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.
This blog has been a bit all play and no work so far. Unfortunately I don’t get to play games all the time.
At work we’re currently evaluating a new shiny development environment called Silverlight 3. If you aren’t familiar with Silverlight (and there’s a good chance you won’t be) it’s Microsoft’s answer to Adobe’s Flash. In short you can code .NET Framework applications and run them in a browser with the Silverlight plug-in.
The main hurdle at the moment is that because it is so new, Microsoft have only just got it out of beta and haven’t actually got around to releasing any official books and documentation on how to develop applications in it.
So, although it’s always fun to learn, it’s very much a trial and error process at the moment. Anyone else trying to get their head around Silverlight 3 has my sympathies. Here’s a tip: Ibuprofen is great for headaches!
I think we may have jumped right in the deep end though. This is what we are trying to simultaneously comprehend at the moment:
We are creating a WCF (Windows Communication Foundation) web service in C#. This is consumed by a Silverlight application developed in VB.NET (we should have coded it in C# as well, hindsight and all that). The “pages” in the Silverlight application are created using a subset of XAML (Extensible Application Markup Language) which is part of Microsoft’s new XML-based application design framework called Windows Presentation Foundation (or WPF for short).
Confused? So were we and we still are to a certain extent. But we’re getting there.
It’s hard work.
[If you are currently starting out developing in Silverlight please beware when googling. Most of the information out there is related to Silverlight 2 and the Silverlight 3 beta. The final Silverlight 3 release code is radically different in many ways so careful what you read online. If you are faced with a method or property in your code that just won't compile, double-check it actually exists in the version of Silverlight you have installed.
Until something official is published, the best help and advice I've come across so far is from the blog's of the Silverlight developers themselves. One of the most useful resources is Method ~ of ~ failed by Tim Heuer at http://timheuer.com/blog/.]
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!)
Breakbeat hardcore and Robocop. Two things that shouldn’t be relevant in the year 2009 (and probably show that I’m getting old!). Hey, who cares… I love this tune!
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)
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:
Chapter 1 – Launch of the Screaming Narwhal
Chapter 2 – The Siege of Spinner Cay
Chapter 3 – Lair of the Leviathan
Chapter 4 – The Trial and Execution of Guybrush Threepwood
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.”
Whether you appreciate this or not will depend on your taste in music. But if you are partial to some hard drum and bass you might like this track from Mistabishi of Hospital Records called Printer Jam.
It is a track built around the sound of an ink jet printer and, somewhat bizarrely, it works!
You’ll either love it or hate it! Try unpluggin’ it and pluggin’ it in again!
Incidentally if you prefer your drum and bass a little more melodic search out All Hell Is Breaking Loose by London Elektricity which is also available on Hospital Records.
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!)
There are not many, if any, musicians that cause the same level of impact on the world as Michael Jackson. Over the last couple of days every news channel has been reporting on him and every music channel and radio station has been playing his music.
You can even hear people playing his music walking down the street and out of every car with it’s windows down.
He wasn’t a stranger to the gaming world either: The Moonwalker game was released on the Sega Master System, he had a cameo appearance in Space Channel 5 (as Space Michael if you are wondering!) and he was even, allegedly, responsible for the soundtrack to Sonic 3.
I don’t think many people in the world cannot be familiar with at least one of his songs and know the lyrics.
If the best tribute to Michael is to play his music and you are looking for the right game. Dig out your copy of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, grab a motorbike, turn up the volume and blast out Billie Jean!
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.
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!)
