Ed Hewitt

E3 2008 is now over. I was planning to do a day-by-day summary of all the news from E3, but hey, there is always next year! Instead, I will give you a quick round up off all the news from E3.

The Press Conferences

Microsoft

• Revamp of Xbox dashboard, as well as Xbox live which now has avatars (copy off Wii)
• Netflicks partnered with Live to add more movies to the store.
• Lips, new karaoke game (again, another copy, off PS3 this time)
• Final Fantasy XIII announced for Xbox 360
• Fallout 3 gameplay footage
• Gears of War 2 dated, 7 November 2008
• Resident Evil 5 dated, 13 March 2009
• Fable II dated, October 2008
• Also announced, Guitar Hero: World Tour, Rock Band 2, Viva Pinata 2, Portal 2 and Geometry Wars 2

Sony

• New Bundles - PS2 with  Lego Batman including DC New Frontier DVD announced for $149 and Silver PSP, Ratchet & Clank - Size Matters, National Treasure 2 UMD, 1 GB Memory Stick and a voucher for Encochrome for $199.
• PS3 80GB Core Model for $399
• 130 PS2 titles announced for 2008
• New PSN games, Ratchet & Clank Future: Quest for Booty, Siren, Eden and Fat Princess. $14.99 each.
• Gran Turismo TV announced
• New footage of Resistance 2
• Resistance Retribution announced for PSP
• More footage of Home
• Also, Infamous, Valkyria Chronicles, DC Universe Online, Patapon 2, LocoRoco 2 and God of War 3 announced!
• The biggest title of the whole of E3 has to be Sony’s exclusive title. MAG (Massive Action Game), is a new FPS which is very similar to Battlefield, however the online battles can have up to 256 players! The 128 players on each side are broken up into 8 player squads. There is no other game like this. On PC the biggest online match you can have is 64 players, on Xbox 360 it is 16.
• Movies & TV Shows can now be bought from PS Store.

Nintendo

• Animal Crossing: City Folks annoucned which will use the new Wii Speak feature.
• Wii Motion Plus announced
• Pokemon Ranger and GTA: Chinatown Wars announced for DS
• Wii Sports Resort and Wii Music announced

Game Highlights

• Halo Wars
• Socom: US Navy Seals Confrontation
• Motor Storm: Pacific Rift
• Far Cry 2
• Left 4 Dead
• Lord of the Rings Conquest
• Gears of War 2
• MAG (Massive Action Game)
• Resistance 2
• Resistance Retribution
• Ratchet & Clank: Quest for Booty
• Fallout 3
• Prince of Persia
• Killzone 2
• Little Big Planet
• Tom Clancy End War
• Crysis Warhead
• Fable 2
• Resident Evil 5

E3 2008 has been great for Sony, excellent titles announced and Resistence 2 and MAG look great! Microsoft & Nintendo have had a poor showing, even GameSpot UK have said about how poor Microsoft was. Personally, I looking forward to seeing more of Killzone 2, Resistence 2, Gears 2, Crysis Warhead, Ressitance Retribution, SOCOM and Lord of the Rings.

Tags: Gaming, News by Ed
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Now my exams are over, I decided to treat myself to a new PC game. I have been playing this game for the past few days, I am loving it. I thought it is now about time for me to do my review of The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion.

Oblivion is a RPG released in 2006 for the Xbox 360 and PC. It is the latest installment for the popular RPG series, The Elder Scrolls, from the people at Bethesda. Before I even start telling you how great this game is, the awards speak for itself. It has won many Game of the Year Awards in 2006 and many critics claim it to be one of the best RPGs of all time. Even its expansion, the Shivering Isles has won many awards. Although, I have yet to play the expansions, but what I have heard is that these expansions do not change the gameplay at all. The expansions only adds new quests, items and places to visit.

I purchased the Game of the Year Edition, which includes Oblivion, Knights of the Nine and Shivering Isles. All this for £20 ($10), great value for money for a huge RPG. As soon as I installed and load up the game, as soon as you start, you are thrown right into the main story line. Without giving to much away, the basic storyline is that the Emperor is murdered, these Oblivion gates open all over the world of Cyrodiil. Through the main story line, you have to find out who murdered the Emperor and how to close the Oblivion Gates. But before I go into all that, let me explain character creation.

You all know that before starting any RPG, you need to create yourself a character. All the usual options are here; name, what you look like, race, etc. However, Oblivion adds more depth to creating a character. You have to decide what you would like your birth sign to be. There are many different birth signs which improve your character in different ways, such as more health or more magic. The class system is also very clever as well. The first good aspect I like about the class system is that, you don’t need to choose a class until much later on in the tutorial. You can practise sword fighting, using spells and bows. After about half an hour in, then you can select a class. The second great aspect is that, the game recommends a class to you, judging on your playing style. There are 21 different classes, but all them centre around 3 aspects; combat, magic and stealth. If they like any of the 21 classes, you can always create your own.

Next, I will move onto gameplay. Like any RPG, there is quests and exploring. Oblivion is no different. There are 100s of quests and hours of exploring to do. The quests vary from the main storyline quests to quests given to you by guilds and there is also the small quests given to you by NPCs you find wandering Cyrodiil. The quests are enjoyable, but mainly consist of killing some monsters and bring back a certain item. There is already about 100+ hours of quests to do, but if you have the two expansions there is about another 40 hours of quests. Although, I don’t enjoy entering the Oblivion gates, but you only need to do this a few times during the game. Unless, you want to close all 100.

The world of Cyrodiil is huge. With beautiful landscape, many small villages and inns to visit and huge cities to explore, Oblivion would keep you busy exploring Cyrodiil. As well as the cities and villages, there are many forts and caves to explore and discover treasures.

Combat is major area of this game. Bethseda have done an excellent job in creating a very approachable combat system. Sword fighting is very enjoyable, and is simple for you to start attacking and blocking. Although, it can be very easy to attack your own allies in the heat of battle. Both ranged and magic attacks are simple to use, but can be easy to kill your enemy. I find it to be less changeling and enjoyable as sword fighting.

The final little bits of the game make it stand out from the rest. Wander into a town or village, you will see NPCs walking around talking to each other, sleeping, working and eating. You can talk to all the NPCs and listen to what they have to say. You can enter any building in Oblivion and have a look around. If the door is locked, you can pick-lock the door to open it. You can also pick-pocket and steal any item, but be careful of the guards, they can arrest you. The weather is ever changing, from being sunny to heavy rain or fog. There even day and night in the game, with its own time and calender. These aspects of the game make it feel like you are there and it is very real.

If you are even slightly interested in RPGs, this game is for you. The combat, questing and exploring would suit anyones gaming style. You can do anything you want, whenever you want. If you don’t want to do quests, you don’t have to. You could go on a mad killing spree in the cities or climb to the top of the churches. There is so much to do and enjoy for many 100s of hours. For £20, it is one of the best valued games I have bought. If your after a new game for the summer, deferentially consider Oblivion.

Tags: Gaming, Reviews by Ed
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On my favourite game from my favourite gaming series, Call of Duty 4. I have finally reached Level 55 on COD4 multiplayer. I was planning to do within 48hours, but I managed to do it in 43 hours and 19 minutes!!!

click here for full size image

On the topic of PC Gaming, I will be shortly creating a new section on my blog, which will have all my gameplay videos.

Tags: Gaming by Ed
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Apple have come along way with their Mac Operating System. Mac OS X is now at a point where it could topple Microsoft. Mac OS X has the amazing features, a great UI, stable, secure and great applications for all needs. However, I believe there is one thing holding it back, Gaming!

Windows is at forefront of gaming, it has managed to keep 100000s of gamers using Windows because of the massive library of games. This is an area Apple are lacking in. Yes, I know Mac do have great games, such as The Sims, Call of Duty 2 & 4 and Battlefield 2142. But there are not enough of these titles and they can be hard to find. I believe there are two things, Apple have to do to match Microsoft in the gaming market.

First thing is implement a proper gaming plan. Apple need to make relationships with game developers and see if their willing to make games for Mac. These games can be easily ported from PC titles, thanks to Mac using Intel processors. Once they have managed this, how will Apple sell the games. I don’t believe Apple should be selling the games at a games store. Most games stores are unlikely to stock Games for Mac since PC games don’t sell terrible well games stores anyway. Digital Distribution is the way for Apple. They have already created a great store for iTunes, it shouldn’t be too hard for Apple to use the same concept with Games. iGames (a possible a name) will be a store where you can purchase Games for Mac, old and new titles, and download them. Each game page will have information, screenshots, videos and demo. It maybe a good idea for the client to tell the user how well the game will run on their system. This client could also use the functionality of iChat for a friends list (and see what game their on) and chat to them in game. The client could be a free download from Apple. Yes, I know, Windows already has all this, but look how successful it is.

The second idea is the hardware. Macs look amazing and are super quick, all the things PC gamers want. However, Macs are expensive, even for hardcore gamers. I believe it would be a good idea to launch a new PC, which is fast but cheap. Mac ProGamer (another possible name) would look cool and be as quick as a Mac Pro, but use cheaper hardware. A possible setup could be Mid-end Dual Core processor, 2Gb RAM, 8800GT or 9800GT and 250GB HDD or 150GB 10000rpm HDD. Still very quick, but slightly cheaper hardware. Possible the computer could come with a game on it.

This is my idea for the Mac Gaming plan (if one exists). Please comment and tell me what you would do. Steve Jobs, email me if you would like to use my ideas

Tags: Apple, Gaming by Ed
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Quick post, what is your favourite game or game series? I want just get some feed back from you, about your all time favourite video game.

My favourite game is the Call of Duty series. I absoultly love this series, ducking & diving from bullets, explosions and none stop fun. The single player missions really pulled me into the game, fighting in WW2 and now in the present day is fantastic. Its hard for me to choose my favourite Call of Duty game. I think Call of Duty had the best missions, Call of Duty 2 was more fun and had memorable characters and Call of Duty 4 has the best multiplayer by far.

Thats my all time favourite game, what is yours?

Tags: Gaming, Other Stuff by Ed
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Mass Effect, one of the biggest Xbox 360 titles of last year, has now got downloadable content from Xbox Live. For 400 points, you can download Bring Down the Sky. It includes a new uncharted world introducing the Batarians, described as a ‘notorious and feared alien race’.

The plot follows a Batarian extremist group who have hijacked a mobile asteroid station in the Asgard system, setting it on a collision course with the nearby colony world of Terra Nova.

The new pack claims to content 90 minutes of content. It is the first in a planned series of Xbox Live downloadable content.

Tags: Gaming, News by Ed
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Finally, a Xbox 360 price drop confirmed!

the Arcade is now £159 (down from £199.99), the Premium is now £199 (down from £259.99), and the Elite £259(down from £299.99).

This now makes the 360 the cheapest current gen console, currently the Nintendo Wii is £180 and the PS3 40GB is £300.

Tags: Gaming, News by Ed
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