Shock Horror

Bioshock 2 is something I am very stubbornly refusing to play. 

Having talked to assorted sources who have spent time playing the game, most confirm my fears; Bioshock 2 doesn't validate itself as a product. It may be flawless technically, and may have events which are fun to play - but the most pressing factor is it's detriment to the original. When I first stepped into Rapture, my mind was expanded. It was a fresh world I wanted to explore. There appears to be no such expansion in the sequel. The fiction seems to be invented solely to provide an excuse to return to a world that has already been fully exhausted. Bioshock 2 may be a great game, but it feels forced. The game was designed to make money, not to contribute anything worthwhile to the Bioshock Universe. Consequently I am both hesitant to corrupt my initial experience, and hesitant to support the unimaginative decision to milk the franchise.
EDIT: It's not a big deal for me. I'm not upset or outraged about it or anything like that. I appreciate it's also a fairly stupid reason not to play an apparently great game. I guess i'm an idiot :D

We are starting to gets drips of information as to the 2010 lineup.

 I made a list, primarily to wrap my head around what I will be looking forward to. I retain that Alan Wake looks fucking cool, and that Final Fantasy XIII looks fucking insane - and I look forward to playing them both. I am also super excited for Dead Rising 2, despite the recent completely underwhelming blood-free trailer that shows absolutely fuck-all in terms of new gameplay. The original was the deciding factor which pushed me to buy a 360 in the first place, a decision I stand by. The trailers do confirm the game's commitment to it's stylistic roots however, which calms me. I love zombies. The only thing I love more than zombies is killing zombies. I look forward to doing so, repeatedly.
 Another game which seems to be finally picking up some speed is Heavy Rain. It's a game which looks decidedly hard to market for several reasons. Firstly, the impact of any of the game's narrative impositions are completely diluted out of context. Secondly, it's impossible to demonstrate the subtle differentiations that depend entirely on the decisions you make without repeatedly showing the same clip of the game. As such, despite seeing a hefty amount of gameplay footage, I still have absolutely no idea what to expect.
Heavy Rain will be, if nothing else, interesting to critique. In attempting to be more like a film my fear is that it will merely make apparent how different the two mediums really are. In one the narrative structure is guaranteed, the other merely potential. How Heavy Rain decides to approach the difference will be paramount to it's success.
 

The Left 4 Dead 2 DLC has me so excited I can barely talk about it without dissolving into a jabbering mess.

The screenshots posted over on Kotaku confirm that the scenario takes place at night and is completely crammed full of zombies. There is also more information as to how the 2 groups of survivors will meet in-game, apparently working co-operatively at some point in the new campaign. I'm sure I don't need to tell you that I am fucking stoked for this. Peels here.

 "There is, Valve's Chet Faliszek tells me, a moment when the cast of the original Left 4 Dead runs into the cast of Left 4 Dead 2 at the opening of the first map. 

"That intro scene, there are thirty-something versions of that," Faliszek said. "Pretend these guys had an hour-long conversation. We don't want to make you sit and watch an hour-long movie, so we're going to dice it up and give it to you in different ways."

The two crews run into each other again at the conclusion of The Passing's third map, just before the add-on pack slips neatly back into Left 4 Dead 2's original gameplay of the Dark Carnival.

"Depending on how it started, you'll have different conversations there as well," Faliszek said."

  

IN OTHER NEWS

• I completed VVVVVV with 1212 deaths and 17 of the trinkets. There is an in-game trophy awarded for completing the game without being killed. The concept of this numbs my mind. I don't know what's more terrifying, the fact they are encouraging someone to try or the fact that someone might have already succeeded. I completed the game on normal and my sanity hangs by a fucking thread.

• MattBodega beat me at Street Fighter 4 - the final score was 10 wins to 8, though when I started to pick up some momentum he reverted to his Zangief spam. The final match my Dhalsim was easily destroyed. However I retain that the moral victory was mine.

• I'm playing the Battlefield Bad Company 2 beta and I made an interesting discovery. Three of the games punkbuster files are getting flagged as Trojans by some virus-scanners. Like mine, for example. The scanners then quarantine the files and Bad Company 2 then loads without punkbuster. This then means that players can only get in to games without punkbuster running. It took me a frustrating several hours to figure all this out, and according to the BC2 Beta forums there are quite a few other people having the same problem. Anyway, I restored the files and now the game runs fine again. My computer has not exploded. For anyone experiencing similar problems I hope that helps.

 
That's all for now. Have a great weekend duders :D
 
Thanks For Reading
Love Sweep