As I mentioned in the demo review, Battlefield: Bad Company is the first Battlefield game that has a story driven single player experience.

What I liked about the game:

• Nice big open maps that you can run and drive all over, basically pick how you want to get to your next destination on the map.
• Everything can be blown up into little pieces.
• When you get killed, the game doesn’t reset, so all the tanks etc that you blew up are still dead and you can keep working your way through the level. This feature was really awesome as you don’t have to die 100 times trying to get to ‘the next save point’.
• Multiplayer has a lot of fun and variety in it. Always something different to do (and blow up).

Overall:

This game was a blast to play, watching walls explode just never gets tired.

So I downloaded a few game demos recently and was pleasantly supprised to see that the upcoming Battlefield: Bad Company demo was a LOT of fun.

They have release a few video clips that are pretty funny.

• TV Add ‘Totally Not
• Gears of War Spoof - Original Gears of War ad.
• Rainbow Six Spoof
• Metal Gear Solid Spoof
• Blog Entry -

Great stuff and will be picking this game up when it comes out later this week.

There was an issue where they were going to charge for extra weapons in the game, though after the community uproar (and a funny video) that decision has now been reversed and you can now get them with the gold pack or unlock them the normal way.

Good to see game companies listening and doing the right thing.

Ahhh Top Gun in a video Game. Ace Combat 6 is the latest in a long line of arcade flying sims.

This version is on the Xbox 360, previous versions were on the Playstation 2 and 1.

The Good:

• Fantastic graphics, your planes look real, the cloud effects are spot on and the whole look and feel of flying around is amazing.
• Decent storyline, they tried to do something different with the main cutscenes.
• Fantastic single player missions, the things that you do are great.
• Multiplyer online is great, from co-op modes to team battles they have the major bases covered and its pretty great.
• The replay of your level is like watching scenes from Top Gun.

The Bad:

• Namco are really nickel and diming players on the extra content, you can spend more than you did on the game in the new planes and levels that they released.
• You can’t do the single player missions in co-op mode. They only have 2 specific co-op missions with 2 more you can buy online.

Overall:

A great game to play, this game was sooo much fun. If you like arcade style flying around, then this is a must play.

The Sequel to the tactical shooter Rainbow Six Vegas 2 goes back to Vegas, though this time its a different Vegas.

The Good:

• Graphics seem to have received a little extra polish, everything looks great.
• The story moves alongside the previous game so you aren’t playing the same maps again.
• Wraps the series up and doesn’t have a big cliffhanger.
• You gain XP points to level up your character no matter what you do, this is very adictive as its ‘just one more’ till the next level and you can’t put it down.
• Pacing is spot on, you are always kept on your toes and the adrenaline is constantly flowing.
• Proper co-op in the story mode, you and a mate can play together (this is lots of fun).

The Bad:

• Some AI glitches still around.
• You can watch the AI characters ‘pop’ into existince, whish this had been fixed.

Overall:

This is a great game, having lots of fun playing it. If you loved the first one, then its a must have, otherwise highly recomended if you like tactical shooters.

Ever wanted to play a Hong Kong action movie? Well in Strangehold for the Xbox 360 you can. This is the sequel to the classic cult movie Hard Boiled.

The Good:

• Lots of varied environments, not just Hong Kong.
• You can blow up just about everything.
• Really captures the feel of a Hong Kong action movie.
• Storyline is classic Hong Kong action.

The Bad:

• There are a few tedious events in the game.
• Some of the Boss fights can be tough in a bad way.

Overall:

What a fun game to play. This is a clasisc game that is definitely worth playing, though only as a rental.

Assassin’s Creed on the Xbox 360, where you get to roam about large medieval cities dispatching the bad guys. Not only do you have a varitey of weapons, you can climb every building in the game and run across the rooftops.

The Good:

• The free running concept is done very well. Nothing like this in any other game.
• The animation is fantastic.
• Great story line that you follow throughout the game.
• Standing atop a high point and looking down on the city is amazing.
• Visuals are top notch throughout the whole game.

The Bad:

• Way way longer that it should have been. This makes some of the game boring and tedious.
• You can very easily miss out on the storyline as you have to go searching for it, it isn’t told to you.
• Controls can be a bit punishing at times and not as exact as I would like.

Overall:

I enjoyed the game despites its flaws, though this is a perfect example of why you should only rent some games.

Timeshift for the Xbox 360 is a game where you get to manipulate time as if the title didn’t give it all away.

The Good:

• Time powers are cool.
• Game uses the Unreal engine for decent graphics and some cool effects.
• Good checkpoints so you generally never have to repeat much if you die.

The Bad:

• Loading takes at least 5 seconds, even on a checkpoint you saved a second ago, why is that?
• The last level of course has the super hard you need to do it 100 times boss battle.
• Real weaksauce on the story delivery, just a handfull of cutscenes in the game to flesh it out.

Overall:

Definitely not a AAA title, though it was a bit of fun to play. Rental only if you are bored.

So I recieved my supposedly repaired RROD Xbox 360 on Monday and turn it on, there is tearing in the screen which is generally a bad sign.

I restart and now there is no video at all. So I call microsoft back on Monday morning and after 1/2 an hour of troubleshooting they say to send it back.

They also mention it will take up to 48 hours to generate the return ticket. So here I am on Wednesday morning and the email has finally arrived.

What have I done in the meantime? I went out and bought another Xbox 360.

So I actually purchased a copy of The Orange Box for the 360. It is Half Life 2, HL2 Episode 1, Hl2 Episode 2 (new), Portal (new), Team Fortress 2 (new).

We have waited over 10 years for the new Team Fortress, and this is an awesome bundle.

The Good:

• Half Life 2: Episode 2 - Great fun, I am over the zomibes in Half Life, they are just boring now, though there were a lot of other things in the game and it was great.
• Portal - This was awesome, at the start I thought it was just okay, though after finishing it (its only 2 hours long) it was great, just fantastic and I hope they do some more.
• Team Fortress 2 - The wait was long and it was worth it, you can host your own server to avoid joining overseas hosts and the game is great, only a few maps but the way it plays it makes for some great multiplayer action.

The Bad:

• No Co-op? Booooo. Real shame that the single player experince is just that, though I can see how hard it would make it to co-op.
• Where is the original Half Life? It is a real shame that it’s missing from this package.

Overall:

Great Bundle with a lot of great fun in it, highly recommended.

Conan for the XBOX 360. Loved the movies back in the day and any game where you get to slice and dice sounds awesome.

The Good:

• The Conan mythos is just great and done really well in the game.
• Health is replenished by drinking large jugs of wine.
• Some great battles where you see some carnage and limbs cut off.
• You can rescue topless maidens. Yes they really are.

The Bad:

• I didn’t realise until the last few levels that while there are 3 fighting styles, only 1 of them really works well with the game, I had been use one of the crap two.
• Some checkpoints can be pretty painful. Towards the end it gets really annoying.

Overall:

While not a AAA title, and a poor clone of God of War, it is definitely a lot of fun to play if you like to hack and slash your way through hordes of enemies and send them back to Crom.