Procrastination ftw

I sit here nursing a pretty severe hangover, shying away from the ever-increasing pile of work that I should really be getting on with. Yesterday our lovely bosses took all of the staff out for a meal and drinks. It was a really great night out, although Jen is still stuck in bed, occasionally yelling 'I want to die!' which says a lot for how she's coping.

I've been utilising various forms of procrastination over the last week. I've felt sick, had to work at the nightclub, written a few articles for the student paper, and of course, played the Battlefield BC2 demo on XBL.

The first time I played the demo, I was completely unsure as to what my objectives were, and I drifted to the ground, found my feet, figured out a few of the controls, and set off down the snowy slopes of Alaska. However, my brain-matter was the only thing that made it to the bottom. Quickly changing tactics after a respawn, I suited up as a sniper and hid behind a couple of rocks, peeking out every now and again to get a few kills. And the rest, they say, is history. Every time I turn on my console, I just have to play a half hour of that demo. The map is jaw-dropping. The sheer scale of it is perfect. Not too big for 20 or so players, but not too small either, and I love the way that you're rewarded with more of the map when the objectives are completed.

It's the only recent warfare game that has a feeling of 'war' to it. My limited experience with games like MW2 is that there will always be tactically driven gamers, who will capitalise on the game's flaws. So far, I've not seen one person acting like this, although I expect that it will just be a matter of time!

I also played a bit of AC2 yesterday. Although many may think otherwise, I feel that there is still too much of a focus on collection missions. Being a bit of an impatient gamer, I flew threw the game doing the odd side mission here and there, but concentrating mainly on pushing the storyline along. Playing the game yesterday made me realise just how much stuff I've missed out on. I have got something like 15 feathers, and I only had 1 of Subject 16's memory-things. I hadn't really made much use of the weapon upgrades or anything either. So, yesterday I found another 6 memories and a few more feathers, but had to stop before I began thinking I was playing the original.

The new paper comes out on Friday. I've submitted a motion-controller-rant, a Mass Effect history and a summary of things to come in 2010. My motion-controller-rant did turn into a bit of a Wii bashing, purely because I want to instigate some sort of feedback, I don't care if it's bad! Having written for the paper for the last five months, I have only receieved one email which said: "I like you're article."

Anyhow, we have possible future tenants looking around our flat today, so I better get on with tidying up...and possibly some Uni work later.

Oh, and Forza 3 is on it's way after finding a delicious £20 note on the floor on the street 2 nights ago!

Downloadable Content: Is it justified?

Hola!

Just a short little post today! This was another article that I wrote for the student paper that I had hoped to recieve some feed back from, but obviously the students were all far too busy with all that work that they do!

I still belileve that DLC is a questionable format for games delivery. To me, it feels like the Games Developer is just going "Hey! We released an unfinished product, this is what we WOULD have released, buy it and see what it would've been like!"

Downloadable Content: Is it justified?

Downloadable content (DLC) is a medium through which game developers can fix or upgrade games that you have already bought. It has become a common tool for all platforms of gaming. The Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii and Playstation 3 all have online stores through which you can purchase and download games and game add-ons. However, I put forward the notion that the standard of modern gaming is worse off as a result of DLC.

Presently, DLC has become a largely accepted phenomenon. Should this be the case? With the hike in game prices, surely we should expect, if anything, for games to be more polished than ever. Instead, we are often given software that is riddled with minor glitches and technical issues.

In the case of paying for additional content for games, should we really have to pay extra for a game that we’ve already shelled out £30 for? In the case of the Xbox 360 , all transactions for DLC are made with Microsoft Points where 100 points is roughly equal to 85p. This system means that often the gamer is unaware of just how much they’re spending on extra content. I find it questionable that some games are shipped with extra data already on the disc, but in order to utilise this, players are required to pay to unlock it, as was the case with Resident Evil 5.

What are your feelings on Downloadable Content? Do you think it is a justified means of unlocking additional content, or do you believe that the content should already be available from the purchase of a game?

Students Vs Video Games

Sup!!

This was my first article for the student newspaper I write for. I'm the Games Editor don't you know! It's all about what students can do in order to combat the rising costs of video games. Let me know what you think!

Students Vs Video Games

It is no secret that Students aren’t typically made of money. Unfortunately, I expect the freshers among us will be soon finding this out. With this in mind, I put forward the question; Are video games becoming too expensive? New games for the present-generation consoles (Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and the Nintendo Wii) have typically found price tags ranging from £40 to £50 depending on the retailer, platform and game itself. I remember in the heyday of the Playstation One where new games entered the market at a RRP of about £30, and even then, I would rarely ever spend that much on a game. However, this Summer I have been keeping an eye on high profile Autumn releases and their prices

Activision have made a bold move with their release of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 in November this year, by placing their RRP at £55. This is the highest RRP for a non-peripheral video game in the history of the sector. It would be worth noting that there is also a special edition of the game including, among other things, a pair of night vision goggles, retailing for around £115. Also coming in the final quarter of this year are a bunch of peripheral-based games: Rock Band: The Beatles, Band Hero, DJ Hero and Tony Hawk:Ride will all be sold with various plastic instruments used as controllers for their respective games, (except of course for Tony Hawk:Ride which will require a plastic Skateboard for play). Most of these games will have a triple digit price tag.

So, is there anything that you can do to avoid paying such astronomical prices for these games? Surely you can’t be expected to pay half a months rent just so you can bash a few plastic drums? Thankfully, there are a few handy tips I can share. Firstly, use the fact that you are a student to your advantage. Everywhere you go, always be sure to ask if there are any student discounts available. One shop that I am aware of that do give a 10% student discount is HMV. Unfortunately though, in the past they have only been able to hand out Student discount cards in certain outlets throughout the country. This meant that I had to make a special trip and a day out in Bath to pick one up. The savings you can get though are fantastic, so if you can, it would be worth getting hold of one of these.

Just as there are price comparison sites for insurance that I’m sure you’re all aware of, there are also a select few websites that allow users to post any games deals that they may come across while shopping on the internet or in towns and publish these in a nifty feed (no meerkats to be found here though). The most helpful I’ve found is www.cheaparsegamer.com Thanks to this site I have managed to find several high profile games going for less than half price!

Another useful tip is to subscribe to mailing lists. www.zavvi.co.uk provide a ‘Monday Madness’ deal to all members of their mailing list database (which is completely free). This deal involves certain items being slashed in price for 24 hours, but make sure to act quickly if there’s something you like. Often if there is a popular item, it will sell out in next to no time!

Finally, be patient. Give a game a few months to fall in price if you can resist the urge to buy it straight away. I have seen the Band Bundle for Guitar Hero: World Tour going for £89.99 which is a fantastic price considering that its original release price was £150.

I hope that this manages to help at least a few people! Happy gaming.

Eugene

Welcome!

Hello and welcome to Goatesque's Blog!

With this, I hope to create a sort of ongoing portfolio of writing and interesting projects that I am involved in.

Call me Eugene!

I'm currently a final-year University student in England studying English Literature. I still have no clue as to what I want to do when I graduate although I'm hoping that this will serve as an experiment to see whether a career in writing would be viable!

I hope to put links to Games, Music and Film reviews in this blog, along with a couple of podcasts, and youtube videos just for entertainment's sake! University life is pretty hectic at the moment, and I'm trying to do all I can in my spare time to discover just how far I can go with my writing!

My hobbies include [obviously] playing video games, writing for the student newspaper, seeing my friends, DJing and working at a night club in my current town!

I live with my girlfriend of nearly two years who is amazing and puts up with a lot of my crap! She's currently undertaking a tattooing apprenticeship which she's really enjoying! She's a brilliant artist and we both share a lot of interests!

Anyway, now that you've got to know me a little bit, have a peruse of some of my writing and leave as much criticism as you can! It'll all be useful in progression!

Eugene