At the moment, assuming the world doesn't end first or something, I am planning to start Covertape Chaos Season 5 on Tuesday April 2nd, with new episodes every fortnight until we finish off with Power Pack 64. As you many know, there were actually only 61 official Power Packs, but the Commodore Format blog have produced three more since the mag closed down for good. All of this will take us most of the way through the rest of 2019, but that doesn't mean that I'm not already thinking about what to do with the series after that. There are several directions that I could go in - I could go through all of the ZZAP Megatapes, I could morph the series into Coverdisc Chaos and look at Amiga demo discs, or I could change it up even more and look at the CD's that came on the front of Official Dreamcast Magazine. PlayStation demo discs are also a possibility, but I feel that these are already pretty well catered for thanks to Giant Bomb's Demo Derby series. What do you think I should do?
Other than that I really need to get PS2 Tuesday's Season 5 finished off. I was doing quite well at the start of the year with three new episodes, but after that there has been a gap again. I still owe everyone three more. I also need to crack on with The A-Z of Amiga, make some more RetroGrade episodes, and throw in a few other types of video here and there to keep things interesting for myself, such as Time for a Wii and Last Gen Regen.
I am making slow but steady progress through Dragon Age: Inquisition. I want to explore the last three or four world areas that that I have yet to visit, then I will tackle the end of the main story. After that I'll put together my review, and then get started on the DLC. Give me another few weeks and I should have something for you. I've also been spending a considerable amount of time with The Division 2 lately - my character is level 22 right now. I might be able to to get to level 30, choose my specialisation and get started on the World Tiers this weekend, I shall have to see how much free time I have. I do hope to review the game eventually.
Looking to the future, we have Days Gone coming out next month which I was not terribly interested in to begin with, but having watched a few videos about it I have to say it does look pretty impressive. 2019 is looking a bit thin compared to last year right now, but there are a few games that I'm looking forward to. Rage 2 could be pretty good, and I love a good kart racer so I am quite excited about the prospect of Team Sonic Racing and Crash Team Racing: Nitro Fueled. I don't know if we're likely to see the finished version of Torchlight: Frontiers this year as well, but sign me up for that on day one if it is. Hopefully it will get a console release, it was disappointing that Torchlight 2 was never ported to anything.
Finally, I want to try and get to back to writing on this blog more often, rather than just making videos on the YouTube channel. Sometime I end up wanting to talk about a game but I didn't capture any footage as I went along - in these cases a written review makes perfect sense and gives readers something of an exclusive.
Showing posts with label editorial. Show all posts
Showing posts with label editorial. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 26, 2019
Tuesday, January 12, 2016
RMGB in 2016
As you have probably noticed, after my post from September 2014 celebrating the 10th anniversary of this blog, there were no new posts for OVER A YEAR! This was not intentional, I just got a bit distracted with my YouTube channel and found it hard to find the time to devote to both things. However, one of my new years resolutions for 2016 is/was to bring the blog back to life and dedicate more time to it. I will be achieving this in a couple of ways. Firstly, every YouTube video I make starts with a written script - that's just the way I work. So, there is no reason that script can't be used as the basis for a blog article as well. Since the beginning of the year, I've already been doing this, and I think it's working out pretty well - we already have reviews of Tales of Xillia and Evoland live, a written version of my Cobra Triangle video from Rare Replay, and my Monkey Island Mondays series will be starting very soon.
In addition to this, I would also like to post content that is exclusive to the blog. This will take the form of diary type posts initially, but I would also like to include other things as well. Sometimes it's difficult to make a video of a game because capturing the footage is challenging - 3DS and DS games can't be captured very easily unless I a) spend a lot of money on getting my system modded or b) point a regular camcorder at the screen, which results in crappy quality. I could sometimes use footage captured by other people - for example World of Longplays let you use their video, as long as you give them credit. In cases where they haven't covered the particular game I've been playing though, a written review will have to do. I will try and find some other blog exclusive things that I can post as well.
My plan is to make the RetroModern Gaming Blog bigger and better than it's ever been before in 2016. It's a shame about the large absence - I am thinking about posting some of the content that didn't make it on there, as I still have the written versions for most of it. Mostly though, this year is about looking forwards, not backwards (unless it's playing old games - that's allowed!). I already have quite a list of games that I'm either playing now or want to play in the near future, including: Fallout 4, Evoland 2, Tales of Xillia 2, The Book of Unwritten Tales, all the main series Resident Evil titles I haven't finished (5, 6, Revelations and Revelations 2), and all the Legend of Zelda titles I haven't finished (Oracle of Ages, Oracle of Seasons, Majora's Mask, The Phantom Hourglass, Spirit Tracks, Skyward Sword). There's no way I will get to all of the Resident Evil and Zelda games this year, but I would at least like to make a start. I will also be playing quite a few smaller Steam games, and playing more graphic adventure games thanks to the Steam Link. I am actually hoping for a fairly quiet period where new releases are concerned, so I can focus on playing older games! There will inevitably be some big new games that distract me though, such as No Man's Sky - I can't wait for that one!
All things being well, Monkey Island Mondays will begin next week - I have the written version all ready to go, I just need to finish editing the video version. I would like them to go live at the same time. It's been quite a lot of work putting it together, and a long time coming, so I hope you really enjoy it. See you next week!
In addition to this, I would also like to post content that is exclusive to the blog. This will take the form of diary type posts initially, but I would also like to include other things as well. Sometimes it's difficult to make a video of a game because capturing the footage is challenging - 3DS and DS games can't be captured very easily unless I a) spend a lot of money on getting my system modded or b) point a regular camcorder at the screen, which results in crappy quality. I could sometimes use footage captured by other people - for example World of Longplays let you use their video, as long as you give them credit. In cases where they haven't covered the particular game I've been playing though, a written review will have to do. I will try and find some other blog exclusive things that I can post as well.
My plan is to make the RetroModern Gaming Blog bigger and better than it's ever been before in 2016. It's a shame about the large absence - I am thinking about posting some of the content that didn't make it on there, as I still have the written versions for most of it. Mostly though, this year is about looking forwards, not backwards (unless it's playing old games - that's allowed!). I already have quite a list of games that I'm either playing now or want to play in the near future, including: Fallout 4, Evoland 2, Tales of Xillia 2, The Book of Unwritten Tales, all the main series Resident Evil titles I haven't finished (5, 6, Revelations and Revelations 2), and all the Legend of Zelda titles I haven't finished (Oracle of Ages, Oracle of Seasons, Majora's Mask, The Phantom Hourglass, Spirit Tracks, Skyward Sword). There's no way I will get to all of the Resident Evil and Zelda games this year, but I would at least like to make a start. I will also be playing quite a few smaller Steam games, and playing more graphic adventure games thanks to the Steam Link. I am actually hoping for a fairly quiet period where new releases are concerned, so I can focus on playing older games! There will inevitably be some big new games that distract me though, such as No Man's Sky - I can't wait for that one!
All things being well, Monkey Island Mondays will begin next week - I have the written version all ready to go, I just need to finish editing the video version. I would like them to go live at the same time. It's been quite a lot of work putting it together, and a long time coming, so I hope you really enjoy it. See you next week!
Monday, September 15, 2014
Happy 10th Anniversary RMGB!
The 10th anniversary of the RetroModern Gaming blog has just passed, and as such I just wanted to put up a quick post to mark the occasion. This isn't all that I'll be doing to celebrate, however - I plan to create a new series that highlights 3 - 5 amazing games from every year between 2004 and 2014. This will most likely take the rest of the year and probably some of next year to finish.
Unfortunately there will be no new episode of PS2 Tuesdays this week - the previous Wild Arms 3 episode barely got any views at all, and Destiny just recently came out, so I chose to spend my Sunday playing that instead of making something that nobody would appreciate. The series will be back the week after, and the delay will give me a bit more time to play some more of the featured game (Jak & Daxter) so the quality should be better overall.
Also, I wasn't going to review Destiny but my nephew has requested it, so I'll see what I can do. Until then, here's to another ten years of RMGB!
Unfortunately there will be no new episode of PS2 Tuesdays this week - the previous Wild Arms 3 episode barely got any views at all, and Destiny just recently came out, so I chose to spend my Sunday playing that instead of making something that nobody would appreciate. The series will be back the week after, and the delay will give me a bit more time to play some more of the featured game (Jak & Daxter) so the quality should be better overall.
Also, I wasn't going to review Destiny but my nephew has requested it, so I'll see what I can do. Until then, here's to another ten years of RMGB!
Wednesday, January 22, 2014
More Let's Plays - The Last Story and Beyond: Two Souls
I've recently launched two more Let's Plays on my RMGB TV 2 YouTube Channel, for The Last Story and Beyond: Two Souls respectively. I've decided that two concurrent series is enough, as the lengthy upload process limits how much I can produce anyway. Beyond: Two Souls shouldn't be all that long - maybe somewhere in the region of 20 episodes total. The Last Story may go on for quite a lot longer, such is the nature of RPG's. After one of these has run their course, I will then start a new one and tell you all about it here. My intention is to include PlayStation 1 and 2 titles eventually, but I have to buy a special PS2 to HDMI cable first before I can do this. You can find the playlists below.
Tuesday, January 07, 2014
The YouTube Channels
Hi! It's been a long time since I've posted anything on here, but that will start to change soon. Over Christmas I was lucky enough to be able to purchase the Hauppauage HD PVR Rocket, which means I'm now able to capture high quality footage of Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Wii U games (PlayStation 2 will come later, I need to buy a bit of equipment for that first).
What this means is that I will be making my own video reviews and Let's Play videos. The plan is to play through a game, all the while capturing the footage, then write my review as I normally would and post it on the blog. After that, I will then use my written review as the basis of the video review, edit together the more interesting bits from what I've captured and add that to the review page as well.
The Let's Plays are bit more straight forward to set up as they don't require a lot of editing, just time for me to play the game whilst nattering into a microphone, and then time for YouTube to upload them all. Speaking of which, I've started one already for Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, which you can watch below!
What this means is that I will be making my own video reviews and Let's Play videos. The plan is to play through a game, all the while capturing the footage, then write my review as I normally would and post it on the blog. After that, I will then use my written review as the basis of the video review, edit together the more interesting bits from what I've captured and add that to the review page as well.
The Let's Plays are bit more straight forward to set up as they don't require a lot of editing, just time for me to play the game whilst nattering into a microphone, and then time for YouTube to upload them all. Speaking of which, I've started one already for Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, which you can watch below!
Thursday, January 10, 2013
Game of the Year Awards 2012
Here we are ladies and gentlemen, with the ten games that I consider to be the best of the year...
10. Mass Effect 3
In the end, this barely scraped its way into my top ten list because of some small yet significant flaws that just hold it back and make it a disappointing sequel to the almost perfect Mass Effect 2. This include the controversial ending that was released in the game, the decision to make one of the best playable characters paid DLC and the incredibly poor way that side quests are implemented. However, it is rescued by the best combat yet in the series and some truly great moments with some of my favourite video game characters ever.
9. Forza Horizon
Though Playground games were made up of a talented group of people with prior experience in the racing genre, they still had a lot of prove with this Forza spin off and so I didn't really know what to expect prior to playing the Xbox Live demo. What they actually delivered is a fun, vibrant and more accessible cousin of Turn 10's track based driving simulator. In many ways it feels like a Project Gotham game, and as that series appears to have stagnated it is a very welcome alternative.
8. Assassin's Creed 3
Much like Mass Effect 3, the latest entry in the Assassin's Creed franchise had some pretty significant flaws holding it back from the top half of my games of the year list. Some incredibly frustrating missions with fail states that are far too easy to trigger and a WTF ending are chief among these, but the joy of exploring Boston, New York, the building of your homestead and the absolutely amazing naval battles make this one of the top games of 2012 for me.
7. Torchlight 2
I played Diablo III a lot when it was released, only giving up when the highest difficulty setting proved too much for me. Then a few months later Torchlight 2 came out, and it managed to eclipse Blizzard's offering. The fast pace, the excellent range of character classes and the amount of game you get for a low price meant that I was addicted to it for a good few months, and I still intend to back and play some more in the future.
6. Tales of Graces f
Excellent examples of the Japanese RPG genre on home consoles are pretty hard to come by these days, yet Tales Studio managed to deliver one on the PlayStation 3 this year. Though it's a port of a Wii game, it still looks absolutely fantastic with the vibrant colours and anime style that fans of the series have come to expect. There are some new twists to the mechanics of the game compared to other in the series too, with the the way you obtain new skills from earning titles for your character proving to be extremely addictive.
5. X-Com: Enemy Unknown
For a long time strategy games like X-Com weren't being made, especially for consoles. Then Firaxis came along and proved that this type of game could work with a controller when they released the excellent Civilisation Revolution. Fans of the original X-Com were very worried when video of the proposed FPS reboot were circulated, but in the end that project was shelved and we got this instead. It is by an large a complete update of the game we knew and loved back in the 90's, just made more accessible to newcomers with a gentler difficulty curve. Those who crave the toughness of the original can always crank the game up to the hardest setting and switch on iron man mode. The rest of us can stick to Easy or Normal, kick back on the sofa and enjoy an incredibly addictive strategy game on our consoles, with incredibly slick presentation to boot.
4. Xenoblade Chronicles
I am cheating a bit to get this game on my list as it actually came out in Europe during 2011. It was released in the US in 2012 though. Xenoblade Chronicles is an absolutely gargantuan RPG for the Nintendo Wii, with some of the best graphics and music you will witness for that system (apart from the Super Mario Galaxy games). You can easily spend 80 hours or more exploring every corner of the huge game world, completing dozens of quests and enjoying the combat system. From a gameplay perspective, I would compare it to Final Fantasy XII - it has a similar "offline MMO" type of feel to it. Together with The Last Story and Pandora's Tower, it gave the Wii one hell of a send off before it's successor was released.
3. Sleeping Dogs
Sleeping Dogs doesn't really do anything radically new - it is a super slick spin on the GTA template with a counter based combat system that is quite similar to that seen in Batman: Arkham Asylum. The game looks great and plays even better, however, with a ton of optional tasks that are actually fun to do. These include a Karaoke mini game, a whole series of race events, martial arts tournaments and lots of collectibles. For a game that I was quite dismissive about for a long time, it has turned out to be one of my favourites.
2. The Walking Dead
I am a big fan of the Walking Dead TV show, though I have never read the comics that it is based on. However, that was enough to make me interested in trying the first episode in Telltale's latest downloadable adventure series, and after that I was hooked. I eagerly awaited the next part in the story, enjoyed every twist and turn no matter how dark and brutal it was, and was emotionally involved every step of the way. It feels like your choices are really impacting the direction of the story, even if a lot of that turned out to be smoke and mirrors in the end. You really don't find stories as hard hitting and as risk taking any other video game - though this series may have changed that.
1. Far Cry 3
Far Cry 3 feels like this years Skyrim to me. It is a joy to step out into this fully realised world, exploring and seeing just what random events take place. Such as a group of pirates having a gun battle with the native Raykyat on the road, until three very angry Komodo Dragons walk out of the jungle and start chowing down on fools. Levelling up, activating guard towers, clearing out pirate camps, completing optional races, sharpshooter challenges and hunting tasks are all incredibly addictive. Even if the story ultimately doesn't fulfil the potential it showed in the early stages of the game, the rest of the experience is enough to make this my favourite game of 2012.
Honourable mentions
There were far too many other noteworthy games released in 2012 for me to go into specifics about each and every one of them here, though hopefully I will revisit some of them in more detail at a later date. Here is the complete list of games that I think you really should play.
Need for Speed: Most Wanted, Kingdoms of Amalur Reckoning, The Witcher 2: Assassin of Kings, Dragon's Dogma, The Last Story, Halo 4, Theaterhythm, The Darkness II, Rhythm Heaven Fever, Binary Domain, Tropico 4 Gold Edition, Diabo III, Darksiders II, Dust: An Elysian Tale, Borderlands 2, Resident Evil 6, Paper Mario: Sticker Star, LittleBigPlanet Karting, F1 Race Stars, New Super Mario Bros. U, Zombi U, Nintendo Land, Sonic Racing Transformed, Spelunky, Pandora's Tower
Notably Missing
The following games aren't part of my top ten list because I haven't got around to playing them yet... sorry about that!
Dishonored, Journey, Guild Wars 2, Mark of the Ninja, Fez, FTL: Faster than Light, Dyad, Sound Shapes, The Secret World
Best game I played in 2012 that came out earlier:
Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Reverie
I have to give a shout out to this excellent RPG in the classic series because it made my two hour commute home from work every day that much easier, and lasted several months. Very traditional, but fans of the series will love it. I look forward to the 3DS remake of Dragon Quest VII!
10. Mass Effect 3
In the end, this barely scraped its way into my top ten list because of some small yet significant flaws that just hold it back and make it a disappointing sequel to the almost perfect Mass Effect 2. This include the controversial ending that was released in the game, the decision to make one of the best playable characters paid DLC and the incredibly poor way that side quests are implemented. However, it is rescued by the best combat yet in the series and some truly great moments with some of my favourite video game characters ever.
9. Forza Horizon
Though Playground games were made up of a talented group of people with prior experience in the racing genre, they still had a lot of prove with this Forza spin off and so I didn't really know what to expect prior to playing the Xbox Live demo. What they actually delivered is a fun, vibrant and more accessible cousin of Turn 10's track based driving simulator. In many ways it feels like a Project Gotham game, and as that series appears to have stagnated it is a very welcome alternative.
8. Assassin's Creed 3
Much like Mass Effect 3, the latest entry in the Assassin's Creed franchise had some pretty significant flaws holding it back from the top half of my games of the year list. Some incredibly frustrating missions with fail states that are far too easy to trigger and a WTF ending are chief among these, but the joy of exploring Boston, New York, the building of your homestead and the absolutely amazing naval battles make this one of the top games of 2012 for me.
7. Torchlight 2
I played Diablo III a lot when it was released, only giving up when the highest difficulty setting proved too much for me. Then a few months later Torchlight 2 came out, and it managed to eclipse Blizzard's offering. The fast pace, the excellent range of character classes and the amount of game you get for a low price meant that I was addicted to it for a good few months, and I still intend to back and play some more in the future.
6. Tales of Graces f
Excellent examples of the Japanese RPG genre on home consoles are pretty hard to come by these days, yet Tales Studio managed to deliver one on the PlayStation 3 this year. Though it's a port of a Wii game, it still looks absolutely fantastic with the vibrant colours and anime style that fans of the series have come to expect. There are some new twists to the mechanics of the game compared to other in the series too, with the the way you obtain new skills from earning titles for your character proving to be extremely addictive.
5. X-Com: Enemy Unknown
For a long time strategy games like X-Com weren't being made, especially for consoles. Then Firaxis came along and proved that this type of game could work with a controller when they released the excellent Civilisation Revolution. Fans of the original X-Com were very worried when video of the proposed FPS reboot were circulated, but in the end that project was shelved and we got this instead. It is by an large a complete update of the game we knew and loved back in the 90's, just made more accessible to newcomers with a gentler difficulty curve. Those who crave the toughness of the original can always crank the game up to the hardest setting and switch on iron man mode. The rest of us can stick to Easy or Normal, kick back on the sofa and enjoy an incredibly addictive strategy game on our consoles, with incredibly slick presentation to boot.
4. Xenoblade Chronicles
I am cheating a bit to get this game on my list as it actually came out in Europe during 2011. It was released in the US in 2012 though. Xenoblade Chronicles is an absolutely gargantuan RPG for the Nintendo Wii, with some of the best graphics and music you will witness for that system (apart from the Super Mario Galaxy games). You can easily spend 80 hours or more exploring every corner of the huge game world, completing dozens of quests and enjoying the combat system. From a gameplay perspective, I would compare it to Final Fantasy XII - it has a similar "offline MMO" type of feel to it. Together with The Last Story and Pandora's Tower, it gave the Wii one hell of a send off before it's successor was released.
3. Sleeping Dogs
Sleeping Dogs doesn't really do anything radically new - it is a super slick spin on the GTA template with a counter based combat system that is quite similar to that seen in Batman: Arkham Asylum. The game looks great and plays even better, however, with a ton of optional tasks that are actually fun to do. These include a Karaoke mini game, a whole series of race events, martial arts tournaments and lots of collectibles. For a game that I was quite dismissive about for a long time, it has turned out to be one of my favourites.
2. The Walking Dead
I am a big fan of the Walking Dead TV show, though I have never read the comics that it is based on. However, that was enough to make me interested in trying the first episode in Telltale's latest downloadable adventure series, and after that I was hooked. I eagerly awaited the next part in the story, enjoyed every twist and turn no matter how dark and brutal it was, and was emotionally involved every step of the way. It feels like your choices are really impacting the direction of the story, even if a lot of that turned out to be smoke and mirrors in the end. You really don't find stories as hard hitting and as risk taking any other video game - though this series may have changed that.
1. Far Cry 3
Far Cry 3 feels like this years Skyrim to me. It is a joy to step out into this fully realised world, exploring and seeing just what random events take place. Such as a group of pirates having a gun battle with the native Raykyat on the road, until three very angry Komodo Dragons walk out of the jungle and start chowing down on fools. Levelling up, activating guard towers, clearing out pirate camps, completing optional races, sharpshooter challenges and hunting tasks are all incredibly addictive. Even if the story ultimately doesn't fulfil the potential it showed in the early stages of the game, the rest of the experience is enough to make this my favourite game of 2012.
Honourable mentions
There were far too many other noteworthy games released in 2012 for me to go into specifics about each and every one of them here, though hopefully I will revisit some of them in more detail at a later date. Here is the complete list of games that I think you really should play.
Need for Speed: Most Wanted, Kingdoms of Amalur Reckoning, The Witcher 2: Assassin of Kings, Dragon's Dogma, The Last Story, Halo 4, Theaterhythm, The Darkness II, Rhythm Heaven Fever, Binary Domain, Tropico 4 Gold Edition, Diabo III, Darksiders II, Dust: An Elysian Tale, Borderlands 2, Resident Evil 6, Paper Mario: Sticker Star, LittleBigPlanet Karting, F1 Race Stars, New Super Mario Bros. U, Zombi U, Nintendo Land, Sonic Racing Transformed, Spelunky, Pandora's Tower
Notably Missing
The following games aren't part of my top ten list because I haven't got around to playing them yet... sorry about that!
Dishonored, Journey, Guild Wars 2, Mark of the Ninja, Fez, FTL: Faster than Light, Dyad, Sound Shapes, The Secret World
Best game I played in 2012 that came out earlier:
Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Reverie
I have to give a shout out to this excellent RPG in the classic series because it made my two hour commute home from work every day that much easier, and lasted several months. Very traditional, but fans of the series will love it. I look forward to the 3DS remake of Dragon Quest VII!
Monday, October 17, 2011
Announcing... Dragon Quest Fest!
However, I am going to start a project that may take a little while to complete but should be worth it in the end: Dragon Quest Fest.
In some ways this has already been started because there are reviews of Dragon Quest VIII and IV already on the site, but I am gradually going to add reviews of all of the other main entries in the series and perhaps DQ Monsters Joker 2 as well. My review of Dragon Quest IX will be published as part of my week of reviews which I really hope will happen next week now, and Dragon Quest V shouldn't be too far off either as I am just reaching the end of the second major part of the game on my commute to work.
Unfortunately, when I changed templates a while ago my review of DQVIII got mangled in the process, so my first job is to go back, fix all the paragraph spacing and weird extra characters that were added, find some screen shots to liven it up and some video if there is some available. There will also be one other special article on the series as whole that I hope to get up by the end of this week.
Monday, October 10, 2011
Tons of content coming soon!
Greetings ladies and gents
Just wanted to let you know that quite soon in the near future (perhaps next week) I will be posting every day Monday-Friday! Woo and indeed hoo!
I have played my way through quite a few games over the last month or so and am ready to deliver my verdict on them. I will also try to get some more meaningful content up this week. In the meantime here is the plan of action for the week long review frenzy:
Monday - Batman: Arkham Asylum (Xbox 360)
Tuesday - Dragon Quest IX (DS)
Wednesday - Shadows of the Damned (Xbox 360)
Thursday - Dungeon Siege III (Xbox 360)
Friday - Enslaved: Odyssey to the West (Xbox 360)
As you can seem most of these are slightly older games, but not to worry - we don't do deadlines here! I am currently playing my way through Rage so I should have a review of that up fairly soon after release at least, and my Gears of War 3 critique was quite timely for me. Besides all this stuff, I will also start working out what to put in my yearly Gaming Gift Guide soon. The autumn and winter months are seeing another bumper crop of amazing releases this year so there will be plenty of games to consider for my various top 10's.
Until then, enjoying playing whatever game is keeping you occupied at the moment, and make sure you keep checking the blog for new stuff!
Wibblefish
Just wanted to let you know that quite soon in the near future (perhaps next week) I will be posting every day Monday-Friday! Woo and indeed hoo!
I have played my way through quite a few games over the last month or so and am ready to deliver my verdict on them. I will also try to get some more meaningful content up this week. In the meantime here is the plan of action for the week long review frenzy:
Monday - Batman: Arkham Asylum (Xbox 360)
Tuesday - Dragon Quest IX (DS)
Wednesday - Shadows of the Damned (Xbox 360)
Thursday - Dungeon Siege III (Xbox 360)
Friday - Enslaved: Odyssey to the West (Xbox 360)
As you can seem most of these are slightly older games, but not to worry - we don't do deadlines here! I am currently playing my way through Rage so I should have a review of that up fairly soon after release at least, and my Gears of War 3 critique was quite timely for me. Besides all this stuff, I will also start working out what to put in my yearly Gaming Gift Guide soon. The autumn and winter months are seeing another bumper crop of amazing releases this year so there will be plenty of games to consider for my various top 10's.Until then, enjoying playing whatever game is keeping you occupied at the moment, and make sure you keep checking the blog for new stuff!
Wibblefish
Wednesday, September 08, 2010
Wii will rock you.
Please forgive the rather tired and obvious pun - it's been a long week and we're only at the halfway stage! Today I would like to announce some plans that I have, although I'm not going to do anything rash like commit my self to a schedule or anything like that as that is a surefire way to guarantee that it won't actually happen! Anyway, I've been thinking for a little while that it would be nice to shift the focus away from Xbox 360 for a little bit and onto other platforms - beginning with the Nintendo Wii. The Wii has been very under represented on this blog and also gets a fair bit of stick from both hardcore gamers and journalists alike - with even the best games the system can offer often receiving the dreaded "It looks good, for a Wii game" comment.
I would like to readdress the balance a bit by introducing two new series of articles - Wii Essentials, and Wii Hidden Gems. The first will include games that should be in anybodies Wii collection and will cover some of the more obvious titles that I have been meaning to talk about but never have for one reason or another - such as Super Mario Galaxy, Metroid Prime Trilogy, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess and others. The second will try and unearth some of the Wii's less well known but no less deserving titles. Games like Little King's Story, A Boy and His Blob, and Sky Crawlers. The first of each of these will hopefully appear fairly soon but like I said I'm not going to doom this enterprise to failure by promising exactly when they will appear. Once I get into my stride and get a few of these up I may well follow up will something similar for some of the other platforms that I haven't given much coverage - the Nintendo DS, or more retro coverage for example. I'm quite excited to get working on this at the moment, so maybe I will strike while the iron is hot and start working on the first one now! I've even created logo's for them, look:
In future, clicking on these banners will take you to all of the articles within each series - for now they will only bring up this one though!
I would like to readdress the balance a bit by introducing two new series of articles - Wii Essentials, and Wii Hidden Gems. The first will include games that should be in anybodies Wii collection and will cover some of the more obvious titles that I have been meaning to talk about but never have for one reason or another - such as Super Mario Galaxy, Metroid Prime Trilogy, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess and others. The second will try and unearth some of the Wii's less well known but no less deserving titles. Games like Little King's Story, A Boy and His Blob, and Sky Crawlers. The first of each of these will hopefully appear fairly soon but like I said I'm not going to doom this enterprise to failure by promising exactly when they will appear. Once I get into my stride and get a few of these up I may well follow up will something similar for some of the other platforms that I haven't given much coverage - the Nintendo DS, or more retro coverage for example. I'm quite excited to get working on this at the moment, so maybe I will strike while the iron is hot and start working on the first one now! I've even created logo's for them, look:
In future, clicking on these banners will take you to all of the articles within each series - for now they will only bring up this one though!
Monday, March 15, 2010
Recent Pickups: 15/03/10
This year, my new years resolution was to post at least one new article on this very blog every week, which last week I failed to do for personal reasons I can't go into. Rather than admit defeat though, I intend to get back on track by posting at least twice this week instead, starting now. I've been a part of the YouTube gaming community for a little while now, subscribing to lots of interesting people and even posting the odd video of my own from time to time. One of the common types of video that people tend to post is the pickups video, and I've decided to transfer the idea into words. I also intend to put together a video of this post which I will embed soon. So without further procrastination, let's take a look at my recent gaming purchases with a few comments on each.
Final Fantasy XIII - PlayStation 3 - Square-Enix - £40
This is the big one that fans of JRPGs have been waiting for, and if anything it has split opinion amongst the fan base even more than the controversial FFXII. Initially, I wasn't a fan of the battle mechanics as it seemed that Square-Enix had dumbed down the game to the point where you were just mashing the X button and watching your party do everything for you, but as you progress more and more layers of the game are peeled back, and by the time you are sent out into the big bad world and left to fend for yourself (about 25 hours in), you have a fully featured RPG with fun, fast paced and strategic battles, many opportunities to customise your characters, and dozens of options side quests to take on. Granted, the game funnels you down a linear path, with nary a reason to stray aside from the odd treasure sphere, which will piss a lot of people off, but the story and characters are entertaining enough to keep me interested
Final Fantasy XIII Official Piggyback Strategy Guide: Collector's Edition - £20
Along with the game itself I also picked this gorgeous looking hardback strategy guide from the best people in the business - Piggyback. Although I have to admit, aside from the odd tricky Eidolon battle the guide has proved somewhat unnecessary so far as there is only one main path through most areas, this is all set to change once I finally reach chapter 11, where it opens up.
Lunar: Silver Star Harmony Premium Edition - PSP - £23
MadWorld - Wii - £6.99
I spotted this whilst food shopping at my local Morrison's and it was so incredibly cheap that I couldn't resist picking it up. Other than the fantastic black and white art style and commentary by Greg Proops, I have to say I'm not really too keen on the game though. Gore doesn't really do it for me, and the gameplay gets very repetitive very quickly. Though it's a shame that "mature" titles like this aren't performing very well on the Wii, I have to say in this case the game isn't anything special.
Rocket Racing - PS3/PS3 (Minis) - £3.99
This game sounded interesting and promised quite a lot of game for a very small outlay, so I decided to take a chance and purchase it yesterday. I'm still getting used to the controls but it does appear to be a very polished and enjoyable little 2D racing game, well suited to the PSP.
Gamespite Quarterly Issue 2 - The Greatest Games of All Time - £20 (deluxe hardback edition)
I have been a regular reader of gamespite.net since owner Jeremy Parish was known as Toastyfrog, but it was only when Gamespite Quarterly Issue 3 was featured in a recent issue of Retro Gamer that I decided to order a copy myself, albeit Issue 2 rather than 3 because the content was more appealing. The deluxe hardback version features extra content not present in the standard version (37 extra pages) and is a really entertaining read. I certainly intend to go back and buy issues 1, 3 and 4 now.
Final Fantasy XIII - PlayStation 3 - Square-Enix - £40This is the big one that fans of JRPGs have been waiting for, and if anything it has split opinion amongst the fan base even more than the controversial FFXII. Initially, I wasn't a fan of the battle mechanics as it seemed that Square-Enix had dumbed down the game to the point where you were just mashing the X button and watching your party do everything for you, but as you progress more and more layers of the game are peeled back, and by the time you are sent out into the big bad world and left to fend for yourself (about 25 hours in), you have a fully featured RPG with fun, fast paced and strategic battles, many opportunities to customise your characters, and dozens of options side quests to take on. Granted, the game funnels you down a linear path, with nary a reason to stray aside from the odd treasure sphere, which will piss a lot of people off, but the story and characters are entertaining enough to keep me interested
Final Fantasy XIII Official Piggyback Strategy Guide: Collector's Edition - £20Along with the game itself I also picked this gorgeous looking hardback strategy guide from the best people in the business - Piggyback. Although I have to admit, aside from the odd tricky Eidolon battle the guide has proved somewhat unnecessary so far as there is only one main path through most areas, this is all set to change once I finally reach chapter 11, where it opens up.
Lunar: Silver Star Harmony Premium Edition - PSP - £23
This is actually the fourth time the original Lunar has been released, though each time the game has been substantially reworked. This latest version is no exception, containing new scenes, a rewritten script and a remastered soundtrack. Speaking of the soundtrack, this Premium Edition also comes with a CD and a dozen bromide cards featuring the girls from the game, all in a nice chunky box. I imported it from http://www.videogamesplus.ca/, a site where I've been buying my import RPGs for years. They come highly recommended - the games are cheap and they typically take about a week to get to the UK from Canada.
MadWorld - Wii - £6.99I spotted this whilst food shopping at my local Morrison's and it was so incredibly cheap that I couldn't resist picking it up. Other than the fantastic black and white art style and commentary by Greg Proops, I have to say I'm not really too keen on the game though. Gore doesn't really do it for me, and the gameplay gets very repetitive very quickly. Though it's a shame that "mature" titles like this aren't performing very well on the Wii, I have to say in this case the game isn't anything special.
Rocket Racing - PS3/PS3 (Minis) - £3.99
This game sounded interesting and promised quite a lot of game for a very small outlay, so I decided to take a chance and purchase it yesterday. I'm still getting used to the controls but it does appear to be a very polished and enjoyable little 2D racing game, well suited to the PSP.
Gamespite Quarterly Issue 2 - The Greatest Games of All Time - £20 (deluxe hardback edition)I have been a regular reader of gamespite.net since owner Jeremy Parish was known as Toastyfrog, but it was only when Gamespite Quarterly Issue 3 was featured in a recent issue of Retro Gamer that I decided to order a copy myself, albeit Issue 2 rather than 3 because the content was more appealing. The deluxe hardback version features extra content not present in the standard version (37 extra pages) and is a really entertaining read. I certainly intend to go back and buy issues 1, 3 and 4 now.
Friday, March 05, 2010
Podcast Roundup
This time around I'm going to recommend a few podcasts that I listen to or watch on a regular basis. Most of these are fairly well known among the gaming community but there might just be something here that you weren't aware of!
Audio Podcasts
Retro Gaming Roundup
This is a joint project hosted by two US hosts (SocalMike and Scott) and one based in the UK. It's very funny, especially when they all decide to drink alcohol while recording and then trying and decide on the top 10 games of particular category. While the show is only put out once a month rather than weekly, it can reach almost seven hours in length so you'll have plenty to listen to. The show has also just celebrated it's one year anniversary so congratulations and here''s to the next 12 months of shows!
Active Time Babble
Jeremy Parish, Kat Bailey and various other members of the 1UP staff discuss everything RPG related once a fortnight, in a companion podcast to their blog called The Grind. Recent episodes include one that was mostly devoted to Final Fantasy XIII, and one discussing the merits of Star Trek Online and roguelikes.
Retronauts
Another podcast hosted by Jeremy Parish, which goes out on alternate weeks to ATB. They recently did an episode all about the Lunar series, which is great as I'm currently waiting for my copy of the PSP remake to arrive in the post!
4 Guys 1UP
The last of the 1UP podcasts that I listen to on a regular basis. This one has gone through various guises over the last year or so as people come and go, but it will hopefully be around in this form for a while. This one has a more general focus on gaming.
Monroeworld Gamecast
Born from the ashes of Dual Screen Radio and Wii Minute Radio (which were both excellent podcasts that will be missed), Shane R. Monroe, Chris Hentschel and Alex J. Lopez have teamed up to produce this brand new show. There's only one episode released so far but it's good stuff.
RPGCast
RPGamer.com's flagship podcast, discussing the latest news from within the genre.
RPG Backtrack
Another one from RPGamer.com, but this time taking a more retro slant - they focus on games that are at least 2 years old. There are some excellent episodes devoted to the likes of the Ogre Battle games, Shining Force, and Final Fantasy. The show stopped for a while in September but they've just come back with a brand new episode devoted to the Castlevania games that feature RPG elements.
Sarcastic Gamer podcasts
The team from Sarcastic Gamer product five different podcasts including Blue which is about all things PlayStation, and Pink which offers a female perspective on gaming.
Video podcasts
Co-Op
Put together every week by Area 5, Co-Op focuses on anything and everything gaming related, from brand new big budget releases to downloadable and indie titles. They recently changed the format slightly and started putting out live shows, but these are still made available online if you can't catch it as it goes out.
The Totally Rad Show
Not solely devoted to games, but each week Alex, Jeff and Dan do discuss a game that they've all been playing. TRS comes highly recommended for geeks everywhere because it also covers movies, TV and on occasion, comic books.
Non-gaming related podcasts
Mark Kermode and Simon Mayo's Film Reviews
Every week Dr K gives his opinion on the latest movie reviews - very funny, informative and more often than not, accurate.
HD Nation
This is the place to come if you love Hi Definition content. How to get the best from your set up, be it Blu Ray player and TV, Media Centre PC or one of the various HD streaming/pay-per-view boxes.
iFanboy
If you're interested in comics, then this is well worth watching each week!
That's it - the Forza Motorsport 3 review is still coming, I promise. I need to pick it up again for a bit over the weekend to refresh my opinion because it's been a little while, and then I shall make a start on it.
Audio Podcasts
Retro Gaming Roundup
This is a joint project hosted by two US hosts (SocalMike and Scott) and one based in the UK. It's very funny, especially when they all decide to drink alcohol while recording and then trying and decide on the top 10 games of particular category. While the show is only put out once a month rather than weekly, it can reach almost seven hours in length so you'll have plenty to listen to. The show has also just celebrated it's one year anniversary so congratulations and here''s to the next 12 months of shows!
Active Time Babble
Jeremy Parish, Kat Bailey and various other members of the 1UP staff discuss everything RPG related once a fortnight, in a companion podcast to their blog called The Grind. Recent episodes include one that was mostly devoted to Final Fantasy XIII, and one discussing the merits of Star Trek Online and roguelikes.
Retronauts
Another podcast hosted by Jeremy Parish, which goes out on alternate weeks to ATB. They recently did an episode all about the Lunar series, which is great as I'm currently waiting for my copy of the PSP remake to arrive in the post!
4 Guys 1UP
The last of the 1UP podcasts that I listen to on a regular basis. This one has gone through various guises over the last year or so as people come and go, but it will hopefully be around in this form for a while. This one has a more general focus on gaming.
Monroeworld Gamecast
Born from the ashes of Dual Screen Radio and Wii Minute Radio (which were both excellent podcasts that will be missed), Shane R. Monroe, Chris Hentschel and Alex J. Lopez have teamed up to produce this brand new show. There's only one episode released so far but it's good stuff.
RPGCast
RPGamer.com's flagship podcast, discussing the latest news from within the genre.
RPG Backtrack
Another one from RPGamer.com, but this time taking a more retro slant - they focus on games that are at least 2 years old. There are some excellent episodes devoted to the likes of the Ogre Battle games, Shining Force, and Final Fantasy. The show stopped for a while in September but they've just come back with a brand new episode devoted to the Castlevania games that feature RPG elements.
Sarcastic Gamer podcasts
The team from Sarcastic Gamer product five different podcasts including Blue which is about all things PlayStation, and Pink which offers a female perspective on gaming.
Video podcasts
Co-Op
Put together every week by Area 5, Co-Op focuses on anything and everything gaming related, from brand new big budget releases to downloadable and indie titles. They recently changed the format slightly and started putting out live shows, but these are still made available online if you can't catch it as it goes out.
The Totally Rad Show
Not solely devoted to games, but each week Alex, Jeff and Dan do discuss a game that they've all been playing. TRS comes highly recommended for geeks everywhere because it also covers movies, TV and on occasion, comic books.
Non-gaming related podcasts
Mark Kermode and Simon Mayo's Film Reviews
Every week Dr K gives his opinion on the latest movie reviews - very funny, informative and more often than not, accurate.
HD Nation
This is the place to come if you love Hi Definition content. How to get the best from your set up, be it Blu Ray player and TV, Media Centre PC or one of the various HD streaming/pay-per-view boxes.
iFanboy
If you're interested in comics, then this is well worth watching each week!
That's it - the Forza Motorsport 3 review is still coming, I promise. I need to pick it up again for a bit over the weekend to refresh my opinion because it's been a little while, and then I shall make a start on it.
Friday, February 12, 2010
2010: The Year of the RPG
A couple of days ago I completed Mass Effect 2, and I'll soon be putting a full review together for it. Let's just say that it's a strong Game of the Year contender, and it's still only February! 2010 looks like it's going to be a great one for fans of RPGs, so today I will be highlighting a few of the games that I plan on playing over the coming months...
Console RPGs
Final Fantasy XIII - PS3 and Xbox 360 - 09/03/10
Let's get the obvious one out the way first. The Square-Enix cash cow continues to squirt out Final Fantasy games, but of course this one is a proper numbered entry in the series and not one of the many spin off franchises. Opinion on the Japanese version suggests that it will be a fairly linear experience - even more so than most of the previous entries, but I'm not to bothered about that as long as it still delivers a good game.
Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening - PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 - 19/03/10
Most of us had barely had time to complete Dragon Age before Bioware announced that they were going to be releasing a full disc based expansion for the game. Several trailers have been released - one showing off some new adversaries called The Children, and two more featuring brand new characters called Anders and Velanna, so it seems that we won't just be getting more of the same, but a properly expanded world.
Rune Factory Frontier - Wii - 26/03/10
The DS Harvest Moon spin off series gets transferred over to the Wii, complete with gorgeous visuals and a crapton of stuff to do. This game has been picking up awards from dedicated RPG sites such as rpgamer.com and rpgfan.com, and in a few months those of us in Europe get to find out what all the fuss is about.
Handheld RPGs
Might and Magic: Clash of Heroes - DS - 12/02/10
I've been hearing great things about this puzzle/RPG handheld, and it's good to see that it is getting a European release. You control five different characters, each with their own powers and playing style - should be hours of addictive fun for fans of the series and those who have never touched a Might and Magic game before.
Half Minute Hero - PSP - 19/02/10
An RPG with a twist - you're only given 30 seconds to find and defeat the boss! To get around this rather harsh time limit, you can pay a time fairy to reset the clock - but each time you do so it will get more expensive. All of the usual things that you have to do in normal RPGs apply here - you must level up, buy better equipment, acquire new characters for your party, journey through dungeons and of course defeat the evil overlord - all while adhering to the 30 second rule. There's a demo available on the PSN store so I recommend that PSP owners go and check the game out!
Avalon Code - DS - 12/03/10
This is the latest RPG from Matrix Software, the team that worked on the DS remakes of Final Fantasy III, IV as well as Nostalgia. The big twist with this one appears to be the ability to rewrite the stats of your weapons and enemies, as well as the rules of battle.
Pokemon: HeartGold and SoulSilver - DS - 26/03/10
Arguably the best games in the entire Pokemon saga - Gold and Silver, get remade for the DS, boasting improved graphics, extra content and more surprises. The game will come with a Pokewalker - which is basically a pedometer that levels up a pokemon of your choice as you wander around. I've yet to catch the Pokemon bug, but I'm willing to give it another try.
Import Games (currently no European release date announced)
Lunar: Silver Star Harmony - PSP - 02/03/10
Lunar is one of the most remade games that a lot of people won't have even heard of. It first appeared on the Mega CD, was completely overhauled a few years later on the PS1, then was ported to the GBA, and now here it is again on the PSP. It is a great game, but I've already played the PS1 version. I am tempted to buy the Limited Edition version... but should I really be replaying an old game (albeit with new graphics and sound) when I still have a ton of unplayed stuff I already own?
Infinite Space - DS - 16/03/10
Infinite Space sounds really intriguing - "control, build, and customise more than 150 spaceships"... "over 200 characters and the ability to control multiple spaceships at any time"... definitely one to watch and a nice change from all of the fantasy/manga inspired RPGs that populate the DS library.
There are of course many more RPGs coming out during the year that aren't listed here - this is but a taste of what we have to look forward to over the coming months. For example we know that at some point there will be not one but two Dragon Quest games - the sixth installment and the final part of the Zenithia trilogy: Realms of Reverie, and the all new 9th game in the series: Defender of the Starry Sky. Then there's another game in the Tales series - Tales of Graces for the Wii which will hopefully be localised during 2010. We also get to revisit the wastleland in Fallout: New Vegas, with Obsidian handling the development duties this time. I personally can't wait for that one as I loved Fallout 3 (though I still need to catch up on all of the DLC that was released). No doubt there will be plenty of surprises throughout the year as well - one thing is for sure, RPG fans will have plenty to do this year!
Console RPGs
Final Fantasy XIII - PS3 and Xbox 360 - 09/03/10
Let's get the obvious one out the way first. The Square-Enix cash cow continues to squirt out Final Fantasy games, but of course this one is a proper numbered entry in the series and not one of the many spin off franchises. Opinion on the Japanese version suggests that it will be a fairly linear experience - even more so than most of the previous entries, but I'm not to bothered about that as long as it still delivers a good game.
Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening - PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 - 19/03/10
Most of us had barely had time to complete Dragon Age before Bioware announced that they were going to be releasing a full disc based expansion for the game. Several trailers have been released - one showing off some new adversaries called The Children, and two more featuring brand new characters called Anders and Velanna, so it seems that we won't just be getting more of the same, but a properly expanded world.
Rune Factory Frontier - Wii - 26/03/10
The DS Harvest Moon spin off series gets transferred over to the Wii, complete with gorgeous visuals and a crapton of stuff to do. This game has been picking up awards from dedicated RPG sites such as rpgamer.com and rpgfan.com, and in a few months those of us in Europe get to find out what all the fuss is about.
Handheld RPGs
Might and Magic: Clash of Heroes - DS - 12/02/10
I've been hearing great things about this puzzle/RPG handheld, and it's good to see that it is getting a European release. You control five different characters, each with their own powers and playing style - should be hours of addictive fun for fans of the series and those who have never touched a Might and Magic game before.
Half Minute Hero - PSP - 19/02/10
An RPG with a twist - you're only given 30 seconds to find and defeat the boss! To get around this rather harsh time limit, you can pay a time fairy to reset the clock - but each time you do so it will get more expensive. All of the usual things that you have to do in normal RPGs apply here - you must level up, buy better equipment, acquire new characters for your party, journey through dungeons and of course defeat the evil overlord - all while adhering to the 30 second rule. There's a demo available on the PSN store so I recommend that PSP owners go and check the game out!
Avalon Code - DS - 12/03/10
This is the latest RPG from Matrix Software, the team that worked on the DS remakes of Final Fantasy III, IV as well as Nostalgia. The big twist with this one appears to be the ability to rewrite the stats of your weapons and enemies, as well as the rules of battle.
Pokemon: HeartGold and SoulSilver - DS - 26/03/10
Arguably the best games in the entire Pokemon saga - Gold and Silver, get remade for the DS, boasting improved graphics, extra content and more surprises. The game will come with a Pokewalker - which is basically a pedometer that levels up a pokemon of your choice as you wander around. I've yet to catch the Pokemon bug, but I'm willing to give it another try.
Import Games (currently no European release date announced)
Lunar: Silver Star Harmony - PSP - 02/03/10
Lunar is one of the most remade games that a lot of people won't have even heard of. It first appeared on the Mega CD, was completely overhauled a few years later on the PS1, then was ported to the GBA, and now here it is again on the PSP. It is a great game, but I've already played the PS1 version. I am tempted to buy the Limited Edition version... but should I really be replaying an old game (albeit with new graphics and sound) when I still have a ton of unplayed stuff I already own?
Infinite Space - DS - 16/03/10
Infinite Space sounds really intriguing - "control, build, and customise more than 150 spaceships"... "over 200 characters and the ability to control multiple spaceships at any time"... definitely one to watch and a nice change from all of the fantasy/manga inspired RPGs that populate the DS library.
There are of course many more RPGs coming out during the year that aren't listed here - this is but a taste of what we have to look forward to over the coming months. For example we know that at some point there will be not one but two Dragon Quest games - the sixth installment and the final part of the Zenithia trilogy: Realms of Reverie, and the all new 9th game in the series: Defender of the Starry Sky. Then there's another game in the Tales series - Tales of Graces for the Wii which will hopefully be localised during 2010. We also get to revisit the wastleland in Fallout: New Vegas, with Obsidian handling the development duties this time. I personally can't wait for that one as I loved Fallout 3 (though I still need to catch up on all of the DLC that was released). No doubt there will be plenty of surprises throughout the year as well - one thing is for sure, RPG fans will have plenty to do this year!
Monday, January 25, 2010
Game store numpties: a rant
While I was in town doing my weekly food shop yesterday, I decided to pop into my local branch of GAME on the off chance that they may have a copy of Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions for the PSP. This is a game that I've been meaning to pick up for some time. I do own an imported Greatest Hits version of the PS1 original, but it has a shocking translation, and the PSP has all new CG cut scenes and other extra content.
Anyway, I managed to find one in the pre owned section for £10, which I thought was very reasonable, so I went to pay for it. After about 2 minutes of searching I was then told by the member of staff serving me that they couldn't find the game and therefore couldn't sell it to me. Was I interested in anything else? Um, no, just the game I went in for in the first place. Now there aren't exactly hundreds of PSP games on sale in GAME these days so it wouldn't have taken an incredibly long time to thumb through the whole draw of games to see if it was in the wrong place, but that was obviously too difficult.
This isn't the first time I have had problems with GAME. They've been unable to find the game I have tried to purchase on several occasions before this one, and back on Boxing Day they put a copy of the first Marvel Ultimate Alliance in the box instead of the sequel. Every time something like this happens I wonder why I bother to give them my money (or try to) at all. If it weren't for the fact that I have a gift card and some credit on my reward card I definitely wouldn't be buying Mass Effect 2 from them next weekend, but as it will save me half of the cost of the game it will be silly not to in this case. After that however, I think I shall be sticking to Gamestation until they disappoint me as well, then I guess I shall look exclusively to the Internet to purchase my games.
Anyway, I managed to find one in the pre owned section for £10, which I thought was very reasonable, so I went to pay for it. After about 2 minutes of searching I was then told by the member of staff serving me that they couldn't find the game and therefore couldn't sell it to me. Was I interested in anything else? Um, no, just the game I went in for in the first place. Now there aren't exactly hundreds of PSP games on sale in GAME these days so it wouldn't have taken an incredibly long time to thumb through the whole draw of games to see if it was in the wrong place, but that was obviously too difficult.
This isn't the first time I have had problems with GAME. They've been unable to find the game I have tried to purchase on several occasions before this one, and back on Boxing Day they put a copy of the first Marvel Ultimate Alliance in the box instead of the sequel. Every time something like this happens I wonder why I bother to give them my money (or try to) at all. If it weren't for the fact that I have a gift card and some credit on my reward card I definitely wouldn't be buying Mass Effect 2 from them next weekend, but as it will save me half of the cost of the game it will be silly not to in this case. After that however, I think I shall be sticking to Gamestation until they disappoint me as well, then I guess I shall look exclusively to the Internet to purchase my games.
Thursday, January 07, 2010
What I got for Christmas and plans for this ol' blog
Happy new year to everyone who reads this!
I continued my tradition of taking a long time off over the Christmas period, with 18 days off including weekends and bank holidays. Even though I was off work for such a long time, I still had plenty to do. First off was my birthday on the 21st of December, where I received copies of Star Trek, Terminator Salvation and Inglourious Basterds. As for games, I received Sonic Adventure DX for the Gamecube, a £15 gift card for iTunes which was mostly spent on games, and I also bought Need for Speed Shift (Xbox 360) and Batman: Arkham Asylum (PS3) with £50 I was given.
Christmas day began with me unwrapping another couple of Gamecube games - The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and Return of the King. Then, later in day I also received Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince on Blu Ray and £200 from my dad. Now, as there's no gadgets that I especially want at this moment in time, I went out on Boxing Day and spent it on games. Here's the full run down of what I bought: Forza Motorsport 3 Limited Edition, Assassin's Creed II, Halo 3: ODST Special Edition (with controller), Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2, Red Faction Guerrilla and Far Cry 2 (all Xbox 360), inFAMOUS (PS3) and a Blu Ray remote for the PS3.
I'm now working my way through all these games, in particular Forza Motorsport 3. Hopefully I will manage to get reviews posted for most of them over the next few months. My new years resolution is to put up at least one post a week (more if I can manage it), include more retro coverage and also more of this type of diary style post, rather than wall to wall reviews like it has been recently. The first few posts will likely include reviews of Torchlight and Dragon Age: Origins, and my top 5 games and films of 2009.
In other news, I have signed up as a driver with RCOM (the Racing Charity for Online Motorsports) and created my own Forza Motorsport 3 team - RMG (Retro Modern Gaming, in honour of the blog). My first race, assuming I manage to sign up on Sunday before all the places are filled, is an endurance race - 1 hour of Sunset Peninsula Raceway (Full Circuit). I am quite nervous but the field should be made up of rookies like me so maybe I'll be alright. I have just put together the livery for the team, which you can see below.
I continued my tradition of taking a long time off over the Christmas period, with 18 days off including weekends and bank holidays. Even though I was off work for such a long time, I still had plenty to do. First off was my birthday on the 21st of December, where I received copies of Star Trek, Terminator Salvation and Inglourious Basterds. As for games, I received Sonic Adventure DX for the Gamecube, a £15 gift card for iTunes which was mostly spent on games, and I also bought Need for Speed Shift (Xbox 360) and Batman: Arkham Asylum (PS3) with £50 I was given.
Christmas day began with me unwrapping another couple of Gamecube games - The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and Return of the King. Then, later in day I also received Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince on Blu Ray and £200 from my dad. Now, as there's no gadgets that I especially want at this moment in time, I went out on Boxing Day and spent it on games. Here's the full run down of what I bought: Forza Motorsport 3 Limited Edition, Assassin's Creed II, Halo 3: ODST Special Edition (with controller), Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2, Red Faction Guerrilla and Far Cry 2 (all Xbox 360), inFAMOUS (PS3) and a Blu Ray remote for the PS3.
I'm now working my way through all these games, in particular Forza Motorsport 3. Hopefully I will manage to get reviews posted for most of them over the next few months. My new years resolution is to put up at least one post a week (more if I can manage it), include more retro coverage and also more of this type of diary style post, rather than wall to wall reviews like it has been recently. The first few posts will likely include reviews of Torchlight and Dragon Age: Origins, and my top 5 games and films of 2009.
In other news, I have signed up as a driver with RCOM (the Racing Charity for Online Motorsports) and created my own Forza Motorsport 3 team - RMG (Retro Modern Gaming, in honour of the blog). My first race, assuming I manage to sign up on Sunday before all the places are filled, is an endurance race - 1 hour of Sunset Peninsula Raceway (Full Circuit). I am quite nervous but the field should be made up of rookies like me so maybe I'll be alright. I have just put together the livery for the team, which you can see below.
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Wibblefish's Backloggery
Hi All, my holiday is now over (boo) and I'm about to start updating the blog again regularly (yay!). Over the next week or two I will be rebranding the "Top 100 Games of the Last Generation" feature as The Vault, as it is not really working for me in it's current format. Having to come up with 100 games puts me under quite a lot of pressure, and at the rate we've been going it would take an eternity to get there. This way I can add something to The Vault as and when I think of them or discover them.
I would like to highlight a very cool site that I stumbled on during my time off, The Backloggery. It is designed to let you enter you gaming collection, keep track of what you have beaten or completed 100%, tell others what you're playing at the moment, and can suggest a game from your collection to play with the Fortune Cookie feature. I have entered all of my games, which took just over week, and I have only beaten 24% of them! It has actually motivated me to try and finish the games I have partially played through and dig out older titles that have remained untouched. During my time off I have managed to complete Kingdom Hearts 2 (review soon) and have taken a character all the way to the level cap in Guild Wars: Factions. You can check out my backlog here, and I recommend setting one up yourself if you have a lot of games!
I would like to highlight a very cool site that I stumbled on during my time off, The Backloggery. It is designed to let you enter you gaming collection, keep track of what you have beaten or completed 100%, tell others what you're playing at the moment, and can suggest a game from your collection to play with the Fortune Cookie feature. I have entered all of my games, which took just over week, and I have only beaten 24% of them! It has actually motivated me to try and finish the games I have partially played through and dig out older titles that have remained untouched. During my time off I have managed to complete Kingdom Hearts 2 (review soon) and have taken a character all the way to the level cap in Guild Wars: Factions. You can check out my backlog here, and I recommend setting one up yourself if you have a lot of games!
Friday, April 24, 2009
Pinball Passions
I promised last week that there would be a new pinball article written by my brother, and here it is, slightly later than expected. From here on in until the end of the article, everything you read was written by Kevyn rather than myself apart from a few editorial comments.
Whitewater is a very good looking table and consistently ranks as one of the best, but we just couldn't get on with it.
I never was very good at the arcade games in the 80's but I always enjoyed pinball. Didn't read the rules about amassing scores, I just enjoyed the game as a whole. We used to go to a Pontins in Brean Sands (situated in the west of England - Ed) annually - they always had a selection of tables there and I used to enjoy shovelling pounds into them for the weekend. The tables which stand out my memory are Star Trek: The Next Generation (ST:TNG), Hook, Whitewater and Dr Who. Then times moved on, the holiday stopped and the opportunity to play pinball didn't come up.
Then two years ago my brother heard a podcast about restoring and owning pinballs (Suburubrat's Hardware Flashback segment on Retro Gaming Radio) as he has always been passionate about gaming they are a natural spin off from arcades. At this point life for me had moved on, the kids were out of nappies and disposable income was increasing. Another interest of mine, classic American cars had run its course and so the big yank tank in the garage was sold. At that point Dave suggested, possibly in jest, that a pin would be good. "What a good idea" I thought and within a week a table local to me had been sourced and was installed in the garage where the car had stood.
I hadn't researched anything about pinball at this point and knew nothing of the IPDB, the UK Pinball Group forum or the various places which deal in pinballs. Subsequently the first table was not the best to be had, namely Hurricane, but wasn't in a poor condition and the served to start the interest. It wasn't long before a second table was sourced via eBay and so two were now in the garage. This one was Star Trek 25th Anniversary which was a much better game and by now I was studying the rule sheet to score multiple jackpots etc. Then I recalled the holidays and looked into some of the games I remembered. I subsequently found Hook nearby and that too came home. Now we had three tables which wasn't really the idea so Dave took ownership of Hurricane to keep the house harmonious.
By now it had become necessary to learn how to maintain these things as all the tables had developed niggly little faults, but in truth these are mainly failed switches, poor contacts or broken wires, all of which really only needed a basic meter and a soldering iron (board faults would come later). Then the annual Pinball Show for 2007 was upon us and so I travelled up to Kettering to spend an entire day playing pinball non-stop. What an absolute belter of a day too, thoroughly recommended, and never has 9 hours disappeared so quickly. It was here that I a very reasonably priced ST:TNG was found and that too made its way to the garage. Again three tables could not be kept and so Hook draw the short straw and was sold on. I wasn't tired of the game and wouldn't mind one again. The situation remained static then until just after Christmas when in January 2008 I felt the need for a new table and so sourced a Jurrasic Park (JP) through the UK Pinball Group. This was in fact a decision that would have much deeper repercussions that I realised at the time.
Through the art of gentle persuasion three tables were now accepted as the norm ad so all of them held residence in the garage, but it was cold and damp out there especially in February, so a seed of an idea was sown. The guy who had sold me JP had a superb log cabin to house all of his tables in. In our garden we had an unused greenhouse and a rotting shed, so I suggested we clear out the area and get a log cabin. Ideal, I enthused, for the kids to play in, as a workshop for my various projects and as a games room. And so in March 08 the cabin was erected and the tables took up residence there. Dave had also spoken about a MAME cabinet and had played various emulators on the PC, so I sourced one on eBay and set that up too. This has provided many hours of enjoyment with the kids playing some all time classics like Space Invaders, Galaxian, Bubble Bobble, Joust, Dig Dug, Robotron etc.
The log cabin in a fairly early iteration with the JP and ST:TNG tables along with the MAME cab.
I had grown tired of ST 25th by then so that was moved on and a Whitewater took its place. Now this might be rated as one of the best tables around by some but I couldn't get on with it at all and within 6 weeks it had been replaced by a Tales of the Arabian Nights (TOTAN). The ST:TNG had also quickly lost its appeal and that moved on in June 08 for a Stern Lord of the Rings (LOTR). Now that was a very good table to play, lots of missions, lots of shots, lots of samples, so much so that I re watched the movie trilogy.
Things stayed constant then until February 2009 when the LOTR went at a good price and enabled me to get two more table in its place - Creature from the Black Lagoon (CFTBL) which was in a really poor condition and needed completely stripping, cleaning and re rubbering to get to a good table, and High Speed 2: The Getaway (HS2) which is simply awesome due to its speed. The super charger is also a very cool toy. And so there were are at the moment, 4 tables: JP, TOTAN, CFTBL, and HS2 plus a MAME cab. Along the way lots of different repairs have had to be undertaken in order to keep playing and keep costs down but there is a good degree of self satisfaction in carrying out the repairs. I have also had great fun playing them and met a very good bunch in the group who offer advice and keep the spirit of pinball when and truly alive. For the future JP may well go this year as it has been here for nearly 18 months now which is quite and achievement, and possibly CFTBL depending on what can be found to replace it.
The log cabin in its current set up.
Many thanks to Kevyn for taking the time to put this article together. We will hopefully have some more pinball table reviews in the future, and we also plan to attend the Monster Meet organised by Pinballers Anonymous which is taking place again soon.
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
You should check out: Co-Op
I have a new pinball article coming very soon thanks to my brother Kevyn - it should be posted some time this week. In the meantime, I recommend that you watch Co-Op if you don't already - it's a great weekly video podcast which features a lot of past and current 1up.com staff discussing the latest and greatest video games - from the big releases to the smaller independent games. You can find the latest episode here.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
GP2X: The Return
My GP2X has unfortunately been out of action for quite some time because my rechargeable batteries gave up the ghost, but I have just ordered a number of items that will restore it to its former glory and allow me to continue to enjoy retro classics and innovative homebrew games on the move. These include, new batteries, a new ultra fast charger, an 8GB SDHC card and reader to allow me to use it.
I really like the look of the GP2X Wiz which was released towards the end of last year, in particular the built in battery pack (having to rely on AA's is such a pain), but unfortunately I can't afford it just at the moment. There is a chance that I might get the Nintendo DSi later in the year though, as I have some HMV vouchers coming my way from work for completing 10 years service. I am intrigued about the gameplay possibilities that the two built in cameras and the new DSiWare service have to offer.
My PSP isn't being left out either, as I have been playing Star Ocean: The First Departure on the bus to and from work for several weeks now. It's a great classic style JRPG which has been lovingly remastered with new graphics, an English script and decent voice acting. What's more the load times are mercifully brief, which is one key area where the PSP usually suffers thanks to its reliance on disk based technology rather than cartridges. Expect a fully comprehensive review when I manage to complete it.
I really like the look of the GP2X Wiz which was released towards the end of last year, in particular the built in battery pack (having to rely on AA's is such a pain), but unfortunately I can't afford it just at the moment. There is a chance that I might get the Nintendo DSi later in the year though, as I have some HMV vouchers coming my way from work for completing 10 years service. I am intrigued about the gameplay possibilities that the two built in cameras and the new DSiWare service have to offer.
My PSP isn't being left out either, as I have been playing Star Ocean: The First Departure on the bus to and from work for several weeks now. It's a great classic style JRPG which has been lovingly remastered with new graphics, an English script and decent voice acting. What's more the load times are mercifully brief, which is one key area where the PSP usually suffers thanks to its reliance on disk based technology rather than cartridges. Expect a fully comprehensive review when I manage to complete it.
Friday, January 23, 2009
2009: My Plans
Today I would like to share with you my plans for this humble blog in the year ahead:
More in depth reviews
Including (but by no means limited to): Fable II, Fallout 3, Wild Arms 5, Valkyria Chronicles and Persona 3.
New "capsule" reviews
In order to cover more games, briefer reviews which give a general overview of what I thought of a game without going into the minutiae of the different categories will be introduced. Games that are reviewed in this way will normally be the lower profile releases.
The continuation of the "100 games from the last generation" feature
I'll be back soon with another batch of classic games from the Gamecube, Xbox, PlayStation 2 and Dreamcast.
Flash Flood
With sites like http://www.kongregate.com/ out there, Flash games have never been so prevalent and there are many excellent releases out there. In this new semi regular feature, I will throw a spotlight on some of the best of them.
Homebrew/Remake/Free game news and reviews
As well as full retail releases I would like to focus some more on games that have been put together for very little or no money, usually because the creator just loves making games. One of the first games I will be covering is the amazing Broken Sword 2.5 - a whole new entry in the series which is completely free to download, and made by a talented group of German fans.
Off topic reviews
I will occasionally deviate from the games coverage to write about a particular film, book or graphic novel that I have enjoyed.
All of this will kick off with the Fable II review soon. I have just recently completed the main storyline and the Knothole Island quests, so the experience is still fresh in my mind. I would have completed the game back in December, except my Xbox 360 crashed and my save file was corrupted, which meant I had to restart from the beginning.
More in depth reviews
Including (but by no means limited to): Fable II, Fallout 3, Wild Arms 5, Valkyria Chronicles and Persona 3.
New "capsule" reviews
In order to cover more games, briefer reviews which give a general overview of what I thought of a game without going into the minutiae of the different categories will be introduced. Games that are reviewed in this way will normally be the lower profile releases.
The continuation of the "100 games from the last generation" feature
I'll be back soon with another batch of classic games from the Gamecube, Xbox, PlayStation 2 and Dreamcast.
Flash Flood
With sites like http://www.kongregate.com/ out there, Flash games have never been so prevalent and there are many excellent releases out there. In this new semi regular feature, I will throw a spotlight on some of the best of them.
Homebrew/Remake/Free game news and reviews
As well as full retail releases I would like to focus some more on games that have been put together for very little or no money, usually because the creator just loves making games. One of the first games I will be covering is the amazing Broken Sword 2.5 - a whole new entry in the series which is completely free to download, and made by a talented group of German fans.
Off topic reviews
I will occasionally deviate from the games coverage to write about a particular film, book or graphic novel that I have enjoyed.
All of this will kick off with the Fable II review soon. I have just recently completed the main storyline and the Knothole Island quests, so the experience is still fresh in my mind. I would have completed the game back in December, except my Xbox 360 crashed and my save file was corrupted, which meant I had to restart from the beginning.
Monday, September 22, 2008
Steambot Chronicles is awesome!
I plan to post a full review of the game once I'm done with it, but I just had to say that I'm now about 15 hours into the game and loving it. The handling of the trotmobiles can take some getting used to and there's some pretty tough battles from time to time but for the most part it's a very relaxing sandbox adventure with lots of things to do and see. Imagine GTA with all the controversial content taken out, done in a Japanese anime style. Music is a big part of the game and you can join a band and play about half a dozen different instruments, each with their own unique rhythm action minigame. You can also dig for fossils, enter arena battles, transport goods from city to city, act as a taxi for people, become a pool hustler and more. For me the best part of the game has to be the moral decisions you make, in a similar way to a Bioware RPG. Will you be the hero, always helping out everyone, or will you look after number 1, join with one of the criminal factions and just generally become an evil bastard? It's up to you. At the moment I'm playing the nice guy, but I plan to replay the game as a villain afterwards.
A sequel is in the works for the PS3 and as you can see from the following trailer, it looks really good! I hope it gets a PAL release this time.
A sequel is in the works for the PS3 and as you can see from the following trailer, it looks really good! I hope it gets a PAL release this time.
Speaking of Bioware RPG's and games with Chronicles in the title, their Sonic game is finally upon us and it got a pretty good review in the UK's Official Nintendo magazine. You should always take their reviews with a pinch of salt though as they tend to over rate things fairly often, so I will wait before I've played it to decide for myself.
I'm aware that things are going a little slowly with the 100 games of the last generation feature and at this rate it will take years to finish it, so I'm going to accelerate things soon and post a new entry every day for five consecutive days. Then I will probably take a short breather, post a review of another game and then do another five. Also, the festive season is creeping up on us so it will soon be time for me to do another Christmas Gaming Gift Guide!
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