Pagoda of Gaming

Summer’s here. And whilst it’ll be good to get a couple of weeks off, I’ll still have to suffer through months of my nose dripping mucus like a broken tap, often unbearable heat, and see fucking kids running about rubbing my face in there obscene amounts of free time.

At least there’s some sweet games coming out…

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July 2010

There a nice swathe of titles this month – not too many, not to little.

APB is already out, and I’ll be checking it out good and proper now that I have the capabilities to play it on high settings.

Battlefield 1943 is coming out for the PC and I suggest that anyone who missed it check it out. It isn’t quite Bad Company 2 as far as scope – but it’s probably the best WW2 Multiplayer I’ve ever played in a VERY long time. I might pick it up again if this version offers more maps.

Crackdown 2 hits on the same day and I’ll be picking it up for sure – the demo convinced me of that, though I’ll be holding off on playing it until I’ve completed my new experiment. The same goes for the Alan Wake DLC, which is hopefully the first of many more, and hopefully is as full of narrative as the main game is.

Lastly there’s the game that’s going to end Korean productivity, and hopefully some of mine. Starcraft 2’s finally coming out, and not only is it hitting the week I’m on holiday, luckily for me I’ve already preordered that ridiculous Collectors Edition.

Limbo looks amazing – though there isn’t a solid date, it is part of Xbox’s Summer of Arcade deals, so it should come out within the next 4 weeks. GiantBomb did a Quick Look of the game right HERE, you should check it out.

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August 2010

Super slim pickings this month. I’m not even sure if I’ll get either of these titles – I’ll have to wait for the reviews to come out first.

Thankfully, Starcraft should keep us all busy, and failing that – there’s always WoW.

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September 2010

I’m not 100% sure if I’ll be into Dead Rising 2 yet – it looks cool, but I was severly burned by it’s extreme Japanese-ness last time round. But I do like what Capcom’s doing with Case Zero. It’s basically a 3+hour prologue to the main game, bridging the gap between the first title and introducing the mechanics and some of the story for the second. I hope it does alright, because I’d like to see other games give this a go.

And I suppose we should call the 14th the beginning of the Winter Rush, starting with Halo Reach – which I am eagerly anticipating. It’s really the Campaign I want to get into here, and then again on Legendary

Rounding off this quarter is a bunch of sweet looking downloadable games (these might actually be out sooner than September – I couldn’t find hard dates). Blacklight has a bit of a Battlefield 2142 meets Modern Warfare 2 vibe going for it, and I’m all for that – I’m hoping that it has the Battlefield 1943 Effect.

Sonic is back – and it’ll be interesting to see if the ‘Hog can resurrect his franchise again – but this is the last chance he get’s right? If he can’t make it back in his 2D home front then there’s no hope for him. Also take note that this is the first “Episode” of Sonic 4, so you know that Sega’s going beat the shit out of this horse until we’re all sick of it… and then keep going anyway.

Shank looks cool, and that’s all I really know about it to say – no, I’d say it looks very cool.

And finally there’s more Alan Wake DLC, which leaves a nice gap between the first.

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And that’s it for the summer – and you know that next quarter it’s just going to be utter Mayhem with christmas  and the crazy American holidays just round the corner. But for now let us enjoy what’s looking to be a solid summer of multiplayer action.

Until then, I’m off to enjoy my Sunday – I got Counterstrike Source, TF2 and APB Downloaded yesterday for my PC, so I’m sorted.

*instrumentals*

It’s officially the Second Quarter of the year, as it is also officially the last chunk of holiday time I’m going to get until fucking August. It’s been a fine little break for me, but it’s not as long as I would like. But what about this coming quarter? Well It’s not looking good. As always, release date tracking is provided by Eurogamer.

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April 2010

Yep, April is looking to be the slowest month of the year. I don’t actually care for either of these titles, but I had to put something down.

PS3 and PC owners should note that on the 16th, GTA4: Episodes from Liberty City are set for release on those platforms. If you haven’t played either of those episodes (The Lost and the Damned, The Ballad of Gay Tony) I give them a full endorsement – they’ll probably be the best things you’ll play this month.

I’m glad that April is going to be pretty slow – frankly I need that cash, and I’m on a WoW and Bad Company high right now that I don’t think will go away any time soon.

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May 2010

That’s a bit more like it May. Though the only title I’m really Jonesing for this month is Alan Wake – and I’ve already got that Special Edition on Pre-order. And it isn’t out until the 21st – so from today (04/04) There isn’t anything coming out for 7 weeks! My wallet is happy tears.

All the other titles, I’m going to have to wait to hear some review scores, and I don’t really know anything much about them anyway.

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June 2010

Well I guess June is officially the lamest month of the year. Even taking into account the titles that have been confirmed for Q2, but not given a solid date, June is an utter failure.

Well I suppose there’s that Left 4 Dead 2 DLC, but I still haven’t what the game has offered up so far.

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Ouch. I guess we’ll be spending much of this quarter picking up titles we missed, or keep on flogging away at our various MMO’s.

Hopefully this means I’ll have a little more time or drive to get some blogging in. With barely nothing hitting the shelves, now is the perfect time to get down and build some Magic Decks. The second part of The Metal should be hitting either later today or some time early next week.

I’ve got my third attempt at the Driving Theory this coming Saturday, so I really shouldn’t be playing much of anything starting tomorrow. So yeah, don’t expect any new posts or even Tweets next week – it’s going to suck ass.

Thankfully, the weekend after I’ll be hitting Fundee all Pre-release style for Rise of the Eldrazi, and all the other wonderful hi-jinks that comes with it.

But for now I’m off to Azeroth for a while. Get me some Gems for my Priest’s first  full set of PVE Gear. I also got my Deathknight and my little Rogue transferred over to Sporregar last night! So long Argent Dawn!

listen boy

Here we are again, it’s Quarterly Incoming!!! that new feature on the blog that I nearly forget to write about. This quarter is looking to be pretty great - lots of titles evenly spread out to the point that there’ll be something new out every fortnight. I weep with anticipation whereas my wallet simply weeps. As always, release date tracking is provided by Eurogamer.
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January

This year, January’s a pretty good month. There’s only one title in that list that I’m not entirely sold on - and it’s Dark Void. I saw Giantbomb’s Quick Look the other day, and I think I’ll have to wait for reviews to see if I go for it. Bayonetta and Darksiders are both already in my possession and I intend to indulge sometime today. Despite the original’s flaws, what I’ve seen of Mass Effect 2 looks amazing. But January’s icing on the cake comes in the form of Plants Vs Zombies for the iPhone - I’ll be there as soon as it hits the iTunes Store, whenever that may be.

As for MAG - I played some of the Open Beta yesterday, and I can say - I’m pretty damn impressed. I experienced No Lag in 64 player games, and I played pretty well too once I got a little used to the controls. But the game feels really old - like it were a FPS from the early days of the PS2. It’s simply a case of ‘feel’ and feedback when it comes to the shooting and a couple of odd choices regarding the button layout. I’ll talk a bit more at the end of the post.

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Febuary

For me, the only sure thing on this list is Bioshock 2 - fun fact: If I had put down the name of every developer under 2K games that worked on Bioshock 2 for the game in the table - it would’ve broke the table. Dante’s Inferno and AvP’s purchase will hinge solely on Review scores. The same kinda goes for Star Trek Online, I’m really worried for the game, or anything that comes out of Cryptic for that matter. Not to mention that it’s been pretty atrocious how they’re riding the hype train super hard, there’s a new video or batch of screenshots every week, and yet we know next to nothing about the game. Heavy Rain is my final choice for the month - I’ve been playing through Quantic Dream’s last title “Farenheight” (or “Indigo Prophecy” if you’re not european) and it’s a pretty unique title, if Heavy Rain comes back and fixes some of the studios decisions regarding Farenheight it should be pretty great. And after the awesome that was Assasin’s Creed 2 and from what we saw at E3, Splinter Cell: Conviction is a Must Buy.

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March

I’ve been slowly jonesing for a Battlefield fix ever since I stopped 1943 at the end of august last year - Bad company 2 should fix that - and it’s probably the title that I’m most excited for this month. FF13 is a game I will most certainly play, but I’m in little ways excited for it - you know, actually, I’m really excited to see how they’ll fuck up the achievement lists. The same kinda goes for God of War 3 - I don’t really hold the same reverence everyone else has for the game, but assuredly I’ll be there day 1. The Chaos Rising expansion is something I’m not sure I’ll have the time or the patience to go through with, and rounding off the month is Yakuza 3 & 4 - games I have only heard whispers about, and I think I understand that the premisce is something like Shenmue meets GTA minus the Autos, and that alone has me interested.
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I really hate Sony’s Dualshock controllers - this fact came to light once again during the time I’ve spent with the MAG beta this weekend. My most hated parts of these controllers: the sticks and the shoulder buttons - both of which the beautiful 360 controller has without flaw. But I think I’ve found an answer - instead of just waiting for sony or some third party to market a better PS3 controller, why not just use the 360 one instead? The XCM Cross Battle Adapter 2.0 (now with rumble support and button switching!) lets you plug a wired 360 controller right into the PS3 and have it just work. You can see a video of it in action HERE. I’ll be finding out just how well it works, and telling you all about it, sometime this month, when I go get mine.

I didn’t really post alot during my holiday break, and that was certainly my intention. I did alot of stuff, and I dont think I have the room or the time to fit it all onto the Blog, so here are the cliffnotes. I went to see Avatar and I really liked it. I saw Daybreakers and it was… ok, but there were alot of problems I had with the overarching vampire lore and cure for vampirism they came up with. I saw Sherlock Holmes and it was really freaking good. I ate Sushi twice from YoSushi in Aberdeen and I intend to go back many more times. I had my second Driving Theory test yesterday, which I wasn’t allowed to take because I forgot that dumb slip of paper that came with my provisional liscence. And I slept, alot.

As for games, I got through most of Farenheight and I intend to finish it soon. It’s a really unique adventure game, and despite some of it’s odd design choices it’s got a great story behind it. It’s a really old game, so I think my words here might fly over your heads a bit so maybe I’ll put up a proper review once I finish it. My PC upgrades went well - except I bought 4GB too much RAM, no-one mentioned to me that a 32-bit OS only works with 4GB max of RAM. The upgrade is noticable, but The PC still can’t run some games as smoothly as I’d like it too, which makes me think that I’ll be aiming for a new full system alot sooner than I anticipated. And of course, as I predicted, I resubbed to WoW - I forgot how utterly satisfying a game it is to play. Currently I’m leveling up my Deathknight ‘Ichimaru’ through Northrend and I started a new Rogue called ‘Tatsumasa’ also on Argent Dawn. It’s a class that I’ve never played before (not counting druid cat-cat) and it feels really different. Hopefully I’ll get him up to a pretty decent level before the expansion - and with the changes they’ve made to the game for low level players it shouldn’t be too tasking. I mean, I get a freaking mount at level 20 for christs sake!

In future news, I’ll be hitting Fundee the 29th to the 31st for the Worldwake Prerelease and the usual Fundonian hyjinks. I’ll probably get back to doing some proper blogging soon too - atleast once a week, but that all depends on how interesting my life gets, and these days it usually hits “not very” on the scale. Well that’s all for now, I’m off to play some Darksiders, Bayonetta and a little more of the MAG beta before it ends on monday. Until next time!

Trading in my god for this one

Yes, another new feature. Atleast with this one, I don’t have to write it every week, and you don’t have to read it every week. This is totally the Blog’s THREE-HUNDREDTH-POST. Yey me and my insignificant perseverance! Let’s not look back at the gigantic downfall my life has taken since I started this Blog. Nay, let us look into the next paragraph and thus onto the future. Fat Penis.

So an interesting thing occured to me this week at work whilst I was doing mindless repetative task #1, I actually have no idea what is still coming out this Pwnmas. Those “Spring 2010″ delays that are in effect really threw a curveball at me. So I figure I should analyse the rest of the christmas catalogue on the Blog in order to become stabalised once again. Three Months, One Quarter, One Ever Changing Release List, EQUALS SIGN DIVIDER GOOOO!!!! (But to clarify, these are the games that I am interested in, hence the lack of Wii titles and sports games)
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The Rest Of September

The game we’ve already had this month is Arkham Asylum, and it is fucking amazing - but we’re not back-to-the-futureing here, hence it’s not on the list. WET came out on friday, but after playing the demo a couple of weeks ago, I’m going to avoid it at all costs. I found it to be a really ugly, messy game that causes physical repulsion when played - but that’s just my opinion. I’m glad that there’s a Layton sequal, but I haven’t finished the first one yet (I realise my fault there) so no second course for me. Maybe I can play some more of the first one whilst I mine shit in EVE.

I’m naming Halo 3: ODST as my pick of the month - I’m just really excited for this game’s release. I know that some people plainly don’t get the haloes, but I consider myself a fan - though unrabid. For myself and many, Halo was the reason to buy an Xbox, and since then we’ve played many many more excellent games. But for us, a Halo release is an event, and we allow ourselves to be pulled in by the marketing and hype, and we recieve an experience from that has yet to dissapoint. Staring at the Halo 3 poster on my wall, I salute Bungie, and prepare myself to drop next tuesday.

As a side note: isn’t it fucking weird that ODST is hitting on a Tuesday? weird. Also, I just preordered.
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Rocktober

It’s been years since there’s been a South Park game, and that’s easily explained, considering the nature of previous titles. But I respect Matt and Trey too much to not notice this game. It could be good, and a free trial should solve the mystery.
I mentioned on a previous blog post that I really liked the Tropico 3 demo, but I think I’d need to be on holiday or something to really have time to dedicate to the game - So I’m not rushing out to get it, but maybe in the future. The game will also be released on Steam.
I’m reasonably underwhelmed by Borderland’s presentation so far, but the Giant Bomb crew have had positive feelings towards previews of the game, so I’ll have to wait for a review to sway my purchasing decision.
Uncharted 2 should be better than the Original - that I have yet to finish due to “GIANT BRICK WALL OF HARDNESS, let’s go play something on the Xbox instead“. From what I recieved from the Multiplayer beta is that they’ve made a game beyond the last, fixing some of the shortcomings of the original, and added in a multiplayer experience on par with most Xbox Live enabled titles.
Not much to say about the Ballad of Gay Tony, other than I’m going to be fabulously there on day 1. If Lost and the Damned was anything to go by, this should be even awesomer than the original disk game. I think both the DLC adventures are going to be released on the PS3 this month too, and I urge PS3 owners to pick them up.
I mention Fallout 3 as it is a Game of the Year edition, full of every piece of DLC content they’ve released for the game. So if you havent got my personal choise for game of the year 2008 yet, now would be the time to do so. Again, I believe this is coming out on the PS3 in the same month, complete with the DLC’s and new Trophy Support.
Sadly I never really got into Little Big Planet, though I fully endorse the ideal the game represents. Putting it on the PSP may be a way to bring it to a wider audience, especially when the PSPGo is hitting shelves. I won’t be there, but I’ll be keeping my eye on this one.

My pick of the Month for Rocktober is the game that has dubbed the month so. I hope, in total sincerity, that Brutal Legend sells trillions of copies and makes Tim Schafer a rich motherfucker. So rich that he can afford to turn himself into a game making cyborg that can simply output games from his crazy-masterful mind via USB. Or, just enough to allow Double Fine another AAA title.
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Modernwarvember

I don’t know anyone who wouldn’t be playing Modern Warfare 2 this month. Hence it is my completely obvious pick of the month. I’m seriously considering obtaining 2 copies for the game, one for the X-Box (and the achievements and the nice HDTVness) and one for the PC, so like Fallout 3, it may come wherever I go, and so I can play with people who are not blessed with a 360. There was a tonn of info on Multiplayer that dropped in the last week, THIS should sum it up for you.

I’m on the edge about getting DJHero. It’s a £90 game via amazon, and that’s the price of MW2 and Brutal Legend put together, but there’s just something about it that has my brain hooked on it, and Daft Punk. I missed out on any Music game action last year altogether - the Burn I recieved from Rock Bands EU release has hurt me for life, but maybe I should get back on the saddle, depending on how good santa is to my bank account that is.

Left 4 Dead 2 is a known quantity of a purchase so much that I have basically pre-pre-ordered it. I need no previews, and I need no Reviews. Give me a date and a price and I’ll be there. Interestingly, I’m thinking about getting a 360 copy, If I can on the cheap. XBox Live seems like a good place for the game.

Assasin’s Creed 2, I don’t really know what to say. The last game left a bit of a bad taste in my mouth with it’s weird and often unneccesary gameplay mechanics and it’s more unneccesary collection quests. Maybe those crazy french canadians have had enough time and funding to fix those previous problems. As a side note, how do you think the game looks compared to the last? from the videos I’ve seen it looks like it’s received a bit of a graphical downgrade.
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Deadcember

Yeah… 1 title. I suppose December is where the desperate developers will release their undated games. There’s just The Saboteur, but despite it’s somewhat uniqueness (think Assasin’s Creed + Hitman * Nazis) and Inglorious Basterdsness, I think I’m beyond over WW2 games.

There’s a good chance we’ll all still be playing MW2 this month anyway, and on our 3rd prestige run.
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Have You Seen These Release Dates?

These game’s were slated for release in 2009 but have yet to show face. We’ve heard next to nothing about each of these titles, except the God of War collection, but aslong as that’s out before III we shouldn’t be gushing for it. The APB beta is probably (yes, just the Beta) is probably my most sought after of all of these. I yearn for that game so much. Why don’t you check out this new gameplay trailer(HD +Fullscreen For The Win):

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So that’s it. Despite all the delays til next year, this should be a fun packed Pwnmas afterall. So what are you guys looking forward to playing? And what is on your Santa wishlist?

Before I go, I actually have a rather pressing question. My PC monitor broke a couple of weeks ago (somewhat mysteriously) and I’ve been looking to get another one - once my bank account fills up a bit. I don’t really use it much, since the Nintop provides better everything than my old dreadnaught of a PC. But I miss the Dual Screening I used to get with my Laptop and hooking it up to my TV is somewhat uncomfortable. So my question: Where’s a good place to get a new Monitor online. I’ve had a look at some of Amazon’s offerings, but if there is a place my adoring public can reccomend that can give me something cheaper that’d be great. I found THIS on amazon, and that’s what I might end up getting if I don’t get a suggestion.

Join me in Deadcember as I analyse the releases of spring 2010. Next post - watch as I make some demonic pacts with cards and stuff. You can also scroll down to the previous post too to bask in the overwhelmingness of a 4000 word text on Flash Bear MTG deckbuilding tactics. If you’re into that sort of thing.

And you can’t explain why you claimed your cat