Sequels Ahoy! - The Sequel. Shogun 2: Total War Demo Preview

Continuing on my demo preview spree, and hoping this doesn't prove to be "the difficult 2nd sequel", I've just finished playing with the Shogun 2: Total War Demo. The Total War series has been one of my favourites for a long time, although I never really tried the original and instigator of the series so I was eager to give this one a whirl!

"We're wearing the same hat! Go home and change!"

Being full of reckless bravado (a great trait in a general I'm sure you'll agree) I decided to skip the "tutorial campaign" on offer and jump straight into the historic battle mode. This, for anyone not familiar with the series, throws you into the role of a general in charge of an army in a real battle plucked from the history books. As the game finished loading I'm presented with a battlefield that looks favourable with a river splitting me and the enemy. But my army that is split all over the map. 2 allies take up positions on my flanks. Feeling confident in my advantage I allow the enemy to cross the river and bring the fight to me. First mistake.

Sequels Ahoy! - Dragon Age 2 Demo Preview

March looks set to be a big month for games and two of the biggest hitters have released demos in the last few days. I've played 'em both on the PC and here are my musings:

Dragon Age 2 - (PC)

"Quick the darkspawn are on us we must run!" .....loading..... " another wave, stand and fight!" ....loading.... "now that's done, lets have a conversation"....loading....loading....loading.

Now I don't want to labour the point but seriously, what's with all the loading half way through things? It felt like I was trying to stream a video on a slow connection and was only getting 30 seconds at a time. Maybe that was just my computer, but it didn't really help with the flow of the story, having it interrupted every minute or so.

Star Wars - The Force Unleased II (PS3)

So err....where's the rest of it?

What do you mean that's it? It's only been a few hours! I've only sat down and played you twice! You're trying to tell me that every time you showed one of those fancy cut-scenes that was a level? But they're all set in only 4 different places! 8 levels?! You have to be kidding me!

very short, this cameo will be!

See, I gave the Force Unleashed II a chance. I avoided the 1st after it was panned mercilessly. I thought I owed it to the franchise to give this one a go and judge it for myself. I've always loved the Star Wars games and this looked like a more flash, consoley Jedi Knight to me. I was just beginning to realise it wasn't anywhere near that good when it ended. The most irritating thing was how it ended. After button smashing your way through a couple of hours of mindless fighting you're finally presented with a choice. Great, thought I.

Little Big Planet 2

A new year has started with a bang for the Playstation 3 and the first big game out of the traps in 2011 has to be Little Big Planet 2. The sequel to ,surprisingly, one of the most popular games to hit the PS3 to date, LBP2 promises to be bigger and bolder than it it's predecessor in every way. I played LBP the original and loved it because it was a great platformer, something you rarely see nowadays, that was difficult but not frustratingly so, and threw in a whole bunch of imagination. But of course, this game was never designed for it's story and single player modes, the real magic has and remains in its world builder mode, that allows you to create your own levels. Levels that are supposedly only limited by your imagination.

What I've been playing recently: Part 1 !

It makes sense to start this off with something that's fresh in my mind so the most recent games I've been playing is as good a Place as any. What with Christmas just finished (sort of), I'm fairly inundated with new games. Christmas Day saw 3 separate copies of Fallout: New Vegas under the tree (who said originality was dead?). Well, due to a administrative cock up there was actually 4 but less said the better on that one! What better way to celebrate the holiday seasons than plunging into a horrifying apocalyptic wasteland? Well Quite...

Fallout: New Vegas (PC Version)

see what they did there?

You may or may not be familiar with the theme, but Fallout New Vegas is the sequel to the critically acclaimed Fallout 3 and takes it's place as the 5th game in one of gaming's oldest franchises. Set in a post nuclear-apocalyptic world, your character is thrust, quite literally, into the firing line in the Mojave Wasteland surrounding Las Vegas and the Hoover Dam. The game allows you free roam across a sprawling map packed full to the brim with populised settlements (human or otherwise) built out of the ruins of the past. From motels to aircraft hangars these settlements awe always a wonder to discover and typify the imagination and creativity that has been stamped onto this game.