My life is over…..

Psymonkee    Gaming, Life    

All thanks to 2 games.

Anyone that has their hand in the gaming circle will know that Rock Band 2 came out this past Friday (21st). Considering how much time I have racked up Rock Band 1 single & multiplayer since the end of May alone I forsee very few other games getting a look in for sometime.

Except perhaps Mirrors Edge. The time trials and speed runs are addictive as hell and might make me stop rocking for 3 minutes.

Also the NXE came out this past Wednesday and quite honestly it’s lovely. Looks nice, runs very quickly (bar the marketplace) and of course allows installation of games to the hard drive. A feature which I now love (especially whilst playing Mirrors Edge….) despite the requirement for the disc to be in the drive.

Finally something that sort of slipped by quietly was a 5 year anniversary. Those 5 years are the 5 I have been working at Safeway/Morrisons. I’m not sure if I should be happy or sad though…..but I’ll leave that to another day….

Gaming Frenzy…..

Psymonkee    Gaming    

*****THIS WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS*****

So this week I ended up with 3 days off having asked for the Friday off to make sure I could go and see Airbourne and apparently getting weekends off too. Excellent I thought – lets play some games! So much was this a good idea I finished 2 in 3 days!

So on Thursday night I sat down on my favourite chair and ignored all friend requests on the 360 and sat down to play Gears of War 2. I had a checkpoint from partway into Act 3 which gave me a decent start on the night. After feeling a bit tired from work I waited till about 1am to get started (obviously) and never stopped playing right until the credits rolled.

One hell of a ride though I must say. Plenty of shooting, fighting and caves big enough to use a mortar in! Plenty of nice twists and fresh ideas (I wanna ride a Brumak! ) and whilst the ending was fairly easy I think it fitted in nicely with the game.

A couple of things did bother me however – where the hell were the Beserkers!? They were brilliant and really changed the pacing of the first game and made you think a little abotu your actions. The game could also have used a little more variety in enemies as fighting what felt like my 100th Reaver in the same level got a little tiresome….Anyway enough moaning – I enjoyed the game throughly and fully look forward to trying to get better at the multiplayer.

The other game I finished this week was Mirrors Edge. Quite simply this is a phenominal game that I reckon everyone should play. For those who have no idea what I talking about this game is essentially free-running in first person. It can make some sequences fairly tricky to do but feels immensly rewarding when you do them right

On the the whole the game encourages you to use the enviroment to your advantage and generally discourages gunplay altogether. There’s even an achievement for finishing the whole game without killing anyone with a gun! However you can still use your fists and feet to perform some pretty brutal moves that can stun/knockout enemies extremely quickly. Combined with blasting past them, running up a wall turn round and jumping on their head this can quite a lethal skill set.

A definate plus point to this game is the intensity of it. From very early on in the game you get used to running away from the ‘blues’ (police) and trying to avoid not only snipers but regularly trying to lose helicopters! This obviously leads to some very exciting chase sequences where a single mistake can see you shredded by bullets.

Whilst the overall story mode is fairly short (I purchased Friday night, finished Sunday night) there is plenty of longeivety added not only via achievements but also the speedrun & timetrial modes. Whilst there is a guided way through the single player levels those with good eyes and balls of steel will see many alternate routes. Whilst their is no online mode you can download ghosts of other peoples times which will give you some sort of guide as to where your insultingly slow.

Tied to this is an amazing soundtrack which goes right from frantic up tempo when being chased by helicopters to chilled out ambient whilst climbing tall buildings and running along rooftops. Overall the whole package is amazingly well put together and a simply stunning use of the Unreal Engine to boot.

Sadly I have to go back to work on Monday (errr today 17/11/2008) but on a positive note this week see’s the sequel to one of my most played online games come out….Rock Band 2! Roll on Thursday….

Airbourne gig…..

Psymonkee    General News, Random    

So a couple of months back I noticed Airbourne were doing a UK Tour \0/ Then even better I noticed they were coming to Dundee – a mere 15 miles away

However the day has arrived and I have to say I’m not hugely excited or raring to go. Why I here you ask? Cos all my friends have bailed on me :/ One had to work and couldn’t swap his shift (not his fault), 1 is ill and the rest don’t want to go.

So that leaves me feeling a little down and facing the prospect of going to a gig by myself – really dunno if I can be bothered…..

…..my ears!!

Psymonkee    Uncategorized    

So I went to the gig alone – not as bad I thought it would be Sure I ended up standing by myself but that was my fault for not being quick enough getting into the main standing area. Got a good spot to the left of the stage though so I could see plenty

My god what a noise!! I don;t think my ears will ever be the same again.

Sadly the listed support act didn’t make it (Stone Gods) but a replacement was provided. A band I’d never heard of by the name Sound & Fury. A Canadian Hard Rock/Metal band who were actually pretty damn good. Very good at pumping at the crowd and one of their guitarists was a mentalist! We’re talking playing whilst being piggy backed through the mosh pit Bonkers!

It gets better though…

After waiting for half an hour for the changeover Airbourne hit the stage. Oh my what a reaction! Noise from the crowd was phenominal. Then they started playing and that was even LOUDER !

Excessively loud & fast heavy rock was just the order of the day! They put on a great show and interacted with the fans better than almost any band I’ve seen. Small venues rock!

Best bit was quite easily the lead singer (Joel) opening cans of beer. With his head. Crazy bugger I tell yah!

Really wish I’d pushed my way into the main standing area though – would have been soooo much better

Great show and definately want to see them again!