FIFA 11

As the game gets another year older, how is it maturing? Not too well..



FIFA has reached the difficult adolescent years. Since the vastly underrated World Cup game was brought out in May, I have been extremely excited by this years FIFA offering. The gameplay in WC was superb, graphics, as per usual fantastic, and a pretty seamless game.

After a fair few days spent attempting to immerse myself in FIFA 11 however, I am unbelievably disappointed. The game is nowhere near seemingly finished. Even a true FIFA purist/fanboy, must acknowledge the cheek of EA to put out this game, especially promoting it with promises of improvements from FIFA 10, which, in my opinion was the best club football game released in a long, long time. The hard truth though, is that this game is a drastic step back.

It almost feels like it is not actually you playing the game, the reaction speed and response time of the players is often comparable to a dead slug, and even worse online. Players often disappear, and will sometimes reselect who you are controlling for no real reason.

The career mode is a welcome highlight – no longer stuck in a 4 year cycle, there is more depth to the mode now, with more choice over your playing, or now managerial life. The Virtual Pro mode, as many will discover is extremely addictive, but the fact that gameplay is so slow, means it can be incredibly frustrating. Starting off at Bradford, my first season was a mixture of lows and other lows. Its hard to level up your pro, when you cannot pass (although that's just the game in general, not just my player), cannot shoot, and seem to care about the game as much as Tevez cares who he plays for.
The other main edition is the ability to play as the goalkeeper. Some will turn this into an art form, but I got bored extremely quickly with waiting endlessly to do something.

I always harp on about realism in games – and in effect, I am sure this game is extremely realistic to real life top flight football, but the fact that passing is so frustratingly inconsistent is a painful reminded that FIFA, and all computer games are supposed to be fun and enjoyable. Is this game? In the most, not at the minute. Is it too realistic?

Player growth in career mode makes career mode unplayable for me. Its random, and despite getting emails that your players are improving, they dont. I've been on the forums and EA have listed it as one of the things they are fixing for the next patch. Apparently if you play the career mode till players are like 25+ the growth speeds up... But what of younger players until then? You can play 2 or 3 seasons without them improving at all. Who wants to do that? And how does that make sense anyway? - Ekeke, www.redcafe.net

As for online, I can only really speculate how good it is/will be. Out of my 12 attempted online ranked games, I have managed to complete 2 of them (other friends have a lower %), and I am 0/9 on completion of the Pro Clubs online version. Its appalling. As mentioned earlier, the lag makes the game unplayable too, sometimes a full 4 seconds after pressing a direction, will your player make that move. Its just not good enough for a game which so many look forward to.



To be honest, I could continue to look at the bugs, glitches and canyons of faults with the game – but I fully expect EA to provide us with multiple patches to fix these at some point or another.

Maybe we have just been spoilt with FIFA's last few years releases. Few would argue that FIFA is sitting on top of the football sim pile over the last few years, but with Pro becoming a little more well respected this year, next years releases will be extremely interesting. I also fully expect to get a torrent of abuse about this review - but as always, it is my personal opinion. I do not enjoy this game the the minute, and cannot see it being worth the RRP of £44.99. Nowhere near.

Get working on your patches EA, then bring us something memorable next year please.

Rating – 4/10
Fair Price - £14.99

(Rating and Price will change, dependant on patches)

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

Tiger Woods - Rough As.

I bought Tiger Woods 08, again for the PS3 as my Xbox is still broken. (Thanks Microsoft) Ok, ill start with the positives. The graphics are amazing, and the ability to create your own character is a brilliant, mine actually resembled me!

Thats quite enough of that.

Its not often a game take a step back from its predecessor. However, after playing tiger woods 07 on the Xbox till death last year, i felt that this game was trying to be too technical, at the cost of gameplay.
Its like going to a Mcdonalds and buying 'THE NEW BIG MAC", only to find out, its new because its half the size and tastes of actual meat. Its still pleasant, but its not what you were expecting or really, bought the game for. Or the Burger. Whatever makes sense.
I understand im picking, but for someone who has played previous Tiger Woods, this game is instantly frustrating. There were faults with almost all shots played. For those who dont know, tiger woods is played by moving the analogue stick backwards and forwards. The straighter the line made, the straighter the shot, the better the timing of the swing, the better the power.. and so on.

But the game kept on insisting me and others were hooking the ball every single shot. This was tried after a restart of the game, and the same happened. I mean, we could see we werent hooking it, but it was still saying we were. Its like when.. no matter how much someone tries to tell you again and again that a french accent is sexy.. We all know its not the case, and although your input is far different. Ultimately, you just get annoyed and give up. O im sorry, im wrong. Of course they dont just sound like they're speaking out of their nose, how silly of me. Or in this case.. yes tiger woods 08, im hooking it.. ok..

Anyway, apart from the awful controls, there are small bits that you miss. The aiming system on 07 was better, the putting is near impossible, there is no way to speed up the shots. O and of course, with all EA games, there is more chance you'll meet an honest german than being able to connect up to their servers.

Overall, not impressed, and i shall be taking it back asap and swapping it for Uncharted Drakes Fortune. Speaking of which..

It is not often you play a demo of a game you were not convinced of its appeal, and after know you are going to buy it. Uncharted Drakes Fortune is one of these games for me. So ill review it when ive played it!

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

Tiger Woods 08 - 3/10 - backpedal - Don't buy.. plain as that.

PES vs Fifa & Something Terrible Has Happened..

On saturday afternoon, when playing football (and performing an amazing save), something awful happened.. this..

Its not a magic picture, but just incase.. that massive lump below my thumb isnt supposed to be there..

I tore muscle tissue in my hand, meaning that movement of my thumb is very limited, and will be for a week or so. Anyone who cant see where im going here?

It has become very painful and near on impossible for me to play any computer games.
But anyway, I've decided to review this years/seasons two main football games. These 2 are of course Fifa 08 and Pro Evolution Soccer 2008. To ensure a fair contest, i'm doing both on the same console, the PS3. I'll start off by saying that since I have prefered PES since Pro Evo 4, I have been heavily swayed by the smoother gameplay, and not been bothered by the unlisenced names. But every year it seems like PES has slowed down, the play more bitty, whilst Fifa has slowly improved, the passes even occasionally going where you press them to. But anyway..

Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 v Fifa 08

First off, Pro Evo 2008. The case looks as good as ever, the disk and opening sequence build the exitement, and then the gameplay.. Well.. never have I regretted spending £40 so fast. The frame rate it awful, the longest passage of smooth play is a few seconds and then it stops to work out why it was working. Die hard Pro Evo fans will tell you 'turn off some features, it runs fine!'. These few features to my experimentation are no commentary, no SFX, no BGM, no stadium effects.. o and actually installing the game on your hard drive.. And guess what? There is still a noticable delay. Also, to anyone who hasnt noticed, you can score pretty much every single time by cutting in on the edge of the box and letting the ball hit their toblerone handed keeper and pop out to you forwards.. realistic eh? So.. is the gameplay still worth this effort? In short, no. Although most will still try to argue that despite these set backs, Pro Evo is still the best game. It is obvious these have never given Fifa 08 a chance.

Straight off, Fifa 08 is the most enjoyable football game i have played since Pro Evo 4, and before that Sensible Soccer (by the way, download that now from Xbox live if you can) on the megadrive. The graphics are superb, no skipping and the loading times are non existent, well there are some - but you can actually play in the loading arena while you wait. The better commentary is more varied, and without Mark Lawrenson! BGM soundtrack is awesome and as for the previously less superior gameplay? Its actually just as good, if not better (no lag too). The ability to score screamers is actually there, but there is no sure fire way to score. This game is so enjoyable, and finally Fifa has actually shown itself as a world class football game in gameplay as well as graphics. And it has a lifespan. EA are looking into patches for the game which will update team rosters after the next few transfer windows.

Long story short?

Pro Evolution 2008 4 - 9 Fifa 08

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

Pro Evolution 2008 - 4/10 - samey - get fifa instead.

Fifa 08- 9/10 - suprising - definite buy, even if you have no friends and will only be playing the single player version

Guitar Hero 3 - Legends of Gaming?

Guitar Hero has been one of the most enjoyable series of games released, but is the idea getting old now?

Guitar Hero 3 sets out similar to the previous 2, but now there is a Wireless guitar on all 3 major consoles. This allows you to wander aroud your room, jump off the bed, go down on your knees without restriction, preventing you from being pulled back towards the console like on a bungee run, or, like how my playstation 2 died, pulling the console off of your desk.

To people new to the guitar hero series, the experience of playing the game is hilarious, challenging and fresh. However, to veterans, the format is exactly the same. Sure, the online modes are better, faster, and there are far more battle modes. To complete some stages you have to beat a 'guitar legend'. Tom Morello (Rage Against The Machine), Slash (Most bands at some point in his life). This is, slightly different, but.. your still playing guitar.

It sounds like im having a go, but the desire to play through the single mode more than once is non existent. And there are only so many rounds of so called 'legend' bands you can play through until you get to any good songs (Reign in Blood by Slayer, One by Metallica.... thats pure class). I understand that the game cannot have huge rock songs every single one, but alot of the songs I have barely ever heard of.

However, overall i would reccommend buying this game, especially if you access to the internet. The ability to download songs has been freed right up, and even recent songs youve heard of are now relatively cheap. But remember, in the next couple of months, Rock Band hits the shelves. Thats the ability to play the guitarist, bassist, and now the drummer and singer too. ( Yes there are going to be a mic and a drum kit included), and with alot of hype surrounding it, you might be worth holding on for that.

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

Guitar Hero 3 Legends of Rock- 6/10 - chordy - personally, if you are short of money, wait till Rock Band.

Super Mario, Bee Mario, Ice Mario

Another day, another hosts of alter egos we didnt know existed from our friend mario. Only 5 more stars today, but i had other things to do! O and another hard work out on Mario and Sonic at the Olympic games.. with G putting extra effort into his pole vault.. (See right)

I am still, after 21 days waiting for my package to arrive from microsoft so i can send off my xbox to get it fixed. Its now getting beyond a joke, and my 360 games are taunting me. You would have thought after millions of the same fault with the Xbox 360 and the ring of death, they would have worked out a faster system of fixing the system.

O well, heres the view i get when i turn on my xbox, and roughly 55% of all xbox owners will discover at some point in their playing life..

I hate it so much. Ladies and Gentlemen, the ring of death.

Im ending the day playing NBA Live 08 on the Playstation 3. Very similar to the 07 version, but with slightly better graphics, and a much improved shooting and tactical system. The gameplay flows well, but occasionaly the ball will pass to no-one. Helpful when games do that.. American sports games always tend to be alot tighter than fifa is, and everygame is contested right to the end, no matter what team you are playing against. I have not a clue what im doing in the season mode really, just playing each game when they come along.

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

NBA Live 08- 8/10 - swoosh - if you like basketball, or just love multiplayer sports games - buy

Mario, Sonic, Mario, Knuckles

More Super Mario Galaxy today, and again, more Mario & Sonic Olympics. The Olympics really is a great group game, taught 2 new people to play today, in the space of about 5 minutes. The Wrists are still caining but with all great games, you play on regardless. The PS3 has really taken a back seat at the minute, Fifa 08 hasnt been touched in days!

Super Mario Galaxy... really though.. what a game. Im on 43 stars now, and im happy to replay all levels to find hidden stars. Every level is well thought out, and fun to play. Today i had to save luigi, and i continue on the trail of princess peach. Its getting hard to distinguish between the games though now, i keep trying to get mario to throw a javelin, or long jump over gaps.

Also my brain grade has risen on Big Brain Academy, im now a B. Not bad for a student with enough time to write a blog about computer games. Big Brain Academy is a fun game, as well as multiplayer benifits. The only thing is that the single player is slightly limited. The want to go back and play the same exercises again and again is doubtful. But now, a copy can be found for £15 it is a great budget game

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

Big Brain Academy (Wii) - 7/10 - expanding - for £15 its a good deal - buy

The Day I Killed My Wrists

Nintendo have the habit of building really addictive games, not addictive like BioShock is, in that you desperately want to find someone your looking for, or Fifa, cos you really want to score that 45yard screamer with Gary Neville (it happened!), but just the gameplay is so enjoyable.

Nintendo have a new masterpiece in Super Mario Galaxy.

The variation of the game is endless, the fact that my mate came into my room and asked me if it was still the same game speaks for itself. The controls are basic and easy to pick up, and like all Mario adventures, there is humour and a large range of activities to be found. I am not saying that you are not interested in the story line, but when was the last time you were playing a mario game and were actually concerned about Princess Peach?

They have worked mini games that are missions into the play, so it isnt just space hopping, and of course, like with all Wii games, there is a heightened sense of involvement and you jerk, spin and jump, using the nunchuck and the wii-mote. Im about 25 stars in, and once ive completed it? Ill play it all over again.

In a completely different genre, with similar characters however was Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games. This is one of the most enjoyable 'fun' multiplayers since Mario Kart all those years ago. Every event can be picked up quickly, which means no-one starts whining because they 'dont get it', well almost no-one.

Along with the classic events - 100metres, hurdles, javelin, there are certain 'pimped out' events, that are called dream events. I try not to play these in multiplayer as i think they are not as good as the usual events though. Still enjoyable. Anyway, i completed this game, unlocked all the events etc in 6 hours, but with any great mulitpayer game, this is ideal as it means more multiplayer action.

I should point out my Xbox360 is currently broken, so it may be a while before thats sorted.

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

Super Mario Galaxy (Wii) - 10/10 - revolutionary - you havent got this already?!

Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games (Wii) - 9/10 - Sociable - definetly buy if you have friends.