News: Neil Dawson joins Gaming Till Disconnected

Neil Dawson has now joined us as a reviewer. We are delighted to have him join us and we look forward to reading his debut review (No pressure Neil). Here is a little bit about Neil (In his own words).

“Hi my name is Neil aka Loslobas in the gaming world! I have been playing video games since the age of 6, at the time Atari unveiled their new 2600 home games console – so you could say I’ve been around a bit!

“I have enjoyed everything that the gaming world has served up since. Currently I own an Xbox 360, a PC, a Wii console and a DSi. I manage to juggle my game time with my hectic family life! My three kids are up-and-coming gamesters and will surely follow in the gamer/geek footsteps of their Dad!”

Check back here soon for Neil’s debut review, and if you think you could do this please email us stone6596@hotmail.com

Naughty Bear; he really is a Naughty Bear!

I won't be going down to the woods today!

Naughty Bear has been rated 12 by PEGI and when you play it you will think that it surely deserves a higher rating. Now I have talked to many people who think that Naughty Bear is going to run into problems. Many people are saying that there will be some very angry parents that are not happy about the content of the game.

Poor old Naughty Bear, he has not be a very a good bear. And that’s why he wasnt invited to the Birthday Party, And this has made Naughty Bear angry! Naughty Bear is a seriously violent game, and with you being the outcast of bear island its time to kill some bears. The main aim of the game is to earn as many points as possible and to be as creative as possible the more outrageous the kill the more points you get. Points also unlock other parts of the level and is sometimes the only way to advance.   

 How can you be creative when killing teddy bears, I hear you ask. well this is the fun part of the game. You are able to set traps, sabotage things like pay phones and cars and watch the bears go up to the item you have sabotaged and then wham! Hit them with a golf cub or knife them straight through the tummy as they try to fix the broken item. It’s not all stab up teddy bears. You can also earn points by getting bears to kill themselves by driving them insane.

That's got to hurt!

The most fun I have with the game is when you are causing trouble, one of the bears might ring the bear police or drive off to get help. Unless you destroy all means of contact with the outside ie Cars, Phones & Kill anyone who gets in the speedboat. Also a good point is to watch out for Army Bears & Ninja Bears these might give you problems at times but it’s all good fun.

Now it might seem like fun coming up with as many ways as possible to kill teddy bears, but Naughty Bear has its down sides. The main problem I have is when I decide to smash a window and go through it, the camera seems to get stuck and its kinda a let down. Also a strong sense of, I have done this in the last level creeps up on you as much of the game is you repeating yourself.  This is fine if your just out to think up the most craziest way to kill all the bears and get the highest score on that level.

That used to happen to me when I was at school!

Online play is meant to be quite entertaining with up to 64 players online at one time. Unfortunately at the time of writing this I was unable to play online. So I will leave this decision to you, but saying that it’s just going to be one massive level of “nutters” trying the most craziest way to kill a bear; and why not!

I think Naughty Bear is set to sell quite a few copy’s but I feel that this game will be quickly replaced by anything that is released shortly after this title. Its great fun and parents should not buy this for your children (If in doubt check out the PEGI rating). And I feel that if 505 decide to make a Naughty Bear 2 they will have an award-winning game on their hands. They is just a few things to sort out first. This game ticks all the boxes for me, but this review is posted for everyone so I am unable to be biased.

7/10

Skate 3

It’s time to break out your skateboard once again as EA returns with their highly popular title Skate. Skate 3 tries and gives you that “real” feeling when playing, like being able to team up with some AI players and be able to start your own brand. And the aim of the game is to get noticed and to make a succesful skateboarding brand. There are several ways to achieve this but the main way to get noticed is bored sales, which you achieve through doing crazy tricks and “killing” spots. But don’t worry if this does not interest you because Black Box have made sure that most of the challenges can be played online.

Most of the fun for me is making silly videos and uploading them, and then downloading and rating my friends silly videos this feature is called skate.feed. I think it really allows people of a serious and not so serious nature to show their creative sides. It’s like YouTube for your Skate 3, but remember it’s not just videos you can also upload images & skate parks for others to play and enjoy. 

The park creator hasn’t changed much since Skate 2 and if I am honest the park creator doesn’t really appeal to me. It seems that Skate needs to put some more attractive features in this creator. It is simply more fun to play the main campaign and the only reason I re visited the park creator is to grab a few achievement points.

Also other new features that should be mentioned are the new easy difficulty setting, and the High or Low camera setting. Now if you have ever played Tony Hawks you would know that the camera position is high but Skate allows you to keep the camera how you might have been used to. But if I am honest with you using the default on Skate 3 will be much more comfortable and you wont even notice that you have been playing with the camera on low. The low setting really is the choice, it makes grinding and setting up other tricks much easier.

I think the main reason people will want to buy this because it’s such a breath of fresh air in a world gone mad. I say a world gone mad because Tony Hawks has dominated since the Playstation days. And the guys at Black Box must have caused an upset with this great and no doubt popular release.

So the question is, Skate 3 or Tony Hawks? well quite simply Skate! Tony Hawks has had its day and Skate 3 has made me want to start playing skateboarding games again. And I really feel that EA are onto a winner here and that Tony Hawks will soon be a thing of the past, and Skate 3 will be hitting the shelfs for a few more years.

8/10

News: Assassins Creed Brotherhood at the World Cup!

It looks like Ubisoft have gone mad, well football mad. It seems that there are plans to promote Assassins Creed Brotherhood at this years world cup. We can’t tell you too much, except to keep your eyes open during the following matches:

Sat 26th June, 19.30
USA vs Ghana

Mon 28th June, 19.30
Brazil vs Chile/Spain

It is certainly a good move by Ubisoft, the world cup certainly gets a lot of attention, so why not start a promotional campaign while its on. I for one would like to know if its going to be a full-blown advert during and match or just a few billboards on the side of the pitch.

News: Microsoft Kinect Priced Leaked!

It would appear that the gaming world had sprung a massive leak! And Microsoft seem to be the focus of this, as Project Natal’s official name was leaked the night before Microsoft’s E3 Presentation. It seems that once again Microsoft has been a victim of “dodgy plumbing” with the Kinect price being leaked. The leak in fact came from Microsoft’s Online Store, who have priced Kinect at $150, other online retailers have also priced Kinect around $150.

What do you get with Kinect?

Kinect Camera

Power Cable

Manual

Wi-Fi Cable

Promised UK gaming tax break cancelled in Tory budget.

The hope that Britain’s gaming industry would enjoy a 20% tax break were dashed by government chancellor George Osborne’s budget. The tax break was conceived by Labour during their last term of office to aid UK game developers in their ability to seek investment, to encourage companies to set up studios in the UK and to allow them to better take risks in todays competitive market.

The fact that this is coming after the Conservatives promised to honour the tax break made the announcement all the more bitter to swallow. Dr Richard Wilson, Chief Executive of TIGA, the UK’s trade association for videogame developers, called the move a “betrayal” by the government and that it would “cost the industry millions of pounds in investments”, not to mention losing the UK’s high position in the world market.

ELSPA, the body that represents the UK’s publishing houses, told Gamespot that it was important that without the tax breaks, the games industry and the government must still work together to ensure that policies – which include addressing better access to R&D initiatives – would still be followed.

TIGA is still intent on continuing their campaigning for tax relief for the industry, with support from both Labour and the SNP, in spite of this most unfavorable news.

BBC newspage of the story
Gamespot newspage of the story
TIGA’s website

News: Grease comming to the Wii & DS

It seems like its going to be a busy year for 505. With the European launch of Naughty Bear tomorrow & also an unlicensed American Football Game, set to rival Madden (Backbreaker). It seems that 505 are going to repeat the success of Naughty Bear (which we believe is going to be highly popular) and is certain for success. So why not make a Grease game? (Wii & DS) Having a look at the trailer below show us that from first impressions Grease looks like it will be a big hit with the Teenagers & well lets face it everyone. I know a lot of the time we can’t trust game trailers, because sometimes they “lie” to us. But 505 seem to be pushing this title, and giving it some serious backing. Check the trailer out!

Who needs the new Xbox 360 Slim?

Ok, if you are like me and you own a Xbox 360 or a Xbox 360 Elite, and you have all the extras, like wireless, HDMI ect, ect. You wont see any real need to get the new Xbox 360 slim other than its looks cool. Oh yeah and its quieter than the original (which isn’t really an issue if you install your games to your Hard Drive).

I have since decided to write this article, to show how you can jazz up your Xbox 360 for around about £20. Skinit is the company of choice and it’s certainly the right choice to make, their skin designs are beautiful, sleek and easy to apply and the service you receive is just amazing.

We skinned these in under 5 minutes!

 And what do you get for your money? You get two side panel skins, a front panel, a controller skin and a hard drive skin. And the best thing is that Skinit.com dont just do Xbox 360 skins they do a great range of other product skins you can buy. And with their easy and simple to use website you are ordering within minutes.

So why follow the sheep! Get a skin from skinit.com and make your Xbox 360 “look the biz” Just think of this everyone will be getting the new Xbox 360 slim. Want to stand out and be different? Well the answer is clearly get a skin and skinit!

So, you want to be a Games Journalist?

Anyone who plays Video Games will at some point in their life will say “I want to work in the games industry”. This is a nice thought but it really isn’t that easy. I can certainly speak from experience. I managed to make it into the industry on my own, with the help of a Microsoft employee.

My job is to write about anything and everything that is relevant to gaming, and sometimes to write about stuff that isn’t. Now the main reason for me writing this article is because I get a lot of emails from people wanting to know “why am I playing a game before they come out” or “how to get games for free“.

Unfortunately I will not, and cannot share my PR contacts, but I will give you some advice on how to write to them and what sort of things you should avoid when contacting these people. The first thing that was told to me was from another writer, “Remember these companies are not faceless, you are talking to a real person”. That piece of advice has served me well so far, and I have received some pretty big titles before release.

Lets move onto emailing “The Big Three” which are (Sony, Microsoft & Nintendo). If you manage to get an email address to contact these guys, then the first thing I will say to you is be patient! As these guys are very very busy and they don’t have to talk to you, and you are asking them for stuff that they don’t have to give you. Lets start off with my favourite company.

Microsoft: I love this company, for gaming, not Windows. Everyone at Microsoft gets back to me usually within a matter of minutes, and with a very polite and helpful response. Even during E3, I still received the response and service that I have become used to. This is why I like this company so much.

Sony: First off im going to say this as I love my Xbox. But even though I contacted them during and before E3 they took several weeks to reply. I know these guys are very busy during this massive event, but Microsoft managed to get back to me during E3. Now the obvious reply from Sony is or would be our E3 presentation was better and we had to spend a lot of time and resources on it. But my answer to that is, even the out of office email which has another email address to contact was a dead-end (no response either). Now I know if Sony was not interested they could have just said no.

Nintendo: The jury is still out on this one as I have sent them around 13 emails and I have only received one email saying they have passed it on. But yet again these guys like the other two are very very busy. And at the end of the day if your just an individual or small website trying to get in touch with them you will have to be very patient.

Now I have written about contacting “The Big Three” I would like to talk a little about how you should go about keeping your “end of the deal” if you are successful in getting games and promo material sent out. Just thinking to yourself that you will be able to churn out reviews in two days in certainly is the wrong way to go. I can give you a good example, lets say you get sent the new Final Fantasy (which is about 50 hours long) and then 2 days later you get sent a new RPG (also around 50+ hours) what do you do? Well you going to have to play 100+ hours and then write two reviews while going about your daily routine.

So the best way to keep up your “end of the deal” is to write the reviews as quickly but as professionally as possible. Now that sounds like an obvious answer but what I mean by that is actually put in 16 – 20 hours a day on your console to keep everybody happy, but just be prepared to give up your sleep for few nights. Time management is key to making you a success in this tough industry, at the end of the day you need to treat every review like the first one you did to get into the industry, and prove to these companies that they should choose you and not anyone else.

What I am trying to say is nothing can stop you from doing what you want to do. But not many people will tell you how to do it. But I must say that if you enjoy playing video games don’t become a games journalist because there may be a few times when you are running on 3 hours sleep and have more than one game to review. I would just like you to think, is this what you really want to do? It’s really not all about free games.

News: Guitar Hero Sets A New World Record At E3

A New Guitar Hero!

E3, a magical place for everyone who lovesgaming. Especially for Danny Johnson, a gaming prodigy, and World Record Holder for the highest score on a single track on Guitar Hero III. Danny set a new record this year on Guitar Hero 5 with a whooping 913,316 points. It seems that the apple does not fall far from the tree in Danny’s family, because Danny’s brother Scott Johnson got the high of 1,759,000 points. Finally, the two brothers set the record for the Highest Co-op Score on Guitar Hero 5 – Drums and Guitar with 4,442,161 points.