June 28th, 2009 by Nick Maunders
Possibly one of the most anticipated games for the PC, the Sims 3 has been out for just under a month now. But does it match up with what many people were thinking? Having done some research into the game I can tell you how good it really is.
Well things didn’t start off brilliantly. After buying the game I found out that it was unbelievably slow to play so I had to spend £40 on some new RAM for my computer. Not so good so far. Although the new look of the game is that you can play outside your house now it means you need a really good computer. Basically if you haven’t bought a new computer in the last year the chances are you’re going to have to do something to upgrade it. I think that it’s a shame that EA thinks we all have top-notch computers we in fact most people don’t.
However that is one of the few bad points about the game. Once you get the game working it is pretty good! Having changed quite a bit from the Sims 2 the annoying needs of comfort and environment have been removed (hurray!). This means that you no longer have to litter your walls with thousands of pictures to make your Sims happy. There is also now a new thing called traits. There are a total of 63 different traits however there are also a couple of secret ones which I will go into in more detail later.
Traits are very important in your Sims life. How many traits you choose depends on the age of your sim. 2 for a baby, 3 for a child, 4 for a teenager and 5 for everything else. If you are a baby, child or teenager then when it becomes time for you to go into the next age group you get two options: If the sim is unhappy a random (most likely to be negative) trait will be selected for him/her. However if they are happy you get to select the trait! Some traits included in the game are Genius, Brave, Loser, Neat and Handy to name a few. For a full list of traits I’ll post a blog soon.
With traits also come Lifetime Wishes. These are affected by your traits. There are over 30 wishes and the game selects a possible 5 for you sim based on your traits. The lifetime wish you select will be your Sims overall goal in life. There are many wishes such as Rock Star, Become a Master Thief and Celebrated Five-Star Chef.
Anyway the main highlight of the game is the fact you can openly explore outside your home. You can watch your kids on the school bus to school, you can even get them their yourself either by bike or car. There are no limits (except for staying in the boundaries). Of course that means that the create-a-neighbourhood option is no more and you’re stuck with one town. But you can download new ones of the Sims 3 store.
The create-a-sim mode has also been updated and improved with new clothes, new designs and more. You can create your own designs on clothes etc. You can customise your Sims anyway you want … you can even change their eye colour. Perfect for someone wanting to create an evil sim with red eyes!
If you are unsure on whether your computer can withstand playing the Sims 3 then I would recommend going to this website:
http://www.systemrequirementslab.com/referrer/srtest. However make sure you also check the results yourself. Sometimes although it may say you pass you could fail.
Overall I think the Sims 3 is a very good game to play it’s just unfortunate that many people will be disappointed when they realise they won’t be able to play it on their computer. I would give it 91%.
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June 7th, 2009 by Nick Maunders
Virtua Tennis is a long standing series based on … well tennis games. Over the years we’ve had Virtua Tennis 2 and previously in 2007 Virtua Tennis 3. Now that game was quite good but one thing that annoyed many people was the diving aspect of the game. Although it was good for the people utilizing this technique it was annoying for the opponent as the other player always seemed to dive across the court and hit the ball every single time!
This year this has been dropped which makes the matches a bit fairer and certainly more challenging which is a good thing, unless your rubbish at it! Instead of the diving this has been replaced by the staggering option which to be honest isn’t that good either. Basically your person just hits the ball with the racquet and then staggers for what seems like eternity. During that time all the other person has to do is hit the ball the other side and there will be a small chance you will hit it – if you do you will simply stagger again and then the match will probably be over. Although it may be a bit better than the diving option it is still horrible. Maybe if there was a little stagger that would be fine but it lasts for so long that as soon as you’ve done it you already know you’ve lost.
Anyway now for some positive points about the game! This game involves the new world tour and online ranking system. Which is good, quite an improvement over the last game. What happens is that you start ranked 100 in the amateur league and you have to work your way up by winning tournaments. Quite simple enough and also as you play people with a lower rank their skill is increased so you’ll eventually face tougher opponents. You can also go online and vs other people which can be fun, especially if you win!
The game features over 20 of the worlds top players including three legends. As well as that there are some new minigames as well as some of the previous ones from Virtua Tennis 3. There are many new courts and you have more control over how your player looks.
I think this game is mainly for tennis fans and quite obviously people who don’t like tennis are not going to be very interested. Also if you get the Wii version you can play it with the new Wii MotionPlus which gives you more control over your swings.
A good game overall although one that will only appeal to tennis fans. I would give it a ranking of 8.4
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May 17th, 2009 by Nick Maunders
Despite being released a couple of years ago this game is still one of the best RPG’s on the market! After much consideration I decided to buy Oblivion on the PS3 and see what it was like. After looking on many websites I saw that although there were positive comments there were also quite a few negative comments. I figured that the only way of finding out the truth was to buy it myself and so I did along with the “biggest walkthrough book on earth”. Literally the walkthrough is probably the same size as a large encyclopaedia! It just shows how much information is packed into the game. If I was to finish the game before writing this review then you probably wouldn’t see me writing this until another year at the least! There is so much in the game that it is nearly impossible to say you have truly completed everything.
Now, I personally prefer some good old shooting games such as COD or Resistance 2 but it is always good to have a break from that and play a RPG game. The game is split into many different sub sections which all fall under the main game. If you haven’t bought this game yet I would recommend getting the “Game of the Year” edition because as well as the normal game it also comes with two expansion packs (that are all in one disc): the knights of the nine, and the shivering isles.
Anyway the first sub section is the main quest. Which basically has you going around fighting monsters called Daedra. To be honest I have to say that I haven’t completed the main quest because I haven’t wanted to. Out of all of the sections I find that at a certain point the main quest becomes a bit dull. This isn’t because it is dull but because of what is available. This is an open-ended game so you can go anyway. If you’re an adventurer at heart then you’re going to want to explore everywhere rather than going to specific places. The developers realise this which is way you can postpone the main quest at any point in the game which is brilliant!
The next sub section focuses on guilds, which are like groups. There are 4 guilds in the game: The fighter’s guild, the mages guild, the thieves’ guild and the dark brotherhood. To join the fighter’s or mages guild you can simply go to a guild house in one of the towns and ask to join. The thieves’ guild requires a different approach in which you must go around asking about “Grey Fox”. The Dark Brotherhood requires you to kill someone and then go to sleep. It is possible to become head of all 4 guilds and obviously as you rise in status you receive bonuses from the respective guild.
There are also freeform and miscellaneous quests. These are in each town and sometimes in the countryside. They require you to do certain things and you get rewards for completing them … usually.
Another important aspect of the game is levelling up. As you progress through the game you level up and choose to improve 3 attributes. As you level up some of your enemies level up also. So for example if you were to do a quest in the mages guild in which you had to kill someone important that person may be three levels above you. It wouldn’t matter whether you are a low level 2 or a high level 26 that person would always be three levels above you. This is a good idea because it saves the game from being boring. If you got to a high level and then could go around killing people with one hit it would be a bit boring, so this way it keeps challenging you.
One thing I would definitely recommend if you were to buy this game is to get the walkthrough also. Although it may cost £10 or something it is definitely worth it. This is one of the few games in which you nearly 100% need the walkthrough to complete everything, unless you want to go on the internet and search for stuff you get stuck on (however the internet isn’t always right!). If you get the walkthrough you get a detailed list of all the weapons, armour, spells and details on every single quest in the game as well as maps for everywhere. On top of that the walkthrough also covers the Knights of the Nine and the Shivering Isles expansion packs! At the beginning of the game you need to select a class and race to do with what you want to be. For example if you want to mainly fight, use magic, sneak around or a combination of them such as a battlemage. It can be quite frustrating thinking about the one to choose because it will have an impact on the rest of the game – and it can be extremely annoying if you pick a person and then after hours of playing you realise that actually you wanted to be a mage instead of a fighter. The strategy guide can come in really handy here as it give a detailed list of all the races and classes available and tells you which one you should use depending on your opinion.
Overall this is one of the best RPG games out there despite its age, if you haven’t played before get it now with the strategy guide! I would give a rating of 96%!
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April 29th, 2009 by Nick Maunders
Modern Warfare 2 also known as Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 or Call of Duty 6 is a sequel to the “game of the year” winner Call of Duty 4 (Modern Warfare). As you probably expect considering this it will also take place in the near-future. After last years brilliant game Call of Duty: World at War it’s difficult to imagine how this could not be a good game.
Out of all the games in the shooting genre Call of Duty has always taken the lead with brilliant graphics, weapons, extras and loads of other things so you must be mad not to get this game when it comes out! The release date for the game is 10th November 2009 however this is subject to change. It has not yet been told which consoles the game will be available on but it is pretty easy to guess. Definite choices are the Xbox 360 and the Playstation 3 along with the Nintendo Wii. The DS, PC, PS2 are also contenders as you could play on them with Call of Duty 5. However will the PSP join in this time around?
Anyway despite it being another 6 months until it comes out and the fact that there is very little information to go buy it looks like it’s going to be a must buy unless something goes terribly wrong. Lets hope there are zombie extras!
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April 7th, 2009 by Nick Maunders
Legends of Wrestlemania. Out last month, I’ve been giving this game a run through exploring all the matches etc and I have to say I’m quite impressed. The audience for this game is obviously mainly for wrestling fans, however if you like the fighting genre you should give this a try. One thing I must say though is that if you own any of the previous Smackdown Vs Raw games and buy this one because you think it’s similar, it’s not!
Legends of Wrestlemania couldn’t be more different, yet it is actually quite similar. The controls for a start and much … easier to use. Although it might take a while to get use to once you know them you know them well. You have “Square” for punch and the grapple is “X” instead of using the right analog stick. The game itself is built around the idea of chains. So to get a finisher instead of building up your momentum you can also now use chains to get there, and so for this game you must be at the highest chain (Chain Level 3) to do a finisher. You can initiate chain grapples by being in specific places, for example when your opponent is groggy, when they are on the ropes, when they are in the corner or when your irish whipping them. What will come after this is that a random button: either “X”, “Triangle”, “Circle” or “Square” will pop up and you have to press that button before your opponent does, simple! If you do you will cause damage to them, while if you don’t they will reverse the move.
This game features over 40 WWE Legends and managers which is a nice amount to start off with. These legends consist of people that were about in the 1980s and 1990s. Such as Shawn Michaels, Hunter Hurst Helmsley, Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock. However the brilliant thing about this game is that if you have a saved file of Smackdown Vs Raw 2009 you can import all of those superstars into the game. Which means you could have over 80 superstars and legends combined. You can also import created superstars … however if they had a created finisher this will be replaced and there are some moves in the Smackdown Vs Raw 2009 move set which aren’t in the Legends of Wrestlemania one.
The matches in this game are what you would expect. Steel Cages, Hell in a Cell, Ladder matches etc. Noticeably there aren’t any matches like the Elimination Chamber or the Inferno match but that is quite understandable considering they weren’t around in the 1990s. Complete with the normal exhibition mode you get the Relive, Redefine and Rewrite modes. Each mode is quite self-explanatory. The relive mode puts you in matches that happened in the first 15 Wrestlemania’s. From Hulk Hogan defeating Andre the Giant to Stone Cold defeating Shawn Michaels. In each match you get a certain number of objectives to complete. In the redefine match you play a match that happened but you change it, so for example you might have a match that was usually a ladder match but change into a hell in a cell match. Lastly the rewrite match changes the course of history. What if Bret Hart defeated Shawn Michaels in the legendary iron man match? This is what you can do. What’s nice about these stages is that before each match you get a video clip of what happened so you can also see the outcome before you play it yourself.
As well as those modes you also get the “Legend Killer” mode. For this you need to create-a-legend and put him/her against other legends trying to beat them. So in the first tier (there are about 7) you have to defeat about 10 legends without losing yourself. It’s no easy task because you don’t end up starting with full health at the beginning of each new match! There is also a place where you can view all of your medals, trophies and see which superstars/legends you play as the most in the game.
Overall Legends of Wrestlemania is a pretty good game, which although is different from the other wrestling games, looks to be brilliant. I would give it a rating of 88%!
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March 14th, 2009 by Nick Maunders
Legends of Wrestlemania is a wrestling game released mainly for the 25th anniversary of Wrestlemania which happens in early April. So to compensate this the game is released in Europe on the 20th March for the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 consoles only. Now although many wrestling fans may think of the legends of Wrestlemania idea being new, this is not the case. The game itself is new, there’s no doubt about that …. but the series has actually been going on for quite a while. Starting with Legends of Wrestlemania 8 years ago which was released the Xbox, Playstation 2 and the Nintendo Gamecube. From then there has been two other games for the series and I must admit they weren’t brilliant. So many fans may be a bit hasty to buy this game if it is anything like the previous ones. Well it isn’t.
The developer YUKE and publisher THQ have gone all out to make one brilliant game. Now I can’t tell you everything about it because the game hasn’t come out yet but what I have played of the demo available on the PSN is that this game is very …. unique. Now I’m more of a Smackdown Vs Raw fan myself because I feel that there are a variety of controls and other features but lets remember that’s only because its been going on for years and years. This Legends of Wrestlemania hasn’t and so we can expect less.
The controls are different in the game which may prove difficult at first for veteran Smackdown Vs Raw players but after a while you can play brilliantly. This game looks excellent and if I were you I would pre-order it so you can play it soon, that’s what I have done. Expect a review in the next couple of weeks.
To discuss this game and more visit the new XtraGamer forum
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February 19th, 2009 by Nick Maunders
Professor Layton and the Curious Village is a recent game developed by Level-5 exclusive to the DS. Released on the 7th November this game has taken the world by storm over Christmas. It has been very difficult to find a copy lately but they luckily they have come back in stock recently. So what’s the game about and why is it supposedly really good? Well the category this game is based in to start with is that of a puzzle genre. So if you hate puzzles don’t buy this game. Although I have to say you will be missing out a lot. I very rarely buy puzzle games yet this one I think is amazing. But don’t take my word for it, try it out for yourself!
The games main two characters which you play as are Professor Layton himself (no surprise there) and his self-acclaimed apprentice Luke. The main aspect of the game is to go around a town solving puzzles working out the story as you go. The town itself is called St. Mystere and by the name of the town and the name of the game I bet you can guess it’s quite a mysterious/curious village. Throughout the game there are a total of 120 puzzles (in the story mode) however there are extra puzzles in bonuses you can unlock later. Each individual puzzle has a difficulty rating based on picarats. One objective of the game is to try to get as many picarats as possible. Easy puzzles have a rating of about 10 picarats, whilst the hardest can have as much as 70 picarats.
Also throughout the game hidden in bushes, houses etc are hint coins which are vital unless you are an expert at puzzles. In each puzzle there are a total of 3 possible hints to help you but you can only access these hints if you have hint coins available. Obviously because there are a limited amount of hint coins in the game it makes sense to use them sparingly and only use when you have to on harder puzzles. If you get a puzzle wrong you get another try but the number of picarats you receive for getting it right decreases. The puzzles themselves are really quite cool, this game is bound to test even the most experienced puzzles experts at some time. There are brain teasers, logic puzzles and trick questions.
Combine these brilliant puzzles with beautiful graphics and cut-scenes and this becomes a very good game! The graphics are actually quite astounding for a DS game and it shows that the developers Level-5 have truly tried everything to get the best images possible. There are a total of 10 mysteries in the game but the main one is the search for the golden apple, whoever finds it supposedly will get a lot of money. I’m not going to give away any secrets but the ending is quite surprising.
Professor Layton and the Curious Village is clearly one of the best games available on the DS at the moment. The game has won 3 awards those being, The best DS visuals, the best family/causal DS game and the best DS game all from the Official Nintendo Magazine Reader Awards 2009 which shows how good a game it is. A brilliant game which deserves a 92% rating.
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February 6th, 2009 by Nick Maunders
Halo 3: Recon or as it is now known Halo 3: ODST is a brand new game to the Halo series. Being developed by Bungie who have overseen the previous three games to the series this game is an expansion and prologue off Halo 3 thus connecting the gap between Halo 2 and Halo 3. To be released solely on the Xbox 360 towards the end of 2009 already the game is getting a big reception.
ODST stands for “Orbital Drop Shock Troopers”, which are an elite group trained in special warfare tactics. This elite group was first seen in Halo: Combat Evolved and are will also be a playable unit in the new Halo Wars video game. In Halo 3 you can also unlock a special ODST helmet for your character. As you can probably guess the Halo 3: ODST game is based around a 6 man ODST squad, you play as “The Rookie”. He is a lance-corporal and his main task is trying to group up with his fellow team mates.
Bungie have assured everyone that this is a completely new Halo game and considering your not playing as the Master Chief it certainly looks that way. There will be a few parts to the game that experienced players may feel a bit let down about however. As you are playing as a human, not a Spartan, in this game your speed will be dramatically reduced and you will lose the ability to dual-wield weapons such as the SMG. There are some advantages though: You get a PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) which will probably give you helpful information such as mission objectives etc. Also new to the series will be a unique identification system built into the HUD of your player. This identifies whether characters are allies or enemies.
This looks to be one heck of a game and a completely new version for the Halo series, if you like Halo then you better be buying this game when it comes out, look out around Autumn 2009.
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February 1st, 2009 by Nick Maunders
Finally! The last 3 weeks I have been working on a forum for this website so that everyone can chat a lot easier rather than leaving a comment. The forum link is at the top of the website replacing the “Affiliation” link. If you want to affiliate with this website you need to go into the contact section now.
The forum is looking a bit plain at the moment which is why I need everyone who goes on this website to register as a member and add to it. Go into the forum, make new friends and introduce yourself. You can chat about your favourite consoles, PM (Private Message) me or one of my fellow administrators or moderators if you have a problem about the website or you simply disagree with something that I have said previously in one of my reviews. You can also visit the forum by simply clicking here!
I look forward to meeting you in the forum!
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January 18th, 2009 by Nick Maunders
Resistance 2 is a science-fiction first-person shooter game developed by Insomniac Games. Solely for the Playstation 3 this game debuted on 28th November 2008 (Europe) and what a game it is. The second installment in the Resistance series, the first game (Resistance: Fall of Man) was a real shooter so I was wondering whether this game would live up to the expectations. It is quite common in a series for the first game to be brilliant and then the others start going down hill, if you compared the last two tomb raider games for example (Tomb Raider: Anniversary and Tomb Raider: Underworld) you can easily see that that is what happened then.
However this game has not just lived up to the previous game but exceeded it completely. Although some wrong decisions may have been made when removing certain weapons and enemies from the first game, new equipment in Resistance 2 have more than makes up for it. Also it seems, while I’m talking about weapons, that all of the old ones have been improved which gives the game a unique feel. Okay on to the game then, you play as Nathan Hale which many should remember was the person you also played as in the first game. The second game starts from where the first game left off when you found that Hale had been taken by some people in a helicopter. The game has a nice tutorial mission to start with which is brilliant for newcomers but also not too easy for people who played the first game. As you can expect from the first game you are constantly fighting the alien species called the Chimera.
The main part of the game is the story mode. Unlike in the first game story mode is only single player but the game compensates for this by bringing an offline or online co-op mode. In this mode there are 3 classes to choose from: Soldier, Medic or Special Ops. The soldier’s job is to basically kill off all the enemies and that is what they get the most points for. The medic’s job is to heal fellow team-mates however they also get points for killing enemies. Lastly the special ops job is to keep team members stocked up on ammo but again they get points for killing enemies also. The co-op mode runs along the single player story mode and the difficulty of the mission is determined by the experience of each player and the amount of players playing which can be up to 8. Then the big part of the game has to be the online multiplayer mode, which is massive! Up to a huge 60 people can be playing at once in one area which is immense. There are different types of matches in this multiplayer mode: one is the normal death match or team death match which is where you kill as many people as you can. Another type of match gives you missions to carry out before the other team does and a third being capture the flag in which … well it’s pretty self explanatory.
I think that this is the game which can rival the Halo series on the Xbox 360. It’s easily as good as Halo 3 if not better. The whole range of weapons and enemies on offer have really improved this game from its predecessor and I must stress that if you’ve got enough money on hand and you’re looking for a game on the Playstation 3 to buy, buy this one. The amounts of new enemies and new weapons in this game have really improved the game in nearly every way compared to the first Resistance game. Overall I think that this game clearly has to be one of the best released for the Playstation 3 so far which is why I’m giving it 9.6/10!
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