Parental Guidance

He's super cool and he knows Kung Fu!

2009-11-01T17:17:00.002Z

Yeah I know it's been a while since the last post, and this has nothing to do with videogames. But after finding nothing of remote intrest in the games world over these last few months (the topless pics of Kate Billingham have been taken down)we thought it time to expand our horizons beyond playing portal, pissing off games publishers and searcing the net for upskirt pics of Lily Allen. So PG is branching out into others forms of media now, because no one asked us to!
So we start with this gem. The trailer to Blacksploitation tribute/parody; "Black Dynamite" Starring Michael Jai White (spawn, the dark knight and that shit universal soldier sequel)a UK release is yet to be confirmed

Alien vs Predator latest trailer...SENTRY GUNS BITCHES!

2009-07-29T20:25:00.002+01:00

Check out the latest trailer for the upcoming Alien vs Predator. With the focus being on the xenomorph fodder that is the Colonial Marines.

GTA: Ballad of Gay Tony latest

2009-07-23T17:35:00.003+01:00

For all you players of GTA4 that have already played the hell out of it and still enjoying (if not already finished) The Lost and Damned. Well Rockstar have just confirmed the release date for the second piece of DLC, "The Ballad of Gay Tony" which will be available worldwide from October the 29th. But if you're new to the GTA 4 bandwagon or don't have your 360 online (which means you're probably can't read this either) then Rockstar have that covered too as on the same worldwide date you can buy Grand Theft Auto: Episodes From Liberty City. Which is The Lost and Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony on disc and will not - and I repeat, WILL NOT- require a copy of GTA4 to play it so you're saved having to shell out for the original game (although you should really , it's good) or waste valuable playing seconds on disc swapping. No UK price has been confiemed yet (about 40 dollars in the States) but we'll keep you posted that one.

Marvel vs Capcom 2: 29th July

2009-07-09T16:24:00.003+01:00

We now offically have a date for when you'll be able to play Marvel vs Capcom on on the Xbox live arcade. July the 29th for the price of 1,200 microsoft points. It's a straight up conversion of the original game but does have the option to smoothen out the graphics.

The Conduit (Wii) the final trailer

2009-06-29T02:03:00.002+01:00

Just a couple of weeks until The Conduit comes out for the Wii. July 10th to be exact and it's looks like it cracks along at a fair old rate with fully customisable controls and 12 player online mode (we'll see about that)

New Max Payne 3 screens

2009-06-25T17:03:00.002+01:00

With the release listed as "Winter 2009" it seems from the shots that we're still gonna have the same tried and tested gunplay but this time the setting has been moved to South America with Max sporting a new Vin Deisel/Chuck Norris look.

Gamed1k

2009-06-10T22:56:00.003+01:00

If you've ever been on Xbox LIVE and encountered someone who only there to annoy you, and is the bane of your existence... then you've probably come across someone like Gamed1k.

The first episode of Gamed1k, a satirical machinima comedy highlighting the kind of gamers that one may come across on a typical day of Xbox LIVE.

Check it out...

Bayonetta E3 Trailer

2009-06-01T12:00:00.002+01:00

From the accalaimed team that brought us Mad World- Platinum Games comes the latest trailer for the spiritual successor to Devil May Cry; Bayonetta. Despite dodgy British accents, it's looking pretty good

Vaz watch

2009-05-27T09:56:00.002+01:00

Our moral guardian, MP Keith Vaz. Who has been on a crusade to rid our shores of the evil that blights our young. Or videogames as everyone else calls them. Well it seems he must've exposed himself to the evils of manhunt 2 because it must have caused him to forget that when he claimed more than 75,000 pounds expenses for a flat in Westminster when his family home (worth over ojne million pounds) was only 12 miles away from the house of commons. About 40 minutes by car. Add to this;
£480 on silk cushions
£2614 on two leather chairs and stool
£1000 on a dining table
£750 on carpets
£100 on a lamp

more of this shithouse's carry on can be read on the story below
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/mps-expenses/5298267/Keith-Vaz-75000-for-a-flat-12-miles-from-home.html

Wez and Larry's Top Ten Wacky Japanese Games

2009-05-22T09:17:00.007+01:00

Yes, it's those guys. And now they're on http://www.thatguywiththeglasses.com/

Oh yes, that very popular website! So check out their video by clicking on the link (which was on TV 100 years ago, but nevermind).

And after watching that, check out possibly one of the most amazing internets videos ever made below, the TGWTG 1 Year Anniversary Brawl! It includes nearly every video game internet celebrity, from ThatGuywiththeglasses to The Angry Video Game Nerd! That's right! Even everyone from Handsome Tom to SpoonyOne! Check 'em out

http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/videolinks/bt/guruandwez/top10/7292-top10wackyjgames

Alien Vs Predator teaser and screens

2009-05-20T18:19:00.003+01:00

Made by origianl dev team rebellion (behind the classic 1999 game) have a look at the newest screens and teaser from Sega

Radio 1's crap gaming weekend!

2009-05-20T10:08:00.002+01:00

As anyone will tell you, the best medium to review videogames on is of course the radio. Who needs to the distraction of graphics and sound when the simple voice of a monotonous presenter/expert to tell you about it. Which is why the BBC- in their infinite wisdom- decide that after years of pretty much ignoring the games industry to dedicate the upcoming bank holiday weekend to videogames. So if this weekend, your 360 gets the red ring of death or youporn is on the blink then you can have your intelligence insulted by Radio 1 and 1extra with this shower;

“The weekend will be jam packed with gaming themed content from reviews, to soundtracks, DJ leaderboards and a poll to find the best game ever.Whether you're into collecting gold coins, eating blue ghosts, performing unearthly fighting combos, fitting shapes together against the clock or multiplaying with distant friends there will be something for all gamers.The highlight of the weekend will be BBC Radio 1 & 1Xtra hosting an online poll to find the greatest ever computer game. A panel of industry experts will compile a list of their top 100 games and then listeners will be invited to choose their top three from the list.”

But don’t despair, PG has you covered if you are stuck listening to this cobblers, as you can make a little game out of it! And because I’ve made it up, it involves drinking.

Basically take a shot every time;
Someone uses the expression “geek” “nerd” “Anorak” . Take two if the person saying it is an expert (the station’s own Johnny Minkley for example) or professional reviewer
Someone says “playstation” or “Xbox” or “Wii” when they mean videogames or games consoles. Take two shots if they just say Nintendo. And take three shots if a DJ uses Space Invaders (or any other game that’s over 10 years old) as a blanket term for all games
When someone says any game that just came out in the last 12 months is the best game ever. With fable 2 and Fallout 3 as the allowed exceptions. Take two shots if any of the praised games are a Need For Speed or Fifa (or any crummy yearly update title) and take three shots if it’s a non-game (i.e. cooking mama or Wii fit) or a game that hasn’t even been released yet.
If you hear a game theme you recognise. If the DJ plays it for less than 30 seconds and talks all over it then have another.
If some bright spark DJ gives out their gamertag/ PSnetwork id on air. Consider yourself a friend of PG if you abuse them online and send us the footage
If some has been from an old gaming Tv show (Dave Perry, Dominick Diamond, Matt Cuttle et all) guests. As above, we’ll love you forever if you phone in and abuse them and send us the audio
If anyone says “computer games” instead of “videogames”. Which is wanky I know but they’re my rules so there. Ignore if it’s in reference to a PC game.

Hopefully that should help pass the time until Charlie Brooker‘s Gameswipe. If you make it through the entire weekend then your next port of call should be www.alcoholics-anonymous.org.uk

Sony to publish Ghostbusters

2009-05-07T09:54:00.003+01:00

Spare a thought for the Ghostbusters videogame. Originally owned by Activision, who didn't want it. Then sold to Atari. And now the Euro publishing rights to the PS2, PS3 and PSP versions have been sold to Sony for a June 19 release. Where this leaves the 360 and Wii versions in unknown at this point in time

Sega's Wack World Of Sports

2009-04-30T12:14:00.002+01:00

While we wait for Wii virtua Tennis, Sega cover the bases with sports themed party game; Wacky World Of Sports, based around obsure sporting events like tuna tosing (whatever you do don't google it like I did) and furniture racing. It's set for a late 209 release

PDC 2009 preview

2009-04-22T09:53:00.003+01:00

If your idea of professional darts is a bunch of sozzled labourers chucking bits of brass about in a dingy old pub, then you're an ignorant fool. Because the PDC premier league of darts pulls in audiences only second to premiership football with it's electric atmosphere and heart stopping finishes. So as a sport rises in profile the inevitable tie-in game isn't far off. I was down at the Sports Cafe in London's west end last week to have a little go on the latest PDC game on the Wii.

As on the previous Wii game, you hold the remote much like a real dart for aiming, tis is where a very gentle touch is required to line up the reticule while holding down the A button. Then motion the remote like throwing the dart before releasing A. Getting the right amount of force in the throw is where the skill lies and is tighter than the last PDC game on the Wii. Being an official license you can choose from 18 players from the PDC along with their entrances and commentary from the legendary Sid Waddell.

PDC 2009 comes out on the Wii and DS on the 29th of May

SF4 championship mode free!

2009-04-17T14:23:00.004+01:00

In an act of charitable kindness only rivalled by Jesus Christ when healed the sick. Capcom bring us their latest bit of DLC for absolutely free! That's right, Street Fighter 4's new championship mode wont cost a penny. Which is nice

"Championship Mode offers you the chance to compete in five different grades of tournaments, creating the right challenge for players of every skill level. You’ll score Grade Points (GP) for tournament wins, and as your GP total grows, you’ll become eligible to enter into more exclusive tournaments. Winning tournaments will also net you Championship Points (CP). CPs are like “prize money” up for grabs in the tournament. The higher the GP skill of the players in a particular tournament, the bigger the CP prize!"
So hopefully newer players won't get swamped by all the top tier players online and you'll be able to go over tournament matches in the rplay mode, watching the best matches and even being able to view an on screen display of the button inputs so you learn all the dirty tricks. The mode will avliable to download on the 24th of April for both 360 and PS3

Some new Brutal Legend screens

2009-04-05T09:59:00.003+01:00

coming soon to the 360 and PS3 is the latest game from Tim Schafer and Double Fine, so you know it'll be intentionally funny in a game described as a "Rock Adventure" game. From the trailer that came out a year ago I'm hoping it's more so a hack and slash 'em up with a much needed sense of humour.

New Call of Duty!

2009-03-27T14:41:00.006Z

Not much to go on at the moment other than the release date (10th November) and that you'll be fighting terrorists. And that it seems to be going under the name Modern Warfare 2 as opposed to C.O.D. 6.
Roll on November says us
http://www.modernwarfare2.com.

Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks

2009-03-27T09:24:00.002Z

Here's the trailer to the latest Zelda game, Spirit Tracks, for the DS. Looking much like Wind Waker and Phantom Hourglass before it, but the new addition of traveling on a train.

Rhythm Heaven just around the corner

2009-03-26T10:02:00.005Z

Slated for a April 5th release date for the DS, Rhythm Heaven has been quite popular in Japan with it's rhythm action gameplay crossed with WarioWare style mini-games.

Which I know annoys the hell out of us on the whole but seeing it actually being played reminds us that the DS alone is suited for games like this that you can use to pass a few minutes here and there.

New shots of The Conduit

2009-03-21T09:33:00.003Z

a sci-fi based first person shooter for (low and behold) the Wii. That's right, a developer finally twigged that the Wii controls actually work for a FPS. Although it's been noted it wont be using the upcoming Wii motion-plus. But if it works like metroid prime 3 did then we'll be laughing

More proof Ninty don't give a toss about the west

2009-03-16T10:19:00.014Z

You may think it's brilliant over in Japan. They get all the games before us mugs in Europe, sometimes software that'll never see the light of day over here and they go around molesting girls on trains willy nilly. While we wait upon nintendo to even regestre our existance over here in Blighty. Well that ideal takes another step towards truth as in Japan some elementary and middle schools in Osaka Japan are handing out free DS' to students to aid with their learning. The Osaka education board made using the DS as part of school laerning in January with software such as Brain Age and My Japanese Coach.
Where as over here, nintedo have just added twenty pounds on the price of a Wii to retailers so a Wii price hike may be on the cards so dixons and the like don't lose out on pocket.
Thanks Nintendo!

What shithead put water in my gin glass!

2009-03-14T10:32:00.010Z

We at PG are much looking forward to Madworld on the Wii. And not just because it looks amazing and is brought to us by a top team of developers (who were part of making Resident Evil and Okami) but mainly because it's a new Wii title that isn't mini-game complilation number 246. So leading up to it's release, why not laugh at how rubbish the two blokes are out of the deathwatch segements by viewing their outtakes

and if you still can't wait then amuse yourself with the madworld mini-games off the site; www.madworldtv.co.uk/minigames

Virtual On coming to xbox live arcade

2009-03-13T09:40:00.002Z

"Available for the first time on Xbox LIVE, Virtual On features high-octane mech action with 15 playable Virtuaroids. Players can choose how they want to play as each mech has its own defining characteristics. The game delivers an online 1 vs. 1 multiplayer battle mode, as well as fast-paced single player action through 10 Arcade-mode levels and 14 Score attack stages. Virtual On features numerous ways to earn achievements as well as voice communication."

Coming this spring time. Virtual On was one of the Saturn's (and to another extent the Dreamcast's) lost cult gems. This should certianly be more playable with the 360's dual sticks

Jonathan Ross lets slip about Fable 3

2009-03-12T10:21:00.003Z

After presenting an award at the still pointless videogame BAFTAs Wossy posted on his twitter account;

"Goodnight all. Must go to bed. Got asked to do voice in Fable 3 tonight. Subarashi. Oyasuminasia. Woss out."

He also later let slip that tv critic and host of Screenwipe, Charlie Brooker would also be providing a voice over.

Inside The Xbox 360 - Through the Tech Hole

2009-03-11T12:21:00.002Z

We don't like to advertise here, but we're going to this time because this video is a highly informative look at the innerds of an Xbox 360 console

The video is so popular right now that the internets almost collapsed with people saying "I can has moar?"

Check it out and be a sheep. Or don't check it out and be deemed uncool. It's up to you.

UFC 2009 Undisputed trailer

2009-03-11T11:07:00.005Z

http://www.thq-games.com/uk/thqtv/index/2729

Coming for the PS3 and 360 with over 80 fighters from the UFC roster (whether that will include past champions like Royce Gracie or Ken Shamrock is not yet known) and a innovative control system that will hopefully make it more accessible than the previous UFC games. Release date is yet to be confirmed

Platinum Games shows us how to open game box

2009-03-10T10:11:00.003Z

Cheers for that! Who says developers don't care about gamers needs.

However, if you want to win some unspecified stuff then enter their compitition. All is required is you buy the game and get a mate with a camera.

"Take you camera with you when you go buy MADWORLD. Take a picture or a video of you with the game, either in the act of purchasing or after you have purchased. Just like kills in MADWORLD, the more elaborate the picture, the better your chances of winning. Multiple people in the photo is a good start. Making it black, white, and red - even better. Get creative, get original. Once you are done, post a link to the photo or video here in the comments. Make sure to fill in the email address field or we can’t contact you if you win."

This is the place to send your entries to

http://platinumgames.com/2009/03/06/madworld-unboxing-and-madworld-release-day-contest/

the closing date is march 28th.

Virtua Tennis 2009 trailer

2009-03-10T10:06:00.005Z

coming to the PS3, 360, PC and Wii

crap Ryu, only a snip at 10 grand

2009-03-08T09:07:00.002Z

In money conscious times where capcom feel it necessary to cough up for extra costumes in Street Fighter 4, why not help the economy further by buying this painting of Ryu by brit artist Dave White. It's been estimated at about seven to ten thousand pounds for something that looks like a bored art student scribbled in the back of his maths book. I mean it's just a head and it's not even in colour! You can get a full colour poster of all the SF characters for just about four quid.

Hold my DS fatty

2009-03-05T11:26:00.003Z

For the price of a bit more than a new DS game you too can have a little figureine of Mario that holds your DS. Brilliant. No more will you have to put your DS in a drawer or on a table like all the rest of us mugs

Out with the old and in with the older

2009-03-02T11:09:00.003Z

well now that whats 'is face has gone to pastures new. So that means there's a new sherrif in town. That being me. It's gonna be a bit slow at first but rest assured I'm just as spiteful and unprofessional as anyone else around here so don't worry about things changing for the softer side of things.

Liam

Parental Guidance becomes Gamerphile.

2009-02-14T20:19:00.006Z

It's been a good run, but times change and so do websites. We're moving to a much bigger and better website, and switching this one off. Gamerphile will have all of the writers can content you love, just on a much better page. We hope you will continue to enjoy our work as we continue to enjoy writing it.

You can find the new site here: Gamerphile

Article by: Edwin Jones.

New Left 4 Dead content confirmed by Valve.

2009-02-06T00:22:00.015Z

Well, it's about time.

Valve have confirmed more content for Left 4 Dead on 360 and PC today in the form of two new Versus mode campaigns (probably the two missing co-op campaigns at last) and a survivor mode. I think I speak for the whole internet when I say that this is awesome.

Article by: Edwin Jones

Sony are suffering a serious slump in sales.

2009-01-30T18:27:00.003Z

Whu-oh. The Global economic crisis seems to have hit another high profile target, this time a little closer to our gamer hearts than Woolworths according to Kotaku. Sales are down on every major system from the PSP to the PS3. Even the PS2 is not selling as well as it used to.

We hope that this is not as serious an issue as it has been for other companies as nobody wants to see Sony leave the gaming arena. Somebody has to keep Microsoft from getting all evil and Nintendo from being the only Japanese console manufacturer. Get well soon Sony.

Article by: Edwin Jones

The Resident Evil 5 demo is out on Xbox Live. Now.

2009-01-27T00:16:00.002Z

Well, it is. And it is slightly dissapointing I must say. In a world with Gears of War in it, not being able to move, aim and shoot is ghastly. Having a partner you can't get rid of who gets killed by enemies because of her own stupidity which ends the game for you both is also just pants. You can do better than this Capcom, hold the game back and fix these issues. The graphics are very good though, so stick with them. Less screen tearing though please.

Article by: Edwin Jones

Fallout 3 updated

2009-01-13T21:54:00.003Z

Like Fallout 3? Good news for you and several million other people then.

The powers that be have decided to give us a patch for the game on all formats that will stop random crashes, infinite XP exploits and which will let you drop now useless quest items clogging up your inventory. Sweet!

For more details click here.

Article by: Edwin Jones

UK games sales higher than ever

2009-01-07T20:19:00.004Z

Happy new year!

It's a little late but the year is still young. To start off on such a new year how about some good news about the economy instead of all the bad stuff?

according to Eurogamer, over 80 million games were sold in the U.K. last year. That's almost 2 billion pounds (not dollars) in game sales. Crikey. This is about 23% higher than 2007 so although the economy is suffering games are yet again not taking any notice. Hurrah!

Here come the dark side of it so get ready to grit your teeth - most of these sales are to casual gamers. We are talking about everybody who bought wii-fit here. Sadly, real gaming is taking a back seat to Nintendo's money machine but they have made it clear for a long time now that they care about money and not an innovative or playable game. No, they want novelty toys for adults and by god do they sell a lot of them.

Don't blame Nintendo. Blame your parents. In fact, go out and buy them GOW 2 or Fallout 3 right now to show them how awesome games can be. A 360 can be bought for less than £100 these days so it's not hard to give them one. If nothing else they won't try to anger you again after seeing how ridiculously gory those games are. If you want to be a wimp about it get them 'Scene It' or something.

Wuss.

Article by: Edwin Jones

Could last-gen game pricing return?

2008-12-31T16:26:00.006Z

I'm sure all of you have been gaming for a while. You might be a little annoyed about the current price of games of about £50 brand new in a shop when in 2004 you could get a brand new game for £30 online.

The good news is, this may start to stop. I managed to snag Fallout 3 for £19.50 delivered from Gamestation a few weeks back (yes, I will review it but I need to finish the damned thing, it's a monster,) and I was impressed. I've been looking around the shops and even Gears 2 is going for £35 in store these days. What the hell is happening?

That's where the bad news comes in. The world economy is dying on its arse. Whilst this means we can now get a litre of petrol for less than a quid again (yay!) it means millions are losing their jobs. The high street chain Woolworths closed it's doors recently and others such as The Officers Club (clothing chain) and Zavvi (they sold games too, so that's a shame) have gone under. Whilst it sucks that people are losing their jobs we have to focus on the bright side, and that is the chance that these new game prices will stick. Who will pay £50 for Gears 2 a few months after it was £35? Very few people. We do have to be aware that all these low prices could just be post christmas bargains and revert to the insane prices of last year, but I doubt that.

Let's hope we can take one of the few good things about this depression and keep it going. £50 for a 360 game (espeically if it was an Xbox port like Far-Cry instincts) was bleeding outrageous.

You can read more about the American side of this issue at Kotaku. If you want to learn more about this event in the UK, I suggest you step outside and go shopping. It's hard to miss.

Article By: Edwin Jones

Wii'itis?

2008-12-20T21:27:00.002Z

According to The Sun, ten people a WEEK are hospitalised with wii injuries, normally shoulder or knee pains.

“It’s possible that Wii-itus may lead to rheumatism and arthritis in later life. Patients often have inflammation of the shoulder or wrist.”

Doctors even recommend stretching before playing Wii games. If you said that to someone in america, they would literally have no clue what you were on about, stretching? sounds like a way of cooking something for them.

Article by: William Stephen

End of Time for the Timesplitters Team?

2008-12-18T19:56:00.002Z

According to CVG, Free Radical, the team behind games such as the timesplitter series (decent) and haze (not so decent) are another british company to undergo administration.

Though the company has been filed for administration, they are still saying its business as usual.

"We will be spending the next three or four days assessing the financial position of the company but it's business as usual, although we have asked that almost all of the employees apart from a skeleton crew remain at home."

So despite being on a skeleton crew its business as normal? Hardly. Less gaming companies though mean the industry isnt "recession proof".

Article by: William Stephen

Danger Danger! Youtube gets shakened!

2008-12-17T18:36:00.006Z

Just found this now but has been around a while. Wario land shake it!, known as shake dimension here has a special youtube video. Look for yourself here!

Article by: William Stephen

Gamestation, bah humbug!

2008-12-16T20:56:00.005Z

While you may have seen adverts for loads of cheap prices from gamestation and other places, that doesnt mean they are not scrooges. If you remember a while back I posted that Gamestation gave me a broken Lancer Rifle. Well the idiots forgot to keep extra stock incase such an event happen, so when I sent an email asking where my replacement is, they said they refunded me instead, without telling me beforehand!

Now this wouldnt bother me if this was just another game, but this isnt a game, it is a rare piece of memorabilila, with only 5000 made. On ebay the prices are already 3 times what the RRP was and it was only out last month!!

After complaining harshly to them through emails they have sent the bog standard "looking into your situation" email which will probably lead to nothing. It annoys me that a gaming company can just ignore something like this, and I really hope they do something for a change. If not, then I may just start a campaign!

Article by: William Stephen

Want to get a new 'Jasper' Xbox 360? Here is how to recognise one.

2008-12-11T22:36:00.006Z

Got an Xbox 360? Tired of it dying on you all the time? We might possibly have the solution. As you may know, a new model of the 360 has launched codenamed: Jasper. It has it's own internal flash memory as MS seem to have admitted an optional memory storage device was a bit dense. It's also got a 45nm chipset which is a lot smaller than older 360 models and should also be a lot cooler. As 360's mostly die due to overheating problems or problems related to overheating, (that's why wrapping it in a towel and cooking it for a few minutes brings it back for an hour or two,) this should mean a 'Jasper' unit will be more RROD resistant.

This is only a logical estimate, but it makes sense. Generally new tech is more reliable than the old, but this IS the 360 we are talking about, it could still die on you for no reason.

Anyway, if you want to know if you have a shiny new Jasper set, here is the trick. To quote Kotaku:

"It's all in the amps. If the back of a 360 says 12.1 amps, it's a Jasper, and you're free to enjoy the cooler, safer experience that brings with it. If it's any higher than 12.1, it's an older unit, you lucked out."

You can read more about this story here.

Article by: Edwin Jones

Nintendo sell 800k Wiis in a week in the US alone.

2008-12-08T22:50:00.006Z

Holy...

800,000 Wii consoles, in a week? Even a week this close to Christmas? To put this in perspective I shall quote Kotaku:

"That matches the Wii's sales in the U.S. for the entire month of October and more than doubles the number of Wiis sold during the same week the year prior, according to Reuters."

And Microsoft were saying they did well this month? Who the heck keeps buying these things - Wii Fit and Wii sports are not that good, surely even the elderly have figured that out? Why do Nintendo still allow shortages every Christmas even years after the Wii launched?

We will never know.

You can read more about this story here.

Article by: Edwin Jones

Capcom Europe giving free stuff!

2008-12-08T22:31:00.003Z

I thought this might interest alot of people who love the street fighter games and other capcom gems. On the Capcom Europe forums, they are holding giveaways for exlcusive memoribila, such as XBLA codes, as well as signed prints from the legendary ono-san. All you need to do is "wave" in the particular giveaway thread and then they choose a winner from everyone who waves. Simple! Sign up here to get started. The giveaways are located in general chat and will normally be one every couple days. Best thing is, very few people take part in these comps so your chances of winning are very high

The pic above is what I won from them.

Jealous?!

Article By: William Stephen

Cat killed by GTA 4?

2008-12-06T17:54:00.004Z

Two boys have accused of beating and killing a cat by hanging it with a game controller on a tree. What's been suggested is that the kids did this because they played GTA IV. Despite admitting to this, the boys can't be convicted of any crime because of state law.

Will this ever stop?!

Article by: William Stephen

Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3

2008-12-04T22:15:00.005Z

Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3 is set in the future. And the future means cleavage exaggerating military uniforms. Viva la revolution!!

The game starts as an insane Tim Curry entices his General into an experimental Time Machine that sends them back in time and knocks off poor old Albert Einstein. This is meant to ensure that much of the technology used by allied forced to defeat the Soviets never get invented. However, lesson 1 in the laws of science fiction tells you over and over not to mess with the fabric of the space/time continuum, and sure enough, an alternative future results. One where the Soviets stayed together (not just for the sake of the kids) but bizarrely the allies are no weaker as a result. That said, picking holes in a plot so unashamedly over-the-top is like two bald men fighting over a comb, but I digress. The surprise you discover soon into the game, is that without Einstein's existence, the allies didn't have the technology to beat the Japanese either, and the Empire of the Rising Son has, well, risen complete with ownership of Pearl Harbour.

You take control of all three factions, each with a unique storyline and outcome. The accents change but the premise remains largely the same. You are a rookie commander who works his way up by completing missions, and capturing the hearts of the gorgeous intelligence officers who brief you in HD cut scenes before each mission. The latter are played by a buxom looking Gemma Atkinson (my you've grown), stunning former Bond girl Ivana Miličević and some plain looking Japanese woman who claims to be a former MIss Teen USA, but compared to the other two looks like as rough as the proverbial badgers arse.

The missions grow in difficulty as you progress, but the road to victory is always the same; build a base, build mines for credits, build up your military and destroy the enemy targets. I haven't always been a fan of the C&C series, particularly on consoles where I find they don't sit quite right. But try as I might not to like this game, it proved impossible not to be engrossed in the mayhem. In gaming, there aren't that many feelings that can top the moment your 30-deep cavalry come into view on screen to assist your battered comrades. You find yourself getting quite worked up.

The units themselves are easy to get to grips with, and it doesn't take long before you learn their strengths and weaknesses. The Allied vehicle infantry is weaker than the Empire's for example, but excels in the aircraft department over the other two. But perhaps the best feature of this version, is that you can choose to play each mission in co-op play. You can also take the battle to Xbox LIVE for 3 missions of co-op scrimmage.

The game is definitely worth a shout, if only for the cut scenes that also feature George Takei, a gorgeous Jenny McCarthy, former Bond villain Jonathan Pryce and UFC legend Randy Cotoure.

Review by: Mark Richards

Banjo Kazooie is now available on the Xbox Live Arcade

2008-12-04T18:58:00.006Z

One day I will kill you big bear, and then I will be the famous one.

The title pretty much says it all but for those of you who weren't born during or before the nineties Banjo Kazooie was a rather good game of the decade, being one of the first 3D platforming games and second in command of the genre on the N64 behind Mario 64.

It's not aged so well compared to all our modern luxuries in our current games, but for those of you with a pair of rose tinted glasses to spare, give the demo a whirl and remember the good old days of console FPS games being limited to 4 player split screen death-match.

Actually, scratch that. Just focus on the good platforming stuff. Try not to wince at the 1200 MS points price though.

You can read more about this story here.

Article by: Edwin Jones

RROD Finished?

2008-12-01T22:59:00.004Z

According to 1Up.com, the new set of 360s, nicknamed Jasper, theoretically solve the problem that causes the dreaded red rings of death.

"The biggest improvement made to the Jasper model is that it uses a smaller 65-nanometer graphics chip, which will consume less power than previous Xbox 360 chips and fit more securely in its motherboard socket. That means it's far less likely to overheat and come lose from the motherboard"

To help with the New Xbox Experience, internal memory has been added to the Jasper 360's. This means even arcade consoles will be able to use the New Xbox Experience without a hard drive.

Let's not get our hopes up too much yet though. It's been 3 years and there are still countless complaints of RROD, so let's wait a few months and see what happens.

Article by: William Stephen

There are far too many games to play this Xmas

2008-12-01T09:32:00.004Z

I’ll admit it ok. I’m spoilt. I’m really spoilt these days. There was once upon a time though when I was only allowed two games a year. I’d get one for my birthday and one for Christmas. Nowadays I can pretty much do what the fuck I want ‘cos I’m old enough damn it.

In the days of the 16bit era with my two games a year limit enforcement rule I would have to be really selective on what games I wanted. You see if I bought a stinker I was pretty much stuck with it for about 6 months until Xmas or my Birthday next came up (whichever came first). Nowadays though I am too cash happy and will get anything that takes my fancy.

Now generally, that’s ok but this festive period even I have too many games to play. And when you’re working full time you don’t always get the time to play them either, meaning that my collection just builds up and up like figures in Nintendo’s bank account. I have a large back catalogue of games to play which will probably take me until next Xmas to get through.

I have a ridiculous amount of games to play fully that came out this year, including Fallout 3, Far Cry 2, Little Big Planet, Gears of War 2, Fable 2, Left4Dead, Dead Space, Mirror’s Edge, Saints Row 2, Banjo and Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts, Mortal Combat Vs DC, Lego Batman, Guitar Hero World Tour, CoD5, and numerous others I’ve probably forgotten to put down. How much is that? Over £500 worth surely? Sheesh.

It’s not me though. I was forced to buy all of these games at gunpoint. Honest. Or maybe I just can’t help myself, I see a new title and I can’t help but want to add it to my collection. It’s like people who buy books to show off their ‘library’ only to find out that they can’t actually read. I can read. And I can play games. Maybe it’s all because of the way I was tormented as a child? I could only get a couple of games a year and now I’m out to rebel. Or maybe the real criminals in all of this are the publishers, with all the awesome game promote-ry ways. They know mugs like me will pick up any half decent title that comes into our view. But where were these clean shirts during the summer when I was crying out to the gaming god for some new titles? Oh that’s right, we got Haze. Thanks. It was like getting an awesome cake for your birthday made to look like one of your favourite things only for it to be made of dog shit and full of disease infected needles. But as well as torturing us, they were out planning on screwing us over at Xmas. Crazy publishers. Hey, I’ve got an idea, why don’t we all release our titles at the same time over Xmas and fight over the public’s cash during an economic crisis. Brilliant.

If you’re smart enough, you can get one or two of your choices for Xmas, but wait for anything else that interests you in the sales, or best yet Summer time next year. When no doubt there will be fuck all new games on the shelves.

Publishers eh, they’re a crazy bunch. Now I’m off to buy some new games.

Article by: Wesley Lock

Gears of War 2 Review - Xbox 360

2008-11-30T14:12:00.028Z

Editor's Note: Here we go. It's taken a while, but with this review we are coming to the end of the glut of the Christmas review season and on to better pastures. Bring on 2009! Ahem.

Gears of War 2. Perhaps the most important title of the season for Microsoft and the Xbox, if not the whole market in general. This is the Halo 3 or Half Life 2 of 2008. Does it live up to hype? The answer is: yes, but some of you are still going to hate it.

Gears 2 is a very, very good game. If you have played the original Gears of War, you know what to expect. Insanely beautiful graphics, the best ever seen on the modern consoles. Brutal, gory gameplay with more gibs than anything you have ever seen - hell, you can chainsaw people in half. Co-operative play which puts its rivals to shame and more action than the lovechild of Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger could produce.

The game takes all these expectations and knocks them up to 11 instead of a mere 10. The graphics look even better than before, with more detail and they are much crisper. They actually make the graphics of the original Gears look a bit poor in comparison and this isn't a Playstation 4 or PC game. The co-op is even better as well - not only can you join any game in progress with a friend, but now when you leave said game (as long as you are not the host) the other player doesn't have to get booted back to the main menu screen. You also BOTH get achievements when playing a co-op session, instead of whoever is playing as Dom getting them. The action is insane as in certain parts of the game you will be fighting HUNDREDS of locust at once whilst wondering how the hell the Unreal 3 engine is doing this and still making everything so pretty. You finally get to take on brumaks and be prepared, you are going to have to kill a lot of them.

You finally get to kill these bastards. It is about damned time I say.

Multiplayer has also been enhanced. The adversarial modes are very similar to how you remember them but you can now have 10 players instead of 8, the maps look cleaner (some of the older ones have be touched up to look new and different, and you can download these for free,) and the net code has been touched up a lot, especially with the recent patch. You get a few new modes as well. You even can use bots if you want to. Despite all this the adversarial multiplayer is still very similar to what we played in Gears of War 1, so if you grew bored of that there is little here to entertain you. This is where Horde mode comes in. You and 4 friends choose a multiplayer map and take on waves upon waves of Locust in an attempt to hold out for 50 rounds. It's great fun and let's you bring more than 3 buddies into a co-op experience. It is a really fresh take on multiplayer and it is something that like the co-op of the original gears should be copied by every other game out there. COD 5 has already done this partially with its Nazi Zombies mode and it is all the better for it.

You also get things that weren't there or just weren't very good in the original with Gears of War 2, namely a plot. In the first game you were shuffled from fight to fight with very little explanation as to why. 'There is a train with a nuke on it now?' 'What happened to the Brumak?' 'What's going on?' are questions you won't have to ask in this game. Dom's search for his wife becomes a crucial part of the story as opposed to one offhanded reference in one cut scene and a random tattoo on his arm. Marcus reveals more about his past and his father. New characters are introduces such as Dizzy the hillbilly and Tai the New Zealand native who are just as memorable and unique as the regular Delta Squad beefcakes. Sure, they have been drinking steroids like a ADD child downs cola with everybody else in the game, but they still shine though the stereotype. I almost cried at one point and for an action game, that is some damned fine storytelling. It's almost, but not quite up to the levels of the original Halo in terms of narrative.

The levels are also bigger, more detailed and more varied. You won't be stuck in dingy greys and browns all the time, but they do still take up a large part of things. This is Gears of War after all. Some of the new environments are even more mind blowingly beautiful than before which is amazing considering the beauty of the first game. The game is also much longer than the first one, which is nice. New weapons are abound in the form of a Flamethrower, a new kind of pistol as well as a few heavy weapons such as a huge machine gun which needs to be set up on a surface to fire properly called a grinder and a mortar canon. At times, you are wondering if they are planning to turn this game into an RTS like Ensemble are doing with Halo with all this sweet stuff. Heck, the tank driving level makes you want them to be making it RIGHT NOW.

Flamethrowers are here, and they are awesome.

It's not all roses and dismemberment though. The game has its problems like any other. Firstly and most prominent is the fact that this game is evolution rather than revolution - existing ideas have been improved upon and new ones have been added but the core gameplay remains the same. This is more Resident Evil 2 than Resident Evil 4. If you didn't like the first game or just grew bored of it, there is a good chance you will not like Gears of War 2 much at all. Whilst co-op is awesome and obviously designed to work well with 2 players as sections have you covering each other and working together, you wonder why it isn't 4 player. Halo 3 had four player co-op. COD 5 has four player co-op. There are always four members of Delta squad if not more, so why does Gears 2 not have 4 player co-op? There is no answer for that one.

The ending is also rather lame. There isn't so much a boss battle as a shooter on rails which you cannot lose. Compared to the ending of the first Gears, it's a bit tame. The ending also ends up asking more questions than you had answered so you still don't know who the Locust really are or what's going on and we are 2 games into the franchise already. The ending makes Gears 3 a certainty that Epic are probably working on right now. It isn't as lame as the ending of Halo 2 with the fight you didn't even get to play in Halo 3, but it's still not as awesome as you want it to be.

So, how can we grade gears? Basically, this is Gears of War 2.0 - it's as bigger, better and more badass as Epic said it would be, and we weren't really expecting them to do anything other than improve the franchise and gameplay. We weren't promised a new moon, just a bigger and brighter one and this game delivers that. If you love action games or just Gears of War 1, this game is a must have. For the few of you who didn't like the original this game is not for you. Move along but remember to ask yourself why so many people love this game and also ask yourself why you don't like chainsawing people from their bottom first up to their head. There must be something wrong with you.

Review by: Edwin Jones

Left 4 Dead Glitch

2008-11-29T02:24:00.004Z

And you thought tanks were hard to kill in this game...

Article by: William Stephen

Left 4 Dead Review - Xbox 360

2008-11-27T00:06:00.019Z

Well, this is a strange one.

Just last week a game came out that was neither truly single player or multiplayer, but a strange combination of both. It plays like little else available and is perhaps one of the best Zombie games available today but sadly, it is flawed.

Let me make this clear - Left 4 Dead is good, and it is worth a purchase. I do not hate the game and there is plenty to love. You and a few friends can basically run through your own Zombie movie working like a team and having a blast. Teamwork is key, and fun. If you don't stay with your team and protect them, nobody will protect you so you will die. You can even take over the roles of the 'boss' infected and play against the humans which is a nice spin on things as rarely do gamers get to play the bad guys directly. The atmosphere is great, with each setting playing and being presented like a horror movie fan's wet dream. The written messages left around by other civilians for you to discover on walls are as creepy as hell, and do give you that '28 days later' feel.

You really need to work as a team. Often, special infected will hold you or restrain you so you can't fight back and will keep hurting you until somebody you have begged for help from in a blind panic will shoot them off you or you die. If you wander too far from the pack people won't be able to get to you in time and you will die. When a powerful special zombie attacks (like a Tank) all four of you will need to focus your fire to take him down. You really do have to work as a team which is the game's greatest design success, but also it's worst flaw as I will explain in a moment.

There are a LOT of zombies at times, so many on screen that you start to feel like you are playing Dead Rising instead of a Valve game. The action is fast and frenzied, and the game has the quality build you would expect from anything Valve have a hand in. I could go on and on about the strengths of this game but they are A) obvious and B) you probably have already heard them bandied about repeatedly so let me stop the bandwagon here and rain on the Zombie parade.

(I did say there were a LOT of Zombies.)

Left 4 Dead is good, but DEEPLY flawed. I cannot reiterate this enough. For one thing, you only really have 3 types of gun - Shotgun, Automatic Rifle and the Sniper Rifle. You have your infinite ammo pistol and 2 types of grenade but even with them the weapon set is VERY anemic. I mean seriously, 3 types of gun is not something any first person shooter should be limited to. Even Doom had about 3 times the weapons Left 4 Dead has. You will get bored of them very quickly and be itching for more.

The second problem is the difficulty. I usually like hard games but in an environment where you need to constantly co-operate with four human players, you often die or fail because you did nothing wrong yourself which is not fun or fair just like the AI itself at times. You might be sneaking around a witch to avoid wasting ammo or health when a team mate DELIBERATELY makes her attack in a vain attempt to get an achievement who then ends up half dead, needing you to revive him and waste a health pack on him - if you manage not to be eaten alive by the horde attack he has triggered that is. It's hard to get four people you know well to show up regularly to a game like this, so you will often have to stick with at least one random, but even then they are better than the bots who run around aggravating any enemy they can to make your life hell. The game constantly spawns enemies so often sometimes you can see them pop into existence in rooms you just cleared. This kills any sense of realism. If you play versus, no survivor has a chance at survival. It's really just a game of waiting to be an infected player to mercilessly pound the humans and as you spawn as a 'boss' infected far more often than they would be spawned by the AI, the humans basically have no choice but to run away as fast as possible and to pray they make it which isn't fun.

Thirdly, the game is incredibly anemic. There are 4 one and a half hour long missions which for a full price game is INCREDIBLY slim. You will want more quickly especially as there are no extra missions in other modes, multiplayer or otherwise. Even a normal 6 hour long shooter usually at least offers different multiplayer environments. There are just not enough levels to keep the game going for a long time. Combine this with the very, very basic weapon selection and you will soon be itching for DLC content which on the 360 is going to cost you. A brand new game should include enough content to keep occupied for more than a day. You don't even get a proper introduction to the story - you just load up a mission, get a small cutscene and are not having the experience being dignified with any sort of back story. Where did the Virus come from? Why are some Zombies mutating into bigger ones? Why did whole cities set up multiple ammo dumps only containing the same 3 weapons? Why can't anybody drive the cars or vehicles that litter the streets? Resident Evil may have a B movie plot but at least it has one. Valve really didn't bother with any sort of storyline and it shows. The seperate levels don't follow each other - why did the same four people just get rescued, yet end up in a totally different place and in need of rescue again? Why does a man who looks and sounds exactly like the guy who just died randomly spawn in a closet? Surely the replacement survivor should look DIFFERENT to the guy who just died?

The respawning system also suffers in other areas. As you will be 'rescued' from a closet minutes after you die, you will automatically get 50% health. If you are at 5% and know a hard section is coming up such as the finale (where you await rescue but have to withstand minutes of zombies swarming at you without dying) people often offer to kill you so you can respawn with more health, especially on harder difficulties where health packs are limited but technically respawns are not. This is highly unrealistic, kills the atmosphere and to be honest, I expected Valve to work around such issues. When you listen to the in-game commentaries it's obvious they spent a lot of time on it and considered things very thoroughly so when the odd slip pops in it really ruins the mood the game tries so hard to create.

(You will meet this guy in the finale, a lot. Do not let him vomit on you.)

The graphics are also rather timid and weak. This is the same Source engine that Valve use for most of their games and it shows. It does the job with a high framerate which rarely slows down even with a hundred infected on screen eating your face, but when you compare it to the beauty of Gears of War 2 or any other very pretty game it falls flat on it's face and looks ugly. Sure, the engine works but it is also incredibly bland - the setting of being in dark brown and grey levels most of the time doesn't help this game in this regard at all. The details and animations on the faces of the characters are excellent, as is the gore model (limbs and heads will often fly off zombies which is always fun) but sadly you rarely get to see the faces of the characters as you are too busy killing things. It's a shame that when the engine does succeed graphically nobody is around to see it.

The sound is rather good though. The music is controlled by another 'director' (similar to the infamous AI director who places Zombies and items about the level depending on how well you are doing. I haven't really noticed him helping me other than removing 'boss' infected from sections I replay but you can never be sure where items will be, which is unique and adds longevity) and is actually good. Different themes play for different enemies - you will know when a 'tank' ( a huge boss infected who is very hard to kill who chucks things such as fork lifts at you) is about to strike and you also will know when zombies are about to run about on screen in huge numbers due to the music. It alters itself to fit the pace and always seems to fit. The characters you play also make interesting quips and jokes that vary depending on the situation - a joke between two characters that happened the last time you played won't happen this time if one of them is dead, but another will pop up between the surviving characters. They are funny and cool but again, you usually can't hear them because you are too busy shouting at people over the microphone and telling them to stop mucking about. Again, Valve really shine here but only when nobody is looking. It's such a waste. I can't really fault the audio in general but sadly a game is about more than just the sounds it makes, as good as they may be here.

Another problem with Left 4 Dead is the fact that you NEED to play this game online. I understand it was designed to be played online, but at £50 you would expect them to provide something for those who cannot get online to play. If you don't have Xbox Live or a system link setup, you might as well be buying a £50 coaster. Whilst the game benefits from being so geared towards multiplayer in some ways, removing all and any trace of a good single player mode means you are paying full price for a multiplayer only game which is not always viable considering how many new games are out at the moment..

All in all, whilst this game is very good it feels more like an mod/expansion pack for Half Life 2 than a game in itself. It's an incredible idea but with so few levels and practically no weapons, it just feels like you are only playing part of a full game which still cost you £50. Whilst I do like this game, these flaws are serious especially when the market is saturated with massive mainstream titles that both do 4 player Co-Op (COD 5) and great single player campaigns (Gears of War 2) at the same price. I cannot give this game full marks despite the fact I love it because of this. If this game were say, £30 it would be a gold but as it stands it is asking a lot of your money for very little in return. We paid the same price for the Orange Box last year, and we got a good multiplayer and singleplayer experience out of it. Why is Left 4 Dead not as complete, despite being made by the same people?

To me, Left 4 Dead is a great blueprint for a game that Valve never finished. If they manage to provide some meaty DLC to bolster the meagre offerings here then that will make the game something truly special, but until then this game is more of a side order of great gaming than the full 3 course meal that is being offered with the other blockbuster titles out this season. If you have run out of games to play or really, REALLY enjoy Co-Op, this is a must have title but for the rest of us it is merely a very good game that sadly isn't good enough to warrant purchasing over the other major titles this Christmas.

Review by: Edwin Jones

COD 5 - Nazi Zombie mode commentary

2008-11-25T20:36:00.004Z

Editor's Note: We usually don't let the same author of the review solely write another piece about the same game, but this was so good I had to share. Enjoy!

Could this be the best game EVER made? No. Final Fantasy VII is the best game ever made. But I do think this is the best mini game ever made. I really do mean that.

The idea is simple: hordes of Nazi zombies attack a small building which you (and ideally your mates) have to defend. You start with 500 points which you can exchange for weapons, grenades and mystery items. You can also use your points to open up new areas to defend, which in turn gives you access to new weapons. You earn 100 points for killing a zombie, 10 points for repairing each part of a blockade. You can get extras, 2x Points, Max Ammo, Insta-Kill and an A-bomb style thing thats kills every zombie on the map.

This game truly is immense fun. I honestly can say I have not touched the other online modes CoD:5 has to offer since I discovered the Nact der Untoten mode. When you get a group of 4 mates together and bust this mini-game up, you’ll understand where I am coming from. When you get to about the 13th round and the zombies become harder to kill and they just seem to spawn and spawn and spawn, you really start to work together. Helpfully, your zombie killing colleagues can revive you if you are injured.

There is a mystery weapon box, which does reveal a couple of VERY interesting items. Firstly, the flamethrower. Same as the single player mode, but very helpful in clearing a room full of the undead. The other weapon is very cool! Its a one shot zombie killing machine. It is the best weapon you can get. I won’t reveal any more details, you’ll need to play to find out what it is!

Once you have earned a few points, you’ll start opening up the other areas. The map is initially quite small , but it does open up quite considerably. You will find yourself running from area to area, but it does make a fantastic team game.

Is it worth buying Call of Duty: World at War just for this mini game? Probably not. But when you combine it with the excellent single player mode of CoD:5, the excellent multiplayer mode and the Nacht der Untotenmode, you really are getting your moneys worth.

Article by: Kai Gohegan

Need for Speed: Undercover Review - (PS3)

2008-11-22T00:41:00.004Z

This game is shite. The graphics are abysmal, the “storyline” sucks, the music is crap. And what gets me is the in-game advertising. I realise most of EA’s games are packed with more product placement than you can shake a stick at, but this is ridiculous. For example, the T-Mobile challenges. What the hell has a mobile phone operator got to do with it? I refuse to pay £40 for a game full of adverts.

It seems no effort what so ever has gone into making this a decent game. I really mean that. I have a 40″ 1080p HD TV that does justice to a lot of games (Even old Xbox games played through the SCART look pretty good on it) and this game looks terrible. I realise its a multi-platform release, but jeez, make it look good on at least ONE console!

There is nothing innovative about this game. It adds nothing to the NfS franchise. Its just the same game as the last Need for Speed with some more shit adverts in there.

I can’t even say the cars look good. The city looks shite. Get more than one car on the screen and the frame rate drops by what seems like up to 40%!

The only saving grace the game has is the selection of cars. EA have included some real boy-racer cars, the Ford Cossy is in there. The ability to fine tune your motors is also interesting, although would probably be better used on a real racing game. And no, I don’t class any of the Need for Speed games as a real racing game; they’ve never been about the racing, always about either the cars or the product placement. If you really want a racing game (why would you when you could be playing CoD:5?), go buy Project Gotham or Gran Turismo: Prologue (which, incidentally, are about half the price of NfS: Undercover and about 300 times better).

Unless you are collecting the games from the Need for Speed franchise, don’t bother with this one. If you are looking for a decent racing game, again, don’t bother with Need for Speed: Undercover. It truly is another fine example of anti-innovation. Come on EA, give us something worth playing. Don’t just reinvent the wheel. Don’t get me wrong, some of the challenges are quite entertaining but still not worth buying the game for.

If you have £40 to burn or just want to spunk some cash, send it my way. In return, you’ll receive a bag of shit. Probably dog shit. Which is what you’ll get if you buy this game anyway.

Review by: Kai Gohegan

Wrath of the Lich King sells like very hot cakes...

2008-11-21T23:21:00.005Z

Hello there!

Sorry for all of the reviews recently, but at this time of year so many are coming out all at once it is hard to miss them and we have to focus coverage. Still, everybody likes news so here is some.

If you didn't already know, World of Warcraft is the world's biggest and best selling MMORPG. It's huge. It has more members than certain countries have people, including Scotland. You might have heard that an expansion came out recently, Wrath of the Lich King. The thing you might not know is this - it sold 2.8 million copies in 24 hours. That's more than Gears 2, for an expansion pack. Holy smoke.

Whilst people may say the economy is turning for the worse or that PC games are dying off, they should read this and start whistling another tune. Blizzard could own half of Africa with all this money they rake in. One wonders how much money they can get before they do start doing silly but interesting things with it. Hell, they could probably bail out the Icelandic banks just for kicks.
You can read more about this story, here.

Article by: Edwin Jones

Facebreaker Review - (Xbox 360/PS3)

2008-11-20T20:20:00.010Z

Editor's Note: This may be a bit old compared to the very big and very new games coming out, but Guru Larry (of Game Network and Xleague fame if you have Sky) is always a very funny guy to read. Enjoy!

Boxings been a bit of a hit or miss sport when it comes to video games hasn’t it? The amount of actual “good” boxing titles could be counted on the fingers of a boxer’s glove. So the amount of hype Facebreaker was getting I thought it was gonna be good!

Looking at this games unique style in the build up these past few months, I was like “hell yeah, this is gonna be like Ready 2 Rumble III” a sequel I’ve been holding my breath for years to hear news of, (Not literally of course, as I’d be dead by now) but I was genuinely looking forward to this. But boy was I in for a haymaker to where the sun don’t shine…

My main problem with Facebreaker is there’s no bloomin’ substance in it. The game has as much depth as a saucer of milk. I know not to expect Final Fantasy VII in terms of depth, but it’s just high punch, low punch, block and a pointless throw button which does no damage whatsoever. There’s no combos or special moves at all in the game, you just mash the high and low punch buttons like a mad loony, praying that half of them connect.

You’ll also be needing a heck of a lot of self-control in single player mode as the A.I. is a complete and utter cheating bar-stool, constantly blocking, or more infuriating reversing every other punch you throw at him/her/it and you just stand there hammering on the buttons, praying that something gets through whilst the computer beats the seven shades of poo out of you in the corner.

Worst of all out of sheer ~~stupidity~~ defiance that I could eventually actually win a match, I discovered there’s a game killing glitch where you’ll automatically reverse any punch an opponent throws at you just by hammering block and punch at the same time constantly!!! They literally can do nothing about it!!! AND IT’S THE ONLY WAY TO BEAT HALF OF THE BLEEDIN’ OPPONENTS!!! When your only option is to resort to glitching to win a game, it’s a terribly programmed product.

Multiplayer is a lot better, for the sole reason it’s more fair against a human than some psychic A.I that knows what punch your gonna throw before even you do, and you can actually get your punch bar high enough to perform a “Facebreaker” (the games equivalent of Mortal Kombat’s Fatalities), but even then you’ll only play the game for a few matches before either turning it off due to boredom, or you’ve tired yourself out pummelling the buttons, usually a combination of the two…

There are some interesting bonuses to this game, like the fact you can create your own characters using the 360 Vision Camera or the PSEye, or even download photos off the web if you’re too scummy to buy one. You can upload your own creations to EA’s servers so complete strangers can beat up an avatar of your Mum online. You can even download other people’s creations for free too, but to be honest they’re a bit crap as 98% of the selection online seems to be variations of Adolf Hitler or Michael Jackson. (I’m not kidding!)

It’s an okay feature, but extremely limited due the fact you can’t really choose much in the way of clothing, bar the colour of your gloves and trunks, and the fact you can’t change the actual size of the characters head to the proportion of the largely grotesque frames you get to place them on, thus leaves everyone looking like a pinhead on every character bar the default boxer, Ice.

Overall, it’s an overly simplistic arcade style boxing game with cheating A.I..

If they’d have stuck some actual Mortal Kombat-Esque special moves (I.E. forward, forward, high punch Etc) or better yet, just bloomin’ ripped off Ready 2 Rumble like they should have done in the first place, (they needn’t have worried about accusations of plagiarism, gamers are stupid. I can’t even remember what happened in a game six minutes ago, let alone one released from six years back) than this would have been a pretty awesome fighter, especially online. In all due honesty, if you REALLY want an arcade boxing game that much, you’re better off taking the £40 you would have paid for this and spend it on a second-hand dreamcast and a copy of Ready 2 Rumble instead.

Review by: "Guru" Larry Bundy Jr

Xbox 360 Dashboard Update, First Thoughts

2008-11-19T17:19:00.007Z

After just downloading and browsing through it, the update looks pretty damn good. Finally after years you can do private chat groups online of up to 8 people through a xbox.

The avatar system is essentially copying the miis but at least you can choose what they wear as well, and there does seem to be more options of customisation available. I was expecting to be alot of lag between pages since everyone is downloading it, but its running very smoothly, and much faster than the old dashboard.

Being able to download stuff off the marketplace while in a game is a very handy feature, and this can also be done while on the xbox website, perfect if your at work and have your 360 on at home and want to download that latest demo. They have also allowed people to add points to their balance on the website as well, which comes very handy indeed, as I found it a pain in the neck to change credit card details in the past.

From what I can tell you'll be able to use your avatar as your gamertag picture but it seems to be lagging right now, but mine should be up for the world to see soon!

Edit: or now!!!

Put your gamertag here too.

Article by: William Stephen

Call of Duty: World at War Review - (Xbox 360)

2008-11-16T22:24:00.018Z

I know what you are thinking: Why did the Call of Duty franchise go back to WW2? Well, I don’t know. I suppose the games roots are in the second World War. I didn’t mind because I have always been interested in the history of the war and the Call of Duty series has usually been fairly historically accurate. I got my copy of the game on Thursday with my early morning post. I opened it as soon as it arrived at 13:05 hours (Yes, I DID say early morning post, but we all know what a fine service Royal Mail provide!). I hastily ram the disk into my 360 and press start.

Thursday, 13:06 hrs: I will say that I was not disappointed. The graphics are good. The sound is good. And the music is good. Yes, I said the music was good. In fact, its so good I nearly didn’t realise it had changed. I first realised when I was flaming some Japanese soldiers and could hear rock music.

Thursday, 17:30 hrs:What? That’s it? No. There must be some mistake. There must be a second disk. Nope. Nothing. That really was the end of the game. 4 hours of game play. Wow. Well, after consoling myself with a cigarette and a cup of tea, I switch to multi-player mode.

Thursday, 17:55 hrs:I’m still in multi-player mode. Am I enjoying the multi-player experience CoD:WAW provides? I don’t know, because I haven’t played yet. I cannot get online. It keeps saying Checking Match Quality. I assume something must be wrong with my net connection. Nope. I do the usual Test Xbox Live Connection from the system blade. Nothing wrong there. Hmm. I checked online and it appears a lot of people are having the same issues. I’ll keep trying to get online…

Friday: Nope, still can’t get online.

Saturday: Still nothing.

Sunday:Finally managed to get online. Its quite good actually. I managed to play for 10 minutes and then get booted off. I try to connect again for another 30 minutes and still no luck. Bollocks to this.

Until they release a patch to fix the Xbox Live issues, the only way to extend the life of this game is to 1. Play through the game on veteran and 2. Collect all the offline achievements.

The game is an excellent extension to the CoD series. It’s shorter than CoD:4 (at least it feelsshorter) but the storyline is good; the Russian campaign is fantastic and the ending is as good as any war film. A few new weapons are introduced in the game, the best (and funniest?) by far is the flame thrower. I don’t know if you can bring the flame thrower into multi-player because I only managed to play for about 10 minutes online. Following on from CoD:3, this game reintroduces vehicles into the multi-player mode, which should prove interesting.

Go and buy this game. If you have enjoyed the other games in the CoD series, you will not be disappointed. Once the Xbox Live problems are solved I will post an updated review because I don’t think we will see the best aspect of the game until we get online.

Review by: Kai Gohegan

Editor's Note: Xbox Live seems to be suffering outages globally and not just in this game. This does not seem to be the fault of Activision or this game itself. We will have more news about this issue soon but please E-Mail us if you experience anything strange yourself.

I guess it's back to system link and SP for us all eh?

...

2nd Editor's Note: Live is back online and has been for a while, so I will add some comments about the Multiplayer. Co-op is fantastic. 4 Players taking on most of the levels ruins the story and tension but can be funny as hell, especially as you can unlock challenges which rank you up in versus online modes. The regular multiplayer is basically COD 4 with WW2 weapons, a few new perks and a pack of angry dogs instead of the helicopter death squad. It's still just as addictive and following your dogs into the lair of the enemy and watching as they tear them to pieces is awesome. It's fun, but no points for originality here.

Another new MP option is enabled once you finish the game, Nazi Zombies. This will probably offend a few people (as will the INCREDIBLY harsh SP storyline) but games are meant to be fun first, and anything else second. You and three friends can hold off the undead in a small farmhouse spending the points you make on new weapons until you die. It's very similar to the Horde mode in GOW2, which is no bad thing.

The game is fun, but really nothing new. If you like WW2 and fancy taking a shot at the Japanese instead of the Germans (their suicidal tendencies make them very different to fight) as well as enjoying some co-op, this game is for you. If you are tired of the gameplay of COD or WW2 in general, avoid. This game remains a silver, but it really earns that score.

Smackdown vs Raw 2009 Review - (Xbox 360)

2008-11-14T19:43:00.011Z

Over the last few years wrestling games have pretty much just came from one source, least for Western countries anyway, and that was the WWE smackdown games, made by THQ. Now with TNA releasing a game a few months back which has the potential to become a serious threat, THQ have decided to layeth the smacketh down on Midway with Smackdown vs Raw 2009.

Im an avid wrestling fan, and in the last few years I have been really disappointed with the Smackdown series, because they often make very few updates each year, much like FIFA until recently. Just like EA however, THQ have added quite a few updates this year, which have led to some really good bits, and some stupid bits as well.

First off is the roster, while they can never get an up to date roster as someone always leaves or gets fired, it’s still a lot of wrestlers this year, but this doesn’t make that much of a difference because more often than not, most will never be used by one person. The usual story mode has been updated to 2 different parts. Road to Wrestlemania follows one of 6 stories with 7 wrestlers, and you progress through it like any other story mode game. The storylines are better than their WWE real life ones, so why they were never used I don’t know, would certainly make better TV. Career mode has replaced the general manager mode, something which many people enjoyed last few years. Basically you’re picking a wrestler then fighting opponents to gain up ratings, once you reach a high enough rating you challenge for a title. Then repeat over and over again. Its tiresome and boring after 5 minutes, and is the only way right now to boost up stats for a created wrestler, which can take 10 hours just to get them up halfway.

Game play has been left virtually untouched. Replacing the awful modifiers last year, are the better system of abilities, which include dirty pin, springboard moves, kip up, possum pin and more. Broadening the abilities from last year means that there’s more strategy involved in choosing a wrestler for certain match types. A ladder match suits a wrestler who has the ladder match ability as they can reach the belt faster and take it off its hinge. When a wrestler has full momentum, they may store it to keep for a signature move, of which just like finishers, there are 2 of for each wrestler. This adds a bit more strategy as to when to go for a pin, especially during fatal 4 ways. Other good subtle features include changing the background music whenever you like at the touch of a button.

AI has been improved a tad, but it is still very easy to beat them, even on higher difficulty levels. You can still win a match in less than a minute in no problem. A typical match against the computer is basically, running grapple, stomp, mat grapple, stomp til they counter and get up, running grapple, stomp, mat grapple, stomp til they get up, kick to gut, finisher, pin. Online is pretty much the same with players rarely ever attempting strong moves and just sticking to small moves to win a match, but this has been going on since day 1.

But with every good thing THQ does every year, they seem to always take a step backwards at the same time. Take the new create a finisher mode. While it’s been desperately wanted for years, and while it is a welcome addition, it is rather limiting, and some of the damage some moves provide can kill a wrestler in one move without anything else being done to them. They have added a new match type, inferno, but removed buried alive. They have also removed the ever popular trading of created wrestlers, and as mention before, trying to up their stats is a boring process. There are also plenty of bugs, some of which THQ haven’t been bothered to fix since last year, including well known ones. One bug in the elimination chamber mode stops anyone from using the turnbuckles at all, something that wasn’t there from the beginning, so why is it there now?

It is a breath of fresh air for the franchise, while it still isn’t as good as the classic games of No Mercy or even Smackdown Here Comes the Pain, it’s getting there. Let’s see how midway do with the sequel to TNA impact, next year… hopefully if they aren’t dead by then.

Review by: William Stephen

Mirror's Edge Review - (PS3)

2008-11-13T14:47:00.005Z

Well, I was asked to review this game by the guys at Parental Guidance so I blew the dust off my PS3 and booted it up. Hmm, what’s this, cell shaded graphics? Oh man, please not another XIII style game. I was pleasantly surprised as it turns out only the cut-scenes are rendered in the cartoon style; the actual game play is the usual clean 3D style we’ve gotten used to over the last few years.

If you are into Parkour (Free Jumping), you’ll love this game. I however am not in the least bit interested in doing a rather poor impression of Batman by thrusting my body about town, so I didn’t find this game particularly appealing. To be honest though, when you are chased by Police or other enemies, I must say this is where the best element of the game comes out. Although the game is fairly linear in that you are on a fixed path, when you are being chased you do feel that you are thinking on your feet, looking for the next object you can jump to.

I don’t like giving away the story line in reviews, so I won’t here. However, the story behind the game feels fairly familiar; a kind of been there, done that sort of thing. The voice acting is crap, frankly.

The game is worth picking up and playing, but to be honest, the only game I will be playing on Friday 14^th is Call of Duty 5. If this game was bundled with your console, or came in some other deal, you wouldn’t be disappointed, but I don’t think I will be spending £40 on it. As I said earlier, if you are into Parkour, you won’t be disappointed to find this in your Christmas stocking but for couch potatoes like me, it doesn’t hold much appeal.

Review by: Kai Gohegan

Want free console? Join Gametrailers!

2008-11-13T00:39:00.002Z

This has been happening for a while now but I wanted to make sure this looked permanent. Gametrailers.com is a site that shows clips of games. By watching the videos you earn GTD, and the more videos you watch, the more GTD you receive. Now this used to be capped at 50 videos a day (though you can earn GTD from other methods such as posting blogs) but from my experience im receiving 50 GTD every 12 hours, maybe even less, which is 100 GTD a day.

If you did watch 100 videos a day, then within a year you would earn enough to get a DS lite, and less than 2 years for a free PS3, yes FREE. Who knows how long they'll keep it like this, but if you want to take advantage I suggest you do so now!

Sign up here! (Yes its a referral link, if you dont want to click it then click the first link.)

Article by: William Stephen

Dead Space - A Second Opinion (Xbox 360)

2008-11-12T19:24:00.009Z

As you may have gathered, we do things a little differently here at Parental Guidance. We all play games and we all have our own opinions, yet only one of us writes a review and usually they only focus on one format. We all still want to talk about a good game and we all play on different systems, so it is only fair that we tell you about the differences and thoughts we have on the game. Expect to see more 'second opinion' pieces about major or interesting titles on the site especially when important multi format games get released on several systems at once.

Today, I want to talk to you about Dead Space. We reviewed this recently on PS3 and gave it a 'Silver' award. I'm happy with that grading and as such I won't be challenging it. I did however, request the 360 version from EA so we could compare the versions and have a more open debate about the merits of the title.

Dead Space is a good game, yet it is only one of dozens out this Christmas so you might be wondering why I am bothering to come back to it when we have even more games to focus on in the near future. The answer is that at heart we are all fans of games and Dead Space whilst not perfect, is definitely individual and as fans, we wish to vent our opinions as much as you do.

So, what do I think of Dead Space? Well you already know I think it is good. What I haven't mentioned is how scary this damned game is. Resident Evil is no longer scary - I only jumped in a few sections (usually when regenerators were involved) in Resi 4 as it plays more like an action game these days. The regenerators were scary, but random village peasants were not. Fun to fight against yes, scary no. Dead Space takes survival horror back to basics and focuses on just one thing: Fear. There is no respite from it. Usually a horror game waits a few minutes before it throws monsters at you, giving you a tutorial and a gun before kicking you out of the plane. You don't get that in Dead Space. The introduction is all done with the in game engine and before you know it you are faced with monsters, but with no gun. Running for your life you will quickly appreciate how much this game WILL make you crap your pants.

I'm a grown man. I am 23 years old. I will only play this game in daylight. I imagine you will find this the case as well, unless you are so jaded by violence you no longer care. Whilst violent, (it's easier to kill enemies by sheer dismemberment and head shots do little in this game, to buck the trend) violence is not the focus here. Fear is. You are not a super powered space marine. There is no BFG to protect you. You are not empowered and you are most definitely vulnerable and alone.

The game-play could be described as similar to Resident Evil 4, but that's not really fair. Yes, the controls work the same and it is a 3rd person shooter, but Dead Space really is a totally different atmosphere. It's more like the GameCube Resident Evil 1 remake than any other Resident Evil title - fear is ever present and the entire focus of the game. Sure there is a tacked on romance sub plot but it really doesn't matter here. Sometimes the scares get predictable - you just know a corpse in a room is going to jump up and get you because that is the 'scariest' thing that could happen. This doesn't stop you tiptoeing around the corpse and hoping it won't jump up, so despite this predictability flaw you are still scared and in Dead Space, that's all that matters.

How does the 360 version stack up against the PS3 one? Strangely they are rather similar. Despite a history of inferior PS3 ports over the last few years EA seem to have nailed parallel game design on both systems. Games like Fallout 3 are often a lot worse on PS3 than 360 these days (just look at the lack of anti-aliasing on the PS3 version compared to the 360) and that goes back to the early days of the console war. The PS3 is not an inferior platform but it IS harder to program for and this shows often in any serious comparison with the same title. Even back at the start of the PS3's life cycle the port of Rainbow Six: Vegas told us we should be worried. It is good EA have actually taken this to hand and decided to do the right thing and put the extra effort into the PS3 version to keep it at almost the same quality as the 360 version, doing true justice to the PS3.

There are minor differences though. The Xbox 360 version does seem to be a little brighter than the PS3 version which can be good or bad, depending on if you prefer to see colour or nothing at all in your survival horror. The only real problem is the frame rate, which drops at times in both versions of the game but drops to a slightly lower level on the PS3 at times than the 360. This is only a small niggle but if you have both consoles I would have to recommend the 360 version over the PS3 one but only if you pushed me. Other than the lighting and frame rate, the games are practically identical. Whichever format you get it on, as long as you enjoy horror you will be scared and you will have fun.

To surmise: This game is basically fear incarnate, and very good on both platforms. If you think you can handle the scares this game throws at you, it is very much worth a purchase especially as it is a new franchise in a season full of sequels. If you don't enjoy being scared though, keep far away from this one. This is definitely not a game for children or people with weak hearts.

Article by: Edwin Jones

Super Obama World?

2008-11-12T16:14:00.004Z

According to the BBC, Barack Obama has his own Super Mario style video game on the net.

"The game takes a satirical look at US politics, with Obama collecting flags and dodging lipstick-wearing pit bulls, lobbyists and Sarah Palin. "

You can play the game here. It isn't half bad either. If you've followed the recent american election you'll see alot of parodies and similarities to what happened during the election.

Article by William Stephen

The 5 types of people who play the Wi

2008-11-12T15:16:00.009Z

Yes you read that right. There are five types of people who play the Nintendo Wii. You’re probably wondering if you’re on the list aren’t you? Well, the chances of us putting your name specifically down are rather slim. But if you play the Wii then you will no doubt fit into one of the categories. So which category do you fit into?

Kids

That’s right. Kids love a bit of the Wii. Not only does it have a silly name, but it gives them the opportunity to wave the Wiimote around like a deranged lunatic. The Wii is great for kids. It gives them numerous Ninty delights from Mario to Sonic and Mario, and all the mini game compilations under the rainbow. They can even play Manhunt 2 on it now.

Kids are not as bothered about First Person Shooters or online gaming. And they are too busy playing Carnival Funfair games to care about Little Big Planet. Nintendo rule the kids.

Games they are likely to play – Wii Sports, Mario Galaxy, Carnival Funfair Games, Super Smash Bros Brawl, Carnival Funfair Games, Rayman: Raving Rabbids, Manhunt 2.

The Old

Conversely, just as kids love the Wii just because it has a silly name and they can wave the remote around like a deranged lunatic, so does elderly peeps. Although, they don’t do it so quick, they don’t want to be playing up their Arthritis now.

But if you’re stupid enough to think that they are going to go buy and play the likes of Mario Galaxy, Zelda or Metroid Prime then you’re dumb enough to work for Sony’s marketing team. Nintendo know that if you show some elderly pecker some a bit of Wii sports, they they’ll be mimicking a Wimbledon Tennis OAP final in a matter of no time. And then have some strawberries and cream to celebrate. Not too much cream though, all that cream wouldn’t be too good for them.

That’s right, if they see a kid or a relative playing the Wii, then they’ll take over for an hour or two. Or maybe they’ll just steal it. Failing that, then they’ll just use their pension money to buy their own one. Nintendo are smart enough to know that by releasing something like Wii fit, oldies will lap it up. Messing about on that Wii fit bored is almost as good exercise as walking down the post office 4 hours before it opens to get their pension before anyone else.

Yes, to the elderly Wii fit is the answer to all their problems. Don’t expect them to buy much software though.

Games they are likely to play – Wii Sports, Wii Fit.

Non Gamers

Usually sheep who see the Wii as the new ‘in’ thing. It’s the new iPod, and its gaining more and more popularity. It’s a bit like a zombie film, where the outbreak begins with one or two people and then cascades into a horde of undead. Undead who are not unlike some of the sheep who like to pretend they are cool because they’ve ‘got a Wii’. They don’t even play the fucking thing except for when a friend comes round - and only then it's to show it off.

You see it works like this. A friend shows someone the Nintendo Wii, and they play a bit of Wii Sports and think ‘wow this is like really cool’ and go out and buy their own Nintendo Wii. But they don’t really play it, not until they have a friend come over, and then they show it off to that friend... Who thinks ‘wow this is like really cool’ and so they go out and buy a Wii, and show it to another one of their friends. And so on and so on until the Human race is ultimately doomed.

This also includes all the fatties that really do think Wii fit will help make them slim, when in reality they should be eating less burgers and getting some fresh air and exercise. Yes there are some fatties, sorry, ‘obese’ people who play videogames, but they are usually playing World of Warcraft. And everyone knows that World of Warcraft isn’t a real game.

Games they are likely to play – Wii Sports, Wii fit, some other game they happened to get free. So something a bit shit normally.

Nintendo Fanboys

These are often the bunch that really fuck you off. They can often be caught sprouting off shit like the graphics don’t matter, or that online gaming is just a phase. They will try and tell you how the Wii is the best because it offers you a new way to play games. Deep inside they may be just as bored and stopped playing it two months after getting it like everyone else. But they won’t admit it. They may also have an Xbox 360 hidden away so no-one knows.

They are happy that there is only a new AAA game every 100 years, as it gives them more time to play the last AAA game they bought.... (and no doubt stopped playing after a week or so). They also do not mind that the Wii is just a rebranded GameCube and are gullible enough to buy the same Nintendo games over and over again because Ninty are the best and everything else should be ashamed for not being made by Nintendo.

They probably brought a GameCube, in fact they probably brought two GameCube’s just to help out.

Games they are likely to play – 90% of all the games released on the Wii. May also own multiple copies of some games - especially Mario Galaxy.

Pirates

You can’t escape without a whiff of pirates nowadays. And the Wii is not safe either, it’s highly pirated as is the Xbox 360. The PS3 isn’t though. Because no-one cares about the PS3. Not only can pirates download and play Wii games, but they can also download and play GameCube games and even all of the Virtual Console games for free as well.

There is a slight chance that Nintendo fanboys are also pirating Nintendo games. Although it’s pretty moot, as they end up buying a couple of the games they download as a way of saying sorry, and supporting Nintendo’s dominance. At least their fans are loyal, 360 fanboys couldn’t give a shit.

Games they are likely to play - Anything they can get their piratey mitts on.

So there you have it. If you’re not there, read it again and you’ll no doubt be able to place yourself somewhere. But if you can’t, that could be because you stopped playing the Wii a week after getting it once the novelty wore off and went back to your Xbox 360 instead. See you online laters.

Article By: Wesley Lock

Gamestation Online Service = Shit!

2008-11-08T18:20:00.013Z

As I posted earlier on in the week, Gamestation reduced the price of their real life size Gears of War 2 Lancer Rifle. Well I got my copy today (yes a DAY late!) and when I came to open it, let's just say the chainsaw wasn't complete...

As you can see by the crosshairs (I'm guessing that's what that piece is supposed to be) have snapped in half. The pictures are of a rather poor quality I know, this cannot be helped as I only had my mobile phone camera to use at the time. The pictures show ALL the packaging it came with. There was no packaging on the top of the box, only polystyrene at the bottom so it's almost guaranteed that it broke as soon as it was packaged. Even before I opened it the chainsaw gun was moving from side to side inside the box. This picture also shows the box was pretty damp as well.

This picture shows the contents of the game and batteries for the lancer rifle. Notice the tears in it, they were actually there before I even opened it. I slightly made the tear on the left a bit bigger to get the game out.

Here are some more shots of the broken bits. I've never seen something packaged so badly before, and I've bought goods on ebay!.

Gamestation had better give me a replacement unless of course the postal service that sent this decided to have a looksie inside and buggered it up. If that is the case, they can pay for the replacement as I sure as hell am not. Has anybody else has the same problem? Please write in to let us know.

Article By: William Stephen

Dead Rising 2 - Not Dead?

2008-11-08T04:04:00.005Z

In 2006, a rather good little Zombie game came out and surprisingly it wasn't a Resident Evil game. It was made by Capcom who sadly said they were not working on a sequel. The Internet mourned and moved on.

Like all good zombies though, the rumour of Dead Rising 2 will not die. Reports have come out that Capcom have licenced it out to another studio repeatedly, but nothing was ever really confirmed. Sadly, all we have today is another rumour but there are so many of these flying around you just know Capcom are up to something. They wouldn't turn down the almost free money a sequel would earn.

The rumour has it that 'Blue Castle', a relatively unknown Canadian studio are working on Dead Rising 2. I hope this is true as no other game lets you take lawnmowers to literally *hundreds* of the undead at once in 3D. None that I know of anyway.

Please Capcom, let there be a sequel!

You can read more about this, here.

Article by: Edwin Jones

Red Alert 3 to come to PS3 - next year (maybe)

2008-11-05T23:07:00.003Z

Poor old Sony.

During this busy winter season big games are coming out thick and fast for everybody, but the PS3 will definetly not get two of the biggest titles, Left for Dead and Red Alert 3 before Christmas. Heck, it may not get left for dead at all. The good news however is that EA are working on Red Alert 3 again after suspending development in favour of focusing on the PC and 360 versions earlier this year.

There is no chance that the PS3 will see this rather cool RTS game before Christmas but that is probably a good thing for all our wallets. It's nice to see the RTS bug catching on to more than just the 360. Maybe one day we will get RTS games just like we get FPS games on consoles eh? I remember a long time ago when the word 'half-life' and 'console' uttered in the same sentence were pure heresy and stupidity rolled into one. I am glad those days are over.

You can read more about this story here.

Article by: Edwin Jones

Company of Heroes to get a new expansion?

2008-11-05T00:09:00.003Z

Well, it seems that yet again Relic refuse to let a good game die. Good on them. After years of keeping Dawn of War alive with updates and add on packs, it seems Company of Heroes is to get the same treatment. It already received an add on that let you play as the British instead of just Yanks and Nazis but now it will get another one called Company of Heroes: Tales of Valor.

Nothing specific has been announced as of yet apart from new units and new maps, which were kind of a given. I guess they could let you play as the French or the Italians but the only special move you would be able to give them would be a white surrender flag or a collaboration government. Maybe they will let you send death threats to French and Italians soldiers against their families if they refuse to bow down to the Nazis? I doubt it, but it would be historically accurate and awesome all in one go.

You can read more about this story, here.

Article by: Edwin Jones

New Left 4 Dead Videos

2008-11-03T21:58:00.004Z

Mmmmmmm.

Nothing is quite as delicious as four player online co operative Zombie slaying. We've been watching these game for a while and it looks rather good. Still, these promotional videos EA released last last week do a good job of making it seem even better with absolutely no in game footage which is quite a feat.

First up, we have the intro video for the game itself. It's rather long at over 4 minutes but it does give you an insight into the characters and what they are like. Considering all the gameplay footage we have all seen over the last year had little dialogue, this is a keeper. I wonder how long it will be before introductory videos go the way of the cut scene and use in game video rather than FMV?

We also have a rather good TV spot for the game which consists of slices of the intro footage with a selection of novel quotes. It is made even more awesome by the soundtrack which is actually the song 'Grounds for divorce' by the Mancunian band Elbow. Epic. You need to go buy this song off iTunes immediately. Watch this video to see why.

As an aside, I went to see the new James Bond movie this weekend, and I saw more game adverts than movie adverts before it started. Dead Space, Gears of War 2, the Quantum of Solace game - they were all there. With all these TV slots as well, I think this Christmas is the one that shows the world just how far games have come.

Article by: Edwin Jones

GoW 2 Real Life Rifle Reduced

2008-11-03T15:33:00.008Z

I just got an email from Gamestation a couple of hours ago. You may have heard that they have had a world exclusive to distribute the lifesize lancer rifle (the not so cool but still ok gold one, unlike the picture above which is the US version). This and the game was going to cost £130, some £50 more than the US version, However they have informed me that it's been reduced to only £80. Bargain!

Unfortunately they sold out on preorders ages ago so haha!!!!

Edit: After doing some browsing on the gamestation website, they have infact listed it as only £59.99. I have emailed them about this and will post my findings as soon as possible.

ANOTHER Edit: Gamestation have said that their website has an old link, so the price is £79.99. Funny how they say its an old link, cause if it was it shouldnt be shown on google...

Article by: William Stephen

New UK eSports Group

2008-11-01T14:03:00.002Z

Yesterday marked the launch of the United Kingdom eSports Association (UKeSA), an official governing body for the UK's electronic sports community.

Whats interesting to note is that the one of the heads for UKeSA is Ray Mia, who has worked with UK Channel Xleague.tv as the channel head in the past.

"In its capacity as the UK's official eSports governing body, UKeSA will be working with government, industry and community to develop, support, encourage and promote the growth of a professional competitive eSports framework from an amateur grassroots level upwards,"

As a couple of us at PG have helped with Xleague in the past, it will be interesting to see what happens with this. On the Xleague forums, certain members are assuming that site maitenance on their site could result in it being changed to UKeSA. Time will tell however.

Read full article here.

Article by: William Stephen

PC GTA IV delayed until December?

2008-10-30T23:27:00.003Z

Aww cripes.

Seems PC gamers have yet another bit of bad luck. Rumour has it that the PC version GTA IV will miss its Nov 18th release date to be pushed back to the 2nd of December. This is backed up by the fact that both Gamestop and Amazon are now listing the game's release date as 2nd December.

Nobody knows quite what is going on as Rockstar themselves have the game listed as releasing on time. Still, it would be a bummer for PC gamers if they got burned here. At least they have Dead Rising to keep them happy and with Fallout 3 released this week, I think PC gamers might not even notice this which could cost Rockstar a lot of sales.

You can read more about this story, here.

Article by: Edwin Jones

Tomb Raider: Underworld demo out on Xbox Live RIGHT NOW!

2008-10-28T22:28:00.005Z

The title says it all. Enjoy the demo if you have time to play it considering Fable 2 and Dead space are out, and Fallout 3 hits very soon.

You can read more about this story here.

Ratings go colour!

2008-10-28T12:35:00.004Z

ELPSA have proposed a "new" system for game ratings. "Elspa supports a 'traffic-light'-type system as part of its voluntary ratings code that it says is more effective."

Basically meaning as you can see from above that suitable games for children are green with heavy violence being red.

"We're offering this idea as a direct consequence of the Byron review; the system needs to remove the potential for confusion and this is what we're doing," Elspa deputy director general Michael Rawlinson

A spokesperson for BBFC commented on this saying: "There is a system in place already which people know and understand and which in fact uses the traffic light colours, and it's called the BBFC system."Read the full article here

Article by: William Stephen

Fable 2 Review - (Xbox 360)

2008-10-27T20:03:00.020Z

The blood is jetting across the cobblestones of Bowerstone market like salt water smashing against the cliffs of the shore during a harsh storm. Children are screaming and begging for their lives only moments after begging for my autograph, but I cannot hear them. Town guards are swarming and uselessly trying to stop me like bees sacrificing their lives in vain to prevent the bear taking their prize. Townsfolk run around like headless chickens desperate to flee but finding nothing but the escape of death from the invisible force of my rifle. The blacksmith made a dash for the main gate. That bastard had ripped me off for months. I'd toiled endless nights for a pittance under him, only to have him hand me to the town guard when I took the meagre 20 gold in the till after a hard night's work as compensation for his slavery. No longer would he play tyrant.

'Pop'.

His head flew off like a bottle rocket, propelled by the fountain of blood desperate to escape the mortal confines of his puny and aging body. I reloaded. The fishwife I married who I had left hidden in the gypsy caravan park in the cheapest home I could find cowered in fear below the her tatty stall, clinging to the bridge in an attempt to press ever further into it. She was desperately seeking it's strength to protect her from the coming death she faced at the hands of her once beloved. His once noble blond hair had become greasy and black, his skin and face greyed out with death, rot and decay. I had finished with her now. She had grown me the son and heir I had desired since that whore in the country hadn't been able to provide. I'd hidden her with the gypsies to keep her away from the prying eyes of my peers and my other spouse but her cries for more money and attention had to come to an end. As the runic blue lines of a magic abuser cut across my body, glowing more brightly than my bloodlust soaked eyes, I leveled my rifle at her head.

It wasn't always like this.

I was once a good man. I came into the world a homeless orphan, yet I always chose to help others. My sister was murdered for my troubles. I continued to risk my life for them and suffered grevious wounds. When I ate the food I bought from them to heal my wounds, I grew fat. When I put up the rent of the properties I owned to help buy me the weapons and gear I needed to save these people from tryanny they turned on me and scorned me, as my gut rolled out and flies circled my stench. I was good, yet hated. I gave, yet was not rewarded. As I toiled day after day to reduce the rent to earn their favour they began to love me, yet I began to hate them. Every piece of gold I spared them was a scar on my body that could have been avoided, had I been able to afford the right weapon. My face and body became pure and fresh as my soul descended into a frenzy of hatred and contempt. On the outside I looked like peace itself but inside, I hungered for chaos.

Fable 2, as you might have gathered, is a very, very, VERY good game. It is an RPG like no other. Whilst not perfect (and what is in this turbulent world of ours?) it comes as close as one can come to the sun before being burned. It takes Oblivion aside and bloodies his nose, mocking and laughing, daring the King to strike the pretender back to test how far his power really goes. The gameplay itself is very like the original Fable, but far more in-depth. Good and evil still matter but thanks to the purity and corruption options, you can degrade or purify the appearance of your character in more subtle ways than before. Time has advanced and some of the whimsical nature of the original has been lost to make way for a regency period technological parade. You can buy rifles and pistols but they are more steam age than space age. The clothing you buy is closer to Brunel than to Armani. The game manages to feel advanced from the original yet occupy it's own period of time and character without feeling like just another Lord of the Rings rip off. It also interweaves events in the last game into the history of this one which to anybody who finished the original Fable is a rather sweet bonus.

The real marvel of the game is just how much you can do. Have children, have wives, raise the dead, sacrifice the living or you can just kick chickens for a laugh. It's up to you. Some aspects of the game don't work too well, such as the multiplayer. Whilst good fun, you cannot bring your own character into a friends game. You can only make a 'henchman' with your characters stats and bring him over. Any gold or experience you earn in a co op game will be taken back with you into your single player game, but it is a rather hollow experience. The camera doesn't help - in single player you can adjust the camera however you like but in co-op it is locked. If you move to far away from your partner your movement is stunted which is rather lame. I can understand the need to do this when two people share a screen, but it's almost as if Lionhead didn't actually understand what the Internet was.

Still, it's good for a laugh but you can tell that Fable 2 is a single player game and it is far more rewarding to treat it as such. One good thing about the multiplayer is the orb system. When a friend is in the same part of the game as you and you are logged into Xbox live, you can see an orb with his gamerpic on it floating around. Automatically you can chat to him despite not having launched a co-op game and you can walk up to the orb and start a co-op session in a snap. Be careful not to set the options to allow ALL members of Xbox Live onto your screen though as you will be swarmed with thousands of snotty bratty yank teens talking about if they have pubes yet and how great High School Musical 3 is. Not all Americans or Xbox Live members are like this, but the majority on live are bad enough to foul the pool for everybody else so keep it friends only if you like not being deaf or insane.

The game still plays well though. You can't die which does remove some element of challenge from the title as well as respect for the achievements you get, of which their are plenty. You get a 5 point achievement for pretty much everything in Fable 2, but that's not a bad thing as it really encourages you to do more things in the game. Still, not being able to die means you can't gloat as much about an achievement anybody could earn if they grinded enough. The game still makes you not want to die by rewarding you - should you be knocked out you will suffer a hideous scar so you will avoid it if possible. To earn the most experience and level up your character quickly, you have to fight well and not just sit there grinning whilst being pummelled. The threat of death is removed, but the urge not to fail is still there which is a rather good piece of genius by Lionhead. There is some limitation in where you can go and how expansive some environments are (expect plenty of loading screens between areas) but you can warp between them and you can explore a LOT more than you could in the original Fable.

Small fences are no longer insurmountable obstacles and can be vaulted over. You can swim. You can jump off most ledges unless the fall is an incredible distance. You can get lost in Albion which whilst not as big as Cyrodiil it is far more detailed and unlike Oblivion, it is not just all the same. Each area feels unique and often beautiful in an original way. The dog whom you cannot get rid of always feels useful as he will smell out treasures for you to dig up and will attack downed foes for you. He can also be upgraded with dog books available from various stores and his appearance changes with yours. He never feels out of place and whilst it may seem an odd addition, it fits in very well with the feel of the game. Expect more single player RPGs to have canine companions in the future.

This game is good, despite the few flaws it has, including a few reportedly game breaking bugs I haven't encountered. I recommend you buy it if you can, despite the fact the market is so busy at the moment. Many good games are coming out this month and the next but sadly, nobody has the time and money to play them all. Gems will be forgotten, this cannot be avoided. We can only choose which gems we keep, and Fable 2 is such a gem. On the upside, we can always buy the good games we miss this year in the middle of the next when nothing is being released by the thick headed publishers who do not realise we are no longer children sucking at Santa's teat who wait until Christmas to get games.

Now you know what I know about Fable 2. I'm still here with the rifle at my wife's head, pondering what to do next. I haven't decided how my story will end. The the real question however is: how will you end yours?

Review by: Edwin Jones

Woman kills Virtual Husband?!

2008-10-24T14:31:00.004+01:00

The law gets wierder and wierder now. A 43 year old Japanese women who played the game Maple Story deleted the virtual husband's account after he divorced her online. Yes thats right they were married (their characters that is).

The stupidest part is she can face up to 5 years in jail for doing that.

"The woman used login information she got from the 33-year-old office worker when their characters were happily married, and killed the character. The man complained to police when he discovered that his beloved online avatar was dead."

Why on earth would you complain to the police about a character, fine if she tried to hurt you in real life but this is just barmy.

You can read the full article here.

Article by: William Stephen

Screw GAME go to HMV!

2008-10-24T11:39:00.004+01:00

HMV have started taking in pre-owned titles. This means you can trade-in any old game you no longer want (well not too old, they probably wouldn't take anything on the Commodore 64 or a SNES game), but it does mean you can exchange it towards not only games, but DVD's, Blu-Ray movies and even stuff like ipods! Ooh yeah!

They've branded it Re/Play and is aimed at rivaling the likes of GAME and Gamestation, and could be quite popular come Christmas.

So if you're Mum or Nan (it was always my Nan that got me games) start asking you if you've any games you no longer want, then you know what that could mean! It means you should tell them to stop being cheap-skates and to buy the games for full price. Oh don't be too harsh, there is a credit crunch and all.

According to MCV, one 'top publishing executive' said
“Pre-owned cannibalises our catalogue sales without a doubt...You could always rely on the likes of HMV and Zavvi to work with you on new releases and catalogue stock. It’s disappointing that someone else is going down this route.”

Oh well. Stop crying about it and drop prices then.

Article By: Wesley Lock

A double news post

2008-10-23T17:02:00.005+01:00

It's a good day today Parental Guidance readers!

Today we are announcing two new things. Firstly, our forums are now up and running. You should be able to see them on the content bar to the right hand side of the site. Have a click on them and go wild. As usual, you can say whatever you want and we'll do our best not to censor it unless nasty legal people hit us with big things, but we won't take responsibility for anything you say. If you have any suggestions or ideas about the forums you can post something in the 'general' forum to let us know.

The other good bit of news is that we, Parental Guidance, are looking for writers for news, reviews and articles. All we want is one post a day, be it a review or a news piece or article. You can post more than that, but it isn't required to be part of the team. Nobody has to post on weekends or major national holidays like christmas day, but again you can post if you want. We have a pretty simple system and it will be easy to pick up.

If you are interested please send a small review or news article to parentalguidance@live.co.uk of about 100 words. You can go over that, but don't send us 2000 word essays as we won't have time to read it all. The article doesn't have to be current or modern (you can use something you wrote in 2002 if you want) but it does have to be written by you. Leave some contact details at the end of it. This isn't a professional job so you won't get paid but we will hand out review code when we can and we already have the support of EA, Activision, Take-Two, 2K Games, Microsoft and others.

If we like what we see we will contact you and take things further. It doesn't matter who you are or what you do, we just want competent writers.

Good luck!

Article by: Edwin Jones

LIPS details announced

2008-10-23T11:30:00.006+01:00

Microsofts ~~rip-off~~ answer to Singstar - Lips is due to hit the shelves on the 21st November 2008.

It's to include top hits from the likes of Coldplay, Leona Lewis, Radiohead and Nirvana as well as being packaged with an exclusive wireless microphone.

If you're a fan of games such as Singstar, and can't wait to get your 'lips' (the ones on your mouth of course) around this, then you can pick it up for an RRP of £49.99.

And you're friends need not sit round with their hands on their ears either, they can join in by playing percussion with Xbox 360 controllers. You can check out the full 40-song strong tracklisting below.

Lips Track List

1 No One - Alicia Keys
2 Stand By Me - Ben E. King
3 Irreplaceable - Beyoncé
4 Call Me - Blondie
5 Boogie 2Nite - Booty Luv
6 With You - Chris Brown
7 Yellow - Coldplay
8 Personal Jesus - Depeche Mode
9 Survivor - Destiny’s Child
10 White Flag - Dido
11 Mercy - Duffy
12 Hungry Like The Wolf - Duran Duran
13 An End Has A Start - Editors
14 It's Raining Men - Geri Halliwell
15 Virtual Insanity - Jamiroquai
16 Ring Of Fire - Johnny Cash
17 Ruby - Kaiser Chiefs
18 Suddenly I See - KT Tunstall
19 Love At First Sight - Kylie Minogue
20 Bleeding Love - Leona Lewis
21 Superstar - Lupe Fiasco (feat. Matthew Santos)
22 Makes Me Wonder - Maroon 5
23 Rome Wasn't Built In A Day - Morcheeba
24 In Bloom - Nirvana
25 Young Folks - Peter Bjorn And John
26 Another One Bites The Dust - Queen
27 Fake Plastic Trees - Radiohead
28 I Wanna Be Sedated - Ramones
29 Umbrella - Rihanna
30 Listen To Your Heart - Roxette
31 Amazing - Seal
32 Put 'Em High - Stonebridge
33 Song For Whoever - The Beautiful South
34 Just Like Heaven - The Cure
35 ABC - The Jackson 5
36 Naïve - The Kooks
37 Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic - The Police
38 I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles) - The Proclaimers
39 Love In A Trashcan - The Raveonettes
40 Bust A Move - Young MC

There you go. Happy now? Much love.

We won't be happy until they have this version of the Final Countdown though...

Article: Wesley Lock

Gears of War 2 to not be released in Japan or Germany?

2008-10-22T23:14:00.004+01:00

According to Edge Magazine, a Microsoft spokesman has said that the game will not appear in Germany or Japan.

“We can confirm that Gears of War 2 will not be available in Germany or Japan indefinitely”

Gears was one of the first games in Japan to actually sell well for the 360 so its surprising that it wont be sold there. Although later on when the story was first published, Microsoft claims that there has been no announcement on the plans for GoW 2 in Japan.

Germany wont get it though, and by the looks of things neither will the Censoring Aussies either. Whats wrong with killing people with chainsaws?! (In a game) Although on saying that, I am getting the golden chainsaw in real life size *drools*

Article by: William Stephen

Is the new PSP-3000 broken?

2008-10-22T21:39:00.003+01:00

Whups.

It seems that Sony have been a little bit 'fail' recently. Their 3rd version of the PSP, the PSP-3000 was supposed to fix ghosting problems and screen flaws that plagued the older models. The good news is that they fixed the ghosting problems. The bad news is all they did was replace one problem with another.

It seems the new PSP suffers from horrible scan line problems. They made the screen brighter and more responsive, but all this does is show up ugly scan lines where they shouldn't be. To put it in laymans terms, big freaking lines poke out of things when your move too quickly on screen.

As a man who has tried out more HDTV's that I would like to admit and found them all buggered in some way, this annoys me. I'm a bit of a perfectionist and this is putting me off buying a PSP-3000 - especially as Sony have said the flaws are based on design, not on malfunctions. Damn.

You can read more about this story, here.

Article by: Edwin Jones

Saints Row 2 Review - PS3

2008-10-22T12:03:00.004+01:00

The original Saints Row was released at a time when gamers were pining over a new Grand Theft Auto, and certainly filled the gap for a while at least. Whilst it didn’t have a lot of the humour of which GTA was famous for, it gave gamers a better combat experience, and other little touches which improved on what GTA had offered before it.

Now we have Saints Row 2, and it comes out after Grand Theft Auto 4, which has been heralded by many as one of the greatest games ever made. So can Saints Row 2 compare?

In some ways, yes it can. If you’re already tired of the Grand Theft Auto comparisons, then you’ll have to put up with it. Saints Row takes no shame in the fact it’s largely a carbon copy. One of the great features in Saints Row 2 is you can create your own character, with a plethora of options allowing for a great amount of customisability.

The story isn’t as polished as GTA, but then again GTA’s story isn’t as ‘Hollywood’ as some would like you to believe. The game continues where the original left off, and you find yourself blasting your way out of prison, and getting back to (a redesigned) Stilwater. There you learn that your gang has split, and three others have risen to power. So it’s time to take the power back.

In order to slowly build up your empire again, you can undertake side-missions which are used to build up your reputation so that you can the main missions which are based on the different gangs. The main missions in Saints Row 2 are often more enjoyable than some of the take so and so here, and drop them off and wait for something to go wrong and then drive them away, that was evident in GTAIV. The missions in Saints Row 2 don’t take long to get going, and you’ll soon find yourself participating in a Kill Bill inspired sword fight, or parachuting inside a bomb-ridden hotel!

The side-missions are often fun too, and arguably more fun than what was on offer in the original. We found ourselves being a security guard for a celebrity, lowering property value by spraying shit over buildings and people in the area, and dressing as a cop with a camera crew and beating the heck outta criminals for TV. It’s all good fun.

One of the things we loved about the game the most was the music. The soundtrack to GTAIV was in our opinion, awful. However, the music in Saints Row 2 fares much better, which is largely thanks to its 80’s radio station. It worked for Vice City, and it works here. You can hear anything from A-ha ‘Take on Me’ to Culture Club ‘Karma Chameleon’ and The Psychedelic Furs ‘Pretty in Pink’. Our favourite though was hitting the streets and causing havoc to Simple Minds ‘Don’t you (forget about me). Classic. If 80’s isn’t your thing, then don’t threat, there is something for everyone, including the song which appears to be in almost every game nowadays – Woman, by Wolfmother.

In GTA IV the weapons were rather cliché, and pretty boring in all honesty. Saints Row 2 doesn’t follow suit though, and as well as the expected handguns, shotguns and machine guns, you can also find yourself wielding stuff like a Katana, a chainsaw, a taser-gun, and even defibrillators - Clear! Taking people hostage is always a laugh too (not in real life though, that's naughty). But it give you the opportunity to use them as a human shield, and then just throw them away!

One of the biggest complaints about GTA IV was that it took itself too seriously. And whilst it did have humour and it was a good solid game, it lacked, fun. Something that Saints Row 2 doesn’t have so much of a problem with. Where GTA attempted to take things more seriously, Saints Row 2 goes even more over the top. And it’s all the better for it.

There’s multiplayer too for those who are interested, allowing players to play through the game together in co-op, which is something that should have been in GTA IV. There are other multiplayer modes as well, and are better than what was offered in the original, but don’t expect them to keep you occupied forever.

So we leave you with this. If you’re looking for something a bit like GTA, but with some more over the top fun that was taken out of the most recent GTA, then this title could be for you. Especially if you’re looking at tearing up innocent pedestrians with a chainsaw in co-op.

Review: Wesley Lock

Dead Space Review - PS3

2008-10-22T11:08:00.011+01:00

Dead Space should have launched with the moniker “In space no-one can hear you crap your pants”. It’s one of the most terrifying experiences you will ever encounter in your video-gaming life. Lucky for EA, Dead Space is the only survival horror game out for Halloween, yet it is still released the same week as Fable 2 and Far Cry 2.

And yet in spite of the triple AAA titles released in the same week, Dead Space certainly holds its own. You play as Space Engineer Isaac Clarke, who along with a few others receive a distress call from the ‘planet cracker’ ship - the USG Ishimura. So you all go to the ship, to find out what’s happened, and are only ambushed by a bunch of aliens known as Necromorphs! Scary times!

Of course this means you’re split-up from your party, and have to work your way around the ship doing various tasks to make your way home. And it all makes for one of the most tense, atmospheric and petrifying games we’ve ever played. It’s not a typical run and gun either, as the Necromorphs require specific ways to be taken down. Strategic dismemberment is the name of the game, and it’s up to you to work out the best ways to dismember the scarily relentless Necromorphs.

The weapons in the game are actually supposed to be mining tools, although luckily enough they’re just as good for keeping away the Necromorphs! There are various mining tools you can use to your advantage, such as what is essentially a flame thrower, mmmnnn, crispy Necromorphs! You also have numerous abilities that you can use to your advantage, such as stasis, which is similar to playing bullet time to a particular object, as well as being able to manipulate gravity for puzzles, in a way not too dissimilar to the gravity gun in Half Life 2. The zero-g areas are great, especially for watching dismembered limbs simply float away.

You suit is actually used as your hud, it displays your health meter, as well as oxygen and how much of your stasis ability you have remaining. As well as that, when getting video feed, or opening a map, it visually appears out in front of you. The story unfolds through this use of video feed as well as audio logs that you pick up on your way, similar in kind to Doom 3 or Bioshock before it.

The level design, lighting and graphics in Dead Space are fantastic, and along with its superb audio, compliment the gameplay extensively. When in parts of the ship which are part exposed by space, the audio turns into a muffled almost silent state. It’s all very impressive.

Crudely put, if you’re looking for Resident Evil in space, then this is it. If you’re a big fan of Aliens, the Thing, or Even Horizon, then there is a high possibility you’ll love this.

But prepared to get scared - a lot. And make sure you have plenty of spare underwear at hand.

Review: Wesley Lock

The Penny Arcade game comes to the PS3 at last

2008-10-21T22:21:00.005+01:00

Here you are on the Internet reading a gaming blog, so I will assume you like Penny Arcade. If not, go directly to www.penny-arcade.com and start reading until you either like it or your eyes bleed your soul out directly into the abyss.

Funnily enough the Penny Arcade lads thought they should take a stab at making a game themselves. They have opted for the somewhat pretentious 'episodic' route for those of us who didn't realise putting a number after the game title was an easy enough way to make a sequel and more cash from a successful title. It came out on 360 and PC a while ago but rejoice PS3 fanboys for this thursday you too can have a piece of webcomic wonder for your own. To quote Kotaku directly:

"Penny Arcade Adventures: On The Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness, Episode One is coming to the PlayStation Network this Thursday, October 23rd."

You can't say better than that can you?

You can read more about this, here.

Article by: Edwin Jones

Obama: 360 Fanboy!

2008-10-21T21:56:00.003+01:00

Borack Obama, Democratic presidential candidate for the United States of America has unleashed himself into the video game world by placing ads in well known Xbox 360 games. Gizmodo reports that Obama wants to target young people, so why not advertise in what 99% of lazy Americans do instead of voting? (Statistic may be inaccurate)

Looking at some of the games - can you guess the connection?

Guitar Hero 3
NASCAR 09,
NBA Live 08
NFL Tour
Burnout Paradise
EA Game here....

Obama's website is voteforchange.com and while I dont care who wins the election, we can all rejoice that change will occur with no Bush ever again. I wonder if George W. even knows what a game is... oh wait thats what the Iraq war was!!!!

Article by: William Stephen

Some guy actually gets arrested for stealing games?

2008-10-20T23:37:00.006+01:00

Ha.

Imagine that? After all the recent high profile leaks of Fable 2, Fallout 3, Gears of War 2 and more - somebody actually got off their arse and DID something about it. This wasn't a mere pirate they caught though, oh no. This guy had the brains to decide to steal hundreds of copies of the game from a company that was packaging them to send them to the shops, before we had the chance to buy them. He was a security guard for the games packaging company 'Technicolor' over in the USA surprisingly enough.

Unluckily for him, he was a bit dim. It seems he left several copies of stolen games in his car, and when he was pulled over by the cops for outstanding minor traffic offences they caught him red handed. They searched his apartment and found even more stolen goods.

This won't stop people torrenting Gears et al on masse, but it might make those of us who buy games feel a little bit better as we read about more and more leaked titles.

You can read more about this article, here.

Article by: Edwin Jones

Sackbomber: How Sony views Muslims?

2008-10-20T18:57:00.002+01:00

So everyone knows Sony pulled LittleBigPlanet from shelves as one of the songs in the game from Grammy award winning Muslim artist Toumani Diabate featured two lines from the Qur'an, sung in Somalian (according to Eurogamer).

I believe Sony were wrong to do such a thing, and here's why.

In June 2007 the Church of England considered legal action against Sony for using Manchester Cathedral as a warzone in Resistance: Fall of Man. After a few days of bad press, Sony only half apologised, leading the Dean of Manchester Cathedral to say some months later that he forgave Sony, even though they believed they had done nothing wrong.

Fast forward to the end of last week.

A song, on general release on iTunes, panicked Sony so much they immediately and without question pulled the biggest PS3 game of all time from shelves/warehouses/reviewers PS3's and promised to destroy them all as to not offend Muslims.

iTunes was not available for comment, but one can only imagine they expect an immediate backlash with overtones of 9/11.

The real kicker is that the uber official CofE can go screw themselves while some guy from Neogaf who writes a polite email delays a global launch schedule for a AAA PS3 title!

And now to my real point. Gamers who are clued up know he wrote a polite email asking for a patch as some Muslims may find the Qur'an elements offensive. And how is he described in the UK papers?

as 'Hardliners who have seen review copies of the game (who said) mixing words from the Koran with music is deeply offensive and demanded Sony take action.'

All this overreaction from Sony has served to do is highlight the differences in the way they see Christianity and Islam. Why ignore one's official letters of protest when a place of worship is used as a warzone but bend over backwards when a single Muslim gamer makes an observation?

The only conclusion I can draw is that Sony either respect Islam a lot more than Christianity or that they fear the Sackbombers Jihad against their great empire. Either view is backwards in the extreme.

Adam Moore

Spunky Returns!

2008-10-19T20:52:00.002+01:00

The monkey is back! This time the violently influenced monkey, Spunky has fallen prey to Abe's Odyssey. How will the victim die this time?!

Article by: William Stephen

New Guitar Hero Metallica trailer

2008-10-19T01:37:00.002+01:00

Please God, make it stop.

Article by: Edwin Jones

Vader to be available in 360 Soul Calibur 4 - PS3 gets Yoda

2008-10-17T20:11:00.008+01:00

Well, that took a long time to happen. Bandai-Namco are finally going to do the right thing and are going to let you play as Vader on the 360 in Soul Calibur 4. Most people said this would happen, but we really didn't know when it would happen or if somebody would pull the plug on it. I was really annoyed about not getting Vader in the 360 version as to be honest I do not want to play as a backwards talking green midget in my epic sword fight game and I don't have a PS3 yet. Give me the Dark Lord of the Sith - kthxbai.

There is a price, as always with the dark side. The price today is capitalism, the route of all fanboy wish fulfillment. 400 MS points is the heavy toll we must pay for Vader goodness - that is if you are in Japan. Vader comes out as DLC on October 23rd in Japan but will almost certainly follow in other territories very shortly afterwards. Dates and final pricing for other regions have yet to be confirmed, but I'd bet by the end of November every territory will have him. The price will probably stay at 400MS points unless somebody wants to be a massive dick about things and raise it.

PS3 owners? Same date, same speculation but maybe a slightly different price as in Japan you will pay ¥600 (US$5.93) for Yoda. Not that you give a shit, but I hope you enjoyed all those extra months with a worthwhile extra character in your Soul Calibur for no additional cost.

*Shakes fist*

You can read more about this story here. Hey, do you think that now one big Japanese games company has given in to the money fueled urges of 360 fanboys that Konami might finally give us a MGS4 port? Please?

Article by: Edwin Jones

Games Night wins Games Media Award

2008-10-17T16:49:00.004+01:00

From MCV, the second annual Games Media Awards took place recently. These awards recognise the different media aspects of the game industry. From the list, Games Night, a topical review show (which will return in the future) on Xleague.tv (and then Pulse), beat off strong challenges from last year’s winner Johnny Minkley (Radio One) and One Life Left (Resonance FM).

For those that dont know, PG's own Wesley Lock was a semi-regular guest on the show, and you can watch previous episodes of Games Night here

Article by: William Stephen

Little Big Delay

2008-10-17T14:46:00.004+01:00

According to recent reports at MCV, Little Big Planet has been delayed in Europe until the 14th of November. Well at least this gives you more time to save up!

The game was due to hit shelves on the 24th October, the same day as Fable 2 and Far Cry 2. But now, you'll just have to wait longer. Well at least this gives you more time to save up!

Article By: Wesley Lock

Monkey kills after videogame influence!

2008-10-17T02:18:00.005+01:00

Well we had to show this one. What happens when a monkey is subjected to a violent videogame such as Manhunt? Well he kills of course.

Check out this video, which shows irrefutable evidence that a Monkey, when playing violent videogames, can lead to devastating consequences.

Article By: Jon Barstood

Portal: Still Alive expansion out next week for the 360!

2008-10-17T00:31:00.006+01:00

I think I can speak for the entire internet when I say that Portal, a very good game included in Valve's 'The Orange Box', was perhaps the most meme-tastic game of the last five years. The incredible ending song is now sung around the world anywhere that you might find a large gathering of nerds. The term 'the cake is a lie' is posted on thousands of internet message boards daily. Rick rolling is less popular than Portal references and that takes some damned hard work.

Portal was and is a very good FPS puzzle game. It is a good thing then that it is getting an official expansion which will be available on Xbox Live next Wednesday on the 22nd of October 2008. The expansion will also include the full original game so those who didn't buy 'The Orange Box' (shame on you!) can get the best game in the whole collection by downloading it off Xbox Live. New content comes in the form of 14 Xbox 360 exclusive new challenge maps and six advanced maps that weren't in the original.

Remember, this was a triumph.

You can read more about this story here.

Article by: Edwin Jones

Play Wii Games on the BIG Screen

2008-10-16T16:50:00.003+01:00

For anyone living in the london area, Gizmodo has reported that you'll be able to play games in the cinema in the Rex Cinema+ Bar on Rupert Street in Soho.

While it isnt a big chain like Cineworld and Vue its still something at least. You can only play the games they have so no games like No More Heroes on the big screen which is kinda crap. But on a 24x8 foot screen who wouldnt want to play games on that?!

Oh and you have to pay too, obviously.

Article by: William Stephen

Bioshock 2: Sea of Dreams - PS3 Teaser

2008-10-16T15:29:00.005+01:00

If you're a fan of Bioshock (and so you should be), then you can check out the PS3 teaser trailer for its sequel - Bioshock 2: Sea of Dreams.

Not much is shown, hence why its a teaser. But it is certainly enough to 'wet' our appetite.

Article By: Wesley Lock

Pirates playing Fable 2 and Far Cry 2 already

2008-10-16T14:20:00.010+01:00

That's right. It appears that Pirates have already got their scurvy mits on both Fable 2 and Far Cry 2 over a week before the games hit our shores.

Both games appear to be region free, however self confessed pirate H8MACHINE whom we've mentioned before stated " Be aware that this is a bad Kreon rip so its not safe for Live" Whilst we have no idea what a bad Kreon rip is, it appears that the game could cause problems for those who try and go on Xbox LIVE with it.

How these games get leaked so early is beyond us.

Article by: Wesley Lock

Konami looking into Metal Gear Solid 4 on Xbox 360

2008-10-15T09:37:00.004+01:00

According to recent reports from Kotaku, Konami are "looking into" an Xbox 360 version of Metal Gear Solid 4.

It seems like the days of exclusives may very well be ending, as Konami PR guy, Yoshitaka Arai said "The worldwide demand for an Xbox 360 version (of MGS4) is quite high, and it is something we are currently looking in to."

Many have argued for a while now that Metal Gear Solid 4 would never see a release on anything other than the PS3. But with more and more titles receiving the multiformat treatment, as we mentioned previously with the new Tekken, things are changing.

Below is an artists rendition of what Metal Gear Solid 4 on the Xbox 360...

Article By: Wesley Lock

UPDATE: Apparently the story was originally taken out of context, but it will still be interesting to see what happens with all the recent multiplatform announcements.