New Shows Up!
Episode 3 of Save Water, Drink Beer is up! A three week break but back good as ever hopefully!
Also episode 4 of The App Review Show is online. I take a look at the first app I have paid for and also the Brodit ProClip all at once!
In other news I have gone a bit mad with the 'Record From Webcam' button on YouTube and started doing some more regular micro vlogs to fill space. Also in a total TomRanson.com take over I am also recording an audio podcast. You can find that on iTunes if you search TomRanson in the iTunes store. The podcast (hopefully) will turn into a bit of a weekly thing with all the members of 53 Whitstable Road! We will see.
App Review Show – Episode 3
The third episode of 'The App Review Show' is online now. You can find it on the shows page by clicking the 'TomRanson.com Shows' button at the top of this page!
I am doing quite well at getting out a show a week, this week I am looking at dPod and Locale. Both free apps from the Markteplace.
App Review Show – Episode 2
Episode 2 of the series is up for your viewing pleasure. Today I take a look at 'Places Directory', a free application showing you the way to local places based on what category you select.
Click on through to the TomRanson.com Shows page to watch it.
Harmonix + RedOctane = Happiness
Ok, so I am totally back into these band simulator games and it's all thanks to Harmonix with a little help from RedOctane. I got bored very quickly of Guitar Hero World Tour, the game just wasn't that fun to play. Sure you get to play some 'great' songs and use some really good peripherals but it still isn't fun.
The other day I got a copy of Rock Band (I know Rock Band 2 is out but I see this more of an extension of my music library that I can play) and fell in love. The very basic list of music that you can play out of the box already had a good solid set of tracks that I really enjoyed playing! I decided to hit up the Xbox Live Marketplace to see what the state of play was on DLC...600 items!? Wow, I was sure I would find some songs that I would really enjoy. 2000 MS points later and I have a quality track list.
The experience is made better by the fact that I have the current crop of peripherals for Guitar Hero from RedOctane, who most defiantly create a better guitar and drum set than Harmonix do for Rock Band. Guitar Hero and Guitar Hero II were developed by Harmoix and published by RedOctane, but since the split in 2006 the Guitar Hero gameplay has gone down hill and the Rock Band instruments have never been good. I feel that my mix of Harmonix gameplay and RedOctane hardware is a great mix and I am back enjoying this genre of games. I recommend it to all!
Race Pro…the review
So I have had a few days with this game now and I am very impressed. However it does fall short in some respects.
The game itself is very easy to get into which makes it less daunting for new players. I myself am a veteran of GTR and Race07 on the PC so went straight for the hardest difficulty. I was sat on the start line waiting for the lights to go green holding the throttle in like some sort of hooligan. I was hoping that I could spin the wheels up and have a bad start, but I was obviously expecting too much. My car shot off the line and within 100 meters i had gone from 4th to 1st, "Yeah, that's realistic" I thought. So after that miracle start I expected the rest of the field to hunt me down, I was, after all, on the highest difficulty, and here lies the next problem. After a two lap race in a Caterham I was 8 seconds ahead of second place...I wasn't that good. I missed the apex in places and came out of corners in the wrong gear (I couldn't be bothered with manual) so I wasn't "fast" by my standards. Continuing my search for realism I got the entry speed for a chicane completely wrong and went flying towards a menacing looking tyre...nothing. The bodywork bent a little bit but the car continued to reach its high speeds at the same pace and it tracked straight and true. I wasn't expecting the unforgiving levels of damage offered by the brilliant Richard Burns Rally, but expected a little more punishment for having a high velocity confrontation with a solid wall.
However...
I have now started to progress a little more through the ranks in my virtual career and unlock the cars that have a grip to power ratio a little bit closer to silly. While I am still confusingly faster than the AI these cars are a little more prone to disagreeing with me on the matter of what direction we should be facing. This is the challenge that I wanted to get from this level of difficulty, it's much more of a challenge to learn the track and the characteristics of the particular car. Although this hasn't totally saved this game, it has given me a reason to continue playing.
To conclude, I still feel this is a good game but it wasn't what I wanted from it. It feels much more like "The Early Learning Center's My First Race Sim" rather than the realistic GT race Sim that I have grown to love from the PC. They have obviously bought the learning curve right down but when you play it on the high levels, it's still far to easy even to me, and I know there are lots of people way better at these games than I am. If your looking for a racing sim game on the 360 that's going to ease you into the genre then Race Pro gets a big thumbs up from me. Although if you actually want to properly get into the genre the answer still has to be buy a PC, G25 racing wheel and GTR2, Race 07 or LFS...
Saints Row 2 Mini Review
Well, since I last wrote to you guys I have put in some good hours on Saints Row 2.
My game time stands at 8 hours now I think? I have one word for it, brilliant! It is everything that GTA should have been. I don't want to be driving my cousin around! What the hell is that? He owns a taxi company and can't drive himself to these places? Whatever.
When I buy a sandbox game in which you can buy rocket launchers, hijack cars and fly around in things I want mayhem! Not a very structured, realistic view on things. Saints Row 2 takes mayhem by the horns and draws willys all over it, it's crazy.
For starters there is the character creation section. At the beginning you can customise the look of you character in so many ways. You can really sculpt the character to look like you or just piss with all the slidey bars and make him look like a total reject! Oh and you can now also be a woman, so hours of fun can be had making a big breasted character and wondering the streets in just a bra and panties.
The driving is, as it used to be, a bit crap. The cars in GTA are really fun because they seem to respond slightly like a real vehicle might, Saints Row is almost the opposite. It's very arcadey in this respect, but it can be exploited. For example I often found myself escaping gangs or police through the city and needed something maneuverable, so going for the most maneuverable car in the game gives you something with stupid levels of agility, although thinking about it, that just makes the game more hilarious. You can also customise the cars in a local garage. I spent this time making it look as "Tokyo Drift" as i possibly could and then painting it metallic purple so that I could be representin', or something like that. Oh yeah, there are also a good few planes to be driven...take that GTA!
Weapons and combat are of course hilarious. The little weapons are all easy to use and do a fair bit of damage, so much so that 99% of the time all you need are dual pistols but whatever. There are also the obvious power weapons such as a rocket launcher and assault rifle. My favorite though is the set of melee weapons. Nothing is more satisfying than smacking someone in the face with a baseball bat, that was untill I found the tazer...good times.
The rest of the game is very similar to the older game. Do activites to gain respect, then use the respect to carry out story missions. You can now redecorate your houses though, thats quite cool. You can also buy local businesses and earn a certain amount of money a day from them. It means that the stash of money at your 'crib' gets massive. I went back to my Red Light District loft appartment for a cash boost to fund my next trick ride only to find $8,000!
So all in all, I actually can't fault this game. I am sure I might find one or two things that I wish were different, but I am really struggling to find anything right now. Even the poor handling model of the cars is quite fun!
