[PREVIEW] PS Vita

I found myself in the rather fortunate position the other day of having a PS Vita in my house. Alright, fair enough, it wasn't mine, but I got to have a good go on it from the comfort of my sofa while my other half downloaded all the updates and demo software for it on our PS3, ready to take back to the shop.

Having been a lifelong Nintendo fan, I have to admit that the handheld Playstation offerings have never really floated my particular boat, however I won't deny the fact that the Vita is an incredibly good looking machine. Despite a HUGE screen, the Vita is relatively lightweight for its size, probably due to the lack of a disc drive. A quick fiddle with the sticks and D-pad confirms that the controls are going to be top quality - one thing that concerns me however is how well the prominent sticks would stand up to living in my handbag. The original PSPs were prone to losing their shoddy little sticks, these ones seem to be firmly attached, but for how long?

At this point, I decided no preview would be complete without actually turning the machine on, no matter how shiny the exterior. (For those who need to know, it is VERY shiny. Prone to fingerprinting though, but hours of entertainment for those who enjoy polishing their gadgets.) The Husband went through the set-up process rather than myself, but he reported it to be relatively easy, although anyone who owns a PS3 will be familiar with the usual PSN updates before you get to do anything new.

The HD graphics are incredibly crisp and pretty. I played Everybody's Golf (Everybody IS golf? Everybody HAS golf? I dunno.) and the new Wipeout, which ran incredibly smoothly, but was let down by some insanely long loading times. I suppose I'm used to the superfast loading times of the Nintendo handhelds. The PS button returns you to the main menu whilst pausing the game, allowing access to all the settings and various bits and bobs, which looks impressive considering how much it seemed to be labouring over loading levels in Wipeout. The whole package seems relatively user-friendly, with easy access to the PS3 through the Content Manager on the Vita.

All in all, the PS Vita seems like it's going to be a popular machine. However, at £230 for the basic Wifi version and £280 for the 3G version, it's a rather expensive toy, and I won't be buying one for myself. However, if I were to receive one as a gift, I'd be sure to say thank you!

[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!

[PERSONAL] The end of one year and the start of a new!

So, it's been a busy couple of months at Geek Towers, with very little time available to me for gaming, studying, let alone writing about it! The main factor in this has been my leaving the gaming industry for a full time job, my first in over five years! As sad as I was to leave, the security and prospects offered by my new job were certainly not to be sniffed at, and from the point of view of this blog will allow me to purchase all kinds of new toys and games to play with, not least my new best friend, my Kindle!

Also for Christmas the Husband and I received a stack of new games to play including Skyrim (obviously), Pokemon Rumble Blast, Zelda Skyward Sword and Rayman Origins. One of my new years resolutions is to sleep less and play more - I also am pledging to write more about all kinds of different things, so keep your eyes peeled!

Here's to 2012! Happy New Year everyone! :)

[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

[EVENT] GAMEfest

Finally, after six or seven long, dull weeks of summer, another blog post! My urge to write has been dampened not only by my beloved Tropico 4 being put back to September 30 but also a metric shitload of university work to be completed before any gaming could occur. (For those wondering, I'm with the Open University, we don't get holidays!) Other little diversions such as the release of the ten NES games promised to the Ambassador Scheme participants proved to be fairly short lived, as I received a harsh reminder that games used to be MUCH harder, Back In The Day.(TM)

So around rolled GAMEfest, a three day event at the NEC in Birmingham showcasing the best that this Christmas would have to offer, and promising a first play of such favourites (can you hear me rolling my eyes? That's unintentional, I apologise) as Modern Warfare 3, Battlefield 3 and Gears of War 3. Considering that its UK release was approximately 72 hours away, a staggering amount of people queued to get a first glimpse of Gears of War 3 (to which I say, should have gone to Gadget Show!) and to the right is a quick snapshot I took of the Battlefield 3 queue, which I could almost not believe, despite it being there in front of my face.

So, not wanting to spend my afternoon queueing to get my ass kicked by some spotty teen at CoD, we went for a wander and started playing the first of many 3DS games we would try that day: Mario and Sonic at the London Olympics. Now I must admit to having a bit of a soft spot for the Mario and Sonic Olympics franchise - from the time I first played the Wii version and hurt myself breaking the world rowing record to the time I borrowed the Winter Olympics game on the DS and spent a very silly week playing the adventure mode, I've considered this game a harmless and enjoyable bundle of fun. Technically, I hate minigame collections, but these seem to have more of a purpose behind them and hold my attention by always promising that I might just do a little better than last time if I try again.

The next game we looked at was Sonic Generations. The 3DS and the 360 versions looked quite different, at least from the demo versions we looked at, and the word on the grapevine is that the 3DS version is going to contain different levels from the big console versions. One thing that they will have in common however is that they will contain a mix of classic levels from throughout Sonic's history, and the feeling of absolute speed is back, and stronger than ever. I wasn't feeling 100% when I played it, and felt my eyes weren't quite refreshing fast enough, but The Husband was absolutely stoked to be playing a new Sonic game, and was only dissapointed when the screen he was playing on decided to overheat and turn itself off... true story!

After swinging by the Metal Gear Solid stand to check out the port of Peace Walker, we went for a bit of a wander around the rest of QUEUEfest, and decided that an awful lot of things weren't worth standing around for, a good look over someone's shoulder was enough to remind ourselves that certain titles were coming. After a narrow escape by the Dance Central 2 stand, we wrung our hands in despair at all the new dance titles, (ABBA: You Can Dance anyone? The Black Eyed Peas game? Obviously they will make millions, but not in our house, thankyou.) stopped for a quick squizz on Soul Calibur V (looks very shiny indeed) and Pacman Championship on 3DS (shiny in a rather different way) and then headed to the Nintendo stand.

I've not really got a whole bunch to say about Mario Kart 7. I played a couple of levels lifted from the latest Wii incarnation, and yes, it plays like a dream, yes, there's customisable karts now, yes, there's all your favourite characters and yes, it's a good deal of fun. But there's nothing new to report. This in itself is not necessarily a bad thing, afterall, if they changed it too much, it just wouldn't be Mariokart, and then I'd be slating it for that. I'll definitely buy Mario Kart 7, but somewhere in my mind I'll be conscious of the fact that I've already been there,  done that, and literally got the t-shirt. Super Mario 3D Land looked a bit more interesting, even if I was having major brain fail at that point and couldn't do it. The 3D adds some tricky puzzles in, like platforms not appearing where you think they should until you rotate the scene. Not one to play with a hangover!

And finally, to the overall wonderful surprise of the day. I was tired, had a headache you could split rocks on and ready to go home, when The Husband spotted the WWE '12 stand. I've never played a wrestling game, and had no intentions of after seeing the floaty mess that was Allstars. After a short queue (part of which was spent sitting on chairs, thank god!) his Miz thoroughly kicked the arse of my Zack Ryder (WWWYKI) and I laughed hysterically. Out of everything I played that day, who'd have thought I'd now be looking forward to this the most?

So that's all over for another year now. What are you most looking forward to for Christmas?

[OPINION] The Summer Lull

Traditionally, the summer is a bit of a limp dick for new releases, as games companies decide to give up on releasing stuff for a bit, and start to concentrate on the run-up to Christmas. Yep, that's right - people complain about it getting earlier and earlier each year, but in the exciting world of video games retailing, it's on your mind from about the middle of July.

I suppose in theory, it's a great time for getting outside and indulging in such outdoor pursuits as sports, barbeques and afternoon beer gardens - unfortunately, I tend to burn easily, and I have a list of projects as long as my arm to be getting on with. However, let's not allow that to put us off looking forward to the next couple of dates for your diary! First on the agenda is August 26th, or Argue Over The Telly Day as it shall most likely be known. Deus Ex: Human Revolution is released on the same day as Tropico 4, and while I intend to play Deus Ex at some point, I simply cannot resist my dictatorial urges, and will most likely insist on husband waiting till I go to bed before he gets his go on the 360, after all, it's INCREDIBLY hard work being El Presidente!

Three weeks later, starting on September 16th is GAMEFest. Tickets are available for all GAME reward card holders at a price of just £10, pretty good for a day out at the NEC - just bring your own sandwiches or be prepared to pay through the nose at Subway! GAMEFest promises to provide a preview of all the games coming out in the oh-so-important quarter four - that is, the run up to Christmas! It also gives you all a vital first look at all the games that I shall NOT be reviewing here such as Gears of War 3, FIFA 12, Battlefield 3 and Bloody Modern Fucking Warfare Bollocks 3. Ahem.

September 20th is new Gears day! Enjoy, kids, I'm off to France for the week!

I suppose this summer lull isn't so bad, after all, the last three months of the year are traditionally the busiest of the year, and as a whole, the industry becomes cranky and frazzled. Maybe I ought to embrace this opportunity to enjoy sitting on my backside for a short while. I might even head out to my local beer garden...