Eckyman.com

I nearly didn’t get off a console long enough to write this post! Very hectic month (and then some) for gaming, and it shows no signs of slowing down with BF3, Uncharted 3, Skyrim, and SWTOR on the way too. Not that I’m complaining, the last few months have been one long gaming orgasm!

1. Dark Souls (PS3) – Number one and deservedly so. Very likely my GOTY
2. Batman Arkham City (Xbox 360) – Not as good as the first. More later…
3. Ico Collection (PS3) – Just as good the 20th playthrough, especially in HD
4. Driver: San Francisco (Xbox 360) – Still great!
5. Deus Ex: Human Revolution (Xbox 360) – I need to finish this!

So a few things on each title.

Dark Souls is amazing. Just as good as Demons Souls and then some. I absolutely love the level and enemy design in these games and Dark Souls did not let me down. I have half a review ready to go but for the time being you can check out my Demons Souls review as a lot of what I said there applies to this game too;

http://www.eckyman.com/demons-souls-review/

Batman Arkham City was a letdown. There, I said it. Get the pitchforks and let the lynching begin! Not burning me alive yet? OK, I’ll explain my reasoning.

Firstly, Arkham City IS a great game. No doubt. However, as a follow up to Arkham Asylum it falls short in a number of ways. Arkham Asylum has a stronger story, better pacing, and a more climatic build to the end. Arkham City has a stronger combat system, better boss fights, and other minor improvements to the gameplay mechanics. Unfortunately, the story basically just drags on the last hour or so of Arkham Asylum with very little else added.

I have a LOT more to talk about on this one to be honest but this post is going to get lengthy if I don’t move on. Review up soon… when I get a break from all this gaming crack!

Ico Collection. What can I say. Two of my fav games ever made. If you didn’t play these at release, shame on you. If you’ve not picked them up for PS3 because they are just HD PS2 games… shame on you! Go, now! QUICK!

Throw out games as art discussions and call it what it is… Ico is a great puzzler game featuring the least annoying escort mission type gameplay you will ever play. Shadow of the Colossus is a visually impressive treat, soaked liberally with atmosphere, and wrapped up with a kick ass soundtrack. Highly recommended!

I’m still enjoying Driver a lot, working my way through all the extra missions at the moment. It’s taken a back seat lately to make room for newer games but it’s still in rotation.

Deus Ex slipped to bottom place with not much action at all this month. No reflection on the game, I’ve just not had time to finish it off.

BF3 is hopefully coming today/tomorrow so that will no doubt steal the top place, although I don’t see Dark Souls moving over so readily as other games this time…

Still pretty slow on the gaming front… even more so with the PS3 drive dying.

1. From Dust (Xbox360)
2. Donkey Kong Country Returns (Wii)
3. Minecraft (PC)
4. Jedi Academy (PC)

Minecraft and Jedi made it back into the rotation again as they usually do when other sources of games dry up. Finally completed Donkey Kong, can’t recommend that game enough. Even though I’m an established “disappointed with the Wii” kinda guy.

From Dust is a nice throwback to the days of my Populous past. I loved that game back in the day and have been following From Dust for a while now. Was going to pick it up on PSN or PC but as the Xbox got an early release I grabbed it there instead. Very, very fun game. Will try and get a review up asap.

For the first time I’d like to open “Playing this month…” up to the readers for once. Any suggestions for games to play this month? Any platform, any genre… within reason.

Leave a comment or shoot me an email with your game suggestions.

Two Playstation1 consoles.

Five Playstation2 consoles.

Three Xbox360 consoles.

What do all these have in common?

If you guessed they all stopped working within 12 months of purchase you’d be 100% right! As of last night I can now officially add my PS3 to that list too. Roughly six months after purchase and it no longer reads disks.

I never thought it would come to this but I’m seriously considering saying my final goodbyes to console gaming.

I put PC gaming on ice in the late 90′s rationalising that constant hardware upgrades would wind up more expensive over time than converting to consoles. Over the years I’ve been proven wrong on that count not once, not twice, not even three times…  eleven console failures now. Fair enough one was in warranty when it went down, and luckily the PS3 is still under warranty, but that’s still 9 consoles I’ve either had to pay out-of-warranty repair costs, or purchase a new console, or rip one to pieces and self repair it when possible.

I keep all my consoles free of dust and well ventilated at all times. I don’t move them around, they don’t get dropped, bashed, and they are not in direct sunlight. They are as well cared for as they could be without me sealing them in an airtight container and never turning them on.

Console hardware has been a joke for decades now. Even cartridge based consoles required you to blow into the slots numerous times to get stuff working at times.

To say I’m narked off with console gaming at the moment is somewhat of an understatement.

Slow month for gaming.

1. Guitar – Learnt some new things and started recording some ideas
2. Socom 4 (PS3) – Single Player on Elite
3. Red Dead Redemption (Xbox360) – Second time through the story

So… PSN being down sank my plans of whipping some folks on Socom 4 all month and I had to stick to the single player. Completed it on Normal, half with the Sharpshooter, half with just the Sony Move and Navigation controller. I enjoyed the campaign but it wasn’t anything remarkable. The team based element is quite good once you get into the swing of it. If you try and one man army it and only have your team there as backup you won’t get the most out of it.

If you take your time and set up the teams well it can be very fun to use. You can stealth team mates into flanking positions and set up ambushes very easily. There is also a nice option that allows you to mark targets for takedown, but only on your say so. This gave me a few great moments in the single player.

I’m now playing through the single player campaign on Elite difficulty, with the Sony Move and Navi controller, and recording it for my youtube channel. You can watch me play the first mission here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUpQW3rWpSo

With LA Noire coming up I decided to restart the single player on Read Dead Redemption. Well, technically I put it back on so I could ride through the desert (on a horse with no name) and listen to Ennio Morricone… but one thing led to another and I’m about 5 hours in to the story again. Every time I play I’m constantly blown away at how impressive RDR’s setting is. I could sit and look at scenery for hours in this game!

Mainly though I have been playing guitar. I’d not played seriously in nearly 10 years so had to go back and refresh myself on a few things, and build up the ol’ callouses once more. Picked up some new things and started messing around mic’ing amps up and recording/editing stuff in Audacity. Not sure why I left it so long till playing again but kicking myself for stopping when I did.

Damn well won’t be stopping again this time that is for sure!

*sigh*

Well, it’s over now. I updated the PS3 last night and was able to log in to PSN.

I avoided talking about this so far due to the massive amounts of misinformation and raging that has been going around regarding this. I guess now the worst is behind us I can make a few comments on the situation.

I changed my passwords, my CC has fraud protection and I check my accounts often anyway. I’m already vigilant against Phishing scams as I’ve been on the internet for over 10 years now and I’m not a trusting person at the best of times.

So… that’s that. Don’t really give a damn to be honest. Am I concerned about my personal details? Sure, isn’t everyone? However I’m also secure in the knowledge that I signed up for PSN waaaaaaaaaaaaaay back in the day. Like when it first came out in the UK on PS2. My passwords, security questions… all different to what I use now.

Sony isn’t the first to lose data like this and they won’t be the last you can be sure of that. They have offered a years ID theft insurance, 2 free PS3 games, one month of PSN+ and a PSP game for the hassle. I don’t know about anyone else, but I’d have been happy enough with the ID theft insurance tbh. The free games are the icing on the cake.

Well, I bought and completed Socom 4 and Portal 2 but I’m not reviewing them yet till I play through the online components of each game. If they ever can channel enough lightning to jump start FrankenPSN back into life anyway!

Obviously you can tell what I’m going to say about Portal 2… I loved the first back when I played through the Orange box. I love the second.

It has some issues and I have a few problems with it, but it was in every way an improvement on the original.

Socom 4 has moments of greatness and moments of rising anger and frustration. It’s a mixed bag really… the offline anyway. I enjoyed it, but the story was nothing to write home about. The main missions felt pretty far removed from what I am used to in a Socom game too.

However, I did enjoy it. Parts of it really narked me off, but not enough to drag my opinion down too far. I’m very eager to try out the co-op with some friends, and I already know the multiplayer is good as I played heavily during the beta. Can’t wait to get in some new maps though!

Hmmm, what else…

With the PSN down I’ve been catching up on some reading again. Working my way through “The Complete Chronicles of Conan” which is several kinds of great! Also reading “Necronomicon: The Best Weird Fiction of H.P. Lovecraft” and really enjoying that too.

Might be a while before I get a review of those up as they are both hefty wedges of books, but I may post up some individual reviews of a few stories I really enjoyed.

Of all the books I’ve recommended or talked about here, I really can advise picking up either or both of these books.

The Complete Chronicles of Conan: Centenary Edition

Necronomicon: The Best Weird Fiction of H.P. Lovecraft (Gollancz S.F.)

Hectic month for gaming. Been hammering the Socom 4 beta, Minecraft again, plus a few PS3 titles I picked up preowned.

1. Socom 4 – Has issues but still a lot of fun!
2. Minecraft – Just playing with the update. I now have wolves!
3. Burnout Paradise – Was not keen on this at release for various reasons. Have put a little more time in and I’m enjoying it a lot. Still has some annoying things though. More to follow.
4. Metal Gear Solid 4 – Completed all the others. Thought it about time I conquered this one too. Lots of upgrades, still the same old game.

I had to laugh when a cut scene reminded me no less than about 8 times that the guy I was speaking to sold guns, and I could buy guns from him, because that’s what he sold. Guns. If I ever wanted any guns, I could go see him.. because he buys and sells guns.

“Say, did I ever tell you I sell guns?”

“YES! I get it already… I got it 20 fecking minutes ago when you first said it!”

Then of course Otacon has to tell me twice more over the radio that the dude I was just talking too sold guns. Just in case I missed it being repeated in every other sentence.

Don’t get me wrong, I dig MGS. I just have to laugh at some of the dialogue and cut scenes. For example… given that Solid Snake is a hardened battle operative who has seen his fair share of action, does anyone really believe he wouldn’t know about terms such as “war price”? Or general war economics?

I understand you may need to inform the player what it is… but the way it is presented makes Solid Snake look like some rookie who has no idea about anything. It’s like this throughout all the games too. In trying to keep the player up to speed, it makes the main character look like an idiot.

“Just one more game” it whispers. “Just one more….”

Lack of posts is due to a Socom 4 beta addiction. Normal service to resume soon.

In the meantime, check out my first attempt at a game commentary…

Just a little something new I’m trying out.

New console, new games…

1. Demon’s Souls – My review.
2. Uncharted 2 – Great game, upcoming post on that.
3. God of War 3 – Shorter than expected but really enjoyed it.
4. Killzone 3 – Very fun shooter. Currently playing it with the Move controller, more on that soon.

As usual, expect some posts on the above games… got a lot to talk about on these!

This game does not feck around.

Firstly, this game is not as difficult as it is made out to be. Largely, deaths are caused by player mistakes rather than anything the game throws at you. Overconfidence, recklessness, lack of attention, these are the main causes of death in this game.

There are certain surefire ways to end up back at the start of the level, frustrated and lamenting the loss of all the souls (xp of sorts) you gained up to that point, and almost every single one of them can be attributed to the player. After a while I got the feeling my biggest challenge was not navigating the world or fighting enemies, it was fighting my own impatience and recklessness honed over years of playing more forgiving games.
Read more…