Trauma Centre: New Blood, Wii - £16.75 delivered
They seem to keep dropping the price on this.
Trauma Centre: New Blood, Wii - £16.75
Bully, Xbox 360 - £7.99
Bully, Xbox 360 - £7.99 delivered
Update: Sorry, this has sold out now, next best price is £13
Crayon Physics Deluxe, PC - Review
Crayon Physics Deluxe, PC - £13.78
Review by LewieP
It's a testament to how simple and yet compelling the crayon physics core mechanic is that a bunch of clones have sprung up between the initial release of the Crayon Physics tech demo and the release of the proper game, Crayon Physics Deluxe. There have been homebrew clones on the Wii, DS, an iPhone clone, and several PC clones, and those are just the ones I've encountered. When I say clone, I don't even mean that in a derogatory sense, I'm pretty sure they would all happily cite Petri Purho's IGF winner as their inspiration.
It taps into an idea I know I've had since watching Penny Crayon as a kid, drawing something, which then comes to life.
But does it work as a game? For the most part, yes, very much so.
The game is structured in a fairly traditional manner. You start off on island no. 1, which has a X number of levels (puzzles is probably more appropriate), and you have to get Y number of stars from the puzzles to move onto the next island and there's always some margin of error between X and Y for those individual puzzles you can't solve.
Each puzzle has stars for you to collect, initially just one star per puzzle, but a few have two. You collect stars by creating stuff with a magical crayon, that takes on the physical form of it's appearance. Draw a box, it will bounce, slide, and have weight, momentum and friction appropriate to it's shape. Same for a circle, or ropes and pulleys. You then have to use that stuff to move a red ball around the puzzle towards a star.
If it sounds complicated, it's not, and there are nice on screen tutorials that offer just the right amount of guidance without feeling invasive whenever a new technique is required. At it's most basic, Crayon Physics Deluxe is a game of cause and effect, action and reaction.
The difficulty curve is pretty shallow at first. It is a very forgiving game. Even if you mess up completely on a puzzle, a quick press of the space bar resets it all. Since the puzzles are only short, you generally don't mind experimenting, since you won't really lose much progress if the experimentation is unsuccessful. I also like that once you have gotten the star(s), nothing else matters, your construction can all fall apart, the ball can fly off the screen, anything can happen, and long as the red ball touches the star, you have succeeded.
Now I would say that the biggest missed opportunity in Crayon Physics Deluxe is in the puzzle design. A lot of the puzzles are solvable in more than one way. In fact, pretty much all of them are.
There's the 'correct' way, which will often be elegant and simple once you know how, and it can be really rewarding working these solutions out.
The other way is to brute force it. Hash your way through it and you'll probably get the ball to the star without too much difficulty. Either using what I guess are limitations in the physics engine, or just dumb trial and error.
The problem is, you often don't know which of these you are doing until you've practically solved the puzzle. I wish there was more clues as to whether or not I was on the right track to finding the more elegant solution. Maybe if there was some kind of reward for having achieved the more intelligent solution, even just a little feedback to say "you have mastered this level, you can now move on" would be great, but as it is, the player is left guessing whether or not the have mastered a given puzzle, and for me, that really detracted from me wanting to perfect the levels.
Problems aside, the puzzles is more than enough to put a smile on your face. It can really make you feel clever.
It's technically impressive. It looks, feels and sounds like something a 5 year old digipen graduate might come up with, and that is entirely meant as a compliment. I've got plenty of time for games that look like no other games on the market (excluding direct clones of it of course).
The creative commons sources soundtrack is a highlight. It's downloadable free right here, and _ghost's Lullaby has been helping me get to sleep since I first heard it. My only complaint is that there is just over 11 minutes of music, and you will spend much longer playing the game, so each track will repeat lots of times, but if it bothers you (it didn't really bother me) you can always mute it and stick something else on in the background.
Then there is the level editor. To be honest, that's not really my thing, but it looks pretty robust, so I reckon if you are the type of gamer that likes creating levels, then this is a big plus for you.
What definitely is my thing is the downloadable levels other people will make for me. Already, from just the beta there are a bunch of great looking levels been made by users, so I bet in a few months there will be mountains of levels made by users. And here lies the rub, who knows what the communities quality control will be. Thousands of levels to download is useless if 99% of them are terrible and there is no way to tell the gold from the turd.
A minor technical downer, I seem to be unable to get it to run at 1280x1024, the highest resolution it will run at is 1024x768. It's only a slight annoyance really, barely worth mentioning. It is still beautiful.
In all honesty, I am pretty sure most gamers will get plenty of enjoyment out of Crayon Physics Deluxe, and if even if the more jaded amount you feel a little short changed, just head to his web site and try one of the plethora of games he has made publicly available for completely free.
Update: Check out my custom level.
Discuss it in the forums.
Crayon Physics Deluxe, PC - £13.78
Xbox 360 60gb Pro console - £137.01
Xbox 360 60gb Pro console - £137.01
Pre-order, not sure when they will have stock in. £107.65 for an Arcade too.
Dragon Quest - The Journey Of The Cursed King, PS2 - £8.73
Dragon Quest - The Journey Of The Cursed King, PS2 - £8.73 delivered
Castlevania - Judgement, Wii - £17.99
Castlevania - Judgement, Wii - £17.99 delivered
Pretty good price for a terrible looking game, imo.
Noitu Love 2: Devolution, PC - £7.07
Noitu Love 2: Devolution, PC - £7.07
The maker of this crazy indie action game, Konjak, has just dropped it to half price. Soundtrack is a free download here too. You can also chose to pay £8.41 to get it on a disc.
2 more Quake Live beta invites available.
Same drill as before, next two people to email me at lewiep@savygamer.co.uk will get two invites to the Quake Live beta.
I should also add, you need to include your full name, and whether you classify yourself as Beginner/intermediate/Expert skill level, or if you are not sure, that's cool too.
Update: And gone again. Same as last time though I'll be sure to post again when I have more.
Super Famicom Classic Controller, Wii - £51.78
Super Famicom Classic Controller, Wii - £51.78 delivered
Not even slightly worth it, but a few people have asked me to keep an eye on when these are available at any price.
Bloody Nintendo fanboys. I'd like one of these, but I wouldn't pay a penny more than £15.
Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter, Xbox 360 - £6.99
Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter, Xbox 360 - £6.99 delivered
Quake Live Beta
I had a key to give away before, but that's gone now.
However, you can register at the Quake Live beta site here, and if you are lucky, you might get a beta key too.
Quake Live Beta Invite up for grabs
I have an invite to the Quake Live Beta available. First person to email me at LewieP@SavyGamer.co.uk can have it.
I'll probably have more invites available in the future, so keep checking.
Update: And the beta key goes to Ceri, congratulations!
Child's Play update
Congratulations everyone, you guys managed to raise a fantastic $110 for Child's Play. It was a little shy of our $200 target, but it's still a fantastic achievement, and more than one person has contacted me telling me that they plan to make a donation on their next pay day (as do I).
If you would still like to donate something, you can find details on how to do so here.
Well done!
Update: Kristin from Child's Play passed on her thanks:
"Thanks very much for doing a fundraiser for Child's Play, it's much
appreciated. Please pass our gratitude along to the SavyGamer
community!"
Pokémon Diamond, DS - £14.73
Pokémon Diamond, DS - £14.73 delivered
£4.95 of that is P&P, so if there is anything else you want to get from them, get it in the same order.
Alternately, you could get the same game/different monsters, Pokémon Pearl, for £12.97 delivered.
Thanks to Thomas for the tip off.
Valkyria Chronicles, PS3 - £19.62
Valkyria Chronicles, PS3 - £19.62 delivered
£4.95 of that is P&P, so if there is anything else you want to get from them, get it in the same order.
Thanks to Rex Kramer for the tip off.
Wireless Controller, LEGO Indiana Jones + Kung Fu Panda, Xbox 360 - £29
Wireless Controller, LEGO Indiana Jones + Kung Fu Panda, Xbox 360 - £29 in store at John Lewis
These are normally only for sale with console bundles, but John Lewis in the Trafford Centre (and quite probably nationwide) are selling them on their own for £29. Considering the best price for a controller on it's own is £22.51, it's probably worth it if you are at all interested in either of the games.
Eye of Judgment + PlayStation Eye, PS3 - £19.98
Eye of Judgment + PlayStation Eye, PS3 - £19.98 in store at GAME
Best price for the PlayStation Eye, even if you didn't want the game.
It should be noted that there is a roughly three-hour patch to perform to bring the game up to version 3.0.
Play and Charge Kit (Black), Xbox 360 - £9.98
Play and Charge Kit (Black), Xbox 360 - £9.98 delivered
Command And Conquer: Red Alert 3, PC - £14.73
Command And Conquer: Red Alert 3, PC - £14.73 delivered
A bunch of cheap PC games from Amazon
Amazon have a bunch of cheap PC games available at the minute. Not that cheap if you buy just one of them, since the P&P is £1.99, but if you spend £5 or more, you get free P&P.
You should buy The Club, and then throw in any of the other games that take your fantasy. Metacritic tells me a few of them got "Generally negative reviews", but I say sod Metacritic, take a risk, the price is right.
The Club - £5.73
Beowulf - £1.36
Juiced 2: Hot Import Nights - £1.73
Rayman: Raving Rabbids - £2.15
Bad Day LA - £1.69
Scarface: The World is Yours - £3.03
Warlords IV: Heroes of Etheria - £2.18
Scarface is far better than it deserves to be, and a lot of the gameplay ideas in GTA4 appeared in Scarface first. If you've not got the system for GTA4, but want something akin to it to play, it gets a thumbs up from me.
The Club is also really great, and the only reason to not buy it is because you want/have it on a console.
Anyone played the others?
Replacement Game Cases
As Woolworths are going into administration, they are selling off all of their fixtures and fittings as they are closing down each store. At my local store (Macclesfield) display cases were being sold at four for a pound but this may vary depending on location.
As well as regular black single, double, and double-wide DVD cases there were giant boxes of white (Wii), translucent green (Xbox 360) and blue (PS2) DVD display cases, as well as DS, Blu-Ray and PSP cases. If you have any cases that need replacing or if you just want a case for Wii Sports instead of a cardboard sleeve, it might be worth popping in.
I would be remiss if I didn't also link The Cover Project for replacing any game sleeves that have been damaged, as well.
Steam Sale Ends Today
Just a quick reminder to say that the Steam Christmas Sale, detailed in this post, ends today.
If you're looking to pick up Bioshock or Portal for £3.49, or every game that Valve have ever made for just under fifty notes, I suggest you get them now.
Zavvi sale
I was just in Zavvi yesterday. They may be showing little respect to their customers at the minute (refusing to value gift vouchers is a real dick move) but they have a few good prices on some games:
Dragon Quest Swords, Wii - £9.99
Lost: The Video Game, Xbox 360 - £4.99
Civilization IV: Complete, PC - £7.99
Dark Messiah of Might and Magic, PC - £2 (get this game, you can even put the serial into steam if you want)
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadows of Chernobyl, PC - £5.99
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky, PC - £9.99
Supreme Commander: Gold Edition, PC - £8.99
Enemy Territory: Quake Wars, PC - £5.99
Mass Effect, PC - £4.99
No student discount is allowed these days "because we are going into administration". If they do survive it, which I hope and expect they will, they will have pissed off a bunch of customers.
Every Extend Extra, PSP - £3.67
Every Extend Extra, PSP - £3.67 delivered
Thanks to more heat than light for the tip off.
Dragon Quest: Chapters of The Chosen, DS - £9.99
Dragon Quest: Chapters of The Chosen, DS - £9.99 delivered
Gears of War 2 [Collectors Edition], Xbox 360 - £34.98
Gears of War 2 [Collectors Edition], Xbox 360 - £34.98 delivered
Xbox 360 Premium 60GB + Gears Of War 2 + Fallout 3 + PES 2009 - £179.99
Xbox 360 Premium 60GB + Gears Of War 2 + Fallout 3 + PES 2009 - £179.99 delivered
Good old Games Holiday Promotion
Good old games have got a fairly promotion on at the minute. All these bundles for $9.98 each:
Fallout & Fallout 2
Freespace, Expansion & Freespace 2
Descent, Descent 2, Descent 3 + Expansion
MDK & MDK 2
Stonekeep & Lionheart
They all come with Sountracks and other bonus material too. Grab them here.
You can also get the sublime Beneath a Steal Sky, and Lure of the Temptress (which I haven't played) for free, here. They are both freeware anyway, but GOG will sort of the XP/Vista compatibility for you, which is nice and convenient.
Thanks to Matthew for the tip off.
Naruto: The Broken Bond, Xbox 360 - £22.60
Naruto: The Broken Bond, Xbox 360 - £22.60 delivered
I played the demo of this just before my red ringing. Not too shabby at all.
Half life 2, PC - £7.73
Half life 2, PC - £7.73 delivered
You know, for the 3 or 4 people who don't own it yet.
Fun times
What the hell am I supposed to do when this happens? I've had the 360 less than a year, and bought it new from Argos. Will I get this console repaired, a refurbished replacement, or a brand new console?
I've taken such good care of it too, and only just got a live gold account, and a wireless adapter.
Dragonball Z Budokai Tenkaichi 3, Wii - £9.98
Dragonball Z Budokai Tenkaichi 3, Wii - £9.98 delivered
Viva Piñata Special Edition, Xbox 360 - £4.99
Viva Piñata Special Edition, Xbox 360 - £4.99 delivered
No More Heroes, Wii - £9.99
No More Heroes, Wii - £9.99 delivered
It was this price before, but it has just gone back in stock.
Half-Life 2 [Orange Box], PC - £14.99
Half-Life 2 [Orange Box], PC - £14.99 delivered
Cheaper than on Steam, even with the current sale.
F.E.A.R. Perseus Mandate, PC - £2.99
F.E.A.R. Perseus Mandate, PC - £2.99 delivered
This is the second stand alone Expansion to F.E.A.R.
A sad realisation
The total value of all Gamer Pics and Themes on Xbox Live Marketplace is 280,955MS Points, roughly £2,388.
The total value of all Games/Game content is 174,685MS Points, roughly £1,484.
Is there any way to filter all the bullshit out of the marketplace with the NXE?
Guitar Hero: World Tour, Wii - £19.98
Guitar Hero: World Tour, Wii - £19.98 delivered
Or £48.29 with guitar
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas 2, PS3 - £9.99
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas 2, PS3 - £9.99 delivered
Steam Christmas Sale
Valve have dropped all steam games by 10-70%, and there are some incredible bargains to be had. Sale ends on January 2nd.
Here's some of the highlights:
Gumboy - Crazy Adventures - £1.49
Trials 2 Second Edition - £1.49
Sid Meier's Civilization III Complete - £2.24 (great for gaming on an older system)
Commander Keen, Episodes 1-5 - £2.69
Bullet Candy - £2.69
Audiosurf - £2.99 (This also includes the Orange Box Soundtrack)
Portal - £3.49
Bioshock - £3.49
Beyond Good and Evil - £3.74
Far Cry - £3.74
Outrun 2006: Coast 2 Coast - £4.49
Dark Messiah Might and Magic - £4.49
Painkiller Gold Edition - £4.49
Multiwinia + Darwinia - £4.49 (these are £2.99 separately, but at £4.49 for the two it'd be stupid not to get both)
Everyday Shooter - £5.39
Heretic + Hexen Collection - £5.39
Defense Grid: The Awakening - £10.49 (I am playing this at the moment, it's a lot of fun, review is on the way)
Sid Meier's Civilization IV Complete - £13.49
Sam & Max, Season 1 - £15.29
id Superpack - £18.99
Valve Complete Pack - £39.74
THQ Collector Pack - £39.74
Eidos Collector Pack - £47.69
Peggle Extreme, PC - Free
Peggle Extreme, PC - Free
I just noticed on loading up Steam that Peggle Extreme, the Valve-infused version of Peggle, is free to all Steam users. Go and download it, gt sucked in, and be antisocial for the rest of the Christmas period.
Free games!
Well, it is Christmas, and some very generous indie devs are giving away their games, for free!
I blogged previously about how to get Lugaru for free, but now, it turns out you don't even need to do the facebook thing, since all that does is get you this link. It's probably a bit naughty of me sharing that link, sorry guys!
Pocketwatch Games are also giving away their animal based arctic adventure "Venture Arctic" for free too, head to their store, and use the code "CPN5867042685" to get it for free.
Lugaru, PC/Mac/Linux - Free
Venture Arctic, PC/Mac - Free (apply code "CPN5867042685")
Enjoy!
100 Classic Book Collection, DS - £14.99
100 Classic Book Collection, DS - £14.99 delivered
Another non-game for the DS from Nintendo. We all know this will sell millions, and at £14.99, it seems pretty reasonable. It's worth noting that, to my knowledge, all the books on it are public domain, so are free around the internet any, you are just paying for the portability and the interface.
Flower, Sun, and Rain, DS - £17.99
Flower, Sun, and Rain, DS - £17.99 delivered
Amazon keep dropping the price on this, first it was £21.84, then £19.79, and now £17.99.
Maybe it's not selling too well (wouldn't really be a surprise), so if you don't mind waiting, I bet it will be sub-£15 in then next month or so.
Mario Strikers Charged Football, Wii - £19.99
Mario Strikers Charged Football, Wii - £19.99 delivered
Universe At War, PC - £1.73
Universe At War, PC - £1.73 delivered
£1.73 for a competent RTS? Yes please.
Janurary Sales
Well, it's that time of year again. The middle of the day on the 24th of December, and you know what that means. It's January sales o'clock!
The retailers want us to spend money, so that's what we should do.
I'm going to be keeping up with the best deals available periodically throughout the Christmas period, although my spelling might get worse later on in the day. Keep checking as regularly as you can, because good stuff will sell out fast.
That said, give a thought to our Charity effort this Christmas. If you save a bunch of money, maybe give some to those less fortunate via our Chip In Child's Play widget to the right ->
Stuntman: Ignition, Xbox 360 - £7.49
Stuntman: Ignition, Xbox 360 - £7.49 delivered
Supposedly includes a free baseball cap "Whilst stocks last", but I imagine they have given them all away by now.
Dragon Quest: The Chapters Of The Chosen, DS - £13
Dragon Quest: The Chapters Of The Chosen, DS - £13 delivered
Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise, Xbox 360 - £2,935
Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise, Xbox 360 - £2,935 delivered
Janurary sales start early at Gamestation.
Update: Heh, looks like they have found the decimal point button, and fixed it now. Funnily enough, I still have it in my basket at the old price.
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