Saturday 25 February 2012

Resident Evil 4


I first played resident evil 4, years ago for my PlayStation 2 after a friend gave me it for a birthday present, lets just say my first couple of minuets playing this game weren't the fondest. Up to that point I had never played a resident evil game or anything similar to the game play this meant for a steep learning curve! I was with a good friend of mine at the time and we were both fascinated to see what this game was like, getting used to the shooting was my first task followed by how to use the knife properly, the next thing I remember is walking into the first village hearing shouting and zombies so I ran behind a house thinking I was safe, oh how I was wrong I hear a smash and whats behind me yep a zombie with a knife in hand, safe to say we both made a mess of our pants and turned the game of :D. 


Don't worry that's not the end of resident evil 4 and boy am I glad its not, this game is amazing and if any of you have read my recommends page you will know how much I love this game. Once i got used to the controls this game became very fun with the occasional scare which is a very good combination for a horror game. Resident Evil 4 is a game that you can play over and over again and always gets me coming back for another play through.


One thing that made this game different from any other game at that time was the way weapons, ammo and items were implemented, you were given an attache case which was a grid format to put all your items in. This was a great idea as it gave you more to think about as your case became full, it forced you to think about what ammo to use up first, what guns to use in different situations and what to sell. Another thing that was implemented into Resident Evil was money this was used to buy certain items and weapon upgrades from the merchant, ohhh the merchant ill never forget those wise words "What are you buying stranger hehehehe" Anyone who has played this game will know exactly what I mean when i say that guy knows whats going down.


The story behind Resident Evil 4 is a simple plot that gets more in depth as the game progresses, you play as Leon S. Kennedy from the previous games and your mission is to rescue the kidnapped presidents daughter Ashley from a mysterious cult in rural Europe. A task that soon becomes a lot harder than first expected, it turns out the local villagers have been infected by a parasite that controllers them to attack outsiders. You later find out that both you and Ashley have been given the same parasite another problem added to your already full list, the struggle you fight through makes this game what it is and after finishing the story you get a real sense of achievement.


I really recommend this game to anyone especially those who have never played a resident evil game, its got a steep learning curve but once you get to grips with it its a great game with one amazing story whether its the original disk for the PS2 / Game cube or download it straight from the PSN store its defiantly worth the money.

Total Top Spec Gaming Score 10 / 10


Thought I would upload some game play and me getting the final trophy in the game.

Thursday 19 January 2012

Im Back :D


Hey everyone hope your all ok :D

Its been a while since my last post for a few reasons really. The first was mainly just for a break from writing to relax and get some of my other projects sorted, Ive used the past few months to finish of a lot of games that I had started but never got round to finishing, these games will be featured in the upcoming posts. My main job has took most of my time up recently, which I cant complain about too much because its my main source of income and the main thing that's supporting this blog and all the games that I've wrote about so far. Finally I've also got my self a girlfriend which as you can imagine takes up most of my free time, but I don't mind :D shes a great girl and a massive change from my last relationship so I'm a much happier person :).

Anyway back to the gaming which after all is what this blog is all about.
So the past few months I've been playing plenty of different games, Some games I've re visited and finished off, other games I've started new. 


The first two are games that I've played before the first Minecraft I started towards the back end of 2011 which is a game I will always load up every now and again, I recently started up a new world due to the 1.0 update that was recently realised, which gave me a whole new fresh slate to design and build. Normally I would go for a typical house 2 floors, roof, front door the usual design but after looking around in my new world I found a strange rock formation over the sea, this gave me the idea of a hanging platform home, I had no idea how I was going to do that or what it would look like but after gathering a ton of wood and dirt I started building. Let me tell you starting a building in the middle of air 40 blocks up from floor level is no easy task, anyway after the first few platforms and walkways put in position the job was made much easier.


Here's a image of the home I built and I must say its a lot safer than a house build on ground level, I never have any problems with monsters as its impossible for them to get up there, and the views you get from up there are way better than anything built on ground level.


The second game I've recently got addicted to is Rollercoaster Tycoon 1 for the PC, I first played this game in 1999 and I've loved it ever since, its that good that its even got my girlfriend addicted :). The particular one I have has the original 21 scenarios as well as the loopy landscapes and added attractions park expansion packs which I'm currently playing through, after finishing all the original parks these expansion pack offer hundreds more hours of game play which I was very happy about because stopping playing this game was just not an option :).


As well as PC gaming I've also been mainly on my PS3. Ive been playing a ton of new and old games recently, the main ones being Uncharted 3, Dead Island, Resident Evil 4 and Infamous 2. You will all be happy to know that yes I got the uncharted 3 platinum to add to Uncharted 1 and 2's platinum's yay :D And also if your a trophy collector too Uncharted 3 is a much more pleasant game to play when it comes to crushing difficulty thank god :D 



Right this blog has gone on long enough I think, the next few posts will be reviews of the games I've been playing recently, a bit of news on recent game realises and also some Tec news involving tablet computers.

Thanks again for reading, its good to be back :D

Tuesday 9 August 2011

Happy 25th Birthday Samus Aran!


We had Mario's 25th anniversary and then Zelda's 25th now its Metroids turn.

I absolutely love the Mario and Zelda games but for some reason the Metroid games are at the top of my Nintendo list, I wouldn't say the Metroid games aren't popular because they really are, but compared to Mario and Zelda, Samus just seems more mysterious and different, I mean for years everyone thought Samus was a guy, oh how wrong they were . . . . soo very wrong . . . . hrm . . where were we  . . . oh yes Celebrating Samus's birthday :)

I first started the Metroid series with Super Metroid for the SNES and as you all know from my review of this game I LOVE IT! Its one of my top SNES games and in fact in my top 5 of all time games. The next game in the series I played was Metroid Prime for the Game Cube and wow did this game blew me away, The step from 2D to 3D graphics were amazing and brought what we imagined as kids on the SNES version to our screens. At first I didn't know if this kind of game play would work for Metroid, but ill give it to Nintendo they got it spot on.

Ive played almost all of the Metroid games but for me those two are my highlights in terms of game play and story, I cant ask for anymore out of a game than what Super Metroid, and Metroid Prime offer, 100% perfect to me :)

The only one disappointment to me is Nintendo. Where are you? Why are you not celebrating this event? they realised a limited addition game for Mario on the Wii, and Zelda got a Symphony Concert! So whats Samus getting? Well so far nothing :( not cool Nintendo not cool. At least we have a great collection of Metroid games to play so ill settle with that at least.

So there's nothing further to do but to raise our glasses to Samus and her amazing games she has given us over the past 25 years cheers :)

Friday 5 August 2011

Sonic The Hedgehog 2


 One year after the realise of Sonic The Hedgehog 1 the second one came out and what a sequel it was, I cant say I remember this game when it was first released, being 2 years old probably didn't help :) but when a friend of mine got a Sega mega drive I remember living there for days on end, at that point the console I was on was the Super Nintendo so for me Sonic was a whole new concept far different from the Mario game play I was used to. One great addition to the game was the 2 player concept which meant neither me or my friend was sat waiting for the other to die to get a turn :) I'm not saying the 2 player was perfect but it did give the game some more playability.


 The concept behind the game is pretty much the same from the first, but this time round there's a few more additions, as I mentioned earlier the 2 player ability was added, but other than that there's a few more features to see, one of my favourites is the spin ability. The issue with the first game was at some stages, walking up a small hill for example slowed sonic down way to much, with this new spin ability you can spin you way out of such obstacles with ease and get sonic back up to the speed we all know and love. The 3rd change was to the bonus stages the way you get them has changed and the stages them self's have changed, were as before you needed 100 rings at the end of a stage and then jump through a giant ring, this time you get portals at check points and if you have 50 rings bam your there. The stages them self's are similar to a bobsleigh course and have you racing down them collecting as many rings as possible while avoiding the bombs.


The special stages in this game created a whole new view to sonic games and gave the first 3D sonic effect. The idea of these special stages is the same as the first game and is to gain Chaos Emeralds, the difference though was that once all 7 were found sonic could transform into super sonic, now I'm gonna be honest I absolutely love these stages and the super sonic form, but god these stages are sooo hard I've never been able to get all seven not on the original Sega or even on the PS3 version, which is crazy because on the PS3 version you can save when ever you like, yet no . . . I still cant do it *Sigh* Maybe one day.


If you were to ask me which I prefer sonic 1 or 2, I would have to say, I have no idea both are amazing and to choose one of them doesn't seem right to me, if your gonna buy an original sonic game buy 1 and 2 together you will never regret it. Its perfect game play, graphics, sound and levels make these games great and will always bring me back for a play through or two, its Sonic The Hedgehog 2 . . . WITH TAILS oh yer :)

Total Top Spec Gaming Score 10 / 10

Link to: Sonic The Hedgehog 1 review.
http://topspecgaming.blogspot.com/2011/03/sonic-1.html