Love them or hate them, zombies have been in video games since the early eighties and don't look like they're going anywhere any time soon. In Valve's latest release, Left 4 Dead, you play as one of four survivors during the zombie apocalypse. Left 4 Dead features four scenarios where you must guide the survivors to a designated spot to be picked up before they are overwhelmed by the zombie horde. Left 4 Dead is a first person shooter, developed by Valve owned Turtle Rock Studios, using the Source engine. Left 4 Dead received a number of awards for it's multiplayer modes at the end of 2008, but is the game really worth your while? Let's take a look at the game and find out...
I'm pretty sure most of us here have played that NES classic, Contra. What better way to celebrate its legacy than to turn it into a series of LittleBigPlanet levels? Well, that's what a bunch of people from the NeoGAF forums thought of, and they decided to make it a reality in a collaborative effort called LittleBig Contra. Using a lot of assets (including the paint gun) from the Metal Gear Solid DLC, they've managed to make a near perfect conversion of the original game.
Here's a look at what you can expect:
To locate the levels in LittleBigPlanet, search for the creator's PSN names. I've listed all 8 levels below in this order, "Level Name: PSN Name"
Jungle: Leonidas2123
Base 1: SaitoHalifax
Waterfall: RyanardoDavinci
Base 2: SaitoHalifax
Snowfield: NinjaMicWZ
Energy Zone: El_Beefo
Hangar: Jaeyden
Alien's Lair: gevurah22
I've played through first two levels so far, and I must say that I am very impressed with their creative skills. I glanced at the others briefly, and they seem just as brilliant as the two I've already played. The only weak spot are the base levels. Remember how those were a 3D perspective in the original? Well, they tried to replicate it, and the results are decent at best. However, considering the circumstances and the limitations LittleBigPlanet placed on the level creators, I'm rather impressed. If you have a PS3 and LBP, you must seek out these levels as they are some of the best examples of what can be done with LittleBigPlanet's creation tools
Oh yeah, the Konami Code is most definitely in these levels.
Posted on Feb 17th 2009 at 11:47:26 PM by (ga5ket) Posted under Reviews, PS3
I received a copy of LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga on the PS3 for Christmas. it's been on my wishlist in various incarnations on the previous generation for some time, I'd just never gotten around to buying it. Oddly enough my daughter's boyfriend bought it for me, which made me immediately suspicious, but so far there appear to be no strings attached. Or engagement rings.
One of the things that has really irritated me this generation is not just being able to stick a game in the machine and start playing, far too often they're plagued by a huge update before I can even begin, pleasingly LSW:TCS had none of this, nor did it require any installation. Travellers Tales have earned my respect immediately.
The music, as is to be expected, is excellent. For me the sound of the theme music is enough to make the hairs on my neck stand up, it takes me back to the day when my parents took me to see Star Wars (none of this 'A New Hope' rubbish, it was just 'Star Wars') and even hearing it play at the start of every level and chapter it still has that effect. It's just that good. The sound effects are straight from the movies and I have absolutely no complaints about them; lightsabers hum, blasters shriek, tie fighters squeal, Jawas do whatever Jawas do, Tusken Raiders wave their arms about and do that funny laugh thing, droids say 'Oh no' in a robotic voice just before you shoot them.
Unlockables are present by the ton. For a collector it's a dream, and even after about 30 hours of game time I'm still only just over half way through. Some of them are the usual useless filler, a la big head mode in beat 'em ups, but then there's some genuinely useful stuff that helps, improving fighting abilities, and guiding you to locations of hidden items. I won't spoil the game by revealing what they are, but suffice it to say one of them makes you feel like a real jedi when you use it, none of this Luke Skywalker learning stuff either, proper Yoda in full battle mode.
The levels are big enough to provide a challenge, but not so big that they feel overwhelming, although the ones involving vehicles can be somewhat frustrating as the control scheme is a little odd, I found it far to easy to flip whatever ship I was flying in a 180 and suddenly I was heading heading in a direction contrary to the one I intended. That aside these levels are few and far between, and the pod race in Episode 1 is a heap of fun, I just wish that blasters were enabled in subsequent playthroughs, then Sebulba wouldn't have it so easy.
The fighting aspect leaves me feeling a little disappointed. It's not a massive problem, it's just that I can't aim where I want with a blaster, it's taken care of by the game, frequently shooting harmless bits of scenery when I could really be doing with blowing the crap out of the fully shielded Droideka that's hammering away with it's blasters right next to me. The Jedi and Sith are also pretty ineffectual in large scale battles as they tend to flail around waving their lightsabres as they please and deflecting blaster bolts anywhere but back at the enemy who fired them. As I mentioned one of the unlockables addresses this, and from then on playing one of these is pure awesome.
Each character type has a small range of different abilities; Jedi & Sith can move objects using the force; Gungans can leap really high; Jawas can enter small tunnels; droids can unlock doors. After completeing story mode for a chapter the ability to switch between these types at will makes figuring some of the extras out in the level quite a challenge.
Hidden within each level are 10 minikit cannisters, which you must collect to increase your stash of studs (the LSW:TCS equivalent of money) which you can use to buy extra characters, ships etc, and these contribute towards your brick count for the game. There are 160 bricks to earn in total, earned by collecting minikits, acheiving a certain number of studs in a level, completing the level, and the most onerous: a timed challenge mode where you have to locate 10 cannisters in a different location to the minikit ones. It takes long enough to find all of the minikit cannisters, without dragging it out by timing you to find another 10. I've only attempted a couple of these, and failed on both count., I loathe timed sections in adventure games, they seem such a forced (no pun intended) way of extending what is otherwise a great game. Because of this simple fact I'll probably never complete the game 100%, fortunately as it's the PS3 version and it was released before trophies became mandatory there's no huge incentive to do so, unless of course they release an update that enables them, and then? Well, we'll just have to see.
I love the game. It's LEGO, it's Star Wars, it's a video game. I really don't need much else.
[img align=right]http://next08.be/sites/all/themes/next/logo.png[/img]Yesterday I went to Belgium's biggest gaming event called "Next". It was quite a big event with all the biggest publishers/developers present, as well as Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo. There were also some non-gaming brands present such as Samsung, Nikon, Apple, Bose, Philips, etc.... I had to go alone because none of my friends were willing to pay the 12 Euros admission. That obviously made things less fun but then I came up with the idea of shooting some photos of the event and sharing them with you guys.
After reading a very interesting article in a Dutch games magazine I would like to know what you guys think that should be done in the future concerning the lenght of videogames.
[img align=right width=200]http://images.bit-tech.net/news_images/2008/06/warren-spector-100-hour-games-are-on-the-way-out/article_img.jpg[/img]At the Games Education Summit (Dallas) in July, Warren Spector (known for games like Wing Commander, Thief and Deux Ex; see picture) stated that 100-hours singleplayer games are a thing of the past. He also said that only 2% of the people who have played GTA4 actually finished it. If he means by "finished it" getting 100% complete, I'm sure it's even less. RPGs are probably the "worst" kind of games when it comes to being overly lengthy. Recent games like The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion or Final Fantasy 12 come to mind. They often take up 60 hours to finish the main storyline alone and go well over 100 hours if you want to finish all sidequests, defeat all monsters and get that strongest weapon. (Don't get me wrong, I love RPGs)
As you all know, making videogames is no longer cheap. Especially with the next generation consoles and their fabulous physics and visuals, production times get longer and the costs are getting higher. Spending $40.000.000 to develop a videogame isn't anything spectacular anymore and companies are strugling to make a profit like they used to do 5-10 years ago. Especially when your game stands in the shadow of a Triple A title, sales can't always make up for the costs.
If most gamers stop playing GTA4 at 40%; that basically means 60% of the game's content is money down the drain.
Would you like to see shorter games, knowing that most (read: the not-so-hardcore) gamers don't finish these games? Wouldn't it be great if companies could make games for less money and therefor take some more risks? It would mean more diverse games for us for sure.
Do you really want the Full HD graphics and 7.1 surround? Maybe some gamers do, but the rest of us are forced to walk the same path. I wonder why nobody seems to have the guts to make an HD 16-bit style 2D RPG for Xbox360 or PS3. If the story was good and the gameplay rock-solid, wouldn't that make for an amazing game?
Note: I've reposted this on the forums because I wanted to make a poll about it. You can find the poll here.
As you may or may not know, Tondog is a huge fan of MGS4. If he could, he'd probably have Kojima's babies. Unfortunately, or fortunately for him, he is a guy, and such a thing is physically impossible. That said, lots of people bought MGS4, including Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw. See, Yahztee does Zero Punctuation, which in the realm of the internet geared towards gamers is absolutely hilarious. Today, Yahtzee is reviewing Metal Gear Solid 4, and well... why don't you watch it for yourself.
So, what'd you think? Personally, I am part of the group not currently already entrenched in Metal Gear Solid, so I think I'll follow this advice and just not play the game. Not really my cup of tea anyways. But then, I don't drink tea. What about you? Did Yahtzee strike a nerve, or do you wholeheartedly agree?
Some of you may be die hard haters of other game consoles besides the ones that you own. For others, you might be such a fanboy that you need be reminded of reasons why you should curb your enthusiasm. Fortunately for you, Gamesradar wishes to fan the flames of console bashing during its hate week, where they harp about why you should hate everything. Thank God for that too, because I certainly could not think of my own reasons to be spiteful about the console manufacturers.
Shall we check out these videos? Because I am a nice guy, I'll start out with the company I tend to support heavily (aside from my latest Cynical Gamer piece), Nintendo. You can find Sony and Microsoft after the Jump.
PC World has stated that the new upcoming PS3 firmware, version 2.20, will include some great new features. PC World says:
"The updated firmware enables Blu-ray Disc Profile 2.0, or BD-Live, to be supported on the PS3. BD-Live enables Blu-ray Disc makers to incorporate additional interactive features including downloadable video content, ringtones, games and more.
The firmware also exposes "Portable Copy," which enables PS3 users to copy a standard-definition version of the Blu-ray movie to a PlayStation Portable (PSP). You can transfer music and photo playlists from the PS3 to the PSP and use the PSP as a remote control for music playback using "Remote Play." DivX and WMV playback functionality has been improved, along with new Internet browser settings and additional AV settings."
I think that this is a great new ideal from Sony. They just keep pushing out more and more great ideals all the time now. I will admit I was one to be a PS3 Flamer, but now I am starting to like the new Playstation.
Sony Japan is geared to announce its first lineup of "The Best" titles for Playstation 3. SCEJ has yet to officially announce which titles, but an online retailer has already listed several titles with an expected arrival date of March 19. The discounted price should be 3,800 yen (compared to the regular price of 5,000 yen). For Playstation fans, this discount isn't as much as the Playstation 2 The Best games at 2800 yen.
The first games to achieve "Playstation The Best" status are:
[img align=right]http://www.rfgeneration.com/images/repository/1905459161478ababbd43edPS3360.jpg[/img] People have been sneering at the price of the PS3. They say it is expensive. You know, this statement is correct. However, I find it troubling that many of these people that say the Playstation 3 is overly expensive have no problem laying down the money for Microsoft's 360. I find such actions humorous. Let's analyze what I perceive as the true costs of these two systems, in terms of what they have to offer and what hidden costs lie with the system. Perhaps, we'll be enlightened after this discussion. Perhaps you'll be enraged. Chances are though that my arguments are pretty decent, and perhaps it will make take a second look at which system you ultimately end up purchasing.
The results for the British Academy Video Games Awards were announced on Tuesday The 23rd of October. What is essentially a tech demo winning six awards doesn't sit right with me. It may well be a good game but there were much better games in some categories.
This week we are taking a look at the Music and Rhythm genre. Our featured game for the week is Amplitude for the Playstation 2. This is a very unique game that has a ton of replay value. You are basically a DJ that takes the layers of songs (Vocals, Guitar, Bass, Drums, etc.) and puts them together to make the track. It is a fast paced game that relys on your musical ear and rhythm.
The image that we are featuring is from the Nintendo DS game, Elite Beat Agents. This is undoubtedly one of the best Nintendo DS games to date. It is basically like DDR in your hands! Don't believe me? Try it!
Our featured hardware is the Playstation 3 Bluetooth headset. This little product retails for a modest $49.99 and will also work with any cell phone out there that is Bluetooth compatible. This is obviously used for online communications. Now sure, your current bluetooth headset will work with the PS3, but the red and black colors really set this one apart.
The collection that we are featuring is from Tretiy. Now, he may have a small collection, but he has goals, which I like. Take a look at his collection page to see what he has in mind for the future. I think it's great that he has found a home here!
Well, that's it folks. Until next week, keep it tuned in to channel 3 here at RFG!
Well, I did it. I broke down and got myself a PS3. Bad idea? I don't think so. The first game I played has captivated me! That's why this week's featured game is based on this game.
Ninja Gaiden Sigma is one of Playstation 3's saving graces. While not a game that will sell a system, it is a game that shows some of what the hardware can do. The camera work is wonderful, the voice acting is wonderful, and the controls are wonderful. That makes this game, well, wonderful! I love being able to run along walls, run on water, and heck, even cut off some guy's head! Check this game out, you won't be disappointed.
The featured image is for Ninja Gaiden for the Nintendo NES. This game is one of the games a lot of folk remember from their childhood. Everyone remembers the boss when they first see him. All of the ninja classic items were found in this title, including throwing stars and katanas. Take a look at it again. You'll be surprised at how much you remember!
Our featured hardware is the Playstation 2 GTA3 pack. This was a great buy for racing fans and non-racing fans alike. Not only did you get a PS2 system, which some argue is the greatest thing since sliced bread, you also got one of the most realistic racing sims ever made.
Lastly, our featured collection belongs to Silent_shadow. This collection is full of games. Lots of Sega, Nintendo, and Microsoft games! Take a look!
Well, that's it folks! Have any suggestions on what you'd like to see featured? Send me a message or an email! Maybe I can get my hands on it and get it on the main page! Check out the featured thread and leave some comments! And always, keep it tuned in to channel 3!
From Kotaku, here's Sega's rumored Tokyo Game Show lineup, with some entries bolded for my emphasis...
Alien Syndrome (Wii, PSP) After Burner: Black Falcon (PSP) Beijing 2008: the Official Videogame of the Olympic Games (PS2, Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, PSP, DS, PC) ChuChu Rocket! (XBLA, PC) Crazy Taxi: Fare Wars (PSP) Fighters Megamix 2 (Xbox 360, PS3) Ghost Squad (Wii) Happy Tree Friends False Alarm (XBLA, PC) JET SET RADIO NEXT (Xbox 360, PS3) Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games (Wii, DS) Medieval II: Total War Kingdoms Visit (PC) Nights: Journey of Dreams (Wii) Phantasy Star Universe: Ambition of the Illuminus (PS2, Xbox 360, PC) Samba De Amigo Fever (PSP) Sega Classics Collection 2 (PS2,PSP) Sega Rally Revo (Xbox 360, PS3, PSP, PC) Sega Superstar 2 (Wii) SHENMUE 3 (XBOX 360) SHENMUE I & II PLUS (Xbox 360) Skies of Arcadia 2 (Wii) Sonic Rivals 2 (PSP) Sonic Rush Adventure (DS) Sonic the RPG (Xbox 360, PS3) Space Channel 5 Part 3 (Xbox 360, PS3) Space Channel 5 Showtime (Wii, DS, PSP) The Club (Xbox 360, PS3, PC) The Golden Compass (PS2, PC, DS, Xbox 360, PSP, PS3, Wii) The House of the Dead 4 (Xbox 360, PS3) Universe at War: Earth Assault (Xbox 360, PC) Virtua Fighter 5 (Xbox 360, PS3) Virtua Fighter Kids 2 (Wii) Worldwide Soccer Manager Live (Xbox 360, PC) Yakuza 3 (PS3)
OMFG! Next gen versions of Chu Chu Rocket, Jet Grind Radio, Space Channel 5, Samba De Amigo, and EFFING SHENMUE?! COULD IT BE?! Well, I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that this list is true. Why? We all know Sega hasn't been doing great lately, and they could be trying to resurrect some of their fan favorite Dreamcast franchises like Shenmue, JGR, and Space Channel 5.
Regardless, if Shenmue I and II Plus and Shenmue III are indeed real, that will push me over the edge and make me get a 360.
Don't worry, I'm still a Sony fanboy at heart, but I gots to have me my Shenmue
David Jaffe, the outspoken creator of the smash hits God Of War and Twisted Metal, has some kind of announcement planned for tomorrow. He will be posting it on his blog right after the press release comes out around 9 AM or so tomorrow morning (probably Pacific Time).
BIG ANNOUNCEMENT COMING FRIDAY...well big announcement for ME. It's not like I'll be revealing what game we've been working on, stuff like that. Well actually, I will be able to talk a little bit about ONE of the games for the first time...
[middle cut since he's talking about how he saw some family in Alabama and ate at Cracker Barrel.]
c- Friday-at 9am (PR wants to send the press release out before I post...so no 12:01 update)...but at 9am, I will post news of my future. Again, it's a big deal for me personally and it does deal with my work. So this week I'll be able to spill SOME of the beans...and I'll prob. spew about how I'm dealing with this very, very big change in my work life.
Hope to see ya'll soon!
David
ps. Just FYI, the game alot of you guys seems to think we are working on, we are not. Sorry to dissapoint
So, he says it isn't what we think he's working on, so that rules out Twisted Metal 5 or Black 2 or whatever they're going to call it. David most likely isn't going to take on the directorial role in God of War 3, because he doesn't really want to make huge epics any more (though he'll probably maintain a supervisor role with Cory Barlog directing, like he did with God of War 2). The other possibility I'm hearing a lot is that he's leaving Sony, which is most likely not the case because David has stated many times that he has no intentions to leave Sony since they have been so good to him for the past 10 years or so.
Here's what I think will happen:
He's going to open up a new studio that will make games for Sony, and more specifically, the Playstation Network.
Here's my reasoning. After taking a month off from the blog in May (maybe due to his tirade against Gamespot and Joystiq), he posted this entry which consists of 2 pictures of an empty office space. In some of the next entries, he mentions having some big design tasks for his next game, but it's nothing too important to my argument. However on his July 1 blog entry, he posts a picture of some beer (...and weed) on a table and captions it with "How else do you expect us to celebrate signing a big, important, life changing contract?!?" That contract, probably with Sony and us meaning someone from Incognito (probably the head, Scott Campbell), since he's worked with them on many projects (including his most recent, Calling All Cars!).
That and David is pretty much one of Sony's biggest star developers, and I bet that they would be willing to listen to what he wants to do.
Anyways, now that my silly speculation is over, remember to keep it tuned on RFGen for all the news that matters.
Sony Japan is geared to announce its first lineup of "The Best" titles for Playstation 3. SCEJ has yet to officially announce which titles, but an online retailer has already listed several titles with an expected arrival date of March 19. The discounted price should be 3,800 yen (compared to the regular price of 5,000 yen). For Playstation fans, this discount isn't as much as the Playstation 2 The Best games at 2800 yen.
