Game Diary - May 27, 2009: A Visit To South Central

Downloadable content can be a blessing or a curse, depending on the game and of course the content being released. Not too long after I finished the game, Midnight Club: LA received some DLC in the form of South Central, which added new cars, races, music and also extended the city significantly, giving players a new area to explore.

As both a completionist and fan of the game, it was inevitable that I would download the content and return to LA. I'm glad I did as well as the additional content was really enjoyable and it was nice to be playing again. It extends upon an already awesome racing game and South Central is designed in a really fun way just like the main city of LA.

Unfortunately, there is no real reason to explore South Central as the content is too short. The actual place is fine, but I believe there isn't enough races or things to do within to fully take advantage of the new area and that is disappointing. It felt like every ten minutes I was unlocking another of the game's new Achievements and overall it just passed by in a blur. The races were fairly easy too with only one or two requiring a retry on my part, though I do wonder if the difficulty is dictated by the fact that I had already finished the main game and therefore had access to all the cars, upgrades and so on. I'm mildly intrigued to know how someone who hadn't finished the main game would see South Central's difficulty, but really the issue is trivial and doesn't take away from the overall enjoyment.

South Central comes fully recommended from me if you're a fan of the game, but I also wish there was more to do as an incentive to explore the new area. Midnight Club: LA is officially finished once again so I will be moving on. Hopefully I can return to LA again sometime in the future.

Game Diary - May 21, 2009: Home Alone (Part 1)

Earlier this evening I fired up the PS3 to check out PlayStation Home. I have looked into the service once when I first got my PS3 but back then it had only just released (into Beta) and therefore was a little bare in terms of content.

I returned this evening due to the recent release of the Chamber apartment as I was interested in comparing it to the Harbour Studio one everyone begins with, as well as seeing the newly added spaces such as game-specific ones for Far Cry 2 and Resident Evil 5. Unfortunately I was unable to see the Chamber apartment as either I'm blind and couldn't find how to access it or it's only available in certain countries.

After redownloading the various spaces again, I finally started to mess around with Home to see what I thought and well, like my previous session, I felt like a complete outsider. I mean, part of Home's appeal is to socialise with people but no one that I encountered was doing any talking aside from the brief "Hello, where are you from?". Beyond that everyone was just walking around aimlessly or dancing randomly. I watched a few trailers, an in-Home presentation with the people behind the latest Star Trek movie and played around with the various activities you could do such as Helicopter Hit and Draughts. All of them felt like novelties -- entertaining for the first 10 minutes but beyond that just there for the sake of being there. That's a little disappointing because I believe Home has some great potential and I would like to see Sony implement that in this service.

Due to the aforementioned redownloading of everything, I didn't get the chance to check out the game or company specific areas so I will do be doing that over the weekend. I also organised to experience Home with a friend, so it will be interesting to see if having that social element (even if only mildly) changes the experience and makes it more compelling. Stay tuned for more on Home soon.

Game Diary

I'm stealing this concept from one Stephen Totilo and will be using it to briefly speak about any games I have been playing, as well as any completion progress that I may have made. Ideally I would have had another post up this evening but commitments have meant that I've had to push it back a few days. Sorry about that.

I've got an insane amount of games waiting to be played at the moment such as Dead Space and Bully. Unfortunately however they've been put on hold while I still play games like Fallout 3 and Fable II, due to downloadable content or the fact that I haven't finished them yet. Adding on top of all this gaming goodness is about 5-7 games that I've borrowed from friends. One of these games is Just Cause and throughout the week I finally gave it a whirl.

First impressions are good, better than expected in fact, with the game being quite fun to play and looking pretty damn nice considering its age. Driving around the cities and countryside in itself is rather nice on the eye, with lush forests opening up to reveal a sunset over the ocean. It's when you are parachuting out of a plane or helicopter and slowly but surely gliding down towards the Earth below, however, that Just Cause is truly spectacular. Seeing the islands (the game's world is made out of about 6 decently sized islands and multiple smaller ones) spread out into the distance, birds flying next to you in the sky and deciding on one of the many enticing destinations below is quite awe-dropping and arguably Just Cause's best asset. On the negative side of things, Just Cause is perhaps too big and even by plane it can take a good 20 minutes to get from one side of the map to the other. The game's story doesn't engage either, seeming quite generic though admittedly I am still in the early stages. Why? Because I've spent too much time taking in the sights, as well as exploring and finding the game's collectibles.

I've mentioned a few times here before that I consider myself a completionist, always aiming to complete a game to the best of my ability. Things were no different this week when I finally finished Race Pro's career and championship modes. I still have a few championships left to do but they shouldn't take long and once completed, it will just be some easy online Achievements left to obtain. I also finished the story of GTA: Chinatown Wars which had a predictable ending. Progress sits on 59% complete and I will now find the hidden cameras and etc. so I can hit 100% completion.

That's the week in review. As I type this it is early Sunday morning here in Australia so unfortunately I didn't get to do everything I intended to game wise this time around. Still, one day is enough to play some more of Just Cause and also check out Playstation Home again now that it seems to be worth spending time in. More on that in the next few days.