Chapter 30: A Part Update/ A Part Review/ A Part Achievements of the Week 10-17 April

- credit chrisjohnbeckett

Steady yourselves people, the title didn't lie.

This is a HUGE update on all things going on with me and my blog. Again I apologise for lack of updates lately, but I have work to do. Work I don't do. Work I continuously struggle to complete.

So let's give you a run-down of all things going on XBox-wise with moi, the blog master.

I am continuing my quest to play as much Call of Duty: World at War whilst at the same time lowering my kill/death ratio as much as humanely possible. It sucks. I'm down to 0.83. Now I know a lot of you may be thinking i'm whining about nothing, but within my group circle, the prestigious K/D Spread is seen as a sign of excellance.

Without it, I am nothing but a mere n00b.

Apart from that I have moved on to a new game. Mr. Dan, my esteemed colleague and housemate has lent me the Robert Ludlem's The Bourne Conspiracy game.

So here comes the review part of this post.

After playing it for an hour last night, i'm quite torn on how much I like this game. On the one hand, it's an awesome movie tie-in that really gives you a sense of being Jason Bourne. The story is mainly taken from the Bourne Identity and the fight scenes are well choreagraphed.

On the other hand, the game is massively flawed. Those said fights, whilst cool at first, soon become repetative and boring, only split up by Bourne's different takedown maneuvers.

The targetting, aiming and shooting systems are all crap. Do you remember Bourne in the trilogy going around with a shotgun picking off baddies like a pissed John McClane? No? Me neither. It happens in this game.

I understand you can't just have Bourne stealth kicking ass through the whole game and some gunplay splits it up. But Bourne only used a gun when required in the films because he rocked the shizz at hand-to-hand. He didn't blow guys heads off at will.

So that's what i've got so far.

Rating: 7/10

Gamerpoints achieved so far: 35/1000


And finally, the gamerpoints for this week.

I would split this up into a seperate post. But again, there isn't many gamerpoints and i'm in the rhythm right now.

16/04/2009- Dangerous Beginning (The Bourne Conspiracy): Completed Dangerous Beginning (15G)

16/04/2009- Homebody (The Bourne Conspiracy): Collected 5 passports (5G)

16/04/2009- Shipyard Infiltration (The Bourne Conspiracy): Completed Shipyard Infiltration (15G)

Total Gamerpoints: 35

Gamerpoints review so far:

• 13-20 Feb: 160
• 20-27 Feb: 60
• 27-6 March: 270
• 6-13 March: 35
• 13-20 March: 530
• 20-27 March: 45
• 27-3 April: 0
• 3-10 April: 25
• 10-17 April: 35

So as you can see we're improving each week. So that's good news.

Anyway, that is the end of my mega super update. I promise more content will be added over the weekend and I won't neglect. Honest.

As normal, comment below with anything you want. As long as it's not mean.

Chapter 28: War, What Is It Good For? Lowering K/D Ratios But Pwning N00bs.

- credit tonyolm

Just been playing Call of Duty: World at War again on multiplayer with Dan.

One great mode one should play if they ever get the chance is the War mode. It's awesome, basically it's 6 vs 6 and you have to capture flags. It's all out carnage. Brutal but brilliant.

A lot more thought tactically has to go into it than in the Team Deathmatch mode (which is the most popular).

I've certainly had a gay old time on there.

Check it out. Here is a video of the gameplay. Tis not the best quality but going on Youtube and looking for the war mode springs up a ridiculous amount of Nazi zombie videos. And who wants to see that?

EDIT: Just watched the video with the volume up. That is not me narrating. One, i'm not American. Two, i'm nowhere near as good as this guy.

Chapter 25: Those N00bs Can't Touch This

- credit brava_67

Just wanted to pop by to tell you this small tale from last night.

Basically, i've never been very good at Call of Duty: World at War. Online after almost 4-5 months of gameplay i'm still only level 52. I have yet to reach prestige.

Out of my 12 friends who play the game, I have one of the worst K/D spreads (kills to death ratio), it sits at 0.84 at time of writing.

But yesterday me and Dan decided to play some COD for the first time in over a month. And frankly, I rawked it.

For some reason, I had a great session. Either the game has become infested with n00bs, or the break has done me good.

I have yet to download the DLC for Map Pack 1 (although I've read that it has reached over 1 million downloads, read more on that here), but I have played the free day Makin download and it's pretty good.

On the Upheavel map though came my greatest game of COD ever. 20 kills, only 2 deaths. I released the dogs, they pwned 7 guys, it was glorious.

It may not seem like a huge achievement for most, but for me it is enough to tell you all about right now.

Note: How did you like my cool internet lingo?

Also, new Zero Punctuation today at 5pm GMT, check the linkometer to find your way there.

Chapter 24: A Total Lack Of Inspiration

- credit Shaymus022

I keep complaining that things have been slow on this blog in the past few weeks. Those days of daily updates have long since disappeared. Partly, I have had other stuff to do (writing scripts, watching How I Met Your Mother). Partly, i'm inherently lazy all the time.

But I think mainly it's because I have a total lack of inspiration to play my 360 right now. Well, that isn't exactly true, I have nothing to play on my 360 that inspires me.

I had a great February where me and Dan bought Saints Row 2 and played through that and all in all it was an awesome game. Then I had Prince of Persia to finish which I really got into towards the end (until that lame ending).

Now, I have nothing I really want to play. I started GTA4 last Thursday and whilst it is a good game, I found Saints Row 2 more fun. Maybe I need to get into it more. Right now i'm on those missions where you're still setting the scene. Niko is beating up Albanians and we get crappy cutscenes at the taxi rank with Borat accents.

I play FIFA09 regularly but there isn't much to report on a blog about that other than when it decided to punk me and pretend it was broken last week.

Looking forward, June will be a great gaming month with Ghostbusters and Arkham Asylum coming out a week apart. Plus it's my 21st and I think i'm going to get a Nintendo DS and be cool like the other 75 million DS owners in the world.

But for now there is a void. I could play Gears of War 1 & 2, since i've never played either game. But I don't want too. I could play one of the million zombie games Dan owns. But zombies are lame. I could play Halo Wars. But then i'd be like my friend Richard who has left behind his social life for playing Rome: Total War or Empire or whatever it is called, i'm not really sure. Plus i'm not a huge fan of those games.

I could buy the new maps for Call of Duty:WaW but right now I can't afford rent, let alone DLC.

I have been lent Beautiful Katamari, (I have placed a review below for you, if you like, click the link and buy it for only a tenner), but after only one play i'm not feeling it yet. I don't know whether it is my kind of game.

So i'm stuck playing Mario Kart (still awesome, will never tire of it) and Crayon Physics Deluxe (google it if you don't know).

I'm going to see what Dan has in his collection later. I'm going to find a new game, hopefully. For now, i'll rant and rave at you at my small little problem. Because it's my blog....and I can.

Chapter 21: XBox, FIFA09, Prince of Persia, A Big Ol' XBox Update...

- credit tomasland

Hey!

Do you remember when this blog was updated daily, the sun shined in the sky and the world was a much better place?

You do?

I know, it was lovely.

Then do you remember the last couple of weeks where the blog was sporadically updated with totally off-topic Unicorn kidknapping videos?

You do?

You hated it?

Well have no fear friends, it is time to put things back on track with this huge XBox360 blog update post.

Hooray!!!

"Hail the conquering hero, na na na na na na" (- credit Aladdin)

So here is my XBox update. Yeux en avant...

So as you can see from my huge achievement post of Friday, I had rather a good time on the XBox last week.

Firstly, I completed Prince of Persia. It took me around 4 hours of Friday to do it, but it is done. It was a struggle, a real struggle. The Fall Out Boy Prince still hadn't learnt from our previous adventures and occasionally decided to leap to certain doom.

Also, the ending is ridiculous. You parkour your way around Persia (which is quite an unstable and rocky land I feel), free all the lands, take on some dragon boss, only to end the game undoing everything you've fought for in the past few hours...by cutting down some trees.

What a dick.

I hate that Prince so much. If Prince of Persia 2 is repeating the first game, I will be pissed.

The good thing was the huge amount of gamerpoints I received. Also, I beat the game in under 12 hours which is good for me and somehow, quite unbelievebly, I got the 100G achievement for being rescued by Elika less than 100 times in the whole game. I don't know how this happened. But it did.

Even better, Dan didn't get this achievement. He whined like a bitch about it, that was fun. The man has around 25,000 gamerpoints but he can't handle my flow.

Yesterday I had a mighty old scare. I wanted to play a game of FIFA09 but the game kept crashing at the loading screen. I feared my XBox version 2 was on it's way out after 6 months. Eventually it fixed itself but i'm still dubious. XBox disk drives seem unstable, and i'm paranoid.

My next game i'm aiming to tackle is GTA4. I've played through it before when I bought it last year. But as I wasn't a Gold member I lost all achievements when I went to ChocRaisin.

Let's hope Niko Bellic doesn't whine nearly as much this time around.

So there is your update.

Oh yeah, I bought a monocle too...then I lost it.

Gutted.

Chapter 11: Achievements of the Week 27th Feb-6th March

-credit Paperghost

Another week has come and gone and it's time for my achievements run-down for the past seven days.

It was looking pretty bad, possibly even worse than last week, due to Mega Drive mania taking over in my house. But fortunately I pulled it together last night with a hardcore Saints Row 2 session with Dan.

Here's the run-down:

05/03/09- Brother's Keeper (Saints Row 2): Defeated the Brotherhood (40G)

05/03/09- Seperated at Birth (Saints Row 2): Completed all Brotherhood missions in co-op (25G)

05/03/09- A Brighter Future (Saints Row 2): Defeated the Ultor Corporation Epilogue (80G)

06/03/09- Vengeance (Saints Row 2): Exacted revenge on Julius (15G)

06/03/09- Partners in Crime (Saints Row 2): Completed all campaign missions in co-op (100G)

06/03/09- Hello 47 (Saints Row 2): Killed all Hitman targets (10G)

Total Gamerpoints: 270

A respectable score. Get in !

Chapter 10: Prince of Persia Review

As you can see i've decided to drop Roman numerals in my blog titles. Mainly because I don't know 10 onwards. Also, it was a pain.

Anyway, after a week of Mega Drive shenanigans, it's back to XBox matters at hand.

This week's review is Prince of Persia. Now I never played the previous instalments in the series, even though according to Ben Croshaw, the Sands of Time trilogy were the best games on PS2.

I was given this by Dan to play and decided to give it a bash. Now bear in mind, 5 weeks later, Saints Row 2, SFIV and a Mega Drive have disrupted me playing this game properly so i'm about quarter of the way through. So my review is purely on what i've seen so far.

The game plot is something along the lines of evil prisoner is freed, covers the world in black goo and you (Prince of said Persia) and a magical assistant have to go around to each area defeating baddies and making the grass grow once more. Meh, the plot is weak and thin but is enough to get the gaming moving.

Personally, I feel this game is one of those you play when you want to relax, when you can't be bothered with anything too heavy. I think it's the parkour element. You cannot die because when you are about to plummet to certain doom, magic lady pulls you back. So it's casual and easy.

The parkour is good in the game, although sometimes I press the wrong button and the Prince decides to jump onto well...nothing. That's frustrating. Also, sometimes my brain can't work out the simplest of routes from A to B and so the Prince contiunously has to be bailed out of meeting Beezlebub. I can safely say I won't get that achievement for being saved less than 100 times.

The fighting aspect is easy too. Press X, Y and B during a battle and you'll thrust your sword forward, throw Elika at the baddie or throw him in the air and go Ryu on him temporarily. Nothing too it really. The baddies i've fought so far haven't been too challenging, but as I said i'm in the early stages.

Graphically the game is good for 360 and is colourful and vibrant. A problem I do have with the game is that the main character is a dick. He sounds American and speaks like an arrogant dick most of the time. It's annoying. Why you would ever want to play as someone like that is beyond me. Unless the game was Skins and you could play as Cook.

Another problem I have is that after about 20 mins of play I start to get bored. It's all good and well parkouring your way through the levels every now and then. But doing it every time you want to get somewhere gets monotonous. Maybe it's my lack of adventure but I couldn't play this game for hours straight.

Overall, Prince of Persia is a decent game. I think if you're not a fan of the series already, or a fan of parkour, then a rent is probably best. I've been told the game is around 8 hours complete so you could do it in a weekend. I'll continue to play it off and on but it'll never be a game that encaptures me for days on end.

Rating: 7/10

Gamerpoints achieved so far: 160/1000

Chapter VIII: Playing Other Consoles is a No-No

So there was very little activity on this blog this weekend. That is my fault. I'd like to say I had a good reason for this, something along the lines of helping those in need by climbing Mount Kilimanjiro, or helping elderly ladies cross the street.

But in reality I was taken in by another console, not just that....a SEGA MEGA DRIVE!

*Cue dramatic Danny Elfman music*

For my housemates 21st birthday me and Dan bought him a Sega Mega Drive and 11 games for £30 off a friend.

Now naturally, if you have a new (ish) console in the house, you are going to play it.

Boy did we play it.

Mainly the pure beauty that is Sonic the Hedgehog 2. (we have Sonic the Hedgehog but that got by-passed. No super charge? WTF?)

Several times over the past 3 days that game has been put on, and each time we play the same levels, getting to the same point, before we are distracted and have to start all over again. (no saves= gay)

Super Street Fighter II we also have; funnily enough easier to master than IV.

We also have some random games like Two Tribes? Mig-29? and some crazy Dungeons and Dragons game where you are attacked by bears with shields.

All the while I have played about 2 hours of XBox all weekend (mainly Saints Row 2), have no achievements to show for it, and my progression is getting seriously hampered.

So in conclusion, to take something away with you from today's rant:

Don't live in a house with 2 XBox360s, a Super Nintendo, a Wii, a PS2 and a Sega Mega Drive II.

You will get distracted.

Chapter VI: Street Fighter IV Review

So along with my achievements update every Friday (i'm dreading this week), Thursday's are looking to be a staple day for me to do a game review. I don't know how long this will last, after all I don't buy new games every week (maybe retrospective reviews?) But dammit, I will do my very best.

So this week's review is Street Fighter IV. It is the first numbered Street Fighter game released by Capcom for the arcades since 1999. As a background for the game, not much is really needed. It's Street Fighter. The ultimate fighting game. The series that really paved the way.

The game has been in my house for around two weeks and my first impression was that it is easy to get into, hard to master. Some people have complained that the game was not designed for noobs. I disagree. If you've never played it before, it's easy to choose Ryu, learn the basic kicks, punches and hadoukens and have fun. However, mastering the super and ultra combos is a different story.

They are hard, really hard. As I write this, I've never performed an ultra combo. I've tried but the controls are a ball ache. The XBox stick is not a good device to pull off moves. You have to be so precise with them, and obviously in arcade mode you don't have time to faff about. That's the main problem though in a very good game. If you're naturally good at games and fighting in particular, this is probably not a problem.

The graphics of the game are beautiful. The cartoon-like drawings of the characters look immense. It's stylish and really draws you in. The backgrounds react to elements of the battle, crates drop, water ripples and it's lovely to watch.

As for the characters, the usual gang are all there. There are new ones added, a fat ninja dude, a little girl, Bruce Lee. Most you have to unlock though.

Story-wise, there is very little. But why would you want that? You just want to hurt people. Although the back-stories given are done in beautiful anime style.

The modes are alright, I haven't been online yet in fear of being reduced to tears but i've heard positive things. Little amount of glitches, although expect to face Sagat as he is the character of choice i've heard.

Overall, I love this game. Sure i'm terrible at it but that's because it's me. This is the ultimate fighting game. Everyone should pick up a copy. Will Tekken 6 compete when it is released? Who knows. For it's genre this is a 10/10, generally, and only because of controls, it gets a 9.

Rating: 9/10

Gamerpoints achieved so far: 20/1000 (Pathetic)

Chapter IV: Steet Fighter IV sells 2 million copies worldwide, is hard.

So I know what you're thinking.

James, that picture isn't Street Fighter IV, it's a man going Chuck Norris on a panda from some other game.

Correct.

Also, James, when are you going to give in to the Roman numeral naming of posts. How far can you go?!!

The answer I don't know.

But to rectify problem A and make you feel better. Here...


There happy?

So Capcom announced today that Street Fighter IV has sold over 2 million units worldwide since it was released. In Japan, the game sold out on its release week. It wasn't disclosed where else copies were sold but expect it to be top of this weeks UK XBox360 chart. So fighting beat 'em ups arn't dead after all! Hooray.

My friend and arch-nemesis Dan bought the game last week and my entire house has enjoyed Hadouken-ing the hell out of each other.

I was pretty good with standard Ryu at the beginning, kicking Sagat's teeth down his throught, throwing Guile around like he was nothing. However, after a while it became apparent kicks can't compete with Super and Ultra specials. So i'm rubbish...great.

Although, I did master Dhalsim. He takes hits like a little girl but he has stretchy legs wooo!

I shall review it shortly, along with Prince of Persia.

You bought SFIV? Have you mastered the controls? Are you sad like me? Comment below.

Chapter I: Saints Row 2 Review

So here it is, my first game review on this very blog. I am going to review the latest game bought into my collection a couple of weeks ago. If you haven't guessed you're stupid. It's Saints Row 2, duh.

Now to be honest I didn't play the first game. It kind of passed me by as when it was released I never owned an XBox360. A couple of times in the games store, I saw it cheap and pre-owned but never took the gamble. I've always been a GTA fan and it appeared like it was some terrible clone.

However, I was convinced (or maybe peer-pressured) into buying the game by my housemate Dan (who you will no doubt hear more about). He is a gaming addict, buys every game ever released and hates Mario Kart. He is effectively the villian of the piece.

The biggest reason I purchased the game was because of the on-line co-op mode, where I can system link with Dan and we can go through the campaign together (There is also the benefits of extra achievements for completing all missions co-op).

So the game itself.

Well it is set 5 years after the end of the first game where your character is apparently exploded or something. You are in a coma in jail when you finally awake and the character customisation begins.

The customisation itself is brilliant. You customise every aspect of your character from taunts to the delightful language setting. You can be American or English, and the English accent one is hilarious. Think posh cockney.

The game in comparison to GTA4 is so much more fun. The serious tone of GTA which at times hampered the game, is non-existant. This game is balls to wall fun. It's ridiculous in the plot and cut scenes.

The plot itself is wafer-thin, you resurrect the Saints and have to take down 3 gangs to take back the city. I haven't completed it yet but 2 gangs are done. To open up certain missions you have to do activities scattered around the map. These include things like 'Fight Club', 'Escort' and 'Demolition Derby'. Of course all aspects of open-world sandbox gameplay are included.

For me the music in this game is much much better than GTA4. Culture Club, The Rakes, Duran Duran are all there, including lots of Hip-Hop from artists I don't know.

Overall i've thoroughly enjoyed this game so far. Don't get me wrong GTA4 was awesome too, but at times it was boring and too serious for its own good. Definately pick up Saints Row 2 though if you have the cash and time, it's fun, unforgettable and ridiculous.

Rating: 8/10

Gamerpoints achieved so far: 170/1000