Beijing 2008

Athens 2004, the last instalment of the official Olympic video games was without a doubt, one of the best multiplayer games for me, along with the high flying classics, Pro/Fifa, Madden, Mario Kart, Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games, Uefa Euro 2008.. You get the idea.

The idea of alternate button pressing for hours on end will seem like hard work, but its well worth it. After we found Athens at uni, and proceded to play it to death over a month, I dont think I have ever felt healthier. Days and days of blisters and used socks.. (putting a sock over your fingers and sliding them back and forth over the 2 alternate buttons is a much faster way of running/swimming etc..) was amazing fun.

And I'm delighted to say that Beijing is no change. More events, more challenges, a better career mode is only let down by the severe lack of the fundamental aspect of a track and field game - ALTERNATE BUTTON BASHING. Its like replacing having a great looking steak, tastes good, smells great.. but to eat it you have to drink it after its been in the blender.. It not how you imagine or want to be doing it.

Yes, there is some. But why o why am I sat here, rotating sticks to lift up a weight? No, I want to alternate button bash.. Its a fundamental aspect that is sorely missed, missing like a log book from a mysteriously cheap Romanian car. But yes, it was still fun to play multiplayer - you have events where everyone is relatively equal, and some where the gap between people is equivilant to the space between Jennifer from Big Brothers teeth. But at the end, you are normally pretty close. Or you would be if I wasnt so useless at the Kayaking. Kayaking is by far the worst and most embarresing 5 minute experience in my life. Ive had better control of my bladder on the first night out when going back to Uni and ant decides to play drinking games all day and we have a crate each before leaving and then having to sit in a minibus for 30 minutes and then running to the toilets in the club only to find out we have lost everyone.... than I had when playing the Kayaking. Stupid event.

Anyway, the graphics are good, the gameplay is good, the sense of 1-up-manship on your mates is still there - its a great party game.

New Game Scores, 1 word sum up and buy or not to buy..

Beijing 2008 (Xbox, Ps3) - 8/10 – goldmedaly – Buy

Earth Defence Force 2017

Ok, so, randomly when at my brothers great new flat he decides to pick up a game which he's had for a year and a bit, never played, and bought because it was a tenner. Most people would have never heard of it, a relatively old limited budget game from Japan with the "aliens" and "army" type approach. But this game is different, and something really special.

Earth Defence Force 2017 for the Xbox360 succeeds where other budget games have failed for 1 main reason. It kept the game, gameplay, story and everything else simple.

Within 3 minutes of putting in the disk, I was standing destroying giant ants from outerspace (and most of the surrounding city) with a huge rocket launcher. As a EDF agent, you repel and defeat enemy defeats with an array of weapons. Kills = item drops, and if your lucky, more weapons. Its what all games should be like. Simple, and most importantly, really, really fun to play.

If that doesn't make you interested, then I dont know what you want out of a game. After playing for 3 hours, me and my brother had completed 3% of the game - and of course, it does not get old for obvious reasons.

1. Weapons
2.Destruction
3.Giant Ants
4.Bigger weapons.

Anyway, keep an eye out for it. Its pretty rare, but well worth a £10 note.

New Game Scores, 1 word sum up and buy or not to buy..

Earth Defence Force 2017 - 9/10 – boomy – Buy

Rock Band

Rock Band is the next logical progression in the latest "talent" series of gaming, following on from games like "Sing Star", "Guitar Hero", and the more obscure (but amazing) Samba de Amigo.


The game allows you to dominate the world of Rock like a Scouser with a fiver rules Liverpool. The main difference is of course, that you are able to play in your band as either/or/all of the guitar, bass, vocal, or drummer. Prices with kit (1 guitar, microphone, drum kit) are around £200, which is a serious amount of money for, what is at the end of the day, 1 computer game. But is it worth it?

Well, put it this way. Buy an additional guitar controller, invite round 3 mates, and see what happens. (This is of course, providing you have mates. Failing this, find 3 of the cleanest hobos you know - and offer to pay them with turps).

The result really is quite magical. As you may know from other "team" multiplayer games, you normally will be at each others throats faster than Vanessa Feltz is on a cream cake. But with Rock Band, you immediately bond. For a brief moment, you forget that your mates have shagged your sister, bitten off a bit of your ear when drunk, and set up a facegroup book with graphic photoshopped images of you with Michael Barrymore. You are, for all purposes, now bigger than the Beatles.

The timing on the game is great, and a varied song choice will please almost anyone.

9/10, pretty revolutionary, one of the best multiplayer experiences since Mario Kart.

The End Of Exclusive Games?

Most PS3 buyers bought for future potential. The release of Metal Gear Soild 4, and Gran Turismo meant many people bought a overpriced console because that would be the only way they could buy the games they wanted.

Since and apart from its opening week and the following week, PS3's have not outsold their rival Xbox360's in any single week, month. Saying that, neither has outsold Wii's demand. So this means added pressure on games to sell better than a job paper in Liverpool.

The biggest release of the year, Grand Theft Auto 4 sold out in 92% of shops/stores/companies it was released in. Extra imports were brought in, and copies sold for up to £90 on ebay. This game of course, was released on both consoles.

Metal Gear Solid 4, released solely for the PS3, sold out in just over 10%.

The price of developing a game for 1 console is not only big as it stretches what the console can do, but also the pressure on it to sell to 100% of the console owners. 2 weeks after it full release, Metal Gear Solid 4 is still a loss for Sony (ie, enough havent been sold to make it a profit).

So this probably means that in the future, exclusive games will not be as popular or released just on 1 console. This is apparent with the new Gran Turismo, as talks have begun which detail bringing on GT on both the PS3, and Xbox 360. This will not please many PS3 owners, but will make the shareholders of Sony alot less angry at the lack of demand for the new games.

Metal Gear Solid 4 : Guns Of The Patriots

Ok, lets get things straight. I love the Metal Gear Solid. I actually didn’t buy another game for 6 months after the first one was released on the Playstation, because I played it all the way through, 3 times. The idea of not actually having to fight anyone to beat the game was revolutionary, its stealth system was great, and the series has always had cutting edge graphics, even when you were hiding in a cardboard box.

But the best part of the game, was actually playing it, and the amazing gameplay made you want to keep playing, and playing the story.

So, now to MGS4.

Its rubbish. Really, really, really not worth the money. If you have a great store with a return policy, then you might want to buy it, look at the new graphics and the new glorified remote controlled video camera on wheels, which looks like a robot from star wars has had some sexy time with a microwave, then return it. The annoying this is, the gameplay is still good, but they have tried far too hard to make it unique. There as no many little niggly controls you use once or twice, it seems a little pointless, like learning how to cook beef wellington, then never actually doing it – you end up feeling like you could have just done with a pot noodle, or… well whatever the game equivalent is.

The major downside is that you get bored with the endless, endless cutscenes and in game movie bits. This isn’t like a game like mass effect, with an in depth conversation system, you can literally be sat there for 10’s of minutes without doing anything. You also have the feeling that the game is stretched out, so it appears longer, so the story line is very sparse, with very few suprises coming your way. I really do wonder what the percentage of playing to watching time is.

I actually died a few times because I went to make a brew/drop the kids off at the pool/went for a night out, and when I came back, I was in the middle of a gun fight. The game, just doesn’t hold your attention.

7/10 – Bit of a waste of a huge, huge build up. Wait for a MGS movie to come out next, they are pretty much there now anyway.