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This episode of Gamesweasel is brought to you with GoDaddy and offers you fantastic discounts on hosting and domain names. Use one of the following Gamesweasel GoDaddy coupons March 2009 to save you money – weasel1 gets you 10% off domain name purchases and weasel2 gets you 20% off orders over $50 or £25. Some restrictions may apply, see more about our promo codes for more details.
This episode of Gamesweasel is brought to you with GoDaddy and offers you fantastic discounts on hosting and domain names. Use one of the following Gamesweasel GoDaddy coupon codes for March 2009 to save you money – weasel1 gets you 10% off domain name purchases and weasel2 gets you 20% off orders over $50 or £25. Some restrictions may apply, see the GoDaddy promo codes for more details.
So you’re done with Nico Bellic and you’re itching for some more GTA action. Well thank the Lordy Lord for some truly decent downloadable content from Rockstar in the form of The Lost and Damned. This extra gameplay is absolutely huge, delivering over 10 hours of story gameplay, along with extra street races, gang wars and mini games to enjoy – as well as new music and TV shows to keep you amused if you’re fed up with shooting.
So what’s going on this time? Well, in a story running alongside Nico’s antics, you play as Johnny Klubitz, vice-president of biker gang The Lost. Since your big boss Billy’s been in rehab the streets have got safer and the gangs have been getting on pretty well. Of course, at the start of the game Billy’s released back into the community and the usual sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll antics begin.
The great news is that straight away, I was more engaged with these leather-clad thugs than I ever was with Nico. The conflict between Johnny and Billy bubbles like a pressure cooker and Billy reminds me of an intimidating Dennis Hopper when he’s being his most scary. Facial animations are superb and there’s a real sense of drama and pathos throughout.
So enough about the story and action, what’s it like to play? The good news is, as tight as ever. Most of the time you’ll be riding bikes around Liberty City and Rockstar have made them even smoother to control. They’re actually my number one choice of transport in this expansion and that’s definitely new for me. There’s also some cool new weapons, such as the sawn-off shotgun and a very tasty grenade launcher to scare your enemies witless.
When it comes to missions, there’s a variety of where and how you fight but it’s what you’d expect in terms of GTA. Ride somewhere, kill loads of people or nick something or blow something up, then go to the next mission, escape the cops or follow someone to a new location. Most of the time, you’ll have your gang with you to back you up who actually improve in combat as they go on missions with you without dying. Another great new addition is mid-mission checkpoints, something that will have you cursing less if you’re between locations in a mission and accidentally drive off a cliff or into the water.
So single player is typical GTA fodder with a little extra spit and polish, but there’s also so much more with new multiplayer additions. There are new street races on bikes where you fight on the move Road Rash style, new multiplayer battles titled ‘Witness Protection’ and ‘Own the City’ and a ‘Chopper vs Chopper’ mode where a bike takes on a helicopter.
There are some minor annoyances such as your team mates getting in the way in combat and on the road but these won’t spoil your fun in a major way. This has to be one of the best DLC packages there is – some would say it could have been released as a full price title all on its own so it can’t get any less than a great value 9 out of 10.
Segas Mega Drive Ultimate Collection (also known as Sonics Ultimate Genesis Collection in different countries) takes 40 games that appeared on the 16-bit console and puts them onto one handy disc with a simple menu so you can get straight into them with little fuss. Games include:-
Alex Kidd In The Enchanted Castle
Alien Storm
Altered Beast
Beyond Oasis
Bonanza Bros.
Columns
Comix Zone
Decap Attack starring Chuck D. Head
Dr. Robotnik’s MBM
Dynamite Headdy
Ecco The Dolphin
Ecco II: The Tides Of Time
E-Swat
Fatal Labyrinth
Flicky
Gain Ground
Golden Axe I
Golden Axe II
Golden Axe III
Kid Chameleon
Phantasy Star II
Phantasy Star III: Generations Of Doom
Phantasy Star IV: The End Of The Millennium
Ristar
Shining In The Darkness
Shining Force
Shining Force 2
Shinobi III: Return Of The Ninja Master
Sonic 3D Blast
Sonic And Knuckles
Sonic Spinball
Sonic The Hedgehog
Sonic The Hedgehog 2
Sonic The Hedgehog 3
Streets Of Rage
Streets Of Rage 2
Streets Of Rage 3
Super Thunder Blade
Vectorman
Vectorman 2
However there are a few gems in here I remember from the past so it was interesting and nostalgic to have another fiddle with them. Notably, the games I was most excited about were Golden Axe, Altered Beast and Streets of Rage. Of course there were others I was curious to play too having never played them, including the Golden Axe sequels, Shinobi III and the Phantasy Star RPGs.
So, what you get is the original games playing through what must be an emulator on the disc. There are limited continues on some of the arcade titles but it’s nice to see you can pause the game and save the state in one of three save slots. Of course this means you can save as you go and see later levels from games you’ve never seen before. Altered Beast was one of those games, I never knew you turned into a Tiger as well!
On the back of the box it says the games are ‘now in HD’ but this isn’t really the case. In fact, playing these lo-res games on a 42” HD plasma TV shows every pixel in the game and weirdly they did look better playing on a small CRT telly back in the early 90s. They have included a ‘smoothing’ mode which attempts to fix the pixilation but this actually makes everything looks like it’s been coated in wax and in some ways ruins the nostalgia.
Of course, Sonic’s in there too but I’ve never been a Sonic fan so these ones haven’t been touched. And if you liked playing Ecco the Dolphin back in the day, that’s in there too. Annoyingly, there’s no Revenge of Shinobi which, for me anyway, goes down as one of the best 2D platform fighting games ever made.
So, is it worth the money – especially if you’ve already shelled out for some Sega classics before on the Wii and on the Xbox Live Marketplace? If you’re under 25 I’d leave this one well alone. These games are only really fun because they remind older gamers of a time when gaming was more simple and immediate. It also brings back loads of memories. For anyone that didn’t play these first time around, they’re really nowhere near as good as people remember them and you really are best playing the games of today.
There’s plenty in here to keep older gamers amused and there’s extra trivia and unlockable videos as you go, not to mention lots of easy achievements and trophies to earn. This latest collection from Sega gets 6 out of 10.
Sony’s announced some new titles for the PSP. Following the success of the Buzz migration to the handheld, Little Big Planet and Motorstorm are also finding their way to the powerful little machine later in the year. EA are getting in on the act by bringing Rockband to the PSP as well. Let’s hope it’s better than Activision’s Guitar Hero World Tour effort on the DS.
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