Archive for the ‘General Gaming’ Category
Monday, July 19th, 2010
I haven’t updated my blog in over a month, which is strange given I’ve been playing my Xbox a fair bit.
I finally got into Gears of War 2, in particular the multiplayer mode, Horde. My friend and I are (very) slowly co-oping our way through the campaign thanks to intermittent connection problems, and the fact Horde is so damn fun the temptation to play it overrides that of the campaign itself.
I happened to buy Gears of War 2 during one of the crazy Anniversary weekends (or something), so the Epic developers had decided to multiply XP by 8, which saw me level up stupidly fast, and change every 9 waves from being a mixed bag of enemies to simply Tickers. Having never played Horde I didn’t know that 9 rounds of Tickers was unusual, and it certainly wasn’t as fun as it is when you have Boomers, Maulers and Bloodmounts attacking you from every angle.
Yes, I like a challenge.
With that said, by the time we had reached Wave 40-odd the Anniversary weekend was over and Horde returned to its normal formula. There’s a good tactic for facing the higher level waves on a map called Stasis, where you kill a couple of Maulers and block the steps with their shields. We managed to complete Wave 50 on Normal using this tactic.
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Tags: Crackdown 2, Epic, Gears of War 2, GTAIV, Horde, Infinite Undiscovery, Shadow Complex
Posted in General Gaming | 6 Comments »
Tuesday, June 15th, 2010
Gears of War. Who could argue that those three words have become synonymous with Xbox 360? It’s ‘our’ exclusive, the one that truly demonstrated what the 360 was capable of, and it certainly deserved the praise both critics and gamers alike showered it with. Like many others, I let myself get caught up in the hype and put my pre-order down for the game’s release in 2006, and while it has become a game I never publicly fault, it’s one that no one ever hears me talk about.
Although I appreciated the game for what it was, and even now I find it difficult to fault the gameplay, I never fell in love with the game like many others did. There were only a couple of reasons why, but I think the main reason was simply a case of characters; big, beefy, over-emasculated, meatheads. Although I enjoyed my playthrough and the occasional dabbling of MultiPlayer (though I failed to master the ‘shotgun and roll’ tactic that success seemed to hinge on), I gave the sequel a miss because the characters pissed me off so much.
Okay, so Cole was pretty awesome. There aren’t many fine details I recall about the characters, but I did enjoy Cole’s quips. And Carmine. You never really know much about him, but I know I like him. However, I just found it difficult to relate to any of the characters, especially physically.
I know, I know, it’s lame, right? I don’t exactly relate to Lara Croft with my modest B cup (and that’s probably wishful thinking), yet I love Tomb Raider mainly because of her. I don’t particularly relate to a 16 year old boy who, despite his age, hasn’t appeared to have hit puberty, yet I still love Blue Dragon. You get my point. It’s pretty illogical, yet it’s just the way it always has been.
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Tags: Epic, Gears of War, Gears of War 2, Gears of War 3, Marcus Fenix
Posted in General Gaming | 6 Comments »
Wednesday, June 9th, 2010
I am Ashley, and I write about the video games I play. It is therefore my responsibility to deliver you an unbiased verdict of whatever has been occupying my Xbox’ disc tray. Usually I can expect a few disagreements . After all, video games aren’t tailored to suit every individual, and personal taste undoubtedly comes into it. Never have I played a game, however, where I’ve been so certain that the answer to the question posed in the title of this very blog post will indeed be a resounding “Yes!”.
Back up… Wasn’t Alan Wake announced in 2005? Yuh-huh. I wrote a little about the effect of the many delays Alan Wake has seen, and how, having only played Alan Wake for one evening, my apprehension had quickly dissolved into confidence that it was in fact worth the 5 year wait. Now I’m on the penultimate chapter, and the game has only gotten better (and my screams louder).
What makes or breaks a survival horror game (or psychological thriller action-adventure as Alan Wake is described) is the atmosphere. If it doesn’t provoke even the tiniest pee leakage, then it’s not doing its job. Unfortunately, after the disappointing lack of scares in Resident Evil 5, I haven’t played anything since Condemned, the Xbox launch title, that has managed to terrorise me. Ask any of my friends who have spent an evening in an Xbox Live party with me as I hesitantly traipse through Bright Falls, and they’ll tell you this game makes me scream. A lot. With the lights off, surround sound on, I somehow feel that it’s entirely possible an axe-wielding dark entity will creep up behind me *shudders*.
The environment is what you’d expect, although not to an entirely predictable degree that it looses its scare factor; desolate woods, dense trees, abandoned log cabins. All of which you are forced to explore at night, more often than not alone.
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Tags: Alan Wake, Remedy
Posted in General Gaming | 4 Comments »
Tuesday, May 11th, 2010
I’ve been a naughty girl. I’ve shunned my ‘one game woman’ approach in favour of simultaneous variety. The reason being that I recently finished Splinter Cell: Conviction, and with only a week or so until Skate 3 is released, I didn’t want to start — and not be able to finish — something else entirely. This gave me the opportunity to tie up some ‘loose ends’.
My friend and I completed the co-op mode of Splinter Cell: Conviction on Realistic, which took longer than anticipated merely because of the connectivity issues we regularly experienced. I’m not sure what the issue was, but neither of us had a dodgy connection and were chatting without interruption over Xbox Live. This usually indicates it wasn’t an issue on either of our ends. I’m assuming it is, as usual, down to Ubisoft’s paltry Multiplayer programming. Bear in mind I’m a huge Rainbow Six: Vegas fan, which is also a Ubisoft (and Tom Clancy) title, but that would have never won any awards for running smoothly online, and I’m the first to admit that. As fun as the Tom Clancy games are in Multiplayer mode, they rarely seem to run fluidly.
With Conviction, you can guarantee the frame rate will drop repeatedly, and at one point you will inevitably get booted from the game. And with each co-op mode campaign being split into 4 chapters, you can rest assured that when you do get booted out, you’ll have to play through a fair bit of the game again. Considering the approach to SC:C is slow and stealthy, this gets frustrating.
With that said, there’s a lot to the Multiplayer that adds some much needed overall substance to Conviction. Even though we’ve polished off the co-op campaign, we’re now attempting the other co-op modes!
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Tags: Alan Wake, DLC, Fallout 3, Operation: Anchorage, Skate 3
Posted in General Gaming | 7 Comments »
Tuesday, May 4th, 2010
Firstly, let’s get my Splinter Cell history out of the way. Prior to Conviction, I had only played Sam Fisher’s 360 debut, Double Agent. It was hard. Very hard. Y’see, stealth isn’t my strong point. If I have a gun, I’ll use it just because I can. But that doesn’t mean I don’t like the idea of stealth games, and the 360 seems to be sparse with games of the peepin’ and creepin’ variety.
Unfortunately, Conviction doesn’t fill this gap. Splinter Cell has changed direction, and from as much as a relative newbie can tell, it doesn’t feel like your typical Sam Fisher game. While this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it does take some getting used to.
I tried approaching every scenario in as low key a fashion as possible; avoid detection, clean headshots, hand-to-hand take-downs where possible… But it seemed there were some situations where creating massive havoc was simply unavoidable. Disappointing.
Maybe this is justified by the story. Fisher has been alerted his daughter’s death was in fact faked, and after having spent years grieving her death he’s now on a mission to find her alive and well. I guess this means cutting out the sneaky bullshit and doing whatever it takes. Pretty understandable, right?
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Tags: Splinter Cell: Conviction, Ubisoft
Posted in General Gaming | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, April 7th, 2010
Since buying Mass Effect 2, it’s been the one game to solely consume my Xbox’ disc tray, which is why there’s been a distinct lack of chatter around here to do with anything other than Mass Effect 2. Hardly surprising, though, given it’s the much awaited sequel to one of my favourite 360 games to date. Even with its lengthy story (I’m currently 40 hours in and still have quite a few missions left/planets undiscovered), there’s rarely a moment my interest wavers and it doesn’t grasp 100% of my attention. Since it’s been available for a couple of months now, you’ve probably made your mind up as to whether you’re going to play it or not (and if you haven’t, the answer is yes, you do want to play it). Because of that, I’ll summarise my likes and dislikes as opposed to a full blown review.
Likes
Commander Shepard. Bioware did good by enabling those of us who had played the original to port our character over, but they stepped it up a notch by having all choices made in the original Mass Effect stored, thus certain aspects of Mass Effect 2 changing dependent on those. Not only that, but they reward those who have ported their character over with a little boost to stats. Bringing over a Level 54 Adept set me up at Level 3.
The original cast. It was nice to see familiar faces crop up in Mass Effect 2, even if recruiting most of them isn’t an option.
Romance plots. While the romance plots seem a little shallow, the option to forge relationships with members of your crew does appear to be there (although I’ve yet to have any raunchy sex scenes). I’ve been pursuing Miranda, and the attraction seems to be reciprocated. I also got drunk with the ship’s Doctor, but that didn’t seem to get me anywhere…
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Tags: Bioware, Mass Effect, Mass Effect 2, RPG, RPGs
Posted in General Gaming | 5 Comments »
Wednesday, March 17th, 2010
As always with a game that spans many hours, I like to geek out and share my initial stats and early progress status; details such as character class, level, hours spanned, and anything else worth mentioning.
With Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2, there is only one character you can command as the story’s protagonist, and that character is Lieutenant Commander Shepard (with varying degrees of customisation available). Thanks to the efficient devs at Bioware, Mass Effect 2 easily enables you to import a previous character from Mass Effect, with all previous plot and dialogue choices having been cached. I ported my second character, Chris Shepard, which in return gave me a nice boost to my stats. Thanks, Bioware!
On to the intel…
Chris Shepard is a level 8 Adept, an apathetic bastard who, given the choice, will usually go for the Renegade option in both dialogue and action. He was level 53 in my original playthrough of Mass Effect, which rounded his stats at Level 3 when I ported him to Mass Effect 2. A nice boost for jumping in on Insanity difficulty (which, so far, hasn’t been too insane).
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Tags: Bioware, Mass Effect, Mass Effect 2, RPG
Posted in General Gaming | 5 Comments »
Wednesday, February 17th, 2010
Final Fantasy XIII is a matter of weeks away, which means those of us lucky enough to own both an Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 have a difficult decision to make. Okay, so you know the technicalities behind why the PS3’s superior Blu-Ray format pwns the 360’s sub-standard DVD, right? The jist of it is; Blu-Ray single layer capacity = 25GB. DVD single layer capacity = 4.7GB. A significant difference, huh? What this then leave us with, is the fact that Final Fantasy XIII will look hotter running on the PlayStation 3.
This is where tricky decisions come in, the kind of choices that change lives, people! I’ve said from day one of buying my PlayStation 3, which I rarely play, that it would only serve as a Blu-Ray player and for exclusives my 360 fangirlism otherwise wouldn’t see. The rule was simple; any multi-platform releases would involuntary be bought for the Xbox.
Personally, I’m faced with this decision for the first time, as the sheer detail of Final Fantasy XIII means that, while the experience is somewhat preserved on the Xbox 360 by shipping the game on 3 discs, CG has been compressed, and environment/character detail is lower. Basically, it’s not going to look as good on my Xbox as it will on my PlayStation. Therefore the choice should be simple, right? But factor into that my love of Achievements, my gripes with the PlayStation, and the simple fact that gaming without Xbox Live leaves me feeling limbless, I’ve got to weigh things up.
I can experience the full beauty of the Final Fantasy universe on my PlayStation 3, but I’ll feel 100% disconnected and solitary when I do so. I can’t invite a friend who’s also playing into chat with me to talk about our experiences, where we’re at in the game, or keep one another company through some of the inevitably tedious parts JRPGs always posses. I won’t feel the petty delight of an Achievement pinging up and boosting my overall GamerScore I’ve honed for two years. And these, my friends, are important things to me.
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Tags: Final Fantasy XIII, Playstation 3, Xbox Live
Posted in General Gaming | 10 Comments »
Tuesday, February 16th, 2010
My name is Ashley, and I’m a Dragon Age addict. You can assume from my Tweet that not only did I finish Dragon Age: Origins, but I was absolutely blown away by it, especially the ending. Which is funny, as I had approached this game with such apprehension. Why? Given the pathetic year of gaming I had experienced in ‘09, I wasn’t quite sure my attention could hack a heavy Bioware RPG. I was wrong. By about 73 hours. Heck, I’ve probably done more gaming the past couple of months than I did the entire duration of 2009. Anyway, I’ve talked in some detail about Dragon Age, so I don’t want to reiterate anything that’s already been said, yet I still want to ramble on about what a beautiful game this is (of course, not in terms of graphics…).
Very few of my readers appear to be hardcore RPG fans, so it is safe to assume this post will largely go ignored. However, if any of you are reading this and remotely curious about the wonderful world of Ferelden, continue reading, because I’m determined to highlight how amazing this game is, even if it is only to one person.
What’s An RPG Without A Good Story?
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Tags: Bioware, Dragon Age: Origins, RPG
Posted in General Gaming | 5 Comments »
Tuesday, February 9th, 2010
Bioshock 2 is released in Europe today, which is odd given that it’s a Tuesday (we always get new releases on the Friday). I’m not that excited about it. Why? A couple of reasons, which I’m surprised to admit, especially as the first Bioshock was outstanding; one of the few games I will heartily recommend to anyone and everyone, simply because, from start to finish, it is consistently successful in creating a suspenseful environment with an unrivaled atmosphere. So yes, the original Bioshock was stellar, one of the 360’s finest exclusives. The sequel, however, has not only come at a wrong time for me, but it’s also the fact I can’t seem to muster up the enthusiasm to play as a Big Daddy.
What I particularly loved about Bioshock, was the entire story surrounding Jack, the character you took control of. He happened upon Rapture because of an airplane accident, and from the point you entered the lighthouse onwards, everything was unsettling and begging to be explored. Seriously, just thinking back to the first few moments of taking control of Jack and wading through the water towards the lighthouse is making me giddy. Big Daddies, as you know, are an integral part of Rapture. They were a familiar encounter in the original, and insanely fun to go up against. They were pretty resilient, but nothing a dozen electric bucks couldn’t take down.
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Tags: Bioshock, Bioshock 2
Posted in General Gaming | 5 Comments »
I don’t have anything derogatory to say about Alan Wake. My advice to you? Spend a night in Bright Falls and soak up the eerie atmosphere. Alan Wake excels at thrilling you psychologically. Which is why it’s called a psychological thriller, I guess…
