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 21^st 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

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.

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.

Some great news to all Call of Duty fans, Infinity ward are to release one of the most popular maps from MW2 on to MW3, “Terminal” for FREE yes you heard correctly FREE.

The great news is that if you own an Xbox 360 then it should hit the dashboard on the 17^th of July for elite members and on the 18^th of July for non elite and as usual it should finally hit Playstation and PC in about 6mths just before the release of black ops 2 ha ha only kidding they say it should be on pc and Playstation about a month after.

I know I am looking forward to it as it was one of only a few maps that if you spawn trapped correctly bam up, popped the nuke.

Many people slated Activision and Treyarch for the charging of old maps on Black Ops (Zombies) when they had already been released on World at War, money for old rope I think the saying is, but I for one loved playing the old maps with the new guns and the fact that they had redone the graphics made it perfect second time around.

Could this be the first of many fan favourite maps to come back, I hope so! They just need to bring back Afghan, Favela and Crash (MW original) some of my personal favourites. Well done to Infinity Ward.

What’s your reaction to the news and give us your favourite multiplayer maps from any CoD that you would like to see make a comeback.

JonnyB

My god the soundtrack is totally awesome for FEZ! This whole 8bit chiptune thing really is bliss and Fez’s soundtrack really takes me places, its so dreamy, so edgy, synthy and knowing there are hidden images in inaudible noise. I’ve picked out my favourite tune from the finest arcade this year. This song had me rushing back to the area in which it looped and just sat around watching dear ol’ Gomez eventually fall asleep. Love it! This is ‘Compass’.

Yes that’s right! If you pre order Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 you can play on the shittest, most boring and pointless map to ever grace Call of Duty. Yes I admit it was fun being able to kill someone from spawn with a single throw of the grenade and hearing all the kids whine and moan or quite possibly cheer about spawn kills but hey 2025 will make it all that much cooler… Enough said, hope you enjoy it but my moneys on Halo 4 and MW3 will still keep my belly full for Call of Duty nonsense.

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]

Far Cry 3 was expected in September of this year but is now being held back until November 29th in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. North America will see the release on December 4th. Joystiq reports that the game is held back because producer Dan Hay wants the game to be at its best rather than ‘almost best’.

“We’re taking more time to create the best possible gameplay experience,” Hay says. “Far Cry 3 is a huge offering and we want every element of this insane, action-packed adventure to be of the highest possible quality for the players.”

This will see a huge strain on our wallets as from October right through ’til December we’ll see a heavy amount of FPS releases hitting stores! MoH Warfighter, Halo 4 and Black Ops 2 are a few to mention. At least we’ll definitely see Far Cry 3  within 2012 rather than a huge delay setting it back further into 2013. It’ll be a worthy Xmas present, especially the Insane Edition!

[Source: Joystiq, ShopTo]

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!

Can’t help but browse YouTube and find such awesome videos like this one! First Person Fifa haha!