Horseplay

Once you've been gaming for a couple of years, you can start to feel like you know what's coming next when you pick up a new game. If you stumble across a massive stash of weapons and ammo, you can guarantee you're just about to enter a room full of enemies. If you meet a supposedly immortal nasty boss creature, he's almost certainly got a very small, but curiously exposed weak spot. I thought I had games all figured out. Until yesterday...

I'd been playing Red Dead Redemption long enough to work out the general status quo. If someone's wandering around looking distraught/troubled/scared/bloody/alone, then they are in need of assistance. Once helped they will give you some kind of reward, either monetary or treasure map-related. This was my thinking when I got off my horse to help a young woman in the middle of nowhere.

Then something jaw-droppingly left-field happened. She jumped on my horse, called me 'green' and galloped off into the distance. I was so shocked I had to pause the game and make a cup of tea. Shocked AND delighted all at the same time. Both annoyed, and entertained by the fact that the game had managed to totally surprise me.

But, now to the important part of this post. If you see this woman, do not trust her. Do not be distracted by the fact that she's wearing bloomers, or concerned by the fact that she's wandering around in the middle of nowhere in the searing heat (with no sun hat) - SHE IS TROUBLE.

Sightseeing in Paris

I was considering going to Paris for Easter, but for various reasons (mostly because the Eurostar is so ridiculously expensive unless you book a year in advance), I ended up staying home with the Xbox.  As luck would have it, the next game on my 'Must play soon' list, The Saboteur,  is set in Paris. Here are some snapshots from my weekend of virtual sightseeing.

Me next to the Eiffel Tower. It rained quite heavily on my first day in Paris - I was lucky to find another tourist on the roof of this building who was happy to take my picture.

Me base jumping from the Eiffel Tower. I forgot to take my bag off! Fortunately my mobile phone made it through in one piece.

Me driving to Le Havre to find somewhere nice for a pub lunch.

In love with a loading screen

It's official - I'm about two-thirds into Bioshock 2 and I'm not blown away. While it's all very nice to return to Rapture, I don't feel like I'm doing anything new. Probably because in gameplay terms, I'm not (aside from killing annoying little sisters).

Still, there's a good chance I'll still end up finishing the game... largely because I'm in love with the loading screens.



There are the reasons why:

1. 1940's music is great.

2. You're allowed to choose when you continue playing.

Of course, the problem is that I might just leave the loading screen on for a very long time.

Mad with Moxxi

Borderlands was one of my favourite games of last year, so much so that I had almost completed the game 100%. Until they started releasing DLC that is. While I'm happy to pay for extra content, what annoys me is that the new achievements show up in your achievement list even if you don't download the extra content. It makes it really hard to resist spending your microsoft points.

This wasn't such a terrible thing when it came to Zombie Island. I was happy to wander around collecting zombie brains and then more braaaaaaains, while continuing to work towards 100% achievment completion. But Mad Moxxi's Underdome Riot was a different story. As I was being mauled for the millioneth time, I realised with horror that I would never be able to tick all the achievement boxes. Leaving me extremely annoyed that I'd been cajoled into buying DLC that then made it ridiculously hard to get the achivements (the main reason I bought it).

This leaves me with a dilemma - should I download the latest 'Secret Armory' content? Am I annoyed enough at Mad Moxxi to make me boycott the next DLC? Possibly. Possibly not. If Mad Moxxi agrees to put down the loud hailer and stop telling me I'm rubbish, we might just make up and put this whole terrible affair behind us.

Played the game, got the t-shirt.

Was checking out upcoming new releases on the Game website the other day... I've been following the development journey of the Alan Wake game pretty much since I was old enough to grasp a controller, so I was pleased to see that there's going to be a collector's edition. Also, if you preorder (either editon), you get a downloadable t-shirt for your avatar. The weird thing is that I'm more excited about getting a t-shirt for my avatar than I would be if I was getting a t-shirt for me (see earlier post for my rant about ludicrously large gaming-related t-shirts).

The limited collector's edition is designed to look like a book and is 'hardbound in quality linen.' Unfortunately in skim reading I skipped the first two words and was getting way too excited about the possibility of an Alan Wake duvet. Here's what's actually included:

• Game Disc in box with unique art
• Exclusive In-Game Audio Commentary and hints by Remedy.
• “The Alan Wake Files” a 144 page book that includes a short story written by Alan Wake and compiles the FBI dossiers investigating the events in Bright Falls.
• Exclusive Xbox 360 bonus disc with special content:
  - Exclusive Xbox Theme and Avatar
  - A token for the first downloadable content available for Alan Wake through Xbox LIVE
  - Video Documentaries/Behind The Scenes
  - The Theme of Alan Wake
  - The World of Bright Falls
  - The People of Bight Falls
  - Alan’s Missions
• Exclusive Audio Disc with Soundtrack and Score