• Liverpool (me)
• Blackburn (colleague 2)
• Manchester United (colleague 3)
• Barcelona (colleague 4)

Manchester United came first, Liverpool came second, Blackburn came third and Barcelona came last. Manchester United and Liverpool made it to the cup final where Manchester United beat Liverpool. Not to worry though because i said i want to use a team i’m good with and that’s Barcelona. So in league 6 i used Barcelona.

We have played league 6 and it’s the last league, we are giving Fifa 08 a break for now. League 6 looked like this:

• Barcelona (me)
• Chelsea (colleague 2)
• Manchester United (colleague 3)
• Arsenal (colleague 4)

What an interesting league this was. The two best players (me and colleague 3) drew against the two worst players in our first games. However, we won against the worse players in the rest of our games. Now then, the hardest part is playing potentially the best player, colleague 3. The first game Manchester United beat Barcelona with a lucky injury time goal. BUT i’m glad to say Barcelona THRASHED Manchester United in second time around by not 1-0, not 2-0 but 3-0! This gave me the lead and won on goal difference by 3 goals.

So the competition has ended and altogether i won: £55 which isn’t bad at all. All i can say is that i were the best at Fifa 08 and no one could come close to me apart from colleague 3 who i tactically outclassed him in our last game.

What’s happening next is we are switching game to Project Gotham Racing 4. The colleagues have the advantage over me because it’s on the Xbox 360, they all own one and i don’t, i prefer the PS3.

We’ll have to see what happens.

League 4

Well, i didn’t win this league like i said i would, but i came second which i’m happy about.

• Hamburg SV (me)
• Chelsea (colleague 1)
• Sporting Lisbon (colleague 2)
• Barcelona (colleague 3)

Chelsea finished top, Hamburg second, Sporting Lisbon third and Barcelona fourth. The cup was a different story. I got knocked out in the first round and so did Sporting Lisbon. Guess who won the cup? Yes that’s right the colleague who has never won anything won the cup!

I have a few excuses to why i didn’t win the league or cup – i didn’t have a 5 star team so i didn’t have the pace of strength like Chelsea and Barcelona do.

We agreed that whoever comes top has to pick a 4 star team, second 4 and half star team, third and fourth 5 star teams. This makes it fair.

Anyway, i warned all colleagues that in league 5 i will be using a 4 and a half star team and i choose Liverpool.

League 5

League 5 will be an interesting one. It currently looks like this:

• Liverpool (me)
• Blackburn (colleague 2)
• Manchester United (colleague 3)
• Barcelona (colleague 4)

I’ve played a game and beat Blackburn 3-0.  Blackburn (colleague 2) gave me some stick when he beat me in the previous league and i just warned him that i used the wrong team – 4 stars! I thrashed Blackburn – enough said. Carrying on, Manchester United beat Barcelona 3-0, which leaves us joint first.

I might be able to win this league, i think i will struggle against Manchester United – Anything can happen in football.

Graphics – 8/10

The graphics in Rainbow Six Vegas 2 are nice, while they aren’t as good as Call of Duty 4, but still are eye catching. Graphically, they have improved over the first Rainbow Six Vegas game; they look crisper in comparison. The graphics won’t disappoint you in anyway unless you are running the game below 720P.

Sound and Music – 7/10

The sound and music in Vegas 2 is exactly the same as the first game. While there are bug fixes such as the constant gun fire, where no one is shooting but all you can hear is gun fire. The explosions sound nice, the voice acting is way better than the first which is good to hear.

It’s best to play with a surround sound system because of its tactical ability you need to listen out for where the foot steps are coming from.

Gameplay – 8/10

Rainbow Six Vegas 2 is not a run and gun type of game. Here you will require the use of tactics and stealth at the same time. You cannot simply run and shoot, you will get taken out in no time. One of the best features Vegas have is the cover system. Vegas contains one of the best cover system i’ve ever witnessed and its back for Vegas 2. You can use the cover system to move tactically from room to room.

The controls are easy to pick up and no different from the first game. It’s just annoying to get used to after playing Call of Duty 4 so much. You will be pressing the wrong buttons for the first few games you play.

In terms of controls Ubisoft have added a spring button which enables to run from location to location – something that was missing from the first game.

The single player campaign is pretty short, and won’t take any longer than 10 hours to complete. But once you have completed it on your own, you can go through the exact same campaign but with a friend. This is called Co-Op.

In Co-Op you and a friend can go through the whole story mode, the same story as you played it on single player. You can do this online and offline split screen or over LAN. Other co-op modes include terrorist hunt so there is plenty to do.

You can earn aces points and experience points (xp) in single player modes and the multiplayer online modes. It’s like Call of Duty 4 where you earn points for kills and winning rounds. These XP points can be used to unlock new weapons, gear and upgrades. The unlocks work in both offline and online. This adds an RPG style element similar to COD4.

Multiplayer/Online – 9/10

This is where you will probably spend most of you time – Online. Exactly the same as the first but with bug fixes and a new match making system makes it better than ever. Playing online is pretty much lag free and plays very smooth. There is one annoying thing and that is people playing music down their MICS!

Replayability – 9/10

Replayability is probably the best part of the game. There is so much to do and you will be coming back for more and more. I play co-op with my friends more than actually playing online competing. It’s so fun playing with friends through the story mode or terrorist hunt, discussing tactics over MICS.

Overall – 8/10

Not as good as Call of Duty 4 which many people had hoped. It is better than first Vegas, but doesn’t deliver anything entirely new apart from a spring button. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t buy this game because if you loved the first Vegas you will love the second. It contains new maps and better graphics. It does feel like a rushed money spinning sequel but as soon as you load the game up you will say to yourself, Vegas is back!

if you liked the first one and its co-op online modes, i would highly recommend you buy this game now!

Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater let me down slightly. I didn’t like the idea of it being in a jungle. I didn’t get to completed MGS3 because i had too much going on in my life with college etc.

Now that Metal Gear Solid 4 is coming out for the Playstation 3, i’m really looking forwards for this one. I like the idea of being in the middle of a war, and the way you can camouflage yourself with the surrounding enviromoents. Konami showed a demo at the Metal Gear 20th Anniversary celebration, but it was all in japanese. Want to see it in English? Now you can by viewing it here:

League 3

• Italy (me)
• England (colleague 1)
• France (colleague 2)
• Brazil (colleague 3)

France won the league this time, Italy came second, England came 3rd and Brazil came last. While i lost the league i thought i would be giving colleague 2 £5. We all proceeded with the cup, and Italy won the cup so i didn’t have to give any money out because if you win the cup you don’t have to pay, you keep the £5 you put in the pot.

League 4

We started league 4, we said that the top 2 players in the last league (me and colleague 2) would be 4 star teams and the other rubbish players would be 5 star teams. League 4 looks like this…

• Hamburg SV (me)
• Chelsea (colleague 1)
• Sporting Lisbon (colleague 2)
• Barcelona (colleague 3)

So far we have all played twice. So i lost to Chelsea and beat Sporting Lisbon (the best player next to me). Sporting Lisbon has lost 1 and won 1 and Barcelona has lost both games. Chelsea have won both games up to now. So that leaves Chelsea top, Hamburg SV in second, Lisbon in 3rd and Barcelona last.

I’m confident i will win this league again, i’m currently £45 up, i plan to stretch that to £60 and go on to win the cup.

If i don’t win the league, i might take the money and run.

I pre-ordered Rainbow Six Vegas 2 for the Playstation 3 from Gameplay.co.uk through Quidco so i get 11% cashback. I used to purchase all my games from the high street shops, but it now works out cheaper to buy them online with cashback services and you get the game a day earlier. I also save money on petrol as i don’t have to drive down to the shops to purchase them. Anyway be sure to see a review from me when i get the game.

Gran Turismo has always boasted excellent graphics and real driving experience. I’ve played Gran Turismo HD for the Playstation 3, downloading it from the Playstation Store free of charge, it’s ok, they could have given us a little more to play with. I knew i would be looking forwards to Gran Turismo 5.

Now that Gran Turismo 5 Prologue is just around the corner, i cannot wait to get my hands on it. Prologue is like a short version of the full game of GT5, if your a fan of the series, you wouldn’t think twice about not getting the prologue game. Basically it’s like a teaser of the full product and it’s cheap to buy, so why not buy it?

Take a look at this trailer, everything you see is actual in game footage:

Graphics – 9/10

Call of Duty 4 looks absolutely brilliant. I’m running the game at its native 720p, running at 60fps with no frame drop issues. This is what you want in a game, a nice fast, smooth, fluid gameplay. A lot of first person shooters can’t deliver this, Call of Duty 4 certainly does.

In the singleplayer mode, you will find yourself stopping, and just staring at the beautiful graphics, looking at them from different perspectives. The character models look top notch along with the animation and this game has some of the best player animations i’ve seen in any game before. Everything looks so right. Your jaw will drop playing this game especially when you find yourself trying to dodge a helicopter from crash landing in front of you!

Explosions and lighting effects have never looked better than this, rockets even show realistic trails behind them, bullets leave marks, the smoke looks real, and everything is real.

Multiplayer online graphics are toned down a little, probably to compensate lag. They still look brilliant online, but there is that extra detail removed. This is not to say, don’t play this online; you probably won’t even notice the changes much.

What Call of Duty 4 lives up to is the fact that some games never look as good as they do in the screenshots, this is where Call of Duty 4 wowed me because the graphics looks just like they do in the screenshots.

If you’re looking for a game that shows what this generation is all about, look no further than Call of Duty 4.

Sound and Music – 9/10

Sound and music in this game is very good. While playing this game you will think you’re in a real war with top notch sound effects of the explosions in the background, bullets whizzing past your head and soldiers screaming for help.

Weapons sound decent, with each gun having its own unique sound effects to it. There is not much to say about the sound in Call of Duty 4 apart from the fact it all sounds brilliant and real.

The music score is just the typical ‘war’ like music; it’s nothing to keep you from the mute button. It just adds to the atmosphere of the game.

Voice acting it probably the best i’ve seen in a game, each soldier sounds different to one another and puts on a fantastic performance to say their lines.

I’m only playing this game through my T.V’s standard speakers; i would like to hear this game through a 5.1 surround sound system because it would sound awesome.

Gameplay – 9/10

In Call of Duty 4 you will find yourself fighting intense battles, sniping from long range, calling in airstrikes and raiding huts and buildings.

Enemies are a lot more intelligent, they will react to your actions, for example if you’re hiding behind some cover, they will toss and grenade over. This is clever stuff. Dogs are an addition to the enemies attacking power, these things run at you, and if they get you, it’s pretty difficult to shake them off. They kill you instantly. Enemies work together and will do everything they can do kill you. They will throw up smoke grenades, toss flash banks, and even shout for help.

The variety in levels is excellent and keeps the game away from being repetitive. In every level you will find yourself doing something new, from helping a sniper to rescuing a soldier.

In one of the levels you will find yourself firing from a gunship. I’m sure you’ve seen gunship videos on YouTube, and Call of Duty 4 is very good at emulating this, it’s what you would expect when arming a gunship.

There are some downfalls in the singleplayer campaign which i didn’t like. One of which is that there seems to be an unlimited amount of spawns for the enemy, unless you make it to the next checkpoint, the enemies will keep on coming. Once you do get to the next checkpoint, whatever you just did is long forgotten, the war behind you is gone. It’s very linear.

Playing through the singleplayer campaign is pretty short and is over within hours. I wish it wouldn’t have ended so early; i was very disappointed with the game ending so early.

Multiplayer/Online – 9/10

You will spend most of your time playing online. You start off on a low level and you have to work your way up to unlock new game types and new equipment/weapons.

The maximum level you can reach is 55, but it doesn’t end there, you have the choice to stay at the current level or restart all over again and go back down to rank 1. There are a lot of achievements to achieve for example, killing 50 soldiers with a pistol. Achieving these will add to your stats and experience points.

One thing i liked about the online aspect of the game is the ability to create your own class rather than sticking to a preset class. You can assign different weapons with different classes. Perk is a new addition where you unlock new abilities such as have more health, stronger fire power and increase running strength. You will unlock more as you gain more experience points. You are however limited to how many Perks you can set, as it wouldn’t be fun if you could assign all the Perks in the game to your soldier.

You can some nice bonuses for killing for example, 3 players in a row will give you the ability to use a UAV to locate enemies on the map for your team.

Lag isn’t an issue online, and runs at 60fps just like in singleplayer. You will feel like you’re playing singleplayer because the game runs so well online.

There are several game mode online and include the classic Free for All and team deathmatch. Other game modes are Search and Destroy where 1 team plants the bomb, the other teams stops the bomb from going off. Domination which is kind of like capture the flag, but instead they are positions on the map, you must take over these positions and the team with the most points win. You get more points for the most controlled positions. Other game modes such as 1 on 1 cage and Old School match ups you will not bother with because no one plays these game modes.

There are some very annoying this in online, one of the most annoying is when people are playing music and all you can hear is music, this really does my head in. Same again with people talking all the time rather than discussing tactics and strategies. If you want to have a good game it’s best to get your friends online or find a server with no microphones enabled.

Replayability – 8/10

You will probably play through the single player twice before getting bored of it, or you might play through your favourite level again. Upon completing the game, it unlocks an arcade mode where you’re placed in the battlefield and you rack points up for killing soldiers.

Online is what you will be coming back for. It’s very addictive playing online when you can’t wait until you have unlocked your next weapon because each weapon unlock gets better and better. You will not get bored of the online part of the game any time soon.

Overall – 8.9/10

Call of Duty 4 is like a brand new game with it not being set in the world war phase. The gameplay is easy to pickup and play; it’s not very hard to control. The graphics are jaw dropping packed with good sound effects.

Singleplayer campaign is over before you know it, but online is where this game belongs; you will be coming back for more and more online action. This is truly the next generation first person shooter you should own and i’m looking forwards to the next chapter in the Call of Duty franchise. If you haven’t bought this game yet, go out and buy it now!

Video here:

As you can see some people are good at aiming using an analog controller, not to say that i’m rubbish, i just wanted to see how other people play the game. I will try and find a COD4 frag video for the PC, and you will see how much easier it is to aim with a mouse, you can do a 180 degree spin in less than a second, and to me that’s not fun. Not to mention all the cheats etc in the PC versions.

Anyway in the video there are some good frags, sometimes wonder how the hell can you do that with a controller. I best get practicing.

Playing Bad Company on a console will be a little wierd for me at first because i’m used to playing the franchise on the PC with a mouse and keyboard. This doesn’t bother me at the moment because i probably don’t have a powerful enough PC to run it, if it did appear on the PC. I’m good at Call of Duty 4 on the PS3, so i’m guessing i’ll be good at this too.

One noticeable new addition to Bad Company is destructible environments. Yes thats right, no more hiding behind a wall for cover because someone will just blow a hole in it and then be able to get you. I’m looking forwards to this new addition, although i have witnessed it before in a game called Red Faction, you were able to blow chunks out of walls, but very limiting. Bad Company promises 90% destructible environments and this creates opportunities to try new tactics and strategies.

Vehicles are still here and if you driving a tank you will be able to blow a house down in no time. I’m really looking forwards to this one. Is it a game that will beat Call of Duty 4? We’ll see.

Here are some gameplay videos, direct from Gametrailers.com

Field of Fury Gameplay:

Riverbank Gameplay:

Graphics - 8/10

In the past this is what Fifa has been about, great graphics, beating many other football games in the graphics department. Fifa 08 has again blown me away with its high detailed graphics, some players look like themselves, stadiums are what you expect them to be and lifelike, shadows have improved massively. The crowd looks ok’ish until up close and this is where it lets the graphics down, while this doesn’t affect gameplay, you probably won’t notice the crowd half the time. There is room for improvement for example, some players don’t look like they do in real life and as I’ve just said, and the crowd could be a lot better.

Sound and Music - 8/10

Music in the Fifa franchise has always been top notch and has always had the advantage over other football games. Here you will be listening to top soundtracks such as Ali In The Jungle, Young Folks and Monster. There are more than 50 tracks in Fifa 08.

Martin Tyler and Andy Gray control the commentary as always in Fifa games. Nothing’s changed here, they still do and it’s even better and the execution is excellent. There are a few bugs with the commentary because you will have a freekick from the half way line or at an awkward angle and Martin Tyler will say something like “Freekick here, and he’s in shooting range” when your clearly not. Another example is when you hit the post and he tells you, you hit the bar. These small bugs can be fixed and hopefully will be in Fifa 09.

Crowd chants are a pleasure to listen to and there is nothing wrong here. The stadium announcer can get annoying, especially when he announces that someone has lost a set of car keys…etc. Other than that the sound and music is top notch.

Gameplay – 8/10

This is where the Fifa franchise has always lacked, in the gameplay department. In previous Fifa games, the gameplay hasn’t kept up with its rivals, and the gameplay department is where it needed working on the most. 2008 is the year where Fifa comes to life. I was pleased to see that the game plays far better than any other football i’ve played. Fifa 08 runs at a smooth 60fps with no drop in frame rate, and that’s a good thing because you can expect to play a fluid game of football.

Shooting is far better in Fifa 08, utilizing a power bar, how high and powerful the shot is depends on how long you pressed the shoot button for. Much better than the old classic tap the shoot button and it’s a goal, you have to actually aim the shot too. Passing is accurate but through balls could have a little work on them because most of the time they don’t get through, and the opposition intercepts the ball.

Skill moves are an addition this year; they look really good when executed well. Skill moves are useless online and 9 times out of 10 you won’t use them because you always get tackled after using them, unless your some sort of world class player who’s mastered every skill.

There is always room for improvement, and some parts of the Fifa gameplay i wasn’t happy about. These include; sluggish controls, there will be parts in the game where you constantly tap the pass button or the shoot button and the player doesn’t respond, or takes time to respond. For example, the ball is in the box and every player is fighting for the ball, it seems as though no one can get the ball and the controls don’t respond at all and this is very frustration if you’re trying to score, it’s as if there is some major lag, and this is playing the game offline.

Another thing i don’t like is when the ball runs free and you’re the first person to reach the ball, you will wonder why the hell he kicked it down the field without your command. This is because you had already pressed the button before you reached the ball, there is no indicator telling you this. You have to cancel out the shot using the shoulder button but this takes too long, there should be a quicker way of doing this.

You will probably play through a few seasons at first to get used to the game before taking it online. In terms of online, this is where you will spend most of your time. There are a few issues online such as lag and bug exploiters. You will need to find a person with a good connection in order to have a fast, lag free game.

One annoying thing is when the opposition kicks off they immediately shoot from the half way line to try and lob the keeper because he’s off his line. I haven’t had this done to me yet but i’ve seen videos. This needs to be fixed.

Fifa 08′s gameplay is very strong and i expect it to get even stronger next year.

Replayability – 9/10

Replayability is outstanding, there are hundreds of challenges to complete, and unlimited season mode and of course online. You will be coming back for more and more.

Take a look at the recent Fifa tournaments i’ve had at work, click here.

Overall – 8.2/10

I’m giving it an 8.2/10 because there are many bugs to be fixed and this spoils the gameplay, especially online.

People have always said Pro Evolution is better than Fifa, and i’ve agreed with them, but this year, i don’t agree with them and they don’t agree with themselves anymore. These people have switched over to Fifa and dumped Pro Evo because the Fifa gameplay is now so much better equipped with next generation graphics.

EA has dominated this year, and the gameplay has been the best ever yet in Fifa 08. If you’re a football fan and like playing football games, i would highly recommend you buy this game.

Anyway, heres are the screenshots…(click to enlarge)

Looks like Dynasty Warriors but set far in the future.

More information on the game at Playstation Universe.

Anyway, here is the trailer for Lost Odyssey Cities:

Final Fantasy meets Shadow Hearts anyone?
Looks very nice, but is that in game or is it just CG? Looks very similar to Final Fantasy VII.

Here is some Vegas 2 gameplay footage:

Will it be better than Call of Duty 4? Judging from the above gameplay footage, it looks exactly the same as the first, no new features are anything, just new levels. I will probably buy this game because i loved the first one.