More awesomeness here. The Indy theme is a work of genius, and another one of those songs that, when it gets going, you just get all adventuring inside. Of course, the closest I’ve ever come to adventuring is living vicariously through Indy’s feats in Fate of Atlantis.
Wisecrackin’ genius you just don’t see any more. Game designers of the world, sort it out. And bring back Guybrush Threepwood, whilst you’re at it.
Pat was going on at me to watch the new Iron Man trailer, so when I caught it listed (atypically) on The Superficial, I naturally checked it out. It is awesome, Robert Downey Jr seems to be an inspired piece of casting and I’m getting increasingly excited about a character and film I didn’t give two hoots about. It may also be that Toby R & Pat and people telling me how amazing the new spate of Marvel films are going to be is sinking in…
But the bit that makes the interwebs cool was when I googled “Iron Man Theme” because I couldn’t remember where I heard the rockin’ riff at the end (and I didn’t want to pay Shazam any money, and yes, shame on me)… And found this. Music and lyrics included. The awesome randomness of the Interwebs.
…who both think that Macgyver is awesome and love guitar.
God bless the Interwebs.
Actually impressed that the 5min.com people looked me up after I linked to Videojug in the last but one post. Good technorati monitoring and trackback tracking, guys, and actually taking the time to read my blog, find my Twitter and add me? Nice.
…you end up watching crap like this. I mean, if people thought that the IT Crowd was woeful for its take on geek culture… well, this makes the IT Crowd look like it deserves multiple awards. How does crap like that get picked up? For a full season, no less?
I need to practise more (also emphasised by having had a go on Pob’s Rickenbacker and Jazzmaster). Videojug’s guitar section beckons…
A bewildering combination of utterly compelling car-smashing gameplay and infuriating design decisions, which means that playing it is simultaneously fun and irritating, like eating a delicious cake with the occasional drawing pin in it.
Yes (thanks, Gil, for the pointer).
I too, have been spending more time than I have on this game on Xbox 360, courtesy of EA (they send me review copies). On this occasion, they sent me a PS3 version as well, which Patrick will guest-review soon and I’ll add to the blog.
It is an absolutely beautiful and very entertaining game; the Xbox Live action is smooth, seamless and instantaneous (but won’t work if you don’t have a hard drive in your 360), the graphics amazing and the race modes as fun as they’ve ever been in Burnout. But…
…there’s no splitscreen option, that I can find. Which is half the way I enjoyed the game in the past, so its an annoying design decision, as Charlie points out.
…there’s no way to immediately ‘restart’ a race.
…free-roaming is all well and good, but it makes ‘instant action’ of the kind you might be inclined to have hard to come by (I used to spend more time than was healthy on ‘crash’ modes, or whatever it was called, when you had to cause lots of damage to passing vehicles).
Other than those – significant issues – this game is flawlessly executed. If you were ever a fan of Burnout, you’ll enjoy the visit. If you thought Burnout was a bit to linear and formulaic, you’ll love it. If you need split screen action… you’ll be disappointed.
Update: My Xbox copy crashes frequently and has caused red-rings (but the Xbox then works fine with Halo3). All a bit weird. Don’t know if this is a bug in the game, or anyone else has seen this? “Burnout Paradise Red Rings of Death” to help people looking up the problem find me… SEOtastic.
Update 2: This wasn’t a problem with Burnout Paradise. I was just experiencing the same hardware faults that plague so many Xbox owners. Second replacement Xbox (or repaired Xbox, rather), here I come. C’mon Microsoft! Sort it out!
Patrick says:
There are times when it rocks to be Armo’s mate – getting a free copy of Burnout on PS3 is definitely one of them. I’ve chatted with Armo about the game and can understand his annoyance at lack of split-screen, but IMO this is simply the best racing game out there. It’s so good I actually question whether I need to buy another ever again (probably a good thing) – and I’d be suprised if a slew of Paradise City-alike copycat games didn’t appear over the next 12 months.
Some don’t like it but I think the free-roaming aspect of the game, which once you’ve started doesn’t have any loading times or menus screens at all, is awesome. Do any event whenever you want, nomatter whether you’ve managed to complete earlier events. Yes, there’s no crash mode, but instead you have the similarly crazy Showtime mode available at any time, with records to be broken on every road in the city. Got to mention the online mode as well. I’m not a big online gamer at all, and generally can’t really be bothered to leave games to go through lobbies and find a decent (and non-abusive) opponent – it just takes too long and I don’t know that many people with a PS3 to make it worthwhile. But the online in Burnout is a revelation – totally integrated into the main game and available at the touch of a button. The first time you play eight-player Burnout is an insane experience. So basically it’s great. A shame about the lack of restarts and no split-screen, but in its place you can lure an unsuspecting newbie to the roof of a car park and then push him off, which for me, more than makes up for it.
You wouldn’t necessarily know it from reading this blog, but I’m a decent writer. I’m capable of structuring arguments, thoughts, speeches, presentations and so on fairly well — I’m not claiming to be Martin Amis, but, y’know, not one of the manatees writing Family Guy (which, for the record, I am a fan of, but do criticise for being excruciatingly lazy with its writing from time to time. Blue Harvest, anyone?).
Anyway: once again, rather than taking that as a random diversion let’s call it an exemplar of what happens when you don’t plan a piece of writing. And that’s the temptation with blogs, just to hit “write new post” and spout random rubbish that’s occured to you that day. Well, no more! Or, at least, a little less. I plan to… plan more.
I should perhaps rename this blog the blog of unresolved resolutions. But I’m not sure that scans well.
Funny. So funny. Spike is about seventeen different types of genius that I can’t even begin to describe. Captain Jack and Captain John? Fantastic.
Gwen Cooper — needs to get more interesting. Ianto — darker every day. Like it.
Puffer fish in a sports car? Still chortling about that one…
Love my new neighbourhood, generally. Today, however, whilst getting some much needed building work done, instead of someone having a word with us discretely to let us know that the chaps sawing up wood were making maybe a little much noise and could we maybe keep it down, they sicked the council on us. Fair enough, turns out we were working out of regulation hours, but a quiet word rather than the council watchdog would have been ample. We’re not out to annoy anyone.
Grrr. Sometimes English reticence is just downright annoying.
Is not fun. Everything good costs a fortune and people seem surprisingly willing to sell crap for significant sums of money. The folks at Sofa Workshop ended up being best suited for us but really weren’t cheap. That said, the service was good, the follow up excellent, the access check impressive, and the number of customisable options very satisfactory.
I can’t wait till the house is sorted so I can get back to *only* shopping online.