The "Complete" List 2010

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
Splinter Cell: Conviction - Realistic & Co-op - Realistic
Dead Space - Easy - 360
Alan Wake - Normal
Split/Second - Career
Blur - Career/Level 50 Multiplayer
Red Dead Redemption
No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle - Sweet
Everybody's Golf 2 - PSP
The Saboteur - 360
Dark Void - 360
Limbo
Wolfenstein - Easy - 360
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08 - 360
GTA IV - Episodes from Liberty CIty - 360
Halo: Reach - Normal (Solo) / Legendary (Co-op)
Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands - 360
Mafia II - 360
Enslaved: Odyssey to the West - 360
Professor Layton & The Lost Future
Sly Raccoon - Platinum Trophy
Call of Duty: Black Ops - Normal - 360

So there we go. Another year done with what I think is a record total for me of 37. On average 3 a month which isn't bad going.

Sly Cooper I really enjoyed. The first game on the remastered Sly Trilogy is a 3D PS2 era platform game that I'd never gotten around too. The Cel shaded graphics buffed for HD look rather good. I had some initial difficulty setting the game up because I always set the camera to inverse but in this case that was actually referring to the horizontal camera as there is no vertical camera. Setting that back to standard the game then lets you set any other actions that might require movement on the Y axis to inverse so there weren't any further hiccups.

The game is very solid. Reasonable plot. A nice selection of levels that stay far away from the usual platform cliches. The controls are great. The stealth sections (obviously Sly is a thief although he is trying to steal back his own families property so I guess that makes it ok) are very well handled with clear indications as to when you can use a stealth moves and when you'll be spotted.

Another nice touch is that the game scales a little for difficulty. Retry a section too many times and you'll get a silver lucky horseshoe that'll let you carry on without losing a life or being sent back to a checkpoint, die to many times and you'll get a bonus extra life. Retry again and you'll get a gold lucky horseshoe that lets you carry on twice.

There's also a nice selection of mini games that break up the platforming action and absolutely no hub worlds too dilute from it either. In fact I ended up liking it so much I went back through a couple of levels to find all the collectables to unlock the special moves and earn all the trophies including my first Platinum.

Call of Duty:Black Ops is very much modern *ahem* warfare by numbers. There's a lot of hand holding, A lot of things that make you feel like you're doing a lot of stuff but actually boil down to very simple button presses and there's some great firefights. The plot sends you back on forth through cold war eras and there's quite a nice mix between on the fly under cover type stuff and the more familiar warfare.. It just about does enough to be enjoyable.

The Mulitplayer on CoD I've never really gotten into but this I really enjoyed, so much so that I ranked up 38 levels during a four day stint over my christmas holiday. It's a got a nice selection of maps and with the new CoD points with which you unlock guns and perks a much clearer (To my mind anyway) upgrade path. Most importantly Killstreak kills don't count towards further Killstreaks so things generally feel much fairer. Overall a generous package when you count in the Cod Arcade and Zombie mode.

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
Splinter Cell: Conviction - Realistic & Co-op - Realistic
Dead Space - Easy - 360
Alan Wake - Normal
Split/Second - Career
Blur - Career/Level 50 Multiplayer
Red Dead Redemption
No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle - Sweet
Everybody's Golf 2 - PSP
The Saboteur - 360
Dark Void - 360
Limbo
Wolfenstein - Easy - 360
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08 - 360
GTA IV - Episodes from Liberty CIty - 360
Halo: Reach - Normal (Solo) / Legendary (Co-op)
Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands - 360
Mafia II - 360
Enslaved: Odyssey to the West - 360
Professor Layton & The Lost Future

Firstly apologies for the lack of updates, It hasn't been for lack of either game playing or buying them. Some how I've managed to not complete much recently.

Anyhow I recently completed Professor Layton & The Lost Future. The third sequel in the popular franchise. So what's changed? The most important feature is a new super hint that pretty much always saves you from being too stuck or having to check a FAQ by giving you a more obvious hint to a particular puzzles solution.

Otherwise we have the same high production values, the same cute characters and relationships, An increasingly bonkers plot (not just bonkers for the series but bonkers as it goes along), A slightly more worrying relationship between The Prof and Luke and, if we're really honest, a feeling that some of the puzzles are rehashed, some are plain bizarre and some just aren't that good.

Still there's nothing more satisfying than a puzzle solved.

Comment

In my world you're only good as you're last sale. In American TV you're only as good as you're last episodes ratings.. In games it's not much different. Still it's a sad day when Bizarre Creations are canned after lacklustre sales and reviewer reception of James Bond: Bloodstone

Of course the writing was kind of on the wall when Blur bombed at retail despite me having a lot of love for it.

It's difficult to pin down where it all went wrong. Leaving Microsoft? Diminishing returns with the Project Gotham franchise.. Or was it even The Club?

Personally I despair a little for my fellow gamers when Activision can have the biggest opening day of sales with Call of Duty: Black Ops and yet people wont buy something as intensely good online as Blur.

Of course as Michael Jackson once sang I should probably start with the man in the mirror. I had sworn to buy James Bond:Bloodstone to support my favourite developer but a combination of New Vegas and poor length of the campaign put me off.. so I guess I should've supported them. I did buy Blur on launch and it's still my go to game for some knock about online fun.

A sad day,

Purchase Power: Quarter IV 2010

A combination of a huge amount of time being spent on Fallout: New Vegas (over 40 hours so far fact fans) and perhaps one or two big titles being out slightly earlier than normal has meant that there hasn't been such a glut of huge games coming out this time of year as normal.

Having said that we are starring down the barrel of the christmas now. I've decided to give CoD: Black Ops a miss for the moment. I don't enjoy the multiplayer component of it so much and so for that reason I'll see if it gets any cheaper. Fable III is also going to have to wait a bit. I'll definitely pick it up at some point but again it'll need to be cheaper.

So where does that leave us? Gran Turismo 5 will finally launch this month after the mammoth wait and seeing as my PS3 only gets used for these kind of genuinely exciting PS3 exclusives I expect I'll be picking it up.

Otherwise I've narrowed it down to Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood. I really enjoyed the second game and as this is a direct sequel I'm looking forward to more of the same and seeing how the story of Ezio pans out.

That just leaves Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit on pre-order. I have utmost faith in Criterions ability to deliver a fun action packed racer. I'm also intrigued by the Autolog feature that brings to the forefront was has in the past been the secret pleasure of online friends list leaderboards.

Currently Playing: Fallout - New Vegas.

Fresh from completing Enslaved on Normal difficulty and with a new found wealth of RPG experience I decided to man up and play this on Normal difficulty (rather than the easy mode that I seem to remember completing Fallout 3 on).

Suffice to say it's making for a far more challenging experience. I'm going through stimpacks like water. I've managed to get full on near death radiation sickness twice (Don't think I ever got it bad enough to warrant visiting a doctor in 3.) and weapons and armour break like they're sponsored by Primark.

Part of this might be due to it being simply a more hardcore game not just the difficulty. Also this time I've focused my levelling up on Speech, Lock Picking and Stealth rather than just full on attacking skills as before. I got fed up with not being able to open doors or unlock speech options during the campaign on Fallout 3.

Still despite the game's engine starting to creak a bit these games are all about the atmosphere and in this respect New Vegas delivers in spades. It's nice to be wandering the wastelands again.

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
Splinter Cell: Conviction - Realistic & Co-op - Realistic
Dead Space - Easy - 360
Alan Wake - Normal
Split/Second - Career
Blur - Career/Level 50 Multiplayer
Red Dead Redemption
No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle - Sweet
Everybody's Golf 2 - PSP
The Saboteur - 360
Dark Void - 360
Limbo
Wolfenstein - Easy - 360
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08 - 360
GTA IV - Episodes from Liberty CIty - 360
Halo: Reach - Normal (Solo) / Legendary (Co-op)
Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands - 360
Mafia II - 360
Enslaved: Odyssey to the West - 360

The eagle eyed Blog reader will notice that I completed this on Normal difficulty. A step up from my normal level of challenge to be sure. Regular readers will also remember that I pretty much hated the demo.

It's like Ninja Theory decided to make a game just for me. Yes it's a bit slow to get going but once it does get going it's really good. It helps of course that it's a very pretty game. Obviously the all star input in acting and script writing helps draw you in. Then the solid action kicks in. The combat is solid and chunky and doesn't require the memory of a million strings of combos but it isn't button mashy either.

The platforming is reminiscent of the Prince of Persia reboot, Anything that Monkey can jump too is highlighted so there's not much in the way of frustration. Your AI companion Trip soon stops being annoying and the relationship between the too is genuinely interesting.

For me there's definite hints of Jak & Daxter too and seeing as that's my favourite 3D platformer of all time that's got to be a good thing.

I even enjoyed the frankly bizarre final, gameplay free, chapter. Looking forward to the sequel.

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
Splinter Cell: Conviction - Realistic & Co-op - Realistic
Dead Space - Easy - 360
Alan Wake - Normal
Split/Second - Career
Blur - Career/Level 50 Multiplayer
Red Dead Redemption
No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle - Sweet
Everybody's Golf 2 - PSP
The Saboteur - 360
Dark Void - 360
Limbo
Wolfenstein - Easy - 360
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08 - 360
GTA IV - Episodes from Liberty CIty - 360
Halo: Reach - Normal (Solo) / Legendary (Co-op)
Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands - 360
Mafia II - 360

First up a double completion for you.

Who'd of thought making a sequel to Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time would be so hard? The two direct sequels lost their way chasing market share and the recent reboot was a tad disappointing too.

So here we have a direct sequel that follows on directly. So no more Nolan North and no more Emo prince either. In fact so hard do Ubisoft try to evoke the feeling of the original game that the presentation and menus are almost identical.

Sadly the game falls some way short. On the plus side the combat is the best ever in a PoP game. Following in the footsteps of Batman:AA hordes of enemies attack at once and you can slash, kick and vault over them with acrobatic ease dealing out death and context sensitive finishing moves. A range of powers can be unlocked but don't add much.

I don't really remember the end of SoT but apparently the Prince must have lost the Dagger that provided his time based powers because here a new amulet allows him to rewind time. It no longer allows him to slow down time though so that particularly pleasing element is gone. In it's place he has the power to freeze and unfreeze water. While this allows for some challenging platforming later in the game it's not quite as good.

What really let's the game down though is the level design. It all looks very nice but there's nothing that's particularly challenging or as huge or multi-teared. You enter a room the camera pans around and it's always fairly obvious where to go. There's nothing that takes the breath away or stumps you for very long. It's very linear. Also gone are the flashbacks that hinted at what needed to be done and where far superior to the camera pan.

Having said that the game is a joy to play. The controls do a reasonable job of making everything work. There's a lot less hand holding than the reboot and you do feel like you're pulling off all the cool moves yourself. At the sametimes it's been streamlined just enough that you can pull off long sections of platforming without having to stop every few moves to readjust the camera (which is also very good most of the time).

Overall I enjoyed it then but it doesn't come anywhere close to scaling the heights of the original.

What can I say about Mafia II. It's certainly better than the 4 it scored at Eurogamer. Hot off the heels of enjoying Season One of The Sopranos I was looking forward to living the life of a Mafioso.

A lot has been said about the lack of side missions, collectables and things to do outside of the main story. Personally I didn't mind the linearity of it. The story is well told with a very high level of presentation maintained throughout the cutscenes and conversations.

The problem is there's only 15 story missions and while the best of them are very good a lot of them are forgettable and dull. There's a bit set in prison where all you do is walk about and have a few fist fights. A missed opportunity. The mission that was in all the previews prelaunch where you have to set a bomb in a hotel posing as window cleaners is a high point but it's also a high water mark. Nothing comes close to scaling it's heights again. Which is shame.

Much like PoP:TFS I enjoyed what was there but felt that it could've been so much more.