Gaming...

To me games are much more than a visual story, or time fillers. I believe being good at gaming is much more than quick reactions and a sharp mind for strategy and problem solving. Just as with most other 'creative arts' I believe gaming can be used to express, inspire, and captivate, but I believe most of all this is not appreciated by most people playing games today.

There was a time when if you had any skill with video games you would have been considered a 'nerd' (before it became popular to be one) and be shunned from most social circles. Since the early days of the next gen consoles being a gamer has turned into something almost completely opposite. These days having stand out skills at any game earns you respect from your peers and in some cases fame and even fortune. I refuse to believe its due to more than more accessible on-line gaming that being a gamer now has such different connotations to just 3 or 4 years ago.

I've played games since I was 3 years old, throughout my life the people I've considered my best friends have always shared my love for video games, growing up finding peers with the same passion for games was difficult, but I probably wouldn't have realised just how difficult if not for the release of the original Modern Warfare. Since its release Modern Warfare has been the introduction to not just multi player gaming, but gaming as a whole to allot of people who now consider themselves gaming.





Just as in the music and film industry, a healthy portion of true gamers (those who have been gaming way before Xbox Live and the Playstation network) find themselves frustrated thanks to the wave of 'commercial' gamers that now shape what video game creators are doing, to ensure they meet there targets and stay in their jobs, rather than trying to create unique and memorable games. Thus creating games that some see as of a lower quality to appeal to the masses. At the same time without the recent increase in interest in gaming, us 'old skool' guys would still be considered undesirable and throw ourselves into our gaming even more, supporting the stereotype so many of us struggled with, in particular during school years.

This is a topic that has no obvious opinion, if any at all. Not many people I try to discuss this with have a strong opinion, which I find quite unnerving, especially when I'm looking for the views from people I know have been gaming hard the majority of their lives. Id hate to see gaming turn into something like film or music, that it can only be dominated by a handful of creators, regardless of the quality of what they output. Perhaps the climb in social status of gamers has blinded many to how gaming is changing?

Prototype 2

I finally got my grubby mitts on a copy of Prototype 2! As a self proclaimed biggest fan of Prototype I was expecting big things from the sequel. You play as James Heller a bad ass sergeant with serious rage issues and a potty mouth, kudos the voice actor Cornell Womack. Again as the prequel the story line is nothing ground breaking and hardly grips you. Your wife and daughter have apparently been killed by Alex Mercer... revenge... blah blah blah! The game world is slightly bigger than the first games, 3 island, the largest of which is the map from the first game, this time with more dilapidated buildings obviously.

Graphically the game is pleasing, vast improvement on the prequel, if you actually spend time walking around the citizen safe zones you will appreciate the attention to detail on the slightly rusted corrugated iron used as roofs, and the almost patchwork looking scraps of wood used to build the shelters. Its nothing outstanding but when pretty much all of the game is spent zooming from place to place or your eyes are too busy keeping up with mental paced combat, nice aesthetics is all cherry. I was worried when seeing the first game play shots of the game by how good it looked, I was certain some of the pace of the game would be sacrificed to make it prettier, for once I am happy to say I was wrong!

Game play is near enough the same. This time you can equip 2 powers at once and use them in a single combo creating the opportunity to use a bit more strategy, counter attacks with your shields, my favourite new ability is pack leader, allowing you to summon brawlers and set them on targets of your choice, watching one pounce straight through a chopper from the roof of a near by building is highly rewarding! Some moves have been taken out, such as the cannon ball. My favourite thing about the prototypes is the movement/free roaming/exploring, I had all the collectables found by my second sittings of the game, something that most other open world/free roaming games lack in is the ability to keep me entertained between missions, Prototype 2 doesn't offer many side quests and I completed the game 100% achievements and all, but still went back for another blast within a couple days of putting it down! On the downside, you no longer charge your jump as with the prequel, now you jump instantly and the longer you hold jump the higher you will go, even after getting used to this, which is not as easy as you may have thought, I still prefer having to hold then releasing actually perform the jump, it was easier to get around smoothly I feel, I understand why this was done though, timing your jumps has been taken out of the equation giving the player less to think about. Heller is less acrobatic than Mercer too, not in a way that would disadvantage him in a race, but in a stylish way, Heller doesn't flip and twirl in the air like Mercer did. Honestly I think if Heller did move like Mercer it just wouldn't seem right with Heller having more of a brutal personality but style is part of what made the original game so good.



There a massive sense of 'am I missing something here' when playing the game, Mercer's character has changed so much, you didn't get too strong of a hero or villain vibe from him in the first, but by the second game he's a classic antagonist, no transition or explanation. I have since completing the game found out there are comics/graphic novels that go deeper into the story of Prototype.

Overall the game is not too difficult, but does offer at least a couple of challenges. The trick is to keep moving as much as possible. This is the first game I've 1000g'd, and I was only 4 shy of all of them when I had realised how many I had gotten so easy picked for all the gamer score whores out there. I cant decide which of the 2 games I prefer, which is good as sequels of great games usually let me down, especially when they are made prettier, probably due to my high expectations.

Since the release of Prototype 2 it has been announced that Radical Entertainment will no longer be producing original games and will be a support team for Activision. You only realise how heart breaking this is once you look at their back catalogue. I for one will miss their great work!

Waste Man

.... the real definition of a waste man?

Kung Fu warrior iPad-

Kung fu warrior is available from the app store on iPad (poss iphone too.... I didn't check). Simple with only 6 control button in total left, right, jump, heavy and light attacks then the special move. Beautiful with vibrant colours and a cartoony style, you play as a Bruce look a like on a map that's about 1.5x the size of the screen so there's some scrolling and nice 'just off screen' action from enemies from time to time, which is great at creating excitement as u tap away hoping you making hits and not allowing the enemy time to strike you! You'll be right at home here if you, like me, is a fan of games such as Castle Crashers.

I only downloaded this as the title had Kung fu in its name, fortunately it hasn't put me off the theme. Even though the game is repetitive with not many different enemies, moves and un-lockables few and far between compared to most other small iPad games, you don't find your self getting as board as you may have thought when playing through the VERY quick tutorial. Its very smooth and very responsive (not sure if that's thanks to the iPad it self or the creators of the game) so there is not much to get frustrated with. The animations are charming and brought a grin to my face as the character pops his Bruce Lee style pose at the end of a combo.
From the load screen you can tell this is not something that you'll have trouble putting down, but once you start time will fly by without you noticing. Nothing new, unique or intuitive, but plenty of fun.
6/10

Planet hulk

As we know I'm a Marvel boy, and so the lure of a Hulk animated movie is all too much to resist. Part of me wishes I had though.
We start with the Hulk being blasted into space by man kind (led by iron man apparently) as he is too dangerous on earth, he ends up on a plant where he is forced to become a gladiator (as in Russell crow stylee) by an evil emperor/king.... Yepp the rest is the usual super hero stuff, the Hulk reluctantly gets involved and saves the day.
Its not very Hulkish, he's being civil to certain characters by 20 minutes in, he's able to speak pretty well, no mention of Dr Banner, he's not even as muscular as you normally would see him. Other than the fact he's green, angry and the few mega punches there's not much Hulk action here. There's a couple of swordplay moments, I feel the Hulk has no business using any weapon. By the end the planets inhabitants that at first shunned the Hulk hail him as a leader... obviously. The one positive I can find in this is the various character styles, obviously being set on another planet we don't need to be seeing too many humans, one of the characters is a clear rip of The thing from the fantastic 4, which I felt is very cheap!
Big let down, felt I had wasted some of my time watching it, if I hadn't decided to write a review for this I wouldn't have bothered finishing it to be honest. Luckily its not enough to put you off the Hulk, it doesn't seem that allot of effort was put into this animation so the fact its a bit of a let down isn't too shocking.

Mirrors Edge iPad

BIG fan of mirrors edge on console, it was a game I waited months on for release and loved the game more than I ever thought I would. People who know me will all agree if you have a chick pulling ninjaish moves or slicing up enemies with katanas I'm there, Mirrors edge obviously feeding the first of my fetishes.

Mirrors edge is a game based around free running, with a political edge to the story. Mostly set on roof tops of a typical metropolitan city, high rise buildings and such. No first person view, no gun play, not much combat, not much like the original at all! If I wasn't being biased due to my love of the original I'd describe the iPad version as a glorified building runner game, but is that a bad thing anyway? Building runner games have you trying and trying again for extended periods of time... no? 2d game play in a 3d setting, a winning combination. Visually its a slight let down, I expected more after seeing EAs stamp all over it but it's nothing that puts you off. The story.... I couldn't tell you much about the story, I restarted the game to play through paying attention to the story side of things, but found myself dropping that aspect of the game very early on, the story is put to you at the loading sections only and has you reading quite a bit of star wars scrolling affect text which just isn't appealing. Most importantly as the game requires quick reflexes the controls are smooth and simple. Stroke up to jump, down to slide, left and right to move in that direction and tap to stop, simple. There are a few tweaks that have you double stroking up to wall run and such, nothing the game requires you to pull off could ever be described as difficult really. Combat has only three options, slide to take out, stroke towards to disarm and jump and stroke towards to fly kick, as the game is even less about combat than the original the opportunities for combat seem a little bit of fun, rather than something that's lacking. Your aim is to get from one side of a map to the other avoiding the obstacles and enemies bullets, multiple routes to each level and collectables that are not that too challenging to reach, just as the original you'll sometimes need to just stop and think your moves through to reach where it is you want to be, but nothing that made me want to throw my tablet across the room. It took me about 2 hours to get through the main game and that's with a little exploration for those collectables.

My favourite things about this game is the same as the original, sleek, stylish, quick paced its simple. There's a slight proud elation to launching the character through the air and jumping into and then back out of a wall runs to reach a slightly more hard to reach path. As there's not allot to the game I don't think Its something I'd revisit any time soon, but definitely something I'd recommend to anyone that owns a device it plays on.

BAD MAN

In case you didn't know why Kenpachi is the badest of men 

(or shinigami)