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.