Another 6 months of Lovefilm – Part 1

Another six months of Lovefilm means another six months of games and films to go over. This time I’ll start with the games. July to December is a little strange when it comes to game releases, there is almost nothing in the summer or December. Everything is crammed in to a three month window, that didn’t stop me playing almost everything big release (I left out the ones I wasn’t interested in) before the end of the year.

On paper this looked like a great 6 months, in reality it was a big let down. Having got through 17 in the first 6 months I only managed a further 12 afterwards:

LA Noire, Cars 2, Resistance 3, Phineas & Ferb, F1 2011, Fifa 2012, Batman Arkham City, Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One, Disney Universe, Uncharted 3, Assassin’s Creed Revelations and Lego Harry Potter 5-7.

Let’s start with the let downs. Batman Arkham Asylum was a breath of fresh when it released two years ago but somehow something was lost in the sequel. The game was a lot shorter, the map despite being bigger also felt smaller and more compact. Most of the game was spent in a few small areas. The lack of Batcave was also a major let down. The most enjoyable part for me was actually at the start playing as Bruce Wayne. It’s not a bad game, it just fell short of its predecessor. Assassin’s Creed Revelations is much like Brotherhood. New elements have distracted the developers from making a good story and varied maps. Ninety percent of the game is spent in one city meaning the game gets stale very quickly. The real-time strategy works but really isn’t thaty fun to play. It feels like you’re just going through the motions. A proper change of landscape and time are needed it lift this game. Hopefully Victorian London or Renascence Paris are on the cards or even New York in the prohibition days. Unfortunately the whispers are of Egypt which doesn’t sound that difference to me. Phineas & Ferb had promise, it could have been a great game for kids and fans of the show but it was too short and too easy and a little bit too old school. It felt like a PS2 game, coming from the makers of the PSP Ratchet & Clank games they should have done better. Ratchet and Clank was another let down. The last three have been good but this felt watered down. You can see what they were trying to do, 4 player co-op could have worked and might do if you’ve never played a Ratchet game before but for fans of the series this lacked too much. Graphically it didn’t appear as good, the view  didn’t feel right as they needed to keep all four characters on screen. Hopefully Ratchet will revert back to form and they can use what they’ve built here for a new IP.

F1 and Fifa were exactly what you’d expect, great games with decent enough improvements to warrant another purchase. Having Norwich in the Premier League also helps. Lego Harry Potter was the third Lego game of the year, better than Star Wars but not as good as Pirates of the Caribbean. Not being able to unlock the characters properly until you’d finished most of the main story was very annoying. It did seem to tread a little too much old ground as well. Resistance 3 promised a lot, the 3D, new main character, more character and plot driven and Move support. For the most part it was great but I wanted more from the finale. I wanted some plot around the whole war and Chimera. Instead it turned out the game was just a journey which was a shame.

I’ve saved the best til last. First up are two games from Disney. Cars 2 was a big surprise. Four player split screen racing with weapons and in 3D. Oh, and the cast of Cars 2. It’s a great little racer that anyone can enjoy. It’s more Micro Machines than Gran Turismo but with plenty of tracks, cars and modes to unlock this has transferred from film to game excellently. Next up is Disney Universe which is almost LittleBigPlanet meets Disney. Six worlds based on some of the best Disney films and a ton of character costumes (and they’ve started releasing level packs too). It’s fun and silly multiplayer carnage. It’s bother co-op and verses at the same time. Perfect family game, it’s also easy to enjoy yourself but put your fingers in your ears for the end of game song.

The best two games this year. LA Noire, like Heavy Rain this is great but flawed. It almost wants to be a point and click detective game, they basically taken that game and dumped in Grand Theft Auto. The driving can be a bit dull but at least the cases can be engaging. LA Noire shows where games can go. This isn’t quite there yet but bring in some of the Siri technology from Apple and you could have quite a game. Loads of DLC make this even better. Finally the big one, Uncharted 3. It’s brilliant, fun, funny, clever and stunning to look at. You want it to be better than Uncharted 2 but overall they’re about even and that is the only disappointment. Afterwards you remember how good Uncharted 2 was and that being as good as it still makes this game pretty special. Uncharted Golden Abyss on the PlayStation Vita can’t come soon enough.

Top 5
Uncharted 3
LA Noire
F1 2011
Fifa 12
Resistance 3

Six months of Lovefilm: Part 2

Now the games 17 games from 2011 so far.

DC Universe, LittleBigPlanet 2, Killzone 3, Playstation Move Heroes, LEGO Star Wars III, Tomb Raider Trilogy, SOCOM: Special Forces, Portal 2, Lego Pirates of the Caribbean, Red Faction: Armageddon, InFamous 2, Alice: Madness Returns, Gran Turismo 5, De Blob: Underground, Tron Evolution, Top Spin 4, Michael Jackson: The Experience

Don’t worry the games turned out far better than the films. There are some real corkers in the list but I’ll start to the poor end to begin with. The Tomb Raider Trilogy, there have been many collections released in the last year but this Tomb Raider trilogy wasn’t the right collection to release, a HD version of the original 4 or 5 games and I would probably have loved it but this just isn’t retro enough to forgive the old controls and the low-grade graphics. When you can see the trailer for the next Tomb Raider (which looks awesome) and have played a couple of Uncharted games this collection just isn’t good enough. Top Spin 4 was meant to be decent tennis using the Move control in 3D. One by one I dropped using these extras. Move went first, though you can move your player, unlike Wii Sports, the standard controller was more enjoyable. The 3D was okay but the whites lines seem to break aspects of the 3D. I did like the change of angle the 3D gave you but the game was too much of a slog to stick with the 3D. Michael Jackson: The Experience wasn’t actually that bad it was just far too difficult, even on easy. When things are that hard they just aren’t fun. LEGO Star Wars III was also disappointing, where previous games could use humour to add some fun to the game and films, this wasn’t able to do the same. The main reason being that I just don’t know about the clones wars where I had seen every film. The RTS sections were a nice addition but felt a bit more like filler in the long run.

There were a few games caught in between good and bad. DC Universe was fairly enjoyable, it was my first entry in to the MMO genre but I found myself rarely interacting with others and the subscription style service wasn’t for me. Bundle a load of missions on a disc and I would probably have been happy. De Blob: Underground was enjoyable but too long, lacked enough variation and the move controls were unnecessary. Playstation Move Heroes needed to do a little more with its great cast. It wasn’t an awful set of mini games but at the very least some split screen was needed, if I’d been expecting a platform like the original Sly, Jak & Daxter or Ratchet & Clank games I would have been very upset with it. Alice: Madness Returns is solid, it lacks a little spark in the level design (not visually, that’s one area where it stands out from the crowd) and the enemies can be more than a little awkward when they just keep coming and coming (and on insane difficult you lives can disappear in the blink of an eye).

Now the greats. First up is LittleBigPlanet 2. The perfect example of a sequel, it takes what LBP great, adds to it, improves it and makes something amazing. LBP would be a game platform in itself. You can find almost any genre in the game and there are millions of levels online. If LBP was Star Wars, LBP2 is the Empire strikes back. Killzone 3, short and sweet. It uses the classic way to sell more games but leaving you wanting more, in a good way. It could have been longer but I enjoyed the story and liked the characters and script more than Killzone 2. I also loved the Move and 3D (which I used for the entire game). Picking off Helghast from a distance was brilliant in 3D and the speed at which you could take out enemies with Move was a great bonus. I’m looking forward to Bioshock Infinite using it.

Lego Pirates of the Caribbean did everything right where LEGO Star Wars III got it wrong. This game was fun, funny and a great interpretation of the 4 films. Portal 2 is a great puzzle game within the shell of a FPS. It’s not the game many claim it to be but it’s still a very good game. The puzzles get a little old by the end and it feels that Value tried to hard to make a plot out of what is a basic puzzle game. It was also too short. It took me 3 nights to finish it. Infamous 2 was another classic sequel, improving on what has gone before. The graphics and characterisation were a big leap from the original but the good ending left me wondering if we’ll see a third. Gran Turismo 5 rounds it all off. I haven’t played a GT game since the original. GT5 is all about how much you invest in the game. Invest little and its a slog. Invest a lot and it becomes great fun. The 3D is also breath-taking.

Top 5
LittleBigPlanet 2
InFamous 2
Portal 2
Killzone 3
Lego Pirates of the Caribbean

Six months of Lovefilm: Part 1

We are just approaching the mid-point of the year so I thought I would run through my 6 months of the year with Lovefilm. First a bit of background. I’ve used Lovefilm on and off for the best part of 5 years. When I was younger I wasn’t that great at returning discs which meant it was quite expensive. A couple of years ago we realised we were spending about £17 a month on Sky Movies, and not really watching much. This was mainly because there was almost nothing we wanted to watch. So we traded our Sky subscription for a £19 a month Lovefilm subscription which also includes video games. If you know me you’ll know I like playing games, a lot of games. It can get quite expensive. You want to play the latest game but even lots of bargain hunting normally means you pay £30. Once a month and that gets very expensive; it’s even worse when there is a list of about 30 games you want to play in a year. Lovefilm has saved me a huge amount of money. I would recommend it to anyone.

Anyway back to 2011. Here is a quick run down of the 24 movies I have rented (some were selected by my wife as well) in order.

Salt, Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief, Date Night, The Expendables, How to Train Your Dragon, The Last Song, I Love You Phillip Morris, The Fantastic Mr. Fox, Death At A Funeral, Prince of Persia – The Sands of Time, Resident Evil – Afterlife, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, The switch, Burke and Hare, Mock the week 3, Monsters, Unthinkable, Jonah Hex, Skyline, Day and Knight, Harry Potter: Death Hallows Part 1, The Green Hornet, Meet the Parents: Little Fockers, No strings attached

There are some really stinkers in that list. Monsters was extremely dull, it promised a lot and didn’t deliver much like Skyline. Jonah Hex and The Green Hornet were trying to live of the success of the X-Men and Spiderman films but weren’t in the same league (which is quite damning). Death at a Funeral and Date Night showed promise as a result of their cast but in the end neither were funny and both will be a stain on many actors CV. Day and Knight and Meet the Parents: Little Fockers were pretty awful. Neither were enjoyable to watch, neither were funny and both seemed to go after the really cheap gag. No strings attached may also fall into this category but I haven’t seen it yet.

There were a few pleasant surprises. How to train your dragon was very enjoyable and was very deserving of its Oscar nomination. Prince of Persia was more enjoyable than I expected considering it is based on a game. It wasn’t an amazing film but it hit heights films like Jonah Hex and The Green Hornet didn’t. Resident Evil, while not terrible, was not up to scratch compared to previous films and is feeling really tired now. Burke and Hare was enjoyable but unspectacular, it was one of the better film choices from Simon Pegg in recent years. The Sorcerer’s Apprentice was clearly more of a family film than the big action thriller I had hoped for but as a family film it worked quite well. The fantasia-esc scene was a must though a little disappointing. Though not as good as Pirates of the Caribbean it is far better than The Haunted House. Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief fell in to the same category, this looks like a series set to continue which has certainly started out better than the early Potter films.

This brings me to the biggest surprise, Harry Potter: Death Hallows Part 1. I actually enjoyed it. In fact I thought it was quite good. Being half a book it did feel a little unfinished but this was only the second Potter film I have enjoyed (Goblet of Fire being the other). The lack of Hogwarts was a blessing and the acting was an improvement as well.

Top 3
Harry Potter: Death Hallows Part 1
How to Train Your Dragon
Prince of Persia – The Sands of Time

I really hope the next 6 months bring some better films.