Here is a link to some game play footage from Metal Gear Solid Rising:
Uhm, yes please?
Seriously, this looks flat out INSANE. For some reason, i've just never gotten the hang of the stealth based game play from the Metal Gear series... But this? Wow. I am officially hyped for this game.
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Monday, June 14, 2010
Microsoft E3 Keynote digest
What the hell?
Did Microsoft seriously just show off a bunch of titles that are at best clones of Wii titles? Kinect Sports?! REALLY?!
Wow.
Well anyway, let's run through some points here:
- Call of Duty DLC for 2010, 2011, and 2012 will be available first on the Xbox. I guess this is also a bit of a backdoor announcement for COD 8 and 9.
- Metal Gear Solid Rising was shown. More hack and slash, less stealth is the impression i got.
- Gears of War 3 was shown - 4player co-op mode!
- Fable 3 shown, along with a teaser for a title codenamed "Kingdoms".
- Halo: Reach is hitting retail September 14th
- ESPN for Xbox 360. I was shocked that this feature will be free for Gold member of Live.
- And of course, Project Natal is now named Kinect. Kinect was the main focus of this keynote (as i was expecting). The software shown in my opinion boiled down to a lot of clones of existing Wii titles and franchises. Again - Kinect Sports? REALLY?! Your Shape: Fitness Evolved? Kinect Joy Ride looked like a Mario Kart clone. What exactly is MS' strategy here besides the usual "embrace and extend" philosophy? Also worth noting was a lack of an announced price for Kinect, just a street date of November 4th 2010 in North America. If this add-on hits retail for less than $150, i will be shocked.
- Harmonix was showing off Dance Central for Kinect.
- A Kinect Star Wars title was shown in trailer form... but really the gaming world has been teased with motion based Star Wars games since 2005/2006. Can we get one for real someday?
- Also to note was Forza for Kinect. It was not made clear to me if this was a new Forza title, or an add-on for Forza 3.
- A new rev of the 360 hardware was also shown - the only lingering question i have based on the slides - "did MS remove the ethernet port in favor of built in 802.11n networking?". New hardware will be available this week - everyone at the keynote however was given a system.
I've got to be honest, this was pretty much exactly how i expected this keynote to play out. It will be interesting to see the hardcore xbox fanboy reaction as they were none too kind towards the Wii when it was announced and shown.
Anyway, Nintendo and Sony tomorrow. I will be sorely disappointed if there is anything resembling Move Sports for the PS3.
Did Microsoft seriously just show off a bunch of titles that are at best clones of Wii titles? Kinect Sports?! REALLY?!
Wow.
Well anyway, let's run through some points here:
- Call of Duty DLC for 2010, 2011, and 2012 will be available first on the Xbox. I guess this is also a bit of a backdoor announcement for COD 8 and 9.
- Metal Gear Solid Rising was shown. More hack and slash, less stealth is the impression i got.
- Gears of War 3 was shown - 4player co-op mode!
- Fable 3 shown, along with a teaser for a title codenamed "Kingdoms".
- Halo: Reach is hitting retail September 14th
- ESPN for Xbox 360. I was shocked that this feature will be free for Gold member of Live.
- And of course, Project Natal is now named Kinect. Kinect was the main focus of this keynote (as i was expecting). The software shown in my opinion boiled down to a lot of clones of existing Wii titles and franchises. Again - Kinect Sports? REALLY?! Your Shape: Fitness Evolved? Kinect Joy Ride looked like a Mario Kart clone. What exactly is MS' strategy here besides the usual "embrace and extend" philosophy? Also worth noting was a lack of an announced price for Kinect, just a street date of November 4th 2010 in North America. If this add-on hits retail for less than $150, i will be shocked.
- Harmonix was showing off Dance Central for Kinect.
- A Kinect Star Wars title was shown in trailer form... but really the gaming world has been teased with motion based Star Wars games since 2005/2006. Can we get one for real someday?
- Also to note was Forza for Kinect. It was not made clear to me if this was a new Forza title, or an add-on for Forza 3.
- A new rev of the 360 hardware was also shown - the only lingering question i have based on the slides - "did MS remove the ethernet port in favor of built in 802.11n networking?". New hardware will be available this week - everyone at the keynote however was given a system.
I've got to be honest, this was pretty much exactly how i expected this keynote to play out. It will be interesting to see the hardcore xbox fanboy reaction as they were none too kind towards the Wii when it was announced and shown.
Anyway, Nintendo and Sony tomorrow. I will be sorely disappointed if there is anything resembling Move Sports for the PS3.
It's Here at last!
It's E3 time everyone!
Microsoft's E3 Keynote is set to kick off around 1:30pm eastern time. I'm sure if you're read any gaming site in the past 48 hours you're aware of the xbox 360 "slim" and the project natal official name.
I'll check in with my reactions form ms' keynote as soon as it wraps.
(if anyone is interested, i'll be following the liveblog over at Engadget)
Sony and Nintendo's keynotes are tomorrow - don't be shocked when i post reactions from those ;)
Microsoft's E3 Keynote is set to kick off around 1:30pm eastern time. I'm sure if you're read any gaming site in the past 48 hours you're aware of the xbox 360 "slim" and the project natal official name.
I'll check in with my reactions form ms' keynote as soon as it wraps.
(if anyone is interested, i'll be following the liveblog over at Engadget)
Sony and Nintendo's keynotes are tomorrow - don't be shocked when i post reactions from those ;)
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Current Gaming and other items
Why hello everyone - sorry for the long delay in posting, but to be brutally honest I've reached the point of burnout with Final Fantasy 13. This has resulted in a short break from gaming.
HOWEVER!
Over the wonderful Memorial Day Weekend 2010 I found myself with an urge to play something completely different which served as a reminder that I had not cracked the seal on my copy of inFamous for the PS3. I picked this game up back in March when i was flush with Best Buy gift cards from my birthday - but i never got around to playing it due to FF13 soaking up the majority of my playtime.
So, after a weekend with inFamous I must say that I am kicking myself for not making this a day 1 purchase. The first point that makes this game a blast is that you're playing a superhero without hundreds of issues of back story to conform to or any sort of preconceived notions about the character (Cole). This of course allows the developers to write the rules as they go along. The second point that makes this game great is while playing it - and bear with me on this it's kind of hard to properly articulate this - it feels *easy* to move and play as a super hero. Running and jumping between buildings and latching on to them as you crawl along the sides will of course remind the player of a certain spider-related hero from the Marvel universe. There's really no escaping that comparison. But in my opinion, there has yet to be a game for that Marvel character that has felt so natural as inFamous.
inFamous is built around a karma system, which in itself is nothing new but it does provide an interesting twist to how you play the game (the karma system reminded me quite a bit of the system within Knights of the Old Republic) and how the NPCs will react to you. If you play as a good guy eventually the NPCs will cheer you on, take pictures of you and in some cases even aide you in taking out enemies (they'll throw rocks!). Play as a mean son of a bitch and the NPCs will fear you, run away, and sometimes throw rocks at YOU.
Graphically the game isn't anything groundbreaking for this generation, but the graphics engine will certainly get the job done and look pretty good while doing so. Like the bulk of PS3 titles it is a 720p native game.
In other news we're rapidly approaching this year's E3, which is looking like it'll be all about Natal and Move from MS and Sony respectively. I wonder if the 3DS will be the focus for Nintendo, or if they've got something else up their sleeves...
HOWEVER!
Over the wonderful Memorial Day Weekend 2010 I found myself with an urge to play something completely different which served as a reminder that I had not cracked the seal on my copy of inFamous for the PS3. I picked this game up back in March when i was flush with Best Buy gift cards from my birthday - but i never got around to playing it due to FF13 soaking up the majority of my playtime.
So, after a weekend with inFamous I must say that I am kicking myself for not making this a day 1 purchase. The first point that makes this game a blast is that you're playing a superhero without hundreds of issues of back story to conform to or any sort of preconceived notions about the character (Cole). This of course allows the developers to write the rules as they go along. The second point that makes this game great is while playing it - and bear with me on this it's kind of hard to properly articulate this - it feels *easy* to move and play as a super hero. Running and jumping between buildings and latching on to them as you crawl along the sides will of course remind the player of a certain spider-related hero from the Marvel universe. There's really no escaping that comparison. But in my opinion, there has yet to be a game for that Marvel character that has felt so natural as inFamous.
inFamous is built around a karma system, which in itself is nothing new but it does provide an interesting twist to how you play the game (the karma system reminded me quite a bit of the system within Knights of the Old Republic) and how the NPCs will react to you. If you play as a good guy eventually the NPCs will cheer you on, take pictures of you and in some cases even aide you in taking out enemies (they'll throw rocks!). Play as a mean son of a bitch and the NPCs will fear you, run away, and sometimes throw rocks at YOU.
Graphically the game isn't anything groundbreaking for this generation, but the graphics engine will certainly get the job done and look pretty good while doing so. Like the bulk of PS3 titles it is a 720p native game.
In other news we're rapidly approaching this year's E3, which is looking like it'll be all about Natal and Move from MS and Sony respectively. I wonder if the 3DS will be the focus for Nintendo, or if they've got something else up their sleeves...
Monday, April 19, 2010
Current Gaming
Hello friends, welcome back.
So i've reached the 35 hour mark with Final Fantasy 13. So far this has been an enjoyable adventure and part of me is surprised how this game has managed to grab and HOLD my attention for so long.
I've been saying this the whole time, but I haven't enjoyed an RPG this much since Final Fantasy 8.
Thanks to a good friend of mine, i recently scored a Mad Catz Street Fighter 4 arcade stick on clearance (making room for the Super Street Fighter 4 sticks i assume). I know some of you out there are thinking "Ew Mad Catz?!?" but i have to admit this joystick is very well built, and the price was oh so right ($29.99 w/ free shipping - how could i say no?). The most interesting point about this purchase is that historically, i have been in the control pad camp for playing Street Fighter (this is based around having Street fighter 2 Special Champion Edition and the 6 button pad for the Genesis way back in the day, and then re-enforced by my Sega Saturn and it's flawless rev 2 6 button control pad). It's no secret that the d-pads on both the PS3 and the 360 are terrible (to say the least) for fighting games - and finding one of the Mad Catz Street Fighter 4 pads for a reasonable price was proving to be a pain, so i took the plunge.
I must say, right off the bat the stick felt nice in my hands and on my lap. I must have spent about 20 minutes just clicking the buttons and checking out the stick's action.
I'll report back with an update on the effect on my playing - i am rather rusty at the moment so it's hard to judge. I'm sure i'll also have an update once i get my hands on Super Street Fighter 4.
In other news, i may have found a "game" for the iPhone that's able to hold my attention. X-Plane on the iPhone is VERY worthy of the X-Plane name. I've always loved that flight sim on the PC, but to see it scaled down for the iPhone while retaining most of the core gameplay? Pretty damn impressive.
Until next time!
So i've reached the 35 hour mark with Final Fantasy 13. So far this has been an enjoyable adventure and part of me is surprised how this game has managed to grab and HOLD my attention for so long.
I've been saying this the whole time, but I haven't enjoyed an RPG this much since Final Fantasy 8.
Thanks to a good friend of mine, i recently scored a Mad Catz Street Fighter 4 arcade stick on clearance (making room for the Super Street Fighter 4 sticks i assume). I know some of you out there are thinking "Ew Mad Catz?!?" but i have to admit this joystick is very well built, and the price was oh so right ($29.99 w/ free shipping - how could i say no?). The most interesting point about this purchase is that historically, i have been in the control pad camp for playing Street Fighter (this is based around having Street fighter 2 Special Champion Edition and the 6 button pad for the Genesis way back in the day, and then re-enforced by my Sega Saturn and it's flawless rev 2 6 button control pad). It's no secret that the d-pads on both the PS3 and the 360 are terrible (to say the least) for fighting games - and finding one of the Mad Catz Street Fighter 4 pads for a reasonable price was proving to be a pain, so i took the plunge.
I must say, right off the bat the stick felt nice in my hands and on my lap. I must have spent about 20 minutes just clicking the buttons and checking out the stick's action.
I'll report back with an update on the effect on my playing - i am rather rusty at the moment so it's hard to judge. I'm sure i'll also have an update once i get my hands on Super Street Fighter 4.
In other news, i may have found a "game" for the iPhone that's able to hold my attention. X-Plane on the iPhone is VERY worthy of the X-Plane name. I've always loved that flight sim on the PC, but to see it scaled down for the iPhone while retaining most of the core gameplay? Pretty damn impressive.
Until next time!
Sunday, April 4, 2010
Handhelds and the future of gaming
I've had this theory that the current gen handheld game systems were a bit of a testing ground for the then next generation home systems.
I also feel some what vindicated with what we ended up with (Look at the ds and then the wii. Both radical departures from the traditional with the touch then motion controls. With the psp and the ps3 I saw that more as a proving ground for the xmb and various media functionality, not to mention local storage media in addition to the game media. Anyway...). Now it seems Nintendo has teased the Nintendo 3DS - and Nintendo has gone on record as feeling that a Wii HD isn't a big enough innovation to make next gen hardware.
A Wii 3D on the otherhand? Nintendo is flush with cash and crazy enough to try it.
I wonder what Sony has in store for the proper PSP sucsessor? (well, besides a ps3 style hypervisor hah!)
I also feel some what vindicated with what we ended up with (Look at the ds and then the wii. Both radical departures from the traditional with the touch then motion controls. With the psp and the ps3 I saw that more as a proving ground for the xmb and various media functionality, not to mention local storage media in addition to the game media. Anyway...). Now it seems Nintendo has teased the Nintendo 3DS - and Nintendo has gone on record as feeling that a Wii HD isn't a big enough innovation to make next gen hardware.
A Wii 3D on the otherhand? Nintendo is flush with cash and crazy enough to try it.
I wonder what Sony has in store for the proper PSP sucsessor? (well, besides a ps3 style hypervisor hah!)
Thursday, April 1, 2010
Final Fantasy 13 and the lack of remote play (among other things)
So, I've hit the 20 hour mark in Final Fantasy 13 on the PS3 and still enjoying the hell out of it.
That said, why wasn't FF13 designed to use the remote play feature? To me, it seems like a perfect fit (even the controls could be easily mapped to the psp - only difference is the lack of a 2nd analog nub so camera control would have to be done with a combination of keys). It's a really long game and for those of us in a household where we must share the TV with a significant other, it can be hard to really sink in a bunch of time every night.
Basically i'd love the ability to continue my FF13 game while my S.O. watches some of her DVR'ed programs. It just seems like a huge missed opportunity to put remote play to REALLY good use.
In other news, Playstation Move was demo'ed at PAX East and honestly I'm still not sold on the idea. [to be clear, i'm not sold on MS' Project Natal either...] I know i'm going to sound like pretty much every other game blog out there when i say this, but Playstation Move really just feels like a juiced up Wiimote. Nintendo took a huge risk with the Wii and it's control scheme (not to mention tons of flak regarding the motion sensing game play), and yet here we are almost 4 years after the Wii's launch and both MS and Sony are racing to push out competing technology. Suddenly fanboys on both the MS and Sony camps are interested in motion controls because it's now coming from their respective platform of choice.
I find this 180 in opinion both silly and predictable.
Oh and God of War 3... if you own a PS3 you really should own this title. A friend of mine put it best:
"God of War 3 starts where most games end."
I really couldn't say it better myself.
By now I'm sure we've all seen the hilarious GOW3 spot with the angry girlfriend. The best part in this ad imo is the fact that the bulk of the game play footage is from the first level. Starts where most games end INDEED.
Until next time...
That said, why wasn't FF13 designed to use the remote play feature? To me, it seems like a perfect fit (even the controls could be easily mapped to the psp - only difference is the lack of a 2nd analog nub so camera control would have to be done with a combination of keys). It's a really long game and for those of us in a household where we must share the TV with a significant other, it can be hard to really sink in a bunch of time every night.
Basically i'd love the ability to continue my FF13 game while my S.O. watches some of her DVR'ed programs. It just seems like a huge missed opportunity to put remote play to REALLY good use.
In other news, Playstation Move was demo'ed at PAX East and honestly I'm still not sold on the idea. [to be clear, i'm not sold on MS' Project Natal either...] I know i'm going to sound like pretty much every other game blog out there when i say this, but Playstation Move really just feels like a juiced up Wiimote. Nintendo took a huge risk with the Wii and it's control scheme (not to mention tons of flak regarding the motion sensing game play), and yet here we are almost 4 years after the Wii's launch and both MS and Sony are racing to push out competing technology. Suddenly fanboys on both the MS and Sony camps are interested in motion controls because it's now coming from their respective platform of choice.
I find this 180 in opinion both silly and predictable.
Oh and God of War 3... if you own a PS3 you really should own this title. A friend of mine put it best:
"God of War 3 starts where most games end."
I really couldn't say it better myself.
By now I'm sure we've all seen the hilarious GOW3 spot with the angry girlfriend. The best part in this ad imo is the fact that the bulk of the game play footage is from the first level. Starts where most games end INDEED.
Until next time...
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