The Videogames Tab

More 'retrogaming' fun for me. Enjoying the old Xbox Sands of Time. It holds up very well indeed. The combat is mainly a load of baggy pants tho (they improved it in Warrior Within, which is my only other jaunt into the 3D versions), but does have occasional tense moments when you're battling giants with only a dribble of life left.

S'all about the acrobatic puzzles tho. I like that they've channelled ICO and made good with what they had in terms of light and draw distance and animation etc. It's got that 'makes you feel clever when you figure it out' vibe which is all good. (There was an annoying glitch in the giant library tho, which needed a do-over - and I can safely say that you shouldn't attempt the sound-cue puzzle at the bottom of the giant 'infinity' stairs with the sound down low late at night )

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Virtual Reality chatter on a movie site? Got endless amounts of it here. Reviews over here

Sure - /pst me in game on any of my toons - just make sure to tell me youy are from MoFo!

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Damn, I just hooked up XBL Games on Demand in the hope that Sands of Time is on there. It isn't.

It's a fantastic game which I had on PS2 but Lord knows where the disc has gone to.

EDIT - I'd leave the two newest PoP games well alone, golg. Enjoyable for about 15 minutes but very shallow thereafter.

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"Critics are like eunuchs in a harem; they know how the Tatty 100 is done, they've seen it done every day, but they're unable to do it themselves." - Brendan Behan

I got an old Xbox amazon job for a fiver. Does the trick

Yeah tried the start of the 3rd in the 'Sands' series and it seemed in love with stylings at the expense of gameplay. Saw Yahtzee's review of the movie tie-in too (which I think is what lead me to go full circle back to the original. He can do that )

Aye, he keeps saying that it's his favourite game.

I've still got a fondness for the original Tomb Raider for that genre but I stuck the disc in the PS3 a few weeks ago and it hasn't aged well asides from the music, which is still superb.

After a bit of a hiatus I finished Red Dead Redemption, the story mode anyway - got another 25% to go for the full completion but I doubt if I'll ever do that.

Excellent narrative, especially for a game, although it seemed unsure of when it would actually end. What I love about games like this (the Bethesda RPGs spring to mind) is that you can potter around for as long as you like after the main story finishes which makes it handy for any future DLC.

Bioware stuff like Dragon Age just 'ends' and you play future add-ons in a hermetically sealed bubble, which kinda breaks the immersion.

Anyone playing the multiplayer?

No Gold unfortunately.

I liked the long-looped ending for the most part. By the time of the final shoot out I felt like I was reaping vengeance and blasted him with out thinking, and no small satisfaction. (Normally tried to disarm in most scripted fights, before I realised that's not poss). Definitely classy storytelling for a game, no doubt . Classic riffs, but well delivered, and feeling all the more visceral coz your at the heart of it.

I still haven't had the opportunity to play multiplayer on Red Dead Redemption. In fact, I still need to finish it...

Heck, I pumped all 9 bullets from my rare handgun into the SOB. It was probably frustration at having to participate in 2 hours of Little House on the Prairie.

I happened across the 'proper' ending quite by accident because I was one Stranger's Mission away from the achievement and went hunting for a new one.

Battlefield Bad Company 2.

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"A laugh can be a very powerful thing. Why, sometimes in life, it's the only weapon we have."

Suspect's Reviews

Trials HD on the XBox is proving challenging fun, if mebe a bit pricey for the content. (Well, I say that, I've only just got to 'Hard', and it took me about 15 goes just to get past the intro room, and then I couldn't get up the slope on the first course at all. Hmmm. Lord knows what 'Extreme' is gonna be like).

The 'Medium' section was a blast tho, mixing in crazy-ass physics with much more nuance than what had come before. Not just big jumps but clever approaches to rotating beams that flip you for real, and the like

(PS Tatty, I see your scores on there - come back and do battle )

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Also got Ticket to Ride Euro expansion. Not sure why, other than profligacy with my money. Is kinda relaxing tho, and the new rules add a few little twists to the play.

Love this game (it's the first one, from like 6 years ago, yeah?). I only play a handful of games these days, but this is one of the few I actually sat down and beat. Usually I'll try them, or watch my brother play them, or play them a bit and then stop because he'll put more time into them, and once I've seen someone else beat a game I lose a lot of interest in doing it myself, but Sands of Time was a rare exception.

Flowed nicely, only got stuck on a couple points. The only one I remember clearly is the big elevator near the end of the game, where they keep throwing waves of bad guys at you in that circular room. Probably died something like 10 times before getting past there. It was one of those levels that consumes your mind, too. I'd get frustrated every few deaths and stop to go do something else, but I found it nagging at me, and I'd have to go back and try again before too long. Huge relief to finally beat it. Lovely game, inventive gameplay, and a good story, too.

Oh, and nobody's talking about Limbo?! It's fairly awesome.

Yep, that's the one The cartoony feel means it still looks good too. (The follow up was pretty addictive on the puzzles aspect as well, altho a more 'emo' affair tone wise. Lost some of the playfulness).

Played the demo and loved some of the ingenuity (the spider etc). Found the tone a little bit lunch-break on lithium tho. (Not sure what I mean by that. Maybe I mean grim?)

I downloaded the Limbo level for Little Big Planet after playing the actual demo on XBL and not wanting to spend any dosh on it. All I can say is that whomever designed the LBP copy did a fantastic job in capturing both the look and the feel.

I must get back into Trials, golg. It got awful repetitive after a while and I migrated to Joe Danger on PS3, which is similar but a bit more cartoony and fun. Trials brings back memories of Junior Kick Start - If you're too young to remember it, think organised child abuse presided over by that evil overlord Peter Purves...



Aaaanyway.

Yeah it does lack the fun aspect of some of the old side-scroller ones (or maybe just has more of the bang-head-against-wall moments?). Only just got it yesterday so prob just enjoying burning through it.

And yes, I remember Purvis perverting those children in fields of mud

Yeah, I think that the frustration outweighed the fun for me. After three or four attempts at a stage I'd just switch off.

Picked it up as a Deal of The Week a few months back so it was pretty good value.

I've been doing a bit of spring cleaning today and deciding which stuff I want to keep and which will end up getting sold before Gran Turismo 5 gets released in November. After FFXIII let me down I'm holding out for GT5 as the defining REASON I BOUGHT A PS3 /booming voice.

Forza 3 is great but it ain't epic enough. GT5 looks epic and anything less will be a massive let down, considering how long it has been in development.



Have to say it looks stunning - There isn't any CGI in that vid, apparently.

EDIT - Yep, that's the Top Gear test track. Game on!

Holy crap that does look slick. (And you can race the Stig by the look of it? )

No idea but I'd hope he's in there somewhere. TG have has a loose association with Gran Turismo ever since Clarkson tried going round Laguna Seca quicker in a real Honda NSX than he could in the PS2 GT version, thus they're getting exclusive licensing doo-dah for the track.

I loaded up TrialsHD up again and it seems like I got bored mid way through the Medium section. Think I'll have to start at the beginning again to get my eye in.

Finished Mass Effect 2. Amazing, really like the Mass Effect games. I can't wait for the third.