BitSnark

Building on the success of the already awesome and extremely well received Wipeout HD, is an expansion pack for the PSN title known as the ‘Fury’ pack.

Encompassing eight new tracks, thirteen new ship models and an additional three gamer types the expansion looks set to be a shot in the arm for one of the top titles on PSN.
No release date or pricing details were announced at this point, but it’ll just be a short matter of time until they are.

It’s good to see Sony supporting their PSN titles such as Wipeout HD and Pain with extra content, hopefully it’s a trend that will continue with potential future PSN ‘biggies’ such as Fat Princess and even the recently released Flower.

Going on from the success of last year’s ‘Summer of Arcade’ initiative which saw a number of high profile XBLA titles such as Braid and Castle Crashers being released one after another over a five week period, comes the welcome news that Microsoft is set to repeat the practice again this year.

And just like last year, the line-up is pretty strong indeed.

Starting Wednesday July 22nd and every week after that, gamers can get their teeth into the following impressive line up of titles:

“MARVEL vs. CAPCOM 2” (Backbone Entertainment/Capcom): One of the most popular fighting games of all time, “MARVEL vs. CAPCOM 2,” arrives on Xbox LIVE Arcade. Choose from 56 legendary characters from Marvel Comics and Capcom history, including Ryu and Wolverine. With online multiplayer over Xbox LIVE and enhanced HD graphics, you decide who is the dream team in the ultimate tag-team fighting experience.

“Shadow Complex” (Chair Entertainment and Epic Games/Microsoft): The next evolution in downloadable games, “Shadow Complex” marries the quality and depth of a full retail title, the stunning visuals of Epic Games’ industry-leading Unreal Engine 3, and a classic side-scroller. “Set in the world of Orson Scott Card’s best-selling novel, “Empire,” Shadow Complex introduces a compelling universe in which you collect items and power-ups, and evolve your character into a force of destruction.”

Splosion Man™ (Twisted Pixel Games/Microsoft): Fools they were, to tread where knowledge should stay forbidden. For what emerged was not a man – it was a Splosion Man. “And all who saw him were sploded, for he was the fire and they were but meat.” Able to splode himself at will, the Splosion Man launches his way through levels, an uncontainable force. From Twisted Pixel Games, developer of the award winning The Maw™, Splosion Man will keep you on your toes as you play through more than 50 single-player levels and 50 multiplayer levels.

“Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles™: Turtles in Time Re-shelled” (Ubisoft Singapore®/Ubisoft®): Cowabunga! Everyone’s favorite Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game is back with a brand new look in “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time Re-Shelled.” The arcade classic has been revamped with all new 3D graphics, but the same classic beat ’em up gameplay.

“Trials HD” (RedLynx/Microsoft): Put on your helmet, and rev your way through “Trials HD,” a fully-featured, physics-based motorcycle racing game in stunning HD graphics. Tear up more than 50 tracks and test your metal in two unique game modes: Race and Skill. Create, share and download an unlimited number of free tracks with the level editor, and customize your rider to fit your personality.

Oh, and don’t forget, Battlefield 1943 is due out in two weeks.

Time to stock up on Microsoft Points methinks.

It’s on its way, just been playing far too much UFC 09 and HL2: Episode Two.

Cool yer jets 🙂

People should be forgiven for walking into this conference with a cynical mind regarding the proposed motion controller for the Xbox 360. Groans were the usual reception which granted the very mention of the idea, and rightfully so too as it just reeked of ‘Me-too!’ or should I say ‘Wii-Two’.

Well, the motion controller got it’s unveiling at the tail end of the Microsoft conference and it’s a little bit Eye Toy, a little bit Minority Report and a whole lot of WTF. The premise of the motion controller is simplistic; it removes the need for a conventional controller. Natal combines two cameras for range and 3D depth perception, allowing for a full articulation of movement and 1:1 recognition of said movement. This allows the player to either fully represent themselves on screen, with the full use of all limbs with zero lag or, have the camera pick up their limbs in 3D space.

Showcasing the advanced gesturing system, one Natal demonstration showed players making steering wheel gestures and gear changing gestures whilst playing a racing game. Another was the Ricochet demo, whereby the lady on the stage was deflecting balls back at set of blocks Breakout style through a silhouetted on-screen avatar, yet she was using all parts of her body; fists, elbows, knees, feet in a highly kinetic display. In all cases the recognition was 1:1 and there was no lag whatsoever.

Natal also allows users to log in automatically to their 360 through facial and voice recognition.

A demonstration video showing two players interacting with their avatars over XBOX Live, using hand gestures to flick through costumes for their avatar and also to navigate the NXE interface, gave a certain credence to the Minority Report similarities. In addition to this, it was revealed that Natal also comes with a microphone and advanced voice recognition software.

Showcasing the combination of 3D space recognition and voice recognition was the upcoming 1 vs 100 quiz game, where a question was asked and each of the four contestants would have race to give the answer by tapping the palm of their hand with the bottom of a closed fist (simulating the buzzer button of a quiz environment). Once done they could then give their answer in speech to the system and through the software, Natal would determine if what they said was correct or not.

No demonstration however, ably demonstrated the synergy of Natal’s motion control and voice recognition capabilities more than Peter Molyneux’s ‘Milo’ technical demo. In this demonstration, a player would literally ‘speak’ to Milo asking him how his day was, and what he had been up to and Milo would reply accordingly in a frighteningly life-like manner. Milo, after being chided for not doing his homework by the player (and looking suitably sheepish as a result) offered to do a project with the player involving sea creatures. At this point milo would throw a pair of goggles to the player and ask them to put them on; instinctively of course the player reaches down and affects a gesture of strapping the goggles over the head. The player then stares into the water (with their own real-time reflection staring back at them no less) and then using the gesturing system, motions to create ripples in the water, strengthening the illusion that they can reach into their TV and somehow ‘touch’ the water in front of them.

Milo however, remains an undeveloped idea. This is due in part to the fact that it would be theoretically impossible to have a unique, human response to everything that you talk to the lad about and as such while Milo is at an early stage of development, it would be shurlish/bullish/unrealistic to assume that you could have a fully developed dynamic conversation with an AI. Instead, if Milo doesn’t understand what you are asking him, he will respond based on your tone of voice and inflections.

Ultimately, anybody can see that the gameplay implications, given the veracity of the tech demos taken at face value, are simply staggering. This type of control over games is truly a generation leap ahead of the current Eye Toy and Wii motion controller systems, however we must keep in mind this; all we have seen are demos, tech demos at that. If history has taught us anything it’s that implementation and proof of concept are very different matters, and given the lack of a tangible release window or developer support, it will be sometime indeed until see the fruits of any labour associated with Project Natal.

In the meantime, take a look at the Natal demonstrations and see for yourself:

http://www.gametrailers.com/game/project-natal/11397

Sam is officially back and it would seem after a three year hiatus and a couple of reinventions along the way, that he has brought a cracking game back with him as audiences at E3 were treated to their first in-game demonstration of the next forthcoming instalment in the storied Splinter Cell franchise.

The first and most noticeable thing about Conviction is that this really isn’t so much a Splinter Cell sequel, but rather the 24 game (in all but name) that you wish Sony could have delivered way back in 2004. Sam Fisher channels Jack Bauer excellently, with the brutal (and seemingly freeform) interrogations on bad guys to reveal information through to the breath you see the character exhale before nipping around a corner and killing a hostile in one or two seconds.

The brutal interrogations seem especially intriguing, with Sam able to drag the hapless baddie around the room and using various points of the environment (such as the wall, a urinal and other hurty solid things) to slam the guy against in an effort to get the guy to ‘fess up with any information he may have. In addition to this, Sam is able to mix up the environmental interrogations by using any combination of strikes or throws to further convince the guy that holding secrets (especially ones regarding his dead daughter) from a trained renegade NSA paramilitary, really isn’t a good life choice at all.

The similarities to good ol’ Jack continue through to the pre-emptive targeting system that Sam now possesses and just like when you see Jack size a room up of bad guys and then clinically kill everyone with precision head shooting, the 24 fanboy inside me cries with joy as it now becomes obvious that Sam can do the same. For Sam however, it all works in a delightfully simple manner; if he is concealed from his enemies Sam can prioritise which targets to kill first (not at all unlike the enemy ‘tagging’ system from the R6: Vegas titles) and then after he exposes himself time slows down for the player to kill the the prioritised targets with swift, deadly efficiency.

Visually besides being up there graphically with some of the best this generation of consoles can offer with spot on lighting effects and other graphical wizardry, an interesting style choice was taken regarding the mission objectives and story elements. In a fashion somewhat similar to amphetamine-fuelled action film Crank, photo’s of people and events from the story find them superimposed on surfaces in the game, almost as if Sam is projecting his thoughts directly onto the environment. Examples of this are when Sam is sprinting along a hallway when a grainy picture of a newspaper flickers across a wall he is about to climb up, or when he is climbing across a ceiling, the mission objective text appears on the floor in light sourced letters. It’s an interesting design choice for sure, but in terms of the mission objective stuff, I hope that it can be toggled as I’m not sure I would want that kind of information (that I would already know) in my face all the time.

Conviction further distances itself from the rest of Splinter Cell games by actually encouraging you at times to go in guns blazing. A case in point being at one interval in the demo, Sam spied under a door and saw enemies tipping over desks as makeshift cover for Sam’s imminent arrival, and arrive he did. As the first guy approached the door, Sam kicked the door so hard that it tore right off it’s hinges and as splinters exploded into the guy’s face, Sam whipped out a trusty shotgun and began tearing the place up. The encounter came to a climax when Sam grabbed a thug as a human shield, used his pistol to take out a few more guys shortly before throwing said human shield out of the window. This was then succeeded by Sam jumping out the window himself and shimming across a ledge and back in through another window, only to be cornered by a group of special forces rappelling in from the ceiling bringing the demonstration to an end.

Whilst details were thin on the ground regarding multiplayer modes or other missions within the campaign, Splinter Cell Conviction was out to impress and impress it did. Hopefully, we’ll get some more information on this reformed stealth title in the near future.

Splinter Cell Conviction is due out this November on 360 and PC platforms.

Something which got a big reveal and accompanying six-minute demo, was Infinity Wards upcoming FPS blockbuster sequel Modern Warfare 2. Xbox fanboys hoping/praying for an exclusive release here were disappointed as no such exclusivity agreement materialised.

What they did get however to lift their spirits, was the news that the first two map packs would arrive on their console first; surely a deciding factor in regards to which version to buy.

Well, that and the control pad.

Modern Warfare 2 however, looked incredible and as the MS conference video linked below aptly demonstrates, it will outdo the highly praised original in the ‘All-The-Shit-That-Happens-At-Once’ stakes:

http://www.gametrailers.com/video/e3-09-modern-warfare/50039

Some information on the part of Modern Warfare 2 that people are *really* interested in, y’know the multiplayer, has unfortunately remained lacking so here is hoping that we hear something sooner rather than later on that front.

Coming via Major Nelson’s (Director of XBL programming) Twitter, arrives the news that fan favourite FPS Perfect Dark will be getting a re-release on the popular gaming download service this Winter.

No other details were yet given, but they didn’t need to be.

Perfect Dark + XBLA = Win.

Microsoft did the right thing here. Rather than simply settling for a conversion of a near two year old PS3 game, they have managed to score the next title in the long running stealth franchise for their console. Whilst no exclusivity was mentioned, the simple fact that it can now also be bought on the 360 platform is an impressive fact in itself.

Starring pretty boy Raiden, featured in Metal Gear Solid 2 & 4, the title appears to give the lad a center role in the proceedings.

No other details were shown.

Making its long awaited debut was the first in-game footage of Final Fantasy XIII running in real-time off of the Xbox 360 hardware. For those of you who shed some worry over how it would fare on Microsoft’s console, fear not, as the title looked *identical* to the PS3 version, but as always we’ll have to wait for an HD video comparison to really nitpick any real visual differences.

The level that was demonstrated was the one from the PS3 demo and it seemed to run absolutely fine. We were also treated to a summon of the esper Odin (something we were told not possible until later on in the game) as a treat for onlookers. So for those of you who weren’t sure how the 360 version would fare, rest easy, Square Enix seemingly have the situation well in hand.

Final Fantasy XIII was given a release date of Spring 2010 worldwide.

Perhaps the title that has suffered more press leaks than any game ever, Forza 3 was finally made official at E3 and pencilled in for a release this October. The demo gave the audience an impressive display of what the game will bring to the table this Autumn.

These features included a choice of over 400+ cars, a completely reworked graphics engine that allows for proper physics based crashes (the demo showed a crash and a subsequent full car rollover) and extensive customisation of cars beyond anything that was shown in Forza 2.

Oh and it looks very pretty.