Red Dead Redemption

It's funny how you can instantly fall in love with a game for the the poorest reasons. Like being able to name your rival "Tosser" in the Pokemon games and then laugh hysterically every time you run in to him on the SS Anne. Or that in the latest FIFA game you scan a photo of your face in with a ridiculous glitter Hitler moustache and watch yourself do cartwheels with a silvery upper lip every time you score. As they say, it's the little things. In Red Dead Redemption you can shoot animals, skin them, and then sell said skin for a small profit. On paper it's dull. In practice it's probably also quite dull. However I've spent 3 of my first four hours playtime doing it. Painfully addictive. I haven't even found a bear yet. I'll never do anything else if I find one. For me it proves the level of immersion this game offers. GTA IV suffered from a slightly stilted and familiar setting. We've been stealing yellow cabs for ten years now in various guises. RDR opens up the world of the Western to a new generation and feels very fresh in comparison. The greatest test will of course be whether I can now buy and wear a pair of cowboy boots without being socially outcast. The proof will be in the freshly skinned carcass no doubt.

Halo Reach, Humble Bundle and more Pokémon

So last night saw the meticulously well planned, hushed, almost understated launch of the Halo Reach beta. I of course talk in jest. It was horrible. Well, not horrible. Just painfully dull. Took me about 3-4 hours to successfully download the beta which left me almost too embarrassed to play it having spent so long staring at a 99% completion bar. I did of course play it though and to my great delight (read tearful disappointment) I played about four round of Oddball in a row. Which just turned into manic re-spawn, shoot, pick up ball, die, re-spawn, etc. I was frightfully underwhelmed. I went back today though, more out of blind optimism than anything, and was greatly surprised at how much more fun it was than the night before. A few games of the new four on four slayer mode are the reason. I'm still yet to get to grips truly with the new armour add-ons though. The jet-pack is fun, useful and seamless in it's integration into the Halo fold. The invincibility punch thing is good when you know what you're doing. Sprint is sprint and I haven't fiddled with invisibility yet. Been on the receiving end of all of them though, so there must be a good use for them all. I'll delve back in at some point as it's only on for two weeks or so anyway.

Found a decent deal as well today. 5 indie games on a pay what you like scheme found here. The games in question are World Of Goo (which I already own and love) and four others I'm not familiar with (Aquaria, Gish, Lugaru HD, Penumbra). They seem to be broad in genres and graphical styles but when you're paying what you like I guess complaints aren't something you can have. Finally on the Pokémon front things are looking good. Got 7 badges now and a squad of relative quality. Found some other new features, namely some bizarre arena where you complete athletics challenges with your Pokémon via the stylus and much screen stroking. Hmmmm. Good job it's still a quality Pokémon game then.

Pokémon

Pokémon will always hold a place in my affections. It was my first love really, before women, alcohol and other more alluring prospects came about. I'm ashamed to say I've owned pretty much every Gameboy iteration of Pokémon at some point. Including Pinball and the Trading Card Game one. So, under the guise of peer of pressure from a friend, I've bought the new one. Soul Silver to be exact. Not quite sure why they've been named Soul Silver and Heart Gold. Just sounds a bit shit really. But then again this from the company that named their world conquering console the "Wii" so titling their products obviously isn't the highest thing on the agenda. Anyway, the games are a re-skin of fan favourites Gold and Silver with a few bells and whistles. The shiniest of these is a Pokéwalker which lets you wander round with your favourite little beast while catching Pokémon and getting items. However I found that I could never find an item in the mini game and Pidgeys would be all I could find Pokémon wise. So, pointless then I guess. The game itself though is still as glorious as ever. I've just got to the third Gym city (Goldenrod) so plenty left to do for me. Puzzles have been rejigged and few other things tweaked from what I remember but nothing that's mind-blowing as yet. The highlight is still probably giving your little beasts "hilarious" names. Was worth digging my DS out for the first time in a year anyway. Although if I could find that copy of Zoo Keeper I'd use it a whole lot more.

Also got my copy of Cosmogramma delivered a few days early, which was nice. Pretty much the same as the leak but without the hassle of the tracks being out of order and labeled incorrectly. It's certainly growing on me a lot more now than when I first got it. Not as much as High Violet by The National is though. I can't seem to stop listening to it. Also got Jason and The Argonauts and the original Clash Of The Titans delivered as well. Can't beat a bit of Harryhausen.

Perfect Dark

After months of shivering, weeping, wailing, flailing and generally debasing myself in anticipation of playing Perfect Dark, today saw it silently creep onto the marketplace. So after a frustrating wander round town trying to find somewhere I could pick up some Microsoft Points I finally got to settle down with it after so many years away. The first thing you notice is that everything feels the same, the music, the graphics, the sound effects. It's pretty much unchanged, which is for the better really in terms of fan service. Those expecting Modern Warfare graphics though are probably best off sticking to the upcoming Stimulus Package (5 maps, 3 new, 2 old for 1200MSP! What value!). It does feel dated in some places, it's worth pointing out. The controls feel imprecise, especially whilst aiming. When you hold down the L trigger it feels like you're dragging a corpse along the screen when scrolling sideways. Voice acting is not the best, but hey, no-one really cared about that then. One amusing point was when a scientist sarcastically claimed he would "help me out" but "accidents may happen" but then didn't press the alarm as I'd done the objective in the wrong order. Oh hilarity. One new addition would be the Xbox Live multiplayer. This again was a miss for me. Almost quite literally. A ten minute match on Felicity turned into a slapping match in the bunker area. Frustrating at best, plain ridiculously shit more accurately. However, it just works. The game is massive and (quite rarely for this gen) has a hell load of multiplayer options for split-screen and online. For 800 points you could do a whole lot worse but if you loved the original anywhere near as much as I did you need to pick this up right now.

As I only could buy 2100 points I had a few pennies left over. I say had to, I chose to. So after an hour of debating whether I buy Peggle again I went for Fifa Ultimate Team and the Big Surf Island add-on for Burnout Paradise. I've only played the former so far as I decided to come downstairs and watch Barcelona destroy Stuttgart. I mean destroy as well, Man Utd and Arsenal are probably worried. Rightly so. Anyway, Ultimate Team is like Manager Mode meets the Pokémon Trading Card Game (which was a guilty pleasure of mine on the Game Boy Colour). Seems to be quite fun so far and a nice little diversion from the main game, so probably quite fairly priced at 400 points then.