Yellow Light Of Death

Just got hit by the YLOD. Now I’m gonna have to fork out for one of those shit slimline models that don’t play PS2 games.

EDIT: I’ve tried and tried but alas, I couldn’t fix my PS3. I’m not gonna bother with Sony’s customer service, I’m just gonna take it somewhere tomorrow to be fixed. And if they can’t fix it, I’m gonna buy a Slim. Sure they can’t play PS2 games, but I can always grab a second-hand PS2 from somewhere.

EDIT: Grabbed myself a 120GB Slim with Rachet & Clank: A Crack In Time for £145. Traded in my broken 60GB model so I got it for less.

Driver: San Francisco

Here’s a blast from the past – remember Driver? Well, Reflections (now owned by Ubisoft) have announced that the legendary driving franchise shall return later this year on PC, PS3, Xbox 360, Mac and possibly the Wii at this year’s E3.

I’ve been waiting for this game for just over 4 years and judging from this trailer, it’s going to be a hoot.

But there’s more – gameplay!

From that video, it’s obvious that Driver is officially back. And by Driver I mean the two original PS1 titles, not the God-awful PS2 titles (GTA clones, which is ironic as GTA wouldn’t exist if it weren’t were Driver). I’m not sure about the whole “Tanner-being-in-a-coma-and-having-supernatural-powers-that-allow-him-to-teleport-to-different-vehicles” thing. To be honest I think it’s shit and belongs to Science Fiction version of Pursuit Force, not Driver. But hey, San Francisco is practically a reboot of the franchise so I guess it needs something new and interesting. Lets just hope it doesn’t turn out as shit as it looks/sounds.

So no more GTA knock-offs. San Francisco will take the franchise back to its routes. Which if you ask me, has been a long time coming.

Epic fail for Microsoft

Before you say it, no, this is not fake. It’s an official report recently taken from Metacritic. PS3 has a higher average score, almost 3 times bigger than the 360. And that’s from just 60 exclusive games compared to the 360′s 218 exclusive games.

Up yours, Microsoft fanboys. Less is more, quality not quantity.

Red Dead: Redemption – PS3 vs Xbox 360

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I honestly cannot tell the difference.

0:06 – The water and the ship look exactly the same.
0:08 – PS3 version is darker, but that doesn’t mean it’s any better or worse than the 360 version.
0:11 – Identical.
0:13 – Darker on PS3, but identical.
0:20 – Darker on PS3, but identical.
0:23 – Exactly the same (The sky looks different on the PS3 version because it was recorded at a different time of day during the game).
0:28, 0:31, 0:34, 0:37-0:43, 0:44, 0:48-0:54, 0:54, 0:55-1:04, 1:04 & 1:05 – ALL IDENTICAL.

For those who say the 360 version looks better, or vice-versa, then you are obviously blind. I bet you’re one of those people who can’t tell the difference between video quality on a DVD and a Blu-ray. Blu-ray is blatantly better than DVD, and Red Dead: Redemption looks exactly the same on both versions. So stop complaining and play the damn game, like we did in the good old days.

Now, if RDR was released on the PC then that would be a completely different story. *hint hint Rockstar!*

Crytek: Crysis 2 Runs Better on PS3

But of course it does. The PS3 is far more powerful than the Xbox 360 and even most standard PCs. What I’m talking about is that the video game company Crytek have reported that their upcoming game Crysis 2 runs better on the PS3 than the Xbox 360. Many developers have found the PS3′s hardware difficult to work with and were not able to deliver with as much quality as the 360. e.g. F.E.A.R., Bayonetta and just about every port made by EA Games. Read my post about console ports for more details.

Crytek are joining the console generation fairly late and are therefore more capable of developing a good game by learning from other developers’ mistakes. But they aren’t the first developer to do that. Do the words “Naughty Dog” and “Uncharted” ring any bells? They completely blew every other developer and game out of the water with Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, and even more-so with Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. So I guess this is a sign of things to come – developers are slowly getting better. And with Blu-Ray movies coming down in price, this is a very good time to be glad, proud and excited that you own a PS3.

Designer/Co-founder of Heavenly Sword says the PS3′s 3D capabilities will be “limited”.

Tameem Antoniades: “The problem is that to do 3D properly you need to render 60 frames per second, per eye. And at least a 720p resolution [per eye]. “So in essence that’s 1080p rendering at 120 frames per second, and the current generation can only process very rudimentary graphics at that spec.”

“I think the technology’s limited now, so you won’t be able to play stuff that looks like Avatar — the movie — in 3D,” he explained. “Every generation has to be at least five-to-ten times more powerful than the last, so I think we’ll get there in the next generation. I think that will be totally revolutionary for games.”

That’s rich coming from someone who designed and co-founded a boring, ugly, repetitive button-masher which only sold 1.5 million copies and was clearly a rip-off of God Of War.

PlayStation Move

I consider myself a fairly hardcore Sony fan. I’ve owned every gaming platform they’ve ever released and have been nothing but impressed by their efforts.

But now, they appear to be merely copying Nintendo. With the recent announcement of PlayStation Move, I’m baffled as to how they are getting away with it. Watch the launch trailer for it and tell me that it isn’t a clone of the Wii…

What’s that I hear you say? “It looks exactly like the Wii”? I thought so too.

To make matters worse, Sony are copying the Wii and they know it. They seem somewhat proud of themselves, thinking that they’re improving the Wii. Last time I checked, “You can put lipstick on a pig, but it’s still a pig”.

And providing the icing for this harebrained confectionery, is Kevin Butler.

I have now totally lost my faith in Sony.

And what a douche – “Real boxers don’t hit like this” *mocks Wii Boxing* – Surely Nintendo could sue him for that.
“PlayStation Move is not only crazy precise (a semantically null sentence), it’s also got what we in the future all buttons which turn out to be pretty important to those ???-millions of people who enjoy playing shooters, platformers or… well, anything that doesn’t involve catching a big red ball so… I mean, c’mon, who wants to pretend their hand is a gun? What is this? 3rd grade?” – Not only can he barely string a correct sentence together, but openly mocking the Wii like that is just childish and unprofessional.

I don’t know who to turn to now. Sony’s always been my favourite of the big 3 companies, but now they’ve turned into Nintendo. And Microsoft are doing that exact same thing only they’re using full body control so they can get away with it more easily. C’mon, Nintendo got into the whole motion controller thing first and they did it well. There’s no need to copy it and make it “better”.

I won’t be surprised if Nintendo files a massive lawsuit against both Sony and Microsoft for stealing their idea, causing both companies to loose huge amounts of money and forcing them to concentrate on the other big new trend. That’s right, 3D. God help us all.

Heavy Rain review – 9.4/10

Not exactly sure that it’s finished, but here it is.

Heavy Rain – PS3.
Rating – 18+, M.

Many games in the past have tried to be like Hollywood movies – Metal Gear Solid, Uncharted and inbetween those two was Fahrenheit (Indigo Prophecy). Now, from Quantic Dream, the makers of Fahrenheit, comes Heavy Rain.

It’s hard to describe what type of game Heavy Rain is. Just ignore what Wikipedia says, it’s not an “interactive drama“. Well, it is actually, but at its core it’s an adventure game. Or to be more precise, a dark film noir crime thriller.

It takes place in a dreary suburban area of America and there’s a serial killer on the loose. He waits until it’s Fall when there’s lots of rain, kidnaps a small boy, slowly drowns them in rain water and then leave their body with an origami figure in one of their hands and an orchid on their chest. He is dubbed “The Origami Killer”. You take on the role of 4 different characters all attempting to track down this vicious maniac. You have Ethan Mars; an architect and family man, Madison Paige; a news journalist suffering from insomnia desperate for and willing to do anything (and I mean anything) to get a decent story, Norman Jayden; an FBI agent shipped over from Washington who is assigned to the Origami Killer case and Scott Shelby; a Private Investigator hired by the families of the Origami Killer’s victims.

The game keeps switching between the four characters with each chapter but the main storyline focuses mostly on Ethan, who is dramatically depressed after the loss of his son Jason. It tears his marriage and remaining family apart leaving him very protective of his other son, Shaun. But not protective enough because several years later, Shaun mysteriously disappears. Ethan is then given a box full of origami figures from the killer, each containing an address to which he must go to and complete a series of trials to prove his love for Shaun. Throughout the course of the story he encounters the three other characters as they all travel down their separate paths in the plot. It reminded me of several Quentin Tarantino movies, the good ones anyway.

The gameplay in Heavy Rain is somewhat confusing. When the game was announced, at first glance it appeared to be just mere Quick Time Events. But that actually isn’t the case. QTEs are supposed to result in the player dying instantly if the correct button is not pressed. But in Heavy Rain, if a button is missed the game keeps going giving you a chance to redeem yourself with the next button press and also changes the circumstances. For example: You knock on somebody’s door hoping to question them about the recent killings only to have them slam the door in your face. Before this happens a button prompt appears on the screen. If you press it, you will grab the door and ask them to reconsider their objection. If you miss it, the door is shut and you have to knock again. Now that doesn’t sound like much of life changing decision, does it? Not to worry, you will have to make some much bigger and more vital decisions further down the line, sometimes deciding whether a character lives or dies. So don’t listen to whoever says it has no depth and is just a bunch of QTEs because they’re wrong. It’s actually a very engaging way of storytelling, leaving the player not always knowing what’s going to happen depending on which choice they make. Sometimes they’re forced to make choices they don’t want to make, which is far more stimulating that most other story-driven titles. The QTEs aren’t just face buttons either, you get to use the L&R buttons and the right analogue stick too, making for some pretty complex button combinations whilst moving the analogue stick in a certain direction at the same time.

Heavy Rain has to be one of the most beautiful games on the PS3 to date. Quantic Dream didn’t really put graphics down as a number one priority during development, but that didn’t stop them from stretching the PS3′s remaining processing power to its limits to deliver an incredibly good looking game. Each character’s face, eyes and lip sync is spot on and animated gloriously with some of the best motion capturing I have ever seen. The world is a dark, dismal and bleak setting which works brilliantly with the constant rainfall. Which is where Heavy Rain really shines, obviously. The rain surpasses Uncharted 2′s water effects, that’s how good it is. It falls from the sky and hits the ground realistically, creates ripples and puddles, drips down objects and people’s faces and makes everything it touches glisten. It also acts as a form of somewhat dramatic irony, as well as an awesome vista to behold and completes an amazingly atmospheric world.

Okay, the bad stuff. Yes, even Heavy Rain has its shortcomings.
First off, I mentioned just now that graphics weren’t Quantic Dream’s number one priority. Well let me elaborate on that a tad. While the characters and the rain look fantastic, there are a quite a lot of textures in the world that are pretty low-res. Mostly objects that the characters interact with, making several of the cut-scenes a bit disappointing to look it. There’s also some occasional dodgy animations, especially while manually controlling a character. As motion capture was not used for these sections they often end up looking like Batman in Batman: Arkham Asylum – robotic, walking in a straight line with their arms down by their sides. Parts of the storyline aren’t particularly well written, causing some (minor) plot holes. But nothing too distracting.

Heavy Rain isn’t just a game, it’s a game that is so close to being a movie it might as well be a movie. It looks and sounds great, the characters are brilliant and relatable, the story is enthralling and it plays with your emotions; good and bad. It’s a complete experience that you could only get from a movie, but in game form. Which is quite a remarkable achievement.
Despite it’s problems, Heavy Rain is the best PS3 game to come out this year so far and is essentially a great sequel to Fahrenheit. Fans of Fahrenheit will love it and players who aren’t fans of Fahrenheit will still love it for it’s unique style of storytelling and immersion.

The Good

• Each character looks fantastic. Some of the best facial recognition technology was used here and it really pays off.
• The rain… it’s so… beautiful…
• A great story that not only excites you, but also upsets and angers you which is extremely rare when it comes to video games.
• A killer soundtrack complete with eerie, orchestral and downright terrifying music.
• A complex difficulty setting system that makes the game suitable for hardcore gamers, casual gamers and people that are new to gaming.

The Bad

• The story takes a while to get going, spending a good chunk of the start getting you used to the controls and the setting.
• Some dodgy looking animations in the manual control sections, as well as some not-quite-believable animations during cut-scenes.
• Low-res world textures diminish the overall visuals.
• Some of the actors aren't American, and you can tell. Not all of they're voices sound completely American, especially Ethan's and Norman's.

My score

9.4/10

Addicted to Heavy Rain

It arrived on my doorstep 2 days ago and I literally have not stopped playing it since. It is so goddamn addictive!

I’ve beaten the story once and am currently working on getting all the remaining trophies and the rest of the alternative endings/outcomes. Then I will finally get round to my review, but it probably won’t be for a while seeing as there is so much to review for this game.

Aliens vs Predator review – 6.8.0/10

Aliens vs Predator– PC, PS3 & Xbox 360.
Rating – 16+, T.

I don’t normally review, or play for that matter, games based on films. Or watch films based on games, or whatever. But when I saw a trailer for the then-upcoming AvP game I was intrigued, and after playing the multiplayer demo I was hooked. So I watched the two AvP movies and then jumped straight into the full version of this game.

The game is divided into three separate campaigns; Alien, Predator & Marine. I’ll review each campaign’s positive and negative points individually, starting with the Alien.

If you’ve ever played a Spider-Man game then you’ll feel right at home with the Alien – moving really fast and being able to crawl on almost any surface. The core gameplay is based around stealth. The Alien may be tough but it won’t survive a few shots from a pulse rifle or shotgun. So you’ll find yourself sticking to shadows, crawling on walls & ceilings and attacking enemies from behind with some extremely satisfyingly gruesome stealth kills. You control the Alien in the First Person view, which takes some getting used to. Crawling on walls in First Person can get a little confusing, disorientating and frustrating at times, especially when you’re trying to run away from some Marines armed to the teeth with laser-sighted M41As and grenades. But the overall experience is fun and quite unique. The Alien has two attacks; a light attack and a heavy attack. Which merely consist of a quick jab from it’s claws and an even harder jab from it’s claws/tail.

With the Predator, you have much more attacks at your disposal. You have your basic light and heavy melee attacks like the Alien, a pulse cannon mounted on your shoulder, proxy mines, a spear for long ranged attacks and a metal buzzsaw that acts like a boomerang. So yeah, a lot more firepower. The game runs on the same basic principles as the Alien campaign – stealth. In order to stay alive, the vast majority of your kills should be made from afar. But that shouldn’t stop you from trying to make all of your kills up close. Because it’s fun and rather challenging as the Predator is slightly underpowered at close range. You also have the ability to cloak yourself so that you cannot be seen as easily. Killing Marines as a Predator is incredibly satisfying. For example you can jump on one from above Assassin’s Creed-style, stick your claws through their back and rip their spine out with their head still attached.

Finally, the Marine. There isn’t really much to say about this campaign really. Except that it’s your basic First Person Shooter. You can use pulse rifles, shotguns, pistols, sniper rifles, grenades and your own bare hands. The gameplay works well, but I couldn’t help but notice that certain features that you’d expect to see in your average FPS were absent. For example, the ability to crouch or lean around corners.

Now for the negative stuff. All three of the campaigns are very short (five missions for the Alien & Predator, six missions for the Marine) and kind of leave you feeling like you’ve been cheated. Especially the Alien campaign. You fight a ton of Marines but only get to fight three Predators right at the end. That’s right, only three. In fact the other two campaigns are kind of odd too; you only fight one Predator as a Marine and you fight a fuck load of Marines as an Alien and a Predator. That may sound like the Predator has the best campaign, and for overall entertainment, it does. But both the Alien and Predator suffer the same problem: the melee attacks just feel like pure button-mashing and the animations that go with them don’t always fit or look right. The AI for the Marines when you’re playing as an Alien/Predator isn’t that great either. On many occasions I have snuck up next to a Marine (making quite a lot of noise and in broad daylight) and been completely ignored. They just walked right past me, giving me an easy stealth kill.

Graphically, the game looks rather good at times. There’s some impressive particle, dust and lighting effects to be found as well as some very good character models. But most of the time you’ll be looking at bland and somewhat boring, colours, textures and level design. You’ll be forever crawling through air ducts as an Alien and looking for switches and buttons as a Predator and Marine, which gets a bit tedious after a while. It would have been nice to explore the Predator’s ship as an Alien/Marine, but unfortunately you’re just confined to jungles, the Predator’s pyramid and some dark & dingy buildings.

Predominantly, Aliens vs Predator is a good game. A very good game in fact if you can look past all the poor design choices, sloppy textures, clunky melee attacks and repetitive animations. Maybe if Rebellion had used Unreal Engine 3, which Sega is using for their next title “Aliens: Colonial Marines“, instead of an engine that was responsible for some not-so-great titles, the end product would have been better.

The Good

- The Aliens & Predators look and sound exactly like they should. All the detail and sound effects from the movies are in there and they work brilliantly.

- Being attacked in a narrow corridor by a group of Aliens or suddenly being shot at by a distant, cloaked Predator really puts you in the shoes of the Marine. Playing as an Alien/Predator feels a little detached but the Marine feels like a more complete game.

- Really, really fun multiplayer. If you didn’t like the three campaigns then you might like the somewhat old school multiplayer. Imagine Doom 3 meets Unreal Tournament.

The Bad

- Bland and boring textures, silly level design and clumsy melee attacks really diminish the game’s overall experience.

- The three campaigns are meant to follow the same path, and they do, to a certain extent. But they don’t really intertwine all that well, creating a rather confusing storyline for those who haven’t seen the two movies. Hell, I was a bit confused and I have seen the two movies.

- The dodgy AI (walking too slowly, ignoring you, getting temporarily stuck on random objects), not-so-great lip-sync and slightly unbelievable animations make you wonder just how much time Rebellion actually put into this game.

My Score
I really wanted to give this at least a 7.0, but it just doesn’t quite cut it. It’s close, but not close enough – 6.8/10