Games Games Games

I am going to blog about games today.

I can never understand why people bother to play FPS games on consoles. F.E.A.R. was just released on the 360 and why ruin the experience with a bog-standard pad, when you can get the PC version (now cheap) and run it down with a good old WASD+mouse combo. I did give the N64's Goldeneye a go before and it was an okay game (flame me) - but even with its then-revolutionary analog stick, the N64 pad was not cut it for FPS games. It is like trying to play Quake on an IBM laptop with its nipple mouse.

Developers try to compensate with the lack of precision with built-in auto lock, but in my experience it is usually hit and miss. So far nothing I have tried - PS pad, Dreamcast, GameCube etc. has changed my mind on joypads. They work well on third person mode (eg. Resident Evil 4), 2D and racing games. I think I would prefer to keep my PC just a bit longer for that odd shooter - at least until competent shooters arrive on the Wii platform.

I have serious game withdrawal now, having completed Gyakuten Saiban 2, and getting stuck in Seiken Densetsu: Children of Mana. Speaking of DS games, the new NFS: Carbon is much better than the two previous and rather dreadful DS build. Not something I would plok down £30, or even £20 for, but at least it is a vast improvement. I still won't be getting it. I don't 'get' all the drifting culture and I absolutely hate the soundtrack. I guess the last true NFS game I truly enjoyed was NFS: Porsche Unleased before they started concentrating on all the Underground crap.

I was also down at HMV Haymarket the other day. They have serious issues when it comes to ripping people off. An example would be £30 they were asking for Brain Training. Other stores, and indeed other HMVs are selling them for the recommended £20 (which is still a rip-off when you can import it for less).