General Update for July 2010

I've recently finished watching the unrated directors cuts of the excellent Rob Zombie Halloween remakes. I had already seen the directors cut of Halloween so there was not much more I noticed in the unrated version apart from more gore, and some full frontal nudity.

Halloween II though I had only seen the theatrical version of. The directors cut completely changed the film in that firstly Laurie was shown as a girl completely not dealing with her problems. She was in constant arguments with her former best friend who she fantasised about killing, she uses alcohol, and speeding to drown out her issues, and hates her therapist. Myers is shown completely different also.  Half way through the film his iconic mask is half ripped off, so that his face is visible far more, there are many more scenes of him in daylight sans mask, and he even speaks! The ending scene is vastly changed also. Well worth watching though I'm not sure if I prefer it to the theatrical version.

In game news I thought about reviewing Dark Void on here, but decided against it. Dark Void is a action sci-fi third person shooter in which you play as a man in 1947 who has been transported to an alternate dimension after flying though the Bermuda Triangle. In this dimension he gains a cool rocket pack and starts an uprising against the evil alien masters of the dimension who have secretly been setting up the start of World War II. The game is not really horror though, and is much more action based. Still, it was a really fun game.

Quantum of Solace I have also recently played. It is a very fun first person shooter, but of course James Bond is not remotely horror, so no review for that either!

I am currently playing Lit on Wii-ware. It is a horror based puzzler in which you play as a boy trapped in his school at night. He must stay in the light as going into darkness leads to instant death at the hands of shadowy monsters. Each level is a different room of the school. The aim in each room is to get from one side to the other using table lamps, PC monitors and moon light through windows to achieve this.  Is quite creepy.

Ju-On: The Grudge - Horror Videogame Review (Wii)

This game is terrible, but by far the most scary thing about this game is the hideous box cover.  Everywhere out of Europe had a cool Grudge style image.  We here did not.  See if you can guess which of the above covers the UK got for the game!  I honestly thought it was a joke when I first laid eyes on it.  No joke though; this is the WORST cover for a game I have ever seen!

The game follows the exploits of members of a Japanese family.  Each level focuses on a different character, and each ends with their demise at the hands of the Grudge.  You get a girl exploring a abandoned factory in search of her Dog, a woman who wakes up in a deserted Hospital, a security guard at a TV studio, and a delivery man who is taking a package to a dilapidated apartment block.

The game tags itself as a 'fright simulator'.  The game is played from the first person perspective.  You have no weapons, and there is no combat.  You s-l-o-w-l-y walk around each environment and use the Wii-mote as a flash light (I think the family members you control must all suffer from a hereditary disease that slows their metabolism).  You need to find batteries around each level as it is game over if your torch goes dead.  Also hidden around each level are special items such as photos.  To be able to get the 5th and final level (I assume would be the house from the Grudge films) you must collect all the hidden items.  I did not do this.  The levels are good for one play through, but agonisingly boring after this.

The scares come in the form of things leaping out at you, and strange noises.  These are all scripted, so the exact same thing happens each and every time meaning the game is only creepy once.  My problem with the idea of a 'fright' simulator is that using the Grudge licence there is only the two ghosts; the little cat boy, and the woman with the long hair.  It gets almost farcical the amount of times these two show up throughout the levels!  The game does look ok, and does have atmosphere on its levels which at least do feel like totally different locations each time.

So is the slow pace, and the scripted scares the only problems this game suffers from?  No, not at all.  Every know and again you will get into a scuffle with one of the ghosts.  To escape you must shake the Wii-mote in the direction the game tells you to, but this is very imprecise which is made worse by the fact if the game fails to recognise your motions then you die and have to restart the level.  I also had problems with the controls in general, my torch kept getting stuck facing at the ground or ceiling which got irritating.

The game is able to be played in 2 player.  As usual I did not get to try this out, but the way it works I think is that the 2nd player can 'control' the scares by pressing a button every now and again.

Overall this game is pretty terrible.  I only paid £5 for it, but still feel ripped off.  The cover is a warning in itself, nothing that badly designed can conceal a good game.  Good for a rent, as the first play through of each of the short levels is kinda scary, but the deathly slow pace kills most the enjoyment.

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Crackdown 2 - Thoughts on the X-Box 360 Demo

Crackdown was a fun open world action game, one of the first open games to really give you the feeling of immense power.  Sure there had been Spiderman 2, and Hulk Rampage (or something) but this was the first next gen version.  Your character could jump gigantic distances, throw cars, and do plenty other super human things.  Apparently Crackdown featured a mission in which you released mutants (known hence forth as zombies) out of a laboratory.  I can't recall this mission, but this action has had dramatic consequences.

The main difference in Crackdown 2 seems to be that once the world turns to night hordes of zombies pour out from underground, and the game turns into an open world zombie apocalypse game.  Which is quite cool.

The demo has a fixed time limit of 30 minutes.  After the first task of securing some landing sites for fellow Agents you are next tasked with setting up a series of beacons with the aim to initiate a sun light beam into the zombies day time lair.  The zombies in this game have a Vampiric reaction to sunlight, it kills them instantly.  The zombies are cool, not strong obviously due to their number.  The end of the mission was a bit irritating though as I was tasked with defending the charging sunlight machine from attacking zombies who were trying to destroy it.  I kept running out of ammo though, but think that's more error on my part than the game.

I am currently playing through Crackdown again, and may well pick Crackdown 2 up if it is any good.  I recommend watching the Crackdown webisodes as they are quite funny, and entertaining and set up the basis for the game, and charts the rise of the zombie threat to the City.

Lastly there are some Crackdown 2 Avatar clothes, one of which is a mutant mask.  I purchased this, the mask totally covers your Avatars head, with eye holes cut into it.

Quizocalypse - X-Box 360 Indie Videogame Review

What do you get if you cross Zombies with a Quiz game format?  Do you have a wonderful experience, or something bland, boring, and terrible?  Wolpertinger Games set out to discover the answer.

The game is a Quiz game in which you play as one of 4 different zombies; Lickin' Lou, Zealous Zoe, Billy the Brain, or Friendly Frank.  There are 13 questions (at least in the game I played) that are based on 'Nerdy' topics.  The 13 questions are randomly generated and pull from a database of a few hundred.

First the good.  The game is bright and cartoony and captures the game show vibe well, and the quiz show company has an Umbrella style symbol, and is called the Raincoat Test Facility.  The game is set in a Studio with bright lights, while outside crowds of Zombies swarm against the Studio windows.  The 4 Zombies you can choose to play as are competing for the chance to win Brains rather than money.  The game is 1-4 players.

The game is insanely boring! There is only the one style of round with questions that take a long time to display on screen, and are stupidly easy.  The questions are multiple choice and feature such mind twisters as (to paraphrase) what is the name of the evil man in black in the Star Wars films? Pathetic.  I couldn't even see this being fun in multi player due to the boring questions.  A few hundred sounds a lot, but it would not be long before these began to repeat.

The game is 240 Microsoft Points, 80 Microsoft Points would have been too much.  A hollow, vacant quiz with the Zombie Theme slapped on the top.  Avoid!

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How to Survive a Zombie Apocalypse - The essential guide to surviving the inevitable zombie apocalypse!

'How to Survive a Zombie Apocalypse' is a cult seminar series created by zombology guru Dr Dale Seslick.  The aims of the seminars are to educate both novices, and survival experts alike on the best methods to survive the coming zombie apocalypse.  Such a serious subject as Zombie Armageddon can be a little dry, and grim, luckily though Dr Dale and his crew inject lots of humour into their frequently bizarre discussions on the topic.

Each seminar while being mostly improv does feature a basic structure.  The seminars are led by Dr Dale, and include other members of the world renowned School of Survival such as Science expert Judy O'Dea, survival expert Donald Straite, and Tristen Granger.  The seminars cover all the essential zombie apocalypse topics you would naturally want to know.  These include topics as the safest places to go, and best weapons to use, to less generally discussed topics such as the secret to group defence, and zombie recognition techniques.

Audience question and answer sessions are a key part to the improvisation, and naturally with such things do rely on the audience to interact with the experts for the best and most comedic (yet knowledgeable) results. The Simulation section has the crew displaying their amazing acting skills as they role play possible situations that could come up during the apocalypse.

The show, or seminar as it should be titled started life back in June 2009, and over time became a cult event winning lots of praise from many different publications (including the fantastic Fortean Times!).  The show is mainly all improvisation, and as such no two seminars are the same.  I am sad to say I personally have never yet seen it.  I believe on their last Tour they had a show in Leicester, but I so hate leaving the safety of Northampton.  Currently they are on their 2010 UK Tour, so if they are ever in your area I highly recommend catching them.  Next time they are anywhere near Northampton I will defiantly be checking them out.

In addition to their show they also have a Podcast (available from i-Tunes).  This weekly Podcast is recorded from the School of Survival HQ, each episode roughly 30 minutes long, and mostly quite funny, and random.  The show has a simulation section (such as what to do if a zombie appears while your on a aeroplane; the answer in this case is to flood the plane with water!) as well as listener questions and general goings on at the School of Survival.

In August the esteemed Dr Dale is releasing a book 'Dr Dale's Zombie Dictionary; The A-Z Guide to Staying Alive' which promises to be the "ultimate alphabetical reference guide on how to survive when the zombies finally arrive and attempt to eat us all".  If I can afford to buy it, I shall do and give my thoughts. They will be doing a Tour later on this year to promote the book.

For further information on the show, and Tour Dates then head to http://www.howtosurviveazombieapocalypse.co.uk which will feed all your needs.  Dale Seslick can also be found on Facebook, as well as Twitter.  It is good that there are such people as him to provide illumination to the mostly unprepared masses!

Finally; Dr Dale and crew have a brand new seminar coming this August at Edinburgh, called 'How To Survive A Zombie Apocalypse : RELOADED'.  It's going to be on from the 6th August to the 29th August at the Zoo Southside - Venue 82.  If your interested, and in the area tickets can be booked from the website.  "Brain Destruction is guaranteed"!

Avatars VS Zombies (2010) - Zombie Videogame Review (X-Box Indie)

Avatars VS Zombies looked like it was going to be crap. I fully expected it to be, and for 80 Microsoft points I had reason to. The game is riding on the coat tails of the diminishing zombie popularity in pop culture currently. It looked like a very cheaply made game designed to sucker people in by bright colours and avatars, and yes; zombies.

The game casts you as the space marine from Doom...actually it doesn't, you play as your 'avatar'. Mine just happens to be wearing the space marine armour from Doom (unlocked by completing the Doom II bonus chapter). The game is an arena based twin stick shooter. As usual the left stick controls movement, while the right stick fires. Your avatar comes under attack from zombies, asteroids, and various bright coloured shapes as well as a bomb spitting giant fish. All are very basic having no frames of animation, and simply vanish when killed.

There are around four different stages which repeat to infinity. Starting off in a very colourful cartoony landscape you go to a table top, an American football pitch (complete with banners for the designers other Indie games), as well as a computer interface grid. After every four rounds you get a five second screen to relax, complete with sedate music. The music for the game is mostly generic action style, not at all memorable.

I got to round fourteen on my one and only playthrough. Each round isn't particularly long. The game didn't outstay its welcome, and was just as bad and cheap as I expected it to be. Only 80 Microsoft points, and is four player, the only problem being Avatars VS Zombies is just not very good, or interesting.

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Wolfenstein - X-Box 360 Videogame Review

Return to Castle Wolfenstein on X-Box was a game that I found so frustrating that I snapped the disc in half.  A year or so later I brought it again cheap, and again snapped the disc in half.  It was not a fantastic port of the PC version.  Utterly dreadful stealth sections ruined what could have been a fun game.  Would the latest installment of the series be any better?  It may seem silly buying a sequel to a game I hated, but the original Wolfenstein 3D I have recently gone through on X-Box Live Arcade; it was a fun game.

Wolfenstein casts you once again as B.J Blazkowicz.  The intro sequence sees him blowing up a Nazi U-Boat and discovering a strange magical amulet.  The amulet plays a key role in the game.  B.J travels to a small German (maybe?) Town called Isendat where the Nazi's have discovered some ruins belonging to an Ancient Race of people who harnessed the power of an alternate dimension known as Black Sun.  Soon after arriving at the Train Station his cover is blown, and is never retrieved again.  Thankfully this means there are no dreadful stealth sections!

The game has a main open world hub level which is the Town.  You are free to wander the Town, investigating houses, collecting hidden items, and files, as well as choosing missions from either of the 2 factions, and also discovering side quests by talking to allies.  The Town has a Nazi presence, so you are free to either just shoot your way through everywhere, or be more cautious, using the sewers and rooftops to get around.  The Town is quite maze like and has passages, and tunnels all over the place.  The Town also has several shops where you are able to use your collected gold to buy upgrades for your weapons and powers.

There are around 12 main missions, or levels.  These range in size, but all involve mostly shooting everything that moves.  The game really is mindless, but in a good way.  The enemies for the most part are Nazi Soldiers, who are very weak, and so real fun to kill.  Their limbs, and heads can be blasted off, but it is not over the top, and was about a third of the way into the game until I even realised this could be done.  Other enemies include super soldiers who use experimental weaponry such as jet packs, and proton beams, as well as Wizard type characters who can throw energy balls at you, as well as create force fields for other enemies.  Lastly there are the weak mutants who attack via melee.

The levels are quite varied, and start off quite bland but later get really good.  2 levels in particular really stood out.  One sees you start on a route to a Farmhouse where a resistance member is being held captive.  It seemed like the mission was going to be quite small, but discovered in the Farmhouse was a secret elevator which led to a massive underground base that was really epic to fight through.  Another level is set in a Hospital.  You spend half the level with no combat, as you hunt down a mysterious invisible assassin who is systematically murdering all the staff and patients.  That level had a real F.E.A.R style feeling of horror to it, and was really slowed in pace to other more action packed levels.

The weapons are fun to use, and have real weight and impact to them.  Shooting an enemy will result at the least in them getting bloody.  As well as machine guns, and rifles you also get access to super weapons such as a Tesla Cannon, and some kind of disintegrating beam. In addition you get access to 4 magical powers.  One speeds up your movements, another slows down time allowing you to get under closing gates.  Your third power renders you able to shoot through force fields and armour which especially later in the game comes really useful.  My favourite is the shield ability.  This encases you in a bubble that is impervious to damage.  Better still bullets bounce off it causing funny moments when enemies accidentally kill themselves via reflecting projectiles.  Weapons and Magic can be upgraded with increased damage, silencers, and sniper scopes all attached to weapons.

The enemies have great death animations, from writhing around on fire, to holding their throats as blood jets out, to falling off balconies screaming, all our fun to watch.  The plot on the other hand is quite rubbish, really this was expected though.  The game seems to be a proper sequel to 'Return..' referencing events from that game, as well as having the main bad guy be the same.  The game frequently has short action cutscenes which are very bad looking, and look very last generation in their blocky unrealistic character movements.

The game is really lots of fun, but not the least bit intelligent.  Objectives usually just task you with getting from A to B, and there is not a lot of variety in what you do.  Just shoot, and shoot some more.  There is lots of replay with all the hidden files and gold through out the games levels.

The game features multiplayer modes such as deathmatch. I briefly tried this, but no surprise there was virtually no one playing it.  It is a real shame that over two thirds of the achievements are earned via multiplayer, and so I wont be getting them.

Might and Magic: Clash of Heroes - Videogame Review (Nintendo DS)

Is this game a RPG? Is it a puzzler? Actually it's both, bringing to mind memories of the ace Puzzle Quest (by the way; Puzzle Quest 2 out on X-Box Live Arcade next Wednesday!)  A friend of mine recommended I get this game as she loved it.  So I did.  Recently completed it, and recently discovered a HD version is coming out on X-Box Live Arcade.

The game starts with you a bunch of Humans and Elves meeting in some woods.  Demons unexpectedly turn up and kill everyone.  Everyone apart from a handful of young teens who mostly escape via a malfunctioning teleporter that teleports them to random locations in the world.  Each level sees you in the role of one of these teens.  Starting off with the female Elf you discover that the Demons have orchestrated the slaughter to create war between Humans and Elf's.  Each character has their own little storyline that fits into the overall one of Demons trying to take over the world.  The Knight for instance has been declared a rebel, and so must sneak into his City and convince the King otherwise, while the Knights sister finds herself not only teleported to the realm of the Necromancers, but also discovers she has died and is now a ghost!

The game for the most part is Fantasy, not Horror.  Well to be honest for the whole part the game is Fantasy.   It's going to be really hard for me to describe how this game works.  The top screen shows the enemies troops.  The bottom screen shows your troops.  The aim of most the battles is to use your troops to attack the enemies health bar.  To do this you must first defeat any enemy troops in the way.  Different units have different attack charge times, and powers.  line up 3 troops of 1 type together vertically and they will go into attack mode.  Line them up horizontally and they will turn into a defensive structure whether it be vines, or gold walls.  More special troops require either 2 normal troops to charge them up, or 4 for the really strong units such as Titans from the Persian Style troops, to Angels of the Knights troops.  All are in limited supply.

Each level sees you in a map with several things you can do.  Characters with a silver sword above them are optional fights.  Characters with a gold sword above them are quest related fights.  Characters with question marks above their heads either can be spoken to, or challenged to fight.  Each fight you win gives you experience points, as well as gold (that can be used to replenish troops).  Also in the levels are treasure chests that usually hold special items (1 special item can be equipped at a time, they give you battle stat boosts), and Hunters who provide much of the games optional bonus missions.  Lastly there are puzzle quests in which you have a chess style one move problem to solve.

It is the third and fourth levels that earn the game its place on The Rotting Zombie.  The third level sees you in the land of the Necromancers as a ghost.  Troops you recruit include Skeletons, as well as...Zombies! Heh, love the zombies.  The whole land of the dead is great, all cartoony gloom, and gravestones.  The fourth level is set in the Demon realm with a boy who finds he has the power to control Demons.  The Demons are portrayed as comedic and cartoon bad, the Demon Pub in particular is a very fun place due to the music, and comedy dialogue.

The game does have some faults.  Random encounters can be frustrating when you are being attacked by enemies stronger than yours.  Defeat holds no penalty which is good, but if you decide rather than waste 5 to 10 minutes in a fight you cannot win you instead escape the battle then you get heavily penalised, loosing lots of gold.  The level caps are quite low.  Troops can level up to level 5, while the main characters can level to 10 meaning towards the end of each level the random battles etc serve no purpose other than to irritate.

The review has been terrible, I apologise, but if you want a RPG/Puzzler of a decent length (around 30 hours) then get this! Or better still, buy it when it comes out in HD on the home consoles!

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Zombie! T-Shirt

My two T-shirts I ordered from America turned up the other day.  Both cool even if one of them was different to what I ordered.

This T-shirt features a black and white zombie with blood round its mouth and chin.  The word ZOMBIE! is in bright green over the image, and has several bloody bites taken out of it.  There is a bright green full moon next to the zombie as well.  The T-shirt is far brighter than I am really comfortable in wearing, I don't like to draw attention to myself!  So despite being a cool T-shirt is one I will only wear when I am not going anywhere. 

I will no doubt be putting up my photo of the other zombie T-shirt soon.

Leprechaun: Back 2 tha Hood - Horror Film Review

God this is going to take some effort, real down, so don't feel like doing a post!  Leprechaun: Back 2 tha Hood is the sixth, and final entry in the Leprechaun series.  Is it a fitting end though? The film starts with a cool animated back story for the origins of the evil Leprechaun which finally lends some origins to the series, and ties up the completely unrelated films.  I had before thought each film concerned a different Leprechaun, but this explains that that isn't the case.

The Leprechaun 'won' Leprechaun 5 so the film starts with a showdown between the Leprechaun and his latest victim in the ghettos of Compton.  His latest victim; a Priest manages to dispatch the evil one with Holy Water mixed with 4 leaf clovers.  The Leprechaun is dragged to Hell as a result, but the Priest keels over dead of a heart attack.  A year later 4 poor teens stumble across the Leprechauns hidden chest of gold.  They immediately go on a spending spree, full of hope for their future after coming into wealth.  By getting hold of the gold though they have unwittingly resurrected the Leprechaun who goes on a rampage to get back what was 'stolen' from him.  After 1 of the 4 teens are killed they realise they are being hunted and must come up with a plan to stop the Leprechaun before they too end up dead.

The film is even more serious in tone than the last film, despite some kooky out of place scenes.  The Leprechaun is again hooked on drugs, this time addicted to Bongs thanks to a party guest who assumes the little fellow is a hallucination from his drugs.  He soon discovers this not to be the case once the Leprechaun has jammed the Bong through the mans chest.  The Leprechaun has different clothes for this film.  His clothes are dark green this time around, almost black in tone.  The Leprechaun shows himself to have immense strength in this film being able to rip off limbs.  His new special attack is leaping onto people from off screen, which he does several times.  He has no magical abilities this time around.  He cannot control people, cause illusions, or use Jedi style force powers.  This may be due to the fact that for the films duration he has no access to his gold (that is said to grant him his powers)  Warwick Davis is again in fine form, and again for a change he doesn't speak in rhyming couplets.

The main 4 characters are a likable but flawed bunch.  There is a drug dealing rude boy who wants to become a better person, a comedy character druggy, and 2 girls who dream of getting out of Compton and making a life for themselves.  Again the side cast include a bunch of nasty gangsters who are also after the teens for their own reasons.

It is good that the film gives an origin for the Leprechaun, and also kind of explains how he keeps coming back despite being totally killed off at the end of most of the Leprechaun films.  It is the first film that really feels like a sequel as opposed to a completely different tale.  I guess being set in the same location helps that.

There are a lot of deaths, the Leprechaun on fine murdering form, and he gets a lot of grief in this film, being beaten up, shot, and run over, though he seems for the most part impervious to pain.

The last film in the series, though chronologically Leprechaun 4: In Space is the real last film in the series.  Enjoyable, though it doesn't matter how series they make the films the Leprechaun just is not a scary character.

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Decay: Part 1 - Horror Videogame Review (X-Box Indie)

Decay: Part 1 was released on the Xbox 360 Indie game channel a few months back. It is quite a short, yet atmospheric horror based point and click game that is 240 Microsoft points.

The short credit sequence focuses on a hanging body in a lonely bathroom. After some blurred close up shots of the hanging person's eye the game starts. You play as the hung person, now no longer hung. The person has no memory of who they are, or even of hanging themselves. The game takes place in a desolate derelict apartment building with boarded up doors, and graffiti strewn walls. There is no specific aim of the game.

The game is a first person fixed perspective point and click, much like games such as Myst. You cannot move around, but instead can focus on different perspectives by clicking a button. To leave a room for instance you would click on the door. You control a mouse pointer that you can use to click on objects in the environments, and pick up items, as well as read notes, and letters that are dotted around the apartment block.

The game is very atmospheric. It features unsettling Silent Hill style piano music as it's score, and in many ways the game does feel like Silent Hill despite the static nature of the game. There are quite a few simple but fun puzzles in the experience, these include things such as O's and X's as well as Silent Hill style puzzles (one such requires you to arrange portraits in order of family members). The game features no combat or death, but has unsettling sudden noises, as well as messages that appear on walls, and objects creepily vanishing and reappearing in odd places.

The notes, newspaper clippings, and letters you find are all interesting, and well written, and never feel like they exist purely to give you clues to the games puzzles. The game only took me about fifteen minutes to complete, but was interesting and would definitely like to play further chapters. It is certainly a unique Indie game. For 240 Microsoft points Decay: Part 1 is a good buy, while 80 Microsoft points would have been better, it's hard to grumble at these cheap prices. The music is good, the graphics almost photo realistic at times, and is well plotted.

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Dragon's Fury (1991) - Pinball Video Game Review (Megadrive)

Well, here in the UK it is Father's Day today. My Dad is off on holiday somewhere in Europe, so am doing a blog post in his honour. Dragon's Fury is a pinball game released for the Megadrive back in 1991. It features a unique gothic style to it's horror based table, and has excellent music, all heavy metal style instrumentals.

When I was younger there used to be a video rental store that my parents would rent me games from. If you liked the game you rented you were able to buy it.  I don't recall if it was my Dad who rented Dragon's Fury for me, or if it was one I chose. At the time I was off school ill, as I was feeling sick, playing Dragon's Fury made me feel ill, so it made a small impression on me. My Dad took the game back to the store, but later that day he revealed to me that he had in fact brought the game for me (perhaps as a get well soon present?). As such the game holds a special place in my heart, and is one game I would never part with. Playing it recently for this review I noticed that it still has passwords written at the back of the manual by my Dad which was a cool discovery.

The game is probably my favourite pinball game. The gothic setting is cool. It has H.R Giger levels of details on the table. There is just the one table, but it is split into three areas. The top area of the table has monks wandering about. The middle of the table features as its centre point a giant female head. By activating switches you can alter the appearance, each time the woman gets more and more monstrous looking until finally the head is a dragon's head, plus an entrance to a bonus round game. The bottom table has a dragon at one side of it, and a skull at the other side. Whenever you lose a ball the skull laughs with a loud rumbling digitised laugh. Skeletons, demons, and insects make up most the moving obstacles on the table which the ball can destroy.

There are six bonus rounds that are accessed by hitting various switches around the table. The bonus tables are single screen and usually task you with destroying a monster. In one you must defeat a six headed dragon, another sees you tasked with destroying six possessed urns, while another one sees you assaulting a castle defended by fire knights. Each stage has its own fantastic music to accompany it. The main table has a truly epic heavy metal track that plays for something silly like eight minutes before it loops. It is one of my favourite pieces of game music ever!

By getting a billion points you get access to the end of game boss. Pretty strange that a pinball game has a end boss in it! I of course could never even get close to a billion points, but via a password my Dad helpfully wrote in the back of the manual I can get to experience the boss, and the ending. It takes place on its own table in a throne room. Epic boss music plays as you aim your ball at a man sitting on a throne while bodyguards deflect your balls from hitting him. After his energy bar has gone down a bit he stands up and rips off his skin revealing a cool lithe dragon. Fantastic!

Annoyingly the game was quite censored from the original Japanese version (named Devil's Crush I believe). Pentagrams have been changed into red stars, and one bonus stage that saw you battling six wooden coffins marked with crucifixes were replaced with one where you instead fought six yellow urns. It's stupid how in those days religious imagery was really not welcome in video games, and pointlessly censored.

Dragon's Fury was actually a sequel in itself, the first game not released on the Megadrive was named Alien Crush. There was a sequel to Dragon's Fury called Dragon's Revenge (that I brought from Game for £25) Unfortunately Dragon's Revenge was pretty terrible, it had naff music, and bizarrely looked really really rough, and ugly despite coming out years after Fury. The game has also been remade and released on the Nintendo Wii Ware channel. I have not played it, but it received average reviews.

I am forever grateful to my parents for getting me into video games. I just wish my father had gotten into them more (as far as I can recall; this, and the point and click game The Dig are the only games he ever played). Anyway, Happy Fathers Day Dad, you are a most excellent person!

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Blacksite (2007) - Sci-fi Videogame Review (X-Box 360)

First of all it has to be said that Blacksite is a very generic shooter that feels gameplay wise at least like something from the last generation of consoles. I love first person shooters, so as soon as this game dropped to a reasonable price (under £5) I snapped it up.

The game starts three years in the past. You play as Pierce, a Soldier on a mission to uncover a biological weapons facility in Iraq. The facility is in an underground bunker, and it seems your orders were not correct as rather than chemical weapons you find what appears to be an alien artifact. Coming under attack from strange bug like creatures you escape the facility, leaving a team mate trapped behind in the process. Present day and you are in Nevada where the Army has been called to put down a uprising in the town of Rachael, that has been sealed off from the outside world. Heading there you start to encounter creatures and events that share a spooky similarity to what happened in Iraq. Someone is withholding information from you it seems.

The game is very generic. It uses the Halo method of only being able to have two weapons at a time. The locations are not too bad, no bland warehouses which is a relief. Instead you get Army bases, government buildings, and several gas stations as well as the obligatory final location of a well defended bunker (similar to F.E.A.R, and Black's last levels) The enemies remind me of Half Life's soldiers; faceless people with no regard for their lives. Later on into the game Gears of War/Lost Planet style giant monsters make an appearance that of course can only be killed by a rocket launcher that is coincidentally in the area. It is the sort of game where if you man a lone gun emplacement enemies will suddenly materialise from nowhere to swarm towards you, just like what the early Medal of Honor games did all the time.

The game is quite glitchy, weapons float in the air, and at one point I even managed to drive a jeep along the sky.  The games load times are really long also which is another annoyance I found. It seems the developers were aware of these issues and it has been suggested the game went straight from Alpha to final release without any of the outstanding issues being fixed.

Talking of weapons; this game hardly has any. There are five weapons in total, no joke! You get the choice of a pistol, machinegun, sniper rifle, shotgun, and rocket launcher. Wow, so much choice. Enemies mainly consist of faceless mutant soldiers, also small creatures that blow up when shot are a plenty, as well as insects that look identical to the ones from Half Life 2. There are also tall cyborgs that look quite cool. Other than these the aforementioned Lost Planet monstrous blobs and tentacles make an appearance, complete with glowing weak spots.

The plot is not really anything to shout about. The first level, and the drive to Rachael is well done as snippets of twists are revealed to you, rather than explained via cutscene. Talking of cutscenes; there are not any, the game uses Call of Duty/Half Life scenes in which characters talk, but your silent protagonist is free to wander around and get bored.

The game features slightly more than just first person shooting. At fixed points you get to man a gun from a vehicle which are amusing diversions. You also get to drive a jeep at several points in the game, notable the route to Rachael, fun enough.

There is multiplayer, and I did actually attempt to play it, but to be honest absolutely no one in the Universe is playing Blacksite's multiplayer anymore (if they even ever did). Blandness is the ultimate killer of this game, there just are no new ideas at all. It looks pretty enough (shame about the totally forgettable musical score), but gets boring far too quickly.

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