Legendary Cars Pack Drops Feb 19th

Burnout Paradise surely isn’t short of fantastic cars to roam that streets in. The Cagney pack brought the Hippie Wagon and the Steel Oval Racer to our streets, and the bikes back gave us some 2 wheel action. These packs were free for the masses, but that hasn’t stopped the ideas flowing over at Criterion.
Mere weeks after the launch of the first paid downloadable content, the Party Pack (review over here) Criterion are launching the Legendary Cars Pack on Feb 19th.
Inspired by classic cars from movies, the pack will bring to us The Jansen 88 Special, which seems to be inspired by Back To The Future, why with all the hovering an all. We also get behind the wheel of the Manhattan Spirit, the Carson Nighthawk and last but not least The Hunter Bootlegger.
The pack will be live on the Burnout Store on Feb 19th for Xbox 360 and Playstation 3, no word on a PC release yet.

Should We Say Sorry?

Should this man say sorry? This is a debate that is waging right now, and quite frankly I quickly jumped on the NO bandwagon even before the question was asked.

For those of you who don’t know what the so called “Stolen Generation” is, let me fill you in. During the years of 1869 and 1969 the Governement after acts under Parliament, removed children of aboriginal decent from their parents and put into oprphaniges and internment camps. To what extent this happened is a large debate in Australia quite often.

Well now Mr Rudd is the king dick of the country, he has now announced that he will be offering a formal apology from his government, who might I remind readers represent each and every Australian citizen.

Some people will say I’m racist, and some people will say I’m ignorant, but I one hundred percent, without a doubt in my mind, believe that he should not say sorry.

I don’t care about it, it happened long before I was born, and it was finishing when my parents were a lot younger than I am, so they don’t really care. They had nothing to do with it, neither did I so there is no way in hell I will apologise,

The Government tried to do the right thing, and save a lot of children from abuse, and I think that while they may have gone about it the wrong way, and a lot of children were taken for the wrong reasons, it’s time for us all to move on.

 And uttering the word “Sorry” isn’t going to fix anything, instead they will just expect something more like some compensation of some kind.

So while Mr. Rudd believes this will win him some brownie points, I’m quite sure it’s going to make him lose a lot of fans

FUCK YOU ANTMAN

APOLOGISE TO ME!

Assassins Creed- Best Game Ever? LOL

 To say 2007 has been a big year in gaming would be a massive understatement. With the release of hugely anticipated titles such as Halo 3, Super Mario Galaxy, COD 4, Bioshock and many more we saw the hype and excitement growing bigger and bigger every second for Ubisoft’s latest release Assassins Creed. But is this stealthy adventure through the crusades really as good as everyone seems to making it out to be, in this gamers eyes….

 

LET DOWN OF THE YEAR

First thing that really got to me was the story. There had been speculation of the game actually having a future/sci-fi aspect to the story, even though all gameplay footage and screens were from the crusades. Well turns out those speculations were right, you are actually from the future, and through a device called the Animus, you can relive the memories of your ancestors who’s past travels through the marvel of genetics. I’m not going to lie, that is a very cool concept, and one that I should have embraced…. What really got me was that they announce this to you at the very start of the game. That is a huge bombshell to drop. Think of the possibilities of this weird and wonderful story with weird things happening and then three quarters through the game the bombshell is dropped for maximum effect and makes the story so much more interesting. But no, they decided to let us know this first few minutes into the game, and for some reason it never sat right with me.

So  you play as Altair, an assassin back during the time of the crusades. An interesting setting that is portrayed with vast landscapes and beautiful character models, there is no denying that this is one of the best looking games released this year. But is the gameplay that good?

After the tutorial mission and your first assasination, you have done all that you are going to do in the game, and after that it just seems boring and repetitive. How many citizens need to be saved from guards, all with the same things to say thanks with and the same amount of attackers, before you become bored, trust me after the first three or four you seem to stop caring.

That’s not to say it’s not good, it’s just not terribly exciting. I can tell you exactly what is going to happen for your first, and every sequential assasination mission thereafter. First you are going to sneak into the town in a group of preists as cover, then break away and find a man who is speaking to a crowd. You will follow him to an alley and beat the crap out of him unti you get the information you are looking for. After that, you will find someone to pickpocket who most likely has either throwing knives, or something of importance. Then you shall sit on a bench and eavesdrop on a conversation that tells you some more information. Find the assassins hideout, tell the guy you are good to go, then sneak out and kill your target. I know this all sounds fun, but after the first few times, it just gets old and boring

Controls are ok, and will take some getting used to, but every now and then you will find yourself jumping off a wall you were climbing instead of climbing a little higher.  They aren’t the best controls, but they certainly aren’t the worst. With some more refinement it would make the game a little more enjoyable, but still good controls aren’t going to make up for poor gameplay.

Is Assassins Creed good? YesIs it a visual delight? YesIs it the greatest game on Earth? Certainly not

I’m going to sum it up for you. There was so much hype surrounding this game, when picking up a copy of the latest Australian Playstation Magazine the cover boasted “Asssassins Creed- The game so outstanding it created a Genre of it’s own”

NO IT DIDN’T

If you want to know what playing Assassins Creed is like, imagine Metal Gear Solid having sex with Prince of Persia and then giving birth to Sam Fisher from Splinter Cell…. Interesting I know, but certainly not it’s own genre at all

Overall this is easily my dissapointment of the year

6/10

Super Mario Galaxy

 I’m not going to lie, I was stayed right away from getting my hopes up for the new Mario game to launch on the Nintendo Wii. Sunshine was the death of Mario for me, Mario 64 was his last shining moment of glory (unless you count Paper Mario which I’m not) and I seriously was thinking about giving it a miss.I’ve been a Mario fan since I was 3 years old, and have been playing his games for many years, but I’m not 3 years old anymore, I’m 20 and I honestly thought that a Mario game these days could not get me hooked….I WAS WRONG!What Mario Galaxy brings to the table is a visually glorious platformer that hooks you in from the start with it’s fantastic visual flair, vibrant soundtrack, pick up and play controls and fun and challenging gameplay.So the story is the same as other Mario games, basically the Princess is stolen by Bowser along with your pals, and it’s your job to get them back, but this time it’s in outer spaceSo after a few tutorials you’re on your way to learning more about the story (which I won’t spoil for those of you who don’t know)So off you travel to observatories which is your way to visiting new galaxies. A majority of the galaxies have three levels each, and at the end of each level you find a powerstar to unlock more galaxies. Every now and then you will find a galaxy that only has one level which usually has something special to do like a Surfboard race or rolling on a ball or floating in a bubble, which breaks up the gameplay and is certainly fun. All in all there are over 100 powerstars to find, so it’s safe to say that there is a bunch of gameplay out there. Each of the galaxies are quite large and offer a lot of room for exploring.The graphics are stunning, with a touch of realism added to the cartoonish world of the Mario Universe. Mario looks like a truly believable character and the goomba mushrooms look so cool, I found myself not wanting to kill them a lot of the time and just laugh at their faces. The one thing that really stands out are the water effects and the sun, both of which look better than some of the big players out in the graphical powerhouses (Bioshock for one)The soundtrack has some of the old school Mario music spiced up a little which brings in some new, and adds nostalgia for us older players. Each jump each bump and each enemy destroyed is a true aural delightThe controls are simple enough, the nunchuck is used to move mario around while the A button makes him jump. Mario can do a lot of the run of the mill platforming moves, double jump, climb onto ledges and the wall jump. Shaking the Wiimote makes Mario perform a spin attack, while pressing Z will make him do a smash jump which is effective for breaking boxes and what not. The controls work well, except occasionally they seemed a bit fiddly when running upside down, but still didn’t make the game unplayable. When pointing the Wiimote at the screen your star buddy can collect Starbits and also shoot at enemies to stun themThis is where I found the game let me down, Multiplayer support. I feel they should have stuck to the good old two players take it in turns and both get to control a character. Instead we are stuck with the second player performing the controls of the star buddy…. fun for a little while but kinda leaves the second player feeling a little bored after the third level. Still at least you can play with a mateAll in all, with greatness all around what isn’t there to love about Mario Galaxy. Definately the surprise of the year for me, and easily the best game on Wii, and possibly best game in the series. If you are looking for the perfect Wii game to give you a look at what games next year SHOULD play like, look like and feel like, this is it.MUST HAVE TITLE OF 20089/10

Did COD 4 Pay off?

When I first heard that the fourth installment of the Call of Duty Franchise would be Modern Warfare at first I was extremely excited, they had decided to break the mould and move away from World War II which of late has become old and stale. Then after a little more pondering, I realised that it could have very negative effects on the game. So did the change pay off? In this gamers opinion, DEFINATELYFrom a gameplay point of view, Call of Duty 4 still plays like the other games in the series, just a whole lot faster, and as hectic as ever. Users who have played other Call of Duty games aren’t going to jump behind the controller and find a totally different game, just the same game we loved in a new environmentWhich brings me to the graphics. This game is one of the best looking games I have seen in a LONG time! Photo realistic settings await you in every corner, which vary from the mountains of Russia to the streets of the Middle East. Character models are fantastic, the guns look perfect and all runs at a perfect frame rate. When comparing the Xbox 360 version to the PS3 version they both look much in the same, but I believe the PS3 version seems to run just a little better in my opinion. Thats not to say that the 360 version is not as good, I’d still buy a copy of it for sure The story of the game could be seen as an outlook on what could happen it todays world, and I believe it is the strongest of the stories in the series. This time round you play as two characters, one in the SAS and the other from the United States Marines. The two stories work well together and end up at a final build up that is fantastic.But the real selling point of this game is it’s in-depth Multiplayer. Featuring a ranking system that unlocks weapons, game modes, customizations it certainly does pro-long the overall lifespan of the game. The multiplayer truly is a dream, it features extremely intense battles that do require teamwork at some point to really come out on top. I’ve been playing on Xbox Live for a few weeks now and have not had an issue at all, runs perfect with no lag whatsoever. The PS3 version was running perfect but the servers went down a few days ago (here in Aus anyways) and since then it has been running a bit odd, but hopefully they fix that issue and it will be back up as normal. Overall I believe Call Of Duty 4 to be the best in the series, it’s a game that I will find myself playing it for a long time in the future, especially with it’s amazing online games! If you are a gamer, get this game and you will be happy for some time to come 9/10 

Orange Box: PC vs Xbox 360

Well the Orange Box has been out for a little while now, and like a lot of people out there I pre-ordered mine for PC to take advantage of Team Fortress 2 just that little bit earlier, but then thought to myself, “this could be lots of fun on the 360″. So I wondered down to my local EB Games and got myself a copy. First thing you need to take into account is that the 360 version of the Orange Box will cost you approx $99.95 Australian Dollars vs the $50 PC version. But with that hit out of my pocket I went home to play

 The game loads up with a nice menu that features all five games, Half Life 2, Episodes 1 and 2, Portal and Team Fortress 2. As general all the Half Life games and Portal play and look similar to their PC counterparts, I actually preferred playing them on the Xbox, plus I am a bit of a gamerscore whore so I love all those achievements that Valve have packed in for the console version, 99 in total!

But then I started playing Team Fortress 2, the online component of the Orange Box. First of all the Xbox version only supports up to 16 players online, as opposed to the 32 you will see filling up servers on the PC version. But over all I found the TF2 experience on Xbox to just not live up to my PC version. Frame rate seemed slow at best, and while they have release updates to fix this issue, I didn’t seem to notice any real change. The game also tends to move slower than the PC version, and I don’t think it was due to lack of players. To put it simply, it just didn’t offer the same amount of fun as I found with the PC version

 All in all, for the money you are paying, there is a whole lot of game to be had with the Orange Box. If you plan on getting it mainly for the manic Team Fortress 2 online, then definately go with the PC version, hell if you like playing with gamepads over the Keyboard and Mouse, just plug in your 360 controller to your PC. But if TF2 isn’t your main concern and you are looking to either relive the Half Life 2 experience with the new Episode 2, then either version is going to fulfill your needs

Is R 18+ Rating for Gaming Required in Australia?

It seems to me over the last few months that more and more games are being denied by the classification office of Australia. After the expected banning of Manhunt 2 I was pretty steamed, but with the denial of the newest addition to the Soldier of Fortune franchise I have become more than just slightly annoyed by the “powers” held by the classification office

 Does Australia require an R18+ rating for gaming? In my opinion yes. Why should adult gamers be denied adult story lines, and adult gameplay? Gaming has moved from the stereo-typical teenager in his bedroom or hanging out in the arcade. The teenagers from the launch of videogames are still gamers, and as they have matured, so have their taste in games.

Sure, Manhunt 2 involved murder, brutality and the whole deal, but what difference is between us playing it than watching the latest Saw movie or Hostel. R 18 ratings are given on movies, another form of media that is just as influential, if not more so than games. If the classification laws wish to outlaw some games, then why don’t they outlaw movies that are classified for Adults Only.

Many will argue that games are easier for people under the age of 18 to obtain. What about pornography. The sale of pornography to underage kids doesn’t happen that often in this country, yet I bet 80% of all underage males have items of pornography downloaded on their computers. The R18 law is quite easily bypassed, but at least it puts barriers in place that stops a lot of underage people accessing what is considered to be “inappropriate content”

I’m not sure how many Australian’s will read this, and I’m not entirely sure how many Australian gamers will read this and they will understand that an R 18+ rating in Australia will only pushing the industry into a positive field. More adult games for adult gamers, and less content that is kept off the shelves, and less games that we miss out on due to Classification Laws

Dig some holes, burn some wood?!

The last few weeks have been….. interesting to say the least!

We had a certain Croatian friend move into the house, which was ok for about three seconds but since then has done nothing but burn holes in our pockets and caused me to get severely high blood pressure. It’s ok, the school year is almost out and I can tell him it’s time to move on, but I’ve gotta play it cool due to the fact that when I’m not living with him, he’s a damn good mate.

Nearly bought a business in Adelaide a few weeks ago. Hell it’s still even possible I could buy it, but as fate would have it Chaise and I opened up an online gaming store and it’s been doing pretty good in it’s first week of operation so I’ve been flat out with that venture

What’s good right now? Warhawk on PS3, of course Halo 3 (even though it took me quite some time to appreciate it) and The Fire Restart EP.

What’s bad? RESIDENT EVIL EXTINCTION. How they could release a movie like this and actually think “wow people are going to like it”? It did no justice to the previous two movies, and I wouldn’t even pay money to rent it on DVD. What’s worse, after quite possibly the worst ending I have seen in recent times, they removed the comment from the site saying “This is the last Resident Evil movie” which means that somewhere in this crazy world of ours they are hoping to make another one? I’m sorry are you all retarded?

It’s ok, I’m sure those who call me constantly at work will love it  as most of them are retarded. Wow I truly love the life of a Help-Desk Monkey

But I suppose not everything is bad. I’ve made some new friends, said goodbye to some old ones, went to dig a hole and burn some wood so to speak. What do you do when all the wood is burned? You write a novel that’s what you do. 197 pages into it now, and to tell you the truth I am actually quite proud of most of the words I have put to paper

So look for a Halo 3 review, a Warhawk review and some of the new 360 releases that I will upload very soon

Foo Fighters Have a New Sound

 

While excited due to the fact I am a avid Foo Fighters fan, I was a little sceptical due to the fact I was not the biggest fan of In Your Honour a few years ago. But I think that album was the beginning of the new Foo Fighters sound, and now in their follow up album Echoes, Silence, Patience and Grace they have cemented what they were looking for.

Part rock, part acoustic, and even managing to sound a lot like the Ben Folds Five on the track “Statues”, featuring a piano driven melody that carries intricate lead guitar and well rounded drums.

The album hits out hard with first single “The Pretender” which has classic Foo Fighters written all over it. Just as you’ve been banging your head to this tune it turns it right down to a acoustic song “Let It Die”, which has a giant build up and starts rocking out right at the end.

While this album consists a whole lot of acoustic tracks, it manages to sound like rock, much unlike a failed attempt with In your Honour disc 2. On first listen, many will be tempted to not listen to it again, but I implore that you give it a few listens, because while I enjoyed it first time round, by the third listen I was totally hooked to the new sound of one of the greatest rock acts of our generation.

Echoes, Silence, Patience and Grace is out now.

Fav Tracks: The Pretender, Let it Die, Stranger Things Have Happened, Statues

7/10