My blog has now moved, while this has not been updated in a while, I am hoping to find some time to post more frequently on my new blog.
http://waynimus.spaces.live.com
You can expect to find mostly stuff revolving around my thoughts on the latests gaming news, and anything else I may decide to just randomly type about... :P
Friday 4 January 2008
Friday 3 August 2007
Top 10 Aniticpated Games & GTA IV delay...
Take Two recently announced that Grand Theft Auto IV has now been delayed, if they thought they had issues before with "kids" who should not even be playing the game going out and doing unspeakable crimes... just wait for the news in a week or two. "Thousands of grown men attempt to commit suicide” the reason? They say “Grand Theft Auto IV was delayed just 2 months before it was scheduled to release."
It's an exciting year for gamers, with some really promising new titles on the horizon for 2007 and beyond on both the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 gaming platforms. New IP's of interest include Assassin's Creed, Bioshock, and Haze and of course perhaps the most intriguing of all has to be, LittleBigPlanet.
There are some familiar faces returning this year, with Bungie's epic trilogy sadly concluding in what looks like will be the final Halo game, at least with an FPS perspective or with Master Chief as the main character. We can still live in hope that Halo, the First Person Shooter makes a return once again down the road.
The following are the Top 10 titles I am most interested, intrigued by or just simply must-have (from now into 2008):
01. Halo 3 (Legendary Edition)
02. Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
03. LittleBigPlanet
04. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
05. Grand Theft Auto IV (moved down three places due to annoying delay)
06. Assassin's Creed
07. Haze
08. Bioshock
09. WWE SmackDown! vs. Raw 2008
10. Unreal Tournament III
There are others of interest, but those above are the ones that interest me the most. Honourable mentions include Guitar Hero III, Rock Band, The Orange Box, PGR4 and Resident Evil 5, this last game would have made it in the list if it was not so far off in the future, 2009 seems so bloody far away... speaking of Resident Evil 5 I spent some lovely Photoshop time with an in-game screenshot from Resident Evil 5, see if you can spot the difference between the two following images.
RE5 - Original
RE5 - PS Edit
I may do future ones like this actually perhaps sticking good old' Wolly in one of my future ones, maybe ;)
It's an exciting year for gamers, with some really promising new titles on the horizon for 2007 and beyond on both the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 gaming platforms. New IP's of interest include Assassin's Creed, Bioshock, and Haze and of course perhaps the most intriguing of all has to be, LittleBigPlanet.
There are some familiar faces returning this year, with Bungie's epic trilogy sadly concluding in what looks like will be the final Halo game, at least with an FPS perspective or with Master Chief as the main character. We can still live in hope that Halo, the First Person Shooter makes a return once again down the road.
The following are the Top 10 titles I am most interested, intrigued by or just simply must-have (from now into 2008):
01. Halo 3 (Legendary Edition)
02. Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
03. LittleBigPlanet
04. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
05. Grand Theft Auto IV (moved down three places due to annoying delay)
06. Assassin's Creed
07. Haze
08. Bioshock
09. WWE SmackDown! vs. Raw 2008
10. Unreal Tournament III
There are others of interest, but those above are the ones that interest me the most. Honourable mentions include Guitar Hero III, Rock Band, The Orange Box, PGR4 and Resident Evil 5, this last game would have made it in the list if it was not so far off in the future, 2009 seems so bloody far away... speaking of Resident Evil 5 I spent some lovely Photoshop time with an in-game screenshot from Resident Evil 5, see if you can spot the difference between the two following images.
RE5 - Original
RE5 - PS Edit
I may do future ones like this actually perhaps sticking good old' Wolly in one of my future ones, maybe ;)
Wednesday 11 July 2007
MS Conference E3 thoughts...
Microsoft's conference was a good'en with many games played live and in the flesh including Call of Duty 4 and Assassin's Creed. A very well polished trailer was shown of Halo 3 singleplayer gameplay as well as a real life/CG video short based on Halo 3. The Grand Theft Auto IV trailers we have currently seen have been confirmed that these were recorded using the Xbox 360 version of the game.
Blue Dragon is the first game to hit the marketplace since the conference has ended with several new game trailers up already. I expect more up in the morning and in the coming days as well as more demos, possibly including WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2008 and Assassin's Creed (my own assumption).
There will likely be a montage video of the actual press conference up by the morning/afternoon too, I wonder if they will cut out the new Xbox 360 Halo themed console -- was funny!! Peter Moore was like, "heres our new console!!" crowd = silence.. and then Moore was like "Come on, I don't even get a reaction for holding it with just one hand."
Another guy on the stage (forget what game) talking about a game and going on about how "we're going to take it deeper and push it harder than ever before..." crowd laughs, one of those weird and amusing moments.
Sure I forgot alot, but thats what sticks in my mind.
And then, I'm offf -Zzzz..
Blue Dragon is the first game to hit the marketplace since the conference has ended with several new game trailers up already. I expect more up in the morning and in the coming days as well as more demos, possibly including WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2008 and Assassin's Creed (my own assumption).
There will likely be a montage video of the actual press conference up by the morning/afternoon too, I wonder if they will cut out the new Xbox 360 Halo themed console -- was funny!! Peter Moore was like, "heres our new console!!" crowd = silence.. and then Moore was like "Come on, I don't even get a reaction for holding it with just one hand."
Another guy on the stage (forget what game) talking about a game and going on about how "we're going to take it deeper and push it harder than ever before..." crowd laughs, one of those weird and amusing moments.
Sure I forgot alot, but thats what sticks in my mind.
And then, I'm offf -Zzzz..
Saturday 7 July 2007
Overpowering gaming bliss.
I have spent a fair amount of time with The Darkness on the Xbox 360, and must admit it is the most intriguing singleplayer campaign I have played on a console in a while. Anyone who likes FPS' and gore should come out from the darkness and buy this game. I haven’t fully completed it yet but I am in no rush to do so as the important thing is, I am enjoying it which is something I haven’t done with some games in a long while.
I have been playing another game just recently which falls into the "fun" category and that is Guitar Hero 2, this also falls into the "frustration and hair pulling" categories and that’s just playing it on Easy though this is due to me trying to dominate Easy by hitting every note on every song, which isn't going so well. Never the less, I am thoroughly enjoying it for the most part. This really is a great game to break out the guitar from the closet for, especially for some mildly drunken party times as I experienced just days ago with my Birthday. That was a right laugh, though I suppose that’s the benefit of playing multiplayer either versus or co-op; hopefully the highly anticipated third instalment has online play as that will really get me rocking. Fingers crossed that the reports of GHIII coming with a wireless guitar are true; I can then jump up and down like some mad rock type person without the fear of pulling my Xbox 360 to its death.
I've recently played and reviewed the Xbox 360 version of the Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer. Apparently F4’s gamerscore is not overly difficult, so I'm hoping to get some more time with it as soon as I get chance to get me over the 30k gamerscore mark. The game isn't exactly the most enjoyable one on the market but then that’s the way things seem to go with movies that turn to videogames to make a cheap buck (I mean pound...). You can read my full review here.
I feel somewhat lost now as I have "every" achievement that Gears of War has to offer, yet I'm still playing it regularly. Oh well, fingers crossed for some spilled beans on the sure fire hit that will be Gears II, of which we can hopefully expect some news or more likely a teaser trailer of at the upcoming E3 Media & Business Summit next week.
I went to play Halo 2 just recently, my Xbox backwards compatible game that is and not the Vista edition. I am unhappy as I'm having problems with the damn thing. The downloaded multiplayer maps were downloaded using a different and now dead Xbox 360 console but with my hard drive on my replacement console I'm getting an error message telling the “Content you have downloaded is damaged and not usable", which sucks as I paid £2 to download the 2 recently released multiplayer maps not so long ago. However, there is light at the end of the tunnel as Bungie have announced that these maps are to be free to download very soon. Still, it's a bit of a pain in the arse as I've paid for them and haven’t really spent a great deal of time with them, just as well there only two quid or I would be moaning a bit more loudly. Fingers crossed I can get a new computer up and running soon and then do some Halo 2 achievement whoring with the PC version of the game, this lovely new bit of kit will also enable me to throw some edited gaming footage together which will certainly come in handy for site content, gameplay montages and our recently formed Community Gaming Nights, which should make things a lot more interesting and keep me on my toes that little bit more.
Wowww! As I finished writing this I just remembered one more thing which I spent some of yesterday playing and that was Rainbow Six: Vegas. I have rented the PlayStation 3 version of the game. Why? I don’t know really, my personal intentions were to put the games online play through its paces as Resistance and Motorstorm play absolutely flawlessly online with 0% latency issues – this is what I mainly expected to compare between the Xbox 360 version of the game. Yes, the PS3 version played online flawlessly with no lag what so ever for me, though I heard many people talking in one of the matches I played and these people were complaining about lag, I had none though but I shall continue to press on later and see if I encounter any such issues. I need to jump back online with the Xbox 360 version soon as I remember this being very laggy at times when the game would have over a specific amount of players, though after speaking to a buddy he assures me these issues are now solved – I’m not so convinced, but hopefully that is the case. After putting the PS3 version on, I then decided to do a little graphics comparison whilst I was their and the difference was easily noticeable. I think I may continue to do things like this as they seem to bring up a good discussion, though some may think I am biased towards the 360 version as I’m more into my Xbox gaming. Once I have my PC rig sorted out with a capture card, I’ll then be able to throw some comparison videos and screenshots together for more of these multi-format games. Anyway, I placed my character at the same exact location on both consoles in the first sineplayer level and switched between the Xbox 360 and PS3 input. The PS3 version does look good; however the Xbox 360 looked vastly superior in terms of vividness where as the PS3 version looked dull in comparison with many jagged edges noticeable on buildings, benches, poles and any other objects that were present throughout the Mexican Streets, assume the PS3 version has no FSAA (Full screen anti-aliasing). Sony fanboys, do not be alarmed as this does not mean the Xbox 360 is “better” than the PS3, it simply indicates that the PS3 version of Rainbow is not a fantastic port from the Xbox 360 version of the game. I am assuming it took the development team some time to get it looking as good as it does now, which is certainly a commendable job on their part if the rumours of the PS3 development process being vastly difficult to programme for compared to the Xbox 360, I would imagine it’s more difficult to port a game over and rework as opposed to making a new game based on one systems architecture.
That's all folks... I think I'm all blogged out for today, don't have much else planned at the moment though; I may be heading out later to watch Die Hard 4.0, should be an excellent action film and hopefully it's a worthy edition to add to the previous three when its finally released, on Blu-ray disc of course ;)
I have been playing another game just recently which falls into the "fun" category and that is Guitar Hero 2, this also falls into the "frustration and hair pulling" categories and that’s just playing it on Easy though this is due to me trying to dominate Easy by hitting every note on every song, which isn't going so well. Never the less, I am thoroughly enjoying it for the most part. This really is a great game to break out the guitar from the closet for, especially for some mildly drunken party times as I experienced just days ago with my Birthday. That was a right laugh, though I suppose that’s the benefit of playing multiplayer either versus or co-op; hopefully the highly anticipated third instalment has online play as that will really get me rocking. Fingers crossed that the reports of GHIII coming with a wireless guitar are true; I can then jump up and down like some mad rock type person without the fear of pulling my Xbox 360 to its death.
I've recently played and reviewed the Xbox 360 version of the Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer. Apparently F4’s gamerscore is not overly difficult, so I'm hoping to get some more time with it as soon as I get chance to get me over the 30k gamerscore mark. The game isn't exactly the most enjoyable one on the market but then that’s the way things seem to go with movies that turn to videogames to make a cheap buck (I mean pound...). You can read my full review here.
I feel somewhat lost now as I have "every" achievement that Gears of War has to offer, yet I'm still playing it regularly. Oh well, fingers crossed for some spilled beans on the sure fire hit that will be Gears II, of which we can hopefully expect some news or more likely a teaser trailer of at the upcoming E3 Media & Business Summit next week.
I went to play Halo 2 just recently, my Xbox backwards compatible game that is and not the Vista edition. I am unhappy as I'm having problems with the damn thing. The downloaded multiplayer maps were downloaded using a different and now dead Xbox 360 console but with my hard drive on my replacement console I'm getting an error message telling the “Content you have downloaded is damaged and not usable", which sucks as I paid £2 to download the 2 recently released multiplayer maps not so long ago. However, there is light at the end of the tunnel as Bungie have announced that these maps are to be free to download very soon. Still, it's a bit of a pain in the arse as I've paid for them and haven’t really spent a great deal of time with them, just as well there only two quid or I would be moaning a bit more loudly. Fingers crossed I can get a new computer up and running soon and then do some Halo 2 achievement whoring with the PC version of the game, this lovely new bit of kit will also enable me to throw some edited gaming footage together which will certainly come in handy for site content, gameplay montages and our recently formed Community Gaming Nights, which should make things a lot more interesting and keep me on my toes that little bit more.
Wowww! As I finished writing this I just remembered one more thing which I spent some of yesterday playing and that was Rainbow Six: Vegas. I have rented the PlayStation 3 version of the game. Why? I don’t know really, my personal intentions were to put the games online play through its paces as Resistance and Motorstorm play absolutely flawlessly online with 0% latency issues – this is what I mainly expected to compare between the Xbox 360 version of the game. Yes, the PS3 version played online flawlessly with no lag what so ever for me, though I heard many people talking in one of the matches I played and these people were complaining about lag, I had none though but I shall continue to press on later and see if I encounter any such issues. I need to jump back online with the Xbox 360 version soon as I remember this being very laggy at times when the game would have over a specific amount of players, though after speaking to a buddy he assures me these issues are now solved – I’m not so convinced, but hopefully that is the case. After putting the PS3 version on, I then decided to do a little graphics comparison whilst I was their and the difference was easily noticeable. I think I may continue to do things like this as they seem to bring up a good discussion, though some may think I am biased towards the 360 version as I’m more into my Xbox gaming. Once I have my PC rig sorted out with a capture card, I’ll then be able to throw some comparison videos and screenshots together for more of these multi-format games. Anyway, I placed my character at the same exact location on both consoles in the first sineplayer level and switched between the Xbox 360 and PS3 input. The PS3 version does look good; however the Xbox 360 looked vastly superior in terms of vividness where as the PS3 version looked dull in comparison with many jagged edges noticeable on buildings, benches, poles and any other objects that were present throughout the Mexican Streets, assume the PS3 version has no FSAA (Full screen anti-aliasing). Sony fanboys, do not be alarmed as this does not mean the Xbox 360 is “better” than the PS3, it simply indicates that the PS3 version of Rainbow is not a fantastic port from the Xbox 360 version of the game. I am assuming it took the development team some time to get it looking as good as it does now, which is certainly a commendable job on their part if the rumours of the PS3 development process being vastly difficult to programme for compared to the Xbox 360, I would imagine it’s more difficult to port a game over and rework as opposed to making a new game based on one systems architecture.
That's all folks... I think I'm all blogged out for today, don't have much else planned at the moment though; I may be heading out later to watch Die Hard 4.0, should be an excellent action film and hopefully it's a worthy edition to add to the previous three when its finally released, on Blu-ray disc of course ;)
Thursday 21 June 2007
Gaming video connection test.
I wanted an Elite console for HDMI and the Black finish, the larger HDD was a bonus though I'm sure it may come in handy in the near future. I have turned my current 360 into a black console with the XCM Black Knight case. I have done some tests, though this may not be the ideal way to test but it's a test none the less and on my TV these are the results...
I have my PS3 connected by HDMI and 360 by VGA (VGA on my TV looks much better than component). I have downloaded the Colin McRae: DiRT trailer from the PS3 Store and I have the game on the Xbox 360 (which has the same trailer on the game disc) and so switched between HDMI(PS3) and VGA(360) and I will admit it was very hard to tell the difference. On closer inspection the PS3 with HDMI did look better as I had the console set to RGB under its display settings, but it was only noticable on the blacks which look a little bit darker. I realise this varies between TV's but it is the only way I could come up with some sort of test for my personal set up and I am now more than happy with my VGA connection. I did dig out the old Xbox 360 Component cable and did the same test, if Component was my only choice for a HD connection then I would be more inclined to uprgrade to the Elite for the HDMI but for my setup VGA and HDMI are almost identical, minus the zero overscan on VGA.
I will be looking into trying some other trailers and what not soon but I expect similar results.
I am glad I thought of trying this out as I have been tempted by the Elite for a while now, even to the point of considering importing one. This was because I just love the black finish of the console and was expecting some massive improvement over HDMI, while I have my console in black now and have reassured myself with my VGA connection I am certainly happy to stick with my own personalised Xbox 360 Elite, minus the HDMI connection and 120GB Hard Drive ;)
I have my PS3 connected by HDMI and 360 by VGA (VGA on my TV looks much better than component). I have downloaded the Colin McRae: DiRT trailer from the PS3 Store and I have the game on the Xbox 360 (which has the same trailer on the game disc) and so switched between HDMI(PS3) and VGA(360) and I will admit it was very hard to tell the difference. On closer inspection the PS3 with HDMI did look better as I had the console set to RGB under its display settings, but it was only noticable on the blacks which look a little bit darker. I realise this varies between TV's but it is the only way I could come up with some sort of test for my personal set up and I am now more than happy with my VGA connection. I did dig out the old Xbox 360 Component cable and did the same test, if Component was my only choice for a HD connection then I would be more inclined to uprgrade to the Elite for the HDMI but for my setup VGA and HDMI are almost identical, minus the zero overscan on VGA.
I will be looking into trying some other trailers and what not soon but I expect similar results.
I am glad I thought of trying this out as I have been tempted by the Elite for a while now, even to the point of considering importing one. This was because I just love the black finish of the console and was expecting some massive improvement over HDMI, while I have my console in black now and have reassured myself with my VGA connection I am certainly happy to stick with my own personalised Xbox 360 Elite, minus the HDMI connection and 120GB Hard Drive ;)
Monday 18 June 2007
Band of Gears.
A recent update for Gears of War has included an extra eight achievements, taking the possible gamerscore attainable in the game to 1250. Now while I have all the previous achievements before this update, I have recently been ploughing through the game and gained all but one of the new achievements in one day. The only achievement that remains for me to acquire is "THIS! IS! ANNEX!", which is worth a respectable 40 gamer points and so it should be considering you must complete 100 matches of Annex. I play the game a fair bit so I'm not concerned with this one too much, I shall get it as and when I play the Annex game type - however it's not exactly my favourite game mode but still, I should acquire it soon.
A side step from gaming now -- Has anyone seen the series, Band of Brothers? Seriously, I had no idea what I was missing out on, I find it more enjoyable and interesting to watch than any WWII film before it. It's been out a while but after reading various good comments accross different forums I decided to give it my time, and it's well worth checking out.
A side step from gaming now -- Has anyone seen the series, Band of Brothers? Seriously, I had no idea what I was missing out on, I find it more enjoyable and interesting to watch than any WWII film before it. It's been out a while but after reading various good comments accross different forums I decided to give it my time, and it's well worth checking out.
Saturday 16 June 2007
100% Domination!
Yup, after owning Prey since late last year and completing the campaign shortly after on Normal difficulty, I have recently revisited the game to claim all multiplayer achievements and as of last night, I have now completed the game on Cherokee or Hard difficulty. This wasn;t much of a problem as such, but there were some moments where I got stuck and I recall these same moments from when I was playing on Normal difficulty last year, after some time aimlessly wondering around I found what I needed to progress.
I have also now unlocked the full 1000 gamerscore from NBA Street Homecourt (Yipee!!). I quite enjoyed this game, surprisingly.
I have also now unlocked the full 1000 gamerscore from NBA Street Homecourt (Yipee!!). I quite enjoyed this game, surprisingly.
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