SATURDAY RAGE!

The one element of online shopping that I hate is when something goes missing in the post...correction, when someone somewhere along the line helps themselves to the item or items that you have ordered.  You see, nothing really goes missing in the post unless there is no address label attached or the incorrect postage amount has been applied.  In most cases when it comes to the latter, the post office will send a card to the sender requesting they apply the correct postage in stamps which is then popped back into the post and on it goes.

I recently ordered something from a major online retailer.  Now I order many items from this store and never has the item arrived without an clear address label and as it is part of an automated process it is hard to imagine the label not actually being applied to the parcel prior to posting.  Of course others may have an alternative view on this, but I can only go from my own experiences.

Anyway, the problem is that it hasn't arrived by the estimated arrival date which was today.  Now experience tells me that this item will not arrive anytime soon or not at all as it was despatched on the 4th October and as far as I can tell, the mail service in the UK does not have a service which takes 4 days to deliver, though of course I could be mistaken, but that is certainly not what is advertised in the local post offices.

Even allowing for a slight delay the estimated time of arrival is usually given to mean the very last day you can expect deliver under normal circumstances.  Well we are under normal circumstances and it is not here.  This is not the first time this has happened.  I am still awaiting delivery of Stranglehold for the PS3 which I ordered about three or four years ago now.  No doubt that provided a nice Christmas prezzie for someone.  I hope the fucking disc got scratched and blew their bastard console up!

The thing is, where does the blame lay with?  In my opinion the postage company.  Why?  Well, what sense would it make for the online store to tell me they had sent something that they hadn't?  If the item fails to arrive then they have to issue a replacement or a refund so it is hardly in their best interests to lie to their customers.

However where these online stores don't function is when it comes to none delivery.  If we accept that their estimated delivery date allows for delays then why do I have to wait a further 10 days before I can ask for a refund or replacement?  Just what do they expect is going to happen in those 10 days?  I miraculous change of heart from the criminal who stole the package?  Hardly, and what if the item was ordered specifically for a birthday or some other occasion?  That means that I would have to go out and buy the same said item again from the high street - probably pay more - then have to wait to get my money back for the item that never arrived, leaving me out of pocket for at least 15 days.  That is hardly fair is it?

It might be 'policy' but it is wrong.  If an item does not arrive by the estimated arrival date then you should have the right to cancel and get a full refund.  If the mail service is not good enough in this country (which it isn't by the way) then these large companies that effectively finance the mail firm should start to apply pressure in order to get a better service.  After all it is their customers who are let down.

Incoherent rant over.

AND THERE WAS ONE

I know it had to happen, but there is a great sadness seeing Paul Scholes and Gary Neville retiring this season.  Both have been Manchester United legends and simply they are irreplaceable.  I don't mean that ability wise they cannot be replaced, but in terms of the loyalty and dedication that they have shown to the club it will be nigh on impossible to find players in the transfer market that will show such loyalty.

I don't mean this as a slight against any other players out there, but it is simply a statement of truth.  These days loyalty always comes at a price and to expect to sign players that are not necessarily Manchester United fans and expect them to show the same loyalty to the club as Scholes and Neville have down the years is unreasonable.

The only player left from the class on 1992 is Ryan Giggs.  There is no doubting Giggs's legendary status but at the age of 37 he probably only has one season - two at the very maximum - left in him.  When he goes that is it.  The backbone of Fergie's successful side will be gone and the future success of the club will be down to players like Darren Fletcher, John O'Shea, Wes Brown and so on to carry on flying the flag for young players coming through the club.  There are other players like Darron Gibson, Tom Cleverly and Danny Welbeck to carry on the tradition of the club, but this means stepping up to a whole new level and it remains to be seen as to whether they can do that.  I for one hope they do.

What is clear is that Sir Alex will have to go into the transfer market in order to resolve the issues of the midfield and goal keeper.  The key question will be just how much money are the Glazer family going to allow Fergie to spend?  There is no doubt that the club cannot spend on cheap prospects in order to fill the gaps.

In any event it is going to be an interesting summer and perhaps the most important one for the club in recent years.

NEW BLOG JUST FOR GAMING

I decided to set up a new blog that was just for the purposes of gaming and a place to link my You Tube reviews to.  I know that I have been doing it on this blog for sometime now, but I decided that I wanted to split them apart.  I will still be keeping this one going for none gaming stuff but I felt that it was easier for me to have a pure gaming blog as I am now a writer for the Real Otaku Gamer site and I wanted a place where people who follow me can go to without having to wade through any none gaming stuff.

I have set up a link to my other blog in the top left corner of this page along with other cool websites that I hope you will check out.

Like I say, I am not closing down this blog at all, but from now on it will have other stuff apart from gaming on here.

Thanks

Aidy

PSN RETURNS...LESSONS LEARNED

So the PSN should be back for the majority of people in the US and Europe by now, with the rest of the world being rolled out today.  After some three weeks of waiting and cursing Sony, the wait is finally over, at least for the online gaming aspect of the service.  There are still major features that have yet to return such as the Store.

The important thing is that the online gaming service is back and ready to roll.

One can only hope that Sony have learned their lesson in the past three weeks, because it has been the lowest ebb in the Playstation brands history.  Sony showed their naivety and frailty and their shortcomings were exploited.  It is surely the case that this has been remedied to the best of their abilities, or any other companies ability for that matter.  Make no mistake, it will take some time for this to blow over for Sony and there can be little doubt that consumer confidence in the Playstation brand will have taken a hit.  The size of the hit depends on how forgiving the general public are.

What must be pointed out is there will have been some good in what happened to Sony.  It would take a remarkable naive person to believe that Sony are the only company out there who have customers personal details in a relatively unprotected state.  There will have been a number of companies frantically trying to remedy their shortcomings in the past three weeks as well, fearful that a hack may be directed at them.

Whereas Sony have been the fall guys, it is important to know that they will not be the last company to suffer such a breach.

Although it has taken a long time to get the PSN back online, it does show how seriously Sony have taken this breach and how dedicated they are to resolving the matter.  The whys and wherefores of whether this attack should have happened and the lack of Sony's data protection has been debated to death on the Internet.  It is time to but that aside and get on with the business of playing games again.

My only hope is that Sony have learned their lessons and that they also realize that constant lines of communication to their customers is vitally important as well.  Being met with a wall of silence was one of the worst aspects of this whole drama and it is clear that Sony need to sort out their PR and fast at is was shambolic to say the least. 

If the public forgive Sony this time, they will certainly not be so charitable in the future.

INDIE GAMING

During the past few weeks Chelle has been drawing my attention to the many excellent Indie Developed games that are available on X Box Live Indie Games.

I must confess that I hadn't really paid much attention to this section of the Game Marketplace before, being more the kind of gamer that tends to be attracted to the nice shiny thing being dangled out there waiting for me to pay small fortune for.  Thankfully, Chelle is a much more well versed gamer than I am and she has quickly opened my eyes to this often ignored world and it's many gems contained therein.

One of the great things about the XBLIG is that, like the Arcade titles, you can access a free trial of each game available even though the normal price of a game is 80 points which hardly represents a risk when it comes to purchasing a title.  There is really no excuse to not check out an Indie game.

I am still a relative noob to the Indie game scene but I am already being drawn into playing these titles, allocating nearly as much time as I have for the major game releases.  What each game represents is a labour of love whereby the developers are giving their all into a project that is not designed to be commercialized in anyway.  It takes me back to the days when I first started out gaming on the likes of the VIC 20 and Commodore 64 whereby games were developed by individuals or very small teams of people whose primary interest was to create something fun and addictive to play.

It is all about taking simple concepts and making something worthwhile playing, addictive, and something that captures the primary essence of what gaming was all about when it was in it's infancy.  With so much attention being placed on technical achievement with games these days it's hardly surprising that the fun element tends to take a hit.

Amongst the games I am current playing are:

Decimation X and X3 by Xona games.  These are essentially a beefed up take on Space Invaders but both are hugely addictive and bring back that feel of wanting to beat your last score.  Fast and frenetic I usually find myself having a go on these first thing in the morning whilst my reflexes are at their sharpest!   

Inflamous by Milkstone Studios S.L. which is a great little game where the objective is to set everyone on fire in an office.  Not only is it a good laugh but it also a great stress reliever!

Crossfire 2 by Radian Games is a great shooter where the objective is to destroy wave after wave of enemy ships but in order to do so you must use a jump feature which sends your ship from the bottom of the screen to the top and vice versa.  The game is so addictive and fun to play and it gets really manic as the levels progress.

Epic Dungeon is an awesome RPG style game but very old school with a nod to the original Legend of Zelda.  It is compelling and easy to play and sports a real 8-bit pixel style that takes me back to the type of games I used to play as a kid.  It is also ruthless.  When you die, that is it back to the very start just like the old games used to be!

Finally I want to make mention of a series of games that cost a little more than the standard Indie games but is frankly one of the most interesting and compelling games I have played for some time.  Decay released in four parts by Shining Gate Software.  This is a puzzle based game but is very creepy and tense with it's fair share of scares.  The first episode weighs in at the usual 80 points but the subsequent 3 are priced at 240 points.  Believe me it is well worth it.  What is brilliant is that with each episode you can see that the developers are implementing new ideas and techniques to make the game better.  Please check out this brilliant review that Chelle did which will explain more about the game than I can:  http://realotakugamer.com/games-you-slept-on-decay-for-xbl-indie-games

You see, there is a whole world of gaming out there that does not cost the Earth and believe me when I say that me just highlighting the ones I have come across on XBLIG does not even scratch the surface as to what is out there.  If you are prepared to do a little digging around on the internet, you will find many places where games can be found, some available free of charge.

The next time you feel ripped off by paying top dollar for a game that lasted 4 hours, why not check out what Indie games there are out there to play?  You will be pleasantly surprised as to what is out there.

THANKS FOR NOTHING SONY

So, Sony finally revealed their amazing compensation package to their customers this week and at face value it might seem very generous.  One months free access to PSN+, a choice of two free games from a list of five for the PS3 and a list of four for PSP users.  There is also the hint of one years free access to an identity protection scheme.

All that is wonderful, I suppose, but it seems to be a cautious offer if you ask me.

First up the offer of the PSN+ one months free access to current and non PSN+ subscribers.  Well this is a flawed gift if you already have PSN+ because we have pretty much lost a months access to that anyway so it is not a gift but rather compensation for a service we have paid for and not had access to!  This was a great point that Chelle made to me yesterday that by the time the PSN will finally be back up, the 30 days will have all but been used up!  I suppose if you are none subscriber this seems like a great offer but again it's a bit of a kick in the teeth to those who have already forked out money for the service.

Then we come to the matter of the games.  This is where companies like Sony get really clever.  On the surface, it seems like an amazingly generous offer.  Two free games from a selection of titles, but there is the rub.  A selection of titles.  Make no mistake, Sony know all the games you play.  They have data (no doubt awaiting to be stolen at some point) on the number of consoles out there and the games being used on them.  Since, in this instance, PS3 users who do use their console online are not affected by the outage they don't factor into the equation.

From this, you can guarantee that the games offered will be ones that have sold well already, thus minimizing the effective loss on offering these free games.  It's very clever but an extremely back handed way of offering compensation.  To put it another way, what do you do if you already own the games on the list?  Download your free offer and trade in the one you already own so you can get an insultingly low price for it?  Gee, thanks Sony!  There is simply no reason that Sony cannot compensate customers properly by adding the cash equivalent via a code so you can add those funds to your PSN store wallet to use as you want to.  That should be how it is done, not some back handed offer of free games from a carefully selected list designed to do nothing more than minimize their financial exposure even more.

Now, don't get me wrong, I am not going to turn this blog into a weekly bash at Sony, but for me video gaming is an important part of my life and the PS3 plays a huge role in that.  As a customer of Sony I think it only fair that I and all the other customers be treated fairly.  At the moment, all I see is a corporation looking minimize the effect this whole sorry affair will have on it's bottom line and that is something I don't think is right.

SONGS WITH MEANING

I was going to write another blog today, but as I tend to write stuff that is largely shit and boring I thought I would post a couple of music videos that currently mean a lot to me.

The 1st one sums up what I think it is like to be in love with someone completely that they are so amazing:



The 2nd one is one of my favourite songs of all time - Look at You by the Screaming Trees:



I promise to fix this excitement with a regular dose of random rambling bullshit for my next entry.

NINTEN-DO

OK, OK it was a corny title, but I really cannot wait to see what the new Nintendo console will be when it is unveiled at E3 this year.

There is no doubt in my mind that Nintendo continue to be the one to watch.  If one takes aside the Game Cube which wasn't quite the failure that many people say was, Nintendo has the most impressive track record of all the current crop of console manufacturers.  This success has not been based on copying what others do, but rather by doing things the Nintendo way which is to simply do their own thing.

Even with the perceived failure of the Game Cube, Nintendo wisely turned it around by making the basic architecture the heart of the mega-successful Wii.  Has any console manufacturer ever done that and made a successful console.  They have successfully cornered the hand held market even in light of serious competition from Sony with their underrated PSP and not to mention the advent of mobile gaming in the form of the iPod/iPhone and iPad.

Nintendo have not panicked like other companies might have.  Instead they have launched the 3DS, a brilliant piece of technology that could well revolutionize gaming.  The successful implementation of 3D is certainly food for thought for it's competitors.

Already the internet is alive with speculation as to the capabilities of Nintendo's new console.  The reality may be some way off the mark that many think but there is little doubt in my mind that Nintendo will once again release a console that will be successful and will bring something new to the table.

Not only is it about the product, but also the timing.  Both Sony and Microsoft have hinted that their new consoles maybe a couple of years off so Nintendo may be able to steal a march on them, not that they need to if the release of the Wii was anything to go by.

In any event, I am really looking forward to seeing what they have come up with and I await the release of their new console.  I just hope that it proves to be another success for Nintendo as they remain the only company that really understands gamers.

POST DRAGON AGE 2 THOUGHTS

No, this is not a full blown review as such but rather some thoughts that I have regarding Dragon Age 2 now that I have finally finished the game.

First up, as to be expected for an RPG, it is quite a long game.  Admittedly I was not rushing through the game but it did take me some 50 or so hours to complete it.  The quests whilst varied and in places challenging were somewhat lackluster for want of a better word, but I will come to the reason for that soon enough.

The actual game itself is very good.  I would not have put 50 hours of effort into something that I did not like, but for some reason it was not quite the satisfying experience that the first game was.  There are plenty of quests to do as I have mentioned already and it does follow the same formula as the original game but there is something missing.

Graphically it is an improvement over the original and game is now more gory, not that it matter much.  What is important is that it performs much better on the X Box 360 than it's forebear which probably a result of it being designed more with the console market in mind. 

So going back, why do I think there is something missing?

Well the answer is really simple.  The story itself.  The original game was a grand adventure putting you at the center of a struggle to save the world from the evil Blight that was sweeping across the land.  You always felt that your mission was critical to the survival of the people in that world and that it was imperative that you stuck to the right path and succeeded.   In Dragon Age 2 the scale and scope of the adventure is toned to dramatically.

At no point did I ever think that the fate of the world lay in my hands but rather the fate of a city which seemed to at war with itself.  Those charged with running the city seemed foolish and intent on some sort of civil war with your character being dragged into it.  The number of times I simply wanted to tell everyone to sod off and get on with it were countless and many times I felt like nothing more than some sort of glorified errand boy running round doing menial tasks that characters were too lazy to do themselves.

What Dragon Age 2 really highlighted was the importance of story telling.  By the end of the game I was thankful that it was over, not because of how long I had been playing it for, but because I was so bored of the story.  Having spent hours running around trying to do nothing more than level up I was quite happy to see the credits roll.  Again I stress that this is a good game, but I would advise against trying to complete it by continuously playing it, but rather dipping in and out of it as I am sure that this will prove to be the best way you can get enjoyment out of it.

There is a chance that this game could be nothing more than a prelude to  Dragon Age 3 as the ending was a cliff hanger of sorts in which case I may have to revisit my opinion of this, but I always believe that each chapter of an adventure should be compelling enough to stand on it's own two feet and in this instance I think Dragon Age 2 falls short.

SONY DROP THE BALL

I love Sony and their products.  I have done for many years and have always stood and defended them against those who have chosen to attack the company for one reason or another down the years.  However in light of what has happened in the past week with regards to the PSN outage and the subsequent revelation that PS3 users private information has been compromised, I find it impossible to defend them anymore.

Having gone to considerable lengths to make sure I secure as much personal information as I can, I am outraged and angered at Sony's sheer negligence when it has come to the data I have given them in order to take advantage of their online service.  It seems that the data has handled and cared for in a slip-shod manner ill fitting a major international corporation like Sony.  The very thought that I now have to spend more time being extra vigilant because Sony have dropped the ball big time is, frankly, wholly unacceptable and Sony need to be dragged over the coals for this.

Of course the hackers are the perpetrators of the crime, of that there is no doubt.  However if you entrust someone to look after your car and they leave it parked with the keys in the ignition the person who has been negligent is just as much to blame as the opportunist thief who takes the vehicle.  In my previous blog I defended Sony but this was before it came to light what the true nature of the intrusion was and what information had been accessed.

How can end users ever be expected to have confidence in Sony again?  If the PSN was hacked in such a manner, how on Earth can we be expected to trust Sony with our personal information or credit card details.  Their total disregard for implementing the correct data protection procedures sticks of a rank negligent attitude towards their responsibilities towards their customers.  It seems that the excuse that the PSN is free so you cannot expect too much from it has filtered through to those responsible for actually securing it.  You may, with justification, say that one has nothing to do with the other but it is hard not to imagine that the amateur way the PSN has been implemented since 2007 hasn't been reflected in the security and or lack of.

Right from the moment the PS3 was hacked many months ago now, Sony should have shown a greater degree of responsibility but instead they threw out a firmware update to address the problem that was hacked within hours rendering it useless.  The warnings were there, does it look like Sony heeded them after the events of the past week?

Sony's main priority has been a belligerent attitude, throwing their weight around and suing all and sundry, stirring up a hornets nest which they had no means to defend against and the result is that end users...correction...innocent end users personal information has been compromised.  Instead of wasting time trying to sue the hackers into submission they should have invested those resources into securing their laughable security.

Sony have dropped the ball in a major way and they need to pay the price.  Sadly it may be too late for them now as I am sure that customer confidence in them will no hit an all time low.  What a stupid thing to happen.

END OF FREE PSN?

There is little doubt that the attack on the Playstation Network that has seen it being unavailable for some 6 days now has been a serious eye opener for Sony.  If not, then it damn well should have been.

The fault lies purely with the hackers who instigated the attack on the network, let's make no bones about that.  These mindless idiots who are out to do nothing more than cause havoc should be punished severely but there is no doubt that Sony need to do some soul searching.

The problem, as far as I am concerned, is that the PSN seems to be such a piecemeal system with near constant updates being applied to it and features being added and removed that it must be inevitable that there are some serious loopholes in the system.  When compared to X Box Live it must almost be a hackers paradise.  Now I am in no way saying that X Box Live is immune to attack, but can anyone remember the last time the service was down for such a long period of time due to an attack?

Of course the critical difference between the two services is that the PSN is free and X Box Live Gold is paid for.  What I would like to know is how many people who only own a PS3 to play online with would have happily paid for the service and not had such a long period of downtime over the Easter weekend?  I would imagine that by the time Sunday dawned, most would have been happy to see Sony adopt a more Microsoft approach to their online service.

It is easy to point to the fact that the PSN is free, but if it is going to prone to Denial of Service attacks like this then there is no point to it.  Since the PS3 was cracked there have been many attacks on the PSN which has made it more unstable than it was before and now it is simply unusable.  Sony maybe going all out to fix the problem, but how long will the fix work for?  If there is one thing history teaches us is that hackers are extremely resourceful and very clever and if there is the slightest hint at an exploit then they will find it.  What then?  Does the PSN go down for the best part of a week whilst Sony reprogram huge chunks of the system?  As I type there is no indication of when the service will resume so even a week might be an optimistic appraisal of the situation.

The only answer I can see is for Sony to adopt a more Microsoft style approach to their online service.  I know there will be many out there who disagree, but I point to the evidence of reliability of the respective services which is something that cannot be argued against.  If it means having to pay for the service then I would much rather do that than endure day after day of outage which renders a large portion of the consoles functionality redundant.

PSN OUTAGE, BAD DEMOS, PORTAL 2 & STUFF

Well, I suppose it was inevitable given the recent issues Sony have had but as all PS3 owners know, the PSN has been down for two days which has proved to be a bit of drag.  Thankfully I have still be able to play some games but it does stick in the throat when a service is out for so long especially if you are one of the those playing the likes of DC Universe Online where you are effectively losing money with the downtime as it is a paid subscription game.

I don't know why the service is down though there are reports that it is due to hackers.  You know these guys can really annoy me.  I don't understand what their goal is.  Is it to prove a point that they can take down a service?  Is it to try and bring a major international corporation to it's knees?  Or and this is more likely, are they just trying to prove what irritating and anti-social arseholes they really are?

You see the people who suffer are not those they are a targeting.  It is the end user, the person who just wants to come in and chill out and play games with their friends online.  Nothing else.  Sony are obliged to work on fixing the service, but let's be honest it's the gamers that are copping for the misery more so, especially over a holiday weekend whereby most people get some precious time off.

The bottom line is that in the community, these hackers will find very little support so I fail to see what their end game is.

I got Motorstorm Apocalypse this week which I have been really enjoying.  It is surprising because I hated the demo that was on the PSN.  I am sure on reflection that there is little difference, but I don't think the demo really sold the game properly at all and it pretty much put me off buying it.  Had I not managed to source a copy of it for a good price then I probably would have passed it over.  It does go to show that if you are going to put a demo out there, then it is vital it represents the game in the best way possible.  There have been a number of games that I have refused to by largely because the demo has been awful but when I have picked the game up at a later date on the cheap, they have actually been really good games.  I think that publishers should be more mindful of the influence a demo has before they just throw one out there.

Lastly I have been enjoying the wonders of Portal 2 today.  I don't want to go too much into it as I have only just really started playing it, but I love it.  The puzzles are great, the voice acting superb and the black humour is excellent.  I loved the original and so far I am loving this one.  I understand it's not the longest game in the world but I actually think that on this occasion it is probably apt.  A game like could get boring if it was weighing in at 10-12 hours long.  I think the time of 5-6 hours is probably spot on.

Anyway that's it, probably for the weekend I'm not sure yet.  Have a good Easter.

WHAT I AM PLAYING

It is probably fair to say that in the past week or so, most of my time has been taken up playing two games.  Dragon Age 2 and 3D Dot Game Heroes.

Dragon Age 2 is a very good game, there is no doubt in my mind about that.  I am some 40 hours into it now so I suspect that there is not much left to go but what I have been disappointed about has been the story.  Despite the fact that there is much to do, it feels a lot more smaller in scale than the original Dragon Age game which is a tad disappointing.  I don't mean this just in terms of the size of the world map, but more in the scope of the story.

The first game tasked the player with effectively saving the world from the Blight.  The second game seems more focused on trying to resolve a local issue based in the city that you spend most of the game in.  Now, unless there is some sort of grand change or the game is something like 100 hours long and I have not even got half way it seems a real come down from the original which is sad considering that the game play mechanics and graphics are much improved.

That said, I have enjoyed playing it and that is the idea at the end of the day.

The next game is the one that had taken many hours of my life.  3D Dot Game Heroes on the PS3 is an awesome game.  I owe being made aware of this little number by my girlfriend Chelle who has been playing this constantly as well.

Essentially this is Legend of Zelda on the PS3, so much so that I am amazed that Nintendo have not taken some sort of legal action against the developers and publishers!  It is an incredible game though and has kept me addicted since it arrived last week.  There is so much to do in the game and it is a fascinating world to explore.  It is one of those games that deserves so much more attention than what it has received and I am sure that given some proper marketing and promotion it would do very well sales wise.

If you have a PS3 and like the Zelda series then getting this is a no brainer.

I have just started playing Motorstorm Apocalypse this morning which is a stunning game.  Racing through a city that is literally falling apart around you is breath taking and has become my favorite Motorstorm game even after such a short playing time.  You know it is also one of those games that the demo really didn't do it justice and I can imagine many people being put off by it which is a shame because it is really good.

So that's it for me for now.  With Fear 3 and Portal 2 on the horizon I am sorted for games for the time being.

Right I am off for more 3D Dot Game Heroes!

IS KINECT WORKING?

If Microsoft are to be believed, I was one of many that picked up Kinect in it's launch window.  I don't doubt that the initial sales of the hardware were high, but something struck me today whilst browsing Game Online and that is Kinect is now retailing some £50 less than it's launch price.  Now this is part of Game's Easter Sale promotion, but that is still one hell of a discount.  If my maths is right, that is a 40% discount there or thereabouts.  It is worth noting that Amazon has also dropped it's price to £79.99 as well.  Perhaps this too is part of an Easter promotion.

It does seem strange that such a successful peripheral is being so heavily discounted early on in it's life cycle, Easter promo or not.  It set me thinking that, perhaps after the initial rush, Kinect is not exactly setting the world on fire in the way that Microsoft hoped it would.

As far as I am concerned the lack of top games is an issue.  So far I only own two games for it, Kinect Adventures which it came with and Kinect Joy Ride.  Aside from the newly released Michael Jackson Experience there has not been a whole lot of titles that have interested me at all.  This is not because I am some sort of hardcore gaming guy, but rather nothing has grabbed my attention and actually made me want to play it.

I have to admit that my Kinect spends most of it's time in it's box.  The major issue of the space required for usage is a problem for me and when I do decide to break it out, the limiting factor of how much clear space is needed means some furniture modifications.  It is not practical for me to leave the Kinect plugged in all the time, and I certainly don't like the idea of it being balance precariously waiting for the day when I accidentally topple it over to it's doom.

It is not as though I am against Kinect.  I am not.  I can see that this has great potential but so far there seems to be so little out there that is proving to be compelling.  I am aware that software is being developed for it all the time but there is no guarantee that it will live up to expectations.  Then what?  Does Kinect slowly disappear into the mists of gaming failures to rest comfortably alongside the likes of the 32X, Virtual Boy and so on?

Microsoft have clearly invested a huge amount of money into the Kinect project and certainly if their recent expo presentations have been anything to go by, they are content to sit behind Kinect and push it as hard as they can.  The problem is; if no one wants to use it then they can push all they like.

What I find frustrating is that I knew this would happen.  I knew that Kinect would start like this with little in the way of the wow factor.  OK, you can wave at the 360 and speak to it and give it a limited number of commands but it is not enough.  Microsoft heralded Kinect as a game changer and clearly, as of yet, that is not the case.

Again, I stress that I am not against Kinect, I want it to succeed, but in order for that to happen Microsoft need to make Kinect titles that interest the games player more than what they have so far.  If they fumble Kinect as badly as I fear they might it could prove to be a watershed moment for Microsoft in the console market.  To bury this product that has so much potential would be a crying shame for those who have invested in it and for the industry as well.

NEXT GEN WISH LIST

I have sat here this morning wondering what I would really like the next generation of consoles to deliver.  I seriously doubt that my wish list will be fufilled at all but hey, I can always dream:

- Reliability
One of the things this generation got wrong was the reliability of the consoles.  Although Nintendo's Wii has probably proved to be well within the normal accepted failure rate, the PS3 and most definitely the X Box 360 have proved to be more troublesome beasts.  The 360's failure rates were simply not acceptable and it is fair to say that Microsoft were very lucky that it didn't kill the 360 stone dead.  There is no doubt that another release from them that is besieged by so many issues will not bode well for them.  The PS3 seemed to get away with it at first but the 'Yellow Light of Death' has put paid to many of the original design consoles and again is not really acceptable.

- Improved Graphics
This goes without saying but the next gen really does need to use the absolute cutting edge in terms of graphical capabilities.  It is always difficult to do this because usually a console is always out of date by the time it is released.  When you consider that developers also need to know what the specifications of the console is going to be well in advance of it's release so that they can code games for it the chances of the console being able to match a PC stride for stride is going to be very difficult.  What the manufactures of these consoles could do is be less stingy in other areas such as RAM and processing power in order to allow a greater potential for the console.

- Solid State Drives
At the moment these are very costly when compared to standard hard drives but I would like to think that by the time the next generation of consoles are upon us, the price will have come down sufficiently enough to allow them to be used in consoles and still allow the console to be affordable.  The enemy of any console is heat as we have seen this generation.  The more moving parts a console has the more heat is generated and hard drives have moving parts and are bulky.  SSD's would be an ideal solution both in terms of a reduction of moving parts but also would prove to be more reliable and faster as well.

- Developer Friendly Software Tools
I never see the point in making it difficult for a developer to unlock the power of the console.  It causes so much bad blood between the console companies and the software developers and publishers and it totally unnecessary.  The whole point is for games to play and look their best on the format concerned.  Bearing that in mind the onus has to be on the console manufacturer to create a console that is good to develop for.  You can have the most powerful console on Earth, but if no one knows how to unleash the power of it, there is no point.

- Skype Quality Comms
There is nothing worse than trying to play a game with your friends online and the coms are so bad you cannot hear what they are saying.  As far as I am concerned there is no excuse for it in the next generation of consoles.  Skype's coms are crystal clear and should be the benchmark for the next gen, in fact I don't see why the comms cannot be outsourced to Skype.

- Blu Ray Drives as Standard
I don't think it is a good idea for games to go down the download route only for a while yet.  I can see the obvious benefits to it, but one thing that has been obvious this generation is that game publishers are showing no inclination to reduce the price of the games and in most cases it actually costs more for a digital download than it does to go out and get an actual physical copy of the game from an online retailer or the high street.  That cannot be right.  Until this is sorted out, there is no way that I want a game to be delivered by download only.  Just where would the competition be in terms of prices?

- General Design Consideration
Would it really have killed Sony to include a USB port on the back of the PS3?  There is nothing worse that having the PS3 camera plugged into the front of the console taking up a precious USB slot.  Why the hell did Sony not stick another port on the back of the console?  Would it really have broke the bank?  I would really like the general design of the next gen consoles to show some intelligence.  Nintendo also showed a degree of poor design with the ports for the Game Cube controllers being along the top/side of the console.  If you have the console lying down the door to access these ports doesn't work properly because the hinge pushes the console up!

I have not gone into the stuff like the online services and so on.  I wanted to focus on the actual physical aspects of the consoles themselves, aside from the dev tools, because these are things that are really difficult to fix once the console is out there.  Other things can be sorted out via firmware updates.

Whether any of what I want comes to pass is in the hands of the manufacturers, but it would be nice to see at least a few taken on board.

CHARACTER & STORY

Whilst I was writing about my history with video games, I also got to thinking what games were like back then compared to titles released today.  I am not talking about the graphics and sound and game play but rather the characters and story and how they are important to making a good game a great one.

Characters and story are not new features in video games.  There has always been a reason for what you are doing and there have always been characters, but the increase in the power of today's consoles and PC's has meant that more in depth stories with more complex characters can be told.  Whereas in the past much of the back story to a game was confined to a few words condensed into the instruction booklet, now the story can unfold in a true cinematic fashion on screen.

This advancement has been crucial to how video games are presented these days.  Games now have more power to affect the player on an emotional level than ever before.  One example of this is the game The Darkness.  When the main characters girlfriend is murdered by the main bad guy, the player is rendered powerless to prevent it.  What makes it more poignant is the fact that there was a part in the game where you spend time with your girlfriend just sitting there watching TV.  It is a simple thing but something that so many of us do.  It resonates with the player and so when this comfortable scene is ripped apart the anger felt by the main character is also felt by the player.

The same also applies for RPG games where the characters are well developed.  If done correctly the player should care about all the characters in the party as each one should be interesting and have a story to tell.  The player should feel protective towards those players and feel something should one of them be in peril or worse still die.

This is not an easy task to get right.  The main problem with video games compared to books and films is that it is an interactive medium whereas as the other two are passive so much of the story is dependent on the ability and decisions of the games player.  If the developers are too restrictive with the plot and character then it can appear that the players actions are inconsequential, too slack and the story can lose much of it's impact.  It is little wonder that more and more game developers are hiring the help of professional writers to create the characters and story.

I have always found that games with strong characters and story remain in the mind far longer than those that rely on basic story telling elements and don't take any time or trouble to make characters that are memorable.

Increasingly, a few pages in an instruction booklet is not enough to convey the adventure that you are undertaking or the characters you will meet along the way.  I for one think this is a good thing.  The ability to tell a compelling story is something that has defined much of the arts and is so important to the culture of the human race.  I don't see any reason why video games should not embrace this fully and start to become an important medium for telling stories.

MY HISTORY OF GAMING PART 4

If there is anyone still interested in this, then I applaud and pity you at the same time.  I promise I will keep this entry brief as it brings me right up to date with where I am at with gaming at the moment.

I will hold my hands up first of all and say that the Dreamcast passed me by.  I was fortunate enough to have a friend who owned one so I was able to access and play some the the classic games that came out for it, but my confidence in Sega had been rocked with the whole 32X fiasco and then the subsequent struggle the Saturn had against the Playstation.  I was not too interested in investing a considerable amount of money into the Dreamcast when it came out only for it to prove to be another poor investment.

Of course had I done this, one could argue that would not have been the case.  The Dreamcast had a plethora of exciting games and the console itself, it could be argued, was more powerful than the Playstation 2.

As it was I opted for the PS2 and never regretted it.  The Dreamcast failed to have the legs to keep in the fight and Sega took the brave decision to cease production of it and focus purely on games.  It was probably the right thing to do as Nintendo were releasing the Game Cube and Microsoft were stepping into the console market with their X Box.

For the first time I found myself in a position to own all the major formats.  I also got the Game Cube as well as the X Box.  In fact the X Box supplanted the PS2 as my main console which I never thought would happen.  It's additional horse power and the ability to install your own music to play from the built in hard drive while you played games was fantastic  Although the PS2 was still used for the classic games that were still coming out for it, all the cross platform purchases went onto the X Box.

A similar pattern emerged with the purchase of the X Box 360, PS3 and Wii.  The 360 has been my mainstay although it is fair to say that the PS3 is catching up rapidly.  The Wii probably sees the least action of the three, but I so love playing games like Super Mario Galaxy, Metroid and Zelda on there.

I feel very lucky to have been around to see the games industry grow into what it is today.  The advancement in technology has been truly astounding.  In 30 years in home gaming has gone from pushing various sized rectangular and square shapes around the screen in two colours to the millions of polygons that make up the games we see today as well as all the vibrant colours the eye can see.

I wonder what gaming will be like in 30 years time.  I know one thing, if I am still around, I will be still playing!

GAME REVIEW: STAR WARS - THE FORCE UNLEASED 2

Lucas Arts have become something of an enigma in recent years.  Once upon a time they could do no wrong with nearly every game they released seemingly achieving classic status.  Whether it was their point and click adventures or their franchise based games like Star Wars, they always delivered, but something happened to them and they seemingly lost their way.  As their output and desire to exploit the new IP that the Star Wars Prequel movies offered increased, the quality took a real nose dive.  It caused Lucas Arts to take a step back and re-evaluate their position.

It is fair to say that the out put has dropped somewhat but has the quality increased?

The original Force Unleashed was very much a game you either loved or loathed.  Personally I loved it.  It had been an awful long time since a Star Wars game actually made you feel like you were actually being immersed into the Star Wars universe as opposed to some rushed cash in job.  Technically it was fantastic with a great emphasis placed in the physics engine.  This resulted in scenery that was destructible and could be bent and twisted through using the force powers at your disposal, but the best fun was to he had flinging Stormtroopers all over the place.  More importantly it had a great story line that gelled well with the Star Wars series.  Although by no means canon, it didn't deviate from the perceived Star Wars mythology and at the same time it also packed quite an emotional punch.

Fast forward to 2010 and The Force Unleashed 2 was released.

Following on from the first game you re-assume the role of Vaders apprentice Galen Marek known as Starkiller, only there is a degree of ambiguity as to whether you are the same Galen Marek from the first game or whether you are a clone.  As an interesting footnote Starkiller was the original name that George Lucas was going to call Luke Skywalker - his name was changed from Annikin Starkiller.

Whereas the first game focused more on Starkiller's fight against the Dark Side of the Force and his eventual assistance in the formation of the Rebel Alliance, this game is more personal, a more darker game if you will.

Starkiller is pre-occupied with finding Juno Ecplise the female starship captain from the first game who Starkiller had formed strong emotional feelings for.  He is also trying to find out the truth behind his own existence.  Is he a clone or is he the real Galen Marek?

After escaping the cloning facility on Kamino, Starkiller sets about his quest traveling to varied locations around the galaxy unlocking more and more powers as he goes along.  This time round the combat feels more visceral.  This is not a Starkiller who is looking for justification or a mission, he is looking to find the person he loves as well as finding out who he is.  There are times playing this game where the sheer anger of Starkiller almost oozes out of the console as he sets about dispatching multiple Stormtroopers in an instant or plucking TIE Fighters out of the sky and crushing them.  It seems his power has increased considerably.

Once again the Havok, Digital Molecular Matter and Euphoria engines have been used to great effect.  The results are a stunning looking game that works so well in drawing you into the universe.  Stormtroopers have real weight to them when they are slammed through windows or against walls and floors and the ability to manipulate objects in the environment and use them as weapons is as fun as ever.

Surprisingly, though, the story line does not seem as compelling as in the first game.  Given the subject matter of the story it should have been a guaranteed bet to make this more involving but the problem is that at times it feels rushed and consequently you end up feeling that there are chunks of this game missing.  This is supported by how short the game is.  I clocked it in little over four and half hours and I was taking my time.  Given that there is no multiplayer element to it at all, that is quite shocking and is the main area that it let's itself down with.

The Force Unleashed was a perfectly paced game and was compelling to play and also interesting to re-visit to try and unlock secrets.  However Force Unleashed 2 doesn't have the same hook at all.  Once complete I felt little need to go back and I felt so disappointed that there were so many unanswered questions.  There never felt that there was any consequence to what was ultimately selfish reasons for Starkiller's adventure.

Remember in Empire Strikes back where Yoda tells Luke that if he rushes off to save his friends he effectively risks costing the Rebel Alliance the whole ware against the Empire?  Yoda was worried that Luke would either fall to the Dark Side or be killed because he wasn't ready.  Well there appears to be no gravity at all to what is going on in this game.  It is dark yes and it is a more personal fight between Vader and Starkiller this time round, but the lack of any larger consequence almost makes the story redundant.  At no point did I ever think that Starkiller's actions where going to change the course of the future of the Galaxy.

Game play wise, it is spot on.  The combat is dynamic and fluid and I never get tired of dispatching bad guys in new and novel ways via a combination of the force and the duel sabres Starkiller now wields.  It's just that there is not enough of it.  It is interesting to note that Haden Blackman who was the executive producer of the original game left the project late on prior to the release of this sequel.  Perhaps this is why the game feels to truncated.  I don't know.

This is by no means a terrible game but it should have been so much better.  Another couple of hours game play should have been the minimum requirement and could easily have provided more satisfactory story.  Instead what we have is a game that somehow feels rushed and too short and that is a crying shame.

MY HISTORY OF GAMING PART 3

As it became clear that the C64 was at the end of it's life I faced something of a conundrum.  At that time the logical choice was the Commodore Amiga, the 16-bit powerhouse that Commodore had developed to replace the C64.  The problem was that was 17 and had other interests outside of gaming and the last thing I wanted was to be bogged down using a computer.  Most of my friends were playing on consoles at this time and the Sega Mega Drive (Or Genesis as it was known in the USA) was the console of choice.  However the Amiga had plenty of amazing games and was a proper computer as opposed to just a console.

In the end I opted for the Mega Drive first.  There was a great library of games available for it and the multiplayer aspect was a real selling point for me.  I didn't abandon the idea of getting an Amiga, but merely shelved it until I had enough money to buy one.  It turned out to be a great idea.  The Mega Drive was a great piece of kit and I got many hours of fun out of it.  There were many fantastic games that I got to play but more importantly, and for the first time since I got the VIC 20, a games console became my lead gaming format.  Even when I got the Amiga about 18 months later it was destined to play second fiddle to the Mega Drive.

The Amiga will always be remembered by me for one game.  Sensible World of Soccer.  For  many years this remained my most favorite football game.  There were other great games as well and for a while it led the way when it came to flight sims and point and click adventures until the PC market really started to take off.

The problem with the Amiga was that by the time I had purchased it, it's basic architecture was nearly 7 years old.  There had been many re-incarnations of it since it was launched but it was essentially the same.  Commodore did try and address this with the Amiga A1200 which I also owned which was a 32-bit machine but it was too late.  By that time the PC was starting to become more versatile and more people were going out and buying one for use in the home.  The A1200 was never really fully exploited to it's full potential by game developers who by that time had thrown their lot in with consoles and the PC leaving the Amiga market high and dry.

As the Mega Drive soldiered on, the Amiga vanished as Commodore folded and even after a brief re-appearance when Escom bought the rights to the technology, it's day in the sun was over.  I enjoyed many great hours with the Amiga, playing brilliant games for it, but sadly I missed out on many years enjoyment by the time I got one.

As I said, I continued to play on the Mega Drive.  When Nintendo launched the more powerful SNES, Sega decided to try and pro-long the life of the Mega Drive until their next console was ready for launch.  The launched the Mega CD and the 32X addons.  I got the 32X so I could play Doom though it turned out to be a waste of money.  Despite the fact that it essentially was supposed to turn the Mega Drive into a 32 bit console it lack any real power to stand up with genuine 32 Bit machines.  Also everyone knew that the CD ROM based Saturn was on it's way so it did seem like a waste of time.

I only ended up with a handful of games for it and spent most my time still playing the standard 16 bit ones.

My next console delivered one of my favorite of all time.  The Sony Playstation.

The Playstation was perfect for me at the time.  Sony took the decision to market the console at those with disposable income as opposed to kids which had always been the perceived logic.  It worked.  There were more games targeted at the adult audience and also titles aimed at people who liked to go out clubbing.

I remember being blown away by the 3D graphics when I first got the Playstation.  Games like Wipeout, Ridge Racer and a decent version of Doom barely left the CD ROM drive.   However it was games like Resident Evil and Tomb Raider as well as the influx of RPG games from Japan that went onto to define the console for me.  Say what you like about Sony, but the Playstation brought the gaming industry into the modern age and set about the attitude that it was no longer just a thing for kids.

The inclusion of the CD ROM drive also meant that the console could stream some fantastic music as well.  I can remember playing for hours on the Playstation.  More so than any console up to that point it had games that captured my imagination.

I never regretted not opting to buy the Saturn.  After getting my finger burnt with the 32X I decided I wanted to try something different.  I am not saying that the Saturn was a bad console, it wasn't.  However it was simply not the console for me and I never regretted it.

As is always the case, technology waits for no one.  As I was comfortable with the Playstation, Nintendo released a 64 bit console called the N64.  It was a fantastic console and again provided me with many hours of fun.  The graphics were fantastic and I always remember the first time I started playing Mario 64.  It was one of those seminal moments in gaming.  To date it remains one of my favorite games of all time.

Although Nintendo didn't intentionally set out to do so, the N64 also saw some more mature titles come to it like Turok.  It is a testimony to the console that one of the first things I did when I got the Wii was to start downloading classic N64 games so I could play them again.

Next up in the final part.  Console threesomes!

A SONG FOR A SPECIAL PERSON

Sometimes someone can change your life in a heartbeat.  They are so rare but so perfect

MY HISTORY OF GAMING PART 2

So after my initial encounter with video games there was a small period of time when I started to lose interest somewhat.

The main problem was that the games were so limited by the technology at the time.  Hand held devices only played one game and as I already mentioned the Pong console that I had was only really for two players and without a regular gaming partner it soon found itself taking up residence at the back of the wardrobe.

At that time I was more interested in playing with my Star Wars toys and I had amassed quite a collection of them.  The thought of playing anymore video games was quite far from my mind I am sure.

Christmas 1983 was a watershed moment as they say.  Without any prompting my mum and dad had decided in their wisdom to buy me a proper computer.  The saw where the world was headed and wanted me to have a head start and so invested in a computer.  I am not sure whether they actually thought that playing games on it would be the prime reason for me powering it up but that's what ended up happening.

On Christmas day 1983 this nine year old boy unboxed his Commodore VIC 20.  I remember that it came with some games but the two a I really remember were 3D Emit Attack and Matrix.  3D Emit Attack was programmed in basic and involved you blasting various combination of keyboard symbols across a fake 3D battle ground.  Matrix was something else altogether.  It was a full on technicolor audio assault coded by none other than Jeff Minter.  I had never encountered anything quite like it before.

The VIC 20 was an interesting computer.  It had a proper typewriter keyboard and a standalone tape recorder supplied which plugged into the back.  The tape recorder was used to load games and record data.  The most important thing was that this enabled you to buy different games so immediately my interest level increased as I was no longer restricted by what I could play.

Despite my initial joy with the VIC 20 it was clear even to me that it was not that powerful compared to other computers on the market and getting new games could prove to be difficult as Commodore had released another computer at the time.  The legendary Commodore 64.  Despite this the VIC 20 was the most important computer I owned because it really got me back into gaming and also I learned how to program in BASIC curtosy of the manual that came with it which taught you the basics of BASIC if you pardon the pun.

It was my sister getting a Commodore 64 that was another game changer.  I was obsessed by it because it was so much more powerful than the VIC 20 despite it looking very similar.  Not only was it capable of better games but the sound was fantastic as well thanks to the SID chip.  If there was one game that really made me want a C64 it was Ghostbusters.

Whenever I was round at my sisters house I would bother her to play Ghostbusters as well as Beach Head and Raid over Moscow.  I was finding it more and more difficult to play games on the VIC 20 and the fact that I never managed to locate a copy of Ghostbusters on it pretty much meant that it ended up being neglected.

That changed in Christmas 1985 when my mum and dad bought me a Commodore 64.  For me it was like arriving in the promised land.  Not only did I get the computer but a wealth of games including my precious Ghostbusters.

If the VIC 20 was important for getting back into games, the C64 was the computer that molded me into a gamer for life.

The incredible thing about the C64 aside from it's sheer power was that it had a huge library of games to choose from.  Over the next few years I amassed a huge amount of games and spent hours playing on it.  I also learned more advanced BASIC as I got older and actually coded my own text based adventure game though I never sent it off to be published.

To select stand out games on the C64 is almost an exercise in folly.  There were simply too many to mention but the Last Ninja series was fantastic.  Brutally hard but compelling it sported some beautiful graphics and an awe inspiring soundtrack.  You also had a plethora of brilliant games from the software house Thalamus such as Armalyte, Hawkeye and Delta.  I could go on and on.

Without doubt the C64 was and remains my favorite games machine I ever owned.  From 1985 to 1991 I played on it regularly until I got a Sega Megadrive (Genesis for readers in the US).  It is worth mentioning that in the time I had the C64 I also owned a Sega Master system which I liked a lot but I always came back to the C64.

The Master System was a great console.  It's arrival was actually inspired by a visit I made to my relatives in Canada when I was 15.  I stayed over at my cousins house and he owned the Nintendo NES system.  It was the first time I had encountered a console since playing on a friends Atari VCS 2600 which was so brutally basic compared to the C64 it was untrue.  The NES was a revelation though.  There was no loading time for games (using the infamous C2N tape loader took tens of minutes to load games) and the control pad with two individual button controllers worked so much better than the more clunky joysticks which only afforded the gamer one individual button.

When I came back from Canada I really wanted a games console.  In Europe and the UK the NES was under competition from the Sega Master System.  The reason I chose Sega's baby was simple.  It had more arcade conversions and they looked and played better on Sega's format than on the Commodore 64.  The problem with the Master System was that the games were far more expensive than the C64 ones and despite crisper graphics the sound was awful.  The C64 ultimately had more interesting games to play on it as well so there were times when the Master System was left gathering dust until a major title came out and I had the money to get it.

Despite my long love affair with the C64 it had to come to an end.  Time moved on and the games dried up as more powerful machines gained a larger market share.  As I looked at what was on the market to go for next, two possibilities came up and choosing between them was almost impossible...so I ended up getting both of them. 

That is for part 3.

MY HISTORY OF GAMING PART 1

Ah where to begin.  I suppose the real beginning was when I was four or five years old.  I went on a family holiday to the Isle of Man which started off bad when the guest house we were booked into turned out to be worse than Fawlty Towers.  My parents quickly found another location for us to stay in which turned out to be a rather posh sea front hotel.  You could not imagine a more stark contrast between those two locations.

Anyway, this hotel was also rather modern for the time.  It was kitted out with a games room and and a gym.  In the games room was a couple of strange looking devices which I would later discover would be Space Invaders arcade machines.

It was my sister who really started it all as she would sit with me whilst I played on this electronic wonder for what felt like hours although I suspect that it more like minutes.  In any event it was sowing of the seed in my mind of my passion for video games.  Without doubt that was the earliest encounter I had with an electronic game of some sort.

I have always regarded myself as being lucky to have experienced playing video games right from the very beginning.  Not long after returning from the Isle of Man my mum and dad went out and bought the family a Pong console.  Ours was made by Binatone and the most distinctive thing I remember about it was the two black and orange controllers and the rather primitive switched you used to select which game you wanted to play.  It was advertised as having a number of sports games such as football, basketball, ice hockey and tennis to chose from, but in reality they are all just variations on the Pong theme.

Although it was a digital marvel in it's day it was rather limited and it also required to players to play on it.  The initial interest shown by my parents quickly died and my sister was more interested in going out with her friends (she is a few years older than me) and so interest in the Pong console died out.

My interest in video games did not die out though.  Another craze had started which was the Game and Watch series by Nintendo as well as table top electronic games by a company called Grandstand.  Whilst one of my friends was more into the Game and Watch, I went for the Grandstand games and one in particular which was called Scramble.  This was unlike the arcade game of the same name but it was a challenging game that required you to take out a series of alien craft in increasingly difficult waves.  It took me a while to beat it but I eventually did to be confronted by a bizarre 'hhh' in the score box which flashed signalling that I had beaten the game.  To this day I had no idea what the 'hhh' meant!

The limitations of these games was clear.  There was no way of playing anything else on them without having to buy a whole new unit and that was not practical.  However my mum and dad were about to buy me something for Christmas in 1983 that would completely change the game for me.  From then on gaming would not be a thing that was restricted by having to buy new consoles each time.  I was about to get something that would draw my interest in and 28 years later still hold me in it's grasp.

But that will come in part two...

CALL OF DUTY VIDEO REVIEW

Finally got my latest review uploaded.  I have been limited by a bad cold and chest infection so today was the first day I was able to record the voice over for the review.

A WEEK WITH THE 3DS

Well after a week of playing with the 3DS I think it is safe to say that once again Nintendo have knocked the ball out of the park.

When it comes to hand held gaming devices it is fair to say that Nintendo have it down to a fine art.  Sony may have suffered some unworthy negative press with the PSP, but Nintendo do deserve the plaudits that they get.

The 3DS works so well.  The 3D is fantastic and it really works as well.  It is not gimmicky or cheap but proper 3D.  The fact that you don't need to wear glasses to experience it only adds to a great job Nintendo have done with this.  The 3D is also scalable thanks to a slider next to the screen which allows you to adjust the 3D effect to suit your eyes or you can turn it off fully.

At the moment I have four games.  Ghost Recon, Ridge Racer, Pilot Wings and Pro Evolution Soccer.  All of them a great games and are perfect for the platform.  What I mean by that is that they are not trying to ape their big brother console counterparts.  They have been designed with a hand held in mind.  Ghost Recon for example is a turn based shooter using an isometric view as opposed to a 3rd person shooter and it really works.

Also bundled with the 3DS are AR cards.  I don't want to spoil it for you, but honestly, what they do is fantastic.

With regards to the possibility of side effects from playing the 3DS, I cannot comment because I have been lucky enough not to suffer from any.  I am also not going to patronise people by saying that they should simple adjust the slider or not play it for so long as it is down to the individual as to how they are affected by it.  All I can suggest is that you try it before you buy it and see how you go.

With the prospect of a couple of cracking looking Resident Evil games on the horizon as well as reboots of Zelda and Mario Kart I am really glad I invested in this.  I have not nearly covered what it does in any type of depth but rather what I have been playing with so far.  It's a belting console and well worth investing in if you are looking for a hand held gaming device.

RISEN, VIDEO REVIEWS & MOOD

I was going to waste my time in this blog entry about someone who irritated me yesterday on the phone, but I don't want to dwell on the clueless and uneducated moron any longer.  Needless to say their existence is entirely inconsequential to me so therefore I am not going to let it factor in my thoughts any longer.

There, that's better.

I have to say that I am really struggling at the moment.  My mood is low again and I am just in that frame of mind where I think I must have done something wrong in a previous life.  I am just in that rut where every decision I make seems to be wrong.

I had intended to do my next video review this week but I am still suffering from a bad chest and voice just won't stand up to speaking for longer than a couple of minutes without giving out.  My videos are nothing special, but I do like to try and do the best I can when I make them.

What I will probably do tomorrow is cut together the footage I recorded and then just wait until next week to do the voice over then upload it to You Tube.  I actually enjoy making the videos so I feel a bit deflated at the moment in not being able to do them.  I wanted to try and make sure I did two a month but it just has not worked out to be possible.

On the gaming front I finished Two Worlds 2 and Killzone 3 this week.  Both excellent games that are well worth checking out.  I am currently playing Risen which is really proving to be an enigma of a game.  Sometime I think that it is going great then it seems to fall on it's arse.

It is a tough RPG, there is no doubt about that.  I had to drop the difficulty onto the easiest setting as I was getting killed by everything in sight and int he end it became too frustrating.  The leveling up is handled differently as well.  When you level up only your basic stats such as health increase.  If you want to spend any of your leveling up points, you need to find a class trainer to build up your strength, wisdom and dexterity as well as becoming more proficient with the class weapons: Swords, magic and bows and so on.  I am not against this, but it can become tiresome having to back track to find a class trainer just to complete your leveling up.  It also costs you gold as well so it's a double whammy.

Graphically it is fairly awful.  I don't know if this looks much better on the PC but it looks like a PS2 game at times on the 360.  There are unfinished textures, memory leakage the lot.  It doesn't detract away from the adventure as such, but it does look a little poor compared to it's contemporaries.

So that is pretty much it.  Not really been up to much but there you go.

AIDY'S TOP 5 ONLINE GAMING GUIDES

OK, I thought I would come up with my top 5 suggestions for people to observe in order to make online gaming a happier and more enlightening past time as opposed to the verbal mine field of cheats that it can be:

1) DON'T BE RACIST/HOMOPHOBIC OR DETAIL YOUR SEXUAL DESIRES ABOUT ANOTHER GAMERS FAMILY MEMBER

This is self explanatory and is not cool in the slightest.  This seems to be the reserve of teenage games players who for some reason seem unable to play a game without their gums flapping about constantly, usually spouting some inane drivel about their sexual prowess, the racial heritage of people they cannot see and also the sexual orientation of their would be adversaries or indeed, their own team mates.

It does not need me to point out that not only can some of this be offensive but also is a violation of the terms and conditions of the online service, be it X Box Live or the Playstation Network, that they agreed to adhered to when they registered their gamer tag.  Not only is there the facility to report these imbeciles but they can be muted and have their communications blocked.  However it does not excuse this happening in the first place and no one should have to listen to their vile tirades.

Oh, and by the way, don't think that you cannot be tracked down just because you are on the other side of the world spouting your garbage in what you perceive to be the sanctity of your own homes.  You can be traced and you can be got to.  Just bear in mind that you have no idea who it is you are offending or what they might do for a living.

2) SPAWN CAMPING IS FOR LOSERS WHO CANNOT PLAY GAMES.

This is my personal favorite one to hate.  Spawn camping bastards who just find a nice little nook or cranny near your teams spawn point and sit or lay there the whole round shooting you as soon as you spawn.  Hey, guess what?  You are a dick!  Strangely enough there is no skill involved in doing this and it's actually no fun to play against people who think that this is a viable strategy in order to win a game. 

As you sit there racking up your kill streak imaging how frustrated and bored you would become if someone was doing this to you.  Then imagine you quitting the game because there was really no point in playing anymore.  Now imagine other people doing the same and hey presto!  No one ends up playing the game because the brain donors who are spawn camping all the time have killed it.

Try actually moving in the game, you know, take a risk - live a little!  Who knows you might actually like it!

3) GLITCHING IS FOR LOSERS WHO CANNOT PLAY GAMES.

Yep, similar to point 2, glitchers are another breed of game spoiling idiots that somehow think that gaining an advantage by cheating is somehow makes them a better gamer.  Now, it is often the case that a game has a glitch or two in it that the developers patch in due time.  However a glitcher will take full advantage of this to their own benefit thus spoiling the game for everyone else.

There is no real excuse for it.  OK you might stumble across it by accident, but more often than not once a glitch has been revealed it is suddenly exploited in nearly every game you join.  It always appears to be the same person that is taking advantage of it as well.  Whilst everyone else runs around trying to squeeze some enjoyment out of proceedings, your common garden glitcher forgoes any attempt to play the game and instead sets themselves up to exploit the glitch.

I have stopped playing many an online game because of this as there is just no point in playing it anymore and by the time the glitch has been patched by the developers, I have moved onto something else.

4) LEARN SOME GAMING ETIQUETTE.

This can cover quite a wide area of behaviour but I really want to narrow it down to the manner some play games.  Team killing for example.  There is always one who joins the game then sets about killing all and sundry on the screen, even though it is clear that it is a team based game mode.

Usually these gimps end up getting kicked but not before they have put everyone else in a foul mood and ruined the session.  In the minds of these morons, they think that they are comedy legends when as a matter of fact that are annoying little turds that need to be flushed away down the nearest toilet never to be seen again.

The sad fact is that these arse wipes tend to also manifest the same the symptoms as seen in the previous points and their whole existence online seems to be centred around causing as much misery as possible.  It is remarkable that they actually spend money on a game just to join in with people they don't know and annoy the living hell out of them.

I would have thought that being kicked from one game to another would get quite boring but it seems that they have sufficient numbers to crop up at least once every sessions and cause general misery!

5) LET THE WOOKIE WIN!

That's right.  You know it makes sense to let me win.  You will find your gaming experience to happier and your life will become fulfilled.  You will come across fewer idiots online, you will feel light and gleeful.  Your every whim and desire will be satiated all for letting me win online.

Surely that is worth a few moments of anguish!

I GOT WIRES

I thought I would change track a little for this blog entry as looking back through what I had posted so far; it seems rather serious and I don't intend this blog to be nothing more than chin stroking exercise.

So, when is someone going to invent wireless electricity?  I am serious.  I am so fed of wires all over the place.  I mean come on!  We have wireless internet now and cordless phones.  Isn't it about time some clever sod over at NASA or CERN stopped farting about with space ships and trying to create a planet destroying singularity under the ground in Switzerland and came up with something that would benefit mankind properly.

I get so fed up with untangling wires, tucking them out of the way, rolling them up and generally losing my tempter with them.  Mankind cannot truly call ourselves a civilized and advanced race until we do away with wires.

Now, there are two possibilities that I can think of as a strictly non-scientific person.  First of all I don't see why all electrical appliances cannot have a small miniture nuclear reactor in them so power them.  We all know that nuclear energy is clean and safe (ish) and not only that it can provide energy for longer than the average human lives due to the lengthy half life of the materials used.  I think this is very useable and will do away with wires and the need for rechargeable batteries as well.

The other possibility is a bit more sci-fi but I don't see why the electro-static particles in the air cannot be harnessed in some way and used to power electronic devices.  Think of it like this.  You would not get anymore static shocks and that can only be a good thing.  Also, think that every time you use an electronic device, the electronic energy it gives off it will be harnessed and reused.  How green is that?

I think both ideas are perfect feasible and I am at a loss as to why this has not been introduced already.  Imagine the savings on energy bills - because you wouldn't have any.  As a matter of fact I intend to patent these ideas so that I can get filthy rich at some point in the future.  I shall call it Aidy's Quantum Electro-Powered Self Charging Reactor Core.

There, I think I have sufficiently supplied a brilliant idea to the human race this evening, so now I shall return to watching some really shocking movie on the TV to recharge my batteries before my next thunder clap of an idea is unleashed!

RANK OFF!

Back when I started playing games online things were fairly straight forward.  You selected the online mode, the game type and off you went.  Then with the advent of X Box Live and Playstation Network, console owners were introduced to a little thing called the Friends List.

Now the idea behind this was for the gamer to accrue a list of people that they enjoyed playing games with so that they could see if they were online and simplify communications with them.  The idea was excellent and worked really well.  More importantly it served as a filter.  You could avoid having to run the gauntlet of the random idiots who love nothing more than 'trash talking' (in other words being racist, homophobic or spouting vile things about your family from the safety of their living room thousands of miles away).  It gave you control to make sure that you only got to play with the people had a element of trust or at least camaraderie with.

Then the games started to change.  Some bright spark decided that it would be a good idea to introduce a ranking up system in their games.  This entailed you getting access to better weapons and perks as well as having a ranking system which reflected the time and success you had playing the game.  This seemed like a good idea except for one major draw back.  It only applied if you played the game against random people in a ranked match.  If you chose not to do this, then you could not rank up in the multiplayer and so access to new weapons and perks was closed to you.

The first major game I recall doing this on the consoles was Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.  I could be wrong and there may have been another game before this one, but there is no doubt that this game set the benchmark for how the majority of games were to follow.

To me this is wrong.  First of all it totally negates the point of the friends list when it comes to using it as a filter for the people you want to play with.  Microsoft went to great pains at the launch of the X Box 360 and it's new and improved X Box Live to show how the friends list was a way of being the centre point to the online element of the service for gaming.  That seems to have been overlooked by games developers.

It is not just Microsoft but the same thing applies to the Playstation 3.  If you want to unlock stuff in the multiplayer then you are forced to play against people you don't know and therefore run the risk of abuse and so on.

Now I know that you can mute communications with the idiots, but you still have to endure their rubbish and it certainly does not stop them acting like childish morons in the game.  I have lost count of the number of times I have come across someone in an online session who is doing nothing more than trying to disrupt the game and ruin it for everyone else.

As far as I am concerned the developers of these games are forcing you to have to play the game a certain way online in order to get the full benefit from it and that is wrong.  I want to enjoy the whole game and I want the unlocks thank you very much, however I don't want to endure hours of playing with potential idiots in order to achieve this.  What I want is for these perks and unlocks to be available when I am playing in private games so I can enjoy playing against people I know are not going to be abusive and still enjoy the whole of the game.

IS THAT IT?

I have just completed Homefront on the X Box 360 and I have to say that I am disappointed.

It's not that the game is rubbish, it's just that it is so short in the single player campaign department.  Yet again it seems that game developers are taking liberties with the single player elements of their games and instead are focusing on the multiplayer aspect.  I don't really think that this is on at all.

Now I do play online so the following does not really apply to me, but surely those who prefer a single player game are entitled to a well developed and complete campaign?  Homefront ends suddenly and is so unsatisfying that it is hard to believe that the ending we get is the ending that John Milius who had a hand in writing the story actually penned when he wrote the story.  It is clear that there is an intent to release more of the game as either DLC or as a sequel.  Now don't get me wrong, I have nothing against game sequels, but when you sit down and develop a game and release it you cannot structure that game around the assumption that you can just end the game seemingly half way through and expect people to invest more money just to see it's conclusion.

Given the fact that it took me around 5 hours to complete the single player campaign leads me to believe that this game was in fact cut in half so that a sequel could be made.  For a FPS the campaign should be no shorter than 10 hours to play through.  Most well developed FPS's adhere to this whilst some that are either rush jobs or cash in sequels (cough Call of Duty cough) have chosen to fob off gamers with awful single player modes and I reckon it's time gamers started to vote with their wallets.

If you are just buying the latest Call of Duty for the multiplayer, then why bother?  Has it really changed that much since Call of Duty 4 Modern Warfare?  It still uses the silly ranking up system (a topic for another rant) and still has the same basic mechanics.  OK the scenarios and maps are different but so what?  Is it really worth £40 just for that?  PC modders have been converting games for years and in many cases doing a hell of a lot better job than the actual developers and what's more, their content is free, not some overcharged pile of crap that console owners put up with.

I know companies have to make money.  But it is a tired excuse and frankly if you are happy to pay the same amount of money for less content then you are an idiot, plain and simple.  The moment you give these companies any scope to do less they will do, you simply have to keep on at them.

Annoying someone from Kaos studios who developed Homefront went on record to say that if the games playing public want a bigger single player campaign in future Homefront games then they will have to ask for it!  What a wonderful attitude.  And how many Homefront users will it take for Kaos studios to make the campaign larger?  Probably at least 60% of those that purchased it and let's be honest that's not going to happen because the majority of people who own the game would probably have not even been aware that Kaos studios issued that statement.

It is about time that games reviewers started to really mark down the games for having a poor single player campaign.  It is about time that these reviewers stopped worrying about sponsorship deals and freebies and actually started to act in the best interest of the gamers out there which is what they should be doing.

Unless this is nipped in the bud now, it will get much worse in time and once again it will be the end user that loses out. 

3DS, CRYSIS 2 & GETTING RIPPED OFF

After much consideration I passed on going to the big VIP launch of the 3DS last night.  The main reason ultimately came down to the fact that after I left my friends house, I was simply far too tired to deal with having to stand in a queue for ages whilst some giddy sales assistants and Nintendo reps skipped around trying whip the gathered throng into a frenzy and taking pictures of all and sundry.

Believe me, I did the Apple iPad launch day last year and that was bad enough!

I weighed up my mood, my stamina and also the fact that I had 24 games to trade in and concluded that I couldn't be bothered with the whole who ha.

I decided instead to go first thing this morning (well as soon as the store opened).  First up was getting fleeced over how much I got for all the games I traded in.  £89.00.  That's right, just £89.00 for 24 traded in games.  That averages out about £3.70 per game.  Some games I only got .50p for.  50 bloody pence!  The case and the instruction are worth more than that!  Just where do they get the prices from?  After doing my article about the necessity for trading in games the other day, I felt like fate was kicking me, with great gusto and enthusiasm, right in the bollocks!

At the end of the day, and I am really trying to extract some semblance of philosophy from the episode, I was not going to play those games again so something is better than nothing.  It will take me some time to recover though.

So I got the Aqua Blue one.  I don't know why, but I just get sick to death of the same old boring black consoles.  My PSP is some sort of metallic red colour and it suits me just fine.  Along with that I got Ridge Racer, Pilot Wings Resort and Ghost Recon Shadow Wars.  They will keep me going for a while though I do have my eye on the Splinter Cell 3D game as well which looks good.

The 3D works really well and it is a technically impressive gadget.  The main operating system owes more to the Wii's channel system interface and it's all the better for it.  It was was simple and quick to get going and update so full marks there.  Obviously I have not played it enough to garner a proper opinion worthy of a review but my first impressions are very positive.

So that covers the 3DS and being ripped off so what is left?  Ah yes, Crysis 2.  I have not had chance to play this yet though I am looking forward to it.  I enjoyed the multiplayer demo that was online so I reckon I should get on with this.  I just wish I had a PC to enjoy it in it's full glory but I will make do with the 360 version for now.  I have a Mac capable of running the latest games, it's just that few companies actually bother releasing stuff for it which is frustrating.  I simple cannot justify splashing out on a PC to go with my Mac Book Pro and my iMac.  Even by my standards that is far too indulgent.

THE LIVES OF OTHERS

No am I am not going to talk about the excellent film that came out a few years back, but rather the ease with which the unintentional actions of others can have such an effect on you.

This morning I was happily sat drinking a cup of coffee in the conservatory with the doors open.  It was a cool morning but I am someone who likes fresh air and coolness.  So I am sat there going through my emails and logging onto to Twitter enjoying the quiet time after people have drifted off to work and so on.  Being out in suburbia and surrounded by trees I can sometimes get the impression that I am in the country with no one else around.  It's a good feeling to have from time to time and can be relaxing.

So there I am in a good zen like mood when all of a sudden drifting on the airwaves like some sort of noxious lethal gas came the sound of the song Tragedy.  Now it would have been bad enough if this had been the falsetto warble of the Bee Gees, but sadly and tragically (every pun intended) it was by the supremely talentless Steps.  Whoever was playing this 'song' not only has a shit taste in music but also absolutely no shame at all.  I would rather wire my gentleman's parts to a car battery and repeatedly switch the engine on and off than listen to such audio rapists as Steps.  The thought of actually playing 'music' like that so loud so as to advertise the fact is beyond any sort of consideration!

Thankfully I only had to endure the one audio assault before whoever it was came to timely and sticky end at the hands of a more militant objector or they closed whatever escape hatch this evil was escaping from.

OK, in isolation this doesn't really matter, but it served as a reminder of what I really hate about summer the most.  Other peoples noise.

For some strange reason, people seem to like sharing with everyone what they are listening to, talking about or doing in general whilst they are in their back gardens in summer.  Frankly I could not give a toss what taste in music they have as I can be assured that it certainly won't be anything I like and I certainly don't want to know what is going on in their lives as for some reason, people who talk outdoors seem to insist on talking far louder than usual despite the fact that their intended target can be no more than two feet away.  If this was confined to the day that would be OK, but for some reason it has to carry on at night.  It is like there is no escape from having to listen to other peoples bullshit in one for or another.

The icing on the cake is usually the outdoor BBQ that turns into some sort of all night party.  It appears that other people are not entitled to sleep because the party goers have to get drunk and shout/slur/sing/vomit their way through to the point where they pass out, which on average where I live tends to be around 4.00am.  Hey guess what arseholes?  I am not attending your party so I don't want to share in any of it, including your crappy music, your stupid brain dead conversations or actually your life in anyway shape or form.  I really couldn't care less and I would really like it if you all were to vanish from the face of the Earth.

It's at times like this I really wish a had a supply of hand grenades or a sniper rifle or something to shut the irritating bastards up with!

You see, I don't believe that I should inflict my noise on other people if I can help it.  OK there are always occasions when it is unavoidable but that is different than the air headed attitude that most people tend to have these days where they actually seem to go out of the way to annoy other people.  It is symptomatic of today's society that no one really gives a shit about how their actions affect others.  It is not about being boring it is about having the basic semblance of consideration for other people that you have to share the vicinity with.  It should never be the case that someone else's noise should keep you up all night.  Laws passed are a waste of time because the Police never bother turning up unless there is some sort of fight and let's face it, do we really need to have the Police to come and tell us to turn the music down or behave in a civilised fashion?

My philosophy in life is to do what you want and have a good time but never ever at the expense of others.  I just wish these selfish muppets would consider that from time to time.