Bewitched, Bothered, Bewildered

For me Summer has frankly been one huge disappointment so far. Months of cold wet weather followed by a respite that had me hoping…a week of thirty degree heat, I was all set for some fun.

Then the rain came back and I realised it’s almost August, so instead of remaining disappointed at the total lack of summer I’ve chosen to check out the inevitable stream of games coming this Autumn and Winter to cheer me up. It’s quite a long list this year which is excellent, so here’s my real favourites.

Hellboy: The Science of Evil - August.
While I’ve not seen a whole lot on this one, I’m simply interested in it as a Hellboy tie-in, though I hear it isn’t related to either film.

Lego Batman: The Videogame - September.
While not the Dark Knight game that’s apparently in development (and could have done with being developed in time for the movie, however never mind) this one will be joining my collection of lego videogames (Star Wars and Indiana Jones so far…)

Silent Hill: Homecoming - September.
Just what my Halloween will be needing, along with another good bout with BioShock. The Silent Hill series never fails to leave me with the shakes.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed - September.
We’ve been eagerly awaiting this one for a long time, finally a Star Wars game done well (That is, since Knights of the Old Republic) which will actually make the Force almost as important as the lightsaber wielding.

Dead Space - October.
Joining BioShock and Silent Hill we have a non-franchised game apparently inspired by a cross between Doom and Event Horizon as you play a nameless, faceless survivor who wakes aboard a seemingly abandoned ship in the depths of space.

Ghostbusters - Autumn.
Originally intended as the official second sequal to the popular nineties franchise, I’ve heard rumours now that we may actually be getting a Ghostbusters 3 movie. Until that materialises though we finally get to don proton packs of our own in a game written by and starring Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis, along with Bill Murray and Ernie Hudson.

Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe - Autumn.
The chance to play as Batman taking on Sub Zero? Who could pass it up?

Prince of Persia - Autumn.
My favourite series of games finally makes a long overdue appearance on the next generation consoles. I’ve played Persia since the days of my Pentium 286 and always been a fan of the revolutionary control systems.

Call of Duty 5: World at War - November.
Call of Duty 4 got me through the poorly timed two week Christmas recovery from an operation last year and Call of Duty 5 will see a return to the World War 2 battlefield that I so loved from the first two in the series. This one as pretty much a given.

World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King - Not soon enough.
Needless to say, my most anticipated game of the year. I truly cannot wait to dig into my new Deathknight character as he cuts a swathe through Northrend. The beta information that’s been flooding out has been mouthwatering.

The Electronic Entertainment Expo most famously known as E3 is in full swing over in sunny Los Angeles and the news threads are already coming in thick and fast from the opening ceremonies. One of the first was of course Microsoft and their XBox 360 presentation which covered a huge amount of features I’m really looking forward to, however the most shocking of these features is the news that come Autumn my 360 will be receiving a brand new dashboard interface. Not just a minor software upgrade, the whole user interface and functionality will be altered.

Image from XBox360 Fanboy

While I understand that many people disagree with this theory, I’m one of those that believe the new update looks to be a fairly big rip-off of the Nintendo Wii and Apple iTunes all in one go, the main menu comprising a coverflow style selector while your gamer card now adds a Mii avatar…you all know what I mean. A little cartoony character you can make up to look exactly like you. This will then be used to give a ‘virtual environment’ method of viewing your friends list, with all online friends popping up in the background doing their own little thing. Along with this improvements are apparently to be made to the actual interaction side of things, with chatting and sharing images and music becoming easier, along with an interesting new ‘permanent group’ option to help people who want to play together, stay together. The current 360 system makes it very easy to get separated from your mates when you least want to.

I’m still a little unsure if I do like it, however it seems I’ll just have to let it grow on me. It has enough gimmicks that it should eventually.

When I got my XBox 360 I knew all about the infamous red rings of death, the fatal flaw eating at the edges of the consoles success. Put down to a motherboard fault which Microsoft has seemingly had no end of problems repairing, an XBox after a year and a half/two years will suddenly get all lit up with red lights on it’s infamous power circle and that will be it. The end of your console. Personally I wasn’t too worried, I bought mine just as the Elite came about, the version which claimed to have repaired this problem once and for all and led to all other models of 360 having the same fix. This combined with Microsoft having extended their warranty to three years, their record for getting the consoles shipped to and fro for free repairs (no doubt a PR necessity to appease customers) and the fact that I doubted I would be playing it in any way as hardcore as some gamers do meant I really wasn’t too concerned.

Nevertheless, I was midway through a Call of Duty fight today when my screen froze. Restarting the device confirmed the obvious…three red rings.

My 360 which has quickly become my favourite console and alternative to my PC for gaming has finally come to it’s end. Thankfully I had it registered with Microsoft’s dedicated XBox site and logging in showed my console as ‘Under Warranty’ and a nice button marked ‘Request Repair’. I’m hoping this will go smoothly, I hear it’s simply a case of receiving a shipping paid box in the post, placing your console inside and sending it back, hopefully receiving a ‘refurbished’ model instead.

I hope it’s this easy.

Not wanting to tempt fate at all but I’m rather pleased to be having no issues at all with my copy of Grand Theft Auto IV, touch wood. In fact when I got the game on Tuesday I was unaware of the epic problems now plaguing Playstation 3 owners (as well as a few XBox 360 owners apparently) or of the queues and organisation required to distribute it just nine hours earlier. I arrived at Game early, intent on doing something mindless with my recoup day and queued with just a couple of harangued looking father’s on their way to work, all with orders of exactly what to get on pain of death. Five hundred free Microsoft Points and a bundle of free XBox Live userpics were my reward for pre-ordering so I headed home.

I should warn you now, there will be character related spoilers at points.
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