I just finished reading it and the sequel the The Dark Knight Strikes again. Pretty good graphic novels but you will need Justice League knowledge to get the second book.

Well how is everyone?

Thanks to everyone for all the posts in the non-gaming forum thread, it went a long way into convincing me that the internet wasn't a complete waste of time. I've known some of you for going on 8 years now, warts and all.

What happened was that I was hit with a triple whammy, firstly my laptop crapped out and the company wanted a huge sum of cash for recovery discs. I of course gave them the finger and fixed it myself for free, but it took a couple of weeks. Also my ISP was dicking around with the internet connection. Sometimes it gets like that if there is bad weather. Instead of spending hours on the phone with some guy in India - from experience I knew it would be a waste of time so I just didn't bother. It seems to have mostly been sorted out, but for several weeks it's varied daily with speeds anywhere between 0.10mb to 1.00 mb.

Lastly I was in a foul mood since the end of Christmas, because of on site events and the loss of my pet. I just didn't see much of a point to anything - including posting.

Special thanks to Dvader, for contacting me on GAF in my exile. To Bugs for his unwavering friendship. To Aspro for keeping the news page up and running. To Agnates for his sig and his posts which are always good to read.

That and the friendship and fine memories of people like Foolz, Robio and Raven, Travo et al (Don't be pissy if I miss your name out, this isn't an Oscars speech) If it weren't for you all asking about me, I don't know if I would have bothered returning. I didn't post a goodbye message or anything because honestly I didn't know what to say and I didn't want to get anyones hopes up about me staying - or leaving. I was undecided.

Since leaving Gamespot I have gotten over this WILL NOT MOVE mindset about gaming forums, it's much easier having set up shop at multiple game sites to just move somewhere else. I find it easy to walk away these days.

Anyway, what is there to talk about? I have completed Halo Reach, the game got a lot better as it progressed but petered out to a somewhat limp ending. I have sold it.

It's a decent game - fun to play through the campaign, but honestly I get this feeling that I have both loved and yet felt let down by every Halo game I have played. Reach isn't the definitive Halo experience and thinking back, I could not say that any one Halo game is that.

If you ask me about other franchises, I could easily name a game in a series that one might say is the game that encapsulates everything good about a franshise.

So anyway I completed Goldeneye for the 2nd time. I did every level on 007 except the very last level, defending Natalya is near impossible on 007 agent mode. Still, game is awesome.

I got back into Anno Wii. Loved it and completed it in 30 hrs. I could have played for another 30 on continuous mode but I wanted to get back to other games. Anno is a perfect game for a casual like me, its interface is sublime, gameplay addictive, atmosphere cheery and swashbuckling. The management and tutorials are perfectly pitched, as is the difficulty level. I would instantly buy a new Wii game by Keen games now. It brought back many fond memories of Theme Park back in the day.

So now I am onto completing DKC Returns, which has some really inventive platforming. It's a very good game, that is hard to deny as it is so robustly constructed. I would say that it is hard to wow me with a 2D platformer these days. Although shorter, the mechanics in Lost Winds 2 probably makes it a better experience to me, but that game is  5 and a half hours long. I completed DKC Returns but I wont bother with unlocking the golden temple thing.

I've seen lots of films too and I might eventually post about them in the movie thread. Oh and Resovoir Dogs......... so overated.

I have finally eliminated (by cheating) my wii backlog, I am selling games which I can't bring myself to play. So I have restarted Dead Space Extraction. This is made by Eurocom and could have been awesome if it controlled like Goldeneye. Also, on an SDTV it looks pretty sweet, probably better than GE overall. I have completed Batman Arkham Asylum. Great graphics, controls, mechanics, camera etc but I still can't seem to reconcile with the games crutches and easy as pie combat. It feels like a gorgeously presented QTE sequence at times. Loved the Scarecrow dream bit.

This game is so damned polished I find it hard to criticise anything. It almost reminds me of RE4 in that respect and yet.

I find the close ups when you talk to characters oddly framed. The characters seem to be looking at someone over your shoulder when they talk and Batman appears to be talking to a brick wall or himself. Uncanny valley HO. After Dead Space Extraction and Goldeneye, I am convinced that performance capture is the way to go. If you are impressed by LA Noire tech, check out these two wii games first.

.

As a Batman fan, the voice acting from the animated series are well appreciated and the developers nailed the batman universe making an incredible looking and sounding world.


But, the weak point is the gameplay, the mechanics here are all done better in other games and it feels too simplistic to me, the combat and bosses in particular. It all meshes together very, very well, but doesn't feel as deep or rewarding as other games. For instance the stealth in Splinter Cell vs this is no contest. Other than that minor quibbles would be the dead eye uncanny valley look when you talk to characters in the game world.


The visuals have such rich, attention to texture detail I have never seen a dev this dedicated to detail other than Retro studios. Artistically it's great, but not as good as other titles, but technically I haven't played anything to rival it yet on my 360. I will be buying Arkham city for sure. Probably not till it's cheaper though - simply because I am getting my Bat fix right now. Anyhow just as I was really digging AA it ended. Feels like it could be a good 3rd longer and maybe have more challenge or make it harder to be batman. When I press X once and Batman responds by doing a chop to the face, a knee to the gut and an uppercut to the jaw in spectacular looking fashion, I end looking back at my joypad and thinking "Huh? I just pressed X".

So I then completed Assasins Creed 2. As I didn't play the first game the intro was a little bewildering. Set in modern times a guy in a hoodie is trapped in a lab which is like a VR machine. What Ubisoft were thinking when they came up with this concept is beyond me, it's like an 80s DVD movie. I thought the game would be like platforming about like the Prince of Persia and stalking and killing targets like Hitman or Splinter Cell.But it plays like GTA minus the cars but with the sloppy 3rd person controls. There is no skill in the platforming you just hold two buttons and move the stick where you want to go. It's decent enough, but like Aspro I'm finding it hard coming off the super polished Arkham Asylum into a game like this, which almost feels amateurish in comparison - at least in terms of controls and platforming.

Other than that the game feels like it's set in a pizza commercial. Anyway the gamegot a lot better as the missions progressed. Great stuff though when I hit venice I hit the proverbial wall, felt like the missions were getting repetitive.

Then I completed Splinter Cell Conviction, good game, a bit light and doesn't do anything to move the franchise forward. I don't like how the gun is so integral in this game and the stalking aspect is negated a bit because they wanted to make the gameplay faster. Still, very solid game.

What else is there to talk about?

NGP is some seriously sexy hardware for tech lovers, tons of tech focused hardware features. It lacks a hook/USP/gimmick that makes it unique and makes it stand out. For me, I don't have a need to play super graphical intense games on a portable, although it would be nice. NGP is a little too big and a little bit... I'm not sure how to describe it. I guess it's cool, but ultimately redundent to me.

Many of its games are PS3 franchises so if you are like me and don't have a PS3, franchises like Killzone, Uncharted, Resistance and LBP will be unknown or unloved with no sorts of nostalgia or franchise involement attached. I also hear that the Resistance and Uncharted games are farmed out to other PSP devs.

I saw the lost planet 2 demo, looked pretty bad to me texture wise, about the same level as 3DS. But then I saw the Unreal engine demo on NGP and it looked fricking gorgeous.

I think the rear touch pad is the most redundant feature I have ever seen on a console - well maybe it's up there with the VMU on Dreamcast. It's a large console too, bigger than the original PSP and its analogue sticks protrude up from the unit. That will be hard to get into a pocket. I wonder how much it will cost and whether sony will eat a loss on each one sold.

PSP1 sold quite well in Japan and about 61 million worldwide but if you have read gamasutra's sales analysis you will see that aside from Monster Hunter it's game sales were totally eclipsed by DS game sales. I wonder if Sony have overeached here on tech and who will make high end games for the system that aren't home console ports?

I guess 3D is a more compelling feature to me. It's new and it can be used potentially for any and every game for 3DS. It's sorta like top trumps. I don't know if you guys overseas got them:

Top Trumps is a card game. Each card contains a list of numerical data, and the aim of the game is to compare these values in order to try to trump and win an opponent's card. A wide variety of different packs of Top Trumps have been published including cars, superheroes etc. There was always one card in a deck with an unbeatable value, you could always guarantee would win.

That's 3D to me. NGP has better graphics, a bigger screen, an extra stick, a huge 16gb flash drive, PS3 graphics etc, etc, etc, etc. On every technical level it is superior to 3DS.

But 3D trumps all of that because that is a new, platform defining feature at an affordable cost. And that is what matters to me. And the games of course.

Oh and I'm glad Andy Murray lost the final of the aussie open. In fact I don't want any British tennis player to win a grand slam in my life time as I cannot stand the way our press deifies sportsmen. They are still talking about 1966 World cup winners and if say Murray wins a grand slam, for the rest of my fricking life the media will be all over him.  

Lastly, big shout out to Yoda Hope you are well.

Oh yeah, I got my 3DS this morning and wow........ it fucking works.

Good as always to see you around and read what you been up to buddy.  Hope you can find it in you to stick around a while.

Smiled when I saw this.

Or raised an eyebrow...

...

Agreed, there is no gameplay in AA.

Wait. What!? You were gone?

Dvader said:

Lies what do you mean lies, the challenge maps are some of the best parts of AA.

I liked them, but never really got into them because they didn't replace what was lacking in AA's design and gameplay which was freedom. In fact they offered the complete opposite.

Glad to have you back dude. Pardon my lack of witty remarks to celebrate your return. Sadly I'm all out today.