It's all IMO.

You are thinking what is the Project, well it is something I have been thinking about for some time, now I have finally started to develop it.

I know that is not clear, but certain things will need to align. First the monies will need to be arranged, then things can be built.

I have a lovely design doc sitting on my PC as I type this, it talks of vaulted principle and deep thought, it speaks of fun and games.

This will be my production, it will be independent and that thrills and excites me, its content my own, my baby, shaped as I see fit, I have the final control, cue evil laugh.

Much work is ahead, I have gathered a force already, but I need others, others with graphical skills, they shall come, they were born too. I even have some girls, for more than just dancing, at the moment.

Over the next few weeks, hopefully not to long I shall elaborate on what this is. How it will shape, even its name and the name of the company behind it.

I will be covering much of what I want to, much of what I like, this will be formless within a structure, but not so out there that it can't be grasped. It shall be more than one thing in the end.

There will be plugs, there will be creation, but I doubt there will be profit, things are afoot, are you more excited or worried, most likely you don't care. But I do, the Project is mine and soon, soon it will arrive.

Long live the Project, join us.

First things first, as has become more style to plug my own reviews and stuff on BXB...

 

Ace Combat 6 Review

 

As you can see, if you bothered to hit the link, I enjoyed the game a great deal.

 

Interestingly enough, my initial draft of the review was somewhat unclear. I was told this by my editor and in fairness I agree with him. A fair portion was cut and cleaned up. This also resulted in .5 being removed from the score, what can I say, I hate scores anyway.

 

What I would like to do is write a review and then get the staff to actually score it for me. Scores can be so arbitrary and just encourage people to not bother reading the actual text. Not something I encourage with my reviews, obviously.

 

On other notes, it's that time of year again, as if you hadn't noticed. Christmas. This year I shall be spending it all with my fiancé, not my family, which is a relief. Last year they came to visit (mom and brother) and I really nearly killed my bro. Ah families, such fun. What this also means is more time for games.

 

Games I intend to really hit now I have time are some COD4 MP which I still haven't got to, The Orange Box (finish H2 and its episodes), complete Mass Effect for the first time and some GH3 on the side!

 

A little game that caught be by surprise by its shear party fun was Scene It LCA. Me and the fiancé love this, I love films as does she (she almost always wins). The big button controller is a great littler peripheral, very well designed and comfortable. I love this game though, achievements are suitably easy to get. The way it also remembers the questions its already asked is genius. I have only been asked the same question once!

 

After Xmas I am looking forward to a few titles, TC's End War, Star Wars the Force Unleashed (an interview I did with one of the dev team from Leipzig 07) and the now seemingly a bit crap Army of Two, though I still have hope. Getting them minus a discount might be a bit crap, but hell thats life and I am sure my new job, whatever that will be, will pay enough to fund my addiction.

 

One final thing, make sure you check BXB for the GOTY Podcast which should be around by the end of this week!

 

 

 

 

My latest review for BXB went up with little fanfare. Thats ok, the game hardly deserved it.

 

Dynasty Warriors: Gundam

 

This was never going to be a stunning game, but hell, it was sort of enjoyable, maybe once.

 

Another review which I recently did after a somewhat long hiatus was:

 

Juiced 2: Hot Import Nights

 

It would seem the lovely colon has become quiet prevalent in the games I have played of late. Juiced 2 was a pleasant surprise and I had a fare bit of fun playing it.

 

I am of course now in the middle of Mass Effect and loving every second of it, something I and my fellow podcasters shall be talking about tonight when we record the newest episode. Number 19 has been a long time coming. With various delays due to technical and schedule issues we have been of the air for around two months. I think the break will have done us good, but only time will tell.

 

Get over to:

 

The BritXbox Podcast Archive

 

For all the shows to date and number 19 will be added by the end of the week. If thats all to much trouble for you search for britxbox  on iTunes and subscribe to the show there. Sorry no direct link for subscription yet. You can also get all the shows there.

 

As you can tell I am strill struggling to blog on a regular basis. Pesky life has a habit of still getting in the way.

 

Something I want to talk about is this:

 

Assassins Creed Preview: Leipzig 07

 

This was the first preview I wrote on my return from Germany this year. Well to say I was disappointed by the game would be an understatement. This is the first time that I have felt that the words I have written have in some way made me into a liar Perhaps that's taking it to far, but I was very bumbed by the repetative nature of such a huge game, the BXB review written by Dave pretty much sums it up. Though I think my level of disapointment is even deeper as I had seen and experience so much about the game that had given me hope. Thankfully Mass Effect has made the world OK again, a rare title to actually live up to the hype. Listen to show 19 for more!

 

Well thats all for now, I am trying a new way to blog, hopefully this will work.

 

Ben.

Things have been very slow recently, when it comes to games and gaming news at least.

Most people, and I am not different have been obsessed with one game since it came out. That game is of course Halo 3. If you aren’t even a gamer, and maybe you have never even heard of a Xbox 360, you have still probably heard of Halo 3.

Anyway, this isn't about Halo 3, this is partly about my neglect of other responsibilities, such as BXB and the review I still aint done for the site. It is coming, but I don't feel comfortable putting a review forward without the proper play time on the game or the time to write something half decent. It's odd. I know what I do for the site is voluntary, I know that 'real life' commitments come first, but I still feel guilty about not having time to get the review done. Hopefully next week I shall have time, but that is something I have been saying for a while.

When I agreed to do the review I had no idea that I would be moving house as soon as I am, hell I didn’t even have a new place to move to. If I had known I would have declined the review. But that’s the brilliance of hindsight.

On top of moving house, scarily tomorrow, I have also been suffering from a new and very annoying back problem. It just wont go away, whatever I did to my back seems to be lingering and only getting more annoying and debilitating. Having back problems is a real bitch, it makes you feel utterly useless and afraid to do anything a man of 24 should be able to do.

But back to moving. I and my lovely fiancé (she has told me I have to call her that :-)) are moving from a very nice cosy apartment with one bedroom, just sadly to small now, into a huge, three bedroom semi detached house. It will be a big change and a move forward for us. I am more excited than apprehensive and things are finally starting to look nearly ready for the move.

So I will probably blog again after the move is done and as soon as my net connection is moved to the new house, hopefully that wont be long.

I'll be back.

After that I have a few more. I hope to have most of them done by Sunday, but I don’t want to spend every waking minute doing it. I do after all have a wonderful Fiancé to spend time with.

So we have come to the end of our time in Germany.

It has been a fun trip, there is no doubt, but before I reminisce, let me talk about the last day of our time at Leipzig.

Two words sum up the last day for me. MASS… EFFECT.

Yes that’s right, it was there, it was press only and yes I got to see it and enjoy a detailed presentation on it! I wont say anymore here, as that will all be covered in my preview, but damn, that shit is cool!

Another big thing for today was Halo 3. We got hands on the Epsilon build of the game and played around 30 minutes of Sandtrap. Again I won’t go into detail, but it was good. The only issue was the poorly set up 360 pods the game was on; it did not make the visuals look very good at all and would easily put off someone if this was there first time on the game.

For Halo 3, I really noticed the power of the press. Flashing our passes and a Bungie business card we quickly skipped the line, a good hour long line and got onto the game immediately. We were then allowed to stay on past the normal amount of time. You feel a bit guilty about this, but it is after all while were there, and we have a job to do.

After that we got some intimate time with Rock Band. I enjoyed it, with an amazing track list this game could rock hard. The BXB Band played Creep, and I enjoyed the experience. I don’t think the controller is on par with the GH one though, check the preview for more on that.

So, that was our last day. It was well worth it. The whole show was well worth it. We had things we wanted to cover and we got them all, without exception, plus a lot more on top. I have a total of six preview to compile and all kinds of other things to bring together.

Expect the content to show up on the site all next week and maybe into the next. We don’t want to swamp you guys, there is plenty there and you can be certain we are the only site who will give you the best, most honest and down right British take on the awesome games of LZ07!

Today was a better day.

After the chaos and disorganised mayhem of yesterday with its taxi problems, delays and general nackeredness today was a breath of fresh air.

Now knowing where everything was, knowing what to wear due to the heat in the giant green house that is the convention centre and knowing what to take everything went very very well.

I now have some seriously cool content to get up onto the site. Including previews of Assassins Creed, the surprisingly cool Need for Speed Pre Street, Half Life 2 Orange Box and Ace Combat 6. There is one other thing that has made my trip, but I won’t say here as it's a great Q&A and an awesome surprise for all the geeks out there.

What this means is lots and lots of writing, so much so that I won’t be going to the convention centre tomorrow. With all my appointments done and dusted I can now focus on getting some content done.  I feel that I have played all the games I wanted to and I don’t need a day fighting my way through the public to get on any more.

This has so far been a really extraordinary experience, fun isn't the correct word, but it's certainly one I am glad to have taken part in.

Oh and on a non game related issue I and Andy (Reaper) went on an adventure this evening. After finishing off our day we were meant to go to an Ubisoft PR event, but it didn’t happen. So we went and got a taxi. Telling the driver "Drink, good drink." We ended up in town utterly lost and confused. But somehow our senses of direction were acute and we ended up at the train station we first got to on day 1. Well this was the most amazing station we had ever seen. Partly done to our hunger and exhaustion the Pizza Hut we then enjoyed was some of the best food we have ever had. The station was part station and part mall by the way!

Anyway I am glad I had a chance to see some of the real Leipzig!

Until later.

Drink. That would be the obvious answer, not play Video Games.

While of course the vast majority of our time will be spent playing games and then of course writing about them, I'll be dammed if we don’t get time to have a pint or ten.

As the first time I have ever been to Germany (but just about everywhere else in Europe) I wont want to miss out on the booze. I am hoping that there might be some free beverages available, but just in case the spending money being taken has been increased for the Alcohol.

I will do my best to stop myself from posting drunken blogs, but this might just have to be the upshot of a late night in the bar. Oh and expect some funny pics to make there way on here as well. Perhaps.

Anyway, fun and somewhat dangerous times ahead, I hate taking off and landing, in a plane and on a night out.

And so we approach take off.

I have now got everything sorted except for the packing of clothes, also known as the boring bit.

As we get closer to take off the excitement is building up. I can't help but think about the games I will be playing.

Having been told that Mass Effect will be there on day 1 (press day) to play I was excited and now knowing that the game won't see a release in the UK until December I feel really lucky to be trying it so early. It of course adds some pressure. I have been tasked to write up the hands on for this, so I am going to have to make sure it covers the things people want to read.

On top of that tomorrow I am looking at a new place to live as well as organising a few last minute things.

So it’s all go here, and I’ll be honest, I don’t have a lot to add right now, but soon I will have more to write about than I will have time to put up!

Until then...