The Bloggings of The_B

So obviously, Red Dead Redemption has a fair number of people – including myself – calling it ‘Grand Theft Auto with cowboys’. While this is somewhat true, there’s a few things about it that have led me to stick my neck out and say honestly that Red is in fact, the better game. Indeed, there are a few things that I think Rockstar North should take on board from their stablemates (let’s say that pun was intended) for the next Grand Theft Auto game.

Continue reading ‘Things Grand Theft Auto Should Learn from Red Dead Redemption’

10 – This game isn’t actually great. We took a backhanded deal under the table. Probably in exchange for some advertising space or massive product placement that involved a lot of money and getting our quote on the front of the box.

9 – A pretty decent game, but there’s no way we can say it was better than Halo 3. We’d totally mess up Metacritic otherwise.

8 – Same as 10, but it’s got some form of unpopular DRM that our readers don’t like, and so to save face we’ve had to knock points off the score and face removal from the developers Christmas lists this year.

7 – Crap. This game will make you wish you’d never purchased it. Futhermore it will go on to make you infertile and cause some form of incurable terminal illness in your children and loved ones. Avoid.

6 – The above, written by someone who doesn’t know what they’re talking about because they didn’t review Modern Warfare 2.

5, 4, 3, 2 – There are no scores lower than six. These scores, like the caveat of needing to play a game to have an opinion on it and the concept of someone having genuine, honest reasons to think the way they do about a game are entirely fictional.

1 – It’s a casual game and thus does not matter.

Yes, yes. I know I’m a horrible person. Haven’t had a new post in nearly five months, and even longer before anything substantial (podcast aside) on here. While you won’t want to hear excuses I’m going to give you a flimsy one anyway, and just admit I’ve not been happy with some of the drafts I’ve had between Christmas and now to post on here, and those that have have ended up getting posted as articles elsewhere.

But in some effort of making it up to the one person that is probably still reading my blog, here’s a list of the things I’ve written in the interim that have appeared elsewhere in a vague chronological order, assuming I can find it:

My review of Battlefield: Bad Company 2 over on The Reticule

I take a look at the evolution of DRM over on my brother’s site, HullGamer.

I ask some questions about DLC at Citizen Game.

I wonder why new takes on old franchises are often decried before they even emerge back on Reticule.

My first ‘proper’ 360 game review appears in the form of Splinter Cell Conviction for HullGamer.

And finally, also on The Reticule, I review indie game Plain Sight.

I also caught some fish:

Finally, I’m now jumping on the Formspring bandwagon. Ask me stuff, but I can’t promise I won’t answer with ‘Your Mum’. Sorry.

I promised I’d have something in the works.

So I would like to welcome you to my Christmas gift, the very first DoubleYouTeeEffCast. Joined by my good friend Andy Lamb we sat down and decided to talk about the year in gaming. Of course, we manage to fly readily off topic and end up about talking about stuff from all over the decade and beyond but I’d like to think this adds character.

Also adding character (read: highlighting the amateurism) is my voice, all the background noises, the disappointing segways and even this running order in which I forget to actually note the times for the first few items. I’ll update it at some point, but I’m away for the next couple of days so you’ll just have to make do.

Download it from here – I’m not going to iTunes it yet for three reasons: one is the quality (or lack thereof) two is the fact that – for now – it’s a one off, we may do more in the future. Thirdly is I just don’t like iTunes.

So that running order then:
Intro
Duke Nukem Never
Command and Conquer
Pandemic
Open world games 13:22
Pushing Tech 16:12
Valve in 2009 18:35
Achivements 20:40
Consoles! 23:30
Games of 2009 30:50 (Ben induces Mariorage)
Left 4 Dead 2 32:58
Modern Warfare 2/The Problem with Boycotts 37:49
Champions Online 41:08
MMOs & Subscriptions 45:12
Indie Games of 2009 46:40 (I manage to mispronounce Spelunky spectacularly)
Return of Monkey Island 57:05
Games of 2010 1:04:05

And the link to the podcast itself. Enjoy, or don’t and of course comments are open. They might be ignored but they’re certainly open.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Oh dear, I have neglected this place somewhat of late haven’t I? Well, better change that soon then…(I’m such a tease)

In the meantime, sum stuff wot I wrote:

Some words on difficulty in games over at Citizen Game.

Finishing off the Tales of Monkey Island reviews on The Reticule.

Also my opinions on Borderlands and Modern Warfare 2, also on The Reticule.

And of course if there’s anything I’ve missed check The Highlights and in my regular reminder and hopping on the bandwaggon of futility – follow my Twitter.