Devil May Cry 4 Price Injustice

Last Friday saw the release of Devil May Cry 4 for the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 in the UK. I was intending to treat my PS3 to a new game as I feared it had been neglected for far too long and DMC4 seemed the perfect choice. I'd tried out the demo on both formats and although the differences seemed hardly perceptible the controls on the PS3 version felt a bit more responsive.

Alas, the decision on which version to pick was already made for me as the price difference between the two versions was unacceptable, and I certainly wasn’t willing to pay 10 GBP more for the privilege of playing the game on the PS3.

The price of games between the two formats is usually very comparable, and I can't remember seeing any significant difference before. Thankfully I have the luxury of being able to pick and choose as I see fit, but I can imagine there are a few PS3 owners out there that are feeling both frustrated and annoyed with the price inequality. I sincerely hope this is a one off occurrence and not a sign of things to come for the PS3 just because it's doing well in Europe.

I’m only about three hours into Devil May Cry 4 so far and overall I’m enjoying the game. There are a few niggles here and there, mainly to do with the camera angle, but I was expecting as much from the demo. The gameplay is solid and the cut-scenes have been great, even if they’re completely over the top, but they’re worth viewing at least the once.

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How Much Time Do You Invest in a Game?

I was playing through a few games of Catan on the 360 the other night, working towards the "Knight of Catan" achievement. It’s easy enough to get, you just have to finish the game ten times with the largest army card but I’ve never focused on the largest army before, preferring a road building and settlement strategy with a dose of knights for protection. As is usual with an Xbox Live Arcade game I always have a quick look at the leader boards to compare how badly I’m faring against the rest of the world.On the single player leader board I noticed that all the top players have easily logged over 2000 games and the leader of the pack is way out in front with over 5000 games played.

Now although that's an impressive feat it raises the question of "how much time do you invest in a game?". With Catan as an example even if you set it to the easiest AI, three players, and a capped victory point condition of seven instead of the usual ten then I would reckon a game would last between 10 and 15 minutes and therefore just to play 2000 games you'd need to invest somewhere between 300 to 500 hours. This is a serious amount of time dedicated to one game and although Catan is a good game I would find it extremely difficult to play the same game so often as to rack up this kind of tally in a year.

Of all the games I've played only one springs to mind that kept me entertained long enough to breach the 100 hours game-play mark, namely Oblivion. A fantasy RPG game with a highly detailed world that captured my imagination and proved to be a very immersing experience. However, even with a game as good as Oblivion there came a point where I felt I'd had enough and it was time to move onto something new.

Oblivion is the exception not the rule in my case and I'd say 15-20 hours is the general amount of time spent per game. Of course when considering the number of games I've played over the last year I can easily imagine I've spent hundreds of hours in total playing games, thousands of hours when looking back historically over the years. For me the saying "variety is the spice of life" is certainly true. Although I always aim to complete a game I'm forever looking ahead to latest and greatest offerings on the horizon and I very rarely go back once I've moved on.

So dear reader, what game have you played the most and for how long?

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Halo Dirt Revolution

The weekend is over once more and it's time to buckle down to work again. I've had a fairly busy game-playing weekend with bouts of Halo 3 mixed in with DiRT and smattering of Sega Rally Revo.

I'm still enjoying Halo 3 and I'm progressing with both the level scoring achievements and online multiplayer ranking when time permits. Most of my time is still spent playing co-op as I find it more enjoyable than taking part in a deathmatch type scenario.

I picked up Sega Rally Revo the other day and thus far I'm enjoying the game. However I find the opponent AI to be frustrating at times as they tend to stick to one racing line and if you happen to get in the way then you're invariably bullied off the road.

I've been playing DiRT on and off since release and I've finally completed the single player career mode 100%. Now that's finished I've turned my attention to the championship mode and thus far completed the "European" and "International" events with just the "World" event to go before the game can cast aside.

This week sees the release of PGR4 for the Xbox 360 and I'm very tempted to pick that up later in the week. It seems like at the moment there's a high profile game released on a weekly basis. The problem is getting the time to play them all!

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Return of a 360

I was getting a bit worried about my Xbox 360 that I'd sent back to Microsoft (three flashing red lights!) a few weeks ago. It had been 17 days since it was picked up by UPS and I'd not heard a peep from Microsoft support to confirm they'd received the console or if it had now been fixed. I was therefore resigning myself to the fact that it was going to take the full 25 days as estimated to either get it repaired or replaced.

To my surprise I returned home today after work to find a UPS delivery notification stating that they'd left a package with my neighbour. Without delay I rushed next door to pick it up.

It was indeed an Xbox 360, not my original but a replacement. The cover letter reads:

"So you can get back to playing and enjoying your Xbox quicker, we have replaced your Xbox console with a replacement unit."

If it takes 17 days to "replace" a unit I'm glad they decided not to fix it or else it may have been gone for a very long time.

So far it's working fine but I did notice that it sounds different to my previous unit and I hope this is down to an "enhancement" that has been made to stop the problem reoccurring.

All in all the process was relatively painless and I've been sent a couple of complimentary one month Xbox Live Gold subscriptions as a gesture of goodwill, but at the end of the day we shouldn't really be seeing hardware failures on this magnitude from a mass produced commercial console.

Related:
Death of a 360
The State of Play

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The State of Play

It's been over a week now since the Xbox 360 died and got sent back for repairs and I'm feeling its loss. Apart from playing full games, I tend to use it a lot to try out any new demo's, arcade trials or view game trailers and its absence was felt all the more last week during E3 when by most accounts Microsoft did a pretty good job or releasing downloadable content. I was also in the middle of playing Forza 2: Motorsport and DiRT and had Overlord waiting in the wings which I was looking forward to playing once I'd finished with the other two. Unfortunately I don't think I'll be getting the 360 back anytime soon so I will have to lament its loss for a little longer.

I was tempted to buy a Sony PS3 when the Xbox 360 died and I think I would have gone out and bought one if the UK had received a price reduction similar to the one introduced in the US, but unfortunately as soon as the bundle pack was announced the purchase was put back on the back burner. It's not that I don't think the bundle pack is value for money (if you want those games), and yes, I could sell the games and extra SIXAXIS controller if I wanted, but it all comes down to a matter of principle. I've always thought 425 GBP (RRP) was far too expensive, and offering me some first party games and an extra controller (that I don't want) as "added value" is not going to sway my mind. I'm hoping that we will see a proper price reduction later in the year and it's then that I'll buy into the PS3.

The Wii is still sat gathering dust as I await the release of some first party titles, the first of which will be Super Paper Mario, and I sincerely hope some "AAA" titles appear for the Christmas holiday season. I have been tempted by some Virtual Console games but I'm waiting until my 10,000 or so "Stars" points I've accumulated over the years as part of Nintendo 24:7 VIP Club can be converted to Wii points and put to good use.

So where does this leave me? Well at present the power light on the PS2 is burning green once more after a long absence and I'm ploughing through "God of War 2" which I'm very much enjoying, even if it does have some frustrating, joypad throwing inducing, sections to complete.

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Death of a 360

My Xbox 360 finally died on me at the weekend. It has been playing up for the past week and had frozen a few times whilst playing games so I had an inclination that all was not well. On Friday evening I finally got the three red lights of doom, fortunately the extended warranty is now in effect so I gave Microsoft Support a ring on Saturday morning.

After a 58 minute wait on hold and after about the one hundredth time of hearing the words: "Please remain on the line and a support representative will be with you as soon as possible. Thankyou for your patience." I finally managed to speak to a representative.

A few questions about the console followed (serial number etc) and I eventually got the option of having the UPS labels sent by post or by email. Initially I said I wanted them by post but as soon as I found out that it can take up to five days to get them I promptly changed my mind to email. At this stage I needed to change my Xbox Live email address so I gave the representative my new details and to my amusement the representative said he would have to write them down as the system had just crashed. I asked him if there were "three flashing red lights" displayed on the front of his PC but I don't think he was too amused with the quip.

My console is scheduled to be picked up tomorrow and there's currently about a 15 - 25 day turnaround for repairs (i.e. get a refurbished one sent back). I've had the console since the UK launch and I honestly thought I'd escaped the abysmal reliability problems but alas that was not to be. During my 360's downtime I will continue to post news but unfortunately trial and demo impressions will have to wait until I get the console back. On the up side I should now have the time to play a few of my back catalog of games for other platforms that have built up over the last year and I hope to post reviews as appropriate.

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A Quiet Week for Demos

It's been a bit quiet this week on the gaming demo front. After the rush of the last few weeks where a number of demos were released in quick succession onto Xbox Live this week has seen the complete opposite and there haven't been any new demo downloads made available to the UK service.

At present I'm still playing through Forza 2: Motorsport (X360) and I still need to finish off Shadow of the Colossus (PS2). I've also recently picked up Colin Mcrae DiRT (X360) and I'm hoping to post up a review of that as soon as I can get my teeth into it. From what I've played of the game so far it's very different to Forza and requires a different driving style but it's still very enjoyable.

On the horizon we have Overlord, Tenchu Z, Hour of Victory, Project Sylpheed, The Darkness and Call of Juarez all due to be released this Friday on the 29th June for the Xbox 360. Of those I've already got Overlord on preorder which I'm very much looking forward to playing. I'm also keeping an eye on the The Darkness to see if it's worthwhile picking up a copy once I've finished some of my existing games.

So many games, so little time!

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Puzzling? Frustrating?

I've not had much time to play games over the last week but I managed to get an hour or so on Puzzle Quest last night. I must admit I was getting a bit frustrated with some of the battles.

The AI was chaining together better sequences and whenever new tiles appeared on the game board they always seemed to favour the opponent. I had to replay a few quest battles, and some I couldn't win even after a couple of attempts. Of course there is a simple and logical explanation; I suck at this game! So to solve the issue I resorted to the belief that the AI was cheating. I'm sure this is not the case, but it made me feel better all the same.

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Weekend Action

There's been no new releases to tempt me into parting with my money this week so I'll be continuing with Guitar Hero II. I've also got a number of games in reserve yet to be started.
- Shadow of the Colossus (PS2)
- Okami (PS2)
- Canis Canem Edit (PS2)
- Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin (DS)
- Dragon Quest: The Journey of the Cursed King (PS2)

I'm looking forward to playing them all but I'm edging towards starting Shadow of the Colossus next. I really enjoyed it's spiritual predeccessor Ico and I've heard that this game plays just as well and has an epic sense of scale.

Of course there's always the Wii Virtual Console, With Lylat Wars been the notable release this week. However, I could always dust off the old N64 and plug the cartridge in if I feel the need to spend some time with Fox, Falco, Peppy and slippy rather than downloading it.

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The Wii Games Drought - A Good Time for Retro

The annual summer games drought is fast approaching and as the selection of quality releases dries up I was asking myself if the drought has come early to the Nintendo Wii. I've so far only purchased 3 games for the Wii, Red Steel, Wii Play, and The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. Wii play was only really bought because it came bundled with the extra remote, not for the games on offer (although some are quite enjoyable with family and friends). Red Steel was purchased soon after release to provide an alternative to the epic questing involved with Zelda but it didn't really captivate me for too long.

Since finishing Zelda the Wii has been gathering dust, occasionally it's used to browse the web when I can't be bothered to boot up my laptop. I was hoping that Super Paper Mario would fill the void during the summer, but for us European PAL users no firm release date has been scheduled. As far as I can see that leaves a distinct lack of games that interest me until the latter half of the year when we'll (hopefully) see the release of Metroid Prime 3 and Super Mario Galaxy.

This is therefore the perfect opportunity for me to try out some of the virtual console games as I missed out on the NES, SNES and Mega Drive etc. during my youth (I was firmly in the Commodore Amiga camp). I've so far downloaded Castlevania IV, Gunstar Heroes, R-Type, and The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past is next on the list. Don't get me wrong, I certainly wouldn't advocate buying a Wii just to play retro games. I would prefer to have an original game running on the system, but at least the virtual console provides a small ray of light in the bleak months ahead in the Wii games portfolio.

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