The "Complete" List

Left 4 Dead 2 - (All Campaigns)
Mass Effect
Lego Rock Band - Story Mode
Darksiders - Easy
BAYONETTA - Easy Automatic
Lego Batman
Call of Duty: Classic - Normal
Fracture - Casual
Dragon Quest: The Hand of the Heavenly Bride
Heavy Rain - Medium
Battlefield: Bad Company 2 - Normal
Yakuza 3 - Easy



Perhaps the least complete of anything on the list.. My final tally lands at just over 26 hours play time and 13% complete. There'll be no story spoilers in this blog post at all. The story, whilst bonkers, is half the joy of playing. Lavish cut scenes are augmented with in game engine chat. The brilliant japanese dialogue adds lots to the authentic feel of the game. Of course this also means you have to read a lot (and when I say a lot, I mean a lot) of dialogue but mostly it's well written and fun to follow.

I think for me, being more used to western games recently, is that your left to your own devices most of the time to find all the sub quests and and activities on offer by exploring the world. However the map isn't entirely useful. Even in game the mini map goes against normal convention of the map revolving around you. You really have to explore and learn the layout of the areas to get the most out of it.

For instance i found I could pick up girlfriends at the local burger joint, take them on dates and that owuld eventually lead to side missions and experience. However the game itself gives you little in the way of pointers to where these sorts of activities are. Even when you've found them they don't show up on the mini map.

Overall though I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of the experience.. I'll be hanging on to it for another play through with all my cash and experience intact (At least that's what I think it meant at the end).

Currently Playing: Splinter Cell: Conviction - Demo

As a long term Splinter Cell fan I'd been worried at the lengthy development time for this reboot so I was interested enough to down load the demo and give it a go.

After a short interrogation bathroom scene (Reminiscent of both 24 and the prologue of Casino Royal) you're into the meat of the demo proper.

Powered by the Unreal engine it's a solid, if not spectacular, looking game. What is very striking is the way Ubisoft have projected all the information you need onto the enviroment. It looks really amazing and so obvious that you wonder why no one (Well at least I can't think of anyone) has done it before.

This new game shows a more action orientated Fisher. More concerned with results than remaining undiscovered. That's not to say being stealthy doesn't pay off. I tried guns blazing and the enemy call for re-inforcements making it tougher to get through. Much better to use an unarmed takedown and then make use of the new mark'n'shoot (or whatever they're calling it) where you can paint up to three targets before popping out of cover and taking them down Bauer style. Very cool.

Colour me impressed.

Currently Playing: Yakuza 3

My first Yakuza experience doesn't seem to have been held back by not knowing what went on in the previous two. The starting menu does have the option for an over view of the earlier installments but following Eurogamers advice I got stuck straight in. After all 'Reformed Gangster tries to go straight but gets dragged back into the shady underworld' (I'm assuming the later part as I'm still happily running my orphanage in hawian shirt and fetching cream slacks but more on this later.) is as old a story as boy meets girl.

I really shouldn't like it. It's chock full of old school text conversations, Starts off a bit slow and unlike most video game enthusiasts I have no interest in Japan..

However the story really does drag you in.. It goes to show that you don't have to divorce game play from the experience or feature nude shower scenes to have the player bond with the characters or generate emotion. What you need is well written characters and involving situations. David Cage could learn a thing or two here.

Of course orphans are always going to tug the heart strings but there's something strangely compelling about investigating the every day problems of a bunch of small kids mixed in with a large dose of kicking ass and taking names.

As interesting as the main story is though the real depth and enjoyment comes from actually exploring and living the life. I've drunk the best whisky the town has to offer and then spent the afternoon getting in fights because of it. I've taken girls out on dates doing everything from darts to eating out. I've played some golf and soft ball with the kids and enjoyed wandering around just seeing what's to see. It's a very interesting change of pace from western games and I'm appreciating that sometimes the more you put in the more you get out.

Currently Playing: Resident Evil 5

Picked this up for £17.50 in Game.. The last new non-Gold Edition copy left in the shop.

Fortunately I had a happy real life partner. Less fortunately I got stuck playing as Sheva.. Now I didn't really enjoy the more action orientated Resident Evil 4 on Gamecube but, I think due to the co-op action, this is much more fun.

At first we struggled with the opening section. There's a lot of zombies (I know they're called something else but they'll always be zombies to me) and not much ammo.. but eventually we made it through and after that started making solid progress.

The whole game is obviously designed around the co-op and with a real life partner it ramps up both the excitement and the need to swap ammo and health. Lee was handy with the shotgun and I concentrated on upgrading my pistol.

Overall I enjoyed the graphical spectacle and the solid gameplay.

Purchase Power

I bought Yakuza 3 from Game for the princely sum of £39.99. I've not played a Yakuza game before but I enjoyed the demo.. However most of what spurred me on to a full price release day purchase was all the rabid fanboys bemoaning SEGA for cutting some features from the original Japanese release.

As far as I can see it's a simple case of economics. The franchise isn't a big seller over here and there's obviously a limit to what can be spent on localisation.. Those boycotting it are surely shooting themselves in the foot when it comes to the fourth part of the saga coming to these shores?

I traded Darksiders as I noticed there where already a large number of second hand copies on the shelves of my local GAME meaning it's value is probably going to plummet. I got £20 for it which I was quite pleased with seeing as they where retailing it for £29.99 a couple of weeks ago.

The "Complete" List.

Left 4 Dead 2 - (All Campaigns)
Mass Effect
Lego Rock Band - Story Mode
Darksiders - Easy
BAYONETTA - Easy Automatic
Lego Batman
Call of Duty: Classic - Normal
Fracture - Casual
Dragon Quest: The Hand of the Heavenly Bride
Heavy Rain - Medium
Battlefield: Bad Company 2 - Normal

There's been some smack talk around these parts about the difficulty level that I've been finishing some games on.. So I thought I'd man up and take this one on in Normal rather than Easy. Glad I did.

Regular readers might remember that I thoroughly enjoyed the first game. So much so that I completed it twice on the bounce. This second chapter has a slightly different feel. Less comedy gold chasing and more Modern Warfare influence.

It's still a great game though. DICE's Frostbite engine returns and with it the destruction of most of the enviroment. Teamed with chunky weapons and a great sound track to the shooting end explosions it feels much less scripted and bombastic than MW2 whilst in the most part now being just as linear.

There's lots of great moments along the way with out the feeling that DICE are trying to hard. One particular highlight involves making your way down a frozen mountain.. the screen steadily whites in as you get cold meaning you have to dash between either houses or explode things to make nice warming fires.. all the way being assaulted by chummys. One of my favourite bits is using [RB] to melee attack wooden doors. You're dashing to the next house, barely alive, smash the door down, burst in, pull out an SMG and nail a couple of goons before having a quick recon and then you're off again. Exciting!

The particle effects are particularly note worthy. One mission features some desert based action and the sand whipping through and around makes for an interesting mission as you struggle to see.

Overall a pulse pounding adventure that feels exciting for the things your doing rather than for the things it's showing you. Recommended.

Currently Playing: Blur Beta

I wouldn't normally bother with a Beta. However I managed to grab a code from Eurogamer and I'm a huge fan of Bizarre Creations Project Gotham series. I never thought the online component of the 360 versions matched the, to my mind, peerless PGR2 but this new franchise of battle racing could be worth a look.

The Beta version is a generous slice of content. There's a handful of tracks and about ten cars that can be unlocked as you work your way up the ranks (Capped at 10 for the demo) as well as upto four racing modes for you to try.

Of course being a Beta there's only online racing but as of last night there where plenty of people playing and I didn't have any problem getting a lot of racing action in.

Said action is as solid as you'd expect from BC with hints of PGR in the mix but it's certainly all new. The tracks branch with different routes and, no doubt, short cuts to be found. The handling is perhaps a little understeery for my liking and I miss the feedback when drifting that the escalating Kudos score gave you in PGR. Here you get a score at the end but it's difficult to tell how you've earned it.

Mind you that's the least of your problems once the action commences. The Beta features a rolling start which eases, but doesn't totally do away with the first corner lottery that was always PGR's online calling cards as the other racers seemed to forget they've got brakes and just cause huge pile ups in the first corner. Once you reach the first set of powers ups it almost complete carnage from beginning to end.

That's not to say it's not fun.. Because it is. Eye popping, palm drenching nail biting fun but there's frustration there in equal measure. Presumably once handling the up to three power ups at a time on the fly becomes second nature and courses have been learnt there'll be room for strategic play but at the moment it's a *ahem* blur of lightning strikes, mines, missles and shunts causing absolute mahem. Suffice to say if you're looking for a technical racer look elsewhere.

Overall though a tempting taste of how it could turn out.

The "Complete" List

Left 4 Dead 2 - (All Campaigns)
Mass Effect
Lego Rock Band - Story Mode
Darksiders - Easy
BAYONETTA - Easy Automatic
Lego Batman
Call of Duty: Classic - Normal
Fracture - Casual
Dragon Quest: The Hand of the Heavenly Bride
Heavy Rain - Medium

Sadly I ended up finishing the game less than impressed (Especially as I got an error code signing me out of PSN which apparently is affecting lots of 'Fat' PS3s across the country and causing some kind of Trophy problems although I was able to carry on playing).

The 'reveal' of the Origami Killer feels contrived and doesn't really fit in with the rest of the story to date apart from focusing on the most unlikely suspect to keep it from being guessed one supposes.

Most importantly though the gameplay doesn't really develop or deepen. There's nothing more to it than whats gone before in the early hours. The story isn't great and it's full of cliches.. I get that it's supposed to be inspired by Hollywood but it ends up feeling lazy. I fortunately missed out on the love scene and the shower scene but there didn't appear to be anyway to avoid another uncomfortable scene later on.

It wouldn't of been so bad if the story had managed to keep you hooked but several bits are just laughable or plain unlikely. Come the end several things just aren't explained. Most disappointingly though it feels like there's no real challenge. It was a brave decision to not let the player die until the final chapters of the game but unfortunately it leaves little challenge and there's no risk/reward dynamic and thus no reward for playing well.

I didn't feel like my decisions where effecting the story in any meaningful way and the rare ocassions when they did it didn't seem to actually matter. When one character missed a particular item the police arrested him. Took his explanation at face value and let him go on his way.

I will, Playstation willing, have another play through on the hardest difficulty and make different decisions to see how it plays out (there's talk on the EDGE forum of only seeing about 50% of the game per play through but it sounds a bit unlikely to me) but my gut feeling is that it's an experiment failed.