iPod Touch =]

Hello all.

We have a new "system" to add to our blogger-ness now. The iPod touch.

Yes. An iPod.

Both me and Ducky boy have one now.

But I have to say, I think it will be more likely to be me who posts about the games on it, seeing as I use it a lot more for games than lil punk duck. However!! I think we would both agree on the next thing I am going to say; if you have an iPod touch/iPhone....

Go Download Mafia Wars, Now!!!
 

This is a game developed by Zynga, a "social gaming" company who create games for social network sites like Facebook, Bebo, and MySpace. They have also created a good few games for the iPod touch, which can be downloaded from the App store.

Mafia Wars is completely FREE and an excellent little game; highly addictive and very enjoyable. The aim of the game is to become the best Mafia there is. You create a character from a list of 3 or 4 (I can't remeber exactly) which have different bonuses such as gaining money faster, energy, or stamina (I went with Criminal; faster energy regeneration). You use energy to do jobs, which gains experience and money. You then buy weapons and vehicles to fight other Mafia Wars players (which uses stamina), and buy properties to increase your income.

You can also check out this game on Facebook. It's slighlt different from the iPod version, but the idea is the same.

Next up, Airport Mania.

Now this is a fun little game, wherein, you run your own airport. Planes come and go from your airport and you have to direct them to a runway to land, to a gate to drop off/pick up passengers, then to the runway to take off again.

Sounds simple, yes? Well, yeh, it kind of is. But the aim is to get a set amount of money each stage. Now, you get bonuses for landing/taking off planes on the same runway in a short space between each other, and matching same colour planes to a gate. You have to manage your airport constantly, as the planes have happiness meters. Leave them waiting too long, and theyl get unhappy, and youl get less money. It gets more complicated as you play through, with more planes coming and going, and you having to refuel and repair planes whilst working around the others. It also has quite nice graphics too.
This again is one game I would highly recommend.

Unfortunately, this is not free though. It will set you back a staggering 59p. =O

But if that's too much for you, there is a free lite version for download aswell.

Anyway, thats about it for the iPod.

Now on to the next subject.

Awhile ago, my PSP died. I didn't know what the problem was, it just wouldn't turn on. Maybe it was the battery that broke, charger, or the PSP itself? I didn't know. So I just let it rot under my bed, 'cos I didn't want to buy a new charger/battery when I didn't know what the the problem was.

But! Thanks to a friend at college, we have now discovered that it was a faulty charger! Whoop! So I went out and bought a new one, and now I have my PSP back!!

This means that I will likely be posting about the PSP aswell again soon, including the Xbox  360, DS lite, and iPod touch.

Well, thats about it for now.

Keep Gaming.

FreekyWiggle

Hackers ¬_¬

Just a note here to people; there seems to have been some technical diffculties recently concerning the web-hosting server I use for the oh-so-glorious galleries. To be more specific; Hackers.
Earlier today, I recieved an email saying simply this:

Dear ,

Concerning your user account: bethecontrollergalleries...

HacKeD By $n!per_Pal,ZaidoohNet

Gd Bye Host

JaCK

 

Now this isnt very nice at all. Unfortunately, it means the galleries are no longer running. Hopefully, this will be sorted in due time.

FreekyWiggle

Welcome Back!...Soon

As we all know, this has been pretty empty lately... *Insert Tumble Weed Here*

Anyway, hopefully we're gonna get this blog up and running again soon. Its been a little neglected lately, poor thing.
I've not been on 'cos I have myself a lot of personal issues that have been taking up my time, along with my A-Level exams and Coursework aswell eating through my time.
This has left me little time and motivation to actually play some games, so I've nothing to write on here. With a bit of luck, things'l get better for me soon, then I'll be back here!
Im sure our whole one reader will be glad of that.
As for Lil Punk Duck, I dunno why he's not been on. Probably just couldn't be arsed. Playing Gears 2 and Left for Dead and stuff instead. He's managed to finally greatly surpass my Gamescore now too. Good for him.

Anyway, we're hoping to get the graphics all done soon, and make our own template, and turn this into a propper blog. Won't that be great? That's a while off yet anyway, but it's something else to look forward to.

I'll try and get myself back into games, and hopefully post a well needed review or something soon.

Until then, Keep Gaming.

Happy Winter-een-mas Everyone!

FreekyWiggle

Happy Winter-een-mas!!

Yeh..

Force Unleashed = Badass

'Nuff Said

FreekyWiggle

Viva Piñata: Pocket Paradise

Well I just ordered two copies of Viva Piñata: Pocket Paradise for the DS from GAME after seeing an advert for the release tomorrow. I ordered a copy for me and one for my female other, as we refer to them here. But she doesn't know that yet, so let's hope she doesn't check this site before they get here! This also means that my reward points total has now finally reached the £20 I was saving up. You see, getting £2.50 off a game every now and then doesn't feel like a saving to me, so I decided to save my reward points until I accumulated £20. Which I now have. So, once my card has been charged and my reward points are added to my account, I will cancel my pre-order for Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, and then order it again, but this time, taking £20 off using my points. Two birds with one stone. Great.

FreekyWiggle

The Reset Generation

Update: The Reset Generation game at the bottom of the blog has now been removed.

Here goes. More N-Gage stuff. However, this stuff is actually worth writing about. Reset Generation. This is like.. all the old stereotypical characters from games, in the obvious scenario of "rescue the princess". This game really speaks to me. Though honestly, I only played the demo, so I don't know a great deal of this game, but I got a good feel for it, and I like it. It actually has its own site, where you can play the game yourself, so go give it a try, It's well worth it. Or alternatively, just scroll down to the bottom of the blog, where you can find the game, and you can play it right here. Oh, and btw, I'm really tired, that's why this is relatively short. Woot.

FreekyWiggle

Okay, yeh, I'm gonna try and be fair now. We always said that this site would cater for all three home consoles and the handhelds and try to be neutral towards them. Obviously, so far the 360 has taken the spotlight. It's only because we both own one.
We look at news that interests us first, and news that is relevant to ourselves. And seeing as neither of us have a PS3, we've never posted about it because we didn't look at PS3 news. Well I'm gonna try and change that. Problem is.. what is news for the PS3? And what interests PS3 owners?
Well I can't say I'm too sure about this, but I'd guess that Final Fantasy XIII is something PS3 fanboys would like to hear about. So for all you PS3 fanboys out there...

There will be a Final Fantasy XIII demo on the Advent Children Complete blu-ray disk. Ahh, now I've got your attention. With it being on the blu-ray disk, I would assume this will be a PS3 exclusive, unlike the game itself, I believe, which is now coming to the Xbox 360. Also on the disk, there may be new trailers and possibly info on other Fabula Nova Crystallis titles such as Versus XIII and the mobile game Agito. However, this may only be in Japan. Sorry guys.

FreekyWiggle

Believe

Well this has to be a fan made trailer for Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise but it still looks amazing. If you hadn't figured it out, it's a play on the Halo Believe ad, complete with the original music.
You can tell it's fan made because the Piñatas are the BurgerKing toys, but this is still an epic job. Maybe Rare should snatch it up and use it for the real trailer...
I don't know who made it but I take my hat off to them.. well, I would if I wore a hat.

FreekyWiggle

Graphics

Well today, me and lil punk duck finally sat down and started to do some graphics for this blog. We decided to go with controllers... seeing as it's 'Be The Controller'. Anyway, above is a sneek peek at what we managed to do today. its nothing final, they're just rough stuff. All we have is the controllers, we still need to figure out layouts and content and things, but I thought you might like to take a look at how it's going.

We decided to go with the background colour as orange. Why you ask? Well, we do try to make this a gaming blog for all gamers, not just of one console (even though it is predominantly 360 as we both own one), and orange is a neutral colour; green is 360, black is PS3, and well.. Nintendo have taken pretty much every other colour for the DS, and there doesn't seem to be anything orange. So there you go.

We will be including the 360 and PS3 controllers above, and are currently working on the Wiimote. Weather or not to include handhelds we are still undecided over. You see; handhelds include a controller on them, but aren't themselves controllers in the sense of what the word means. However, we do cover handhelds on the blog... This is something we shall think about later on in the process. So let us know what you think, and drop us a line with any ideas you might have as well.

On a seperate note, the Bebo page seems to be picking up a little bit after just around a week of use. Weather any of you have actually looked at it or the blog, or have just accepted invites and left it at that, we don't know. Either way, it's better than nothing.

We'll keep you posted on the graphics' progress, but when its done I should expect you'll notice a few changes without us telling you anyway.

FreekyWiggle

Unleashed Onto XBLM

Update: I added a short video instead of a picture; figured that would be more fun to look at. Just so you know, the video is of no relation to the demo, just to clear up any confusion.
FreekyWiggle

Yes! Forceunleashed.org has learned that Lucas Arts' own marketing manager Matt Shell has confirmed that a Star Wars: The Force Unleashed demo will be releasing to the XBLM sometime next month!! Me and lil punk duck discussed the possibility of this a while back and came to the conclusion that it probably wouldn't happen, seeing as it's a Star Wars game, and well, let's face it, Star Wars games aren't generally met with much faith and therefore, would not be worth the effort. Looks like we were wrong.
What might also be interesting to know is that the demo will contain a remade Tie Fighter Construction Facility, extra force powers unlocked and a special conclusion to the level that isn't seen in the retail version. This means that you won't get hooked on a demo from a level of the game which is exactly the same as the retail versions' level and then know it in and out by the time you get the game. Which is great. It's like you get an extra level to play.. sort of.
This is amazing news. But... will it show The Force Unleashed as a let down before the game is even out? So much hype over a game will surely turn it into a dissapointment (Assassins Creed anyone?) So is this a good move to be making? What do you think? Do you care, or are you just happy a demo will be unleashed onto the marketplace? (see what I did there? Yeah, I know, it sucked)

FreekyWiggle

Gears of War 2 Linked Achievements

Yesh, thats right, Gears of War 2 has linked achievements which will unlock extra content. For those of you who don't know what linked achievements are, it's when a game recognizes previously earned achievements from another game and unlocks new content based on their unlocked status. In this case, Gears of War 2 will be looking for the Original Gears Achievements. Not many of the linked achievements are known yet, but here are a few;

• Unlocking the "Completed Act 1" achievement in GoW unlocks Anthony Carmine in GoW2 multiplayer.
• Unlocking the "A Dish Best Served Cold" achievement in GoW unlocks General RAAM in GoW2 multiplayer.
• Unlocking the "Time to Remember" achievement in GoW unlocks Minh Young Kim in GoW2 multiplayer.

These are all pretty simple, and seem to just unlock standard content that was already in the first Gears by default, so I'll be looking forward to hearing the new ones and seeing what my hard earned achievements will unlock. I'd like to see what "THIS! IS! ANNEX!" and "Seriously..." will unlock... not that I have either of these, but still...

FreekyWiggle

The Bebo Site Is Up

The Be The Controller Bebo is finally up and running. We created it basically to add readers. It's somewhere to get the blog known. So hop on over and check that out too if you like, there are some polls up and the sorts, so enjoy, and leave some comments.

FreekyWiggle

Gears of War 2

Update: Log on to Xbox Live and check Inside Xbox for a two part interview with Mr Cliff "Don't call me CliffyB" Bleszinski for more information on new weapons that are not listed below.
FreekyWiggle

Right, well we haven't really covered this game oddly enough, even though it's a game FreekyWiggle and myself are really looking forward too (we need a new co-op). But that aside we really enjoyed the gameplay of the first Gears and I have recently taken to online play. Now what's the score:

Singleplayer

1. Still two player co-op


2. Brumak is a vehicle


3. Reavers are a vehicle (yes, see this interview with Rod Furgusson


4. Find letters & medical records aswell as COG tags throughout the campaign


5. Your "War Journal" will keep track of what items you have found.


6. There is achievement tracking


7. Tickers (think exposed wretches that are smaill ticking time bombs)


8. Kantis (spelling? This bugger is described as a locust monk who tends to carry new weaponry, he can also send out tickers and revive downed team mates


9. Centaur Tank (vehicle, a tank on monster truck wheels


10. A B X Y: now if you walk up to a downed enemy any of the 4 face buttons will take them out. A picks them up as a (rather tough from the E3 demos) human sheild, X is good old stomp, B rolls them over and you punch the crap out of them and Y is a weapon specific finisher


11. New story characters: Dizzy, Tai Kaliso and Chairman Prescott. Dominic's wife will also make an appearance.


12. A new difficulty below casual


13. Co-op, both players can play on a different difficulty, presumably the lower difficulties deal more and take less damage


14. Some achievements for online also count for singleplayer such as achieving 1,000 headshots


15. New power weapons: The Scorcher (a flamethrower) and a Mortar


16. New grenade type (Poison) and you may grenade tag a wall to place a mine


17. Grenade explotions can knock people over (not downing)

Multiplayer

1. Once downed you can crawl away slowly on your hands and knees


2. If you had a grenade out when you were downed you can choose to detonate it when an enemy gets close.


3. Stopping power: used to rolling in with your shotgun then your in for a problem, a stream of bullets from the lancer will slow you down or any powerful gun for that matter.


4. 5 v 5 as opposed to 4 v4


5. 5 man co-op versus waves of increasingly difficult locust


6. Wingman, formally known as 2v2v2v2v2. You and a team mate of the same character agains 4 other teams of two.


7. A set of weapons not yet revealed!


8. Once killed, you can move your camera around and take photo's of the battle and upload them to the internet


9. Chainsaw duels where your chainsaws lock in and its whoever taps B the fastest, though a friend shooting the enemy will give you an advantage


10. A metal indestructable shield that makes you move slower and you may only use a pistol while carrying that you can punch into the ground


11. You can now team up with a friend and you will always be taken to the same games together and they will find matches based upon your teams "skill" which probably means k/d ratio tracking and accuracy tracking

Right now that's all that comes to mind and I'm sure FreekyWiggle will add some things that I've missed.

Yours, Lil Punk Duck

Suprises

Well earlier this week it was my girlfriends birthday, and she got herself a nice new shiny green DS. Now if you remember a while ago, we were complaining how we only cover the 360; the reasons being that lil punk duck no longer has anything other than the 360 and I currently wasn't in possesion of my DS as my girlfriend had it and there was no decent PSP stuff to talk about.
However, my DS has now returned to me! Albeit, missing my stylus and my spare stylus, but I have it back. So we can start doing coverage on other consoles again. But unfortunately, my PSP has died on me. It won't turn on at all, no lights or anything. I've no idea what the problem is, but if you have an idea then leave me a comment (but before you say, it isn't bricked because as far as I am aware lights come on when you brick it, and also nothing like "have you plugged it in?" I'm not stupid.) So, I've got rid of all the games I didn't play, but kept LocoRoco and Patapon (my favourites) just incase it revives. I only got £49.50 for 15-20 games though, which was kinda dissapointing. No point in keeping a load of games I can't play anymore though.
Anyways, to celebrate the return on my DS I decided to buy a couple 'new' games for it. I decided on 'Mario Slam Basketball' and 'Donkey Kong: Jungle Climber' as these were in the 2 for £20 at Gamestation. Now the Mario is a game I would usually avoid (popular character spammed into a sports game but have basically nothing to do with that popular character anyway). However I just really felt like playing a Mario game. And I have to say, I was pleasantly suprised. It's not half bad. The touch screen controls were well implemented, but what I really like is the fact that it gives you the option of using the touch screen or the buttons! Most games force either one or the other on you (more prominantly the touch screen) but this gives you the choice so you can play the game the way it suits you.
And I chose DK because I had the prequel for the Gameboy Advance; Donkey Kong: King of Swing. Now, I really enjoyed this game. I played it through 4-5 times. But I don't really like the DS sequel. One main attraction to the GBA version was the graphics, but they are different in the DS version and the game isn't so visually appealing anymore. And I hate how every 5 minutes there is the old frigging monkey guy talking, with an annoying *wheeeey* or *whiiiiiee* everytime he starts a new sentence. It's driving me F*****g crazy! It also feels 10 times easier than the previous. And it seems rather lacking in colour. Oh, and there is a giant talking alien banana that ends all his sentences in fanana, or some stupid rhyme, where he takes the word and adds 'bo' and 'b*last syllable*', for example 'game bo bame'. It's just annoying.
So, the game I thought I wouldn't like, I do, and the game I thought I would like, I don't.
And also, now I've really got into Gears of War online multiplayer too.
Lots of gaming suprises this week.

FreekyWiggle

WALL•E

Well, call me a kid, but I can't wait to see this movie!! He's just so darn cute! And it looks really funny too. July 18th people, I'll be at my local cinema watching this.
Anyway, my point about this post is not only do I want to see the movie, but I want to buy the game too.
Ok, now I know you're calling me a little kid. But I played the PC demo (which you can download here by the way) and it may be simple, and some may think this is just.. well.. crap, but I really enjoyed it. I've completed my latest game; The Incredible Hulk and I am considering trading this in, but I didn't know what to get, but now I might get WALL•E... Problem is, I want the game now, but I want to see the movie first.. I don't want to spoil it by playing the game first because I am really looking forward to this movie. I guess I'll just have to keep waiting, and make do with the demo for now.

FreekyWiggle

Free Fifa 2008

Well I said I was gonna do something on the NGage. So here we go.
Nokia is giving away free activation codes for Fifa 2008. There are only 120,000 codes available, so you better get in there quick. I've already got mine. Download Your Free Fifa 2008 Here. This offer is only avalable until 30/06/2008 so get going.

FreekyWiggle

Star Wars Episode VII or Soul Calibur IV ??

Ok, maybe we could live with Yoda and Vader in Soul Calibur IV. They help to bring Star Wars fanboys over to a new game; people who love Star Wars who have never played Soul Calibur may buy it just for these characters. I know I bought Soul Calibur II after never playing it before because it had Link from the Legend of Zelda in it. So yeh, I think we could live with Yoda and Vader taking a walk over to the Soul Calibur franchise. But who else decided to take a wander? No idea? Wanna clue? Here.

Yep, Darth Vader's secret apprentice from the upcoming Star Wars game The Forced Unleashed. I personally am in two minds over this. I think the idea of adding a new Star Wars character is good, though I would rather have the secret apprentice instead of Yoda; he doesn't seem to fit. Yoda just doesnt work 'cos half the attacks miss and I just don't like Yoda for it. Though I would rather have someone like Obi Wan Kenobi instead of the secret apprentice, and i think they should stuff Yoda, but hey, I can't have everything.
The secret apprentice will be available in both the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions of the game.

FreekyWiggle

Party Animals

Right, after a good 12 hours or so we can both say; Viva Piñata: Party Animals is great. Although the theme song is stapled quite painfully in the back of our heads. Some of the games are either way too easy or way too hard, and the fact that the list of achievements left to do is running out has knocked the game down a peg or two, but it is still fun and enjoyable. The game is still entertaining and I (lil punk duck) am seriously considering adding it to my collection. It's a great game that's great fun!

Lil Punk Duck