Blacksite Area 51

Well, it seems I've made something of a 'faux pas' in terms of my gaming choices, as I'm currently the above title. My good friend Funnyman, literally slapped himself in the face, he was so horrified!

As the title suggests, this is an alien based FPS, with a fairly flimsy backstory...

OK, what are my impressions? Well, I haven't found it too bad so far, and I have to say I like the mixture of driving and shooting... Alright, I'll admit that there are a lot of flaws. The graphics are sub-standard for a start... Umbrella Chronicles for the Wii and even games like God Of WarII and RE4 on the PS2 are far superior. There are some really jarring glitches, like guns floating in mid air once they've been discarded and an inconsistency in objects that break when shot.

But as it goes, I've played far worse. I'm wavering as to whether I should complete it now. I want to totally reorganise my games collection and trade a few titles in so I can buy No More Heroes for the Wii and Call Of Duty 4 for the DS...

So, we'll just see, I'm not abandoning it yet. What do you think dear friends, should I take dear Funnyman's advice and trade it in? It'll take me a while to sort out my games, which I might do over the weekend. So I'll hold fire for now and play through for another few days. I've got a bit of a reputation for enjoying games other's have panned... (Red Steel and Blue Stinger spring to mind...) As usual, here's some links!

Blacksite Area 51 Official Site

Blacksite@IGN

Blacksite@Wikipedia

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

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...