Metal Gear Solid 4 - The Database Now On UK PSN!

A Week and a half ago the USA PSN Store got a Free Download called the "Metal Gear Solid 4 Database" - its a 78mb download and a sperate icon on your Cross Media Bar which lets you revist the entire metal gear saga (ranging from the MSX to the PS3).

It doesn't let you play any games or show you any videos, but what it does show you is artistic pictures and detailed descriptions on what has been happening on the metal gear universe from begining to end.

It is a very good download but be prepared for a long read/ browse as their is ALOT of information and what is even better is that Hideo Kojima has locked the MGS4 Content, so in order to understand the full picture you must have completed MGS4 and still have the gamesave on your PS3.

I tried the USA Version of MGS4: Database however it does not work with the gamesave from a PAL (European version) of the game, luckily though MGS4 Database is now available on the European (UK) severs and works fine - so now i can fully understand the metal gear saga.

If your a fan of Metal Gear, or just cant remember whats happening then its worth a download and will literally tell you everything you need to know, timelines and other events are also included showing you where each game fits in the series.

The Metal Gear Solid 4 Database Add-on is a FREE Download and is now available on all PSN Stores (including the Japanese one).

Arcade Fun In Mablethorpe - Time Crisis Style!

During the weekend i was having a weekend break over in mablethorpe (in the caravan and not some fancy hotel) and like a big gaming & arcade fanatic that i am i had to see what machines they had (and to see if they had any time crisis machines for me to complete).

Well the Golden Sands (Haven Campsite) did have Time Crisis 4 and Time Crisis 3 - both were in very good condition (except player 1 side of TC3 was damaged and did not work very well (didnt get my money back either).

Inside mablethorpe itself their were 5 main arcades, 1 small arcade (mainly slot machines) 1 cafe with an amusements/play area add on, a pub (with an amusements add-on) and 2 tiny amusements inside the fun fair intself - but out of the 5 main arcades i found 4 Time Crisis machines and what is amusing that it was actually 1,2,3 and 4 - so i decided to play them in order (endurance style).

i say endurance as it would take you (well me) around 1 hour 30 minutes to complete the games but that excludes walking distance, changing notes into coins and watching the cut-scenes so your talking around 2 hrs, or 3 hr 15 mins (tops) if you wanted to play both sides of the game (P1 and P2 - which is what i did apart from TC3 in Empire as it was broke).

Each game cost £1 per credit (apart from the original time crisis which was 4 credits for £1) and then i managed to complete each side/game with just 1 £1 coin, so in general i came 1st (with a higher score than others) with less time and got a little star next to my name (saying i had done it in 1 credit).

So Here are the pictures:

Mablethorpe:

Time Crisis - Amusement In Mablethorpe

**No Picture/s For Time Crisis 2**

Time Crisis 3 - Side 2 - Empire Amusements

Time Crisis 4 - Side 1 - Mirage Amusements

Time Crisis 4 - Side 2 - Mirage Amusements

Haven (Golden Sands) Campsite:

Time Crisis 4 - Picture 1

Time Crisis 4 - Picture 2

I also had a quick go on Konami's Lethal Enforcer 3 (which hasnt had as much publicity as Time Crisis or House Of The Dead franchises) and to be honest it wasn't very good either.

The game itself didn't have much storyline (but the cabinet was japanese, with english subtitles) and the way the game was played out was a little strange as their were 6 / 7 levels to choose from (lethal enforcer 3 being blacked out) and each level was a different type of service such as Army, FBI, Police etc and you had to beat your opponent to the end of the level (as well as beating the boss, but even if you dont you dont loos a life).

You Do this by keeping your gun on the screen (your character runs) and you have to shoot the bad guys, reload by pointing your gun out of the screen (which makes you hide behind a shield), point back onto the screen to run again (while shooting at the bad guys), Getting hit by a bad guy means you loose one life.

Apart from this i didnt have a clue what i was meant to be doin (espically on the boss) - the idea was rather interesting but wasn't anything exciting - it was also my first time playing it and i got to stage 3 so im either good or it just sucks, i'll stick to time crisis for now - but i still need to try out Virtua Cop 3.

Midnight Pool Now Available on N-Gage!

A Week later than originally planned and Midnight Pool has finally arrived on the N-Gage, and yet again its one of Gamelofts Ports.

Midnight Pool was originally released by Gameloft for majoirty of symbian phones, but now the game has been re-packaged with the N-Gage Logo, somtimes this isn't always a bad thing - but it is when they dont make any alterations to the game.

Upon first impressions it is very similar to the symbian version of Midnight Pool released earlier in the year, except that it costs a little bit more and has an online function (not exactly sure what it is though as i havent bought the full game). The Trial only comes with a time limit of 1minute 30 seconds, which is a 1 minute improvement over the previous block breaker, which only gave you 30 seconds to try the game out. ~

The game does have some nice basic 3D Graphics, is easy to play and can be rather enjoyable if you like playing pool, people in the N-Gage Arena forums mentioned something regarding laggy framerate, but i did not see any of this and to me its another nice addition to the N-Gage collection, however we could have had better.

Midnigt Pool is now available to buy from the n-gage application (weblink will be updated within next few days on the N-Gage Website) and costs £8 (FULL ACCESS), £4.50

(7 Day Trial) or £1.50 (1 Day Trial).

Still no updates on when the other n-gage games are expected to be released.

N-Gage Gameplay & N-Gage Application Videos

Before i made the "N-Gage 2.0 The Games So Far Montage Video" i had to get the footage, and this was done by connecting my N95 to my DVD Recorder (via the A/V Cables (Red, White, Yellow) then i would just record what i wanted, but instead of recording small chunks (of a minute) i recorded up to 6 minutes of each game (and gameplay), so i decided to post these up on youtube.

The reason i posted up all the gameplay videos i recorded is to give non-ngage users and other gamers a glance at what the N-Gage can actually do - however take into consideration that these are just the first few titles that have been released in 3D and better 3D Games such as the ONE are still in development.

Their is sound on each video, but its very low so you might have to turn up the volume, also loading times and movement are exactly the same as they would be on your ngage device (same speed etc). So here come the videos:

The Games:

Asphalt 3: Street Rules

Creatures Of The Deep

Mile High Pinball

Snakes Subsonic

System Rush Evolution

The Sims 2: Pets

The N-Gage Application

Feel free to leave comments on any of the videos (or any other videos on my youtube channel), also the reason for Moodi185 (instead of Emo185) on the n-gage application is that i use my N81 8GB for actually gaming, the N95 is a spare phone.

New N-Gage Games Appear & N-Gage Youtube Channel

The N-Gage team have set up an official youtube channel featuring clips, previews, trailers and behind the scenes footage on all the n-gage games, and as soon as a new trailer is released it will be published onto the youtube channel

You can check out the N-Gage youtube channel here.

Not only that on the N-Gage Websites Showroom 2 new games have appeared, at the moment these are not available for purchase (as they havent been released yet) - but at least it shows that they are still updating the website, the new games are as follows:

Cafe Sudoku

Cafe Solitaire

also rather old news but the Dirk Dagger webpage is also available.

Looks like the N-Gage is heading down the same road as DS, which is to satisfy all gamers, casual and dedicated - which is a good thing to do - as long as they pull it off correctly.

N-Gage 2.0 - The Games Montage Video

The Ball is now starting to roll on the N-Gage scene, more users are appearing every-day and more problems are arising either from hackers or general users that dont know how to use the service, but thats life.

This is where the n-gage will make its mark in gaming history, it started out with a few java ports, but new the triple A titles are finally starting to appear such as Snakes, Mile High Pinball And System Rush and with other exlusives on the way and additional content its only going to get better.

To Show off what the n-gage application (and the best games so far) can do i have made a short montage video, featuring actual in-game footage of the application and a few N-Gage games, you can check it out below:



I will also be uploading clips (of around 3 minutes) of, each game onto yotube throughout the week, so if you havent got an n-gage compatible device you can still see what all the fuss is about.

The Sims 2: Pets Now Available On N-Gage!

After Countless add-ons and spin-off titles for the PC, GBA, DS, PS2, Xbox and Gamecube - The Sims now arrives onto the N-Gage Platform, a little later than expected but good things usually come to thoose who wait.

Unlike the majority of other sims games where you create a house and drag a family in, (aswell as looking after them), The Sims 2: Pets is where you choose a dog (from a variety of different breeds) and look after them - in reality its a very basic, but mobile, version of nintendogs.

The game itself is 2mb (one of the smallest n-gage games), but it does have some nice graphics, espically on the pet, but the surrounding enviroment is rather good aswell. The game is very basic however it will appeal to alot of people, young and old - at first i wasn't too bothered with the game but after a quick play it brings a smile to your face and is rather enjoyable.

The game (full version) costs £8 (rather steep price in my opinion - but then again its EA), a 7 Day pass costs £4 and a day trial costs £1.50.

For more information (aswell as screenshots) for The Sims 2: Pets, click here. The Game is now available for download from the N-Gage Application on your phone, Enjoy!

Interesting Poster From Womworld Team Members

This mourning i recieved this interesting poster from the N-Series Womworld website team members (click here to vist thier site).

To put it blunt is 3 guys and 3 girls standing with T-Shirts each wearing a letter from my username (and spelling out my username which is of course Emo185) and then in the bottem right hand corner (as you can just see in the picture) their is the N-Gage logo.

Not exactly sure who made it (was it Womworld, or N-Gage Arena that made it?) and im not exactly sure why i got it - but what i do know is that i like (kinda makes me feel special) - so thanks for the poster.

Metal Gear Solid 4 - Finally Out Worldwide!!

Yesterday saw the release of the 2nd biggest release this year, and that is Metal Gear Solid 4, and not only was it released in the UK yesterday it was released worldwide - which in gaming terms it very special and hard to do.

In MGS4 (Metal Gear Solid 4) you take control of solid snake (known as old snake in MGS4) - 5 years have past since the end of Metal Gear Solid 2 and Liquid Ocelot has finally been found in the middle east - its now your turn to put a stop to him before he owns the biggest army in the world.

Cinematic Movies, Extreme High definition visuals, new rules, new combat and great voice acting make this game absolutly amazing! - What makes it better is that its a 1080p game and has full support for DUALSHOCK 3, it does not list these on the back of the box - but they do, not only that the game is in FULL 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround Sound for a perfect cinematic experience.

Like i said above, the best way to enjoy MGS4 is with a big TV, a good 5.1 surround sound kit and a dualshock 3 - after that you then know you have stumbled across gaming history, god bless hideo!

This may be the final chapter of snake, but from what ive played and the trailers ive seen - he is going to go out with a bang!

Metal Gear Solid 4 is out now and retails for £39.99 and is a must-buy for PS3 Owners.

The Cheapest Way To Get The Full Rock Band Experience!

Fancy rocking like a rockstar but a little bit stretched for cash? if yes then heres a good tip for you rockers out their.

Rock Band was released in the UK o Xbox 360 on 23rd May and came with a huge price tag of £150 (cheapest), however you can easily play the full rock band experience for as little as £100, and heres how.

Guitar:

The Guitar, in my opinon its the main feature of Rock Band, and most easiest to play, if you already own the explorer Guitar (from guitar hero 2) or the Les Paul Guitar (from guitar hero 3) then you can easily use these as your guitars on Rock Band - nothing has to be changed in settings just plug em in and your read to go! The Les Paul guitar whammy bar is alot better than the frender's guitar from rock band

Drum Kit:

At the moment the only way youd be able to play rock band (drum part) is with the official rock band drum kit, these can be bought seperately for around £50 or £60 , however if your lucky you can probably get one shipped over from USA for £45 - all accessories are universal so they would work on any xbox 360 console.

Microphone:

Now the microphone can only be bought in the "band in a box" package, HOWEVER if you already have a Wired Xbox live headset (usually comes pre-bundled with your Pro or Elite consoles) you can connect this to your controller and it will recignise it as a working singable microphone - i tested it and it works - you dont get the rocker feel, but when your trying to play guitar and sing at same time it does come in handy (if you want to sing and play guitar or drum at same time you must put microhpone into player 2 socket (into player 2's controller).

After all this the only thing to get is the game and this costs around £40 and it starting to come down sligthly in price, so have fun you hard rocking amigo's! because i know i will be.

Dragonball Z: Burst Limt - My Impressions

Majority of people know that i am a BIG Anime Fan (i don't do cosplay) - so when i heard a new DBZ Game was coming out on HD Consoles (would say Next-gen but two DBZ titles are already out on the Wii). I could'nt wait to get my hands on it.

Well last Friday Dragonball Z:Burst Limit arrived on the Playsation 3 and Xbox 360 in 720p HD resolution, i didnt get my copy till saturday (came through post) and after a few hours playing the game it is definately hit and miss features.

The game was developed by DIMPS, the same people who did the original Budokai series on the PS2 and Shin Budokai on the PSP, this sparked alot of interest, as DIMPS made the Best DBZ Game to date, budokai 3, and they have done a good job with this one aswell - but a few things are missing, so here are the pros & cons of the game.

The Pros:

* High Definition Visuals
* Drama Cut-scenes (in the fight itself)
* Online Battles
* Original Funimation Voice-cast

The Cons:

* Cut-scenes (in between fights) dont match up properly so their is no flow of the story
* Only goes up to end of cell game saga
* not many characters
* non-import fights (such as tien vs imperfect cell) are included

If you a DBZ or Fighting fan you should enjoy the game, i would say i loved this game but i only enjoyed it. Burst Limit only goes up to the cell games saga (same as the original budokai game), so expect Burst Limit 2 to be on the shelf next year, but alot more could have been done to make this game better, non-important fights such as Tien Vs Imperfect Cell could have been removed and the 10 bonus levels for Broli & Bardock could have been the Buu Sagas (import fights) and the only other thing that would make this game better would a better storytelling with proper cutscnes instead of a stage selection menu, so it would be cutscene, stage select, cutscene, fight,cutscene, results, cutscene, stage select - yes it would be time consuming but the option to skip would make it alot better.

So Burst limit is done and dusted, so i expect to see Burst Limit 2 sometime next year, this time it should feature all of the Z Sagas and (as usual) a few extra characters, the improved cutscenes and storytelling i mentioned should also be included.

Burst Limit is now available in the UK, Japan And USA (each were released within a week of each other) and retails for £39.99, but if i were you i would wait till the price drops before buying it.

Upcoming N-Gage Game Release Dates

Ikona, one of the moderators of the N-Gage Arena Forums and the major poster for the N-Gage Blog has posted up some interesting information regarding the latest batch of n-gage games.

The information he has posted up is the new release schedule for N-Gage games, the list as is follows:

Week of June 8:

* The Sims 2 Pets
* Pro Series Golf


Week of June 15:

* Bounce Boing Voyage
* Midnight Pool 3D
* Dogz

So from next monday we should start to see some more n-gage games in the showroom. As always these release weeks (or dates) are only estimated and can change at any time.

Also out of all the games in the showroom (excluding games in development like star wars) their is only 3 titles left - Worms World Party, One and Brothers In Arms - im hoping that more titles will be revealed (titles that have been kept secret) over the next few months.

Star Points To Expire on Nintendo's Website

Ive never been a big fan on browsing the nintendo website (or even xbox / playstaion websites), the only time i do visit the site is to add star points to my account.

Star points is nintendo's reward scheme for thanking you "the customer" for buying their products, only 1st party nintendo titles (such as mario kart, super bros brawl, pikmin) would include these star points and you would usually get 250 points for registerring a game or 500 - 1000 points for registerring a console.

You can then use these star points to purchase wallpaper, mobile wallpapers, ringtones, screensaves and other digitally downloaded items, recently they added toys, clothes and accessories to the list - but these are usually sold out. You can now even buy Wii Point Cards to buy items from the wii shopping channel - however these are usually sold out aswell.

Well in a recent e-mail from nintendo star points will now have expiration dates (as you can see in the picture) which means if you don't spend your points you will loose them forever!!!

So get spending them quick, as majority of users points will expire at the end of june, and if everything is sold out that you want keep checking back - espically for Wii Point cards, as they are updated quite often.

Dualshock 3 - My Thoughts & Impressions

Dualshock, Sony's "vibrating function" is finally back after a long time, this is the feature that will start the console wars rolling again, as many people deemed PS3 unworthy because of its lack of rumble and because the Sixaxis pad felt cheap.

Dualshock 3 got released late last year in japan and it has recently been released over in the USA, you can also get a varity of colours, such as Cream White, Satin Silver and the traditional black, as you can see mine is black (to match my black 60 GB PS3) and this Dualshock 3 came over from the USA, costing me just as little as £34.95, which in retropsect is slightly cheaper than what sixaxis used to cost.

Dualshock 3 controllers are exactly the same as the previous dualshock controllers, except dualshock 3 also contains SIXAXIS and Bluetooth Wireless, the dualshock 3 pad also charges up the same way as the sixaxis pad, so its just exactly the same just more stronger, a little bit heavier and rumble.

So far the rumble features have been confirmed to work on HAZE, GTA4 and GT5:Progloue, Metal Gear Solid 4 has also been expected to be rumble compatible aswell. The rumble on GT5 and GTA4 were quite good, in GTA4 if you crashed your car, or blew up something (or any other loud bangs) the controller would rumble, same with GT5 if you drove onto the crass or the red and white lines the controller would rumble. Haze's rumble features were sligthly disappointing, as it would only rumble when you got shot and nothing more, still the rumble kickback is nice but it isn't as strong as what it is on the 360 pads. The feel of the pad is alot better though, the additional weight makes it feel like a proper pad again.

Dualshock 3 is expected to be released in the UK, sometime in september, however Sony have released Sixaxis TWIN-Packs, two sixaxis pads for £39.99, a bargin considering 1 pad was £34.99 last month, but if you want the true experience then buy a dualshock 3 pad.