28/03/2011

AC Brotherhood - Leonardo Weapons & Romulus Events


I’m still enjoying playing this game, after a few sequences in you receive weapon upgrades from your old friend Leonardo & he asks you to take down some weapons he has created for the Borga. I have taken down the machine gun which was fairly easy apart from you had to stay undetected & the naval ship. This was an enjoyable quest and had you using the invention to destroy the Borga ships.

On my first visit to the Coliseum I also unlocked the Romulus Lairs quests which generally have you jumping around underground lairs & chasing after an individual to kill. These are similar to the tombs in Assassins Creed 2, they are difficult & challenging. There are six in Brotherhood to unlock & once you have completed them all you get access to some rare armour & weapons, so worth doing.

There is so much to do in this game from missions, shop quests, contracts, treasure maps & lairs. I think I will be playing this game yet for a while.

24/03/2011

Sorcerer of Fortune - Completed


After finishing Azkend I went straight onto another match ’em  type game Sorcerer of Fortune. In this game you play the role of a sorcerer who must defeat various foes on his way to defeating the Meteor Dragon. You start off with nothing & must fight a few easy enemies to get some money to visit the shop. You can then purchase weapons, armour, helmet & an accessory to increase your magic stats.


There are 8 orbs in the game from your usual fire, ice, wind to heal & poison. Your stats on each of these 8 orbs will decide how much damage you can deal to the enemy. I initially started off just concentrating on increasing my fire stats which helped get pass the initial batch of enemies but you soon realise that some of the battlefields are tailored to specific orbs so you need to re-equip your sorcerer with the best equipment for the battlefield & the opponent you are fighting.

There are approx. 40 levels of gameplay & you can replay the game with different characters. The gameplay is very enjoyable & it is a shame it has little or no storyline to take you through the stages. I think I may have gotten it for free but even for the current price of 59p it offers quite a few hours enjoyable gameplay.



Now onto my next iPod touch game Sword & Poker, another match ‘em game with a poker twist.

23/03/2011

Tuesday A to Z - E

Not many games for the letter E but I remember the following three from my Playstaion years.

Ergheiz (PS1) – After the Tobal games Squaresoft still continued to develop fighting games even though the Tobal games were not really successful. Ergheiz brought with it the quest system from the Tobal games which had you playing levels with your character in a scrolling action RPG type affair, think streets of rage with rpg extras. But Ergheiz stood out for me by allowing you to play with the Final Fantasy 7 characters. Cloud, Tifa, Sephiroth everyone but Aeris.

Elemental Gearbolt (PS1) – Working Designs, this little US localization company made me spend a fortune on my PS1 & thanks to them I had the chance to play this excellent RPG shooter. It requires the use of a light-gun & you had three attack types to take down enemies with Blaze Phoenix (Standard Shot), Thunder Tiger (Spread) & Water Snake (Rapid). At the end of the level you gain experience points to level up your character. It was a refreshing change from Time Crisis.

Einhander (PS1) - Another imported game from the US for my PS1, again Squaresoft trying to make something else other than another RPG. Einhander was a scrolling shoot em up & a very good effort by Squaresoft. Amazing graphics with a great soundtrack. The game was made slightly easier for the US market and thus was easy to complete so if you fancy a challenge get the Jap import version. A game I wish they would re-release for current generations consoles.

19/03/2011

Disc Drivin' - Stand Up !!

Playing a game of Disc Drivin against Becky (blog) on the Hangtime track.There is a section on which you have two ramps that you can jump across to take a shortcut. Usually you will go shooting pass the track & fallout but on this occasion I had a full power meter & selected the stop power. After making the jump I pressed stop & my disc landed on it's side ??!!

16/03/2011

New Game - Assassin's Creed Brotherhood

I have so many 'Triple A' titles on my gaming shelf to play including Mass Effect, Fable 3 & Bioshock but above these I decided to go for Assassin's Creed Brotherhood. I'm not a big fan of yearly sequels, I feel that software houses are just milking a cash cow which eventually runs out dry.

I have not played the first game (ignore my achievements Abbas played on my account) but did play the sequel & enjoyed it very much. It would be up with Fallout 3 for my 2009 game of the year.

Brotherhood continues on the Ezio storyline, thus feels very familiar and more like a 2.5 than a true sequel. I enjoyed the opening FMV which gives you a recap of the story so far, very useful for those who want to skip the first two games.

Currently I have just finished sequence 4 and the highlights for me so far have been climbing to the top of the Colosseum for the viewpoint, attacking a group of soldiers with a broomstick & having my group of trained assassin's help me attack a borga tower. I still need a bit more practice on the fighting to chain up a continuous attack streak instead of my throw a smoke bomb & kill everyone tactic.

I had a quick play of the multi-player but did not really enjoy it so I'll be passing on that & just enjoying the single player experience.

Batman: Arkham City - Gameplay Trailer



No words needed just watch the video & enjoy

Tuesday A to Z - D

Dig Dug (Arcade) - Yes you could use your weapon to pump air into them and blow them up but where is the fun in that? The planning of the routes to get the enemies following you to trick them with a boulder landing on them now that was fun. They just do not make them this good anymore :)

Double Dragon (Arcade) - The sequel to Renegade & my first co-op arcade experience with Harjeet, Mark & the OCFE gang. The late 80's I spent most of my wages from my Saturday job in the arcades.


Deception (PS1) - A unique game in that you had to create traps & lure your prey into them. After a brief play I got hooked and played this for many months trying different strategies to perfect my trap-making ability. I have yet to use this knowledge & ability in real life to build traps.

Devil Dice (PS1) - A simple puzzle game in which you play a devil walking over dies to match up the numbers for them to vanish.

Dungeon Siege (PC) - You can't have the letter D without mentioning at least 1 dungeon game. My first foray into PC RPG's. Set in a medieval world you are a simple farmer living your life in the kingdom of Ehb until one day your village is attacked by the Krug. Then begins your quest to get help & defeat the evil creatures that roam the world. Along the way you can recruit many characters to help you on your way to defeating the Gom the evil Seck leader. I enjoyed playing Dungeon Siege & it's sequel (except for the save corruption causing me to lose my 40 hours+ game save). Looking forward to Dungeon Siege 3 except its being developed by Obsidian (See my other posts on Alpha Protocol/Fallout New Vegas) so I don't know how good or bad it will be but it will be released on the 360/PS3 so I may take a look because I can't play it on my ageing PC.

Tuesday A to Z - C

Carcassonne (iPod Touch) - I have not played the original board game. Luffers introduced me to this on the iPod Touch & it took a few games to get the understanding of the scoring but when it clicked I throughly enjoyed the game and still sit on top of the leaderboard. I'm now awiting the release of the add-on packs to freshen the game.

Castlevania - Symphony of the Night  (PS1)- Possibly the best 2D Platform game ever made, beautiful graphics, amazing gameplay & a thumping soundtrack.

Civilization Revolution (iPod Touch/Xbox 360) - I once installed Civilization 4 on my PC & after 2 days on playing till 4am. On the 3rd day I un-installed it, that game should come with a warning label. Civilization Revolution I purchased for 59p during a Appstore Sale it's a much simpler affair & just as addictive. But I was able to control the playing time due to the fact the iPod touch battery would only let me play for 2 hours before it would die.I then purchased on the 360 to play on the bigger screen.

Crazy Taxi (Arcade/Dreamcast) - The only reason I purchased the dreamcast was because of this game. Arcade game at it's best. Simple but fun.

Chase HQ (Arcade) - Everyone was playing outrun or some other racer but I would waste my 10 pence coins on this because you had a reason to race. Catch the bad guys up & then bash them to take them out. Criterion have used this gameplay in the recent Need for Speed Hot Pursuit.

15/03/2011

GT5 - Money, Menus & B Spec

Money – I don’t have enough to buy any decent cars but thanks to a tip from Zo I completed some special events which gave me a shed load of money to buy some faster cars. Abbas has been playing A Spec more than me and has managed to complete quite a few events on Gold. I now have a few decent cars for the next GT5 PMG.

Menus – How painfully slow is this game when going through the menus, they really need to patch the game to remove some pointless options. I find the most annoying is when you have won a car & it goes to the delivery truck, you then have to click on it to accept the ticket to take delivery of your new car. What’s the point ??!! Just stick the darn car in my garage !!

B Spec – You create a driver & just sit back and watch him race. I created a driver & sent him on his first race. He only made it to the first corner before I quit in disgust. What a stupid STUPID mode. Pointless utter waste of time playing it & why the hell did they waste their time developing it. That time could have been better spent on improving the menu system & releasing the game earlier.

13/03/2011

UGVM vs BETEO - Round 2 FIGHT !!

2nd Round with 8 players left on each team will consist of 1 vs 1 again with 1 point being awarded to the winning players team. Same again 2 players on each team will go out, losers will go out first & any winners with the lowest score if needed.

2nd Round

The first player in the match will start the game against the other player - in the chat window can you also announce that this is a tournament game so the opposing player is aware.

RussellC_ vs Coope1999
HaggisHunter vs AlarmBee
DBSnappa vs gospvg (Oh!! Bugger !!)
jochta vs alanjoans
Curiosity vs HarpingOn
Xexyz vs Gilly Mc
flis_iom vs SozzlyJoe
thermalsatsuma vs Grim...

Good luck & I'll need it !!

06/03/2011

Slingo Supreme - Where has my luck gone?

I've been playing this on my iPod Touch for a while now, recommended by someone from Beteo (sorry I forget who) & purchased for 59p. It's the simple game of bingo mixed with slots, you match the numbers on the slots with the board & when you complete a line you have a slingo.When the slots spin, sometimes they will land on the powerups you have selected or the Devil !!

The Devil challenges you to a random mini-game with which you can bet your current high score (All-In, Half or Quarter). I always go all-in, if you win you double your score & if you lose you are left with a big fat zero.

When you play the game you have to complete various challenges to unlock stars which let you use the powerups to achieve higher scores. This is basically all you do, it is a high score challenge game but is very addictive and will have you coming back for that just one more try.

Because I have been playing this game for a while I have unlocked all the stars & thus can use any powerup I want. You can use up to 8 powerups, my usual 8 are Bouncing Slingos, Cell Jokers, Easy Pattern, Extra Spins, Instant Slingos, Reel Nudge, Super Extra Coins & Super Multipliers. You can alter these powerups to any of the 16 that are available in the hope that when playing the game they will help you achieve a high score.

I have the easy pattern selected because this will highlight a pattern of numbers on the board when matched will give you a bonus score & helps to complete the award of playing all patterns in the game.

Unlocking an award gives you nothing think of them as achievements in the game. I have unlocked all but 3 awards in the game.

To get a high score you will need to have certain powerups with you all the time, Super Multipliers, Extra Spins, Reel Nudge & Bouncing Slingos are all a must. The other 4 you can experiment with and find your perfect set of 8. But above all in this game you need luck, luck of the slots, luck of the multipliers & luck of winning your mini games against the devil. So far my luck has only managed to acheive a high score of 5.6 million.

Recently the game was free for a day & I tweeted & posted on UGVM. This resulted in a few people downloading the game & getting some truly amazing scores.


Super SomethingWitty with 74.4 Million & Jumping Jochta with 44.9 Million.

The game needs gamecenter support so you can track high scores of your friends & I, well I need some LUCK !!

03/03/2011

UGVM vs BETEO - 1st Round Results

1st Round Results

UGVM - 6 Points
BETEO - 4 Points



Gilly Mc (312) vs Jochta (424) - UGVM Win
Beckysprites (276) vs AlarmBee (403) - BETEO Win
HarpingOn (364) vs Grim... (330) - UGVM Win
gospvg (384) vs flis_iom (308) - UGVM Win
romanista (251) vs thermalsatsuma (341) - UGVM Win
Curiosity (361) vs Xexyz (381) - UGVM Win
SozzlyJoe (328) vs RussellC_ (384)  - BETEO Win
DBSnappa (466) vc Coope1999 (335)  - BETEO Win
HaggisHunter (379) vs Goddess Jasmine (291) - UGVM Win
alanjoans (365) vs Turbohat (321) - BETEO Win

2 Players with get knocked out at this stage from UGVM we must say bye to Beckysprites & Turbohat. BETEO loses romanista & Goddess Jasmine

Now on to the 2nd round !!

01/03/2011

Logo Change - Azkend

It's time to change the logo not because Gears of War 3 has been released but more the fact it has been delayed & I don't want to have to look at that logo until September. I am now also in two minds about if I will buy it on release. Which only leaves me with 1 game I will purchase on release Batman Arkham City. Thus I have now had to amend the rules on the logo from games I will purchase on release to the last game I have completed. This way the logo will hopefully change more often. Currently I'm playing GT5 which I'm not sure how you can say you have completed I suppose after I have finished all the A Spec events? I'm not wasting my time on B Spec aka simulated pile of crap. I just don't see the point. It's not a game mode it's a glorified batch script. On the iPod Touch I'm currently playing Sorcerer of Fortune & Slingo Supreme so I am likely to finish either of these two before GT5.

Tuesday A to Z - B


Batman Arkham Asylum (Xbox 360)
When released I tried the demo but thought meh! & did not go back to this game until I purchased it from a car boot sale for £5. Played the game & oh my !! what a game !!

It was for me the highlight of 2010 the gaming year, an action packed metroidvania game with tough enemies, puzzles, weapons & above all you get to be BATMAN !!

It was a crime that I purchased this game secondhand & the developer received nothing from me but for the sequel Arkham City which is out this year & it is probably the only game I will buy on release.

Bomberman (Super Nintendo)
1 Accessory the SNES multi-tap & a simple game to place bombs & blow up tiles to discover powerups. Then get your ammo & go after killing the other players. Multi-player gaming had arrived, Hudson had the idea back then if only Sega or Nintendo had cottoned onto how much fun a local multi-player game was maybe the wii would have been made in an earlier generation?

Boulder Dash (Atari ST)
I only had a brief play of Boulder Dash on my friends NES console so when I purchased the Atari ST. This game was on the top of my list to buy, spending a hard earned £4.99 at my local secondhand games shop (I forget the name it was on Hurst St in East Oxford). I rushed home to tell my brother & sister that this game is amazing, they have to play it. We then preceded to spend the remainder of our summer holidays avoiding falling boulders and collecting diamonds.

Bahamut Lagoon (Super Nintendo)
I blame one magazine for making me spend a fortune on buying and playing imported games "Super Play". A feature on Bahamut Lagoon (JAP) had we drooling and I have been waiting to this day for the game to get a western release.

UGVM vs BETEO - Round 1 FIGHT !!

1st Round will consist of 1 vs 1 with 1 point being awarded to the winning players team. 2 players from each team will be kicked out at this round I will decide this by the players that have lost their game & the points they have scored in their game with the lowest scoring losing players going out. So if haggishuter (255), jochta (288) & xexyz (312) lost their games then haggishunter & jochta would go out because they scored less than xexyz.

1st Round

The first player in the match will start the game against the other player - in the chat window can you also announce that this is a tournament game so the opposing player is aware.

Gilly Mc vs jochta
Beckysprites vs AlarmBee
DBSnappa vs Coope1999
HarpingOn vs Grim...
alanjoans vs Turbohat
HaggisHunter vs Goddess Jasmine
Curiosity vs Xexyz
gospvg vs flis_iom
romanista vs thermalsatsuma
SozzlyJoe vs RussellC_

Good luck in the game & can you post the result of the game in the comments in the format of Players A (422) vs Player B (421)