Call Of Duty4:Modern Warfare

Well, it was somewhat inevitable wasn't it? In a household where COD4 is played online at every hour of the day by gaming ginger-ninja big Mart, I was eventually going to give in and be lured into the world of 'Soap McTavish' and Captain Price...

And after a week of non-gaming in Cyprus, I needed a big dose of videogame fun to satiate my needs... And so it was that Call Of Duty4 was the game I plunged into on my return from the Med's most beautiful of islands.



What can I say? This game is an essential 360 experience! The graphics are stunning, the environments brutally realistic and the gameplay sublime. I've never played a 'war-game' before, but I've loved it!



Of course, there is a certain moral dilemma in deriving pleasure from the horror of war. This is not the same as destroying the Locust Horde in Gears Of War. The game's main antagonists are Eastern Europeans and Arabs. You (of course) represent the 'forces of good' i.e. UK and the US of A. But in real life, their campaigns in the real world, largely impacting on civillians, are less than morally acceptable. Is this Western morality propoganda disguised as gaming?




Still, if you can put your moral high-ground on hold (and I managed to do just that) this game is a great piece of escapism. The ammo and weaponry are abundant and the health gauge forgiving. The auto-save system allows you to progress through the game with ease and I found myself completing all the missions in a few hours. Bonus!!! I love the games I have played on the 360 recently. Bioshock, Gears Of war and COD4:MW are all easily achieveable, not time consuming and represent a realistic proposition in terms of my available gaming window of opportunity. That is, I can play them in the snatches of time avilable to me in the Krishna household.


I've not forgotten the Wii during this time, however. I've been playing Umbrella Chronicles in my down time and I'm in love! I'm stuck on the final boss, but I play it every day in the hopes I can bring the game to it's conclusion! This game is indeed THE best gaming experience I've had since playing Bioshock back in January...



I've also enjoyed a little DS magic by playing Need For Speed Carbon: Own The Streets, Resident Evil DS and my new discovery, Brothers In Arms DS. Handheld gaming never felt so good! Here's some links!


Call Of Duty 4:Modern Warfare
Umbrella Chronicles
Brothers In Arms DS

Me and the Wii are friends again...

Well this is supposed to be the Wii-kly Sermons isn't it? I've shared my thoughts on the 360 (Bioshock and Gears Of War), the PS2 (God Of War) music and films this year, but have I mentioned the Wii? No...

You see me and the Wii fell out, around the time I got the Wii Zapper whilst it was great for playing Link's Crossbow Training (which even got Mrs. K hooked...) it was diabolical for playing Umbrella Chronicles... Using the Zapper made shooting and QTEs very unrewarding, and thus progress was difficult. I stalled on the game, started playing the PS2 and then forgot about the Wii when the 360 entered the house...

Then I got down right cranky about Umbrella Chronicles, gave it a couple of re-tries and then decided I might even trade it in, and I hadn't even finished the second level.

Then I tried it co-op with my best friend, but then made the mistake of BOTH using the Zapper!

it was fun until we had to shake them about for a QTE and then that was it! They didn't respond, I 'spat my dummy' (an old English phrase meaning I spat out my pacifier in a tantrum) and that was it! Both the Wii and Umbrella Chronicles were finished for me! Harumph!

However, flushed with the success of beating Gears, I decided to give UC another try using the Wiimote and Nunchuck. TADA!!!! Revelation!!!! I've completed two levels and two sub-levels in two nights! As well as playing through the original Resident Evil level, I've unlocked two secret wesker levels that I kicked ass on as well.

Those of you who are aware of my gaming tendencies will know a few facts... I love Resident Evil. It makes me cry tears of rage at really difficult points. I'm a fickle bastard.

So now you'll be unsurprised to know I've come full circle and Umbrella Chronicles is now my new favourite game! the controls are just right, the unlockables and cut scenes fill in a lot of the blanks in the Umbrella Chronicles. The graphics are fabulous and one in the eye for anyone who says the Wii's capabilities are sub-par. I see them as good as Gears or Bioshock... (but then again aren't God Of War's???)

I won't offer any proper sort of review... many people have already done a better job (including J's excellent review.)

I'll just offer the usual screenshots and video, plus the following lovely links! I love you Nintendo Wii! I love you Umbrella Chronicles! I love you world!!!

Umbrella Chronicles Official Site

Umbrella Chronicles Wikipedia

Umbrella Chronicles IGN

Here We Go Again...

Bloody machines! No sooner do we get the laptop, than the sodding keyboard on the PC goes on the blink! Bastard! Still, there's always the XBox...

Oh yeah, I forgot! I just got to the bloody boss on the final chapter... Cue crying, gnashing of teeth and many, many swear words. Yep, I've played through the game (on casual I admit) without recoursing to a walkthrough, or getting my middle son, Marty, to play the hard parts for me.

Then all of a sudden I'm fucked! I've tried and tried to beat him, I really have, but he just keeps kicking my sorry ass. Oh Lord! Why God, why???

Now I don't want it to be too easy, like the final boss in Bioshock was, but then again, I'm ready to move on... Games to play, people to see, you know the score... So what do I do then? I either get pecked to death by Kryll or shot to pieces by Mr. Badass. Ho hum... Maybe I'll just leave it and start Call of Duty 4...

Father K's January "Wii Related Round Up..."

First of all, an apology to those of you who occasionally stop by the place... There's been very little to read of late... There are a number of reasons for this, however. Firstly, the old Wii has been somewhat eclipsed by the arrival of the 360 here in Krishna Towers, with Bioshock totally consuming all my gaming time of late... I've completed it now, and I have to say it has been one of the bestgaming experiences I have ever had... For a nice video review of this lovely game, look here...

The Wii has made a triumphant return of late however, with my first taste of playing Umbrella Chronicles co-op with a friend and two Wii zappers, and I have to say it's great fun! The only irksome thing about the experience would have to be that playing with the Zapper actually makes the game harder! How so? Two reasons really! Firstly is having to curl your finger around the Zapper to get to the 'A' button, vital for picking up herbs, first aid sprays, Umbrella memos and weapon upgrades... It feels awkward and uncomfortable while your other finger is on the trigger.

Secondly, shaking the Wiimote to fend off zombies that have you in their clutches, and also as a means of avoiding boss attacks and getting through QTE's is vital to progression in the game. But plug that Wiimote into the Zapper and it becomes impossible. The whole thing becomes very frustrating and led yesterday to me and my friend abandoning the game before we even reached the Spencer Mansion. Disappointing really...

Still, Link's Crossbow Training has shown how perfectly the Zapper can work as a Light Gun, and as this genre is one of my favourite in gaming, I'm not giving up on it just yet... With that thought in mind, it is wih some excitement that I look forward to the Wii's next two Light Gun offerings, Ghost Squad and House Of The Dead 2&3 Return (Please click on the titles to go to Sega's Official Sites for each game...)

Ghost Squad is a Confidential Mission style anti-terrorist shoot 'em up. Your mission is to save the world by blasting as many of the pesky so and so's as possible. And they rather obligingly throw themselves into your path, so you can blast away to your heart's content. The arcade perfect port looks very promising indeed!

House Of The Dead 2 & 3 Return is something of a lazy port, combining as it does HOTD2 (first seen on The Dreamcast) and HOTD3 (first appearing on the original Xbox.) No extra features, no graphically polished original HOTD (one of the Saturn's finest games, and the title which kicked off the franchise...) Is it worth your money then? Well yes and no... I won't be parting with any money for a full price purchase, I'll wait till the price comes down... And I won't allow myself to buy it until Umbrella Chronicles is well and truly completed. But as it's perhaps the greatest Light Gun game ever, I'll definitely be buying it at some point...

In fact it looks like 2008 is going to be a bit of a stellar year for the Wii with Street Fighter 4, No More Heroes, NiGHTs and even a sequel to the marvellous, (though much maligned) Red Steel. Watch this space!

Bioshock Trailer...

I'm literally stunned by this game... So much so that it's consuming me right now! It's putting my entire gaming life into a very 360 perspective!

And that's all I can say right now! I waited half of 2007 to procure the Wii and it's been massively eclipsed this week!

I even loaded up Shenmue II today and I'm just feeling so much Xbox love...