Been playing quite a new few games over the last few days just wated to through up my impressions of some of the games and demos i've had the fortune to get my hands on recently.

Sonic & Sega allstar racing

This high revving racer is little more than a mario kart clone, it adds nothing new too the formula and sticks religously to the guidelines set down by the mario crew. Everything is included from the Wacky powerups, the character themed tracks and an impressive list of 23 racers from Segas back catologue plus a bonus Rare character in the shape of Banjo.

Although the game is likely to cause mass deja vu amongst Wii owners, Xbox 360 owners wont have the same problem. With a serious Kart drought on the 360 Sonic racing looks like it could answer the prayers of all of us looking for a great racer that doesnt take itself to seriously.

The Xbox demo allows you too play as sonic or Banjo on one track Lost Palace, which is a tropical beach level from the game sonic heroes. The track layout contains may hard corners, an S section, spiral loop, plenty of jumps and a few shortcuts.The layout and design of the level do a great job of recreating the feel of the original level while still maintaining a proper Race track atmosphere.

Racing in the game is also fun , the demo is set on advanced AI and they provide plenty of challenge, the powerups are a blast to use from the giant boxing glove(Green Shell), the rockets(red shell) right down to the shield and cone(banana). Segas one deviance from the Mario rule book is the inclusion of a character specific power move, Sonic turns into golden Sonic and gets a massive turbo boost where as banjo uses his Magic wrench to make it start raining golden jiggies which damage all the other racers on the track.

Definetly one to look out for come the end of the month , try the demo if you havent already.

Darwinia

A difficult one for me as while i'm a big fan of RTS games but i prefer my games to have soilders, tanks etc . I really wanted to like this game but i'm having a hard time getting into it. If anyone has played further into the game than the first tutorial tell me what you think of it.

Bioshock multiplayer

So far im underwhelmed with this though i can certainly see the potential for fun, while the plasmids feel great to use the gunplay feels underwhelming . the levels are certainly nice though some of them feel overly big for the number of players and others feel too cramped to accomadate the action.

The toted story led multiplayer is a bit of a lie , though there is a story in there its not much more than an interactive explaination of the multiplayer and the ability to unlock audiologs that further the storyline ... Shawshank Redemption it is not.

The system in the multiplayer is not unlike the call of duty games as the player kills enemy, hacks turrets and captures points you score points and points mean levels which in turn increases the guns, Plasmids and tonics that you have access too, unlike COD though the lower level players are at a serious disadvantage with the weapons and plasmids available to them being much more powerful.

Still good fun though and i will definetly be continuing to play.

Thats it for me, thanks for reading

buft

guess who it is? it's me...

I completely forgot Bioshock 2 came out today and unfortunately i now dont have time to go collect my copy, guess i'm waiting until tommorow to revisit the depths of Rapture once more. I'm totally bummed by this massive oversight and find myself looking at my current games like they disgust me.

on a second note big thank you to everyone who left a comment on my last blog, set a new record in replies.

before i go if you get a chance to try the sonic racing demo it's pretty fun the weapons in the game feel really underpowered and the special moves overpowered but the rest of the game seems pretty solid, let me know what you think of it.

i also prestiged in modern warfare so i'm back to basics for a while and its actually okay because i dont feel hard done by when it comes to weapons and i got a bunch of new challenges to complete.

thats it from me , detailed look at the demo coming soon i guess, have fun if your on bioshock today and im going to try and arrange some gamespot multiplayer fun on here soon.

The Modern Day human has less to worry about than ever. Lead free paint on the walls, asbestos free insulation in the ceiling, tougher and more thorough regulations on drugs and cosmetics. However one of the biggest health concerns we have is smoking and as movies television and major sporting events move away from depicting the act of smoking why is it that video games developers still feel the need to include these in the games they make and at times even give cigarettes magical benefits.

I'm a smoker myself I know the truth that there are no benefits to smoking, the reality is I occasionally find myself out of breath for no reason and at other times feeling the overwhelming need to smoke.

bravado and cigars ...yeah!!

I'm not here to preach, I just think it's irresponsible of games developers to include these images and actions in their games with no real reason and to pinpoint some of the biggest offenders.

this is exactly the warning we need here

Metal Gear Solid

Solid Snake is possibly the world of video games most famous smoker, he has gone through quite a lot to make sure he can get a nicotine rush during a mission including sneaking a packet of his favorite brand in his stomach in the original Playstation release. In this MGS the player had the option to use them to help see laser beams that the player could sneak around. Worse than this is the loading screens from guns of the patriots which see's snake smoking throughout the entirety, do video game characters really need a smoke break?

illusive but the people at the cigeratte counter know him well

Mass Effect 2

The illusive man may well be advancing humans within galactic society but with his heavy smoking he certainly isn't trying to benefit humanity by getting them to quit. Every single cut scene in this game either features Mr. Man with the offending item in his mouth or a close up of the smoky action.

Heavy rain demo

At the very start of the heavy rain demo you question a prostitute about her son's murder, she offers you a cigarette which you refuse but she then proceeds to smoke in front of you. The reason this has made my list is that although the game is age rated the demo can be downloaded by anyone including impressionable youngsters.

Afro samurai

The sword wielding, afro haired antihero of this game is rarely seen without his smoky little friend even during frantic swordplay his cigar is firmly planted in his mouth which just seems a little excessive even if it is cannon in the anime.

Escape from butcher bay

The biggest problem in this game wasn't the act of smoking but rather that the game awarded you for collecting packs of cigarettes by unlocking extras and even gave you hilarious warning labels to read such as "Makes you Immortal" ," Will only taste OK if mixed with alcohol" and my personal favorite "Nicotine may build up character".

Bioshock

Smoke cigarettes and gain eve but lose some health surely if tobacco can do it so can Niccorette gum

The saboteur

If you stand around long enough the main character will pull out a cigarette and start smoking , can't wait press in the thumb stick and watch him smoke one instantly.

As I stated I don't want to preach about smoking myself but with so much pressure being put on the media, games developers could get behind the cause by reducing the amount of depictions of smoking they feature in their games.not an overall ban but a reduction in the number of games which depict smoking for the heck of it for instance the loading screen in Metal Gear Solid or the collectible packets in Butchers Bay.

what are your thoughts on smoking in games?

I joined the world of Twitter a long time ago but have only recently started using it. The reason for this change is that I can now read my Twitter on my phone.

My biggest problem is that I don't have many people to follow was anyone I did add when I joined has either stopped posting or I removed them because they are tedious or just plain boring.

So I figured Gamespot was probably the best place to ask, if you are on twitter and would like a new follower go ahead and add your username in the comments or send me a PM if you want to keep it private.

My username is JustinJ1983 feel free to add me.

This week gamers finally get a chance to play as a colonial marine, the ever creepy Xenomorph or the Rastafarian space traveller himself the predator. The Aliens versus Predator demo gives you the chance to play a deathmatch as one of the aforementioned characters and although the control scheme works well I do have a few gripes about the demo.

Rebellion studios still have 2 weeks until their full retail release but if I am being completely honest this game looks absolutely horrible textures in the game look very pixelated and the character models look like anamorphous blogs from any distance ,the only time this actually improves is during the kill camera if you perform a grab. In general the game looks dated and I can't imagine that is going to improve for the retail release.

Secondly the controls feel slow, when you attack you don't get the feeling that you're in control of your actions and for a first person shooter that is really unacceptable.

The map is cramped, confusing and is very shoddily designed in every game I have played all the action happens in the big room with all the side corridors and smaller rooms practically left undisturbed which leaves me thinking the map design has just been thrown together with no thought for progression.

The game feels kind of unbalanced in favour of the human as any attempt to get close enough to one to kill it results in you being riddled with bullets, I will just put this down to inexperience as playing with alien and predator characters because the human is by far the closest to a traditional FPS setup that I'm used to.

I wasn't happy at all with the demo to say the least I think deathmatch was a poor choice to show off the game and I really think I could do with a little more polishing before it comes out.

In short I haven't been blogging or leaving as many comments around the place as usual and I know this is old news because I have said it a few times and again most of you know i also recently completed mass effect 2 and have started a second play through.

The other problem is that these days I find myself working so much I actually have to spend my 2 days off playing the games I talk about so much.

In other news Bioware have just announced via their official twitter page that there is more free DLC for people on the Cerberus network coming in the next week and I just wanted to say what a godsend Cerberus has been. I now it means that people buying the game second hand will be forced to shell out for the extra content ensuring the developer makes money even off sales but for people like myself this means a ton of free content because let's face it players aren't going to pay good money for Zaaed and the Normandy mission they aren't worth 1200 points.

It's also my understanding that infinity ward will be releasing news on their first map pack for modern warfare soon as well.

So plenty to look forward too.

new releases incoming shortly Dantes Inferno, medal of honor and Bioshock all coming out within the next week or so with AVP shortly after and Battlefield by the end of the month , it's a real shame Sam Fisher couldn't make it though.

for all you Xbox 360 gamers there is a free premium theme on the market for a limited time for the aforementioned game Dantes Inferno why not stop by http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-GB/games/media/66acd000-77fe-1000-9115-d802454108cf/and download yours, while its still available.Big thank you to twztd13 for his heads up on this offer and going beyond the call of duty.

I finally finished my mass effect review and you can read it here dont worry its completely spoiler free.

http://uk.gamespot.com/xbox360/rpg/masseffect2workingtitle/player_review.html?id=705579&tag=contributions;review1

if you can have a read and give me some feedback , click the thumb if you like it.

thanks for reading

Mass Effect2 is finally complete, got through it in just less than 32 hours on my first playthrough as an Infiltrator and since it was so much fun I decided to start it up again and start from scratch as a Sentinel.

I love this game which is pretty much the reason I haven't really posted recently but I'm planning to write a review of the game which should be up shortly.

In other news I also levelled up to 70 in COD: MW 2. I have decided to prestige but I have to level up a bit further first which I didn't realise.

On another side note today when I was logging in I managed to get logged into my older account which I had previously thought was closed

You can check out the terrible blogging about World of Warcraft and ps3 delays by clicking on this link.

http://uk.gamespot.com/users/thebuft/blog

I was checking out the most played section of the xbox 360 section and i noticed a bit of a trend, i edited the picture only for clarity

every single other game in the list has suffered sharp decline in players since mass effects release.

I guess thats the mass effect.

As we all know Sega has been on a bit of a roll recently, giving us one of the best new franchises this year with Bayonetta and with AVP, Project Needlemouse and afterburner climax on the way it's certainly looking like Sega is going to be having a great year.

But if there is one thing missing from its release schedule it's Crazy Taxi, I have been playing it on my PSP recently but I miss having the full control a large TV and Control Pad offer over the handheld.

Here is a video of Crazy taxi 3 as a little reminder of the game.

[video=2873774]

My hope is that Sega will release this as a downloadable title on XBLA and the PSN network in the future as Outrun Arcade was a great success and hopefully afterburner will continue this tradition of retro Sega games being fitted with multiplayer, updated graphics while still maintaining that same level of shine as the originals that kept us enthralled all those years ago. I for one hope crazy taxi is not too far behind because in their own words Sega could make some "CRAZY MONEY" out of it.

If you could pick one retro Sega game for a remake which game would it be and why?

So I did get Mass Effect 2 today. I have played about 6 hours of it so far and suffice to say I am thoroughly enjoying the game and I look forward to several playthroughs.

If you read my blog yesterday you will know that I planned to pick up my pre-ordered copy and hopefully get the collector's edition. When I entered the store I immediately sensed a problem as there were several irritated patrons and some heated discussion of the adult variety. It later transpired that unfortunately the actually never received any collector's editions because they had neglected to order them. I realised at that moment that the collectors armour was not going to be mine so resigned I approached the till to redeem my pre-order for the game and inferno armour only to be told that there was no pre-order bonus ....

At this point, I almost lost it but staying calm I left the store empty handed I checked all the stores in the area and the dedicated game store was selling the normal edition for £44 and my local supermarket was selling it for £37.So I bought it at the cheaper price and left it at that.

I'm kind of glad I did too because when I started playing I noticed I had the blood dragon armour, so I used it for a bit and it's a little overpowered for early game so first playthrough I decided not to use it as I enjoy the loot hunting aspect of the game and I would be missing out on that.

So in retrospect I would have spent £20 extra for armour I would not have used for maybe a few weeks if at all.

Kind of a stressful day but it was worth it and on a side note it also snowed so I was really cold.