General Update 09: I believe I can fly. . .

I should have tweeted about this yesterday but I didn't, bad me. A news story was made Monday morning, or evening for those in the UK, about a new Bioshock Infinite video being released exclusively to Xbox Live for 24 hours before being made available to everyone on the irrational games. “What’s so important about this video?” you may ask, that’ simple, it’s a game play video. You can see the video about. If you’re reading this and the video has been taken down. I do apologies but it’s not my video in the first place, I’m only borrowing it to pass on the news.

When I first heard that they had announced a “3rd Bioshock” game I’ve got to admit I was very dubious, as it seemed that Bioshock 2, despite being a good game, it was short in terms of the story you can always read the full review yourself. But I wasn’t sure they could drag out a third one without ruining 2 great games, and a really interesting story. But it did look like it was going to be done correctly as it was going back to the same team that came up with the first one. The teaser trailer also didn’t calm my nervous disposition about a 3rd game. It felt as though it was so radically different from the previous two as well as being a prequel time wise, as Bioshock Infinite is set about 50 years prior to Bioshock.

But it wasn’t until I heard someone say in an interview that it’s “a spiritual successor” to the series, that I stopped and actually thought about what that meant. In my opinion it meant that the story would be completely set apart from that of Rapture and the previous two Bioshock games that it would have its own space to grow. I hope this is the case as if they try and make this game lead into the other games it’ll end up a mess. Do you remember when you were a kid and did an ace drawing of a machine and how it would work and someone would suggest adding something and when you added it, it ruined the whole thing? It would be like that only much worse, as it would ruin the memory of the original.

So what do I think after seeing this trailer? I like it. I’m definitely more optimistic about this game now than I was when I first heard about it. It looks different enough as there is a lot more colour in the pallet from what I could see. I’m interested to see how the “Tonics” work in this game as there didn’t seem to be any swapping between them, but this could be just because it’s not the full game play as we will see it. This is a good thing as I’d be wondering what they are going to be doing all next year.

What about you guys? What is your opinion of Bioshock Infinite from this trailer?

Weekly Round Up 01: Week Commencing 13/09/2010

Last week was a quiet one for me gaming wise, purely because I got into a couple of TV series that I’ve started watching the box sets of, but that’s now why you are here. I did have a good weekend before last week in that I managed to gain the last few achievements for The Secret of Monkey Island. Last week I did get an evening on the Xbox on the Wednesday, a mate was over and I showed him a couple of indie games including AppleJack, which got voted OXM’s best Indie game, so it’s not just me that thinks it’s great. The other Indie game I should him was The Impossible Game. A really simple to pick up and play game that is very addictive but as I only had the trial it didn’t take long for us to reach the end.

I did get some more time on Dragon Age: Origins towards the end of last week. I’m still working on my second full play through and I’ll admit I’m starting to get a little bored of it, weather that’s because I’m playing as a Mage or because it’s just the same over and over. I know that you can go either way on some of the major decisions in the game, but I’ve completed all of the origins stories so I know which origin will make the story more interesting when I come to make those decisions. I think I’m going to have to complete this play through and have a rest from it and pick up Mass Effect 2.

What else has been happening? The Tokyo Game Show 2010 was last week and while a few new connect titles have been announced, I can’t think of any major that was announced, but then again I can’t say I was paying much attention. I’m still looking forward to the EuroGamer Expo which is in a couple of weeks. With Fable 3, Fallout New Vegas, Brink, Assassins Creed: Brotherhood, Crysis 2 and Dead Space 2 all playable on the show floor, I’m very excited. Nothing has been announced for Kinect yet, but I’m hoping they do so I can see for myself how well it reacts to your movements.

Another thing worth mentioning is the fact that Microsoft has announced that it will be raising the price of some Gold Membership options at the start of November. For where it matters the most, here in the UK, we get of very lightly the price change only affects the 1 month option. And raises it from £4:99 to £5:99, so an extra 12 pound a year, which makes a full year’s subscription out right cheaper but about 20 quid. So what are you waiting for?

Friday LOL 08: My kinda guy!

see more Bob's House of Video Games

I personally didn't think this would need explaining as to why I put it up.

General Update 08: DLC Dilemma

Hello Gaming Fans. I am back from my un-explained absence. But this will change shortly. I’ve been a little quiet on the update front with having a full time job which is a pain in the ass, so when I get home all I want to do is chill in front of my XBOX? So I hardly get the time to write entries, which is probably why I have a dozen or so entries lined up for me to write. The majority of which are reviews.

So what has been happening with me? well I gave up on GTA IV and returned it to my friend who I had borrowed it from. He in return gave me back Call of Duty: World at War and Red Dead Redemption. I did try COD:WaW when I got it back as I had found that I got stuck around half way through my veteran Difficulty play through. The level I was stuck on was Burn ‘em Out. And after a solid 3 -4 hours I did manage to make it to the end of that level which was when I turned off the Xbox for the evening, and I’ve still yet to go back to CoD:WaW.

After CoD:WaW I pick up one of my Christmas Presents from last year. Ghostbusters I really enjoyed this game I even managed to play through the main campaign on the hardest difficulty although there is a slight glitch than can be exploited to make getting this achievement a hell of a lot easier. Following my ghost busting career, I picked up sword and shield and ventured forth into the kingdom of Ferelden in Dragon Age: Origins. I have finished the game on one of my characters and as of Last night I managed to complete the origin story of 2 more characters.

The final game I’ve completed in my absence was Wet I got it cheap from amazon and it was so cheap it was hard not to buy it. Wet, while a little fiddly to start with does become very entertaining, and while I’ve completed the story once I still have another 3 or four play throughs to get some more achievements.

Speaking of achievements, I have now broken the 47k mark on my gamerscore and from looking at my stats on TrueAchievements.com, which gives me my stats without DLC included, it shows that I am almost on my goal of reaching the 70%/70% mark I had set myself. The 70%/70% stat is worked out by the percentage of total achievements and gamerscore of the games on my gamertag. My current stat is 69.42%/69.07% for Retail games.

DLC is something else I have been thinking about recently. I have at least 2 DLC add-ons that I have yet to play, and yet more are being released. With half a dozen being available for Dragon Age: Origins which include the expansion pack awakening, there are a few for Mass Effect 2 as well that I need to try for, and the Toy box for Crackdown 2 is also now available. Is now the right time for me to take a break from the retail side of things and try and get the most out of the games I’ve already got? Some of which the core games still hold achievements for me to get. Yes, Alan Wake I’m talking about you and your Nightmare play through!