E3 Round-up
This year’s E3 happened just a week or so ago, and there were a lot of announcements by a lot of people as usual.
This is a roundup of the main announcements:
Microsoft:
‘Project Natal’ – A motion sensing camera for the Xbox 360.
Metal Gear Solid: Rising – Will now also be available on Xbox 360 when released.
Xbox 360 Games on Demand – The ability to download full games onto your hard drive.
Sony:
PSP Go! – Probably the one thing everyone knew about before E3. It will feature 16GB onboard memory and no UMD drive. This means all digital downloads for the PSP in the future.
PS3 Motion Controller – Yup, another motion controlling announcement.
God of War 3 – To be released… March 2010. just 9 months to go.
MAG (Massive Action Game) – Bad name, yes. True name, also yes. This (FPS) game will feature 256 players online at a time. Sounds… massive.
Nintendo:
Super Mario Galaxy 2 – Rather than Sony and Microsoft, Nintendo’s biggest announcement seemed to be software in the form of a sequel to the very sucessful game, Super Mario Galaxy.
New Super Mario Bros. Wii – Continuing the Mario theme (surprise, surprise), Nintendo also announced a new 2D Mario game for the Wii with multiplayer aspects.
Metroid: Other M – Not continuing the Prime series, a new Metroid game for the Wii from Nintendo.
Wii Vitality – This was the only peripheral/hardware announced by Nintendo. And they weren’t too keen on sharing the details. Seems strange to me, and they’ve said its targeted at the people who still refuse to become gamers…
Its not that I just haven’t included it, there really wasn’t much announced for the DS, other than Golden Sun.
Best of the rest:
EA:
FIFA 10 - Whilst it was to be expected, the graphics seem to be sublime. I will definitely be looking into getting it.
Scribblenauts – DS – This was my highlight of the convention, it seems to be an almost perfect game from what I’ve seen. You need to watch videos to see the extent of the brilliance of this game!
Ubisoft:
Splinter Cell Conviction – Looking like it will be a great game.
Valve:
Left 4 Dead 2 - Who didn’t enjoy L4D? Well, its already causing quite a controversy because fans think that this should be released either as DLC for L4D, or an expansion.
Well, thats about it really. I might have to write an individual article for Scribblenauts soon, but for now, I think I’m done reading and writing about E3.
~Jackreyes
Weekly Roundup
This week has been pretty poor article-wise, but nonetheless, here is our Weekly Roundup.
This week:
- Svenn Reviewed Frets on Fire, the freeware PC Guitar Hero-like game. See here.
- I wrote an article about games to look forward to in the coming days (and months). See here.
Ok, so it really was a bad week, but next week will be better (I hope).
~Jackreyes
PC Review: N
N for the PC is a flash game released in March 2004. So why am I reviewing it?
The answer is because N+, a sort of sequel to the game is coming to the DS and PSP shortly and it has already been released on the Xbox Live Arcade.
N is a game in which you are a ninja and the aim is to complete the level in the time given. You usually have to get a key for the door and then go through the door to complete the level whilst collecting Yellow squares on your way each giving you plus 1 second to complete the level in and avoiding mines, falling from great heights and things that look like they want you dead.
Screenshot:
Controls:
Left and Right arrows to move and Shift to jump. Nothing special. Average controls, but easy to use and work well with the game.
Graphics:
They’re… nothing special, in fact they’re not that good on the flash version and I imagine they’ll be pretty much the same on the PSP and DS, but the Xbox graphics are supposed to be next-gen.
Download Link:
http://www.thewayoftheninja.org/n_downloads.html
Ratings:
Gameplay: 9/10 – Very enjoyable.
Graphics: 6/10 – Below Par, but you can’t expect too much for a free flash game. Though they do work with the game.
Controls: 8/10 – Work well enough, nothing fancy, nothing bad.
Overall: 7/10
76%
PC Game: Halo 2
As with all new PC games Halo 2 comes with hefty specs. Not glasses, requirements that your computer needs to meet to run this game.
It is a Windows Vista exclusive title that requires at least 1gb of RAM and at least 7gb free hard drive space.
Now onto the actual game.
The graphics… Amazing!
They could hardly be better. Well maybe that’s a bit of an overstatement, but some of the best graphics I’ve seen in a while.
Gameplay… Brilliant!
You’ve got to love sniping the bad guys in the centre of the forehead. The storyline is reasonable and the campaign is pretty short. But it is still gripping. Great stuff Bungie.
Controls… Fantastic!
Its not too hard to remember the controls for keyboard/mouse and they work great. Though it would probably be even easier / better with a 360 Controller for windows PC’s.
Online… OMG!
This is the section I really wanted to write. The online is so fun, even without a Windows LIVE Gold account you can still play online, you only need a free (silver) account. Capture the Flag has to be the most engaging, fun online game concept ever, and the Halo series puts it to excellent use! (as does Team Fortress 2, review coming soon) There are also other online modes which are just as fun as Capture the Flag. Sniping bad guys in the campaign may be fun but sniping another guy online… this just takes fun to a new level!
Final Scores
Gameplay: 9/10
Graphics: 9/10
Controls: 9/10
Online: 10/10
Overall:
10/10
97%
Jack
PS3 Game: Skate
EA definitely had a big challenge with this game, because tony hawk ruled the skate-empire for over 7 years. In my opinion they’ve accomplished their mission.
Skate is a very nice game with an innovative control system. The ‘flick-it’ system gives you freedom in your moves and feels really natural. The game has very nice graphics and realistic animations, though it has some problems with the camera. The low-view camera concentrates on your feet which is irritating when you’re heading for a grind. I can’t say much about the story because the game doesn’t really have a story. You can choose out of, freeskate, career or online. In the career mode you get some tasks from racing against others to ‘posing’ for game-magazine covers or making little videos for sponsors. The explanation of the tasks isn’t very clear for non-skaters when you get something like: Gap the street and grind the hubba. But these drawbacks don’t make a bad game of skate. The freedom and the controls are awesome.
Online:
Haven’t fully tested the online features, but they are very boring. In hit the spot you need to score the most points on ‘a spot’ (rail, stairs, etc). The ‘freeskate’ feature online is fun if you play it with some friends, but gets boring after a while. Online: 6.5/10
Skate puts realism and satisfaction in front of combos and unbelievable tricks. The game has some drawbacks but you’ve got to remember that it’s the first skateboarding-game of EA.
Graphics: 8.5/10
Gameplay: 9.5/10
Overall: 8.5/10
+ flick-it system, freedom in your moves, realism and the satisfaction you get when doing a perfect trick.
– video-editor, story, sometimes the game looks like a sponsor-show, online features
Svenn.
DS Game: Geometry Wars Galaxy
Wow.
I got the US version today. It’s amazing, my surprise game of the year so far. Having never played the 360 Arcade version I didn’t know too much about this game, so I took a chance in getting it, and thank god I did. It is the must have game for people who get addicted or are easily bored. It is a game that you can play for hours, it’s the tetris of a new age with the graphics being similar.
Ratings:
Graphics: 7/10 – They did what they were supposed to, but the graphics don’t really matter in this game!
Gameplay: 10/10 – Wow, Could it be any better? The answer is, no.
Controls: 10/10 – Modes for left and right handed people, no complaints. In fact the controls are great, I choose to use the A, B, X and Y buttons instead of the stylus though.
Multiplayer: 9/10 – WiFi highscore tables are nice and so is the multiplayer I’m sure but I haven’t tried it, it missed out on the 10/10 by not having a combination of the WiFi and multiplayer, which would have allowed you to really play against people online.
Overall (not average): 10/10 (98%) – You could hardly hope for a better game.
The aim of the game is surviving the hordes of bad-guys coming by shooting at them and gaining points which will add to your score and then they drop ‘Geoms’ which are like a currency for unlocking new features, also for every lot of ‘Geoms’ you pick up your score from is multiplied by that amount until you lose a life then you have to build up your multiplier again, the max is 150.
It truly is a great game, buy it for 360 Arcade, PC (Vista and XP), Wii, Phone or of course DS!
Jack.
