Archive for August, 2007
Bioshock - A great place to take the kids
by Chris on August 29th, 2007 @ 11:43 pm - Tag (Game Review) 1 Comment. 43 Views
An underwater city, seamen, big daddy’s, small girls…it wouldn’t be hard to make a 101 jokes about pedophilia in this review, but i shell not stoop so low. No siree. Lets start with the obvious, Bioshock is BEAU-TIF-UL. There is absolutely no denying the artists and level designer’s have put a lot of work into every part of this game. It’s not hard to find your focus shifted to the surrounding environment instead of the splicer that’s running down your ass.
But enough about the graphics, how does the fucker play. To start of with is plays like a lot of other shooters, nothing really to special. But not before long the game offers you the chance to use the environment to your advantage. While you can go through the game with a normal point and shoot style the real fun comes in when you catch a splicer running down the hall towards you. You might notice a patch of water that must be crossed or some a can spilt fuel. Choose the right plasmid and they will go down in some truly horrific ways. I might just be a cruel bastard but i took great pleasure in first setting a splicer on fire and as they ran for water to put the flames out, whipping out my electricity plasmid to fry them as they hit the water…then sometimes (just for fun) freezing them and shattering them with my wrench.
It’s hard to say anything about the story of Bioshock without giving away some pretty cool (if not slightly predictable) plot twists. You’re thrown into the game without really any back story to your character and no more then 2-3 mins into the game you’ve already made a friend and slamming needles into your wrist. It got the initial reaction to the lack of an explanation as to why i was doing this was a sigh *grin*.
The game doesn’t have stage or level bosses as such, going around each level you will come across the little sisters and there guardians the Big Daddy’s. I was a little upset at the lack of diversity of the Big Daddy’s considering the concept art and video we’d seen in it’s early development, but hey-ho. The Big Daddy’s roam the level protecting the little sisters as they collect ADAM from the dead. Bioshock lets you choose wither or not to take on these goliaths. If you do and manage to take one down you are left with a moral decision…the little sister. Do you save her or take her life and grow stronger. Personally…rape the little bitch, she did after all try to kill you (yes, true i shoot first…but i felt threatened 
).
Bioshock last about 20 hours, not the longest but it felt about right…after 15 hours or so i did start to get a bit tired of taking down giant pedophiles. But a small side step in the story helped freshen up the gameplay before a great end game. All in all i think Bioshock lived up to it’s hype, it’s a fantastic game and a strong contender for game of the year. If you own a 360 i suggest adding this to your collection. Equally if your PC owner get it, but just make sure you can run the game on it’s high settings. This game deserves to be shown in all it’s glory.
Rapture an idealistic society
by Chris on August 23rd, 2007 @ 9:02 pm - Tag (Games) 3 Comments. 164 Views
Today i might have actually found the new best feeling in the world. The sensation of holding an embossed tin case containing my copy of Bioshock…that and having it a day before release while everyone else in the office cried over there estimated delivery date of the 25th.
Now to be fare, i really wasn’t interested in this game till a few weeks ago. I figured it might just be a crappy FPS with an RPG element, then i actually got a chance to play it while in Edinburgh and the demo shortly after. I have to admit, with what I’ve played so far I’m rather impressed. My initial lack of interest is starting to fade and is being replaced by a child like hysteria.
Check back for my little review of the game shortly.
No Data, No Charge…well maybe one
by Chris on August 20th, 2007 @ 10:27 pm - Tag (Life) 4 Comments. 56 Views
A few weeks back i decided it would be an awesome idea to give my phone a quick wash, while still in my jeans pocket. As you can imagine the phone didn’t really agree with my thinking on this one and refused to work after a few cycles in the washing machine. I got a replacement pretty quickly for a tasty £120 from my service provide (that 18 month contract looks less appealing now and the optional insurance looks very appealing). Just to add the situation i hadn’t backed up my contacts in a very long time.
I started looking around for a data retrieval service in the hope i might be able to recovery my contacts. After searching Google one lunch time i came across www.datarecoverycorp.co.uk who had the all important tag line “No Data. No Charge.” Fantastic that means i have nothing to loose. I sent my phone off and got a quote back within a few days…£325 to recover the 32mb Memory on the phone :|. Now i’m only 22, in my first job and while my wage is ok i don’t have £325 to just drop on a few contacts. So i took them up on the “No Data. No Charge.” offer and asked for my phone to be returned, but it would cost me £25 for postage and handling.
SAY WHAT? I sent the phone to them via special delivery which took me all of 5 mins at a cost of £4.20 so i’m truly fucked off that this wasn’t made clear to me at the start. So be warned and take the wise old mans advice “if it looks to good to be true it most certainly fucking is”. If you’re reading this looking opinion on datarecoverycorp.co.uk…well they were polite and helpful but bare in mind that whatever happens you will have to part with £25.
If anyone knows of a good/cheap data recovery service in the UK please drop me a link.
The Bourne Ultimatum
by Chris on August 18th, 2007 @ 6:00 pm - Tag (Movie Review) 4 Comments. 32 Views
It’s rare for a sequel to be any good. I’ve enjoyed all the Bourne films but i didn’t think the second was quite up to the standards of the first. So when i saw that Paul Greengrass was the director again i didn’t hold much hope, but i was proven wrong.
Jason Bourne is coming home and it fucking rocks.
In what i hope is not the final installment of the Bourne films, Jason tries to find out where it all started. It’s absolutely loaded with action from start to finish. The Bourne films are renowned for there car chases and The Ultimatum delivers the best of all three. There is also a truly amazing on foot chase through the streets and buildings of Tangier. Credit to the director for making the on foot chase…well…a chase. There is none of the free running crap that seems to plague action films these days.
Bournes arsenal of weapons also counties to grow, the most notable addiction in this film is a book. Yep, a book. I wont spoil the scene for you but i for one will make sure i have a book in my room from now on. This is a ‘Smart Action” film and they can be made or broken by the leads love interest. A plot can be destroyed by a 10 minute sex scene (sorry I’m over puberty i don’t care for it when people still need killing). Paul Greengrass chooses only to hint at the feelings between Bourne and Nicky Parsons, It truly is a near perfect action film.
The film ended with me on the edge of my seat, which is rare. I was actually worried about Bourne, but a cheeky smile soon appeared on my face which was shortly backed up by a cheeky one from Nicky Parsons. I’ll leave you to find out why ;).
I can’t rate this film enough, GO SEE IT NOW…no really go now.
Stranglehold Demo
by Chris on August 8th, 2007 @ 11:19 pm - Tag (Games) 2 Comments. 106 Views
The Stranglehold demo is available to download on LIVE as of today. First of it’s not the longest demo in the world, maybe lasting 15 minutes long. But saying that, i personally think this as exactly long enough to get the adrenaline running and leaving you wanting more. The demo also lets you unlock new abilities by completing each of the difficulty modes, this helps with the replay and should add an extra 20 minutes to the play time.
It plays like exactly like Max Payne but with a few extra touches. Most surfaces in the world you can use to slide, dive or jump across, which lets you pull off some awesome gun play moves. The environment can also be used to take out bad guys and to a degree is destructible. One of the most notable moments for me in the demo, was as i took aim at a gas canister and tapped ‘Tequila Shot’ (slow motion) i let of a few rounds as a goon charged around the corner. The explosion took him side on and throw him directly into a concrete pillar, which exploded into 100’s of pieces leaving only the steal reinforcements standing. It’s these cinematic moments like this that will set the game apart from Max Payne and give you some memorable moments to talk about at the water cooler.
The game is due out in September on X360, PC and PS3.