My problem is when my kids play Need For Speed on the PSP, the controller stays stuck towards the left so when driving my son has to be hitting the right steering button to maintain the car as straight as possible. Siometimes it works fine, sometimes it doesn.t I can't always tell but this does not seem to affect any of the other features in the PSP. It's the only game we have at the moment so I can't reference another game to say it happens there as well. Any ideas why this could be happenin...
In an effort to once again catch up my reviewing to my gameplay I need to push out a trio of these quick reviews. Most of these titles are being glossed over - rather than my normal, more in-depth reviews - for any number of reasons. Be it time constraints, the title's age, their quality and mostly, because I want to do a 2008 Year In Review piece before the end of the first quarter! First up on my list comes a trio of titles not even released in 2008, but ones I finished somet...
When the Wii's unusual specifications were originally announced back at the 2005 Tokyo Game Show there were two Sega properties that I could not wait for. The first was the Super Monkey Ball series, which I have been in love with since its inception on GameCube (partially due to my infatuation with a little NES gem called Marble Madness). The second product from Sega I was anticipating isn't so much a franchise, it is a whole genre, the Light-gun genre. You see the Wii Rem...
... Disappointed Regular readers probably know that I love Major League Baseball. I cheer for my favorite team as they try to win, cry some internal tears when they lose heartbreaking games, and curse them mightily when they fail to show effort or enthusiasm. In addition to supporting my favorite team by going to games at their ballpark and watching games on my TV, I also greatly enjoy playing a good MLB video game where I get to play as my favorite team and players. One of the...
I was surfing and I ran across this great read from GamePolitics.com, It is an interview with Randy Stude from PC Gaming Alliance. In this article they talk about piracy, online distribution, And how Vista effected the PC gaming market. But the One that I would like to talk about is the question about GP: "Could the outrageous development cost of new consoles bring PC gaming back to the mainstream?" RS: "The guts of every console should tell you that the capability ...
So I was a few days late to the parade, but I did end up getting the Xbox 360 update (New Xbox Experience, or NXE). I got it like 3 days after it's launch of November 19th. It downloaded pretty fast, installed quickly, and the changes that it brings are pretty cool. One of the more popular changes, (if my friends list is any indication), is the ability to stream Netflix in HD. For the past week or two, at least half of my friends status' have said "(friend name) is playing N...
Ruff, ruff!
This quote comes from one of the only, if not the only (aside from Half-Life 2's Alyx Vance), video game companion that never becomes annoying or troublesome to gamers. One of the most recurring problems in any video game is that of trying to create a companion in a video game that can tag along with a player character's exploits throughout a game in a fashion that is not only realistic but, more to the point, doesn't require constant babysitting to avoid the common video game companion pitfalls of getting stuck, going the wrong way, or committing suicide in one of any number of possible ways depending on the hazards that fill a game world. It's an understandably difficult game mechanic to have in that, especially in an intimate single-player game experience, to have an AI intelligent enough to act predictably "human" in the same way that the person controlling the main character would act.
Ruff, ruff!
This quote is arguably the most memorable thing that players will experience in all of Lionhead's recently-released Fable 2. It doesn't come from farting to impress women to the point of marrying you. It doesn't come from the manual or various cinematics. It certainly doesn't come from the wooden and awkwardly-presented narrative cutscenes. No, the above quote comes from -- and I'm sure this is a surprise -- the only dog known to the world of Fable 2: the player's dog that can change names as often as it changes collars (no, really). The little furry fella attaches himself to the player's character from an early point in the game and, from then on out, is by his side throughout a majority of the rest of the game. The dog is not the interface but, instead, a helper to the main character; he will point out treasure chests, dig spots, and he will help in combat from time-to-time.
Storytelling in games has been a hit or miss thing. More often than not story and game play will get in the way of each other and as a result, one of them gets injured beyond repair. Sometimes those sacrifices are justified. But if you DO have to sacrifice one, you better make sure that the other makes up for any apparent losses as a result. Braid is one of those games where the games play and the story blend... Wait a moment, let me stop myself right there. Braid's game play and story WOULD bl...
On paper, Dead Space is a game where a voiceless protagonist fights aliens aboard a gigantic space ship whose crew has been ruthlessly slaughtered. In practice, though, Dead Space's existence is a fresh entry in the action/horror genre that justifies its existence from the introductory sequence to its movie-caliber conclusion. Every chapter is more violent and horrific than its predecessor while, at the same time, it demonstrates a more comfortable new franchise that excels when its vacuum, zero-gravity, limb-severing gameplay mechanics feel comfortable enough to all combine into a single antechamber. It may start off a bit slow, but once it gets going, the team at EA Redwood demonstrates their deep understanding of their own game.
Dead Space has a very deliberate pacing that helps deliver its consistent feeling of impending doom that makes the action within the game have a fairly prescient meaning. It's a horror game whose scares don't rely on cheap startling tactics (or if it attempted them, they don't work), but rather its ability to make players approach every corridor and room as if they were bombs that could explode at any moment. At no point in the twelve hours it took me to play through Dead Space did the laundry list of objectives given to my voiceless character feel like chores.
Dead Space tells its story through a series of audio and text logs and a handful of interactions. It makes its narrative seem as a pretext for violence early on while it grows slowly through each chapter until, suddenly, it becomes a legitimately entertaining and interesting tale that doesn't rely on cheap plot devices or a tangled web of twists until it feels it's earned the right to drop a bombshell or two.
Most importantly, Dead Space carves a niche that only it can fill. It's neither Resident Evil 4, DOOM 3, nor System Shock 2; it takes its influences and makes them its own.
Found this interesting retrospective on the SEGA Dreamcast.
Ok, so, I know that Mario Kart Wii came out a long time ago... So long ago that I can't really remember (that it means much... I barely remember what I did yesterday). But, I figured I'd finally get my 2 cents in now that I've got a good handle on the game. Alright, now, let me say first, I am a DIEHARD Wii Wheel fan. Omg... It makes me happy just to put it in my hands... Plus, I'm fairly adept with it (I can challenge all 32 Fast Staff Ghost times with it, Baby Luigi and the Bullet Bike), so...
I bought Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (PS3) on Wedensday and i have just finished it, it's Friday morning here. (I'm in Australia.) What a dissapointment. It's a great looking game, and it plays really well, but there is only something like 10 levels...i didn't count them, but it was such a short game. I really expected alot more depth in the game, it seems they sacrificed the depth and longevity of the game to focus on the visual aspect and how it plays. I mean they really excelled at t...
Here we are with another small bit of writing by kurtin for your reading pleasure. This post was inspired by a recent comment I made by having to reflect on video games I've been addicted to. See this week's Friday Five, by Boudica to get involved and get to know more about community members in little pieces. My response to that question about video game addictions had me reaching back in the vault, since video games have been a huge part of my life since kindergarten and the N...
In the next couple of months we have a couple more Star Wars games coming out. I think the last Star Wars game I played was KOTOR II a while back, which is a game I really enjoyed playing. First up next month will be Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. Talking with a bunch of people on various gaming forums, this seems to the SW game people have been waiting for. I think the biggest appeal I have seen so far is the incredible looking force effects which will allow you to have...
Those who followed the various announcements at E3 earlier this month probably recall the news of the Wii MotionPlus, which Nintendo said would finally bring true one-to-one motion sensing to the console, rather than the limited pointer-tracking and simple motion controls we've had so far.
Does the new add-on deliver? See for yourself in this video that AiLive (the company who helped Nintendo develop the MotionPlus) posted earlier this week...