Mechcommander

This week I found out you can legally download the games of the MechCommander series legally from mechcommander.org

For those who don't now, MechCommander was a series of RTS games set in the Battletech universe. Well worth a look for any fan of the genre and even more so for those who loved the Mechwarrior series of sims as there are plenty of familiar Mechs to play with.

Available for download are:
MechCommander
MechCommander Gold
MechCommander 2

and there are also lots of other groovy add ons and mods available so go check it out

Games being released on the 360 this year that I am excited about

Snappy title eh?

Well I was glancing through the release schedule for this year and noticed there were one or two games I was looking forward to. So I thought I would share them being the nice chap I am.

Battlefield 1943


A familiar franchise to all. The Battlefield series revolutionised the multiplayer experience. This one pomises to do the same for Xbox Live (as long as they don't take the piss with DLC)

Forza Motorsport 3


Forza 2 is still THE best racing game on the market today, Forza 3 can only improve on this.

Modern Warfare 2



It took me a while to succumb to the hype around CoD MW. but when I did finally get it I was hooked. I'm sure activision could charge £70 for it and it would still be the biggest selling game at the back end of this year.

Ghostbusters


Who ya gonna call? Sony for fucking up the release schedule for this game. This is a must buy and one of the most anticipated games ever on the 360. I can not wait.


Honerable mentions (in other words I may rent these suckers)
Halo ODST.
Bioshock 2.
Highlander
IL-2 Stermovik:Birds of Prey
King of Fighters XII

Current Events

Well I am back in Gloucestershire after moving out of our house in London. It is nice being back in the country but i will be without Xbox live for the next 3-4 months ARGH!!!

However I have decided no to let this interrupt my gaming adventures so I thought I would let you know what I am currently playing.


DoDonPachi.[Arcade(MAME)]

One of the best known Danmaku shooters to emerge from Japan. I currently have an old 19" CRT monitor on its side and the game looks great on it. Bloody hard but amazing fun! I also bought myself a Sega Saturn USB pad from China. It works great and has really allowed my to take advantage of MAME and the other emulators I have.


Retrograde [C64]
Still one of my favorite games of all time. An apex productions classic.

Silent Hunter III [PC]
Still in my opinion the best sub sim ever. I downloaded the fan made expansion pack GWX made by Grey Wolves (avalable from subsim.com for a small donation) and this really adds to the historical accurancy and imersion. Well worth a small donation.


Zero Wing [Mega Drive]
Not one of Toaplans better shooters but still an enjoyable game. I just love the music too.
"All your base are blong to us!"

Street Fighter IV [X360]
Still practicing with this one.

Xbox Live Retro Bonanza!

Waiting for me this morning on XBLive were two tasty little demos. Space Invaders Extreme and Arkanoid Live.

For a Retrohead like myself this is a wonderful thing to wake up to on a Wednesday morning when I should be doing coursework. I suppose I could write a review of one of them and use it for my games journalism portfolio.

Everyone knows Space Invaders so I wont really bore anyone to death with an explination, However I would recommend everyone with an Xbox live acount to try out Space Invaders Extreme. The way the designers have tinkered with the basic formula of Space Invaders to produce something similar but also bang up to date is fantastic. It is similar in concept to Pacman CE and that was fantastic! Add to that the extra visuals by none other than epileptic fit inducing game designer Jeff Minter and you have a wonderful Xbox Live game.

Now Arkanoid is another of those earlyclassic arcade games, based on Breakout, it added power ups and a fantasic variety of levels to this simple concept of a game. It may not be as famous as Space invaders or Pacman but it's still a game worthy of a tinker under the hood for a 2009 remix.
However the execution of the update doesnt seem to have been done as well as that of Space Invaders Extreme. Instead of the fantastic psycadelic visuals one expects from such an update (helped in no small part by the success of Geometry Wars), we seem instead to have been given a mid 90's PC version of Arkanoid. I doubt this game will be heading onto my "Things to buy when I get some MS points" list despite my love for the original.

Both games add the almost standard Xbox Live play.

This is what is wrong with the gaming world!

via siliconera:

Mothersday



No wonder I feel like a gaming dinosaur!



p.s. I know its been a while since my last post but this was due to my forced absence from my usual gaming machines over Easter. I will endeavour to make it up to all my loyal fans :P

Payday wish list

Games I want when I get some money at the end of April.

1) Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Xb360)
2) Bioshock (Xb360)
3) Street Figher IV (Xb360)
4) Space Empires V (PC)
5) Salamander (C64)

How will I cope?

For the next two weeks I am going to be without all my consoles and just be left with my laptop.

Not quite sure what i am going to do