Xbox blah

Firstly... fuck you blogger app as you didn't save my last post. Ahem.

Right back onto it.

Back last year when the xbox one and ps4 were released, I knew I wanted to stay with the xbox brand, so I did. It took me a few months to gather up my pennies and purchase a few shiny (actually matt) xbox one, complete with my very own high res but still largely generic football title (FIFA).

Since then, I honestly have not been particularly impressed with it. Initially there were problems connecting to the internet, an update fixed them. Downloads and updates are generally HUGE and my snails pace connection really struggles (not after today bitches, FIBRE DAY!) to download anything.

Equally game quantities are not high, there are some good titles, I could just do with... more. some highlights so far...

Ryse: Son of Rome, excellent single player mode, really enjoyed to the point I was disappointed when I could see the end coming. Multiplayer seemed good, but with the lag on my piece of shit connection I could never get a game, or it'd have issues during (tomorrow...)

Rayman Legends: Wii U game originally but a good old school 2D platformer that looks very nice, yes please!

Forza: Pretty and controls well, can't ask for much more can you?

There's more too, the FIFA is decent (still not buying 15 though) but there have been disappointments in things like Murder: Soul Suspect, the Destiny beta (which my sadly deleted/not saved post was all about) which I was hoping for more from.

Prices don't help, I have probably missed a couple of good ones, but at 50+ quid a game (in GAME, please see Amazon for more realistic prices) you're not going to take a punt on some are you? 360 prices started high and then as games got older they fell, this better happen here or I'll not be happy.

Equally, while I didn't shell out the full price for my console and Kinect (gotta love a voucher code), not long after I bought it, the price dropped, then dropped again (with less hardware) which pissed me off. Microsoft largely ignored the shouts of early adopters objecting to this or requesting some kind of freebie to make up for it and just cracked on. Not the greatest at PR!

There's also a shockingly large amount of remakes of 360 (and equivalent) titles. Both Metro games are coming back out (which I kind of want), all the Halo games (which I kind of want), GTA 5. Write some new stuff!

There are games in the pipeline I want (apart from the Metro pack) such as Destiny (still), Far Cry 4, Fallout 4, so it will get better, but most of these are months away, so my big black VCR-a-like (which I think is a good look) will probably get dustier before it gets busier.

The whole snap thing was shite too Nice touch I can watch TV while playing, up for that, however having to have the xbox on whenever you want to watch TV. Stuff that, ad a deal with Scottish Power did they?

Now I mentioned Destiny above, I can't be arsed writing my previous post again, but in a shortened form, it played like a very good FPS. But I was expecting more somehow, maybe once I get into the story in the full release it'll be all good, but it didn't really feel much apart from Call of Duty, which I stopped buying 2 or 3 years ago.

I don't regret the purchase and I remain optimistic long term, but so far this generation has been a bit of a disappointment. Onwards and upwards though.

Batman (Part 4)

So the Dark Knight Rises has been seen and verified as awesome! No matter where the Batman film franchise goes from here, it's safe to say there are 3 more cracking films to go with the 80s/90s ones. Tom Hardy was as good a Bane as he was a Shinzon (cracking) and bar a few suspensions in belief and one cheesy bit, the film was really good, but you know that as by now you would have seen it too. You haven't? What's wrong with you, get down the cinema. Don't make me come over there...

Anyway, as I said this final post in a stupidly over long series of posts is to do with the aspect of the Batman stuff I've probably spent the most time with, games!

I can only comment on the ones I've owned/played obviously so here we go, I'll start on... SNES!

Batman Returns: It's 1993 and 16 bits rule the gaming world! Movie tie ins were frequent and shitty, but this film was great, could the game be? They took Final Fight (a classic) gave it a Batman skin and a driving stage and voila, awesome game! Good work guys!

It controlled well, looked and sounded good and was fun to play. Can't ask for much more than that! Quite fancy getting it again for my SNES now...

Batman Forever: OK, the film wasn't as good, but use essentially an updated of the game and it'll be ok, surely! Well not quite, this game was more based graphically and by the way it controls on Mortal Kombat and could be a dark, cryptic pain in the arse at times. Still looked ok, but didn't play anywhere near as well.

You'd not quite know where you could walk, enemies would seemingly take a week to put down. Not good at all, a waste after the last game. There was a Batman & Robin game, but I can only imagine the shit that was, I never had a ps1 so never played it.

I had a bit of a gap then, I did play the PS2 Batman Begins briefly and it didn't seem great although not a total write off, nut I never got going on it. Then the games and film went their own ways and we were presented with:

Batman: Arkham Asylum: Mark Hamill is an awesome Joker voice isn't he? And this is an awesome game! Giving Batman an almost open world set up to roam and complete missions in, good, giving him loads of gadgets, doing well, big selection of enemies (Ivy, Joker, Scarecrow, Croc, Bane, Riddler etc) outstanding, the Scarecrow levels being possibly the best thing I've ever played, bonza! I could carry on, for days!

Graphics were good, sound was good, voice acting was superb, the hidden puzzles hard but achievable, that's what I'm talking about! There's something quite satisfying about silently clearing a room of armed 'goons' so they never knew what hit them. 

If you wanted to pick holes, the difficulty wasn't always steady, Croc was a piece of piss for example, and the combat could be got by on through a bit of button mashing, as opposed to learning the various tricks that are available, but some would say in that way the game is what you make it.

Not played this? For shame, get on with it, and get the 3d version. Bound to be cheap by now.

Then there was:

Batman: Arkham City: I know, lets take Arkham Asylum, work of art as it is and ramp it up so it's bigger, more headline bad guys, more puzzles, more gadgets etc... ummmm ok then!

Arkham City is essentially the same as Asylum only bigger and better. The plot is superbly written, there's so much to do (maybe too much with the riddler trophies). I'm sure I've gone on about it before so I won't overly extend this blog.

Some of the same moans exist, the fighting is similar in particular. You get variable characters, this time you get to play as Bruce Wayne (yes I know), Batman, Catwoman and (in an expansion) Robin in the main story. This then becomes the exception that proves the rule that Robin spoils everything.

Going forward? There are cliffhangers in Arkham City so a 3rd game is inevitable, I for one welcome it as it'll be awesome. Just hope it's not next gen though, I'm not keen on shelling out for new hardware. 

Anyway, lets leave it there, no more Batman I promise!

Games

Now I have a fairly decent size xbox games collection. By no means is it huge but there's a good few titles in there, maybe 40 or so? However of late I find myself struggling to really find anything I can be arsed playing. I mean I have driving games, sports games, kinect games, sandbox games, role playing games and shooting games (oh so many bastard shooting games).

I have games that are considered amazing, for example I've been trying to play Skyrim, which I'm assured by everyone is amazing and immersive and one of the best there is. Personally I have just killed a giant spider and then continually die on the next bit, doing the same section over and over again isn't interesting and I didn't want to play it any more.

Yes, this is down to me being shit at it I accept, but I enjoy other things I'm shit at, football, playing the piano lack of ability is no boundary there, Skyrim (like Fallout before it until I had some kind of epiphany and suddenly loved it) not happening mate, someone else can save your kingdom, or whatever else the fuck is going on.

But not just picking on Skyrim, games as a rule are very generic, there's so many FPS games, all produced just because Call of Duty sells, I'm sure they make up 60% of the software base. I just someone would release something new and good. Deadly Premonition would've been ideal but it's a bitch to control and looks like hell.

Minecraft is my salvation at the moment, I enjoy a bit of minecraft, maybe I'll do a blog just about minecraft soon. Maybe.

RIP Game?

Or at least game as we know it now?

I've never really liked game, over the time they've employed enough dodgy practises and sales techniques that I dislike to push them into 'only if I have too' territory. E.g. going to supermarkets and buying their special offers to then sell on in their own store, apparently to give the customers 'choice', I'm pretty sure the customers would rather pay the lower price to be honest...

Buying competitors instead of competing with them, in essence they turned gamestation into a game with a different colour scheme. But left the occasionally questionable for public music.

They're also great users of the sell you extra stuff at checkout and send staff to ambush you in the aisles to offer 'assistance', both piss me off. One visit to the Merthyr Tydfil Retail Park Game resulted in every member of staff bar one in the store approaching me, not a big store. When the last one asked, 'anything in particular you're looking for?' I just shook my head and left.

They can't compete with larger stores (supermarkets, argos etc) on prices and that's not shocking due to the buying power they have. But then mostly miss the chance to offer a specialist service that the supermarket couldn't. Game staff are a split between people who generally think they know all there is to know, and some of them get ratty when you contradict them, e.g. one of them was blabbing about Gears of War and how it was an 360 exclusive, a pointless sale attempt as I had it already! But playing along I pointed out it's not, there's also a windows version at which point I  was told in a nicer worded manner, don't be so daft, I work in game so I know. So I wandered over to the PC section, picked it up and showed him...

While some are clueless and they've taken the job as 'shop assistant' and didn't mind where it was. Which is fine, but I do find it quite amusing when they go into pre rehearsed slightly awkward sales patter about games they'll never play.

I've heard them sell over age games to parents of kids as 'all his friends will have it', I've heard them loudly bad mouth other stores, games companies etc loudly in store (Unsurprisingly EA was the latest I heard last weekend where the checkout staff proclaimed, 'No EA are just greedy'. Nothing to do with you're credit rating then and maybe EA realising they may not get paid here? Dick. What's the line now 'EA, Activision, Nintendo, Microsoft, yeah they're all just greedy'?)

They've given me crap deals on trade ins to then resell them at (one extreme) ten times the value. Blockbuster, HMV or CEX are the place to trade.

But they're not all bad, they did have reasonable special offers on times, and I must admit to visiting their 'let's pay the rent' fire sale that's currently going on and when they have an admin stock clearance I'll visit again. Some of the staff are ok, annoying, but that's following orders, plus I'd never wish anyone to lose their job regardless of skill level at it, but administration is looking inevitable.

But going forward, it may become a better shop as a result, Walmart apparently fancy it, with ASDA buying power, it may well be able to complete with the other supermarkets and give itself a chance, even though the ASDA preowned section is rubbish!

I'll miss Game in a way, it was a good place to look at what was out before going to Tesco to get it a fiver cheaper!

I Am Alive

Many many issues ago GamesTM, a respected games magazine wrote about a game called I Am Alive. Supposedly a big upcoming release, they devoted pages to it, screenshots, interviews, praise, much time was spent and hope was placed on the game. I read it, I looked at the pretty pictures, I liked the idea and I thought, 'Oh yes, it will be mine'

Then it vanished, seemingly cut, gamesTM pick another winner!

Some time later I read something online that vaguely mentions the existence of the game, so hope starts all over again, it turns out that the project had changed development companies and had trimmed itself down to be an XBLA/PSN game, so as a result would at least be cheaper, but with obviously less content.

So this got me thinking, is it worth it? What of the content has been forever lost, what else will suffer? Graphics? I'll chances are now cost a £10 (1200msp?) so it still may be worth a punt but I'm not convinced. Saints Row The Third is very enjoyable at the moment and it wouldn't really manage to get ahead of that anyway.

The game itself seems quite interesting (explaining why I was interested) in that you wander round a smashed up city trying to stay alive and help others. It'd be nice to play a game where you haven't got to shoot EVERYONE for a change.

There are a few big/interesting releases due soon though, FIFA street plays really well in the demo, I like it and that's out next Friday I think. Mass Effect 3 (which I have 0 interest in I'll be honest, so that one is just big) is out this Friday. Silent Hill HD collection is out on the 20th in North America but not quite sure over here, plus Downpour is due soon after. Plus there's always the kinect lightsaber game... I hope that's not awful I really do. Something deep inside is telling me it's going to be more Star Wars milking shit that dirties the good name of the series further so George Lucas can have an another solid gold toilet seat. Just wait til I start about re-releasing the films in 3D - JUST WAIT.

I don't know, I'll watch some gameplay videos and stuff now and make my mind up based on that. If Downpour is as poor as Homecoming I'd rather rent it anyway. Lovefilm, you are awesome!

Oh yeah my XBOX Live Gold is up soon, and not having a previously classic but now tired film series to exploit, I need a cheap place to get a sub, anyone know anywhere? Let me know!

Rise of Nightmares

My Kinect hasn't been the best of investments so far, if I'd paid anywhere near full what for it I'd be borderline livid, but I did get it on the cheap and I do very much like Kinect Sports. However apart from that software is well sketchy and if anything a bit... young (or a bit Wii-like even).

When I heard about Rise of Nightmares I was quite excited, looked a bit like House of the Dead, seemed quite interesting, uses Kinect. Result. It's been quite a wait for it to turn up and it didn't look all that promising from videos/previews etc and there was no demo (never a good sign), so I rented it yesterday as opposed to buying it, and honestly that seems like a good choice, it's not that I'm not enjoying it... it's just a bit... fiddly.

Combat is good, it picks up on punches, kicks, pipe swings well, but movement less so. A slight move of the shoulders can send you spinning off target. The graphics and voice acting is somewhat lacking and (so far) it's just not very scary, which must be what it was going for.

However, it is quite fun, punching zombies... where else can you do that, as I said the combat is reactive and well done and give them a quick 1-2 and down they go giving a sense of satisfaction. Nothing like kicking a zombie to the ground to make you feel good about yourself.

I've got it for 5 days, by which time I think the story mode will be done, and with no multiplayer and doubtful replay value, I'd say a rental is fair enough. It's not bad at all, it's just not wow.

Worth a go if you're curious though...