150 - Resident Evil 5 (Game Review)

I have had Res Evil 5 sitting on my shelf for several months. I bought it on recommendation of a friend of an ex, I think, who said that the online co-op was brilliant and that said ex and I should play it. So I bought it, and shortly afterwards dumped said ex. Oops.

Anyway, I tried playing it by myself and didn't get very far. I am really bad at those types of shooter games and lose patience and interest quickly if it doesn't go my way. That's exactly what happened. So I shelved it.

A few weeks ago my boyfriend (the current one that I have no intention of dumping thankyouverymuch) said he played it through in co-op with one of his friends, and said that it was good that way and I should give it a go. He offered to play it through with me, and then it was forgotten about.

And then today (or, the date on this blog rather than the day I'm writing it. sshhh) my awesome friend from across the water - we'll call him ... uhm.... I was going to call him Bobby, but on the off chance he hates being called Bobby I'll call him The Chris To My Sheva. Chris for short... - Chris offered to play it through, because we had nothing else to play together and his copy was sitting idle for months too.

Lets just say that RE5 is very different in co-op as it is in single mode. It's so much better when there's two people. Granted, I still suck (a moment of "Give me your grenades....... the other grenades" comes to mind, or even 'Chris' screaming down the headset "DID YOU JUST PRESS THAT BUTTON?!?! DID YOU PRESS THAT BUTTON?!?!?!? I saw it and and thought nooooo, I'm not pressing that button!" and my answer of "you mean the big red button?" ), but luckily my awesome Chris is awesome and doesn't mind too much. Or at least pretends not to mind.

Of six chapters we completed four the first day, and one the next, so we only have one left to do. It's been a great laugh... for me at least... and I would recommend anyone looking to play the now-aged game of Resident Evil 5 go have a go at it with a friend. It's like the LEGO games; much better played with a friend.

So I just want to thank my Chris for letting me be his Sheva. :)

That wasn't much of a review, was it?

119 - LEGO Harry Potter

It goes without saying that Harry Potter is a win.

LEGO Harry Potter is a match made in heaven.

The game was released on Friday and after two days of playing it we have just reached the beginning of the third year.

For those who have never played a LEGO game before, I'll just say that they're more fun than you would think, and each level can be played through several times before you stop finding new stuff to do. This game covers four years, and each year has six levels. That's 24 levels that can be played through at least twice. That's a lot of gaming.

Go on, buy a LEGO game! They're all really great, but Harry is my favourite. No prizes if you already guessed that.

112 - Good Old School Days

I miss board games.

In fact, I haven't typed 'board games' in so long that it just took me three attempts to spell it right.

I spent three hours learning and playing a board game this evening. A real one. With dice and counters and everything! It was so much fun and it got me thinking about the last board game I played. I believe the last one was Disney Trivia on Christmas Day with my sister and my cousin.

We were only playing because out cousin wanted to, of course. Yup...

Before that - and not counting TCGs (that's trading card games for those non-nerds, or those too cool to admit to knowing what TCG stands for) or chess or anything electronic - it was probably about ten years ago.

Oh, no, wait... does Harry Potter Scene It count? If it does this blog is pretty much void.

Alright, apart from Disney Trivia and Harry Potter Scene It and various TCGs, it's been a long while! I just miss the kind of fun we had when we were kids, lying belly-down on the living room floor at a cousin's or a friend's, playing The Game Of Life or Cluedo. It's made me want to start something like a weekly/fortnightly/monthly old school games night. Hmm...

099 - Backseat Gamer

For the record, I'm laughing writing this, so please, no one take this as a direct jab or anything. I'm pretty sure all gamers are guilty of this at some point anyway...

Years ago I was accused of being a backseat gamer. This weekend I discovered another one.

Let me explain to those non-gamers out there, because any gamers reading this will know what one is.

When you're playing a single-player video game in the presence of someone who is just as, or (as was the case this weekend) more gamer than you are, you might find that the gamer who is not actually playing sort of believes he is.

There are two types of backseat gamers. The good (helpful) type, and the bad (irritating) type....

Good Type:
"I think I just saw something to pick up there that you missed."
or
"Oh, don't forget to heal, you're going to die!"
or
"Careful, you missed one." (When you're about to charge headlong to your own death by a creature you didn't notice.)
or even (to a certain extent)
"They're synthetic, you have a biotic you can use against them."
and other, occasional suggestions and helpful hints for things you may have missed when focused on other things on the screen.

Bad Type:
"Duck! DUCKDUCKDUCK! Ok shoot him. SHOOT UM! GRENADE! USE A GRENADE! AHHHHH! HEAL HEAL HEALHEALHEAL! Oh, you're dead."
and
"Press 'x'. PRESS 'X'! LEFT TRIGGER! SHOOT! THERE'S ONE BEHIND YOU TOO! You're dead again. Why didn't you duck?"
It is at that point I just hand the controller over and wait for the ringing in my ears to subside.

It's why I like playing video games with my sister. She's of the good/helpful type. Mostly because she's the one carrying the walktrough and hiding behind a pillow when we play Silent Hill.

095 - Mass Effect (Game Review)

Just... just play it, alright?!

Mass Effect is one of my favourite games on the 360, despite it being neither new or the most famous. A few months ago they released Mass Effect 2 and it just got better.

Someone asked me what it was about. And without spoiling anything all I can say is, it's about a hell of a lot. Space travel, guns, explosions, biotic and tech abilities, aliens, relationships, good deeds, bad deeds, government missions, illegal money-making, saving the universe, keeping your pet fish alive...It's thrilling, fast-paced, funny, warming, but only if you want it to be. It is what you make it with your own choices. It's so diverse and multi-faceted it's stunning. It looks pretty too.

It's like Star Wars without the retro, Serenity without the horses, Star Trek without the boredom, Stargate with space ships, Battlestar with more people...

I'm a girl and if I'm saying Mass Effect is my favourite you know it has to be good.

091 - Mass Effect (2) Lessons.

I've only played through half of the game so far, but here are some things I've learned already.

It’s easier to have a relationship with an alien than a human.

Good choices make you a fairy. Bad choices make you a prick.

Zombies are never out of style. In fact, centuries in the future, zombies are our heroes.

No matter how big and powerful you are, you will still get Viagra-toting emails.

“Probing Uranus” is funny even when you’re actually doing it. It's hysterical when it becomes depeleted.

Fish need to be fed every five minutes or they die, but space hamsters are immortal. (Zombie?)

When you’re a guy, all the pretty females want to sleep with you.

When you’re a girl, everyone wants to sleep with you.

You can’t date someone unless you tell the other one you’ve been chasing you’re not interested any more, but you can shack up with your assistant and no one minds.

Assassins don’t kill people. People kill people.

You can die, come back two years later with a different face, fly a different ship, wear a helmet and

keep different company, and people will still recognise you.

Letting the assassin live near the life-support part of your ship, and a giant killing machine near the
weapons is a perfectly logical thing to do.

Being assigned on a suicide mission makes you want to collect model star ships and keep small pets.

Sarcastic bastards can still give hugs.

Unless you have an actual countdown timer you can go through an ‘urgent’ mission with your slow motion walk and still complete it.

Even the most skilled scientists might overlook the fact that one killswitch does not satisfy two missiles.

It is possible to drink through a closed helmet faceplate.

You have unread messages.

086 - Taking It Easy

The last week was pretty hard on my bank balance. So hard, in fact, that my bus tickets have run out, and all the cash I have to survive on for a week amounts to about €15. So this week I'm taking it easy. No cinema, no eating out, not even much in the way of going out and about and using public transport.

That means I'll get to write really amazing, detailed, meaningful blogs every day, right?

Uhm...

I also borrowed a bunch of Xbox games and invited friends over for two different days so far. It's more likely you'll get blogs about how I should be writing but instead I spent twelves hours solid on a game.

Speaking of...

065 - Sim-ple Life...

My xbox 360 broke quite a while ago, and since then my "gaming" (if you could call it that) has been restricted to mucking about on my Wii. Today I was introduced to The Sims 3...

I played at least one of the others on both Playstation 2 and PC, and I had all the expansion packs, and while I liked it for about a day I couldn't really see much appeal in the limited gameplay. The most I did was build and decorate houses that my Sim would never be able to afford.

Sims 3, however, is a whole different kettle of fish. It sings sweet serenades to my heartsick imagination and role-playing enthusiasm. You can literally do anything you want in that game. Its taken all the nice bits about Sims 2, made them totally excellent bits, and thrown in about five times more excellent bits for good measure. It is very awesome.

Now I just need my own copy...