Don't Drink and Bake

Bulletstorm Mini Review

2011-03-08T18:51:00.005Z

Bulletstorm is a pretty good game with some fun mechinics. It's nothing to orignal though, other than having a funky slowmotion kick and whip to send the enemy reeling or flying towards you in slow motion. There is also a scoring mechinic but I don't find it as fun as the scoring mechinics found in "The Club" also Wolfenstien 3D had a scoring system so it's nothing new.

In a sense this is just like the old school shoot-em-ups. You know the ones, games like Serious Sam, Painkiller and Doom where you shoot wave upon wave of enemies and you know what that's cool. It makes a huge change from your standard military shooters that big name companies seem to keep crapping out these days.

Bulletstorm is a fun romp with some great set peices but it's appeal only lasts so long, about as long as one play though of the campaign mode. I found myseld not bothering with the multiplayer because playing with randoms is no fun (seriously stop kicking people in to the enviromental hazzards it does not score very highly!) and the ECHO mode which is the score attack mode of the game is not as compelling as The Club's or most of my Xbox Live Arcade titles I have installed at the moment on my Xbox 360.

Overall I enjoyed Bulletstorm but I was not compelled to play it for very long but it's definatly worth checking out as it's a fun game and a break from the norm but I would strongly wait to the price is sub £20 and then check it out otherwise you might be a little disapointed. [7/10]

Irem Arcade Classics (PC) Review

2011-03-06T20:35:00.005Z

Golden Axe Beastrider is officaly the worst game I have played in 2011 so far...

2011-01-22T01:16:00.014Z

I love the Golden Axe games but there has not been a good Golden Axe game since the second arcade game which was released in 1993 confusingly called Golden Axe 2 ~ The Return of Death Adder. This is a strange name because Sega released a game which was already called Golden Axe 2 on the Megadrive one year before. But like I said, this is neither here nore there because there have been no attempts to bring the series back to it's former glory which is a shame because the Golden Axe mythology is very interesting.

In 2008 Secret Level and Sega decided to try and recapture some of the magic of the series by rebooting it thus was now have Golden Axe Beastrider. All I can really say is congrats Golden Axe 3 and the crappy Sega Ages PS2 remake of Golden Axe, you are both no longer the worst Golden Axe game I have played. Beastrider is so painfully generic, so punishingly dull. so brutally devoid of any kind of charm that the old Golden Axe games from the early nineties had that it's a crime to even compare Beastrider to them despite it's beast effort to crib from those games with knowing winks and nods.

Generic enemies? Check!, Generic backgrounds? Check! Awful redesign of a classic video Game heroin? Check!

My biggest problem and this is the biggest crime you can level against any game in my opinion is that the developers did not even try to aspire to anything other than cheap cash mediocrity. simply put this game does not strike me as a labour of love. This is a crying shame in my opinion because like I said before I would of love to of seen a decent game biased in the Golden Axe world. It's a simple concept of some bad ass heroes romping around an fantasy world vanquishing evil and tyranny as they uncover it with the aid of their weapons, powerful beasts and mysterious but powerful magic.

Instead what we get is a generic hack and slash game set in some generic levels (which half the time are not very well designed) killing some generic villains while using a generic and very boring combat system with a generic and broken counter system which despite the game's best efforts to convince you otherwise does not work well when surrounded with more than a couple of enemies at a time thanks to the horrid camera which allows the enemy to land cheap hits on you (seriously FUCK THOSE ROCK THROWING GRUNTS!) and even when you do notice the attack coming if there is two enemies doing an attack you are boned anyway because they just hit you while you are countering or during a dodge. The counter attacks are also worthless, yeah they do more damage than a standard attack but barely meaning that it's going to take awhile to kill any enemy, even at the beginning of the game let alone when you have to fight giant mid-boss like characters.

The beasts while being well animated are not very useful during battle, or very fun to ride for that matter!

The gameplay is dull and the levels are dull but is it worth it for the storyline? well no not really! As a fan there are several other "things" that annoy me about this game too. I don't like Tydas Flares "redesign". It's obvious they tried to "sex her up" even more than she was in the 16bit games. They also turned the Golden Axe, one of video gamings most iconic weapons in to a lame joke of a throwing weapon, good job guys. One of the biggest problems with this game though is the magic.

Magic in the Golden Axe games made you feel powerful, well at least in the first couple of Arcade and Megadrive games anyway. I mean in the arcade version of Golden Axe 2 is was possible to cast fire magic so powerful as the barbarian "Stern" that it would literally melt the bas guy's face off!

Now compare that to what you get with Beastrider. A crappy fireball spell that barely does anything and a not so crappy area of effect spell that reeks of genericness. Not exactly like summoning a great fire breathing dragon from the first game is it? And this is why the game is so boring, it never changes. The combat does not change, the spells do not change, the weapons eventually change but don't change in to anything that's meaningful or make the game fun. apart from the counters, all you have in this game is three spells (the Golden Axe is only used to gain access to new areas though) and a light and heavy attack. I mean you can run and jump but both lose there impact when you figure out that they add nothing to your arsenal so to speak, well that's a little unfair as running does get you from place to place a bit quicker but it nowhere near as useful as the 16bit games where you could shoulderbarge motherfuckers in to bottomless pits.

As dull as this game is the worst thing is that is DRAGS! Oh dear lord does it drag. I played this game for some considerable time, longer than you might expect for a game of this type and I am still nowhere near the end. I know people wish that games kept the length of games in the old days but you know what in this case I really wish this game was a long as the original Golden Axe games as then at least my suffering would be over much quicker.

In summary I don't like this game. It will be forever known as the first retail game I decided to play in 2011 and I regret that decision now as this game is a gigantic waste of everyone's time from the people responsible making the game to the actually game player. No one partaking in a recreational hobby as proved to be so fruitless to so many people at any one time. Congratulations Beastrider for wasting everyone's fucking time! [3/10]

Some thoughts on DW Strikeforce!

2011-01-18T00:27:00.004Z

Dynasty Warriors Strikeforce represents something a little different from KOEI which after all these years of pumping out DW games can only be a good thing even if it's only to chase after the mad Monster Hunter yens. Originally a PSP game I have been enjoying the company of the Xbox 360 version as of late and I have to say I am liking the changes that have been made to the tried and true DW formula.

For a start you can now play the game with up to three other friends online during the campaign mode which is fantastic. This is something I have always wanted in a DW game and now KOEI have finally delivered so good job guys. But due to the mostly online nature of this game it means that the action has to be scaled back some what. This is also a good thing for this title in my opinion because unlike most DW games I can play this in the space of ten minutes with some friends and actually get somewhere which is a refreshing change from previous non strikeforce entries in the series. KOEI does make up for the smaller scale by having all the enemies be completely crazy. No longer are you just pounding on defenceless subscripted peasants. Now you could be fighting laser beam firing turrets or thirty odd flying magicians who all are firing fireballs or LU BU RIDING ON HIS 40 FOOT LAZER BEAM FIRING AND FIRE THROWING FIRING TIGER! It's safe to say that because of the whackyness and the extremes the developers go to, to make this title feel different it worth checking out if you are a fan of the series.

Don't get me wrong I like love me some DW but I am liking that KOEI are willing to put more effort in to trying out new ideas for their games now. The weapon switching from this title (which effectively allows you to change weapons on the fly giving you more options in terms of attack) is now being included in the new mainline DW game, let's hope they also keep the online functionality of the Strikeforce series as well because one thing I have notice is that playing DW is a lot more fun with friends.

My thoughts on Red Dead Redemption after finally beating it!

2011-01-17T13:26:00.002Z

I have to admit I did not like RDR all that much when I first started playing it. In fact I brought the game near it's initial release and after playing it for about a few hours decided I was "not in the mood" to play the game and forgot about it till January 2011.This is a shame because this probably would of made it to my top three multiplatform games of 2010 if I had gotten though the game sooner as the game has some great storytelling in it. It also has some of the best set pieces I have ever seen in a third person shooting game and considering this is a sandbox game that's saying something.

The thing I disliked about the game the most was the huge amount of travelling which is thankfully gotten around by using the "camp site quick travel trick" and the dueling which to this day I still don't understand how it's supposed to work properly. I mean I know if you shoot a dude in the hand and don't kill him you get more honour and I managed to do that a few times but I am unsure how to fire after "painting" the target a couple of times as supposed to unloading an entire clip in to the poor sod killing them in the process.

With that said I still loved the combat and the story of this game. I also like the presentation as it really makes the game feel like your in some kind of crazy spaghetti western this is thanks to the wonderful music which changes depending on which area you are in. The story in RDR is pretty messed up (but in a good way) and the ending alone was worth playing though, in fact I won't spoil it for you but this game could of ended multiple times and it would of still been a satisfying end to what is probably one the greatest sandbox games I have personally played despite it's flaws. Oh and did I mention that more games need the "Dead Eye" mechanic? No well it does because it makes you feel like a complete bad-ass so Fallout with your stupid VATS system take note!

Overall I would strongly suggest picking this game up as it's one of the few Sandbox games with any kind of merit to be released in this generation of consoles, it's superb. [9/10]

Let's Play Rainbow Six 3: Mission Six - Mansion Hostage Rescue!

2011-01-10T19:27:00.005Z

Yep I forgot to post this on this blogg because I am a plebb. Anyway I hope you guys enjoy this video!

Vanquish Mini Review

2011-01-10T19:04:00.008Z

Vanquish faces an uphill struggle from the very start. It is an eastern developed game aimed squarely at a Western audience but with a short 4 to 5 hour single player campaign and no multiplayer of any kind to speak off it's a pretty tough sell for anyone let alone a duck 'n cover shoot-em-up fan that may of been looking to pick this up between the Gears of War games or something.

With that said Vanquish does have some thing going for it, creativity. Yep that's right even though this is a game where you are a futuristic space marine shooting robots in some future colony of the future somewhere there are a some very well design set pieces that take full advantage of the setting and more importantly the fact that you rocket boosters for kneecaps! The battlefields you fight in look nice and are well designed and the evil Russian robots you end up shooting look menacing and are well animated with cleaver attack patterns. Did I mention this game gets crazy!? I mean with all that rocket sliding from cover to cover and the amount of enemies the game throws at you the battlefield becomes a very hectic place to be, perhaps a little to confusing at times as you can get "insta-killed" by an attack from a sneaky robot you may of not been paying attention to even with the game is generous with the whole "bullet time before death" mechanic it has which normally helps but not with said "insta-kill" attacks.

Vanquish is a fun ride while it lasts but the thing is it does not last for all that long. The game is varied enough in it's shooting gameplay throughout the brief period that the game lasts for but if there is one Platinum games game from 2010 that you should be buying this year now that's it's hit the bargain bins up and down the country it's Beyonetta as it's not only a much longer of a game than Vanquish but it's also a bit better as well. With that said if you do manage to find this game for say sub-fifteen pounds then I highly recommend giving it a shot if you like third person cover based shooters as it's one of the more interesting games of this type in the market at the moment. [7/10]

Some thoughts on Dissidia - Final Fantasy

2010-12-03T20:12:00.007Z

I have played for around eight hours at the moment and I am kind of confused about this game.It's not the concept, that I understand. SqaureEnix dump a whole lot of heroes and villains from all of their main line Final Fantasy games, develop some concluded story to make it happen then they add some kooky RPG development systems which most RPG fans would be familiar with and hey presto! you have Dissidia - Final Fantasy.

As you can see from the above screen shot the game does look rather nice and the voice acting is spot on too. For a PSP game this game looks lush which is no surprise considering the development team's track record. But if you look back at Square's track record they have only a few fighting games before this to my knowledge and that's Ehrgeiz: God Bless the Ring which judging from the PS1 version of the game was not that great a fighting game, awesome dungeon crawling mode withstanding. The other games where Tobal No.1 and Tobal No.2 which where great games even though No.2 never even came out over here in the UK and yes I am aware of Bushido Blade but they was only Published by Square not Developed by them.

There is a ton of stuff to do in this game which is more that what can be said from Namco's awesome but a little content light Tekken 6 for the PSP. There is an online mode where you can fight other Dissida players but where I have been mostly playing this game is in the single player modes. Arcade mode is pretty fun and while you are made to use stock characters it does allow you to earn PP (progress points) which you can spend in the shop to unlock more stuff and it also allows you to practice against characters that are on equal pegging to you. There is also an endless survival mode style game where you can earn the best equipment but I have yet to unlock it so I have been playing Story mode instead.

The story mode is both interesting and also very frustrating at the same time. The story itself in my humble opinion is fucking horrid. It's the same anime tripe you get from most stock Japanese RPG storylines. Full of whinny idiots who mull about moaning to themselves with self pity. You see the picture above? Yeah the reason why you are fighting is so that THE WHOLE EXISTENCE OF EVERYTHING IS NOT ERASED!!! It's a pretty good thing to fight for don't you think? The only reason why anyone would ask something like that is because they are bone jarringly selfish thus I really don't want to identify with the character I am playing as. So yeah I was gritting my teeth though a lot of the cut-scenes because while they are well made the dialogue is just terrible.

Yeah the whole turn based grid dungeons are OK but the game does tend to pull a dick move on you sometimes and forces you to fight ultra powerful 'bonus' boss fights thus messing you for the rest of the map and buggering up your score. The arena's you fight in are pretty interesting if a little difficult to navigate at times although I must say I love the triangle button which allows me to run up walls or grind magical rails to get around quickly.

The fighting system while simple to control is mostly about anticipating what your opponent is going to do next and then countering it so that you can land a few blows to build up your power bar so that your power attack does more damage. The battles are unlike what you would expect from a Final Fantasy game, in fact it reminds more of an anime battle that you would see in something like Dragon Ball Z as people are normally flying about all over the place firing off massive spells and punching each other half way across the map in comical fashion.

The fighting is fine as long as you are not playing against someone who is massively overpowered hence the reason why I both like and dislike playing the story mode in this game because instead of making the AI harder they just make the AI cheaper which is not necessarily a good way to ramping up the difficulty and providing the player with a decent challenge. I am enjoying my time with Dissida but I do have plenty of other games on my PSP and this game seems to be a massive time sink. Time will tale if I decide to continue playing this game a month or two down the line.

Opps not posted in awhile, sorry about that!

2010-11-05T22:36:00.005Z

Hi gang!

Sorry I have not posted much in awhile. Been really, well I don't know what I have been doing really. Not made much of anything as of late. I have been playing a lot of games lately on the Xbox 360 and PC. Blood Bowl LE, Halo Reach, Pinball FX 2, Ninety-nine Nights 2 and Kane and Lynch 2 being the games I have played the most lately.

Got a whole bunch of different games lately. a lot of which I have yet to try out. I will let you guys know what's going on soon but in the mean time I am off to play some more games so here is a picture from Ninety-nine Nights 2 that does not have ONE MILLION TROOPS!, Lates!

Flotilla - A Quick Look

2010-05-01T19:44:00.002+01:00

A quick update, just found out about this game yesterday and it's rather fun! I have been playing a lot of Zen Pinball and Super Street Fighter IV if you are wondering. Reviews of both might make their way on to the internet at some point during this week since I have the week off work.

Mount and Blade: Warband Impressions!

2010-04-11T20:12:00.004+01:00

While I have been trying not to wear myself out playing Final Fantasy 13 which seems to be one massive ordeal at the moment I can take comfort in that Mount and Blade: Warband will be there for me when things get a little to much with Lightning and the gang.

Mount and Blade Warband is exactly the opposite of what Final Fantasy is. It's a free roaming, sandbox medieval RPG set in a fictional place which does not seem to different from mainland Europe.

The whole point of this game is to play a character as you see fit. Not follow some contrived bullshit story about people who have been given godlike powers and that have tatto's that turn in to animals like some kind of Data East Mortal Kombat rip-off. If you want to just roam around the countryside and pillage everything that you see then that's cool. Don't like to fight? then you could always become a trader. Hell you can even start your own faction and become kind of everything that surrounds you if you wish. That's what I like about this game, it's a refreshing change from the linear games I have been playing lately.

Oh and did I mention this game now has multiplayer? Yeah that's right you can get involved in some brutal 64 man skirmishes which works surprisingly well for an independently made video game. Don't do straight deathmatch though because it's a cluster fuck, head towards the Battle or Seige modes for the real deal as those are the real money makers of this franchise.

Anyway I highly recommend this game, it's brilliant!

My thoughts on Battlefield Bad Company 2's single player

2010-04-05T17:55:00.004+01:00

Battlefield Bad Company 2's single player campaign is a fun ride for the eight or so hours that it lasts but it's not the greatest game I have ever played. In fact I prefer the original game's single player experience with it's tongue and cheek humour which this game sorely lacks for the most part.

The game became very linear which is the norm for video games these days. That said though the set pieces where good enough to keep my interest but I felt the game lost a little something by taking away my free roaming freedom.

However this is not a bad game, in fact it's rather good. If you are just in to play games for the single player it might be worth a rental. On the other hand the multiplayer is fantastic and much better than Modern Warfare 2's in my opinion so check it out!

Some new reviews I wrote...

2010-04-04T17:44:00.003+01:00

Hi just writing this to let you guys know that another one of my reviews has now made it's way on the PEOWW which can be found here so I hope you guys like it.

As for me? Well I have been playing a lot of Mount and Blade: Warband lately and it's freaking awesome. There is nothing quite like a 64 man skirmish online with zero lag and people who play together as a team. One of the most fun experiences I have had playing any game online for some time.

Meanwhile in console news, Just Cause 2, just spent 24 hours in game time and I am nowhere near the end. the game is massively padded out with stupid collect-a-thon quests. It will be going on the back burner for awhile while I play the numerous other brand new games that I brought but not gotten around to playing yet. I want to play Final Fantasy 13 next but I have been hearing very mixed things about it so I might go with Residence of Fate or Yakuza 2 instead.

Phantasy Star Zero (DS) Review

2010-03-27T22:29:00.029Z

I have always been a massive fan of the Phantasy Star series and I even managed to Stomach Phantasy Star Online Episode 3 which was a weird card battling video game. With that said I tried Phantasy Star Universe's add-on last year and in my opinion it was one of the worst follow up's to a much beloved online RPG that I have ever seen. It was way to grindy and everything about the game just felt uninspired I also did not like the poor item crafting system either. I was not the only one who disliked PSU as it seems that Sega have gone back to what made the Phantasy Star Online games so great, so much so in fact that Phantasy Star Zero is effectively being dubbed as the true squeal to Sega's awesome Dreamcast online RPG.

Multiplayer RPG's and portable consoles are big business in Japan these days. In fact unless it's on a portable generally Japan does not care any more.Games like Monster Hunter and Dragon Quest 9 insure that the multiplayer ad-hoc is not going anywhere any time soon. Phantasy Star Zero at first glance seems like a cheap cash in for the DS market to try and get some of that mad Monster Hunter yens. But if you look a little deeper you will find all the good stuff that you know and love from the original Phantasy Star Online series from way back on the Dreamcast but with some minor tweaks and a couple of imrpovements that makes Phantasy Star Zero worth your time and attention.

OK so this game seems to be a reboot of the series, hence the name. Zero meaning in video gaming terms in Japan that it's prequel to the first video game in the series which is filling in story elements that we just came up with several years later.What is a little puzzling is that Sega or games that Sega just happen to be publishing seem to be obsessed with Wild Arms because the main story non player characters looks exactly like the main characters from Wild Arms which is odd because that game was never really a big hit anywhere, not to my knowledge anyway.

Sometimes you are treated to nice animie style cut-scenes like this one here but normally you are just treated to being roasted alive by a giant enemy dragon who will terrorise you for a lot of the early part of the game.

So yeah this game takes place after one of the main Phantasy Star games (don't wish to mention which one due to spoilers) and things have seemed to have gone a little tits up in the Galaxy. Depending on what race you select will depend on what story you will get. But it's actually not a bad story for a game that's based around bashing monsters to take their gear to sell to the nearest merchant. The main hook of the story is to uncover what really happened to the world to cause a disaster called "The Great Blank" which has erased call the Casts (the robot race) memories, exiled a previously native race called Newmans from the planet. The there is the humans, forced to live in fear of monster attacked in a barren world with very little resources. The story can get a little cheesy at points but it's compelling enough to keep you playing till you beat the final boss.

Now is a good time to talk about the gameplay. The game pretty much plays like any old action RPG. You only have access to six abilities at a time (this also includes your standard attacks etc.) which may seem odd to people who are used to playing games like World of Warcraft or Aion but there is a strategic element to it. You have to prepare for battle, if you know your enemy is weak to ice then perhaps you might want to swap out that fire spell for something a little colder. You can always bring up an item menu but dipping in to the menu's will not pause the game so make sure your safe from harm before doing it. It's possible to lock on to enemies and roll out of the way of projectiles too then there is your MAG and it's "MAG Blast" which makes a triumphant return from PSO which trust me is much better than it's counterpart from PSU.

But bluntly MAG's are sidekicks. You feed them with items and spare equipment and in return depending on what you have fed them they grant you bonuses to your stats. After awhile it will change form and gain new food preferences but it will also become stronger and learn a "MAG Blast" which it can only perform after the player gets in to a lot of trouble and fills up a bar by getting hit a lot by attacks. These special attacks can either cause a lot of damage or do other things like heal everyone in the party or cast a spell on the team to increase their defensive or offensive capabilities. Leveling up your MAG and using it's special attack wisely is the key to victory speciality in the later boss battles which can shorten a battle considerably is repeated MAG attacks are pulled off successfully. You can also do team MAG attacks which do a lot more damage, I'll talk more about the multiplayer later.

WARNING!: Giant bad ass robot approaching! Luckily he is on your side!

Missions are always the same pretty much. Go in to an area that's crawling with monsters and kill them all for money and equipment. Then go up to the boss monster and kill him or her too. It's a simple layout but it works. Some might be a little annoyed with the lack of mission verity but there are plenty of zones to keep the player busy. And besides the escort missions in the Phantasy Star Online games alway sucked, I remember that mission where you had to escort this one guy THOUGH THE SECOND LEVEL BOSS! It was one of the most frustrating missions in any game ever and even Sega knew it because in later instalments they fixed the mission where the guy would "play dead" leaving you to take care of the monster yourself without having to risk getting the guy your are protecting. There are bits of storyline within each mission that break up the action, nothing to intrusive but it's OK.

The equipment in this game is also pretty bad ass as there is plenty of it to obtain ranging from rifles, to bazookas to wands and great double handed swords. You are going to have to get good equipment to beat the harder monsters and the harder difficulties which you can play once you have finished the game one time. The monsters are mostly very creative and are very well designed and are also well animated. The levels look really nice for a DS game but don't have much in the way of detail within them. Most of the time each room is a big box or a collection of smaller boxes with create, traps and monsters in them. I guess this is to keep things as simple as possible for the DS's limited CPU but the game does not suffer for it in my opinion, just don't expect grand sweeping landscapes like in Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion or anything OK?

The online multiplayer actually works on this game which is a shocker. It's easy enough to get with friends assuming you have their friends code and hooking up with randoms is not a problem either and every game I have been in to date has been pretty much lag free and I have not be disconnected randomly either which is sweat because that was a big problem in the old Phantasy Star Online games as well as all the hacking that is. So yeah you can do a whole bunch of stuff in this game but all that most people wan to do is go for boss runs as that earns the best equipment hence the reason why I said mission verity was not that big of a deal earlier, keep things simple that's what I always say when it comes to dealing with the general public.

Overall the presentation on this game is sweat. the music and sound is great and the anime inspired cut-scenes are fantastic. The game is very colourful, you guys have probably have noticed how much I value colour in my video games so I won't crow about it. I do also like the art style it just seems, well er... nice I guess. This leaves me wondering what this game would of been like on a more powerful system like the PSP, Wii or Xbox 360 or even PS3? let's face it the modern generations of mainstream consoles need a decent RPG, it's a shame they are landing on the portables thanks to Japans obsession with Monster Hunter heh.

Overall Phantasy Star Zero is probably one of the best Online RPG's I have played in some time it's especially good that it's on the DS which means I get to play it while I commute two hours every day. What the game lacks in raw visuals (although the game's visuals are still good but it's because it's on a DS they lack the punch of the previous Phantasy Star Portable title) and mission verity it does make up for with how fun the combat is and it's great multiplayer, not to mention all that lovely loot that's there to be picked up by the player and oh yeah, the story is not bad either. [8/10]

My first impressions of Just Cause 2

2010-03-27T01:10:00.004Z

Seems that Just Cause 2 is more of the same but with a nicer engine. They have changed Rico's character a lot but for the worst, he's lost all character and charm from the Rico of the first game. And the voice acting is some of the most grating I have herd in recent history. That Ravengers (what what ever the fuck they are called, can't say I was paying much attention to be perfectly honest!) leader chic has THE SINGLE WORST ACCENT EVER!! I can't even tell what accent she is trying to pull off it's that bad and she does not shut the fuck up either which is even more annoying, GAH!

Minor annoyances aside I love, LOVE the look of the island though, flying about a lot in the Mountain Area due to the gang I am working for and it looks lush. It's a nice game but might be best played in little blasts with breaks in between so it does not lose it's appeal.
Gunplay wise it's not to bad, played a lot worst on the PS3 that's for sure.

The grappling hook can be a little annoying from time to time but is fun to use although it's no Bionic Commando or anything. I love "double hooking" people to vehicles then driving around like a madman but that's just me. I have managed to 100% a few little areas so far. It seems that the developers have put a shit load of destroyable government stuff and collectables in each little village, town or base which is not a bad idea. It's easy enough to keep track of things as the game reminds you of your percentage every time you do something to contribute to "completing" that area. The area's don't seem so lifeless like they did in the original game and the vehicle handling is much better, I mostly use to Helicopters though as they are a god send for base takedowns and scavenger hunts so to speak.

You can still call for air drops of equipment and transport if you want, you can also get a rid to any place that you have cleared 100%. This fast travel thing is useful but I rarely use it as I actually like travelling the island as it looks so nice and the combination of driving, flying and grappling around the place is fun to me. You also can't use fast travel when the cops or army are after you which in my case is 90% of the time anyway heh.

Each weapon can be upgraded from the shop now, I have the limited edition which cost the same about as the standard version so I figured "why the hell not?".The most useful thing I have managed to obtain so far is the special Rico pistol which is like a hand cannon basicly. It's pretty awesome and if you have the money it can also be dual wielded which is absolutely bad ass. Two handed weapon wise I have mainly either been using the standard shotgun which is nice or the special sniper rifle which is friggin' sweet. It's very useful for picking off helicopter pilots or sniping annoying turret abusing guards from half a mile away.

Anyway it's safe to say that I am enjoying Just Cause 2 at the moment, time will tell if I stick around to actually finish it since it seems much bigger than most games of this type but I feel the game does have legs. I will keep you guys posted with more details should anything go astray.

Shotgun - ¥560,000

2010-03-26T14:07:00.006Z

One of the best one liners I have ever seen in a video game, it's from an old Playstation 2 game called Yakuza which I have been playing again as well as it's squeal to get ready for Yakuza 3...

"A Shotgun, I brought this for you because this city is shady as fuck". ~ Weapons Dealer in Stardust - Final Chapter

Microsoft's Game Room - Launch Day Impressions

2010-03-25T07:03:00.005Z

Well it's finally arrived I suppose, Microsoft's Game Room (or MGR as I will be calling it from now on!) hit both the Xbox 360 and Games for Windows marketplace yesterday with 30 games that either you would of never of herd off or has been collected to death already but don't get me wrong this service is looking sweet and I can't wait for what the future holds.

I had a hold bunch of Microsoft Points left over from my Xbox 360 days and with nothing to spend it on in the Games for Windows marketplace (seriously what's up with that?) so I decided to do a little shopping in the MGR shop and see what all the fuss was about. I have to say from what games I have played so far that I am impressed with the emulation quality, the controls and the general feel of being in my "very own arcade" with all the sounds from all the arcade machines playing at once, it's like being back in Western-Super-Mere again when they used to have that awesome Peir with that massive arcade in it.

With that said, challenging friends to random Hi-Score battles is fun, you can even make your own timed high score board doing this so you know I challenged a couple of people to a Scramble High-Score showdown. There is no online multiplayer for the time being but this does make up for it in some way. That said it would make Combat a more compelling purchase if they did ever get around to adding online play in heh.

There are some concerns that to get all the achievements in MGR you need to spend a lot of money, well Microsoft from what I have herd from the media are playing to release 3000+ games on this service within the next few years, there are bound to be at least a small fraction (like 30 or so) of those you are going to like. Another concern and the one that bothers me more if I am being honest is will have I have to keep downloading whole packs of games just to get to the one or two games that I want from that pack? I can see this taking up a lot of room on a console owners hard drive especially later on when he start hitting the games released in the ninties that require a lot more rom chips to hold the data if you know what I mean?

Anyway while the games may not be considered 'Triple A' but a lot of people this Game Room doodad is showing some promise. I would like to see Tatio, Namco, SNK Playmore and Capcom jump on this and I would also like to see some more Konami games too like the Contra games for example and in no time I think they will get around to it because these games don't have to be ESRB rated which means there is little to no cost in putting these games in Microsoft's service unlike their competitors similar services.

Stay tuned for more impressions and reviews of games that come out on this service as the weeks roll by!

Let's Play Rainbow Six 3: Mission 5 - Airport Hostage Rescue!

2010-03-19T11:49:00.002Z

Let's Play Rainbow Six 3: Mission 4 - Shipyard of doom!

2010-03-14T20:36:00.002Z

It's been awhile but I do mean to continue this, honest! :P (been really busy with new releases and work and the fact that my mum is in hospital lately really does not help either!)

BEST FIGHTING GAME CHARACTER EVER!!

2010-03-12T10:41:00.002Z

I am now more interested in Super Street Fighter IV, FACT! That said I checked out how much this thing would cost and yeah it's £25 over at game and £21 at shop-to. So I will most definitely be picking this bad boy up when it comes out late April.

Saturn Bomberman Fight! Review

2010-03-07T19:39:00.000Z

Was playing some CIV4 today and this made me chuckle...

2010-03-05T19:36:00.008Z

I love Civilizations 4, for a while back in my childhood CIV2 was probably my favourite game ever made. It's taken some time but CIV4 has now surpassed it so it will be interesting to see what they plan to do with CIV5 since in my mind CIV4 is pretty much perfect, but then again I said the same thing about CIV2 and look what happened there...

So yeah I am playing a huge, sixteen race custom game as a randomly selected race which just so happened to be the Celtic's. The pic you are seeing to your right is a snap I took while meeting France's Napoleon for the first time. This is kind of worrying since the guy from what I gathered from both this game an Napoleon: Total War is that he likes to conquer EVERYTHING! And not just fight people but blow them the fuck up with safely from miles away with artillery and shit. I could be in for a long slogg unless of course the Vikings come knocking on their door that is...

What will I be reviewing next you say?

2010-03-04T13:05:00.004Z

Tekken 6 - The Review!

2010-03-02T17:38:00.000Z

Just Sayin'...

2010-02-26T23:51:00.001Z

Tekken 6 - Review in Production!

2010-02-25T09:52:00.002Z

Hi gang!

Just to let you know that I am currently producing a few videos that should cover my opinions on Namco's latest fighting game (or "Air Jugglefest" as some people might call it!) Tekken 6.

No sure when it's going to be up but I will be working on it this weekend so if I am no around on Skype, you know why!...

Aliens vs Predator: The Reason I have not updated in a few days!

2010-02-21T19:01:00.004Z

So I brought this game on Friday and I have to say I am impressed with what I have played so far. I played a little of the solo survivor mode first just to see if it would keep me interested enough and sure enough it did. The Aliens were sneaky enough to make this mode tense while not going stupidly overpowered that they can take two clips to the face like another game which name I shall not mention here!

Anyway over the course of the weekend starting from Friday I played though all three chapters of story mode. The Marine and Predator missions where fantastic. Literally some of the most fun I have had single player in a FPS for some considerable time. The Marine missions where about as scary as they ought to be and I really enjoyed leaping about the place and punching some alien’s face off or stealth killing some poor Marine as a Predator.

The Alien campaign is not as good as the other two though. Don’t get me wrong, it was fun but the designers missed one or two tricks with these missions. First of all you don’t get to begin the alien cycle as a Facehugger which is a shame because the other two games did. Then there was the dodgy waypoint system. With the other to races it was fine but because the Alien can literally climb anywhere this means the next vent or exit point you need can be anywhere to and the heads up display was not fit for purpose.

With the minor Alien campaign niggles aside though, I enjoyed playing as all three factions in this intergalactic clusterfuck of the ages, I would highly recommend anyone to pick this up on the strength of the single player alone. I have yet to try the multiplayer but all of my mates who own this game tell me it’s awesome so I am going to make time for it next week, I will let you guys know what I think after I have played it.

Danny and Meb Play X-com Enforcer

2010-02-21T14:53:00.002Z

M.A.G: The Review

2010-02-17T20:48:00.002Z

As of late I’ve not been able to walk a few steps down my local high street without being assaulted by a poster of some brand new FPS or a hyperactive Devil May Cry inspired video game and me and first person shooters on the consoles generally don’t tend to gel very well. Don’t get me wrong I don’t mind a little console based FPS action in my life but normally it’s of the Tom Clancy variety but simply put, most of the new offerings as of late have left me feeling cold. Most of which in my opinion made unenjoyable online thanks to general cheesey tactics deployed by the fan base in general or some cheating cunt buckets exploiting glitches or crappy sever migration woes or connection related problems so M.A.G. by definition had it’s work cut out for it from the very start.

M.A.G. is effectively Battlefield 2, make no mistake about it and no I am not going to compare this game to Modern Warfare 2 or even the new Battlefield games because none of them are really like the Battlefields of old. Large, Epic battles taking place between two massive armies with vehicles and dedicated servers and everything that’s fun about playing an large scale team based FPS in general.

M.A.G. is played on dedicated servers with up to two hundred and fifty six players, let me repeat that TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY SIX! Not only is that kind of body count insane for a console game but the more amazing thing about the game is that it actually works, which is especially shocking here in Europe. The game runs smoother than most console FPS’s yet it’s smallest game available is a sixty four man skirmish, that’s four times the size of your average console game but minus the shit that normally comes with the territory like laggy hosts and the game suddenly coming the a stretching holt because the host decided to rage quit the match half way though.

The game itself it basic enough to understand. Pick one of three factions to fight for and go kick some arse in one of the four gameplay modes. Each gameplay mode has three maps in it, each one representing a territory for one faction in that gameplay mode. If an faction wins enough games in one gameplay mode they get special bonuses which boosts the player general’s ability.

Oh yeah did I forget to mention that the armies are divided in to divisions of sixteen people and each have their own commanders who can set targets to people in their sqaud? If the sqaud do well and complete the objective set by the commander then they all get bonus experience points so it’s wise to set your troops realistic goals. This also forces the divisions to think of the bigger picture and not to run towards the objective blindly, taking out support structures, AA cannons, mortar placements and barricades can overturn the tide of battle as well as win you tons of experience points which gain you development points which you can spend on your character.

Speaking of character development you only get to create one character per PSN account (boo!) and you can only play with people in your own faction. Also there is a perks system but it more like an RPG perk system as supposed to you *sigh* Modern Warfare interchangeable system. Any choices you make you have to stick with so you have to specialise if you want to really good perks and weapons that a particular development line has to offer. For example you will need to spend at least two development points in something like Assault Rifles for example before you can purchase the next tier of perks for assault they has a new gun that you can buy. This can have a pretty big effect on your play style but if you screw up don’t worry because every so often the game will allow you to respec your character if you feel you have messed up beyond repair.

The battles themselves are interesting, it plays like I said more like the old Battlefield games so your characters are incredibly mortal. You can heal yourself if you have a injector or if a ally medic heals you and you can even be revived and brought back to your feet if you should fall but only if you where brought down with bullets to the body. Anything explosive or directed towards the player’s head will kill a solider in this game and they will have to wait to respwan which is staggered in stages so that a player is not respwaned by himself. Another important thing I should point out is that the controls for this game are actually excellent. They are a little different from your standard console FPS but in a good way. Everything makes sense here and the aiming is nice and responsive. There are also vehicles but only land based at the moment, they are pretty fun to drive about the battlefield, some have devastating firepower while others act more like mobile spwan points which is a really cleaver idea.

Generally I have nothing but praise for this game, what is lacks in originality it makes up for by being a rock solid experience on the whole. There are only a few quirks that draw it back somewhat. One thing is the game’s stupid naming policy. Seriously my friend could not play the game because he had ‘hairy’ in part of his PSN nametag so he had to make an entirely new PSN account just to play this one game. Also I feel that the knife has a little to long of a rang, it’s more like a sword than a knife judging from it’s hit box but these are minor nuisances, the only real problem I see is the map variety. I am not sure how the developers intend on supporting this game but they will need to produce new maps eventually because at the moment there are enough to keep you entertained but not for months on end. Here is hoping that they don’t get to crazy with the pricing otherwise they might price out some of their own player base. With that said here’s hoping that this awesome game will be continued to be supported, because it’s this game that makes me pleased to do some console FPS’ing again without having to put up with from what I believe from a long time PC gamer is the normal annoyances of the gender on the consoles and most importantly it’s a really fun and ambitious game in terms of scope. [8/10]

Phantasy Star Zero - BEATEN!

2010-02-16T20:51:00.003Z

I finaly did it! I beat Phantasy Star Zero for the first time today. I have to admit this has been on the back burner on my DS pile for about month thanks to the wonderful Retro Game Challange and the not so wonderful Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of the Darkness what whatever it's called

Anyway PSZero is litteraly one of my favourate games on the DS, this was a confrimed fact after I beaten the final boss of the game which can be a little bit of a cunt but remember that your team members are not essental to keep alive while fighting the final boss although they do help as a kind of meat shield when things get hairy.

So yeah I am now a level 30 Human Male Ranger after beating the boss. I really enjoyed how the story played out even though I could guess at what was going to happen in the end. With that said I am glad Sega did not put any stupid quests in this game. The wole point it that you go in to a dungeon, beat shit up and then leave with lots of money and items, simple.

The most annoying missions in the old Phantasy Star games where the ones where you had to ascort annoying NPC's about the place, the most annoying being the one where you had to fight the second area boss with NPC in tow and if he died you would have to do the whole mission again, ARGH! Games like this don't need a fancy mission structer, all they need is a reason for me to go in to the dungeon and raise hell, worked for Daiblo so it works for me too.

Army of Poo: Forty Days of Shit (sorry immature I know!)

2010-02-16T18:31:00.006Z

As you can probably tell I have beaten Tekken 6 for the second time, 100% maxed. I have all the trophies and achivements for both the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3, so obviously I need a new game to play so enter Army of Two: The 40th Day.

From what I have played so far this game is fucking HORRIBLE! First thing is first I hit the games Horde like mode called extraction and it's shit, which is a shame because if a game fails to impress with a basic "kill everything" mode with it's raw gameplay then the game is not worth knowing. No more than four enemies appear at any one time and all of them take about on average 2 clips of ammo just to down because almost all of them are wearing more armour than a chaos space marine. I mean say what you like about games like Halo 3 or the Gears of War games but at least the enemies go down in a timely fashion when pumped with an entire clip of rifle fire or a slug or two of the shotgun, but these Chinise(?) mercenary guys in this new Army of Two are fucking phenomenal.

I was not lagging, everyone had a good connection to the host but even with a weapon like the shotgun the enemies took three to five rounds before falling over and even when they did in some cases they could be rescued again by their friends. It's cool that the AI have the same tricks as you do but when they take forever to kill in the first place it makes the game unfun in my opinion.

Extraction is not a fun Horde inspired multiplayer mode at the end of the day. It seems tacked on. In Horde (which is not an entirely orignal concept itself, UT2k4 and Aliens Vs Preditor did that kind of thing before Gears of War) you are fighting a wide varaity of enemies each with their own attack paterns and skills and most importantly they are plentiful in number and don't have bullshit amounts of armour unless you are aproching wave 50 that is heh. In Extraction you are fighting the same dudes time and time again pretty much who most of the time just like to run up to you and pucnh you more than anything (hence me brining the shottie), it's basicly not a very fun co-op experiance really which is a shame.

With that said I think I will be trading this game in come Friday, I'll buy AvP but till then I will just have to either play Angband or work on that Tekken 6 review I promised I would do after totally beating the game for the second time...

Tekken 6 - Clothing Rant

2010-02-12T18:40:00.004Z

I am just about five or six stages in on Story Mode for Tekken 6 on the PS3 and already my guys look like they wondered in to some kind of Cosplayer's wardrobe in the dark and decided to get changed there, they look rather silly I think you will agree...

Tekken 6 - Story Mode Mini Guide!

2010-02-12T17:39:00.013Z

Hi this is not going to be a step by step guide on every level, merly some general tips to make this mode a lot more enjoyable to play. With these simple tips you should be able to breeze though the game a lot easier.

Updated! *6th November 2009* ~ Added more info about the clothing aspect of the game and how to unlock the hidden charcter in arena as well as more info on a lot of other stuff including the best way to beat the dredded "Nightmare Train!", Enjoy!

Updated! *13th Feb 2010* ~ Added more info about general achivements and trophies in the appropriate sections. They are the same for both the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. Decided to add to this FAQ because I am planing on doing a review of this game for my youtube channel.

Updated! *14th Feb 2010* ~ Added more info to the Arena Mode section. Worked out that I was doing it less effectively then I could of been and I also updated the "Spacemen Killer" part of the guide too.

Picking a Character

When you start the game you will be in control of a new charater of Lars and no you don't have to play as him to unlock his ending. By the end of stage two you'll unlock the ablity to play as any one character CHOOSE WISELY! Seriously, think about what kind of character you would want to play as, who would be best suited for a streets of rage or final fight style game?

First of all DON'T PICK BRYAN! You unlock in the next stage so picking him is pointless. Remember the closer the character is to the main plotline the further down the road you will have to be to unlock them. Picking a character like Jin, Kazuya or Heihachi is a good idea since they are solid, dependable fighters with a good mixture of clearance moves and upercuts for knocking poeple in to pits and juggling with them is easy enough to do on a regular basis without learning complex moves. (a must for this mode)

What ever you do DON'T PICK LARS OR ALISA! Lars is rubbish for this mode and his combo's are next to usless in a mass brawl enviroment and Alisa you need the CPU to play as to get level up Alisa's A.I. level for an achivement. If you really want an easy time pick DEVIL JIN as he is a cheap as boss character complete with great juggle combo's and has the ablity to fly but most importantly of all Jin has eye lazers. A must if you wish to be an evil Yakuza overlord bent on taking over the world...

General Fighting Tips for Story Mode

Right now there are two ways to play this game with a regular joy pad (yuk) or by using an Arcade stick. Either way the controls are not great for this mode. The d-pad and the arcade stick act like a regular game of Tekken. This means you can pull off all the moves so make sure that character you picked you at least know some 3 to 5 hit combo's and some clearance moves. The Left stick on the pad is free move on the arcade stick you will need to bind "free move" to a button. This is good for picking up items without having to double tap directions and side steping like axle rose from guns and roses.

Make sure you keep your partner alive and well away from any bottomless pits or water. If she falls in to this then she can not be revived even though she has rocket boosters so why can't she fly out is beyond me. When she is down run up to her and press A but make sure she's clear before doing so otherwise the enemies will stop you from brining her back. Also you can only do this once per level so use it wisely as she only comes back with 25% of her health so make sure she can get acess to food items before bringing her back.

If you are using Devil Jin remember he can fly and has eye lazers. If you decided not to be a cheap ass then remeber sometimes it's good to start a combo with a low punch enemies as they generaly don't expect it. Also while you are throwing an enemy you are immune to damage and the throw will also clear all enemies around you to which is very handy.

One more thing, save the weapons for bosses or tough spots thoughout the stage. Flamethrowers are great for wall juggling and do a great amount of damage with it. That said use the drinks as soon as you find them but don't use food items to you need them. You can go back and get the food at a later time unless you are the boss area normaly.

Clothes Equpping

Like it or not your newly aquired character will have to dress up like they got in to a fight with their local matalan store and lost if they wish to remain competitive in this game play mode. I did not notice this till pretty much the end of the game but playing dress up with your character and Alisa is a definate must as each bit of clothing you obtain in story mode has speical properties that boosts your characters stats like amour in an RPG. This means if you want to beat those hard extra "hidden" missions you are going to have to grind for items all MMO like. Here are some important things to remember while dressing up you character...

* Don't worry about how they look just pick stuff with the best stats
* You can only equip 5 items of clothing with stats on at any one time (the game won't recongise the other clothing if you go past this limit!)
* Stats don't stack. For example equipping two items that do +20% chance to Freeze won't mean you get +40% to Freeze so just concentrate on picking the highest valued items.
* If you are about to place an item with a similar but better item make sure you take off the old item first otherwise the game won't register the new item of clothing as being equiped hence no stats! :(

Make sure that when you are dressing your character that you DRESS ALISA UP AS WELL! you might also want to pick the costume of your character and Alisa you don't like. For example I did not like Bruce's First costume so much so I gave him a make over for that. Also depending on the button pressed to select the character at the character select screen will depend which costume you will select and Alisa with match your costume. So if you select 1p's custome then she'll wear that custome as well so make sure you pimp her outfit out as well.

X = 1P's costume
A or B = 2P's costume
Y = 3P's costume

The best way of getting A and S rank items it to either beat story mode and enter a harder difficulty setting or play the 'Nightmare Train' on normal (Devil Jin's stage). Make sure you equip some 'increase item drop' clothing for an easier time too.

Arena Mode

Every time you beat a boss or meet a character you unlock them for "Arena Mode" which is a short version of arcade mode. You will need to beat this mode with a character to unlock their ending movies. I would wait till you have beaten story mode and unlocked all the characters for arena before starting to clear this mode. This is because after awhile the game will unlock some of the endings by itself if you play Story Mode long enough. Any character ending unlocked this way means you don't have to beat arena mode with that character, just start a game with them, watch the intro then on the first match quit back out to the world map again, simple.

Finding the hidden Arena Characters (These are the characters you won't have after beating the main story!)

Devil Jin - Defeat him in Nightmare Train.
Roger Jr. -Defeat it in Mishima Industries, Biotech Research Station Ruins.
Yoshimitsu -Defeat him in Kigan Island.
Mokujin - Defeat it in Subterranean Pavillion.

Hidden Area's (These areas have the hidden characters in!)
Kigan Island stage - Go to Abyss Gate on Hard difficulty and defeat a man with straw hat and grab his loot. Then exit to world map.
Mishima Industries, Biotech Research Station Ruins stage - Go right at the first junction in Seahorse Grand Hotel, defeat the Kangeroo and clear the stage.
Subterranean Pavillion stage - Clear 16th Archaeological Expedition’s Excavation Site on Hard difficulty.
Nighmare Train stage - Clear Azazel's Temple, Central Corridor.

How to beat "The Nightmare Train" (this nets you an Achievement and Devil Jin for Arena Mode)

WARNING! THIS PROBABLY THE HARDEST ACHIEVEMENT IN THE GAME! (Defeating Nancy a close second mind you...)

I am no going to lie to you but this is all about the gear that you are wearing. You need clothes with decent stats to get anywhere near close to finishing this tough level in one peice but don't worry because your buddy Danny has your back on this one. This is how I managed to finaly beat this Nightmare (urgh!) of a level...

Gearing up for this stage
First of all you are probably going to have to play this level a lot. It's the only sure fire way of unlocking an 'S' ranked item on normal. Now remember to equip some Item Drop clothes before entering this stage as it will make getting that 'Find an S Rank Item' Achievement much, much easier.

After you have equiped your item find clothes take off all you other clothing, the reason being is that I am now going to guide you on what clothes you need for this mission. First of all you will be need some health and attack increasing items and yes I mean attack increasing and not "attack increase while in rage" crap or "recovers a small amount of health over time" shit clothing you keep hearing about. The health boost is not essental for the player character but ALISA NEED THE EXTRA HEALTH FROM HEALTH CLOTHING because she will routinely get her arse handed to her by the vicious Gargoyles on this level and you won't be able to survive without her being a distraction to the enemy so you can get some cheap hits in while they are focused on her heh.

Next up is Stun and Freeze damage items. Don't bother with fire because it's the status effects you want not the extra damage. being able to routinely pull off cheap juggle combo's is more important here as it stops the enemy from hitting you which is a must in this stage because the enemies hit hard, espeically if you don't have any health boosting items.

So just to Recap on what clothes you need...

Item Find
Attack Increase
Health Increase
+% Stun Attack
+% Freeze Attack

Failing that you don't have all of these a Defense Increase item is a worthy second choice but don't bother with the nullifying enemy elemental attack as the enemies in this train use nothing but brute force attacks and no magic.

Surviving the Fight
OK first of all don't bother trying to get the items at either end of the train, this will just allow Alisa to get swarmed. Only go for those items if you are in dire need of health and save the weapons and rage drink for the boss, Devil Jin!

Secondly, DON'T LEAVE ALISA ALONE! I can not stress this enough. Unlike other levels if she dies the enemies in this stage will not idley stand by and allow you to pick her back up so don't let her die as you need her to destract the enemies while you sneak around them and hit them when they are not looking.

I must also point out that YOU MUST DEFEAT THE ENEMIES QUICKLY! If you know a cheap tactic with your chatacter that deals quick damage in a short amount of time use it because the level will become almost impossible due to you being overrun by the Gargoyles.

Oh and don't bother trying to throw the Gargoyles either, due to there wings most of the time it won't work. If you picked Devil Jin as your character, spam eye lazers as it tends to be the best way of dealing with most enemies in this mode and remember to attack low once in awhile to fake out the enemy. If you stay in the middle of the train you can uppercut the Gargoyles off the train and still get the items. You can also do this to Devil Jin but make sure he does not do it to you.

Devil Jin is not to hard of a boss compared to the rest of the level providing you have kept your partner alive thoughout the level. Now might be a good time to grab that Gatling Gun and juggle his arse out the train. Failing in that just keep him in the corner and keep doing low attacks, Alisa will always strike mid or high so you will have both bases covered. As you as you land a hit go to town on his arse and don't let up on him for a minute.

Providing that you have followed my advice you should be able to overcome the Nightmare Train and unlock Devil Jin as well as earn some gamerscore but remember it's not going to be that easy and you may need to practice a little on this stage first before you get the hang of it or at least till you unlock some cool S rank items heh.

Getting the "No Boot Key" Achievement/Trophy (Hard if you don't know what to do...)
If your character is got a good enough clothing set up for the Nightmare Train then you should be able to beat this level without Nancy just fine. You might want to equip some 'Nullify Elemental Attack' clothing on this stage for the soliders with stun sticks and remember to stick close to your partner so she does not get packed on but other than that it should be plain sailing from here.

General Achivement/Thorpy Tips for Story Mode

TIP: the "get X amount of..." achivements are gathered thoughout the entire playthough of story mode.

Combo Master ~ Get a 50 chain kill combo in Story Mode!
I found that getting the "get a 50 hit combo" was do-able on multiple levels. The easist place to get this award is where you have to fight Baek. Just keep killing the minions with a the weapons in the level and you should be OK as the stage is rather easy if you have been clothing your characters properly.

Another good level I found for this is Kuma's forest stage. The Bear Cub's are easily defeated with the pipes in one hit and there are plenty of them to rack up the combo providing you kill them quickly enough and proceed with haste.

There is another easy stage is where you have to fight bruce in a warehouse. It's full of bottomless pits to knock enemies in to which get's you a +1 on your combo but you won't earn items this way and the stage doesn ot appear to quite late in the game.

The Spacemen Hunter ~ Kill 10 aliens in Story Mode!
This is best done on the stage where you have to rescue Julia and the boss is just a whole bunch of random enemies. The place is called G Science and Technology, Research Building 3. Anyway as you fight though the level you will notice three spacemen will jump down from the roof, so if you keep beating this level eventualy you will unlock the award as this is the easist way to beat a lot of Spacemen quickly.

What's So Speical About It? ~ Find a speical flag in Story Mode!
There is an easy flag to capture in the Secret Underground Passage stage which Raven is the boss in. At the start of the stage walk backwards (torwards the camera) and you should see a create, smash it and collect the flag and the award is as good as yours!

Love That Money ~ Earn 5 Million!
Story Mode is the best way to earn money, that's a fact. The easiest way to earn money in this mode is basicly to sell any bits of clothing that you are no wearing when you obtain them in the game. Clothes normaly fetch anything from a five to a six figure sum depending on the strength (or rarity if you want to get technical about it!) of the item. Some items and clothing can only be obtained via this mode so choose wisely about what items you are going to sell as you might want to use that clothing out of story mode because it looks nice or something.

More to be added to this guide when I remember heh, hope this little guide helps...

Danny and Meb Play Slam Masters!

2010-02-12T13:33:00.001Z

First Impressions: Midnight Club LA

2010-02-07T01:21:00.005Z

OK admittedly I normaly hate games that are based around boy racers jacking off over their fast cars so when I picked up this game in a bargin bin for less than a tenner I was not entirely convinced and to be honest I not sure after playing if I am entirely convinced.

The Main problem with this game is that the characters I am made to interact with are so souless and unlikeable that it makes my cringe. I know I should be judging the game mainly by game play (which I will be getting on to in a minute) but over all I feel that the presentation is rather lacking. Unless you are going to make the effort then please just keep it to guys racing.

Anyway the right stick controls braking and acceleration which is just ficking odd in itself and does not feel right but I will struggle with it because I wish to do a cheap game review of it so I must play it. Also the game feels like a Burnout Paradise, but less fun, stay tunned for more...

Best Advert EVER!

2010-02-07T00:52:00.001Z

What you have witnessed can not be unwitnessed, you have been warned as everything pales in comparison heh!

M.A.G: First Impressions

2010-02-05T19:15:00.007Z

Well I normaly don't care much for modern FPS's, they seem a little too generic for their own good these days. Also most of the big hitters like Modern Warfare 2 and Halo ODST left me feeling disapointed more than anything. M.A.G. it pretty much a carbon copy of the Battlefield games but it's big thing is that it's a console game that can handle over 200 players plus in the same game so I figured I would give it a shot, mainly for reviewal purposes despite my recent exepriances with FPS's.

I have to say though I am impressed with what I have seen so far. The lantancey seems to be holding out rather well. Their have been the odd lag spike but that's normaly when I join a game that is already in progress, must be a desyncing problem or something. 95% of the time though M.A.G. handles very well indeed, much better than your average Activision or EA title which aagin is impressive since their are tons of people playing in each game, the smallest game is sixty four players, let me repeat that SIXTY FOUR PLAYERS!

Gameplay wise the game is rather solid, the character progression in this game works more like a create your own class style system that you might find in a RPG than the swapable perks system of something like Modern Warfare. Players are encouraged to speicalise so I decided that it's my duty to help the wounded so I am learning to go medic. Now I can't ressurect people yet but I can heal them and I also put a red dot sight on my rifle so that I can aim at people from across the map with deadly accuracy!

So yeah the game is fun for the most part, two problems I have noticed so far and it's always the case in big battle games like this. The first is gernade spamming, yeah that old chestnut. In a 128 person a side game each of those are going to be carrying at least two 'nades on them. So an army at any one time can be spamming 256 'nades which can get annoying. Normaly this tactic is used for "area denial" or clearing out large clusters of troops.

The second problem I have noticed is the order of command system. OK normaly you would think that the highest rank person might be the best person in the army to lead an army but that may not be the case as I found out. OK say that "Little Jimmy" get command of the entire army, the reason being is that normaly when he plays games he camps spawn points (hard to do in this but what ever!) and spams posion gernades everywhere. So he's not the most tactical of people, a bit of a lone wolf of the battlefield one might say. So imagen my shock when we have a a hyperactive thirteen year old who's amped up on red bull and think's he's "solid" barking orders at people and rapidly changing the sqaud commands every ten seconds, all of which make no tactical sense and just screw up the battle for everyone invloved in his army for that game. Eventualy I understand that the more expeiranced commanders will rise to the top but for the time being I guess if I want to play this game I got to put up with the occasional annoying child.

So yeah, overall not bad, not bad at all! I will try and get some footage of me playing the game this weekend if I can but I can not promise anything. I will also do more Rainbow Six 3 Let's Play videos at some point too as they seem to be gaining a positive reaction at the moment.

Let's Play Rainbow Six 3: Mission 3 - The Alpine Resuce Part Duex: Revenge of the Alpine!

2010-02-03T21:56:00.002Z

Last update I will be doing today, honest! :P

Let's Play Rainbow Six 3: Mission 2 - The Alpine Resuce

2010-02-03T20:11:00.001Z

sigh Youtube stikes again!

2010-02-03T19:34:00.003Z

Gah! OK I understand the need to protect copywright, I mean if I wrote a song or made a movie or something I would at least like to earn a little money from it. What is not cool is what they are doing to my Morotstorm review at the moment.

It's been flagged for "misuse of copyrighted materal". The song in question was the Queens of the Stone Age song I used at the begging of the review, WHICH IS IN THE GAME! I am doing a journalistic review of a game, therefore it's covered by the 'Fair Use' cluase, and it's not that I put the entire song on there either, I only used the 40 seconds I needed to make the intro to a review for a game that I really like which just so happens to contain that song.

Anyway looks like they are not going to take down my video (not yet anyway), again I have sent an dispute to the people running youtube's copyright department stating that it's a journalistic review of a video game and that I only used what was in the game, including that peice of music. I should hear back from them soon if all goes well...

Let's Play Rainbow Six 3: Mission 1 - The Oil Refinery

2010-02-03T16:17:00.001Z

Bargin Bin Games - Motorstorm on PS3!

2010-02-03T15:42:00.004Z

Had a nasty cold while doing this, the fact that I only had four hours sleep because of it was kinda annoying hence the reason why this one is short, plus it's a racing game so there really is not that much to say. Enjoy the video!

Bargin Bin Games - Legendary on PS3!

2010-02-02T17:26:00.003Z

Legendary on the PS3 - Brought for £4!

2010-02-01T19:32:00.004Z

So you may be wondering what I have been doing recently, well my Xbox 360's disc drive has just broken down and I really can't be bothered with it any more. It's going to cost me nearly as much as a new console just to get it repaired so I decided against it, after all I have another current gen console, the PS3!

So I when in to my local electronics store the other day and raided their bargain bins. I managed to pick up a few bargins, one of which being Legendary for the PS3 for the princely sum of £4, not bad eh? I only knew two things about this game, the first it's a FPS with mythical creatures in it and the second was it was reported to be a rubbish game, no worthy of it's name sake so to speak.

Now admittedly this game is not the greatest, I brought it to review on my youtube channel mainly and figured doing something as off beat as this would be interesting, would I did not realise is that I would end up actually like the game!

Legendary has a very old school mentality when it comes to level design, enter a room, kill all the monsters and enemy troops then leave to the next room and repeat till the mission is done. The enemies themselves are the interesting bit. The mythical creatures are interesting to fight against while the troops are pretty intelligent and are competent for the most part. The game follows the half life approach to set pieces. First it introduces the mythical creatures then the enemy troops then they mash the too together for some chaotic results.

I fully intend to do a video of this game this week so stay tuned cheap game fans!

Phantasy Star Zero Impressions

2009-12-04T17:49:00.003Z

So yeah, I have been playing a lot of Phantasy Star Zero this week, in fact it's pretty much all I have had time to play, well this and a quick multiplayer round of Rocket Riot and Gripshift on the Xbox 360 but that's not the point. Lately all the gaming I have been doing has been on the bus to and from work and at my launch hour so having a DS is very covenant even though it's been pissing it down with rain a lot lately.

I have played roughly 12 hours this week alone and from what I can tell so far Sega really have a hit on there hands here. OK so I had to import this from the States but this is the best Portable game I have played in some time and it's a great follow up to Phantasy Star Online (which is what the game was billed as) as supposed to that shity Phantasy Star Universe with that whiney emo cunt Ethen Wabber or what ever the fuck his name was.

So yeah the game pretty much plays like the old Dreamcast game but with a minor changes. Mainly a sidestep/lock-on button taken from Phantasy Star Universe (the only good thing about that game, trust me!) and a jumping dodge roll taken straight out of the Monster Hunter games which is a big deal in the land of the rising sun. Then there is the vibe of the game. The characters and setting seem to have this wild west frontier vibe going on for them which seem to be inspired by the new hottness of character design at the moment which is the Wild Arms games, seriously stop sniggering back there!

While this game may be inspired by a whole lot of other games there is no mistaking that Phantasy Star Zero still feels like a Phantasy Star game which is great as that series happens to be one of my faves. The casts look as awesome as ever and the storyline from what I seen so far is very good, a lot better than in Phantasy Star Universe anyway with that stupid douchebag Wabber. The mission structer is still the same as it was in Phantasy Star Zero from what I can tell. Arrive in an area, clear up the small monsters, collect the loot and scram. eventualy you'll find the teleporter to the boss with a healing station before it. The bosses are very tough in this game and quite creative too. The hardest one I thought was a gaint squid in some swamp land (don't ask!) but I though a few after him and they all seemed just as tough but the squid stood out so to speak.

Overall, so far I am pleased with this purchase and it's well worth the money. It's one of the best RPG's I've played in some time and the online mode is really good fun espicaly as you can doodle with the stylus on it which can leave to some creative (or vulgar) pic-chat creations.

Just brought a DS Lite

2009-11-27T20:29:00.005Z

Did you know I spend roughly 2 hours a day commuting to work 4 days a week? While I was happy just listening to podcasts and such I felt now would be the perfect time to expand my gaming horizons and buy another DS, a DS Lite to be exsact.

I got one of these things orignaly when they first came out and did not think very much of it. There were not to many games out for it that suited me and my situation at the time but a lot of time has passed since the first time I owned a DS and I have noticed that there are plenty of games that would suite me down to the ground while on the bus, most of these being slower paced RPG's and of course the fantastic 42 in 1 all time classics.

So yeah I picked up the Nintendo DS in the awesome finger print collecting black edition which came complete with a game I really did not want and an acessory kit that contained several screen protectors and extra games cases, stylus' and a cleaning cloth, all for an extra five pounds, not bad!

I did also pick up a ton of pre-owned the games at the store as they were cheap enough. DS games I love buying second hand because they are durable unlike DVD's or Blueray's. It's pretty hard to mess up a DS cart. So yeah I brought my old fave 42 in 1 all time classics as well as Zelda: The Phantom Hour Glass, Dragon Quest V and Pokemon Perl. All of these games kick tremendous amounts of arse and because they are slow paced RPG's they will last me a long time to which is good considering I will be playing these for at least 2 hours a day heh.

There was one more game I brought but I had to use the magic of the Internet, or Ebay if you wish for me to be more specific. So yeah I ordered a brand new copy of Phantasy Star Zero which is supposed to be the true Sequal to Phantasy Star Online which orignaly made it's debut on the Dreamcast, a console I adore to this day.

So as I type this I have an brand new US copy of the game winging it's way towards me on guaranteed next day delivery so in theory I should be able to give you my impressions of the game by this weekend as i should be getting it tommorow although I am not sure if they deliver on Saturday, I bloody well hope so anyway!

So yeah I will be posting a little more now, I feel in the mood to blogg and update this thing more often so keep an eye out on this page.

What have I been doing lately?

2009-11-09T20:03:00.006Z

Well as you may or may not have noticed I have not been very active for awhile. This is mainly because there is this thing called the "x-mas games rush" and lately I have been cought up in playing a lot of Tekken 6 and Forza 3 when I get a chance to play on my 360 or Uncharted 2 on the PS3.

With that said lately I have takento retro gaming a lot. I am currently playing Castlevania: Symphony of the Night on the PS1 and Serious Sam First and Second Encounter on the PC to get myself ready for the HD version which is comming out real soon.

Anyway once I get enough "me time" I shall do another review, I got a few idea's planed out. Not sure if I want to do that movie review or another game review yet, we shall see. Anyway I am off to play some Uncharted 2 so laters and have fun!

Going to be reviewing movies real soon...

2009-10-16T15:03:00.006+01:00

Hey gang recently I have not been motovated to do much in the sense of reviewing. But recently I have been enjoying (if you can call it that) some really old Kung Fu movies from a 20 movie box set called "Martial Arts - 20 Movie Pack".

So yeah I'l be doing some review of all of these movies at some point. The first will be a movie called "Kung Fu - The Invisible Fist". At first I was like oh shit this has to be some of most generic shit I will ever see but it was actually very entertaining to watch.

I may do other types of movies as time passes but right now I'm sticking with the big boxset I got for £7.50 new from an Amazon US import seller which if you wondering you can buy here so enjoy! :)

A new TurboGFX video game review!

2009-09-13T00:11:00.006+01:00

Here is a video review that I have done about a week or two ago but I have been really busy with stuff so not updated this blogg, sorry about that. Anyway I hope you enjoy the video as i enjoyed making it with my super awesome newly obtained Vegas 9 video editing software heh.

Completed Killzone 2

2009-08-27T23:39:00.006+01:00

So yeah i just beat Killzone 2 yesterday and I have to say that this game was not as good as everyone had advertised if I am being honest. For starters the end boss was disapointing, just hoardes of enemies bum rushing you in a big room then some teleporting twat to fight, boo!

The ending I felt was also a big fuck you. OK I don't mind getting a bad ending but when the story is so inconsistant it makes my blood boil. I won't spoil the end for you but you'll be a little pissed when you see it that's for sure.

Then there is the magical case of one of your team mates dying from a single bullet to the chest from a magic 'plot device' pistol. The reason why I say that is because my character had this electro-thingy that brought people from the brink of death back to life again. Seriously I seen guys get peppered with heavy duty rocket and machine gun fire and one quick zap from this device and they are back on their feet again but for some reason I was not allowed to save this one person because the story said so even though I had plenty of opportunity to do so, weak!

At the end of the day I think I perfered UT3 and Resistance 2 a lot more than Killzone 2 as I felt Killzone 2 looks the part but as far as gameplay goes it's nowhere near as good as the other two titles I mentioned previously in my humble opinion as Killzone 2 seems fairly predistrain. I'll keep hold of this for the multiplayer larks but other than that I don't think I'll be comming back to this any time soon.

Not posted in awhile, sorry about that! :D

2009-08-21T21:12:00.004+01:00

OK sorry I have not been updating in awhile to busy playing games of all things, the main culprit being Killzone 2 for the Playstation 3. Other games include BlazBlue (imported on Hong Kong), and Resistance 2 and the orignal Motorstorm as well as INfamous.

So yeah I almost beat Killzone 2's single player game today and quite frankly the game is fun but it does throw some really cheap tricks at you, not to mention the enemies are epic bullet spongies.

So yeah I also got F.E.A.R. 2 today, hope to play that at some point but I gotta beat some of my older games first. I promise to get some new reviews up soon though OK? :)

2009-07-27T12:52:00.003+01:00

Here is a new review of a classic 80's Sega arcade game, enjoy! :)

PEOWW@IC09 - Exciting Outrun 2 Challange!!

2009-07-20T21:27:00.004+01:00

Sorry I have not posted in awhile been on holiday playing some awesome arcade games at the Insert Coin Arcade Expo '09! A lot of fun was had by all an a proper write up of some kind from me will be up a some point but for now I hope this video will do...

Feeling like something I just stepped in...

2009-07-08T20:44:00.006+01:00

OK I am not feeling "tip-top" as some might say today. Feeling really shity and tired. My throat it uber sore and I got some epic pressure on my temples, I think you might call that a migran.

Now I know that you are thinking, "Why Megaman?" well like I mentioned in a post a few days before I decided I would play some Marvel vs Capcom 2 after sorting out my cards which took 15 mins or so, not to bad.

Anyway Megaman was one of the characters I unlocked while playing. Never really used him much before a few days ago but now he's on of my favrouate characters, his awesome! Anyway I hope to feel a little better soon because I don't wish to record while I sound like Dot Cotton from Eastenders heh!

Battlefield 194fail...

2009-07-08T20:34:00.007+01:00

Seriously EA you should of known that this game was going to be popular. I mean did you not learn from you last game BF: Bad Company? For all of those people who don't know what the new Xbox Live Arcade downloadable game BF1943 is like because they are unable to get a game let me post a little picture up for you...

Next time Electronic Arts and Dice get the fucking servers up and relatively lag free before charging people for a game, it's simple shit you know!...

DRILL MILKY PPPWWWUUNNCCCHH!!!

2009-07-05T18:35:00.001+01:00

This is a review of an old Japanese Indie PC which I adore and you will to once you see this video. Drill Milky Punch is one of my favourate games ever and no it's not Hentai!

My latest video review...

2009-07-05T15:39:00.006+01:00

Here is the latest video review that I have done on Youtube. The other parts will come eventualy but right now this will have to do, enjoy!

PS2 Fever

2009-07-05T11:48:00.006+01:00

Recently I have not been to keen on playing on my PS3 or Xbox 360. Don't get me wrong normaly when I am playing on my Xbox 360 normaly I am playing Sacred 2 which I have been a lot of hours in to. But when I am not playing that I am playing Blood Bowl on the PC and when I am not playing that I am either on Youtube or looking at my huge pile of PS2 games. Yes ladies and gentalmen I have a fever and the only cure, more PS2!

I have three memory cards for the PS2, I intend to get rid of most of the data from them which is going to take some doing. I will save the essental save files for example, Urban Reign I have to keep so I have most of the characters for multiplayer. This is going to take awhile but when I am done I should have 2 free memory cards again which is nice!

The game I am mostly looking forward to playing on my Slimline PS2 is Marvel vs Capcom 2. Not the most refined fighitng game in the world but it's jolly good fun as some folks might say. I unlocked all the characters for the Dreamcast version but my Dreamcast packed up earlier this year so now it looks like I have to unlock eveyrone over again on the PS2, bummer! Well at least the new PS3 and Xbox 360 ports won't have that problem as everything will be unlocked from the start, sweet!

Well I guess I best get started with the data management. I have so many games now that even three memory cards is not enough, parhaps I should consider buying more from Ebay or Cash Converters or something heh. If any of you guys have any suggestions in what I should play please drop me a comment. Laters!

Trash Panic - A breif review!

2009-07-04T22:02:00.007+01:00

A lot of people may dismiss the Playstation 3 but once in awhile a nice little gem does surface, normaly is weird and obscure which is great in a world of casual gaming and generic space marine green on brown mediocrity. Like Noby Noby boy Trash Panic is a Playstation Store downloadable game that weighs in at over 1 gigabyte which took me over 2 hours to download with an 8 meg internet connection, fucking Sony!

That said once I downloaded the game I was in for a surprise, having herd nothing about this game I was shocked to see it was a puzzle game almost like Tetris but not quite. In fact this is a fresh new idea and it also gives out a pro-green message in a totaly non-lame way.

Anyway the stages in Trash Panic do not last forever, in fact the object of the stage is to get all the rubbish including the "boss trash" in to the pin without more than two things spilling on to the floor. There are also other unique objects that can land in your bin like a metor that sets rubbish on fire, burning trash as it goes which is a good thing for space but the smoke makes things hard to see. While the game is a riot to play it can be very unforgiving espeicaly at the later stages when one false move can screw up your entire game. Then again the game can not be easy forever I suppose.

The presentation is fantastic, you can see were all that memory is being used up as everything is in 3D and the models for the most part act as you would expect them to and even break up in a realitic manner for the most part (glitches and shit, you know the score...). For example smash a light bulb on to a solid object and the light bulb will smash, cleaver stuff indeed. The music and sound is also very catchy and very pleasing to the ear.

Trash Panic is good value for money when compared to more recent XBLA titles. It's worth a look especially if you like puzzle games as this is one of the more unique offerings that has arrived on a mainstream console for some time. I would strongly suggest checking out the demo or checking it out on youtube as it's a great little game for it's budget price.

Starting off a new Blogg handle

2009-07-04T20:00:00.010+01:00

OK this post is going to start a new run of posts called "look whatI just got in the mail". This will mainly give out first impressions of what will be mostly old video games that I can now only buy online VIA auction sties like Ebay, Play and Amazon hence the title.

Today I got an 2007 Playstation 2 game from Genki which was brought over here to the PAL Regions by Konami and it's called Demon Chaos. It's a late era PS2 Dynasty Warriors knock off that can handle 65,000 enemies on screen at once. OK this game never came out in the States and it's called something completely differnt in Japan (Ikusagami) and is based around a warrior sprit dog created by the god of war who is trying to save the earth from deamon invasion.

I figured for £5 brand new from a Play.com seller it was probably worth a punt just to see if this game would slow my PS2 down as much as Monster Attack and Global Defense Force (the Europian EDF games on PS2!) did. As it happens this is a very nice game. OK I can see it being a little repetitive from what I played so far but for £5 this happens to be one of the most under rated hack and slash games on the PS2 due to it being released so late in the consoles life and not being released in the states also probably did not help things much.

I would give a full video review of this game but alias at the moment I can not due to no video capture card that works on Vista 64 bit. That said there may or may not be a full written review of this bad boy in the weeks to come so watch this space.

Because I do not have the energy to maintain a site any more...

2009-07-04T19:54:00.003+01:00

Hi guys here is some good news and some bad news. Good news is that I am starting this new blogg and the bad well, I'd say that it's pretty much game over for wavesix as I do not have the time or energy to maintain a website anymore.

So what is going to be on Don't Drink and Bake? Well lots of stuff, mainly gaming releated but lots of stuff never the less. But there will also be a lot of personal life releated stuff here to as it's a blogg and all. You may even see a movie or album review here once in awhile.

Oh yeah I just remembered I guess it's time to start a new blogg topic...