Before anyone mentions I'm fully aware that GS has a function for user reviews but I wanted to do mine via a blog lol. Anyway, yeah Mirrors Edge, its a good game go buy it. *Leaves room*

*Walks back in* What you're still here, you wanted more details I hear you say ok, ok jeez. Lol basically I got real excited for this game months ago before it came out, it seemed like a really unique title and I really like the art direction and concept behind the game. I was genuinely shocked by how ME was received by the public, I was thinking it was gonna be a top grade title, however some reviews scored it as little as 5/10.

This subsequently led to the game receiving a premature price cut after only a few weeks it was 25 quid, so I got it. I must say that I have no idea why everybody criticises this game so much, its great. The mechanics of the game are spot on, people who complained about dieing alot must have just been bad at the game, the only time I die is when its something I've done wrong. I played through the first time on the easier setting and obviosly it was relatively easy, it was made slightly more difficult by the fact that I was trophy whoring so I played the game without shooting anyone, but even then it was relatively straight forward. I'm now playing through on the hardest setting and it is noticably more difficult but not in the fashion of COD on veteran, its subtle tweaks to the difficulty. For example you lose your "Runner vision" ability which is fine as after your first play through you become aware of how the game works so the platform elements become second nature.

Speaking of the platforming, it is easily the single strongest point in the game, it just feels natural and when your leaping between cranes or from roof to roof you get a rush of adrenaline which is ramped up even further when your being pursued by the police. Also worth noting is the brilliant animation on Faith's limbs, as you run along you'll catch glimpses of Faith's arms and legs swinging madly as you run and jump around the city, or as you brush past a wall, it all feels very fluid and adds further to the feeling of seeing the world through Faiths eyes.

The other main aspect of the game is combat, however its more of a 70/30 split with the combat playing second fiddle to the parkour sections. The combat is easily the weaker aspect of the two, the melee combats effectiveness ranges drastically dependant on context, sometimes a jump kick will knock the enemy out instantly, others your fly kick will be blocked and you'll be bludgeoned or shot to pieces before you know whats hit you, this is more noticeable on the harder settings. However the combat does serve the purpose of breaking up the platforming elements and stops it becoming monotonous. The weapon mechanics are very simple and are almost disposeable, its a slight trade off, you can hold a gun but cant run or jump properly therefore forcing you to be a bit grab and go with your weapons. The fights normally involve rushing in to a group, attempting to seperate them, then pushing triangle to disarm them, then simply blasting the group with your weapon, and finally, discarding the weapon. As I said its simple, but effective, it breaks the game up without slowing the pace, its almost worth adding that most fights are completely optional, nine times out of 10 you can merely outrun the enemies and it's actually more fun (and exciting) than fighting them.

If you buy Mirrors Edge with the idea that you're getting a traditional FPS then you will be disappointed, infact ME isn't really a FPS at all as there's very little shooting involved in the game. However if you realise beforehand what the game is, or even if you buy it with an open minded approach then you will surely enjoy it, its not completely faultless, the graphics aren't exacly cutting edge, and the combat is hit and miss. But when Mirrors Edge hits the right note its and intense and unforgettable experience that will leave you wanting more after the main story is over. Luckily there are time trials on offer and DLC that can be bought plus theres the replayability of the speed runs and the collection of the runners bags. Overall I'd give Mirrors Edge 8.5/10. I have alot of respect for DICE as they took a big risk with this game instead of flooding the market with another generic FPS, and I feel it paid off.

Hey, well since my last blog I've been taking it pretty easy, I got all my exams out the way until June now, I think they went pretty well, I had 5 and only struggled with one of them so I should get decent marks (hopefully) anyway after exams I had a whole week off and I basically played my ps3 alot amongst other things. In the last month or so I've played and completed a few games: Fallout 3, Burnout Paradise, Resistance 2 and Prince of Persia.

I really liked all of the games I mentioned particularly Fallout 3 its actually one of my favourite games of all time, I know it has its (many) faults, but I can't think of any game that doesn't so I overlook it and love the game regardless. On to Burnout Paradise, i really, really enjoyed this game, the graphics are awesome and so is the gameplay. I'm not you're racing game kind of guy but I actually really enjoyed this game. I got the platinum for it and I kinda miss playing on it, but its getting another update with trophies so I look forward to getting back into it.

Resistance 2, again I really enjoyed this game, I played and completed the original Resistance a few times and I think the sequel is much better. The original started with a fizz instead of a bang and the set piece battles paled in comparison to R2. Also, the online is a whole lot better on R2, me and my girlfriend are totally hooked on the co op online mode, I've still not played competetive too much yet though I plan on getting stuck in over the next few days. I'm currently going through the game on hard mode in order to unlock super human, I must admit I found it tough going at first but then I realised it was psychological and its not much harder than the other difficulties. Hopefully superhuman isnt masses harder than this.

Anyway onto the next game on my last, Prince of Persia, I actually started my file on this in early December, then it kinda got thrown to one side when I got Fallout 3, R2, Burnout and Mirrors Edge for Christmas. As I had completed the other games (except ME) I decided to give it another go. I didn't love the game as I do the other 3 but I do really like it, well half of it. I really enjoyed the platforming elements and collecting the light seeds, but I hated the combat. It really made no sense to me I just couldn't fathom why they made the combat so second rate, if the combat was better I'd have given it like 9.5 out of 10, as opposed to the 8 out of 10 I'd give it now. Anyway I completed it and got all the lightseeds, but I can't see me getting the plat anytime soon, I have no motivation to play the game for some time now as it really started to drag towards the end (combat wise). The enemies started having more "states" so it made it difficult to link combo's. I hear theres an update coming in the near future, I'll perhaps give it another go then.

That just leaves Mirrors Edge, as of yet, it's remaining unplayed, I don't know why, atm I'm kinda going back to older games and trying to get a couple more trophies as a lot were sitting at around the 50% mark, I want at least 75% or so lol (don't know why) Saying that the minute Killzone 2 arrives at my door none of the other games will exist and I'll dedicate myself to that one game for a month or so. I'm so excited its gonna be great!!! :D

Okay so heres the scenario, 360 far surpasses ps3 in its first year, better games, better online, better developer support. Ps3 rolled with the punches and came out fighting, towards the end of last year Ps3 really started to show its true potential, Sony really got their act together with the introduction of home and the addition of TROPHIES!!! We got the wonderful MGS4 as a reward for sticking with Sony for the rough patch and now our perserverance is gonna be rewarded ten fold.

A little game called Killzone 2 (never heared of it....where have you been??) is gonna rear its head next month which to me is gonna be the biggest thing to happen to PS3 since launch. I've been hyping about this game for so long now and im sick of people saying "You're overhyping it". In my opinion I'm not, I never played the Beta but I've seen enough in game footage and news from the Beta to be convinced its gonna be great.:D

Anyway the main point of the blog is to post this link:
http://www.metacritic.com/games/platforms/ps3/killzone2

Basically its the metacritic of the K2 reviews, its actually a really funny read because the authentic reviews, magazines etc say how amazing it is, then theirs the user scores...theres clearly been a 360 smear campaign for this game lol, you'll see what I mean when you follow the link. Blatant jealousy...oh wait they have Halo....hmmm I wonder which I'd prefer. I talk about the 360 fanboys like they're dirt, although im no better really I'm a bit of a slave to Sony. :D

My final point is FFXIII, I just checked out the new trailer on PS store in HD. WOW!!! This game looks awesome its FF as we know and love but with amazing visuals, I thought MGS4 was king of PS3's graphics but theres a new competitor in town...it looks awesome.

Oh!!! Final, final point I had my penultimate exam today and it went pretty good so Im looking forward to getting my final exam out of the way tomorrow and getting back to my PS3.

Well as you're all aware I've been sitting exams the last week or so, yesterday I had a financial accounting exam, I think it went well, my balance sheet seemed to balance and my performance ratios all gave realistics figures. I also had to write an essay on the introduction of an international accounting standard...which was..fun lol

Anyways I have only two exams left Economics on Thursday and then Organisational Behaviour on Friday. Then after that I get a whole week off with no work, I cant wait Im gonna cram in some serious ps3 time, try and get the remaining Burnout trophies, then make a start on Resistance trophies. I still have Mirrors Edge in my room, unopened which is a shame because I know its an awesome game, so once I get Resistance out the way (the offline trophies at least) I'm gonna try and Mirrors Edges trophies before Killzone 2 comes out.

Anyway hope you're all well, oh and I wanted to know if anyones got any predictions for 2009's best games (exempting K2 and Resi 5 lol) Just because I dont really know of many others but Im guessing Im gonna need some more games to fill the gap after K2 and Resi5 til Christmas lol

Hey, well I'm kinda stressed out at the minute cuz I've got my first semester university exams coming up, I know they don't count towards my final grade but if I fail an exam I get one chance to resit and I if I fail again I get kicked out of university.

This is stressing me out because I'm sick of reading my revision books 24/7 because they make me even more stressed and normally when I'm stressed out I play my ps3 for a while, but lately I've not been able to do that because I've gotta revise AAARRGGHHH!!! lol

Anyway my first exam is tomorrow and the modules called "Quantitative Methods for Businesses". It's basically Maths (which I suck at) so I'm just hoping it goes well.

On a lighter note I get a whole week off after my exams with no work, revision or assignments to do, so I plan on catching up on some much needed gaming time (I need to catch up on trophies too, my trophy count is slipping lol)

Also I just got my timetable for semester 2 which starts on 9th Feb and I love it!!!! On a Monday I have only 1 lecture which finishes at 11.50am so the rest of the day is free!!! On Wednesday I have no lectures!! And on Friday I'm done by 12 oclock!!!. The only bad news is that this means the rest of lectures are crammed into Tues and Thurs :( I have to stay from 10am to 6pm on Tuesdays,and 9 till 5 on a Thursday but oh well, I GET A WHOLE DAY OFF!!!! :D

Ha ha, well first things first the blog title is sarcasm, Fallout 3 is an AMAZING game. I was gonna write a structured blog listing the good points in a systematic and thorough order, but I'm kinda strapped for time so this is the best you'll get lol.

I dont really know where to start explaining why fallout 3 i so good so I'll just explain the first things that I noticed when playing. Namely the beginning of the game, i was a massive fan of bethesda's other recent first person RPG (Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion anyone???) I loved the brilliant beginning to the game where you had to creep through the caverns and eventually emerge from the cave to a vast open land of oppurtunities. This feeling was replicated in fallouts understated yet brilliant opening.

You have to escape from the safety of Vault 101 into the endless wastelands of Washington DC. However this time the journey into the big wide world felt more imposing and nerveracking, it's made clear at the beginning that there are all sorts of creatures and corrupt individuals roaming the Wasteland and this leads to more fear and awareness of your surroundings than there was with Oblivion. The wastelands themselves are slightly dull with lots of greys and browns but to be fair to the game a nuclear bomb has just been dropped so its hardly gonna be all sun shines and rainbows now is it.

Apart from this minor niggle (and the occasional freezing) fallout 3's only other negative point is pop up, sometimes when you're roaming the wastelands buildings will pop up out of nowhere. On some occasions the building will be there when you at a fair distance but with no textures, fair enough, but even as you get closer the textures often still do not render. However this point can be defended as the sheer scale of the world and the number of buildings and locations to explore its vast therefore I personally expected it to happen. For this reason I will also overlook the hit and miss draw distances (360's is better, hate to admit it). ANyway this concludes the paragraph in which I moan a lot.

Back to positive points, pretty much everything: the exploring, the combat, the trading of goods, shooting super mutants at point blank with a combat shotgun whilst in V.A.T.S, pickpocketing people then planting a bomb to blow them up, killing every single Raider I lay eyes on, the interesting characters, hitting feral ghouls in the face with a sledgehammer or other satisyingly blunt object, decapitating mole rats, being a good citizen, being a bad citizen, shooting Tenpenny in the head then throwing him off his tower because he proposed I blow up Megaton, blowing up Megaton, listening to Wadsorths crap jokes, letting Wadsworth give me yet another haircut that makes me look like a man dressed as a trailer park lesbian, collecting Bobbleheads (only have 4), Getting addicted to Buffout then having to go cold turkey, Killing the behemoth super mutant things...they're huge!!!, Laughing at the brotherhood of steel because they think they're so great, then watching them get ripped to pieces by Super mutants, rescuing prisoners and Collecting Stimpacks (so far I have like 90, you never know when you'll need them).

Well I did say it wouldn't be structured too well, i can't think of any more plus points off the top of my head but there are many, many more and I've only done like 1/3 of the game. I urge anyone who doesnt already have it to go out and buy this game, Its's value for money like you wouldn't believe, its sooooo damn long. Definately game of the year in my opinion. Roll on Fallout 4, or elder scrolls 5. Which brings me onto my brief pitch for the next fallout. They should set it in a post Apocaliptic London (in England for those who don't know) and you could go explore Buckinham palace, maybe the queen and Phillip are super mutants (flick on V.A.T.S, bang, bang)anyway roll in there with dogmeat (or other generic dog) and blast holes in her corgi's (mutated corgi's). If thats not Game of the year material I dont know what it is...btw i really don't hate the royal family I just think there a bunch of racist, pretentious fools. *Climbs down off his soapbox* :D

Hey readers, I figured it was about time i bit the bullet and lost my blogging cherry. Basically i figured I'd use the medium of blogging to share my views on playstation home. Well, first things first people may be wondering what you spend your time doing on home, to be honest the answer to this is not much at all really.

The beta is rather limited in its content, which is more than understandable, you get a small selection of clothes to start with and your penthouse is almost empty. This is slightly dissapointing as everyones avatar looks really similiar. You can access the shopping mall complete with shops...which cannot be used, sad smiley face.

Despite all this Home is really quite good on my last play i only anticipated booting it up for 10 minutes or so but ended up staying an hour and a half. This is because even in the early stages of the beta the community is thriving. Okay so many of the "females" are actually male but that doesnt really matter all that much. It does however bring me onto my next point. Males on home seem to come in one variety...desperate, any sign of a female avatar and every fella nearby dives on her with romantic quips such as "your hot" or "can we go back to your place".

My new favourite game as me and Ranger (Altair) discovered is to listen to all the sad losers chatting up the female (actually males) avatars. Unfortunately this led to some cross dressing on our part with hilarious consequences. Many of the individuals who partake in this deception of genders use the same story lines such as the famous "It wasnt me it was my sister" In which we caught one guy whos avatar was a girl at first, the character then said "Gotta go my brothers back" and a second later returned as a male avatar and continued the conversation as if he/she had never left, obviously we ridiculed him for it lol. He strongly denied all claims and even manged to intelligently proclaim that he had "Done my mum"....smart.

All in all i think Home is looking pretty good at the minute theres little to do but the fun lies in finding ways to enjoy yourself such as attending raves (people with headsets play music and everyones dances) heckling the chess and draught players, laughing at the sad blokes chatting up other men or the even sadder men who pretend to be women and generally just enjoying videogame related chit chat with like minded individuals.

Once all the changes have been made and the full version is released i feel that Home is going to be a very succesfull service and one that will be used by many psn users. Until all the new clothes and activities in the full version are available, I plan to keep myself amused in other ways but look forward to pimpin out my avatar and flat and meeting everyone online :)