Assassins creed

this game ROCKS.......I rented this out and completed the main story within the period,but its one of the only games that i want back!!
graphics are amazing,and to go along with the high level of detail the controls are extremely fluid and the control over your character is above par.
I will have to get this back though as im still quite a few collectibles short,but with a good guide these shouldn't be a problem.
The game isn't overly short,it took me a good 20+ hours,the only thing that lets it down is that the ending is poor,now i know that theres going to be more games in the series,but leaving the game so open is lazy...the story just ends,its worse than those stupid medal of honor endings (cos at least they say "well at least the war ended".

I AM A ROCK GOD

well almost :)
After being fucked about by blockbuster(the dick behind the counter sold my pre order) I finally got my hands on a copy of guitar hero3,and it is a dream to play,the new guitar just feels a lot better in the hands and the buttons are less harsh on the fingertips.
game wise there's not a drastic change except in the battle modes and co op,and these are a benefit to the game.My only gripe with this game is that there are some extreme achievements which to the average gamer will be out of reach (me included) and the difficulty curve is just as steep as the last instalment.
For all its problems its a great game though,and its just so fun to play.

Timeshift

After playing the demo for this a while back,my anticipation for this game was lessened for a while,but i decided to get it anyway just for something to do.
While the game has some interesting ideas,it doesn't seem to be able to use them to make a "great" game,so what we end up with is a fairly solid fps with a few nice touches but nothing to make it stand out.the story is somewhat confusing the cut scenes not really explaining much,and no details as to why you're doing what you're doing given while playing.The ending is a bit anticlimactic too,not nearly as the "why the f**k did i bother "endings of the medal of honor series,but still piss poor.
Graphics are strange,with everything seeming too sharp and clear,destroying the depth of perception and when spinning round there is little or no motion blur which just ruins the whole feeling of being the character.This is one of those things that you eventually get used to though.
The weapons are interesting,and only being able to carry 3 at a time is no problem,especially as if you need a certain weapon for a given task,you will always find one nearby.
I cant comment on multi player because i haven't played it yet.
I would recommend renting this out first because it isn't going to be everyones cup of tea.

Like an old friend

You know the ones that you don't see for years and then they just suddenly turn up and you just spend days and days catching up and wondering why you lost touch in the first place...
That's what this Tomb raider:anniversary is like.right from the start the nostalgic in me was in tears as to the familiarity of what was in front of me,but to my surprise instead of just a lazy conversion of the original Eidos have taken what was an iconic game and given it more than just a lick of paint,the levels still have the wow factor the original had and at a quick glance some of the main puzzle areas look exactly the same,but try and play the same as before and you will die.to go with the upgraded controls comes new methods of solving puzzles and its enough to make the game feel new to old school gamers.I absolutely love this game,even the quick time events from TR:Legends are present and despite reservations they added a certain dynamic to an already solid game.
achievements are a little tough but careful saving will get yo through most of them and then all you have is the time trials.
You must all play this game before you die....it is the law.

toss

Well,when i say toss what i mean is Clive Barkers:Jericho,because this is by far one of the worst games i have ever played,I have been looking forward to this game for quite some time now and all it did was dissapoint me at every turn,the squad mechanics are poor to say the least,with team mates constantly dying because the AI is thick as fuck.graphics are bog standard,dark in places but thats to be expected.
my advice=download the demo then shit in your hands,this will be the same feeling that you get if you were to buy the full version.

long overdue update

Lately I've had a lot of things going on in the real world so posting a blog has been the least of my priorities,but i now have a quiet period in which to reflect on what I've done lately.
pgr4 came and got itself rented and in the rental time i managed to get most of the achievements,which were neither too easy or too hard,graphics were nice,online is a right barrel of laughs and overall is a far superior game than its predecessor.
Next came the behemoth that is the orange box package with an astounding 5 games on one disc,all of which are solid fps games,portal being the true star of the show though,even if it is only a couple of hours long,it shows that some games developers are still thinking about new ideas to make gamers think about what theyre doing.
Still waiting for the dashboard update though,I'm really hoping for a multichat function mostly(anything else would just be a bonus),but its so frustrating to have to pick and choose between friends that i'm talking to.
Come on Micro$oft pull you're shit together.

superman returns

Yes,i know its an old one,but seeing as i was bored and there was nothing new to play i though i might as well.
lets just say that 2 similar games both are a lot better,its like they took crackdown and removed everything that made it fun,and spiderman just blows this out the water in terms of playability and user interface,only get this if you really want the points(some are time consuming though)but they are easy.
if you have the choice get crackdown instead,this is absolute toss.

PGR4 demo

To be honest,I wasn't a big fan of number 3 so i wasn't expecting much when i booted up this demo,and i wasnt surprised by what i was greeted with.
The weather effects are really nice but thats about it,i got half way round a circuit before i realized the bikes are shite.The cars are slightly better but test drive did everything this does but better and bigger...
The kudos system seems a little more forgiving this time through though,the achievements look worse than the last game too.
This is one game i think i will pass by.

csi:hard evidence

What looks on paper like a super easy 1000 points turns out to be one of the most boring games ever played...the character models are awful in terms of bot movement and likeness to the people they are supposed to portray.
The pc games were so much better than this,the controls are slow and there is so much backtracking that it soon becomes a chore going back and forth navigating various menus just to get to new areas to investigate.
with a guide your pain will be lessened and after 5 minutes i guarantee that you'll be searching the options to turn the damn music off...

conan

Now as a big fan of the films and books,i was really pleased to find that not 1 but 2 conan games were coming to 360,the first of which is THQ's conan.
I have heard of comparisons between this and God of war but as i havent played it i cant comment.
on its own this isn't a bad game,camera can be a bit tricky,but the animations are nice especially some of the gorier finishing moves.
In my opinion its old school hack and slash at it's best,i'm loving every minute of it.
single player only and this conan doesn't look anything like arnie are my only gripes with this game sofar.

halo3

Now that we've all had time to take in the wonders that the new halo throws at us,i feel its now about time i get to share my views on what could be considered the most overhyped game in history.
10 hours is roughly all you need to complete the story first time through(that is based on 3 of us doing co-op on legendary)and to be honest the game should have been longer,this is probably my only gripe with the game even though most reviews slate halo for graphics that are just hi res halo2 graphics,but in all fairness,the average goy such as myself should be more than impressed by the small details that are waiting for you to find.
the weapons are nicely balanced,each with their own advantages and disadvantages,and the flood are still around just to make life difficult,nice inclusions such as the flamethrower just add icing to an already nice cake.
Struggling finding the skulls?just check youtube,theres some good vids of all the locations and how to get them.
online is something i'm not willing to comment on for now as i've not really gotten in to it yet,we're going through campaign again on legendary to find some more stuff that we missed the first time round and to picke up some achieves we missed because a certain jollyju forgot to turn scoring on the first time through.

Army of 2 opening cinematic

Stranglehold 1000/1000

Finally beat probably one of the most stressfull games ive played in a long while second only to call of duty 2.
A big shout out to xxmatt1987xx and jollyju who helped with some multiplayer achieves,but let it be noted that i got my ranked match achieves legit.
Even though hardboiled totally stressed me out,i have enjoyed the experience and it has left me feeling like ive achieved something,which is what its all about innit?

deepest sympathies

Our thoughts go out to the relatives of Colin McRae,who died in a helicopter crash this weekend.

----EDIT----
codemasters have set up a rememberence page up for Colin and his family if you wanna leave comments click here

Like father like son

Just set my little boy a gamertag up,hes only five but he knows all about the achievement system and has a grand total of 15 gamerscore (which excited him no end)it will be a long time before we let him loose on the live community.

Stranglehold

I thought i might as well get this seeing as halo is still a couple of weeks away,and i did enjoy the demo....Well the demo is just about all the game has to offer,don't get me wrong its a nice looking game but max payne had everything this game has and in my opinion did it better.
The multiplayer mode is nothing special either offering only deathmatch and team deathmatch,although more might unlock later,and there's not many people online with it so waiting times are high for matches but this might also make it easier to boost the achievements.
its a solid effort but dont expect anything really special.
If john woo cant make a superb action game lets hope clive barker can deliver with jericho.....I've got spare pants ready for that one.....

More "testing"

Well, I've now had a bit more time with the COD 4 beta and surprisingly I'm loving it.Even when I'm getting my ass handed to me its OK mainly because the games are just the right duration so as not to be frustrating if your losing,the weapon selection is still a bit restrictive but once you start ranking up the unlockables make things a bit better.
I've not noticed any major bugs in the game either which is a bonus (unlike the halo3 beta) there's a bit of a lag issue in some games and it is quite annoying when simple tasks such as getting through doors become frustrating even standing still your screen jumps all over the place,this however is forgivable only because it doesn't happen often (2 games in 2 days).
The maps are just about the right size too,accommodating both close quarters and sniper styles and everything in between.Overall this is a game thats going on my definate buy list and i might even keep it if the multiplayer is just as fun as this beta is...I've also got my team more or less sorted after a few rounds with some friends (you know who you are).
Trust me this is going to be one hell of a ride.

Call of duty 4 beta

Thanks to my good friend of mine im playing the beta test now and i can honestly say im impressed.If this is what the finished product is gonna look like then the single player should be even better and that thought just makes my pants rise.......
I would prefer to be able to carry every weapon around with me at all times but thats just not real is it? so its going to take me a while to get used to different classes,but at the moment im prefering the shotty unlike in shadowrun!!!

New achievement lists

PGR4 achieves now out and most look crazy,it will be a game that will take some time complete.also halflife2:the orange box achieves now out....all 99 of them!!!.A lot of 5 pointers and yes i know its over 5 games but they still only total 1000 points but i will still be getting it just for the portal game.

Two World first impressions

I've been playin this for a few hours now and i can honestly say that this is a big disappointment.
I wasn't expecting an oblivion beater but i was expecting a lot more,the controls are awkward and the user interface is quite confusing at times,with it taking a lot of effort just to find out where to go.There is a huge playable are to explore though but this comes with loading pauses at regular intervals.Expect graphical glitches like mountains just poping into view while stood next to them and animals floating in mid air.Only get on the horses once for the achieve though as the movement is quite wierd and the only way ive found of getting off the damn things is dying...if any one knows how to get off without getting myself killed let me know
----UPDATE----
I have just spent the last 2 hours completing all sorts of missions and the game froze,i havent saved in ages.....i am sooo pissed off right now

guitar hero 3 preview

Heres a nice little preview on an early build of the game,and it looks sweet as f**k.

Cars

One phrase is all it takes to sum up this game.......EASY points...For anyone looking to boost their gamerscore should look no further.Rent this though because i've had a solid afternoon playing through for the full 1000,somehow the whole experience has made me feel dirty though....
The graphics are no more than you would expect from a movie tie-in,the controls leave a lot to be desired,with the powerslide button being my biggest complaint,I found it only worked every so often and to different degrees.
Don't get this expecting it to change your life because it wont,it will frustrate you at points but stick with it and you cant take it back to the rental store early and beat the guy behind the counter with it.

Blue Dragon update

Now,after about 30 hours i've finaly reached disc 3,i'm ready for a break now so im gonna stick guitar hero on.

Timeshift demo

This is now on marketplace,so i tried it.Its not bad at all,the only thing is,i think from now on a lot of good fps's are going to get overlooked because the market is flooded with them,once halo3 comes out it wont matter if it lives up to the hype or not it's going to be the game of choice for a lot of people.Timeshift could be one of the unlucky ones which would be a shame because if the demo's anything to go by,it's gonna be a solid fps.

Bioshock help

for anyone having trouble finding all the audio diaries check this out,it what i used,check off what you got with the list on page 1 then goto page 3 for descriptions on where to find the ones you're missing.

More Blue Dragon

Just finished disc 1 after about 17 hours,so far its been easy....all that needs remembering is to make sure you're levelled up niceley.

Blue Dragon

I wasn't sure if i wanted this game or not,but i am a big fan of japanese rpg's so i gave it the benefit of the doubt and after around 6 hours of gaming i'm still not sure if it was a good idea.
The graphics are nice but i like my jap animation in gundam style rather than dragonball flavour.
the camera can be annoying even changing the settings didn't help but that could just be my preferences that are not catered for.The story is moving along at a steady point with plenty of checkpoints as well as save locations,and weighing in at 3 discs this game could go on for a decent amount of time,the achievements are not easy to come by either.
All in all this game should keep me going in the spaces between better game releases(halo3 and mass effect for example).

-----UPDATE-----
for anyone finding it hard to get achievements though heres a guide....

Bioshock

There isn't a lot to say about this really,the graphics are nice but i feel the game has been severely overhyped.
With the game having no online modes i thought that the game overall would be longer than it was,it's taken about 15 hours to compete with 800+ points.
With good maps this game would only be good for renting,but for the time being a lot of extra time will be spent searching for missed collectables.
The game does have loads of atmosphere though and it did give me a scare every now and then,but generally i think its just another bog standard fps.

Guitar Hero 3 achievements

Now these look crazy,i have no doubt in my mind that i wont get anywhere near the full points,but at least its got online co-op so it might keep me goin till Rock Band comes out.

Not happy

3 red lights.just gettin ready for a long talk with microsoft customer services.

-----UPDATE-----
just got off the phone with microsoft,have got to send the console off for repair again (she said i would get some compensation as well :) )
on a lighter note,big thanks goes out to gothic rebel who is lending me his xbox (again!!),so im not at a total loss.

----UPDATE----
Microsoft have just called back to tell me what compensation ill get.......A free game...a choice from some of the classics so i've gone for kameo as it was the only one i'd not played.
This crisis has made us come to the decision that it might be worth getting a spare core system just for occasions like this.so we've put an order in but thats gonna take 3 weeks to be shipped to us :(

Phantasy star universe

Another game rented from blockbuster for a week,and jury is still out on if i can get the full 1000 in that time.8 achievements overall,every one of them for defeating bosses at various points in the game.All the forums say its not too difficult but i never got very far with phantasy star online on the dreamcast back in the day.i guess we'll just have to wait and see im getting too confident after beating call of duty 2 on veteran.

halo 3 nightmare

could this be true?its a new list of achievements for halo3.......i hope it aint true because the original list looked so much better.

100% Just Cause

Thats it,I've done it within the rental period of 1 week.Overall its been an easy game with only 1 part being difficult but not impossible.Tips? Theres none needed to be fair,just complete the story first then round up all the extra stuff bit by bit.The collectables are easy because they show on the map and everything else just takes time.You need a lot of patience though because it does get boring after a few hours of doing the same thing over and over as theres no variation in the missions,just get to checkpoint A. then kill/collect target then go to checkpoint B. to finish the mission.

Two worlds achievements

achievements are now here.Getting quite excited about this one,and the achieves don't look that bad

Juiced 2:hot import nights

achievements now up for Juiced 2:HIN here .A grand total of 60 achievements which will probably take us achievement whores a bit longer to get.

Bioshock demo revisited

Well after a 7 hour wait i finally managed to play the demo and i can honestly say that I'm impressed.the graphics are sweet,theres a whole load of atmosphere going on all the way through the demo.screen grabs and videos don't do this game justice.This could quite possibly be the best single player fps to come out this year,and i dont think it should take anything away from the game with it only being single player,a bold move in todays multiplayer gaming community but it's going to be nice to play a game where the achieves are going to have to be earned rather than boosted.

Somethin to check out

Just added a link to evilknights myspace,worthwhile having a look at if you want game reviews from an American viewpoint.the site is easy to navigate and makes my site look noobie,but im only a beginner lol

Bioshock

The demo is now out on marketplace and my first impressions?Now thats the thing....I've been downloading it since 2:00 pm (gmt),its now 8:22 pm and its still not finished downloading.
I really don't understand how it can take so long to download when if i was downloading it on pc it would be done in a far shorter period.It seem microsoft are quite happy to take my £40 a year but when it comes to providing a service that can compete with other console(i wont mention any names here)it sadly falls short.I don't mind paying the fee if it gives me more than competitors who provide the service free of charge.In my eyes its one of the only things that lets the 360 down(apart from reliability issues).
I will update on bioshock when it finally finishes downloading

just cause

Now this is one huge game...its got everything in it,massive explorable areas,tons of collectables and gta style carjackings,what more could a man want?
Well for a start the gameplay is boring and samey,progress is slow due to the size of the areas and if you get stuck without a vehicle you are in for a long walk.The areas you will be spending the most time in are tropical woodland type areas that are nowhere near the beauty of farcry instincts.
I've spent a couple of hours with this game so far and all the missions have been more or less the same,go here kill/collect target then come back even the side missions offer no variation.
Overall a poor effort that promises so much but fails to deliver,i recommend renting this,you may not get all the points but you wont feel like you've been ripped of by a cheap hooker

A new home and shat is running the show.

Hi all,hopefully this will be the last move for my blog as now i have been forced to take matters into my own hands.I have full control over this blog so i don't have to worry about it being shut down because someone else is having a bad day.
A brief introduction is in order for anyone that doesn't know me already.my name is Matt but im more widely known as shatulance (or just shat),this is mainly because all my spare time is spent on my xbox360 and shatulance is my gamertag.Im always ready to help anyone out with any problems with games,because i play so many that chances are ive already done the bits they're struggling with.
Aside from my gaming life Im 27 years old,live with my partner(gamertag jollyju)and i have a 5 year old son who is yet to have a gamertag,but one day he will have.