Games of 2011 Part 1

Microsoft announced 66 million Xbox 360 sales!

The Xbox 360 has now sold 66 million Xbox 360 units and 18 million kinect units this information was anounced at the ces conference.This is good news in that the Xbox 360 brand is infact getting stronger but it may delay the xbox 720 being released as microsoft won't want to release the 720 if the 360 is still selling very well.It's amaxing how far the Xbox brand has come in two generations now the third will truly be amazing.

E3 2012

e3 is going to be insane

This e3 we will get a lot of information about the wii u and xbox 720 and ps4 is supposed to be at e3 aswell.This will be great as nintendo will have to work even harder to prove to gamers that the wii u is the system they want for the next-gen which will result in a better launch than if nintendo didn't have to work so hard to beat the competition. There should be good games shown off that will be launch titles nintendo is very clever especially in how they have turned the nintendo 3ds around from failing to a success.So they will have learned their lesson and will make sure the wii u launches with triple A launch titles. We will also get confirmed specs but nintendo said that it won't be cheap and the videos of games on their e3 2011 site look amazing so the specs are likely to be impressive.Another thing we will learn more about is the wii u's online which must be strong and from the looks of their efforts so far on the 3ds it should be atleast on par with psn I wouldnt go as far as saying on par with live because live has funding from the subscriptions.I will say I am considering getting a wii u at launch like I did my dsi and 3ds but I will wait to see what nintendo says at e3 and what microsoft and sony have to show off.

PS4 and Xbox 720 to be at e3 rumour

PS4 and Xbox 720 e3 rumor

There is a rumour that the PlayStation 4 and Xbox 720 will be shown of at e3 2012 according to MCV.This has not been confirmed by either Microsoft or Sony.If this is True this will be the most exciting e3 ever as we will have all three of the big three competing in what will be the beginning of the 8th generation console war. I think that new consoles should be out by the end of the year as we have been gaming for years on the same tech and sequels of many games are just the same game with slightly better graphics and a few new features.This will change and we will see games with meaningful upgrades such as considerably improved graphics, higher frame rates,higher resolution,improved artificial intelligence,and improved physics, more charatcers in one place at one time,plus more things I can't remember.When next generation consoles hit we will have games that are actually worth the £40 or $60 because they won't be made on outdated systems that make improvements just by being slightly more efficient.I hope this rumour is true as I don't even see alot of point in buying sequels to games on the 360 or PS3 this fall as they will barely be better than the last game.

Starting Gaming on pc

I have just started gaming on pc my current rig has an i3 2100 and 4GB of ram I am using the Intel integrated graphics until the hd radeon 7000 series is released I will buy either a new 7000 series card or a 6000/500 series card that will be discounted when the hd 7000 series is released.

I have been playing Oblivion 5th anniversary,crysis maximum edition, company of heroes and a few free games off of steam.Now speaking of steam I don't really want to use it as I don't own an actual license to play the game and so far I have only bought disc based titles.I have the license to play oblivion on the disc and the product key and disc for crysis.If I buy games on steam and something happens to my account I would lose the licenses to play all of my games so I will stick to discs.I have really got into oblivion and at first I spent quite a lot of time trying to figure out how to configure my controller( in the picture above) to work with the game eventually, I decided to use keyboard and mouse as the pc version wasn't designed for controllers and I have been enjoying using my keyboard and mouse to play it.Crysis ran well with everything on low except textures which was on medium @  1024* 768 and it used my controller well.

Pc gaming is a lot of fun and there are many exclusives on the platform mouse and keyboard is best for some games and controller is better for some games.I can't wait until the radeon hd 7000 series releases so that I can get my upgrades and max out crysis 1 and play games with graphics superior to the hd twins.Its not as expensive as people make it out so I recommend gaming on pc as you get great exclusives,great gameplay and great mods.

What will make me buy the wii u at launch.

My gaming pickups 4/1/12

Could nintendo be keeping quiet about the wii u's specs for a reason.

Nintendo has not said too much about the wii u's specs other than it will have a 
IBM Power®-based multi-core microprocessor and a AMD Radeon™-based High Definition GPU.
Now we don't know what this means this is enough to keep fans interested but could mean anything for example a multicore processor could mean an amd dual core at 1.6ghz or a Intel i7 six core processor at 4ghz in terms of what it could mean in performance as the performance this information gives us is very vague.Now high definition gpu is very vague aswell as it could be high or low end and still technically be a high definition gpu.Nintendo could be keeping quiet so that Sony/ms think Nintendo has gone casual so that when they design their consoles they design it thinking that the wii u will only be one notch above the hd twins.And then xbox720 and ps4 could end up being inferior to the wii u or on par with it and not stronger as Nintendo has only made weak consoles this past gen.So the wii u could be the return to powerful Nintendo consoles like the game cube.Hopefully game saves and dlc can be saved to an external hard drive as they are only using internal flash this would be a great move as it would keep the costs down by at least £50 which would increase sales while allowing people who need more memory to buy a hard drive.Also it would be nice if it could play dvds and blurays.

3ds is finally back on track

I bought my 3ds at launch and have to say at first it looked like the console could die when it only only sold 700000 units between april and june.I am happy that my investment in the nintendo 3ds was not a waste of money and everyone else with a 3ds must feel the same.The price cut was a good move as it has made the 3ds affordable for many people and it considerably cheaper than the ps vita.Nintendo also kept the trust of the loyal early adopters by giving them 20 free game 10 nes games and 10 gba games.
Nintendo then released super mario 3D Land and Mario Kart 7 and the systems sales exploded passing the 4 million mark in the US and 4 million in Japan we don't know what the systems total world wide sales are yet as europes sales have yet to be announced.Will the 3ds surpass the orginal nintendo ds sales I don't know.

Thank you for reading be sure to come back for more gaming news,reviews and opinions.

Xbox 360 vs PS3

There can only be one winner to the console wars and I have tried to make this as balanced as possible there is a poll to the side of the page.If you have any more points to add put them in the comments and I will add them.

 Xbox 360 Pros

• Xbox live.
• Great exclusives.
• Better multiplats.
• Cross-game chat.
• Comes with headset.
• New dashboard with video apps.
• Cheaper intially
• Kinect
• Can pick up model with no harddrive for a low price.
• More realtime strategy games.
• Superior network.
• Xbox live arcade.

Xbox 360 Cons

• Costs more than ps3 in the long term due to Xbox live costs.
• Properity hardrives expensive
• Have to buy battery packs and chargers
• Disc will be broken if Xbox is standing up and knocked.
• No built in wifi in earlier models.
• Expensive properity accessories.
• Must pay for multiplayer.
• Old models have no hdmi.
• Early models red ring of death.
• Doesn't have uncharted , Heavy rain or resistance which can be a dealbreaker to some.

PS3 Pros

• Free online multiplayer.
• Built in rechargable battery.
• Blu-ray
• Bluetooth
• Web browser
• PS Home
• Use standard 2.5 inch sata harddrives
• Built in wifi
• No need to swap discs
• Cheaper in the long term as you don't need an adaptor or to pay for online.
• More exclusives in recent times.

PS3 Cons

• Initially more expensive.
• Inferior online network.
• More expensive intially.
• No cross game-chat.
• Inferior mulitplats.
• Doesn't have Gears or Halo which can be a deal breaker.
• Less Downloadable titles.
• PS move didn't really take off.
• Only old PS3 models have backward compatability with ps2 games.

Introduction Video

Rage disapointed me.

I really enjoyed rage alot and as the story moved on things got more serious too quickly. I began to think that it couldn't be coming to and end so soon as I assaulted the last base after playing for only nine hours! The reason I believed this was because the game is 22GB in space so I thought that surely that if the game was that big it would be long and have many hours of game play.The games game play was fun, the enemies were not too repetitive, the weapons were interesting one of them was a shotgun shell that was half a slug and half a grenade.The sound was pretty decent when things got intense,graphics were amazing not as good as crysis 2 or Gears of War 3 but very good still.When I played the multilayer mode it wasn't that good just short co-op missions and the racing I found to be quite boring and pointless as if you destroy an opponents car they just come back from out of nowhere and overtake you if you make a small mistake.There is little to no replay value as it is not something alot of people would play multiple times. I would say you should rent rage if it interests you but I am glad I did not buy it back at launch for £40 as the game is definitely not worth that much money.Ultimately rages downfall was how short it was.I think I will get an exchange on it and get something else with the £7.98 I spent on it at game station hopefully it will not be over in 10 hours.

Response to are Exclusives that important

Why the 5th Generation of pokemon games felt stale and what I think needs to be the main focus of future instalments.

I have been a Pokemon fan for years and have clocked up 250 hours on Pokemon emerald ,180 on diamond and on platinum.I bought Pokemon black at launch in march and I played through the campaign and then on the match making for a while.I only have played 90 hours my playtime should at least be on par with Pokemon diamond as there should be more to do as the 5th gen is the successor to the 4th generation.The only thing to do that is not too repetitive after beating the elite four is to play online matchmaking but I haven't bothered with it as I would have had to spend alot of time Ev training Pokemon.I didn't have this time as I was more interested in my 3ds which came out later that month.
I think next generation Gamefreak need to improve the amount of content that there is after the campaign so players can continue to play for a long time without becoming bored.

This could be done through:

• DLC(download able content)
• A revised formula.
• A new extremely upgraded battle frontier.
• Improved online.
• A mode where you can enter a friends game and play with them doing quests.
• More than one region like in Gold and Silver possibly even all the regions plus a new one.
• Bigger regions.
• More things to do after defeating elite four.
• Give Pokemon move experience that increases the powers of moves slightly like gun proficiencies in Modern Warfare 3.

Thank you for reading please comment if you have any ideas that you think would improve the series or if you disagree with any of my points.