Mon, 8 Mar, 10
Author:
Neil Mohr

Category:
Games deals

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Burnout Paradise: The Ultimate Box £4.99 @ The Game Collection [PC Games]

Burnout Paradise: The Ultimate Box £4.99 @ The Game Collection [PC Games]

Take the sandbox idea, throw it at a driving game and Burnout Paradise is what would drop from the sky. Both off and online happy this is a huge driving game and this edition throws in all of the available download content packs including the Bikes Pack, which is almost a new game in itself. At £4.99 The Game Collection is undercutting next-closest Game by £2. So if you feel the call of the open road, get clicking.

One thing Burnout Paradise is not is a precise simulation. If you’re hoping for something that mimics the reality of racing, close the browser, turn off your computer, head outside and go sit in your Ford Fiesta. Burnout Paradise feels like you’ve been dropped into the middle of a The Fast and the Furious stunt scene and if you simply go with it, it can be glorious fun. Possibly that’s a little down to this version being somewhat less punishing that the original. Time limits have been relaxed in the opening stages and generally it feels totally accessible.

The sense of speed in Burnout Paradise is stupendous and it’s really that, which keeps you coming back. The crashes for all their spectacle do get a little tedious and there’s no more sense of progression other than having a new car unlocked, so sometimes for the single player it can sometimes seem oddly unrewarding.

The ‘ultimate’ part of this packages throws in the pay-for Party Pack, which offers pass-the-controller gameplay for a limited-attention-span generation and is aimed more at the consoles than the PC, alongwith all of the freely available DLC. As we mentioned this includes the large Bikes Pack, which adds a frankly excellent and complete bike element to the game including reworked maps and missions. There’s a also a full day/night cycle, which it’s hard to understand how they missed the first time around, plus a ‘restart’ option that enables you to do just that with failed events. Sadly, though, no Big Surf Island included here, but the sheer amount of game on offer enough is certainly enough to keep you entertained for hours on end.

Thanks to Ouenben at HotUKDeals!

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Wed, 3 Mar, 10
Author:
Matt Gardner

Category:
Games deals

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Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X. £8.94 @ The Hut [PS3 Games]

Tom Clancys H.A.W.X. £8.94 @ The Hut [PS3 Games]

More goodness from The Hut. Today, using the voucher code PLAY10, you’ll be able to snaffle an extra 10% off of any Playstation daily deals you can find over at the big blue vendor. We already brought a few this morning, but we’ll be highlighting a couple more throughout the day, kicking off with combat flight-sim H.A.W.X.

If you fancy taking to the skies for some slick dogfighting action then head on over to The Hut where they have the PS3 version listed for £9.93, already nearly a good £5 cheaper than the nearest competitor (Amazon Jersey – £14.73). But with the added voucher code, you’re looking at a saving closer to £6, and nabbing one of the most fun games of last year for under a tenner.

Dubious acronyms aside (the title stands for High Altitude Warfare eXperimental squadron), this is a pretty good combat flight-sim. It looks good, plays great, and brings interactive Top Gun that little bit closer to reality, which is all we really want from a game like this really.

There’s a plot involving evil PMCs and a bunch of Communists, and there are some nifty touches with the ERS (Enhanced Reality System), which is basically just a ring flying mini-game to get you perfectly lined up for a shot, and the Assistance OFF mode, which sees the camera pan out for some death-defying manoeuvres.Tom Clancys H.A.W.X. £8.94 @ The Hut [PS3 Games]

I would say that you should go out and buy Ace Combat VI instead, but unfortunately that’s not an option for PS3 owners. However, H.A.W.X. certainly provides enough aerial entertainment for any fans of the genre. It’s particularly good for quick stints, and it’s arcade style takes some beating. Clancy fans should be wary, though, as it doesn’t quite manage to stack up against the high standards of previous series, but then this is a first instalment. Well worth a punt for this price.

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Tue, 2 Mar, 10
Author:
Neil Mohr

Category:
Games deals

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Football Manager 2010 £14.99 @ Steam [PC Games]

Football Manager 2010 £14.99 @ Steam [PC Games]

Much like the beautiful game itself, watching the competing duo of Football Manager and Championship Manager is absolute entertainment. Even better, it means management fans will always have the best of all worlds with both trying to outdo each other, and for 2010 it looks like Football Manager is lifting the cup. The good news is Steam is offering a bargain transfer free with 50% off its usual retail price  for Football Manager until 8th March, that’s £14.99, at least a clear pound less than most other retailers.

Overhearing a conversation between Football Manager players is an exercise in blurring reality. Excited ramblings about some talented young Icelandic lad they’ve just spotted, sends your mind wandering to recall as to whether you’ve missed a recent holiday or not. But with even an average player putting in 240 hours of playing time, which is an entire 10 full days of your life, we’d argue management games like this are role-playing games. Just like WoW you disappear into your own fantasy league running every aspect of your own club.

This latest incarnation of Football Manager sees the Champ Man rival picking up its game. A host of visual changes have washed over not only the interface but the matches themselves. Partly to help newcomers ease into things but also because it needed it. The same goes for its new media page that delivers all the news of this fantasy world to your screen and an improved tactics editor that should help beginners wade through this complex area.

Ultimately the 3D matches needn’t be a visual treat for the game to succeed but the additional polish that’s been applied to the 2010 edition, such as a hundred new player animations, helps a lot. If you didn’t pick up Football Manager 2009 and have avoided Champ Man 2010, then this time-sink is waiting to suck you in.

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Sat, 27 Feb, 10
Author:
Matt Gardner

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Games deals

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The Sims 3 £19.95 @ The Game Collection [PC Games]

The Sims 3 £19.95 @ The Game Collection [PC Games]

If you maybe wound up slipping and falling into a ravine whilst trekking through the Himalayas, whereupon you spent ten years being carefully nurtured back to health by mountain wolves and the odd yeti, you might have missed out on The Sims, Maxis’ take on the God game. This ’strategic real-life simulator’ lets you take command of a 3D walking avatar and puts the smallest details of their life into your hands. You tell them when to eat, sleep, drink, party, work, play and so on and so forth. The Sims essentially combines people watching with almighty puppeteering, and it’s absurdly engrossing.

You can snaffle a copy of the third instalment of the game, which features more of an emphasis on the neighbourhood experience, by heading on over to The Game Collection and buying one for £19.95, saving you around£5 on the nearest competitor over at Amazon.

The Sims 3 comes with a kind of Story Mode now, in which your neighbours will grow and progress through life autonomously alongside you rather than just milling around eternally. The old staples are there, of course; you can still build your dream house, throw parties for celebs, flirt with everyone under the sun, and have blurry pixellated sex with your neighbour’s wife, if you so choose.

The Sims themselves are a little bit different this time around, instead of Wants and Fears, your virtual puppet will now have Wishes, the fulfilling of which will make them incredibly happy and contribute to their Lifetime Happiness score, meaning you can buy rewards. Your Sims will actually go to work now too, rather than just disappearing into the ether for half a day, and there are bundles of new Opportunities, events that’ll boost your Sim’s life with money or skill points.

I learnt the hard way from The Sims 2 that, if you let it, it will suck away your life. There’s something wonderful about taking control of a virtual bright spark and steering them through this colourful representation of life. There’s the transference thing, sure, but there’s so much here to do, and so many different ways to do them. Just make sure you leave time for your actual social life too!

Thanks to Adam2050 at HUKD

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Thu, 25 Feb, 10
Author:
Matt Gardner

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Games deals

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Harvest Moon: Magical Melody £4.97 @ Amazon Jersey [Wii Games]

Harvest Moon: Magical Melody £4.97 @ Amazon Jersey [Wii Games]

Harvest Moon has a lot to answer for. Without it, and it’s quirky, charming gameplay, we might never have seen the advent of that most insidious of social simulation games, the mighty FarmVille. Harvest Moon’s innards share a few blobs of DNA with Zynga’s Facebook classic, and the odd chromosome with The Sims and Animal Crossing. The premise is simple and relaxing, tend to your virtual farm, keep up appearances in town, engage in a whole host of cutesy minigames to cook, fish, rear and groom, and find yourself a wife.

Magical Melody was originally released for the Gamecube way back in 2006, but never came to Europe. It took two years for its release over here and when it finally came it arrived on the Wii. Today you can grab a copy for £4.97 from Argos, which’ll save you nearly £10 on the nearest in stock competitor at the time of writing (Coolshop – £13.99).

This Wii version adds a few features such as motion sensitive compatibility for the mini-games, which play a little bit like WiiPlay now but that’s no bad thing, but unfortunately for the fairer sex, you’ll no longer be able to play as a woman. Everything else is exactly the same as its two year old progenitor, from the music right down to the conversations you’ll have with the bobble-headed townsfolk. If you didn’t play the original then that’s more or less fine (if a little depressingly lazy), but there’s nothing new here really for the seasoned farmer.

Harvest Moon: Magical Melody is still great fun, and its classic blend of wonderfully endearing presentation and soothingly laid-back gameplay is still as attractive as ever, but certain parts of this game smack of hasty cynicism. This game’s existence makes me angry for a number of reasons – lazy motion control elements, a complete lack of new features, and a hatchet job on the female demographic to name a few – but if you haven’t played this before and fancy a more expansive experience than FarmVille can offer then this is well worth picking up for under a fiver.

Thanks to amibees at HUKD

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Wed, 24 Feb, 10
Author:
Matt Gardner

Category:
Games deals

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Steam Midweek Madness: Wings of Prey £15.49 [PC Games]

Steam Midweek Madness: Wings of Prey £15.49 [PC Games]

Wings of Prey goes by a different name if you’re a console gamer, this is essentially just the PC version of IL-2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey, the well-received WWII combat flight sim that sticks you in a cockpit and introduces you, guns blazing, to some of the biggest airborne battles of the mid-20th century conflict.

If that sounds like your cup of tea, then you’ll be pleased to know that Steam, as part of this week’s Midweek Madness, has slashed the price in half and is offering the game for £15.49. As this is pretty much the only place you can pick up a copy at the moment, you’re saving yourself a good 50%.

Wings of Prey is a perfectly serviceable combat flight-sim that sees you hop around Europe’s skies from the Battle of Britain to Stalingrad, taking on successive missions. The game looks astoundingly good, from the planes themselves that will dent and peel and flake with each nick and hit to the impressive terrain and ground features.

In terms of gameplay, Wings of Prey is a lot of fun in all honesty, but it can get a bit repetitive. There’s not much by way of plot to keep you locked in to the various missions, but the dogfighting is brilliant. The campaign itself is pretty short lived and the plane selection is rather poor, but the single missions and mission creator allow you to leap into the cockpits of German and Italian planes too and there is a multiplayer mode, although it’s pretty buggy. I’d also have liked to have seen some Pacific action, but alas, no Pearl Harbor to be found here.

However, if you want an action packed, gorgeous-looking WWII combat sim for your PC, this is the best you’re likely to get. There are a few issues, and it does sacrifice a bit of realism for a slightly more arcade experience, but this is a solid title with some absolutely cracking skirmishes and definitely worth a look if you’re a fan of the genre.

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Sun, 24 Jan, 10
Author:
Lydia Low

Category:
Games deals

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Gardening Mama £9.99 @ CD Wow [DS Games]

Gardening Mama £9.99 @ CD Wow [DS Games]

Mama sure is a busy lady; when she’s not cooking, teaching others to cook or laughing all the way to the bank, she’s a dab hand in the garden. You can join her out there in this mini-game compilation for the DS.

CD Wow are currently offering the best deal; undercutting the next best price of £12.73 from The Hut by nearly three pounds.

Mama takes a break from the kitchen to potter around her beautiful gardens (being a cookery guru clearly pays the bills) and introduce us to a selection of new mini games which range from the overly simple to the near impossible (thanks to a lack of proper explanation) with some fun tossed in here and there for good measure. Gardening Mama’s main game is “Let’s Get Growing!” in which you are tasked with growing a variety of plants, starting with just a few flowers but unlocking more as you go. Generally the gameplay is very similar to the Cooking Mama titles with stylus control to dig trenches, plant bulbs and water flowers. Once you have produced a crop you can create goods from your yield such as jams or carved pumpkins.

Mama herself remains as loveable as ever and her words of encouragement are often all that is needed to keep you trudging through the dull dregs of the mini games on offer. There’s a good range of plants to furnish your gardens with and many of the games are good fun. However they often feel repetitive and either too simple or frustratingly broken.

Thanks to leeds_united_afc at Hotukdeals!

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Mon, 21 Dec, 09
Author:
Matt Gardner

Category:
Games deals

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Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X. £9.99 @ Play [Xbox 360 Games]

Tom Clancys H.A.W.X. £9.99 @ Play [Xbox 360 Games]

Ever dreamt of recreating Top Gun on your TV with you at the sticks? Well now you can with Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X., a dog-fighting sim in much the same vein as the popular Ace Combat series, although with Clancy’s name plastered over everything and US jingoism seeping from every pore. Set in the same mirror universe as Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter series, it takes everything you know and love about Clancy games and adds a pair of wings and a shed-load of missiles.

If your fancy grabbing yourself a copy and scorching through the skies over Rio de Janeiro or taking down terrorists over Washington DC you can pick one up from Play.com for the bargain price of £9.99, which will save you a tasty £4 on the nearest in-stock competitor (Coolshop – £14.00).

H.A.W.X. stands for High Altitude Warfare eXperimental squadron, although the title of the game is somewhat of a misnomer as the squad gets disbanded at the start of the game and the protagonist – one David Crenshaw – signs up along with a bunch of his mates for a shifty Private Military Corps. The first part of the game sees you taking on a bunch of missions as an airborne mercenary before a classic patriotism vs. profit intervention turns everything on its head.

The combat is pretty fun, and there are some nice additions to your average combat flight sim: the ERS (or Enhanced Reality System), for example, is essentially a jumped up targeting computer that, when you’re chasing a particularly fiendish pilot or striving to escape a missile, will illuminate a bunch of hoops for you to fly through to best fulfil your objective. Additionally, by turning the flight assistance OFF (the mode is capitalised), the camera zooms out into a third-person action perspective and you can pull off all manner of high-G turns and death defying loops and rolls.

Unfortunately, I just found myself really bored by this game. The story isn’t as good as that in Ace Combat 6 and, for a game that came out a good year or two later, the graphics are pretty average. It could simply be that as I’ve played Ace Combat to death I’m just too maxed out on combat flight sims, but H.A.W.X. doesn’t really do enough to grab my attention. That said, it’s very good for a quick pick-up-and-play, and the arcade style of combat, along with all of its bells and whistles, is fun in small doses. For a tenner it might be worth a look if you’re a fan of the genre, but Clancy fans be warned: this doesn’t really stand up to the series standards set by GRAW and EndWar.

Thanks to whizzkid from HotUKDeals

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Sun, 6 Dec, 09
Author:
Lydia Low

Category:
Games deals

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Princess Debut £7.95 @ Shop To [DS Games]

Princess Debut £7.95 @ Shop To [DS Games]

If there is one thing that the world is crying out for, it’s a princess dancing/dating simulator for the Nintendo DS. It’s about time we stopped sending our girls out into the world without this kind of preparation; how on earth is she meant to capture the heart of just one prince, let alone six, if she doesn’t know how to successfully navigate a royal ball?

If you think it’s about time you or a female relative/friend/coworker learnt the fine art of the foxtrot then you may wish to waltz over to Shop To who are currently selling Princess Debut for just £7.95, which is only a pound less than My Memory‘s price of £8.95, but after that the price ramps up to £14.49.

The game is based on the fairytale premise of a modern day girl who is whisked away to a parallel universe in which she trades place with a princess who just happens to be conveniently identical to her. She then has thirty days to find a suitable date for the titular Royal Ball. Luckily six handsome suitors are on hand, each with their own unique, if teen romance typical (well, except for the giant talking bunny, Tony), personality, hoping to sweep her off her feet.

Princess Debut is great stocking filler idea as, despite the uninspired plot, there’s plenty of fun to be had and even the odd twist thrown into the tale for good measure. The dancing mechanics are different and enjoyable to execute and there are multiple different endings to unlock so this should keep your little princess busy well into January.

Thanks to michelleleemoo at Hotukdeals!

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Tue, 1 Dec, 09
Author:
Lydia Low

Category:
Games deals

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Thrillville: Off the Rails £6.49 @ EBuyer [Wii Games]

Thrillville: Off the Rails £6.49 @ EBuyer [Wii Games]

If you look back fondly on titles such as Theme Park and Rollercoaster Tycoon then maybe you’d enjoy a nostalgic dip into the rather enjoyable Thrillville: Off the Rails.

Ebuyer are currently leading the deal pack with an asking price of just £6.49. The next best comes in at £9.99 from Coolshop, so you can make a decent £3.50 saving.

Off the Rails is one of those rare “family friendly” titles that adults may actually wish to play for more than ten minutes before they want to gouge out their own eyeballs. It’s simple enough for kids to enjoy but also packs in plenty of fun that anyone can appreciate. As well as offering a decent rollercoaster editor, and theme park management gameplay, there is also huge selection of minigames to tackle. A Wii game that boasts mini-games? What madness is this? …Thankfully the games on offer here are actually entertaining and gratifying.

The graphics are nothing special and there can be the odd framerate issue from time to time, the soundtrack is horribly repetitive and there’s nothing particularly challenging or cerebral about the game but everything works well and it’s easy to lose hours in building your park and then roaming around it –everything you create can be ridden on or played with.Thrillville: Off the Rails £6.49 @ EBuyer [Wii Games]

This Thrillville title is unlikely to leave you breathless but for the mini price that EBuyer are asking, this is a ride that’s well worth taking.

Thanks to DKitty at Hotukdeals!

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Wed, 25 Nov, 09
Author:
Lydia Low

Category:
Games deals

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Cooking Mama 3 £17.93 @ The Hut [DS Games]

Cooking Mama 3 £17.93 @ The Hut [DS Games]

Mama’s gravy train rolls on with this latest culinary adventure offering more of the same plus a new shopping experience that may divert you briefly but is unlikely to leave you hungry for more.

For such a new and popular game, The Hut’s price of £17.93 is not to be sniffed at and gives you a saving of just under £4 when compared to the next best price of £21.85 at Shop To

Cooking Mama caters well for the casual gamer market but has a wide appeal. For those of us not inexplicably drawn in by its considerable charm, this is a decent gift idea for kids or younger siblings.

If you have played the previous offerings then you will know what to expect (and you shouldn’t expect much more) but if you’re new to Mama’s kitchen then there’s plenty here to explore. The game is technically a cooking simulation but don’t expect it to turn you into Gordon Ramsay, this is strictly for “Novelty purpose only”.

Thanks to Pure Reason at Hotukdeals!

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Fri, 20 Nov, 09
Author:
Matt Gardner

Category:
Games deals

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Viva Piñata: Pocket Paradise £5.99 @ Play.com [DS Games]

Viva Piñata: Pocket Paradise £5.99 @ Play.com [DS Games]

Proof that ex-Nintendo second-party developers Rare are still alive and kicking, Viva Piñata stormed onto the Xbox 360 and captivated gmers hearts with a life sim that was both incredibly addictive, brightly coloured and easy to pick up and play. 2008’s incarnation Pocket Paradise is less of a new game and more of a shrinking of the original for the DS and, considering the popularity of the latter and just how much fun it was to play, there’s very little wrong with that.

A perfect stocking filler for kids and adults alike, you can now pick up a copy for just £5.99 from Play.com, saving you a couple of pounds from the nearest competitor (HMV – £7.99) and meaning you can indulge your sweet-filled gardening fantasies for little more than a fiver thanks to Play’s free delivery.

Viva Piñata’s charm is in its simplicity: you are tasked with turning an unsightly plot of land into a beautiful garden and thereby enticing candy-stuffed animals to set up home and spawn. It’s all very relaxed and carefree with no strict objectives as such except for increasing the value of your organic real-estate and attracting more piñata inhabitants. There are little maze-driven mini-games for when the piñata get together to mate, and you’ll spend time driving off wild rampaging Ruffians and sour piñata that attempt to make your garden’s residents sick and sometimes eat them. You’ll have to break up the odd neighbourly fight between residents and make sure that you’re garden is adorned with the best flora and fauna to attract the rare species of piñata.

I own the Xbox 360 original and I have to say that I found to be an incredibly charming little game. The DS version is even better, thanks to a handful of new piñata thrown in from Trouble in Paradise, but more because the entire game is controlled via the stylus. Everything feels intuitive, from drawing grass to navigating the new overhead map. There’s also a new mode entitled ‘Playground’ that’s perfect for younger players as it simply removes the Ruffians and other obstacles from the game.

If you’re looking for a game that offers a completely different experience to the grey-soaked, flash, bang, wallop big-budget games that seem to be flooding the market recently you’d do well to pick up a copy of this. It’s one of the best games on the DS in my opinion, and at £5.99 it’s an absolute steal.Viva Piñata: Pocket Paradise £5.99 @ Play.com [DS Games]

Thanks to Rhys135 at HotUKDeals

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Thu, 19 Nov, 09
Author:
Tamsin Oxford

Category:
Gaming articles

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What’s Your Secret Then?

Do you play a game you dare not admit to?

Just like books, games have a certain snobbery attached to them. For those of us in thWhats Your Secret Then?e know, there are specific types of games that are looked down upon and those that play them are pitied or mocked.

These games are the Twilights or Harry Potters of the gaming world. You play them secretly in a dark underground bunker just in case somebody pops round and catches you at it.

Of course there is a ton of debate as to exactly which games fall under this umbrella – everybody has different tastes, right?

Well, yes, sort of. But, like trainspotting, Solitaire is considered one of those unmentionables. If you nurse a secret addiction to Algerian Patience on Facebook or Spider Solitaire on your Windows desktop I’m willing to bet that you’d never admit that in company.

Whats Your Secret Then?

Imagine the scene: a group of gamers chilling out over some beer at the local and talking about their latest efforts in [insert cool game here] and you then confess to having spent eight straight hours trying to beat the computer at Hearts.

It will never, ever be cool.

And yet there are plenty of people that do enjoy a nice game of solitaire with a hot cup of tea, and they aren’t all wearing curlers in their hair or knitting a sweater either. In fact, one pleasant (and extremely anonymous) person that I chatted to when I was writing this piece said to me, “It’s funny because my partner will play Left4Dead for hours and that’s ok, but if we get into a fight about it he’ll openly sneer at my time spent playing Patience. It’s as if his gaming is an acceptable time sink but mine is not.”

Solitaire isn’t the oWhats Your Secret Then?nly game to meet with an arched eyebrow and a pitying pat. What about Train Simulator? I’ll be brave and admit that I loved it. I spent hours and hours playing that game until a chance conversation at a gaming event had everyone stop talking and stare at me as if I’d grown an extra eye.

I succumbed to peer pressure and stopped playing pretty much immediately (not without a couple of sad glances at the case though). Still, at one point most of the games being released were sim titles of some shape or another so, as a reviewer, I got to play them all without the fear of being burned at the gamer stake. Obviously I pretended to hate every minute of it….

The Sims were also shrouded in this veil of shame at one point although it seWhats Your Secret Then?ems that later incarnations have seen it become a more universally accepted title. The more dedicated gamer is likely to be snorting into his caffeine at this point but overall the comments on gaming sites are a little less patronising when referring to the Sims nowadays. However, I have a sneaky suspicion that Train Sim may still be considered dodgy.

Another title that was thrown my way during my investigations was Flight Simulator. Yes, I’m aware that I’m still lurking in the sim genre but this one I simply had to raise. I’m definitely one of those gamers who looks at fans of Flight Sim and goes, “What? Seriously??”.

Whats Your Secret Then?I understand that it’s got every airport in the world including Barack Obama’s personal landing strip but what on earth could be the attraction of sitting in your chair for the (wait for it) same length of time as the actual flight itself? Then you get there and fly somewhere else. You don’t, as I would expect after such a long wait, get out and have someone hand you a beach and a Mai Tai.

Age of Empires, during its giddy heyday was also considered something of a no-no in gaming circles. While the fan base tried not to take it too personally, FPS lovers would stalk them at events and menace them in dark corners. Usually it was best to keep it all a bit quiet.

Whats Your Secret Then?

Interestingly World of Warcraft has actually become the King of the Game with Shame in spite of being one of the most popular games on the planet. Talking about it in any circle gets you looks of dismay (oh, God an addict), pity (play a real game weirdo!) and fear (he isn’t going to go all Jehovah’s Witness on me, is he?). You can kind of see where it came from but it still takes me by surprise when I realise how far the mantle of WoW has fallen.

What about you? What games have I completely missed out on that you believe fit neatly into this category? Why not admit your little gaming secret while you’re at it, after all if we all confess to one tiny little lapse in taste then perhaps we’ll be more accepting.

Nah…

What’s Your Secret Then?

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Mon, 16 Nov, 09
Author:
Lydia Low

Category:
Games deals

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Trauma Centre: New Blood £9.99 @ The Game Collection [Wii Games]

Trauma Centre: New Blood £9.99 @ The Game Collection [Wii Games]

The excellent Trauma Centre scored another winner with this Wii exclusive instalment of its surgery simulation series. It’s not a huge departure from the previous episodes but there’s been some decent tweaking to improve the overall experience.

Trauma Centre: New Blood can be yours for just £9.99 from The Game Collection, a pretty hot deal; the next best price nearly £4 more at £13.87 from 101 CD.

The action of New Blood takes place in the year 2028, seven years after the events of Trauma Centre: Under the Knife 2. The heroes of the tale are Valerie Blaylock and Markus Vaughn, surgeons working at the Montgomery Memorial hospital in Alaska, who both have the series staple Healing Touch ability. To be honest the plot isn’t particularly strong but, thankfully, that’s hardly the point here.

New Blood is highly challenging, even on the easiest level but luckily it is addictive enough to keep you coming back for another go (even when your patient dies for the most ludicrous reason). With such a tricky operation on your hand you may find yourself wishing for a co-pilot, so it’s convenient that this instalment of the series features co-op play so that you can get an assistant on hand to share the pressure. This is a game that feels made for the Wii, with its excellent use of motion sensitivity and the Wii remote and overall it is a joy to play.Trauma Centre: New Blood £9.99 @ The Game Collection [Wii Games]

So if your Wii is feeling sorry for itself, collecting dust in a corner, then you could do worse than treat yourself to one of the best third party efforts available for the console.

Thanks to Adam2050 at Hotukdeals!

UPDATE: Too late – you were too slow and missed this hot deal! Why not subscribe to our email updates or RSS feeds to make sure that doesn’t happen again?

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Wed, 11 Nov, 09
Author:
Lydia Low

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Games deals

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Cooking Mama £4.98 @ Gameplay [DS Games]

Cooking Mama £4.98 @ Gameplay [DS Games]
This little cooking simulator was a surprise hit and is now into its third incarnation, with no signs of losing its vast popularity. If, for some reason, pretending to make all kinds of meals sounds just like your cup of tea but you have somehow managed to miss out on the game that was clearly made for you then Gameplay have come to your rescue with their excellent under £5 deal! Alternatively it would make a great little stocking filler if you have children or younger siblings with a DS.

The next best price for this game is £19.99 from either Gamestation or Game. There are better deals out there (although the very lowest I have seen was £12.73 from The Hut, nearly £8 more than Gameplay’s price!) but virtually nowhere has the original title in stock at the moment.

Cooking Mama places you into the loving hands of the titular “Mama” who will guide you through a series of recipes as you hold your stylus at the ready to chop, slice, flip and arrange your food items to her exacting(ish) standards.Fail to do so and Mama’s eyes will, rather terrifyingly, burst into flames. But hey, “don’t worry, Mama will fix it!”

The game offers 96 dishes and its fun to play around with all the different ways you can use the DS’s touch screen abilities and microphone (blow on it to cool your meals) throughout the “cooking process”. However I can’t help but wonder what the point is exactly. If you want to play around in the kitchen then why not, umm, go and play around in the kitchen?Cooking Mama £4.98 @ Gameplay [DS Games]

Personally, I hate real cooking but at least I get a meal out of it.

Thanks to Rhys135 at Hotukdeals!

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