On 12th February 2009 there will be a LIVE event in London where 8 gamers from around Europe will compete against each other and be the first to play FEAR 2: Project Origin.
Anyone can enter and all winners will have their expenses paid to get to London for the event.
For more information and to enter, visit www.whatisfearlive.com
Closing date for entries is 2nd February 2009
Just a quick note to let you know that there will be a playing demo this week on Thursday for F.E.A.R 2: Project Origin.
The demo will be available on Xbox Live, PSN Store and for PC available from http://www.whatisfear.com/
You can see screenshots and videos of this upcoming game in my previous posts
http://www.spritesandbites.net/2009/01/07/more-fear-2-project-origin-screens
http://www.spritesandbites.net/2008/12/22/fear-2-screenshots/
I will be bringing a short review of the demos at the end of the week.
You would have thought after years of the Tomb Raidergames being criticised for awkward jumps and dodgy camera angles that the developers would take note and do something about it. It appears that they have ignored these pleas and the evidence is in the new downloadable demo on Xbox Live.
Far from improving the game it is the same old controls with the same old frustration and the demo leaves me feeling cold. I usually have a rule of not judging a game by its demo because demos often do not reflect the finished game, but in this case I feel justified in thinking that it is crap. I was expecting something fresh and new and some fixes of age-old problems.
Instead I have a feeling of a rehashed old game and that the developers have made no attempt to bring us something new.
Frustrating jumps, difficult to see angles, dodgy camera angles, and what is with the sonar map? It is useless. It is like looking at an old videogame from the 8-bit days. If they are going to give a map at least make it useful. Milking a cash cow springs to mind.
I will not be buying this game, it is just the same old shit, different name.
I was asked to write a review for this game PURE of course I jumped at the chance to play a game before release. But what I failed to mention to them and what I should reveal now is that I hate racing games. I hate them mostly because I am rubbish at them and feel more at home with a good story-driven game.
So it has been hard for me to decide how to approach this review. Of course I have to be impartial and just say really whether it is good or bad and hope that my hatred of racing games is brushed aside.
Rocketbowl appeared on Xbox Live Arcade today for a mere 800 points. I say “mere” as in not a lot because it is not a lot of points for a LOT of fun.
There are 10 bowling alleys to unlock, except these are no normal bowling alleys. Instead of an alley in the traditional sense, you have a wide map area with lots of sets of pins and collectables. Think maps about the size of Marble Blast Ultra but with bowling pin sets scattered across the course. The purpose of course is to knock down the set of pins in that frame only (the one which is highlighted by a red arrow) but there is nothing to stop you from going for other sets of pins on the same course to boost your score of the current pin set. Say for example for some reason you miss your target pin set. You can guide your ball while it still has pace to another pin set and try and take down those instead. If you take any out of that set, when it comes to bowling that set in your next go, the pins you took down will already be down.
Rockets can boost your balls to go a lot faster. But be careful when using them because pressing X to left boost will shift the ball slightly left and you can actually miss your target, the same for pressing B to boost right. It is difficult to explain but you can clearly see how it works in the trial version of the game.
Alongside the courses and collectables on the map you have challenges and tournaments. Challenges are against one computer opponent and Tournaments are against 4 or 5. The good thing is that you do not have to go through every computer controlled opponents before you get another go. You only see your goes and the opponents are tallied up in the background.
This is of course also online and local multiplayer if you wish to play your friends.
Throughout the course of the game you will earn cash and this will allow you to buy better bowling balls with more accuracy and better firepower.
It is a good game and quite addictive and certainly worthy of 800 points in my opinion.
Fable II pub games was released on Xbox Live arcade this morning for quite an expensive 800 points. To me this is expensive and the reason being is the game has little substance to it. For those who do not know, these games will be part of the full Fable II game when it is released in a few months time. They are releasing the pack now so people who buy Fable II can get a head start and get some gold ready for the start of the real game.
The game itself has 3 pub games. One is a card game, one is a dice game and the other revolves around spinners. All 3 games rely on solely an amount of luck and there is no skill involved whatsoever. They are also pretty basic so you will be spending your time only pressing the A button to draw the next cards, spin the dice or spin the spinners.
Unless you want to rack up lots of gold ready for when you play Fable II there is no reason at all to buy this game, especially at 800 points. I will not be buying it, part of the fun of playing RPG games is getting enough gold through the game to buy your upgraded weapons or whatever. Why on earth would I want to go into the game being able to afford everything? Of course there is a negative to gambling early, if you rack up a huge debt then this will not reflect very well on your starting character.
Gamble wisely.
At 1200 Microsoft Points this is one hell of an expensive game. Braid is a side scrolling platformer with flavours of Super Mario and Donkey Kong to mention just a few. But Braid is not a normal platformer. It has a beautiful art direction and a soothing soundtrack to go with it.
That is when the beauty ends. I am finding the puzzles really frustrating. Naturally they are easy early on, but as the game progresses it seems to go way uphill in the difficulty stakes and way too fast. I have got to a point now where I cannot be bothered to continue it because I simply do not have the logical part of my brain active at the moment.
Maybe I should just listen to the music 