The Lair of the Monkey

Yes, this is none other than the now old (in game terms) Lara Croft: Tomb Raider.  She’s been raiding those tombs all the way back into my gaming history, as far back in fact as the days of my 486 PC - which is certainly saying something.  I’ve never been a fan of either the character nor the 3d person platforming genre too much, but apparently many of you have, which is why Lara Croft is firmly embedded in our gaming culture.  Enjoy.

Brilliantly, Microsoft have managed to get my Xbox 360 back to me - in only about 2 weeks!  This is a pretty quick turn around time and I’m really happy with the customer service I’ve received from them.  Granted, you could say that it shouldn’t have broken in the first place, which is a fair point, but then they don’t seem to make these new gaming systems to last these days now do they?  Still, I would have had to pay for the repair if it wasn’t for Microsoft increasing the warranty to 3 years.

Nontheless, I find that I’m woefully stuck on the boss of Ninja Gaiden 2.  If anyone has any tips on beating the Archfiend then please let me know.  On the whole, I have thoroughly enjoyed playing this third person-slashing-combo spectacular of a game and I can heartily recommend it.

Due to an innundation by spammers, I’ve changed the comments policy.  It’s nothing major and real commenters shouldn’t have a problem.  Simply log in and you can comment at this here gaming blog!

With the souls in blade, the Ultimate battle unfolds… Engrave your name in history.

The latest series of the pinnacle of 3D weapon fighting Soul Calibur arrives on Xbox 360 and PS3. Two swords at their ultimate form of evolution during the reincarnation of the Soul Calibur and Soul Edge, something else has awakened as the battle between the two swords comes to the final phase, with the resurrection of whom created those swords. Nightmare in its ultimate form awaits Siegfried for the final battle. What lies ahead for the characters twisted by its destiny?

Welll, what can you say about a game that’s seen rather a few incarnations like this?  Well, you can that it’s good - which it is.  However, you can also say that it is absolutely nothing revolutionary.  Nope, instead it’s more of an evolution.  Soul Calibur 4 is a fantastic beat-em-up, just don’t be disappointed if it’s rather similar to previous versions.

• Online VS for the first time in Soul Calibur series
• VS Classic - Battle one on one in this classic match
• VS Ultimate - Play online with your customised Soul Calibur character
• Critical Strike for each character
• New Active Matching Battle game system
• New interactive environments
• 720p HD resolution graphics
• Enhanced Character Creation mode - Players can customise their character to look and perform to their desire
• Special Characters: Lord Vader’s Secret Apprentice from “The Force Unleashed” and Xbox 360 exclusive Yoda

So there you go, some rather good features.  Go check it out, it is probably the best beat-em-up on the latest consoles, the Xbox 360 and the PS3.  After all, what other choice have you got in terms of 3D fighting games?

If you’re a fan of The Legend of Zelda, then you might just want to go and see this.  A comedy take on a much loved videogaming series, it looks to be fun indeed.  Here’s what the play has to say for itself:

Liink and Zellda do what they always do to obtain the Tryforce. She gets into trouble and loses it. And he saves her and gets it back. But, after Liink and Zellda come to blows, they part ways to decide what’s best for them – can they survive alone?  Don’t miss this exhilarating sword fighting adventure with two of your favourite game characters who encounter Gannon for the umpteenth time! Join Liink, Zellda, Marioh, Peech (and more!) on this delightful adventure. 

The Play Liink and Zellda: The Misadventure is showing at the following times/locations:

PERFORMANCE DATES (LONDON):

At the Cockpit Theatre
Gateforth St (off Church St),
London, NW8 8EH
www.cockpittheatre.org.uk

Friday 8th August 2008 at 8:00pm
Saturday 9th August 2008 at 8:00pm
Sunday 10th August 2008 at 2:30pm (swear-free matinee for kids)
Sunday 10th August 2008 at 8:00pm
Monday 11th August 2008 at 8:00pm

PERFORMANCE DATES (EDMONTON FRINGE FESTIVAL, CANADA):

VENUE #11
King Edward School, 8530-101 St.
The Edmonton International Fringe Festival is located in and around the TransAlta Arts Barns beween 103 Street (Gateway Boulevard) and 104 Street (Calgary Trail) and between 82nd Avenue (Whyte Avenue) and 86th Avenue

16th August 2008 at 7:00pm
17th August 2008 at 2:15pm
20th August 2008 at 11:30pm
21st August 2008 at 2:30pm
22nd August 2008 at 9:00pm
23rd August 2008 at 12:30pm
If you want to know more about the production company Foolhardy then click here.

Well, I like to have a little bit of this now and again.  I’m not talking about plastic statues, but fan service.  Chun Li is a legend in gaming, having come from Street Fighter 2 and appearing in just about every other iteration of this extremely famous Capcom game ever.  If you’re a fan of 2D fighting games, then Street Fighter 2 will either be remembered fondly for a great balance and Ryu Vs Ken, or overlooked in favour of more obscure stuff like Dalkerstalkers.

Personally, I really liked Street Fighter 2: Turbo.  Now that’s retro.  I owned it on the SNES - now that was a proper console.  You could drop that from two metres and it still wouldn’t break!

Hope you enjoy the figure, I’m off to find out how much an original arcade cabinet is.

Well, as my Xbox 360 has bitten the dust I’ve gone back to retro.  This means that on the PC I’ve been playing:

• Rainbow Six 3: Raven Shield Gold Edition
• Rome: Total War
• Neverwinter Nights

Even better, the GameCube has seen some action.  Arguably one of the most under-rated consoles of all time (second only probably to the Dreamcast), the GameCube is a great machine.  Nintendo really didn’t market it very well, which means that the GC never really got to show people what it could do.  Yet the following games were all great:

• Metroid Prime
• Donkey Konga
• Super Paper Mario
• Animal Crossing
• Super Smash Bros
• Soul Calibur 2

So there we have it, I’m playing some retro PC games and some GameCube games.  I’d be playing stuff like Crysis (my laptop handled it reasonably well) but I traded it in after it started crashing.  Quite a lot.  I was going to wait for the patch but meeeeeeeeh.  It was a bit over-rated wasn’t it?  Unlike the GameCube…

Well, I’ve finally become one of you.  By that I mean I have suffered at the hands of the shoddy customer service that Microsoft provides.  Not only was the person who replied to my email rude enough to not bother to read my original message, they then didn’t bother to include the phone number so that I could get in touch with Microsoft directly.  What do I think of this?  Well, I think as a customer I deserve better, as I have a now-broken Xbox 360 with 3 red lights.  It definitely puzzles me why they call it the red ring of death though.  I mean it’s not a ring is it?

A common problem has befallen me – I am of course talking about the death of my Xbox360.  Whilst many people complained about the ‘Red Rings of Death’ when their 360 went wrong, I never suffered any of that even though my console was getting on a bit.  When there was a huge press release about Microsoft increasing the warranty to three years on the Xbox 360, I thought ‘I don’t need that; mine has crashed twice since I got it’.

All that has sadly changed since buying Ninja Gaiden 2 for my Xbox 360.  It was only about 3-4 weeks ago that I got it, but pretty much into the first week of playing it would start to crash.  Not much, then more frequently, and now it has become pretty much unplayable (apart from, bizarrely, Xbox Live Arcade games).  So, my Xbox 360 is now pretty much a rather heavy paperweight.

As I mentioned before though, I don’t get any Red Rings of Death on my games console.  What I get is (at times at least) a weird bleep, and then the machine freezes.  A quick Google search reveals approximately 1,300,000 results for ‘Xbox 360 freezing’ so I’m not the only person to have this problem.  A quick look at YouTube videos seems to suggest that the main board has gone.

That’s just great – given that went on my laptop not that long ago.  They just don’t make things like they used to.  I remember the amount of times my SNES fell off the desk.  Did that stop?  Nope, not ever.  It’s probably still going in an old people’s home somewhere.

What’s the plan then?  Well, I guess I’m not going to do much gaming for a while.  I’m still really annoyed as I was enjoying Ninja Gaiden 2 – I think I’m going to write to Microsoft and complain – the Xbox 360 has seemingly put lots of really fine scratches all over the disc too.  Whether this will affect the machine (or make the game unplayable if Microsoft fixes it) remains to be seen.  I will of course keep you informed.

You may have (correctly) noted that unfortunately there’s not been a lot of updates recently.  Don’t worry, I haven’t died or given up gaming.  I’ve just been rather busy with work, other work and finally actually getting time to play some games.

First up has been Forza Motorsport 2 (Xbox 360).  I still haven’t managed to bloody get to level 50, which means my playing continues.  I will say that it looks very good in HD though and I’m having a blast just lapping the Nurburgring over and over.

G.R.A.W. (Xbox 360) has made a welcome appearance after a certain mate of mine persuaded me to try the split screen two player.  We actually managed to complete the first mission for a change and so it’s back on the agenda.

Ninja Gaiden 2 (Xbox 360) demo and full game are well worth a play.  It’s not as heard as they say in the magazines, if you are able to hold down the the left trigger then you should do reasonably well.  Combat is a series of stops and starts and if you can get the hang of that along with positioning yourself well you shouldn’t have any trouble completing this 15-20 hour gem.

I’m hoping to really crack on with Ninja Gaiden 2 later this week and I have a full week off coming up from work so I might just buy Grand Theft Auto 4.  Then again, there’s still Neverwinter Nights 2 on the PC to get around to playing.  Oh, the choices!  Lastly, there’s a handheld to buy for the ‘real’ holidays.  A Nintendo DS or the PSP?  They’ve both really come into their own in the last few months so that choice is going to be very difficult indeed.  I’ll catch you in a few days.  In the meantime, remember, hold left trigger.  Release on a counter, double-tap X then press Y for an ‘Obliteration technique’.  If that doesn’t help you win, you’re a really rubbish gamer…