Archive for September, 2009
Official Word on UK PS3 Bundles
Posted by Jay in Blu-ray Movies, FIFA 10, Greatest Hits, Hardware Bundles, inFamous, Need For Speed Shift, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves on September 25th, 2009
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It looks like Sony will, indeed, be offering bundles (at least in the UK) for the PS3, featuring 250GB hard drives (the Final Fantasy XIII bundle was already confirmed for Japan). They will start showing up on October 1st (which is when the PSP Go also launches). The first bundles to show up will vary between multiple titles, including one that comes with two Greatest Hits titles and the other will be an inFamous bundle (for those of you who haven’t played inFamous, it’s really good!).
On October 16th, an Uncharted 2 bundle will hit shelves (day and date with the actual game release) and a couple days later on the 19th, the Blu-Ray movie pack will be made available, which also includes a Blu-Ray remote and a copy of both X-Men Origins: Wolverine and The Dark Knight. Also, according to a press release from yesterday, there will also be FIFA 10 and Need for Speed: Shift bundles. The bundles will go on sale for GBP 284.99. As far as why Sony decided to come out with these bundles, they stated:
Following the great success of the new, smaller, 120GB PS3, which sold over one million units in its first three weeks on sale, the 250GB model has the same hardware specifications as the current model, but with greater storage space, to offer consumers even more choice.
No word on whether or not any bundles will hit the states, though.
Source
PSN Demo Quick Impressions
Wow, five interesting PS3 demos this week! I would love to hear other reactions in the comments…
Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2
This nails the classical ninja action adventure genre. However, for my tastes, it takes ninjas a little too seriously. The graphics are gorgeous but artistically generic. The story is dry ninja material. And the complex and elaborate combat system, which is clearly the centerpiece of the game and is lauded by fans for being “deep”, is just pointlessly arcane for my tastes. The more serious ninja fans out there will love this one though.
Punisher
Generic frag-fast shooter. Skip it. It isn’t bad, but there are so many other games of this exact style that are just far better.
Zombie Apocalypse
Nice dual-stick shooter. The single player isn’t interesting enough to stand out from the rest, but the co-op mode sounds fun (haven’t tried it yet). This does look better than the other recent zombie dual stick shooter (forget the name). One frustrating piece is that the zombies often visually blend into the background.
Wolfenstein
High quality single player story-heavy, scripted, linear, guided shooter. Similar to the single player modes of Call of Duty or Resisance or Dead Space or Army of Two or Killzone 2… I’ve currently lost interest in by-the-numbers story-centric shooters like this, but it really does look like a high quality games of its type.
Lost Planet 2 Co-Op
This is the real gem of the pack which I wasn’t expecting given the reviews that I read for the first game. Even by 2009 standards, many of the visual effects are really eye-popping. The online four player co-op mode featured in the demo was a lot of fun. The weapons, effects, and mostly the epic monster at the end were absolutely spectacular. So far, the big downside is that I didn’t feel any strategy to the game play. It felt to simple and button-mashy, but that may just be the limited scope of the demo.
PlayStation Motion Controller in Action | LittleBigPlanet & Resident Evil 5
Posted by Tosh in LittleBigPlanet, PlayStation Eye, PlayStation Move, Resident Evil 5, Tokyo Game Show on September 25th, 2009
Finally some videos of the motion controller being used in a real game. Sorry I don’t know what they are saying. Looks like a interesting way to use it in LittleBigPlanet. On Resident Evil 5, you have to hold a Dual Shock 3 in addition to the motion controller. I tried this myself at home but used a remote in place of the motion controller and it felt ok. But I wouldn’t be surprised to see a Sony version of the Wii nunchuk
PlayStation Motion Controller | LittleBigPlanet
Trent Reznor Sony Bashing
From here:
Being honest, I’m not a huge fan of Sony. Their entire strategy behind the PlayStation is to focus on gaming as an experience last and getting a Blu-ray player in your living room comes first. Now, three years later they’re trying to release a motion controller that’s a little bit better than the Wii’s.
Wow, what a hot-headed opinion on technology brand politics!
A few counter points:
If you are upset at Sony’s ulterior Blu-Ray motives, was Microsoft’s HD-DVD agenda any better? Microsoft refused to support Blu-Ray on purely political grounds, mostly because of PS3 and the Java interactivity layer. They aggressively poured lots of money into HD-DVD to help the standard gain leverage, did tons of PR, threw lots of mud (remember they claimed that the dual-layer blu-ray discs we now see everywhere were an unrealistic fantasy?), and then backed away only when HD-DVD became a complete and total flop. Is that somehow more noble?
Microsoft’s entire intention in the video games market is to control technology standards and APIs and be the middleman for all games/music/movies transactions. Sony also aims to be a technology infrastructure middle man, but they are much more serious about being first class managers of innovative game studios as well.
Secondly, Nintendo and Apple aren’t saints either. Clearly, they make some amazing consumer products, and we should applaud them for that, but if you are concerned with developer-side innovation and the creative struggle of the small developers and hobbyists, they aren’t necessarily the best companies to partner with.
I like what I’m seeing from Xbox where they’re providing a place to get indie games and you don’t have to hack your system or fight updates to get those games on it. Again, the iPhone is another platform that’s inspiring and allows developers to make a game in a reasonable amount of time, with little money and allows for the possibility of something cool. Innovation is the key
First, as a quick aside, PS3/PSP have tons of “indie” games from small unproven studios and one-man teams. And realistically, the biggest and most successful technology infrastructure platform for low-budget or hobbyist developed games is Adobe’s Flash, even if it isn’t as much of a buzzword as iPhone or Microsoft’s efforts.
But most importantly, why not talk about the actual games and innovations themselves rather than the technology infrastructure platforms and brands and politics behind them?
PlayStation Home Update 1.3 not coming this month
Posted by Tosh in PlayStation Home on September 25th, 2009
If you where looking forward to shrinking yourself, having Universal Game Launching, access to virtual cameras, more emotes, and be able to try on clothes before you purchase them. You’ll have to wait just a little longer. Sony said this was coming in September and this is the last Thursday for the month. So hopefully this update comes early October. It would have been nice to have the update come out the same time the PS3 Slim did, so new PS3 users could experience it.
One of the Home Managers, CydoniaX had this to say:
“Hi Home Community,
I know you all have been waiting with baited breath for the 1.3 client upgrade and would like an update on its release. Our development team is still actively and diligently working on getting it through the final stages of QA and this has taken longer than previously anticipated. We still expect to release the new version in the very near future. We appreciate your continued patience and support.
~CydoniaX”
New Final Fantasy XIV Online Trailer
Posted by Eddie in Final Fantasy XIV, PS3 on September 25th, 2009
The music is absolutely amazing. All scenes seem shown in the trailer seem to be CGI but using the in game engine. I can’t wait.
White Knight Chronicles 2 TGS ’09 Trailer
While the rest of the world still waits to play the 1st game of the series, Level 5 has given us something else to look forward to.
Rumor: Cross-Game Chat in Near Future
Take this with a grain of salt, but VG247 is reporting that cross game chat will be made available in the 3.10 update that should be hitting the PS3 next month. Don’t hold your breath, though.
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