Scott Pilgrim vs The World (360)

I’ve not read the comics. I’ve not seen the film. But, after seeing just a handful of screenshots a few weeks ago for the game, I knew I’d want it. So confident was I, that I didn’t even bother trying the demo – I stumped up my 800 Microsoft Moon Pounds and bought the full game. And I was right – I love it. It’s a great mix of River City Ransom, Guardian Heroes, Streets of Rage, and that Puffy …

Someone make these games, please

These mock-ups of some recent games as they might appear in the 80s and 90s are amazing. And not just amazing – in many cases they’re actual games I’d really want to own. I also like how they’ve been imagined – Bayonetta as a bullet-hell shooter, and Brutal Legend as a point-and-click adventure game. I’d like SNES Pikmin and Super Mario Sprint  made first, please! See the rest here.

Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light (360): COMPLETED!

I was one of the lucky ones to get a free code for this, since The Times cocked up and allowed their “subscriber only” offer to be accessible to all and sundry. I’d just played the demo too, and was about to buy it anyway when I realised I had enough other games to be getting on with so would wait for a price drop. Ten minutes later – free code! You’ll be noticing that there’s no “Tomb Raider” in …

Let’s Play! Zolyx

Pete Cooke was one of the “heroes” of 8-bit game programming. He had a talent for slickly presented games, and many of his creations also had some sort of Easter Egg built-in. In the case of Zolyx, the best Qix clone for the Spectrum, he included an entire Game of Life routine. For no reason. You can play with that if you like (pick Freebie from the menu), but I suggest you get stuck in to the game proper – …

Ace Combat: Assault Horizon

Who doesn’t like piloting expensive war planes, weaving through buildings and shooting missiles up the backsides of other expensive war planes? Nobody, that’s who. Here’s a trailer for the latest Ace Combat game from Namco Bandai. Which does all of the above: Press release: Fighter fans, now is your chance to marvel at the latest in the ACE COMBAT series www.acecombatassaulthorizon.com ‘ACE COMBATTM ASSAULT HORIZON’ PREPARES TO TEAR THE HEAVENS APART NAMCO BANDAI Games Europe kicks the tires, lights the …

Adding XP printer drivers to a 2008 print server

We’re currently in the process of migrating servers from Server 2003 to Server 2008, which is proving a right old pain for various reasons. This morning’s headache was reinstalling a load of network printers on the new 2008 install that worked perfectly well on the 2003 install. 64-bit 2008, by default, only installs printers with the 64-bit 2008 and (for some printers, it seems, but not others) the 32 and 64-bit Vista/Windows 7 “User Mode” drivers. The old-style 2000/XP/2003 drivers …

Monster Hunter Tri (Wii)

This is a big game, isn’t it? I mean, long. Huge. Hours. I’ve plugged over 20 hours (offline) and at least 3 (online) into it so far, and I’ve only just started the 3* offline quests and have barely touched the online quests – let alone go back to previous quests to complete the subquests I’ve missed. For the first 10 hours or so I was totally lost. Everything was confusing, from inventory management, to farming, the way online works, …

Another Code:R (Wii): COMPLETED!

It’s the only thing I’ve played since my last post (well, aside from the usual iPhone trio of Words with Friends, Carcassonne, and THPS2), and somehow over the weekend and today I plugged enough hours into it in order to finish it last night.  I was convinced there was only an hour or two left, so started at 8:30 this evening and – well – it was almost midnight when I’d read the end credits. As with CiNG’s other titles …

Let’s Play! Action Biker

Derided in the magazines, KP Skips adver-game Action Biker (starring one-tip corn snack shill Clumsy Colin) was actually pretty good. Well, I played it a lot anyway, which is sort of the same thing. Unlike the more action-based C64 version, the Speccy game had you visiting houses looking for items to make your bike better. Items that let you drive through the mysterious “Dark Area”, prevent you from skidding on oil, and so on. Oh yeah, and you have to …

Another Code:R (Wii)

Before I rushed back into Super Mario Galaxy 2 to get a load more stars, I decided to play something else I’ve had on my To Do list for ages. Something a bit different to Bioshock 2 and Mario.  So I chose point-and-clicker Another Code:R for the Wii. I played, loved, and completed the original on the DS what seems like ages ago. Oh, it was – just over 5 years ago! Good lord. 5 years in real life have …

New Xbox 360

Apparently, it’s smaller than the old one. And a different shape. And shinier! It’s also Kinect-ready. As the thing says: “250 Hard Drive, Built In Wi-Fi & Ready for KINECT. Here Today, Ready for Tomorrow.”. But tomorrow never comes! Or is that dies?

Lets Play! Army Moves

I completed Super Mario Galaxy 2 this week, and although it was very good, it was very, very easy. Easier than the first game (so far at least – I’m on 82 stars). It wasn’t so much disappointing than unexpected, as all the reviews have suggested it’s actually substantially harder. Anyway, it got me thinking about difficult games, and how they don’t make them any more. Yeah, there are hard games, but compared to difficult 8-bit titles? Pff. Walkovers. All …

Dell online sales chat

I was trying to navigate round the Dell website today to find information on, then spec up, a particular model of PC. At every turn, on every page load, and every time I let go of the mouse for 7 seconds, this appeared: I kept clicking “No Thanks”, but a page change or reload and it was back. This annoyed me a bit. Well, a lot. So I decided to chat with them. Here’s the transcript (with the “Dell Expert”‘s …