Failed Impressions: DC Universe Online Free To Play

DC Universe Online has now gone free to play (free to play could also read: DC Universe Online's attempt to get more people playing it?) on the PS3. So when I got in from work last night I decided to download the game and give it a go. I have to admit I was shocked that it was only 125mb, then after that installed I got a message saying there was an update which once again was 125mb. What then followed was a nice screen with some of the DC characters on it and a long ass bar that said over 14gig of game data needed to be downloaded.

Needless to say I never got chance to play it at all last night as it took forever to download (even worse is the fact that I have to go through the whole thing again tonight to put the game on my son's PS3) So basically I left my system on over night then woke up this morning to be asked which world I wanted to join. (PvE or PvP) I picked PvE as at 6am I couldn't really give a crap, this was then followed by a storyline video and about 10 minutes of rushing through the character creation system so I could get at least sometime trying the game. (I picked to play as a villain I don't know why but it always seems to be the path I choose when given the option)

Graphically the game doesn't look to bad and the initial controls seem to be solid enough to start with, so basically in-between getting showered, dressed and ready for work I managed to squeeze in a measly 10 minutes of game-play. This saw me beat up a few guards and a bigger type of defence droid, I have to say the game does seem like it will be pretty good and I think I will enjoy it. I just can't really say if it's worth sticking with the free to play version or upgrading to the pay monthly one. If you can be bothered downloading over 14gig of data and not being able to use your PS3 for the day then I would recommend giving it a try. (although it is boring just watching the download bar move ever so slowly along)

Impressions: inFamous Festival of Blood

inFamous is one of those games that I bought at launch and never really got around to playing for more than an hour or so. (Mainly due to my mate borrowing it and not returning it for about a month by which time I was playing something else so couldn't be arsed with it, plus by then I had dismissed it as just a crackdown clone) So just why I bought inFamous: Festival of Blood is beyond me, I think it was the price and the fact that being a member of Playstation Plus I got an extra bit off that tempted me to get it.

In festival of blood Cole brings back to life the vampire queen Bloody Mary (Whoever thought of that shitty name needs a swift kick to the head) who then ends up turning him into a vampire. Left with the choice of either defeating the vampire before sunrise or becoming her slave for eternity Cole has little choice but to kick her ass back to hell. (Or wherever dead vampires go when they die before being resurrected)

What then follows is a very enjoyable action game that has you searching for vampires, fighting vampires and er.. other vampire stuff including biting innocent civilians necks to feed on their blood to gain the power of flight. (Which see's you turning into a swarm of bats) You also gain vampire vision and sense that sees your head turning read when a first born vampire is around. Activating your vamp vision makes humans turn pink while the first borns are blue, this makes it easier to spot them so you can stab them in the face with the stake/sword combo you carry about.

Festival weighs in with around 4-5 hours or so of game play if you don't include the UGC (User generated content) which is basically a pile of shite, or run through the game as quick as you can. Personally I quite enjoyed the whole experience of playing Festival of Blood and would recommend getting it due to the low price. (around £8 or so) Some people may moan about the short amount of time it takes to complete, yet to me it feels just right as you can't really drag the storyline out any more than Sucker Punch did without it getting tiresome. I would have to say that the best part of the game for me was the flying through the city as bats, I really thought that was a really nice touch and added something new. Overall I would have to give inFamous: Festival of Blood a solid

Bargain Bucket Gaming: Red Faction Armageddon

The game that divided fans of the Red Faction series, personally I think it's a cracking game and really enjoyed it a lot more than the previous game. Some of the arguments are that it took a step back with not being a sand box style game, yet I feel that it had a great story and really enjoyed the experience. (So much so I played through the story 3 times in a row from normal to the insane difficulty level)

Another argument is that the online multi player was a let down, this is one thing I can't really comment on since I never played online in Guerilla. The online in Armageddon is basically just a copy of Horde from Gears of War, which really isn't to bad.....well until you start getting bored of playing it. The thing with the PS3 is that either nobody has a headset or if someone does you don't want to speak to them as they are an annoying prick that you just want to punch.

That being said though the Story mode is where the fun in this game is at, the story is well scripted and will entertain you enough. The levels are pretty varied and do offer enough variation so you don't tire of the game, and best of all upon completion of the game you get to unlock the best weapon in the game the amazing Mr Toots! (See video below)

With the game now being available for the low price of £10 for a new copy of the game, there really hasn't been a better time to pick up the game. Red Faction Armageddon will offer you an enjoyable experience that will fill brighten up any boring sunday afternoon. The bad thing about the game is the storyline is only about 6-7 hours long. (Although that does seem to be the average length of times these days so I don't know why people are moaning about it) One word of warning though, don't do like I did and then purchase the Path of War DLC as it sucks ass, it basically contains 2 vehicle levels (the one flying the ship sucks extra ass) and two other on foot levels, really it felt like these had been left out for being to shit to be included in the original storyline. Overall I have to give this game a

Impressions: Crysis on the PS3

Crysis is one PC game I always wanted to play and with me always owning a piece of shit PC that never runs anything I didn't think I would ever get the chance. That all changed thanks to EA releasing the game on the PS3 and I have to admit I quite enjoyed the experience although the game was pretty easy even on the hardest setting. (Apart from one part which took me a couple of attempts to get past)

The game weighs in at around 6-7 hours of game play, with pretty good graphics on the PS3 version (Although it still has some occasional bouts of not looking all that crisp on some sections of the game) The game puts you in the shoes of Lieutenant Jake Dune (Codenamed: Nomad) and sees you as part of a team travelling to North Korea to save some archaeologists who have been captured after making an important discovery. Shortly after that the shit hits the fan as not only are the Korean's trying to kill you but also gain the power of what has been discovered in the mountains by the archaeological team.

If that wasn't bad enough things get even worse when you learn that the discovery is an alien vessel, which along with the aliens on board come back to life. So now you have to do the one thing every shooter has you attempting to do, and that's blow the son of a bitches to pieces. The game as a whole is a quite enjoyable and will keep you entertained as you play through it. The only bad thing I can say is that there is no reason to play the game once finished (Unless you won't to grab that last trophy that you may have missed) The hardest difficulty isn't really that hard apart from in about 2 sections but even these you can get past after a couple of attempts.

Overall for the price (£15.99) you get a decent enough single player experience that you will enjoy. However that is all you get, no multi-player or re-playability, so with that in mind you may want to give Crysis a miss if that kind of thing bothers you. Personally though I think with some of the crap I have played that cost nearly 3 times as much as Crysis you are getting a good deal.

Borderlands, Baby & Marriage

Well I have started gaming again and made myself a new account on the PS3, that is one of the main reasons why I haven't blogged in a while. A few of the other reasons are that me and my better half have been planning our wedding and just when we thought we had everything running smoothly we got a surprise to say the least. It turns out that we are now having a baby as well, so things just keep getting in the way of updating this blog.

Starting a new account on the PS3 is a bit of a double edged sword, I have now resigned myself to losing all the progress I made in Demon Souls, Final Fantasy XIII and a host of other games I have invested time in. Yet I get to play some of the games I have really enjoyed in the past again, and having a new tag makes me able to get trophies in these games. (Yes I know trophies are shit but if it makes sure that I complete Ratchet & Clank once again they are worth it)

So the big question is in-between planning the wedding, going to baby scans and getting stuff ready for both events just what games should I replay and what new games should I purchase. Well after thinking about it I really want to give Borderlands a proper go, it is one game that I really enjoyed in the past but stopped playing for some unknown reason. This time I have decided to commit to the game and have ordered the GOTY edition even though I already own a copy of the original version of the game. Hopefully this will spur me on and if I enjoy it I then have the four DLC additions available to play as well. (As well as this I can now play co-op with my son which also doubles as quality family time if I give him the other copy of the game lol)

So that's about it for this update, hopefully I will find time to update this blog again soon, till next time adiós and thanks for dropping by. :)

Games I Really Should Finish

The other night I was looking for something to play, staring at my shelves I saw quite a few games that I hadn't finished never mind some that I had still yet to start. So it got me thinking which games do I really need to play and finish before I forget about them completely, it also made me question why I hadn't finished them as well. I mean over the course of my life I have started and finished numerous games, even crap like My Horse & Me 2! So just why is it that I have some great games just sitting there on my shelf begging to be played to completion and I am just ignoring them choosing to play some pile of shite instead?

I bought this recently thinking I really need to play this after enjoying the first game (although I got bored with collecting all the flags in the first one so never finished that either) Since then it has been sat on my shelf for a few weeks only to be ignored. I am determined to play through the game sooner rather than later though.

I first bought inFamous on release and really did start to enjoy the game, although I did end up lending it to my next door neighbour the next day so he could see if he wanted to get it or not. About 2 months past until I finally got the game back, by then I couldn't be arsed with the game so put it on my shelf to collect dust.

Why I bought Killzone 2 is beyond me as I really didn't like the first game, (Which really should have warned me off the sequel) I still can't make my mind up over this game as I really don't like the control system, yet I have enjoyed the time I have spent with the game. Maybe I am just used to the controls on the 360 when playing shooters.

Split Second was one of those games that looked really good and I just had to play, yet so long after and I still can't be arsed playing it after dumping it onto my shelf. I think the reason why I stopped playing the game was either due to nagging or cheap A.I. (Hopefully it was due to nagging since I aim to give the game another whirl over the next few weeks)

Uncharted took the idea of Tomb Raider and ran with it resulting in a more solid and fun game, yet still this game got taken out of my PS3 and dumped on the shelf for some unknown reason. What really puzzles me though is as well as not finishing this game I also have the second one still sealed sat next to it.

What is really annoying though is these are just a few of the games that I need to either play or finish, its scandalous the amount I have spent on games just to never play. I know we all do it, but generic game x as it is on sale and seems like a bargain at the time, then 2 months on and it's completely forgotten about. Maybe I need to start looking at what I actually have to play in future rather than buying yet more games to ignore.

Older Games I Really Should Finish

The other night I was looking for something to play, staring at my shelves I saw quite a few games that I hadn't finished never mind some that I had still yet to start. So it got me thinking which games do I really need to play and finish before I forget about them completely, it also made me question why I hadn't finished them as well. I mean over the course of my life I have started and finished numerous games, even crap like My Horse & Me 2! So just why is it that I have some great games just sitting there on my shelf begging to be played to completion and I am just ignoring them choosing to play some pile of shite instead?

I bought this recently thinking I really need to play this after enjoying the first game (although I got bored with collecting all the flags in the first one so never finished that either) Since then it has been sat on my shelf for a few weeks only to be ignored. I am determined to play through the game sooner rather than later though.

I first bought inFamous on release and really did start to enjoy the game, although I did end up lending it to my next door neighbour the next day so he could see if he wanted to get it or not. About 2 months past until I finally got the game back, by then I couldn't be arsed with the game so put it on my shelf to collect dust.

Why I bought Killzone 2 is beyond me as I really didn't like the first game, (Which really should have warned me off the sequel) I still can't make my mind up over this game as I really don't like the control system, yet I have enjoyed the time I have spent with the game. Maybe I am just used to the controls on the 360 when playing shooters.

Split Second was one of those games that looked really good and I just had to play, yet so long after and I still can't be arsed playing it after dumping it onto my shelf. I think the reason why I stopped playing the game was either due to nagging or cheap A.I. (Hopefully it was due to nagging since I aim to give the game another whirl over the next few weeks)

Uncharted took the idea of Tomb Raider and ran with it resulting in a more solid and fun game, yet still this game got taken out of my PS3 and dumped on the shelf for some unknown reason. What really puzzles me though is as well as not finishing this game I also have the second one still sealed sat next to it.

What is really annoying though is these are just a few of the games that I need to either play or finish, its scandalous the amount I have spent on games just to never play. I know we all do it, but generic game x as it is on sale and seems like a bargain at the time, then 2 months on and it's completely forgotten about. Maybe I need to start looking at what I actually have to play in future rather than buying yet more games to ignore.

Glutton For Punishment

Demon Soul's is one major pain in the ass, this game has pissed off so many people in the first couple of hours that they have sworn to never play the game again. Well last time I was playing the game I decided to kill the shop keeper on the very first stage after buying some armour. I did this thinking that I would just be able to steal my money back and he would just re-spawn later in the game.

Unfortunately that wasn't the case and the result was I got nothing back and he never re-spawned at all. So I soldiered on with the game for as long as I could before finding out that my weapons and armour were not strong enough and it wasn't worth going on. All the time I had spent playing the game was now just a waste of time.

Yet this weekend I was just sat thinking about what I could play, and I decided to once again return to Demon Soul's. The game is still hard as nails and very infuriating, yet it just has this charm about it. This time I won't kill the shop keeper and hopefully get a lot further than I did last time, although I know there will be plenty of hair pulling moments along the way as the game punishes me for not blocking when I know I should or doing something retarded. That is all part of the charm of the game though; when you die its because you did something that was a dumb ass move on your part, not because the game is just being a twat for the sake of it.

Initial Impressions: Trials HD

Well I thought I would finally give Trials HD a whirl after hearing how good it was from some of my buddies a while ago. I was expecting something along the lines of "Joe Danger" except with a more realistic look. I have to say though that I was left a bit disappointed. I will admit that I only tried the first 4-5 levels of the game so it could be a case of just needing to spend a bit more time with the game to see it at its best.

With that being said though sometimes you only need to spend 5 minu

tes playing to know if your going to like a game; and if that's the case then Trials HD is something that I feel is cold and lacking soul. If you have the choice of playing either Joe Danger or Trials HD then it has to Joe Danger every time. It is a shame though as I really wanted to like Trials HD as it does kind of remind me of the old Spectrum game Kick Start. (And the much improved sequel Kick Start 2) Yet it feels like a step backwards in time and not in a good way.

Trials HD is a simple game that wouldn't be out of place on a compilation with any of the games you used to play back in the day and enjoyed. You know the type I mean, the ones that were fun once but if you played them today you would think "Wow this game is so crap, how the heck did I used to enjoy this shit!" Trails HD is a Marmite game, (You either like it or you don't) and for me this is one game I wish I didn't bother playing, whether that will change when I next try it will be another matter, but for now I have to say I doubt it.

Ratchet & Clank: A Crack In Time

Ratchet and Clank is probably one of Sony's best selling game series with "A Crack In Time" being the ninth game to be released. (5 PS2 games, 2 PSP game and 3 PS3 games, with Size Matters being ported from the PSP to the PS2) Lets face it if you have ever owned a Sony system then you will have at played one of the Ratchet and Clank games at some time or another. Some of you will be glad to know that "A Crack In Time" is yet more of the same great 3D platforming slash shooting action that the series is best known and loved for. (Even better now though as the annoying underwater sections don't make an appearence in the game)


If however you have yet to play a Ratchet & Clank game due to being in a Siberian prison for the last 15 years, surviving on gruel and water for crimes against the state. Then you are in for a treat as not only has the world has changed so much but gaming has moved forward so much since when you were locked away in your cold damp cell. (Games now come on a thing called Disks instead of cartridges, amazing or what) Basically think Mario 64 with big ass and crazy weapons with humour a bit similar to Conker and you will be heading somewhere in the right direction.

EVIL GENIUS RETURNS!!..with butler

The evil (highley amusing) Dr Nefarious and his mechanical butler Lawrence make a welcome return as the bad guys in the game. (I just couldn't warm to Emperor Percival Tachyon as the bad guy in the last two games, he just to entertain when compared to the ultimate bad guy Dr Nefarious) Captain Quark also makes his usual prescence felt through the game again (The classic village idiot/cowardly hero) upon completing the game there is a part after the credits with him that really cracked me up, so just don't wander off when the credits start rolling.

One thing that make the Ratchet and Clank series enjoyable is the imagination that goes into the script and the weapons featured in the game. (All of which can be levelled up to cause even more death and destruction) These really need to be seen in action, with the Rhino V5 being completely mental to say the least.

The Ratchet & Clank series will always have parts that you enjoy more than others, for example I hated the underwater sections in the previous games that don't appear in "A Crack In Time", yet I also still don't enjoy the Clank only sections either that much, sure it does add more of a puzzling element to the game but I am happy with the death and destruction that Ratchet brings. This time however I did enjoy the Clank sections than I have done in previous games as the new puzzles were quite enjoyable to play through, with the ones needing completing for the last few gold bolts being a particular pain in the ass. (In a good way though)

HE REALLY IS A DUMBASS!

Once completing the game you also get given the chance to play through the game again on the harder Challenge Mode. (This gives you the chance to get your hands on even more powerful versions of your weapons, and everything you got in your first playthrough carries over just like in the previous games) The game demands to be played through again on this mode, this is what gaming is all about, not Trophies and Achievements as so many gamers seem preoccupied with nowdays. Gaming should be about fun and enjoyment and Ratchet & Clank is the embodiment of this, seeking little more than to entertain you from start to finish, so much so that you will want to play it again upon completion.

A Crack In Time is another Ratchet & Clank game that does everything right, and so little wrong. If you have never played a Ratchet & Clank game before then this could be the game that makes you want to pick up the previous games in the series, and play through the back story of Ratchet & Clank. (Ratchet & Clank 1-3 on the PS2 are amazing games which are still as playable today as they were upon first release)