The reason of this post is to just give you a quick look at the opening of the game, as well as the somewhat downplayed co-op aspect. I recorded the first ten minutes or so of the campaign, so you can have a look at the game if you’re on the fence (of course, if you don’t want spoilers, don’t watch, but actually there are no real spoilers as such…just sets the tone of the game). And I’ve also recorded a playthrough of the co-op section of the game. The co-op itself is worth a quick talk about. A fantastic intro movie sets the tone, and the four characters in question are thrown onto the island and given their own mini-campaign. It’s pretty Left 4 Dead in tone, go here, fetch these items while holding off waves of enemies etc, but it’s done really well, with a fantastic sense of humour. I’ve uploaded the first two parts on here, but to follow the others you’ll have to stay tuned to my Youtube channel (that subscribe button is there for a reason).

Anyway. Pop back to the blog in a few days. I’ll have my full review of the game up then.

Here’s the first ten minutes of the game.

Here’s part one of my co-op playthrough.

And here’s part two. As I said above, for following parts of the co-op playthrough, please pop along to my Youtube channel and subscribe. They will come straight to your inbox.

Far Cry 3 is available now on Playstation 3, Xbox 360 and PC

The Story:

Aria T’loak is pissed. Her retirement plan, Omega, has been overtaken by Cerberus forces, under the control of the elusive man’s best kept secret, the military genius General Petrovsky. The bars are selling watered-down hooch, the strippers are gone and Cerberus troops are rampant. Aria has a plan. She wants to take Omega back and promises to commit every ship and merc she has, should Commander Shepard choose to help her. The catch? Shepard has to do this alone. Aria doesn’t trust Shepards crew, so Shep is on his/her own. What follows is an onslaught against the forces of Cerberus through the bowels and districts of Omega, where an unexpected allience is made, and secret plans are discovered.

What I liked:

Firstly, and probably most obvious, is that it’s SINGLE PLAYER content. Now I do have a love/hate relationship with the way DLC has been handled in Mass Effect 3. I thought “From the ashes” was such a crucial part to the story it should have been in the game from the start, and my feelings were similar for “Leviathan”. But rant aside, any single player content for my favourite series is more than welcome. Essentially, the new mission is a great big ruddy scrap from start to finish. Infiltrate the station, secure the landing spot, meet up with these people, make your way here, go over there, and in between these encounters blow the shit out of everything with a Cerberus badge on. Troopers, Mechs, engineers, Phantoms, everything the elusive man has to offer you kill. Without being too spoilerific, you get the aid of two characters to help you along the way. Aria is as deadly as you would imagine, and a new character, the much touted female Turian called Nyreen is another welcome addition to the party. Aria wants the station back at any cost, and Nyreen has sworn to defend the remaining civilians, which leads to some pretty cool interplay between both characters. Even though Nyreen is new to the series, you do get the feeling of history between her an Aria, which is parts is just down to good writing. Shepard pretty much takes a back seat, allowing the story of the two other characters to develop.

The battles are pitched just about right, non too easy or hard, and it’s great seeing some of the parts of Omega not covered in Mass Effect 2. Battle go from quite confined tunnels and rooms to slightly more open spaces, but on the whole the battles are quite claustrophobic, with only a few long walkways opening up so weapons like sniper rifles actually come into play. General Petrovsky is an interesting enough quarry to pursue; he’s English, so that makes him a perfect evil villan. New enemies appear, such as rampart mechs and of course, the Reapers show up, although in what context well…..you’ll have to play to find out. Lasting in at around the four hour mark, it’s quite a lengthy chunk of gameplay time, and with new weapons and powers to carry on into the full game you do get a quality overall package.

What I loathed:

Well, it’s hard to loath it, to be honest. It’s long, it’s absolutely chaotic, interesting new characters appear and the pacing is pretty much spot on. I do have a couple of gripes. General Petrovsky is unfortunately, completely one dimentional. I thought he could have been a great character, but unfortunately he’s just a stereotype, coughing up one-liners and fucking about with a chessboard (he’s a strategist, he HAS to play chess). The battles are full on and very explosive, but that’s all. Not until the very last battle does Shepard face any kind of mix up to the cover and shoot that the other battles are full of. Would it be too hard to have given me a mech to fight in? Gun emplacements? I did like the DLC, I really did. I just don’t really get the feeling that I could actually say it’s a must buy. If you’re a Mass Effect nut as I am then for sure, get it. You’ll like it. For people that just “like” the game however, I can’t say it’s as essential as the two DLC packs I mentioned above, especially for the 1,200 MSP asking price.

The verdict:

Mass Effect 3 has a rich universe just as good as anything George Lucas has ever created. The Omega DLC is an action packed slice of combat, fought in a part of the galaxy that we haven’t really seen before. New characters, weapons and powers are introduced, and the fight to take back the station is just how you would imagine it to be. Unfortunately, unlike “from the Ashes”, you don’t come away feeling like you have learned anything new. It’s a big fight, and then it’s over, and I feel that unless you’re a major fan of the series you would come away disappointed.

Score: 7/10

“Omega” DLC is available now on the Xbox 360 for 1,200 Microsoft points.

Just a quick post to show you all my very first videogame related montage. It’s my tribute to Dominic Santiago from the Gears of war series, and it’s mixed up with one of my favourite songs, “Once in a lifetime” by Talking Heads.

Please enjoy and let me know what you think. And if you like it, don’t be afraid to share.

Well, better late than never. How have you all been doing anyway? That good eh? Ah well…i’m sure it’ll clear with a course of antibiotics.

I’m sure, like me, you see gamers rambling on twitter, youtube and various gaming forums that they had a terrible game on “Game X” last night….the lobby was full of campers, nobody was playing the objective, blah blah yadda yadda. It’s one of the most frustrating things about gaming today. Buy your new game, jump into a lobby and everyone just runs around doing their own thing. No communication, no team work, people running past the objectives that you’re struggling to take….and that fucking idiot that jumps into a chopper and takes off without a belly-full of team mates. We’ve all been there. Well….this proposition may be your answer…

I was chatting on twitter the other day and postulated the idea of holding some open lobby games, where like minded gamers can jump in on an evening and be guaranteed of getting some gaming in with people that like to play the way that you do. I was essentially just throwing a few thoughts out there, not ever really expecting anyone over one person to answer me. Lo and behold I had quite a bit of interest.

So that’s what i’m going to do. AT LEAST once a week i’ll try my hand at getting some games organised. Even before I start I know that there will be some issues, namely people not having a certain game for one, time differences being another, and the time that we start to play. All these can be sorted out with a wee bit of planning. I’m hoping that for at least one day a week, maybe two, you can turn on your respective console knowing that you’ll be able to join in a game with a group of awesome people. It can’t be that hard to get underway……can it?

The online gaming world, being the competitive place that it is, of course lends itself to certain games. So i’ll be attempting to cover all bases. Keeping the games on a rota will ensure that things keep fresh, and of course giving a weekly heads up as to what game will be being played and when will give people the opportunity to kick the missus out for the night and get yourself prepared.

The games i’ll initially be chucking up onto the rota are as follows. In no particular order:

Battlefield 3, Modern warfare 3, Homefront, Ghost Recon future soldier, Black ops, Medal of Honour, Gears of War 3 and Max Payne 3.

Now, here’s the caveat. I’ll be running all of these nights on the Xbox 360. I know, I know….but i’ll be giving the PS3 some loving too. Killzone 3 and Uncharted 3 for starters. And of course if you’re a PS3 gamer you can feel free to use my Facebook page to organise your own games.There is also nothing to say that the games have to be of the 1st/3rd person variety. What’s wrong with getting some Forza games going? Or Need for Speed? Or Warhawk?

I’ll post details of ALL open games on my twitter feed, on this very blog, i’ll give a heads up via my youtube videos and i’ll also be posted details up on my Facebook page, which you can find by clicking right here.

It’s going to be a bit messy for the first couple of meet ups, but bear with me. I’m sure within a short time we will work out what night/nights are the bext for us….i’m thinking one game in the week and one each weekend. So you’ll almost be guaranteed to being able to make at least one of those games. And because this is a twitter/youtube community event, if any fellow youtubers out there want to record any of the matches that would be more than welcome. Wouldn’t it be awesome if after one game, the next day there were a dozen youtube videos of the same game, showing the exact same match from multiple points of view? It’s something I think that the Youtube community needs….something to bring them together and stop the fucking whining!

So then. I propose this as the first game. Let me know in the comments section if you’re interested.

Game – Battlefield 3 (Xbox 360)

Date – Thursday 31st May

Time – UK 9pm. US 4pm EST. (please work out for yourselves what time this needs to be if you’re living in fucking Azerbaijan or wherever!)

My gamertag is Dr nottsville. Please feel free to jump in and add me.

(Depending on turnout i’ll repeat this game on Sunday)

So there. That’s the idea thrown out there. As I’ve said, if you’re interested get in touch with me via twitter or leave a comment down below.

BE WARNED: If you’re acting like an arsehole in the game, fucking about, trying to ruin it for anyone, playing music in the background, generally just being a twat, you’ll be booted out of all future games. I want laughs, communication, just general fun. You’re not expected to be a gaming god, you’re not expected to come out of each game with 84,000 kills and 1 death….having fun and playing the objective is what all these games will be about.

Let’s do this.

Anyhoo. Going through some of the stacks of old comics I have took me on quite a pleasant trip down memory lane. Flicking through some old Spidey issues made me recall not only some of the cool stories I loved reading as a young ‘un, but some of the old video game adverts of old. If you have ever been into comics, or simply just flicked a through you’ve probably seen a whole bunch of them. I sent out a tweet just mentioning that I had been looking at some, and one of my lovely twitter chums James Hare said he remembered them well and expessed an interest in seeing them. So I thought i’d undertake the task of scanning some of the old adverts and uploading them up here.

Now it’s obviously going to take a bit of time. Most of the comics I went through had the same adverts in again and again, so it means I have to sit through hundreds of comics hoping to come across one I haven’t found yet, but hey ho…all for the gaming greater good and all that. It’s actually pretty fun, and it’s taking me back to the times I had as a kid, thumbing through the comics lusting over games that were out in America and that I could never afford. Halcyon days….

So look. I have no problems whatsoever with you downloading any of the images. These things need to be shared and passed along to the youthful gamers of today. Take them, share them, enjoy. Back the whole lot up should you so desire. Some of them are a little bit off centre, but hey, that’s the scanning process for you. If you want to replicate them on your own website, blog, whatever please feel free. Just give me a wee shout out and you’re cool with me.

So here are the first bunch. I’ll keep uploading them to this very blog as the scanning process continues.

Enjoy….I hope they bring back as many memories for you as they have done for me.

Recently, as in the last couple of days, I reached the 100 subs mark on my Youtube channel (it’s actually 101 now, thanks to some awesome bastard), so as a wee celebration on me getting into three-figures, i’ve made a new video.

It’s essentially a bit about my channel, what i’m doing with it, how i’m running it and also a few thoughts about how you should be running your channel (says the man with a tiny subscription base).

I bring this video to you via the medium of Halo Anniversary…a great game which if you haven’t picked up yet, or read my review (click right here to see that one) then do so at your next opportunity, funds permitting of course.

Over to me.

A big kiss, a reach around and a snuggle up to you afterwards as a thank you from me.

Since the first game back in the mists of time, Resident Evil has changed a great deal. The original, the game that coined the term “survival horror” was an all time classic, loved in it’s pure form or, and this is up for debate, the superlative Gamecube remake. Two sequels later saw the game move to the Dreamcast with the fantastic installment “Code Veronica”, which still played in an isometric setting but with 3D modelled environments. It wasn’t until Resident evil 4 that things changed, with the move to a behind the camera viewpoint and full three-dimensional levels. And the game was brilliant. Resi 4 was followed in 2009 by Resident Evil 5, which for all it’s good looks and great set pieces split the fan base. Gone was the survival horror aspect for a more action orientated setting, along with a thick as fuck A.I partner and outrage from certain journalists and stupid people about the game being horrifically racist.

And now it’s time for Resident Evil 6 to try to claw back the fans that were disappointed with the last installment of the game. If you’ve just woken from a coma and you missed it, here you go.

Looks pretty cool eh? Yep, for a balls out action game it looks brilliant. Especially now you can MOVE AND SHOOT CAPCOM! You have finally been listening. The bit with Leon switching position while he’s shooting shit up on the floor also looks brilliant. But come on…apart from characters and Umbrella, is it really Resident Evil anymore?

Look, i’m actually glad Capcom are, from the look of it, going balls out action. Why not? If it looks as good as it does and plays better than Resi 5 i’m game. Embrace the action genre, run with it. It’s just not survival horror any more. As much as I loved Resident Evil 4, I wanted THIS version of the game even more.

How brilliant does that look? However, the Resi series as we once knew it has now died, as dead as Barry Burton’s beard. So we should stop bitching about it and think about Resi 6.

Now…the trailer looks stunning, make no bones about it. As you can read from this interview with Dave Turner from Capcom, the series is going all out action. “We’ve seen the popularity of Resident Evil increase massively as the series became more action oriented – Resident Evil 5 is the biggest seller in the series,so, it makes sense for us to follow this action area more fully.” From the horses mouth. But, it doesn’t mean it’s a bad thing. Just that Resi has evolved.

There is still hope. The trailer looks like the game will be split into two distinct sections, one featuring Leon and the other with Chris Redfield. So, i’m going out on a limb, I think that Leon’s sections will be more Resi 4 and Chris’s will be the more “blow the shit out of anything that moves”. Could be. Come E3 this year i’m sure all will be revealed. There is another couple of characters in the game, one of which could be a grown up Ashley, and it’s also been rumoured that Ada Wong will be featured in the game, but not until you finish both Leon and Chris’s missions.

So. That’s all I have to say on the matter. The trailer looks brilliant, but I know i’m not the only one that wishes for a return to some true survial horror. Maybe we will see a return to that with games released on the 3DS and PS Vita….but with the new demo available for Resident Evil Revelations on the 3DS, which i’ll post my thoughts about tomorrow, it looks like Resident Evil, for the near future at least, has found it’s new path in full 3D, and it ain’t going to shift any time soon.

Are you looking forward to Resi 6? Or do you wish, like me, that we can see a return to the original style of the game that brought REAL fear to your underwear?

Your thoughts, as always, are appreciated.

Resident Evil 6 is scheduled for release on November 20th, 2012. On Xbox 360 and Playstation 3.

Now that Bungie have handed over the Halo reigns to 343 Industries, it was up to them to make a mark on Halo. So, as a stop gap to the new Halo trilogy, 343 Industries have jumped in and given the original Halo game a HD makeover. Fans of the Halo franchise would have dived in on day 1 and purchased the game, but seeing as how I got it as a christmas pressy and i’ve been on my hols for a fortnight, i’ve only just finished it. So is it worth a purchase?

The story:

If you don’t know what the Halo series is about, hand in your gaming card right now.

What I liked:

I have to admit, I was pretty excited in diving into the game. I have fond memories of my first playthrough of the game, and i’m happy to say that after all these years Halo still stands up to games released today. It’s a testament to Bungie and the original design of the game that it still feels fresh, even after all the Halo sequels. The whole ethos of “30 seconds of fun” continues does just that, as firefight slips into a quiet moment which allows you to gather your thoughts and re-equip, then back into a vehicle section, then another firefight, then a story moment. The opening level in the Pillar of Autumn still excites, with a tense battle leading up to the escape to the surface of Halo, and with the new HD polish arriving on said galactic ring invokes a sense of wonder about the new environment.The character models have also had a rebuffing, some of the Elites look amazing. The Master chief model is fantastic, and you can now make out all of the mutations and squidgy bits and parts of the Flood, which makes them even more puke-inducing, if that’s possible. Pressing the back button while playing switches from the new HD gloss and the original version of the game, and it’s really worth doing it every now and again just to see how almost completely different the game looks in certain parts.

And it still plays like a blinder! The A.I of the enemies destroys most modern games efforts “ahem…..Goldeneye reloaded” and battles can be tense. Certain weapons, such as the magnum, feel even more overpowered that I remember, popping one shot off into the back of a rampaging Hunter kills it in a single shot. The Needler too feels a lot more savage in this version that what I originally remember, which allowed me to experiment with more of the Covanant weaponry than I ever did first time around. Most of the levels still stand up today, the silent Cartographer being one of them. And there is a whole load of replay value, with skulls to collect and achievements for completing certain sections without dying, in a certain time limit or with no marine casualties. Co-op is of course in there, plus load of new multiplayer maps, made with the Halo: Reach engine and a new firefight map as well. So all in all it’s a fantastic package for Halo fans.

What I loathed:

The Library. The fucking Library. One of the most frustrating and bland levels in a game. Of course you have to play through it, and it’s still as ball-busting a task as ever. The frustration is lifted if you drag someone kicking and screaming into the level with you in co-op, but it still sucks ass. That’s pretty much it. The time delay between swtiching from the HD to original modes is longer than it looked from previews, maybe 2-3 seconds, so you DON’T want to to it while you’re in a battle. And some of the BIGGER set pieces kind of lose their impact somewhat, just down to there not being that many character models being involved. But for a 10-yr old game that’s kicking it in the teeth a little.

The verdict:

Halo Anniversary is a cracking game. If you never played the first game get it now! It’s still furious and more importantly fun, the new HD sheen brings it up to the standards of today, and with co-op and multiplayer modes and ingredients that shaped the FPS scene today it’s not only good value, but a great revisit to a game that arguably gave us conventions that we take for granted today. Just get a friend to go through the Library with you.

Score: 8/10

Halo anniversary is available now on the Xbox 360.

Some pretty cool new demos are doing the rounds. The first is for the upcoming Capcom god/demon bashing game, Asura’s Wrath. It’s balls-out mental, and even though it’s a bit “quick-timey” it’s a joy to mess around with. The full game is released on the 24th February.

The second demo is for The Darkness 2, sequel to the fantastic Starbreeze title from 2007. We see Jackie once again in big trouble, and if the demo is anything to go by the game is a must have! It’s scheduled for release on the 10th February.

And finally for this little post, we have the demo for the Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning. It’s a new RPG, with shades of Fable about it. From the demo it looks nothing special, but it’s worth playing through for the unlockable Armour for Mass Effect 3. The game is also released on February 10th.

Have a watch of the demos, and by all means if you have played them and want to have a chat about what you thought about them all, feel free. Just drop me a comment and i’ll answer ya!

Asura’s Wrath.

The Darkness 2

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning

Simply put, it’s finishing games. So many games are released that I want to play that essentially leaves me with no time to really finish them. A game will come out one week, i’ll squeeze in a few hours on the game, and then lo and behold the week after another quality title will come out. So I trot down to the local gaming emporium, pick up the new game and get stuck in, leaving the last title to gather dust on my gaming shelf. And then ANOTHER game comes out, and ANOTHER, and before I know it i’m left with literally dozens of unfinished games all crying out for some loving.

Now I know that I should be patient. I should take the time to get everything out of that game i’ve just forked out around £40 for. But it’s hard. As a gamer I just love playing games, any genre, any system. It just bugs me that if i’m not playing a game and EVERYONE is talking about it, i’m being left out. I’ve been slightly better this last year, completing more games than I ever have before. If a game really grips me, i’ll play it to death. I finished Gears 3 and MW3 in one sitting. Uncharted 3 took me two sessions to see through to completion. So i’m not all that bad. But while I was thinking of this problem I have, I went to my gaming stash and looked at all the games I’m yet to finish, or even get started on. The list is quite frankly embarrassing. Look at that picture up there….i’ve pulled all the unfinished Xbox 360 games forward ever so slightly.

This is the list for the Xbox 360 alone. Game’s i’m yet to start, or I started and left behind as something new came out;

50 Cent: Blood on the sand, Ace Combat: Assault horizon, Alone in the dark, Alpha protocol, Amped 3, Assassin’s creed, Banjo and Kazooie: Nuts and bolts, BF: Bad company, Bayonetta, Bioshock, Blacksite, Blue Dragon, Brothers in arms: Hell’s highway, Chronicles fo Riddick, Conan, Condemned, Crackdown, Dark Sector, Deadly Premonition, Dead Rising, Dead Space, Deus Ex: Human revolution, Devil may cry 4, Dreamcast collection, Earth defence force 2017, Fallout 3, Far Cry 2, Far cry Predator, F.E.A.R, Fist of the North Star, Ghostbusters, Golden axe beat rider, Goldeneye reloaded, GTA 4, Guitar Hero warriors of rock, Halo Anniversary, Hitman: Blood money, Iron Man, Just Cause, Kane and Lynch: Dead men, King Kong, LOTR: Battle for middle earth, LOTR: Conquest, Lost Odyssey, Lost Planet, Marvel Ultimate alliance, Mercenaries 2, Metro 2033, Mirrors Edge, Moto GP ’06, Need for Speed: Hot pursuit, Ninety Nine Nights, Oblivion, Namco Museum, Operation Flashpoint, PGR3, PGR4, Quake 4, RAGE, Resident Evil 5, Space Marine, Sega Rally, Sega Superstar tennis, Skate, Stranglehold, Table tennis, Terminator Salvation, Tomb Raider anniversary, The Orange Box, Saboteur, Rainbow 6 Vegas, Ghost Recon Advanced warfighter 1+2, Splinter cell conviction, Splinter cell Double agent, UFC 2009/2010 and Viva Pinata.

I know.

And that’s just the retail games, never mind the hordes of unfinished shit I have on XBLA. I haven’t even so much as looked at Bastion! Again, that’s just my Xbox 360 list, I have a load on the Wii and some on the PS3 i’m yet to finish. I haven’t even completed the first Resistance game yet, although i’m not all that bothered about that one.

So anyway. That’s the list. If I would have reached the maximum gamerscore from all of those games that would take me into a score of over 70,000+ from those games alone. So….the new year resoution is this. I’m going to go and complete all of the games on that list. Of course, there are some things on there that will be very hard, such as delving into certain online modes in games that have been long forgotten, but i’ll do my best. I’ll maybe so some shout outs on various forums, and do the same on twitter too. I’m not going to buy ANY new games while i’m doing this (well…that’s a lie….Mass Effect 3 is a definate, and i’m loving what i’m seeing of Asura’s Wrath so far), but apart from a couple of games i’m going to chew through this list. Some of which will be fairly easy, as memory serves i’m right near the end in Assassin’s Creed, but some others, like Alpha Protocol and the Saboteur i’m yet to start. But i’ll do them.

I’ll stick up a sticky link or blog post on here, and as i’m running through the games i’ll record some video of my progress in certain games and keep you all updated via Twitter and the Facebook page.

So that’s my new years gaming in a nutshell. But what about you? Do you play games through to completion, or like me, so you just purchase the next big, shiny game that comes along and have a trail of unfinished titles behind you?

As always, your comments and thoughts are appreciated.