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?
Thursday 12 June 2008
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.
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.
Sunday 8 June 2008
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.
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.
Saturday 7 June 2008
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.
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.
Friday 6 June 2008
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..
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.
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.
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