Gamesweasel

Wimbledon’s just about wrapped up here in the UK and as a result there have been a couple of tennis games out recently. One is Virtua Tennis 2009 which I reviewed a fortnight ago, the other is EA’s Grand Slam Tennis which is the first game to use Nintendo’s new Wii Motion Plus controller. Unfortunately Nintendo haven’t sent me one so I’ll have to review the game based on the standard remote and nunchuck. As with previous tennis games on the Wii, if you play with just the remote, the game controls the player so you can concentrate on your swing. Hitting early, on time or a bit late changes the direction of your shot, whilst pressing A or B whilst taking your shot will either do a lob or a drop shot. You can also move to the net or the baseline by tapping up or down on the d-pad.

As you’d expect, you don’t always pull off what you intend when you swing your racket but nevertheless the game is great fun to play thanks to some great presentation.

Play Grand Slam mode and you compete in exhibition matches and all the big tournaments on varying surfaces. As you beat star players you also gain their attributes and slowly increase the stats of your player. And the star players are varied and all drawn in a unique cartoon style which works much better than Virtua Tennis. Andy Murray, Nadal and Federer are there along with the Williams sisters and Maria Sharapova, but also older greats like Natratilova, Pete Sampras, Pat Cash and even John McEnroe. Sharipova’s grunting is even in there along with McEnroe’s outbursts which blare through the remote’s speaker if he drops a particularly bad shot.

A word of warning, the AI players are incredibly good, even on easy, and this game really comes into its own when you play with a friend in the same room or online. Matches can get really tense and there’s enough shot variety to send opponents all over the court before you finally win a point. Online is also very smooth and you can play singles and doubles in ranked or unranked matches. Throw in a calorie counter, some party games and of course the WMP support which I read makes the game even better, and you have probably the best tennis game of the year.

Grand Slam Tennis gets a very good 7 out of 10.

Get Grand Slam Tennis now
New: Buy Grand Slam Tennis from Amazon.com
Rental: Rent Grand Slam Tennis - free rental trial from Gamefly.com

Tags: Grand Slam Tennis, Wimbledon, sports, tennis, Wii, Wii Motion Plus

EA Sports Active review

Mevio — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 14:58:53 +0000

Nintendo’s Wii Fit along with its Balance Board was a very popular piece of software, aiming to be a gym in a box complete with a personal trainer and calendar which would keep track of your targets and hopefully motivate you to stay fit at home. To be honest, my balance board is now gathering dust so now it’s time to see if EA Sports Active can get me jumping up and down in front of my TV again.

In the box you get the software, a leg strap which you use to holster your nunchuck during some exercises and a piece of smelly elastic which you tie to two handles to use for resistance exercises. It’s also compatible with the Wii Balance Board to add some extra features into some of the exercises.

When you load up the game you give it your usual stats and then you’re away. You can get straight into separate exercises which tone muscle groups and help with cardio, or you can access the calendar which gives you a 30 day routine which varies day to day to keep you motivated and keep you trim.

Where Wii Fit had some exercises and yoga and lots of mini games that got you fit whilst you had fun, EA Sports Active takes things a little more seriously. Basically, it makes you do the sort of exercises you’d do in an aerobics class and the personal trainer does a good job of keeping you motivated and also gives you advice as it keeps track of what the nunchuck strapped to you leg is doing (which, incidentally, can slide down your thigh if you’re wearing loose-fitting clothing, best to wear short shorts and strap it round your skin). You jog and walk around a running track to warm up and cool down, then do squats, lunges, bicep curls, rowing, boxing, tennis etc to work you upper and lower body.

I prefer this to Wii Fit, however, the game is slightly unbalanced. The resistance band is too stretchy and won’t really work your arms unless you’re very weak, however the lower body and leg workouts are absolute killers. My bottom hurt for two days after first trying the game out!

However, no pain, no gain, as they say. If you’re serious about toning some muscles alone or with a friend if you buy an extra leg band and resistance band, this is probably the best way to go, We’ll see what Wii Fit Plus has to offer in a few months.

EA Sports Active gets a very good 7 out of 10.

Get EA Sports Active now
New: Buy EA Sports Active from Amazon.com
Rental: Rent EA Sports Active - free rental trial from Gamefly.com

Tags: EA Sports Active, sports, Wii, Wii Motion Plus, resistance band, personal trainer, workout, routine, EA Sports Active review

Alien RPG cancelled

Mevio — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 14:56:39 +0000

If you were still hoping to play the Alien RPG, forget it. Developer Obsidian have now confirmed the game is no longer happening. The good news is, Aliens vs Predator, Aliens: Colonial Marines and the new DS game are definitely on their way.

Buy Aliens: Colonial Marines now
New: Buy Aliens: Colonial Marines from Amazon.com

Tags: Alien RPG, Obsidian, Aliens vs Predator, Aliens Colonial Marines, Alien DS game

PSP mobile phone

Mevio — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 14:55:04 +0000

To keep up with Apple, Sony may be implementing cell phone technology into the PSP. Separate to the PSP GO, the new device may not even have the PSP brand but should feature games and movies available on disc and the ability to send SMSs and make calls.

Buy a PSP GO now
New: Buy a PSP GO from Amazon.com

Related: Sony E3 highlights, PSP Go rumour

Tags: PSP, Sony, Playstation Portable, PSP Cell, PSP mobile

Free Michael Jackson Thriller Video

Mevio — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 14:53:29 +0000

To mark the death of Michael Jackson, Microsoft are giving away the full 10 minute Thriller video to people in the US over Xbox Live Marketplace. Be quick though, you can only download it between Friday and Sunday this weekend.

Buy Michael Jackson Thriller now
New: Buy Michael Jackson Thriller from Amazon.com

Tags: Michael Jackson, Thriller, Xbox Live, Xbox 360

Gamesweasel podcast episode 105

Mevio — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 17:23:46 +0000

Episode 105
On this weeks episode of Gamesweasel we review Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings and Damnation, take a look at the news about Pro Evolution Soccer 2010, Final Fantasy VII and Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, plus we are giving away an Xbox 360 gaming bundle just for becoming a fan on the official Gamesweasel Facebook page. On the blog this week we’ve got SUDOKU 150 For Challengers, Lux Pain review, Microsoft E3 roundup and how to get free Xbox Live points codes.

Buy
To get hold of any of the games reviewed in this episode you can buy from the Damnation Amazon and Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings Amazon pages.

Offers
This weeks episode of Gamesweasel is brought to you in association with GoDaddy and offers you discounts on hosting and domain names. Use one of the following Gamesweasel July 2009 GoDaddy codes 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, please see the GoDaddy web site for more details.

Win
We have an Xbox 360 gaming bundle to give away by 13 July 2009, full details of how to enter can be found on our competitions page.

Contact us
Email: gamesweasel@mevio.com
Twitter: twitter.com/gamesweasel
Facebook: Gamesweasel on Facebook

Screenshots

Damnation review

Mevio — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 16:16:37 +0000

Look at the box or the screenshots for Damnation and it appears pretty cool. It looks like a sort of steam-punk Western complete with alternative technology and weapons that should mix things up a bit. Unfortunately when you play it, it’s plain to see it’s borrowed a few aspects from other games and, unlike, say, Uncharted, doesn’t implement it into the gameplay particularly well at any point.

You play as a guy called Rourke who’s looking for his fiancée. Of course, there’s a bigger picture here and you’re also part of a team who’s trying to stop a military contractor from succeeding in his violent takeover.

The majority of the time you’ll be having shootouts in open areas and also climbing up buildings to access new areas. You’d think if these were the main points of the game they’d be done well, but they’re not. Aiming is really tricky and over-responsive, enemies just stand there anyway waiting to be shot and to reload you have to click in the left stick! Who’s idea was that in the development meeting? And after successful climbing in games such as Prince of Persia and InFamous comes some of the clunkiest climbing since playing Hunchback on the Spectrum. For some strange reason you have to press a shoulder button to jump away from a wall when in other games, simply moving the direction away from the wall is enough to make the character jump where you want him to!

Your team-mates also aren’t much help either. Sometimes they scale buildings to show you the way, then you can’t find them above you and thus don’t know where to go, other times they’ll teleport onto your vehicle if you leave them during a driving stage.

Thanks to your Native American friend you also get a special vision which lets you see enemies through walls and downed team-mates. Again, it’s pretty pointless and only shows you their rough position while you’re using the limited cover system to hide behind a wall.

There are plenty of better action adventure games out there. If you’re looking for something with a Western vibe, wait for Rockstar’s Red Dead Redemption, it’s bound to be better.

Damnation gets a damning 4 out of 10.

Get Damnation now
New: Buy Damnation from Amazon.com
Rental: Rent Damnation - free rental trial from Gamefly.com

Related: InFamous, Prince of Persia, Youtube Damnation review

Tags: Damnation, Steampunk, Westen, Xbox 360, PS3, PC, Red Dead Redemption

Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings review

Mevio — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 16:16:00 +0000

3 years ago I saw a rather good looking Indiana Jones game which had some dynamic fighting using their new Euphoria engine. So far, that game hasn’t surfaced and what we get instead is this latest adventure on the Wii, Staff of Kings. This time Indy is looking for the Staff of Moses and once again has to fight thugs, Nazis and mystical forces along the way.

Being on the Wii, LucasArts have decided to eek out every last bit of motion control. You use the remote and nunchuck to punch with your left and right fist, and by holding down the B button and swinging the remote, you can unleash your whip to disarm enemies, pull them closer for a handy headbutt or swing around the environment. You even get to use it as a joystick as you fly a plane and as a light gun during shooting sections.

Although it’s quite novel using the controls in this way to fight at first, it soon gets a bit frustrating. You can’t always pull off the moves you mean to do, not that that matters because your enemies mostly wait around for you to hit them or dodge their attacks. The fighting is fun though as you pick up objects and smash them into tables, fish tanks etc and does feel quite meaty as Indy’s punch-ups often look in the movies.

Unfortunately the game’s also very glitchy and feels rushed and unfinished. Tutorial sections and cut-scenes can’t be skipped so if you happen to die during them ,you have to sit through long sequences before you can try again. Although the Indy sound-alike is very good, audio skips and jumps as the game loads new areas, and even animations jump and skip as you fight and move around.

There’s also a co-op multiplayer mode in there if you fancy it as Indy and his Sean Connery Dad run about together but to be honest, this is pretty throw away too.

It’s a shame I enjoyed the old graphic adventure Fate of Atlantis and the PS2 game Emperor’s Tomb more than this one. It may be better on the PSP and PS2 thanks to a less convoluted control system but if you want a tomb-raiding action adventure, get the recent Tomb Raider instead. Staff of Kings gets an average 5 out of 10.

Get Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings now
New: Buy Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings from Amazon.com
Rental: Rent Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings - free rental trial from Gamefly.com

Tags: Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings, Indiana Jones, LucasArts, Wii, PS2, PSP, Tomb Raider, Youtube Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings review

Uncharted 2 wins best of E3

Mevio — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 16:14:54 +0000

Like a good dog, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves has won E3 best of show. The game sees Nathan Drake back in action and has won best action/adventure game and best console game.

Buy Uncharted 2: Among Thieves now
New: Buy Uncharted 2: Among Thieves from Amazon.com

Related: Uncharted: Drakes Fortune review, E3

Tags: Uncharted 2, E3, Uncharted 2, Among Thieves, Nathan Drake, Sony exclusive

Final Fantasy VII sales figures

Mevio — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 16:13:34 +0000

Final Fantasy VII is proving pretty popular on the PS Network. It’s become the fastest selling PSOne title and in just two weeks has been downloaded over 100,000 times. I wonder how many people have gone “it doesn’t look like how I remember it“.

Buy Final Fantasy VII now
New: Buy Final Fantasy VII from Amazon.com

Tags: Final Fantasy VII, sales figures

Pro Evolution Soccer 2010 lineup

Mevio — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 15:50:21 +0000

Liverpool striker Fernando Torres has been lined up as the other cover star of Pro Evolution Soccer 2010 along with Lionel Messi. The new game features advanced tactical switching, better realism and player characteristics but unfortunately Mark Lawrenson’s still commentating.

Buy Pro Evolution Soccer 2010 now
New: Buy Pro Evolution Soccer 2010 from Amazon.com

Tags: Pro Evolution Soccer 2010, Lionel Messi, Fernando Torres, Liverpool, sport, football, soccer

SUDOKU 150 For Challengers

Mevio — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 16:00:14 +0000

Hudson has sent us some screenshots of their new puzzle game Sudoku 150! For Challengers which is one of the first Sudoku games to be released via the new DSiWare service. Whilst there are already a number of Sudoku games available for the DS, Sudoku 150! For Challengers has very nice presentation and comes at a low 500 Nintendo Points. The Sudoku 150! For Challenges is out now in the shop.

Buy Sudoku 150! For Challenges now
New: Buy Sudoku 150! For Challenges from Amazon.com

Related: Colour Cross Review, DSiWare service

Tags: Nintendo Points, Wii Points, Sudoku

Lux Pain review

Mevio — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 15:57:35 +0000

Lux-Pain is a creepy anime story presented in the form of a visual novel on the Nintendo DS rather than a typical game. Lux Pain does have some interactive elements but there will be very few moments when you will be challenged or tested. As long as you bear this in mind you can take this DS title for what it’s supposed to be and enjoy it.

Your character, Atsuki Saijo, is investigating a plague that has struck Kisaragi City. Silent - a parasite that burrows into the body and drives its hosts to intense feelings of hatred and negativity has been spreading, causing its victims to commit terrible acts. Animals are being tortured and slaughtered in apartment buildings; suicides are being committed en masse and even Atsuki’s parents have fallen to the curse. The Silent is spreading from one source and it is your job to track it down and destroy it for good. It’s in the city somewhere, but where?

There are a number of locations in the city that you will need to explore. This is mostly done by simply tapping on a map which will take you to a still image of the place you are currently exploring. Because the environments cannot be interacted with (a la Phoenix Wright) the only possible events that can occur are a narration from Atsuki about the location or a conversation with one of the city’s esoteric citizens.

While you do have a small touch of control over the conversations (you can occasionally select an answer to a question, or a facial expression) most of the story will play out in front of you while you sit and listen. However most of the time you’ll be reading as this game is full of text! Atsuki has the power of ? (sigma), which means that he can sense Silent infections (called Shinen) and remove them. When he opts to do this a mini-game begins. You are shown the scene that needs disinfecting, whether it is a human you have been chatting to or an environment with someone’s Residual Shinen left on it. You will scratch away at this image with the stylus, until the little Silent worms reveal themselves. This will unlock a thought (usually called something vague and sinister like ‘That Boy’ or ‘I Want to Die’).

If this was taken from a person you then place the thought into their head so that you can read it. The contents of the thought will be displayed in a bizarre, dreamlike sequence on the top screen. This might give away a hint for the story, or it might just disturb you a little bit. After the game ends, an arbitrary points screen appears which rates you for how well you did, although you can’t really do badly, nor particularly well. With this mind-reading, along with the over-long conversations with a variety of anime chicks and Ricks, Atsuki is supposed to wander around the city and track down the source of the problem. This means bumbling around the various locations until a story event happens.

The lack of any decent gameplay makes this strictly a reading and listening exercise but a problem lies in this because the script is awful (presumably suffering from poor translation from its original Japanese source). At best this results in some very lazy sentences which includes examples such as: Ampersands in the place of ‘and’ plus random unexplained abbreviations which pop up out of nowhere leaving the reader befuddled. At worst there are sentences that make no sense whatsoever and seem to pay no attention to what came immediately before or after. The game even contradicts its own logic; the place Atsuki works for is interchangeably referred to as both ‘F.O.R.T’ and ‘Fort’.

Luckily the voiceover work is better. A decent amount of the dialogue is actually spoken by some worthwhile actors and while what they are saying doesn’t often match up with what’s on the screen, it usually makes a lot more sense. However it is also out of sync with the dialogue onscreen which often means you will often have finished reading it before it before the dialogue is half way through. All the music and sound effects are wonderfully atmospheric; the laments of lingering doubts and forgotten ghosts, it might be advisable to turn the volume up and close your eyes. You won’t be missing too much apart from some shoddy English usage and barely animated drawings.

Lux-Pain is scary and genuinely disconcerting but it lacks so much in so many different areas that it is hard to give the story the praise it deserves. Lux-Pain is not a game to be played late at night, or by an English professor. 3 out of 10, and that’s including a bonus point for the excellent soundtrack. If anything should have been released as a spoken word book and not a Nintendo DS release, it’s Lux-Pain.

Get Lux Pain now
New: Buy Lux Pain from Amazon.com
Rental: Rent Lux Pain - free rental trial from Gamefly.com

Tags: Lux Pain, DS, DSi, Anime, Horror, Nintendo DS, Atsuki Saijo, Anime

Microsoft E3 roundup

Mevio — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 15:55:19 +0000

Just like last year Microsoft took to the E3 stage with all guns blazing without fear from Sony or Nintendo who preferred to wait for 24 hours and see just what Microsoft had been up to since the previous show. Whilst many details were leaked beforehand, Microsoft still had a few surprises up their sleeve and at the end of their conference seemed pretty pleased with themselves and confident that their rivals wouldn’t be able to match their announcements.

Things started off a little shakily as the first four games to be revealed were non exclusive titles, surely if you want to impress the crowd you don’t show games which will appear on your rivals system and in the case of the PS3, look exactly the same. Not only that but there was a rather embarrassing debacle when Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr arrived on stage with hardly anything to say about the upcoming Beatles Rock Band game aside from it having good graphics followed by plenty of brown nosing by the Microsoft rep. And what was the point in Yoko Ono and Olivia Harrison flying all the way to LA just to wave at a hall full of sweaty video game journalists and not utter a word?

The actual premiere trailer and live performance of The Beatles Rock Band looked rather good and it may very well be the first of the modern music games to tempt me into a purchase. Featuring realistic yet stylised graphics which are very reminiscent of The Beatles imagery from the 60’s really appealed to me. If you have ever watched the Yellow Submarine film you’ll know what to expect from the graphics. New information included that Xbox Live users will have access to an exclusive track (All you need is Love) on Xbox Live with proceeds going to charity. Even better than that was the news that all of the tracks have been remastered and that practically every album by The Beatles will be available as DLC after the launch. Oh and the whole album Abbey Road comes with the game.

Next up was Tony Hawk Ride where the skate master himself came up on stage to reveal the final design of the new skateboard peripheral which will come bundled with the game for around $100. After reading from an autocue for a while (something which Paul and Ringo should have done) he then presented a trailer starring himself and other skater friends enjoying the game and the new board. The dudes in the trailer were being paid so forgive me for being pessimistic about this one.

After those two Microsoft decided to bring out one of the big guns and presented us with a very tasty looking trailer then live game footage of Modern Warfare 2 where the deserts and oil fields of Call of Duty 4 have been replaced by a very cold looking snowy landscape with plenty of excellent weather effects. The action was nonstop with gun fire and explosions everywhere, my favourite scene was very James Bond esque when the player shot an enemy soldier riding a Snowmobile then jumping straight on it and riding off. Don’t you wish Rare has incorporated that into a Bond game before they lost their edge? Regardless Modern Warfare 2 looks like a sure fire hit later this year and with Microsoft Xbox Live having two additional DLC map packs before the arrive on PS3 means another drubbing for the Cell Powered console this time out.

Last in this section was the first unveiling of Final Fantasy XIII running on Xbox 360 hardware, to be honest I didn’t notice a difference to last year’s trailer which was running on the PS3 so expect a near identical looking and feeling game on both systems, the only difference may come down to exclusive downloadable content which of course would be announced closer to the Spring 2010 release. Once again I’m not really a Final Fantasy guy and instead prefer Nintendo’s The Legend of Zelda series so Final Fantasy isn’t on my wish list but I’m sure it’s on plenty of yours.

Here is where Microsoft made their biggest mistake or even a deliberate lie, after announcing that the following ten or so games would be exclusive to Xbox 360 they went on to give us the world exclusive footage of Left 4 Dead 2 which is also coming out on PC which means it is in no way exclusive to the Xbox 360. Exclusive or not Left4Dead 2 looked stunning and has taken the series away from the dark and dingy feel of the original into a bright modern daytime setting. Instead of needing a torch to find your way around you’ll be using a whole host of new melee weapons (including Frying Pans, Axes and Chainsaws) in a bid to fend of bigger hordes of infected than ever before. With a new roster of four survivors this Latin American sequel to Left 4 Dead looks rather interesting and seeing that it comes with more levels, new special infected and other goodies made it the highlight of Microsoft’s event in my opinion.

Other genuine exclusive titles in this segment included:

Shadow Complex, an Xbox Marketplace title which is a side on 3D graphic shooter which looked to mix Metroid with Metal Gear Solid.
Joy Ride, an avatar game with downloadable tracks and online Live multiplayer, think Mario Kart meets Wacky Races but starring your Avatars.
Splinter Cell Conviction with an all new stealth style for Sam Fisher was shown next. This time it’s personal with Sam trying to find the killer of his daughter.
Forza Motorsport 33 was the next reveal with a stunning albeit short trailer showing off the new graphics engine, they say it’s the best looking racer of all time but I’m sure Gran Turismo 5 may try and disagree if it ever comes out.
Another big gun this time, Halo 3 ODST, a prequel to the original Halo 3 where you take control of a new series of troops (the ODST) who have new and interesting weapons and abilities, now you can find out what really did happen in the 3 weeks preceding the start of the Halo 3 storyline. This was a surprise showing from Bungie.
Halo Reach is a brand new title in the series seemingly set solely in space, not really any other information except that a multiplayer beta will come free to those who purchase ODST.
Alan Wake, a third person survivor horror game very reminiscent of Silent Hill was then shown. The very dark trailer showed the hero trying to find his friend in the forest grounds of a house whilst poltergeist style paranormal activity and crazed villagers tried to stop his progress.

Microsoft then slowed down the pace a little to give us brand new details about upcoming additions to the Xbox 360 dashboard including a Last.FM channel, Facebook photo integration and even a real-time interactive Twitter feed. These paled in significance slightly when news of an upgraded Video Marketplace (Zune) with no delay 1080p movie streaming and live TV content provided by Sky for UK audiences was announced.

Another big gun took to the stage in the form of Hideo Kojima talking about a new Metal Gear Solid for Xbox 360; apart from a trailer not much was mentioned other than the suggestion that this game could possibly feature Raiden as the lead character instead of trusty spy guy Solid Snake. Could it be true? We’ll no doubt have to wait a bit longer to find out.

Finally came the first true showing of Microsoft’s venture into Motion sensing gaming. Microsoft and Sony originally dismissed motion as a new way to play but now seem to have taken note of the Wii’s success and the many billions of dollars in Nintendo’s basement have suddenly changed their minds because both did indeed show off their motion sensing devices this year.

Instead of a controller, Microsoft’s Natal features multiple cameras with advanced visual recognition technology and custom processing hardware. The demo’s shown did prove that the system works and allowed you to interact with the game with your body alone in front of your TV, however some of the footage showing a family pretending to hold an invisible steering wheel looked rather ridiculous, at least Mario Kart Wii gave you something real to hold. I actually preferred the system’s use as a Minority Report style way to control your Xbox 360 dashboard rather than a gaming interface because I like something physical in my hand when it comes to gaming.

Only the future will tell if Microsoft and third parties embrace this new technology and come up with real and fun games for us to play, however if Microsoft’s previous entry into Motion gaming and interactive play (You’re in the Movies) is anything to go by this could be a very expensive waste of time.

Overall Microsoft had a very good show and a wide ranging selection of games which were mostly suited to the hardcore, Natal seems and interesting new entry into the casual market and could trouble the Nintendo Wii if real effort was put behind it. However Nintendo have Wii Motion Plus arriving over a year beforehand which promises 1 to 1 gaming in the mean time. With such a head start Microsoft could well be on the back foot when they eventually come to release Natal at the expected $100 price point.

Buy Microsoft Natal now
New: Buy Microsoft Natal from Amazon.com

Tags: Microsoft, E3, Xbox 360, Beatles Rock Band, Tony Hawk Ride, Modern Warfare 2, Final Fantasy XIII, Shadow Complex, Joy Ride, Splinter Cell Conviction, Halo 3 ODST, Halo Reach, Alan Wake, Metal Gear Solid, Natal release date

Gamesweasel podcast episode 104

Mevio — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 12:17:39 +0000

Episode 104
This week on Gamesweasel we play Ghostbusters videogame and Fuel, take a look at the headlines behind Assassins Creed 2, Natal and Modern Warfare 2, plus you get the chance to win 5 copies of Fight Night Round 4 for the Xbox 360. On the blog this week we’ve got EA Sports Grand Slam Tennis release date, review of Bleach The Dark Souls, Harry and the Half Blood Prince release date and how to get free Xbox Live points codes.

Buy
To buy any of the games reviewed in this episode you can buy from the Fuel Amazon and Ghostbusters videogame Amazon pages.

Offers
Gamesweasel is brought to you with GoDaddy.com and offers you some great discounts on domain names and hosting. Use our Gamesweasel July 2009 GoDaddy coupons to save money - WEASEL1 gets you 10% off domain name purchases and WEASEL2 gets you 20% off orders over £25 or $50. Some restrictions may apply so see the GoDaddy web site for details.

Win
If you’d like to win Fight Night Round 4 for the Xbox 360 then check out our competitions page before 6 July 2009.

Contact us
Email: gamesweasel@mevio.com
Twitter: twitter.com/gamesweasel

Screenshots

Fuel review

Mevio — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 11:30:45 +0000

When you look at the box for Fuel you’d be forgiven for thinking this is the Xbox 360’s answer to Motorstorm. However, instead of providing crazy off-road racing with a whole heap of different vehicles racing at once, this game’s all about a variety of races and challenges set over an open world which boasts 5,000 square miles of satellite-mapped terrain.

Set in a near future where everyone is now living in I guess houses with solar panels, riding bikes to work and being a lot greener, you’re one of the petrol heads who are still burning petrol and diesel in order to race round barren landscapes and earn more fuel in the process.

There are standard races where you must hit checkpoints, missions where you must catch up and tag a car in the lead by taking shortcuts before the time runs out and even challenges where you must race against a helicopter which is travelling from A to B as the crow flies. You won’t be penalised for taking shortcuts off road in this game - sometimes the risk pays off, but equally you could end up hitting a rock in the middle of nowhere or landing in deep water and restarting behind the rest of the pack.

There are dozens of vehicles to buy and ride in, including buggies, jeeps, bikes, quad bikes etc and specific vehicles are chosen for you for each event. You’re free to explore the game world to find new challenges, races and livery to make your cars look nicer but to be honest, these are a bit too spaced out and it’s a bit of a chore driving about to find them. Luckily, you can also opt to go straight into races from the menu which is what I did the majority of the time.

The game looks great and there’s lots of variety, it’s just a pity the AI you race against wasn’t more balanced. Sometimes they stick rigidly to the course while you take shortcuts to win races by miles, other times they seem to own the road whilst you skid and slide all over the place. There’s also not that much sense of speed even when you’re going hell for leather.

When it all comes out in the wash, Fuel ends up being standard unleaded as opposed to high-octane rocket fuel. If you’re REALLY into racing games then you may wish to check it out. For everyone else, there are better games out there. Fuel gets an average 5 out of 10.

Get Fuel now
New: Buy Fuel from Amazon.com
Rental: Rent Fuel - free rental trial from Gamefly.com

Tags: Fuel, Fuel, racing, driving, Motorstorm, Xbox360, PS3

Ghostbusters videogame review

Mevio — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 11:29:49 +0000

Check out the free Gamesweasel video show now!

I was a massive Ghostbusters fan as a kid and still have a soft spot for it, so I was looking forward to playing the new Ghostbusters game complete with the official likenesses, voices and music from the film that’s dear to a lot of people’s hearts. The good news is that if you’re a fan, you can’t help but be swept along with their latest adventure with a huge smile on your face every time you laugh out loud at a joke and of course fire a proton stream or trap a ghost. The bad news is, this is more of an interactive experience rather than a proper game which leaves me stuggling to score it.

At the start of the game, a big ghostly explosion engulfs Manhattan originating from the Gozer exhibit at the museum. This lets loose all sorts of nasties so you as a rookie and the four Ghostbusters go and investigate and explore hotels, museums, sewers, office bl ocks and even a parallel universe to ‘bust’ everything.

Playing this game really is the closest you will ever get to being in the movie. You get to trap and destroy old favourites like Slimer, Stay Puft and the Grey Lady from the library, the music is identical, the jokes are actually laugh out loud funny and even your proton pack rattles as you run about. It really does a fantastic job at recreating the 1984 classic whilst keeping things fresh with a new story and some additions to your proton pack. Of course you get to trap ghosts using your proton stream but you can also fire shock blasts, boson darts, slime and blast things with a meson collider. Button combos can be a bit tricky using the d-pad to select the right weapon for the right ghost but it’s something you get used to fairly quickly.

The reason I say it’s not a gamer’s game is the fact that it’s very linear and you feel like you’re being led through the game by the other principal characters. If you’re a fan you won’t mind this and may overlook the fact that combat is actually rudimentary as you just shoot and stay on the move and there’s no real way to avoid taking damage apart from using a dodge button that’s not all that effective. You also have to use your PKE meter regularly to play ‘hit or cold’ to find ghosts and artefacts. Bizarrely, the game switches into an unnecessary first-person mode as you view information through your paragoggles and it feels restrictive at times.

There are also a few glitches in there. I had to restart a checkpoint at one point because the Ghostbusters didn’t move the story along after a boss fight and just stood there, and one of the cut-scenes had the dialogue out of sync with the picture. The frame rate is also very disappointing and even slows down occasionally when there’s not that much happening on screen.

If this game didn’t have the official Ghostbusters licence behind it, it would be a rather short, disappointing action adventure but because it’s so superbly crafted for the fans, if you’re a fan, you’ll absolutely love it and play through most of the game grinning from ear to ear. I’m a massive fan so I give Ghostbusters an excellent 8 out of 10.

Get Ghostbusters videogame now
New: Buy Ghostbusters videogame from Amazon.com
Rental: Rent Ghostbusters videogame - free rental trial from Gamefly.com

Tags: Ghostbusters videogame, Ghostbusters, Gozer, Slimer, Stay Puft, Atari, Xbox360, PS3, Wii, Youtube Ghostbusters videogame review

Call of Duty MMO

Mevio — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 11:28:51 +0000

After a couple of successful FPSs after the reboot for Call of Duty, it seems it may be turned into an MMO. It’s not clear exactly how this would work but it may involve a monthly subscription for an “enhanced service” featuring regular map packs and “team management services.” I await the details with bated breath.

Buy Modern Warfare 2 now
New: Buy Modern Warfare 2 from Amazon.com

Tags: Call of Duty MMO

Project Natal console package

Mevio — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 11:28:02 +0000

There’s now talk that Microsoft’s Project Natal is actually a new console instead of just a peripheral for the Xbox 360. It’s rumoured it will be part of a new Xbox 360 with added features geared towards more mainstream gamers.

Buy Natal now
New: Buy Natal from Amazon.com

Related: Microsoft E3 highlights, Xbox 720

Tags: Project Natal, console, xbox 360

Assassins Creed 2 release date

Mevio — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 11:27:10 +0000

If you can’t wait to play Assassin’s Creed II then you’ll only have to wait 5 more months to play it. The official release date has been announced as 20th November on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC.

Buy Assassins Creed 2 now
New: Preorder Assassins Creed 2 from Amazon.com

Tags: Assassins Creed, release date, PS3, Xbox 360, Assassin’s Creed II

Gamesweasel podcast episode 103

Mevio — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 17:33:12 +0000

Episode 103
On this weeks episode of Gamesweasel we review Virtua Tennis 2009 and Prototype, look at the news about Xbox 360 Wireless Network Adapter, Ghostbusters the Videogame and Crackdown 2, plus you get the chance to win 5 copies of Virtua Tennis 2009 for the Xbox 360. On the blog this week we’ve got Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince Release Date, Bleach The Dark Souls review, GI Joe Rise of the Cobra Release Date and review of Virtua Tennis 2009.

Buy
To get hold of any of the games reviewed in this episode you can buy from the Prototype Amazon and Virtua Tennis 2009 Amazon pages.

Offers
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 June 2009 GoDaddy codes 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 web site for more details.

Win
There are 5 copies of Virtua Tennis 2009 for the Xbox 360 up for grabs, if you’d like to win then see our competitions page by 29 June 2009.

Contact us
Email: gamesweasel@mevio.com
Twitter: twitter.com/gamesweasel

Screenshots

Prototype review

Mevio — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 16:56:24 +0000

There’s been a lot of talk about Prototype and Sony’s InFamous being very similar and they are in the way that both stories take place in sandbox worlds and both let you scale buildings and glide down to the ground. That however is where the similarity ends. Play Prototype and you’ll soon realise it’s a very different game which offers a much more intense action experience.

As Alex Mercer, the story is told as a flashback. You begin the game with all your powers and when you’ve completed the tutorial, the story shifts from day 18 of New York’s viral outbreak where you escape from a facility and begin finding out where you fit in all the mayhem.

Alex is known to the military as Zeus, a weaponised virus on the loose and of course that gives you lots of cool abilities. You can absorb people in the street to gather their memories, looks and abilities, you can run up buildings and leap across cars and have a variety of powers including Wolverine-style claws, iron fists and a very big blade which you can use to cut tanks into little bits. You can also commandeer tanks and even air-jack helicopters to take to the skies for even more destruction.

Movement is similar to Assassin’s Creed in that you press a button which automatically makes you free run over obstacles and up the sides of buildings. This makes the action a lot more fluid than the slower scaling in InFamous. You often end up fighting the military, the infected and big Reaper monsters all at once and you will find a problem locking onto enemies due to the fact that the right analogue stick is used for switching targets and controlling the camera. It doesn’t ruin the game but it can result in confusion and sometimes death. Luckily checkpoints are regular.

Because there’s a lot going on at once in the game, textures aren’t fantastic but the atmosphere of New York with infected running about more and more as the days go by and the sky turning slowly red makes up for this. Music and sound is also great with Batman-style strings playing as you hear the military radio calling air strikes into your position.

Prototype is an absolute blast as you play through the story. Unfortunately the side missions feel like a bit of a waste of time but you’ll really enjoy the main game while it lasts, and the story alone should last you about 10 hours.

Prototype gets an excellent 8 out of 10.

Get Prototype now
New: Buy Prototype from Amazon.com
New: Buy Prototype from Buy.com
Rental: Rent Prototype - free rental trial from Gamefly.com

Related: InFamous review, Mercenaries 2 review, Youtube Prototype review

Tags: Prototype, Activision, Xbox360, Wii, PS3

Virtua Tennis 2009 review

Mevio — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 16:55:36 +0000

Virtua Tennis is back and if you’re expecting anything truly brand new with this 2009 rendition you’re going to be a bit disappointed I’m afraid. Yes we know that Virtua Tennis as an almost perfect arcade tennis game which is very easy to pick up and play but also possible to master if you play it enough, letting you beat all in your path. However, for me, the series hasn’t moved on enough since VT3 to be worthy of a purchase - that is unless you haven’t bought the last one, then maybe it’s worth a look.

The first thing you’re invited to do is make a player with some improved editing tools to change the facial features, body type and play style of your player. Then you’re presented with the globe that’s all too familiar where you can scroll to tournaments, rest at home or play mini games that improve your skills.

If you’re already a good VT player, unfortunately the tournament mode is going to bore you beyond belief as you smash your way through easy opponents until you eventually reach the star players such as Nedal, Federer, Sharapova and Murray. But then it just seems like they hit back everything you throw at them because of course, the console knows exactly where you’re hitting the ball when you play it. Also, the player models look good when not making expressions, but then look like they’ve been made by Skynet or something when they pull robotic celebration faces. Graphically, it’s a shame things haven’t moved on in 2 years when you see the level of detail games such as UFC have gone to.

Strangely, the mini games can actually be more fun than playing tennis. There are games where you have to sink pirate ships, games where you earn combos for smashing coloured bricks out of a wall and a pool game to play. There’s also a weird game where you have to run over piles of money whilst avoiding large tennis balls which doesn’t work so well. It’s a pity loading times slow things down between these short rounds too.

The most fun you’ll have with VT as always is multiplayer. You can play singles, doubles and of course take it online but do be warned, players who are already practised cab take their maxed out custom character online and will spank you into the middle of next week.

Oh, and it’s also not a good idea to have the charisma-deficient Tim Henman to tell you what to do. Let’s be honest, he was never that good in the first place.

This game’s still fun but you get the feeling Sega should mix things up more next time. Virtua Tennis 2009 gets a good 6 out of 10.

Get Virtua Tennis 2009 now
New: Buy Virtua Tennis 2009 from Amazon.com
Rental: Rent Virtua Tennis 2009 - free rental trial from Gamefly.com

Tags: Virtua Tennis 2009, Virtua Tennis, sports, 2009, Xbox360, Wii, PS3, Nedal, Federer, Sharapova, Murray, Henman, tennis, Sega, Virtua Tennis 2009 review

Crackdown 2 multiplayer mode

Mevio — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 16:54:13 +0000

Crackdown 2 is set to feature 4-player co-op. 2-16 players will be able to play online against each other but this expanded co-op mode should make for double the fun of the original.

Buy Crackdown 2 now
New: Preorder Crackdown 2 from Amazon.com

Tags: Crackdown, Crackdown 2 player, Crackdown multiplayer

Ghostbusters Xbox 360 release date

Mevio — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 16:53:05 +0000

The Ghostbusters Xbox 360 version won’t be region locked according to Atari. This means if you’re from the UK and want to play Ghostbusters on the Xbox 360 on the 16th whilst PS3 owners have the exclusivity, you can import one from North America.

Buy Ghostbusters the Videogame now
New: Buy Ghostbusters the Videogame from Amazon.com

Tags: Ghostbusters, Xbox 360, release date, import, region locked

Xbox Live downtime

Mevio — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 16:52:22 +0000

If you love your Xbox Live be warned, it’s got scheduled downtime for maintenance next week. On 16th June 2009, it’ll be down for up to 24 hours for scheduled maintenance. The reason is probably to prepare the service for all those lovely E3 announcements last week.

Get Live and buy Xbox 360 Wireless Network Adapter now
New: Buy an Xbox 360 Wireless Network Adapter from Amazon.com

Tags: Xbox Live, downtime, Xbox, June 16th, Microsoft

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince Release Date

Mevio — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 17:01:23 +0000

After such a long wait we can finally look forward to the upcoming blockbuster movie and accompanying video game releases of Harry Potter’s 6th adventure; Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. Electronic Art’s have spent many months and worked very hard to make this the best Harry Potter video game to date and promise to keep as close to the storyline of the film whilst making the game fun and interactive for the player.

This time around Harry Potter faces his darkest and most terrifying battles yet and will need all of his magic skills and cunning to defeat the evils brought on by Lord Voldemort. You will need to help Harry, Ron and Hermione protect Hogwarts once again in the sprawling and detailed game which is jam packed full of exciting things to do which include;

Competing in the exciting Quidditch Cup
Learning new magic duelling skills and taking them into battle
Creating exciting magic potions
Taking part in cool and stealthy night time adventures in Hogwarts while everyone is asleep
Exploring brand new magical areas outside of Hogwarts such as The Burrow and Horcrux cave

No matter what system you own you can look forward to Harry Potter & The Half Blood Prince because it’s coming out for Xbox 360, Wii, PS2, PC, PSP, PS3, DS and Mobile phones. The Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince release date for North American fans is June 30th and the release date for Harry Potter 6 in the Europe is just 3 days later on 3rd July.

Buy Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince now
New: Buy Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince from Amazon.com

Tags: Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, Harry Potter 6, Quidditch, Xbox 360, PS3, PC, PS2, PSP, DS, Wii, Mobile, movie, film

Bleach The Dark Souls review

Mevio — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 16:58:19 +0000

Bleach is one of those super-long running anime/manga series that is older than your gran and as hip as Espresso and Sudoku. There are exactly one zillion volumes of manga to read, and I’m unfamiliar with all of them. At the risk of offending any otaku in the audience, I will avoid trying to wrap my head around any of the storylines and instead offer up a brief summary of the manga. Here it is: Ichigo has accidentally become a Grim Reaper, and so he has to use his new powers to defend his fellow humans from sinister spirits.

What this means for DS owners is a brand new one-on-one 2D beat ‘em up to play around with. Who needs a plot? Here we have over 40 characters to brawl with, old school style, with the possibility of 4 player multiplayer brawls with just the one game cartridge.

Bleach: Dark Souls takes its inspiration more from SNK’s back catalogue than it does Capcom’s legendary Street Fighter series. Many of the warriors wield weapons, and the fights take place in arenas with two ‘planes’, so the characters can jump to and fro from the background and foreground. The sheer number of battlers on the roster has resulted in many of them not receiving much attention, while others seem ridiculously poor when compared to their companions. Still, 44 characters, with 4 colour schemes each, leads to a lot of variety.

When it comes to one-on-one fights, the game has occasional moments of excitement. You would think that adding more people into the mix would improve that but the DS’ small screens and lack of processing power makes the fights with 3 or 4 fighters awkward and confusing. Plus, in order to accommodate them all, the camera pans out and makes all the sprites jarringly small. I never thought I would look back at Guilty Gear: Dust Strikers fondly but at least that had the common sense to split its fights over both screens, making the action just about manageable.

This leads us to the question - if the fights are forced into the top screen, what’s going on at the bottom? This, sadly, is the game’s biggest flaw. Special moves are activated by pressing buttons on the touchscreen. That’s right. Not by charging up, or pulling off a 360 degree spin on the control pad, but by pressing the screen. While, I may add, you are trying to control the fight with the buttons. This is a shame as there are plenty of special moves and they all look impressive, but they’re so hard and unsatisfying to use. The friend I played Dark Souls with commented ‘I like to actually do my special moves, not have them done for me.‘

That doesn’t mean that Dark Souls is a complete mess. The multiplayer allows for four friends to play a complete and wonderfully customisable Versus mode, which not many games can pull off. I’m looking at you, Bomberman Land, which only lets you play one mini-game on Single Card Download Play before you have to turn the system off to try another one. The fact that a massive chunk of the game is available to be sent off to someone else’s DS with practically no limitations should be applauded. In addition, single player Dark Souls has some life in its Story Mode, which at least has some cool dialogue and mini-games. The storyline is standard fare and non-canonical to the real Bleach story, but what the heck, it will keep any portable beat ‘em up fan interested for a few hours at least.

If you can get your head around the unorthodox controls, the bright, detailed graphics and plethora of moves, characters and specials may keep you hooked. It’s by far the best fighter on the DS, but that’s not saying much. If you can spare a bit of cash for something you know from the beginning isn’t going to set the world alight with a blazing red fireball but is rather going to keep you and three friends button-bashing for half-hour bursts, then go for it. If you’re a bit hesitant to step out of your 2D beat ‘em up comfort zone though and prefer things to stay the way you like ‘em, track down one of the old GBA Street Fighter games. Bleach The Dark Souls for the Nintendo DS gets 5 out of 10.

Get Bleach The Dark Souls now
New: Buy Bleach The Dark Souls from Amazon.com
Rental: Rent Bleach The Dark Souls - free rental trial from Gamefly.com

Tags: Bleach The Dark Souls, Bleach, Sega, DS, Dark Souls, Beat em up, Nintendo DS, Ichigo, manga, otaku

GI Joe Rise of the Cobra Release Date

Mevio — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 16:53:42 +0000

Rather unusually for a series of action figures, G.I. Joe (or Action Man for British Readers) actually started off as a toy and then moved into comics, a cartoon show and now the upcoming blockbuster movie G.I Joe The Rise of the Cobra. As most of you will probably already know, GI Joe is a tough action hero who can adapt to any scenario and learn any skill necessary to stop bad guys from the evil Cobra Organization. You could say he’s a tougher version of James Bond although I wouldn’t like to commit and say who would win if pitted against each other.

Hasbro have entrusted EA to develop the heavily anticipated tie in video game and from the looks of the latest GI Joe Video Game trailer it seems that was a jolly good idea because it looks full of action, guns and melee combat. G.I Joe The Rise of the Cobra video game is coming out on all platforms including 360, Wii, PS2 and PS3 and we’ll bring you more news as we get it.

The G.I Joe The Rise of the Cobra Release Date is August 4th in North America and 31st July in Europe.

Buy GI Joe Rise of the Cobra now
New: Buy GI Joe Rise of the Cobra from Amazon.com

Tags: GI Joe, Rise of the Cobra, G.I. Joe, release date, Xbox 360, Wii, PS2, PS3, DS

Virtua Tennis 2009 review

Mevio — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 16:50:46 +0000

For reference the last tennis game I played most recently was Sega Superstars Tennis for Wii and whilst it was fun it neither managed to recapture the initial fun of Wii Sports Tennis nor the typical Nintendo charm found in Mario Tennis. As much as I like Sonic and his friends they just don’t have the same level of personality as Mario and his pals do but maybe I’m just being a biased Nintendo fanboy. Anyway I digress.

Virtua Tennis was first seen in 1999 but in my opinion didn’t really take off until it appeared on the Dreamcast later on the following year. The gameplay wasn’t too radical (after all it was just tennis) but it was the graphics looking much more lifelike than anything beforehand that caught everyone’s attention. The player models were very recognisable to the real life counterparts and gameplay was fast and smooth, looking back now though, the polygonal graphics haven’t aged very well but the same could be said for Super Mario 64 which is still one of the highest ranking games of all time - if a game plays well it doesn’t matter how it looks.

The general consensus is that sports games have reached a level where the gameplay is more or less set and we only see basic refinements in their yearly or bi yearly updates. Now this is generally true of the EA Sports range but Sega don’t tend to release new versions of their sports games quite as regularly, however Virtua Tennis 3 was released on Xbox 360 only a couple of years ago so it’s not a surprise to see that Virtua Tennis 2009 isn’t a huge leap from the from its predecessor but let’s see if Sega can put the power of the Xbox 360 to good use and recapture the popularity of the original in my Virtua Tennis 2009 review.

Now I’m not the biggest Tennis fan but I do watch the odd bit of Wimbledon (and yes I’ve even played the real game on occasion) so it can’t be said I don’t know the rules. Virtua Tennis 2009 for Xbox 360 has all of the modes that you’d want including the career style World Tour mode, Xbox Live online play as well your standard option to dive straight into one off Arcade style matches, Exhibitions, Tournaments and mini games (single or offline multiplayer modes).

World Tour allows you to create your own player from scratch; everything from gender to facial appearance and even body shape and size. After that you head into your new life as a rookie as you try to climb the ranks from lowly 100th place all the way to super duper world number 1. Just as with real life it’s not quite as simple as turning up with your racket and balls to one off matches because you need to practice and work hard to get good. That’s why in Virtua Tennis 2009 getting to the number 1 spot will take lots of time and effort on the real court but on the training court too. After you’ve created your character and chosen a home location you’ll be given a top flight coach which in my case was Tiger Tim Henman because like me he’s from England. Your career hub is displayed as a globe and all your activities are placed around by world location and everything is easily navigated by moving around with the left analogue stick.

First things first you should hit the training courts with your coach for a little while and it’s worth noting that in Virtua 2009 every event you partake in (save visiting the tennis store and having a fizzy drink) takes a whole game week. Be it playing a mini game or competing in a tournament it’s best you don’t get too sidetracked with training and the minigames and keep checking your calendar or you’ll quickly miss practice matches as well as the vitalchances to get up that rank ladder. Instead of teaching you the absolute basics such as hitting the ball and controller button placement; right from the get go your coach is there to test your skills on the court and will award you with bronze, silver or gold medals depending on your performance. Complete enough training missions and you’ll unlock new play styles for your rookie character which will help them become more powerful and skilful. Actually getting gold on most of these training challenges is pretty tough and to be honest harder than diving into an Arcade game against the pro players, it sounds odd but when it comes down to it you don’t need to be able to pull off every trick in the book to beat them but if you want to be the top Virtua Tennis player online you’ll need these skills and the advanced play styles.

Virtua Tennis 2009 has lots of depth in its game modes but as far as actually playing it goes everything is quite simple. Obviously it follows the rules as any good sports game should but controlling your character player is very simple with the left analogue stick and along with the four main face buttons which control your different shots (lob, slice, etc) the only time you’ll need any other button is when in a doubles match with a CPU teammate as you can shout orders with the LB or RB buttons. On the top right corner of you screen is your stamina bar which you need to keep a close eye on, be sure to plan your activities well and take enough rest to avoid injury - it could be that you want to enter that doubles tournament to earn some cash to spend in the tennis store but if you’re out of stamina you may very well have to take a 2 week vacation, spend a week at home or drink an isotonic sports drink to recover yourself a little. As you’d expect the 2 week beach holiday refills your stamina completely but a non essential trip abroad costs you money. Spending a week at home refills half of your stamina but the bonus is that it’s totally free (and to be honest who doesn’t just like having a week at home away from work)? The quickest option is to have one of those special energy drinks which gives you wings, it may not fill your stamina bar up very much but could just be enough for that last minute make or break match.

Most of the time you’ll be entering into mini tournaments either solo or in doubles and going up a couple of spots up the rank every time (I don’t think I lost a game so I’m not sure if you can fall just as easily). Spending time away from this on the minigames and such may not seem a good use of your time but they too have their own energy bars to fill which will also help you unlock those valuable play styles found in the training centre. So at one time or another you’ll probably need to play them to earn everything valuable for your skill repertoire but if you don’t fancy doing so there isn’t really a fixed rule forcing you to do so. The practice and sponsorship games don’t provide you with ranking but its good practice none the less and you’ll also earn new tennis friends that you can invite over for any doubles matches that are offered your way. The mini games are quite basic and similar to those you’ve seen in other titles before, my favourites include Pot Shot (a pool game reminiscent of Billiards from Super Monkey Ball), Zoo Feeder which sees you having to hit food towards the correct animals (so meat towards a lion and a banana towards a gorilla) and Block Buster that gets you to volley against a wall of colourful shapes (well blocks) in a bid to remove them in a breakout fashion to earn tons of combo points. There are many more to play and they’re all fun enough to keep you amused for a little while - especially in multiplayer mode.

Overall World Tour mode in Virtua Tennis 2009 gets a little repetitive and even as you climb the ranks the CPU opponents that match real life players such as Andy Murray, David Ferrer Timmy Haas, Ana Ivanovic, Venus Williams and Maria Sharapova don’t seem that difficult to beat, I know difficulty and learning curves are quite difficult for game designers but one thing I do know is that when a game is too easy you generally tend to play it less than when a game is too hard. There is always something fun about a challenge and that unattainable high score but you don’t get any of that when a game is too easy. Luckily the real difficulty comes in the form of ranked online matches against random people from all over the world via Xbox Live but the problem is that the match making system or to be precise the lack of match making system. No matter how many matches online I tried I was firmly beaten by the other players which seemed really odd when I had been beating the CPU moments before, as it turns out I was being pitched against people who had already unlocked the best play styles and strongest rackets - I didn’t stand a chance. It turns out that playing non ranked online matches with your friends is a much better idea and if you do have the chance to play doubles then of course you’ll have tons of fun. In the end though I did have the most fun playing matches online where the opponents you face are much harder to second guess than the CPU, even if I got beaten by somebody who had been practicing for weeks it didn’t feel as worthless as beating the AI players senselessly. Keeping a check of your progress on the online leaderboards is always a hoot but don’t expect to top them unless you are committed to play for hours every day.

If you’re into your graphics and if you have a next gen console you probably are then Virtua Tennis for 360 hits the spot when it comes to player likeness and the motion captured player animations. Quite simply they’re great (especially when watching the action replays) and if you could set the AI to play by itself it wouldn’t be too far off watching the TV coverage. One final thing to mention here is that the new camera angle which puts you behind your player (as opposed to above) really increases the realism of the game. And those tennis balls heading towards you seem much faster to!! Hopefully next year we might even see a first person viewpoint which could be very interesting and even more realistic. There is a nice choice of courts and the different surfaces are very detailed and the ball physics do feel different depending on which surface you are on. It’s a shame to see that the crowd and court officials are much less detailed but I suppose you can’t have everything.

Now what I’m confused about is why the crowds sound muffled and why there is a lack of any sort of commentary, yes we have the score person who sits in that tall chair but apart from that nothing. EA Sports have proven that a realistic commentary adds realism and it’s a shock to go into a sports game that is essentially silent for most of the time. I’m sure plenty of retired tennis player would be happy to it in a studio recording some commentary for a few extra dollars, I know I would be Sega if you’re reading.

Virtua Tennis 2009 is a solid performing arcade title which has stepped slightly closer to being a simulation which in my opinion is a good thing. It still has that arcade feel which keeps things exciting but it would have been nice if it was a little more difficult to hit perfect shots around the court and nearly always making incredible diving returns time after time. Now I come to think of it I’ve played it for a couple of weeks and have hardly hit the net or smashed the ball out of bounds.

If you already own Virtua Tennis 3 then you may well feel underwhelmed by this latest instalment but if you’re new to the series this is a fine time to jump on board as I doubt you’ll find another tennis game to match it right now (although Grand Slam Tennis for the Wii is looking rather tasty).

Virtua Tennis 2009 scores an ace 7 out of 10 but if it wasn’t for its double faults could have seen scored higher.

Get Virtua Tennis 2009 now
New: Buy Virtua Tennis 2009 from Amazon.com
Rental: Rent Virtua Tennis 2009 - free rental trial from Gamefly.com

Tags: Virtua Tennis 2009, Tennis, Sega, EA Sports, Virtua Tennis, Xbox 360, Virtua Tennis 2009, Playstation 3

Gamesweasel podcast episode 102

Mevio — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 16:51:39 +0000

Episode 102
On this weeks episode of Gamesweasel we review Red Faction Guerrilla and Boom Blox Bash Party, take a look at the news about The Beatles Rockband, Super Mario Galaxy 2 and God of War 3, plus you get the chance to win 3 copies of PDC Darts 2009 for the Wii. On the blog this week we’ve got Digimon online games, Empire Total War review, lens cleaner for the Wii and how to get free Microsoft points.

Buy
If you like any of the games reviewed on this show you can buy from the Boom Blox Bash Party Amazon and Red Faction Guerrilla Amazon pages.

Offers
This weeks episode of Gamesweasel is brought to you in association with GoDaddy and offers you discounts on hosting and domain names. Use one of the following Gamesweasel June 2009 GoDaddy codes 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, please see the GoDaddy web site for more details.

Win
We have 3 copies of PDC Darts 2009 for the Wii to give away by 22 June 2009, full details of how to enter can be found on our competitions page.

Contact us
Email: gamesweasel@mevio.com
Twitter: twitter.com/gamesweasel

Screenshots

Boom Blox Bash Party review

Mevio — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 15:54:43 +0000

Get the free Gamesweasel video - easy and free!

Last year’s Boom Blox was a surprise hit and one of the best games yet for the WIi developed by a third party. Well, Spielberg and EA are back with the sequel and it’s more of the same only with some improvements which make it a much better game than before.

The game revolves around you knocking blocks over to achieve whatever goal objective is being given to you at the time. Each level is a one-off puzzle which you must complete in order to move to the next stage. You throw bombs, baseballs, pull on blocks, sling them into each other and now even fire cannonballs at them to bash them into oblivion, and it’s all done using gestures of the remote. This time though, there’s more variety in the stages.

There are levels where you must throw paintballs to match colours and make them disappear, levels set in space where blocks float off into the dark stuff, underwater levels and other themes including the jungle and one that kids love so much, pirates!

There are over 400 levels to play but because they’ve included a level editor and the ability to upload levels to EA’s servers, you can upload and download new levels from EA and other gamers very quickly and keep the experience going as long as you want.

There is also a co-op mode in there where two people can work together and a versus mode where you have to score more points than each other or play a more hardcore version of Jenga.

Boom Blox Bash Party is yet another successful family game for the Wii which all ages will love. It’s varied and even if you get stuck, the new Boom Bux currency system means you can unlock stages further into the game with money you’ve won for completing achievements earlier on.

It gets an excellent 8 out of 10.

Get Boom Blox Bash Party now
New: Buy Boom Blox Bash Party from Amazon.com
Rental: Rent Boom Blox Bash Party - free rental trial from Gamefly.com

Tags: Boom Blox Bash Party, Boom Blox, Bash Party, Nintendo Wii, Jenga, Wii, Spielberg, EA

Red Faction Guerrilla review

Mevio — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 15:51:39 +0000

Check out the free Gamesweasel video show now!

Forget what you think you know about Red Faction, this game is very different from the first-person shooter set mostly underground where you couldn’t destroy as much as they claimed you could. This time everything building and structure can be destroyed and it’s an integral part of the gameplay. You’ll also notice they’ve switched to third-person so you can see and avoid all the destruction around you.

So, you come to Mars to work and soon find out the Earth Defence Foundation or EDF are running the place in a very heavy handed manner to put it mildly. It turns out your brother is working for the resistance called Red Faction and at the start of the game, he gets gunned down. Needless to say that’s enough motivation for you to join them too and begin taking the power back.

So you end up in an open world scenario where you do story missions to progress, but also other missions on the side which give raises morale of townsfolk, meaning more soldiers join the fight with you and you can get better upgrades for your weapons. Blowing up towers and barrels full of explosives is a good way to bring down buildings, but you also have the use of explosive charges, a very powerful hammer and eventually rocket launchers and other powerful weapons.

The game world looks fantastic and the music makes battles really exciting whether you’re rescuing hostages or blowing up strategic EDF bases. There are also vehicles you can hop in and out of GTA style if you need to make a quick getaway and huge walkers which are the most fun you’ll have - walking right through buildings to cause the most destruction I’ve ever seen in a game!

You soon learn this game is all about using the environment around you. Fighting the EDF directly will work but takes time. It’s better to blow up buildings or structures nearby and bury them alive (it’s also a lot more fun).

And once you’ve had fun with the single player mode there’s multiplayer mode to try out with some fun new game modes and of course all that lovely destruction to mix things up a bit.

If you like a challenge, lots of destruction and you want to play something a bit different, this could be your game of the summer.

Red Faction Guerrilla gets an excellent 8 out of 10.

Get Red Faction Guerrilla now
New: Buy Red Faction Guerrilla from Amazon.com
Rental: Rent Red Faction Guerrilla - free rental trial from Gamefly.com

Tags: Red Faction Guerrilla, Red Faction, Guerrilla, Xbox 360, PS3

Sony E3 highlights

Mevio — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 15:50:20 +0000

Sony have shown us some new hardware in the form of a new Playstation 3 motion controller which uses Eye Toy technology to let you wield swords, bows or anything else you like in the game world, and their new PSP Go with a sliding screen which flips up to reveal the buttons and the removal of the UMD drive.

Game highlights included a demo of God of War 3 with lovely new next-gen graphics and Uncharted 2 which looks even better then the original.

Buy God of War 3 now
New: Buy God of War 3 from Amazon.com

Tags: Sony, PS3, E3, Playstation motion controller, Eye Toy, PSP Go, God of War 3, Uncharted 2

Nintendo E3 highlights

Mevio — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 15:45:15 +0000