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Ahhh the gaming drought is over! I love this time of year, even if  my bank balance does not.

1. Driver: San Francisco (Xbox 360)
2. Deus Ex: Human Revolution (Xbox 360)
3. Minecraft (PC)
4. Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (Xbox 360)

Driver took the number one spot this month despite heavy competition from Deus Ex. As I mentioned in an earlier post, Driver is really good! A lot better than I was expecting, and quite possibly some of the most fun I’ve had with a driving game.

Not far off completing Deus Ex now, just need a chunk of time spare so I can sit down and crack on with it. Not the type of game I can play in 20 minute chunks really. Is it as good as the original? Well, no.. but it’s still a great game and certainly more enjoyable (to me) than Mass Effect or most of this generations RPG offerings.

The new Minecraft 1.8 patch added a lot of reason for me to pick it up again. Lot’s of changes and reasons to explore and fight things again. Game had kind of got boring once I set up the Wheel of Pain mob grinder and had no need to ever leave my ice lake, now I’ve started a new world, minus the mob grinder, and gone back to basics.

Creative mode was probably the best update with 1.8 though. I started out using it to test out some redstone ideas and before I knew it I was working on an adventure/puzzle map! I think I put more time in on creative now than I do on survival. Maybe because I feel like I already beat survival, many times on many worlds. Creative actually gives me a point to all the building beyond killing time.

As you know, Bad Company 2 is a frequent guest of the “Playing this month…” section so not a lot to say on that front. Although… I will say, I’ve seen more cheap tactics over the last three nights than I’ve seen in months! Crate bashing, 8 man strong medic trains, 8 man strong USAS recon groups, circle jerking, tank sniping, even C4 on the bloody UAV has been going on. From level 50 players too? I know you’re probably bored of the game at this point, but really? No need for the cheap tactics..

Just read there will be an RTS game based on Game of Thrones (or, A Song of Ice and Fire, depending on your preference) released at the end of this month.

Should be interesting to see how the game plays out. The press release mentions commanding assassins, setting up secret alliances, and sending spies to cause havoc, so it sounds in keeping with the backstabbing nature of politics in Westeros, although pretty much standard features for most RTS games.

More to follow after I play it…

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This isn’t my review as I’ve not finished it yet. Not far off mind you but I’m digesting this like a large meal, reclined on my couch and at my own pace.

However… what I did want to talk about is the idiotic moaning about the difficulty of the boss fights if you go for a stealth build. You’ll have seen it by now, the tears flowing on this subject are fast and salty.

Let us clear a few things up.

1. I’m using stealth. All my points went in non-combat, stealth/hacking related areas.
2. The bosses go down faster than a hooker with a blank cheque as long as you THINK about it.

First boss fight. Pants, that dudes arm is a cannon, I don’t have many weapons and all my points are in non-combat augs.

Wait, I do have a brain and the ability to think my way around a problem so.. what I’ll do is first toss this EMP grenade at the walking cannon guy. OK, that fried him. Now how about stacking a couple of these explosive looking barrels at his feet and blowing them up while he is dazed. Yeah, he didn’t like that and the EMP grenade has worn off. OK, so I’ll hide behind this pillar and place two frag mines either side so the boss can’t get close. OK, looks like the boss just walked over one. Wait? What? It’s over? I thought these boss fights were supposed to be tough according to reviewers?

Took no time at all, nothing stressful about it, and I didn’t need a single point in any augmentations to use my smegging brain!

Second boss fight. Let’s see, EMP grenade worked well last time, lets try that. Hmm, not so good this time. OK, you like charging at me? So I’ll put my back to the wall and place frag mines in front and to the sides of me. Charge that! Oh you did.. OK, have 3 rockets in the face from the rocket launcher I saved all the way through this level. Ahh, you died did you? Didn’t take long.

Well, I guess I had a rocket launcher, what did I expect. Reload, throw away rocket launcher and pick up heavy rifle from the room right before the boss, available to all players no matter of build.

Same tactic, back to wall, frag mines down… dumbass ran into one again and is standing around inviting me to drill her with bullets. Naturally I aim to please and just as fast, the second boss is down.

If you are one of those people moaning about the difficulty of the bosses on Deus Ex, I suggest growing a pair… or spending 30 seconds thinking of a way around the situation that does not involve moaning all over the internet about the hike in difficulty when in reality, the boss fights are the easiest part of the game.

Don’t really have time to post a decent review of this yet but here is a quick summary till I get a little more time…

It’s damn good!

Multiplayer is a blast…. as of 2:30am this morning I was ranked 94 on the overall board, and 25 for both Tag and Trailblazer! I doubt I’ll get it, but I’m aiming for top ten Tag/Trailblazer tonight! Not usually a fan of leaderboards but this kinda crept up on me so I’ll try to take it as far as poss before a slew of people overtake me.

…and no, I’m not an Alleyway Allen either! You all know who you are! Get out into traffic and get tagged you chickens! Spinning in alleyways because you can’t drive is pretty low. I can spawn a vehicle where I want so it won’t work either

Will be posting a full review and some multiplayer footage soon.

But I’m going to because yet another moron has decided to throw their hat into the “I blame videogames” ring and at this point I’m rapidly grinding my teeth to stop my eyes from bleeding!

Do I need to post the usual rant? Or can I assume the many posts I’ve done on this subject have made my feelings clear?

Quick summary.

Riots happened before videogames, or whatever scapegoat you want to blame.

/end summary

(EDIT: Removed a lot of ranting that essentially repeated itself)

I just read they are basically getting rid of threat mechanics by buffing tanks threat output through the roof!!

Learning optimal rotations just became pointless, as did learning any tanking tricks outside of your classes skill bar, as did several threat reduction abilities, as did any need to play DPS tactically – just keep on spamming those buttons and posting recount stats!

In Kara, one of the things I enjoyed the MOST about tanking was the constant fight against the rising DPS and aggro of the damage players. Half the game to me was more about fighting players DPS gains than tanking mobs. Once you know an instance and patrols/boss fights, the challenge is purely in holding threat from other players.

…and now that’s gone.

All that is left is to soak up boss hits and position the boss when something on the floor is on fire. Big fecking whoop! If I hadn’t already quit, I’d be clicking my way to the cancel subscription page and copy/pasting this rant into the reasons box!

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Last one of these…

“We live in this age of violence—and I don’t care what other people say: Brutal TV and brutal videogames are a reason for this pointless violence as well,” Gallagher toldBang Showbiz. “The people are immune to violence, they are used to it. And if they get caught they aren’t punished the right way. The prisons are already full? Then build new ones!”

Gallagher, shut your mouth and stick to the things you know.

Of course it’s gaming.. that’s why everyone is looting TV’s and electrical goods. Nothing to do with criminals and opportunity right? As it has been throughout the years before we had Vidyagaems to blame.

Build more prisons? With that surplus pile of cash the UK has sitting around right now yeah?

I shouldn’t be surprised really based on his previous comments about knife crime…

I was up in Liverpool for a week a couple of weeks ago and even on the news there it’s every single night… People say it’s through violent video games and I guess that’s got something to do with it. If kids are sitting up all night smoking super skunk [cannabis] and they come so desensitised to crime because they’re playing these video games, it’s really, really scary.

Naturally… there was no knife crime before video games and skunk right Noel?

It wasn’t too long ago that Rock & Roll was blamed for all sorts of stuff, including Satan worship. Think about that one next time Noel.

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It’s going to be these stories that send me over the edge, not violent games…

Swiss Police Association calls for ban on Darkness II because the game features police officers being shot at and killed.

“Politicians, game producers and sellers have been advised that such games be immediately removed from circulation,” read a statement from the Swiss Christian Police Association.”

“When police in England are the target of mobs running amok, it is important that police are not portrayed as the enemy,” added Felix Ceccato, president of the association. “

The response?

“Reported stories regarding police officers in The Darkness II were erroneous. To be clear, there are no police officers in the game,” 2K Games said in a statement to Kotaku.

Don’t think I need to comment further on that one really. Maybe, oh I don’t know… do the most basic of research before calling for bans?

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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.

You know we don’t like DRM. You especially know we don’t like the “constant internet connection required  for OFFLINE play” DRM.

If you claim to be surprised at customer reaction I’m calling BS. If you are serious, I’d strongly suggest poking your head out of your office for one second and, oh I don’t know.. paying attention to customer reaction to EVERY game that has been released with internet connection DRM. How you can be a VP of a gaming company and claim to be surprised at this is beyond me, it really is.

Personally I couldn’t give a damn as I’m always connected to the net. That doesn’t mean I can’t see the problem. I have plenty of friends who have no need for a PC internet connection. They get what little they use of the internet from mobile devices and avoid paying an additional line rental here in the UK for a land line.

All these people are now barred from playing. In an attempt to combat piracy, you lock legit paying players out of your game and chances are they wont be back to buy anything else you try and sell them. In addition, all these DRM games get cracked eventually anyway so pirates get to play without DRM but paying customers have to jump through a few hoops to play the game they legally bought.

At this point you are better off either buying legit, then downloading a cracked copy to play (but unfortunately this sends a pro-DRM msg – More pirates = More need for piracy protection), or simply voting with your wallet and not buying/supporting these DRM games.

Tycho calls it what it is and I agree with him…

Who is being cheated? This is the part of the movie where, in a series of retrospective realizations cut with you looking at your own face in the rearview mirror, you come bit by bit to the heart of it. The person you are cheating is Blizzard, Blizzard in the aggregate, with your attempts to interfere with their digital marketplace. You mustn’t play offline or goof around with your files or any other naughty business because they are endeavoring to transform your putative ownership into a revenue stream.

There, now don’t you feel better?