Harvest Moon: Magical Melody, Wii - £7.99 delivered
Prince of Persia, Xbox 360 - £16.10
Prince of Persia, Xbox 360 - £16.10 delivered
Apply code "SENDIT10" for 10% off.
S8ek AV8R - Review
S8ek AV8R - £39.99 delivered
Review by LewieP
The S8ek AV8R is a pretty good flightstick.
It is billed as being designed for both 360 and PC. The buttons are all the buttons from a 360 pad, but it has a standard USB connector, so you can just plug it str8 into your PC, and it will work gr8. It will require a bit of fiddling to get the controls just right, even in the game that it is billed as being designed for (HAWX).
It costs around £40, and it doesn't quite feel like there is £40 worth of material in the stick. It is a little lightw8 (OK, I will stop now, I think I made my point), and a little plasticy. The click of the trigger button (mapped to A) is just the right type of feedback you want from a firing button.
The cover for the X button is a pretty cool touch too. There is a cover to protect you from accidentally pressing the X button, like in real military aircraft. In practice I left it open, but depending on how much you role play your games, it is a good option to have.
The throttle lever is solid, it is mapped to the right trigger, it gives you really precise control over throttle, and makes coming out of stalls in HAWX not only easier, but a lot more fun too.
The stick is a real strong point of the Aviator. It has a solid action, and is also a twiststick, giving 15 degrees of rudder control by twisting the stick.
In addition to the main stick, there is two additional sticks, one on top, and one silly little "nub" on the base. Good for text entry on the 360.
Oddly enough there is a headphone port. I can't actually imagine what it would be used for, since a 360 headset won't work with it, and last time I checked, most PCs already have a headphone port. It is also a real shame to loose out on rumble.
All in all, I prefer playing flight sims with this stick over a standard 360 controller, so in that regard it is a success. It feels a little cheap, and the name is stupid, but as an all in one Console/PC flightstick, it does the job.
S8ek AV8R - £39.99 delivered
Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri: Complete Edition, PC - £5.21
Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri: Complete Edition, PC - £4.99 delivered (of 3 for £10)
This is one of those rare games where I ask you to just trust me, you should get this game. It is a little old now, but still plays fantastically.
It is a TBS with similar mechanics to Civilization, but set in a rich Sci-Fi setting. Pretty unique, and until the recent reprint, commanded pretty high prices on eBay for the complete edition.
Animal Crossing: Let's Go To The City, Wii - £26.09
Animal Crossing: Let's Go To The City, Wii - £26.09 delivered
Crysis: Maximum Edition, PC - £24.35
Crysis: Maximum Edition, PC - £24.35 delivered
Contains Crysis, Crysis: Warhead, and Crysis Wars (multiplayer).
Warhead review here.
Wheelman, Xbox 360 - £26.09
Wheelman, Xbox 360 - £26.09 delivered
The demo was fairly inoffensive. Grand Theft Diesel.
Mirror's Edge, PC - £23.48
Mirror's Edge, PC - £23.48 delivered
Seemingly hasn't shot down in price like the console versions did. It is a really fantastic game.
Resident Evil 5, PC - £18.99
Resident Evil 5, PC - £18.99 delivered
Your guess as to when it will come out, and whether it will be any good is as good as mine.
50 Cent: Blood on the Sand, Xbox 360 - Review
50 Cent: Blood on the Sand - PS3: £25, Xbox 360: £26.75
Review by Will Templeton
This is a 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand review, and so you're probably expecting to hear all about how, oh, it's quite a good game actually. That it's sort of a mix of Gears of War and The Club, and it's very aware of its audience and what it is, and doesn't take itself too seriously.
All of those things hold weight.
But that summary also points out everything that's wrong with Blood on the Sand. It's derivative of other experiences. Yes, it's surprising when you boot it up that it's quite solid, playable, and quite a departure from the abhorrent Bulletproof. But the same thing could be said about the Fantastic Four movie. "Oh, this isn't as bad as I thought it was going to be." And you enjoy it for what it is, but that doesn't make it good. It makes it competent.
At its worst, that's Blood on the Sand. Competent. Swordfish have taken the solid cover shooter mechanics that Unreal Engine 3 provides and built a solid game, that while better than everyone expected, is still nowhere near other similar experiences.
If you are expecting something close to either Gears of War or The Club, you'll probably be disappointed. The cover mechanics of Gears are present, but less elegant. You'll often find yourself popping out of cover the wrong way, or being hit when you feel you should be covered. You'll also miss the ease of Gears, as in BotS you're tethered to specific portions of a piece of cover and will find yourself ineffectively rolling at a wall just a little too often.
While The Club is a close comparison to the scoring system that many have drawn, it's really a little misleading. At a base level, you get points for kills, which is multiplied by more kills in quick succession. As you progress closer to five-in-a-row the timer speed up dramatically, necessitating the fifth kill to be almost instantaneous. However, that's where the similarities end. Where Blood on the Sand really comes into its own, though, is the Scenario system.
Without the Scenario system, Blood on the Sand would be just another shooter. A boring 50 Cent game. Scenarios, however, add pressure. At set moments in the game a pop-up will appear: take out two grenadiers in eight seconds. Collect $30,000 in one minute. Kill all the enemies that have just arrived in a van within twenty seconds. The game's full of these, and if you do them, you get points. You also get an in-game reward, such as more grenades, or explosive and incendiary rounds for your pistol. If you're good enough, you could go through the entire game only completing scenarios and using these bullets. And the payoff from using them is so rewarding, you'll want to go for them. And so, you'll take risks.
Without these risks, the underlying game shows some serious holes. There's no run option, the cover mechanic occasionally has to be fought to work properly, and the AI leaves a lot to be desired. With them, though, the game just works. Each of them is a mini crescendo event that gives you just enough reward to want more without making the game too easy. It's an extremely-well balanced mechanic.
The irritating thing, though, is that as an enthusiast, this mechanic only worked on the hardest difficulty. Even without being the most skilled gamer, I had to step it up to get any sort of challenge, as it's obvious that Blood on the Sand is very aware of that portion of its audience that just want to pick it up and kill people over and over.
And yes, that's what this game excels at - giving you an opportunity to cap some fools without being super serious about it. But there's a deeper level in there that can be really rewarding if you're looking for it.
Just don't look too hard.
50 Cent: Blood on the Sand - PS3: £25, Xbox 360: £26.75
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