GTA IV Achievements Leaked

Less than a month to go before GTA IV (Grand Theft Auto 4) makes it apperances on shelves worldwide and yet the Xbox 360 achievements for the game have been leaked early.

The achievements were found by the team at xbox360achivements.org and so far seems to be a complete list, so if you like achievements here is your chance to take a quick peek at them - but be warned at lot of work is involved in get 1000 gamerpoints on this game.

At this point in time the achievement list isn't on their webiste, however IGN did post it on their website (related to this article) - so for a more "in-depth" read about it - check it out on their website here.

Some of the achievements do seem kind of fun.

N-Gage 2.0 To Go Live Soon!

Over the past few months N81 Users have been able to take part in the N-GAGE FIRST ACSESS Beta Program, which allows you to try out the FULL N-GAGE Program and its games on your N81.

Well after several months the beta peroid has ended, and not only that the forums have been deactivated, the reason for this is because Nokia are preparing to release the final N-Gage Application for N-Series Phones.

No Release date (or week or even month) have been announced yet, however Ikona announced on the N-Gage Blog that they are preparing to go live with the new N-Gage application and alot of features had been disabled until its release, which are:

1. Login, registration, and reserving a new N-Gage Player Name will be inactive during this time. Note that if you are currently logged into the Forums, you will be able to post for as long as your session lasts.

2. We are no longer supporting the pre-release version of the N-Gage application.

3. You can continue to play your games and game trials using the pre-release version of the N-Gage application. However we strongly encourage you to upgrade to the full release version of the N-Gage application and games once it becomes available. Don’t miss out on the fresh start!

4. The Player Name and password you created for First Access will not be valid for full rollout, unless they were the same as your existing Player Name and password on the Arena forums.
5. Game licenses you purchased during First Access will carry over into the commercial launch, but you will need to install the new version of the N-Gage application and re-install the games.

6. Saved games, Point Pickups, and N-Gage Points accrued will be reset, to give everyone a fresh start.

So after a 5 month delay (so far) its time to go mobile gaming very soon and i am looking forward to it.

Manhunt 2 To Be Released In The Uk!

After what seems like years (which apparently it is) Rockstar's Manhunt 2 will finally be available for sale in the UK, however it will cary the 18 Rated Certificate and not only that its the edited version of the game.

The BBFC (British Board Of Film Classification) first rejected Manhunt 2 back in june 2007 (original version) and then earlier in the year the edited version was rejected, a few months later they removed a few more features and went to court to appeal for the game to be released and they won.

So now Manhunt 2 will be released in the UK, but how much of the gore and violence has been removed from the game? no idea - but im still considering importing the USA Version.

The Full article can be seen on the bbc news website here.

Manhunt 2 will be released onto the Nintendo Wii and PS2, however no release dates have been announced yet.

Review: House Of The Dead 2 & 3 Return

As Most of my friends (both online and offline) are aware i am an arcade junkie, i love goin to the Arcades (either on holiday or at a cinema) and spending countless hours on arcade machines, which mostly revolve around Time Crisis - but i do like the odd House Of The Dead Game. So it came as no surprise when House Of The Dead 2 & 3 was announced for the Wii that i would end up Importing it (exactly same thing happened when i Time Crisis 4 was released in the USA).

The House Of The Dead 2 & 3 Return has once again sparked interest into my Nintendo Wii - as the only other title i have been playing was Super Mario Galaxy and with Thanks to Datel's Freeloader i can now enjoy alot more games as now im not restricted to PAL branded games (Yes my copy of HOTD is an USA Version and im using Freeloader to play it).

On First impressions The HOTD Return is a nice package, 2 Great Arcade games, 1 Decent Console and 1 reasonable price and not only that the graphics are the same as the original console ports that were on the Dreamcast and Xbox. Unlike Ghost Squad which seemed watered down in my opinion, however the good points stop here, as everything in this package is exactly the same as the Dreamcast and Xbox Version except you use a wii-mote instead of a lightgun.

The only additional thing thats in this game is the main menu as your welcomed with a menu asking you to choose which game you want to play, House Of The Dead 2 or House Of The Dead 3 - their is some comical value here as once you select which game to start you here a zombie groan, but once you choose which game to play it boots up the same menu layout as the Dreamcast and Xbox versions. The only other noticeable difference is "Tutorial Videos" but these arent much good as it only tells you the basic's and the obvious.

The only other flaw i noticed while playing the game was the reload time in The House Of The Dead 3 - for some reason it felt insanely slow , espically for a fast-paced shooting game. As you would expect the B button on your wii-mote is the trigger and to reload you just point the wii-mote outside of the screen to automatically reload - which is simple - but this can be troublesome during a boss-fight (espically the final bosses such as the emporer), as they usually fly upwards and out of the screen and then hit you really fast - but as your moving your wii-mote up - it will creep outside of the screen and start the reload session - then suddenly you get hit. I didin't find it to be a problem on House Of The Dead 2, but it happened alot on House Of The Dead 3 and got annoying, same with reloading, HOTD2 has FAST reloading sequences, but HOTD3 takes a good 3 seconds for you to reload - which is crucial on the final boss fight.

My Final Thoughts on this game are - its a great package, if you find it at a reasonable price, as the ERP (Estimated Retail Price) is £34.99 EOP - Estimated Online Price) is £29.99, mine cost £34.99 including freeloader and next day delivery (which is pritty reasonable), however if you already have the older versions on dreamcast and xbox then don't rush out to buy it as their isn't anything new - but saying that it is a joy not having to put the gun away. The House Of The Dead 2 & 3 Return is released in the UK on 28th March 2008.

Review: Freeloader For Nintendo Wii

When the Nintendo Gamecube was in its PEAK gaming session, Datel released a nifty little cd called "Freeloader", this disc allowed you to play any kind of gamecube game (apart from back-ups) on your Gamecube without mod-chipping it.

Well When the Nintendo Wii was released Datel announced that a "Freeloader" for the Wii would be released, however it never appeared. A Year later and Freeloader For The Wii has arrived and mine (including an American Version Of House Of The Dead 2&3 Return) arrived through the post this mourning, so lets get this party started.

Freeloader for the Nintendo Wii comes in 3 different versions (depending on your region), which are EUROPE , USA and JAPAN Versions, so if you want to play UK / USA Games on your japanese console you need to buy the Japan Version (so in my case i had to get the EUROPE Version to let me play Japanese and American Games).

As you have probably guessed all you have to do is a disc swap, however no modification to the console is requried, so your warranty isn't voided and you don't risk any chance of damaging the inside of your Wii, plus its a cheaper option - BUT saying that it can get abit dull if you want to play alot of games in a short space of time, as once you exit the game you have to re-insert the freeloader disc back into the console and then swap back again with the game of your choice, but it is fast and simple.

A Warning Is included with Freeloader saying that at the time of release it does work with ALL Wii Firmwares, however newer firmware releases might not make the freeloader disc work, ive read somewhere that if this happens DATEL will release a newer version and instantly replace it with your old freeloader disc.

Using Freeloader is rather simple, all you have to do is follow these steps:

1) Turn on Console

2) Insert Freeloader Disc

3) Freeloader Will automatically load up and multiple colour bars will be displayed on screen, (looks like someone is wiping the screen from right to left) - let it does this twice and the drive will stop.

4) Remove freeloader and insert your imported game

5) Continue as normal

The Video below, is a short video i made demonstrating how freeloader works and it was tested using "The House Of The Dead 2&3 Return" which is a new release in the USA, so as you can see it is working the Wii's Latest Firmware.



Freeloader is available now and should cost around £10 / $20, however at the minute you can only order it online (Datel's Website and eBay) - but this is an item you should own, espically if your an anime fan or what to get the latest releases months before the UK release date.

HD-DVD Players Re-classed as DVD Up-scalers

Here's An Interesting FACT, a couple of Weeks ago Toshiba stated in a press-release that Toshiba will no longer support the HD-DVD format, so in general the HD-DVD vs Blu-Ray war is now at an end and Blu-Ray Won.

Well Electrical Retails such as Currys and Comet (in the UK) and possibly even Wall-mart (In The USA) had to do something to get rid of the "dead-technology".

Even though movie companines (at the moment) are still releasing HD-DVD films, it won't be long before everything is Blu-Ray

So to make sure these electrial retailers, and maybe even more, sell the HD-DVD Players fast they lowered the price down on most units to £100 ($200 USD) (which is fair enough), however they also re-classed the units as "The Ultimate DVD Upscaler".

In Other words that Toshiba DVD Upscaler you recently bought for £100 could (if looked closely) be a HD-DVD Player, so its worth double-checking, as i guess most HD-DVD Titles will go down in price, most HD-DVD Titles in gamestation are currently under £20 (New) or £12 (pre-owned) and even eBay will likely be filled up of people selling HD-DVDs at stupid prices.

Review: Sega Superstar Tennis on PS2

Yet Another lazy sunday mourning, and for once im not at work (YES People i do have a real job! - but i wish this blog was my real job). Anyway this mourning i got to try out SEGA's latest multi-format game, which is "SEGA Superstar Tennis".

Superstar Tennis is similar to sega's wounderful "Virtua Tennis 3", thats because it uses the Virtua Tennis graphics and physic's engine and even on the PS2 the graphics were smooth and soft like on a 360 game. When this game is released (which is supposed to be mid next-week) it will be released on PS2, PS3, 360 and Wii - a DS release has also been rumoured.

upon starting the game you have a few options to choose from, which include "Superstar", "Match", "Tournament" and "Multiplayer". Superstar is where you play a series of mini-games in a few of the characters different worlds/ courts - such as Sonic The Hedgehog, Jet Set Radio & Channel 5, a few only contain mini games (such as the house of the dead's curien mansion), others include tournaments and single matches, more are unlocked as you progress through the game. The Superstar mode can be seen as the "story mode" as this is where you will unlock the extra characters.

"Match" is where you can choose to play a single / doubles match with the CPU, Tournament mode is where you can create a single / doubles tournament with the CPU. "Multiplayer" is the same as Match and tournament modes, where your partner can play with you or against you, Not only that you and your partner can play the mini-games (which are unlocked when playing through superstar mode).

The controls is what you would expect from a tennis game, use the analog stick (or d-pad) to move your character and press the X (or A Button) to swing your bat (hold down to strike it harder), if your using the wii-mote just swing the wii-mote like you would in Wii-Sports Tennis, Simple, no complaints there, however movement is the only thing i do not like about this game. It is easy enough to move, however the characters run un-realisticly fast and can not stretch for the ball (like in virtua tennis 3), but after a few matches you do get used to it.

Gameplay is fun and easy, espically when using tails as when he hits the ball, the ball swings to the left or right-hand side (depending on which way you point the analog stick), so its always an easy victory - even hitting a 5 Star Rated shot at 150mph gives you an instant win (did in my case). This is definately a game for the casual and more relaxed gamer (or perfect for a lazy sunday).

The Characters, the complete character list is hard to share, as i do not know who is in the game, however characters from Sonic The Hedgehog (Sonic, Tails, Amy (unlockable), Dr. Eggman (Unlockable)), Space Channel 5 (Ulala), Super Monkey Ball (Appi), Jet Set Radio, Samba De Amigo and Nights are all playable, but there is at least 20 Characters to choose from and each have their own special attacks, such as Sonic Turning into Super Sonic (Dragonball Z Style).

Soundtrack is another cool thing about this game, the soundtrack mainly consists of older games, for example when playing on sonic the hedgehog's court you get treated to Sonic Adventure (Dreamcast) Games and the more challenges you beat the different soundtrack you unlock for that world. Its a brand new game but features re-mastered sound from older games and its been done in 5.1 Surround Sound, so it would sound pritty interesting playing it through a home cinema kit.

As mentioned before the graphics are crisp and sharp (even on the PS2, which is the version i played), so the 360 and PS3 versions should look fantastic.

SEGA have done a great job of turning Virtua Tennis into an enjoyable, hilarious family tennis game, that at times can be frustrating ( espically the harder mini-games), but is enjoyable over all, if only the latest sonic games could be this good. SEGA Superstars Tennis has got a UK release date of 20th March 2008 and will retail for around £40 (Tad expensive in my opinion, espically for a virtua tennis spin-off).

Metal Gear Solid 4 Maybe Delayed Yet Again!

Hideo Kojima (creator of the Metal Gear Series) announced yesterday that MGS4 for the PS3 maybe delayed yet again, however this time it aint due to bugs in the game or budget.

The Reason why the game may be delayed again is that the final version of the game is bigger than a single Dual-layer blu-ray disc.

Blu-ray's (Single Sided) are 25GB, where the Dual-layer (double sided) are 50GB and Hideo's latest MGS4 is apparently alot larger than 50GB, so instead of using more budget and design options to make the game seperate onto two blu-ray disc's he has decided to remove certain features of the game to make it fit onto a single dual-layered blu-ray disc.

So if that is the case, then people wanting MGS4 on the 360 might be waiting along time, as xbox 360 games run on single-layer or (mostly) dual-layer dvds (which is 8GB), so MGS4 would take up 7 Dual Layer DVDs, thats 3 more dvd's than what lost odyssey uses.