Anyway, somehow I feel like I haven’t gamed hugely but having had a look, I appear to have gamed quite a bit, with plenty to come too! I’m going to be lazy tonight (after all, it’s hot and I’m lethargic) and just stick some headings down instead of ‘skillfully’ leaping from subject to subject in an intelligent fashion.

New games mostly untouched
A couple of weeks ago I did a trade for a couple of games, so I now have Halo Wars (the shiny Limited Edition one at that) and Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts in my posession. The terrible thing is I’ve still not got round to playing either of these! I don’t want to simply play them for 30 minutes then forget about them so I’m waiting until I can devote some proper time to them. A similar thing has happened with Star Ocean: The Last Hope. Well, partially. I pre-ordered it ages ago for £17.99 so despite some reservations, I kept the pre-order and it arrived on time. The problem is after 6hrs or so, I just can’t get into it. I think that maybe I would eventually but I don’t feel I’ve got the time or inclination to put into it right now. So I traded it in this morning for £22 so a bit of a profit there. Not much, but it makes sense rather than having it sitting there depreciating away. I will play it in the future, just not sure when.

Bargain!
I managed to pick up Guitar Hero: World Tour for the princely sum of £15. My local supermarket had them labelled up as £38 but thanks to a tip off online, once scanned through they show up as £15 so I went for it. I know it’s not as good as Rock Band 2 (and it’s not in fact!) but it’s worth it at that price for the sake of new songs. Actually, I didn’t even pay for it as my Mum treated me as she enjoys Rock Band/Guitar Hero as well, so excellent going. I’ve done well with my bargain hunting when it comes to Rock Band related stuff. I paid £50 for the Rock Band Instrument Set, borrowed Rock Band 1 off a friend, paid £27.50 for Rock Band 2 and £15 for Guitar Hero: World Tour so I did well I think. Rock Band is brilliant but I wouldn’t have been happy paying the full price for everything!

Reviews
I’ve just finished one iPhone game review with another one on the way soon. As well as that, I have Sacred 2 to review as well as Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, both for the 360. I’ve not had a chance to have a proper play of either yet, but expect some thoughts here or on twitter soon.

Movie tie ins galore
I seem to have played a lot of movie tie in games lately. It wasn’t really a conscious effort, it just seemed to happen and it was mostly thanks to the rental service I have with Lovefilm. So in the past week or so, I’ve played both X-Men Origins: Wolverine and Monsters Versus Aliens. I completed Wolverine over the course of a few days. It was the ideal rental. It is mindless and has no replay value but is still good fun and ideal for a few days entertainment. For the achievement whores, amongst you, it’s very generous with points. I managed to acquire well over half of the achievements without even trying. The only real irritants were in the latter stages of the game. Moments where the camera was irritating, or frustrating button mashing sequences. But other than that, it was leisurely but enjoyable. So far, Monsters Versus Aliens seems quite similar. Again, not very difficult, again lots of achievements, and again quite fun. I haven’t completed it yet but currently I would recommend it for those with children. I’ve also just had Wanted arrive which will hopefully be ok although I’ve heard some very dodgy reviews for it.

Not sure if I’m happy with this write up, but I guess that’s what comes from experimenting with different styles/methods! I guess I am trying to be more casual just to get me writing more.

It’s ideal for introducing non-gamers to gaming, especially in a party atmosphere. There are four difficulty levels to choose from; meaning anyone with a tiny hint of rhythm stands a chance of being able to finish a song. And boy are there plenty of songs. With 84 on the disc, over 550 songs available to download (for a price, but a relatively inexpensive 160 points on the Xbox 360 Marketplace) and many more being added every week, and even the ability to import songs from the original Rock Band. You really won’t get bored of the songs fast. I’ve been playing avidly for the last couple of months and I’m still finding new songs, although I have found a few songs be repeated throughout the Tour mode.

The Tour mode is Rock Band’s way of providing a career mode and a bit of structure to events. In it, you tour the world playing gigs. You start out only able to play in small venues in your hometown, gradually working your way up through the ranks from any old two bit musician to the gaming equivalent of The Who, providing you are any good and can attract the fans. As well as needing fans, the bigger you become, the more bits and pieces you acquire such as a tour bus and a plane. These don’t really have much of a purpose other than to highlight your success but it does give you targets to aim for. Gigs are a mixture of single songs and setlists, with some performances providing extra challenges such as requiring a 4 Star performance to be achieved to succeed. With your band, you can also challenge players online via the Battle of the Bands feature although I’ve yet to try this.

You’re probably wondering by now what kinds of songs are available to play, and whether it’s your sort of music. Well as the name suggests, it is very much Rock orientated with the likes of the Foo Fighters, Nirvana, Bon Jovi and Guns ‘n’ Roses featuring prominently. As well as these, there are also classic tracks such as Ace of Spades, Pinball Wizard, and that cheese-tastic hit that you just can’t help but love, Eye of the Tiger.

Despite loving Rock Band 2, I’ll admit it’s a tricky one to describe to someone who has never played it. It’s something that sells itself really. If you’ve played Guitar Hero, you’ve got a rough idea of what to expect but it really is something else to actually have drums to bang in time with the music. That’s what sold Rock Band 2 entirely to me. If nothing else, it is fantastic stress relief! As a party game, it is the perfect social game; you and your friends will have a great time laughing at each other’s dubious talents. My only reservation is that the solitary gamer may find themselves getting bored, sure you can spend hundreds of hours mastering the game but this type of game does thrive upon human interaction. Other than that, it really is a great innovation of the rhythm game genre, something that I couldn’t imagine existing a mere six or seven years ago but that works terrifically well now.

I’ve been distinctly lacking in inspiration lately. Various things have come up in my personal life that’s made things a bit difficult of late, meaning that I guess my brain just hasn’t really bothered with thinking creatively. So for now, and to show you readers that I do still exist, you can have a fairly predictable games update to see what I’ve been playing lately!

I went on a bit of a points spending spree not long ago, acquiring Peggle, both Fable 2 DLCs, the newest Tomb Raider Underworld DLC: Lara’s Shadow and the Fallout 3 DLC: Broken Steel.

Peggle is horribly addictive just as people warned me. It’s the kind of game that I play for five minutes and then an hour has passed without me even blinking. However, now that I just have the challenges to complete, it is annoyingly tough too! I wouldn’t be surprised if I purchase it on the App Store for my iPhone too despite it being the exact same game.

I’ve purchased Broken Steel for Fallout 3 but I haven’t played it yet. I’m saving it for when I’ve got plenty of time to get absorbed into it. However I did have a brief go of Knothole Island for Fable 2 earlier and it didn’t go as planned. I felt no urge to really play it and ended up playing something else as it just wasn’t interesting me. I found it quite shocking. At launch, I adored Fable 2. It was hugely flawed but I still loved it, more so than Fallout 3 in fact. But this just felt wrong. Maybe it was the extended break, or maybe it was Knothole Island being a bit rubbish. I’m not sure. I will go back to it and figure it out though, hopefully things will improve. I don’t want my fond memories being tarnished by this dull return trip.

I’ve not played Lara’s Shadow for Tomb Raider Underworld yet, been busy completing the game. Underworld was good fun, it was very predictable and essentially the same gameplay that the original Tomb Raider introduced but that’s no bad thing for me. I enjoyed it enough that I think I’ll return to Tomb Raider Legend sometime and possibly pick up Tomb Raider Anniversary too. Underworld has also been quite generous with the achievement points, meaning I’ve nearly reached 81k despite not really playing the game for the points. In fact I’ve lost my achievement whoring urge at the moment. I had both Paintball 2009 and Disney’s Bolt to play for that and I just couldn’t be bothered. Paintball 2009 just wasn’t my kind of thing and I didn’t want to waste my time, and Disney’s Bolt was initially ok but quickly became very dull. I’m sure my achievement whoring days aren’t over forever, but for now there’s just too many good games to play, to bother with average ones.

Unfortunately there are still times where I’m forced to play average games, namely when I’m reviewing them, as is the case with Afro Samurai. The game’s not great. It is stylistically fantastic, however the camera is iffy to say the least and the action is mediocre, your typical hack n slasher. I’ve no doubt that fans of the anime series will like it, however I very much doubt gamers will. Certainly not when there are better games such as Ninja Gaiden 2 or Devil May Cry 4 are available.

On the reviewing front, I’m also busy with Ninja Bee’s Kaloki Adventure for the iPhone which is great fun. The review should be up shortly, along with other iPhone reviews as I haven’t got round to posting them on here yet. I’m also reviewing Grand Ages Rome on the PC, it’s not bad but nor is it particularly special either. Again, expect a review of it over the coming days.

And finally, I’m loving Rock Band 2. I’m so glad I found the Rock Band Band in a Box reduced, it really was worth the initial outlay. It’s just pure and simple good fun. Plus the drums are ideal stress relief! All I can request is I’d love to have more Muse and Killers tracks but I’ll live. Plenty of The Who tracks which is good!

Oh and in case you’ve got to the end of this and you’re still wondering ‘what’s with the pigeon picture?’, I received a new camera today and I’ve been out taking pictures I really liked this one and didn’t know what to use for an image for this entry anyway, so it made sense! If I get a chance, I might set up a gallery or extra category for ‘proper’ photos now that I’m not restricted to my iPhone camera!