Madden gaming moment

Gaming Moments: Madden at the Tailgate

It was the 23^rd October 2011, I was in London, England to see the NFL International Series game, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers vs the Chicago Bears, it was the tailgate party. The NFL had put on a big tailgate for the fans, there were merchandise stands, former players. Interactive games, cheerleaders, tons of things. One of the things they had on was a bunch of Playstation 3's with Madden on. I was with my dad who never plays video games so I saw a bunch of lads, ages 20-30, and asked them for a game.

A few games in, after beating someone in the last second of regulation with a 50 yard Wes Welker touchdown pass, we were all having fun, lots of banter haha. I came up against this guy, I was the Patriots he was the Cowboys, 4 minute quarters. I absolutely dominated the first half, and by the third quarter I was 47-26 up. I was almost dancing around the place I was dominating. But, this guy can do onside kicks! He gets 3 onside kicks in a row! Converts them all into touchdowns! Remember this is 4 minute quarters! The score is 47-46, and to be interesting (and idiotic in my mind) he goes for the 2 points and the win in regulation. While we were all shouting and balling during this game quite a crowd had gathered! So in the final play of the game, we both stand up for the play, he runs it up the middle, Jerod Mayo makes the stop and the Patriots win 47-46! I was pumped for that victory!

It was the icing on the cake to a great tailgate, I met some awesome people and had a great time! If you are an NFL fan (especially in the UK) and havent been to a tailgate, go! You'll have so much fun! And play Madden if you somehow haven't too!

Thanks, I hope you enjoyed this post, I'd love your feedback and hear your favourite moments playing Madden!

Joe Feery

Xbox Live: Feery123

Playstation Network: Feery123

Twitter: @feery123

48 hours with Skyrim. My pre-full length review notes.

I got this on the recommendation of deputy editor of Offical Xbox Magazine, Mike Channel, who can be found here http://twitter.com/#!/MikeChannell. He said that the first spell I would got be like a flamethrower, and to enjoy. So far, that sentence is so true it is unbelievable.

The first dragon you encounter is incredible and humongous, and by god I legged it. To be fair, I was about to be executed for reason I still do not understand. However I still legged it, despite being bound in my hands.

Other than the rather worrying start to the game so far I have found it enthralling, something that mister Channell did say about the game.

Even before the game I was amazed by the game of Skyrim, and I rarely play rpg's as they have never appealed to me, but on OXM Channel suggestion, even on opening the case, the map that comes with the game is amazing, feeling like a map from a couple hundred years ago, and looks amazing, my little sister have been warned that if they ruin it, they can go and buy me a new copy of the game.

Back to the game, and the sheer number of different races to play as straight away is quite staggering, it seems like there at least ten different races to play as, quite the selection straight up. The sheer size of Skyrim is staggering, I think I have explored about 10 percent of Skyrim in about 10-11 hours of gameplay.

There is a single minor fault me and a few mates have found with this game so far. That is it is far too easy to rank skills up like smithing and blocking as the same things level it up no matter whether for example you are level 1 or 71 in smithing, creating the same item gives you the same amount of points, or experince or whatever it is called in the game, which means it is far too easy to level those skills up. I levelled up my smithing skill about 7 levels last night when I noticed I had a megaton of leather and used it to create an iron dagger, levelling up rapidily. (iirc it took me making 3 iron daggers to level up)

Same goes for blocking for example, as taking on a simple enemy like a wolf for instance, just using a simple shield will stop most of the attacks you can face from a non-sword wielding enemy, and it is far too easy to just sit there and level up your blocking.

Back to the main focus of this game, the dragons. Bethesda have made them into such eloquent and magnificent beasts, while increasing the fear factor when you battle them, the first and only dragon battle I have encountered so far, started with me being personally BBQ's by said dragon. Then I went downstairs to find it, and luckily it came to me, and my double handed greatsword, which prompty went downtown on it, hacking at it furiously, until it fell down.

This game is incredible, so worth much more than one play in your lifetime.

Once I completed the game and had about 30 more hours to compile a worthy review like most sites and blogs on the web, I shall give you a full rundown.

Keep gaming and producing moments to be proudly displayed on this blog/site.

Regards,

Early thoughts on Modern Warfare 3

I haven't completed the single player. but I am enjoying it so far. It will not be to everyone's tastes, but it is still a good game. If you like the previous 5 call of duty games, you will like this one.

Mulitplayer has some major issues, parties of more than 2 in multi player have major issues in connecting to games, taking minutes in some cases. Battles seem to be decided by blind luck, as damage seems to be random, as per se sniper rifles are overpowered. example being I came up from a guy left hand side and started shooting him, he had sniper rifle turned, (while being shot) and hip fired, and killed me.

I'd give it a 8 solid effort, fantastic in places, but same old cod where you need ninja reflexes and ninja esque eyes to scan the entire viewpoint of character and the heat map to know where enemies are.

I'd prefer Battlefield 3 to this, but that's just me.

Spoiler Alert

The single player is incredibly ott in one of the first missions Soap somehow recovers miracously from a massive stab wound to the chest, to suddenly be fine and dandy, really iw, activision???

Good game, it is defintely worth the time to play at least once in your lifetime.

I'll write a full review when I have had the chance to try everything in this game, and that may be a while, my mother brought home a gorgeous tiny female puppy, pre-occupied making sure she dosen't shit on the rug and annoy the older male dog frodo. 

Anyhoo back to business and the cover for MW3 is one of the most uninspiring covers i have seen in a long time, but that is just me. Also it the single player has made me wonder, just how big do the makers think the Russian armed forces are??? It's one thing what they did in MW2, but what these guys have so far gotten up to takes the holy piss out of it. 

 

Gaming Moments: My First Superbowl

Superbowl  Post.

My Gaming moment was created on the original Xbox console, and was played on the game ESPN NFL 2k5, made by the guys at 2k sports. The game was obviously a Superbowl, I believe it was Super Bowl 40, and the game was played out by the Philadelphia Eagles and the Indianapolis Colts. Now with the rosters at that time, the main story of this match up if the game were real would be the inclusion on the Eagles squad of Wide Receiver Marvin Harrison. Legend for the Colts.

How this came about was the season before I traded #88 to the Cardinals for Anquan Boldin and Larry Fitzgerald. I thought that was a fair trade. Weirdly I remember that season the Eagles had put Corey Simon up on the trade block and for some strange reason the Cardinals traded Harrison.

Anyhow, I was happy with the wide outs I had, and advanced to the super bowl on the back of great defending and a solid offense.

To the Super Bowl we went and I was confident, nervous, (it was my first Super Bowl) match up. I won the coin toss and elected to receive the second half kickoff, had been winning when receiving the ball to start the second half and I was more confident in my defence over my offense.

So the Eagles start the game after a touchback and go swiftly back to the sidelines after a three and out. I run Edgerrin James into the ground on the first drive with 7 runs for 42 yards and the opening score coming from Manning to Boldin down on the goalline on an out route.

A kick after and it was 7 nil and my confidence e is soaring. The Eagles are facing a third down and ten. And now the nightmare begins. Donovan McNabb drops back and looks deep to Terrell Owens,  fakes the throw and goes deep down the other side to Marvin Harrison. My defender, Nick Harper misses the Interception and Harrison goes for the game tying touchdown. 7-7

I get the kickoff and I make the defender miss, I. Could. Go. All. The. Way. But there’s a defender and forces a fumble, and I can’t pick it up and the Eagles pick it up at their 8 yard line. Harrison beats Harper at the line of scrimmage and makes the catch and runs past the safety on his way to a second touchdown.  14-7

I then start my next drive at my twenty yard line and ran it 3 times picking up two first downs, and then threw an interception, of which the defender stepped out of bounds at his 48 yard line. McNabb starts tearing my defense apart picking up first downs at will, hitting T.O and Harrison at will. McNabb makes it 21-7 hitting T.O for a 7 yard TD.

With Two minutes to go in the first half I threw my third interception and it was returned for a touchdown to make it 28-7.

After messing up the kickoff return, I had 1:38 minutes to go and 94 yards to travel. I went to my go to play hitting Larry Fitzgerald for all 94 yards on 8 catches to pull back to 28-14 at the half.

I decided on a change of gameplan for the second half deciding to go throw, run, pass, run, and wouldn’t change this unless I had to, like throw on 3^rd and 14 for example.

Grabbed a first down with the first throw to Reggie Wayne, and then Edge picked up 8 yards following a stiff arm. Back to Reggie who picked up another 15 yards, and then Edgerrin James again picked up good yardage on 1^st down. Went to the other side for my pass to Anquan Boldin who picked up 12 yards and a first, and then Edge then picked up a first down with 11 yards. I then hit Reggie Wayne for the Touchdown. 28-21 and right back into it.

First play of the second half for the Eagles is an INTERCEPTION. Nick Harper you beast, tackled immediately but boom. Now I am at their 25 yard line and looking good to tie it. Only I didn’t. 3 and out, but Mike Vanderjagt, Sorry I nailed the 42 yard Field Goal to pull within 4 points.

McNabb goes crazy now throwing ten straight times down the field, picking up tons of yardage and eventually hits up Marvin Harrison for his 3^rd Touchdown leading to a 35-24 scoreline. With about 7 minutes to go it looks bleak, but this story is far from over.

I get the ball back and get 32 yards on back to back runs, and call a pass at the right time, as the Eagles send 8 men on a blitz and I just get the ball off to Reggie Wayne getting the ball to the Eagles 18 yard line. Edgerrin James scores on the next play to turn it into a 35-31 ball game.

McNabb starts another drive and with 4 minutes left gets sacked for the first time, Dwight Freeney finally shows up with a monster sack forcing a huge third down. Next play Mike Doss, you beauty, INT baby. Edge gashes them for 21 yards on three runs to take me to the 35 yard line. I hit Reggie Wayne for his 14^th catch of the game to take me to the 8 yard line as we hit the two minute warning. Edge runs down to the two yard line as the eagles take a timeout. With 1:54 remaining in the game edge takes it to the outside stiff arm, TOUCHDOWN I GOTTT THE LEAD BABY WOOOOOOO! Extra point and it’s a 38-35 ball game, but wait, there’s more.

McNabb is now rightly pissed, and starts tearing the defense apart. Again, down a field goal and moves to 50 yard line. Freeney gets a sack, and then McNabb converts a 3^rd and 18 to Owens. One Minute to go, 38 yard line. McNabb calls his own number and gains 15 yards on a scramble, 20 yard line. Calls timeout. Marvin Harrison makes a grab on the ten yard line and gets tackled on the 8 yard line. 40 seconds to play. McNabb drops back, fires looking for Owens and, (hang on is that free agent pickup Andre Dyson jumping the route) Shit it is. INTERCEPTION, and he’s off, HE. COULD. EFFING. GO. ALL. THE. WAY, 50, 40, 30, 25, 20, 15, 10, 5 GET IN TOUCHDOWN. (CAPS are what I said at time, just edited so it’s broadcastable) TOUCHDOWN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 45-35 Colts. 21 seconds to go.

McNabb soldiers on and gets his team to the 21 yard line with ten seconds and a timeout left. I just send the entire defence at him and get the sack. Timeout taken. 5 seconds to go. They’re obviously going for it. So I send the entire defense again, and Dwight Freeney ends the superbowl with a hattrick of sacks.

Reggie Wayne gets the mvp award with 14 catches, 200+ yards, and a Touchdown.

This game was played in about 2005-2006. I cannot remember the exact date, but I will always remember this game. This is just one of the moments that make computer games so great, and these moments is why I enjoy playing the games. If you have a moment that is funny, or a great comeback or just a great hoorah moment, then let me know and I will invite you to write it up and publish it on here.

Regards and Keep Gaming, Mason Cooper 42

Spoiler warning for Modern Warfare 3

Ok, who isn't getting the same game for an 6 year in row, just me?

Spoiler alert!!!!!!!! for those of easily offendable taste, dont read on.

ok in all seriousness, I am sure many of you remember The "No Russian" level in Modern Warfare 2. For those who don't know and this is a spolier although you can skip it, your character was undercover as a terrorist and to maintain cover you had to participate in an attack on an airport, slaughtering innocent russian civilians. Although you didnt have to fire it must be said.


There is a scene of similar distaste although this one is much more gut wrenching as a) it is a cutscene and b) once you have started this cutscene, there is absolutely nothing you can do to stop this.

The scene will start with you character in the level shouting where are the trucks.


I believe that this is a level ending scene, and it is set in London. You jump to a family of three americans and view through the video camera the father is using, recording his daughter's delight as they approach Big Ben, about two blocks away. 

MAJOR MAJOR MAJOR EFFING SPOILERS. 

A Home removal truck will appear and blow the little girl and her mother up before releasing a cloud of toxic gas.

I feel this is a touchy subject, but having seen it, Inifity Ward have dealt with it well, making the kids death very quick. But for those who wouldn't know what exactly is coming in mw3, it will cause some feelings gamers never realised they had.

you have all been warned!!

I will be comparing this to the controversial scene from modern warfare 2 on Tuesday when I have had time to emotionally get into the game and see how it effects me.

Games to Play Before You Die: Heavy Rain

Games to Play Before You Die: Heavy Rain.
By Joe Feery.

Heavy Rain is a Playstation 3 exclusive title, released in February 2010. It follows the story of 4 characters, Ethan Mars, Scott Shelby, Norman Jayden and Madison Paige as they all try to solve the case of the Origami Killer. The Origami Killer is a Serial Killer who abducts children, and after 6 inches of rainfall, will be found dead, drowned. Ethan Mars is the latest father to have his child abducted. He is given challenges by the Origami Killer to complete, to prove he is willing to make sacrifices to save his son. Scott Shelby is a retired policeman now working as a Private Investigator, trying to solve the case. Norman Jayden works for the FBI and has been specially drafted in to help solve the case. Madison Paige is a Journalist whose path crosses with Ethan, and she eventually conducts her own investigations.

It won 2010's Game of the Year from CNN and Gaming Union. Heavy Rain also won Gamespy and IGN's "Best PS3 Game of 2010"

The game is very advanced for its time. It uses state of the art graphics technology, Facial recognition technology has been used for the characters, so the characters are actors that have been hired to play the roles. The game also uses motion capture technology, so the actors are almost making a film.

The Campaign itself is very short, which could be an advantage for casual gamers, like myself. One of the things Heavy Rain may do is make you want to play it over and over again. There are many ways the storyline can go, there are several minor and major moments that can affect the outcome of the story. This isn't a game where you fail for making a bad move, failing is part of the storyline.

A very "cool" feature of the game is that you can see your characters thoughts, and if you press a specified button you can hear your character explain why they are thinking about that in full. For Example, if it says "anxious", your character will explain why they are anxious.

Heavy Rain's storyline is what makes this game for me. It is so simple, a fathers love for his son, yet I was so gripped. I legitimately wanted to succeed for Ethan, not many games make me feel like that. I didn't want the game to end, and I played through the game several times to get the best possible ending and the worst possible ending, and I genuinely felt bad when I got the bad ending.

The Achievements/trophies are quite easy to come by, a lot of them you will get by simply playing the game. Getting 100% is hard though as some trophies will take a long time and patience to complete.

If you have a Playstation 3 and somehow haven't played this game, buy it now! It's probably going to be in the bargain bucket of your local gaming store by now, for no more than £15. If you haven't got a PS3, I'd suggest finding out which of your friends have a PS3 and suddenly become best friends with them until they invite you to their house where you can play it haha.

This is one of my favourite games of all time, I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. If you do get it because of this blog, Let me know! I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Thanks Guys, please leave your feedback, I hope you enjoyed me first post.

Joe Feery.

Trailer for Heavy Rain. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMUfUpvFOFg

Audio: 9/10
Visuals: 10/10
Replayabilty: 9/10
Challenge: 6/10
Overall 9:25/10

Contact me at the following,

Xbox Live: Feery123
Playstation Network: Feery123
Twitter: @feery123 I'll follow you back http://twitter.com/#!/feery123

GTA V!!!!!!!!!!!

GTA V (or five to non-gamers or roman literate people) has been offically announced. The mass excitement that one sentence, and believe me, it is one sentence, saying yes the game that you have expected to be announced is being announced, and the first trailer is next week. Wednesday around 6pm British Time. The excitement it has created is unparalleled to me.

And I mean this, some much speculation when the developer dosent give you anything is a good thing right. The main source of all the discussion mainly is where this new game will be set. The one thing that RockStar North have done well over the year is creating new areas for you to murder, shoot, and blow the fuck out of.

They have always done amazing cities. Liberty City which they recently returned to after around 8 years, and transformed it into an amazing replica of New York City of which it is based. Taking its name from a famous statue.

Originally apearing very early in the series, Liberty City has been a stand out design from rockstar. It was the first city i had the pleasure of tearing a new one for. 10 Years ago as an impressionable 13 year old boy, this was one of the games that helped turn me into the man/gamer i am today. Coming out originally on the Playstation 2, it later released on Microsoft's new console the Xbox. A theme that is going to be later repeated with later titles as you will see.

This was also Rockstar's first foray into a 3d world. Each previous entry in this series was from a top down view in a 2d world.

The next city of rockstar's choosing to recreate was the city of Miami. Yes the South Florida city may not have had the same name, but this is a lot of people's favourite game of all time. Especially the series. Set during a musically superior decade of the 1980's, the game not only had a fantastic radio soundtrack, but looked amazing, with great looking characters, in terms of fashion, the cars were superb, and the city looked great. Taking it's name from a successful Miami based Police Tv Show. Vice City was every bit of enjoyment millions of us had from playing it.

Now Vice City is a little bit like Liberty City in its fact that the few islands that make up the city, are very urban based with little country side based land. Not sure you can class the golf club as non-urban. I'm not entirely sure the guys and gals at rockstar would not want to repeat this theme of a city, straight after Liberty City, (especially with the upgrades to technical and graphical power these days) it could work, but with nods towards titles like Call Of Duty, some gamers are becoming more aware of the same stuff appearing in game series.

A reason for Vice City to make an appearance is that Rockstar North wanted to put a fair bit of countryside into Liberty City in Grand Theft Auto IV, but declined to and worked really hard on the city element. And boy did it pay off. Now remember a few lines above I told you that Vice City had a distinct lack of country side in the original game based there, this could be an good reason for them.

The Last new entry in the GTA Series was in 2003/04 and took us from the East Coast of the U.S.A to the West Coast. Instead of one city, Rockstar gave us 3, and massive amounts of countryside to fill in the time.  Set around California, we were given Los Santos, (Los Angeles) San Fierro, (San Francisco) and Las Venturras ( Vegas baby) and each city had its own part of country side to enhance each island/city. The Vegas island had a more desert theme, San Fran had its own mountain in it, and LA had more little villages and scenic routes for you to drive through.

Now if for reason stated above, rockstar wanted to concentrate on the city aspect for gta iv, this might turn them off. Some Gamers criticized the size of San Andreas, saying it was too big to find everything in it. I loved it Personally, and still have the previous generation of games in this series to this day.

Again if they want to allow themselves a massive area, Can you imagine three Liberty City style city with the level of detail they showed in iv. I cannot, think it would be too much detail to do.

One area of massive contention though is one city in particular from San Andreas, Los Santos. You see, rockstar's last game was called L.A Noire, and required them to scan pretty much the entire city so they could recreate 1940's Los Angeles. Meaning they had/have an entire city for them to mess around with, or even recreate los santos into. (I still remember that city off by heart from the old game) now with an already scanned city, there's still a lot of work, and would they venture into a real world setting, (remember LA may not like the way it could portrayed by Rockstar)

If i was a betting man, i would say the last option seems the front runner. Now if it were up to me i would go for a vice city game, while having half my staff working on a san andreas map to see if it were possible. that is just me though.

Either way, or option, this debate shall rage through the night and coming days till all is revealed come wednesday evening.

Keep Gaming and producing moments of grand awesomeness they shall reign on this blog.

Regards Mason Cooper 42.

Notes: There will be a new writer joining the blog, Joe Feery. He is currently on a piece for Heavy Rain and why you should play it, so look forward to that.