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.

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.

First Look: Prince of Persia

Minus £2.50 of Reward credit I got this for £10.50 second hand in GAME yesterday. Intial impressions are that it's an improvement on The Two Thrones and Emo Within but nowhere near as good as Sands of Time which, it sadly seems, we'll never see the like of again from Ubisoft.

These are the things I like:
It's pretty
It's very forgiving for Mr Easy writing this Blog
The Prince himself (much has been made of his annoying accent and personality.. Perhaps too much. He seemed quite funny to me)

Things I don't like:
The over simplified controls.. All the flair of covering the levels in Sands of Time has been lost. It's like they've taken a leaf out of Altairs book. No surprise what with it being the same engine I believe. But when I'm bemoaning the lack of challenge it's a bad thing.
The combat.
The Princess.
The annoying bits where you have too run between green nodes with no checkpoints..

Overall though I enjoyed my first session last night.

First Look: Mirrors Edge

Obviously the First Person view point is supposed to make me feel more immersed in the game.. But I'm not convinced it's worth it at the convenience that the spatial awareness of seeing my character in Third Person would provide.

Is it worth it? While there's no denying that DICE have made a First Person game where you can enjoy the joy of movement and running and jumping isn't a chore there's no denying that playing it in a Third Person view would be less annoying.

The question is do I feel more immersed in this than I did in say Prince of Persia: Sands of Time where the game is mostly about the joy of movement? I'd have to say no..

It's a great solution to a problem that doesn't really matter.

A look ahead to Quarter 4

Anyone whose been keeping an eye on the games market will know that the coming next couple of months are when all the publishers release their big hitters in search of our christmas cash. Even by regular standards I think we can safely say it's a bit packed. Last year I bought nearly everything I wanted on release and rushed through them ready for the next.. This year it's too packed too even attempt that so, for your reading pleasure, I've divided them into three lists..

1, Purchase on Release

These are the one's I'll either be pre-ordering or picking up at my local game emporium.

SAINTS ROW 2

The first to blink and out of the traps on Friday. I didn't play the first game and I'm not overly keen on the bling/wanna be gangster angle. However, I'm liking the look of the gameplay. It seems to have more of the scope of San Andreas as opposed to the slightly disappointing, for me anyway, realistic nature of GTA:IV. The co-op angle also sounds fun.

LITTLE BIG PLANET

Obviously I've been following this with interest for many months. Is it going to turn around PS3's fortunes? I don't think so (but that's probably a topic for another post). Is it going to be huge amounts of 2D platforming fun? Certainly looks that way with all the reviews and previews complimenting the content on the disc. Will I be making anything myself? Probably not. Mostly I'm looking forward to seeing the imaginitive content that I think the great unwashed (Yes you at the back!) come up with.. Hopefully there'll be plenty of life in it.

BANJO & KAZOOIE: Nuts & Bolts

Never played a B&K game before but I love 3d platformers and this looks like Rare have finally made something I'm interested in. The chance to construct vehicles and perform challenges is an original concept. I'm also going to pre-order this from Play to get the download code for the original game. With the way our postie delivers it probably wont arrive for a few days after release leaving room nicely for..

MIRRORS EDGE

In a sequel packed release schedule it's another new IP that makes the essential purchase list for me. Not only did I win a Mirrors Edge T shirt but I've been following it with interest. I love the clean fresh look of the game and I really hope it pulls off the feat of making a fast free moving action game.

TOMB RAIDER: UNDERWORLD

Loved (and I mean totally *hearted*) the PS one games. The Crystal Dynamics games have been going in the right direction but this one really looks live they've captured the magic of the early games.. Looking forward to getting lost for hours in huge levels and complex puzzles. Oh and staring at that lovingly recreated Croft ass.

PRINCE OF PERSIA

Another sequel but with it being a re-imagining of the franchise I'm hoping for something more intune with Sands of Time with the joy of movement and being amazed at what you can do with the Prince rather than the sort of Emo Prince of the latter sequels..

So that's the six essential pre-christmas purchases.. Stay tuned for the next two lists