[REVIEW] Super Pokemon Rumble (3DS)

For years, I've always been incredibly wary of Pokemon spin-off games. It seemed that for a while, they were scraping the barrel with titles such as Pokemon Mystery Dungeon (of which there were five, I think) and the irritating manic-circle-drawing-fest that was Pokemon Ranger, which actually managed to snare thirty quid of my hard-earned cash as it is the only way to get the legendary Pokemon Manaphy. And I shelled out for the sequel, too. I played those games through to the end with a frozen grimace on my face, desperate for my prize at the end of it all.

So how did I end up with Super Pokemon Rumble? Normally I wouldn't touch it with a barge pole, unless there was a rare Pokemon associated with it, or some other massive benefit to myself. I played it briefly at GAMEFest where it raised a reaction of "meh", although I was horrifically hungover, so pretty much everything got that reaction bar the girls giving out free Mountain Dew. No, I popped into my (former) shop for a quick chat with the lads, and noticed that it'd been slashed in price from £34.99 to just £19.99, only a week or two after its release. For some reason, something just snapped, and I thought "What the hell."

To say that I was pleasantly surprised is a small understatement. I was, in all honesty, expecting to ten day exchange this game, but it's simple appeal has me hooked. There's some vague story that runs through it, but I shan't bore you with that. The idea goes something like this. It's sort of implied that you're some kid who collects wind-up pokemon toys - but you only ever seem to walk around as whichever toy is chosen to be first in your party. You proceed in a fairly linear fashion through levels where different types of wind-up Pokemon toys will come and attack you. You must hammer the A button until they are all dead. Sometimes you will be rewarded with a new wind up toy of the breed that you just demolished, sometimes not. The random nature of which toys can be collected means that levels get replayed, so you can collect 'em all.

But wait! Are you meant to catch them all? There doesn't seem to be any pokedex available in-game, apart from in the village. There's the Toy Shop, where it's implied that you can swap your Pokemon toys via Streetpass, although you don't seem to be able to choose anything, people just come and throw money at you. In the village there is also the release point, for when you have too many... But I've got HUNDREDS of the buggers, and I don't seem to be short of pocket space. And then, suddenly, I had my epiphany.

I had been reading FAR too much into the meaning of this game. The reason it seemed so simple on the outside was because frankly, it's simple on the inside as well. This is a good old fashioned frenzied button-bashing game, and it keeps it simple with a maximum of two buttons that can be assigned to your toy. The idea is to cause as much destruction as possible, then at the end of each little level you are rewarded with some wholly unexpected drum and bass. Oh yeah, probably forgot to mention the thrash metal introduction too. If you purchase this game, do yourself a favour and have your first game with the volume turned right up - the music is excellent!

So all in all, a rather pleasing little gem. It's completely mindless, and there's much of it I don't understand, but it's GREAT to just pick up and play in short bursts, lunch breaks, for example. Fortunately, I think my new colleagues already think I'm a bit nuts, so the sight of me giggling into my DS doesn't seem to faze them! :)

A joyfully violent romp, but they're only wind-up toys, so it's fine! 4/5

[REVIEW] Kindle Keyboard (Wifi version)

For a while, I was one of those people who didn't see the point in the Kindle. Such an expensive toy when books were so cheap, and how could it possibly replace the feel, smell, and overall experience of a paper book? Afterall, the main reason I don't do all my reading on my laptop is because my eyes get horribly tired peering at the screen for more than half an hour or so. Even writing this is making my corneas itch after a long day at work staring at my computer screen all day, so why would I want to inflict more technological woe upon myself? In all honesty, because one of my uni friends had one, and I was jealous.. All her textbooks have been imported to her Kindle,  and she loves the thing, so on the Christmas list it went, and lo and behold, Santa (aka The Husband) bought me one!

His reasoning behind going for the slightly larger keyboard version, rather than the cheaper Kindle, Wi-Fi, 6" E Ink Display version was that it would be easier for me to make notes on and navigate, and so far, I think he made the right choice. The keyboard makes it very easy to search within the text - perfect for academic pursuits, although perhaps a tad unnecessary for the casual reader. And how easy is it to be a casual reader! You can choose to have the Kindle flipped whichever way you choose, portrait or landscape (great for awkward PDFs!) and page scrolling is controlled ever so casually by a pair of buttons on the edge of the Kindle. Did I mention there are two sets of these buttons, so you can operate it with either hand? Seriously. Dead easy.

Now onto my most pressing concern - eye strain. I haven't fully researched the e-ink technology behind the Kindle screens but let me tell you, they are strange things to behold. Completely non-backlit, they maintain an incredible level of contrast even in sunlight, the screens are non-reflective and are no harder to deal with than an ACTUAL BOOK. The Kindle is also considerably lighter than it looks, and compared to some of my textbooks, a doddle to carry around. In fact, I can carry around the entirety of the last four year's textbooks now without batting an eyelid, which I've found invaluable for studying on the fly. (In fact, for studying at all given my current hectic schedule!) Again, from a purely aesthetic point of view, I love the cover I've bought it - it matches my Filofax Metropol Personal Organiser perfectly - yes, I know I am a purebred nerd. In fact, apart from a few little things that irk me, such as the shop being a little difficult to navigate (some may say this is a blessing in disguise) the only real downside to the kindle is that unlike a real book, if you're silly enough to try and balance one on your face while you doze on the beach on holiday, you may find yourself with a rather expensive paperweight when it slides off and hits the floor!

4 out of 5 stars for this gadget, looking forward to learning to utilise it properly!

[REVIEW] Harvest Moon - Grand Bazaar (DS)

Harvest Moon Grand Bazaar was a game I didn't originally intend to buy straight away. I've been a fan of the farm-em-up series for a while, but was intending to hold off for the 3DS version, when it eventually surfaces. After the traditional summer dead period for game releases, I was infuriated to find out that my beloved Tropico 4 had been put back a few weeks, so I scanned the new release sheets for something else to do, and Harvest Moon caught my eye. Well, I shan't recount the full story but that was put back too, and I was left wringing my hands in fury for a FULL MONTH, but now finally I have a new game to play! (Still waiting for Tropico 4, despite the PC version being out already. *sigh*)

This particular title in the Harvest Moon franchise sees you as a new farmer in the backwater Zephyr Town, a small town in a rural area that used to be a thriving commercial hub, but in recent years has seen a decline in trade in the area. One can only assume that recent council cuts and extortionate parking fees are choking the town and leaving it dying on it's ass. As the new kid in town, it's down to you to grow some excellent produce and reinject some life into the weekly market. As with any Harvest Moon game, the first thing to do at 6am on your first day is grab some tools from the Mayor, have a quick chat with the chap (yeah yeah, sales targets, growth, etc) and then quickly dash around the village looking for anything that's not nailed down that can be sold to the local seed merchant in exchange for a pocket full of turnip seeds.

And turnips is all you're likely to see for the first season! Like the rest of the games in the Harvest Moon series, this one is a slow builder, and relies on you getting your foundations right before it lets you go wild with too many different types of produce. In fact, if you tried to grow everything at once, and care for too many animals, you'd rapidly find yourself with not enough hours in the day and a woefully empty stamina bar.

The Bazaar adds an interesting angle to the formula, as you can fetch a much higher price for your produce there than selling them to the seed man in the village. This then leads to the need for carefully controlling your budgets, as the main bulk of your income will be coming in once a week rather than every day. Many items can only be bought at the market - such as livestock! No longer can chickens be incubated from eggs, which is a bit of a pain, but I must admit to being concerned about the inbred nature of my flock in previous games. At least this way, the gene pool might possibly be a bit deeper!

So far, I'm enjoying Harvest Moon an awful lot. It's familiar, yet challenging, with enough new ideas to keep the franchise fresh but still giving the tried and tested HM experience.

All in all, a rather happy, fed, groomed and watered 4/5

[REVIEW] Honest Hearts (Fallout New Vegas DLC, Xbox 360)

Wow, doesn't time fly when you're up to your eyes in other stuff... Before I whizz off to York for a week-long intensive uni project, I thought I'd spend a few minutes telling you all about Honest Hearts, the second downloadable content pack for Fallout New Vegas. After getting woefully and embarrassingly stuck somewhere in the Sierra Madre in Dead Money, I was a little apprehensive about going back to a previous save and starting this one, in case FNV had suddenly got really hard in the few months I hadn't played it.

My fears were put to rest just a few minutes in. Although the baddies in this particular area (above the top edge of the map, it is mentioned that you are headed towards Utah.) are armed to the teeth with submachine guns, they wear little to no armour as they are based on a kind of alternate reality wasteland tribal group. Which makes the removal of their heads from a distance all the easier. I found the story to be quite engaging - without trying to give too much away, this is the story of Joshua Graham, also known as The Burned Man, who is mentioned during the main quest plotlines as an associate of Caesar who turned against him. This is his story, and what he's been up to all this time in exile in the Zion National Park.

Now onto the good stuff - the new perks, items, and so on. The level cap has been raised by 5 again, so I can try and get myself closer to wiping out those Deathclaws at Quarry Junction (anyone got any tips? Seriously, I'm desperate here.) New perks have been added, such as the delightful Eye For An Eye (10% extra damage for each crippled limb you have) and Fight The Power! which gives bonuses against any authoritative figures in uniform such as NCR, Legion and Brotherhood of Steel. There are also new items and recipes, mostly based around the datura plant, known for it's use as a poison, a hallucinogenic and a general nasty piece of work.

All in all, I enjoyed this DLC very much. The scenery was beautiful, and there was even rain, for the first time! (Can't vouch for it's acidity, though.) The plot was good, and kept me entertained for a good 4-6 hours which in my opinion is SUPERB value for money, especially considering some games *cough*Bulletstorm*cough* are rumoured to last only 8-10 hours. Next on the agenda, Old World Blues!

For keeping me entertained and helping me procrastinate over my uni work, a solid 4/5!

[REVIEW] A quick look back at Borderlands

With the arrival of several high-profile releases such as LA Noire and Brink (at least, you'd think Brink were high profile given the amount of advertising being pumped into it at the last minute, competition from the former much?) you'd think I'd have had my hands full reviewing these to be able to get my opinion out to you all asap. But no! I've been revisiting old games that have lain by the wayside for a while, the first and foremost of these being Borderlands.

Alright, so this was probably triggered by my last post, thinking about dear old Claptrap made me hungry for a bit of a senseless post-apocalyptic Mad Max-inspired shootfest. Yet for a game which (quite shamelessly) picks and chooses its influences and waves them in your face, Borderlands stands alone very well. For the uninitiated, it's a first person shooter with RPG elements - shooting stuff gets you experience, and as you gain experience you level up your personal skills and also your skills with each weapon, leading to bonuses to fire rate and accuracy, and also copious amounts of swearing when you're in the middle of a massive firefight with no SMG ammo and a level 1 shotgun.

My shoddy techniques aside, this is a beautifully action-packed game that is an absolute pleasure to go back to after a year or more of it sitting in its box. The graphical style is reminiscent of cel shading and gives the game a fairly unique cartoony look that caused some criticism amongst the Call of Duty crowd, and the story revolves around four mercenaries trying to gain access to the mysterious Vault which initially caused me to think it might be trying to rip off some elements from Fallout, but that could not be further from the truth. So since it's so cheap in the shops now, why not treat yourself! I'll see you in the arena!

[REVIEW] Orbitsound T3 Portable Speaker

At Gadget Show Live, I was lucky enough to be given one of Orbitsound's T3 personal speakers to test. (Picture pinched from orbitsound.com, hope they don't mind!) The speaker is fairly small at 6cm by 11cm and is powered by an internal battery which can be charged via USB. My previous experience of portable speakers has been somewhat patchy at best, most of the ones I have used (mostly as a kid, to be fair) have been fairly large, clunky battery munching monstrosities, so the light and delicate T3 appealed to me, but I was still fairly skeptical about the sound quality (in particular the bass) that would be produced.

The Orbitsound crew recommended I should test the T3 with a variety of machines:

Laptop: My laptop is my baby. It's fast, reliable and me and the husband find ourselves using it to watch various TV on demand services, movies, YouTube videos etc, especially when the poor overworked tower PC connected to the big screen telly has crapped out again. It's speakers are fairly poor, however, and if we happen to be laughing or discussing what's happening on screen, the audio gets lost. On plugging in the T3, I instantly noticed an increase in the volume and a richer tone in the voice of the scary lady announcing that we're all done for. (Need to load up on stimpaks and rad-away, pronto.) A win for the T3!

iPhone/iPod: Generally when I'm listening to music, it's coming from my iPhone. Time to test out one the T3's major boast, the claim that it can produce stereo sound from just one speaker, using it's "halo" effect. To test this, I chose Zebrahead - Playmate of the Year for it's alternate "Woo!"/"Yeah!" which if you're listening through headphones, you'll notice happens in one ear then the other. To create the effect, the T3 is worn on a lanyard around the neck, and the little side speakers create the stereo effect. Unexpectedly, this works really well, and I was very impressed!

Another great test using the iPhone really explored the power that this little speaker has. The acoustics in my bathroom aren't great, and I love having music while I shower, but the tinny little iPhone speaker tends to get lost amongst the sound of the water. Using the T3 a much louder, better quality sound can be achieved, probably much to the distress of our neighbours who have to deal with my, um, diverse music tastes. The T3's first downfall became obvious here though, as my phone struggled for signal and the speaker burst out into the loudest EM interference noise I'd ever heard in my life. Moving the speaker and the phone further away from each other seemed to help until I received a text message, when it did it again. What I really don't understand is why that never happens in my iPhone headphones! Obviously, all this can be avoided by using an iPod instead, but it's a bit of a pain, considering most of the stuff I want to listen to is on the phone!

Portable Gaming System (3DS): To me, this looks to be one of the most promising categories, provided that Nintendo do actually keep their vague promises to bring lots of 3D video content to the handheld. Yet again the sound is louder and less tinny. My personal preference is to play my games with the sound off, but for cut scenes or movies it is ideal. It seems like it would also be a perfect partner for a PSP as well, particularly for watching UMDs.

The Verdict: Retailing at £50, it's not cheap, however having had my fair share of crappy portable speakers in the past I'd be inclined to say that you get what you pay for. The T3 is lightweight, compact and packs a massive punch for what it is. Battery-wise, I've had the unit for two weeks and I've not yet charged it up again. Orbitsound say it lasts ten hours on a full charge, so more than enough life for a day out picnicing in the park or partying on public transport. The only downsides appear to be the susceptibility to interference and the fact that I felt a bit of a goof wearing it around my neck - but then again, if it's kickin' out some awesome tunes, who cares?

Overall, 4/5. Recommended! :)

REVIEW PREVIEW: Fallout New Vegas - Dead Money (DLC) (Xbox 360)

Anyone who knows me personally will be WELL aware of my Fallout obsession. Seriously. Check out my personalised nametags at work, or the selection of Fallout-related tat in my house, or my rather large collection of bottlecaps which I'm saving  up for when the end finally comes. I am quite proud to say that the majority of my 360 gamerscore is made up of achievements from Fallout 3 and Fallout New Vegas. So obviously, we got the Dead Money DLC as soon as it came out.

Dead Money is the story of a long abandoned casino called the Sierra Madre, outside of the main map of the Mojave Wasteland. Simply getting to the entrance has been a drama so far - I'm approximately halfway through the main storyline and have just pissed off one of the major factions in the game, the Legion. The Dead Money pack raises the level cap to 35, but I don't have to worry about that just yet - level 20 seems like it might be enough to start the additional content.

Upon getting to the entrance, a dialog box pops up warning that you are about to leave the Mojave Wasteland and will not be able to return until the Dead Money story is finished. Fine by me, but I create a fresh savepoint anyway. (A good habit to get into - Who knows how many Deathclaws/Super Mutants/pissed off Legion boys are round the next corner) The dialog also recommends being at least level 20 before proceeding - Fine, says I.

The story begins with a shot of gas to the face, and waking up in front of a rather shifty looking hologram chap, who's fitted you with a collar  a la Battle Royale, which will explode if you're naughty. You're stripped of all your hard earned weapons and gear, told some VERY worrying things about dodgy electrics which might interfere with your collar, and the toxic atmosphere surrounding the Sierra Madre known as the Cloud.  This stern looking chap wants you to head into the old casino, find the treasure, avoid the traps and then everyone can go home and have a nice tea. Only problem is, the aforementioned death lurking at every corner.

First on the agenda - meet up with three other prisoners colleagues who have the same aims in mind, and convince them to join forces with you. At this point, I reloaded my previous save, and ran off to Black Mountain to play with the Muties. I'm not surprised by this one bit, as I found all the DLC for Fallout 3 to be ABSOLUTELY TERRIFYING as well - probably due to being removed from the comfort zone and relatively easy life of the Wastes. I'll be levelling up a little more before I give this another go. I need to grow a pair, you say? Nah, I'm just sensible, THAT's what it is...

*curls up into a ball and rocks gently*

Scoring: Well, it's Fallout, so it's hard to imagine I'd give it any less than 4/5. Watch this space!