Pros

• Great Trivia Game I haven’t played a triva in years, and I’ve forgotten how much fun they can be. I played with several non-gamer tyeps and they loved it. If you have social, non-gamer-type friends over, or want to play with kids (my step-daughter can hold her own in the cartoon category), this game is perfect.
• Buzz Controllers Wireless, simple, easy to use, and fun. They’re perfect trivia controllers.
• Large Question Bank I haven’t seen any duplicate questions yet. Very impressive. The game also has some photo and video questions which are fun as well.
• Great Extras Fun couch-photos with PlayStation Eye, user created questions, online modes, DLC trivia packs. (I haven’t had a chance to play with all these extras yet).
• Polish, Presentation, Interface All the animations, transitions, question-modes, and character selection adds a lot of polish to the core game.

Cons

• Wireless USB Dongle This is a minor nitpick, but worth mentioning. The PS3 has native wireless. Why do all custom wireless controllers need a dongle? I think I know the answer but it’s not a good excuse. Bluetooth is more expensive and simple wireless controllers want to use cheaper, simpler RF. Ultimately, the PS3 should have been designed to support custom wireless controllers (whether it’s Bluetooth, RF, or whatever) without the need for USB dongles.
• Limited variety of inter-question transitions, announcer chatter, and animations

Bottom Line

This is a surprise hit. The core trivia game is so utterly simple, I’m surprised how fun it can be. This title pushes the genre with all the polish and extras.

It’s small, and there are no enemies, but it’s still fun to watch:

Source - If you live in Europe check your e-mail to see if your lucky enough to get into the Killzone 2 beta. No word on other regions .. yet.

I heard people having issues with the game freezing and online not working. But I didn’t have a chance to play this game until later last night. So maybe it was fixed by then, because I played for over a hour and it played flawlessly. I even tried online.

I created a game and I noticed there is a friend reserve type option. I thought cool, I can invite and reserve a spot for friends. But no, you can not, or I’m not seeing how to do it.

Anyway the gameplay is great, classic WipEout action in gorgeous 1080P. The have a few new weapons which are fun. The pilot assist mode is perfect for people new to the series, it helps steer you away from the walls. You can turn if off if you want. I finished the first 2 sections of the campaign, and got a few trophies for it already.

Click for full size

The photo above is from the zone mode which looks amazing in motion. The walls and street are just a huge music visualizer. You can see it in the photo. In the zone mode you are alone on the track and with each zone you clear your ship gets faster and the neon looking highway your on, changes color in front of your eyes, it’s a great effect! You just keep going until your ship takes enough damage to fall apart.

WipEout has been around since the PS1 days, I actually remember playing the demo that came with my brand new PS1 long ago before I got my first PS1 game (which was Twisted Metal for the curious).

I’m excited to put together a custom techno playlist for WipEout. In fact NeoGAF has already done that, check it out here.

In short buy this game. It’s a steal at $19.99. It’s everything you want in a futuristic racer and more.

It’s doesn’t get more clear cut than this, folks. Engadget is calling out tech blogs for hating on Blu-Ray.

Engadget is accusing sites of cherry picking a single 13% week over week decline and spinning that into an overall trend, while ignoring neighboring weeks where the format shows much stronger gains and also ignoring other stats showing bigger picture rises in blu-ray sales.

They call out ArsTechnica and Slashdot by name. Engadget writes:

for some reason, the 13 percent drop in Blu-ray sales last week got a lot of attention. What we can’t figure out is why the 30 percent increases during the two weeks before (combined) went unnoticed. It boggles the mind why so many so-called tech evangelists only pick up on the bad weeks

Either way, when movies like the Forbidden Kingdom and TV shows like Terminator are stealing double digits away from DVD, sales are not down. But hey, predicting the end of Blu-ray is just so much more fun than actually analyzing all the data, isn’t it? Ah well, we’ll let the haters hate — meanwhile, we’ll continue to enjoy the highest quality hi-def around.

A report from August on afterdawn.com cites Home Media Research, showing a clear rise on Blu-Ray disc sales:

According to Home Media Research compiled by the Redhill Group, it appears that Blu-ray sales are actually quite solid for the year, and up 300 percent year-on-year from 2007.

The research says that Blu-ray movies are selling at about 1.14 million per month on average for the year, for a total of about 8 million. The combined total for 2006 and 2007 was about 6 million discs sold.

ITWorld also paints a negative picture without citing any market research or any data whatsoever. In an article titled, “Blu-Ray hits the skids, numbers continue to decline”, they write:

The cause could be a variety of factors, from the failing economy to the summer gaming doldrums, but the effect is clear: Blu-Ray as a media format is in decline.

As a side note, here is a tutorial, that just come out today, for writing your own BD-J applications in Java that can be played on any Blu-Ray player.

This is a great update this week. I already have WipEout HD downloading and should be done by the time I get home. Burnout Paradise is a great game, but I’m disappointed that trophies are not retroactive like they said it would be. Not way I’m starting the game over from scratch.

DEMOS

► Burnout Paradise (still available, SP-only I think)
► Mega Man 9
► NBA 09 The Inside
► NBA Live 09

GAMES

► Burnout Paradise - Full game including all updates ($29.99)
► Geon: Emotions ($9.99)
► Mega Man 9 ($9.99)
► Wipeout HD ($19.99)
► Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords (PSP) ($14.99)
► Untold Legends : Brotherhood of the Blade (PSP) ($14.99)

GAME CONTENT

► Buzz! Quiz TV
-National Geographic Safari Quiz ($7.99)
-Quiz Sci-Fi Pack ($5.99)
-Videogames Pack ($5.99)

► Rock Band (all individual tracks $1.99 each)
-Bad Religion - “Sorrow”
-The Cult - “She Sells Sanctuary”
-Hot Hot Heat - “Bandages”
-Kasabian - “Shoot the Runner”
-Sleater-Kinney - “You’re No Rock N Roll Fun”
-Stone Roses - “Love Spreads”

Rush Pack ($10.99)
-The Camera Eye
-Limelight (orig version)
-Red Barchetta
-Tom Sawyer (orig version)
-Vital Signs
-Witch Hunt
-YYZ

► Soulcalibur IV - Customization Equipment 2 ($1.99)

VIDEOS

► Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway - Making Of #4: Eyes Only
► Burnout Paradise - Bikes Trailer
► Dead Space - Animated Comic Issue #5
► PAIN - New Characters Trailer
► Resistance 2 - Shattered History
► Tomb Raider Underworld - Gameplay Trailer

THEMES & WALLPAPERS

► Buzz! Quiz TV - themes
► WipEout HD - theme
► Soulcalibur IV - wallpapers

DEMOS

► Beijing 2008
► MegaMan 9
► Mercenaries 2: World in Flames

GAMES

► Burnout Paradise (€29,99 / £24.99)
► MegaMan 9 (€9,99 / £6.99)
► WipEout HD (€17,99 / £11.99)

► Burnout Legends (PSP) (€19,99 / £14.99)
► Burnout Dominator (PSP) (€24,99 / £17.99)

GAME CONTENT

► Buzz! Quiz TV - Videogames quiz (€4,99 / £3.49)
► High Stakes Poker - Add-On 2 (gratis)

► Rock Band
○ All That Remains Pack 01 (€2,29 / £1.69 or €0,99 / £0.69 per song)
♪ “Chiron”
♪ “This Calling”
♪ “Two Weeks”

○ Rush (€1,99 / £1.49 per song)
♪ “Limelight” - Rush
♪ “Red Barchetta” - Rush
♪ “The Camera Eye” - Rush
♪ “Tom Sawyer” - Rush
♪ “Vital Signs” - Rush
♪ “YYZ” - Rush
♪ “Witch Hunt” - Rush

VIDEOS

► PAIN Amusement Park
-Call Da Shot Trailer
-Trauma Trailer

► Ferrari Challenge - Trailer
► Metal Gear Solid 4 - Game Trailer
► PES 2009 - Trailer
► PURE - Launch Trailer
► Valkyria Chronicles - Trailer

THEMES & WALLPAPERS

► BioShock theme
► Fallout 3 theme

Read the rest of this entry »

Here’s LittleBigPlanet doing Tetris!!! Need I say more?

Is Activision going to screw PS3 users once again? So far the Call of Duty: World at War Limited Edition has only been revealed for the 360 an PC.

Bionic Commando Rearmed was an old game remade with new technology.

Mega Man 9 is a new game built with old technology.

Most people probably prefer the former approach: an old game, re-imagined with new technology. However, in the case of Mega Man, they are doing the opposite. Many fans didn’t like the direction that the series took when they tried to add newer technology to it, so they are reverting to strictly old tech.

I know plenty of fans who are excited to get another classic-style Mega Man. Anyone here in that crowd? Personally, I loved Mega Man back in the day, but I have no desire to return to the technology of NES days.

I e-mailed Insomniac about splitscreen support in Resistance 2, and this is the email I got back:

Hey Henning

This is Bryan Intihar, Community Manager at Insomniac Games. Ryan passed along your questions about splitscreen. I have some of those answers for you:

So far, we’ve confirmed that we’ll have splitscreen (offline) for up to two players in our new co-op mode. Expect more announcements concerning splitscreen as we get closer to launch.

Thanks againfor the e-mail.

–Bryan

Two player splitscreen co-op! Woo-hoo! Resistance 2 is moving up the list again! Unfortunately, nothing else has been confirmed. But things look promising…

Darrin just wrote up a nice post about LittleBigPlanet and it’s potential, and mcloki had a great reply. So much so that I (Henning) thought it deserved its own post in case you didn’t catch it there. Here it is:

The hype and marketing [about LittleBigPlanet] will be enormous. I’ll only talk about the marketing of the product. LBP has the potential to be the poster child for the industry.

1. It’ll receive tons of press.
   Every Christmas news show will create their own level. You will see Breakfast Television LBP levels. You will se a “The View” Level, a Regis and Kelly Level. Local News shows will have their own level created. It’s a marketing dream. I’ll bet you a coke that before Christmas you will see a LBP level for the Fox NFL sports Show. Terry Bradshaw and Howie Long Sackboys. How about a downloadable Regis Sackboy. Not to your liking. How about a Jay Leno, or John Stewart Sackboy. And who is going to say anything bad about a game that they are in. 4 player View action with Barbara Walters. All the soccer Moms that bought Wii’s last year have something new, family friendly to play. Dad sees it as a way to get a Blueray player.
2. Emotional Connection.
   LBP is full of it. If Sony were to run an ad showing. dad/granddad playing with their son in creating a new level it would have something that just resonates with every dad. If Sony portrays this correctly and in the full Family positive way that it can be portrayed, they will have a monster success.
3. It can help sell the PS3.
   Play with your kids all day, Watch Blue Rays at night. The marketing aspect is going to be huge. This Christmas is going to be about choice for many households. Sony should position itself as the family choice. And I’m sure you’ll hear it on plenty of TV shows. “If I get a PS3 and LBP I can create a game with my child and have him use his imagination and creativity and I can help. What Dad is going to say that’s a bad thing? Or get him a 360 and teach him how to shoot people.” Is the above statement fair. No. But most people don’t have the level of sophistication with video games that PS3Blog readers have. So the generalization is going to stick.
4. It’s self marketing.
   When I create the PS3blognet level. Grabbing the Gravatar images of Henning and Tosh’s head and making little sackboys out of them.The mcloki level will all be text by the way. How do you buy that kind of marketing. The grassroots marketing of this are going to be huge. The user generated content is going to be better than you think. Sure some of it is going to be crummy, but the cream will rise to the top. And you will be astounded. People will stop playing Warcraft and endlessly grinding away their lives and start building and creating.

I’m looking forward to it and it will be a day one purchase for me.

Burnout Paradise Trophy patch - Good news the patch is now out, the bad news … they are not retroactive. You have to start all over. Forget it, I’m not doing that. I just completed 100% on bikes too, oh well.

There will be no split-screen co-op mode for Resistance 2. Remember that in the first Resistance, you could play through the single-player campaign with a buddy, splitscreen? My friend Steve and I had a blast doing that. Well, that’s not gonna happen for Resistance 2. My chances of purchasing this game just went down.

Here’s a nice MotorStorm Pacific Rift promo trailer called Lunatics Unite. Fun stuff!

Sony has some big products coming out, but I don’t think any of them has gotten such universally positive buzz as LittleBigPlanet.

The concept is grand, but often games with such ambitious concepts don’t gel into great finished games. Some of those preview videos look great, but are regular people really going to enjoy creating these levels? Will user-generated levels really be good enough to compete with the flood of high quality profressionally developed games on the market today? Are gamers really going to fall back in love playing a traditional side-scroller? Can you see a vibrant community behind this game thriving or even lasting beyond the launch window?

I’ve been rather skeptical on this in the past. When I heard this topping all the critics list, my hype alarm started ringing. The preview videos all seemed a little on the corny-side, with that annoying music, and it trying to be just a little too cutesy.

But the more they have recently shown of this title, the more it looks this game might actually become a genuine sensation. Some of the levels actually look cool, and from the brief shots of the 24-hour LittleBigPlanet GameJam, it really looks like regular people can make unique and exciting stuff.

In general, user-generated content won’t match the technical expertise or production quality of professional content, but user-generated content will be able to deliver a certain type of personality, emotion, and diversity that professional development isn’t suited for.

So, call the shot? Will this game kick off a resurgence of user-generated content? Will this take the concept beyond what we’ve seen in the past with the Doom/Marathon customization craze or Eamon modules?