Mind the gap........

WOW.... and no I don't mean world of warcraft I mean wow its been a hell of a long time since I made my last post here. I have had ups and downs and to be perfectly honest there were times I didn't really feel like doing anything let alone write but I'm back and (hopefully) better than ever.
This will most likely be a short one just to get me back in the swing of things but keep those peepers peeled as I will be back up to regular pace in no time. 
BREAKING NEWS!!! This is almost like the fates knew I needed something to write about but as I was writing the above intro I got an e,mail. The ps3 video magazine called First Play is making tomorrows episode its last! After 64 great episodes they are pulling the plug. I for one am quite upset about this. I purchased every episode and enjoyed every single one. So for those of you who don't know let me explain, First Play was a weekly show you could download onto your ps3 and it would cover things such as the latest games news, screenshots, developer interviews, game and movie reviews and on top of all that they would always have something exclusive and free to download. Anything from a basic theme to a free mini game.
I don't know why they have decided to stop it but I'm guessing it would be either a lack of money or time. It was created by the guys and girls at Official Playstation Magazine so I guess they just found the work of making a monthly print magazine AND an online magazine just too much to handle. Either way I for one will miss it, after all I was there right from episode 0 (the test episode) and I sure hope that they go on to do bigger and better things. R.I.P First Play, you will be missed.

An open letter to E.A

Dear E.A people. I would like to say first of all thank you for publishing the Bioware games such as Mass Effect 2. As a PS3 owner I was worried that I wouldn't get to play it after selling my 360 a few years ago but you managed to sort that out for me so thanks again. Now onto the meat of this letter/post, I was wondering if you could maybe do me a favor and bring back Road Rash. Please? I know I don't exactly have a lot of pull in this industry (ok so I have exactly no pull at all) but I would really like you guys to announce it at E3 or something. It,s not like it would be hard for you to make, I mean you have Criterion there and they have some practice with bikes after that DLC came out for Burnout Paradise so your half way there already. You could use the leveling up system and map layout from Need for Speed Hot Pursuit, earning money after each race to get the new bikes etc, you could even build in some kind of gang system when if your a member of one group then members of another would be after you more so than normal. Its all in place really, you would just need to put a little bit of time in and its sorted. Its easy money if you think about it, I mean I know you guys are all about the money am I right? 


I guess if that's to much to ask then a remake of Haunting staring Poulterguy would suit me just fine too. In fact now that I think about it you could use the Sims 3 engine for that, moving to bigger and better houses each time you clear the family out. Instead of picking what items to buy from a menu like you do in the Sims you could use that same menu to pick what item in the room you will possess. I'm not quite sure how you could recreate the underground bits but hey, your smart guys I'm sure you could think of something. Any how that's all from me for now, if I think of any more of your classic games that I would like you to remake I,ll be sure to let you know, I mean I'm sure one of your top dogs has read this..... right??


For all of you non E.A guys reading this, and I'm guessing that's all of you, then post your comments about what gaming franchises you would like to see resurrected. Also feel free to e,mail me at deejaypeeblog@gmail.com or add me on the psn at Davidp1985. Thanks for reading and happy gaming!

Resident Evil Redux??

I was sitting here for quite a while wondering what to write about next. In fact those of you who know me would have seen me asking for topics on my facebook. Well my girlfriend came up with a wonderful idea and I was all set to go with it when I heard the shocking news, Resident Evil Code Veronica and Resident Evil 4 are getting HD remakes on the psn and xbox live. Now this may not be a big deal to you, indeed if you don't like R.E (I mean Resident Evil not Religious Education there obviously) then you wont give a flying monkeys but seeing as I have been a fan of R.E since the (not legal to play it) age of 13ish then this made me very happy indeed. The first game in the series that I owned was strangely enough the first in the series in general  and to this day I'm amazed the guy in the shop actually sold it to me. It was one of my favourite Sega Saturn games and although I haven't played it recently I'm sure I would still like it today. I owned R.E 2 on the N64 and for some reason missed out on 3. Resident Evil 4 is without a doubt the R.E game I have played most, I owned it on my ps2 and also on my wii and I can assure you I will be downloading this remake. 


For those of you who don't know let me explain quickly about Resident Evil 4. You control Leon S Kennedy who was also in R.E 2 and your on a mission to save the presidents daughter because she got kidnapped or ran away or something ( I said I was a fan of the games, doesn't mean I paid much attention to the story.) Anyway you soon find out that the local villagers would rather kill you than shake your hand and so the game picks up from there. This game shook up the way R.E games played and in doing so totally changed its genre from survival horror to action. The camera angle changed from static views of each room to a behind the shoulder camera and as a result of that the way the character controlled changed too. The one flaw in this game in my humble opinion is that half the game was an escort mission. If you know games then you know why this could be considered a major downside and if you don't then listen up. Basically an escort mission is where you have someone following you and you have to protect them and make sure they get to where they are going without being eaten by zombies or falling down a hole or walking into a wall and not realising how plain stupid they are being. Now all of those previously stated things will happen quite a lot mainly because your companion in an escort mission is almost always as thick as Forrest Gump covered in treacle.


At this point you may be thinking if I have complaints then why on earth have I owned the game twice so far and why am I looking forward to the remake so much. The answer my dear reader is simple, the game is a true classic. I have finished it so many times that I could tell you whats coming around the next corner before you even know where the next corner is and despite that I still love it. I bought R.E 5 the day it came out and it just wasn't the same, there is just truly something about R.E 4 that means you enjoy your time with it no matter what. The set pieces are awesome, the characters are very memorable and the gameplay is without a doubt some of the best around. The graphics don't look too bad considering the age of the game and the HD remake should solve that problem anyhow. 


So there you have it, I have no clue what price this will be when it get released but I will buy it regardless. Also you may have noticed that I mentioned there were 2 games being remade and yet only talked about one of them, now don't get me wrong I'm excited about the other one too but I have never played Code Veronica and so I would have had nothing to say about it anyhow. I want to add one last thing to this although its not strictly on topic, I also heard that they might be making an online R.E game where you play alongside other people playing though some of the events from other games in the series from a different point of view. Now that's a great idea, Left 4 Dead managed the whole Co-Op zombie outbreak amazingly but the past Co-Op R.E games were a massive flop so I sure hope they don't use either of those for the basis of this new game.


Anyhow that's all from me for now, as always feel free to comment and if you have any ideas for future topics then e,mail me at deejaypeeblog@gmail.com. Happy gaming!

Your mum will hate this post!

I would like to start this off quickly by letting you into some background info, I suck at spelling and for some reason the spellcheck on this software wasn't working today so there are a few mistakes here and there. Having said that I hope you still enjoy this and if you do want to moan at me about any mistakes then feel free, all feedback is welcome.. right on with the show.

Those of you in the know will understand the title of this post when I say its about Dead Space 2 but for those of you not as mad into games as some of us allow me to explain. Dead space 1 is a horror game, strangely enough set in space. You control a regular guy, not a tough army guy or some sort of space marine but someone who welds things together for a living. You go to a ship to answer a distress call and end up getting attacked by monsters with very large, long limbs... have a guess where you have to shoot them to kill them. If you said the head then read the last sentance again... honestly some people. Anyway it will come as no surprise to learn that you survive the attack and live to fight another day, hence the fact they made a sequal. 

Dead Space 2 is also a horror game and is also set in space. The ads in america involved showing a tonne of Dead Space 2 footage to a load of mothers (or actresses paid to act like mothers, i'm not sure) and filming their reactions. The main tag lines of these ads are "Your mom will hate this game" or something close to it anyhow and were intended to show how horrific and gross the game is, i'm assuming in order to make people want it more. Now i cant say the game isn't gory because it is, and some areas are fairly disturbing, one area even more so if you have kids, but I just didn't find this game scary really. I jumped exactly twice during this game, and one of those times was during the demo so when I got round to playing the actual thing I knew it was coming. So I should really say the game itself actually only made me jump once, and it didn't even involve any monsters, just a small area and a whole butt load of steam suddenly bursting out of nowhere. Now I don't know if that says more about me or the game, after all I grew up on games and films involving plenty of blood and guts so maybe i'm just desensitised and the game genuinly is scary but personally I have been scared more walking home from work late at night then by playing this game. 

After you have read all that you must think I don't like this game but nothing could be further from the truth, I couldn't stop playing the game and as soon as I finished it I started it again right away so I could go through it again on a tougher setting. I was totally absorbed by the story and loved the gameplay to peices, upgrading your armor and weapons means your constantly searching areas for every scrap of ammo, money or power nodes that you can find. I guess really what i'm saying is you have a great game here E.A but maybe you should try some better marketing next time rather than going for shock tactics.

Anyway thats all from me for now, let me know what you thought about this or tell me if you want me to cover anything in the future by e,mailing me at deejaypeeblog@gmail.com. 

Happy gaming.

The MvC3 Blues

I have a bit of a problem here, allow me to explain. I love the Marvel vs Capcom games, I have owned MvC 2 twice and I now own MvC 3. The controls are great and most of the moves are not really that hard to pull off and yet........ I suck! I know this is not a fault of the game and I'm not saying it is, but it does tend to spoil your fun when you go online for a bit of a rumble and end up with your own arse in your hands. It wouldn't be so bad if there was plenty of offline options for me to play about with but, well there just arnt. You have the normal training mode where you can practice moves against a non moving enemy. You can play mission mode altho its not as fun as it sounds, basically you are given a move or combination of moves to do and, well you do them, or try to anyhow. Of course if your anything like me then you,ll be able to do the first 2 missions for each character and that will be about it. You have 2 player offline vs and arcade modes and that's it...... no survival, no time attack mode, no way of fighting against the computer at all in fact apart from the bog standard arcade mode and that upsets me quite a bit. Even more annoying is the fact that before the game even came out they announced downloadable content that includes extra characters, costumes and an extra mode where you can fight against the A.I of some of the games developers. So if that's the case why couldn't they just include it in the game in the first place, oh of course that's right they want to make even more money off the fans. So it seems like I have a choice, either keep getting my arse kicked online, practice like mad until my fingers fail to function anymore and my pad wears down to dust, or shell out more of my hard earned money for a mode that should really have been in the game in the first place.... ah decisions decisions.


Well you heard my views but what do you think, do you agree with me or maybe you think I'm being stupid and need to stop moaning, either way let me know by leaving a comment. If you want me to talk about anything in the future then let me know at deejaypeeblog@gmail.com. That's it for now but just like Arnie, i,ll be back. 
Happy gaming, DeeJayPee.

One Month Later.......

Well it,s been about a month since I started this and here is my first proper post. It,s been a hell of a month with Sony announcing the new Playstation phone (A.K.A the Xperia Play) along with the N.G.P (A.K.A the PSP2.) Darkness 2 has been announced, no bad thing in my books as I loved the first one. Call of Juarez is being dragged kicking and screaming out of of it,s old west setting into the modern day. Fox news asked if the upcoming Bulletstorm is the worst game ever. The short answer would be no, i'm sure we all know plenty of games that are a hell of a lot worse. Activision said that there would be no more Guitar/D.J hero or Tony Hawk games for some time to come showing that even they can now see the horse is not only dead but so well flogged that there is nothing left of it. Of course that does still leave them with Call of Duty and I have a funny feeling that will be their main cash cow for a while now. Loads of games came out such as Dead Space 2 and Marvel vs Capcom 3 and i'm sure a few of them sold a bucket load, I know there are a few I would be buying if money was no object.


I think thats all for now, if you want me to cover any of these subjects in depth or indeed any other topics let me know. I hope you enjoyed and I promise it will be less than a month before i'm back again with my own skew on the gaming world.

Obligatory "About Me" section.

 Well this is the start of what I hope will be a long series of blogs about my life in gaming, my experiences and feelings about everything video game related.

I have been alive for a quarter of a century and have been gaming for almost as long as i can remember. I have owned a whole bunch of consoles and an even greater number of games for each. I started with a Sega Master System and worked my way up from there. I currently own a PS3 and love it.
I'm writing this blog so i can talk to the world (or at least the small section of it that will actually read this) about video games, and i would like this to not be a one sided conversation so if there is anything you would like me to talk about, any comments you want to make or just anything in general then please e,mail me at deejaypeeblog@gmail.com. Also if you own a PS3 and fancy a
game sometime feel free to add me at Davidp1985
I,ll be back in a couple of days for my first actual entry so let me know if you would like anything covered.

Happy Gaming, DeeJayPee.