Written for http://www.xboxgamezone.co.uk June 2009

For those of you who haven’t heard of Afro Samurai before (myself included until I conducted some research), it is a Japanese anime series, set in a futuristic yet feudal Japan, starring a Samurai called Afro. Afro witnesses his father’s murder by another Samurai and vows to avenge him. The typical sort of thing you would expect really. However, Afro Samurai does seem quite a special anime. It has a very unique graphical style, its main character is voiced by ‘the coolest man on the planet’, Samuel L Jackson and it features a soundtrack produced by Wu-Tang Clan member RZA. All of which has been transferred to the game admirably. That’s not to say that I fully understand the story though, in fact I didn’t really have a clue for much of it. I just saw it as a good opportunity for some stress relief! As soon as the game begins, you realise just how violent the game is. Everything about it oozes violence, and blood. Even the achievements are blood thirsty, with points dished out for such things as cutting enemy toes and fingers off at the same time to slicing off hands, heads, feet….well everything you can imagine that could be sliced off with a big sword! Initially this is brilliant fun; it feels oddly liberating to have such simple gameplay as ‘slice people up in a variety of different ways’. The HUD or, should I say, the lack of HUD is also refreshing to see. Afro Samurai relies on visual indicators to help you keep track of events. Afro looks more noticeably covered in blood, the more injured he is. The same thing occurs with the enemies you fight. It’s usually quite obvious to know where you need to go next so a map isn’t really required. To keep track of ‘focus’ mode (it’s a bit like a black and white bullet time mode), a necklace that Afro is wearing lights up white when it’s available to use. The only real downside to the non-existent HUD is that there is also no way of tracking experience gain. Throughout the game, Afro gains experience by killing enemies, each level up means that more attack combos are unlocked gaining Afro new moves. However, as mentioned, there’s no way of tracking how near to levelling up you are, which can feel a bit detached. How much this affects you depends on the kind of gamer you are. Many won’t be bothered in the slightest as they will be happy with just hack n slash action, but for those who like basic RPG elements, they will feel that an opportunity has been sorely missed.

Afro Samurai comes out with some classic moments, the likes of which you just wouldn’t see in other games. Early on in the game, I happened to walk into a room full of scantily clad pole dancing female ninjas. Yes you did read that right, pole dancing ninjas. Maybe the feminist in me should have been disgusted, but instead I was impressed at the originality whether it was by the game developers or the anime creators. It’s not often that a game can surprise me by offering me a different sort of enemy to fight. As well as touches like that, Afro comes out with some unique lines while trawling through feudal Japan. In one level where I had to chase after a woman, every time I went in the wrong direction, I would hear Samuel L Jackson’s unique voice shout ‘You’ve spent so long chasing after justice; you’ve forgotten how to chase pussy’. Another somewhat misogynistic line that I couldn’t help but smile at. As said earlier, you do need to be of an open mind to enjoy this, and being a fan of Samuel L Jackson certainly helps. Afro Samurai is a very smooth game, both graphically and in terms of its self assured coolness, much like its main character really. I hardly noticed any graphical slowdown except for when particularly large battles were occurring, but even then it was minor and didn’t interrupt the enjoyment of the game.

As is almost always the case with games though, there is a negative side to proceedings. Afro Samurai suffers from an all too common affliction, slightly awkward camera angles at times. Coupled with somewhat dodgy platforming action at times, things can get infuriating. It’s a shame really as the fighting is terrific fun once you switch your brain off. But by throwing in a few platforming sections, it can make things more awkward. The camera just doesn’t always go where you want it to go, and as the platforming controls feel thrown in as an afterthought, expect a few insta-deaths to occur.

Afro Samurai is an enjoyable romp. It doesn’t take itself too seriously and it knows it’s never going to be a classic, essential title, but what it does offer is fun. It’s not a game you can gorge yourself on, if you play it for a number of hours at a time, you will start noticing just how flawed it is, and things will become distinctly repetitive. But as a game that you can drop into for an hour or two at a time, it’s excellent fun. It could never rival a title such as Ninja Gaiden but as an easier alternative, it is ideal to waste a few hours of your time. The ability to string together impressively violent looking combos, so easily is perfect for stress relief. It’s like a Summer Blockbuster film, you won’t remember it for years to come, but it’s a great way to while away a few bored hours and you’ll come out smiling.

Q. Previous Resident Evil titles have seen the player working very much alone. What made you decide to move to a full co-operative experience this time?

A: Action titles nowadays, really the expectations are that they offer co-operative play. Obviously Xbox provides Xbox Live; it’s easier to deliver a co-op experience. It’s that much easier for the developer and also we’ve seen some great games released over the years that offer co-op play so a game coming out in 2009 really has to have it to be up there or at least matching what’s already out there so yeah that’s kind of the reason why they put that there, plus it also allows some new things. There have always been female partners in previous Resident Evil games, but there hasn’t been the true co-op play. Now with the next generation power of the 360, they can fully utilise the power of co-op properly within the gameplay as well.

Q. Do you feel having your co-op partner at your side detracts from the feeling of being alone against all odds??

A: I guess that’s a very good question actually. Resident Evil has historically been a single player experience, there have been exceptions of Outbreak but that’s slightly different. By and large though, it’s been about you, saving yourself, looking after yourself and trying to stay alive. When we looked at the partner side of things, initially we thought where’s the tension going to be? We’ve got two of you fighting against the enemy, I think the tension is there though, more so, as you’ve got to worry about someone else too if you play the game properly.

There is of course the issue of not caring about your partner, but if you do that you’re not going to complete the game so now it’s a case of looking after someone else: sharing ammunition with them and taking on the confrontation together. Now obviously we’re here together today and we’re playing co-op via system link so we’re sitting beside each other and maybe the tension is not so great. But I think if you’re playing over Xbox Live, and you’re however many miles away, and all you’re going to have is the headset and there’s going to be moments where you’re shouting ‘come on, I need some ammo, come on’ and that tension, that bit where you have five seconds and your partner’s down to critical health and you’ve got to run to get to them, or you’re that person on critical health and you’re waiting for your partner to come to you and you know I think the tension is still there.

There are still some great set pieces that you haven’t seen today, still some of the great moments like the earlier Resident Evil games. You’ve mainly seen the demo release in the sections that you’ve played today, you see the outside somewhere but you haven’t checked out the mine sections where it’s pitch black and you can’t see around the corner, those kind of classic Resident Evil sections. So tension is very much still there.

Q. Will the game provide us with any true teamwork challenges, where the players must work together to overcome obstacles for example?

A: Yes… *laughs* again, one of the things that hasn’t been shown in the demo or today is the puzzle element. Anyone who’s played Resident Evil 4 will know that there are quite a number of puzzles there, mainly action based puzzles and within Resident Evil 5 there are a similar percentage of puzzles. So they might be, Chris has to be in one place while Sheva has to be on the other side of the area turning a crank or they could be, you both have to pull something at the same time or you have to find items…I think also generally there’s the working together just to make progress through the game. So on certain occasions, Sheva might take the high ground; get elevation, while Chris is staying on low ground so those kinds of things. You play together for the most part of the game, but there are various incidences where you have to split up to solve puzzles or complete sections.

Q. There are some who feel that Resident Evil 5 is simply an updated Resident Evil 4 and aside from the inclusion of co-op the game offers nothing new on its predecessor. What would you say to this?

A: I would say there is more to it. There is just the sheer fact that we’re on next gen consoles, that we can add a lot more detail and richness to the world, you can tell the filters used to create the smoke haze here *points to example on screen*. You’re really immersed in the world, other new features to Resident Evil 5 are the vehicle based action, action where you’re based on a jeep or based on boats. You’ve got enemies themselves, who are far more advanced than Resident Evil 4. Whereas previously they were limited to just being on foot, they’re able to ride motorbikes, and jeeps and cars and vans and lorries…they’re quick and faster than previously. There’s also some other little bits and pieces I can’t really tell you about but will add to the gameplay experience. So I think overall, if you’ve played Resident Evil 4 and you’ve played this, it’s not just simply Resident Evil 4 in HD, there’s more to it than that. If you haven’t played Resident Evil 4 I think you’re going to come to this and think ‘ok this is great, it’s got a real mix of gameplay’. Hopefully if you’ve played Gears of War or Dead Space and you liked those games, you’ll really enjoy this as well.

Q. Following the release of the demo on Xbox and PSN there has been a great deal of debate over the games control system. What were the developer’s intentions with decisions such as not allowing running and shooting, changes which ultimately have split the community?

A: Resident Evil has always been about, ever since Resident Evil 1, standing still, taking aim and taking your shot. Now you could say back in those days that was partly due to the power of the machines, but that was really tense then, ammunition was limited and the survival horror genre was born with that and Alone in the Dark. So we’ve moved on, 13 years hence from that time, and you know people have played games like Gears of War but it’s the one that a lot of people have played and therefore will have experienced a certain control mechanic they’re used to. I think then the demo’s been put out there, and it throws you right into battle pretty much. You don’t get a lot of opportunity to experience the controls before you’re like ‘aaargh’ running scared, basically fighting for your life. I think with the people that have come here these past few days who have played the demo and have since played the game from the beginning. They’ve really gone ‘you know what, playing the game from the beginning is an experience’ it allows the opportunity to get used to the controls before you’re really thrown into the thick of things and I hope that people when they can play the full game will feel the same way. No it’s not the same control mechanics as Gears of War but then if you made it a run and jump game it wouldn’t be Resident Evil. There have been some concessions by the team in terms of putting in some different control mechanics that are perhaps more akin to what people are used to but they decided against going the full way because in our opinion that wouldn’t be a Resident Evil game.

Q. I love being scared and certainly the early incarnations of Resident Evil were very good at this (that first ‘Licker’ in Resi 2 almost killed me)! However there seems to be a trend for survival horror games to put more and more enemies into the action. Whilst this is very impressive from a technological viewpoint it does dull the fright-factor considerably once you’ve seen your 200th zombie. Has Resident Evil 5 still got the potential to scare the living daylights out of you, or is now just a hugely impressive gore-fest?

A: I don’t think it is a gore fest, I mean it’s not gone for the splatter house look. It could have been much more visceral in what they showed. Yes there’s blood but it could have been even more over the top, we transported a lot of the action from dark corridors to the daylight and yes there are a lot of zombies….sorry infected but they’re in your face now, the fear now is how am I going to get past all those zombies…..infected so I think that you have to put more enemies in because it’s expected. I think that you will still be scared because as I said before, there are those moments in dark corridors where you don’t know what’s round the corner, and there’s also some great Resident Evil beasts if you will, monsters, that are huge, supernatural, fantastical, that are ‘how the hell am I going to kill that?’ and you probably won’t get to kill it the first time and you’ll keep going till you do. But the first time you see those things, they will scare you and you’ll worry about how you’ll survive. I mean sometimes even the simplest thing scares you, I can use a classic Resident Evil moment, dogs jumping through the window into the corridor, great game moment and a similar thing to me would be first T-Rex in Tomb Raider, and there are still those moments in Resident Evil 5. Yes you’ve got someone by your side, you know great, but I think the fear is still there.

As a slightly superstitious sort I never expect anything good to ever happen on Friday the 13th. However that was all to change when kleaneasy and I were invited along to check out the latest installment of the critically acclaimed Resident Evil series at Capcom’s London Headquarters. We were given access to the review build of Resident Evil 5 as well as the opportunity to interview Capcom’s Ben LeRougetel. Thus we set to work with the much anticipated co-op mode, armed with only a slice of pizza and a wired controller.

We started out in an African town exploring the surroundings. Very early on the action kicks off with a few FMV sequences to display the horrific nature of the Infected. The game’s storyline is explained succinctly, explaining that Chris and new partner, Sheva, are on a search and rescue mission. Our first real task was to figure out a control method type that we could get on with. I settled on the control type that felt most reminiscent of Gears of War as it felt most intuitive. It was welcome to see four different control methods open to players as I don’t think I would have been very comfortable with the default method. It did still take a few minutes to adapt to the realisation that I couldn’t just ‘run and gun’ but I can blame Gears for getting me too used to that method. Experienced players of the Resident Evil series will find no problems reverting back to this style and the inability to shoot and run at the same time does feel realistic despite also infuriating at times. Early on I came to realise that sometimes running is a better option than fighting. We were quickly outnumbered in one early town scene and against all our gamer instincts, and reverting to our natural instincts, we fled. Good move it turned out as we were able to flee down an underground tunnel and move onto the next segment.

We moved onto a part of the game that will be familiar to those who have played the demo: the Public Assembly area where you’re surrounded by Infected people and the huge executioner approaches you with a huge axe. We held out there for as long as possible. I’m slightly ashamed to admit that I spent much of that time running away as I ran out of bullets much quicker than I’d anticipated. But eventually rescue came and saved us and we could move onto the next segment. It was a good example of just how precious bullets are in this game, there was a decent amount lying about and Infected drop them, but you do need to make every bullet count. This is most definitely a Survival Horror game not an FPS. It was quite an exhilarating experience however and certainly improved by the addition of co-op play, rather than being alone in the fight, aided by a robotic like AI character. Shortly after this, I witnessed a blonde woman being dragged off by some Infected villagers to be turned into one of them. It was a nice cinematic touch that perhaps strangely reminded me of King Kong. It certainly helped the Hollywood blockbuster feel of the game. We met up with the woman not long after she’d been ‘turned’ into an Infected via a parasite put in her mouth. She became a whirling dervish of nastiness and flung herself towards us despite numerous bullets to the head. Unfortunately our time was nearly up so all that was left was to witness a few other players’ excursions. I was a bit worried that after my go at Chapter 1, I had yet to be scared in the slightest. A far cry from earlier Resident Evils which almost all managed to terrify me at one point or another, however I witnessed one section set in a mine that looks very much like something I could have nightmares about. It was pitch black, and the player was only able to either hold a gun or hold a lantern, it wasn’t possible to do both. Meaning the two players had to work together to ensure one could provide light so that the other could shoot whatever was coming towards them. It reminded me very much of Alien Versus Predator, being forced to choose between sight and weaponry. It certainly looked very promising and I look forward to seeing more set pieces like that.

Combat was much the same as previous installments with bullets being precious and having to stop to aim or reload. I found that headshots weren’t always effective when using a pistol as it just didn’t provide strong enough firepower. Although I didn’t experience it myself, there should be upgrades available in later chapters making the pistol more effective. As well as this there are plenty of other weapons available, with the shotgun being my personal favourite, with its ability to clear a path through a wave of Infected very nicely. As always it is distinctly satisfying to headshot an enemy and I noticed one achievement was for 20 headshots. One annoying discrepancy I found in combat was that sometimes I would have an Infected pin me and I would die extremely quickly, while other times I would have plenty of time to waggle my joystick furiously to get away or wait for my partner to aid me. Also at times, one player would be pinned and dying, and the other player would be unable to move to save them for a split second or two before the FMV kicked in to say you’d failed. Hopefully these are things that will be rectified in the retail version.

Everything on the whole feels faster in Resident Evil 5 than previous incarnations. I’m not sure if it’s possibly Capcom’s use of this generation’s hardware, but a lot more seems to happen in real time. Using items is conducted in real time which makes things much more frantic, both a bonus and a flaw depending on how good you are at reacting quickly during a zombie….I mean Infected invasion. Even the loading times feel nice and swift. The loading screens that you encounter are quite interesting too, as they provide the history behind the Resident Evil storyline. With such impressive looking graphics as well, Capcom seem to have the full package of requirements needed in a modern Xbox 360 title: fast loading, great graphics and a co-op mode.

There were some concerns over the game, primarily the way it dealt with co-op. It all felt a bit too predictable. Almost every game is infinitely improved if it offers a co-op mode but from what I saw, it did feel a little gimmicky and lacking in substance in Resident Evil 5. However I have yet to see some of the more complex puzzles that have been promised by Capcom so hopefully I’ll live to eat my words. The main encouraging factor that the game had was that I did want to keep playing. I was disappointed to have to stop; I wanted to see what would happen next. This for any game has to be a huge redeeming feature. I look forward to seeing the full build of the game.

First up, work wise, a few new pieces available: a BattleForge preview, an article on the Rise of the iPhone and a review of Mortal Kombat versus DC Universe. Plenty to keep you busy!

Future work that should be available next week will consist of my Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon review and the much anticipated (admittedly by me rather than anyone else) write up on my experiences at Capcom Headquarters! Yup, come Friday, I’ll be heading to London for the day to see Resident Evil 5 for myself and to interview Capcom’s Ben LeRougetel about the game. If you’ve got any questions that you’d like to see asked, post over at the XboxGameZone forums for a chance

I treated myself after a month of no game purchases with the Guitar Hero:Aerosmith bundle. I’ve wanted a wireless guitar for a while but never been able to justify it, but for £32.99, I finally couldn’t resist. I’m very glad I bought it, for one thing because the offer’s now vanished, but also because it’s excellent fun. I can see why the hardened Guitar Hero fans aren’t so keen, it is much easier than GH2 or 3 but for me (a very bad Guitar Hero player), it’s great as I can actually survive more than five seconds on Medium! I’m hoping to practice lots on this then move back to GH3 and give that a whirl on Medium. Oh and the guitar feels a noticeable improvement upon my wired one.

Twitter seems to have brought out the uber geek in me. I can now admit to having twittered in my sleep…..yes my sleep. I am admittedly a bit strange when asleep. I’ve often sleepwalked around the house, I regularly talk and laugh in my sleep. I’ve replied to texts in my sleep (coherently at that), and perhaps most embarrassingly of all, I once stripped a double bed that my ex and I were sleeping in at the time, and only stopped when he asked me what I was doing. However, I can now add twittering to that impressive list. What was the twitter you may ask:

Just woke myself up dreaming of Twitter, how random 4:19 AM Feb 4th from twitterrific

Stunningly intelligent wasn’t it? Still, what do you expect at 4.19am!

On that note, I need some sleep. I’ll try not to twitter in my sleep again

The app store that was introduced to the iPhone last summer offers everything you could possibly need, ranging from social networking tools and of course games. Now admittedly not all games are wonderful, when there are so many to choose from (literally thousands) there are bound to be a few rotten eggs in the running. Games such as Super Monkey Ball are never going to match their GameCube equivalents, offering poorly calibrated controls which ruin the enjoyment of the game. However for £4.99 on your mobile phone, what did you expect? It’s still not stopped 300,000 copies being sold in only its first three weeks!

However, don’t ignore the free offerings. Games like Cube Runner may look like something you would have seen in the 1980s but where they lack in graphical ability, they more than make up for in terms of gameplay. And for free, how can you turn it down? Games such as Moto Chaser (a motorcycle racing game that relies on the iPhone’s accelerometer for its controls) only cost 59p yet are great fun for a while, and certainly pass the time on a dull commute. As well as these independent offerings, there are also a wealth of game developers backing the format, with titles such as Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart, Super Monkey Ball and even Sim City and Spore Origins. Spore Origins being particularly enjoyable to play, focusing on the cell phase of Spore. Electronic Arts certainly seem particularly keen to back the iPhone format and Sim City is a pretty faithful conversion considering the limited screen space of the iPhone. Even action games such as the Brothers in Arms series have been ported across, and a new Silent Hill game has just arrived on the scene. Neil Young, once head of EA Los Angeles’s game development studios has been so confident of the format, he’s even left EA to set up his own company, Ngmoco, devoted to iPhone game development and considering they have since released Doctor Awesome (a game that borrows from Trauma Center while still being rather unique) and Rolando (a truly brilliant platform game, think Locoroco with the tactile iPhone controls and arguably more enjoyable too), it was a wise move for Young.

One game that deserves a hearty mention is that of Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords, one of my favourite games of recent years. Think Bejewelled 2 combined with an RPG. It is priced a little high at £5.99 especially as it states it is only for one Chapter but it’s certainly going to be worth it. The game is a bit tricky to describe as really it just doesn’t sound as great on paper as it is in reality. Essentially it’s a typical RPG story but to fight you play a game of Bejewelled against a monster and can cast spells dependent on the coloured gems that you destroy. It truly is deceptively addictive however and I can see it appealing to casual and hardcore gamers alike. It matches the iPhone format perfectly and everything is perfectly attuned to touch based controls due to being originally a DS game.

There are only really two weaknesses for the system at the moment. The lack of demoes is somewhat annoying, it’d be nice to be able to try out all these games without spending money, some games do have ‘lite’ versions but not enough. The iPhone also has odd controls due to its reliance on its touch screen mechanics. However developers seem to be approaching this from a different angle and taking advantage of its accelerometer and the fact it can almost be used like a wiimote. In games such as Action Bowling, it is brilliant as you just use your iPhone like a wiimote and flick and spin the ball. Coming soon in 2009 is the racing game Days of Thunder, which promises to use the accelerometer for steering as well as accelerating. That’s not forgetting the arrival of Metal Gear Solid Touch and Guitar Hero Rock Tour or whatever independent developers may yet bring to the table. If nothing else, the format looks like it could be great for the return of the ‘bedroom’ coder, a breed of people once popular in the 1980s until it just became too expensive and difficult for one person to make a game by themselves. With the iPhone SDK, all that’s needed is $99 and an Apple Mac and anyone can have a go in theory, obviously assuming a good idea and programming knowledge is already there. Extending the gaming capabilities further, Demiforce is creating a client that will allow developers to create standardised leaderboards, friends list and achievements. Not even the DS or PSP have been able to offer these facilities yet. Games are also easier to acquire than with the DS or PSP, no need to go to a shop or remember to pack that cartridge or UMD with you, just load up the app store and download a game onto your phone or mp3 player. Throw in the fact that as a mobile phone, the iPhone will almost always be carried around with you (making its owner a captive audience whether they know it or not!) the iPhone truly does have the potential to be a force to be reckoned with.

The surprise hit of the past two weeks has been High School Musical 3: Senior Year Dance…..yes you read this right, High School Musical. It’s surprisingly good fun, reminds me a lot of Boom Boom Rocket. It’s a nice, fairly simple rhythm action game and it’s great fun. Obviously a rental not a purchase, but a decent rental at least. Seriously, give it a shot, you might be surprised. I know I was!

Work wise, I introduce you to my two newest pieces: The Rise of the iPhone and BattleForge Preview. Also I’ve had some brilliant news. On 13th February, I’m off to London for the day to a Resident Evil 5 press event. I’ll be seeing Resident Evil 5 a month before release (and hopefully might even get a go of it), as well as interviewing someone from Capcom about it, and be meeting various other people that are also at the event. Then I’ve got to write an article on it to be published for XboxGameZone a few days later. Pretty cool stuff Brilliant opportunity for me hopefully.

Site wise, you might have noticed the addition of a Twitter feed to the right of this entry. I’ve now become hooked on Twitter after having an account for ages and hardly ever using it. It’s good fun and does seem quite a good networking tool. Feel free to follow me if you wish. My username is Jenjea. Twitter was quite useful while I was away this past weekend. Sometimes it’s nice to stay connected and my iPhone does a great job at providing that. I could still quite easily access Facebook, Twitter and any website I wanted from my phone. It was especially handy on the train there and back. Little things like that remind me just how much technology has changed in recent years. Only a couple of years ago I wouldn’t expect to be able to do something like that.

While I was away in Exeter visiting my very talented friend Pheebs, we went to see Defiance, the latest Daniel Craig film. It was brilliant.

I’ll admit to being very shallow and initially being interested in it mostly because of Mr Craig but it really was an extraordinary film. It is about the unsung Jewish heroes, the Bielski brothers, who during the Second World War lived in the forest with many, many other Jewish people hiding from the Nazis. They managed to do this for a number of years despite great hardship yet after the war ended, they never got the recognition they deserved. The film seemed really well made, not as black and white as I expected it to be which made it feel more realistic and the acting by all the cast was superb. The only downside in terms of acting was Daniel Craig’s accent. He just couldn’t do a consistent accent, he was fine if he wasn’t shouting but as soon as he had to shout something, he just turned English again. Pity really as he’s normally a great actor. I’ve ordered the book on Amazon so it’ll be interesting to compare the memoirs to the film and see what the film missed out for the sake of brevity.

Talking of brevity, I’m going to bring this entry to a close. It’s getting late and I want to go read Darkly Dreaming Dexter.

This article’s come about thanks to my mother. She’s been gaming off and on for much of my life thanks to me. I got her into the Gameboy and it came to a point where she was playing it more than me, always Tetris. So she moved onto a Gameboy Advance and then a DS. We now own a DS each to stop any chance of fighting! She’s never been the quickest of gamers physically due to a disability which has made the choice of games a little more restrictive but her enthusiasm has always been high for them. Due to recent events, she’s had a lot more time for games and a much more urgent need to keep her brain occupied. The DS puzzle games like Bust a Move and Gunpey helped keep her busy but didn’t really keep her mind off things. So along came me with the suggestion that she try a few new games as I’ve always found them great stress relief. As we had a recently acquired Wii that was fairly untouched, it made perfect sense to start there.

We picked up Zelda:Twilight Princess. Great game, she loves it, only problem is she gets stuck very easily. So I bought her the guide, problem partially solved. All that was left was the awkwardness for killing monsters in it as sometimes her arm just couldn’t cope with it. Plus some bits are a little frustrating as she’s just not used to the gaming conventions we all have engrained in our brains after so many years of the same concepts.

So she thought she’d go a simpler route, which made sense. Start at the basics, just like where we used to be when we were first gaming and work your way up. She’s now currently downstairs from me playing Casper and The Ghostly Trio on the PS2, a game that I would be embarrassed to go near and a game that appears to have gone under the radar due to mediocrity so much that I can’t actually find a review of it! But I think if there was one, it’d be a pretty low mark. I’ve watched her play it and wondered just how she can manage to play it for more than 30seconds without discarding it with disgust, but she loves it. And you know why that is? Because currently, she doesn’t know any better. It’s all new and exciting to her, and when something is new and exciting, you want to get your hands on anything remotely connected to it and not let go until you’ve had your fill. Something that I suspect many of us cynical gamers that have been gaming for over 10 years or more, have forgotten about.

That’s not to say that I don’t have any plans to re-educate her in the world of what counts as a quality game in my eyes of course As soon as I reckon, she won’t be scared off by them, I’ll be trying her with some RPGs. I think she’ll love them once she’s understood the basics. Gaming is just like anything else, you need to learn to walk before you can run. So don’t go confining your parents or your grandparents to the casual gaming world of Wii Sports and Wii Fit, get them into some real games. You may well be surprised one day!

Final Fantasy: one of the biggest gaming franchises?

I don’t like my piece. It was the first piece I wrote after my Dad died and I felt very out of the game. Plus looking at it now, as is usual with group pieces, I look at everyone else’s and they seem so much more appropriately written!
Of course there is the chance that this may all be down to me being a perfectionist.

Been quite hectic here. I had some health problems through December that kept my mind very occupied with various worries. All fine now though. Also in that time, I managed to get a new job! So I’ll be starting that February 11th, it’s full time so I may have less time to update but I am still 100% determined to continue with my writing for other sites as I love doing it.
Leading onto that, I haven’t written a huge deal for play.tm since the last update. But there is a review and an article.

The review is for Bladestorm, a fantastic little game courtesy of Koei. If you like Dynasty Warriors, you should definitely enjoy this. Yeah it’s a bit samey but I’ve really enjoyed it. Enough so that I haven’t yet ebayed it as I’m still playing it through, and believe me, it’ll take a long while to complete! Really glad I got the opportunity to review this as I’d never have picked it up otherwise as it’s not usually my type of game.

The article was entitled Gaming and the so-called ‘mainstream’, basically a bit of a ramble on how the face of gaming is somewhat changing now. Made a change writing an article instead of a review although it was harder to write.

Also I now have a high definition TV so I can finally enjoy my 360 in the way it is intended. I’ve been surviving with a 19″ TFT for the 360 and a 20″ CRT TV for far too long. Thanks to the future new job, I could afford a new TV.
So I plumped for a Samsung 32″ R88, and I’m very happy with it!
Here’s a crap camera phone photo or two:

The cables need sorting out but I’m waiting for an HDMI cable to hook up my 360 to it instead of through VGA, so I’ll tidy up the cables then.

Oh yeah my 360 RRODed just after Christmas, luckily I had some money for once so I went out the same day and bought a X-Box 360 Arcade for £150. My old 360 is on the way to Microsoft as we speak. It’ll be sold off once it comes back. At least the new one has the newer chipset, an HDMI port and does sound quieter. I don’t like the faceplate though, I’m sure it’s flimsier than my old Premium.

I’ve hit 40k in gamerscore too, although my interest has now waned slightly thanks to CoD4 multiplayer!

Anyways, sweet and sour chicken with egg fried rice awaits me.

Reviews are forthcoming but I’d rather put them up as they are shown on x360a so you’ll have to wait a little while for that, so far I’ve written reviews for Meet The Robinsons, Pro Evo Soccer 6, Lego Star Wars 2, X-Men: The Official Game and Enchanted Arms. A few reviews have been posted on the site but unfortunately for me, mostly reviews of newer games which is fair enough really.

I’ve spent most of my time back in Swansea job hunting thanks to my old workplace messing me about and changing lots. I’ve finally managed to get one though, it’s working for 3 the mobile phone company. It’s based about 10 miles from where I live but shouldn’t be far on the M4! It’s only 16hrs a week but that’s ideal while I write up my dissertation. It pays well too considering the hours, so should be good.
On Sunday I’m off to Leeds for a training course for it, away Sunday night to Thursday night, all paid for and it’s a 4* hotel too.

Perhaps rather unluckily for me, I’ve got a flood of new games arriving probably while I’m away! I went on a small ebay spree after selling a lot of stuff on there, so coming to me soon is Football Manager 2007 (Nice slow burner of a game) and Just Cause (I played this at a friend’s and was really surprised by how fun it was), as well as a wireless network adaptor for the 360 as soon the whole house is going wireless (hopefully!). I’ve also just traded in lots of stuff for Guitar Hero 2 which is awesome, even if I am pretty terrible at it!
Finally I have Pirates of the Caribbean 3 arriving from swapgame, I’ve still got X-Men to finish up if I can muster the patience, and I’ve only scratched the surface of Shadowrun’s achievements, AND I’m working through Gears of War on Insane with P1NSEEKER off x360a.
That’s just the 360 games, I’ve not mentioned the PS2 games.
So there’s a fair bit to do, but then again I’m not planning on buying any more games for a good month or so, I’d quite like Dirt but I’ve got so many other games to play, I think I’ll leave it a bit.