Category Archives: Xbox

Games, Nintendo, PlayStation, Xbox

E3 Conference Review

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Microsoft – Only showing games to be released this year was an interesting gimmick, but ultimately I felt that it was a mistake. It did a great job of showing off the 2007 release list for the 360 which is, in my opinion, by far the best of the three consoles, only to leave 2008 and beyond as something of a vacuum that left the door open for the other two to take the plaudits. The likes of MGS4 aren’t coming out this year but they still carry a lot of weight as franchises.

And why did Microsoft choose to show only their 2007 titles and then show Resi 5 anyway? Why not just show other future titles and plug the strength of the 2007 lineup? They could easily have had their cake and eaten it.

The show itself fairly poor until it was saved by some excellent gameplay footage of big games like Call of Duty 4 (plus online beta!) and Assassin’s Creed. I’m still as hot for Halo 3 as I ever was after that trailer, as well, although it was admittedly not a brilliant trailer. It’s just that they played it safe, had their aforementioned high points, a couple of low points (the Madden thing was…ugh), and came out just affirming what we already knew: that the Xbox 360 has a strong 2007 lineup. They need a huge X07 or TGS now.

Overall: C+

Nintendo – I don’t doubt that every mainstream outlet on the planet is writing glowing features on Wii Fit as we speak and it’s going to make ridiculous amounts of money, but that show was a lesson in how to alienate your hardcore fans. I’m admittedly a lapsed Nintendo fan and a Mario game doesn’t do it for me like it used to (I’ll still buy Mario Galaxy and Metroid Prime 3 for sure, though), but nothing there did it for me. What was there except Wii Fitness and half a dozen new Wii peripherals? Vision Training? Not even any big DS announcements!

Mario Kart? It looks the same as Double Dash and they already did it online on the DS. No Animal Crossing. Little new on Smash Bros except a release date met with dead silence. The focus on Wii Fit meant that it ended up coming off like an infomercial for a step machine like you get on Five US when CSI isn’t on, and just affirmed for me that Nintendo and the Wii is no longer going with what I, as a gamer, want.

Overall: D

Sony – Mainly given the advantage of following Nintendo’s show and having only to be better than last year, Sony only really had to show some games that weren’t coming out this year in order to ‘win’, and they did. It started badly with some cringe-worthy Home skits and a painful appearance by Chewbacca, as well as so many plugs that it felt like I was watching Casino Royale again (“Spider-Man 2, now available on Blu-ray Disc, DVD, and UMD from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment”; “connect your PSP to your Sony Bravia flatscreen TV”; “Home on my Sony-Ericsson mobile phone”), but then it was uphill.

The new PSP is a good improvement even if it didn’t have internal memory (I’ll buy one when it gets hacked), Echochrome looks cool, and MGS4, Uncharted, and Killzone all look superb. For the first time since E3 2005 I’m seriously considering when I plan to buy a PS3 and which game is going to do it.

Overall: B+

Overall, though, I think we can all agree that the new E3 is a disappointment for those of us who like to sit back and enjoy the show. Bring back the old one, I say!

Games, Impressions, Xbox

The Darkness Impressions

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The DarknessThe Darkness

I was thoroughly impressed by Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay when it came out a couple of years back (look into the 360/PS3 remake if you missed it), which made a similar game from the same developer an extremely tempting prospect. If this is anything to go by I’ll be very keen to see Starbreeze’s next title, as well.

The Darkness is similar to Riddick in that it’s a licenced FPS with a story-driven adventure to tell, all with superb presentation and a real vicious streak. Riddick could be brutal but didn’t take its PEGI 16-rating too far; The Darkness pushes what we can expect from an 18-rated game and really makes me wonder what exactly was going on in Manhunt 2. Aside from the gunplay and all that that entails, you’ll commonly be eviscerating people or tearing their faces off, and then for the final humiliation there’s a dedicated button to devour their heart. Wait until you see what the grinning fellas to the sides of this post do with said organ. All this, and lots of dirty language. This game might prove what I said about violence needing context.

The presentation bears mentioning again, because it’s at least as good as it was in Riddick. Aurally I can’t really find fault with the great voice acting (can’t imagine it’s hard to do Italian-American), but if I was being picky I’m not the biggest fan of the thrash metal that occasionally fades in during action. I have to drown it out with the sounds of death.

The game is very strong graphically, with only the occasional texture that doesn’t hold up too well and that common shimmery shadow problem on face blighting things. Overall they’ve done an incredible job depicting the grimy underbelly of New York while keeping faithful to the comic’s style (my preorder came with a copy as a bonus, and there are a few issues in the game as unlockables), and although I can’t really go any further without pushing into spoiler territory, suffice it to say that certain parts are among the most unsettling gaming sequences I’ve ever played.

My biggest complaint is that the aiming takes some getting used to, as it doesn’t really feel as responsive as it might be at first. It’s workable once you get used to it and, to be fair, certain other weapons take precedent over guns most of the time. It’s certainly not a flaw that’s going to ruin the game because the AI isn’t really all that clever. I doubt you’ll be that impressed with the game if Riddick didn’t do it for you but if you missed out on that one or liked it as much as I did The Darkness is well worth a look. Hopefully this is indicative of an upturn in the quality of games this year.

Games, Nintendo, PlayStation, Xbox

E3 Predictions 2007

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Even if the big show isn’t the same as it used to be (I miss it already), that doesn’t mean that the big companies aren’t up to their old tricks. This is what my money’s on the big three announcing at their conferences – which start with Microsoft’s a fortnight today – along with a few outside bets.

Microsoft

  • $100/£80 price drop across all SKUs.
  • Halo 3 campaign demo, hopefully closer to the real thing than last time.
  • Ninja Gaiden 2. I then spend an hour trying to clean up the mess I made.
  • Some real PGR4 and Fable 2 video.
  • Rare bringing back one of their classics (I don’t think it’ll be Killer Instinct, for the record).
  • At least one current PS3 exclusive coming to 360.
  • Shenmue III. Please? If enough of us believe they’ll have to do it.

Nintendo

  • Lots and lots and lots of sales graphs.
  • Animal Crossing Wii shown and it’ll be a kind of walled-garden MMO: you live in your town with friends over the net, using WiiConnect24 to let anyone mess around in the persistent town at any time. Ban this sick burglary simulator!
  • Mario Kart Wii.
  • More Smash Bros shown, with a new feature that we haven’t seen. I’ll be upset if the Ouendan team isn’t in it. Sonic finally making it in is an outside bet.
  • A new console for the Virtual Console. Neo-Geo?
  • Miyamoto waves something around and Reggie has a new line for the fanboys to run into the ground for the next year.

Sony

  • Absolutely no sales graphs whatsoever.
  • $100/£75 off PS3.
  • PSP redesign.
  • Killzone 2 is finally shown and looks very good, albeit no E3 05 trailer.
  • Home and LBP. Lots of comparisons to MySpace put me off it even more.
  • Sony ruins their palindrome with the announcement of the force feedback Sixaxis. Shockaxis?

Any thoughts or predictions of your own are, of course, welcome.

Games, Impressions, Xbox

LTTP: Ninja Gaiden

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Ryu Hayabusa

Maybe it’s that shiny Sigma demo that’s doing the rounds or maybe it’s the chat about the inevitable Ninja Gaiden 2. Or, more likely, it’s the goading from a borderline obsessive friend who insists that I’ve missed out on the best action game ever made. I finally got Ninja Gaiden for the Xbox from eBay and have spent some time kicking around with that.

I’d be lying if I said I’d never played NG because I gave it a try back in 2004, only to give up on the second boss because I found it too ball-achingly hard. It still is hard – the difficulty wouldn’t be such a big sticking point if it wasn’t – but it’s one of the deepest and most rewarding action games around. Some parts, especially bosses, are unnecessarily evil (in chapter 9: a tank, another tank, and then a helicopter gunship!?) but although death is often inevitable it’s usually a case of your mistake. It plays like a fighting game which necessitates learning the fighting system and gives rise to the possibility of being killed by one of the peons, an ignominious end for a master ninja.

At the same time the odds are stacked in your favour because most of the time you have all the tricks they do and more, and most of the time you’re stronger and faster as well. It’s much more of a game of skill than the other top 3D actioners, God of War and Devil May Cry, as good as those ones are. Intelligent use of blocking is essential, the various weapons have their benefits and caveats, and it’s hugely beneficial to learn your repertoire of moves. Again, like a fighting game.

I implore you, if the difficulty made you give up on Ninja Gaiden, give it a try. The Xbox version is dirt cheap (still looks great in 720p on the 360) or you can plump for Sigma if you’re a PS3 owner. Or wait for the 360 version of Sigma when the PS3 one sells 50,000. Yeah, I went there.

Games, Impressions, Xbox

A Few Hours with Halo 3

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I was pleasantly surprised this morning to find an email from Bungie in my inbox, complete with the Halo 3 beta code that I won months ago and which meant several things. Firstly I could get downloading early, and secondly I’ll actually be able to get playing today. Ha!

Very brief impressions is that it looks nice in HD – colourful and sharp, but still needing a bit of work on the occasional hiccups in the framerate – and plays like Halo. Going online, especially against a group who’ve been playing for a while now, is always something of a trial by fire, and inevitably I spent a couple of games running around like a headless chicken and being sniped from who-knows-where. I’d be lying if I said I still wasn’t getting killed fairly frequently, in fact.

Nonetheless, I like what I’m seeing. Some early thoughts:

  • It looks better in motion than in shots. Certain things are still clearly not final (water effects, for example) but things are already nice and solid. Halo 2 seems almost unplayable now.
  • Brilliant sound. You can really hear distant battles going on (the mounted guns sound weirdly like trains, though) and you’ll often be hit before you hear the report.
  • Valhalla will be a more than competent replacement for Blood Gulch/Coagulation. It’s a great map.
  • The new/old assault rifle is a much better all-round starting weapon than the SMG. You’re still at a disadvantage against someone with a better gun obviously, but you’re far less emasculated.
  • RB replacing X takes a bit of getting used to for performing actions. Once you’ve got it, though, it makes things more flexible.
  • The equipment is definitely cool. Bubble shield has its uses, the power drainer – drains shields and disables vehicles in its blast radius – is invaluable for attacking a flag/hill/VIP, and a mine placed at the landing point for the man cannon is guaranteed hilarity. The portable jump pad is only used in one situation in the beta and seems the least flexible, but we’ll see.
  • The new weapons are all quite good. I’m still a bit worried that the laser will be overpowered once people work it out but they all have their caveats. The spike grenade is awesome in tight corridors. The needler might as well be new: it’s a monster that can take someone down with one ‘clip’, and thankfully can’t be dual-wielded now.
  • I’ve had quite a lot of lag, which I’m willing to put down to it not having worked out who makes the best host yet, as in Halo 2. This has the same painful quirk in which you’ll mysteriously warp back a few steps over and over again when you’re lagging, which drives me mad.

By far the best part, though, is deliberately sending invites to people who don’t have the beta. They think it’s just as hilarious as I do!

Above all, the game just feels right. It feels like Halo, in other words. This thing is going to make the wait until 26th September even harder.

Games, Life, PC games, Xbox

Finished!

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Dissertation Word Count

After countless hours of research and wearing my typing fingers (little-known fact: I only type with three fingers) down to stumps, I’ve finished my dissertation. Not only does this mean that I’m mere weeks away from being kicked out into the big bad world, it also means that I can play some games and post on here again. It sucks when life gets in the way of the really important things, doesn’t it?

26 pages or 11,222 words was the final count, all in. That beats my previous biggest Word document by some 22 pages. I could be forgiven for being put off ever blogging again after writing that much about the things.

The current games of choice are both on their second wind with me: Halo 2 in anticipation of a little event in a couple of weeks, and alternately another futile attempt to master Counter-Strike Source and find out how much better at it most people are than me. Give me a week to get back in the swing of things and I’ll be on about the summer drought again.