aBoyAndHisBlog.co.uk

New Blog

Mon, 18 Apr 2011 14:44:30 +0100

This will be my final post on the Tumblr blog and under this URL. I have created a new blog which you can find here http://toevadeslugs.co.uk. I am looking forward to the future of my new blog as I will be concentrating on doing more video to go with my posts. I have already posted my first entry along with a couple of videos for your enjoyment. See you on the other side.

3DS

Wed, 02 Feb 2011 21:49:06 +0000

I will be attending a Nintendo event in Manchester this Sunday ahead of the 3DS launch next month. I will be trying out the system and some of the “launch window” games. I will update the blog when I get back home on Sunday after the event so stay tuned and I will give my impressions. Until then I am out. Oh and I am back for good now.

1 Week Until Eurogamer Expo 2010

Fri, 24 Sep 2010 21:15:06 +0100

I attended 1 day of the Eurogamer Expo last year in Leeds, which involved playing many unreleased games at the time, and going to a developer session which was as good, if not even more interesting. Hearing how Introversion struggled with getting their game, Darwinia, onto the xbox live market place for an hour was actually very insightful. This year they scrapped the Leeds location to concentrate on the main London event which I haven’t attended before. So that being said, this year I will be traveling down south for all 3 days at Earls Court. I had originally booked the last 2 days which I figured would be more than enough time. I want to go to as many developer sessions as possible and figured I could spend one day going to all the available sessions, playing a few games inbetween, and then concentrate on playing games on the second day. That was before they annouced a developer session with Peter Molyneux on the Friday. When I heared about this I bought a ticket for the first day as well. This would have been my traveling day, but now I will be going early hours of the morning to get to London in time. But I’m sure it will be worth it.

I will be recording lots of video, and writing up my impressions of many games so check back after the event to see all of that.

Happy returns to a boy and his blog.

Steve

E3 is coming

Tue, 18 May 2010 22:46:29 +0100

I realise I have been away for far to long due to… well due to life basically. But I am back and I’m more excited than ever. In a few short weeks E3 will be under way.

Things we can expect to see

Nintendo will have to be showing their next hand held device, the glasses free 3DS.

Microsoft will of course be showing off more Natal.

Sony will be showing more of their motion controller, Move.

Rumour/Speculation

Will Microsoft announce an Xbox 360 Slim?

Could Sony possibly announce a PSP 2?

Have Nintendo got a Wii HD in the pipeline?

Personally I think it is likely that Microsoft will announce some sort of slim console. As for a PSP 2 and a Wii HD I think not. But you never know what the big 3 will throw at us. For me, the excitement comes from the things I don’t see coming, that blow me away. I am hoping for as little pre E3 leaks as possible. They are usually inevitable but they spoil the surprises that I love so much, so I can only hope for as little of them as possible this year.

So, I am ready for E3. I will be enjoying it from the comfort of my desk and laptop but will enjoy it all the same. Expect to hear more from me in the coming weeks, and during E3 week itself.

Weekly Update (7th March 2010)

Sun, 07 Mar 2010 23:55:00 +0000

This week has been a busy week, but I have managed to get some gaming done. I started playing Bayonetta. I am enjoying it although it is rather difficult. I may have to knock the difficulty setting down a notch. I have continued with MotorStorm and I finished Heavy Rain a couple of hours after the last weekly update. I will do a more in depth update on Heavy Rain this week as I am on holiday from work. Although I don’t have such a lot to say this week, I should certainly have plenty to talk about next week. I plan on spending most of this week playing games, reading graphic novels and going to the gym. Should be a good one.

Weekly Update (28th February 2010)

Sun, 28 Feb 2010 19:22:12 +0000

I am so engaged with Heavy Rain I nearly forgot about updating the blog. So I may as well begin with just that. I played more last night and then a few hours again today. I am really loving the “game” now. I put the word game in quotes, as it isn’t really a game. I will talk about it fully once I have completed it, which I expect to do this week, if not the next day or two.

Another game I bought this week was MotorStorm: Pacific Rift. I have kept meaning to buy the game since it came out as I rather enjoyed the first one for the PS3 as well as the most recent addition to the franchise on the PSP. I actually rented it first from Swapgame but clicked the keep it button as it was a good price. I am really enjoying it and I am pleased to finally get some Trophies from a MotorStorm game.

I bought the new DLC for Borderlands, “The Secret Armory of General Knoxx. But as of yet I haven’t had chance to play it. I am looking forward to jumping back into Borderlands but Heavy Rain is a higher priority right now. I actually bought the previous DLC for borderlands and haven’t even played it, after reading several bad reviews, and I probably won’t bother now. This one however looks to be the best one yet with a level cap increase to go with the superior content. Anyway I will probably do a stand alone update on the DLC if I ever get round to playing it.

I don’t usually talk about football, but I may as well mention that I went to Old Trafford earlier in the week to watch the Man United and West Ham game. I haven’t been to see them play for a few seasons so it was great to get to go again and I hope to get to see them play more often in the future.

That about does it for this week so here’s to another awesome week coming up, hopefully.

Heavy Rain

Fri, 26 Feb 2010 14:35:00 +0000

Heavy Rain came out today, and the weather couldn’t be more perfect for it’s release. At least where I live anyway. I actually got my copy in the post yesterday, and got to play it for an hour or so last night, as well as a couple of hours today. I am enjoying it so far. The start is a little slow but necessary to get you into the controls and how everything works. I am at a point now where it is starting to get real interesting, so I am looking forward to continuing the story. Unfortunately I need to get to the gym now, and I have work this evening. I am also at work all day tomorrow so I will have to wait until tomorrow night before I can get back into it again. If you have a PS3 then you really need to check this game out as it is completely different from anything you will have played before. I will do another update on Heavy Rain once I finish it. But now I am going off to the gym. Good job I am driving. Its heavy rain outside.

Weekly Update (21st February 2010)

Sun, 21 Feb 2010 23:06:00 +0000

This week I really only have a couple of things to talk about. Firstly, I have read my remaining Walking Dead graphic novels. I love it more and more after each volume I read and I have now ordered the remaining volumes (7-10), so I can’t wait for them to get here so I can read them.

As far as games are concerned, I haven’t played such a lot. With the combination of going to the gym and work, along with other commitments, I haven’t had such a lot of time to play. But one game I have picked up which is perfect for my busy schedule, is Plants vs Zombies for the iPhone. When the game came out for PC last year I couldn’t stop playing it and I sunk rather a lot of hours into it. I said at the time that it would be absolutely perfect for the iPhone and I really hoped PopCap made the conversion. Sure enough they announced it, and after a delay or 2 it finally hit the App Store. It’s the only game I have played on my iPhone since I downloaded it. I quite often find myself playing it when I am at home which is amusing, when I could be playing a console game, or for that matter just be playing it on the PC. But that shows just how good a game it is. I also couldn’t believe the price they were charging for it which was only £1.79. I expected it to be £2.99 which would have still been a complete bargain.

One last thing, I keep looking at Broken Sword on the App Store and so far I haven’t clicked the buy button. I love the Broken Sword games and I keep thinking about buying it, but end up deciding against it with the thought I probably will never get round to playing through it on my phone. But I nearly know that I will go back and buy it at some point, it’s just a matter of time.

Weekly Update (14th February 2010)

Sun, 14 Feb 2010 22:12:43 +0000

It’s only been a 3 days since my last update so there isn’t a huge amount to say. I have finished God Of War 2 now though, so that’s all 3 of them done with. I’m glad I’ve got a little while to rest now as I don’t want to burn myself out, after playing through them all so quickly.

I watched Star Trek last night which I had wanted to see since it came out. I am not a fan of Star Trek by any means. I have maybe seen a few episodes of it many years ago but I don’t really know a great deal about the Universe. Having said that I thought the movie was fantastic. I really enjoyed it and I am actually considering maybe picking up some old Star Trek TV series. I will look into what is available on DVD or Blu-Ray.

The Heavy Rain Demo hit PSN on thursday which i was eager to download and play. I played through the demo and was happy to see it was 2 different scenes than what I played at the Eurogame Expo. I am super excited for this game now and actually didn’t realise it is going to be out in less than 2 weeks. Awesome.

The next weekly update will actually be in a week’s time so I look forward to this week ahead.

Weekly Update

Thu, 11 Feb 2010 16:22:00 +0000

I’ve decided to start a weekly update on everything that I have been doing in the past week. Today is Thursday but I will continue to do this on Sunday’s in the future. Anyway I finally got The Zombie Survival Guide finished this week. I have been reading it for a while now and really enjoyed it. I have bought World War Z now which I will save to read a bit later as I really want to get back into my graphic novels.

I started reading The Walking Dead a while back now, and I have bought the first 6 volumes. I had already read the first 3, and finally got back to reading them this week and I am on the 5th now. I really love The Walking Dead so I want to finish reading the ones I have before I start another book. I will then order up to volume 10 and read them so I will finally be caught up.

I have been getting back into God of War again. I have finished the first one and I am 8 hours in to the second. I want to get it completed so I can look forward to GoW 3 in March. I have also just bought Darwinia+ on Xbox Live Arcade. I have been looking forward to this one for a while. I have found Introversion’s development on the game rather fascinating after I went to their developer conference at the Eurogamer Expo last year. Hopefully it does well for them. I am certainly enjoying it on the xbox.

Finally I decided to join the Gym at long last earlier this week. I have kept meaning to join for a while now, and finally bothered to actually do it on Tuesday. I have been the last couple of day’s and I am definitely feeling it on my arms especially. Shows how much I was using certain muscles before. Also my arse hurts from the exercise bike.

Let's TAP

Tue, 19 Jan 2010 15:07:00 +0000

One of my new year’s resolutions is to buy pretty much any game if it is interesting and under £5. When I saw Let’s Tap for £4.97 this immediately rang my must have bell.

Now I would never had bought this game at full price and I don’t know how much it came out at, but even if it was as cheap as £17.99, it wouldn’t have registered as a purchase for me. At the under a fiver price point though, I was happy to give the game a chance, and I have to say it was well worth taking it.

If you aren’t familiar with the game, the controls involve setting the Wii Remote face down on a box (2 boxes are included with the game). As the game’s title suggests you simply just tap the box. I have only played “Tap Runner” so far which is one of the five party game modes. In this mode there is a four lane track, with four characters. In 1 player mode the other 3 characters are controlled by the CPU and it is a race to the finish line. Repeatedly tapping lightly will make your character run. Tap a bit firmer and the character jumps (harder taps make it jump higher). Early stages present simple hurdles while later stages add much more difficult obstacles to contend with. As I have only played by myself, it is fun but the potential for multi player fun is much better. I look forward to trying out the other game modes and hopefully play some multi player, as this game is obviously designed for more than 1 person. Well worth the small amount I paid for it, and I look forward to more under a fiver purchases in the future.

Avatar

Mon, 18 Jan 2010 13:34:02 +0000

After waiting a few weeks I finally got to see Avatar last night. I had been trying to arrange to go see it with some friends which fell through a couple of times and I was considering just going on my own. Luckily it got arranged for last night and it was well worth the wait.

I listen to a lot of gaming podcasts that often stray into movies, so I had already heard a great deal about the movie before hand. Almost all of what I had heard about it was great, occasionally hearing the odd criticism, but mainly all fantastic reviews. First off, the film is beautiful. The use of colour is more often seen in something from Pixar or Disney. Yes I know Disney own Pixar now. This was a breath of fresh air, and I would often be lost in awe of the beautiful scenes, and would have to snap myself back into the story of film. There was always something beautiful to look at. The 3D was also very good. It didn’t feel forced, with most other 3D films. There were no pointless objects sticking out into the audience. I did occasionally get blurriness from certain scenes, but far less than all other 3D movies I have seen. One thing I don’t like about 3D movies is focusing. When the director will focus on the foreground and the background is blurred. In 3D this doesn’t work. James Cameron did a great job of not doing this and only the occasional annoyance was had with this.

I could go on and talk about the story and other points in the film but due to a lack of time I will just leave it at this. All I can say is you must go see this movie while it is at the Cinema and see it in 3D.

New Year, New Beginning

Fri, 01 Jan 2010 18:48:54 +0000

Since the new year officially started today, I figured it was a good time to begin plans for this next year on the blog. First of all I am not happy with the quantity of posts I have been making, so this is my number one priority. I have missed talking about certain big releases which I am not happy about at all. Of course quantity is nothing over quality, and so I will be going a lot more in depth on games, movies, graphic novels etc. Video games will still take priority, music will be talked about in the future, and when I say music, none of that bullshit pop music that plagues the radios. At least I assume it still does, as I never listen to the radio, ever. Anyway Happy New Year, and I look forward to speaking my mind much more in 2010.

FAHRENHEIT

Sat, 26 Dec 2009 21:47:00 +0000

Here is another older game I had never played and have recently purchased off Ebay. This one in anticipation of Heavy Rain next year. I remember seeing Fahrenheit in shops back in the day when I had my original xbox, but never had any clue what type of game it was. Recently learning that this was a game by Quantic Dream I had to get myself a copy. Heavy Rain is one of the many games I am eagerly waiting for. I am about a quarter of the way through Fahrenheit and I’m thoroughly enjoying the experience. I definitely recommend anyone who is looking forward to Heavy Rain that missed this release like I did to pick it up.

God of War Collection

Wed, 02 Dec 2009 22:08:53 +0000

So my copy of the God of War Collection arrived today.

I am rather looking forward to God of War 3, after player through the demo at Eurogamer Expo in Leeds last month, and then again at home when the kind folk at Sony sent me a code to download the very same demo. I have also just recently played through Chains Of Olympus on the PSP, and thought it was fantastic. I never got a chance to play God of War 1 or 2 on the Playstation 2, and when I heard about this collection coming to the PS3 ahead of GoW 3 next year in March, I had to order it. I don’t know why the collection isn’t out in Europe but thats the great thing about the PS3 being region free. I’ve been playing the first game for about an hour now, and I’m amazed how good it looks. Cut scenes aren’t quite as fantastic but it holds up pretty well and the upscaled graphics are really nice. I’m looking forward to getting to the second game as I hear it looks even better.

Söldner-X: Himmelsstürmer Limited Edition

Tue, 01 Dec 2009 16:43:00 +0000

So I received this in the post today.

Well, when I say received, I ordered it from Play-Asia. People don’t send me stuff for free. Anyway, it was going for some bargain price, and even though I already have the game on the PS3 I thought it was well worth buying. With this Special Edition came the PC version of the game. I am yet to install it. Like I said, I have the game already on PS3. There is also a “Tactical Reference Book”. I thought this was just an Art Book at first sight but it is actually pretty cool. It is quite literally a “Tactical Reference Book”. Anyway the real reason I bought this LE was because it came with the Soundtrack CD. I am listening to it right now, and it is so good I want to cry. The end.

Borderlands Part 2

Tue, 01 Dec 2009 16:13:49 +0000

So I went ahead and downloaded the DLC. My Berserker was level 24 when I went into Zombie Island. I thought I would take a break from the main game and check it out. I ended up playing through the DLC in one go, and really enjoyed it. People that say Zombies are over saturated in games are just wrong. Zombies never get old. And the Zombies in this game are great fun to shoot. I ended up finishing up Zombie Island on level 30. So I am a bit overpowered on my main story quests at the moment. I also went into a friend’s game for a bit who is a level 50. He boosted me a few levels as well. Been playing a lot more today and I am now a level 35. I can’t stress how much I love this game. Apart from my brief extremely laggy co-op experience (thanks to a very intermittent Internet connection), I have been playing it on my own. I can see how awesome it would be with another person or 3 though.

The Zombie Survival Guide [Recorded Attacks]

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 22:38:00 +0000

So before I say anything, I haven’t yet read any of the book. I pre ordered it a few months back and have been looking forward to receiving it, which I did this morning. I have heard great things about it though. I got into The Walking Dead comics a few months back which is the main reason I ended up pre ordereding this book. Anyway, it is time to get reading.

Borderlands

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 17:01:00 +0000

So I picked up Borderlands yesterday. Its been out a few weeks and after hearing great things about it I decided to pick it up. I was half torn between getting Left 4 Dead 2 and Dragon Age. But those two can wait for now. I’ve been playing most of the afternoon and have to say it’s pretty awesome. I was one of the people that couldn’t get into Fallout 3, but the gunplay in Borderlands is just great. I will be playing by myself as I don’t know anyone else with it, but it is a great fun single player experience anyway. I’m only on level 11 so far. There is some DLC available tomorrow, but I will probably wait until I finish the game before I purchase the extra content. It should keep me occupied for a while anyway.

Scribblenauts

Fri, 09 Oct 2009 12:41:00 +0100

So Scribblenauts arrived today. See.

After my initial excitement for the game around E3, I have anxiously been waiting to play it myself. The game has been out in the US for a few weeks and hasn’t received perfect scores by any means. From what I have read about the game, the main let down had been control issues. With no direct control over Maxwell, he doesn’t always do what you want him to, and certain objects don’t behave the way you think they would. Although this was a shame to read I was still looking forward to it, and after receiving the game this morning I have been playing for the last couple of hours and have to say, so far, I have been enjoying it very much. The controls certainly aren’t perfect and I haven’t gotten to any really complex puzzles yet so I will have to see how I will get on later in the game. I am driving up to Scotland on Sunday to spend the week there so it will be the perfect chance to play some more Scribblenauts on the DS.