What I’ve Been Up To, Halo For Windows Phone, A Fable Reboot and Next Gen Consoles…
My name is Nathan, I have been working for Invision for just over a year and a half now, and now we have a staff blog section on the site, so I felt like I should take advantage of this. This blog, then, is simply going to be about what I have been playing recently and what I think about some of the things which the gaming industry is going to be throwing out in the near future. I will try and make these a fairly regular thing if people read them, so I have called this one Part 1 and we shall see how things go from there…
Since exams finished a couple of weeks ago now I have been trying to play some things which I have had on my computer for a while and not been able to find time to use. Over the last week or so I have been having a crack at L.A. Noire, which so far has been just awesome! Its a fantastic idea from Rockstar and something a little different to their usual, more gritty market. It’s a really interesting, interactive and fun game to play and I would really recommend it if you are looking for something a little different to spend some time having a go at. It must be said though, I am a shocking driver on this game; I’d hate to think how many accidents I will have caused by the end of it! Last week I also had the chance to go to London and preview Rugby Challenge 2, which was a great experience and a good bit of fun. I will leave a link at the bottom of the blog in case you would like to know more about it, but in short, it is looking to be a great release and I look forward to trying the finalised product!
There have been a couple of interesting announcements popping up this week which have caught my interest. Having fairly recently bought a Windows phone I was interested to see that there is going to be a mobile game in the Halo franchise released very soon. I would love to have a go at it, but I can’t really decide yet whether I am excited about it or not. Hopefully it will be well made and won’t let the franchise down, but being an entirely different style of game than the way I am used to playing it does make me wonder how it will be. There has also been the announcement of a Fable remaster, which to me comes as good news. I always found the first Fable game very difficult to play, with a lot of loading screens between small areas getting on my nerves and putting me off. Fable II was the point where the franchise picked things back up for me, but hopefully the new remaster of the original will make it a bit smoother and easier together on with.
Of course it would be hard not to mention the new next generation consoles if I am talking about what is coming in the future. Right now, my very personal stance is that I am not likely to get one. I do not think the consoles themselves are “bad” so to speak, but they do not stand out to me enough for me to grab my wallet and throw my money at either Microsoft or Sony. I have always admired consoles for the fact that you can grab a game and be certain it is going to work on them. This was very desirable to me when I was younger as I simply couldn’t afford a high end PC which could guarantee the same thing for me. Now, however, I do have a decent PC for gaming and can play most things in very high detail on it, so this element seems less… necessary that it once did. PC gaming is now very much in-line with, if not in some cases better, than console gaming, and with the majority of titles being released on both PC and console there is less need to update to a new system so immediately.
Cost is the main thing which has put me off, because whether Zavvi’s £400 or Amazon’s £600 is closest to being correct, that is still a lot of money I don’t have to part with. As much as I would like to have one of these systems I do not want to spend my third year of university on no food because of buying one. Of course, if the opportunity comes up to review one of the systems then I would be very happy indeed to seize the opportunity and enjoy the consoles like anyone else, but I will not be rushing to the shops and standing in line to do so. Otherwise, the main reason I am not rushing to purchase one is simply because I don’t need one right now. My PC is holding up for the time being for games, I don’t use Sky or any specific services to watch films or TV, and I have an Xbox 360 which at least for a while is going to deal nicely with anything I would rather play on a console than the PC. So while the new consoles would be nice to have, I can’t and won’t be able to purchase one right now, and the only way I am likely to be so lucky as to own one is if the opportunity should arise to test or review one. Otherwise I am happy to make do with what I have and simply wait.
There we have it then, that is my first blog for Invision. I shall check back with you again soon, and if you have any opinions or comments then feel free to leave them!
Rugby Challenge 2 Preview – http://www.invisioncommunity.co.uk/review/rugby-challenge-2-the-lions-tour-edition-preview/
