Friday 28 August 2009

I am like a child living in the 90s.

So. My new habit now is to spend lots of cash on old consoles. Alas, I think of it this way when I purchased my new old Super Nintendo and Dreamcast.

I AM PAYING FOR 2 CONSOLES.
EACH WITH THERE OWN SELECTION OF GAMES WITH THEM.
FOR 60 POUNDS.


In other words; I just bought 2 consoles for the price of the Modern Warfare 2 price. (WITH GAMES!)

I don't really know what to write about other than the fact the games are utterly expensive. Super Metroid in its box, 100 quid. StarFox with it's box and guide, 150 quid. So far the games I aim to aquire are out of my price reach. So I'll stick with my Super Mario All Stars and Plok.

My Dreamcast on the other hand, is slightly easier to get ahold of the games. I can nip down to my local Gamestation and they have quite a few behind the counter. But, when the times get tough- Shenmue...- I will have to result to using the easy way out with blank discs and ISOs. I don't encourage this, but I do in the cases when games become ridiculous to find etc.

I think the only game I've ever pirated properly was for PC and that was Grim Fandango.

The summer holidays draw to a close, and I'm gagging for a drink. See ya!



@Limewizard on Twitter.

Thursday 23 July 2009

I'm going to say one thing. Sorry. No updates in ages for reasons.

I'm pissed with HMV. My Prestige edition of Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 shouldn't be limited to that store. Nevermind the fact its costing me a lot of money, but it shouldn't be so GOD DAMNED secrective! It took 3 days worth of Googling to actually find out where abouts I need to get my order taken. HMV apparently got the exclusive, which is well done them. I golf clap them; they need it. But I look with evil eyes towards Activision for not giving us any infomation about it to the UK. Sure the French got some attention, the US have it anywhere, but us? PFF. Don't make us laugh.

I did get my order; I think. 120 pounds. It is 145 dollars over in America. THats 91 pounds. 195 dollars if we converted ours. Fuck you Activision. You've just lost any respect I had left for you.

Guitar Hero you have milked dry. GH5? I'll buy it. But I'm selling GH4. Because I have come to realise that game is shite. The songs are crap, the difficulty curve is still like running into a wall of nails. Band Hero? What is the need? The fact that it will drag more 'girl gamers' into the world of GH. But... I know plenty of girls that prefer playing 'Paint it Black' or even Call Of Duty. That is sad isn't it? Most games nowadays are just churned out by EA or Activison. It makes me sad.

Valve have recently announced stuff about Left 4 Dead 2, and that is really looking to be a treat? BULLET PROOF ZOMBIES. Fire bullets? OOh wee.

Erm... I do have a twitter? Limewizard :D

TV has become mind numbing. I've found myself watching it more and more since we got the new room. Because it goes like this on the desk we built.

TV + Freesat HD Phone TV
with
Xbox
Wii
PS2


So with these two TVs constantly blabbering on and on, I have my undivided attention between them. I curse you Scuzz. I curse you and the regular top 50 bands of all time countdowns. Curse you!

I'm also thinking of holding a Halo 3 tournement. Hmm, let us see how that goes. More news soon :)


Add me on Xbox Live! limewizard


See ya guys and gals and both genders!

Thursday 14 May 2009

Retro Binge: StarCraft

I'm not a fan of Real Time Strategy Games. I didn't enjoy WarCraft 3 or the much more simple Halo Wars. Infact, the only one I have enjoyed fully is Pikmin 2. (Pikmin one is awesome too, but I hated the fact that you couldn't go back once completed and explore at you're own liesure.) So I was put off StarCraft for a while. That was until I was watching the StarCraft 2 previews on Youtube, and it looked exactly the same as anyother Strategy game. Build the army, build a base of operations and don't die. Same old story and same old song and dance. I guess you can tell i wasn't looking forward to reviewing this for Retro Binge. I'm guessing you want to know how the hell I was convinced into playing this. I have to thank Adam from OverTheGun.co.uk (http://overthegun.co.uk/) for suggesting that I give it a go.

So when you start, you get given a rather nicely animated intro scene. I have to say, I like Blizzard's art style for this game. It isn't too WarCraft and it isn't too Sci-Fi. The human's are depicted as stero-typical American badasses. (I began to think I was leading an army of Vin Diesals at one point.) The tutorial is a little confusing, as it explains what to do, but not what each unit does. I thought that the huge mecha's would be strong and capable of killing hordes of enemies. No, they do the building and collect minerals and gas.

The story is pretty nice but isn't groundbreaking. It has to be the best from any game like this, but again, it isn't really needed. The story is here just to give you a mission, and sometimes the missions don't coincide with the story and are there for the hell of it.

The missions are fun and challenging. Although I do find myself using the same tactics over and over: Keep the "HERO" character back at the back and send say, 10 troops out into battle to clear the way. Build a base near any minerals and resources and then just build my army up and send them round to patrol. I guess this is the point, but I find it makes the game a little linear once you discover a ryhthm that works.

The graphics, even today, are infact pretty nice. The fact that this was released in 1996 and the cutscenes and gameplay begin to show there age, but this was quite an achivement. It isn't full 3D, with most of it prerendered backgrounds and layers in 2D put at such an angle that it almost looks 3D- ala Resident Evil. The cutscenes, are like early Pixar short films, although not as nice looking but they do the job. The artstyle is still one of the top I've seen and I'm glad they've stuck to it for StarCraft 2, released this year.

This was one of Blizzard's almighty three at the time, (along with Diablo and Warcraft) and probably to date, the most popular. With Asia still playing this over todays modern games and huge events held around the world for this in particular, I'm just a little upset I missed out on it all.

Looking onto the multiplayer side of things, this is where the game shines. The ability to quickly connect to Battle.net and battle against foes all around the country is fasinating. Different strategies and maps bring out the best fun I've had in years. Even when playing my brother over a LAN connection, and hearing him whisper, "Bugger." as I Zerg Rush his base, is much better than hearing some frat boy call me a N***er over Xbox Live. I guess, that is what seperates PC gamers to console gamers. The community. StarCraft has a loyal fanbase and yet if this where to be on console, it would be forgotten about about 3 months later, and not 13 years later until the sequel is completed.

Overall, this title was a blast. I think it does deserve a 10, but the fact is, it isn't the best looking anymore, the lip syncing was off and multiplayer was hard to find an open server. But it is a solid game, and I can't wait for the sequel. I'm feeling generous. 9.8/10. An A*. Yeah. I feel good about that.

Sunday 5 April 2009

Retro Binge (Wolfenstien 3D)

Being a gamer from the last generation, (Gamecube, Xbox, PS2) and having a buildong relationship in the PS1 days, (I used to own one for about 6 months before my Game Boy and Gamecube.) I feel the sudden need now to return in time to places I've never been. Yes. I'm going back to the glory days, after the glory days. Having bought, played and completed Wolfenstien for my iPod Touch (review in a moment,) I don't know why I felt the need to keep going forwards until I reach present day. I would love to do NES, SNES and Sega's holy and awesome days too, but that said; It's been done by everyone. I see no point, so my trip begins in the early 90's. Wolfenstien is released.

Retro Entry: Wolfenstien 3D; Released 1992. Reason for look back: Grandaddy of all FPS, (First Person Shooters.)
So the game starts with you in a room with a dead body. I presume you nicked his gun, and are now about to fend off Hitler's secret army. Running down corridors with new stylized touch controls, feels nice for about an hour; I felt a friction burn sentsation on my thumb. Corridors are cleverly planned, knowing the limited technology of the time, id Software laid them out in a maze style, making a simple looking hall turn into a puzzle of rememberence. The difficulty picks up on boss fights, which I guess is no concern, but being the new guy, I died and lost all my ammo, guns and extra health. I think they would have added a REAL save feature like from the PC. Ah well. After some time, I took down the boss. After a quick restart of level 8. Nifty thing in this is that all levels are open from the begining. So if you wanted to have a nostalgia trip of say... Chapter 6 boss, you can. Of course, playing through it properly and then returning to mess around.
The weapons were pretty nice, pistol has to be the best pistol in any game, ever. The machine gun is a good friend until I met chaingun. This bad boy shreads enemies to a pixilated picture of blood and guts in seconds. Though it could be said that the pistol just fires slower than the chaingun, as it also causes one hit kills.
Difficulty choices remain intact, with the hardest mode throwing respwing enemies, (I swear they respawn!) and bosses which take roughly 10 full chainguns to take down. Fun? More like hell. It is just impossible for the inexpirenced. Or the old vets, because of the new control scheme.
Speaking of control schemes. You have 3 or 4 different choices. New, simple and easy controls. Strafing forthe right handed and left handed, and tilt control. The new control suits it best. Strafing is for litterally those who wish to strech there fingers to fire the weapon and the tilt controls take some tweaking.
So on the whole, an 8/10. Its a fun, little port of the original. Next up is the big bad boy of Retro FPS games: DooM.
So on the whole I liked it.

Tuesday 31 March 2009

Game Related Bollocks Podcast #1

Hello. Just a quick post.
Today I will be talking about how Guitar Hero is going into the what I like to call, "Sequel Shithole" and Sequels. Stay tuned.


http://ourmedia.org//user/218011

Wednesday 11 March 2009

Team Fortress 2; Riddick and why isn't Half Life Episode 3 here yet?

I'd like to say that, Team Fortress 2 is now officialy my most favourite game ever. Its fast, funny, and best of all a first person shooter game. I love 'em to bits. But this stands out. I know its been reviewed, acclaimed, won stuff, but I want my say.
TF2, is essentialy a capture this and take it there or capture that spot to win. But with each play, you're expirence changes dramaticaly. You might go scout and run the whole way to the intellenge, nick it and be on you're way. Or, you might play as the medic, and help a heavy take down some soldiers that are in you're way.
I'd like to go through the characters if I may. (Just quick summeries.)
Heavy: Big gun, lots of health and insanly hard to take down.
Pyro: Muffled voice, a bit like Kenny from South Park, owns the most lethal weapon in the game, the Flamethrower.
Soldier: Vietnam, styled crazy american soldier with a huge ass rocket launcher.
Spy: Sneaky bugger, when used right you can trick enemy medocs to heal you while in disguise.
Medic: For those not brilliant at the killing, might go for a supportive role of the Medic by healing poeple in battle.
Demoman: Like explosions and grenades? This is the man for you.
Scout: Fast paced, (In my opinion, Quake styled) character with a shotgun and a baseball bat.
Sniper: Needs not to be explained.
Engineer: Builds turrets, dispensers to help out, and teleporters.

Got the jist?

So you choose a class and use it to effectiveness. But what's so amazing is, how balanced it is. You get the feeling, even though the Heavy has the 300 health points, you can take him down with a few swings from Scouts bat.
The humour is top notch stuff. Ever seen a massive Russian who was once just beating you to death with his fists and then whip out a sandwhich? You will now.
The community helps out a lot here. Maps and mods have beenade with some maps- personally I love the Orange X3 map- are amazing, and occasionaly with a new update, one or two get thrown in by Valve. Its amazing.
The game is constently updated, with new weapons for each class and achievments added each time for you to work through. (Right now theres 170 achievments.)
It witty, fast paced and good looking. A big massive 10/10, from me.


I played the Riddick demo. I was impressed. I was dissapointed. I was amused. It was satsfying. Try it.
I hate most "stealth" games. Metal Gear Solid is the only one I've enjoyed. Splinter Cell was shit. Meh. But, Riddick, Riddick is a more, "Look! Bad guys! Hide!" when its just given you a shotgun. Either I'm misunderstanding it, or its not much sense. Great looking game though. I also like how its an FPSSTEALTH game, but also goes into thirdperson for climbing etc. I loved controlling 'drones' much fun.

Half Life 2 Episode Three. We were promised it about a year ago? No. No. No. Here I am, waiting to find out what happend to our favourite mute, Gordon Freeman. But why? Well, I'd like to elaborate.
HLEP3, will be using the new Version of the Source engine; the same as Left 4 Dead. Thus, Valve now need to shift again from the Episode Two engine. Graphics changed etc.
If you played till the end of Half Life 2, you noticed all the beasties waiting for you to destroy. These will most lilely be included. But the main factor is, Valve are going back to the Borielis. "Back? We never went!" Wrong. We didn't go, but most did; before some nut job decided to release it all over the net, ruining the game. Valve also now have to animate alot of new things, update stuff and need to round it off with a BOSS FIGHT. Yeah, I know. Gasp.
But when It does get released I'm forst inline.

Wednesday 4 March 2009

Watchmen: The End Is Nigh game... Alan Moore might not agree, but I do!

Watchmen is now a major film. Watchmen will now be milked for every cent it's got. You know it, I know it. But, I feel this game is diffrent. I've played roughly a sixth of it. (Seeing as waiting until 10 pm, and then realising, "Oh, it's nap time." and it's the demo) So, I've got the just.
Its essentially an old fashioned beat 'em up. Just in the most snazzy high definition graphics, I've seen from ANY Xbox Live Arcade, (XBLA), game or Playstation Network or infact video game tie in ever. Rorsach's blots constantly shift on his face, Nite Owl's electrocution and cape light up and swing around. The rain, the detail on the- well- dark and murkey areas, a top notch. It's really nice to see some effort put into this franchise! Seriously! I've got my complaints, but I mean, DAMN! This. Is. Enjoyable!
The opening introduction 'cinematic', is completely done in the comic's art style, the voice acting is superb on both Nite Owl and Rorsach, and the story is no-cannon, so Watchmen fans who are intrigued have nout to worry. Plus it's insanly decent.
The combat is effective, with Rorsach going nuts; it's just so him! He snaps legs, penises, arms and necks. But while Nite Owl is a skillful martial artist, with his gadjets, Rorsach is much more fun to play.
Now, I said I had complaints. But, it's okay. There not major. It's too short. 5 hours? 20 dollars? (Roughly 10-13.50 pounds here...) isn't a deal. I'm willing to dish out the cash, I just wish it was cheaper. But with this, comes replayability. I believe you could do it 3 or 4 times. Rorsach and Nite Owl have slightly diffrent scenerios, not noticable but felt. The game literally drops you in the deep end. It took 15 seconds to realise X and Y were attacks. Not the more obvious, A and B. Also, the moves can become convoluted and confusing. But the wobbly combat always has it's satisfying crunch. Not much else to say, so far, a 7/10. A reccomendation from moi.

PLEASE CHECK OUT: http://www.limewizardscheatsomfg.blogspot.com :D