Outrun 2006: Coast 2 Coast, Xbox - £2.49 delivered
This is 360 compatible
Outrun 2006: Coast 2 Coast, Xbox - £2.49
Urban Chaos: Riot Response, Xbox - £2.49
Urban Chaos: Riot Response, Xbox - £2.49 delivered
This is not 360 compatible.
Metal Arms: Glitch in the System, PS2 - £2.49
Metal Arms: Glitch in the System, PS2 - £2.49 delivered
Spore, PC/MAC - Review
Spore, PC/MAC - £26.98 delivered
Review by LewieP
Spore is life, the universe and everything, packaged up in a charming, albeit sometimes infuriating, user friendly click-a-thon. It is one of the most important PC games released in a long time, and it wouldn't surprise me if in 10 years time we are feeling it's impact. That said, it is far from perfect.
The tech Will Wright and his team have put together is pretty astounding. The game design geek in my head is excited at the prospects of what is in store for this kind of procedural user generated content stuff, and the creature creator is both robust and simple.
The community integration is superb, and should be the model for how to nurture a creative community around a game. Maxis have made it incredibly easy to share, and enjoy creations of your friends directly in the game. The Sporepedia, a database of all the Spore creations, if just fantastic, and the Sporecasts, targeted discrete packets of content, are a brilliant way of sifting through the huge body of content to find what you want.
The scale and scope are fantastic. You really do start off on a cellular level, and it scopes all the way up to intergalactic colonisation. You genuinely feel like the other species you encounter are living and breathing in their environment. The level and creature design feels natural because it is natural. There is something I can't quite put my finger on about Spore where it has nailed the feeling of exploration.
Each stage has it's own shortcomings though, in particular, the space stage is a bit disappointing. Somehow it manages to reduce adventuring over huge galaxies filled with unique and excited species and civilisations to playing intergalactic janitor, having to keep a watchful eye on your home planet is no fun when you want to be off adventuring. There is still a lot of fun to be had, but I wish some of the micromanagement wasn't so fiddly.
This is a really easy criticism to make, but that doesn't make it any less valid - No doubt EA have been looking at the astronomical sales of the entirety of The Sims franchise, and want to target a similar market segment with Spore. There have been a bunch of design concessions made to make Spore more accessible. For the most part these are harmless, but every now and again something pops up that just irks me.
There are also obvious gaps which future expansion packs are going to fill. The flora editor has been held back for an expansion pack, and I can see scope for expansion upon combat, the creature stage, and definitely the whole 'ecosystem' aspect of the Space stage.
I couldn't review Spore without mentioning the DRM. Quite simply, I would not have bought Spore with the current DRM it has. The SecuROM DRM requires you to connect to the internet to install the game, and you will only ever be allowed to install it 3 times without having to contact EA, where on a case-by-case basis they will decide if you are allowed to install it again. This is in my opinion unacceptable, I have reinstalled Halflife, Deus Ex, Alpha Centauri, upwards of twenty times, and it's not unreasonable to want to install, uninstall and reinstall a game as many times as you want if you have paid for it.
Whilst I am at it. Please EA, continue to put your games on Steam. All your games, not just Crysis. I got it from the EA Store, where it costs £40, £13 more than a physical copy. You also only have access to the download for 6 months, after then, unless you have backed up the installer (or paid the £3 for "Extended Download Service" to let you download it for up to 2 years), you are out of luck.
The launch was plagued by technical issues too. Authentication servers went down, Spore.com went down, and my EA store download corrupted.
Honestly, it is a fantastic game, and unlike anything before it, and it should be played by everyone. But the whole experience is surrounded by some easily avoidable nuisances.
Spore, PC/MAC - £26.98 delivered
Xbox 360 Price Drop now official
As reported previously, the Xbox 360 will be getting a price drop.
It is, however, not just a retailer specific promotion, but an official Microsoft pricedrop, coming into effect on the 19th of September.
The new official prices for the Xbox 360 are as follows -
£129.99 for the Arcade
£169.99 for the Premium (60gb)
£229.99 for the Elite
Neil Thompson, senior regional director of Microsoft UK had this to say -
"Xbox 360 has now sold over 20 million consoles worldwide and due to its unprecedented success, we are now able to pass on the rewards of that success to the consumer with a new retail pricing from £129.99.
With more games, more entertainment with Xbox Live and now even more value, we are looking forward to welcoming more customers into the leading next generation console, Xbox 360."
I'll be keeping an eye out for clearance prices on old 20gb stock, if anyone has any stock left that is.
As it is though, that's a cracking price drop, to be honest I thought the 360 was already pretty reasonably priced, but the 19th is going to be the perfect time to pick up a 360.
The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass, DS - £7.99
The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass, DS - £7.99 collect in store
Not a great deal of stock, but there is definitely some about.
Mercenaries 2: World In Flames, Xbox 360 - £32.99
Mercenaries 2: World In Flames, Xbox 360 - £32.99 delivered
Dragon Quest: The Chapters of the Chosen, DS - £17.49
Dragon Quest: The Chapters of the Chosen, DS - £17.49 delivered
Bakushow, DS - Review
Bakushow, DS - £24.99 delivered
Review by LewieP
I first booted up Bakushow, and found to great surprise that there is no single player mode. That's fine though, I'm not going to discriminate against a game for being multiplayer only. I will say this though, the packaging should certainly be more explicit in telling you that if you only have access to one DS it is basically just a title screen.
Not that there is much else here even if you do have multiple players.
There is absolutely nothing to Bakushow that could not be done, in many ways better, with Pictochat, or hell, even a pencil and paper. There is essentially no game here whatsoever.
The game, if you can call it that, is that players take turns to write or draw something on the DS, then all players must answer the 'challenge' within a set time period. Then players vote for who answered it best.
Then you do it again.
And again.
That's it. There are no built in challenges, there are no minigames, there is nothing.
If you are playing with just two people, then the voting system is broken, because each player just votes for themselves continually. Resulting in player 1 winning by virtue of being player 1.
I kept searching for an extra mode or something, and found nothing. I genuinely thought I had somehow missed the actual game, but alas, I had just played it all already and not realised.
I am utterly shocked that anyone had the disrespect for their players to put this on a cartridge and charge Twenty Five Pounds for it.
The only thing Bakushow succeeds in is making you wish Nintendo had of put a few more features in Pictochat.
According to the guys who made it - "If you think this game is boring, you are boring." That is not how things work. They do not have the right to say this. I think Bakushow is boring because it is a bad game, no other reason. Since when have developers been able to put out disclaimers regarding your opinion?
Do not buy Bakushow, please. In fact, if you see anyone in GAME (since that's the only retailer that will dare to sell it) pick it up off the shelf, I implore you to tell them not to buy it. Bakushow is contentless shovelware, there is no game there whatsoever.
The SavyGamer Podcast, Episode 4
In this episode we discuss why we've skipped a fortnight, and I get very excited and interrupt Lewie a lot. VGChartz are mainly responsible.
Show notes (Highlight to view):
00:00 Opening
00:36 Welcome
00:45 The Lost Episode
03:12 Contests! [Link]
05:00 I talk about a shame tarp, here. That's a weird reference. [Link]
07:19 Are Harmonix a little insensitive?
08:31 New Rock Band song - Stephen Colbert
[Note: This song is now available on PSN but was not at the time of recording]
11:32 Left 4 Dead demo announced by Gabe Newell - but when?
14:45 Is the New Xbox Experience going to be relaunching the console?
15:45 No. No it isn't. We spend a bit too much time debating why it isn't.
21:32 But when is it coming out?
22:32 Resistance 2 beta [Link]
25:31 Anti-Spore. After recording, it turns out that this was a massive Rick Roll. [Link]
26:23 Fracture demo coming soon
28:50 So there was a Half-Life Episode 4? [Link]
34:18 Tons of bargains this week!
Bargains of the week:
Assassin's Creed, 360 - £7.99
The Darkness, 360 - £4.99
Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood, DS - £17.93
41:50 Playing Rock Band with my family
43:34 Lewie's mummy on Defence Grid: The Awakening
45:32 Pirates vs. Ninjas Dodgeball
47:25 Castle Crashers, poo, and a little clan discussion
50:39 We should have had more 2D games
51:49 BAKUSHOW - the game that would be very boring to play with us
55:53 Contest details
58:55 Something happened here with the audio, not sure what. I should say "We'd done the barrel rolls, but we needed to wait for him to do one degree of flatspin, but he thought we still had to do barrel rolls."
59:46 Rainslick contest
1:01:05 Close
1:01:15 Minute of Silence
Link dump:
SavyGamer Contests
Vault 77: One Man, and a Crate of Puppets
GamerDNA (my page on 360voice)
Battlefield Heroes
SOCOM Confrontation
SupCom
Resistance 2 beta
Anti-Spore (sorry for the above - couldn't resist! :P)
Half-Life Episode 4 Thread
Total Runtime: 1:02:15
Total Filesize: 59MB
Contest info:
For the SOCOM beta, send an email to willeth -at- gmail -dot- com with the subject SOCOM CONTEST and your story.
For the swag, send an email to lewiep -at- savygamer -dot- co -dot- uk with the subject SWAG CONTEST and your justification.
For the Precipice special edition, send an email to willeth -at- gmail -dot- com with the subject PRECIPICE CONTEST and your comic as an attachment.
Got feedback on the show? Post a comment, or email us:
LewieP - lewiep@savygamer.co.uk
Will - willeth@gmail.com
CoD 4 Variety Map Pack, 360 - 400MSP
The Variety Map Pack for Call of Duty 4 is half price until Monday at 8am GMT. These are the maps that are included in the Game of the Year (goatee) edition.
It's been knocked down from 800 points (~£5.32) to 400 points (~£2.66).
All Sterling values in this post are compared to Tesco.com points pricing. If you get your points elsewhere then the equivalent cost will be higher. No word yet on whether this discount is also available on PSN.
Xbox 360 Price Drop
Looks like Woolies is going to be dropping the price of their Xbox 360 consoles.
£129.99 for the Arcade
£169.99 for the Premium (60gb)
£229.99 for the Elite
Here's a photo, supposedly from a Woolies employee. This would be in line with their recent price drops, if you remember they dropped the Wii to £159.99.
Now, I can't guarantee this will work, but if you want to try and trick the system and reserve yourself a console, so you can be sure to have one, this might help.
If you order one over the phone (0844 811 7111) they will hold it for you, so you can just turn up and pay and collect it on a set day. They will hold onto items for some time (if I remember correctly, a week), so if you order one now, they will give you a date for when you can collect it. Then, you can wait for the price drop, and just turn up and ask for it at the lower price when the price drop does happen. If the price drop doesn't happen any time soon (since I can't say when this will happen), no matter, you can just cancel the order, and not have to pay a penny.
Thanks to Engadget for the heads up. Stay tuned for SavyGamer for more on this as it becomes available.
Multiwinia + Darwinia, PC - £13.28
If you pre-purchase Multiwinia on steam, you get the fantastic Darwinia for free. Comes to £13.28 by my maths.
If you haven't already got/played Darwinia, I highly recommend it. It's a wonderful, unique, beautiful game. Very indie, but at the same time, very polished, and it has a great sense of humour (be sure to download the PDF of the manual too).
Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker, DS - £9.43
Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker, DS - £9.43 delivered
Apply code "reward5" for 5% off
Gears of War 2, Xbox 360 - £28.43
Gears of War 2, Xbox 360 - £28.43 delivered
Apply code "reward5" for 5% off
Thanks to John for the tip.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Clear Sky, PC - Review
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Clear Sky, PC - £15.89 delivered
Apply code "reward5" for 5% off
Review by Rook
Making your way through the driving rain, the remnants of the abandoned town of Limansk stretches out ahead. Somewhere over the other side is the reactor core, the heart of the zone. Shuttered windows, and nailed up doors leave only the streets which look oh so very open. With the warning of an ambush ahead fresh in mind I find myself pressing up against the few ruined cars that have long since been abandoned. A cursory sweep with binoculars doesn't give anything away, but a moment later lightning baths the fronts of the buildings and in a window, for a brief second, a black silhouette is outlined in cold white light. Raising the scope of the silenced rifle, the figure remains a shadow in a patch of gloom, but it's enough. Raising the sights just a little to factor in the bullet drop, the trigger is pulled and the inevitable happens: "This is XRay Engine crash reporting client. To help the development process, please Submit Bug or save report and email it manually".
And it's gone. All the atmosphere, all the tension is converted into petty annoyance. I should be enjoying this game, but it feels as though someone is having fun with a bizarre metagame. Instead of probing for anomalies, your hunting for crash bugs. Which scripted event will trigger it next? The game's story (very much a rehash of the first game) is quickly replaced by trips to the forums, the discovery of an [Unofficial Fix] thread a greater prize than any artefact. Minor bugs abound, the Directx10 graphics corrupt in the rain, the AI occasionally decides not to initialise on loading, the quick save feature doesn't work etc. But these are simply part and parcel of a game, the slight quirks are almost more annoying. It's not that the AI can throw grenades further than Olympians could dream, it's not that they do this with pinpoint accuracy, without being able to see . It's that they do all this without any possible knowledge of where you are.
Getting away from all that, Clear Sky manages to deliver on so much of what was promised with the original Stalker, it's a living breathing world. The fire fights remain amongst the best that any game offers, brutal and unrelenting. Standing out in the open is a sure fire way of needing to hit the reload key, but hunker down in cover and soon you'll be pinned down and surrounded. The faction wars add in friendly squads, and the storyline is often best left forgotten as you join in their patrols. Small skirmishes soon give way to fully fledged battles for territory. Grenades, tracers and screams fill the air, and then as quickly as it starts it dies out again, and the scavenging can begin. The scripted events can be more hit and miss, having played through 8/10ths of the game without limits, it feels odd to be pinned down by a single sniper that can't be killed despite repeated headshots. At other times it's pitch perfect. Making your way through the distorted swirls of radiation pockets and gravity anomalies you swear you can almost see something move ahead. It's not long before the nervous friendly AI notice the same thing and then open fire predator style. By the time you make it to your destination, the rest of the squad lie torn apart, dotted along the route.
As a game it manages to be both beautiful and ugly at the same time. Much like the real 'zone', it's a world you'd hate to visit, but could stare endlessly at pictures of long since forgotten play parks, the abandoned flats and houses slowly being reclaimed by nature, or just the ever changing (and rarely clear) sky. Catch a zone at the wrong time of day then a simple zombie duck hunt turns into another gaming session abandoned until daylight returns both in the real world and in the game world. The voice acting, whilst not brilliant is amiable enough, the minimalist sound track adding just enough to keep things going with the real stars being the guttural sounds, the footsteps, the creaking, or the moans that leave you feeling not quite as alone as you'd like to be.
In the end, I have the feeling that Clear Sky will depend more on the player than anything else. It's a game that won't tell you when you've made a mistake, but just leave you with that sinking feeling halfway through a zone when you realise you really should have bought the more expensive suit of armour, or that might be another, less dangerous way around. It often offers just enough of a hint of what you should be doing, but similarly leaves enough doubt that the less intrepid might miss the cues. Yes, artefacts are hard and dangerous to find, but you're a stalker, it's worth the risk. Yes, bad things happen in the zone, but you're a stalker, you're prepared for them. Yes, scraping together a living in the zone is tough, but you're a stalker, it's what you do.
In the end saying that Stalker epitomises everything in PC gaming is as much of a low blow as it is a compliment. As a game though, it very much takes the highs with the lows. On the one hand it offers something so unique and so hardcore that it'll never appear in this form on a console. On the other, you are paying to beta test a game that may never be finished. GSC Game World could have won a lot of praise by following the path of CD-Project and re-releasing the original game patched up to how they intended. In the end they cashed out with another unfinished product.
Rating – Pineapple (http://xkcd.com/388/)
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Clear Sky, PC - £15.89 delivered
Apply code "reward5" for 5% off
PES 2009, PS3 - £28.43
Pro Evolution Soccer 2009, PS3 - £28.43 delivered
Apply code "reward5" for 5% off
Sonic Chronicles - The Dark Brotherhood, DS - £17.03
Sonic Chronicles - The Dark Brotherhood, DS - £17.03 delivered
Apply code "reward5" for 5% off
Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga, Xbox 360 - £16.99
Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga, Xbox 360 - £16.99 delivered
Dragon Ball Z: Burst Limit, Xbox 360 - £23.99
Dragon Ball Z: Burst Limit, Xbox 360 - £23.99 delivered
Zack & Wiki: Quest For Barbaros' Treasure, Wii - £16.99
Zack & Wiki: Quest For Barbaros' Treasure, Wii - £16.99 delivered
Yakuza, PS2 - £5
Yakuza, PS2 - £5 delivered
Perfect timing for anyone interested in the sequel, that's on the way.
SavyGamer Contests!
These were originally announced in the podcast for last week, but as it snarled itself up and I can't get it together in a timely fashion I'm going to post these here instead.
We have two competitions going this week. One of them is to win a bunch of stuff from Lewie's PAX swag bag! To win, simply fire off an email to him (lewiep -at- savygamer -dot- co -dot- uk) with the subject SWAG CONTEST justifying why you deserve it. Be creative and make us laugh! We'll judge these over the next week or so and announce the winner on Episode 5 of the podcast, available a week on Friday.
The second is for a SOCOM: Confrontation Beta code. The beta lasts until the 5th of October and if you haven't got in on it yet then this could be a rare chance for you. This one also requires a little bit of effort - SOCOM is being bundled with the official PS3 Bluetooth headset. I want you to describe something that happened to you in an online game, either positive or negative, revolving around the use of (or lack of) a headset. Bonus points are given for creativity. Send your entry to my email address (willeth -at- gmail -dot- com) with the subject SOCOM BETA CONTEST. As the beta only lasts until the 5th, I'll decide this one very soon, so get your entries in before Sunday at noon GMT. I'll email the winner their code by Sunday evening and they'll also get a shout-out on the show.
On Friday's episode of the podcast, Episode 4, we'll be giving away a Collector's Edition of the Penny Arcade game - On The Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness, Episode 1. As well as the game (which runs on PC, Mac, and Linux) and a printed manual with the prequel comic within, it contains a keyring, a custom Startling Developments D20, and a Precipice T-shirt. Make sure you listen to Episode 4 on Friday to find out how to enter.
Sorry to anyone who was looking forward to our PAX impressions, but hopefully this week's show will make up for it. See you on Friday!
Halo 3 - Collector's Edition, Xbox 360 - £19.99
Halo 3 - Collector's Edition, Xbox 360 - £19.99 delivered
Sorry about the podcast....
I didn't intentionally mislead you guys. We did record a podcast this week...
..Except technical issues made it completely unlistenable, basically the two sides of the conversation don't match up at all.
So we aren't going to put it up, but we'll record a new one this Friday.
In the meantime, you can listen to the new series of One Life Left, which has just gone live.
If you've not listened to it before, it's really great. The OLL crew definitely don't take themselves to seriously, and it is a lot of fun to listen to. Highly recomended.
If you are a long time fan, or like what you hear just based on episode one of this series, I suggest you vote for them in the GMAs, the game media awards. Just send an email to gma@intentmedia.co.uk explaining that you wish to vote for One Life left in the category of “best broadcast”.
It's technically an industry insider only award, so if you can blag that you are somehow involved in the games industry/media that would help (just say your from a blog if you have one.)
So yeah, thanks for your patience, next 'cast will be up on Friday, technology willing.
Ensemble Studios closing...
I've been a big fan of their games over the years, so it cuts me deep to see Microsoft close Ensemble Studios. They were behind the fantastic Age of Empires and Age of Mythology games, and are currently working on the Xbox 360 exclusive Halo RTS "Halo Wars".
Shacknews reports:
Confirming a story broken by Shacknews, Microsoft now says that it will shut down Halo Wars developer Ensemble Studios following the end of work on the company's upcoming RTS.
Microsoft issued a full statement on the news, which follows:
"Microsoft has decided to close Ensemble Studios following the completion of Halo Wars. After the closure, the Ensemble leadership team will form a new studio and has agreed to provide ongoing support for Halo Wars as well as work on other projects with Microsoft Game Studios.
The team at Ensemble has made invaluable contributions to the games industry with their Age of Empires and Age of Mythology games and with the highly anticipated release of Halo Wars. This decision does not reflect at all on Ensembles talent or the quality of Halo Wars. in fact, many people who have had a chance to test drive Halo Wars agree that it is on track to being a fantastic game.
This was a fiscally-rooted decision that keeps MGS on its growth path. While the decision to dissolve Ensemble was not an easy one, Microsoft is working to place as many Ensemble employees who do not move to the newly formed studio into open positions within Microsoft as possible.
As to our overall strategy at MGS, it remains the same. We are committed to growing MGS with world-class talent both internally and with our external partners around the globe. We have recently added some well-known developers to our team and will continue growing the team. Were particularly excited about the titles we have in the pipeline and continue to evaluate additional opportunities to bring incredible games to life with the industries best. Our investment in games has never been greater than it is today."
RIP Ensemble, and good luck to everyone who is going to be loosing their jobs in finding new, and enriching jobs elsewhere.
Triggers, PS3 - £1.99
Triggers, PS3 - £1.99 delivered
Apply code "E10155087156447930" for £2 off.
You stick these onto the L and R 2 buttons, and they make them into triggers, like the box 360 pad.
Geometry Wars: Galaxies, DS - £7.99
Geometry Wars: Galaxies, DS - £7.99 delivered
Apply code "E10155087156447930" for £2 off.
Jam Sessions, DS - £5.99
Jam Sessions, DS - £5.99 delivered
Apply code "E10155087156447930" for £2 off.
Geometry Wars: Galaxies, Wii - £8.99
Geometry Wars: Galaxies, Wii - £8.99 delivered
Apply code "E10155087156447930" for £2 off.
Nintendo Classic Controller, Wii - £9.99
Nintendo Classic Controller, Wii - £9.99 delivered
Apply code "E10155087156447930" for £2 off.
Odin Sphere, PS2 - £12.99
Odin Sphere, PS2 - £12.99 delivered
Apply code "E10155087156447930" for £2 off.
Update: I've heard that this is £9.99 in store at GAME, so maybe check there first.
Kingdom Hearts 2, PS2 - £6.99
Kingdom Hearts 2, PS2 - £6.99 delivered
Apply code "E10155087156447930" for £2 off.
Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword, DS - £12.99
Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword, DS - £12.99 delivered
Apply code "E10155087156447930" for £2 off.
Okami, Wii - £21.99
Okami, Wii - £21.99 delivered
Apply code "E10155087156447930" for £2 off.
That's with the special edition, extra pretty packaging too.
Football Manager 2009, PC/MAC - £17.43
Football Manager 2009, PC/MAC - £17.43 delivered
Apply code "FOOTY50" for 50p off.
Best pre-order price going.
Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise, Xbox 360 - £24
Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise, Xbox 360 - £24 delivered
Help me decide
I can probably go to one of the two up and coming UK gaming events, not sure which I should go to.
I will have to pick between Gamecity and the Eurogamer Expo. Not sure which I should go for.
Any suggestions? Anyone going to either of them?
Discounted Xbox Live DLC
I don't know why this hasn't been posted yet - certain Xbox Live content is discounted until the end of October. These are as follows (all prices in MSP. GBP values are when compared to the Tesco.com deal):
Mass Effect
Bring Down The Sky - Was 400, now 300 (~£2.00)
Lost Odyssey
Triple Bonus Pack - Was 200, now 120 (~£0.80)
Forza 2
Motegi Track Pack - Was 400, now 240 (~£1.60)
September Car Pack - Was 400, now 240 (~£1.60)
December Car Pack - Was 400, now 240 (~£1.60)
March Car Pack - Was 400, now 240 (~£1.60)
Oblivion
Shivering Isles - Was 2400, now 1600 (~£10.65)
Guitar Hero 3
Def Leppard - Was 500, now 360 (~£2.40)
Foo Fighters - Was 500, now 360 (~£2.40)
Classic Rock - Was 500, now 360 (~£2.40)
Beautiful Katamari
Accessory Set A - Was 200, now 120 (~£0.80)
Accessory Set B - Was 200, now 120 (~£0.80)
Accessory Set C - Was 200, now 120 (~£0.80)
Accessory Set D - Was 200, now 120 (~£0.80)
Special Accessory - Was 250, now 120 (~£0.80)
Just-size Stage - Was 300, now 210 (~£1.40)
Big-10 Stage - Was 200, now 140 (~£0.93)
Big-11 Stage - Was 200, now 140 (~£0.93)
Final Fantasy XII - Revenant Wings, DS - £9.99
Final Fantasy XII - Revenant Wings, DS - £9.99 delivered
Reconfirming the Morrison's deal
OK guys, I am pretty certain that the Morrison's deal is going to be happening, not only that, but it is going to include Wii and DS games too.
It will be any chart 360 or PS3 game for £25, any chart Wii game for £15 and any chart DS game for £12.
The big titles will probably sell out really fast, so I suggest going first thing on Monday morning to avoid disappointment.
Mass Effect, PC - £12.98
Mass Effect, PC - £12.98 delivered
Great for those who missed out on the Argos deal, and includes the Bring Down The Sky expansion. This is a limited time offer, so grab it if you want it.
Podcast update
We've not forgotten about the podcast, don't worry.
A combination of lack of time and technical barriers at PAX meant we didn't do one live from PAX.
Now that we are back, me being poorly, us both being jetlagged (hense the 4:30am post), other technical barriers and real life stuff have got in the way. Episode 4 should be up in the next 24 hours.
After that, we should hopefully be back to the normal schedule.
Thanks for your patience.
Pure, Xbox 360 - £29.73
Pure, Xbox 360 - £29.73 delivered
Just because there aren't enough 360 racing games with 4 letter names.
The id Superpack - £23.25
The id Superpack - £23.25 (or $34.99 + VAT) on Steam
All id games are half price on Steam this weekend, you can buy them individually, or get the id Superpack for half price too, which includes:
Commander Keen
DOOM 3
DOOM 3 Resurrection of Evil
DOOM II
Final DOOM
HeXen
HeXen II
HeXen: Deathkings of the Dark Citadel
Heretic: Shadow of the Serpent Riders
Master Levels for Doom II
Quake
Quake II
Quake II Mission Pack: Ground Zero
Quake II Mission Pack: The Reckoning
Quake III: Team Arena
Quake Mission Pack 1: Scourge of Armagon
Quake Mission Pack 2: Dissolution of Eternity
Quake III Arena
Return to Castle Wolfenstein
Spear of Destiny
Ultimate DOOM
Wolfenstein 3D
Update:
Apparently, for the purposes of this promotion, Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars is not considered an id game, and is exempt from the half price promotion. Quake 4 is not even on steam.
Gears Of War 2 [Limited Collector's Edition], Xbox 360 - £39
Gears Of War 2 [Limited Collector's Edition], Xbox 360 - £39 delivered
Seems like a pretty decent package for not much more than the standard edition will set you back.
I Hi5'd Chris Taylor
Mirror's Edge - PAX Writeup
There was a pretty sizeable queue for Mirror's Edge at all time during PAX, but I was lucky enough to catch it as they were rebooting one of the systems, so didn't have to wait long.
Holy crap that game is good.
It is a mostly linear action platformer played from a first person perspective, with parkour gameplay.
It's visually stunning, with incredible lighting and colouring that really goes against the trend of most games these days. It's set in a very clean dystopia where communication is restricted, and you play a "runner" distributing sensitive packages.
As interesting a backdrop for the action that is, the real meat here is the action. It plays exactly like it looks, the controls are tight and responsive, and it is a lot of fun to play around in. It's linear in that there is, from what I have played, one single correct path, but there are branches around this path, like according to the bloke demoing it, there are 4 ways to get from one specific building to another.
Since I have watched the same gameplay videos we have all seen in the months since it's announcement, I tried to experiment a bit more when I had the chance to play it. There are two moments when, in what looks like a set piece that you have to flee from, SWAT team looking guys swarm you, and you are encouraged to run away, I thought I would see what would happen if I took them on instead. I was able to kill all of the guys. It is harder, but entirely possible.
I managed to pull off some awesome stuff just by trying things I'd not seen anyone else try, and there was a chorus of audible gasps from the crowd whenever I did pull off something extra cool, and that's not me being good with it, it's just the type of game where in normal gameplay, a host of really impressive things happen.
My personal pick for game of the show. Hats of DICE, roll on November.
Mirror's Edge, Xbox 360 - £37.99 delivered
Mirror's Edge, PS3 - £37.99 delivered
Mirror's Edge, PC - £21.99 delivered
SOCOM: Confrontation beta keys available today at 4pm
Update: And now they've all gone, hope you didn't miss out.
Head to Eurogamer today at 4pm UK time (10am Central time USA) to register for SOCOM Confrontation beta keys.
SOCOM Confrontation is the PS3 début of the multiplayer tactical shooter series, set for a release next month.
You will need to be a registered member at Eurogamer, and head to this post for details.
There are only 6,000 to go around and they are first come, first served.
Good luck!
Rhythm Heaven - PAX Writeup
I was a huge fan of the import only GBA original Rhythm Tengoku, and was thrilled to hear about the DS sequel, even more so when I heard it was getting localised for at PAL release under the name Rhythm Heaven.
If you never played the original, the easiest way to describe it is somewhere inbetween Elite Beat Agents and Warioware (and indeed is from the same team as Warioware). There are a bunch of microgames thrown at you at an incredible pace, and they all rely on you using your ears, and rhythm skills to play along.
You probably need to play it to fully understand, but it's a really original and entertaining game, and this new entry makes great use of the DS touch screen.
A convention floor is probably the worst setting to play this kind of game, where the sound is the most important feedback you get from the game, but I still really enjoyed it.
Rhythm Heaven, DS - £24.99 delivered
Fallout 3 - PAX Writeup
Did you like oblivion?
Do you like the idea of a witty, post-apocalyptic setting?
Do you like guns?
If the answer to all of the above is yes, then you will no doubt love Fallout 3, since from what I have seen it is basically Oblivion, in a witty, post-apocalyptic setting, with guns.
Not that this is a bad thing by any means, it looks a hell of a lot of fun. I didn't get to play it myself, but I watched Bethesda show it off for about an hour.
It is a pretty cool mash up of realtime and turn based combat, called "Vault-tec Assisted Targeting System" or VATS. There is pretty standard realtime first/third person combat, but within limit, you can cut to a turnbased combat, with really satisfying targeting of specific body parts, and some incredible looking critical hits.
All in all, looking great.
Fallout 3, Xbox 360 - £37.99 delivered
Fallout 3, PS3 - £37.99 delivered
Fallout 3, PC - £21.99 delivered
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, PS3 - £24.99
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, PS3 - £24.99 delivered
Wario Land: The Shake Dimension - PAX Writeup
I've been a big fan of the Wario platformers ever since Mario Land 3 on the original Gameboy, so the horrific result of Nintendo farming out the DS game "Wario - Master of Disguise" but me pretty deep.
But Nintendo seem really determined to make up for that with "The Shake Dimension" of the Wii.
It's a 2D platformer very much in the vein of Warioland 4, which can only be a good thing. It controls and feels very similarly to Warioland 4, except with added waggle. The Waggle is somewhat redundant for the most part, but certainly not harmful.
This game has some of the best spritework I have ever seen in a platformer, wario's animation is silky smooth, and the backdrops to the levels are beautiful.
I'm mostly just shocked to see a full price 2D platformer coming out of Nintendo in 2008, and I am really excited about playing the final game.
Wario Land: The Shake Dimension, Wii - £26 delivered
P.R.O.J.E.C.T. O.R.I.G.I.N. - PAX Writeup
Ok, the backronym is my doing, but I couldn't help the friendly jab at the stupidly titled first game in this series F.E.A.R. or First Encounter Assault Recon.
Project Origin seems to do everything right that F.E.A.R. did. You get to shoot guys with a nail gun, in slow motion.
You also get to climb into a giant mech, and shoot guys.
The controls aren't bad either.
It's nice and atmospheric. By atmospheric I mean there's a creepy girl, that always follows you, and the music is nice and eerie.
The FPS market is pretty crowded at the moment, and I can't really point anything out about Project Origin that really makes it stand out. But it is certainly not bad.
Project Origin, Xbox 360 - £39.99
Project Origin, PS3 - £39.99
Project Origin, PC - £24.99
Guild Wars - Review
Guild Wars - PC
Review by LewieP
I have never played Guild Wars, or any other NCsoft/ArenaNet game in my entire life.
The nice lady from ArenaNet let me in the PAX party early with the VIPs, and then gave me 8 free drink vouchers.
10/10
Legendary - PAX Writeup
Here is a list with problems that have populated first person shooters for a long time:
Invisible Walls
Unskipable cut scenes
Bad cut scenes
Disparity between what happens in cut scenes and what happens in game
Bad voice acting
Invincible enemies that don't even respond to being attacked
Weird animation
Ugly human models
Awful pedestrian intro sections, where you cannot die or interact with anything in any meaningful way
Long load times
Bits where you have to hold a button for 6/7 seconds to turn a dial
These are all present in Legendary.
Maybe the rest of the game is fantastic, but my time with the first 20 minutes of the game was a waste of my life, and I will never get that time back.
Soundtrack is pretty rocking though.
Legendary, Xbox 360 - £34.98 delivered
Legendary, PS3 - £34.98 delivered
Legendary, PC - £24.98 delivered
Defence Grid: The Awakening - PAX Writeup
My experience with the tower defence genre is limited to a few wasted hours with the odd flash based tower defence game, and some time with Pixeljunk Monsters, but I had a great deal of fun with Defence Grid.
This is the second release from Hidden Path, they put out Wits and Wagers on Xbox live a while back, and are now releasing this tower defence game on the PC.
I was playing the game with Mark Terrano (ex-Ensemble Studios) and Dave McCoy (ex-FASA), who were founders of Hidden Path, and they really love their games, and a really nice guys. Hidden Path are doing a bunch of things differently with this game, and it really shows.
It's the first Tower Defence game, to my (and their) knowledge that has any narrative. A Sci-Fi story, told through short cut scenes before levels and in game audio. It's being made by a relatively small team, about 20, and it's been in development for around a year.
Tower Defence games have you trying to defend a point from waves of enemies by managing gun turrets.
Typically of the genre, it's very simple to play, but complicated to master. There are 10 different types of tower, unlocking as you progress through the game, and three tiers of upgrades for each tower, each tier colour coded. There is also an interest system that means not spending money can lead to having increased resources in the future, but at the cost of reduced capability in the meantime.
There is a really clever AI pathfinding system, whereby enemies will seek out the path of least resistance in regards to the number of force fields (which are generated by two turrets positioned next to each other), but they do not consider the time they are under fire. So by intelligently placing turrets, you can massively increase the total damage they receive, adding another layer of depth to the game.
The controls are really simple, you can play it with just the mouse. The interface is pretty clever, and nicely minimalist, and there are lots of visual indicators in game giving you hints as to what is going on, the three tiers of colour coding are consistent through everything, enemy strength, turret upgrade level, core status.
It's planned for a downloadable PC release, with no distribution service planned as of yet, but I think it would be a perfect fit for consoles in the future too. Currently single player only, but there's support for leaderboards.
Overall I am pretty impressed, and it's not the type of game I would have expected to enjoy. It's lined up for a November release, and I can't wait for the final release.
All chart 360 and PS3 games for £25 each
Not 100% confirmed, but there is a rumour that come Monday, all Chart Xbox 360 and PS3 games will be £25 at Morrison's, for one week only.
Sony PS3 80gb + GTA4 - £309.98
Okami, Wii - £23.99
Okami, Wii - £23.99 delivered
Comes with an HMV exclusive sleeve too, and for those of you with student discount it can be had for £21.59.
MotorStorm: Pacific Rift, PS3 - £29.99
MotorStorm: Pacific Rift, PS3 - £29.99 delivered
Apply code "MTRSTORM" for that price, and get a free T Shirt
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