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Welcome to the June 2013 Episode of the Year of Shame Challenge Podcast .

Simon (SiStevens) returns to join Darren (D5120) and Jayce (JayceStokes) to talk about somethign that has got them all excitied – E3. Can the boys survive until Eurogamer 2013, can they avoid all of the new shiny stuff and can they get the greenlight to order their next gen of choice.

The boys discuss what they’ve played/completed, what they have picked up and their thoughts and feelings.

As always the latest version of the completion spread sheet can be found here. YOSHI makes a triumphant return this month

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Let’s start with Soul Sacrifices story. A crazy sorcerer named Magasur is running around imprisoning and sacrificing people, after his latest captive meets a rather messy end you come across a living book named Librom. As you read the passages contained within Librom, the story gets more and more fleshed out. You continue to read in the hope that the book may contain a way of defeating Magasur before you become his latest offering. By read I mean complete missions, destroying monsters through gaming vignettes which are set up as Magasurs memoirs. Yes you will spend the majority of Soul Sacrifice playing through the bad guys memories in order to find a way of killing him. Although it is at times predictable, the journey you take into the history of  the bad guys is a rather cool and refreshing setup for a game.

As a side note I don’t feel I have given the depth of available information and missions here justice. Soul Sacrifice has an enormous amount of back story and side missions if you wish to stray from the beaten path. Librom is more of an encyclopedia of everything in the world than just a bed time story for those about to be sacrificed.

Graphically Soul Sacrifice does enough. Character and model environments really are not detailed as they probably could and should be. It still looks nice on the Vita screen, with various effects and monster views being stand out moments, but it’s not going to challenge Uncharted for nicest looking Vita title and as such it’s not going to be the game you show off the Vita’s capabilities to friends with.

The sound however is an entirely different story. The background music is nothing spectacular but makes a fitting and apt soundtrack to your battles and murder/salvation of the monsters that inhabit the world. The voice acting however is some of the best, if not the best thus far, on the Vita. Librom becomes a dynamic believable character within five minutes simply because his audio is so well delivered. The same can be said for all of the characters within Soul Sacrifice but Librom certainly is a stand out character for me.

Now let’s look at the gameplay which, being brutally honest, is simply a disappointment interspersed with some high points. For each mission you are dropped into a single zone arena with either some minor enemies, an archfiend boss battle or a combination of the two. You have to equip all types of powers and weapons in order to deal with each foe, accumulate powers by completing the mission or by forging two smaller powers together into a more powerful one. In simple terms, you fight and get powers which allows you take fight bigger monsters, this then gives you more powerful items and so on and so forth.

I know this is Hunter RPG 101 but it also chokes the fun out of Soul Sacrifice at times. There are many spells that can be picked up and used on the fly and the ability to destroy parts of the environments add a little depth, but you never feel the need or want to take this path. Your main objective is to murder everything, not go on a sight-seeing tour. Many titles within the genre know that simply killing everything that moves is not enough to keep the player grinding away. For example a well-known title that sees you hunting monsters adds in large mission areas, a variety of missions, item gathering, trapping and other anomalies which makes the game infinitely more playable. With Soul Sacrifice you arrive, kill everything and leave; this doesn’t stay fun for long.

The gathering of powers also feels a little shallow as well. Crafting items is a case of merging item A with item B in order to either make a more powerful item A or a whole new item C. There is no armour modding or intelligent crafting here. Part of the appeal I find with crafting is setting a goal of wanting a certain spell or weapon and then grinding away to get the ingredients required to obtain said goal. In Soul Sacrifice you get spells from completing missions but combining them feels like an afterthought as very rarely do you have to manage your spells and resources as everything is very much on a set path. Soul Sacrifice is very much about utilising what you have to advance rather than finding and creating spells in order to progress. As such Soul Sacrifice very much feels like an echo of other titles within the genre.

This by no means that Soul Sacrifice is a disaster, far from it. The process with which you level your character is a unique gimmick. As you defeat monsters you can choose to either Save them or Sacrifice them. Saving will level up your Life and Vitality bar whilst Sacrificing will add power to your magic skills. You can build your character to level 100 using any balance you so desire. Do you like getting in close and destroying enemies with close melee combat? Then Save your enemies to give you that little bit of damage absorption. Prefer to stand at a distance and unleash ranged magic attacks at your foes then Sacrifice to your hearts content.

As an added management aspect of the Save/Sacrifice dynamic, the major boss battles can also be saved which gives you additional NPC companions to join you in future battles or sacrificed in order to gain new extremely rare and powerful spells. This makes you think about how you are playing the game and forces you to tailor your decisions to best suit your playing style.

The final Sacrifice is the Black Rites spells. These are extremely powerful spells but come with an exceptionally high cost. You have to sacrifice part of yourself in order to use them. For example, you can sacrifice your skin which engulfs the entire map in flames but means you have receive a 50% reduction in defence whilst the black rite is active. Alternatively you can sacrifice your eyes, as you pop them out, which they then multiply when they hit the floor and start emitting lasers, shooting everything in their path. The cost? The game screen becomes blurry severely hampering your vision until you restore the Black Rite.

Whilst the Black Rite may save turn certain defeat into victory it comes at an ever increasing price. The only way to undo the Black Rite is spend Lacrima, which are the tears shed from Librom’s weepy eye on the front  cover. Librom is consistently building up Lacrima but you can only harvest it inbetween missions. On top of restoring Black Rites Lacrima will reinstate offerings and rewrite quests with multiple outcomes.

As mentioned, the cost of restoring a Black Rite grows with each use, discouraging you from using it unless absolutely necessary. You may perform a Black Rite that saves you from having to restart a lengthy stage but find yourself stuck with its harsh penalty for the next five missions as you try to build up enough Lacrima to remove the effect. Yes it is punishing, yes it is frustrating but it does make you think about your strategy.

Whilst it is wholly possible to complete the entire game without touching the co-op aspect, you would be doing Soul Sacrifice a great disservice if you took this path. Communication with other online players is through ready-made text strings, however if the players are on your friends list you can activate the Vita’s party chat. This is the major issue with the online aspect as, quite often, other players have their own agenda in battle and the limited communication leaves little room for negotiation.

Teaming up with higher level players online can make the more difficult Avalon Pact side missions much easier but if you don’t have what it takes there is other ways you can participate. You can prompt your team mates to Save you which restores you back to life at a cost to their health, they can Sacrifice you which unleashes a power spell across the map. Alternatively you can simply die, which opens up the most intriguing aspect of online play.

When you die you continue to be part of the team and participate by tapping on enemies to weaken them or, alternatively, tapping on allies to strengthen them and their abilities via the Vitas touchscreen. This allows those new – or not very good – at the game to actively contribute to the cause without feeling like too much of a burden on the overall team and is an interesting take on a life after death mechanic.

Overall, it’s impossible to ignore the repetitiveness of the quests and missions but the well thought out story, rewards for committing to the unique decision making mechanic and well thought out price point are more than enough reasons to sacrifice some cash to rid the world of Arch Fiends.

MLG Rating: 6/10 Platform: PlayStation Vita Release Date: 01/05/13

Disclosure: Midlife Gamer were provided a copy of Soul Sacrifice for review purposes by the promoter. The title was reviewed over the course of two weeks on a PlayStation Vita. For more information on what our scores mean, plus details of our reviews policy, click here.

E3 is two thirds of the way through and the dust is beginning to settle. If you are a fan of gaming or an enemy of TV integration; you have been eagerly awaiting any and all information to come from the conferences.

There are triangles, squares, crosses and circles flying about the screen interspersed with game clips of past, present and future titles whilst and audio track blasts a dubsteppy tune with the lyrics “We all need something to believe in”. It must be time for the Sony conference.

Well…ummm actually the conference was a little while ago. My teething son had other ideas when I sat down to watch the conference live and  after being hit with #XboxDOne tweets and news of a price point that hits many people’s sweet spots I was eager to watch the recording. Much like Greg’s Microsoft Summary earlier today, here is a handy guide to keep you up to date.  If you fancy watching the 100 minute show then see the link at the bottom of the article

First up, Jack Tretton appears on stage and states that it has been “an exciting year so far” and that during the conference, although we would be revisting what was announced in February there would also be lots of news for the 70 million PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita users as well

And that’s exactly where we started albeit with a lot of stats and figures.  125 Vita games, rising to 650 games if you count the PS1, PSP and mobile games. 60% of all Vita purchases are digital (this may be because the consumer sees the price of physical Vita games) and the “best place to play outside the home” and “the ultimate companion device in the home”

Jack then went on to announce that there will be 85 Vita titles released by the end of the year including: Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate, Counter Spy, Destiny of Spirits, Doici Doici Universe, Killzone, Tearaway, Final FantasyX, Final Fantasy X-2, Dead Nation, Flower.

The biggest cheer for the Vita section was without a doubt reserved for the announcement that Tell Tale’s The Walking Dead will be launching initially with the new episode entitled 400 days before the 1^st season is launched on the console.

Next up was PlayStation 3 news. Something that struck a chord with me during both this conference and  the Microsoft conference is that neither of the current gen consoles was forgotten about and that it promises to be an exciting time during the end of life for this generation.

Games coming up this year opened with the Game of the Year candidate and eagerly anticipated action adventure Last of Us. If you are unaware of anything about this game where have you been for the last three to four weeks. Last of Us has received perfect scores pretty much across the board and will certainly be a title that we will be talking about for months to come.

This was quickly followed by Move title Puppeteer and dual stick platformer where you take on the role of Kutaro – a boy who has been turned into a puppet and had his head torn off – with your left stick and a ghostly cat named Ying Yang with your right stick.

Upcoming atmospheric PSN title Rain made an appearance displaying it’s Hollow Man-esq credentials as a silhouette of various “invisible” creatures and characters were seen as the torrential downpour displayed their outlines.

Next we had this years car porn (part one) as Gran Turismo 6 was shown. A new physics engine, new tire and suspension models, new aerodynamics and a new rendering engine were all announced in the form of on screen text but words really do fail to do justice to the beauty, depth and OK SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY

The final trailer honour for the PlayStation 3 section was given to the latest chapter of  the Dark Knight – Batman Arkham Origins. Origins will follow a younger and less refined Bat as he becomes a target for a multitude of assassins on Christmas Eve. With a 25^th October worldwide release and the PlayStation receiving  exclusive DLC in the form of Nightfall and Adam West era Batman skins, this will be a must purchase for a lot of people.

Jack then announced that there would be a GTA V PlayStation 3 bundle released as well as a GTA V Pulse headset before sneaking in that there would be another 300 titles released for this generation by the end of the year.

Now we have arrived at the section that everyone was waiting for. With the furor that engulfed the Xbox One in the last four weeks, the majority of people felt that Next gen advantage was Sonys to lose. This scenario is not unheard of in the past so with baited breath I, like a lot of people, waited as Andrew House wheeled out a multitude of buzz phrases “Relentless focus on gamers”, “In a state of rapid revolution” before we finally got a glimpse of the PlayStation 4.

With a design focused on the PlayStation heritage, the PlayStation 4 looks more like the PS2 sharp edged big brother than a relation to the curves of it’s predecessor. I can imagine a lot of people not being happy with the sharp edges but as far as I’m concerned as long as it fits on my shelf it could be neon pink and phallus shaped – although that probably wouldn’t fit on my shelf.

Michael Lynton came on to deliver possibly the shortest section of the conference, the multimedia aspect. He stressed that PlayStation gamers are some of the most passionate entertainment subscribers and on the groundbreaking new platform Sony will deliver a richer “Unlimited” service; Music unlimited will expand and include some of the biggest artists of the past and present and will be available on a multitude of devices wheras Video Unlimited will develop exclusive programming for PSN tailored to what gamers want. 1500 movies will be available to rent or buy on launch day of the PlayStation 4.

Currently the PlayStation 3 is the number 1 Netflix streaming device and on the PlayStation 4 this will be joined the Live event player which will be integrated for the viewing of Pay-per-View Sporting and Music events.

Flixster will also be coming to the PlayStation 4, although it wasn’t stated if either of these would be US only the thought of Flixster being on the PlayStation 4 in the UK is an appealing one. Those Ultraviolet codes you ignore in your Blu-ray and DVD purchases, guess where they can be accessed? Yep Flixster.

Now it was time for Shu Yoshida to announce some upcoming exclusive titles. First up was the announcement of The Order 1886. Based on the 3 minutes of footage appeared to be a Steam punk-ish monster hunter set in a foggy Victorian London.

We then saw a brief recap of the titles announced in February; Killzone Shadow Fall, Drive Club, Infamous Second Son, and Knack. The big news here was that, with the exception of Infamous Second Son which launches in Quarter 1, all three of these titles would be day 1 launch titles.

Next Quantum Dreams were given an opportunity to showcase some concept footage of The Dark Sorcery, all being shown “In Engine”. This concept reintroduced us to the old man head seen back in February except this time he had a body and a sidekick that wants to be Yoda. If you haven’t seen the demo then I’m not going to spoil anything for you and urge you to watch it below.

Adam Boyes came out on stage to discuss what we can expect from 3^rd parties and Indie developers. The PlayStation 4 will cultivate a wide variety of experiences by bringing the best 3^rd party titles as well being the most open format for Indie developers. In very quick succession we were introduced to Supergiant Games – creators of Bastion – demonstrating Transistor.

They were joined on stage by Klei Entertainment (Don’t Starve), Tribute games (Mercenary Kings), Young Horse (Octodad), Switchblade Monkeys (Secret Ponchos), ragtag Studios (Ray’s Dead), Red Barrels (Outlast), Lorne Lanning (Oddworld New n’Tasty) and 17bit games (Galak-z) before it was announced that all of these titles would be exclusive to the PlayStation 4.

It was then time for the big guns which was kicked off in style by Square Enix showcasing trailers for both Final Fantasy XV and the Disney collaboration Kingdom Hearts 3 before the announcement of PlayStation exclusivity for Final Fantasy.

Although it had a few technical issues we were treated to an in game demonstration of the AnvilNext engine utilized by Ubisoft in Assassins Creed Black Flag with unspecified exclusive content coming to the PlayStation 3 and 4 editions of the game.

It is very much an overused cliché but if I was to say that Ubisofts upcoming open world action adventure stealth game Watchdogs was highly anticipated it truly would be the understatement of the year. Prior to being told that the PlayStation will receive an extra 60 minutes of exclusive gameplay we were taking on a journey through the gameplay and how “Everything is connected” including a slightly brushed over but intriguing aspect in regards to the implementation of mobile players in the WatchDogs world.

In quick succession we then saw trailers for NBA2k14, Elder Scrolls Online – with an exclusive beta coming to PlayStation – and Mad Max. For the game play seen for these titles it’s very hard to form any sort on an opinion other than they look incredible.  Whether the gameplay will match will be seen in the coming months.

Now it was time for the grand finale in what can be described as the “Sony raising a middle finger to Microsoft” section. All of which were delivered in a here’s the fact, let that just sink in before I move on fashion. There 140 games in development currently for the PlayStation 4 with over 100 planed to be released in the first year. 40% of those first year releases will be exclusives.

The PlayStation 4 will support used games, an online connection is not required for single player campaigns and the PlayStation 4 will “continue to work if it hasn’t been online for 24 hours”.

The Gaiki cloud gaming service will launch in the US in 2014 for both the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 3 initially before being followed by the PlayStation Vita and will contatcin a vast catalogue of PlayStation 3 games. Is this a way of saying backwards compatibility for a new generation?

The PlayStation Plus subscription service goes from strength to strength and will continue to offer discounts, auto updates, early beta access , cloud saves and the instant game collection but will now also include the PlayStation 4. On Launch day Plus subscribers will receive Driveclub Plus Edition for their instant game collection with a new PlayStation 4 title added each month. I would imagine that the title specifies “Plus Edition” in the title that it will be a slightly stripped down version of the retail edition and what that involves will probably come to light in the weeks and months to come.

Snuck into the Plus subscription section was the announcement that PlayStation 4 owners will need a Plus subscription to play online multiplayer games is bound to annoy some Sony owners but at the current pricing structure – which is bound to rise –  and the benefits received it is still great failure for money.

“Leaving something special to last” was the cue for the very first look at live gameplay footage for the Bungie and Activision collaboration Destiny. A fairly lengthy demo showcased the collaborative gameplay between friends as well as “public events”.

Andrew House cryptically announced a “long term exclusive relationship between Sony and Activision that will see the PlayStation 4 evolve within the Bungie universe. What this means however was never touched on before he then went on to announce, in a scene that reminded me somewhat of the scenario of E3 ’95 when Sony undercut Sega when announcing second, a price point of £349 in the UK before ending the show.

It has to be remembered that this price does not include the Eye Camera and a single controller. Personally for me I am more than happy to purchase my console and additional peripherals in drips and drabs over a number of months and as such the price point just sneaks under the sweet spot for gaming hardware.

Sony could have taken the line that they only had to turn up to “win” E3 but  resting on their laurels  they didn’t. The result was an excellent conference which got the juices of this particular writer flowing not only for the PlayStation 4 but the final years of this generation too. Once you reach puberty it dawns on you that it is ok to like more than one manufacturer when the actual end result is awesome times for gamers. Greatness does indeed await.

The Microsoft’s conference live stream has finished and we have this handy summary for you to keep you up to date if you missed the stream or fancy seeing it in writing. If you want to watch it for yourself you can check it out in the YouTube embed at the bottom of the page.

Microsoft kicked off the conference in style with Konami revealing gameplay footage of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. The latest in the MGS saga with be open-world with real-time weather and realistic passage of time, meaning day and night cycles and all manner of natural advantages and hindrances to the classic stealth gameplay we all love in a beautiful and powerful new engine, Fox Engine. Various transport (horse, tank, jeep)  allows you to move around this open environment and take advantage of unprecedented strategic freedom. CQC returns, enhanced to work dynamically based on environment and enemies. Lastly we were able to hear the recently announced new voice of Snake, Kiefer Sutherland. So it’s confirmed, MGSV is coming to Xbox One.

Next Microsoft announced briefly what’s going to be happening with the Xbox 360 in the near future. As of today a new Xbox 360 model is available to buy. It’s a more box shaped console, fitting in with the Xbox One design and runs much quieter.

From July 1st all Xbox Live Gold members will be able to choose two free Xbox 360 games to download and keep each month – Microsoft’s answer to PS Plus. Assassin’s Creed 2 and Halo 3 have been confirmed as upcoming free titles.

Next three Xbox 360 games were showcased, including two new reveals. World of Tanks in coming to Xbox 360 in the Summer via XBLA. The free to play title is already a massive hit on PC and that same free to play experience is coming to XBLA, rebuilt specifically for Xbox 360 and featuring 15 Vs 15 tank combat.

The second new reveal was for Max The Curse of Brotherhood, a 2D side scrolling platformer where you manipulate the environment to create paths and puzzle solution via an on-screen marker.

Finally and extended Dark Souls II gameplay video was shown.

Xbox One was the focus for the rest of the conference.

RYSE: Son of Rome was announced for Xbox One. Previously revealed as an Xbox Kinect title a couple of years back, RYSE is now a third-person action game. Gameplay footage of Roman ships and soldiers storming a beach was showed, seemingly played on stage. It suggested dynamic quick-time event executions for dealing with multiple foes as well as vicious sword and shield combat and the famous turtle shell manoeuvre, all rendered with the latest cry engine and looking gorgeous. RYSE: Son of Rome is an exclusive launch title for Xbox One.

Next Microsoft made a lot of fan’s loins stir with passion and anticipation, as they announced the return of the beloved Rare fighter Killer Instinct coming to Xbox One.

Ted Price from insomniac took the stage next to show a CGI trailer for FPS Sunset Overdrive, a purportedly dynamic open-world, living-world game with a cartoon style and Insomniac’s flare for unique weapons. Unfortunately information on Sunset Overdrive was limited but it will be exclusive to Xbox One.

Forza 5 was shown next, confirming that it will feature the McLaren’s highly advanced P1 sports car. A new feature called Drive-a-tar was introduced, which learns to mimic your play style to better compete with you and even goes online against others whilst you’re away from the Xbox, earning you credits. A new in-game footage trailer was also shown, further cementing the titles as one of the most beautiful racers yet. Forza 5 is an exclusive launch title for Xbox One.

Irritated by the size of the maps in Minecraft on Xbox 360? Want more multiplayer options for it? Well this announcement is for you. Minecraft is coming to Xbox One with bigger maps, and enhanced, although currently undefined, multiplayer.

Remedy’s Sam Lake took the stage next to briefly talk about one of the new IPs revealed alongside the Xbox One a few weeks back, Quantum Break. This transmedia project will meld the experiences of TV and games to allow a more personal narrative to run alongside the TV series and for each to affect how the other plays out, similar to Defiance. Some in-game real-time footage was shown of an explosion being suspended in a bubble of time whilst two investigators saved the woman caught in it. It suggests gameplay involving pausing time to solve mysteries.

Next an cell shaded, episodic murder mystery from Swery65 was announced called D4, showing a little bit of footage and no information.

Project Spark was the next announcement. Project Spark is Xbox One’s answer to Little Big Planet. It’s a set of game making tools for you to create a variety of different experiences. Voice control can be used to shape the terrain, Smart Glass can be used for sculpting and create rivers, cliffs and bridges. You can add villages, pets, enemies and events to create scenarios. It supports multiplayer, you can warping landscape in-game whilst playing. It’s a difficult game to describe and what was shown was impressive but vague. However, creating your own games based on certain foundations seems to be the order of the day, then you can play them yourself and share them online.

Next a few announcements about the extra game related options available with Xbox One. Upload Studio allows you to records game clips as well as edit and narrate them. Microsoft has partnered with Twitch to allow you to stream your game anytime. MS points are being scrapped for real money instead, and finally everyone in your household can experience the benefits of Xbox Live Gold, including multiplayer, even if the primary account isn’t logged in.

A spiritual successor to Panzer Dragoon was announced with a gameplay video, Crimson Dragon.

Next came a gameplay footage reveal of Dead Rising 3, which is now set in an open-world city. Dead Rising 3 will feature breakable and climbable scenery, no load times, a huge density of zombies onscreen, exploding cars and the popular and title defining weapon customising and creating. Everything is a potential weapon and you can customise and build weapons wherever you are. Dead Rising 3 will also feature driving with zombies able to get you through car windows and Smart Glass can be used to call in additional support such as artillery strikes. The big news is that Dead Rising 3 will be exclusive to Xbox One.

CD Project Red were next on stage to re-reveal the Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. It’s still set in a dark and mature world but this time it’s free-roaming in an open-world with 100 hours of play, optional voice commands through Kinect, optional Smart Glass inventory management and character development, and a fancy new engine to bring it all to life.

EA and Dice then showed some gameplay footage of Battlefield 4 featuring a sinking ship, debris dynamically sent hurtling towards enemies by explosions and some truly impressive visuals and sound. Also the Second Assault map pack will get a timed exclusive release on Xbox One.

Microsoft then mentioned they still aim to support indie developers and their projects, they also revealed isometric adventure title Below, where you exploring a mysterious island, and that a studio called Black Tusk is working on an exclusive title, with a CGI trailer showing a potential spy action title.

Next 343 took the stage to show a new Halo title coming to Xbox One in 2014. It was called simply Halo, suggesting it’s not a part of the reclaimed trilogy. It was also announced as the first 60fps Halo title.

The conference then started to wrap up, but Microsoft and one of their partners still had something to show. Firstly Microsoft revealed the launch month and price for the Xbox One, November 2013 and £429.

And finally, ending the Microsoft press conference, out came Respawn entertainment to show the Xbox One exclusive title, to be published by EA, Titanfall. Titanfall is a futuristic FPS title featuring personal mechs you can jump in and out of whilst you’re on the battlefield. An on-stage gameplay demonstration showed the mechs, jetpacks and wall running whilst you battle it out in a war-torn city. Titanfall is due for release exclusively on Xbox One in Spring 2014.

Microsoft indeed kept to their promise to deliver nothing but games in this conference, and what was shown looked terrific. Regardless of your feelings about the DRM for the Xbox One, you can’t deny that games coming to the console are looking mighty impressive.

What have we been playing

Gears of War: Judgement, CSR Racing, Sleeping Dogs, Defiance, Scrabble, Running With Friends and Uno & Friends.

In the news

Metal Gear Solid 5 voice actor announced, Fable Anniversary getting the HD treatment, no less than a god cracks the final cube of Curiosity with GodUs, Saints Row 4′s collectors edition detailed, Harmonix reveal Fantasia: Music Evolved, Plants vs. Zombies 2: Its About Time announced, Beyond: Two Souls gets a UK release date, Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic comes to iPad, a new Halo game and Rock Band songs start to drop off the marketplace.

Soundtrack of our gaming lives

In this episode, Paddy Cass selects “Will the Circle be Unbroken” from Bioshock Infinite.

In addition you get the usual suspects; Retail Roundup, New Releases, DLC, and the Sexy Quiz.

Subscribe to the show on iTunes & leave us a sexy review. Download direct or listen here.

As always we really appreciate feedback so tell us what you thought of the show or expand on the discussion points raised by leaving a comment.

For more podcasts head over to our podcast archive.

The Rezzed PC and Indie Gaming show is returning for its second year, this time its hitting the Midlands as Eurogamer.net and RockPaperShotgun put together the dedicated show at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham.

The show is on Saturday 22nd and Sunday 23rd June and we’ve got three pairs of weekend tickets, worth £20 each, to giveaway.

You could be one of the first to play Creative Assembly’s Total War: Rome II, attend one of the numerous developer sessions and experience the inventive and diverse games as part of the Leftfield Collection.

Last year’s event featured appearances by Peter Molyneux and DayZ creator Dean Hall, so you never know who you might meet this year.
Take a gander over at the official REZZED site for more details and regular updates. There are even rumours of an after event meet up for a few drinks with the Eurogamer team.

So, if you’re free on either Saturday 22nd and/or Sunday 23rd June and can get yourself to the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham, why not enter this competition to win a pair of weekend tickets.

There are two ways to enter:

1 – Place a comment below telling us which game you are most looking forward to seeing at Rezzed this year (click here for a handy list of whats been announced so far).
…and…
2 – Tweet the following:

Win a pair of tickets to #Rezzed weekend! Follow @RezzedGameShow & @Midlifegamernet and RT.

We’ll put all the entries into our virtual hat and pull three lucky winners out on Friday 14th June at midnight.

Good luck.

Winners under the age of 16, must be accompanied by a parent or guardian. You should also know that there are some areas strictly for over 18s, so if you’re lucky enough to look under 18, make sure you take some photo ID with you.

Competition is now closed.  All entries made after reading this sentence will not count but may still be charged. Winners will be notified of their prize in due course

Celebrity Face Mash pretty much sums up the entire app. The app takes two celebrities which are linked via the professional genre such as Music, Film, Sport or TV and mashes parts of their faces together. Your task is to then work out which two celebrities form the composition on your screen.

For those that are truly stuck there is a hints system which gives you three hints per celebrity. These range from the unhelpful “Born in October 1961 in Watford” to the – equally unhelpful to me – “Appeared with his band on X Factor”. Each of these clues cost the cost you one hint, whilst revealing both celebrities instantly will cost you four hints.

As with all games of this ilk, additional hints can either be earned by correctly guessing celebrities or by making an in app purchase of either 20, 50 or 100 hints at a cost of £0.69, £1.49 and £1.99 respectively. 200 celebrities in and I have still not had a requirement to actually make a purchase.

The one aspect missing from Celebrity Face Mash is its social media integration and the ability to ask your friends for assistance in guessing the celebrities. Celebrity Face Mash could have easily taken the integration from Logo Quiz or 4 Pics One Word and although it is not something I use very often in those games; it is very apparent that it isn’t here in this game.

With 240 celebrities included in its initial release there is little chance of the winner of I’m a Celebrity Strictly Dancing on Ice being mashed with The Mastercooks Apprentice’s Got Talent runner-up but that’s not to say some of these mash-ups are not challenging and I have passed the phone to my good lady on a few occasions to find out who is in the picture – Harry Styles and Carly Rae Jepsen anyone?

Overall Celebrity Face Mash is great for wasting 10 or 15 minutes whilst doing other things and has a just one more picture appeal to it just don’t come to me when you get stuck.

MLG Rating: 6/10 Platform: iOS / Android Release Date: 21/05/2013

Disclosure: Midlife Gamer were provided a digital copy of Celebrity Face Mash for review purposes. The title was reviewed over the course of 3 days on an iPhone 5. For more information on what our scores mean, plus details of our reviews policy, click here.

Now if you have ever played a Donkey Kong Country game in the past then you will already have a good idea of what you’re getting yourself in for; but for those of you who haven’t then let me explain exactly what this game has to offer.

Donkey Kong Country Returns is a traditional “2D” platformer. The aim of the game is to make it through each level from left to right while avoiding all the traps, enemies and obstacles that are in your way. What I have always liked about this series is that it is quite challenging and I am glad to say that this hasn’t changed here. Even playing in the “New Mode” which is designed to be a little more forgiving you will still have to have your wits about you.

When you boot the game up you will be given the option of New Mode or Original Mode. Original mode is the same as it was on the Wii version. Donkey Kong starts with only two hearts and collecting Diddy Kong in a level with grant you with an additional two hearts. Each hit from an enemy will take up a whole heart so I’m sure you don’t need me to tell you that you need to be careful to preserve them as heart items don’t exactly pop up all over the place. In new mode you are granted an extra heart both for Donkey Kong and for collecting Diddy Kong granting you a maximum of six hearts. While this certainly helps you will still get punished for not paying attention properly.

I love the level design in this game. This is a prime example of how to do platforming right. Despite the simple goal of making it to the end of the level; DKCR does a great job of keeping the game play fresh. One moment you’re bumbling along jumping over pits and hanging from the ceiling the next you’re thrown into a classic mine cart level which just oozed with nostalgia.

This game looks down right beautiful on the 3DS screen. Fluid animations, vibrant colour palette and a killer soundtrack to boot. The 3D does look great and really does suit some levels more than others. Now this is possibly more of a personal gripe but I couldn’t play it with the 3D slider turned all the way up. I found it sent my eyes a bit crazy as there was so much going on at times. I found the slider at about halfway to be the sweet spot. Bear in mind that I say this as someone who plays most 3DS games with full 3D enabled.

There is a great deal of content available here. A great variety of stages, that all look very different from each other. This version even boasts some extra levels that were not in the Wii version, giving those who played that version something new to look forward to. Each stage also features a boss. These are all incredibly creative and most even had me laughing at just how ridiculous they are; for example three pirate crabs standing on each others backs chasing you across the screen. If that doesn’t bring a smile to your face then you have no soul.

Like a lot of recent Nintendo platformers this title also features what is called a “Super guide”. Personally I don’t like this feature as it completely takes control off you. Basically if you are struggling on a level the game will eventually offer you a prompt to go into “Super guide” mode. What this does is let you watch how the level should be played. Now this idea sounds good in practice as you could just have not noticed something and the guide could help you in that way. The problem I have is that if you let the guide play through to the end of the level the game will then let you move onto the next stage. So in theory you could actually watch the entire game be played for you without any effort on your part. Which is a detriment to the game as the challenge of the levels also leads to a great sense of accomplishment when you get through.

Overall Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D is an incredible game and deserves a place in any 3DS owners library.  This really is how you do a platformer right. Tight controls, great level design and creative boss fights. The challenge this title offers is just right and if you try to ignore the super guide feature then you will come away from this game with a great sense of accomplishment. I personally love 2D platformers and it’s good to see that they are still being represented well in the current game market. Another must own for the 3DS.

MLG Rating: 9/10 Platform: Nintendo 3DS Release Date: 24/05/2013

Disclosure: Midlife Gamer were provided a digital copy of Donkey Kong Country returns 3DS for review purposes. The title was reviewed over the course of 7 days on a Nintendo 3DS. For more information on what our scores mean, plus details of our reviews policy, click here.

The story sees you as the titular spider, traversing through countless levels to find your girlfriend whose rocket has crash landed on another planet. I hope she’s worth it mate because this is going to be one heck of a long journey fraught with danger at absolutely every turn.

A few tutorial levels will introduce the basic mechanics. You move left and right and can jump. Collect the coins to rack up points and get to the end of the level. You’re awarded stars based on your score, and you’ll need to amass these to unlock later levels. Being a spider, you can also shoot a line of web that you use to attach to walls and this allows you to swing, build up some momentum and propel yourself forward through the level. Such a grappling mechanic is nothing new, whether you’ve been Link or Ratchet or my beloved Bionic Commando. However, it will take some practice to actually hit your target meaning you invariably fall to you death. No problem, you’ll respawn immediately at the most recent, frequent checkpoint, and try again.

And as the old saying goes, if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. And again AND again. Scream obscenities at the TV and try again. Throw your controller against the wall and try again. Turn it off and come back to it another day, and try again. Alien Spidy is probably the most infuriating platformer I have ever played. This is a real shame as there is much to like and there is a good game in here somewhere. It’s just that the sheer volume of obstacles coupled with an overly precise control mechanism that doesn’t seem well implemented on a control pad makes the game far more frustrating that it should be.

There are almost two different gaming outlooks in one here. One is just having the necessary skills and patience required to get through the level. The sheer number of obstacles and steep difficulty spike will necessitate respawning countless times. Coupled with an awkward control scheme (for example, hit ‘A’ to jump, then whilst in the air flick the right analog stick at precisely the right time and angle to hit the wall or flower you’re targeting, whilst at the same trying to manoeuvre Spidy at the target with the left stick. The floaty jumping is a bit reminiscent of Sackboy in LBP. Too often however, progress comes from fluke rather than skill.

The other is for the OCD gamers amongst us, as you try to get through the level, whilst collecting all the blue orbs. These will often be arranged in an arc shape, and their points value increases as you swing through the arc on your web. Miss one and the point values reset. It’s not long before they introduce different coloured orbs that deduct large chunks of your score, and these are often arranged very close to the point giving spheres you are supposed to be collecting. So even if you do manage to latch your web onto the right surface, you’ll likely end up swinging through a bunch of stars that will deduct hundreds of points from your score.

The insane difficulty spike comes when you have to combine both speed and accuracy together in order to obtain another star for the level. Every second you stutter, stumble or stop to take a breath your score rolls back slightly, taunting you as it ticks down whilst you try and build it up towards your overall goal of another star. Speed up and you may die or have to restart which takes a major chunk out of your score. You may get to the end of the level and punch the air as you have wildly surpassed your previous best only not to come anywhere near close as your score dwindles down due to the previously mentioned penalties.

The non-completionists may think nothing of getting a one or two star score on your first run through but once you realise that in order to unlock the next world you have to obtain a set number of level stars on your current world it will force them back into replaying and dying on the same stage over and over again. The push for a four or five star level completion is often an exercise in futility as you soon discover that your best is simply not good enough the majority of the time. That being said, the satisfaction received when you manage to achieve an additional star on a stage it immense. However the victory is short lived as you then have to start the whole process again with an even tougher set of stages in a bright new world.

Overall, the levels are challenging and every now and then fun to play as long as you are not obsessive about the “perfect” run but the almost masochistic stage goals and harsh scoring system that you are forced into to progress from world to world kills the experience. However if you like to be severely punished in your gaming time then you could do far worse than trying this.

MLG Rating: 6/10 Platform: Xbox 360 / PC / Mac / PlayStation 3 / PlayStation Vita Release Date: 20/03/2013

Disclosure: Midlife Gamer were provided a digital copy of Alien Spidy for review purposes. The title was reviewed over the course of 7 days on a Xbox 360. For more information on what our scores mean, plus details of our reviews policy, click here.