Value is an interesting proposition when it comes to games. Before we get into the meat of the article, here are a few quick questions:

You have 12 hours to kill. Someone locks you in a room and you have the option of playing Call of Duty 4, Gears of War 2, or Bioshock. You probably have enough time to play both COD4 and Gears, or Bioshock on its own. Which do you choose? Now take that option and for each game that you choose to play, you have to pay full retail price. How does that affect your decision? What if Jericho was also included but that was free, would you choose that instead of the other options?

There are of course no right or wrong answers as to which games you enjoy, or for how long they are enjoyable to you before you would prefer to either be playing another game, or doing something else entirely. The above example is loaded with my own perception of those games and the value they represent to me. How often do we hear friends or blog/forum posts saying 'It looks decent but it's not worth full price' or '1200 points/$15 is too much for that game'. I've found it interesting how we value games, as my own perception has changed somewhat in the last year. I used to own a video store, and besides a game being rented by a customer, they were all available to me whenever I wanted, and did not cost me any money. I haven't owned the store for a year, and now I have to purchase my own games. So how has that changed how I perceive the value of games?

I see two main values of any individual game; the intensity of the enjoyment, and the length of time that it is enjoyable. Which one is more important to you? Are you looking for the very best experience? Or do you prefer to stretch your dollar further and make sure your games last a long time before you have to go and buy another one? As I play primarily single player, Call of Duty 4 was a short experience for me. However, the intensity of that enjoyment was incredible, I thoroughly enjoyed the 6 or so hours that it lasted. I tend not to replay many games, so that is where the enjoyment ended for me (though it was great enough that I probably will replay it at some stage). Fallout 3 was a great game. I've yet to finish it, but I've put in over 30 hours and that time was enjoyable. Not at the intensity I enjoyed Call of Duty 4, but that's a decent period of time to be enjoying a game.

I imagine most of us don't sit in the equilibrium; we are either time poor or just plain poor. If you just plain don't have much money to spend on games on a regular basis but you find yourself with plenty of time, you may be more inclined to go for a game that offers longer playability at the expense of intensity (of course finding a game that you enjoy immensely and lasts a long time is possible and that becomes the obvious choice). Those of us who are time poor may be able to afford all of the games we have a desire to play, but simply don't have time to play them all; when we finish a game, there are a bunch more that we are interested in. So while there might be 5 games released a month worth taking note of, if you've only got so many hours to play games you might want to buy the 3 games that offer you the highest enjoyment possible instead of the other 2 that might be longer but be less enjoyable. Sure, you've spent more, but you are having a better time.

Of course, games do go down in price as well. This never used to be an issue for me, as all the highest profile games were usually available to me. Now that I have to spend money on my games, I tend to wait til games go down in price. This is not a primary concern of mine when purchasing games, but the list of games I want to play is pretty large, so games released a year ago are still as desirable to me to play as those released today. If I perceive that an older game is going to provide as much intensity and longevity as a current game for half the price, that's a pretty good incentive to go for the older game, and use that extra money on other interests.

I'm also surprised at some of the flak that has been sent towards the downloadable services when a 'premium' game sells for 1200 points or more. To me it still comes down to those two main issues; how much am I going to enjoy the game, and for how long? Castle Crashers was a great game that was more enjoyable to me than a number of full retail games I've played, and is one of the few games I've replayed so provided me a longer experience than some other games as well. Would I have purchased this game if it was a full retail product? Yes (although like usual I probably would have waited until it came down in price or purchased it second hand). Would many other people? I'm guessing not. And probably not because they perceived they wouldn't enjoy it; which brings me to another stigma.

Games can be enjoyable without developers having to invest millions. Yet even those smaller games do cost the developers time and money to produce. It is not my own perception, but I get the impression that there are some people out there who perceive that if a game costs less to make, then it should sell for less. But at the end of the day, you aren't paying because you want to invest in their development tools; you are paying because you want an experience you can enjoy.What if game A offers 8 hours of enjoyment at an intensity level of 7 out of 10 which cost $10million to make, while game B offers 10 hours of enjoyment at an intensity level of 9 out of 10 but only cost $100,000 to make with a small development team? Maybe game B has lower production values, but if the game itself is still great and both these games were offered at the same price, why would you choose game A? Clearly the choice for you, the gamer, is to spend the same money on a game you are going to enjoy more.

I've certainly not covered every aspect of how we perceive value in gaming, and I'd be interested to hear your thoughts. Remember that the games I've listed above are just my personal opinion on their value to me, and they don't need to be shared by everybody. And to poke the bear a little, how much should longevity factor into a gaming review score? Or should they only focus on how enjoyable the game is for as long as it does last? What if the best game in the world lasted 15 minutes?

I was watching some Robot Chicken lately, and a discussion with someone prompted me to get out my He-Man figures, take some shots and add some funny captions. So I decided to post them here for your perusal. I'm no Seth Green, but it's a start.

"Hahahaha, I am going to enjoy torturing you He-Man!"

"How do you like my snake staff nipple clamp He-Man!"

"Now you will taste my purple sword! I Bet-"
"Buttercup! Buttercup!"
"The safe word already? Ok, I guess it's my turn."

"...."

"Yes, MBF? Do we have full dental cover? Excellent. How about optical?"

---

Not brilliant, but I enjoyed brainstorming nonetheless. I've got a few other ideas with the figures, I'll see how those pan out and I might post some more. It acutally led to me looking some of these up online as I'd forgotten a few of the characters names. There were some weird characters in the later sets from which I've got very few or have no knowledge of. Apparently some of these sell for a pretty penny if they are still packaged.

Here's hoping that the movie that is apparently in the works does the series some justice.

I finished the main story of Marvel Ultimate Alliance last night. I only bothered with a couple of the comic missions, and I think I will leave them for now, it will give me something to do if I ever get the itch to play the game again. The gameplay was decent if repetitive, but the motion controls (I played the PS3 version) were annoying. The 'down' motion never worked for me except by fluke; sometimes I would be holding the controller completely still, the indicator would appear for a split second before disappearing while the tone played that indicated success. If I didn't get that fluke, it usually meant I had to repeat the sequence. A-NNOY-ING. Graphically the game was a bit of a let down, but it didn't really get in the way of the game. I still would have hoped for more detail and a solid frame rate. I suppose it will have improved for the sequel.

So I perused to shelf to see what to play next, and saw Burnout Paradise. I thought to myself I didn't really want to play the game, but I suppose I should at least pop it in and install the updates so when I DO want to play it, it's ready to go. As I suspected, there were multiple updates. The first of seven was 385 meg. So probably up to a dozen hours of download time. Great. Then I chucked in Pikmin New Play Control! to give that a whirl. Then the batteries died on the Wii-mote, so I went shopping and hired a movie. Of course, I couldn't hire a blu-ray because you can't download updates in the background... sigh.

So I finish watching the movie in the 360, and what's the first thing I do? Press eject on the PS3, the machine I use to play movies. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!.... is what was going through my head, but upon flicking the channel looks like the download is still going even thought the disc is not in the drive. Whew. With some batteries charged, I continue playing Pikmin.

I've completed day 6 of 30, and I'm a bit concerned that I haven't been terribly efficient and I may not put my ship together in 30 days. But if that does happen, I don't think I will be terribly upset about having to repeat it, because I am enjoying the game so far and once you know where stuff is you can focus on the strategy more. But then again, I may be worrying about nothing; I've got 5 parts in 6 days, which is almost par for course. I've never played the original, but I'd guess that by comparison the remote controls would be an improvment. Some very mild frustrations such as pikmin getting stuck on scenery (especially when using holes which are shortcuts, but you have to go the long way to get them all to follow) and I don't think the group command seems to work the way I think I should and I lose pikmin who should be attacking creatures, but so far I'm enjoying the strategy.

Played a bit of Uncharted 2 around a friends house and that was pretty awesome. At first I didn't think it looked as good as the first and that my friend hadn't set up his new toy and TV properly, but I couldn't find the settings in the PS menu. But it's still pretty. He bought a second controller so we could play co-op.... but it's online only co-op. Damn it. So now I have to consider whether to borrow the game from him to play the single-player, or whether to purchase a copy so I can play co-op with him. And if I'm going to do that, I suppose I would need a headset... Give us local co-op please. Scale back the graphics on the games when there are multiple players if you need to, but I much prefer playing with someone sitting on the couch next to me.

I need to get off my butt and write the the blog that has been in my head for ages about how we perceive value in games we play/purchase. So here is my commitment to write it up by next weekend. It's in my head but every time I've tried to write it, it just doesn't come out right. But I'll just bash it out and see how it falls.

The internet is full of random humour. There are a number of sites I frequent on a regular basis (is that statement redundant?), perhaps while on a break at work, or when I'm just killing time at home (though my preferred method for killing time is slitting its throat when it's not looking). Sometimes I exhaust the ones that I do look at, so I thought I'd ask you fine folks which similar ones you peruse to get your laffs. So in the interest of sharing, here are some of the webcomics ort funny sites that I tend to visit regularly.

Failblog

Here you will find a huge number of 'fails', Pictures and videos of completely idiotic things that people have done, or evidence that some people simply have no clue. Whether it be a sign that makes no sense such as "No pregnant women (or men)", to cars crashed in unimaginable ways (how did that car get upside down on a set of stairs?), or stunt attempts gone wrong, it's great to know that there are so many people much stupider than you are. For newcomers there is stacks of content that will take you hours to go through, so for those that haven't been there before it's a goldmine of entertainment. Some of my favourites are complete lack of thought in architectural or manufacturing design, such as...

Picture Is Unrelated

Failblog has several sister sites, though none as funny... except maybe Picture Is Unrelated. Where Failblog focuses on stupidity, Picture Is Unrelated has you scratching your head wondering what the hell is going on. Mere stupidity can't create these images. It's more like some combination of warped imagination and a heavy dose of drugs... well, possibly some elements of stupidity too. The Japanese seem to have their fair slice on this site. But then there are also guys like this...

Cyanide & Happiness

A webcomic that I'm sure many of you are already familiar with. I like my humour on the 'wrong' side, and these guys cross that line with glee on some occassions. Other comics go off on a random tangent, and others break the 4th wall and the characters are aware they are in a comic, or use self-referential material. 3 different authors produce the work each with their ownstyIe yet still within the same sense of humour.

Coloringbookland

The comics on this site are no longer updated regularly, but for the utmost in vulgarity, I suggest you visit. These are single frames of old school line drawings that look like they are from decades past, but with over the top captions that contrast with the art styIe. It's hard to give any specific examples because I'd get modded for mentioning just about any of them. Here's one that might be relatively safe.

HyperDeathBabies

Another website where the comics are no longer updated, but still some funny stuff. There are several different comics to peruse, though perhaps my favourite is the 50's Apocalypse series where many comics are the same panels with spartan design, but with different captions for each comic.

So what other comics or regular funnies do you guys visit?

So my housemates decided to go on the local zombie walk. I wasn't sure whether I was going to go. I mean, it sounds cool that it's an event an everything, but at the same time, it's just people wearing make up and shuffling down a street which doesn't sound very entertaining. So in the middle of writing the above, I decided to go on short notice and thought I'd talk about it. I thought I did a reasonable job for a first effort, with what looked like a nice patch of dried blood down one side of my face, and a temporary tattoo of a gunshot wound, and some white paint for that pale look. Added the obligatory rips to clothes, colored the edges of the tears with some paint. I thought I looked pretty decent.

Upon seeing some of the other people in town, I felt like I was wearing a garbage bag to a masquerade ball. We arrived late so missed out on the actual walk, but there were some bars that were catering to the zombie crowd for the event, so we headed there. Some people really went to alot of effort on their costumes, and myself and friends felt quite underdone (and one of them used green paint, and looked more like She-hulk than a zombie). There were cop zombies, nurse zombies, council worker zombies, a pregnant zombie with baby arms coming out her stomach, and I didn't meet just one but 3 zombie Jesus' (Jesi?). Pretty sure the one carrying around his cross had the most legitimate claim to being Gods undead son. Next year I think I'm going to see if I can pull off having a pole go through one part of my body and coming out the other side. Though that could look a little hokey as it would to be positioned correctly on both sides and remain there for it to look convincing, I guess. I think the key to looking is good is accessorise. A waitress was serving severed fingers on a plate, a cop had his handcuffs attached to his belt dragging a severed hand behind, and an artist with a brush through her head was using blood from severed fingers on a board to paint. I'm not sure about the stormtrooper; he just looked like he was covered in blood.

But some zombies are just rude. My friends and I were playing pool at one of the pubs, a couple of my friends go outside for a smoke. 3 girls come in and sit down near the table, on the seats that we were using. I'm not too fussed; we weren't sitting down so it isn't like we owned those chairs. Not sure how they couldn't see the drinks in front of them that belonged to us though. So I had to excuse myself to grab them and move them. A minute later I had to take a shot across the table, and asked them politely that I might need them to move aside for a moment while I take a shot. They just kind of looked at me and moved their heads maybe a centimetre out of the way and kept talking away to each other oblivious to the stick near their face. I missed the shot because I was concerned I was going to hit them. Should have just whacked them. They were dead already anyway.

Driving in was pretty funny, staring out windows at others passing by, and just walking through the city seeing the faces of onlookers who had no idea about the event. On a side note, I thought it would have been absolutely hilarious if someone unaware of the event jumped out screaming "Oh, my god! Zombies!" and started beating into someone with a plank of 2 by 4. In all it was a pretty fun night, though when you look at it, it is pretty pointless. Here's to zombie-ing it up next year.

So I finished Prince of Persia. I enjoyed my time with it, though the combat got a little boring for most of them. I can't be bothered going back and finding the rest of the light seeds. It's good, but not enough that I want to go back. Did anyone else find the graphic fliter at the end annoying? I had problems trying to figure out where I was going and what I was hanging onto and kept dying because I couldn't see. I recall a few people saying they hated the ending, I guess I'm indifferent.

While out shopping today I considered buying Scribblenauts, but I asked myself "Am I going to play it anytime soon?" and the answer was probably not. It can wait. My DS is in my work drawer aftergetting beaten in one of the levels and I'm not sure if I can be bothered trying again. Maybe I should have got Scribblenauts. Then I could have seen what happened when you put a cat and a cheesegrater together (waits for someone in the comments to try this and tell me). So now I think it's Marvel Ultimate Alliance. Starting playing with a mate who doesn't seem that interested in continuing, so I guess I'll solo the rest.

Just about finished Magician by Raymond E. Feist. I've had a hankering for re-reading his stuff, but for some reason didn't particularly want to read Magician again. But I decided I had to to get myself back up to speed because I haven't read the stuff in years. Great book. So now I have to decide whether to jump straight into Silverthorn, or read somethingnon-fantasy in between. I've still got a couple of Tom Clancy novels my dad lent me, Patriot Games and Teeth of the Tiger. Raven or Ork can probably advise me, noting that I've only read Hunt for Red October and Without Remose so far from his catalogue if order matters. And I also bought an English Reference Collection today. Yeah, I'm nerdy like that.

Probably a couple of months after I played it, but I decided to write a review for Eternal Sonata.

If I asked you to list games inspired by musicians, it would be simple to cite the multiple rhythm based games currently on the market. On the more obscure end, you have Eternal Sonata, a RPG with a story that revolves around the dreams Frederic Chopin is having on his death bed. While a bizarre premise for a story, it works, and an interesting battle system makes it entertaining to play through.

You begin as Polka, a young girl who possesses magic power. A side effect of being able to use magic is a short life span, and Polka may not live for long. As such she is shunned by some, as they fear her using magic will also negatively affect them. Along the journey she will meet up with a number of other characters, including Chopin himself. Everyone has names related to music, including the likes of Beat, Falsetto, Crescendo and Alegretto. The story is a linear affair, and is broken into chapters. While there is no role-playing or character development on your part, the story is told through cutscenes which are in abundance. The visuals leave a lasting impression, and compare to top-notch cel-shaded anime with vibrant colours. There are plenty of standard cliches like traitors in the midst and loves that can not be had, and while overdramatised at times are still effective. It does present the question, if you think you are in a dream but it feels real, which is the dream? The cut scenes can drag at times, but you are able to pause them or skip them.

Another interesting addition is that between the anime cutscenes and standard gameplay, you are treated to the occassional score by Chopin, while photos of locations he lived or visited or other relevant pictures play on a slideshow in the background, while text fills you in on Chopins life. However, these are unrelated to the game at all, and I found this took me out of the experience.

As there is no character development on your part, the leveling up is old school Japanese fare, in that when you level up, all of your stats automatically increase. You can buy weapons and defensive items, or find these on your travels. Most characters have an exclusive set of weapons and clothing/armour that they can wear, so you can't mix and match weapons. This lends all of the characters a difference in combat, as some have long range weapons, some attack slower, or have wider arcs for their weapons and are able to hit two foes in close proximity.

Combat is turn-based, but when it comes to each participants turn, they have a certain amount of time to act before their time is up and it goes to the next turn. While in control of your characters, you can use that time to run across the battlefield towards enemies, fire long range weapons if you have one, use items, or attack close quarters if you reach them in time. While the combat mechanics get complex towards the end of the game, they are introduced slowly so that you are never overwhelmed. At the beginning, once your turn begins you have infinite Tactial Time to consider your options before you begin moving. Once you begin moving, you will start using up your Action Guage and time will pause if you stop moving if you want to reconsider. As you progress through the game Tactical Time changes from infinite to a few seconds, and finally down to nothing, making sure you are always keeping an eye on whose turn it is next. This procession gives you time to learn the nuances of combat early in the game, and applies pressure to keep you active later in the game. If you time it right, it also possible to block opponents attacks, so battles are always engaging. While your party will grow in size, you can only have 3 active members in the party to partake in combat. Sometimes story-based events will force certain characters to fight specific battles, but these are few and far between. Non-active members still earn some experience, so they are never left too far behind if you do favour some characters.

Upon joining your party each character begins with at least one special ability of Light and Dark varieties, and this is another twist in the combat as they are assigned to the same button. Each combat area usually has some mix of light and dark areas; using a special ability in the light activates your Light ability, and... you get the idea. This adds another layer of complexity to the combat, as the special abilities can be quite varied. Healing abilities are related to the light, so in some areas which are almost always dark, you may have to use up most of your action guage just to get into some light. You may come across a strategy that works for you, only to find it ineffective if light conditions aren't in your favour. As your characters level up, they can master new special abilities, and you can change which ones you want your character to use. You aren't the only one that benefits from light and dark either. Some enemies have more effective attacks in the right conditions, or may change shape altogether and become more difficult to kill.

An additional twist to combat comes a little way in to the game; echoes. Whenever one of your characters lands a blow, it goes towards a hit counter. Once you get enough hits, a multiplier increases in the bottom right of the screen. Whenever someone uses a special attack, the combo meter is used up, and the attack or ability is more powerful by that many times. This makes it fun to have your first two characters wail on one enemy, and in the last split second of your third characters turn activating a special and annihilating another one. An additional layer is added once you learn Harmony Chains; if you activate these while your combo is at a certain level, you can activate a second ability, or even have another character use theirs to assist. Later in the game you will be needing to use these abilities to try and knock out your enemies before they can inflict serious damage upon you.

The enemies themselves are a varied bunch, from the onion-looking things that grow enormous if they are in the dark, to rats that carry their own 'dark source' (making the area around them dark even if they wander into the light), to mechanical beasts. Everything here is far from the standard fantasy affair and generated with a great deal of imagination. Even those that might be familiar still have their own styIe here and are superbly animated. On the odd occassion they show signs of stupidity, moving away from your party or not attacking for no apparent reason, but generally will head towards your characters and attempt to beat them into submission. While the mix of creatures in a given area are often the same or similar, you will move on to the next area before it becomes entirely routine. While many battles will only last a couple of rounds, the boss battles will take some extra work. Sometimes these are accompanied by other lesser minions to take out first, and a few even generate additional ones. The bosses are varied as well, such as the nimble female pirate who will take you out with devastating special attacks of her own, to large lumbering beasts whose attacks can hit multiple targets. It's here that thinking about how best to use your echoes and special abilities come into play. Do you inflict as much damage as possible now, or save up the echoes for the next time you need to heal?

As mentioned the game is relatively linear. There are some areas to explore, but they don't veer too far off the path and usually reward you with weapons or items. There are no random battles, enemies appear on the map and can be avoided if you choose. For the most part save points are spaced well, and you will always be able to save before a big battle. There are a few light puzzle elements, and a few areas where you will have to talk to people you come across, but for the most part you can avoid non-player characters in the game.

The negative issues I had with the game are minor. Sometimes the presentation of the battle map means you can't see enemies until you have begun moving to their side of the screen where an enemy may not had been waiting, wasting time. You can collect score pieces and play these with people you may find on your travels, but this made little sense to me. Being able to more easily select a target for long range weapons would have been nice. It's also worth noting that Beat has special abilities that takes photos of enemies. If you line it up and they are good photos, you can sell them at shops which bring in quite a lot of money... too much money. I took and sold only 4 pictures early in the game, and was able to buy everything whenever something more powerful was available except for one point late in the game where I sold a few things.

Perhaps my biggest gripe with the game is that after I beat it, there was little to bring me back for more. I was hoping for an extra challenge mode or more powerful bosses, but alas no luck. And if that is my biggest gripe, then the game must have something going for it. With beautiful artistic vision, an increasingly rewarding and engaging combat system, and an offbeat story, Eternal Sonata is easy to recommend.

I just watched Highlander, which I haven't seen for who knows how many years, over a decade at least. Didn't really hold up quite as well as I'd hoped, but not bad. But this sequence of events really puzzled me.

Forensic investigator learns that signature matching places Connor McLeod hundreds of years old.

Forensic investigator confronts Connor McLeod regarding the dead person he claims to be.

Connor McLeod reveals his true identity and proves his immortality by stabbing himself.

Sex scene.

What? ok, it isn't defying known physics like Transporter 3, but still. "Oh my god, he's immortal! That is SO hot!"

Just finished Timeshift. Despite tepid reviews, I still want to check it out just to see the nifty time mechanics. I don't usually mind derivative shooters.

Meh.

It was ok for a bit, but the time mechanics aren't enough to really recommend it due to the rest of the problems. Sometimes when driving vehicles you just die from hitting some random piece of geometry. Other times the game says "Haha. Now that that environmental hazard killed you, you will know that you need to use your time powers when you reload the last check point". Sometimes the suit tells you that something is about to happen, but until you know what it can be pretty hard to avoid these things happening. Enemies can hit you from a billion yards away, and in some firefights it is almost mandatory to use your time powers to survive, and if you happen to run out of juice at the wrong time it probably means game over. I have no idea what the story was about. I jumped back in time to chase some other dude or something, I began helping some random people who didn't seem to care too much that I came from the future, and looked like an overgrown can of sardines, and I shot people when my cursor turned red when I aimed at them. There was a flashback of some woman every now and again. I have no idea why. And then the game ends on an anti-climax. I finished the game, but I thought about giving up a few times. On the plus side, shooting people in the face with a shotgun in slo-mo never gets old.

So there is my short review, I haven't been in the mood to write full reviews lately, I might eventually write one for Eternal Sonata. I'd score Timeshift a 6.0. It had some neat ideas, but they don't save it from paling in comparison to other great shooters of this generation.

I seem to try and play shooters between other games, I think there is just something about shooters that seems to work for me, even if they are mediocre ones like Timeshift. But I'm out of options in the collection. Metroid Prime Gamecube; I'd rather wait til I have the Metroid Prime Trilogy on Wii to play with those controls. Medal of Honor Airborne; tried playing that a couple of times and just get frustrated. Army of Two; have started playing this on co-op so I think I will leave that for when my mate comes over so we can continue on that one together. I can't really justify buying any games at the moment when I have a number of games unplayed or uncompleted in the collection. I'm sure I can do without a shooter for a while, though I do need to finish up Fallout 3, so that should scratch that itch, though it's not quite the same.

So what's next? *peruses collection*

Prince of Persia, I choose you.

A car has 4 tyres. In most cases, these tyres are filled with air. If said car were to fall into a lake, the air in those tyres would not be able to keep the car afloat. Thus by extension, if you happened to be down at the bottom of the lake with the car, you would not be able to remove two bags from the boot of the car, deflate the tyres to fill them with air, then use them to float the car to the surface. You have not created any more air.

Transporter 3, I just owned your arse.

Of course movies like that aren't supposed to be realistic. But crikey, how could they let that pass? And why did the bad guy not put cameras and microphones in the car when he decked it out? That was just stupid.

At work, we are playing weekly typing games in teams. The best total team score for the game gets some chocolate bars, with the added benefit of trying to get us to type faster and thus be more productive workers. And you know what; I've taken to playing some of the games at home. Surprisingly not just to practice because I crave chocolate; I actually find the challenge of typing the words fun. See, games can be educational! A few of them are still games in that as well as typing speed playing a contributing factor, you need some strategy. When playing Metoer Typing Blast (Asteroids) you might not want to type out that word as it is about to fly past your ship, or the debris might hit your ship before you can type the new word. Or in Martian City Defender (Missile Command) you might want to type a word ata specifc time so that it blows up another word without you having to type it.

I'm decent at typing (though not a true touch typist) and I've scored first or second in the three weeks we've been running the competition. I wager that the competition here on Gamespot might be a bit higher. There are plenty of options for which letters or areas of the keyboard to use. I tried the 'All Keys' option once... which among normal stuff giving you ocassional 'words' to type like #:"& good luck with speed typing those.

My best score at Spacebar Invaders (guess which game this might be emulating) on intermediate is 115400 using Lesson #9, letters only. I uplaoded my score as bacchus on the scoreboard which puts me at 26th for scores submitted in the last 7 days if anyone here wants to try and top me

http://www.freetypinggame.net/play.asp

How strange that I'm finding myself captivated by these typing games. I might have to look into Typing of the Dead...

I haven't posted anything for a while, and thought it was time I did something, so I wrote a review for Zack & Wiki. I haven't played the game for a number of weeks, and usually I write reviews straight after I finish playing a game so I don't forget anything, or I lose the buzz if I don't write straight away. But I found this one incredibly easy to write for some reason. I haven't been commenting on a lot of blogs because I find I don't have heaps of time, but I have still been reading them all.

I'm off work this week, and I've been pretty lazy. I've been playing Eternal Sonata, which is a great game but the battles are getting slightly repetitive because many of the encounters in an area are identical. I still love the combat system, but usually each time I play I only get up to the next save point before I have to go do something else. I also played through Gears 2 solo (as my co-op buddy decided he didn't want to keep playing) which was awesome, but I don't think I can review it because multiplayer seems to be a pretty large part of the game.

During my week off I said that I would try and write my novel again, I've started a few fantasy novels in the past but haven't really got anywhere with them. In a few days I've managed to finish Chapter 3 of one of them (which I haven't written in for a few years) and start Chapter 4. This is way harder to get back into than I thought! I figured doing it over a full week would get me back into the swing of things, and then I would be in the mindset to do a little bit after work a few nights a week when I go back, but I'm still missing a lot of detail. I seem to hit a small roadblock and then go and play a game or watch a movie. I'm still making progress though, and usually when I reach something that I haven't thought through yet, it is going around in my head and something usually pops up eventually, and I've also developed a Chapter Guide to help shape where I think it is going.

On with the review.

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Point and click adventure games have lost their prominence over the last decade or longer, and their prescence on consoles has been minimal at best. Zack & Wiki manages to take the core concepts and fuses it with mostly great controls and a refined structure on the Wii.

Zack & Wiki : Quest For Barbaros Treasure sees you take control of Zack, who is a lighthearted wannabe pirate. Along for the ride is Wiki, a magical monkey who flies by spinning his tail, and Zack can also use him as a bell. The tutorial level plays out on board an aeroplane piloted by a companion, which gets you used to the controls. Aiming at the screen and pressing the A button will have Zack move to that location. The cursor changes colour to highlight things you can inspect and interact with, and pressing A does so. There is no support for the nunchuk, which I would have preferred for moving Zack as aiming and clicking while the camera is moving can be harder to get pinpoint precision, but this is minor.

It is when you go to interact with items that the motion controls come in, and they are usually not only intuitive, but feel accurately mapped to actual controls. For example, when you interact with a lever, you will have to hold the remote upright in front of you and then pull it back, or you will have to turn your hand in a circular motion to turn a crank. Other times you may have to put puzzle pieces back in their rightful spot, and will have to twist your hands to rotate them and put them in the right way. The vast majority of times that you interact with an object, an indicator shows you how to hold the remote, and figuring out the appropriate action from there is usually intuitive.

The way the game is structured is different than many other point and click adventures, and I feel this is for the better. You won't be lugging around something you collected in the first few minutes of the game in the hopes that it will come in useful several hours into the game. The game is divided into levels, and everything you need to solve the puzzle at hand is contained within that level. This arms you with the knowledge that you don't need to backtrack to find something you may have missed earlier. The first few puzzles are relatively easy, but it cranks up pretty quickly and you may find yourself scratching your head alot. Another refinement is that you can only carry one object at a time, also eliminating the 'collect everything' mindset often associated with these games. This forces you to look at an object you may pick up, and determine whether it is something you can use right now, or where in the level it might come in to play.

Another nice addition is using Wiki as a bell. While few of them are lethal, you will come across some animals or enemies in the levels. If you stand close enough to them and ring Wiki by shaking the Wii Remote like a bell, most of them will turn in to an item. Further, you can ring the bell again to change them into something else. This adds an extra layer of depth to some of the later levels. For example, early on you may need to turn a snake into a Slither Gripper which lets you reach an item you couldn't otherwise reach. Later on, you may need to do that and also drop it near another animal and change it back into a snake to scare the animal and progress further. It's the weighing up of the options available to you with the tools you can see in each level that is so satisfying.

After the tutorial, you uncover the golden skull of Barbaros, a famous pirate who has has been transformed into various artifacts and scattered in chests throughout the land. Our intrepid adventurers agree to help him restore the rest of his body in exchange for his famed pirate ship. It's obvious that Barbaros has another agenda, but it sets up the adventure as you travel to different locales. This begins in the jungle areas, but you will also travel to staple background environments such as the Ice area, the Fire area and Barbaros' Haunted castle. Each level however is individually crafted and they all look great. The game takes a whimsical cartoony approach to its visuals and pulls it off well. The camera automatically follows Zack around, and by holding the B button you can pan the camera around the level to investigate, or click an icon in the top corner of the screen to zoom out and see the whole level.

Of course, the heart of the game is solving the puzzles, and most of them feel very satisfying when you solve them. However, there is some trial and error as there are some things that may appear evident as solutions, but when attempted are incorrect and may even mean you fail the level. Other times you may want to try something just to see if it works, but it may trigger a game ending scene... though they are usually humorous. If you fail a puzzle, you can simply restart from the beginning of the level. You can also consult the Oracle if you have vouchers, and you can restart from the last 'safe' place in the level before you died to prevent from having to go through all the work that you do know how to complete. You can find money in levels to purchase more vouchers while you are at the Hideout between levels. There are also hint vouchers that can be purchased if you are having trouble. They don't spell it out specifically what you have to do next, but they are usually reasonably obvious. However, I was having difficulty on one stage and purchased a hint, but the solution presented was not possible as I had tried it previously; I was unaware until I checked a Game Guide that I had missed something several steps earlier that prevented me from completing the level. Still, that is the only time I had a problem with the hint system. On the one hand I would like to detail some of the solutions to desribe how intricate some of the puzzles are, but this would take away the mystery if you do play the game. Suffice to say, you will have to think about the different ways that items can be used, as while they are repeated in different levels, their applications are not always the same.

You are scored on your performance, and trying something with an object that is incorrect may lead to a lower score when you do get it right (and you are shown the potential maximum score for an action each time you earn points), and this adds up at the end of the stage to show you your rank. There is a treasure hunting side-game which you can activate between missions to find more treasures which contribute to unlockable, but I did not find these very enticing. Once the game is completed you can solve some extra riddles by doing things differently in the stages, and those riddles are found in the treasure hunting, but I would suggest just looking them up in a guide as this is tedious.

Zack & Wiki is a great refinement of the point and click adventure. While each level might only take a few minutes to complete once you know the solution, you might be scratching your head for half an hour or even longer as you try and work out the solution the first time. How can this item be used? What if I change it back into an animal, will that do anything? If I move this, does that mean I can't interact with it later? If I use this item on that item, is something going to move in the level? These are all things that will go through your head while playing Zack & Wiki. If solving questions like that sounds like it suits your analytical nature, you will have a blast with Zack & Wiki.

Score 8.5

It happens in the majority of games I play. You finish the game, and just like a movie, you get the credits. You get the complete list of what everyone contributed to the title, and what their role was. This is to expected; those that contribute should be recognised. But really, how many of us really care? The things is with most games, you can't skip them. With movies, this is fine. I can just turn it off, or skip back to the menu (so long as you've gotten past the VHS era). The problem is with a game, there are sometimes more things you can do once you have finished the game. Super Paper Mario and Zack & Wiki are my recent examples. But I wasn't able to just keep playing my game. The game had to tell me every person who worked on the game.

This isn't a major issue. No-one is going to decide not to buy a great game because it has credits that you can't skip. But I decided to head here to Gamespot to check news and blogs, heading back into the lounge room every few minutes to see if I could keep playing my game yet. For those of us that don't care, why not let us skip them? Add them to the menu so we can go check later if we really want the info. Am I missing some reason why they shouldn't do this? The only thing I can think of is the first sentence of this paragraph; it isn't going to affect sales, and maybe they expect some small smidgen of players who would not have bothered to read it will now do so and maybe learn something from it. Am I missing something?

Super Paper Mario continues the wafer thin aesthetics of of its Paper Mario predecessors, but eschews it's turn based roots for a more traditional real time platforming experience with RPG elements. This makes the experience much more accessible, and while the game is great in its own right, it may not be the sequel fans of the series were looking for.

As usual, Marios friends (and even long-time enemy Bowser) get into a spot of bother with newcomer villain, Count Bleck, who has decided that the world is a terrible place and that he is going to end it all, usaing a Chaos Heart to tear a rift that will swallow everything up. As seems to always be the case, everyone is whisked away except Mario, and learns about the Pure Hearts from Flipside resident Merlon, which can be used to repair the rift. Flipside is a hub of sorts, and here you can ineract with a number of characters and buy items before setting out to recover the Chaos Hearts. The characters you meet have the usual charm you have come to expect from Nintendo. Dialogue is told via onscreen text, and of course Mario never says a word. There are the occassional enunciations from him, for example as he points to himself and mumbles "Me?" in surprise, and the few syllables he does use give him plenty of character despite having no actual dialogue. The villains you will face also have their own identities, and plot twists revealing each of their true intentions are discovered as the story progresses.

Most of Super Paper Mario takes place in 2D and is played in real time, and plays more like Super Mario World than Thousand Year Door. Turn based combat is out of the window, which can make some of the leveling up less meaningul depending on your skill level, as the game is quite easy. The major twist to the gameplay is that while you are in control of Mario, you can turn the landscape into 3D. Objects that may be impassable in 2D might required a simple sidestep in 3D, or disappear completely if they were part of the background. Herein lay interesting puzzle elements. For example, in 2D you may come upon a blank wall; switch to 3D and it might be a staircase not visible in the 2D realm. Or perhaps some seemingly impossible to avoid hazard that is hutling toward you can be avoided by going into 3D where that object is paper thin. The one annoyance here is that Mario can only switch to 3D for a limited time before he begins to lose life. I'm not sure why this limitation was implemented, as you will switch to it frequently while searching every area for ways forward or to discover hidden objects.

Mario is also accompanied by Pixl's. These are neon companions formed by simple shapes, and when discovered grant Mario and his friends new powers. The first Pixl is Tipi, who let's you aim the remote at the screen to highlight objects and give you information about them, and also to reveal hidden objects. You will discover a number of Pixl's on your adventure who give you new tools to search through areas that were previously inaccessible. These range from being able to drop bombs to destroy cracked walls, the ability to flip sideways so that enemies can't see you and to avoid traps, and a hammer to break certain blocks. Tipi is active at all times, and you can switch between the others from a menu.

You won't control just Mario during this adventure. Eventually you will play as Peach, Luigi and even Bowser. Each of them have their own abilities that require their use from time to time. For example, Peach can use her parasol to float across long gaps, Bowsers fire comes in handy at times, and Luigi has a spring jump to reach higher places the others can't. However, you can't flip into 3D unless you are playing as Mario. Thus Mario will be your mainstay character, and I found myself only switching to the other characters at the time when their specific skills were needed before changing back to Mario.

I would assume in the interest of remaining accessible, the game is much less open-ended and each Chapter is divided into levels. Aside from in Flipside and Flopside (Flipsides twin city which you will discover) there isn't a more open world like Thousand Year Door. You are free to revisit levels after you have played them, and these can yield some secrets once you have progressed and unlocked more Pixl's and characters, but the structure is much more rigid this time around. Cooking and arcade games make a return. I hardly used cooking in Thousand Year Door, and here it seemed even more useless. Given that everything is in real-time, I almost never used any combat items, and the game is very easy from a platforming and combat perspective. You will accumulate enough coins that you can easily just buy any items you may need, and not have to wait for an unskippable animation while someone prepares your concoction. Some of the puzzles may be a little more devious, and there were a few head-scratchers that had me turning to a FAQ. Most of them are pleasing to solve, but there are a few dubious design choices that stick out like sore thumbs. Chiefly, the section that demands you hold the right arrow on your Wii remote for about 5 minutes. Without doing anything else. No, I'm not joking. How did testers not insist how ridiculous this was? Secondly, remembering sequences has been around for a long time... but this game has a "left, middle, right" sequence that is about 30 entries long, that you have no hope of remembering unless you write it down. In the scope of the whole game these are minor quibbles, but they are very annoying when they come around.

The Wii remote is all you will need to play this game, holding the Wii remote sideways like an original NES controller, and motion sensing has been kept to a minimum. The remote can be used like a pointer to use Tipi's ability. Once you have jumped on enemies, you can shake the remote after your bounce to do something stylish and earn extra points, which measure when you level up. I found that I forgot about this function, but it doesn't really have a huge impact on the game. The only other use of motion sensing outside of this is in the arcade games. I can't help but feel the game would have been better suited to a more traditional controller, mainly because later in the game you have to navigate menus to switch between characters and Pixls, and the frequency of switching breaks up the immersion. However the platforming and the controls themselves are great, which is what you would expect from a Mario platformer, though it can be a bit awkward to judge distance in 3D. The leveling is also simplified, simply giving you more health or increasing your damage or defense each time your level up; gone is the choice of where to put your points, it is all automatic.

The adventure took me about 40 hours to finish, but even completionists may wince at the extras to collect. There are cards to collect, which can be found in the levels, bought from vendors, or you can use capture cards to capture enemies. When you have a card for an enemy, it increases the damage that you will do to that enemy with each hit. There is also the Pit of 100 Trials, which is 100 consecutive levels that you are unable to save, pitting you against a combination of enemies in each stage, with the objective to find the key to the door which will be dropped by one of the enemies once defeated. After those levels you will fight a boss, which ended the game for me; the rooms themselves were not hard, but I didn't want to replay them just to get back to the boss fight.

Super Paper Mario takes a solid 2D forumla, mixes it up with some interesting 3D puzzles, continues the charming paper-cutout visuals, wraps an amusing story around it, and barring a few odd choices makes it accessible and easy to enjoy. It's major downfall is that after Thousand Year Door, players may be disappointed that this game has been stripped of some of those features they may have enjoyed in the previous adventure. This doesn't stop Super Paper Mario from being a good game in it's own right, but is a different beast if you were looking for more of the same.

Score 8.0

I came to realise I have spent less than $100 of my own cash on games this year. I've just gone and got myself another haul of goodies, courtesy of a voucher I won at work, and put a whole $13 of my own money into the equation. So this is the second time since getting out of the video industry that I have walked into a game shop as a consumer. I was always used to looking up prices from a supplier, and then ordering it in. Simple. So I looked up prices of games yesterday on EB Games website, where my voucher was valid (was a shopping centre voucher, none of the other game stores in the centre accepted it), wrote down a bunch of stuff that I thought sounded like good value and went down there today.

Can't say I'm impressed with the layout of the store. Everything on tables, so you have to pick up piles of stuff to sort through them. Games on the same platform can be found in various areas, and not because they are split into pre-owned and new; they are all mixed in together. So basically I had to look through everything in the store to see if they had the titles. I found a couple, and had to ask about others, which weren't in stock. One such special was Oblivion Game of the Year Edition for PS3, which was advertised on their website for $20. On the shelf was a pre-owned regular edition for $60. Game of the Year Edition not in stock, and the regular edition doesn't count. She told me a new copy of the Game of the Year Edition would be $30... but that wasn't in stock either so the best she could do was $50 for a pre-owned one. She acknowledged that was a bit dumb, but she couldn't do anything about it.

Then there was Marvel Ultimate Alliance which has been in the back of my mind to pick up since it came out. It was listed on special for a brand new copy on the website for $15. Not in stock, but a pre-owned copy would be $25. Sigh. I declined, only to come back and begrudgingly ask for it... but she was unable to find the copy the computer said they had. Which is probably a good thing. I've waited this long for the game, I can wait a bit longer and not feel bad about the purchase.

Then there was Zack & Wiki (yes Foolz3h, I finally got a copy!). It was advertised on their website at $44.91 or something. On the shelf it was $55. I advised her that the price was different on the website and she said she didn't know what the website said, but the price was whatever it scanned at. It scanned in at $44.91. But if it hadn't, I don't think I would have been accepting that as an answer. Your company has a website. It is advertising a price. That price should be met. I'm glad it scanned in at that price.

I must be the worst customer. I was there for about an hour scouring shelves and thinking about the price of everything. And then used a voucher for nearly all of it (though I shouldn't feel bad about that, they will still get the money from the shopping centre). So in the end, the haul was;

Prince of Persia (360)
Lego Indiana Jones (360)
Lost Odyssey (360)
Army of Two (PS3)
Pikmin New Play Control (Wii)
Zack & Wiki (Wii)
Lock's Quest (DS)

The good thing is, the company I work for is continuing the incentive plan in place, so there is a decent chance I will get some more vouchers (and I already have another $200 one up my sleeve but I might actually use it for something other than games... maybe) and spend bugger all on games for the rest of the year while still actually playing them. Here's hoping!

That's it Three Dog. You've gone too far. I've been meaning to have a chat with you for a while due to your slanderous tone regarding my pillage of the Wasteland. And then you go and mention that I could have helped the people in Big Town... and called me an A-hole for not helping them.

Hey! I saved one of them. Sure, one of them died (sorry Red) but it was a damn sight better than what they were doing for themselves.

I think me and Eugene are going to come and pay you a visit...

Just a quick question. How do I get my 360 to select a particular gamertag as the default to sign in as? I did this previously, and it carried over when I upgraded to NXE, but now that I have my 360 back from repair, it isn't defaulting to my gamertag. I have to select it everytime I play a agme. I've looked through all the settings, even using the guide button menu, but I can't seem to find that menu again. Can anyone give me a hand here?

I haven't done a heavy subject in a while. But some soft stuff first. I watched Final Fantasy VII Advent Children the other day. Endured might be a better word. The animation was fantastic... but what the hell was up with that story? Yes, movies like this are bound to be loaded with fan service for people who know the series, but you should have it make at least some sense to people who haven't played the game. There is a big fight towards the end of the movie, and all of a sudden every character from the game just turns up. I knew that one dude was Cid, because someone said his name. Some chick had a big shuriken type thing. I don't think anyone ever saying her name, so I've got no idea who she was. That movie was terrible.

Also go my Xbox 360 back after a red ring incident (it's second). The folks were kind enough to include a month of LIVE Gold which I wasn't expecting, though given the inconvenience caused I'm sure others would expect that at the minimum. The process was simple this time around. I don't know what I will do with the Gold membership, as I don't really have games I want to play online. The only games I might be tempted to play online is some co-op Gears 2, Halo 3, or Castle Crashers. If any of you are interested perhaps drop me a line. I haven't activated it yet, and I might scope out what I might play to get the most out of it. On with the heavy subject.

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I watched The Woodsman recently (spoilers may ensue). Kevin Bacon plays a paedophile who has been jailed for 12 years. He has just been released, and has found himself a new apartment, and a job. His sister won't talk to him and denies him access to his niece. His brother in law keeps contact but still remains wary, going so far as to return a hand made gift at his sisters request. Make no mistake, this movie does not condone paedophilia, but it does manage to humanise him, as opposed to the completely evil portrayal normally given to the subject. Of course this is mostly due to the fact that he is a recovering paedophile. He appears to want to be normal, yet he also struggles with his desires, particularly as he resides across from a school, a scant 20 feet more than the statutory requirement. What could have been acting suicide is a haunting performance because it strikes that middle line, not condoning the act that landed him in jail, but also not denying him humanity.

As you would imagine, he also faces external struggles. Someone at his place of work discovers his past by searching his name on the internet. The local police officer sees him as scum of the earth, and rides him every time he comes to visit, barging into his house and treating him like dirt, . Not being able to see his niece hurts him. His shrink seems to strike the line between helping him and trying to find out if he still has the impulse to act upon his urges.

So the question I raise is; Is there room for the recovering paedophile in our world? Most are shunned like evil creatures that can never be redeemed, even if they are only suspected. But can they? Before I'd seen this movie... I will admit it. I don't know what I would have done had I met someone on the street and learned they were a paedophile. Possibly I would have inflicted physical pain upon their person. Had I suspected someone of baiting children, there would be no doubt. But that doesn't mean it would have been the right action. Maybe all they needed was help. Has my opinion changed? Probably somewhat after seeing this movie. Of course, this only applies to those who actually want to be normal. I certainly don't support those that want to overturn laws to make it legal to have sex with pre-teens.

I'm not going to go on about the subject, because I wouldn't say I've really come to any conclusion, but I have found it interesting to think about. I thought it might be more interesting to invite discussion. What are your views on paedophiles? Does it matter if they have served time for their crimes? Is that punishment enough? What would you do if you saw someone you thought was scoping out your local school. Would you report them, or take matters into your own hands?

I decided to do another 'picture is worth a thousand words' piece. I've put the picture at the end so you can choose whether you want to read it first and then see the picture, or you can scroll down and look at the picture first and then read. Instead of grabbing one randomly I decided to choose one this time. Not that I chose one that I had a story in mind for, just one that leapt out and seemed like it would be easy to write one for. Though I did choose one randomly first and would have liked to write a story about that one, but the images I found of that art on the internet weren't very good. So here goes. Foolz3h, feel free to critique the artwork if you so desire!

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He panted hard as his strides took him through the snow. He knew they were not far behind him, out of eyesight, but he expected only just. His boots left large marks in the snow, and his trail would be easy to follow given that the snow had subsided. He knew he did not have time to slow and make an attempt to cover his tracks. While he wore it to fight off the cold, the heavy clothing upon his person combined with the effort of escape was making him sweat. The trees here were sparse enough that there was very little cover or opportunity to hide. However he knew the area well, and if he continued in the direction he was headed, the trees began to become more dense and might give him the chance to lose their trail.

He paused briefly next to a tree, knelt down and picked up some snow in his gloved hands. He breathed upon it in an attempt to melt some of it, sipped what little had done so, and put the rest of the ice in his mouth. It was chilling, but melted in his mouth to give him some hydration. It tasted of dirt, and he spat out a small twig. He used the back of his glove to wipe away some of the snow that had settled into his beard. His legs complained as he tried to move again, and the burning in his calves fired anew. After he broke back into stride, the burning subsided to a dull ache. One hand went to the hilt of his sword to hold it steady so it didn't swing wide and affect his balance with each step. He knew it would have been faster if he were to discard it, but that was not an option.

He thought about his chasers. He had given them a good run for their money for the past couple of days. There was something exhiliarating about the chase. There was the thrill of knowing that one person could elude a dozen. There was the knowledge that one person alone could move faster and conceal their movements much more effectively than as a group. He knew he wasn't infallible. They would catch him eventually. But he was determined that it would not be this day. In his reverie he had continued running towards his intended destination, but he slowed, realising that he had not been paying attention to his surroundings, and something had just caught his eye.

He slowed to a walk and turned around to ensure his safety. The foot prints in the snow were large, about three feet from heel to toe. He frowned, and his mindset shifted. The exhiliration turned to fear. He was now in real danger. He could see the tree line he was heading to, and the footprints led in that direction. He looked back in the direction of the tracks he had laid himself. He thought for a moment that he saw the glint of metal. It may have just been a reflection of light on the snow, but if not it meant they were coming into line of sight with him. He turned to the trees, once more behind him, then planted his feet into the snow to make a cautious trot towards the trees, his hand still on his hilt, but with the intent to use it if necessary. His hunting skills told him that the tracks were fresh.

As he approached the trees, he heard a rustling from within them, and that rustling soon turned into the creaking of branches. His heart sank as he saw the tops of the trees sway, and the top of the giants head was revealed before its head raised higher and he could see its face, as it stood up from its makeshift hiding place. He knew it was likely to be fruitless, but he turned to run back towards his chasers. The crunching of the trees behind him indicated that the giant was forcing them aside to give chase. He slipped awkwardly, and the hilt of his sword ground into his hip as he failed to regain his balance. He winced as he stood and continued to run. He could most certainly see the glint of metal ahead, though it was just a speck and still in the distance. The crunching of the snow beneath his feet, which had sounded loud to him when he had been running before, was now drowned out by the giants great footsteps. With the giant three times his height, he knew it was only a matter of time before it caught up to him.

He turned back to see the giants progress, and it carried with it a branch that looked thicker than his thighs, and probably twice as long as his sword, if not more. He pondered his mistake. Perhaps he should have ran towards the beast, and tried to reach the thicket before it could reached the barrier of the treeline, and tried to evade it there in the concealment of the trees. Out here where the trees were bare, there was little hope. He felt like he had been running for several minutes since sighting the beast but knew it was probably not even one, and the specks in the distance appeared no closer. With a feeling of morbid dread he turned as he approached a near dead tree, stricken of all it's leaves. It was scant comfort, but at least this might offer some form of advantage for when he inevitably faced the beast. He may as well catch as much breath as he can. At its current pace, it would be here within seconds. He tried to think, tried to plan, but nothing appeared good enough. The reach of both the giants arms and it's humongous club seemed insurmountable. He thought about which way he would evade, to try and dance around the tree, but no train of thought seemed to end with him being able to land a blow.

And then there was no time for thought. He pulled his sword from its sheath as the beast lumbered towards him. He had put the tree directly between the two of them, and the beast swerved to one side and swung his club around the tree. The tracker jumped as the club thudded into the ground and rolled away, but the giant took another step around the tree and brought them almost facing each other. The tracker had no time to think and made a desparate attempt to continue to run around the tree, but there was no way to escape. With his back to the beast, the club swung through the air and crashed into his back with stunning force. The sound of his bones cracking that reverberated through his body sickened him as his entire upper body flashed with incredible pain. He was flung forward, and a spray of blood flew from his mouth. He landed hard, his sword dropping from his hands next to him, his helmet falling from his head. He lay on his back, his body too wracked with pain to move. In his attempts to breath he could hear and feel the gurgling in his throat, and the taste of blood. That, more than any of the pain he was enduring, told him immediately that he would soon be dead, even if the giant did not strike again.

And the giant did not strike again. It had looked back and seen the glinting of metal that approached, and decided it had had enough fun for one day. It began to saunter back to the woods, while the chasers approached. Against a single human opponent, giants were the clear winners. While the giants size and range would still be a great asset, the giant had no interest in fighting multiple humans that were fast approaching.

Minutes later, the hunting party approached. The person leading the party, a blonde haired woman, seperated herself as she approached the body laying in the snow. She dropped down to her knees beside him, the scene already indicating that he was gone. She laid one hand on his chest. She could not fathom his steadfastness. It was just a training exercise. Why hadn't he forfeited and returned to them when he had come across the giants tracks? What had convinced him that this risk was worth it? Suddenly she wanted him to be alive so that she could hurt him. She began to cry, though otherwise she maintained her composure. After a moment she turned to the other men with her, and promptly asked them to prepare a litter. She stayed with the man as the snow soaked through her pants, and the other men went about their work and left her be. Eventually it was complete.

"Let us return," she said, her eyes distant. The men loaded their dead comrade onto the litter. With her eldest brother now ready to be returned home and laid to rest, she led the party back the way they had come.

I've been playing a bit of Buzz : Quiz TV on the PS3 lately, and it would form a good choice for my Sequel Me This series. In short, the biggest thing they could do here is this; include all the stuff that for some reason they didn't bring over from the PS2 versions of the game. It would be preferable if these things could be patched in, or at least made as a decent downloadable pack, but no doubt it will come in a sequel.

More question types
This isn't a matter of question categories, I have no problems there. I just wish there was more variety in the question types, and notably missing are some of the question types from previous versions. Where are the 'order these answers' questions? Or the 'older or younger' questions? Where is 'around the world'? Fact or Fiction? It is also annoying that one of the fun new variants, 'All That Apply', is only available if you play online against other people. Why would this not be available offline? The vast majority of rounds are of the 'Here is a question, pick the answer from these four choices' type. I have no problem with this being the most common type, but more variety would be appreciated.

Customising the gameplay
Again, this is another step backwards for the series. Previous versions allowed you to select short, medium or long games. In Buzz : Quiz TV, you start a game. That's it, no choices as to how long the game might be (I think offhand it is 7 rounds). Furthermore, it would be great to be able to customise your games so that you can play as many rounds as you like, in any order you like (with the obvious caveat that Final Countdown can only be the final round). This way you can cater to the particular group you are playing with. If you are playing with older people whose eyesight or reflexes aren't so good, playing several rounds that all consist of Points Builder would be good as it would reward knowledge instead of reflexes. If there is a particular round most people in the group don't like, then it can be removed.

Statistics
What happened to the statistics? At the end of a game, the game simply ends and you go back to the menu screen. What happened to finding out which person got the most right answers, who was the most enthusiastic, and who answered the questions the fastest? You could even break it down further into which categories they score better in. Having players able to keep an individual profile and keeping cumulative track of their score, wins, and even rivalries, would be much appreciated.

Couch vs. Couch play
When I first heard about the game, I was excited to be able to pit a team of 4 players in my living room against another group of players online. Alas, this is not the case and when playing online, it is one person per console. I think there is definitely scope here for team play. I don't know exactly what the structure would be, but I'm sure they can come up with something.

Improved user-created content
One of the interesting features of the PS3 version of Buzz is the ability to create a quiz on the web and then have it sent to your PS3, and share it with the world. There are a few limitations however. First is that the quiz can only contain 8 questions. This limitation was fairly established because they designers found that it was hard for people to create significantly more questions than that in a category. It would have been nicer to have that as a minimum and be able to have longer rounds. Even better would be to have a huge database of questions for that particular category, and then only have a few questions selected for the round in question. For example, no doubt there are a huge number of user-generated Simpsons quizzes. It would be great in the next iteration of the series if people could suggest via the website that certain quizzes be combined and added to an existing category instead of having the same old stuff rehashed.

Furthermore, you can't save other peoples quizzes to your hard drive. Everything is downloaded off the server on the fly. While this process does not take very long, it still seems uneccesary if you wanted to download them ahead of time so that you had a bunch of questions ready to go. Being able to add these into the normal game (possibly removing stat-tracking features if they were implemented) instead of having to play them as single 8 question rounds would also be good.

I think that covers most of the things I would like to see. Anything else that you would like to see in Buzz or a trivia game? Maybe an electro-shock headband peripheral to give players a shock if they get the answer wrong?

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Noby Noby Boy is a bizarre experience. The basic gameplay mechanic is interesting to play around with for a short time, but the lack of goals in the game means that interest is likely to be fleeting.

You play as Boy. Boy is a... creature that begins as 2 spheres joined together, a couple of legs on each, and a face plastered on one of those spheres. Each of your analog sticks controls one end of Boy. Thus pulling in separate directions stretches Boy. After a brief moment of elasticity, Boy starts to grow new segments in the middle, and gets longer. It's possible to stretch yourself across an entire stage and drape over the edge of them, and you can also shrink yourself at any time. There are no enemies in Noby Noby Boy, but each world is populated by various objects, and it is initially amusing to stretch your body in different directions and wrap yourself around some of the larger objects. You can also interact with objects by eating them if your head is large enough. This is where the game is a bit confusing, as I'm not sure what actually makes your head bigger. I assume this is from eating, but when I shrunk my body down to the starting size, sometimes my head was bigger than my tail, other times it was normal size. Thus some items can not be eaten until your head is big enough. If you eat something when you haven't stretched yet, you will poop it straight out. You will also poop out an object if you have stretched, but can't hold any more objects in your body.

And really, that is Noby Noby Boy in a nutshell. There are no obstacles and no goals, just a virtual playground and some physics to mess around with. Apparently eating some objects in succession means you will poop out a combined object, but I never noticed it, and objects can fly away so fast you don't really get the opportunity to see them anyway. While you do have control over it, the camera can be a bit troublesome at times. You might zoom it out to a desirable level, but then it may autozoom again based on your movements, or not be highlighting the part of your body that you want. The worlds are all randomly generated (and you can load a new map at any time), and some of the charm is seeing just what will turn up next. There are people roaming around (and will sometimes jump on your back for a ride if you are stretched), sometimes there will be giant mushrooms, sometimes people will drive around in cars, jungle gyms will appear to wrap yourself around, or windmill type constructs to get tangled in.

The graphics and sounds are all on a very basic level, but work as part of the games charm instead of against it. It is obvious that this came from the designer of Katamari, and a similar styIe is displayed here. Each part of your body can also jump, and by having both jump you can effectively fly up to the clouds and drape yourself over them if you desire. The jump button is also the same as the eat button, so it can be annoying to try and eat something and jump instead because you weren't placed exactly where you thought you were. The physics are interesting to play around with, and it can be fun to see your back half of your body slingshotting around while you only move the front around, trying to tie yourself into a knot, or watching your body fly about from explosive pooping after you shrink yourself while you have a full belly.

There is one overarching goal in Noby Noby Boy, and that is to grow Girl. This represents the online component of the game. The game records how much you have stretched, and this is added to a tally comprised of every online player in the world. At the outset of the game, Girl grows towards the moon, and has since also reached Mars. When these are unlocked, you can load maps on these worlds, with new objects that are unlocked. This is an interesting concept to make players feel like they are contributing to a larger goal, but it seems like the going is slow and only dedicated players who have worked out strategies to stretch while they aren't at their system are the main contributors. You can also play two players on the same system, which is fun for a short while as you can eat each other and poop each other out, but the camera focuses on player 1 and it's issues are exacerbated here.

Noby Noby Boy is an interesting concept, but is more like a virtual toy than an actual game. While you may only get an hour or two's enjoyment out of it, it's cheap price means it won't feel wasted. If you don't want to get stressed while gaming and just want to relax, then you may get more longevity out of Noby Noby Boy.

Score 6.0

So I finished Eternal Darkness and reviewed it, it seems to have been a while since I've done a review. I will probably pop out a few more over the week. I think I'm done with Noby Noby Boy as there doesn't seem much to do. I've still only finished about half of Everyday Shooter and Super Stardust HD because they are both freaking hard, but I still think that is adequate to review given the type of game they are. Perhaps I will try and unlock a few more levels in Everyday Shooter first. I also tried Rogue Squadron 2 today, but I just couldn't get into it. I seemed to keep flying around in circles while the indicator on my radar went crazy and I could never get any TIE fighters in my sights while all my transport ships got blown to pieces.

That only leaves one Gamecube game in my collection left unplayed (Metroid Prime and Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles are unfinished, but I will probably replay the former with Wii Play controls and the latter... meh, probably won't play that again) and that is Zelda : Wind Waker. I mentioned once that I might try and do a Zelda marathon, because the only one I have finished is Phantom Hourglass. Maybe it's time to begin... I'm pretty sure the rest are all available on Virtual Console now. On with the review.

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What's the first thing you are going to do when your eccentric grandfather is found in his creepy mansion with his head removed? Search for clues, that's what. Thus begins your journey as Alexandra Roivas, and she soon discovers that her grandfather has been a collector of occult texts and strange objects. A core component in the game is the Tome of Darkness which is found before long, and by reading it, Alex relives the chapters of others who have had their hand in these strange events that have occurred over the centuries that are soon to culminate and be in Alex's hands.

The game is a mix of combat, adventure and puzzle solving. When it comes to melee combat, it is possible to target enemies and then attack certain limbs, which is most useful for decapitating zombies who will then roam around swinging randomly and potentially hitting their allies. This works farily well, though the movement can be a bit cumbersome when trying to avoid attacks, and then turn to target an attacker. This is because targeting freezes you in place, where a more free-roaming lock-on would have been preferred. Nevertheless, the system still works fairly well. All of the characters you play as will have access to melee weapons, though they will all be different and have different attributes, such as range or speed. Most of the characters will also have access to some form of projectile weapon, whether that be throwing stars when going back several centuries, or an assault rifle in the 1990's. The same targeting system can be used with the projectile weapons to take out enemies from afar. I used mine sparingly for fear of running out when I needed it the most, though I was probably more frugal than I needed to be.

Once the Tome of Darkness is found in her grandfathers mansion, Alex can begin her first chapter. The game design means the chapters must be played in order, and usually something discovered in each chapter offers Alex some way to further explore the mansion and find the next chapter page that are hidden around the mansion. Sometimes this can be a vision of something in the mansion, offering it for interaction when it had previously been unavailable. For example, learning the Enchant Item spell during one of the flashback adventures lets you repair a broken key that can be used to open up another part of the mansion.

Spellcasting is an integral part of the game. Runes can be collected, and then spells can be created by combining two runes, along with a third alignment rune. Codices must also be collected to learn the names of the runes, and spell scrolls can also be collected which will add that spell to your reportoire if you had not already learned it. Via game design you must collect all of the runes to progress, however it is possible to miss codices and spell scrolls. Unfortunately this led to some minor frustration later in the game when you have to prepare more powerful versions of the spells. If you don't have the spell scroll, it doesn't tell you how you made the original spell. Thus, you have to go through further trial and error to try and recreate it. The spells themselves can be fun to cast, but you have to make sure you are safe when casting them, as they take time to cast as runes appear on the ground as they are spoken aloud by an otherwordly voice; the more powerful the spell, the more runes it takes, and thus more time. The three different alignments work in a rock/paper/scissors fashion, thus choosing the right alignment can overcome obstacles that are aligned to its weakness.

As well as your health bar and magic bar, there is also your sanity to consider. This is a unique idea, and every time a character is seen by an otherwordly creature, they lose some sanity. Once an enemy has been beaten, it can usually be slain to restore the sanity loss it inflicted, although they only last for a short time before disappearing into the aether. If you lose all your sanity it can affect your health, however it is often worth losing your sanity just to see the effects that it causes. The most obvious effect is that the camera starts to tilt to one side, and becomes more severe the more sanity you have lost. Some of the more simple effects include blood seeping from walls or spiders appearing from nowhere, but there are some other effects that are very inventive. I'm loathe to give too much away as most of these are best discovered yourself, but at one point my character started sinking into the ground as though it were a gamebreaking glitch until it 'reset' to the last door I had entered, and my character gibbered that this couldn't possibly be happening. There was always something new in this department throughout the game, and it was a great way to mess with your head.

The puzzle solving comes from interacting with items, sometimes collecting them and then placing them in other locations. Other times certain spells would be required to overcome some obstacles. While most of these seemed obvious once the solution was in hand, I confess to having to use a game guide much more often than I would have liked which affected the pacing for me. However, others may not have this problem, or indeed prefer to be challenged by these puzzles. I also found a few times where I wasn't sure if I should have been continuing or not in case I missed something. In one particular case I was locked into a room and forced to fight a unique enemy with no effective melee weapon; the weapon was available if I had explored a different area first. As a result this fight took over 5 minutes of the same dodge and attack tactic before the enemy went down, and this was extremely tedious.

The story, setting and mood are the highlight of the game. The first chapter has you playing as Pious, who actually becomes your enemy. You will play as various characters through the ages, and each of them gives you a glimpse of how Pious is attempting to bring back an Ancient that will devour all of humanity, and their visions of the past bring you ever closer to the looming conclusion. As the title indicates, there is plenty of darkness here and it doesn't usually end well for our reluctant historical 'heroes'. The way the story is told via the chapters is very effective. On a few occassions you will find yourself revisiting the same area hundreds of years later as a different character with different options open to you, and areas that have changed as the centuries have passed. The enemies also add to the atmosphere. The most common is the zombie who lumbers about slowly, but can de dangerous in numbers if you get surrounded. A few other creatures out to wreak havoc on your sanity are lumbering horrors that can also cast spells, to trappers who can send you to another dimension and demons who will pounce on your head if they get close enough.

On a technical level, the game is adequate. It is obviously dated at this point, but nothing graphically stands out like a sore thumb. The lack of camera control is somewhat annoying, especially when you can hear enemies just ahead of you but you can't see them due to the chosen camera angle. The sounds of your enemies is effective, such as the sloppy sound of skinless zombies stepping across floors, and horrors howling after they have been defeated and crashing to the ground. The voice acting from the main characters got the message across, but did feel a little insincere at times.

Eternal Darkness has a few gameplay issues, but these are equally weighed by some interesting design choices (especially the sanity effects) and a compelling an interestingly told story. There may be better action adventure games, but there isn't one quite like Eternal Darkness.

Score 7.0