sprites & bites

Gaming, iPads and a few biscuits on the side…

Category Archives: hd

Previously on Alan Wake…

The storyline strong Heavy Rain was released on the PS3 to critical acclaim a few months ago and a few days ago it Microsoft’s turn to release a storyline strong game – Alan Wake, which has been in development since the original Xbox was out. Both Alan Wake and Heavy Rain feature action aplenty with impressive storylines to carry the game through.  Heavy Rain had the thriller but Alan Wake is a horror story with enough twists and screams to affect your nightly dreams.

Alan Wake your character is a horror book author who has writers block and decides to go to Bright Falls with his wife Alice to take a break and end his writers block. Unfortunately, things do not go as planned, Alice goes missing and he sets on a frightening tale trying to get her back.  The world is twists, full of horrors, the darkness of evil consuming the population of Bright Falls.  To remain spoiler free I will not mention the story further, only to say that I found myself questioning the storyline several times because it kept twisting – this is not a negative note, it is saying that I was kept on my toes trying to keep up with the twists in the story and at one point I had myself thinking I got the story all wrong, but it was the story playing with my mind.

Graphically the game has its superb points when the environments look polished with high detail. Unfortunately the game looks bad in places on my big 40″ TV. Sometimes the background appears a lower resolution so while you have Alan Wake looking good, the area in the background looks pixelated and like I say on a big TV this is evident. ON a smaller TV this may not be so noticeable.  There is also an element of screen tearing at times when Alan is forced to walk places and follow people, it is no game-breaker but can be a tad annoying at times.

They have included some excellent songs in the game and the sound effects match the spooky atmosphere in the game.  There is a big fail with one part of the sound though. When someone is talking as part of the story, sometimes you can hear conversations in the background so it plays two conversations at once and it can be hard to distinguish the two apart. Turn on the subtitles and it is even more of a mess. You end up with two lots of subtitles one above another with no indication as to which subtitle is which.  If anyone has the sound turned down or is deaf and relies on subtitles this is very bad because there is no indication which are the storyline conversation words and which are the background conversation words.  It is not very well implemented at all and they should have had it so when storyline conversations come up, the background conversations are muted.  I would say this is the one thing that ruins the game sometimes and it is very distracting.

So for those obsessed with numbers, with the graphical issues and the sound/subtitles issues I have to mark this game down, I would have expected more from a game in development alledgedly for 10 years and it is a disappointment to have these flaws. However, whilst I would have knocked away 2 points from the score giving an average 8, I think the storyline has enough gusto to carry the game into a 9 score. Because the game is all about the story and you will find yourself gripped from the very beginning and emotionally driven to solve the mystery and find Alice – dead or alive.

GREAT/10

Alan Wake is available now on Xbox 360 only. Rated 15 years and over.

Don’t forget also you can download filmed episodes of the Bright Falls series on Xbox live marketplace. They add to the story of Alan Wake and are free to download.

Xbox 360 Games Marketplace

Great idea but like everything else run by a big corporation, it is too expensive.

I really want Call of Duty 2 as I have never been able to find it again in the shops but at £20 I think that is far too expsnive for a game which is 5 years old.  If it was £9.99 I would buy it instantly but not at £20, I am not that desperate.

They should really have prices whcih reflect the market for older games.  Maybe have a tier system – new games at near full price, games over 2-3 years old should be bargain bucket.

Unfortunately I think people will accept these prices and pay them which will in turn justify them to Microsoft and they will not bother changing them.

Killzone 2 Review

 

 Over the years, the Killzone name has come under fire for being an underachiever. It has been in the centre of many fanboy flame wars on numerous internet sites and forums. The original was branded a “Halo killer” before the first screen shots were released to the public; this made the anticipation sky rocket and overall expectations sensationally high. For the sequel, the expectations were once again high. But this time, Killzone 2 is worth every ounce of hype and sensational expectation it deserves.

 So let’s start with the story, you play as Sgt. Tomas “Sev” Sevchenko, a new character with a fresh new background. You play through the entire game as Sev, unlike the original Killzone that had you controlling four different members of your team. You are part of Alpha team, a group of soldiers tasked with invading the Helgan capital and taking down Visari. Every cut scene is expertly created and really helps push the action and the story. Although Killzone’s story isn’t the hottest in town, it defiantly engages you and gives you something to fight for. The voice acting is pretty good; there are no overly intelligent sounding marines but a more realistic grunt that really bleeds into the story and makes it come alive.

 Killzone has always been known as a pusher of the Playstation brands graphics, and it’s no different with Killzone 2 offering some of the greatest graphics and screen presence I have ever come across. Some would argue that Crysis for the pc is a much more worthy candidate for best graphics, and although this is true in some areas, Killzone 2 just oozes top notch build quality and amazing effects. Killzone utilizes some very cutting edge technology in a bid to make it the most visceral and entertaining battle experience to grace gamer’s hands. It’s a game that must be played to be fully understood; watching game play videos just doesn’t do the job of conveying a true war experience. Sound, especially if you have 7.1 surround, is a true treat for the ears as every snap, crackle and pop fleshes out the experience even more so. The weight of your character, the kick back from your gun, the rush to cover and the blinding grey scale of your bullet ridden corpse immerses you so much so you truly forget you’re playing a game.

 For AI, this game is no idiot. On higher difficulties the Helgast act as a team, always thinking ahead it seems. It’s a real challenge at times to break through, but when you do it’s so very gratifying. I’m sure it isn’t normal to be tricked into thinking you are playing against human counterparts, especially in multiplayer when you realise after 20minuites of playing the enemy team are all bots. There is the odd, very rare time when the AI does something wrong, but perfection in this area can’t be expected.

 The gameplay coupled with the grand presentation and production values sets this game apart from the rest. The controls for me are spot on, but do come with the chance to change them to suit particular styles of play. So far I have spoken very highly of Killzone 2, but there are some small things that could be improved on. The addition of Co-op would have been great, especially online co-op. Who knows what future updates could give us, maybe whole new singe player experiences. Some parts of the excellent multiplayer could be improved like party support, but overall, the multiplayer feature of Killzone 2 really shines through and is sure to be one of the most immersive online experiences this year. At first it is slow and seemingly hard to get into, but as you play through it the full flavour of the multiplayer starts to kick in as a bevy of options show up. The experience is extensive and easily customisable to suit your needs on the battlefield. Stats and an amazing replay option on the Killzone web site are real advancements in multiplayer, as is the way game modes change on the fly in matches. Killzone 2 can truly be seen as a new bench mark in multiplayer, although not a total evolution, it has plenty to it to define itself from the rest.

 To sum up, Killzone 2 is the FPS the Playstation 3 has been waiting for. This game helps to push the console apart from the competition. If this is a taste of what’s to come this year from Playstation, we are in for a treat. This high quality gaming experience cannot be missed, so grab it now and join the battle!

 Excellent/10

By E-ROLE

Samsung LE40A557 Sky Remote Code

I unashamedly bought a new TV yesterday.  It is the 40 inch Samsung LE40A557 from Comet £599.  OhMyGoodNess it is an amazing television.  I previously had a Polaroid 26 inch and this is better than that Tv by a country mile.

No longer do I have HDMI issues, the sound is better (not tinny) and of course with a contrast ratio of 30,000:1 it has much better blacks.  There is one area that Polaroid beats this TV and that is the menus.  On the Polaroid I could easily switch input sources between consoles and sky by pressing source and selecting the input I wanted.  With the Samsung I can go from sky to ps3 or 360 in one button press as it detects the next HDMI source, but going back to sky I have to cycle through all the inputs to get back to sky and that is highly annoying.  But I can live with that.

Right now to set up the Sky remote code.  Press interactive on the sky remote and navigate through the options to customer services and choose to setup your remote control.  Go down to Samsung but you will find this model not in the list.  No problem, just select the closest match which is the LE40A566 – Sky code 0840

Then follow the on screen instructions to change the code.  Voila! You can now control your TV volume etc with your Sky Remote.

I have confirmed this code works with Sky HD remote controls.  I am unable to confirm it with other remotes.

Polaroid HDTV Sky Remote Code

Looking at my web stats I see that people are still coming to my blog looking for Polaroid HDTV Sky remote control codes. So just this once I am posting the instructions again.

I cannot help with all box types but if you have Rev 6 remote or above then try the following with code 206

1. Select any channel on your TV.
2. Point your Sky remote away from the TV and press tv
3. Press and hold down select and the red button simultaneously until the red light at the top of your Sky remote flashes twice.
4. Input the Sky remote control code (206) and press select . The red LED at the top of the Sky remote control should flash twice.
5. Point your Sky remote at the TV and try the volume button. If this works try other TV functions. If these work then the correct code has been selected.

I have confirmed the code 206 works with the Polaroid FLU 26/32 and with Sky HD. I have also managed to get the code working on Sky+ remotes/boxes.