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

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

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

It’s been a while since I posted. Don’t blame me, it’s my teachers fault, piles of homework to do. Furthermore I’ve been ill for a week. But now I’m back with some news.

The gameworld is only saying one thing: DELAYS.

-EA’s Rock band is coming to europe in april, may or june. The fans have to wait a litlle longer, meanwhile you can keep you busy with guitar hero 2. MGS4 is postponed to the second quarter of 2008 and Mercenaries 2: World in Flames is delayed to the third quarter

-Report your school or work that you’re gonna be sick on April 29. Hurry to your local gamestore and buy the most discussed game of the year: GTA IV.

- Mad Catz releases a new Ps3-toy. The wireless thumbpad will be principally used for Home. The price is €29,99 Btw: The designers ‘redrawed’ Home. The big changes are the lobby’s, it are big places outside.

-THQ has some moneyproblems and they decided to cancel Frontlines fuel of war for Ps3. They’ve also decided to quit making Stuntman games.

These were the most important things I found over the internet.

-Svenn

Motorstorm is a really nice offroad racing game for ps3. The races take place in Monument Valley, which is a beautiful setting. You can choose out of 7 types of vehicles: trucks, motorcycles, quads, jeeps, sportscars, etc. There are 8 tracks, all with there own pros and cons. There’s only one racetype, the simplicity: WIN. That’s why motorstorm isn’t perfect. It gets really repetitive after a while. Don’t expect a simulator, the game is very arcade because of the boost. You have unlimited boost but there’s a small meter that fills. When it’s at the maximum, your car explodes. This shows the great graphics and physics of the game. The controls are a bit different from other games, you use R2 and L2 to excellerate and brake. The X button is for boost. Steering is with the left analoge stick, or you can use the tilt function, but that’s mission imposible. The offline mode can keep you busy for a week (Maybe two if you’re a hardcore racing fan.).

Online:

The multiplayer mode is the same as the offline mode. You set up your own game, you choose your map and vehicles and the number of players (maximum 12). The servers work really good.. The only drawback is the waiting time. Sometimes it’s like people just don’t want to join your game..

Motorstorm is a very good game but it misses something. I hope that they will add some racingmodes in the second game. Buy this game after you’ve finished resistance and call of duty.

Graphics: 9.5/10

Gameplay: 8/10 (‘low’ score because it’s repetitive)

Overall: 83%

+ Arcade racing, graphics, physics

-Repetitive,long loading times when selecting vehicle

Svenn.

Resistance is a first person shooter with a sci-fi/horror setting. It has a simple but good story. World War II never happend and there aren’t any big conflicts between countries. All of a sudden the Chimera (Sort of monsters) takes over the whole world. The whole world, except the UK. You are Nathan Hale, an American soldier who needs to defend the last part of the world against the chimera. So far the story, I don’t want to spoil anything.

When you play resistance you get overwhelmed with weapons and monsters. Insomniac made some very original weapons like the auger. When you use the secundary fire of the gun it blasts a shield in front of you which can be pretty handy. If these guns aren’t enough you can always throw a granate or make use of mines. The game contains out of short levels. Your task is to get more information about the chimera, usually this ends in killing everything that crosses your road. Every level is in another environment, that’s why it never gets boring. If you are in the habit of playing fps, the controls of resistance will be very simple. It’s just the basic stuff. The graphs and the physics are almost perfect. When you play the game on the standard difficulty it’s pretty challenging, it gives you 14-15 hours gameplay. After you finished the game you get some extra weapons, this gives a great replay-value to the game.

Online:

The multiplayer mode is in one word AWESOME. You got the classic online modes like deathmath, team deathmatch and capture the flag but also breach , meltdown, … The game has a lot of maps ( honestly, I don’t know how much) with different environments from in-game levels plus some new ones. You can decide if you play unranked matches, just for fun, or ranked matches. When you play a ranked match you play 2 rounds. One round as human and one round as a Hybrid (smart chimera monster). Your weapons and abilities depend on the person you are. You gain points in these matches so you can improve your ranking. The servers load very fast and I never expierenced any lag problems. The game has some extra options like clans (for maximum 200(!) members), stats, partys, friend list, etc. If you want a great online expierence, just buy this game.

Resistance is definitly worth buying. This is the best first person shooter for ps3

Graphics: 9.5/10

Gameplay: 9.5/10

Overall: 92%

+ weapons, environment, replay-value.

- uh? Nothing special.

You can expect reviews of call of duty 3, motorstorm and assasins creed (haven’t completed it yet)

Svenn.

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.