A geek's day of mourning

Today, my Playstation 3 died.

On the day I am kicked from one club (27) and I am thrown into the group of people that have suffered the YLoD (Yellow Light of Death).

All my data, game saves that I have been creating for the last 2 years are now stuck on the hard drive that I can only access with MY Playstation, which I cannot turn on. So basically, I'm throw back to square 1.

While I get to enjoy older games all over again, the more recent games that I worked hard to accomplish different things in are wiped clean. PSN trophies are stored online, which is something at least.

The moral of the story: BACKUP YOUR GAME SAVES.

You might not think you need to, just like I always thought, but you never know when you will never them the most.

M

Review - Batman: Arkham Asylum

So, the latest Playstation 3 game to take up too much of my time is Batman: Arkham Asylum. In a word, it is... Awesome!

To pick up and play this game is really very simple, kind of like all those years playing Street Fight II Turbo, button mash until you learn that you can do much more damage if you actually take care in what you are doing. It is very fluid moving, easy to learn the techniques and tricky to perfect them. After all, you don't want it being too easy to fight off 20 guys all hell bent on beating the crap out of you.

The story progresses through Joker's 'escape' into Arkham Asylum, with a little help from his friends, if you can call them that. It is up to Batman to restore order and bring down Joker. As you progress you will meet different characters, both good guys and bad, picking up characters bios as you go. These I found very interesting as I didn't know half of them! You can even listen in on patient interviews conducted within the asylum. The ramblings of Joker, The Riddler, Scarecrow, Killer Croc and more can prove a nice little break from the game.

If/when you complete the story mode, there are a number of challenges for you to complete. These are split into free fighting and predator (stealthy take-down style) modes. Both of which help hone your techniques to be used in the story mode. There are set levels of completion for each of the challenges and an online leader board to compare your efforts against.

The PSN offers some free downloadable content (which is always nice) for you to check out too. These are more challenges and the chance to play as Joker, which is well worth a go.

Throughout the game, both story and challenge, there are a number of trophies to be earned. These range from completing part of the story to performing a set number of moves in combination when fighting off Arkham crazies. Keep your eyes open for 2 in particular though, if you miss them during the story mode, you'll have to start all over again. But then again, that is not a bad thing with this game.

M