Before venturing into the budget world I really didn’t have very high expectations. I mean, what do you want for £1.99, 69p or even for free? Surely there’s no way they can compare to games we’re spending £35 on, for example Batman Arkham City or Battlefield 3. Does a triple ‘A’ title automatically mean that it has to be on the latest generation of console or the highest spec PC?

Picture this: I’m sitting here after Christmas with a pile of Xbox 360 titles. I’ve managed to fight my way through Saints Row the Third and my current guilt building dust collector is Modern Warfare 3. What’s taking precedence over this epic game? Mainly Jetpack Joyride and Hard Lines with some Fractal on the PC thrown in. Sometimes I wish I discovered this world of treasures earlier. It could have saved me a fortune, or maybe just given me a larger pile of dust collecting epic games.

Big Price; Big Budget

So, I’m sitting in the office trying some title that I had been given and moaning about how some people expect to release titles on iOS and expect to ride on the back of the nostalgia train, pulling the money in behind them. I was then asked the question, ‘What do you expect from a game that cheap? Surely if you get half an hour out of it, it’s worth the money’.

It’s a valid point, after all it costs buttons to buy it. However, what about all the other games I’ve got that are absolutely top notch but for the same price. Are they under-priced or do developers simply strive for very high quality no matter what the price? A lot of development companies make up the money from having in-game purchases because after the initial spike of sales post-release it appears to be very difficult to get that back again. Unless you consider yourself a frugal gamer you could end up paying the same amount of money as you would have for a console title, or more.

Prices are being driven down too as time goes on. Top titles on iOS may go for 800 MS points on XBLA but only get 69p on Apple App Store because of the masses of games and applications being released on a weekly basis. Games get lost in the sea of madness and hidden treasures often rely on sites like Ready Up to get the exposure they need. With over 1 billion downloads from the App Store over Christmas it’s no wonder some titles disappear into the black hole.

Hard Lines. A great game with great gameplay and a low price.

I thought I would have been guilty of trying to compare games on iOS to my Xbox 360 but I never really find myself doing it. I suppose I’ve never really compared DS games to console games either. Mostly, PS3 and Xbox 360 games get put head to head but paths never cross the breakdown between console, mobile and handheld.

At the end of the day, you have to ask yourself the question, just because a game is free or cheap should you accept low quality? Personally, I don’t. I compare games around this price bracket and make my decision on that. Standards shouldn’t be low because the prices are low and if you look at the indie developers who are pushing boundaries and enjoying success and recognition, they’re breaking the mould and leading by example.

The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky starts out with a young girl, Estelle, and her father called Cassius. They find a boy called Joshua, injured in the wild, take him back to the house and so blossoms a budding family relationship. Your first part in the game is to guide a slightly older Estelle and Joshua through their training that leads to the membership of the Bracers Guild who are like a law enforcement type agency.

Early on in the game you discover that Cassius, the father, is the most respected member of the Bracers Guild and he gets called away on important business, leaving the kids to pick up his trashy missions in their home town. Cassius mysteriously goes missing and from there on in you are on a mission to discover what happened and are drawn into a deeply twisted political plot line.

Trails in the Sky is VERY intense with regards to dialogue so the Nihon Falcom Corp worked like Trojans to create characters that you’re instantly either drawn to or despise. Estelle suffers constantly from sexist remarks about how being a girl simply won’t do as part of the Bracer Guild. Joshua is very straight laced, coming up with facts like Stewie from Family Guy and trying to keep Estelle out of trouble.

Sherazard, who’s a tier above Estelle and Joshua in the guild, strikes me as being a highly skilled warrior who can hold her drink and wouldn’t mind spending some ‘quality’ time with Joshua alone. Another memorable member of the party is a Bard called Olivier who is nothing less than a bi-sexual menace who appreciates the arts. I’m sure I went to music college with plenty of these types.

Seven years ago this game would have looked stunning and even now the scenery is acceptable. Movement of the characters you control is very quick so even when you’re having to travel long distances it doesn’t feel like a drag. The enemy spotting system isn’t too old school either. You won’t ever walk along and jump into battle with what was an invisible enemy. I hate that! Enemies are slightly transparent and become clearer as you close in. One thing that took me a while to get comfy with was that enemies could engage in battle by bumping into members of the party who trail at the back of your queue. In most RPGs that I have played, fights start when contact is made with the leader of the pack, but once I stopped moaning about it, I adjusted and moved on with my life.

A major contributor to this game’s excellence is the combat system. Each and every enemy has their own characteristics, strengths and weaknesses. A huge array of attacks and defences including ‘Play Dead’ and ‘Fall Asleep’, all add to the techniques you will use in fights. You have a range of attacks including melee, arts and crafts. A wide mixture of buffs, de-buffs and attacks. Learning an enemy weakness quickly is essential because none of them take it easy on you. Picking on your team mate with the lowest health and picking on your healer are favourite techniques of theirs.

Battle has a wheel system that shows you who is attacking next, meaning that you can easily pick the weakest or even the next enemy to attack. It also shows any bonus heals or buffs and who is due to get them next. Using what’s called the S-craft, which is a special attack, you can effectively skip the queue and move in on those buffs for your own evil doing.

The key to tweaking your character comes in what’s called the Orbments. This device allows you to set up your magical flavour and provide balance across your party. It adds a deep layer of tactics to your own battle system that merges well with other elements such as the knock back feature.

8 years old now

Back in 2003 we saw the release of Call of Duty. Who would of thought it would’ve become the beast it is today. id Tech 3 was the engine used back then, which has now moved up to id Tech 5. The Call of Duty franchise has been passed through developers hands like a dirty mag and the most recent Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 has exceeded $1 billion in sales which is impressive, not only in video games, but in the entertainment industry as a whole.

Coming in at an impressive decade are the following: Xbox, Halo and come the start of the year, Max Payne 3. If you’ve already played Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary then you will already appreciate the boundaries that Microsoft have pushed through. Looking at the visuals of Max Payne with his square face and stretched textures, he’s now a mean hombre who’s ready to kick ass with as many polygons as you can throw at him.

The impressive thing about all these titles is that they’re still going. There are are plenty of other titles still being developed but these are the ones that I have enjoyed and still play and the chances are that I’ll keep playing them as time moves on. However, this year there are a couple of titles to rule them all when longevity is being discussed.

Shigeru Miyamoto had a vision. He wanted to create the best cartridge games ever and during that journey some people would say he saved a failing games industry with his work.

Happy 25th birthday

Zelda is one of my favourite series of games and it’s currently celebrating its 25th anniversary. As part of the celebration, Nintendo have commissioned the London Symphony Orchestra to play classics from all the legendary titles. Eimear Noone has the honour of conducting the orchestra while they’re on tour and he holds Miyamoto in very high regard. He’s been quoted as saying, “Miyamoto-san was the epitome of tranquillity, joy and appreciation”.

A game that stretches even further back than Zelda is our beloved Italian plumber, Mario. Making his first appearance in 1981 in a Donkey Kong game he’s been with me through my childhood, adolescence and adulthood and now my children are playing Mario games too. These simple two-dimensional platform games have pioneered and influenced the genre for 30 years and are living proof that blood, gore, violence and bad language don’t have to be in a game to make it fun.

Mario Bros, was released in 1983 and was followed by Super Mario Bros in 1985. Miyamoto made, what appeared to be, huge advancements in gaming by changing colours in the background but was still limited to using the same sounds whether Mario was under water or on land. Such trivial things that are now taken for granted were seen as amazing feats.

Holy crap! If I felt old at the start of this blog, I feel ancient now. I didn’t realise how amazing some of these series were until I looked back and I’m sure that everyone must have a selection of games that have taken them through their gaming lives, no matter how short a time it’s been happening. Games are just like music in my eyes. A chance to remember people who have come and gone, or people I have met. If it wasn’t for gaming, two people from this site would never have met and Ready-Up may never have happened.

Roll in the Indie Bundles.

Pay What You Want

I had always disregarded Indie bundles. I mean, surely they can’t be as good as AAA blockbuster titles. It wasn’t until the Indie Royale Difficult 2nd Bundle that I decided to take the plunge and splash out a massive £2.50 for four titles. For anyone who isn’t familiar with how the Indie bundles work, you basically pay what you want. Yip, anything from I think 1 cent to as high as you want. There is something to watch out for though; if you buy a bundle for higher than the average then you normally get additional titles to play or game soundtracks. It varies from one bundle to the next.

What caught my eye was ‘Time Gentlemen Please’ which came as part of the bundle. Upon watching the video for the game I noticed that one well known site had scored it with a 9/10. My initial thought was that it must be based on some sort of other score ladder, surely an Indie title couldn’t be a top tier game?

On the same website I checked out a few more titles and it went a little something like this:

• Gears of War 3 – 8/10
• Uncharted 3 – 8/10
• Battlefield 3 – 8/10
• Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 – 8/10

The list goes on but looking at this I could have spent approximately £35 on each the above titles or around 65 pence for Time Gentlemen Please. This title isn’t a one off either. Games such as Frozen Synapse and VVVVVV have been very well received too.

Time for a 9? Nice Work

What is it that makes these game appeal to people? Is it the content you get for the money or are they simply great games? Most people now feel conditioned. If you aren’t spending over £25 on a game then it must be crap. How can a game that costs at most, a couple of pounds be entertaining?

Just in case you would like to dip your cheap toes into the Indie water then new bundles are coming out over the next month. Tomorrow we’ll see the Really Big Bundle then the Alpha Fund Bundle and finally the Xmas Bundle. Getting in early will save you money because the average is cheaper however sometimes waiting does get you more bang for your buck, it’s up to you.

I’m guilty of being narrow minded in the past but have vowed to change my ways and start to look at the bigger picture. Hopefully I will bring more enjoyment to what may turn out to be a bright and inexpensive gaming future.

As gameplay becomes smoother and explorable areas become more vast surely there are many new engines being tested and applied to the latest releases. Indeed there are! It appears that most of the top games have their own brand new engines apart from one. The recent release, RAGE, has the id Tech 5 engine driving it, The Elder Scrolls V Skyrim has the new Bethesda Creation engine and Battlefield 3 is sporting the crisp new Frostbite 2.

Creation: all explorable areas.

I haven’t had the pleasure of playing any of Skyrim yet however from what I’ve seen it looks nothing short of epic. The demo videos with Todd Howard narrating go into great detail about 3D modelling and landscaping. As for Battlefield 3 I have only played some of the Metro beta multiplayer level so it’s very difficult to judge with any sort of certainty. It looks good but I wouldn’t say great.

The game that I have had most exposure to is RAGE. Having played most of the game it looks great but falls short with areas that you can’t explore and textures that seem to render in front of your eyes. The question is, do you forgive and forget because it’s a new engine or do you slam the door on id Software and their new engine? Maybe consoles are being pushed too hard to squeeze out those precious frames per second that can make a game look perfect.

id Tech 5 : Not all explorable areas

I intentionally left out one last title and it’s Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3. The reason I haven’t mentioned this is because the engine is still the same as its predecessor, Modern Warfare 2. Glen Scholfield, from Sledgehammer Games, has been quoted saying that he wants to deliver a game, not an engine. If you place Modern Warfare 2 and Modern Warfare 3 next to each other there have been significant changes in models, texture and animation but it’s still using the same vehicle to drive it all. This looks as though the engine for Modern Warfare 2 was of such a high calibre that it’s withstood the test of time.

I’m not sure what to conclude from all this. Does the Modern Warfare approach mean we can expect a higher quality of game because Sledgehammer Games haven’t spent valuable time improving the engine? Is id Tech 5 pushing consoles so hard now that the hardware can no longer handle what’s being thrown at it? There has been some speculation that we may see a new Xbox announced in 2012, however, Sony are adamant that the Playstation 3 has life in the old dog yet.

I am really enjoying the content that is being churned out presently and can’t wait to see what the future holds. I really hope we haven’t hit a plateau in the development process but I am sure some programming God out there will push the boat out to whet our appetites even further.

Recently, whilst working my way through Bastion, I found myself head bopping to the background music and not really paying that much attention to the game. Some of the music tracks through that game stand alone as great music, never mind helping to create any sort of tension or atmosphere.

A couple of days later Dan let me listen to the soundtrack that had been released for Bastion and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Not only did it bring back memories of game sequences but I enjoyed listening to it. The amusing thing is the warning on the Bastion website. You are well and truly warned that playing the album before the game could spoil some of the gaming experience.

Now, I might be wrong here but since I listened to the Bastion soundtrack I seem to have noticed a lot of them being released or due to be released alongside whatever game it’s associated to. A bit like when my wife was pregnant I thought every second woman I saw was pregnant too. Dark Souls has an album coming out, Batman Arkham City will have one as well. Going back a bit, Mirror’s Edge also has a great soundtrack.

I suppose it’s quite naive to think that these are the only four albums on the market for music. I was listening to a great podcast recently that’s hosted by a guy who specialises in game music. The first half of his podcasts seem to be dedicated to modern music played by bands, for example the Nine Inch Nails track for Quake that was written by Trent Reznor. The second half travels back through time having a look at more of the 8-bit material from past consoles such as the SNES.

What’s also great about the whole thing is that it’s not just some bunch of freelance musicians who have been drafted in to work their way through the game’s music score. The Batman: Arkham City album has some pretty big names like Panic! At the Disco, The Duke Spirit and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. This particular album has a collection of artists who have written their own songs around background stories of Batman which is different from say, the Bastion album which contained game music.

Thor: God of Thunder tells the story of Thor’s home world Asgard being under attack from what looks like an attack from Ymir the ruler of Niflheim. There is a tragedy during the attack that sends Thor into a rage, at which point he seeks revenge on Ymir and, being misled by his step brother Loki, opens a gateway to another world, unleashing demons whose only intent is to destroy Odin and Asgard.

Thor’s weapon of choice, as you would expect, is Mjolnir which is his enchanted hammer, and as you move through the game you begin to learn combinations to help you deal with the enemy. Progression opens rune slots on Mjolnir up to a maximum of four. These four slots can be filled up from a choice of up to 20 different runes that each contain a different buff like increasing your attack power once your health drops below 25% or increasing your aerial attack strength.

Thor also learns additional attacks including Mjolnir power-ups, whirlwind attacks and focused electrical and wind attacks. The use of 3D throughout the game lacks depth. Often I didn’t know if I was close enough to enemies so I could start pulling off a string of attacks. Plus, if I was trying to pull off the focused electrical or wind attacks, if my reticle got caught behind rocks then they simply didn’t work.

As well as increasing the power of Mjolnir you have three upgrade trees available that can either be purchased through coins gained via levelling or finding upgrade items throughout the game. The three trees are Might which gives you additional and increasingly more powerful attack chains, Valor which supplies maximum health increase and defensive skills and finally Storm which can help increase Thor’s mana – known as Odinforce in game  – or bonuses to combination points.

It doesn’t take long in the game until you become quite overpowered and you will also find an ‘I WIN’ combination that can deal with even the most powerful enemy. It’s unfortunate because when I originally started playing Thor: God of Thunder I got a warm God of War fuzzy feeling inside. It’s not quite of that calibre but there is quite a satisfying hack ‘n’ slash type feel to it. Mini boss fights and certain situations that require more power than normal introduce quick time events but even though they aren’t challenging, they’re tasteful and don’t take your eyes away from the action too much.

As you can imagine, once finding the ‘I WIN’ combination, the game can start to feel slow. Beating down every enemy with that move is monotonous but what makes it worse is the lack of variety of dynamics in the majority of the game. About the first 70% of the game includes the very same gameplay. Walking along corridors, reaching magically sealed walls, defeating all enemies, destroying the magical barrier and moving on.

Occasionally that monotony is broken with some flying scenes and early boss fights. In between each level there are some cool storyline still animation cartoons to keep you entertained and whilst the storyline is pretty predictable with some very cheesy voice acting, it is still slightly more-ish. I think that the RPG player in me, with all the collectables helping to increase my powers, managed to keep me playing but if you don’t have any staying power then you may not get to see the very best bits of the game.

Once you reach the part of Thor where you discover and obtain the secret to helping save Asgard the game starts to get good. A couple of boss fights that are reasonably challenging and interesting leads to the final battle where you get some team players who aren’t dumb AI. A true feeling of power overwhelms you and a sense of achievement settles in but having to wait so long to get to this stage is a mistake by the developers.

Aside from the developers, Gl33k who were responsible for audio in games like Age of Empires Online and the more recent Red Orchestra 2, are also the people who provided the audio for Thor: God of Thunder. Aside the cheesy heroic voice acting which may or may not be suitable for a Marvel based super hero game, I think some of the audio is the best I have heard in the Nintendo 3DS title so far. A lot of it is majestic and fits very well into the game and utilised the 3DS sound capabilities well.

Does the game have more to offer than just the one playthrough? There isn’t any multiplayer but I suppose on the 3DS this can be forgiven. Once you finish the first run through a new difficulty level is opened up called Ragnarok. Runes and an outfit that weren’t previously attainable gave me the urge to at least start another playthrough but whether I could handle it again is another question.

So along comes the news that World of Warcraft is going free to play and it caught my eye. I wouldn’t have to pay subs but the penalty for this would be on level cap. Instead of making it all the way to level 85 which is the Cataclysm level cap I could only get to level 20. The question that sat at the back of mind was, is this really for people who have already played the game?

When I played the game there were three main reasons for logging on:

1. The guild and the banter
2. Raids
3. PvP

I suppose this could mean that the free to play version of the game wasn’t really for me. I could join a guild but would it really be that good? There would be a ton of people trying out the game and not really understanding what was happening.

The biggest problem was not being able to enter decent raids to get cool gear and not being able to take part in the arena which can only be done if you are at the level cap. Instead I would be destined to wonder aimlessly in places I had already trodden to death and maybe create a twink character.

After all this contemplation I decided to install the game on my laptop to see what happened. I am glad to say that for the sake of my marriage I’m not really that bothered about the game any more. There have been a lot of changes but the noob areas are very much still noob areas. The free to play version doesn’t allow me to scratch that itch any more so it’s probably best left alone for my own safety.

There are other games that have introduced or are about to introduce free to play models. Conan Unchained is now free to play with a list of restrictions, however, there isn’t a level cap thus allowing you to explore the majority of the game content. City of Heroes is also planning a free to play model.

I think I stand alone on the opinion of World of Warcraft Free to Play being a let down because Blizzard have now released a free to play model with Starcraft II which may be worth trying. It’s certainly a future model for publishers and a field that I love to try out. Let’s face it, there’s nothing to lose apart from time.

It’s been a while since I played the first two episodes in  the series and wasn’t sure if I would still be as scared as I was and FEAR 3 does a very good job of making you think everything’s going to be all right. I don’t want to go into the story too much but at the start of the game, Fettel, the dead brother of Point Man helps him escape from Armacham Prison. Alma is pregnant and while the brothers have conflicting ideas on the outcome of this they work together to get to her.

Whilst the brothers work their way toward the epicentre of where Alma is in labour you encounter a number of different situations that keep you sitting on the edge of your seat. The Armacham Prison escape finds angry cell mates and empty cans being thrown in your path which even for a split second can take your eyes off the action. Once you escape and start working through the slums, which is reminiscent of the Rio level in Call of Duty Black Ops, guys start bursting out of doors with shotguns with only one purpose and that’s to blow out your brains.

As I said the first couple of levels don’t offer too much in the way of horror but then when you return to Fairport which is where the whole escapade started in FEAR, that’s when the nappies have to go on and you can only sit and hope that everything you hear isn’t emanating from the cupboard under your stairs.

With modern day FEARmongers it just wouldn’t be the same without getting a go in a mech. I have to admit that it was extremely overpowered and I didn’t die once when in it but I did feel like an unstoppable hero, mowing down anything from man to helicopter within the blink of an eye. Your arsenal in the mech consists of rockets, ground stomps and massively painful bitch slaps and you have to make sure the thing doesn’t overheat or you will have to wait until it cools down before firing again.

Overall the game looks excellent. Often with games that are supposed to instil fear I end up having to increase the brightness so I can get a decent view but I found the lighting to be perfect. Bullet wounds are grotesque followed with a dramatic death and comments like, ‘He’s wiping out the whole squad!’, or, ‘SHIT! He blew my arm off!’.

The AI of the enemy is enjoyable in that they aren’t dumb. Taking cover behind destructible walls and boxes, moving when they’re blown into tiny pieces to an alternate safe haven and dodging or blocking melee attacks are to name but a few satisfying moments against the enemy. If they take too much fire you will see their guns appearing from round corners or over the top of walls blind firing to try and slow you down.

The solo campaign could be criticised because of its length. While it is packed full of an intriguing  storyline it is still only eight chapters short but in its defence there is a HUGE amount of re-playability. FEAR 3 is almost like a RPG as you are scored and gain experience points based on a number of different aspects through each level. These include, aggression,  tactics, aptitude, psychic and target time. At the end of each level you gain kill, time, commando and clean run bonuses. Once you accrue enough experience points you gain a level and increase magazine size, adrenaline time and moves, plus more.

Other perks of the game include a really cool opening scene, a very imaginative background to the menus and if you fall prey to the enemy far too often the ‘resume game’ option goes straight to ‘difficulty level’ where you can drop a level to help you through. To top it all off you can go back through each level playing as Fettel. Fettel allows you to play with a whole new array of very, very shiny toys including possession of enemy soldiers and the down right rude, blowing them up.

When you have had enough of the single player campaign you can join in some multiplayer action. There are several modes available and Day 1 Studios have done an excellent job on them in my opinion.

My favourite so far would have to be Contractions. It’s like a celebration of Horde mode from Gears of War where you have to survive an ever increasing difficulty of enemy waves and Zombie mode from the Call of Duty series as you struggle to rebuild broken down barriers to slow down the enemy. There are weapons lying around each level but you have to be careful because they’re not abundant.

I have managed to play the game for about 95 hours now but only since my 40th hour did I realise that I was playing the game completely wrong. My characters were nowhere near as powerful as they could be, the armour and weapons that I was using just weren’t great. The only thing that I think was good was my party structure in that I had someone for buffs and distractions, another for healing, a tank for taking the damage and the inevitable glass cannon who can make huge strikes but take a Ken Dodd tickling stick to him and he’s rendered useless.

After carrying out some reading I had to make the decision whether or not to just drop the game and play something else or try to get my characters up to scratch. After all, 40 hours is quite a long time to find out that you haven’t been doing things correctly. 55 hours later I’m glad I stuck with it because all my parties are bigger and better plus I can take on larger challenges to gain even better gear.

Unfortunately this isn’t the first time I have done this! I remember playing World of Warcraft not long before the first expansion, The Burning Crusade, was released. I managed to level up my Warlock up to around level 48 which was only 12 levels away from the cap at that time.

From there I decided to create a rogue and levelled him up to 60 just in time for the release of The Burning Crusade. Also, at this point I decided to get my Warlock up to level 60 and when I went back to him I realised that he was really badly created as well. He may as well have been wearing jeans and a t-shirt and carrying around a wand bought from the local joke shop.

There is mixed opinion about game guides in that some people think they’re cheats, or game breakers and others think that spending the time making discoveries in games is the way forward. I suppose this is all down to opinion.

Personally I think that in some cases game guides can enhance your experience of the game you’re playing. I don’t think it’s good to pick it up as soon as you start a game and just work your way through it because it will take some enjoyment away. However, if you just pick it up for pointers then it can certainly help develop your game.

I think that the genre of the game has a big influence on whether I will read a guide before or after playing it. As I put more gaming years behind me I think that a lot can be said for being well educated before going into epic role playing games because generally you’re going to be there for the long haul anyway. As for other games, for example Call of Duty games, I don’t think there is such a requirement for guidance until you are well in to the game.

I am so out of touch with what’s going on in the free to play market. I still thought that it was just turn based browser games that gave new players a window of protection for a week before you were chewed up and spat out by the bigger players. I couldn’t be further from the truth. There is a wealth of games and genres to choose from with a few different publishers consistently pushing out top titles.

Don’t get me wrong, the graphics, sound and storylines are going to find it difficult to compete with triple A titles and the reason is obvious in that the budget isn’t there. The whole free to play model has to rely on players voluntarily putting their hands in their pockets and shelling out some hard earned cash. Monthly subscriptions or one time payments are much easier to deal with as a customer.

A friend and I have set out 10 free-to-play titles to work our way through and I think, as per usual, I have peaked too soon. The first on my list is Allods Online. It has just been released officially in the EU alongside the latest volume known as Astral Odyssey.

A lot of people say that this is a carbon copy of World of Warcraft but after playing it for a while I would have to disagree. Sure it’s set in a fantasy fiction world surrounded with similar quests but when you break down a lot of games to that level most of them are the same.

Take Call of Duty and The History Channel: Battle for the Pacific. Both games are first person shooters, you carry guns and kill people then complete objectives. You get my point.

One of the great things about Allods Online is the fact that once you level your character up you can build Astral ships and take to the skies to discover new areas and fight your enemies.

Other games I am going to try are Lord of the Rings Online, Aika, Elements of War and Champions Online. Later on this year there is a kick ass fighting MMORPG being released called Age of Wulin. As you can see I am certainly not running out of games to play and the great thing about free-to-play games is, if you don’t like one of them, just delete it and there’s no money wasted.

Only the other day I was sitting in the office with Dan and a couple of my other colleagues were discussing the cost of gaming. Not the price of consoles, peripherals, games and subscriptions but the hidden costs of high blood pressure and smashed up controllers.

HIGH VELOCITY XBOX CONTROOOOOOLLLEEEERRR! OOPS!!

I think everyone has a nemesis in the form of a game. There have been a few in my past but the most recent one for me was Splosion Man. This game is nothing short of brilliant and if you haven’t played it then read the review and go from there. However, and I don’t want to put you off because every gamer’s rage levels are different, the final boss is so cheap it makes Seth from Super Street Fighter IV look like any other character.

I had been working on that boss for about three days and the thing that annoyed me was having to start again if you died. To put it another way, no checkpoints. Normally it wouldn’t bother me, however this one did. After some long gruelling game play I performed without a doubt the best Xbox 360 controller drop kick ever witnessed by mankind.

It went a little something like this. I stood up, dropped the controller, kicked it as hard as possible, controller shot across the room and instantly smashed against the wall rendering it useless. After that I had to attempt to calm down an angry wife and an upset child. Lesson learned.

Since then I have been relatively stress free when playing games. Not sure if it’s me getting older or just sick of handing out cash every time I lose my temper.

I don’t know if I am tempting fate but the question at the back of my mind is should I play the upcoming title RAGE? It looks absolutely brilliant, almost like a well polished Borderlands but it has the word ‘rage’ in the title.

How I feel playing Splosion Man

For anyone who hasn’t heard of  RAGE it’s a post apocalyptic first person shooter developed by iD Software and will be published by Bethesda. It’s not only an FPS but also an RPG with a whole lot of shooting and driving involved. The game was announced in 2007 and is due for release this year.

Initially when I saw Bethesda were involved I thought that it was going to be slightly buggy. You know, like the slightly buggy Fallout 3 titles but with iD Software at the helm I’m sure it’ll be great. I still need to be careful though so I might stack up on my Beta Blockers (no, they aren’t the beta version of the full blown Blocker) so I can keep my cool.

“I have seen the future

This is my gift

I have seen empires fall

And mad Kings rise

And now I see another game that will set a strong divide between my wife and I”

Every now and again a game comes out that I can feel in my bones is going to help me say goodbye to a huge amount of hours of my life. Just now it’s Ghost Recon: Shadow Wars but at least that doesn’t hog the television. Today I have experienced my first taste of Kingdom of Alamur: Reckoning and I really like the look of it.

Hot! Hot!

The game has a lot of big names in it such as the creator of Spawn, Todd McFarlane and the lead designer of Elder Scrolls, Ken Rolston. The game looks visually stunning, full of big scary beasties with pointy teeth, massive hammers and spells that could knock Charlie Sheen off his warlock’s throne.

Of course the bad news is that it’s not out until 2012 but it is going to be released on the Xbox 360, PC and the Sony Black Brick so we all have something to look forward to.

The last game to swallow a massive amount of time for me was World of Warcraft. ‘Noooooo’, I hear you say, but it’s true. I managed to rack up well over 200 days played time on it and I am almost positive that my wife fell out with me more than once but I could have missed it.

The fortunate thing about that was that at least she could still watch the television. Call of Duty Black Ops was very guilty of taking away TV time and I could see everyone around me getting twitchy because they weren’t getting their Criminal Minds or CSI fix, but hey, we’re still together.

Have you ever been in a similar situation where you felt that it was completely rational to either buy another television, or a games console, or even a laptop just to keep your house more civilised? I certainly have and I know that Ready Up’s illustrious leader Mr Dan Bendon has but I’ll leave that story for him. :)

I recently received Call of Duty: Black Ops and played through the single player campaign in much the same way that I did with Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2. I had no intention of playing the multiplayer game on Xbox Live but decided that I would give it a shot mainly because of Ready Up’s community nights.

Initially, being the shy guy that I am, I left the headset in a box where I keep everything with a cable. One day I decided to untangle what can only be described as a wirey nightmare and got the headset out. Much to my delight I have heard a cracking few conversations going on and here are my top 3 in reverse order.

Voice On or Voice Off?

You Should Find Another Hobby

This comment was directed at me. I was playing through a round at my usual level of expertise. At the end of the match, but before the scoreboard was posted onto my television all I heard across the chat channel was, ‘I’ve got some needlework needing done, maybe you should try that instead’.

Somehow I realised that this was directed at me and as I saw the scoreboard with my amazing 4 kills and 24 deaths I suffered from Xbox Live embarrassment and took a barrage of abuse followed by an, ‘Only kidding’.

Where Did You Put the Hash and Lighter

Again, sitting playing Black Ops I noticed on my team that there was a couple playing splitscreen. I am sure this is the case because two people had the same name and the second one had (1) after it. Before long one of them asked where the hash was and then asked for his lighter as well.

All be it from me to pass judgement, but I would have thought this sort of conversation should be kept offline but we can’t all be law abiding citizens, can we?

Lastly my favourite.

C’mon Dear It’s Time for Bed

Minding my own business I was forced to listen to some young kid singing and calling everyone a noob for quite a few matches then over the chat in comes mummy asking for the boy to go to bed. Within seconds this turned into a fully blown shouting match between parent and child and a chat room full of people who couldn’t play Black Ops because of all the laughter.

Some of the things that get talked about over Xbox Live are maybe sometimes better left unsaid, however everyone must have had some sort of moment where you just have to stop and listen and think, ‘I’m glad it’s not me’.

There a couple of things that I really liked the idea of with regards to the control system. Essentially the bottom half of your 3DS becomes one wide control panel. A, D, X and Y are used to control your camera, the stick controls movement and the D-pad controls jumping, crouching and putting your back against the wall.

However, the touch screen changes depending on your situation. Generally you can access your map, pull out and put away your weapon, control your goggles, access the map and throw out distractions such as whistles. When finding ammunition, getting to a closed door and walking up behind someone, the screen changes and presents you with new action buttons.

All of this is a great idea but occasionally it can be a bit clunky. It’s very easy to hit the wrong button and when you want to check the map you’ll unintentionally whistle and attract attention. Also, whilst moving around the levels is smooth, it can also feel tight.

During the game I felt really claustrophobic and not just when I was crawling through tunnels. All too often I was wishing that the developers had pulled the camera out a bit to give me more space to see. Not having enough room to swing a dead mouse can lead to many frustrating moments in the game.

One of the features I liked in the game was the save points. There are plenty of them around and you can use them multiple times. I know some people may think this is a cop out but you don’t have to use them as often as I do. I simply like having the choice.

As for the look of the game, some of the areas look great and the use of 3D isn’t overpowering. I have found in few games that the 3D is like a new toy and over used to the extent my eyes cross over but Splinter Cell 3D uses them nicely. The only downside to some of the textures is that they remind me of something we would have seen in the N64’s Goldeneye.

Overall sound in the game is good; I am really enjoying the improved sound of the 3DS and in a game where stealth is key it certainly helps. The surround sound feature made it feel as though you can really tell where voices and footsteps are coming from.

A downside to the game is the lack of gameplay options. If you get fed up with the single player campaign you can either play the single player campaign or the single player campaign. Sure, you can replay chapters…  in the single player campaign. In this generation, no multiplayer or online options leave the game incomplete.

Asphalt 3D is fun to play with its unusual style of drifting, pick ups (including cash), speed boost and repairs that are almost like loot, licensed cars, interesting race tracks and the opportunity to knock people off the road and an achievement system. It is definitely not that real to life but it’s fun.

There is a long list of licensed cars and motorbikes to work your way through in the game. You start off with a Mini and work your way up the ranks as you level up the quite straight forward system. The game consists of a long list of cups, each with four available challenges, the fifth opening up once you complete the other four.

As you work your way through the early cups the levels come thick and fast which gives you an opportunity to grab some really nice cars within a couple of hours of gameplay. Not only that but you also unlock engine, control and boost upgrades along with new sponsors, which offer additional upgrades and paint jobs to make things look a bit different.

Choosing your cars is simple with only speed, acceleration and weight to deal with. The first two are self explanatory and weight basically tells you who is going to win a crash should both cars be travelling at the same speed.

As you drift around corners and pick up boosts you can increase your speed and if you fill up your boost gauge, all the graphics change to a mass collection of go faster stripes. Of course, anyone you hit when boosting will be forced off the track and you can eliminate your competition.

Other than the boost ‘Go Faster’ stripes the game looks half decent and there is some nice definition in the cars and tracks. I had some issues with the 3D in that it appears to change depth a fair bit. I often found myself adjusting it mid race and sometimes changing the game to 2D just so I could see what was happening.

When you’re racing you get a decent feel for the sound of the cars, crashes, car horns when you fly past them and skidding noise. Unfortunately when you start the game from the 3DS menu it instantly turns off the surround sound feature and leaves you with stereo. It doesn’t sound like a big deal (how much surround sound can you get with two speakers?) but it’s not ideal that Gameloft haven’t tried to utilise as much of the console as possible.

There are loads of ways to play the game. You can work your way through a career mode that contains certain challenges and these change as you get higher up the rankings. Other than that you can play multiplayer and take advantage of the street pass features on the 3DS. If you happen to pass someone with Street Pass on you can download ghosts and scores from them and pit your skills against them the next time you play.

Other than the ghosts you can keep coming back to gain more achievements, open up more cars and custom build them to your own design. With plenty to do you could end up enjoying yourself.

I don’t want to spend a huge amount of time talking about each game because the site has reviewed Alien Breed Evolution, Alien Breed 2 Assault and Alien Breed 3 Descent already so I want to give you my perspective on the overall trilogy and what it has to offer.

The story appears to run through the trilogy over 15 chapters; Each game split into 5 chapters. I have to say though that you don’t have to start at the beginning and going slightly against the grain of the reviews I would probably suggest going from the start isn’t the best idea unless it’s a story line you’re after.

However, what I do agree with is the look of the game. All of the Alien Breed Trilogy games have kind of ariel view at an angle to them and I love this sort of game. It gives you a clear view to what is going on around you and if you feel the need to look around you can use the control pads shoulder buttons to move the camera 90 degrees at a time.

The game is quite dark a lot of the time in an attempt to create atmosphere but sometimes it is too much. Not because I don’t like dark games but some of the textures are beautiful and unless you are shining a 5000 candle torch you’ll miss half of them.

Along with the graphics there is an array of sounds to suit each situation. I felt that one of the most off putting parts of the game was the amount of explosions. Some people may think that this helps make the game more exciting, but it just pushed me to the end of the levels more quickly.

Each iteration of the game starts with clear instructions on what you should be doing. Alien Breed makes sure that you know the basics such as movement, understanding the map, aiming and firing and the looting system. This is ideal but the game mechanics don’t really change that much as you move through each title.

Each version of the game gets better in my opinion. Sounds change, camera angles become more creative as do the aliens. One thing that does remain consistent throughout the titles is the attention to detail and they consist of some of the most polite aliens in the history of science fiction.

Whilst there is a collection of aliens that would take at least 7 Sigourney Weaver’s to get through they do know when to attack. Most of the time aliens appear through potholes in the floor. If you happen to be standing on a spawn point then they want to come out the gentlemanly beasts will re-enter the pothole until you move away. THEN they come out to kill you! Often you have to open the doors for them as well before they introduce you to your maker.

Other than the main storyline you can also play co-op mode or survival mode which are both fun to play but to be honest I think I’ve seen enough in the solo campaign to satisfy my needs.

One of the great things about Alien Breed Trilogy is that you can now play it offline whereas before you could only get it from the Xbox Live Arcade for 800 points per title. Buying a physical copy won’t cost you much more as I have seen it for around £18. There is plenty of game play here so you’re getting good value for money.

As the trilogy comes on one disk I would have thought there would have been a more slick way to move between each title. This isn’t the case though, if you want to move between each game you have to exit the whole thing and go back in again. Anyway, minor gripe.

Overall this a decent selection of games. If you enjoy science fiction and comic books you will probably enjoy Alien Breed Trilogy.

If you haven’t played Demon’s Souls (or even tried to pronounce it with its stupid positioning of the letter ’s’) then, in my opinion, you have missed out. A lot of people did complain that it was really difficult and most people couldn’t get past world 1-1, which is the first level after the training.

Even the tutorial level in itself was a challenge in that the boss at the end was extremely taxing for such a low level character. I easily played through the tutorial level over 20 times until I beat that boss and – as Demon’s Souls always did – I was rewarded well for doing so.

You Dirty Rat!

Demon’s Souls was very mysterious, with haunting music that draws the player into the game and managed to keep me on edge, especially when I was alive. Now that might sound strange and what probably sounds even more odd is fact that I went through most of that game dead!

The game had a huge novelty value in the fact that you could play as your own soul on the hunt for your dead body to retrieve your loot, a bit like Diablo. The challenge here was that as a ghost you had less health, and you have to believe me when I say you didn’t really have enough health when you were alive.

Other unusual features of the game really belonged to the multiplayer aspect. As an alive character you could have other peoples’ souls come to help you defeat bosses and other evil players as a way for them to get their bodies back. As a dead player you could also help live players and raid other live players’ games to get your body back, too. It’s all very confusing but it worked extremely well.

Dead souls helping live players

There is good and bad news about the release of Dark Souls.

The bad news is that it’s apparently going to be harder than Demon’s Souls. I think this will instantly turn a lot of gamers off because of the problems with Demon’s Souls. I have to say, though, that I didn’t find the game difficult and it’s not because I am some sort of pro, I just think I approached the game differently.

The good news is that it’s not only going to be a PS3 release, XBoxers are going to be able to grab it as well. Also, all of the great multiplayer features that were available in Demon’s Souls are also going to be available in Dark Souls. This, along with improved graphics and a deeper storyline means only one thing for me…… I am going to buy it as soon as it’s released.

To give you some background, I have never played Diablo and in fact it wasn’t until well after Diablo II that I started to play role playing games such as City Of Heroes but it didn’t take long until I started playing World Of Warcraft (WoW). I love levelling systems that gradually improve your skills and gear. Unfortunately I had to give up WoW due to the fact that they’re real physical people about that need attention as well as my guild.

Fast and Gory Action

The one thing that I didn’t like about WoW was the fact that you really had to hit the level cap to play the arena matches and then there was a massive grind to get gear that helped you survive. It’s one of the reasons that I haven’t played the WoW expansion packs Cataclysm and Wrath of the Lich King. It would be great if you could play the arena as a separate part of the game.

I know that Guild Wars has a PvP system that you can go in as level 20, which when I played it was the level cap, and play PvP at that level. The problem with this game is that I don’t like the battle system in the single player or in PvP so I won’t be going back to that.

Blizzard has taken the Diablo franchise PvP and revamped it. They have promised this time it’s going to be ‘deep, organised, frantic and fun’.

3v3 is just one of the categories

When you are exploring the arenas that are set all over the world of Sanctuary you will take in your character of choice. You will also be able to use any weapons, armour or runes you have discovered in the game. I have noticed that any statements coming from Blizzard have been very vague when talking about PvP rewards.

The company taking care of online play for Diablo III is Battle.net who deal with all the WoW gameplay as well. When you play ranked matches in the arena you will be rewarded points and then Battle.net will use this for match making. Obviously Battle.net will try to keep things fair but after experiencing some pretty unbalanced matches in the WoW arenas I will believe it when I see it. What happens if there aren’t enough players online who have points within your level? Do you not get a game or do you get put in with the person who has the closest amount of points?

I have been looking at getting a new laptop for the release of Diablo III so I can get the best out the game and I think I’ll make that much coveted Alienware purchase for it. That is of course if Blizzard only release the game for PC and after reading some news about the people Blizzard are hiring for Diablo III I think there might be a surprise just around the corner.

I didn’t think it was a big deal until we went over to a computer terminal and my first thought was ‘GOOGLE!’. Much to my surprise (not really, or I wouldn’t have looked for anything) I discovered that there is a Santa’s Grotto of games attached to the computer.

The first of these Black Ops delights was a text based adventure game called Zork. If you cast your mind back to 1982 when The Hobbit was released on computer consoles such as Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum. I always remember being stuck at the very first screen. There was a door in a hobbit hole and every time I typed in something like ‘open the door’ or ‘turn the handle’ the computer would tell me it didn’t understand.

Zork is essentially exactly the same thing although Walter loved it. Again, I didn’t play it for long before thinking, ’screw this’,  and moving swiftly on to something completely different.

Dead Ops is definitely worth a look

The second game that I discovered was Dead Ops Arcade which turns out to be exactly the same as Smash TV, another cool title from the archives. In this you control a guy with the left stick and shoot with the right stick. It gets pretty frenzied out there and you get some really cool drops. I suppose the game is like Black Ops Zombies but with an aerial view instead of first person.

I really enjoy these hidden items in games and feel that there aren’t enough of them but what’s ideal about them is that they will tide us over to the 1st of February when the first Black Ops DLC is released under the title First Strike. This DLC will give us four new multiplayer maps titled Berlin Wall, Discovery, Stadium and Kowloon and a new Zombie map called Ascension.

Knock it down again... and again... and again... and again!

Just a quick reminder to anyone who hasn’t had the chance yet, Ready Up run a Call of Duty: Black Ops session on a Thursday night at 9pm UK time. You should come along because the numbers are growing and they’re great fun. Without boasting too much I am totally crap so don’t worry about your abilities, nobody cares.