A sprinkling of strategy mixed with a dose of action and a touch of tinkering...
I mentioned that the triumvirate was complete in my last post.
It seems I was a little hasty with that -
After another bout of RROD and disc issues with a brand new Gears of War 2, I finally bit the bullet and paid for a new Xbox 360 Arcade model.
Why the arcade model? Well, we already had a 120GB HDD from an earlier ebay purchase. And in the UK there's a promotion that had a new Arcade model with 5 arcade games (Uno, Luxor 2, PacMan, Boom Boom Rocket and Feeding Frenzy) along with two wireless controllers, an internal 256 MB memory unit and two retail games (Lego Indiana Jones and Kung Fu Panda), all for the same price as the vanilla arcade model.
I can quite honestly say that none of the games were worth purchasing the console for, even for the easy Gamer Points, though Lego Indiana Jones has been a nice distraction for me and mrs zombie killer while we wait for Resident Evil 5 to come down in price.
Gears Of War 2 is potentially a game worth buying the console for but I've been having issues with that too - I've already had to replace the game once (free of charge though - thanks Gamestation!) and I continue to get 'disc is unreadable' messages.
I've tried cleaning the disc, loading into the hard drive and praying. Other than adding surge protection, I'm kinda at a lost for what else to do.
I'm fairly certain that the HDD is fine (Rez HD has no issues), that the drive is fine (no other discs have this issue) - it seems to be that Gears overworks the console.
Unless it's a hidden feature for not having Live Gold membership ...
Having a HDMI port though is a godsend - the difference between SD and HD is amazing. I knew that from the PS3 already but having HDMI on both that and the HDD recorder we use for TV viewing meant that I had forgotten it a little, until using the Xbox 360 on our home TV.
And thank god for our Bravia having 1080p display and three HDMI inputs ...
I was also not a fan of the wired controller I had been using on the 360 - Rez HD was a challenge to finish (this from someone who breezed through the PS2 version and gave up, bored, after unlocking the Morolian skin and several of the lasers) and Lara Croft just plain couldn't chimney jump
While over on PS3 land, I'm mourning the lack of Dualshock 3 pads again - the Sixaxis is so damn light compared to the Xbox 360 pads. That said, Lara Croft did the chimney jump first time and I could see the individual leaves in the Thai jungle rather than it being a green mess. Still, Tomb Raider hasn't been in the PS3 for a while - and it doesn't seem to have any trophy support despite what Gamefaqs say.
Prince of Persia has given me my first platinum trophy and I'm looking at the epilogue quite strongly. My reluctance to pay top whack for games is proving to be an issue here.
If I'd paid £40 for the game, then £6 for the extra DLC would be fine. But as I've paid £20 new, it doesn't seem to quite up add up. And Prince of Persia was a good game but not great - it wasn't as enjoyable as Sands of Time though it did add a new dimension to wall running.
I'll pay £6 for a full game (I suspect that Age of Booty will be purchased at some stage) but for an expansion, I do feel that the price should be reduced a little.
And talking of expansions that seem a little pricey, over £3 for one level of Valkyria Chronicles does seem pricey also.
Yep, I have Valkyria Chronicles and yes like the tend seems to be, I think that this is a great game.
It has it's quirks (hitting a target does seem a little hit and miss - and it's far too focused on rewarding speed over tactical play) but overall Sega have done themselves proud with this one. It's not for everyone but assuming that your interests are for more than twitch shooters, there's likely to be some mileage here.
The DLC for this seems a little skewy though. It's good to have DLC released for it but the marketing seems to be a little off. Remember for the following that I'm still working through the first play-through and I haven't got any of the extra content - which won't stop me from posting my initial impressions of the DLC.
Hard EX mode - Currently the difficulty seems a good level for me - I don't particularly want to make it harder. I would like missions to be replayable before the first completion of the game but that's neither here nor there.
Edy's Detachment - I don't really like this character. I get the impression that this download pack is trying to appeal to the anime fan base (she really reminds me of Sailor Moon). And three quid for a single mission is a little steep (worse than POP: Epilogue).
Behind Her Blue Flame - This one is initially the most appealing of the three. I like the idea of playing for the other side, even if the chances are that every character in it is likely to get killed off during the main campaign (and that's not much of a spoiler - we can ALL see that coming).
Looking around the interweb, I see that destructoid.com has a review of the three packs here. It looks like the Selvaria pack has four missions - which would make it a lot more worthwhile.
The quandary with the Valkyria Chronicles downloads is that I want to buy them to support the game but I don't want to buy content at the prices it's sold at.
And this isn't a credit crunch thing (which I'm sure is made worse by the continuous media scare-mongering - six months ago the only thing that told me we were in a recession was the media. They aren't helping.)
This is just a question of the value I place - a DVD is good value to buy for less than a tenner. Games when I started (on Spectrum many many moons ago) could be bought with change from a quid and even the top games were under a tenner.
Unreal Tournament 2004 was £40 as part of a two for one offer with Far Cry and for three years took many hours of my life as shooter, racer, puzzler, small film source and community entertainment.
I am appreciative of PSN being free and still don't like paying for access to gaming online (Xbox Live Gold, I'm looking at you here) - while the subscription model obviously seems to be acceptable to many, I still find it a little distasteful.
Anyways, Valkyria Chronicles is a very well made game and is polished through and through. It's also whetted my interest in the SRPG genre, though not for isometric battles a la Advance Quest or Final Fantasy Tactics - not yet anyways (and hence my interest in Age of Booty).
Nope, my inner geek is currently interested in Blood Bowl, which it seems will be both strategy game and action game, depending on whether you go with real time playing or turn based.
It reminds me somewhat of the battle sequences in Summoner 2 which I actually enjoyed, though of the two the first Summoner was overall the better game
See, and for all of you who thought I was a shooter through and through, I do appreciate the tactics of outflanking the zombies as much as loading up the gatling cannon and letting rip.
It seems I was a little hasty with that -
After another bout of RROD and disc issues with a brand new Gears of War 2, I finally bit the bullet and paid for a new Xbox 360 Arcade model.
Why the arcade model? Well, we already had a 120GB HDD from an earlier ebay purchase. And in the UK there's a promotion that had a new Arcade model with 5 arcade games (Uno, Luxor 2, PacMan, Boom Boom Rocket and Feeding Frenzy) along with two wireless controllers, an internal 256 MB memory unit and two retail games (Lego Indiana Jones and Kung Fu Panda), all for the same price as the vanilla arcade model.
I can quite honestly say that none of the games were worth purchasing the console for, even for the easy Gamer Points, though Lego Indiana Jones has been a nice distraction for me and mrs zombie killer while we wait for Resident Evil 5 to come down in price.
Gears Of War 2 is potentially a game worth buying the console for but I've been having issues with that too - I've already had to replace the game once (free of charge though - thanks Gamestation!) and I continue to get 'disc is unreadable' messages.
I've tried cleaning the disc, loading into the hard drive and praying. Other than adding surge protection, I'm kinda at a lost for what else to do.
I'm fairly certain that the HDD is fine (Rez HD has no issues), that the drive is fine (no other discs have this issue) - it seems to be that Gears overworks the console.
Unless it's a hidden feature for not having Live Gold membership ...
Having a HDMI port though is a godsend - the difference between SD and HD is amazing. I knew that from the PS3 already but having HDMI on both that and the HDD recorder we use for TV viewing meant that I had forgotten it a little, until using the Xbox 360 on our home TV.
And thank god for our Bravia having 1080p display and three HDMI inputs ...
I was also not a fan of the wired controller I had been using on the 360 - Rez HD was a challenge to finish (this from someone who breezed through the PS2 version and gave up, bored, after unlocking the Morolian skin and several of the lasers) and Lara Croft just plain couldn't chimney jump
While over on PS3 land, I'm mourning the lack of Dualshock 3 pads again - the Sixaxis is so damn light compared to the Xbox 360 pads. That said, Lara Croft did the chimney jump first time and I could see the individual leaves in the Thai jungle rather than it being a green mess. Still, Tomb Raider hasn't been in the PS3 for a while - and it doesn't seem to have any trophy support despite what Gamefaqs say.
Prince of Persia has given me my first platinum trophy and I'm looking at the epilogue quite strongly. My reluctance to pay top whack for games is proving to be an issue here.
If I'd paid £40 for the game, then £6 for the extra DLC would be fine. But as I've paid £20 new, it doesn't seem to quite up add up. And Prince of Persia was a good game but not great - it wasn't as enjoyable as Sands of Time though it did add a new dimension to wall running.
I'll pay £6 for a full game (I suspect that Age of Booty will be purchased at some stage) but for an expansion, I do feel that the price should be reduced a little.
And talking of expansions that seem a little pricey, over £3 for one level of Valkyria Chronicles does seem pricey also.
Yep, I have Valkyria Chronicles and yes like the tend seems to be, I think that this is a great game.
It has it's quirks (hitting a target does seem a little hit and miss - and it's far too focused on rewarding speed over tactical play) but overall Sega have done themselves proud with this one. It's not for everyone but assuming that your interests are for more than twitch shooters, there's likely to be some mileage here.
The DLC for this seems a little skewy though. It's good to have DLC released for it but the marketing seems to be a little off. Remember for the following that I'm still working through the first play-through and I haven't got any of the extra content - which won't stop me from posting my initial impressions of the DLC.
Hard EX mode - Currently the difficulty seems a good level for me - I don't particularly want to make it harder. I would like missions to be replayable before the first completion of the game but that's neither here nor there.
Edy's Detachment - I don't really like this character. I get the impression that this download pack is trying to appeal to the anime fan base (she really reminds me of Sailor Moon). And three quid for a single mission is a little steep (worse than POP: Epilogue).
Behind Her Blue Flame - This one is initially the most appealing of the three. I like the idea of playing for the other side, even if the chances are that every character in it is likely to get killed off during the main campaign (and that's not much of a spoiler - we can ALL see that coming).
Looking around the interweb, I see that destructoid.com has a review of the three packs here. It looks like the Selvaria pack has four missions - which would make it a lot more worthwhile.
The quandary with the Valkyria Chronicles downloads is that I want to buy them to support the game but I don't want to buy content at the prices it's sold at.
And this isn't a credit crunch thing (which I'm sure is made worse by the continuous media scare-mongering - six months ago the only thing that told me we were in a recession was the media. They aren't helping.)
This is just a question of the value I place - a DVD is good value to buy for less than a tenner. Games when I started (on Spectrum many many moons ago) could be bought with change from a quid and even the top games were under a tenner.
Unreal Tournament 2004 was £40 as part of a two for one offer with Far Cry and for three years took many hours of my life as shooter, racer, puzzler, small film source and community entertainment.
I am appreciative of PSN being free and still don't like paying for access to gaming online (Xbox Live Gold, I'm looking at you here) - while the subscription model obviously seems to be acceptable to many, I still find it a little distasteful.
Anyways, Valkyria Chronicles is a very well made game and is polished through and through. It's also whetted my interest in the SRPG genre, though not for isometric battles a la Advance Quest or Final Fantasy Tactics - not yet anyways (and hence my interest in Age of Booty).
Nope, my inner geek is currently interested in Blood Bowl, which it seems will be both strategy game and action game, depending on whether you go with real time playing or turn based.
It reminds me somewhat of the battle sequences in Summoner 2 which I actually enjoyed, though of the two the first Summoner was overall the better game
See, and for all of you who thought I was a shooter through and through, I do appreciate the tactics of outflanking the zombies as much as loading up the gatling cannon and letting rip.
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