Split Second

Played it for only a short while, but quite liked it actually. A very good, fast paced, manic racing game with big visual set pieces built into it. Nice stuff too.

The timing of setting something off is a bit dodgy as you can't really tell the exact second to fire, but it still works very well. Great tech too!

Alpha Protocol

Ok, Started playing yesterday. Wow. One of the most slow paced games I think I've ever played. It begins ok with an action starter that lasts all of 10 mins and then suddenly plummets to a tortoise pace. Lots (lots!) of stuff to read through and information to take in. I think they've basically tried to bring 'information' to the 3rd person action adventure genre with the characters constantly suggesting that you do your homework and read up on everything and anything.

The whole game is a bland mixture of RPG and 3rd person action adventure with neither side coming out very good.

The main new thing they have added is a conversation mechanic that allows you to select the mood of how you speak to people and then they will react accordingly with a knock on effect of how your conversations affect your relationships with other characters. At this early stage, it's not clear exactly what effect this has as no-one does anything different according to whether your professional, suggestive or angry etc.

Overall, the game just seems to be a little mis-concieved to me. The idea of having a major USP based on simple choices as to the mood of conversations and the effect that has on relationships comes very secondary to the mechanics of stealth and combat - neither of which are as polished as many other similar games.

TBF, the game has a lot of depth and you can approach missions in various ways, but it suffers here too as a single mistake using stealth simply defers to shoot-em up action - you can't recover from a simple mistake.

The mechanics aren't great and the player feedback for them isn't very clear either. Just feels like design has made some high level choices without thinking too much about the low level game play. Not sure I'll keep playing for very long tbh. Shame as it looks like it could have been a good game with a bit if fun and better action.

Nier

Well. Talk about your pleasent suprises. Nier is not the game I thought it was and it's not the game it looks like it is. You'd think this was a traditional 60 hour play through hard core RPG. But it isn't - at all.

Nier is actually a hybrid game; part RPG, part 3rd person action adventure. It reminds me a little of Darksiders and a little of older, more traditional JRPG's - remember PS2's summoner? Something like that.

Anyway. The game itself is quite unpolished and certainly doesn't compare to major AAA games (it's no where near as polished as Darksiders). Visually, it's a little old school, yet the architecture of the locations is actually very interesting and appealing.

The game has a way of keeping you come back for more after you think you've had your fill of it. It has a nice back story (with a bit of emotional attatchment), nice characters (really sexy sidekick) and some very nice locations making this worth playing for me.

Unfortunately, some people won't be able to look past the slightly dated graphics and certainly, it takes a while before it really kicks in added to the fact that when seeing its box art and screenshots etc, it looks like a stale old JRPG. But if you can get past those things, there's a very good, interesting game for you to play here.

Mario Galaxy 2

Well, what can I say? Just an amazing game. Has built upon the the sheer brilliance of Galaxy 1 to offer another polished, smooth and fresh game. Adding Yoshi is just great. The levels feel fresh and new and each one plays like a dream.

Can't lavish enough praise on both this and #1.

Only thing I would say is that I miss the world map. Had they just fixed navigation issues - where you couldn't figure out where each galaxy was and therefore spent ages trying to find them - it would have been perfect.

Dead to Rights: Retribution

Bad start - you kick off playing as the dog in a tutorial level where you just run and attack baddies. Nice idea (hero guy is on the floor, almost dead and the dog has to protect him), but badly implimented - it doesn't play that well tbh. The next level doesn't even include the dog so what was the point? Is the dog really that important and that interesting to the game? Not for me.

When you get into it, it has good and bad points. You need to get into your head that ammo is in very short supply and much of the combat is hand to hand, leading to weapons combat (by stealing enemies weapons). I quite like the idea of this, but suprise, suprise, the hand to hand isn't great - infact, it's pretty poor.

Still playing - just.

Clash of the Titans

Been playing for a week or so. At first, feels like a very clumsy game. The graphics are well below par - especially the landscapes. The characters aren't that great either.

Narrative is poorly written (and dull) and the story is stunted by the stop start flow of everything being broken down into chunks (missions) and having book ends with points awarded - similar to Devil May Cry 1. That was ok over 5 years ago, but not now. Really silly thing to do IMO - just stops any flow the game could have.

Once you get past the very low production values (on pretty much all fronts), there is a half decent game trying to get out.

Combat is it's best attribute and apart from being a little too complex, it's a decent enough system and tech.

The two things that kill the game for me though are:

1. VERY low production values - looks like a last gen game.

2. My God it's dull. Dialogue, story - I got bored very quickly just by the game presenting itself in a dull way!

Iron Man 2

Oh. My. God. I am truly shocked at just HOW utter shite this game is. I literally couldn't play it for more than 20 mins.

Iron man is pretty much uncontrollable either walking, flying or fighting. How someone thought the control system was a good one I just don't know.

The cut scenes are well voiced but look awful! The character models are pretty poor and when compared to current gen games, well, they look last gen.

Sega should be fined for releasing this in this state and Microsoft should also be fined for allowing it to pass their quality checks. I haven't got a single good thing to say about this game - and that's quite unusual for me. I know I shouldn't expect a great game from a movie tie in, but this harks back to the 16bit days when they were completely unplayable!

Awful, awful, awful.

Sonic & Sega All-Stars racing

Started playing over the w/e. Too much to go into why Sega can't develop a decent Sonic game. The last one was Sonic Adventure 1 on the Dreamcast!

Anyway. This - unsurprisingly - adds to the dearth of good Sonic games. It's basically a Mario Kart clone (no surprises there then) and you choose from a bunch of characters and drive around racing tracks. Simples.

Visually - the tracks are nice. Some of the cars are cool, most are pretty average. The characters are ok - one or two to get excited about, but not that many tbh.

Playability wise - it's just like every other MK clone out there - offers very little new or original. I've only kept playing for three days in the hopes of finding some secret hidden game play gem amongst the cookie cutter design. No luck so far.

Word of advice to anyone making an MK clone: Play Diddy Kong racing (N64 NOT DS). Play it to death and see a brilliant fusion of the racing and platform genres. Note: NOT the multiplayer - just the SP story mode. It's just fantastic and has never been matched - even by MK itself IMO!

Splinter Cell Conviction

Started playing this last night. Very mixed start tbh. Big Splinter Cell fan from #1. But the series has been steadily getting less playable with each new game.

Very awkward playing the first level - they throw too many mechanics at you in such a short space of time and each one isn't explained properly. It all happens too quickly to take it all in and it's not a fun first level - more stressful as you constantly think you've missed an important piece of information.

The combat is a little too clumsy for my liking. You can't really judge enemy movements very well as their are lots of corners and open doors with AI walking around quite freely - so 90% of the time, you end up being seen and just having a shoot out with them. This would be ok, but shooting doesn't feel great.

The cover system is lacking something (isn't quite solid enough) and the whole thing just falls short for me.

That's a very quick reaction to the first hour - I'll keep going for now to se if it gets better.

Prince of Persia The Forgotten Sands

Just started playing it last night.

It's Prince of Persia in every respect. Plays very similar to 'Sands of Time' on the last gen consoles (its prequel).

No surprises here - which is a dissapointment tbh. Yet another sequel in a long running series where they've not evolved the game in any way. I just don't get this - the perfect way to ruin a franchise - see Tomb Raider.

BTW - am I the only one who actually really enjoyed playing the cel shaded POP? I think I remember reading it wasn't a financial success, but was it really such a poor game? I really liked it. [Shrugs]

Anway - I'm pretty sure I'll get bored of this very quickly as I've played it already seven years ago. We'll see.

South Africa World Cup 2010

Does exactly what it says on the tin. Reproduces the WC very well. Good options at the start (you can play the entire qulaiifying campaign, just the WC etc and nice combinations of all of them).

Game play - it's FIFA 2010 with a few minor tweaks. Plays well.

WC2010 is a perfect fix for any football fan wanting to play with the national teams and the WC tournament. An excellently executed game I have to say.

Battlefield Bad Company 2

Really enjoyed the beginning. I like the mood that they've brought to the game. Gets quite tense. Think the difference between this and COD is that COD goes for trying to emulate a world with life in it - i.e. they put a lot of detail and movement into each scene. Bad company uses tension - I do like any game that invokes an emotional response from me.

I didn't play it for too long in the end - not through any fault of he game. Just have too many other games to play right now.

The one thing I will say is that I'm getting a little bored with FPS's. Nothing really new is being done and they seem to be very similar to each other now; an entire string of linear, scripted sequences.

Need more variety!

Just cause 2

Really liked the first one - although I did play it differently to how you were meant to. I played it more like a running away chasing game. Jumping from vehicle to vehicle running away from the local militia was just so much fun!!

Anyway - just kicked this sequel off last night - about an hour in. It's all a bit linear at the moment as I guess I'm working my way through the tutorial levels. I expect it to open up very soon though.

The grapple hook is pretty cool - took me a few mins to get used to it. Stil not a professional in its use, but I think that'll come.

Really don't like Rico (the player character). His accent sounds really fake - as do they all tbh. And that annoys me. I also don't think he's a very likeable character tbh.

First couple of levels throw you into the middle of mayhem - shoot everyone - blow stuff up. Need a bit more depth to keep me playing tbh.

Story telling is a bit poor - 'lets start with a big bang' formula is fine - but you need to use it properly - this feels just a bit rehash. Story guy - slap on hand from me.

Final Fantasy XIII

Couple of hours in.

Art - detailed & imaginative. Not as beautiful as previous FF's, but very nice nonetheless. The sci-fi fantasy theme is a difficult one to get right tbf & for me - they haven't quite pulled it off.

The linearity is pretty oppressive tbh. It's made worse by the very small real estate that you can walk around in. At the moment, it's all very thin platforms and walkways. Feels very claustraphobic despite there being no ceilings etc - just because there's not a lot of room to move around in.

The camera is pretty awful - swings all over the place and doesn't ettle on a nice view behind the characters. Shame as this is all design errors tbf.

Characters are ok, but dialogue is awful (which is usual for an FF game). Why does everyone in FF games have to look and sound like a teenager with issues? Grates very early on and becomes difficult to listen to very quickly.

Metro 2033

Really nice atmosphere. They've created a very dark and chilling post apocalyptic Moscow - I like it a lot.

The game itself is ok. The shooting isn't great nut not awful.

Few gripes - don't like the weird animals - look too alien. I would have preferred mutated animals tbh. Some very cool tigers, bears, mad dogs etc.

The linearity gets a bit too linear. I know its based on a book, but I wish there was a bit more freedom. This would have been perfect for resource gathering missions - go out into Moscow and find food, items etc to sell. COuld even have got a nice financial eco system where you could buy & sell at different metro stations according to their position and their local resources.

Exteriro sections remind me very much of that scene in Twelve Monkeys where he's outside.

God of War 3. PS3

Nice looking game - graphics are very detailed.

I'm not a huge fan of non controllable predefined cameras tbh. I think they give a feeling of detachment for the player. They make games feel a little 'on rails' and I never feel as though I have the freedom to just look around and appreciate the world.

Although I'm kind of enjoying it, I feel as though I want more out of such a high profile, AAA, tens of millions budget game. At the moment, I can honestly say that I enjoyed Darksiders more than I'm enjoying this. Which is pretty ironic when you consider that Darksiders ripped off about 90% of its mechanics from GOW!

Welcome. Is everybody in? The ceremony is about to begin.

Ok. So a few quick things.

1. Welcome to my blog. Please feel free to post comments as you see fit.
2. I created this blog as I wanted a place to get thoughts out about games as I play them. Often, I can't be bothered to write long expositions and explanations of why I like/dislike a certain mechanic or feature and I hope this blog can give me that - if more than 1 person read it that is!! :)
3. There is no 3.

Enjoy.
:)