Monday, May 11, 2009
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Ghostbusters Another Turn of the Screw!
Which means that the PS3 version is coming out on time but the other versions of the games will be coming out, "later this year." Which to me could me anything from the game is coming out a couple months late on the other consoles to this game isn't going to come out until the PS3 game sales have been exhausted and no one cares about the game anymore. Kind of like Eternal Sonata did with the PS3 port from the XBOX 360 version.
So what is the big deal here if you have a PS3. Nothing except that the developers of the game who have been working SO HARD on this game may ONLY get the money from PS3 version and if that's true it will be a tragedy and the fact that Sony is trying to play with the future of folks that obviously went above and beyond really shows what their REAL motivations lie in the industry. Making money at ANY COST except to their OWN bottom line. Another words whatever keeps them from cutting the price of PS3s is what they need to do regardless of the circumstances.
The PS3 is an incredible system but they have a REAL problem with having enough of an install base to make it worth while for a big budget game to be worth being exclusive to the system. I wonder how the folks at Insomniac feel about Sony after Resistance 2? They had about as much marketing for that game as the average XBOX LIVE ARCADE TITLE.
This is the latest in crazy stuff happening, for instance the PS3 landing Joker as the unlockable character for Batman Arkham Asylum. I'm sure Bane will be the unlockable character for the XBOX 360 and both will be available at a later time for a small fee. But the thing is, who wants to play as Bane when you can play as the Joker? Also, does this sell PS3s? NO WAY! It just makes current owners of the 360 mad and the current owners of the PS3 satisfied that they are finally getting some love.
If you notice however, the main exclusives Sony is trying to get are on games that have NO ONLINE. Which means to me that they are still bowing to Microsoft's online superiority. After all, if Batman or Ghostbusters had online, would Sony be securing exclusives? No, because they KNOW that there is NO WAY anyone is getting their version over the XBOX 360 version when it comes to online. If nothing else, it's because there are more XBOX 360s in homes than PS3s. So the chances of playing with your friends are greatly increased if you get the XBOX 360 version of a third party release.
I will be getting the PS3 version of both Ghostbusters and Batman; mostly because one comes out first and the other, well I want to play Joker and I don't want to pay for it. But in general, I get XBOX 360 versions of all my games. Mostly for gamerscore, which I know is silly. But really what other tipping point is there for a single player game that is identical on both systems.
So PS3 fanboys enjoy your love. Because I have a feeling with Microsoft's big bank roll there will be a nasty surprise coming down the line. After all, we haven't gone to E3 yet. Please guys, stop it with all this garbage. We want exclusive franchises not this kind of crazy, immature, crap.
Technorati Tags: PS3,Sony,microsoft,XBOX360,360,playstation,consoles,console,consolewars,Batman,Ghostbusters
There is no such thing as the Best Games of All Time!
So let's get something out of the way right now. I've been asked by some friends to try and do one of these weekly rant posts in a really nice way and not sound off too extremely as I've probably done in the past. So here it goes...
Normally around the end of the year, EVERY YEAR; every video game media outlet puts out a list of the BEST GAMES OF THE YEAR. Which seems to be an accepted tradition and sometimes can be instructive if the consumer isn't paying ANY attention to the games that have come out. Or perhaps it's to REMIND you of the good stuff that you might have missed.
Recently however, I've been exposed to various game magazines that are having X Anniversary and have decided that NOW is a good time to relate to their readers what the BEST GAMES OF ALL TIME are. The games by and large are hysterical and if you played all most any of them today; you would find them SORELY lacking.
When you are in an industry similar to the people who make televisions it's probably not a good idea to go too far back. No one would say that a television from the 60s is BETTER than a TV that just came out a couple of months ago. If we looked at the game industry the way that it seems that lots of journalists do(judging by the articles), we would have the following:
The GOLDEN AGE of VIDEO GAMES happened during whatever era that the particular person talking about was around 10 years old and these were the BEST GAMES EVER and then probably some of the games that came out last year would be included in the list at the VERY END. Also, once a game comes out whatever the review score claims about it, either makes it worthy of further mention or completely ignored(like just about everything that isn't Halo, GTA, Fallout, Starcraft, Tony Hawk, and God of War).
So what would MY BEST VIDEO GAMES EVER BE? Well, by the very nature of this article I shouldn't give you one but I will; just to show you how intrinsically biased.
1. Bioshock(PS3. XBOX360, PC)
2. Elder Scrolls Oblivion(XBOX360, PC, PS3)
3. Psychonauts (PS2, XBOX, PC)
4. Phantom Dust (XBOX)
5. Resident Evil 5 (XBOX360, PS3, PC)
6. Persona 3 FES (PS2)
7. Street Fighter IV(XBOX360, PS3, PC)
8. Call of Duty 4 (PC, XBOX360, PS3)
9. Demigod (PC)
10. Dirt (PC, PS3, XBOX360)
So do all of you agree with the above? Of course not, right? I left out some BIG GAMES right? Well, is this Best of based on sales, criticism, or personal opinion? They normally don't really explain except usually based on their impact on the market. So is the MODEL T the best car EVER because it was the first car and it set the standard for motor vehicles from then on? Of course not.
The general feeling of the video game media is that retro games and indie games are intrinsically better than ANYTHING ELSE. Which is comical. All of those games are fun for what they are; but I certainly would never want to play something like World of Goo for 20-40 hours. The game is wonderful but in short bursts, the above games are more long investment titles. I've seen indie folks say that a dark screen and three, three pixel characters as the greatest thing ever created.
I'm certainly not saying that there weren't ANY good old games. In fact, there are TONS of good games. But please, because the video game industry is EVOLVING rather than just expanding or changing. There REALLY can't be a list of the BEST GAMES EVER! Because if you play those games now, they are terrible. This isn't the publishing industry or the film industry where technology really doesn't matter. But in game design technology matters a great deal and the amount of experience people have playing games and designing games make a great deal of difference.
So even if games ARE HIGH ART, don't make jokes of your selves by saying that the original Legend of Zelda, Donkey Kong, or Pong as the GREATEST GAME OF ALL TIME! Please...
OK guys, let me know what you think? Am I completely wrong? And I'm not talking about my game list, so don't get confused about that.
Technorati Tags: vidoegames,videogame,consoles,console,PC,XBOX360,PS3,Nintnedo,Sony,Miicrosoft,journalism,blogs,media
Saturday, May 9, 2009
Friday, May 8, 2009
Master Videogame Artist Joe Vriens shows off his work in the upcoming Marvel versus Capcom 2!
Make sure to check out his blog and his deviantART pages.
I would like to thank the good folks over at Destructoid for the heads up. This guy is AWESOME!
Beyond Good and Evil 2 Footage Leak: Pass it around!
Is it just me or do you see influences from Prototype and Assassin's Creed; in that trailer. Has the complete development cycle of Ubisoft for the past couple of years simply been moving toward this game? What's next some stealth sequences from Splinter Cell? Or maybe something open world-like similar to Far Cry? I'm not naive enough to think that this was some kind of masterplan. But it does appear that the studios are talking to each other and helping each other. If this isn't just a cinematic that is.
Some Cross Edge Screens, this IS a PS3 game right? (PS3)
Thanks for all the screens IGN, you get even more shots there.
This looks interesting, I wonder what they are using"THE POWER OF THE PS3," for?
Maybe they are planning a direct port to the PSP?
Look it's a BIG dragon!
Overworld map? Anyone? Perhaps everyone of those little houses is a whole zone and that portal is a portal to another world with even more little zones.
Early TRIAL OF THE WEEK! HalfBrick Echoes! This game was SO GOOD, I had to tell someone, NOW!
Just so you folks know, I usually do my TRIAL OF THE WEEK!(A trial game from the world of XBOX LIVE COMMUNITY GAMES) Every Sunday, but Halfbrick: Echoes is SO GOOD; I couldn't wait.
So what is Halfbrick: Echoes. Well, it's not what you would expect. In fact, I think I might have downloaded it on accident. Here is the gameplay, you are a hat that collects crystals in a set arena. Every time you collect a crystal it creates an echo of your path to that crystal and a little blue enemy appears and if they hit you using that path you lose a life. That's it... Of course you are timed and there are different configurations of arenas. And there are some additional unlockable modes for people who purchase the game.
The game is SO addictive that once you start you are all most compelled to try every single level until you have at least a bronze trophy to move on to the next unlockable arena. Sometimes in the VERY well designed arenas this can be even more the case.
You knew it was coming... I did OBVIOUSLY purchase the full game. So here are the other modes and their coolness. The first is Survival where you need to collect as many exploding crystals as possible to keep the time going. Explode enough blue enemies while your at it and get a big combo. Then there is clockwork where the enemies don't move and you can move the whole screen to get to the crystals you need to reach. This mode is very hard but it's fun. And of course, there is multiplayer, wait what? I know it's crazy but there is even multiplayer mode in this game. I'll let you discover that one. This IS called TRIAL OF THE WEEK after all. All modes have trophies tied to them that you can see in the trophy room on the main menu screen. Which is pretty cool, considering it also tells you what you have to do to get said trophies there.
This is probably the greatest example of a amateur built game that could easily be moved over to the Nintendo DS, PSP, or the iPhone! As it stands, in it's current form it is probably the BEST XBOX LIVE ARCADE GAME out there with the exception of MUCH bigger products like the Penny Arcade games, Castle Crashers, and Dishwasher: Dead Samurai. But this is some VERY NICE company to be in. You can purchase the FULL GAME for only 200 Microsoft Points. Unlike the others that start at around 1200 Microsoft Points.
In closing, I can't recommend this game highly enough. This is just another example of how a reasonably priced game can easily outshine even the MUCH higher priced competitors which in today's XBOX LIVE Marketplace environment where some companies are trying to sell HD video for 800 points it's a really refreshing development. I do understand that the developer of this title, Halfbrick; is making some more games, you might see the commericals during your trial as I did. Well, if they are half as good as this game; BRING THEM ON!
Technorati Tags: xboxlivearcade,communitygames,microsoft,XBOX360,consolegames,console,XBLA,Halfbrick,echoes,halfbrickechoes
Lost Odyssey: I feel LOST all ready!
The game is interesting where combat is concerned. I like the ring system that makes sure that the player is actively playing through the random combat instances. I also like being able to create my own rings that give a bonus during combat. But the game in and of itself is broken.
The stuttering while it is changing scenes and the fixed camera with only the most minimum amount of camera movement is insane. It even appears that the game needs to load for EVERY RANDOM encounter and item find. The backgrounds are painted, so it isn't like there is loading going on for the backgrounds either. I think Odin Sphere probably uses more memory than this game should. There are no story choices, everything proceeds like a movie. There are no choices except the choice to pick up items out of chests and jars or not to do so. So where is all the memory going? I don't know, but this game definitely is showing it's age. I'm just a little confused as to why a title that is only probably one level upgraded from Final Fantasy X is having such a problem running on the same system that will run Fable 2, which basically loads up regions of a living world with a timeline and an economy.
I didn't get anywhere near the main part of the story and considering the absolutely awful presentation which is SO integral to the RPG experience is SO BAD, I had to stop playing. It's basically the old adage of, “Hey man, I have a lot better games to play than this.”
So this isn't a review, it's more of a WTF? How could this game, made by such a prestigious company(Mistwalker) with such a good publisher(Microsoft) be SO HORRIBLE? Perhaps it is simply the Japanese sensiblity but in general I really love JRPGs and for most of my life that's all I played. So unless I've been wholly destroyed by Western RPGs; I don't understand. After all, I love just about everything that comes out of Atlus, so who knows... Please SOMEONE tell me, does this game; at some point get SO GOOD that all the rest of this stuff doesn't matter? And what is it?
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Demigod Review (1st PC GAME REVIEW)
Demigod comes from Stardock. The guys behind the downloadable game service impluse. Which you MUST use to either just run the game or purchase a digital copy and run the game. This maybe a Windows Live labeled game but there is NO WINDOWS LIVE SUPPORT. Gas Powered Games are the developers behind this title and perhaps their Real Time Strategy pedigree; i.e. Supreme Commander might have contributed to the overall brilliance of the this title.
The game is a real time strategy game with Role Playing Game conventions like leveling up your Demigod and a Massively Multiplayer style online permanence with their Pantheon mode which allows players to battle for one side or another in a war between Demigods. But this isn't exactly "your father's RTS."
Before I start talking in depth about Demigod, let's get a few things out of the way. First, Demigod doesn't come with ANY instructions if you purchase it online through Impulse. Demigod has no tutorial missions or modes. Demigod has a single player mode consisting of Skirmish(battle against the A.I. in a single match), Tournament (Battle the A.I. over the course of 9 matches to see who is crowned a god!). There are some minimal walkthroughs online and some videos you can watch but it all kind of boils down to starting out on Easy difficulty on Tournament mode and keep making the game harder until your confident enough in your abilities to play in multiplayer. Which you can play Skirmish or Pantheon much like the single player mode. Except that Pantheon is an on going battle between the Light and Dark Demigods. To this day I still am a little confused as to why the developer didn't make a tutorial mode. Also there is a simplistic voice over cinematic at the beginning of the game, but that's it. No real story or even a pretense as to one. Which is fine, but I would have liked at least a few minute winning cinematic after winning the Tournament mode. It's not a big deal, but it certainly would have added depth to this basically multiplayer only game.
Demigod allows you to directly control one unit on the battlefield or arena. This unit is your Demigod. These Demigods are broken up into two categories; Generals and Assassins. The Generals can directly summon warriors to fight for them but are a little weaker fighters. Assassins cannot summon any warriors directly but are stronger in and of themselves. As you can see from these screenshots the Demigods are probably the best rendered aspects of the game. But all most everything in the game looks great. I can only dream of it looking better. Only a little... Please just a little more...
The other units on the screen that fight for your side come through summoning portals and are just cannon fodder more or less. But killing these units on the enemy's side are your main means of leveling up. Also, upgrading your citadel to upgrade your portal units also are vital considering a match can be won or lost based on these upgrades. Everything in Demigod is upgradable. Your Demigod's can be decked out in a large number of ways. You get a talent tree to put points into from killing folks, that will allow you to make the Demigod your very own. You can become good at destroying structures or other Demigods or even some of both. Also, you can buy armor and artifacts for your Demigod that boosts their stats.
These portal summoned units aren't within your control and sometimes they do some stupid things but in general they attack what they should be attacking; however, they will NEVER retreat no matter what happens. Knowing when and how to attack along with these units is one of the things that you have to get used to, when beginning to play the game.
The scale that was being shown in early trailers of the game, showed gigantic arenas in impossible vistas with huge Demigods and a perspective that was set more from the ground up than other Real Time Strategy games. Perhaps a little more similar to Warhammer Dawn of War 2 or Maybe Company of Heroes. A little tighter focus. The actual game is more like a regular RTS with only a little tighter focus than normal. So the game isn't down to up or top down. It's more like from somewhere at angle, and it's angling down. The Demigods aren't very large except for Rook(the guy on the box cover), who is a little smaller than the Rook shown in the trailer but he's still pretty large. If this was to make the minimum specifications for mid-level PCs lower, I don't know. But the game is a little less impressive than it began.
The above problems are certainly in no way deal breakers; their addition would just have made the game that much better. The real problems with the game seem to be very minor. For instance, there are only around 9 maps which are all various sizes which means that each size of map only really has about 2 maybe 3 maps. It would have been nice to have more than that, even at launch. Also, the Demigods sometimes get hung up on corners, which is only slightly annoying but can be a pain if you aren't babysitting your Demigod 100% of the time.
I won't mention the standard problems of matchmaking and getting into games with other players online. Why? Because it's pretty much a lock that all of the problems will be resolved in short order considering that the game is basically an ONLINE MULTIPLAYER GAME. It's certainly bad form to have such problems. But considering all the problems that Gas Powered and Stardock had at launch it's to be expected. If you don't all ready know what I'm talking about head over to www.demigod.com and I'm sure you'll run into an explanation.
So what do I REALLY think of Demigod? Well, I own the game and have played quite a bit of it, including competing in two Pantheons. I'm currently in the process of getting 100% completion on the achievements and playing all the Demigods through on the single player Tournament mode. Yeah, I'm kind of in to the game. There currently isn't a demo for the game, so it's a BIG commitment. However, it's only $39.99. According to Stardock they are working on more content and a demo. So wait if you must, but this game is wonderful and addicting. It doesn't seem like it would be, but it is.
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