At least it seems to be, on Amazon. Go nuts, kids.

I’m still holding off buying one until I hear of games other than Wii sports and Zelda that are worth playing (and no, sadly I’m not interested in Wario Ware).

Update: Out of stock now. Sorry if you were too late!

The C&C Tiberium Wars Demo is out (via Kotaku) and I downloaded and played it this weekend, whilst suffering from a cold. There’s probably an hour’s worth of fun you can eke out of the 1 gig download.

It seems decent. Now, I have no doubt that I will go nuts over the game when its out (and I really hope that EA sends me a pre-release copy so I can review it properly! Hint hint), but the demo has some limitations (beyond the obvious that its an, erm, demo).

The good stuff first:

Graphics are great. Good evolution on what had gone before. Good textures, level of detail, control system.
Squad system, weapons, troops, structures, etc., pretty much exactly as went before. Some minor detail touches.
Better multi-base control.
Entertaining cinematics with an absurd cast. Actors from Battlestar Galactica (Jon must be loving this! There’s a Cylon on bothGDI and Nod’s side!), Lost, and more!

The not-so-good

Computer AI, at normal difficulty, is DUMB. Maybe I’ve suddenly gotten good at RTS games and should play on ‘hard’ difficulty, but normal did seem a little too easy.
Hardware requirements are BIG. My Windows Performance Index of 4.2 causes the game to have MASSIVE slowdown. Probably fine if you have a Core2Duo… Grrr…
Not much has changed. It’s standard C&C fayre. That’s not necessarily a bad point, but the way in which you play this game (in single player mode) feels unevolved.

I think this game will potentially be a *lot* of fun if I reduce my graphics settings to a point where the gameplay speeds are manageable… Although I have no idea how the Xbox 360 version is going to make sense without a mouse. Watch this space for more.

Been playing Small Arms a bit, on Xbox 360. It’s fun. A lot of fun. I mean, a really small, really limited game, and if I’d stop to work out what the exchange rate between Microsoft Points (how tedious) and real money was, I probably wouldn’t have shelled out 800 points for it. But having not made that calculation, I’m pretty happy.

For those who don’t know what it is, it’s like a simplistic, real-time version of Worms. Fast paced, silly weapons and creatures bearing them, and strategic battle stages. Haven’t unlocked anything yet but even with just the basic characters and weapons its fun multiplayer and making me wish I had more than two controllers…! I especially like the knight character with his crazy exploding crossbow bolts…

My buddy Jon has gone to work at Electronic Arts, and has arranged for me to get some games to review on here – thanks Jon! The first one that came through was Superman Returns on PS2, and here are a few brief thoughts, alongside an FMV trailer.

I’m not gonna give you the story – it’s not relevant, really – the game has a Spidey 2 / GTA style free-roaming, choose your own mission feel, involving any number of Metallo-bots and other baddies. Sometimes asteroids. And you’re Superman. That’s all you really need to know.

Gameplay-wise, its kind of fun to fly around as a Superhero, but the cool and relatively straightforward control scheme falls down when you start to get bored from having to deal with incredibly repetitive baddies and disaster scenarios. Whilst the end-of-stage bosses present something more of a challenge and novelty, this is a game that will involved a large amount of button mashing.

Sound – is fine. Nothing to complain about or sing about here, really. Not a game that needs a lot of atmosphere.

Graphics – show off the PS2’s decrepitude as a console. There are no textures, and about 7 polygons. Kind of reminds of me of ‘Alone in the Dark’. Anyone remember that? If you don’t… video follows. I hope its better on the other consoles.

Overall: I’d give this game about a 3. It’s not great, has some novelty value, but even superhero wannabes like myself will lose patience with the repetitive action and poor graphics. And if, like me, you’ve recently come into possession of an Xbox 360, you’ll probably want to play Gears of War for a while yet…

EA does have a bunch of very cool games in development: Hellgate London and Army of Two to name two… hopefully I’ll get a preview of these soon and will write about them here.

Huh – who’d have thunk. My blog has actual content on it. Big up!

No time to play it before Chrimbo, so willing to part with it. Auction is up on eBay. Good luck!

I broke and ordered one in the Amazon 3-4pm availability binge. It’ll arrive next week.

Exciting.

Internet’s still down, btw, and I’ve had a ridiculously long week. So expect more to follow as time starts to clear up around that Christmas thing that is rumoured to be happening soon. Apparently.

This is awesome. Makes me want to buy both the console and the game. As well as the stunning graphics and fantastic reviews, of course… (of GoW).