A Week In Gaming With Asim Tanvir

It’s “A Week In Gaming With…” time again and I return to bring you a third helping of my ramblings, but this time I have don’t have anything to rant about! Unbelievable, no?! Actually, you never know. I might just start ranting about something for the sake of it…if you’re lucky!

It’s been a quite a busy week for myself and for the website in general I suppose. We’ve had reviews for FIFA 11, PES 2011 and Hydrophobia hit the site. I was invited by EA to come and have a look at their upcoming racer, Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit. Oh and I also attended some little event called the Eurogamer Expo. Heard of it?!

PES 2011 and FIFA 11

Adam Cook got his FIFA 11 review up earlier in the week and I followed up on Friday with my review of PES 2011. If you’re a football gaming fan, I highly recommend reading both reviews. We will be taking a closer look at the finished products when the second leg of our PES  2011 vs FIFA 11 podcast goes live, but I just wanted to briefly talk about both titles and express certain opinions of mine.

[singlepic id=272 w=320 h=240 float=left]Adam awarded FIFA 11 a 9/10 and I gave PES 2011 exactly the same score. Now, to me, that means one thing…this year we have two top football games. That seems to be the general consensus amongst other gaming websites/publications too. You would have to take out the 6’s given to PES 2011 from EDGE and GamesTM (the less said about those, the better), but you get what I mean. Well, at least I hope you do anyway.

It’s fantastic, we actually have TWO really good football games. I have to read that sentence back to myself, just to believe it. I mean, can anyone else remember the last time we had football gaming fans had it this good?! I vividly remember buying both PES and FIFA back in the PS2 days, hoping to get two great doses of football. I would always get my hope smashed into pieces though, as a week later I would shelve, return or trade-in FIFA and stick with the vastly superior PES. The situtation has been reversed over the last three years, where I have only played FIFA, but now that could be all set to change and I couldn’t be happier.

Sure, I will probably play PES 2011 slightly more than FIFA 11 (I love that Master League mode), but I won’t be shelving, returning or trading in EA’s title at all. I actually can’t wait to get started with the online clubs mode in FIFA 11, join the GodisaGeek and become the best goalkeeper around. The latter won’t happen at all actually, I will most probably fail and my team-mates will blame for me every single defeat, but I will still have fun! I urge other football gaming fans to do the same (apart from the failing bit) and give the other game a chance. Don’t just stick to PES 2011 or FIFA 11, play both! Enjoy the fact that we have two quality football games this year because, who knows, it might not ever happen again!

Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit

[singlepic id=268 w=320 h=240 float=right]On Thursday I was invited down to EA Guildford to check out Criterion’s soon to be released, Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit. I got some extended hands-on time with the game and mingled with the development team. My full impressions and interview with the games Creative Director, Craig Sullivan, are due later in the week, but I thought I would talk about the game a little bit today too. Think of it as a starter before the epic main course!

What’s the first thing you that comes to your mind when you think of Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit? Getting chased by cops at immensely high speeds would probably be high up there, right?! Well, that is the basic concept behind Criterion’s take on the series, but they have ramped the levels up to the extreme. I don’t mean extreme as in “yeah, gnarly dude!” or any of that madness. I mean extreme as in they have taken that basic concept and added so much to it in terms on tension, excitement and pure fun. To say more would probably trample on the hands-on piece that is due to hit the website later in the week, so I think I will stop there. However, I suggest keeping an eye on the website this coming week if you want to know more about the game.

Eurogamer Expo 2010

The Eurogamer Expo seems to get bigger and bigger with every passing year. This year was no exception with the event taking place at Earls Court in London, with thousands of gamers attending every single day. The showfloor was huge and there were many unreleased big name titles there for people to play. From Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood to Rock Band 3, there was something for everyone to enjoy.

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The developer sessions were also given an upgrade this year, with guest such as Peter Molyneux (you know, that dude behind Fable) and Yuji Naka (the creator of Sonic the Hedgehog). The Peter Molyneux session has to be my favourite, just because it was pure madness. The entire stage was Fable-ised and there was even a camp swordfight on stage before everything began. To add to that, Molyneux was introduced by a town crier!

The entire GodisaGeek crew were there over the three days and expect some top notch coverage on the website over the next few days. We will be covering games such as Dragon Age II, Dead Space 2, Gears of War 3, Goldeneye, Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood and much much more. So, stay tuned to GodisaGeek.com for some quality coverage of the Eurogamer Expo folks! Don’t forget to visit our fourms too!