BitSnark

With the critical panning that Haze has received recently and the true lack of a decent FPS on the console, PS3 owners must be getting understandably anxious about when they might get a good fix of FPS action. Well, don’t look to Killzone 2 kids, because here’s some great news -2K games are releasing last years underwater dystopian opus on the PS3.

Yep, the game that Sony and MS fanboys alike said ‘It would, it wouldn’t, it would, it wouldn’t’ is finally on it’s way to the PS3 and 1UP.com/EGM Monthly have the scoop, take a look:

http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3167898

It’s rare day indeed when a Japanese RPG launches on two shores at the same time, but that is exactly what will happen on September 2nd 2008. While there’s been no confirmation of a European date, one surely won’t be too far behind. Developed by Tri-Ace, the talented outfit behind the Star Ocean and Valkyrie Profile RPG titles, Infinite Undiscovery is an RPG that is (currently) an XBOX 360 exclusive and promises a myriad of endings and diffrent missions through the story that depend entirely on your actions.

From what has been shown so far, which to be honest isn’t a great deal, Infinite Undiscovery appears to be true to the pedigree of it’s developer, presenting a colourful world, with intense battles and a decent amount of exploration and of course, whiny kids with super powers who want to takeover/save the world.

If all this means nothing to you or you’re just bored and want something to do, take a look at the new trailer that was released earlier today:

http://www.gametrailers.com/player/34278.html

Steamboy: Directors Cut

Genre: Sci-fi Dystopia Disaster
Director: Katushiro Otomo
Distributor: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Duration: One movie – 126 minutes approx.
Production Creation: 2004

Plot Synopsis

In Victorian Britain, a young Manchester boy by the name of Ray Steam is hard at work on his latest invention. Like his father, and grandfather before him, Ray is a tinkerer and creator of steam powered appliances. However, when his forefathers discover how to tap the near limitless potential of Steam in Alaska, Ray’s world begins to fall apart as a group known as The Foundation raids his house trying to discover the ‘Steamball’, a solid ball of iron and compressed steam that contains the secrets of his father and grandfather’s research.

It is up to young Ray Steam to protect the secrets of this astonishing power, lest London, the primary target of a new high-tech steam powered army led by The Foundation, falls into utter ruin.

The Review

Being some ten years in the making, Steamboy signals Katushiro Otomo’s proper return to the anime stage, being his first feature-length film since the groundbreaking Akira. Although not as adult or as head scratchingly complex in either characterisation or plotlines as Akira, Steamboy stands on its own two feet as a worthy sci-fi action piece, though it isn’t not perfect.

Steamboy is your quintessential sci-fi action adventure movie. While the Victorian setting provides a novel retro-fi styled backdrop to the action, the film largely follows standard conventions of the sci-fi action genre with a nothing-happening boy becoming a legendary hero by the end of it. Not that this is a bad thing when executed right, as Steamboy manages to do, but the film itself seems a tad long, running at just over two hours, and as such feels strained in places, especially considering how straightforward the plot and characters are.

Still long as the film may be, your attention often finds itself distracted by the staggering visuals that are on offer here. Although there is some computer aided animation in here, the great stuff comes from the meticulous hand drawn cels that make up the majority of the movie. Carrying with it the same meticulous level of detail and care that Akira did all those years ago (and Akira still looks good), every frame is literally dripping detail off the screen with a lushness not usually seen outside Akira and high-budget Studio Ghibli productions such as Princess Mononoke.

Although amazing to look at, the integration of the cel animations with those of the computer aided ones lack the near seamless standard of say Metropolis, and as a result aren’t always so smooth. But it’s truly a minor visual blemish on what is otherwise an astounding looking movie.

Moving on to the audio side of things, Steamboy succeeds well here as well, with an epic rousing score which is only slightly tempered by an initially awkward English dub. The awkwardness can be attributed to Anna Paquin’s (X-Men) initially uncomfortable turn as Ray Steam. The oddity of casting a 22 year old New Zealand woman to provide the voice of a 13 year old Manchester boy, is one that hasn’t escaped the actress either as she comments on how challenging the role was for her in an interview on the DVD. Still to her credit, she settles into the role nicely about twenty minutes in, and any awkwardness (particularly with the accent) is soon forgotten about.

Patrick Stewart (X-Men) and Alfred Molina (Spider-Man 2) also lend their voices to grandfather and father Steam respectively, and pull off their roles with appropriate gusto and due aplomb. Alfred Molina, in particular having no problems lending the eccentric scientist qualities to his voice in Steamboy that he so perfected in Spider-Man 2.

Steamboy will however, unfortunately disappoint those who look at the ‘Created by Katushiro Otomo’ tag thinking this to be some gritty and cult successor, to Otomo’s 1988 opus. It is not. What it is however is an elaborate sci-fi animated feature that although straightforward and perhaps a little long, never fails to appease the senses with it’s well animated and choreographed chase, battle and war scenes.

That’s not to say this is a dumb movie, far from it, but it isn’t Akira and because of that, if you’re mind is still hankering for more of what Otomo showed you back in 1988, then your mileage may vary with Steamboy. For the rest of you, and I’m certainly speaking for myself here, Steamboy represents the kind of fresh no-nonsense animated action epic, that Disney itself would love to create. As such, Steamboy comes highly recommended.

Ratings Summary

Animation: A+
Art: A+
Music: A-
Content: C+

Overall: B-

Review by: John-Paul Jones

Suitability for children

In Steamboy there is basically zero profanity, what there is however is a fair bit of violence with war machines, big explosions and so on. There is even a gory close up at one point of a man lying dead with a pool of blood expanding from his face. A nasty moment for sure but it’s the only thing that wouldn’t be suitable for anyone aged under 12 years old.

If you liked this why not try…

Metropolis – Columbia Tri-Star Entertainment

Produced by Disney to be the Next Big Thing in much the same vein that the Pirates Of The Carribean films were, news has leaked out from Camp Bruckeheimer regarding the casting of the lead roles.

The title character, Prince Dastan, is to be played by none other than Jake ‘Jarhead/Donnie Darko’ Gyllenhaal, while Gemma Arterton (to be seen in the forth coming Bond movie Quantum Of Solace) has been cast as Tamina, an exotic Princess. It would seem that Hollywood’s historic penchant for casting A-listers in roles that don’t match their ethnicity continues unabated, but hopefully with the star power and studio that is behind this thing, we’ll get an entertaining film and not yet another vidgame-film trainwreck.

Fingers crossed.

Prince Of Persia starts filiming this July and is shooting for a late 2009 release.

According to TeamXbox, Frank O’ Connor, one of the main driving forces behind the Halo IP at Bungie, has left the company to remain with Microsoft while they develop future installments of the Halo franchise.

He also mentions that Bungie have an incredible game of their own coming up that he terms as the ‘Next Big Thing’. Bold words indeed.

It’ll be interesting to see what fruits of both labors provide at E3…

Linkety link below:

http://news.teamxbox.com/xbox/16550/Frank-OConnor-Leaves-Bungie/

Announced recently, Universal Pictures have gone on record to say that Gore Verbinski (Pirates Of The Carribean trilogy, The Ring US Remake) is onboard to direct a hollywood adaptation of one of last years best games, Bioshock.

Set in an underwater 1950’s Utopia, where genetic research and technology run rampant without any moral guidance, the game places you in the shoes of an airplane crash victim who mysteriously finds his way to the underground city, Rapture, and must brave the horrors within to discover things about him that he never thought possible.

I have to say i’m quite behind this. Verbinski has proven he can give us the scares and the creeping fear with his remake of The Ring, so I am quite certain he will nail the atmosphere at the very least.

Colour me interested.

Just a couple of days before Microsoft’s Gamer Day (coverage forthcoming), the first shots of Banjo 3 ans Viva Pinata 2 have found their way onto the net’. While Viva Pinata 2 looks every bit the sequel to the orginal, with a very similar graphical style and interface, Banjo 3 is much harder to call.

From some shots the title appears to have racing sections, with Banjo and Kazooie driving various wheeled contraptions and in others, the feathery and furry duo are seen running about a landscape and sliding down ziplines. Whilst Rare has recently gone on record to deny that it’s a racing game, many rumors abound that the title could be one that uses Microsfot’s much rumoured motion sensing controller.

This would at least, pay certain credence to Rare’s claim that the gameplay in Banjo 3 is ‘completely different and not what people were expecting’ when compared to previous titles.

Personally, why can’t MS just give everyone a proper platforming sequel to the Banjo Kazooie games that were on N64, is it really that hard?

Anyways, I digress. Links for both sets of screenshots from TeamXbox.com are below:

http://screenshots.teamxbox.com/gallery/1575/BanjoKazooie-3/p1/

http://screenshots.teamxbox.com/gallery/2011/Viva-Piata-2-Trouble-in-Paradise/p1/

For what seems like years now, people have been salivating over the tantalizing possibilities of what famed FPS dev Free Radical could do with next-gen hardware. Well, that wait will shortly be coming to end and for most of us who have access to the PSN, we received a taster of just what to expect in two weeks time.

After a lengthy 1.6 gig download, and an equally annoying five minute install, I was able to finally get my paws on a taster of the game that would revitalise the FPS for PS3. Perhaps my expectations were too high, but Haze isn’t quite the great white hope for the console that Free Radical would have you believe. Upon starting the game up I opted for the single player campaign mode, as the network multiplayer options didn’t seem to have much luck in connecting me with other folk.

After choosing my difficulty level, I was then thrust into the world of Haze. The first thing that will strike anyone that is able to see clearly is just how, generic and soulless the visuals are. The jungle locale has been done many times in the past in previous FPS titles, and Haze’s depiction could easily be lost in the shuffle. Everything from the low res textures used on the foliage through to the drab and repeated use of the same darn tree over and over, smacks of a developer that simply took the short cut. The same visual laziness extends to the models too, with your fellow soldiers sporting the most basic of designs and also the rebels who look like… well, every other ‘rebel’ from just about every other FPS you’ve played before. Compounding the visual problem further, the physics make you wonder if Free Radical actually took the time to look at how the human anatomy reacts to kinetic impact or simply just pressed the ‘Make Physics Engine’ button on their Aegia PhysX dev kit.

Still, i’ll understand if this hasn’t put you off, as graphics don’t so much make a game as solidify the atmosphere and compound a sense of believability, so it’s nothing too bad eh?

Speaking of suspension of belief and cutting corners, Haze has some of the worst voice acting I have ever heard. It just appears they have got some poor guys in the ADR room and said ‘act like a US marine… from an action movie’, so for a game that has such a promising narrative, with the themes of perception, corporate control and personal identity, having your team-mates sound like a bunch of linebackers phoning in a performance, does the narrative a major disservice.

Moving onto the meat of the demo, the actual gameplay, I found that average graphics would be the least of the sins that the demo would have to bear. Haze does play like every other FPS ever. That is by no means an exaggeration. You run, well more like jog, and shoot guys who all look the same, and have little or no concept of how to use cover or any kind of flanking tactics, and who simply line up to get their heads blown off as they shuffle from side to side.

The promise of open battlefields is also broken, with trees and foliage generally acting as a funnel of sorts to prod you in the direction the devs want you to go in, which again puts further cracks in the facade of believability.

But what about the Nectar you say?

Ah yes, that lovely amber coloured goo that pretty much gives Haze it’s narrative legs, does little for you in terms of gameplay innovation. Basically, your character has up to 6 vials of nectar that can be administered. Nectar usage brings with it a whole host of ‘special abilities’. These include being able to run faster, jump slightly further and the illumination of your foes like Christmas trees because y’know, being a crack, privately funded soldier you don’t have any thermal imaging and well, it is kinda useful for the four year olds who play the game as they can clearly need what needs blasting. With each administration your character gets more and more ‘in the zone’ and if you administer too much you can get Nectar overload and you go berserk, attacking team-mates and generally failing in a big way.

And that’s pretty much it. Before all the hate mail comes flooding in, bear in mind this – the demo itself is painfully short and I WILL be playing the finished product in the hope that it is MUCH better than the train wreck that I have just been describing. From what I have seen there is a lot of work to do and no time to do it in as the game is on our shelves in two weeks.

Free Radical IS better than this and PS3 owners deserve better than this, because hopes aren’t high for Killzone 2 to deliver, but that’s another story for another day.

Just a little personal note here. Last night myself and our raid guild defeated Illidan Stormrage with only a single fatality for the first time.

The main bad guy of the Burning Crusade is a corpse.

Just gonna let that sink in a bit 🙂

After the announcement sometime ago, details have finally started to wash down to us common folk from the great EA dam, about what we can expect from the newest installment in the LOTR gaming franchise.

Firstly, the pedigree of the developer Pandemic has meant that LOTR: Conquest apparently feels a lot like a Star Wars: Battlefront game, with various objectives and side missions to be completed on each map.

Like those games also, LOTR: Conquest allows players to play pretty much all the battles of Tolkien lore as pretty much all the sides, each with their own respective classes and abilities. The obligitary online modes are also promised, with a mooted sixteen player limit possibly subject to change.

Those folks over at IGN have posted an intersting in-depth interview with the development leads on the project.

Head over and take a look:

http://uk.ps3.ign.com/articles/872/872401p1.html