INFO BLAST:
Developer:	Eurocom Entertainment Software
Publisher:	Vivendi Universal Games
Website:	www.buffygame.com
Date of Release:	2003
Price on Release:	£39.99	Place of Purchase:	Cash Converters
Current Price:	£19.99	Age Rating:	16+
Date of Purchase:	07/03/2006	Widescreen:	Yes
Price of Game:	£4	Online:	No
Trailer:		Multiplayer:	1-2 players (1-4 player with Mulit-tap)
Disc Type:	DVD-Rom	Surround:	Pro-logic
Screen Resolution:	50Hrz only	Save File Size:	40k min

Start of gaming: 08-03-2006 @ 17:48fficeffice" />

The game loads with a usual Fox Interactive intro then kicks into the TV shows familiar theme tune. I listen through it then enter the menu screen. Just your standard menu screen with options for Single and Multiplayer as well as Options and Extras. I took a quick look at the Extras menu and see that 5 are already open so I watch the TV series trailer, then exit.

I enter the options menu and change nothing but the sound onto Surround, which makes the music go a little flat. Then it’s back to the Main menu to start a new game, which it saves. Then greeted by a cast photo with a loading bar at the bottom.

The game starts in The Magic box with Buffy kicking some vamps arses in a movie. It then occurs to me are the actual actors from the series actually providing the voices or is it other people. I soon realise that ffice:smarttags" />Willow (not a bad impersonation) and Buffy (strikingly not Sarah Michelle-Gellar) are being voiced by other people. Maybe they’re just too famous now? The surround does seem to be working well now though.

Into the game and I start by controlling Buffy. It takes a bit of time to get a hang of the basic controls but I’m soon kicking / dusting vampire butt. Now the control switches to Willow who doesn’t kick arse in the same way but does have magic spell at her disposal. I got a bit confused as what I was supposed to be doing, then the music changes and I’m staking away quite merrily. Now the control switches to Xander and I’m completely confused coz he’s no where near as hard as the previous two but there are a Cross-bow and Axe in the room which I pick up just before I’m killed for the first time. Retry and within a couple of minutes I’m dead again mainly due to the fact that I couldn’t work out how to access things in the inventory and use them. Suddenly I suss the controls and I’m soon onto playing as Spike. Spike’s much easier to control and I’m getting to grips with the controls so before long I’ve freed Anya and Tara. A quick bit of ‘dusting’ with Buffy and  it’s level over. With 1 secret found.

Second level starts in The Graveyard, where Buffy’s got to patrol and kill beasties. A change to the previous vamps as I’m now fighting mummy zombies who’s body parts come off. I really need to learn to use the block button coz I’m getting a bit of a kicking. After finding some stakes Buffy says “Just what a girl needs, a nice shaft! No wait that didn’t come out right.” Which gets a giggle out of me. Pick up a shovel and start whacking the un-dead hard until it breaks and becomes a spike. I’m getting the hang of using combos to knock them on their backs and then staking them when they’re down. After killing everything I wander around trying all the doors and find one that opens. I get attacked by a mummy and do a quick block puzzle and collect part of sundial.

I leave and find a tomb that I can climb on and smash a window and I’m in another room. A bit more collecting then it’s into the church yard. Place the two pieces on the sundial and wander around for ages trying to find the final piece as well as killing the odd bad guy. Find the final piece at the back of the church yard and the door opens.

Into the church where there’s a few bits to collect whilst I’m being attacked. Now through a door and it’s down the stairs. Attacked by some spiders and killed. A quick retry and I’m soon past them after having to clear the church again.

It’s now 18:52 and hunger and toilet calls so I decide to take a break and rest my eyes, pausing the game at the point I’m at.

Un-pause at 19:10 and resume playing. I come up against a new monster , now make that two new monsters. I have to find a fuse and fix a broken box to be able to move a bridge to get to another part. It’s takes me ages but it finally clicks and I find the fuse at the opposite side of the bridge and put it in the fuse box, then switch the bridge on. I get a phone call at 19:40 for 10 minutes so I put the game on Pause again.

19:50 resume play and within a couple of minutes I’ve completed the second level, with 2 extras unlocked. So I save my game and put The Bill on the box.

09/03/2006 @ 00:00

Start level three with in a Blood letting factory playing as Xander because Willow has cleared off after Ethan to find Tara, who’s being held hostage by him. As Xander you have to first stop the blood machine, then collect some stakes and kick the vamps in that appear. Then free another hostage who for some reason just stands still when freed silly bint. A bit more running around freeing hostages, I manage to pick up a cross-bow which I need to shoot at the power supply to switch off and electric fence before I can climb onto and over it. Managed it and I’m off freeing more hostages. I then manage to kill one of them who’s trapped in a cage by dropping her next to a vampire, d’oh. Retry and get through it without much trouble, manage to find a super-soaker weapon?!

Pause game for Don’t watch that, watch this  BBC2 at 00:20-00:50. Un-pause, I’m now controlling Willow which (no pun intended) is rather easy until I hit an annoying jumping puzzle. Get killed by a load of spiders. Got pasted them on second attempt, freed Tara only to be killed by Ethan. Easily done with a retry and level complete, with 2 extras unlocked.

A cut scene back at The Magic Box, had to run around dusting vamps and looking for Giles who seems to have done one. After much wandering around dusting I manage to find him outside in the cellar trapped by Gargoyles. He sends me off to find his magic spell book, which I’d seen earlier, then back to him. Another collection mission this time for some kind hand thing?! Which I need to find the venom to make stakes with. Job done and it’s back to Giles, who send me off to kill the beasties. One of them manages to do me in but with a retry I’m soon passed it. I now have to protect and escort hop-a-long Giles as he makes his way out of the cellar. Cut-scene Faith shows up with Ethan and explains what they’re doing there then it’s level over, 2 extras unlocked.

Giles laid in hospital bed, the rest of the gang threatening to kick Ethan’s arse. He explains that it’s all about The First and that he’s in his own dimension and the Dagger of Hope is need to do him. Ethan teleports everyone to that dimension, Buffy has to go looking for them around a slightly alternate version of Sunnydale.  Pick up some stakes and it’s on with the dusting. Enter the cinema and observe that there are movie posters all over the walls (Alien, Planet of the Apes, The Fly, Fight Club and Titan A.E.), find a room with a fuse and some ammo. Found Willow in a locked room and she explains that I need to get round to her to get the key-card. Picking up a ticket stub I head back down and through the turn-style by using it. I then find a broken pump leading into the sewers and find the entrance to the sewers go down, find a spark plug, return it to the pump and head back down. Through a door and back up to where Willow throws me the key-card. Pick up a pitch-fork and smash the lock off the gate. Back to free Willow, taking out vamps on the way. Find her and send her back to The Magic Box with some potion. Back out on to the street and I find a shutter that requires the fuse I got, so it’s in a bit of dusting, flick a switch and it’s over to Xander. Potion again, to send him back and it’s back out again. Then getting bitten by a vamp on the way out.

Retry from where Xander was. Spot a button on the back of a lorry, push it and it opens so it’s in and through the door. More scrapping and I’m into the bar where I find Spike and potion him up, a bit of collecting and then I’m out of there to find Faith. I have to break in somewhere with a bit of pulling and climbing, more dusting then I’m stuck I can’t work out what to do so I decide that it’s a good point to quit.

I return to Extras to have a gander. Cast Hightlight is very short; Cast Photo Gallery exceptionally posey but high res images; Joss Whedon Interview a good length and quite interesting; James Masters Interview I’d forgotten he was American, then disaster strikes as the footage gets stuck and even ejecting the game doesn’t fix it. So it’s switch it off and go to bed at 04:11

09/03/06 at 22:57

I can’t have saved coz I’ve started back on level 4 again bugger. Done by 23:13 with 3 secrets unlocked, which is a bonus.

So I’m back playing as Buffy and going back through level 5. This time it takes less time to get back to the point I got stuck at last night. It’s now 23:52 and I’m totally frustrating me until by mistake I press the lift down button again and I’m in the cellar which is where I needed to be. More dusting and I pick up a flashlight. Back up to the dark room and find the combination for the vault in the basement. So it’s back down again and free Faith. Then it’s quick jog back to The Magic Box and a cut scene with Sid the Dummy and it’s level over. 2 extras unlock and switch off at 00:28

To be continued…

12/03/2006 @ 22:40. There’s a Cut-scene in the alternate Magic Box , which explains that I need to go and look for an old Slayers body parts, so as to resurrect her. The level starts as Buffy and you have to protect Sid the Dummy. I spent way too much time looking for stakes and neglected him thus he dies, so I retry and the same thing happens. Try again and manage to get further, which includes breaking down a door and finding some collectables. fficeffice" />

Now the game switches over to Sid as he needs to climb through a vent to let Buffy through. Sid’s a piss poor fighter and has about 3 moves. After a bit of exploring I manage to push some canisters over to a fire which blows open the way for Buffy to come through.

So I’m back as Buffy again and it’s nice to be able to kick some arse. I have to negotiate some ladders, fall through, loads of dusting and then it’s find the key card, which opens a lift. Use the lift then I’ve gotta, get out on to a ledge, which I fall off a few times trying to jump to an opposite one. I then notice that you can jump up to another ledge and use it to shimmy along to the other platform. From there I had to get through a window as I’m being attacked. A bit of scrapping and wondering and I soon find a projector, the screens covering a door so I move it and enter the room. Inside I find a body and woo a severed hand for use on a hand scanner. I then had to head back to a fire alarm so that I can get out of the emergency exit. This is followed by a lot of climbing and more dusting. I managed to find a stuck lift which with a bit of a kicking soon drops to show Sid standing there.

So I’m back controlling Sid again, a bit more arse kicking (if you can call it that), then through a window and then back round to find a hammer. Woo now he’s got a weapon and he is rather nifty with it. I use said weapon to smash down various boarded up doors and find a canister in one of them, which I use to blow open a door by releasing the gas and pointing it at some canisters behind a door. Find Buffy again and it’s back to controlling her.

I use the severed hand again, which opens up some stairs down to the Morgue, again I’ve got to protect Sid from beasties as he tries to find the location of Casandras eyes. Which he does and I collect them and it’s back to the Scooby gang for a Cut-scene and it’s level over. 2 extras unlocked. Save game and switch off @ 23:35

15/03/2006 @ 21:10, Watched the game-play demo whilst waiting for Sy to arrive to have a crack at the Multiplayer stuff. The demo shows all the characters in action and various levels. I then sit through a few of the interviews starting with Giles, which is really good, Tara (who’s wearing a stupid hat), which ok. Then Xander in a white vest jibbering on about his missues, he’s old but very funny. Now the Ethan interview which is a bit dull followed by the Spike’s Voice Over footage which is pointless.

Sy turns up and it’s time for some serious Multiplayering.

We start with Survival in the Zoo as it’s the only level open so far. Sy’s ffice:smarttags" />Willow, I’m Spike. The aim seems to be try and kill as many beasties as possible to beat who you’re playing. Various collectable around that either improve reduce your power / energy, as well as a couple of strange ones such as control switch, points switch. Sy gets killed and the scores 5-2 to me. Retry and the result is 31-42 a lot more respectable and good for Sy considering he’s not played the game before but seems to have picked up the controls well. We have another go at it but change characters, Sy’s now Buffy and I’m Willow, I win it due to character swapping and finsihing with energy, score disappeared too quickly.

Try Bunnie Catcher again only the Zoo’s open.  Sy’s Spike and I’m Xander. It’s a bit of a strange one this you have to collect colloured bunnies that run from pentagram to pentagram. Each bunny gives you a different score depending on it’s colour. The exact points I can’t remember but I’ll try to include it at a later date. Sy wins 34-23.

Try Slayer Challenge Which is like Survival but the second player controls the beasties and tries to stop the main player winning but getting kills. Sy gets 8 kills but loses 5 of them due to pick ups, I kill him.

Try Domination then aim seems to be to try and keep the pentagrams lit as long as you can by running over them to activate them. Sy’s a Long armed beastie (looks like Sebulba?!), I’m a guy with knives. Sy wins 174 – 22, we retry and he wins again 118-116 but only coz he got a score swapper. Switch off at 22:16 for some Tekken 5. Which wouldn’t load (straight away) coz of disc read errors so I may well add a Maintenance section to this blog.

Boxed and ready to rock

Yup my little PlayStation Portable (PSP) has arrived but my sister didn’t tell me it was delivered to hers on Friday. I collected it on Tuesday, and spent the evening and night having a play with most of it’s functions. It’s 32mb Value pack and didn’t come with any games. So I purchased Burnout: Legends 2^nd hand for £29.99 (from Game) and Ghost in the Shell on UMD for £7.99 from HMV.fficeffice" />

I called her Talia after the Teep in B5, and managed to get some images onto my PSP from my PC as well as a few MP3 but I realised that my PSP doesn’t play wma files, but I’d heard there was an update that was going to rectify that. Either that or I need to convert my wma into mp3. Anyone got any suggestions of software I could use for this?

I then had a play with the Universal Media Disc (UMD) that came with the machine and was disappointed to find that none of the games on it were playable. I then checked out the Spiderman 2 trailer, which looks alright but I can’t see myself buying it on UMD. I also checked out the music that was stored on there which I was surprised to see had videos to go with the tunes and to my joy had Pressure Point by The Zootons, Tarantula by Faithless and a few others that names escape me.

This gave me the perfect opportunity to test the headphones that came with the machine and they sound nice just about 20db too quite so I plugged my proper cans in and I was blown away the sound is beautiful, and loads better than the speakers on the from of the machine which sound a bit too tinny.

I did all this whilst the machine was plugged in so I could charge it. I then had a look at the Wi-Fi options and discovered that it can kill people. Well those with pacemakers in anyway. I did a search for Wi-Fi hotspots and found my neighbours but the signal strength was only 13% and it required a WEP password. I did try later on and the signal had gone up to 33% but I still couldn’t get on. I’ve talked with a friend who’s willing to let me try out his network when I go and see him, so woo I’ll let you know how that goes and maybe blog an entry from my PSP.

You’re probably wondering you’ve bought a games console and you haven’t yet played a game on it. Well I thought the same and decided to stick Burnout: Legends on and I had a good hours sessions. I like it and it’s better than I remembered, but is really a down-graded version of Burnout 1-3 from PS2.

By this point it was getting a bit late and I decide bed would be a good idea, so I took Talia with me and laid in bed with my cans on watching Ghost in The Shell, which took me a bit of time to work out how to increase the image to fill the screen. Once done I settled back and enjoyed it. It’s one of my fave films and probably the only on I’ll buy on UMD. The only problem I had is the fact that you have to hold the player or prop it up on something which is a bit of a pain so I’ll have to work out a trick for it.

Next time I aim to let you know about the video play-back from compressed video files as I’ve just downloaded some software to help me do it. As well as information on going Wi-Fi. It’s gonna be a few weeks before I can test the game sharing and ad-hoc file swapping.

The contents of her box (pfft)

So last night I managed to have a play with my PSP’s video playback facilities. I downloaded a version of PSPvideo9, from HERE!!

I didn’t bother with the read me file, I just dived straight in encoding some of my old home movies. Not long ones, as I’ve limited space just ones that would demonstrate the power of the PSP’s playback and how well the transcoding works.fficeffice" />

The software is alright and easy to use, well it must have been coz I never touched the Read me file, but I’m going just so I can work out how the hell to batch process, movies overnight.

There are a couple that I’d be willing to put on-line as a demonstration of the machines capabilities that don’t breach any copy right but I need to find somewhere to upload them, and also some way of having a playing version running in this blog.

/ninja edit: testing if YouTube.com will allow me to put videos in this blog...

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If it's not playing in this blog then Clicky here!!

@ ffice:smarttags" />20:59fficeffice" />

Starting at Sunnydale High you’re playing as Xander and you have to try and find Casandra’s arm. Start by killing a few vamps and zombies before moving into the school after picking up some stakes and a shovel.

Find a flash light then through the corridor to the other room where I got attacked by a load of goblins who were soon disposed of with a few well times swings of the shovel, pick up a Dictaphone and head out the room and up the corridor. Few vamps to kick in and find that the ways ahead are blocked by tentacles, notice an intercom that asks for a password.

So I go up the stairs to the next floor, find a UV filter and head back to the classroom. It reveals a word on the white board, back down to the intercom to realise I can’t pronounce the word. So I enter a room near the intercom and find a PC which allows me to record the word onto the Dictaphone. Use it on the intercom and one set of tentacles disappears so I head through the door to find a force field blocking my way.

I entered the room to the left and was attacked by more goblins which I clobbered with a baseball bat I’d found. Then pick up a magic hat and use it. A rabbit is pulled from it and dropped on the pentagram I stood on. Find a sign that says that if you mix certain colours you get a weapon. Find a few other bits in a door way, as well as a pool cue and computer disk.

Up the stairs to a PC and get a computer code, back down to Snyders office and collect a Library cage key, which I use, then deposit a rabbit from the hat on the pentagram.

Find a few more pick up including blue ammo, and a fumigation bomb and head down to the basement, turn on the steam and put a rabbit on pentagram. Head back out to where I started to find a goblin hiding in a pipe so I throw the fumigation bomb in and batter the goblin when he comes out, then put rabbit on pentagram.

Back to the place where the bird bath is and fill the pump gun after killing a few more vamps. Use the pump-gun on the tentacles blocking the door at the top of the stairs. Kill a vamp and put a rabbit pentagram.

Now a boss battle against Evil Anya in the Gym. Which requires you to avoid her blasts, drop rabbits on three pentagrams, which weakens her enough to give her a good thwacking with a weapon. Then goblins appear and destroy the rabbits so you have to repeat the process whilst killing the goblins, until I died.

Nice and easy the second time round though. Cut scene then end of level with 3 extras unlocked. Switch off @ 22:20.

20-03-2006 @ 23:03

Starting as Faith outside an old Quarry, loads of vamps to dust when I find some stakes, dusting takes no time. Then I can’t work out what to do and fall into the green sludge.

Start again and have to dust the bloody vamps all over again and realise that there’s a bookcase that can be moved in the shed, this leads to a tunnel.

Two more vamps to dust and find a shovel, kill a few more and push barrels under the lift, find some dynamite and run around aimlessly after trying it on the ‘do not explode’ sign which for some reason works the second time?! This causes a huge flood which pushes the lift up to the next floor coz the controls are broken.

Find another room containing more TNT, then into a corridor that has stairs that lead down. The first doors blocked by water so I head downstairs and find a room with a beam in the centre use the TNT and the water drains from the floor below. Back up the stair and through the now unblocked door and onto a bridge dusting as I go. Enter a room with a big machine and cause the coal to drop and set it alight with a hellfire. Head up the tunnel and launch a mine cart, kill a few zombies and back up the tunnel and tip the mine cart to find an Emblem.

Which I use on the door, which lets me into a mansion which I run round killing things for a bit then find a lighter which I use on a fire and head upstairs to the room directly above the fire, smokes coming out of one of the brick so I press it which unlocks a door.

Through the door, more dusting and find a spanner which I use on the light fitting causing it to drop.

Back down the stairs and through the hole to face Kathkistos (not spelt right I’m sure). Collecting the two heath packs on the way.

Now this boss was hard and took me a lot of goes before I fully sussed out how to kill him. He’s got a load of zombies as minions and three orbs. Ignore the zombies and the boss and just run around to the nearest orb that looks different to the rest. This means you can hit it and change it a different colour from blue, to yellow, red and then finally vanish. This has to be done on all three orbs before you attack the boss otherwise he just recovers his health. It takes awhile to get the knack of it and I only managed just to kill him with the most minimal of health left. A cut-scene and 3 extras unlocked.

Now starting as Spike falling down a lift shaft. Collect a load of stakes and start killing as I go and notice Spike’s got a decapitation move. Find a room with a PC in it kill vamps and break open locker finding a health pack. Use the PC to open main doors and head through them killing more beasties on the way. Set off a cut-scene coz of stepping through a trip wire. Enter room passed the fallen bodies, punch a NO2 tanks, which shows up trip wires. I fail coz I set off one of the trips wire and free one of the super soldiers. Then fail again for the same reason. Third time lucky I managed it and into a room with another PC and more vamps, use PC and open door. Back out of the room and through the now open door, find another PC in a server room, then a laptop in a meeting which gives information on how to shut down the Cyborgs. Back out the way I came and through another door where I find some E.M.P. grenades, then out the room and to another where I find some Sentry guns (via a cut-scene). I stupidly walk straight into them and get gunned down. Back to that point, after restarting in the laptop room and I throw a grenade into the room which shuts the guns down. Find an ammo clip and head back down to the big room with the jeep in it. Load the clip and a bit of machine gunning of beasties as they enter before blowing up the tank. Through the opening created by the explosion and up in a lift. A room with loads of sealed rooms which can be switched. Use a grenade on cyborg and use switches, cyborg is only stunned for a short while. And soon kicks my arse. Retry, I decide to ignore the cyborg and just opening the doors, find a severed head and kill the beasties in the rooms, use the head on the retinal scanner and head out of the room leaving the cyborg. More beasties to kill a health pack to collect and more grenades, then up to the ‘Birthing room’?! Stun ‘borg and use PC, stun again and use the PC, which deactivates the ‘borgs, thankfully.

Now out the door to face a boss battle with Adam.

Now this was really blood difficult, and I decided to stop playing at 01:43 on 21/03/2006, but decide to have one more go which leads to about another 7. The trick to it seems to be that you need to run around killing the zombies, to get health back and ignore Adam until he goes to throw a barrel. When he’s holding it above his head, throw an E.M.P. grenade at him this causes the barrel to drop on his head and his energy goes down. Now avoid him and if he tries to fire bullets at you use either the dip in the centre of the room or use the railing for cover. It takes ages for him to go to the next barrel and you have to be close enough to hit him with a grenade. I finish it and get 1 extra unlocked by 02:30