Project Gotham Racing 4 + Sega Super Star Tennis, Xbox 360 - £11.95 delivered
HMV do not get PC gamers
Over the last 3/4 years, every time I have gone into an HMV, I have felt more and more despair looking at their PC section. Whether it's because they sell free trials for money, charge far more than online retailers (even their own web site) or devote half of their shelf space to expansions for The Sims, it is not a place that I would ever choose to buy PC games, apart from their occasional good clearance sale (see the last few posts for that kind of thing).
Today though, they sunk to a new low. HMV always have one game on each format as their "Game of the week", often chosen either because it is a title that might have slipped some gamers by, and is worth a second look, or because it is on a special price promotion. Neither of these is the case for this week's PC "Game of the Week":
Never mind that it is not a particularity good price, my biggest concern is the stretching of the term "Game".
Are there any high street shops left which are half decent for PC games? Or are they all trying to drive PC gamers as a whole to digital distribution?
Team Fortress 2, PC - £2
Team Fortress 2, PC - £2 in store at HMV
10% Student discount is available too.
Burnout Paradise - The Ultimate Box, PC - £15
Burnout Paradise - The Ultimate Box, PC - £15 in store at HMV
10% Student discount is available too.
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion [GOTY Edition], PC - £12.99
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion [GOTY Edition], PC - £12.99 delivered
Dragon Quest: The Chapters of the Chosen, DS - £9.99
Dragon Quest: The Chapters of the Chosen, DS - £9.99 delivered
The Chronicles Of Riddick: Assault On Dark Athena, PC - £21.95
The Chronicles Of Riddick: Assault On Dark Athena, PC - £21.95 delivered
Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts, Xbox 360 - £14.99
Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts, Xbox 360 - £14.99 delivered
MadWorld, Wii - £16.99
MadWorld, Wii - £16.99 delivered
Such a fantastic game. My review is in progress, and it is pretty much all positive.
Lego Star Wars - The Complete Saga, Wii - £11.99
Lego Star Wars - The Complete Saga, Wii - £11.99 delivered
360 Oblivion DLC half price
All DLC for The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion is now half price on Xbox live.
Except for the horse armour, which is now double the price it was.
No idea how long this offer will last.
PC 2 for £24.99
Game have added a bunch of new titles to their PC 2 for £24.99 range, here's some of the highlights:
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Clear Sky
Prince of Persia
A Vampyre Story
Race Driver: GRID
Mass Effect
Tomb Raider: Underworld
Hearts Of Iron Collection
King's Bounty: The Legend
Galactic Civilisations 2: Ultimate Edition
Neverwinter Nights 2
Dreamfall: Collectors Edition
Assassins Creed
Bully: Scholarship Edition
Prince Of Persia, Xbox 360 - £9.99
Prince Of Persia, Xbox 360 - £9.99 delivered
Includes "end of the game" DLC for free, you lucky things.
Prince Of Persia, PS3 - £9.99
Prince Of Persia, PS3 - £9.99 delivered
Includes "end of the game" DLC for free, you lucky things.
PS2 price cut not actually happening here
Sony are dropping the price of the PS2 in North America, and across all of Europe, except for the UK.
I'm sure very few people actually care about a PS2 pricedrop at this stage, but since A) there is no backwards compatible PS3 available in the UK, and B) PS2s do break, especially older models, it would certainly be nice for them to be cheaper.
No reason for them not dropping the price here has been given, so here is a fictitious response from an imaginary Sony spokesperson.
"The recent international price drop for the PS2 console gives consumers an excellent value proposition, there are nearly 1,900 titles available for the system, and new games keep coming out regularly. We decided not to drop the price in the UK, because we realised that we could get a lot more money by not doing, and we really like money, so we want as much of it as possible.
Luckily, the vast majority of UK consumers will not know that they are being charged more than pretty much everyone else around the world, so people will keep happily buying them."
Funnily enough, it's actually the PS3 that is overpriced right now, but there is no word on a price drop for that either.
If and when they do decide to drop either the PS2 or PS3 price here, I will let you know.
Half-life 2: Episode 1, PC - £3
Half-life 2: Episode 1, PC - £3 in store at HMV.
10% student discount is available too.
Condemned 2: Bloodshot, Xbox 360 - £7.99
Condemned 2: Bloodshot, Xbox 360 - £7.99 in store at GAME.
Just saw it for this price, preowned.
Xbox 360 Elite + Resident Evil 5 + Extra wireless controller - £209.59
Xbox 360 Elite + Resident Evil 5 + Extra wireless controller - £209.59 delivered
Add both items to your basket, and it will be discounted during checkout.
Mirror's Edge, Xbox 360 - £11.40
Mirror's Edge, Xbox 360 - £11.40
HMV are selling it for £13.99, so you can get PC World to pricematch it to £11.40
Lego Indiana Jones + Kung Fu Panda + Xbox 360 Wireless Controller - £24.99
Lego Indiana Jones + Kung Fu Panda + Xbox 360 Wireless Controller - £24.99 delivered
The SavyGamer Podcast, Episode 10
We're back! Except, not quite. We're testing the water with a new format for the show, and we'd love to hear your feedback. Each show we'll have a Big Issue segment in which we'll pick something to talk about and discuss it. Agree with us? Disagree? Let us know. This week - why people put down or finish games.
Enjoy!
The podcast contains spoilers for BioShock (9:55-11:54), GTAIV (27:06-33:55), Gears of War (33:55-38:41).
If you want to comment on our thoughts about completing games (or not), please comment, or email me at willeth@gmail.com.
Total Runtime: 1:29:46
Total Filesize: 84.2MB
Got feedback on the show? Post a comment, or email us:
LewieP - lewiep@savygamer.co.uk
Will - willeth@gmail.com
We're also on Twitter at twitter.com/lewiep and twitter.com/willeth!
Update: I just listened back to the podcast, and I appear to have said that HMV will pricematch their web site in store. This is not true, I misheard Willeth, I thought he was asking if PC World pricematch HMV online. Sorry for any confusion - LewieP
Crysis, PC - £5.73
Crysis, PC - £5.73 in store at PC world.
Get them to pricematch Asda's price of £7.93. Seems to be a fair amount of stock around.
Metal Slug Anthology, Wii - £6.73
Metal Slug Anthology, Wii - £6.73 delivered
Order quick, it won't last long at that price.
MGS Portable Ops + Silent Hill Origins, PSP - £13.73
MGS Portable Ops + Silent Hill Origins, PSP - £13.73 delivered
Söldner-X: Himmelsstürmer [Limited Edition], PC - £10.98
Söldner-X: Himmelsstürmer [Limited Edition], PC - £10.98 delivered
Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway, Xbox 360 - £16.74
Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway, Xbox 360 - £16.74 delivered
Sid Meier's Civilization Revolution, DS - £7.99
Sid Meier's Civilization Revolution, DS - £7.99 delivered
Prince of Persia, Xbox 360 - £17.99
Prince of Persia, Xbox 360 - £17.99 delivered
Includes "end of the game" DLC for free, you lucky things.
Prince Of Persia, PS3 - £17.99
Prince Of Persia, PS3 - £17.99 delivered
Includes "end of the game" DLC for free, you lucky things.
Assassin's Creed, PC - £9.99
Assassin's Creed, PC - £9.99 on Steam
Part of a week long daily Ubisoft Special on Steam. Details here.
WWE: Legends of WrestleMania - Review
WWE: Legends of WrestleMania, Xbox 360 - £27.99 delivered
WWE: Legends of WrestleMania, PS3 - £27.99 delivered
Review by myp
So, wrestling eh? You either love it or you hate it. Me, I think it’s ok, as long as you accept the fact that it’s just a soap opera for boys. The acting is terrible and the plots are weak, but for some inexplicable reason it still manages to draw me in with its implausible story lines and over-the-top circus theatre. This game takes us to the so-called ‘Golden Age’ of the World Wrestling Federation Entertainment of the 1980s and 90s, back when the fights were real and the best man really did win (sub please check).
Let’s get it straight from the onset; this is a niche title. I know it sounds strange to say it, due to the global outreach of the WWE brand, but it’s not going to entice anyone in who doesn’t already have an interest in this particular division of ‘sports entertainment’. However, for those fans out there who have slowly lost interest in the over-complex Smackdown vs Raw offerings that require you to have the brainpower of Stephen Hawking in order to remember combos, you’ll be pleased to know that WWE Legends has been pared back and is a lot simpler to get to grips with. This doesn’t mean it is simplistic, however. You can still perform a variety of strikes, grapples, irish whips, clotheslines etc, but it all seems a lot less bewildering when you first pick it up. You’ll soon be suplexing like Mr Perfect and chest-chopping like Ric Flair himself.
The basic game works in a similar fashion to other wrestling games; the more successful moves you perform, the more your opponent’s energy bar will deplete. When it’s been depleted far enough, you will be able to pin or make them submit. Where this game differs is that it introduces a levelling system. You start on Level 1 and can progress up to Level 3, where you can then perform your finishing move with a couple of button presses. As you level up, your attacks become stronger, and you become more resilient. When initiating special moves and and certain grapples, you are presented with a quicktime event, where you have to press two or three face buttons during the move in order to complete it. Yes, yes, I can hear you groaning already about the QTEs, but for this type of game it doesn’t seem to break the flow of the action. When you complete your special move (or fail it), you then drop back down to Level 2, and have to work your way back up again. There’s the obligatory button-mashing when it comes to getting yourself back up after a fall, or trying to escape from a pin, but thankfully it’s not too frequent.
From what I’ve described so far, it sounds like this is a decidedly average fighting game, and that’s mainly because no matter which way you dress it up, it is. Compared to something like Street Fighter IV, it really doesn’t cut the mustard, but wrestling games (much like its real-life counterpart) have never only been about what happens inside the ring. Where this game really begins to shine is in the presentation. Each venue from the original WrestleMania right up to XV have been painstakingly recreated to the very last detail; even down to the miniature rings that combatants entered in at WrestleMania III.
Much has been made of the ‘Relive, Rewrite, Redefine’ modes. They are set out in chronological tiers, where you unlock a match once you have won the previous one (attaining a gold medal if you manage to fulfill a number of objectives. ‘Relive’ is in some ways the most restrictive mode, where you have to re-enact moments that actually happened in the match. For example, in Hulk Hogan’s cage match with King Kong Bundy from WrestleMania 2, you earn extra points for irish whipping Bundy into the cage wall and busting him open. Additional points are gained from preventing him from exiting the cage through the door (twice, as in the real match), and then escaping over the top. However, it must be stated that performing these feats are optional, only if you’re interested in collecting the gold medals. You can unlock the next match by simply winning the bout.
‘Rewrite’ (or ‘Totally Changing Time’) pits you against a winner of a particular match from history, instructing you to change the course of history. Again, it gives you objectives to complete, but they tend to be more general, such as performing a move off the top turnbuckle or getting your opponent into a strong grapple. The ‘Redefine’ mode is very similar to ‘Rewrite’, but match rules are changed (changing a ladder match to a Hell in a Cell, for example).
The character creation mode from SvRi is still prevalent, and you can enter your lycra-clad goon into the ‘Legend Killer’ mode, where you face off against six tiers of WWE superstars to become—you guessed it—a legend killer. For those of you with SvR2009, you can even import characters from there. So if you’ve always wanted to pit Cody Rhodes against his dad, then you can finally fill your boots.
With regards to the roster, almost everyone is there: from Greg ‘The Hammer’ Valentine to ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin; Andre the Giant to Jake ‘The Snake’ Roberts—even younger versions of The Undertaker and Triple H. The only notable exceptions I can think of are Chris Benoit and Owen Hart, but that’s kind of understandable, really. The likenesses are generally very good (even though some of them have been made far musclier than in real life). The only strange one is Shawn Michaels—his face just doesn’t look anything like him.
Manager interference is new to the series. Before you’d have to go outside the ring to hit them, but now they interject just when you want them to (or not, depending on whether they’re on your side). This can get a little frustrating when you think you’re nailed on for a pin and Bobby Heenan grabs his guy’s leg and sticks it on the rope, but it’s all part of the show, so it’s hard to grumble. You can even go over to your manager when you’re low on energy, and he’ll refill it for you (losing a level in the process).
So in summary, should this game pique your curiosity if you’ve never held any interest in watching men in their pants pretending to hit each other before? No, but to those who are still reading this, dare I say it; this could be the best wrestling game I’ve ever played. Whoops, I’ve just damned it with faint praise.
Henry Hatsworth In The Puzzling Adventure, DS - £13.73
Henry Hatsworth In The Puzzling Adventure, DS - £13.73 delivered
Need For Speed: Undercover, Xbox 360 - £5.55
Need For Speed: Undercover, Xbox 360 - £5.55 delivered
Probably still too much
Dark Sector, Xbox 360 - £5
Dark Sector, Xbox 360 - £5 delivered
This comes and goes in and out of stock fairly regularly, seems like it would be worth a fiver.
Weekend Special Roundup 20/3
Steam:
Abe's Oddysee - £1.50
Abe's Exoddus - £1.50
Both for £2.25
GamersGate:
Warhammer 40k Dawn of War [Platinum Edition] - €14.99
includes:
Dawn of War
Winter Assault
and Dark Crusade
Good old Games:
25% off all interplay action titles:
Die by the Sword - $4.49
Earthworm Jim 1 + 2 - $4.49
Earthworm Jim 3D (I am not giving that a functioning link) - $4.49
MDK - $4.49
MDK 2 - $4.49
Messiah - $4.49
Shattered Steel - $4.49
Use coupon "ACTION" for the 25 % off.
Impulse:
Obulis - £7.83
Penguins Arena - £7.83
Space Trader - Merchant Marine - £5.19
Warlords Battlecry III - £6.93
Also check out Steam's Indie game sale
Game Boy Advance SP Limited Pink Edition - £19.99
Game Boy Advance SP Limited Pink Edition - £19.99 delivered
It's Mother's day soon right?
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
Weekend Special Roundup 13/3
Steam:
Red Orchestra: Ostfront 41-45 - £2.99
There has just been an update to it too, adding achievements and a new map.
GamersGate:
Mount & Blade - £7.40
Impulse:
Safecracker - £7.13
Dungeon Lords [Collectors Edition] - £7.13
Genesis Rising - £7.13
MotoGP 08 - £21.41
Cellblock Squadrons - £3.53
Good old Games:
Patrician 3 and Port Royale 2 - $15.99
Just add both games to your basket to receive the discount.
The Magic Toy Chest - Review
The Magic Toy Chest, PC - $19.95
Review by Bobby
The Magic Toy Chest is one of those games that if it were a flash based web game would be the talk of the internet. One of those meme like popular games posted on message boards the world over. Because it is one of those games. This game however costs $19.95, the question is, is it worth it?
Developed by Graduate Games, MTC is a physics based puzzle game similar to the Incredible Machine, which if you haven't played, you should. The aim of each level is to get a certain amount of a toy into the eponymous chest, in an attempt to tidy the various rooms of your house, and boy do I wish I had been able to get away with tidying my room like this, because this is fun.
Most levels start with the relatively simple task of locating all the keys to open your Magic Toy Chest, from here though things get a little tougher. The aim is to relocate a certain toy from where it currently reside to the MTC. Easier said than done. The idea is to set up the toys you have access to and use them to move the desired toy into the chest. There is a good number of different toys to choose from, each with individual actions to help you with your chores, the rocket can be set up and shot into the air, the ball, err, rolls, and the jumping dog, well, jumps. A clever aspect of this is if you happen to get any of the extra toys in the level into the box, not only do you get bonus points, but you get to use these to solve the puzzle.
One area where MTC varies from similar games is the real time set up, a lot of these games require you to set everything and then press go and see if it works, MTC does not, so you can see if you reactions are faster than gravity. Fortunately, so this doesn’t get frustrating, a simple tap of the space bar pauses the game time so you can set up and then un-pause, if required. This aspect makes for a bit more variation in the solving of puzzles.
Sadly there are few rather obvious bugs. Some levels start and pieces of the puzzles simply fall away as they aren't attached properly. Other times objects pass straight through others, or the object shape doesn't match the collision edge. Frustrating as these are, they aren't really gamebreakers, but possibly the most fundamental issue with this game is that a number of the laws of physics simply aren't obeyed. Friction has no place in this game, gravity is only loosely adhered to, and momentum ignored in place of an objects preset placement ability.
Even better than this though is when the toy truck causes a warp in the space time continuum and makes gravity fluctuate. Fun as this is, it is a pretty large flaw in a game billing itself as a physics based game.
Unfortunately, it is this which leaves the lasting impression not the puzzles, the frustration which comes with a puzzle not working because a piece floats through another, or won’t stop moving is greater than the fun aspect of the game, and this is a shame, as MTC is actually fun, but so are a lot of free games out there.
The fact there is a skip function shows that a lot of thought has been put into the game, it is the output which is flawed, not the concept, I look forward to seeing more from Graduate Games in the future.
MTC is a fun but flawed physics based game which is wholly suitable for children and may appeal to parents who want to limit children’s access to the internet for similar games.
The Magic Toy Chest, PC - $19.95
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