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Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater HD Review: A Re-Masterpiece

25 Jul

Just when you thought gaming had become a bit stale and predictable, up pops one of the 90’s greatest games remastered and in HD, “Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater HD” bursts onto XBLA for this years Xbox Summer of Arcade.

If you have been playing games for as long as I have you will remember during the 90’s that Tony Hawk’s ruled the Ps1 and was the ‘must have’ game just like the first person shooters of today, Tony Hawk ruled.

So you can imagine my delight when it came up for download on the XBLA.  Anyway enough of me let’s have a quick walkthrough of the game.

Tony Hawks Pro Skater HD is a combination of both Pro Skater 1 & 2, they have basically taken the best bits from both games and mixed them together with some fresh ideas, which I will talk through later.

The Parks

We have 7 to choose from, 3 from the first game and 4 from the second that include “Warehouse, School 2, The Hanger, Mall, Venice Beach, Downhill Jam (my personal favourite) and finally Marseille.” It’s fabulous to re-live these wonderful, exciting and sometimes infuriating yet addictive skate parks.  There is confirmation of future DLC plans that will include some levels from THPS 3 which I am dead excited to play on.

Game Modes

There are classic game modes up for play including, “Career, Single Session and Free Skate.”  But since its release back in 1999 the gaming industry has grown massively especially with online gaming they have taken advantage of this and put in four online game modes, the best one of the lot has to be “Big Head Elimination” where the idea is to perform tricks and land combo moves to shrink the size of your head before exploding, leaving you headless until the other players lose their heads resulting in a frantic display of chaos and fun trying to be the last man (Skater) standing.

The Music

A mixture of new and old ones which does help to bring those memories back of playing the game almost every hour of every day haha.

Gameplay

Nothing has changed it’s the same as it was back in ’99 so after an hour of playing you will feel like you have time travelled back 13yrs ago and you’ll be pulling off some sick flips and grabs and loving it with the benefit of playing it in HD which brings everything to life such as the colours, the skaters and pretty much everything THPS has to offer yet maintaining that classic playability.

Oh did I mention you can play as your avatar as well? Seeing your avatar pull off tricks and grinds will bring an even bigger smile to your face.

To summarise, it’s great to see an awesome game from our past like THPS 1 and 2 get the 21st century treatment, it brings back some great memories and at a mere 1200 MSP this is certainly a game worth purchasing and reliving your youth even if it’s only for a few hours a day. Get playing and SCORE BIG! See you on those leaderboards.

Both PS3 and PC dates are still to be confirmed.

JonnyB

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Zuma’s Revenge Review: Ball Busting Addiction!

13 Jul

Zuma’s Revenge sees a welcome return from our amphibian friend as you shoot your way through many stages, bosses and other challenges that lie in your way. If you’re familiar with Zuma then you’ll no doubt probably fly the levels with great impatience, trying to earn every spirit coin within the game. Although beginners, there is no need to threat because PopCap have this welcoming value to every single one of their games and you’ll grow to utterly worship each and every one of their titles. First thing to pick up on is the sheer flush of colours that tantalise your visual appraisal. It’s a real pleasure to witness a brightly coloured game that compliments every inch of your High Def television. Artwork is genius with a ‘Tiki’ style of design that surrounds every stage, character and image that you will witness. PopCap never fail to bring a pleasing presentation and zuma’s Revenge is one of my favourites to gawk at.

Balls! The main objective of the game is to clear the stage of remaining coloured balls. You play as a charming frog that shoots coloured balls from the mouth towards the stage of coloured balls which are on a rolling rail. The colour of the ball that you are about to shoot must match up to the colours along the rail. Match a minimum of three with the same colour and they will vanish building a high score. Match more than three balls to build an even higher score and with a possibility of scoring chain combos results in some fantastic and addictive high scoring. The balls are making their way to the skull pit which immediately will end the level, reset your score and place you back to give you another try at succeeding. You’ll find that some stages present a massive amount of never ending balls but its then down to you to decrease that amount by using skill and judgement from your angle of shooting. Also you’ll come across some incredible power ups that will aid you significantly throughout many of the stages. They will become almost essential towards some of the later levels if you wish to progress.

Within adventure mode there are 10 stages per sector of the island which there are 6 sectors. Bosses wait for you at the end of each segment and they bring a whole fresh way of succeeding to eventually progress onto the next segment. Some of the boss fights require you to make good use of power ups and technique. It presents a real fun idea and motive to the original Zuma play style. Other modes that you’ll enjoy are weekly challenges, Iron Frog and Boss Rush. Weekly challenges offer replay value and will most certainly have you coming back to improve scoring and beat friends and other players on the leaderboards. Iron frog sees you testing your endurance against 10 stages to see how far you can progress without losing a level. My favourite however is Boss Rush in which you have to face every boss within Zuma’s Revenge one after another as fast as you can to post some pretty slick times to the leaderboards.

Each stage has the required goals to obtain Spirit coins. You’ll inevitably obtain a spirit coin by just completing the level but you can acquire other spirit coins by scoring high in points and beating the required time set. These coins can then be spent on spirit animals which can upgrade bonuses such as an increased percentage of fruit appearance, shot speed, appearance of power ups and level percentage of score. These bonuses once filled will give you that extra push towards huge high scores and help you climb higher in the world wide leaderboards.

I’ll conclude by saying that Zuma’s Revenge is a real fun title that anyone can pick up and enjoy. Its replay value as a true arcade title is most definitely there. Zuma’s Revenge will have you hurrying back to score even higher points and earn all three spirit coins for each and every stage. Achievements come quick and swiftly for those hunters of higher gamerscores. Variety of stages that bring in new methods of completing levels such as lilypads makes for a fresh approach to gameplay and adds just that little extra to the original which would now be considered a little repetitive compared to the new-fangled  Zuma’s Revenge. It’s definitely one to pick up and thankfully the game hasn’t fallen into the 1200 microsoft points you commonly see on the marketplace with many present arcade titles. This is a cheap and cheerful arcade title at only 800 msp and it’ll have you playing for hours. It’s instant and quick to play which stays true to the arcade experience all XBLA fans will appreciate. PopCap never fail to entertain with their titles and Zuma’s Revenge is above all the most colourful, most addictive and most visually compelling XBLA title to date.

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The Amazing Spider-Man Review: My Spidey Senses Tingled!

10 Jul

I had my doubts about The Amazing Spider-Man Game. I’ve not been too hasty to grab a title when it comes to movie tie-ins. I’ve never really caught the glimmer of a fantastically superb title that has come from a movie or vice versa. A games a game and films a film and usually best kept well apart. This time it’s different, I’ve had a fantastic opportunity to try out The Amazing Spider-Man and instantly I got to grips with combat, free roaming and the absolute solidity of a cracking title. I quickly come to realise that movie tied games aren’t all that bad if you’re looking for a bit of good ol’ fashioned fun from a video game. Many games have gone for complete narrative which I’ll quickly point out I am a fan of, but it requires a first-class addictive appeal that keeps the grip from my hands to the control pad from ever slipping.

Thankfully The Amazing Spider-Man immediately proves to be the most fun I’ve had free roaming in a long time. Being Spider-Man is a bloody fantastic feeling with a frantic and most certainly breathtaking way of roaming through the streets of Manhattan. This is the closest to being Spider-Man we’ve come across for a very long time throughout many Spider-Man games. Instantly you’ll come to love the tightness of the camera as you swing from building to building and as you glide through the air. If the camera was to be any further out like many other third person titles then the experience would definitely feel a little below par.

The story is a little predictable at times and doesn’t really keep you involved what so ever other than just getting the game complete. Unfortunately there are a few spoilers at hand if you haven’t seen the movie just yet which, shame to say it I haven’t but I’m not at all fussed by that. These are two very different experiences and if you’re like me, then you won’t feel too distraught by a few plot point reveals. I’m not going to go into too much detail of the narrative because I’m here to tell you what you will enjoy most out of this game.

COLLECTIBLES! If you’re a fan of collecting in many games then The Amazing Spider-Man will literally take the piss! It has hundreds upon hundreds of different collectibles that will bring any OCD sufferer like me to the brink of tears. Compulsive hoarding in video games became a real problem when they brought in achievements and gamerscore and now I have to try my damndest to earn nearly every single piece lying in and around the city, within side missions and the chapters. I love collectibles and I can’t get enough of them, especially when they pop up in every crook and cranny within the game. Free roaming around the city for your first time, you will come across one hundred comic pages before reaching your destination to start the next chapter. Some players would be irritated by the vast amount of flashy collectibles surrounding the game but for me it is one fantastic distraction during my playthrough and I just can’t help going into web rush and web slinging myself to pick up each and every one of these things. Picking these comic pages up won’t only reward you a measly achievement but an assortment of unlockable comic books of the Amazing Spider-Man featuring many of the games/films characters and villains from Rhino to the Scorpion and Black Cat. Impressive for any Marvel or Spidey fans and that’s a real must for collecting these items. Roughly 700 of the things!

Being sneaky or full on is entirely your choice for combat. If you’re feeling brave you can run right on in and gain some serious combo XP multipliers to aid you in levelling up or if you prefer your fighting style to be a little more ‘shy away’ then you can approach enemies from ceilings or ledges where you are out of site for you to pick them off one by one. There isn’t really a favoured technique for me, it all depends on the situation and your course of action but definitely the best way to level up is to rack up those combo hits. Now I nearly went the whole length of this review without even mentioning the Bman but here’s the thing. If you’re a fan of the Batman games you’re either going to slag the Amazing Spider-Man off for being identical or you’re going to love the Amazing spider-Man for its familiar approach to combat. One thing I got right into was the combat simply because having played the Arkham games and from that moment I could focus on all manner of Spidey and get on with the game itself.


I mentioned XP earlier and levelling up well this is all fine and dandy when it comes to progressing with character upgrades and tech upgrades. Certain upgrades become available as you play through the chapters and progress in the story. Tech upgrades however can be upgrades with tech pieces that are found surrounding the main chapters and Oscorp side missions. These upgrades of course improve combat skills and techniques that further aid you in your spidey adventure. Good ways of racking up your XP is by completing side missions available to you in the free roaming. Your map will clutter up from time to time with various different symbols for the varying different opportunities to earn a little extra. Although some of these side missions became highly repetitive your OCD intentions will no doubt kick in all over again. I loved clearing absolutely everything one by one,its simple and easy to finish and another good excuse for finding those collectibles during your web swinging addiction. It’s a good break from the main chapters too and maybe you’ll earn a few achievements along the way.

I’m going to conclude this now by saying I need to get back to the game. Knowing there are another 300 comic pages scattered around the city leaves me itching to get back into it. You will most definitely spend more time finding these items rather than playing the actual story through itself. It’s a good thing and I’m enjoying every moment thoroughly. It’s just an all out fun game that Marvel fans and free roam fans will come to appreciate. Maybe once completed you won’t decide to rush back in a long time but a guaranteed enjoyable experience is more than a worthy play through. You’ll get pleasure from the Amazing Spider-Man one way or another.

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Assassin’s Creed 3 Independence Trailer

2 Jul

Ubisoft have revealed another trailer for what will be the best damn game of this year! Assassin’s creed 3 is set to be my most anticipated title and already pre-ordered and paid for the freedom edition which I can’t quite express my excitement for right this moment. What a bucket load of nominations though ay?! For now the new trailer for America’s Independence day… has been released for Europe which makes a ton of sense… by the way the annotation near the end of this trailer does not link you to any pre orders of the Freedom Edition! Only the ‘Join or Die’ edition has been linked which is a shitter seeing as they’re promoting the Freedom within the Independence trailer. You can however pre order it from Gamestop UK ! Bare in mind you will have to pay for the pre order NOW rather than just before despatch so say goodbye to that handsome £80 sitting in your bank but if you’re an AC fan like myself it’s wellw orth the purchase. Enjoy the trailer and maybe you should mute it if you aren’t into whiny children singing Amazing Grace! *Cringe*

[Source: Assassin's Creed UK, Gamestop UK]

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Mass Effect 3: Extended Cut and Skyrim: Dawnguard DLC Arrives Tomorrow!

25 Jun

This Tuesday sees a huge day for DLC, whether it’s paid or not! The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim will have it’s very first piece of DLC. It’s been long enough even if one doesn’t actually ever complete the game I’ve still been waiting ages for a fresh dollop of quests for Skyrim. Dawnguard looks incredible and probably one of the most worthy of DLC’s to hit the marketplace. However from the looks of it we’ll be spending a hefty amount of Microsoft points for it. 1600 of that pesky M$ currency which boils down to paying out for 2000msp if you were to buy direct through the console or if your local store or choice of website has only 2100 you’ll be spending the couple of quids extra with points left over. All well and good if you don’t mind the extra points towards a shit XBL deal.

Along with it will be an additional 250 Gamerscore which I’m going all out for to make sure my Skyrim achievement list is well and truly completed once again. Here is  a list of the achievements revealed.

A New You – Change Your Face 20G
Awakening – Complete “Awakening” 20G
Beyond Death – Complete “Beyond Death” 20G
Kindred Judgement – Complete “Kindred Judgment” 40G
Lost To The Ages – Complete “Lost To The Ages” 30G
Soul Tear – Learn All Three Words Of Soul Tear 20G
Auriel’s Bow – Use The Special Power Of Auriel’s Bow 20G
Werewolf Mastered – Acquire 11 Werewolf Perks 20G
Vampire Mastered – Acquire 11 Vampire Perks 20G
Legend – Defeat A Legendary Dragon 40G

If you find time to actually bother putting your Mass Effect 3 back into the disc tray you’ll be happy to know that the Extended cut DLC which also lands tomorrow will be absolutely free but requires a painstaking requirement of having to load a save near the ending to view its extension. I can’t even remember if my last save was even that close but I’m sure its not too much bother to fire up from the beginning of the final mission and enjoy the playthrough once again. Here’s the official statement from Bioware’s FAQ.

“To experience the Extended Cut, load a save game from before the attack on the Cerberus Base and play through to the end of the game. The Extended Cut endings will differ depending on choices made throughout the Mass Effect series, so multiple playthroughs with a variety of different decisions will be required to experience the variety of possibilities offered by the new content.”

Unfortunately the the EC won’t be released for PS3 until July 4th which is unusually unexplained but hope its worth the wait for you guys. Not as bad as waiting for Dawnguard to hit PS3 in a whole months time ay?! Same with PC! I’m not going into arguments over release dates. I hate all that just as much as you do and it sucks! Still Mass Effect 3′s extended ending won’t be played by me for sometime due to the fact that Dawnguard dominates the DLC scene and boasts of a huge 20 hour + playthrough. ENJOY!

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Forza Horizon Twists and Turns the Franchise Towards a New Direction

13 Jun

Forza Horizon is a new take on the Forza long running franchise exclusive to Xbox 360. For years Forza has been more of a driving simulator rather than going for incredible damage and an arcade sense of gameplay. Some may be put off by the lack of gameplay styles and terribly bored of over doing the endurance races which are a complete drag. Although Forza has its charm with crystal clear graphics and precision detail of its vehicles. All I tend to do in the Forza series is check the detail and lust over many of cars in my collection! Either that or spend 20 hours finding custom designs in the storefront! But Forza Horizon is moving towards a more arcade feel but with the simulation graphics and handling that you would find in previous titles. An interesting take for the series introducing a new developer Playground Games working alongside Turn10. It’ll be great to see where they stand competing with other race titles such as the NFS Most Wanted. Anyway I’m welcoming the new Forza style with open arms because I’m pretty bored with the endless lap after lap endurances against some lame Ai drivers and an event list that never gets complete.


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Gears of War: Judgment E3 World Premiere Plus OverRun Gameplay

12 Jun

Gears of War Judgment brings a story all about the past featuring that blonde fella Baird and Cole Train. The E3 premiere wasn’t anything special at all. Just a CGI trailer with Baird being dragged all restrained in chains. The music used was A Perfect Circle which I am dead certain has been used in many other game trailers! It seemed Microsoft and Epic weren’t willing to show any gameplay what so ever during the briefing which would have been nice considering it was one of three other Xbox exclusive titles that hardly showed a demonstration. More time for the TV/Music/Social features to be shown off damn it! But never the less we are seeing a new Gears arriving next year and that’s a good thing! The Gears universe is just a great experience and the franchise has grown ever so strong since its debut.

After seeing some gameplay footage of the new mode announced, ‘OverRun’ is a fresh take on Gears but not enough to grant it a whole complete new title with very little improvements in graphics. I just feel it was a little too soon after Gears 3 and that maybe this was an idea which was scrapped from that title but panned out to become a whole new story. I won’t go on but I’ll be looking forward to way more about Judgment in the near future. 


 

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Sam Fisher Returns to E3 With Splinter Cell: Blacklist

8 Jun

Unfortunately the news of a new Splinter Cell was kinda leaked just before the Xbox Media Briefing. So it wasn’t too much of a big surprise appearing on the great big screen but no disappointments there. What was surprising was the fluidity and smoothness of the gameplay being shown in the demo. It looked hella fun and I can assure you we’re going to absolutely enjoy this! So Sam Fisher is back and running wild! It looks amazing, the shadows from the intense sunlight, the blood from exit wounds is looking gorgeous as ever and above all the whole darn thing is running well.

Within the demonstration Ubi announced Kinect integration which automatically draws a few sighs and disillusioned grunts among core gamers but from what we’ve seen its only a sneaky few words spoken using the Kinects mic and a few orders barked at above air support. Its not all that bad and most definitely not a requirement, I’d definitely use it! One huge negative about this showing? The title pops with a night vision sound, with green font and automatically I hear Modern damn Warfare! Lose that… NOW!


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Halo 4 @ E3 2012

8 Jun

So old news is sometimes the best news. Yes, you guys have probably witnessed everything as it was announced/presented at this years E3 but my head was spinning reading through the twitter feed of all the bull crap spam rushing through. I just waited for every single announcement and gameplay footage to come through and now you’re going to find it all in one place.

Well to begin with I wasn’t even considering a Halo purchase this year. I’ve yet to obtain a copy of Anniversary which is shameful but it’s not as if I’m feeling left behind with that one considering I have the original Halo anyway. But before that I think I’m actually going to grab this one. The teaser trailer really didn’t sell it to me. So what! Master Chief is back? Big deal. Upon bracing myself for a disappointing Microsoft E3 conference we all expected the usual Halo 4 style of gameplay, but hell! I actually begun to enjoy what I was seeing. New enemies and new weapons were popping up. Some luscious looking landscapes and just a few odd new ways of combat never seen in the Halo universe before. Bored of the covenant, I was glad to see a new style of enemy.

Its definitely looking better than I had expected. Hoping that 343 are really pushing for an awesome campaign experience and yet maintain an online multiplayer enjoyment that keeps Halo 4 being played right the way through until the next instalment. What’s more exciting is the episodic cooperative Spartan Ops! This is definitely the biggest feature I’m looking forward to and its a lot of hard work coming directly from 343 studios! Amazing stuff. Enough said, time to check out the videos below showing the Campaign Demo featured during the conference, Spartan Ops and War Games Multiplayer! Time to Pre-order me thinks!



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Did E3 Really Live Up to the Hype?!

7 Jun

If anything, it was a load of shite! All 3 consoles had nothing really to offer. Yeah Halo 4 looked kinda impressive but it wasn’t ground shifting in any way what so ever. Sony only really had The Last of Us that excited me and Nintendo failed to sell me the Wii U which apparently is heading our way this November?! E3 2012 didn’t get me going at all and that’s a reason for not rushing to my blog and typing frantically all the LATEST news as it arrived. I Emphasise the word LATEST because there wasn’t anything new to show off was there. We half expected some fresh gameplay and features to titles announced last year. Fresh brand new gaming was rare this year. It’s all reboots and sequels and rehashed titles. Gears of War: Judgment (Judgement if you’re British like myself) only showed off the teaser during its conference but it didn’t tease in the slightest. I was interested in the story or what was perhaps taking Baird prisoner. Gameplay was absent until folks lucky enough to enter E3 had a burst on the ‘OverRun’ mode which adds a few good fun features but graphics look just the same as Gears 3 as well as the typical Gears universe style of play. Just feel that title isn’t necessary.

Wii U was meant to be really showing it’s potential this E3 considering it’s release is creeping nearer and nearer. Miiverse is a great idea but wasted considering you have a laptop, iPad or any other device that allows you to check out forums in an instant. The trailer below is about an annoying pleb who can’t figure out how to kill a single zombie behind a door. Bless the Ninty players playing core M rated games!

 

Depending on what the Miiverse can do other than just use general chat back and bollocks that everything else can do then I don’t see this being a bloody revolutionary game changing experience. Plus the whole Mii thing needs to mature for this supposedly “next gen” piece of mess. Give a whole range of customisable avatar style items related to the Nintendo world rather than have a little bobbly looking character that has the same face as pretty much every other god darn Mii. Of course the Zombie stuff shown in the video is presumably Zombi U which is shaping up to be a good use of the Wii U’s clunky handheld screen…. thing but we won’t thank Ninty for that, THANK UBISOFT! Ubisoft really took the whole E3 thing for themselves on all platforms. Best Developer/Publisher of the whole event. More from them in future posts including Assassin’s Creed 3, Splinter Cell, Zombi U, Rayman Legends and Watch Dogs. Watch Dogs so far has been my highlight so far through the sheer fact its a brand new fresh game/story/idea. Graphics are amazing bare in mind that its demo was featured on a top spec PC.

 

 

Playstation 3 has a few exclusives which is fine and dandy. The freshest of the exclusives is ‘Beyond Two Souls’ from creators of ‘Heavy Rain’. Probably a game that relies heavily on cinematic sequences and event button bashing moments. MEH! The announcement of Ellen Page acting as the lead character in Beyond Two Souls seemed more exciting than the game itself. But isn’t she playing the roll of Ellie in The Last of Us? No apparently not?! Ellie, Ellen, Naughty Dog, Quantic Dream and Sony… Sort it out! Below from left to right: Beyond, Juno and Ellen Page….. Something like that, you work it out! 

Is it a film or a game? Trailer shows squat on gameplay just a lengthy 5 minute rambling between typical actors/actresses. Something I’d fall asleep to at the cinema. BORED! I’ll post each and every individual announcement and presentations from this E3 later on today and beyond featuring Screens, Trailers and More. Stick around and discuss. I’ll leave you now with the biggest highlight of this years E3 show.

Yep….?

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