The Gaming Week thread

[Jimboxy]

I've been playing a variety of things this week for a change.

Carried on with the obligatory Forza 3 racing, starting to feel more like a job than a game now, with me putting in a few hours per week to get through all the events. I'll endeavour to beat Sly to 100%, at least that gives me something to aim for.

Picked up Mass Effect where i left of 8 months previous. Turns out i only had a little bit left to do to reach the end. Forgotten how much i enjoyed this game when i was originally playing it, the only reason i stoped was because my 360 RRoD'd on me. Its finished now, would like to have another play thru with a new character, but don't think i'll have time before Mass Effect 2 comes out.

In the down time between finishing Mass Effect and waiting for Bayonetta to turn up, i decided to play Rockstar Ping Pong Table Tennis. I got this game bundled with my 360, played it once and never touched it again. It is actually a really good game, some of the rounds can get very intense when both players are have a good rally. The controls are perfect, with the right analogue stick used to determine the strength of shot, the style and position. However it fell to the way side once this weeks sexy main event landed on my door matt.

I've played a lot of Bayonetta, almost to much, when i was trying to get to sleep all i could see was guns, high kicks and boobs. Its an excellent game, all the praise that is being heaped on it is justified. Its so much fun to play, and there is just enough variety to keep it interesting. I think the stars of the show are the Angels which Bayonetta faces, the character design is just mind blowing and in many ways over shadows the main character. The character of Bayonetta sometimes risks becoming annoying, early in the game there is some innuendo that Sid James would be proud of, which if kept up for the whole game would risk becoming tedious, but they manage to keep it in check.

Also played a few things on the iTouch, little bit more canabalt, and also Beat It.

Beat It is a rhythm game where you get a short sample of music and you have to replicate it by pressing where you think the notes should go. The presentation is fantastic, mainly consisting of 2.5D 8bit pixel art (think Habo Hotel) and is lovely to look at. The controls are dead simple and play to the iphones strengths. My only grip would be with the difficulty. It can get very hard to tell the difference between different sounds some times, making it hard to replicate the loop, also when they throw in double length loops, it gets a little to complicated. Still, a really fun, challenging game with excellent presentation and for only 59p

[Sly Reflex]

How close are you too the 100%? I'm about 20% in according to the menus.

[Jimboxy]

How close are you too the 100%? I'm about 20% in according to the menus.

Last time i looked i was 26% which after over 40 hours, is a little depressing..

[Sly Reflex]

Ah, there is no chance of me beating you then, I have all the endurance stuff to do yet, and there are a few of those world tour things that have a shit load of races which I presume will all be 13 races long after the 6th year.

[Manicm]

Nothing at all for me in the last week, opening a new tesco store in 5 days! bloody hell 5 days to go! surely thats worth 100g achievements at least!

Played some Assassins Creed 2 today and some LBP, might play some more games later. This month mainly due to work and being skint ive brought nothing new, so my interest in gaming has slipped a little, i suppose in 10 days time things will perk up a bit!

[hinn888]

Been playing Bayonetta Completed normal in 3 days and have been replaying chapters to reduce to under 3 hours and for a long story short to get this item to go through Hard.

I can now finally get rid of Left 4 Dead. Got all the crash course achievements last night, can't believe Valve havnt patched it yet, only way to get the achievements is by playing on a local server than a dedicated server. You have to keep tapping A fast until a countdown begins, do it too fast and your 360 crashes ¬_¬

Been on Pokemon Pearl breiftly to look at the GTS, looks like everyone is just trading level 100s :/

Got Avatar recently, the game focuses on another story that happens at the same time as the film, the game is not too bad, multiplayer on the other hand is atrocious.

A friend has got Lego Batman, so been playing that for a bit of co-op action

Now and then i go on Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 for a bit of online action and arguing.

[stoobie]

True to my word I finished Dead Space Extraction this week. It was over a couple of nights spending a few hours each time and I enjoyed it all. I think they did a great job making a shooter feel just like the original game. It was a bit short and the ending was a let down

apart from the bit where you had to cut your own hand off - that was great

, but it was all good. I liked the characters, the story, even the graphics and sound weren't too shabby. I also liked that you revisited some areas from the first one and met up with Nicole. Highly recommended.

I also re-started Dragon Age Origins this week. I chose a female mage this time and have got a bit further than last time. I am still finding my feet in the world but it all feels a bit vague to me - its not as tightly structured as JRPGs are which I think is more of my thing. I am enjoying it tho, I have just left the town after the intro and have to choose which one of the the three(?) main quests to follow next. I keep changing my mind wether I am going to be good or evil, sometimes I am nice and polite in my replies but sometimes I am really arsey - does it have any affect on how the story plays out?

I finished Littlebigplanet on the PSPGo as well. I haven't bothered much with the creator after I spent about 3 hours trying to get a platform to move up and down before giving up. I cant see myself returning to it either. The game was pretty much the same as the PS3 version but I think it was better suited to the handheld.

I got Motorstorm : Arctic Edge a while a back for free on the PSPAwesome and decided to give that a go. Again it plays very similar to the PS3 versions which seems to be the norm for PSP games. It runs very smoothly and its not as unforgiving as the other one I've played (Pacific Rift?) I dont crash nearly as often as I do on that one. I am really enjoying it - I can normally get three or four races in on my journey to work. Also, I think there is a new race type in it - I maybe wrong as Ive not played too much of the PS3 version - when you start off your score starts to count up depending on your position - 1st places counts up faster than 2nd place etc. When one of you gets to 999 you are the winner - its my new favorite race type ever.

All the talk of Project Needlemouse starring Froggy the Frog and Charmy Bee drove me back to Sonic 3 - I hope needlemouse is as good as all the old Sonics.

This week I hope to finish Dragon Age - or at least get a decent way through it - and then I want to go back and finish Mass Effect before number 2 is out.

I've never noticed before but I use a lot of dashes when I type.

[HandsomeDead]

Its been a bit of finishing up games this week.

First off I completed both a boy and his blob and Muramasa: Demon Blade which were pretty good side-scrollers that looked very nice. I also finished an old run of Uncharted: Drake's Fortune on hard because I am hardcore and I started a similar run on Killzone 2 on the hardest setting but I'm giving up on that because its a bit of a slog, the game itself is actually better than I remember it being but on the Elite difficulty the baddies soak up to much fire power and with the guns being diificult to manage in the first place then its proving to be hard work. It was still funny realising how short your character is again, I'd completely forgot.

I'm still at Left 4 Dead 2, it doesn't fail to amuse and also I started another hard difficulty play through on Brutal Legend, it hasn't been any different yet but I predict those bits I had problems with to be more of a problem, time will tell. I'll probably do this slow burner style like I did with Uncharted.

Oh, and a little of Bayonetta on hard, but Jeannes is really pissing me off so I don't know if I'll go back to it on hard atleast, maybe just try and find the weapons I missed on my first go.

[retroed]

The past week has seen my playing none of my home consoles, router connection woes have put me off playing on the 360. I could have played some single player stuff, but haven't really felt like it this week. I've been playing solely with my new iPod Touch. I've played a shit load of them, here's six of the best.

GTA Chinatown Wars. I bought this a couple days ago when it was released on the App store. It's priced really well at £5.99. it's a stunning achievement to get this on the iDevice, graphically stunning and it runs super smooth. I guess it's cross between the DS and PSP versions, with some extra tweaks here and there to suit the platform. I'm around 10% through it so far, and really enjoying it. Once I'd zoomed out the view as far as it can go, and spent a bit of time with the controls, I was well away. I loved playing through it on DS last year, and can see me playing it through to the end again on the Touch.

Rolando. This is really good. It has a LocoRoco aesthetic, but here you can actually tilt the device to move your dudes. Get a certain amount to the exit, while traversing various obstacles and puzzles. Swipe the screen upwards to jump, group dudes by dragging a box around them. It's very clever. I'm part way through the final world now, after thirty levels. A huge amount of content for the £1.79 it'll set you back. The sequel is on the store for £2.99, I'll definitely be picking it up at a later date.

Swords & Poker. Another new release. It reminds me of Puzzle Quest a bit (Hendo, try the Lite version). Play poker against an enemy, with the ability to use magic and buy better weapons. Clear a floor and move on to the next one. It's meant to have very good pass-the-iPod multiplayer too, but I haven't tried it yet. 59p well spent.

Mini Squadron. Quality little dogfighting game. Shoot waves of enemies while performing crazy loop-the-loops and collecting power-ups. It plays very well indeed, the controls are absolutely spot on with a virtual analogue stick on the screen and fire button that you can just hold down for constant fire. A cool little showpiece for the system, and excellent fun to play.

Dark Nebula: Episode One. I picked this up for free, and very glad I did. It's just a ball rolling game, but it's very well executed and addictive.

Peggle. It's Peggle in your pocket, y0.

[Hendo]

I've been re-visiting Fable II, mopping up some achievements and finishing the side quests.

It really is a brilliant game with clever mechanics and for once Molyneux delivered on his ramblings, especially with the combat system being gloriously simple for pick up and play, but also as deep as you want it to gain more experience.

I also went back and finished The Lost and Damned from GTA IV and had a gay old time with it.

Also, got invited into some multiplayer co-op matches and it really is a shame that the multi never took off.

I bought Dead Rising when I got my 360 (the day Bioshock and the Elite came out, if I recall) and I've always struggled to enjoy it and still it proves to be a wily fox of a game - occasionally it's the most fun in the world taking out zombies by running at them with an opened parasol, but then the save system really ruins it.

I think it's because going back to a manual save room is so old fashioned now and losing a load of progress because you just couldn't make it to the save toilet is really disheartening and just makes me turn the game off and leave it for a few months.

I've levelled up to about 21 or something but I just lose hope, save my stats and go back to the beginning each time.

Always playing Modern Warfare 2, always getting shot in the face, always getting called rude words by kids young enough to be my own children, and yet I still have fun.

I also seem to be addicted to Tower Defense games at the moment, all with imaginative titles - Tap Defense, Tri Defense, Coastal Defense, Star Defense and my favourite which is just simply called Fieldrunners. They missed a trick there.

Finally, I'm dipping back into Red Faction : Guerrilla multiplayer and when I know what I'm doing it's actually really good fun.

*EDIT*

Actually, few more.

Took Ed's advice and downloaded Swords & Poker demo on the iPhone and it's great. Same kind of idea as Puzzle Quest where you take turns against an opponent and you level up and buy new gear, but the gameplay is based around cards and poker hands.

Also took Jim's advice and tried Beat It and I love it - the art style, especially, is beautiful to look at, all isometric pixel art, like those Edge posters.

[Cyberpunk]

This week I've been playing Forza Motorsport 3. My, that's a surprise, ain't it? Lol. I'm a lot further behind than most MFG members, because I had to wait till Xmas for it, but I'm making up for lost time. I've also played some of the hot laps to arrange the new Forza 3 tournament I've set up.

I've restarted GTA China Town Wars on my Nintendo Ds, after seeing RetroEd playing it on his new Ipod Touch. Again, I'm enjoying this portable incarnation of one of my favourite franchises.

And finally, I got a beta key for Star Trek Online. It's not bad at all. Sort of a mix between third person action adventure, when you play as your charactor on an away mission, and space combat sim when you're in command of your ship. Everything is customisable, from your uniform, to the layout of your ship. I really like the space combat. It's easy to play, but has enough depth to keep you hooked.

My main impression of the game is that it would be a really good single player stand alone game, and the only thing that lets it down is the muppets playing it alongside you. If you get a good group of people, it can pay off dividends. I teamed up with four other people, and our fleet kicked some Borg ass. A real good game that was. However, playing at a time when the universe is filled with 'Special' people can really let you down. Will I pay for it when it's released? I'm a HUGE Star Trek fan, and love my existing Star Trek games, but I don't think I'll go for this one. And at £12 a month to play it, it's a bit steep for me

[Sly Reflex]

Hmm, quite the update since I last posted.

I've been dabbling with Gravity Crash, PJ Eden, PJ Shooter and Stardust. All 4 are ideal for dipping in and having a quick blast which is usually how I play them. PJ Eden in particular, although I'm far from competing it, I think it's one of the defining games of this gen. I probably am on my own with that thought though.

Forza 3 trudge-oh is still on the cards. I finished season 6 with the completion-o-meter at 27.0%. This game will be featured here until the fucker lays slain.

Left 4 Dead has been revisited and completed. It's a great game, but you can see why they made all the modifications with Left 4 Dead 2 which I have also played. Even tough I've played these games for at least 200 hours combined and I'm always surprised when I notice a bit of detail or something unexpected happens. The original game is still throwing out new bits of dialogue as well, how many lines did they record for that thing?

Theme Park DS was completed. What a load of fucking shite. See Technically bad games thread for more info.

Harvest Moon DS fills my dinner and breaks void at work. It's rather nice. See me waffle on about it's beauty in the handhelds thread. I needed something like this to take the bad taste of Theme Park DS out of my mouth.

[Bob]

This week I finally finished off Dragon Age: Origins on the 360 which was awesome. I feel I must point out that I found the game very easy even though everyone moaned on and on about how hard it was. Only problem I had was the last boss because I might have...hmmm....stabbed the dedicated healing mage in the face when I could have recruited her, so I had no real way of healing my party, a quick difficulty change sorted that fucker out though!

I lent Assassin's Creed 2 off my brother so I have been playing that, it's rather good. Very slow starting, almost like an RPG actually which I personally think is a good thing. I hate it when games start with explosions and huge set pieces because where do you go from there? Nowhere entertaining that's for sure.

Also completed Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood which had it's moments but it was nothing special. The imma stare you down boy, imma stare you down, imma move around a bit, imma move, move, move a bit more, now imma shoot ya boy bits where my least favourite because they didn't really rely on your reflexes or skill once you realized the dudes always move four times before you can pull your gun. Only cost £15 though and it was entertaining enough for that price.

Had a little go on The World Ends With You which is absolutely packed with gimmicks and cool words that make me wonder if I am starting to get old and not cool because they just annoyed me. The combat is pretty cool, even if it is taking a bit of getting used to. Sometimes I can do it just fine, then I get discombobulated and I start touching all over the place and randomly hitting the d-pad in frustration.

[Manicm]

This week, ive played nothing at all, new tesco opened like a fool i transfered across been a tough week and i have only left the store to sleep, hopefully it will be a calmer week next week so i can get some me time!

[DANGERMAN]

Looking at Manic's sig, I've played the same as his last two games. I'm into a second play through of Borderlands, I'm not sure how much I'm enjoying it. When I'm plying it I'm fine, but I dread starting to play it (but then end up playing it). I think it's because I know how much of a pain some bits are, and how much trekking about facing respawning enemies I'm going to have to get past. I'm level 49 now though, so I think I'll keep playing till level 50, then start something else and come back if the new dlc turns out to be good

Played quite a bit Fifa, mixing between normal premier league, be a pro, and multi player. I'm still not sure I like the way it allocates points n be a pro this yeah, but I guess it does stop you just maxing out speed and spamming it for goals galore. Weirdly though my progress has been quicker through it than last year, despite my character not being as able. I'm club captain, and getting their for England, and I 'm at the end of my first season

[stoobie]

I've been finishing off Mass Effect this week - well trying to anyway. I am just over half way through I think. I still think it is a good game, even more so now I have got used to using the force biotics as well as guns. I completed a lot of the missions the first time I played it so I've only really got the story ones left to go. I also downloaded both the DLC packs at the cheap rate.

The first one is a mission, which is quite short and annoying in places - getting past those proximity mines grrrrrr. The second pack is better - its 12 challenges (survival, time trail etc) that you have to complete. They dont seem to be too difficult, but I have only done a couple so far.

I've also been playing Street Fighter 4 and Marvel vs Capcom 2 which I think is due to TvC's imminent release and SSF4 on the horizon. I'm still crap at SF4 but have got back into MVC2 really easily. I got all the specific team achievements which was fun.

I've also played a bit of Lego Rock Band with the kids - it is so much easier than the other games - I'm playing through on Medium and having no problems at all considering I am usually stuck on Easy! The Lego branding is great and the kids love it - there is also a Very Easy difficulty level where they just have to strum - doesnt matter what colour or even if they press a button.

I tried the Vandal Hearts demo on Xbox Live and put it on my 'to buy' list straight away! It's like Fire Emblem/Shining Force which are two of my fave games series. Will pick it up this week I think.

I should be playing Mass Effect this week, together with The Simpsons which I have also just bought. Probably more Lego Rock Band and Vandal Hearts if I get time. And here's me thinking January would be quiet gameswise

[illdog]

Ive been playing the original Guitar Hero on the PS2 this week and im telling you all this: its the best one by far.

[DANGERMAN]

We're going to be doing a podcast later, so if you havent mentioned anything for this week theres still a bit of time

[Craymen Edge]

Forza Motorsport 3

Cyberpunk's tournament got me playing this again after a little break. Reading the thread about everyone else checking the leaderboards to see which car is the best choice, and downloading setups from the marketplace (and my inability to drive fast), makes me think I'm in for a pasting.

Fallout 3 GOTY

50+ hours into this, I think it's going to be on my playlist for quite a while longer.

I did a couple of the larger sidequests, including one where I killed a talking tree, and then went back to the main storyline. It's all kicking off - I've just come across the Enclave properly for the first time, and gotten into the Brotherhood of Steel's Citadel.

RunMan: Race Around the World

Learned about this on the Zombie Cow forums and downloaded it in late October, but only just got round to playing it.

<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="

name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="

type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

It's free/donation ware, and utterly charming with it's MS Paint graphics and royalty-free bluegrass soundtrack. It also has the best url ever.

http://whatareyouwait.info/

[spatular]

Ive been playing the original Guitar Hero on the PS2 this week and im telling you all this: its the best one by far.

2 is better, the hammer-ons/pull-offs are usable for a start although if you like the music in 1 better that's fair enough. haven't played 1 for ages, the ziggy stardust song is so awesome

only really played valkyre cronicles (sp?) this week, which i've been really enjoying, it's like a first person version of advance wars, it's getting harder and more based on trial and error now though so i'm using a guide because continually restarting hour long missions is not for me. still enjoying it though, the graphical style is lovely and i like how there's little messing around between missions.