Bully: Scholarship Edition review

It's an interesting thing to see from a political point of view, Bully, because there was a kind of hysteria surrounding the game, when it first came out on PS2 and Xbox, about the name and the premise.  The name itself caused many parents of young gamers and politicians to attack Rockstar for glorifying bullying in schools (which it sort of does).  The game almost didn't make it into stores, something that Rockstar games are used to, but the name did change to "Canis Canem Edit", a latin phrase which means "Dog Eat Dog", and something that might have confused many fans and gamers alike.  While this was something that was almost unprecedented in the gaming world, the recent release of "Bully: Scholarship Edition" has had the original name, and cover, back.  Why is this?  I personally do not really mind either way, a game's a game but I reckon this is a very clever piece of marketing.  If they managed to release the ban on the name of the game, they probably thought that releasing a next generation version of the game with this original name meant that some gamers would not realise that they were, in fact, the same game!  Either that or people who missed it the first time would be fooled into thinking that this was a new game.  Whether this is the truth or whether Rockstar just wanted justice, I cannot judge but it seems to me that this one has slipped away unnoticed.

The game itself is reasonably good and there is a great childish element to it.  You fit into one of two camps.  You either say "To Hell With Rules!" and don't turn up to class, beat up everyone in sight and sneak into the girls dorms or you do what I do; turn up to class and try and do your best, only beat up those who are trying to beat you up and make sure you get to bed on time.  All the elements of a school are there and you can be whoever you want; apologising to bullies makes them leave you alone but your respect drops whereas if you take them on, you might win.  Equally, you could end up face down in a bin.  You gotta love school, eh?

The graphics have been improved for this version but not much as far as I can see.  Obviously it was never going to be as beautiful as a game crafted specifically for a next gen system but you can't help thinking that you're downgrading you console by playing this.  The character designs are perfect and you can really tell that Rockstar had a lot of fun making this.  You have a lot of stereotypes to play with;  the jocks, the nerds, the bullies, the prefects, they all look like they should.  Even the headmaster looks like my old headmaster.  The design of the world is also very good.  There are definite areas where only one paticular clique hangs out;  The library for the nerds, the gym for the jock, etc.  The school itself is massive, something I think they had to do to make this game more interesting.  The voice acting throughout the game is very good.  You get the nerds with the squeeky voices and the crazed voice of the science teacher ringing throughout the school halls.  its obvious that Rockstar got very excited with this theme and ran with it and thankfully, they ran in the right direction.  In terms of world design, this game can't be touched

Where the game lacks, I suppose, is in its missions.  It does too much of a job in some ways, of holding your hand through the missions.  This changes later on obviously but I felt frustrated at first with the slow tutorial sections.  The other thing is, and it is a big thing, this game really can't help but being compared to the Grand Theft Auto series and I do feel like I'm playing GTA's little brother.  Being in a school with no transport, no heavy arms and a slightly toned down plot doesn't really compare in a good way to having full roam of an entire city with only the law to answer to.  It seems funny to me that it seems like Rockstar have tried to make a GTA for kids but ended up making a game with a 15 certificate (most kids leave school at 16).

In any case, Bully isn't a bad game and it makes you think that you are playing a diluted version of Grand Theft Auto which is disappointing.  I would love to see a hardcore version of the series but, due to the nature of the game, this is very unlikely to happen. Bully makes the wait for GTA4 even more unbearable.

77%

Week in gaming

I've been playing a lot of Madden recently.  Might be the fact that it's the off-season or because I started playing for real again recently but I just can't put it down.  On Xbox live, it's particularly hard because all of the competition is American and especially good.  They know exactly what a dime package, cover one while blitzing the safety on the weak side means.  Having said that, I know what it means too but they don't just know what it means they know how and when to use it. meaning that they get pick-six after pick-six (apologies to everyone that has this going over their heads).  In other Madden news, I lost in the semi-finals of the playoffs.  Lost to the Rams.  I stupidly went for 2 points after scoring an equalizing Touchdown in the final minutes, only to have Brandon Jacobs get taken down on the 1 yard line.  Gutted!

N+ is an Xbox live Arcade version of the well renowned flash game N, a great platformer where you star as a futuristic ninja.  N+ takes the game to console and it's even better than the original.  There are far more levels that are even more inventive and the console controls work so much easier.

In Call of Duty 4, I'm on level 35.  I tend to play Free-for-all these days.  I like playing team-tactical but you have to be lucky not to get at least one complete cock!  I find that I can sometimes be on a complete roll and win free-for-all everytime and sometimes I come near to the bottom.  I usually use a sub-machine gun and martyrdom.

Apart from that, nothing much else is going on.

XNA

This is why I love Xbox. News broke at the GDC a week and a half ago that XNA, a developers kit for Xbox 360, was to be released onto Xbox Live as of that day. This means two things. One, for indie developers, there's a kit that allows them to develop games for the 360. This really is a first. Before, the only chance that a developer had at making a console games was to make a Flash game for PC and hope that somebody picked it up. Either that or spend a lot of cash on buying a less professional dev kit and making bad games that way. Now, there is a fully licenced kit and it's free.

Two, gamers can download these games at no cost. This means cheap, often innovative gaming made by some great unknown developers. There may well be some badly made tat out there but the standards are sure to be high. Indie developers often have some more innovative ideas too because it is ideas like this that gets their games discovered.

Already there are some great games to grab, and while they are only trial versions for now, it is still a great way to see what is to come. One of the games, Dishwasher, is one of the best 2D scrolling fighters I have ever seen. It is games like this and the fun puzzler, Jelly Car, that are going to make XNA a brilliant idea. After all, you can't argue with free games!

Nintendo makes me a better person?

Recently I went out and bought Brain Training again. I had it before, played it every day, then I was poor so I traded it for a different game (damn Game and their trade-ins!). I also bought the Sight Training with it. The two games are different but also very similar. They both work on this "age" system whereby the better you do, the younger your brain or eyes are. Sight training has some very repetitive games but also has some great sports games, such as volleyball which involves spiking the ball when it is in a certain highlighted area. It measures you on how many you successfully scored without getting blocked and also judges how close to the centre of the ball you were. This may seem like a bit of a tenuous link to training your sight but I'm sure it's doing something.

My Mum, who was given a DS for Christmas and has been playing Brain Training, More Brain Training and Sight Training since then, pointed something out. She had the first Brain Training for a while before she got More Brain Training and, for a little while at least, she had two different brain ages. One, on the first game, was reasonably low, in the twenties because she'd been playing for some time. The other, the More game, was high, in the Fifties. Surely this means that the games are not improving anything. If a person has an IQ of 150, they are not likely to get an IQ of 50 if they take a different test. A person should be able to achieve a similar IQ no matter what questions are in it. Brain Training obviously doesn't work in this way. It kind of takes away from the big picture, but Brain Training seems to measure how good you are at these particular games, not how intelligent you are.

Obviously, there are elements about these games that will make you better at certain activities in real life. There is no point denying that doing a little mental arithmetic everyday is going to make you quicker in general at adding, even if it's just counting your change at the Post Office. Some games do make me wonder what relevance this will have to my everyday life. I suppose it's not important in the long run.

Where the sight training really comes into it's own is with its descriptions of what you are training to achieve or what the games are used for; some games are for Hand-Eye-Co-ordination, some are for peripheral vision. I suppose the point is that you are given some explanation as to what this particular mini-game is doing to improve your sight.

The main difference between these games and most others is their style of play. Whereas some game could be played for 10 hours straight and when complete might never be played again, the training games are played for 15 minutes a day and technically never end. While the novelty soon wheres off, there is some guilt felt when you pick it up after a week of not playing and Dr Kawashima says "Long time no see!". There is a compulsion to play every day for fear of losing all intelligence.

All in all, the training games are a different style and have invited a new type of player to join the world of gaming, and that's never a bad thing.

Shift

Found this amazingly innovative flash platformer. Awesome references to Portal (ok, so i'm OBSESSED!!!). check it

GTA IV site opens

The new Grand Theft Auto game is due for release in the UK on 29th April and, I reckon, this is going to be the biggest release of all time. Halo 3 was big but it was a single platform game. With the joint PS3 and Xbox release, there is no way this already massively popular series can't make big news. For starters, the previous series made three fantastic games made even more popular by the contraversiality, especially in the final game, and the longevity of the overall exprience was something that assured the player would be hooked for quite some time. The sequel has been anticipted for a long time and not just because people have been waiting for the first next generation GTA game but also just because they have been waiting for a GTA game for quite some time!

So here it is, the official website. Ok, so it's not the biggest piece of news but it might provide, over the coming weeks, some exciting news and maybe some good reveals. Check it out!

Smash Bros. Brawl Videos

These are two parts of a video that show you all of the new characters and stages. Snake looks awesome!

This next video shows how the Smash Ball needs to be picked up before the Final Smash can be utilised.

This next video showcases some of the Assist Trophies.

My Word Coach DS Review

I bought this the other day for DS. It's pretty cool as far as that whole "brain training" genre goes. This one is focused on building your vocabulary and to some extent, it works. I'm learning new words everyday.

The game runs very much like Brain Training. The idea is that you play a few games every day and it measures your competance at the games in some sort of scale where you can try and reach the top. It fails on a few levels.

Firstly, there way of helping you to learn these new words is by telling you what their definition is. The problem is that Dictionary definitions are often hard to grasp. What they need to do is put the words in some sort of context too. This would certainly help get the gist of how to use the word rather than just knowing what it means. When I was growing up, hell, even now, I use words in the wrong way or the wrong context because I "kind-of" know what it means but don't quite get it right or say it in the wrong way. This is a process of learning. It's only after someone picks you up on this, corrects you, that you learn what's really going on.

Another problem is that the character recognition is a bit off. The way I do an E is apparently not accepted. There were similar, but not as frequent, problems on Brain Training. The good thing is that it gives you ample time to correct it if it gets it wrong. Some of the games aren't as smooth or as well designed as Brain Training and this is something that is quite important to get right. The games in Brain Training were not the best of fun but they suited a purpose whereas there are times with the Word Coach that you wonder why you are doing this. There are no games that require much speed as they all involve reading definitions of words; this is not necessarily a bad thing but I often feel like I should be doing the games at speed when that sometimes works against me.

All in all, it's not a bad game and I hope it fits the purpose of teaching me new words and improving my speaking and writing but I feel like if this game were actually made by the same developers as Brain Training, it would be better.

75%

Goomba Beanie

I Want

Half Life 2 Episode 2 Review

So, I got round to playing it finally and I have to say, I was very impressed. I think the problem with Episode 1 was that, being the first of these episodic releases, you never knew how long it was going to be. There had been plenty of hype around this which was almost over-shadowed by the release of the Orange Box, which also contained, new releases, Portal and Team Fortress 2. Did it add up to the hype?

The first thing that is remarkable about this game is the setting and that was obviously going to change due to the end of the last episode. You do not start in a forest straight away however, as the ending of Episode 1 may have led you to believe. This game starts, more or less, in an Antlion nest, a cavey sort of place but being armed with nothing but the gravity gun at first is not easy. There are a different type of antlion too, these prefer to attack you with some sort of spray from afar. Then you make your way to the forests where you are given a car, different from the buggy, which helps you cruise the landscape with ease. You end up at a missile silo which delivers much of the familiar urban combat we're used to.

Another great thing about this game is all the new stuff they've added in this game. The creatures you come across are mostly the same, especially the soldiers as there is no change here but the best new enemy is the Hunter. These are a bit like Striders only a bit smaller. They are just bigger than a man and this makes them quite dangerous because they can enter buildings. They are difficult to kill, will take up a lot of ammo and have two attacks; one being rapid-fired, it hits you and then explodes and the other is a charging tackle which sends flying into the air. You are able to run them over which is a relief to find out when you get the car. In terms of new weapons, there is the Magnusson Device. Not technically a weapon because you cannot select it in your inventory, the Magnusson Device is fired using the gravity gun to the underbelly of the Striders which it sticks to. These explode and blow the Strider up. These are dotted all around one particular part of the map where you are under attack from Striders and Hunters.

The gameplay parts are fantastic, it seems amazing how many new ideas keep coming from the same world and the same series. What Valve are best at is making sure the player knows where to go and what to look at without thinking that they are being guided through. This is done by using set-pieces in a fantastic way and by prompting players rather than forcing them. If a player wanted to give something else a go, they could but they'd probably fail and enjoy the game a little less because of it. The set battles are always fresh because the scenery differs enough for each battle to be different. Puzzles are always fun to accomplish because they are always different but always still conform to the logic of the universe you are in.It goes the same for character building. The characters are well established with great voice acting on every part. Particularly compelling in this episode was the voice of the Vortigaunt who leads you underground to save Alyx.


When it comes down to it, some people may say that this game is a little short (I completed it in one sitting) but the fun and excitement you get out of it is the kind that makes you go back and do it again. These episodes are designed to be short and contain more story. If they weren't so short then they'd take a lot longer for Valve to churn out and that is certainly something I don't want!

All in all, a great episode and I now cannot wait for Episode 3.

95%

Future gaming

Games I'm looking forward to in the future (this list may include games that are already out that I can't afford and will buy in the future) are Zack & Wiki, NFL Tour, Advance Wars: Days of Ruin, Smash Bros. Brawl and GTA4.

Zack & Wiki is already out and it's supposed to be a Monkey Island for the Wii. Any time anyone mentions Monkey Island when they are describing a game, I'm there, it's just something I can't help. Monkey Island is probably one of my favourite games of all time. The animation, the sarcastic humour, the puzzles, the piratey theme, the great characters, the great dialogue, it's all just brilliant. I think it was the best of all of those point-and-click adventures that were popular at the time. So Zack & Wiki is supposed to be the Monkey Island of today and it's got the Japanese cute look to it which I'm often not too fond of but what could go wrong. It's bound to have annoyingly squeaky voices and the reviews I've seen say that this is the only real problem with it.

NFL Tour is something I've written about previously, saying that I was looking forward to it. I was until I read the IGN review! Seems that they've really stripped the game down and not in a good way like I'd hoped and they've made the single player mode really boring with no collectibles or stat-ups or anything like that. This is disappointing. I'm still probably going to get it and have a go because the multiplayer is said to be quite good but it's probably not going to be the cracker I was hoping for.

Advance Wars: Days of Ruin is the next installment in this brilliant series. My only problem with the last game was that it was too much like the ones before it and that was especially annoying since it had moved up to the DS. This game promises a ot more, especially in terms of the story. The gameplay, especially the power-ups have differed, making it more fair and much more tactical. I really want to play it but being British, of course I have to wait!

Smash Bros. Brawl is looking immense as ever. The dojo is really giving away some neat ideas of what the game's going to be like. I especially like the part about the Shadow Moses stage that communicates to Snake how to defeat the characters. They have videos, check it out. The rest of the game looks good; great stages, characters, pick-ups and that. Controls look nice and there's all the old favourites such as the home-run game, trophies, taunts and such, I can't wait.

GTA4. What can I say? I need this game in my life. GTA4 is one of those universally fun games. Some people love the missions, some people love the cars, some people love the mindless killing! It will be released eventually and when it does I've no doubt it will be one of the biggest grossing games of all time!

So there you go! I want them all!

Life...

I've been playing a couple of games recently. One is Madden, which I have been playing a lot! It's one of those lazy things where I can't really be bothered to get up and change the disk, which is the ultimate in laziness but happens to me every day! I love the game, don't get me wrong, but I feel that it does get a little grating. I can't play the game online because the Americans are a hundred times better at it than I am. I would hope that the opposite would be true for something like Fifa because I am making a claim here that just because they are American means that they should be better at playing Madden. This generalisation might get me in trouble (with who I'm not sure) but fuck it! I think the thing about it is that you have to have a lot of experience to be good and I've only picked it up in the last few years. Is still enjoy the single-player and I think I'm getting better sometimes, then I go back online and get embarrassed!

The other game I've been playing is CoD4 which rarely gets old. The online is excellent although I don't really get the prestige mode. Surely this is just for elitists to boast about the special symbols next to their name but I would rather have a massive scope on my amazing gun! I end up playing team-tactical mode most times. There's something about the slow, calculated nature of search and destroy with only 6 players on the map that I love. And it seems to be the only mode which lets you play all of the game modes on a shuffle type setting. It had one but it disappeared! I suppose the best thing about CoD4 is that it's one of those games that you discover something new every now and again. Like discovering the joys of claymore mines for the first time or finding a new spot to hide that everyone goes past so you can blow their heads off without them knowing. I suppose the best thing is when you find yourself in a really evenly matched game with a couple of people who are really chatty and not complete dickheads!

I still haven't got round to playing HL2Ep2 which is a travesty I know. Having never played the Xbox version of HL2 before, I was intrigued to see what it played like so I started playing that with a view to moving on to Ep1 and then Ep2 after all that. I got bored, what can I say, I've played that game 6 times (I know, I'm sad!) and now I've run out of steam, no pun intended! I'm going to go back and play it because it is supposed to be really good installment. Are they going to release Ep3 on the Xbox. Is it going to be freestanding or is it going to be packaged in a different colour box, like turquoise?

Anyway, welcome to my gaming habits for the past few weeks!

100 hand controlled marios

This is a video of a hand controlled mario using the Eye toy. Then there's 100 and he almost still doesn't complete the level, what a loser!

Awesome!

Portal faceplate.

Ok, so my love for this game is getting a bit ridiculous but here's something I discovered through Kotaku. It's a companion cube faceplate, one-of-a-kind, handcrafted by the seller who has it on Ebay. There are 6 days left and already the bids are up to £50 odd. This is gonna go for big bucks, you can tell, especially considering the free advertising on Kotaku and the awesome way it's designed. Take a look! click!



I really, really want this so if anyone wants to buy it for me then go ahead!

Why we love gaming

I was talking to a friend recently who said that he would never play Fifa because he thought, if he ever felt like playing football, he would much rather get a ball and a few mates and head down the local park. This got me thinking. Is the reason we play games all down to escapism or is there something else?

Taking my mates comments in mind, if I wanted to play war games, surely I could join the Army. There, eventually, I would be given a gun and I would be able to run around a battlefield at some point, shooting bogies all over the place and making sure I kept my frag-score high. This, however, sounds more like scary, scary shit than jump-for-joy fun! I think the problem here is that if I die in real life, respawning ain't so easy. In fact, some might call it impossible. Since ending my life isn't exactly what I had in mind, the next best thing is to grab a copy of Call of Duty 4 and shoot the shit out of my friends. This is fair, I think.

Let's get a little bit more ridiculous with this. The reason for the controversy behind Manhunt and Manhunt 2 was that, if these acts were to be carried out in real life (Manhunt is about making snuff videos), one would most certainly be locked away for quite some time. Also, I don't know about you but I find the prospect of making snuff videos rather immoral. So, people who agree with me (that should be most of you) can play this game and get away with it. This obviously is escapism. It creates a world where the immoral and the highly illegal are allowed and won't get anyone hurt (except for the minds of young children everywhere!).

Grand Theft Auto has a similar means of escaping the real world. You can steal a car, drive to the gun shop, buy an arsenal, sleep with a lady-of-the-night in the daytime, kill some cops, run some innocent pedestrians down, smash the car up trying to jump over a river and calmly walk home and go to sleep. There is a way for Americans to escape everyday life too; fly a plane? earn some money? go to a gym? Anyway, my point is that escaping real life by committing crimes in a video game is something that occurs often.

Let's bring it closer to home. If I wanted to, I could go and buy a skateboard from a shop in town and I'll be skating in mere minutes. However, if I ever wanted to pull off a 360 flip to Crooked grind... well, it would never happen. So therefore, a brilliant game called Skate was invented so that I don't have to humiliate myself. This is a game that allows me to achieve pro skater status without ever falling off and killing my chances of procreation.

So here is where I prove my friend that he's an idiot. Take all of the sports that I can't at least reasonably well; skateboarding, golf, cricket, basketball, ice hockey, snowboarding, race driving, etc. All of these are sport that I could never play to a skilled level even if I practiced everyday. This is why I play them on consoles, because it allows me to play them to a skilled standard. The same could be said of the sports that I do play, even if I'm a bit rubbish; American Football, Football, Rugby. Playing these sports on a computer allows me to play at a level I could never reach. This still isn't enough to claim escapism though.

I think there's something else. Maybe I enjoy games on a different level than simulating what I want to do in life. Some games run on a narrative and then the game turns into something more like a film where, instead of escaping my own life, I'm involving myself in someone else's. This can't be said of sports games, however. Some games are just about playing. Pacman has no real-world values and no narrative but I love playing it. The same goes for Tetris. Maybe sports games are the closest things we have these days to arcade games and, while they play no real part in escaping our lives because we could play them ourselves for real, they are fun to play. They don't need to replace the real thing, it isn't a choice of one or the other, they are both there for the enjoyment of all.

Games are fun and we enjoy them, sometimes because of the escapism, sometimes because of the narrative and sometimes because we just do.

Forget Line Rider...

...and try line golf! This game rocks. I don't know what's more fun, making your own course or trying out others. There aren't the quality on here as in linerider yet but soon, i'm sure we'll be on to something!

If you don't know what line rider is, it started off as a simple idea, whereby you can draw lines and the man on a sled will slide down them depening on where gravity pulls him. Then it took off with more and more people making complex line drawings sending the little guy on massive missions. There are now hundereds of really good videos of the courses people have made on Youtube. To have a go, click here and make sure you check the video out below!

Sam & Max coming to Wii?

A while ago, Telltale, makers of the episodic new releases of the famed Sam & Max series, put a cry on their blog for fans to send emails to Nintendo to get them to okay a release of Sam & Max on Wii. It didn't take long for the big N to cave in and contact Telltale and give them the thumbs up. So....

WHERE IS IT?!

Well, Telltale are hardly going to let this go so hopefully it will come eventually. And let's hope that they do it properly and not just port it over!

Smash bros. Brawl delayed

Kotaku have released the news that Smash bros Brawl is being delayed until March 9th for North America. It is not known whether this delay will effect the UK but it is likely. Smash Bros. Brawl is already likely to have a Summer release and it is even more likely now.

New Turok Trialer "Creatures".

Portal 2?

Joystiq presented an article that raised an interesting question this week; do you want a sequal to Portal? My first answer to this question, the answer before thinking, is "YES, NOW!". But thinking about it further, I'm not so sure.

I'm making a contraversial comment here but, again, I'm not sure. My reasons for this are twofold. Firstly, the first game was too good. There were many brilliant things about the game; The characters, the arenas and the joy of discovering the dynamic. A second Portal would have no new excitement without drastically changing the dynamic. The idea itself is so simple that a short game is all that can come out of it without losing something. Half of the fun of the first game is discovering your portal gun in your world. Without this new idea being new, you take half of the fun away. Also, you killed the main character, or most of it, at the end of the game. Unless they make a sequal or a "second" crazy robot-woman then you have lost a major part of the game. And last of all on this point, you escaped from Appeture Science at the end of the game as well. You are now in the real world. Without a sequal, there would be no way to get back to the original setting and feeling of the game.

Then, maybe, I thought about Half Life 2 Ep 3. What if Gordon Freeman got his hands on the Portal gun? This makes me a little excited! Imagine how different Half Life 2 could have been with the Portal gun. Ok, so maybe it would have been bugged and hacked all over the place but surely there's room for a "more controlled" world with the Portal gun in mind and made some puzzles in amongst the world for it.

This is the only way I can see it happening without spoiling what is essentially my favourite game of 2007. It's a bit like the Matrix. This first film was good because it was a new idea and it was fairly understated and simple. Then they ruined it by shoving it full of shit! Also, there was no more discovery! and that's why the matrix reloaded and re(... what was it called?) were shit! Where am I?

Video games worse than fast food?!

Sorry, but does thing guy think he's being funny?! I aint fucking laughing!

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/29268/McDonalds-boss-Games-to-blame-for-childhood-obesity

Seriously, what a twat!!!

Darth Vader in Soul Caliber 4!!!!

1up.com have recently uncovered the truth about the new Soul Cal secret Characters; Darth Vader and Yoda! This exciting news came yesterday as 1up writers got new screens and new footage of the little green man and the big black man fighting against some of the best known original Soul Calibur characters. They won't be locking sabers together however, as Darth Vader makes an appearance on the PS3 version and Yoda on the Xbox360 version (note the colours, insert laughter track here). This comes as no surprise considering that in the previous version of Soul Calibur, the three consoles had three separate secret characters in the form of Link for GC, Spawn for XB and Heihachi (tekken) for PS2. The new screens and new trailer look awesome! Can't wait!

WeGame.com

Just discovered this new site that's like YouTube for gamers. If I'm behind the times, sorry! wegame.com supplies users with the software to capture their best gaming moments and upload them. This is the end of crappy filmed-through-camera-off-the-telly stuff for gaming and allows more and more gamers to show their hacks and best runs at almost all games. The best rated videos are on the homepage and if you want to see videos of a certain game, they are categorised in that way too. This is going to take off in a big way for gamers!

your Mii in statue form!!!

WTF!!!

click

Totally Awesome!

NFL Tour Preview

Being a big fan of Madden in this country can be difficult. Firstly, I have no one to play it with because nobody over here understands how to play it, except for one person in my case; and Secondly, going online to play with others involves me getting my arse kicked by a 12 year old Tom Brady who knows EVERYTHING there is to know about the New England defence and subsequently sacks my Eli Manning on every play by blitzing on the weak side. If this is already getting too technical then you know how I feel. So, EA BIG, one of my favourite developers created a "Street" version on Madden to match the popular NBA Street series in order to glamorise and simplify the game. This turned out to be a terrible waste with tricks and stupidity taking away from the game what it is in essence. Now though, they've gone away and thought about things and have decided to take NFL on Tour.

NFL Tour is basically going to annoy the hell out of anyone who really loves Madden because it is a stripped down version with a lot more glamour. They have done away with the Street look, opting for an AstroTurf, carnivally feel. The players are all in uniform but there are no helmets or padding. Fireworks go off every time you score a touchdown and touchdowns are a lot easier to score. It's a 7 v 7 and the pitch is smaller. The beauty of it all though lies in the gameplay.

Being a 7 v 7 and looking more like flag football than actual NFL rules makes the game easier to understand for beginners and the idea that there is no kicking in the game at all means that there are not as many tactics to try and understand. The plays range from very simple to very inventive but are always more fun than that in a Madden game. In fact, at times it may feel like you are playing a College play and that's exactly how it should feel.

When on a run, you can shake off tackles and run up the walls to get past your opponent which makes it feel like you're going somewhere. On the opposite side of the ball you can come up with a massive hit that sends the player back yards so it's not just a one sided affair.

This game looks great to me because it's the kind of game that NFL fans can play with their non-NFL-loving mates and have a good time. It might look ridiculous but you can tell it's going to be fun! Watch this space!

Lego Batman

One of the most unexpectedly brilliant releases for Xbox360 was that of Lego:Starwars. I don't know about you but I feel like the Star Wars franchise of games has been... well, absolutely terrible! And the Lego games, while probably the most fun for kids, have never really managed to grasp me. That's probably why, I was never holding high hopes for a Lego: Star Wars cross. Low and behold, they made an absolute stormer of a game. Everything you love about Star Wars and everything you love about Lego all mixed up in an amazing game engine which really puts the Star Wars universe into another light. There was great gameplay, you didn't care about the limited graphics and it really caught hold of the older fans with the original trilogy being retold in the best way. There were tonnes of cool unlockables and a great co-op mode. All round great game.

So, what next? I'll tell you what! BATMAN! And with the new age Batman being so popular, it might come as a surprise that they've gone back to the old tv series style Batman and Robin and it looks brilliant. I think this is a great move because I'm hoping that the cartoony nature of the lego can bring out the best in the old style. They took it back to the original with the Star Wars and they're doing the same here!

This might not be news to you but these new screens will be!

And in other news, denofgeek have been kind enough to publish some of these articles to their site. Cheers, guys!

Best Console?

So this may seem like a difficult question to answer. I have played all the three big contenders extensively. I'm not counting PC here because it's in a league of its own. I'm also not including handheld here. This is about the three that are in direct competition; Wii, Xbox360 and PS3.

To kick this off, I might just deal with a little separation. I think you know what I'm talking about. Wii is a completely different system to the other two. For starters its not really a next gen console. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, the price has dropped and they are relying on an innovative control system. It aims at a different audience (kind of) and plays different games. The point at which I think the major difference lies is the style of games. You are unlikely to see the in-depth single player games on this system that you might see on the 360 or PS3. What this console excels in is the multiplayer "party" games. Everyone knows that Wii Sports is amazing fun and while it's no simulator, its a great pick-up-and-play game. The problem is that these kind of games are all that the console can really make. Even the critically acclaimed Mario Galaxy has party elements. When it's hardcore gaming you're after, the Wii doesn't cut it.

So, on to the big guns! And when I say big, I mean big and expensive. You are likely to have to pay £250 for an Xbox360 and at least £300 (and you really would want to spend more) for a PS3. These are also two different consoles. With PS3 claiming the more impressive hardware, it would seem to be the winner but somehow it can't boast the games catalogue that the 360 has. There are seemingly less and less games that Sony can claim as their own. With the next, and highly anticipated, Grand Theft Auto 4 being released on both and Sony's powerhouse Metal Gear Solid franchise also being snapped up by Microsoft, there are less and less games that are PS3 exclusives. Think of all the exclusives on Xbox (DOA, Dead Rising and more recently Mass Effect) and there's where the gold is.

Online, the systems are widely different. Microsoft have had the online going for some time. They knew how to present it, they knew the ups and the downs of their previous service and in this game, experience is everything. Playstation 2 tried to give online to its players but it was absolutely terrible. Now that they have cracked it, it still feels like you're just playing the game. On Xbox live, you feel like you're connecting to people whereas the PS3 online feels like you're connecting to the game. I have played both, a lot, and Xbox live seems like a more complete online experience.

Since I'm starting to sound like an advert for 360 I will say that the missing HD-DVD drive on the 360 sucks. When you buy a PS3, you're buying a media centre. The Blu-ray player is a great piece of extra hardware to own. With stand-alone blu-ray players costing in the region of £500, this is a bargain of sorts.

Basically, if anyone can't see which one I prefer hear, you need to stop reading between the lines and actually read the lines. Xbox 360 is the better all round console. Price isn't too bad, games are amazing and the overall experience is great. And don't worry about all the talk of the ring of death; yes the console gets hot but unless you are an idiot and block the fans, you'll be fine!

(The Wii gets a special mention for being a better "party" console and the PS3 for being a better media centre.)

Real Weighted Companion Cube

This is awesome. Portal is amazing; brilliant idea for a game dynamic, great soundtrack (with the crazy computer voice and the drone guns, not to mention the song at the end), brilliant characters, including the weighted companion cube, which some guy in America got a wooden one made for him by his wife, what a legend she must be! Seriously, Portal is the best!