What game have you COMPLETED this week

[jdanddiet]

No mate, never even heard of that one tbh. Any good?

dunno that's why I'm asking you

[nokgod]

One of us had better buy it then. I've never seen it about though. Will have to look more carefully. Only been online ten minutes and thats two games i need to get.....

[Rayne]

I completed Deus Ex Human Revolution once more, this time having managed to set off no alarms throughout the entire playthrough. I'm all chuffed with myself!

[Evermore]

Nope! But from your description that now becomes a game i must have

HMV had a tonne of factory sealed copies of Might & Magic for about a fiver last year in their pre-owned section. It is a little bit confusing at first, but you soon get the hang of it.

[Shinobi]

Completed Asura's Wrath the ending is a bit of a anti climax, only to be told you had a extra lost eposide 18 where you play the previous level again but with a different ending.. After the Cliff Hanger ending was expecting a few more levels only to be told buy the DLC!!!

[jdanddiet]

One of us had better buy it then. I've never seen it about though. Will have to look more carefully. Only been online ten minutes and thats two games i need to get.....

I've already got it, was wondering whether to bother playing it or not!

[jdanddiet]

I completed last night FEAR: Extraction Point. OK but no plot to speak of and not as scary as the original game, although it has its moments.

Now playing Perseus Mandate.

[The Polar One]

Completed Journey to the Centre of the Earth, 70s TRS-80 adventure. Short, average, amusing enough. Absolutely nothing to do with the book other than having broken down whilst on the way to the centre of the earth and messing about in a bizarre cave trying to fix it. Not as catchy a title though.

[Shinobi]

Commodore 16/Plus4 - Tom Thumb - Longplay

My favourite game of all time.

Just been watching your long play, I never got past those doors of flame let alone a key.. Can't believe how big that game is I always thought it would be quite short, about halfway through massive game, never knew there was back tracking..

I'd love to see you Longplay Pharaohs Curse or Ghost Town.. Played Ghost Town the other night got past the tell me the password rooms thanks to the interweb.. Killed 'Belgravo' or whatever that vampire is called still can't get the treasure, the guide doesn't say how either.. Don't think I will ever finish that game

[Megamixer]

Completed Lollipop Chainsaw last night. Short but sweet. There's a fair bit of replayability though so I'm far from 'properly' done with it

[Evermore]

Rightio, I just beat Mario Tennis Open in singles so I'm going review it and then shut up about it

I think the best way to review it is to break it up into its consituent parts; presentation, mechanics and strucure, and gameplay. Please note I have only had the game a few days, but I am a series veteran. On with the review....

Presentation:
In my opinion, this is absolutely beautiful to look at. Nintendo sure knows how to create and oversee fantastic looking video games. The visuals on display here are top notch - rich, bright colours, rock solid frame rate and slick animation. The characters are full of life and often very funny looking. The way Diddy serves the ball with his tail is brilliant. I also love all the little touches like the fire "coming out" of the screen on the Bowser court, the way the ball genuinely leaves the leaves suspended stages and flies off into the ether. And all the little touches - I love how Toad, the umpire, is suspended in the air above the court in a cage on the aforementioned Bowser level - great stuff!

The music is your regular orcastral fare from Nintendo. Nothing quite as good as "The Dog's Theme" from Kid Icarus Uprising for example, but there are some nice tunes. I really like the character voices too - the cast never shut up taunting each other. Peach gets a bit annoying though - but Waluigi is fantastic.

The menus in the game are all easy to navigate and the e-manual is an improvement on others Nintendo have done lately. I would MUCH rather a physical book but the pamphlet and e-manual are reasonably good.

Overall, this is a very slick package. The video at the start of the game sets the scene nicely for what is a sumptuous looking game of tennis. About as good as a game like this can be. But some don't like Mario games' look, so this obviously won't do anything to change those peoples' minds... can't please everyone I guess.

Mechanics and structure:
In terms of control, this is similar to the others in the series in that all the previous standard moves are present and correct. However, in terms of controls, the 3DS's triggers aren't exactly ideal for shot cancels and the dive move. This isn't a huge issue, but the N64 control set-up, which was 100% perfect, isn't quite as good here. Still very good all round though and the analogue stick is superb.

In terms of balance the characters aren't quite right I suspect. For example, I had huge problems trying to beat Wario with Yoshi in one of the latter cups. It was really really hard and I gave up. I tried Donkey Kong and in the same stage and I beat the competition - this time Boo - easily. Maybe Yoshi's super fast speed just didn't suit my gaming style, but Wario was very strong and quite quick too, whilst Yoshi's shots were weak. Perhaps some gamers might be able to utilise Yoshi better than me? Only with a lot of play will I be able to comment further on the balance of characters, but for the time being I would put a question mark over the balance of the participants.

Quite a few people have complained about that the game's structure is crap. I agree that the lack of a long RPG mode is a weak point to the game, but as I mentioned before, the additional online mode and the fact that there is quite a big Mii customisation option is enough to make up for this, for me at least. There are lots of modes and options in the game, such as the "Super Mario Tennis" game, five adjustable difficulty levels, lots of tournaments for single and doubles, secret characters, and a magnificent local multiplayer option. I personally think there is lots of content here in what is a tennis game after all - what more could be included really? Plus the actual difficulty of the tournaments is very high at the end - you will need to be very good to finish the game - it took me about 8 hours only to beat it, but that included repeat matches and practice. You won't beat the whole game in a single sitting, unlike what some would have you believe. Still, 8 hours is fairly average for games these days on your first play through, and unlike many other games out there days, Mario Tennis Open has a lot of replayability.

I have had issues of lag in the online game. Plus it doesn't have a lot of options - but this is early days for Nintendo's online offering. Fingers crossed that the lag is fixed at some point soon. With time I will have more things to say about this I feel.

Gameplay:
Ah, the gaemplay This is where Mario Tennis really shines. First, the changes over previous games - out go the stupid power shots of the Power games, and in come the Chance shots. I though these would be rubbish, but there are actually really good - surprisingly so. They power up regular shots basically when you hit the sgot on a chance pad, which appear every now and then on the court. The shot is returnable by the other character if they know what they are doing, so they are not overpowered. A definite improvement over the previous generation's Mario Tennis games.

Compared to the N64 game, the characters aren't as powerful at the net. I'm not so sure about this mechanic, but I guess it means that people who rush to the net aren't able to score easy victories. You aren't quite able to get as much angle on your shots either. This makes the game harder, but at the same time, hitting the ball outside of the court lines is nearly impossible, as are faults on your serve. So basically it has been balanced to make it easier, but more competitive during rallies. Not a bad thing all round on paper - in practice? Only a long time playing Open will tell me whether its for the best.

The gameplay on its own here is superb. Tennis is FUN in a video game when done right - just ask Pong! I don't particularly care for Tennis is "the real world", but its ace here The gameplay is easy to get into, but really hard to master in Mario Tennis. You really have to watch your opponent and think about positioning him or her, before you really attack a shot and hope for the point. Rallies can get really exciting, and the underlying engine and physics work incredibly well here in Open. The fun of this game, the sheer enjoyment of a great game of Mario Tennis is some of the best fun in gaming - up there with a craxy rampage across Vice City with half an army after you, a kill-spree on Killzone, a stupidly long combo on Street Fighter or a game of GoldenEye 007 with your mates around a telly back in the day.

Overall I would give this game 9/10. I don't think its quite as good as the N64 game in playability terms - the control system is a tiny bit inferior, as are the shots and balance of the characters. Some of the balancing is a small bit off, like scoring an ace is near impossible for example, unlike in the N64 game. But it is different enough and beautiful enough to play if you have the N64 game, particularly for the online mode, and there are improvements in many areas such as the graphics - plus its portable and easily the best portable Mario Tennis to date. Its not a huge game, but it is a very fun one - you can put it in your 3DS and enjoy it anywhere in short or long bursts whenever you feel like an enjoyable bit of video gaming. Its had some flak but I believe its well worth a shot!

[The Mask Seller]

Medal of Honour on PSone, never played a WWII FPS before, remember my friends raving about this 10 years ago so gave it a whirl. Really enjoyed it but it must have been quite easy as I breezed through it and got all the campaign medals. Moved onto Splinter Cell now on the Xbox, didn't want to go straight into Medal of Honour Underground yet as it looks like more of the same.

[Megamixer]

Medal of Honour on PSone, never played a WWII FPS before, remember my friends raving about this 10 years ago so gave it a whirl. Really enjoyed it but it must have been quite easy as I breezed through it and got all the campaign medals. Moved onto Splinter Cell now on the Xbox, didn't want to go straight into Medal of Honour Underground yet as it looks like more of the same.

Did you do the bizarre bonus level with robots and dancing dogs in it?!? I found those stages really difficult and still have no idea what the hell they were doing in a WWII FPS

[The Mask Seller]

Medal of Honour on PSone, never played a WWII FPS before, remember my friends raving about this 10 years ago so gave it a whirl. Really enjoyed it but it must have been quite easy as I breezed through it and got all the campaign medals. Moved onto Splinter Cell now on the Xbox, didn't want to go straight into Medal of Honour Underground yet as it looks like more of the same.

Did you do the bizarre bonus level with robots and dancing dogs in it?!? I found those stages really difficult and still have no idea what the hell they were doing in a WWII FPS

Nope, after I got the Dreamworks medal I didn't go back in the War Room. I'll put it on my to do list, along with the Aztec and Egyptian levels off N64 Goldeneye. It'll mean unpacking the PSone again, I packed it up after finding the first Tenchu game too difficult, I could sneak around just fine but the combat was horrible.

[ShadowMan]

Rayman origins for the vita. Perfect port of the console version that might actually look better thanks to the vita screen. It was just as fun as playing it through on the ps3 and e added touch controls actually work really well and are very useful. The relic hunting was a great bonus that had me searching through levels all over again to find them all.