Thursday 30 September 2010

Jakes PS3 Corner : Dead Rising 2




Dead Rising 2


The first dead rising saw photojournalist Frank west travelling to Willamette Mall where a big story is happening and as he is travelling there he sees that this is no normal war story, this is in fact a zombie infestation that has been quarantined and kept secret by the US army. As Frank enters the mall by helicopter he see’s a few people, and one women is very upset about her dog being outside with the zombies so what does she do?? Opens the door for her little poodle so this is what starts the Willamette mall incident or is their a terrorist behind all this?

Dead Rising 2 is 5 years after the Willamette mall incident and now zombies are a common thing in the world,there is now a drug called zombrex which can prevent zombification in those infected, if you take it every 24hours but it must be the same hour each time otherwise over dose can be fatal. The main guys name in this is Chuck Greene , he is man who is trying to stop his daughter Katy from being infected, so you need to find her zombrex every 24hours. Chucks wife died in a Vegas outbreak and ever since he’s been travelling the country with his daughter finding Zombrex. Eventually he arrives at a place named Fortune City and he get’s himself framed for causing a massive zombie outbreak after playing a show called Terror is Reality 17, where you get as many points messing with zombies and killing them in different ways to rack up the most points but the only reason he did this was for money for Zombrex.

 
Game play

The game play is brilliant it’s a much needed improvement over the first Dead rising here is a list of the improvements

  • Survivor AI is now smart they don’t run into zombies
  • The physics of the game has improved greatly
  • The story is longer and so much more emotional
  • SO much more zombies on screen and different types of enemies to
  • Amazing range of physco’s
  • The map is huge in this one
  • Combo weapons (combining 2 weapons to make some really awesome ones)

Chuck can go to shops and casinos and will often find himself travelling from point A to point B a lot so you will get to see a lot of the place and interact with it a lot more than Dead Rising 1. You will notice some improvements due to a wider range of shops the hoards of items have increased, and casinos have amazing themes to them it really is brilliant (I don’t recommend playing slots while theirs hordes of zombies coming at you.) There is a lot to do in this game and a ton of side missions to keep you busy, but be warned trying to story and side missions and rescuing survivors is a hard job to do all in one. Overall Gameplay is a lot more fun there is many different ways to have fun with zombies and physco’s and survivors now help you instead of try and kill you. There are also some major decisions to make in the game that affect the story quite a bit. Very big downside to this game is constant load screens and it gets extremely difficult towards to ending, but it’s still great fun.


Graphics

Now theirs a lot of people saying the graphics have gotten worse and some people even complaining about lighting and shadows of all things, but honestly I feel the graphics are absolutely brilliant, I would have thought with up to thousands of zombies on screen that the graphics would have had to be scrolled down a lot but that’s not the case at all it doesn’t even struggle with the amount on screen, and the nice graphics there is the slight FPS drop but it’s not noticeable unless your looking for it hard.


I give this game an 8/10

Pro’s
  • Fun story
  • Online is great to make money for your single player campaign
  • Amazing graphics with the amount of zombies on it
  • A lot to do
  • Chuck is a very good character
  • Can get emotional


Cons
  • Loading screens
  • Get’s very difficult if you’re a low level to start off with
  • Not enough coverage on what happened to Frank West (but it should be explained in Case west)

Wednesday 29 September 2010

News : Guybrush Threepwood Skin for Force Unleashed II


I find this guy a little creepy to be honest but this morning it was revealed that everyones favourite pirate has been rendered as an unlockable skin in Lucasarts latest game in the Star Wars series.

Star Wars : Force Unleashed II will be released on October 26 for Xbox 360 , Wii, PC, PS3 and DS.

Images nicely borrowed from X360Achievements.

Nintendo Convention 2010 : News and updates.

Mark MacDonald was inside the Nintendo 2010 convention and Tweeted all the news as it happened.
Heres an update for all you non twittered people.


  • The Wiimote+ is real and will be release in Pink, White, Blue and Black.
  • Screens for Metal Gear : Snake Eater and Biohazzard : Liberation were shown.
  • Mii is coming to 3DS with the camera able to photograph your face and then auto build a Mii
  • The new 3DS includes a Web Browser and passive tag mode.
  • Tag mode will light up when you pass a 3DS and recieve data from them.
  • a picture of your Mii can be saved to your SD card.
  • 3DS includes wi-fi  and can connect to Wi-fi when in sleep mode to download updates, games and patchs
  • New 3DS games to include  : Proffesor Layton, Pilotwings Resort , Chocobo Racing, Paper mario , Ridge Racer , Animal Crossing and Zelda.
  • 3DS released Feb 26 in Jpn, Europe and America hasnt recieved a date yet,
  • 3DS will include a virtual console for GB and GBA games to be downloaded and played.
So there we are :) thanks @markmacd .

Tuesday 28 September 2010

Starfish Reviews : Devil.


If you haven't yet seen this film, go away and come back when you have. Or don't, whatever.

Bad things happen for a reason”.

That is the dubious tag-line accompanying the most recent offering from the mind of M Night Shyamalan, and as with any film associated with this man, I find myself conflicted. And with good reason – the last film bearing his name was the unspeakably awful 'Avatar: The Last Airbender'. But Shyamalan is not the director this time, only the writer, Devil being the first of a trilogy entitled 'The Night Chronicles', described as a set of films which explore the supernatural in modern society.

So, to the film itself. As anyone who as seen the trailer will know, its premise is very simple – 5 people stuck in a lift, one of them is the Devil incarnate. The idea for this comes from an old myth, sometimes known as 'The Devils Meeting', in which the Devil will sometimes walk the Earth in human form, in order to torment people (for shits and giggles, I guess). One part of the story states that the Devil can only be granted access to Earth through a suicide, as suicide is an unholy sin....and sure enough, in one of the first shots of the film we see someone falling to their death from the top of the skyscraper in which the film is set.


This arcane idea is brought to life by director John Erick Dowdle, the man who in 2008 directed 'Quarantine', an almost shot-for-shot copy of the original Spanish movie 'Rec', and seems reluctant to stop using those frustratingly shaky camera angles. Part of the problem comes from situating most of the action in an elevator (or as we British say, a lift), a small space, and when you then fill this small space with people, it becomes difficult to keep shots neat and well-lit. The lighting was also quite frustrating, as you actually miss a lot of the action via the flickering lights in the elevator as the power fails. Which I realise is completely intentional on the directors part, concealing the action to maintain suspense yadda yadda, but for 75 minutes it gets quite tiresome.

To me the main problem with film-making is always in maintaining the strength of the original idea as it is turned into a finalised product, and this is a problem with Devil. The idea itself is quite fascinating Рthe Devil as a metaphor for the instinctual pathology in human beings, the idea of people creating their own danger as a product of hysteria and group psychology, etc (remember we never actually see the Devil attack, also playing to our instinctual fear of the dark), but to me this idea was let down by off-putting camera-work, unneccesarily dark lighting, and a hard-to-believe ending. I mean, really? You actually think the Devil would accept a persons apology for their wrong-doings, and allow them to leave? Please, pain and suffering are the Devils bread and butter. And to the question of which one was the Devil, the answer was all too obvious (murder mystery clich̩ number 1 Рit's always the quiet one).

Related films: Saw, Phone Booth, Rope, The Sixth Sense, Psycho.
Directing – 6/10
Writing – 7.5/10
Acting - 7/10
Overall – 6.5/10

Monday 27 September 2010

Enslaved :odyssey to the west. Character Bio : Pigsy

Introducing Pigsy.

Pigsy is an old friend of Monkey and although half his height and twice his width thinks he is a hit with the ladys and packs a powerfull Bazooka.

Pigsy is also mysteriously entangled in Trips past and may just be the sweaty and slightly overweight key to succeding the task they are undertaking.

He will also be featuring in several of the DLC being released alongside the game.

This weeks Charts : Consoles , Handhelds and PC

A new feature I am including is a weekly chart listing for each console so here is this weeks.



  1. F1 2010
  2. Halo Reach
  3. Dead Rising 2
  4. Guitar Hero : Warriors of Rock
  5. Mafia II
  6. Sniper: Ghost Warrior
  7. Red Dead Redemption
  8. Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days
  9. Call of Duty : Modern Warfare 2
  10. Spiderman : Shattered Dimensions

  1. Mafia II
  2. Kane & Lynch 2 Dog Days
  3. Red Dead Redemption
  4. Call of Duty : Modern Warfare 2
  5. Battlefield Bad Company 2
  6. Toy Story 3
  7. UFC : Undisputed
  8. Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11
  9. GTA IV : Episodes from Liberty City
  10. Blur

  1. Metal Gear Solid : Peace Walker
  2. Lego Harry Potter
  3. Fifa 2010
  4. Toy Story 3
  5. ModNation Racers
  6. Football Manager Handheld
  7. Assasins Creed : Bloodlines
  8. 2010 Fifa World Cup
  9. Prince of Persia : The Forgotten Sands
  10. Pro Evolution Soccer 2010


  1. Super Mario Galaxy 2
  2. New Super Mario Bros Wii
  3. Mario Kart 
  4. Toy Story 3
  5. Lego Harry Potter
  6. We Sing : Encore
  7. Grease
  8. PokePark
  9. Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11
  10. Sonic and Sega All Stars Racing.

  1. New Super Mario Bros
  2. Toy Story 3
  3. Dragon Quest IX
  4. Mario Kart Ds
  5. Club Penquin : Herberts Revenge
  6. Art Academy
  7. Lego Harry Potter
  8. Style Boutique
  9. Sonic Classic Collection
  10. Pokemon Soul Silver Version

PC
  1. Mafia II
  2. Starcraft 2
  3. The Sims 3
  4. The Sims 3 : Ambitions
  5. Battlefield Bad Company 2
  6. World of Warcraft : Wrath of the Lich King
  7. The Sims 3 : World Adventures
  8. The Sims 2
  9. Command and Conquer 4
  10. Sniper : Ghost Warrior

That Monday morning feeling.

As usual the weekend has been slow in the world of gaming, this weekend was more so with the release of the FFXIV online Collectors edition allowing buyers early access into the game meaning most people were busy playing away, Those that were not playing FFXIV were playing Civilisation V and digging further into this ladder those that were not playing CIV V were playing Minecraft.

The lack of major news and trailers is probably due to the onslaught we will be presented with from Eurogamer this week. I will not be attending sadly, but do have a special guest writer who will be keeping me updated with all the events on the first day so all is not lost.

The lack of console for me to play on while I am away Isn't a bad thing for my social life but is a blow to reviews for the blog. There is a Wii but other than party games there is nothing worthy of single player time as I am only here for 2 more days there is no point starting anything major.

Thats all for now but I will be sure to update as soon as anything interesting happens so keep an eye out .

Sunday 26 September 2010

Weekly Flash : This is the only level.

This week sees me reminding people of possibly the most addictive most pointless game I have ever seen.
This is the only level finds you playing as an Elephant tasked with completing an obscene number of tasks while repeatedly bouncing round the same level.


Unfortunately this is all I can say about this game as there really Isnt anything too it other than that.

Heres the link. Play it. Love it. http://armorgames.com/play/4309/this-is-the-only-level

Saturday 25 September 2010

Nintendo Natter : Mariokart Ds .Vs. Wii

Today sees the introduction of our final guest writer. welcome to Hegi's Nintendo Natter.



I've always been a fan of Mario, that pixelated Italian Plumber has been like a friend to me. It was fantastic helping him rescue a princess by climbing ladders and avoiding barrels, or jumping on blocks and kicking turtles all with the aim of , yes, rescuing that princess. Then shooting across the stars to, YES, rescue that damn princess (who spent more time in the arms of an over-muscular, possibly steroid abusing ape, or tied up by the Godzilla-esque Bowser, than she did in her own castle). But by far the most entertaining of the lot, was Mario Kart.

First released in 1992 Mario Kart is a blend of opponent destroying fun and heart pounding racing. The two most recent incarnations are Mario Kart DS (2005, Nintendo DS) and Mario Kart Wii (2008, Nintendo Wii). Both games have hours of fun and more unlockables than a security-mad corrupt banker. But whereas MKDS was created as a multi-player engine, with this single-player mode glued on with pritt-stick as an afterthought, MKWii is finely balanced between multi- and solo-play.

MKDS has a truck-load of new maps and 3 karts, with differing stats, per character, but on solo mode, even on level three difficulty (150cc), the AI is predictable, and appear to be being controlled by by children under a heavy dose of tranquilizers. All 7 of them take the same lines in the corners, and once you work out the fastest way round each map, you can beat the AI whilst barely having to use any of the multitude of items available throughout the race. However, MKDS has one major trump card, it IS one of the best multi-player games released on the DS, with just one copy of the game, eight, yes EIGHT, of you can play on the multi-player mode, if you have enough DS's. It is only a restricted number of maps, but its enough to make any long journey fun, THIS is the reason to get Mario Kart DS, long car trips, international air flights, transcontinental train journeys, all spent firing various objects at your friends and family, but most importantly, entertained.


MKWii takes the multi-player of MKDS and builds on it, adding a plethora of the greatest maps from all previous games (enhanced for the Wii) advanced AI that turns level one difficulty (or 50cc) into a challenge and a scattering of new maps and items. OH! And I cant forget the best addition to the game – bikes. Harder to turn, easier to crash, but faster and smaller than karts, they add a whole new dimension to both multi- and single-player modes and, combined with the Wii's signature motion-sensitive controllers (with a new, Mario Kart exclusive steering wheel casing) makes Mario Kart Wii not only one of the best Mario games, but one of the greatest games ever.



So, for Mobile Multi-player Madness, take Mario Kart DS, and for Party Playtimes in the living room, you need Mario Kart Wii, but whichever game you have, there's no greater feeling than steeling a win by knocking out your mate with a turtle.


Friday 24 September 2010

First Thoughts : Enslaved : Odyssey to the West.


Set 150 years into the future in a typical post apocalyptic America, Enslaved follows he story of an overly muscular man called Monkey, the name is enhanced by the fact he moves like one. Monkey has spent his whole life running from the combat Mech's left over from a great war between the Mechanoids and the Humanoids and the Demo starts with monkey escaping from a slave air-ship where he seems to have been placed captive.


At this point i had to say the game was nothing special a series of run and jump obstacles followed as you got used to the mini-Hercules ability to bounce from place to place very quickly. This bouncing has a point as the ship you are on is crashing, parts are exploding left, right and centre and the ships 10 escape pods seem to be jettisoning one by one,on top of this Monkey is chasing a yet unknown but quite spritely girl across the ship for some reason I couldn't fathom. Along the way Monkey bumps into a Mech and is tasked with retrieving his equipment that was stolen from him on his capture.

Upon retrieving the gear this is where the game starts getting special. Normally combat during tense escape scenes annoys me as it slows the game down too much when you just want to keep moving, here we have an exception, The combat is set at just the right fast pace that you still keep the tense urgency of the escape but are fully involved in fighting the ugly Mech's in front of you. Combat is not simply keep pressing X until the enemies have exploded, you actually have to think here as if you dont you will die very quickly, you are forced into rolling , guarding and thinking about your position in relation to the enemies and this is indeed a good thing.

After gleefully bashing in some robot skulls you are sent jumping around like your name sake, in a way that even the Prince of Persa would be proud of for someone your size, to find your way to the last escape pod. On the way it throws more Mech's your way and even blows off half the air-ship your travelling on when it hits the statue of liberty and plummets towards some of the skylines tallest buildings. The tension that is built up during these scenes is excellent, its almost like you are watching a movie when the building is coming closer and your climbing up the side of a large wing not sure if your clear or not for the impact.

The demo ends with Monkey attached to the unknown ladys escape pod when it crashes to the ground after being jettisoned from the Ship. Monkey wakes up with a headache and a new piece of headgear which the lovely lady who hasn't even said hello to him nicely attached to his brain. The lady explains that the collar will kill him if she dies and she would like him to help her escape to her village, The reason for fleeing is ( I am assuming) she is being chased by the Mech's and for some reason ( at this point unmentioned, like her name) is very important, this bargaining chip means he has no choice to agree and off they go on the journey.

I must say this is one of the best demo's I have played for a long time, the graphics are smooth ad polished and the voice acting is spot on . Easily this could be one of the most underrated but excellent games this quarter. Even if its only the demo do check this game out !

for anyone that's wondering.... her name is Trip.

Release date and platforms : October 2010  - Xbox360 / Ps3

The moment we have all been waiting for : Wii Remote +

Finally we have the first news of a combined controller and Motion + to be produced for the Wii. This little gem was discovered by EuroGamer .


Nintendo have been very quiet about the production of this unit. and I wonder what the plans are as to production. Hopefully they will produce the new Wii-mote+ alongside the current Motion+ attachment so as to give users a choice which they want to buy. The new Wii-mote+ will be shipped along with a copy of Fling-smash for £39.99 or ( $49.99) which is due for release in the near future. Unfortunately that is all the info I can give you. so bask in its image and hope that they dont make people buy a whole new controller unit if you want to play using motion+... after all a huge multi-billionaire company wouldn't force customers to spend even more money to use their tech, would they ?

Thursday 23 September 2010

Coming soon : New Xbox 360 Dashboard + Early preview

Alongside the Kinect release at the end of October Xbox live will be receiving the new shiny Kinect ready Dashboard. A few improvements include a new avatar system faster loading speeds and improved headset functionality. However there are preview places still available for people (like me)who are too impatient to wait.

The Link was provided by XBLs own PR overlord Major Nelson and priority is given to XBL-Gold members.

A Few notes.
Due to the enhanced Microphone codecs Party chat will only be available between members taking part in the preview.
You CAN NOT change back to the old Dashboard if you decide you don't like it, though this counts for all Dash updates.
This may be a little buggy but they are constantly patching it ready for the full release.

So here is the link if you want to check it out: http://majornelson.com/archive/2010/09/22/xbox-live-update-preview-program.aspx?PageIndex=1

Maybe ill see you there :) .

Wednesday 22 September 2010

First Thoughts : Quantum Theory

I finally got round to playing the demo for this today after i downloaded it 3 days ago. My initial reaction was along the lines of "oooh, unreal tournament" as the graphics are almost identical from everything to the textures of the walls to the oversized shoulders of the main character. From what i can gather of the introduction the game revolves around a tower or to be more precise inside the tower.

 Theres 2 forces the Giltskins who are humanoids in the corrupted by the towers diabolyos's? (sorry if its the wrong spelling im tired and its a stupid word anyway) and are seeking to destroy the tower and the Necromancers who seek to keep the tower alive. you play the role of a Giltskin called Syd who has walked into said living tower, did i mention the tower was alive thus adding and removing cover spots at random, armed with 3 obscenely large guns and a deep voice even batman would be proud of. Our over-masculine hero has no choice but join up with a necromancer called Fillena who is essentially Prince of Persia's Elika with a sword and large guns herself. Like POP Quantum Theory has added a combo combat system which sees Syd and Fillena throwing each other around the room if you actually manage to hit the fast moving enemies the Arc ( im presuming that's the tower) produces to squash you and then manage to time the seconds flash that indicated which button to press next to continue your onslaught.


The basic premise is run through the level, shoot everything and look cool in the process while throwing witty one liners. The aim system is messy and the fast paced combat is forced to slow down by very small health limits  and enemies with seemingly endless health sometimes and this makes for really awkward moments. Other than the typical run and gun game play and hot armoured female with a sword and a big gun this game doesn't appear to have much going for it right until the end of the demo where you find yourself gun to gun with a giant armoured creature which stores laser energy in its arm and owns a gattling gun that would use your beefcake hero's gun as a toothpick. The great thing about the bosses is that they are coated in armour except for one weak spot which is in an obvious but difficult place to actually shoot. After 5 minutes of rolling, dodging and seeing Fillena sit uselessly in the corner shouting apparently helpful comments at you the giant eventually topples.

And ill tell you what, if the game is full of bosses like that then i can put up with the rest of the game being dull, because when that bugger fell. Boy did it feel good !

Jakes PS3 Corner : Little Big Planet

Jakes PS3 Corner : Little Big Planet.


When I got the Ps3 this game was the reason why and I will tell you why. This game is a platformer like no other.  At the start Stephen Fry will explain to you how you can create levels or play other levels, and then he will go on and tell you about the main story and where to start. The story is more of a bonus to collect items, materials and things to create your ideal sack boy. When you start the story you learn the basics of jumping, grabbing and puzzles and it is fairly easy at the start but as you get into the game the puzzles and platform elements get very challenging,this makes the game brilliant because you feel a sense of accomplishment once you have collected a lot of points and items for creating levels, the more you keep going back the more items you have,which in turn helps you get other items you couldn't get last time.

Level Creation.
When you create a level Stephen Fry will give you a very big detailed tutorial that’s easy to follow, he will tell you how to work the tools and lay down things like materials to draw any shape you like and create it into anything you want and I mean anything.The Scale of creation in this game never ceases to amaze me.

User Created Levels.

Some people can be very talented and creative at this game and come out with levels better than the developer’s levels that are quite hard to beat, but people still manage. The problem that many people hate and even quit Little big planet over is the amount of people who beg for hearts (heart people if you love the level). If you get a lot of hearts you earn a platinum trophy which are very hard to get, but people just spam heart for a heart so much it really ruins some levels. Another problem is people creating bomb survival and jump survival maps. One person came up with a map where bombs drop from the sky and you have to avoid them as long as possible and another person came up with jump survival, where you jump from really hard obstacles that get harder and harder, now at first they were fun until now… every page you get to is just spammed with different bomb survivals and jump survivals it’s just got to the point where you have to really search if you want a good map.

Graphics and Sound

The graphics are brilliant and is easily one of the  best looking games on Ps3 even though this game is a side scroller. The graphics are so real looking it’s great and every material they have done is unique looking as they have taken the time to avoid over-cloning textures. Every level is very different which is great and also sack boy looks better than ever. The audio in this game is excellent and you have a wide range of funny music to get you through the levels,providing some laughs, you can also modify the music to suit the levels you create. The environmental sounds are good and atmospheric because they sound as if you are in that theme you have chosen.

Overall I give this game an 8/10.





Pro’s:
fun story, great laugh, lots of creativity, Stephen Fry’s comedy, some of the community levels are great and worth the money

Con’s:
 Sometime the game glitches and you loose half your data and have to start the game and earn the unlockable again. Community wise there people begging for hearts and likes and people over producing the same levels.

Monday 20 September 2010

Fable : Evolution of a Hero

Fable very quickly became the most popular and easily accessible RPG's around, and with Fable III around the corner here is a quick Recap of the Story so far and some of the changes in Gameplay and style.

Fable + The Lost Chapters.

In the first Fable game the player is cast as The Hero of Oakvale. Starting as a child the player learns about Strength (swords, axes and maces), Skill (bows and crossbows) and Will (spells and potions) and these 3 core elements make up the basis of any upgrades for the rest of the franchise. The Hero is assigned the task of Saving Albion and destroying Jack of Blades (the spoiler free story). Along his journey the hero makes moral choices that sway him either way towards Good or Evil and also adjust the players appearance based on this. The alignment and appearance modifiers used to do this were what made Fable stand out from the rest of the crowd on its release.

Fable II.

Fable II was an improvement on Fable as they Focussed mainly on the interactive experience as opposed to the story.  a new Expressions menu was added allowing for a wider range of interaction between the player and the people of Albion. Fable 2 also introduced the ability to choose the Gender of the character and a higher level of customisation with the introduction of dyes for colouring the clothing you brought. The core trio of Strength, Skill and Will was still there, Skill was expanded to include Firearms as well as Bows and Will was managed with a new stackable spells system meaning less on the HUD at once. The alignment system is much improved with the addition of a purity/corruption meter that runs alongside the Good/ Evil, this enables players to be Good/Corrupt or Evil/Pure and removing the plain Black&White options of just Good/Evil. The Story was the same as the 1st game, save Albion from an unknown threat and discover your true potential simple but effective.

Fable III.

Very little is known about Fable III but here's what we do know. You play the Descendant of the Hero from Fable II who is leading a revolution against his brother who is the evil ruler of all Albion. The second half of the game starts once you become King/Queen of Albion and your actually have to rule the kingdom. Everything from expansion, production,taxation, punishment and rewards are all under your control as the new ruler. The player also has the chance to keep or break promises that he/she may have made to various factions during the revolution. Interaction has again been improved with a new Expression Touch system enabling all types of physical contact between players and NPC's. Co-op has been improved with what is presumed to be a split screen system allowing each player to do different tasks in the same world, Co-op also allows full imports of a players character, dog, and weaponry into the host players world. there's no word as to weather the 3 core roles will still make an appearance but casting magic has been changed to equipped gauntlets containing different spells which can be woven together enabling multiple combinations.

According to  Lionheads Director Peter Molyneux the health bar has been removed altogether to enable a simple clean HUD that displays when you ask it too. Molyneux also promises that levelling up will still appear in a different form than what we are used to. The main difference between FIII and the previous games is the menu systems. Menus are now a thing of the past in FIII as shops now contain all the stock on shelves for you to view and The start menu has been removed, don't fret though as the start menu has been replaced with your HQ. the HQ is an open building which contains your weaponry, Spells, Items and trophy's for you to walk around and look at and select as if you were still in the main game. The HQ is run by your butler who will guide you too an item if you need to find it quickly and a simple press of the start button will allow you to travel back to the action with the same speed of a menu. Molyneux has made alot of promises that FIII will still remain an RPG.

I for one havent given up hope yet.

Sunday 19 September 2010

Tokyo Game Show 2010 : Reveals Recap

With TGS-2010 nearly over and me being tired from a long journey down from Edinburgh, which was surprisingly sunny, to York, which was raining, I thought it would be best to do a simple recap of all the main news in one place. As usual the 2 main contenders were Sony and Microsoft with Nintendo lagging behind, so lets start with them shall we.

Microsoft.
Thanks to the Kinect release looming on the horizon Microsoft were eager to show that it was worth paying for and thus unleashed an onslaught of Kinected games, see what i did there, here follows a brief rundown of the main releases.


  • Metal Gear Solid: Rising. The games producer Matsuyama opened the MS:keynote with a gameplay video showing off the swordsmanship and precision available in MGS:R. Although the graphics were amazing the amount of time taken to line the swords cuts made me wonder as to how achievable the games subtitle "lightning bolt action" really was .
  • Project Draco . From the company that brought us the great Panzer Dragoon on the 1st Xbox, Grounding Inc, We see a Kinected version of the same game. The player will take on the role of a dragon trainer and will have to befriend, fly and ride both landbased and airborne dragons. If done right this could be one of the best games released for X360.
  • Rise of Nightmares. This is a new game from sega. Not much has been seen about it but it does look like it could be a re-kindled House of the Dead. The trailer was good but if itsnt Kinected right could be terrible.
  • Steel, Battalion: Heavy Armor is the latest offering from Capcom. and as you can see from the trailer here does not really show us that much, gotta love teaser trailers, I think the idea of controlling a giant Mech, especially if you have to learn the lever positions and movement correctly would work well with Kinect.
Sony
Unfortunately there's not much i can say about Sony as most of the trailers weren't shown on the live feed and were only shown to the audience. So all I have is alot of titles, I will group them up for easy reading.
  • Move Games : Start the Party, The Shoot, Tumble, Sports Champions, TV Superstars, Heroes on the Move, Endochrome II, Tiger Woods, Resident Evil 5, Virtua Tennis 4, Time Crisis, Killzone 3, Littlebigplanet 2 and Ape escape and many more. in total 35 games from 13 producers will be created in the next year for Move.
  • 3D  : Everybodys Golf, Final Fantasy XIV, MGS:Rising, Disaster 4 and Gran Turismo 5
  • PSP : Monster Hunter 3?, The 3rd Birthday, Kingdom Hearts : Birth By Sleep Final Mix , Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy
  • PS3 : Ni No Kuni ( an Anime RPG from Studio Ghibli) DmC, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow. Yakuza: The end.
  • Team ICO : finally something we could actually see and wow is it awesome. Alongside The last Gaurdian, The latest title and 9 years in the waiting, from Team-ICO we saw the full HD reworked editions of ICO and Shadow of the Colossus. Makes me want to buy a ps3 purely for that.

With such a large array of titles on the go Sony seem to be trying to rule the market with pure quantity, although I think MS have remembered an old saying to do with quality and not quantity. Id like to be proven wrong.

Nintendo
Nintendo were very much overshadowed by MS and Sony and thus most of the releases were forgotten about :(. The few i have been able to dig up new release titles are :
  • Kingdom Hearts: Re-coded
  • Fossil Fighters 2
  • Metal Gear Solid : 3DS
  • My Garden
And that is it :( rather disappointing from the giant of the motion detection industry. Unlike MS and Sony Nintendo didn't even deliver a Keynote.

Saturday 18 September 2010

New Stuff : again.


Today saw the introduction of a few new features to the blog. The most obvious of which is the new Title banner and Colour Scheme which i hope is to most peoples liking. The second is the introduction of a new guest writer who eventually may become a permanent member of the team here at FusionGamer so i would like everyone to give a welcome to Starfish and her film reviews section. The last few bits are smaller but still vitally important. An improved RSS feed has been created but is still being perfected, The ability to Subscribe to FusionGamer via email and have all your daily Features sent straight to your inbox has been created. The FusionGamer twitter has been fully setup aswell and now runs from @FusionGamerBlog but you can find it faster in the box to your right. Hope everyone enjoys these improvements as the sites readers grow and if you have any questions feel free to pop me a message on twitter.
LRAYNE.

Starfish Reviews : Inception

If you are reading this I'm going to assume that you have already seen Inception at least once – from this point on here be spoiler material.

'Inception' is the most recent offering from British director Christopher Nolan, the man who has previously supplied filmic gems like The Dark Knight, and of course the classic Memento. Looking at Inception as a comparison to Nolan's previous films, what I see here is one of his most unified pieces – it combines the clever writing of Memento with big-budget thrills of his later Batman movies, making a high-action thriller for the thinking film-goer (something Scorsese tried and failed to do with his disappointinglyy dull farce, Shutter Island).

A quick run-down of the plot, to refresh your minds: In a near-distant future, there is a brand of criminals known as 'extractors', with the technology to enter anothers subconscious dream-world and literally remove an idea, represented as people or objects. One extractor, Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio), together with a stylish team including Tom Hardy, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ellen Page and Dileep Rao is given motivation by business Saito (Ken Watanabe) to perform one last crime – the inception, or implantation of an idea, into the mind of his business rival Robert Fischer (Cillian Murphy). Cobbs motivation is the promise of his past crimes being erased, and to be reunited with his children. I'll skip through the rest, as you have already seen it, right up to the end – the inception complete, Saito fulfils his promise and Cobb is indeed reunited with his children (with a nice cameo from the lovely Sir Michael Caine). The film ends on the already-famous last shot – Cobb's spinning top, which he uses as a totem to define what is reality and the dreaming (in the dreaming, the top would spin indefinitely, whilst in reality the top would eventually topple), spinning away. The shot ends before we can see if the top falls down, leading us to question everything we have just witnessed.

I will not delve too much into the full-blown analysis needed to fully construct a conclusion on the ending of Inception, as there are much better articles written completely devoted to that - http://www.chud.com/articles/articles/24477/1/NEVER-WAKE-UP-THE-MEANING-AND-SECRET-OF-INCEPTION/Page1.html

It seems that Nolan is rather enjoying this game he plays with the audience. Did the top fall over or not? Was it all a dream? Does the top even matter? I myself think the spinning top is clever ruse to distract us from other more important parts of the film, but Nolan enjoys ending on such an annoying shot that in the cinema theatre everybody begins shouting at the screen. I have two theories on the reading of the film, and both I think are highly plausible. The first one is the same as outlined in the article I linked above, that Cobb is purely trapped within his own mind, making every moment of Inception a dream. Whether Mal is dead or not is not too important. My other reading is that the initial events in the first 30 minutes or so should be read as given – Cobb is first extracting within the mind of Saito, Saito then hires Cobb for the crime against Fischer, and Cobb leaves to talk to Yusuf. Cobb enters the 'Dream-den' here, and joins these people to enter his own subconscious. It is possible that here he becomes trapped, and everything that subsequently happens is merely his own brain creating figments.

The various meanings of the film, I think, are less important than the overall themes and ideas investigated within. The plot of the film is a rather nice parallel to the interiors of film-making; the characters are themselves representations of the people required to make a film, with Saito as the director. This theme then leads to other questions raised – if the plot of Inception is a reflection of the film-making process, is Nolan trying to question the difference between a film and reality? Perhaps what Nolan is saying is that there is no real difference, if what is presented contains realistic emotion. Perhaps he is asking what is the difference between a person crying in real life and on the screen. You know yourself that at times films can evoke more emotion than real-life situation. It reminds me of Cypher from The Matrix, who reasons “You know, I know this steak doesn't exist. I know that when I put it in my mouth, the Matrix is telling my brain that it is juicy and delicious. After nine years, you know what I realize? Ignorance is bliss.”



What Nolan has created here is a film that is more than a film – it is a set of ideas presented to our own deduction and thought, ideas that stick with us long after we have finished watching the film. Perhaps it is the 21st century answer to the Matrix? Only time will tell – if people are still discussing Inception five years from now, we will know this is a classic. I myself think this is one of Nolan's finest works, a film I can sink my teeth into while I wait for the final Batman film.

Related people, films, ideas etc: Hypnic jerks, Fellini, Kubrick, Jorge Luis Borge
Directing – 10/10
Writing – 9/10
Acting – 9/10
Overall - 9/10


Starfish

Friday 17 September 2010

Parallel lines or crossing paths?

As a nerdy geeky type I often watch films. Recently I watched Terminator:Salvation and other then being unimpressed with the lack of general story the story that it actually contained had me thinking. During the course of the T1-4 films the characters develop an obsession with time travel. So a series of TT related incidents happen as follows:

  • T-800 is sent back to kill Sarah Connor before she can give birth to John Connor.
  • Future John Connor sends back Kyle Reese to save Sarah and become Johns Father.
  • T-100 is sent back to kill 10 yr old John Connor.
  • Future JC (not to be confused with the holy JC) sends back another T-800 to Kill the T-100
  • T-X is sent back to kill the past/future generals of JCs army
  • Future Johns wife sends T-850(model1) to save young JC and kill the T-X
Alot more happens in the films then that but to recap the 4th film Future John must find and save young kyle Reese who is being protected by a part human infiltrator Terminator. This amount of time travel starts getting confusing when you look at the paradoxes created. my favourite one being. Future John Saves Young KR then sends him back to save and bump SC and thus give birth to young JC. These paradoxes are easily explained if you take each film as an alternate reality, especially if you add the SC-Chronicles to the mix aswell. With JC falling in love with the Terminator that he sent back from the future to protect himself , played very nicely by Summer Glau.

so here I am drifting on the seas of confusion and I'm trying to scramble some sense out of all this but the main thing that bugs me is that Skynet , The main bad guy and super smart computer system that takes over the world with sentient robots and thus drives humanity to extinction, Is actually an idiot. They waste all this time sending things back and forth through time when one simple action would ensure ultimate victory.

Heres my theory : Future Skynet herein known as FS sends a message to Past Skynet (PS) not to send anything after john connor. the events would unfold as follows. Sarah Connor would never meet Kyle Reese as future JC would never send him back to save SC, thus SC would never know about the Terminators or Skynet and There would be no defence for the earth.

Endgame.

Name Change.

The new name is all new and shiny and needs breaking in. Turns out the old name was already taken so changed it a little and its now unique.

Thursday 16 September 2010

Weekly Flash : Shift in perception


When people do games based reviews very few actually spare time for the underdog in the gaming world, when 7/10 people have access to the Internet there really is no excuse for ignoring flash games. Today sees the first of my weekly flash reviews as i resurrect what i believe to be the greatest puzzle platformed ever made.

Developed by Armor Games and left behind in the rush of mobile gaming , Shift is a classic that everyone should play at least once. You play a test subject forced to run a typical series of platforming based puzzle where the aim is to , wait for this... get to the door. However cheesy this goal is it is messed around by the ability to Shift. When you press Shift the whole world inverts. if you were standing on top of a white ledge you will now be standing on a black one and visa versa. This allows you to avoid spectacular traps and impassable objects with ease.




Once you have got round this the lovely people at AG mess with your head even more by adding gravity shifts, the effects of these things are pretty obvious but allow for absolutely mental puzzles like the one to your right. I really cannot stress how excellent and addictive this game is for anyone that loves a mental challenge.

Whatever you play on the interwebamajig just make sure you play this game, and the 2nd and 3rd. And if you have already played this wonder of a game, you know you want to play it again!.

Wednesday 15 September 2010

NEWS: "Jackpot!"

I know i only posted this morning but sometimes you hear news so exciting you just want to break into a badly performed rendition of journey. This my friends is one of those moments. As you probably guessed from the title this involves the latest release of my favorite Hack'n'slash game in the history of all Hack'n'Slash games, The game in question is of course Devil May Cry (major grins from all fans).

Since its creation in 2001 Devil May Cry has been through several changes in style and direction including resident evil style Missions and cheesy story telling, yes im looking at you DMC2, the time-shift back to younger more cocksteady Dante in DMC3, and the sudden appearance of Nero who may or may not be related to Dante despite sharing the epic white hair and swordsmanship skills. Did i mention he had a glowing blue demon arm ? My point if i can remember it is that despite all these changes DMC always maintained the same formula. Take a guy with snow white hair, give him demonic power and a huge sword to play with then throw him in the room with giant spiders and armored lizards. Simple but Effective.

Anyway getting back on track the new Devil May Cry game simply title DmC (make note of the small m) sees the return of Dante which in itself is brilliant, and also shows the return of overdramatic posing, epic swooshing, and mental gunplay. Again another brilliant thing. BUT, and this is a big one, there has been some changes to the game.
Change 1 : Remember the epic White hair Dante had? Of course you do, well thats gone now, replaced by a stylish black "scene" hairstyle.
Change 2 : Dante , like his swordplay is stylish, but as you can see next to this he is wearing an outift that is remarkably similar to the Diesel inspired bonus outfits of DMC2.
Change 3 : The producer. Even though this game is still being marketed and overseen by the masters at Capcom the game has been handed over to a new and unproved producer. Ninja Theory released the game "Heavenly Sword" which never really impressed anyone and hopefully holds no relevance to what they plan with DmC.

Despite all these changes at the heart it is still a DMC game and any fan of the series would be excited.
Am i?
HELL YEAH!

original post from capcom here including video

Continuity Error?

I have been playing flash games alot recently, mainly due to a lack of console here in sunny Edinburgh but also partly due to the fact i love the simplicity of these games. As it stands i have a weak spot for Puzzle Platformers and my favorite Is a game called Continuity.

Continuity has one basic process grab the Red Key and then get to the Red Door . As simple as it sounds this is made all the more difficult by the fact the player is trapped inside a box. Each box can be moved around the screen when not in movement mode to allow the player to move from box to box and complete his task of escaping the room. In turn this is made more difficult by the fact the edges have to match on the 2 slides you are connecting or the player simply vanishes and you have to start again.





The issue i have with this is that there is no motivation to complete the puzzles  in the form of a story, what it does offer is a challenge and the whole purpose of games are to challenge after all. As expected the levels get more and more challenging until you have levels that make your brain feel like it is going to melt out of your ears.






The simplicity of this game is what makes it brilliant. Great puzzles, Great platforming and a lack of irritating soundtrack i highly recommend this to anyone who has free time and a net connection.
Find it HERE and enjoy !