The "Complete" List

Resistance 2
Mirror's Edge
Quantum of Solace

I was 'lucky' enough to borrow this off a mate. It's basically the Call of Duty engine mixed with both the last two Bond films (Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace). It's also a mix of First Person shooting and Third Person cover style shooting. In fact the camera zooms out all the time so you can see Daniel 'Mr Poatato Head' Craig doing his thing. It's not quite as slick as Gears of War but it's not far off and works solidly. There's also the chance to do some brutal physical damage up close.

Unlike most FPS's you'll get nowhere running and gunning. It's a tatical shooter and the controls mostly let you duck from cover to cover and pick off the bad guys.

The crux of the matter is do you feel like Bond? And, rather inevitably, the answer is yes and no. There are moments when you feel like a super spy and there's moments when you feel like there's rather too much Call of Duty and not enough on Her Majesty Secret Service.

Overall I enjoyed most of it. There's some good hacking and spying touches (there's a neat little keypad hacking minigame that's sadly let down by the 360's fisher price D-pad that can't always register the difference between the four basic directions). There's also some brilliant set pieces and chunky weapons.

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)

I switched my 360 on last night at just gone 6.30pm. Geoff invited me to play some co-op. We Started at the beginning. As 11.30pm rolled around callinga it a night was mooted but the brave decision to push on to the end was made. We finally saw the credits roll at just after 2.30pm. 8 hours, 1 session, 5 acts, 3 Cans of Coke and almost 20 Marlboro Lights. Co-op Locust shooting fun. Priceless. It just is so much more enjoyable with some one else playing along with you.

I don't want to give anything away for those who haven't played yet but it's a solid sequel if perhaps playing a litle safe.

First Look: Gears of War 2

I'll start this post with the summary. The more the merrier.

To be fair I can't really take the generic space marines and their generic tale of aliens wiping out the free world terribly seriously. Despite the high production values I've had to skip the gung ho cut scenes and where possible the radio chatter to.. to which Marcus often grunts "enough chatter" to which I say amen.

Apparently the single player campaign gets better and better as it goes along but from playing through roughly half of it I'd have to say it's more of the same. Fortunely it's action sequences are still rock solid and this time your AI buddies can recover you if there about and you can even crawl towards them to give them a helping hand. Add another player though and it's a whole lot more fun.

The actual multi player components themselves are also solid. The competitive stuff is still as hardcore as ever. I played with four of my fellow forumites (all of whom are solid gamers, I was by far the weakest link) and we lost five out of five. The best new addition is the Horde mode where me and my team (Or Team Bob if you will) take on wave after wave of Locust. This proves to be a very entertaining and action packed mode and by far the most fun.

If you where expecting reinvention of the gaming wheel look elsewhere. If you're looking for a solid update of the franchise and can look past the macho bullshit it's very entertaining.

A look ahead to Quarter 4 - Part 4

So having broken down the purchase choices into three well thought out list it's not actually working out to plan.

We started off so well.. Bought Saints Row 2 as advertised and completed it the same week (give or take a day). But that's when things started to fall apart. Little Big Planet was delayed... and while it's still on my list it's now moved down to the second, cheap in the new year list, because I'm just not going to have the time to dedicate it too at the moment. Then I got all excited about Fallout 3 and bought it despite it being on list two..

Now I've cancelled my pre-order for Banjo & Kazooie because Eurogamer only gave it 7 and so now I'll have to see what EDGE give it. As I said I'm not a rabid Rare fan and was only excited about it cos it seemed like it was going to be brilliant and it seems it just isn't. So I've rushed out today and bought Gears of War 2. Cos.. well everyones playing it and I don't want to miss out on all the possible multi-player, co-op fun. I know.. Very shallow.

So what have we learnt? Lists are for geeks..

A look ahead to Quarter 4 - Part 2

Next we come to the games that I'm interested in and will probably buy.. But not until they turn up cheap somewhere... So many games seem to get released these days and then get heavily discounted within a few weeks.. Not only from the usual interweb suppliers but even on the high street.

So what's on the Radar and which titles do I think will get the discount treatment?

FABLE 2

Never played the first game and I'm not normally an RPG fan either. Molyneux also has a history of over promising. This does look very interesting though and being a more action orientated (as opposed to the JRPG) RPG it certainly looks like one to watch. It'll be between this and..

FALLOUT 3

Another action orientated RPG. Never played any of the prequels or indeed Oblivion either. I guess I'll wait and see which game gets the best review score, See what the forum feedback is and make a judgement on which one I take the plunge with.

DEAD SPACE

The review scores are already in on this one and it seems to be a decent, if uninventive, game. Graphically it looks amazing and I'm looking forward to some survival horror to fill the gap until Resi 5. A definite new year purchase for me when I can find it cheap.

GEARS OF WAR 2

I enjoyed the first game but it was certainly over hyped. For me the multi player didn't have much depth and I soon grew tired of it. However it's not essential as it seems to be more of the same. Again I'll definitely pick it up. It's bound to be a solid amount of fun but there's bound to be a huge number of cheap second hand copies to occupy the quite spring months.

CALL OF DUTY: WORLD AT WAR

Another year another CoD, Obviously CoD 4 was brilliant (although in my opinion not the masterpieces the forum boys seem to think). This is the only title on this particular list that could pop into the essential purchase list if it scores highly and the feedback from players is good.. Not really interested in the multi-player... I find online FPS's a bit too hardcore these days.. But the co-op could be a laugh.