All Hail The King Of Speculation

I've been making the most of the 360 since I've been home. I've done everything in AC: Brotherhood, bar the multiplayer achievements, and my wireless at home isn't good enough to play any matches properly, so I won't be getting them any time soon.

Instead I've been putting some time into Fable 3. I spoke about it last year giving my general impressions. There's nothing particularly wrong with it, it's just not a great deal different to its predecessors.

There's some interesting ideas in there though. The story is dark at times. The Fable series has often walked that line between "childish humour" and "balverines eating people" but when the final boss fight (oh right, MASSIVE SPOILER) forces you to kill your mentor, it's pretty heavy stuff. The final scene where he dies isn't going to make anyone cry, but it's pretty sad nonetheless.

Use A Potion... Maybe.

So Fable 3 is pretty fun.

Thought I'd open with that. Get it out of the way. Mix things up a bit.

Fable 2 was the first ever game I played when I first got my XBox and I absolutely played it to death. It was a lot of fun and despite a few flaws I really had a lot of fun crafting a character who, for some reason, wore sunglasses.

So on to the sequel, which I have been waiting for since it was announced back in 2009 (possibly) and I was waiting on the courier for aaaages until it turned up. For some reason, despite pre-ordering it at least a month ago, Amazon decided to send it out on the say of release. Play were smart enough to send out New Vegas two days in advance so it arrived on release day, but Amazon... Well I certainly won't be using them again for any pre-orders. Not that I can afford another. Saving up for that 3DS.

Fable 3 was always very pushed as removing many of the features that were apparently clogging up Fable 2, and that's obvious from the get go. The health bar has been stripped away, the weapon equipment screen has been removed, and the emotes wheel has been taken away. It's a bold choice and it feels like something you might see in an experimental indie game as opposed to one of the 360's flagship franchises. Personally... It doesn't gel too well with me. The pause screen is clever I suppose and Jasper's dry humour is something I enjoy, but I didn't particularly ever feel that Fable 2 was clunky. The choice of only two emotes when interacting a character seems to detract from the level of interaction in the previous game and I liked having a health bar to indicate when I should start panicking. In Fable 3, it's more guess work.

The combat is still fun, striking the balance between challenging and manageable. There are some surprisingly vicious flourishes, like the other day when I jumped onto the shoulders of my enemy and BROKE HIS NECK WITH MY KNEES. It was pretty horrendously awesome. I also enjoy weaving spells together, with my personal favourite being a mix of fireball and lightening. Burn 'em and stun 'em. Just like Bioshock. Ranged combat is still ranged combat, and it's still great fun to blast away at enemies as they charged toward you. The weapon morphing is a nice feature, but doesn't really seem to be as dynamic as initially suggested.

The story is progressing nicely and has a more fantasy based plot-line than the previous. Whilst it took a while to get going, the cave sequence was very intense and really got under my skin. Freaky skull this are freaky.

Fable 3 will keep me busy for a while and gives me something to play when I'm tired of New Vegas, and vice versa. I have to see between the two I prefer F:NV, but they are both top notch games, and I heartily recommend them both. Although play Fable 2 first.

Next time... Something else. More New Vegas. See y'all in the Dino's mouth!

Viva New Vegas

I went for the easy option with the title today. And why not?

So yes, as should be clear by now, Fallout: New Vegas is here, and has been for about a week and a half now. I really wanted to write about it but the problem was that it was so damn good. The reservations I had about it after playing it at Eurogamer were completely unfounded. After I had starting playing for a while and I had recovered from being shot in the face by Matthew Perry, I really got into the swing of things. The attack on Goodsprings was a really good start, and it felt great to rally the people around town. There is a lot more variety in quests, and a lot of the story telling is much more compelling. I've also enjoyed the humour which is much more obvious.

Obsidian clearly wanted the player to have more choice in the direction of the plot, as I've been bombarded with options as to who to support in the grand battle for New Vegas. I'm currently supporting the NCR, in the hope that we can push Caesar's Legion right out of the Mojave. I've even toyed with the idea of disguising my self as a Legionary and assassinating Caesar to get it over with, although I get the feeling that killing him wouldn't really put an end to things.

My character, who travels by the name of Zach, is a gun-toting science geek with a penchant for smoothing talking, which is not entirely dissimilar to my Fallout 3 character (also called Zach). There are a lot more stat checks in the conversations, which I really love because passing them makes me feel as if I'm cheating the game somehow. It's also a bloody marvel that Zach isn't addicted to Mentats because the amount of them I take to pass repair and science checks is unbelievable.

New Vegas is really great fun, maybe more so than its predecessor. If you enjoyed roving the Capital Wasteland, you'll equally enjoy moseying through the Mojave dressed as a cowboy. If you didn't enjoy Fallout 3... There's something wrong with you.

I'll be posting more updates over the next few months. I've even thought of turning a few of the quests into short stories, just for a laugh. Who knows?

Next time; Adventures in Albion with John Cleese! See y'all on the throne!

DLC: Downloadable Complaining

Okay, that might be a bit unfair. I don't actually have any problems with the stuff I've downloaded (well, maybe a bit) but you'd think being about two metres away from a wireless router would affords me some favourable download speeds. However, I am in a flat where five people are all trying to get internet access from a 6MB connection, which is suppose to be 20MB, but isn't. MARG BLARG INTERNET STUFF.

So, I've been busy downloading a few things recently. XBLA has, in my opinion, had a run of really fantastic releases recently, I'm very swiftly going to run down a few of the ones I've been firing up on the ol' 360.

DeathSpank; Thongs of Virtue was released a week or so ago and although I failed to get it then, I did get it a couple of days before I went off to university. It's really good fun. It's a direct sequel to DeathSpank, which was released way back in July (which I intended to write about but it got lost in the ether of Mass Effect 2). My personal favourite is definately the latter. Whilst some of the humour is not as cutting as the original the gameplay is much more well rounded, and also, you can have a ray gun. And a chain saw. And a cowboy hat. And space boots. It really appealed to the childish side in me (so, it appealed to the only side of me) with aliens, soldiers, cowboys and robots all turning up, and then later being shot. Overall best part; Shooting a dinosaur with a laser. Screw high fantasy.

Alan Wake was good. I really enjoyed it, as it had one of the most compelling stories of any game I've played in a while. However, one of the downfalls of the story was the ending. I found I was left stranded not really understanding what the hell had happened to Alan. The first bit of DLC help a little; it seemed to suggest after defeating the Dark Presence, Alan had somehow regressed into his own dark mind. However, I still wanted answers (dammit) and The Writer DLC was all set to provide them. Which it sort of did. The pacing of The Writer is very good, and it has a very clever final fight which I didn't see coming. The storyline is still left relatively open though, and there are some major unfinished plot points (e.g. Mr Scratch?) Let's hope despite middling sales, Remedy are working on a sequel. Overall best part; Either the ferris wheel of death or the giant typewriter of self reference.

Comic Jumper is some what of a media darling at the moment, garnering positive reviews from almost everyone, and for the most part I agree. The different art styles and comic book universe world swaps are a feature I absolutely love and the humour is really some of the best I've seen/heard in a game. I just wish it was more enjoyable to play. I really loved 'Splosion Man, but one of my major criticisms was that it was just too damn difficult at points, and CJ suffers from exactly the same problems. I died about six times on the first level of the second world. If you are gonna make it so easy for me to get hit, Twisted Pixel, at least give me a way to gain back my health. It's a real shame but I am going to persevere and upgrade Captain Smiley to make it easier. Overall best part; "Why do you hate birds so much?" "I don't know, I just do!"

Finally, before I go, quick shout out to two internet based companies; GamePointsNow.com, who provide me with cheap Microsoft points via email, and Insert Coin Clothing, who have garnished me with an incredibly brilliant Quantum tee. Go visit them.

Right. Posted. I'm off. New Vegas and Fable 3 are just around the corner. See y'all when the post arrives!

Video-Game-Conferencing

Coming to you from a small room, above a Londis, near a graveyard, it's The Return of The Starting Village!

So I'm at university after three months of... well, work but now work is done! It was at Buckingham Palace, which I feel I can probably say now the job is over. Working in a gift shop was FUN.

So the last weekend, I went to Eurogamer, which was really great fun. After an embaressing situation where I may have queued up in the wrong queue for like twenty minutes, I got in and started looking around my first ever games thing.

First thing I saw; Fable 3. Off to a good start it was really great to finally have a go on it, and I enjoyed what I played of it. There was definitely more of an emphasis on story, with the player character having a voice, as well as interactive cutscenes. The art style is similar and I really cannot wait until it comes out. You know the tie in novel is already out in America? It wouldn't wind me up so much, but Lionhead are a British company.

I also had a go on Fallout New Vegas, my other most anticipated game of the year, and it was... It really pains me to write this. I have so much love for Fallout 3. My whole summer was spent playing it to death. And playing on NV should have left me awestruck. But something just seemed off. The graphics looked really quite dated, and the game seemed a bit slow, although I'm hoping this is because it was a demo character. I've still got the game on pre-order, cause I really want my caravan shotgun and binoculars.

Other things I had a go on; Move. The Fight was, ultimately, shit. Punches seemed ineffective and didn't land with any degree of force. There was also three-dee support but it really didn't seem to be working, putting the glasses on just seemed to reduce the blur on the screen. Echochrome 2 was kinda fun, although it didn't particularly use the Move controller in a innovative way. From what I saw of all the Move stuff, it really seemed like they had just recreated the Wii controller, but with knobs on. Literally.

A quick run down of other stuff; Assassin's Creed Brotherhood looks fun, had a quick go, quite enjoyed it, but I'm more interested in the single player. Brink was insanely popular, watched a few people playing but didn't really look like my sort of thing. Dead Space 2 was also popular, but did look really good. Despite not having played the original, the sequel looked intensely atmospheric with some real blistering action sequences and a clever alternative to quick time events.

It was also my first time meeting the guys from the Newb Review, and we all had a real laugh. We recorded a podcast, which you can listen to here. I also sat in on an interview with Ian and the producer of Hunted; The Demon Forge. It hasn't gone up on the site yet, but when it does, you can hear me ask one question about multiplayer. Exciting stuff I'm sure you'll agree.

Overall, I had fun at Eurogamer. Whilst there was not a whole lot of new stuff, there was clearly a lot of effort put into the show. From what I heard, the developer chats were really interesting, and I'd love to be able to go to more of them. I will strive to be there next year, for at least the first and second day.

Well, I'd best be off. I'll be back soon to talk about... I dunno, downloads or something. See y'all when I next get bandwidth!

Hobbits, Zombies, and Conventions

Sounds like a a post about cosplayers or something.

Lord of The Rings Online never particularly interested me before, but I've been reading Shamus Young's in-character diary of the game over at The Escapist, and I decided to take a closer look. I'd seen LOTRO before when a friend was playing it, and I really only had one thing to say about it; it's just WoW reskinned. I couldn't see the point in going back to a game which I'd already been playing for a year.
However, after reading the articles, I decided to have a look at the game's site to see if there was a free trial available, which there was. The specs for the game were a tad too high for the Toaster, so I decided to wait until the summer and my new computer to try it.
A few days later, Turbine announced that LOTRO was going free-to-play. Yet more evidence that the universe in fact does revolve around me. This is good news for me. It means I can play LOTRO as much or as little as I want, and also that there is finally a high budget game that's relatively successful that I don't have to pay for. I think my social life can take another hit.

I started playing a bit more of Nazi Zombies on the iPod recently, primarily because I have nothing else to play at the moment. I didn't realise that Treyarch had released Shi No Numa, but as it turns out, it was there ready to be downloaded. It's impressive that they've managed to squeeze the whole map (and all the weapons) onto the handheld, but the game still runs perfectly. Hellhounds are still a bitch, mind. In Apple related news, where's my fourth-gen iPod touch, Steve? HUH?

It's E3 next week, and normally I'd be excited, but for the third year in a row, my exams are getting right in the way. This year, I'm sure my uni has planned my exams around the show, with one every day starting on the 14th right up until the 17th. I swear, one day I'll be able to stay up all night watching live coverage of games I don't really care about. I'm only looking forward to a few things at E3; MI2 SE, New Vegas, Fable 3, the potential Half Life 3 announcement and the cost of Natal. I'm also kinda interested in the 3DS, but mainly from a tech point of view.

Until next time, I'll see y'all at the aftershow.

Sick Note

Not dead! Still not dead!

I have been ill however, which is why it has been over two weeks since I last updated. I went home last weekend (a trip which lasted until Wednesday) but felt so bad most of the time that my only gaming related activity was to change my Xbox display pic from my avatar looking confused to a gun-toting fedora-wearing Vault Boy. In the meantime, I rolled around on my bed, clutching my stomach, looking forward to the day when most of my body is artificial and illness just requires a reboot.

As a side note, being ill is now a rather strange experience for me. Last Thursday, I spent most of the morning in bed with a fever, and it was a rather odd feeling that I knew exactly what was wrong with my body. I could tell you that pyrogens had raised the set point of my core body temperature in the hypothalamus and so my body was desperately trying to reduce heat loss, which was why I felt so cold. I'd imagine it's kind of how a game designer might feel when looking at a game. Except more ill. Unless the game was Daikatana.

Been playing Guerrilla Bob and Minigore recently. I may do a Newb Review for them because I haven't submitted any content for a while. Eyes peeled.

I'm gonna have so little money and so many decks of cards. I should learn to play poker or something to justify these purchases. Might even win some of my money back.


I probably won't update for a while. My exams are literally just around the corner (my first one being this coming Friday) so I'm gonna be revising hard until about the 20th of June, which seems like an age away right now. But when that time comes, it's gonna be gaming Nirvana for me.

See y'all in the summer!

Birthday Cake Joke

Although the 19th of March might not seem a big deal, it does represent a rather momentous occasion for me. One year ago today, I finally got around to setting up the blog I'd been thinking about doing for a while, and I made that first post about fishing in "Twilight Princess". A hell of a lot has changed since then. I changed the name and layout of the blog, changed consoles in July, became a semi-serious journalist, and went to university. And so, in lieu of any actual gaming updates, I'm gonna talk about my most anticipated games for this year.

And you are going to listen.

Fable 3; Can't wait to start making swords out of dragons teeth or guns out of fog or whatever. I really hope that this doesn't get delayed, cause then I'll have to set fire to something/one. I'm also gonna have to increase my GamerScore if I want really awesome weaponry.

Enslaved; might not have heard of this but it's a new action adventure from Ninja Theory, based on Monkey; Journey to the West. In future New York. And there are robots. So you know, that's cool.

Just Cause 2; I'm aware this comes out very soon, but I won't be able to play it for a while due to uni. Flying round a tropical paradise with parachuting and Spiderman-style sling shooting. And awesome cars.

HD Monkey Island 2; Cannot come soon enough.

Star Wars; The Old Republic; Although I'll probably never play it cause it's on PC and subscription, I'd love to have a go at a free trial, cause this game looks awesome. Smuggler or Bounty Hunter?

Fallout New Vegas; Might not be out this year cause of potential delays, but considering how much I loved Fallout 3, I know I'm gonna love this new iteration. Mainly because there will probably an awesome fedora hat in there somewhere.

Mass Effect 2; Although it came out earlier this year, I still have yet to play it, mainly because I haven't to finish the original. I don't want to start the game without a saved ME1 Shepard to use. Looking forward to more space opera fun. IN SPACE.

L.A. Noire; Film Noir style detective stories have always interested me so I'm really looking forward to this open world crime solving action adventure from Rockstar. And more fedora hats.

SMG2; The original is pure platforming elegance, so surely the sequel will be more of the same. It'll give me something to play over the summer on the Wii, which is good. I should really finish my second playthrough with Luigi at some point...

Half Life 2; Episode 3; Yeah, right.

You know, I never did get that Frog lure. Hm.

Singing the News

COMING TO YOU LIV- Sorry that's too loud.

Coming to you live, across the globe, report from nowhere near the front-line, this is...

The Starting Village News Network!

Last week, Portal 2 was revealed in a flurry of updates, ARG hints, radio transmissions and ASCII art (god, I hate ASCII art). It seemed odd since the whole ARG set up looked like it was going to unfold over time, slowly revealing the game bit by bit, but I guess that got kicked in the head somewhere along the way. Probably when people hammered through the radio transmission in super-quick time. Perhaps the ARG will carry on, even after the game is released.
I read the scans of the GameInformer article, and the game looks very different, but also very interesting. I've made my feelings about Portal clear, but one of my major gripes was that I didn't feel the game was long enough. The fact that this new game is full length speaks to me as I feel I would enjoy a longer game. There's also the co-op play, which could turn out to be fun. Only time will tell I suppose.


Although this is only rumour and speculation at the moment, Kotaku informs me that a Monkey Island 2; LeChuck's Revenge remake could be in the works. This is major news for me, as I adored this game as a child. It had so many fantastic puzzles and vibrant characters, and as I said previously, it's an infinitely better game than its precursor.
I remember reading... something a few months back saying that the developers were not too keen on doing MI2, but since the last one sold so well, perhaps they were persuaded. So now MI2:LR:SE is going straight to the top of my "Most Anticipated of 2010" list, slightly ahead of Fable 3 and Enslaved. Although I insist on calling it Super Moneky Island 2 Turbo HD Remix.

ROLL ON GDC Y'ALL!