Great Expectations: inFAMOUS

It's been a while since I bought a brand new release. I'm excited about inFAMOUS though. Firstly it's a Playstation exclusive and as secondly I really like openworld sandbox style games.

However I'm not entirely sure what to make of it. The reviews seem to be something of a mixed bag. 9s at OPM and Gamespot. Only 7 at Eurogamer and the EDGE forumites are predicting a 6, Miserable bunch that they are.

My main concerns are the difficulty and that apparently it's not a looker. I might go and see if I can download the demo..

Currently Playing: Ratchet & Clank

Progress was going very smoothly until I reach a couple of really tough sections ON THE SAME PLANET.

A quick visit to a FAQ reveals that they're a couple of really tough sections and I'll have to practice lots.. Thanks for that Insomniac.. I'll send the bill for my broken SIXAXIS,

Project Trico

Watch that and be amazed.. I loved Ico to bits.. This was one of the reasons that I had to get a PS3 despite it's relative few exclusives this gen...

It's a jaw dropping video.. Not only does it looks stunning one awesome there's going to be some dynamic between boy and creature that'll be fabulous to play too..

The countdown begins.

Currently Playing: Ratchet & Clank

I was up in the loft last night looking for my old X-Box games (Although that's another story) when I stumbled across a huge box of old PS2 and PSone games. Seeing as there's nothing on the horizon worth a purchase until inFamous at the end of the month I thought I'd have a search for something that might fill some gaming time.

I found a copy of Ratchet & Clank which I can remember not being overly impressed with at the time (I think I was expecting something more Jak & Daxter-y) but having enjoyed the PS3 sequels I thought it had to be worth a look.

Obviously as the first game in the series it's basically an origin story with Ratchet finding Clank and then having to find most of the equipment you take for granted in the later games. The first surprise was how good it looked. Compared to my last PS2 on PS3 experience (Silent Hill 2) it stands up very well with the same detailed character models and busy levels (if obviously a lot last generationy.. In fact it's when you go back that you realise how far things have moved forwards).

I'm assuming it's a side effect of running on a software emulation 60Gb PS3 but there's an awful lot of slow down when there's a lot moving on screen. Anyone whose played a Ratchet & Clank game will know there's nearly always a lot moving on screen too.. But it's not game ruining (yet anyway) and adds a kind of bullet time effect which suits my old man reactions.

As you might expect the games a little less refined all round than the sequels. Crucially for a gun based 3d platformer there's no strafe function which makes the combat a little less satisfying than ToD. Although there's plenty of nuts and bolts to collect and weapons to buy there doesn't appear to be any upgrading them either..

So far though it's just as enjoyable. I'll keep you updated.

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

So finally a year later sees my chalk up completion of this. It's not the masterpiece that it was reviewed as. It's an amazing achievement certainly but some of the things they've achieved just aren't much fun.. Still I enjoyed Niko's story and felt he was a cool character to play as.

Currently Playing: GTA IV

AKA Back to Libery City. Turns out the mission I was stuck on is the final mission. The Official Stratergy guide doesn't really help either. Apparently I'm supposed to use the speed boat to catch up with the chopper and press triangle. The fact that the time limit is so tight that multiple attempts have never seen me get close enough doesn't seem to bother them. Of course the fact that Rockstar hate checkpoints and I have to go back to the beginning of the mission every time doesn't help either.

The Guide does point out though that if I make a different choice the mission before I'll get a slightly different take on the last mission that doesn't involve a speed boat. Hurrah. Fortunately I have multiple saves (I tend to keep five or so on the go and rotate through them) so making the other choice wasn't difficult. The mission itself is a ball ache though.

Let's be honest, despite all the plaudits GTA IV got the crux of the experience can be annoying. The driving model is terrible. The cars understeer like fuck and then snap into terrible oversteer. I spent most of last night pinging of walls and traffic like some kind of demented pinball.. Presumably practice helped but in isolation it's terrible. The much vaunted gunplay is still pretty rubbish too. A lot of later missions involve shooting through doorways and you just can't get a useable bead on a target in through the narrow openings. Even when your trying to get a lock on a target around a corner that you can clearly see the gun appears to be firing into the wall impotently.

On the cargo ship mission you're supposed to climb up a crane and snipe as many guys as you can. Which is fine. Then you have to slowly make your way through to the upper decks clearing bad guys as you go. Once you get to the bridge you can open the cargo hold and then more bad guys have arrived and your supposed to clear your way back down again. Sadly by this point a combination of over whelming numbers and broken combat will probably leave you very thin on health. I'd tried this mission multiple times last year before giving up and taking the other choice. Not this time. I basically just ran and jumped off the ship. Swam around to the docks. Climbed the crane again and sniped as many as I could before once again taking to the ship. This worked quite well. Then I managed to snipe a lot of bad guys from above the cargo hold before leaping in. Then there's another cut scene and your confronted with a boss battle. By this time I've got very little health and I'm bricking myself about dying. Fortunately I whittle the number of bad guys down before getting a cheeky sniped head shot in.. Then it tells you to make your way off the boat. I drive back to my safe house very carefully only to find that I can't 'save' mid mission.. not only do we not have a checkpoint apparently I'm not even finished...

I eventually cleared it and saved and made my way to the final mission.. I got most of the way throught it.. I'm chasing the final boss through the park only to find that after three massive gun battles, chasing the copter on a motorbike. Getting aboard the copter and following it too the park watching a cut scene on of my NPCs in the party has been killed cos I left him alone to chase the bad guy as instructed.. And guess what.. No checkpoint back to the beginning.

I'll perservere tonight...

Jarvis Cocker in the Guardian

Jarvis has a new solo album next week.. To celebrate the Guardian are devouting a weeks worth of features to him (basically it's a little like when the BBC supported U2s album launch but not paid for with my licence fee).. Monday they streamed his new album. Today he (and his kids) reviewed the weeks singles.

He sums up The Killers new effort The World We Live In thus:

That title is just asking for trouble: what, you're gonna sum up the whole of human existence in 4mins 13secs are you Mr Flowers? OK, hit me. Apparently the planet we are inhabiting sounds like an ELO B-side put through a flanger. This is so bad it actually made me feel sorry for them for a minute. They seem to want success so badly and then they curl this one out and mess it all up for themselves.

It basically sums up pretty much how I feel about The Killers in general.