Skyrim Remaster

It was only a matter of time but the eagle has landed (or to be more accurate, the dragon). I know, I know, a lot of gamers complain about the current gen's remasters, myself included, but admit it, SKYRIM REDUX IS WANT! And the best thing? It hits the shelves 28 October. Ace, hopefully it comes without the glitches that stained the previous gen consoles (though this is Bethesda so i'll whisper it).
It looks pretty damned tasty in the video (above( and this time us lowly console owners are getting mods that featured in Fallout 4. Its looking pretty win win but pricing is going to be the main issue for most. Anything over £30 will be a tough sell considering its now 5 years old and I cant have been the only one who bought it twice when the Legendary edition was released. £20 would be a day one insra buy for me.

A Call to Dunwall

When Dishonored was released in 2012, I paid almost no attention to Arkane Studios tale of betrayal and revenge in the plague ridden, steampunk city of Dunwall. Ive never been a huge fan of FPS (First Person Shooter) type games, and when I saw Dishonored is a stealth game (a first person sneaker?) I was even more doubtful. I love stealth games but until recently, they have been games like Tenchu, Hitman and Mefal Gear Solid, titles played in 'third person' (ie players can see the character the are controlling).
I really had no interest in Dishonored until a few months ago when I tried (and loved) a demo of another FPS stealth game, Thief on Playstation 4. (And being honest, I only tried Thief because of the lack of good titles that was on current gen at the time but I'm glad that desperation turned into a revelation).
When I saw Dishonored on a PS3 sale at the ridiculously low price of a touch over £6, I decided that a trip to Dunwall was in order. It was instant love. So much so that I barely leave the city during my gaming time simply because, apart from the beautiful oil painting type style of graphics, the replay factor (for me anyway) is enormous. Oh, and the games characters (voiced by some Hollywood names like Susan Sarandon) are all fantastic.
The story is simple: Corvo, the Lord Protector to the Empress, is framed for her murder but on the eve of his planned execution, escapes with help from loyalist conspirators and goes all out for sweet sweet revenge (wearing one of THE greatest looking masks of all time). But its not all about killing. In fact you can complete the game with 'Clean Hands' (zero kills) but this doesn't mean the baddies get a free pass for their wicked deeds. In fact, often sparing the life of your intended target/s, might grant them life but to be honest, its a fate worse than death.
And Arkane Studios have devised some very cool (and lethal) powers for Corvo and the murderous Daud to use. Both wear the mark of the Outsider, a kind of half angel, half devil spirit, and by the Void, these powers are so fricken cool! Blink (teleporting), Possession, Bend Time, hell you can even summon a plague of rats to dispatch your hapless victim.
Dishonored might be set in a very grim Dunwall, where plague is rife and corpses litter the streets, but its still so much darned FUN. Corvo is like a Victorian, steampunk version Batman who bounces around Dunwall dealing justice to the corrupt and wicked. Of which there are many. Indeed Dunwall doesn't suffer the good and as the legendary assassin Daud points out, "its a city that eats innocence".
Talking of Daud, you can play Daud's story (as Daud obviously) in the two DLC (Knife of Dunwall and The Brigmore Witches) to learn the full story of Dishonored, and they are both excellent added content (usually DLCs can be lazy extras).
Another refreshing thing about the game is there are no true boss battles. Corvo and Daud can both dish out fatal, one hit moves on targets owing to their supernatural powers and personally I find it a breath of fresh air (well as fresh as can be in a world inhabited by rats and plague victims, or 'Weepers' as they are known).

If you are like me and have initially been put off by FPS stealth games, then fret not. Dishonored is a great game where everything slots perfectly into place. And as its three years old, you can pick it up for peanuts.
Of course there have been rumours of a sequel but part of me hopes this never happens because if it turns out to be rubbish, it could take some polish off the original game. Sometimes less is more, there have been too many successful games/movies that have piled sequel upon sequel because it sells but its usually at the cost of the franchise. We can all name a series that have out stayed their welcome and gotten worse with every instalment. I'd hate this to happen with Dishonored. But we shall see.
All I do know is the first trip to Dunwall is a trip you soon won't forget in a hurry.

Murdered: Soul Suspect

When Murdered: Soul Suspect was originally announced, it it barely made a blip on my gaming radar (truth be told, there was no blip at all. Not even half of one). I'm an action kinda guy, more at home shooting bad guys in BioShock than trying to solve violent deaths (even if that violent death involved my grizzled old self). So imagine my surprise when I saw Murdered: Soul Suspect in a December PSN store sale on PS4 and found myself putting it into my digital basket without second thought. (Though I must be honest, if it was more than the £12 I paid, I probably would have clicked on by). Luckily the timing (and price) was right and I was on the hunt for something different, and Airtight Games had the solution with Murdered: Soul Suspect.
The game takes place in Salem, Massachusetts, and you play Detective Ronan O'Connor, a former petty criminal turned cop. (And before I forget, tattoos look pretty cool on ghostly skin. This game is very easy on the eye).
Det. Ronan is on the trail of a serial killer known as the Bell Killer, a rather vicious, hooded killer who sadly for Ronan is strong and brutal and ends up throwing the detective out of a window before pumping his dying body full of bullets. You know, just to make sure the lawman is dead. Then something weird occurs as officer O'Connor 'wakes' up wondering how he has survived his attack. And then (here comes the odd bit), he realises he didn't survive at all and finds himself looking down on his bloodied corpse. He meets his long dead wife who explains to her ghostly spouse that he can't join her in the Afterlife until he clears up the unfinished business he has in the living world.
And this is where the 'fun' begins. Walking through walls, possessing cats (you read that right), playing poltergeist, jumping into living bodies and reading their minds and executing glowing demons who truly are quite terrifying, especially when you get too close to one and it screams in your face. Basically you acquire the abilities we all imagine ghosts have (apart from the cat possession thing, although it would explain why cats seem to have different rules to other animals).
Murdered: Soul Suspect is one of those games that pop up now and then, leaving you wondering where it came from, and how it slipped under your gaming radar. Mind you, it was released around the same time as bigger, more well known videogames so perhaps there's no mystery there. But make no mistake, Murdered: Soul Suspect is well worth your dosh. The puzzles aren't the obscure types found in games like Silent Hill and its very satisfying when pieces of the puzzle all come together to help track down the Bell Killer. There are other side missions to tackle as well as the main campaign but I won't spoil them here.

The game is definitely worth your gaming time, and it looks darned good on PS4. Personally ive had more fun playing this than Watch Dogs, a game im playing alongside Soul Suspect (though not at the same time obviously). And were I talking scores here, its easily a 4/5.

Sony PlayStation 20

20 years ago, two frikken' decades, Sony launched a home videogames console, the iconic PlayStation. We'd already had some pretty sweet games machines by then from the legendary ZX Spectrum to Nintendos SNES but I think we can say without argument that through clever marketing, it was the Sony PlayStation that made videogames cool. Hell, I even remember nightclubs having PlayStation booths which sounds kinda weird now looking back. But it proves if nothing else, that we gamers had seen nothing like it before. Videogames were now trendy *gasps*
Sure we had the likes of Street Fighter and Sonic the Hedgehog from consoles like Sega Megadrive and the aforementioned SNES (Super Nintendo Entertainment System), and these games systems paved the way for the even greater home arcades waiting in the wings (and let's be honest here, anyone having Wipeout 2097 on PlayStation in 1996 did feel like they had arcade quality games at home). Anyone young enough to have grown up with smartphones and tablets just won't get it. You had to have been there to witness a game like Tekken for the first time. Nowadays a tablet can handle these 90s classics without going into meltdown but in 1997? Games like Tomb Raider, Ridge Racer and Metal Gear Solid were pure gold.
I don't really consider myself a PlayStation fanboy, since ive owned (and still own and play) many other consoles including Sega Dreamcast (a personal favourite), GameCube and original Xbox (my 360 sadly flaked on me). But I must admit that its to Sony's boxes of tricks (I own all four), that I turn to first, so I guess there is a Sony fanboy lurking within me somewhere (wishing for a complete Resident Evil 2 reboot to arrive against all odds. Hey, a guy can dream right)?

So anyway, think ive bubbled on for long enough now. Especially since I have a few new PlayStation 4 titles to be cracking on with, including the aceness that is Styx: Master of Shadows and fighting a guy in a pink suit in the mighty Far Cry 4.
So have a very happy birthday PlayStation, here's looking forward to a few more decades of Sony glory! Its been an awesome ride so far and i'm glad you aeem to be winning the console wars this time around!

Uncle Salty Crabs

So the Hong Kong crime caper, Sleeping Dogs, is coming to Playstation4? Well you know what? Amidst all the negative nancies complaining about there being too many remakes emerging for current gen consoles, I for one am pretty excited about this one. It plays like movie classic Hard Boiled with you as a karate  kicking cop yer Crissakes! What's not to love? GTA Japan anyone?
Actually (and this is only my opinion of course), but Sleeping Dogs is better than that. "Better than Grand Theft Auto?" You ask. "What could be a better sandbox game than GTA?" Well the setting for one. My personal love for Japan aside, Hong Kong is the perfect backdrop having plenty of 'flavour' from the East to make it exotic while still having a fair dose of Western culture to keep it familiar. Sure you'll hear Japanese music on the radio (beautiful it is too), but flick a few channels and you can hear everything from Mozart to Black Stone Cherry.
There's nothing ground breaking about Sleeping Dogs but what it does, it does well and is a welcome break from creating mayhem in California. Comparisons with GTA are inevitable and while vehicles are lacking, (petrol heads will be disappointed),  it makes up for in other, some would say cooler ways. Side missions and things to do when not killing folk for example. In Grand Theft Auto the player can relax with a round of golf or do yoga (yes YOGA). Reports of a knitting circle are unconfirmed.
Sleeping Dogs has much more suitable past times for a career criminal however. Maj jong poker on a private ship. Kung fu brawls that would make Bruce Lee happy. Oh and cock fighting. Controversial perhaps but no real roosters were harmed during the making of this game. It all fits so well.
I've played some great videogames recently, including the mighty BioShock Infinite (easily in my gaming top 10), but Sleeping Dogs is the one that revved my thrill clock to the limit. I had a f**king blast on it, so much so that I will be visiting Hong Kong again pretty sharpish. And the fact it reminds me of classic Shenmue is bonus.
I'm not saying the game is a stellar 10\10 gold, and it does have some (minor) niggles but nothing that ever comes close to spoiling a wonderful experience. Every gamer should play Sleeping Dogs, and I'm in raptures over the fact it is being rebooted for PS4.
The only thing I can imagine some being upset about is the map. Its fairly small when compared to say Red Dead Redemption but then again, that can be a blessing too. After all who wants a huge map filled with nothing to do?  This is just me of course but after completing the missions in GTAV, I wasn't in a hurry to get back to Los Santos. Like I said, yoga isn't exactly laugh a minute (no offence to yoga loving hipsters reading).  But the whole Hong Kong city vibes hooked me in proper and I loved just wandering the markets listening to food vendors (the pork bun man is legendary) sell their wares, and seeing dodgy DVD sellers tell you they have the latest movies.
A big mention is the hand to hand combat which makes fighting in other open world games feel boring. It does a good job of making you feel like a martial arts master and even getting surrounded by 10 thugs you never feel too worried (in fact the more the merrier).
To cap it all off, Sleeping Dogs is like being in 80s movies American Ninja and Remo Unarmed and Dangerous. And for a guy growing up back in those neon tinged glory days when Commodore and Spectrum ruled the games world, this is indeed good news. (There's also a cool retro DLC pack).
So a reboot for PlayStation 4 is very welcome news for this gamer. I have a feeling these current gen consoles are just what the game needs because machines have the 'oomph' to bring Hong Kong truly alive. Whisper it, but I reckon it could do better than the GTAV reboot. You read it here first.

Lego: Last Of Us

If this was from an actual game? Totally buy it I would. Sadly its not, BOO! But hats off to the creator of this awesome tribute video, its one of the best things ive seen all week. The Last Of Us Lego! Ace.

The Next Gen Consoles

Xbox One (or XBone as its 'affectionately' become known to gamers) was released just 15 minutes ago. Playstation 4 out next week. But most gamers I know on forums are waiting until next year until they get one because there are still great games out for PS3. Oh and there are not many new titles worth the splurge, especially at £50 a pop :o Killzone is the only one I would be interested in. Watch Dogs too but thats been delayed.
Ive still got loads to finish myself: Sly Raccoon 4, Heavy Rain, Killzone 3, Hitman Absolution, Arkham Origins, Borderlands 2, Bioshock Infinite, Far Cry 3 etc, not to mention the awesome The Wolf Among Us series, so even though I will be getting a PS4 (I was offered a special exclusive deal) I can't see me playing much on it for its first few months of life.
The graphics jump this time around are not going to be as spectacular either. Gone are the days of SNES to Playstation 1 improvement, or even the PS2 to PS3 which still feels like yesterday (was only 2007 remember). Going from PS2 (still a [b]great[/b] console) to PS3 was very impressive; jaws were indeed dropped when Motorstorm first hit our screens after MGS3 or Hitman: Blood Money on PS2 (again still fantastic titles) but the PS4 and XBone don't look to be much different to what we have now. Oh the number crunchers will notice for sure but yer average player will not.

L'enfant Terrible

inFamous

Baaa!

inFAMOUS (Playstation 3) is a great videogame, no doubt about that. Granted I was late to Cole MacGrath's party but when I saw it for a mere £5 in Game I snapped it up. Glad I did too because playing as a normal guy who suddenly finds himself with badass superpowers, able to leap around skyscrapers like Spider-Man and shoot powerful electricity from his hands, is tons of fun (and for a fiver I have no f**king business complaining anyway). The Reapers (the games bad guys) are cool too; faceless, hooded maniacs who plunder Empire city like psychopathic demons on a mission of utter carnage.
At first you start with minimal powers but as you progress they get stronger and you can also buy better superpowers to unleash total devastation on anyone fool enough to attempt to get in your way. Fancy a cyclone of electricity to the face? Can do! Or how about we suck the guts out of you with a bio-leech? Believe you me, playing Cole can be a very satisfying experience. But alas it can also be pretty frustrating due to the controls and considering how great the controls were in Sly Raccoon, another of developers Sucker Punch games its disappointing. Sure he climbs like a gibbon on amphetamine but whereas in Sly Raccoon you felt sure footed and confident in making high leaps, with inFAMOUS you don't. I often find myself unable to drop down for a few seconds and when chasing thugs across rooftops Cole occasionally decides to face a different direction. Like I said, frustrating! Especially as some of the missions are annoyingly timed affairs (hate timed missions) where every step is critical.
Thankfully these niggles are not game breakers and I can definitely see myself replaying this game as evil Cole. Yup that's right, you can either do good deeds like help injured citizens or be a total prick and mess up their day BIG STYLE (as if it wasn't already messed up enough thanks to those lunatic Reapers everywhere.) And these Good/Evil deeds have their own Karma points and ranks; on the Good side you rise from Guardian to Champion to Hero, while on the Bad, Darth Vadery side of the fence Cole goes from Thug to Outlaw to Infamous. There are different powers in both camps too so I will be needing to see what 'delights' being evil will bring. (Im actually shocked that ive not chosen the evil path on my first playthrough because in other videogames like Skyrim or Oblivion I find it difficult to be anything other than bad *cackles evilly* )

Razz Time: The Last Of Us

Downtown

Stand by for a fair bit of drooling and sickly praise because of having played The Last Of Us since its release, I am to add to the already bulging interwebs sack of praise. Honestly, Santa's sacks won't have anything on this one (ooer!) Ive even made a couple of videos for you dear readers, in the hope that you might hear some of the excitement in my voice. (Sorry about the quality, I still record vids the caveman way from television to phone.)



Fall



COMPLETED!

E3 2013: Playstation 4

Playstation4

After the dust settles on the heels of the much anticipated Playstation4 reveal last night at E3, its time to do as a million other websites/blogs are doing and chuck out some initial thoughts on Sony's new beast. I'll be honest, im not entirely thrilled by the design of PS4 but then XboxOne is none too pretty either, both reminding me of 1980s VCR players. Still, I buy games consoles for how they look on my television and not under it so I ain't going to be spitting my cider drenched dummy out.
Where it counts, Sony (in my opinion) nuked Microsoft clean out of the waters; no restrictions on game ownership (lend or sale), no 'must be hooked to the internet 24/7' guff in order to play or authenticate games and best of all Playstation4 will be £350 compared to the XboxOne's £429. Oh and PS4 will not have a creepy camera watching you all hours and there will be no online fees (unless you sign up for Playstation+.) More exclusive games for Sony's box of tricks too. Bonus!
In short Sony just finished Microsoft with a lethal fatality move.

Playstation press conference



But its really all about the GAMES and believe you me, there are quite a few impressive lookers vying for your cash. Ready at Dawn (they made God of War: Ghost of Sparta among others) has announced a new game, The Order 1886, which is a Victorian era steampunk horror (see trailer below.) Looks interesting, as does inFAMOUS Second Son from SuckerPunch. But the three that gave me the biggest horn were The Division, Assassin's Creed:Black Flag and racing game The Crew where the ENTIRE USA is your playground. You can supposedly drive from New York to Los Angeles, which is batsh!t awesome!
You can check all the trailers below.


The Division


The Order 1886


infamous Second Son


Batman: Arkham Origins

Hitting the Realism Wall

Playstation 4

Ubisoft's Watch Dogs

Wednesday 11pm saw gamers huddle around their laptops,iPads,etc to watch the live announcememt of Sony's new console, Playstation 4. And as a fan who has been the Playstation since it first surfaced back in 1995, I expected to be skipping on rainbows of ecstasy like a giddy schoolgirl by the end of it (forgetting the fact im now 41.) I dont care what anyone says, there is a curious thrill about the unveiling of a new videogame console. I was stunned by Wipeout (PS1), KO'd by Resident Evil 2 (PS2) and even swooned over Motorstorm when that hit Playstation 3 in 2007. Im not ashamed by this, its what you get if you give a boy an Oric 1 for Christmas in 1983.
So it is with great sadness that after admitting all of the above, the Playstation 4 announcementleft me slightly cold. Not quite sub zero cold, (more like tee shirt in March cold) but I was certainly not overheating in anticipation of pixelated rapture. I think it was all the talk of "social media" and sharing on Facebook/Twitter that did it. Sorry Sony but I just want to play VIDEOGAMES, im not in the least bit interested in posting scores on Facebook or challenging Twitter followers to online races. I simply want to slip a game into the console and smite weird beasties to kingdom come. Balls to Facebook. Im old fashioned like that. Its nothing new of course, theres already a ton of places on teh interwebz that use social networking sites to share folks interests, and fine some people like that kind of thing but it doesn't boil my kettle im afraid. (Reading comments on forums and underneath news stories about PS4, im not alone either.)
As for the Playstation 4 being able to predict what game you might be interested in and downloading it automatically? I hope we'll be able to disable that nonsense. (Im being dragged into the future kicking and screaming Laughs Out Loud.)
Thankfully things start to look up on the gaming side of things. This is why we're here afterall! 'Watch Dogs' got me most interested (see the trailer above) as did 'Killzone: Shadow Fall'. I didn't notice a huge difference graphically to PS3 (even when a Evolution developer waffled about "even the suede on the car seats has a direction") but as time goes on, game designers will learn how best to squeeze the most OOMPH out of the machine. We didn't get to see any sports titles (or was I asleep?) and I can't wait to see how a NFL or golf game looks on Playstation 4.
Unfortunately we also didn't get to see what the actual console looked like either so fanboys will have to make do with gawking at the new DualShock 4 joypad, complete with touchscreen and LED tracker. Looks a little rubbery but I quite like it. The screen on the pads front reminding me of the Dreamcast's VMU. Speaking of older consoles, as a RetroHead backwards compatabilty is important to me so I was a tad miffed to learn that PS1, 2 and 3 games will be available via Playstation 4’s cloud service. So no using my original copy of Tombi or Yakuza then? Bah! Happy they will be available in some form though.
I realise this started on a downer with the Facebook sharing side of things but I am quite excited about Playstation 4. Its just (obviously) not the mind blowing transition I experienced going from Oric to MegaDrive to Playstation back in those wilderness years.

Here are some games that we got a glimpse of:

Watch Dogs (Ubisoft)
Killzone: Shadow Fall (Guerrilla)
Diablo III (Blizzard)
DriveClub (Evolution)
Deep Down (Capcom)
Destiny (Bungie)


DriveClub

Fixing THAT Pesky Error

Its annoying and frustrating but below is an effective way to solve Error (80029780) Playstation Error (80029780)
Make sure you have 1 space on for your account to activate before following the Step by Step process.

Step 1: Create a new email (live, google, etc)

Step 2: Go on your playstation console.

Step 3: Sign in, go under Account management.

Step 4: Change your email to the new one created.

Step 5: Within a few minutes or 24 hours, you can re-activate your console successfully.