Afternoon

Been doing a few small changes here and there on the site, added a new banner which I know is a bit rubbish but it will do for the time being until I get some more time to make a nicer one. I still got plans to change the blog layout and colour design, but that won't be happening yet since I rather get some more time for posting first.

So anyway how's things for everyone? got any nice cool games? L.A. Noire is out this week along with a good line up as well (No More Heroes, Dragon Quest VI, Fable 3 PC etc.). Picked up a few myself but not had chance to try them out and yes my gaming pile as grown to a even worse amount. In fact the other day I finally opened all the parcels that have been left on the floor since Christmas, not only have I filled all my shelving but now I've got a huge extra stack of games sitting in the corner of my desk. It's a constant reminder of what I've got to work on and that I need a huge holiday off from work so I can work on them lol

I have made a little progress this week with the completion of Lego Pirates of the Caribbean (full 1,000 gamerscore) and finished Brink story campaign on solo (was not a fan). Also clocked Fantastic Four finally a couple of weeks back, so overall I was doing pretty well and getting through my pile slowly.

Oh and before I finish this post, I was able to get all the retail unlocks in the Gears of War 3 Beta. One of the best betas I've ever done and now looking forward to playing multiplayer when it comes out (shocking to say I never play multiplayer with strangers on Gears, just private matches with mates).

Anyway that's it for now, give a shout with your updates!
~Iznic

Coming Soon Chart #2

Not many replies this time around, anyway since the lack of votes for the old list they have dropped to the bottom of the chart. The numbers [ ] represent their past chart place, red - means they dropped and green ^ means a rise in the chart.

That's it for now on the chart, hopefully next time more of you will take part

Coming Soon Chart

Date: Start of May 2011

1. Gears of War 3 / Lego Pirates of the Caribbean
2. Batman Arkham City [3^] / Splinter Cell HD Trilogy
3. Mass Effect 3 [2-] / No More Heroes (PS3)
4. Battlefield 3 [1-]
5. Super Mario 3D [2-]
6. Infamous 2 [3-]
7. Sony NGP (Console) [4-] / Uncharted 3 [4-]



No Longer On the Chart
[2] Portal 2 (released)

Time to update the chart

Couple of weeks back I asked you guy's what you looking forward too and created a coming soon chart, well it's time for a update! Games come out, new trailers get released so people do change their mind.

So again I ask you what are the top three games/consoles you looking forward too? rank them 1-3 with the first one being the most you look forward too.
Here is my little list
1 - Gears of War 3
2 - Batman Arkham City
3 - Mass Effect 3

Quick Post

Sorry for the lack of posting guys but I've pretty much been stuck in a loop, sleep - eat - work - game - repeat. I'm pretty much nearly burned myself out with gaming thanks to several events, all of which decided to all be at the same time.


Basically got two gaming events going on right now, the Gears of War 3 Beta and the Spring Event for Phantasy Star Universe. Both end next week and both I didn't do anything of for the first few weeks meaning now all my time is being spent on them.

I am enjoying the Gears beta, I don't really do public multi player much but this time around I'm finding myself really enjoying it. I do see myself playing this a lot when the retail version is released. Just need to clock some more matches so I can get all those nice unlocks for the main game, should be able to do it all in time (I hope).

Phantasy Star? well the event basically as reduced the dlc bosses levels down so I decided to give it ago, paid for my first month and jumped in. Heard it can be a pain at the start but a lot of achievement hunters said that they where able to do it all in a few hours thanks too help from friendly high level players. Well I met a nice level 51 who got me the first two achievements (one of the hardest ones as well :-D) then the next three days went to hell, no help after hours of asking and the solo level grinding was horrible/painful. The game does not like new players and espically ones who have never played a Phantasy Star before.

It was pretty much all thanks to this game that nearly burned me out and so decided I could not do it anymore. So I just cancelled my subscription and thanks to a very nice customer support rep, I've also got refunded the remaining time I had left. Happy days!


So that's my week and half, I've done nothing else and way behind on well ... everything lol so again sorry guys. I will be updating over the weekend and most of next week, until then hope you having more fun and getting plenty of gaming done!

New Assassin Creed Game?

Very excited now, even if its a rumor! just noticed on xbox360achievements.org news feed that there might had been a leak on the Assassin Creed Facebook page for the next game.

Basically all they know so far is that its called Assassins Creed Revelations and could star Altair again, maybe like Brotherhood is basically for Ezio. Course all rumors and could be a prank like X360A said but still, got my fingers crossed. No doubt we will see some news in the next few months with E3.

That reminds me, I need to finish off Brotherhood so better put that at the top of games to play.




Source: Xb0x360achievements.org

Some more future games

One of are regular readers (Lesley) kindly brought this to my attention yesterday. Binary Domain: The machine Age Has Begun, very amazing looking game and done by Sega. Watching the trailer I did see a few scenes that remind me of Vanquish though lol.

Second game was reported by shoptonews.net (shopto.net gaming news site), basically a 3DS game called Beyond the Labyrinth a dungeon RPG. Looks a lot like Ico which if its true then this could be one hell of a game, now on my radar too :) check out the link above for shopto's page on what they found out.

Well that's it for this post, if find any more games give a shout.

Coming Soon Chart #1

Well it's the very first Coming Soon Chart for this site (well technically I did do it for the Brotherhood site before the merge but you know what I mean). Did not get as many replies that I had hoped, come on readers reply! lol so anyway this is what people are looking forward too right now.

Coming Soon Chart

Date: End of April 2011

1. Battlefield 3
2. Mass Effect 3 / Super Mario 3D / Portal 2
3. Batman Arkham City / Infamous 2
4. Sony NGP (Console) / Uncharted 3

Battlefield seems the most popular this time with two votes, followed by quite a list of games to be honest. Anyway next voting will be start of May and hopefully more of you will take part, until then have fun everyone!

Finally Can Post

Finally!!!

Sorry folks I did try to bring quite a few posts today but for some reason I got hit with a ton of 404 Errors which meant I could not edit pages or make posts. Now that's it back up I've just had time to do the few updates to the site design I wanted to get out of the way (Patch 1.1.1) and my 2011 stats have been updated as well.

Will over the next few days catch up with the posts I've got planned but for tonight this is it, sorry!

Hope everyone is been having a good time and got lots of gaming in. Also hope you not been hit too hard with the PSN down age, hopefully there's a bright light at the end of this tunnel for both us and Sony.

Anyway catch up with you all later

What are you looking forward too?

When "Brotherhood of Gaming" website was running, this feature was quite popular with everyone who visited the blog. Basically I was interested in hearing what people where looking forward too, you simply reply with the top three games you looking forward too (did allow new consoles to be included as well). With this info I had a mini chart listing the most popular games. So I thought why not start it again with you guys, hopefully it will get some of you readers commenting :-p no reason to be scared, I won't bite

So either comment here or over on the facebook page the three games/consoles you looking forward too the most, also put them in order as well please. Oh and expect me to be asking quite often, games come out, new things get announced and of course people change their minds.

For me it would have to be the following
1. Mass Effect 3
2. Battlefield 3
3. Sony NGP

Patch Notes

You will now find at the bottom of the page on the right the blog patch notes, it will show the current version and a nice little link to the patch notes page. Here you will find the list of changes to the site and when it was done, know it's probably boring to most but it will be listing any changes I do. So any new pages added or taken away, colour changes, or anything new completely will be listed here and the date it happened.

Get Mass Effect 2 Free

The lovely people over at Bioware are giving away Mass Effect 2 (PC edition) for free if you have bought Dragon Age 2. All you got to do is go onto their offer page found below this sentence and follow the instructions given.

Offer page link


It's really easy, all you do is register your online code for Dragon Age 2 (black emporium) then play a game of Dragon Age 2, this will log everything on the EA servers. Then you just type that online code into the offer page and it will generate the code for your copy of Mass Effect 2. Put that code into the EA Download Manager and start downloading, all done!

Just to warn you it is a 11gb download so get cracking! and the offer ends 30th April 2011

Upcoming Games Part Two

As I mentioned in my last post the last few weeks have seen an increase of new trailers, announcements etc and so here is part two of some of the titles I'm keeping my eye on.

Asura's Wrath by Capcom
It looks interesting and that boss battle with the guy bigger then the world could be sweet, reminds me a lot of Devil May Cry or God of War style. Hopefully will see a lot more footage at E3 this year and some proper game play stuff as well.

Source: thanks to xbox360achievements.org and capcomunityvideos youtube channel


Dragon's Dogma by Capcom
Capcom seem to be turning out the games in the bucket loads. This one looks amazing just a shame its not out until 2012, basically a mysterious dragon is terrorising the land and you been tasked to take it out. You be controlling a party of three on your journey while fighting plenty of monsters and critters on the way. The trailer looks amazing and i love the griffin fight, this is high up on my want list.

Source: thanks to pushsquare

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning
Another open world rpg that I have to say looks beautiful, the graphics stood out to me from the start and the combat system looks to be good if it stays like that. Not much information though on the story and that's one thing I like about my games, it needs a good story to keep me sucked in.

Source: thanks to xbox360achievements.org


So that's all of them guys, quite a few nice games have appeared and I've got a good feeling we will be seeing a lot more at E3. Any of these take your fancy? or have you found some more hidden treasures, looking forward to hearing your comments later.

Upcoming Games

Over the last few weeks there have been quite a few new trailers released, in fact there are quite few I did not know about until now. First up thanks to shopto.net, they posted up a new trailer for a 3DS game by Konami (makers of one of my favourite games Time Hollow), Doctor Lautrec and the Forgotten Knights. Yes it looks a lot like Professor Layton but it still looks amazing and well done but still no proper date just this summer so hopefully not too long of a wait.

Source: Trailer thanks to shopto.net


Next up again thanks to shopto.net is the game play trailer for Resistance 3, after playing the PSP retribution game and the first in the series (ps3) at the start of the year I have been waiting to see the third. The second in the installment is sitting on my shelf waiting to be played anyway back to the trailer, It looks good and could be a first day buy but I was shocked the release date is now September. Both Batman AC and Gears of War 3 are slated for then as well, so it could be a crowded launch and a later buy thanks to that which is a shame.

Source: Trailer thanks to sparkthesun youtube channel and shopto.net


Xbox360achievements.org have posted up a dev diary for the new Warhammer 40,000 console game Space Marines, a third person shooter which looks awesome. They really are trying to keep to the lore and I'm looking forward to jumping into the 40,000 universe, had in the fact it takes place on a forge world just makes it all the sweeter!

Source: trailer thanks to xbox360achievements.org


Well that's it for this post, there are few more trailers that I like but will post them at a later date. Got to admit this year is looking to be amazing for the gaming industry, just hope we have enough time to keep up with it (trying not to think of the back catalogue of games I've got to play lol).

Review: Ben 10 Ultimate Alien Cosmic Destruction

The things I play for achievements, basically welcome to the second Ben 10 game for the Xbox 360. A simple action and adventure game which has you battling several low level minions and complete several puzzles to move through the levels. Each level will also have a mini boss battle of some type then end the level facing one of the many villains from the show.

The achievements are quiet simple, finish a boss, finish a level and collectibles in every level. Of course they have thrown in there box standard achievements like get "x combo" and "destroy x amount of objects". I followed the lovely walk through guide over on Xbox360achievements.org to find the collectibles and they got a wonderful video on how to get the x100 hit combo, took a few goes but got it with no problem.

In fact I got the full 1,000 gamerscore in one play through, would recommend you trash everything in each level to collect the DNA points to upgrade your forms. This will also count towards the destroy object and DNA collector achievements.

The game is just ok, the story is very boring and you can skip the cut scenes with the B button. Game it self is quite easy to play, puzzles are not that hard and the controls are very simple as well. Hold down the left trigger will bring up the forms you can select and with the right analog you pick the one you want to transform into. Holding down the right trigger brings up the specials moves, just press either the A/B/X/Y buttons. Not many bugs, few clipping problems where I got stuck in a wall but nothing to warrant game breaking.

So overall I would recommend it if you got a kid that's into Ben 10 or if you after a easy 1,000 gamerscore/platinum trophy but don't expect anything amazing (best to rent it)


Ben 10 Ultimate Alien Cosmic Destruction (Xbox 360)
Score: 5 out of 10
Gameplay: Average
Graphics: Average
Story: Poor
Length: Decent
Controls: Average

Update

Thought I would throw in a quick update in between working on the site. Not really put much time into the consoles lately, the PC as took up most of my time playing Dragon Age Legends and RIFT. Just shortly after the last update I did I went and finished Lego Star Wars Clone Wars, got the full 1,000 gamerscore in it which was a nice boost and added another game to the completed list. Will try and get a review asap along with the other list of games I meant to be reviewing, very disorganised right now.

Of course since then I have picked up several more new releases so the completion percent is down in the dumps right now, really need to start clocking some more games. Only console game I am playing is my rental game Ben 10 (Xbox 360) which to be honest I've not played in the last few days since of work taking up most of my time.

That's it really for me, as I said it's mostly been quiet but hopefully the next few days I will be able to get some more game time in and have a nice long update for you.

Check out the Progress page for the updated stats

Gears of War 3 Beta Information

Well its nearly time for the Beta and I'm very excited, been reading the press release for the dates and the awesome unlocks you can get for the main game. So I thought I be nice and post it up here if you have not seen it already.

DATES

Bulletstorm Epic Edition will give you one week head start to everyone else, starts next Monday (18th April) and lasts until Sunday 24th Arpil.

Then the normal beta will begin for those who have codes for pre-ordering in advance, start date is Monday 25th April and lasts until Sunday 15th May.

UNLOCKS

There are several unlocks for the beta (these unlocks will pass over to Gears of War 3) with a wide variety of criteria to unlock them.

Flaming Hammerburst
Complete one match by Sunday 24th April (Exclusive to the Bulletstorm week start)

Flaming Lancer
Complete one match during the week of 25th April

Flaming Sawed-Off Shotgun
Complete one match during the week of 2nd May

Flaming Gnasher Shotgun
Complete one match during the week of 9th May

Beta Tester Medal
Complete one match during the beta, attaches to you profile in Gears of War 3 and can be shown in the multiplayer lobby.

Thrashball Cole
Multiplayer skin unlock, complete 50 matches (any game type) during the beta. There is a catch, you must then complete 10 matches as Thrashball Cole to permanently unlock the character.

Gold-Plated Retro Lancer
This is the hardest/longest unlock, complete 90 matches during the beta (any game type) and then score 100 kills with the Lancer to permanently unlock this skin.



So there you have it, the full list and got to say it does look like a lot to do but I'm hoping that the 60 matches for Thrashball Cole will count towards towards the lancer as well (would make life easier). Anyway so give a shout if you going to be on the beta and will have to organise a night to work on some unlocks together and have a laugh.



Source: Gears of War Official Site

Site Changes

This is just a quick post to say I've not forgot about the blog, in fact as you loaded you should have seen some of the new changes I've been doing to the site. First of course is my Easter banner, hope you like my newb skills.

Second thing is that the time chamber page as been taken down for the time being, need to redesign to make it look a lot better. In it's place you will notice now there is a 2011 gaming progress stats page, in the future when I update I will talk about what I did then just link to that page to see the stats. Saves me keeping copying and pasting, also saves having tons of huge long posts, will be doing also for the Golden Key challenge too so expect to see some changes on that page as well.

Finally I will be doing a patch notes page, bit like MMO's work. On this page it will keep record of the dates and whats major change to the blog, I know it doesn't sound that interesting but I like the idea.

Anyway that's it for this post, catch you all in a bit and hoping you been having a good few weeks of gaming.

So what's game of the year so far

Been meaning to post this for a while now, in fact I was meant to be updating every time I play a new 2011 release but oh well its here now. So what is game of the year for me so far? well check out the lovely list below, oh and a few things. First off the list can change since some of the games on there I'm still currently playing and finally I've only added games I've played which makes sense anyway.

Game of the Year 2011
-!Work in progress!-

1. Ghost Trick (NDS)
2. Bulletstorm (X360)
3. Lego Star Wars 3 Clone Wars (X360)
4. Pokemon Black (NDS)
5. Crysis 2 (X360)
   
6. Total War Shogun 2 (PC)
7. Homefront (X360)
   
8. Gray Matter (X360)

So what's got your game of the year so far? I know this list is going to change for me quite a lot since of the huge line up at the end of the year.

Challenge Update

Going to make this quick since I pretty much covered everything in the last post, few more games completed and bit more gamerscore but that's about it. With the new releases dying down hopefully can start working on the back log of games again and completing some of these challenges.

1. Complete two JRPGS! - Not started
2. Complete one JRPG to the 100% - Not started
3. Complete fourteen old games off the list below - 3/14 (21%)

• Prince of Persia
• Half-Life Orange Box
• Lost Planet
• Naruto The Risa of a Ninja
• Uncharted
• Resistance fall of Man
• Resistance 2
• Killzone 2
• Alpha Protocol
• Dark Void
• Halo 2 (PC)
• Gears of War (PC)
• Batman AA GOTY (PC)
• Tombraider Underworld (PS3)
• Metal Gear Solid 4
• Mobile Suit Gundam (PS3)
• Phoenix Wright Trials and Tribulations
• Apollo Justice
  
• Bioshock
• Bioshock 2
• Alan Wake
• Star Wars Lethal Alliance
• Dynasty Warriors 6
• Borderlands
• C&C Red Alert 2
• Fallout 3
• Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2
• Stranglehold
• Spiderman Web of Shadow
• Too Human
• Rise of the Argonauts
• X-men Wolverine
• Elderscrolls Oblivion
  

4. Complete five of the new games off the list below - 1/5 (20%)

• Castlevania
• Bloodstone
• God of War Collection
  
• Transformers War for Cybertron
• Fallout New Vegas
• Dragon Age Origins
• Majin Forsaken Kingdom
• Spiderman Shattered Dimension
• Red Dead Redemption
• R.U.S.E
• Miles Edgeworth
• Pokemon Soulsilver
• Assassin's Creed Brotherhood
• Enslaved Odyssey to the West
• Starcraft 2

5. Complete at least 50% of the new 2011 releases I buy - 24% currently
6. Hit 140,000 gamerscore on the Xbox 360 - 110,354 (29,646 to go)
7. Hit level 12 on the Playstation 3 profile - Currently Level 10
8. Gain five more platinum trophies on the Playstation 3 - 0/5 (0%)



I've also got another update, If you think back I did say one of my reader as decided to join me in the challenge and so here is an update with how he's doing.

Dragaknight

1. 40 Platinums by the end of the year - 5/40 (13%)
- Dead Space 2
- Killzone 3
- Sly Racoon 2
- Sly Racoon 3
- Assassin's Creed 2
2. 20 Platinums by June - 5/20 (25%)
3. 20 100% Playstation Network Games - 2/20 (10%)
- Sly Mini Games
- Back to the Future: It's about time
4. 10 100% Playstation Network Games by June - 2/10 (20%)

Dragaknight decided to increase his challenge by added PSN games completions to the list, some serious gaming this year. So far he's on track and I'm amazed how fast he's going through this challenge, would not shock me if he's done before the year is over.

Better Late Then Never

Good morning all, I've decided to do the blog posts first since I've got the day off and I'm planning for a huge gaming session with several movies in between. Hope you all had a good week and Friday launch day was a good day for you, buy anything nice? give a shout on the comments would love to hear.

Once again for me I had a huge spending spree and now a proud of owner of a Aqua Blue 3DS, also did pick up Samurai Warriors Chronicles for it as well (was the only game on the line up I liked). Had a mini go on Friday and that was it so need to get some time in today on it, bet you wondering why I've not played on it much. It's called Lego Star Wars the Clone Wars, not been able to stop playing it. Loving every minute of the game and really impressed with how its turned out, will do a review later once I've finished it. I've also got Crysis 2 sitting wrapped on my desk waiting to be played, my friends on twitter are raving on about how good it is so I'm quite looking forward to giving it a bash.

So that was my launch day and the week before was a bit of a waste, I did pick up Homefront last week and traded it in on Monday lol. Completed the story and it was just ok, nothing special which is a shame really but I will go into detail again later in it's review. In fact I just realised I've got a huge list of games I keep saying I'm going to review, think it will be a busy week. Anyway back to the story, so the reason I felt it was waste was because I kept putting off gaming since Lego and Crysis where coming out. Thanks to my job I can pick up games early and I did not want to start something that would be put on the shelf again when these new games come out, of course my luck ran out and was not able to get the games until Thursday night.

But there was a silver lining in the clouds, on Thursday I decided to go through the collection and see if I had any games to finish off with a few levels and one stood out. I remembered I was on the last level of the story for Command & Conquer Red Alert 3 (actually found out I had two levels) so I dusted it off and after a few hours I had another clocked game for my list, so happy days. And that was it for me this week, boring really but now everything is out it dies down now from the looks so hopefully a few weeks/months of catching up is in order.

Time to end this post, again give a shout with your updates and keep checking back for more updates. Before I go here is the up to date stats for my 2011 progress, next post will have the challenge details so stay tuned.

~Iznic

P.S. Sent back Gray Matter, it's not a bad game but it was looking to be a very long game which I really don't have time for right now. Will rerent it later on or buy it when the price drops.

Games Completed In 2011

1. Fable 3 (Xbox 360)
2. Command & Conquer 4 Tiberium Twilight (PC)
3. God of War: Ghost of Sparta (PSP)
4. Ghost Trick (DS)
5. Batman Arkham Asylum (PC)
6. Plants VS Zombies (Xbox 360 Arcade Live)
7. Professor Layton and Pandora's Box (DS)
8. NHL 2K6 (Xbox 360) - 1,000 Gamerscore
9. Mass Effect 2 (Playstation 3)
10. Transformers War for Cybertron (Xbox 360)
11. Resistance Fall of Man (Playstation 3)
12. Call of Duty World at War (Playstation 3)
13. Bulletstorm (Xbox 360)
    
14. Eat Lead: Return of Matt Hazard (Playstation 3)
15. Batman Arkham Asylum Game of the Year Edition (PC)
16. Homefront (Xbox 360)
17. Command & Conquer Red Alert 3 (Xbox 360)
    

Gamerscore Earned This Year
3,240

Trophies Earned This Year
3 Gold
20 Silver
81 Bronze

Games Working On
Lego Star Wars Clone Wars (X360)
Dawn of War 2 Retribution (PC)
Shogun 2 Total War (PC)

2011 Releases Completed
- 4/17 - 24% -

1. Ghost Trick (DS)
2. Mass Effect 2 (PS3)
3. Bulletstorm (X360)
4. Homefront (X360)
   

Tomorrow!

Time does fly I've got to admit that, I cannot believe tomorrow is the 3DS launch day. I will be picking mine up after work tomorrow and will be popping to the stationary store to get my AR cards blown up to A3 (looks so much better). My work is doing a midnight launch but I would struggle to get home if I stayed to pick mine up at that time, besides its great but I would not be up in the early hours of the morning playing.

Still debating about picking up a game, so far only Samurai Warriors Chronicles as my attention. The other games won't be out for a few more months which is a bit disappointing when I think about it but least there is a few mini games on there, the face raiders and AR will keep me occupied for the time being (hopefully).

Of course it's not just the 3DS launch, tomorrow also sees Lego Star Wars 3 and Crysis 2 launching. Two games I've been looking forward too for a long time, so no doubt the next week will see me engrossed in these two games. But the best thing about tomorrow is that it's the last day of the mad Q1 launches, after tomorrow it dies down quite a bit to one game every few weeks. Seriously the developers need to space things out to give us time to catch up lol my back log of games to play is huge, need a year off work.

Anyway that's it for this short post, hope everything is going good for you all. By the way who's getting the 3DS and what games if any? will you be picking up any new releases on the other consoles since there is a few out tomorrow.

Batman Trailer!!!

October cannot come quick enough! love the open world gameplay and the music for the trailer is spot on. Going to be one hell of a story as well from the looks, espically after hearing about the Riddler setting up puzzles that will kill citizens if you fail to complete them (Saw ripoff). Anyway I can see this being game of the year at this rate


Source: IGN Youtube Channel

Golden Key Challenge Update

Decided to put the post into two from now on, reason being is that one of the readers as decided to join the Golden Key Challenge.

Dragaknight as decided to set his goal of 40 Platinum trophies this year, 20 by half the year (need to find out if that's June or 6 months after joining the challenge).

Now that is a challenge and to be honest I did have a slight doubt he could not do it until I got a message the day after saying he got the platinum in Dead Space 2 then week or so later again for Killzone 3. So I'm very impressed right now and got no doubt that he probably could blitz this and then some if he keeps up that pace.



Now for me, well I've slacked the last few weeks so I need to pick up the ball and get back into the game. Espically now that I've realised I've got 12 games for 2011 (13 if I like the rental game Gray Matter) and only completed 3 lol. Only thing to change is I did one more game off the old game list (Batman AA GOTY PC) and increased my gamerscore slightly, nothing to report really.

1. Complete two JRPGS! - Not started
2. Complete one JRPG to the 100% - Not started
3. Complete fourteen old games off the list below - 2/14 (14%)

• Prince of Persia
• Half-Life Orange Box
• Lost Planet
• Naruto The Risa of a Ninja
• Uncharted
• Resistance fall of Man
• Resistance 2
• Killzone 2
• Alpha Protocol
• Dark Void
• Halo 2 (PC)
• Gears of War (PC)
• Batman AA GOTY (PC)
• Tombraider Underworld (PS3)
• Metal Gear Solid 4
• Mobile Suit Gundam (PS3)
• Phoenix Wright Trials and Tribulations
• Apollo Justice
  
• Bioshock
• Bioshock 2
• Alan Wake
• Star Wars Lethal Alliance
• Dynasty Warriors 6
• Borderlands
• C&C Red Alert 2
• Fallout 3
• Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2
• Stranglehold
• Spiderman Web of Shadow
• Too Human
• Rise of the Argonauts
• X-men Wolverine
• Elderscrolls Oblivion
  

4. Complete five of the new games off the list below - 1/5 (20%)

• Castlevania
• Bloodstone
• God of War Collection
  
• Transformers War for Cybertron
• Fallout New Vegas
• Dragon Age Origins
• Majin Forsaken Kingdom
• Spiderman Shattered Dimension
• Red Dead Redemption
• R.U.S.E
• Miles Edgeworth
• Pokemon Soulsilver
• Assassin's Creed Brotherhood
• Enslaved Odyssey to the West
• Starcraft 2

5. Complete at least 50% of the new 2011 releases I buy - 25% currently
6. Hit 140,000 gamerscore on the Xbox 360 - 109,914 (30,086 to go)
7. Hit level 12 on the Playstation 3 profile - Currently Level 10
8. Gain five more platinum trophies on the Playstation 3 - 0/5 (0%)


So that's it for another update, give me a shout with what you been playing would love to hear how things are going for my readers.

Finally an update

Every day this week I've been trying to do this post, either something got in the way or I was being lazy. So here it is finally! basically Sunday just gone I decided to have a lovely day of gaming and see if I could finish something. In the end I tried my rental game Gray Matter (need more time before I give an opinion), played some World of Warcraft and Rift. But most of my the day was dedicated to finishing Batman Arkham Asylum GOTY PC, and after seven to eight hours I finally clocked it.

Least I've got a game clocked for this month, really have slacked compared to January and February where I did six games and eight games. Although there as been a lot of new games that have kept me busy, technically for example I've completed Dawn of War 2 Retribution but I wanted to play through with all six races before saying I've finished it (currently on the third race).

This week I've not really worked on anything since I want Homefront and did not want to start anything when there is a game about to come out that I really want to play. Although I did start Killzone 2 the other week so I really should continue with that but I have not got the motivation to work on it right now. Anyway I'm rambling! going to post below the stats for the year so far then do the Golden Key challenge on another post since we now have a reader doing the challenge! (hooray).

Games Completed In 2011

1. Fable 3 (Xbox 360)
2. Command & Conquer 4 Tiberium Twilight (PC)
3. God of War: Ghost of Sparta (PSP)
4. Ghost Trick (DS)
5. Batman Arkham Asylum (PC)
6. Plants VS Zombies (Xbox 360 Arcade Live)
7. Professor Layton and Pandora's Box (DS)
8. NHL 2K6 (Xbox 360) - 1,000 Gamerscore
9. Mass Effect 2 (Playstation 3)
10. Transformers War for Cybertron (Xbox 360)
11. Resistance Fall of Man (Playstation 3)
12. Call of Duty World at War (Playstation 3)
13. Bulletstorm (Xbox 360)
    
14. Eat Lead: Return of Matt Hazard (Playstation 3)
15. Batman Arkham Asylum Game of the Year Edition (PC)
    

Gamerscore Earned This Year
2,800

Trophies Earned This Year
3 Gold
20 Silver
81 Bronze

Games Working On
Gray Matter (X360)
Killzone 2 (PS3)
Dawn of War 2 Retribution (PC)
Shogun 2 Total War (PC)

2011 Releases Completed
- 3/12 - 25% -

1. Ghost Trick (DS)
2. Mass Effect 2 (PS3)
3. Bulletstorm (X360)

Batman Arkham City Dated!!!

Now this is the type of news I like to come back too on the weekend. Batman Arkham City will be coming to the UK on 21st October and 18th October for America. Seriously the end of this year is going to be amazing, so we got Gears of War in September and now Batman in October then finally well everything else (Uncharted 3, Resistance 3, Mass Effect 3, Elderscrolls 5) in November (hoping some of them be moved about to give more time to play them).

Anyway back to the point, mark your calendars for Batman because it won't be that long away!




Source: good old xbox360achievements.org

I'm still here!

Don't panic I'm still here, I know I've been quiet the last week but work as given me weird shifts which left me with little personal time. So in the way's of gaming I did not get much done so that's why there as been no updates on my challenges and progress this year. I have been playing Dawn of War 2 Retribution and finished the story for the Space Marines and Tyranids, basically the game as six races and you playing the same story for each just with a different ending and slightly different turn of events through the game. Won't be classing I've finished the game until all six races are done, love the game that much!

Anyway so yeah I am around and will be updating again when I can, got this Sunday off so planning to have a huge gaming day to catch up. Thinking trying to get a good chunk finished on Batman AA GOTY for the PC done in the morning, jump over to my rental game (Gray Matter) to start that since I've had it for a week and half. Then on the evening switch over to some MMO action, thinking World of Warcraft and I've got Rift waiting to be unwrapped, Sounds like a good plan to me.

How's everyone Else's week been? any good gaming been happening?

Elder Scrolls V - Skyrim

I've never finished Oblivion, every time I start a new game I usually get distracted by another game. But I've got to say it's amazing, even to this day its one of my favourite fantasy games and still blows me away on how huge the game is. Always go rob the jewellery store on my first night in the game, don't know why I just do.

Anyway back to the point of the post, OMG the trailer looks amazing!! look at the graphics! seriously can you imagine an open world with those graphics. And the locations I cannot wait to visit and of course dragon fighting! dragon fighting! Ok I'm sold now.

Cannot wait to see what they got lined up for this game

End of Month Update

Well it's the last day of February so thought I would do another update on my stats for 2011 and the progress towards my Golden Key challenge. Been quite an increase since last time thanks to my two rental games and I've got to say I'm impressed with myself. Completing 6 games in Janurary and now 8 in February is an achievement for me since as I said before it use to be one a month barely.

Games Completed In 2011

1. Fable 3 (Xbox 360)
2. Command & Conquer 4 Tiberium Twilight (PC)
3. God of War: Ghost of Sparta (PSP)
4. Ghost Trick (DS)
5. Batman Arkham Asylum (PC)
6. Plants VS Zombies (Xbox 360 Arcade Live)
7. Professor Layton and Pandora's Box (DS)
8. NHL 2K6 (Xbox 360) - 1,000 Gamerscore
9. Mass Effect 2 (Playstation 3)
10. Transformers War for Cybertron (Xbox 360)
11. Resistance Fall of Man (Playstation 3)
12. Call of Duty World at War (Playstation 3)
13. Bulletstorm (Xbox 360)
    
14. Eat Lead: Return of Matt Hazard (Playstation 3)

Gamerscore Earned This Year
2,300

Trophies Earned This Year
3 Gold
20 Silver
81 Bronze

Games Working On
Batman Arkham Asylum GOTY Edition (PC)
Pokemon Soulsilver (NDS)


2011 Releases Completed
- 3/7 - 43% -

1. Ghost Trick (DS)
2. Mass Effect 2 (PS3)
3. Bulletstorm (X360)
   

Playstation as the most love the last few weeks but I have got Batman back on the works again so the gamer score should be seeing some love soon. Think the main reason the playstation is getting the most love is the fact I've got ton of exclusives unplayed and sequels for all them are coming out end of the year. Add in the fact the trailers for these sequels look amazing just makes me want to finish them off so I can get them.

With February ending it means we now in the crazy launch peroid which my the 2011 completion rating as started to show, going to take quite a knock by the end of the month that's for sure. Bank account going to take a knock too! lol

Anyway on to the Golden key Challenge progress

1. Complete two JRPGS! - Not started
2. Complete one JRPG to the 100% - Not started
3. Complete fourteen old games off the list below - 1/14 (7%)

• Prince of Persia
• Half-Life Orange Box
• Lost Planet
• Naruto The Risa of a Ninja
• Uncharted
• Resistance fall of Man
• Resistance 2
• Killzone 2
• Alpha Protocol
• Dark Void
• Halo 2 (PC)
• Gears of War (PC)
• Batman AA GOTY (PC)
• Tombraider Underworld (PS3)
• Metal Gear Solid 4
• Mobile Suit Gundam (PS3)
• Phoenix Wright Trials and Tribulations
• Apollo Justice
  
• Bioshock
• Bioshock 2
• Alan Wake
• Star Wars Lethal Alliance
• Dynasty Warriors 6
• Borderlands
• C&C Red Alert 2
• Fallout 3
• Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2
• Stranglehold
• Spiderman Web of Shadow
• Too Human
• Rise of the Argonauts
• X-men Wolverine
• Elderscrolls Oblivion
  

4. Complete five of the new games off the list below - 1/5 (20%)

• Castlevania
• Bloodstone
• God of War Collection
  
• Transformers War for Cybertron
• Fallout New Vegas
• Dragon Age Origins
• Majin Forsaken Kingdom
• Spiderman Shattered Dimension
• Red Dead Redemption
• R.U.S.E
• Miles Edgeworth
• Pokemon Soulsilver
• Assassin's Creed Brotherhood
• Enslaved Odyssey to the West

5. Complete at least 50% of the new 2011 releases I buy - 28.5% currently
6. Hit 140,000 gamerscore on the Xbox 360 - 109,414 (30,586 to go)
7. Hit level 12 on the Playstation 3 profile - Currently Level 10
8. Gain five more platinum trophies on the Playstation 3 - 0/5 (0%)

Pokemon Black & White Wi-Fi Event

Now got one more reason to buy the game (like you need another reason), on the launch day (4th march) until 22nd April you can download the legendary Pokemon Victini a Fire/Physic pokemon (first time these combos have been used according to the report).

I'm already hyped about this game with all the new features so having a legendary on day one to go with them is great news!

So who's getting the game? and what version? me I'm going for Pokemon Black







Source: Nintendo Magazine Website

Just a Week Away (Part Four)

Sorry it took so long to continue but had things to do, people to see and games to play! So anyway where was I, oh yes the final release date of March and the one I'm dreading the most, why? console release of course.

25th March
3DS Handheld Console
I'm really looking forward to it, at first I was bit iffy on the subject since it was 3D without glasses but after having ago on one I'm now very excited to see what they bring out on this baby. I love face raiders the built in game and augmented reality looks amazing, wish I could see an actual game playing on it. But still I'm sold on it! Will be trading my DSI in for it

Samurai Warriors 3D
Think this will be the only game I'm getting for the time being until they release some of the Zelda's, RPG's, Marios etc. I'm a huge fan of the Dynasty Warriors as I said before so having one on the handheld will keep me busy for hours on end

The First Templar
This game does have my interest but I can see it being just a rental game, basically its a hack and slash game based on the origins of the Templar Order (big fan of the Templars, love reading books about them and looking up the history about them).

Lego Stars Wars 3 The Clone Wars
It's a lego game do I need to give a reason? lol these games are always awesome, I know should rent them since I just play to clock the game fully then trade them back in. But they are so fun and it takes ages for Lovefilm to send them to me, cannot wait for Pirates of the Caribbean Lego later on as well.

Crysis 2 Limited Edition
Originally I was not going to get this on the day but all the trailers I keep seeing make me want to buy this game. The multi player trailers look so much fun, I like the idea the suit can be tech'd out to your style of playing. Story campaign looks stunning with the graphics engine and it does have my interest unlike the first one. So I see this being a day one purchase as well


Well there you have it, the next several weeks of huge games and I know April is already filling up with new releases as well. Think the developers need to give us some time off so we can catch up! Until next time have a good one

Fare Well MyGamerCard.net

If you looked at the blog this morning you would notice my gamercard as vanished and in replace a thank you message. Basically MyGamerCard.net as closed the site and it's a sad day indeed. It was amazing site where it kept track of every ones gamercard, there was leader boards for the world, countries and genres of games. You could make your own custom leader boards and it would list everyone who had the 1,000's in each game. It was a great site and in fact one of the reason I started this blog to record my adventures.

It will be missed, so fare well MyGamerCard.net hope everyone who worked on it have a great future and Microsoft take notice, this is how it should be done!

MyGamerCard.net Final Message

Review Transformers War for Cybertron

This as to be the best Transformers game I've played but saying that doesn't mean it did not have some flaws. Combat is simple and fun, transform at a click of a button with no having to hold down anything (thank you!). Graphics are amazing and several times I've had to stop to take in the sights.

You see two sides to the story, Decepticons are first showing the events leading up to the end of the war and the reason why they leave their world. Then you switch over to Autobots to see their side at the end and why everything happened. Sorry the explanation is rubbish but I don't want to do any spoilers.

Overall I did enjoy it but as I said at the start there are several faults I hated, boss fights lack ammo and health which can mean several deaths. One fight I found myself going around the room in vehicle form with thrusters on full to dodge attacks while waiting for health, if I get hit it's over and the painful 10 minute fight starts over again.

It's worse on hard mode since you receive more damage, in fact I turned it off half way through the Autobots campaign. I was doing a protect end mission which nearly broke my controller. Allies do barely any damage and the enemy just ignore them, Ratchet (who you are protecting) is sitting in the middle of the room in full open. If he goes down you have several second window to revive him, of course usually there is six enemy's around him blocking your attempt meaning end game. Maybe an extra checkpoint in the last wave would had helped for the lack of health/ammo.

As I said it needs more ammo and health drop's in the boss fights, and better ally A.I to make this game great. But I would still recommend this game to anyone to give a try, I did enjoy it when I was not doing the boss events. So I give it a 9 out of 10



Transformers War for Cybertron (Xbox 360)
Score: 9 out of 10
Gameplay: Average
Graphics: Good
Story: Good
Length: Decent
Controls: Good

Review: Resistance Fall of Man

I picked this game up on day one and barely played an hour before It was put on my shelf to gather dust for several years. I don't something at the time didn't interest and with plenty of new games coming out it's not shocking I ignored it. So jump back to the present and I've decided to work my way through some of my old games, I thought this would be a good start since I have both one and two on the shelf, also throw in the fact the third one is coming out end of the year thought it was time to begin.

I got say the first levels are slightly dull but after that the game really keeps you entertained, it's a very under rated game. Story isn't the best but at the same time it does keep you interest, I would like to know about how the events happen and finding myself wanting to crack the second one open to play on to see what happens.

Controls I did find a bit confusing at first since they differ to most FPS but after 5-10 minutes you catch on. Graphics and game play mechanics are good, no real problems to talk about to be honest. Overall it's a good shooter and I know it can be picked up for less than £10 so would recommend it to anyone.

In fact I have been thinking about playing it again to unlock all the Intel so I can learn more of the story, although could just look the Intel up on the Internet but where's the challenge in that!
Anyway I give this game full marks

Resistance - Fall of Man (Playstation 3)
Score: 10 out of 10
Gameplay: Good
Graphics Good
Story: Good
Length: Decent
Controls: Good

Update time!

Time for an update, I was meant to be updating the stats every week but I was so close to finishing two games I held off the updating until I was done. Since the start of the year I been trying to do the rule of three (think star wars rule of two), basically one major game and one minor game. The third game is reserved for handheld titles since I do stay over the girlfriends on a weekend meaning no big consoles.

So last week I decided to play some of the games on my golden challenge list, hopefully to clock them in time for the end of week. Reason for that being its the start of the new releases this week (see my week away posts and you will understand), of course this did not go to plan since Lovefilm sent me two game rentals so now I'm overwhelm with games and time as run out. So here is what I picked and what was sent.

Batman AA GOTY on the pc was my first choice, it was on the list of old games and would easily give me 600 gamerpoints to my xbox score, add in the fact I love the game it was a solid choice.

Second game I picked Resistance fall of man, this game as been sitting on my shelf since day one. I played for a like an hour on launch then never bothered with it since, end of this year sees the third in the series being released so I thought it was time to finish it so I could get on with no. 2 (which is also sitting on my shelf). Again it was another game on my challenge list but no trophies, shame but it would be nice to get another old game finished.

Finally the third game is Pokemon Soulsilver, with the release of Black and White soon I had a craving to play some Pokemon, that and the fact I cannot find my Phoenix Wright cartridge did not leave me with much choice.

Then as I said Lovefilm threw two games at me, both on the Playstation 3 Call of Duty World at War and Eat Lead Return of Matt Hazard. Two easy games but both would take their time to finish, but on the plus side both give plenty of trophies.

So I'm in the middle of those right now but I did divert from the plan on Sunday and finished the last few levels on Transformers War for Cybertron. I suddenly remembered I was close to finishing the game and by doing that it was one more game clocked, one more knocked off the challenge list, some more gamer points and a game to trade in towards the new releases. Not a great game to be honest, better than the other transformers game out there but still not good. I will do a review later for it and go into detail why, the good news is that the trade in price is higher then I paid so woot!

Anyway last bit information before I finish the post with the stats, I just finished Resistance fall of man the other day. It is amazing, very underrated game that's for sure. Again like Transformers I will be doing a review later and I'm now looking forward too playing the second one. So onto the good stuff, the stats, first up the 2011 details so far:

Games Completed In 2011

1. Fable 3 (Xbox 360)
2. Command & Conquer 4 Tiberium Twilight (PC)
3. God of War: Ghost of Sparta (PSP)
4. Ghost Trick (DS)
5. Batman Arkham Asylum (PC)
6. Plants VS Zombies (Xbox 360 Arcade Live)
7. Professor Layton and Pandora's Box (DS)
8. NHL 2K6 (Xbox 360) - 1,000 Gamerscore
9. Mass Effect 2 (Playstation 3)
10. Transformers War for Cybertron (Xbox 360)
11. Resistance Fall of Man (Playstation 3)
    

I just realised that I've completed six games in Janurary and five in this month so far, that's really impressive for me since I barely do one a month normally.

Gamerscore Earned This Year
1,970

Trophies Earned This Year
1 Gold
8 Silver
60 Bronze

Playstation as been getting a lot of love lately, glad it's starting to get some use. Just need to play more Wii more then once a year and I will be happy.

Games Working On
Batman Arkham Asylum GOTY Edition (PC)
Eat Lead: Return of Matt Hazard (PS3)
Call of Duty World at War (PS3)
Pokemon Soulsilver (NDS)


2011 Releases Completed
- 2/7 - 28.5% -

1. Ghost Trick (DS)
2 Mass Effect 2 (Playstation 3)

The new releases have come out and now my completion score as dropped, need to pull that back up so I can complete my challenge goal and not have another stack of unfinished games on my shelf.


Finally the Golden Key challenge information

1. Complete two JRPGS! - Not started
2. Complete one JRPG to the 100% - Not started
3. Complete fourteen old games off the list below - 1/14 (7%)

• Prince of Persia
• Half-Life Orange Box
• Lost Planet
• Naruto The Risa of a Ninja
• Uncharted
• Resistance fall of Man
• Resistance 2
• Killzone 2
• Alpha Protocol
• Dark Void
• Halo 2 (PC)
• Gears of War (PC)
• Batman AA GOTY (PC)
• Tombraider Underworld (PS3)
• Metal Gear Solid 4
• Mobile Suit Gundam (PS3)
• Phoenix Wright Trials and Tribulations
• Apollo Justice
  
• Bioshock
• Bioshock 2
• Alan Wake
• Star Wars Lethal Alliance
• Dynasty Warriors 6
• Borderlands
• C&C Red Alert 2
• Fallout 3
• Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2
• Stranglehold
• Spiderman Web of Shadow
• Too Human
• Rise of the Argonauts
• X-men Wolverine
• Elderscrolls Oblivion
  

4. Complete five of the new games off the list below - 1/5 (20%)

• Castlevania
• Bloodstone
• God of War Collection
  
• Transformers War for Cybertron
• Fallout New Vegas
• Dragon Age Origins
• Majin Forsaken Kingdom
• Spiderman Shattered Dimension
• Red Dead Redemption
• R.U.S.E
• Miles Edgeworth
• Pokemon Soulsilver
  

5. Complete at least 50% of the new 2011 releases I buy - 28.5% currently
6. Hit 140,000 gamerscore on the Xbox 360 - 109,084 (30,916 to go)
7. Hit level 12 on the Playstation 3 profile - Currently Level 9
8. Gain five more platinum trophies on the Playstation 3 - 0/5 (0%)

Gears of War 3 dated

I need to book a week off, Gears of War 3 is coming out world wide on the 20th September 2011. It's a good time to release it, christmas already as a long list of triple A titles so fitting it in after the summer holiday and just before the october rush is a good idea. Anyway I'm off to go mark my calendar's and book time off lol

Cannot wait for this game!




Source: Xbox360achievements.org

Battlefield 3 Trailer

Just look how amazing the graphics are !!!!

Pokemon Wi-fi Event Final Part

Well it's the last week of the shiny Johto legendary dogs downloads, this week you can now get Suicune. The last day is this Sunday (27th February) so make sure to download while you can. You can transfer the Pokemon over to the new versions Black and White to help unlock Zoroark and the download can be done on any of the versions below:

• Platinum
• Pearl
• Diamond
• Soulsilver
• Heartgold

This download event only applies to Europe, America and Australia

Just a Week Away (Part Three)

Blimey there is a lot of games I want, think my bank manager is panicking lol. So done the first two weeks and now hitting the eye of the storm, the quiet period.

11th March
Dragon Age 2
Since I've not completed or really put the time into the first one, the sequel was going to wait for a price drop. Of course then they announced the Sig Edition, basically loads of extra weapons, armour and an entire dlc content all for the same price as the normal edition. Now that's a deal! so of course I've now got that on order, shame the special edition can no longer be ordered. If you missed out the dlc content is meant to come out a month later, you just won't get it for free sorry.

15th March
Shogun 2 Total War
Yes a Tuesday release and one of my favourite games, I've never finished the story campaigns on any of the Total War games I just love playing skirmishes. So what's making me look forward to this version? samurai are back! and the A.I looks amazing in the game play trailers. I can tell that I'm going to be wasting hours on small battles, cannot wait!. Also I've got the GAME special edition on order that also supplies you with some exclusive clan dlc and a full chess set made out of bamboo and hand painted. Score!

18th March
God Eater
It's not often I find a game I want on the PSP, God Eater is basically anime style monster hunter game. Watch the trailer, it looks amazing! your weapon can transform into melee, range and predator (some kind of form that eats the monsters/gods). Looks action packed and the story looks pretty solid with you chasing after some kind of boss god that is causing destruction, wasn't paying attention since I was glued to watching the fights lol. Hopefully got another gem for the PSP.

Homefront
Another game I was not going to get straight away, in fact it was going to be a rental. But the more I see about it the more I want to play it. Basically North Korea as become stronger and taken over most of Asia to become a super state, then in the name of peace they launch a satellite that in fact is a weapon that takes out all electronic devices in America. This begins the invasion and the story folds around you a resistance fighter, it looks good and I hear you can choose to be either the Korean forces or American in the story. The game play trailers look good and the multi player seems to be ok as well. Maybe I will pick it up, will see closer to the date.


Well that's it for another post, the next one contains the 25th March a huge launch day! So see you soon

Just a Week Away (Part Two)

Morning all, so we continue with the long list of games that are being launched over the next few weeks. Plenty to keep everyone busy and plenty to kill my completion percentage challenge lol, anyway so this time we jumping one week forward from the last post. It was meant to be a quite week with only one game but already its shaping up to be another big day.

4th March
Rift
Brand new fantasy MMO that peaked my interest a few months back after watching a trailer. Basically at any point a Rift portal can open and a invasion army can come through, if left open for too long they start to take over the area. So you can log off safely in a village to come back later to find a war zone if the rifts are not kept under check, not only that but there are several factions that come through Rifts. So if two opposite rifts open the invasion armies will fight each other, it sounds awesome and so far I'm liking the beta. Also the class trees are huge, so many choices that I don't know where to start. I've ordered the collectors edition with all the lovely goodies, should be fun to play hopefully.

Hyperdimension Neptunia
Anime style RPG coming out on the Playstation 3, type of games I love but never finish! Can't really explain the game I would just say watch the trailer, as I said the style of game play and graphics appeal to me. I was going to buy this later on since I was not going to play it straight away but just found out can get a free hardcover artwork book for pre-ordering. Companies need to stop trying to tempt me!

Pokemon White and Black
Need I say more? lol I want the Black Version, if you read through my past posts you will see a post dedicated to this game and what makes its different. But a quick summary why I'm looking forward to it, new battle system and seasons are the two big things for me. oh and of course extra 150 new Pokemon (I wonder if they running out of ideas yet). This will be a day one purchase!

Warriors: Legend of Troy
Basically a Greek Dynasty Warriors game, I'm a huge fan of Dynasty Warriors and Samurai Warriors so this is right up my street. Basically over the top characters that take on huge armies, can get a bit repetitive but I find it a lot of fun Not sure if I will get it on day one though since there is so much coming out

Dawn of War 2 Retribution
Cannot wait!!! I love the dawn of war series, its been one of my favourite all time RTS games. This time its bringing back several classics modes and features, first upplanet type campaigns are back. This is where you take over sectors and aim to control the entire planet while fighting multiple factions. Also thrown in again is playing as different factions, its going to be awesome! Orks, Chaos Space Marines, Imperial Guard (new race), Space Marines and Tyranids! Think this game could take up most of my time for the next few weeks and be on the list for game of the year


So that's it for the 4th, doesn't like many but when you take in the fact what came out the week before you can see why it becomes so costly. Next post will contain the next few weeks since only a few games are coming out.

Edit: Forgot to add Dawn of War 2 Retribution

Just a Week Away (Part One)

Good morning all, how is everyone?

It's come to me today that in a week's time begins the quarter one huge line up, starting from 25th until pretty much April there is at least one/two games out every week! It's going to be very expensive and push my challenge to the test since I'm trying to keep at least 50% completion rate on new releases this year. Anyway I thought I would do a post on what's got my interest and why.


25th February
Killzone 3
After playing this at the beta rooms I've been looking forward to it, of course I will only be able to play the multi player for the time being since I need to finish the second one first. Technically I should wait for this game since I'm not getting it straight away but I'm picking up the collectors edition with all the lovely first day perks and dlc content included.

Bulletstorm
This game is going to rock, over the top chaos is the words I would use to describe it. Love the kill skills involved, I can see replaying this game a lot to try and beat old scores, and of course to clock every skill in the game. Going to be getting the Epic Edition so I have access to the Gears 3 beta, that's one awesome bonus!

Grey Matter
Mystery solving game, for some reason this game as got my attention and I'm not sure why. Of course with all the new releases only a select few will be picked up on day one and this game is being added to the rental since I found out its a point and click, but as I said for some reason I want to play this game.

Two Worlds 2
Not getting this game on launch, originally I was but realising I still need to finish the first one I see no reason to buy this yet. Just wait for a price drop/deal of the week in a few months then probably pick it up

Pirates of the Caribbean Armada of the Damned
Ok I want this game on launch but when I looked up the trailer the other week there was a news post saying it was cancelled back in October. So right now I don't know what's going on, I'm assuming its an error on GAME's part with it still being on the release list. Secretly I'm hoping it does come out but I know the chances are too slim.

Tactics Ogre
Another RPG for the PSP, I keep looking at this game and I'm on the fence about it. It's getting some awesome reviews and scores but I doubt I would play it for a while. But just checked it again and it's now coming with a load of goodies included, vouchers, soundtracks etc. Stop tempting me!

Knights Contract
Saw a trailer a few months back and looked ok, basically a fantasy based game around a knight and witch. Story along the lines of the knight was cursed with immortally thanks to a witch he killed (some kind of witch bounty hunter), now a darkness as appeared and the witch is brought back to life. So now the witch and knight have to work together to combat the darkness. So cliche but the trailer did look good, again though I'm not sure if this would be a day one purchase, will have to see.



So that's the first friday, yes its a lot lol. Basically the 25th feb and march are the two worse days in this quarter for too many releases, next week is going to be costly but its a good thing I did some trade-ins and its pay day. Anyway going to split the post into multiple ones to cover everything, so this is the end of part one.

Deus Ex Human Revolution

I'm very excited to play this game, it's in my top five most anticipated games for this year. It look's beautiful and looks to have a gripping story, I can see losing a good few months of my life to this game. But don't take my word for it, check out the trailers below that got me wanting this game.

My favourite first trailer I watched





Story Teaser



Gameplay





Source: Deus Ex Human Revolution Youtube Channel

My Challenge

Just been thinking about what challenge to set myself for the Golden Key 2011. In the end there are at least half dozen of different things I would like to do which would not last the year by them selves, so I've decided my challenge will be built on several goals.

Of course I have done several year long goals in the past and never hit them due to many factors, hopefully this year I can keep on track/keep the motivation up. My goals are mostly set on past games that have been gathering dust on the shelf, if you been read the past posts at the start of the year you know full well I've got half dozen piles to get through. The constant "I will get around to them" keeps annoying me so I'm using this challenge as a excuse to play them. So without further stalling here are my goals for the ultimate gamers challenge!


1. Complete two JRPGS!

Every year I say I will finally complete one and for the past two/three years I've not even done one yet! So instead of trying to complete one I'm going for two. Call me insane but this is a worthy challenge in it's self.

2. Complete one JRPG to the 100%

I'm going to regret setting myself this, the 100% means all achievements or trophies

3. Complete fourteen old games off the list below

• Prince of Persia
• Half-Life Orange Box
• Lost Planet
• Naruto The Risa of a Ninja
• Uncharted
• Resistance fall of Man
• Resistance 2
• Killzone 2
• Alpha Protocol
• Dark Void
• Halo 2 (PC)
• Gears of War (PC)
• Batman AA GOTY (PC)
• Tombraider Underworld (PS3)
• Metal Gear Solid 4
• Mobile Suit Gundam (PS3)
• Phoenix Wright Trials and Tribulations
• Apollo Justice
  
• Bioshock
• Bioshock 2
• Alan Wake
• Star Wars Lethal Alliance
• Dynasty Warriors 6
• Borderlands
• C&C Red Alert 2
• Fallout 3
• Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2
• Stranglehold
• Spiderman Web of Shadow
• Too Human
• Rise of the Argonauts
• X-men Wolverine
• Elderscrolls Oblivion
  

4. Complete five of the new games off the list below

• Castlevania
• Bloodstone
• God of War Collection
  
• Transformers War for Cybertron
• Fallout New Vegas
• Dragon Age Origins
• Majin Forsaken Kingdom
• Spiderman Shattered Dimension
• Red Dead Redemption
• R.U.S.E
• Miles Edgeworth
• Pokemon Soulsilver
  

5. Complete at least 50% of the new 2011 releases I buy

If you been reading my stats that I post you know I'm already been keeping track of this and trying to stay on top of it

6. Hit 140,000 gamerscore on the Xbox 360
7. Hit level 12 on the Playstation 3 profile
8. Gain five more platinum trophies on the Playstation 3

Just throwing some stat boosting challenges in there


So that's it, 8 goals for my Golden Key Challenge. Each one a hard challenge in its self and I'm sure I'm going to regret setting them later on. Wish me luck! and hope to see your challenges soon

Crysis 2 Story Trailer

It speaks for it self, I'm really looking forward too this now




source: EA Youtube Channel

Movie Games

When I hear there is a game being released based on the movie I always cringe, 99.9% of the time they turn out to be aweful. This year there are several already appearing on the coming soon list to tie in with the new movies, so far I know of:

• Green Lantern
• Captain America
• Thor

I'm hoping for some good games out of these since I'm loving all the super hero movies that have been released but I did have some silver lining in the clouds today. Transformers Dark of the Moon was announced, the story is mean't to set the stage for the third film in the series. With the announcement came some nice pictures and a small teaser trailer. Graphics look good, hopefully game mechanics/controls are good as well. Story should be brilliant since the game is setting the stage for the film but there is always the curse of the movie spin off games! That and the fact I was too keen on the past Transformers games, although I did enjoy War for Cybertron so maybe.

Is anyone actually looking forward to any of these games? or are you worried they just be another bad game? I'm interested to see your opinions



Pop over to xbox360achievements.org who have all the story along with the trailer

Pokemon Wi-fi Event Part Two

The second event as started and will be running until this Sunday (20th February), this time you can get Entei. You can download on either of the following versions. Soulsilver, Heartgold, Platnium, Pearl or Diamond. Also effects the following regions, Europe, America and Australia

One thing I did forget to mention last week is that all three will be in shiny form. Just to make it that much more awesome!




Source: Thanks to serebii.net