XRay World

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D Review

2011-07-16T12:10:00.002+01:00

The original Ocarina of Time on the Nintendo 64 is one of my favourite games of all time so when I heard that an updated version was coming to the Nintendo 3DS I was very excited. It was probably one of the deciding factors that made me buy the console if truth be told. But could a 13 year old game still hold its own against modern day RPGs and games? The answer is a resounding, Yes!

The game has been totally revamped for the 3DS with new graphics, controls and 3D visuals and it is a joy to play and watch. If anything the game is easier to control with the bottom screen on the 3DS being used to manage your equipment and perform certain actions. The only thing that hasn't been updated is the soundtrack for the game which is still the original score. This is a shame as a new symphonic suite would have been nice but I suppose it stirs the old memories when the original tunes are played.

The game itself is all but identical to the original game (there is an unlockable Master Quest mode, which makes it harder) and it is an interesting engaging story with lots of characters and locations to explore. The puzzles are tricky and from an older generation where you have to use your brain to progress and sometimes you may find yourself a bit stuck after being used to the spoon-fed style of modern gaming.

One problem I do have is that whilst it is nice to be able to carry around a version of the game in your pocket the old fashioned save system is still employed so if you only have 15 minutes to play, save and quit out, then you will be dumped back at the beginning of your current dungeon on some occasions which is a little annoying. I recommend a lot of use of the 3DSs sleep mode.

Overall Ocarina of Time is a fantastic game that really shows the power and potential of the Nintendo 3DS. The original game is one of the most beloved games of all time and in many ways this version improves on it. Game of 2011 already?
9.5/10

Child Of Eden

2011-07-03T08:55:00.002+01:00

Child Of Eden is that latest game from the creators of old school classic Rez and is a music based on the rails hypnotic shooter. There is a mumbo-jumbo story of a girl being trapped in a future Internet and its your job to defeat the system and free her, or something (the intro movie looks pretty gorgeous). The game is pretty simple to play but difficult to master and probably best played with Kinect as the motion tracking works really well and makes you feel like a conductor of a trippy orchestra. The game is split into a series of levels and you have to work your way to the end shooting away in time with the J-Poppy tunes. Its a lot of fun to play and looks stunning with some of the most psychedelic visuals you will find on the 360. Its a shame there is only a handful of level each lasting around 10 minutes but you can replay to try and increase your highest score and unlock various bonuses. Child of Eden is fun to play and a virtually unique experience and definitely more of a "proper" game than many of the Kinect titles available.
8/10

Lego Star Wars 3: The Clone Wars 3DS

2011-07-03T08:46:00.003+01:00

I have dabbled with the Star Wars games. They are a nice distraction from hardcore gaming. You cannot lose and can be played when you just want to unwind. This is the first Star Wars game on the 3DS and it does a great job of capturing the spirit of the big Console version of the game. Gameplay as usual consists of moving through levels based around the Film/TV series and using the powers of each Star Wars character to solve the puzzle and collecting various Lego pieces. Its good enjoyable basic fun its just a bit of a shame the levels take a reasonably long time to complete and there are no mid-level saves, which is a bit of an oversight on a portable device where short sharp gaming is king.

On a whole Lego Stars Wars 3 is a solid game for the 3DS with some good 3D effects and is a good time waster for any 3DS owner to have.
7.5/10

3DS Game Review Roundup

2011-06-19T08:50:00.003+01:00

A catch-up on some of the launch titles and first phase releases for the 3DS

Pilotwings Resort – A great technical demonstration of what the 3DS can do with lovely graphics and stunning 3D. Pilotwings is fun but also frustrating to play as it is not a game you can truly love as it is broken down into couple of minute missions and therefore feels a little bitty. A good launch title and worth having in your collection 7.5/10

Super Street Fighter IV:3D Edition – A very comprehensive version of Street Fighter IV which looks stunning on the 3DS and is a great game to show off to mates. All the classic SF gameplay is there and the game is packed with characters and options. It even plays well online. 7.5/10

Ridge Racer 3D – A racer for the 3DS and whilst looking good in 3D the game itself feels very old tired and basic. The drifting mechanic is a bit silly and racing games have moved on a lot. Still if you fancy a racer for your 3DS this is probably the one to get. 6/10

Pro Evolution Soccer 2011 3D – A stripped down version of the console Pro Evolution Soccer which is a solid football game. The only problem is the normal camera view for playing looses much of the 3D effect and the only way to play in decent looking 3D is an over the shoulder player view which makes the game very tough but also a bit sickly with all the swishing camera moves. 7/10

Steel Diver – An interesting and unique game which again feels more like a technical demo of the 3DS’s visuals than a fully rounded game. There are several game modes to keep you interested and all are fun but somehow the game feels a little light on content but worth having if you fancy a different sort of game. 7.5/10

Coming Soon... The Legend Of Zelda : Ocarina Of Time 3D review

Duke Nukem Forever Review

2011-06-18T16:56:00.002+01:00

There was a review embargo on this game until day of release in the UK. I had the game on Pre-order because I was a big fan of the original Duke Nukem games and as my order entered shipping the Reviews begun to come out. And they were terrible, proclaiming this game one of the worst of the year. I regretted my decision but the game came the next day and I thought it was best to make up my own mind so I installed it on my 360 hard drive and gave it a go. I'm glad I did and I'm glad I exercised my own opinion and its not as bad as the critics would have you believe.

This is a traditional old school First Person Shooter with little in the way of nuance or craft. Its a series of corridors and rooms where you have to clear out the waves of bad guys and move on. The graphics aren't the best, it feels old and very shoddy compared to modern games. Theres a point near the start where you are in a lift and you can see your reflection in a mirror and if you jump you can see a laughable reflection of Duke Nukem lifting his legs up in a comedic animation. Levels are very blocky and lacking in texture. Its very disappointing but somehow seems to fit the old fashioned style of gaming. Is this a strange homage?

Gameplay is pretty basic but fun and when you get down to it fun is what its all about surely? This game will win no awards. It feels half baked and out of touch with today's games but again, I have played it and I have enjoyed it. I cannot quite put my finger on why it keeps me playing but it does. I suggest renting or waiting till it hits bargain bins (probably in the next week) and check it out. If you look beyond its failings there is a half decent FPS in here.
6.5/10

L.A. Noire Review

2011-06-14T07:33:00.003+01:00

L.A. Noire comes from Rockstar games, the people who brought you the Grand Theft Auto games and whilst it shares many similarities with GTA those expecting a GTA experience will be in for a surprise as the game has a whole different feel and purpose.

L.A. Noire is set in 1940's L.A. and you play the part of a beat cop on return from the war and the game tracks your progression from normal cop through to detective and beyond. The game is broken down into cases and each case involves investigating various crime scenes looking for clues and gathering evidence, questioning suspects and witnesses and also chases and shoot outs. It is a game that tests your brain more than your ability to waggle a joypad. You have to pay attention to the evidence, the twitches of the people you interview and fit together the case so you can charge the correct person. This part of the game feels totally new and fresh and is very entertaining.

Though the game is set in the massive sprawling city of L.A. it is not as "sandpit" as the GTA games. Beyond driving around the city to get to crime scenes there is little to do in the city apart from discovering some famous landmarks and finding hidden cars. This takes some adjustment after the fun of causing chaos in GTA, but as I have said before, this is not a GTA game.

The game looks and plays lovely. The facial capture technology is the best I have seen in a game and each character comes to life with great voice acting (you'll probably recognise a lot of the cast from Mad Men and other TV and films).

L.A. Noire is a great game but I can't help thinking it just falls slightly short of being an amazing game. I wish more was made of L.A. as a whole and there were more interesting things to do in the city. The game does have a unique feel and mode of play and this will keep you hooked and you will enjoy it a lot but there is just a little bit of something missing to take it to the next level but this game is still highly recommended.
8.5/10

Brink Review

2011-05-30T08:46:00.003+01:00

Brink is a marmite game. You will either love it or hate it. There doesn't seem to be a point in between, it is love or hate.

Brink is an online team based First Person Shooter in the same vein as Team Fortress or Shadowrun (one of my favourite games of all time). You pick a side and then pick from one of the 4 character classes and jump into the action. Gameplay at first feels a bit lumpy and slow but once you get used to it the speed and movement is just about right. Brink has a couple of new features such as the ability to "free run" around the level and your character can leap across large gaps, grasping for railings and scale walls and hop over stuff. It makes for much more dynamic gameplay.

The game itself is spread over 8 or so maps as you can battle from either factions perspective and each map consists of a number of objectives. There are no Deathmatch games here. It is all about team work and working your way through a map destroying objectives, protecting certain areas from attack or protecting VIPs. I think the Modern Warfare crowd find this part of the game the hardest part to come to terms with. Modern Warfare is more about solo, rapid-fire, spawn, dash, kill and move but Brink is much more mission based and team work is essential to win each map.

Brink has many customization options. You can completely design your character and even your weapons. There is a level progression system that allows you to upgrade your character and get new skills. The level cap is currently set at Level 20 which is quite easy to hit after a couple of weeks but hopefully that will be increased in a future update.

When I first bought Brink I wasn't sure about it. It didn't feel right. It was way too complicated and I felt lost. But I gave it time and continued to play and then it clicked. Brink is a brilliant FPS. It is something different from all the other online FPS out there and it is an acquired taste but once you acquire that taste you will fall in love with this great game.
9/10

Review Roundup (Portal 2,Dragon Age 2)

2011-05-15T08:48:00.004+01:00

Portal 2 - When this was announced I wasn't sure if I should get this. I had completed the original Portal and really enjoyed it but for some reason I couldn't get excited about more puzzles. I play games to relax and unwind, not to get frustrated with complex problems. But for some reason as the release date for Portal 2 approached I started to get more and more interested and excited and eventually threw caution to the wind and decided to order it. This was one of the best decisions I have ever made. Portal 2 is simply a stunning game.
The basis of the game is the same, you move from one puzzle room to the next, but the design and characterization in the game has gone to the next level. There is a proper story in here with interesting and funny characters. The game is virtually perfect, with puzzles just pitched at the right level where you have to flex your brain matter a bit but all solvable and within reach.
With addition of a great Co-Op mode and all the other enhancement's this is simply one of the best games I have ever played and an instant classic that will have you puzzling and laughing all at the same time. 9.5/10

Dragon Age II
I love the RPG's from Bioware and Mass Effect 2 is one of my favourite games ever, however I didn't really get into the original Dragon Age. It was a bit fiddly and none of it compelled me to continue on beyond the first couple of hours of gameplay. I had high hopes for Dragon Age 2. DA2 is an improvement but is still not quite there for me.
The mechanics of the game have been improved and its a lot more fun to play and feels a little less chaotic in battle and the inventory and attributes section have been streamlined a bit so you are not fighting them as much as the monsters but the game itself still has lots of issues which stop it from becoming a great game. The story feels a bit low key and unfulfilling and you soon become bored of the internal racial politics of the world and just want an epic story but most of the game is wandering around the same city doing the same tasks over and over again. When you do leave the city you tend to find yourself in identikit cave systems, fighting the same battles, and then juggling which items you'd like to keep and which you have to drop.
It had a lot of potential and I do enjoy the game in small doses but the whole thing lacks the polish I like from a game. It feels like development was rushed out, which is a real shame as some of the characters in the game are very engaging but overall the game is lacking and could have done with another 6 months in development, some tweaks to the system, and also a more Epic storyline. 6.5/10

3DS Review

2011-04-02T08:35:00.005+01:00

After a week of playing with my 3DS I thought I'd give a little review on the Pro's and Con's of the system.

Pros;
The 3D-Very clever and literally adds a new dimension to games
The Bundled Software-You can have a lot of fun with your 3DS even if you don't have a game. Face Raiders and the Augmented Reality games are great.
Online-You now have a single Friend code and the new User Interface allows you to see what your friends are playing (and communicate with them in a near future update)
Its even fun when its Off-When you close your 3DS it goes to sleep but will communicate with other gamers when you walk around, downloading their Mii and allowing you to use it in a Mii Quest adventure game and sometimes plays against them with certain games. It even counts your steps and gives you game coins to spend in certain titles.
Future Games-Kid Icarus is looking good and of course soon you will get to play an updated version of Zelda:Ocarina of Time in full 3D!

Cons;
Battery Life-Needs a charge every day or two
Launch Line Up-Whilst no AAA must have title there are some good games to enjoy on there such as Pilot Wings and Street Fighter 3D
Missing Features-Some of the features such as Web Browser and Messenger are not currently available but are due for a System Update in the near future

The 3DS is a great portable games console. Its small, looks good, has some good games and the 3D will blow your mind a bit when you first see it. Get one, add me as a friends and lets StreetPass someday. 9/10

ps My 3DS friends code is 3DS Friend Code: 0602-6248-4459. Whats yours?

3DS Friend Code

2011-03-26T08:37:00.001Z

The other day I made the mistake of actually going into town and having a trial go on a Nintendo 3DS. The 3D just blew me away so I made crazy plans, sold of my DS Lite, some games and pre-ordered one! It came yesterday and I must say I am totally impressed. The 3D is a sight to behold and the games and features are a whole lot of fun. Anyone else got one? If so add me. My 3DS Friend Code is 0602-6248-4459.

Early 2011 Review Round Up

2011-03-05T08:03:00.005Z

2011 has been a good year so far for games. Here are some of my experiences;

Gran Turismo 5-I've always admired Gran Turismo games, and even enjoyed them in the good old days of GT2 and the original Playstation. Back then it seemed fresh and I was blown away by how something this "realistic" was available to play on a how video console. Gran Turismo 5, whilst very shiny, seems like more of the same. Its a game many many years in development that seems stuck in time. It feels like I have played this game many many times before, its the same cars, the same structure, the same tracks etc. The game is a real looker and the choice of cars is amazing and you do get the odd thrill when you nail that corner you've been struggling with but this is a racing game where you feel like you are racing against yourself and not against the other cars on the track. Its the same set up as old GT games, you have a basic car that struggles in a race but you gain some credits, you then modify the car, re-do the race, do a little better until your car is way faster than the rest of the field, win the race and move on. Its an exercise in repetition rather than skill and exciting races. Its not a bad game. I've just a bit "been there, done that". 7/10

Dead Space 2-I skipped Dead Space 1 for some reason. I must have been busy playing a load of other games or washing my hair or something but it sort of slipped through my net. I heard good things about it but never got round to buying it. This time I decided to delve into the Dead Space universe and check out Dead Space 2. I wasn't disappointed. Dead Space 2 is an action survival horror game and its a lot of fun. Dead Space 2 is all about working your way through a lot of dark corridors, shooting creatures and solving the odd puzzle. Its been done a million times before but Dead Space 2 does it so well. The combat is fun and varied and some of the set pieces are very exciting and it looks gorgeous. It does drag on a bit and you are willing it to finish towards the end of the game when you are confronted with repeating situations where you are dropped into an enclosed space with limited ammo and required to take out wave after wave of enemy. Dead Space 2 is well worth checking out if you are a fan of gory sci-fi, with the odd jumpy moment and high production values. 8/10

Marvel Vs Capcom 3-I played the recent Street Fighter IV games. They looked great but I found them to be way too hardcore for me. The moves were difficult to pull off on a standard 360 controller and whilst I enjoyed them I felt like I was fumbling about too much and mainly mashing my way through them. Marvel Vs Capcom 3 takes all that was good from SFIV mixes in all that was good from Marvel Vs Capcom 2 and comes up with one of the most fun and accessible beat em up's for years. This is a game that you can have fun dabbling with but also has the depth to allow proficient players to master the game. The game looks lovely and some of the special moves are amazingly over the top. If you don't have a Beat Em Up in your collection then buy this game. 8.5/10

2010 : Game Review

2010-12-20T11:24:00.004Z

2010 has been another good year for gaming and here are my thoughts on the best games of 2010

Mass Effect 2 - A massive improvement on the first Mass Effect game. This refined the experience and gave one of the most enjoyable experiences I have played all year. I cannot wait for ME3 GAME OF 2010

Red Dead Redemption - Grand Theft Horse. A great story on a massive open world environment. Riding into the sunset has never been more fun

Rock Band 3 - The latest version of Rock Band combined a new selection of great songs with a much better structure and interface to give the ultimate Band game

Halo:Reach - The swansong of the Halo franchise is easily the best FPS of 2010 combining an engaging story with an exhaustive Multiplayer component. Great

Assassins Creed:Brotherhood - Whilst not grabbing me as much as Assassins Creed 2 did AC:Brotherhood is still a great game with lot of extra tweaks and gameplay additions to draw you back in

Alan Wake - The long awaited survival horror game was a lot of fun to play delving into the dark depth of the imagination of a horror author

Fable 3 - Another adventurous Tale from Albion where the player was made to make some difficult moral choice but still have a lot of fun farting at townsfolk. A lot of fun

The Sims 3 -I have always loved Sims games and this addition was even fun to play on a console. A great non-game

Heavy Rain - More of an interactive movie than a game but this game looked lovely and had an enthralling story and also some very tense and moving moments

Lips:I Love The 80’s - The best Karaoke game on the 360. Fact

Kinect - Although not killer game as yet the Kinect is an amazing piece of kit allowing gesture and voice control of your 360 and a raft of fun part games

2010 : Music Review

2010-12-20T11:09:00.003Z

2010 was another good year for alternative music and also was the year I rediscovered my love for Metal

Girl Talk "All Day" - The ultimate party album of 2010 mixing Hip-Hop with Dance and Pop hits. Clever stuff.

Gaslight Anthem "American Slang" - Not as raw as The 59 Sound but still full of great songs and energy.

Surfer Blood "Astro Coast" - Upbeat Guitar music that reminded me of Pixies.

Vampire Weekend "Contra" - Whilst not having the surprise factor of their debut "Contra" is still a good album mixing different styles of music

Enforcer "Diamonds" - Part of the New Wave of Traditional Heavy Metal this Swedish band are full of great songs and riffs

Various "Eclipse Soundtrack" - Another great soundtrack of indie and alternative hits that suit the film perfectly

No Age "Everything In Between" - More focused than previous No Age albums. Art Rock with tunes.

Iron Maiden "The Final Frontier" - Iron Maidens latest album is a modern day classic with great epic song after song

Deerhunter "Halycon Digest" - Deerhunters best album with some fantastic songs and moods. A Sonic Youth for the 2010s

Normand Corbiel "Heavy Rain Soundtrack" - A lot of Heavy Rains emotion and character came from this moving soundtrack. My game Soundtrack of 2010

The National "High Violet" - The National have made a succession of fantastic albums but surely they couldn't repeat this on the latest? They did. Superb. ALBUM OF 2010

Superchunk "Majesty Shredding" - Old school American Indie rock full of great catchy guitar led songs

Robert Pollard "Moses On A Snail" - Robert Pollards most introspective album of 2010. This was his most downbeat but still mainted the RP feel

Yeasayer "Odd Blood" - A brave new direction for Yeasayer with a good mix of dance and electronic music into the mix but also some great songs

Boston Spaceships "Our Cubehouse Still Rocks" - The Boston Spaceships release another mighty fine slice of Garage Rock

White Wizzard "Over The Top" - Another great modern Metal record that harks back to the glory days of Metal in the 80s

Gorillaz "Plastic Beach" - Probably Gorillaz most acomplished album. Good stuff

Arcade Fire "The Suburbs" - Another great Arcade Fire album that manages to top "Neon Bible". Sometimes a bit less is a bit more

Beach House "Teen Dream" - Haunting spooky off kilter lullabies

Sleigh Bells "Treats" - Speaker blowing shouty indie fun ride

Robert Pollard "We All Got Out Of The Army" - Another Robert Pollard classic as usual fun of crazy songs and catchy melodies

Disappointments of 2010

Sufjan Stevens "The Age of Adz" - There are some good songs on here but his toe dipping into electronic backing left me a little cold. Easy to admire but hard to love

MGMT "Congratulations" - Not a patch on the debut album. This was a confused mess

2010 : Film Review

2010-12-20T11:03:00.003Z

2010 has had some great films, most of which I do not seem to have got round to watching yet but of the ones I did this is my pick

Kick Ass - Highly entertaining and fun. Great story and direction

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World - Inventive story and amazing direction with a sweet story, great soundtrack and superb action. MOVIE OF 2010

Up In the Air - One of the most funny and charming films of 2010

Inception - Mind bending action full of dreams within dreams and clever ideas

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo - Dark and intriguing brutal thriller

Twilight Eclipse - Though not my favourite of the series so far this had some good action scenes and a good story

Remember Me - This took me by surprise and turned out to be an affecting and moving film

Ultramarines - A must for fans of budget Gothic Sci-Fi animation. Fun

Review Roundup, Late 2009 to Mid 2010 pt.2

2010-07-10T11:15:00.001+01:00

I also played some PS3

Heavy Rain
Heavy Rain is probably the best games I've played on my PS3. Its like playing/watching a great suspsense novel. The controls can be a bit fiddly and certain areas drag but overall this was a tense and enjoyable game. 9/10

Review Roundup, Late 2009 to Mid 2010

2010-07-09T08:54:00.005+01:00

XRayWorld has been dormant for a few months but here is a quick review round up of what I have been playing;

Assassins Creed 2
Takes what was good in the first game and adds a more focused and interesting story and comes up with a classic. 9/10

Avatar
Cheap Movie tie-in. Ropey graphics and repetitive play. Such a waste. 4/10

Mass Effect 2
The original Mass Effect was a good game let down by clunky controls and menu systems. Mass Effect 2 is a sleek wonderous update with a great story and fantastic gameplay. One of my favourite games of all time. 9.5/10

Splinter Cell:Conviction
Splinter Cell games have always been sort of fun but also sort of too tough. Conviction makes the gameplay a lot more fun and a lot less tough making it a better game. 8/10

Final Fantasy XIII
High Hopes. Slightly Dashed. I love Japanese RPG's but FFXIII felt a little tired and a little repetitive. A nonsensical story and the most linear game I have ever played. It has its moments and I did sort of enjoy it but it was short of being the epic classic I had hoped. 7/10

Alan Wake
Great spooky game where Twin Peaks meets Lost with a dash of Silent Hill. A great game of 2010 and well worth the wait. 8.5/10

Super Streetfigter IV Review
An update to Streetfighter IV which adds more characters and stuff. Still too tough to play with a normal controller. 7/10

Red Dead Redemption Review
Grand Theft Auto goes Wild West. Fantastic game, dripping with atmosphere, with a great story and great graphics and gameplay. Superb. 10/10

Whatever Happened to XRayWorld?

2010-04-04T10:46:00.002+01:00

It's been a long long time since I updated XRayWorld. Gaming has actually been good over the last couple of months I've just been very busy/lazy. Lots of reviews and opinions to follow. Keep an eye on the Blog!

2009 : Game of 2009

2010-02-07T07:55:00.002Z

The votes are still coming in for the Poll. The Poll that was missing one important game of 2009. A game I didn't play until very late in the year but a game after careful consideration is the game of 2009. Forget your Call of Duty:Modern Warfare 2's and your Borderlands, the game of 2009 is Assassins Creed 2. A great game, with great graphics and great story and the sort of gameplay that is pick up and play but also has depth to it. I loved every minute of it and once I'd finished the story I wanted it to continue even longer. The XRayLexx game of 2009 is Assassins Creed 2.

2009 : Music Review

2009-12-31T10:13:00.002Z

2009 has been a great year for music and it was hard to narrow down all the great albums released this year into the short(ish) list below;

Pearl Jam “Backspacer” - Pearl Jam return to form with this album and deliver their best in a good few years

Dirty Projectors “Bitte Orca” - A good blend of musical styles (indie R&B anyone) and a great collection of songs

Paramore “Brand New Eyes” - Catchy pop rock that may even top Riot!

Robert Pollard “The Crawling Distance” - Pollards most complete album of the year.

Various “Dark Was The Night” - A great compilation highlighting some of the top bands of 2009

Robert Pollard “Elephant Jokes” - Jam packed with Pollard goodness taking you back to the feelings of Alien Lanes and that era.

Sonic Youth “The Eternal” - The aging art rockers return with some of their best material since their early 90s output

Vivian Girls “Everything Goes Wrong” - Scratchy and lo-fi but catchy basic punk pop

Circus Devils “Gringo” - The Circus Devils almost chill out on their 2009 release.

The Decemberists “The Hazards Of Love” - A rock opera full of great songs and storytelling

Yeah Yeah Yeahs “Its Blitz” - The YYY's go a bit electro but still manage to maintain their energy

Great Lake Swimmers “Lost Channels” - Perhaps the most varied and interesting GLS album so far

Passion Pit “Manners” - One of 2009s biggest trends was a mix of indie/alternative music and dance. This album captured that sound perfectly

Animal Collective “Merriweather Post Pavilion” - A mix of dance, folk and alternative music this was a great album and many critics choice for album of 2009

Neko Case “Middle Cyclone” - Neko makes a wonderful americana/alt.country album full of charming songs

Various “New Moon Soundtrack” - Possibly the best soundtrack collection of the year that suits the movie perfectly

Biffy Clyro "Only Revolutions" - Imagine Snow Patrol with Balls.

Boston Spaceships “The Planets Are Blasted” - The Boston Spaceships first release of 2009 and packed full of garage rock anthems

Japandroids “Post Nothing” - A fuzzed up blast of punky energy

Real Estate “Real Estate” - Lo-Fi and rustic with a great mellow vibe.

John Vanderslice “Romanian Names” - Some great singer songwriting going on here

Mumford & Sons “Sigh No More” - Folky debut from up and coming band

White Lies “To Lose My Life” - Epic sounding Joy Division a-likes
Bat For Lashes “Two Suns” - A great collection of songs and features the best Karate Kid related song since "Your The Best"

Grizzly Bear “Veckatimest” - Spooky and atmospheric downbeat alternate rock

Empire Of The Sun “Walking On A Dream” - Chilled and relaxing mulitcultural chill out music. Nice make up too.

The Maccabees “Wall Of Arms” - Good old fashioned British indie album

Phoenix “Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix” - Zesty French Rockers do a mighty fine Strokes sounding album

The xx “XX” - Powerful and delicate album

The Boston Spaceships “Zero to 99” - Fantastic Boston Spaceships album that just edges it as ALBUM OF 2009

2009 : Film Review

2009-12-30T09:18:00.006Z

2009 has been quite a good year for movies and here is my shortlist for some of the best films I saw over 2009;

Inglorious Basterds - Tarantino returns with his take on a World War 2 movie. Very talky but full of great scenes and ideas. One of his best for a while.

Avatar - A Sci-Fi epic. Good story and plenty of action and looks stunning in 3D.

Star Trek - The Star Trek re-boot ticks all the right boxes. Pure entertainment. By a short nose this is my MOVIE OF 2009.

The Boat That Rocked - Whimsical but sort of reminded me of a Wes Anderson movie at times.

Watchmen - My favourite Graphic Novel gets put on the screen with stunning results.

New Moon - Probably the most downbeat blockbuster but a nice romance with some good action too.

Anvil - Great documentary about long lost Metal band. Funny and sad all at the same time.

Slumdog Millionaire - Fantastic Story thats both gritty and mainstream at the same time.

Terminator:Salvation - Not rated by the Critics but personally I found this a perfect 90s action movie throwback that does exactly what it says on the tin.

District 9 - A mixture of Action flick and social commentary. Great stuff.

There are also a few great films that came out in 2009 that I haven't seen yet but wish to see sometime soon; Fantastic Mr Fox, The Hangover, Where The Wild Things Are, Adventureland, Zombieland, The Hurt Locker and Funny People. Who knows one of these may end up being Movie of 2009 instead?

2009 : Game Of The Year Nominations

2009-12-28T09:04:00.003Z

Its been an on-off year for gaming with me. I've done a lot of gaming but I have also gone through long periods of gaming inactivity. Here are my nominations for Game of 2009;

Borderlands - Great fun post apocalyptic game. Good in single player but excellent in Co-Op.

Left 4 Dead 2 - Takes what made the original L4D excellent and fine tunes it. Kinda tough though.

Modern Warfare 2 - The big one of the year. Great single player campaign and popular online game.

Brutal Legend - You favourite Rock cliches made into a game. Very funny.

Batman:Arkham Asylum - Deep and involving Batman adventure.

Halo 3:ODST - Trimmed down game set in the Halo Universe. Short but sweet.

Ghostbusters - Captures the spirit of the film perfectly. Bustin' makes you feel good.

Resident Evil 5 - The most cinematic and action heavy Resident Evil yet.

Street Fighter 4 - Chunky cool new look to old school scrapper.

Halo Wars - Real Time Strategy in the Halo Universe.

Choices, Choices.

40,000 Barrier Broken!

2009-12-23T07:12:00.002Z

Done it! Finally! 40,000 has finally been achieved by playing some Avatar last night (not a terrible game).

Coming soon...The end of year Best Of's......

Can I Hit 40,000 Before 2010?

2009-12-16T19:55:00.002Z

My gamerscore currently stands at 39,820 and my aim is go get the final 180 gamerscore before 2010 hits in a couple of weeks. Any suggestions for games that give good gamerscore? Blood Bowl is impossible to get points from.

Left 4 Dead 2 Review

2009-12-11T07:44:00.002Z

Left 4 Dead was certainly a big surprise game last year. It did something interesting and fresh with the FPS genre, creating something simple to play but at the same time unique and most importantly of all Fun to play. Left 4 Dead 2 is more of the same.

The gameplay is pretty much the same, the graphics looks a bit tweaked and detailed, and new monsters have been added to the mix along with 5 new campaigns to play through and some new game modes.

The game still plays the same but I feel like they have tweaked the difficulty up a notch or two and in certain maps it is tough to get to the end even on the Normal mode. The hordes of zombies seem to come at you a lot more, and sometimes you are fighting off a couple of Tanks at once and your team will die and have to respawn way back at the start of the level. This can make L4D2 a much more frustrating experience that the original L4D.

However if you are a L4D veteran you will loves the new tweaks to the game and look forward to some new levels to shoot zombies in. Online this game easily beats Modern Warfare.

8.5/10

Blood Bowl Review

2009-12-10T07:31:00.002Z

Many many moons ago I used to play Blood Bowl. It was a board game and is a sort of violent fantasy American football with lots of rules and dice rolling. Blood Bowl is the board game in computer form and it follows the rules of the original game exactly. You even hear and see the dice rolling and the results. It’s a game of strategy but also a game of chance.

The presentation of the game is a bit bland, menus look like 10 year old PC menus, and the game itself looks okay but lacks any real character or zip. The stadiums are a little bland, the players a bit one-dimensional and lacking in any varying animations however it does capture the board game perfectly.

The game is very tough. I have been playing it over a week and have only won 1 or 2 games. Just when you think you have nailed down the tactics you fumble a ball and the opposing team have scored a Touchdown. It can be frustrating and has one of the steepest learning curves and toughest difficulties I have seen on a video game. If you can persevere and look beyond its presentational faults you can get sucked in and addicted to the game and appreciate it for what it is but it’s not a game for the casual player of faint of heart.

7/10

DJ Hero Review

2009-12-08T19:45:00.002Z

Just when you thought you had bought enough plastic instruments along comes a new piece of kit, the DJ turntable to add to the pile and take up more space in the spare room/under the bed.

DJ Hero is a game where you work your way through a number of mixes and mash-ups of some pretty well known songs and tunes. It’s a much stripped down game with no real career mode as such, you are just presented with an ever unlocking list of DJ sets which you work your way through and move on.

The mixing itself is a lot of fun but does have a steep learning curve and at first it feels like patting your head whilst rubbing your stomach. It follows a similar pattern to other music games with you hitting certain notes at certain times but adding elements such as scratching, cross-fading and tweaking sounds. There is a lot to take in but once you pick it up it all flows nicely and you will find yourself bobbing along to the beats and hitting all the scratches.

Compared to Rock Band/Guitar Hero it does feel new and fresh but it somehow lacks that extra bit of atmosphere which those games have. It’s fun to play but feels a bit clinical at times and lacking in presentation.

A nice game to impress your mates at a party but not something they can just pick up and play.

7.5/10

Call of Duty:Modern Warfare 2 Review

2009-12-07T18:34:00.003Z

The original Modern Warfare was a massive smash and was in the games charts and online charts for many many months and has been the only real contender to steal Halo’s crown as being the most popular online shooter. Modern Warfare 2 continues the story from where MW left off and also expands on the online game. It’s the biggest game of 2009.

The game comes across like a huge Hollywood spectacular action movie. It’s big and loud and brash. Your eyes will be assaulted with some of the most wonderful graphics and cut scenes and your speakers will probably shake themselves free of their fixings. In the single player campaign get ready for several hours of non-stop gunfire rattling around your living room.

The single player is a great game. It looks lovely and plays perfectly but you do hit moments of frustration where the difficulty seems to ramp up and you find yourself doing the same section over and over hoping a random hail of bullets doesn’t cut you down. Also the story can be a little confusing. I can follow difficult plots and films but at times I had no idea who I was in this game and why I was assaulting a certain enemy base. I’m sure it all makes perfect sense but the logic and story seemed to be buried under the noise of explosions and chaos on screen.

Online the game is very similar to the last game and I’m sure MW fans will love playing with the news maps and perks. Personally I am not a massive fan of the Modern Warfare online experience. It is too chaotic. Shots ring out from every direction and it’s a spawn, run, shoot, re-spawn experience. A lot of people like this but I prefer my FPS online action a little more tactical, a little more slowed down, a game with well defined objectives and sides where you work as a team. In Modern Warfare you can be shot from any angle and you have no real sense of your side and their position never mind the enemies. It is however a very slick and fun game online.

Overall Modern Warfare 2 is an excellent and polished game. It’s like a Michael Bay film on screen. Not very subtle. Loud. But thrilling and fun.

9/10

Borderlands Review

2009-12-06T09:46:00.003Z

Borderlands is probably the closest the X-Box 360 is going to get to a World Of Warcraft MMO at the moment. Well, World of Warcraft in a post apocalyptic First Person Shooter sci-fi setting, with guns and jeeps and crazy bandits. Borderlands can be played as a single player experience but compared to other single player FPS’s it doesn’t quite match up. It does however come into its own when played as a co-operative experience with 2 to 4 players.

It is basically a looting and adventuring game. You (and your group) have a number of missions to complete and in doing so your will receive money and weapons and armour and also stats to upgrade your character with new skills and powers. The sheer amount of weaponry can be daunting at times and you can spend large parts of the game stood around sifting through your inventory puzzling over which guns to keep and which to discard. Gamers not used to this stop-starty approach to their running and gunning may find the experience a little frustrating but if you are an obsessive collector and tweaker than you will be in micro-management heaven.

Borderland looks lovely. It has its own unique style of graphics. It all looks like something from the pages of 2000AD or a graphic novel. The game plays well and works reasonably well as a FPS but you can almost hear virtual dice being rolled in the background.

Overall Borderlands is an interesting and fun game. It is not without its faults (I’ve had some network issues and disconnects which have led to a character progress being lost) but it feels like a new and fresh experience which straddles nicely the genres of FPS and Looting games. As a single player experience I would mark it down a score or two but as an online Co-Op game its one of the best you can get on the 360

8.5/10

Reviews Incoming

2009-12-06T08:58:00.002Z

With my new busy/crazy lifestyle Ive found it hard to find time to write reviews and blog about gaming but I have upcoming reviews of Borderlands,,DJ Hero Review,Call of Duty:Modern Warfare 2,Left 4 Dead 2 and Blood Bowl in the coming week. Keep your eye on the Blog and comments appreciated.

Lips:Number One Hits Review

2009-11-08T14:48:00.003Z

Lips was always a guilty pleasure for me. Have a few drinks and work up a bit of dutch courage and stick in Lips and sings along to a lot of cheesy pop. It had its faults, slow menus, bland presentation and such like but it did its job. Lips:Number One Hits is the follow up and is pretty similar though the whole interface has been spruced up. It looks a lot nicer, has a bit more polish, has Avatar support, allows you to assign mic's to gamertags, and shows your world ranking as you are singing the song. You can also use all your Lips DLC with it and use the old Lips songs on the disc with a bit of disc swapping.

Number One Hits is definitely an improvement over the first Lips and its good simple fun and a good drunken party game.

7.5/8

Brutal Legend Review

2009-11-08T14:34:00.002Z

Do you like Heavy Metal? Do you like Jack Black? Do you like wonderfully designed and well written Video games? Then you should like Brutal Legend.

Brutal Legend is an adventure set in a land based on every Rock and Metal cliche going. The land looks like the cover of many album cover and all the characters are based on rock stereotypes (along with a few real rock god appearances). You are placed in the role of Jack Blacks character, a roadie, and its up to you to save the land from Evil.

There's a large area to explore and you can play the game as you like, exploring and completing side quests until you decide to take on the next part of the main story. The story itself is brilliantly written. Its very funny and has the feel of a good Hollywood blockbuster. The game itself reminds me a bit of Kameo but a lot more polished and a lot more variety. Some parts of the game are simple hack and slash sections, some are racing, some are collecting, and some are a strange sort of Real Time Strategy and combat sections.

Brutal Legends probably didn't appear on a lot of peoples radars but its a very good game and is one of the better games in recent years and well worth trying out.

8.5/10

Games Completed. New Games Being Played.

2009-10-22T07:44:00.002+01:00

Finished the Campaign mode of ODST. Short and sweet and doesnt outstay its welcome but need to rack up some more hours on Firefight online. I have bought a couple of new games including Brutal Legend (A whole heap of fun, get it) and Borderlands should be arriving today (Postal strike depending). Its getting chilly outside so its time to turn that 360 on some more.

Halo ODST Review

2009-10-12T21:26:00.002+01:00

Halo ODST is a standalone expansion for Halo 3 and places you in the role of an orbital drop trooper. You are a normal soldier and not a superhuman like Mr Master Chief so firefights are a bit trickier as you are not as tough and don't have the benefit of a recharging shield. The game is set up with a city hub section where you wander around as "The Rookie" trying to piece together the aftermath of your drop and what happened to the rest of your team. When you find a clue the game jumps and tells the story of a different drop trooper. Its a clever idea and quite well done as it gives different perspectives on the battle.

Halo ODST plays very much like Halo 3 but feels a tiny bit harder due to your character being weaker than Master Chief but if you like Halo 3 you will be loving this game. The campaign is short and sweet but the main thrust of the game is the new Firefight mode which is like a survival/horde mode and as a bonus you also get a disk with the entire Halo 3 multiplayer component. This includes every map released and some bonus ones and this is worth the price of admission alone.

If you can track this down for around the £30 mark you will have got yourself a bargain for the interesting Campaign mode, the fun new Firefight mode and all the Halo 3 maps! Recommended

8/10

Batman:Arkham Ayslum Review

2009-10-11T11:09:00.002+01:00

Batman Arkham Asylum sort of came out of nowhere. It had little hype and people thought it was just going to be another superhero game where the game doesn't match up to the promise. In actual fact its a great game and possibly one of the best games of 2009. It is a quality product from start to finish and is dripping with class and polish.

You play Batman as he escorts The Joker to Arkham Asylum but once there all hell breaks loose and its up to you to solve the puzzles, capture the criminals and generally kick ass.Batman is a 3rd person game and has lots of variety from straight forward hand to hand fist fights, to sneaking around, to puzzle solving and detective moments. Its constantly changing and challenging you. It reminds me a lot of a Batman version of Bioshock and has a similar feel and approach.

It looks lovely though you'll sometimes miss the graphics because you spend a lot of time in the Detective mode which flicks everything into a sort of Infra-red X-Ray version of reality.It also sounds great with a nice score and some great voice acting.

A great tale well presented and brimming with interesting and challenging game play. Get it and dont miss out.

9/10

Beatles Rock Band Review

2009-10-10T15:44:00.003+01:00

Beatles Rock Band is the latest in a long line of music games in the last couple of years. I must admit I am more of a Rock Band fan than a Guitar Hero fan. The Beatles Rock Band takes the normal music/band game set up and plays like a short Beatles Documentary. You can play a Beatles career and start at the Cavern Club and work your way through Beatles history. Between each section is a great animation and sound clips from the band. Its a very atmospheric game and you ll soon feel the part and be doing that strange nodding head move that Paul McCartney does when playing.

The game is wonderfully presented and will appeal to everyone in the family, everyone knows at least a handful of Beatles songs. Perhaps there could have been more tracks on the disk but Beatles Rock Band has few faults and is a must buy for Beatles fans or fans of music in general. A great music game.

8/10

Are We Ready For The Next-Gen Of Consoles?

2009-10-10T15:41:00.003+01:00

The 360, PS3 and Wii have been out for some time now. There are already rumours of new consoles in the horizon, maybe as close as late 2010. Are we ready for the X-Box 720, PS4 or Wii HD? Check out the new poll.

Gaining Gaming Momentum

2009-10-03T10:14:00.002+01:00

Back from a couple of weeks away on Holiday to find a nice shiney copy of Halo:ODST on the door mat. Ive played it a bit and its a good game. Halo 3 basically but different (and a lot harder). My gaming interest is beginning to grow again and been listening to a lot of 1Up Podcast and gaming more and more.

Batman and Beatles Reviews to come soon

2009-09-13T12:09:00.001+01:00

Been slowly slipping back into the world of gaming and playing lots of Batman:Arkham Asylum and Beatles Rock Band. Both excellent games and both to have reviews coming in the near future. Halo:ODST is just around the corner. Gaming is starting to get interesting again.

Its been a long Summer

2009-08-23T11:47:00.003+01:00

Yep. A long hot summer and lots of things to keep me busy, a new job and a discovery of Golf as a nice way to spend sunny days, so I've hardly had any real time to play on my X-Box 360, PS3 or Wii. There has been a lack of top quality games to get my teeth into over the summer months though I have dabbled on Wii Resort, Harry Potter and The Half Blood Prince, Battlefield 1943 and 1 vs 100 (I actually got to be in the Mob this weekend but The One cashed out early). Next week Batman:Arkham Asylum is out and its getting some superb reviews and perhaps this will get me playing a little more regularly. Fingers crossed.

2009 Dashboard Update

2009-07-30T07:46:00.002+01:00

I was one of the lucky few/million to get on the Microsoft dashboard update preview program and it downloaded yesterday and I have had a few hours to explore and tinker. Its a nice little update. Changes are quite minor and functional and a lot of people wont even notice them. The biggest change is probably the Avatar Marketplace where you can buy new clothing items for your Avatar and also Awards where certain games with give your Avatar new clothing options. One of my favourite changes however is the fact your Profile now shows how many years you've been an X-Box Live gold member. Wow, 6 years. Doesn't time fly.

Battlefield 1943 Review

2009-07-22T07:18:00.002+01:00

Battlefield 1943 is a download only game for the consoles and is a basically an old school online team based shooter. There isn't a great choice of game option, just a team capture the bases type format and only 3 maps to play. Yet, its a great deal of fun. It strips down the FPS to its core basics and all you need to know is which character types are effective and which situation and then its down to the skill of the player. Its stripped down but stripped down to the essential components that are needed to make the game fun.

The game looks reasonably good, its a clean look, almost functional but it certainly isn't ugly. The sounds are good and sometimes you'll find yourself ducking when a plane strafes above your head. It'll take you some time to get used to the fast paced game play and its sometimes best to slow down, group up with some people and take you time assaulting and defending bases. You can jump into Jeeps and Tanks and Planes but these can take a bit of getting used to.

One problem is this is a team based game and is made to be played in small combat squads but not many people use the squad option so it can be quite a quiet experience with little chat or strategy talk. Which is a big shame.

All in all the game is a lot of fun to play but needs extra content being rolled out over time to keep it fresh. Definitely worth the £10 asking price if you are a fan of old school online shooters. 8/10

1 vs 100 Ideas and Improvements

2009-07-16T07:44:00.002+01:00

I've played the main live event and played some of the Extended Plays (which are okay but a bit boring due to the lack of any consequences) and have been checking out the Xbox.com forums to see what people think of the game and see their grips and issues. Ive come up with a short list of my own on some improvements to make the game a bit better;

1. Longer time in a Pre-Lobby to get some friends together or prepare for the game to start
2. You should be able to hear The One and The Host speaking to each other, like a proper game show
3. Some way of making the quiz easier for those who find it hard to read/dyslexics etc.
4. Better Party integration/Private lobbies etc.
5. Extended Play should have eliminations for incorrect answers, perhaps with 3 lives? Just to make it more engaging.
6. Selection to be in The Mob or be The One in the main live show should not be based on your ability to attend the weekly extended sessions. It should be totally random.
7. Iron out the obvious kinks like disconnections, network errors, lack of being able to hear host
8. Keep the questions as they are, they are fine. People will always complain there are too many Sports/Movies/Games/Ballroom Dancing questions just because they don't like that topic.
9. Toilet breaks between games, perhaps with a countdown timer so you know how long you have left.

Any more?

1 vs 100 Beta Impressions

2009-07-11T10:40:00.002+01:00

1 vs 100 finally came to the UK in Beta format last night and kicked off with a 2 hours quizathon at 7.30pm. 1 vs 100 is a simple quiz format, One person is picked as "The One" and has to beat "The Mob", which is made up of 100 other players. If you don't get picked to be "The One" or "The Mob" you can play along as part of "The Crowd". Questions come thick and fast and are X,A or B multiple choice answers.

As part of Microsoft's new Primetime channel you have to log onto the game at a certain time to play. Everyone goes into the same game and you are randomly placed into either "The Crowd" or "The Mob" or if you are very very lucky as "The One" and can win prizes depending on how well you do in each round. You get placed with a few other players to chat with during the game and if you want you can collude on answers or just chat.

The game was a lot of fun and the questions seemed just right, not too hard and obscure but with the odd challenging question thrown in for good luck. I was in "The Crowd" for most of the game but I did get lucky one round and get promoted to "The Mob" and did quite well until I hit a question that totally threw me and I got eliminated.

I didn't have many problems with the game though my missus, Orchid PXL, did have some issues and did get a disconnect during the game and also didn't have any voice comms with her group which lessened the experience for her somewhat but it is only a Beta so these sort of things are to be expected.

All in all the game was a lot of fun and I cannot wait for the next episode to come round. This could turn into a very addictive hobby.

Ghostbusters Review

2009-07-09T12:36:00.003+01:00

Ghostbusters is one of my all time favourite films, I watched it when it first came out at the Cinema way back in 1984 and I can remember sitting in the cinema and getting excited when the old lady in the Library goes Shhhhh! and the Ghostbusters theme kicks in. Superb stuff. The Ghostbusters game comes on a renewed wave of Ghostbusters interest, a new game, talk of a new film and even a parody song for a directory enquiries service. Why the sudden interest in all things to do with Bustin' Ghosts?

The game takes place a couple of years after the events of Ghostbusters 2 and places you in the role of a new Ghostbusting recruit. All the characters are back including the original actors voicing them (well, everyone apart from Sigourney Weaver). The script and story were written by Akroyd and Ramis and its very funny and witty and totally in keeping with the movies. You really feel you are taking part in the next logical step in the Ghostbusters story. The music is there, the sound effects are there, the locations and ghosts are all there. Its an amazingly atmospheric and a great trip down memory lane.

The game is quite linear with you being led a long a roller coaster ride of intrigue and ghostbusting. They game makers have captured the dynamic and feel of capturing a ghost with you pushing out a trap and then using your Proton stream to wear them down and then hold them and then trap them. You also get different proto stream upgrades and options to add some variety. The game is a lot of fun and looks and sounds great (even better if you are on 360). It involves lots of exploring and using your PKE meter to track ghosts and haunted artifacts and being carried along with the excellent storyline.

I have had a couple of minor problems with the game, it has frozen mid-play and once I got stuck in a scene and the next section wouldn't kick in so I had to reload a checkpoint but apart from these its been a joy to play and is a very slick and well put together package.

Overall the Ghostbusters game is a real fun ride. If you are a fan of the movies or of Bill Murray or just a fan of challenging but engaging games then you will find something to enjoy in this game. Get it now.
9/10

Ghost Bustin'

2009-07-02T09:46:00.002+01:00

My import copy of Ghostbusters finally arrived a couple of days ago and I must say this is one of the most atmospheric games I have played in a long time. The look and feel of the game is totally in spirit with the fantastic movies. I feel like I have stepped into the Ghostbuster universe, the music is spot on, the characterisation is spot on and the whole thing has the same sense of fun as the original movie. This game is going to be amazing to get into. I just wish it was a bit cooler outside (currently in middle of heat wave) and I would feel more urge to turn on my 360.

Who Ya Gonna Call?

2009-06-28T09:02:00.002+01:00

Being a big Ghostbusters fan I decided to import the 360 version of the Ghostbuster video game. The 360 version isn't due out in the UK for a few months and I have heard its far superior to the currently available PS3 version with better graphics and a better frame rate. It has been getting good reviews and averaging around 8 out of 10 in Metatcritic. I love the humour of the Ghostbuster movies and the little universe they have created (and I am a massive fan of Bill "Comedy God" Murray) so I know I am going to like the game a lot. I am just a bit disappointed that my copy is taking so long to arrive!

I ordered it from an eBay powerseller over a week ago and it was apparently posted mid last week yet hasn't arrived yet. They have plenty of feedback so I know they haven't ripped me off I am just disappointed that some of these people take ages to post items off. When I sell something on eBay I post it the next day. When I order items from eBay (or anywhere else) I expect the same courtesy. Prompt postage. I get tired of chasing stuff up and people blaming the Royal Mail. Its not true. You just took 3 or 4 days to get round to posting the item.

In the meantime I managed to finish Resident Evil 5 (fantastic) and still jabbing away at Prototype, which has its moments.

I aint 'fraid of no goats!

Prototype Review

2009-06-23T14:17:00.003+01:00

To square bracket or not square bracket that is the question. Prototype or [Prototype] is the latest in open world sandbox games that pits you as the anti-hero on a mission in New York city that's slowly being consumed by a virus. You start the game near the climax and then flashback to the beginning of your story. Its the usual amnesiac soldier story who has mutant powers and is reasonable well told through flashes of story when you absorb the memories of your victims.

The game looks and plays a lot like the recent Spiderman games, the city even looks like the same model used in those games, its big but a bit bland and lacking any real character. Your guy can jump and run all over the place and control is very easy and intuitive and a host of commands can be accessed by just a button or two. This is certainly a game that makes you feel bad-ass though sometimes the camera will flip around or you will do something you didn't plan to which draws you out of the action somewhat.

You always have a choice of what to do next be it continue with the main mission (which doesn't take that long to complete) or do some side quests such as races or even do a bit of Crackdown-a-like orb hunting. Its fun to play but just lacks a bit of variety and polish. The game feels a bit unfinished at times and presentation is at a minimum. I feel with another 6 months (and an online co-op mode) this game could have been the classic it was shaping up to be but at the moment its mainly average.

Fun in small doses just don't go in there expecting anything too next-gen. 7.5/10

Resident Evil 5 Review

2009-06-18T09:47:00.002+01:00

Finally! A review of Resident Evil 5. Its came out in March and I have only just got round to playing it in the last couple of weeks, a full 3 months later! oops. I did want to play it but for some reason other events in my life (job hunting) took over. I am glad I am finally getting back into my 360 and have finally put the Resi Evil 5 disc into my 360 because its a fantastic game.

Resident Evil 5 is a much more action oriented version of Resident Evil, there isn't much in the way of puzzle solving its mainly a case of moving from section to section, shooting "zombies", finding a key or lever and then moving onto the next section. This time you have a friend along for the ride and you can either play with the computer controlling your partner "Sheva" or have a co-op game with a friend. It does add a new dynamic to the game and is a lot of fun.

The game looks and sounds great and sometimes the animation looks like one of those CGI movies, personally I think it looks better and grittier than the recent Resident Evil Degeneration animated movie. The environments are reasonably detailed and varied and the whole package is very slick and well made.

The controls are a bit old skool as you cannot run and shoot, I thought this would be a major problem before I played the game but soon got used to the games style of play and didn't find it a problem.

Overall the game is a great deal of fun, it looks and plays great, and you will have some fantastic battles and have some lovely cut scenes and eye candy to gape at. Highly recommended.

9/10

RROD'ed

2009-06-11T12:52:00.003+01:00

Red Ring of Death again on my 360! Its the one that broke down at the start of the year and I got back in February! Its not like its been getting much of a hammering over the last couple of months. I played some Resident Evil 5 on it yesterday (must admit I am enjoying that game a lot) and then turned it on today to play some more and the famous 3 flashing lights of doom. You gotta laugh, Ive lost count of how many 360's have broken down on me now. I treat that with care and respect and they all die on me. So Support have been rung and the spare 360 from the back bedroom has been plugged in, and also Prototype has arrived and is being installed.

Come on Microsoft, its about time you sorted out this reliability issues. Your console is the best by far but this is getting ridiculous.

E3 The Verdict

2009-06-06T11:58:00.003+01:00

It has been quite an interesting E3 this year. Lots of exciting announcements as usual and lots of things to look forward into the future. Yet again, I think Microsoft pipped it with the more interesting news but heres a breakdown of some of the E3 2009 Highlights;

Nintendo DS and Wii
erm...The Vitality Sensor-Which tracks your hear rate and stress levels and The Kind Code, which allows you to watch games rather than play them. How casual is that? Major game for Wii or DS? Wii Resort, a sort of upgraded Wii Sports, which is the only game most Wii'ers play. Not a fantastic show for Nintendo.

Sony PSP and PS3
The PSP GO looks really good with it slide away buttons, and the motion wand is basically the Wii Remote with a new name, but a couple of games caught the attention with The Last Guardian (Ico like), Massive Action Game (A huge FPS) and more on Gods of War 3,Uncharted 2 and Heavy Rain. Not bad.

Microsoft X-Box 360
Loads of good stuff. Project NATAL, a new form of controller-less control, which senses your gestures and even listen to you. If the product video is anything to go by the is revolutionary. Milo is some of the software that works with NATAL and is basically an AI kid to hang out with, scarey. Also Facebook, Twitter and Last.fm coming to 360! Lots and lots of exclusive games including Halo:Reach (more Halo FPS fun), Forza 3, Crackdown 2 (oh yes!), Left 4 Dead 2 (oh yes!) and more info on Alan Wake,Splinter Cel Conviction and Halo:ODST. Superb showing from MS I think.

Also several cross platform games were announced and the best included Rock Band:The Beatles (great intro movie, good songs, shame its not compatabile with RB DLC), Metal Gear Solid:Rising (new MGS adventure with lots of Raiden), DJ Hero, Final Fantasy 14 and loads of other good stuff.

E3 Is On The Way

2009-05-31T10:13:00.002+01:00

Next week is the big Games Entertainment Expo in the US with E3. Its usually a good time for big announcements and new technology. This year the rumours are of an X-Box 360 motion sensing devices, A PSP Go machine and a slimline PS3. I personally am hoping for some really big 360 games announcement as the MS winter schedule looks good but a little barren. Im sure any big annoucements will be posted here in this Blog.

Do you listen to the in-game music or your own stuff over the top?

2009-05-10T10:38:00.002+01:00

In a lot of console now its possible to play a game but play your own music instead of the games background music. Do you play games with your own music playing in the background? Or do you stick to the music in the game?

Im a big fan in some in-game music and do find it can add to the feel and atmosphere of the game, but also some in-game music is terrible and is just repetitive and irritating.

Poll Result:Do you have "Game Phases"?

2009-05-08T07:52:00.002+01:00

I am still trying to get back into gaming at the moment. Ive had a few days playing Tiger Woods and dipped my toe into Fallout 3:Broken Steel and Burnout Paradise:Cops and Robbers and Left 4 Dead but I'm still not gaming that much. Its a phase Im going through. A break. Its sunny outside and Im enjoying my other hobbies. I just wondered if other people went through Gaming Phases too?

I tend to play Games all the time 25%
I play solidly for a few month then dont play for a while 25%
Im an on/off gamer 25%
I rarely game these days 25%

I think that says it all....

Gaming! At Last!

2009-05-05T09:03:00.002+01:00

It was a drizzly day yesterday, a rainy Bank Holiday Monday, so I decided to break out the 360 and play some games and I have to admit I did have some fun. Firstly I fired up Tiger Woods PGA 09. Its a good game and quite relaxing. I like the fact I can play and listen to my music on my iPod at the same time and I'm beginning to get the feel for the game now. Then I tried out Street Fighter IV and took it online with the new Tournament Mode and even managed to win 2 matches online much to my surprise. Its still very hard to play with the normal 360 controller and gives you finger ache but its such a good beat em up. Then I finished my gaming session with Left 4 Dead and tried out the new Survival Mode and also did the Dead Air story online with some randoms and it was excellent fun. I really must play this online more as its such a fun game. The new Fallout 3 content comes out today and its raining again, so who knows, maybe more gaming to be had.....

Golf!

2009-04-26T08:25:00.005+01:00

This past week the weather around here has been lovely and me and the wife have joined a Golf Club and have spent the week in the sun knocking a little white ball around. Its been a lot of fun. Fresh air,exercise,warm sun on the face and a bit of socialising. Again, no time for any Console Games. It has however re-ignited my interest in Golf and I have ordered a cheap copy of Tiger Woods 09 (The 10 version is due out in 3 months or so) and I am looking forward to playing my first console golf game in about 5 years. Maybe a found virtual rounds will kick start my interest in Console gaming and I may even put Resident Evil 5 in my 360. We shall have to see.

Do You Have Game Phases?

2009-04-18T11:33:00.002+01:00

Do you have "Game Phases"? I do. I'm going through a non-gaming phase at the moment. After a year or two of solid gaming I am having a break. I still dabble on a bit of casual gaming like Peggle or Rock Band or Lips but generally my 360,PS3 or Wii hasn't been turned on at all over the last couple of weeks. I even have some new games to play such as Resident Evil 5 and Killzone 2 and expansions for Fallout 3 but at the moment its nice to spend my time following my other interests and hobbies and reducing my retinal radiation levels.

I am sure in a few weeks some new games will be out and Ill be in the mood for gaming again but until then my gaming blog will probably be a bit quiet. I am looking forward to 100 to 1 and Ghostbusters and maybe a couple of other games in the coming months.

Do you also suffer from Game Phases? Vote in the vote box!

Poll Result:Was Resident Evil Worth The Wait?

2009-04-13T11:43:00.002+01:00

Its been very quiet on my blog recently. Not been doing much gaming at the moment. I have a copy of Resident Evil 5 just waiting to be played but I cannot be bothered. My recent Resident Evil Poll had the following result;

Excellent. One of the best games in recent times 25%
Its good, but not fantastic 0%
Average. Its gameplay is a bit fiddly and dated 50%
Rubbish. Lots of hype and terrible controls and a real step backwards 25%

Sometimes Offline Is The Best Community

2009-04-03T09:13:00.002+01:00

Online gaming is a lot of fun. Its good to play with a regular group online and Halo 3 and the Call of Duty games have huge online followings. Sometimes its even fun to play with strangers (if you dont mind all the idiots) but sometimes its the Old Skool bunch of guys around a console thats the most fun.

Tonight is one of my games nights, a bunch of friends come round and we play games until the early hours. You still cannot beat getting a group of friends around and a few beers and some good party games on the console for some fun. Its much more real than X-Box Live or Playstation Network. Tonight we will be playing all sorts of stuff of varying skill including Rock Band 2,Lips,Street Fighter 4 and other games. Lets hope games continue to be developed for the "in the same room" group.

Gaming Moods. They Come And Go!

2009-03-29T10:11:00.002+01:00

It's been a great 6 months or longer of a constant stream of quality games for 360 and PS3 (and even the odd Wii good game shocker) but now I've hit one of those periods in my life where I have drifted away from gaming for a while. I'm just not enthused by anything at the moment. I still have Resident Evil 5 to start and Killzone 2 to finish but I just can't be bothered. I get these troughs in my gaming cycle where I drift away from gaming for a month or two and find a different interest to dominate my time. I cannot really see many games on the immediate horizon to re-spark my passion but I am sure in a few weeks gaming will be back at the top of my agenda. Having a games night next week with friends and all the party classics will come out including Rock Band 2,Lips,Scene It,Buzz and maybe even Street Fighter 4 and I am sure it will be a lot of gaming related fun.

Killzone 2 Review

2009-03-24T16:23:00.004Z

The game so big it could only be on Playstation 3 with its Blu-Ray storage. The Big PS3 shooter. It's okay.

I am a big fan of First Person Shooters and I've played a lot in my life ranging from Doom, through Quakes and Unreals, through Counter Strikes and Wolfensteins and Halos and Calls of Duty. Killzone 2 is a classic FPS, lots of chunky First Person combat and set pieces. The game reminds me a lot of a Sci-Fi Call of Duty with lots of chaos of war going on around you and lots of charging forward with guns blazing and taking out the enemies.

After all the fuss about the number of textures needed for this game I have been totally underwhelmed by the mostly brown city levels. Its a very muted and samey palette of colours. The graphics do look good and have some great detail and motion blurring effects and the game feels chunky when you play it though I do find the aiming a bit "floaty" and not as precise as some other games I have played.

The game is fun to play but I do feel a bit jaded and do feel I have played this type of games many times before. It does look gorgeous and is definitely the best FPS on the PS3 but there are better FPS out there.
8/10

Was Resident Evil 5 Worth The Wait?

2009-03-23T18:01:00.002Z

Resident Evil is a massive franchise in the world of games and many consider the RE games to be classics but is Resident Evil 5 worthy of the series? Reviews have been mixed with some quarters criticising its out dated controls whilst others say it is more like Resident Evil 4.5. Vote in my new Poll.

Poll Result:Is the PS3 Doomed?

2009-03-20T11:18:00.002Z

My latest Poll ended yesterday and this one concerns the future of the PS3. The PS3 is struggling to find a share of the user base compared to the 360 and Wii. Its selling okay but it seems over-priced and month on month it is not catching up with the sales figures of its main rival, the X-Box 360. Is the PS3 doomed?

No, Its going to be the No.1 Console 11%
No, But its got a massive struggle 55%
Yes, Sony have got it wrong this time 33%

So, most people do not think its doomed but that it does have a big struggle on its hand. It really needs to lower that price tag. And really promote its Exclusive games. Its a good machine but who wants to spend that amount of money on something that the 360 does at nearly half the price?

A few people even thought the PS3 is doomed altogether. Will it be replaced with a PS4 in the near future?

I dont think the PS3 is ever going to be the number one console and it will struggle to even get on an even footing with the 360 if it continues as it is. Its a tough time for Sony and what with the global economic meltdown times are only going to get harder.

Well and Truely Peggled!

2009-03-11T19:10:00.002Z

Peggle. Now available on XBox Live Arcade and Its Brilliant! I've heard things about Peggle from Podcasts and from the Internet but I've never played it before and its utterly charming and addictive. Simple and Fun. All you have to do is launch a Ball and knock out all the coloured Pegs from the gameboard, simple but very deep. It's only 800 Points too and I recommend it to anyone who fancies a change from shooting Aliens.

Halo Wars Review

2009-03-09T08:58:00.002Z

Halo Wars Rocks! From right off the bat I will lay my cards on the table and say that Halo Wars is a fantastic game. Its a simple Real Time Strategy Game set in the Halo Universe and its one of the most addictive games on the 360. The campaign takes place over 15 missions where you take part in an Epic storyline. Each mission has its own unique twist and range between straight forward battles and battles where you have to work out the correct tactics.

The game looks and sounds great and takes the sound directly from the Halo trilogy and it really feels like a proper Halo game. Control is easy and intuitive and you feel like you proper control over your army.

Halo Wars just hooks you with fun levels and some of the best cut scenes and story seen in any game that I have played. It feels like an arcade version of a RTS and some will bemoan the lack of micro managements and resource management that are touchstones of the RTS genre but to me the game flows and plays better.

One of my surprise games of the year. 9/10

Street Fighter IV Review

2009-02-28T08:34:00.003Z

Street Fighter is one of my earliest gaming memories, playing the Street Fighter 2 on my old Sega Megadrive. It was a great game with some iconic characters. I've been out of the SF loop for a number of years but the preview movies of SF4 began to appear and my interest was caught. The game is very stylish and cartoony but also fast and precise. Its a hardcore fighting fans game, full of tactics and timing. Its not a game for the faint hearted.

I am no fighting game expert, I use a mixture of button mashing and a small repertoire of moves to get through my fighting games. Picking up SF4 for the first time and I was lost. It was too hard. I was getting myself kicked around round after round. But after a bit of training and practice I begun to get with the flow of the game and gradually improve my skills and moves. SF4 is a hard game. Its a game you have to dedicate a little time and effort to.

The game is so slick it hurts. Its sometimes a joy to behold and when you pull off one of the Super or Ultra moves properly its a great feeling. Its a shame the 360's D-pad is so rubbish. It adds another hurdle to the game. You really need an Arcade stick to get the most out of this game.

In summary Street Fighter 4 is a good game, but a tough game. It plays well but requires a lot of dedication to get the most out of it. Stick with it and you'll find one of the most complete fighting game experiences currently available.
8.5/10

Skate 2 Review

2009-02-27T09:08:00.005Z

In the old days the Tony Hawks games were great games but as time went by each release got that less essential and that bit more boring. Skate was like a breath of fresh air on the Skating games scene with interesting new controls where you actually flick and spin the board using the right analogue stick. It felt more realistic. Skate came out about a year or so ago and unfortunately after playing the demo I missed out on actually getting the game due to all the other top quality games out at the same time. Skate 2 is now finally out and I thought it was time to dip my toe into the Skating game genre again.

Skate 2 is set in the huge city of New San Venelona and you can happily skate around the city to your hearts content or take part in a number of story challenges or races. Its sort of like Grand Theft Auto on a Skateboard without the swearing.

The game looks pretty good but lack a lot of detail and texture and can look a little bland at times. Control is fun though a lot of different types of moves have to be learnt using only a mixture of sticks and shoulder buttons and pulling of certain moves and stunts takes a great deal of time and dedication. Missions can be frustrating and tough until you learn the moves and a lot of time you will find yourself repeating the same challenge over and over and over again. If this style of game play appeals to you then good for you but personally I just get frustrated doing the same jump for 15 minutes and then giving up due to frustration and boredom.

Skate 2 is a fun game, a little tricky and hard to master, but if you stick with it it does have a lot of potential and you will get a real sense of achievement when you can nail the challenges. One for the more hardcore gamer.

7/10

F.E.A.R. 2 Review

2009-02-26T16:57:00.003Z

F.E.A.R. 2 Project Origin is the follow up to the minor hit F.E.A.R. It involves soldiers hunting down your typical lank haired evil girl in a First Person Shooter fashion. It was all the usual affectations of the genre such as a slo-mo bullet time and the array of weapons and armaments.

The graphics in F.E.A.R 2 are pretty good if a little bland. A lot of the areas are similar with lots of corridors and rooms and shooting at the same looking bad guys but it all moves along well though towards the end of the game I was getting a little bored with it all. I was having fun but at the same time I just wanted the game to roll to a close.

The atmospherics are what make this game with some spooky noises and images that flash across the screen that will have you jumping. Also the A.I. is very good with the enemies keeping their heads down and moving around cover and presenting a bit of challenge.

F.E.A.R. 2 is a good game. Nothing stunning but a solid FPS title that has some good parts but doesn't do enough to raise itself above the genre.

7/10

Is the PS3 Doomed?

2009-02-21T13:54:00.002Z

I have a PS3. Its a slick machine. Its got some good games. Its a great Blu-Ray player and DVD upscaler. But is it doomed?

In sales figures it is trailing behind the Wii and 360 and apparently whilst all the other consoles having continued to sell well despite the current "credit crunch" the PS3's sales have dropped off dramatically in the last couple of months. People just do not have £300 to drop on a console. Sony are adamant they are still in the running in the console race and maintain it will eventually out sell the 360, but week on week, month on month, the 360 is continuing to out sell the PS3. Games are developed for all the platforms and the 360 is mainly the lead platform and many 3rd parties concentrate on the 360 as it nets them more revenue due to a larger install base.

Is the PS3 Doomed to 3rd place? Or is it doomed to be an actual failure? What do Sony need to do to gain some ground back? A price cut under £200 would be a good start.

Poll Result:The Best Next Big Game Will Be...

2009-02-20T09:20:00.002Z

Not a massive response to this Poll, maybe a bad question, maybe no-one knows, maybe no-one reads them.

Killzone 2 25%
Resident Evil 5 50%
Street Fighter IV 25%
Halo Wars 0%

So, Resident Evil 5 is predicted as the Next Big Game. Hmmmm. I know there is a lot of excitement around this title but Ive also heard bad reports about terrible controls and out dated game play. We shall have to see.

I Am Lost and Damned

2009-02-17T16:10:00.003Z

The Grand Theft Auto 4 DLC for the 360 was released this morning and weighing in at 1600 Microsoft Points and just shy of 2Gb its a big old chunk of GTA Goodness. The download takes you on the new story of Johnny Klebitz, the second in command of the Lost biking gang. I have only played a couple of missions but it was great to return to the streets of Liberty City. It felt like an old friend and all those old streets and landmarks were as familiar as the actual streets that I live in in real life. The DLC is supposed to add around 12 hours of game play and be around a third of the size of the main DLC quest so I'm looking forward to sinking my teeth into this further.

X-Box 360 Number 13 returned

2009-02-13T08:49:00.002Z

Yesterday my new replacement 360 arrived and I set it up and its all working fine. Which is nice. Ive now lost track of the number of 360s that have passed into my possession and broken and been replaced but they do get a lot of gaming played on them and they do get replaced quickly so I cant really complain but it must be costing Microsoft a fortune. My PS3 or Wii haven't broken once yet, but then again they get a fraction of use that the 360 gets.

Redundant!

2009-02-11T09:53:00.003Z

Well I got some bad news this week and was given Notice of Redundancy and sent home. So my last couple of days have been spent feeling sorry for myself and updating my CV. I have also had a bit of spare time to play my 360 so have been playing mainly Burnout Paradise, the game is over a year old now and its still a fantastic game. Probably the greatest racing game of all time with a superb online mode. I am flirting with the idea of booting up Fallout 3 and giving Operation Anchorage a good play but first more CV updating and job hunting must be done.

The Best Next Big Game Will Be...

2009-02-06T07:51:00.003Z

The Christmas rush is over and January has been a quiet month for new games but late February and March have a few good games to look forward to. Which of the following will be the Biggest and Bestest?

Killzone 2
Resident Evil 5
Street Fighter IV
Halo Wars

Vote Now in the Poll!

XRayWorld Game Of 2008

2009-01-31T11:12:00.005Z

In my recent Poll the most popular Game of 2008 was Gears of Wars 2 with 20% of the vote. I did enjoy Gears of War 2 a lot in 2008 and its probably in my top 5 of the year but my personal game of 2008 was probably ..... Grand Theft Auto 4.

I'm surprised it didn't score higher in my Poll, coming in joint 3rd. Maybe because the game was a bit more "serious" than previous GTA game or maybe because it came out early in the year and peoples memories of it had faded but it was a fantastic game, stunning looking, super detailed, with fantastic gameplay and engaging characters and story. You would just lose yourself in Liberty City and spend the rest of your gaming life wandering around the living breathing world.

Picking my Game of 2008 was a tough decision and my short list was down to Left 4 Dead (Great online game), Fallout 3 (The more I played it the more I loved it) and Lost Odyssey (My favourite Japanese RPG since the classic Final Fantasy VII). It was a good year for games and I hope 2009 follows a similar path.

And Another 360 Goes Awry

2009-01-28T20:12:00.002Z

I have only had my 360 back from Red Ring replacement for a couple of weeks and my new one has gone wrong. This new problem is a strange one and not one I have had before. No Red Rings or Freezing, just messed up graphics. The screen is generally fine but certain graphics and characters in games have long string like attachments sprouting from them. Like an elbow that goes on for infinity. Tried it on a couple of TVs and rang MS support and they are sending me a new 360, just got to send the replacement back. Fantastic.

The Death of 1UP

2009-01-23T12:11:00.001Z

Its the end of an era. 1UP Yours and the 1UP Show are no more. The 1Up Yours is my favourite games podcast with a great blend of Informative Game Discussion and Humour. The guys that present it have become a big part of my weekly gaming routine as I listen to the show on a Monday on the way to work. But now 1UP has been bought out by another company and they have had a cull, half the staff have gone and shows like 1UP Yours and the 1UP Show have been cancelled. I now don't know what Podcast to listen to to get my gaming fix and news. Does any podcast match the majesty of 1UP Yours? There's a big fat gaming Podcast hole in my life.

Poll Result:Game of the Year 2008

2009-01-17T08:20:00.002Z

Thanks to everyone who voted on my Game of the Year 2008 Poll. 2008 has been a great year for gaming so it was quite tough to narrow down a shortlist of game to vote for and I am sure I forgot several great games (lots of requests for Dead Space and EndWar) but the list was what it was and here are the results.

1.Gears of War 2 16 (20%)
2.Fallout 3 14 (17%)
3=.Left 4 Dead 9 (11%)
3=.GTA IV 9 (11%)
5=.Fable 2 6 (7%)
5=.Metal Gear Solid 4 6 (7%)
7=.Call of Duty:World At War 4 (5%)
7=.Burnout Paradise 4 (5%)
9=.Lost Odyssey 2 (2%)
9=.Rock Band/Rock Band 2 2 (2%)
9=.LittleBigPlanet 2 (2%)
9=.Super Smash Bros. Brawl 2 (2%)
9=.Mario Kart Wii 2 (2%)
14.Guitar Hero:World Tour 1 (1%)
15=.Resistance 2 0 (0%)
15=.Motorstorm:Pacific Rift 0 (0%)

Which means the winner is Gears of War 2, with Fallout 3 not far behind. Gears of War 2 was a great game. It looks and plays fantastic and has a solid online MP and Co-Op mode and it was definitely more "Bad Ass" than the first game and a deserving winner for the Polls Game of 2008.

Fallout 3 nearly snuck in there and obviously the large Post-Apocalyptic RPG struck a chord with many gamers with its huge explorable area, interesting combat and engaging storyline.

In joint 3rd are Grand Theft Auto 4 and Left 4 Dead. Two games with 4 in the Title. I am a bit surprised GTA4 is this low down the list. It was an amazing game and a technical marvel, maybe because it was out at the start of the year and gamers have short memories. Left 4 Dead is a big surprise and possibly the surprise hit of 2008 as it seemed to come from nowhere and may just trump GOW2 as the best Live experience on XBL this year.

Not a great deal of love for PS3 games with the highest PS3 exclusive at number 5 with Metal Gear Solid 4, tying with 360 exclusive Fable 2. Propping up the bottom of the chart with not a single vote are Resistance 2 and Motorstorm:Pacific Rift.

All in all a lot of good games in 2008. Lets hope 2009 brings as many AAA titles.

360 Returned

2009-01-13T17:51:00.002Z

So my 360 Red Ringed on January 2nd and today it was returned. Well sort of as it a new 360 and not my old one. Not a bad turnaround in under 2 weeks. I think the fastest they have swapped it over is 4 or 5 days. Now to set it up again and re-install all my current games....

Tomb Raider:Underworld Review

2009-01-11T10:12:00.001Z

I have been a long time Tomb Raider fan since playing way back in the 90s on my PC. I loved the exploration and large puzzles. When it first came out it was one of the first games that filled me with a sense of wonder when entering the icy cave for the first time and seeing it cavernous expanse. Tomb Raider has been on the go now for a long long time now and the initial games sequels have been of varying quality. Tomb Raider:Legend was a pretty good game so when I saw this game cheap in the Christmas sales I thought I would give it a try.

Tomb Raider:Underworld tries to take Lara's adventures back to its roots with a lot of exploration,puzzling and raiding of Tombs. After the short prologue level the first proper level of Underworld is quite open with Lara taking a dip in the Med and you can swim around and have a good explore. Its quite liberating for a Tomb Raider game. The rest of the game is a lot more linear and follows the classic TR setup of large rooms that you have to "solve" before you continue.

Tomb Raider is more of a Puzzle game than anything else. Some of the puzzles you have to solve in the game are easy enough but I did find myself scurrying off to the Internet to find out that the hell I was supposed to be doing next. Some of the solutions were so obscure I would never have worked it out myself.

Controlling Lara is as tricky as ever. Sometimes it seems to work and feel right and sometimes you seem to just jump or flip in a completely random direction to your death. It was probably my aging fingers and skills that caused this some of the time but the game can be very frustrating. I found myself swearing at Lara as she dove to her death when I felt like I was in perfect control. Its the sort of game you have to get into the flow of and be prepared for lots of retries and repetition and certainly not a game to de-stress too.

Tomb Raider:Underworld is fun and frustrating in equal parts. Its very Old Skool in its approach to gaming. You need skill to play the game. Mess up and you will be punished with death. This can be in turns refreshing and annoying. I did however enjoy most of the game and it still manages to capture a sense of wonder.
7/10.

Getting Fixed

2009-01-09T17:41:00.001Z

Apparently my 360 has reached Germany and has been fixed already. I have checked the status and its awaiting Return Shipping to me. Looks like its got a new Serial Number so its probably a new 360. Which is nice.

New Year. New Red Ring Of Death!

2009-01-02T14:10:00.003Z

Yep. It has happened again. My 360 has got the dreaded Red Ring of Death. I turned it on to play today and then it froze and when I restarted the RROD flashed up. This is my newer Arcade model and the first time this one has broken down so I have had to go and grab my spare and find a Component Lead and fanny about behind my TV to get it all set up again. Its very annoying. I have been onto Microsoft and they are arranging for it to be collected for repair. I have now lost count of the number of 360s that have gone pop. My Arcade has gone the once, My Premium has gone 3 times and my Wife Premium twice I think.

Looking Back on 2008

2009-01-02T08:35:00.003Z

January begun with me returning from Cuba and buying myself a Sony Playstation 3. £335 in total. Its been a funny year with me and my Playstation 3. I do like it but it hasn't been used as much as my 360 for gaming. Its a damn fine Blu-Ray player and DVD upscaler and I have enjoyed the odd game on it but it hasn't really been much of a games console to me. Don't even mention my Wii... HD-DVD was on its last legs which probably motivated my purchase of Blu-Ray. In regards to gaming I was playing a lot of Burnout Paradise. Still a game I dabble on to this day what with all its free updates.

February I was into my Eye of Judgement obsession on the PS3 and buying lots of cards. Too many cards. I think I spent more time collecting the cards than actually playing the game. Also this month I was playing Uncharted:Drakes Fortune (still not finished),Burnout Paradise,The Club and Devil May Cry 4 and listening to an import of the Lost Odyssey soundtrack, my Game Soundtrack of the year.

March came and my main game this month (and beyond) was Lost Odyssey. Lost Odyssey really hit a chord with me. A great story and the most fun Ive had with a Japanese RPG since the classic Final Fantasy 7. I got totally sucked in and loved its characters and game play. This month I also played on Lost, Rainbow 6 Vegas 2 and bought myself a Nintento Wii. My Wii did get some gaming through the year but for the last few months it has been a total dust gatherer.

In April I had to update my Modem/Router as my old one struggled with the PS3 and NAT statuses. My Wii got some gaming this month with Mario Kart Wii and Wii Fit and then the big one came out, Grand Theft Auto IV. Wow. What a game. I don't think I've ever been more excited to play a game and it delivered. The story mode of GTAIV was just perfect, its such a shame the online aspect never really took off as I would still like to play in the crazy streets of Liberty City. Looking forward to the 360 Update in 2009.

May and I finally finished Lost Odyssey and played more GTAIV. Then Rock Band came and I fell in love with that too and I am still shelling out every week to download new songs for Rock Band and Rock Band 2. Quality game.

June was Metal Gear Solid 4 month. Mucho quality. Mucho long cut scenes. It took me a little while to adapt to the MGS style of game play but soon got hooked and managed to sneak and black my way right up to the last level and then....I stopped and haven't touched it since. I still dont know why I haven't finished it yet when I am so close. One for the pile of shame there. Finished GTAIV and then played Super Smash Bros Melee for my Wii. Which got about a weeks worth of gaming and hasnt been touched since. A bit like all my Wii games oddly enough.... Then I got myself a PSP and a handful of games. Its alright.

July I was finishing off lots of games and bought myself a couple of new ones in Battlefield:Bad Company (rubbish) and Unreal Tournament 3 (pretty good).

August and I was beginning to get hyped for Too Human too. When it did come I did enjoy it but it wasn't quite the epic I was expecting and wasn't quite the game that it was supposed to be but hoping for a much bigger Too Human 2. This month had lots of fun on Buzz! TV for the PS3 which is probably my most played PS3 game of the year. Also got myself Soul Calibur IV for the 360 and had lots of fun with that too.

In September I was playing Viva Pinata:Trouble in Paradise (fun) and also dabbled on Infinite Undiscovery (which was bad) and finished Too Human after much grinding and slog.

October was the beginning of the big end of year rush and found myself playing mainly Fable 2 this month. I loved it. Many has slagged it off or found fault or compared it to other adventures such as Fallout 3 but taken on its own its a fun and humorous RPG. My wife totally loves it still and wont play anything else. This month I was also playing FIFA09.

In November I finished up on Fable 2 and played some of the other games I had bought around this time such as Fallout 3 (really good) , Gears of War 2 (excellent) and LittleBigPlanet (which is good but hasnt had much gaming time from me for some reason) and also got myself Left 4 Dead on almost a whim and was totally blown away with its online aspect. Deffo multiplayer game of the year. Also the new 360 Dashboard came out and I spent many a happy hour designing Avatars.

In December it was a time to play, catch up and finish the backlog of games. The PS3 finally got Home. Its a nice novelty but I dont see myself using it much. Lots of nice virtual dancing to be had though. I also got myself a collection of 360 party games like Scene It!Box Office Smash,Lips and Your in the Movies. All fun whilst drunk. Over Christmas picked up a couple of bargains in the form of the JRPG The Last Remnant and Tomb Raider:Underworld.

Now, 2009 is here. Who knows what it will bring...

2008 : Film Review

2008-12-31T09:50:00.004Z

Its been a tough year again to pick out an absolute classic Film, there have been some good films and a lot of average films but my shortlist for Films of the year is;

The Dark Knight - This film isn't really a Superhero film and it felt more like Heat when I was watching it, it just happened to have some guy in a Latex suit jumping around. Some great performances, twisty storyline and overall good stuff. Maybe just a tad too long and not enough action.

Wall E - Pixar do it again with this slightly downbeat story of the little Robot Wall E. Full of humour and invention and heart string pulling. Its amazing how they can convey so much emotion through an inanimate object.

Cloverfield - This was one of the few times I ventured out into the actual Cinema this year and watched it at my local multiplex digitally projected. Big Screen, Big Noise, Big Fun. This was more spectacle movie than a lesson in story telling but its one of the few times Ive been to the cinema and had my heart pumping. Superb.

Film of the Year? There isn't one. Any of these 3 could have been it, or maybe something else like Iron Man, or Wanted, or something else.

One of the biggest filmic disappointments of the year for me was "No Country For Old Men". Now this film has won loads of End of Year polls and I usually like this sort of thing and I did enjoy the first half but then it all fell apart to me. It was if they had got rid of the main actor and decided to tell a different story. It just bored me. But there you go....

2008 : Music Review

2008-12-30T08:10:00.008Z

In a break away from all this talk about Games and Technology here are my thoughts on 2008 in term of Music. My music taste is reasonably eclectic but my favourite music tends to come from the Alternative Music scene;

David Byrne & Brian Eno "Everything That Happens Will Happen Today" ; Two grandpa's of alt rock team up again and just deliver fantastic song after fantastic song.

REM "Accelerate" ; A real return to form from some more old gits. Punchy political songs and they sound like they have rediscovered their passion.

Metallica "Death Magnetic" ; My word. More old gits. This is THE Rock album of the year. Crunchy and catchy.

Sigur Ros "Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust" ; An album of two halves. The first half is some of the best Sigur Ros material ever whilst the 2nd half is less so but still good.

MGMT "Oracular Spectacular" ; A strange mix of all sorts of music from T-Rex to Flaming Lips this is a confident debut with some great songs.

Glasvegas "Glasvegas" ; Powerful and Epic and sort of Jesus and Mary Chain in slow motion.

The Hold Steady "Stay Positive" - It may not quite match "Boys and Girls..." but its still a great album full of stomping Rock songs.

Kings of Leon "Only By The Night" - Sometimes almost veers into Coldplay histrionics but still contains some great songs including "Need Somebody" which is contender for song of the year.

Vampire Weekend "Vampire Weekend" - Quirky and Kooky and a bit of 60s pop and African music and a bit Punk. This is a great debut and reminds me of a Wes Anderson movie. My ALBUM OF THE YEAR, by a short nose.

Bon Iver "For Emma,Forever Ago" - A mesmerizing album. Great voice, great songs and has a spooky element too. Great album.

Fleet Foxes "Fleet Foxes" - Takes a few listens to sink in but this is a wonderful album and sounds totally timeless and moving.

The Ting Tings "We Started Nothing" - The album CSS wanted to make. One minute its Indie, Then its Poppy, Then its dancey. A great fun album.

M83 "Saturdays=Youth" - Could have been Album of the Year if it wasn't for that last track, this is a great album mixing 80s pop and rock with New Order synths.

Boston Spaceships "Brown Submarine" - Robert Pollards latest band. Playful and Rocking.

Disappointments; CSS (Their debut was funky and cool their 2nd was more of the same but just a bit boring too), Portishead (They will never match their glorious debut, this just sounded wilfully obscure and miserable), TV On The Radio (Has its moments but feels overproduced and just isnt sinking in), Foals (They may be wonderful Live but on record they were just a bit "grey" and unexciting), Mogwai (An album I can listen to and forget that I have straight after).

So, Album of the Year is Vampire Weekend "Vampire Weekend".

In the world of Game Music the Lost Odyssey Soundtrack was a classic which still reminds me of the game when I hear tracks from it now and the composers best work since Final Fantasy 7.

Poll Result:Left 4 Dead?

2008-12-29T07:48:00.002Z

Left 4 Dead sort of came out of nowhere to become one of the most fun and exciting team based online shooters of the year. Its not as strict or as fussy as Gears of War 2 and more fun than the getting stale Call of Duty series. It blew me away and I've had a great time playing it. The results of the poll on what people though of L4D are as follows;

Quality! One Of The Games of The Year! 12 (54%)
Good! I like it! 0 (0%)
Not Bad! Could Have Been More! 3 (13%)
Rubbish! Boring! 2 (9%)
I've Not Got It! (Though Perhaps I Should) 5 (22%)

Which is quite a good result for L4D and it seems to have impressed a lot of people. All it needs now are the some more DLC or some other levels to be opened to add some variety and it could have plenty of legs and become a big game at the start of 2009 too!

Party Games Review Roundup! Buzz,Lips,Scene It! BOS and You're In The Movies

2008-12-28T08:23:00.005Z

Christmas is a time for families and friends and what better way of avoiding The Sound of Music or The Great Escape on the TV for the 100th time than playing some good old fashioned console Party games.

Buzz! Quiz TV
Probably the best Quiz game on any platform.
Review here. 8/10

Scene It! Box Office Smash
A bit bland and they could have used more Avatar support but okay.
Review here. 5/10

Lips Review
Lips is the 360 Karaoke game and bases itself a lot around the smash Playstation game Singstar. With the game you get about 40 songs and a couple of wireless mics that glow and shimmer depending on the music. The music is quite varied but is mainly a lot of Pop and RnB. The music selection is not to my normal listening tastes but is perfect party music and everyone is bound to know at least half the songs. You can also import over your own music via the hard drive or via an mp3 player. You do not get the lyrics to your imported tracls but if you know the song it is fun to sing along the best you can. Lips is the sort of game you will get out of what you put into it and if you get a bit tipsy and just let your hair down and decide to belt out A-Ha's "Take on Me" it can be a fun and entertaining experience. 7/10

You're In The Movies Review
You're In The Movies is a movie game and it uses the X-Box 360 Vision Camera to record you doing various mini games and pulling faces and then places them all in a mock film trailer. The technology is quite clever as it cuts the players from the background and places them in other environments. It works quite well but you do have to mess around with the lighting and make sure you wear plenty of clothing that contrasts with the background or parts of your body will vanish when filming. A lot of the game is based around simple mini games in a similar way to the old Playstation Eye Toy games. Each person gets a number of turns following the on-screen instructions and then the footage is assembled by the 360 and a trailer is created. Sometimes the results are hilarious. Sometimes not so. The game does get stale very quickly and its the sort of game that will only come out a few times a year. Its not a bad game and worth getting if you can get it cheap. 6/10

Merry Christmas 2008!

2008-12-25T12:22:00.002Z

Merry Christmas to all my Blog Readers and Friends. Heres to a Happy 2009 of gaming and fun.

XRayLexx Games of 2008 Nominations

2008-12-22T14:10:00.003Z

End of the year and time to start all the looking back wistfully and also to start rating the "Best Of's" of the year. 2008 was a good year for gaming, much like 2007. Heres my shortlist of the top games of 2008. But which one was the best?

Grand Theft Auto IV-A huge game both in ambition and in scope. A massive living breathing city with great story, characters and great gameplay. What more could you want?

Gears of War 2-GOW2 took everything thing that was great about GOW1 and made it better. One of the most gorgeous looking games ever and exciting cover based combat.

Fallout 3-A post-apocalyptic adventure from the people who made Oblivion. Huge game with mind blowing detail and scope.

Rock Band/Rock Band 2-The greatest music game ever? Fun gameplay and also a huge amount of DLC so you will never bore of this game.

Guitar Hero:World Tour-GH decided to follow Rock Band with the multi-instrument approach with more options such as music creation.

LittleBigPlanet-Get creative on your PS3 with this cute and powerful platformer. You are only limited by your own imagination.

Metal Gear Solid 4-Snakes big finale? The biggest game on PS3 full of action and strange twisted humour. Huge game, great story and exciting tweaked gameplay.

Super Smash Bros. Brawl-A Nintendo Fans dream with hundreds of Nintento characters to collect and loads of modes whilst still maintaining the pick up and play Smash Bros. Gameplay

Mario Kart Wii-Taking some of the best tracks from the previous Mario Kart titles and adding Wii motion control support this is a fun game for all ages.

Burnout Paradise-The biggest Racing Game ever? The basic game was excellent arcade racing fun but has been added to with loads of free updates to make it possibly the most complete racing title ever.

Call of Duty:World At War-How do you follow up the most popular game of 2007? COD:WAW takes the COD4 engine and sticks it back in World War 2 and goes for the jugular.

Resistance 2-The big PS3 shooter of the year with massive monsters and tightened up gameplay from the first game.

Motorstorm:Pacific Rift-A much more varied and complete racing package than the first Motorstorm with stellar graphics and effects.

Left 4 Dead-The sleeper hit of 2008? Simple concept, escape the zombies, but this has to be THE online game of 2008 with fast "in-yer-face" fun team based action from start to finish.

Fable 2-The ambitious follow up to Fable with an epic adventure that will make you feel and care about the other inhabitants of the game. Great fun.

Lost Odyssey-A massive Japanese RPG on the 360 with some of the best JRPG gameplay and story since the mighty Final Fantasy 7.

Wow. Big list.

Rock Band 2 Review

2008-12-20T12:55:00.004Z

I reviewed the original Rock Band back in May this year. Its a really good game and I gave it 9 out 10. Rock Band 2 is now out for the X-Box 360 and it continues along the same lines of the first game, technically I think its Rock Band 1.5 as its basically exactly the same game apart from a few tweaks and some new songs. On the plus side if you already have all the original Rock Band instruments you only have to buy the Solus edition so its quite a cheap upgrade.

The changes come in the form of a Drum Trainer to help you with the Drumming (obviously) and also instruct you on how to do proper fills during songs. Another change is that you can now create a character that in universal ie you no longer have to create a different character for each instrument, which is great. The Solo tour mode has gone and everything is based around the Band World Tour (which you can do Solo if you have no friends). The online aspect has been beefed up with the ability to form bands online and have online battles too.

You can also import 99% of your old Rock Band 1 songs into the game and there are literally hundreds of songs to download too so you will never get bored of the playlist.

So, its not really a new game but more an enhancement over the first one. Its still really fun to play and the tweaks make for a more solid experience. This is the band game to have in my opinion and well worth the cash.

9/10

Home (beta) Launches

2008-12-12T18:08:00.002Z

Finally Playstation 3's HOME has arrived! Home has been in development for what seems like forever and its finally available to all PS3 users as an Open Beta. There is only a small 77Mb download to make when you first launch it and each area has a download but no system update is required (which is odd as the PS3 seems to have virtually a system update every 5 minutes).

You are greeted with your Avatar Creation area which is a very powerful piece of kit and you can create much more varied Avatars than you can the 360 or the Wii. Though all are very realistic and varied they do all come across a little bland too. You are then plopped into your Home with lots of nice Ikea looking white furniture and a nice view of a Marina and boats. Its then time to pop out into the main square. The other people on Home take a while to load in and you get a strange ghostly watery effect until all the details load in. Its quite exciting to see loads of PS3 users wandering around and interacting. You can play games of chess or draughts or wander to the Bowling Alley or go to see one of the Movie clips in the Theatre. You can also visit the Shops and buy new clothing but the pricing seems quite expensive to buy new clothing, furniture or even a new pad.

Home is quite fun and it is interesting to watch little pockets of people talking and dancing around in front of the large video screens which generally pump out a looping stream of music. You can do a long list of gestures and pre-made responses though its advisable to have a USB keyboard or a Bluetooth headset to get the most out of it.

For Free, Home is great and is a nice Social interaction tool. I did enjoy playing with it for a couple of hours but I'm wondering if the novelty value will wear out after a while and it will become a bit stale or a bit of a ghost town. Most gamers just want to load up a game, invite friends and play games and in Home you can organise things but I wonder if its just a convoluted way of doing simple 1 or 2 button tasks. Home will live and die on its ability to provide an interesting and changing Social Interaction site, which is all the rage with the "kids" these days.

I like Home more than I thought it would but its staying power and its ability to keep drawing me back to visit it remains to be seen.

Singing,Rocking and Acting This Christmas

2008-12-10T19:17:00.001Z

I have a few of the 360 Party Games to play and review over the Christmas Period. I have Rock Band 2 which I have had for a couple of weeks but havent reviewed yet (clue:Its ace!) and also Lips and You're In The Movies to play some more and review real soon. Watch this space for a some 360 family fun.

Where Did Left 4 Dead Come From?

2008-12-03T07:37:00.002Z

I had heard of Left 4 Dead and heard who developed it and saw a couple of game play videos and thought it looked okay. I didn't expect it to be one of my sleeper hits of 2008. What seems like a simple and limited concept turned out to be one of the most fun and addictive online shooters I have played since Counterstrike and Shadowrun. Check out my new Poll regarding Left 4 Dead.

Poll Result:The Best Game Of Winter 2008 Will Be....

2008-12-02T08:02:00.002Z

A bit of crystal ball gazing was required for my last blog poll to find out what people thought big game of Winter 2008 would be. However my guessing of what the short list of big titles neglected probably one of the best games, Left 4 Dead. Doh!But from the short list results were as follows

Fable 2 11%
Fallout 3 33%
Gears of War 2 22%
Guitar Hero World Tour 5%
Call of Duty:World At War 11%
Mirrors Edge 0%
Little Big Planet 5%
Resistance 2 5%
Motorstorm:Pacific Rift 0%
Rock Band 2 5%

So the big "winner" was Fallout 3 which certainly seems to have hit a positive note with most gamers. Though its not my favourite I can see the appeal and it is a big epic game that looks lovely. Its also good to see Gears of War 2 to up there, a great game with lots of action and a good story. I think last year I ran a similar poll and Call of Duty was the top scorer and here its down into joint 3rd with Fable 2. People just don't like those Treyarch developed CODs as much do they? But good to see Fable 2 being appreciated by quite a few people. Great game and personally my favourite RPG/Adventure of the later part of 2008. Not a great showing for LittleBigPlanet, the big hope for the PS3. hmmmm.

LittleBigPlanet Review

2008-11-29T08:45:00.002Z

It's taken a few weeks to get round to reviewing LittleBigPlanet. The saviour of PS3. The big Sony release of Xmas 2008. The game of much hype and promise. Its pretty damn good.

The game is really 2 games in one, its a colourful and quirky platforming game but it also a games designer. Which part of the game appeals to you the most depends on how creative you like to be. The story mode is a lot of fun and voiced by Stephen Fry and takes place across a number of levels where you can collect points and new items. It looks gorgeous and has amazing character and is probably the best looking 2D platformer ever. It also sounds great with some fantastic choices of music. You can spend many happy hours playing the Story mode unlocking new items and marvelling at the level design.

The other part of the game is the ability to create you own levels. Its a very powerful tool indeed and with a little application and imagination you can create some great levels. It does take a bit of learning and you wont be able to create exactly what is in your minds eye at first but this does comes with experimentation and time. You can also share these level online with other players.

A lot of the tools you need to create levels are unlocked as items in the Story mode so it can be a bit frustrating if you just want to get in there and create your masterpiece. The level creation tool can be a bit frustrating at times as a wrong move when creating can cause items to move or collapse and you have to spend time rebuilding them.

LittleBigPlanet is a very good game. A solid and colourful and quirky platform game and a very interesting creation tool. Maybe the learning curve is a little too steep to create truly wondrous levels on your own but you are only limited by your own imagination. I am not sure this game is the big PS3 unit shifter that Sony hope it is going to be but nonetheless is a game that any discerning PS3 owner should have.
8.5/10

Left 4 Dead + 1!

2008-11-24T21:37:00.001Z

The last couple of days I have been totally addicted to Left 4 Dead and I can safely say it is one of the most fun games I have played in a long long time! So I am upping my initial review score of 8.5 out of 10 to 9.5! Yep! 9.5! Superb Game. Buy it Now!

Left 4 Dead Review

2008-11-23T10:44:00.004Z

Remember when you first saw 28 days later and the first zombies crop up? Scary fast zombies running full speed toward the hero of the story. Scary wasnt it? Left 4 Dead is like that times 100. There are moments in the game when youll wonder how you will survive as the screen fills up zombies clawing away at you. Its an edge of your seat visceral experience that not many games capture. Left 4 Dead does it perfectly.

Left 4 Dead is by Valve, the kings of the FPS, the makers of one of my favourite games of all time, Counter Strike and the makers of Half Life and Team Fortress. Its a Zombie B-Movie game. You are given 4 scenarios, each with a number of chapters, and each involves getting the small group of survivors to safety. The game can be played single player with AI team mates, On the Sofa Co-Op, online Co-Op or in Versus mode where 4 people are survivors and 4 people are part of the Infected as one of the special enemies such as Smokers, Hunters or Tanks etc.

This game is good in Single Player but is designed to be played online. It so much more fun playing with and against real people and is possibly one of the most fun online games at the moment finding just the right balance between skill based gameplay and pick up and play ease. Nothing online comes close to the unique thrill of versus mode pitting your wits against real life Zombies or vice versa. Fantastic stuff.

The game looks good. Nothing stunning but has a clean efficient look to it. The game really looks at its best when the corridor you are in suddenly fills with charging zombies, swarms of them after your blood. Its intense and loads of fun.

Left 4 Dead isn't a big game and you could probably blast through all the levels in a couple of days but has a lot of replay value and will have legs due to the "must-play" online aspect to the game. Buy this game if you play online, tread cautiously if you only play solo.
9.5/10
(initially 8.5 but this game INFECTS you)

Gears of War 2 Review

2008-11-23T10:31:00.003Z

Bigger, Louder and more Bad-ass! The words of Cliffy B, the man behind the game, just about sum up Gears of War 2. This is literally an Epic game. Its big, its bad, its loud and its a lot of fun.

Gears of War 2 continues the story where Gears of War left off with the humans in constant battle with the Locust hoards. Marcus Fenix and his gang have to contend with many new situations and skirmishes as the war intensifies. Gameplay is pretty much the same with the tried and tested formula of close quarter battles, the use of cover and guns with chainsaws on them. It's thrilling gameplay and if you are a fan of the GOW style you will not be disappointed.

The graphics in the game are stellar. Gritty and realistic but stylised at the same time and certain points will take your breath away. There is a little more colour in the palette too. The game looks and sounds stunning and really captures the chaos of war perfectly.

There are some new modes along with the standard Campaign mode, Co-Op and Versus modes and one of the best of these is the Horde mode where you can 4 others can take on a series of waves of enemies. The game slowly builds up in difficulty until its total carnage and chaos and only the best organised teams can survive. Its a simple concept but done really well. Much like the whole game really.

With the improved net code and the ability to play 5 against 5 now instead of 4 against 4 the online portion of the game is a lot better but is still a game where newbies will struggle with the tactics against the GOW Hardcore.

Gears of War 2 is a great 360 title. It is a big game. An Epic game. With a good story, good character, great set pieces and looks and plays fantastic. Recommended.
9/10

Scene It! Box Office Smash Review

2008-11-23T10:24:00.002Z

Scene it! Box Office Smash is the follow up to Scene It! Lights Camera Action and is more of the same. Its a movie quiz and pits up to four people against each other in a series of rounds featuring movie clips and other movie related trivia. The new game features NXE Avatar support, online gameplay and some tweaks to the rounds but it still falls a bit flat compared to games like Buzz!

The game has no real personality. I has a couple of commentators who are possibly the worst hosts in history. They are neither entertaining or funny. The rounds themselves are okay but again lack any sort of specialness. The Avatar support is good and the online addition is a nice touch when it works (Many online games seem to loose all your opponents after the first round) and it does have some good clips (Lots of Steve Martin for some reason) and will test the knowledge of Movie Buffs out there.

Its a good Sunday afternoon or Boxing Day with the family type game, a slight improvement on the first game but lacks the zip of Buzz!
5/10

Fallout 3 Review

2008-11-23T09:50:00.002Z

May I point out at the start of this review that I never truly "got" Oblivion. I admired it from afar but never got hooked on it like many others did. I could appreciate its technical wizardry but never found myself enjoying it that much when I did play it. Fallout 3 is by the same people who made Oblivion and is basically Oblivion in a new setting with a new combat system.

In Fallout 3 you play the part of a young adult who has grown up in a nuclear shelter all his life since the world was destroyed by Nuclear War. You are born, you take your exams and carry on with normal life but then something happens in the bunker and you are flung into an adventure and you have to escape to the surface.

When you first step out onto the surface the game takes your breath away. Your eyes take a few seconds to adjust to the "natural" post-apocalyptic sunshine but then the landscape is revealed. Its a stunning moment as you see the vista stretch away. Its then down to you to find your way in the world.

The game plays and is set up very similar to Oblivion in a huge open world with random encounters and outposts and people to chat to and get missions from. Combat can be played either in a FPS real time mode or you can enter the VATs system where the game pauses and you can target body parts to add a slightly more strategic approach to the game. Combat is very tough at first and you will spend a lot of time scrabbling around for ammo and running away when your underpowered weaponry does little damage to the enemy. You do not feel like a gaming giant whilst playing this game and it can be a frustrating first few hours limping from one combat to another.

The graphics and sound are very good in the game and some of the landscapes and settlements are almost photo-realistic. The characters still suffer from that blank cardboard look that Oblivion suffered from with some very static conversations with no dynamism or direction.

One of the problems I have with this game and its Oblivion brother is the open world aspect is almost too open. I do like Open World games such as Grand Theft Auto or Crackdown but a lot of the time I find myself aimlessly wandering the world hoping something will happen but also hoping nothing will as my character will end up too injured or out of ammo. I wish it was a little more streamlined and focused and had some urgency to it. It does allow for a lot more freedom and options of game play but sometimes just artificially extends the game time.

Fallout 3 does play very well and does have some great touches and is definitely a great AAA title but I don't think it is suited to everyone. It has a steep learning curve and the violence can be a little OTT at times. I do like it, but I do not love it but do look forward to continuing the story and exploring the land.
8/10

XRayWorld Review Catchup!

2008-11-21T17:59:00.002Z

Its been a busy few weeks in gaming, the new NXE and lots of good games so its time to catch up on my Reviews of the latest games. Appearing over the weekend I'm hoping to get reviews of Scene It! Box Office Smash, Gears of War 2, Fallout 3, Rock Band 2 and Left 4 Dead. Busy weekend.