In the first (or is it second?) episode of the Playdit Podcast, we do our first "minute" reviews of Splinter Cell: Conviction, Final Fight/Magic Sword and I give my impressions of the Blur Beta. Why read it when you can listen to it summed up in a minute? We also sling some knowledge your way and we keep it all in a nice neat little package. Enjoy.

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Magic Sword FTW!

This week we see Final Fight Double Impact released on the PSN and XBLA, Double Impact contains updated classic games Magic Sword and Final Fight released for around $10 or so (£8 could be the UK price point) Personally I can't wait to get my hands on Magic Sword as it has been a long time since I last played the game. (Some time in the early Nineties in a dingy sea front arcade in Rhyl to be exact) It truly did amaze me at the time with its fantasy styled hack and slash gameplay.



One novel idea I liked was the fact that you could open gates to get a ninja (or some other character such as a warrior, magician or knight) to help you out in the game as you walked along fighting skeletons and a whole host of other creatures. (Including some impressive looking bosses) Magic Sword in my opinion is one of Capcom's greatest games of the 90`s so if you like retro (Why did I have to slag off MegaMan 10 just to be made to look dumb now?) then this is the good kind of retro game that you should be playing.

Final Fight isn't to shabby a game either, so with two classic games for the price of a normal arcade game? You could do a lot worse than pick this package this week. (Like buying the 3D remake of Bionic Commando from the bargin bin for the same price as these two great games.)

Sony's First Play Sucks So Far

Sony's First Play got released this week as some of you may know, for those that don't know about First Play you can check out the video below to see what it is all about.



Now I know that I shouldn't have really expected much from First Play, but after Sony pushing it quite a bit lately in magazines I really thought it would be better than it is. I am now regretting paying £8.99 for a 3 month subscription for a bunch of videos that you can see on the Internet for free. As for the video reviews, they just seem to be a carbon copy of Game Face`s which are also available for free. The one saving grace for subscribing to this shite could be the DLC, but with this weeks being a different parachute for Rico in Just Cause 2 it could be nothing more than window dressing.

Then throw in the fact that you have to watch an advertisement before you can see whats coming up in the next episode and you have one pissed off gamer. Why should I have to pay for something then end up watching an advert for Sky HD, OK I know its only 99p a week but I am still paying 99p so I don't expect adverts to be forced upon me without the ability to skip them. (Made worse by the fact that I already have Sky HD so I am seeing an advert something I already bloody own)

Hopefully as time goes by we will see better things from this official Sony magazine product, yet I doubt we will unless something changes are made, heck just let me skip the adverts and I will be a bit happier. Hopefully the exclusives and other stuff will appear soon as promised, but until then save your money for something better.

Moustached Plumber Strikes?

Someones mum (Your's maybe?) had a bit of an accident today while out shopping, this was due to her being intoxicated while driving her spaz buggy around town. The pissed up woman crashed through some barriers and into a trench dug by the local lazy arse council. She then just sat there for 2 hours complaining that some moustache wearing plumber had thrown some turtle shell at her, which caused her to swerve off the road to avoid being hit and ended up in the ditch. These claims were laughable though since moustache's haven't been seen in Britain since the early to mid 80's.

Crazy Lady's Spaz Buggy Crash

She is due to appear in court later this week facing charges of Drink Spaz Buggy Driving, Damaging council property and being in possession of an offensive looking coat. Personally I think a game called "Spaz Buggy Driving" which involves racing and avoiding and throwing turtle shells could be quite interesting, so lets hope that a developers jumps on this idea soon. Then again a plumber with a moustache being in a videogame? Hell no to that idea, thats just retarded.

Games You Should Avoid In February 2010

Well people always ask us what game should they buy next? Well screw that idea, here is a list of crap available in February 2010 that you should avoid like the plague.

The TV show was shite, if you haven't seen it basically its about this old biddy that kills people and blames it on someone else while managing to be annoying as hell in the process. The only thing I can think of that would be worse than that is this game.



Have you ever played a game with a member of your family and been so infuriated by their complete lack of skill that you just want them to take a long walk of a short pier? The longer they play the more wound up you get until you finally snap and ruin Christmas? If so then like me you should avoid this and any other game with family in the title.



American Truckers are all big fat redneck cousin marrying idiots that drive miles on open roads from one destination to the next killing hookers at truck stops and delivering their load. British Truckers are all big fat idiots that spend all the time in traffic jams and pick up hookers at night. I know I will be giving this game a miss as sitting in traffic is boring as hell, so a game letting you do the same thing couldn't be any better.



Did the makers of this game not play Crash Time I & II? This should be avoided just for having the same title as the two previous titles in the series. Heck I would rather give someone the money I would spend on the game and get them to beat me up, at least it would e less painless than the first two games.



V8 Super Stars was crap, so I am gonna apply a bit of maths to this equation. Crap + Follow Up = More Crap.

I had to look twice when I saw that this game was available to pre-order in February. If we all wanted to play a game with 2007 in the title we would have stopped buying EA games 3 years ago. Crap game, even crappier idea to release this again in 2010.

Basically fishing sucks, I don't really think I need to add anymore.

Final Fantasy XIII International Trailer

Well the "International Trailer" for Final Fantasy XIII got released today, chances are you have probably seen it by now. I have to say as far as trailers go the first 2 and a half minutes have to be the shittest thing I have ever seen. If Square-Enix really want to sell this game to more than the usual Final Fantasy fans that have been fans of the series for ages, then they need to do an edit of the trailer and cut out the start and jump straight to the last 2 minutes.

Trailer from G4TV.Com

The last 2 minutes of the trailer are what could get more people intrested in the game, as it is exactly what you would expect to see in a trailer for a game. Square-Enix just best not fuck up the game as badly as they did with their idea of a trailer, otherwise I know I wont be playing through 40 hours of shite just for a great ending to the game.

Quest For Booty Leads To Fools Gold

After completing "A Crack In Time" I figured I had best play the prequel "Quest For Booty" as I just hadn't gotten around to playing the game. (Stupid downloadable game that I got (Thanks Code) and forget about then ended up buying the disk based version as well) The game is basically an episodic filler bridging the gap between Tools of Destruction and A Crack In Time, As such you only get to play as Ratchet in this short and brief encounter.

The game sees you (Ratchet) trying to find your sidekick Clank who went missing at the end of "Tools of Destruction" the games storyline really is lack luster at best. The levels are really short if you can even count them as levels, it just feels like the game is something that has been left out from the end of Tools of Destruction.

Ratchet & er..Ratchet at their worst!

There seems to be lots missing that you normally see in a Ratchet & Clank games, No weapon sellers, only one big boss, no Quark and even worse the humour is very thin on the ground (Humour is one of the best things I like about the series.) Saying the game is a bit of a let down may seem unfair but at the same time it is entirely true. If there was a reason that this was left out of "Tools of Destruction" then the reason could be that the "Quest For Booty" just wouldn't fit in with Tools of Destruction's superior level design and tight game play.

Quest For Booty just feels like a shoddy release by a company that normally prides itself on making quality games. If you really feel the need to play every game in the Ratchet & Clank series, then you have no choice but to play "Quest For Booty" if not then I would suggest skipping this game (If you can really call it that) and playing through one of the other games in the series again.