August 2011
1 post
3 tags
Demon's Souls : PS3
Sometimes you are led to a game because of something you read, and Demon’s Souls was one such game. It came with the general recommendation that it’s pretty much the hardest and least forgiving game of the current generation and I dove into that headfirst with glee.
Demon’s Souls is an RPG. I’ll start with that. It starts off brutally hard, with no instruction and little...
July 2011
2 posts
3 tags
Swords and Soldiers : PS3
Sometimes at two in the morning, I find myself with slightly bleary eyes looking through the Playstation Store and downloading demos. Sometimes at three in the morning, I find myself having enjoyed the demo enough to pay for the real game and one time, that led to my playing Swords and Soldiers.
Swords and Soldiers is a real time side scrolling strategy game. Yup, that old chestnut. This amusing...
3 tags
inFamous 2 : PS3
From the outset, I think it’s important to say that I loved my infamous-playing experience. With the first game, I found something which impressed me with its plot and drew me in with its gameplay to mean that I was enjoying the (if I’m objective and honest) repetitive trawl to get all the collectables. I completed inFamous with a 90% trophy set and was very pleased with the result. I...
June 2011
5 posts
4 tags
Portal 2 : PS3
First off, I have to admit that I didn’t play Portal (the first one) through to the end. I’ve had the ending all explained to me, but I got stuck for a while on a puzzle and I stopped playing and never went back. Part of that is because I was playing with the whole mouse/keyboard control thing going on and too much console goodness over the past few years means I hate (with a passion)...
3 tags
L.A. Noire : PS3
WARNING: This post contains plot spoilers and a generally negative tone. If you don’t like either of these things, then stay away!
So, L.A. Noire, one of the most anticipated and hyped games of the year. I was eager to get this as something a little different and I found myself being passed a copy because its original owner didn’t like it. ‘Didn’t like it?’ I thought...
So Much To Review!
I’ve been burning through games recently and a long disconnection from the internet has meant I haven’t sat down to review them. Expect to see them over the next week or so and here (as much for my memory as anything else) is a list of what I’ve completed (or will soon complete) that I need to review:
Solomon’s Boneyard : iOS
Swords and Sorcery : PS3
inFamous...
3 tags
Mortal Kombat : PS3
Test your might!
When the original Mortal Kombat found its way onto the MegaDrive, myself and a group of friends played it to death, favouring Sub Zero and Scorpion over the more mundane other characters. A little while later and the local burger place got a Mortal Kombat 2 machine and plenty of 20p pieces (and £1s…) went into mastering Kitana in my own way. Then Mortal Kombat kind of went...
2 tags
Vanquish : PS3
I first played Vanquish on someone else’s PS3 - something I don’t often like to do as it means I can’t settle in properly, and was immediately hooked. I’d tried desperately to get into Gears of War on the XBox and then suddenly here was a game in the very same vein which felt massively superior in every way. I sat like a stereotype teenager in darkness for a couple of days,...
May 2011
2 posts
2 tags
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves : PS3
There was some definite anticipation as I loaded up Uncharted 2. Not only had I loved the first game, but I’d also seen that the sequel had managed to gather more awards and perfect score reviews than should be possible; one French magazine even pushed the boat out and gave it 21 out of 20: that’s some hype. Coming off the back of an amazing gaming experience with Mass Effect 2, I...
3 tags
Mass Effect 2 : XBox 360
I want to start this review with something negative to say about Mass Effect 2, because I want to get it out of the way: the levelling up system and character progression in Mass Effect 2 is not as good, nor as much fun, as the similar system in Mass Effect. I’ll let that settle in a bit and allow myself a breath because I said something bad about the game and now I’ll move on because,...
April 2011
5 posts
3 tags
Mass Effect : XBox 360
I first played Mass Effect a year and a half ago. I played for about two hours, found the combat frustratingly difficult and gave up, much to the surprise of one of my friends who assured me I’d love it. A year and a half later, and I’ve played a lot more games where shooting a gun from a third-person viewpoint is the norm and my skill at such has greatly improved and so I decided to...
On The Go...
Finishing inFamous at 90% makes me proud, but I still want to go back and get the last few bits to 100% it. It’ll be the first time I’ve gotten a platinum trophy and given the amount I play, I should do that at least once.
Still, it’s time for a break from the game and on to something else, which leads me to the list of games to look at next:
Uncharted 2 : PS3
The chances...
2 tags
inFamous : PS3
Following my ‘completion’ rules, I could have written this review for inFamous ten days ago when I watched the credits run for the first time. I’d just completed it on good and was sitting back smiling about how clever the storyline was, and I decided that I wanted to play it all again, on evil, set to hard because there was every chance that I could get 100% of the trophies for...
2 tags
Solomon's Keep : iOS
Games for iOS keep coming and coming but every now and then one pops onto your radar and is a little gem. So it was for me and Solomon’s Keep. It’s a simple game where you play a little wizard who wanders around a tower using his magic to destroy a bunch ton of skeletons, collecting gold and levelling up on the way. There’s not much to say about the format, it’s kind of...
4 tags
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal...
It’s been almost a year since my Wii got some serious play time in, and back then it was a Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles game, so it’s quite interesting to see that the next game to really get the Wii going again was another FFCC game, this time Crystal Bearers which I’ve been after since I knew it was coming and haven’t found myself buying it until Saturday where it was...
March 2011
3 posts
1 tag
Uncharted: Drake's Fortune : PS3
It’s taken me far too long to get to play Uncharted. I was told a while back that this was ‘just like Prince of Persia’ and as soon as I started the game and began the running around the jungle jumping off things and climbing things, I too was ready to write my review as ‘this is just like Prince of Persia’. In fact, it’s so like playing the prince, that my...
2 tags
Dragon Age: Origins : PS3
Sitting down to write this review of Dragon Age: Origins, my mind is in turmoil over where to start or what to say because there are so many conflicting thoughts I have about this game. I literally just finished it and am sitting here utterly disappointed, and yet reminding myself that I just spent fifty hours enjoying myself with the game. So is it good or not?
I’ll start at the beginning....
1 tag
Dead Space 2 : PS3
I finally find myself sitting down to write about Dead Space 2 which I finished last week. Why has it taken so long? Well, I’ve been playing Dead Space 2 again and today I thought I’d go back to Dead Space 1 for a little bit and thus went my afternoon.
I don’t think I praised Dead Space 1 enough when I wrote about it. I kept comparing it to Aliens vs. Predator which at the time...
January 2011
4 posts
1 tag
Professor Layton and the Lost Future : DS
Ah Professor Layton, here we go again!
My disappointment about the second Layton game had thankfully faded somewhat by the time I put this into my DS. I made a promise to myself that I wouldn’t take a big break (i.e. longer than it takes to sleep) so that I didn’t have that disjointed feel I fell into during Pandora’s Box and it took a while before I felt I had the available...
1 tag
Star Wars: The Force Unleased : PS3
I’m going to start by saying that The Force Unleashed is a really really great game. It is fun, has an engaging storyline and really make you feel some of that Sith/Jedi power as you go through the levels. In fact, for 90% of the game it’s pretty much a perfect Star Wars game of this ilk (which is to say a run around and slash things / chuck them about with the force ilk of game). And...
A Christmas Haul
Well, I must say I did quite well for myself in computer-game-based Christmas presents this year, what with the day itself and then the quick run around the game shop sale with some Christmas money when we got back…
Mixing the new games in with the old, the next few months of play look something like this:
Gears of War - XBox 360
I started this, forgot about it, played Vanquish on someone...
1 tag
Words With Friends : iOS
When I sat down and started this blog all those months ago, I didn’t think for one minute that I’d find myself typing about playing scrabble on the iPod, but here we are. I recently inherited an iPod Touch and so have dived into the gaming possibilities on the device and although Words With Friends is where I’m going to start, it isn’t where I’m going to end, and now...
December 2010
3 posts
1 tag
Mini Ninjas : PS3
Ah, Mini Ninjas! This game has been part of my game playing experience for about a year or so, as we got it a long time ago and I’ve been dipping in and out every now and then. Something grabbed me in the last week and I played a few solid sessions and what do you know? It’s done! So what is Mini Ninjas and is it any good?
It’s hard to classify this game. It shares a lot with...
1 tag
Dead Space : PS3
Coming off the back of Aliens vs. Predator, I wanted to play something similarly dark and scary; a lot of people had told me that Dead Space was pretty much the scariest thing out there, so a few quid later and off I go. I’ll say it here so it’s nice and clear; Dead Space isn’t even close to as frightening as AvP. The problem is that the zombie-type alien nasties you fight in...
1 tag
Aliens vs. Predator : XBox 360
Well, here it is, the first XBox 360 game review and literally, after years of owning one, the first XBox 360 game I’ve completed. I just prefer the PS3, ah well.
I have AvP for the XBox because my lovely friend Laura was on the graphics team (her name comes up in the credits and everything) and she said the XBox version was slightly better and who am I to argue?
It was with some...
October 2010
4 posts
1 tag
Rooms - The Main Building : DS
When I first saw this game on the shop shelf, I took it down, looked at the back, thought ‘what junk’ and put it back, wondering why it was selling enough to put it in the charts. Some weeks after that, I saw a video of it on the Nintendo Channel and thought ‘ooh, that looks fun! I want that!’ and after mentioning it a few times to Jen, I found myself with a present of it a...
1 tag
Prince of Persia - The Sands of Time : PS2
After completing The Forgotten Sands, I ended up in a conversation about the game it takes so much from; 2003’s The Sands of Time. This was one of the Playstation 2 games which I felt was really top class so I was more than happy to go through and replay it, as I couldn’t remember the storyline and had never played the sequels (it’s part one of three) and wasn’t about to...
Games I'm In The Middle Of Playing
It’s been a while since I wrote an update on all the games that haven’t yet made it to the site, so to remind me, and make a few of you smile, here’s a list of games I am currently playing (that is to say, intend to get back to soon). In no particular order.
1 - Kingdom Hearts [PS2]
I promised Jen I’d complete this again because I refuse to talk Kingdom Hearts with her...
1 tag
Wizball : Amiga
I first played Wizball at least twenty years ago. It was one of ten games which came bundled with my Amiga when I got it, and I remember playing this and listening to Pink Floyd’s Momentary Lapse of Reason in my bedroom at home. Good times. Wizball was by far the best of the games bundle I got, but in my early days of gaming it was just that bit too hard for me and I never managed to...
September 2010
3 posts
1 tag
Ratchet and Clank - A Crack in Time : PS3
The end of my week of Ratchet and Clank then. I finished the third game after about twelve hours of play on Friday night, and I think an intense week of Ratchet and Clank playing was just about right. I’m not looking for more this week (and if I am, there’s plenty to go back and do in the vein of extras) but I am looking forward to new games on the horizon (or maybe going back to some...
1 tag
Ratchet and Clank - Quest for Booty : PS3
Twenty four hours after completing Tools of Destruction, I completed Quest for Booty. It’s described to you, the purchaser, with no uncertainty, that Quest for Booty is a short game (originally DLC) which bridges the gap between Tools and the next game A Crack in Time, so the length shouldn’t worry or surprise anyone. My only issue with it is that due to the pricing structure of the...
1 tag
Ratchet and Clank - Tools of Destruction : PS3
In the midst of a month which has seen me playing all sorts of games, three days ago I bought Ratchet and Clank: Tools of Destruction from one of the little local second hand shops for £6. Last night I finished it, and far from it being a comment about how short a game it is, it’s a comment on how absolutely brilliant a game it is. I’ve played bits of the first couple of R&C games...
August 2010
6 posts
Games That I'll Never Complete : Part 1
This started off as a way for me to put down my thoughts about games I’ve completed, but as time goes on, I’ve found myself wanting to talk a little more about games in general, or games I’ve not completed. This post is going to be the first of a few I plan to write about games which’ll never otherwise get mentioned - games I’ll never complete.
There are pretty much...
1 tag
Mushroom Wars : PS3
I still find buying games without boxes a bit of a negative experience. There’s no tangibility to it and, as someone who likes looking at a shelf with a long line of games on it, it feels as if you are not getting enough for your money - even if that money is only a fiver. Mushroom Wars is downloadable from the PS3 store and joins a growing list of such things; I can only hope that they...
1 tag
Prince of Persia - The Forgotten Sands : PS3
Prince of Persia holds a special place in my heart. If you’ve read my review of the other Prince of Persia game on the PS3 (which we’ll have to call Prince of Persia 2008 from now on), you’ll know that I simply love the fluidity of movement that the prince has. Joyfully, I was able to get the collector’s edition of the new Prince of Persia game and once I started playing I...
The Value of Games
I posted on Facebook recently that there were over a hundred current generation games on our shelves. As a collector, I’m quite proud of that fact, but there are people who look down on such an achievement and think that spending money on computer gaming to that level is a waste.
I’ve long battled against such an idea and came up with a way of viewing entertainment spending some time...
1 tag
Doctor Who - The Adventure Games [episodes one and...
This year, the BBC decided that alongside the usual series of Doctor Who, they’d have four episodes not as normal TV, but as adventure games. There’s some official word about the stories in the games being canon and treated as real episodes, so playing these games (if you are a Doctor Who fanboy, like me) becomes something of a ‘must’ rather than an option. Still, I’m...
1 tag
Dragon Quest IX : DS
Nintendo have been putting a lot of money into promoting Dragon Quest IX here in England. We’ve never had a Dragon Quest game come out here in its first run, and as a consequence, I’ve never played one before and wasn’t a hundred percent sure of what to expect. My mind had decided it was going to be like Final Fantasy (it is a JRPG after all) but not as good, but I was looking...
July 2010
1 post
3 tags
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles - My Life as a...
What a title! Those Square Enix boys never stop with the ridiculously long game naming. Ah well, let’s put that aside for a start. My Life as a Darklord is a WiiWare tower defence game that you can download for a few measly points (I think it works out at about a fiver, which is great). As it carries the FF moniker, it gets to delve into that universe for its graphics and its flavour and...
June 2010
2 posts
More Games
So a new second hand games shop opened up near us this week and we decided to take a look. A quick (i.e. two trips of at least 30 minutes each) whizz around produced some good stuff for very little cash; looks like we’ll be going back there.
The shelf is heaving from new things, and things yet to be completed. Having just played Little King’s Story for an hour and a bit (quite good...
1 tag
Flower, Sun and Rain : DS
Flower, Sun and Rain falls only slightly short of being a total masterpiece, and that’s sad because for so long it promises so much. Unfortunately, a little before the end it cascades into a chaos of crossing plots and unresolved storylines which prevent it from being the near perfect experience it should be.
Let me say now, there is little chance that FSR is everyone’s taste; this is...
April 2010
3 posts
2 tags
Final Fantasy XII - Revenant Wings : DS
You can’t suggest that the Final Fantasy games aren’t addictive. Revenant Wings had me like a drug; it’s one of the cool things about the DS that you can play the games anywhere - in the bath, in bed, on the toilet. Revenant Wings was one of those experiences which had me clocking up almost thirty hours of play inside of a week without more than a couple of sessions where I was...
Gaming Update
Games, games, games! Coming out of a solid month or so of nothing but Final Fantasy XIII, I’m in a real FF mood. I don’t think there is any other gaming series that is just so enticing, drawing you in for literally days and weeks at a time. I thought I’d take another stock of the gaming situation and pick what I want to concentrate on next.
Over the last couple of months,...
2 tags
Final Fantasy XIII : PS3
I have spent quite a lot of time wondering what to write for my Final Fantasy XIII review - not as much time as I have spent playing the game, that’s for sure, but a while nonetheless. I kept trying to compare it to other Final Fantasy games and debating in my own mind whether it was better or worse on various scores, and then I realised I was only comparing it to other Final Fantasy games,...
February 2010
1 post
1 tag
Wii Fit Plus : Wii
Those of you who followed my Pound-A-Day feed will know that I spent many hours in January playing Wii Fit Plus. I’m still doing so daily and, with 180 or so hours spent between the original Wii Fit and the Plus version, it now ranks up with the Final Fantasy games in terms of hours played. By the end of this year, I have little doubt that Wii Fit and Wii Fit Plus will be the game I have...
January 2010
10 posts
2 tags
Street Fighter IV : PS3
I thought I’d already reviewed this; seems I was wrong. Street Fighter IV is the absolute king among 2D fighting games (though some hardcore players may disagree), and the reasons are simple: everyone can play, you have to be really good to be good, and everyone has heard of it. This is a game that rubbish players can pick up and have a go at without feeling walked on, but has enough depth...
1 tag
Professor Layton and Pandora's Box : DS
After the pure brilliance that was the first Professor Layton game, I was looking forward to the sequel immensely. When Pandora’s Box did come out, however, we were in the midst of moving and consequently I only played about half of the game and then it went onto a shelf, waiting until the other day when I took it out to complete it. It held me for one more long session and then it was...
2 tags
House of the Dead: Overkill : Wii
Official Nintendo Magazine have been banging on about this game since it was first announced, and I love playing mindless light gun rails shooter type games ever since I first had a go at Virtua Cop (or even Duck Hunt!). I remember Jero and myself spending untold hours on Time Crisis on our playstation back in the day too… So, I started to make noise about getting this game and even went as...
2 tags
Circuit Defenders : Mac
Rounding off the recent spate of tower defence game reviews comes Circuit Defenders. This little game is written by a small independent company and comes in an iPhone/iPod Touch variant if you are that way inclined. I got into the game one evening when I was searching for decent tower defence games to play on my Mac. I find that flash-based ones are too short or simply don’t have the depth...
Games I Want!
I’ve been digging around looking at games that are either out now, or coming out soon that I want and rather than keeping a list somewhere on my computer that I’ll forget about, I thought I’d post it here! I’ve also looked into which system to get stuff on, so that I get the best experience once I take every factor into account. So here I go, each console’s games in...