Browsing all articles from August, 2008

Aug

I <3 Electronic Arts

Yes it’s true – I admit it.

In the last few years or so they have been buying up many software houses much to the dismay of gamers around the world. However at the same time they’ve been allowing these developers to continue working at their own pace but with increased support/funding and resources.

Quite simply this has been one of the best things to happen in gaming for sometime I think. With a large well known name publishing their games these smaller studios can now get on with creating the best games they can.

In the past year I have bought and played 2 games published by EA but developed by one of their newly purchased developers.

#1: Skate

Quite simply a stunning game and a breath of fresh air in the world of skating games. The genre had become increasingly stale with the only real skating game on the market being the Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater series. Sadly that franchise has got worse over the years and is now a shadow of it’s former self.

Skate immediately gathered a huge following and introduced a hugely impressive new control system. This revolved around using the thumb sticks to control your skaters body and feet on the board with the face buttons allowing you to push yourself around the fictional city of San Vanelona.

This made the game somewhat realistic in the movements required to pull off tricks and turned a stale button bashing genre into a skillful game of judging speed and timing correctly. It was a joy to play and had plenty of different challenges whilst retaining a relatively simple and intuitive control system. A sequel is due probably next year but no specific date has been announced yet.

#2: Burnout Paradise

A very well known game from a long running series involving driving at stupidly fast speeds whilst trying to avoid crashing into other cars. Of course the only way to drive a car fast has to include jumping and drifting and a big dose of boost too.

Whilst not quite up to the standard of the previous game (Burnout Revenge) Burnout Paradise was an excellent game in it’s own right. It introduced us to the idea of free roaming in a city and countryside environment in a driving game with every road having a name and every intersection a race. This meant fun and excitement was never far away.

Sadly being free roaming the developers deemed every race needed to be a point to point affair which all seemed to end up in the same place (Northwest). This was the most sparse area of the map with only a few roads and events starting nearby. This made driving to the next event very time consuming with little to do along the way. The free roaming also affected multi player with races often becoming a solo driving affair as everyone took their own routes.

Still I managed to plunge over 100 hours into this game and largely enjoyed every minute.

Whilst these are only 2 examples both of these games were developed and released when they were ready but with a big name publisher behind them to get them the target audience/support that they needed to make the games a success.
So on that pro-EA tack I also bring you some stunning news!

I got a new Rock Band pedal in the post this morning!

The old one broke on Tuesday night (past 10pm) and I filled in the online form for an RMA replacement. 36 hours later I have a new pedal and I’m back on the drums – quite simply a stunning service and the most efficient system I have witnessed to date!

See ya later – off to drum till I die

Aug

Ouch!

Psymonkee

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So there I am offering up my services as a drummer for a nights entertainment of Rock Band when someone agrees to the craziness of playing with me! Got myself all setup and ready to rock and joined the game that someone had setup.

Band leader chooses Highway Star by Deep Purple as the first song. Great song and something I can definitely manage on hard drums. Game loads up and off we go. Song starts off with a simple roll on the snare drum which I still can’t hit consistently and then moves into a quick fill across the drum kit.

Finally as the song gets going properly the bass pedal starts to get some use. Actually a fair bit of use and enough to kill my leg after the 6+ minutes the song plays for. However partway through the first verse something feels a little odd. Then as we approach the chorus something goes from feeling a little odd to absolutely stabbing pain.

Look down and find the the bass pedal that has done me so well since May has given way and snapped Luckily no damage to my foot but still a bit of a shocker

Off to EA Tech Support to order a new one I guess….

Aug

3rd post in a month….

Psymonkee

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Yeah so the first one was a gimmie but hey

So I figured since I’m not going to be playing Rock Band drums anytime soon (see above) I thought I’d post a little news about life here.

In all honesty not much has changed – I still work and play – thats about it. Recently the annual high point in the town happened in the form of a visiting fair! Takes up the entirety of South Street and half of Market Street in town. Noisy fairground rounds and candy floss is a sure fire winner! Sadly no pics as I never ended up going due to the fact it was pissing with rain and I was broke. There’s always next year

Since payday has rolled around again I’ve been out and about splashing the cash. I’ve ordered the weights bench I mentioned in the previous post and bought some DVD’s and HD-DVD’s. Before you get smart yes I know HD-DVD’s are on the way out but at 2.99 I can hardly say no :p

I’ve also (at the nagging of Nokkon) finally purchased the entire Angel season 1 – 5 boxset which with a running time of 4743 minutes should keep me occupied until I get a new drum pedal….

$HD DVD\'s$

Aug

The new post!

Psymonkee

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Yeah yeah I know it’s hardly evening now – heck it’ll probably be Thursday by the time I finish posting this anyway. Excuses listed below – pick your favourite!

So what’s been happening in my average life since I last bothered posting? Not a huge amount in all honestly but I have been crafty with some spending/abusing banks silly 0% offers. Probably not smart in the long term but until house prices fall or I get a better job (2fer?) then I’m staying put at home and getting cool toys while I still have the disposable income.

So lets see other than working at a supermarket on tills I had been planning a Rock Band/Guitar Hero party. Sadly, despite nearly everything falling in to place (empty house, lots of booze, plenty of interest) hardly anyone was able to make the suggested date due to prior engagements. Shame really as it could have been really good fun – always another time.

Also been a month with the PS3 and I’ve finally got round to finishing my first game \0/! Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune finally got finished off and I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed it – not played a decent adventure game in quite sometime and it was a refreshing change from the usual FPS/Driving games I play. I’ll pop a review up later and get a reviews section started on here but overall it was a good game whilst at times a little gun play heavy for my taste in adventure and of course fell into the classic exploring old ruins cliche….

Other than that the only real new addition to the house/my collection of toys is the following:

It’s a Panasonic THPZ82B 42″ Plasma TV with Digital TV Tuner. It has enough HDMI ports for now (although 1 is at the front) and is Full HD Ready (1080p). In all honestly games look stunning on it and playing videos from the PC (720p Dexter if your interested) look stunning – the colour definition is light years ahead of the Dell 2407 LCD I’m sitting in front of now.

Oh there was one other thing. In an attempt to lose weight and get fit I have purchased a rowing machine and am in the process of sourcing a weights bench so keep your eyes peeled for news and pictures on this mammoth project I have undertaken.

Until next time….

Aug