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Archive of "PS3" Category
James Arnold Taylor: The Personal Side of Voice Acting
This is one of those unearthed on YouTube things. Straight from Crowbar09395′s channel, he interviews James Arnold Taylor. Taylor voices Ratchet (Ratchet and Clank), Tidus, (FFX), and Obi Wan Kenobi and Master Plo Koon (Clone Wars, Cartoon Network).
Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light Review
Lara Croft has been a disappointed woman. We’ve certainly heard it before: a re-imagining of the series, a fresh chance for Lara, a reboot of the franchise, and still others in a string of broken promises. This time around the buxom heroine must be pinching herself: Guardian of Light is a great game. Yet it’s quite possible that those left dreaming of the Lara of yesteryear will be dissatisfied. This is not Lara as she first broke ground on the PlayStation, this is a crossover series with Lara stealing scenes in an excellent dungeon crawler. Guardian of Light plays so nicely with others that once again the spotlight is on Lara as a true heroine, unburdened by franchise disappointments.
BlazBlue: Continuum Shift Makoto Comic-Con Gameplay
Hey BlazBlue fans!! Here’s some Comic-Con gameplay my N4G pal Satanas dug up showing DLC character Makoto Nanaya’s Distortion Drives and Astral Heat. The character is confirmed to be available in Japan on August 5th.
Young Thor Review
Thor is a manly god. He has a hammer. He crushes stuff with it. He calls down lightning and wields it with his manly, crushing hammer. In Young Thor you play as the childlike version of this masculinity, with a character that has more in common with Link than a Norse deity. Why? Because cel-shaded children with lightning powers are fun to be around.
Quick & Dirty at E3: The Lord of the Rings: Aragorn’s Quest
The Lord of the Rings is serious business, so it’s about time it took itself a little less seriously – we do enough of that. That the game looks more like a Saturday morning cartoon than anything Peter Jackson made is a small shock to the system, but not unwelcome, and it’s appropriate that these rose colored glasses are worn by Sam Gamgee. The game follows Aragorn through the three books in flashbacks narrated by Sam, and is even voiced by Sean Astin of the Jackson films. The game is geared towards a young audience, and so the narration is constructed like Sam is telling his kids the story.
The Aragorn’s Quest aesthetic has more style than the rather literal dark movie to dark game creations pumped out by EA. It fits well with the game narrative, unfolding like a storybook across the decidedly less gruesome battles. War may not be pretty, but Aragorn’s Quest doesn’t shy away from dressing up the ugly with soft focus, vibrant colors and a lot less innards. Despite the cozy bedtime story telling there are baddies, they’re just without gore and extraneous snarling. After all, evil exists, we just fight it with a smile and a flourish.
The demo highlighted a couple of different areas to include Pelennor Fields and Mines of Moria. Each level has objectives, but also what are essentially side quests – like fighting off siege engines from the walls. The side quests can net you special items, though failing to complete them doesn’t cause you to fail the level. Helpful for the young gamer is the sparkly breadcrumb trail that guides you to your objectives; Aragorn just says “no” to stopping to ask for directions.
Your party includes the regulars like Frodo, Legolas and Gimli – and Gandalf can pop in/pop out for some co-op. You only play as Aragorn in single player, and when Gandalf joins the game he is tethered to Aragorn. Gandalf can alternately fight (with fireballs) or heal, and is a useful contribution. However, the co-op camera is tricky and made it difficult for me (playing as Aragorn) to target enemies.
Controls use the Wiimote and Nunchuck. The latter controls the shield, bow and a torch and allows for moves like shield bash. The sword has special moves and combos, and your weapons, tools and moves even help with some puzzle solving.
There’s a small RPG element to the game that has you snagging items that level up members of your party and even lore that you can collect and read about. LOTR enthusiasts will find something here in the lore and items, but this game is for the children through and through. It’s a refreshing addition to a series that has, frankly, blundered down the same path for too long. While I’m not clamoring for a kiddie game myself, it’s good to remember that we don’t have to keep hitting the same note. Due out this Fall for Wii, PS3 (with Move), PS2, PSP and DS this is shaping up as a good Christmas buy for the family
Quick and Dirty at E3: Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light
Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light is going where no Lara Croft has gone before – downloadable. Due out mid-year on PC, XBLA and PSN, this adventure goes gameplay centric, for the win. Be advised: this isn’t your Tomb Raider. Abandoning the Lara blueprint, Guardian of Light takes the savvy archaeologist and gives her a game worthy of a fearless heroine.
Lara’s camera is stuck on isometric as you explore the platformer and its puzzles. One stick fires while the other moves, twin stick shooter style. The simple control scheme made jumping into the co-op demo on the show floor a breeze. Arsenal-wise, you’ve got Croft’s pistols as well as other heavy firepower – even spears. Getting into the game the weapon menu’s counter-intuitive screen prompts did give me pause, but after that it was smooth sailing.
Tomb Raider fans really need to be reminded: this doesn’t look like a Tomb Raider game, this doesn’t play like a Tomb Raider game. Sure you will find some of the familiar, like Lara making use of her grappling hook, but overall this is a wholly refreshing and fundamentally gameplay centric re-imagining. If you’re thinking of complaining about the relative lack of pixels devoted to Lara’s bosom, bite your tongue and give the lady another shot at being part of a good game.
Gameplay focuses on crowd control, clever platforming, puzzling and, in the case of co-op, teamwork. Lara joins forces with Totec, a really old Mayan warrior dude – that means 2000 years of old. Totec can use his shield to boost Lara up, and it’s also a handy defense against enemy fire that can protect Lara while she interacts with the environment. In the demo Lara and I were deposited near a temple and the enemies started pouring in. Rapid mow-em-down gameplay is punctuated with teamwork platforming and some theatrics, like a collapsing bridge that Lara and Totec must cross in tandem.
If, however, Co-op isn’t your thing then there is a single player campaign. Absent from the single player is the option for co-op with AI which is, frankly, a great omission. The environment-based puzzling and gameplay in Guardian of Light just isn’t suited to AI teamwork. It would either frustrate or cheapen the experience, so kudos for not shoehorning that in.
For online types, headsets would be needed to properly enjoy this co-op. Lara and Totec can revive one another, if one of you dies then you respawn next to the other player and puzzles require coordinated teamwork. With no limit on lives, the only penalty is a return to checkpoint if both players die.
Despite its dungeon-crawler appeal, there’s no loot proper – but you do receive points for kills adding a competitive element to the co-op. There are health, ammo and gems to find, but Lara’s pistols never run dry. Mini-achievements add to the fun, and in the demo rewarded feats like crossing the river without touching the water, or collecting ten red skulls. The bounty for your efforts ranges from ammo and health to artifacts, and the significance of the last hasn’t been revealed yet.
The environments are alluring, and while the temple seemed to have some extraneous paths and areas the progression was pretty linear with all detours optional. Those are the nooks that hide the rewards like artifacts, and it seems that players disinterested in those bonuses can just plow through the primary puzzles, a deft handling of the downloadable format.
Guardian of Light puts a safe distance between Lara and less admirable forays. Stamp this one as a day one purchase, Guardian of Light is a fresh start for Lara – and her fans.
Quick and Dirty at E3: Rage
Go take your favorite post-apocalyptic open world game, pick up the crafted universe of Bioshock, make some smoochy sounds and out comes a beautiful screaming baby – with guns. We’ll name it Rage! At E3 we were taken through two different sections of the game, and both supported all the bold claims of the id Software staff on hand to show off the game. The environments are beautiful, the gameplay is badass, and I most fervently want to get my Rage on.
A meteor destroys the planet, and something called The Authority has buried people in arks so that the human race can rise again. When your personal ark goes faulty you escape to the surface to rejoin the mutated insanity that remains. The first section focused on an encounter with an old, slightly off-his-rocker guy in a shack and a combat-heavy ride in a makeshift vehicle, heavily outfitted with weaponry. Your vehicle has to be upgraded and outfitted, and the employees made it clear that our breezy trip from shanty to Wellspring was only the result of some hard work and modification.
The drive, fraught with gunfire, concludes in Wellspring, a major city in the game. Wellspring’s signature underwater fresh water spring makes it an oasis in the desert-y wilderness. It’s here that we dive into the well to stop the Ghost clan from poisoning the supply and get a real taste for the arsenal.
You’ll find familiar weapons like a sidearm and an AR, but I was most pleased when the id employee playing the demo pulled out a crossbow loaded with electric bolts and electrified some enemies in puddles. I was downright giggling when he used the spider turret (a bot that takes down enemies in range, Agents of Doom, anyone?) and then a remote control car loaded with explosives. For that back-to-nature feel use your wingstick, a boomerang barbed with knives. As you progress through the game you learn how to build different items, like the turrets or a gadget that picks locks. Once learned, all you need are the requisite parts for construction and you can build it on the spot.
The wasteland is littered with mutants for you to dispense with. The Ghost clan, just one of the game’s factions, are nimble. They like to adhere to the ceiling and pull of bullet-dodging acrobatics, so it was especially gratifying to see the effects the hits you do land have on them. Nailing the guy in the chest caused him to stagger just enough to slow down his speedy assault.
For the grand finale, we were treated to the ruins of Dead City. Since Dead City is largely abandoned and apparently more deep in the apocalyptic wasteland, the mutant types were very different from those previously encountered. They looked, well, further gone. After a few mutated nasties migrated up from the sewers for an attack, a giant, enormous, gargantuan hulking baddie lumbered out into – no, over – the space. As the id guide began to unload all the firepower he had on him, the Rage logo appeared. If that conclusion isn’t testament enough to the cruel genius of id Software, just wait until you see the game.
Quick and Dirty at E3: Vanquish Preview
Some games just aren’t attention grabbers. They exist in the background, somewhere outside the blinding glow of words like “Halo” and “Motion control”. Games like Vanquish whose creator, Shinji Mikami, had something entirely other in mind while he was crafting this Western shooter through an Eastern lens.
In this imagined future, Russia and the US are superpowers duking it out over the energy of the sun. Story goes that Russia has laid waste to San Francisco with a US-built space station, originally made to harvest solar energy. You play as Sam, an agent with a cybernetic battle suit and a team of soldiers. It’s all a bit Flash Gordon era with a retro style, Russian enemy, and our hero, Sam Gideon, who was the star football player. Dreamy!
The demonstration highlights a furious battle with the Russian robotic force. There is a lot – a lot – going on onscreen, and Vanquish doesn’t flinch (the engine is a modified version of the one used in Bayonetta). As you progress across the surface taking out emplacements and enemy forces, the environment is coming to pieces around you. While the environment attacks, you can use the environment, exploding barrels around the station to take out enemies.
The controls are almost as intense as the graphics. Heavy Rain style, you’ll be pulling off finger Twister holding down both bumpers, face button while moving a stick. The control scheme is probably best suited to someone that has never played a shooter before: Square controls cover, X is evade, O is melee, Triangle for grenade, L1 is boost (a power slide), L2 aims/slow motion, R2 fires and R1 reloads.
Cover is critical, and so Vanquish makes use of a boost element to speed up gameplay and significantly shorten the time getting from cover to cover. Cover-based paired with fast-paced, it seems you’re only supposed to take shelter for mere seconds. The speed has some Gears of War style (roadie run), but this is more nimble, more satisfying.
Weapons have great variety. While Sam is only equipped to carry three firearms at a time, he gets a number of options across the game and the weapon you carry is swapped out through a sort of onscreen morphing. Basically, as you encounter weapons throughout the game, Sam learns how to create them and you can change your weapon on the fly, like during your approach to an enemy.
Weapon variety takes a back seat to Sam’s duds, however, as his super-suit allows him to perform some impressive slides and flips as well as speed up his perception. Special moves like sliding, slow-mo bullet-time, evasion and even melee require energy and using them too much causes Sam’s super suit to overheat and then it’s back to cover.
Sam is part of a squad and being a man of many talents can heal his teammates, which is advisable as they seem to be genuinely useful. Because your suit’s primary powers are related to speed, not armor, things like cover and keeping your team healthy are a huge part of gameplay.
The action is consistent with Bayonetta and MadWorld, and what I saw and played at the show made Vanquish one of the more memorable titles of the week. I hope Sam uses his perception-altering powers to launch himself nearer the forefront of gamers’ minds this winter.
Quick and Dirty Hands-On at E3: Rock Band 3
Rock Band 2 was a fun game. It found a place in my home for a week or so, and I may have even played all of the songs – but that was it for me and the sequel that had little of the magic of the first game. My bandmates and I weren’t showing up to work on Monday hoarse from singing all weekend, tapping out drum beats on our keyboards, and so it was with that same ambivalence that I went to my Rock Band 3 appointment at E3.
The nitty gritty: you can import your songs from Rock Band, Rock Band 2, Green Day, downloads and track packs. Keyboard and vocal harmonies will be limited to the disc tracks and future DLC pending any possible, but unconfirmed, future updates. Where previously there wasn’t a clear-cut way to “win” at Rock Band, this edition includes over 700 challenges and positions your band at the bottom of the musical cesspool with the task of rising to the top.
Another new feature is the ability to filter – extensively – by anything from song length to rating to genre, even attaching labels to songs you don’t want to hear during a party or creating track lists at work for when you get home. Also helping eliminate party fouls is the ability to choose a band leader. This member is in charge of things like picking tracks, which means that when a friend gets overly enthusiastic on the drums while you’re getting ready to rock the bass you won’t be bounced back through the menus. Also party-friendly is the ability to drop-in and out of a song, but since you still have to pause for this to happen it’s not quite seamless.
Those are all nice additions, and certainly improve the Rock Band experience, but none of them is revolutionary enough to really transform those feelings of music peripheral apathy. No, that is where Pro Mode comes in. Honestly, it wasn’t until after the presentation when we got to talk to the guys behind the hardware that my icy feelings were globally warmed. The instruments are there, some work in the same way, but now they are something new and entirely game-changing.
For starters a keyboard, with keys – though you can use the five colored sections for a simpler approach. In Pro Mode however, users will have to play the keys as the instrument is a MIDI controller. What that also means is that if you have a MIDI-capable keyboard you can buy an adapter and hook that up. Just like in traditional Rock Band, the easy mode is a pared down version of a song with Expert getting you to play the songs note-for-note. On keys, the difficulty increases as you use more of the peripheral/instrument, even moving across the note scale in-game. The keyboard is available on its own for $79.99 or bundled for $129.99. Pro-Mode is also compatible with drums, which always seemed brutally true to life to me, only now they incorporate cymbals.
Squire in the foreground, Mustang in red
The guitars, oh the guitars! Stay with me, because this gets really good: On the Mustang Pro guitar from MadCatz (sold separately for $149.99) every string of 17 frets is a button, with six strings over the strum bar. The notes coming at you onscreen will have a color as well as a number to tell you which string and which fret. Later on, like when you aren’t rubbish, there will be chords. It is connected directly to the console as a wireless controller, and is some sort of mutant hybrid between the Rock Band controller and the Fender Squier.
Originally I assumed the Squier (pricing still unannounced) was merely a MIDI and, therefore, lame. How wrong I was. The Squier does use a MIDI translator to connect to the console, but each fret is divided across the six strings so that the strings complete circuits, allowing the game to know the notes and chords you are playing. The game software does not require direct tuning, and a perfectly tuned guitar is not needed for success – but since the Squier can be plugged into an amp and be used as a real electric guitar, you’ll probably want to give some attention to the tuning.
Previous MIDI instruments have used pitch detection, which doesn’t track quickly enough for the purposes of playing Rock Band (which needs to be very precise). Neither the Mustang nor the Squier uses pitch detection, which theoretically means that you don’t have to be playing the right notes, just the right strings on the right frets. Thanks to Todd Baker, Director of Hardware Development at Harmonix, for this concise explanation:
Success in the game requires that you fret the correct fret and strum the correct string (as communicated thru the game interface). Because of the technology we use in the Mustang and the Squier, we detect your fret hand and your strum string independently. This allows us to give more effective real time information about your fret hand positions as you change fret positions up and down the string.
Oh, think of the children! If you don’t believe that having a game to learn an instrument will get more kids playing music, then you’re crazy.
Guitarists may find it interesting, or they might wonder why they aren’t just playing the real thing, but for someone like me (with novice musical skill at best) this is a game-changing opportunity. Now I can play, with the potential to truly rock. Think of it: the next time someone obnoxiously asks you why you don’t just play real guitar you can now retort, “I fracking am!”
At the Sony Booth: Hands-On Move, Eyes-On 3D
Much to my eyes’ chagrin, Sony’s conference focused heavily on 3D offerings and things upstairs at the booth weren’t much different. With statements from Kaz Hirai like, “What PlayStation did for Bluray we’re now ready to do for 3D as well”, I shouldn’t have been surprised that while I stewed in my dislike for 3D Sony emphasized that with twenty titles created natively in 3D by March 2011 it would be remembered as “the year PlayStation brought authentic 3D to the industry.”
I recognize that my dislike of 3D is largely a personal preference and that plenty of people think it’s cool – but will they think it’s cool enough to warrant the purchase of a new, top of the line television and glasses to boot? The cost of a 3D television plus glasses is prohibitive, but Sony needs the software to sell the hardware, and that is what we saw at E3: first party developers investing resources into using 3D technology. That I think the technology is unpleasant and impractical makes the scene at E3 a little frustrating.
The games I saw in 3D are Sly Cooper, EyePet, Gran Turismo 5 and Killzone 3. Of the bunch, EyePet and Sly Cooper were the least successful to view. EyePet in 3D made the pet float above the floor, versus appearing on the floor. EyePet is an adorable game with cheery and crystal clear graphics in 2D, I can’t say that trying it in 3D makes it any more immersive. Your kids will get a kick out of playing with the little furball as is, without the 3D investment. It is worth noting that the delayed release in order to incorporate the Move controller was a wise move, it makes far more sense and works better than the card demoed with the game last year. It’s a great title, and I look forward to picking it up on release.
GT5 and Killzone 3 pack more graphical oomph to begin with, and in the case of Killzone 3 I was impressed by how great the game looks this far out from launch. Still, it was difficult to fully appreciate the gameplay, the destructible environments, and the combat when I was trying to wrap my eyes around the 3D presentation. Judging depth in game is improved in 3D, as is the ability to pinpoint a target, but the Helghast have bright glowing lightbulbs on their faces – picking them out has never been much of a struggle. 3D or no, it’s easy to be wowed by how much the team at Guerrilla Games are doing with their engine.
Killzone 3 picks up at the end of Killzone 2. Visari is dead, but now there is infighting among his generals. The demo focuses on the fourth level in the arctic north and features a lot of Helghast tech. Very industrial, the level shows off the game’s fierce aesthetic and destructible environments. These environments are much more expansive, and this one showed snow blowing around and impressive water crashing against rocks effects. Presentational polish and tight gameplay this far from launch is incredible.The addition of the “brutal melee system” adds a visceral touch to those close combat encounters, but can be difficult to pull off. Punch the Helghast down (or kick, or nail with the butt of your rifle) and once they’re on the ground use another strike with your rifle to finish them off. It’s hardcore, it’s intense, it’s beautiful in its relentless brutality.
1000. There will be more than 1000 cars in Gran Turismo when it hits store shelves November 2 (yes, that’s November 2, 2010), and since GT5 includes rollovers you will get to see Polyphony Digital’s attention to detail all the way through to the underside. 800 some of those cars are Standard and will show physics-based damage modeling. The cars falling into the Premium category will feature true damage modeling in addition to fully rendered interiors. Nine of the cars are NASCAR, though you’ll be able to race them on the non-NASCAR tracks. Of course, being a huge Top Gear fan I was most excited to check out the Top Gear test track, though the Toscana rally track also made it into the mix.
The addition of high and low beam settings make the day/night shifts in game even more realistic. Additionally you can use the PSEye and 3D for some head tracking that alters your view in the car, which is really cool. Incidentally, the 3D glasses in conjunction with the camera position and booth lighting interfered with the head tracking. The 3D didn’t introduce any serious graphical issues, but it didn’t really enhance the game either. When I asked the GT5 rep what his favorite feature was for GT5, he couldn’t tell me. That’s right, the man’s favorite feature for the game had yet to be announced, and I’m placing my bets on it being the track editor.
Titles like EyePet and Killzone 3 will not only be available in 3D, they will be compatible with PlayStation Move, the motion control system Sony is debuting this September. During the conference the game Sorcery, built natively for Move, showed off the motion controls to great effect. However, it was in the Sony booth that the most telling Move experiences went down. The casual games played with Move have been seen and played before on the Wii, and are essentially rehashes featuring sports and swordplay. What is wholly unexpected is the precision and effectiveness of Move, particularly in core games.
Heavy Rain uses Move to great effect. Already immersive the addition of Move controls (available to pre-existing owners via patch) amplifies the game’s intensity. Similarly, the demonstration of SOCOM 4 with Move controls was not only fun, it was precise, something I didn’t think was possible in motion control. Additionally, I was able to play all of the Move offerings while seated, which is critical for the extended gameplay preferred by, well, me (and I’m guessing most of you, too).
SOCOM 4 may well be the first core game that players play with motion control of their own volition. The title looks fantastic, and you are dropped into the middle of a ravaged Shenghai. The responsiveness of the controls, the ease of aiming the reticle and taking out enemies, it’s like we have a motion controller that finally works how core gamers want – no, need – motion control to work. It’s simple, it feels natural, and the precision will make your head explode like a headshot. Essentially, the controller gives you the feel of firepower in your hands without forcing you to even lean forward on your couch. This is technology that improves the gameplay experience, and it is those tangible steps forward that will engage the core consumer, and their dollar.
Quick and Dirty Hands-On at E3: PixelJunk Shooter 2
PixelJunk Junkie that I am, early on in E3 I nabbed myself a slot in front of PixelJunk Shooter 2 to demo the two available stages. The unassuming 2D beauty builds on the first game, luring unsuspecting players into its clutches and then crushing them with surprising and challenging gameplay.
That it feels like a robust expansion and not a sequel is more compliment than criticism. The good news for those that didn’t play through the first one is that you can always pick up here, guiding your spaceship through caverns and monster viscera on an elaborate rescue mission. Left stick steers, right aims, and use your hook to save those trapped miners.
Enemies and environment alike are pitted against you as clusters of the former open fire and the latter pours on acid. Acid, the bile of the beast whose innards you’re navigating in “Inner Space”, is one of the additions in Shooter 2. Never forget that water is your friend, cooling your ship and hardening lava into destructible stone. Even more fascinating to me was “Lights Out”, a foray through light and dark. The shadows prevent you from rescuing miners, and traveling through prolonged darkness puts you at risk of being swarmed by strange new enemies. You have to locate light sources and funnel them to the right areas, or even carry glowing orbs with your grappling hook.
Shooter 2 features that same multiplayer co-op as the first, as well as an arena mode that was not available for demo at E3.
It’s easy to write 2D off as merely “retro”. Q-Games excels at showing remarkable restraint in their design, and Shooter 2 is no exception. A beautifully crafted 2D wonder, the sights and sounds of Shooter 2 show yet again what Q-Games is capable of.
Quick and Dirty Hands-On at E3: LittleBigPlanet 2
Snuggle up with Sackboy, it’s time to get cute. While the little guy isn’t required for his own sequel (that’s right, you can play and create without the bundle of adorable), there’s still a whole lot of fun squished into the title from Media Molecule.
The big change from the first game, however, is the ability to make more than your own level: instead of a platforming game, LittleBigPLanet 2 is a platform for games. You can now craft your own games, and rather than having to tweak components into game-like features within levels, you actually get to make games with scores and AI. Or, for those like me that prefer to reap the fruits of others LBP labor, you get to play games with scores and AI, from shooters to strategy games.
The hands-on play featured two of these games, the same they showed at the conference. One was a hand-eye speed test against three other players that has you tapping sequences of buttons. The other was a collection of mini-games. In the first each player is sporting a deadly hat that fires missiles in fixed directions and another has them trying to bump each other into the perimeter.
Want more? There’s a movie mode in which you get to cast Sackfolks, give them lines and shoot. It strikes me that Media Molecule has put in a lot of thought and effort to make the sequel something entirely new. LBP 2 goes to great lengths to enhance the toolsets, making environment and mechanical creations more accessible to the creatively challenged, so much so that I actually think I might be able to make a functioning level this time around.
Season 2 Casting Call for The Tester: Make it an N4Ger!
The Tester is looking for candidates! Auditions have begun, and I gotta hope we get some more N4Gers on there!
In its debut season both Cyrus and Naucious were active members of the site, though Cyrus (or UNCyrus, as we know him) was a part of the forums and a Trophy leader earning him serious N4G support. Of course, we like to think the threat of flaming and a possible banhammer kept him on his toes, particularly during the trivia challenge.
E3 Notes: PixelJunk Shooter 2
Got to play fifteen minutes or so in PixelJunk Shooter 2, which introduces acid into the mix. The acid behaves differently than previously introduced elements – very globby and oozy – and turns your ship orange and you have to go clean it off in water. When I first picked up the controller, I immediately shot one of the survivors. Oops. Yeah, had to get my Shooter bearings before I progressed. The game is so pretty, and whimsical, it’s too easy to forget that you need to have a strategy to survive – especially if you want to save everyone.
New to the environments are these wheels you grab onto and they spin you through areas that are too thick to fly through on your own steam (they’re a little tricky to get used to). Hope to go back later in the week for another go, maybe find a time when it’s less crazy.
Notes from the Sony Conference
First off, Sony gave me lunch, which is a sure way to keep me in a good mood. It’s a good thing, too, since the next thing they did was give me 3D glasses. I’ll get it out of the way: I don’t like 3D.
After a brief introduction from Tretton, who touched on the life cycle of a Playstation console and the value of exclusives, Kaz Hirai took the stage for the 3D fest. Highlighting the tenets of Playstation, “innovation and content”, Hirai asserted that “Sony is the undisputed leader in 3D” and ”What playstation did for Bluray we’re now ready to do for 3D as well”. With twenty titles created natively in 3D by March 2011, he said the year would be remembered as, “the year playstation brought authentic 3D to the industry.”
Did I mention I don’t like 3D? It hurts my eyes. It’s really dark. And when things move too fast you can’t tell what’s happening.
We were then treated to some Killzone 3 in a live demonstration. Specifically two sections for the 4th level of the game taking place in the arctic north of Helghan. The first section focused on ground combat and use of the jetpacks while the second on air combat, both heavily featured the destructible environments. It looked cool, but it was so hard to appreciate the gameplay, the environments and the combat when I was so busy just trying to wrap my eyes around the 3D nonsense. They aim ”to deliver the most realistic sci-fi shooter experience available” in February 2011, and it will be fully compatible with Move at launch.
“What tiles like Avatar are doing for movies, titles like killzone 3 will do for games.” Kaz Hirai
The game they used to show off the Move to greatest effect was Sorcery, a 3rd person action adventure game designed for Move. You play as a sorcerer’s apprentice and must rescue the land from darkness by playing through faery realms. The gameplay demo onstage was fun, and I look forward to getting hands-on with the title. Your motions affect power as well as trajectory, and the spell combinations were neat – like the ability to create a wall of fire and then send a whirlwind through it creating a fiery whirlwind that scoops and scorches your enemies. Slated for Spring 2011.
Next up was a demo of Tiger Woods with Move, and golf is still boring.
Heroes on the Move should collect some fans, it features Ratchet, Clank, Sly, Bentley, Jak and Daxter in a playful weapon-heavy romp.
“Gaming is having a ridiculously huge tv in a tiny 1 room apartment.” Kevin Butler, VP of Scene Stealing
Move will ship EU September 15, NA September 19, and Japan October 21. The Move controller is priced at $49.99, the navigation controller at 29.99. Move bundle including a Move controller, PS Eye and Sports Champs game goes for 99.99, while PS3 bundle including a PS3, PS Eye, Move controller and Sports Champs is set at $399.99. Four titles will be available during the holiday with games like Socom 4, Time Crisis, NBA 2k11, Ruse, Killzone 3, Echochrome 2 and Eyepet in the pipe. Games like Toy Story 3, Heavy Rain, and RE5 Gold Edition will have Move compatibility as well.
PlayStation Plus comes out later this month and can be purchased for one year at $49.99, or 3 months for $17.99 – and for a limited time you can get 3 months for free. Plus touts exclusive features and content, early demos and beta access, and discounts on the store.
Quick bites:
Invizimals was quickly overshadowed by God of War: Ghost of Sparta for the PSP, which chronicles Kratos’s rise to power.
Little Big Planet 2 showed off excessive cuteness and some badass real time strategy and shooter levels.
Medal of Honor unveiled Deuce, and said June 28th they will debut a series of videos where tier one operators share their experiences and stories. The multiplayer is being handled by DICE, and we were shown a new map that looked a lot like a game…we’ll call it Small of Pooty. Available October 12, limited edition will include 2002′s Medal of Honor: Frontline.
Dead Space 2 showed off a boss fight and advertised the limited edition pack, you can get Dead Space Extraction and Dead Space 2 with Move support.
Portal 2 Surprise! Gabe Newell showed up to announce Portal 2 for the PlayStation 3, making it ”the best version on any console”. Coming 2011. <3 Glados
Pretty, pretty FF XIV MMO vid.
Mafia 2: Agusut 24, exclusive day one content, for free.
Got a look at Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood online mode, which does not seem to feature any sisters – but those are some elaborately attired dudes. At launch the PS3 version will include an exclusive package of missions and the beta will only be available on PSN.
The GT5 (November 2, 2010) footage was beautiful, and there was even a snippet of The Stig!
The Infamous 2 trailer confirms some icy new powers for Cole, as well as some truly objectionable pantalones. Seriously, change the pants.
David Jaffee and Scott Campbell’s demo of the new Twisted Metal (2011) highlighted the online game mode “Nuke”. Set up as faction v. faction, players must capture the opposing faction’s leader, feed ‘em to the missile launcher and guide their missile to the giant airborne image of that leader. Three times. If you like Twisted Metal, you’ll be happy right about now.
Home has a replicated booth for anyone that wants to experience the PS E3 Booth in virtual space, and Tester fans take note: the casting call for season 2 begins today.
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I’m Community Manager and Admin for the NewsBoiler Network, home to N4G, TechSpy, AnimeShinbun, FilmWatch and 11×2. I also write for network editorial site, ZTGD.
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