Yes, I think they're both broken. Just in very different ways. I'm not going to address Nintendo's online system for the Wii because it is so far beyond broken I don't have the time or the energy to describe all the issues, much less how to fix them. So, let's get on to my issues with the applicable services, shall we?
First, LIVE and PSN are very different beasts and take very different approaches to online console gaming. LIVE is Microsoft's house. They hold the reins, they call the shots, every company that wants their game on LIVE has to report to the big M and dance however they are told. This has a lot of benefits for the gamers. Performance has a universal standard it must live up to and all games have to support a certain feature set. This kind of uniformity makes navigating all of LIVE and using it's features from a games familiar and intuitive regardless of the game you're playing.
PSN, on the other hand, is a free-for-all. With the exception of certain quality standards, game developers are free to make their online setup work however they see fit. Trophy support wasn't even required for generous span of time after it was first implemented. This "anything goes" type of system does mean freedom for developers to make things work however they want, but it also means a lot less stability for gamers when compared to LIVE. But then, being an open platform is also the reason that PS3 is the only system on which you will be able to access Steamworks and play Portal 2 Co-op alongside PC players. (Side question for Gabe Newell: How's that crow tasting?)
However, both of these systems have serious errors. The PSN issues mostly come down to performance such as instability, slow download speeds as well as lacking some of the popular features of LIVE like the oft-mentioned cross-game voice chat and game-agnostic parties (not needing to be playing the same game to be in a party with someone). While the main issue with LIVE is that you are charged for the basic functionality of being able to play your games online. This is much more insulting when one considers the fact that games on 360 and PS3 cost the same, but on 360 you can only play the single player half of the game unless you hand over another $60 a year to Microsoft. This looks especially bad when PS3, PC and even the Wii offer players the ability to play online without any charge whatsoever. The features advantage that LIVE holds are relatively minimal and certainly don't equate to a $60 price tag. Even worse, this was recently increased from $50 without the addition of any new features in an attempt to justify the increase.
That seems to be the way of things with Microsoft's products though. Whether it's the PC world with the absurdly inflated price of a Windows OS or Office bundle or the cost of a new hard drive for your 360. Let's look at that hard drive example a little closer, to really drive the point home. A 250GB HD for the Xbox 360 costs $130, I kid you not. For that money, I could buy a 1 TERABYTE drive (that's 4x as big) for my PS3 and still have enough left over to buy a game. Microsoft customers are far too willing to simply smile and say "Thank you sir, may I have another?" so there's no reason for the big M to stop screwing consumers on the price.
What Microsoft should be doing, in a world where Microsoft is fair to its customers, is have the ability to play games online included in the free LIVE membership, but save all the other perks for paid, Gold members. Keep all the exclusive demos, and parties and cross-game voice chat, and even premium download bandwidth for Gold members, but don't rob your customers of some of the basic functionality included in a game that they already paid full price for. Especially when the online component comprises such a large part of some of your biggest titles. Where would Halo, Call of Duty or Gears of War be without their online multiplayer? Charging customers $60 for a game and then telling them they can only play half of it until they fork over another $60 is the type of fine print switcharoo that normally gets companies in trouble. So why do gamers keep letting LIVE not only get away with it, but convince themselves that it is a superior service for doing so?
PSN, in a somewhat similar fashion, needs to change up how their paid vs. free services are structured. While the paid service, PSN+, is still more or less in its infancy and as such has some excuse, why not get things going in the right direction early on? As it stands, unless you buy a lot of downloadable titles or the free game offered that month (if there is one) is something you really want to play, there's just not enough to the service to warrant paying for it. Sony is starting in the right direction with the background updates, where your PS3 will check for software updates, download and install them all by itself, and the upcoming cloud game saves, allowing you to save your game to a server instead of your system so that you never have to worry about losing them and can access them from any PlayStation 3 you sign in on. There needs to be more though, and that means addressing the issues PSN has had from the beginning. Download speeds for everything from PlayStation Store games and movies to title updates are horrendous. A file that may take a few minutes on my PC can take more than half an hour on my PS3. That's pretty damn unacceptable. There's also the features people have been asking for since launch. Mainly features that have been available to LIVE users since their service launched. Features like cross-game voice chat, so you can talk to your friend and ask him if he wants to play something without have to A) be in the same game already or B) be willing to type out your message for 20 minutes using the onscreen keyboard and being able to create and join a party with friends that might be playing a different game. Personally, I've only run into a handful of occasions when I thought those features would be useful, but I'm only one man and the masses see them as a necessity. And again, like LIVE, PSN+ should allocate some extra bandwidth to it's customers so that those paying for the service don't spend the same 30 minutes waiting for Uncharted 2 to update that the free members do. In the same way that a LIVE Gold membership doesn't have enough features to justify charging for what PSN (mostly) does for free, PSN+ doesn't have enough features to warrant paying for little "extras."
PSN certainly has a laundry list of issues to work out, but its customers put up with them because they can still play games online for free. And while being able to play your games online is certainly a justifiable purchase to most gamers (why else do you think we pay for internet?) there's something to be said about the fact that LIVE is the only platform anywhere to charge an additional fee for access to features in a game that was already bought and paid for once. I enjoyed playing Halo: Reach online during the free trial offered on LIVE this past weekend, but with only a handful of exclusive titles on 360 there's not enough reason to purchase a LIVE membership when that money could buy me Dead Space 2 or Killzone 3 on my PS3, where I can play the multiplayer for free. And while I'm playing it over PSN, I'm still going to complain about the various issues and lacking features that everyone else has been complaining about for nearly 4 years now.
With an online component essentially being mandatory in modern games and replacing splitscreen play, both of these companies need to work on perfecting their online platform because they both need it in equal amounts. As for Nintendo...well they still don't think people want to play games online. And with the Wii and various DS iterations continuing to print money, there's really no reason for them to stop living in that fantasy world.
Showing posts with label ps3. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ps3. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Monday, March 15, 2010
Low on PS3's? Not if Kratos has anything to say about it.
With IGN reporting this past Thursday (March 11th) that Sony was having trouble keeping up with production of Playstation 3, they have a new story today stating that production will be stepped up to coincide with the increase in demand they're hoping God of War III's release will produce.
Apparently the record-breaking sales of Playstation 3 that took place in December of '09, which saw 1.36 million consoles moved, are still having an impact on Sony's ability to keep retail supplies up. Sony claims this inability to keep up with production is a large contributing factor to the console's sales continually falling behind both the Wii and Xbox 360. The company also believes that forthcoming first-party software, such as Heavy Rain, God of War III, ModNation Racers and Gran Turismo 5, will help bolster system sales as supply is replenished.
The story gets a little fishy after this point, however. With Heavy Rain proving a powerhouse at retail, besting even the mighty BioShock 2 on PS3, it would seem there is already a need for increased production of PS3's to meet the, presumably, connected demand for systems. Sony seems to be more worried about ensuring there are enough systems on shelves for the release of God of War III than increasing supplies immediately. With GoW launching tomorrow, this calls forth the question, If they have the supply to meet the GoW-fueled increase in demand, why aren't they just being shipped to retail now? More importantly, if they have the ability it simply "up" console production, why didn't they do it when sales were being affected?
The most likely answer is that Playstation 3's really aren't in supply-emptying level of demand Sony wants you to believe. It does, however, make a good excuse for coming in third yet again, and looks good to their customers when they put in that "extra effort" to make sure there are enough consoles on shelves to let everyone gleefully indulge in excessive violence as the Ghost of Sparta.
Apparently the record-breaking sales of Playstation 3 that took place in December of '09, which saw 1.36 million consoles moved, are still having an impact on Sony's ability to keep retail supplies up. Sony claims this inability to keep up with production is a large contributing factor to the console's sales continually falling behind both the Wii and Xbox 360. The company also believes that forthcoming first-party software, such as Heavy Rain, God of War III, ModNation Racers and Gran Turismo 5, will help bolster system sales as supply is replenished.
The story gets a little fishy after this point, however. With Heavy Rain proving a powerhouse at retail, besting even the mighty BioShock 2 on PS3, it would seem there is already a need for increased production of PS3's to meet the, presumably, connected demand for systems. Sony seems to be more worried about ensuring there are enough systems on shelves for the release of God of War III than increasing supplies immediately. With GoW launching tomorrow, this calls forth the question, If they have the supply to meet the GoW-fueled increase in demand, why aren't they just being shipped to retail now? More importantly, if they have the ability it simply "up" console production, why didn't they do it when sales were being affected?
The most likely answer is that Playstation 3's really aren't in supply-emptying level of demand Sony wants you to believe. It does, however, make a good excuse for coming in third yet again, and looks good to their customers when they put in that "extra effort" to make sure there are enough consoles on shelves to let everyone gleefully indulge in excessive violence as the Ghost of Sparta.
Thursday, March 11, 2010
What's a four-letter word for Playstation Motion Controller?
(click to "move" to a larger image)In something of a follow-up to Monday's story about the then-unnamed Playstation Motion Controller, GDC has finally brought a name to the peripheral: Playstation Move.
Besides the official name, a few other details were unveiled at GDC. The overall design of the move remains unchanged from it's appearance at E3 2009. There is a large ball at the top that glows and can change colors for interaction with the Playstation Eye. Below the ball will be the standard Playstation face buttons (X, Square, Triangle and Circle) a PS button and an analog trigger on the back. The front of the controller also features a large button featuring the official "Playstation Move" logo:
There is apparently a second part to the Move,dubbed the sub-controller, much like the Nunchuk to the Wii-mote. Unlike the Nunchuk, however, the sub-controller does not need to be plugged in to anything. The button setup for the sub-controller features an analog stick, with a D-pad, X and Circle buttons below. There is also an analog trigger on the back, identical to the main Move controller. For a better view of each component, you can check out IGN's gallery here.Speaking of IGN, they got some hands-on time with the new peripherals as well as some vague information on the price: "under $100." Slightly more detail on the pricing can be found in an article at SFGate stating that both controllers are available in a bundle with the Playstation Eye for the sub-$100 price point. A good thing, too, since the Move requires the Eye to function. (Too bad it's not called the Hand, because that would mean it required Hand-Eye coordination.) In general, Playstation Move combines the technology of competing products Microsoft's Project Natal (itself a more advanced implementation of the technology behind the Playstation Eye) and the Wii's standard controller. Although, in regards to the latter, the Move has a noticeably greater degree of accuracy than even the Wii Motion-Plus according to cnet. This is particularly true in the Move's ability to accurately track depth and rotation.
As for the physical controller, IGN says the construction feels "solid" with a good weight and all buttons well within reach of the user's fingers. The exceptions to this are the subcontroller's D-pad, which can be difficult to reach at times, and the PS button, which is recessed and set apart intentionally to prevent accidental presses.
With so much focus on the Move controller the camera-tracking aspect of the setup often gets lost, increase the inevitable comparison to the Wii-mote. This is somewhat unfortunate since the PS3's boasts considerably more processing horsepower to work with, granting not only HD visuals, but true 1-to-1 motion tracking capability. This creates the potential for genuinely new mechanics and gameplay simply not possible on the Wii. All the fancy specifications and potential in the world doesn't count for anything without software to back it up, however.
Fortunately, IGN reports that 36 developers have pledged support for Move:
505 Games U.S.
Activision Publishing, Inc.
AQ INTERACTIVE Inc.
ARC SYSTEMS WORK CO.,LTD
ATLUS Co., LTD.
Bigben Interactive
CAPCOM CO., LTD.
CCP
Crave Entertainment
CYBERFRONT Corporation
Disney Interactive Studios
Electronic Arts Inc.
FromSoftware, Inc.
Game Republic, Inc.
GUST CO., LTD.
HUDSON SOFT CO., LTD.
IREM SOFTWARE ENGINEERING INC.
Koei Co., Ltd.
Konami Digital Entertainment Co., Ltd.
Majesco Entertainment
Marvelous Entertainment Inc.
NAMCO BANDAI Games Inc.
ONGAKUKAN Co., Ltd.
Oxygen Games
PAON CORPORATION
Q Entertainment Inc.
Q-GAMES, LTD.
SEGA CORPORATION
Sony Online Entertainment
Spike Co., Ltd.
SQUARE ENIX GROUP
TECMO, LTD.
THQ Inc.
UBISOFT
Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment
Zoo Entertainment, Inc.
It's important to remember that just because a company has pledged support does not mean that they will develop games specifically for the peripheral, they may just include optional functionality in a game, or do a remake similar to the Wii version of Resident Evil 4.
A few titles were on display at GDC to show off some of Move's functions. The Shoot is basically a light gun game with the Move controller acting as the gun (pull the trigger to...pull the trigger) and the Eye tracking your movements and translating them to your character, i.e. you duck, he ducks. The big catch with the game being that you're filming movies rather than engaging in "actual" combat (The Shoot = double entendre anyone?) and your lives are actually takes.
Also on display was Wii Sports Resort clone Sports Championship. While nearly identical to the Nintendo title, Sports Championship also goes a long way towards illustrating teh difference in accuracy between the Move and the Wii-mote. Whereas the Wii-mote is based on use of accelerometers, the Move uses motion tracking. So when you're say, swordfighting (and using the second controller as a shield), you can't fake a powerful swing with a simple flick of the wrist, you actually have to make a big swing. The same goes for tennis based games, no quick wrist-flick for his speed hits or serves, you're going to need to actually put some power into those. The game even recognizes when the controller is behind your back.
Speaking of Wii software comparisons, another demo on show was SOCOM 4, said to play much like Wii title Metroid Prime 3: Corruption. The subcontroller and it's analog stick handle movement and cover (via the trigger) with the main controller used for aiming and shooting. SOCOM wasn't designed around the Move, however, the funcionality was patched in. Because of this, the game is a better example of what other companies may do with existing titles than what Move software is capable of.
Another title that recently had Move functionality patched in was EyePet. When it was revealed at E3 last year, EyePet used the Eye exclusively, showing what is saw on your TV (most likely you in your living room) with the addition of a ridiculously cute monkey-like pet rendered in the middle of everything.
(click for larger adorableness)
The eye functionality is still there, and is still the primary focus, but now certain interactions -- such as making bubbles with a bubble wand or dumping cookies into a bowl -- will be accomplished via the Move. The real draw here is still the way the Eye creates the illusion of interacting with the pet and, of course, the absurd level of cuteness. While the implementation of Move appears superfluous at this point, there is potential for some interesting ways for it to interact with your EyePet.
For more in-depth coverage on everything Playstation Move, you can check out IGN's coverage here.
Before we end the article, I'd like to throw out a personal opinion:
As cool as I think the Move could be (I'd love to try some sword fighting where I'm actually...sword fighting) I don't know what Sony thinks it's going to accomplish. They're not going to draw any market share away form the Wii, they're just not.
The Wii's biggest audience is comprised of people that don't generally play video games -- your parents, your grandparents, your girlfriend -- with the other segment being the hardcore Nintendo fans who bought the Wii just to play the handful of franchises actually worthy of the title "video game:" Mario, Zelda, Metroid.
Neither one of these groups are going to find anything of interest in the Move. The investment is far too steep for the first group, and the second group only cares about being able to play first-party Nintendo games.
The only way I see this accomplishing anything is the exceptionally rare scenario of "Gee mom/grandma/honey if you/we spend an extra $200 for the PS3 and Move you can play games just like on the Wii and I can still play 'real' games."
Yeah, good luck with that Sony. Remind me again, how well has the Eye sold? You know, that camera peripheral that's also required for Move? I bought your system for the AAA games like Metal Gear Solid 4, Uncharted 1 and 2, Killzone 2, LittleBigPlanet and Heavy Rain that I couldn't get anywhere else, stop making me blush with these "me too" antics.
/rant
/article
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Rate Your Vengeance! God of War III Reviews are in.
The game may not have dropped yet (although you can get some serious hands-on time if you happen to be in the San Francisco area) but the reviews are everywhere. God of War III can now be considered a hit amongst gaming critics. A stop at any one of you favorite gaming sites will likely find you at a review for the game, but you're already here, right? 1up.com, IGN and Europe-based CVG all have fairly level-headed reviews that, in general, seem to agree: God of War III is awesome. Fun side note, if you have a certain amount of time you need/want to fill by reading the review, CVG has the shortest review, followed by 1up and IGN definitely has the longest.
Note that I said "in general" they seem to agree. IGN still seems to prefer GoW II, with the other two sites granting slight favor to the most recent entry. In regards to the graphics, while they all seem to agree that God of War III is absolutely, drop-dead gorgeous at times, both IGN and CVG claim that the game can range from that to pretty good. 1up, on the other hand said "the visuals almost make it worth playing on their own." The same can be said for the story with regards to how well and coherent it is as well as how it compares to the previous entries in the series. Although from the sounds of it, the ending seems to be quite the dividing factor.
The best part of all these divided opinions, though, is that they are a great excuse to play the game and see for yourself. So...you know...get on that.
Note that I said "in general" they seem to agree. IGN still seems to prefer GoW II, with the other two sites granting slight favor to the most recent entry. In regards to the graphics, while they all seem to agree that God of War III is absolutely, drop-dead gorgeous at times, both IGN and CVG claim that the game can range from that to pretty good. 1up, on the other hand said "the visuals almost make it worth playing on their own." The same can be said for the story with regards to how well and coherent it is as well as how it compares to the previous entries in the series. Although from the sounds of it, the ending seems to be quite the dividing factor.
The best part of all these divided opinions, though, is that they are a great excuse to play the game and see for yourself. So...you know...get on that.
Monday, March 8, 2010
"Wand" Afterall?
While the Playstation Motion Controller has yet to receive an official name, it looks like the unnofficial "Arc" moniker may have just been thrown out.
According to a story at CVG, a Microsoft-held patent on the name Arc for PC accessories has killed any possibility of that becoming the name for Sony's forthcoming controller. Although, with the controller still having no official name and Arc being more of a codename for developers, the likelihood of this becoming a real issue is about the same as Kratos challenging his opponent to a dance-off. So the search for a name for the Playstation...thingy continues. Let's just hope they don't go with that other, shinier codename.
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Adding Molecules to the Playstation
(click to feel even bigger love)Saturday, February 27, 2010
Blood-smeared Impressions, God of War 3.
(click for larger scowl)In case you missed it this past Thursday, the God of War Demo was released on the Playstation Store. This is the same demo that was shown at least year's E3, but for the majority of us this was the first chance to play, so the level of asskickery contained within suffered no loss of awesomeness. Also good news: according to the Playstation Blog God of War III has gone gold. But on to the demo impressions!
This is God of War. Chances are pretty good that if you're reading this you're familiar with the first two games. If not, well there's now an easy way to solve that. Regardless, this is one of the most revered titles in over-the-top action games (think Devil May Cry, Ninja Gaiden or Bayonetta and you'll get the idea) and with good reason. Even better, if you decided to try and stave of your hunger for GoW III by partaking in the outstandingly mediocre Dante's Inferno, (sigh, and I had such high hopes...) then Kratos' gloriously violent escapades will just seem that much more impressive by comparison. In fact, to remind you not only of how Kratos came to be embroiled in the circumstances of God of War III, but also to remind you how far past 11 he pushes the "badass-o-meter" let's have a look at IGN's handy video "God of War in 5 Minutes (Sort of)" which even includes the side/in-between story from the PSP entry, Chains of Olympus.
As awesome as that looked, actually playing the games is so much more satisfying. So let me remind you again that this doesn't require backwards compatibility or for you to still have a PS2 lying around.
Alright, now I promise I'm actually going to talk about the demo, and try to avoid spoiling anything nifty while doing so. As I mentioned earlier, this is the exact same demo shown at 2009's E3, so you should be fairly familiar with its content. You start off slicing, stabbing and otherwise maiming your way through some zombie-like soldiers and reacquainting yourself with Kratos' controls. Speaking of which, there are some slight differences from the last time you handled the Ghost of Sparta. The basics are still the same, Square is light attack, Triangle heavy, X jumps and Circle grabs, so the only real differences affect weapon and "magic" switching. You no longer select your desired magic with the D-pad and fire it off with L2. Now, holding down L2 equips whatever magic you used last, and you change between them by pressing the appropriate buttons (which also fire the magic's attack) while holding L2. By default, L2 pulls out your Bow (apparently not Typhon's Bane, though it serves the same basic purpose) with a change to Helios' head (the only other "magic" you pick up during the demo) accomplished by tapping R1. As mentioned earlier, using Helios' head makes that the default magic (L2), switching back to your Bow requires the player to press Square. This setup works quite well in the demo, and unless Kratos picks up an absurd amount of magical attacks, should prove effective throughout the entire game.
The previous selection method for magic, the D-pad, now changes Kratos equipped main weapon on the fly. During the demo the only other weapon Kratos has access to are the Cestus and well...they're pretty rad. I'm not sure about anyone else, but I never found myself giving much time to the other weapons in God of War I or II. The Cestus, on the other hand, are a lot of fun and I even found myself favoring them over the blades by my third playthrough of the demo. Acting mostly as gigantic metal boxing gloves in the shape of lion heads, the force of the Cestus can stun multiple enemies and throws whoever it strikes backwards. This causes damage to any enemies enemies struck by your primary victim. The ground-pounding of the heavier attacks will even launch just about every enemy around you into the air. Each strikes from the Cestus also pause time, very briefly, but this seems to be more for visual effect than any combat advantage. Essentially, the more limited range of the Cestus is not as great a detriment compared to the standard Blades as it was for supplemental weapons of games past. In fact, the Cestus even have extendable chains similar to Athena's blades, but their use is limited to special moves (still accomplished by a combination of block -- L1 -- and an attack button). It's also worth mentioning that, unlike heavy weapons of previous games such as the Barbarian's Hammer, Kratos can still dodge while using the Cestus. However, the move becomes a hop rather than a roll and the distance is cut down to about 75% of what it is while using the Blades.
There's some fun new additions to combat itself, mostly in the form of the grabs and quick-time events. In Krato's third outing, grabbing an enemy looks like it will have more uses than just ending them quickly. The method of execution that follows a grab is still dependent on the button press that follows (decapitate with square, tear in half with triangle, etc.) but you can also turn that enemy into a rather formidable weapon. Going beyond the previous games where you could throw most standard enemies you grabbed at another, you can now pick up your captive and run around the screen using the poor soul as a combination shield/battering ram. This is quite the effective attack and there's one section of the demo where you can lay waste to an entire squad of soldiers using only one of their comrades. So what you do with your grabbed enemy now requires a little more thought but can potentially have a significant reward. One of the smaller additions to God of War's combat actually requires the player to not do very well. It's possible for Kratos to be overpowered by a large enough force of enemies that will then pile on top of him in a kind of evil dogpile. Escaping is a simple matter of shaking the left stick back and forth and throws back every enemy involved. It's worth letting yourself get overwhelmed by enemies in this way at least once just to see the move in action.
Speaking of choices, there's one particular are of the demo that I want to talk about for a moment. Those of you that remember the E3 demo videos might recall the point at which Kratos reaches Helios' broken body only to find it protected by a phalanx of skeletal soldiers with very large shields. The Blades of Athena are completely impotent against this defense. What was most often shown in the demo was Kratos climbing aboard a Cyclops (using the improved quicktime interface that I will address shortly) and taking control of the beast in order to break apart the phalanx. This is not your only choice for overcoming the dome of shields however. The raw blunt force of the Cestus can also overpower the shields. So it's up to the player whether or not he uses the Cestus or bat at the defenses with the blades and prompt the cyclops to show up. Even if you choose the Cestus, the Cyclops will show up eventually so you can still climb atop the it and crush the enemies below...until you decide to rip the cyclops' eyeball out and kill it that is.
As for the quicktime events, the on-screen has improved considerably. The required button press is now located on the corresponding side of the screen -- X on bottom, Triangle on top, and so on -- so that you can actually concentrate on the action your button presses are performing without having to focus your attention on the symbol at the center of the screen. What's the point of having over-the-top violence if you can't actually watch and enjoy it, am I right? Especially since the new graphics engine Sony Santa Monica has come up with shows the effects of your attacks in real time. The most dramatic of these being "zipper tech" which allows for an "accurate" portrayal of organs spilling out when you've sliced an enemy open. Speaking of which, the graphics are exactly what you would expect from God of War: gorgeous. Four years into it's lifecycle the PS3 is really showing it's graphical muscle.
Once you've killed the soldiers, disemboweled the centaur, maimed the chimera, de-eyed the cyclops and decapitated Helios you'll get a chance to try vertical flight sequence that requires some fairly quick thinking to make through unscathed while you dodge beams and falling debris while you pilot Kratos straight up a vertical shaft. Once this sequence is completed the demo ends, all too soon I might add.
From the impressions the demo left, it looks like God of War III is well on its way to being as much of an improvement over II as that game was over the original. And that's really saying something.
This is God of War. Chances are pretty good that if you're reading this you're familiar with the first two games. If not, well there's now an easy way to solve that. Regardless, this is one of the most revered titles in over-the-top action games (think Devil May Cry, Ninja Gaiden or Bayonetta and you'll get the idea) and with good reason. Even better, if you decided to try and stave of your hunger for GoW III by partaking in the outstandingly mediocre Dante's Inferno, (sigh, and I had such high hopes...) then Kratos' gloriously violent escapades will just seem that much more impressive by comparison. In fact, to remind you not only of how Kratos came to be embroiled in the circumstances of God of War III, but also to remind you how far past 11 he pushes the "badass-o-meter" let's have a look at IGN's handy video "God of War in 5 Minutes (Sort of)" which even includes the side/in-between story from the PSP entry, Chains of Olympus.
As awesome as that looked, actually playing the games is so much more satisfying. So let me remind you again that this doesn't require backwards compatibility or for you to still have a PS2 lying around.
Alright, now I promise I'm actually going to talk about the demo, and try to avoid spoiling anything nifty while doing so. As I mentioned earlier, this is the exact same demo shown at 2009's E3, so you should be fairly familiar with its content. You start off slicing, stabbing and otherwise maiming your way through some zombie-like soldiers and reacquainting yourself with Kratos' controls. Speaking of which, there are some slight differences from the last time you handled the Ghost of Sparta. The basics are still the same, Square is light attack, Triangle heavy, X jumps and Circle grabs, so the only real differences affect weapon and "magic" switching. You no longer select your desired magic with the D-pad and fire it off with L2. Now, holding down L2 equips whatever magic you used last, and you change between them by pressing the appropriate buttons (which also fire the magic's attack) while holding L2. By default, L2 pulls out your Bow (apparently not Typhon's Bane, though it serves the same basic purpose) with a change to Helios' head (the only other "magic" you pick up during the demo) accomplished by tapping R1. As mentioned earlier, using Helios' head makes that the default magic (L2), switching back to your Bow requires the player to press Square. This setup works quite well in the demo, and unless Kratos picks up an absurd amount of magical attacks, should prove effective throughout the entire game.
The previous selection method for magic, the D-pad, now changes Kratos equipped main weapon on the fly. During the demo the only other weapon Kratos has access to are the Cestus and well...they're pretty rad. I'm not sure about anyone else, but I never found myself giving much time to the other weapons in God of War I or II. The Cestus, on the other hand, are a lot of fun and I even found myself favoring them over the blades by my third playthrough of the demo. Acting mostly as gigantic metal boxing gloves in the shape of lion heads, the force of the Cestus can stun multiple enemies and throws whoever it strikes backwards. This causes damage to any enemies enemies struck by your primary victim. The ground-pounding of the heavier attacks will even launch just about every enemy around you into the air. Each strikes from the Cestus also pause time, very briefly, but this seems to be more for visual effect than any combat advantage. Essentially, the more limited range of the Cestus is not as great a detriment compared to the standard Blades as it was for supplemental weapons of games past. In fact, the Cestus even have extendable chains similar to Athena's blades, but their use is limited to special moves (still accomplished by a combination of block -- L1 -- and an attack button). It's also worth mentioning that, unlike heavy weapons of previous games such as the Barbarian's Hammer, Kratos can still dodge while using the Cestus. However, the move becomes a hop rather than a roll and the distance is cut down to about 75% of what it is while using the Blades.
There's some fun new additions to combat itself, mostly in the form of the grabs and quick-time events. In Krato's third outing, grabbing an enemy looks like it will have more uses than just ending them quickly. The method of execution that follows a grab is still dependent on the button press that follows (decapitate with square, tear in half with triangle, etc.) but you can also turn that enemy into a rather formidable weapon. Going beyond the previous games where you could throw most standard enemies you grabbed at another, you can now pick up your captive and run around the screen using the poor soul as a combination shield/battering ram. This is quite the effective attack and there's one section of the demo where you can lay waste to an entire squad of soldiers using only one of their comrades. So what you do with your grabbed enemy now requires a little more thought but can potentially have a significant reward. One of the smaller additions to God of War's combat actually requires the player to not do very well. It's possible for Kratos to be overpowered by a large enough force of enemies that will then pile on top of him in a kind of evil dogpile. Escaping is a simple matter of shaking the left stick back and forth and throws back every enemy involved. It's worth letting yourself get overwhelmed by enemies in this way at least once just to see the move in action.
Speaking of choices, there's one particular are of the demo that I want to talk about for a moment. Those of you that remember the E3 demo videos might recall the point at which Kratos reaches Helios' broken body only to find it protected by a phalanx of skeletal soldiers with very large shields. The Blades of Athena are completely impotent against this defense. What was most often shown in the demo was Kratos climbing aboard a Cyclops (using the improved quicktime interface that I will address shortly) and taking control of the beast in order to break apart the phalanx. This is not your only choice for overcoming the dome of shields however. The raw blunt force of the Cestus can also overpower the shields. So it's up to the player whether or not he uses the Cestus or bat at the defenses with the blades and prompt the cyclops to show up. Even if you choose the Cestus, the Cyclops will show up eventually so you can still climb atop the it and crush the enemies below...until you decide to rip the cyclops' eyeball out and kill it that is.
As for the quicktime events, the on-screen has improved considerably. The required button press is now located on the corresponding side of the screen -- X on bottom, Triangle on top, and so on -- so that you can actually concentrate on the action your button presses are performing without having to focus your attention on the symbol at the center of the screen. What's the point of having over-the-top violence if you can't actually watch and enjoy it, am I right? Especially since the new graphics engine Sony Santa Monica has come up with shows the effects of your attacks in real time. The most dramatic of these being "zipper tech" which allows for an "accurate" portrayal of organs spilling out when you've sliced an enemy open. Speaking of which, the graphics are exactly what you would expect from God of War: gorgeous. Four years into it's lifecycle the PS3 is really showing it's graphical muscle.
Once you've killed the soldiers, disemboweled the centaur, maimed the chimera, de-eyed the cyclops and decapitated Helios you'll get a chance to try vertical flight sequence that requires some fairly quick thinking to make through unscathed while you dodge beams and falling debris while you pilot Kratos straight up a vertical shaft. Once this sequence is completed the demo ends, all too soon I might add.
From the impressions the demo left, it looks like God of War III is well on its way to being as much of an improvement over II as that game was over the original. And that's really saying something.
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Bungie is developing for Playstation 3...maybe. Also, an interview with the team behind Halo:Reach
In a brief, but potentially important, article from our brothers across the pond at CVG, some new light may have been shed on Bungie's post-Microsoft plans.
Having severed ties with Microsoft in 2007, the rumor factories immediately started spitting out stories of new titles in development for Sony's system. With the hugely successful Halo series as well as gaming classic Marathon games, Sony fans (who may very well have been claiming that "Halo sux0rz!" mere moments before the announcement) have good reason to be excited about the possibility. So it's good news that, while Bungie hasn't confirmed any rumors of creating a new IP for Playstation 3, they haven't denied it either.
In fact, when CVG fired the question point-blank at Bungie community boss Brian Jarrard he had this to say:
"I mean, I think our whole future's kind of undefined right now and it's definitely not something we're going to be comfortable getting into too much detail about.
We've had another team internally [other than those making Reach] for quite a while now - they've been working on the genesis of what will become our next big thing.
It's a little premature to get into specifics, but you know I think we have a really good mix of old blood and new blood in the studio."
Let's hope that if Bungie does bring something new to the PS3 it will bring the goodness (story, characters...well most of them, frantic gameplay, even more frantic multiplayer) and the innovative (the Forge) but leave the wackness behind (poor, repetitive level design).
Speaking of Halo, if you want to check out an interview between CVG and certain members of the Halo:Reach team (creative director Marcus Lehto and the previously mentioned Brian Jarrard) you can head right over here.
Having severed ties with Microsoft in 2007, the rumor factories immediately started spitting out stories of new titles in development for Sony's system. With the hugely successful Halo series as well as gaming classic Marathon games, Sony fans (who may very well have been claiming that "Halo sux0rz!" mere moments before the announcement) have good reason to be excited about the possibility. So it's good news that, while Bungie hasn't confirmed any rumors of creating a new IP for Playstation 3, they haven't denied it either.
In fact, when CVG fired the question point-blank at Bungie community boss Brian Jarrard he had this to say:
"I mean, I think our whole future's kind of undefined right now and it's definitely not something we're going to be comfortable getting into too much detail about.
We've had another team internally [other than those making Reach] for quite a while now - they've been working on the genesis of what will become our next big thing.
It's a little premature to get into specifics, but you know I think we have a really good mix of old blood and new blood in the studio."
Let's hope that if Bungie does bring something new to the PS3 it will bring the goodness (story, characters...well most of them, frantic gameplay, even more frantic multiplayer) and the innovative (the Forge) but leave the wackness behind (poor, repetitive level design).
Speaking of Halo, if you want to check out an interview between CVG and certain members of the Halo:Reach team (creative director Marcus Lehto and the previously mentioned Brian Jarrard) you can head right over here.
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
And Behind Door #1? It's More RAM! (Applause)
Looks like the Playstation 3 is giving developers a gift: more RAM.For those of you inexperienced in the world of modern console gaming, they actually have a lot more in common with PC's than you might think, as in: they have their own Operating Systems. Sony's PS3 had an OS guilty of more memory-hogging than any other OS around, eating up around 120MB of RAM for operation. Since the OS is always running in the background (just like Windows) and this RAM usage was spread across both the system and video ram, this was quite the inconvenience for developers that are always trying to squeeze out as much usable RAM as they can. This abundance in OS size is even more apparent when compared to the the Xbox 360's 32MB OS footprint. What? You mean someone makes an operating system even more bloated than one of Microsoft's? GASP!
The reason for this large initial footprint actually lies in the regular firmware updates the PS3 uses to add new features, and yes, that includes the beloved in-game XMB. With Sony have no definitive idea of what the memory requirements would be for the OS since they likewise had no definitive idea for the features of the OS, they essentially put a big "Reserved" sign on several chunks of RAM. The reason being that if player's asked for a new feature but the memory requirements were higher than what was currently allocated to the OS, it would be impossible to implement that feature as raising the ceiling on the Operating System's RAM allotment would break any game that utilized the newly confiscated memory.
As the PS3's life cycle went on, Sony was able to lock down a more efficient use of RAM and the OS footprint was cut down to 96MB. Even further down the road, bringing us to the present, the PS3's OS is down to a slim 50MB, giving an extra 70MB to developers. Before you go getting all excited over new games that will put Uncharted 2 to shame, know that this extra RAM isn't likely to have a very noticeable impact. Since OS memory was saved by making things like in-game music optional, what we'll likely see is more games implementing such features. That or slightly prettier textures or lighting. So this gift is more of a stocking stuffer than something you'd find wrapped under the tree, but it's still better than coal, right? Is it too late/early to be making Christmas analogies?
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Scarf down some Fat Princess Updates.
Apparently there's still a lot of people playing Fat Princess. Since it always seems to take me awhile to find a game with more than 5 people in it, I'm not sure I entirely believe this claim. But then, the Playstation Blog would never exaggerate the popularity of one of their platform's exclusive titles, would they?
Of course, however many people are actually playing Fat Princess, they obviously love this game...maybe a little too much.
You can find the rest of the pics from this little escapade at the oddly-titled Asian School Boy. But on to the important stuff. There's a new patch coming for Fat Princess today, January 21st. The patch, 1.04 correct the All-Time and Monthly leaderboard display for Invasion and Team Deathmatch modes. The patch doesn't address the warrior shield bug, (which allows the warrior to keep his shield up and increase movement speed while carrying the princess) but Titan promises they are aware of it (thanks to comment-happy players) and will have it fixed for the next patch. Most importantly, it comes with a new map! A city similar in scope and look to the previously released New Pork, the new map is called Brownie Town. So gather up your little cartoon friends and beat each other into bloody stains on the ground of this new arena. I'll see you there.
Monday, January 18, 2010
Survive the Horror of Exaggeration in Demon's Souls
If you've heard of PS3 sleeper hit Demon's Souls, you've heard how hard it is. Well in the opinion of Bitmob writer Tony Capri, this is a problem. In the article, which can be found at the link above, Capri writes about how the emphasis on the game's difficulty is driving potential customers away.According to Capri, while the game is challenging, it should be viewed as more of a survival-horror title with RPG elements rather than a straightforward RPG, putting player expectation of difficulty in a more accurate place. Considering the title, and overall look of the game's enemies and even world, this doesn't seem like a particularly large leap to make.
click to gain a +15 to size
Since character stamina is used to perform any action in combat, attacking, rolling, or even blocking, and has a finite supply, use should be treated with the same reservation as ammunition in more traditional survivor-horror titles like Resident Evil or Silent Hill. Along these same lines are the fact that the player cannot become an omnipotent warrior capable of decimating lower level enemies by leveling up. Instead, every enemy poses a considerable threat at all times throughout the game. This is, again, more akin to a survival horror title, where a standard zombie in Resident Evil is just as potentially dangerous in the last hour of play as it was in the first. Even the limiting inventory systems common to most survival horror titles can be likened to the weight limits placed on character equipment. In fact, the system in Demon's Souls is actually more forgiving. Carrying too much weight will cut down the speed of your character's actions, and in extreme cases, the ability to perform them at all, but it will never leave you completely defenseless like running out of ammunition in a traditional survival horror title can.
So gamers everywhere should stop thinking of Demon's Souls s an RPG that caters exclusively to the "hardcore" and instead compare it to the "realistic" challenge of a surviving an onslaught of zombies or other nightmarish creatures. After all, the game, like many others, deals with a horde of monsters that blights the land and threatens the very human race. A horde that has devoured every hero that has challenged it before you. The operative difference between Demon's Souls and other games that take this narrative is that your hero is not an invincible superhuman cracking one-liners as they clear out the monsterous plague that was completely unstoppable up until said hero's arrival, and with a seemingly miniscule level of effort. Rather, your character is just like every other would-be hero in the world, taking up the challenge and hoping to survive the ordeal through the same attributes the player must display: quick thinking and superior tactics.
But is this supposedly undeserved label of difficulty the gaming media has placed upon Demon's Souls truly having an adverse affect on its sales? In my experience, yes. Recently taking my girlfriend's advice to "stop spending all [my] time worrying about bills and get something for [myself]" I decided to pick up a new game. While in the store I considered Demon's Souls briefly before moving on to Batman: Arkham Asylum; choosing to eschew the extreme frustration every review of Demon's Souls told me to expect (in fact, IGN's review gives incite into little else) for the landmark of a comic book game that doesn't suck. Was I disappointed by Batman? Like pretty much everyone else: absolutely not. However that doesn't change the fact that I potentially missed out on a game I could have enjoyed even more, and at the very least missed out on another fantastic game...for now at least. So player's unsure of whether or not they want to take on the highly publicized difficulty of Demon's Souls, or simply not into RPG's, may try thinking of it as something other than your average adventure RPG and more like a survival horror title cooked in a delicious RPG glaze.
So gamers everywhere should stop thinking of Demon's Souls s an RPG that caters exclusively to the "hardcore" and instead compare it to the "realistic" challenge of a surviving an onslaught of zombies or other nightmarish creatures. After all, the game, like many others, deals with a horde of monsters that blights the land and threatens the very human race. A horde that has devoured every hero that has challenged it before you. The operative difference between Demon's Souls and other games that take this narrative is that your hero is not an invincible superhuman cracking one-liners as they clear out the monsterous plague that was completely unstoppable up until said hero's arrival, and with a seemingly miniscule level of effort. Rather, your character is just like every other would-be hero in the world, taking up the challenge and hoping to survive the ordeal through the same attributes the player must display: quick thinking and superior tactics.
But is this supposedly undeserved label of difficulty the gaming media has placed upon Demon's Souls truly having an adverse affect on its sales? In my experience, yes. Recently taking my girlfriend's advice to "stop spending all [my] time worrying about bills and get something for [myself]" I decided to pick up a new game. While in the store I considered Demon's Souls briefly before moving on to Batman: Arkham Asylum; choosing to eschew the extreme frustration every review of Demon's Souls told me to expect (in fact, IGN's review gives incite into little else) for the landmark of a comic book game that doesn't suck. Was I disappointed by Batman? Like pretty much everyone else: absolutely not. However that doesn't change the fact that I potentially missed out on a game I could have enjoyed even more, and at the very least missed out on another fantastic game...for now at least. So player's unsure of whether or not they want to take on the highly publicized difficulty of Demon's Souls, or simply not into RPG's, may try thinking of it as something other than your average adventure RPG and more like a survival horror title cooked in a delicious RPG glaze.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Dark Void, Murky Combat.
click to biggerize
Since I've mentioned the air combat already, let's get into that first. The demo tasks you wiht learning the basics of flight, shooting some stationary targets and taking down 3 Watcher flying saucers before moving on to some ground combat...and is quite short. Flying around and shooting at stationary targets works just fine, it's when you've got moving targets that combat gets a bit uncooperative. At all times while flying you have jetpack mounted machine guns and a crosshair to aim them with. You can press L2 to face the nearest enemy, however that only points the camera in that direction, not your character or your crosshairs. What this means is that, if your enemy's behind you, your view will be of the opposite side that your character, and thus your crosshair, is facing and you must maneuver that crosshair into view WITHOUT BEING ABLE TO SEE IT. As you've probably guessed, this can be quite disorienting. If you're not going to have a lock-on system (which I think could speed up the relatively slow pace of aerial combat, personally, but that's beside the point) your character should at least swing around to the direction the camera is facing so that the player can see what he's aiming at.
Questionable control decisions aside, the air combat looks like it could get old quite fast. Getting in close, although still far enough away to make me say "WTF?" allows the player to press Circle and latch on to the enemy flying saucer, triggering a minigame to hijack control of the vehicle. This minigame consists of the following pattern: wait for gun to charge, dodge left/right, hold circle, dodge left/right, and repeat. Occasionally the pilot will put the saucer into a corkscrew to try and shake you off, but if you manage to press Square or Triangle (whichever the onscreen prompt calls for) at least 2 or 3 times, you're not going to fall off. Since flying around and shooting down the enemy flying saucers is nowhere near as fast as hijacking and then abandoning the vehicle, this could get old fast. Which brings up another point, piloting a flying saucer is nowhere near as fun, or effective as sticking to your jetpack. But this is a demo, so I'll save my final judgment for the full game in case there's some other gameplay in store to spice up these sections.
On the ground combat is...serviceable. Those of you familiar with Nathan Drake's adventures will find a control scheme that is identical save for the reversal of the take cover and melee buttons. Speaking of melee, you can only use a melee attack if there's an enemy near enough to use it on. An interesting design choice that is nonetheless effective. I theorize that this is to prevent players from accidentally entering a melee animation that would leave them open to getting shot, but I can't say for sure. That said, I found that, in the demo at least, you could just run up to any enemy and melee them to death. They don't seem to have any type of defense against it and weren't very good at preventing me from getting close enough -- even on the "Hardcore" difficulty setting -- to use it either. As far as weapons, you can carry any two, plus grenades, (although your default weapon in the demo seemed to be the most effective overall) and switch between them by pressing any direction on the D-pad. Lastly, although I've made a few comparisons to the Uncharted games, the ground combat in Dark Void just wasn't as fast, fluid, or fun. But again, this is just a demo and I didn't get to try out the "vertical" variation.
All in all, I wasn't too impressed with the Dark Void demo, but here's to hoping the rest of the game will prove to be worthy of Geek God, Nikola Tesla.
Check out the Super new combatants of Street Fighter IV.
Anxious to see the fighting styles of the three new pugilistic superstars of the forthcoming Super Street Fighter IV? Well GameTrailers.com has you covered.
With the new videos (which can be found for the rest of the cast here.) you can not only see the new characters in action, but get tips on the best strategies for using them...or defeating them.
Now if we could only get a video detailing why Capcom still chooses to release multiple versions of the same Street Fighter in the age of downloadable content (and with progressively longer titles) we would understand everything.
Cody
Adon
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