Game of the Year and Single player gaming experience of the year:Fable 2
I have to admit this first of all. I never played the first Fable much. I bought it at launch and played it a bit but in the end, it just got left by the wayside in favour of so many other games. But when I started hearing bits and pieces about its sequel, I realised I had to have it. In fact, I needed it so much that it was a huge deciding factor in my decision to buy a 360.

Eventually, a mere two years after buying the console, I had the chance to play Fable 2. Was I disappointed? Hell no! Sure it was far from perfect and it was missing a few promised features, such as the much mooted ‘Plant an acorn as a child, come back as an adult to see a fully grown tree’ feature but for me, it was an amazing experience with my only real complaint being that it ended a little too soon for my liking. The game starts out very slow (don’t all RPGs?), but the start still shows off the impressive graphics and made me stop and stare for a few moments. Sure they don’t look photo realistic (and the character models are a bit lacking), but the cinematography is great if you ask me. It makes the opening city, Bowerstone, seem huge when actually it isn’t really.

There are a few simple quests set up to give you a taste of the moral quandaries you’ll be facing in the future once you’ve reached adulthood. Some nice comedic moments abound such as an arrest warrant stating: ‘assault with a weapon we can’t believe could possibly be deadly but unfortunately was’. The sort of thing that makes you smile at the thought put into the writing. The narrator of the game is voiced by Zoe Wannamaker which is nice casting, I’ve also noticed a cameo by James Corden (of Gavin and Stacey fame) and I’m sure I recognise other voices from somewhere too. After childhood has passed, the game opens up much more. It doesn’t open up to the levels of Oblivion but to the sort of level I’m most happy with. This might sound strange but I don’t strictly want an entirely open ended and non linear game, I like the interactive fiction part of games, having a story unfold around me.

It gave me a certain amount of freedom without feeling overwhelming, with often funny consequences (try walking into a city naked, yet another nice touch), but not so much that it detracts from a good narrative structure. In Fable 2 you can do various jobs, buy property and rent it out (and earn money while not actually playing), get married etc. All a bit Sims like, and it is in places, certainly when it comes to keeping your husband or wife happy, but it’s nice to have the option. The game feels full of options even if they’re not quite as open ended as they appear to be. The jobs, such as bartending, blacksmithing and woodcutting, are all a little samey (basic press the button at the right time games) but they’re still strangely addictive. Of course as I said earlier, Fable 2 isn’t perfect. Many people reported game ending bugs and glitches, but somehow I was lucky. Despite playing through it twice from start to finish, not once did I have a problem.

The only downside I could really find in it is it’s just not very challenging, instead it feels like it’s aimed at those who want to simply enjoy the experience rather than those wanting a challenge on their hand. In summary I really can’t recommend Fable 2 enough. It may not be the longest game in the world but it truly is one of the most memorable gaming experiences I’ve had in years, certainly compared to anything else on the Xbox 360. The game is now available for under £20 and with new DLC coming soon, there really is no excuse to not give this game a shot. I hope you will be as pleasantly surprised as I was. I’m really glad it lived up to my expectations as far too many games don’t, most notably Mass Effect last year.

Multiplayer game of the year: Gears of War 2 Horde mode
This is a tricky one for me to award as, at time of writing, I haven’t yet played Call of Duty: World at War online and I’ve only played the single player segments of Left 4 Dead, both games that I suspect rightfully deserve this title. However Gears of War 2 Horde mode is brilliant fun and certainly the most fun I’ve had in multiplayer since Call of Duty 4. It is such a simple concept, 5 players versus an array of enemies in one small enclosed area. Of course this is a concept that Left 4 Dead improves upon hugely but as I’ve not played it with friends yet, it’d be wrong to vote for it.

Original IP of the year:Mirror’s Edge
Such an unique premise for a game and from EA of all places! I didn’t really pay much attention to this until friends started playing it and raving about it. I still wasn’t too sure but rented it from work as I figured, I might as well while it was free. I only had it for a night but instantly loved it. Much like Left 4 Dead and Gears 2 Horde, it was a simple concept that I couldn’t help but marvel that no one had thought of it before, but it worked so well. Then of course, I was extremely fortunate that Nokkonwud got me it for Christmas so now I can play it to my heart’s delight! If you’ve not played it and you love the concept of freerunning, you need to get this.

Story of the Year:Lost Odyssey
The only game to make me cry this year. The Thousand Years of Dreams segments were always touching and really evoked such emotions that I’m sure non game players would be astonished by.

Biggest Letdown of the Year:Spiderman: Web of Shadows
I haven’t really been let down by a game this year so it was a bit tricky to decide. It was between Sonic Chronicles and Spiderman: Web of Shadows. When I was sent Sonic Chronicles to review, I was really looking forward to trying it as I figured Bioware + Sonic must equal excellent. It was just too kiddy and basic, seems like a terrible waste of a game. However Spiderman was such a waste. The first half of the game was brilliant fun and Treyarch completely blew it for the second half I didn’t actually have high expectations of this till I played the first half and if the whole game had been like it, it would have been in my top 10 games of the year. Instead, it became merely average and deeply flawed. I’ve still yet to complete it.

Surprise of the Year:Fifa 09/Quantum of Solace
Joint winners here as I couldn’t decide between the two. Fifa 09 might seem an odd choice to some but I haven’t played a football game in a couple of years. The last ones were Pro Evo 6 and Fifa 07 and Pro Evo ruled entirely but was a little limited in options. I didn’t really pay attention to the 08 varieties. So when I heard such good reviews about Fifa 09, I risked it as Tesco had it quite cheap. Really glad I did. It is great fun and feels like the full package to me. I especially love the Be a Pro mode, something I’ve wanted for years in a football game! Really glad I bought it.
Quantum of Solace was the first Bond game since Goldeneye that was actually good fun to play, so it deserves to win something. It’s unfortunate that it arrived in between so many huge games such as Gears 2, CoD:WaW and Fallout 3 because it really did deserve more attention. At only around £20 if you look around, it really is worth a go.

Game or gaming innovation you’re most excited about for 2009: Apple iPhone
This might seem an odd one too, but have you seen some of the games on offer? Sim City, Silent Hill, Metal Gear Solid Touch, Guitar Hero Rock Tour along with many attractive independent releases such as Rolando and Doctor Awesome. Mark my words, 2009 could be a big one for the iPhone. I’ll write more at a later date as I’m currently writing up an article on this for play.tm

Stay tuned for the Personal Review of the Year!

Until, that is, this year’s release of Fifa 09. Let’s get one thing straight first though. I really like football games, the first game I ever played was a football game (International Soccer on the Commodore 64 for anyone who wants to know), I adored Sensible Soccer but wanted more realism so I solidly stuck by Fifa, until the arrival of ISS and then Pro Evolution Soccer. Pro Evo may have lacked the real player names but the flow of the game was so much better than Fifa at that time. It dominated for a good few years and many happy hours were spent playing it. Where am I going with this? The tides have turned yet again and Fifa is back as the King of football games.

The Fifa games have always oozed quality in terms of their presentation and 09 is no different in that respect. As soon as the game loads up and once the action packed FMV sequence ends, you can instantly start kicking the ball around, much the same as previous instalments and other EA sports games. Sure it’s only around a pseudo training ground and your only opponent is the goalkeeper but it’s nice to be able to jump in so quickly. I spent a surprising amount of times messing around before actually choosing a mode of play. It gave me plenty of time to hone my tricks. Once I dived into the menus, I realised I had a hell of a lot of options to choose from. The regular tournament modes, league play, online play, and good old manager mode are there, shining in the middle of it all: Be a Pro. I’d heard about its addition in Fifa 08 (what can I say, I was still a Pro Evo fan then) but it had been quite restrictive but with that glimmer of a brilliant idea. In 09, it is so much better and the type of game I have been dreaming of ever since I was a child.

You can go for the easy option and choose to be Ronaldo playing for Man Utd and watch as the season unfolds to huge success, or you can go down the more challenging route, create your own player and start out as a reserve for a team and work your way up. Each match you’re given a few targets to achieve such as reaching a certain average rating or position dependent on things such as scoring 2 goals if you’re a striker. For each target achieved you gain extra experience points, and what do points mean? Improvements to your general ability that’s what, it’s all a bit RPGish which is probably what made me particularly keen on ‘Be a Pro’. You can decide to put extra points into speed to make you the fastest winger in the West, or you can choose to be a bit slow but brilliant at heading for example.

The ultimate aim of course is to become captain of the first team and of your National side. It’s a pity you can only play through four seasons of ‘Be a Pro’ but that’s still plenty of time to sink your teeth into things. It’d be great to see the option of importing your player into the next Fifa so fingers crossed on that front. The actual gameplay for ‘Be a Pro’ was very good in my experience. It involved more thought than ‘regular’ football as a lot of points are dependent on keeping to your position. There’s no rushing off as a defender to score a cheeky goal, you need to keep to your set position to be deemed a ‘good’ player for your side. But it was also much more satisfying than the regular game of football. I have honestly been waiting for something like this for years and it’s nice to see EA pull it off so well.

For those preferring a few more stats, Manager Mode is perfect. It offers a slightly more tactical edge with the ability to control transfers, stadium sizes and various other titbits to keep the statistician happy and you can of course still play every game if you choose to besides simming the games, if you’d rather not bother (in which case, why did you buy Fifa 09?). Stats wise, there’s the welcome addition of Adidas Live Season, which dynamically updates player forms and attributes based upon real life performances every week. It’s not technically free at £4.99 per league, but each new copy of the game is provided with a free code enabling you to choose a league you can have for free until the end of this year’s season. An interesting feature but admittedly I didn’t really notice huge differences in my time of playing.

The online features have also been revamped with the ability to play 10 vs. 10, Be a Pro matches with friends and the most exciting new feature: clan based online play in the form of online clubs. Always wanted to form a club with mates, but you just weren’t good enough in ‘real life’? Fear not, now you can do it online! Unfortunately I was unable to be part of an online club before writing this, but from what I’ve heard, it’s just what a football fan would want. It’ll be nice to see if Fifa 09 clans become as big a thing as Halo 3 or Gears of War clans, and variety in online multiplayer is always good to see.

So Fifa 09 has loads of bells and whistles to it, but you don’t really care about that, do you? How does it play, you’re desperately asking as you read this. Just like the Beautiful Game should, is the answer. It is simple to pick up, yet challenging to master, the perfect mixture as after all you don’t want to become godly immediately. Each difficulty mode does make a small but potent difference the higher up you go meaning the top difficulty is a real challenge. There are many, many options regarding how much CPU assistance there is for passes and crossing amongst other things. All perfectly arranged to ensure that both novices and pros can enjoy the game in the way that they want to play it. As well as this, there is improved responsiveness all around, the AI seems more accurate and the physics engine has been ramped up a notch.

Goalkeepers in particular appear to be more intelligent with a wider range of reactions at their disposal making it much harder to score, but not impossible. Instead it makes goals all the more satisfying, as helped by the many improvements made to the shooting system. It really makes a difference depending on what side you are and your opponent’s skill level, if you play as Man Utd; yes you are at a significant advantage if you’re playing Swansea City. It might be infuriating for Swansea City fans but it is definitely realistic in that aspect. The only problem is it can make online matches seem unfair as most online gamers do seem to pick either Manchester United or Barcelona in my experience. Besides AI improvements, graphical improvements are abound too. Nothing too major as the 08 engine was looking pretty good anyhow, but subtle animation improvements such as seeing a player come off the bench and warm up, and a sliding tackle actually looking quite painful.

All in all, I have nothing but praise for Fifa 09 as you can see. It really is plain old fashioned fun and provides everything I want in a football game. I have no doubt that Fifa 10 will add some more bits and pieces, but I suspect EA will be building upon the success of 09 more than anything as they seem to have their bases covered now. However, it’ll be interesting to see if Konami take on aboard recent comments about Pro Evo and give Fifa a run for their money. Competition is perfect for the consumer, after all. So what are you waiting for football fan? Go out and buy this now!

So what’s been happening the past week or so? Quite a lot but not necessarily much of interest! I’ve been quietly musing upon my future business venture, I’ve been working, I’ve been writing reviews and occasionally I’ve been playing games purely for fun! Shocking I know.

Work’s ok, nothing exciting at all really. I mostly spend my time labelling stock or alphabetising DVDs, it’ll do for now. Not sure how much good it’s doing me mentally but I don’t fancy going into that on here.

Reviews wise? Well as you can see, I’ve recently had reviews of Fifa 09 and Wrath of the Lich King uploaded for XboxGameZone and play.tm respectively. I’m now working on Dungeon Maker for the DS for play.tm and Spiderman: Web of Shadows for the 360 for XboxGameZone. No rest for the wicked! I’m really enjoying it of late though so that’s good Considering how I can expand this into a paid role somewhere but we’ll see. The quality might not be up to it anyhow!

So in between all that work, what have I been playing? Oooh there’s been lots, and I’ve been very lucky with how many new games I’ve played lately. I have of course been playing a fair bit of WoW but I can’t see anyone that reads this blog really caring about that so I’ll not bother writing on it.

I’ve done some point whoring thanks to a newly activated Lovefilm 3 month trial (again). Currently I have Madden 09 (not played it yet), Summer Athletics and NBA2k9. Despite Summer Athletics being theoretically an easy 1000, due to my inability to be able to hammer buttons quickly or waggle joysticks (in this case, joypads), I can’t see me 1king this. At least not without severe friction burns or dislocated fingers. NBA2k9 is much more my sort of pace, I enjoy Basketball games anyhow and the points are flowing nicely here. Nothing overly special but if you like previous 2k games, this one will suit you just fine.

I’ve also been playing a number of the bigger games of the season. I rented Quantum of Solace from work Sunday night. With the newest releases, I only have them for 2 nights (albeit completely free) so I didn’t get round to completing QoS but got to see enough to judge it. Much like the film of the same name, this game lacks a certain something that makes it any more than average. Maybe it’s down to Treyarch, the developers, who have the uncanny knack of making games that are fine but lack a little bit of soul that makes them stand out. Just look at CoD3, it should have been as good as CoD2 but somehow it didn’t quite hit the spot. QoS is just the same. It is nice how it ties up a few missing bits in between Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace the film though. And admittedly in my case, the same rule applies as with the film. I’ll forgive Daniel Craig anything! The likeness is a bit poor though, but it’s still his voice so I’m happy!

I’ve 1ked Fable 2 now and it was very satisfying. I know everyone else did it within a week of launch but I enjoyed taking my time and I enjoyed the game itself immensely. It is very flawed at times and lacking a lot of the promises that Peter Molyneux made, but I’m content with what is there.

I’ve still not finished Gears of War 2, got near the end of Act 4 while co-oping with my friend Daz but since then one or the other of us have been busy every evening. Hopefully Thursday we’ll manage to meet up again to finish this off. I’ve enjoyed what I’ve seen so far, much the same as the original but that’s no bad thing at all. Not played multiplayer yet but I have played Horde with Abooie, DaveyPitch, Daz and Leowyatt which was excellent fun. Hopefully be doing that again soon!

Finally, I now have Fallout 3. The new 360 for the living room arrived yesterday along with the GAME limited edition of Fallout 3.

Nice figure, eh? Second figure I’ve had in 2 weeks, I’d love to collect more…….must resist!

I’ve only played the game for 30 minutes or so yet and for some of that, I was so tired I was falling asleep at the controller. So no real first impressions yet. Hopefully tomorrow I’ll find more time to do so and I’ll post my thoughts.

Proper update to come when I have the time, new job, 3 reviews to write (one as an urgent priority), website to design and general living is taking up much of my time!

So I introduce you to…..Toffee and Scruffy!

Scruffy in particular is absolutely tiny at the moment as you can see compared to my Mum’s hands in the photos. They’re both from the same litter despite having different looks and being different sizes. They’re getting spoilt rotten while we try to get them a bit braver as they’re very shy at the moment, so that’s taken up a lot of my time!

In gaming (and birthday) news, I’ve got a couple of additions to my collection. Namely, Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway and Too Human which my brief thoughts on have been collected in my previous entry. I also got a vision cam which in theory will help me with Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise, and a Prima Game Guide for Viva Pinata which I’m aiming to complete before I move onto TiP. With a combination of Viva Pinata (and TiP to follow), BiA: Hell’s Highway, Too Human and Fifa 09 I’m really enjoying gaming at the moment. They’ve given me a little revival. I didn’t cut back on gaming before but I guess it felt more like a habit, currently it’s feeling much more enjoyable and all these games should last me until Fable 2 comes out. Oh and not forgetting I have Sonic Chronicles for the DS to review at the moment, which should be good fun as I’m a huge Bioware fan and I used to love Sonic games

As you can see in the past week and a half, it’s not been a big one for points. The vast bulk of the points came from Halo 3 which we finished on Legendary the other night. It was brilliant fun, a true testament to how a relatively average game can become something special when you play it with friends. If it wasn’t for the fact Bungie upped the game’s points a few days ago, I’d have a fairly respectable 760/1000 but as it stands, 760/1750 is a bit poor. I doubt I’ll play much multiplayer though, just not my thing, I much prefer CoD4 online. I’ll keep Halo 3 in the hope for the rumoured expansion pack though and our team of four can return to it then!

In somewhat shocking news, I’ve sold (yes sold, NOT bought) 14 games! I had a bit of a clearout of games that I keep intending to go back to, but never actually do. This also included Infinite Undiscovery which I realised I just wouldn’t get round to properly completing, so figured I’d cut my losses and sell it while it still had some value to it. Not like it cost me anything in the first place anyhow. Didn’t get much for many of the other games but I should now have enough set back to be able to fulfill my pre-orders of Fable 2: CE (despite its lack of figurine, fate cards and fancy box anymore ), Gears of War 2: CE and Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts (with a free copy of the original on XBLA).

I did however somewhat impulsively buy Fifa 09. The first football game I’ve bought since buying PES6 for about £10 two years ago when I first got my 360, and possibly the first football game I’ve ever bought in the first week of launch (I can’t remember any others at least). I mainly bought it on the strength of its demo, a few forum threads and Nokkon raving about it, and I’m glad I did. The tides really have turned in Fifa’s favour rather than PES. It’s truly the full package with manager mode, be a pro and updated stats for the year. I love Be a Pro, it’s a feature I’ve wanted for years in football games and it’s finally been realised! And I love it Plus the achievements aren’t bad to achieve either. The game’s definitely going to take some practice but it’s very rewarding to score an impressive goal.

The only other noteworthy game I’ve been playing is Viva Pinata. I returned to this as after playing Viva Pinata:TIP I felt like going back to the original until I have a vision cam. It’s at a nice and relaxed pace so far but the micromanagement hasn’t kicked in full time yet so I’m sure that’ll change things a bit. I still feel pangs of guilt when I have to sacrifice my Bunnycomb to attract a Pretztail to my garden…..I’m sure that makes so much sense to someone who’s never played it

Birthday Thursday, and I’m fairly certain I’ve got either Too Human or Brothers In Arms:Hell’s Highway. Either will be good by me I think, I love WW2 FPSes and BiA has had some ok reviews. Too Human is a little hit and miss but hoping my RPG loving nature will convert me to the ‘liking it’ side.

Operation Find the Dog that makes me and my Mum think we must have it (catchy title eh?) isn’t going brilliantly. Just not found the one yet. We are pretty exact with what we want. We want a rescue dog, young dog (well, under 5 but not a puppy), reasonably active but not crazy active, good with kids and cats and small to medium but not too small as my Mum wants to feel safe walking it on her own. Bit like Goldilocks isn’t it?
We’re regularly looking on a few sites and visiting our local RSPCA so fingers crossed we get lucky soon We’re not rushing into a dog that’s ‘ok’, it just seems like something that instinctively we’ll know when the dog is right (even if half the things I just listed aren’t the case, the only true essential is being ok with the cat), but it’s just not happened yet!