Some very quick reviews of the games I've played recently -

Uncharted 3 - Underwhelming given the reviews. Some great set pieces but dodgy shooting and the same storyline for the third game in a row left me disappointed. 7/10

Arkham City - Great game but doesn't live up to the original. Storyline loses its way with too many villians thrown in for the sake of it without exploring their characters properly. 8/10

Sonic Generations - Mirrors the Sonic timeline - great at the start with the old school levels gradually progressing to dreadful later levels. Some nice nostalgia for Sonic fans. Literally the worst boss levels you will ever see in a game. 6/10

I think there's a major lack of new ideas in the gaming industry right now. Most of the big releases are sequels which are purely over-hyped re-hashes of previous games. It would be nice to see boundaries being pushed a little more and a bit more bravery shown. Even if they're not complete successes, its still nice to play a game that you find completely different in one way or another - Heavy Rain being one example. Far, far from perfect but still a unique idea.

There aren't many ideas left to be honest. The most frustrating thing for me is the developer's lack of desire to strive for perfection. It seems like they don't listen to consumer feedback, as there are some problems in games that have been continuous. Look at the COD franchise: hit detection, lag and game connectivity have been massive issues since COD4. They continually add more, yet never try to perfect the basics. I know it's a more 'basic' genre, but the fighting game genre is something that is continually striving for perfection, which is a brilliant thing to see. The new Ulimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 has just come out, it's been rebalanced and the online connectivity has massively improved. They've even added a new game mode that is made intentionally for 'fun' and intentionally to lack balance. The game Street Fighter is released annually with new updates, purely to try and balance the game and make it fair. They'll never get perfection, but it's clear that that is their aim, they aren't trying to flog rubbish to get as many people on their side as possible.

Another game that hasn't changed enough is Fifa. This year they brought in the new 'tactical defending' to stop people mashing X and O to close down. Instead of changing the defending, why not just remove the assisted defender/auto close down, and actually make the team mate AI defend well? The only reason I used to hold O and jockey was because I couldn't trust the AI defending because it has always been woeful. EA will never strive to improve this aspect because they don't strive for perfection in their core game play aspects.

I've said this a few times over the years, but what the consoles really need is a top MMORPG. Imagine the game Skyrim played online with friends? Ranking up online, exploring this massive world with your friends. It's a fantastic game, but nobody seems intent on trying to explore this massive gap. Can it be done properly? Considering DC Universe Online came out, it shows it can be done, but I do think there's room for a game like WoW or something similar.

Cod 4 and MW2 were both fine in regards to hit detection and connection considering that Call of Duty games use a client side server rather than dedicated servers. Black Ops and to an even greater extent MW3 on the other hand have been completely ruined by the lag compensation in these games.

I have good internet with a failry decent ping however in MW3 I am constantly being shot round corners and killed instantly whilst my bullets don't even register. IW keep releasing patches which supposedly deal with lag compensation yet with every update it just feels even worse.

I've had one bad experience with lag on MW3 since it's been out and the internet service in Hull is rubbish!

Do Karoo still have a monopoly?

As far as I'm aware yes.

I'd say on this generation of consoles there has been little innovation in terms of gameplay. There hasn't been many cult hits that we saw on the last generation of consoles, I suppose the costs of developing games now is just ridiculously high.

Everything just seems pretty stagnant.

Majority of mp matches I play have things like this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doxNGjELtTw

Majority of mp matches I play have things like this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doxNGjELtTw

If you want cult games, pick up Deadly Premonition. Game of the Year last year, a work of genius

Mark_W wrote:Majority of mp matches I play have things like this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doxNGjELtTw That's pretty much my experience with MW3 so far and like in the video I'm pretty much always on a four bar connection. I used to get frustrated at the connections in Black Ops but MW3 seems to be even worse in my experience. MW2 was fine for hit detection and connection most of the time and it was such a shame that it was completely ruined as a game by overpowered perk combinations and ridiculous deathstreaks which have unfortunatly made a return to MW3 minus the horrible painkiller.

Mark_W wrote:Majority of mp matches I play have things like this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doxNGjELtTw That's pretty much my experience with MW3 so far and like in the video I'm pretty much always on a four bar connection. I used to get frustrated at the connections in Black Ops but MW3 seems to be even worse in my experience. MW2 was fine for hit detection and connection most of the time and it was such a shame that it was completely ruined as a game by overpowered perk combinations and ridiculous deathstreaks which have unfortunatly made a return to MW3 minus the horrible painkiller.