Afain...

Again, no posts for some time as I've been severly overworked! Here's a brief catch up on some recents reviews etc.

WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2009
Call of Duty: World at War
Gears 2 Multiplayer Roundtable
Mirror's Edge
Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe
Left 4 Dead

Catching up

No posts for a while...

360 has been away in Frankfurt, Germany for repairs on the RROD this past week and is due to arrive back Wednesday 5th Nov. 9 days total from UPS collection to it returning isn't bad.

Have got Fallout 3 and Fable 2 ready for its return with Gears 2 out a couple of days later.

FIFA 09 and NBA Live 09 reviews are up, as well as hands-on previews for Battlestations: Pacific and Tomb Raider: Underworld.

Ryder Cup Day One - USA A-OK

Bad start for the European Ryder Cup team, finishing day one three points behind the Americans at 5 1/2 to 2 1/2. During the first half of the foursomes and fourballs events the Euro team was flying and looked unstoppable, but collapsed in the back nine both times.

George Bush Snr recognises Westwood's effort on the day

Credit to the American team though, as they fought back brilliantly from a very nervous start to finish the day with such a commanding lead. How the hell Mickelson and Kim came back from being three down, against Harrington and McDowell, to finish 2 up i'll never know. Westwood and Poulter were probably Europe's biggest stars on the day bu were still totally eclipsed by Mickelson and Justin Leonard, who both played superbly in high pressure scenarios.

Moment of the day has got to be when Phil Mickelson had a spectator ejected from the course for taking a photo of him during his backswing, apparently causing him to lose concentration on the shot.

Sports Gaming Guru

Just got given the role of 'Sports Gaming Guru' at Games Are Evil. Pretty sweet gig, get to mix my two favourite past times in one neat package. On that note it's a good time for sports games right now - Madden just got released, the annual 2K vs. EA Sports battle is well under way with NHL 09 and NHL 2K9 on shelves and will only intensify when the basketball games are released in a few weeks. Not to mention the FIFA vs. PES battle next month.

Good times indeed.

Hockey Woes

EA's NHL 09 severs for the EA Sports Hockey League (EASHL) are, frankly, a load of shit. I've only been able to get in one game for my club so far, and in total we've only managed 10 meaning our ranking is... less than great.

It's a shame because the rest of the game is so polished are well built. EA sort it out! The EASHL has th epotential to be one of the best features in a sports game ever!

Football Is Getting Dumb!

British football that is - not the American kind.

It has been getting me down recently at just how many Premier League teams are being bought out by foreign investors with money to waste, and no sense of the history built up over countless years prior to their arrival. I suppose it all started with Chelsea, who went from perennial upper-mid table challengers to consistent league challengers in the space of a year due to the bottomless pit that is Roman Abramovich's wallet.

That seemed to spark a number of takeovers from the American owned Man Utd, Liverpool and Aston Villa to the Icelandic contingent that controls West Ham United. Man City now find themselves under their second set of foreign owners, after Abu Dhabi United Group bought the club from the disaster zone that was Thanksin Shinawatra. And their first action... table a bid of £35 million for Tottenham's Dimitar Berbatov.

And this is what gets to me, British Football (to a lesser extent all European Football) is merely a playground for the rich. The quality of a club's scouts, youth academy and coaches don't really matter anymore as many clubs seem to be able to pay whatever it costs to get the best players.

No need to give our future England star a game because we've just bought our new £35 million striker, might as well sell our academy players to Barnsley where they'll never have a chance to improve enough to play for their country. Scouse accent was annoying anyway, much better to have someone who can't speak English.

NBA/NFL-style salary caps should be introduced to the league to deter richer clubs merely paying over the odds, in terms of wages, to attract players who will be used as a backup at best. Steve Sidwell at Chelsea was a clear example, the guy barely played but still signed because of the money (not a bash on Sidwell, he does have a family to look after). A salary cap would force clubs to think about their signings a little more and would help make the league more exciting, as it would most likely put a stop to the dominance of the top four clubs and add a touch of much needed variety to the oh so monotonous parade that is the Premier League season.

Also, have you noticed the amount of managers that've been fired since foreign ownership has become so regular? The owners are pumping so much money into the clubs that if success isn't instant then you can pack your bags and leave. Eriksson, for example, managed a top ten finish with Man City last year (a more than respectable effort considering their form before him) only to find himself let go in the most unceremonious manner.

Do these owners not understand that it takes time for even the best players to settle in? Do they not understand the gulf in talent between a Man City and a Man Utd? Do they not know a it takes at least a season for a new manager to implement their way of doing things, both on and off the pitch?

Not all foreign money in the British game is bad. Randy Lerner at Aston Villa seems to 'get it', and has given Martin O'Niell a lot of time to build the club from the foundations up. This has put Villa in a stable financial position that means they'll be able to survive if he decides to leave the club. Chelsea on the other hand would be stuck down the river without a paddle' if Roman left and wasn't replaced by an equally wealthy figure. Roman seems to be thinking along the lines of 'stuff the stadium, stuff the academy, stuff the fans, just get me the best player in the world now - even if it is going to cost £30 million for a player the wrong side of thirty, and while we're at it... raise the ticket prices, a lot'. Roman will get bored eventually, he'll take his money and leave Chelsea to pay the bill without the facilities to generate the cash.

Anyway, that's my two cents.

The finest ever!

Phelps might just be the world's finest sporting star. No current team-based sportsman comes anywhere near matching his greatness - Cristiano Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, Tom Brady, Kobe Bryant you have truly been surpassed.

The only current sportsman that have any legitimate shot at being considered alongside Michael Phelps are Federer and Tiger Woods (Nadal hasn't dominated for a long enough period yet). But still even considering the success of Woods and Federer they come nowhere close to the dominance shown by Phelps in winning 11 Olympics Golds and 2 Bronze, making him the most successful Olympian of all time and he still has a chance at another 3 golds at this Olympics. The guy just seems to break - his own - world records constantly, he just keeps getting better. I've never seen dominance on this level before, and i don't think i ever will.

Greatness current sportsman. Period.

Jonathan Blow read my review?

As a games writer your primary responible is to infrom the players, but it's also fantastic to find out that developers appreciate your work enough to list them on our their blogs. It's always good to know that the guys and girls behind a game have read what you've written about them, and/or their creations - it's the next best thing to meeting and talking to them personally.

So it was great when i saw that Jonathan Blow has listed my review of Braid on the game's blog! I missed the chance to speak to him personally at Develop 08 a couple of weeks back, so knowing he has read my positive comments is the next best thing.

Here's the post on his blog.

And here's my Braid review.

Developers don't tend to highlight your negative reviews though...

A Perfect Composition

Games that generally make you stop and think about just how much potential the medium has are exceptionally rare. Too many games seem like clones of each other - run around and collect this, clear this room of enemies, hit these buttons in this order - but Braid, from developer Jonathan Blow, is certainly no copycat.

The quality of the visuals alone are enough to make you fall in love with the game, doing away with fancy technical graphics and instead focusing on a distinctive artistic style that will surely stand the test of time.

With all puzzle games though the true test lies in the quality of the gameplay. I'll just say that if anyone out there is currently working on a puzzle game it had better be bloody good because Braid just raised the bar a good 7 or 8 notches. Best XBLA game to date? Absolutely. Best 360 game? Quite possibly.

See my full review here.

A good looking MMO... finally!

At a recent NCSoft Media Day i managed to get some time with upcoming MMO Aion: The Tower of Eternity. Now, i'm not a big MMO fan by any stretch of the imagination but this particular game looks very promising. Graphically it's easily the finest MMO i've ever seen and the player v player v environment arena sounds much more in-depth and substantial than your standard PvP realms.

Check out my full preview here.