Friday, February 20, 2009

God Of Wargasm





After the sour taste left in my mouth after the latter stages of Fallout 3, I needed to revert to a video-gaming comfort zone. That was provided by the most excellent God of War, which I started back in the early part of December, then left hanging for two months.

For those of you familiar with the game, I was at the Pandora's Temple stage, so I still had a lot of the game to play. The game was just the tonic I needed and I soaked up every moment of this epic title. I have also completed GOW:Chains Of Olympus on PSP this year (in hospital), so I'm simmering with anticipation for GOW III on the PS3! I won't go into detail about what I liked about this game,it's nearly five years old, so hardly hot news, suffice to say EVERYTHING is brilliant and it's a truly satisfying gaming experience, better than any current gen game.

Finishing the game unlocks a plethora of hidden gems, including a 'making of' documentary which I watched with interest. What's truly great is being able to watch all of the video sequences in sucession like a mini film. The only problem is "what next?" - I'm thinking of the epic Headhunter on Dreamcast or PS2 (I have both versions...) I'll let you know!

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Class Ad

It seems as though we're lucky here in the UK at the moment. As well as the usual crap commercials which invade our televisual delectation, we have a couple of gems. the funny ey-brow chocolate commercial that I threw up the other day is one, and this my dears, is another one... Enjoy!

Monday, February 16, 2009

Decisive Move



Following the petulant tone of my last post, I've decided that firm action was required on my part...
This involved the trading in of both GTA IV and Fallout 3 (plus a few other pre-owned titles) at Blockbuster last night, meaning neither 'open-world' game can be dipped into again!


I then had to decide what I would pick up with my credit note... I was torn between two zombie blasting titles. (I often seem to revert to zombie blasting when I'm at a crossroads in my gaming life. Should I go for House Of The Dead Overkill on my much maligned Wii, or Left 4 Dead on my trusty Xbox?

I'd been bitterly disappointed by the last HOTD game I'd purchased, namely HOTD 2&3 Return for the Wii. It felt like a shoddy and cheap port, with no extras apart from some annoying bugs...



I'd got HOTDII for the Dreamcast, with a fully functional lightgun and HOTDIII for the PC. The Wii version brought nothing new to the table. Plus buying HOTD Overkill, almost necessitated me buying the new 'Magnum' Wii-mote housing/peripheral thang, meaning the whole package would have set me back nearly £50...



Left 4 Dead, my middle son 'reliably' informed me, was THE game to own this year. He'd been itching to get it since finishing Dead Space, and assured me and his two brothers, that if we bought a couple of Xbox controllers (setting me back £50), we could all play it as a 4 player co-op.

That swung it for me. I imagined us all sat round as a lovely family unit, blissfully zapping zombies whilst smiling and winking approvingly at one another. That bubble was soon burst as we got it home and realised that four player co-op meant two players in the house and two on-line... DOH!


That was a wasted purchase of two controllers then... Ho-fucking-hum! Still, the game is very satisfying if wasting fast paced zombies en-masse is your 'cup of tea'. I've enjoyed what I've seen so far, even though I've opted to play it in single player mode with the other three team members as CPU AI.

The graphics are reminiscent of the PS2, but it's well paced, camp as Christmas and has it's tongue firmly planted in it's cheek. The characters are cliche'd horror film fayre and so far ammunition and health boosts are abundant enough to stop the game from becoming a chore.


That is not to say that this is my 'new game', however, at the moment, I'm trying to decide between finishing God Of War I on the PS2 (which requires me sitiing in my son's bedroom to play...) Playing Shenmue or Headhunter on the Dreamcast (which means I'll suffer the derision of my sons for going over old ground...) or jumping straight into Gears Of War 2. Any advice my dear brothers?

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Falling Out With Fallout... Living In Purgatory





After nearly 100 hours of gameplay, the discovery of nearly a hundred locations as diverse as Megaton, Tenpenny Towers, The Republic Of Dave and Lamplight Caverns, such notable characters as Gob, Mayor McReady, Daring Dashwood and DJ Threedog, after bartering, trading, stealing and sneaking, creating weapons from vacuum cleaners and surgical tubing, slaughtering raiders, slavers, traders, deathclaws, rad-roaches, super-mutants, capitalists, federalists, anarchists and bomb-worshippers, not to mention the endless wandering, wandering, wandering and wandering...



...I am now officially sick to bloody death of Fallout 3! I have made the huge mistake of wandering into perhaps the biggest open-world game developed for a console, using no guide or walkthrough, playing "by ear" (as it were) and meandering through the most ridiculous route any gamer could ever take.



I've unintentionally avoided main missions whilst fulfilling nearly every bastard-side-fucking-cock-mission there is to engage in. Enough is enough! I've resorted to online maps, guides and walkthroughs. Eventually, I've been led to Vault 112 and the rather splendid Tranquility Lane simulation. I've met my pops and it looks like I'm on the path to conclusion and closure...

NEVER AGAIN!!! From now on it's strictly linear gaming, possibly using a walkthrough EVERY TIME. I might even only play 'on rails' games from now on... What is certain is that I'm going to choose my next game very carefully. Might go back a generation or two to the safety of the Dreamcast, PS2 or Saturn... Might stick to the PSP for a bit... But I will never, ever play anything as big as Fallout ever again. Life's too fucking short!

Friday, February 06, 2009

Resident Evil Retrospective (Gametrailers.com)

I discovered this on Caleb's excellent Hunyak Blog and immediately ripped it off so you guys could see it! Enjoy, but be sure to visit Hunyak too!

I'm Out Of Hospital!

With a big bag of drugs and a month to see how I get on before going back to work. So hopefully that will mean I can play and blog a bit. Let's all celebrate with this lovely video! Woot!