Thursday 26 February 2009

Gamespotting 006 - Beyond The Crap and Modern Stuff


Over the last few weeks, due to lack of money; I have been looking around the gameshops for some cheap titles to play. Not only due I get more games for less money,but also some of these games are of a higher quality than anything else of this generation.

But I have already discussed this in one of the previous blog entries, but I came across another gaming bargain this morning. As I was walking through the arndale centre on the way to uni, I had to go into gamestation to preorder a game. As I was leaving, I looked at a single shelf of previous generation titles that were going for next to nothing.

There was classic titles like Chronicles Of Riddick: Escape From Buture Bay for the Xbox for £2.99 and Psyconauts for £4.99. There was a lot of great games that nobody was buying, but they were on the bottom shelf right near the door so can you expect anything else. Along these goodies, there was, right at the back a copy of Beyond Good and Evil for the gamecube (My console of choice at the moment) for £12.99.

I know this is a lot of money for a game that came out in 2003, when compared to a 6 month old Xbox 360 title which would usually go for this ammount (Too Human Imparticular), but I think that this was a purchase not to be missed. This has got to be one of my favourite games due to its story, gameplay and rather enjoyable main characters. But I have never finished the title, which is a shame because I enjoyed it the first time through when I played it on the playstation.

I just hope that more people buy these games before they are all gone to a big warehouse somewhere to be kept in storage or even worse be destroyed. Also it is cheaper than buying off Ebay or Amazon, so more money can be in your account for future use.

I hope there will be more gaming bargins to be had over the year as there is nothing that I want to buy, but that is not always a bad thing because I can play the games that I have bought before but never finished, and this title will be at the top of the list.

Wednesday 25 February 2009

Gamespotting 005 - No more EVIDENCE for you, young gamer!


At the beginning my Uni semester, one of the first things that I did was read the assignment PA2 to see what work would have to be done over the course of the semester. I kept myself up to date with the deliverables to didn't look at the resource lists at the end of the document.

Last week, I was notified about the current History and Analysis reading/resource list and read what was on them, amongst the list was an unknown title that I have never heard of called EVIDENCE: THE LAST RITUAL. Not knowing much about the game, the first thing that I did was to try and buy a copy, but with little sucess. I finally obtained a copy of ebay, but has to be imported from America.

It finally arrived this morning, and after I finished my coursework. I booted up my version and give it a try and like Resident Evil Zero, I have been absolutly hooked to this game. The general theme of the title is to try and caputre a serial killer called "the phoenix" before he kills again, to do this you must trawl a CD rom that he has left for you and slowly unravel the story of this latest victim.

I have never played a game like this before and even though I have only played the title for a few hours, it is safely one of the best games that I have ever played. There are two reasons for this, the first being the way that it is not a game, more of a film with genius and unique gameplay methods added onto it, some of these I have never seen before and you must listen, look and read everything incase you missed important infomation the first time round.

The second is the packaging, I recieved the title in a plastic (CSI esq) evidence bag sealed with a lage sticker with the games logo on it. I'm not sure why other games are not sold like this insted of the stupid and overall crap steelbook cases that these sort of games would come in. Also the disks look liked that they have been drew on by the characters themselves and look like a regular CD-R disk that somebody has customised.

But after researching the title for a bit longer, I rearlised that this game never had another sequel or an update title with more gameplay and infomation about the characters. This sort of title is needed in the industry at the moment, insted of the list of EA yearly updates, crap movie/TV show Tie Ins or anything Ninetndo (apart from Mario or Zelda games of course). OK it might not sell as well as other titles in the market, but I think it would make more of an impact than Games Party on the Wii.

Tuesday 24 February 2009

Gamespotting 004 - Jill Valentine R.I.P


I can say this without any hesitation, I love the Resident Evil franchise and I am a series fanboy. I love the whole series, which sure has had its ups and downs over the years, but overall is one of the best gaming series that Capcom has ever created.But I am worried, I have recently re-downloaded the Resident Evil 5 demo from the Playstation Network to give it another chance.

When I first downloaded the demo, I hated it. Sure it has the over the shoulder gameplay that made Resi 4 such a good title to play and fresh at the time it came out, but it was nothing like that title. One thing that I have always liked about the Resi series is the menu screen which allows the player to heal, combine and change weapons without having to do it on the screen. This also gives the player a bit of time to figure out a stratagy against their current enemy, but is Resi 5 it has been replaced by a on screen inventory screen which was the most annoying thing that I have seen in a Resi game.

Also the enemies in Resi 5 are much harder this time round, this is no to be complained for the die hard fans of the series, but for a six foot giant executioner with blood stained hands and nails in his forarms to completly drain your health in one move with his giant axe is not the Resi that I know and love, even the Tyrant or NEMESIS didn't do that much damage and they are created as war machines with help of the T and G viruses for Umbrella.

So I have dismissed this title and have cancelled my pre-order of the game because I hated it so much, until last night. During the night, I watched Resident Evil: Degeneration and saw the trailers for the game on the disc, the trailers still looked like the same sort of gameplay tha I encountered in the demo, but the storyline that was protrayed within the trailer has blew me away.

The storyline (after researching it a bit further) links a lot of loose ends in the whole series storyline together. The return of Albert Wesker and as you play as Chris Redfield, you finally get to finish the fight that was first started at the end of CODE: Veronica, but can Chris win? The return of Sherry Berkin who was taken away by Wesker at the end Of Resident Evil 2 and has never been seen since. At the end of the trailer, she was seen in a watertank like the one that held the Tyrant in Resident Evil.

Finally, it was announced earlier this week that Jill Valentine (One of the original protagonists from Resident Evil, along with Chris Redfield) has died a few years prior to the games events. Finding all this out makes me to buy this game. Not for the game itself, but for the knowledge that it will provide upon completion.

But why pay fourty pound for a new title, when you can find out the infomation of sites such as GameFAQs or even Wikipedia, will it be the same thing as playing through the game? I never thought I would say that about a game especially a Resi Evil title, but due to the poor demo, I have to say no for now.

Monday 23 February 2009

Gamespotting 003 - The Rebirth of the BeatEmUp


The year 2009 will down down is gaming history for many reasons, highly anticipated releases are coming up and consoles are getting a revamp to keep up to date with the ever evolving world. But in my opinion, the best reason that this year will be highly remembered is because the release of one game, Street Fighter 4.

For years the Beat Em Up has slowly declined in popularity compared to its hayday in the mid 1990s with game such as Killer Instinct, Street Fighter 2 and Mortal Kombat taking over most home consoles and arcades. But with each new beat em up released doing nothing new for the genre and the rising popularity of the FPS due to games such as Doom and Quake, it seemed that Beat Em Ups could get no better.
Sure there have been great fighing games released over the last 10 years, examples Soul Edge (Soul Calibur included), Dead Or Alive and various collaberations between two franchises such as Capcom and Marvel providing great gameplay but nothing else for the player to enjoy. Also compared to other games that have lots of bonus content, hidden features and additional gameplay being sold for the same ammount as a Beat Em Up does, why would the games market buy these games.

But One game can change all this, and I believe that the game is Street Fighter 4. I have only played this game for a few hours, but I felt that I went back to 1994 with my Mega Drive fighting against my mates with the championship control pad. It still feels the same as the older Steet Fighter 2 and 3 titles, but adds the genious gameplay from additional titles in the seres such as the alpha games and EX3. Of course you still can pull of the Dragon Punch or Sonic Boom in the game way, but it allows you to play the game in many different ways than any other Street Fighter title, especially when you play as some of the new characters especially created for this title.


Already been given top scores by leading games review sites such as Gametrailers and Gamespot, the title is a welcome addition to anybodys collection (Especially when you are bored of the game First Person Shooter just set in a different setting such as FEAR 2 or Gears Of War 2). The only thing that I can complane about is the boss of the game Seth (you will know what I mean when you play the arcade mode) The Beat Em Up is back, and personally I have missed them. Only thing that I would like now is a new Killer Instinct title and the rebirth of the genre will be complete.

ULTRA COMBOOOOOOOOOOOO

Sunday 22 February 2009

Gamespotting 002 - Last years games are this years cool!


Hey people

Well here goes for my first propper blog post for Gamespotting (Not counting the introduction) well here is something that has been on my mind for a while.

Overall this generation has given us some great games so far with the likes of Street Fighter 4 (Already my game of the year), GTA4, Falout 3, No More Heroes and countless others that could be future classics. Also this generation will also be known as the re-birth of the bedroom programmer with tools such as XNA and Sony's Little Big Planet.

But the only thing that I have a problem with is that are these games value for money. I recently bought Mirror's Edge for my Playstation 3 and enjoyed it for the few hours of gameplay that it provided, but overall I wouldn't play it again. For one, the last level annoyed the hell out of me and it doesn't give anything back to the player for doing the entire game again.

I personally think that gamers could play some of the last generations games, which now cost next to nothing and have more content for the player to enjoy. For example, I recently purchased Resident Evil Zero for the Gamecube for £2.49 from Cash Generator in Manchester and been playing it for 20 hours now and it is still not boring.

As it is the only Resident Evil that I haven't played, I thought it would be a worthy investment. I put it into my gamecube and at this moment in time has never been out of the disk drive. The twists and turns of the plotline and the lack of a item box makes this one of the best Resi games, but not as good as CODE VERONICA.

So why pay £40 for an eight hour game, when you can look around and get some good bargins fron the last generation. Most of which can be played on this generations consoles and have a more enjoyable time.

Just something to think about.

A Piece of RECESSION BUSTING advice from Gamespotting. (HA)

Gamespotting 001 - Jumping On The Bandwagon



Hello People

I am Luke and I am a Games Fanboy. I love games and understanding how they work. As I love games, I am currently doing a Video Games design course at the University Of Salford and propper enjoying it.



A lot of the students on our course read or have their own blogs, so I thought that I would start my own and basically jump on the blogging bandwagon. To tell the truth, i am new to the entire blog scene, not reading them but writing your own. So this blog might be a bit basic to start with, but will get better when get used to the entire blogging thing.

Hope people will enjoy it and find it usefull.

Choose Life, Choose Games.