Defence Grid, PC - £3.50 on Steam.
Excellent game, incredible price. Buy it.
Defence Grid, PC - £3.50
Gothic 3, PC - £5.04
Gothic 3, PC - £5.04 delivered
It's £4.70, but you can get this too to bump it over £5 to get free p&p if there is nothing else you want to order at the same time.
Fallout 3 [Limited Edition], Xbox 360 - £24.99
Fallout 3 [Limited Edition], Xbox 360 - £24.99 delivered
Pikmin (New Play Control), Wii - £14.98
Pikmin (New Play Control), Wii - £14.98 delivered
Yes the web site is hideous, but these guys should be trustworthy. It is SoftUK rebranded.
Peggle DS - Review
Peggle DS - £19.99 delivered
Review by LewieP
Peggle, in all it's guises, is a funny beast. Dual Shot in particular.
It is a game where you are only actually doing anything a small proportion of the time. There is a 2D board with cleverly arranged 'pegs' dotted around on it, and you shoot balls from a centre point at the top of the board. Pretty much the only input you have is what angle to fire the ball at, and when to fire it.
There are 25 orange pegs, and you have 10 balls, and you have to get all the orange pegs to complete a level. There are several ways to get additional balls, like a high scoring shot. Each orange peg you hit contributes to a multiplier too.
The cleverest aspect of the Peggle design is mystery. At any given time it is very difficult to tell what proportion of how successful you are is down to skill, and what proportion is down to luck. I suspect that this dichotomy is what makes the game both incredibly accessible, and incredibly addictive.
Peggle on the DS should be the definitive version of Peggle. It has the touchscreen controls, which are at least as good as mouse controls. It has, in theory, good enough hardware to do a good job of the audio/visual rewards that Peggle likes to drip feed players, and it can be played in bed, on the loo, at work or collapsed in a gutter somewhere, telling yourself "just one more hit".
Sadly, I'm going to say that the PC version is still the one to play.
The most obvious problem with Dual Shot is the graphics. Peggle DS is kind of ugly. Like bad 90s spritework ugly.
This wouldn't be such a crime, but the iPod nano has a better looking version of Peggle. There is no excuse for the DS version (a dedicated gaming platform) looking worse than a version of Peggle made for an MP3 player. When the game zooms in, you can actually see that the 'ball' is in fact a square. It's a shame, because Peggle really depends on the flashy neon player feedback to work, and on this front, Dual Shot kind of falls flat.
I am also unconvinced by the physics engine. It every now and again behaves in a way that doesn't look quite right, and this has lead to me missing shots that I think I should have made.
A new mechanic to Peggle was introduced into Dual Shot, and I have mixed feelings about it. In previous games, there was purple pegs which would move about the level each turn, and if you hit them, you got a bunch of points. In Dual Shot, in addition to the points boost, when you hit 5 of them, you get teleported to a bonus level. In this bonus level, you can get an extra ball, and a shed load of points. It is certainly an interesting idea.
The problem?
The bonus stages suck.
It always seems to boil down to "try to decipher when you should and shouldn't randomly jab the screen." The luck/skill dichotomy that the main game balances so well isn't present at all.
It creates the odd scenario where I want to collect the purple pegs, because they can give you a lot of points, but I want to avoid them, because the bonus game is horrible to play.
All in all, I can see past most of these flaws. It is a workable version of Peggle, and it contains both the original Peggle levels, and the Peggle Nights levels.
It's just a shame that the DS version (which is also the most expensive version) lacks most of the polish of every other version.
Xbox 360 Wireless Controller [Black] - £17.98
Xbox 360 Wireless Controller [Black] - £17.98 delivered
I am still selling a bunch of Wii games on eBay.
I posted last week that I was selling some Wii games on eBay, and I was asked in the comments to remind you guys when there is 24 hours left, which is now.
Here they are.
Mention that you read SavyGamer and get 10% off the total price (including P&P) if you win.
Space Giraffe - Review
Space Giraffe, PC - £13.45
Space Giraffe, XBLA - 400 MS Points
Review by LewieP
The closest I can come to flat out recommending Space Giraffe is saying "I would feel like an idiot if I didn't flat out recommend Space Giraffe".
I could break it down it to its component parts and say which bits are nice, and which bits aren't nice, but that would probably be missing the point. It, like pretty much any other game, is just a collection of graphics, sounds, and gameplay mechanics. It's hard for me to give any kind of definitive answer as to whether it works well or not, but it certainly works for me, and at the very least you should be open minded towards it.
Space Giraffe is a psychedelic, light-synth looking game about moving and shooting.
On the surface, it might as well be called Tempest 4000. The controls are similar to the tempest games, and the levels are presented in a very similar fashion, and the graphics are exactly what you would expect from a Llamasoft game.
However, if you are willing to look beyond these superficial similarities to previous games, you'll find a deep, rewarding, utter bastard of a game.
Stuart Campbell did a far better job of dissecting the gameplay mechanics and scoring system of Space Giraffe than I could ever do, as does Jeff himself. The most important new mechanic present in the game for me is the bull attack. There is a horizontal line visible on the level, and it's distance into the screen represents how full your "Power Zone" is. As long as it is not empty, you can bash enemies that have reached the top of the level. You will also get a massive multiplier for doing this. Your Power Zone is constantly draining, but it gets topped up by shooting enemies.
What this does, for me, is remove a lot of the feeling of fragility that was present in Tempest 2000. Now, when enemies reach the top of the level, I don't feel helpless, I see opportunity. It is risk/reward gameplay at it's finest.
There are a bunch of similar interesting mechanics all going on at once.
It is a great looking game. Yes, lots of people say "I can't even see what's happening", but you just need to look with better eyes. There is a lot of visual information you have to decipher, and there will be some doubt as to what exactly is going on at any given time, but that is simply part of the fun.
Fun.
Yes fun. Fun is one of the things that happens whilst playing Space Giraffe. You will have fun.
Unlike many other games though, it will make you work bloody hard for it. You basically have to concentrate all of the time. You will have deaths that you don't even feel are your fault. You might get angry with it, uninstall it and vow to never play it again. Then you will redownload it, and get a new high score.
It tells you that you are rubbish, it tell you that you are not really good enough to be playing it, and it is probably right at first.
But then you, even if just for a few moments, you'll do well. The brilliant (free download) soundtrack will step up a notch, lots of bright lights will go off, and you will be king of the world.
Jeff Minter has been making games for a long time, and has gotten pretty damn good at it. What he is not as good as, it seems, is marketing. Space Giraffe was not a commercial success, which really doesn't surprise me.
There is a demo, but I am going to suggest you don't play the demo. I downloaded the 360 demo, played it, didn't quite get it, then deleted it. Then downloaded it again, didn't quite get it, then deleted it. I went through this process several times before I got the full version on the PC. It's not an expensive game, the XBLA version is 400 MS Points (or two horse armours) you can get it on the PC for £13.45. If you are at all interested in it, get it, and play it for an hour before formulating any opinion on it.
I'm sorry for wasting your money if you buy it on my recommendation and don't like it at all. Hopefully you will.
Crash Bandicoot: Wrath of Cortex, Xbox Originals - 800 MS Points
Crash Bandicoot: Wrath of Cortex, Xbox Originals - 800 MS Points
Xbox Live deal of the week, offer only available to Xbox Live gold subscribers.
Splinter Cell: Double Agent, Wii - £5.52
Splinter Cell: Double Agent, Wii - £5.52 delivered
The game is £4.99, and you can either spend £5 or more to get free p&p, or pay £1.99 for p&p.
Or, if there is nothing else you want to order, grab one of these for 53p, to bring your order above the £5 free postage threshold.
Lost Planet: Colonies, PC - £4.95
Lost Planet: Colonies, PC - £4.95 delivered
Update: Apparently this is £2.95 in store at GAME. Cheers to esteluk for the tip off.
Alone In The Dark [Limited Edition], Xbox 360 - £5.95
Alone In The Dark [Limited Edition], Xbox 360 - £5.95 delivered
Retweet button added to posts
You may have noticed I just got all web two point oh, and added a "retweet" button to blog posts.
The idea of these is that if you see a good deal that you think either your twitter followers, or a specific twitter friend might like, you can just click on the retweet button, and twit it at them.
If you hate it, then adding the filter "|http://api.tweetmeme.com/*" to adblock will hide it forever, and you can forget all about it.
Don't forget me and Willeth are on Twitter
http://twitter.com/LewieP
http://twitter.com/Willeth
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