On Sunday’s post about Freedom Fighters i mentioned that you are given control of up to 4 squad mates. I am currently commanding 5. How is that possible? You can actually have up to 12. It says so on the back of the box cover………..
My first post was published yesterday on www2.onthisisland.com. Onthisisland is a great site to check what events are and will be taking place in Cyprus and also hosts opinions on these. It’s a sign of how far games have come when they can be found alongside music, sports and movie events. I will be posting at least once a week on the site.
Here is the link to the first post Game releases (23 - 29 February 2009)
Flower is one of those experiences i never want them to end. I need to savour every second and prolong it for as much as possible. I don’t want to see any more today. I want to save some for tomorrow and the day after that. Besides, i can still dream and tomorrow i will be dreaming of Flower until it’s that time again to live it.
As part of my always play a “retro” game alongside the current gen fetish, i started Freedom Fighters on the original Xbox (Developed by IO Interactive and released in 2003). It’s a third person shooter which also gives you 4 more fighters under your command which adds squad based combat. It’s so much FUN!!! Big explosions, a lot of ammo and a large number of enemy troops make for a good blasting fun recipe. The controls are mostly simple and responsive (if not perfect - especially using the two thumbsticks to access inventory) and the story is on the light side with some funny, if cliche, jokes about the Soviets/Communists.
The book continues to fascinate me in a chilling way. Here is an excerpt of comments made by other people about two figures who were greatly involved in the mass murders in the Soviet Union during 1937-8.
“Those who knew these mass murderers later reflected that Malenkov or Krushchev were ‘not wicked by nature’, not ‘what they eventually became. They were men of their time.”
I managed to finish it today. The game is simply magnificent. Interesting and refreshing gameplay elements with a good solid story to give you even more incentive to make progress. Add to that some of the most memorable characters in games. Jade and Pey’J especially but also agent Double H. A real shame it did not do well commercially at the time.
Loved it. Big thumps up!
It’s not often that i get excited with the Wii and DS anymore. However this week, two major announcements have caught my eye.
1. The Nintendo DSi will be launched in Europe on April 3rd, two days before the US launch. This is great news as i am really interested to see what kind of applications and games will be made for the DSiWare. Stephen Totilo at MTV Multiplayer had his first hands on encounter with the console. Brief but interesting nevertheless. The price is expected to be around GBP150.
2. Mad World on the Wii also got a release date. March 20th - link. After seeing that first trailer it’s been a highly anticipated title in my book. Probably the only Wii game i know and care about for 2009. The developers are the main guys behind games like Okami and Viewtiful Joe and were part of Capcom’s, now closed down, Clover Studio .
3. The last bit of news is not actually news but what the hell. Last week The House of the Dead: Overkill was released on the Wii. It’s an on rails shooter packed with zombies and it’s the kind of game that should be ideal on the Wii. Especially co-op. I was disappointed with Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles but after reading some mostly positive reviews for The House of the Dead: Overkill i decided to give the genre another try. I will have more comments on this soon. Just need to find the right partner for this one. Someone who will stick after that first try…..
How can one not have memories of the Street Fighter series in the arcades. I was never any good at it of course and in any case I was more of the NBA Jam type of player.
But going to Piccadilly, especially during the anti-occupation demonstrations, was part of my teenage life. Street Fighter 2 was by far the most popular machine in that place. You could see people playing the “single player” campaign but also playing the Vs mode. Coin after coin. Challenger after challenger.
I can still remember some of the epic Blanka Vs Ryu battles and Honda’s hand slapping people around. Even when I was playing with my Phoenix Suns, Charles Barkley and Kevin Johnson I could hear (Sho-)ryu-ken in the background.
It was the lion in the jungle. The King of all
It’s now 2009 and I am twice the age I was then. The popularity of the beat-em-up genre has been replaced by the FPS. It’s now all about Call of Duty and Halo.
But, after a million versions of SF2 and a not so well received SF3 Capcom wants to lure old fans back and attract newcomers as well with Street Fighter IV.
Edge reviewed the arcade version and gave it a 10. Eurogamer reviewed the console version and gave it a 10. Will Street Fighter 4 prove to be enough to revive a whole genre on its own? That I do not know.
What I do know is that it is my game of the week.
Release list:
(1) Street Fighter IV (360, PS3)
(2) Race Pro (360)
(3) 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand (360, PS3)
(4) Disgaea 3 : Absent of Justice (PS3)
(5) Dragon Quest: The Hand of the Heavenly Bride (DS)
(6) Rogue Trooper: Quartz Zone Massacre (Wii)
(7) Nerf-N-Strike (Wii)
(8) X-Blades (360, PS3, PC)
(9) B-Team Metal Cartoon Squad (DS)
(10) Eledees: The Adventures of Kai & Zero (DS)
I am against the idea of readers at this point in time primarily for two reasons.
The first is that it’s expensive to carry around with you. I wouldn’t feel comfortable taking a Euro 400 gadget with me to the beach or throwing it in my bag to read during my vacations. It just adds stress to reading books.Compare this to just carrying around a paperback. Let’s face it, having hundreds of titles stored on the reader is meaningless as you are only reading one at a time.
The second is that not all books are available on these devices. Forking out a small fortune just to find out in 1 year that the book i want to purchase is not available on the device is simply ridiculous. I will be spending money which will only limit my book options.
Amazon’s Kindle 2 is another step in the right direction, much like it’s predecessor especially for reading magazines and blogs but the above issues remain. It’s expensive and not all books are available. Oh, and currently only available in the US…..
One of my gaming resolutions is to play BG&E. Luckily enough soon after this decision Brainy Gamer and his Vintage Game Club voted to make this their next game. That gave me the incentive to start playing it along with them and read, if not join, their discussion of the game. I am playing it on the original Xbox (not 360 compatible) and the years have been good to it (released in 2003 by Ubisoft). You will read it in every article you encounter about BG&E. It has two of the most unique characters and relationships to ever grace the video game screen. Jade and Pey’j’.
Not to mention gameplay. Making photography the most significant gameplay part of the game is refreshing in a medium dominated by weapons and killings. I was planning to write something more about it at some stage but i just saw Eurogamer had a retrospective article about it. It contains spoilers so be warned ( i stopped reading it after a point) but it’s a good read.
I really encourage you to play the game. The PC version might be the most easy to find/download and has the better graphics. Another of those great games you never played probably.
