Sun, 22nd Aug 2010 by Alfie.

I started out with a different (now disabled) ID, but here is my current XBox/Games for Windows Live gamer ID, AlfieUK4.

I only have Silver membership as I have never played on-line with the XBox 360, but fortunately we get multiplayer achievement recording for free on the PC

Its a shame that Microsoft didn’t start with a better base product or fix the massive early problems more quickly with Games for Windows Live, it could so easily have been the start of their answer to Valve’s Steam.

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Wed, 14th Jul 2010 by Alfie.

Visual Basic 6 and DirectX 8 are looking very long in the tooth now, pretty much dead, but where to go?

I dabbled briefly with an early version of XNA (Game Studio 2.0 I seem to recall) when I was looking at alternatives for game programming languages/libraries, but wasn’t particularly impressed with it. Yes, it allowed rapid development, and most of the basics were done for you, but it seemed slow, and required doing things in a particular way, and seemed more aimed at the casual 2D game market on the Xbox 360 (although it supports Windows development as well).

With the advent of XNA 4 (due later this year) I thought I’d have another look at it and so installed the latest iteration XNA Game Studio 3.1.

Install Microsoft Visual C# 2008 Express Edition

Install Microsoft XNA Game Studio 3.1

Visit the XNA Creators Club Online, in particular their Getting Started section (based upon XNA Game Studio 3.0)

The video tutorials walk you through all aspects of getting started with C#/XNA;  setting up a Creators Club account, creating your first simple 2D and then 3D game, and there are ‘Starter Kits’ that help springboard you into different projects.

Bear in mind that you don’t need to purchase the full membership to develop games for both Windows and the Xbox 360, but you will only be able to deploy your games on Windows PCs without the full membership.

Its slicker than I remember, and much more streamlined, I’m actually going to give this another go

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Tue, 2nd Mar 2010 by Alfie.

I’ve just finished playing Gears Of War 2 on the XBox 360.

I usually avoid FPS games on the console because I am a Keyboard/Mouse player and cannot get used to the controller but someone who recently got a 360 wanted to lend it to me, so I thought I’d give it a go.

Like similar games I’ve seen on consoles and some PC games recently, Gears 2 uses a recovery system for injuries, so if you are injured (indicated by a blood red cog symbol fading in on your screen) you duck back into cover and the cog gradually fades out to indicate that you are recovering. If you don’t take cover eventually you are incapacitated and can only crawl slowly in an attempt to reach a comrade who can revive you. If you fail to do that in a brief period you will die, game over, reload from last checkpoint. So, I had a chance at survival with my poor controller skills

The visual style is great; from gritty, city streets under siege, to deep underground tunnels, and hidden complexes, as well as outside scenes in mountains and forests.

Audio is exceptional; well voiced characters, well placed atmospheric sound effects, and some booming weapon sounds, help to get you in the mood.

The AI is good; whilst most grunt enemies use cover, and pop out to fire at you, they occasionally ‘displace’ so you can’t wait for them to pop up again at the same point and fire. Some heavier enemies just walk straight at you, but this fits the style of the semi-mindless ‘tanks’.

Gameplay is pretty good; the variety of action really helps to change this game from what could have been a ’shooter on rails’ to a fun challenge. You operate on foot on your own, with a partner, or with a small group, at different points. There are several vehicle sections, with some quite unique ‘vehicles’ later on The choice of weapons allows for a range of tactical choices, from up close and personal to sniper range, with the ability to pick up dropped weapons so you can chop and change as required.

All in all, I had about 20 hours of fun running through this on normal mode. I’m strongly considering buying this and the first game to go back through it at a harder level.

Overall: Gears 2 gets an 8 out of 10 from me.

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