Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine

So in this game you decapitate like a million orks and then shoot a bunch of chaos. That might seem a bit obvious but the distinction is actually important.
The first half of the game is about wading in, throwing grenades, sniping the rokkit launcher dudes, dodging nob attacks, stunning and executing enemies. In short, it's hectic, and somewhat hard. The game gives you a bunch of different weapons and lets you change them pretty often and it all adds up to an interesting experience. By the end of the third chapter you'll be drained but confident that you can beat all the orks, so the game changes it up.
The second half of the game is about hiding behind cover and shooting everyone from as far away as you can manage. Huh. Sounds like every FPS made in the last few years. This unfortunate change is because the Chaos marines use the same strategy as your own marine buddies do, i.e. dig in and shoot. There are also the Sorcerer units which laser beam you if you stay out in the open for too long, but they make a nice satisfying -pop- when you hit them with a charged Plasma shot, so they're okay. The melee dudes run at you and engage you in some pretty one-sided combat; if you don't have the Thunder Hammer, it's going to be pretty tedious to wear them down. If you do have the Thunder Hammer, you only have your Plasma Pistol and Bolter to go on, and that makes fighting the Chaos horde a lot harder. I guess this section is meant to make you choose between raw melee power and actually-being-able-to-shoot-people-worth-a-damn but the choice is hollow because the Plasma Rifle is too good.
The finale is pretty badass and befitting the whole game, and the ending cutscene made me smile because I basically knew it was coming, but it fits the W40K world very well.

All in all I did enjoy this game. It's a lot of fun and it is definitely intense. I like this take on the W40K game but I'm still, STILL waiting for an honest recreation of the board game in video game format. Not that I expected this to be it; Space Marine excels at what it set out to do, namely: let you tear off Ork faces.

Birmeetup

Yes I know I still haven't made a post about AGDQ2012, shut up.


Yesterday it was decided that 6 people shalt meet in the most holy town of Beth- Birmingham. Emily and I, Dan and Emma, Mike and Kerry. We had a lot of fun freezing to death in a French restaurant which had no idea what service was, and also walking around the various video game shops. Thanks to the magic of GPS mobile phones, we also managed to find Cyber Candy which sells sweets from various exotic countries such as, uh, America.


Sweetie haul:

• Applehead - the box proudly proclaims '25¢' but it was probably slightly more than that
• Oh Henry - what is this
• Jolly Rancher (tropical blends)
• Jujubes
• Mentos (liquorice mint, strawberry liquorice)
• Lifesavers (fruit tingles)
• Pocky (Chocolate) - hers
• TimTam Originals - hers?
• Twix PB - I have to try this apparently
• Whatchamacallit? - also have to try this apparently

Gamie haul (thanks Cex!):

• Ecco the Dolphin: Defender of the Future (PS2) - mainly because I know it's hard as balls and might be one of the last games I ever manage to finish
• Final Fantasy IV Complete (PSP) - kinda wanted this for a while, I like the idea of having all the old FF games on my PSP.
• Final Fantasy X-2 (PS2) - I knowwwwww but apparently the actual game part of it is quite good
• Shadow of the Colossus (PS2) - was surprised they had one, well worth getting, it's the special edition with the postcards and whatnot

Birmingham itself is pretty neat, although they should probably clean their maps a little. And maybe update their signs.

Novo Anna

So it's almost new year's and I'm spending it in a hotel room with my darling wife and also Emptyeye and Silver, the couple we roomed with at the first Awesome Games Done Quick. We've played games, drank stuff, ate stuff and might branch out into playing games sometime later if we feel like it.

This year has been pretty damn good and seeing as AGDQ2012 starts in about 4 days I'm pretty sure next year will be great too. Happy New Year.

We're the Kids in America

So Christmas just happened, here's the loot rundown.

• Monster Hunter Freedom Unite (PSP)
• Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together (PSP)
• Assassin's Creed: Altaïr's Chronicles (DS)
• Rhythm Paradise (DS)
• Geneforge 1-5 (PC) thanks Dave!
• Frozen Synapse (PC) thanks Void!
• grey jumper
• various marvel characters t-shirt, glows apparently?
• batman t-shirt
• 2 big bags of Beef Jerky
• deep pan chunky choc pizza!!!1
• bag of chocolate coins
• vimto skedaddles
• 2 Hershey's chocolate bells
• A SCIFI BOOK I FORGOT THE NAME OF by John Bear
• XNA 4.0 Developer Guide
• some kind of book about sci-fi myths
• Origami Calendar, i.e. a fold to do every day
• Cats Calendar!!!!!!!!!!!!!21

Aside from that, I'm now in America with Emily! We're here to see the in-laws and also so we can attend Awesome Games Done Quick 2012 and raise a ton of money for charity.

A Visit to the Matriarchy

I've been away this past couple of days down south a little, to where (most of) my mother's family lives. It's a lovely area, right next to the Forest of Dean. It's been some time since I was there (at least 8 years or so), seeing everybody change in small ways was quite interesting and I'm glad I went. Of course, Emily got to see the other half of the family and enjoyed it plenty too!

Now that's over, back to Quake practice.

Honung

Today a package arrived covered in Swedish stamps and I'm now a proud owner of some genuine home-grown honung!

Quoth the label: "En naturprodukt utan tillsatser. Förvaras svalt."

This cool gift comes courtesy of one Daniel Wikell, better known as moooh to Speed Demos Archive. I'm sure it'll be of great use for quite some time.

Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3

I didn't play the base MvC3 because I was waiting for this one, so, what do I think?

It's still crazy fun like MvC2, but the inclusion of now-standard features like the mission combos gives some way of actually learning to play it without resorting to wikis and forums. Some of the mission combos are also hella flashy and fun to do, so they're worth the thumbstrain. The last boss fight against Galactus is hilariously over the top and plays out just like it should. There's lots of pretty hard achievements to get, too, so this one will be out for a while.

I'd write more but this is a pretty good description; it's like MvC2. If you liked that, get this.