I love Burnout. I really do! I love the offline challenges. I love the showtime, I love the Burning Routes, and finding the smashes and the billboards. I don;t like the stunt challenges though. I really suck at them. They suck. Like a really sucky thing…

I also love the online aspect of the game too. The challenges, the races, aand the zany anticd that we get up to. I especially love some of the images the camera captures when you take someone down. It’s a really good job that we haven’t met any kids online yet (I think) because some of the pictures that I receive from some people, and especially one person (no, I’m not going to mention any names), who has a bit of a flabby arse (OK, it’s Bouncybhall!) and a penchant for getting naked whilst on Live, are just…well…fucking awsome!

I’m just two minds whether or not to post some of these pictures from the Xbox!

A regular update perhaps?

Thoughts please…

Ok, first off, it’s been a good two or three weeks since any of us last posted.  Sorry about that guys, it’s just a case of us all being ridiculously busy with various things and not getting time for much else.

One thing I have been getting some time in on is Burnout Paradise which surprisingly for me, is keeping my interest much more than I thought it would. However, there is one problem.

Most of you have heard about, or at least experienced the search for the Orbs in Crackdown, right?  If you have the game, you’ll also remember the pain of looking for those last few which just didn’t seem to be anywhere.  Well that same pain is back, but this time in the form of Billboards, Super Jumps and Gates.

Right now I’ve got about 105 out of 120 Billborads, 42 out of 50 Jumps, and 389 of 400 Gates.  The first two won’t be so bad to find, but these gates are getting to be a real pain in the posterior.  In between unlocking the cars, completing the challenges, racing, and generally mucking about with Paul online, I’m constantly on the lookout for these Gates.

For those not aware, each gate is marked by chainlink fence with bright yellow markers and flashing lights.  Doesn’t sound hard to spot does it, but trying to find them whilst doing excess speed down the wrong side of a road is.  Driving slowly in Burnout just feels wrong as anyone who’s played any game from the series will know; sure it would make the job easier but it’s just no fun.  I can drive slowly in real life for god sake (kinda have to, damn speeding tickets!) so I’m not going to piddle about in a game.

Last night I even considered looking for a map online of where they all were.  Apart from the basic wrong-ness of doing so, I suddenly remembered the people I used to deal with whilst presenting Game Guru, and realised just what depths I would be sinking to.

Oh, and one last quick note, an apology to ‘oss’ who dropped a few comments on Paul’s O2 posts.  We all missed out on your comments, but they are approved now and showing.  Nothing personal, jut none of us had logged into the admin panel until I did this morning.  Hopefully you’ve got your charges sorted out too by now, but let us know what happened.  Be interesting to see what steps O2 take for you as well!

I popped into my local GAME store this weekend, as you do, and found Assassins Creed at a knock down price of just £24.99. I knew Duncs had recently had a stab at it and hadn’t rated it that much. I’d played a demo and again was a bit ‘meh!’ about it but I thought, what the hell, £25 is only going to get me just over half way to Burnout Paradise.

True to form and reviews I’ve played it for a couple of hours and at the moment I think it’s one of the best games I’ve seen for a while. It certainly ranks up high amongst CoD4, Bioshock, Gears of War and a couple of others I can’t be bothered to think of right now. Whether or not I think the same after a few more hours remains to be seen. Maybe I’m slightly biased as I have paid less than full price for it. Had I paid the full £40 I might have felt differently.

What do you all think of the game? Post away.

I really hope not but I fear the worst may be happening!!

Fifa Street has personaly always been a bit of a chavvy excuse for a football game, with it’s flamboyant arcade-y style play, ott skills etc. the whole package symbolised the whole vibe that EA have been, and still are going for.  That ‘yoof-culture’ crap that tends to be spouted over by the Daily Mail when they have something to bitch about being wrong with civilisation.

As such, I’ve generally dismissed the previous two games as just being a cheap footy game, even after trying both of them out.

A few days ago, a demo of Fifa Street 3 appeared on the Marketplace.  Being a bit of a demo whore (well come on, it’s about an hours play time for free!) I grabbed a copy of it.  Once I got past trying to work out why the players looked like over-sized wobble head dolls, really feckin’ weird, I settled into my first game.

And got suitably hammered by the AI opposition.  No great surprise there, but then I found myself playing it again. A defeat again, but by a smaller margin. A third play through brings victory by two goals, and a better understanding of just how you’re supposed to play it.

Entertainment over I thought, but no, there I was pressing Start again.  Oh crap, I’m enjoying it!

I never thought I would do this, but I’m going to recommend that if you’re reading this and have a means to try out the game, go do it.  Imagine Mario Strikers, without the lava, and superkicks, and, well, Mario and company, in a playground or disused basketball court.  Then add in some of the msot well known names in football at the moment, and there you go.

Whilst I’m on recommendations, go try out Boogie Bunnies on Xbox Live Arcade too.  Stupidly similar puzzle concept, but very addictive play, and it has two player co-op and versus over Live.  Just look past the ridiculously cute rabbit-type things that’ll make your eyes bleed with their…cuteness.

I’ve come to the conclusion today that I need to stop buying new games. Period!

Fact is that at the moment, I’m just not finding enough time to devote attention to playing through and enjoying the ones I’ve got, never mind playing on Live (damn you Call of Duty 4 and your addictively good multiplayer!!!).  This realisation came about when I ordered three games during the January sales, namely The Godfather, Conan, and Stranglehold.  Games I wouldn’t pay full price for, but seeing as I got all three for around £50 altogether, not bad really.

I happily placed my orders, then next time I switched the 360 on, the pile of unfinished games sitting right next to it stared at me.  They actually did stare, quite unnerving it was too; you’d be amazed how menacing a DVD case can look in the wrong light!

In that pile is Assasain’s Creed, which I’ve only managed to get about a third of the way through; Lego Star Wars Complete Saga in which not even Episode One is finished; Half Life 2: Episode 2, the surface of which has only been scratched; skate., Oh Christ, skate! One of the best skateboard games ever with tons left to do and unlock; Smackdown Vs RAW 2007; the Wii is also waiting for Super Mario Galaxy and Resi Evil 4 to be completed.

My gaming time has (rightfully so) been cut dramatically since the arrival of little Ben, and to be honest this does sound a bit pathetic considering that my son is ever so slightly more important than anything else.  But then I don’t go out on the town anymore, I don’t smoke, maybe watch the occasional DVD or film with the lady.  Gaming is my main past time and the thing I draw most enjoyment from as entertainment in my free time, so I still like to indulge when I can.

And I’ve just added three more games on top of that!  Am I frickin’ mad?

Yes, I can imagine you all nodding away right now in agreement with that last question, but then this isn’t unique to me.  The last few years has I believe, seen an increase in the amount of desirable titles being released within a certain amount of time which brings us game players (I hate the word ‘gamers’, sounds a bit too MTV-generated-label for me) into the age old predicament of which games we choose.  Especially when you’re talking £40/$60 a pop, depending on which side of the pond you’re on.

I suppose the solution is a simple choice of quit gaming altogether (highly unlikely), bite the bullet and sell off those games that I just know I’m not going to get around to playing through properly, or stop buying new ones until I’ve got through the ones I have (we’ll have PS24/7 and Xbox720 by then!).

I wonder what the best price online is for Burnout Paradise right now?…

…Damn it, I’m doing it again!!!

Or am I about to get rodgered up the shitter by o2? I dunno.

Following on from this post about my GPRS charges last week, I decided to give them a call on Monday to see how things were going on the report that they had raised on the usage. No news yet. Still takes about a week to sort out. Or so they say. So I gave them a couple more days to get on with it.

I call them this morning, and I get a miserable woman called Rosie at their end. SO I explained what I’m chasing up, and guess what? Still no news! But she did send an email to the technical chappie to give me a call and let me know where he’s up to. That was about 9:15 this morning. It’s now 10:35 and still no call from him. I have a feeling that this is going to go on for ages.

I’ll give them until tomorrow, then I’m going to call them up again. If I still don;t get anymore news from them, I’m going to cancel the direct debit I have, and then I’m sure that they’ll

A/ Give me the answers that I want
or
B/ Send me to court for non-payment of £1,019.40

I also got an email from BT the other day saying that I went 15gb over my monthly usage. But being that they’re so kind, they wont charge me on this occasion. But next time they’ll charge me 30p per gb over the norm. That’ll teach me for downloading demos, games and movies from Xbox Live!

So far, technology-wise, and a few personal bits, 2008 has been a bit shit. I’m hoping that it can only get better, but that would be tempting fate, wouldn’t it…

First off I’d like to say I do actually like Stuff magazine. So much so that for the past two years I have given a 12 month subscription of it to a friend who enjoys it just as much as I do, but I have to say I was very annoyed to find, whilst flicking through the November 2007 edition, the front cover screaming about a feature inside called “Superconsole Smackdown - PS3 (in very big letters) vs Wii (in smaller letters) - (You probably get the picture already.)

Now I’d like to add that I probably will get a Wii in the near future - the so-called “pick-up-ability” is phenomenal. My 6 year old daughter picked up the controller to play Bowling on Wii sports during the Christmas period and without any training other than that offered by the game initially she managed to beat me completely. This phenomenon is something no other console can compete with. Yet.

Anyhow, back to main topic, that being Stuff mag’s over-apparent PS3 fanboy-ism.

In the feature itself the PS3 gets an amazing 8 advantages and only 3 disadvantages. Of the eight advantages one of them is the free on-line gaming. Free, yes. I can’t disagree with that. Supported and looked-after, with a continuous feed of cash to keep it going, I think not. Another advantage is that it is backwards compatible with PS2 games. Worth remembering that one. Of the cons, they mention the lack of rumble feature and the cost. Just a little mention though. £425 isn’t too expensive is it? In the list of the nine most wonderful games for the PS3 is apparently Sonic the Hedgehog. Ummmm, a games mag this is not. Then they have a lovely page on Blu-Ray movies. Unfortunately Blu-Ray is slowly dying if the Amazon Christmas hi-def movie sales figures are anything going by.

The next console on the list is the Wii. A snip at only £180, though it’s more recently been found on sale at £169. This console has seven advantages and just four dis-advantages. One of the pro’s is its backwards compatibility with Gamecube games. Another is WiiConnect 24 which means the console updates over the net whilst it’s switched off - nice! This also has a rumble pack oh, and the mag also makes a little mention of the completely innovative control method which for me IS the Wii. Oh, and it also plays DVD’s. For the cons we get the fact that it’s not the most powerful console going and also if you’re a hardcore gamer you might not like swapping control methods again and again. Us human-folk obviously aren’t that intelligent then. Darn it.

Last, and apparently least as far as Stuff is concerned is the Xbox 360.

It has just three advantages - one of which is the sublime gaming experience as the hi-def graphics through the component output is very good. Apparently there are also a wealth of games and xbox live is a superb online experience. For the cons there is no HDMI output - true, until the Elite came along. The fan is a little loud and the power brick is a little large. Yes, I agree with both of these.

The mag thankfully bothers to list six HD-DVD movies that you can get and a staggering THREE games (from the wealth of games the 360 has - see advantages) that you must own. HALO isn’t even mentioned, nor is Bioshock (Didn’t that win some silly little award like Game Of The Year?). COD4, PGR4 (or 3) don’t get a mention either - in fact the games mentioned are Dead Rising, Oblivion and ruddy Table Tennis. Come on Stuff, you’re not even trying here.

One big advantage not even thought of is that it’s just a little more than half the price of the 360. With the cash saved you could get yourself five more full-price games. There is a little mention of the Xbox Live service - the fact you have to pay for it over the PS3’s free service - isn’t even mentioned. They forget to mention the console is also backwards compatible with almost the entire Xbox catalogue and with Xbox Live’s continued updates (because it’s paid for) you can download movies, TV shows and previous Xbox games, via the ‘net.

Unfortunately from the start it was plainly clear which console was going to get Stuff’s “Hot Pick” of the three and it was little surprise that the PS3 won the battle. The 360 is in fact marked with just four out of five stars. The Wii get’s the full five and the PS3 gets five plus the magical ‘Hot Pick’.

In the summing up the 360 gets little praise. Its apparent ‘old-fashioned tactics’ and ‘lack of innovation’ leave the Wii and PS3 to battle it out. The Wii gets a knock for being low-tech. Again the 360 takes a punch from the summing of the Wii as ‘un-inventive’ and apparently could only stand and watch as the Wii’s wireless controllers took on the PS3. (Have they mentioned the PS3 enough?)

The PS3 gets high-praise for being last into the field with its weaponry perfected apparently (lack of rumble feature anyone?) They claim in their summing up that the motion sensitive controller beats the innovative Wii controller hands down as it ‘pitches to the side in an evasive manoeuvre) However they have saved the best to last as the PS3’s blu-ray capabilities ‘cut through the air and the invisible Wi-Fi streams command its media hordes.’ And with that Stuff claim they have their winner.

I doubt anyone can call the PS3 perfect - the only console in my mind to come close is possibly the Wii and only if we’re ready to leave the ‘best graphics = best game’ equation out. The Wii is a next-gen console only because of its controller (which is fantastic) - the claims that the PS3’s controller whilst motion sensitive beats that of the Wii is just preposterous and stupid. It’s almost as good as saying the because the Blackberry 8820 comes with GPS built in it’s better than having a TomTom on your car dashboard. Then we move onto the blu-ray stuff, I think I’ve covered that one. It may be a re-run of Betamax and VHS but I’m afraid the HD-DVD format is winning, the fact that the PS3 is titled as the cheapest Blu-Ray player going should have given the game away really. It’s not bloody rocket science is it?

Then we come to the very last statement. The built in Wi-Fi. I must have been dreaming when the Wii effortlessly connected to the wireless network, seamlessly updating itself overnight. The 360 was a little more tricky and required an adapter, but once connected it works and can also stream movies, images, etc. using the Media Extender, software built into Windows Media Player. (Windows? Isn’t that the OS that most people use? Why yes, it is. Strange that.)

Whilst I’m certainly not paid to be an electronics, gadget or gaming journalist I do like to keep an open mind and believe that the PS3 does have some advantages over the other two consoles but by no means is it as clear a winner as they make out. In my mind the 360 and the Wii bring up the front of the battle with the PS3 following closely behind.

As I said earlier it was plainly apparent from the start which console had already won. The initial paragraph stated that the Stuff magazine crew had been caught up in the PS3 hype and they ‘know just how good it is’. I hope I never see another piece of so blatantly biased journalism again. Unfortunately I know I will. I just hope no-one reads it and takes it as fact. Don’t believe everything you read. Please. (Unless it’s on this blog!)