Thought for the day

What does the "HD" stand for if you're playing Rez HD on a 480p telly?

What's next?

From the Eurogamer comments thread on the news that Call of Duty 4 sold very well.

COD4 isn't revolutionary in any way. And I just hate franchises that release new installments every year. COD is turning into something like FIFA. What's next, COD8, COD11...?

I would imagine CoD 5 is next. Just a wild stab in the dark, like.

Christmas games roundup

My short(ish) views on what I was playing just before Christmas:

Call of Duty 4: Brilliantly exciting single player with some very inventive set pieces and levels. Makes you wonder how all war games aren't this exciting. I thought the Multi-player would grab me, but it didn't in the end, and I've kind of given up with it after only a handful of sessions. Final score: 8/10.

Assassin's Creed: Disappointing, but overall I enjoyed it a lot. The cities were breathtaking in places, and I thought the free running and combat were well implemented, and made me feel every bit the bad-ass I was meant to be. Still has plenty of room to improve though - I'm sure Assassin's Creed 2 will be incredible if the team are given enough time. Final score: 75%

Mass Effect: Fantastic story and dialogue, let down horribly by the engine it runs on. One of the only games I can think of that had an ending that was both an obvious set-up for the sequel, and also incredibly satisfying. Final score: A+

Orange Box: Portal, as you probably know, is short but very sweet. Team Fortress 2 never worked that well for me the few times I tried it, and I'm finding server browsers a chore after getting used to Halo's party and matchmaking systems, so I kind of gave up with that. Half-Life 2 single player (and in that I include all of the episodes) is really showing its age, I think. Stop using see-saw 'puzzles'. Final score: ****


(Incidentally, and please either indulge my ego for a minute or skip this paragraph, if you're wondering why there were no updates in December, it's because I was getting fed up with writing and thinking about what to write, and thinking that I hadn't written enough. I have a regular job, this is just something to keep me entertained and spew forth opinions, and I wanted a break.)

Men of Achievement 2008

Just a week before my 30th birthday, I have finally completed the one and only thing on my "things to do before you are 30" list.



I am better than 550 other people at Voyage mode Easthaven 3 Deck in Soltrio Solitaire. I was so happy I almost cried.

(To be fair to me, I did only add this to my list about a month ago - it's not something that's taken me 29 years to achieve.)

Message for box artists

Yellow sports cars driving away from an explosion at a slight tilt, with the game's title angled up to the right above, look cool! But then, I guess you already know that...


Also, if your game's cover looks the same as your competitors, it's not really going to jump off the shelves.

In the middle of our street

Majesco have announced a game called "Our House" - probably some sort of "just like the house-building bit of the Sims" thing for the Wii.

I found the press release disappointing, mainly because when I heard the news I was expecting something with a Madness license - surely a hot IP for video games. Just think of the possibilities: Our House (a Sims clone), Driving in my Car (a racing game obviously), Shut Up (a small-time crime thing set in London), Uncle Sam (the inevitable WWII FPS in the range), Baggy Trousers (a Bully rip-off), and .. er .. probably others.

Someone get me Suggs' agent!

"More than 4000 still pictures"

Sony have announced a new 16GB memory stick for the PSP - "Users can store up to 110 minutes of high-definition video recorded in 1920 mode, almost 6 hours of HD video when shooting in 1440 LP mode, and more than 4000 still pictures in 10 Megapixel resolution."

What people are really going to use it for is their massive collection of pirated PSP games. Which will further shaft software sales on the platform, and end up turning more devs away from it. Great move.

I wonder how many PSP games have ever broken even.