The Gaming Week thread

[HandsomeDead]

Not much to report, I'm still playing little bits of Wipeout HD, I've unlocked the last set of races now but I've been playing it online mostly, it can be a bit laggy but other than that its all gravy.

I'm just over an hour in but I've started Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core. Honestly at this point I'm not digging the combat, its far too simplistic and I can't see room for strategy which I was expecting. Another thing bothering me is they've made Zack a cock, in the original because of the lack of FMV with him in and no voice acting I imposed my own idea of his character onto him, which was that of a sound bloke. Here he's a typical Dante type but without the irony. I liked it when the old boss music kicked in during a fight and I still love the way Zack starts doing squat thrusts in the middle of a conversation, the lad needs some ritalin or something.

[Hendo]

This week I've been hammering through House of the Dead 2 and failing miserably. I really want to get that finished before I make a start on the third one, but I have played a bit of it and I think that 3 is much better than 2. In fact, I'd say that Overkill is definitely my favourite of the series and it's tough going back to number 2 when the later games added so much, like being able to choose your level, having multiple weapons to choose from and the fact that it's nowhere near as hard.

Also played on Wii Sports Resort for the illdog spectacular Wii Sports Resort competition, sticking with the bow and arrows and I pretty much suck at it.

Played a little of Gears of War 2, horde mode as usual. Good stuff.

Finished up Splosion Man and went back to re-do levels to get faster times and find all the hidden cakes, only got a few left on world 3.

I limped through Bionic Commando : Rearmed on easy, and it was pretty hard at times, although much helped by the infinite lives patch, otherwise I wouldn't have bothered going back to it. It is a good game, but so very old fashioned - very odd not being able to jump but also having no control when you're in the air floating/falling from platforms.

Game of the week by a large margin, though, goes to Trials HD which is amazing. There's not much more I can add to it that hasn't been said before but this should be added to those lists of what to recommend to people who have just bought a 360. You gotta be online though, because the leaderboards and replays add so much more to the game.

On the iPhonizzle I've played a load of stuff.

Still playing Space Invaders : Infinity Gene, still haven't unlocked everything. For £2.99 this is pretty much essential.

Still trying to plough through Metal Gear Solid Touch, right at the last chapter but getting very hard.

Played a bit more MiniGore and it's good but they need to get the update out to add more features. Apparently it's been submitted to the App Store so should be here soon enough.

Available for free for one day only was Mevo and the Grooveriders which was mentioned on ListenUp a while ago. It's a rhythm action game, following the Guitar Hero rather than PaRappa style, but with only 2 buttons and it's made to look like a platform game but it isn't really. Good music, don't know how long it will last but good fun for free.

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Finally, found on Oli's Twitter feed was Harbor Master. It follows the same idea as Flight Control and is also 59p. I didn't think much of it at first but I'm starting to get into it now and it may replace FC as my standard go-to because I don't think I can improve my scores on that.

This video is sped up and there's been a few updates since as it now has 5 different ports. The twist with this as opposed to FC is that you draw you boats in and then you draw them out when the cargo is emptied. One later level adds a pirate ship that you have to destroy with a cannon.

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[Craymen Edge]

Available for free for one day only was Mevo and the Grooveriders which was mentioned on ListenUp a while ago. It's a rhythm action game, following the Guitar Hero rather than PaRappa style, but with only 2 buttons and it's made to look like a platform game but it isn't really. Good music, don't know how long it will last but good fun for free.

I've had that on Steam for quite a while now. I really like the style, and the music's great too.

[CelShadedDreams]

I've taken a break from Tales of Vesperia, it's a great game but a bit heavy going and I was in the mood for something that was quck and exciting so I started playing Burnout Paradise instead. My sister bought a 360 in April and she got it with the Burnout and Trivial pursuit bundle and she had no interest so I've had it for ages but never touched it until now. It's been great fun just messing around, just what I needed to fit my mood.

The bundle also came with a code for connect 4 which I'm rubbish at. I've also been playing Splosion Man and Space Invaders Extreme which are both great fun for a few rounds. I'm still playing FF7 too. I have a long train ride tomorrow so I'll be playing it a lot tomorrow.

[TopGunKnacker]

ill just be cycling through fighting games until KoF XII at the end of the month. i have been doing CRAP at street fighter 4 online recently. ive lost the eye of the tiger

[HandsomeDead]

Finished 'Splosion Man this week, I did see-saw with my oppinion but when it comes to whether I like it I think I have to give it a thumb up, its hard work and more frustrating than it deserves to be but I still enjoyed enough of my time with it, may try the multi next. More XBLA love with Shadow Complex, its iffy at times with its combat which there is a surprising amount of. Metroid: Other M needs to be use this as a benchmark and really improve on it, if it isn't as good it could be more than a little embarrasing.

I had a go at a little more CoD4 multiplayer early on in the week, I had some great matches (one involving me going from 5th to 1st in the space of the last 30 seconds in a every-man death match, I can't remember the last time I stood up and punched the air over a game before). I also started playing Bionic Commando - the new one - and I think its pretty good so far, the shooting is a bit unremarkable but swinging about is good when I'm not swinging into iron girders looking like a fucking prick and not a Commando, Bionic or otherwise.

[Cyberpunk]

Ok. First off let me appologise for not posting for a while. My internet has been off because of a fault, and I recently told my provider where to put it. I'm changing to Sky Broadband, which will be installed next Wednesday. I'm doing this post by hooking up my mobile phone to my pc, and getting a VERY BLOODY SLOW connection with it. You lot think MfGamers is running slow at the mo, try it with a 25kb/sec connection.

So I've no internet to speak of, so no online gaming. What's that? you say! No Trackmania! I know. It's sad! Still, I've used this temperary lull in my internet traffic, and spam emails, to play some single player games that I've neglected so far. So on with the post.

My main game that I've been wasting time away with is Deadspace. And I have to say that I wished I played this one before. It has it's faults, but it's very enjoyable. I don’t scare easily. I’m just not exactly unnerved by the monsters-in-the-closet scenarios that get recycled so often in horror-themed videogames.

But Dead Space started to get to me. I played this shooter (PC version) wearing headphones, with the lights off and the curtains drawn, accompanied by my wife's tender, if somewhat loud, snores, my Pc being in the bedroom. The clanking machinery and the sounds of monsters scurrying through vents set the eerie tone. But what set me off was the whispering. Barely audible, and quite quick whispering, that reverberated down empty hallways and corridors.

Is someone still alive? Or is this just the onset of the dementia that reportedly plagued so much of the population of the abandoned spaceship I was exploring?

And then, someone started singing nursery rhymes. That was a geniuine WTF moment.

Dead Space’s story and atmosphere are well done. And it would have been enough to send me scampering to the safety of a brightly lit room, except for the fact that the excellent story and atmospheric setting couldn’t quite make up for somewhat uninspired gameplay.

As the game begins, a crew of four has crash-landed on the USG Ishimura, a spaceship that was home to over a thousand people. The ship was designed to tear apart small planets and asteroids, mining them of their precious minerals. Something has gone wrong, however, and a distress call has been sent out. Your team is the first to respond, only to find that the ship’s population has vanished.

At the start of the game, things look grim: Your ship is damaged beyond repair, the only member of your crew with a gun isn’t much help, and you’re all quickly separated from one another. It’s a big ship, and as engineer Isaac Clarke, it’s up to you to face down relentless hordes of space zombies, find your obligatory love interest (there had to be one, WHY?), and figure out what exactly is going on.

Where is everyone, anyway? That’s the chief question of the game, and the story is doled out in tantalizing text, audio and video logs without a single cut scene in sight. You’ll get the gist of what went down on the Ishimura by just playing through the game, but to get the full story you’ll want to scour every inch of the ship to find clues the victims left behind. Even the writing on the walls tells a story — from the terror-stricken crew leaving each other warning messages, to the amorous notes left in the bathrooms stalls.

The interface, too, is designed to make you panic, mostly because there is no interface. There are no gauges or meters superimposed on the screen — your life bar and ammo meters are printed directly on your character’s suit and weapons. When you access your inventory or objectives screen, the menu hangs in the air right in front of you. While there is a pause function for emergency snack, coffee, or cigarette runs, you can only access your inventory in real time: If you’re going to check the map, or read that log you just found, you’d better make sure the area is actually safe first. Several times I actually had to fight with a video screen suspended in mid air in front of me, with no way of getting rid of it until I killed the space zombie who wanted me for a midnight snack.

Deadspace is very immersive, but I found myself let down by the actual gameplay. It has a few 'jumpy' moments, and made me swear a few times, but never really scared me. The shooting part of the game is a little to repetative. There are three times you know when you'll be jumped on. SPOILER ALERT BTW! When you've just used a save point, when there's a collectable in the middle of the floor, and when the music ramps up for no reason. I enjoyed this game, but will I ever be scared of a horror shooter? I don't think so.

Also, I've been revisiting some old Nintendo 64 games. I recently (ahem!?!) soft-modded my Wii. (For shame RetroEd cries! I'm getting you a pirate eyepatch!) I did it, not to run copied games, but to make my Wii region free, so I can play imports, and run emulators. The end result is I uploaded the following N64 games to my virtual console. Legend of Zelda (Majora's Mask and Ocarina Of Time), Mario 64, Mario Kart 64, Super Smash Bros, and Goldeneye. I do own these game as N64 karts, but my console is busted. So my kids and I have been reliving the heady days of Nintendo doggedly keeping hold of the solid-state cartridge, when everyone else switched to cd's. Goldeneye is still very special on multiplayer (I've got 4 gamecube controllers, a must for N64 games on the Wii), and so is Mario Kart.

I'm hoping RetroEd will let me plug into his Ipod at work this week so I can listen to the next MfGamers podcast. I can't download it. Have fun guys

[TopGunKnacker]

payday came and i bought shadow complex (earlier in the week id kinda forgot it was coming out so soon). been playing that, its good stuff. hope it means we see more high budget retro-genre games. decided not to buy kof12 till next friday when it comes out here, as shadow complex will keep me occupied for the weekend at least idve thought. then its only a few days wait. might play through bioshock again during next week.

[Bob]

My new HDTV arrived on Wednesday so it has been a busy busy gaming week for me, trying out old games to see if they look better, which some do. Which is very nice. Main game this week would be Shadow Complex of course which was a great game while it lasted and I will probably go back to it again in the future, maybe try for either the 100% or 13% achievements.

Star Ocean: The Last Hope has probably had the most playtime but it can be a very frustrating experience and there is certainly a love/hate relationship with it. The combat can be fantastic when it works and all the bad guys aren't ganging up on the ludicrously names Edge Maverick but I recently had a boss fight that made me feel like giving up on the game/gaming/life. I did it on my first try but it was pretty broken, bad dudes with rapid fire laser guns that have a really wide range and fire right across the battle area. I don't know if that means much to you but when there were three dudes doing it and my AI buddies decided it would be a good time to pick their arses so you can appreciate that I was having a bad time. One of the main characters is a....cunt. Yeah, to be fair to her, she is a complete cunt and has no redeeming features at all, like Hitler but more annoying. The characters in general are a bit weak and fairly generic. I don't really want to just focus on the bad though, I am enjoying it a lot at times, I'm 30 hours in to the game now and as long as there are no stupid difficulty spikes coming up I think I will finish it.

Games I have fired up just for my lovely new HDTV are....

Left4Dead which looked very nice, all of a sudden there where white zombie eyes jumping out of the telly at me which was nice, there is also some stuff attached to the pipe bomb, I had never noticed this before

Mirror's Edge was a must. As you might imagine with a game so colourful it looks flipping amazing. Still annoying though.

I had a quick blast on Tears of War 2 and ran around chainsawing evil Locust for a while. Like Marcus would say, "NICE!"

There has been a lot of demos around this week as well. Lost Planet was okay but it doesn't look like much has changed since the last one which is epic fail considering how old it is now. Mini Ninjas was an odd one, I kind of enjoyed it, it had a lot of charm and I fell in love with the style right off the bat but it just felt like a kids game, not a kids game that adults can enjoy either, just a kids game. Finally there was a demo for WET up on PSN as well so I gave that a quick blast and it looks lovely, sounds lovely and it's all very OTT but the gameplay felt rather shallow and I'm pretty sure it would drag for a full 6 - 10 hour game. Certainly one to keep an eye on though for when the price drops.

[stoobie]

Not really played much this week - I downloaded Puzzle Quest after guessing how poor CelShadedDreams was - Im not sure it works on a console as well as it does on the DS but Im still playing through it and enjoying it. My other half occasionally has a few rounds as well. I had forgotten just how spawny the AI is. There are times when you sit and watch the xbox have about five turns all producing mega combos and your energy just drains away.

I also downloaded Shadow Complex - and it was a bit of an anti climax after everyone (by that I mean you lot as well) raved over it. Its OK if a bit dull. So much so that I havent bothered to play it all after the first night

On My DSi I have been tinkering with Final Fantasy 4 remake. Im quite far I think, but I have just come up against a boss where I need to grind and I cant be arsed. Still I am off work for a week so there will be no train journeys and hence no DSi. By the time I am back at work I will probably be ready to try again.

Otherwise I think that is it - I have just got Tales of Vesperia and I am about to start it up. Hopefully it is better than Star Ocean.

edit 1: Me and Kelly have been playing Hello Kitty Roller Rescue on the Gamecube. It is awesome. I cant even explain it to you as you would weep with jealousy.

edit 2: Oh and Wii Sport Resort to try and get a decent Table Tennis score. I fear I have failed.

[Sly Reflex]

Since the last update I have been mainly playing Fallout 3 and Mass Effect. Once I had finished the story and hit the level cap on Fallout, I decided to give it a rest. I will be going back to it once I have access to the DLC disc, but until the exploring the wastelands is a pointless exercise, as the EXP that I am earning does not stack up. There fore I am holding off until that EXP registers. No point in making life hard for myself.

I picked Mass Effect up a while ago now while browsing in my local HEAD store. It was only £7, so I thought I would pick it up and give it a bash. After spending a good few month on the shelf I finally decided to play it after I had finished Fallout 3. I'm glad I did. It's isn't the best game on 360, but it was highly entertaining once you got your head round how the game works. Like Fallout 3, it took a bit of work before everything clicked, but it was time well spent. I found the moral decisions in this a lot harder than the ones found in Fallout 3, in Fallout they options tend to be good, bad or somewhere in the middle. In Mass Effect it was way harder to decide what to do on some of the option. There was the obvious "be a bastard" option on most of them, but sometimes playing as a good guy it was a case of choosing which you think would pan out best. The situation where the game forces you to be expendable with certain crew members really made me contemplate my choice. I did fuck up and pick the wrong one, but I did get to put my wet on them after, so it all worked out.

[spatular]

been mainly playing trials HD, which was a big surprise how good it is, think Hendo said it's up there for GOTY so far and i agree. been playing it loads, starting out its quite easy and you breeze through the easy levels, but it gets gradually harder till extreme which is a bit crazy, but the difficulty curve is great and you can always go back to earlier tracks to improve your time/get better medals, you get better without realising it similar to guitar hero 2. and it's maddeningly addictive on multiple fronts, trying to beat friends times, get medals, get 0 faults and the mini games! amazing game

played shadow complex too, which also surprised me as i was never convinced i'd like 2d metroid type gameplay, but i enjoyed this, only on easy though, could see some problems which might have annoyed me if it had been harder. however the plot is bolocks, funny that it's apparently based on a novel and they seem to make a big deal about it. whoever wrote that novel probably plays a lot of videogames.

dirt 2 demo is really good - been playing it quite a bit considering it's a demo, it seems like a big improvement over the first game which had slightly dodgy handling. the online mode in the demo works really well too.

also been playing rock band and halo as normal.

[HandsomeDead]

I finished Shadow Complex this week, its just the type of game I wanted to play, shame about the associated gay hate. I also completed Bionic Commando and mostly enjoyed it, its frustrating in parts but leaving it a day and coming back to it always did the trick. I can't decide whether I liked the quip he says when he encounters a particular boss. 'Is that a long health bar or are you just pleased to see me?'... no, I don't think I liked that.

I've also been trying to play Bit. Trip Core on the Wii, I'd talk more about it but I can only last 5 minutes so I can't really say much except that it is much harder than Beat. Its just the simple fact that you have dots coming from four sides rather than just one. I'll play it a bit more to see if I can find some kind of zone to get into.

[Hendo]

Haven't played a whole lot this week, well, a few games but nothing for more than an hour or two.

Harbor Master has been my game of choice on the phone, they updated it this week with yet another level added. This one has a monster that will appear and stop the docked boat from emptying its cargo, so you have to scare the monster away by tapping on it. Tried the free demo version of Droplitz after Ben almost but not really recommended it and I'm gonna have to sit down properly with it to get my head round it.

Also recommended by Ben was the 360 Indie game Jump!! which is a crazy Japanese platform game, and has some insanely evil collision detection. I might try it again and pony up the 80 points.

Finished up House of the Dead III on the Wii and as much as I've enjoyed the 3 HotD games on the Wii, I can't see me going back to them again like I did with Ghost Squad. Still, good clean fun (apart from Overkill, which is just filth).

Playing illdog's Wii Sports Resort challenge and finding that I'm quite enjoying Wakeboarding but no real surprise that I'm no good at it.

Got a bit further with Tales of Vesperia and I'm digging it but the save system is ancient and doesn't lend itself to short plays, unless you stick around a save point, do a bit of grinding and then save again and turn off.

Picked up Left 4 Dead and played with Sly, Badger, Craymen, DifferentClass and Code Selfish (from GTM) and the speech in L4D just doesn't get old. Bill!

Soundtracking my current Idle Thumbs marathon has been some old school shooters, notably R-Type Dimensions and Galaga Legions. Shame that Galaga has completely slid from people's memories but it is absurdly hard for noobs like me.

[Sly Reflex]

Picked up Left 4 Dead and played with Sly, Badger, Craymen, DifferentClass and Code Selfish (from GTM) and the speech in L4D just doesn't get old. Bill!

Yo guys! Look at this!

What the hell is this?

Hey guys! Over here!

Well would ya look at that!

Etc etc etc.

[stoobie]

Not much of a change this week - more Puzzle Quest, more Vesperia which I am deeply in love with - dare I say my game of the year?

I've got Batman Arkham Asylum for PS3 and have played through until you first get outside of the Asylum, but I am leaving it there until my OH gets back from the Edinburgh Festival as I know he wants to watch me play through it. It all looks promising so far but I will leave my judgement until I have given it more time.

Oh and my apparently world quiz champion parents visited and thwapped me at Trivial Pursuit.

I've decided I am going to sit and complete Shadow Complex as well - its annoying me just sat there unplayed

edit : and of course Wii Sports Resort for the contest - is it still going? Its been rather quiet on that front.

[Manicm]

You tell its Autumn, the games consoles have started to get some action again!

Hopefully will play some of the following:

Fifa 09 - Not had a night in, a few mates, beers and fifa!

Resi Evil 5 - Although i finished this , im enjoying going through the beginning with the grenade launcher loads of fun!

Will hopefully be getting Batman AA on wednesday from Game they have a trade-in deal for COD:WAW £25 value of trade-in!

Ive got the new Prof Leyton as well, not too bad!

[Cyberpunk]

Not too much this week, as I've still not got any bloody internet to speak of. However, a friend and I have been setting up our own Trackmania server, on eekhost. I've also been setting up our web site to go with it. Our new clan and server is called Devon & Cornwall Racers, and our new web site is www.dcracers.co.cc (Hendo, let me know if it's cool or not to plug this.)

I've been finishing off Dead Space, and after a small lull in the middle, the game picked up quite a bit. I'm very glad I started this within my internet free period, as I had few distractions.

I've also restarted Prototype, but this time I'm playing the Xbox 360 version. There's no noticable difference in the game, But the Xbox version runs a little smoother than the Pc version. But that could just be my Pc setup.

And for some mindless gameplay, I've gone back to Need For Speed - Most Wanted. This is, so far, my favourite version of need for speed. I've had many conversations with Ed about this. I think the Need For Speed franshise has gone downhill in the last few years, with Carbon being a poor Most Wanted clone, Pro Street being ok, but nothing special, and last year's Undercover just being terrible. I like the whole cop chase and blacklist themes of most wanted, and the game gets challenging, without becoming too much so. The graphics look a little dated now, even on max resolution, but the gameplay is still fun. I've pre-ordered Need For Speed - Shift for my 360, and I'm looking forward to it. Please EA Black Box, don't make another Turkey!!!

[Sly Reflex]

Just Left 4 Dead for me this week. I'm still hearing new lines of dialogue, I'm still noticing new things to look at and I'm still being surprised by the AI director. Nothing much more I can say about it really.

[HandsomeDead]

Not much to say this week. The weekend usually sees friends coming 'round and we play Rock Band 2, we've hit a wall really but playing a bunch of songs we like is always fun, skimming through the DLC usually inspires playing it more too.

The only other game I spent more than a few moments on is Flower, its great and I feel stupid for taking so long to get it. I wish I could put my finger on why I think its so good, why just floating around in these enviroments is so satisfying. maybe its just the way the music, graphics and sense of bonnie things comes together to make a chirpy and happy game.