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.