Walking Leaf

Back in March 2007, I posted on my blog that I wasn’t that interested in the PlayStation 3 as it was too expensive and didn’t have that many games. Well, after a year of waiting for the price cut and a certain “real driving simulation”, I have finally purchased the new Sony game console.

Sure, it doesn’t support the backwards compatibility to play PlayStation 2 games like Okami, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, but at least I didn’t have to pay over £400 to buy this advance machine. Okay, it has a smaller hard drive than the 60GB model – that can also play PS2 games – but I feel I made a wise choice in buying one as there are some decent quality titles coming out on this system in 2008.

The first of which is Gran Turismo 5 Prologue. It maybe a demo offering a slight glimpse of what the real game will be like with hundreds of car manufacturers, real race tracks from around the world and at last, damage mode – but the fact that this game showcase the potential of the PS3 with high definition visuals and sound means I am genuinely excited by this next gen video game console.

The PlayStation 3 uses the Blu-ray disc media that is now the definitive choice for high definition viewing – though I won’t be spending my cash on purchasing the same films to have a rich and nice display.

I believe Konami’s tactical espionage action game that is Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of Patriots will be the biggest hit for the PS3. From scanning those stunning screenshots and digesting every bit of information about Hideo Kojima’s stealth-based video game, I am genuine excited to play it.

For the time being, I will make do with the racing games I got for the system with the likes of Formula One Championship Edition and MotorStorm to fulfil my need for speed.

After playing both version of Guitar Hero II on the PlayStation 2 and Xbox 360 to death, it’s nice to experience a new set list of rockin’ tracks with the latest instalment of the popular music rhythm game.

Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock has been developed by Neversoft after Activision decided to focus its attention on creating a brand new music game – the quite superb Rock Band (which is currently available in the States). Even though the game play to Guitar Hero III is identical to the previous titles, it some how feels different…

Yes, you still need to play through the different tracks by pressing the five colour fret buttons with the unique guitar controller but new to Guitar Hero III is the boss battle mode. To be honest, I really despise this new game play element as the balance between winning and losing is so random…

Okay its great to face-off legendary guitarists like Tom Morello (of Rage Against the Machine/Audioslave), Slash (of Guns N’ Roses/Slash’s Snakepit/Velvet Revolver) and Bret Michaels (of Poison) but you have to rely on sheer good fortune to take victory.

To defeat your opponent, you will need to pick up Battle Power (which replaces Star Power) to earn attacks. By using this special ability, you can strike against your fellow competitor just by tilting the guitar upwards. It may seem fun to keep on attacking but they can fight back - causing missed notes, increase in difficulty and even amp overload!

As for the visuals, the set designs and animation of the band members feels more realistic. In fact the lip sync on the singer matches the voices coming out of his mouth!

The track listing is now full of master recording from the likes of The Rolling Stones, The Smashing Pumpkins, Muse, Metallica and The Sex Pistols. It all sounds fantastic, a massive improvement over the cover versions that were featured in the previous Guitar Heroes.

And with the new wireless guitar – based on a real Gibson Les Paul model – playing the tracks is a more rewarding experience. What a shame that the boss battle seems misplace after all the fun playing encores… At least the new controller has a better responding whammy bar and is a lot more comfortable compare to X-plorer…

My Xbox 360 committed suicide this month by giving me the dreaded three red lights a.k.a. the Red Ring of Death. I was shocked when this occur especially as my friend was playing quite well on Expert mode in Guitar Hero II…

The whole screen froze and when we tried to reset the console, the familiar red lights flashed away. To be honest, I was heading towards the console’s deathbed in the past couple of weeks when it crashed ten times in a space of an hour! In that period, I replayed the same race in Project Gotham Racing 4 without making past the first corner… To see white lines and square blocks appearing on my Samsung HDTV during a game and on the Xbox 360 loading screen means there is something seriously going wrong inside the machine.

I called up customer support immediately and after explaining the problem, I arrange a pick-up to get it repaired. The good news is that I don’t need to pay for the repair as Microsoft has a three-year warranty. The bad news is I won’t get my Xbox 360 for the next three to four weeks so in the meantime I can continue my quest in Super Mario Galaxy on the reliable Nintendo Wii! But in all seriousness, Microsoft is aware of the RROD situation. In fact, I discover that Microsoft receives numerous amounts of broken Xbox 360s with this problem EVERYDAY!

I hope I get it back in the New Year, as I desperately want to play Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock with the new wireless guitar controller. Plus, I have to finish off those remaining levels in Bioshock (feel embarrass that I yet to complete it). Fingers cross my Xbox 360 is running fine without any more problems when I get it back.

I have a little confession to make – I haven’t played a Super Mario game since the good old Game Boy. Super Mario Land was a classic and it was one of the first proper platform games that I completed from start to finish. The game play was short but sweet and I’m amazed that I missed out on several other Mario games on the main Nintendo consoles.

These include the sublime Super Mario World (Super Nintendo), Mario 64 (Nintendo 64) and er… Super Mario Sunshine (GameCube). Actually, this particular game is considered to be the most frustrating for video gamers. Maybe the sense of cleaning the world with a water-powered jet pack was not ideal for people obsessed with killing things…

With Super Mario Galaxy, everyone’s favourite Italian plumber is back and with the benefit of the Wii’s motion sensor controls; this is by far the most impressive Mario game ever.

The control system works a treat and it’s a joyful pleasure to run and jump around on different planets in glorious 3D. The visuals and level design are nothing short of breathtaking with it own sense of style and atmosphere.

The game play is heavily addictive and it was quite a nice touch to have a co-op mode for the second player. Instead of them sitting there watching you playing this fantastic game, they can help by waving the Wiimote around collecting Star Bits!

I have yet to complete it as I’ve been sidetracked by work and also my recent holiday to Hong Kong (will post this next) but considering I have to collect around 120 golden stars to finish it – currently I have 25 - then I have quite a long way to go in Super Mario Galaxy! So many other planets and galaxies yet to explore, so it is best to load this up and continue my epic quest!

I’ve been following the E3 show with keen enthusiasm and only one title stands out that captures my attention. No, it is not Wii Fit for the Nintendo Wii (which I have to admit it’s a great concept by the Japanese game developers to design a fun game that keeps you healthy and in shape) but in actual fact, its Rock Band.

As a fan of Guitar Hero, the brilliant guitar-based rhythm game, the news that Rock Band will offer the chance of wannabe rock musicians to perform in a virtual band is a dream came true.

And after reading the various news articles online and in video game magazines, Harmonix (the creator of the original Guitar Hero) is now turning this fantasy into a reality!

Rock Band is essentially four games as one, challenging rockers to master the lead guitar, bass guitar, drums and vocals. The game will feature some top quality tracks from the likes of The Who, Metallica, Queens of the Stone Age, Foo Fighters and Nirvana. In fact, many of these will be original recordings.

The drum kit is certainly the instrument I really would like to have a go on. The controller is built in a similar way to the arcade classic, DrumMania, with four pads to hit.

These are the snare drum, tom-tom, hi-hat and the crash/ride cymbals. It also includes a kick pedal for bass and will ship with a pair of authentic drumsticks. Harmonix has even stated that if you can master the drum peripheral on the harder difficulty, they you will be able to play it for real!

The opportunity to support the backing beat to our virtual band will be fantastic and I look forward to the release on the Xbox 360 (and PlayStation 3) sometime this year. My only concern will be the price…

I finally upgraded my Xbox 360 to Xbox Live, though it cost me over £100 to do so! Why so expensive? First, I needed to buy that official wireless adapter as a way of connecting to the Internet without the aid of cables. Due to the way my router is set-up in my house, it was impractical to run the long Ethernet cable from the router to the console (as the router was in the lounge, while the console was upstairs).

The wireless adapter cost £60, but luckily I had enough points on my HMV games card to take £10 off. Still, it is a bit much for this accessory… The next item I had to purchase to access Xbox Live is a 12-month Gold subscription. With this special membership, I can download playable demos, film trailers, music videos and Dashboard themes.

This so-called ‘Gold’ membership - an upgrade over the limited Silver status - cost £40 and it only last for one year… Once this is over, you will need to spend another £40 to remain a member on Xbox Live.

So that’s £90 spent already just to go online. For the Nintendo Wii, it was free and the Wi-Fi was built in to the machine…

But I haven’t finished yet, as I needed some Microsoft Points in order to purchase items available on the Xbox Live Marketplace. So this means spending a further £20 to get 2,100 points.

Now that I got everything required to play Xbox Live (wireless adapter, 12-month subscription and points) just how much did I spend? Well, that’s £110! But was it worth it in the end? Yes, absolutely.

The ability to play online games in multiplayer mode is fantastic and I had the opportunity to sample this experience for the first time while playing against MrSamuari (Jason) in Virtua Tennis 3.

There was a slight bit of lagging – due to the different broadband speeds – but it was playable. In fact, the tennis game was quite competitive between Jason and myself. He won in the end, but I will get him next time!

I wasn’t a fan of online gaming initially but since playing the excellent Mario Kart DS with a group of friends over the ‘net, I have to admit its addictive. Now that I have Xbox Live, I’m looking forward to playing the sublime Gears Of War with Jason, Josh and Nigel soon. This should be a blast (sorry, bad pun)!

So playing online is one great part of Xbox Live, the next is the ability to download new stuff for your console including new game levels and Dashboard themes.

In the case of Dashboard themes for example, for only 400 Microsoft Points you can have the Heroes look (see the image above). There are many more to choose from but surprisingly there wasn’t any on 24 or Formula One…

In addition you can download playable demos for forthcoming Xbox 360 games. So with that, I’ve downloaded two games I was interested in: Top Spin 2 (a tennis game) and Forza Motorsport 2 (Microsoft’s answer to Gran Turimso). Both were free.

But the best part of Xbox Live is the ability to communicate with your friends with instant messaging thanks to the new update. MSN Messenger works quite well on the Xbox 360 and even though it was quite tricky to type messages using the controller, by using a spare USB keyboard ‘borrowed’ from my old Apple iMac, I can now type out my messages just like I do if I was on my computer.

So despite the high costs to get going, it is worth every penny.

As a big fan of Guitar Hero II, the opportunity to play this fantastic music rhythm game on Microsoft’s Xbox 360 is finally here. Ever since it first appeared on Sony’s PlayStation 2, I always wanted to see how it would look and feel in high definition form, with downloadable content to expand the game play.

Well, now I have it thanks to my sister buying an imported copy and am I happy with it? Difficult to say as the visuals do look amazing in HD but the same cannot be said with the new and exclusive X-plorer guitar controller…

I have read many stories online regarding an unresponsive whammy bar (it has something to do with the build quality) and initially I thought I was lucky to have a working guitar controller. Alas, this wasn’t the case and the first time I’ve play this on my Xbox 360, the whammy bar refused to work…

So instead of getting a replacement – which proved tricky as it was brought in Germany – I’ve decided to find a solution with some help from Google. And after typing some key words like ‘Guitar Hero II controller problem’ and ‘Xbox 360 guitar’ into the search engine, found this useful site.

I followed the instructions carefully and made the necessary small changes to make the whammy bar work properly. After taking it apart, unloosing the two important screws and rotating the device even so slightly, it now works! Good news you would think but unfortunately the whammy bar is so loose, it now ‘flops’ around…

Despite that, I can still enjoy the game. Just completed the Medium Career mode without any difficulty and my next step is to play through Hard to unlock more new bonuses. As for the game play, there is a hint of delay when strumming compared to the PlayStation 2 version. It seems to have a tiny lagging issue and even though I calibrated my Samsung HDTV to stop this, I have to strum the notes a fraction more early to play it.

Nevertheless, the new songs exclusively for the Xbox 360 are not that bad to play to (apart from My Chemical Romance) and the high definition visuals are spectacular. It just a shame that the X-plorer guitar controller doesn’t match the feel and quality to the SG controller available on the PlayStation 2…

I finally received my very late Christmas present from my sister, a plush Rosie!

Rosie is a sweet blue cat that I simply adore in Animal Crossing: Wild World. She is my favourite character in the game and when she left Leaftown (the name of my village), I was devastated.

But now Rosie is here to stay and despite looking purple than blue, her smile and cuteness will always cast a lasting impression to me!

As you can tell by my previous post, I wasn’t that keen on Sony’s next generation console, the PlayStation 3. The high cost and the lack of some serious games at this moment of time made me switch sides to Microsoft.

When the Xbox 360 was first release back in 2005, I wasn’t that interested as I enjoyed the wide range of games available on my PlayStation 2. But over time, I began to appreciate the quality of the games on offer and was impressed by what it can do (such as online play and downloadable features).

By purchasing the Xbox 360 (the Premium version with wireless controllers and 20-gigabyte Hard Drive), I finally understand what the fuss was all about with this video game system.

It is a fantastic console and to play games in near high definition (1080i) is amazing. I am aware that there will be a new version of the Xbox 360 (named Elite, which has a bigger capacity Hard Drive and HDMI port) will be coming soon. But after reading some articles online, the Elite machine doesn’t offer True High Definition as the HDMI only supports 1.2 (unlike the PlayStation 3 with 1.3). In addition, the new colour scheme – black – means it costs more…

Nevertheless, I am happy with what I have right now. I have yet to connect myself to the Xbox Live Marketplace, as I will need to purchase that so-called ‘Gold’ membership (it cost £40 every twelve months). Plus, I will need to purchase a special wireless adapter for online play (due to the router being in the lounge and the Xbox 360 upstairs).

As for what kind of games I am playing, I have a choice of six quality titles to enjoy.

The most addictive game right now is Gears Of War. It looks absolutely gorgeous and the game play is so absorbing. Damn addictive and initially I was rubbish, as I kept on dying… But after playing a few hours, I became use to the style of playing this great action game by considering how valuable hiding is!

Virtua Tennis 3 is another fine game. I used to play this to death on my Sega Dreamcast and with this latest version the simple game playing experience is still there. The visuals certain look impressive - very close to being photo realistic.

Speaking of photo realistic, Project Gotham Racing 3 features 80 of the most exotic sports cars. The ability to race around the streets of New York, Tokyo and central London is a unique experience and with the great graphics, you can spot the familiar landmarks as you race past them at over 180mph!

Test Drive Unlimited is another racing game that I like to play and even though I remember playing Test Drive II on my faithful Amiga 1200 back in the early 90s(!) to race a wide variety of cars on an island with over 1000 miles to drive on is simply unbelievable.

But for pure sensation, the opportunity to use everyday objects to kill a shopping mall filled with zombies is a strange but satisfying experience. Dead Rising reminds me of Powerstone (using items lying next to you as weapons) crosses between the horror of Resident Evil.

And last in my gaming collection is Crackdown, which is a clone of True Crime: Streets of LA. I don’t understand what I have to do as the gaming environment is pretty huge and they’re so many people to shoot or run over!

Currently, I am playing all these great games on a small CRT television set. Luckily, it supports 60 MHz. But I am planning to get a nice Samsung HDTV soon. This will make a big difference when playing in high definition.

At last! Sony’s next generation console is finally on sale in Europe and despite the high price of four hundred and twenty five pounds, I am not that enthusiastic to rush out and buy one.

Why not? I’ve played many of the launch games available on the PlayStation 3 and wasn’t all that impressed. Sure, it looks gorgeous when you hook it up to a massive high definition television set but if you look beyond the visuals, the game play hasn’t moved on since the PlayStation 2 days…

Take for example, Formula One Championship Edition. I’m a big fan of video games based on my favourite sport and after playing this on a 62-inch HDTV I felt the game playing experience all too familiar… In fact, it was exactly the same game as F1 06 on the PS2! Just more pretty that’s all.

Ridge Racer 7 was another game I’ve played. Powersliding these outrageous racing cars is actually quite good fun but I’ve seen it all before… on a PSP.

Sorry to sound all-negative so far in my post, but I expected more from a console that is supposedly the most powerful on the market.

It’s funny to think that I did pre-order this machine months before the Japanese launch and now, that day has finally arrive for European gamers.

The price is certainly off-putting and I don’t see the justification of buying an expensive games console just because Sony are moving into a new digital format with Blu-ray. If there wasn’t a Blu-ray drive, then it will be significantly cheaper.

In addition, the news that the European (PAL) PlayStation 3 will use firmware updates to run old PlayStation 2 games is not great. Without the necessary hardware (the Emotion Engine) to emulate the PS2 games in its original form, the games will feel and look different (or at worst, won’t work at all).

As for the current games on offer, none of them look that special – graphics and game play wise – apart from MotorStorm. The killer or triple ‘A’ titles have yet to appear e.g. Metal Gear Solid 4 and Gran Turismo 5. So the need to buy one on launch day is not there.

I would rather buy the Xbox 360 instead. Got the Nintendo Wii and even though it’s a fantastic little console, there aren’t any new games available on the system since it was launch. The Xbox 360 has a wide range of great games including Gears of War and Dead Rising and I look forward to buying this new console to satisfy my needs.

Maybe if there is a price cut or more suitable games are out on the PlayStation 3, then I will buy one. But for now, I will say no thanks.