Consolation Prize

I finally managed to complete the last couple of levels of the main campaign on Veteran difficulty (not the Epilogue) on Call of Duty 4 the other night. I had a feeling the last few levels would be extremely tough and this was certainly the case for “No fighting in the war room”. Not only are the enemy crack shots, but there’s plenty of places for them to wait in ambush.

The difficulty is compounded as the mission is against the clock and you won’t get checkpoints if there isn’t going to be enough time left to complete the mission, which sometimes feels unfair but in reality is a sound game mechanic.

My patience was severely tested and if I was more easily prone to frustration I’m sure the 360 controller would now be embedded in the TV. However I did find that instead of just banging my head against a brick wall and repeating the same segment time and
time again if I made a conscious decision to leave it for another day then more likely that not I would have a breakthrough the next time I played.

There are a few more achievements I’d like to get in this game, time permitting, and I’ve no doubt the disc will be spinning once more in the 360 soon.

I finally managed to finish off Half-Life 2 over the weekend, the core game I hasten to add, not either of the episodes. As I’m not a PC gamer unfortunately I’ve arrived late to the party and this was the first time I’ve played through the game. And what a fantastic game it was, bursting at the seams with action, puzzles, story and characterisation. I’ll post my thoughts on the game in due time once I’ve managed to write up a review but I think it’s safe to say that this deserves all the plaudits it’s received over the years.

I’m now taking a break from The Orange Box for a few days as I wanted to spend some more time with Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. I decided, maybe somewhat foolhardily, to play the single player campaign on “Veteran” difficulty and it’s certainly providing a challenge. Surprisingly I’ve managed to make it up to the final three chapters although there are some real frustrating moments, particularly on “Safehouse”, “Heat”, and “One Shot, One Kill” where there are some seemingly impossible set-pieces where it feels like you have to rely on luck to get through. I’ve got a feeling the last few missions may be the most difficult of the bunch but I’ll give them a shot.

This Friday sees the release of Mass Effect, a game I’ve been looking forward too since the first details and movie clips were released all those months ago. All been well I’ll pick-up my copy over the weekend and immerse myself in what could potentially be a fantastic experience.

Unfortunately I’ve not had much chance to play lots of games over the last week or so, but I’m still progressing with both Half Life 2 and Puzzle Quest when time allows.

I hope I’m now into the latter stages of Puzzle Quest as I’ve just defeated another one of the boss characters and I’m now making my way through the quests found in the “lands of war” with my level 33 druid character. Although initially I didn’t really like this class it has grown on me as the character has become more powerful and gained access to the more powerful spells.

Generally the druid doesn’t have a good selection of direct damage spells but what the class does seem to excel at is “board manipulation”. For example “Earthpower” allows you to destroy (and gain the effects of) all green mana tiles or “Evaporate” converts all blue mana tiles to yellow. Thus with careful use you can deny an opponent vitally needed mana whilst boosting your own supplies. I also found that if the board becomes too cluttered with “Skulls” you can use “Call Lightning” or “Lightning Storm” to remove them and damage your opponent if it looks like they’ll be used against you before you have chance to use them yourself.

Half Life 2 is progressing well, with my only complaint thus far being the loading times when moving between areas. Unfortunately they do interfere slightly with the game and although they’re strategically placed to not occur during pivotal sections of the game it is a bit off-putting when your hurtling along in a vehicle and the game freezes in its tracks for 20 odd seconds while the next section is loaded. Apart from that, the game is top class, hugely enjoyable and packed full of atmosphere.

Hopefully I’ll have more time in the upcoming weeks and will be able to work my way through a number of demos and arcade titles that have been released for the Xbox 360. And of course there’s also plenty of demos for me to try out on the PS3 that I’ll report on in future posts.

The weekend is over once more and it’s time to buckle down to work again. I’ve had a fairly busy game-playing weekend with bouts of Halo 3 mixed in with DiRT and smattering of Sega Rally Revo.

I’m still enjoying Halo 3 and I’m progressing with both the level scoring achievements and online multiplayer ranking when time permits. Most of my time is still spent playing co-op as I find it more enjoyable than taking part in a deathmatch type scenario.

I picked up Sega Rally Revo the other day and thus far I’m enjoying the game. However I find the opponent AI to be frustrating at times as they tend to stick to one racing line and if you happen to get in the way then you’re invariably bullied off the road.

I’ve been playing DiRT on and off since release and I’ve finally completed the single player career mode 100%. Now that’s finished I’ve turned my attention to the championship mode and thus far completed the “European” and “International” events with just the “World” event to go before the game can cast aside.

This week sees the release of PGR4 for the Xbox 360 and I’m very tempted to pick that up later in the week. It seems like at the moment there’s a high profile game released on a weekly basis. The problem is getting the time to play them all!

I’ve been playing a lot of Halo 3 over the last few days and I’m having a real blast with the game. I’ve finished the campaign a couple of times now, once individually on “normal” and with a group of friends playing co-op on “Legendary” difficulty. Although the single player campaign is good I found that the real fun is to be had when you’re playing co-op and I’m sure that without the help of others I wouldn’t have stood a chance on Legendary, so a big “THANK-YOU” to those that participated!

Even though the campaign has been completed there’s still lots for me to try out as I mess around with the various “golden skulls” and try to get the scoring achievements for each level.

So far I’ve only dipped my toe in to the multiplayer matchmaking water but what I’ve seen so far has been excellent with some interesting levels and game types. The only real negatives on my experience to date has been the number of times my connection has been terminated or the lag that I’ve experienced during some on-line games. However I won’t lay blame on any particular area as there are a number of factors to consider such as overburdened xbox live servers and the connections of all players involved (including my own).

I hope to post up my review of the game once I’ve experienced more of the on-line matchmaking modes but for now it’s back to the fight!

The D.I.Y renovations are now more or less complete and my life can once again start taking on some semblance of normality. Apologies for the lack of posts over the last couple of weeks but when there’s no time to play games or catch up on the latest news then there’s really no point in just posting “for the sake of it”.

After this weekend the house should be back to normal and the 360 will be powered up once more. I’ve just picked up a copy of Stranglehold on the strength of the demo and I’ll be playing through that time permitting.

In some game related news I noticed that the Nintendo Wii has now taken the lead in worldwide cumulative sales (source:
Game Industry) from the Xbox 360 with some 9 million Wii consoles purchased compared to 8.9 million Xbox 360’s and 3.7 million PS3’s. It’s an impressive stat considering it (Wii) has been on sale for only 9 months.

It’s been a busy week for me so far. I’m on a leave of absence from my day job for a couple of weeks but instead of chilling out I’m in the middle of D.I.Y, the house is upside down, and there’s no relaxing allowed. Thus I’ve not had any time to play games, demos or catch up on gaming news this week.

I managed to finish Bioshock last weekend and I will post up some in depth thoughts on that in due course. In my book this is one of the best games I’ve played in a long time and in some ways I was saddened to finally complete the game and bring the grand adventure to a close. However, looking ahead there are some bright gems on the horizon such as Halo 3, Mass Effect and PGR4 that should provide a fix for my gaming addiction.

It’s been over a week now since the
Xbox 360 died and got sent back for repairs and I’m feeling its loss. Apart from playing full games, I tend to use it a lot to try out any new demo’s, arcade trials or view game trailers and its absence was felt all the more last week during E3 when by most accounts Microsoft did a pretty good job or releasing downloadable content. I was also in the middle of playing
Forza 2: Motorsport and
DiRT and had Overlord waiting in the wings which I was looking forward to playing once I’d finished with the other two. Unfortunately I don’t think I’ll be getting the 360 back anytime soon so I will have to lament its loss for a little longer.

I was tempted to buy a Sony PS3 when the Xbox 360 died and I think I would have gone out and bought one if the UK had received a price reduction similar to the one introduced in the US, but unfortunately as soon as the bundle pack was announced the purchase was put back on the back burner. It’s not that I don’t think the bundle pack is value for money (if you want those games), and yes, I could sell the games and extra SIXAXIS controller if I wanted, but it all comes down to a matter of principle. I’ve always thought 425 GBP (RRP) was far too expensive, and offering me some first party games and an extra controller (that I don’t want) as “added value” is not going to sway my mind. I’m hoping that we will see a proper price reduction later in the year and it’s then that I’ll buy into the PS3.

The Wii is still sat gathering dust as I await the release of some first party titles, the first of which will be Super Paper Mario, and I sincerely hope some “AAA” titles appear for the Christmas holiday season. I have been tempted by some Virtual Console games but I’m waiting until my 10,000 or so “Stars” points I’ve accumulated over the years as part of Nintendo 24:7 VIP Club can be converted to Wii points and put to good use.

So where does this leave me? Well at present the power light on the PS2 is burning green once more after a long absence and I’m ploughing through “God of War 2″ which I’m very much enjoying, even if it does have some frustrating, joypad throwing inducing, sections to complete.