Craymen Edge

Uh. Yeah. "Spot On". That's literally the first phrase that crosses my mind when I think of games using Wii controls So it looks like they're making the painting idea central, If it just pointing at stuff then I'm sure it'll be fine. When they do start introducing the waggle for something you could do with the buttons is when it can start to go wrong.

With the people and the concept behind it, this could be excellent, but... Mickey Mouse is such a shit character, he has no personality and is completely boring.

Some good selections in there, the one from Shatter was the best in my opinion. I tend to fast forward through the Super Mario Galaxy tracks (sorry!)

That's quite an interesting approach. I think 5 tracks a starter is a little stingy though. I've got the UMD version, I really enjoy it and as a purely single-player game I probably prefer it to Rock Band 2.

Listening to "A Month of Sundays with Supergrass' Gaz and Danny" on 6Music http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00n8ycz Followed by the Huey Morgan Show (also on 6Music) http://www.bbc.co.uk/6music/shows/huey_morgan/ 3 and a half hours of interesting, eclectic music selections. Monday is going to fly by.

Yeah, it could have benefited with a bit more going on in this massive gameworld they created. Setting yourself a target point and just crashing through the environment to get there is still wonderfully entertaining, though.

My list for the rest of the year is quite short: Brutal Legend, Forza 3 and Left 4 Dead 2 on 360. Possibly Dragon Age on PC (but I might leave that till 2010). Everything else can probably wait.

^ This.

I've currently got a pair of Shure SE102 sound isolating earphones. They're the low end option at £50, but to the job well enough, and I find them really comfortable. I've used Shure earphones for years and years now, I really like the fact they offer a 2 year warranty. I used it once a few years ago and got a replacement set completely hassle free.

I've mostly been playing Pure on the 360 this week. After going back and getting first place finishes on the couple of tracks I couldn't manage when I completed it last year, I then went and deleted my saved game and started it all over again. It's a great game, with some really enjoyable racing. It has me looking forward to Split Second next year. I've also spent a few hours playing AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! -- A Reckless Disregard for Gravity (PC), which is a sci-fi styled base jumping game. It's got a great sense of humour, and a silly but enjoyable presentation style. I'm enjoying it a lot, it's not something you'd spend hours and hours playing, but I could see it becoming one of my go-to games whenever I've a spare 20 minutes. The Brutal Legend pre-order demo got a couple of plays this week. Thankfully it's great, and the pre-order stays, I can't wait for it to plop through the letterbox. It becomes available to all in a week or two, it's worth a download just to check out the menu. It's awesome.

I suppose it's pretty long, but then I spend 3+ hours a day on trains and busses, so it's not really a problem for me.

I just listened to Idle Thumbs #43. There was some hilarious stuff in the reader mail section.

The most recent one I'm particularly please with is in Pure. I fired it up for the first time in ages, and improved my last 2 second places for this: Pure Perfection 100 Come first in every event in the Pure World Tour. There's a couple of sprint events that were pretty damn challenging, so it's quite satisfying. Then, inexplicably, I deleted my save game and started the world tour mode all over again.

Racist. I believe they're meant to be speaking Russian, but badly/literally translated into English. It's probably taking the joke a bit too far.

I played the demo when it came out on steam. I thought it was really good, but yeah, the price was a bit high. I'm waiting for a good sale.

Nice one. I'm still a long way from that one.

Actually, that Muscle Car thing was probably GRID. I went past HMV again today, and they had GRID and DIRT 2 on demo stations standing side by side.

I just haven't been able to get on with the demos of any of the Codemasters racing games this gen. The presentation is great, but the handling has always felt too twitchy for me. Dirt 2 looks great, but the cars in the demo felt uncontrollable to me. Those Baja buggy things just bounced everywhere, and I had real trouble keeping the Trailblazer car on the 'track' in that other stage. I also played the retail game on some demo stations in HMV recently, there was a fun but ridiculous muscle car type event where it was impossible to race because you were constantly being smashed by the other cars. I also played a Rallycross stage that was ok, but felt more like racing on ice than dirt. It was during that race that I noticed a really annoying effect they have when you hit a wall - a big booming sound effect, along with a blur effect and the camera swings round like you took a massive hit. All well and good, but all I'd done was brush my back bumper against a fence coming out of a hairpin at about 20mph. This happened on more than one occasion, at the most innapropriate times, for very minor collisions.

I heard it costs to upgrade to the 3.0 the firmware for the ipod, which is available free for the iphone?

I was back at work this week, so a much smaller update than last week for me. PGR4(360) I got back into this in a big way recently, after having not played it for ages. In a wierd about turn, it became pretty much all I played, apart from a couple of hours mid week. I completed the Acade mode, the DLC challenges and most of the Career Mode this week. I've always liked the Metropolis Street Racer/PGR series, there's just something very rewarding about playing a challenge, race or time trial and getting better and better each lap. The Blackwell Legacy(PC) This the first of a series of 3 point and click adventure games, which I picked up from Wadjet Eye Games' website during their 50% off sale over the bank holiday weekend. In it you play as a socially awkward young woman who inherits the ability to see and communicate with ghosts. With the aid of ghostly "spirit guide", you help restless spirits reach the other side, in a Ghost Whisperer kind of way, but with none of the scenes of Jennifer Love Hewitt in a nightie I'd usually associate with that. It's an entertaining game, with some good writing and dialogue.

The Blackwell Legacy (PC) - http://www.wadjeteyegames.com/blackwell.htm I picked up this and the other 2 Blackwell games during the site's 50% off sale over the bank holiday weekend. It's a point & click adventure starring a socially awkward young woman who inherits a family ability to see and communicate ghosts. With the help of a ghostly spirit guide, she helps spirits to move on in a Ghost Whisperer/Dead Like Me kind of way. I thought it was entertaining and well written, though maybe a little short. Tales of Monkey Island Episode 2 : The Siege of Spinner Cay (PC) Shadow Complex (XBLA) Wallace and Gromit Episode 4: The Bogey Man (PC) Bully : Scholarship Edition (360) 100% completion. 'Splosion Man (XBLA) Blade Runner (PC) The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition (PC) The Maw (+ DLC levels) (XBLA) Castle Crashers (XBLA) Tales of Monkey Island : Launch of the Screaming Narwhal (PC) Okami (PS2) Wallace and Gromit's Grand Adventures Episode 3 : Muzzled! (PC) Time Gentlemen, Please (PC) - http://www.zombie-cow.com/?page_id=559 Ben There, Dan That! (PC) - http://www.zombie-cow.com/?page_id=17 Plants vs. Zombies (PC) Wallace and Gromit Episode 2 : The Last Resort (PC) Gears of War 2 (Normal) (360) Soul Bubbles (DS) Zeno Clash (PC) Lost Winds (Wii Ware) The Chronicles of Riddick : Escape From Butcher Bay (360) House of the Dead : Overkill (Wii) Broken Sword : Shadow of the Templars - Director's Cut (DS) Shadow of the Colossus (PS2) Streets of Rage 2 (One credit) (MD) Gregory Horror Show (PS2) Wallace And Gromit Episode 1 : Fright of the Bumblebees (PC) Professor Layton and the Curious Village (DS) Persona 3 (PS2) Mass Effect (hardcore difficulty) (360) Emerald City Confidential (PC) - http://www.wadjeteyegames.com/PF.htm Tag : The Power of Paint (PC) - http://www.thepowerofpaint.com/ No More Heroes (Wii) Puzzle Quest (Mobile) Day of the Tentacle (PC) 19XX : The War Against Destiny (Acade/MAME) Grim Fandango (PC) Fable 2 + Knothole Island DLC (360) Dangerous High School Girls in Trouble! (PC) http://www.mousechief.com/dhsg/index.html Johnny Platform's Biscuit Romp (XBLA Community Game) Banjo Kazooie Nuts & Bolts (360) World of Goo (PC) http://www.2dboy.com Gravity Bone (PC) http://www.blendogames.com/

That Initial D track wouldn't be out of place in a DDR game. Draw your own conclusions on whether that makes it more or less gay.

I start doing that but it always ends up with me trying to make a woman with the biggest boobs and least clothes... I did similar in SC4. Except it was big beefy men, in trunks and harnesses, with women's move sets. What?

Games released this year: Time Gentlemen, Please! (PC) http://www.zombie-cow.com/?page_id=559 Simply one of the best, funniest point n click adventure games I've played in a long, long time. Warhamer 40,000 : Dawn of War II (PC) They've stripped out most of what people think of when you say RTS (base building, large numbers of units), and replaced it with something else, it's kind of Action RPG/RTS crossover. You never build bases, or units: your 4 commanders/units are dropped on the map, and that's it. It's a lot of fun working out how to use the squads you've deployed to complete the objectives. The combat, using cover points, crossfire and ambushes to take out the enemy is really engrossing. Added to that is the ability to level up your squads, and the loot rewards that make it very addictive. Red Faction: Guerilla (360) It'll all about the blowing shit up. Rock Band Unplugged (PSP) As a single player experience, this is probably more enjoyable that regular Rock Band for me. Maybe that's just because I really liked Frequency and Amplitude, but there's simply something really fun about switching between the various instruments like a madman. Zeno Clash (PC) Utterly weird and wonderful. The didn't really make a lot of sense, but the environments and characters were so imaginitive and original that I found myself compelled to play through just to see what was next. Plants vs. Zombies (PC) Just an all round great game. It's very simple in concept, but packed with variety within that framework, and it's absolutely bursting at the seams with charm and humour. I also love how it was marketed and released : nothing was known about it until the wonderful music video announcement, and the news that it would be out in a month. Older games I only played this year: Bully : Scholarship Edition (360) All of the charm and subversive humour of Rockstar games, with none of the moral uneasiness of having to play as an unpleasent scumbag doing horrible things. Might well have been the most enjoyable game I've played so far this year, if it wasn't for Okami and Shadow of the Colossus. Shadow of the Colossus (PS2) Just filled with jaw dropping moments. Okami (PS2) Okami just blew me away. I've gushed about it at length on the forum already, go read my 300 words of nonsense on the completed games thread if you want to know more.

Wallace and Gromit Episode 4: The Bogey Man (PC) I completed this, the last in Telltales series of Wallace and Gromit games earlier this week. It wasn't the highlight of the series for me, but still entertaining all the same. Telltale have done a fine job with the Wallace and Gromit license with these games. Tales of Monkey Island Episode 2: The Siege of Spinner Cay (PC) I'm absolutely loving these new Monkey Island episodes, and looking like it is going to overtake the Strongbad games as my favourite Telltale series. There's great writing and voice acting, and really did make me laugh out loud a couple of times. Shadow Complex (XBLA) I virtually completed the game twice, because a glitch right near the end left me stuck with nowhere to go, except start from the begining again. I enjoyed the game a lot. It wouldn't bother any of my all time best lists or anything, but other than the glitch it felt like a high quality, well made game. Unfortunately the high production values did make some of the less impressive things stand out a lot more. Like the jumping. The jump animation was terrible, and looked ludicrous, and that's ignoring that this guy could jump more than his own height from a standing start. Having the stuff in the background, and the firing into the screen added detail a nice sense of depth to the environment. But, needing rocked assisted jumps or grappling ropes to reach a platorm or balcony when you were stood in front of a perectly fine set of stairs... well it just looked silly. Left 4 Dead (360) The game has had a revival on the forum recently. I've played online with Sly and Badger for several hours this week, and it's been fantastic, and I really can't wait to see how the sequel evolves it. Civilisation Revolution (360) I got back into this in the last couple of weeks, and have now played with most of the 16 different Civilisations in the game. On the lower difficulties it's just a fun and relaxing game to mess about in, building up cities and massive armies to steamroll over any enemy foolish enough to threaten me. On 'King' difficulty it's a decent challenge, and although I haven't won on King yet, the matches have been so close. Apart from one, where that evil, warmongering bastard Ghandi basically obliterated my civilization. Defense Grid : The Awakening (PC) I bought this on Steam for £3.50 back in May, and didn't really give it much playtime. Getting released on XBLA was the reminder I needed to go back and play it properly. It's one of the better tower defense games I've tried. I like the science fiction setting, and the range of towers available. When the map is full of aliens and your defenses are all doing their work, it looks great. Also, more games should use the word "bloody" in their voiceovers.