Gun weight

Reviewers often talk about gun weight and other movement parameters when dealing with FPS games. Until recently I had never paid too much attention to it, however in the last few days it has become very apparent how different this can make the immersion in games.

I've played the demo for Killzone 3, and played several other FPS's (Black-Ops, Battlefield, Medal of Honor) in the past week and am greatly impressed with Guerilla studios latest output. The weighty weapons feel heavy and the pistols feel whip-able creating a great sense of reality in how the player moves about the virtual world.

I have yet to try the game with Move and a sharpshooter but that coupling may well further increase that feeling.


sent from iPhone

DLC Prices

Just this February the sequel to Star Wars: The Force Unleashed was released, shortly followed by DLC. The price of each... £0.79!!!

Amazing value considering the size of the files. Just 20p more than an average iPhone game for an extension of gameplay and some extra costumes.

My gripe however comes from the fact that the DLC for the older game still remains at £7.99 for each mission (of which there are three), and 2 costume packs @ £3.99!!! In all that is the price of a new game at RRP!

Surely there should come a point where DLC should be permanently reduced!

Who is with me!

sent from iPhone

Homefront: The Voice of Freedom

After 4 nights in a lab and a few minutes today I have just finished reading the accompanying book to the upcoming THQ shooter set in Korean occupied USA from the year 2025.

The read was good, though lacking in the kind of action one would expect from a book accompanying an FPS. This book is not an adaptation but rather a human story based in world that frames the game. There is action but it is somewhat pedestrian, however this does play to the books strength as it follows the journey of a normal guys rise to being a prominent Resistance force and general pain in the Korean occupiers ass.

It will be interesting to play through Homefront and see if anything from The Voice of Freedom permeates into the narrative. With so little known about the locations, protagonist and antagonist (aside from a unified Korea) of Homefront it is a release that is high on my intrigue list.

I would certainly recommend the book to anyone that enjoys a good story, and especially a good human story. The plot is easy to follow and the structure is standard (3 acts), and this makes for an enjoyable experience. The climax was a little predictable and you had a myriad of stereotypes thrown in throughout but as I said before it does leave a lot to be found out by playing the game.

So... With that in mind I look forward to THAT experience very shortly!

sent from iPhone

Playstation Trophy Limits???

Hmm... Just noticed that some of my games aren't showing online when I sign into the PS3 app or on the uk.playstation.com account pages.

They still exist on my account when I look on my PS3 however... weird!

I can only assume that because I haven't played them in a while they aren't showing up, or that therer is a limit on the number of games you can have displaying on the account pages/ app and that this is limited to the games most recently played.

Thankfully it does mean that I can't see Street Fighter IV anymore but the likes of Dead Space and Mirrors Edge are sorely missed.

Annoying LoveFILM

I queued up both Resitance: Fall of Man and Resistance 2 for rental and they only went and sent Resistance 2 first!!! No common sense or it is all automated.

No matter - as much as I hate to buy used games I managed to buy Resistance: Fall of Man from a private seller on Amazon for only £3 including delivery... Now just need to blitz through that as quick as possible so I can give Resistance 2 a run for it's money before sending that back.

Is Mass Effect 2 the best RPG...

So I've been getting about an hours game time in every night this week and have made okay progress with Mass Effect 2 and can't help but think that the designers really thought long and hard about what is and isn't fun in an RPG.

Fallout 3, New Vegas and Borderlands are fun but have the annoyance of physical space restricting your load out. This is true of many a standard RPG, however the only limits experienced so far in Mass Effect 2 is on your chosen weapons which are limited to four. Everything else (ammo, schematics, healing kits) is neatly tucked away in cyberspace on your wrist.

This works for the games setting but wouldn't translate well to other RPG's. So this means that sci-fi had a perfect place from which to balance the RPG scales. Whether any other sci-fi RPG's are planned or not I don't know but Mass Effect 2 is certainly a stand out in my books as working the environment into the mechanics perfectly.

Picking up RPG's on the fly

So last time I did a sleep study I popped home every day after work for a bit and played some games. Last times game of choice was Dragon Age: Origins, a Bioware RPG.

This time around I am filling the time with Mass Effect 2, another Bioware RPG. Strange!

Whether it is the fact that I know these games are epic and should be done in small parts, or the fact that quests are easier to set aside than FPS bulletstorms on the battlefield I don't know.

What I do know is that both these games need a lot more of my attention once I can afford it... And I'm not one to deny them!

Location:CIU, University of Surrey

Sleep study with Homefront

So this Monday will see the start of a week long stint where I shall have a bed time, get woken up in the night to be bled, and abstain from the wonders of gaming... This is in the name of science and is not some strange rehab clinic I can assure you.

My companions during this time will be the shiny iPhone in my possession and the new novel that supplements the upcoming game "Homefront".

I've read a fair few novelisations that both expand upon and reiterate the story lines of popular games, as far back as Resident Evil (which spawned 6 books), right up to the recent Assassins Creed books and comics in fact.

I'm hoping to finish the book during the week so will let you know if it any good. So remember... Home is where the war is!