I feel like I owe it to my Xbox friends to write an entry in this blog explaining what I have been up to and why if you've seen me on the xbox this week I was most likely on the dashboard (thought I'd give dashboard saving a go like tractakid does :P).
Truth be told my girlfriend of 3 years left me on Sunday after I discovered a few of her secrets she been hiding the past 4 months. It's the worst kind of betrayal and hurts. As a result I've needed my friends more than ever and I have once again focused my attention on skateboarding, the only love in life that will never hurt me (least not emotionally).
Right now is a prime example of my lack of motivation. It's a sunday morning and it looks pretty wet outside so chances of skateboarding properly are really slim. My usual self would say "screw skateboarding, I'm going to get some achievements" but I just don't feel like that right now. Heck I have new copies of NFS Hot Pursuit and AC Brotherhood sat right under my nose as I type this yet the desire to play them is slim. In 3 days I've gotten hold of Kinect, a HTC 7 Trophy (mobile with Windows Live on) and the 2 games I just mentioned. That should be enough to hype anybody but i's not quite working. I'm starting to regret buying Call of Duty BlackOps too as that has barely been touched at all. No regrets on purchasing Green Day Rock Band though as I know eventually I will love to play that.
This is the best time of the year to be a gamer and the worst time to be a skateboarder (due to weather) however my priorities are stopping me from enjoying my Xbox to it's fullest. Life sure is crappy for me right now. [cry]
Sunday, 21 November 2010
Sunday, 31 October 2010
Spoilt for Choice
Been a couple of weeks since my last post, in that time I've managed to assassinate 7 people in Assassin's Creed, progress which was going well but has since slowed down in the last week as it hasn't been played. The reason for this is because of the sudden burst of new games coming out.
Before I get on to that reason though I should state that my Xbox time this past week was low due to the fact I have had a free house which means I've hosted numerous parties. I also hosted a big FIFA 11 tournament (making sure my profile is never signed in whilst playing as I do not wish to be associated with the achievements on that game yet) which combined a total of me and 6 friends battling it out in a league to see who was the best FIFA gamer. I wont dwell on this topic too long, I'll just say that people get agitated when they lose and the whole fun spirit of the competition is lost (well really it's all Shane's fault) so after just 2 days we called it quits. In that time we did manage to play eachother at least 3 times though so enugh games were played. For anybody interested I came 3rd out of 5th teams as I played with Liverpool, I was gunning for Golden Boot against Wayne Rooney until Shane got pissed off and let Man Utd beat him 8-0, causing the fun to end and Rooney to destroy Torres on goals scored. That's enough blabbing, click the link below to see the scores.
http://img259.imageshack.us/img259/9746/fifa11tournamen....jpg
(We did play a few more games on Day 3 but I can't be bothered to sort out a picture and upload it).
Having to stop myself from playing FIFA 11 during the week I also had th temptation of Guitar Hero Warriors of Rock which a friend brought round for us all to play. I already have this on my tag so that's not a problem however having to complete Quest Mode twice (which equates to 93 songs x 2 = 186 songs played) would take up too much time so I've left that for now. Last Thursday saw Sims 3 and EA MMA arrive through my letter box (thankyou rover08 :)) and both of them games have been put straight on to my tag. I had my first proper go on Sims 3 last nigh for an hour and I can tell the improvement to the franchise is massive compared to when I played the games on Playstation 2 back in 2003. I think the game will be a big hit with my girlfrind too so I plan on keeping this game, no rush to play it now.
There would be a rush with EA MMA however a lack of achievement guide and road map (plus a low trade in price for the game at CEX alreadt) has meant that I plan to just keep the game now and play it at my own pace. I put it on my tag as I could see there were a lot of easy achievements to be won on it. I haven't ventured online nor have I gave Career mode a go but I've already obtained 9 achievements for 135 gamerscore. This will be on the backburner for potentially ever however it is nice to know I have a fighting game in my collection to work on at any point as I see fit.
The new games trend continued as I decided to spend £94.85 on Rock Band 3 with the Keyboard peripheral. I had been tempted on this bundle for a while but it was the factor of having house parties which led to me giving in and deciding to actually buy it. The game is absolutely fantastic and leads me to believe that there wont be a Rock Band 4 as there really is no need for it. The new pro instruments are sure to keep gamers occupied for hundreds of hours (my progress on Pro Keyboard is yet to start, got other games to play instead) an the interface on the game is excellent. A small but VERY helpful feature is being able to swap instruments via the character select screen without signing out of gamertags and all the usual nonsence we've come accustomed to in Guitar Hero and Rock Band games. All that being said I do think GH Warriors of Rock is a good game too as it has some features which are unique and would have been nice to see on Rock Band 3.
Finally I can't forget Medal of Honor which is still a new game to my collection. I finally started on campaign yesterday and have managed to do 3 levels on Hard already. The game is not Hard at all, in fact I find it a joke that I'm even playing on Hard difficulty. I don't hide behind cover as required in Call of Duty veteran, I just run around guns blazing to get the job done. I've got just one achievement left on the multiplayer aspect (for ranking up to top level) and then I will hopefully be done with the game (depending on how tricky Tier 1 mode is). HMV are offering Call of Duty Black Ops for just £7.99 when Medal of Honor is traded in. I believe Black Ops is reatailing at £45 so that's a really good deal.
I've still got plenty of other games to play too but no time. With a job hopefully in the works within the next few days my gaming timewill be cut down even more. I plan on playing Rock Band 3 endless setlist today as I may not have free time to do it in the future. It seems to be a lot less stressful than the previous games so I do believe I shall get it done.
Before I get on to that reason though I should state that my Xbox time this past week was low due to the fact I have had a free house which means I've hosted numerous parties. I also hosted a big FIFA 11 tournament (making sure my profile is never signed in whilst playing as I do not wish to be associated with the achievements on that game yet) which combined a total of me and 6 friends battling it out in a league to see who was the best FIFA gamer. I wont dwell on this topic too long, I'll just say that people get agitated when they lose and the whole fun spirit of the competition is lost (well really it's all Shane's fault) so after just 2 days we called it quits. In that time we did manage to play eachother at least 3 times though so enugh games were played. For anybody interested I came 3rd out of 5th teams as I played with Liverpool, I was gunning for Golden Boot against Wayne Rooney until Shane got pissed off and let Man Utd beat him 8-0, causing the fun to end and Rooney to destroy Torres on goals scored. That's enough blabbing, click the link below to see the scores.
http://img259.imageshack.us/img259/9746/fifa11tournamen....jpg
(We did play a few more games on Day 3 but I can't be bothered to sort out a picture and upload it).
Having to stop myself from playing FIFA 11 during the week I also had th temptation of Guitar Hero Warriors of Rock which a friend brought round for us all to play. I already have this on my tag so that's not a problem however having to complete Quest Mode twice (which equates to 93 songs x 2 = 186 songs played) would take up too much time so I've left that for now. Last Thursday saw Sims 3 and EA MMA arrive through my letter box (thankyou rover08 :)) and both of them games have been put straight on to my tag. I had my first proper go on Sims 3 last nigh for an hour and I can tell the improvement to the franchise is massive compared to when I played the games on Playstation 2 back in 2003. I think the game will be a big hit with my girlfrind too so I plan on keeping this game, no rush to play it now.
There would be a rush with EA MMA however a lack of achievement guide and road map (plus a low trade in price for the game at CEX alreadt) has meant that I plan to just keep the game now and play it at my own pace. I put it on my tag as I could see there were a lot of easy achievements to be won on it. I haven't ventured online nor have I gave Career mode a go but I've already obtained 9 achievements for 135 gamerscore. This will be on the backburner for potentially ever however it is nice to know I have a fighting game in my collection to work on at any point as I see fit.
The new games trend continued as I decided to spend £94.85 on Rock Band 3 with the Keyboard peripheral. I had been tempted on this bundle for a while but it was the factor of having house parties which led to me giving in and deciding to actually buy it. The game is absolutely fantastic and leads me to believe that there wont be a Rock Band 4 as there really is no need for it. The new pro instruments are sure to keep gamers occupied for hundreds of hours (my progress on Pro Keyboard is yet to start, got other games to play instead) an the interface on the game is excellent. A small but VERY helpful feature is being able to swap instruments via the character select screen without signing out of gamertags and all the usual nonsence we've come accustomed to in Guitar Hero and Rock Band games. All that being said I do think GH Warriors of Rock is a good game too as it has some features which are unique and would have been nice to see on Rock Band 3.
Finally I can't forget Medal of Honor which is still a new game to my collection. I finally started on campaign yesterday and have managed to do 3 levels on Hard already. The game is not Hard at all, in fact I find it a joke that I'm even playing on Hard difficulty. I don't hide behind cover as required in Call of Duty veteran, I just run around guns blazing to get the job done. I've got just one achievement left on the multiplayer aspect (for ranking up to top level) and then I will hopefully be done with the game (depending on how tricky Tier 1 mode is). HMV are offering Call of Duty Black Ops for just £7.99 when Medal of Honor is traded in. I believe Black Ops is reatailing at £45 so that's a really good deal.
I've still got plenty of other games to play too but no time. With a job hopefully in the works within the next few days my gaming timewill be cut down even more. I plan on playing Rock Band 3 endless setlist today as I may not have free time to do it in the future. It seems to be a lot less stressful than the previous games so I do believe I shall get it done.
Saturday, 16 October 2010
Why Hello Assassin's Creed
With the release of Brotherhood only a month away I have finally decided to properly play Assassin's Creed and then move on to it's sequel all before Brotherhood drops. It's not too much to ask of myself however with a job interview on Tuesday which could lead to 20+ hours a week of work and new games like Medal of Honor arriving (came through the post today, big thank you to rover08 for that :D) I can see it becoming a problem due to a lack of free time. I'm also edgey on the fact that I havn't quite filmed enough tricks for my yearly skate video but that's another topic all together.
On to Assassin's Creed, man I love it! I am not too in to sandbox games like GTA, I tend to get bored running around killing random people but Assassin's Creed hasn't bored me yet. Yesterday before I went to bed I had a quick play with getting some of the combat achievements such as stealth killing 50 guards and 100 enemies defeated without dying. I thoroughly enjoyed getting those achievements as there isn't much else that's as satisfying as sneaking up behind an enemey and BAM, knife to the gut to a calm but cool walk away before anybody notices. I'll tell you this, if I was female I would want altair's babies.
But then again I am only on to my third assassination target and I've seen the weaknesses of the game shine through. It's so god damn repetitive..... It's shameful really that the bureau's in the game all look the same, the dialogue of citizens you save quickly repeats itself and the whole process towards getting ready to assassinate your target is the same. Now I'm sure everybody is going to tell me that the sequel isn't so stupid and fixes these problems, I really hope so as I can imagine I will have so much fun with it.
The achievements on Assassin's Creed have always been extremely off putting to me as friends such as adiash73 will know, I get extremely paranoid about the fact I'm going to miss something or do something wrong which will result in me messing up an achievement. Well now after playing it for a good few hours I can safely say I have a good enough understanding of the game to know what it takes to get all the achievements and I don't foresee any serious problems causing me hassle in the future. I think I should give an apology to tractakid for all the paranoid banter I gave him in chat the other day. I don't feel guilty though as I've had to read countless lines of him moaning and groaning as he plays the music rhythem games.
That's enough for now, I always manage to make my blog entries rather lengthy and I can imagine people can't be bothered to read it all haha. Now I've got to force myself to not get engrossed in Medal of Honor whilst I continue to grind out Assassin's Creed, until next time!
On to Assassin's Creed, man I love it! I am not too in to sandbox games like GTA, I tend to get bored running around killing random people but Assassin's Creed hasn't bored me yet. Yesterday before I went to bed I had a quick play with getting some of the combat achievements such as stealth killing 50 guards and 100 enemies defeated without dying. I thoroughly enjoyed getting those achievements as there isn't much else that's as satisfying as sneaking up behind an enemey and BAM, knife to the gut to a calm but cool walk away before anybody notices. I'll tell you this, if I was female I would want altair's babies.
But then again I am only on to my third assassination target and I've seen the weaknesses of the game shine through. It's so god damn repetitive..... It's shameful really that the bureau's in the game all look the same, the dialogue of citizens you save quickly repeats itself and the whole process towards getting ready to assassinate your target is the same. Now I'm sure everybody is going to tell me that the sequel isn't so stupid and fixes these problems, I really hope so as I can imagine I will have so much fun with it.
The achievements on Assassin's Creed have always been extremely off putting to me as friends such as adiash73 will know, I get extremely paranoid about the fact I'm going to miss something or do something wrong which will result in me messing up an achievement. Well now after playing it for a good few hours I can safely say I have a good enough understanding of the game to know what it takes to get all the achievements and I don't foresee any serious problems causing me hassle in the future. I think I should give an apology to tractakid for all the paranoid banter I gave him in chat the other day. I don't feel guilty though as I've had to read countless lines of him moaning and groaning as he plays the music rhythem games.
That's enough for now, I always manage to make my blog entries rather lengthy and I can imagine people can't be bothered to read it all haha. Now I've got to force myself to not get engrossed in Medal of Honor whilst I continue to grind out Assassin's Creed, until next time!
Monday, 4 October 2010
Eurogamer Expo 2010 in London Thoughts
First off this post will be long as I plan to write as much detail about my day as possible. Last time I went to an Expo I managed to blab about a lot, I'm sure I'll be able to do the same today. I'm going to lay the post out the same way I did for the Gadget Show back in April as that worked quite well. Here we go!
Sunday 3rd October 2010 - Eurogamer Expo at Earl's Court in London
The Journey There
Waking up at 8:30am when you've been getting used to waking up at midday (Halo Reach IS the reason to blame for this) is a bit of a shock to the system but when you're excited for the day ahead you're able to get out of bed with a spring in your step! My dad drove me him and my brother to London in a little under an hour and a half I think which was good timing. Upon arrival the queue seemed to be really long but after waiting 15 minutes it was 11am and the gates opened. Thankfully the gates moved quick as we was in.
PS3 Move
Don't Know Game Name (I tried researching!)
At the entrance is where the Playstation 3's Move technology is located, therefore making it our first stop. We stumbled accross one of the most bizarre games of our current generation. I remember watching developer videos of it at e3 and thinking how it will be fun to play despite the strangeness of it. I'm not quite sure of the purpose to the game but basically you have to try get to the bottom of a hill as fast as possible whilst collecting coins. That doesn't sound too bad however then I tell you that your character is riding a shopping trolley that can spin attack people and allow you to duck under objects.
Unfortunately me, my dad and my brother were unable to get to grips with the game in the few minutes we all spent with it. I am happy to report that the controls do work and the game responded with everything I did well. I crashed a lot and did kind of crappy but I can say this is due to lack of practise and not doing the tutorials (which my dad did). I was quite impressed with the amount of different types of ways you could interact with the character, especially how to jump. To do that you have to point the wand upwards and then raise your arm quickly. Failure to point the wand before hand means there will be no jump and instead you will power up your guy for a speed attack. The only disappointment I discovered with the Sony Move was that if you twist the remote it there's no way the Eyetoy can pick up on the movement. I always thought it was call that the Wiimotes on the Wii could.
The Shoot
The Shoot is a Time Crysis type of game but with robots, not humans. I had a quick go and found that although the controller was responsive and I was able to aim at enemies I ended up just pointing anywhere and shooting without tactically thinking about it. Everynow and then a rocket would come at us and we needed to try and dodge them by moving to the side. Everytime I tried and everytime I failed. I asked a rep to explain to me and he didn't seem to know how either which kind of bummed me out so I left.
Heroes on the Move
Didn't get any pictures of this (maybe some videos but will look later) but from what I saw the game appeared to be quite amusing. My brother had to throw a razorblade as a frisbe with Daxter (from the Jak & Daxter series) and then aim where the frisbe was going with the Move controller. Simple concept but it seemed to be effective. The enriovnment had lots of objects to interact with meaning getting high scores on the game could become quite a fun challenge. Afterwards I saw my Dad play as Clank (from the Ratchet and Clank series) shooting at lots of enemies. I wish I got to see a bit more of the game and took some photos as it seemed rather decent. I do wonder sometimes why games can't be released sooner, it has a date of Spring 2011 but it seems complete already.
Other Mentions & Move Round Up
There were a few more games on show which made use of the Move controller but I never had a chance on them. I watched people play The Fight: Lights Out a few times and it seemed to always get a good reception and a crowd wanting to play. I noticed a trend though which happens in all fighting type games, people start swinging like crazy and forgetting to block. It leaves me wondering whether they enjoyed swinging there arms like a maniac to look good even though in reality they probably did pretty badly. I walked past Socom a few times I think but I kept forgetting to go and properly check it out, bummer.
Overall I think the Move is a good product which is worth a buy. It's not groundbreakingly amazing since the Wii has been there and done that really however it's nice to know that in the future there will be core games made that make use of this technology. Since it's around the £50 price mark I reckon my dad will end up buying it soon. I look forward to this as I reckon I would quite enjoy it.
PS3 Games
Motorstorm Apocalypse 3D
There's a few franchises I wish were on the Xbox 360, Motorstorm is definitely one of them. We have the original in my household however a lack of achievements stopped me from proper playing it (although I really did enjoy the few hours I spent on it). I was curious to see how a racing game could handle 3D so we got hold of a console as soon as possible to give it a go (which was a good thing as I never managed to give it another go later on).
3D is an aquired taste with most people being negative at first but then enjoying it once they're truely experienced it. There will always be a few naysayers though and when it comes to video games I can see why. I put the glasses on and it just felt so weird. I had a dab at 3D gaming with Avatar back in April but things are hectic in Motorstorm and I had rubbish and rubble flying around everywhere. It's a lot to take in at first and I found it slightly infuriating. I've got to say that they've done the 3D well for the game but I have to question whether it really needs 3D. It's cool and all but I think I'd just rather see sexy high definition graphics.
But the gameplay was fantastic as I expected and I loved the level design for the track I was on. It's a bit like Split Second where the environment crumbles around you. I was hinted to press the square button and as I did it zoomed in on some skyscrapers about to collapse so I had to use my boost to get past them before I was squashed. I didn't notice too much as unfortunately I decided to get off really quickly. Good stuff.
Other PS3 Games
I didn't actually play any of the other Playstation 3 exclusive games that were on show. I did watch people play most of them though so I'll quickly say my two cents
Gran Turismo 5: - I kid you not when I say I thought I was looking at Forza Motorsport for a bit. Both have ace graphics with the same cars and tracks, do you blame me? They had an area set up so you could play this in a dome shaped seat thing and a steering wheel. It looked pretty sweet and I can't believe we didn't take a photo. It was also in 3D at booths.
inFAMOUS 2: - I havn't played the original but have been interested in it. I watched the sequel today for a minute (only 2 consoles set up and they were hidden kind of) and what I saw looked really good. We were in a chase and needed to catch up to the limo so with our powers we were able to slide accross a telephone wire and then jump off in to a glide. We saw the limo down below and landed on it for a cutscene. Some unique type of gameplay there if I do say so myself.
LittleBigPlanet 2: - What I saw was the same brilliant formulae and therefore I didn't feel the need to play. I was hoping to see some mini games (new to the sequel I believe) but everytime I looked people were just creating their own levels or completing pre-existing ones.
Xbox 360 - Kinect
The most anticipated thing about this event for me was Kinect, whether or not the technology really works to make it a success. I loved the concept of it at e3 2009 when it was announced however since then my views have differed due to it's negative response by consumers and it's high price point. None of that would matter though if I liked it, I left the show feeling slightly bitter...
Dance Central
It's the big Kinect game for launch as it aims to get the whole family off the couch and learning some dance moves to popular dancey songs. It was the first time I saw Kinect and I felt my stomach doing backflips due to excitement haha. Throughout the day two woman were demoing it and at the end of every song they tried to rally people together to take over so they could get a breather. Eventually I decided to give the game a go with my dad to see what it was like. I was surprised that it's not as hard as it looks to copy the moves shown on the screen. I mean yes I made sure we were on Easy difficulty so the moves probably changed at a slower pace but to me that was still a good adequate difficulty to be on. On the right side of the screen there is a silouhette of your body which shows you how you look. There's also the characters dancing on screen as well as images coming up showing the move which is coming next as well as the scoring system, I didn't know where to look! I was able to see that Kinect picked up my body extremely well, if I move my knee up in the air in a certain way then I'm mirrored just like that.
Unfortunately I was unable to see any of the other modes that the game had as they only wanted to show off the mode I was on. I have heard there is a jam mode which could be very interesting. What I played the characters on screen perform perfectly no matter what I want to do, I'm hoping the jam move will let your avatar move exactly like you do so you can really see how you look (instead of looking at a small silhouette). There's most definitely going to be a training mode to help you learn each move too (and there's going to be a lot of them). It's being developed by Harmonix who I have a lot of faith in thanks to the excellent Rock Band franchise they have created (more on that later). Therefore there is no cheating in this game like you can do in games such as Just Dance on the Wii, oh no. As I watched other people play I noticed how they were able to get yellow or green ratings on easier simple moves which repeat for a few seconds however on quick complex moves lots of red was coming up (which I presume means no points). I LOVE this as it proves that Kinect technology can really tell if you're doing the dance move correctly or not, something I was worried about.
What is key to note about Dance Central is that you can take away the scoring system and even Kinect and people will still love it. There's a reason why Just Dance has sold so well on the Wii despite it being terrible and it's because people just love an excuse to sing and dance. I saw plenty of people having fun on the stage (including woman) and I'm sure plenty of them didn't care for the score or how good they looked, just laughing at the pictures that are taken in the freestyle section is funny enough for them. Problem is it's not going to be cheap and I can't see people forking out the money for it despite it being an excellent product. We shall see.
Joy Ride
This game angered many of gamers such as myself when Microsoft announced it would no longer be a free aracade game, instead it had become a full retail title for Kinect. I had one quick race on Joy Ride against my brother and I was very disappointed with what I saw. Firstly there is no way of accelerating or braking, that's pretty stupid in my eyes but I can forgive it (to make it easier for non gamers). All you really need to know is if you move your hands like a steering wheel you move left and right, at least you're supposed to. I had a horrible time trying to move as I went left to right to left to right repeatedly and as a result crashed plenty.
Throughout the couple of minutes the race took I tried all I could think of to steer better by moving my hands quick to slow or stiff or relaxed, nothing helped me. I came in 8th place (which was last) and felt pretty damn disappointed with what I had just experienced. My brother seemed to do okay on it as did other people I watched play so maybe I just didn't quite get it or got unlucky. I'm hoping it's the latter as I was watching people have fun with the game and I was jealous. I managed to make the boosting work quite well (pull to body then push out quick) and I did a drift once (by leaning my body to the side) so I can say that Kinect did work in that respect however it's useless if the steering fails like it did for me.
Kinect Sports
Probably the worst game of the show this was, it's just Wii Sports but probably worse. There were 4 games to choose from which was volleyball, 100m sprint, table tennis and bowling. I watched all of them in action (volleyball and table tennis were popular due to 2 players) and they all seemed to make little use of Kinect. I saw two kids infront of me in the queue do the race together and the on screen avatar did not mirror how the kids looked whatsoever. It left me wondering how the technology was being used as I was expecting to see a representation of how you sprint show on the game. Instead what I presume happens if Kinect looks at how fast your less are moving and adjusts the speed as a result. I'd need more time to confirm that it's rubbish but it more than likely is.
Next one to discuss is table tennis, the fan favourite (it always seemed to be on everytime I walked past). There's only one compliment I can give to this and that's that Kinect is able to recognise whether you hit the ball with the palm of your hand or the back. The avatars were able to mirror your body movement pretty well like that however the ping pong ball could not react with how you swung your arm very well. I saw this one guy keep trying to aim to the left and everytime the ball just went in a straight line, not diagonal like his arm was clearly doing. Maybe he was doing it wrong but if he was then I have to question the whole mentallity of Kinect, I thought it was meant to be easy for the whole family to play, controller free and all. I've played table tennis on Wii Resort and I have to say I think it's much better.
Volleyball suffered from the same problem the table tennis did in that the game doesn't react to how you hit the ball, instead it justs acknowledges you made contact with the ball and hits it back to the same position over the net everytime. Now I didn't play it and only saw one game between too guys but I got the sense that they were just jumping and frailing their arms, not tactically trying to place the ball. As I just said I believe this is because the game wont change the path of the ball even if you hit it to the left or the right but maybe the guys I were watching were simply doing a bad job. The frustrating thing about this game though is that people will still have fun with it, despite it being pretty bad just like Just Dance is on the Wii.
So when I got my chance to play I picked the other game I hadn't seen in action yet, that was bowling. It was time to see whether or not Kinect would change the path the ball took depending on where I aimed. I wasn't too hopeful it would due to what I saw in the previous games but I remained optimistic. I grab the ball by either moving my left or right hand to the lane I want to pick a ball up from, that worked well everytime but nothing too impressive there. There's about 6 to 8 arrows on the lane with one being selected at a time, this selected arrow shows what position you are bowling from. If I took a step left or right the game would recognise this and change the selected arrow, I found that quite impressive however it didn't always seem to work and I had problems doing it at times which was a big shame. When it came to the bowling it was shambles. I've done bowling in real life and I'm half decent plus I'm pretty good on the Wii so I know how my arm needs to behave in order to direct the ball to where I want it to go. More often than not the ball did not go where I asked it to which was very dissatisfying.
In conclusion I have to say to everyone avoid this Kinect game! It's a clone of Wii Sports and not a very good one. There's no point buying this for a few awes at one Kinect does when the Wii already made a fairly decent attempt to recreate the sports for the living room. If Kinect Sports had innovated and allowed gamers to use real skill then I would be sitting here telling you it's a pretty decent title, but it's not. The least they could have done is added in different modes or challenges but I don't think they have. This may be a bit of fun for the kids and elders but please, stay away.
Kinect Adventures
I can safely say that Kinect Adventures is not a big disappointment like Kinect Sports was, instead Kinect Adventures does what Kinect Sports fails to do, actually let skill determine the gameplay. The demo that was being played was of a career type mode I believe which kept repeating which meant that we were unable to pick the type of event we wanted to do.
I had my eye set on one where you are in a cart on a track and you need to move around and duck to avoid obstacles and collect coins. I was very impressed when I saw a video for this at e3 this year and yet again I was impressed when I witnessed it being played live. People seemed to have great fun making their body in to Y shapes and spreading their arms diagonal to collect coins whilst preparing to move left or right to avoid hitting blocks coming your way. I do wonder though if there's any way of ranking the difficulty up on it though as otherwise after playing it 5 times you're going to remember the course well and probably get a perfect score. Nevertheless I am sure anybody who plays that will get a good sense of satisfaction from the game as Kinect really is able to mirror your movements on to the avatar brilliantly.
An effective but potentially boring game on show was one where you are in the sea and your tank gets hit by fish, causing leaks. Your job is to rub your hand on all the holes to heal them. I think kids are going to like it but one go will be enough for us adults unless there's a way to change the difficulty. The 2 people I saw on it weren't having to move much however if there starts to become lots of leaks really quickly then it could become a knackering game to play.
Problem with this one is that I've seen it all before years ago with the Eyetoy. Hopefully you can use other parts of your body such as your feet to do the job too, if so it could be pretty funny.
I got to play on the game where you and a friend are in a raft and you need to collect coins as you head down river. Unfortunately for my dad I wasn't too interested in actually trying to play the game properly as I had seen before me fail. As you are now working co-operatively together it's important that both people move the same way at the same time and jump in unison. I did this briefly with my dad and it seemed to work quite well despite us not doing too good. Before long though I was just dancing around checking to see whether Kinect's 1 to 1 ratio is plausible, and it is. I was able to get in to a crouching position on the floor and my avatar mimicked it plus I was doing karate kicks and Kinect recognised it and displayed on screen accordingly. It's not perfect though as it's unable the movement in your fingers which is a shame plus I was unable to get my hand on my avatars head despite a few tries. I'll try upload a video of me and my dad playing it sometime, it's quite amusing.
My Thoughts on Kinect
I am left slightly bemused with the game selection choice for Kinect that was shown at the show. The technology does work (although it's not perfect) yet game developers don't seem to be making most of the potential, instead opting to bring out generic games which we've already seen on the Wii. Dance Central is probably going to be a brilliant game yet wont reach sales it deserves because people don't need to spend £125 on a camera when they already have a Wii which works perfectly fine. I can imagine the average mum leaving the game show yesterday thinking Kinect was good fun but not much better than the Wii. The reality is that it's got a lot better technology, it's just not being used quite right yet.
As for me I shall keep my fingers crossed that my dad goes and buys it as I'm not prepared to fork out the money because I don't believe it's worth it yet. With Sony Move being really good though I can imagine him opting for that as a purchase instead and to be honest I can't blame him.
Xbox 360 Games
To be honest there wasn't really many games that I played properly, most of them I had a minute or 2 on near the end when the queues died down. I didn't really feel the need to play most of them as I know what to expect. Sure there's new features in Fable but it's nothing I've never seen before. I spent the majority of my time on Rock Band 3 (I shall discuss that at the end of this blog though) as that has new peripherals to try out. Nevertheless I'll give my thoughts on what I saw as I watched others playing.
Assassin's Creed Brotherhood
Two people I know online both played this a lot they've told me and I can see why, the new multiplayer is a good bit of innovation for the franchise. Now I havn't played much of Assassin's Creed 1 as I borrowed it from a friend however I played enough to understand the concept of the game. Online is the same in the sense that you need to hund a target and assassinate them however it's made different as you need to watch your own back to (as you're also a target).
I was in an 8 player game and excited to see how this was going to work. You get to choose a character to be with all of them having strengths and weaknesses plus a selection of different weapons could be picked. There's a arrow that works like a compass which allows you to know where your target is so I tended to walk slowly in the crowds with all the other civilians, trying to blend in so I'm not seen. What tended to happen is I could tell that there's a human player around as they are sprinting which makes them obvious. I was able to get my target a few times and had a great sense of accomplishment everytime I did. I'm not sure but I think I'm the target of the target I'm trying to get, meaning we're both on to eachother. However there are 6 other people in the game and anyone of them can be assassinated by me and I will get points from them as a result of it, just not much plus there's no arrow pointing to their direction (making them harder to spot). When you or your target dies you both get given a new target, and you continue from there.
I only got to play one 5 minute round which was not very much time so I was unable to really get to see what the online offers. There's ways to set up traps and fool your targets by numerous different ways so I'm quite excited to play the game now when it comes out in November. It's very fresh and I think will become a big hit.
Brink
Had the longest queue of the event Brink did despite having 20 consoles set up for it. I never had a go on it (although I would have done if I had friends with me) but I did spent a few minutes watching somebody have a go on it. Seemed like a decent online shooter. I know there's lots of unique features for the game but I wasn't able to notice any from just watching, I'll need to look in to it more sometime.
Fable 3
As this was one of the games I knew my brother was most looking forward to playing on we went and queued for what felt like forever for him to be able to get a go on the game. I wasn't interested because I didn't want to spoil any of the story or check out any new features as I am happy to wait to play the full product. Lionhead definitely made the best demo out of all the games on show as they had picked around 8 different demos and put them in to one, giving you the choice to choose what part of the game you wish to play.
I watched people play through a few of the modes and as I expected it just Fable 2 with a new storyline. Sure there's going to be small little improvements but there's nothing that I felt the need to go and check out there and then. Not too sure what else to say on this really so I'll just post some pictures up.
Def Jam Rapstar: - Really enjoyed watching the guys on stage perform on this game. They probably rap in real life so they got quite enthusiastic and got the crowd going. I didn't bother having a go because I can't rap but I quite enjoyed hearing So Solid Crew - 21 Seconds being played throughout the day. Classic!
Just Dance 2 (on Wii): - Looked like the same crap the original had so I didn't want to play. I was hoping to talk to a representative so I could question them on the scoring system but nobody was around.
Need for Speed Hot Pursuit: - I did want to play this but I whenever I went past it always had one of the longest queues going. I ended up forgetting about it though and left sad that I didn't get a chance to play. I think what was playable was a hot pursuit in a LAN game with half people as cops and other half as robbers. That would have been fun to try, hopefully it will be released as a demo on the marketplace in the coming weeks.
Pro Evolution Soccer 2011: - It's out soon so I didn't feel the need to play it plus there's already a demo on the marketplace. I prefer FIFA anyway so I don't care too much for the PES franchise. The last one I played was 2008 though and I not played much of that. Thing is I reckon I could play the new one and it'll still feel similar, sports games don't seem to change much each year.
Vanquish: - Didn't play it but from what I saw there was a LOT of fighting and shooting. It seems like it's going to be a game where you have the trigger held down for shooting non stop.
18+ Section
Proof of identification was needed to get entrance to this area which was closed off by curtains stopping any underagers seeing what was going on. This sucked as it meant by brother couldn't come in and play with me so I only popped in to here 3 times. The final time I went in most of the games didn't have a queue so I had a quick blast on the majority of the games.
Bulletstorm: - Only 4 consoles were set up for this and it wasn't easy to find which is disappointing as I have big expectations for this game. I was unable to play it was always crowded so I didn't even watch for very long. Therefore I can't give any opinions on it.
Crysis 2: - I have been anticipating this game so when I saw a console free I walked there swiftly to nab the spot before anybody else took it. I got thrown in to a 12 person LAN game on a level which seemed like a crumbling hotel. I thought the environment on the game was amazing, I've never played a level in multiplayer that had so much going on in the scenery. Rooms has collapsed to floors below and there were flames from explosions going on. I managed to get 12 kills compared to 10 deaths which I was happy with (however would have been better if I didn't start sucking at the end). I had a problem with aiming as my accuracy seemed to be terrible although I wont fault the game for that, maybe I'm just too use to Halo Reach at the moment. I didn't bother experimenting with the guns or classes, instead I just stayed assault the whole time and got my kills that way. I did press the LB button a few times though which I believe made me invisible (which also means that must have been my type of special power I had selected or something). I wasn't able to use it for any benefit though which was a shame but it was only a 10 minute game which I spent most of the time just running around admiring the level. I did notice that all of us looked exactly the same, hopefully there will be some customization in the final version of the game. In conclusion I can state that I'm sure the game will have decent online that I may get sucked in to. We shall see.
Dead Space 2: - I wanted to check this out as I havn't played the original and have always heard good things about it. There always seemed to be somebody at a console though so I never got my hands on it. I watched for a minute though and thought it would be a creepy game to play in the dark. Some of the monsters you have to fight on that game are so deformed, the art team deserve credit for their inspirational creatures.
Dragon Age II: - Not played the original and have never really wanted to, I can love RPG's but I can tell Dragon Age is not one that I would. The combat on it seems terrible, I found it really slow paced and boring. I would go up to an enemy and press A and they will get sliced up but there didn't seem to be any types of combos that can be used so I would then turn around and press A on the next enemey. Everynow and then my powers recharged and I hit X or B to do a special power. Still, it was repetitive.... Maybe RPG games are meant to be like that, I just havn't played one properly in ages. Dragon Age looks like the type of game where I could go crazy and hack n slash. The cutscenes looked really lame and cheesy plus I thought there was way too much blood, not appealing if you ask me.
Fallout New Vegas: - After just a minute of running around a wasteland I was bored wondering what to do. I did manage to find an enemy and got prompted to go in to the menu which lets me choose which part of an enemy I would like to aim at. I decided to hit his arm which was a great success as it meant the dynamite he had in his hand blew up and killed him. I then proceeded to more wandering around until I got bored again (in about 20 seconds). I didn't like Oblivion either, I guess I just don't like Bethesda's style.
Gears of War 3: - Everytime I looked at a TV which had Gears of War 3 on I always was impressed by the graphics. I don't think they're anything special, they were just unusually bright and I quite liked it. There was only one game mode on offer and it was one of the new ones I think. You get to spawn as a locust and have to kill the COG. I think it's the reverse of Horde mode and it seems to be a good idea. For a split second I got excited that I may see some achievements for the game as I hit the guide button and realised I was signed in to a profile (all the other games I had been on were not, I always checked :P). I looked at game history and unfortunately no Gears of War 3 achievements were to be found, instead somebody had been playing the new Spiderman Dimensions and had unlocked a few achievements.
Killzone 3: - Another really crowded area which meant I didn't get a chance to play. I really wanted too as well so I could check out the 3D in it. I've never played Killzone too so it would have been nice to get a taster of the franchise but I'm not too fussed, I'm sure it's just a tranditional shooter type game.
Mafia II: - As the game has now been out for a month or so I was shocked to see they had as many consoles set up for it as they did. There was probably 16 set up in total and towards the end of the day over half of them were free to play. I bounced on one and killed a few policeman who got out of their car with my shotgun. I proceeded by getting in the car and crashing really quickly. That was the end of my playtime as I decided to move on after just 30 seconds lol.
Medal of Honor: - One of the most queued for games second to only Brink. The whole back wall was filled of Medal of Honor but I didn't get a chance to play it. I'm sure it'll be good though and I shall hopefully find out in a couple of weeks time.
Saw II: - Didn't feel the need to play as I'm sure it will be the same as the original with a few new puzzle additions. I didn't want to spoil anything either as I know I'll eventually play the game as I really enjoyed the original.
Rock Band 3
The best part of the whole day for me was experiencing the new pro mode on Rock Band 3 which has a bunch of new peripherals that come alongside of it. I have decided to give Rock Band 3 a lot of attention as there is a lot I have to say on the game. I've saved the best until last.
Pro Guitar
Critics I have since Guitar Hero came out years ago that the plastic guitar doen't replicate playing an actual guitar whatsoever. The guys at Harmonix have now gone one step further and have created gameplay which can cope with a total of 102 different button presses for every note a real guitar can play. There are a total of 6 strings and 17 different frets (I think that's the word) that go down the neck of the guitar so multiply them together and you have your total amount of buttons.
I've played a little bit of guitar before and my friend was able to teach me some simple songs such as Seven Nations Army by White Stripes therefore I know how it feels to hold down a string in different places. I believe this peripheral replicates that same feeling brilliantly, I can't tell the difference between holding the button down and an actual string. Where you strum though with your other hand the peripheral actually does have strings there instead of buttons, this only heightens the authenticity of the product even more.
But how does it all work? Well you still have the same runway with colour rectangles (as we've become accustomed to from previous Rock Band games) but there's now a 6th purple lane for the 6th string. The notes come down from the top of the screen still but there's now a number on the rectangle, this number represents how far down the neck you have to go to find the fret. I was playing on Easy so I didn't see any numbers above 10 however if you do rank up the difficulty I'm sure you'll be needing to hit 14 to 17 where the frets get so tiny it seems to me impossible to find/judge without looking. So when you see the number you need to find the fret on the neck, once that's done you'll need to work out which of the 6 buttons on that fret you need to hold down. That is done by looking at the colour of the rectangle and the position it is in. For example if it was a blue rectangle it will be the 4th button I'll need to have held down.
As I was playing on Easy difficulty I was only really dealing with the first 7 frets on the neck and the first string (red on runway). It's strange that it's red as I'm used to green being there, they seemed to have changed it around for some reason. I did at times have to hit the second string and that proved to be pretty damn difficult. I was getting used to going from 3 to 6 to 3 to 7 to 4 (for example) on the frets pretty well and I was happy with that however tell me to then start pushing down the 2nd wire instead and we have difficulties for a newcomer to guitar such as myself. You also need to ensure you strum the 2nd string if a green has come up, that then equates to me having to work out placement for 3 separate things all in a second or so it gives me before the note needs to be strummed. I believe that with time and practise I shall be able to play Easy mode without much problems but that's only because you're given ample time to prepare for the next note. The speed Expert goes would make me go crazy.
I didn't even bother attempting any other harder difficulty as the 3 goes I managed to get on the guitar I spent doing the easiest songs on Easy. I did try Beast and the Harlot by Avenged Sevenfold at one point but quickly came to regret it and change song as it was too hard. It's strange knowing a song I can 4 star on usual Guitar on Expert can be put to Pro Guitar on Easy and become a nightmare for me. As the difficulty ranks up chords will start to come in to play, that's just far beyond the capabilities of my brain right now so I wont even consider trying until I have the basics done well.
At the price of £120+ this new guitar is not cheap and may scare you off wanting to get it. But I can ensure you that this is the future of the music rhythem genre if you have gotten bored of the same generic easy songs that come out on normal guitar. Now I've seen pro mode there's no going back for me, I want that guitar so bad. I know it will offer me hundreds of hours of gameplay and by the end of it I will be an established guitarist. I may decide to wait a while for the price to drop but I know for sure I will eventually get that guitar. Harmonix have stated that in 2011 they're going to make it possible for you to play the game with your own real guitar, that may be something you want to look in to if you already own a guitar.
Keyboard
Sure so I was already buzzing with excitement from the new guitar however that didn't mean I had forgotten about the other new peripheral for this years iteration of the franchise. The keyboard is a brand new feature that hasn't been seen before in the music rhythem genre and it is a pleasant entry I must say. I started off on standard mode and was able to do it practically straight away. There's 5 keys in a row which are colour coded the standed colours from green to orange, all you need to do is tap them down at the right time. As I am an Expert player on most instruments I wasn't afraid to try Keyboard on Expert straight away and I was right to think I could do it, as it's not that hard. I did the Beautiful People by Marilyn Manson and after a minute in to the song I had figured out where I wanted my fingers positioned and could probably FC the song if I had another try. I played Du Hast by Rammstein as a band with some strangers though and that was a bit more trickier as it was a higher rated song on difficulty. I've got a video of me doing it which I plan to upload at some point.
But you don't want to buy the Keyboard so you can play it on standard mode. Sure it is fun but you're only hitting 5 keys when there's a total of 25 on the Keyboard. I started off Pro Keyboard on Easy mode as I had just realised how bad I was on Pro Guitar and was expecting the same treatment from the Keyboard. This wasn't the case however as after 30 seconds I realised it was relatively easy so I restarted and put it on Medium. I knew that Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen was going to be a challenging song but with No Fail mode on I was quite happy to give it a go. Me or my brother unfortunately didn't take any pictures of the gameplay for the keyboard so I have just searched googles images to find the image below. I believe they are playing on Easy mode as I can't remember if there was red available to me but there was definitely one orange note at the end that I had to hit a few times.
I presume that each time you knock it up a difficulty more keys become available to you as there was at least 6 keys on the left of the Keyboard which did nothing when I pressed them down. Anyway I managed to get 3 stars on the song and I was pretty damn chuffed with myself. Without looking I was able to magically find the right key at times (although there was a lot of mistakes) and with training I expect I will be able to know where my fingers are positioned without looking (slightly similar to having my hand down a slot on guitar).
I was told that the Keyboard would be bundled with the Rock Band 3 software for £70, if that's the case then where can I pre-order. However when I checked Amazon they had it listed at £110, meaning they are charging £70 alone for the Keyboard! Sure it's cheaper than their new realistic guitar peripheral but it's still rather expensive. I'm not made of money, I can't see why they can't bundle it at £70 like Activision always do with a guitar on the Guitar Hero games.
Other Bits
The guys that were working there as representatives on hand to help people out were such friendly people, I really did enjoy speaking to them throughout the day and asking lots of questions. One key question I wanted to know about though they were unable to help on, and that was questioning them on how gamer profiles will be tied to each console. On Rock Band 3 it is possible to have 2 people on Vocals, 1 on Guitar, 1 on Bass, 1 on Drums and 1 on Keyboard which makes a combined total of 6 people all playing at once. The guys were able to confirm this works but then when I started asking them how everybody will be signed in to their gamer profiles they started getting confused and unable to answer me. We all know that the Xbox 360 only allows 4 people to be signed in on a console, so how is everybody going to be signed in? It sucks that I didn't find out but I'll experiment myself when I end up getting the game eventually.
I wanted to have a go at the Pro Drums but there wasn't a console set up entirely for it, instead the only way to have a go was to play as a band which had a large queue the whole time. I did see it get shredded by some very good players quite a few times throughout the day though and really it's just a slight advancement of what was already a realistic experience. Guitar and Keyboard have big changes in Pro mode but Drums does not, the inclusion of 3 cymbols only changes the gameplay slightly. If you don't see a rectangle and instead see a circle then you need to make sure you hit the cymbol up high. I didn't see anybody having any problems with it but nevertheless it is a welcomed addition to the franchise. I hope I can buy the extra pads for £10-£20, if so I will be interested.
Final Words
I had a great time at Earl's Court and I'm super glad I went. It was fantastic getting to experience new games before they have been released and I look forward to going again next year with hopefully some friends to keep me company. I may update this in the coming days to add in bits I have forgotten plus I could always mention a few more games which I've left out due to being exhuasted from all the other pieces I've been writing. It's taken me a good 5 hours to write all this so I appreciate anybody who has bothered to read it all. I wont be in a rush to write another blog entry anytime soon! I leave you with a funny picture my brother took of my dad at lunch.
If you have any questions or queries about games which I didn't cover then let me know and I'll make adjustments. For now I'm out!
Sunday 3rd October 2010 - Eurogamer Expo at Earl's Court in London
The Journey There
Waking up at 8:30am when you've been getting used to waking up at midday (Halo Reach IS the reason to blame for this) is a bit of a shock to the system but when you're excited for the day ahead you're able to get out of bed with a spring in your step! My dad drove me him and my brother to London in a little under an hour and a half I think which was good timing. Upon arrival the queue seemed to be really long but after waiting 15 minutes it was 11am and the gates opened. Thankfully the gates moved quick as we was in.
PS3 Move
Don't Know Game Name (I tried researching!)
At the entrance is where the Playstation 3's Move technology is located, therefore making it our first stop. We stumbled accross one of the most bizarre games of our current generation. I remember watching developer videos of it at e3 and thinking how it will be fun to play despite the strangeness of it. I'm not quite sure of the purpose to the game but basically you have to try get to the bottom of a hill as fast as possible whilst collecting coins. That doesn't sound too bad however then I tell you that your character is riding a shopping trolley that can spin attack people and allow you to duck under objects.
Unfortunately me, my dad and my brother were unable to get to grips with the game in the few minutes we all spent with it. I am happy to report that the controls do work and the game responded with everything I did well. I crashed a lot and did kind of crappy but I can say this is due to lack of practise and not doing the tutorials (which my dad did). I was quite impressed with the amount of different types of ways you could interact with the character, especially how to jump. To do that you have to point the wand upwards and then raise your arm quickly. Failure to point the wand before hand means there will be no jump and instead you will power up your guy for a speed attack. The only disappointment I discovered with the Sony Move was that if you twist the remote it there's no way the Eyetoy can pick up on the movement. I always thought it was call that the Wiimotes on the Wii could.
The Shoot
The Shoot is a Time Crysis type of game but with robots, not humans. I had a quick go and found that although the controller was responsive and I was able to aim at enemies I ended up just pointing anywhere and shooting without tactically thinking about it. Everynow and then a rocket would come at us and we needed to try and dodge them by moving to the side. Everytime I tried and everytime I failed. I asked a rep to explain to me and he didn't seem to know how either which kind of bummed me out so I left.
Heroes on the Move
Didn't get any pictures of this (maybe some videos but will look later) but from what I saw the game appeared to be quite amusing. My brother had to throw a razorblade as a frisbe with Daxter (from the Jak & Daxter series) and then aim where the frisbe was going with the Move controller. Simple concept but it seemed to be effective. The enriovnment had lots of objects to interact with meaning getting high scores on the game could become quite a fun challenge. Afterwards I saw my Dad play as Clank (from the Ratchet and Clank series) shooting at lots of enemies. I wish I got to see a bit more of the game and took some photos as it seemed rather decent. I do wonder sometimes why games can't be released sooner, it has a date of Spring 2011 but it seems complete already.
Other Mentions & Move Round Up
There were a few more games on show which made use of the Move controller but I never had a chance on them. I watched people play The Fight: Lights Out a few times and it seemed to always get a good reception and a crowd wanting to play. I noticed a trend though which happens in all fighting type games, people start swinging like crazy and forgetting to block. It leaves me wondering whether they enjoyed swinging there arms like a maniac to look good even though in reality they probably did pretty badly. I walked past Socom a few times I think but I kept forgetting to go and properly check it out, bummer.
Overall I think the Move is a good product which is worth a buy. It's not groundbreakingly amazing since the Wii has been there and done that really however it's nice to know that in the future there will be core games made that make use of this technology. Since it's around the £50 price mark I reckon my dad will end up buying it soon. I look forward to this as I reckon I would quite enjoy it.
PS3 Games
Motorstorm Apocalypse 3D
There's a few franchises I wish were on the Xbox 360, Motorstorm is definitely one of them. We have the original in my household however a lack of achievements stopped me from proper playing it (although I really did enjoy the few hours I spent on it). I was curious to see how a racing game could handle 3D so we got hold of a console as soon as possible to give it a go (which was a good thing as I never managed to give it another go later on).
3D is an aquired taste with most people being negative at first but then enjoying it once they're truely experienced it. There will always be a few naysayers though and when it comes to video games I can see why. I put the glasses on and it just felt so weird. I had a dab at 3D gaming with Avatar back in April but things are hectic in Motorstorm and I had rubbish and rubble flying around everywhere. It's a lot to take in at first and I found it slightly infuriating. I've got to say that they've done the 3D well for the game but I have to question whether it really needs 3D. It's cool and all but I think I'd just rather see sexy high definition graphics.
But the gameplay was fantastic as I expected and I loved the level design for the track I was on. It's a bit like Split Second where the environment crumbles around you. I was hinted to press the square button and as I did it zoomed in on some skyscrapers about to collapse so I had to use my boost to get past them before I was squashed. I didn't notice too much as unfortunately I decided to get off really quickly. Good stuff.
Other PS3 Games
I didn't actually play any of the other Playstation 3 exclusive games that were on show. I did watch people play most of them though so I'll quickly say my two cents
Gran Turismo 5: - I kid you not when I say I thought I was looking at Forza Motorsport for a bit. Both have ace graphics with the same cars and tracks, do you blame me? They had an area set up so you could play this in a dome shaped seat thing and a steering wheel. It looked pretty sweet and I can't believe we didn't take a photo. It was also in 3D at booths.
inFAMOUS 2: - I havn't played the original but have been interested in it. I watched the sequel today for a minute (only 2 consoles set up and they were hidden kind of) and what I saw looked really good. We were in a chase and needed to catch up to the limo so with our powers we were able to slide accross a telephone wire and then jump off in to a glide. We saw the limo down below and landed on it for a cutscene. Some unique type of gameplay there if I do say so myself.
LittleBigPlanet 2: - What I saw was the same brilliant formulae and therefore I didn't feel the need to play. I was hoping to see some mini games (new to the sequel I believe) but everytime I looked people were just creating their own levels or completing pre-existing ones.
Xbox 360 - Kinect
The most anticipated thing about this event for me was Kinect, whether or not the technology really works to make it a success. I loved the concept of it at e3 2009 when it was announced however since then my views have differed due to it's negative response by consumers and it's high price point. None of that would matter though if I liked it, I left the show feeling slightly bitter...
Dance Central
It's the big Kinect game for launch as it aims to get the whole family off the couch and learning some dance moves to popular dancey songs. It was the first time I saw Kinect and I felt my stomach doing backflips due to excitement haha. Throughout the day two woman were demoing it and at the end of every song they tried to rally people together to take over so they could get a breather. Eventually I decided to give the game a go with my dad to see what it was like. I was surprised that it's not as hard as it looks to copy the moves shown on the screen. I mean yes I made sure we were on Easy difficulty so the moves probably changed at a slower pace but to me that was still a good adequate difficulty to be on. On the right side of the screen there is a silouhette of your body which shows you how you look. There's also the characters dancing on screen as well as images coming up showing the move which is coming next as well as the scoring system, I didn't know where to look! I was able to see that Kinect picked up my body extremely well, if I move my knee up in the air in a certain way then I'm mirrored just like that.
Unfortunately I was unable to see any of the other modes that the game had as they only wanted to show off the mode I was on. I have heard there is a jam mode which could be very interesting. What I played the characters on screen perform perfectly no matter what I want to do, I'm hoping the jam move will let your avatar move exactly like you do so you can really see how you look (instead of looking at a small silhouette). There's most definitely going to be a training mode to help you learn each move too (and there's going to be a lot of them). It's being developed by Harmonix who I have a lot of faith in thanks to the excellent Rock Band franchise they have created (more on that later). Therefore there is no cheating in this game like you can do in games such as Just Dance on the Wii, oh no. As I watched other people play I noticed how they were able to get yellow or green ratings on easier simple moves which repeat for a few seconds however on quick complex moves lots of red was coming up (which I presume means no points). I LOVE this as it proves that Kinect technology can really tell if you're doing the dance move correctly or not, something I was worried about.
What is key to note about Dance Central is that you can take away the scoring system and even Kinect and people will still love it. There's a reason why Just Dance has sold so well on the Wii despite it being terrible and it's because people just love an excuse to sing and dance. I saw plenty of people having fun on the stage (including woman) and I'm sure plenty of them didn't care for the score or how good they looked, just laughing at the pictures that are taken in the freestyle section is funny enough for them. Problem is it's not going to be cheap and I can't see people forking out the money for it despite it being an excellent product. We shall see.
Joy Ride
This game angered many of gamers such as myself when Microsoft announced it would no longer be a free aracade game, instead it had become a full retail title for Kinect. I had one quick race on Joy Ride against my brother and I was very disappointed with what I saw. Firstly there is no way of accelerating or braking, that's pretty stupid in my eyes but I can forgive it (to make it easier for non gamers). All you really need to know is if you move your hands like a steering wheel you move left and right, at least you're supposed to. I had a horrible time trying to move as I went left to right to left to right repeatedly and as a result crashed plenty.
Throughout the couple of minutes the race took I tried all I could think of to steer better by moving my hands quick to slow or stiff or relaxed, nothing helped me. I came in 8th place (which was last) and felt pretty damn disappointed with what I had just experienced. My brother seemed to do okay on it as did other people I watched play so maybe I just didn't quite get it or got unlucky. I'm hoping it's the latter as I was watching people have fun with the game and I was jealous. I managed to make the boosting work quite well (pull to body then push out quick) and I did a drift once (by leaning my body to the side) so I can say that Kinect did work in that respect however it's useless if the steering fails like it did for me.
Kinect Sports
Probably the worst game of the show this was, it's just Wii Sports but probably worse. There were 4 games to choose from which was volleyball, 100m sprint, table tennis and bowling. I watched all of them in action (volleyball and table tennis were popular due to 2 players) and they all seemed to make little use of Kinect. I saw two kids infront of me in the queue do the race together and the on screen avatar did not mirror how the kids looked whatsoever. It left me wondering how the technology was being used as I was expecting to see a representation of how you sprint show on the game. Instead what I presume happens if Kinect looks at how fast your less are moving and adjusts the speed as a result. I'd need more time to confirm that it's rubbish but it more than likely is.
Next one to discuss is table tennis, the fan favourite (it always seemed to be on everytime I walked past). There's only one compliment I can give to this and that's that Kinect is able to recognise whether you hit the ball with the palm of your hand or the back. The avatars were able to mirror your body movement pretty well like that however the ping pong ball could not react with how you swung your arm very well. I saw this one guy keep trying to aim to the left and everytime the ball just went in a straight line, not diagonal like his arm was clearly doing. Maybe he was doing it wrong but if he was then I have to question the whole mentallity of Kinect, I thought it was meant to be easy for the whole family to play, controller free and all. I've played table tennis on Wii Resort and I have to say I think it's much better.
Volleyball suffered from the same problem the table tennis did in that the game doesn't react to how you hit the ball, instead it justs acknowledges you made contact with the ball and hits it back to the same position over the net everytime. Now I didn't play it and only saw one game between too guys but I got the sense that they were just jumping and frailing their arms, not tactically trying to place the ball. As I just said I believe this is because the game wont change the path of the ball even if you hit it to the left or the right but maybe the guys I were watching were simply doing a bad job. The frustrating thing about this game though is that people will still have fun with it, despite it being pretty bad just like Just Dance is on the Wii.
So when I got my chance to play I picked the other game I hadn't seen in action yet, that was bowling. It was time to see whether or not Kinect would change the path the ball took depending on where I aimed. I wasn't too hopeful it would due to what I saw in the previous games but I remained optimistic. I grab the ball by either moving my left or right hand to the lane I want to pick a ball up from, that worked well everytime but nothing too impressive there. There's about 6 to 8 arrows on the lane with one being selected at a time, this selected arrow shows what position you are bowling from. If I took a step left or right the game would recognise this and change the selected arrow, I found that quite impressive however it didn't always seem to work and I had problems doing it at times which was a big shame. When it came to the bowling it was shambles. I've done bowling in real life and I'm half decent plus I'm pretty good on the Wii so I know how my arm needs to behave in order to direct the ball to where I want it to go. More often than not the ball did not go where I asked it to which was very dissatisfying.
In conclusion I have to say to everyone avoid this Kinect game! It's a clone of Wii Sports and not a very good one. There's no point buying this for a few awes at one Kinect does when the Wii already made a fairly decent attempt to recreate the sports for the living room. If Kinect Sports had innovated and allowed gamers to use real skill then I would be sitting here telling you it's a pretty decent title, but it's not. The least they could have done is added in different modes or challenges but I don't think they have. This may be a bit of fun for the kids and elders but please, stay away.
Kinect Adventures
I can safely say that Kinect Adventures is not a big disappointment like Kinect Sports was, instead Kinect Adventures does what Kinect Sports fails to do, actually let skill determine the gameplay. The demo that was being played was of a career type mode I believe which kept repeating which meant that we were unable to pick the type of event we wanted to do.
I had my eye set on one where you are in a cart on a track and you need to move around and duck to avoid obstacles and collect coins. I was very impressed when I saw a video for this at e3 this year and yet again I was impressed when I witnessed it being played live. People seemed to have great fun making their body in to Y shapes and spreading their arms diagonal to collect coins whilst preparing to move left or right to avoid hitting blocks coming your way. I do wonder though if there's any way of ranking the difficulty up on it though as otherwise after playing it 5 times you're going to remember the course well and probably get a perfect score. Nevertheless I am sure anybody who plays that will get a good sense of satisfaction from the game as Kinect really is able to mirror your movements on to the avatar brilliantly.
An effective but potentially boring game on show was one where you are in the sea and your tank gets hit by fish, causing leaks. Your job is to rub your hand on all the holes to heal them. I think kids are going to like it but one go will be enough for us adults unless there's a way to change the difficulty. The 2 people I saw on it weren't having to move much however if there starts to become lots of leaks really quickly then it could become a knackering game to play.
Problem with this one is that I've seen it all before years ago with the Eyetoy. Hopefully you can use other parts of your body such as your feet to do the job too, if so it could be pretty funny.
I got to play on the game where you and a friend are in a raft and you need to collect coins as you head down river. Unfortunately for my dad I wasn't too interested in actually trying to play the game properly as I had seen before me fail. As you are now working co-operatively together it's important that both people move the same way at the same time and jump in unison. I did this briefly with my dad and it seemed to work quite well despite us not doing too good. Before long though I was just dancing around checking to see whether Kinect's 1 to 1 ratio is plausible, and it is. I was able to get in to a crouching position on the floor and my avatar mimicked it plus I was doing karate kicks and Kinect recognised it and displayed on screen accordingly. It's not perfect though as it's unable the movement in your fingers which is a shame plus I was unable to get my hand on my avatars head despite a few tries. I'll try upload a video of me and my dad playing it sometime, it's quite amusing.
My Thoughts on Kinect
I am left slightly bemused with the game selection choice for Kinect that was shown at the show. The technology does work (although it's not perfect) yet game developers don't seem to be making most of the potential, instead opting to bring out generic games which we've already seen on the Wii. Dance Central is probably going to be a brilliant game yet wont reach sales it deserves because people don't need to spend £125 on a camera when they already have a Wii which works perfectly fine. I can imagine the average mum leaving the game show yesterday thinking Kinect was good fun but not much better than the Wii. The reality is that it's got a lot better technology, it's just not being used quite right yet.
As for me I shall keep my fingers crossed that my dad goes and buys it as I'm not prepared to fork out the money because I don't believe it's worth it yet. With Sony Move being really good though I can imagine him opting for that as a purchase instead and to be honest I can't blame him.
Xbox 360 Games
To be honest there wasn't really many games that I played properly, most of them I had a minute or 2 on near the end when the queues died down. I didn't really feel the need to play most of them as I know what to expect. Sure there's new features in Fable but it's nothing I've never seen before. I spent the majority of my time on Rock Band 3 (I shall discuss that at the end of this blog though) as that has new peripherals to try out. Nevertheless I'll give my thoughts on what I saw as I watched others playing.
Assassin's Creed Brotherhood
Two people I know online both played this a lot they've told me and I can see why, the new multiplayer is a good bit of innovation for the franchise. Now I havn't played much of Assassin's Creed 1 as I borrowed it from a friend however I played enough to understand the concept of the game. Online is the same in the sense that you need to hund a target and assassinate them however it's made different as you need to watch your own back to (as you're also a target).
I was in an 8 player game and excited to see how this was going to work. You get to choose a character to be with all of them having strengths and weaknesses plus a selection of different weapons could be picked. There's a arrow that works like a compass which allows you to know where your target is so I tended to walk slowly in the crowds with all the other civilians, trying to blend in so I'm not seen. What tended to happen is I could tell that there's a human player around as they are sprinting which makes them obvious. I was able to get my target a few times and had a great sense of accomplishment everytime I did. I'm not sure but I think I'm the target of the target I'm trying to get, meaning we're both on to eachother. However there are 6 other people in the game and anyone of them can be assassinated by me and I will get points from them as a result of it, just not much plus there's no arrow pointing to their direction (making them harder to spot). When you or your target dies you both get given a new target, and you continue from there.
I only got to play one 5 minute round which was not very much time so I was unable to really get to see what the online offers. There's ways to set up traps and fool your targets by numerous different ways so I'm quite excited to play the game now when it comes out in November. It's very fresh and I think will become a big hit.
Brink
Had the longest queue of the event Brink did despite having 20 consoles set up for it. I never had a go on it (although I would have done if I had friends with me) but I did spent a few minutes watching somebody have a go on it. Seemed like a decent online shooter. I know there's lots of unique features for the game but I wasn't able to notice any from just watching, I'll need to look in to it more sometime.
Fable 3
As this was one of the games I knew my brother was most looking forward to playing on we went and queued for what felt like forever for him to be able to get a go on the game. I wasn't interested because I didn't want to spoil any of the story or check out any new features as I am happy to wait to play the full product. Lionhead definitely made the best demo out of all the games on show as they had picked around 8 different demos and put them in to one, giving you the choice to choose what part of the game you wish to play.
I watched people play through a few of the modes and as I expected it just Fable 2 with a new storyline. Sure there's going to be small little improvements but there's nothing that I felt the need to go and check out there and then. Not too sure what else to say on this really so I'll just post some pictures up.
Def Jam Rapstar: - Really enjoyed watching the guys on stage perform on this game. They probably rap in real life so they got quite enthusiastic and got the crowd going. I didn't bother having a go because I can't rap but I quite enjoyed hearing So Solid Crew - 21 Seconds being played throughout the day. Classic!
Just Dance 2 (on Wii): - Looked like the same crap the original had so I didn't want to play. I was hoping to talk to a representative so I could question them on the scoring system but nobody was around.
Need for Speed Hot Pursuit: - I did want to play this but I whenever I went past it always had one of the longest queues going. I ended up forgetting about it though and left sad that I didn't get a chance to play. I think what was playable was a hot pursuit in a LAN game with half people as cops and other half as robbers. That would have been fun to try, hopefully it will be released as a demo on the marketplace in the coming weeks.
Pro Evolution Soccer 2011: - It's out soon so I didn't feel the need to play it plus there's already a demo on the marketplace. I prefer FIFA anyway so I don't care too much for the PES franchise. The last one I played was 2008 though and I not played much of that. Thing is I reckon I could play the new one and it'll still feel similar, sports games don't seem to change much each year.
Vanquish: - Didn't play it but from what I saw there was a LOT of fighting and shooting. It seems like it's going to be a game where you have the trigger held down for shooting non stop.
18+ Section
Proof of identification was needed to get entrance to this area which was closed off by curtains stopping any underagers seeing what was going on. This sucked as it meant by brother couldn't come in and play with me so I only popped in to here 3 times. The final time I went in most of the games didn't have a queue so I had a quick blast on the majority of the games.
Bulletstorm: - Only 4 consoles were set up for this and it wasn't easy to find which is disappointing as I have big expectations for this game. I was unable to play it was always crowded so I didn't even watch for very long. Therefore I can't give any opinions on it.
Crysis 2: - I have been anticipating this game so when I saw a console free I walked there swiftly to nab the spot before anybody else took it. I got thrown in to a 12 person LAN game on a level which seemed like a crumbling hotel. I thought the environment on the game was amazing, I've never played a level in multiplayer that had so much going on in the scenery. Rooms has collapsed to floors below and there were flames from explosions going on. I managed to get 12 kills compared to 10 deaths which I was happy with (however would have been better if I didn't start sucking at the end). I had a problem with aiming as my accuracy seemed to be terrible although I wont fault the game for that, maybe I'm just too use to Halo Reach at the moment. I didn't bother experimenting with the guns or classes, instead I just stayed assault the whole time and got my kills that way. I did press the LB button a few times though which I believe made me invisible (which also means that must have been my type of special power I had selected or something). I wasn't able to use it for any benefit though which was a shame but it was only a 10 minute game which I spent most of the time just running around admiring the level. I did notice that all of us looked exactly the same, hopefully there will be some customization in the final version of the game. In conclusion I can state that I'm sure the game will have decent online that I may get sucked in to. We shall see.
Dead Space 2: - I wanted to check this out as I havn't played the original and have always heard good things about it. There always seemed to be somebody at a console though so I never got my hands on it. I watched for a minute though and thought it would be a creepy game to play in the dark. Some of the monsters you have to fight on that game are so deformed, the art team deserve credit for their inspirational creatures.
Dragon Age II: - Not played the original and have never really wanted to, I can love RPG's but I can tell Dragon Age is not one that I would. The combat on it seems terrible, I found it really slow paced and boring. I would go up to an enemy and press A and they will get sliced up but there didn't seem to be any types of combos that can be used so I would then turn around and press A on the next enemey. Everynow and then my powers recharged and I hit X or B to do a special power. Still, it was repetitive.... Maybe RPG games are meant to be like that, I just havn't played one properly in ages. Dragon Age looks like the type of game where I could go crazy and hack n slash. The cutscenes looked really lame and cheesy plus I thought there was way too much blood, not appealing if you ask me.
Fallout New Vegas: - After just a minute of running around a wasteland I was bored wondering what to do. I did manage to find an enemy and got prompted to go in to the menu which lets me choose which part of an enemy I would like to aim at. I decided to hit his arm which was a great success as it meant the dynamite he had in his hand blew up and killed him. I then proceeded to more wandering around until I got bored again (in about 20 seconds). I didn't like Oblivion either, I guess I just don't like Bethesda's style.
Gears of War 3: - Everytime I looked at a TV which had Gears of War 3 on I always was impressed by the graphics. I don't think they're anything special, they were just unusually bright and I quite liked it. There was only one game mode on offer and it was one of the new ones I think. You get to spawn as a locust and have to kill the COG. I think it's the reverse of Horde mode and it seems to be a good idea. For a split second I got excited that I may see some achievements for the game as I hit the guide button and realised I was signed in to a profile (all the other games I had been on were not, I always checked :P). I looked at game history and unfortunately no Gears of War 3 achievements were to be found, instead somebody had been playing the new Spiderman Dimensions and had unlocked a few achievements.
Killzone 3: - Another really crowded area which meant I didn't get a chance to play. I really wanted too as well so I could check out the 3D in it. I've never played Killzone too so it would have been nice to get a taster of the franchise but I'm not too fussed, I'm sure it's just a tranditional shooter type game.
Mafia II: - As the game has now been out for a month or so I was shocked to see they had as many consoles set up for it as they did. There was probably 16 set up in total and towards the end of the day over half of them were free to play. I bounced on one and killed a few policeman who got out of their car with my shotgun. I proceeded by getting in the car and crashing really quickly. That was the end of my playtime as I decided to move on after just 30 seconds lol.
Medal of Honor: - One of the most queued for games second to only Brink. The whole back wall was filled of Medal of Honor but I didn't get a chance to play it. I'm sure it'll be good though and I shall hopefully find out in a couple of weeks time.
Saw II: - Didn't feel the need to play as I'm sure it will be the same as the original with a few new puzzle additions. I didn't want to spoil anything either as I know I'll eventually play the game as I really enjoyed the original.
Rock Band 3
The best part of the whole day for me was experiencing the new pro mode on Rock Band 3 which has a bunch of new peripherals that come alongside of it. I have decided to give Rock Band 3 a lot of attention as there is a lot I have to say on the game. I've saved the best until last.
Pro Guitar
Critics I have since Guitar Hero came out years ago that the plastic guitar doen't replicate playing an actual guitar whatsoever. The guys at Harmonix have now gone one step further and have created gameplay which can cope with a total of 102 different button presses for every note a real guitar can play. There are a total of 6 strings and 17 different frets (I think that's the word) that go down the neck of the guitar so multiply them together and you have your total amount of buttons.
I've played a little bit of guitar before and my friend was able to teach me some simple songs such as Seven Nations Army by White Stripes therefore I know how it feels to hold down a string in different places. I believe this peripheral replicates that same feeling brilliantly, I can't tell the difference between holding the button down and an actual string. Where you strum though with your other hand the peripheral actually does have strings there instead of buttons, this only heightens the authenticity of the product even more.
But how does it all work? Well you still have the same runway with colour rectangles (as we've become accustomed to from previous Rock Band games) but there's now a 6th purple lane for the 6th string. The notes come down from the top of the screen still but there's now a number on the rectangle, this number represents how far down the neck you have to go to find the fret. I was playing on Easy so I didn't see any numbers above 10 however if you do rank up the difficulty I'm sure you'll be needing to hit 14 to 17 where the frets get so tiny it seems to me impossible to find/judge without looking. So when you see the number you need to find the fret on the neck, once that's done you'll need to work out which of the 6 buttons on that fret you need to hold down. That is done by looking at the colour of the rectangle and the position it is in. For example if it was a blue rectangle it will be the 4th button I'll need to have held down.
As I was playing on Easy difficulty I was only really dealing with the first 7 frets on the neck and the first string (red on runway). It's strange that it's red as I'm used to green being there, they seemed to have changed it around for some reason. I did at times have to hit the second string and that proved to be pretty damn difficult. I was getting used to going from 3 to 6 to 3 to 7 to 4 (for example) on the frets pretty well and I was happy with that however tell me to then start pushing down the 2nd wire instead and we have difficulties for a newcomer to guitar such as myself. You also need to ensure you strum the 2nd string if a green has come up, that then equates to me having to work out placement for 3 separate things all in a second or so it gives me before the note needs to be strummed. I believe that with time and practise I shall be able to play Easy mode without much problems but that's only because you're given ample time to prepare for the next note. The speed Expert goes would make me go crazy.
I didn't even bother attempting any other harder difficulty as the 3 goes I managed to get on the guitar I spent doing the easiest songs on Easy. I did try Beast and the Harlot by Avenged Sevenfold at one point but quickly came to regret it and change song as it was too hard. It's strange knowing a song I can 4 star on usual Guitar on Expert can be put to Pro Guitar on Easy and become a nightmare for me. As the difficulty ranks up chords will start to come in to play, that's just far beyond the capabilities of my brain right now so I wont even consider trying until I have the basics done well.
At the price of £120+ this new guitar is not cheap and may scare you off wanting to get it. But I can ensure you that this is the future of the music rhythem genre if you have gotten bored of the same generic easy songs that come out on normal guitar. Now I've seen pro mode there's no going back for me, I want that guitar so bad. I know it will offer me hundreds of hours of gameplay and by the end of it I will be an established guitarist. I may decide to wait a while for the price to drop but I know for sure I will eventually get that guitar. Harmonix have stated that in 2011 they're going to make it possible for you to play the game with your own real guitar, that may be something you want to look in to if you already own a guitar.
Keyboard
Sure so I was already buzzing with excitement from the new guitar however that didn't mean I had forgotten about the other new peripheral for this years iteration of the franchise. The keyboard is a brand new feature that hasn't been seen before in the music rhythem genre and it is a pleasant entry I must say. I started off on standard mode and was able to do it practically straight away. There's 5 keys in a row which are colour coded the standed colours from green to orange, all you need to do is tap them down at the right time. As I am an Expert player on most instruments I wasn't afraid to try Keyboard on Expert straight away and I was right to think I could do it, as it's not that hard. I did the Beautiful People by Marilyn Manson and after a minute in to the song I had figured out where I wanted my fingers positioned and could probably FC the song if I had another try. I played Du Hast by Rammstein as a band with some strangers though and that was a bit more trickier as it was a higher rated song on difficulty. I've got a video of me doing it which I plan to upload at some point.
But you don't want to buy the Keyboard so you can play it on standard mode. Sure it is fun but you're only hitting 5 keys when there's a total of 25 on the Keyboard. I started off Pro Keyboard on Easy mode as I had just realised how bad I was on Pro Guitar and was expecting the same treatment from the Keyboard. This wasn't the case however as after 30 seconds I realised it was relatively easy so I restarted and put it on Medium. I knew that Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen was going to be a challenging song but with No Fail mode on I was quite happy to give it a go. Me or my brother unfortunately didn't take any pictures of the gameplay for the keyboard so I have just searched googles images to find the image below. I believe they are playing on Easy mode as I can't remember if there was red available to me but there was definitely one orange note at the end that I had to hit a few times.
I presume that each time you knock it up a difficulty more keys become available to you as there was at least 6 keys on the left of the Keyboard which did nothing when I pressed them down. Anyway I managed to get 3 stars on the song and I was pretty damn chuffed with myself. Without looking I was able to magically find the right key at times (although there was a lot of mistakes) and with training I expect I will be able to know where my fingers are positioned without looking (slightly similar to having my hand down a slot on guitar).
I was told that the Keyboard would be bundled with the Rock Band 3 software for £70, if that's the case then where can I pre-order. However when I checked Amazon they had it listed at £110, meaning they are charging £70 alone for the Keyboard! Sure it's cheaper than their new realistic guitar peripheral but it's still rather expensive. I'm not made of money, I can't see why they can't bundle it at £70 like Activision always do with a guitar on the Guitar Hero games.
Other Bits
The guys that were working there as representatives on hand to help people out were such friendly people, I really did enjoy speaking to them throughout the day and asking lots of questions. One key question I wanted to know about though they were unable to help on, and that was questioning them on how gamer profiles will be tied to each console. On Rock Band 3 it is possible to have 2 people on Vocals, 1 on Guitar, 1 on Bass, 1 on Drums and 1 on Keyboard which makes a combined total of 6 people all playing at once. The guys were able to confirm this works but then when I started asking them how everybody will be signed in to their gamer profiles they started getting confused and unable to answer me. We all know that the Xbox 360 only allows 4 people to be signed in on a console, so how is everybody going to be signed in? It sucks that I didn't find out but I'll experiment myself when I end up getting the game eventually.
I wanted to have a go at the Pro Drums but there wasn't a console set up entirely for it, instead the only way to have a go was to play as a band which had a large queue the whole time. I did see it get shredded by some very good players quite a few times throughout the day though and really it's just a slight advancement of what was already a realistic experience. Guitar and Keyboard have big changes in Pro mode but Drums does not, the inclusion of 3 cymbols only changes the gameplay slightly. If you don't see a rectangle and instead see a circle then you need to make sure you hit the cymbol up high. I didn't see anybody having any problems with it but nevertheless it is a welcomed addition to the franchise. I hope I can buy the extra pads for £10-£20, if so I will be interested.
Final Words
I had a great time at Earl's Court and I'm super glad I went. It was fantastic getting to experience new games before they have been released and I look forward to going again next year with hopefully some friends to keep me company. I may update this in the coming days to add in bits I have forgotten plus I could always mention a few more games which I've left out due to being exhuasted from all the other pieces I've been writing. It's taken me a good 5 hours to write all this so I appreciate anybody who has bothered to read it all. I wont be in a rush to write another blog entry anytime soon! I leave you with a funny picture my brother took of my dad at lunch.
If you have any questions or queries about games which I didn't cover then let me know and I'll make adjustments. For now I'm out!
Wednesday, 29 September 2010
Eurogamer Expo in London This Sunday
This weekend at Earl's Court in London the Eurogamer Expo will be kicking off and I am going! I'm incredibly excited as I will be able to see and play new triple AAA titles which have not been released yet. A list of these games can be seen here - http://expo.eurogamer.net/whats-on.php - but I know I wont be having a chance to try all of them games, there wont be enough time. So here is a smaller list below showing the games I'm interested in seeing and then the ones I am definitely going to check out (they're in bold).
Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood (Ubisoft)
Brink (Bethesda)
Bulletstorm (EA)
Crysis 2 (EA)
Dance Central (Microsoft)
Dead Space 2 (EA)
Def Jam Rapstar (Konami)
Fable 3 (Microsoft)
Fallout: New Vegas (Bethesda)
FIFA 11 (EA)
Gears of War 3 (Microsoft)
Goldeneye (Nintendo)
Gran Turismo 5 (Sony)
inFAMOUS 2 (Sony)
Just Dance 2 (Ubisoft)
Killzone 3 (Sony)
Kinect Adventures (Microsoft)
Kinect Joy Ride (Microsoft)
Kinect Sports (Microsoft)
LittleBigPlanet 2 (Sony)
Medal of Honor (EA)
MotorStorm Apocalypse (Sony)
Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit (EA)
Pro Evolution Soccer 2011 (Konami)
Rock Band 3 (MTV)
Saw II: Flesh & Blood (Konami)
SOCOM: Special Forces (Sony)
Sports Champions (Sony)
Vanquish (SEGA)
I am a big fan of technology therefore checking out the Kinect and Sony Move games is essential plus being able to play some more games in 3D will be great (I found Avatar in 3D on Xbox pretty decent). Rock Band 3 is also very exciting for me as I can't wait to check out the pro instruments as well as the new keyboard. I found LittleBigPlanet on the PS3 fantastic and therefore I'm interested in how the sequel is (although it's a big shame it's an exclusive, it barely gets played by me because of that). The other bolded games I have on pre-order so I'll be interested to see if they are going to be worth playing or not.
I will be writing in-depth reviews on the products and the event itself the day after I get back (so Monday) with the intention on answering questions which have not been asked. I have lots of queries involving Kinect and hopefully I can clear them up by getting down and gritty with the hardware myself. If there is anything anybody wants me to check out for them just let me know (like any questions you'd want me to ask). I will be taking photos and video footage so look out for that soon too.
Finally if anybody reading this on my friends list is also going to the event on Sunday then feel free to get in contact with me and we could meed up.
Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood (Ubisoft)
Brink (Bethesda)
Bulletstorm (EA)
Crysis 2 (EA)
Dance Central (Microsoft)
Dead Space 2 (EA)
Def Jam Rapstar (Konami)
Fable 3 (Microsoft)
Fallout: New Vegas (Bethesda)
FIFA 11 (EA)
Gears of War 3 (Microsoft)
Goldeneye (Nintendo)
Gran Turismo 5 (Sony)
inFAMOUS 2 (Sony)
Just Dance 2 (Ubisoft)
Killzone 3 (Sony)
Kinect Adventures (Microsoft)
Kinect Joy Ride (Microsoft)
Kinect Sports (Microsoft)
LittleBigPlanet 2 (Sony)
Medal of Honor (EA)
MotorStorm Apocalypse (Sony)
Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit (EA)
Pro Evolution Soccer 2011 (Konami)
Rock Band 3 (MTV)
Saw II: Flesh & Blood (Konami)
SOCOM: Special Forces (Sony)
Sports Champions (Sony)
Vanquish (SEGA)
I am a big fan of technology therefore checking out the Kinect and Sony Move games is essential plus being able to play some more games in 3D will be great (I found Avatar in 3D on Xbox pretty decent). Rock Band 3 is also very exciting for me as I can't wait to check out the pro instruments as well as the new keyboard. I found LittleBigPlanet on the PS3 fantastic and therefore I'm interested in how the sequel is (although it's a big shame it's an exclusive, it barely gets played by me because of that). The other bolded games I have on pre-order so I'll be interested to see if they are going to be worth playing or not.
I will be writing in-depth reviews on the products and the event itself the day after I get back (so Monday) with the intention on answering questions which have not been asked. I have lots of queries involving Kinect and hopefully I can clear them up by getting down and gritty with the hardware myself. If there is anything anybody wants me to check out for them just let me know (like any questions you'd want me to ask). I will be taking photos and video footage so look out for that soon too.
Finally if anybody reading this on my friends list is also going to the event on Sunday then feel free to get in contact with me and we could meed up.
Monday, 17 May 2010
Gamer League!
Not quite sure how I've managed to let the days fly by since my last update (it's been about 3 weeks!) but I'm here now to mention the Gamer League which started last Friday.
There is me, tractakid, Dalimbak, Mr F5 TORNADO, BemusedBox and adiash73 all competing to be the first gamer to get the full 1000 gamerscore in 7 games. It's important to state that none of us had played any of the games prior to Friday (apart from BemusedBox and Mr F5 TORNADO being 2 slight exceptions) therefore this competition is as fair as possible. The seven games are as follows.
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
GRAW 2
MX vs ATV Untamed
Orange Box
Rise of the Argonauts
Stoked
World Championship Snooker 2009
Quite a variety there in game type as each player picked one game to add to the list and we all suggested we boosted Orange Box together. A couple of games on there will be hard and take a long time therefore I don't expect anybody to be hitting the finishing line for months yet. I've gone ahead and finished Cloudy already (although that is easy and quick) and adiash73 is closing in on finishing Stoked. This is good and all but everyone is aware that this is just the beginning of what will surely be a long gruelling task.
So far I have managed to have daily totals being displayed on a website for everybody to see. tractakid told me about WetPaint as a Wiki site and it's great. I haven't put too much content on but it's enough to make it worth a little look at. If you're interested then here's the link - http://gamerleague.wetpaint.com/ (be sure to navigate via the links on the navigation bar to the left of the page).
In other news I have lots of new games to my collection. My girlfriend got me Avatar (2009 movie) and Batman Arkum Asylum for my birthday (both of which I haven't touched yet :() and I've gone and got Spongebob for an easy 1000. Skate 3 and Alan Wake arrived on Saturday as well as Lips which I am borrowing from my friend rover08. As always there's too many games on my mind and not enough time to play them all, especially not now considering I've started this Gamer League!
There is me, tractakid, Dalimbak, Mr F5 TORNADO, BemusedBox and adiash73 all competing to be the first gamer to get the full 1000 gamerscore in 7 games. It's important to state that none of us had played any of the games prior to Friday (apart from BemusedBox and Mr F5 TORNADO being 2 slight exceptions) therefore this competition is as fair as possible. The seven games are as follows.
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
GRAW 2
MX vs ATV Untamed
Orange Box
Rise of the Argonauts
Stoked
World Championship Snooker 2009
Quite a variety there in game type as each player picked one game to add to the list and we all suggested we boosted Orange Box together. A couple of games on there will be hard and take a long time therefore I don't expect anybody to be hitting the finishing line for months yet. I've gone ahead and finished Cloudy already (although that is easy and quick) and adiash73 is closing in on finishing Stoked. This is good and all but everyone is aware that this is just the beginning of what will surely be a long gruelling task.
So far I have managed to have daily totals being displayed on a website for everybody to see. tractakid told me about WetPaint as a Wiki site and it's great. I haven't put too much content on but it's enough to make it worth a little look at. If you're interested then here's the link - http://gamerleague.wetpaint.com/ (be sure to navigate via the links on the navigation bar to the left of the page).
In other news I have lots of new games to my collection. My girlfriend got me Avatar (2009 movie) and Batman Arkum Asylum for my birthday (both of which I haven't touched yet :() and I've gone and got Spongebob for an easy 1000. Skate 3 and Alan Wake arrived on Saturday as well as Lips which I am borrowing from my friend rover08. As always there's too many games on my mind and not enough time to play them all, especially not now considering I've started this Gamer League!
Thursday, 22 April 2010
My Incomplete Games List
I've seen people do post like this a few times (especially you jackanape :P) and I've decided I shall bother to do one for myself. This post is probably going to take me a while to write up as there's a lot of games I have not completed but I am curious to see how high the number is. Here I go then, in alphabetical order!
A-Train - 610/1000
Aegis Wing - 170/200
Afro Samurai - 965/1000
Age of Booty - 160/200
Alone in the Dark - 950/1000
Assassin's Creed - 125/1000
Banjo Kazooie Nuts and Bolts - 130/1250
Battlefield 2: Modern Combat - 115/1000
Battlefield: Bad Company 2 - 675/1060
Beautiful Katamari - 495/1250
Bee Movie Game - 670/1000
Bejeweled 2 - 10/2000
Beijing 2008 - 430/1000
Beowulf - 460/1000
Bionical Heroes - 940/1000
Boom Boom Rocket - 85/200
Bomberman Live - 10/200
Brain Challenge - 160/200
Bully - 180/1000
Bulletwitch - 250/1000
Burnout Paradise - 5/1250
Burnout Revenge - 490/1000
Call of Duty 3 - 425/1000
Call of Juarez - 440/1000
Cars - 900/1000
Cars Race-O-Rama - 900/1000 (glitched, not my fault)
Chromehounds - 20/1000
Condemned - 440/975
Condemned 2: Bloodshot - 240/1000
Crash of the Titans - 313/1000
Crystal Quest - 160/200
Dark Sector - 30/1000
Dead or Alive 4 - 210/1000
Dead Rising - 40/1000
Def Jam Icon - 30/1000
DJ Hero - 600/1000
Dynasty Warriors 5 Empires - 730/1000
Duke Nukem 3D - 10/200
Enchanted Arms - 125/1000
Fable II - 1000/1350
Family Game Nights - 200/1400
Facebreaker - 625/1000
Far Cry Instincts Predator - 470/1000
Fatal Inertia - 340/1000
FIFA 08 - 295/1000
FIFA 10 - 210/1250
FlatOut Ultimate Carnage - 435/1000
Football Manager 2006 - 325/1000
Forza Motorsport 2 - 970/1000
Forza Motorsport 3 - 460/1000
Frogger - 140/200
Full Auto 915/1000
Gears of War - 60/1250
Gears of War 2 - 65/1750
Geometry Wars Evolved - 20/200
GRAW - 125/1000
Guitar Hero Aerosmith - 930/1000
Guitar Hero II - 910/1000
Guitar Hero III - 435/1000
Guitar Hero Hits - 450/1000
Guitar Hero Metallica - 875/1000
Guitar Hero World Tour - 850/1000
Guitar Hero 5 - 950/1000
Gun - 730/1000
Halo 3 - 815/1750
Hexic HD - 40/200
HSM3 Senior Year Dance - 350/1000
Import Tuner Challenge - 30/1000
Infernal - 800/1000
Kameo - 600/1000
Lego Rock Band - 960/1000
Lego Star Wars II - 350/1000
Looney Toons: AA - 820/1000
LOTR BFME II - 555/705
Luxor 2 - 92/200
Madden 07 - 645/1000
Madden 08 - 805/1000
Marble Blast Ultra - 165/250
Marvel Ultimate Alliance - 80/1250
Meet The Robinsons - 400/1000
Metro 2033 - 930/1000
Mirror's Edge - 730/1250
Monkey Island - 180/200
Monopoly - 600/1000
Moto GP 06 - 20/1000
NBA 2K7 - 955/1000
NBA Ballers: Chosen One - 900/1000
NBA Live 08 - 800/1000
NFS Carbon - 85/1000
NFS ProStreet - 20/1000
NHL 2K8 - 370/1000
NHL 08 - 300/1000
Nintey Nine Nights - 400/1000
Oblivon - 100/1250
Outpost Kaloxi X - 175/200
Over G Fighters - 50/1000
Overlord - 880/1250
PDC World Champ Darts - 650/1000
PES 2008 - 280/1000
Perfect Dark Zero - 390/1000
PGR 3 - 650/1000
PGR 4 - 1010/1250
Phantasy Star Universe - 1000/1250
Prey - 935/1000
Prince of Persia - 170/1250
Prizefighter - 140/1000
Quake 4 - 100/1000
Rainbow 6 Vegas - 215/1000
Rayman Raving Rabbids - 600/1000
Ridge Racer 6 - 70/1000
Robotron: 2084 - 50/200
Rock Band - 475/1000
Rock Band 2 - 650/1000
Rock Band AC/DC - 225/250
Rock Band Beatles - 615/1000
Rock Band Song Pack 2 - 200/250
Rock Revolution - 930/1000
Rumble Roses Double X - 30/1000
Saints Row - 50/1000
Samurai Warriors 2 XL - 150/1000
Scene It? LCA - 915/1000
Schizoid - 160/200
Sega Superstars Tennis - 940/1000
Sega Rally - 730/1000
Shadowrun - 250/1000
Shrek The Third - 640/1000
Small Arms - 175/235
Sonic The Hedgehog - 25/200
Soul Calibur IV - 700/1000
South Park - 160/200
Spiderwick Chronicles - 750/1000
Splinter Cell Conviction - 250/1000
Splinter Cell Double Agent - 50/1000
Splosion Man - 50/200
Spyglass Board Games - 105/200
Stuntman: Ignition - 555/1000
Superman Returns - 680/1000
Superstars V8 Racing - 960/1000
Table Tennis - 340/1000
Tetris Evolution - 180/1000
Texas Hold Em - 155/200
Tiger Woods 06 - 50/960
Tiger Woods 07 - 85/1000
The Force Unleashed - 700/1345
The Golden Compass - 660/1000
The Outfit - 420/1000
The Simpsons Game - 20/1000
Thrillville - 925/1000
Top Spin 3 - 50/1000
Totemball - 10/200
Transformers: The Game - 90/1000
Trivial Pursuit - 710/1000
Turning Point - 895/1000
Two Worlds - 60/1000
TNA Impact! - 365/1000
UEFA Champions League 2006/2007 - 390/1000
UEFA Euro 2008 - 895/1000
Vampire Rain - 650/1000
Viva Pinata - 140/1000
Wik: Fable of Souls - 120/200
Worms - 185/200
Worms 2: Armageddon - 110/200
And there we have it. According to Microsoft Word there's 162 games in that list there, that's a hell of a lot! You may have noticed plenty of games in there with low score, games you may not have even heard of (such as Rumble Roses and Over G Fighters). I pre-ordered my Xbox 360 but got it a couple of months later, this has meant that I've seen the Xbox 360 evolve throughout the years like others haven't. Originally once a game had been put on your card there was no going back. Didn't matter if you had 0G on it, you couldn't remove it. For this reason I had nothing to lose once I started playing a game and I remember putting a bit of time and effort in to getting my one and only achievement in Bejeweled 2 (which I now regret).
The point I'm trying to get at is that in the past I didn't give a damn about my completion percentage. It was only a year and a bit ago when I decided I wanted to change this as the arrival of TrueAchievements has inspired me and many others to up our percentage. I've gone from 50% to 68% in over a year which I am quite impressed with. I've got a way to go until 75% but if I could just remove these games from my profile.....
Bejeweled 2 - 10/2000
Boom Boom Rocket - 85/200
Bomberman Live - 10/200
Burnout Paradise - 5/1250
Chromehounds - 20/1000
Dark Sector - 30/1000
Dead Rising - 40/1000
Def Jam Icon - 30/1000
Duke Nukem 3D - 10/200
Gears of War - 60/1250
Gears of War 2 - 65/1750
Geometry Wars Evolved - 20/200
Hexic HD - 40/200
Import Tuner Challenge - 30/1000
Luxor 2 - 92/200
Moto GP 06 - 20/1000
NFS Carbon - 85/1000
NFS ProStreet - 20/1000
Over G Fighters - 50/1000
Ridge Racer 6 - 70/1000
Robotron: 2084 - 50/200
Rumble Roses Double X - 30/1000
Saints Row - 50/1000
Sonic The Hedgehog - 25/200
Splosion Man - 50/200
Tiger Woods 06 - 50/960
Tiger Woods 07 - 85/1000
The Simpsons Game - 20/1000
Top Spin 3 - 50/1000
Totemball - 10/200
Transformers: The Game - 90/1000
Two Worlds - 60/1000
That's a list of the games on my profile which have less than hundred gamerscore on them. Take out the arcades if you want and you've got 21 retail games each with 1000+ gamerscore on them. If it was possible for me to remove them from my card and plunk them on to someone else's who has a nice percentage (such as jackanape) if they would go below me and I would rise above them. I can't be bothered to work out the maths but I'm sure we'd see a dramatic change.
A-Train - 610/1000
Aegis Wing - 170/200
Afro Samurai - 965/1000
Age of Booty - 160/200
Alone in the Dark - 950/1000
Assassin's Creed - 125/1000
Banjo Kazooie Nuts and Bolts - 130/1250
Battlefield 2: Modern Combat - 115/1000
Battlefield: Bad Company 2 - 675/1060
Beautiful Katamari - 495/1250
Bee Movie Game - 670/1000
Bejeweled 2 - 10/2000
Beijing 2008 - 430/1000
Beowulf - 460/1000
Bionical Heroes - 940/1000
Boom Boom Rocket - 85/200
Bomberman Live - 10/200
Brain Challenge - 160/200
Bully - 180/1000
Bulletwitch - 250/1000
Burnout Paradise - 5/1250
Burnout Revenge - 490/1000
Call of Duty 3 - 425/1000
Call of Juarez - 440/1000
Cars - 900/1000
Cars Race-O-Rama - 900/1000 (glitched, not my fault)
Chromehounds - 20/1000
Condemned - 440/975
Condemned 2: Bloodshot - 240/1000
Crash of the Titans - 313/1000
Crystal Quest - 160/200
Dark Sector - 30/1000
Dead or Alive 4 - 210/1000
Dead Rising - 40/1000
Def Jam Icon - 30/1000
DJ Hero - 600/1000
Dynasty Warriors 5 Empires - 730/1000
Duke Nukem 3D - 10/200
Enchanted Arms - 125/1000
Fable II - 1000/1350
Family Game Nights - 200/1400
Facebreaker - 625/1000
Far Cry Instincts Predator - 470/1000
Fatal Inertia - 340/1000
FIFA 08 - 295/1000
FIFA 10 - 210/1250
FlatOut Ultimate Carnage - 435/1000
Football Manager 2006 - 325/1000
Forza Motorsport 2 - 970/1000
Forza Motorsport 3 - 460/1000
Frogger - 140/200
Full Auto 915/1000
Gears of War - 60/1250
Gears of War 2 - 65/1750
Geometry Wars Evolved - 20/200
GRAW - 125/1000
Guitar Hero Aerosmith - 930/1000
Guitar Hero II - 910/1000
Guitar Hero III - 435/1000
Guitar Hero Hits - 450/1000
Guitar Hero Metallica - 875/1000
Guitar Hero World Tour - 850/1000
Guitar Hero 5 - 950/1000
Gun - 730/1000
Halo 3 - 815/1750
Hexic HD - 40/200
HSM3 Senior Year Dance - 350/1000
Import Tuner Challenge - 30/1000
Infernal - 800/1000
Kameo - 600/1000
Lego Rock Band - 960/1000
Lego Star Wars II - 350/1000
Looney Toons: AA - 820/1000
LOTR BFME II - 555/705
Luxor 2 - 92/200
Madden 07 - 645/1000
Madden 08 - 805/1000
Marble Blast Ultra - 165/250
Marvel Ultimate Alliance - 80/1250
Meet The Robinsons - 400/1000
Metro 2033 - 930/1000
Mirror's Edge - 730/1250
Monkey Island - 180/200
Monopoly - 600/1000
Moto GP 06 - 20/1000
NBA 2K7 - 955/1000
NBA Ballers: Chosen One - 900/1000
NBA Live 08 - 800/1000
NFS Carbon - 85/1000
NFS ProStreet - 20/1000
NHL 2K8 - 370/1000
NHL 08 - 300/1000
Nintey Nine Nights - 400/1000
Oblivon - 100/1250
Outpost Kaloxi X - 175/200
Over G Fighters - 50/1000
Overlord - 880/1250
PDC World Champ Darts - 650/1000
PES 2008 - 280/1000
Perfect Dark Zero - 390/1000
PGR 3 - 650/1000
PGR 4 - 1010/1250
Phantasy Star Universe - 1000/1250
Prey - 935/1000
Prince of Persia - 170/1250
Prizefighter - 140/1000
Quake 4 - 100/1000
Rainbow 6 Vegas - 215/1000
Rayman Raving Rabbids - 600/1000
Ridge Racer 6 - 70/1000
Robotron: 2084 - 50/200
Rock Band - 475/1000
Rock Band 2 - 650/1000
Rock Band AC/DC - 225/250
Rock Band Beatles - 615/1000
Rock Band Song Pack 2 - 200/250
Rock Revolution - 930/1000
Rumble Roses Double X - 30/1000
Saints Row - 50/1000
Samurai Warriors 2 XL - 150/1000
Scene It? LCA - 915/1000
Schizoid - 160/200
Sega Superstars Tennis - 940/1000
Sega Rally - 730/1000
Shadowrun - 250/1000
Shrek The Third - 640/1000
Small Arms - 175/235
Sonic The Hedgehog - 25/200
Soul Calibur IV - 700/1000
South Park - 160/200
Spiderwick Chronicles - 750/1000
Splinter Cell Conviction - 250/1000
Splinter Cell Double Agent - 50/1000
Splosion Man - 50/200
Spyglass Board Games - 105/200
Stuntman: Ignition - 555/1000
Superman Returns - 680/1000
Superstars V8 Racing - 960/1000
Table Tennis - 340/1000
Tetris Evolution - 180/1000
Texas Hold Em - 155/200
Tiger Woods 06 - 50/960
Tiger Woods 07 - 85/1000
The Force Unleashed - 700/1345
The Golden Compass - 660/1000
The Outfit - 420/1000
The Simpsons Game - 20/1000
Thrillville - 925/1000
Top Spin 3 - 50/1000
Totemball - 10/200
Transformers: The Game - 90/1000
Trivial Pursuit - 710/1000
Turning Point - 895/1000
Two Worlds - 60/1000
TNA Impact! - 365/1000
UEFA Champions League 2006/2007 - 390/1000
UEFA Euro 2008 - 895/1000
Vampire Rain - 650/1000
Viva Pinata - 140/1000
Wik: Fable of Souls - 120/200
Worms - 185/200
Worms 2: Armageddon - 110/200
And there we have it. According to Microsoft Word there's 162 games in that list there, that's a hell of a lot! You may have noticed plenty of games in there with low score, games you may not have even heard of (such as Rumble Roses and Over G Fighters). I pre-ordered my Xbox 360 but got it a couple of months later, this has meant that I've seen the Xbox 360 evolve throughout the years like others haven't. Originally once a game had been put on your card there was no going back. Didn't matter if you had 0G on it, you couldn't remove it. For this reason I had nothing to lose once I started playing a game and I remember putting a bit of time and effort in to getting my one and only achievement in Bejeweled 2 (which I now regret).
The point I'm trying to get at is that in the past I didn't give a damn about my completion percentage. It was only a year and a bit ago when I decided I wanted to change this as the arrival of TrueAchievements has inspired me and many others to up our percentage. I've gone from 50% to 68% in over a year which I am quite impressed with. I've got a way to go until 75% but if I could just remove these games from my profile.....
Bejeweled 2 - 10/2000
Boom Boom Rocket - 85/200
Bomberman Live - 10/200
Burnout Paradise - 5/1250
Chromehounds - 20/1000
Dark Sector - 30/1000
Dead Rising - 40/1000
Def Jam Icon - 30/1000
Duke Nukem 3D - 10/200
Gears of War - 60/1250
Gears of War 2 - 65/1750
Geometry Wars Evolved - 20/200
Hexic HD - 40/200
Import Tuner Challenge - 30/1000
Luxor 2 - 92/200
Moto GP 06 - 20/1000
NFS Carbon - 85/1000
NFS ProStreet - 20/1000
Over G Fighters - 50/1000
Ridge Racer 6 - 70/1000
Robotron: 2084 - 50/200
Rumble Roses Double X - 30/1000
Saints Row - 50/1000
Sonic The Hedgehog - 25/200
Splosion Man - 50/200
Tiger Woods 06 - 50/960
Tiger Woods 07 - 85/1000
The Simpsons Game - 20/1000
Top Spin 3 - 50/1000
Totemball - 10/200
Transformers: The Game - 90/1000
Two Worlds - 60/1000
That's a list of the games on my profile which have less than hundred gamerscore on them. Take out the arcades if you want and you've got 21 retail games each with 1000+ gamerscore on them. If it was possible for me to remove them from my card and plunk them on to someone else's who has a nice percentage (such as jackanape) if they would go below me and I would rise above them. I can't be bothered to work out the maths but I'm sure we'd see a dramatic change.
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