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
This game has sucked up so much of my time that I've not really had time to play much else*. Initially it's a little underwhelming. The career is nothing more than a series of events and boss battles. The game is also quite unforgiving with a fairly steep learning code. No sooner are you trying to juggle racing, learning circuits and juggling the power ups than the game is throwing fan demands, fan runs and each boss has a series of demands before you can face off with them and, I can't type this without cringing, win their ride.
However a bit of practice and patience and it all starts to make sense. There is a lot going on but it's all the more exciting for it. The boss demands not only add variety to the way you race but teach you valuable techniques as well.
It's online however where it really shines. There's a reasonable selection of events to attempt and it adopts the Codemasters style of lobby system where everyone votes on a choice of two courses and then there's a 30 second countdown to pick cars and mods (more of which later) which keeps the action rolling along nicely without being at the mercy of a host keeping you waiting for ages before starting things off.
Where it really scores though is in it's adoption of a
Modern Warfare style persistant online XP system. As you level up new cars and mods are unlocked but crucially it's well balanced. You have three mods from a selection of 24 in 3 catergories to help make life easier. These range from better shields to a lazer sight to earning extra fans. None feel over powered and while I settled into a regular set of favourites thert's plenty to choose from to suit you style.
While I found that the better mods helped me win more it's crucially still possible to be competitive right out of the box. It doesn't fall into the trap of the new player getting hammered continuually until they've grinded for hours.
The most vital bit though is that actually winning isn't everything. No race feels like a lost cause and slipping past the car in front with a cheeky power up to leave him in last is almost as exciting as getting on the podium.
I had faith that with Bizarre Creatings online pedigree they'd deliever but they've really stepped up with this. There maybe better driving games released this year (Hello
GT5 I still want you) but I doubt there'll be a better sensation of racing.
I was disappointed to read that the Publishers behind No More Heroes weren't going to invest in any more new IPs. Whilst you can see their point when traditional gamers fail to support innovative, adult (I use the word in the loosest sense to indicate child unfriendly) software on the Wii it's still something of a shame when those games have been receiving good reviews. From my point of view these sort of titles seem to head bargain binward very quickly.. presumably cos they're not selling well. It's a chicken and egg situation that I don't pretend to know the answer to.
