The Games I Need To Play – Summer 2010

So as you’ve probably realised, I haven’t been blogging lately. I started my job on Wednesday. My full time job, to be precise, meaning I haven’t really had the time to do anything of late. Still, I’ve reached the point now where I’m going to be able to blog more frequently for the first time in months. Understandably, this isn’t the perfect, daily updates of yore but hey I do the best with what I’m given.

Today, I’m going to tell you the games I’m desperate to play, and probably will be playing when I get my first paycheck. Mainly these are games that have been released, with the exception of one:

I haven’t mentioned yet just how much I need to play Red Dead Redemption. Although it never even warranted so much as a single post during it’s development, I couldn’t help be caught up in the hype surrounding it’s release. It wasn’t the bland linear western shoot-em-up I expected. Instead, it’s a fully released free roaming western epic, in the same leagues as one of my all time favourites, Gun. What is it about the wild west that makes game developers shine?

Oh come of it. I know it’s been out for ages, and I know everyone knows who the killer is blah, blah, blah. Tell me something I don’t know. I’m a sucker for games with an incredible narrative, so leave me to play it in peace will you? Please? Yea. Shut the door on the way out while your at it. Your bitterness has made me cold.

If you’re a frequent visitor you’ll probably know how much I enjoyed Crackdown. A God-damn lot is the answer you’re looking for, and the sequel looks to be even better. This little beauty will be finding it’s way into my Xbox the day it comes out.

To reiterate, I’m a sucker for narrative driven games. Alan Wake certainly looks to be one of the better ones as well. Great atmosphere, great setting for an immersive plot. Yea, looks like my kind of game.

 

If there’s anything you think I’m missing out, new or old, make sure you let me know in the comments below!

What I Love About… Dead Space

Dead Space, the survival horror extravaganza that made me poo myself more times than a laxative pie, has many fantastic aspects to it that make it a brilliant game. It’s unique dismemberment style game play, it’s fantastic voice acting and it’s life like animations, to state but a few. However, in my opinion it’s the location of the game, the USG Ishimura that is it’s greatest feature.

What strikes me as the most spectacular aspect of the game is that it holds up as one of the greatest piece of sci-fi gaming to date. The ship and everything within it functions perfectly, and creates an almost industrial atmosphere, bringing with it feelings of depression and suffocation. Refusing to adhere to conventional sci-fi representations of space ships, Dead Space shows a ship that could be created today. Things are rusty, things break. Perhaps most impressively, every room serves a purpose that is believable to the player. A testament to excellent game designing.

Just like Bioshock’s Rapture, the Ishimura holds one quality that makes it exceptionally impressive. You can imagine how it was before the necromorphs took over. You can imagine people working, interacting, living within it’s walls. That, is what I love about it most of all.

The Passing - Review

So, I’ve finally played the Passing. Did I enjoy it? Well… that’s difficult to answer.

In some ways I was impressed. The new weapons actually bring some new flavour into the game (The M60 is incredibly fun to use), the actual level design of the campaign is really well executed and, as always, has a lot of replay value and there are a lot of really nice features like footlockers full of pills/Molotov's/pipe bombs, the Bride witch (and wedding guest zombies!) and the new Survivor uncommon common which adds this really interesting new dynamic to the game. Need health? Pipe Bomb? Pills? Quick! Get the Survivor! He even runs away, forcing you to back track in order to get him.

What didn’t I like? The original cast. Valve had so much potential with the original cast being present within The Passing but they’ve really let themselves down. You see one of them at the very beginning… and then you see three of them at the very end. Oh, and as for who dies…

SPOILERZZZ

Bill dies. How? Fuck if I know. He’s just slumped against a generator. There’s no explanation and there’s not even any remorse or even sadness shown from the remaining three. They’re just their normal everyday happy go lucky selves. Just minus Bill. Really upsetting.

NO MORE SPOILERZZZ

Apart from the tacked on original cast, I really enjoyed The Passing. However, If I’d had to pay for it, I would have fucking lost it.

Five Things That Have Been On My Mind Today

1) Goddamn Valve, you are very good at making promo videos and launch trailers. I take my hat off to you, fine sirs and ladysirs. However, I have no intention of playing The Passing until the weekend. I apologise.

2) Why is Perfect Dark so goddamn hard on the… hardest difficulty? It took me three hours of solid playing to get past the first level. I hate old games, yet love them in equal measure. Damn you Rare.

3) Why isn’t Pokémon free? Also, why haven’t governments checked this game for mind control? Why do I want it so much? It’s embarrassing!

4) Should I put Ads on my blog? I suppose it would look a little less flash, but it’s free money and I like that idea.

5) Why hasn’t Sony came over and fixed my PS3 yet? It seems that the gaming God’s have forbidden me from ever finishing GTA4.

Perfect Dark: CLOCKED

Finally finished the remake of Perfect Dark today and phwooooarrr is it good. Like seriously, it’s lick your lips in ecstasy good. Well, the level design is perfect, the music is spot on, the weapons are completely innovate and really fun to use and it has that lovely Rare fluidity about it which just makes it fantastic to pick up and play every time.

However, the story is absolute shite. There’s nine chapters, with about three missions in each, and I have no clue whatsoever as to what was going on. Seriously. I could make a rough guess, but I’d literally be guessing. It’s so badly crafted it’s laughable. Also, the voice acting is really terrible as well. Perfect Dark was unfortunately made in a generation that didn’t take things like voice acting too seriously, therefore Joanna Dark may have the body and the talent of a international super secret agent, but she has the voice of a fourteen year old girl which is just… ew.

As a remake though, it’s extremely faithful to the original game.

Anyway, I’m certainly going to pick up a copy of Perfect Dark Zero this weekend, just ‘cos I can innit. Mainly because I want to know why she’s ginger in this one but brunette in the original. Also my PS3 is still dead and I need something else to play.

Oh, and Valve did confirm the release date for Left 4 Dead 2 DLC on the PC yesterday. It’s coming out tomorrow for free. Linkage!

Good Zombies, Bad Zombies and Capcom Is Just Genuinely Awesome.

THE GOOD ZOMBIES

Dead Rising 2 is to feature co-op play. This is win for so many reasons. Mainly because having you and a mate running round like nutters killing thousands of Zombies using anything sounds to me, like my perfect game. Not just my perfect Zombie game, but my favourite game, period. Release date’s in September. I can’t wait!

THE BAD ZOMBIES

Left 4 Dead 2 is finally getting it’s first piece of DLC, The passing, this Thursday on Xbox. It has loads of awesome features, and of course includes the original survivors. Read that again. Yes, I only said Xbox and that’s not a typo I’m afraid. It just hasn’t been confirmed for PC yet. Oh Valve. Why. What’s happened to you?

CAPCOM IS JUST GENUINELY AWESOME

I don’t even have to explain why this the best thing I’ve seen all day. Chris Redfield fighting the Hulk? Oh God yes.

The Undead Are… Persuasive.

So, I’m actually enjoying Left 4 Dead 2 now. Wait, I’ve just realised I haven’t actually told you that I got bored of this… hang on I’ll quote myself so it looks like I did.

Left 4 Dead 2 is… I dunno. Everything about it is perfect! Everything about it is… unique, enhanced and beautiful, and yet I sit there looking at the clock and wondering when I can go back on Borderlands.

But now? Now I’m back into it. It’s a vast improvement over the original in terms of gameplay, but in terms of presentation and characterisation I still prefer the original. Still, what a game! All five campaigns are incredibly good fun to play and this is one game that you need to pick up in the January sales. You know, if you can get out the house yet because of all the snow.

Left 4 Dead: NES

 

This is genius. A demake of Left 4 Dead on the NES. It’s incredible, and free to download! It’s not necessarily the most playable game ever made, but it’s good fun for about an hour.

Enjoy! Here’s the download link, and below a video to convince those who are not convinced.

Left 4 Dead 2 Demo

So yesterday the Left 4 Dead 2 demo came out and I played it. Then I played it again. Then once more. Then today I played it twice.

When Left 4 Dead 2 was first announced, and the slow trickle of media caught my attention four things came to my mind straight away:

Q1) The Locations... sunny? It's during the day? How's that going to work with the classic "B-Movie Darkness and Rain" perfected within the first one? Where as a player, you never truly knew what really was lurking in the shadows...

Q2) The Characters are boring.... The original charm of the original four has gone! Bill, Zoey, Francis and Louis were so well rounded, so perfect in their design that they were possibly one of the most defining features of the game!

Q3) The new special infected are stupid, over the top and just plain dumb. A "Jockey"? A "Spitter"? A.... Wandering Witch?

Q4) The music! The original had music so thrilling, so chilling, so inspired that you really can't imagine how the game would function without it! But this new one... the music seemed as cold and as dead as the flesh eating creatures it set out to make terrifying. If the music was so dramatically different, then how is it going to alert the player of an incoming horde or a special infected?

There is one simple answer to all these questions. Left 4 Dead 2 is a clever little bitch. Now for the long answers.

A1) The locations are sunny and perhaps too different for some, but something becomes clear once you start playing. It's disorientating, it's cramped, it's claustrophobic... then it's wide open spaces, they're everywhere and there's no where to corner camp. It's actually very clever in it's design, and personally? Well it was the right direction to take. The two are so different, there's no denying that each one has it's own strengths to terrify you.

A2) Like the original four, these plucky survivers match they're surroundings. From what I've played, the light hearted banter returns, the INTENSE level of characterisation is also present, with every character oozing with personality. I may not love them as much as I did with the original four, and I know I never will, but they have enough pluck to keep them interesting.

A3) I hate the Jockey. I imagine in versus mode he's brilliant, but not in Single Player. He runs along giggling... it's silly. The Spitters good though, and the wandering witch is brilliant adding a brand new dynamic to the gameplay. Some nice little touches on the original special infected are the female boomer and the bald tank.

A4) The music on Left 4 Dead 2 is amazing. Valve have very cleverly kept it identical to the first but added a southern flair to all of the tracks, whether it be the banjo theme tune, the electric guitar finale music or the quite frankly brilliant safe house tune. It's a very interesting technique, because veteran players not only get a kick out of hearing the same music with a southern twist but they also still recognise what special infected are coming or what section they're on etc. Same for new players who will go back to Left 4 Dead 1. They'll instantly be able to go "Oh, ok then, so there's defiantly a boomer coming now...." without ever having seen it before.

Final note? I like it. A lot. Not as much as the original but I already have a special little spot for it. Valve? Well done. I'm sorry for ever doubting you.

However answer this. HOW COME YOU CAN MAKE THIS IN A YEAR, BUT WE'RE STILL WAITING FOR HALF LIFE 2 - EPISODE THREE? HUH? HUH?

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!

Moar Random Thoughts

I was watching some in game footage of Left 4 Dead 2 and I just.... I just couldn't bare it. It looked so goddamn bland and uninspired. The charm of the original has just vanished. The characters are bland and two dimensional, the new special infected are of the same quality of the characters I used to invent for games when I was about seven, the music has just been completely stripped of everything that made it perfect for atmosphere in the first one and even the INTERFACE looks worse! It's like this is the first one that floundered and Left 4 Dead is the superior sequel!

I also played a but of Gmod today. Fretta is amazing, It's so inspired. I love it.

Also, I've been listening to trance remakes of classical music... it's mind blowing...

Oh, and I've made a little video to post on here... just need to edit it. Just thought I'd forewarn you.

Subway Experience + Left 4 Dead Crash Course

I was in Subway today, and as I was ordering my Sub the guys behind the counter were chatting about console to get. One guy wanted a Playstation, but didn't know whether the xbox was more worth it, what with it being cheaper. I really REALLY wanted to chirp in, but these guys looked like the kind of guys that probably wouldn't appreciate the opinion of a nerd in a tie at ten past one in the afternoon, so I just left it at that.

Is it just me who has moments like this? Where you know you can help, or you just feel the need to say something even though you know you REALLY really shouldn't?

Anyways..I played Crash Course today. All twenty minutes of it. Here's a quick summary of my feelings.

Good Stuff

• It's free!
• It's new content, no matter how much bad stuff you say about it.
• Multiple pathways add for a better experience overall, especially on Versus mode.
• New dialouge is pretty good.
• New safe room graffiti!
  

Bad Stuff

• What is it with Valve making Zoey look... weird on all of the new posters?
• IT'S. ONLY. TWO. CHAPTERS. LONG
• I feel very, VERY sorry for all the Xbox owners.
• The end finale is a bit shit really
• IT'S. ONLY. TWO. CHAPTERS. LONG
• Bit buggy, but it has only just been released.

Overall opinion? It's ok, yea. Certainly adds more onto it, I can't deny that.

Today Is A Good Day! Part 2!

A few VERY important things!

Firstly...


THE UNCHARTED 2 BETA IS OUT!

I'm downloading it now, so expect a full verdict tomorrow on what could well be the game that finally makes me cream my pants just by the loading screen. It could happen!

Secondly!
Crash course is out! The new Left 4 Dead campaign reared it's zombified head out of Valve's window. Is it any good?

.... I don't know I haven't played it yet BUT IT'S STILL OUT! I'll play it tomorrow, as seem as though I am desperate to play some Left 4 Dead as of late. I've been drooling over random mods on TF2 lately but there's enough to talk about that to fill a whole blog...

And lastly...


Charlie Brooker, who is my idol, has made a program that follows the same format as the quite frankly excellent Screenwipe that's all about games, the imaginatively named Gameswipe. It's on tonight at 10PM on BBC4 and I would recommended everyone who reads this blog to go and watch it. If you're reading after today, then I would run over to iPlayer straight away. It's going to be informative, funny and completely satirical. What more can you ask for?

Here's a sneek peak!

New PC!

So I picked up my new PC today and... wow. Crysis on high? Yes please!

So yea Crysis just looks.... wait. It's... average. Decidedly.... average.

*sighs*

Anyhoo, expect more PC related posts, especially as I'm going to be able to play Tf2 and Left 4 Dead properly for this first time in ages!

Bill Overbeck

If there's one thing I've always admired about Left 4 Dead the most it's the intense attention to detail when it comes to the survivors. And out of all of the survivors, Bill is clearly the most well imagined.

I mean come on, wouldn't you just love to have this guy as your Grandad?

Three Things

ONE I really, really want Windows 7. There's an offer with the computer I want where I can get it for a tenner with Vista (and the PC comes with Vista as standard). I don't know what it is about Windows 7, but it makes the power nerd within me scream with pleasure every time I see it.

TWO Left 4 Dead on co-op at four in the morning is a lot harder than you'd think it is.

THREE I finally beat my girlfriend in gamerscore, although I had to resort to playing Kameo in order to do it D:

Peace out.

Dead Space

The survival horror genre is a dangerous territory for inexperienced developers. With so many classics embedded within it's mighty past, audience expectations are high. VERY high. In fact, they've became so high that even the two daddies of the genre have failed with their latest installments (Resident Evil 5 and Silent Hill: Homecoming).

With that in mind, Dead Space was destined to be a total flop. EA had never made a survival horror, how could they ever match the likes of Resident Evil 4 or Silent Hill 2? Well I'll tell you how. Because they're damn talented.

Dead Space is like Resident Evil 4 and Bioshock's love child... in space. From the moment you start playing it grabs you by the short ones and drags you deep into it's world, kicking and screaming. I'm not afraid to say, this game freaked me the fuck out on many, MANY occasions. It's not the whole jumping out behind you shit that gets me. It's the whole, woman standing in a blood stained corridor laughing... then shooting herself that does. The gameplay is incredible, with dismemberment being the only way to stop the deadly necromorphs from noming on your face , meaning that slicing off limbs is the primary way of killing.

In short, this is by far one of the best games I've ever played. I won't talk too much about the story, but trust me, if you're a fan of Resident Evil 4 then you'll absolutely adore this.

Dead Space

I've been meaning to play this for ages and have just never got round to it... so I'm off to play it now.

Oh, and if you exected a personal post today then well... well this is a personal post!

I'm game obsessed, didn'tcha knoo?

Left 2 Dead

Discovered today that the Xbox Version of this can be played online split-screen so me and a mate, being the old fashioned gamers that we are, decided to give it a go.

 

It was great fun. We played a full Versus game of No Mercy, me as the infected and a friend as the survivors. It was brilliant fun. However, on the last section I was pulled off a ledge by a smoker. No biggy, happens all the time. So Zoey comes to pull me up…. and walks off the edge. So now she needs saving. So Francis comes over to help. And does the same thing. Then Bill get’s pounced by the hunter.

 

Mum’s were mentioned guys. Mums.

The Humorous Dead

The last time I played Dead Rising was about… well almost a year ago I think. Yea about that. I loved it, but got stuck about an hour of the way in (the second case strand, if anyone's interested). Anyway, I only realise now (and bearing in mind I got this yesterday, which proves how little I played it the last time) that I only teetered on the edge that is Zombie Hell.

 

Ok, I understand that I’m three years behind and that everyone and their mother has finished Dead Rising but I don’t care. There is nothing more satisfying than smacking a zombie over the head with a frying pan, kicking him in the face and then mowing him down with a lawnmower. Honest, there just REALLY isn’t!

 

It’s made me hungry for Dead Rising 2 if I’m honest. The only thing that’s bothering me is, do I get it for Xbox or PS3?

 

Answers on a postcard.