Two sides of the coin

After spending more then enough hours on Red Dead Redemption, I've decided that its just like Battlefield Bad Company 2. It's like a coin, one side is the good and the other the bad. In BBC2 the bad is the single player, way too short and pretty much a disaster while the good is the awesome multi player which keeps making you go back for more.

With RDR its a mixture, me and my friends at work have been looking forward to this game for months and the last week leading upto the launch we pretty much worked are self's up for it. We planned all sorts of adventures to do in multi player but sadly most cannot be done.

Free roaming is amazing, being able to explore the entire map with friends, attacking gang hideouts or just go hunting together is brilliant. Of course there was disappoint, first of no trains on multi player? that was the big thing for us. We planned to charge after a train on horse back, jump on and rob it lol just like in the films and of course hoping for someone to miss the jump to get that perfect epic fail. Yet nothing, the trains are single player only and just now I found out you cannot rob them either only kill the people on board.

Bugs...well we have found a few, the LT aim not working most of the time which means in multi player becomes instant death. Several times friends cannot join the sessions due to "Connection issues with another player" and of course the famous stuck on loading screen bug.

Oh and lets not forget it's very easy to be grieved, most gang hideouts have one spawn point so people can pretty much camp you. The other night me and a few friends got stuck, another posse attacked up then camped the spawn. Worst part was when you spawn you got a second delay before you given control and facing your back to them. Rockstar really needs to look into measure to give everyone a chance to fight back.


But after all that I am enjoying the game, hopefully future DLC will add train robbing and future patches fix all those problems.


Thats my thoughts for now
~Iznic

Warcraft Update

Spent a few hours on WOW this morning since I've had a week off from it, still enjoying the game just pretty much stopped working on new gear since the expansion looming over are heads just does not seem worth the effort to me.

In my last about WOW I mentioned about the mess that I've caused with my alts and that I was going to reset some of them. Well shortly after that post I did reset my Paladin, of course I just left him at level one because of the break. Anyway today I decided to pop on him since he some mail about to expire (pets from collectors edition etc), got him up to level 5 and picked the mail up then stopped. With Cataclysm changing pretty much stats, adding new abilities at lower levels etc I just see it being better to wait until the changes are put in so can learn the class from start.

Same goes for my other alts, just going to hang off until the changes are made :)

So in the way of Warcraft, I'm just mucking about on my main and cleaning up old achievements that might not be in game any more with the changes.

Update

About time I updated this thing, over the last month or so I've been real busy with life and gaming. My score is now standing on 93,000 and almost 94, of course I'm really happy with the progress made.

Been poping into all the Games, Gamestations etc to look for cheap games in the sales. Picked up most of the 2006 sports games for less then £2, also picked up some old games I kept saying I was going to get as well (Alone in the Dark, Mirrors Edge etc).

Have to admit though, the last four weeks or so as been bit dead on the gamescore increase. Burnt myself out really and with the extra hours at work my spare time just vanished. Need to get back into the spirit and get to that 100k marker :)

World of Warcraft

Been thinking of starting some new alts the last few months along with sorting some of my old ones out. Problem is they really not done any dungeons so there equipment is rubbish and not had any experience with them in groups. Also add in the fact not played some for nearly year plus lol i think its safe to say I'm going to be useless on them.

Also since I did multiboxing and granted levels to my alts they jumped easily 20 levels on some, so got a ton of stuff to learn and new equipement needed for them. Really bad idea on my part


So as I said I've been thinking of starting some new ones, make notes of course of using them so if I do have a major break I can easily jump back in. Also having the looking for group will be a nice touch. What I will be doing is posting here each time with whats been happening with them, thoughts, adventures etc sorta like a journal :) so keep an eye out soon for my post about "Adventures in Azeroth"

Kingdom for Keflings Review

Well I've finally sat down and finished this game making it the first Arcade game done for the year, also the first of three for my gaming challenge.

Not much really to say about it to be honest since the game is a very small simple game. You build a small kingdom and managing your Keflings to gather the necessary resources to build the next set of buildings in your tech tree until you reach the maximum set. Only problem I had was just one map to play on and one sandbox map. No story campaign at all which was a bit shocking really.

All I can say about this game its relaxing and very addictive lol, if you want a quick easy achievement arcade game then this is for you. Singleplayer achievements can be done in 5 hours and the two online ones can be done in a evening or two depending on luck.


Overall I really enjoyed it, more then I thought I would :) would recommend it to people to play


Kingdom for Kefling (Xbox 360 Arcade)
Score: 6 out of 10
Gameplay: Average
Graphics: Good
Story: Poor
Length: Average
Controls: Good

Thoughts for the day

Well I'm currently working on the last achievement for Madden 06, the wonderful long boring 30 years of franchise. So while the simulator is running thought I would login and do a couple of posts about what as been happening with my gaming.

Last few weeks have been boring, mostly because I lost the spark to play any games right now. But I've got it back and already the progress as been great. The other day at work I was talking to one of mates about the gaming challenge (thing we do often lol) and some calculations where done. According to him, if I'm to hit 120,000 by the end of the year, that means I need to clock around 125/131 gamer points a day lol. So I challenged myself to hit 90,000 by the end of April (although the calculations say 9 weeks) which of course the next day I started to wonder if I could hit it.

Well from the looks of it I'm going to hit 90,000 by end of next week LOL, how you ask? i picked up Madden 06 and Fifa 06 last night. Already now sitting on 600 gamer score for madden, should have the full thousand in a hour or so. Also this morning in the post arrived Sherlock Holmes vs Jack the Ripper another easy game. Finally I found out Madden 08 is just as easy as this one so tonight when I go to Lynn's and we pop to the shopping centre going to see if I can get a copy and maybe have a look for NHL 2K6 and NBA 2K6.

Its going to be one awesome week this week for achievements, hopefully I will hit it :)


Of course I'm not just playing these easy achievement games, been working hard on FXIII and did another couple of chapters which I'm proud of. Really looking forward to completing my first JRPG and since I'm starting to get the hang of it I do believe this could be the game.

Also clocked all the collectables in Brothers in Arms so now all I got left is to get the 100 days of play clocked, just keep poping the disc in each day. Should be any time now :) another game completed that I can trade in against something else, maybe if I'm lucky it will clock by next week in time to be traded in for Splinter Cell. One can dream...

PS3 Games for Trophies

I've decided today to stop replaying games on the PS3 for trophies that I've already done on the Xbox for achievements.

Let me explain better, basically I've got easily a hundred games plus I want to play and right now I'm finding myself ... (well I wouldn't say wasting my time but close enough) spending time playing games again for there trophies after getting the xbox version done.

Thing is I'm not a big fan of the PS3 anyway so not sure why I'm going for the trophies. The other week I did Lego Indiana Jones 2 again, spending at least a good part of my week playing it but at the same time FFXIII and Battlefield Bad Company 2 was out. See there is no logic to it, again today I start Tomb Raider Underworld yet I've not even done hard mode on the xbox yet for the last achievement, bad enough having to do two run through's but adding a third one for the PS3 is a waste of time really.

So as I said at the start, going to start focusing on the games I've got and the new games coming out :-) of course this does not mean I've given up on the PS3 for good. Will still play exclusive titles on there (God of War, Uncharted and Killzone etc) but just not going out of my way like I am right now. I might now and again in the future pick up a easy game but just not when I got ton of games to play already.

Review: Dawn of War 2 Chaos Rising

Dawn of War as always been one of my top 10 games, I love the gameplay and really enjoy the story that is Warhammer 40,000.

So for the last few months I've been really looking forward to this next expansion and to be honest I would had liked it, just shame it was so bugged it put me off it.

I can understand bugs in games and its hard to find them all before launch and how hard it is to patch but come on this was just not funny.

The game crashed twice on the first level when ever I attacked, in the end I had to rush my squad past the first several units then attempt to attack which worked. Through out the entire game the audio for the characters was broken, the character profile pictures that popped up too kept blacking out. On the last mission I turned my speakers off since the audio was that bad.

I'm sorry but how can you launch game this broken? how did the testers not pick up on this? someone needs to relearn what testing means.

Oh and the last boss scene, forgot about him. Who came up with that idea? you need to be locked up for creating that horrible fight. Wasnt a bug but bad ideas, 15 painful minutes after the fourth try to kill him, I like hard boss fights but this was just a joke. Had to keep doing pull runs and have a squad on the otherside of the map so I could revive everyone. Oh and thanks for giving him that attack that restores most of health, really enjoyed that.

Other then that the game was ok, not great just ok. Found it a lot shorter then I thought. Really could had done with some more optional missions and the story extended. The whole cliff hangar was a waste time, since I'm not looking forward to waiting another year for the next expansion to see the end (that's if the next one will end this current story plot). Especially with how badly this expansion was done, I have no hopes for the next one.

Dawn of War 2: Chaos Rising (PC)
Score: 5 out of 10
Gameplay: Poor
Graphics: Good
Story: Average
Length: Too Short
Controls: Good

Review: Battlefield Bad Company 2

This game had the patentable to be game of the year.

Its the only game I will actutally sit down and play random multiplayer with strangers. When I play multiplayer in other games its with friends only, so as you can imagine this game has an outstanding multiplayer part.

Honestly the first week it was all I could talk about, the spark was there. My favourite mode is Rush where one team defends and the second attacks, nothing like it to get you heart racing as you and 11 other strangers work together to take down a base.

On the first night I had a dozen stories of adventures that had happened in the matches, its so much fun you cannot believe it. Of course I did say this had the potentable, single player was a huge let down.

The story is very short, you can easily do it in one evening and there is no reward for doing it on hard mode except the last level which is a joke. Every time a level ended I was shocked how fast it was over with, nice for the achievements but still I was hoping for something decent. The story isnt good either sorry to say, whats with modern warefare games these days. Once again the Russians are invading...this is getting old and very fast.

But least the mutiplayer makes the game worth the money, I still recommend picking it up just to play that. Hopefully the third one in the future will bring back a good singleplayer.


Battlefield Bad Company 2 (Xbox 360)
Score: 8 out of 10
Gameplay: Good
Graphics: Good
Story: Average
Length: Short
Controls: Good

Review: God of War 3

Still cannot believe the wait is over, I loved every game in this series and the third is no exception. After two very long days I finally finished the story, so its time to review it.

I would recommend this too anyone, not got a PS3? then go buy one just to play this game!

The entire game is amazing, the detail that went into the bosses was out of this world. The idea behind each one blew my mind away, Poseidon at the start was breath taking with the horse serpents. Even the levels had a ton of detail added, several times I had to stop to check out the view. Espically at the start while you climbing up, in the background you can see the Titans slowly climbing up and its awesome.

Gameplay is just the same as the past games making it easy for all. Always loved how easy it is to do the different chain attacks, you dont have to button mash which is always a plus in my books.

Story end was good but still think it could had a little bit more to say this is the end of the series, I am hoping for a fourth in the series to explain a bit more :) it cannot end like that. Hopefully the rumors of dlc will be true.


Overall, go buy! its a great game and if you not played the past versions then go get them too!


God of War 3 (Playstation 3)
Score: 10 out of 10
Gameplay: Good
Graphics: Good
Story: Good
Length: Decent
Controls: Good

End of Month Posts

OK February had no post and march will be getting a small post but to be honest I forgot what's really happened this month. So for April I'm going to create a saved draft post and anything I think that needs to be written down will be added there, so by the end of the month I should have a detailed post for the months progress. Well that's the theory anyway and if I stick to it, but knowing me probably won't lol

Another Goal

Well Another Code R was my first Wii game to be completed which means I finished my first goal for this years gaming challenge. Took alot longer then I thought since I was meant to get this game done in January but glad it's finished now. Now standing on two of the eight goals completed, so I feel like I'm doing ok with it.

Also clocked Disney UP on the PS3 the other day, now I have one of three platnium trophies for another goal too.

Lets hope I can keep this up


Goal 1: Complete at least one Wii game - SUCCESS!!

Review: Another Code R

I've written out this post about three times so far, finding it really hard to write what I want to say about this game. So let's start with the beginning, Another Code first came out on the DS and was one of the first games I bought for the handheld. I loved the game, the story was ok and I did like solving the mystery but it had nothing special too it.

What made me love the game was the puzzles, you had to think outside the box when it came to solving them. Two come to mind, one was to close the DS to stamp some paper and the other turning the DS on the side like a book to reflect the screens onto each other so you can see the whole picture. I loved it, of course since the story was just ok I never really wanted to go back and play it again.

Of course now there is sequel, this game came right under my radar. I was shocked when it arrived in store, normally I spot stuff like this months in advance before they released. Although the story in the original was lacking, I had my hopes up and could not wait to see what they did with the puzzles this time around.
Well after ... must be 15-20 hours at least, I finally finished just now. Spent 10 hours today working on it (my day off lol and was very determined to finish it today). Again I liked the game but it still doesn't have that spark, in fact it was lacking compared to the DS original. Think the thing that got me down the most about it was the loose ends. Before I go into any details I must give you warning


!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!STORY SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Three major points that let me down and they where Matt's Dad, Matt's Sister Kelly and the lakes pollution.


Matt's DadI was disappointed with the whole friend mystery, near the start of the game you meet Matt. A young boy who's father went missing five years ago, as you journey through the game solving the mystery about your mother you look for clues on his father. What seems ages you start to piece together a picture of what happened to him when suddenly, its forgotten about. Matt goes to a house to wait for you while you go talk to your dad and this part is the end of the game. You learn the truth about your mom and that's it, Matt is forgotten about. I was really shocked, everything you done seemed a waste of time. At the end all the characters come to say goodbye and you then learn someone as spotted a man that looks like his dad....that's it....wtf!

The game as a very slow start, the first 10 minutes are great. The story is setup but then you seem to waste like 10 hours about half the game getting small clues, chasing the boy around and around and around. This could had been shorted and the time used to answer the dad mystery.

Was really looking forward to seeing what happened to him and find the truth out, the game was really focused on his missing dad which shocks me they ended it like that.

Lake Pollution
And another thing, the lake pollution was caused by JC Valley at the end??!?!? "oh yeah are bad, it was us". Ok that we get hints about the pollution, its talked about a lot and that's it!. Why where they doing it? what was causing it? why did they blame Crusoe Resort?

Come on, would had been nice to have some answers
Matt's Sister
Finally his sister, this had to be the biggest shock in the game and the biggest WTF! Suddenly you find out she drowned at the boathouse, there are no hints that something bad had happened to her. Right out of the blue they drop this on your lap then we talking two minutes later the game forgets about it. The characters back to happy self's....

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!SPOILER ENDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

No doubt if they make a third in the series I would play it, but honestly please please guys tie up the loose ends. I loved the extra mysterys to solve but not ending made this game poor, oh and please shorten the start of the game. Thank you!

Another Code: R (Wii) A journey into lost memories
Score: 6 out of 10
Gameplay: Average
Graphics: Good
Story: Average
Length: Long
Controls: Average

GOTY10 Update

Ok time to update the list

2010 GOTY
Mass Effect 2

Runners Up
Dante's Inferno

Still ME2 taking the lead with DI just added but only taking the silver so far. If the story and length had been better (See my review) then it would had been GOTY easily. Looking forward to seeing the next couple of weeks since we have Bad Company 2, FFXIII and God of War 3 coming out. Three of the biggest AAA games this year

Reviews

I know my reviews are short or pretty much rubbish lol. To be honest I'm not trying to be a review site or anything, just post my random thoughts of the game for friends to see since I pretty much play most games. That being said if you do want something changed like go into more detail about levels/bosses etc then ask and in future reviews I will try to add it. But as I said they here for fun, want proper reviews check out the professional websites :-) there are plenty!

Review: Spongebob's Truth or Square

I wasn't going to review but here goes lol

Graphics are ok for what it is and the game is well ... short but to be honest it's good in a way because if it was longer then I would had chucked it out the window lol.

Story is ... I think he lost something and basically you playing through memories which are past episodes. So if you are fan, then you will love it. Myself, found it boring but then I wasn't playing it for fun, just the gamerscore :-)

Overall good for gamerpoints or kids but its a rental, would not waste any money on it


Spongebob's Truth or Square (Xbox 360)
Score: 4 out of 10
Gameplay: Average
Graphics: Average
Story: Poor
Length: Short
Controls: Average

Dante's Inferno Review

Ok I'm going to just say it, this game could had been better. I know that's a shocking thing to say but just hear me out. This game is worth getting and playing, no doubt there. It's just it could had been so much more.

First off story is a big thing for me, I love movies/books/games that have a brilliant story that pull me in and make me not want to stop getting into it. Unfortunately I didn't feel connected with this game, the story was really lacking. I know its based on some epic poem but seriously come on, it tried and failed.

*****SPOILER******

The second and final issue I had was the length, Finished the game in two nights. The end felt rushed and not in the good way, I loved the first two circles (lust and greed) where you have this massive journey then face a boss that's linked to the circle. Then the rest ... well one minute you enter the circle next you out and wondering what happened. I know giving every circle bosses and big adventures would make the game super long, but it would had been awesome!

oh well maybe next time.

*****END SPOILER****

Other then those two problems I really did enjoy the game and would recommend it to friends, graphics are awesome. Some of the boss fights where amazing with the details that had gone into them, nicely done. Found game play to be very easy to get use to, there are tons of combos but you can just easily mash the x button lol. Of course its just a carbon copy of God of War, but who cares :-) just don't go around saying God of War 3 copied DI.

So in all, just go buy it!


Dante's Inferno (Xbox 360)
Score: 8 out of 10
Gameplay: Good
Graphics: Good
Story: Average
Length: Short
Controls: Good

80,000 Milestone

Last week I finally hit the 80,000 gamerscore mark, really pleased with myself since this is one of my personal goals. 80K Sounds so much better and I think the next 20k (upto 100k) might fly past better (well I hope).

It was a good week last week since I even hit 81k a day or two after, thanks to the spongebob game that was being rented. Of course, since then not earned much. Think I burnt myself out slightly, that and I'm working on two long/hard games (Star Ocean and Bioshock).

Hopefully I will be on soon saying I've hit 90k, wish me luck!

G.I.Joe Rise of Cobra Review

When I started playing I was enjoying this game, it did have some major flaws but I found the levels to be fun. Well that only last for the first six levels then after that, I could not but curse the game.

I was hoping to fully clock this game for the full 1,000 gamer score but its staying at 800 since I cannot stand to play another level on it. I was able to finish the story on hard mode and that's about it.

So why hate it so much? first off no camera, its stuck to the back of your guy and that's a huge problem. Especially when you go around the corner and the camera doesn't change!! that's right I actually died because the camera did not change and I went around a corner into a turret along with three minions. Worse when the health bar is above the characters head so you cannot see that too when I went around the corner. I had to run further to get the camera change then roll dodge to get out of the way of the gun fire on the second attempt.

Oh and if you die it wipes all the points you gathered so far from the last checkpoint, meaning getting that GIJoe point score can be annoying. This is where I gave up in the end, I've got three missions left needing full score and after the 11th attempt I cannot stand to do it no more. Either I die and lose a chunk of points or I fall short 20-40k.

No real story to the game either, seriously you work on 20 levels at least to a very poor story. Overall in the end I would not recommend this game, other then for a quick few points/trophies that's it. If you want the full 100%, prepare to throw a controller or two.


G.I.Joe Rise of the Cobra (Xbox 360)
Score: 4 out of 10
Gameplay: Average
Graphics: Average
Story: Poor
Length: Long
Controls: Average

Gaming List / Update

I mentioned not so long ago that I was trying to play games one at a time in a order, playing a brand new game then one old game. It's not that I don't want to play the older games just that the newer ones look more appealing, this system as worked well so far. It's like having something to work towards and I've found myself really enjoying playing the games I've missed out on.

So far I've done the following...

Mass Effect 2 (story only)
Ghostbusters (story only)
G.I.Joe (story only)

Now I'm working on Dante's Inferno which is putting me in the gaming mood again, G.I.Joe was a nightmare to work on and nearly killed my gaming spirit. Got over 800 gamerscore for it but I cannot cope with the last few, having to get perfect max score on those last three missions is killing me. Either one of my guys dies losing a ton of points or I will fall short at the end with the points. After 11 tries last night on one mission I realised that my time was being wasted, there is no light at the end of the tunnel.

So anyway after DI, I think the following will be the next games. Of course this can change thanks to my rentals and newer games coming out, or change of mind.

Spongebob (Rental)
Bioshock 1
Dark Void
Prince of Persia
Army of Two 40th Day
Tomb Raider Underworld (Hard mode)
Assassin Creed 2
End War
Mass Effect 2 (Insanity Mode)
Darksiders