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The Podcats: Reach and Move

Talking about Move whilst playing Halo Reach

Just a note: I will be on holiday for the next month. There are scheduled updates (at least one a week) until I’m back at home.

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Video: MOVE vs KINECT

Controller1.com compares the motion control options with Move for the PS3 and Kinect for the Xbox 360.

E3 2010- Day 1 Sony, Nintendo and More

So the first day proper and we begin with the two big boys.

Sony‘s big push is 3D and Move so let’s have some specifics

• Gran Turismo 5 coming out in November. This year.

• Killzone 3 in 3D in early 2011.

• Playstation Plus is a US$50 annual fee in order to get free demos, a free game each month, DLC and auto-patching
• Twisted Metal coming to PS3 in 2011. Announced by the Jaffemesiter.
• inFamous 2 appears as a 2011 title.

• Some exclusive PS3 content for moth Mafia II and Assassin’s Breed Brotherhood. PS3 also has a MP beta for the latter.
• Portal 3 coming to PS3. Steamcloud integration for auto patching. Apparently it’s the best console version. Announced by Valve head Gabe Newell- who’s not been shy about calling the PS3 some interesting names.
• Dead Space 2 special ed comes with Move version of Dead Space Extraction
• Medal of Honor reboot on PS3 comes with Medal of Honor Frontline remake in HD.
• Move games just as much clones of popular Wii franchises as most of the MS Kinect games shown.
• Sly Cooper Collection in 3D and a new 3D Motorstorm. 3D in lots of third party games.
• Heroes on the Move is a move title with sony mascots such as Ratchet and Clank, Jak and Daxter in a title together.
• Sorcery looks to be harry potter/ zelda with the move as a wand
• Move controller $50, Navigator $30.
• more PSP and PSN games. no PSP hardware update…yet
• no price cuts… yet

Nintendo

• The 3DS was announced. It’s black and blue, offers 3D games and movies without glasses, an analog slide pad controller, motion sensing and gyroscope, 2 cameras to take 3D pics, DSI compatibility and it’s launch games will be Kid Icarus 3DS. No word on actual tech specs other than the 3.5″ screens, or price or release date (Tokyo Game Show, perhaps?)

• The new Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword shown for the first time. Updated slightly from the look of Twilight Princess (that was simultaneously a Gamecube title, though this is the Wii, remember), though lighter in tone. Uses Motion Plus.

• Epic Mickey put in an appearance and looks like one to watch.
• Wii Party is coing out here and seems a curious mix of what would happen if Wii Play was actually designed as a full game.
• Donkey Kong Country Return, a 2D side scroller from Retro Studios (the First Person Metroids)

• Kirby is also back as a 2D platformer on Wii, with an interest fabric texture look.
• Mario Sports Mix comes out in 2011, a blend of arcade sports action. Think Smash Bros with basketball and football.
• Updated Goldeneye for the Wii
• no price cuts

Activision

• DJ Hero 2 will appear in October so that scratchers and DJ wannabe can wear one headphone like any truly cool person who’s deaf in one ear.
• Tony Hawk Shred- Uses the same controller as Ride so here’s a first example of good money after bad. Like developing an N64 game in 2003.
• Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock will feature Bohemian Rhapsody and 50 other songs I don’t give a rats ass about.
• True Crime: Hong Kong is back, presumably without original developers Luxoflux- recently closed due to reasons best known to Activision
• Goldeneye for Wii- with Daniel Craig’s visage
• and a little game called Call of Duty Black Ops from Treyarch. Funny how people will be more stoked about a Treyarch game than IW’s take on the series.

Review: GOD OF WAR III

Lisvender reviews GoW III

Reviewed on PS3 Developed by Sony Santa Monica/ Published by Sony Computer Entertainment

Oh (Greek) God. Kratos is back in town, and he’s pissed. I mean, really pissed. He’s so pissed this time, that tearing off heads and slitting open bellies isn’t enough for him; now he’s out to annihilate the very fabric of nature.

In God of War III: Kratos Kills Everybody, the outlandish violence that’s the signature of the series has been inflated to a ridiculous level, and the Playstation 3’s hardware makes it look prettier than ever before. Unfortunately, little has been done to adjust or improve the structure of the game. If anything, with the game’s new emphasis on showing off artwork and fancy cinematics, it’s gotten worse.

The game begins with Kratos riding the shoulders of Gaia, a woodsy, rocky giant who’s clambering up Mount Olympus in a balls-out assault on the gods. Zeus and his posse, which includes Poseidon, Hades, Helios, and the very annoying Hermes, are none too happy about this aggression, and each god will set out to taunt and irritate Kratos in his own way. Before Kratos will take his precious revenge on Zeus (which he reminds us of regularly), he’ll plod through several gorgeous mythological backdrops, ride on the backs of titans, collect weapons and magic spells, rescue Scarlett Johansson, and endure endless flashbacks that clobber us over the head with their message of hope.

Throughout this trek, Kratos will repeatedly face the typical God of War challenge: barriers will enclose you in a small arena, and a crowd of ineffectual, undead Greek soldiers will pour out of the ground, spoiling for a fight. What you do in these situations is hit Square over and over, occasionally throwing a Triangle in for variety. Kratos will do a little dance, swinging his chain-blades around in fancy patterns, until all the enemies are dead. If you see an bad guy winding up to get a hit of his own, just hold L1 to block, and then commence the Squaring.

After going through this ceremony dozens of times over the past few years, I began to wonder if God of War would play just as well if Kratos just swung his blades constantly, and you’d have to press a button to stop him. It would probably work.

When you’re done Squaring your enemies to death, the barriers will vanish, and you get to run ahead for a minute or so. Eventually you’ll encounter…a puzzle.

Most of the puzzles in God of War III use familiar video game logic: activate a switch to open the way forward. Kratos can push buttons and pull cranks, set things on fire, or search for hidden passageways using a glowing severed head. You’ll also find weird, blue stones jutting from the ground here and there. They usually obstruct you from reaching a secret or a goal. You’ll need the Cestus, a pair of laughably large metal gloves, to punch through the stone. Since they’re also powerful enough to fell even the biggest creatures in a few hits, I recommend that you just keep the Cestus equipped at all times. They really are all-purpose tools, silly and uncomfortable though they look.

A couple of the puzzle sections are clever, like a garden that uses Escher-like illusions to connect pathways, or a labyrinth constructed from an array of rotating cubes. The rest, though, are recycled from the Book of Zelda, and they go on for so long that you’ll start to wonder when you can just back to killing monsters already.

If you’re especially patient, you can always travel off the path that the game’s camera leads you down, and try to find some secrets. Kratos can discover treasure chests that contain the usual collections of Gorgon Eyes, Phoenix Feathers, and red orbs, which increase his health and magic meters, and the strengths and capabilities of his weapons. The game is very generous with these orbs, and you won’t have to stray from the main road too often to get most of your weapons maxed out. I guess the designers wanted to be sure that everyone will get to see all the fancy combo animations they came up with.

One of the few additions to God of War is the Minotaur Horn, which increases the length of Kratos’s new Item meter. Kratos is now limited on how often he can use special items, such as Apollo’s Bow, Hermes’s Shoes, and Helios’s Head. I’m not sure why there are limitations on these things, as they don’t provide any great advantages to Kratos in combat, but the meter is there anyway, and now we have Minotaur Horns to go searching for. Locating a hidden chest and finding a Minotaur Horn, when you were hoping for a far more desirable Gorgon Eye, is a tremendous disappointment.

As in previous God of War games, you’ll run into some stupid segments that break things up rather unpleasantly. Like the parts when Kratos has to climb hand-over-hand across ropes, kicking at approaching enemies like a spastic idiot. Then there are the scenes where he has to ride steam plumes up enormous shafts, dodging obstacles and unexplained balls of fire like this is Star Fox or Battletoads or something. I dreaded these scenes, and couldn’t wait for them to be over.

So what, if anything, is the true draw of God of War III? It would seem to be, as with Heavy Rain, the dazzling Quick-Time Events, which involve astounding action and camerawork that still isn’t possible in regular gameplay. After you’ve beaten an enemy or boss into a sufficient level of weakness, a huge, flaming Circle will appear above it. Get Kratos close and press Circle, and watch the magic begin!

Kratos is as gymnastically skilled and cruel as ever in this game, and in these Quick-Time Events, he’ll swing, jump, fly, stab, and just beat the hell out of whatever he’s up against, provided you press the buttons that appear on the screen at the right times. It’s Dragon’s Lair rendered on a Cell processor. I must admit, though, that these scenes really are impressive, and even therapeutic, especially when you get to see Kratos punish an irritating boss.

The violence in God of War III has already garnered a ton of internet attention and gorehound love, but those who are squeamish probably won’t have to turn their heads. Sure, the grisly deaths Kratos imparts on his opponents are pretty gross, but they’re also so bizarre, and so far over the top, that they’re hilarious. The flashy spectacle of the QTEs had me saying “whoa” quite often, but they also had me cracking up. The designers at Sony Santa Monica have obviously watched a lot of horror movies in order to devise kills this creative.

What I realized while “playing” God of War III is that it’s not a game to be played so much as a game to be looked at. The QTEs are impressive enough, but there are plenty of other aspects the designers labored over to make the game an eye-popper. The characters are superbly detailed, especially Hephaestus and Kronos, with their wrinkled, stained skin and burnt out eyes. The designers planted some books on pedestals at scenic overlooks throughout the game, and they function like the mounted binoculars in Brutal Legend: they do nothing but allow you a lengthy eyeful of the landmarks the artists constructed. Aside from the Cestus, Kratos’s multitude of weapons and attacks differ in appearance only. You’re not going to be changing them because one weapon is more effective against a specific enemy than another, and it’s pretty safe to ignore the many combos the game offers in favor of hitting the Square button over and over. One attack works just as well as another.

Pretty pictures don’t make a game worth buying. This is a rental, through and through. It will take around eight or nine hours to complete, so maybe two rentals will be necessary, but that will still be cheaper than buying the game. I hope that games like Heavy Rain and God of War III – and hell, let’s throw Metal Gear Solid 4 in there too – are not representative of a trend, one in which video games throw out all the thoughtful and challenging play and then replace it with cutting-edge imagery and interactive movies. That stuff is entertaining in its own way, but it should be kept in the venue where it belongs: the theater.

To close, I’ll say that even God of War III’s cover is stupid. It’s just Kratos’s eye, glowering with rage. It’s a terrible cover that tells us nothing about what you actually do in the game. It looks like the teaser poster for a movie, which is probably fitting, because that’s more or less what’s in the case.

Controller1.com rating: 1/3

REVIEW: HEAVY RAIN

Reviewed on PS3. Developed by Quantic Dream. Published by SCE

Heavy Rain is not a game per se. It is a multiple path movie with many a quick time event as well as you assisting the character perform basic moves with your fingers playing Twister over a PS3 controller.

France-based developers (not a phrase you hear often) Quantic Dreams, noted for making that game with David Bowie in it a decade ago and Fahrenheit/Indigo Prophecy a few years back, have give us something daring and new for the PS3. The story, which for once is king here, revolves around the hunt for the Origami Killer, a child-murder who drowns his pre-teen male victims, then places and orchid and an origami figure on the victim’s person. During the story, you’ll play each chapter as one of four characters as they all strive for the same thing. Or are they?

“And now for something completely different.” I wish this was photoshopped. I really do.

So at first you’re Ethan Mars, an architect living in a perfect life until a tragedy splits his family apart. Years later, Ethan’s son Shaun goes missing at the height of the Origami Killer’s reign of terror (the Orchid-placing Child-Drowner having been caught the previous summer), and blackout prone Ethan has to face five trials set by the killer in order to save his son before time runs out. Or is he? Then there’s Scott Shelby, a private investigator hired by the families of the Origami Killer’s previous victims. Or is he? Next is FBI agent Normal Jayen, part time junkie and Minority Report fanboy, representing the official investigation of the Origami Killer. Or is he? And then there’s plucky journalist Madison Paige. She gets her tits out.

So you’ve probably heard the game is eight hours of quicktime events and to a certain extent that is true. It’s also got elements of point and click adventures in that, for you often need to explore you location for the next clue. Unlike a point and click, you can only interact with items  displaying an on screen prompt (many of these only appear once). You get the opportunity to influence a conversation by selecting questions or answers or even the tone of what you’re about to say. These answers will have a major effect on which path the game will take and it is the game’s major success that there are so many ways this story can unfold. Some or most of the characters can die. It’s not choice in the sense you can make a good or evil choice like in inFamous or Mass Effect but you can affect the storyline fairly radically. You may see a story that’s different from your friends. Failing QTE prompts too often near the end of the game and people will die.

The game itself starts off veeeery slowly, some of which is there to set the scene, some to familiarise yourself with the unique, if clunky controls, and all of it duller than a faded matte-brown Volvo after a dust-storm. Things to perk up after about 3 or so hours and get quite exciting and you start having more action scenes. Control is an illusion in action scenes and a fistfight of just dozens of 1quicktime events triggering one after the other. However, you can’t fail and retry. You let a character and the story merely continues without them. The button prompts aren’t always the same for each event (though if you replay a section they are) so you don’t learn the controls, more you learn where things are on a PS3 controller. Our friend Sixaxis motion control returns to vex us, I’m afraid. Sixaxis is like that cousin you see at family gatherings, you know, the guy who’s a bum, an addict, borrowing money of you, etc. You give him a buck and then tell him to get the fuck out. And like that no good cousin, they come back just as you managed to forget about them. Sometimes, because this is a piece of software on a gaming machine, some control is given to you to do silly mundane things like apply lipstick, change a nappy or remove a bra (weirdest date ever, don’t ask).

This is a bold move away from games aimed at teenage boys. But if any teenage boys do play this, you can see Madison naked several times. Result!

The presentation is mostly good with great graphics (though there may be a glitch here and there or a very occasionally blurry texture) and sound that can be great (sound effects and music) or extremely variable (voice acting). Some of the actors are very good and some are woeful, particularly some of the minor characters who are very obviously French actors. Imagine casting Jean Reno, Gerard Depardieu and Vincent Cassel as Green Berets in an English Language movie set in the US and you get the idea.

So a bold experiment that doesn’t really come off. Do you want this? Well, do you skip cutscenes in other games? If the answer us yes,  because you can skip nothing here. If you think you should just watch it on youtube, you can but be aware that what you see there is different from what you would see at home die to the nature of the story and branching paths. I ended up with two playable characters dead and the killer walking free. And from what I’ve read, everyone’s play through is different.

Controller1.com rating 2/3 (0/3 if you’ve no interest in story)

REVIEW: Valkyria Chronicles

Reviewed by Lisvender on PS3. Developed by Sega Wow. Published by Sega

This PS3 strategy shooter stirred up pleasant memories of such gems as Advance Wars, Shining Force, Fire Emblem, and X-Com: Enemy Unknown. It also reminded me of how much these tactical combat games piss me off. It’s still very good, though, and anyone who enjoyed those aforementioned games should definitely get it.

Note: This is the only picture in this review. Why? Let’s just say it’s not a good idea to Google images for this game without safe search on.

The year is 1935 EC, and the Second Europan (that’s not a typo) War between the eastern Empire (Russia) and the western Federation (NATO) is a-blazin’. Pinched between the two factions is the teeny nation of Gallia, a land which also happens to be rich in the precious resource Ragnite. The greedy Empire swoops into Gallia to take control, but they are met by Welkin Gunther, a militia draftee, who gives the Empire a serious headache. You’ll guide Welkin and his Ragtag Squad of Misfits through battles against the Empire that grow in challenge, complexity, and length as you go along. Your goal is to push the invaders out and save Gallia from complete pacification.

The story’s premise is interesting, but the developments are typical anime crap, filled with overblown, melodramatic moments, long-winded, head-scratching dialogue, that uniquely Japanese “awkward” humor, and endless death scenes. The Hurt Locker this ain’t. If you want to play a game about soldiers who speak the true words of war, play Call of Duty.

Nobody talks about tangoes in Valkyria Chronicles, but they do go on about bugs, bread, vegetables, and love a lot. Welkin and his girlfriend/sidekick Alicia remain self-absorbed and strangely cheerful in spite of the sobering situation they’re in, and killing people never seems to upset them. This is a war story for the adolescent. Hell, the game even has a beach cutscene so you can see the female characters run around in bikinis. Pretty sad.

Honestly, though, the story isn’t that important to the game’s success. The real joy of a game like Valkyria Chronicles comes from learning and mastering its rules and tactics. The warfare here centers around a basic rock-paper-scissors system:

Shocktroopers are foot soldiers with machine guns, and they can mow down all kinds of infantry.

Tanks are heavily armored, and can blow away Shocktroopers.

Lancers are foot soldiers with rocket launchers, and are best at taking out tanks.

There are three other classes of infantry, too: the Scouts, the Snipers, and the Engineers. While these units play essential supportive roles, they are poor fighters, and they should circumvent the combat engaged in by the others.

Valkyria Chronicles is a war game where you take turns with the computer moving your squad of soldiers around a map. Your goal in most missions is to get your men to the heart of an enemy camp, but you have to coordinate your movements so that your men can clear out the bad guys efficiently and cover each other. There are plenty of games that function like this, but Valkyria Chronicles stands apart from them because it incorporates elements of third-person shooters and makes them critical to your success. When you start a turn and are prompted to select a unit to move, you get a simple bird’s-eye view of the battlefield. All the soldiers are represented by icons. When you pick a unit, the camera swoops down into a fully detailed, over-the-shoulder view, and you get to control that unit using the familiar two-stick move-and-aim model. You can run around, take cover, survey the topography, avoid enemy firing lines, and position yourself for a good shot at the bad guys. The distance you can move is limited, though, and you can only shoot once per movement, so be sure to make your turns count! Aim at the heads of infantry units, or at the rear radiators of tanks to take them out quickly.

Units around you won’t move while you’re moving, but if you get too close to enemy units, they will turn and fire on you, so be careful. This also works for enemies who enter the sights and firing ranges of your guys, so positioning your troops to throw out intercepting fire is a very important strategic aspect. A group of Scouts and Shocktroopers is a veritable death machine to infantry, and it can be very effective at suppressing enemy advances. Lancers and Snipers don’t use intercepting fire, however, so they’re sitting ducks when enemies approach. Be sure to back them up.

If one of your units is downed, you can send another unit to rescue her. Just walk up to her, and your medic will fly in to pull her out of the battle. You can then select your camp to call in reinforcements. If a downed unit isn’t rescued in three turns, or if an enemy unit closes in to finish her off, that unit will be killed and removed from the game permanently. For this reason, you should never send a unit into danger alone.

Each soldier in the game has his or her own personality, and this is expressed through Potentials and friendships. Potentials are buffs and debuffs that come into effect under unique conditions. Some soldiers can absorb intercepting fire without taking much damage, while others have special hatreds for particular enemies which will up their accuracy. Then there are the soldiers with allergies to sand or pollen, who won’t fight effectively in desert or grassland settings. While there are some loners in your squad, most of your soldiers are friends with each other. Putting two friends side by side, and then ordering one to fire will cause both to shoot at once, and more or less doom your target. Forgetting the technical details, odds are you’ll become attached to one or two of your soldiers, and you’ll want to keep them around simply because they make you smile.

As the story progresses, the missions become increasingly complex, and some of the later ones are real brain-busters. You’ll have to divide your forces, capture multiple enemy camps, use smoke bombs to blind your enemies, sneak past spotlights, dodge mortar fire, and engage in trench fighting. Many of the missions have a twist that occurs halfway through, with some new challenge or objective popping up, and no two missions are alike. They’re all very satisfying to study, analyze, explore, and complete.

Succeeding at missions earns you experience points and money, which can be used to increase the stats of your infantry, upgrade your equipment, and add new parts to your tanks. You can also purchase optional Orders, which provide stat buffs and other benefits to your squad in combat, and Reports, which open up side stories and optional missions for further character development. If you run short on resources, you have the option to play Skirmishes, which are slightly altered replays of missions you’ve completed, to refill your coffers. Grinding can be a pain, but it is necessary if you want to get your soldiers to the highest levels, and gain access to special weaponry.

I don’t often talk about graphics and sound in reviews, because nowadays most games have these mastered, or at least polished to the point where they don’t offend. I feel that I should mention them for Valkyria Chronicles, though, because they are truly outstanding. The graphics are have a lovely, colorful, painted look. There are sunny skies, rolling hills, and pleasant architecture everywhere you turn. While I can’t remember a single bit of music from Uncharted 2 or Modern Warfare, I caught myself humming the driving battle themes from this game at work multiple times.

Valkyria Chronicles is a rich and deep game, with immense rewards in wait for the thinking player, but like many strategy games, it can also be frustrating. Early on in the game, before your weapons can be upgraded, your soldiers are going to miss a lot of their shots. Even your eagle-eyed snipers, who can use scopes to zoom in on their targets, will manage to miss most of the time. It doesn’t matter if you line up your crosshairs properly; the computer rolls the dice on where the shot actually lands. In a game like this, where your every movement is precious and critical, a missed shot is heartbreaking and enraging. Not surprisingly, the computer-controlled units rarely have this problem. I highly recommend that you pour your money into accuracy upgrades the moment they become available to counter this problem.

Another issue is that occasionally the intercepting fire won’t work. Sometimes your guys will just stand there while enemy soldiers run right by them. It’s like they momentarily go blind or something. It’s bewildering, exasperating, and just shy of unfair. It can even cause you to lose, if an enemy Scout strolls by your defenders and captures your base camp.

Then there are the mines. Oh God, the mines. The battlefields in Valkyria Chronicles are often peppered with land mines that can severely injure your soldiers and cripple your tanks. They’re easy to spot, but they’re also easy to forget about, and one second not spent looking at the ground can ruin an entire mission. Engineers can disarm them, so if you step on a mine and hear that distinctive “click,” stop where you are and get that wrench-slinger over there pronto. It would be nice if the bad guys could set off the mines, of if you could lay mines of your own, but they don’t, and you can’t. Sigh.

Valkyria Chronicles has been in stores for a while, but with the mountains of hype that were raised around its competitors, it’s likely you haven’t considered it. Mixing third-person shooter elements with turn-based strategy is a brilliant stroke, and while wargamers should grab it in a heartbeat, even newcomers to the genre should try it out. There’s a lot to learn, but the game rolls out the rules in a gentle, friendly manner, so it never gets overwhelming. It has a silly story and some irritations, but it’s nevertheless a well-designed and satisfying game. The only way it could be better would be to change its setting to the future and call itself X-Com.

Controller1.com rating: 3/3 (2/3 for non-strategy fans)

Lisvender

The Top Games of 2009 According to this Site

Controller1.com’s top games of this past year.

Sleeper of the Year (aka The game that came out of nowhere, the one you expected to ignore but couldn’t because of the great word of mouth)
RED FACTION: GUERRILLA. Volition and THQ’s third RF game came out of nowhere to be one hell of a blast of supercharged entertainment. Sure, Volition misunderstood the difference between easy and insane. But the core mechanics of the game and the freedom you had to progress meant few stumbling blocks to gaming nirvana. I have no idea what the story was about so let’s assume it’s rather ordinary and skip to the good bits: blowing things up. I can’t name a game where destruction has been done better.
Runner Up: Borderlands

Overhyped Game of the Year (AKA The game that was expected to make coffee, bend time and rule all but in the end was a bit meh)
KILLZONE 2. Sony and Guerrilla Game’s follow up to the justifiably ignored Killzone was meant to be many things. Here’s what it was and wasn’t.
IT WAS: A decent FPS, put together well and looked beautiful.
IT WASN’T: a system seller, or a particularly great game.
Year of PS3 got off to a false start and was almost disqualified from the race with KZ2.
Runner up: Scribblenaughts

Most Disappointing Game (AKA Games with buzz and hope that just didn’t deliver)
Wolfenstein Coulda, should but didna. Wolfenstein squandered the hope that long term fans had for a worthwhile follow up to Return to Castle Wolfenstein. What they got was a good single player that seemed to need a teeny bit more polish and content and a terrrrrrrrrible multiplayer. Do you get this game? Do you like MP more than SP? Flip a coin.
Runner Up: Modern Warfare 2

MOST IMPROVED (AKA They fixed the shit in the first one that was busted)
Assassin’s Creed II. Oh Lord is it ever so much better than the first game. In every single way, this game is more fun than the original. The content is better organised so that the game is not “here are 10 things you can do, go do each of them 500 times.” The whole concept is still a bit silly and Kristen Bell’s character looks like she had a lip transplant from the original Kryten but overall any game that has Uncharted Guy doing voices is good.
Runner Up: Uncharted 2

BEST DOWNLOADABLE CONTENT: SHADOW COMPLEX

BF1943, GTA episodes and Trials were there but Shadow Complex was by far the best DL only game released in 2009. A Metroidvania that’s probably more palatable to a modern audience (since it has Uncharted Guy doing voices, of course), the game managed to astound, entertain, stir up controversy and offer a good few hours of gameplay.
Runner Up: Halo 3 ODST (no, not really, but it should have been)

Best Game Only on Wii: NEW SUPER MARIO BROTHERS WII
OK, so it was really only one of two Wii games I bought this year. But it was the one I didn’t sell (HotD: Overkill). It’s frustrating as all fuck, has a save system that’s as pointless as the one in Dead Rising and I’m not playing it right now. Why am I not playing this right now? I don’t know.

Best Game Only on PS3: UNCHARTED 2
Sony had two really good games this year. Uncharted 2 and Infamous. Infamous is blown out of the water by Uncharted 2. Uncharted 2 is the quintessential adventure game. Whereas the first game promised platforming but delivered a gears of War Clone, the sequel mixes things up so successfully that you never realise when the game is going to go from one style to another. yes, you know at least once per chapter there will be something you’re standing in collapsing around you leaving you hanging from one arm but that’s beside the point.

Best Game Only on Xbox 360: SHADOW COMPLEX The 360 almost had a gap year with the only big exclusives being Forza 3 (which a LOT of people love and recognise as the driving game of 2009 to play), Halo 3: ODST which really was just a bit too much recycling with such a short single player campaign.

Best Game Only on PC- this is the year 2009.

Best Game on Everything: Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2. IW may have pissed off as many people as they please with MW2. There’s the story that eschews any semblance of realism for moments of turkey-slapping-a-sleeping-lion thrills, OTT Multiplayer perks and combos, poor matchmaking and the various PC issues that made the game into a must play for many into a meh for some.

Best Pissing Away Goodwill. TIE: Infinity Ward and Activision.
Infinity Ward for doing the dirty on PC gamers and Activision for driving Tony Hawk and Guitar Hero into the ground. Oh, and splitting Starcraft II into three different games.

Most Improved: Sony. They cut the PS3 price from hysterical to merely funny (after three years it’s finally at the PS2 launch price), released the Slim and released Uncharted and Infamous. It still takes way too long to download and install a patch and most people still spend more on Blu Ray than they do on PS3 games, and PS3 ports are still often slightly lagging behind 360 in terms of graphics but it’s basically where it should have been three years ago. Just in time for God of War III

Most Potential for 2010: Microsoft. Really, they sold the 360 well but didn’t release that many 1st party games so you’d think game over, but then you see they have Crackdown 2, Halo Reach and Alan Wake. And then there’s Natal.

Least Potential for 2010: Wii
So we have a vitality sensor as the big piece of hardware? Really? Few games still support Motion Plus. Few gamers care and the signs are than grandma doesn’t either.

Game of the Year: Uncharted 2. Are you at all surprised? Naughty Dog redeem themselves after the disasters that were the Jak and Daxter sequels. This is the only game this year that a non-gamer will sit and watch as if it were a movie and enjoy it.
Runner Up: Modern Warfare 2.

It was a pretty good year overall. The only disappointing part of the year was the end. While we had some cracking titles such as Uncharted 2, ODST, Left 3 Dead 2, Assassin’s Creed II, MW2 and Super Mario Wii it still felt like something was missing.Oh that’s right about 2 or 3 more must-haves in the lead up to Christmas that we wouldn’t get to play till 2010 anyway. Having them all come out in the first quarter of 2010 seems to have upset the natural balance.

Review: Uncharted 2

Reviewed on PS3. Developed by Naughty Dog. Published by SCEA/SCEE

So I can be one of the cool kids, I too am playing Naughty Dog’s latest. A bit over half way through the single player and what do I think? It’s excellent. It’s the game that sells the PS3 in a way the first game could only dream of and only Metal Gear IV came close to doing. It makes the PS3 sing in every way possible and is a rollicking good time to boot.
So why the hell is Elena’s voice so irritating to listen to in this? I don’t know. Maybe Nolan North’s sexy Drake voice just makes everyone wet (whether he’s in this, Shadow Complex or ODST). The Farscape chick has a way sexier voice when Chloe speaks. This is the game that makes animators cry look little girls and engine programmers weep into their Starcraft pajamas. It’s prettier than a prom date after the third whiskey and sounds better than Elvis and Michael Jackson releasing an album of Beatles covers.

How did we get here? Years ago, these guys made the first four Crash Bandicoot games. Then they made Jak and Daxter on the PS2. Then everyone who knew how to make a game died and they released Jak II. Obviously they’ve learned some sort of sorcery in order to resurrect the talent and produce this masterpiece.
At the start of the game you play as Drake after he’s been involved in a serious accident. Recovering his wits as best he can we quickly get start to see how Drake got to this point. Suckered in by friends and ex lovers, Drake ends up in jail, yada, yada, blah. So he climbs a lot more and there’s less ordinary Gears clone sequences. That’s what people who played the first game wanted to know. The first game was a lot of fun, a sleeper hit for PS3 but the second game ratchets up everything that matters. More climbing and more action sequences rather than static hide behind cover and shoot all the enemies in the area. The game almost does away with constant repetition. Almost.
One minute you’ll be having a gun battle, then climbing along the side of a moving train, then attempting to shoot down a helicopter with an RPG, then have a serious conversation with a chick with eyes glassier than an Apple store. It constantly changes so that you get a feeling the developers really took the criticism of the first game to heart and just worked their guts out to avoid the same complaints the second time around. On a train, being chased by a truck, in cars, on foot, climb this- It’s all there and it’s done in a way that doesn’t scream “Hey! They just copy and pasted that bit!”

The story is classic Indiana Jones without having to pay a rich old man royalties. You have Drake, his most recent flame, plus an old flame. It’s as if the Marion showed up in Last Crusade. Go here, do this, go here grab this. It all flows together well and you don’t think “well, here’s the sewer level. Here’s the Ice level. Here’s the desert level,” like you did in the Resistance games. It doesn’t matter if you don’t like a particular scene since it’s likely going to change in five minutes to something different anyway. The awesome sense of humour is intact and funny as ever. When you hit the Nepalese levels and reach the top of the hotel, jump in the pool.

The visuals are just draw dropping. Killzone 2 doesn’t look this good. It’s not perfect but it does what you expect of it. It’s bright and colourful in away that PS3/360 games aren’t known for yet feels real. Maybe Crysis on Max has better graphics but I’ll stick with Uncharted for my own benchmark. Sound is very good but really the voice artistes are the stars of this game almost as much as the gameplay and the visuals. The acting is perfect. It sure beats the silly voices in Killzone 2 and over the top theatrics of Kojima’s last epic. Yes, Elena’s voice is whiny but she’s whiny. You need that contrast with Chloe’s deeper voice. Drake may well be the best character to headline a game since Masterchief. Despite every lead character looking the same, you won’t be mixing him up with Sam Fisher, Ezio or that Shadow Complex guy. Well maybe that Shadow Complex guy.

The game even tweets for you much to the consternation of your followers. Funnily enough- I don’t think it actually works since I’ve set mine up and my twitter doesn’t actually have any of the auto-tweets there.
Uncharted 2 manages what Killzone 2 didn’t. It was actually more than a basic shooter that didn’t try to do anything new, just solidly. Uncharted manages to meet expectations and delivers on the hype and buzz surrounding its release. It deserves to sell far more than Gran Turismo 5 or Assassin’s Creed 2. Don’t have a PS3? Well now you have a reason to get that second job (though with the price now, it’s more like overtime on your first job)

Controller1.com rating 3/3

Also- “That is soooo Playstation 3″

So the PS3 is now cheaper (or will be in the next week or so). Yes Sony have been a bunch of dicks this generation and behind the ball on pricing and PSN. But a great library of games. Maybe not killer but still great. If you don’t already have a PS3 think about this:

Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune

Metal Gear Solid 4

Ratchet and Clank Future: Tools of Destruction.

Little Big Planet

Free PSN

Excellent Blu Ray player

easy to upgrade standard laptop hard drives

as well as the upcoming: R&C:A Crack in Time, Uncharted 2, God of War III and Heavy Rain (oh and FFXIII and GT5 for those that care)

Don’t think about:

Haze

Lair

Killzone 2

Resistance 2

Motorstorm

Heavenly Sword

multi hour patch and firmware downloads

still expensive

ugly matte finish

Sixaxis

no goddamn Backwards compatibility with PS2 apart from Singstar.

In short you should buy a PS3 if you don’t have already one. If you do have one, FFS- don’t sell it to buy the slim.

E3 2009- part 2. I Need a Drink

To continue: the Sony and Nintendo conferences were held today, the first day of the show, proper.

So let’s get into it….

Sony
God of War III is coming in March 2010. It looks like a painting come to life according to David Jaffe and I’m not going to argue with him, merely ask him not to visit goth art galleries anymore whilst inebriated. the fourth game in the trilogy 9(!) will close out the series (!).

PSP Go! was announced. People were shocked. People who woke up from coma’s were shocked anyway. Its a slimmer, UMD less PSP that will go on sale in a few months for US$250 alongside the current PSP-3000. PSP will finally see Gran Turismo portable, which seems to have taken a leaf out of Pokemon and Monster Hunter’s huge popularity in Japan by allowing trades over wifi. There’s a new Metal Gear portable game, Peacewalker or Pisstaker or something and this looks to be set a few years after Metal Gear 3. There’s the previously mentioned Little Big Planet PSP, Motorstorm and Assassin’s Creed PSP; as well as a newly announce PSP Resident Evi, PSP Infamous and PSP Soul Calibur.

On the PS3 front there’s the duel wand motion controller, currently unnamed and listed for release sometime in 2010. You can now get your waggle in three different flavours, depending on which system you own. As far as games go there weren’t many surprises, as most had been either announced, teased or leaked before the show. What games were shown mostly look pretty cool. Uncharted 2 looks to be fantastic, but we new that. MAG looks to be big and expansive but we knew that. The demo was nice in showing the strengths and weakness of the concept. Another quick look at the new Ratchet game in one of Sony’s many montages and a new Final Fantasy online game, FFXIV for release in 2010 on PS3 only.
But the exclusive that looks most intriguing is Agent, from Rock Star. Its set in the 70′s so I’m sure we’ll get that period completely inaccurate (you know early 70′s hippie fashions and giant afros with disco music). You’re an assassin. Its a Rock Star game so you’re never going to be handing out leaflets in a mall.
Assassin’s Creed 2, not shown on the Ubi conference, was demoed but as Jade Raymond was no where to be seen we’ll skip that. Just kidding. Can this game redeem the flaws of the original? Time will tell. PS3 is getting some exclusive DLC. Its called the PSP version and if you buy that, you get some extra weapons to use. Also shown is a cartoon racer where you can make and share tracks. Moving right along, there’s The Last Guardian, from the makers of Ico and Shadow of the Colossus. Even though the trailer showed up on the web a few days ago, its still nice to see.
Overall, better than last year but we knew 95% of the content previously so the surprise factor was lower. Personally, GoW III, Ratchet and Uncharted 2 are my must haves on PS3 out of what was shown here.

Nintendo
Well, if they could put the word Mario into any more products they would. They started by talking about mario’s evolution and how they want to take Mario into 4D. By this they mean a 4-player coop version of All New Super Mario Brothers for Wii. A 2D renaissance has taken place with this and Epic’s XBLA game announced yesterday, but hopefully this won’t merely be the DS game upscaled for Wii (though bets on that’s exactly what this is).
Of course there would be WiiFit 2. Nintendo may not be making the kewl games like they used to but your grandma needs something to do in between lawn bowls and writing angry letters to the newspaper. Motion Plus was pimped yet again, with what seemed to be a familiar montage of what you could do with it (deja vu circa the Wii’s2006 launch).
Wii Sports resort seems to be less of a tech demo and more of a “this is what we should have done all along” game.
Along the same vein, Red Steel 2 (Motion plus only, it seems) is going to try and fulfill the promises Ubi made in 2006 with the big selling but reviled original.
We have a Final Fantasy game for Wii, Crystal something. Open world gayness from SE. Weeeeee. A DS Kingdom HeartZzzzzzzzz. Mario and Luigi told from Bowser’s side. oh dear. Golden Sun. Oh well, some fanboys should be happy. But Women’s Murder Club? Cops: A recruit ?. I think my DS will be getting dustier and dustier.
Mario Vs Donkey Kong Mini’s March Again, is more puzzling action, this time with a level editor- buts its a DSi Ware game only. As is a Wario Ware title where you make your own games. I sometimes thing games where the idea is to make your own games is rather lazy on the part of developers.

There was a long build up to an announcement by Satoru Iwata (Nintendo Japan Head dude). The build up was to one of those cheap things you clip on your finger to monitor your heart-rate. The internet goes “huh?” The next announcement lead to believe its a joke at the expense of fanboys. Its Super Mario Galaxy 2 for Wii!

Also, making sense of the recent bundling of the three Metroid prime games on one disc is a new Metroid Game from Team Ninja. Its called Other M. And its semi side scrolling.