Heya, I've got a couple of new games over the weekend, and I'm lovin' both. Prince of Persia, and Valkyria Chronicles. I didn't pick up Mirror's Edge or Tomb Raider because the price was too high, and I didn't have enough cash. Let's start off with the one I'm playing the most.
Prince of Persia, I remember first getting Sands of Time, I never got past the fight with his father, I guess I wasnt skilled enough to get through it, and I just lost interest after that, but from what I remember, I loved the stuff I played. Warrior within didn't captivate me at all at the time, it was too dark for my tastes back then, same with two thrones. This time around, I'm  really into the game, I freakin love the art style! The Anvil Engine(that's what it says on the site, I thought it was called Scimtar) is probably my new favourite engine because of the huge vistas and beautiful veiws it produces. I love just standing at the highest point in a level, just staring at the fully healed land.
Watching the land transform from dark, gritty and corrupted, to colourful, vibrant and full of life is nothing short of astounding. There's no doubt that PoP is one of the most beautiful games of the year. Though levels lose their challenge once the land is healed, it's still fun to run through the level, gathering light seeds, which are pretty much the only reason to go back through the levels. The fights are highly entertaining, mostly because they look so pretty and stylish. My only gripe is the fights with the warrior, because in order to beat him you have to get him to a ledge or corner, and initiate a button mashing sqeuence, but unlike the other bossfights' button mashing events, this one requires you to mash at the speed of light. Which, for one, hurts my finger or thumb, and two, is really frustrating because I suck at tapping buttons really fast. That's really my only gripe with the game, otherwise, I'm happy with everything. The game is short though, I've only got to beat the warrior, then I've healed all the lands, I got this far in just a couple of days. So unless you really have a reason to play through the game again(unlocking powers in a different order perhaps?) this would most likely be a rent only.

Valkyria Chronicles, I wasn't going to pick this up until some time in january, but it's low price won me over. I really enjoyed the demo, so I picked it up. So far, its tough, really tough, one thing I wish I was able to do is restart a battle from atleast halfway through the level, because sometimes I'd just get so close to winning, then my tank blows up, or someone dies, then I lose the game. But that just means I have to plan ahead and think it through. I've never enjoyed a strategy game as much as Valkyria Chronicles, the story is interesting, and it sucks you in, it makes you want to know the characters more. I absolutely love the leveling system, the way you only level up a whole class, and not individual characters, this gets rid of all the micromanagement I hated in other JRPGs. This comes in handy, since once a character dies, and isnt evacuated or is touched by an enemy, they die and you won't be able to select them, ever again. So it would be a real bummer if you're majorly leveled up character just happens to die, and no one is able to get to him before its too late. Same as PoP, this game is freakin beautiful too, I love the art direction, and going from Command Veiw to controlling a character never gets old.

Valkyria is also alot longer than PoP, I'm about 7 hours in, and I've barely finished chapter 5(I think). So it is worth a buy if you're on the fence.
Other stuff I've done over the weekend was that I got a new Headset, and its way more comfortable than my old one, and it has noise filtering, and it actually picks up my voice instead of just my breath!
The guy at the game shop said that he'd have PSN cards sometime this week, so next time I go I'll get some, and I'll be able to get Ratchet & Clank Quest for Booty, and maybe even WIpeout HD. If you've got any PSN suggestions please post them.
Other than that, there really hasn't been much going on. I've got a holiday until the 5th of January, but I've got a week and a half of exams then. So my holiday is kinda ruined :P. So until my next blog post, happy holidays! :D

Hey guys, just in for a quick update, I finished LBP's story mode the other night, but I've still got a load of stuff to collect still, but I am working on my level, I'm taking my time, I want this first attempt to be atleast halfway decent. I also finished Resistance 2 yesterday, I love how it ended, I'm not going to post any spoilers, so if you want me to say what happened, then just PM me. It was a shocker of an ending, though it fell a bit flat, imo, compared to the second-to-last cutscene, but it's great nontheless. I'm playing Dead Space in small chunks, I just can't get myself to keep playing it, it's just too scary for me.
I'm hoping to trade in GRID, Soul Calibur 4, and RSV2 this weekend, I want to play Mirror's Edge, Tomb Raider and Prince of Persia.
Last week, I bashed my toe while playing Handball in school. I ran to catch the ball, and my toe hit the heel of the dude in front of me, real hard. He didn't even feel it, and I got stuck with a purple toe for 3 days. It's not purple anymore, but it still hurts if I put too much pressure on it.  This week has been pretty relaxed in terms of homework, all we're doing now is past paper questions, and revision, though I should get started, I just can't be assed to get up and study.
That's pretty much it, nothing else is on my mind, so until the next time something blog-worthy pops into my head, thanks for reading.

Fun in video games, how subjective is it?
First of all, what exactly is fun? A dictionary definition would be:
–noun

I guess that goes the same for games in general. But something you might enjoy greatly, someone else might absolutely hate, this shows that fun is entirely depending on you, an

d not the multitude of other sites’ opinions on games. Now I might pick on WoW a bit for this blog, but I think it’s a good example on how different someone’s opinion of fun is. I played WoW a few years ago, I got really into it at the start, but then, as my friends who were once the same level as me, suddenly, in the space of one week, jump to level 40 or 50 while I’m still getting annoying fetch quests at level 14 was a little more than discouraging. But then, as the “go there, kill that, come back” quests started piling up. I found myself walking in one straight line for more than 30 minutes at times,  just to get ambushed by something more powerful than me, and then having to run all the way back to my corpse from the grave-which could be a good 10-15 minute walk sometimes-only to die again, straight after I respawn. I just had enough, and I quit playing, and never looked back. To me, the game just wasn’t fun. But my friend from school, he’s a pretty hardcore WoW player, and he doesn’t play anything else, sometimes we constantly argue over which is more fun, he claims WoW is the best game ever, I disagree. It may be fun for some, but it just isn’t for me.

Other games that come to mind, are Assassin’s Creed and possibly Mirror’s Edge, these two games are loved by some, and hated by others. I can’t say much about Mirror’s Edge since I haven’t played it yet, but the mixed reviews seem to point to the fact that it’s got the community split. The same goes for Assassin’s Creed, which was a good game, bu

t it was a flawed game, too much repetition just killed it.

I could say the same for horror games, I don’t really like horror games that much, and it’s only the odd few that I really enjoy, even though they do scare the shit out of me sometimes. For example, DeadSpace may be one of the creepiest games I’ve ever played, but only because it’s one of the few I have played. Someone else might enjoy all the other horror games, like Siren, or Silent Hill, but I probably won’t go near those games, and if I do, I’d only play upto a certain point, where I’d get stuck, and just forget about the

game after that. They’re more stressful than fun to me, and I’d rather play a game I’d enjoy, and not one that would give me nightmares, or cause me to swear at the tv screen because of some cheap death.

I could go on, since it applies to practically every genre, but  I guess that’s the end of this little idea that was on my mind the past few days.

Now, onto some of  the games I’ve played recently, I went to my friend’s house over the weekend,  and we played some COD:W@W, I’m surprised to say it’s pretty fun, and though the flamethrower pretty much breaks the game because it makes it so easy, the game is sharp and fluid. I also got to play some of the first Gears, and it felt okay, I guess, I didn’t get to play for long though, so I can’t really say. He said that his 360 broke his Halo 3 disc, and when I looked at the back of the CD, there was a very visible ring there, I couldn’t resist saying “Halo got a halo!” he didn’t get it at first, though I had to explain to him what a halo was. I also borrowed Fallout 3, but it was the PC version, and I had to play it on the lowest settings, I’m surprised to say that I’m enjoying the game. Though the combat is weak, and the guns lack any real feeling of power, it’s still pretty fun.

Since I’m running a bit tight on cash, I decided that next time I go to the shops, I’m going  to trade in GRiD, SCIV, R6V2, and maybe GTAIV for Mirror’s Edge, Tomb Raider, Prince of Persia, and the Sony Bluetooth Headset. What do you think?

I guess that’s it for now, it took me an extra couple days to write this blog, because I’ve got tests to start studying for, and I’ve been getting loads of homework lately. Until next time, and thanks for reading.

Those two games have been the ones I've been playing the most, over the last few days, plus a little Deadspace aswell. As of now, Deadspace is really the only game that ever made me scream, out of pure fear. Really. Usually I'd just jump, or go "OH SHIT!" but never scream. I did finish chapter six though, and all I've got so say is, that the Leviathan is one impressive boss, even though it was pretty easy, but it's just friggin HUGE! Anyway, back on topic!

Both games have their faire share of ups and downs, and both have some frustratingly annoying sections, and both have their shining moments of pure fun. I'll start with the bad, then move on to the good.
My only gripes with Resistance, is that sometimes, it just throws increasingly tough enemies at you, without giving you enough ammo, or a adequate cover! I'm at one point in the lever after The Chimaeran Battleship, where I'm suddenly thrown against THREE goliaths, all at the same time! I can't hide behind the cars-which are everywhere-because they'll explode and kill me, I can't run very far because I've got three huge guns pointed at me, and only me, and my teammates aren't really helping. Another is the story, it just doesn't make sense, who the hell is Warner? Am I supposed to care about these characters? Why the hell am I following orders from someone who supposedly is my teammate, but I dont know him at all? And what happened in those two years where Nathan is knocked out? It's a great game, but it does fall flat on its face when it comes to storytelling, something I thought would be just fine, because the first resistance, and the ratchet & clank series all had good stories, what the hell happened here?

Onto LittleBigPlanet, my only gripe is that sometimes, you get so close to the end of a level, and you mistime a jump or a move, and end up dieing, die enough times because of these stupid mistakes, and a few badly placed checkpoints, and you'll find yourself restarting a level more than a few times, which can get old after a while, and for someone who just wants to be able to make a freakin working mechanism to work easily in the editor, it's pretty annoying how it can be a pain, mainly due to some of the horrible camera angles that you might get. Though  I did lose 4 hours, just tinkering with the editor, I completely lost track of time, while working on my level, I lost 4 hours, and I barely even finished the beginning of the level! My experience with multiplayer, has been, well, laggy. Something I wasn't expecting because I was expecting their servers to be better, since Sony's dedicated servers are usually lag-free. Though it could've just been my slow-ass connection on that particular day, I'll try again later on.

Well there you have it, I had my little rant, and gave my impressions, any questions, either PM me or comment, and I'll answer.

I picked up LBP and R2 Thursday night, I was going to get the Sony Headset but I didn't have enough cash. So far I'm really enjoying both games, and I'm lucky I haven't gotten much homework for the weekend.
Now today, a good friend of mine came over to play these games, we played a few levels in LBP, and then I let him play a new game of DeadSpace. I was just sitting back and watching him play, and sometimes I'd just go "BAH!" at him just to see if he jumps. So he starts saying "I don't feel very immersed into this game, its not even scary..." and just at that moment, a "dead" necromorph jumps out at him and makes us both jump. A few minutes later, I was just about to shout "BAH!" at him again, when one of them jumps out from the corner and attacks, I jumped and fell off my seat and screamed, he jumps and punches the air as if it was going to jump out of the screen. It was a really cheap scare, and a priceless moment of pure comedy. We were laughing so much after that, it had me in stitches XD. Why is it that you never have a camera around when things like this happen?

Anyways, R2 is a blast to play online, but  the singleplayer story is a bit confusing, who-or what-exactly is Daedalus? I've never heard of it before, and what happened in those two years? I've run into a couple of glitched chimarea, one was just standing there, waiting to be shot, another was with one of those, I think they're called Overseers-the ones with the huge missile launchers-who was just walking round in circles and wouldnt die. But it's okay, the game is challenging, but it does have loads of cheap-one-hit-kill deaths(I'm lookin at you chamaelons!) Overall I'm enjoying it, the weapons are really cool, and the enemies are smart, and will try to flank you, and use cover effectevely.

I won a bet on thursday too, I was at the gym, and my trainer says "I'll give you 10 bucks if you can run non-stop for 15 minutes on the treadmill" I said, "Bring it on!" note that I've never been able to run for that long before, but I managed to do it. It was a shame he didn't have any money on him that day, that doesn't mean I'll forget though. :D Anyways that's about it for today, until next time!

I finished Bioshock last night, the ending was okay, I guess. I think I'm the only one who stayed away from all the spoilers and didn't know the ending. I played through the game being the "good" guy and saved all the little sisters. I might play through it again sometime later on, just to see the other ending. But now I need to devote all my gaming time to Dead Space, because as soon as I'm done with that, I'm moving on to new games, hopefully Resistance 2, LBP and Mirror's Edge.

Not much has been happening since my last blog post, school is just normal, and I've been sick all week because of the sudden weather change. One day it was 30 degrees and sunny, the next day temperature drops to 18 and it's raining. That was a bit of a shock to my system. I know you've probably seen a million other impressions of the Mirror's Edge demo, and I'll just say that DICE is now one of my favourite developers and that I'm buying this game no matter what. But I will write about Valkeira Chronicles, since that demo hit, no one has really been talking about it. Overall it's a good tactical RPG/Shooter hybrid, and it's worth checking out if you're into that sort of game.

I saw DeadSpace:Downfall the other night, and it's interesting to see some backstory, on how they discovered the marker, and how the necromorphs got into the ship in the first place. It's a nice animated movie, though its still guresome. So far I'm about 6 hours into the game, and I'm at the Hydroponics level. I have a feeling I'm in for a huge bossfight.
I guess there isnt much else to talk about really, if anything does come to mind, I will post it next time.

Well, since my weekend is now over, and I can't find the time to pick up DeadSpace during the week, so while all the ideas I had are still floating about in my mind, I thought I'd compile a list of all the things that had run through my mind while playing. I got up to the end of chapter 4, and so far, it's been a wild ride! I'll list the main things, and I'll talk about them under.

The Story:
You are Issac Clarke, you're part of a 5-man team that is on a mission to find out why the USG Ishimura has lost all communication. It starts off with your crew crashing into the landing bay of the Ishimura, all is quiet, no one is around, and then, well, I'll leave the rest up to you to find out. But you're hooked onto the story from the start, and it's seeming to be one hell of a story. The setting, the atmosphere, it's all there, so the narrative must be there, right? I'm still unsure, since I haven't got that far into the game.

The Gameplay:
From what I've played, the controls-apart from one annoying section-are tuned to near perfection, it's so smooth, and the camera never really gets in the way, you've always got a veiw of what's in front of you. Shooting works perfectly, and so does walking/running, nothing really gets in the way, you're sucked in and it's a hard game to put down. Tactical dismemberment works perfectly here, and everything, especially the "ingame" HUD and menus work nicely, and don't feel out of place. I absolutely loved the Zero-G and Vaccum sections, Zero-G, is very well implemented, and the physics in the game is astounding, the way the blood just floats about in space, and how the bodies are animated, it's awesome. Vaccums, well, they're eerie, and they're quiet, ALL noise is sucked out, and all you hear is Issac struggling to breath in the hostile environment.

The Scares:
You want Action Survival Horror? This is the perfect game for you, it's guresome, it's bloody, and it's badass! Now I'm not one to play horror games, and I would've skipped DeadSpace if it weren't for the fact that LittleBigPlanet was delayed, so I caved and bought this instead. Every necromorph that popped out at me, I jumped, I was dreading every corner, and some of the monsters really freaked me out(mutated zombie babies anyone?) it's the stuff of nightmares. They move realisticly, and I imagine it was a pain to animate all the possible movements of the monsters, though it's really well done. This game is probably the most horrifying game I have ever played, I dread what comes next, yet I can't seem to put it down.

The Sound:
Well, everything sounds the way it should sound, in vaccums, you hear no music at all, and it's not always a dead giveaway that something is about to attack you, the music starts blaring just as soon as a monster appears, and not just before, well, not always though. Everything sounds right. Too bad I don't have surround soud though, it wouldve been that much more immersive.

The Graphics:
The game looks astounding, everything is sharp, and the framerate is buttery smooth. This is one horrifyingly beautiful game.

Conclusion:
If you're into Horror games, this one deserves to be in your permanent collection, if you aren't a horror fan, you should at least rent this stellar game. Also, the whole experience is that much more immersive if you use a Dualshock 3 controller if you're playing the PS3 version. Overall, I really want to finish this game, and I can't wait to see what it has in store. Full reveiw hopefully coming soon!
Lookin forward to reading some comments on what you think!

I went to the store, expecting to get Bioshock, FarCry 2, LBP, and a new DS3. I thought they hadn't recalled LBP here, but I was wrong, so I caved and got DeadSpace and Bioshock instead, the guy said he'd call me when they got FarCry, which he said would either be Satuarday, or Friday. So, I managed to snag 2 games and a DS3 for a discounted price, and he said he'd buy my useless Xbox games off me when I come back next time. I booted up Deadspace, and noticed that EA stuck a couple of demos on the disc, BF:Bad Company, and Burnout, pretty useless to me now, since I have both, but I think it's a smart way to get people without a fast internet connection to try out the games. I started the game, got half way through the opening cutscene(was that Issac without his helmet, sitting down?) then my nephew walked in, so i had to quit, no way I'm going to play this in front of him, he's gullible, so he'd easily belive it's real. Anyways, I gotta go now, so I'll post impressions when I get the chance later on!

I didn't know what to put for the title, so I called it an update.
Anyways, I've been pretty busy this past week, which explains my lack of forum-posting, blogging, and IRC-ing. Tuesday we had this barbecue at school, and since I was part of the Yearbook team, I had to take pictures of everyone, I had to go down to take pictures of the younger students, since a lot of complaints were received that not many were pictured in last year's yearbook. They all swarmed around me and were jumping up and down, yelling at me to take their pictures. It was hectic, I kept walking backwards to get them all in a shot, but more kept piling up at the front. But I managed to get some truly priceless pics, but I didn't get to eat anything because I was so busy.
We're going to start the desiging stage of our project soon, just a few more things to finish off, and then our creative juices are allowed to flow onto paper. This is probably going to be tougher than what we've done before. I've got a ton of homework this weekend, I've got a math test on Sunday, and a Physics test on Monday, AND a Chemistry test on thursday. So this week is going to be even busier, because I've got to get the photos to my teacher, so he can sort them out and give us more work to do with the yearbook layout.
Next week is going to be crazy with all the games coming out, I don't know how I'll be able to play them, I'm going to be pressed for time. I really want Dead Space, but I know I'll never be able to finish it, I can't get myself to finish Siren, so I might borrow it off of a friend once he's played through it. The other games, I'll wait until either demos come out, or they get good reveiws across the board, otherwise, I'm not buying them until the price here goes down. I did play the Motorstorm demo that came out today, it was pretty good, but the only thing that I really want out of this game is the splitscreen, other than that I would've skipped this game, since I'm not a racing fan.
Other than that, nothing else springs to mind, so that's all for now. Until next time!

I've been pretty unlucky for the past few days, it all started out on Sunday, when my earphones-I use them for my ipod and computer, since they're comfortable-decided to break, and I could only get sound in one ear and not the other, that really sucked, since they were my favourite earphones so far. The day was really boring too, I had to write an Essay for my literature class, and draw some graphs for my Math class, Physics was a pain too. But then my luck got even worse the next day in school. I come in, and I open my locker-it has a key lock- and usually, I just leave the lock on the key, and let it hang on the end of the chain around my neck, so I put my books in, and when I close my locker, I find that my lock has disappeared. I didn't notice that it had fallen, so when I looked around, I couldn't find it at all, so I had to risk getting my stuff stolen-yes some jackasses do steal shit from lockers. Anyways, so I go up to our class, and a friend of mine asks to see my project, so when I open my folder, I ran my hand across the top, and I got a nasty papercut across my finger-it stung like hell! Thankfully that was the worst part of the day, and the least gruesome.
Later, in my Biology class, we had to dissect a sheep eye, they came still attached the sockets(yuck!) so we had to push the eye out, and cut the tissue around the eye. Then we cut into the eye itself, and squeezed out the stuff inside, it was a mix of a clear-jelly like stuff, and some black stuff too-apparently that's what lines the back of your eye to stop light from reflecting around the inside of the eye. The iris was still relatively intact and so was the lens, it was actually pretty cool once you got over the "ew it's a real eye!" bit. And It wasn't as bloody as last year's dissection-a heart.

Now, onto the games bit :D
I played the Bioshock Demo that hit PSN last thursday, and since I never experienced the 360 version, and it ran like shit on my pc, I was pretty impressed, the gameplay is there, and so was the creepy atmosphere, graphics look awesome at some points(water effects look realer than RL!) But at others, they looked "meh" but I'm probably going to pick it up anyways, I want to see what happens at the end. I downloaded the BIA:HH demo too, but I haven't got around to playing it yet.
Overall I've been pretty busy this week, and this is probably the only time I have to blog until either Friday or Satuarday. Until next time!