Friday, July 31, 2009

Gaaameeessss...

Heyy,

Well haven't blogged in a week due to school work... Anyway I recently bought some PSN things for the first time that I love soo much!

For anyone still debating on wether to get the Killzone 2 Map Pack Bundle with all 6 maps, get it. There is more games on the maps now that the bundle has been released and to me all the maps are especially fun and full of cranage. The Suljeva Cliffs (or whatever) map is especially related to this with flames from the flamethrower shooting at you, snipers perched on the overhead ramps and a heap of sabeouters infiltrating your base.

I have experienced no noticeable glithces in the new maps, and they are just awesome fun. People though are tending not to do the objectives but try get the Flamethrower or Boltgun due to the fact they just want the trophies. But people are getting them (lots due to boosting), and soon that will stop. I have gotten into a few good games so far with people doing the objectives.

Another game I have bought is Wipeout HD which I will talk a bout later because it is acctually just downloading its startup update now (just got it)... but I can tell its gonna be awesome and the 30 buck price tag is a bonus!

The modern Warfare 2 Multiplayer footage looks undoubtedly awesome, with a kill streak of 11 you can pilot an AC130 Gunship. Now don't go crying out noobs will abuse it, if they are real noobs and not just playing tactically, they wouldn't get a kill streak of 11. Also on peoples mind if that COD 6 will run natively in 600p at 60fps. People are crying out over this but its the same as COD 4 and COD 4 looked great :).

Another thing I love with playstation is the game sharing :). Sony lets you activate your account on 5 different PS3's, so you can share your games with 4 different friends (the fifth activation is yourself!). So when they trade with you, or when you split the cost its a great deal via Sony's part.

Anyway I'll blog again soon (I hope) and for now thats all!

Saturday, July 25, 2009

Figure 1 (Read on to know what its about).

Heyy,

Just for everyones information this weekend (25 July 2009) for Killzone 2 is double experience! You get 2.5X points if you win and 1.5X if you lose :). This can be used to get you up those leaderboards or rank up a lot quicker.

Also scince I'm on the subject of Killzone I think I'll talk about it. To start off if you have a PS3, get this game. To me it looks like one of the best graphical games out and the gameplay is superb. The voice acting is also amazing. The images are clear and crisp and soon you'll feel like you really are taking part in the invasion of Helghan.

The missions in Killzone 2 don't get too repetitive (although I'm onloy halfway through the game at the moment). You take part in driving vehicles and getting in big mechanical things that totally own the Helghast! You feel like your doing damage in the actual fighting when you mow down another tank with your own tank :).

Anyway the real great part in the game is the multiplayer. Although there is only 8-10 levels (to General) and you unlock things a long the way it dosen't end there. At each few levels you unlock a new class (Tactician, Sabetour, Medic, etc.) and with that class comes new abilities. The tacticians primary ability is to put a spawn grenade (maximum of 2) on the map where the rest of the team can spawn from. The medic can revive people if they havent been headshotted and are waiting to respawn.

Each class also has a secondary ability which you unlock by doing the same thing 8 times in different games. I'll take medic for an example. You gain a "ribbon" if you revive 5 people in one game. If you do this 8 times in different games you get a medal which unlocks the medics secondary ability! The medics seconadary ability is to throw a health pack which your team can pick up to recharge your health. The picture at the top of the page (figure 1) shows the class unlockables. There are lots of other ribbons giving you various abilities aswell.
The clan and group support in Killzone 2 is fantastic and it has a great lobby system where you can pick your region and it shows you all the games in your region so you do not get lag. Anyway even when I choose an American or European server (I'm in Aus) I never experience any lag (wish the same cvould be said for Call of Duty).
Thats all I have time for today, hope you enjoyed the Killzone 2 info!
Ben.



Friday, July 24, 2009

Heyy,

Sorry haven't posted for a while been busy with school. Anyway so the Modern Warfare 2 different editions have all been anounced (2 wednesdays ago, 15 July 2009). About a week after we found out the price, $150 RRP in America and $199 in Australia. For those of you who are very late this is what the different versions include:

Standard Game:
  • Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

"Hardened" Edition:

  • Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
  • Special edition "steelbook" case with custom artwork by Infinity Ward
  • Hardbound artbook "Behind the Lines"- Designed by Infinity Ward concept art makers.
  • Call of Duty Classic (1) for PSN, XBL or PC

"Prestige" Edition:

  • Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
  • Fully Functional Night Vision Goggles (able to see up to 50ft in dark. Black+White or Green toggles. Custom designed to replicate in game NVG's. Wearable and adjustable.
  • Soap Mactavish collecters edition head which are each numbered and engraved to hold NVG's when not in use.
  • Includes everything that comes in the Hardened Edition.

The only place selling the Prestige in Australia at the moment is EB Games who have extremely limited pre-orders. I hope to be able to pre-order tommorow with sucess or if not, hardened edition at least. The reason I'm buying the prestige is not for using the gimmicky NVG's but to more use them as a collectors item, or to sell off for a profit on ebay at a later time (what I did with a Sims 3 collector USB).

Thats all I have time for tonight so I hope I can post again tommorow or Sunday!

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Why I think the PS3 awesome

Heyy,

Oops haven't blogged in a week, been too busy playing PS3 (oh and went back to school becuase holidays finished). Well I guess I'ld first up like to say in this blog why in my opinion the PS3 is a great console (with no fanboyism <---- Is that a word???). Anyways...

The PS3 is better in my eyes due to a lot of things. Probably one of the most important is its immense lineup of exclusives. I laugh when I look back at the turbulent year of 2007 for the PS3. Having pretty much no exclusives apart from Motorstorm and Resistance: Fall of Man the PS3 was definetly a sore loser in the console fight. Now fast forward to 2009 and I don't think anyone could have guessed how sucessful the PS3 was starting to become, and gaining momentum. I'll list all the awesome games for PS3 that are exclusives that I can remember:

^^^ - Means coming soon or announced as a PS3 exclusive
  • Uncharted
  • Uncharted 2: Among Thieves ^^^
  • Resistance: Fall of Man
  • Resistance 2
  • Motorstorm
  • Motorstorm: Pacific Rift
  • Wipeout HD
  • Gran Turismo 5 Prologue
  • Gran Turismo 5 ^^^
  • inFamous
  • MAG ^^^
  • Killzone 2
  • God of War 3 ^^^
  • Metal Gear Solid 4
  • Ratchet and Clank Future: Tools of Destruction
  • Ratchet and Clank Future: A Crack in Time ^^^
  • Little Big Planet

Oh well thats all I can think of (and a bloody fair ammount). This dosent even include the Final Fantasy, Singstar or Buzz! games...

The PS3 is also great due to blu-ray. This is sooo good for games, it makes it so my games can fit a lot more in a single disc, more textures, special features and more gameplay! The multimedia is fantastic with the apps and well everything!

Thats the end of this blog (I need to go!). Seeya I'll post some more tommorows I hope!



Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Blog 3: Motion Senseing Prediction

Heyy,



Well for my third blog I thought it would be a good time to talk about what I think will happen with the motion sensing business in gaming. With Wii's Motion Plus, Microsofts Natal and Sony's Wand all announced (in the case of Wii been released) now we can compare them a tiny bit.



Its obvious from the start that Wii is doing suberb in the business, selling like double the ammount of PS3's. So in case you've been living under a rock, I'll give you a brief talk of the Wii.



Wii



Well the Wii is from the makers of Nintendo (who brought us DS, Gamecube, 64, SNES etc.). This is a very small console that weighs 1.2kg and is very light to handle. The Wii has a sensor bar attatchement which sits either above or below the TV and via the wonders of Infra-red can track the Wiimote's position. The Wiimote has built in accellerometres and infra-red technology to sense its position in relation to the sensor bar. It can track the speed of which it moves in a number of directions using the accellerometres. The Wii is more directed at a very wide range of audience with some more "hardcore" games (Mad World, No More Heroes), but mostly casual games (Wii Sports, Super Mario Galaxy) and along with that heaps and heaps of minigames directed at families.



The Wii accuracy with its WIimote has quite a bit to be desired as sometimes it can not pick up small movements. This is where the Wii Motion Plus attatchment comes in. At a price of another 30 bucks Australian you can buy a tiny attatchment that goes into the connecter where usually a nunchuck or other attatchment would go on. The Wii Motion Plus makes true 1:1 tracking so now the Wii can monitor you more closely! So you will no longer have to do either very large or very small movements so that the wii can track you but more precise.

In my opinion I think that Wii Motion Plus would definetly add to the Wii experience. It can be very frustrating when you need to do very precise movements in a game, however the wii does not recognize them. With 1:1 action the Wii will be able to do what it wanted to do for a very long time. My score so far for the Wii Motion Plus in innovation is only 6/10 as it dosen't really add a lot, only makes it more accurate without bringing new things to the table.

XBOX 360

The XBOX 360 is Microsoft's very trouble plagued console. It weighs in at around 3kg and is shapped mostly like a rectangular prism. A hard drive can be added to the top of it (at a heft price) which is just snapped onto the top of the 360 and can be bought in 20GB, 60GB or 120GB increments. 120GB hard drives cost $150 AUD at retail. The 360 has been a very trouble plagued system and has faced a lot of critisism due to it, however has recieved strong sale figures due to it been the first "next-gen" console to be released. Some of the most common troubles are the disk scratching problems, the E74 error code and the most well known, the dreaded Red Ring of Death (RROD).

Microsoft's answer to Wii's massive success is their own "Project Natal". This is a camera which will sit below or above your TV and track your movements. It will not be 1:1 accuracy and when it was playtested, players said it wasn't quite accurate and was a little less accurate than the Wii is currently. At E3 among some adds a program call Milo was shown which was a kid who interacts with you and can regonize your voice.

Natal is definetly a 10/10 on the innovation front however the big question is will it be worth it? This technology will probably not come cheap, and as it is Microsoft will have just been made a lot more expensive :). The games in my prediction, as you do not use a controller, will be very casual in my opinion and aimed at families. There will be a whole lot of minigames desgined like all the dreaded Wii minigames and probably a disapointing lack of actual good games designed for it. However if Microsoft and game developers do this right it could be a good success. If say a certain game developer made a game and wanted to put a side feature relating to the game on it, as well as having the main game, there could be a special feature extra. You could only use this special feature if you have Natal and it would just be a not as complicated part to the game, maybe just a racing sequence or a kung foo battle without any controllers. Just a side extra feature that ties into the game a bit and dosen't need complicated controls. This would definetly in my opinion be the way to go.

Natal may or may not be a sucess and it depends on wether there are games to play on it. Will developing for a game that dosen't use any controls but just movement sensing be easy and cost effecient? Or Will it just be forgotten and left for dead (not reffering to the game by the way). I guess only time will tell!

PS3

In my opinion definetly the best console out there (I'll back my reasons up in my next blog by the way). The PS3 is a media and gaming powerhorse, been able to play blu-ray is its main multimedia feature. Blu-ray is the way of the future as it can hold 25GB's one one single layer of disc (50GB on a dual layer blu-ray disk). Sony wants to in the future put both a game and a movie on the same disc as an option, movie games of course. So you could have the Wolverine game and movie on the same disc! (True a bit of a gimic but it would be cool...). The PS3 has great exclusive titles and overall quality of games.

The PS3's answer to motion controlling is seen as a more "hardcore" gaming tool than the Wii and Natal are aiming at. In the E3 demonstration a sword and shield along with bow and arrow and a paintgun was used showing it could be used for those purposes. So what is Sony's answer? A magic wand :).

This is like a stick with a head thing on the top that is purple. (That sounded just a bit sus). This wand provides true 1:1 control and was showcased at E3 2009. Of course this is a controller so has buttons and could be used in more "hardcore" games, picture playing God of War 3 with your 2 magic wands a sword and shield... ok don't picture it as a mini side feature I talked about earlier. At E3 Sony announced there will be support for a number of these to be used in conjunction with each other, namely 2, a sword and a shield. If you haven't checked out the demonstration, you should, its cool. The wand is tracked by the Playstation Eye which will prove to be very accurate. What I think should happen is Sony jim off Natal a bit and have the ability to both accurately track the wand, but at the same time, not as accurately track how the body is moving.

The innovation factor for me with the magic wand is 7/10 as it is new for Sony and the playstation however is not that new in hardware terms. This is the stick that I am hoping will be a success but again, only time will tell!

All of the big companies answers to motion control are good and some will no doubt be more sucessful than others. Only time will tell which is the best though! Oh well this is a quite a long blog so next blog I'll be saying PS3 and cross platform games you definetly should have :D. Until next time,

Bye!

PSN: trey4li4e17

Ben

Monday, July 6, 2009

Blog 2

Heyy,

Well second blog time. I'm starting to really look forward to both the cross platform and the exclusive games coming out on PS3 this year and the beginning of next. The two probably most heavily games I'm awaiting on is Uncharted 2 and MAG.

Uncharted 2 was voted the Best Game of E3 09, Best Console Game of E3 and Best Action/Adventure game of E3. Pretty nice list. The beta code was given out for the online multiplayer (which I missed out on), but apparently already the multiplayer seems very polished and clean. People already said it feels better and more innovative than Call of Duty online! The developers have been putting a lot of work into the game, and taking in the beta suggestions. Also a heads up in a chat over at the PS3 blog they said there will be a second multiplayer testing which will be easier to get a hold of than the first beta! At E3 the gameplay looks solid and the graphics are awesome looking already. The cover system looks good and should hopefully add competition to Gears of War cover system. There is currently no exact release date but it should release by Fall.

MAG is a second heavily waited on PS3 exclusive with no current release date. It is the biggest online multiplayer game yet, with 256 online (128 VS 128). There will be 3 different factions (or PMC's), these PMC's are Raven, who have all the high tech newest weapons and equipment. Or Valor who is the typical milatary style of people, like Call of Duty marines. Last of all theres S.V.E.R who are the badboys and are rough and agressive. You can choose one of these three PMC's.

Some other games I'm waiting on is Modern Warfare 2, God of War 3, Gran Turismo 5, Assassins Creed 2 and a heap more. Some games already released that I want to buy is inFamous and Wipeout HD.

Another interesting bit of information I have for you today is that although Valve (the makers of Left 4 Dead) have declared the PS3 a waste of time and they will never develop for it, they are now hiring a team of PS3 developers. Things seem to change around in the games industry prettttty fast. I doubt we will see a Left 4 Dead 2 remake on PS3 but instead I'm thinking of either a new game, or Left 4 Dead 3 on PS3, 360 and PC.

Just to end of this blog, another thing thats been recently discovered is a patent by Sony to use everyday objects as controllers... Just imagine your in a drunken state and have flushed the controller down the toilet, but don't fear as you can use a dinner plate to play Killzone 2! Anyways... That patent should rock and hopefully in the future if Natal is a success it can be incorporated with the PlaystationWand to own Natal.

Thats all from me for now, until next time seeya!

Sunday, July 5, 2009

First Post

Well time for my first post... Although no one will probably ever read this :). This blog will be mostly about gaming, more focussing on the PS3 side of things than anything else, as to me that console is the best. Of course other people will have their preferences, some liking the 360, some the wii and some the '64 or the snes.

I myself have only 2 consoles; the Wii and PS3. I also only have 1 handheld wich is the PSP. I like all the consoles except straight up I can say the PS3 is a better system than the Wii to me, and its kept my interest for a longer time. I got my first ever console, the Wii last year for Christmas. The games I got for the Wii was
  • Wii Sports,
  • Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games
  • Wii Fit
  • Mysims Kingdom
  • Call of Duty: World at War
  • Summer Athletics
  • Hasbro Family Game Night
  • Tiger Woods Golf 08
  • Wii Music
  • Guitar Hero: World Tour
  • Guitar Hero: Aerosmith
  • Wii Play
  • Fifa 09
  • Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess and
  • Mario Kart

As you can see I bought err afew Wii Games (15) along with all the much not needed accessories like the Sport acessory pack and wiimotes along with nunchucks. I still use my Wii occassionally to play World Tour and Wii Fit. Usually only once or twice a week though. I thought me and my Wii would last forever, however the lack of great exclusives stopped me from coming back.

Now my PS3. I got my PS3 very recently on 17th of June 2009. Along with my PS3 I also bought an extra 99 buck controller and these games:

  • Killzone 2
  • FarCry 2
  • Grand Theft Auto IV
  • Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
  • Little Big Planet
  • FIFA 09
  • Motorstorm
  • Gran Turismo 5 Prologue

As you can see I only have 8 PS3 games, due to the cost of the console, controller and the games. However right now my PS3 is my sleek black beauty, dusty, fingerprinty, mini scratchy love. I love everything about it. Its nice LED's when it turns on and tells me when the hard drive is been accessed. The nice slot loading mechanism instead of a tray. The touch buttons to eject and to power on and off the system. The sleek black finish of the PS3 that collects dust and scratches so easily. The killer exclusive games and the loads of apps

This is just my first post of many... in this post I just wanted you guys to get a brief introduction of me and my consoles :). Feel free to add my PSN anyone aswell: trey4li4e17
I'm in Australia so hopefully you should know the times when I'ld most be on! Happy umm everything and see you next time!