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...