Happy Halloween!

In a complete deviation from last years top five scariest games, this year I present to you a.... general blog about Halloween! Still, it's going to be all about Halloween in general instead of just scary stuff.

Team Fortress 2 received it's first seasonal update on Thursday! For this weekend only, players can access a brand new Halloween map (which includes exploding pumpkins and a ghost), get two new hats and unlock five special achievements! Personally I love it. It's probably only of the first games that Isn't an MMO that I've seen receive special seasonal content. Not only that, but it's packed full of the attention to detail that Valve are so famous for. When a player taunts, he does the thriller. When you die, you drop a bag of candy. When you see the ghost you run in fear, unable to shoot. All the health pickups are bags of sweets or chocolate bars. There's skulls and pumpkins and little ghosts hanging everywhere. It's just... Well. It once again proves that TF2 is a labour of love and just how dedicated Valve are to the fans. All I can say? Please PLEASE let there be a Christmas update!


Last Halloween, I can't say I relished in the enjoyment of playing any horror games. In fact, most of my Halloween night was spent playing the Mirrors Edge demo and Defcon (which I suppose is creepy, considering I put it as number five on my scariest games ever!) while eating cheap chocolate and ignoring the door...

This year however It's different for tonight I have a plan. I'm going to submerse myself into the quite frankly terrifying Dead Space, before moving on to the rather grisly Left 4 Dead, and after a quick run through on Doom 2 I'm going to brave.... Tycoon City New York! Oh lord I hear you cry! Surely not! The materialistic values of modern day American society which subsequently burn the American dream to an unidentifiable crippling shard are so present in it's bleak and decaying world that surely it won't be long before you either break down on the floor weeping in fear or simply kill yourself to escape the nightmare?

My reply? No. And that Joke was too nerdy to be funny.


Happy Halloween guys!

New PS3 Update

Firstly, haven't been blogging a lot because It's been my birthday and I've also been living in my girlfriends house since Monday.

Anyway, a new PS3 firmware update came out yesterday and it did, as usual, sweet fuck all, but it did offer a really interesting new feature (apart from the BBC iPlayer).

Sony have seemed to have made all of the icons bigger as well as adding a "What's new" icon which lets you choose from even bigger icons depicting new releases etc.

It's all very Xbox...and this annoys me.

The Playstation was always the more sophisticated of the two, more professional and more adult ,but just these little changes have actually threatened of completely destroying this image.

Anyway, a little rant, but it's what you read this tripe for isn't it?

Team Fortress 2: The Spy/Sniper Update

So since Friday, I've been playing Tf2 pretty much none stop and I can safely say that I like the latest update that provided the Sniper and Spy with some new toys to play with. However, I must admit, a lot of the new additions irritate the shit out of me.

First of all, the weapons unlocking system. I admit that in theory this system is a lot better than the achievements, but it's a shame it doesn't work. Lady was playing for four hours last night, and she didn't get a single weapon. Nice work Valve. I've been playing for seven and I only have one (admittedly, it is the huntsman which is just the boyo).

Secondly, a lot of the maps are broken. Especially the arena maps. Nucleus seems to have a problem with half of it's platforms being classed as "Solid", meaning you fall through things a lot and for some reason none of the unlockables work anymore on arena maps.... Typically. 

When you overlook the flaws however, what you have here is a very ambitious update that offers a lot to new and old players alike. So good work Valve, just release a few patches pretty quickly yea?

Updates, Updates, Updates…

I came home this evening and decided, like I do every Thursday, to check the Playstation store for goodies for me to purchase. As I booted it up, it informed that an update had become available. “The rumored glory of Version 2.7?” I hear you roar? The very same.

 

So I sat and waited for it download (40 minutes spent reading “Making History” by Stephan Fry is certainly not time wasted), and by the time it had finished I was literally frothing with excitement. Were the rumors true? Has Sony finally upgraded their online community to a level that could directly challenge Xbox Live? Has Sony’s day finally come, and together me and my Sony brethren will traverse the plains of this generation, and take the crown from Microsoft's head!?!

 

No. Basically, the rumors were bull turd. All it added was this really quite poor instant messaging service. Also, Peggle still isn’t on the Playstation store.

 

Then I went on the Xbox and that needed to update too. Then I lost all my Dead Rising saves.

 

Basically, I’m pretty fucking fed up if I’m honest xD

Scout Update

I haven't been gaming at all this week, because of a number of personal reasons, but I finally got to have a goo mess around with the scout update today. I love it, but not for the scouts.

It means I can finally get most of the Heavy achievements (which shows how long it's been since I last played this.. lol). Still, I got the first weapon today, so I'm not doing too bad!

Expect me to blog normally for the next few days!

A Desperate Attempt.

 

Ok before I start this I want you to know two things. Yes I am a PS3 owner, and I don’t have an Xbox. However, I am VERY fond of the Xbox and am seriously contemplating getting one for myself (For the second time, my first one Red Ringed on me and I raged). I believe Xbox Live to be the best console online gaming experience to date and lets face it, 90% of my friends have one.

 

So yesterday, the New Xbox Experience came out (or as it’s now known, the NXE, not be confused with the Playstations XMB). Basically the NXE is the much anticipated Dashboard update, which every single Xbox owner has been wetting their pants over. Of course, I always like to look at everything from a critics perspective (I’m a moody, arrogant person. What do you expect?) so here’s my personal opinion on Microsoft's latest attempt at securing the market.

 

 

Ok so my first impressions. It’s pretty, very pretty. It’s what the dashboard should have always been. It’s slick, sexy and HD. It’s awesome. The new interface is simple, and very well spaced out (although I dread to think how it looks to people without a HD TV over 19”), I love the whole sliding from behind thing that’s going on and the new achievement list is brilliant.

 

Avatars, although as pointless as they were on the Wii (at the present time that Is, no doubt Microsoft will pull something out of their sleeves on a later date) are pretty and a lot more complex than the god-awful Mii’s and serve a very good point. I love the fact that your friends are represented by their avatar in your friends list, and that their online status is judged by whether their asleep or awake. Nice little touch.

 

Xbox Live marketplace is the same as before, the new feature of being able to install games to reduce loading times is better than the current system on the Ps3 although Sony have nothing to worry about as disc space still hasn’t been increased. What I really want to know is, how is the Xbox HANDLING this? Yea It can do HD gaming but how the hell has it managed an interface this complex? The Dashboard was always rather jumpy I found and never really worked, yet now the Xbox button brings up the old dashboard as the bloody minor interface for when your in game! Insane!

 

So well done Microsoft, I consider this to be one of your strongest achievements since launch. Although, you COULD have done this at first you know, you weren't really being stopped…

 

 

It doesn't change my opinion on the Xbox as a whole, I still personally like the PS3 better but it’s certainly easier on the eye and now the software finally reflects the hardware.

 

But of course, it’s still the Xbox, and my good friend Bucko could not have made my day any other way when he said this:

 

“My new Xbox experience involves a ring of red.”

 

Brilliant.