This is a great time of year for gamers. There are so many good releases that your only problem is choosing what to play. The big franchises don’t disappoint and for me Pro Evo still beats FIFA. I’m also finding Football Manager 2010 ridiculously addictive.
I reviewed Chinatown Wars on the PSP the other day and it’s my least favourite GTA game but still one of the best titles on the PSP. You can check out the review here. Actually getting the game working was a bit of a hassle. I got sent a code for it so I went to the PlayStation Store on my PS3 and entered the code. The game popped up and I downloaded it onto my PS3 hard drive, so far, so good. It didn’t take long to download and I plugged my PSP into the PS3 with the controller USB cable and downloaded the game onto the PSP. Once again it was nice and quick with no hassles.
Awesome, I thought, that was easy and I went to load up the game on the PSP. Denied, I need a software update before I can play the game. How do I get a software update for the PSP? Can I just hook it up to my PS3 again and do it the same way as I downloaded the game? No. I have to connect to my wireless network and get it directly. This meant configuring a new network connection on the PSP which actually proved to be pretty easy since I have a wireless router with a WEP key printed on the bottom. I entered the key, it connected and downloaded the update before auto installing it which probably took as long as it had taken me to download and install the game but at least it worked.
In the end it wasn’t too bad and it definitely took less time than going to the shop to physically pick up a copy would have. I’m a fan of buying and downloading games and I buy the vast majority of my PC games through Steam. I’ll probably do the same for the PSP from now on, we just need full console games to adopt the same system and we’ll never have to go to the shops again.
As predicted the PlayStation 3 is about to get support for streaming movies. The Netflix service will be offered on your PS3 before the end of the year. You can pay a monthly subscription to Netflix (from $8.99) and get access to TV shows and thousands of movies. You can also stream Blu-rays but apparently at first you’ll need a special disc to make it work. The streaming disc will be free. The same service costs $50 a year on the Xbox 360.
This is great news for US PS3 owners but what about the UK? Apparently similar plans are afoot but no announcement as of yet. Hurry up damn it! I want my streaming movies!
As the console war continues to escalate Sony are really sticking it to the competition….. better late than never. Since announcing the price cut and the new slim version of the PS3 they have shifted over 1 million units worldwide.
Microsoft were quick to announce their own price cut to keep the Xbox 360 in line with the PS3 at $299, although the Xbox 360 lacks Blu-ray. Now Nintendo have announced a price cut for the Wii amidst falling sales. They have knocked $50 off the lightweight console making it $199.99.
In a clear sign that the gloves are well and truly off just hours after the announcement from Nintendo, Sony revealed plans for a new motion controller for the PS3. It will have two motion sensors, a gyroscope and an accelerometer. This will bring Wii style functionality to the PS3 and it is due to be released in Spring 2010. They actually announced it back at E3 but now it has a release date and this was obviously intended to take the shine off the Wii price cut. Here’s the demo from E3 in case you missed it.
In the UK Nintendo have refused to pass along the price drop. They are offering the console for the same price of £199 but offering an extra game. Great! So it is actually now more expensive in the UK than it was on release and more expensive here than anywhere else in the world. Nintendo are not winning me over.
The recent tweaks made by the PlayStation 3 Firmware 3.0 update may not have blown your socks off but there is one addition that is proving super popular here in the UK. Since they added the BBC iPlayer link to the XMB the PS3 now accounts for 10% of all iPlayer usage. Macs only account for 8.5%.
The presentation on the PS3 is very nice and iPlayer is awesome, offering many of the BBC’s programs from the last seven days as free streams. It works well but no one could have expected such a massive instant response.
Sony made some interesting announcements at the GamesCom 2009 Expo. First up was the predictable news that they would be releasing a slim version of the PS3 on the 1st of September. It is 33% smaller, 36% lighter and 10% less loveable. I’m just saying that because I already have a fat PS3 and I love it anyway. None of this shallow obsessive dieting for my PS3.
They are also doing a firmware update for PS3s big and small. It will let you watch BBC iPlayer through your PS3 which is awesome and there are a few other bits and pieces as well. You’ll now be able to browse the PS3 via any Bravia remote so yet another reason why I need to buy a new Sony Bravia TV, the wife will surely cave this time.
There is also the PSP Go, the dinky version of the PSP which slides open. It will be getting a download service where you can buy mini-games, by which they mean under 100 MB puzzle games and casual titles. It has a way to go to catch the Nintendo DS but this still looks like a smart move from Sony.
The news from E3 that Rockstar North are developing a new game called Agent will be cause for excitement amongst GTA fans. The game is set to be a PS3 exclusive and they certainly need a few decent exclusives to drive console sales, especially since the GTA franchise is now cross platform.
The team at Rockstar North are the real talent behind GTA IV so Agent could well be an excellent game. It casts you in the role of a secret agent during the Cold War and promises to be a paranoid journey into espionage and political assassination. No doubt it will have a good dose of humour too. The official Agent website is up but you won’t find any details yet.
There isn’t really anything particularly new or revolutionary about Prototype. The evil military linked virus weapon outbreak back story is far from original and the third-person action gameplay is fairly familiar. The visuals are good with a rough composite of New York but this is no GTA and the strongest aspect of the art is the animation by far. There are problems with the difficulty mix as well, easy missions follow hard ones quite randomly. Check out my Prototype review for more.
Whatever you say about Prototype you have to admit it is a lot of fun to play. There are hints of Akira about the set up and charging around the city mashing up enemies who are woefully ill equipped to deal with your ferocious violent abilities brought a big grin to my face. This is no superhero game either, your powers may be comparable but your complete disregard for public safety and the moral ambivalence of the whole thing is quite refreshing.
I haven’t been gaming much the last couple of weeks because I just became a father and my bundle of puking, pooping and wailing joy is infinitely more interesting than any game. Still in the brief periods when he drops off to sleep it is Prototype that I have stuck on to squeeze in a quick blast of escapist action.
I still get a thrill when free games come pouring through my letterbox but there is a downside to reviewing games. Actually there are a few reasons that it occasionally sucks. First off sometimes the games you get sent are total turkeys. In April I got sent a bumper load of turkeys. My first review for Boom Town was Stormrise and despite having the Creative Assembly (Australia) name on it, the game was a real-time strategy disaster for the PS3.
I also got sent Gobliiins 4 an inane, antiquated point and click adventure for the PC which was painfully bad. If you’ve been reading the blog you’ll know my opinion on point and click adventures.
As if they weren’t bad enough another game that landed on my doormat was CID the Dummy for the Wii.
I always feel a bit bad for criticising games, I know how it feels from the development side and a bad review can be seriously dispiriting if you’ve worked on a project for months or even years. The thing is you have to be honest, I always try to imagine how I would feel if I actually spent money on the game in question and having bought several terrible games over the years it never fails to piss me off.
You also have to actually play through the game in order to give it a proper review and that can be hard going. It takes willpower to keep playing something you are really hating but then that’s another thing that stirs up the vitriol.
Even when you are playing a game you enjoy, the pressure to hurry up and finish it can be annoying. You’ll find yourself thinking about what you are going to say instead of just enjoying the game. At the end of the day it comes down to opinion, there is no real evaluative standard that can be applied across the board.
Guitar Hero was an awesome game when it was first released. A guitar peripheral and a great list of tracks all in an affordable bundle made it a perfect party game. I had many enjoyable drunken nights posing like a rock star and twanging my way through various metal hits. All good things come to an end though and I can’t help feeling that the Guitar Hero series is being milked to death. Since the original release in 2005 they’ve churned out around eight titles and a bunch more on other platforms not to mention all the special edition guitars.
Does the announcement that a Metallica version has just been released signal the fact that the game is totally overexposed? Whats next Guitar Hero: The Beatles? Actually yes, Activision are in talks right now about a Beatles themed entry in the series.
The release of Rock Band has taken it even further adding a microphone and drums to transform your living room into a bad gig venue. It’s weird I can remember talking to people excitedly about the prospect of Rock Band and then it was released and I just thought nah. The third game in the Guitar Hero series was where it lost the appeal for me and now I don’t mind the odd drunken session at a mate’s flat but there is no longer a space in my living room for a plastic guitar.
I reviewed Chinatown Wars on the PSP the other day and it’s my least favourite GTA game but still one of the best titles on the PSP. You can check out the 
The recent tweaks made by the 
Sony made some interesting announcements at the GamesCom 2009 Expo. First up was the predictable news that they would be releasing a slim version of the PS3 on the 1st of September. It is 33% smaller, 36% lighter and 10% less loveable. I’m just saying that because I already have a fat PS3 and I love it anyway. None of this shallow obsessive dieting for my PS3.
There is also the PSP Go, the dinky version of the PSP which slides open. It will be getting a download service where you can buy mini-games, by which they mean under 100 MB puzzle games and casual titles. It has a way to go to catch the Nintendo DS but this still looks like a smart move from Sony.
There isn’t really anything particularly new or revolutionary about Prototype. The evil military linked virus weapon outbreak back story is far from original and the third-person action gameplay is fairly familiar. The visuals are good with a rough composite of New York but this is no GTA and the strongest aspect of the art is the animation by far. There are problems with the difficulty mix as well, easy missions follow hard ones quite randomly. Check out my 
I still get a thrill when free games come pouring through my letterbox but there is a downside to reviewing games. Actually there are a few reasons that it occasionally sucks. First off sometimes the games you get sent are total turkeys. In April I got sent a bumper load of turkeys. My first review for Boom Town was 
Guitar Hero was an awesome game when it was first released. A guitar peripheral and a great list of tracks all in an affordable bundle made it a perfect party game. I had many enjoyable drunken nights posing like a rock star and twanging my way through various metal hits. All good things come to an end though and I can’t help feeling that the Guitar Hero series is being milked to death. Since the original release in 2005 they’ve churned out around eight titles and a bunch more on other platforms not to mention all the special edition guitars. 