Where are Earth’s mightiest heroes?  Well, they are definitely on the big screen, and fragmented on our consoles, but where are the Avengers?  This time around, Martin asks why they have not been seen on our home consoles as one mighty team.  Perhaps the game was too big; perhaps the licensing would have killed off any decent stab; it’s unsure.  The film has broken worldwide records and set a new bar for superhero fare, but any game is sadly lacking.  Will there be any assembling? Will you be able to understand the words through Martin’s sniffly hay-fever?  There is only one way to find out and that is to have a listen to the new musing.

Or download here.

Hulk would like a cup of tea.

This time around, Martin looks at what may be ahead for the future of our beloved consoles.  Is it possible that there may be a decision made that will render the next generation unplayable to a huge percentage of gamers?  Surely, all of the big companies will do enough research to ensure that more people will be buying consoles, rather than less.  There’s only one way to find out what our ever insightful Martin has to say, and that’s by listening to his new musing.

Or download here.

Will this little thing end gaming?

Never one to shy away from controversy or speaking his mind, Martin takes a dip into admitting he doesn’t like some games.  It wouldn’t be so bad if it wasn’t for the fact that these games are held in high esteem by so many people.  Are you willing to stand up for yourself and admit that you are a fussy gamer?  Or are you happy to go along with the herd and say you like games even though you might actually hate them?  Whatever your feelings, things could get ugly and debates may rage.  Listen at your peril.

Or download here.

As good as it gets?

This time around, Martin muses about the impending financial doom of well known gaming instillations. Will their demise signal a fresh start for new life or will it signal the end of high street gaming as we know it?  If push came to shove, would you be okay with visiting other places to fulfill your gaming needs?  Can a phoenix rise from the ashes and take us to new horizons?  There is only one way to find out what our resident sage has to say on this pressing subject.

Click to play…

Click to save…

When she got there, the shop had gone into liquidation!

In this, his first musing blog, Martin muses about an impending time in his life that may affect his gaming habits forever. What could bring about such a change and will he hit a “game over” or just “press A to continue”? You may not be aware of it but it is something that will, eventually, affect every one of us.

Click to play…

Click to save…

Yup. That SUMS me up.

It DID look amazing, honest!

I always associate the original Tomb Raider with Christmas 1996. It was the year it came out and I received it for my Christmas the same year. I was awestruck at how good it was, especially the jumping off the waterfall part. I ushered many people into my room, just to show them what you could do and how good it looked. This year, I fired up Tomb Raider anniversary on my 360 and let the waves of nostalgia wash over me. It had been at least two years since I had played it so it was like starting all over again, although I had a mid-level game save to go back to. Wouldn’t you know!  The save game was in the middle of the Peru level, right beside the Waterfall, now in HD glory. Within a very short time I was marvelling at the vistas, I was scampering up the rocks and grabbing ledges with my fingertips. It was glorious. As I was playing through, I had total recall of the original. All the names and levels came rushing back in, the waves of nostalgia were great. It brought back memories of listening to the Spice Girls singing about safe sex and my small grey box of wonder that was my Playstation.

Small and blue in all his tiny glory.

Venturing further back in my Christmas history was fraught with danger and doubt. It was with a little reluctance that I downloaded Sonic the Hedgehog on to my shiny iPhone 4S. Christmas 1991 was a time of change for myself, halfway through my first year of college, discovering the dangers of excessive alcohol consumption and drifting away from gaming a little. I drifted away until I purchased a Sega Megadrive and then got Sonic too. Over the years I have played Sonic to death, so I know all the levels, sounds, enemies, music… everything. I would surely be hyper critical of a poor emulation.  From the second that I turned my iPhone on its side and heard “Segaaaaaaaaa”, I knew that I needn’t worry. Sonic on the iPhone is a wonderful thing. No new-fangled smoothing or remixed soundtracks, it’s pure port heaven.  Everything is exactly as it should be. The levels are as lush looking as ever, the sprites are pixel perfect and every musical note and sound effect is perfection. Even better still, I could whip it out anytime and play it wherever I was, heaven. After a few short minutes of play the small screen is not an issue and due to the fact I was concentrating so hard, it may as well have been a cinema screen I was playing on. The swirling sands of time were swooshing me back to ten fags for 98 pence and dancing to ABBA and the KLF at what became one of Glasgow’s trendiest nightspots.

Someone got an Atari Lynx for Christmas!

I’ve always enjoyed the way that games, music, films, smells or tastes can take you back in your mind. Of course, more often than not, the rose tinted specs can alter perceptions of reality but it’s not that bad. It’s great that we can still play games that were hugely influential from so long ago, and I wonder what games I’ll be revisiting in 15 or twenty years. The scary thought being that I will be 55 and 60 at that time.

Poor Joe Danger, he’s a washed up, out of work motorbike stuntman, much in the mould of 1970’s motorbike mentalists.  Even worse, he is being harassed by colourful, evil Stig look-a-likes called “Team Nasty”.  There’s only one way to regain some pride and dignity and that’s by taking part in some crazy bike-fuelled fun.  I hate pigeonholing games into a specific mould, so in an attempt to be original, I’ll say that Joe Danger SE is a side scrolling, trick filled, bike-em-up.  You take control of Joe with the usual right trigger to accelerate, left trigger to brake method.  He blasts across the cartoon-like land with ease. Snitially small ramps pop you a little way into the air but soon enough, big ramps appear and the jumps get bigger.  School buses have to be cleared and loop the loops spun through.  You can wheelie your motorbike easily by pulling back on the controller, which has the effect of filling your boost gauge.  Fill it right up and with a button press, Joe has a temporary boost of speed.  Press “X” and you can duck under objects; release it and Joe will bunny hop his bike. When you are in the air you can use a combination of bumper button presses to perform tricks and gain more points. Easy?

It’s not instantly easy, there seems to be so much going on.  Sometimes you are watching for barriers to duck under while attempting to wheelie and boost in a vain attempt to keep your score multiplier going.  Gladly, it all becomes second nature very quickly and you are checking out the scoring potential of the next obstacle.  There is no such thing as a straight end to end race in the game. Each level, of which there are over 100, has various jumps, springs, bombs and hazards to use or avoid before you reach the end.  It really makes the game something very special indeed, you are constantly watching ahead for whatever the game throws up.  Generally you are only faced with a race against Team Nasty at the end of each set of levels.  The other levels are filled with various fun filled objectives that sap your time like only a good game can.  Some levels require you to keep your combo score running for the whole level (easier said than done), others have you collecting a certain number of items in a time limit.  Some of the trickier levels have you collecting the word “DANGER”, with each letter in a different location and some require you to land on targets with a degree of accuracy.  Even worse!  Some levels ask you to complete ALL of the aforementioned tasks.  If you are successful you receive medals which you can then use to unlock more levels. It gives a lovely sense of progression.

For an XBLA game, Joe Danger is very well featured too.  Along with the main game you can also play local multiplayer matches on the predefined tracks.  If that’s not enough, you can make your own tracks, using the easy to manage sandbox mode.  You can also make single-player levels and share them with your friends.  A new feature to the Special Edition of Joe Danger is called “The Lab”.  You can look on the Lab as a few things. Firstly, it’s a training mode, helping you to come to grips with some of the control nuances in the game, with each section of the Lab dealing with different disciplines.  Secondly, it can be seen as a behind the scenes look into the mechanics of the game, albeit with the same comedy twist which runs through the whole game.  Progression in the game also unlocks different costumes and skins to use, my current favourite being the fez-hatted monkey.  If you are lucky enough to be reading this in the run up to Christmas 2011 you can pick up, for free, and only until the Christmas period is over, Santa Danger.  Going on to the marketplace on the 21st of December this gives you something new in the form of Santa and a quad bike!  I’ve played it and it’s great, the quad bike is sturdy but very bouncy and great fun to use to go back over levels you’ve already finished.  Good old Santa can actually help you get to some bits you might have been struggling with.  A nice wee Christmas add on. Sorry if you’re reading this at a later date, you’ve missed a snow filled add-on.

The first thing that struck me was that this dancing game was using the Unreal engine to power it. Surely a little over the top for a dancing game?  It would seem not. The visuals are gorgeous, vibrant, colourful and the representations of the band are brilliant. Initial amazement over, I was a little put off by what at first seemed to be an overly complicated menu system. There seemed to be stuff going on everywhere. After a short play, I could see it was actually really easy to navigate using the usual hand movements to select icons and holding a hand above your head to go back a step.  After getting all that out of the way you can choose between dance party mode where you can play with friends in a neat drop in or out way, singing along too if you desire.  The Kinect works wonderfully as you mimic the on-screen moves.

The main meat of the game is to be found in campaign mode, which is part of the “Deluxe Experience”.  It’s here where you can dance your heart out, among other things. I started campaign mode with a nice easy song, “Don’t Lie”. Each song is initially split into four parts and each part contains a few different dance moves.  The on-screen characters first demonstrate what is expected of you and you then try to dance in time. Your moves are graded on how accurately you pull them off. I was amazed to pull off some “incredible” moves on my first go!  After you have practised the different segments they are all played together in the full song and it’s here where you start to sweat.  Will.I.Am, Fergie and the other two ( who, through the game, I found out are called Taboo and Apl.De.Ap) look amazing as they dance away in front of your character. The graphics really are amazing; definitely better than those of the Dance Central games.  After you complete the dance you are awarded points based on your performance and then get an overall rating. I got a “B” on my first attempt.  Buoyed on by my impressive result, I tried the game on a higher setting and ended up flailing around my living room. Back to a lesser skill level.

As you get better and gain more fans, which act as in-game currency for unlocks, you unlock clothes and other apparel for your character.  You can change everything from the hair to the shoes and tattoos in between.  Pretty soon you’ll be looking like one of the crew and you’ll be ready to bust some more moves.  You can also unlock different areas to dance in as you progress, starting in Tokyo and taking in Zero G!  All the venues look suitably lush and give a great backdrop to the dancing.  A nice feature is “Choreo-Maker” where you can make up your own routines and challenge your friends, or yourself!  You have fifty slots to fill with any of the moves from the game. It can be a little time consuming and after your first attempt you’ll have a completely un-danceable routine.  After a little fine tuning, you’ll realise that the way forward is to repeat the moves a few times before starting the next move.  I had fifty different moves the first time and almost induced a heart attack as I tried it out.  The moves vary from simple hand claps to multi limbed movements – not easy for someone of my age and build!  Nevertheless, it is all very enjoyable to play through and after my initial trepidation I found myself really enjoying it.

The only failing that I can see in the game is that it is all Black Eyed peas.  It’s not a huge problem when it works as well as this does but you do become very familiar with all the songs quite quickly.  A few different tunes by bands that influenced the Peas would’ve been great or just some non Peas tracks.  That said, it can be picked up at a really good price so it’s maybe more forgivable.  If you look on it as a game like one of the band editions of Guitar Hero, then it is exemplary; a total fan service.  The loading screens feature snippets of information about the band and the videos for the songs play in the background as you play.  Who knew that Will.I.Am loves Snickers bars?  Because of this game, I now do.

Launch day. The 360 display is actual size.

In retrospect, it is quite amazing that the 360 has lasted this long.  The initial failings of the console should’ve been a death knell for it.  A high percentage of launch console and beyond suffered the dreaded red ring of death hardware failure. I lost two 360s to this unfortunate occurance, luckily I managed to replace them both within a day each. Other people weren’t so lucky and had to wait a fair while to get their consoles fixed, indeed, many bricked it just after the first year warranty had expired.  This problem has been gradually ironed out over the years with more reliable hardware and doesn’t seem to have deterred many buyers.  So after a near miss with death, the 360 soldiered on and kept selling. What else could be granting the 360 such a long and prosperous life?  Could it maybe be the software?

Shooting, driving and ogres, a perfect launch line up.

The 360 launched with some great titles and followed them up with even more great games over the years.  On launch day you could pick up such classics as Project Gotham Racing 3, Kameo, Call of Duty 2, King Kong and Need for Speed Most Wanted.  All were noticeably different to the last generation and made me feel that I was on to something great.  A few months down the line and I was playing Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter, this was truly next gen stuff and was starting to show what the 360 was capable of.  Bona fide titles have followed over the years with the Halo series being a flagship title and how could we forget the Gears of War games?  Benchmark games through and through.  Quality titles have been released over the 360’s lifespan including Bioshock, Left 4 Dead, Alan Wake, Guitar Hero, Mass Effect, DiRT and so many more.  Each newer game in any series pushed standards further; you can see why people might not want to move on to a new console.

Has your ring ever gone red?

Of course, the way the 360 looks has changed over the years too.  Starting as a white monolith, the 360 evolved into a black monolith with the elite model, which gave us much needed extra memory with a bigger hard drive.  Still not showing any signs of aging, the 360 also added a crucial HDMI output that solved many visual complaints of the machine, unreadable on-screen text was a thing of the past.  A while later the 360 underwent some major cosmetic surgery to keep those looks young and beautiful.  The new slim and quiet model took away the monolithic proportions and made the console look more acceptable under your television.  By heck was it quieter too! It was akin to having a whispering wind in the corner as opposed to the zimmer frame disco.

It's like the Joan Rivers of the console world.

Can all this really be attributed to the extra long life of modern consoles, especially the granddaddy 360?  Possibly.  But it’s more likely that there are greater factors at work here.  The economic climate is probably the largest factor with companies less willing to take huge gambles on new hardware that may fail or falter, i.e. the 3DS.  The fact that, one year ago, Microsoft launched a new way to play games with Kinect, shows they are still expecting some longevity from the 360.  Even more impressive is the take up of people buying Kinect, they must also have a bit of faith in the console.  Personally, I’ve built up a huge library of 360 games and don’t feel ready to move on to something shinier just yet.  I’m of the opinion that if it isn’t broken why try to fix it?  There are of course, rumours, that the successor to the 360 could be less than a year away, more likely two.  That isn’t really a long time if you think about it, but you have to ask what you want from a new console.  Better graphics?  Improved reliability? Backwards compatibility? All of this?  All I know is that whatever it is or when it comes out, it’s going to be expensive and I have no more vices to give up, except gaming!

Beautiful, box included.

When I’m paying even more money to get a limited edition of a game, I expect one thing, and one thing only on top of all the bonus content.  I expect my game to come in a proper retail game box or even the steel-book.  What I don’t want is to have my game encased in a cheapo cardboard wallet or cheap and flimsy plastic casing, much like a box of chocolates.  I want to be able to trade in the game in the future as needed but retain the cool collectibles that I’ve paid extra for.  Of course not every special edition suffers from this curse, a few notable exceptions that have done it right are; the Halo series, always really cool packaging for the special editions, but a proper game box inside.  Aliens vs Predator, nice facehugger model and steel-book edition of the game.  Fallout 3, awesome lunchbox and bobble head, once again proper game box and more recently Driver SF which came with a car model and proper game box.  All have had decent collectibles and the ability to trade in without losing the cool stuff.  There is a middle ground, where games come in limited edition boxes with all the good stuff and have the game in a proper DVD box.  However it’s not the proper game box so you would have to trade the whole thing in if you wanted rid of it.Games that have sat in the middle ground have included; Gears of War series, especially Gears 3, which came in a cool box but the game disc box was meant to be a memento holder. Alan Wake came in a book effect box, whichI love, once again though, it has a non-game, DVD box which only works as part of the collectors edition.

It looks like a book. How clever is that!

At the bottom of the scale are the games that don’t even have the courtesy to come in a DVD box of any variety.  Sadly, two of the greatest games of recent times are the biggest offenders here.  The games have been hidden away in molded plastic holders, the most recent is hidden at the back of an art book.  Sadly, these games are the two stunning Batman games, Arkham Asylum and Arkham City.  Paying £55 for a game, I would expect the game to come in a proper box, after all I have paid top dollar for it.  Where is the thought process where it seemed like a good idea to do away with a proper game box and instead use the cheapest option available?  This could be a very crude way for the publishers to save money and it sucks.  Buy the normal game and you get a decent box for it that can be stored on your DVD case sized shelves.  Buy the limited edition and you will have to go through three layers of packaging before you can get the game out to play it, damned if you do…  This could also be a way of combating the preowned market, by not giving you a box for the game you have two choices; keep the game or trade the whole package in.

Who had the idea of shit boxes? Joker!

Luckily I have found a solution to the whole problem, a solution that keeps the aesthetics of my bookcases in order and a solution to making it easier to get the game out to play.  If you talk nicely to the staff in your local games shop, you might be lucky enough to get the empty shell cases that are used for display only.  These boxes usually carry the artwork on the box and keep things looking as they should.  I really should thank my friends at my local Games Centre for keeping my collection looking like it should.  They recently supplied me with Gears 3 and Arkham City cases to store the discs in and sit proudly beside all my other games.  So, publishers take heed, top dollar for games should include a proper game box.  Simple.

The War of the Worlds has always worked due to a strong narrative, not always easy to convey in a game, but with the inclusion of Britain’s leading thespian, Sir Patrick Stewart, doing the voice over narrative, it seemed that I could be in gaming Nirvana. The game starts with Patrick’s dulcet tones telling us about the attack of Earth by alien forces from Mars. At the same time you are treated to a lovely monochromatic steam train puffing through countryside.  The art style looks very reminiscent of  The Dishwasher games mixed in with a little Limbo.  So far, so very good.  A little hell breaks loose and soon the train lies smashed, in Paddington Station.  Here, the game starts proper and you engage in some classic style 2-D platforming action, featuring some decent multi layered parallax scrolling ( that is, the foreground, middle ground and background all moving individually from each other).  Intermittently, Patrick pipes up with some narration to keep the story moving along, and pretty soon, you have made it though the station and got outside.  The game is flowing beautifully so far.

When you get outside, the full scale of the Martian invasion hits home. You see destroyed buildings, people running for their lives and there is the occasional glimpse of the Martian war machines.  Sadly, this is the first point where the game starts to unravel in a hair pulling out way.  As I was attempting to escape from the martian heat ray I died for the first time, then I died again, and again, and again, and again.  I had no idea why I kept dying, or what I should do to stop it happening.  I must have heard Patrick repeat the same line around twenty times before I figured out what to do.  Sadly, the effect that this has is to totally ruin the gorgeous narrative style that had previously been a pleasure to listen to.  As the game progresses the problem is amplified as you die, lots!  You soon discover that certain jumps have to be performed with pixel perfect precision; infuriating when you are being pursued or under pressure to escape.  The narrative that had once flowed was chopped into pieces and repeated to a level where you would like to turn the sound off.

Later levels see you in a switch pressing nightmare, where previously you had been tasked with merely outrunning the aliens.  To make the switch pressing even harder, you are also being pursued by intelligent black smoke that leads to several more deaths.  The save points are either punishingly long or stupidly close together. More than once I switched the game off because I was finding the going so hard.  When I switched it back on again I had been put back a fair bit from where I was. Infuriating!  There are no way points to follow, no map, no health bar and no button prompts, so sometimes you will find yourself completely flummoxed as to what you should be doing or trying to work out why you died or where you should go.  Some may argue that the game’s difficulty is an homage to the classic games that it borrows ideas from, most obviously Flashback or Prince of Persia. This may be true, but it just destroys what should have been a flowing narrative driven story.

It’s not all bad, though; some of the ideas and visuals are nothing short of stunning.  My personal favourites being the appearance of a giant war machine right behind you. The sense of scale is impressive and a battle taking place in Hyde Park.  As you are running and climbing across the park, war is raging around you with the ground being up-heaved and troops running in front of the screen, all done to wonderful effect. Some of the explosions in the background look gorgeous, especially when the first black smoke canister erupts.  The Martians and their war machines look great with their flashes of bright greens and reds being used in great contrast to the monochrome colour scheme.  Sadly the bad points far outweigh any good points and make the game frustrating.

Taking the wheel (I say “Wheel” because that is what it is called, it is “U” shaped and not wheel-like at all) out of the box, I was instantly surprised at how light it was away from all the packaging.  Amazingly it fits two AA batteries in a small compartment at the bottom and if you are connected to Xbox Live you will have no need to use the update disc in the box.  A quick sync with the console in the normal way and the wheel was ready to use in less than twenty seconds.  Holding the wheel as you would a car wheel, it instantly feels comfortable and genuinely like an extension of your hands.  Hidden at the back of each side are the familiar feeling triggers we have become used to, possibly a little chunkier than the normal controller.  A D-pad is present on the left hand side, the start, select and home button are integrated in the circular chrome effect centre and the A,B,X and Y buttons are on the right side.  Everything is within reach easily and can be pressed with very little hassle. My only problem thus far was making my thumbs grab around the wheel instead of thinking they were sitting on the normal controllers thumb-sticks.  The only omissions from the wheel are lack of a headset jack, understandable with the wheel being turned about so much, and oddly there are no bumper buttons.

Starting my first race on Forza 4 I was hugely apprehensive that I’d bought another turkey. I couldn’t have been more wrong.  Squeezing the right trigger had the desired effect of making my car go faster. First bend approached and I as squeezed the left trigger-my car slowed down. All was well.  Now I had to use the motion control of the wheel to corner; it was brilliant.  A slight turn of the wheel in my hands and the car instantly responded. A little correction and it was back on track and zooming ahead of the pack.  The wheel is so sensitive to movements, that it is wonderful to use to drive with.  I’m not sure of the tolerances of the wheel but from my usage, it seemed to detect millimeters of movement. It was pin sharp.  Hugely impressed with the performance of the wheel I pressed on with the game and found it changed the way I drove.  I was anticipating corners more and owing to the super accurate response I was overtaking easily.  Definitely not a turkey.

Sadly the minor flaws came to my attention whilst navigating the Forza 4 menus.  Owing to a lack of bumper buttons, I was unable to navigate to certain sections of the menus; quite an oversight on Microsoft’s behalf.  The wheel was launched alongside Forza 4 so I would have thought that both game and peripheral would have been optimised for each other.  The wheel even shows up in the Forza 4 configuration screens, so it’s a little strange to make areas of the game inaccessible when using the wheel.  I also know that many driving games use the bumpers for manual gear changing, obviously a no go with this wheel, although you can assign any of the buttons to the ones on the wheel, just not the bumpers.

I was concerned that Forza 4 would be the only game able to use the wheel, so I dug out two of my favourite racing games to see if it could cope with their different styles of racing.  First up I tried Formula 1 2010, a game that can be tricky using a controller.  I selected a night race and set off not expecting much.  Once again I was proved wrong.  The wheel works like a dream. Switch to the in-car view and you really could be driving an F1 car.  As with Forza 4 the wheel detected the slightest movement and converted it amazingly well to the on-screen action.  It was at this point that I noticed that the two green halo lights that top each side of the wheel light up during gear changes and impacts.  Then when I tried Forza 4 again I noticed that it could actually help you to use manual gears as they light up to coincide with gear changes; a really nice touch.  Finally I tried my favourite racing game, DiRT 3.  I honestly didn’t think that the wheel would cope with the nuances of rally driving. But yes, you guessed right, I was surprised.  It works just as well as it did with the other games I tried.  The accurate control is perfect for rally driving too. I was only a few seconds off my best times using a controller.  With some practise I reckon the wheel will make me even faster.  A truly stunning piece of kit.

The start of the game sees you controlling a group of space marines who have been sent to invesigate the goings on aboard the Sulaco spaceship, last seen in  the Aliens film.  The top screen is your game screen and the touch screen controls your weapons and tools and also displays your map and motion tracker.  The detailed sprites of the Marines move around the corridors of the Sulaco, encountering locked doors and pass card protected lifts, so it seems you’re not getting anywhere fast.  More annoyingly, your first encounters feature dull looking robots that take too much fire to put down, so it seems like it’s going to be a trudge.  The saving grace at this point is the sound of the pulse rifle straight out of the films. It seems like the game is going nowhere fast but after finishing the first part of the Sulaco, where I lost all of my marines in a boss battle,  you are transported to the surface of LV-426, the setting for Aliens.  It is here that the shit hits the fan and the many plus points of the game start to shine, but alas the faults show too.

Most of your missions feature going to point A to be told you have to go to point B to then return to point A with what you have found.  The trouble with this structure is that on your map, the objectives are not clearly marked.  At one point I wandered around the map looking for explosives that were hidden away in an alien filled chamber looking like a small pile of clothes.  It does add to the exploration though as you really are forced to seek out what you need to progress, all the while blasting aliens and soldiers with that gorgeous sounding pulse rifle.  As you progress deeper in the maps, the walls become covered with alien bio-mech and the aliens appear more frequently in all their guises from egg to chest-buster, face-huggers to queens and they all look and sound great.  Sadly, the game features constantly respawning enemies, so rooms that you have cleared minutes ago become repopulated with the same enemies appearing from the same places they first did.  This becomes a bit tiresome and takes away some tension as you learn where they are and deal with them before they can damage you.

The idea of lives in the game is interesting.  You start with a squad of four that you can swap at any of the, far too few, save rooms in the game, each having their own personality and image.  As you progress through the levels you come across other marines that can join your squad if any are dead.  If you lose all your marines you have to go way back to your last save, and sometimes it can be a huge chunk you have to replay.  Yes, it makes the game a little more tense and you really have to plan ahead, but the boss battles can strip your lives in no time, forcing you back a good bit.  If your squad is full you can drop a flare beside any marines you encounter, making it easier to go back and find them.  Also if your character dies and you still have a living marine, you have a set time to rescue the marine from the aliens before they are harvested.  It’s a nice touch but you are made to go back through waves of respawned enemies and it’s easier just to let them die.

You return to explore more of the Sulaco between levels and the ship opens up further as you gain the ability to weld open doors or see in the darkness with your torch.  The tension builds as your motion tracker phuts and blips just like in the films, warning of impending doom.  There is also a small driving section, where you defend your vehicle from swathes of aliens by using the touch screen to control your turret; it’s a great bit which could have been made longer.  You also unlock a knife trick mini-game, the same idea as the android Bishop did in the Aliens film.  It’s presented, much like the rest of the game, in a blast of 16 bit glory.  Just like the classic Megadrive and Super Nintendo games.  This is how you should approach this game, as an homage to classic 16 bit gaming.

I’ve seen several forums set alight by the fanboys moaning about how this isn’t Takedown or a new Revenge; the last laugh is on them.  Burnout Crash is a new take on the series, taking everyone’s favourite crash mode and making it a true arcade experience.  You view one junction at a time from a top down view-point, much like the old Micro Machine games and all you initially have to do is steer your car into the traffic to cause a crash.  Cause enough damage and your crashbreaker meter fills up. When it fills completely, a press of “A” explodes your car and all around it starting off chains of damage.  While exploding you can guide your car to hit other objects to keep your chain going; the more damage, the greater score you’ll get.  If you can keep your multiplier running, your scores can be immense, but there is a technique to doing this.  If you fulfill various objectives, mostly damage caused, you’ll earn stars which then unlock more cars to use.  Everything can be destroyed from buildings to vehicles and hidden bonus cars that ramp up the score.  It can get really hectic, trying to keep an eye on your car and not let any cars escape from the carnage.  If five cars escape, it’s game over and you WILL be pressing “crash again”, lots of times.

The main mode is called Road Trip, where you tackle one junction at a time, spread over several different areas including desert, seaside and even Roswell themed locations.  Each location has unique modifier power ups that are launched when you destroy a set number of cars.  Each junction features three modifiers including storms, aliens, tidal waves and holes in the road; this all helps to boost the score.  If you are unlucky enough to miss an escaping car an ambulance will turn up and if it escapes the level you regain a life.  If all your lives are intact a bank truck appears and if you destroy it you can get lots of extra points.  The two other modes on offer, Rush Hour and Pile Up offer quick gameplay, almost akin to the original series where you have limited time to cause as much destruction as possible or keep the fires burning.  It’s all hugely addictive and easy to start over again when you haven’t met your targets.

Music and sounds are used to great effect in game, with various well known songs appearing at certain points to let you know what is happening in all the carnage.  My personal favourite being Spandau Ballet’s “Gold” popping up when you blast the hidden gold car.  Yes, there is a slightly annoying range of voiceover phrases, but I found them easy to ignore, much like everyone’s favourite DJ from the older Burnout games.  The Autolog feature from the most recent EA driving games has also been integrated into the game to post and receive challenges from your friends who also own the game.  Oddly there is no global leaderboard which seems like a missed opportunity, but it’s not a gamebreaker.  It’s easy to send a challenge to your friends but infuriating at times trying to beat the seemingly unattainable high scores they’ve set.  You can also play with Kinect controls which is easy to steer but  found it tricky to move after exploding a crashbreaker; a nice touch but I preferred using the controller.   Everything looks and sounds lovely, in a very familiar Burnout way, and that can only be a good thing.

Bat, cat? Hat, mat, splat!

Come October, we will finally be able to get our hands on the hugely anticipated Batman Arkham City.  I am one of those people, eagerly agog to get my mitts on it, but wait just a  holy minute, Batfans.  Available from launch will be your bog standard normal edition with no frills, good for the budget conscious.  However, launching at the same time is a steelbook edition with no discernible extras, only the stunning Batman artwork on the box.  The difference in price looks to be £3-£5, not a huge deal. But it doesn’t stop there, oh no!  Also launching from various outlets, some exclusive, are a wealth of other steelbook editions.  Already confirmed are a Robin cover and a Two-Face cover. It seems that there will be specific Robin downloads to go with this, but once again, exclusive to a certain store.   Phew! That all certainly makes it a little difficult to choose which version you would prefer.  Of course, if you’re not bothered by it, the standard edition may suffice.  Good, we all sorted now?  Well, sadly you’re not.  Not by a long shot, because there’s more.

Oh no! The box has a Dent on it.

Tesco have nabbed the exclusive Joker’s Carnival Challenge Map for a limited time, I would imagine.  This is reported to add an extra four hours worth of gameplay to the main game, which is quite a bit, I’m sure you’d agree.  Of course, this also comes in a Joker themed steelbook, no surprise there!  You would think at this point that there could be no more, I would forgive you for thinking this way. Guess what?  You’d  be wrong.  There is also the stunningly gorgeous looking collector’s edition that comes with a statue, artbook, downloadable soundtrack, bonus character skins, animated film and of course the game.  This is the edition that I have plumped for and currently is available to pre-order between £60-£70.  It sounds like quite good value and to be honest, the statue looks stunning, which is what drew me to this specific edition.  So, at this moment in time there are at least six versions of the game going to be available.  Aside from the extras that I’ve detailed, the versions are the same with only the packaging being different.  Some versions from specific stores will also include different codes for various Batman skins to use in game.  All will be available to download for everyone at a later date.  I hope.

Holy, awesome statues, Batboy!

Let us imagine then, in some kind of foolish world that you wanted ALL the content spread across all the versions on offer.  With a little calculating, I estimate that the total cost, at its cheapest, would be somewhere in the region of £250!  Yes, I know that no one is actually going to buy all the separate editions, are they?  But it really makes you wonder why it can’t have all been in the box of every version rather than having so many different versions.  There is no doubt that this game is going to sell, but I really think that it has all gone too far now.  Is it possible that collectors will be snapping up the various versions and then giving the sales an artificially high number; is that the plan?  I’m really not sure, but I’m currently worried that my collector’s edition game disc is going to come in an envelope rather than one of the lovely boxes.

Can I afford it? Me? 'ow?

I was about to finish my blog there but in doing my research I’ve discovered that there may be, at least, another two steelbooks available.  The Penguin and Catwoman may also be entering the fray!  We’re now closing in on the £350 mark.  Holy Batshit Bonkers!

As you may have noticed, the game has a big long title; it’s the next in line of a well known series of G1 Jockey games. Well known to some, that is.  Being my first foray into horse racing games, I approached it with a little doubt in my mind but I was open to it being good.  Sadly I made the worst mistake on my first play, I chose to use the controller, completely ignoring the fact that the game is Kinect enabled.  Thinking I knew better I jumped straight into  the fun race mode expecting it all to be an easy ride to the finish line.  I was wrong.  I hadn’t a clue about the controls and my frantic button pressing didn’t make the race any clearer.  After losing horrendously, I decided to start on the story mode in hope of learning how to play. That was the first good decision I made.  The story mode starts you as a rookie jockey and teaches you, through a series of tutorials, how to ride your horse properly and hopefully win races.  As you try out each lesson it all starts to become clear and very soon you’ll be winning races on the easy setting without too much trouble.  Once you have passed all the tutorials you then start racing in the big leagues where you can negotiate rides to earn Racing Points which will level up your character.  As you level up you’ll be able to ride better performing horses, giving you a better chance of continued success.  It’s here, though, that I found things a little hard going.

Story mode features lots of written dialogue that you can either read or skip with the “A” button.  I found myself sometimes having to press the button 20-30 times to get to the next section or race, it does become a little tedious and affects the flow of the game.  When you are choosing horses you are bombarded with loads of stats and figures about the horse’s form and preferences. I must confess to ignoring the vast majority and just choosing the best overall stat, which seemed to work in my favour.  There are various settings for the riding style: standard, pro and custom offer varying levels of user control over the horses with pro offering full player control and standard assisting you.  With the game on easy and ride style set to standard, I found it enjoyable to race without having to worry too much and found it easy to win.

The racing itself is actually very good when you get the hang of it. After a timed button press to get you off the mark you have to adjust your speed and position to keep your horse in the best standing as you can.  Stamina can wear away if you go too fast, so you have to judge when to apply speed or hold back. If the stamina falls away you can whip your horse to get some speed, but this is best kept until near the end.  What you then have to do is balance your ride, keeping you in the pack and readying yourself for a final burst to the finish line.  If you ride a good race your horses potential will be good and this will then trigger a revolution meter which boosts your horse into a zone of speed and form. I found this difficult to attain, but it did happen.

The visuals of the race are adequate and verge towards a style often associated with sports arcade games, without the OTT voice over.  Not exactly Next Gen visuals but suitably pleasing to look at.  Online modes are also included, via a champion code which comes with the game, but you’ll have to buy a new code if you buy pre-owned.  Sadly, the online only supports four players, which seems like a missed opportunity but it keeps it moving along.

You may remember I mentioned that the game is Kinect enabled; this may be the saving grace.  With the controller, races seemed quite shallow and over very quickly. They are no longer in time using Kinect but they are oh so much more immersive.  Standing like a loon in front of the telly you ride your invisible horse by holding your hands out as if  holding reins.  Then making a galloping gesture with your hands, the horses start running. Brilliant. Pull back on either hand to steer and do a wee jump to go over fences in steeplechase courses.  The fun factor is so much higher using Kinect and is the definitive way to play the game.  Alas you still have to use a controller to navigate menus which is a slight oversight, but not a game breaker.

How much are you willimg to pay?

We’ve all seen it, browsing the marketplace for  something new and you come across new content for the game you’ve just bought.  In some cases the content is slipped up for purchase before the game is in the shops.  So you are then stuck with a dilemma, do you ignore the extra content or do you purchase it in case it takes something away from the overall game?  The problems and implications of these day one downloads are many fold and in many ways, wrong, but not without merits.  First up, let’s have a quick look at why these items of extra content are wrong.  I’m sure you don’t need me to tell you that it looks like we are being fleeced over by the publishers before we’ve even played the game.  If you’ve just paid full price for a game the last thing you want to do is fork out another ten quid or so on more content.  Why wasn’t all this stuff included on the disc?  To be honest, I can’t answer that question, it perplexes me just as much.  Games generally are  manufactured a month or so before release so there is plenty of time to include the extras that have to go through a certification process to be put up for download.  It therefore looks like a pure money making process, some games that start out at £40 can end up costing nearly twice as much if you include the extra content.   Games like Yoostar 2 and Lips and of course any music game have had a wealth of extra content up on a regular basis that would bankrupt most gamers if they bought it all.

To buy all the content here would cost... too much!

Of course, these items of extra content can also be a good thing when it comes to expanding the longevity of a game.  Extra maps, songs, tracks, vehicles or whatever the content may be, can bring new legs to a tired game.  I think the secret here, though, is to drip feed the content with longer intervals between releases, something the Call of Duty games do well.  This allows us time to get used to and ultimately familiar/fed up with the content, so we are ready for new content.  Another game which got this right was LA Noire, here you paid once for the Rockstar pass and the content that was put up was, in effect, free.  You never felt you were being overcharged and it added some longevity to the, already long, game.   Of course there is still an issue with the pricing of all theses add ons, some seem reasonably fair while others are just plain extortionate.  Over £10 is a bit steep for five new maps, but less than £9 seems quite reasonable for new cases and scenarios.  The decision comes down to how passionate you are about the games.

If you don't have them, you can't play them!

Of course there are several stings in the tail with all this downloadable content.  The most noticeable is with map packs, where if you don’t have the maps you can’t play with those who do.  This can be a total pain in the arse when it divides the people playing. Of course the decent people will still play the old maps with you, but if they’ve paid for the new ones, you know that’s where they’d rather be.  Some games allow you to buy maxed out characters from the get go which gives a hugely unfair advantage over others.  Basically, extra content makes the playing field a bit of a minefield instead of a level surface.  There is, of course; the holy grail, where the extra content is free and available to all, but it happens so rarely that it’s almost unheard of.  The upshot is that we should all boycott day one extra content.  If the publishers can’t be arsed to put it on the disc then we should show our disdain by not buying it!  I dare you to find the game you’ve bought the most add ons for and work out how much the whole package has now cost you.  You will be shocked.

The coolest bed spread ever?

In the heyday of games, we would be lucky to have a portable television in our bedroom, even luckier to have our home computer set up with it.  This wasn’t uncommon, due to the fact that the main television in any household was actually used for watching programmes, not someone typing in 5 hours worth of code to make a “brrrrrr-ding” noise.  So, all the pioneers were tucked up safely in their rooms, playing and in some cases, programming, games.  It was the norm, many years ago, for games to have been made in bedrooms and then published by companies, it was the done thing.  Even more so, the playing of games, I would lock myself away for hours playing the latest Spectrum games. Friends would sometimes visit and we would hunch around my computer desk marvelling at the graphics in Match Day.  The big drawback, as you may have spotted was the proximity you had to have to your set up, often less than a foot away, mostly due to the lack of any length in cables but primarily down to the smallness and lo-res of the television.  Not to worry, in a few years that would change.

Wow! Look at the detail in the crowd!

As the bedroom gamer gets older, they demand bigger and better ways to play games, top of the list is a bigger television.  That is not a problem when you are able to generate an income and for many gamers the bigger screen is a first bedroom purchase.  Of course, the consoles have moved on too, so we can now sit further away from the screen, maybe even fluff a few pillows and lie back on the bed playing games, bliss.  This is of course only part of the way through the evolution of gaming and of course isn’t the same for everyone, but I think a great many will be able to relate.  So, for a few years you have the perfect gaming crib, literally, you maybe add in a decent sound system, maybe even a comfy chair, but you are still in the bedroom, in the parents’ house or flat share.  The next step is the big jump, the one that could maybe bring around some separation anxiety.

Would you give this up for love?

What is  this tumultuous event?  What could possibly happen?  Well, many of us meet the woman, or man, of our dreams and set up home together.  Depending on your situation, this instigates the final step in the gaming evolution.  Gaming is brought into the living room.  You may have to acquire a specialist television unit to house all your kit but you will do it and you have now become an adult in the gaming world.  The effects on this can be from one extreme to the next, your partner may be happy to let you game and may even join in, or the bad thing could happen. Just when you were feeling comfortable a bad thing pops up, whatever could it be?  Well, it is also known that not everyone is into games and maybe, just maybe, your partner will not want to watch you being a cowboy or soldier, what happens then?  Well, there are a few possible routes; you give up gaming, you game when the other half is in bed or, and this is the full circle solution, you get a small television and put it in the bedroom!  Either way, your journey is complete.

The mature, set up, how many are familiar with it?

Recently I’ve got rid of a 3DS in exchange for a new slim Xbox 360, best decision ever, but it has left me with an old Xbox and a new one.  What to do?  Well, obviously, the new one is in the living room hooked up to the big television, but what of the old one?  I don’t have two televisions so I was just going to use it as a spare, until a wash of genius came over me.  I could buy a smaller television and have my old Xbox 360 in the bedroom to play games with and watch DVDs.  That’s exactly what I did, a 24″ HD LCD television now sits within reach of my bed with my 360 tucked neatly under it, it’s like starting my evolution all over again except I’m fully evolved so I can just enjoy the ride all over again.

Would you stick this poster above your mantlepiece?

The frame still doesn’t completely fulfil the ability to tastefully display game related posters though. The subject matter has a huge part to play in the whole scheme of things. For example, putting the box art of say, Modern Warfare 2 into a frame is simply a bit, well, twee. This age thing demands that anything that goes into a frame is deserved of being in a frame. The contents of said frame have to be both striking and at the same time eye catching without appearing like an advertising hoarding. Alas, I’ve never been able to find anything that ticks all the boxes of game-worthy framing until I stumbled upon a fantastic app on the App Store. The greatest photo changing app in the world ever goes under the name of “Wordfoto”. Wordfoto allows you to take any image stored in your camera roll or taken with the camera and turn it into a word filled piece of art. You can choose any words you want which are then used to fill in your entire picture with the chosen words. The results are stunning.

Made up of lots of Chu Chus.

Now I can have tasteful game related artwork adorning the walls, in frames, in my house and I will never feel that it looks like a teenager’s bedroom. It really makes me wonder though as to why no one has come up with more framed game artwork to cater for an older audience. The average age of a gamer these days is somewhere in their thirties and we’re not going to get any younger. Of course simply having the ability to create stunning pieces of artwork doesn’t necessarily guarantee that your other half, if you have one, will be willing to allow you to adorn their walls with such imagery. Luckily I also discovered that by using normal, carefully selected pictures of real life things that you can actually get just as stunning results, as my next picture demonstrates. This is a picture of clouds and the sun I took last year and with a quick bit of Wordfoto magic, blam! High art.

Half shut your eyes and you can almost see the original pic.

Of course, another problem when putting posters into frames is that they are usually huge prints. Frames for prints that size would be a small fortune, so unless it is something that you are sure you want to spend lots on it can be a bit of a waste of money. The good thing is the images that you make with Wordfoto can be any size you choose. You could have one large frame filled with lots of smaller images or several medium sized frames with a different picture in each. I’ve also noticed that there are more and more places offering to put your images onto a canvas backing making it look even more arty. I really like the sound of something like that, alas it seems to cost in the region of around £40-£50 per image. Of course, if you do buy any other kind of art to hang in your house it could be dearer than that so why not spend the money on something you actually love? I’ve been using Wordfoto to customise all kinds of pictures, not just games ones. I find it’s a great app for sending pictures to people that show a little effort has gone into the picture you are sending, it looks like you have spent way more time creating the images than the minute or so it takes from start to finish. I’d love to waffle on about the capabilities but instead I urge you to try it for yourselves and I’d like you to look at a few other images I created. Enjoy.

A killer looking picture.

Zombie art, there's something new.

Try spending this in London!

I descended on the mighty HMV first, well I say mighty but what I really mean is that they have always charged mighty prices, sometimes double what other places were selling at. In the current squeeze of harder times though it seems that HMV have looked at the market and slashed prices, I was like a kid in a sweet shop. The difficult thing here was actually the sheer choice of cheap games, even worse was that I had been in another HMV the previous day and their prices were even cheaper. Some of the mega bargains I saw were: Vanquish-£10; Guitar Hero Metallica-£5; DJ Hero 2-£12; Enslaved £15 and a Fable 2, Halo 3 double pack for £12. I should also point out that I wasn’t allowed to already have the games so that ruled all those out. I plumped for the mostly great, but slightly bonkers Bayonetta at a pocket friendly £10, I was off and there was no stopping me now. I was slightly perturbed that the HMV I was in the previous day was selling the same game for £7, but a challenge was a challenge and I had to stick with my rules.

Super, bargain-riffic.

Next on my list was high street gaming giant, Game. Yes, they have been serving the gamers of the UK for many years but I’m sure many would agree that they are now, purely, a money making enterprise. Their prices have gradually been creeping up and the trade-in prices sliding down. It was no surprise to me to see that the range of cheaper games was more limited than HMV, although there were a few bargains to be had. Sega Dreamcast collection was £10 and F1 2010 was £20, other than that the games were all dearer than HMV. I looked towards the preowned section and saw some great value gaming, although as to be expected it was the older games offering the better value. Currently there is a three for two offer with the cheapest item being free, I picked up X-Men Origins Wolverine, Stranglehold and The Darkness, if I had purchased them it would have cost me £21, but that would have put me over budget so I put them all back. I was struggling to find anything to use my final ten pounds on so I left Game and headed back to HMV.

Peel off the stickers to find older prices.

I stood scanning the cheap games in HMV, not yet looking at their preowned section. I had to finish the challenge, so far I had one game, there had to be more to get, maybe I’d set my sights too high. I scanned the shelves for around ten minutes, picking up games and putting them back down again. While I was scanning I noticed a few other bargains, Bioshock 2 for £7, Deadly Premonition for £15 it seems it’s easy to game on the cheap these days. I’d had enough, I’d failed my own personal challenge, the games I had in my hand, I put down and got ready to leave the store. Hastily making my way up the aisles to the exit I was stopped in my tracks by a whole aisle dedicated to cheap games, I could hear the celestial music in my ears. What was this, DJ Hero with turntable for £17, already got it, Modern Warfare 2 for £15, got it too. Then I clapped eyes on my two final games, DefJam Rapstar for £5 and new control Pikmin for £5: mission accomplished.

All brand new with codes and things.

So there you have it, three games, relatively new, all for less than half the price of a new release. Yes, they may not all be AAA titles, I haven’t tried Rapstar yet, but they offer genuine value for money with a saving of around £100 on their new prices. I was genuinely shocked at the pricing of the Guitar Hero games I saw, great titles for as low as £5, why anyone wouldn’t pick them up at that price, I don’t know. So I lay down my challenge to you, what can you get for twenty pounds? No golf, football or wrestling games allowed and they must be for the current generation of consoles. I look forward to hearing your results. Next time I think I’m going to try the independent games shops, they should offer better value, right?