The Lair of the Monkey

I couldn’t believe it, but tonight I was beaten, and badly, at Tekken 5.  I was, one could say, caned.  I had it coming no doubt, due to my arrogant playing style, but I still thought I’d have it in the bag.  Here’s how it came off:

A friend of mine played a few; someone I don’t often play against.  Not an unusual opponent, but then he hadn’t played his trump card.  After beating my usual suspects, he whacked on Asuka.  And this is how it went.  I’d seen him kick ass with her before, so I picked my top gun, a certain Paul Phoenix!  So, I moved in slowly, wearily.  I used him as an ‘attack’ character, and I knew that Asuka was good at both attack and defence, so I didn’t want to screw up early. (more…)

Well… The name of the new Nintendo console has been announced, and it’s not Revolution… Oh no…

Get this, the new console is named: Wii.

So, not Revolution, but Wii.  Pronounced though, not WEE but We.  Togetherness.  All of us.  Nice idea, shame it’s going to be lambasted from here to Lands End to John o Groats.  Nintendo’s PR must have been sticking strictly to their Asian audience, or totally overlooked the hilarity on this one.  Then again, from what I hear, it might not be able to be pronounced in Japan, but I have a feeling that’s an urban myth.  Either way, pardon me, I’m off to find out more about Wii… Tragic really isn’t it?  Oh well.  I’m guessing it’s too late to take the acid out of their porridge and get them to alter it?  Pretty please?

Find out more here: http://revolution.nintendo.com/

I was recently playing Burnout Revenge, and I had a rather strange - no, downright weird - event happen mid-game.  This is how it panned out:

 I was driving a course that bore quite the resemblance to Rome.  I waited for the go, then got off to a particularly poor start, suffering quite a piledrive and crashing.  Nonetheless, I quickly picked up, and sped off from the crash site to catch up with my rival.  Turning sharply to the right, I could feel the sweat on my hands and I knew that I had to have this race in the bag to be top on the GP circuit.

Coming in on a sharp turn, I used one of the shortcuts in the track, of which there’s a few in Burnout Revenge.  Turning in again, I smashed into a rival, getting a good takedown.  I also used another rival to avoid a crash - both of which were worth good points.  I couldn’t believe it.  I had a massive amount of boost, so started using it, taking my car to over 180 mph. (more…)

I recently had the pleasure of playing Burnout: Revenge.  It’s a fast, good looking game very similar to the others in the Burnout series, with various events based around driving fast, crashing your opponents, driving into traffic or crashing yourself to destroy things.  All in all, quite good fun.  However, what caught my attention was the amount of in-game rewards you receive.

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Lets put this into some kind of context: The Xbox 360 arrived on our shores (I’m in the UK) just before Christmas 2005. It popped down the chimney for the lucky few, and for the rest of us they are still hard to find. So hard in fact, you are probably more likely to find some gold panning in the Thames, than you are to be able to buy one in your local HMV.  Okay, thanks to batches now coming in that’s not true, but it was only a couple of months ago (think February 06). (more…)

*This article assumes some knowledge of the coming Nintendo console, the Revolution.  If you don’t know anything about it, please see my ‘Upcoming Hardware’ page*

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I know there’s nothing better than opening a pristine, brand-new game.  It is great to be the first person to leaf through the manual, maybe add some pedantic scrawl to the infamous ‘notes’ section in the back.  Popping the game in your console/PC and looking at the fresh new screen is, lets face it, a great feeling.  However, you could save cash.  You could be (horror of horrors!) the second or even third person to have this experience with the game.  You could (OMG!) buy SECOND HAND! (more…)

I’m really digging a game I downloaded at the moment.  It in fact won an award.  The contest to design a side scrolling shooter was discussed and participated in by members from www.shmup-dev.com, and you can download any of the games and find out more from here http://shmup-dev.com/hcontest/.

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I don’t know about you, but some games really get the adrenaline going.  You know the type, fast actioners that need lightning reflexes to perform well in - games where each hit counts.  Of course I like those, but this article is about the more sedate games in life.  Those you can play with, rather than struggling against.  Those games that can cheer you up on a Sunday afternoon - without requiring any headshots to keep you in the game. (more…)

I recently had the pleasure of playing Capcom Classics Collection Volume 1 (review coming soon, and longer rant).  However, I showed it to my girlfriend, who’s never had very much to do with games.  She surprised me by saying “who would play that, it looks rubbish”.  I guess the reason it surprised me was due to my rather more hardcore playing style.  These games made up a good part of what I played - and many of them have a sterling pedigree. (more…)