• Knights Contract (360)
• Test Drive Unlimited 2 (360)
• Ancients of Ooga (XBLA)
• Aqua (XBLA)
• Alien Breed: Impact (PSN)
• BIT.TRIP RUNNER (WiiWare)
• 3D Dot Game Heroes (Ps3)
• Joe Danger (PSN)
• Drawn to Life (DS)
• Okamiden (DS)
• Advance Wars (GBA)
• Advance Wars 2: Black Hole rising (GBA)
• Advance Wars: Dual strike (DS)
• Advance Wars: Dark Conflict (DS)
• Blade Kitten (XBLA)

and removed;

• Alien Breed: Evolution (XBLA) removed due to Alien Breed: Impact coming to PSN which is an updated version of this game.

Update: Advance Wars (GBA)

While deciding what games to play from The List I remembered Advance Wars and the Advance Wars series and was shocked when I realised that I had neglected much of the series and had only included the latest so I have now corrected this mistake with the series now being added in its entirety. I already owned and had played through the first two in the series some years ago those being Advance Wars and Advance Wars 2: Black Hole rising, however I decided I would still add them to play through them again for nostalgia sake as not only do I rate them as some of the best hand held games I have ever owned and played, I have fond memories of the series as a whole from my younger years . This update is focused on the first in the series and will be done in the Kotaku review style, a style that I think works well for video games by describing what is done well and what isn’t; allowing the reader to get a better opinion of a game rather than a 70/100 pushed in their face which by all means could be an enjoyable game.

Loved;

• The artwork is still as great as ever, created with pixel art and using “sprites” for animation, the bright and bold colours really make it a joy to play.
  
• Gameplay is still strong while possibly unbalanced in areas, the game feels as fluid to play as I remember along with many options presented to you. Leading on to…
  
• Timeless, this game series is still going and the main reason is how timeless this series is, not only do the graphics and art look so great even now and the gameplay holds true, Intelligent Systems really hit a gold mine with this series (and the fire emblem series).
  
• The amount of modes in this game allows for re playability that developers even now are struggling to match, including; Battle map creator for making your own maps, multiplayer via several modes and methods (1v1,2v2, 3VS and 4VS via Gamelink or on the same system), Story mode and Arcade mode. All this allows you to play for hours and hours alone or with friends.
  

Hated;

• Not really a hate but the story is nothing more than a bunch of cheesy brief conversations post and pre battle to tie the maps together, I guess this is logical considering its arcade styled gameplay and does make it relatively unique in this respect being light hearted considering the topic is war.
  
• A small gripe I had with the game was the CO powers (these charge during the match and help give you an advantage when used varying from a tidal wave taking small damage from enemy units to repairing your units by small amounts depending on the CO you are using). They are not explained other than a few in the story mode and while battling you may become a victim of a CO power yet have no idea how to counter it due to it no being described in the COs Intel, a small description of its exact power would have solved this easily.

More coming very soon.

The 4th update is here!, the first in several months and there is a lot to talk about…

As I have so many to go over since my last update I won’t be doing a large write up on every game, I wish I could but I want to clear this backlog so I can focus on more recent games along with more detailed updates however I will try and sum up my feelings on each game as best I can from memory.

Note: Games are in chronological order, most recent to oldest.

Xbox 360

• Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty city
  A return to form for Rockstar and the franchise in my opinion, GTA IV was a fantastic game but I felt lacked some of  the outright fun and lunacy I remember so well from Vice City and to some degree San Andreas, sure it had the characters and the radio stations and more; everything we have come to expect from the series but there were some unwelcome changes and cuts, some that over time I have got used to and actually prefer, like the driving, but it still lacked that insane element. That is what this collection of the DLC adds, not too much, it is still rooted in reality but enough to bring back the old feel of previous titles. The first half I played was the Lost and Damned which is a relatively dark story and much the same of GTA IV being based on the liberty city equivalent of the hells angels, The Lost motorcycle club. It expands on a character from GTA IV, Jonny, the VP of the motorcycle club and tells their clubs story as well as his part of the diamond storyline while also focusing on the collapse of the club from the inside with an insane leader and back stabbing “brothers”. The Second half is The Ballad of Gay Tony, now this is where the fun really is, to name a few it adds; Parachutes, APC missions and later APC on call, Gold Plated Uzi, Unique vehicles and missions such as the Buzzard (ultra agile and later gold plated military chopper with missiles and chain gun) and a triathlon with Nitro fitted sports cars. Telling Tony Princes story from the perspective of Luis (the guy who interrupts Jonny’s and Niko’s deal with the Jewish buyer in the main game) the game has many missions, some unique and wild and some following the same formula we have come to expect.The story is much more upbeat, if that is possible when you’re bankrupt and wanted dead by every gang boss in town, the characters are funnier especially Yusuf (played by Omid Djalili) and sees the conclusion of the “Trinity” (as Rockstar calls it) finishing the Diamond storyline among others. My verdict? This is how DLC should be, it was well planned in the original game so the stories all link together fantastically and keep the game fresh while keeping the core the same. It is also worth the money, I played mostly the story of the add ons and had a playtime of the two totalling over 12 hours with plenty left to do on the side in the way of races, parachute jumps and random characters and the like. This is DLC at its best and I will be buying this (rather than using lovefilm) in the near future.

• Batman: Arkham Asylum
  A game that came from nowhere and blew everyone away and I can vouch for that, I won’t repeat what everyone has said about this game other than it is a beautifully crafted game that not only had me wanting to finish the story but also had me wanting to explore the various locations, which is rare for games these days as they usually just add 100 flags placed all over the game map. Story, levels, game play, Voice acting all stand out as being great especially Mark Hamill who voices the Joker. Another game that I will be buying for sure and will be waiting unabated for the sequel.
• Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
  I’ll admit here and now I’m not one of those people who understand every nuance and memorise every detail of the large Star Wars universe so when it comes to Star Wars I would probably fall into the “Love the films but is relatively in the dark about every story detail” category. This game is a good play though; the story is interesting enough to be played through once or twice and some deeper links to other franchise elements, there is plenty customisation for your sabre, character and abilities and the game play is decent enough while the game can be repetitive it is kept fresh enough via art style and added game play elements to keep you playing on. A game I would probably play again and will most likely buy at some point, the sequel is one I look forward to as well.
• Prototype
  A sandbox Superhero (I guess, bit of a Anti-Hero as well) game, interesting story although a little B film cheesy, decent game play and ok graphics. Overall a good game which could be bettered but not original or ground breaking. It reminded me a bit of Crackdown but with a serious tone to the story and dark visuals (obviously with gore as well).
• Forza 3
  Another game that needs no introduction, probably the best racing experiences for the console bar Race Pro (although not as polished, the feel and driving in Race Pro is top notch). Finally got this finished, I simmed the races I had left to do, mainly because it can get a bit tedious after a while, Forza 3 is a great racing game but I would say it is a bit too clinical and the races seem to get longer and longer which means you end up spending more of your gaming time playing one track in one car. Apart from a few small flaws the game is great and a must for any 360 racing fan.
• Battlefield: Bad Company
  A great alternative to the modern based Call of Duty franchise, featuring some solid characters and a humorous storyline along with the tried and tested Battlefield game play, it has to be a winner. For any modern based war game fan then this game is most likely the best alternative to Modern Warfare even including some features not seen in Call of Duty such as fully destructible environments thanks to the Frostbite engine created in house at DICE. The story isn’t that integral to Bad Company 2 so if you are only just about to play this then I suggest maybe going straight for Bad Company 2 unless you want the full experience and consider yourself a completionist then go a head and play this so you have a solid grounding with the characters as I did, you won’t regret it.

• Splinter Cell: Double Agent
  The first real major change in the series from the previous three titles, I haven’t played the three originals even though I own them so this was my first complete Splinter Cell experience. I loved it, then again I love stealth in general and I found the story believable although maybe cliché at points. Game play was solid although a bit frustrating at times, allowing enough freedom in the objective based missions to not feel linear and then having several “free roam” areas at set points during the game. I also found the moral choice system to be clever and unobtrusive, allowing you to play through without even realising  there was another choice, it just depends on how daring you want to be. Re-playability is there for sure while setting up the “sequel” Conviction which is the next in the series I have to play. Enjoyable and fulfilling.
• Crackdown
  Been around for a while now so I will sum up the experience in a few words; intense freeroaming fun. From the humour and super hero powers to the morphing cars and infamous agility orbs, there is so much fun to be had and I am so hyped for the sequel coming later this summer. Remember skills for kills agent, skills for kills.
  
  
• Darksiders
  A mash up of many concepts and mechanics that have been the core of other games, most reviewers saw this as ripping off or being unoriginal but in my opinion it made all the elements it’s own and rapped it in a great story. A great puzzle combo based adventure game, it had plenty customization regarding combo moves and weapons. It very much feels like Zelda, which is no bad thing, combined with portal and some god of war for good measure. If you are looking for something to fill that Zelda hole on the 360 (or PS3) then you could do worse than Darksiders. A sequel has been announced for 2011/12, which I am very much looking forward to.

  Xbox Live Arcade

• Perfect Dark
  The N64 FPS returns in style, one of my all time favourite games from my gaming past, this is one of the many games I had on my N64 which was the first system I actually owned. Some argue Goldeneye, which is still a source of rumour regarding XBLA, was the first proper FPS, I would agree, but Perfect Dark took it one step further and I must have spent hours and hours on this game back in the day, playing with friends around a 4:3 CRT TV *sigh*. Goldeneye and Perfect Dark have not aged well on the N64 and the controls now feel down right awkward but at the time that is what they had to work with, now Perfect Dark has been remastered in the best possible way to take advantage of the modern day controllers and graphical abilities while keeping everything, and I mean everything, that made the original so great. The resolution has been upgraded to full 1080p while retaining the same graphic style and textures that have been reworked for the scale, The aiming is the same, which now is a little weird but an update has added the ability for fixed aiming, all the maps and guns are there, even the difficulty of the challenges is still god damn painful almost laughably hard. The biggest improvement to the game though has to be the inclusion of Xbox Live matchmaking allowing you to finally play not only multiplayer matches but co op/counter op and challenges with friends online, I especially loved the split screen option allowing you to play with friends in the story online while retaining the feel that they are right next to them on the same screen. This is how re-releases should be done.

  Wii

• Super Smash Bros: Brawl
  More of the same, which is always great with this series, while some will say competitive/game play wise Melee is better, I personally have never taken it too seriously and this play through was more about the main story mode not the online or verses modes. A long but somewhat no existant story much like other games but this time you have to trek between battles by platformer levels which makes this more of a platformer/action than straight up fighter. Solid gameplay and fun, all you need and want from this game especially when there is plenty to do both online and off.

  PC

• Trine
  This is a somewhat different one from the rest in this update, a platformer with puzzles along the way, interesting game play and a light story to tie it all together. Somewhat short at around 4 hours but meant to be replayed, the art style is the main draw of this game, it’s beautiful. The game play is also solid but a little uneven, you play as three characters, a wizard that can summon boxes and planks, a theif who can use her grappling hook to swing about the level and use her bow to attack enemies and a knight who has a shield and sword to cut your way through enemies; the twist,only one can be active at a time (in single player anyway, I didn’t get a chance to try co op). The reason I say uneven is because you end up spending more time as the solider or thief than the wizard as there are always enemies along the way and fewer puzzles than you would expect but the game is still great fun. The puzzles never really pass an easy/medium difficulty but still provide a break from the constant battles and platforming. I had some issues with it slightly chugging along at times which I think could be down to me having an ATI card as the installer needs PhysX, something not supported by ATI. Overall a great game if you can get it cheap; I managed to get it for just over £6 from Amazon and it is available on steam. Just don’t expect a long game, do expect an enjoyable experience.
• Battlefield: Bad Company 2
  The major competitor to Modern Warfare 2, although sadly often overlooked. Beautiful vistas, solid game play, great multiplayer (no surprise there), great story and believable, although somewhat cliché characters. There is very little to sway you away from this game, I did have some graphical issues due to my ATI drivers and on release the server browser sometimes crashed the game but these problems have been fixed now. The lack of this paragraph does it no justice but I honestly couldn’t recommend it enough.

  PlayStation 3

• Killzone 2
  A good fps with graphics that keep this from being average, how this game got 9/10 reviews confuses me, as if I played a completely different game. The issues I had were as follows; Clunky feeling movement and narrow field of view making the game feel wrong, aiming was hard and felt stiff with the PS3 controller which has basically no resistance or dead zone, way too much blur, cover system that is useless, AI that eats bullets and runs at you most of the time, far too much cursing, derivative story (I swear time after time I thought I was playing Gears) and mostly flat characters. That probably isn’t everything I hated at the time of playing however the only saving grace is the graphics, they are not that impressive and mostly grey, but one of the better games this gen especially for atmosphere (not the story). I think it is a good shooter for the PS3 but I have come to expect better, or maybe different from the target audience, either way I don’t see it being anything near the reviews claim however it can be an enjoyable experience.

  PlayStation 2

• Grand Theft Auto 3
  Industry game changer, the basis of pretty much every open world game since and still holds it’s own. Had to replay it, ’nuff said.

  PSP

• Dirt 2
  Not really worth talking about, a good rally experience  although short with only a few extra things to do past the main career mode.

Finished, done, completed. That is my current status of the Ender and Shadow sagas of the Enderverse by Orson Scott Card. That is a total of eleven books, one being a short story and one a collection of 4 short stories including the original Ender story. While strictly not finished as there is a last and final book coming out in the future (no date announced) but I deem it, for now, complete and I can move on to another book/s and start some of the comics I have bought recently. The book titles are;

• Ender’s Game
• Speaker for the Dead
• Xenocide
• Children of the Mind
• Ender’s Shadow
• Shadow of the Hegemon
• Shadow Puppets
• Shadow of the Giant
• A war of gifts: an Ender story (short)
• Ender in Exile
• First Meetings in the Enderverse (collection of 4 shorts including the original Ender story)

This is the order I have read them in and every book currently available for this saga. From that you can probably tell how much I loved this series, starting a year or so ago I found out about this saga, not only did the short blurb spark my interest as a book series that I can get my teeth into which hasn’t happened for some time but I saw it as a challenge since I haven’t taken on a saga such as this for again, a very long time, maybe even back to when the Harry Potter books were first released. On the 29th of November 2009 I bought the first three and it began, over the next few weeks I finished the three I had bought and then purchased the next 3, becoming more and more fixated on the universe, finishing those, I made the final purchase of the last 5 and on the 21st of May 2010 I have finished the last book; First Meetings. 11 books in 6 months? poor form you might say, but in my defence I read them in batches while playing several games at the same time and was so engrossed in each book that I made sure to read it at a comfortable pace to absorb all the details that are thrown at you rather than the skim reading that I used to do back in school with the books that I HAD to read.

Now this is the point where I should probably review each book and give an opinion on each one before judgeing each saga and the Enderverse as a whole; fat chance, I’m not a book reviewer and I’m glad I don’t have to, I don’t think I would be able to convey all the details and plots these books have without going into too much detail and making the reviews bloated beyond need however I will give a rough opinion on the entire series as a whole and if I recommend them to other Sci-Fi fans (YES!)

As a whole they tie extremely well together while developing the story and adding new characters that intertwine that makes each book unique yet familiar, I have read people complaining that the writing is plain and lacks detail, in some minor cases this may be true but I much prefer a plain style than to get my mind around obscure words and over detailed descriptions that are placed in just because the author wanted to flex his lexical skills or to make up for the readers lack of imagination. My personal favourite was the first (Ender’s Game) and the rest of the Ender Saga was quite different in pace and topic which was unexpected but nothing that would put me off from finishing the series (I finished it didn’t I?) and did add to the development of Ender’s character massively. I found the Shadow Saga to more interesting as a whole especially Ender’s Shadow that is a parallel to Ender’s game and each Shadow book was more consistent in standard and pace however the standard of the series never dips below great.

The books cover many topics, mainly war and childhood but also religion, politics, relationships and death; this promotes the series from just Sci-Fi to something more, something that is universal no matter the reader and the Sci-Fi elements are explained but not to the point of trying to teach you university level maths, it is kept as simple as needed to follow the story and understand the plot and no more, no less. Like I said I would keep it brief, but would I recommend them? that depends, if you are not going to read the whole series to get the full plot and development of each character then it probably isn’t the best saga to get into, each book is readable on their own but you would miss so much that it would take away from the full experience. If you want something in Sci-Fi but not overwhelming, something universal and enthralling on many levels, then yes, this is the book series for you, in fact any Sci-Fi reader should enjoy this story.

One thing I will comment on, mainly after reading comments on some sites and this one seemed to stand out; Published in 1985, Card got almost everything right in modern society, from the prevalence of technology in laptop type computers although we are not at 3D holograms yet, to blogging, which is a major turning point of Ender’s sister and brother Valentine and Peter in the story and the basis for what happens next in many of the books. It’s incredible how well it was “predicted” and it shows just how well these books stand up in today’s modern world.

First and most likely the biggest change to this site is the theme and design. The theme itself is a slightly modified version of the Monochrome theme that can be found free on the WordPress themes list and I have to give it to the creators over at http://www.mono-lab.net that they really did a fantastic job at creating an easy to use and modify theme, the coding was immaculate and allowed me to within minutes have the theme customized to my liking which is a first for me when using these free themes. I also changed the URL icon (favicon.ico) as well but that is a small tiny change that I had to do as it was bothering me and you won’t like me when I’m bothered ;). The other change is that The List now has its own page (where will it end!) which allows you to view the entire list and the progress I am (or not) making without having to go back to first post I made with it. Overall I’m not fully happy with the design of the site but I haven’t found one that I truly want to use or feel I have the coding skills to code something myself from scratch, although that is something I will look into in the future for sure.

For the next few days I have an update or two planned regarding The List as I have finished a few games since the last post, they will be brief but hopefully I can sum up the overall feelings I got from each game. I should really get on with a few things now so this is me checking out.

*Click*

Now.. where to put it?

This is a statue a costume creator going by the name of  “MasterLe” made and costing around $4000 to create that is not cheap!. I would very much like to own this, although I don’t think I have anywhere to put it :(

It made me want to cry

A couple of topics for this update. I finished FarCry today, well technically I didn’t, was on the last main battle before the final cut scene and it was just stupidly hard even on medium difficulty so I went on youtube and watched the ending. After all the raving about this game I was left a bit disappointed; at the time of release I’m sure it was fantastic compared to what was out at the time but I have a few gripes. My Metal Gear Solid purchases also arrived over the weekend.

FarCry: My Gripes

The story just wasn’t that great, it was fine don’t get me wrong but I felt the voice acting was a little corny and didn’t help the game, maybe they wanted it to be corny? who knows. There were times when cut scenes were in-game then pre rendered where I wish they would have just stuck with one type to give it some consistency. The plot it self was fairly generic, with only the one or two twists right at the end (which I saw coming miles off), otherwise you have seen it all before many, many times. By the end I just wanted to finish the game and move onto something a bit more interesting, I limped through this game mainly because of, what if feel, was a fairly lame story.

Another reason I didn’t truly enjoy the game, and the reason that ultimately made me give up on the final battle and watch the end was enemies at times seemed way too hard (read: Trigen). Taking into account I was playing on the medium which is one up from the easiest difficulty, it was just way too unforgiving. You might say that I’m bad or I was doing something wrong, but there was no way I was going to finish that final battle, I’ve finished CoD MW, World at War and MW2 all on veteran, I’m not a slouch when it comes to these types of games, yes they were on console and CoD is on rails compared to the more “sandbox” FarCry (which most of the time it really didn’t feel like) but there really should have been no need for me to give up at the end, it was just a spam-fest designed to make you die, repeatedly. The Trigen were the main cause of this, you give the hardest of all of them rocket launchers, then put 4-5 of them in one space all firing at you, you then add to that some jumping “soldier” Trigen that can shoot you from miles away and you really do feel completely helpless. The beast Trigen also can kill you insanely fast with one or two swipes. Enjoyment = 0.

Other smaller things were; sneaking, it was pointless as you cant actually sneak up on anyone properly nor can you avoid enemies most of the time, as soon as you crouch and move they can hear you even from a fair bit away, they can also see you from a distance even in the thickest of forests. I’m sure some of this is my fault, not using the “stones” or getting rid of my knife most of the time, the game most of the game actually gave me no choice. Sandbox, really? yeah some of the levels allow you a couple of different routes but most of the time I felt like I was forced to go one or two ways into designed fights, usually way outnumbered and with rockets firing at me across an island; nice, that leads me onto another point, how far can these AI see? apparently miles and will shoot you with incredible accuracy when you cant even see them properly.

Maybe I should have ticked “Auto AI adjusting” or whatever that option was called, also it wasn’t till near the end that I actually realised I had other firing options on some of the guns maybe these would have helped but if I had known the game was like it is I would have played on the easiest difficulty and rushed through it without a seconds thought. I Personally Didn’t enjoy this game, I really wanted to though. It seems the Xbox releases are much improved and a more enjoyable experience, even if they are less open and changed from the original by Crytek.

Metal Gear solid: Tactical Ebay action

Metal Gear Solid 1,2 and 3 arrived over the weekend, which cost a grand total of £14, which isn’t bad going in my opinion. I’ve only tried them out thus far to make sure they were fine before leaving my feedback. However I will have to wait a little while until I can play them properly as the fan in my slim PS2 is on its way out and making a racket so I’ve bought a replacement which I’m waiting to arrive from… Australia. When that arrives I will give an update and maybe some pictures as I replace the fan and if it was worth the wait.

Click to view full size

Small amount of freelance work I’ve been doing for GamerHut.co.uk, got some other images I have produced that I will upload over next few days or so.

Trine turned up today, pretty good going for free delivery since I ordered it from an Amazon seller on Tuesday,  dispatched yesterday afternoon and arrived this morning via Royal Mail. Today has been somewhat eventful. Read on.

Sent off some CVs and previous work to some job adverts, got up to 33% complete on the Super Smash Bros: Brawl story mode and apparently when I want light I now get loud bangs and a tripped upstairs light circuit. Ill set the scene; I was taking the picture for this post while getting ready to send back G-Force to Lovefilm which I’ve been meaning to do for a while, I walk over to the light-switch, flick the switch and *POOF* no light, a loud bang and no upstairs lights work at all. Now I’m pretty sure the light fitting is borked so I’m not going to reset the circuit until I get a chance to look at it, but it looks like ill have yet another new light; this is now the second to have gone which is becoming somewhat of a habit for my room.

I’ve just been asked to do some more work for http://www.GamerHut.co.uk, so I’ll end the post now and get on with that.

Till next time.

Well JohnnyUtah has done it again, Epic Beard Man win.

Original Newgrounds link; Here

I looked into the story a bit the first time I saw it, I feel sorry for the old guy, there is a lot going around about who actually started it which isn’t clear but it seems like the video only cuts in half way and you miss the start of the argument, the black guy clearly says “I said, why a brother got to spit shine your shoes” when you haven’t even heard him say that on the video.  Either way it seems to have just been a miss understanding that went too far.

You caught Company of Heroes

Look what turned up today; Company of Heroes for PC which I grabbed off ebay for £4.20, another game on The List I now own and once I’ve finished either FarCry or Super Smash Bros: Brawl I’ll be able to play this. I also have bought Metal Gear Solid 1 through 3, for a total of about £14 including postage, will post about those when they arrive.

I’ve included some gameplay for your viewing pleasure if you haven’t seen it in action and want to know what its like.