Latest News // Tips

PAIN PS3 Update

by beck ~ July 17th, 2008

If you own PAIN for the PS3 and have not played it in a while, perhaps it is time to give it a try again.  Back in June they released an update for the game which brings new goodies - new launcher locations, new game modes and trophies to collect.

On first look it appears that nothing has changed and to be honest you would not know of some of the new features as they have to be unlocked by doing certain things.

For lots more information on the unlockables, head on over to www.painps3.com

One such unlockable is Block Party.

Block Party is a new launcher location of Downtown and set the other side of town looking back on the original location.  To unlock Block Party Aim down towards the subway in Pandemonium and see the granny standing outside.  You need to shoot and grab her and take her down the subway and get a train to smash into her.  You do not have to do it in one hit but over two or three tries as the granny will stay wherever she is dropped and you can pick her up and try again.  Providing you get her hit by the train it will be unlocked.  Sounds gruesome but really it is not.

Remember kids, it is only a game. No Grannies were harmed in the making of the game.

As an extra plus, there will be a new PAIN location released soon which is at an amusement park, this will also include a brand new online multiplayer mode woohoo.  Whether this will be free as an update or purchasable in the online store has yet to be announced.  For lots of information on the new amusement park location, check out the PAIN BLOG

Bourne Conspiracy Game

by beck ~ June 27th, 2008

When I played the Bourne Conspiracy demo on xbox 360 a few weeks ago I thought it was pretty rubbish.  The *quick time events* combat and cutscenes I felt got in the way of what I was trying to do and I promptly disregarded the game totally as it felt like a pile of cack.

Well anyway I went against my judgement today and bought the game for the PS3.  Well I have to say it is the most fun I have had in a game for quite a while.  Most of the action in the game is based around these quick time events but instead of feeling frustrated by them I am actually enjoying it.  The controls are easy to use although sometimes you do not get long enough to press a specific button and that can be frustrating.

The armed combat is the worst part of the game.  Even with some headshots, the AI do not die so you can end up having to shoot them multiple times with your handgun to actually kill them, it is not so much with the assault rifles but still can be a little hit and miss.  Shotguns tend to be one shot kills thankfully.

One thing I do like is that if you run close to an enemy the game will take you straight into unarmed combat mode (whether the enemy has a gun or not) so there is no having to scramble the camera around to get a good viewpoint of your close enemy.  The only issue I have seen is that often when you are close up in a corner or near a wall the camera will lose sight of you and your enemy fighting, but because this is a bit of a button masher it really does not matter, just keep pounding away until you get the chance to do a “final takedown” and press the circle button to finish him off.

This game is full of action.  I have done 3 levels now and I don’t think I have had time to pause for breath properly, there is just something happening at every turn and it is an exciting game.

Now of course this is not a review, but unless this game starts to take a nosedive I would give it a healthy score and recommend it to anyone.  Also available on Xbox 360.

Great/10

bourne conspiracy box art

Vote for an Achievement

by beck ~ June 23rd, 2008

Ubisoft is allowing customers to vote for an achievement in the up and coming Prince of Persia.

You get the choice of:

Longest Grip

Run the whole map

Combo Specialist

Cast your votes now http://prince-of-persia.us.ubi.com/index.php?page=achievement

Golden Joystick Awards 2008

by beck ~ June 21st, 2008

When I did my “Best Games of 2007″ back in November/December of last year, I was criticised for doing them when there was still some weeks left of the year. But with very few releases in December I thought it was okay.

It seems that the Golden Joystick Awards are far worse than me.  They have put up a shortlist of games already for nomination and we have not even seen the best half of the year yet.  We don’t even get the best games released until September usually so restricting the games until now is very limiting and there are a lot of fantastic games coming out that will not even get a look in.

I think this is very unfair on hard working developers.  But anyway if you want to nominate your favourite games, follow on to http://www.computerandvideogames.com/joystick/shortlist.php

Back to World War 2

by beck ~ June 21st, 2008

News was released last week that the next installment of the Call of Duty 4 series is going back to World War 2 after it’s brief fling with a modern setting in Call of Duty 4.

The general consensus across many forums is along the lines of “burn in hell”.  It appears that after the global success of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, that nobody wants to go back to World War 2.

I would like to raise my hand in support of going back to World War 2 setting.  Call of Duty 4 was great but I always preferred the WW2 setting.  And indeed it was the only game online I was ever good at.  Call of Duty 4 was too fast paced for my liking and I barely played it online because it just was not my style.

Okay so WW2 has been done to death in games and we have had countless games set in old burned out French towns but the next will be different.  It will be set in the Pacific so I expect to see some beautiful locations in Japan maybe.

And to those who cry “But Treyarch made Call of Duty 3 and that was rubbish”, please do bear in mind that Treyarch’s development time for that game was cut short and they could not give it the time it deserved.  Everybody deserves a second chance to prove themselves.  They will have had a good amount of time to devote to the new game so there will be no excuses, if it is still rubbish then that will be it for them, nobody will forgive them.  Anyway aside from that, I actually enjoyed Call of Duty 3 alot (despite the bugs) and I do not care if I am in the minority.

I am absolutely delighted that the series is going back to its roots.  Those naysayers who are screaming now may well change their mind.  They will either buy the game and enjoy it and eat their words (assuming it is a good game) or they will cut their nose off to spite their face and not buy it out of protest, in that they may well be denying themselves a great gaming experience.  So screw them, if they do not like it, do not buy it.  I for one will definitely be buying this game, even if it turns out to be rubbish.

Alone in the Dark

by beck ~ June 20th, 2008

I have been looking forward to Alone in the Dark (Xbox 360) for some time now.  I played the originals many moons ago and enjoyed them immensely, so naturally I expected the game to be great with it’s move to the next generation.

First of all, let’s start with the good.  The game looks fantastic.  There is great use of fire in the game and the fire effects are amazing.  It spreads like real fire would spread.  If you do not extinguish a fire fully, then it will spread again, somehow I can feel the warmth from the fire when I am playing.  Although the temperature rise could be from getting over a bad cold.

The game is full of cinematic views.  You can be running along and the camera may change to show a different view and something happening, like a bus falling off a ledge or a body seeming to fall out of the sky.  Unfortunately the game has a fixed camera though and there is no use of turning the camera yourself to have a look around - fortunately, by pressing the Y button you can switch to first person mode and have free use of the camera.

Talking about the controls here, this brings me to the bad of the game.  The controls are awful.  I have played hundreds, maybe thousands of games in my lifetime and I can honestly say this has one of the worst control schemes I have ever used. I really want to know what the developers were thinking when they decided to use this control scheme.  Were they hungover?  Had they never played 3rd person action games before?  They really could have done with sitting down with a hundred gamers and asking them if they were comfortable with the controls before the game was finished because I can be pretty sure the answer would be a resounding NO. It is not that the controls do not work properly, they actually work fine with no glitches, it is that the control system just does not work effectively to give a pleasant experience and it just leads to multiple deaths.  I am surprised the games testers did not end up in asylums due to having to play it over and over again.

Allow me to explain.  You control your character with the left stick, this is perfectly normal for a 3rd person adventure.  The camera is static so you cannot control it in 3rd person and the camera moves with you from room to room this is also a common viewpoint (even though I hate it).  The problems come in because different actions require switching between first and third person views.  As an example I pick up a chair to use as a weapon - these weapons can only be used in 3rd person viewpoint.  You use the right stick to swing back your weapon and push it forward to strike.  This could be a good way of controlling your swings, except that because you have no control of the camera and the room may have a viewpoint at an angle you could be swinging into mid-air and missing the enemy entirely.  Guns however cannot be used in 3rd person and you have to switch to first person.  So you can press RB to pull your gun but then you have to switch to first person to use it, by that time the enemy may strike a killing blow.

An even worse example is the use of fire extinguishers.  You pick up a fire extinguisher but to put out a fire you have to switch to first person.  Thats okay but what if the door you need to get through is locked?  You then have to switch to 3rd person again so you can use the extinguisher to bash down the door.  It is all very clumsy and frustrating.

The other frustrating point is the inventory system.  The developer has made it look really original and instead of having blocks of items on a screen, the character pulls open his coat like a dirty old man selling knock off DVD’s and the items are shown on the inside of his jacket.  The problem here is the navigating through the items.  The control stick is so sensitive when moving around that it is easy to miss an item because it skips so quickly over them and it is quite hard to be precise.  It can be a frustating few moments trying to pin down the item you want because sometimes the left/right buttons do not work and I have to use the stick.

Finally, the driving sections are absolutely atrocious.  One mistake and you are toast.  Trial and error gameplay is all okay when done well, but its like driving sections in GTA3, most of the time other cars come out at you deliberately and when you hit them you stick to the cars and with little time to manouvre your car again it will result in immediate death.

Alone in the dark could have been an awesome game with amazing graphics and brilliant gameplay which would have seen it sent to being in my top 10 of the best ever survival horrors.  Instead all it really turned out to be is a good looking game which ends up being a disappointment with poor controls.  It is like getting a fancy box of choccies for Christmas only to find they are mouldy inside.

I will try and continue to play this game because despite its horrible controls, I feel there is a good game in there just waiting to burst out and surprise me.

Good/10 (but has issues).

*UPDATE* I have tried to continue this game but it is just getting worse and is making for a very unpleasant experience to a point where I am actually skipping sections in chapters.  When I get a game I do not feel I can play and resort to skipping bits, then that is a failure.

Updated score - Below Average/10.  I do not recommend anybody buy this game, its a rent at the very most. The developers should be totally ashamed of themselves.  The sad thing is, this could have been an amazing game.  The driving sections I can forgive because there are not many of those, but combat is such a big part of the game that it has to be easy to use and as much as I try and play this game I cannot play it and I cannot forgive that.

Ipod Touch and Jailbreaker

by beck ~ June 6th, 2008

Unless you have been living under a piece of warm moss, you would know about the iPhone which is the fancy touch screen mobile phone from Apple.  Its younger brother, the Ipod Touch is just the same but without the phone features and incredible price tag.  It is a PDA of sorts but lacks some of the features of todays Windows Mobile PDA’s.  The Touch has no bluetooth and its only connection to the internet is via the use of built in wifi.

Out of the box, the Touch does not support 3rd party software and you are restricted to using the built in software and downloadable web widgets.  These widgets allow for some extra functionality but they are web only so do require an active internet wifi connection to work.  The latest firmware from January has added an excellent email client, notes and a few other bits and bobs.  But still out of the box, without 3rd party applications it is very basic.

Until Apple allow for 3rd party applications to be installed BRING ON THE JAILBREAKER !!

Jailbreaker is a little program which hacks the Touch to allow for 3rd party software to be installed.  It is probably against the terms of use of the Touch to hack it, but it belongs to me and I can do what I like with it, including using it as a coffee coaster.  I was unsure about whether to hack it at first, but after reading its nigh on impossible to brick the machine if it goes wrong, I decided to go for it.  I downloaded the special program to my PC, ran the unlocking process and waited for the Touch to reboot.  Except it didn’t.  What was supposed to happen didn’t happen and I was fearing I had indeed bricked it.  I tried to restore it but I could not get iTunes to even recognised it, it seemed the bootloader was buggered.  One reboot later and all of a sudden it sprang into action and the hack was successful.  I browsed to the source repositories to find new software and there is a lot of fun stuff to find.  Of course the first things I needed was an RSS reader and a Usenet reader, both of which I found and installed.  Now my Touch has been broken wide open and opportunities seem endless.  Now it is a real PDA (almost).

I need to play with it some more, but stay tuned for a comparison between Windows Mobile and the Touch operating system.