Video Game Reviews, Video Game News & Wacky Views

The title of this post explains it all, when you mix highly addictive video games with the brains at Lego, you get an amazing game.

If you have never played a Lego video game, I would highly recommend it. I was first hooked on the Lego games when I bought Lego Star Wars: The Video Game on Ebay for a bargain, £6. After that day I have played all of the Lego Star Wars game, the fairly new, Lego Indiana Jones and have got my pre-order of Lego Batman.

It’s hard to describe what makes these games good, even for all ages. The main thing would have to be the fun factor and being able to play through some classic films, Star Wars, Indiana Jones and Batman.

The only disadvantage would be that they are short, plus with no online play, they can only last a week or so before the campaign is done.  With the newest in the list, Lego Indiana Jones, I completed the game in  6 days, 100% game completion, and 100% Xbox Live achievements, and that was without pushing myself. With the upcoming release of Lego Batman I am going to try and do better.

You may ask, these games can complete these games so fast, why spend the £40 on them? Well, my answer to that would be Blockbuster, I would recommend the Lego games to everyone with a video games console and if you have the money to spend, I would recommend buying as they are great games to come back to, but, if you’re like me, a rental can be a great way to play the game and get all the fun from it.

The moment millions of World of Warcraft players have been waiting for has arrived. The release date of the second expansion to the massively popular MMO, World of Warcraft.

World of Warcraft: The Wrath of the Lich King has been announced as the 13th November 2008, although some of you may say that when the first expansion was released, The Burning Crusade, the actual release date was 3 months after the announcement date, but hopefully they have done a better job of predicting the date this time.

Blizzard has also announced that there will be a standard edition and a collectors edition, I’m sure the collectors will sell like hot cakes. The collectors edition will feature the following bonuses:

• Wrath of the Lich King, 208-page art book.
• In-game pet, Frosty – the baby frost wyrm.
• Behind the scenes DVD containing interviews, the cinematic trailer with director commentary and much more.
• A 21 song, official, sound track.
• Mouse pad featuring a map of the new area, Northrend.
• 2 World of Warcraft March of the Legion starter decks with 2 exclusive cards available only in the Collector’s Edition.

All of this sounds brilliant, however, all of the retailers that are listed on the World of Warcraft website have not got the collector’s edition listed as of yet, hopefully they will be it listed with a price tag very soon.

Have you ever wanted to play God? Well you now can with the latest game by EA.

SPORE has been created from the mind of Will Wright, creator of The Sims, and allows you to control a species from bacteria to galactic domination.

The game is split up into 6 main sections:

1. Tidepool phase – Swim your way round fighting other creatures to grow and evolve into more of a dominant species.
2. Creature phase – Step into 3D and onto land during this phase where you discover other creatures and you can choose to become friend or foe.
3. Tribal phase – By this phase your species brain has grown in size and you can now gather as a tribe, become friend or foe with other tribes to become the dominant tribe.
4. City phase – Grow your species further by building buildings and vehicles within your city.
5. Civilisation phase – After you have developed your city you are then ready to step out for world domination.
6. Space phase – After you have battled against friend and foe it’s time to set off into the distant galaxy to find yet more civilisations to either bond or battle with.

The game itself is brilliant, I was not sure of it to begin with as it looked rather odd, but once you start to play and create your first species, it can be rather addictive. Plus with the features of viewing what your friends have created and having other people species in your own game, it can supply a laugh or two to see what others have created.

Yes, it can be a difficult decision, which games console is right for you.

I went through exactly the same problem, I already had a PC so that was one option out, it just left the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 or the Nintendo Wii.

Here is the summary I came up with:

PlayStation 3:

• Blue-ray DVD player
• Some exclusive content
• Lightweight controllers

Xbox 360:

• Lots of exclusive content like the Halo series, Gears of War and Rock Band, just a few.
• Great online service Xbox Live.
• Cusomisable skins.

Nintendo Wii:

• Something new.

I’m afraid that was the only thing really going for the Wii, it was something new, the graphics are nothing compared to the other two, as I am not a great fan of Mario and Sonic, the game selection is not great.

In the end I went with the Xbox 360, simply because of the reasons listed above.

However, my decision would have been made alot easier if I had known of this chart, so if any of you are still undecided as to which console is right for you, check out this chart.

With the rather dull summer almost coming to an end, and the rather dull autumn coming up, it’s nice to have something to look forward to during autumn/winter, and there is certainly a lot to look forward to.

The first game being, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, admittedly, the middle of September isn’t winter, but it’s just a starter.

The second is the brilliant LEGO Batman: The Video Game. I am personally, a great fan of the Lego Xbox games, they always provide me with a laugh or too, although I don’t buy them as they can be completed within one Blockbuster rental.

Next is Fable 2 followed rather close by Far Cry 2, according to the Game website, they are to be released on the same day, I’ll be a busy chap.

The next is a questionable one, Mirrors Edge, this is a different type of game as you play a free running chap, and all sorts of things come into effect, like, if you pick up a gun, that will make you run slower and affect your jumps, interesting and worth a play.

Gears of War 2 is the next one, I personally am really looking forward to this, not released until November but I’ve got my copy pre-ordered.

According to the Game website, this next one is being released on the same day as Gears of War 2. Guitar Hero World Tour, I find it hard to believe that it will be released in November as it is only being released in the USA a month earlier, so I’m not getting my hopes up for a November release, but you never know.

The final two are unknown really when they will be released, most likely around spring 2009, Rock Band 2 and Call of Duty 5, must play games really, but quite a wait.

That is it for Xbox 360 games, although there are most likely some that I have missed and they won’t seem interesting to me until closer to the time.

For PC release, most are listed as 360, but some that are exclusive to PC is the World of Warcraft expansion, Wrath of the Lich King, Diablo 3, and one to think about for a future release is Half Life 2 Episode 3, the final in the episodes, hopefully, it will be the best one.