Regret is a dish best served at 88mph!

So my copy of Little Big Planet arrived this morning. Of course I'm without a PS3 joypad. But no problem I thought. A quick jaunt in to town and flex the plastic and I'd finally have a good excuse to blow £35 on Dualshock 3. Obviously my local WOOLWORTHS is already shut down and empty. The queue in GAME was not just the length of the store.. It looped around the racks and ran back up the other side. HMV crazily didn't have any (And the queue in there wasn't any better (Seriously do people not have anything better to do than shop??? It's 5 days after christmas and this was my first trip into town... Surely everyone else could of been and got things done already)... WHSmiths was also a wash out.. Obviously there was no choice but to go to GAME and brave the queue.

Only no dice. No PS3 pads on the shelves in the countries premier game retailer. Was I going to queue to ask if they had any in the store room? No. I'd just drive home. Order one from SHOPTO.NET and hope they despatched it the same day so it would be here tomorrow.. Got home only to find they're out of stock.

How can no one have a joypad?? I'd probably of thought twice about stamping on my sixaxis if I'd known I was going to be left PS3-less....

First Look: Resistance 2

Suffice to say the first game to make me smash a pad in.... must be at least five years since Gran Turismo 4 musn't it?

A Buckcherry Christmas treat.

The Christmas Haul

So the big day has been and gone. I have to say a very impressive haul this year. Considering I'm grown man (well christmas is really for kids isn't it?).

I got Resistance 2 for the PS3 and Banjo & Kazooie - Nuts & Bolts for the 360. (I ordered Mirrors Edge for £15 from Play and Little Big Planet from ShopTo).

I also got a very nice Ralph Lauren V neck sweater. An 'I am the Stig' T Shirt.

I got Mock The Wee book, Lewis Hamiltons My Story book and The Celeb Diaries by Mark Firth.

I've saved my favourites to last. I got a genuine Indiana Jones Fedora hat all the way from america and a signed photo of Lewis Hamilton.

Happy Christmas

Oh faithful reader.

The "Complete" List

John Woo Presents Stranglehold
Portal
Test Drive: Unlimited ( ALL Gold in the SP challenges.)
Loco Roco*
The Darkness (Easy)
Lost: Via Domus
LEGO Indiana Jones - The Original Adventures (Story Mode)
Battlefield: Bad Company (Easy) & (Normal)
Ratchet & Clank : Quest for Booty
God of War: Chains of Olympus
Tiger Woods 2009
Haze
Saints Row 2
Gears of War 2 - (Normal)
Call of Duty : World at War - (Normal)
Fallout 3
Tomb Raider: Underwolrd
PGR4 - Career mode*

*Not a first time completion.

First Look: Motor Storm - Pacific Rift

The first Motor Storm game was a lot of fun (until the teeth gnashing frustration kicked in) but it did kind of look like a tech demo of the land deformation with a game hastily built around it. It lacked depth, looked samey and there where one or technical issues (The loading times between levels and vehicle selection where teeth grindingly slow (I'm as surprised as you that I've any teeth left with which to tackle the sequel)).

So what can we expect from the sequel? As you'd expect from a team that's cut its teeth on PS3 development on games deleveoped soley for Sony's machine it's a rather more polished affair. There's one new vehicle class to add to the classes from the first game (although there's lots of new vehicles within those classes) and there's a new tropical island. There's still plenty of mud and rock as well. Crucially there's also Fire and Water in the mix.

Fire levels effect the boost and cause it to heat up faster. Water levels give you the oppurtunity to cool the boost faster at the risk of slowing your vehicle as it travels through the stuff. It's a simple addition but allows for just enough tactics in what remains a frantic racing game.

The new levels themselves are graphically stunning. My non-360/PS3 owning mate who came round for a blast was very impressed (he's never commented on anything I've showed him before so read in to that what you will). They're more organic this time and feel like the courses have been made out of areas of land rather than just ribbons of track. There's the same mix of routes through the levels too but they're a lot more varied this time. There's also more variety with races taking place in and around abandoned factorys, sunny beaches and dark volcanic rubble.

The other new addition in the career mode is the ability to earn bonus events by meeting certain criteria during races such as crashing less than a certain amount or beating a race record time. These unlock elimination or time trials. The Elimination races are standard last man standing affairs (although they do mix up the race and the AI is possibly a touch less brutal). The time trials are more interesting and take the form of GTA style check point races with flares going off to indicate your route as your pass through the last one. These events work particulary well as they show you some of the routes through each circuit that are off the beaten track.

For your reading pleasure I also had a blast on the online racing. I have to say it's a very polished affair and easily equal to most Live affairs. Match making was quick. I didn't suffer much in the way of lag and it works very well as a live game. There doesn't seem to be any elastic banding online so it's not quite as brutal as the SP and all the better for it. If you're good enough to work up a lead you can keep it if you're skillful enough. I won one event and got several seconds and ranked up quite nicely. I was also able to accept a friends invite. The only downside being that after each event with 'randoms' your dumped back into your lobby and you have to search again. It would've been nice to have the option to carry on racing with the same people. But considering it's a free service and my first taste of PS3 online I was very happy.

So far, for me at least, it's an essential PS3 purchase. (especially now it can be picked up for £20 making GTi Club on PSN look a bit dear at £10).

The "Complete" List

John Woo Presents Stranglehold
Portal
Test Drive: Unlimited ( ALL Gold in the SP challenges.)
Loco Roco*
The Darkness (Easy)
Lost: Via Domus
LEGO Indiana Jones - The Original Adventures (Story Mode)
Battlefield: Bad Company (Easy) & (Normal)
Ratchet & Clank : Quest for Booty
God of War: Chains of Olympus
Tiger Woods 2009
Haze
Saints Row 2
Gears of War 2 - (Normal)
Call of Duty : World at War - (Normal)
Fallout 3
Tomb Raider: Underwolrd

Mixed feelings. Like Nish I feel they've finished it a bit short so they can sell us DLC. The last few levels (apart from the short changing us by re-using the ship again) felt like a huge improvement. It seems to end just as it get's into it's stride.

On the other hand I've had enough for now. Overall it's better than Crystal Dynamics previous outings but not really back to the form of The Last Revelation

Even with Nish's instructions I never did get the hang of adrenalin kills either.

Currently Playing: Tomb Raider: Underworld

Well I'm just over half way through. So far it's something of a curates egg for me.. Good and bad in parts. For everything I do like there's something that's annoying me. I'd say it was certainly better than Legend but it's not the return to form we'd all been hoping for.

The animation is very nice when it's working but it's jerky whenever it's not working so well and Lara get stuck on stuff far to often for my liking. The wall climbing is a bit hit and miss. The combat sucks (For some reason (perhaps not reading the manual) I can't pull of an adrenalin headshot for love nor money).

The graphics are pretty stunning and the enviroments and puzzles are well thought out.. I've been stuck but often a good look around and I ponder will see me through. The camera though is far too twitchy and it's often difficult to see what exactly what you want to look at. I know she's supposed to be looking at something of interest but her head twitching all over the shop at, as far as I can tell, nothing is very annoying too. On the other hand the grapple that felt tacked on has really come into it's own and I'm loving that she can lower herself safely down on it. I like most of the levels I've visited.. It's proper tomb raiding and not generic adventuring. Oh and I really hate the motorbike.

Overall though it's more than the sum of it's parts and it does capture some of the magic. It turns out though that it is rather short. Certainly compared to the old PS one adventures that where absolutely massive. Whether this is due to the time it takes to make HD content for the latest generation of consoles or, as my good friend Nish thinks, cos they've left half the game off the disc so they can flog it to me as DLC I'm not sure.

I can however see me playing it again on the harder difficulty settings and I'll probably hold on too it so that I can play the DLC too.

All quiet on the western front..

I'd of said I never really noticed the noise my 360 makes while playing a game but then I installed PGR4 to the HDD (mainly cos it takes ages to load and I was hoping for an improvement) and you really do notice the absense of noise.

Wallander

It's always a double edged sword when a favourite fictional character gets transfered from book to TV. Strangely the BBC started the series with the book I read first even though it's not Wallanders first outing.

Let's start with what I didn't like. I know this is going to sound a bit nerdy but they didn't get the car right.. Wallander always drives a Peugeot. It's mentioned several times. In fact in one novel he considers trading it in for a newer Peugeot and it's specifically mentioned that he always buys Peugeots at the same dealer. Now I know Volvos are swedish. Presumably not every Swede drives a Volvo in the same way that every Brit doesn't drive a Rover.. Or something that was British if we still had a car industry.

Every thing else was pretty spot on. The story and investigation stuck very closely to the novel. Kenneth Branagh perfectly captured the character of Inspector Wallander. The relationship between him and his daughter and his father was very accurately portrayed. The novels always portray the hard boiled procedural nature of police work and this too was captured to a tee.

Overall a good TV show.

Playstation Home

So I gave away my beta access code to some PS3 enthusiast over at the EDGE forum cos he seemed to want it so much more than I do.. I hardly get enough time to game let alone wander around dancing with virtual avatars.

Your exclusive invitation to join us in PlayStation Home

I have been e.mailed an exclusive promotional code!

Sadly I'm not sure I can be bothered.

The "complete" list

John Woo Presents Stranglehold
Portal
Test Drive: Unlimited ( ALL Gold in the SP challenges.)
Loco Roco*
The Darkness (Easy)
Lost: Via Domus
LEGO Indiana Jones - The Original Adventures (Story Mode)
Battlefield: Bad Company (Easy) & (Normal)
Ratchet & Clank : Quest for Booty
God of War: Chains of Olympus
Tiger Woods 2009
Haze
Saints Row 2
Gears of War 2 - (Normal)
Call of Duty : World at War - (Normal)
Fallout 3

So apparently I was nearer the end of the story than I thought. Either due to my RPG inexperience or lack of exploring.. I started to get offered less and less side quests as the game went along so I basically ended up rattling through the main story fairly quickly once I got to grips with the game. Although I fear I have missed out on loads. So I intend to replay it over christmas with the stratergy guide and make sure I get everything out of it. Annoyingly once the main story finished the game ends and you can't explore the world picking up anything you've missed. Which is a shame. Overall though a brilliant game.

First Look: Tomb Raider: Underworld.

Well it sure does look lovely.. From Lara to the places she's exploring it all takes the breath away. Her movement and animation (is mostly) smooth and nice to look at too. The very first section is a bit strange cos it doesn't really break you in very gently. Fortunately the new sonar feature works well and I soon collected the two wheels I needed.

What I'd really like to do however is sit Crystal Dynamics down in front of Prince of Persia: Sands of Time and show them how an action hero/heroine should really control.. They're almost there bit sadly it's still a bit clunky compared to the Prince.

The combat is a bit poor too. The old jump and shoot combo still works ok-ish but it's messy. Lara tends to get knocked down a lot more than I seem to remember. It's a pity there isn't a Uncharted style cover system to bring her bang up to date.

Currently Playing: Fallout 3

Such an epic game it deserves a follow up post (Prior to hopefully completing it). I didn't play Oblivion so I have no problem with it not having moved on much (A fault that seemed to be the only real thing that EDGE didn't like about it). Certainly I wouldn't want a bigger game world when it's this well realised and packed with interesting places and sights.

I'm levelling up quite nicely and whilst not going totally evil my karma seems to be on the bad side.. Of course this might have something to do with the rampage at Tenpenny Tower where I killed all the guards and the residents just for the hell of it.

It's very slow to get going but the pay off is that once it does it's really sucked you in. I spent about four hours on one quest last night. It really feels like your exploring another world and the compulsion to uncover every nook and find everything you can is very strong.

I'm also liking the perks. There's far more interesting ones than you could possibly choose on one play through but some of them are great.. For example the last one I picked was 'Mysterious Stranger' which promised some help during VATS battles. I'd almost forgotten about it when during a particulary tense battle the stranger showed up and finished them off for me.. Brilliant.

If it keeps the quality and pace up to the end it'll be a strong contender for GOTY.

Currently Listening: Chinese Democracy

The biggest shock, given the protracted recording time, is that it's not a self indulgent mess. It's also not as bad as some of the reviews are making out. It's obvious that it's not a master piece but it is a good record (especially if your a fan) and whilst you can't here a whole 15 years of work you can hear that it's been painstakingly put together and obsessed over.

Guns N' Roses main asset was always Axl's trademark voice and it remains in fine fettle on all the songs on this album. There's plenty of variety too. There's hints of Industrial, Nu Metal, Flamenco guitars and on at least one of the piano based songs hints of Meat Loaf too. But it's never less than exciting.

At 14 songs and 70 minutes it's probably a touch over long. The first six tracks are despatched and each one is good.. At this point your thinking the wait, while not perhaps worth it (Could any album be worth a 15 year wait? I think not), has certainly produced the goods.. A couple of songs in the middle drag but the run to the finish line produces some quite epic numbers.

The lyrics are probably the weakest part.. there's some great couplets and lines but Rose apparently still thinks everyones 'Outta to get me' just like they where during Appetite for Destruction. The rest seems to concern his epic heartbreak and he doesn't hold back.

To summarise it's a good if not great record thats better than it has a right to be really. Let's hope the next one doesn't take another fifteen years.

15 years in the making...

There's a huge weight of expectation in the Bob household about tomorrows release of the new Guns N' Roses album.. It's been a looooong wait since the simultaneous release of their last new material. The making of Chinese Democracy has been the stuff of rock myth, legend and rumour for so long that it hardly seems possible that I'll be able to buy it in my local record emporium tomorrow.

So will it be worth the wait? The general pre-release review consensus has it that no it couldn't possibly live up to 15 years expectation and the estimated £13 million pound it's cost to make. There's a hilarious review over at Guardian Unlimited if your interested.

Stay tuned, Same Bob time, Same Bob channel for my verdict

The "complete" List

John Woo Presents Stranglehold
Portal
Test Drive: Unlimited ( ALL Gold in the SP challenges.)
Loco Roco*
The Darkness (Easy)
Lost: Via Domus
LEGO Indiana Jones - The Original Adventures (Story Mode)
Battlefield: Bad Company (Easy) & (Normal)
Ratchet & Clank : Quest for Booty
God of War: Chains of Olympus
Tiger Woods 2009
Haze
Saints Row 2
Gears of War 2 - (Normal)
Call of Duty : World at War - (Normal)

Absolutely with out doubt the worst game I've played all year. Really an abomination of all that's wrong with this generation. Sure looks pretty but it's just as dumb as hell. Everything that EDGE says in it's review is true and yet there's worse. The checkpoint spacing can be terrible. One in particular forces you to walk down a passage.. LIsten to an unskippable speach and there's an invisible line that you can't cross until it's finished.. You then have to assault at least two of the four AA guns before you get another checkpoint.. Enemy grenades have a huge radius and often there's nowhere in the linear layout to actually go to avoid it. Soldiers will stand off against each other with there rifles inches from each other.. Near the end tides of enemies have to be defeated before you can progress.. but this isn't made clear. Instead it tells you to enter the building. Of course you can't. Doors can't be opened until one of your AI team mates comes and does it for you.. It hardly has a saving grace.. Well apart from that I can trade it in for Tomb Raider tomorrow.

Currently Playing: Motorstorm 2: Pacific Rift demo

Well on the plus side the vastly long load times seem to have been reduced (difficult to tell exaclty how much shorter they'll be on disc though) which is good.

The rest of the demo isn't so great. It looks better than the already good looking original as you'd expect although on the demo track there's no sign of the track deformation at all. Sadly, for me, the rest is all negative. Granted on a two lap demo of one track it's difficult to asses the whole game but from this taster nothing has been fixed... It's still punishingly unfair (despite multiple restarts I was unable to complete the two laps without incident so maybe I'm just rubbish). It's still possible go to from a high position to last in the blink of an eye. It's still possible to hit a ramp you've travelled over several times before only to explode for some reason. This course seemed to require even more memorising than the last one (At least two of the jumps leave you shooting off the circuit into thin air and a costly restart unless your lined up exactly).

Of the three vehicles offered the racing truck has a turning circle of an ocean liner, the motorbike is too vunerable to attack leaving you eating dirt all the time and I didn't even bother trying the monster truck.

It really feels like a missed opportunity. You could forgive a certain amount of the rough edges with a launch title but they really should of tightened up the balance and the fairness of the racing. I did have a lot of fun with the original despite the teeth grindingly punishing later levels so I'll probably still pick this up but I feel it's going to be one of the titles thats heavily discounted after chrimbo so I'll leave it until then.

Hell in a Handcart

I'm currently reading A Snow Ball in Hell by Christopher Brookmyre. Possibly the finest satirist writing novels today. There's a section in the novel that riffs on Simon Cowell and his X Factor culture. Now don't get me wrong. I love Simon Cowell for himself. But I wouldn't buy one of his artists records. Brookmyre hits that target with a bullseye.

I'm watching 2006s X Factor winner Leona Lewis sing Snow Patrols (a band themselves that seem content to revisit former glories in the hope of commercial success) Run. While there's no taking away from her vocal talent you have to wonder what's going on when every ounce of personality has been sucked out of her look and at the same time her army of stylists make her wear a dress that makes her legs look like Colonel Sanders should have applied his secret recipe to them.

I despair for popular culture.

The "Complete" List

John Woo Presents Stranglehold
Portal
Test Drive: Unlimited ( ALL Gold in the SP challenges.)
Loco Roco*
The Darkness (Easy)
Lost: Via Domus
LEGO Indiana Jones - The Original Adventures (Story Mode)
Battlefield: Bad Company (Easy) & (Normal)
Ratchet & Clank : Quest for Booty
God of War: Chains of Olympus
Tiger Woods 2009
Haze
Saints Row 2
Gears of War 2 - (Normal)

I switched my 360 on last night at just gone 6.30pm. Geoff invited me to play some co-op. We Started at the beginning. As 11.30pm rolled around callinga it a night was mooted but the brave decision to push on to the end was made. We finally saw the credits roll at just after 2.30pm. 8 hours, 1 session, 5 acts, 3 Cans of Coke and almost 20 Marlboro Lights. Co-op Locust shooting fun. Priceless. It just is so much more enjoyable with some one else playing along with you.

I don't want to give anything away for those who haven't played yet but it's a solid sequel if perhaps playing a litle safe.

First Look: Gears of War 2

I'll start this post with the summary. The more the merrier.

To be fair I can't really take the generic space marines and their generic tale of aliens wiping out the free world terribly seriously. Despite the high production values I've had to skip the gung ho cut scenes and where possible the radio chatter to.. to which Marcus often grunts "enough chatter" to which I say amen.

Apparently the single player campaign gets better and better as it goes along but from playing through roughly half of it I'd have to say it's more of the same. Fortunely it's action sequences are still rock solid and this time your AI buddies can recover you if there about and you can even crawl towards them to give them a helping hand. Add another player though and it's a whole lot more fun.

The actual multi player components themselves are also solid. The competitive stuff is still as hardcore as ever. I played with four of my fellow forumites (all of whom are solid gamers, I was by far the weakest link) and we lost five out of five. The best new addition is the Horde mode where me and my team (Or Team Bob if you will) take on wave after wave of Locust. This proves to be a very entertaining and action packed mode and by far the most fun.

If you where expecting reinvention of the gaming wheel look elsewhere. If you're looking for a solid update of the franchise and can look past the macho bullshit it's very entertaining.

A look ahead to Quarter 4 - Part 4

So having broken down the purchase choices into three well thought out list it's not actually working out to plan.

We started off so well.. Bought Saints Row 2 as advertised and completed it the same week (give or take a day). But that's when things started to fall apart. Little Big Planet was delayed... and while it's still on my list it's now moved down to the second, cheap in the new year list, because I'm just not going to have the time to dedicate it too at the moment. Then I got all excited about Fallout 3 and bought it despite it being on list two..

Now I've cancelled my pre-order for Banjo & Kazooie because Eurogamer only gave it 7 and so now I'll have to see what EDGE give it. As I said I'm not a rabid Rare fan and was only excited about it cos it seemed like it was going to be brilliant and it seems it just isn't. So I've rushed out today and bought Gears of War 2. Cos.. well everyones playing it and I don't want to miss out on all the possible multi-player, co-op fun. I know.. Very shallow.

So what have we learnt? Lists are for geeks..

Dara O'Briain - Villa Marina

Fans of Mock the Week will be familiar with Dara O'Brien who hosts the show. Last night was the 100th night on his current tour. Dara revealed fairly early on that he almost called the tour the "You Had to be There Tour" explaining that when an anecdote went down less well than expected (as often happens when trying to explain to friends and colleauges what was so funny about the show you saw last night) people mostly ended saying "You had to be there".

So I wont try and explain why he was so funny I'll just say that he was. The show was all new material (well apart the the athiest / still a catholic joke) from his previous Live DVD and was a similar mix of stories, jokes and audience participation in his quick witted style. The show was excellent. He talks pretty fast and packed loads into the two hours he was on stage. Loved it.

First Look: Fallout 3

So I know I was supposed to be waiting for this but Little Big Planet was delayed and it got really good reviews and I picked it up fairly cheap (£34 in Zavvi, although annoyingly if I'd waited until I got to Sainsburys I could of got it for £29 but I'd been to every shop in Manchester and hadn't found it cheaper than £38 before).

I've never played a Fallout game before and I haven't played Oblivion either so I wasn't sure what to expect. The game breaks you in gently as your born and experince your first 16 or so years in Vault 101 in a series of Flash Forwards and does a reasonable job of fitting the choices you make into your intial skill set. Then there's a test (G.O.A.T. tests if you will.. a bit like Harry Potters O.W.L.S. presumably) but if you're not happy with the out come a quick chat with the teacher allows you to change 'em anyway.

As the plot starts to develop you leave Vault 101 and you're out in to the world devestated by nuclear war.. For an 80's kid like me that grew up surrounded by the fear of The Arms Race and When the Wind Blows it's particularly chilling to see. Even though it's an alternate future where development seemed to stop in the 50/60's (apart from the lazer pistols and robots obviously) it's nothing like the Art Deco stylings of Bioshock.

From here on in there's very little concession for newcomers. There's no indication of whether a particular mission is suitable for your (apart from it's distance from Megaton and even that's not that reliable) current level and it's quite possible to take a wrong turn just a few feet from where you're going and stumble on a group of monsters who rip you to shreds. Health and ammo are very scarce and item management is vital. You have a personal computer which is very handy for organising things but the default control scheme for it never feels natural (for instance on the map screen you move the cursor with the right stick and zoom in with up and down on the left stick.. however moving the left stick left or right changes to a different option on the computer and this happens a lot). Even something as simple as the currency threw me for a while. You dealing in caps. Which is fair enough. However I'd been searching dead bodies for loot and wondering why so many of them where carrying bottle caps when it dawned on me that was a 'cap' obvious when you think about it I suppose but nobody spells anything out for you.

Anyway now I've levelled up a bit and I'm getting the hang of the VATS combat and managine my items I'm really starting to enjoy it. Whether I'll finish it or not will depend on the variety of the missions and dungeons but so far so good.

Quantum of Solace

While Casino Royale may not have been a perfect film it certainly took the Bond franchise back in the right direction with a more modern gritty feel and much toned down on the over the top gadgets and villans. Certainly it leaves Quantum of Solace with a lot to live up to.

The film continues straight on from Casino Royale and assumes you have a decent working knowledge of its plot. There's some great action set pieces and Craig gets the brutal, cold part of Bond just right. The film lacks some of the humour that has been a Bond trade mark but given the films theme of revenge this is probably acceptable (although I'd like to see it make a come back for tne next film).

The films main problems stem from the direction and editing which is a bit on the busy side for my liking. Cutting and changing every few seconds may be acceptable in a pop video but here it makes it difficult to really see what's going on. One particular on foot scene is inter cut with a horse race and gets particularly annoying. It's tiring over the films run time. It also borrows a bit too heavily from the last Bourne film too. A couple of sequences seem to have almost been lifted completely. Oh, and the Villan is a bit dull too (Certainly his henchmans haircut makes him look a bit too 'special needs' to be convincing).

Having said all that it's still a good film. The pacing is better than Casino Royale and the relationship between M and Bond is very convincing. I thoroughly enjoyed it even if it'll take a repeat viewing to understand exactly what was going on (whether it was our local cinema or the sound mix but some bits of dialogue where lost in the action). A worthy follow up to Casino Royale but next time the producers will want to establish their own identity a bit more.

Ghost Town

I've been a fan of Ricky Gervais since his early days on The 11 O'Clock Show where he used to do a little stand up so when I had the chance to watch his first Hollywood lead movie I was rather excited.

Gervais obviously brings a lot of himself to each role but certainly the characters he writes for himself (David Brent from The Office and Andy Millman from Extras) are subtly different and so it proves with his character, Bertram Pincus, in this. A man whose most certainly not a people person.

So when he spends seven minutes 'dead' during a routine operation and has to deal with not only the living but the ghosts of the dead he's understandably even less happy.

Greg Kinnear provides excellent support as a ghost who offers to help with Pincus's ghost problem in return for splitting Kinnear's widow (played by a rather lovely Téa Leoni) from her new fiance. What follows could be viewed as a fairly formularic rom com if not for Gervais's brilliant performance.

It's a very touching and very funny film that I enjoyed an awful lot.

Editorial

Just to let all my avid readers now that I'm away from tomorrow until Sunday. I'm having a bit off a break in Manchester. Having been so absorbed in Saints Row 2 that I've finished the campaign (and seeing as my online friends who'd I'd happily join to help them in co-op have all moved on to Fable 2) in a week combined with the fact that Little Big Planet has been delayed I may pick up a new game while I'm away...

Russ & Ross Vs Manuel

So this has been rumbling on for several days now.

Now obviously causing controversy is pretty much what Brand does and you either love him or loathe him for it and Ross is probably old enough to know better.

But what I specifically want to discuss is the media back lash.

Surely all this publicity is actually making any embarassment caused to Sachs or his grand daughter worse?

Isn't the rest of the media being pretty sanctamonious over it all?

So what do you all think? Sack 'em or we really shouldn't censor our performers?

The "Complete" List

John Woo Presents Stranglehold
Portal
Test Drive: Unlimited ( ALL Gold in the SP challenges.)
Loco Roco*
The Darkness (Easy)
Lost: Via Domus
LEGO Indiana Jones - The Original Adventures (Story Mode)
Battlefield: Bad Company (Easy) & (Normal)
Ratchet & Clank : Quest for Booty
God of War: Chains of Olympus
Tiger Woods 2009
Haze
Saints Row 2

It's been a pretty rubbish year for completing games for me this year. There's been a lot of games I've put a lot of time into and haven't had the enthusiasm/skill for the final push to completion and some of the games I've completed (TD:U and Portal)where kind of hung over from last year. Still I hope to make a decent final push in the last two months.

What can I say about Saints Row 2? I started off saying it wasn't a GTA IV beater.. And in some ways I probably wasn't wrong. Rockstars effort has more polish, better characters (If there was an award for supporting character of the year Packie would win it every time) better physics, better car handling and although it's not quite so cut and dried probably the more memorable missions (certainly the HEAT copying mission and the funeral where gaming highlights of the year) but in almost every way that counts Saints Row 2 is the superior game.

Most Importantly it's heaps more fun. The co-op is fantastic. Being the crime lord is much more fun than working for them. The gun combat (despite not having any cover) is far more fun. The side missions are far more fun. The locations are nearly always better, The character customisation is brilliant, It has checkpoints, it has recovering health... There's far less frustration and there's much more interesting stuff to do.

Suffice to say I had a blast all the way through. Everything you'd like to try it not only let's you do but will probably reward you for doing. I've spent nearly 30 hours on it in just under a week. Who couldn't love a game that let's you do nearly everything wearing nipple tassles, a g string and a pair of high heels?

A strong contender at this point (with a whole heap of big titles to come) for GOTY

Chinese Whispers?

Excuse the terrible title.

After (For me) a 17 year wait since their last new album it seems the much fabled Chinese Democracy from Guns N' Roses may actually be close to release!

The new single (named after the album) was actually played on Sara Cox's show this morning on Radio 1.

Obviously after only one listen it's difficult to pass a judgement on whether the wait has been worth it but after the opening guitar riff as soon as Axl wades in with his trade mark caterwaul I thought it was going to be pretty awesome.

Whether an album that's been in production for that long can end up being anything over than a self indulgent mess who can say? But I'm looking forward to finding out.

A look ahead to Quarter 4 - Part 3

So this is the third part.. Not quite so easy to title either.. It's the: "Ones I've registered an interest in but will only buy if they get a great review score andI get time Andthey're cheap"..

Far Cry 2

Sounds like an interesting concept.. Is weapons jamming and breaking going to be fun? So many FPS's so little time

Midnight Club: LA

It certainly looks very pretty and unlike GTA IV it has licensed cars. It's probably between this and...

Need for Speed: Undercover

Last years game was so rubbish even my casual mate (Whom I normally play EA's yearly offering with didn't want to bother) but having lifted it's plot from The Fast & The Furious this looks like something of a return to form.

James Bond: Quantum of Solace

Really looking forward to the film. Based on the CoD4 engine this could be pleasant enough distraction in a quiet spot spell next year.

Silent Hill: Homecoming

Is this going to pull of the magic? The signs aren't looking good. This can be summed up by 'Pyramid Head' turning up in it.

Motorstorm 2

Enjoyed the first game up to a point.. Later on in the game it just got to random to compete at the highest levels without teeth grinding frustration. Doesn't sound like much has changed this time around either.. This'll have to be cheap. Maybe even Platinum.

Resistance 2

Another PS3 exculsive that now has to work a whole lot harder for my gaming time now the novelty of PS3 ownership has worn off and I'm beginning to see the 360 dominate my gaming time.

A look ahead to Quarter 4 - Part 2

Next we come to the games that I'm interested in and will probably buy.. But not until they turn up cheap somewhere... So many games seem to get released these days and then get heavily discounted within a few weeks.. Not only from the usual interweb suppliers but even on the high street.

So what's on the Radar and which titles do I think will get the discount treatment?

FABLE 2

Never played the first game and I'm not normally an RPG fan either. Molyneux also has a history of over promising. This does look very interesting though and being a more action orientated (as opposed to the JRPG) RPG it certainly looks like one to watch. It'll be between this and..

FALLOUT 3

Another action orientated RPG. Never played any of the prequels or indeed Oblivion either. I guess I'll wait and see which game gets the best review score, See what the forum feedback is and make a judgement on which one I take the plunge with.

DEAD SPACE

The review scores are already in on this one and it seems to be a decent, if uninventive, game. Graphically it looks amazing and I'm looking forward to some survival horror to fill the gap until Resi 5. A definite new year purchase for me when I can find it cheap.

GEARS OF WAR 2

I enjoyed the first game but it was certainly over hyped. For me the multi player didn't have much depth and I soon grew tired of it. However it's not essential as it seems to be more of the same. Again I'll definitely pick it up. It's bound to be a solid amount of fun but there's bound to be a huge number of cheap second hand copies to occupy the quite spring months.

CALL OF DUTY: WORLD AT WAR

Another year another CoD, Obviously CoD 4 was brilliant (although in my opinion not the masterpieces the forum boys seem to think). This is the only title on this particular list that could pop into the essential purchase list if it scores highly and the feedback from players is good.. Not really interested in the multi-player... I find online FPS's a bit too hardcore these days.. But the co-op could be a laugh.

The "Complete" List

John Woo Presents Stranglehold
Portal
Test Drive: Unlimited ( ALL Gold in the SP challenges.)
Loco Roco*
The Darkness (Easy)
Lost: Via Domus
LEGO Indiana Jones - The Original Adventures (Story Mode)
Battlefield: Bad Company (Easy) & (Normal)
Ratchet & Clank : Quest for Booty
God of War: Chains of Olympus
Tiger Woods 2009
Haze

It'd be easy to give Haze a proper kick in. It's rubbish in almost everyway. However it's not devoid of entertainment.. Certainly enough to see it through to the end. Mostly it's cos I feel a bit sorry for Free Radical. Haze is clearly a victim of over ambition, low budget and a failure to get to grips with developing for PS3 in the time available. The central concept is solid. The opening section, to me at least, felt almost like a Verhoeven satire. However rather than feeling the horror of corporate war it's actually the best bit of the game. Not only are the rebels annoying their set of, I hestitate to call them powers, abilitys are poorly thought through, not much fun to use and sadly of little point (although playing dead is hilarious as you feet fly in the air every few seconds as you're up and down like a yo yo in heavy fire fights (although apparently gunship pilots don't have a problem continually peppering you with heavy fire while you're playing dead))as they don't actually seem to do much.

So to sum up very much a missed opportunity rather than an out and out bad game for me.

First Look @ Saints Row 2

Well on first impressions it's no GTA IV beater. Obviously visuals aren't everything but man.. It's like I'd switched on my XBOX again. Still the opening sequence was amusing (A reference to dead R'n'B star knocking out records from beyond the grave made me chuckle and pretty much sets the standard) and you're soon on to a rather detailed character creation screen. Here you can spend as much or as little time (you can randomise most of it) as you want perfecting your character. I went with a Brandon Lee in The Crow crossed with Arnie in his prime and a dash of skater chick vibe. Obviously she looks ridiculous.

The game then get's underway and your off to reclaim the streets. The game itself while fairly robust (it didn't crash at least) is rather glitchy with NPC's popping in and out of cars and walls and the AI is terrible. One mission saw me being driven by an NPC into every pylon and wall we came across.. Still the controls are solid as is the action with a nice Resi 4 style over the shoulder 'zoom' for better aiming and a reasonable selection of weapons even early on. So far so average.

What lifted the game a 100% for me was when I invited a friend in for some co-op carnage. We started with some of the side missions (annoyingly you need to do enough of these to earn story missions). The first such mission was basically trying to create a set amount of carnage in a neighbourhood and was hilarious with the pair of us blowing up and shooting everything in sight. It works very well and there wasn't any lag. Voice communication was solid and we could drive together (one drives, one shoots) and soon got on to some missions proper. It's an awful lot of fun.

How to Lose Friends and Alienate People

First off I should say that I haven't read the book so my comments are based purely on the movie. Secondly I'm a huge fan of Simon Pegg. Thirdly any film that stars Kirsten Dunst, Megan Fox AND Gillian Anderson, three of my favourite women ever is going to be a winner in my book. So if you're expecting an unbiased opinion you should probably look else where.

The film is based (probably somewhat loosely) on Toby Youngs memior of the same name where in he details moving from England to work on a glossy magazine in America. I say loosely cos the film has been re-imagined as something of a rom com.

It's very heavy on the 'com' part though and maitains a very high laugh ratio all the way through. Unlike recent comedy efforts it's not based on 'gross out' or 'slacker' humour and while there are comedy set pieces the humour mainly comes from the razor sharp dialogue. I don't know how much input Pegg had in the script or whether they let him ad-lib (I suspect a bit of both consider he get's a Star Wars reference in very early on) but he's absolutely brilliant as the geeky brit abroad through out. Gillian Anderson also deserves a mention for her performance (Sidney Young: "Ah, so you're a publicist?" Eleanor: "I don't like that word" Sidney Young: "Oh, so what should I call you?" Eleanor: "Eleanor") as the ice queen publicist.

The Rom Com bit feels a tiny bit shoe horned in and you do worry that Pegg could be come the Hugh Grant of his day (forever doing the same Brit type role.. substitute geek for fop though obviously) but it's a very funny film. I'm off to buy the book.

Currently Playing: de BLOB

I picked this up from Play.com for just £18 having seen a great review for it in both EDGE and over at Eurogamer. I'm about half way through the story (although there's heaps of replay value and much I haven't done in each district) and I have to say it's thoroughly charming and great fun to play. My favourite Wii game by a long chalk.

Basically each part of the city has been robbed of colour and the residents trapped in their dull appartment blocks and buildinds.. as de Blob of the title it's your job to suck up as much colour as you can and paint things back to life. Of course there are various tasks to help you win back the city and these are handily graded.. Although they're not all compulsory.

The game (at least so far) is perfectly paced introducing a steady stream of new enemies, moves and concepts as you play but never over powering with you too much. The only downside so far has been the lack of autosaving.. You get very used on 360 and PS3 to games saving for you after you've accomplished anything and thus being able to play in short bursts (something de BLOB would be great for) but as it is it'll only save after you complete a whole district. Which can take upto 45-50 minutes just to complete the bare bones..

The control scheme is pretty handy. The Blob himself is moved with the nunchuck stick whilst flicks of the remote handle jumping.. it can feel a bit vague. Especially when you're trying to get the highest parts of a level. But generally I've found it find. Especially with a bit of practice and the realisation that the Blob himself has a sort of friction when he jumps against a wall allowing you to manouever him. Double jumps, as noted by EDGE and Eurogamer, are very hit and miss.

The art style too warrants a mention. The games characters are all distinctive and fun and the fact that you can freestyle paint (you can even mix paints by jumping into different supplies of colour blue and yellow to make green for instance) and the game rewards you for doing blocks of appartments in as many different colours as you can.

Overall then I'd recommend it to anyone who has an underused Wii and is looking for something a bit deeper than the odd party game.

A look ahead to Quarter 4

Anyone whose been keeping an eye on the games market will know that the coming next couple of months are when all the publishers release their big hitters in search of our christmas cash. Even by regular standards I think we can safely say it's a bit packed. Last year I bought nearly everything I wanted on release and rushed through them ready for the next.. This year it's too packed too even attempt that so, for your reading pleasure, I've divided them into three lists..

1, Purchase on Release

These are the one's I'll either be pre-ordering or picking up at my local game emporium.

SAINTS ROW 2

The first to blink and out of the traps on Friday. I didn't play the first game and I'm not overly keen on the bling/wanna be gangster angle. However, I'm liking the look of the gameplay. It seems to have more of the scope of San Andreas as opposed to the slightly disappointing, for me anyway, realistic nature of GTA:IV. The co-op angle also sounds fun.

LITTLE BIG PLANET

Obviously I've been following this with interest for many months. Is it going to turn around PS3's fortunes? I don't think so (but that's probably a topic for another post). Is it going to be huge amounts of 2D platforming fun? Certainly looks that way with all the reviews and previews complimenting the content on the disc. Will I be making anything myself? Probably not. Mostly I'm looking forward to seeing the imaginitive content that I think the great unwashed (Yes you at the back!) come up with.. Hopefully there'll be plenty of life in it.

BANJO & KAZOOIE: Nuts & Bolts

Never played a B&K game before but I love 3d platformers and this looks like Rare have finally made something I'm interested in. The chance to construct vehicles and perform challenges is an original concept. I'm also going to pre-order this from Play to get the download code for the original game. With the way our postie delivers it probably wont arrive for a few days after release leaving room nicely for..

MIRRORS EDGE

In a sequel packed release schedule it's another new IP that makes the essential purchase list for me. Not only did I win a Mirrors Edge T shirt but I've been following it with interest. I love the clean fresh look of the game and I really hope it pulls off the feat of making a fast free moving action game.

TOMB RAIDER: UNDERWORLD

Loved (and I mean totally *hearted*) the PS one games. The Crystal Dynamics games have been going in the right direction but this one really looks live they've captured the magic of the early games.. Looking forward to getting lost for hours in huge levels and complex puzzles. Oh and staring at that lovingly recreated Croft ass.

PRINCE OF PERSIA

Another sequel but with it being a re-imagining of the franchise I'm hoping for something more intune with Sands of Time with the joy of movement and being amazed at what you can do with the Prince rather than the sort of Emo Prince of the latter sequels..

So that's the six essential pre-christmas purchases.. Stay tuned for the next two lists

The "Complete" List

John Woo Presents Stranglehold
Portal
Test Drive: Unlimited ( ALL Gold in the SP challenges.)
Loco Roco*
The Darkness (Easy)
Lost: Via Domus
LEGO Indiana Jones - The Original Adventures (Story Mode)
Battlefield: Bad Company (Easy) & (Normal)
Ratchet & Clank : Quest for Booty
God of War: Chains of Olympus
Tiger Woods 2009

A decent amount of new content makes this a worth while yearly update from EA. I particularly liked the online element where it's possible for 4 people to play simultaneously. It makes the game more fun and faster. It's also informative to see other players lines from tee to cup. The EA gamer point challenges the other plays can set that pop up as you're playing are also a nice touch.

Other than that I enjoyed the Tiger Challenge and also completed the season and won the Fed Ex Cup.

On the downside it's still not perfect. The analogue swing system has been tweaked so that you can see how your hitting the ball and hooks and slice are easily visible so you know where you're going wrong. It's also possible to tune your clubs so if you find yourself with natural slice or hook you can tune it out. However when the shot requires less than a 100% it's still difficult to judge the power.. Here you can switch to the classic 'three click' system but even then it's hard.. The ball can travel much further than mathematics suggest it should (even allowing for wind and gradiant).. Also the little picture of the ball that shows your lie seems to have gone this year.

The new dynamic stat system is also a bit hit and miss.. The idea being that you have to play consistently well to improve your stats rather than them only being able to go up.. However as they improve the level of consistency required can be teeth grindingly frustrating and often (at least for me) saw huge chunks of my short game stat dissappearing despite regularly landing within the specified 2 meters of the cup due to one average shot.

On the whole though a great effort from EA.

Stephen King - Duma Key

Since King finished his The Dark Tower magnum opus he seemed to have lost his way. Content to either revisit old ideas or squander new ones or worse still publish lost 'Bachman' works (His alter ego for his more violent less horror based books) that add nothing to his cannon of work.

Duma Key whilst not quite a return to his white hot form of his purple patch (Whilst completing The Dark Tower most of his work featured hints and references to The Dark Tower universe and this really seemed to fire him up) it's certainly his best work in quite a while. Not completely without another look at some of his favourite subjects (Loss, Creation of Art and it's interaction with it's audience and family) it's still a page turning read. There's some very interesting characters (Wireman I particularly liked) and whilst I probably shouldn't judge a book by it's length it's nice to see King return to something of weighty thickness.. Here he uses it to great effect as the brooding menace builds slowly but surely.

If you've not read King before there's probably a better place to be introduced to the great mans work (I'd recommend Needful Things (my personal favourite)) but if you've not read anything of his for a while then it's probably time you had another look.

James Blunt - MENA 8th Nov

My second MENA experience didn't get off to the greatest of starts. Having booked online and chosen my allocated seating there didn't seem to be any need to arrive too early. On my previous visit I was very impressed with both the venue and the staff. However on scanning our tickets and told we where apparently due "A Refund" we where fobbed off with two other members of staff before someone was able to tell us what was going on and then remarking that we looked "A bit worried".. Still our reallocated seats weren't at all bad.

Compared to the terrible facilities at the Old Trafford Cricket ground when seeing R.E.M. last month the M.E.N.A. was once again a great display off how to handle a huge crowd of people.. Toilets are plentiful and everything (Including happily beer and t shirts) where easy to find and a very nice lady showed us to our seats where we arrived just in time to see Teddy Thompson do his support act.. Nearly everything he played was from his new album and while he's not the most exciting stage presence it was perfectly serviceable.

My only previous experience of James Blunt live was his live album released on the back of the success of Back to Bedlam on which he sounds much like any other earnest singer songwriter. Either selling million of albums has been great for his confidence or practice makes perfect cos he was fantastically assured performer last night. Strutting onto a fairly simple stage set (you know.. band.. lights and a higher sort of walkway affair in a sharp silver suit with skinny black tie he looked on fine form.

The show ran really tightly with a great set list. Most of the first album, the best songs from All The Lost Souls and one new song. A bit of chat. A few jokes. Job very much done. The band sounded great and Blunts voice (Which can sound a tiny bit nasal on record) was fantastic throughout the night. Mid set he ran into the crowd only to leap up onto the PA section and then onto a little stage with a piano where he bashed out a couple of songs almost right in front of us.. (Here I tried to rush the stage but some jobsworth wouldn't let me onto the floor with my 'seating ticket').

He finished the encore with a fantastic version of 1973 and we left having seen a cracking concert that was all about entertainment.

The "Complete" List

John Woo Presents Stranglehold
Portal
Test Drive: Unlimited ( ALL Gold in the SP challenges.)
Loco Roco*
The Darkness (Easy)
Lost: Via Domus
LEGO Indiana Jones - The Original Adventures (Story Mode)
Battlefield: Bad Company (Easy) & (Normal)
Ratchet & Clank : Quest for Booty
God of War: Chains of Olympus

Not much to add to what my good friend Nish had to say about this. A very timely reminder of what the PSP can do. In fact you have to wonder why more PSP action adventures don't have fixed camera angles thus doing away with the need for a second analogue stick.

It's a short but very intense experience and probably my favourite God of War game to date.. It's certainly whetted my appetite for the long wait for the 3rd installment on PS3.

Trophy or not Trophy

That is the question.

I'm finding that playing a bit of WipeOut HD is the perfect way to fill small gaps in the day.. You can boot it up, play for 15 minutes, win a couple of medals and come away happy (Well as happy as you can be with you're eyes watering from the super fast HD 1080p 60 fps eye orgy anyway) and feel like you've accomplished something.

It's also the first PS3 game I've got that supports Sony's new Trophy system. It's certainly not as compulsive as Achievements and Gamerscore. In fact it's a bit something of nothing really. The Gamerscore from 360, with it's running total, has a point.. You can see at a glance of someone's gamercard how much of a life they have if nothing else.. Perhaps we'll have to wait and see how they're intergrated in Home for the full effect. I just can't escape the feeling it's all a bit half assed.

Tropic Thunder

Went to see this film at the cinema last night. The premise sounded entertaining and the draw of Downey Jr., Jack Black and Ben Stiller (Not to mention small roles for Tom Cruise, Steve Coogan, Nick Nolte and Matthew McConaughey) made it a must see.

I loved it. The opening spoof movie trailers set the backgrounds of the main characters (which where all very funny (especially Blacks characters parody of Eddie Murphy films)) perfectly. The plot is then quickly established as british director Coogan loses control of both his stars and the F/X guy. Basically the stars think they're being filmed somewhat incognito when in fact an unforeseen accident leaves them to fend for themselves against some drug dealers.

The comedy comes thick and fast. Downey Jr once again (he seems to be on something of a vein of form this year what with this and the excellent Ironman which, for my money, tops The Dark Knight as this years Super Hero movie) steals the show. His thinly veiled portrayal of Russell Crowe is excellent both in and out of character. Tom Cruise also deserves special mention for one of the performances of his career.

Overall an excellent movie.

PSN Store!

Finally seems to hit it's stride with a raft of games, demos and content to peruse this week.

I downloaded WipEout HD for the princely sum of £12 and thought it sounded like excellent value for money.

The "Complete" List

John Woo Presents Stranglehold
Portal
Test Drive: Unlimited ( ALL Gold in the SP challenges.)
Loco Roco*
The Darkness (Easy)
Lost: Via Domus
LEGO Indiana Jones - The Original Adventures (Story Mode)
Battlefield: Bad Company (Easy) & (Normal)
Ratchet & Clank : Quest for Booty

Having really enjoyed Tools of Destruction I was very much looking forward to this. It's basically an extended chapter of the game and plays very similarly to the last game. There's a limited selection of weapons to collect/upgrade along the way and it probably represents reasonable VFM for the outlay (I'd expected it to last maybe a little longer).

It's a great example though of downloadable media. I would be more than happy to download my games in quarter sections at £10 a pop if they maintained this level of quality.

Too Much of a Good Thing?

You know you've got too much Pet Shop Boys on you're iPod when even with 6898 songs to choose from in shuffle you get three Pet's tracks in a row...

Purchase Power

I'm kind of 'off' gaming at the moment.. I just don't have the motivation.. And I guess we're right in the middle of the summer game drought where not much is being released and thus I'm not compelled to buy anything new either (I did consider purchasing a used copy of Kane & Lynch for a tenner in Game today.. But the moment of madness passed...

Anyhow. On to the point of the post. My PSP is enjoying being dusted off and picking up the gaming slack. My copy of WipEout purE arrived from eBay both quickly and as described today for a very reasonable £3 + £2 P&P.

I look forward to interspersing some future racing action in amongst my marathon sessions of Everybody's Golf 2 (more on this later)

Editorial

Don't worry. I'll still be randomly blogging about stuff that interests me.. But I want to widen the scope of this blog to include my thoughts on pretty much anything.

Currently Playing: Race Driver:GRID

I've had a pain in my arm for a number of weeks now.. I'm guessing it's some kind of Tennis Elbow slash RSI kind of thing from all the car cleaning I have to do at work (Polishing, Glass cleaning, Washing Cars all takes the form of a similar circular arm movement)..

However having gone back to GRID to mop up the last 8 championships to be able to add it to the 'Done and Dusted' pile I've got a sneaking suspicion it might be the intense joypad holding action of playing GRID... I've just managed one event (consisting of four races.. I won them all if you're interested) and my right arms really locked up..

I guess one must suffer for ones art.

Purchase Power

Time to dust off the old PSP (And as it turns out charge the fucker for 2 hours before I can attempt to update the firmware.. Despite it being plugged into the mains as well) and so I picked up Everybodys Golf 2 for my little sleek black beauty.

Yes the Everbody's Golf formula really hasn't changed much since the PSone original but hey.. I'm up for another swing.

What's on the Box(set) ?

I just finished watching Prison Break season two.. Now it took me ages to finally watch the whole of Prison Break and whilst one naturally has to suspend ones sense of disbelief when watching such a glossy american drama series (I mean I'm sure american government field agents regularly have as exciting days as Jack Bauer manages in 24) it just got a bit to unlikely and stretched out to fill 24 episodes or so...

It's not giving much away to confirm that at the end of season one they did indeed manage to break out of the prison and go on the run.. However I wasn't exactly thrilled at the prospect of another season.. How wrong I was (I'm as surprised as you at this turn of events). Season two is a rollercoaster thrill ride of conspiracy, tricky situations and action. Yes there's one or two unlikely turn of events (someone get's sentenced to 25 years in prison and yet is working for the FBI with in two episodes) but overall the action never lets up and it's compulsive viewing.

There's two reasons, I think, for this. Outside of the Prison enviroment the characters are given more room to breath and as such become more three dimensional than the stereotypes of the american prison drama (The guards are corrupt, The sexually predatory perverts etc. etc.). Secondly the wider scope of the pursuit of the convicts introduces some great new characters (The on the edge FBI agent and particularly a sinister asian agent working for 'The Company' stand out in particular).

Recommended viewing and a great payback of entertainment for the time invested in Season One.

The "Complete" List

John Woo Presents Stranglehold
Portal
Test Drive: Unlimited ( ALL Gold in the SP challenges.)
Loco Roco*
The Darkness (Easy)
Lost: Via Domus
LEGO Indiana Jones - The Original Adventures (Story Mode)
Battlefield: Bad Company (Easy) & (Normal)

Re-completed B:BC on the Normal difficulty setting and I have to say thoroughly enjoyed it again.. Probably more so.. Less to do with the slightly stiffer opposition and more to do with having a better idea of how the game worked and how to effectively use the hardware at my disposal.. Some of the sections that caused me trouble first time around because I was dashing through it where much more fun with a more considered use of tactics and fire power.

My favourite section of the game is the escape from the Monastry down the mountain.. There's a helicopter gunship on your tail the whole way down and plenty of tanks and groups of troops meaning a straight run in the provided jeep leads to a lot of getting blown up and frustrating restarts.. Making good use of the laser designator as I went made short work of the tanks and enabled a break neck dash from jeep to power boat, stop briefly to blow up a frigate. A pitched battle ensued to secure the last jeep.. A last minute dash to the safe zone saw my jeep exploding just as I triggered the cut scene.. It was a real Hollywood action movie moment.

Great game. Now I've just got to finish MGS4... ;)

NRoD

Or No Ring of Death if you will.. My 360 wireless pad refuses to power up no matter what I try.. New batteries.. Pressing all the buttons.. Cleaning the terminals... Dead.

The "Complete" List

John Woo Presents Stranglehold
Portal
Test Drive: Unlimited ( ALL Gold in the SP challenges.)
Loco Roco*
The Darkness (Easy)
Lost: Via Domus
LEGO Indiana Jones - The Original Adventures (Story Mode)
Battlefield: Bad Company (Easy)

Suffice to say I enjoyed the first play enough to go straight into another bash on Normal... Not just for the achievements either ;)

I'm a Lumberjack and I'm...

OK!

I know, I know.. I hate Monty Python but chopping down trees with machine gun in Battelfield: Bad Company (from here on in now known as B:BC) is just so much fun.. Especially as they stay down.. CO2 emissions?? Who cares! Stumps look so much cooler!

Purchase Power

A quiet time for purchasing recently.. A fairly quiet time for blogging too..

Bought Battlefield: Bad Company. Hoping for an action packed single player game and hopefully something that'll get me back into the multi player Live arena..

Purchase Power

Today has been a reasonably expensive day. I bought the new Coldplay album Viva La Vida or Death And All His Friends first.

I also purchased two tickets to see James Blunt at the MENA in October. Say what you like about him but he knows his way around a tune. You never get a feeling of true sincerity with his work in the same way you do with say Stephen Fretwell or Damien Rice but should an artist have to suffer for his work? Or can he just imagine?

The "Complete" List

John Woo Presents Stranglehold
Portal
Test Drive: Unlimited ( ALL Gold in the SP challenges.)
Loco Roco*
The Darkness (Easy)
Lost: Via Domus
LEGO Indiana Jones - The Original Adventures (Story Mode)

After a reasonable start to the year I've not managed to complete something for a while.. It probably says much about my enjoyment of this.. It's not a huge game and when you've established the basic rules of play it doesn't vary much (I had to check a FAQ twice.. once for a boss battle and once for a puzzle) but it's fun while it lasts and if you want a 100% completion there's heaps of replay value (A lot of the artifact pieces aren't possible to collect in Story mode).

Of the three chapters Temple of Doom was probably my favourite although I'd have to say The Last Crusade probably captured the spirit of the movie best (It was very funny disturbing the flocks of birds to bring down the Nazi aeroplanes).

It's good not great though as there's some frustrating points.. It's incredibly easy to fall off the scenery and unbelievably you can spawn right on the edge where you fell off and fall off again and again if your not quick enough. The controls are a bit loose and in some places the infinite lives are at the expense of intelligent game design IMO.

Overall I give it **** out of 5.

Currently Playing: Race Driver: GRID

There's a vodaphone advert on the TV at the moment that features Lewis Hamilton.. At the crucial moment the voice over woman says that "One second changes everything". Codemasters understand this is especially true when it comes to racing.. In fact a split second can change everything...

Race Driver: GRID is possibly the most exciting racing game yet. It may not be as technically accurate a driving game as something like Gran Turismo 5: Prologue or Forza 2 but where they can feel dry and processional despite this accuracy GRID gives you the feeling, I imagine, of a little of what it's like to be a racing driver.

As the lights count down to the start there's no annoying camera angle changes showing what a great job the developer has done of making the cars look beautiful (although they certainly do) there's just you.. the beeps as the countdown to the green light carries on and the pack ahead of you..

When the lights go green and your off into the first corner you understand how a split second can change everything.. it's the difference between sliding through the apex and coming out a few places ahead, messing it up and ending up in the gravel or worse still breaking that split second to late and ending up in the car in front..

Due to the excellent AI and pack dynamic your nearly always under pressure and these split seconds of action and decision continue throughout the whole race making for a very exciting race. Fortunately the handling model, whilst not the most realistic, is fun to drive and more importantly reliable.. You learn you breaking points and you can trust the car to respond.. each laps lets you feel that maybe you can push a little harder.. until you enter another one of those split seconds where it turns out you've pushed to hard and your in the wall..

Then you can admire the excellent damage and deformation as, if your lucky you scrape through with some damage to the car and your pride intact. If your unlucky it's race over and the your car is buried in the wall...

Of course in such tight races this could soon become frustrating.. But this is where Codemasters have saved their biggest stroke of genuis.. Like Prince of Persia: Sands of Time when the split second doesn't go your way you can rewind time and have another go at it... You've then got complete control of the replay to rewind until you can see where you made your mistake and have another pop at it.. It's a brilliant invention.

There's plenty of depth to.. As the game progresses you can start your own team, hire a team mate and take on sponsorship as well as designing your own team colours (which, again brilliantly, you use for online races too adding a touch of personality to the online world).

One last comment (before this becomes an essay) and it's about the replays.. They've been a standard feature since the original Gran Turismo but by utilising a 'shakey cam' and some inspired direction there once again fun to watch and really capture the speed and dynamics of the race.

Overall it's the most 'This Gen' racing game yet.

Purchase Power

Today, In a fit of Indy based excitement, I picked up Lego Indiana Jones - The Original Adventures. The plan being to have some fun with it this week (hopefully complete it cos it's been a barren time on the completion front recently) and trade it for MGS4 on Friday.

The general review consensus seems to be that it's not as good as the Lego Star Wars games but the idea of playing Indy appeals to me too much to miss out.

Great Expectations

Some of you may know of my uselessness with RPGs.. in particularly Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker. Some of you may also remember me throughly enjoying Okami soon after I purchased my PS3.. But time constraints meant that I couldn't devout enough attention to it.. It was, after all, an epic quest.

However on the 16th June it's getting a re-release on Wii where it'll feature use of the Wii-mote for using the Magic Paint Brush.. I'm seriously tempted, Now that I have a. More time on my hands and b. Need to get more out of my Wii, to re-invest. If not just to give the now disbanded Clover studio some well deserved royalties..

Purchase Power

I've had a 1000 points kicking around on my Wii since I bought the thing at christmas and while I don't regularly browse the virtual console to see what's about I do keep in touch with new releases via Eurogamer... I've stopped downloading old games for new consoles because they never live up to my memory of them (Sensi being the last purchase and responsible for another shattered dream) so WiiWare sounded like just the thing.

I've been following LostWinds development in EDGE and I have a massive soft spot for David Braben who co-wrote what I consider the greatest video game of all time (Elite in case your too young to remember) so it seemed like a no brainer for my 1000 points.. Job done.

A smashing time

Had a friend around for a few drinks last night (It's senior Race Day here on the Isle of Man which is kind of a bank holiday here so neither of us had to work) and as he was struggling to play Race Driver: GRID (more of which tomorrow.. possibly) we dusted off the Wii and had a bash at Bowling and Tennis on Wii Sports. Much fun was had as more drink was consumed until the light fitting in my front room got smashed. Still it does prove that the Wii-Mote is a hardy piece of equipment. There's not a scratch on it.

Purchase Power

Well even though I'm now officially addicted to GTA IV I couldn't let the purchase of Race Drive: GRID go *ahem* a drift.. (See it contains drift racing.. see what I did there?? No? Nevermind. It's not like anyones reading). I got £12 trade in for Burnout Paradise and pre-ordered MGS4 while I was there.

What's on the Box(set)?

It's been a long wait for us region two DVD boxset owners to get Season 6 of The Shield in our hands and after the dramatic end of Season 5 it's been a very long wait...

As has been the way since Season 1 it's the shortest season yet with just 10 episodes... But it's focused and there's not an ounce of fat among the episodes... Lem's storyline is once again the focus as Vic Mackie fights to save his job and IAD try to close the net..

For fans of the show it's an intensely satisfying season and maintains the awesome standards of script writing... Highly recommended.

Currently Playing: GTA IV

Well I think enough time has passed where my slow-ish (What can I say? I have a life) progress on GTA IV will no longer be a spoiler risk for people who picked it up on or about launch..

To be fair I'm not going to go into a huge amount of detail anyway.. I think it's a game that's best approached with an open mind. Certainly there's a lot less scale than there was in GTA:SA but possibly a lot more to do, of worth, at any one time. I have just unlocked the third island and I've got several missions that I can attempt and I'm juggling my time among several friends and prospective girlfriends.

However it's only towards the second half of the game (assuming that the content is spread reasonably between the three main islands) that the story and missions have really started to gel along with my mastery of the combat and driving. There's a couple of things that still annoy.. Mostly the lack of checkpoints mid-mission and the fact that cars and vehicles spawn around you which annoy. Having said that judicious use of the cover system means most missions aren't tooooo annoying. Certainly the Bank Heist mission (which gives more than a nod or two in Heats direction has been the high point for me.

Overall then so far a satisfying next gen update.

Purchase Power

As previously mentioned I had the day off on Tueday.. However a quick browse of the EDGE forum seemed to indicate that there was no chance of picking up an un-pre-ordered copy in town.

I decided to order a PS3 copy from Play.com. They where out of stock and recently their deliveries have been been extremely slow of late (24 T Shirt and season 6 of The Shield ordered and posted from Play.. Yet to arrive)

As it happened I'd forgotten my ticket and hotel reservation for my trip away later that day so I had to head into town anyway. Walked into Woolies and as there was no queue at the counter I asked the girl if they had GTA IV in stock.. Moments later, as is the way, I spy that indeed there are a pile of copies behind her.. So I bought the 360 version. Came home. Cancelled my order at Play and placed the disc in my 360's hungry tray.

As a short coda to the story I was wandering around Liverpool on Wednesday and indeed there wasn't a copy to be seen.. Seems like, for once, my timing was perfect.

Great Expectations

So is there any chance that tomorrow will live up to the hype? I have the morning off work and yet I've not pre-ordered a copy. Will I pick up a copy on PS3 or 360? I guess availability and price will decide me on the day now. The reviews I've seen have all been glowing and I think there's every chance that for once the final product will live up to the hype..

There's only one way to tell.. Suffice to say I'll be in a queue somewhere in town clutching a copy in my no doubt sweaty palms.

Currently Playing : darkSector

Since Gears of War brought it's cover system to the masses (I know it didn't invent it but it certainly made it popular) we've seen other games borrow it. Uncharted: Drakes Fortune was one and now comes darkSector.

The game starts in moody black and white with our hero in full military uniform and gimp mask. It's not the greatest opening level ever.. it's hard to see what's going on and it's dull.. But don't give up there.. Stick with it and in chapter two things get much better.. Firstly with the use of a nice colour palette. Secondly the story dictates your character gets infected and the gimp mask comes off.

But the Lord taketh away and he giveth too.. He gives you the 'Glave' which is like a giant throwing star crossed with a boomerang so you can throw it and it always comes back.. it gives another dimension to the duck and cover system. There's a nod to Resi 4 with shop keeper hiding in the sewers too and once you've earned enough cash to buy a new gun things get even better (you can pick up discarded enemy weapons but your infection means that they self destruct in 30 seconds or so).

And that's pretty much it really.. It plays solidly, there's some good boss battles (And I normally despises those) some upgrades for the Glave and some decent levels and new enemy types.. I'll hopefully finish it prior to the 29th.

Purchase Power

So wandering through town on Friday I see darkSector for £35 in Game. It got a reasonable review in EDGE ( to sum up for non readers derivative action game that improves on the things it steals but becomes repetitive.) but at that price worth a punt.

Currently Playing Roundup

Well finally my PS3 based investment starts to pay off with some serious play time. I've actually completely replayed Ratchet & Clank: Tools of Destruction spending a touch more time exploring and making sure I had a variety of weapons powered up to 5 experience levels as well as full developed with 'Raritarium' and still couldn't do the final boss. Gave up after two attempts because ... well lifes to short and I don't have the patience.

Started Gran Turismo 5:Prologue at the weekend. It has to be said it's beautiful to behold. The front end is excellent with a lovely menu interface and 'Live' info from the GT universe and real world stuff as well. It's a little clunky to actually use and somewhat long winded too (after finishing an event you have to go back through another 3 menu screens to choose the next event cos it takes you all the way back to the front end). Rather disappointingly the first track you play is the 'High Speed Ring' which has been featured in every GT game since the first one. Having said that it does show what a leap it is.. The replays are truly stunning the cars surpassing anything seen in PGR4 or Forza 2 for photo realism. Having switched to 'Professional handling' and turning all the driving aids off it has a very satisfying handeling model to.. It soon get's very challenging just to keep the cars on the road. It's tough too. I've got as far as class A cars and it's proper hard. Sadly you can't tune or buy parts for your chosen automobile at this point in the game (always one of the best and deepest parts of the GT experience) and for me this rather shows up the still poor-ish AI of the competition. I've yet to try the online mode. Overall though solid value rather than exceptional but a great chance to show what the PS3 can do.. Should sell some machines if you're worried about that sort of thing.

Purchase Power

Picked up the solitary copy of Gran Turismo 5 : Prologue in WHsmiths yesterday. Couldn't find a copy of Everybodys Golf so that'll be a mission for today.

GT5:P is a mandatory HDD install which took a wee while to install followed by it wanting to do an update download. This got to the same long winded point (about 10 minutes into a total of 20 I'd say) before throwing up an error message. Switched the PS3 off and switched it on again and had another go to no avail. Played some of the game offline and then had another try from within the games menu options and third time lucky. You also have to have the option set on the PS3 to get the time and date settings from the internet (Not even an option I knew was there and I doubt it would've occured to me had it not been for some help from the EDGE Forum). I've often had X-Box Live update games I've just bought but crucially they've never failed to install.. seems the PSN has a while to go.

Great Expectations

Finally some light on the PS3 release schedule as both Gran Turismo 5: Prologue and Everybodys Golf 5 make Pal release on friday.

I really enjoyed Everybodys Golf on PSP and indeed on PSone. What with this years Tiger Woods being a little disappointing (Being at the same time to similar and yet harder) there's a Golf shaped hole in my life.

I've enjoyed nearly every Gran Turismo game I've played (4 somehow seemed a little dull after Forza (Itself not the most undull game)) but the last one seems like an awful long time ago now and while it did cause me a joypad casualty (The last one actually but maybe I've grown up a bit since then) I'm looking forward to 5, Prologue also seems to offer a reasonable amount of content too. Along with online racing. So looks like Friday could be expensive.

Only the flake-iest

A little 'break' from the norm.. (sorry) but am I the only person who thinks that the new Joss Stone featuring Cadbury's Flake advert is almost cringe worthy??

So Near Yet So Far

I think I may as well add

Devil May Cry 4 to the list.

I'm on mission 19 and well I just don't have the will to go on. I didn't think it was my type of game and whether setting out with this negative outlook or whether indeed I was just right I haven't really enjoyed it. The combat is fun but I find repetitive. I had to start skipping the over cooked cut scenes to save my embarassment for the folks at Capcom..

The "Complete" List

John Woo Presents Stranglehold
Portal
Test Drive: Unlimited ( ALL Gold in the SP challenges.)
Loco Roco*
The Darkness (Easy)
Lost: Via Domus

Well.. What can I say about the Lost game? I don't watch the show. It's never interested me. From what I hear it asks far more questions without any satisfying answers yet in four seasons. My girlfriend is however a huge fan and the game was duly bought on release and kicking about. She enjoyed it although she didn't feel it added a lot to the overall show experience. So what do we have? Well it's short. The whole thing comprises just 7 episodes and there's barely a handful of locations. The characters look good but most are voiced by impersonators who obviously haven't watched the show either. It's a third person adventure and it reminds me mainly of point n' click style. Mostly it involves talking to the characters to establish where to go next. Picking up objects and a few simple puzzles.. The difficulty, such as it, in these parts of the story comes from actually knowing who to talk to progress the story.. Trial and error. The second part is where the your character tries to establish his memory by taking photos in 'flashbacks' that will kick start a memory. These parts are looped until you take the right picture.. Once again Trial and Error is the nature of the day. To me it seemed an unsatisfying and flawed game. I'll say no more. Apart from it was an easy 975 gamerpoints and was vaguely entertaining in the way cheap tv can sometimes be.

So Near, Yet So Far

Also known as the reverse 'Complete' List. A new list of games in which I will admit to having given up on them. I'll try and say how far I got and how why I gave up too.. Let's face it the failures are going to make for more regular posting.

Ratchet & Clank: ToD - Got as far as the very last boss. I hate boss battles. So I had a couple of bashes at it. Read a FAQ and promptly gave up intending to have another go when I was less 'fatigued'. I may have another run through the game now. And I'd probably call this a completion (but I'd only be cheating myself).

Assassin's Creed Got as far as the very last assignment that turns out to amplify all the things I'd found frustrating into a game breaking mess of a final level. Again I intended to go back to it when 'fresh' but ... As much as I wanted to like the game it was repetitive, dull and frequently annoying and the lure of those achievement points for finishing off an again all but completed game isn't enough for me. Not one I'll be having another go at.

Great Expectations

There's been a fair bit written about Little Big Planet . From EDGE to Eurogamer most recently and plenty in OPM on many occasions. It's starting to look very promising. Obviously the content creation has received a great deal of attention. I'm not a particularly creative person (if you couldn't tell from my awesome blog writing ability) but I am looking forward to being able to sample the stuff generated by people who are... And judging by the amount of time spent by some people decorating cars in Forza 2 there's plenty of people with the time and the talent (and the lack of sex life most probably) to make it very rewarding and extend it's life, possibly, for a long while.

Purchase Power

Seems like March is going to be an expensive month for CD purchasing in world of Bob. I picked up The Cardigans - Best Of from HMV today... I have one of their albums and so it's nice to be able to get a feel for the rest of their back catalogue. It has really nicely designed artwork which imitates a CDR that someone had burned off for you and the booklet that has little stories behind each track written by one of the band members which is a nice touch. It's also a proper "Best Of" rather than a "Greatest Hits" as the band have included a couple of their favourite tracks that where never singles.

I also ordered the new Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds album Dig Lazarus Dig!!! which apparently deserves all three exclamation marks. It got a great review in Q and was album of the week with five stars in The Sunday Times so I thought I'd give it a whirl. It'll be my first Nick Cave related purchase. Never too old to try something new.

Completing my order from Play was Rockferry. The debut album by Duffy. Sadly saddled with the "New Winehouse" tag it seems to be one of those albums that everyone will be buying later in the year that you really need to hear. Another good review in Q although The Sunday Times where slightly less enthusiastic.

Currently Playing: Final Fantasy II

I've just clocked up my tenth hour on Final Fantasy II so it's probably over due a few words on here. My last experience of a FInal Fantasy game was the famous number seven on PSone where I don't think I progressed off the first disc and my only other experience of a 2d RPG was Legend of Zelda on the GBA. Superficially they make look similar but they actually play very differently what with Zelda being more action based.

Anyone whose familiar with the famous 'Telescope incident' will probably be unsurprised to learn that I'm following a FAQ fairly closely. There's a couple of reason for this. These old skool games don't really break you in gently and what with the constant random battles visiting places in the wrong order can be a chore and secondly I wanted some hints and tips on learning the genres conventions. The only exceptions being that I'm mostly attempting the dungeons on my own and item management is all down to me too.. This has proved a revelation compared to say Skies of Arcadia where I didn't have a clue. In FFII it very clear which items are going to improve a team member and which aren't. It's also easy to experiment with different things.

I'm about a third or so into the game now and while my HP stats are coming along nicely and I have a reasonable spread of abilities through out my party a feel perhaps a more experienced RPG-er would of boosted a few more magical abilities throughout the team.. After some long dungeon crawls I'm now rather flush with cash so hopefully there'll be time to remedy this before long....

The "Complete" List

John Woo Presents Stranglehold
Portal
Test Drive: Unlimited ( ALL Gold in the SP challenges.)
Loco Roco*
The Darkness (Easy)

I read the Eurogamer.Net review today and it pretty much sums up exactly what's right and wrong with this game. To sum up there's far more right so if you fancy a great adventure go buy it. It's a solid game. There's a couple of pacing issues, The creeping dark tentacles I mention in the 'CP' update don't work quite as smoothly as they could but are still great great fun and as Eurogamer point out theres some scenes towards the end where you're powers are utilised to awesome effect but you're not in control. Other than that I have no complaints. I may well have another play through on a harder difficulty and try and hoover up some of the missed achievement points (295 points first time through). I really enjoyed it.

*Not a first time completion.

Purchase Power

Today is payday. Thus a little splurge at HMV.

I bought Band of Brothers on DVD. Little Joe has been banging on about it for ages but for me the tipping point was finding out that Dexter Fletcher from my favourite childhood TV show Press Gang was in it.

I also got the new Goldfrapp album and in yet another attempt to enjoy an RPG game (see also Legend of Zelda, Final Fantasy VII and Skies of Arcadia)I purchased Final Fantasy II for PSP at £18.

I'm very tempted to buy another DS as well.. My old one was one of the chunky originals and of course the Slim ones are a lot nicer. My colleauge in the office has one now and we could play Mario Kart together...

To Bald-ly Go!

Apologies for the terrible pun. The internet is alive today with the news of Phil Harrison leaving Sony. I've not much to add other than with PS3 seemingly on the cusp of great things it seems a strange time to go.

Currently Playing: The Darkness

I should probably start by saying that I have no experience of the comic on which this game is based. It doesn't seem to matter all that much as the game introduces the set up and story very well as the game progresses. It does this in two ways. Through the hero of the game, Jackie, talking to an unseen character during loading screens and through conversations with characters as the game goes along.

Jackie is a mafia hitman who, as the game unfolds, becomes possessed by a mysterious power called The Darkness which manifests itself through powers Jackie is able to use and a strange creepy voice that communicates with Jackie himself. The powers are unlocked as you progress collecting enemies hearts as you go. Jackie can use, what I assume are sort of specteral tenticals, that sprout from him when you invoke The Darkness to over come puzzles that stop him from progressing as well as for scouting out the terrain and dealing with enemies. He is also able to call forth darklings. Small beings that he can direct and each with a specilized ability (Their are four to collect).

It's basically a story based shooter however there's less emphasis on shooting and quite a bit on exploring and progressing the story. It's linear in so much as you're assigned tasks (for instance finding your girlfriends flat) but the world you're in is reasonably open and you don't feel like you're progressing down one long corridor to you're goal.

Appropriatly enough the game is rather dark all round. Both in visuals and atmosphere. Your darkness powers gradually fade in the light too so a lot of time is spent in making the enviroment even darker. This occasionally makes finding out what you're supposed to be doing quite tricky although the game does have a lot of hints and clues in it's 'journal' along with a list of your abilities and powers and how to use them. So while a lot is introduced in a relatively short time it's fairly easy to keep track of it all and I made reasonable progress yesterday completing the first section of the game. That's when things started to get really strange....

Purchase Power

I picked up The Darkness for twenty notes today. I haven't played a good FPS adventure for a while and it was either Clive Barkers Jericho which was also in Game for £20. Both where games that where on my radar pre-release but neither seemed to realise their full potential for a purchase on release. Having checked out Eurogamer The Darkness scored higher and seemed to offer less frustration.

Blast from the past!

Apparently Commodore have inked a deal with Nintendo to release Commodore 64 classics on the Virtual Console. Now I remember the 8 bit era fondly and the C64 was a king amongst men at the time... But seriously does anyone expect 500 Wii points of entertainment from any C64 title at all?

If you're going to release old computer classics at least make 'em from the Amiga.. Stunt Car Racer! Now there's a game that'd be worth 500 points

The "Complete" List

John Woo Presents Stranglehold
Portal
Test Drive: Unlimited ( ALL Gold in the SP challenges.)
Loco Roco*

*Not a first time completion.

This time around I got 71 more Loco Roco than last time and 17 more Mui. Although I totally bombed World 4 getting 11 less Loco Roco and 3 less Mui. It's a great great game. The completion took a couple of hours more but it's worth it to find all the hidden stuff.

The "Complete" List

John Woo Presents Stranglehold
Portal
Test Drive: Unlimited ( ALL Gold in the SP challenges.)

Finally polished off the last of the gold cups to put this old-ey but goody to bed.

Not that anyone will be that interested but I do have a few titles on the cusp of being completed.

Currently Playing Round Up!

I've been playing a lot of different stuff so time for another quick round up of my gaming activity.

Loco Roco

Having a lot of fun replaying this on the now dusted off PSP. Mainly in anticipation of Patapon being released later this month. Spending more time just enjoying the game. Some of it I just haven't the patience for but I've been doing a lot more exploring. Probably the best PSP game in my collection.

Tiger Woods 2008

I loved '07 but I'm struggling with '08 so far. The Hook and Slice (whether the ball swings left or right when your supposed to be hitting it straight is a lot more pronounced making every shot a challenge and most holes a slog in the early stages.. This is making it rather tough to get into. Combined with a collection of rubbish achievements I can't see myself spending as much time on this as last year.

Devil May Cry 4

The adaptive difficulty and relatively easy start of 'Human' means that I'm making regular progress through the missions but I don't really feel like I'm learning much. Dante is way cooler than Nero but his lack of bendy grabby arm makes it much tougher to fight with him for the beginner whose suddenly stripped of the one power that was making combat fun and four confusing fighting styles don't make for much recompense. Combine this with a flexible upgrade system that allows you to undo and you choices and 'respend' your souls there should be plenty of moves but it's difficult for the beginner and, to be frank, it all looks the same. Resulting in much button mashing. It's not really my type of game. I'm 14 missions in so I may as well now continue to the bitter end but the result of the experiment is that I wont be bothering again. Even the over blown cut scenes don't do a lot for me.

Test Drive: Unlimited

As part of a forthcoming blog entry (hopefully) discussing my thoughts on EDGE's essay on driving games I thought I'd revisit this old chestnut and try and polish off the last couple of achievements to finish it off.. It still quite a stunning technical achievement (Compared to Burnout Paradise the island is huge. Graphically it's amazing how much we've moved on as it's not terribly pretty by todays standards.. It can be a bit juddery as well (presumably as it tries to load on the fly) but it's a great game and perhaps an indication of how developers should be challenging the genre.

Burnout Paradise

On the other hand this brave experiment is finding something of a lack of longevity. It's too unfocused. There's not enough sense of progression. When you've got to find and complete 40 odd (Similar) events to progress to the next license (BPs skill levels) it's hard to really care. The point to point racing is fun but for me they they should of included some circuits made up from the road layouts (a la PGR or even TD:U which had a similar open world layout).

The Powers that Be.

For the first time since it arrived the batteries in my Wii-mote are about to run out.. It seems to have much better battery life than the equivalent 360 pad gets from it's two AA batteries. Or perhaps the Wii hasn't had enough play time.. All that may change now ExciteTruck has arrived.

Purchase Power

A couple of eBay (not so) bargains to update you all on.

I picked up ExciteTruck for the Wii cos it hasn't had much action recently and I do so love driving games. I'm hoping it's going to be a bit like the SNES 3D driving game with the Super FX chip that I enjoyed so much as a young whipper snapper but whose name my poor old man brain can never remember.

I also got Tiger Woods 2008. I was of the school of thought that said if EA couldn't be bothered to make a new game each year then I couldn't be bothered to buy them each year. However I really enjoyed the '07 version and it's been a while so I thought I'd have another bash now it was fairly cheap.

What's on the Box(set)?

Having now exhausted seasons of 24 to watch (no mention on here of seasons 5 or 6 cos they simply weren't as good as season 4) and I was in search of something new to watch.

Rescue Me stars Denis Leary as New York fireman and his team mates after 9/11. It was co-created by Leary himself His character Tommy Gavin is a straight talking new yorker (there's a lot of Leary himself in there). He's the kind of flawed hero that american TV does so well. He's divorced and a struggling alcoholic but you can't help warming to him.

It also has a great title sequence and a with The Von Bondies banging out c'mon c'mon it's off to an excellent start. The action focuses mainly on Tommy as he's haunted by the victims he couldn't save and the colleagues he lost on 9/11. There's a strong ensemble cast and although the season is short at just 12 episdoes it cracks along. There's some fire fighting action but mostly it deals with relationships. Anyone whose familiar with Leary's stand up will also recognise the dark humour it's shot through with.

I thoroughly enjoyed it and can't recommend it highly enough.