Average Gamer Review

Moved

2009-11-21T17:16:00.001+11:00

I've moved to a new blog

and to stop andrew bitching here it is

igamer.ii-blog.com

biatches

News: COD Modern Warfare 2

2009-11-07T16:51:00.003+11:00

With the ever looming controversy over Infinity Wards newest upcoming release, Modern Warfare 2, has been slammed by online retailers, not for the already widely discussed terrorist depictions in-game, but for the fact that the PC version of the game will include Valve's Steamworks.

Steamworks is a piece of anti piracy software, this is manditory for the game to install, but it also includes a trojan horse inside the software.

"We don't believe games should force the user to install a Trojan Horse," says online retailer Direct2Drive, criticizing the mandatory installation of Valve's Steamworks that will be a part of MW2's PC version. Two other stores, Impulse and Gamersgate, have decided to join D2D in its boycott.

As far as console versions of the game are concerned, it would make sense that this would not apply, but a large part of Modern Warfare 1 was the online multiplayer, which is much better on the PC.

An interesting turn of events for an already doomed game.

DocFox01 AFK

Review: Windows 7

2009-10-23T03:03:00.001+11:00

With the Official release of Windows 7 today i feel its about time i stopped procrastinating and wrote my Windows 7 Review down.

Windows 7 is the newest Microsoft operating system to enter the market, it has a similar look and feel to Vista, but they have improved on performance and thrown out alot of the bugs.

Its very obvious that Microsoft has taken to heart the complaints of the people using Vista (I am one of the unlucky one) with constant security popups, slow indexing of files, compatability issues with programs from previous versions, and many other problems.

So the newest release has to really make up for these shortcomings with all new feature:

Windows 7 now has an automatic locking feature where you can now drag your active window to the side of the screen and have it jump to fill up, that respective half of the screen, or to the top to take up the whole screen.

Windows 7 now comes with a better warning system if you do have a fatal error the computer comes up with a warning to allow for to you save your work. It is worth noting though that this warning error occured after only 1 hour of using the Windows 7 RC version, but it may be because the secondary program i was using "VLC Player", doesn't have a Windows 7 version yet.

Windows 7 now allows you to quickly lock active windows to half the screen allowing for easy drag and dropping of files and none of the mess of flicking around trying to get the right window in view.

The Windows Vista gadgets that were once locked to the sidebar, are now able to be placed anywhere you like on the desktop, allowing for much more personalisation of the space.

Windows 7 now allows for many more built in visual desktop feature, not only changing the desktop but the look of the taskbar and start menu as well, basically its fast quick manipulation of the old "Theme" setup from previous versions

Windows 7 has made major leaps at trying to make compatibility with programs from older computers a thing of the past, the computer will automatically choose the best option for the program your trying to use, but you are also able to choose what OS it use to work on and "7" will try to emulate that OS to get the program to work.

Windows 7's explorer now includes a library just like in the last few versions of Windows media player, allowing for you to quickly find picture, video, and music files, basically its like a quick shortcut to My Music, etc for the people that actually keep all there files in the right folders.

The indexing system from Vista has been improved apon and speed up, this makes it alot easier to find files that you know are on the computer, but like me, have no idea where they are. Its a great improvement and will be popular.

Basically suming up: its better than Vista, much better, these few thigs here are what i found from 3 hours of playing around.

The fact of the matter is that its been confirmed that as part of the Australian governments Digital Education Revolution, Windows 7 will be rolled out in schools across the country, plus education students in USA are already able to buy 7 Home Premium for US$29.99, and its said that the same thing will happen in Australia as well. This mean that the next generation of school kids are going to be using Windows 7, and then their parent will have to get it at home so they can do homework.

Its a great strategy from Microsoft, and one that has proven and time tested, as the same sort of mechanic was used with the release of Windows XP, get it into the school, and then it will spread out into the homes.

As for a rating, its really to early to tell, public support is what will make Windows 7 sucessful where Vista wasn't.

7 out of 10 Stars. (It has a lot of potential!)

DocFox01 Reall bloody tired(4.20AM) signing OUT!

Day 4: My Day: 99% Fat Free

2009-10-23T00:23:00.001+11:00

A lazy day,
with not much done,
but for me, t'was really fun.

went to the uni,
Watched a new ep of glee,
re-watch a review of fallout 3.

Came home for tea,
Reviewed Windows 7,
Realized im a nerd,
and im not going to heaven.

Adam Fox Out

Day 3: My Day: Emerging Darkness

2009-10-21T16:13:00.004+11:00

Met Kyle for lunch,
and bought some pens,
signed some paperwork,
when will it end.

Race to the Post office,
to get a passport,
was really really late,
but they were all good sports.

Fixed my car,
and drove to work,
got some clothes,
and had a good talk.

Came home to crash
and posted poems,
cause tonight im out,
to get real smashed!

The photo is a flower that comes out at night down the path behind my house, it was 11:40 at night, and i turned the flash off and used a seperate light source from a small LED light to get the reflective light of the colour of the flower, i took 7 shots before getting the angle right.

Oh the humanity, this isn't art its the death of the english language through the description of what happened today!

- Adam Fox (Gone Drink'in)

Day 2: My Day: Flower Power

2009-10-20T21:13:00.005+11:00

Look a pretty picture.

Saw a Doctor,
Got a shot,
The day was really hot.

Eat some pizza,
Viewed a house,
something, something, something, mouse.

Cobwebs in the wind,
Andrew's such a whinge.

Made an appointment,
Downloaded a torrent.

Watched some Tv,
Did some work,
wrote this blog cause i'm a jerk.

- Adam Fox

Day 1: My Day

2009-10-20T02:04:00.002+11:00

Both Dan and Anna are doing blogs where they talk about things that happen to be the opposite to what they normally talk about, so i though i'd do the same thing, i'm always talking about technology on here so i'll talk my day and some nature for a week.

Today was a slow day,
I walk past some trees to school,
and i saw a Doctor.

The line was to long,
I was impatient and couldn't be bothered,
i'll come back later then.

Teaching, Passport,Centrelink, TUU, Library,
All the things i needed to do,
2 out of 5, damn!

OK i can't do that all week that took me ages :p

- Adam (DocFox01 has gone fishing)

TV Shows: Stargate Universe: Darkness

2009-10-17T18:00:00.002+11:00

An absolutely mind blowing episode, and by far the best so far. The impression was that the ship would just keep going to different planets, and it would turn into a routine, but the way the writers change everything every single episode it brilliant. Air Pt 3 had an amazing twist in the last seconds of the episode, and yet no sign of it is shown in the newest installment, but all new twist and turns are unravelled the whole way through the episode.

The bond between the crew is becoming more apparent, and the stresses they constantly wold face in a situation like this are fully covered, i mean how many Sci Fi show go to the detail to throw in a line mentioning waste management (The toilet :p) on a space ship.

The whole episode really just show that its trying to be different to old stargate, i mean there are still little thing that seem remnant of BSG, and some that are the same as atlantis, but its not as doom and gloomy all the time, and there is still some good little pieces of humor thrown in from time to time.

Tech Talk: Google Wave

2009-10-17T01:39:00.004+11:00

The people at Google have introduce one of their newest products at the Google 2009 I/O "seminar"? Google Wave. The idea is, integrate all of these different forms of communication into one easy to use program. As well as giving the functionality to be able to start long conversations with selected people, and retrace those conversation's at a later date. This would be useful for groups of people working on group projects but from different locations, to instantaneously talk to each other. Plus its not just text base like msn and other chat like programs but allows you to drag and drop images, documents, and i don't know what else into the conversation and allow everyone to have access to those files instantly. At the moment the beta trials of the program only allow you to ask google for an invite to test Google Wave, but it may be an interesting addition to the long list of programs i use every day.

DocFox01 AFK

Tv Shows: Stargate Universe Air Pt 1 & 2 (The Overview)

2009-10-07T16:23:00.002+11:00

Ok so from my previous post about Stargate Universe i was rather stoked about this show coming to tv, because it look like everything i wanted it to be.

Now the actual episode's haven't gone over so well with a lot of Stargate fans, and i do have some problems with it that i will outline, but in hindsight the first episode of Stargate SG1 "Children of the Gods" i really didn't like, but from that episode onwards became a 10 year love affair with my thursday nights as a child to sit down with the family and watch SG1.

OK so the problems first,

The independence of the show, it was marks as being a totally independent spin off of Stargate, but the first two episodes have been littered with reference to SG1 and Atlantis episodes, which will make it hard for the new audience that the show is targeting to follow what is happening, like they reference the ninth symbol address coming from the ancient database in atlantis, now a newbie to the show would have no idea what that means.

Next is the over dramatization of every single character, it seems basically the whole episode is just littered with random cuts to people back stories, oh look Grears is in the brig when the attack on Icarus base happens, i wonder why? and what is Camilla Wrays link to what happened? look TJ was leaving to go to college, but Camilla think that she's leaving for some other reason, has Doctor Rush really been put in charge of everything, or is he just telling them that as a power play, and poor Chloe who's dad commits suicide in the second episode to save everyone. The only person who hasn't had a really dramatic story is Eli Wallace, but its bluntly obvious that he's been put in as the "Fan Boy" and comedic relief, he is the embodiment of a Stargate fans wet dreams, to be plucked out of obscurity by the Stargate Command and sent to a mystical place where they understand everything, and that they can't get back from.

There my two main niggles, a lot of people have complained about the sex scene thats about 15 min in to the show, but its not really a hardcore porn scene or anything, it just the writers trying to show that they're pointing at an older audience.

The good points, ok i like the damage factor of the ship, that the air filters are broken and that parts of the ship are cut off because of tears in the hull, it brings a bit more realism to the show and reminds me a bit of the last episode of BSG where the ship is falling apart.

Its obvious from the readings from people that have watch Pt3 that these first two episode are all about setting up the premise and the final part is more like what the rest of the series will be like, so i will save my judgement on the series as a whole until i see that episode

DocFox01 AFK (Away From Keyboard, Noob!)

News: Average-Gamer-Reviews logo

2009-09-23T21:02:00.002+10:00

Just a little acknoledgement and plug to thank Anna for the wonderful new logo for the site, you can already see it in the header, and previews of the two different designs can be found below (when i find where i put them). You can find her artzy blog HERE

I also have plans to make a T shirt with the new logo on it, when i figure out how to use my iron, and where i put my T-shirt transfer sheets

News: Gravity number one killer of noobs

2009-09-12T22:28:00.009+10:00

In totally not related gamer news the International Committee for the Discovery of Major Causes of Death in Noobs or (ICDMCDN) for short, has discovered that gravity has been killing more noobs than any of the other major causes of death, including some of the minor ones. Due to this shocking revelation to all involved a new religious group Gravity Of Death has started preaching for the banning of gravity in localized area's and local PTA mom's no longer want their children exposed to this dangerous and deadly problem.

With this news the tobacco industries has released it new slogan "They're not as bad as Gravity" and scientists from several of the major Universities have started research into gravity repellant devices and spray's.

So For the time being all you noobs better stay in door away from windows and doors, with really thick curtains and a good game!

This has been a public service announcement by DocFox01 serving the community since today!

All knowledge of gravity and its uses as a hallucinogenic are false and the CSIRO are just making it up to feel special cause they've done nothing good since patenting WiFi, the use of anti gravity devices may cause weightlessness, diarrhea, vomiting, fear of the dark, annoying know all attitude, weight gain, hair-loss and a craving to smoke Marlboro cigarettes. She sell sea shells by the sea shore, even tho sea shells are on the sea shore, therefore she has a bad marketing department, sell them in the desert! If your still reading this ramble i applause you for you tenacity. Oh and if you want free internet sit outside Andrew's place. The twist ending to the sixth sense was that Bruce Willis's character was the ghost.

News: Playstation 3 Slim

2009-09-06T21:54:00.003+10:00

After the announcement that Sony wouldn't be lowering the price of their PS3, in a shocking turn of event Sony has now released their new PS3 Slim, just like they did with the PS2, but at almost half the price of the original PS3.

Even more shocking is that you don't lose any features with the newer version and it comes with a larger Harddrive (120GB vs 60GB in the original) than the original as well.

This will definitely make the console wars less of a one sided argument, with the Wii out-passing both the Xbox 360 and PS3, the Xbox 360 second and the PS3 third.

The major downfall of the PS3 was the price, seeing as it has better graphics than the Wii and 360, a free online network Vs the Xbox's pay per month.

Harvey Norman has a deal going at the moment when you buy a PS3 Slim for $499 you get one of the PS3's iconic games (e.g. Little Big Planet).

With this running the PS3 sales number are going to skyrocket and Microsoft has already put into work their defense stating that after the 22nd of September 2009, the Xbox 360 Elite will be lowered to $449 (the Elite being Microsofts comparison to the PS3 Slim).

Also from the 22nd of September to the 22nd of October, any customers who buy the Elite will also get a free copy of Halo:ODST.

An interesting development in the Gaming world.

Docfox01 Out.

Upcoming Review: X3 Terran Conflict

2009-09-05T19:48:00.002+10:00

Video Games | X3: Terran Conflict | Exclusive Aldrin Missions Trailer HD

XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii

At the moment i am in the middle of playing X3 Terran conflict, and the massive story-line that goes along with it.

Because of this reviews have slowed but don't feel i can truly rate this game until i have finished the plot.

Above is a trailer for the Aldrin expansion of the game which you can download free as a patch for the game, and i will be reviewing that as well.

The above footage is ALL gameplay footage, and a player could have owned and have control of all the ship you see on screen!

Watch this space Biatches

DocFox01 out!

Game: Battlefield Bad Company

2009-09-03T19:50:00.001+10:00

Battlefield Bad Company is one of those fun and amusing little war games that doesn't take itself too seriously, for this i applaud them, the graphics aren't the best around, but i wasn't expecting that when i bought the game.

Buying the game itself was interesting because i was able to buy it for $20 cheeper from an electronics store 5 metres away from the (game specific) store i almost bought it from, they're on the other side of the mall from

one another. Pay's to shop around!

But back to the game, the story-line is rather corny, and feels like it takes some of the actual story from the movie "Three Kings". It follows a new recruit joining B company, a rag tag group of stereotypical misfits, the hick yokel explosives expert, the hard arse sergeant, the nervous nerdy tech guy, and you the quiet guy. This makes for a couple of laughs during the cut scenes but only a couple!

The gameplay is rather fun, the weapons don't feel as realistic as they would normally be for a war game, but they're still alot of fun to mess around with and there is a rather wide selection to choose from. Vehicles are pretty basic, and there is not alot of variation in speed/strength/firepower, but they get you from A to B, which is important because the maps are fairly large if you decide to walk it.

A nice feature, and i imagine a fairly new one when the game came out is the ability to destroy a large portion of the buildings in the game, not completely but down to the skeleton. This makes for some interesting shocks when you run and hide from say, a tank thats chasing you, and you run into a house and then the tank blows all the walls off the house leaving you exposed to the next blow. This more than anything else made the game alot more fun for me.

Then when you start using the tanks yourself you can use the same tactic to take out enemy tanks instead of driving round the building. A nice little feature, and alot of fun to actually do.

My only criticism of the game is that there wasn't a local multiplayer option available with the game, (That i know of, there may be a DLC patch that i dont know about), which means the only way to share the fun of blowing up houses with your friends is online.

All in all a very fun single player game to play, it doesn't take itself too seriously (Any game where you can pack all your guys into a golf cart and drive around shooting people isn't being a serious war game), and its a good 6-7 hours of game play that was really enjoyable.

DocFox01 Signing Out

6 out of 10 Stars (Let down by limited multiplayer options)

* * * * * * 0 0 0 0

News: TV Shows: Stargate: Universe

2009-07-26T23:45:00.006+10:00

After the mountains of information that was released at Comicon 2009, and the release of the first official trailer for SGU, i have never been more excited for the release of a new show.

From this small 3 min trailer my faith in what SGU could be has been renewed.

Now it got a bad wrap to start with because of the amount of die hard SG1 and Atlantis fans upset about the SG1 cancelation, and subsequent less than awesome movie releases, and then the cancelation of Atlantis to make room for Universe.

But the trailer below is just plain awesome!

HD version (Big but worth it, and not to big too as to make it uncomfortable)

SD Version (for those who think size does matter)

This trailer has a few key things in it that i always wanted to see in Atlantis:

"Were Under attack"

(While the ships attacking Icarus base look similar to death glider, they do look different, maybe a new Milky Way enemy, or an old one with new tech)

"Several Billion Light years from home"

(They're trapped, its not like there just going to jump into hyperspace and be back in ten days with a ZPM)

"Were on a ship but we have no idea where we are in relation to earth"

(They're Lost, can't get home if you don't know where it is)

"This ship is falling apart"

(With all the stuff that happened to atlantis, the lights always worked!)

"The life support system is failing"

(They're in danger all the time, unlike atlantis where they had time to play golf and watch football reruns while the wraith were out there killing and sucking the life out of people)

"These are the wrong people"

(Inexperience, not able to fix every little thing that goes wrong i.e. No Rodney Mckay! [as much as i did love the character])

"Looks like were entering the Hoth System"

(A bit of nerd comedy [*Mimics Burns* excellent])

And a rather catchy music track for the trailer,

(Hey the whole reason i watched supernatural was because of Highway to Hell in the first episode)

SGU comes October 2nd to SyFy.

And october 3rd i'll be downloading it in HD to watch full 1080 definition (Probably with Roo sitting right next to me), that is unless Ten picks it up and airs it the same time as SyFy, Doubtful!

DocFox01 "excitedly" signing out

Game: Fable 2 (QR)

2009-07-24T10:38:00.003+10:00

Quick Review:

Fable 2, well it wasn't as good as i thought it would be:

The magic interface doesn't work well at all.

The story-line really doesn't get you invested in the game, and is incredibly short.

The graphics feel not much better than Fable 1, they are, but in comparison to most game I'm not real impressed.

There are noticeable glitches in the game, enemies flickering when the have died, and bolts of lightning not disappearing once "thrown".

You know where enemies are going to appear once you have walked through an area because they re-appear if you return through that way.

But on the positive side, for those who enjoy games with heaps of extra's like buying shops and houses, and doing little quests will like the extra gameplay time given by these tasks, but in relation to the main story-line there is no linkage to make you feel like these are more than just time wasters.

A good try at a RPG, but alot of problems which will stop me from taking a second look at this game.

Rating 4 out of 10 (One of the better RPG games on the market for the 360).

News: TV Shows: Stargate: Universe

2009-07-16T00:43:00.004+10:00

** Spoiler Alert **

While the Stargate franchise is not related to games, this is something i have a passion for and feel that this is a good medium to put forward some theories about this new show and give a run down for those in the audience that haven't been following along with the Nerd News.

The third series in the franchise is based around the 9th symbol on the stargate, 7 chevrons to dial a gate in this galaxy, 8 symbols to dial another galaxy and the 9th dials a ship, this ancient ship the "Destiny" is a scout ship sent out into the universe to follow a second ship sent earlier whose job is to seed stargate across the other unknown galaxies in the universe. The Destiny was suppose to be manned by an ancient crew to follow and document the planets found, but was abandoned after the ancients ascended or left for the Pegasus galaxy (it is unknown when this project was started the look of the interior of the ship suggest that it is pre-Atlantis technology, suggesting that the ancients had many more years before ascending, and that there may be another reason for the abandonment).

The series is based around a jumbled group of scientists, soldiers, IOA, and civilian, who were on a Stargate Command outpost. Working on a top secret project to reach the Destiny, i also believe that one of the Daedalus class ships (Most likely the Odyssey) is somehow being used or was used because of mention during season 5 that they were off on a top secret mission, (either relating to Icarus project (See below) or to finding the crew of the Destiny). In other word we don't know when Stargate Universe starts in relation to Atlantis or SG1.

From the teaser trailers and cast photos the name Icarus has popped up, either as the name of the outpost or the projects name. This suggest that the planet the base is on may be close to a sun or getting to the Destiny needs some kind of massive power output from the sun in some way. Using the knowledge that we have on the ancients we know that they haven't used any kind of solar generating technology on Atlantis, so my thought is that the ship is reached by sending a wormhole through the sun (Following the history behind the name Icarus), but we know that sending a wormhole through a sun does not do anything to the wormhole, but it will affect the sun in some way as seen in "Red Sky" (SG1 Season 5, Episode 5), suggesting that if is the case that there is some missing element to the "getting to the Destiny" puzzle.

The mismatched group of explorer did not mean to end up on the Destiny, when during some kind of catastrophe the entire base is evacuated, but they have just figured out the key to the Destiny, and Dr Nicholas Rush, the lead scientist decides to dial the Destiny instead of Earth, because it was the only chance for him to complete his life's work to find the Destiny.

Ending up in the group being stranded on the ship with no way to get home, and no choice to go forward and finish what the Ancients started, and try to find a way.... home... (Sound Familiar?)

The series has been green-lit for airing and will start airing in October 2009 on the American network SyFy (originally SciFi).

THE PLUG

I used http://www.gateword.net to find all of my information.

Docfox01 Signing Out

Rating: 0 out of 10 Stars (Yet to be Rated)

Game: Need for Speed Undercover

2009-07-04T17:08:00.011+10:00

At the very first glance at the game, you are thrown into a police chase, this becomes difficult if you don't know the controls of the game. A bad place to start but it does force you to get to know the car quickly.

The storyline seems very similar to the first Fast and Furious storyline, "Your an undercover cop trying to make it into a street gang to find some stolen cars."

The storyline doesn't help to keep you involved in the game, because the whole way through the game its just...

(race until your Wheelman level goes up, watch boring bad acting cut scene, where the actors look at the camera like their talking to you, even though they're talking to you on the phone in there hand, and then beat that person in a race, or steal a car from the cop's then rinse and repeat)

The upgrades for you car are still very basic, Street, Race, and, Pro, which are unlocked during different parts of the game, but you are given some control of specifics like more torque in low or high RPM's, and the duration or force of the Nitrous Oxide, etc but the visual additions to the Car like spoilers and vinyls (Sticker and stripes for the car) etc, are very limited

Even tho there are not many cars to choose from, the simulation of each different car is very well done. My favourite car in the games is the Shelby Mustang GT, and in every need for speed game i have played they all drive the same, and i assume very close to the mechanics of the real car, the gear changes are very quick, the drift from the handbrake is very fluid and easy to get use to, and the regular brake are about useless, which is true to the car (The original car used very basic brakes and suspension for the amount of power and torque that was being produced by the engine)

There is no reason at all for the open world, because you can teleport to every single race using the GPS, or by just hitting the down directional button which brings you to the closest race. This is where a lot of need for speed game have failed in the past, they put in an open world but don't use it, so it just becomes redundant. Need for speed Underground 2, is the only game where they have used this open world by making it that you had to find garages for different kinds of upgrades and you had to drive to every race on the map, which improves the games length and gives the driver more time to master the car.

This game feels very much like just another Need for Speed game spat out of the factory, there is nothing new to interest the player apart from better graphics and some classic car's to drive around. Another Miss for the Need for Speed Franchise.

Docfox01 Signing Out

Rating:
4 out of 10 Stars (Good Graphics, Good Cars, Bad Story, Bad Sandbox)

Game: Grand Theft Auto: China Town Wars

2009-07-03T15:04:00.015+10:00

Grand Theft Auto: China Town Wars is the first in the GTA franchise to go onto the Nintendo DS, obviously with the graphic capabilities no one is expecting GTA IV. But the game that Rockstar North have created does include some of the great elements of GTA games in the past that make them great. The game is a top down view game similar to the GTA I, II, and III.

But as you can see in the photo below it is slightly tilted so that you can see the sides of buildings and cars, making it seem more 3d, and when you flip a car you can see that the game objects are built to be 3D. They also used a comic style way of displaying everything by putting black lines around everything to help show the outline of objects and give the game a more comical fell which works extremely well. The storyline has gone back to its original GTA roots, with the jokes and sleazy and idiotic banter, they are using basic still shot images and subtitles instead of audio to save space as can be seen further down the page in a chat between Chung and Detective Hesson.

Apart from that the game is exactly what i wanted GTA IV to be, it included all the missing part that GTA fans are use to from GTA Vice City, with the ability to buy safe houses, with actual garages, there are choppers used in the game but you are not able to fly them yourself. The return of the Hidden packages, and the Rampages, and new mini games using the stylus control, such are hot wiring cars and putting together sniper rifles before the kill (see below). The cars in the game are ranged and very similar in driving style to IV, (the duke is still really powerful and hard to keep in a straight line).

The map has removed the 3rd island, but you don't even notice that it is gone, because the two islands are enough to still keep you lost for ages. The inclusion of the ability to trade drugs within the game was very well thought out, as a trading mechanic to allow the user to make extra money, but parents should be wary as the drugs still have their real street names, something that you think may have been picked up by sensors after they made Fallout 3 remove the names of their drugs before it passed censorship.

All in all an excellent DS game, with a humorous 6 hour long storyline, with many hours of hidden packages, buying houses trading drugs, stealing gang vans, racing bikes/cars/go Karts etc, for any enthusiastic GTA fan who also owns a DS.

Docfox01 Signing Out.

Rating: 7 out of 10 stars
(An excellent example of the power of the DS)

Game: Grand Theft Auto IV: Lost and the Damned

2009-07-02T12:41:00.011+10:00

Grand Theft Auto IV was the reason i bought my Xbox 360, I was a younger boy with just enough money back from my taxes to by the 360 and GTA, or buy the PS3 but have no game, and so i went for the cheaper option. GTA IV was an excellent game, and one i haven't reviewed yet for this blog but The Lost and the Damned add-on is the most recent "game" addition to the franchise.

OK Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and the Damned is an online downloadable content extension of the original game, and this is my first complaint about this game, you pay 25 dollar for the game, but all you get is the equivalent amount in Microsoft points to buy the game online, and then you have to download the game of Xbox Live, which cost you extra money for the download. This is why the game is only know by many of the hardcore gamers, because a casual gamer would see this as the rip off it is.

My first real problem with the game came after installing it, i went to run the GTA IV disk expecting to see a menu to pick the lost and the damned, but there was nothing, after mucking round on forums for ages, and asking people on Yahoo Ask, i actually fix the problem myself. You actually have to run the game with the Internet connected as well to download the update (obviously a patch) which makes playing the game possible. But because this is a downloaded game, there is no service number to ring, you can't really take the game back to the store and tell them it doesn't work, and you only get to download it once so if it screws up during the download you have to pay for it again.

Once you get the game running it really isn't worth the short 4 hours it takes to finish the story. It is played entirely separately from the original game, including all the vehicles, so you can only drive them around the city when your playing the Lost and Damned variation of the game.
The story revolves around bikes, and so if you don't like the bike riding simulation in GTA you won't like this. But it is another story in Liberty City so it is an extension on the original time of the game. It should be also noted that the game does include some new multiplayer games including the ever popular, one man on a bike, and one man in a chopper.

There is a second downloadable content game coming out in the Americans "Fall" (September or October for us Australian's), "The Ballard of Gay Tony". With the release of the second and final downloadable content for GTA IV, they will also be releasing both the downloadable content as actual games on one disk, both the Lost and Damned and The Ballard of Gay Tony together. This will allow for people without Internet to finally play the downloadable content games. There are still no reports of making either of the downloadable content available for the PS3, but i will post new news as it develops.

DocFox01 signing out

Rating: 4 out of 10 stars
(A good extension to the original if you like bikes or the multiplayer)

Movie: Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

2009-07-01T14:49:00.006+10:00

While this is predominantly a site for my own personal review of game's. The first post, the one to start it all is about this movie, Transformers 2.

Now after just coming from the cinema, i am just so frustrated at how deplorable this movie really was. Word's can not describe the feelings of loathing and hatred i feel to all the people involved in this film. While those are very strong word, someone during the production process must have sat down and actually watched the movie.

Some of you will like this movie, and in hind site i have watched movies like this before and found them watchable. So the complaints are as followed.

Firstly and most notably: The explosions, now its been said by so many people already, that this is a Michael Bay film, and there will be explosions. But the entire movie is riddled with things blowing up or crumbling, or being sucked up into massive decepticons. So much so, that you feel like the storyline is only there to get to the next explosive scene.

Next is the amount of useless comedic characters added in to make the movie more "funny", which it DOES NOT!

- The random roommate that's get dragged along for the ride, obviously a very funny point, especially during the car scenes where they show full facial shots of him just crying and whimpering for no reason. oh wait, the reason was so they had an excuse to taser him to shut him up.

- Then there is the useless little decepticon that Mikaela capture and is training as a pet, the last time you see it, its humping Mikaela's leg calling her a goddess, oh but that just disappears when all the exploding and fighting start, Plot hole anyone!

- Then the return of Leo Spitz, don't know who that is, he's the sector 7 agent from the first movie, who after now being fired spends his time working in the family store smearing bagels, but he also has a cellar of top secret Sector 7 material. Now ain't that believable!

Finally the use of autobots that constantly argue and fight with each other, in a predominantly and insultingly racial stereotype of gangsters. Which then leads onto my next point...

Stereotyping: Throughout out the entire film you feel like you have walked into a two dimensional cliches and frankly it is offensive, Nerdy deceptions (with glasses), sexy-slim female auto bots(with almost zero dialogue), and the "black" gangster twin autobots, just to name the most obvious.

Oh and don't forget the seductive deception that is able to look like a hot sexy female human, and forces herself on Sam, just to create some conflict between him and Mikaela, when she obviously walks in on the decepticon kissing Sam. (Come up with some original idea's for once). Also if all American college's are full of sexy looking female models who are hot for the lecturers and just walk around with very little clothes on, i am so moving to the land of the free and becoming a professor, now there is so inspiration for getting you PHD.

All in all a terrible experience was had by all, and it is 2 hours and $9.50 AU, that i can not get back, Micheal Bay, and all those involved in this catastrophe go back to destroying movies no one cares about, and no one wants to watch.

DocFox01 signing out

Rating: 1/2 out of 10 stars
(If your an explosives nut, or Megan Fox fan)