Archive for January, 2010
Gran Turismo PSP Review
Posted by Trev in Gran Turismo, Reviews on January 26th, 2010
Gran Turismo finally hit the PSP, in October 2009, after years of delays; I recently got a PSP Go and took GT for a spin. The first thing that hits you about this game is the frame rate. It’s astonishing that Polyphony have managed to make a game look and run this well on such a small handheld. There has been a sacrifice in the amount of opponent A.I. you face with only 4 cars now on track. It’s a disappointment, which might be a big issue with some gamers. However, for me it was a worthwhile sacrifice as the controls are impeccable thanks to the fluidity afforded by running the game in 60fps.
Indie Game Challenge Announces Judging Panel
Posted by Tosh in Uncategorized on January 26th, 2010
It’s been a while since I posted about the Indie Game Challenge. They have announced the judges for the contest and here they are:
- Danny Bilson, executive vice president, Core Games, THQ, who has strong roots in the creative community as both a screenwriter and director for TV and film, and is responsible for THQ’s slate of games.
- Jenova Chen and Kellee Santiago, co-founders, thatgamecompany, creators of the unique and ethereal games Flow and Flower ,who along with their small team, are changing people’s perceptions of what makes a great game.
- Kyle Gabler, co-founder and creative director of 2D Boy, and part of the team that co-created the wildly successful World of Goo.
- Rod Ferguson, executive producer, Epic Games, who is part of the team of game-making heavyweights responsible for the Gear of War franchise.
- Alex Seropian, vice president creative development, Disney Interactive, co-founder of Bungie Studios and one of the fathers of Halo
- Roger Hector, senior vice president product development, Namco Bandai, automotive design guru, responsible for launching 100-plus titles in his career within the interactive industry.
- Tina Kowalewski, director of external development, Sony Computer Entertainment America, responsible for finding new talent and new games for Sony.
- Representatives also include publishers and developers from Microsoft, Capcom, Harmonix, Volition, Insomniac, id Software, Zipper Interactive and Vigil Games.
Right now there are in the second round of evaluations and have to pick 12 finalists by the end of the month. The award reception is Feb. 19, 2010 , at the Red Rock Resort & Casino in Las Vegas.
THE ACADEMY OF INTERACTIVE ARTS & SCIENCES, GAMESTOP, THE GUILDHALL AT SMU ANNOUNCE JUDGING PANEL FOR INDIE GAME CHALLENGE ENTRIES
More than 40 Industry Influencers to Judge Inaugural Game Development Contest; Winner to Receive More Than $350,000 in Prizes
DALLAS – (Jan. 14, 2010) – Judging is underway for the first Indie Game Challenge SM sponsored by The Guildhall at Southern Methodist University, the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences (AIAS) and GameStop Corp. (NYSE:GME). The 12 non-professional and professional finalists out of more than 250 submissions in this inaugural video game design competition are expected to be announced February 1, 2010.
The Indie Game Challenge offers more than $350,000 in prize monies and scholarships, as well as the tremendous opportunity for the finalists to present their game ideas in person to video game executives from top publishers such as Sony, Nintendo, Electronics Arts, Capcom, Microsoft, NAMCO/Bandai, THQ and Ubisoft at the D.I.C.E.™ (Design, Innovate, Communicate, Entertain) Summit, an annual conference dedicated to exploring approaches to the creative process and artistic expression as they uniquely apply to the development of interactive entertainment, hosted by the AIAS. Five members from each of the 12 finalist teams will attend the awards reception Feb. 19, 2010, at the Red Rock Resort & Casino in Las Vegas. These meetings will allow competitors to receive valuable input and have the opportunity to explore commercial avenues for their games.
The volunteer judging panel is made up of gaming icons, veterans and up-and-coming professionals representing AIAS’s membership base, including such noteworthy individuals as:
· Danny Bilson, executive vice president, Core Games, THQ, who has strong roots in the creative community as both a screenwriter and director for TV and film, and is responsible for THQ’s slate of games
· Jenova Chen and Kellee Santiago, co-founders, thatgamecompany, creators of the unique and ethereal games Flow and Flower ,who along with their small team, are changing people’s perceptions of what makes a great game
· Kyle Gabler, co-founder and creative director of 2D Boy, and part of the team that co-created the wildly successful World of Goo
· Rod Ferguson, executive producer, Epic Games, who is part of the team of game-making heavyweights responsible for the Gear of War franchise
· Alex Seropian, vice president creative development, Disney Interactive, co-founder of Bungie Studios and one of the fathers of Halo
· Roger Hector, senior vice president product development, Namco Bandai, automotive design guru, responsible for launching 100-plus titles in his career within the interactive industry
· Tina Kowalewski, director of external development, Sony Computer Entertainment America, responsible for finding new talent and new games for Sony
· Representatives also include publishers and developers from Microsoft, Capcom, Harmonix, Volition, Insomniac, id Software, Zipper Interactive and Vigil Games
“We’re in our second round of evaluations, so we’re seeing the cream of the crop,” said Matthew Lee Johnston, senior producer, PopCap. “It’s amazing how polished some of the games are and the fun experiences they offer. The hardest part has been finding the time to play them all as much as I’d personally want, but I’ll definitely rectify that on my own time after the competition is completed.”
“We had no trouble finding highly qualified gaming professionals willing to donate their time to this unique challenge,” said Joseph Olin, president, AIAS. “Not only were we pleased with the total number of entries we received, the overall quality of the submissions far exceeded our expectations. Judges are currently pouring over each and every entry, and I don’t envy the task they face in culling the list down to 12 finalists by the end of the month.”
“We committed to each entrant that their game would be thoroughly evaluated and played by qualified judges from the world of gaming, and that’s what’s happening now,” said Mike Hogan, senior vice president of marketing, GameStop. “The 12 finalist games will be representative of some of the most innovative and creative ideas in gaming today as judged by the best in the business.”
For more information on the competition, visit www.IndieGameChallenge.com
Super Street Fighter IV
Posted by Trev in Street Fighter IV on January 26th, 2010
SSFIV will be out April 30th worldwide but what can we expect in the update? Well apart from the new bonus rounds as shown at the start of this trailer there are also soime brand new modes with Team Battle allowing up to 8 players to scrap it out together online which can then be rewatched using the new Replay Channel. There is also an arcade style Endless Battle replicating that coin-op feel with winner stays on rules.
Cheater!
I remember the old days. Back when you were able to buy an accessory that enabled “cheats” of sorts that were, otherwise, not available in the games themselves. I’m talking about devices like Game Genie, GameShark and Action Replays. What these devices did was access the game memory and changed the settings and numbers in the code in hexidecimal, making the devices, essentially, hex editors.
A lot of people looked down on such devices because they felt that it detracts from the game. I think they enhanced the games. They gave access to things like infinite health, ammunition, power-ups, stuff like that, as well as more quirky things like making certain objects larger or smaller or changing the physics of different devices. They were much like trainers on PC games that, in my personal opinion, made a lot of games more fun.
Case in point? Some people may not have been able to beat certain games on even the lowest difficulty level, so, despite the negativity cheating their way through a game garners, they were still able to finish it and be able to see all the game had to offer (minus the difficulty and skill needed), making the difficulty level like super-casual (they would be great for younger children for sure). Yeah, it cheapens the experience, but it opens the games up to a broader audience and gives the games much more accessibility. As for me, I’d usually play through the game first without using the cheats, and then go back and use these devices, the first ever being the Game Genie for the NES and using it for games like Super Mario Bros. 3 and Mega Man 3.
When we got a PlayStation, I graduated to the GameShark, which worked much in the same way, but was able to access cheats stored onto the disc for each game (as well as giving the ability to input codes yourself and save them to the memory card). Having all the weapons available in Duke Nukem: Time to Kill was a blast, and with the help of the GameShark, I enjoyed that game far beyond the time interest should have run out, but I probably played the game about 20 times 
.
Same went with Metal Gear Solid, where there was a cheat to have Cardboard Box C in my inventory, which allowed me to hide in the first truck at the Helipad and skip ahead to the snowfield where your fight with Sniper Wolf took place (except you didn’t have to do the fight), and basically got you into the Blast Furnace shed and skip to Disc 2 in less than 15 minutes 
). It was very cheap, but it guaranteed Meryl’s survival at the end! It definitely resulted in a lot of missed cutscenes and items (which you’d also want the Level 99 security card as well), but after beating the game multiple times, I went to try all sorts of cheats out.
It was PlayStation 2 where these devices met their peak and, subsequently, their demise. I owned both GameSharks and Action Replays. This was the heyday of such devices, with my main draw being the Grand Theft Auto series. Edison Carter (I don’t know his real name), who was about the GTA hex editing master, had all sorts of unconventional cheats that made the game FAR more enjoyable than the base game and their base cheats. They included the ability to have rare cars spawn in the garages (and change their colors), use the button cheats to spawn different cars than what they usually gave you, low gravity, modifications to the strength of weapons, modifications to the handling lines for the vehicles (which made them fast, increased the traction of vehicles that allowed you to drive up building walls, etc.), different changes like that.
MAG Final Game
Posted by Trev in Featured, MAG - Massive Action Game on January 25th, 2010
MAG is out tomorrow in the USA and will also be out in Europe by the end of the week. Zipper have promised that the final product will be an improvement on the beta with the inclusion of 15 maps instead of 6 and 5 modes compared to the 2 in the beta. But that’s not all the changed as Zipper lists a host of changes added via a patch which is already online. Full details of the patch and some videos after the jump.
Hustle Kings on PSN This Thursday
Posted by Jay in Hustle Kings on January 25th, 2010
For those of you who play pool (also formally known as billiards), the Pool Sim game known as Hustle Kings will be hitting the North American PlayStation Store this Thursday (the price is to be determined, but I would guess $9.99). The game looks great, and according to Aaron Orsak, the US producer of Hustle Kings, and tournament 8-ball player:
From just straight-up pool to intensely complicated masse, swerve, bank, and spin shots, Hustle Kings gets it right from top to bottom. It’s so realistic that I’ve yet to find a shot that could be done on a real table, even shots I’ve seen the old pros pull off, that couldn’t be pulled off in Hustle Kings. Not one!
There’s also some neat features if you so plan to take advantage of them. First off, you are able to upload your shots to YouTube (I think it’s a great feature that should be implemented into more games), so if you pull off an amazing trick shot, you can show it to the world! Another feature that a lot of you would like is that the game supports in-game XMB soundtrack so you can choose what tunes you want to listen to as you play. George Thorogood and the Destroyers will be very pleased .
There’s also a special trophy you can get. It’s a silver trophy and the only way to get it is by beating someone at a game who already has the trophy. The catch is, only the developers have it at first, so in order for it to get out to the general public, someone will first have to beat a developer in a multiplayer match (so yes, this is a trophy where, in order to get it, you have to play the game online). In my opinion, that’s actually a pretty neat idea, despite the fact that I prefer not being forced to play online to get a trophy .
Heavy Rain Chronicles – Become the Origami Killer and more
Posted by Tosh in Heavy Rain on January 25th, 2010
One of the Heavy Rain Chronicles will involve you playing as the Origami Killer. Which will be very interesting after you’ve beaten the game. Another Chronicle will include FBI profiler Norman Jayden. In this one you’ll find out about his drug addiction and his scar. There is also one about photographer Madison Paige. She investigates a taxidermist and gets into trouble. I think I’ve seen part of this in past trailers if I recall correctly .
Most of these Heavy Rain Chronicles are essentially prequels to the story. They will last about an hour. I’m sure there will be Chronicles for the rest of the characters in time.
Side note: Here is how to make a the Origami Killer calling card.
Via eurogamer.net
Aliens vs. Predator Heritage Trailer
Posted by Tosh in Aliens vs Predator, Aliens vs Predator 3 on January 25th, 2010
This video takes us back to the original Aliens vs Predator from 1999. They show how far the game has progressed since then. I actually never played the original, I started with Aliens vs Predator 2. Man that was fun until the hackers ruined the online play. One hack I didn’t mind though was character skins. I could see that being DLC in the future. Another thing I hope they get right is the character balance. Back with AVP 2, normally it boiled down to Predators vs Aliens and a few marines thrown in. There still isn’t an exact release date, Sega’s website just says February 2010. Oh and check out this Predator motorcycle, lol. Would have looked better with the helmet on though. More pics of it here.
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