Purchase Power

Well it's that time of year again when I get a bank holiday without the Mrs.. so I'm planning another 24 hour gaming marathon.. Lord only knows that when I turn 40 I'm not going to be able to do it anymore.

Looking back at last years thread I didn't appear to enjoy it an awful lot. All I seem to do is complain about various parts of myself hurting.. I do vaguely remember a euphoric sense of achievement (although that might just be wishful thinking or the Stella I had afterwards) so this time I'm going to try and look on the bright side.

Anyway with that in mind I thought I'd take a trip to game and pick up another batch of cheap games that I've over looked with which to entertain myself. So I picked up...

Dead Space: Extraction - £12.99
Dead Space - £9.99
Mercenaries 2 - £7.98
Virtua Tennis 3 - £4.99

The girl in GAME asked if I was a fan of Dead Space. Of course having not played either yet I'm not yet sure. I did seem to make her day though by pre-ordering the Limited Edition of Alan Wake. The one time she didn't ask me if I wanted to pre-order anything.

You'll be able to keep track of my progress via either Facebook or indeed the above link to the 360 forum.

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
Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney: Justice for All
Professor Layton and Pandora's Box
Mass Effect 2 - Normal
Peggle: Dual Shot - DS

Peggle fits remarkably well on the DS. The stylus provides very accurate control of where you're balls are fired and of course the addictive nature of removing the orange pegs shines through. I completed both story modes as the cartridge features the Peggle Nights expansion which contains the same number of levels again. Recommended.

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
Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney: Justice for All
Professor Layton and Pandora's Box
Mass Effect 2 - Normal

In contrast to my play through of the original Mass Effect I was determined to get the most out of the sequel. To that end I started on a harder difficulty and took care of my own stats and abilities as well of those of my crew.

It's a better game in almost every way. Certainly the opening sequence is a credit to Bioware being fantastically presented and very exciting. A complete contrast to the rather dull opening session of the last game.

I imported my character, which as I really warmed to Commander Shepard, was nice although I have to say a lot of the incidental detail that carries over was lost on me but I enjoyed welcoming him back all the same.

I spent over 30 hours completing as much of the game as I could find and I have to say I enjoyed every minute of it.. Obviously at this early stage of 2010 it would be ridiculous to claim it as GOTY. But the bar has been raised very high.

Currently Playing: Forza 3

Inspired by Sundays second round of the BTCC I fired up Forza Motorsport 3 for some racing action. I originally completed all the seasons required for the achievements but that did leave a long list of events left for a 100% completion. Maybe for the time too long.

However with a bit of a gap my enthusiasm has returned. I'll now try to complete all the events so I can add it the The "Complete" List in more bite size chunks and I'll try and pick cars that make for tight close racing to keep it enjoyable rather than just steaming away from the pack to complete the events for the sake of it.

Of course it's still getting regular Friday night Live outings with the EDGE forum crew where it continues to provide a rock solid entertaining evening with a couple of beers and some lively chat.

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
Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney: Justice for All
Professor Layton and Pandora's Box

In contrast to Phoenix Wright I really enjoyed everything about Professor Layton's latest adventure. The olde worlde charm of the Professor and his assistants adventures are whimisical and charming and there's a good selection of head scratching puzzles to work through. I particularly enjoyed the camera and hamster side quests and was pleased to have assembled the camera and got the hamster up to full fitness. At just under 12 hours I completed 109 out of the 110 puzzles I found. Heartily recommended to all DS owners.

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
Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney: Justice for All

This has to be the most long winded game I've ever played. It's almost criminally lacking in actual game play and what game play there is is almost entirely 'trial' (aha! Bad Pun alert!) and error as although you acquire evidence during the invesigation stage you've no idea really how the story is going to unfold during the following 'in court' stage.

It had some entertaining dialogue and stories (Although the last case is far and away the best) but it also has more than it's fair share of annoying characters and worst of all there's no way to skip through the reams of text faster than it appears, letter by tedious letter, on screen (unless it's the second time through and even then it doesn't clear as fast as you'd like).

Not devoid of entertainment but a game I'd find hard to recommend.

Purchase Power.

For once I have a happy GAME buying experience. Picked up God of War 3 from the shelf and at the counter was offered a pre-owned, but still shrink wrapped, as new copy for £35. Combined with the, what I thought was very high, £25 for Battlefield: Bad Company 2 in p/x I parted with just £10.

Of course she did have to ask me if I wanted to buy any PSN points and tell me that I could trade it in when done.. but you can't have everything.