OTTG

Over Look: GTA The Ballad of Gay Tony

2009-11-07T09:00:00.001Z

The Ballad of Gay Tony including eating hot dogs, missions that don't start, one bad momma and friendly fire. GTA is back in full swing so check out the latest DLC for the Xbox 360. Spoilers away.

Posted By Blood

More Mass Effect 2 But This Time With Garrus

2009-11-07T00:06:00.003Z

It seems to be Mass Effect 2 week and now finally a familiar face has shown up. Do you remember Garrus? Well if not have no fear, check him out in this trailer shown above.

Posted By Blood

Over Look: Dragon Age Origins (360)

2009-11-06T16:53:00.000Z

Dragon Age: Origins may have an origin but you won't be seeing any dragons in this Over Look. Instead watch Blood face off against the meanest and cleanest monsters around.

Posted By Blood

Splinter Cell Conviction: How To Make A Hero

2009-11-06T16:00:00.001Z

Hey Mr Fisher what makes you such a good hero? No, really I would like to know. Wait your team has put together a diary about how your a hero. Let's watch and maybe I can learn something to become the next Sam Fisher.

Posted By Blood

Mass Effect 2: The Enemies

2009-11-06T08:34:00.001Z

Do you want to see the enemies in the new Mass Effect? Well here they are. They Geth are back but they have brought some friends with them to wipe the Galaxy of humanity

Collectors - these are insect like creatures which are controlled by a single leader. They can paralyze humans and can abduct entire colonies through technology that 'no one else int he galaxy has'.
Abominations - These are similar to the husks from the first game but are on fire.
Scions - Three transformed human beings that have been grafted together onto a weapon.
Batorians – A "flying suit of armor" apparently made of thirty Husks that can "obliterate everything."

Posted By Blood

EuroGamer Expo 09: God of War 3 Video Preview

2009-11-06T00:28:00.000Z

If you want to see some God of War 3 gameplay then your in luck. This is my experience with it at the EuroGamer 2009 Expo and may I just add the end jump was not my fault.

Posted By Blood

Modern Warfare 2 Launch Trailer

2009-11-05T16:29:00.004Z

Yes, it is almost here and yes it is going to rock your socks, but if your still unsure about Infinity Wards next game then see the TV ad here which features some great action pieces from the single player.

Posted By Blood

Sands Of Time Movie Trailer

2009-11-05T13:09:00.006Z

This is the trailer for the new Prince of Persia movies which as far as I understand follows the Sand of Time story which I hear is meant to be good. It stars Jake Gyllenhaal with his smug face and Gemma Arterton who was Strawberry fields in Quantum of Solace.

Posted by Nick

EuroGamer Expo 09 Showfloor Tour 2

2009-11-04T08:21:00.000Z

Check out the second tour of this years expo including more games such as Heavy Rain, Assassin's Creed 2, Bayonetta and much more!

Posted By Blood

Spinter Cell Collector's Edition

2009-11-04T04:43:00.006Z

If your one of those people who really want every collectors edition there is no convincing you here, but if your interest is spiked by reading the title then check out some of the items you will receive with this "collector's" edition.

Comic Book prequel to the events in the game
A credit card sized USB filled with art and a making of featurette
Two Stickers: A Third Echelon logo and one which looks like three bullet holes
The game disc and a manual
Two exclusive in game items
The Fifth Freedom - The Art of Splinter Cell Book
And of course a steelbook to keep it super safe

If your going to be wanting this then be prepared to pay $79.99 this February 23. To be fair the USB drive is one of the coolest looking USB drives but I do not really know how it works.

Posted By Nick

New Chaos Rising Trailer

2009-11-04T02:45:00.006Z

This is the new Warhammer 40,000 Dawn of War 2: Chaos Rising trailer which knid of say the same thing as the last but you get to have a looks at some of the units that are going to be in the new faction. There's some little demon guys, a dude on a pony and an evil force commander, check it out for yourself.

Posted by Nick

Tim Schafer Shows Us His Stuff

2009-11-03T14:07:00.008Z

Tim Schafer presenting Brütal Legend's multiplayer while also showing of one of the maps from the new DLC map pack coming out for Brütal Legend. Its basically just the RTS part of Brütal Legend.

Borderlands Review

2009-11-03T09:00:00.003Z

It may be difficult to merge two genres together but Borderlands does it better than others, however some repetitive missions and a nonexistent story stands in the way of it reaching its full potential.

Borderlands is a mix of FPS and RPG that works out to be fun but it's not without its drags. With a poor story, dumb AI, boring side missions and annoying voice acting are just naming the big ones.

It's got a unique graphical art style which is quite refreshing. The story in the game is super weak, most of the time you'll barely know if you’re doing a story or side mission. The bigger picture from the very start is to find a mysterious vault that holds endless riches which will grant any man power and women. On the odd occasion like at the start you'll get a woman that's blurred out at the top of your screen, she’s the guardian angel who is there to help anyone trying to reach the vault.

Everyone has probably heard about the guns in Borderland, if you haven't then basically Borderlands has a kind of gun generator that can generate a billion guns. Every time you open a chest or kill and enemy and a gun drops out the game will generate a random gun so you could get anything. This can be really fun and exciting when you find a really good guns that has some elemental damage or some other variable, but can go the other way and be a little bit frustrating when you don't get anything good for ages. Like I mentions before guns can have small variables

There are four classes in the game, the Soldier, the Siren, the Hunter and the Berserker. All of them have their own play styles and their own action skills. The Soldier has a turret, the Siren has a phase walk (weird ghost walking that damages enemies when going in and out of it), the Hunter has a Bloodhawk that swoops down and attacks enemies and the Berserker which goes into a berserk state and punches stuff.

Something I love about this is the RPG element, there so many way you could go to improve your character or action skill. For example the Soldier can get rocket guided missiles on your turret and there are other things like a ring around your turret that heals or feeds you ammo. This element makes the game so much more interesting than any normal shooter and along with the inventive guns it makes a good combination.

It seem that the bulk of the missions in Borderlands seem to be really simple, things like go kill X amount of this enemy or go around collecting these in this area. This really starts to get boring after a while as you can imagine, especially when you’re levelling up slower which is also not helped when the story is off day dreaming. Most of these missions are side missions so you are not required to play them if you choose. One thing I will give the missions is that they can be addictive at times making you play just one more.

The game has a good life span; its got two playthroughs available as once you've completed the game as you can go through it again with the same character. So there's no problem with the amount of content it's just not all good content. The game has four player co-op which is a nice feature in a game like this that is weak on story as that's what normally suffers when coop is added.

Reviewed By Nick

UPDATE: MW2 Perks And Killstreaks Revealed - Spoiler Warning

2009-11-02T19:43:00.013Z

UPDATE: I've added this video I found on Gametrailers, it shows all the guns and perks together.

First off these aren't the official perks so they could be wrong, if you want to check them out then click here as I don't want to spoil it for anyone, if you don't want to know then I would stop reading if I were you. There are only about 16 perks this time around, but like I said it's not official. Apart from the obvious reason why there are less (which would be the perk upgrade stuff) I think they have moved things like claymores and RPG into equipment along with new stuff like the helmet and throwing knives which will all replace the secondary grenade.

Here's a list of the kill streaks posted by Gamepex, it seems about right but again its not official.

3 Kills -- UAV
4 Kills -- Care Package
4 Kills -- Counter UAV
5 Kills -- Sentry Gun
5 Kills -- Predator Missile
6 Kills -- Precision Airstrike
7 Kills -- Strike
7 Kills -- Attack Heli
8 Kills -- Emergency Airdrop
9 Kills -- Pave Low
9 Kills -- Stealth Bomber
11 Kills -- Chopper Gunner
11 Kills -- AC-130
15 Kills -- EMP
25 Kills -- Tactical Nuke

Posted by Nick

Over Look: Xbox 360 Sky Player and Halo Waypoint

2009-10-31T10:00:00.002Z

The second part of the update heading to the Xbox 360 this November including Halo Waypoint but also Blood checks out what the deal is with the Sky Player and how to sort out the problems

Posted By Blood

Episode 64: The one with Euro Gaming

2009-10-31T09:00:00.000Z

This week Blood has been to Leeds to check out the Euro Gamer Expo and has a lot to talk about including Assassin's Creed 2, Mass Effect 2, God of War 3, Left 4 Dead 2 and more plus the Brutal truth about Brutal Legend and much more!

Posted By Blood

Forza Motorsport 3 Video Review

2009-10-30T11:31:00.003Z

Forza 3 offers not only a true simulation racer but under the bonnet there is something which will please creators and casual racing fans while looking amazing throughout.

Forza Motorsport 3 is one of the best racing simulation games out there; fact. This is because Turn 10 have thought of even aspect of driving and combined it into a compelling package that anyone who has the slightest interest in cars will enjoy. The hardcore simulation driving is still at the heart of Forza but around the outside of the races is something which would interest the artists and creators.

Turn 10 have made the level of accessibility to their third game much broader offering many assists which can be switch on or off to create it hard or easier. The most helpful is probably the auto braking. This does what it says on the tin and brakes for you, so all you have to do is ease on and off the accelerator and follow the racing line. Most other assists are what you would expect in any racing simulation like anti-lock brakes and traction control. With all the setting on the game is so easy that you can just sit back and enjoy the stunning scenery but turning them off will cause you to ruin the scenery, if you catch my drift. However, a huge change has been added in the style of a rewind feature. This is similar to the one you can find in the GRID series and essentially if you mess up your corner you can hit the back button and rewind to take the corner again. The game does not penalize you using this and you can use it as many times as you like but at the end of the day if you are racing in one of the longer endurance races in the game and you mess up on the last corner and come in forth because of it the chances are you will be throwing your controller through your T.V. The game also does not make you use this and so it is down to your will power but also remember that you can’t use this online so perfecting your offline driving will improve your online skills.

Content wise there are over 400 cars in the game. These are from 53 manufacturers and range from the box car the Audi R8 to the Aston Martin DB9, Bugatti Veryon and the Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano, also 4x4s like the 2008 Range Rover Supercharged. All of these can be modified by spending credits you earn in races or you can adjust things like the suspension and tyres to gain that advantage but this is only if you know about the ins and outs of cars. For the people who don’t there is a quick upgrade feature. This will ask which class you would like your car to get to and them recommend the parts to purchase and will tell you how much it will cost you.

You can also spend your time customizing your car in the cosmetic front. This feature was added in Forza 2 but has been greatly expanded in Forza 3 after the unbelievable things people made. For regular folks you can put some awesome lightning bolts down your cars but some people can take all of these shapes and create some amazing designs. These can all be purchased and sold in the online store. Here you can sell vinyl groups, tuning settings or car designs. You can even upload videos and pictures you have taken in the game for people to view.

The single player career is very similar to the one in Forza 2. It presents you with many groups of races to choose from with their own sets of rules and so you may not be able to race in one as you do not have the correct cars, but there are always a few different races to choose from so progressing is never a problem. You can also bring up the events list which presents you with the entire 220 series that you can choose from and granted you have the right cars and enough experience you can race in which ever race you like.

The online side of Forza has been made into a matchmaking system where up to eight people can race together. Before entering matchmaking you can specify the race type such as circuit, drag or drift just to name a few. Once in a lobby you choose your car and vote to skip the race. There is also a private match feature so you can tweak all the options you like and save the settings if you choose to come back to a created race type. There are over 100 tracks to choose from in roughly 19 locations. These range from all over the world like the racing through New York, around Silverstone or around the Road America course. Each location looks fantastic and caters for different races such as drift or drag.

The presentation of Forza 3 screams professional standards all the way through. It is like going to a car showroom everything is so pristine and white. The frontend menus are easy to navigate whilst the look and feel of the cars are fantastic. The thought that they have modelled 400 cars to this standard on the interior and exterior is phenomenal. The level of realism they have accomplished with the sound of screeching brakes to the acceleration is also quite amazing as each car sounds distinctively different.

If you are a hardcore racing simulation fan there is enough here to keep you going for years, but at the same time Turn 10 have carefully balanced the experience as the a different level of fun can be had for someone who just likes cars and does not live and breathe them. Forza Motorsport 3 is a truly amazing; you could say it is Va Va Voom.

Reviewed By Blood

EuroGamer Expo 09 Showfloor Tour 1

2009-10-30T11:29:00.001Z

Check out the show floor in the first tour of the Euro Gamer Expo showing you some of the games they had on offer and some sneak peeks at some big hits. Check it out before it's too late.

Posted By Blood

Left 4 Dead 2 Realism mode

2009-10-30T01:07:00.005Z

This is the realism mode in Left 4 Dead 2, which is a more realistic and more punishing difficulty. Some of the big differences are having to shoot the infected in the head just like a zombie creature should die, also when a player dies they are dead for good unless another player has one of the new items a defibrillator. There are more special infected like witches and also smaller thing like having to be a lot closer to items to pick them up.

I wasn't amazing at the expert mode in Left 4 Dead so I'm interested to see how this one pans out. Expecially as it seems to change the way you play the game quiet a bit.

Posted by Nick

EuroGamer Expo 09: Assassin's Creed II

2009-10-29T12:55:00.002Z

The first game I went to upon entering the expo was Assassin's Creed 2 and after pushing passed someone I got my hands on Ubisoft’s upcoming hit. Let me just say that I was not particularly good at first with the game. I found myself without a sword and just running at a wall trying to climb. I did manage to jump into a canal and swim which worked fine, but then couldn't get out of the canal.

Once I got out I climbed to the rooftops. There I found multiple people patrolling the roofs. Now at this point I knew I had to go to the red dot on the map in the corner but to get there I had no idea how to get there. Was it the pressure of other people watching or was it that I was playing on a PS3 I don't know but I had no idea how to do anything. I made my way to the red dot by jumping over the rooftops but then fell into a bale of hay through the Leap of Faith move that has made its return.

So there I was back on the streets again so I figured to talk to some of the thieves that were huddled together in a corner. I hired them and targeted some guards that were in my path. This worked and I thought to myself success. However, this was soon dashed when I ran into another group of guards and this is where my over confidence took over. I foolishly slapped one. Remember I have no idea how to play this game or how to get my sword out. Meaning there I was with ten pissed off guards coming at me with swords. I tried fleeing but ran into the guards I distracted earlier with the thieves. I was trapped, stuck in a feud. I did my best to jump down a well but then realised it was a dead end and popped back out. After this I attempted another climb up to the roofs just to be granted with no grapple points and so I pressed up against the wall and slide back to down to my fate. Death.

Short story is that it was hard to get a feel for ACII, this is not because it was a bad game but more to do with two things, my memory on controls and also the fact that the changes that they have made is not to the gameplay or graphics but to the depth of the entire game. No more repetitive missions, more weapons, and a bigger city with no pointless travel. All of these points I really couldn't experience in a demo. Either way I had fun, until I died and had to turn around to twenty men and pass on the controller in shame.

Posted By Blood

UPDATE 2.0: The DSi LL Has Bigger Screens And...

2009-10-29T12:28:00.006Z

UPDATE 2.0: All three colours of the system are below.

UPDATE: The DSi LL has been given a release date for Europe and North America. Well more of a quarter of the year to expect it, that is Q1 2010. But strangely it has a different name, it will be called the DSi XL probably meaning the extra large. I now want to know what the LL meant.

Do you remember a few months ago when Nintendo brought out the DSi which brought a camera. Good because if you bought one then you will be waing up to good news. Nintendo has re-redesign the DSi already. The DSi LL will bring to the table 4" screens in a horrid red colour.

Not much else has been told and whether it will be the same price as the DSi or just replace it but what we do know is that it will headin to Japan on Novmember 21 for a price of ¥20,000 ($221, £134). So who bought a DSi and feels ripped off already?

Posted By Blood

Bioshock 2: Catch The Little Sister. Catch The Little Sister, Now

2009-10-29T12:24:00.001Z

Bioshock 2 has been given the push this past week and if you have forgotten about it's multiplayer it's time to remember. The rumoured capture the flag mode has been shown off in this trailer about. It seems like there won't be any moral choices as one team looks to attack and capture the Little Sister whilst the other team defends.

Posted By Blood

Bayonetta: Video Diary 1

2009-10-29T12:05:00.003Z

Do you want to know the origins of the main character in Bayonetta? Well your in luck. The first of what a assume to be about six developer diaries has been uploaded to the wonderful world of the internet for all to see.

Posted By Blood

Left 4 Dead 2 Rewards Avatars

2009-10-29T11:55:00.004Z

It seems like a 'Splosion Man t-shirt isn't the only thing your Avatar can receive. In Valves upcoming zombie hit Left 4 Dead 2 you will be able to unlock a total of nine piece of clothing for your Avatar. We can see in the video three t-shirts but also a medic pack and a frying pan are mentioned in the text above.

Whether these are linked to achievements are still unconfirmed but it seems like each reward has a specific task sch as kill 10,000 zombies, with also sounds like an achievement. My guess would be you have to separate lists now an awards and a achievements but some may tie together for example there will be both a reward and an achievement for killing 10,000 zombies. I am glad to see this finally being implemented into games and would love to see if Microsoft titles like Mass Effect 2 next year have to have them in the game.

Posted By Blood

EuroGamer Expo 09: The Saboteur

2009-10-28T18:07:00.000Z

One game which has caught my eye on many occasions but I have never really looked into it is The Saboteur. The reason it has caught my eye so many times is probably the Sin City graphic style of black and white but highlights red. If you do not know what the game is about then here is a quick summary. You play an Irish man name Sean Devlin; he is living in Paris during World War 2 and the Nazi invasion. He is living in Paris and ignores the fact of the Nazi's until he has seen many of his friends murdered by the Nazis. This causes him to rebel.

From what I played it seems like he had just been captured but breaks free by stabbing up some Nazis. The demo kicked off from here as you were trying to escape from the Nazi compound. As you moved through the area it hinted at stealth kills, but soon after it gave you a gun and you were free to shoot, which felt similar to Uncharted 2. Once you left the main building you had to climb up a building via iron girders on the side of the building. I felt like they were taking the system of Assassin's Creed with the one button climbing, which isn't a bad thing but it seemed slightly out of place.

The main thing which caught my eye in the first place (the graphical style) was still a big enjoyment out of the game. I loved seeing the red blood on the floor and as you stabbed the enemies it created a much bigger impact on seeing blood. Probably the main inspiration of doing the game in black and white is to highlight the Nazi Swastika. The presences of that image is a powerful message that is skipped in many World War 2 games but because of the emphasis on the red in this game it highlights it out in the game world and cleverly highlights the enemies as well. The colour also plays as the games 'Will to Fight' system. This will determine if a region will be motivated to rise up and fight against the Nazis. Areas with low 'Will' will be in black and white while liberated areas will be in colour. A Prince of Persia style of a colour wash will occur when you liberate an area as well.

One problem I found in the game was the cover mechanic as it seemed like it just crouched at the side of cover sometimes. The stealth kills by far were the best way to take down the enemies but that is not saying the shooting was bad. There was also a driving sequence but this was not the strongest element of the game. This is because I found myself at one point driving the wrong way and trying to do a U-Turn but finding it nearly impossible so I just drove through the forest.

The Saboteur is scheduled for a December release and I for one may check it out.

Posted By Blood