This Weeks Happenings…

I love it when a plan comes together!

I’ve had quite a busy week this week. I’ve not been able to get as much gaming in as I’d hoped, but it’s been quite an interesting week to say the least.
It’s been quite a catch up week in terms of playing through a few older games and getting round to playing online with a few friends on several games.

I got chance to have a little play around with my camera and posted The Street Fighter – Fight Pad video. I’ve have had some great feedback from several people too which is great.

Thanks guys & gals!

Hopefully I’ll get round to using it a little more.

Anyway…

This week I met an 80s legend!

A-Teams very own Face, (Dirk Benedict).

It was great to finally meet someone I watched so much on Tv whilst growing up!

He also played Starbuck in the original series of Battlestar Galactica, which I watched so much as a kid and love the new series too.

He’s such an awesome guy in real-life and he was kind enough to take time out from playing Columbo at a theatre in Blackpool, to do a signing for around 200 fans.

Anyway, back to gaming stuff…

The 80s were AWESOME! Enough said…

This week I picked up a copy of Lips: I Love the 80s & Lips: Party Classics. Both were on sale at GAME for £12.98.

That’s more or less half the price of the RRP. Which is fantasitic considering both have only been out for a couple of weeks.

They also had the Wireless Microphone Bundles for £19.99 which are great to use with Rock Band too, so if you haven’t already got a pair I highly recommend you should get them while they’re so cheap. Currently they’re around £19.99-£24.99 just for one of the mics separately.

There’s nothing more fun than a few drinks and shoving on some Lips!

Borderlands: Island of Dr. NED.

I booted up Borderlands this week with a couple of friends and we decided to play through The Island of Dr. NED.

It takes you to a spooky, kooky, Scooby Doo-esque island where zombies roam freely.

It doesn’t add much in terms of new loot or raise the level cap, but what you get is a fresh extra few hours of play.

There’s a new Halloween themed story that’s being told by Marcus, (who told the story of Vault Dwellers in the main game).
This time he’s talking with a child that asks him various questions which can lead to several funny moments as he gets interrupted and corrected.

It adds several quests which are all a mix of the usual: Find someone dead, kill a certain beast in some area and the some ‘Scavenge the loot’ missions which make you search to find the last piece of the puzzles.

It’s as close as we’ll ever get to Borderlands 4 Dead!

There’s several new enemies and not just the land crawling with zombies, but other creatures like ‘SkeleRakk’, ‘WhereSkags’ and ‘Tankensteins’ to name a few, all with there own characteristics and attacks.

I think my favorite part is the whole landscape & art style. It feels like a theme park ride and blends the perfect colours & lighting effects.

Overall a fantastic addition to what was already a great game and a definite purchase to anyone who likes Borderlands.

I finally purchased a copy of Halo3: Recon ODST recently and have fired it up for the Halo: Reach Beta.

I should get chance at a chance to post a few of my thoughts on it sometime this week.

My first impression so far is that its more Halo with added ‘Umpf!’

That’s about all I’ve been up to this week really. Although I’m looking forward to getting a copy of Alan Wake and Red Dead Redemption in the coming weeks.
Fingers crossed I can put some cash aside for them.

So this week I’m hoping to get more wrote up on here, like my thoughts on the Fight Pad, maybe a little more on SSFIV and try and figure out getting some more videos on here too.

Oh and why your here…

There’s a new Dreamcast Blog just gone Live which seems to have some great intentions. It’s about keeping an extensive archive about the Dreamcast in great detail. It’s going to have loads of reviews and information, with pictures of all the packaging and things like Multi-Regional versions of games etc…

You should go check it out! : Dreamcast Channel

So that’s it for This Weeks Happenings!

Any thoughts and suggestions would be a great help too!
Email: hlmodfreak@hotmail.com

See you in the funny pages!

VIP0R’s Blog… is a TeaM-InK® Ltd publication. All rights reserved.

SFIV Fight Pad Unboxing Video

More like vacuum plastic than a box…

I finally got a charger replacement for my camera that I’ve been waiting a couple of weeks for and thought I’d shoot something with it.

I recently purchased a new controller to play around with on Super Street Fighter IV. I suck on the normal 360 controllers and don’t want to fork out £70 for an arcade stick so this was the next best thing.

The video isn’t perfect. The audio’s a little off but its watchable and needed something to make sure Sony Vegas was working properly.

Anyway enough jibber jabber, here’s the result:

Later I’ll post my thoughts on how well it performs (or how badly I can play Street Fighter). I’ll also take a look at using it for a few XBLA games too.

This Weeks Happenings…

Whats the word on the street?!

This Weeks been a long week, but I’ve actually fit quite a lot of different games in.

Between working & finishing off with my unpacking, I sat down more often than I have for a while and got some good hours on a few machines.
This months pay has also been pretty decent allowing for more leeway when it comes to buying things I wouldn’t normally afford with having a house, bills and other necessities getting in the way. Alas! Everything seems to be going much smoother now.

So anyway let’s get to the games.

Splinter Cell: Conviction.

I finally managed to get a copy of Splinter Cell: Conviction and flew through it in a matter of hours. What a roller coaster!
Although a tad short, it was still greatly paced and full of excitement. It just felt like being sat down in the cinema and watching a decent action movie (Ala Bourne Identity).

One of the games most brilliant features is the ‘Interactive Interrogation Animations’ which keeps the action going during the cut-scenes and can have several outcomes.

You can’t get much more satisfaction than slamming a guys head into a urinal.

Some other great & unique features are the ‘Mark & Execute’ which basically sees you aiming at a target and pressing the right bumper to spot the enemies location, which is similar to the feature in Rainbow Six: Vegas. After marking several enemies you can Execute which basically takes all the targets in range one by one in a slow motion effect which looks like something taken straight out of the Jason Bourne films. It gives you a real buzz after you take out an entire room using it.
Another great feature is ‘Last Known Position’ which is when you get spotted and you leg it, you leave a silhouette behind from where the enemies last saw you. Enemies will keep searching that area while you can go round behind and flank them.

This time round some of the other games mechanics have been slightly rewritten too. There are quite a few tricks Sam used to have up his sleeve that are missing, like Split jumping, being able to pick up & drag bodies to hide them from other enemies and he’s forgotten how to whistle. Only slight changes but several times I would have been more stealthy if I could have hidden a few bodies out of sight.

I’ve not really had too much chance playing through co-op, due to not having any friends online that I’d normally play something like that with, or we’ve all been online and played something all together. That’s one draw back with Conviction, the lack of online multiplayer. It’s been part of the franchise in one form or another since Pandora Tomorrow, so I was quite surprised it was cut. Although it became a bit daft in Double Agent where spy’s seemed like superhuman acrobatic ninjas, versus the over techno-enhanced super soldiers.

What I’ve played of the co-op seems fun though and with promised DLC support I can see it lasting a little more than most games do lately.

Micheal Ironside is still Sam Fisher, I don’t think they could ever replace him to be honest. He is the voice of Sam and always should be. Never change him.

Overall the game seems like a typical Ubisoft title where its fantastic, but could have had that little bit longer in development to polish a few things off properly. Mostly the twitchy AI & some character model textures could have done with some touching up.

But it’s still a brilliant game. I like the new direction they’ve taken and has added much-needed fresh take on the stealth/action genre.
I recommended it for fans of the series & action gamers alike.

Wolfenstein 3D.

Die, Allied Schweinhund! Mein leben…!

I’ve been playing this game for a couple of hours here & there this week, I don’t really know what got me started on it. I started playing it just before my magazine of Retro Gamer arrived, which heavily features John Romero and the creation of all things at id Software. It was either in anticipation of that or just a random nostalgic impulse.

This is one of my favorite games of all time. DooM might be better, but there wouldn’t be DooM without this game a year earlier. I can remember the first time I saw it and knew it was something different. While all my friends were busy playing Sonic the Hedgehog, I was busy on my Pc shooting Nazis and wondering who the bloke in pictures on the wall was… (Hey I was only about 7!)

I remember being at a friends sleep over and playing it till around 10pm when the lights were supposed to be turned off to go to sleep, then we stealthily played it till about Midnight. (Again I was about 7 so that was really, really late).

Anyway since then I’ve grown up and understand a lot more about WWII and actually found out more about the game’s story. I can see why there were the Zombies & Nazi experiments in Return to Castle Wolfenstein. In the second chapter of Wolf3D there are Zombies and mentions experiments among other things in the brief story pages at the end of chapters.

I know many people look at Wolfenstein and laugh, but at the time it was so ground breaking in many ways and made way for the juggernaut that is DooM and the wrath of Death-match that is Quake.

Super Street Fighter IV.

I’ve not had too much time to play this yet seen as I’ve more or less just took the cellophane wrapping off, but what I have played is just that awesome street fighter-ness. It’s so great that it still plays & feels like a brand new game.

How can you make something that was perfect, better?! Either way Capcom seemed to have managed it!

It’s just a year after Street Fighter IV took the arcade fighting genre and this is a full super enhanced version. What was already a perfect fighter has been changed in so many minor ways which just makes all the difference. Capcom have taken all the complaints & recommendations from fans to create the ultimate version (until a Championship/Ultra Edition).

The number one complaint that I had with SFIV was the lack of a quarter match mode. It seemed such a simple feature that’s been apart of the franchise for ages. I thought maybe they would patch it in an update but it never materialized until now.

I don’t understand why SSFIV wasn’t in the form of DLC too, but I guess there’s that many changes that it would be madness to release as an update. Burnout had substantial DLC which altered the game in so many ways so it’s not that its impossible. I just think they must have found it easier to release it at retail at a budgeted price and quite frankly £19.71 is a fantastic price.

The only little niggle I’ve found so far is that the game features two ultra combos now, but you can only select to use one in a match. I think I would have preferred to have both at all times and can precisely use the right combo at the right time. It’s not over drastic, but that’s something I’d like to see.

I’ve had a quick play around with the ten new characters and played with the new ultra combos and all seem to be nicely polished and still have some great comedian characters. Especially Hakan, the Turkish wrestler who smothers himself with oil at every chance he can get.

My favorite character to return from a former street fighter is Dudley! Just a great British boxer with a corny accent. Perfect!

So that’s mostly what I’ve been up to this week. Many different games & a nice mix of genres too. I also had a good hour or so on Torchlight via Steam which I might talk about more when I’ve finished it to the end, but it’s defiantly a great Diablo game!

That magazine Retro Gamer that I mentioned about earlier is a great read. It features an interview with John Romero. Going all out on the ins and outs of the creation of id Software. Where DooM came from and how Quake forced John Romero to leave the company he built from the ground up.

Also features The Making of Dizzy!

I’ve also been having a few thoughts onto what I’d like to do on this blog too. I’m defiantly going to start updating and using it more now I’ve got more free time and some extra cash flow. I’ve also got a podcast kit that I’ve hardly used yet, just set it up ready to use.

So watch this space…

VIP0R’s Blog… is a TeaM-InK® Ltd publication. All rights reserved.

Loads of Modern Warfare 2 Details

The Anticipation for this game is HUGE!

Game Informer, a US Games Magazine has just been released, with it loads of new Info on the upcoming Modern Warfare 2. With it the Internet is slowly telling all about whats in-store.

Here’s some of the features that have been revealed so far:

• The single-player campaign will be longer than it was in CoD4.
• No co-op in story mode (Awww).
• There will be Co-Op Missions though, apparently like Mile High Club style missions.
• New Weapons like: Riot shields, movable turrets and customized weapons for single-player.
• A new patching system will be implemented for online multiplayer, getting rid of patches and hopefully eradicating exploits quicker.
• It will have much better detail, textures and effects and will run at 60 frames-per-second. (hopefully constant like CoD4 was)
• The Gameplay’s a bit more open-ended than but still linear.
• Infinity Ward’s working on fixing enemy respawn issues (CoD4’s enemies would constantly respawn unless a player crossed a certain line).
• The snowmobile level shown in the preview video is from an escape level, but its not known if you drive and shoot, or if its a scripted on the rails shooting sequence.

I like the new Patching system, sounds like they can tweak the game a lot quicker, and it will stop having to wait so long for it to go through the Microsoft Certification process.

Modern Warfare 2 is scheduled for release on 10th November 2009.

-UPDATE 1-: Some pictures have just been scanned onto the net here.

Cant wait for the new trailer on May 24th. Sounds like there’ll be Snow!

Let’s Make Sundays Exciting!

Here’s a behind the scenes look into whats been happening.

As Sundays are always slow with news updates, I thought I’d post something about whats been happening here for the first week since I made this Blog live.

I’ve been really happy and amazed at how many people have actually viewed the blog and received some great crucial comments too!

So far there’s been over 650 views! Wednesday saw the most amount of people when it reached 121 views! I don’t know whether or not that was because of the Awesome Gears 2 News, or that actually words spreading and people are finding this blog a decent read. Today reached 99!

Wednesday also saw the First Official Comment made by benben78.

The Future’s Bright!

Next week I’m going to continue to post all the latest interesting gossip that’s going around and I’m currently working on a few ideas about what to do on Sundays whilst the News is dire.

One of the idea’s was to do a video review, but currently I’m having problems with my HD Video Camera. So ill have to put that on hold until I get it fixed.

Meanwhile I’ve been talking to a few friends about some other ideas, mostly pointing towards a weekly discussion about all sorts of things, from the latest gaming news, wouldn’t this game be great and even more random like whats the best episode of Ducktales etc…

Even maybe recording some Online Gaming Sessions which will just be playing an old game of Aliens Vs Predator, or going even further back and play KingPin and Delta Force.

It will most likely be an old PC game for now.

Hopefully the things I’m working on are going to be ready for E3 next month. I’m not going to be there this year, but maybe next year! Who knows.

Anything you’d like to add?

This blog is still a very much work in progress and any idea’s to move the blog forward would be god send.

Anything you’d like to see here?

Drop your emails to: hlmodfreak@hotmail.com

Special Thanks.

I’d like to thank a few people who have been helping me through the setup and launch of this blog.

Special Thanks goes to Trikki, AdmattE, Evilragd0ll, Justyware, Stormfury2, WolfCasserole and Azetta for your tremendous comments and support, for helping me write a better blog.

Extra Thanks to all the other readers out there too! Without them I don’t think it would be here!

Especially You! Thanks again!

-VIP0R-

VIP0R’s Blog… is a TeaM-InK® Ltd publication. All rights reserved.

Now Let’s Make Sundays Exciting!

Fallout 3: Broken Steel DLC Preview

You can “break” steel?

Fallout 3’s third DLC, Broken Steel, is coming to Xbox LIVE and Games for Windows LIVE tomorrow. As with the previous DLCs, Broken Steel will cost 800 Microsoft Points.

The new DLC includes a lot of new features, like raising the level cap to 30 and adding 6 new achievements worth 150Gs

WARNING:  If you haven’t finished/played Fallout 3, you may come across spoiler material in the following text and trailer. You Have Been Warned!

Last Chance to stop looking!

The end is no longer neigh!?

The biggest change of all is that the game no longer ends.

The main quest in Fallout 3 ends with the player making a few important decisions on the future of the region’s water supply. It also sometimes could end with the player’s death. This time around, whoever goes into the reactor won’t die. What’s more, you can even send in one of your three followers that is possible to have with you at that time. You awaken after a sucessful engagement of the reactor, which gives fresh water all across D.C.

Bethesda haven’t released all the details until the DLC goes live tomorrow, where you’ll have to play it yourself to find out what happens. What we do know however is that the DLC has Higher level Mutants and new Power Armour to go find amongst other things. There’s also a huge assault quest with the Enclave and the world around you has now changed due to all the fresh water all around D.C.

People will be filling up buckets of water to take back to settlements and you can help escort them and defend them from Bandits and they’ll probably give you some caps for it too.

There’s a bunch of new quests to do, and now that you can continue to play on from the ending you can go back to quests you may have missed (providing you haven’t killed any of the quest givers).

Fallout 3: Broken Steel Downloadable Content out tomorrow for 800 Microsoft Points.