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

__________________

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

Ben

Wipeout HD and other downloadable games

Well I already gave a recap of my Killzone 2 Map Pack Bundle which I still think is awesome afew posts down, but scince that day I have bought more DLC!

Wipeout HD

Wipeout HD is my most expensive purchase over the playstation store yet and you'll hear me say it a lot, but its worth the money. With a 9.3/10 from IGN I knew this game would probably be good but it was better than I expected.

The controls are simple enough to be able to pick the game up quite quickly and play, however you may need if you want to be serious with it to remember some button combinations. You can fly with either the arrow keys or the analogue stick. On PS3 I definetly go with the analogue stick as it feels more natural to move and frankly easier to fly. This is probably because I play most of my games with the analogue stick.

You press X for thrust (accelerate) and [] to fire your weapons you pick up along the track. O is to "absorb" your weapon meaning to repair your ship but sacrificing your weapon and triangle is to switch views. R1 is to look behind, L2 to airbrake left and R2 to airbrake right. Deeper than that some button combinations can make your ship do different things, like Left Right Left, or vice versa makes your ship roll when in the air and giving you a speed boost when landing. In Wipeout HD you can also turn on motion controls which could frankly be better and probably are not used by the majority of people.

There are only 8 tracks in the game but a whole range of different ships. The game runs in 1080p at 60fps and looks awesome. All the 8 tracks are taken from Wipeout Pulse and Wipeout Pure on the PSP however thats no biggie, just made the tracks more suitable for 1080p :). \

The online for the game is smooth and features support for voice chat, and of course I suck at online. It is 8 player online that is smooth and I have not encourted much lag... well I say I do over the headset when I lose.

The trophy lineup is also good for this title featuring around 30 trophies which are very hard and includes a platnim... once again I stress these trophys seem hard, well for me anyway.

Overall Wipeout HD is very much worth the 30 buck investment and even better if you gameshare. I wish the developers gave us a few new trakcs. I find nearly no other problems than that, apart from the 8 tracks however you can race them backwards expanding your options. If you have a PS3 and are looking for an arcade game to buy, this is your game!


Conclusion:

Your old and most favourite vehicles and tracks but in HD.


Menus- 8.9/10- Slick design and easy to read
Graphics- 9.0/10- Graphics good but not as amazing as it could have been
Sound- 9.5/10- Techno tracks suit wipeout HD, ability to import custom music
General Playability- 8.1/10- Easy at first, gets hugely frustrating later
Replayability- 8.5/10- Some races you'll want to replay, some you'll need to.

Final Score (not average)- 8.9/10- A solid and smooth game.

____

Well that was my first review I guess! Next time I'll be doing a review of Flower and the MGS Pack of LBP and maybe Battlefield!

Until next time,

Ben.