29/09/2013

New Logo - Watch_Dogs

Old Logo - Mech !!
The Front Mission Mech has been the logo since December last year so time for a next generation change.

With the PS4 on pre-order, Watch_Dogs is easily my most anticipated release this year.


New Logo - Next generation gaming

Spec Ops The Line - Completed

So the plan was to complete Gears of War Judgement, Thomas was Alone & start Rayman Origins.

Nothing ever goes to plan much like Delta Force's mission to search for survivors in sand destroyed Dubai. Along the way you will be forced to make some tough decisions in the heat of combat. Do you kill you own soldiers? Do you attack civilians?

Spec Ops gives you a harrowing, traumatic & graphical experience of modern combat. More importantly the consequences of your actions are played out for you to see.

It's a very short game that I completed in about six hours, it offers various levels from sniper targeting, tanker shooting & of course sandstorm levels.

Another game from my PS+ subscription following on from Uncharted 3. I tried Infamous but after an hour gameplay I just was not enjoying it so deleted both games (I had Infamous 2 also). Next I think I'll go back to my original plan & finish off Gears of War Judgement.

23/09/2013

Mass Effect - Completed

Decisions ! decisions ! Just like my current car dilemma, Mass Effect offers you many choices through-out the game and some of these are very tough to decide. Ashley or Alenko which one do you save? Save the Citadel Council or destroy the Sovereign? I decided to save Ashley because she was part of my main Squad with Garrus & I chose to destroy the sovereign so the council members died. Apparently if you carry your character over the choices you make are reflected in the next game or so I think?

I will wait a while before starting the second game to clear up a few unfinished titles, also I’m going to start playing Rayman Origins with the kids. I have a stack full of games on PS+ (PS3 & Vita) which I have not touched, yet I still went out & purchased Rayman Legends, Batman Arkhan Origins (Pre-Order) & my PS4 pre-order is still valid. So lots to keep me busy this year & next.

Cutting back on watching television shows has given me more time to enjoy gaming finishing Mass Effect in 13 days is friggin fast for me, in the past I would take months to complete a game. Slowly but surely clearing my backlog of games I’ll start with Gears of War Judgement, Thomas was Alone & Fallout New Vegas Old World Blues DLC this week before moving onto Spec Ops The Line.


Mass Effect 2 can wait until after Spec Ops, hopefully the side quests are more enjoyable, inventory management easier & the lifts are faster !!

20/09/2013

Mass Effect - Sidequests

After neglecting the main quests in favour of the Sidequests I have finally had enough of visiting planets to rinse & repeat the same pattern again. Start quest, find planet, land with mako, drive around collect minerals & artifacts, attack compound. Kill Geth, recover item or save someone.

The Sidequests now all just feel the same so I'm now ignoring them & focusing on the main quest. I have completed Noveria & Feros quest line each ending with a boss fight that makes a change & throws up a new challenge.

I've also noticed that levelling up now only awards the other squad members one skill point instead of two?
But Shepherd still receives two points even at my current level of 32.

I'm learning to now pause the game by holding R2 to select a skill usually this is either overkill or assassination. Overkill allows you to continue firing your weapon with no overheating & assassination steadies your aim when using the sniper rifle.

I have landed on the planet Virmire, wow it looks beautiful straight out of a Far Cry game, will hopefully spend some time with the game over the weekend (if I do not get distracted by Rayman Origins) to crack on & complete the main quest.




16/09/2013

Mass Effect vs Grand Theft Auto V

I nearly got sucked into the hype & placed an order for GTA V. I have never played an GTA game the violence, drugs & sexual content have never appealed to me. I did enjoy playing Rockstar’s Red Dead Redemption this year & because of that I felt that I might enjoy GTA V. But much like my recent dilemma on which new car to purchase, carefully thinking of the positive & negative points made me reach a sensible conclusion that a 1.4 engine is far too small & the 1.8 is the better option.  The only positive points I could give to GTA V was Rockstar, Open-World sandbox & the on-line mode which opens up an endless possibility of fun. The negatives are pretty obvious with the mature content being top of the list.

Mass Effect on the other hand is more my kind of game, huge milky way to explore different planets & complete side quests. Thresher Maws on the other hand I don’t like, friggin annoying took me quite a few attempts before I was going to give up & Abbas said let me have a go. Typical he killed it on his first attempt !!

I have now got the last member of the squad, Liari an Asari researcher she is skilled in Biotics which I don’t really use. I’m old school gun & shoot so have stuck with Ashley & Garrus. Alenko was just not good enough in the fighting skills so had to make way for Garrus. I have completed quite a few side quests & enjoy visiting different galaxies to check out new planets to explore.

On the weapon front I have now started to favour the sniper rifle & tend to leave Ashley/Garrus on standby whilst I shoot down the Geth soldiers. The loot you find is very generous & will always give you new weapons or armour that is better than what you have equipped. No doubt I will find something in the shops that is worth buying but at the moment I only seem to be selling any spare items I have or converting them to Omni-Gels. The mini game for unlocking lockers or collecting minerals started off being really annoying because it did not give you enough time to press the buttons but I have now gotten much better at these, yet I still save before attempting just in case I need to retry.

So whilst the majority of you will be robbing banks, having police chases & taking down rivial gangs. I will be planet-hopping with the Normandy, collecting minerals, researching Prothean artefacts, shooting Geth & saving the galaxy.


GTA Online does not go live until 1st October so I have a couple of weeks to lookout for any on-line deals. I have no intention to play the single player game but the temptation for multi-player fun could be too big to resist the hype.

13/09/2013

Mass Effect - Normandy

I have now been given the keys to the Normandy, I've not yet gone on board & given the crew my first orders because I'm finishing off a few side-quests in the Citadel & need to visit the shops to purchase some better armour. 

I've found something that is more annoying than the inventory management in the game. It's the Citadel lifts !! Sheesh !! How slow do they move.

I've also got a few keepers to still find but I've been everywhere? I have also decided on my final squad lineup & will go with Ashley & Alenko.

I know what to expect when I get on board the Normandy but I can't help wishing for an open world type game now where I can fly the Normandy wherever I want to go.

10/09/2013

New Game - Mass Effect

I've started this game quite a few times already but after an hour on Friday got bored & switched it off. Abbas was adamant that I was making a mistake & I needed to play it for longer before I made a decision on the game.

After four to five hours playing yesterday evening I'm hooked & starting to enjoy the game. The first few hours are full of tutorials & menu pop-ups, you are struggling to get to grips with the game mechanics & the game keeps on giving you more tutorials.

J-RPGs have perfected the art of in-game tutorials. Ni No Kuni did not tell the player about the all squad command till after the first big boss fight a good fourteen hours into the game. I have now figured out what the various controller buttons do & how to control your squad. The inventory management is really crap, I collect loot & there is no easy way of knowing what I have collected without going through each weapon/armour & checking for upgrades.


I am currently at the Citadel & have recruited a few more squad members. Just need to decide on which two I want to include in my squad, I think I may just stick with the original two of Ashley & Alenko. With the trilogy to play I think I don’t need to buy anything else for the rest of the year.


07/09/2013

Gears of War Judgement - Stats

It's like a really long action movie, awesome special effect sequence followed by five minutes of dialogue then cue another action sequence.


The game has stats & truth be told I'm very rarely on the first screen because in movies you only have one action hero (avengers assemble & expendables excluded). Abbas is the action hero charging in to take on the horde head on,  I tend to take a more thought out approach carefully looking at the enemies & taking out the one that is the stronger or causing the most problems like a sniper or tickers.

There have been occasions where the game does not let me take my approach & I have to tie on a bandanna & shout "For SPARTA !!" On those rare few occasions I actually do quite well on the kill count if you exclude the amount of times I need reviving.

So this is an opportunity for me to gloat seeing my name appear on every category of the stat screen.

Even a side hero has a bit part in a movie where he gets to shine & show his true skill. So I take a bow & move on.

Anyhow I've run out of popcorn so when is this movie going to end.

06/09/2013

Champ Man - Penalties !!

What a tense semi-final, taking the game into extra time & finally winning the penalty shootout to set up an FA Cup final against Chelsea.


05/09/2013

Champ Man - Going to Wembley !!

Beating Wigan away set up a FA Cup quarter final against Everton.


Which I managed to draw taking the replay back to the Kassam Stadium.

At home winning the game 1-0 & now OUFC are off to Wembley to play a semi-final against Blackburn.

Come on you YELLOWS !!

04/09/2013

Champ Man - Moyes Out !!


Oh yes !! The FA cup run continues.

Carcassonne - Who dares, Wins?

The start of a new game against Kerumba but I'm not sure who is going to get eventual control of the city & if they can ever complete it.

He who dares, Wins? Right?

03/09/2013

Champ Man - FA Cup

A win against Aston Villa to start off the FA Cup campaign.


Next round I get a home tie against Man Utd. If it was not for Welbeck's late goal I would have won the match. 


Wish me luck for the replay at Old Trafford.

01/09/2013

Champ Man - Leven Retires

At the age of only 32 Peter Leven has decided to retire, really gutted he was my star midfielder scoring 38 goals for me last season.

So I went looking on the transfer market & purchased Hartmann for 1.6 Million signed on a 5 year contract at 7K a week.
So far he has had a great start scoring 6 goals in 10 games.