First, welcome to my stately home. This is my base of operations, my sanctuary, and a great place to exercise my OCD tendencies. Yes, the lockers are decorated with ammo boxes, missiles and frag grenades. What? Stop looking at me like that.

As with Oblivion, I don't care much for the storyline, and instead happily run off after the first glint to catch my eye. Just recently, I completed the Tenpenny Tower quest, which was fairly interesting, certainly had more depth than most. However, it was the random encounters that made it for me. While checking out a small garage shop south of the tower, found a wasteland wander, selling the usual stuff. Nothing too exciting. On leaving the shop, I was accosted by a group of Talon Mercs, my paladin status still causing quite a stir it seems. Although, after the way I usually deal with them, you'd have thought they'd have given up by now...........

In this instance, diving back into the shop, dropping mines as I went, provided hillirous results. Severed limbs flying in all directions, with the poor wastelander screaming about the mess. The combat shotgun, doing the clean up.

Generally, exploring the map is in itself a joy, visually stunning at times and rewarding of poking around in the corners of underground lairs, subways stations and various topside building including a Robo Factory.

I also found the Hubris Comic shop and printing factory, which had a hackable computer with a Zork text adventure to play and The Anchorage War Memorial, as well as many other locations. Great stuff.

Combat is satisfying in pretty much all forms, the VATS system giving me lots of excellent "mwahhahaha!!" momments, regardless of it being a sawn-off shotgun in the face, crushing spines with a sledge hammer or plainly blowing people up. It's all honest, if not grissly, good fun. For 1st person veterans however, it's a doddle and rarely challenging. It's not why you're playing it right?

Having said all this, the game feels a bit pointless. Ok ok calm down, hands off my throat please, let me explain. The game has been primarily designed to be a sandbox game, go were you want, do what you want, and to a greater extend, it succeeds. However, it all just feels a bit too thinly spread. Most dungeons (undergrounds, caves etc) feel very similar, not as much as Oblivion granted, but very quickly, the feeling of déjà vu sets in rather quickly. Even the special items just tend to be "renamed" versions of normal ones, granted so that they can be repaired by their common brethren, but still. I feel like I'm exploring a copy/paste world with patches of individuality spotted here and there. The game rarely feels like a lived in place, it purely exists for you, and you alone and it's inhabitants reflect this. I guess I was just hoping for something more "alive" I guess, like Stalker achieved with it's beautifully unique location and remarkable (occasionally broken) AI. The drive to explore is still there, there is much to find, but I now have this disappointed feeling that it's never going to satisfy my curiosity. To make things a tad more bland, the RPG character building itself is also rather dull. It appears to be too easy to be good at everything, making specific character "builds" pretty much pointless. This lack of depth in character building and equipment makes the incentive to explore ultimately wash out, much like the games colour palette. Don't get me wrong, I've enjoyed a lot of time with Fallout 3, and I'm going to continue through the main story arc now but it's been disappointing as much as exciting.

Oh well, I guess I could just run about like this for the rest of the game.

A great article by John Walker at Rock, Paper, Shotgun discussing some of the issues I tried to get across in earlier blog entry about WoW. Check it out here

I particulary identified with this comment by Ste Curran of One Life Left:

"MMOs are thinly-painted stat-grinds, right? What you do at level 1 is the same as what you do at level 30, only with fewer buttons and fewer sparkles. So you have to make those sparkles as pretty as possible, spin out the journey from 1 to 30 for as long as you can. because as soon as there's no more reward, no more illusion of the next-great-thing-around-the-corner, the players lose interest. I would imagine. I guess also there's the second life thing. Which is second life in lower case, not the furry-fecking dystopia of the capitalised version. These places are meant to be otherworldly. Players subscribe to them, either with their time or actual cash, to feel part of something vast. If they could just click their way to wherever they wanted in half a second, not only would they experience everything the subscription has to offer in a heartbeat, this world they have to conquer would seem much, much smaller too. And who wants to be the hero in a shoebox? Also there's probably some clever psychology point about spreading out the excitement with periods of monotony. Because if you let the players just have the 'action' bits all the time those will become the monotonous bits."

Bang on the nail my friend! Now, I'm going to go back to playing the Trine demo, IT ROCKS!

Bah, I'm not a Bejeweled fan at all. My latest reviewing assignment was a bit of chore to say the least, but it's done. DONE I TELL YOU. If you fancy finding out how the latest port of PopCaps insane licence to print money effected me, go and check it out here. Alternatively, you could read the one on GameSpot, which was a laugh submitting.

It censorded the word "sn_iggers", oh my! Pity the program can pick that up but not my questionable derogatory tone. Oh well. :)

It has been sometime since I last posted, PhD work and other things have been taking presidence over my gaming time. Still been getting a sneaky game in here and there, but it certainly wasn't with WoW. I did a written interview with my friend Nick, which shall serve as my explanation.

Nick: How did you find the role-playing and social elements compared with similar games around at the moment?

Role-playing wise it lacks in many departments. In comparison with titles such as Baldur's Gate 2, Planescape Torment and the original Fallout the characters lack any tangible personality. Most are just there to hand out quests, sell items etc and the story is not enticing in the slightest. Granted WoW does have a response to opinions like mine which is that the real characters are the players, and I'll give it that. Interactions with other players are where the game shines but ultimately it is the reason I stopped playing. I've not played an MMO before, (Diablo 2 and Hellgate were not actual MMO's) so I don't have another experience with which to compare. However, compared to other multiplayer games I'd say the social aspects of WoW are an interesting experience. There were a few occasions were I'd bump into players and end up having a chat, sometimes in character others not. It was always an oddly enticing experience unlike any other game I've played. I guess it helped that I was playing on a role-playing server and not just a dedicated PvP.

Nick: What was it specifically that drew you to WoW in the first place? Was it the look? Was it the social/friend elements? Was it the role-play/ improvement aspects?

After years of WoW bashing I figured it was time to jump in and see things for myself. Experience first hand is worth 10 fold more than experience shared in my opinion. This was mainly spurred by my group of friends discussing a group start of the trail version. The seasoned veterans in our midst painted an appealing prospect of teamwork, grand exploration and gargantuan battles. It was free, what was there to lose other than time? So yeah, in short it was an overall curiosity of all things WoW and primarily the social aspects of the game.

Nick: Finally, what was it that finally made you want to stop playing? How difficult was it to stop in the face of such sterling advertising and enticing work created by Blizzard?

Basically the group splintered. People started playing for large periods of time out with the rest of the group gradually creating a gap that became exponentially larger. Not having as much time to dedicate to WoW I ended up lagging behind everyone else, having to play by myself to catch up. It was at this stage that the truth of Blizzard's creation became clear. WoW as a single player game is a stale, haggard piece of role-playing. It has an expansive world filled with monsters, players, NPC's and loot but it has no soul. There is no real personality, no story, no enticing hook other than the next level, the next great weapon and next skill. No conclusion to aim for, no crescendo, it's just a constant drip feed of mini rewards, never quite enough to satisfy, you always need to do just one more quest. This is not role-playing, this is a chore. Stopping wasn't an issue.

Granted it was an addictive experience, particularly when I was playing in a group and I understand there is much of WoWs later joys such as PvP and raids which I know nothing of, but you must consider that it's still built on the foundations of the early game. The "game" viewed as a social simulator and money maker is a marvel but as piece of entertainment it lacks in pretty much every department. All hats off to Blizzard.

Nick: Will you ever go back?

Hell no, I have better things to do with my life.

A sad day indeed, oh the irony of it all. Having said that, it wasn't entirely my decision to get into the World of Warcraft, oh no. During a particular visit to the local, a good friend and WoW veteran suggested that myself and your group of friends start together. After discussion of classes and potential laughs, I counted myself "in". Trail period of 10 days, my dubious opinions of the game and it's player base resolved with my conclusion that I'd not be doing it for long. Oh I was wrong.

So after creating a Night Elf Druid and barely stomaching the starting area -which is hidious both graphically and in gameplay- I was shown the light. Two of my friends joined to accompany my dull experience and hence was taken on an eye openning journey from the Great Tree to Darnassus onward to Stormwind then the mighty halls of Ironforge. Impressive stuff.

And now, I've paid for 30 days of WoW time. Unbelievable.

I'm at lv. 19, have bear and aquatic form, completed the Deadmines and over 100 quests. And you know what, I'm actually enjoying it. Or am I? I keep playing for hours at a time and feel that I'm not really getting anything out of it. Sure it's fun playing with my mates and bantering with the Guild (Ye Oldie Goon Squad) but something just just doesn't quite fit. I can't see myself playing it for much longer to be honest, but that's what I said just before my trial ran out.........

Been meaning to write about this for awhile now but time has been eluding me. Such is the way of things.

So, I bought a Megadrive II a wee while ago and have been enjoying it very much. However, not being able to play some games at full speed and the inability to use US titles was annoying me. Some older titles in particular run slower than they should, Sonic 1 for example was basically slowed down to play on 50Hz PAL systems. Also, because PAL has "bands" at the top and bottom effectively squishing the image, it was has generally looking like a good idea to investigate the possibility of 60Hz play. I really do want to play Castlevania: Bloodlines not the in comparision, poor censored PAL version, New Generation.

First, hats off to mmmonkey's website for an accurate and well documented guide for this mod. Excellent stuff. I would have attemped the Japanese mod as well but seeing as I'm likely never to buy any JPN games I didn't see the point. Also, my MD2 motherboard has way too much glue around the CPU. Getting the pins up off the PCB was going to be a nightmare and potentaially fatal for my poor MD2, didn't fancy killing it.

This mod is pretty simple. Cut the track on the motherboard connected to the PAL/NTSC pin 46 which normally pulls the potental to 0V. Full circuit diagram here

Shouldn't be a question mark, that's the track. So after doing that all you have to do is solder in a few wires into JP3 and a wire to GND. There are loads of points on the motherboard so whatever suits. These are then linked up to your switch, I used a DPDT but a SPDT would have been done the job. You will have to drill holes into the casing as well and file out a openning for the switch which I recommend doing after you know it works. :) I spent a bit of extra time making it neat using cable shrink wrap and added a molex to make doing future removal of the motherboard easier. Note that the wires have to fit around the metal shield which goes over the top.

So that's it apart from the switch hole drilling. A nice square edged file will do the job well as the plastic is easy to shape.

Now I can play Sonic at full speed, a good comparison can be seen here

I highly recommend doing this mod. It's straight forward and should be no problem for anyone with basic soldering skills.

Just finished my latest reviewing assignment, Bleach: Dark Souls. Review will be up on GiantBomb soon but for now skip over to my local stomping ground Pause Gaming or check out Console Obsession. Needless to say, it's been the best game I've been given to work on for sometime, I'm actually going to keep this one for once!

It's true, my GP2X fun playing 16-bit games has come to a head, I bought a Mega Drive. Maddness I hear you say! What do you need a Mega Drive for when you have:

A beastingly high spec PC
PS3
PS2
N64
SNES
DS lite
GP2X

What could you possibly need an MD for?!?!

Well, I'll tell you. I was up in Oban a few weeks ago with my girlfriend visiting her folks. Oban is this small port town on the West of Scotland if you're not familiar with the place. Cute, salty with a touch of Glasgow and they do fine whiskey and chocolate. Mmmm, anyway. We were doing the some shopping which lead us to drop in on the local Oxfam. Not my favourite place in the world but I'll endure for my lady. However, to my surprise, I found a gem. Someone had turfed out their MD collection into the shop. Nothing particularly exciting I thought, but I investigated with childish curiosity.

And found a copy of Comix Zone and Sonic, near mint, for £1 each. Sonic even had an original promotional poster in good condition as well. Something stirred inside my brain like a excitable pixie at Christmas time. I just had to have it. I never owned a MD never mind any MD games and this just seemed like a sign. It was time to go 16-bit.
So now, I have a boxed Mega Drive II with an original pad and also a very rare almost brand new boxed official 6 button controller. It also came with a small collection of games being:

Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Sonic Spinball, Ecco the Dolphin, Pugsy, Wiz 'n' Liz, The Lion King, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: The Action Game, Mega Games I (Columns, World Cup Italia'90, Super Hang-on) and Mega Games II (Revenge of Shinobi, Streets of Rage, Golden Axe)

All for a modest £31 + P&P! :)

I've not hung about either in regard to collecting other titles and currently have in addition to this:
Sonic the Hedgehog (from Oxfam!), Aladdin, Shadow of the Beast, Ranger-X, Alisia Dragoon, Sonic 3 and World of Illusion.

It's just so much fun. Shadow of the Beast is still odd and creepy, remiscent of a Brian Lumley novel Tolkien love affair, and yes still utterly, utterly nails. Sonic in his original forms are still an absolute pleasure, washing away the taint of the recent Sonic Team still births. Greatest of all my guilty pleasures however is Ranger-X. A golden example of beautifully constructed gameplay, offering challenges with a balanced learning curve. Matched with great visuals were you stomp around in a mech even getting support from a HUGE flying laser cannon in the forest level. It's a delight to play. Love it.
I don't know how long this return to a previous generation will last, but I'm going to make the most of it. Golden Axe anyone? Death Adder is just begging for a kicking........

It seems that it's rekindled my love for gaming which seems to have been waning recently. I've also been playing Noby Noby Boy on the PS3, The Witcher Enchanced on the PC and The World Ends With You on the DS.

Noby Noby Boy, along with Little Big Planet is leading the way in the modern gaming revolution on the PS3. I'm not going to say too much about it because it really has to be experienced for it to make sense. If I started talking about waiting for the parrot to stop dreaming about flying and whizz off to get the planet selector, while the space squirrel chopped on some nuts, you'd think "eh?!?!?". And quite right too, because the sun is looking through a hole in the Earth while Boy stretches across a street tripping up cyclists and generally causing chaos. That's before Girl eats up the little love hearts you've collected to stretch her a bit further in attempt to get her to Mars.

Oh just go and play it!

The Witcher Enhanced so far is looking very promising. Despite the slightly clunky engine (it is the Aurora engine used in Neverwinter Nights release 6 years ago!) it looks fantastic and is very immersive. The flexible camera positions allowing for a OTS view for combat and seamlessly switching to a isometric angle for navigation is like adding "spin the camera" by holding the middle mouse button in a RTS. It's adds a lot to the your involvement in the game, it makes me giddy to think what Baldur's Gate 2 would have been like using this technology. Anyway, I'm going to invest some serious time in this one and fingers crossed it delvers what it appears to be promising.

The World Ends With You I've been dipping into on and off, mostly due to it being on the DS. I've not had my usual "DS time" i.e. bus, train rides it's nothing to do with the game. It's an interesting JRPG and certainly not the usual. It sports elements of action games and even graphic adventures. The combat system is frantic, tactical and a lot of fun. In fact the whole game is really just very exciting. It uses the DS in a complete fashion, rarely seen by making excellent use of the dual screen throughout, as well as the microphone and touch screen. I just hope the story plays out as well as the gameplay.

I seem to have hit a gaming nerve some how, I'm back, and damn it's good. :D

I recently had the unfortunate experiance of playing Tornado on the DS. Further more, I had to review it. *sigh*.

The suicide rate of developers involved with this quality of game must be high. I feel sorry for anyone that had any influence in the creation of this terrible piece of apparent entertainment. May it be lost and forgotten.

Follow the link below if you REALLY want to know why this game is truly aweful.

Tornado Review - DS - Niall Macdonald

Actaully finished writting this a few days ago now, forgot to post it up here. I'll be up on Gamespot later, but follow this link for now.

Final Fantasy VI Advance - Review

edit: Review is now up.