The Three Rs N3twork is a primarily British viral entertainment network, with standings in many niche interests involved in a variety of different groups. Ranging from gaming to adulthood to video creation.
1/10 - "Just, No." 2/10 - "Avoid." 3/10 - "Gamebreakingly flawed" 4/10 - "Not so great" 5/10 - "Pretty Average." 6/10 - "A few nice touches, nothing amazing" 7/10 - "Not brilliant, fun anyway" 8/10 - "A decent enough game, Well worth a look." 9/10 - "A really good game. Highly Recommended." 10/10 - "An absolute must buy, a defining game for the genre."
Greetngs citizens, movie review numero uno today, about.. well, the title of the post says it all. A doubtful first impression, but my spirits were lifted as the movie progressed, it's most charming feature being that it's a movie made out of fuck all, with humour very easy to understand, i mean who doesnt enjoy watching an angry midget get twatted, and listen to offbeat comments about retards, americans, or sometimes even retarded americans; saying that racial slur does play a part, so bear that in mind before you see it. Overall a very kinda 'up skirt' kinda cheeky like 'black', and i mean black as in dark, not black as in ethnic minority thankyou very much kinda comedy with just the right amount of blood to tickle me cringe button and more than enough fucking's to fucking last a fucking lifetime, and if you didn't know where bruges was... it's in belgium... but who the fuck goes to belgium? Just see the film.
Stay posted for a possible and probable sighting of the hopefully equally, if not more so, recomendable, iron man next week. Peace. A good 8/10
I woke up to see the familiar play.com parcel at the bottom of my stairs, and I pretty much skipped with excitement, Nothing else on order but GTA, so that meant it was time.
I took it out of the Bag
And then spent 10 minutes trying to open the cellophane. Inside theres a "liberty city guidebook" and a one month free Xbox live trial, the disk has niko's not so smiley face on it.
now, im not so bothered about that shit, so I put it in my 360, and close the tray. i've been waiting for this for about 2 months, and i feel like a fucking two year old in a sweet shop.
The screen goes black, and then the rockstar labels come up, followed by the title screen, and then a beautifully drawn loading screen, i mean, it looks really sharp even on my non HD TV. Then theres the intro, Nico's on the boat, theres a guy getting whipped in a cabin, you see alot about nico here, but the main note is how fucking likable he is, instantly. maybe it's the eastern european accent, maybe its the light stubble, who knows? i did warm to him by the time the intro had finished though.
The driving is pretty different to how im used to, the cars are responsive, but you just need to be a little careful untill you get the hang of it, a couple of missions later, i have a mobile phone, and i'm watching out for scumbag albanians while my cousin gambles the last of his money in an all or nothing bid to pay the loansharks.
Soon i was joined by a friend, we had nothing better to do, so we soon got hold of a firearm, and started a shootout in a clucking bell, The shooting is so much tigher then the earlier offering of San Andreas and Vice city, and the Hand to Hand has been improved alot too
3 hours later, we're still playing it, and I give the game a resounding thumbs up. Expect a review in a week or so, but i think i've only scratched the surface of Liberty.
I was expecting my delivery of GTA4 today, and was sorely dissapointed it didnt show up.
Either way, i'm going to try and power through as much Devil may cry as i can today, because i dont think i'll touch it again once GTA lands in my lap.
Blog post later, i just wanted sympathy 'cause i dont have GTA till tommorow ;)
I'm JaWizz, you can call me Jay, and i'll be your movie reviewer for DW Gaming. I'll be posting a new release review pretty much every week, but feel free to request a review on an older movie, i've pretty much seen them all and i'll be happy to review. Stay frosty!
Today I saw the latest MGS4 trailer, Even though i'm a big Metal Gear Solid fan, the hype has passed me by completely, being as its a Playstation 3 game, and I dont have nearly enough cash to shell out for a new PS3 and a copy of Metal Gear 4.
Either way, i saw the trailer:
And even though I dont have a fucking clue whats being said i figured i'd try some interpretations.
In the first twenty seconds we see what looks like Snake dying on the ground, usually not such a brilliant starting point for a game trailer, but alot of the MGS4 stuff i've seen is telling me that this is the end of solid snake as a character. Seeing as he looks dead already, this doesnt suprise me.
Then a guy i can only presume to be Ocelot shows up, and he's alot different from the last time we saw him [Chronologically] in MGS2. Then we see some soldiers in a battlefield, and some 15 foot tall mechs that are clearly imitating Cows with the mooing sound they are making.
Around the one minute mark, Snake shows up, Very much not dead, and then we see Meryl. Now she definately doesnt look like she did in Metal Gear 1, for a start, she's not dead. And for a second, it doesnt like like she was carved out of Balsa wood.
From here on in, it gets badass. A group of soldiers start punching some other soldiers, and beating the shite out of them and then we are shown total warfare in a street. From 2 minutes, the voice stops, and the guys at Kojima studio's show what a talent they have for trailers, they managed to show Snake maybe 4 times in the whole trailer, and still make a brilliant trailer.
I'm going to start keeping an eye on this game from now, as my PS3 owning friend is going on about it, and this trailer has reminded me quite how rabid i got with excitement over Snake Eater.
Readers, and RRS feed subscribers, take note: I can now be reached via the far easier to remember www.DW-Gaming.Net.
This is a far cleaner URL, a has come about because i'm now part of the Blogring at www.Thethreers.co.uk, obviously, im obliged to say you should check it out, I'm personally pretty excited about this because it gives me a wider possible audience, and you should start to see a few sublte changes over here in the next few days.
ALSO: a big shout out to a new author, Jawizz! As an Avid Cinema Goer he's agreed to review movies for the blog!
I'm using Straylights release as a Beta test, if you will, for a new weekly feature i hope to include.
Group Therapy will gather experienced players of multiplayer games and talk to them about it alittle. Please let me know what you think with a comment. Anyway.. On with the show!
Today's Group consists of:
Rakdos: Rakdos, player of Nexus war for 2.5 years former faction leader/ current strike/raid team leader
Vampiroth: Well, i'm Vampiroth. I came to the Nexus as a small, good faction co-leader, and through my twists and turns, gradually became more and more drawn into the darker nature of demons. I've been playing for two and a half years, and i'm a warchief. I've been through three wars, and i'm one of the few surviving greybeards left in the Nexus. Rakdos and I lead strike team Azathoth together in Pirates of R'lyeh.
DW: I'm an ex-Alpha tester for nexus war, in addition to leading the original chaotic good faction with Vampiroth, and helping to redefine the original "good Vs evil gameplay" I then sided with good, and found a suitable amount of success as a low profile raid leader for many small factions.
TGBM: i started playing in june 07. i've been a casual player with my three free alts. I've been in large factions but prefer medium ones. I'm currently one of the raid leaders for a 5 man faction. I prefer good factions and "neutral" classes. In other words, i'm a cookie cutter "goodie two shoes".
BeefSteak: I'm BeefSteak, started with the RRF a month or so into the life of Nexus War. Have been through just about every power change and war that has happened in the game except for the very first one. I've had characters in all kinds of Good, Evil and Neutral factions. The game has been a blast, even though there have been a few rocky points.
DW: Thanks. So, Im imagining you've all taken turns on Straylight, What are your first impressions?
Rakdos: its alot better than i thought it was going to be
TGBM: its almost like playing a new game.
Vampiroth: Well, Straylight is very, very impressive. I can't say the bugs aren't to be expected. The server has been handling massive amounts of abuse since it's debut.
BeefSteak: Interesting new change to the interface. Plagued by a few bugs which seemed minor but screwed with raiding to a large degree. Other than that, I loved the new larger maps along with most everything else that the new interface produced.
Vampiroth: But overall? I am pretty amazed at all the new content, I just wish I coulda gotten more gameplay in instead of messing around and dying to bugs.
Rakdos:but with amount of people connected is the same as a large raid we dont have the lag that we did
TGBM: i like the new maps. just wish the big map was more detailed. maybe if it allowed you to make notes on it.
Vampiroth: I kind of liked the 3x3 older map more, myself. It's also a bit more click-point oriented.
BeefSteak: I liked that point, but knowing more where you are going while hunting is amazing. Honestly, the only things I'm angry about so far is the "Occupants" tab refreshing when the page does
Vampiroth: I'd prefer if the drop-downs weren't in seperate menus and tabs. I was angry about the glitch from when the server reset. Basically, it caused the sun and moon to be out at the same time but the sun is invisible. I ended up catching on fire a second too late when I was trying to land and heal myself. [DW: this is important because in Nexus War, Sunlight kills revenants.]
BeefSteak: I was very upset when my RRF Rev got screwed beacuse of the Invisible Sun and No Ward Biting things
DW: But obviously as the first straylight enabled build, Bugs are bound to happen.
Rakdos: if this _didnt_ have bugs i'd be shocked
Vampiroth: What Rakdos and DW said.
BeefSteak: Very true. Things are going to screw up
TGBM: if there weren't bugs, i'd be very worried.
BeefSteak: But I was raiding so I expected things to be perfect.
DW: How was it to get back into the raiding saddle after the relative inactivity pre-straylight?
BeefSteak: I was on the defence of the first raid that I know of
Rakdos: as was i
TGBM:i haven't had a raiding experience yet as i was recovering from a raid.
Vampiroth: Yeah. When Straylight was released, the first thing I did was jet off to look for a portal to Nifleheim. Mind you I almost found one, but I caught on fire and died.
Rakdos:i went to find the cult shrine i wanted
DW: as did i. My seraph went to 'Namm
TGBM: i've been trying to take all my straylight decisions carefully and avoid "impulse buys"
Vampiroth: Not me. I'm on the rat race right now. trying to bulk up on Character Points as fast as possible so I can buy these new skills and become a more effective warrior. 'Because we're all on the verge of a war now, you know? All the lag fixes = Larger Scale Raids.
BeefSteak:I think my DC was one of the first Naam Cultists
Rakdos: I cant wait to see the new [Wizard] staff skills in action
DW: touching onto cults, I understand many of you have higher level and maxed characters, How much do you think cults will add to the End game?
TGBM: i've never participated in the "end game"... because it looked boring to me. I traditionally delete my characters a few weeks after they max out. Half the fun is getting new skills.
Vampiroth: Cults are allowing the expansion of massive builds- highly specialized and tailored. I myself am working on one, the perfect revenant build.
Rakdos: The old end game was grinds for CP and raid.the new end game is grind for favor and design new builds
TGBM: not really "grind" more of "play"
BeefSteak: The Cults will add onto the "End Game". The fact that favor will decay daily will make it so that people will have to keep things up instead of just saying , 'level 30, time to grind'
Vampiroth:Favor decays? I forgot! I hope there's no cap for it, at least.
TGBM: the cult system encourages people to be active in raiding and such, not just sit in a SH waiting for the next raid.
Rakdos: the added honor decay makes it so factions have to work for their upgrades now.
BeefSteak: Not only raiding, but just going out and killing(or doing their thing for favor) in order to keep your God on your side. I've got a Naam and Goros cultist so far
TGBM: i have no cultists. mainly because none of them just scream "OMG! THIS TOTALLY FITS YOUR CHARACTER!" to me.my NC might join goros. just to be able to carry the most stuff.
Rakdos: my lich went Hashaa for the complete undead theme
DW: Are any of you planning on joining the "first wave explorers" that are heading out into the unknown to map the new planes, and find the new badges?
Vampiroth: I'm going to adventure into Nifleheim this week, yeah.
Rakdos: I will when i get my character into the nimbus
TGBM: i managed to get to the nimbus. And die.
<@DW> are you bothered by the uproar from other players that the newer skills will make older builds "obsolete"?
Vampiroth: Sorta. Speaking as a greybeard here, I feel that these new builds are definitely a threat to me.
Rakdos:thats the nature of a changing game. i've seen builds come into and out of favor, and it'll continue to happen
Vampiroth: My armor has become a bit weaker, my blades are slightly less valuable, but it's a challenge to either adapt and overcome, or settle for less. I myself am attempting to adapt and synchronize, adding the best of both worlds to make a powerful build.
Rakdos: unless jorm stops patching the game it'll always be fluid
DW: do you think this is part of what keeps people playign the game? the constant need for new tactics and defences?
TGBM: to some extent, it definitely makes the game interesting.
Rakdos: i have kept playing Nexus War for the 2 and a half years becasue its a complex game that keeps stuff as simple as you want it
TGBM: amen.
Rakdos: you can have a character that spawns kills and dies, or one that needs a week to prepare. and the changes made in SL hold true to that ideal
Vampiroth: I think Jorm constantly shuffles around skills and the like to prevent stagnation and any certain class from gaining too much power over another. My class [Revenant] is a pretty good example - we had massive accuracy and damage, but our accuracy was dropped, and our MP costs went up, but our damage went up too.
TGBM: its balanced, the nice thing is, i can ignore most of the SL changes. (beside interface) and pretty much play the game as i did before.
DW: Thats all we have time for, Thanks for your input. ----
The next group therapy will be on the subject of Team Fortress 2, and will be posted up sometime next weekend!
Let me start by explaining nexus war, a game that most of my readers will never of heard of, To lift the description straight off the front page:
"Nexus War is a browser-based multiplayer online roleplaying game where players and their factions struggle for control over territory and power over several planes of existence." In Nexus War you play as a mortal freshly transported to the Nexal battleground of St Germaine islands, For a free to play browser MMO the game is richly detailed, with a clean and usable interface, and a full backstory featured both from the hidden badge locations, and the newspapers that can be found all across the islands. As you level up, you are given Character points, or CP, which you can use as a currency to buy new skills. Every action you perform in the nexus has an effect on your Morality, or MO, which functions like a sort of Karma meter indicating that you are good or evil and this effects the routes of character progression open to you as you play.
At level 10, players can pick one of the 12 "Tier 2" classes, Ascending to angelhood, or descending to become a Demon. Players may choose to favour the forces of neutrality and free will becoming one of the 3 neutral classes, again you get a choice at Level 20, to pick one of the final exits for your Tier 2 class, and this ammount of customisation and skill selection means that every character is unique.
However, the main strength of Nexus war is its community, in addition to it's own IRC network,it has a forums and its own Wiki, where detailed in game help can be found. The community is roughly 500 people strong, and I think one of the main strengths is how friendly everyone can be, despite the fact the game is solely PVP based and so you are always killing each other.
With Straylight the whole game has become far more.. Shiny, and I dont think there has ever been a better time to take a holiday in St Germaine.
IGN recently gave GTA4 a 10/10, that makes it the first 10/10 in this decade. The last game to receive the highly coveted 10 score was Soul calibur, back in 1999.
From the off, Hilary goldstein heaps praise on the game, ending the first paragraph of his review with "Every facet of Rockstar's new masterpiece is worthy of applause. Without question, Grand Theft Auto IV is the best game since Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.". I think it's pretty clear to say he's a big fan.
He closes with an explaination for the perfect score: "A "10" is not a score we give out very often. In fact, the last time we gave a 10 to a console game was Soul Calibur in 1999. A 10 doesn't mean a game is perfect -- it means a game is pushing boundaries, expanding a genre, and doing many things to a level so far above and beyond its competitors that they overshadows any flaws. Certainly, GTA IV has some issues, the most noticeable being the occasional flaw in the cover system, but there are many more pieces of GTA IV that are better than anything I've seen from a game in the past decade. We don't give 10s often -- just to games that merit the score."
The Review is located here and the video review here and my copy arrives on Monday.
We interrupt your regularly scheduled program with an announcement. Everyones favourite lawyer, Jack Thompson has written another letter to take two. Well, He's written a letter to the chairman's mother in fact.
No i'm not kidding around here, he wrote a letter to the take two chairman's mother. In it, he compares Strauss Zelnick, the take two chairman, to a member of hitlers youth, tell's her that her son is peddling pornography and violence to children and then finally quotes scriptures at her. Then, in a stunning 180, Wishes her a sarcastic happy mothers day in his close.
Here is the full unedited letter:
Mrs. Zelnick Strauss Zelnick, Take-Two Chairman's Mother New York, New York Via e-mails to intermediaries
Re: Your Son, Strauss Zelnick
Dear Mrs. Zelnick:
Your son, as you may know (or maybe you don't know), is Chairman of Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc., whose most popular video games are the Grand Theft Auto murder simulator games banned in some countries but sold to children here.
Your son last week was reported to have said the following about Grand Theft Auto IV, due to be released Tuesday, April 29: "We've already received numerous [GTA IV] reviews, and to a one, they are perfect scores. My mom couldn't write better reviews..." Taking your son's thought, I would encourage you either to play this game or have an adroit video gamer play it for you. Some of the latter gamers are on death row, so try to find one out in the civilian population who hasn't killed someone yet.
What you will see in your son's game, if this iteration of GTA is anything like its predecessors, is incredible interactive violence aimed at police officers (whom you can shoot in the head and see the blood spray), innocent bystanders (whom you can run over with your car just for the heck of it), and of course the plentiful female prostitutes you can have sex with and then filet with a knife or stomp with your feet in order to get your money back. Experts note that the recent plethora of cop killings is caused in part by your darling son's entrepreneurial energy. There are three policemen dead in Alabama because of Grand Theft Auto. I was on 60 Minutes about it. I hope Strauss has provided you with a flat screen tv to see the grief of the bereaved families that fills the screen.
The pornography and violence that your son trafficks in is the kind of stuff that most mothers would be ashamed to see their son putting into the hands of other mothers' children, but, hey, your son Strauss has recently assured the world that he is "a Boy Scout, everybody knows that." I'd love to see the merit badges that Scout Troop handed out. Is there a Ted Bundy merit badge? If so, your loving son deserves one now. It should be red and green, for obvious reasons.
With Passover having just come and gone, it is appropriate to note the following from the Old Testament, Proverbs 22:6:
"Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it."
Mrs. Zelnick, did you train up your son, Strauss, to make millions of dollars by pushing Mature-rated video games to children? Any kid can go right to little Strauss' corporate web site and buy GTA IV with no age verification. Strauss is even marketing the new Grand Theft Auto IV on World Wrestling Entertainment tv shows seen by millions of kids. If you trained up Strauss to do this, then shame on you.
But maybe the explanation for your son's corporate sociopathy is to be found in Old Testament Proverb 29:15:
"The rod and reproof give wisdom: but a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame."
Maybe you, Mrs. Zelnick, were so taken by your handsome son that you spared the rod and spoiled the child. That would explain why he has brought you, by the way he presently acts, "to shame."
There's another mother you would do well to talk to. Mrs. Crump in Alabama had a son who was a police officer. He's now dead because a teenaged boy unwittingly trained himself to kill him on Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. She has a grief she carries every day that only a mother can know.There are other such mothers in the heartland of America whose inhabitants your son simply sees as commercial targets.
Your son, this very moment, is doing everything he possibly can to sell as many copies of GTA IV to teen boys in the United States, a country in which your son claims you raised him to be "a Boy Scout." More like the Hitler Youth, I would say. Happy Mother's day, Mrs. Zelnick, which this year is May 11, two weeks after your son unleashes porn and violence upon other mothers' boys. I'm sure you're very proud.
Sincerely, Jack Thompson
To be honest, i'm struggling to see what the point of this attack is, its 4 days till launch, and i'd bet most game stores already have the game in their storerooms and i feel its REALLY fucking underhanded to write to someones family to complain. Hell, lets all write to members of jack thompsons family about what a jerk he's being!!
Epic Games have revealed that first in game footage will go live on May the 10th, I'm sure ill post it here when it goes live.
In america, it will actually go live on may the 9th, due to time difference, but for the dedicated Gears fans among you, set your alarms for 7am May 10th.
It's been stated the the video will contain between 90-120 seconds in length, and will contain an intro from cliffy B before showcasing some of the campaign footage. Multiplayer will not be shown, Which is a shame, as i thought that was the weakest aspect of the original Gears of War, and i'm eager for this one to prove me wrong.
-- In an Aside, i should post a Devil May Cry 4 Review tommorow, but i got sidetracked with the addictiveness of Football manager 2007.
I'm alittle behind on this one. The "Dope Bag" Free DLC add's 4 new maps to Kane and Lynch's multiplayer "fragile alliance" mode, and a handful of achievements. As one of the unlucky launch day buyers of Kane and Lynch, i thought the only thing close to a saving grace was the Fragile Alliance game mode, where up to 8 players could work together to heist a variety of targets. unfortunately, the game was quite buggy, and 75% percent of the time when you tried to enter a game you were plonked back to the main menu.
Anyway, i downloaded the Dope Bag last night, and when i woke up this morning, I loaded up Kane and Lynch, and settled in for a few sessions, noticing it was newly patched. Now, Kane and Lynch's multiplayer is somewhat difficult to explain, the objective being to cooperatively rob your target, and make it to the extraction point, where all the money is pooled, and shared out equally, if you die you respawn as one of the enemy's and can earn a cash bounty for killing the surviving players, and stopping their escape with the loot. So far so simple, right? Well, this is where it get's devious.
The winner is the player who escapes with the most money, However thats done is left to the player. You can be a team player, and escape as part of a group and split the money fairly and equally, or you can pick your moment, and gun down the rest of your teammates, to take their share of the heist, and escape alone, the only problem being that the guys you just shot are now on the other team, and they really dont want to see you escape with what was their money.
Its this combination of Hurried negotiations,backstabbing and paranoia that makes fragile alliance so much fun to play, unfortunately it was marred by Innaccurate weapons and poor damage, meaning it took about 5 minutes to gun down your teammate and turn traitor and as a result no one ever bothered.
The new patch made the weapons more accurate, and damaging, and made it easier to join games, meaning that the free dope bag has made Kane and Lynch a very interesting prospect with the new globe trotting maps, it's just a shame we had to wait almost 6 months for the patch to make the game fun.
This is the UK TV commercial for GTA4 on the 360, its reminding me that its only 7 days till my copy will be sitting in my lap, and i'm getting VERY excited.
I think i'm going to ask Nico to marry me.
anyway, the Commercial is alittle plainer then say, The san andreas TV spot, or even the Vice City TV spot, but GTA4 seems to be alot more stylised then those that have come before.
So, i got bored today, and on a whim, dug out my old Steam account Details.
I have everything half life related, up to Half life 2, and so i played around abit. i also spent an hour dicking around on Garry's mod. This is the first time i've ever played it, so it took me maybe 30 minutes to get the hang of it, and then chuck Alyx Vance across the landscape with the physics gun.
Anyway, At the end of the hour, this is what it looked like:
Thats a general overview of the mess i made experimenting.
Facial Expressions Editing :]
my First attempt at a car. Its a Bedframe welded to two Wheels. The balloons are attatched to something else entirely.
"If you hit the right click, you can make things freeze in that spot!!"
it was pretty funny, but really complicated, i reckon i might as well give it another few goes. Also, Xbox live was down today, presumably for the Spring Update, And yeah, I am too lazy to make a proper post today.
Just look at that picture for a while. Yeah, that is Batman. Yeah, that is Sub-Zero. Yeah, that is Mortal Kombat Vs DC, Coming out for all next gen consoles. You heard me right, Mortal Kombat Vs DC comics, in a fighting game.
To fully capture the awesome here, I'm gonna post the trailers.
thats Sub Zero and Batman, Fighting in one of the many Multi Tiered arena's. Not much has been released yet, but i'm gonna be sticking to this one like glue. its been a long time since there was a decent one V one fighting game.
A friend of mine gave me a copy of the Battlefield: Bad Company closed beta. I wasnt so hot on the it, because I couldnt stand the Teamkill fest that was Battlefield 2 on the 360.
Anyway, Today I loaded it up, and I was most impressed. Getting into a game was easy, and fast, and I found the game remarkably easy to get to grips with, as the controls are largely similar to Call of Duty 4's including the remarkably overpowered knife kills.
Play is simple, the defenders have 3 bases. They start at the first Base. and at each base are two crates of gold. The attackers have to destroy the two gold crates. When that happens, the Defenders fall back to their second base, with another two gold crates, and the attackers spawnpoint moves to the first base. This continues till either all 3 bases are destroyed, or the attackers one out of respawns, its an interesting game mode, and keeps the combat fairly focussed on a small area. I played for about two hours, scoring about midtable for the whole thing,and in general found the whole experience to be pretty enjoyable, Unlocking new weapons is done with unlock points, earnt when you rank up, and you earn awards for doing certain things in combat, on the weapon screen however, there were 8 weapons with the text "unlock via the Xbox live marketplace" under their unlock criteria, and this being an EA game, it wouldn't suprise me if they charged over the odd's prices for unbalanced weapons, so everyone is forced to buy them.
I enjoyed the Scenery destruction, it changes the way you think about cover, as a well placed grenade or rocket can destroy the cover, leaving you in the open.
as for flaws, i noticed there was a metric shit-ton of explosives. Every class has something explosive, and generally alot of ammo with it, as an assault I spawned with 6 Grenade Launcher rounds, and 5 normal grenades. Also, the weapon customisation is non-existant, which is a shame, as I have gotten used to being able to snap a new sight onto my assault rifle, and i reckon it would of given the game abit more depth. Obviously, these are only small flaw's so im not so fussed, and I'll probably pick the game up launch day.
I hadn't really heard much about the iron man game before the demo hit. I was pretty excited about the demo though, i mean... It is iron man. That pretty much sums up my first opinions of the game, from Download to the end of playthrough.
I did like the game alot, you can customise your suit, and weaponary, and theres a few different variants. However, then i played the game. and it all went downhill from there. I thought the graphics were nice and shiny, but when i ran fowards, it didnt feel like iron man. Also, iron man sounds like an utter girl. its all the little details that make a great game, and for iron man, they were all wrong.
not meaning to be deterred by the walking, i took to the skies, i mean, he can fly after all. I promptly flew into the wall a few times, then by luck rather then judgement, smashed through an enemy tank, and then, into a wall again.
Combat wasnt particularly satisfying either, Being a simple case of blasting tanks and missile sites with your repulsor beams, or hitting it in the worst looking melee i have ever had the displeasure of seeing.
I mean, im sure i could have a bit of fun with it, but the controls are a bit akward for me to do anything except fly at the speed of sound into the rocks in the desert, and it doesnt feel like i'd expect an Iron Man game to feel. so, i'm pretty bummed out about it.
Over the next few days i'm going to dust off my copy of portal, and try to finish the advanced levels.
I attempted this today, and felt the uncontrollable urge to eat my controller, they were that difficult. Still, it might be a decent challenge, and i dont really have anything else to kill time till GTA4, so, maybe it'll be theraputic ;)
So, having finally finished Rainbow Six Vegas 2's story mode on realistic, i not only feel like a fully trained, well equipped counter terrorist agent but i also feel like i can now discuss the game.
For a start, Theresalot of people who believe that this game is just an expansion pack and not a real sequel, much in the style that GRAW2 didn't add much to UbiSoft's Ghost Recon series. I'm 100% in agreement with these people, but to just write Vegas 2 off as a simple expansion pack would be a disservice in my opinion. I was possibly the worlds biggest Rainbow Six Vegas fan, i pretty much played it solidly from its release in November 06, till well into 2007. As a result expectations were pretty high, and I'll happily admit to being on the verge of joyous tears as i slid my new copy of Vegas 2 into my 360's disk drive.
I'm afraid to say that first impressions were not so great. the PEC (Persistent Elite Creation)Character creator was almost exactly the same as the first one, with very little new options, and the menu screen could of quite easily been mistaken for the originals. this is nothing but cheap design in my opinion, a new game should at least get a new menu. From there on in I found i was developing a horrendous case of DejaVu, the game used the same game engine, and the even better, the same crippling multi player host advantage.
but no matter, this was a game i loved, so i settled down, and played for a little while. My first major complaint with the game was that the maps were straight up just not as good as the originals. Again, a problem of lazy design.
It took me about a week to get through the realistic storyline, which ties in and completes the originals finally dealing with the traitorous Gabenowak. I did like the fact that your PEC was now your avatar in story, as well as the rather bland fatigues of Logan Keller from the first Vegas, and I pretty much enjoyed the story. It had a slight problem of being a little short, but I'm going to chalk that up to laziness on UbiSoft's part again, and fart in their general direction.
I played through the story with a good friend of mine playing as Knight, and i found that Co-op enhanced the experience heavily, as coordinating with a real person just made it all seem more natural to me. I didn't get on so well with the single player, while i was completing it cooperatively, i trailed behind on single player at normal difficulty. I found it to be largely unchallenging, but my major upset was that they fucked up the voice commands again. I tried to tell my team to lob a grenade, and suddenly they were sprinting headlong at an enemy on a light machine gun, practically tripping over each other to get into the line of hot leaden death. So, i muted the mic.
In general, I think a lot of my problems with Vegas 2 were that it wasn't the sequel i had been rabidly expecting,and convincing all of my friends to buy. It felt somewhat rushed, and i couldn't help but feel it was Vegas 1.5 rather then the real deal. It's still a totally playable game, and I'm still playing alot of multi player, despite the lack of good hosts. I'd score it a pretty decent 7/10, because the Graphics are still pretty shitty, but the games nice and solid, even if it isnt the instant classic Vegas was.
The rockstar social club is due to start preregistration today, it hasnt opened yet at 4pm BST but you everyone should preregister so they dont have to waste any time when they actually get GTA4.
The Rockstar Social club, for those of you in the dark, is a Stat tracking website which will feature all manner of leaderboards and statistics based on your experiences on rockstar games. GTA4 will launch the website, and personally as i'm a total statwhore, im pretty excited.
you can register for the playstation 3 or 360 editions of the game.
EDIT: almost 11pm BST now, and still no prereg access.
I wanted to write a blog about Rainbow Six Vegas 2's story mode today, hoping to have gotten it finished on realistic difficulty, but my co-op partner never showed up.
So, i'm going to talk alittle bit about Condemned 2. The single player keeps dragging me in and keeping me up long into the night, and i'm finding it a refreshing change from my usual diet of straight up FPS games.
The first Condemned was a pretty average game that i got with my 360 I enjoyed it quite alot, and thought it showed alot of promise, despite a few little flaws which in my opinion, stopped it from being an outstanding game.
My main problem with the first Condemned was the overly basic combat. You picked up the nearest bit of wood and hit the nearest enemy with it till they died. Occasionally, you got a firearm, in which case you shot the nearest enemy with it until they died. then you went back to your trusty bit of wood. this is not the case in condemned 2, here theres a wide variety of melee attacks, combo's and the added ability to throw your weapon ,which makes the games combat far more then a simple "hammer the right trigger" affair.
And then there was the forensics. In the first game, they were widely flaunted as a big aspect of the game, but by and large, this boiled down to getting a glowy blue UV light, and shining it over the wall. In the second, this too has been improved, with multiple choice questions at the crime scene.
I have a vague issue with games asking me to analyse blood splatters and exit wounds like a modern day sherlock. But the side effect of this is that i think i'm REALLY fucking clever when i manage to pull it off. so, nice touch Sega.
So far, so good right? Its taken the original condemned, polished it up, sent it on its way for its place as Undervalued gem of 2008.
this was, until they started talking about an ancient mythical cult. Now, correct me if im wrong, but i didnt notice an ancient mythical cult in Condemned 1. what i had, was a city full of mental homeless people, and a serial killer, who was probably a little mental himself, and this culminated in a rather scary chase round a farmhouse. Then you battled some crazy metal guy in your own head, and pulled his jaw off. I went O_o at this point, but then the game was over, and i went back to play Ghost recon, Job well done.
Now, in condemned 2, again the city is filled with nutcases. this is fine. However, theres also a mythical cult of people who control sound, and your main character becomes what is basically a motherfucking Ghetto blaster.
Yeah, someone at Sega's gonna get fired for that. This pisses me off, because, condemned was pretty solidly rooted in realism until the point i had to defeat suicide-bomber doll's, and then the whole experience took the wrong turn to Batshitcrazy-land.
I'd recommend renting this game, it is alot of fun, its just a shame the last third of the storyline turned into utter dogshit.
I'd give it a pretty solid 8/10. but im starting to get a little tired of Sega whispering promises in my ear and then palming me off with a watered down version of the awesome.
I just saw the new GTA 4 trailer today, as its release is just around the corner, i'm getting pretty excited.
this trailer doesnt really show much. but i have a history of getting over excited over the grand theft auto games, ever since i got a copy of grand theft auto 3 with my playstation 2, years back, i've set my preorder, and i cant wait to take a new spin around liberty city on the 29th of this month.
A leaked review agree's with me, scoring it a 10/10. ill let the leaked scans do the talking, Here
Recently i've spent alot of time at a friends house, And the game of choice seems to be four player Super Smash Brother melee.
I hadnt played this game untill recently, being a Playstation owner, and then a self confessed microsoft fanboy, the gamecube largely passed me by, including this game.
I majorly missed out, i've had a lot of fun playing the game, and the social group has a secret heirachy, when playing the game, you are more respected for how skilled you are, and what character you play as.
Its alot of fun, and im considering picking up a Wii to get Super Smash Brothers brawl when it hits the UK later this year.
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