Timed exclusive/stuff

You know I was just thinking how its kinda sad when certain companies, both Sony and Microsoft MUST stick their respective console logo's to the mack of a multiplat game. Microsoft seems to do this more, like on the newest Modern Warfare 2 infamy trailer. I have also seen Sony do it with Playstation 3 on the back of Ashes Cricket 09 (Yay...) and I think I saw a ghostbusters one. I wish both companies would just stay out of multiplats, which makes some newer gamers abotu to buy a console think that that (I meant to say that twice then by the way :D) certain game is exclusive.





Also I really dislike timed exclusives. OK fine, a company can have all the fully exclusive DLC they want but I find timed just a tiny bit ridiculous. What do companies get out of it? They spend a few million bucks to get the certain DLC delayed a few weeks (or 6 months- a year) for the other platforms. Its absolute ludicrous to me!





Anyway I said I'ld drop a few words about MAG and I'll do as much as I can now, and the rest in my next post!

Now I am in the MAG beta, however can not play it anymore now that school has started again for me... The first thing I would like to say about it, is that it is pure awesomeness. I got to try out the Acquisition game mode which is where one side is defending two vehicles and the other team is attacking and trying to steal those vehicles.

What I first noticed was there was no lag! Now I thought with 128 players in Acqusition (I think it wasn't 256 players Aquisition) would have lag, seeing as I am in Australia and the majority of people in my squad and team were Americans. But no, there was no ag which I was very pleased about.

Now I'll get the bad things that I do not like about MAG off my chest, this is purely based on the Aqusition game mode in the beta so is subjected to change in the final release and different game modes. My first bad point would be the spawning system when attacking. You can choose at first to spawn at "Tactical Spawn" where you are placed on foot and have to run into the battlefield, or spawning on an ATC (something with 3 letters) tank. It can be very annoying having to run all the way back into the battlefield, taking up a bit of time, then getting sniped or shot down by bunkers straigt away and having to spawn again.

Some smart people will drive the ATC's you can spawn on into a hidden location in the enemy base, so you can spawn on that and attack the enemy closer. That is until one smart defender blows it up. It becomes funner however once both the bunkers and the Anti Aircraft battery has been disabled. Then you can airdrop in :)

Thats all I have time for tonight, I'll write some more tommorow! Seeya!

Back

Ooops realized I kinda haven't been posting recently, not that any one actually reads this :D.

Yeah I've just been a bit busy and lazy and putting off writing to no one. But now I'm so bored I'll do a mini post! I plan on blogging more now though...

Oh well over the time when I didn't post I got into the Uncharted 2 beta (which has now been made into a demo XD) and the MAG beta. I will do a MAG writeup probably next post... or the post after but all I can say is it is pure badass with no noticeable lag when I was playing!

I also was very, very bad and got myself a Nintendo DSi, I know I should be murdered by sony. But I swear it was purely to compare it against my PSP! I SWEAR GODDAMIT! Thats a picture of the style DSi I have. Not my one, some randoms website.

Anyway I can safely assure I like my PSP a lot better, although I shouldn't talk considering I haven't even got Scribblenaughts of GTA Chinatown Wars for DS yet which seem fun :). The only game I have is Pandora's box... a puzzle game that hurts my brain, a lot. So judging from 1 game so far I like PSP better.

I like the DSi though with the cameras, even if they are bad quality, 0.3 megapixels XD, I think my mobile phone has more megs... But its pretty cool mutating someones face. The face recognition software is dodgy, not recognizing someones face I was pointing straight at...

The bumpers on the DSi feel slightly... cheap comparing it to PSP. Like a little piece of fragile plastic (although esentially thats what it is!). All in all I still love my PSP, even if it is the old model and my DS is the newest.

So... Oh right. Also Chinatown Wars is coming to PSP :). Even though now I got a DS I shouldn't really care... but I do because me loves PSP.

I also bought a few PS3 store games... Fat Princess, High Velocity Bowling (no idea why I bought a game that should be on Wii) and some dynamic themes. I personally think the most cool one is the Wipeout HD Fury one, which is free, although after a while it gets a bit annoying. My dynamic theme right now is Little Big Planet, which is the most badass, sackboys are the badassiest things eva!

Uncharted 2 comes out very soon and I can't wait! I'll post one of my mini reviews after finishing the single player campaign...

Anyway thats all I have time for... seeyou next time and I'm back! Yayy...

Heyy,

Well Gamescom at Cologne <--- (Not as in deoderant) in Germany is coming up soon with Sony's press confrence on the 18th of August. I was a tad disapointed when I found out the conference for Sony would only go for 1 hour, they had previously booked in for THREE. They say the other two hours are to get people to sit down...

Well probably what I'm busting to see is a PS3 slim and a price drop for PS3. I just really want the PS3 to move more numbers and beat the xbox! Sorry I just had a annoying argument with a "misinformed" xbox fanboy on youtube, I won of course. Fanboys are one thing, fanboys who can't get their facts right are another story altogether and annoy me completely. This goes for Playstation Fanboys, Xbox fanboys or Wii fanboys, get your facts right before talking!

Anyway... I really hope to see more MAG at gamescom I'm busting to get my hands on that game.

Seriously though 128 VS 128 online with no apparent lag? This will be awesome. Sure as you can see in that screenshot the graphics are not the greatset on PS3, but are still OK considering you have to have that many people online in one game at once. As you can also see in that screen the bullet streaks are awfully long. I really hope they shorten these as to me they look somewhat ugly. Although some people actually like the streaks. The streaks that long could also help find any people camping somewhere no one can see (especially if there is no Killcam).

Talking about Killcam what other games apart from COD have that, anyone know? I really wish I had it in a lot of FPS... Especially when theres a sniper who keeps getting me in Killzone :( (Probably just cuz I suck at the game though :))

On the subject of COD in my opinion it needs a cover system apart from crouching and going prone. Most games now have one, I wish COD did too. I would really like to be able to shoot while in cover, like Killzone 2 and Gears of War etc. Oh well ducking and going prone will be good enough for now :)

Thats all I have time for today,

Ben.

Heyy,




I'm quite angry at Activision/Infinity Ward with Modern Warfare 2. Although I have preordered the Prestige Edition and am a sucker for anythign they throw at me, they have no right to already have DLC to be released. What the hell? They have already announced ( a while ago) they have 2 maps as DLC to be released around the games launch for us consumers to buy.



So firstly they jack up their prices, and announced that to the public saying its a "test". They then unleash an awesome prestige edition which makes most epic nerdy gamers drool a.k.a get more money. They then announce they have a special custom controller in the works in conjunction with Madcatz. And now they have already said there are two multiplayer maps ready to launch!



WHy in the world can they not just release it with the game scince its all ready. And why can they not at least have the download code for it in the Hardened Edition/Prestige Edition. For goodness sakes the least they can do when giving us NVG's in the prestige edition is to put in a code to give us DLC maps!

Hopefully the maps will be awesome, as I will most likely buy them ASAP. If they just happen to be a port of the COD 4 map I will be epicly pissed off... Not to mention the maps will most likely be an epic price. Hopefully the maps will be more than maps, maybe new game modes or new guns etc.

Oh well I have no doubt Modern Warfare 2 will be spectacular and awesome... Although I'm still looking forward to MAG more. They really should get cracking on releasing vids though, especially the multiplayer. Anyway thats all for now!

Ben

Heyy,




Trophies. Those little things which people either love or hate. What some people aim to get in a game, the reason why they put in those long hours, the reason why they have something to play for. I myself do not hunt for trophies (which is the reason why I'm severyly lacking in any). Other people do hunt for trophies.





My point is trophies add to the gaming experience, along with achievments. Admit it people, you like getting that little message in the top right hand corner that a trophy has been earned, that you got that extra little pixel in your trophy collection. I feel fufilled when I get one of those little items and very happy about it.





I do not know why Wii hasn't adopted trophies yet, seeing as both 360 and PS3 have. Also the reason behind why sony isn't putting trophies on PSP are because "due to the hacks and modders it would be impossible to have it without trophies been abused". Well I'm prettty sure 360 is hacked and dosen't have any problems with achievements. I wish personally Sony would think up a way to combat this problem and bring trophies to my much loved PSP.

Heyy,

Fathers day is around the corner and when my dad looked at the NDS in Ebgames he seemed sucked in by brain training for himself (...) . So I decided I'll buy it for him for fathers day, and mostly just compare it to my much loved PSP.

I want to see the unbiased side of the argument if I have both (seriously people, if you only have one 99.9% of the arguments will end up just a bit biased) and decide for MYSELF which is better. I can see back in 07 why DS seemed quite better, the PSP was lacking in many games. But like the PS3 the game library is slowly growing and many great games have been announced.

I love my GTA Vice City and Liberty City along with God of War and MGS on my PSP. I'm looking forward to Little Big Planet PSP, GT PSP, MGS: Peacewalker, GTA Chinatown Wars and many more I can not think of.

Yes by the way in case you've been living under a rock GTA Chinatown Wars is coming to PSP... It was the highest rating DS game and it was an exclusive DS fanboys had been screaming about... now its coming to PSP. Hopefully the graphics will be just a tad better than that free flash game I can get from any website.

Anyways unfortunately thats all I have time for :(. I may blog again soon and next blog I'll do a review of battlefield 1943!

Well I'm happy to hear a patch for the Cod 4 UFO Hack is been released (finally), and its good to see Infinity Ward still supporting COD 4 when MW 2 is right around the corner! Talking about that I hope I get a good number on my NVG Soap Head Stand...

Anyways I think I'll do a small review of Flower:



Flower

Well flower is quite a cheap game I recently purchased off the Australian PSN store for a very small price of around 12 bucks. It is a very short but beatuiful game with no real objective than to, well bloom flowers. Sounds a bit like a little kids game but really its not, well it could be but my friends and I enjoy it a heap, a long with a whole lot of other people.

If your an XBOX fan reading this your out of luck, a PS3 exclusive.

Now I'll start off with the hugely simple controls. When games use sixaxis *COugh* lair *cough* they usually turn out an epic failiure. With Flower it isn't. Yes flower uses sixaxis to control the wind your controlling and blows it in all directions. Theres only 1 actual button needed and you can choose that one button. You can choose any button on the controller for the wind to blow and move forward, wether it be X, Square, Right analog stick or left trigger, anything. If you don't like one just change in game without going to any menus.

Now I found these controls weird in the first few levels and I started to keep forgetting you can't use the analog sticks to move, but the sixaxis. Eventually however you get the feel of the game and the controls start to feel natural and relaxing in your hands. I use the R2 trigger due to the fact with sensitivity you can choose how fast the wind acctually blows.

Flower is a very relaxing games with most levels set in dull fields which you eventually bring to life by blooming the flowers on the ground. The graphics look pretty outstanding although simple, with thousands of blades of grass swinging around individually in the wind.

When you bloom a flower there is an extra note added to the music playing and it feels very soothing to have little different instruments chirp in at different times.

Now the game is very, very, short, I finished it to the end in around 1 hour. However there are secret flowers you can go back to find, 1 or 2 in each level. Also after you go for the trophies it expands the playtime quite a lot.

Flower does not have a timer or a point system or anything. Theres no game over and no dieing. You can't get shot by hordes of Nazi Zombies or Helghast and its a perfect stress reliever. However I'ld like to see more game modes and an online part. Maybe bloom a certain ammount of flowers within a certain time. Or I would like to see either online or offline split screen with collecting as many flowers as you can within a level.

I would give Flower a 8.1/10 due to the fact it is very relaxing and the music is brilliant. The grass moving individually also is good processing wise. I would like to see a longer playtime and more game variation modes however which could have boolstered the score a bit. Still if you want a relaxing game aside from all your first person shooters for a great price and replayability, this is the game for you!

Conclusion:

A relaxing and beatuiful game, guarenteed to calm.

Menus- 8.5/10- Nearly no menus, just a flower which you select using motion control

Graphics- 9.1/10- Graphics calming and lovely to see grass blowing so naturally

Sound-9.9/10- Sound is amazing especially when you collect more flowers

General Playability- 7.8/10- Motion controls hard to get used to, but rewarding in the end

Replayability- 7.7/10- The first levels you'll want to replay... the others not so much

Final Score- 8.1/10

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Well that wraps up this blog and hope you keep on reading!

Ben