Haven't done one of these for a long time, way too busy to regularly write blogs at the moment but I just had to take a break from coding! :D 
 
Disclaimer: I am not one of those ass-holes who pirate Alan Wake when it leaked over a week ago. It is released tomorrow (14th) in the UK and mine happened to arrive this morning. I wasted no time biting into it like an overripe fruit, finishing it just before writing this. :) Enjoy.  

  Dinner with The Ripper - Sherlock Holmes VS Jack The Ripper (X360)

Sherlock Holmes and Jack the Ripper are two larger than life characters who exist in a similar enough timeframe that it’s not too far-fetched a story to have them pitted against each other. The result should be a fantastic puzzle adventure right? Well, almost. 

Almost everything presented in the game is downright ugly, the textures, the models, and the animations; stiff, boring, sometimes incomprehensible and often comical. The interface is clunky and clearly designed for the PC before being ported to the Xbox with very few changes which results in a game that is somewhat difficult to actually play. 

The game follows the Ripper story quite closely, too closely perhaps. I am not a historian, but I’d say the game strays too close to From Hell for its own good, to the point where I’d rather just watch that instead of playing the game. 

The game does have some redeeming features however, while the voice acting is utterly atrocious in places and just bearable in others, the dialogue itself is reasonable and the puzzles are a delight to solve, even if most of the challenge comes from poor explanation of the game mechanics rather than good puzzle design. 

If you’re looking for an easy 1000 gamerscore, or a nice little adventure game that isn’t too taxing, or you’re a big fan of Sherlock Holmes, you might want to try and pick this up cheap. Otherwise, you’re much better off getting Monkey Island Special Edition from the Xbox Live Marketplace.

Five years is a long time to wait for anything without the eventual product being a huge disappointment, so I’ve tried to approach this from a fresh perspective, longing for what could have been caused so much heartache when playing Alone in the Dark, I didn’t want the same thing to happen here. 

Journeying to the small American town, appropriately named, Bright Falls to recover from a particularly massive case of writers block, the titular author, Alan Wake finds himself embroiled in a story of horror and mystery as he struggles not only to stay alive, but to find out what is happening to the residents of Bright Falls and what happened to him during the week of time he is missing.   

Let’s not be mistaken, for better or for worse, Alan Wake is a horror/shooter hybrid, and a linear one at that, much in the same vein as Resident Evil or Dead Space, and shares none of the horror or gut-wrenching scare factor of games such as Fatal Frame or Penumbra. Instead it aims for a different way of creating tension, much like Dead Space the combat never fails to leave you feeling tense, and on edge, as if you only just made it through that fight with your life, not matter how easily you actually took down the enemies the game threw at you. While the game no longer purports to offer a massive, free-roaming environment, I was surprised by just how linear the game actually is. There are some places you can see off the beaten path, however most of these are small areas with little to see but caches of ammunition, collectibles and the occasional fight. The combat controls remarkably well and although most fights follow the same pattern, the combat never feels too easy, or too repetitive, the game also offers you a range of weapons to fight with such as flash bangs, flares, a flare gun and various shotguns, rifles and a pistol. I will note, however, that I do not appreciate having all my ammo mysteriously vanish after certain cut scenes and plot points. 

There is a heavy focus here on Light vs Dark, both in the storyline, the general game-play and in the combat. Light is your weapon here, sometimes all you have is light to fend off the ‘Taken’ the main enemies you will encounter throughout the game who are townsfolk being controlled by the darkness. It enshrouds them and protects them from your attacks until you literally burn it off of them with your flashlight. 

While the game focuses largely on combat, the plot is where the game truly shines. Presented in episodic chunks, in the style of a television show such as Twin Peaks which introduces new details and twists throughout these episodes, but usually gives you a cliff-hanger style episode ending, or gives you a key piece of information that inspires you to keep playing. I literally had to force myself to put the controller down at points to make it last that little bit longer. Inspirations for Alan Wake can be felt throughout the game not only in subtle references but in glaring homage too, references to The Twilight Zone, Evil Dead, and writers such as Hemmingway and Stephen King are common, as are references to Max Payne. Perhaps the best of these in the form of a fictional television show called Night Springs which pays homage to The Twilight Zone, even featuring a narrator who attempts to mimic the memorable style of Rod Serling. While I cannot say too much about the characters without spoiling things, I will say one thing. Initially, I was utterly dumbfounded to see a ‘Leo Getts’ style personality in the game. “What?” I hear you cry, don’t worry, he starts out unbearable but actually provides some much needed comic relief after a few tense scenes. 

You will spend a lot of time traipsing through dark, cold, windy forests with little more than a flashlight and the odd street lamp to protect you and guide your way. These environments are nothing short of breathtaking. Just looking at them makes you feel physically cold and alone, the trees bend in the wind, clouds pass overhead, a grim fog permeates every inch of the dank woods, perhaps the shadowy outline of an axe wielding maniac can be seen in the distance. While some of the interior areas in the game might not blow your mind, the exterior locations are an absolute pleasure to behold, even ones as dark as these. Light and shadow interact amazingly well giving such a convincing look to the locations you’ll be moving around and fighting in. The lighting effects in particular, are something Remedy should be very, very proud of. 

The same cannot be said for everything however, there are a few blemishes on an otherwise jaw-droppingly good game. Some scenes require you to drive a vehicle, thankfully these are few and far between, and certain locations (to reveal which would be a spoiler) are absolutely plagued with screen tearing though thankfully the majority of outside locations run smooth as butter. The enemy variety is not particularly strong and while they are quirky and interesting for generic hick townsfolk maniacs controlled by darkness, they do begin to wear a little thin by the end of the game. 

A point I will concede is that a lot of people dislike in-game advertising, but, if I’m totally honest the only thing I noticed here were the Energizer batteries. I don’t know enough about cars to actually notice the Ford’s scattered about the place, and the Verizon billboards either escaped my notice, or were removed from the European release. For the most part though I didn’t mind at all, I felt that this was one occasion where having a recognisable, real product in the environment helped immerse me further into the game. 

For the collectable nuts and completionists out there, Alan Wake, despite it’s linearity manages to offer quite a wide array of things to find. Aside from searching endlessly for manuscript pages to help fill out Wake’s memory and add to the plot, you will find any one of 100 Coffee Thermoses scattered around the various environments. 

So I got my first real chance to play Super Street Fighter IV yesterday, and boy does it rock the house! 
 
The first thing that really grabbed my attention was how vastly improved the online services are, finding (and staying in) a match are much easier and smoother 
and (so far) people -stay- in the game even if they are going to lose. Out of around 100 matches so far I've had one, just one quitter. The other thing that 
surprised me was that sorting by region actually works in this game, usually I still get paired with people from all over the world, but I've not seen one US flag 
yet, Union Jack all the way. The downside to that is that even though my opponent is probably down the street from me, it still managed to lag something 
fierce during those important reversal moments.  
 
Again, no idea if this is because of my newfound ability to play people in my region, or the general level of maturity of the community has risen slightly, 
but i'm glad to report that I have not received one single death threat or whiny complaint about throws or other 'cheap' tactics (touch wood!) Something 
I would receive on a quarter-hourly basis when playing MvC2 (Ok so, playing Doom, Juggernaut and Cable does't help). 
 
The game itself i'm absolutely loving to bits, i'm liking most of the balance tweaks (while WTF'ing at a few, such as Vega's ability to now backflip over almost anything I seem to be able to throw at him) and the inclusion of two of my all time favorite characters (Guy and Dudley) meaning I have somebody to play other than Balrog and Guile.  I still find it a little disheartening that there are 34 other characters in the game now, and half the people I play online -still- pick Ken. But that's life, the dude's a popular character and i'm convinced (based on seeing almost as many as i've seen Kens so far) that Adon will soon replace him. People looooooove that Jaguar Tooth it seems. 
 
So what about everyone else? I'm curious to know your initial experiences with the game so far, what you do and don't like about the tweaks/changes/community/etc and will be interested to hear them. 
 
Also for anybody who's interested, GT: The A Drain 
But I warn you, I'm pretty rubbish with Guy and Dudley :P

 
It's been a LOOOOONG Uni year, well, 6 months :P 
 
But i'm back y'all! And i'm more obtuse and opinionated than ever :D and a much much better game programmer too. 
 
You may also be happy to hear that I did in fact -not- return to WoW, Uni work was simply too much fun. MMO's in general have gone on the  
back burner, which is why i'll be churning out some more blog posts soon enough, why? Because I enjoy it :D and I finally have 
time again to involve myself in the community before running back off to write my dissertation in October. 
 
I'm very impressed with how the site is looking, my hat is off to the team behind all of it, it's sleek, sexy, works perfectly, very impressed  
and i'm sure to enjoy delving into the myriad new features that have been introduced while I was away. 

I wanted to write this a long time ago, unfortunately I did not have access to a scanner, nor the particular images I wanted to talk about, however for once the gods seem to be acting in my favor, and i've miraculously come into the possesion of a lovely little printer/scanner combo machine. I decided it was time to finally talk about these manuals.

Hitman: Blood Money is going for a similar concept as The Darkness, however, I feel the need to bring it up to point out why it fails to give off such an aura of mystery and daring, and simply looks cheap, tacky and poorly designed. Firstly, they've shattered any and all illusion by including the IO - Interactive and EIDOS logos on the manual, secondly the font is bordering unreadable. It's a shame really because the idea of a training manual for assassins is a pretty good one, and I personally really like that name "The Professional's Methodology: Theory & Execution"

Oh no though, the wonderment doesn't end there. They don't just give you stickers and expect you to be all "Wow, that's fucking AWESOME" ohh no. The bottom third or so of each page in the manual is kitted out to look like each of the various stage themes from the game, and Wario invites you to stage your own little Shake Dimension scene on the very pages of his own manual! It's almost more fun the the game itself. Wario even tells you how to use his own patented Super Stickers.

It hardly even seems worth it to show you, or even mention the cover art itself (but it's to the right anyway), it pales in comparison and could not hope to do justice to the sheer wonder that lies within the manuals pages. Page after page of witty (for Wario at least) commentary from the man himself about his awesome game, and how much he loves garlic. Written in a charming and hilarious fashion while maintaining the informative purpose of the manual, brilliant layout and design manages to entertain and inform while still leaving all that space to use your Wario's Super Stickers. What more could you possibly ask for? This is the level of awesomeness all manuals should aspire to.

Everybody has a bunch of characters they hate, and losing to those characters, especially again and again, brings forth nerdrage of epic proportions. I mean just look around the rage that surrounded Street Fighter IV's boss character, Seth. The internet burned for months, and some parts of it are still quietly smouldering away with a burning hot anger.

There's just something about losing to one of these skateboarding, baseball-cap wearing, emo-haired teenagers that makes me want to just quit. Their movesets are awkward and difficulty to adjust to, they are fast as well as hard-hitting, and like any characters you'll see on this list, have an overbearing air of smugness about them that just serves to make you angry.

Like any good frustration factory, The Cyberdemon takes a long, long time to put down. Unfortunately you see no breaks until he is finally dead, which means until that glorious moment when he explodes in a shower of metal shards, blood and guts, the fight can turn bad in an instant. Even on lower difficulties, take one single hit dead on and that's it, you better kiss each and every part of your body goodbye, because they are all going to be travelling in different directions. 

Propane Gas, Gasoline, Petrol, Hydrogen, almost any gas or liquid that can be ignited has appeared in at least one videogame hiding in a barrel, glass chamber, or canister, and that's fine. Without exploding barrels we wouldn't have half the kill counts we do nowadays. However, sometimes, just sometimes, you as a player are forced to hide behind one of these excitably dangerous cretins, and when the AI decides to stop slapping it's knee and going "Yu-Huk" you better break out the marsmallows boy because you are toast. That's fine once or twice, but some games are repeat offenders, and in those instances, you just want to give the level designer a piece of your mind. Preferably strapped to a large bomb.

The only reason this guy doesn't take the number one spot, is because he hasn't been around as long, and everything he does is ripped from another character. At least the next guy on the list beats you with his own moves. Seth, Seth, Seth. The internet went absolutely ballistic with cries of terror, pain and anger when people started hitting the almost literal brick wall that is Seth. Seemingly ignorant of whatever difficulty you have the game set to, he will begin to smack you around, often with your own moves, laughing and taunting all the way until you finally prize the first round from his iron grasp, only to find that he was simply toying with you. In the second round he begins teleporting all over the place, grabs which register almost instantly after his teleport, 3 Shoryukens in a row, stretchy limbs, insane laughter, and a penchant for taunting you wit focus attacks. If that wasn't enough to burst a blood vessel, the bastard is naked...

Our good old friendly supervillinous dictator. Due to the international name change he underwent (originally Vega) he is often simply called, Dictator. He takes smugness to a level even Seth couldn't reach with every ounce of persistance in his naked body. Like the psycho power he so confidently wields, smugness just oozes from him, leaking from ever pore as he cackles maniacly, hopping around crossing you up with his knee, throwing out scissor kicks, demon hand reversals and head stomps from almost complete safety behind his iron defense, literally folding his arms at times to taunt you. In fact, his focus attack in SFIV seems almost like a taunt, folding his arms and laughing before clapping his hands together for large amounts of damage. Not just in SFIV, but in every game he has ever appeared in, nothing makes me angrier than losing to this obnoxious, murderous, giant shoulder-pad-wearing monster. Nothing. His massive, massive grin in Street Fighter IV only makes matters worse. It's Nerd Rage Time.

A JRPG and a platformer comprised most of my playtime this week. But not just any platformers

DUNN DUNNN!!!!!

'Splosion Man!

Maybe I havn't made as big a deal of it around here as I normally do, but in most circles I tend to inhabit I am well known for being a strictly single player kinda guy, with Street Fighter being the exception that proves the rule. So while it may come as no surprise that others are playing Battlefield 1943 religiously, it should in fact be a surprise that I spent a decent amount of time getting to grips with my fear and/or loathing of multiplayer shooters.

Ok, so it was more like 6 hours, not days, but hey what's a blog post without a terrible pun?