Mass Effect

I managed to complete it on Thursday. :D Overall, I found it a very satisfying game. I'll definitely be picking up the sequel as soon as I can. I know, I'm so up-to-date...

Enslaved: Odyssey to the West

I decided to start a game that had been sitting on my shelves untouched for over a year. I bought it not long after Ninja Theory visited my Uni (in Stafford, UK). They were mainly giving a talk on the various techniques they used to create the game, but they also showed it off. Whilst I'd heard and seen the game before, the footage I saw that day pushed me to buy it. There seemed to a lot more to it than just hitting robots with a stick.

If you haven't heard of it, it's a game about a man known as 'Monkey' (voiced by Andy Serkis of Gollum fame) who gets 'enslaved' by a woman called Trip. A special slave headband forces him to grant Trip's wish of taking her home. Killing her is not an option, as it would result in his own death. It takes place in a seemingly post-apocalyptic world where robots can be found everywhere. As the title suggests, it's loosely based on the classic 'Journey to the West' novels. If you want to see the game in action, there's a quick look of it on this very site (spoiler-free).

Having reached Chapter 5, I'm still enjoying the game. I had worries about the combat before I started playing (I don't generally don't get on with God of War-esque games), but I'm not having any problems with it so far. Things get a bit hairy when multiple enemies attack me, though. I'm sure I'll get over that with some practice. At any rate, there's a lot more to do than just simple combat scenarios.

The exploration aspect plays out a lot like the climbing scenes in Uncharted. As the game world is full of debris, there are plenty of things to climb onto. Trip will often not be able to take the same route as you, though (and vice versa). In addition, you'll need to clear the way for Trip if there any robots in the area. Combat doesn't seem to be her forté. She's very useful on the technological side, however, as she allows you to upgrade your combat skills/health.

That's all for this week. I'll be working on my Uni dissertation again starting this week. Not sure how much progress I'll make with Enslaved, but I'm likely to find some time to carry on with it. If you have any questions in the meantime, feel free to ask. :D

Mass Effect

I'm really glad I chose to go back to Mass Effect. It's proving really worthwhile so far. Just goes to show that I don't necessarily need to buy any new games right now. There's probably a whole lot of great games that I've yet to play. I certainly don't have a shortage of choice in my games library right now...

Like with most games of this kind, I've decided to play a good character. I tend to enjoy being a nice person as opposed to a nasty piece of work. That and I usually can't be a bad guy even if I wanted to be. I don't feel I'd have too much of a problem making 'renegade' choices in Mass Effect, although it's probably in my best interest to carry on down the 'paragon' route with this save (mainly because I'll use the same character in ME2 when I get it).

My only complaint is that the combat sections are a bit tedious in tight corridors. Open areas are usually fine, but when it comes smaller ones, I tend to die because I couldn't get a good shot on whoever's attacking me. It doesn't help that my AI teammates don't always move where I ask them to (but hey, maybe I'm being too harsh on a game that came out nearly 5 years ago).

Unlike my last attempt at Mass Effect, I've decided to play as a FemShep. Some of the female-specific dialogue is pretty cool. I'm glad Bioware took the time to include a feature like that. They could have just provided the same experience for both sexes, but they didn't (although I am aware of a later scene which was clearly overlooked).

I don't feel like I'm far enough to really comment on the story yet, so I'l hold off until next week.

Other gaming stuff

Not a great deal to be honest. I checked out a game called The Cursed Crusade yesterday, though. I was playing it on co-op with a friend of mine. Both of us agree that isn't the best of games (corny dialogue, graphics not entirely up to scratch), but it seemed alright. He only paid £13 for it, so it's not as if he's blown £40. We played through about three missions before we moved onto something else. Might post an update IF we ever get back to it, but I'm not sure that we will.

Next week: More Mass Effect and anything else I happen to pick up. Who knows, maybe even some SF x Tekken (no guarantees)...

This is the start of a new feature of my blog. Each week (or near enough) , I’ll be going over what I’ve played recently. I’ll try to keep things spoiler-free. When I need to discuss later or key parts of the story, I’ll hide them with spoiler tags. Some of the games I’ve played may have been out for a while, but I appreciate that some people haven't got round to them yet (like me).

Bulletstorm

I completed Bulletstorm on Tuesday. Only took me about four sittings. Maybe could have done it in two lengthy sessions, but that’s rarely how I play games. I try to make them last. I found it a bit short and on the easy side (even though I played it on ‘Hard’), but I really enjoyed it.

Having played People Can Fly’s previous game, Painkiller, it was giving off familiar vibes. Not a bad thing, mind. That said, the weapons in Bulletstorm are a bit different. While Painkiller seemed to focus on weapons that simply made a right mess of the enemies, Bulletstorm takes it up a notch. It looks as though they had a lot of fun making them. I’ll leave it up to you to discover them. Now where did I leave that sniper rifle...

I loved the combat mechanics. It was always great when I found out new ways of killing the enemies. The team must have had a field day thinking of all the names for the executions. One of my favourite ways of killing enemies was pulling an explosive ball towards me with the leash, then kicking it at them ‘on the volley’. I saw it as some kind of demented football training session. If Vinny ‘I’m the Juggernaut, bitch!’ Jones was ever a manager, it’s probably what he’d have his players doing on a cold Monday morning.

My thoughts on the story...

Mass Effect

After I completed Bulletstorm, I decided to play Mass Effect from the start. When I last played it, I got as far as finding the last member you can add to the crew. But, seeing as that was quite a while back now, I decided to start from scratch. Hopefully it’ll allow me to appreciate the story more.

Without giving too much away, I’m now capable of interstellar travel (not that far into the game). I’ve done two side assignments so far. One where I peacefully saved a hostage from some angry biotic guys and another that turned out to be a trap (found some resources on the planet, so not a total waste of time). I think I’ll tackle more side stuff before going back to the main missions. Levelling is never a bad thing.

That about sums up what I played this week. Should have a bit more to say about Mass Effect next week, along with anything else I happen to touch.

...oh, and I actually completed a game of Monopoly tonight. Didn't think it was actually possible, but apparently it is. The things you learn...

In this blog entry, I’m going to talk about the games that excite me the most this year. I’m sure more will crop up later, but here’s my list as it stands.

Lollipop Chainsaw

If what I’ve seen so far is anything to go by, this game is going to be right up my street. I’ve been a fan of Suda 51’s games since I played No More Heroes on the Wii. I’ve also recently played Shadows of the Damned (slightly short of completing it), so I know full well of what Grasshopper Studios is capable of.

I’m a big fan of crazy stuff. The crazier, the better. So, when I discovered the game would be about a chainsaw-wielding cheerleader who travels around with the decapitated head of her boyfriend (a TALKING decapitated head, no less), I was reeled in straight away. The trailer makes the game look very promising to me. Hard to say exactly how the gameplay will pan out just yet, but I think it’s in good hands.

Max Payne 3

A lot of people seem uneasy with the direction this game looks set to go, but I personally don’t have a problem with it. After all, no matter how much nostalgia people have for the previous entries, a simple ‘by the book’ sequel probably isn’t going to cut it in today’s market. As a fan of the Max Payne series, I’m sure Rockstar won’t mess it up. It would be a great shame if they did.

I’m looking forward to hearing more of Max’s dry humour. I’m also curious to see how he deals with things in his new environment. The crazy slow-mo stuff they’ve added when you kill enemies looks pretty cool. You could argue that it might get old, but V.A.T.S. never ceased to be amusing for me in Fallout 3 (and other people, I expect).

Resident Evil 6

It was a pleasant surprise to me when it was announced at TGS. As far as I knew, the next Resi game due would be a complete reboot. Then, all of a sudden, a game containing some of the established characters shows up. Oh, and Dawn of the Dead-remake-style zombies. After two games with the Las Plagas, they were probably due a turn.

I liked Resi 5. It wasn’t quite as good as 4, but I still enjoyed it. Going by the trailer, they’ve kept the over –the-shoulder view and added some new mechanics. With any luck, they should be back on full form with this game. As long it provides the non-stop action of the previous two games, I’ll be happy.

GTA V

It’s not certain whether it’ll show up this year, but I decided to mention it anyway. GTA IV left a lot people divided about Rockstar’s new approach to the GTA series. As I previously mentioned, I like crazy stuff (Saints Row: The Third was awesome), but I didn’t take a dislike to the grittiness of IV. Thanks to the satirical commentary and top-notch story, it still felt like a GTA game to me. That’s why I’m still greatly interested in the series.

While it’s clear from the trailer that it looks set to follow suit from their GTA IV ethos, I’ll be curious to see what they’ll add to and remove from the formula. With the game being set in Los Santos and the surrounding area, a lot of fans may expect a return to the slightly OTT features that San Andreas had. While I don’t think they’ll go the whole hog, I won’t be surprised if they add some hidden outlandish stuff. Either way, I don’t think it’ll disappoint.

Other games on my radar:

I’m definitely interested Street Fighter x Tekken. Perhaps not in the same way as the other games I’ve mentioned, but I’m keeping an eye on it. I’ve played a lot of fighting games with friends lately, so it’d be nice to break it out during our gaming nights. There’s also Tekken Tag 2 later in the year.

Yakuza: Dead Souls is another game I’m earmarking, but I’ll need to play more Yakuza 4 before I can say for sure that I’d enjoy it. It certainly has the ridiculousness I like, at any rate. That guy with the gatling gun arm springs to mind...

Anyway, that’ll all for now. Next time, I’ll probably go over the games I’ve played lately. If it’s been a slow week, I’ll come up with another topic. Either way, watch this space. :D

This is my first blog at Giant Bomb. I've blogged elsewhere in the past, but it's been a while. I aim to cover a variety of subjects in my blogs. Everything from what I'm playing at a certain point in time to what I think about the latest gaming trends. I'm very passionate about games, so I enjoy writing about them.

...oh, and I'll try and throw in some humour here and there...can't forget that...

As this is my first blog here, I thought I'd talk about how I started gaming...

'You loaded games with tapes?!'

I first got into gaming thanks to my dad. He owned a ZX Spectrum + 2. The difference from the original Speccy (yeah, us fans call it that) is that it had a built-in tape player for loading games and 128K of memory instead of 48k. With the original, you had to plug a bog-standard tape player into it. Never had the pleasure of using the original, but my dad had one. Heck, he even had a ZX81 at one stage (the pre-cursor to the Spectrum), but I digress...

I was only three years old when I first played on one. It was 1988 at the time, so the NES had been out for three years already (although I was unaware at the time). While NES owners had their games load in an instant, I had to wait 5-10 minutes (sometimes longer!) for a game to load by tape. Whilst it loaded, it made some of the weirdest noises known to man. It was basically a modem dial-tone on acid. I can still hear the noises like it was yesterday. There was also a moving striped border while this was going on. Sometimes cyan and red, sometimes blue and yellow (although a few titles had different colours, if I remember correctly). Some games were even fancy enough for a picture to slowly appear on the screen whilst it was loading. Maybe it was to give the players something to look at while they patiently waited.

After the +2, the Spectrum + 3 was released. This used 3-inch floppy disks. I briefly borrowed one from a cousin. The disks could hold more data the loading times were a lot faster. Other than that, there wasn’t a great deal of difference.

Pros :D

Back in the 80s/Early 90s, the Speccy was a widely supported platform in the UK. You could say it defied the limited features of the system, most notably the graphical capability. I was a bit late to scene (the Speccy appeared in 1982), but there was still a lot going on. A lot of British developers actually started off round about this time. Codemasters and Rare (then known as Ultimate: Play The Game) are two of them. There was also a number of magazines covering the Spectrum, including Sinclair User, Your Sinclair and Crash (each of which had their own demo tapes).

Here are just a few of the games I played back then. You may be interested to know that most of these games were coded by programmers in their own bedrooms.

Manic Miner/Jet Set Willy

The player assumed the role of Miner Willy (yeah, I know...). The aim of the game was to guide Willy through a series of increasing challenging caverns. Enemies ranged from penguins to moving telephones. You had to collect all the items in the cavern and escape before his oxygen ran out.

Jet Set Willy was a very similar game, but it gave the player a huge building to explore instead of one screen at a time. After Manic Miner, Willy became rich and owned a massive mansion. However, he had a big party, made a mess and was refused entry to his bedroom until he cleared it all up. I’m not quite sure why he was refused entry to his bedroom in HIS OWN HOUSE, but it’s probably best not to think about it too much. The enemies were even weirder this time round (I seem to remember one of them being a floating Queen Elizabeth I head). Like Manic Miner, I never completed it.

...and the best bit about these two games? The ‘Game Over’ screen saw Willy get crushed by a giant foot. Classic.

Dizzy

One of the most famous franchises to grace the Speccy featured the adventures of an egg with arms and legs (just ask Yahtzee). The series was published by Codemasters and created by the Oliver Twins (who run Blitz Games).

The aim of the game was usually to save Dizzy’s girlfriend, Daisy, from the clutches of a villain (usually the evil wizard Zachs). In short, Dizzy had to go through the game world, find items and use them where they were needed. The games had a lot of variety in them, which is what made them special at the time. I remember a cool screen in one of the games which was upside-down. I had to work my way through it with a mirror placed on the carpet near the TV. How many games allow you to do that?!

Dizzy was so popular that it sparked off various spin-offs, such as Fast Food (a Pac-Man clone), Kwik Snax (its sequel) and Dizzy Panic (a puzzle game where you had put shapes down the right chutes). I seem to remember there being a mixed reaction to these games.

Cons D:

I was patient enough on the most part (I didn't know any better at this stage), but there was one major problem with the loading method. If a game tape had one single scratch or kink in it, it was enough for the loading to completely fail. If this happened, I would have to rewind the tape and start again. Not a problem for most games, but extremely frustrating for games like Saint Dragon and New Zealand Story. They took forever to load.

Another problem with this method is that bigger games required further loading once a 'level' or 'world' was completed. If you died during a later part of the game, you would have to rewind back to a certain spot on the tape to start again. While many games offered a specific number for the tape counter found on old tape players, the Spectrum + 2 didn't have one. As you can imagine, playing games like that was fun. A LOT OF FUN.

But I have mostly good memories of the system. It was like no other platform I’ve used since...

I have a lot more to say about the Speccy, but that seems like a good place to stop. If anyone has any other questions, feel free to ask. In future blogs, I may cover my experience with other old platforms (and believe me, there’s a lot of them...).

Thanks for reading,

Adz