BBB: Complete List

Showing posts with label Complete List. Show all posts

Sunday, 29 August 2010

The "Complete" List

Beat the Tiger Challenges, Won all four Majors and Won the Fed Ex cup.

I'd been watching the Open at St. Andrews and decided it might be nice to play a round on the course myself. Apparently I must have traded 09 and I wasn't going to bother going up in the loft to find 07 which meant it would have to be 08 which I didn't really like at the time.

Of course St. Andrews needed unlocking which meant starting the Tiger Challenge, Once the addictive nature of levelling up my avatar had kicked in I was drawn to complete the career mode too.

A couple of complaints. The Live servers have been switched off so there was no chance of earning all those achievements and I don't have a 360 Camera thingy so there was no chance of getting those achievements either.

Tuesday, 24 August 2010

The "Complete" List

Despite being almost as old as gaming itself I missed out on the birth of the first person shooter so Wolfenstein holds no special affection in my gaming history.

I spotted it for £10 brand new in GAME and figured it had to be worth a punt at that. There's hints of Halo ODST in the open world hub level and FEAR and, bizzarely, Prince of Persia: SoT in the time manipulation powers that unlock soon into the game. But mostly it's refreshingly old school.

For a start you can carry as many weapons as there are. Which is nice. Levels have a pleasing flow to them with enemies being seen off for good (none of this Modern Warfare respawning nonsense) and whilst it's not a particularly long game it doesn't outstay it's welcome.

There's a few simple puzzles but mostly it's a question of blowing a bizzare selection of Nazi's back to hell. It took me about 8 hours to complete and my only complaints would be that the achievements are very multiplayer focused (which I always think of as rather cheap way to generate interest) and sometimes it can be a bit fussy about lining up with switches. Other than that a solid game.

Saturday, 31 July 2010

The "Complete" List

Expectations weren't too high for this. Average review scores combined with my own experience of Pandemics last effort and the fact that poor sales meant that EA closed studio weren't a good indicator.

However I have to say it's the most enjoyable game I've played all year. War torn Paris is a great location. The Nazi oppressed city is portrayed in stark black and white with huge swathes of Nazi Red flags and uniforms combined with splashes of resistance blue make it eye catching and it's really well designed. From the city itself to the rural out skirts and coastal villages make it an interesting place to explore.

The core aspects of shooting, movement and driving are rock solid. Compared to the cluster fuck that was running, shooting and cover in GTA IV the saboteur himself (Sean Devlin for that is his name) is a joy to control. The selection of weapons is meaty and most of them have a use (although I quickly settled on my favourites). The driving is also brilliant. Pandemic understand that we want to feel like we're driving on the edge of control without the frustration of actually being out of control. Theres plenty of satisfying tyre screech as you handbrake around corners without ever feeling like you're fighting the cars. They also have a lovely authentic look to them.

There's plenty to do as well. One of the nice things about the freeplay targets is that it actually helps out in the main body of the story, Take down some of the tanks and sniper towers and your escape will be easier. The story itself doesn't really get going until about half way through when the missions get much much better in both size and scope and whilst the story is a little on the short side (I spent just over 12 hours clocking it) I went on to spend nearly the same amount of time again in freeplay.

It's also chock full of humour, both intentional and not so intentional. Sean's accent is a bit none more Oirish but it works in the frame work of the game. He has so many saying that I was still hearing him exclaim new things right up to the end.

Probably the most fun I've had with a sandbox game since GTA III.

Wednesday, 14 July 2010

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

I've been playing Everybody's Golf games since the very first one on PSone. The title is somewhat misleading though. Sure enough the games are very inclusive and easy enough to learn without really having to have much of a grip of real golf. But the combination of some killer courses later in the games, The steady increase in the amount of buttons you'll have to press to pull of the kind of shots required at the higher level and some very fine golf by your AI challengers means it can get very tough towards the end.

After struggling with the platinum run of events for quite some time ( A combination of my general rubbishness, The brutal courses and wind and somewhat incosistant ball physics IMO) the game took pity on me and introduced an 'EASY' level pretty soon after picking it up again for another bash... It turns out it's still fairly challenging (the events with special rules i.e. +2 for bunkers or +2 for rough could see my score for 9 holes come in at +20).

I eventually managed to win enough cards across a combination of events to challenge the final boss character and despite some riduclously good shots from him (combined with a fair amount of rubbish ones it has to be said in comparison to EG:World Tour where the last but one character nails every shot) I managed to beat him on the second time of asking and, for the first time ever, saw the credits roll on an Everybody's Golf game.

Tuesday, 13 July 2010

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

Regular readers will probably remember how much I enjoyed the first No More Heroes game. In fact it's probably my favourite game on Wii. So I was very excited at the prospect of playing the sequel.

Normally in the world of video games it's easy to sum up sequels as "Bigger, Better, More". This being a Suda 51 game of course nothing is as straight forward.

Of course he's not turned it into a Kart racer. It's still similar. But things have changed in Santa Destroy. Not least of which being the nature of your friend Bishop's head's relationship with his shoulders. Out goes the open world nature, Out goes paying entry fees, Out goes the 3D side quests and jobs, Out go drunk russians, Out goes the adorable telephone conversations via the wii-motes speaker and in it's place?

Well that's the thing. In this case less is.. well less. I finished the entire game, including playing with my cat and enough side jobs to buy all the beam Katanas in just under 8 hours. Not a bad length in this day and age and there's certainly a degree of replayibility.. but not as much time as I spent enjoying all the side quests and bits and bobs in the first game.

So what is new? Well bizarre cut scenes with some woman in a booth behind glass on a telephone (a bit like in American Prison Films) and some extra playable characters. Shinobu who Travis spared in the first game. I liked her bits. She's fun to control and because she has a jump control the levels have a vertical element which adds some variety.

Basically the crux of the sequel is that it's been streamlined down. I wrote in my Blog last time that "It's basically ten boss fights in a row". Well this is 'X' boss fights in row. That's it. You can do the 2D side missions but there's a reason we don't play 8 bit games anymore. These seem to have been designed with rubbishness in mind too. The only one I liked was the steak cooking one and that has one button which you press once.

Still the game remains incredibly stylish. The cut scenes and dialogue are both gripping and hilarious in places. The combat, which again is fairly repetative throughout, never gets boring. So there's substance too.

In fact if they convert it to PS3 it'd probably make me buy Move just to play it all again in HD.

Wednesday, 23 June 2010

The "Complete" List

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.

Wednesday, 19 May 2010

The "Complete" List

There's no doubt a game as relatively straight forward as this one that's been in development for nearly five years has probably lost it's way. In some ways Alan Wake is dated even before it's been released. It's also caught between genre's. It's neither full on Survival Horror but it's not a straight action title either.

The core mechanics are all solid. The bulk of thee game is a battle between light and dark and Mr Wake carries a torch to ward off the dark. Mapped to the right stick along with the camera this works really well. The game is set in the town of Bright Falls which could of come straight from the pages of a Stephen King novel and whilst the visuals may not be state of the art they are certainly packed with atmosphere and a tremendous draw distance which more than makes up for it.

The setting isn't the only debt it owes to the great Mr King and, as if in tribute, he gets several name checks throughout. To be fair King has explored the art of writing and an authors effects on his world in many of his books. (Several of his novels features writers). The plot is solid though and there's a lot of intereting characters Wake meets in his travels which makes the journey as enjoyable as the gameplay.

So whilst it does nothing new and, as the EDGE review mentions there's nothing really in the way of development in either enemies or weapons past the opening couple of chapters what there is enough to sustain the game, and your interest, until the end.

I particularly liked finding the radios and TV sets littered through Bright Falls. In fact the game is coming down with incidental information and asides.

It's a very good, if not great, game.

Thursday, 8 April 2010

The "Complete" List

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.

Tuesday, 30 March 2010

The "Complete" List

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).

Tuesday, 23 February 2010

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

Picked this up in HMV, brand new, for £5. It probably provided almost exactly five pounds worth of entertainment. It's an old school 3rd person shooter with the added gimmick of being able to raise and lower certain areas of terrain (I seem to remember this being derided in reviews but you can raise or lower almost any dirt/earth area and not concrete/metal which seems like a fairly consistent rule).

There's almost too many weapons and enemies introduced in what is a very small game so weapons and powers get introduced and you barley have time to use them before it's on to the next. If you're not hunting achievements, like me, you end up relying on one particular weapons with a decent zoom and large capacity of ammo and just using the others when you have to to over come certain puzzles.

Other than that it's very generic, The hero, called Jet, has the standard space issue armour, no helmet, bald head and scar and could of come out of any sci-fi shooter. The plot is forgettable and the game is very short. It's a bit like a late period Arnie action.. the ingredients are all there but you feel his heart isn't in it.

Saturday, 14 November 2009

The "Complete" List

Tuesday, 22 September 2009

The "Complete" List

WET has hints of Max Payne and Stranglehold too it but the game it reminded me most of was Ninja Blade (although without the stupidly hard boss battles).

First off Rubi is a very likeable heroine. She's one dimensional but it's a great dimension. She's cool but she's also pissed and impatient... There's a cut scene where one of the crime lords is explaining how they're aren't enemies but they'll never be friends and she's all like yeah whatever.

The demo doesn't really do it justice which is odd cos it's basically the opening level but you've actually got less powers. Somehow it flows better.

I just loved it all really. The uber cool blood mode where Rubi goes into some kind of Rage mode and everything is red with black enemies and white blood and you just rampage through. I liked the story, I liked the grindhouse style, I loved the little cinema style trailers, I liked the action and I even liked the cool over the top QTEs that popped up now and then. I even liked the speed runs through Rubi's hideout that get your familiar with new weapons.

It doesn't out stay it's welcome and at any other time of the year I'd of probably had multiple play throughs to get the most out of it (Me being the cack handed flid that I am was just getting the hang of making Rubi look cool when it was all over). As it is I'm going to trade it.

Thursday, 27 August 2009

The "Complete" List

Tuesday, 25 August 2009

The "Complete" List

Friday, 7 August 2009

The "Complete" List

Resistance 2
Mirror's Edge - 360
Quantum of Solace - 360
House of the Dead: Overkill - Story & Directors Cut
Fable 2 - Story Mode
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriot - (Liquid Easy)
Wario Ware: Smooth Moves
Saints Row
Race Pro - Career Mode
50 Cent: Blood on the Sand (Easy) - 360
Conan (Easy) - PS3
GTA IV - 360
Ratchet & Clank: Tools of Destruction
Uncharted: Drake's Fortune
Manhunt 2
Prince of Persia
No More Heroes - Real Ending

Was there ever a game where the saying "You get what you give" was more true? The game is basically 12 boss battles in a row. As Nish hinted there's a couple of surprises along the way but there's an awful awful lot more busy work to be done.

So what makes it such a work of genius? The story is great, The cut scenes and the bosses themselves are all really interesting and humourus. There's lot of lovely little incidental touches as well. Answering the phone by listening to the little speaker in the Wii-mote was brilliant. Playing with the cat. Collecting T shirts. Treasure hunting with Beam Katana.. All great.

But what it really boils down to is getting into the vibe of the game. Visiting the gym between every mission and going for the burn, Earning enough cash to have the best Katana available and upgrading it, Searching for the balls so the drunk russian guy shows you special abilities, Buying the videos and trying to get Golds in all the part time jobs and Assassins missions.

The combat never gets boring despite being very repetitive. I loved the fourth Katana. When Travis unsheathed it just like a Samari I was laughing with joy. Nevermind when I found out I could beat my previous best score of 104 kills by another 16 with it on Assassin mission 17. Brilliant.

There was a lot of things I learnt on the fly. Suddenly finding the bike had a boost button helped me get gold on the bike jump part time job. Wiggling the nunchuck stick when being hit allows you to enter a kind of black mode that was cool.

There was a couple of things I didn't like. I could've done without having to skip through the same conversations everytime I applied for a new job or went in a shop.. and I would've liked the option to restart when I'd failed without having to ride back to the shop and re-apply.. but that's about it.

All the boss battles where memorable and fortunately I already had the Tsubaki III so I could go straight to the final boss battle and see the amazing end... Can't wait for the sequel now.

Thursday, 9 July 2009

The "Complete" List

Resistance 2
Mirror's Edge - 360
Quantum of Solace - 360
House of the Dead: Overkill - Story & Directors Cut
Fable 2 - Story Mode
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriot - (Liquid Easy)
Wario Ware: Smooth Moves
Saints Row
Race Pro - Career Mode
50 Cent: Blood on the Sand (Easy) - 360
Conan (Easy) - PS3
GTA IV - 360
Ratchet & Clank: Tools of Destruction
Uncharted: Drake's Fortune
Manhunt 2
Prince of Persia

As the game went on there where more and more things I didn't look. The combat is utter bobbins. I don't normally mind QTEs but these seemed particularly harsh. The button flash that allows you to get up from the ground without being saved by the princess is ok.. But the ones during combat I very rarely got. Fortunately it's a very forgiving game. The other problem with combat is that all the bosses in the game need defeating five times each and they're all pretty much the same. Fairly soon into the game the bosses assume the same three states.. It's dull.

The AI on the princess could of done with a bit more polish as well.. She's often stood in the way. She's not always in the right place at puzzles either. If she can fly why does she need to be carried over the vined sections? It slows the prince down and often breaks up the flow of movement.

The camera is generally good and the right stick nearly always let's you see what you want.. But having the A button do pretty much everything means that often you'll be lining up a jump only to find the camera changes angles and thus you leap into space. Or you run vertically when you want to run up and vice a versa. Again very annoying when you want to wall run left and then leap. He'll instead run up the wall and then leap 180 degrees back into nothingness. It's less bad if you go more slowly make sure you've moved the camera and then waited for the prince's animation to see which way he's leaning but once again it slows the progress down.

My other two niggles are there weren't enough puzzles. In fact I can only think of three. All well done but there could've been more of them considering there wasn't much else too break up the action. After you've unlocked the green power plates the next three powers are all pretty much the same too.. The yellow was in particularly rubbish involving zooming from one plate to another but in a very disorientating flying style where you're supposed to dodge stuff but it's not always clear which way you're supposed to dodge.

Having said that, in an EDGE style, having dissed it constantly I absolutely loved the game. The art direction and style is fantastic. You genuinely want to see what else is around the corner. It felt a bit cheap making you do the levels twice too. But I really liked the transformation itself and then it was fun trying to get as many light seeds as you could (Although I was, in no way, compelled to find 'em all).

I also loved the growing interaction between the two leads.. I've read some complain about the end but for me it was perfect. As I already said it's not as good as Sands of Time but being the second best PoP ever made is no disgrace.

Monday, 15 June 2009

The "Complete" List

Wednesday, 6 May 2009

The "Complete" List

Friday, 21 November 2008

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
Gears of War 2 - (Normal)
Call of Duty : World at War - (Normal)

Absolutely with out doubt the worst game I've played all year. Really an abomination of all that's wrong with this generation. Sure looks pretty but it's just as dumb as hell. Everything that EDGE says in it's review is true and yet there's worse. The checkpoint spacing can be terrible. One in particular forces you to walk down a passage.. LIsten to an unskippable speach and there's an invisible line that you can't cross until it's finished.. You then have to assault at least two of the four AA guns before you get another checkpoint.. Enemy grenades have a huge radius and often there's nowhere in the linear layout to actually go to avoid it. Soldiers will stand off against each other with there rifles inches from each other.. Near the end tides of enemies have to be defeated before you can progress.. but this isn't made clear. Instead it tells you to enter the building. Of course you can't. Doors can't be opened until one of your AI team mates comes and does it for you.. It hardly has a saving grace.. Well apart from that I can trade it in for Tomb Raider tomorrow.

Tuesday, 28 October 2008

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

Sunday, 29 August 2010

Tuesday, 24 August 2010

Saturday, 31 July 2010

Wednesday, 14 July 2010

Tuesday, 13 July 2010

Wednesday, 23 June 2010

Wednesday, 19 May 2010

Thursday, 8 April 2010

Tuesday, 30 March 2010

Tuesday, 23 February 2010

Saturday, 14 November 2009

Tuesday, 22 September 2009

Thursday, 27 August 2009

Tuesday, 25 August 2009

Friday, 7 August 2009

Thursday, 9 July 2009

Monday, 15 June 2009

Wednesday, 6 May 2009

Friday, 21 November 2008

Tuesday, 28 October 2008

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