Archive for August, 2009
Blu-ray Releases for the week of 8.24.09
Posted by Tosh in Blu-ray Movies, QuickNews on August 24th, 2009
Here are the Blu-ray titles for this week. Highlights are: Fighting, Devil May Cry: The Complete Series Box Set, Smallville: The Complete Eighth Season, Adventureland, Duplicity, The Informers, Children of the Corn.
Winners of the Need For Speed Shift – NYC Press Event
Here are the winners of the Need For Speed Shift – NYC Press Event.
Jason, abenja1 and Kenny6774
Congrats! Here are the details of the event, you must be at least 18 years old to attend.
Venue: BLVD (www.blvdnyc.com)
Date: Thursday 27th August
Time: 5-10pm
Address: 199 Bowery, New York, NY, 10002
Age: 18+
Please check your email, I need some details from you. It would be great if you 2 could meet up at the event. But that’s up to you.
I may be able to get one more pass so let me know asap if you want to go.
The Weekly Recap (August 16-22)
Posted by Jay in Weekly Recap on August 22nd, 2009
The GamesCom Edition
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Well, no surprise here. This week was one of the busiest in a long time. GamesCom took place this week (in fact, it’s just about over). Tons of new announcements and unveilings took place (some were expected, though) and the news kept flowing in at a pretty steady rate since Tuesday, when the PS3 Slim was announced at the Sony press conference.
News will probably trickle through for a few weeks until Tokyo Game Show next month, when we should be seeing quite a few new goodies coming out for Sony’s devices. Keep your calendars marked for that event as well! Now, I present to you, PS3Blog.net readers, the meat and potatoes of this week:
Holy crap what a week. Not much in terms of actual community news, but just a heads up, that contest is still open for that Need for Speed: Shift Press Event. So far, we only have but a couple people entered, so if you live in the NYC are, or close to it, please sign up for some press passes! You can get more info about that here.
Also a heads up, the PS3Blog.net community has been replaced with an actual forum, so be sure to check it out! You’re able to post pretty much anything (except for vulgarities, pornography, etc.). As you’ll notice, this particular section has been updated with a few additions, but I’ll start with the usual. ‘Contributor of the Week’ goes to JimmyMagnum for a total of 12 posts out of 48 (which also gives us yet a new record that will take a long time to surpass).
As far as a few of the other things go, we got a new addition, ‘Topic with the Most Comments’ (minus any trackbacks). We actually have a tie this week. Both More PS3 Slim Shots & Details and Sony’s John Koller Answers Questions About PS3 Slim (by Darrin and Gary respectively) have 16 total comments (as of this writing). There were a few other close ones with 14 and 15, though.
Now, here’s another new section. It’s our weekly trivia. You don’t get any prizes or anything, though 
. It’s just for fun and adds a little more substance to the Recap. Here’s this week’s question:
This plane was mainly used as bomber escort fighters in WWII over Germany and was powered by a Packard V-1650, a two-stage two-speed supercharged version of the Rolls-Royce Merlin engine and its armaments consisted of six .50 in (12.7 mm) M2 Browning machine guns. What was the manufacturer, model and designation of the plane?
Also, keep in mind, there’s a LOT more in the recap after you get into the comments section. Be sure to check it all out!
LittleBigPlanet on PSP Loses Multiplayer?
Posted by Jay in PSP, PSP Go, PSP Software on August 22nd, 2009
According to Joystiq Producer Mark Green has told Eurogamer that there won’t be any multiplayer on the PSP version of the game. Here’s what he said:
The one thing we’ve lost is multiplayer. The system is physically capable of doing multiplayer, but perhaps not with the full physics system. On the technical side of things you lose a third of the processing power or a third of the system memory just to do multiplayer at all. With those limitations we couldn’t achieve it.
There will still be full level creation, but the game has been downsized a bit. You know the 2D planes you can use on the PS3 version (there’s 3)? There is only one in LBP PSP, so you wouldn’t be able to create levels quite as dynamic as the PS3 version. I still can’t believe there’s no multiplayer, though, because the soul of the first game was the level creation, the heart was always multiplayer.
Given these changes, do you think it would still be worth a purchase, despite not being able to play it with friends? There’s still online for sharing levels and whatnot, though.
Square Enix Reviving “Thexder” for PSP/PS3
Via ESRB, we have discovered that SE will be bringing back a 1986 classic to Playstation Platforms. Wow this takes me back….i was 8 years old!
Thexder NEO
Platform: PlayStation 3, PSP
Rating: Everyone
Content descriptors: Fantasy Violence
Rating summary: This is a side-scrolling action game in which players control a transforming robot through a series of maze-like levels. Players must destroy enemy robots along the way by shooting them with laser beams. Most enemies react to damage by disappearing in a colorful burst; boss battles depict more protracted combat with louder and more realistic explosions.
Bitstreaming of Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD MA Supported in Slim Model
This was one of the new updates that wasn’t mentioned when the console was announced, but the console finally will be able to bitstream high definition audio to HD-capable receivers. This was something that I was hoping for when the original design came out, but it was only able to encode high definition audio sources through PCM 5.1 and 7.1 (which still sounded great). Apparently, the older model was incapable of it because the HDMI chip wasn’t compatible, hence why it had to encode it internally and send it through LPCM, so this wouldn’t even be possible with a firmware update. Shucks. In any case, the PS3 Slim is, indeed, able to decode truly lossless audio, so if you have a high end A/V receiver, you’ll finally be able to see those DTS-HD and TrueHD lights to shine! Before, with going through LPCM, there was always that chance that your audio equipment would interfere with that signal, causing some jittering and whatnot, but since it will now allow your HD receiver to decode it, you wouldn’t have to worry about it. Origin of news came from Engadget who, in turn, got it from a Japanese site.
[Giveaway] Access to Need For Speed Shift – NYC Press Event [Update!]
Just a heads up, I got the details of where the event is taking place. I updated it below. Let me know if your interested, I maybe be able to be 3 tickets instead of 2.
This is for our writers/readers in or near New York City. I have 2 passes for a exclusive sneak peek at Need For Speed Shift. This is only open to a very small, hand-selected group of influential site editors and media. But I was given permission to give the passes to you guys! The game will be released on September 17th in Europe and September 22nd in North America.
Venue: BLVD (www.blvdnyc.com)
Date: Thursday 27th August
Time: 5-10pm
Address: 199 Bowery, New York, NY, 10002
Age: 18+
If your picked as a winner. I would like you to talk about what you thought of the game and the event. Take your camera or camcorder if you have one. So if your interested please leave a comment below. I’ll pick 2 at random, Saturday August 22nd at 9pm PT.
[Edit: I'll pick the winners Sunday morning]
Impressions: IL-2 Sturmovik Birds of Prey Demo
Posted by Jay in Game Impressions, IL-2 Sturmovik Birds of Prey on August 21st, 2009
First, let me start off by saying that this game definitely isn’t for everyone. The game is definitely for those who enjoy a flight simulation game. Hence the word simulation, as this game really goes at that with force, so keep that in mind. In any case, here’s my impression with the demo:
Visuals
When it comes to visuals and flight sims, this one takes the cake. Even looking at screens for this game, you’d be surprised with how good it looks. We’ll start with the actual ground. The battlefields are made from old satellite photography with a few improvisations here and there. They’re extremely detailed for how big the battlefields are. Trees have actual depth to them and a more 3D nature than trees in a lot of other flight simulators. When you’re in first person view and you fly into the tree line, it actually looks more like a forest rather than crappy 2D cutout-looking things. In the Battle of Britain map, all the rolling hills and fields definitely adds a sense of atmosphere while flying. It’s got tons of hedges and trees about and the coastline is littered with a bunch of coastal towns facing the English Channel.
Smoke effects look great, as do explosions. The developers definitely did a great job with that. One of the coolest effects in the game is definitely the clouds. They have depth to them as well and can be used as cover for both you and the enemy. They remind me of Warhawk’s clouds, really.
Besides the environment, the shining star is really the planes. These planes are highly detailed and look great. Light shimmers off of their bodies and they all are modeled perfectly. You really need to get used to their shapes and markings, as playing on simulation difficulty, planes aren’t marked. One of the coolest things with the game is damage. If you take shots, your body will show it. On the first demo mission, I went to shoot down a German bomber and blew it’s wing off, which then flew up into the air and clipped my own wing, sending me into a violent twist into the ground. After I restarted, I was shooting them down left and right, but took damage myself, and the damage caused a big hole to form on my left wing. I was pleased with their damage model.
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