This week i have mostly playing...

NBA Street Homecourt.

This is a bastarding shitter of a hard game. The annoying this is, it's really good too. It's cool doing all the tricks and psyches to your opponent then scoring an uber dunk in the oop. Basketball is certainly the original smack-talking game and Homecourt captures that perfectly.

Always hated basketball games before now but i must admit, Homecourt is really good. It's just so frigging difficult.

Completed Bioshock again for the second time last night. Got the good ending this time, which was nice, but not brilliant, i must admit.

But the other reason i did it:

86% achievements! Check it bitches!

Missed 3 coz i didn't know an important part of the game. Apparently you're supposed to let Sander Cohen live after you do the pics for him (i wasted him as he walked down the stairs!), then go to his apartment where the couple are waltzing and kick his arse there. Then you can get into his personal room (10 points), get a 'Power to the People' machine so you can get them all (Got all but that one, was SOOOO fucked off about it). There's probably a diary in there so you can get all the diaries, and then take a photo of him when you've smacked him down (secret achievement). Apart from those, not inventing 100 items and not completing it on hard (fuck that), i got everything else.

Also i completed the entire game without dying once. That's how ridiculously easy easy is.

Just got 4 days to wait for Skate so there must be something out this week to amuse me until Friday, can't think of anything offhand though...

This week i have mostly playing...

Stuntman: Ignition

It's not as bad as you would expect, the gfx are rather tasty with a shit load of explosion left, right and centre. Yes it's bloody hard but if you play it with a mate it's not that bad as you can throw the controller at him in disgust when you can't beat the second level.

Also started playing Bioshock again from the start. Which is a first for me, i've got to admit. I'm determined to get more than 60% of achievements for at least one game. Not going to get the 'complete the game on hardest difficulty' but sod that one, i'll try and get all the others and forget that one exists. Then i can pat myself on the back for getting everything.

video review of Bioshock

Only watch this if you've already played Bioshock to death. It's an amusing but slightly smug video review by someone called Yahtzee who talks way too fast and doesn't have an interesting enough voice to hold your attention without you forcing yourself.

But the review is still most amusing and you will agree with lot of points he makes.

fuck funny

Thank the world for morons...

Kudos to Simp for finding this, though he probably just stumbled on it.

Rapture - It was a nice a place to live

Completed Bioshock last night, most enjoyable but DAMN it's hard near the end. End boss is a piece of piss though. In case you don't know, there's 2 endings and i got the bad one. God knows why though, I thought i did everything right but then i guess not.

Still only got 58% of the achievements, bollocks if i can be arsed to play through all that again just to get the rest of them. Maybe later on down the line...

Uploaded a video on Skate as well as that's what you're supposed to do, couldn't bloody find it anywhere. I know they sit at skate.share.ea.com but couldn't find mine. It was a hell of a lot better than half the videos there too. Stupid shitty ea website.

Woo, going to the races today, got a private box and as much food and drink as i can shake a stick at. Makes up for not going to Reading Festival this year. Really missed it yesterday but it got to half 11 and i was very happy to be in bed rather than 4 layers of clothing in a paper thin sleeping bag and fucking kids screaming their head off all night shouting 'Bollocks' coz oops, it's a rude word and it sounds funny if you shout it. Christ, i'm getting old.

Adding Insult to Injury

Lanky Sanchez from my band had the red rings of death a couple of weeks ago, microsoft have told him another 3 weeks before he gets his 360 back and to add insult to injury he received his copy of Bioshock this morning along with this model of a Big Daddy, specifically a Bouncer. Pretty cool i must admit.

Defender of the PS3 - Yep, there's one out there!

Now this is piss funny, thanks to drunkenmonkey for pointing this out. This is some tossers review of Bioshock. Did i mention that he's a tosser and his review is tossy? I'd suggest signing up to his site just to give him abuse (www.sonydefenseforce.com)

Here's his pisspot review, look for the sly dig at the 360 vs PS3, it's subtle but you might spot it if you're good:

After many months of anticipation I finally got my copy of Bioshock and played through it over the past few days. There are many things to like about Bioshock such as the graphics (not animation), parts of the story and the water effects. That’s about where the good stuff ends.

First let me say how excited I was for the game after playing the demo on the 360. While the animation seemed stiff and you could tell the 360 was being pushed too hard it still looked like it had a lot of potential. So imagine my disappointment when I got the final version only to find none of the animation hitches, shooting glitches and AI was cleaned up. I also wonder how much better the graphics would’ve been had they not been compressed to fit on a DVD. Now I do not fault the developers for this, they only had so much system power to work with so maybe this will all be addressed with the PS3 version when it comes out.

To conclude, let this game cook in the oven just a little bit longer and wait for the superior PS3 version. Cleaned up textures, animations, AI, extra weapons, Home space, standard HDD and Blu-ray will make this flawed game into a perfect gem.

Difficulty Settings

Has anyone ever actually played a games on Hard? (apart from Guitar Hero, which is kind of the point) I can honestly say i have never played or, more importantly, completed a game on hard.

In Max Payne 2 you complete it then you unlock the option to play the game on New York Minute which is the hardest setting. Err, no thanks. Why the hell would i want to play a game where i'm completely rubbish. I want to look good when i play. I want the sense of accomplishment you get when you kill bosses. I don't want to get wasted by them 5 seconds into the fight. There's nothing worse than not being able to get any further and turning the game off coz you're sick of it.

God Of War 2 - The greatest game on the PS2 bar none. Complete that you can play in God mode, but who wants to play it anything but easy coz it simply more fun that way. You do tough levels so you can see what's going to happen next, you want the cool cut scene at the end of the battle. Fuck Medium and fuck Hard right in it's stupid ass, gimme easy every time (apart from Bioshock where Easy is really really easy and no challenge at all).

The way around this is to have one difficulty like they do with Mario. Or F.E.A.R. was great as it adjusted the difficulty as you went along. Keep dying? It just makes it a bit easier. Fantastic idea.

Rapture - A Nice Place to Live

BTW, Bioshock is a hell of a good game. Most enjoyable. Not finished it but i don't think i'm far away.

Little tip: Play it on Medium, Easy is just TOO easy and you won't die at all but Medium presents just enough of a challenge for you to have to think what to do, arrange your plasmids to best tackle the situation. And those big daddies are big HARD mofos. Especially the ones that charges you, Rosies i think they're called. But you just gotta get that sweet, sweet adam from the little sisters so you've got no choice other than to pound them with everything you have.

Play it, you'll love it.

Bioshock Demo - dogs bollocks

Downloaded the demo of Bioshock last night. It's sodding dark but v.cool. Liked the little effects like the back of the plane sinking slowly into the sea.

Although it's bloody hard to zap those flying gunner things with an analogue stick. Can't decide if it would be better on the 360 or PC. With the 360 the games will just work, the gfx are perfect and you get those oh so important achievements. But with the PC you've got the holy grail of controllers: The Mouse. You can't get anything better than a mouse for precision aiming on fps.

Also got stranglehold demo the other day. It's pretty good but you must have noticed it's very Max Payne-y. Lots a slo-mo stuff. Seems fairly easy too but maybe that's just the demo. I'm not that impressed with the stand-offs, it's a great idea, it's just too easy to do.

Bioshock comes out end of next week in the EU so i think it's certainly a trip to the newsgroups for that one.

Skate is coming out soon, if you haven't already seen it, have a look at skate.ea.com and specifically at the flickit controls. It's already giving me a semi and i swear, the first time i saw it, i did a little wee i was that excited. Could never play tony hawks on the joypad, always played it on the keyboard so i need something i can start at the beginning again. This game looks so frigging mental.

Mate in my band had the fatal 3 lights of death last night. Hope i don't get any of that shit as i've already had the drive patched so my warranty died 2 days after buying the thing.

p.s. Trauma Centre is worth getting as well if you have a Wii, it's lots of fun and even teaches you crap you never wanted to know, like what the hell a Polyp is