I just got back from a nice holiday in France so some updates will be pouring in asap.
Got a few things written while I was away, but the net was costing about £4 for 30 minutes access so I went without. Bit annoying but never mind.
Last night I was reminded that quite often I post about games I’m starting to play, say I’ll talk about it later after I play it some more, then never get round to posting about it. Looking through my posts I see I’ve done this a few times so over the next few weeks I’ll be trying to clear up some of the backlog of games I wanted to talk about but didn’t for whatever reason.
Which brings me to the point of this post.
I only really gave it some thought this morning but it’s true… I have a lot of conflict in my gaming life. On the one hand I like to write about gaming and the various things I encounter while playing (even if only 2 people read it lol), but on the other hand I want to game… as much as I can. Having a full time job and other commitments, my time is limited on a night and I need to make a choice.
Often writing loses.
Like now. The last few months have been feeding a combination of Monster Hunter and Jedi Academy addictions, yet I have barely mentioned them here. Why? Well, mainly because I am too busy playing them really.. although there are other reasons.
Take Transformers: War for Cybertron for example. Came out on a Friday, completed it the next day, post was up by Tuesday (written on Monday but scheduled for Tues). Did I not like the game? Far from it. The thing with TF: WfC is that after 11 hours of the single player campaign, I know all I need to know to talk about the story, the gameplay mechanics, the overall feel of the game from a fans point of view. I’ve played 3rd person multiplayer games before and this adds little new other than vehicle transformation, again, the depths are not hard to plumb.
11 hours of Jedi Academy multiplayer and I was still trying to master seemingly simple tasks such as swinging a damn lightsaber! 11 hours of Monster Hunter and most players will still be fighting the lightweight division of monsters and certainly still learning attack patterns and evasion basics (superman dives as last resort etc).
So yeah… if it takes me a little longer to talk about a game compared to others, it often just means either the game is so good I’m not pulling myself away to post about it, or I’m not convinced I have seen enough to make an accurate observation.
Then you get the Rogue Warriors of the world that only need 15 minutes of your time to play and can be summed up in just six short words 
I’d like to see a few more remakes/reboots of classic games.
Tomb Raider Anniversary was a great attempt at re-treading old ground and a first class example of the kind of quality possible if done correctly. I far prefer Anniversary to the more recent titles in the series, Legend & Underworld. Probably in part due to nostalgia, but also because after trying to go through TR1 on the PS1 again, the limitations of the old control system stick out like a dog in a fish tank. The updated game mechanics really go a long way towards improving the overall experience.
Capcom have also shown remakes are more than viable with the Gamecube remake of Resident Evil, largely held to be one of the best in the franchise by many fans thanks to the various updates it received. Capcom made changes to the script to give it a more serious tone, an updated (less naff) voice over track (Barry Burton, I’m looking at you buddy!), updated graphics and cutscenes, and if I remember correctly it even featured extra areas and story details. The game was received very well in reviews and sold 1.35 million copies according to the wiki entry.
Batman: Arkham Asylum, while not technically a remake, was a reboot for the franchise. All the Batman games before it were laughable. None of them really nailed it well, yet Rocksteady really captured what makes Batman great whilst still delivering a solid gameplay experience.
Of course, the risk of a dud is high. You only need look to the movie industry for examples of how easily a reboot/remake can crash and burn. Given the love some gamers have for certain titles, any mistake made to the formula no matter how minor will be a thorn in it’s side for life.
Still, I think there is a lot of room for retro classics to receive a new breath of life and would love to see a few more titles given a fresh lick of paint.
Well.. we made it back from Tokyo and only wound up stranded for two days. Can think of far worse places to be stranded!
Lack of updates lately is mainly thanks to Monster Hunter 3! Well, I cant blame MH3 entirely, also been playing some other titles this month… and on that note I move into the “What I’m playing this month” portion of this post;
Hectic time for me regards to gaming…
The four titles above were all recent releases on my must have (or the very least, must rent) list, Red Dead Redemption is out this week, Transformers: War for Cybertron next month. Still got Lost Planet 2 to play through…
Madness!
Thank Minegarde I have a few twofer Blockbuster vouchers to get through or this month would be a bloody nightmare!
After holding Farm on the Laguna Alta map for the majority of a conquest round, the opposition sent 6 players and 1 tank and captured the base. Thanks to a lucky respawn on a still standing squad member, I managed to get two RPG shots off on the tank…
…both missed by a mile, BUT, managed to take out the remaining two walls of the farm building causing it to collapse, killing the 6 opposition players in one glorious demolition kill!
Incredible game. More to follow soon.
Although I’m a big fan of the Last.fm service on Xbox Live, I cant help but think MS missed the target slightly with Last.fm/Facebook/Twitter integration.
Had they gone the extra mile and allowed some form of access to the services from other areas of the console, they would have been on a winner. As it is, you cannot listen to Last.fm while playing any games, only within the Last.fm area of the dash. The same goes for Twitter. Something as simple as allowing people to tweet from the guide button mid-game is sorely lacking from the service. Even some kind of pop-up notification system showing new tweets, similar to how the system deals with displaying friend logins, would have been something.
As things stand, the extra services are good, but a little extra effort and they could have been great.
What with Christmas, work, and various other things occupying my time I’ve not been posting much lately so time for some updates!
Whilst looking for some info and images of the old C64 game, Monty on the Run for a Game Maker project, I came across this great video…
Saw Stewart Lee’s new show, ‘If You Prefer a Milder Comedian Please Ask’, in Harrogate last night. Very good as always. Maybe not as much content as the last live show he did (41st Best Standup) but just as funny imo.The act starts with an encounter in a coffee shop and ends with 100% disappointment at Pear Cider.. Pears not Pear Mr Magners 
Complaints? The guy behind me fake laughing FAR too loud in my ear but hey.. I’m not going to be a tool about it.. oh and the guy who thought it a great idea to yell out things during Lee’s act. We paid to hear Stewart Lee, not you. We noticed you came alone, and left alone.. I wonder why?
If you haven’t seen him perform, go to his site, find out where he is playing near you and buy tickets. Great comedian, deserves a lot more attention than he gets.
