General Update 25: The Spark of Life?

Halloween may almost be upon us but, don’t be scared by this strange visitation! I know it’s been a while since my last post, I also know that I tend to say that beginning of most posts as well, but I’m still trying to work out a routine for making time for my writing. Unfortunately it’s looking more and more likely that it make have to be at the cost of some of my precious playing time. I’d like to say that the cause of my lack of writing is becuase I have been busy playing a host of this year’s big releases, but the stack of un-played games as well as the stack of games I’ve only started would say otherwise.

So a quick rundown of what I‘ve actually been playing in retail;

            Deus Ex: Human Revolution,

            X-Men: Destiny,

Warhammer 40k: Space Marines,        

Rage,

Batman: Arkham Asylum,

Gears of War 2 and 3,

And Briefly LA: Noire.

“What about on Xbox Live?” I hear silently you ask;

The Maw,

Hydrophobia,

Dungeons & Dragons: Daggerdale.

I’ve been having a little difficulty sticking to one game for any amount of time. Deus Ex and Xmen we completed to 1000g, Gears 3 I’ve mostly been playing Multiplayer which makes a change for me, Gears 2 I’m working through on insane and co-op-ing with my housemate. LA:Noire I wanted to go back and try and get a few more completed cases to 5 stars but I kept messing one up so I gave up. both Space marines and  Rage I’ve only had one sitting on and I’m enjoying both, Batman was in preparation of getting Arkham City, which arrived last night, and me trying to perfect my combat for the Combat Challenges. This isn’t working out so well, but I’m not giving up yet! It does mean that Arkham City will have to wait for a little while.

So what does the future hold? Well if I can find the time to write a couple of blog entries I’m hoping to put together a couple of Collector’s Edition un-boxing posts, for Gears 3, Arkham City and Fallout: New Vegas. I should also try and get a couple of reviews up, seeing as I do have a few things to say especially about X-Men: Destiny.

Review: Pirates of the Caribbean At World's End

Pirates of the Caribbean: At Worlds End is a Movie Tie-in game. It’s loosely based on the second and third films but makes come creative license with the ideas on some of the levels. The game starts in the prison in Dead Mans Chest, with Jack Sparrow trying to escape, and uses this as a tutorial are a to teach you the basics you will need to make it through the game, from there it follows the films narrative to the climax fight between Davey Jones, Captain Jack Sparrow and Will Turner.

I first played this game on the Wii, and didn’t really get on with the controls, so when i was in Game recently, no that recently now, I decided that I would pick it up to make up my 3 for £30 as I thought that the controls might be slightly easier to get on with, and I’m happy to say they were. This might be to do with the fact that this game is nothing like the other version. I had only played the first few levels on the Wii and it was only the start of the first level that was similar and once you had gotten out of the first room it changed completely.

The visuals are quiet good in this game and the locations do look good and are fairly accurate to the same locations in the films. Shortly after completing the game I watched all 3 films in one evening so comparing them was inevitable. The voices in the game were fairly accurate but a little ropey in places, as are most of the character models.

One of the things that i did like in this game were the collectible achievements, each one of them had something to do with the level in question or at least the films and were fairly easy to pick up most of them. For example on the tribal island that has Jack is leader of, there are 7 can’s of paprika to find. One of the more tricky aspects I had to master was trying to daze the tougher enemies so that you could then perform a finisher on them, this is the only way you can finish them. It can get a little frustrating when you have weaker enemies re-spawning and hammering into you from the sides so you can get a combo off to daze the tougher enemy.

I recommend picking this up if you’re a fan of the films, or wanting a fairly easily achievable 1000 Gamerscore, as it appealed to me for both of those reasons. As long as you don’t take it too seriously then I'm sure you can over look the few flaws that this game has.

General Update 24: Reach for the Stars.

So it’s been a little while since I last wrote and not a whole lot has happened since I broke the 60k Gamerscore mark, but that’s mostly because of the fact that 3 of the games mentioned in my last post still haven’t come down in price, however Lego Star Wars 3 was on offer in Tesco so it was rude not. I’m going to rant about Game being Rubbish and then write up for this blog but it sort of leads into a big can of worms, and the other reason I've not done mush is because I had been playing Mass Effect again! This must be my 7^th play through? And it’s a massive game and I did all the side quests. After completing Mass Effect I completed Lego Star Wars 3, and then after hearing very good things, I picked up Deus Ex: Human Revolution, which I'm loving at the moment.

It’s that time of year again for the Summer of Arcade, I maybe a little late as this is the last week that it runs for. This year the games were Bastion, From Dust, Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet, Fruit Ninja Kinect and Toy Soldiers: Cold War. I downloaded the trial version of Bastion and really enjoyed it so I bought the full game which I am still trying to work my way through. The other trial I tried was for Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet. I think there are some interesting mechanics in this game, and once I’ve managed to clear some of the back log from my arcade list then I’ll definitely look at getting the full game. I’ve still not invested in Kinect yet so Fruit Ninja Kinect isn’t feasible at the moment.  From Dust looks intriguing and I should look at getting the trial to see what all the fuss is about.

More Mass Effect 3 Videos

This week is Gamescom, in Cologne, Germany and there have been a couple of good trailers coming from it. So far I’ve see a Mass Effect 3 trailer that shows off some of the combat, but it looks a little too scripted to be game play, see above, and the other one I saw as for Assassin’s Creed: Revelations. This game is looking awesome especially from this trailer, see below. It’ll be good to see Altair again as I’m bored of Ezio, and after the ending of Brotherhood it’ll be very interesting to see how the Desmond story line progresses.

More Assassins Creed Revelations Videos

In other news there is a rumour that does appear to be building some steam, Diablo 3 may be coming to consoles, there has been two reports making mention to bringing the game to consoles and it’s this second post that really builds credibility for the rumour, however we’ll have to wait a little longer to see if it does become a reality. If you’ve been following me on twitter then you’ll know that I’m not the only one that is looking forward to this game. The other news is that Borderlands 2 has been announced to be released sometime between April 2012 and March 2013. I did enjoy Borderlands, you can read my review here, and although info on the sequel is slim on the ground at the moment there is some concept are that can be seen in this article, and the teaser trailer that is below.

General Update 23: Onwards and Upwards

Hi All, I thought I should put up a post that shows that I really did reach the 60000 Gamerscore milestone. Those who follow my twitter @Gamerpraggers will have already seen that I have indeed reached 60K. It was the last achievement for Just Cause 2 that got me over the line as well. In fact below is a photo I took once I had finished the game.

Proof that I did reach 60K!! 

I've started on the next milestone of 75k, by playing some Timeshift. It's not a bad little game, that has some really interesting time mechanics in it. I also tried the demo of Bastion which is the first of the titles in this year's XBLA Summer of Arcade. I really enjoyed the demo and I did buy the full game, but then I got back into Mass Effect as a fem-Shep. I must be getting into character as I already don't like her hair style!

Previous GamerScore:   59975
Current GamerScore:     60130
Increase:                          +165

General Update 22: The End Is Nigh!

No I don’t mean the end of the world! I’m talking the end of a long slog. That’s right; I’m on the verge of breaking the 60K barrier. I am also looking to tie it in with the 100% Achievement completion of Just Cause 2. I’m still working towards the 75% completion but I’m getting there, I’m currently on 69.31% and I’ve found a way that doesn’t seem as much as a grind as I thought it would be.

As I was away this weekend I wasn’t able to play on the xbox, however with my schamncy Windows Phone 7 I’m still able to get Chievos, and I did I finished Women’s Murder Club, as well as got a handful for both Angry Birds and Plants vs. Zombies. With all of those won, I was 25 points away from that big 60k which has been hanging over my head for a while now.

I do have a list of games that I need to play once I’ve finished Just Cause 2, first of all I’m going to go back and finish LA Noire. I loved what I had played so far and can’t wait to play more, plus with my Rockstar pass, I’ve got all the recently downloadable content for it as well. Then I’ll start on the following list;

Mass Effect – Fem-Shep

Mass Effect 2 – Fem-Shep

Fable 2 - DLC

Ninety-Nine Nights 2

Bayonetta

Lego Pirates/Star Wars 3

This is only a shortened version of the list and the only one I need to actually buy is the Lego Games and that all depends on whether the price is dropped, so we’ll have to wait and see. I really can’t wait to go back and play Mass Effect and I’ve decided on how I’m going to play her, she will be all pleasant natured in the first game, but towards the end she’ll become more of a badass as people should have listened to her, and then in the second game she’ll be a right bitch!

The reason I want to go back and play Fable 2 is because I really want that last achievement for the dolls. Which are all available to dig up in the DLC. I really enjoyed N3, Ninety-Nine Nights, but when I tried the demo for the sequel I found it rock hard, but I’m really looking forward to it. Bayonetta should be good as well, as I really enjoyed the demo plus it will be something different and a bit faster paced.

Also as well as all of this going on I’m also working on the Borderlands DLC with my housemate, we’ve completed both the Zombie Island and the Underdome and we’ve made some good progress on ‘The Armoury’, and then it’s the Claptrap revolution. Hopefully all of those should give me enough XP to level up to level 60 and should net me the last achievement. After that I think the plan is to start on Gears of War, or possibly Left 4 Dead 2.

Wow that was a long post, now I think it’s time for me to get on and get cracking with this plan.

Previous GamerScore:   59565
Current GamerScore:     59975
Increase:                          +410

General Update 21: Just 'Cause!

I have actually been fairly busy recently, and some of that was actually playing on the xbox, some of that was even writing future posts. They’ve not been posted yet as I need to go back to each one and amend/change/rewrite where necessary, and given that some of the reviews are for games I’ve not touched in a year it may take a little while longer, but I am getting to them slowly.

So what have I been up to then? Mainly trying to slog my way through Just Cause 2, so I can get back to playing LA Noire, I’ve done all the story and difficulty ‘chievos but I’m now left with all the collectables and completion ‘chievos. It doesn’t help that I’ve also had a bit of a splurge on games for my phone as Plants vs. Zombies and Angry Birds have now both been released, and last week’s Xbox Deal of the week on Pop cap games didn’t help either as I picked up both Peggle and Plants vs. Zombies on there as well. At the moment I’m trying to decide whether I can justify getting Lara Croft: Guardian of light as it’s on offer until Wednesday (6^th July).

Hopefully I will be able to finish both LA Noire and Just Cause 2 fairly soon as I already have 4 games I want to pick up. Alice Madness Returns, Shadows of the Damned and then both Lego Star Wars 3 and Lego Pirates of the Caribbean. I do feel guilty as I still haven’t played Bayonetta or Star Ocean yet. I am however making some progress on the Borderlands DLC. I’ve now finished Mad Moxxi’s Underdome and helped my housemate do Zombie Island of Dr Ned. That just leaves Armoury of General Knox and Clap Trap Revolution.

After listening to the OST for Mass Effect, I really want to go back and play the original. Despite having played it through completely half a dozen times I still have something I want to try. Fem-Shep! She’s going to be kick ass, not sure if she’s going to be a Renegade but I will be playing on Easy so I can rocket through it without getting stuck, plus it will make her look even more bad ass!

I’m very close to getting the big 60K gamerscore, I’m only about 500 points away, but it’s feeling like a real slog. It does help I’m getting some good games on my mobile, it’s just a shame I’m not able to get more time on the actual xbox to make a real big dent in the backlog of games I’ve got so I can then take a good run up at the new games coming out between September and Christmas. Yes Gears and Skyrim I’m talking to you! Maybe it’s time I booked a week off work!

Previous GamerScore:   57730
Current GamerScore:     59565
Increase:                        +1835

General Update 20: I'm not dead, just busy! (Promise)

A friend of my, Maggie, send me a link to this video so I thought I would share it. Incidentally I'm getting this game tomorrow and I feel I must confess that I've never played this one!