Author: Adam

Getting toasted in Warhawk

I suppose after my previous aside, this particular post shouldn’t be surprising to you.  I.e. I’m currently spending most of my time on Warhawk as a rocket-riddled corpse rather than a living, breathing soldier.  In case you’re wondering, yes- it’s soul-destroying.

Reverse gear
Let’s recap shall we?  I now possess Warhawk because I did indeed go down the download route and snagged the game off the PlayStation Store for £19.99.  Bargain or what?  There’s a couple of drawbacks: first, the game can only be played from your PSN account that you bought it with, and secondly, you must be signed into the PlayStation Network to play the game.  Seen as this game is online-only, I didn’t think this was a major problem.

I also bought all three expansion packs, which probably brings my total spend to nearer £30, but that’s still not too bad.  Headset?  I’ll probably acquire the official PS3 headset when it comes out.  Before I continue, It is worth noting that the install size is under 800MB.  Seriously.  That’s some really impressive compression

The friendly skies?
The friendly skies?

Earning my wings
Before I was going to take to the skies online, I thought I’d go through the new training scenarios that have been added in the new v1.5 patch (which included trophies).  I progressed well through ground combat and vehicles, but when it came to piloting the Warhawk I found evading constant missile attacks to be a bit tricky. Sure, everything’s simple when you have chaff, but that’s not always to hand so evasive manoeuvres are required.  I half considered that this may be a problem if I were to venture online.  Hey, I got about 4 trophies for completing the training anyway.  Yea!

Crash and burn
On the ground, I’m not too bad; I shoot people, I man the turrets and have managed to take a few planes out of the sky, and I’ve dealt serious damage in a tank.  As soon as I step foot inside a Warhawk though, I’m toast.  Within a few seconds several missiles have locked onto me and before I can think of what to do my burning corpse is flying through the sky- sans aircraft.  A few times though, I have managed to shake off quite a few missiles, but they come so thick and fast that eventually I get hit in the end anyway.

Lessons?  Well, I’m pretty sure that I’m not quite ready for the online world and so I’m going to hopefully play a few local games to get my flying skills up to scratch and then I shall take my place amongst the hardened warriors and do battle, rather than take my place amongst the fallen.  I’ll post more updates on my Warhawk experiences as and when.

Does anyone have any similar experiences of joining a hardcore group of players online?  If so, I’d like to hear from you!

Resistance 2 Collector’s Edition cover for Europe

Whilst the good-old USA gets to have a vote on which cover (out of 3) they’d like, apparently SCEE has already chosen for Europe.  It’s this one:

Resistance 2 Collectors Edition, European cover
Resistance 2 Collector's Edition, European cover (image from IGN.com)

My thoughts on this cover?  Erm, not too keen, but it’s good enough I suppose.  Totally clashes with the first game’s cover to be honest.  But beggars can’t be choosers?

Trophies: The Hunt Is On

(Note: I was originally going to call this post “Gentleman, start your engines” but due to equality issues and the phrase having nothing to do with trophies, it was scrapped.  That’s your dose of trivia for the day!)

Well, enough games are now out there that have trophy support.  First I had a ‘blast’ on Super Stardust HD, which was the first PS3 game to have trohpy functionality, and now I’m engrossed with PixelJunk Eden (need to complete those gardens!).  My next target will be another play-through of Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, which I am really going to relish.

I suppose my future targets will be Warhawk and LittleBigPlanet, which I both like, really need to buy!  This is especially true for Warhawk, seen as it has had several free updates.  I’m one of these people who try to hold out on buying certain games till they come down in price!  Several games I want though are stubbornly remaining at quite a high price.

That’s besides the point though.  What I really want to say is good luck to all trophy hunters!  I’ll be collecting trophies myself, though not at the frentic pace of some of you.  I’ll probably mention something more about trophies a few months down the line.  Till then!

Keeping an ‘Eye’ on things

Keeping an ‘Eye’ on things– As soon as I saw the EyePet trailer I immediately thought the ‘draw’ functionality looked familiar.  It was, see: ‘Video of New Research Conducted with PlayStation Eye‘ (well worth a watch) on PlayStation.Blog which was posted a few months ago.  At the time I thought the potential was great, so let’s hope for more innovative uses of the PlayStation Eye!

Patapon Revisited

A few months ago I got myself Patapon shortly after its release and quickly became addicted to it.  What I began to realise though, was how nail-bitingly hard it could be in certain places of the game.  One easy example, is the difficulty many people had in figuring out how to cross the desert.  Once you know how, it’s quite easy.  But in the game itself, you are more or less left to try and figure it out for yourself- if you can.

Patapon in action

This probably explains why the PlayStation.Blog team had to lend us a helping hand.  Also equally frustrating is the ease at which you can lose the beat.  From my own personal experience, this has made me want to throw my PSP at the nearest wall after trying to complete the same level 5 times in a row.  So I left the game and vowed to return to it once I had calmed down…

What I have been doing for the past couple of years now, is taking my PSP with me on holiday and having a quick gaming session before I go to bed.  Last year I took LocoRoco and completed all levels (not all quite 100% yet though!) and this year has been Patapon’s turn.  Yes, about 4 months after I had last touched the game, I decided to revisit Patapon and see how far I could get this time.

Surprisingly, I found that I wasn’t losing the beat as easily, but I think this was down to a new technique.  Heard the advice (includng my own) about tapping with your foot to the beat?  Forget about it- repeating “pata, pata, pata, pon” or whatever drum beat you’re doing, in your head, in-between your turn is very helpful in keeping the beat.  Why is it otherwise so hard to keep the beat in fever mode?  This is because the fever mode music can trip you up, especially when the music starts.  I have found this to be THE most unhelpful feature of any game- ever!

Let my little story not distract you from the main point- this game is fantastic!  You just need a lot of time and patience as Patapon is amazingly deep.  Think you’ve done it all?  Well, you haven’t.  There’s just so many rare Patapons, weapons and materials to collect.  Get frustrated at time?  Give the game a rest and then get back to it, feeling refreshed.  Some games are like a fine wine: they get better with age.  That is why, although I’ve never actually reviewed Patapon, I’ll give it a 9/10 just because it deserves it.  If you haven’t picked it up yet, you need to!  Its essential for your PSP.

Valve Re-Evaluating PS3

Valve Re-Evaluating PS3– About time!  I’d be ecstatic if the PS3 got a release for Left 4 Dead in the end (hey, we deserve it :p).  The Xbox Live Arcade exclusive, Portal: Still Alive still leaves a bitter taste in the mouth though.  My message for Valve, now that the PS3 has a viable install base?  Share the love.

Burnout Bikes Gameplay Unveiled

Burnout Bikes Gameplay Unveiled– On PlayStation.Blog.  Choice quote: “We want you to know that if you buy Burnout Paradise, you buy much more than the disk we shipped back in January.”  I hear ya’ loud and clear!  I’m seriously considering investing in Burnout Paradise now that I know there is so much cool content constantly being added.  Free!