Jackreyes' Gaming Blog

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.

Halo 3: ODST

Halo Reach

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.

Resident Evil Portable

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

So, I’m really looking forward to this game. The first Uncharted was a very good game and had superb graphics. The sequel has nothing to do with the first game, its a whole new story. But the greatest thing to look forward to is probably the multiplayer. There’s not much released yet, but we know that it’ll have a capture the flag and team deathmatch modus. The game will also contain a co-op modus up to four players. If you look at the screens you can see they implemented the climbing into the multiplayer, this could be something awesome!

Check back for more news! (upcoming post: review of SOCOM: Confrontation)

-Svenn

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

Ok, I’m a bit late to post about this seeing as I believe they’ve stopped taking pre-orders on the first batch of consoles now, but I for one placed my order.

It should look a little like that, but I believe they’ve changed the design a bit through various stages of development.

This is the Pandora, in case you haven’t already heard about them. They are open source consoles running a Linux operating system. Although it probably won’t have any/many closed source games made specifically for it, it does have the possibility of porting a lot of games and applications that are designed for Linux computers. It can also emulate a lot of older consoles, including the PS1 (PSX) and SNES.

It has a Touch Screen,  Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, a USB port, a 43 button QWERTY keyboard, 2 SDHC slots and 10+ hours of battery life. It is supposedly more powerful than the PSP and DS and their site, say it is powerful enough to run Quake3.

Obviously though, it doesn’t sound hugely impressive so far due to the lack of console specific games, however, this is not just a game console, it is more of a netbook really. Due to its Linux OS, it can run many applications including Firefox, a Mail application and Spreadsheets. But it is still hugely portable, more-so than a netbook. It is actually roughly the size of the original DS.

Video:
 

I will hopefully make more posts about the Pandora when I get mine.

~Jack

I found some information about Assassin’s Creed 2 on a dutch gaming website http://www.psfocus.nl.

• There will be a lot of new weapons: an axe, a hammer, a javelin, two types of swords and two types of small swords.
• You’ll be able to swim.
• The Da Vinci workshop will be in the game.
• The game will offer you different locations: Saint Marks Basilica, The Grand Canal, The Little Canal and the Rialto Bridge.
• The game will start in 1476.
• The Landscape of Tuscany will be one of the settings.
• You take control over Ezio Auditore de Firenze.
• The game will feature Machiavelli, Caterina Sofrza and Lorenzo de Medici.
• You’ll be able to steal enemies’ weapons and use them against them.
• There will be 16 types of missions, unlike in the first game where there were only five or six.
• Collecting special items like flags will now unlock special things in-game that are worth it. (so says Ubisoft)
• There will be a day and night cycle.
• There are 240 people working on this project.

Rumours are spreading on the internet saying you’ll be able to fly (some sort of gliding) but this is not yet confirmed by Ubisoft!

-Svenn

You may or may not have heard of the upcoming game Stalin vs Martians. If not, then it is described as an action RTS, involving Russian dictator  Stalin and… Martians. Sounds weird enough to be brilliant, doesn’t it? Here is the trailer:

and after seeing that you can safely say… It also looks weird, whether that is a good thing or not, I’m not sure yet.
Well, Sven and I had the idea to ask the people behind it a few questions. Here is how it went:

1. What inspired you to make Stalin vs Martians?

Hundreds of identical World War II strategy games, pseudo-Russian stereotypical stuff popular in the “Western countries” (as we call them), like faux cyrillic and bear’n'vodka shit. And, most of all, the fact that we had the opportunity and resources to actually produce the game THAT weird. We just couldn’t miss the chance.

2. Is your game as humorous as the title would have us believe?

With a title like that, who really cares?

3. Would you compare your game to any other on the market?

I think that Stalin looks a little bit like Mario. So we can compare the game to Super Mario Galaxy.

By the way, our game sometimes plays almost like a platformer, so it makes some sense!

4. What sort of gameplay modes will there be? (i.e. Multiplayer? Skirmish? Campaign?)

Campaign only. No one needs multiplayer in a game named, well, Stalin vs. Martians. Just think for a moment. Stalin. Versus. Martians. Multiplayer? Boy, you must be kidding!

5. If it has a campaign mode, would it revolve around a storyline?

Sure. Very stupid storyline. Interrupted by insane music videos.

6. Are there any interesting or unique gameplay features you’d like to tell us about?

The last game to implement REALLY unique gameplay features was, i believe, killer7. We don’t want to play the usual bad PR games anymore, so the answer is no, nothing unique. You’ve seen it all before. Action-packed RTS? Not really unique. Power-ups, bright shiny coins? Check out any Mario/Sonic game. Same old shit.

7. And finally, when can we expect to see your game released?

April 20, digital download for North America and Europe. Available through the main digital distributors like Steam and GamersGate. Published by the Mezmer Games label of Paradox Interactive.

So, there you have it. It could be very good, or it could be not so good.

You can probably expect a review sometime after the 20th of April, assuming the price isn’t too high.

~ Jack and Svenn

With Rock Band 2 being released EA saw a good opportunity to launch a couple of new instruments. The question is: are they really worth buying? I’ve did some research and came up with this..

Stratocaster-guitar

There’s nothing new to the guitar except for the faceplate and a stronger ’strum-bar’. The Guitar Hero-model is still the best guitar, and also compatible with Rock Band 2.
Price: €70~ $95~ £65

Drum-kit

This is something worth to buy. It’s a brand new kit with a stronger pedal due to the metal, it’s finally wireless and the new drumpads make it possible to hear the track you’re playing  (Now you don’t need to put towels on the drumpads to reduce the noise). You can also expand your kit with extra cymbals.
Price:  €90~ $120~ £80  Cymbals: €40~ $55~ £35

Ion Premium Drum-kit

This kit is for the real music lovers. It’s compatible with a PC and you can use it as a standalone electrical drum-kit. Another strength is that every drumpad and cymbal can be adjusted in height to your liking.
Price: €300~ $400~ £270 (without shipping fees)

-Svenn

I’m back on this blog to provide you with news, reviews, and other stuff that has to do with the PS3. I left this blog more than a year ago because I just couldn’t make time to write decent stuff. Now that I’ve found more time, I just can’t wait to write, so here I go.

• The PS3 has a lot of WWII FPS-games to offer, so many that we’ve played every battle, every great mission and even every failure (Brothers in arms). The boys of Delirious thought: “There aren’t enough Third Person Shooters on this theme.”  and here they are presenting a brand new game based on the second season of the television war series Band of Brothers. The game is set at the Pacific Ocean and will try to ‘put the player in the life of an ordinary soldier’. The Developers hope to produce a strong and emotional story.

• SEGA Superstar Tennis was a nice game but not what I expected from them. I didn’t buy the game because it could only entertain me an hour before I stumbled back to my machine to put in the old (and sadly enough, damaged) blu-ray disc of COD: Modern Warfare. Now SEGA is back on the tennis-court with Virtua Tennis 2009. It will be bigger and better: more players, more courts and the official Davis Cup license. I’m looking forward to this.. The game will be released this Spring.

I’ll keep my eyes open for any interesting updates.

Svennie93

On October 2nd Nintendo announced a new handheld. The DSi, which is really what the DS Lite is to the original DS. The new features are:

• Gameboy Advance Slot taken out.
• SD Card reader
• Music player (reads from SD)
• 2 Built in Camera’s, one 3 mega-pixel, the other 0.3 mega-pixel
• Both screens are now 3.25 inches rather than 3 inches
• 12% thinner than the DS Lite
• Built-in web browser
• Downloadable DS Ware (Games and Applications)(Some costing Nintendo Points, some free)
• Internal Memory (unknown amount)

Pictures:

Personally I think this product is a bit of a waste of time. It doesn’t really add any ‘key’ features. Sure all this stuff is useful perhaps, but its not exactly revolutionary. This seems like a slightly more worthwhile update that the DS Phat to the DS Lite but, as far as I can tell it will make some games such as; Guitar Hero: On Tour obselete because of the lack of a GBA Slot. The DS Ware features of the DSi WILL be region locked. Which means anyone who imports a Japanese DSi most probably won’t be able to get any English DS Ware titles onto their DSi.

Either way, I won’t be buying a DSi unless some really groundbreaking stuff is released as DS Ware. Even then, £100+ is a lot of money to pay for an upgrade that doesn’t really add much if you have an MP3 player and camera already.

- Jackreyes

If you check other gaming sites then you’ll probably heard about “bob’s game” which is a DS game made by only one person. It took him 5 years, he was originally going to make it for the Gameboy Advance but then the DS came out and he made the switch. This is obviously a great achievement for anyone, especially seeing as he (Bob) is self-taught.  He is now looking for a publisher. To read more about his motives and thoughts on the game click here.

Below is his trailer followed by 2 demo videos.

It truly looks like an interesting game. Curious, but interesting.

I emailed Bob because I had a few questions to ask him about the game, and his reasons for making the game and here is what he had to say:

1. On your site it says you made this game because you always wanted a game like it as a child. Do you think that games these days are all too similar?
I think that the majority of what gets released or funded pretty much has to be similar to what’s already come out. It’s good business sense to stick with what works, and there’s no marketing data for a new idea. A lot of independent games have unique ideas, but they don’t sell well even if they’re great, because there’s no advertising campaign and a publisher still won’t take a risk on pushing it really hard. Then, because it hasn’t sold well, it gives the publisher negative marketing data towards that kind of idea.

2. Was there anything in particular that triggered your start in making the game?
I was sitting with some friends, drinking coffee at a 24 hour restaurant, when the subject of games came up. I mentioned the idea I’d had for “the perfect game” since I was a kid, and started scribbling on napkins laying out a basic outline. I spent the next few weeks desperately trying to get a pixel to move on a GBA emulator, and it just kept going from there.

3. 5 years is a significant amount of time. What motivated you to carry on working for this long?
The more work I did, the more motivated I was to keep working. I really liked the idea, and I was hellbent on making sure it came to existence.
I think it’s different coming from my perspective. 5 years actually passed very quickly for me, because I was very busy the entire time trying to beat the clock and cross off the next thing on the list. The next thing I knew, I was 25 years old, and it was done.

4. Did you ever think about dropping the game to work on anything else?
I was tempted, sure, but I wouldn’t have been able to even if I wanted. I kept imagining myself as an old man, looking back and wondering what would have happened if I had tried a little harder. I’ve got notebooks full of ideas for other projects and other games, and I’d just fill a page or two and set it aside. That was good, because I know exactly what I’m going to work on next. It’s not “bob’s game 2,” it’s very different.

5. Is there anything about the game or its storyline that you can tell us that isn’t in the Trailer?
Nope, just that there’s still a lot that hasn’t been shown, probably a majority of it. I haven’t shown the second half, and I haven’t really revealed the storyline at all yet. The in-game “bob’s game” hasn’t been revealed, nor has the touchscreen or many of the characters. I think that when it’s ready for review, almost everyone is going to be extremely surprised by a lot of things. I can say that there’s a narrator, and that the game doesn’t stay set in the same time period. There’s also more games than just “bob’s game,” and those are played throughout the game.

6. What other games do you see Bob’s Game similar to, if any?
I’m told it’s similar to “Shenmue,” which is pretty amazing considering that game took $70 million to make.
I would say it’s sort of similar to “Harvest Moon” or “Animal Crossing,” but with a story and an ending, which makes a pretty big difference.

7. What games do you think Bob’s Game will be as popular as?
I have no idea. It would be great if I could sell as many copies of Pokemon, but it’s far more likely I’ll sell about as much as any other unadvertised niche game. That’s fine with me, I really didn’t make it for the money- I made it because I wanted it to exist.

8. Did any publishers contact you during your work on the game?
Nope. Nobody knew about it until I released the first video.

9. Can you tell us which publishers you have spoken with, or have spoken with you up until now?
Nope. Every company so far has had the same policy- Don’t say a word. I think that might have something to do with stock prices or something, who knows.

10. What makes Bob’s Game different from every other DS game?
Of course, it’s by one guy- which matters! A lot of people don’t understand why it’s relevant, they just think I’m talking myself up.
First of all, it hasn’t been done before for a retail console game, and it’s been called impossible by a lot of guys in the industry- so right there you’ve got something relevant on the video game timeline.
More importantly though, it makes it more like a book, or a graphic novel or comic, or an independent movie script. Video games are big productions, involving a lot of money and a lot of people. During the development of these games, the dialogue and story is tested constantly through market research, and the whole thing is engineered to appeal to the largest group of people. It loses all of the individual quirkiness that makes it unique- and it ends up being this sort of bland story that doesn’t offend anybody, but isn’t very exciting either.
It’s like those TV commercials with that really unfunny, corporate sort of humor- that’s the result of strict market research.

All that aside, it’s also a genre-crossing type of game. There’s really not anything like it on any console, besides maybe “Shenmue-” which I haven’t yet played, so I’m sure it’s quite different than even that.

Personally, I can’t wait for this game. Looks like it has the potential to be a great game.

I’d also like to wish Bob the best of luck finding a publisher, and to thank him for taking his time to answer my questions.

- Jackreyes