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Well, there have been far too many games to play this month!

A decent chunk of it has been spent on Uncharted 2. Amazing game and, you’ve heard it all before, but it definately sets a few new benchmarks on the PS3.

If that wasn’t enough I grabbed the Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City disc (had a few GAME points stored up so managed to get it for only £20!).

I was pleasantly surprised by “The Ballad of Gay Tony” as it pushes GTA back into the sort of complete madness last seen in San Andreas… Base jumping, drug wars, stealing trains carriages with helicopters and even a gold SMG! If you thought GTA IV took itself too seriously this might be worth another look for you.

It’s Modern Warfare 2 day tomorrow but I think I’m going to hold off on that one as I’ve still only barely started COD4! Too many games, not enough hours in a day

Anyone else looking forward to Uncharted 2 coming out this week on the PlayStation 3?

In anticipation I’ve dug out the original Uncharted and have been attempting to go through it again on Hard which is a damn sight less forgiving than Normal, unsurprisingly!

Also been keeping an eye on the Metacritic score and it’s currently showing a metascore of 97, signifying Universal Acclaim.

Well, I’m supposed to be broke but I’ll just have to find some spare cash from somewhere for Friday!u

More good news for those of us stuck in the UK and still gaming in a recession. The price of Crash Commando is being reduced for a couple of weeks on the Playstation Store.

I vaguely recall playing the demo when it was first released but it might be worth a second look now.

Here’s the official announcement from Sony:

From August 27, 2009 until September 10, 2009, Crash Commando will be reduced to half price, dropping from £7.99 to £3.99. If you’ve not grabbed the chance to blast your friends into oblivion, then there’s never been a better time to set your sights on the PSN game and arm yourself with its goodness.

Source: http://uk.playstation.com/games-media/news/articles/detail/item228090/Crash-Commandos-price-gets-shot-in-half/

It seems like an eternity since this game was released but now I have the perfect excuse to go back to it as the Playstation 3 trophy patch has finally been released.

They’ve also added in some alternative difficulty options which are very welcome. (This isn’t an easy game by anyone’s standards!)

But, no, you still can’t jump!

It’s one of the most frustrating games I’ve played recently (admittedly I’m rubbish at it!) but if you own it and are up for more punishment, you’ll be pleased to hear that the Pure Time Trials downloadable content pack is now free for Mirror’s Edge on the Playstation 3.

It’s not advertised too well though so you’ll have to search through the Playstation Store for it.

(Unfortunately it still costs on XBox Live. Then again, XBox owners are probably used to paying through the nose for everything by now :p)

Piracy and games aren’t always a bad combination!

I’ve been silently campaigning (hoping even) for a new Monkey Island game for years now and Telltale Games almost sneaked one out with a completely new story without me noticing.

It’s now calling itself the Tales of Monkey Island and it is being released in five episodes:

The first chapter is out now and you can download a playable demo at http://www.telltalegames.com/monkeyisland

And yes! It’s good, it’s very good! The writing is classic Monkey Island and they’ve even got the voice talent of the original Guybrush Threepwood himself – Dominic Armato. The guy with a name that sounds like tomato!

If you are a fan you won’t be disappointed.

Insult: “You fight like a dairy farmer.”
Comeback: “How appropriate. You fight like a cow.”

There is a bit of an outcry going on at the moment about new Silverlight-driven advertisements coming to XBox Live and the subsequent replies by Major Nelson on the subject.

But if Microsoft starts showing adverts like this people might have a point!

Warning: That link does contain vomiting so if you are easily offended – Don’t click it!

(It’s not particulary likely that Microsoft will load puke-related ads on the XBox dashboard but it was a humourous way to report two stories in one post!)

To celebrate its anniversary Super Stardust HD is on offer on the Playstation Store for £1.59 (1.99 euros). You shouldn’t need any convincing to snap it up at this price as it’s one of the best shooters on the Playstation 3. Be quick though, the deal ends soon!

In other news (always wanted to say that!), DICE and EA’s free online cartoon-style first person shooter – Battlefield Heroes, has finally come out of beta. I’ve had a quick blast on it and it’s well worth a download. You will need real money if you want to customise your character to any extent but, so far, it seems perfectly possible to play the game and not need to spend a penny.

Just get to http://www.battlefieldheroes.com/ and sign up.

A bit of advice: Make sure you register an account and log into your account BEFORE you click the “Play Now” button and launch the Battlefield Heroes updater. (Initially I didn’t log in and ended up getting annoying “Build not found” errors whenever I tried to play the game. Very frustrating for an hour or so until I googled the solution!)

It’s been well over a week since I last posted anything and I’m ashamed to say it’s because one of those evil supermarket corporations took advantage of my complete lack of any willpower and sold me an XBox 360… At a very reasonable price.

So now I can put my 2p worth into the XBox 360 vs. Playstation 3 debate!

I’ve only had a week with the 360 so far but the boring conclusion is that they are just about evenly matched. Both consoles and the services that come with them have their strengths and weaknesses.

Here are a few quick observations:

Hardware: Both machines are big and heavy. The PS3 being the larger of the two. The fans in the XBox are loud and it gets even louder when a DVD is spinning up in the drive. The PS3 is virtually silent with hardly any drive noise.

XBox Live vs. Playstation Network: A Gold subscription on XL will set you back £40 a year but PSN is completely free online. XL does have many more games on offer though and a movie store which is available in Europe. On the other hand Sony now has an impressive free music video service on the PS3 called Vidzone.

XBox Live Arcade vs. PSN Games: I really like the idea that every game on XLA has a demo version. Demos of PSN games may not always be available and are often only downloadable weeks after the full version of the title has been released.

New Xbox Experience vs. XrossMediaBar: This is just my personal opinion but I prefer the PS3’s XMB. It just looks a bit more classy and seems quicker to navigate with. To be fair though, there is much more content on XL so it’s reasonable that some of it can seem hidden away. NXE has gone a bit more family-friendly-Wii-avatar style which is okay if you like it.

XBox Achievements vs. Playstation 3 Trophies: These are basically one and the same. The big advantage of achievements is that every single 360 game supports them, where as trophies are only supported by the most recent PS3 titles. I do think the trophy system is a little more evolved in that you have a total number of trophies and an RPG-style trophy level. This means you can quickly deduce that those people with a high trophy level and relatively low number of trophies have put in the effort to chase the gold and platinum awards. In contrast, people with high trophy counts but low levels are mainly collecting the easier bronze awards. Maybe I analyse this too much though!

Games: What fanboys love to argue over constantly! Well, personally I can’t see much difference in games between either platform. If you think back a year ago the PS3 was struggling with a lack of titles but now it has a very respectable library, even if it is not as large as the 360’s back catalogue.

I could go on forever but the main point of this post to to say: Stop arguing about which is the best machine. They are both great! The fact that both machines (and the Wii) exist and are successful is the best situation for gamers. It means Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo need to continue to work hard and innovate to stay at the top of their respective games (pardon the pun!).

It’s worth noting that when the world first embraced mobile phone technology on a large scale the development of mobile phones went crazy. Big phones went small. Monochrome LCD screens were replaced by full colour displays. Full internet access is now available and almost every phone is now an mp3 player.

Now games are finally being accepted by the rest of the world. What is going to happen to games technology over the next few years?

Sony unexpectedly announced the availablity of Final Fantasy VII on the US Playstation Store during E3.

Then, like an internet “Mexican Wave”, European users started demanding it too… AND… We’ve got it just a day after the US release (today)!

No one will know if it was planned to come out in Europe in the same week or whether SCEE were listening and rushed to get it to us early. The Playstation Store update was about a couple of hours later than usual tonight so it’s a possibility.

You can download it from the PS Store for £7.99/9.99 euros (1.3GB download) which is very reasonable considering it’ll cost you much more than that to get hold of pre-owned FFVII discs from eBay.

Small request: Please consider giving Metal Gear Solid the same treatment and we’ll all be even happier!

UPDATE 05/06/2009: I must have read someone’s mind! Konami has JUST confirmed Metal Gear Solid is going to be released on the US Playstation Store on 18th June. Hopefully it will hit Europe at the same time.

When you’ve been a train man as long as I have, you see a lot of people meeting, parting, joy, sadness… After a while, it doesn’t even get to you anymore. I wonder how long it’s been… There’s an invisible rail between me and the passengers. I could never live their lives. I’m just a train man plain and simple. It’s easier that way. That’s not to say that the crossing gate of my heart doesn’t hurt now and again. Back during the war, I remember there was a lot of painful scenes then. But, that’s a story for another day.
Train man, Sector 7, Final Fantasy VII