2009: A Good Year For Games?

So it’s the end of 2008 today, and as much as I would have loved to have done a “Best games of 2008: The Original Dungeon Keeper Awards”  I really don’t think it’s particularly necessary. If you look over my previous posts from the last three months you’ll know doubt get a clear picture of what I’ve liked and what I haven't.

What I’ve decided to do instead is to use my good friend Wikipedia to find out what games are being released next year and highlight what I think are going to be the best ones.

 

So the obvious one for me is Resident Evil 5. Sure it doesn't look great but it’s Resi! It never be crap, just decidedly average, and I can live with average. I own a Wii.

You know, looking at this list I’m finding a few surprises that I’m really excited about. For example, a new Mario and Luigi RPG is coming out, and I LOVED Mario and Luigi Partners In Time. It rocked. It was funny, fun to play. The first RPG I ever finished if I’m being honest with you. A new ones bound to be good, and lets face it, I never use my DS anymore.

 

The Sims 3 looks to be a laugh, as does Street Fighter 4. Grand Theft Auto: China Town Wars might be worth a look as well.  I loved GTA Advance.

 

Ah! Now, this is definatly going to be game of the year 2009. Battlefield Heroes. It might not have a release date but I bet my bottom dollar it’ll be out before the summer. Free, browser based and massively multiplayer battlefield? Oh yes please!

 

I hope everyone has a great new years, and you’ll be hearing from me again next year! (well… tomorrow)

A LittleBig Slice of Heaven

It’s been a long time since I’ve been genuinely awe struck by the quality of a game. Bioshock was the last, mainly due to the story and the graphics, but since then games have admittedly gripped me but never left me in a state of genuine shock.

 

Within seconds, LittleBigPlanet managed to knock Bioshock off the top spot. I’ve never played a game that offers a completely different experience every time you play. It honestly baffles me. Some of the community maps are so beautifully detailed it puts the Media Molecule levels to shame.

 

If you own a PS3 and don’t have this yet, then I would seriously consider buying this, because if you don’t your missing out on one of the most refreshing concepts in the last few years.

Too Many Games!

I'm currently experiencing something that can only be described as a "Brain aneurysm" caused purely by the sheer amount of games I have to play. Honestly, I got three for Christmas, bought two on Boxing day and today decided (and trust me, this decision is so hypocritical that my friend actually scoffed) to go out and buy Call Of Duty: World At War even though I've been slagging it off since the day it was announced. But hey! I did the same with the PS3 and I couldn't live without mine now.

So, over the next few days I wont have anything specific to talk about unfortunately, so I'm just going to be giving you random bursts of pure 100% opinion on what I'm currently playing or have heard over the grape vine that is my many friends (and the Internet) 

To start off, LittleBigPlanet online is fantastic. Ten times better than what I expected. Community maps are win. Utter win, and playing online with friends is nothing short of perfection.

Mirrors Edge has been holding my interest, but unfortunately it looks like it wont for very much longer. I'm already half way through.

Finally,  Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters is an amazing little game. I was just playing it for like an hour. Well good.

Christmas Goodies!!

So did everyone have a good Christmas? I know I did! Amongst other things (like a 26” full HD TV) I finally got my hands on LittleBigPlanet, Far Cry 2, Fallout 3, Mirrors Edge and Prince of Persia. Basically, these will probably be the games I’ll be blogging about most so if you don’t like then… sorry? So, first opinions:

 

Great game. I loved the demo and a friend constantly ranted and raved about it for weeks so I’m glad I can finally play it. It’s smooth, uncomplicated and the graphics are sweet. Overall a very good game, but even at the point I’m up to it feels like there’s something missing…

My expectations of this game were quite low in all honesty. The first Far Cry and Crysis certainly aren't on my top ten list I can tell you, so I wasn’t expecting anything great.. But surprise surprise, this turns out to be a fantastic shooter. I’m not far through it, but it WORKS. It’s brilliant. The fire is superb, the graphics are amazing and there’s a lot of depth even from the start. I’m especially impressed with the little things like pulling bullets out from your leg and fixing cars. Well good.

In all fairness as soon as I paid £25 for this yesterday I thought I’d made a mistake. As I was loading, I kept getting what can only be described as Nam flashbacks of the god awful two thrones and the emoness of Warrior Within. I just couldn’t see how this game could be good after those two installments… But what I didn’t remember was the fantastic Sands of Time which is what this game can easily be compared to. It’s fresh, it’s original. It’s fun to play which I didn’t expect. It’s a little bit clunky to start off with but once you get into the habit of it (about 15 minutes in) it becomes something great.

 

Perfection. I can’t say anything about it that you won’t have all heard before. It’s just a work of art. It all makes sense. To me, this is a no brainer of a game. If you don’t own it yet, beware. If I see you in the street I’ll simply look at you, shake my head and walk away.

 

Color, Stephen Fry, Creativity, Sack Boys, Kratos Sack boys, multiplayer, trophies. Heaven.

A Merry Christmas To All

That’s me and Shrimpdude dancing while dressed up as elves, and in hindsight I could have picked a better picture for today’s blog post but… meh. It’ll have to do!

 

So it’s Christmas Eve, but the chances of me doing a blog tomorrow are slim so I’ll do one today that covers both days! It’s almost Christmas, and firstly I want to wish everyone a very happy Christmas! Especially those who read this blog on a regular basis!

 

In other news, I got LittleBigPlanet, Fallout 3 and FarCry 2 today. I’ve only played ten minutes of LBP, but it looks good! Full review after Christmas no doubt. Tomorrow should be a good day for games as well, as a lot of my mates are getting a PS3 for Christmas which I’m sure they’ll all enjoy! Especially one of my closest friends who is still under the impression that he’s getting Rockband for the Wii *sniggers*. Wish I could be there when he opens his 80GB PS3 and 8 games. Would be a cracking moment. Wait I’m annoyed at that kid, he bought me a thong for my Christmas box.

 

Wow, that’s a major tangent!

 

Anyway, Ciao

Best Christmas Cards Ever

Ahhh Christmas! The food, the presents, the family, the horrific television and of course drunk relatives. Oh, and who could forget Christmas cards! Ahhh Christmas Cards. Since when has shitty bits of cardboard meant so much, eh?

 

Well,to CVG they probably mean a lot more than that card I got from that girl I used to go to school with, because CVG got cards from game companies. Yup, you heard me right readers. They got cards from companies such as Nintendo, Rockstar and Capcom. How. Awesome. Is. That?

 

I’ve chosen just a few of my favorites to show you. Enjoy!

 

Read the full article here!

The Most Basic Human Instinct: Insult

I was on Home last night and I came across a few guys talking about Timesplitters 4 and how much they were looking forward to it. So, of course, I joined in the conversation and told them about how Free Radical have closed down (While body popping, of course). We were talking for a while about Timesplitters, Second sight and in the meantime a few other guys had joined in the conversation and soon enough we had a fully fledged argument over which was better. EA or Activision. You know as you do.

 

But of course, one guy came over and called us nerds. And being nerds, we all decided to then insult HIM. So there you go. After only 25 minutes of talking to complete strangers there was a “Yer Mar” joke thrown in. Isn’t meeting new friends wonderful?

Resident Evil 5

I’m getting a little worried about Resident Evil 5. It all seems… Wrong. The scenario, the enemies, the….. *takes a deep breath*… the….. Co-Op…. Christ. Co-op? In a Resident Evil game? Sorry Capcom, do you even remember the God awful Outbreak spin offs? (Their not Resi games, don’t you dare even say they are.)

 

I have it pre-ordered for the PS3 and I am looking forward to it, just a little worried that's all…

Left 4 Dead Moviemaking Process

I hate to directly link this blog to other sites, because I enjoy writing posts myself so much that I normally don’t like to give you the option to wander off and forget about me. I get very lonely you see.

 

But I was randomly reading the Left 4 Dead blog when I came across a post about making the intro movie. It’s extremely interesting and I would recommended that you watch all the videos on the post as well as reading the text. Enjoy!

 

http://www.l4d.com/blog/post.php?id=2081

Trackmania Sunrise

Brilliant game. Fantastic. Best racing game out there. Fast, frantic and so very fun. Insanely so.

 

Trackmania Nations forever (A full mode, basically) is free on Steam. Check it out if your interested.

PlayFire

 

As a PS3 player, I’ve never had the luxury of the Xbox360 gamer cards that allow gamers to flaunt their achievements around the internet. So imagine my glee when I’m introduced to a website named “PlayFire”

 

PlayFire is advertised as a social networking site for gamers and some ways I suppose it is. You can add friends and join groups and of course the ever present profile wall is there so you can make the always hilarious “Tit Box” comment on your best friends wall, which he will inevitably view as his mum walks in the room. However, what makes PlayFire very, very special is that it’s basically the biggest flaunting device since the Xbox360 gamer cards.

 

Take my profile for instance. Currently, it displays the games I’m currently playing, my PS3 trophies, all the consoles I own, a random Youtube video I chose, some gaming screenshots and an all important graph to show which gaming genres I love. Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. The best part of course, is that you can view every single game I own at the time of writing. All one 155 of them. It’s marvelous.

 

Make sure to join up, and of course, add me because let’s face it. I’m a child of this generation, and therefore a social networking whore.

 

Check out my profile here.

Uncharted Drakes Fortune 2: Among Thieves

Regular readers will no doubt be aware of my undying love for Naughty Dog’s PS3 debut “Uncharted Drakes Fortune”. It is, in my opinion, one of the greatest games ever made. It’s cinematic, punchy, exciting. It’s quite simply one of the masterpieces of this generation.

 

So imagine my surprise when I saw this beauty:

Coupled with the screenshot at the start of the post… Hell. This is a no brainer. It’s going to be good let’s face it. It’ll be the same controls as the first one, a similar storyline with a completely unexpected ending and it’s gonna be a whole lot prettier. I can’t wait!

Categories Reveal Interesting (And Rather Scary) Results

I got up early this morning, and as I was getting ready I was having a look at my Game collection. As Christmas is getting near (9 Days! Sorry, had to mention it somewhere) I was thinking of the games I was getting and I came up with a rather odd conclusion. I only have 7 PS3 games at the moment, but all 7 of them involve Guns. In fact, LittleBigPlanet is the only game I’m getting this Christmas that doesn't have guns in it…

 

When I came in tonight, I was having a look at my other collections and realised the same thing was present. Being the sad boy I am, I categorized all my gaming collection by console. The results offer a vague insight into not only what Games I’m interested in, but basically an insight into what Games are primarily present on consoles (Or at least, what key themes run throughout)

PS3

Out of the 7 games I own, 2 are First Person Shooters, 5 are Third Person Shooters, 1 is a Free Roaming Game and all 7 involve guns. But it is the PS3, so it is aiming at a more adult audience.

 

Wii

Out of the 19 games on my shelf (My sister plays with them more than me, so God knows where most have them gone), only 4 contain realistic guns (I didn’t count Eledees or Metroid 3), 3 of which are First Person Shooters, 2 are “Sports” titles, 2 are Fighters (Smash Bros and Mortal Kombat), 7  are party games (Wii Play being the most obvious), 1 is a Rhythm Game and 2 are adventure games.

 

This surprised me actually, as I realised just how tame the Wii is. Compared to my Gamecube, where titles such as Resident Evil 0, Killer 7 and Eternal Darkness were always present it’s quite a shock to see Nintendo reduced to this level. Well, I already knew that but what really surprised me was that I own a lot of titles I would never have bought normally. It’s quite worrying.

 

That’s all I looked at, I did look at PC but it’s all FPS’s and MMO’s  (and one I decided to class as a “Racing, Music, Puzzle Thing”)

 

A bit of a sad blog post I know, but I was interested in the stark differences between my collection. It’s rather odd.

 

Just me? Fair enough

It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas

 

Ah Christmas! The time when family’s pretend not to hate each other and spend an excessive amount of money on the people they love. For many it is a spiritual time, for me it’s purely for games.

 

Last Christmas I got more games that I would ever need. I got Super Mario Galaxy, Metroid Prime 3, Splinter Cell; Double Agent, Guitar Hero 3, Unreal Tournament 3, Crysis, Mysims and Sim City DS. Out of all them, Guitar Hero was played the most If I’m gong to be honest with you.

 

This Christmas however looks promising. Not only am I getting a new HD TV I’m also getting Far Cry 2, Fallout 3, LittleBigPlanet and Bioshock. I already know three of them are amazing (I’m more intrigued by Far Cry 2) so I should have a laugh. After Christmas I’m pondering whether to get Prince of Persia or Mirrors Edge. Thoughts?

 

Woah wait a second, this post is purely a Christmas list!

Home Life

 

As it’s no doubt became apparent, I’m addicted to Home and everything about it. Last night I as traversing this marvelous world with a good friend of mine (Bucko), I realised just how complicated and detailed this world was.

 

The bowling alley is a brilliant example. Jut sit down on a lane, wait for three more people then play! That may sound stupid but it works so well. When one guy bowls, you can sit and chat to the other guys playing with you. I was having a very detailed chat with one guy about what new content would be added on Thursday (if anyone's interested, he speculated the trophy room, the red bull area and a LOT of new furniture and clothes.) It was fantastic, and when I was brutally beaten me and Bucko played a lengthy game of pool (which I once again lost). The pool was seamless, simple and ridiculously detailed. Just like it was promised. Then Bucko went to bed and I played the arcade game of “Echochrome” for a long, long time (Which to my surprise, was not only good but gave me loads of new clothes!)

 

If your a PS3 user and you haven't downloaded this, please do. Come visit me! I have a mansion!

Wii Ware

Oh Wii Ware. Such potential! Such Value! And what happened? Such shittyness!

 

I think I’m one of the few people to actually give a toss about Wii Ware. Well, I was one of the only people I know to buy Lost Winds.

Cracking game. I would go as far as to say one of the most under appreciated games of 2008. Yea, it’s short and yea it has a few flaws. But for a Wii game it’s beautiful and a genuinely good concept for the wiimote. Download it, now!

Home Is Where My Wallet Is

At 9PM yesterday, Home went live. By the time I'd downloaded and installed Home, which in all honesty only took 8 minutes, I was literally jumping with excitement. I couldn't wait!

Of course, Sony must have installed an excitement sensor in the SixAxis, because it wouldn't let me log in until half past. So I took my first tentative steps into the world of Home irritated and frustrated. Not a good start.

In all honesty, my experience with Home yesterday wasn't a good one. I couldn't grasp the Avatar creator and my character had a head the size of the fecking moon and a nose like a coat hanger. There also seemed to be a lack of clothes. Again, not a good start.

To sum this all up, last night I was annoyed by the servers that kept timing out, my first apartment and the lack of furniture in it, the lack of decent clothes that are free and the lack of any content this early on. I went to bed annoyed.

So anyway I woke up this morning and booted it up to see if I would have a change of opinion. I did. In fact, my opinion changed so much I even bought the Summer House and a few clothes.

At the moment, Home is nothing more than Habbo Hotel in HD, or a less complicated and more console friendly version of Second Life. A lot of people may be complaining about the fact that Sony "Haven't lived up to their promises" but all I have to say to them is wait. Homes being advertised as an open beta version for a reason. Were looking at a very simple version of what has the potential to become one of the greatest experiment in gaming since the rumble pack.. Ok that was a bit of a shitty comparison but surely you get the idea.

You could say that Mii's were merely a test of what Avatars can do, the Xbox experimented with them in HD with limited community aspects and Home.. Well. Home has taken avatars and made them into something worthwhile. Now if you excuse me, I'm going Home.

I Want To Go HOME

 

Just like every other Playstation owner today, I’ve been waiting for Home, Playstations answer to the New Xbox Experience (ok, so not quite. But Home has avatars as well, so I'm going to stick with what I’ve just said)

 

Personally I’m just pleased that it’s available either today or tomorrow. We were promised a release before Christmas and to a lot of us that meant a Christmas Eve release so this is brilliant news for everyone.

 

If you too are desperate to play, keep an eye out here for constant updates from one of the developers!

 

Full review tomorrow (I hope!)

A Helpful Tip

 

 

Just remember, only the RED barrels blowup, k?

Wipeout HD: Trophies!

 

Must….. Finish… All…. Races…

 

Must…. Get… All…. Trophies….

Dungeon Keeper MMO?

“The good news? EA today announced Dungeon Keeper Online, an MMO-based continuation of Bullfrog's classic strategy games. Bad news? It's not for you.

Dungeon Keeper Online, as the game will be known as, is to be developed by Chinese studio NetDragon Websoft. As part of the deal,. NetDragon will get access to all of Dungeon Keeper's "themes, characters and other game content", while EA will get access to (provided the game succeeds) large amounts of cash money.

Apart from the fact it's a "3D massively multi-player online role playing game", nothing else about the game was announced. Sadly for Western lovers of the franchise, the game is slated to appear only in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau.”

Good news! You know, apart from the not being able to play it bit….

A General Thought: Games Are Too Expensive

 

Taking into account production cost, the amount of labor and devotion that are included in the development process and of course the current global economic situation, Games are still too expensive…

You Know What?

 

I don’t actually know what game to blog about today. I have no clue whatsoever. So I’ll just randomly blab about anything to do with games.

 

Firstly, that picture above is of Mirrors Edge. But it looks real. Pretty cool huh? I thought so.

 

Sixthly, The Sims hasn’t controlled my life! I managed to escape it’s vile and evil snare.

 

Thirdly, the Mirrors Edge soundtrack is fantastic. I really should pick a copy of that up, but a friend of mine finished it in a day. A Day people! That’s ridiculous. Games should at LEAST last a few days. I mean , God. Oh and Left 4 Dead is exempt from that rule. And Portal. Actually, to hell with that point in general.

 

Tenthly (?), I really want to play LittleBigPlanet but because I have no money I can’t. I have to wait until my parents buy it for me for Christmas. I’m 16! Surely I  should have a job or something in a game shop. Actually if a Game or Gamestation or Grainger Games employee is reading this and it’s still before Christmas then I have a message for you. Hey! I’m the kid from Sunderland who came into all of your branches in that city, and tried to trade in that American copy of Smash Brothers Brawl the day it came out in the UK! Give me a job? Or a copy of Mirrors Edge? No?

 

Secondly, does anyone know if Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 is any good? I haven't read any reviews for it yet… Actually why don’t I own it yet? Hell I don’t even deserve to write this blog.

 

Lastly, Playing Wipeout HD while listening to a playlist consisting entirely of the Smiths actually works…

 

….Well they can’t all be winners!

Goddamn It, Worst News Ever

“The sixth CoD game was already confirmed to be under Infinity Ward's wing (and not World at War dev Treyarch), but this news thankfully confirms that number six isn't the rumoured sci-fi spin-off we were dreading.” – CVG

Well I personally thought that a Sci-Fi spin off might have worked…

Right Now

 

As I sit here, I am installing The Sims 2 Open For Business.

 

Help me. I’ve become addicted. Again.

My Tiny Little Family

I played The Sims 2 again today. I got it around 4 years ago. It was brilliant fun. I felt like the puppet master, controlling their lives… Oh how I laughed when he was promoted! How I sneered, as he fell in love and all because of me! I felt like Iago, deceiving and plotting.. Like God, controlling without anyone realizing and like Will Wright, because at the end of the day it’s a game and I’m just a nerd with long hair… *sighs*

 

Still, good game!

Black Mesa: Source

 

I started following this project when it started a few years back. It always looked amazing, and this trailer (released today no less) emphasises the simple fact that this is the most beautifully crafted mod ever created.

 

Who cares if the original Half Life became repetitive and so fiddly at the very end you wanted to pull your own teeth out, it’s still one of the best PC games ever made. I personally can’t wait to play this. It’s going to be awesome.

 

Also, I’ve decided that I’m going to try and complete Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped 100% by Christmas. Why? Because I can.