The Gaming Week thread

[Sly Reflex]

Mahooosive update.

SimCity 2000 on the PS3. I'm about a quarter the way through of doing the scenarios now, some have been dead easy, basically you set the city down and just wait for the time to pass. Others have been a pain in the arse. The earthquake survaival one seemed pretty random, if it knocked down any firestations you were basically fucked, as it just burned down the whole city without you been able to do anything. The riots one also caused me some headaches. I want to see what they could do with a modern version of this, as in this version it's so clunky and slow moving that it can be hard to get into, however, once you do it is quite compulsive. A lick of paint, streamline the controls and you would be onto a winner.

1943 has seen play everytime I have been on the 360, it being on the HDD it's easy to dip in and out of. It still isn't as good as its big brothers though. I think the tanks could do with nerfing, I swear, they are just way to powerful.

Bad Company was played. It's one of those game that no matter how you want to play, it caters for it. You want to run in? Pick assault class and do your worst. Fancy taking some heavy armour in? Go support and grab a tank and go cause some chaos. See them tanks? Go demolition and show them who is boss. Wanna sit undisturbed and pick people off like a lone wolf? Recon is your class then. Want to sneak in under the cover of all the other confusion that is going on in the battlefield and cause some damage from the inside? Go special ops and covertly sneak in and pile c4 on the crates before sneaking out and blowing them sky high. No other game offers what this does. It might be complicated for new comers, but get in with a squad that can take you under the wing and learn you the ropes and you will look at other games and think they pale in comparison when it comes to thinking about what you are doing. Other FPS are mainly just about a quick reaction, where as this it pays off to have a tactical head on. Reading what someone on the red team is going to do, and shutting them out before they get to execute what they were intending is the most satisfying thing in online gaming, as is being part of a squad that relays info and assists each other at every turn. I love it.

Peggle. Not much to say about this. You know what it is.

Trash Panic was also played a little. It's a great game, sure it has a few problems, but there is nothing that should get in the way of the fun. Unless you play hell mode, which I can imagine is pretty hard, given that some levels on normal kick you in the teeth for making minor mistakes.

Monkey Island: SE was bought and completed since my last update. As a game, I don't think it was that great, but the story and the writing really bring it to the front. Genuinely funny moments wrapped in some cleverly worded puzzles. Listen to what everyone says with a fine tooth comb, they have the answers you need to proceed..

Pixeljunk Eden was revisited a few times over the past week. My god this game is hard, but it is sooooo pretty. It makes me look forward to the next pixeljunk game.

The dissapointment of this update is 'Spolsionman. The trail for the game was great, really fluid gameplay that made you grin from ear to ear. An instabuy game if ever there was one. That's where the problems begin, because after the demo end, the difficulty starts. I know it is full of charisma and all that, but trail and error gaming isnt fun. The speed that the game runs sometimes can be a pain in the arse, if you don't have cat like reflexes, you are getting no where in this game. How man controls reminds me of sackboy sometimes, especially when you have to use barrels to propel you up to where ever you need to be. Depending on where you explode can for you wherever the physics engine decided you should go, which is a really shitty thing to do. At least the green barrels for you in the correct direction though. I think I am halfway though the third set of levels now, I doubt I will go back to this once I am done. I thought the co-op was going to be grand, but it's actually a laggy mess that frustrates more than the main game.

EDIT: I forgot that I played GoW2 last night. We played Horde on the hardcore setting, it actually made the game better, even though it took us countless attempts to get pass the first 10 levels. One of the crew fell asleep too.

[Cyberpunk]

I've had Forza 2 on the go again this week. I've been playing it with all the driver assists turned off, and trying to get gold and every race. I'm still loving this game ,and I can't wait for the next one.

I've also started The Secret Of Monkey Island - Special Edition. WOW!!! What a blast from the past. This is such a good game! Loads of laughs, great puzzles, and the new graphics and voice acting is fantastic. And as an added bonus for us ol' timers, if you hit the F10 key at any time, the game shifts back to the bad Amiga graphics. How old school is that?!? I'm currently on chapter 2, and I'm looking forward to the new Monkey Island game, Launch Of The Screaming Narwal, as soon as I've finished this.

On my Ds I've been playing Super Robot Taisen OG Saga - Endless Frontier. This is your typical JRPG, but I'm having fun with it. The translators had some fun with it however. Whilst it still has the Japanese voice actors, the text has been translated into English. There seems to be a lot of mention about one of the main charactor's ample assets. A good quote would be "Those massive knockers happen to be attached to the princess Kaguya." This is just one of many boob jokes.

And of course, I've been playing Trackmania United Forever online with my racing clan Scottish Flat Trax. Just a little info about the game for you guys. It's a Pc arcade racing game, with several racing modes. Stadium mode is the most popular online. It involves cars that look sort of like old Formula 1 cars, but they can drive on any terrain. When playing online, you play time attack on various race tracks, and have a time limit per track, say 10 minutes. You drive the track as many times as you can in that time limit, and the best lap time wins. The game is fully user customisable, with websites dedicated to Trackmania cars, tracks, and mods. The game itself has a built in track editor, and car painter.

[illdog]

I'm after that judgment...sorry, JUDGMENT guy.

Do you know my name? JUDGEMENT!

Ive been caning Wheelman , finally finished it and am glad because i could take any more of the story, Side Missions were bloody brilliant tho.

Splosion Man has my attention, im going to be playing each Arcade title as much as possible till the next one comes out, gonna be a great few weeks.

Ikaruga is still excellent altho i cant get better than a B plus on level one yet, gonna keep trying tho.

Finally, Wii Sports Resort has booked its place in my Wii for the next 6 months.

[stoobie]

Not many games this week although I have clocked up the hours. Wii Sports took a bit of hammering trying to get a decent score at the Golf challenge. I just couldnt do it with any consistency. I am even worse at the motion control version in Resort as well!

Wii Sports Resort - me and the kids have played this quite a bit - its the game rainy Sundays were made for. They love throwing the frisbee for the dog and doing the wakeboarding one. I love flying round the island - I will get all the info points! Nintendo have to a pilotwings off the back of the skydiving - it seems such a logical progression. I think there are a few issues with Motion Control mind - it does tend to need a lot of resynching especially on the archery.

I played a bit more Battlefield 1943 - Im still not very good at it - everyone else seems really accurate with their shooting where I just tend to miss everything. Its fun tho and I am determined to get all the achievements on it

Most of the week I have been playing FFXI. I dont think I am finding it that enjoyable at the moment as it takes a hell of a lot of grinding to level up and even the low level monsters can sunddenly blindside you and kill you. Its such hard going. Gil is hard to come by and as everyone else is lvl 75 to my lvl12 i cant even join in with other parties. I've had a few offers from other players for help which is cool - seems a friendly bunch of people on there. I can see it will be more enjoyable to play at higher levels - just depends on wether I can stomach all the grinding.

[HandsomeDead]

I played a little bit of Call of Duty 4 yesterday and got pwnd like a n00b, I've been having success on Battlefield and Halo lately and getting truely fucked over makes me worried about the Modern Warfare 2. I've been playing more FPS stuff in The Conduit, at the start of the game you play a section and then it stops and takes you back a few days or so, well I've got to that bit again and I've gone through the big conduit. When I'm away from the The Cunduit I think its not very good but when I do muster up the energy to play it I find I actually enjoy it anyway most of the time so I'm unsure of my own opinion of it.

LoZ:WW I'm still working through, I'm not playing it as much but I'm making enough progress, I just got the mirror shield last time I played. Wpeout HD is the game of the week for me. The new modes add something different and since I never finished the original stuff I've been working through that, I'm even gaining enough skill to do alright on the Phantom class. I've called it one of my favourite racing games this gen but it hasen't moved on much since the PS1 days so I feel a cock for doing that, or racing games just arn't as interesting anymore.

Battlefield 1943 has been played a little too like everyone else.

[Hendo]

I've been doing the usual rounds on Battlefield 1943, had an awesome game last night on Wake Island. My favourite tactic is to take the boat from the southern tip to the north equivalent, wait for the enemy to take the base and start moving on and then hide in the building and stealthily take their base from under their noses. An enemy tank came back and obviously he couldn't figure out why he was right on the base but he wasn't taking it so he circled the base trying to find me. At every move he made I was right behind him, going round in circles confusing the poor sod. Eventually enough time had passed and other team mates had spawned in the same base and 3 of us took him down. Good times. Stupid fucker.

Under wiivo's orders I bought Space Invaders Infinity Gene. It's fucking brilliant!

A proper evolution of the series and arguably more inventive than Space Invaders Extreme, turns into something like a bullet hell shooter over time, each level subtly evolves the gameplay, graphics, weapons, enemy types, etc. And you can play your own music in special stages and the level is generated by the music. I tried one with a thumping game music track that someone has suggested for the music podcasts, and it was awesome! I died and restarted and it was exactly the same. I tried a completely different track, much more chilled, and it was a completely different level. Highly recommended.

Finished up Silent Hill : The Escape and it's better than I first thought, but now it's only average instead of shit. Coming to the end of Metal Gear Solid Touch and it's getting pretty tough.

Also doing Splosion Man in dribs and drabs which is maybe the best way to do it, onto the third world now.

Gears of War 2 is back. The new deleted scene thing is alright and I still haven't tried the new maps but if anyone is free tonight after the quiz game, hit me up.

Bought House of the Dead 2 & 3 a couple of weeks ago and still haven't taken the wrapper off so I'll be doing some of that today.

[DANGERMAN]

I've not really done much this week other than Shatter, which is very good but maybe a little bit light. not that I'm really complaining as it was less than a fiver, and the challenge of competing against your friends list scores is enough to give you something to do.

I've also dabbled in Wii Sports this past couple of nights, but really that was just a quick blast of table tennis and frisbee with a mate.

Disgaea has probably been my most played and I dont even consider myself to have played it. I've probably put in 10 hours this week though at a guess, just from doing 30 minutes here ant there. I've mainly been going through the item world, making sure everyone's weapons are up to standard. I'm not sure I can be arsed to do their armour too, so it's going to be back to the story soon

[retroed]

Thanks to Ben’s impressions, I decided to get Shatter on PSN, and I’m glad I did. It’s wonderful. The new take on the arkanoid/breakout game style is absolutely brilliant, with the ability to suck or blow the gravity to guide your ball and the blocks that you’re trying to break. The music deserves a mention too, as each track is a good’un and well suited to the game. It's well priced too, £4.79 is an absolute steal.

I decided to play The Maw again this week, as I’d only done a couple levels previously. I started from scratch and played through it over a couple days. I went for 100% eaten and had a fun time doing so. It’s not a challenging game, but it’s a lot of fun. It's quite relaxing to play actually, not quite as much as Kingdom for Keflings, but it's in a similar vein in that there's not a lot of threat and you're not under any pressure to be in a hurry.

I’ve played some more Battlefield: 1943 as well, although not as much as I’d have like (no 100 game achievement yet). I don’t really have anything new to say about it, other than it’s as enjoyable as ever, and I’m not bored of any of the maps. I think Guadalcanal is my favourite, but they all have their own characteristics that bring different tactics.

On the DS, I have gone back to Super Princess Peach. Again, I started it from the beginning, and I’m currently at the start of the eight (and final) world. It’s a brilliant little platformer, something that the DS is actually lacking a little despite being perfectly suited to stylish 2D platforming goodness. There’s a nice amount of variety in the design of each stage. The Ghost levels being a particular favourite, harking back in places to the greatest platformer of all-time, aka Super Mario World.

[Bob]

This week I have only really played Stranger's Wrath on the Xbox because we have been lumped with my sister's kids which is all kinds of fucking lame Thankfully the game has made up for it by being pretty awesome. I wouldn't say it's the second coming of Jesus like a lot of people do, the difficulty and copy and paste gameplay can be frustrating. Go into an area, have fun fighting your way to the bounty and then complain while he is gang raping you with his henchmen. Although they all have great personalities and I have found myself laughing through the rage it's just too formulaic and it's a disappointment, especially when other parts of the game are so inventive and original. Overall though I am really enjoying it, like I said it's got a lot of unique ideas, the story is great and the Stranger is a fantastic character.

Raptr says I have played Splosion Man for 2 hours as well. Somewhere in world three at the moment, don't have anything to say about it.

Also, last Sunday I played Watchmen: The End is Nigh with my bro for a while. Yes, I was one of those suckers that paid 1600 points for it. I just really wanted to beat people up with Rorschach Pretty good in two player, feels just like the old side scrolling beat 'em ups but in 3D with more violence. Still not really worth 1600 points if you don;t have an overwhelming need to beat people up with Rorschach but I like it.

[Sly Reflex]

Completed 'Sploisionman this week, for me it's the biggest let down of the year. I'll leave it at that.

I spent a few nights on GoW2 playing horde on the new maps. I like them, for the most they are pretty good. I don't like the highway map though, it could be half the size and still be too big. It took a while to get back into, but the levelling up is going well and I'm enjoying myself. It's nice that you sometimes play with people off other peoples friends lists too, as for the majority they are very nice people. Just goes to show that not all people on LIVE are dicks.

Saints Row 2 landed on my doormat this week It's dumb, pointless overtly violent, cheesy, feels like a straight to dvd movie, is overflowing with bugs and a load of other bad stuff. What it is though is fun. I can't quite put my finger on why it is so great. The co-op works well. The side missions are mostly fun to do. It give you unlocks all the time. It's very slapstick in it's approach, the satire is OTT and it mocks other games long winded cutscenes by making elaborate plans to do certain missions, only for them to go "Ah fuck it, lets just go in all guns blazing". It's like Volition made a like for like version of GTAIV, only to do a swapsies for all the fun bits of IV for all the serious bits of 2. It is the gaming equivalent of when channel 5 started and they use to show all the ultra so bad they are good action films. Anyone who got bored of GTAIV should have a look into this.

I had a quick go on Home as well. There is a Buzz area up now, where supposedly they ask questions and people play like runaround to stand on the correct answer. Except I couldn't hear the questions. I also met some pleasant people called popodumpaki and shitoncrackers. In short, Home is still a waste of time filled by dickheads. There was one funny bit on the Fat Princess market area where one dude was telling people not to buy the game as it's online component was broken and that it was a waste of money.

[illdog]

Got a full on robot chubby for Gears 2 again, been raping Horde with friends and randowms like Sly has and its just brilliant fun. Got the dissapointment of the delted scene out of my sytem anyway.

Finished off Splosion Man, too irritating for me but i have a nagging voice in my head telling me to go back and get all the cakes so i guess im not done. Found The Maw whislt looking for a cake so happy days there. I didnt realise i was so close to the end, i thought the single played had 100 levels, but thats 50 for single, 50 for multi. Phew.

I bought R-Type Dimensions as it was deal of the week but it shoudl only be 800 points anyway - 1200 for two old games with a co-op mode and "3D" graphics is too steep. Still, despite it being RIDICULOUSLY hard its still great - infinite mode for the win.

Ikaruga has been getting some much deserved love - some a brilliant game and so much deeper than it first appears.

I started Burnout Paradise this week, its better than i expected after my dissapointment with the demo but the camera angle is arse and i hit every single stray random car possible at the highest speeds which is extremely annoying.

And finally Wii Sports Resorts stays locked in the Wii. The misses and i have had some excellent Basketball competitions - she currently has the record. Also i hate Table Tennis with a flaming passion but i cant stop playing it - the computer characters are soooo fucking lucky and im constantly anything but - godamnit its addictive tho. Hate/love is the worst.

[DANGERMAN]

Really barely played anything this week, what with having a life for the weekend. But I did carry on with Shatter, mainly for score attack reasons. More games should have the friends leaderboard feature, it's more manageable and so you care more than competing against thousands and thousands of other people

Managed to play a little more Disgaea, nothing much else to say about it, other than I captured a monster that turned out to be useless. I was hoping if I caught a flying monster I could send him to the little abandoned islands in the item world, but apparently not, so there's still levels created in the item world that you cant complete properly (but can finish so its not a massive problem). I should get back to the story I guess, the monsters were a bit tougher, but compared to my whole team they were nothing (couldnt leave one of my magicians to slug it out)

The big one this week was Yakuza Kenzan. I've loaded up a guide for it, but really I havent needed it outside the story. I'm on chapter 4, but it's still giving my tutorials everynow and then. The combat's changed, you start out with normal face punching Yakuza, but most of the fighting since has been sword fighting, which works but it's a bit easy to get locked in a combo and the directional stuff is still a bit rough. At the minute i'm dual wielding, which is quite good, but I feel like that should have been saved till later in the game.

Good though, and the cut scenes are incredible, shame it's not in english like

[HandsomeDead]

Not alot really. It's been Wipeout HD on the most part again, going steady and having fun with it, I did a tournament online and proper, I mean proper wiped the floor with a bunch of losers, that made me feel special. I've also been playing Battlefield: Bad Company a little, I played with some of the GTM regulars and had the games of my BF career, kicked some serious bollocks in that then played the next day and did even better. Then I played it last night all arrogant and did shit. I did fall in love with it again breifly because when a plan comes together its great, even better when it goes wrong but with lightning fast observations of your suroundings and acting accordingly to the class you are, you can then still get out of trouble and blow the crate. Its such a well put together game.

Lastly, I've been taking the DSi to work and playing Final Fantasy Tactics A2. Maybe I need to play it more than 15 - 30 minutes at a time put I think its drawn out too much, I don't like the progression of unlocking weapons. In the GBA one they came as new towns were uncovered in the shops there but here you have to find certain items in battle and sell then to make the weapons, weapons let you unlock new skills so it adds a needless layer. The rest plays as well as usual but I'm tempted to sack this off and just bring out the GBA or PSP one.

[Sly Reflex]

I've also been playing Battlefield: Bad Company a little, I played with some of the GTM regulars and had the games of my BF career, kicked some serious bollocks in that then played the next day and did even better. Then I played it last night all arrogant and did shit. I did fall in love with it again breifly because when a plan comes together its great, even better when it goes wrong but with lightning fast observations of your suroundings and acting accordingly to the class you are, you can then still get out of trouble and blow the crate. Its such a well put together game.

I always find that the more arrogant you get after a good match, the bigger the fall is when you have a bad one. The best matches come when you are forced into a class you don't really know how to handle, but the situation deems that you must take action because without that extra punch in that department you will lose. It feels great when you start dominating in a class you don't get on with normally, I know I struggle with demo and spec ops because of the close proximity of their combat, but when things go right it feels excellent.

[CelShadedDreams]

I've been playing Tales of Vesperia. It's getting a little long now. I thought I was getting towards the end, but then I was informed that I'm only past the middle. It's a great game and I'm having fun with it, but I want to finish it already! I have done quite a few sidequests though so that's probably why.

I've also been playing FF7 on PSP when I have some time before bed or in the mornings, I'm still really early one though. I never finished it on PS1 so I'm hoping to finally reach that goal!

I wish I had a bigger hd so I could get burnout on the go too, I've been meaning to play it all summer. It should help me reach my goal of hitting 5000 gamerpoints by the end of summer too, I'm not getting many from Tales anytime soon >.< Only 440 away though.

[Bob]

This week I have only really been playing Saints Row 2: The fuck you say? The fuck you say isn't actually the subtitle but it should be since people seem to say it constantly. I am loving the game anyway. I have found the cutscenes to be incredibly enjoyable which was a surprise since I was expected them to be shockingly bad like the first game but some of them have been just as funny as the gameplay. Highlight has probably been the awesome bugs which have provided insane amounts of lols. Highly recommended to anyone with a co-op partner.

I played through Turtles in Time and really enjoyed it but going by what most people have said it seems to be nostalgia that I was enjoying, not the actual game. Either way, I had a lot of fun.

I have also played through the Batman: Arkham Asylum demo a few times on the PS3 and 360 and I have to say I am very excited for the full game now. Makes you feel just like the motherfucking Batman. Good times

[Craymen Edge]

I started up Dawn of War II on my new PC. The install process was torture, requiring updates from both Steam, and Games For Windows Live. When I finally got to play it though, it was fantastic. The small squads and cover system make for some really enjoyable combat. The character leveling up system, and equipment rewards for completing missions make it very addictive.

Also played quite a lot of Bully: Scholarship Edition (360), which is just brilliant. Far more varied and enjoyable than the GTA games in my opinion.

[Hendo]

This week I have played very little due to spending the last 6 days doing solid hard gardening, lots of heavy lifting and multiple trips a day to the skip and B&Q. Awesome game, I highly recommend it!!

Other than that, little bits of Battlefield 1943 and Splosion Man.

The iPhone has been the best way of winding down before going to sleep, with Flight Control as normal, Space Invaders : Infinity Gene (which is amazing and you better hope it comes to PSN and XBLA, because it's really impressive) and one wiivo insisted I try called MiniGore, which is a twin-stick shooter for 59p. You play a dude called John Gore who goes around a single level in 2.5D blasts all hell out of these furry things. There's really not much to it but the developers are going to throw lots of free updates at it, and for 59p I can take a basic package very easily.

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[DANGERMAN]

A quick apology. We recorded a podcast last night, so none of these will get a mention till next week.

Keep posting though, gives us more stuff to talk about

[stoobie]

I have decided to give up on Final Fantasy 11. I am not really getting it - I can see the potential of it as a MMORPG but I think I have come to it too late. And it is fucking solid to level up. Plus it was stopping me playing the hundreds off other games I have to play.

My free month is up soon and I dont think I want to pay for it so thats it. Done. Just got to work out how to cancel it now.