Weekend: all about football

As the title says, this weekend has been all about football. FM here, Fifa 10 there. I'm addicted (again) to Fifa 10. The perfection of this game is something that keeps me sitted in front of the TV always saying to my inner self "this is the last one". It never is...

I'm knocking off Juventus of the 1st place in the league (I'm playing with Inter) and it's missing only 2 rounds in the league. I hope to finish it in first to fulfill my board's desires. I already won the cup so I'm well positioned to keep my job.

At FM, I'm the best manager in the world with the best team in the world. Perfect connection. I'm finishing the first year in Barça's bench and I'm still fighting for everything. I'm sorry that my inclusion means the exclusion of Guardiola but I'm doing better than him so...

PS - Great victory this weekend of my team :)

Venice

Hello everyone!

Today I started playing Assassin's. I was already missing Ezio Auditore. I started playing the memory 6 but this memory is too short. Basically, it consists in taking Leonardo da Vinci to Venice. He will have his business there and you have to escort him.

In this memory you can put your hands in a new gameplay style in Assassins. You'll escort da Vinci in a horses carriage. You will be pursue by the enemies and they will try to get in your carriage. It's very similar to Prince of Persia...I thinks it's Warrior Within.

After you arrive to Venice boundaries, you will need a password to get in the city and you don't have one. But you will help a beautiful lady that will help you to get in Venice. That's it! You've finished memory 6.

I've only made memory 7 first mission and it's very cool. You'll help a girl to run away from the soldiers. She will get hurts and you'll have to escort her (sometimes, even carry her) to her place. The funniest thing is when she gets in a typical Venice boat and you'll have to follow them and kill the soldiers that are in the margins of the channel.

After she arrives, I had to turn off my Xbox and postpone my next adventure. By the way, I'm in the middle of the game.

Now, football. I've played FM 10 and I'm starting to suffer some unexpected results and I'm already two points behind Madrid. But, despite that, I'm still in all competitions so it's not bad.

The best result I've made during this session was against Atletico, in Calderon, where I defeat them by a 0-3, without mercy.

Football day!

First of all, I'm Portuguese! So, people from USA, it was soccer day!

Of course, my always present FM 10 was a part of the day. Playing with Barcelona, I'm on a victory spree! Nobody can stop this Barça. I'm in 1st in every competition and I comfortably won the Clubs World Cup. So, no much story here.

The other part was the acclaimed Fifa 10. This year I cannot foresee improvements for Fifa 11 (but I'm sure that will be better). It's really amazing this year version and I continue my Italian Championship with Inter. I'm in 2nd and I'm still having some issues scoring in 1-1 to the keeper. It should be goal 80% of times.

The star of the team is Balotelli. He's so strong, quick and has good feet. He's almost perfect for Fifa. But of course you still have Cordoba in the defence, Thiago Motta in the middle and Eto'o, up ahead. These were the players that caused more impression on me.

Well, tomorrow I think I will be Assassin a few hours...

Trying to play a RPG

Well, since I've been playing only "short" games and FF XIII is coming next March, I decided to try to play a RPG. I say try because sometimes I'm just not in the mood and I have so many games to play that I desired a short game.

I put my cards in Last Remnant. The reviews were poor compared to the expectations. It's a Square RPG, so it should mean quality.

I must confess that I've only played one hour and, for now, the only thing to talk about is the different fight system. I've never played a RPG with that system so it's completely new for me.

I don't like the way you travel through the world. The navigation is point and click in the world map. It's easier and less boring but is poorer too.

I'm going to Gaslin Caves, after spending some time in the first city.

I don't know what to expect from it. What do you think?

Goodbye memory 5!

After my last post, I've managed to kill more three guys that gave me tips about the whereabouts of my next target. He is the last Pazzi, the most ancient of family.

You've to follow him. In Assassin's 2, you can choose to go through the heights or hire groups to hide you in the middle of them to pursue your target. I decided the second one.

It's tough because you've boring guys that surround you playing music and they are really annoying. If I could only stab them with my knife.....

After he arrives to his destiny, the last Pazzi was betrayed by the others and you only have to kill the soldiers around him and finish him, since he was already stabbed before.

With this, memory 5 synced. Now, I'm ready for Venice and it's passed two more years and we are in 1480. What will bring Venice? Tomorrow will bring the answer. Definitely!

An hour as an Assassin

This afternoon, I spent 1 hour playing Assassin's Creed 2. The more I play it, the more I love it. This second iteration seems a GTA an Italy, in Renaissance Age. You have so many stuff to do and so many different places. You feel more free and that you can interact with the whole world. In the first one, the people running their lifes in the cities didn't mind that you were there. You couldn't do nothing with most of them. But now, everything has a role and that role can be useful for your intends.

In 1 hour, I've paid a visit to Leonardo Da Vinci, to improve my weapons, I've made a race, retrieve a codex piece, made another tough race (really tough), climbed some view points, went to my villa and improved my city and killed two testimonies of my next target. All in 1 hour. It's really rich!

The new Mourinho

Barcelona 2 - 1 Standard Liege

I've played with my second team and I won easily. The result doesn't show that but I had more chances.

Barcelona 3 - 0 Osasuna

Di Maria is impressing. Two games, two goals, two solid exhibitions. As expected, the game was really easy and there was no story from Osasuna.

Gimnástica 1 - 2 Barcelona

Playing again with my second team (that's my policy for Copa del Rey matches), I had no problems to win in their stadium. It was lucky for them to score one goal. I'm not even talking about the goals that I didn't score.

Well, with this game I've finished my first 15 games as a Barcelona manager. I won 13 games and draw the other ones. Not bad!

I'm playing in a 4-1-1-3-1. If you want me to share my tactics, just ask me. It really works!

I had the opportunity to buy Simone David, a promising goalkeeper from Fiorentina, with only 16 years-old. I had to pay 900m€.

20 minutes of pleasure

After a great night with friends, nothing better than to play Assassins Creed 2. I've just played enough to complete memory 4.

To complete it, I needed to kill Francesco de Pazzi, one of the guys behind my father's assassination. It was simple. He was commanding an attack in a tower. I just needed to climb it, kill some soldiers and pursue him 'till his death. After that, you will gather the names behind your family assassination. You'll unlock assassination and carrier missions.

It was only 20 minutes but delightful. I'm becoming a fan of Ezio Auditore.

PS - Oh, by the way, I'm playing it on Xbox 360.

Monday, Sweet Monday (2)

This afternoon I've continued to play FM 10. I'm doing well in Barcelona, my team is playing well and didn't had to change much in the squad (of course, they were European Champions).

I did some adjustments in the squad and tried to add some depth. I've bought Georginio Wijnaldum (Feyenoord - 5.25M€), Luca Tremolada (Inter - 2.1M€) and Di Maria (Benfica - 3.7M€). Just a small tip, Di Maria is always available for this price in the beginning of the season. It's a great bargain! I sold some weak players like Ella (1.2M€), Rochina (550m€), Icardi (300m€) and Luis Gustavo (1.3M€).

In Barca you don't have lot of money to spend but you don't need it too. It would be splendid to have another left winger and that's the reason why I bought Di Maria. Maybe next January, Robinho is already in the squad...

I'm doing very well in the league. 7 games, 6 victories and 1 draw. Real Madrid was already beaten in Camp Nou by 3-2. In Champions League, my group is very accessible and I won't have problems to reach the next phase.

If anyone reads this, who should I bought next season?

Monday, Sweet Monday

These weeks are being odd. In my job, I'm having a paid lay-off. Isn't it great? I'm being paid to be at home doing whatever I want. Nice!

One of the things that I'm doing is, of course, playing. Currently, I'm dedicating more time to Assassin's Creed 2 and Football Manager 2010.

A nice thing about FM 2010 is that I can play it doing other stuff. Usually, I play FM in my laptop watching a movie in my desktop. Is a two-on-one. So, I'm always doing something and playing FM.

I must praise this year's edition of FM. It's simple and better. I think it brings less news when talking about features but improves the way we watch the game. Now, it's almost a thriller watching a game. The behavior of players are real and you will suffer like you were watching your team from a TV.

The way you build the tactics of your team was simplified and improved. Now, if you prefer, you don't have to move 30 sliders to put your players moving the way you want. Now, you just have to define their position, their "profile" in that position and the mentality. Defining that, all the sliders will be set to the way you want. Of course, you can still define them manually. Just to see how simple it is now, you even have a tactics creation wizard.

Finally, your staff seems more human. They have meetings with you and they do valid suggestions in key areas (players development, analysis of your tactics, etc) and spare your time.

I'm playing with Barcelona and I'm still in the beginning of the first season. I've played three seasons with FC Porto, in other game, and I managed to win the league twice and almost won the Champions League in the first season (United crashed me in the final). With Barcelona, my goals are to win everything and gather the best players in the world. The usual for a Barcelona team.

Now, changing the subject to Assassin's Creed 2. Developers, please, read this: play Assassin's Creed 2 to learn how to develop a second title. This game improves in every directions the first one. It's so good!

If you played the first one, you could get bored with it. In the first game, in the first two hours, you love the game. It's new, it's fresh, it has a new gameplay. But after that, you start to do always the same thing and only in the last two hours the gameplay changes.

Now, in the first two hours you'll see that the variety of the missions has increased. The cities are even more beautiful. For your eyes, it's a pleasure.

Now I'm running my own villa. It reminds me Sim City. You have to improve your villa, the stores and all that stuff to gather more visits and, consequently, gather more money. And what do you do now with money? You buy weapons, armour, improve them or just by medicines to heal you. If you are a spender, you can throw the money to the people.

Currently, I'm chasing a guy that tried to kill a family that is friend of my family. I've played already 4 hours (I think) and I don't think to stop it.

The return of the king

After almost one year, the king is back. A lot of games arrived, a lot of games were played, a lot of games were finished and a lot of games are desired but the passion is still here. I need to talk about them because they're important in my free time.

Giving up of bringing hot news, now I'm taking this blog to the very first purpose: talk about the games in a personal perspective. You can find a lot of sites that bring those news better than I was doing but maybe my experience with games can make you change your opinion about them, provide more facts to your previous opinions, make you play a game that you never thought to play...well, do the best with my experience.

I'll begin tomorrow, if I have time (I will).

Readers, I'm back!

PS - I don't have any readers, but they will come...or not.

[News – X360] LucasArts takes The Force Unleashed to new level

Finally, a decent DLC for The Force Unleashed. A new level and new costumes were released in this DLC.

This new level will take place on Planed Coruscant, inside of a Jedi Temple, where The Apprentice searches for his father.

There are a bunch of costumes and other add-ons along with this new level.

(source: Kotaku)

[News – PC] World of Warcraft: students dropouts and restaurants

The first news is very very sad. Debora Tate, from Federal Communications Comissioner in US, said that one of the top reasons for college drop-outs is World of Warcraft. Sad!

The second one is for these drop-outs. If you’re an addict and live in Beijing, now you can have a meal in Warcraft restaurant. I don’t have to say that everything there will resemble Warcraft world.

(sources: Kotaku and CVG)

[News – Industry] Sega launched a casual games portal

Sega launched a casual gaming portal, called PlaySega, for the US and Europe. It will have several different games styles, like arcade, puzzle, sonic and others.

It will have some exclusive games and each game will have their own achievements.

Interesting to play it at work.

(source: Gamasutra)

[News – Multi] Driver 5 under development?

There are some rumors that Ubisoft will launch a new release of their Driver franchise. It seems that they intent to focus in driving action instead of walking action.

(source: Eurogamer)