Finally, Insane no more !!

I have been playing Gears of War since 14th Decemeber 2006, and I had whooped through Hardcore mode gaining Casual achievs as I went, but I had never really ventured into Insane, as (a) my friend then disappeared from LIVE for weeks/ended up being months, and (b) other games come out and you know what it’s like with the new toy on the shelf… you just gota play it.

So last night finally saw the end with a huge slog fest of Gears play with Nastazgeezer, and finishing the game leaving me with 610 points on GoW and a gamerscore of 41,465, along with the gamerpicture you get for Insane completion.

So… phew, it’s done, and it felt good !!!

If I will venture into the LIVE achiev’s is another mater as I rarely hit ranked matches… but time will tell.  Gears of War is certainly “one to keep”, so lets just see eh!

This ‘n’ That

Phew what’a weekend.

Got up Sat and went to see Transformers the move (wow-wow-wow), and bumped into my two boys who were with some friends/party gathering.  They were going to see The Simpsons movie, and Josh came over for a cuddle which was lovely while I was in the queue. 

Then we left the Trafford Centre and with the weather holding went over to B&Q to get some more gravel for the garden (have been gardening most of last week)… Got back and finished the back garden with the gravel and mowed the lawns, before jumping into the shower and then crashing out on the bed as I was well and truly knackered at this stage.

Sunday was getting up early and over to Homebase for Alison to now choose the plants for the three bedding areas that we have… Money spent we head back, grab some lunch and then I get to work with Ali (she helped a lot) on planting what seemed like a million plants.

Work done and I have to say it looks really cool now and very neat. 

Going back in time - we have 3 bedding areas two on the exterior of the property next to the drive and one in the main garden.  All three areas had bushes in (well over 12months ago) and Ali had me rip em out… and ever since weeds have just grown, and grown, and grown “you get the idea”.  So I took the bull by the horns and hired a skip last week to dig out most of the crappy soil/weeds, laid liner down, with log-rolling edges and dumped a tonne of slate chippings on the external areas and finished as above with gravel on the other bedding area in the main garden, this weekend + plants in all three.

So now we no longer look like the clampets and I just have my stopwatch running now, on how fast Alison can kill the plants.

Other than that I grabbed a couple hours of gaming with the Flatout demo and what not (don’t like it), and it is Alison’s birthday tomorrow (Tues 31st July) So I need to just grab her a couple of extras tonight - as I have her main stuff sorted - with my boys in tow; presents from them/cards from them la-la-laaa and she will be sorted for her 31st birthday on the 31st… “oooo spooky”.

And… well… “lets see” hopefully this week I can get back to gaming on days I am meant to and grab some more points as I only played for one night last week and it was not on the night it was meant to be… we shall see eh!

Transformers - Frustration in Disguise

Now I love Transformers and the fact that the movie comes out in the UK on Friday has me as giddy as a six year old in a sweet shop with a fiver to spend.  But… and, I do have to say now having played it… that the game has caused me quite a few headaches.

Before I witter on - I do have to say the game is good, so it certainly does not stink and as a Transformers fan, does not fail to give me a huge grin all the time with being able to control the likes of Optimus Prime, Jazz, Starscream, etc, etc.

But “and ain’t there always a but”… the game somehow feels rushed, and completely untested in places, in particular to the driving bits.

Picture this… you have just been told you have 30seconds to get from one area to another so you transform and hit the road wheels burning to suddenly find you are donut’ing without having done so or smashing into every object, losing ALL SPEED for simply and slightly touching the thumbstick.  You get desperate seeing the timer turn red, yet you are no closer to the flashing green arrow/dot that will allow you to carry on with the game and now every car on the road seems determined to block your path *insert angry face here* >_<  You fail!!!  And you have to start all over again!!!

The driving portions of the game - - which happen quite a lot, are… well… SHIT, being totally frank, and worse still when you have boss fights that usually evolve around battling once, then chasing, battling, chasing ”you get the picture”… to fail at one chase bit because that little speck on the ground just caused you to spin off and lose the battle against the timer to find “oh crap” I have to do the entire portion of this battle/level piece again. 

My other main frustration is finding a lot of the levels generally are timed (so… destroy said base in xx time) and it causes you to rush and as such miss out on whats around you as you just spend too much time only caring about the objective.  It makes the game very, very, very painful at times and could have been done soooo much better.

Apart from that *insert smiley face* ^_^  I just love how it looks and how they transform and when you do get to kick off with no timer putting pressure on you… the battles and the carnage you can cause is very cool.

If I reviewed this game it would probably get a 6 out of 10 as the faults should not have existed and only goes to hurt what is a pretty damn decent game.

Da Games boss… da games!

Just a bit of a gaming diary catch up.

Firstly and as of last night, I am now 40 points off a 41,000 gamerscore, and my little boost this week has mainly come from breaking the back on ‘Armored Core 4′ gaming, ‘Call of Juarez’ (just started) and from last night, playing ‘Transformers’.

Transformers arrived on my doorstep yesterday and ignoring all the reviews that slate the game I had decided “as always” that I will make my own mind up.

 Now for a Transformers fan - the game is very COOL!  It does have a few niggly faults with it and so far those have been down to certain objects just stopping you dead in your tracks which can be really annoying and the fact that a lot of the missions are timed - and well timed missions have always got on my tits in the past… so I am a bit annoyed over that.  I do have to add that by far the worst bit is the driving control - it’s awful and the buttons mapped for driving are just plain wrong!!!

BUT… overall, and so far I am really enjoying myself and it is great fun to take control of a Transformer and kick ass bot-style.  The graphics are pretty cool and I get a giggle out of just standing there transforming all the time… sad… well yeah but I knew that already

In other news - I also helped a friend last night with some of the achievements on Vampire Rain leaving him to wander off with another 400 gamerscore points from our little session…  It’s good to help people init!!!

XboxPaperPlane

This is actually a lot harder than it looks - - if you want any distance on the plane then it needs to get through the TV so it can make it to the other side.  And well… that is the harder than it looks bit.

 Go on have a go - you will probably like this one

http://www.xboxpaperplane.com.au/

Armored Core 4 - ROCKS !!

I am only blogging about this as I finished the campaign mode last night and the fact that as hard as the game was at times (damn frustrating would have been a closer statement I spose) the game is AWESOME.

If you like your Mech Games with speed then AC4 will be a perfect fit and just to give you a clue as to what an Armored Core looks like, then check out my own custom AC Build which with a few mods here and there - got me through the entire game.

My AC weapons wise has:

• Side Mounted Missile Launchers (AS Missiles)
• 2x Back Mounted Missile Launchers (AS Missiles)
• Laser Rifle (one that looks like a blade)
• Grenade Cannon

Now all I need to do is replay certain missions on Hard and try to move my overall rating to A if not S to gain another couple of achievs… Wish me luck as I go in guns-a-blazing

E3

Having sat through/dribbled through and got excited throughout Microsofts E3 press conference… I just thought I would waffle on for a few wee words on bits that impressed me.

•  Peter Moore going through the sales figures confirmed that the 360 console is without doubt the best Next Gen platform to own.
• Call of Duty 4 Demo - WOW-WOW-WOW.  Although this game looks a smige Battlefield 2′ish it still looks like it will certainly entertain and amaze gamers when it finally arrives.  NOTE They will run a COD4 Multiplayer Beta so check out CharlieOscarDelta.com for details.
• Assassins Creed has been a game talked about for a long, long time… and while it still seems like we will never get our hands on the actual game - the demo looked awesome and will certainly be a game featuring on a few peeps Christmas lists.
• News of the Elite hitting European shelves made me smile and at a date earlier than expected.  I will be hunting down a black 120GB wonder - have no fear.  The news was also complemented with the fact that the video marketplace will finally go International, ties in very neatly with the Elite and on how much more data we will be able to store on our 360’s.
• And… well… best of all - “well it was for me” -  Peter Moore confirming and showing Resident Evil 5 footage and giving us the rough clue that while it will certainly miss the ‘07 holiday period… 360 gamers are going to see the game.  So the “will it”? “won’t it”? debate has ended.  Resident Evil 5 is coming to the 360 - wOOt !

……..

 If you have not see the press conf footage then you have at least two ways in which to grab it.  360 owners can download from the Xbox LIVE Marketplace, or… you can visit Xbox.com and track through the E3 news and the 9 parts are held and listed on the site to stream through WMP.

Game On!!!

Just a bit of a game diary update.

Of course I broke the back of my 40k gamerscore target the other day, and last night saw me finishing off Hour of Victory (well finished in terms of what I consider done, done and done).  And in finishing off HoV I grabbed another 205GS last night and moved my overall score to 40,295.

Hour of Victory was one of those *shrugs shoulders* okay’ish games, and poor in comparison to the likes of Call of Duty 2, but I completed the offline campaign just to see if I could and as such have considered the game untouchable now.  Multiplayer was okay but it had nothing that made me want to go back for more.  So… HoV was traded in today with me walking away with ‘Call of Juarez’.

Never played a Western/Cowboy type game and while I see CoJ receiving mixed reviews - as always, I will leave that “it’s hot” -or- “oh dear Lord, it’s not” for my brain to decide later.

Boys and their Toys

I went round to see the boys at their mum’s house last night as it was their birthday… and well got treated to nearly an hour of the boys playing away on their new shiney DS Lites.

The boys have a Nintendo GBA each but they had really wanted a DS Lite from day one, and well they got one each this year and their little faces were full of big cheesy grins.

They have around 4 games each already, and bless them wanted to play the game I had bought them (Fantastic Four: ROTSS) and for me to jump in every now and again to give them a hand.

I have to say the DS Lite impresses me and I have considered getting one, many times over… but then it would probably end up like my PSP… unused and passed on (PSP is now Alison’s toy).  Still… having messed with my Dad’s the other day, (I bought him one for Fathers Day) and with the boys last night - I do have that DS itch again.

Happy 8th Birthday Boys

Today my two boys are a whopping big eight-years-old, and to avoid confusion, yep I have twin boys.

Alison and I saw them opening their presents from us on Monday as Ali would not get any chance to see them opening them today as they are with their mum today.  The boys loved their presents, namely; New Movie Transformers Figures, Ben 10 Figures, Knex Building Sets and DS Lite game (Fantastic Four).  And today I am going to mooch over to their house to see what else they got for their birthday which includes their new Nintendo DS Lite. 

I don’t usually get to see them on a Wednesday, but today being a special day I am chuffed to bits to be spending some extra time with them this week.