Shite yep thats word I use to just sum it up. This was pretty much the first world cup I sort of got into ( mainly cause i wanted to laught at everyone who said England would win) and it will most likely be the last one I watch. So what have I learnt from the last 3 weeks?
Spain like to fallover a lot
The refereeing as been pretty much god awful, In all the matches i watched I seen at least 1 big mistake.
apparantly England aren't very good (shocking!!)
Football is really old (not in a good way)
I want to just speak about that last point, footballs age really shows and maybe it because its the first time i really got into it but well let just say while other sports have been able to improve and get better, football hasn't. In a game of football it now seems that its the players job to fallover alot argue with the ref a lot. I was reading about some improvements that can be made and it should be a no brainer. While debate on things like a sin bin is a well and fine, somthing as simple as goal line technology...., well its shocking that its 2010 and there no way apart from the ref and his assistants to tell if someone scores or not . The game needs to change if its to keep up with other good sports which have changed to make not only the game fair but more enjoyable for the people watching but well I guess thats asking FIFA for to much isn't it.
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So the first day of E3 is over and what have we found out? well not much really. Its really odd but everything thats come out so far has just been really just underwhelming. The new 360 should of been a pretty big moment but again it just feel flat most likely because of the leaks. Either way lets get down to it and talk and the events. first up Microsoft.
Microsoft Press Conference
So yeh turns out Microsoft really want to push Kinect which is no surpise and most of conference featured around bad actors trying to play games.... So right out of the gate Call Of Duty Black ops. For the most part it looks like call of duty with some flight controls nothing really impressive. Then we were told all map packs and dlc will be launch first on the 360 which I couldn't really give a crap because its unlikely I buy this game for console and even more unlikey I pony up the money for the Map packs after they handled the pc version of MW2. So good start.... this is going to be a long fucking day erhhh.
Next up we hear about some big games nothing is shown yet and the word connect is coming up .. a lot. Hideo Kojima comes out and... wait hes talking english? This for me has been the best moment so far. Anyway a trailer for MGS Rising is shown and it looks pretty good, the sword play seems to be dam good. I think i also understand why there is still Soild in the title. From the looks of it i'm guessing this is going to take place while MGS4 is going on, so i'm at this time guessing this is MGS4 raiden mode.
Next up was Gears of War 3 and yep its GOW but with a bit more colour which um yeh. I'm so out of the loop with Gears that I don't really care anymore. Looks nice but its not my kind of game. Peter Molyneux was out next so we all knew what was coming, we get a trailer of Fable 3 which pisses me off as it was the only game I heard about that I wanted to know more about. Fuck the other games and give this a five min demo... After that we hear a new exclusive title coming from Crytek . Nothing was really shown but hey I bet it will look nice. Up next was Halo and man if this would of been halo 3 then i would of been super impressed but its not, its not 2007 and this is not impressive. Halo just seems so dated and uninspiring. omg space battles thats not been done ... oh wait..., again don't care about this game its 2010 not 2007 try be more original Bungie. Now I must warn you this is wear we take a trip to boring.
First up we heard how Kinect going to change how we watch movies, listen to music ect and this was done really well. I could totally see this as being as useful way to use the device. A lot of saying things to camera and moving your hands to control menus ect , good stuff. Next up was Video Kinect I could of got behind this if it wasn't for the shitty acting, I mean it was really bad.... reallllly baddd. either way its video chat so make of that as you will. EPSN, not American , don't care, next. (The Robert Green jib was a low blow.) . Kudo Tsunoda so prepare for showing of games you don't care about.
Kinectimals first and its both absolutely adorable and creepy at the same time, While watching I was getting a Rare vibe but its being made by Frontier studios and looking at there track record this might be a good game. These are the kind of games that can really make the system so good luck to them. Ahh the next game was made by Rare and its... Kinect Sports god dam it. Give Rare somthing better to do ffs, Wheres the VIva pinata Kinect? It looks like a sports game with motion controls so yeah. Joyride next which is a cart racer , control the name with your hand, again there nothing really to say. Kinect Adventures and same thing there not much to say, motion controls and mini games .... Next was a fitness game from Ubisoft and its well a fitness game .... what can I say? it does some intreasting stuff like scans you but tbh just go for a jog... next up was Dance Central which is DDR without the mat. This is painful..... It will prob be ok but really? come on... We then heard about 15 brand new game that will use Kinect including a new sonic game that will most likely suck ass.
LucasArts up next with the big one... STAR WARS Kinect!!!!!! For all the hype this looks crap. Them stupid games you get which connect to your tv look better . still no one is shown playing the game so maybe it be ok. New forza game up which uses Kinect, by far the most impressive game shown that uses it. After that we hear about the New Xbox.
10 to 20% smaller
250GB hard drive
Whisper quiet
Wifi
Same price as current Elites
Out in US this week, Europe July 15 or 17 ( i can't remember)
So thats about it everyone at the event also got a free 360 slim which was nice of them. Even so this Event was not good. Nothing amazing was shown and the biggest thing they had was leaked a day before. Even so I like the new 360 enought that I'm going to most likely get one when its out in the UK. The 250 gig will be nice plus the Wifi which is great. The game that really stood out and at the time I didn't think this but Kinectimals might have been the most impressive game at the event. Even so there wasn't whole lot of games and a most of Kinect games look like there going to be shovelware which is a shame. Maybe after a year we start to see more games like Kinectimals pop up which are the sort of games that can really show what the thing can do. There also no price yet which can't be a good thing so $149 maybe more real then some people think. I said last year that Project Natal was the least impressive of the new motion controls and while I still have yet to see Move I will stand by that statement.
Also lack of orignal titles was sad Gears doesn't look bad but It just isn't for me. Little was shown about Fable 3 so nothing to go on there, Halo just erghh as I said , if there was an award for most dissapointing game then Halo Reach would win. When the showed the trailer last year I was so excited a new halo game which looks to have new gameplay . I thought we were going to see a TF2 style halo with classes and ect. Instead its a game which has taking tiny steps forward in trying to be more modern and instead has failed because of all the new stuff thats coming out. Its trying to say hey guys remember we are the guy the made FPS work on consoles which yeah i guess but many people have done it better then you guys since then. I think disappointing is an easy way to sum up Microsoft Press Conference.
So that about it, it was sad but even more sad was the fact it wasn't the worst Conference of the day, no that goes to Ubisoft.... which to sum that up in 3 words ... Lazer tag, a breathing game and dull. congrats Ubisoft apart from Ghost Recon, Rayman and Brotherhood your Conference was fucking terrible they might of just said they not supporting PC anymore just to put the iceing on the cake. it was so god awful I Won't even recap. EA for the most part failed to really make an impression as well. Hot Pursuit looked pretty cool as did Crysis 2 which really surpised me as I wasn't really impressed with it till now but nothing left a lasting impression but at least there was no lazer tag or shitty actors.
This is just a follow up to my last blog. Last week I brought MW2 which tbh i wouldn't waste my money on now. Anyway i put a review up a couple of days ago and while i spoke highly of the singleplayer I wasn't so happy with the multiplayer. At the end I spoke about the whole rumor that the only reason Iwnet is even around was so they could start charging for map parks. Anyway a few days later what did I see on steam?
So what a surpise... There are a number of reasons why I can say this is wrong from from the game still being to expensive on pc, the Mulitplayer still being uttlery broken. Most of all is the price. Now heres a list of things you can buy from steam right now including weekend deals that are around the same price ....
Call Of Duty 4 Modern Warfare: £9.99 (Weekend Deal)
Trine: £4.25 (dicounted because of" FREE" Content update)
Left For Dead 2: £13.99 (Weekend Deal)
Killing Floor: £14.99
TF2: £13.99
Thats just a small list of games you can buy right now that are worth the price they are. This isn't a shock at all to me, it saddens me but isn't a shock. People keep talking about the stuff Ubisoft is pulling off at this time, well at least there not ripping the customers off. Now again the Aguement that people seem to bring up is don't like it then don't buy it. Thats all well and good but if this effects trying to find a game then yes this is going to effect my play experince. Look at Halo 3 for that example.
I'm not against DLC as long as the content justifies the price, Rockstar done it with GTA well, Bethesda done it with fallout well, and Bioware has done it kind of well with there games but this is great example of not doing it well. I remember a time when maps were released for free, hell Vavle still releases new content for free. I think this is a point PC gamers have to look where companys are taking our platform and we have to say no to bullshit like this. The game was pretty much broken for sole reason of having paid DLC and not only is it disgusting but we shouldn't have to put up with it either. I could go on but in the end I would just be repeating my self so I guess all I have to say is typical Activison...
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Its been a while since I played World of Warcraft but the bit a news came up which just makes me feel dirty for the hours I put into the game.Its been known that Blizzard been expermeanting with what they can get away with in terms of micro payments and for the most part it hasn't really bothered me, the Pandaren Monk didn't really piss me off that much because some of the money they made did go charity (a show of good will that has since stopped and now it all goes right to Blizzard). The plush toy also didn't really bother me because while they were expensive they were kind of cool and I thought ok Blizzard this way of selling in game items works, it makes you look like your not just trying to go for our money ... Then these things came out today.
My first reaction is just why? whats the point. Anyway when the flying mount first popped up on MMO-Champion everyone thought it would be a rare reward from a boss due to the fact it looked very similar to a mount that Lich King drops on i think 25 man hard mode. So to see it here is a very shocking thing. For the most part the mini pets aren't a big deal because most people can get them without pretty to much effort in. Mount like this one on the other sadden me. As I said it look like the mount Lich drops only less dead, that mount is basiclly one of the hardest mounts to get in the game and most people will never get there hands on it (for now at least). It was a reward for hard boss which at this time only a few people in the world have. Now it seems there just going to give stuff away for a price. I just find this a really shitty move for people who put effort into the game and this is just service for all the bitchers and moaners who say the games to hard.
I haven't even gotten into the fact how shady and wrong it is for a company like blizzard to pull this shit off. Lets get somthing straight its not like Warcraft doesn't make money. For a games by smaller devs that don't get the money from subs or are free mmos I can understand why put this kind of stuff up but its not like warcraft is guildwars where there is a one time buy or Small MMOS that don't get the same amout of money bigger ones get. This is warcraft the biggest mmo made by one of the biggest companys in the world. I try to get my head round it and the only reason I think of is the same reason infinity ward fucked up with the PC version of MW2 and that reason is Activison wants money. There no other reason I can think of. The only reason Iwnet is on PC is so Activison can try and charge for map packs on PC and the only reason this shit as started popping up is basiclly the same reason. It really saddens me to see a company I hold I such a high regard stoop to somthing this sad to just milk that little bit of cash you have left in your pocket.
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Its been a while since I made a blog, mainly because bordem of writeing but there a couple of things i wanted to talk about. So the last couple of months I been getting more bored of Warcraft. Running the same instance again and again, same lame bosses ect It really felt like the game has became old, I mean yes its old but its age was really starting to show. Anyway about August I stopped raiding and try to find other things to do and you know whatelse there to do in wow besides raiding? Either PVP or Grind rep ect. I mean there is nothing else to do in that game.
Between then and now I been trying different MMOs. For the most part Champions Online was fun for a while, It has lot of good elements and some fun quest with fairly little grind but there just nothing to do after a while. The most fun you have in that game is making a hero and even then gets old after a while. For the most part its a good game but at the moment I just don't see any long term reason to go back and play.
Then I tried Fallen Earth.. oh christ. Worst game i've played this year. For the most part it has some nice ideas but save your money for the fallout mmo if you really want a MMO in that setting. For one the cost is way to much, the controls weren't great and really it felt like the game should of come out 3 or 4 years ago. its not pretty, the quests were boring as hell and after a while I said to my self why I am I still playing this game. I found it really funny that people were saying if you hate this mmo you should just go play easy mmos like aion or wow. I laught at that statment cause Fallen Earth is about as easy as it comes. I also tryed Eve online again and yeh that was not fun for about 10 mins then I uninstalled it , HOW CAN PEOPLE PLAY THAT GAME!!!!!!
My final game was Star Wars Galaxies which I picked up a while ago feeling sad cause Old Repbulic is still apparanlty a fair way away. I have mixed feeling about Galaxies. The First thing to note this game came out in 2003 and yes its older then wow which supsided me cause I thought it came out after. For the most part its fun, I choose the bounty hunter class ( they need to make a game where you play as a bounty hunter which after thinking this I found out they did and it well kind of sucked. Well they should make another.) Instead of going the old lets choose a jedi and go pwn the universe. For the most part its combat works well , well range anyway, i shot stuff and it died and it was kind of enjoyable but again there was just nothing to keep me playing. I didn't really understand the whole hallowean event so maybe I just picked a bad time to play but that game really confused me even just chatting i found confusing, maybe I go back to after christmas or somthing but for the most part I didn't really have any problems with it. The only sad part about this is that there little chance that Star Wars Galaxies will still be here with in a year, well it was a good six year run for them i guess. All I know now is that I toally wana be a Bounty Hunter when Old Repbulic comes out next year.
Basiclly I came right round full circle to WOW again. I been playing now and again and been in a one or 2 raids since stopping but after a 2 month stop it still didn't feel fun. There a number of reasons , being on one of the worst ranked servers, people stabbing eachother in the back for the dumdest of things, people also moaning about the dumbest of things. A week after my sub ran out i resub cause i remembered the recuit a friend mount was waiting for me so i thought i go pick that up and see how everyone was getting on, low and behold I been kicked from my guild, I wasn't really surpised but what did surpise me was the reason and who did it. I found out from an officer that i told someone I was leaving wow for good and to kick me which was bullshit cause I never said such a thing. What made me even more angry was it was done by a guy i considered a mate. A lot of people had said the guy was a prick and I never really took notice but yeh they were right he was a douchebag. So the moral of that story is if a number of people call a guy an asshole the probs right.
Anyway a little while ago blizzard brought out the fraction trans where you could switch between the two groups so i thought fuck it I will go join the horde and be an orc and you know what, its really brought new life into the game, A lot of stuff just feels new and fun. But in genreal the it feels more mature. I mean don't get me wrong there still bitching here and there but there a lot less. For instance the trade chat on allie would be spammed to hell and back , on the horde it happens a lot less and people are just more friendly. Granted this will most likely change after a while and it is different on which server you on but its been great. So yeh I totally recommened a fraction change if your bored of wow unless your a douchebag then stay the fuck away.
Thats about it I've been playing some other games here and there ( Borderlands is great) and I rght now looking at MW2 and Dragon Age. I don't know why but somthing really put me off about getting it but maybe I get it next year. MW2 is more of a i really wana play the singleplayer and see just how bad the mp is kind of thing. Also picked up Windows 7 and for the most part yeah if a lot better then Vista. That do it for now, there other things I want to talk about but this is getting to long so I leave it for another time.
The last week hasn't been great and quite frankly been rather sucky. So to start things off lets talk about blizz and why they even have a support team. Anyway just over a week ago blizzard brought out an update for the mobile authenticator and it fucked everything up and was taking down but not taking down quickly enought, So like a lot of people I got locked out of my Battlenet account. So that weekend the guys at blizz basiclly said not our problem wait till monday locking everyone out who downloaded the app till monday. Luckly my sub ran out on the saturday for my warcraft account so it wasn't a big deal. Now fast forward to Monday night, most people reported that when contacting the billing support team to fill out a web fourm so i done that. Now fast forward to Wednesday, Blizz contact me and tell the problem been solved so I log on to my account page and guess what its not fixed and its still not fixed. I sent another fourm that night and they still have not got back to me so end up sending another one Monday night if they still haven't got back to me.
So the morale of the story is not to use the moblie authenticator (thing has been a pain). Even so it makes me angry its been a week now and the problem is still not sorted. What makes me even more angry is how the problem got fixed when it didn't. the lack of weekend support it such a big pain in the arse thought. I mean my dad sat nav went up the shoot , sent an email to the support team saturday and they got back to him today. It makes me wonder where the money I give these guys goes to. The only good thing is that the account ran out so at least i'm not paying them while not playing. I think this is most likely the nail on the coffin for my wow account now. I only heard about the tales of the bad support blizzard has but man its fucking shite.
Carrying on I got GTA 4 for the PC yesterday and wow if there a reason games shouldn't be ported then GTA is that reason. First of the graphics settings are messed up, I'm actully one of the luckly ones who can get it running at a fairly high setting but even then i don't know anyone who can run it full settings. I mean why is it such a system hogg? WHY IS IT 14GB? I now its a big city but 14 gigs jesus. But the mulitliplayer, I thought this would be the big selling point. The mp on the PS3 and 360 were pretty bad imo simply because people are dickheads. I thought it might be better cause well PC gamers are more mature then your average 360 or PS3 gamer but fucking hell its worse. Still seems to be many dickheads as there were in the other versions but its made 100 times worse cause of people cheating and hacking, adding on the fact that people still use freeroam as a DM its pointless. I really dislike useing the a keyboard and mouse maybe I need to get used to it I don't know. Even so the biggest selling point of GTA4 is still here fairly intact which is its story and you know what playing it again isn't that bad (who knows i may fin it this time). But even then you don't get the same feel playing it on a PC then playing it infront of a big screen tv.
Even so I have played some good stuff this week, I got into the jap version of the new Pokemon game Soul Silver, i have'nt played enought of it yet but going from the hour its the best pokemon game they made yet which isn't really surpiseing considering that gold and silver were the best pokemon game ever made. I wana get more into the game yet but early on I wish this game was coming out in english this year but it Def but up for GOTY in 2010 (wow thats a long way away). Also played scibblenauts and again another great game i recommened. Anyway I be going back into champions online in a bit which is also a very good game it has it problems like all MMOS but even so its been worth the money so far. Well I'm done going to wait for my interent to speed up so i can actully play so games or fall asleep, whichever comes first.
So on Saturday I picked up Batman Arkham Asylum and well yeh. Maybe i'm the only person in the world who things this but has anyone actully found it as good as the reviews say it is. I mean don't get me wrong , its not a bad game at all but calling it best superhero game or game of 09? For me Batman was a average kind of superhero game just a little bit above the Wolverine game that came out early in the year.
The Combat is good but then again its basic there nothing amazing about it , its what you would expect. Boss fights are pretty bad, they use the titan mutants about 4 or 5 times and Bane is no different to them, Finally the last fight doesn't really bring that kind of epic final boss feel. Killer Croc was by far the most fun even thought it wasn't really a fight, more like run for life. But even then some villans don't even equal to a fight in the end. Scarecrow levels were great and they just come out of no where the way that was done was really good but then nothing really becomes of it in the end and epic fight between him and yourself never happens. The same goes for Harley Quinn, It a cutscreen of batman pretty much one shotting her and its over.
The voice acting on the other hand i give a big thumbs up for, obscure people like guard 1 or 10 you meet isn't really all the that impressive the Villans and Batman are great. Also if you ever wondered why The Joker is such a big villan as he is play this game , he is a a totally nutcase. dialog between him and Batman is really good. The Riddler (note you never actully meet in person ,sigh ) also has some pretty epic lines of dialog.
I think I most of clocked about 5 or 6 hours when i beat the game so it wasn't a long game and it does have it problems, Imo if your thinking about buying it then rent it first , you most likely be able to fin it in that time also. I might do a review for it at some point but for know this is what i think of Batman Arkham Asylum
I woke up about an hour ago and watched a couple of the new trailers that gone up and yeh everything that was shown at the Microsoft event looked pretty impressive. The Crackdown 2 trailer looked great and I really wana know if it was in game cinamatic or CG. While I still have yet to watch some of the other trailers I can't wait for forza 3 and i heard Alan Wake looks good to , we got a release date to boot. I really wana know more about Halo reach and MGS Rising, thought i'm finding it odd its called Metal Gear Soild and not just Metal Gear. Its most likely that Snake will be involved with the story in one way shape or form. . I'm still expecting Metal Gear remake or at least something between Metal Gear Soild 3 and Metal Gear story at some point due to the Big Boss thing.
But I wan't to to talk about Left 4 Dead 2 and yeh when I first heard about it I was like great but after watching the trailer and some gameplay footage I'm totally not impressed anymore. It looks like Left 4 Dead a game that yes while the core gameplay was good the content was pretty piss poor. Now there releaseing a brand new game with get this ? 5 CAMPAINS !!!! thats 1 more then last good fucking job valve you be able to put 1 more campain then last time. Ive always belived a lot of people gave Left 4 Dead an easy ride cause hey its Valve you know the guys that seem to care about making there games but how can anyone defend this move. I mean how can someone go oh look another tomb raider game or look another need for speed , they keep churing them out when L4D is'nt even a year old, hell its only just over half a year. Even then it looks more like a content update! you know the thing people been asking about so they can actully have more to what was very little in the first.
Right now I'm more angry about the fact it seems there done with L4D which yeh it might not be the case and they may have a whole heap of content planned out for the coming months. But even then come on, people who seen the gameplay know that this looks no different to the first, I mean NO DIFFERENT and if another person goes oh well its in Day light now i'm really going to have to punch them in the face. Its early days yet and i'n praying for them to say that they have a ton of content coming out or hey guess what people who brought L4D will get the second at a major discount but at the moment my hopes aren't that high. Like a ton of people of said , this just doesn't seem like the Vavle we know and love and my rage has now turned out to sadness :(. brb gona go cut my wrists.
so yeh apprantly Sackboy is living in my house at the moment. If you did'nt know the guys who made LBP had a competition to win one of these little guys. All you had to do was be one of the first 5000 to subscribe to there youtube channel and send them a email with your details. It was as easy as that and It also seemed that not many people new about this so they weren't gone with in like a day which is how fast i expect these things to go because there actully pretty well made to boot.
Guess I have to thank a couple of people who made a post about it on the fourm about 2 weeks ago or I would of never heard about this at all. I should think there still sending these things, I would of thought i been at the end or end of the line of the 5000 so i think there going to probs gona be a couple more batches to send out yet. So if you still haven't got one yet it might just be on its way.
Also the fable 2 DLC that came out this week is duff but I wana keep this all about sackboy for now so I talk about that another time. So see you next time :) .
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