sprites & bites

Gaming, iPads and a few biscuits on the side…

Monthly Archives: March 2010

Splinter Cell Conviction Demo

There is one thing in life guaranteed apart from death and taxes and that is that you can never please everybody.  Splinter Cell Conviction demo was released today with a few new changes to the series and from reading the forums there are generally two camps – those who love the changes and those who feel it is too far away from the other games and do not like it at all.

The real problem as far as I can see was that the series was getting old.  It was stale and none of the previous games really improved that much on the previous before that. In a nutshell it was the same gameplay, different location each time and very similar storyline.  Splinter Cell Conviction throws away the old rigid rule book and starts afresh with a new set of rules.  He is no longer an operative in a silly black outfit and donning night vision goggles but is working alone in civvies to his own agenda.

Gameplay wise, Ubisoft have now implemented an quick execute option so you can tag and kill multiple enemies with a couple of button presses.  I like this option. I have problem with some games sometimes in that my reactions are a bit slow so creating a set piece for multiple kills I think is excellent. It is not a given right either, so not to make it too easy, the execute option has to be earned by close up kills.  If anyone complains this makes the game too simple then the easy answer is do not use it. You are not forced to use the tag-then-execute option, it is merely there for those who do want to use it.

Personally I love the new gameplay. It is very fresh and I love the fact that they have moved away from the dry old black-clad-super-spy theme to give us something new.  This may be the recipe they need to bring back gamers who abandoned the series before because it was getting stale.

Roll on April, I will now submit my pre-order.

My friend Cat hates the changes  and you can read her well thought out rant on here

http://carocat.co.uk/2010/03/21/splinter-cell-conviction-demo/

Cat gives more information about the changes although I do not think they are all negative things. Two very polarised opinions :)

Missing My Xbox 360

My beloved Elite 360 has been sent to the retailer for repair.  It is well out of warranty so Microsoft wopuld not repair it for free but I did remember I had purchased the extended warranty for it at the time.

It went on Wednesday with the hard drive attached (the retailer wanted to send both to test both) and now it is in the lap of the gods.

The problem was not the red ring of death nor the E74 error but it simply had a problem recognising discs – game was placed into the tray but instead of showing the picture of the game and option to play it only said “open tray”. 15-20 minutes of faffing around switching on and off and swapping discs and I was getting lucky getti9ng them to work but over a period of a few weeks it was just getting worse.

I don’t usually buy extended warranties but the 360 is such a fragile machine and has so many potential problems it was well worth getting the extended warranty for only £20 or so. A repair from Microsoft would have cost me £60.

Shall I start a book on how long it will take to come back to me and whether it will be fixed properly?

Heavy Rain

A few months ago I talked about a new game coming called Heavy Rain on the Playstation 3. If you recall, the game is about a serial killer called the Origami Killer and you play a number of different characters in the game in the pursuit of the killer and to find a missing boy who has been abducted. I spoke about how the game was controlled mostly by quick time events – pressing particular buttons on the screen at the correct time to interact and make decisions on how the story progresses. It also forces you to make some moral decisions and promotes emotions within the player.

Well the game is out now and has gone straight to Number 1 in the all formats chart. I purchased this game on release day and I have to say it is one of the best games I have ever played. Actually it is not really a game it is more like an interactive movie with many different endings depending on your choices in the game.

I was so immersed into the story of the game I was actually upset that I made a single wrong button press ending in the death of a minor character that I had to restart that chapter again and do it properly because what I did felt so wrong and this is how the moral decisions within the game play on the players emotions.

Like all games, Heavy Rain is not perfect and sometimes suffers from confusing controls especially during moments of intensity like a car chase or a fight and confusing scenes are made more confusing because the more stressed the character gets, the faster the commands display on the screen. Fortunately if you are struggling with this aspect you can turn the difficulty down and play it a little slower.

Despite the niggles, I will now whip out my thesaurus and list some words which describe it – amazing, brilliant, unique, gorgeous, memorable and breathtaking. Yes the game and the ending was so brilliantly executed that when the credits rolled at the end it left me breathless and truly lost for words.  EXCELLENT/10

Out now on Playstation 3 only. Rated 18 years