first time.

Either way you look at it there has been a lot of water under the bridge since I last saw Crowded House live on their Together Alone tour. There's also an album of slightly dissappointing new material to go along with the reformation.

However when the lights go down and the band kick in to 'Private Universe' it's clear that there's plenty of enthusiasm for being back together and there's plenty of sparky banter between Neil and bassist Nick Seymour just like in the old days. There's little in the way of gimmick. Neil is amongst the finest song writers of his generation and on stage there's plenty of punch and power that really allow the songs to shine.

It's a good set list with a smattering of new material in amongst the hits and even a few rarerties and album tracks. The new material sounded better live than on record benefitting from the extra volume and rawness. Personally I'd loved to have heard 'Hole in the River' but otherwise I was very happy with the song selection. Overall it was great gig.

They've recorded several of teh shows and a selection of live albums where available to purchase at the venue. I bought the Glasgow show so I'll let you know what I think.

Currently Playing : Round Up

Another mixed weekend of gaming so another round up of what I've been playing to keep your all informed.

My 360 registered it's 50th day streak of continual play on Friday and it has indeed been a golden few months for M$ next gen hope... However with Assassin's Creed starting to dissappoint and annoy in equal measure now it's had its quietest weekend for a long while registering a big zero in play time for me.. Next stop PH's 360 offering mine advice on how to spend its down time.

The PS3 was the main beneficary of this as Rachet & Clank continues to be an absolute joy to play. It's also a pretty decent length. Reached the last boss last night after a two hour session and I didn't really have the patience for it so I'll try and polish it off tonight. Silent Hill 2 remained untouched this week but that may well change.

And so on the arrival of the Wii.. I set it up on Sunday afternoon. It eventually slotted in beside my Amp under the telly in it's up right position. The Sensor bar went on top of the Bravia and it's silver and black construction is an almost perfect match.

Having picked up Super Mario Galaxy I decided to try that first and leave the bundled Wii Sports for another day. I should also say that despite PH's recommendation of picking up a composite lead has been ignored for the moment. I'm using the bundled A/V connection as the only spare slot on the back of my TV is Scart one and so for convenience that'll do for now.

First impressions of the game where indeed favourable compared to my only other 3d Mario comparison SM Sunshine, Shaking the Remote to attack and smash is ok but so far I'm not finding it easy to move mario and pick up the starbits with remote. It does show a lot of promise though. I particularly enjoyed one level which was a glass cylinder with several floors.. the twist being that depending on the arrows on the core/wall the ceiling became the floor and vice versa. Very inventive. I reached the first bee level and had to call it a night. So far a cautious thumbs up for both game and Wii.

Wii have an arrival!

I've just had confirmation from home that my Wii has arrived! It turned into a bit of a palava cos the carrier service the seller uses wouldn't deliver to the Isle of Man for the £15 he was charging for postage and to cut a long story short I ended up paying an extra £5 for it to go by post special delivery.. Considering the mark up on the Wii I felt it was a little cheeky to ask for the extra £5 but what the hell..

Purchase Power

Apparently a new feature where I tell you how I've spent the cash.

Just won a Wii on eBay (If I say won it wont feel quite so painful). It's apparently brand new and unopened. If I've got the willpower I'll keep it unopened until Christmas Day and give it to myself as a present. Otherwise I may test it to be on the safe side.

Currently Playing: Ratchet & Clank: Tools of Destruction

I didn't have high hopes for this on a wet sunday afternoon when I fired it up.. It takes a couple of minutes on first starting while it sets itself up (Or decides whether it likes the cut of your jib perhaps) and then, after a short intro movie that sets up the story, your away.

If Heavenly Sword showed what the PS3 was graphically capable of R&C adds a large slice of gaming cake to the glorious graphical icing. It's basically a mix of platforming and shooting with a selection of comedy weapons.

Insominiac (who have prior experience of developing on PS3) have clearly started to get to grips with the power of the PS3.. After hearing lots about inferior PS3 versions of multi format titles it's clearly lazy/poor programming. In the hands of Insominiac a vivid and huge three dimensional world is brought to life. There's so much going on on screen what with the bullets, the enemies, the bolts, the bullets, the explosions oh and did I mention the bullets zipping about that you'd forgive Insominiac for the occasional drop in frame rate but it's rock solid.

It's not the only thing that's rock solid either. The game play has been polished until it almost shines with fun and varitety. The large selection of upgradeable weapons combined with either a manual aiming system or straffeing means the shooting never gets dull and the beautiful expansive levels are fun to explore (I even found myself looking for golden bolts).

There's also some great use of SIXAXIS (finally!!) that feels well considered rather than shoe horned in. Once instance involves aiming a huge mining lazer and another involves a clever mini game that lets you stear a 'sort of ball' around a circuit board to complete gaps in circuit.

I could go on about all the nice touches and the geuine 'laugh out loud' comedy moments and the fact that I spent almost 7 hours in a row in a single sitting on it yesterday afternoon.. Something that rarely happens these days..

A couple of complaints though. Firstly the spaceship piloting levels don't let you invert the vertical axis for either you flight or aiming controls which is almost unforgivable and the mini game that involves some tricky puzzles clears the screen when you pause so you can't study it while you think.

It seems that Uncharted has some competition to be best PS3 action game. As for us PS3 owners? Time to be pleased that some genuine quality exclusives are finally coming to reward us for keeping the faith.

Together Alone.. ?

Just browsing the Guardian Arts website (Didn't leave the house yesterday to buy The Times) and they've been publishing a five part list entitled "1000 albums to hear before you die" (Possibly connected to the books of similar title I've seen in Waterstones). Readers where invited to submit albums they felt had been over looked..

Now I consider myself to be reasonably well listened too.. (apart from Jazz, I'm old. Just not that old) but man I'd never heard of 95% of them.. However one hidden gem in the list was Crowded Houses album Together Alone. Released after the better known and more commerical Woodface album it saw Tim Finn leave the band and the remaining members decamp back to New Zealand to write and record.

Together Alone may not feature a single as catchy as "Weather With You" but it's by far their most complete work. I was lucky enough to catch them touring the album and it sounded as good live with the Mauri chorus and drumming as it does on record.

I've tickets to see the re-union Gig in a couple of weeks which I'm looking forward to despite being a touch dissappointed with the new album.

Currently Playing: Round Up.

Sunday was spent all star gaming for me. Two new games and a quick update of another in progress.. So let's start from the beginning.

Assassin's Creed

First stop of the day. I can pretty much see everything that EDGE critise in their review but somehow it doesn't matter to me. It's a very on involving game to play. I'd completed the first three assassinations (One in each of the major cities) when I sat down to play. The map screen involved me that each of the three Guilds (The Assassin's Guilds are where you pick up your cases and where you have to reach when the job is done) had a case for me. I arrived in the first city. Got the job but there where no icons on the map to let me know where the investigations could be found. The map screen helpfully tells you to climb high spots to find things out. Sadly said vantage points had already been found and scaled by me. This seemed rather annoying but I wanted to play some more so I headed to the next city. Basically the same thing happeneded again. No investigation icons despite this city having some vantage points left it still did no good. Not happy. I switched the 360 off.

Silent Hill 2

Next up some old school Survival Horror. Old school being the word. I know the mist is part of the atmosphere and the grainy visuals are a tribute to japanese horror movies but man these visuals couldn't have been cutting edge at the time. It turns out it's a long walk to Silent Hill. Literally. About 15 minutes along one path. Along the way you meet one person who obviously tells you to avoid SH. You don't listen. What you can hear is occasional grunts from the mist. Eventually you reach town and realise exactaly how unfriendly games used to be. No tutorial. No button prompts. No hints (Apart from our hero turning is head to look at collectables). No real clue as to where to head in the town. As it turns out, like the first game, some exploration leads to a lot of dead ends. I follow a trail of blood and find a wooden stick and my trusty radio. It was bad enough in the fog before. Now the crackles of static warn of impending attack it starts to get a little bit nervy. I find a key and make my way into the apartments. I save and decide that that's enough for now...

Purchase Power

So wandering around WHsmiths looking for Russell Brand (See below) I spied Ratchet & Clank: ToD for £39.99.. A quick look at Play.com when I got back confirmed that their price for it was the same....

After a moments contemplation I caved in ran back and purchased it with two crisp twenty pound notes... Justifying it thus: The PS3 needs a work out.. I can probably trade it in for Uncharted without losing to much money on it if I don't like it.

Currently Playing : Uncharted Demo

A playable demo of Uncharted : Drakes Fortune finally arrived in the UK PSN Store last night. My regular reader will remember my enthusiasm for all things Naughty Dog and indeed has already played the demo himself.

I rather enjoyed the opening movie and it's nice to see the humour so well used in Jak & Daxter remaining in place.

The demo itself contained rather too much shooting for my liking. I don't know whether it's my lousey aiming abilities, The PS3s rather crap analogue sticks (In comparison to the superior ones on the 360 pad) or what seemed to me a rather poor aiming system (some how it doesn't seem as intuitive as virtually the same system in Gears of War) but I didn't find the combat particularly satisfying. Not helped by the pistol having a stupidly small maximum capacity of 40 shots. Meaning that I'd run out of bullets frequently and before I could go and harvest the bullets dropped by the downed pirates more where on the way and shooting at me.

I restarted on Easy (as opposed to Normal) but it didn't seem to make a world of difference. It's still a must have title for me but I'm hoping that as teh game progresses there isn't quite such a high combat ratio as in teh opening level.

Plug in Baby.

I acutally made the effort to tune in to Johnathon Ross's Friday night TV show last night. A rare occurance in itself. But the quality of the guests plugging their latest wares was too high for me to resist. Jack Dee (Series one of Lead Balloon on DVD!), Daniel Craig (The Golden Compass coming soon to a theatre near you!) and my personal favourite Russell Brand (New Book and Tour DVD!).

Now Russell was on particularly good form and as the DVD was filmed on the tour that I saw live when he came to the fair Isle of Man earlier this year I thought I'd pop down the high street on my lunch hour and purchase myself a copy.

No such luck. Woolworths has three celebrity endorsed football clip comedy DVDs and Jim Davisons latest tour DVD but nothing from Mr Brand. Off down to HMV to find once again I leave empty handed. They have literally a rack full of Bottom DVD's... That laughter free Rik Mayal and Ade Edmudson TV series but no Russell.

I returned to work and orderded said DVD from Play.

Is PS3 the new Gamecube?

Let's look at the evidence

1. It's a distant third place in terms of harware sales.
2. First Party titles seem to be the only ones able to exploit the power of the machine
3. Constant price cuts and bundles
   
4. Third Party developers shipping either shoddy/late conversions or deciding not to support the machine at all
5. PAL users treated with disdain (See PSN and Dualshock 3 unavailable until '08)
6. Also available in purple

Well maybe not available in purple but you get the picture.

The "complete" List

Canis Canem Edit
Splinter Cell: Double Agent
Prey
Crackdown
Tiger Woods PGA 07 (career completed)
Call of Duty 2 (regular)
Double Dragon
Resistance: Fall of Man
Loco Roco (All Stages Cleared)
Colin McRae DiRT (Career completed)
Daxter
Forza Motorsport 2 (Career & Arcade 100% complete)
Medal of Honour: Airbourne (Casual)
Halo 3
Bioshock
PGR4 (World No. 1 Career & All medals silver Arcade)
Half Life 2
Episode One and Two
Call of Duty 4 (Normal)

A Herculian effort by me towards the end of the year to finish games in time for the release of the next big thing has seen me finish more games in a year than possibly ever before.

I particularyly enjoyed Call of Duty 4. As I mentioned in my CP post it had the feel of a Hollywood blockbuster and pretty much maintained this all the way through until a specatcular chase sequence at the end followed by a great showdown that managed to feel both dramatic and satisfying without being a wanky boss battle.

My only worry is with the number of big franchises on high numbers.. CoD 4 and PGR4 have been highlights of the year for me... But am I looking forward to doing it all again a fifth time?

Currently Watching: House Season 3

After what seemed like the longest wait for the boxset to be released Season Three of House M.D. has been purchased, and indeed, watched by me.

Three seasons in and Dr Greg House, played by that greatest living English man Hugh Laurie, continues to be not only one of the greatest TV doctors but possibly one of the greatest TV characters of modern times.

After a slowish start dealing with the cliff hanging ending of Season Two it's soon business as usual with House taking on and curing the cases no one else can. However in this season, more so even than two, the cases are less important this time around than the relationships House has with Cuddy, Wilson and the rest of the gang. It's compelling viewing. As with all good TV it engages the mind and the emotion.

My only complaints where the slightly downbeat run to the end of the season of the last couple of episodes compared to the drama at the end of Season two and the subplot involving a Police Detective with a vendetta against House showed house caving in three of four times which didn't really sit well. I wanted House to come out on top through his superior skills.

Still complusive viewing.

Expensive Hill!

For those that can't abide a cliff hanger I finally won a copy of Silent Hill Collection on eBay for the princely sum of £39.64..

Hopefully I'll manage to get the bulk of that back when I complete it and resell it.

Currently Playing: Assassin's Creed

I've spent a couple of hours on Assassin's Creed (referred to from here on in as AC) and so I'll offer my first impressions. Whilst it's a new IP you can feel the influence of a lot of other titles in the way it looks, feels and plays. There's the washed out desert, almost medievil, feel of Ico. The way stealth is at the heart of the game feels very Metal Gear. You start the game with all your weapons and powers and then get demoted, lose them all, and have to earn them back Metroid style. And lots more besides.

The 'twist' as such isn't really a twist at all (I wont however reveal it here) as it's part of the set up of the game. As a twist to be revealed at the end it would've been wanky. As it is it allows for some of the gameplay mechanics to be reasonably explained and works in practice better than it might have sounded.

The first 'powered up' section is rather disjointed as the game alloys you to play for a while 'tutorial style' and then fast forwards. My other complaint is that at first the control scheme seems rather fussy. Altair normally moves in a kind of civilian mode where he attracts little attenion. A press of the 'A' button allows him to blend in with the crowd. To access his action mode requires a press of 'RT' and then another button to actually carry out said action. So for instance to sprint requires the left stickl to be pushed forwards, Right Trigger and then a press of the 'A' button. Perversely once actually engaged in some free running, such as scaling a building, it's rather over simple because you can let go of 'RT' and 'A' and move Altair around with just the left stick hopping from ledge to outcrop as he ascends. It doesn't give quite the same satisfaction as Crackdown did. It's a flexible system however helped by an icon in the top right of the HUD that allows you to see what you can do at any one moment.

A lot of thought seems to have gone into how an assassin might actually operate. On your first mission you first have to evedrop on a conversation, Follow up the lead by trailing a suspect, beat a confession out of him and then return him to your superior for sentanceing.

It's become difficult this gen to describe how things look because to be fair most of the big titles look pretty stunning. AC does indeed look stunning but this has lot to do with the architecture as much as the HD loveliness of the graphics. The first time you see the walled city of Damascus is quite a sight.

Having reached the city and gained enterance to it by blending in with a band of wandering monks allowing me to walk right past the city guards I decided to call it a night.

Expensive Hill?

There's a lot of preview information about at the moment regarding Silent Hill 5. Most interestingly concerning Konami handing the development over to a team from outside of Japan. As to the game itself the hero of the piece is most notable for being ex-Services meaning he should be more handy with weapons than the previous "everyman" types who've been far from proficient with them. Presumable we're not expecting a Resi 4 style make over but it'll be interesting to see where they go with it.

I haven't played a Silent Hill Game since the original on PSone which I completed and found reasonably fun to play and rather disturbing.. the mixture of the torch, the crackeling radio, the horror and some reasonabl NPC interaction was rather memorable.

Thus I decided it might be a good time to pick up the (Rather rare it turns out) Silent Hill Collection containing games 2,3 and 4 in a single package and bring me right up to date in time for the new game. However it's making stupid money on eBay at the moment.. I've already missed out on two copies. One going for £35 the other £42 and there's not so many to choose from.. I've set my maximum bid to £40 on the latest sale!! Fingers crossed.

The Times they are a changing.

On my weekend trawl through The Sunday Times I noticed that Ratchet & Clank: ToD got the full five stars and apparently it's not just the best platform game on PS3 but the best platform games in ages (Presumably the haven't reviewed the plumbers latest effort yet)..

I was leaving this one for a while.. It was a kind of "If it's cheap or second hand" when the Q4 dust has settled.. Now I'm wondering whether it might be an essential PS3 title. Having given the demo a wee bash I was very impressed with the graphics (is it just me or does the PS3 seem to be a bit more "Next Gen" than 360 when programmers get the best out of it?).. I can't see Uncharted getting rave reviews either.. although I do have great faith in Naughty Dog.. I'll probably just have to get both and see which I prefer.

Currently Playing: Call of Duty 4

The last (for me anyway unless Haze turns out to be PS3's Halo beater) of the big FPS releases of the year turns out to be worth the wait. Modern Warfare may not be combat evolved but it certainly captures the atmosphere of 'Shock' and 'Awe' our american friends love so much.

As you'd expect from this gen's big guns presentation is flawless. Call of Duty 4 starts with a similar training mission to the previous games. Pick up a gun, some grenades and then there's a plywood "tanker" mock up for you to practice on.. Then it's straight into the game proper. The missions alternate between you as raw SAS recruit and US marine. You start as the former and are tasked with rescuing a "package" from an actual tanker. As the first mission there's little in the way of resistance and you and your team have soon sent the crew to meet their makers.. Incoming enemy aircraft means a hasty retreat has to beaten and so the first mission ends..and then the title sequence kicks in. You feel most Bond like.. It's a nice touch.

Theirs some nice variety of missions between the SAS and the Marines with the later favouring kicking ass and asking questions later over the SAS's more studied approach and generating some exicitng stand offs and gun battles in the desert streets. Infinty Ward certainly know how to capture the noise and danger of a warzone.

After the more thoughtful adventuring of Half Life 2 and the let down of the solo campaign that was Halo 3 I'm throughly enjoying my tour of duty.

Prophet Hero's 360 Needs Him!

I quote "I am starting to hear voices... they come in the dark solitude of a gameless night... like little frogs laughing at my negliect. Freakin' frogs are ticking me off." from his 360s blog...

The "Complete" List

Canis Canem Edit
Splinter Cell: Double Agent
Prey
Crackdown
Tiger Woods PGA 07 (career completed)
Call of Duty 2 (regular)
Double Dragon
Resistance: Fall of Man
Loco Roco (All Stages Cleared)
Colin McRae DiRT (Career completed)
Daxter
Forza Motorsport 2 (Career & Arcade 100% complete)
Medal of Honour: Airbourne (Casual)
Halo 3
Bioshock
PGR4 (World No. 1 Career & All medals silver Arcade)
Half Life 2

I can't think why I ever stopped playing this now. To get so far through and not finish it was pretty criminal. It's an excellent adventure. Really enjoyed it. Next up: Episode 1.

The Valve people certainly now how to pack the value in.

Currently Playing: The Orange Box

I picked this up in Game the other day (Got £25 trade in for MoH:A which I was quite pleased with). I've been waiting for a while. I played through a lot of Half Life 2 on the original X-Box (released I believe at the end 0f 2005) but I got the feeling it wasn't really doing it justice. Then upgraded to a spanking new 360 and decided to wait for the 360 version to replay and finish the story. Now the Orange Box is with us and what a generous package it is.

I decided to get stuck into Half Life 2 itself. What surprised me was how much of the general stuff I remembered whilst actually remebering very little of the specifics. This wasn't a problem to begin with as the first part of the game is quite straight forward and scripted however once into the game proper a large of amount of exploration is sometimes required to advance.

Technically it's much better looking on 360 (as you'd probably imagine) with the water effects most noticeably improved along with certain sections being noticeably more packed with stuff..The section just before you get the hover craft has way more junk and stuff in it.

What hasn't improved is the loading. It's frequent. Rather long and causes teh entire game to pause. Which does rather spoil the immersion a little bit. The levels are huge and apparently the PC version was teh same but having played bioshock and Halo 3 recently I think more could of been done to harness the power of the 360. Either loading on the fly a la Halo 3 or less of it. Bioshocks levels are, if not quite as huge as HL2's pretty damn big.

Anyway so far so enjoyable but I seem to remember it get's better as it goes along.

The "Complete" List

Canis Canem Edit
Splinter Cell: Double Agent
Prey
Crackdown
Tiger Woods PGA 07 (career completed)
Call of Duty 2 (regular)
Double Dragon
Resistance: Fall of Man
Loco Roco (All Stages Cleared)
Colin McRae DiRT (Career completed)
Daxter
Forza Motorsport 2 (Career & Arcade 100% complete)
Medal of Honour: Airbourne (Casual)
Halo 3
Bioshock
PGR4 (World No. 1 Career & All medals silver Arcade)

Normal Service Will Resume....

Shortly.. (Honest) it's just that Project Gotham Racing 4 is sucking up all my spare time like some kind of gaming Dyson.. It's insanely addictive. Like Dyson inventing a new better crack cocaine. With out a bag. Or something.

Anyway I've got ADSL installed at work now so that should leave at least 8 hours a day where I can't hold the 360's joypad and stare, slack jawed, at the Bravia while concentrating on piloting my Aston Martin DBR9 around the citys of the world.

More soon. Promise.

Great Expectations

The PGR4 excitement continues to grow. Downloaded the demo from X-Box Live this afternoon.

First things first it's a very generous demo. There doesn't seem to be any time constraint and there's an arcade challenge with 5 or 6 events giving you a good flavour of what's on offer and they can be attempted in a small selection of vehicles. As usual you can attempt them in five flavours of medal (tin, bronze, silver, gold or platinum) and there's an online leaderboard which will show either worldwide or friends based leaderboards. For the gamer on a tight budget you could easily spend an evening in it's company and not get bored.

Secondly it looks and sounds very good. Especially when the dynamic weather kicks in. Racing a Ferrari in the dry is tough work. When the rain starts pouring not only does it look amazing it becomes a whole new ball park. I couldn't decide what was scarier.. The occasional flash of lightening or the sound of the tyres aqua planeing across standing water.

The track design is as devious as it was back in the second game and once again getting a feel for the circuits and knowing what's coming up is as important as skill behind the wheel. The driving model is slightly different with the cars seeming to be a lot less tail happy which means when you power drift or induce hand brake over steer it feels well earned and needs a lot of skill to carry the Kudos earned out of the corner.

The risk/reward balance seems very good and it'll take a lot of effort, one feels, to start nailing perfect laps.

Overall I'm very very happy with how this is shaping up. Roll on Friday. I'm in Love.

What's on the Box(set) ?

Recently I've discovered the joys of the DVD boxset. Most can be picked up at a reasonable price if you shop around and it enables me to watch things that I've forgotten to watch or missed the first time around at my leisure.

I've loved every minute of 5 series of The Shield, 2 series of House and last but by no means least 4 series of The O.C.

Anyway in these posts I'll be updating you on what I've watched last.

On this occasion that's season two of 24.

I watched season one and whilst it was an enjoyable romp it didn't blow me away quite as I'd been expecting.

Season two is an improvement. The story line (concerning a plot to detonate a nuclear missle in down town LA) is more gripping and the 24 hours strung together with better pacing. It doesn't have a shock reveal in quite the same manner but each episode ends with something of a cliff hanger and whilst I find the 'real time' effect a bit of a gimick (each episode cuts between several characters much like a normal show) it's gripping TV. Jack develops as a lead and though my main complaint would be the shoe horning in of a story line for Kim (Jacks daughter) I did get emotional when he thought he was going to die and was saying goodbye to her.

Suffice to say I've ordered season three.

The "Complete" List

Canis Canem Edit
Splinter Cell: Double Agent
Prey
Crackdown
Tiger Woods PGA 07 (career completed)
Call of Duty 2 (regular)
Double Dragon
Resistance: Fall of Man
Loco Roco (All Stages Cleared)
Colin McRae DiRT (Career completed)
Daxter
Forza Motorsport 2 (Career & Arcade 100% complete)
Medal of Honour: Airbourne (Casual)
Halo 3
Bioshock

So in back to back completions I've gone back to Bioshock and polished it off prior to the slew of games that will be coming my way in the next few months.

Two things to say. I feel compelled to write a full review of Bioshock very soon so I'll save all my comments on it now for that.

Secondly, whilst not reaching PH levels of completeness (a fair few games have fell by the way side for one reason or another this year) I've completely out done myself this year in completed titles.. Perhaps I'm gaining a little more patience with old age.

The "Complete" List

Canis Canem Edit
Splinter Cell: Double Agent
Prey
Crackdown
Tiger Woods PGA 07 (career completed)
Call of Duty 2 (regular)
Double Dragon
Resistance: Fall of Man
Loco Roco (All Stages Cleared)
Colin McRae DiRT (Career completed)
Daxter
Forza Motorsport 2 (Career & Arcade 100% complete)
Medal of Honour: Airbourne (Casual)
Halo 3 (Normal)

And so the fight has been finished.. I may play through again on a harder level.. Level 8 would probably put me off.. No doubt the multi-player will provide many happy months of Halo based action. It's a great shooter. ****

Great Expectations

Another new section in which I tell you lucky lucky people what I'm looking forward to.

At the moment despite all the exciting looking games coming out I'm most excited by a long chalk about Project Gotham Racing 4. It's scored 9 in EDGE and 8.5 at Gamespot and looks to be a return to form after a slightly dissappointing third installment.

Once again it seems to deliver a cutting edge graphical experience on 360 and a dream car mix. I'm considering phoning in sick on saturday.

Currently Playing - Halo 3

Reached level 8 and man what a nightmare. It's a travesty of repetitive enviroments and continually spawning enemys coming at you from all angles and, in some cases, shooting from a fair distance away. Because (as far as I can tell) the enemy keeps spawning there's nothing for it but to try and slog from checkpoint to checkpoint before you die. Not as easy at it seems cos it all looks the same and it's not clear where you supposed to go next. In fact last night I must have got disorientated cos I ended up back tracking for ages and not realising until I saw some scenery that I actually did recognise. It was time to call it a night on the single player and move over to the multi player experience.

Thankfully it doesn't dissappoint. Obviously if it's not broke don't fix it and Bungie have built on the very fine foundations of one of the best Live ranking/lobby systems around (why more developers don't copy it I'll never know.. YES EA THAT DOES MEAN YOU) However there are some refinements. When you start out at rank 1 you can elect to play upto 5 training matches amongst other players who are training. Once you've ranked up you can't access it anymore so it's a nice introduction to some of the levels and the weapons without getting pwned and headfucked every few seconds.

Once onto the main games itself it's mostly as you'd expect. Great levels that seem to have a lot of scope for tactics and learning the best vantage points. Having played Halo 2 to death it's strange not knowing where everything is, and for my money, the weapons are a bit harder to find. The default weapon though is now the assault rifle which is a much meatier weapon.

A special mention goes to a couple of new game modes. First off is Shottie and Snipers which is pretty much as it sounds but it's great fun wandering around with the shottie taking out all the sniper elites who often are so absorbed in looking for targets you can get right behind them to deal out hot lead.

Second is the mongoose checkpoint race. Four (or more ) teams of two share a mongoose. One drives and one VIP has to be raced through a checkpoints (think King of the Hill. They are random but in set places). The VIP gets to unleash hell with unlimited rockets which cause the other team to blow up in a huge spin but (in the main) not die. It's a bit like Cat and Mouse from PGR2 in the level of fun on offer. Much fun was had. A lot of time was spent with Joe and me blaming each others driving/shooting. Good Times.

Heavy Rotation

A new section where I'll give mini reviews of what I've been listening to this week. Mostly it'll be new stuff (or new to me anyway unless it's of particular note).

This week I have been mostly listening to:

Stephen Fretwell - Man on the Roof

I loved the first album ever since I picked it up cheap in Woolies. This isn't as instant a listen but it does reward the effort. The tunes emerge as do the bitter sweet lyrics. It's basic stuff. Man guitar and the occasional flourish of piano or strings but Fretwell combines them so well to stir the emotions. As soon as it stops I want to put it right back on again. It would be a classic barring a duff music hall style first track and a rather bitter tuneless track in the middle.. pruned to 12 tracks it would've been *****. As it as throughly recommended ****

Forever Like Red - Distance

I've switched from read The Mail on Sunday to the The Times on sundays. Partly to appease Nish but mostly due to it's excellent review section. This record got four stars in last sundays issue. The review name checks Snow Patrol, Coldplay and U2 (Stop! Come back!) so of course it was a definite purchase for me. Eventually found a sole copy buried in the A - Z racks of my local HMV so I doubt they'll be selling out Wembly anytime soon.. However if you like the aforementioned bands (and even if you don't) you'll probably like this. ****

Foo Fighters - Echos, Silence, Paitence and Grace

All the pre-release reviews I'd read seemed to be positive for this latest Foos release but for me Dave Grohls 'other' band remain a singles band. They can knock out 3 or 4 classic slices of awesome Zep inspired rock every couple of years but the consistancy to pull of a whole album seems to elude them. I think the 'Greatest Hits' will be the only essential Foos album..

But it'll be worth the wait ***

Currently Playing : Halo 3

I realise that after my initial enthusiasm for blogging I've been rather quiet of late.

So I'm going to start with finishing the fight. Got stuck into the campaign and I'm on level 7
out of 9. I've got to be honest it's good not great. It's exciting getting stuck into the battle
and it certainly looks very nice in all it's 360 powered glory (apart from when you're travelling fast on a vehicle when you can see the detail getting rendered in) but for me inevitably the third part of a trilogy needs to pull something special out of the bag and so far this hasn't. It adds some
nice new weapons and vehicles and is similar to the first game in the type of levels but the story
sucks. Having missed much of the 2nd part due to it being shit it doesn't make a lot of sense
and to be fair you mostly want to skip the cut scenes and get back into the action. It has it's moments though.

My main complaint is the crap AI of your supposed team mates. Mostly when driving. A couple of examples. One guy whose Mongoose I got on the back of seemed content to drive up and down the same stretch of beach. Another time, after a particularly well executed piece of dramatic batteling by me it should be noted, I leapt into a Warthog gunner to continue the fight only to find my team mate drove us into some wreckage and we got shot to shit before I could get out. Most annoying.

Out on it's ear?

A bit of sad news this morning. After limping along for a year or so Rich will be closing www.wakinglimb.com at the end of the month cos even he can't be bothered with it anymore.

Holiday Reading

I could never contemplate leaving for a holiday without having a book to accompany me. However the day before we left I was struggeling to find something worthy of my attention in my local Book chain. Having browsed the new releases, my favourite authors, crime and sci-fi I was reduced to wandering from A to Z of authors by name... A rather desperate endeavour until The Raw Shark Texts by Steven Hall caught my eye. Great title and a rather interesting cover in a world where you can usually tell a books genre from it's cover.

Now my regular reader will know that I can be given to over enthusiasm but please believe me when I say this is the best thriller I've read in a long time. It's a breath of fresh air for thrillers like The Matrix was for movies. It's probably best approached completely fresh so I wont be mentioning anything about the plot suffice to say it's maybe a Moby Dick for our day. It's very well written. The pacing of the plot is good. It's not a collection of set pieces. It doesn't lag in the middle. The characters are well developed. Most importantly it makes you think with out being to obtuse or clever clever for it's own good. It also does things as interesting with the written page as The Matrix did on screen with it's bullet time and wire battles.

Thorougly recommended. I'll be watching Steven Halls future work (this is his debut novel) with interest.

*****

Finishing the Fight VAT Free

So I've been to Portugal for a five day mini break.

One of the trials of living in the Isle of Man is that most foreign holidays require two flights. A short hop to a proper airport and then a flight to the country of destination.

For once this resulted in an upside when I had four hours to kill in Gatwicks departure lounge and picked up Halo 3 (along with season two of 24, the new Foo Fighters album and the new James Blunt album (I know what your thinking but I wont apologise for liking him) for £34.

Anyway whilst I'm posting this super exciting newsflash I had time to think whilst lazing by the pool and I've decided that Bob's Big Blog will now be expanded to include my other entertainment choices. The reasons for this are two fold. Firstly I've decided that my current method of sharing my entertainment experiences on the interweb are being wasted and I'd be better served posting them here and secondly I'd like to post a bit more without spreading my gaming experiences to thin.

So hopefully no one minds and I'll get on with expanding the blog as I go. I might even include the odd exciting event in my life. I just don't have the energy to run two blogs. So Bob's Big Blog is getting a little BIGGER.

Way of Nariko

Another decent session on Heavenly Sword today.

First things first, I'm not getting tired of how awesomely pretty it is. I'd have to say having played a fair few 360 games this is the prettiest next gen game yet. I can't quite tell whether the cut scenes are in game or rendered it's that pretty all the way through.

As for the gameplay it's a totally linear experience. There's little exploration and only the occasional light puzzle.. It's pretty much fight, move to new area fight again. But somehow despite this the quality of the fighting and the quality of the production keeps it very exciting.

Even the boss battles (Normally a bug bear of mine) are good. A few to many QTE's for my liking but at least there not totally annoying.

The only slightly annoying sections are some of the Kai sections which go on for a little long in some instances.. Having said that I've only had to repeat the two longest sections for a second time as with a bit of practice and knowing what's coming makes it easier.

The story moves along nicely as well. It cuts between the two main characters at exciting cliff hanging moments.

It may be short and linear but it's a great experience so far.

The "Complete" List

Canis Canem Edit
Splinter Cell: Double Agent
Prey
Crackdown
Tiger Woods PGA 07 (career completed)
Call of Duty 2 (regular)
Double Dragon
Resistance: Fall of Man
Loco Roco (All Stages Cleared)
Colin McRae DiRT (Career completed)
Daxter
Forza Motorsport 2 (Career & Arcade 100% complete)
Medal of Honour: Airbourne (Casual)

So I add another game to this years "Done and Dusted"

I'll say a few words about Medal of Honour: Airbourne here. Pretty short at just six levels. The last two ramp up the difficutly (even on casual) to try and disguise this. I'm not sure how this managed an EDGE 7. For the first time I feel a little let down by one of their reviews. It's distinctly average and should of got a 5. It's completely run of the mill. Not devoid of enjoyment but so average it hurts.. I'm not going to list all it's short comings but here's a few.

1. No physics or even moveable objects. Everything's nailed to the floor.
2. Stupid game design. One mission involves destroying some half tracks. Prior to this we've destroyed several tanks using either rocket launcher or special grenades. So naturally we waste a few rockets and grenades trying to get a hit in... Nothing leaves a scratch. It turns out for these armoured truck type vehicles you just have to run past it. The gunner in the turret can't turn so you're now safe. Pull out the standard machine gune. Shoot the gunner. Half track destroyed. Now leaving aside the FUCKING GUNNER can't turn a single degree where's the sense in rockets not doing the job? nevermind whose driving the bloody thing?
3. The worst enemy in the game is a kind of darth vader Nazi with a chaingun. Does the rocket take him? Don't be silly.
4. The "skill drops" need to be found to unlock a couple of achievements. There doesn't seem to be any actual reward for landing on one. You can find them on foot.
5. The most annoying thing is the checkpoint system. Now bearing in mind you can drop into a pretty free form part of the level I can see this could present a problem. But let me give you an example from one level. Your tasked with destroying 4 or 5 AA turrets around a the top level of a circular turret. Now I managed to destroy the first 2 or 3 on my first attempt. Each time getting a checkpoint. Then I died. No problem. Apart from the fact that whislt the AA guns are still destroyed the very same soldiers I'd just killed are now guarding destroyed AA guns.. Meaning I have to fucking do the whole section again... only without having to plant any explosives until I get the last AA gun.. At which point all the remaining soldiers for that section mysteriously dissappear, Pad smashingly frustrating.

Enter Nariko!

As my regular reader (hi PH) will know Heavenly Sword arrived yesterday. Time to give it a spin and post my thoughts a la 'Currently Playing'.

First off I had to download and install an update for the PS3. These seem to be coming thick and fast and to be honest I don't seem to notice much difference but hey ho.

The game installs itself.. presumably saving some stuff to the HDD. You don't get a choice it just does it. Then onto the game itself.

Now first things first on my Bravia 32" HD telly it looks pretty jaw dropping.. Having recently played a bit of GoW2 it's a massive step forward both for cut scenes and in game. As you'd expect I suppose but still it would be the title I'd show to a friend that I wanted to impress with the shiny £400 paper weight under the telly.. Not that I'd be shallow enough to do that of course.

Anyway I know most of you will have played the demo so I'll try to keep to my observations and leave out any spoilers.

Apart from the pretty awesome visuals the voice acting is pretty good to. The cut scenes are dramatic (at least the first time) and give a good sense of atmosphere and I soon started feeling an attatchment to Nariko. Although the hair is a bit snake like. Only when Andy Serkis turns up and can't seem to say his words fast enough to go and bank his cheque does it dissappoint slightly.

As for the combat it's pretty cool so far. Moves and combos come together nicely and the three stances are introduced nicely (I found the demo a bit confusing) and I was soon linking range and power moves into my arsenal. Doing nothing to block feels a bit un natural but I have terrible timing anyway and could never master L1 for blocks on Prince of Persia anyway so it's all good.

After a bit of getting used to I started to enjoy the sixaxis 'bullet time effect' to for firing projectiles. Once fired you can hold down the Square button to zoom in Prince of Thieves style and gentle moves of the pad (which helps you not feel like a total dick) help you hit the target.

Chapter one ends having taught you the basics and let you unleash the Heavenly Sword itself.

So overall a very positive reaction. I'm liking it. If this is the first wave of pre-launch exclusives the PS3 is going to be seeing a lot more action.

Heavenly Sword times two

So I went to see Bourne Ultimatum today. Great film. I give it *****. Action movie of the year. Just pipping Die Hard 4.0. Anyway in the trailers was an advert for Heavenly Sword. Imagine my excitement arriving home to find it had arrived in a little padded jiffy bag from Play. Ok. Not that exciting a coincidence but still... Expect some 'Currently Playing' style action soon.

Two To Watch?

Just been watching some GamerTV thing on Sky.

Not a great show (it actually reminded me of the DVD you used to get with PSW ) but a couple of titles stood out for me as ones to look out for.

Firstly a very quick look at some in game footage of Call of Duty 4:Modern Warfare. The player was basically helicoptered onto the, now almost cliched, container ship. Having said that with the boat rocking and dynamic lighting and shadows moving as the boat rocked and the rain pouring down it did look very impressive.

Secondly Skate, EAs new erm.. Skateing game, also looked impressive. As with their Tiger Woods titles swing system the trick system has been changed from button pressing to dynamic right stick movement. I've never played a Tony Hawks game or ever seen the appeal but I might be tempted with this.. Sounds like it might be time to download the demo...

O.k. I may have got slightly over excited last night.. It turns out I could've got Heavenly Sword of £34.99 in Woolies today...

My Love For You Is Like A Truck

Just completed act one of Gears of War on insane difficulty on co-op.. It's a different game and really brings out the heat of battle.

A couple of achievements that I'm very proud of.

Here are today's thoughts

1. The Stranglehold TV advert.... Not 'Representative of game footage' which is how most game ad's are subtitled these days just 'Not Game Footage'. You can draw your own conclusions.. Oh and I liked the way at the end of the advert instead of showing the box art they show the covers of OPM and OXM. So it's pig ugly but it got good review scores in the 'officials'? where's my wallet.

2. Just bought Heavenly Sword from Play for 32 pounds. Got to be worth a punt at that price. I'll probably get £28 for it when I trade it in

3. Last, and most worrying, MGS4, will according to OPM have a moral.... Nevermind my guitar.. my sixaxis is gently weeping.

Not much gamage action to report today.

However Ultimate Ghosts N' Goblins arrived today.

Man it's tough.

Live Arcade 12th September

This weeks Arcade release will be Sonic the Hedgehog 2.

Not a bad game as I remember and at 400 points not a fortune but am I the only one fed up with all the ports of old games? Now Sonic still stands up as a reasonably fun game to play but my god some of the stuff they've been releasing recently is just bobbins.

Come on guys more Space Giraffe, less Streets of Rage.

Oh and pretty please can we have Sensible Soccer and Speedball 2 sometime before I die?

Medal of Honour: Airbourne

Yesterday I decided to trade in Ninja Gaiden: Sigma for £28 at Game which I thought was actually a decent price considering they where selling it last week for £29.99 as deal of the week. It turned out that it wasn't my sort of game really. I don't like to be forced to read a manual. It's lazy development.

I purchased Medal of Honour: Airbourne. I haven't played a MoI game since the first PS2 game, although I have done a couple of tours of duty in WWII with Call of Duty.

The USP is obviously the parachuting. The 'In plane' cut scene get's a bit boring after the first one but the actual parachuting bit is cool. It obviously helps you select where in the level you start and whether you start somewhere recently safe (indiciated by green flares) or somewhere less safe but nearer the objectives.

It's got a neat leaning system (similar to the one in F.E.A.R. but more useful) when you're looking down the sight of a gun so that you can lean out of cover and then flick back into recharge your health (similar to Resistance: Fall of Man with four segments. A segment will recharge when your not being hit but you need a health pack to replace more segments).

Even on casual I'm finding it something of a challenge with the enemy often coming from many directions. It also has a poor collision detection. Anyway it can't have been that tough cos I managed to get through the first three missions last night.

Oh and damn EA and their shitty servers.. I couldn't get it to connect to a multiplayer game for love or money.

Currently Listening: Kanye West - Graduation

Over-Achieve-r

Ok so I've totally turned into a PH style word play-meister...

Anyway I've been playing Colin McRae DiRT for a while now and steadily working my way through the various game modes.. I've owned every Colin game since the original but this is the first one I've really drawn every drop of gaming blood from.. Mainly for the achievements. I know they're shallow and indeed worthless but somehow in my quest to get as many as I can it doesn't matter.. Own all the cars? sure I'll do that. Drive 500 miles? no problemo.. Drive a clean event on Live? Due to the fact that you have to finish within 30 seconds of the leader that's a bit tougher.. Win an event? Priceless.

Tonight, after much trying (there are some people who really need to get out more) I eventually won a Live event.. A sweet feeling in itself.. But so much sweeter when accompanied by the little green boxy thing flashing up to tell you you've been awarded 20 gamer points.. or is that just me?

Change for a tenor?

So not strictly game related but R.I.P. Pavarotti.

I spilt tea on my keyboard and now my Q and Tab key are sticky.

Played some more Bioshock and I feel I'm near the end.. There's almost to much too it. I thought I'd combed every inch on my way round but I'm going to finish it short of a whole heap of achievements.. there's RPG elements and I'm still loving the graphical style but I probably should've admitted my casual status and started on easy.. why more games don't let you change the difficulty on the fly I'll never know.

multi-format release... PS3 bringing up the rear?

I read this on a 360 magazine forum I visit today

Tiger Woods 08 has now been added to a seemingly ever increasing list of Ps3 games, which are not being released at the same time as there 360 counterparts.

I ask what the hell are Sony playing at, they expect people to fork out all that money and they can't even get the games out on time.

Along with the news that Alone in the Dark will be released later on PS3...

Now as I'm pretty much 360 exclusive for multi-format releases it's not a big deal but it's probably not great for Sony...

The question is why?

Todays random musings...

Firstly I read a preview in Official Playstation Magazine about Assassin's Creed and they dropped such obvious hints about the 'twist' that it pretty much gave it away.. and suffice to say what a load of rubbish that sounds. It's like when I used to write storys at school and couldn't think of an ending... 'and then I woke up and it was all a dream..'

Secondly played a fairly long session of Bioshock today. It's a very good FPA. I made a lot of progress and the twist was revealed. I wont give anything away but there was quite a nasty section where control of your character was taken away and someone was blugdened to death while you helplessly watched your actions. Not nice.

This months EDGE

I did consider a flashy 'PH' style 'EDGE of reason' play on words style title..

Please consider this blog akin to the TESCO VALUE range of goods... It's cheap and if your expectations are as low as the artwork bill for the design of the packaging then you wont be dissappointed by the watery baked beans contained with in for 9p.

Anyway on to this months EDGE and more importantly the feature on SUPER MARIO GALAXY. Now I've been subscribing to this publication for many moons now and I'm getting increasingly annoyed with their pro Nintendo stance.. This feature reads like an advertising promo. The only negative they can seem to find is that Nintendo can't top the innovation of SUPER MARIO 64...I mean please... get a room already.

Welcome

This could be the worlds most boring game based blog. There will probably be no game based breaking news and very likely no pretty pictures or hyper links.

I'll just be telling you what I've been playing and how it's progressing.

Thanks for reading!