Archive for the ‘Bitsnark News & Reviews’ Category
‘Hacker Friendly’ Android Powered Home Console ‘OUYA’ Almost Trebles It’s Kickstarter Target In Just Over 24 Hours
This is the ‘OUYA’ – a $99 Android-powered home console with a focus on homebrew development. I’m not sure how you would pronounce “OUYA”, but ‘Oooh Yeah’, works for me right now.
The brainchild of a number of industry types, including former Xbox head-honcho Ed Fries, Ouya is an Android 4.0 powered home console tipped to retail at just $99. Budget pricing aside, the biggest boon that the console has to offer is that it fully embraces an open design approach and welcomes the sort of tinkering and hacking that other manufacturers would seek to discourage since the unit will also include a development kit, allowing anyone to create a game, upload it to the marketplace and set their own prices. It’s a tremendously enticing proposition and one that, at long last, will look to reinvigorate home games development in the console market.
Like most seemingly brilliant ideas, a Kickstarter has been set up for the console with a funding target of $950,000. That was yesterday. Today, the current total amount of money raised is $2,290,225 – showing that there is a shit-ton of love for an open development platform like this. Which, naturally, is pretty fucking great.
Additionally, the game also completely embraces the free-to-play model and it’s here that the console offers it’s only real rule – every game must include some free gameplay, which apparently can vary from a demo to a freemium title that finances itself exclusively on player micro-transactions.
The blurb on the Kickstarter evangelises this fact: “At least some gameplay has to be free. We borrowed the free-to-play model from games like League of Legends, Team Fortress 2, Triple Town, and many others. Developers can offer a free demo with a full-game upgrade, in-game items or powers, or ask you to subscribe.”
In terms of the actual unit itself, the MAMECube OUYA has notable design pedigree. Part of that pedigree includes One Laptop Per Child designer Yves Behar, who has designed the rather familiar looking controller. Indeed, the layout of the controller bears substantial similarities to the Xbox 360 pad with non-parallel dual analogue sticks, face buttons, triggers, and a d-pad. This is a GOOD thing.
As well as such traditional input controls, the OUYA console will also boast a touchpad, “for any games making the trek from mobile or tablet to the TV.” the blog cheerfully says. Which in theory sounds great if you’re playing the latest HD Android titles, but less so if you’re playing non-HD titles, unless of course you like pixels the size of Duplo Blocks. That shouldn’t suggest however, that the machine will merely leech off the Android market for content (though it probably will initially until aspiring bedroom coders have had their grubby paws on it for a bit), since the Kickstarter is eager to point out that a significant chunk of the funding will go towards the creation of exclusive first-party titles for the machine. This, is also a GOOD thing.
In terms of the grunt under the hood, the OUYA console should be fully capable of playing just about all of the Android HD content available by the time it launches sometime in 2013 and most crucially, it’s powerful enough to allow enterprising folks to come up with some relatively decent looking games too.
Take a look at the specs below and see for yourself, and try to not be too not-picky eh? The bloody thing only costs $99:
Ouya’s hardware specs consist of the following:
- Tegra3 quad-core processor
- 1GB RAM
- 8GB of internal flash storage
- HDMI connection to the TV, with support for up to 1080p HD
- WiFi 802.11 b/g/n
- Bluetooth LE 4.0
- USB 2.0 (one)
- Wireless controller with standard controls (two analog sticks, d-pad, eight action buttons, a system button), a touchpad
- Android 4.0
OUYA also has a number of relatively big-hitters supporting it too including the likes of Prince of Persia creator Jordan Mechner, fellow Wasteland 2 Kickstarter and industry legend Brian Fargo and Mojang, developers of Minecraft.
Taken from the Kickstarter page, this is what they had to say about the console:
“This has the potential to be the game developer’s console. It’s about time!” —Brian Fargo (founder of inXile)
“Who wouldn’t want a beautiful piece of industrial design that sells for $99, plugs straight into your TV, and gives you access to a huge library of games?” –Jordan Mechner (creator of Prince of Persia, Karateka)
“If OUYA delivers on the promise of being the first true open gaming platform that gives indie developers access to the living room gaming market, yes that is a great idea. We will follow the development of OUYA and see how it resonates with gamers. I could see all current Mojang games go on the platform if there’s a demand for it.” – Mojang (developer of Minecraft)
In a climate of spiralling developmental budgets and a dogged focus on risk-averse, so-called triple-A development, it’s great to see a scrappy little proposition come along like this; I hope it becomes the resounding success that it deserves to be.
The industry needs it.
The Kickstarter page for the OUYA console can be found here, and in the time that it has taken me to write this article they have raised an additional $34,090, bringing the new total to $2,324,315.
A video profiling the console can also be seen below:
Satisfaction Through Payne – Max Payne 3 Review (Xbox 360)
In the nine or so years that have passed since Max Payne last lit up our screens with his Matrix inspired, bullet-ballet gameplay, a great deal has changed. The Matrix is in the past, bullet-time has been shamelessly milked by so many countless film and game properties that it’s no longer the fresh, mind-blowingly cool gimmick that it used to be and third person shooters in general have been forced behind cover due to a certain franchise obsessed with biceps and chainsaws.
Much like it’s titular character, Max Payne 3 is an unapologetic relic of an earlier era; a game that when compared to it’s contemporaries may seem outdated and relatively bereft of innovation or surprise in light of just how closely it sticks to the genre tropes that the first two titles did so much to create.
Despite appearing to be just another eye-rolling exercise in over-familiarity, developers Rockstar have somehow managed to make the familiar seem weightier and more substantial; meaningfully reclaiming the ‘grittiness’ from other po-faced shooter efforts who would merely use the word as an excuse to swear liberally and spray gore and body parts across the screen.
It’s in this grittiness that the narrative of Max Payne 3 is framed so succinctly. Set some time after 2003’s Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne, this third entry in the series finds our tragic hero serving as a personal security officer for some of Brazil’s political elite by day, while at night, Max finds himself without distraction; locked in a downward spiral and broken down on every emotional level by a harrowing trifecta of personal tragedy, alcohol and painkillers. As you might imagine, things don’t stay calm very long and before you know it, folks are being kidnapped, shot and executed; prompting Max to start ejecting lead into people’s faces as an approximate and frequent reply all the while attempting to maintain his tenuous grip on reality.
Grizzled, pissed off and with a gun in his hand – this is the sort of poise common to our heroic chap throughout the game.
It’s an action-packed yarn, filled with the sort of striking violence, depravity, social commentary and sharp direction that typifies it as a Rockstar developed title. Taking Max from the crib of the richest financial and political magnates in Brazil, all the way to the crime-infested, desperate slums that make up the sprawling favelas of Sao Paulo, the plot of Max Payne is a much a meditation on character introspection and redemption as it is a gritty, gun-play laden action blockbuster.
If it’s not clear to you at this point, allow me to make it clear; Max Payne 3 is a very violent game indeed. Bullets cause all sorts of deformed nastiness to the human anatomy in this game with all manner of entry and exit wounds causing foes to slump against nearby furniture, or crash down a flight of stairs. The kill cam, just one of Max Payne 3’s many visual flourishes, serves to further heighten the violence; bringing time to almost a standstill as you watch round after round crash through the body of the unfortunate goon who just happened to be in your way. With that said, the damage modelling isn’t perfect – enemies caught by an explosion will merely have their bodies thrown (fully intact) across the room without any visual injury; a surprise given how meticulously the game models physical damage from firearms elsewhere.
Despite a stylish focus on the grisly, from a cinematic perspective the game distances itself from it’s genre stalemates in typical grand Rockstar fashion with a flair for the dramatic. Here, Rockstar have combined the sort of edgy and progressive cinematography seen in films such as Drive by Nicolas Winding Refn and Elite Squad by Brazilian director Jose Padilha, to sharp and impressive effect. This shouldn’t suggest however, that Max Payne 3 has left the original Noir stylings which characterised the it’s predecessors behind.
Despite it’s more contemporary cinematic influences, Max Payne 3 is still as much a love-letter to classic Hollywood Noir as it ever was. The internal monologues return, as do the dramatic analogous speeches, yet the game supplements this with a visual veneer that evokes a heady combination of David Fincher and the adrenaline-fused, visual style seen in the Crank movies.
During cut-scenes, conversational-text, momentarily darts into view while the camera-lens periodically loses focus and bleeds colour and hue – providing the sort of drug-infused distorted vision that you would imagine Max himself having after a night-long binge of his favourite brand of ‘Kong’ Whiskey (look for it) and painkillers. Indeed, in this incarnation Max himself has a very definite Hollywood look; boasting the rough facial lines and craggy looks which evoke a deep similarity to a 1980’s era James Caan.
No action shootery game is complete without the obligatory AVOID THE SNIPERS section. There are a few of these. Just a few.
When it comes down to the gameplay, it’s in the act of plugging folks with a variety of firearms that Max Payne 3 reminds us just how similar it is to the previous games that have spawned it. If the cinematic aspect of the game references the work of European and American directors, then the gameplay almost certain remains as much a homage to John Woo cinema as the previous games have. Bullet-time, the feature by which Max Payne his quite literally lived and died by since his debut over eleven years ago; remains a steadfast part of the gameplay in Max Payne 3. Max can dive forwards, backwards or to the side in slow-motion whilst firing his weapon of choice; either a primary firearm such as a rifle or heavy machine gun, a side-arm such as a handgun or a combination of two sidearms for maximum ‘guns akimbo’ effect.
It’s here that another little way in which Max Payne 3 separates itself from other, similar games becomes apparent.
If say, the impossibly muscled and gruff Marcus Fenix from Gears Of War attempted to dive side-ways whilst opening fire and there was a physical impediment in the way, such as a wall or other obstacle, he would just roll against it and get up right away. Max on the other hand, quite literally crashes into the wall, realistically sliding down it as he struggles to gain his bearings and correct himself. Age, drink and substance abuse haven’t been kind to Max Payne’s body, and so such physicality comes across exactly as it should – wholly appropriate.
In terms of the gameplay, these sort of weighted acrobatics have additional implications outside of the cosmetic. Although he may have crashed painfully against a wall or crashed backwards through a pool table after a frenzied dive, Max Payne can still remain on the offensive; even though if he may be struggling to pull himself up off the ground, or steady himself with a hand on the wall, he always has his gun pointed forward, meaning that you are always a danger to the enemy regardless of the state of animation you are in.
Very few third-person shooters can boast of such a level of offensive versatility and at first it catches you be surprise – you think “Ok, I’ve just dived through a table and I’m lying flat on my back…what now? Oh wait, I can still.. shoot?”. This is just one example of how Rockstar has embellished the fundamentals in the pursuit of attempting to perfect them.
Max Payne 3 hasn’t been totally immune to the genre status quo however; cover is now a critical part of the gameplay experience where it didn’t exist before. Hiding behind desks, lockers, walls and much more is mandatory in Max Payne 3, simply on the virtue of the lethality of the enemy attacks. Three or maybe four direct hits are all that’s required to put Mr. Payne in a wooden box and as such cover must be used intelligently; a fact which is further reinforced by the fact that the enemy aren’t stupid – they’ll regularly look for opportunities to flank you and will dart from cover to cover whilst doing so.
This sort of thing happens a lot in Max Payne 3. The trick is to be the guy holding the two guns and not the guy holding the two bullets in his cranium.
Speaking of mortality, like in previous games, Max is able to stave off the Grim Reaper by chewing down on bottles of painkillers which are dotted throughout the various locations in the game. In Max Payne 3 however, an additional feature has been added which effectively allows you a second wind if you have endured a fatal shot. Functioning similarly to Call of Duty’s ‘Last Stand’ perk, If Max has one bottle of painkillers left and has taken a hit that would otherwise kill him, he instantly consumes the painkillers (at half the effective rate) and time slows right down to a crawl for a few seconds. If during this time you can shoot and kill the guy who fatally wounded you, Max gets up to fight another day sans one bottle of painkillers. If you don’t, well, you die and that’s pretty much it. While it may seem whimsically gimmicky, the system actually forces you to balance your painkiller use more carefully and ensure that wherever possible, you have one left in the bank just in case you find yourself on the wrong end of an ambush or lucky shot.
There is no getting around it; Max Payne 3 never ever attempts to convince you that it is anything but an exceptionally gritty and tonally nasty third-person cover shooter. When you aren’t diving from behind furniture to avoid enemy fire you’re usually sliding down a rooftop unleashing a shower of precision lead on a group of unsuspecting goons, or some such similar scenario. The fact that it continues to segue into familiar territory with on rails vehicle shootouts and sniping missions, does little dissuade you from the fact that you’ve played this game in a hundred different places a hundred different times before.
In addition to the main campaign, you can opt to do the entirety of the campaign in Arcade Mode, where you are given score to accrue per chapter and with each chapter you complete, your score for that chapter is uploaded to the Max Payne 3 leaderboards. Another way that Rockstar have attempted to pad out the single-player side of things is through the ‘New York Minute’ game mode which again, takes you through the campaign but this time you’re set against a timer. If the timer hits zero it’s game over and the only way to prevent this from happening, to delay the timer is to blast enemies; netting you a bit of extra time for each kill. Depending on how much of a completist you are, your mileage may vary, but with the main campaign topping it out at just over ten hours on the longevity scale, I found these additional modes to be rather hackneyed additions to the game that weren’t compelling enough to make me re-run the game.
Multiplayer-wise, there are the expected deathmatch and team deathmatch games, but the unique Payne Killer and Gang Wars present a much more interesting pair of propositions. In Payne Killer, the objective is simple; you are able to become Max Payne or his partner Passos by killing them, and then you can start earning points for staying alive and killing as many of the attacking players as possible. Naturally, your bullet-time bursts and life-saving painkillers will give you an advantage for a short time, but as always it’s a numbers game and it’s only a matter of time until those numbers catch you up and fuck you over.
Our hero Max Payne, post heavy whiskey binging session. Sort of looks like me after a night on the town. Only he has hair.
Gang Wars on the other hand, is a five-round team game in which objectives dynamically change round to round – always keeping the action fresh. For instance, one objective might require your team to plant explosives at selected sites that the opposing team are trying to keep standing. In another example, there might be a VIP whom you need to flat line on opposite team; the kicker being that the identity and location of this VIP will only be revealed after you’ve sent a select number of the other team to meet their makers. It’s an entertaining game type and one that certainly provides a different set of thrills from what you would often get in the usual run-of-the-mill deathmatch multiplayer game modes by virtue of it’s ever changing objectives.
Solid multi-player offerings aside, for me, the strongest part of Max Payne 3 remains it’s hugely satisfying and stylishly cinematic single-player story campaign. Nine years may passed, but Max Payne can still shoot it out with the best of them and he does so in the sort of relentlessly entertaining, teeth-grindingly intense way that only he can offer.
Like the harrowing journey Max himself takes during the game’s narrative, the strides made in the areas of gameplay in pursuit of that picture-perfect John Woo esque thriller are equally as considerable. Max Payne 3 is one of the finest cinematic shooters to be released in sometime and it demands your attention like a .38 pushed against your sweating brow.
Highly recommended.
Max Payne 3 is available to buy now on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC from all major gaming software outlets.
Sega Announces NiGHTS Into Dreams HD Re-Release For Later This Year – Forgets The Spit ‘n’ Polish
One of the most fondly remembered games from the Sega Saturn deserves more than just the ‘lick’ of HD paint that it currently has. Singular.
Sega has announced a HD re-release for their 1996 Sega Saturn cult hit, Nights Into Dreams, which is due to drop later this year on 360, PS3 and PC (via Steam) platforms.
As well as having all of the usual mod-cons like achievements, trophies and a new lick of HD paint, the game also bundles in the original Sega Saturn version with the original visuals intact as a freebie. Whilst any day in which anything remotely Nights orientated gets announced should be looked upon as a good day, i’m left distinctly underwhelmed by the title’s HD resurrection. The reason for my dissatisfaction is purely superficial – the supposedly ‘new’ high definition visuals look chuffing awful; drawing attention to the fact that this looks like the laziest and most cynical ‘HD update’ seen in a long while.
The whole thing has essentially been upscaled into 720p with the sixteen year old assets being brought along for the ride, kicking and screaming. That’s it – that’s the extent of these ‘new’ visuals – a resolution upscale. Thanks for that.
It looks fairly atrocious and this sad issue is exasperated by the fact that in the trailer below, footage is shown of the bundled Saturn version and it looks almost indistinguishable from the high definition version.
Not happy. In addition, to say that it doesn’t exactly light a fire of confidence regarding my hopes for a quality Shenmue HD re-release would be understatement of the year at this point.
Watch and cry below:
NiGHTS Into Dreams is due to be released sometime later this year on 360, PS3 and Steam. OR, you could just bring out your Sega Saturn and play it NOW.
Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 3 Announced By Namco-Bandai, Due For Release Next Year – Debut Trailer Inside
Dattebayo! Etc.
Continuing the success that developers CyberConnect2 have had with previous instalments in the series, the very same codeteam are due to release Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 3 sometime next year on Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 platforms.
If you’re already a fan of the manga/anime property that this game is based on then by all means read on; if however, you are not, the following blurb might not make much sense to you. Just saying.
Using the Fourth Shinobi World War Arc as the basis for it’s storyline, the trailer; a mixture of in-game cut-scenes and gameplay, chronicles the attack of the Nine Tailed Beast on the village of Konoha and more specifically, the events that led to the attack. Interestingly, ‘The Masked Man’, also known as Tobi/Uchiha Madara, is painted as the primary antagonist here; which is great because he’s a horrendously charismatic villain with a very unique set of abilities; making him the perfect foil to the titular character in the game’s inevitable story mode.
On that note, i’m hoping that they continue to make big strides with the story mode – since the story mode in previous games while serviceable, tended to degenerate into boring collect-a-thons around barely interactive locations populated with one-liner, paper-cut out NPC’s then generally did little else than loiter and annoy.
Anyway, it still looks absolutely gorgeous; as you yourself can see by casting your peepers over the embedded trailer below:
Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 3 is due to be released sometime next year on Xbox 360 and PS3.
Final Fantasy VII Re-release Confirmed For PC – Announcement Trailer That Actually Doesn’t Show Anything New Inside
If you’ve just woken up after being in a fifteen year coma – it’s cool, you can STILL play Final Fantasy VII on your PC.
Square-Enix have announced that Final Fantasy VII will be re-released on the PC sometime this year in downloadable form; confirming the rumours that were swirling around last month, the game will come optimised for new PC hardware, boast achievements, cloud saves and other features in an attempt to make it feel all modern and stuff.
Very kindly, Square-Enix have released both the minimum specs and the announcement trailer for the game, both of which you can see below.
The trailer itself however, is just culled cut-scene footage and as a result, doesn’t exactly show us just how extensively it’s been ‘optimised’ in-game. Ah well, never mind; it’s like last fifteen years never happened.
I suppose we should just be thankful that IT EXISTS. The official web-site for the game can be found here, but be warned, people have been hammering the hell out of it all day since the announcement and as a result, it’s going up and down like a sodding yoyo.
Minimum specs for the re-release are:
- Microsoft Windows XP/Vista/7 (32/64-bit)
- 2GHz Processor or faster
- 1GB RAM
- DirectX 9-compatible graphic card
Final Fantasy VII PC will be released later this year, exclusively on the Square-Enix digital store.
Something You May Have Missed – The Dark Souls Of 2D Platforming; Spelunky Releases On XBLA Tomorrow For 1200MSP
This is just the merest glimpse at the punishingly sadistic, yet wholly entertaining 2D platform bliss that is Spelunky. If you have even a passing interest in platforming, you OWE it to yourself to grab this.
Right, this is going to be an unashamed plug for a game that I feel not nearly enough people know about – a tragedy given just how titanically brilliant it is. Originally released on the PC back in 2009, Derek Yu’s roguelike 2D platformer Spelunky will finally complete it’s elongated trek to Xbox Live Arcade tomorrow complete with updated HD visuals, brand new levels, obstacles, items, enemies and the welcome addition of competitive and co-operative multiplayer modes.
As we’ve already said, Spelunky is a 2D platformer and equally, the game itself us truly deserving of it’s Dark Souls analogous comparisons – the game is totally, rock-fucking-hard and each time you die, you are forced to start the whole thing again. Such a brutal practice of punishing players would seem like a huge misstep, were it not for the fact that the game is bursting with more challenge, satisfaction and charm than any 2D platformer of recent memory. The gameplay in Spelunky is simple enough; you must proceed from the top of the level to the bottom of it, avoiding obstacles and enemies unique to that level (every level has a different theme) whilst hoovering up as much loot as humanly possible. Yet, this game is as a staunch test of your gaming credentials as anything else on the market – death is permanent and when you respawn, the level randomises itself; forcing you to play dynamically and adapt on your feet.
In all honesty as if you couldn’t guess, I am completely and unreservedly stoked for this and I remain in a state of flabbergast that what will surely be the downloadable title of the year isn’t a part of Microsoft’s ‘Summer of Arcade’ promotion (and thusly benefitting from all the extra marketing), yet inane Kinect-dross such as Wreckateer is. I mean really, just look at the trailer below – the game practically sells itself:
Critical praise for the title has been staggering and as you can see by the reviews I have linked below, there is a common sentiment; the game is tortureously difficult but it’s in that difficultly, emboldened by peerless level design and playability, that players continually force themselves back into the fray – to see if they can get just that little bit further to make it onto the next level. Despite it’s price of 1200 MSP, this appears to be a game that is worth every single bit of that Microsoft currency. Go on, treat yourself to what will surely not only be the downloadable title of the year, but surely, one of the best platformers in recent memory.
Spelunky is due to release tomorrow on Xbox Live Arcade for 1200 MSP. The original, relatively feature-lite version of the game can be downloaded on the PC for free – grab it here.
Sega And The Creative Assembly Confirm The Existence Of Total War: Rome II – Will Release Next Year On PC
Fancy giving Carthage the shaft once again in lovely Total War-O-Vision? Soon you’ll get your chance.
Confirming the long-standing rumour that the next RTS from the Total War folk would be a second entry in their Rome series, comes the announcement from Sega and developers The Creative Assembly that Total War: Rome II is real and will launch next year on PC.
According to Creative Assembly boss Mike Simpson, the latest entry in their famed RTS franchise will feature “the most expansive turn-based campaign and the largest, most cinematic real-time battles yet seen in any game. Our games have always encompassed a grand vision, but we’re now pushing that vision at both ends of the spectrum. From the immense reach of the sandbox campaign right down to the human-level drama of a single warrior on the battlefield, we’re aiming for an unprecedented level of detail and scale”.
In addition, Rome II will feature a new graphics engine with the capability of being able to render “tens of thousands of men” in “bone-splintering detail”, as well as new ‘unit cameras’, which will allow for a far more up-close and richly detailed perspective of the battlefield.
Scalability of difficulty and the experience overall is being promised; allowing you to play the game “no matter what your spec.” – Something that is bloody useful for RTS-tards like me that wouldn’t know a flanking movement from a head-on charge.
Finally, the Total War Brand Director, Rob Bartholomew, went onto say; “In our 25th year of games development, it feels fitting to return to our most critically acclaimed era. There’s been a multi-generational leap in technology since the original game and we are ready to set another benchmark in gaming.”
The first shots for the newly announced title were also released along with the boxart which you can see below and at the top of this article respectively.
Not exactly bad on the eyes is it?
A couple of interviews, one with the Lead Battle Designer and one with the Lead Designer for the project have also cropped up online as well as a swankly looking live-action trailer and naturally being the helpful chap that I am, I have embedded them all below for you to peruse at your leisure.
Enjoy:
Total War: Rome II is due to release sometime next year exclusively on PC.
Sony Acquires Content Streaming Specialist Gaikai For $380 million – What This Means For Playstation Gaming
It’s a done thing – though don’t expect much from the deal until the PS4/Orbis makes it’s next-generation bow.
It was supposed to be announced at Sony’s E3 press conference but it was not to be; instead nearly a month later, Sony and cloud gaming specialist Gaikai have confirmed that a deal has been struck for the Japanese hardware manufacturer to own the Dave Perry run outfit for the price of $380 million.
The purchase of Gaikai includes all of their technology and infrastructure; effectively providing Sony with a ready-made large network of datacentres to deliver streaming content to its consumers. More specifically, it fully enables them to branch out and create a full-on, bonafide cloud gaming platform.
Andrew House, group CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment had this to say regarding the deal:
“By combining Gaikai’s resources including its technological strength and engineering talent with SCE’s extensive game platform knowledge and experience, SCE will provide users with unparalleled cloud entertainment experiences. SCE will deliver a world-class cloud-streaming service that allows users to instantly enjoy a broad array of content ranging from immersive core games with rich graphics to casual content anytime, anywhere on a variety of internet-connected devices.”
Cutting through the blurb, what this really means is that Sony will be able to supply a cloud-gaming service to its customers which would likely include the streamable PS3 demos and a smattering of PS2 and PSOne library content, as has been rumoured already. Such a service would be a tremendous boon for the company as it would not only allow them to embellish the forthcoming PS4 and the struggling Playstation Vita handheld with a great new feature that would enable widespread access to a whole library of PSOne and PS2 content, it would also allow them to monetize non-Playstation users too; with the streaming service also being made available to tablets and smartphones.
I would also wager a significant amount of money that the service would be a Playstation Plus exclusive so as to further incentivise that initiative and get that many more subscribers on board.
The specifics for the deal have yet to manifest themselves, but until they do; the potential of the deal is blatant and obvious for all to see. I’ll have more on this as and when the particulars become available, until that comes to pass however, feel free to try out the Gaikai cloud gaming experience by clicking on the Gaikai logo below:
Jump In, Nobody Cares – Microsoft E3 2012 Press Conference Analysis
If you’re looking for the Microsoft of 2009 you’ve come to the wrong place. They have E3 2013 booked instead. Thank you for your time.
Of all three console manufacturers, the next-gen white elephant in the room loomed no larger than it did at Microsoft’s E3 press conference.
While not quite a train wreck raging with the fires of fanboy discontent, the Microsoft press conference was nevertheless the weakest of the three (narrowly beating out Nintendo’s second time screw up at unveiling the WiiU). Of the three manufacturers doing press conferences at E3 2012, Microsoft had the least stakes to play for since they weren’t trying to reinvigorate a flagging handheld or attempt to relaunch a brand new home console in the eyes of Joe Consumer.
Still, while the bright-spots were very few and far between they nonetheless were still there, beginning unsurprisingly with 343 Industries Halo 4.
Halo 4 – The fight starts, again.
There really wasn’t anything else at the presser that even remotely approached the same level of gravitas.
It was common knowledge that regardless of whatever else Microsoft was going to announce, that Halo 4 would be the centrepiece of their briefing. It was generally accepted thinking that Halo 4 was to be the solid and dependable title that would back up more significant, surprising announcements.
As it turned out there actually weren’t any terribly significant or surprising announcements and as luck would have it, Halo 4 actually stepped up to the plate; sneaking up on us all and delivering some of the most solid looking gameplay the series has seen for a long time.
Boasting a dramatic live-action introduction which segued into an in-game cut-scene, followed by some sumptuous jungle based gunplay, Halo 4 boasted polished visuals, classic and brand-new weaponry and a completely brand new foe for the eponymous Master Chief to combat (the cool looking tech/insect hyrbid race known as the Prometheans) . In short, Halo 4 looked every bit like the presser centrepiece for the Redmond software and hardware giant at E3.
Besides ‘just’ having a solid presser centrepiece, Halo 4 fulfilled another mandate; it reassured gamers that the Halo franchise remains in safe hands since creators and long-time custodians Bungie, left the IP in Microsoft’s hands in 2010.
Indeed, new developers 343 Industries have made fired an indomitable opening salvo for the new Halo trilogy – laying the sort of blueprint that should give gamers a confidence restoring glimpse into the state of Halo for the next seven to ten years.
DLC Announcements – When Exclusivity Fails You Let Them On Stage Anyway
A popular Microsoft tactic for the last few years has been to secure timed exclusivity on downloadable content for perceivably popular third-party releases. This year was no different with Microsoft getting first dibs on DLC for Tomb Raider, Resident Evil 6 and Call of Duty: Black Ops 2.
One thing that did surprise was that two of the games at their conference didn’t have any DLC timed exclusivity tied in with them. The highly anticipated Splinter Cell: Blacklist, was simply demonstrated for nearly ten minutes with no mention of exclusive features or DLC for the Microsoft platform (interesting given Conviction’s 360-only release), and South Park: The Stick Of Truth, was talked about on stage briefly by series creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone, but again, no exclusive 360-centric features or DLC were announced.
Unless I’m missing something, it seems a tad pointless for Microsoft to showcase multiplatform titles at their presser without the promise of any content unique to the Xbox 360 platform.
Effectively, they are freely showcasing titles that may be bought on competing systems with no unique differential (at this point at least) to convince customers to stick with the 360 SKU. That, ladies and gentlemen, is madness.
Like Clockwork – Social Apps & Nike Plus
Continuing their relentless crusade to ensure that the 360 is the centrepiece of the living room, Microsoft announced that more social apps would be available to users in the forthcoming months and that they had also entered into a partnership with sports label Nike, to create ‘Nike Plus’, a Kinect focused workout title.
Normally, multi-media and social stuff like this would be a sore-point of contention with many folk where press conference time should be dedicated to gaming, it’s innovations and additional related possibilities. In the context of their showing and realising the point of the Xbox 360’s life-cycle that we are in, it serves to fortify the notion that Microsoft are in a holding pattern until next year, where they get to announce and gleefully showcase their next lump of money-gobbling plastic to the world.
Essentially then, they can get away with devoting nearly a half a hour to this sort of the stuff now, but next year, where we expect to be over-fucking-whelmed by a cascade of quality first-party and third-party titles for the system that they would want us to purchase later that year, this sort of shit really isn’t going to fly.
Gears of War: Judgement – Entering The Breach Between Generations
Leaked just hours before the Microsoft presser was due to commence, this newest entry in the Gears of War saga was rumoured for good while, with the murmurings of both Bulletstorm developer People Can Fly and the game being a prequel, being accurately founded.
Set as a prequel to the events witnessed in the Gears of War trilogy, the primary protagonist has shifted from the gruff and muscle headed Marcus Fenix to the gruff, muscle headed and venom-tongued Baird. Based on the ever-so-brief snippets of video that have been released, gameplay-wise the game appears to have endured an equally conservative shift with People Can Fly taking the route of least resistance in showcasing a game that looks nigh-on identical to Gears of War 3.
For a developer new to such a big, blockbuster franchise this cautious and minimally risky entry in the series makes sense given the solid set of expectations that fans have for the series and also the fact that we’re in the twilight years for the platform that birthed this hugely successful IP in the first place. For those of us wanting to see the IP branch out and strike out onto some new ground, we’re very likely going to have to wait until its next-generation debut.
In actuality though, while Gears of War: Judgement looks like perfect franchise stop-gap fodder as we carefully make the leap between this generation and the next, the stigma of carrying such a moniker shouldn’t really be any cause for concern – it’s still a Gears of War title and by proxy of that fact; it still looks to be extremely solid.
In short, franchise-fans should remain entertained by this latest installment, but it won’t attract any new blood to their player base given the relatively safe road that the developers have travelled here in regards to the gameplay and new features.
Limp Wingmen – The ‘Other’ First Party Titles Forza: Horizon, Fable: The Journey & Dance Central 3
Another franchise that is getting a spin-off title prior to its proper next-gen debut is Microsoft’s Forza Motorsport series with the introduction of Forza: Horizon. Distancing itself from the track-based simulation shenanigans that the series is known for, the Playground Games developed Forza Horizon is instead much more reminiscent of games like Test Drive Unlimited with its focus on open-world exploratory driving and motorsport lifestyle.
The official trailer for the game that was released at that show (which you can see below) was predictably showy; high on sizzle, low on steak and it’s really in the gameplay footage that managed to sneak out just before the show and after that we can get any sort of indication of the game’s quality.
To this end Forza Motorsport filled a strange a niche in the Microsoft presser – it appeared in trailer form to let everyone know that Microsoft have another first-party in the tube that isn’t called Halo or Gears of War, but did little else besides. Other than a mere, albeit flashy confirmation of it’s existence, no gameplay was shown or feature-set talked about on-stage – a somewhat troubling vote in confidence in the title given that we are now less than four months away from it’s launch.
Another game that only appeared in trailer format (and is also due for release in a few short months) was Lionhead’s Fable Kinect title, Fable: The Journey. Whilst they had the decency to make the trailer in-game, they should have had more decency to not even show it all. The game looked horrendous quite frankly – coming across as little other than a Kinect-driven light-gun title, the title looked uninspiring, rough and just downright awful. Take a look at the trailer below and cringe away:
Next up was Harmonix’s Dance Central 3 which was showcased by a combination of sizzle-reel trailer and Usher, of all fucking people, doing his jive-thang on stage and reminding us that A) Nobody can dance like him and that B) Nobody wants to. Really, his presence was merely there to market the ‘new’ feature of being able to mimic the dance routines of famous artists and also to reinforce the fact that Microsoft are THAT hip company who have their finger on the pulse on everybody under twenty-one years old.
In the end though, while certainly solid-enough based on the fact that little else will be changed over it’s highly accomplished predecessors, Dance Central 3 feels like more of the same instead of a little of something new.
Arguably, like the majority of the Microsoft first-party line-up, Dance Central 3 reeks of the fetid smell of conservatism; a smell bourne of Microsoft’s desire to save all of the really good stuff for their next-generation debut and as a result, serve as poor first-party wingmen for Halo 4 later this year.
Microsoft Smartglass – How To Make 2004 Seem New (and relevant) Again.
One thing that Microsoft made a rather large noise about at their conference was Microsoft Smartglass. Effectively a piece of connectivity tech, SmartGlass allows gamers to link their Xbox console to their smartphones and tablet devices for a number of different supplementary tasks and activities.
Microsoft believe that this is a difference-maker when it comes to new and involving gameplay experiences. It isn’t.
In one instance in which this was shown, EA had a player devising NFL strategies in-game on a Windows tablet, allowing instantaneous play of their chosen strategy in the game. In another example, Halo 4 developers 343 Industries displayed an interactive codex of information while Halo 4 was playing, in addition to a slew of matchmaking and other multiplayer features being done on the small screen instead of the TV.
While it sounds like a nice thing to have, it by no means sounds essential – it’s function and purpose consigning it to an extra-curricular augmentation of the gameplay experience rather than a meaningful addition to it. Smartglass then, provides Xbox 360 (and likely 720) owners with the sort of companion-like gameplay experiences that Nintendo DS owners have had for nearly eight years now. While the tech remains interesting at face value at least, I remain less than optimistic that many devs will look at the extra screen available to them and not proclaim “Yay! MAPS!”.
Microsoft @ E3 2012 – Conclusion
Boasting a barely perfunctory line-up of safe titles, you get the impression that only a small handful of folks at Microsoft give any sort of shit about the first-party fortunes of the console with the rest of the Microsoft Hive busying themselves for the unveiling of the next Xbox at E3 2013.
With the exception of the Microsoft SmartScreen – a tech that effectively gives 360 owners the same gameplay possibilities as Nintendo DS owners have had since 2004, everything else that was on display in their conference could largely be seen coming a mile off.
Halo 4 was a large (if unexpectedly spectacular) part of their line-up alongside an expected showing of previously announced first-party spin-off properties in Forza Horizon and Gears of War: Judgement. While Halo 4 certainly performed it’s vocation admirably as their centrifugal first-party offering, but backed up by some relatively limp and unexciting company in the form of Fable: The Journey, Forza: Horizon and Dance Central 3. Gears of War: Judgement was really the game that Microsoft should have positioned alongside Halo 4 to propel the 360 into next year where the veritable flood of triple-A third-party software would likely continue to buoy the platform to growth anyway, but alas, this was not to be.
Demonstrations of multiplat blockbusters such as Tomb Raider, Resident Evil 6 and Black Ops 2 did the usual shtick of combining fresh looks at these games alongside announcements of timed exclusivity on DLC for the Microsoft platform, despite some of them being given precious show time without any exclusivity announced at all.
Continuing on, further exposition of forthcoming social and TV applications continued to be an unfortunate hallmark for Microsoft at E3 alongside showings of Kinect fitness title Nike + and naff looking Kinect exclusive titles like Fable: The Journey.
Really it wasn’t so much the content that was there that troubled, more instead; it was the content that wasn’t. Things that would have bolstered their anaemic software offering such as details of the forthcoming Summer of Arcade were omitted from the presser altogether (they were announced on the official blog hours later) in favour of having Usher flail about on stage for nearly ten minutes in some vague attempt to shill the dance routine features of the next Dance Central title.
Overall then, if Microsoft didn’t seem like they were trying to capture the hearts and minds of all us at E3 it’s because they weren’t. As I write this article, Microsoft is readying the next generation successor to the Xbox 360 and as sure as I am that Microsoft are glad that E3 2012 is over, I’m just as sure the next year, everything that they’ve held back will be brought to the fore to make that machine have the best debut possible.
Well, they better do at any rate.
Today Is A Good Day: Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch Limited Edition For Europe Announced By Namco Bandai
The Studio Ghibli and Level 5 collaborative JRPG effort – Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch is an a unique position; it’s fully capable of giving both JRPG fans and Studio Ghibli fans raging nerdgasms when the game launches on European shores on January 25th next year, just three days later than it’s release in the US.
To further consolidate such thunderous undergarment movements comes the news from publisher Namco Bandai that a limited edition version of the game is due to arrive in European territories on the same day as the standard edition.
The Limited ‘Wizard’s Edition’ as it is known, contains the following fawn-worthy goodies:
– A hardback of Oliver’s spellbook, The Wizard’s Companion, containing over 300 pages over luciously hand-drawn Studio Ghibli art and narrative notes.
– A plush doll of Drippy, Oliver’s guide.
– Exclusive “golden mite” and “golden drongo” DLC familiars.
In addition to those packed-in extras, certain participating retail outlets will also be dishing out two exclusive familiars developed especially for the western release: flutterby and griffy.
Preorders have yet to start for the title but just look at the ‘Wizard’s Edition’ in the picture.
JUST LOOK AT IT.
There can be no hope for my wallet. No hope at all.
Additionally, if you are in anyway unfamiliar with the game itself or you just want another reason to nerd-fap over it, take a look at the most recently released trailer below:
Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch releases exclusively on the PS3 on January 25th, 2013 in both standard and limited edition formats.
BitSnark 