A game a day keeps the…
X360
Darksiders, how to make a great game
Jul 23rd
Usually I am not a fan of games copying parts of other games instead of trying to do their own thing, however Darksiders is the exception to this.
Moody, don’t give a damn main character (with all his combat skills also) like God of War – Check! Gameplay of a Zelda game – Check! Portal gun from… well Portal – Check! Various movie/game quotes – Check!
All this adds up to one of the best games I have played for a few years, the 4 horsemen/heaven/hell type setting probably helps as it keeps things interesting but the gameplay keeps the game flowing and with only a few annoyances this game should of probably got more praise than it has.
If you are looking for a hack n slash adventure game (and even if you aren’t) then give Darksiders a go as I cannot rate it highly enough, I am glad to see there is a sequel coming… even if it is due in 2012 
Playing ‘War’ has never been so much fun! Bravo Vigil Game, Bravo!
Mass Effect – Only took 2 years!
May 26th
Way back in 2008 I rented Mass Effect, played it for about 2 hours and sent it back as I thought it could take me a while to playthrough… 2 years on I went back to it and was a little surprised to find I finished it in about 13 hours.
I have mixed views on this game, I love the settings and the type of game but the actual game itself has all sorts of niggles on the 360. Glitchy cover system, no decent auto save system and texture pop in throughout slightly ruined what was a decent overall game. Being a few years old now I can sort of forgive these issues, hopefully Mass Effect 2 is a better all round package.
The first 4 hours of this game I struggled with, I would die in every major encounter however once I had figured out the upgrade system and found some better equipment it became far more enjoyable and I was able to sit back and playthrough the story opening up around me.
Hmm it sounds like I am being a bit hard on the game, this shouldn’t be the case as I enjoyed it alot. I am very interested in seeing how it has evolved in Mass Effect 2.
Moving next week, so game time will be even more limited. However I do have the God of War Collection ready to keep me busy while I am internetless… Problem is Red Dead Redemption is calling me from afar…
Bioshock 2, you know what they say about sequels…
May 10th
… they are never as good as the originals…
Well in most cases anyway, but Bioshock 2 sadly fits into this category. Now I loved the first game, I thought it had great atmosphere and a great little story with a good twist. I was worried that a second game wouldn’t be able to recreate the same package and it seems like I was correct.
First off you are now a Big Daddy, sounds cool right? Well it should be except you feel about as strong as a wet paper bag… I got around this by pretending I was a frail human being again, which worked for the most part until the story kept reminding me I was a Big Daddy.. Grrr.
I played the first Bioshock on the PC, so maybe the atmosphere was better through headphones but the 360 version seemed to lack any really… but again this could be a failing of using a TV’s speakers. I am sure the areas in the second game are smaller though but I could just be imagining it to find more problems… so onto the things I actually liked…
ermmm…
See this is the problem, I love the setting and I like the actual gameplay but a game like this lives on its story and atmosphere and the sequel just didn’t delivery this for me so it was a bit of a struggle to want to playthrough and finish. Maybe I will pick it up when it is mega cheap on PC on Steam one day and try again on PC, who knows.
Don’t get me wrong Bioshock 2 is an ‘OK’ game, just not as good as the first one in my opinion. Onto the next game I go…
Who ya gonna call..?
Mar 8th
It has been a long time since I have played a Ghostbusters game, it was back in my early gaming years on the Spectrum which looking up now says it was made in 1984….
Anyway, moving on from feeling very old the latest Ghostbusters game that came out last year is actually pretty good when I was expecting it to be pretty awful.
If you want a game that allows you to strap on a proton pack and capture ghosts then this is the game for you, it captures the cheesiness of the films and also the fun of wielding the wavy streams of destruction extremely well. You even get to use the slime cannons too, covering team mates in green slime is always fun 
This is a third person shooter that allows you to play a new member of the team alongside all the famous faces of the film, you go through many different locations capturing ghosts while destroying most things in your way. You also get to use the PKE meter to help find these ghosts, this also allows for many a creepy moment in the game. The Stay Puft Marshmallow Man also makes his appearance fairly early on and you get to dispatch him, although sadly you never get the chance to drive Ecto-1
The game is paced very well, on the middle setting (Professional) it was a smooth pleasant playthrough, that was until towards the end. Then it almost seemed like the developers suddenly thought they had made it too easy and made a couple of levels a royal pain in the arse (cue much swearing, much to the girlfriends amusement). This wouldn’t of been so bad if the the game didn’t have to reload the entire level again.. I can only imagine that’s what its doing as the loading times are a bit long.. I used to love that Ghostbusters theme lol
There are plenty of nods to the films in this game (achievements named after sayings from the film, the Vigo picture in the HQ that has various sayings etc..) so any fan of the series will love the game, even if you don’t you will still find it a capable shooter… well maybe not but who doesn’t like Ghostbusters?!
Good fun, glad I only rented it though 
Its like Mario Kart but not
Mar 1st
This weekend I picked up Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing for the 360, I have wanted a decent Mario Kart clone for the 360 for a long time now!
The demo I played the week before gave a good taste of the game but the full game certainly delivers a fun experience. Yes it’s pretty much the same as Mario Kart but that’s no bad thing. Weapons are similar, and each character has a special power up that they get when things are going badly… I love Aiai’s monkey ball All-Star move
Its nice to have a HD kart game finally, the team on this have done a great job at capturing what Mario Kart did well and I am kind of surprised that it is getting some iffy reviews.
The kids love it too!
Is Halo back?
Feb 20th
or am I just reach..ing… OK sorry that’s pretty awful!
After I was disappointed by Halo 3: ODST I was hoping that Halo Reach might at least point the series back in the right direction and after watching the following video I am convinced it is. Spartans are back and the graphics look like they have got a nice update.
Its nice to be able to get excited over a Halo game once again.
Halo 3: ODST or OSHT?
Feb 3rd
Now I have always liked the Halo series of games, they are one of the few series of console FPS games that I think actually ‘work’ on a console but I do think that Bungie lost their way a little on this one.
The decision to move away from the main hero Master Chief of the previous games was a brave one, instead in ODST (Orbital Drop Shock Troopers) you are a rookie member of one of these drop shock troopers. A drop goes a bit wrong and your character then spends his time wandering the city finding clues to what happened to the other members of the team, and when you do find a clue you then play a mission in that team members shoes to show you what happened. This obviously leads up to the final levels of the story once you find out what happened to each.
It is not that bad a concept except the wandering around the city to the next clue does get boring after like the second one, a more linear approach would of been more interesting (for once) I think. The actual proper missions were fun though, especially the ones where the whole team were together… however there are very few of these which also lets it down.
As you are no longer the super marine that you were in the previous games you now have proper health that doesn’t regen by itself, at first I thought this would be quite a nice change and make combat a bit more of a challenge.. which it did… but not in a good way I feel. All it tended to do was slow down fights when you were low on health, at least before you could go find cover and recover before and keep the game flowing but now you find yourself just dying alot to allow you to carry on faster.
I realise that this game was a bit of a stop gap title, but it had some nice ideas. I have always liked the working in a team aspect, its just it didn’t use it enough. ODST is a fairly enjoyable game if you like the Halo universe but if you were new to the series you wouldn’t be very impressed. It’s worth noting that I never played this multiplayer but that’s because my idea of being of fun is not being killed over and over and over again against people who play Halo day in, day out!
Lets hope Halo: Reach does a better job.
