We Hope Tekken 6 Includes A Cat-Walk Stage.
You know what, Tekken has got to a point where its biggest hook is how ridiculous it is. So it totally makes sense to get female anime clothes designers working on the the latest iteration of the franchise, Tekken 6. In the above image, you’ll note Jin wearing a wonderful white, erm, jacket-robe-type-thing.
We’re sure that’s a term used in the fashion industry.
Namco Museum Essentials Will Be Available In North America This July.
Already available in the Japan, Namco Museum Essentials is coming to North America this July. Including Pac-man, Galaga, Dig Dug, Dragon Spirit, Xevious, and a new 1080p “re-envisioned” Xevious: Resurrection, you’ll be able to compete in leaderboards and earn Home rewards for good performances.
Namco Bandai will also be launching a new destination within PlayStation Home simultaneously with the release of Museum Essentials, which will include a demo of the former aswell as provide a hub for all things Namco.
In this developer diary, MAG creators Zipper Interactive talk about the background plot that drives their new multiplayer shooter from a narrative stand-point. It’s rather interesting to hear Zipper talk about MAG in a context that represents more than just multiplayer shooting.
They also talk about the possibilities of using the universe they’ve created in other genres.
Modern Warfare 2 Will Launch With A Collector's Edition.
Well here’s a shocker to spit your cornflakes out over. Modern Warfare 2 is going to get a Collector’s Edition. Surprise!
A Gamestop listing confirms the package to be $80, although of course, that’s subject to change. According to Joystiq (who got in touch with Infinity Ward’s community manager Robert Bowling), the collector’s edition is currently going through some quality checks and we should see it soon.
Ghostbusters - Apparently A Bit Rougher On PS3.
We played through and reviewed Ghostbusters: The Video Game last week. Honestly, we thought graphically it looked fine. Far from the succulent kind of visuals you come to expect from Playstation 3 exclusives these days, but fine. Hence why when Lens Of Truth broke the news of sub-standard graphics in the PS3 version (when compared to the XBOX 360) we ignored it. Honestly, the game did and still does look fine on PS3 in our opinion — something that we thought had been cleared up by the Gametrailers comparison where they look almost identical. Alas Richard Leadbetter - director of HD consultancy and author of Eurogamer’s Digital Foundry - compared playing Ghostbusters on the PS3 to “time-warping back to the dawn of PS3 development.” Not good then?
Seeing as how virtually all PS3 games fare almost identically to their counterparts these days, this is pretty sad news. The irony is not lost on most either, who are aware that Terminal Reality themselves claimed that the XBOX 360 was holding them back, “we’re one of the few developers who love the PS3 and have a great time with it. We have great technology for the PS3 and we want to show it off.”
Aiming to clear up the controversy, Joystiq went directly to Terminal Reality for a comment on the controversy. The response?
“For the record, the PS3 version [of Ghostbusters] is softer due to the ‘quincunx’ antialiasing filter and the fact we render at about 75% the resolution of the 360 version. So you cannot directly compare a screen shot of one to the other unless you scale them properly. The PS3 does have less available RAM than the 360 – but we managed to squeeze 3 out of 4 textures as full size on the PS3.”
Sigh. To be honest with you guys, these comparisons only serve as flame-bait. While it’s a shame to see the PS3 version fare so poorly, especially in an age where multiplatform games are mostly identical, we gave it three squares last week before we even knew the XBOX 360 version looked “better”. What does that tell you? You can still enjoy the game.
Sometimes We Wish We Could Grow A Beard Like That.
We kinda love free LittleBigPlanet costumes. Well to be fair, we love the premium ones too. But free is always the most enticing price. Like this Druid sackboy - who will be available for free in order to celebrate the summer solstice. He has a great beard don’t you think? The costume will be available for a week as of today for Europeans, and next week for North Americans.
People are already itching over using the white-robe in order to create an Altair costume.
Sony have made no hesitation of letting people know that their motion control technology has been around for a long, long time. In fact, it was being worked on around the time of the Playstation 2, when the Eye Toy was new. Check out the video above and you’ll actually see Dr. Richard Marks demonstrate a similar concept to the PS3’s motion controller on the PS2.
The PS2 version clearly isn’t doing 1:1 tracking, but it’s still rather impressive. Check out the E3 demonstration after the jump to compare how far the technology has come.
It’s the hand-writing that gets us.
Red Faction Guerrilla Multiplayer Impressions.
There have been a lot of tacked-on multiplayer components in recent months. Components there to tick a box on a press release. We went into Red Faction Guerrilla’s multiplayer expecting a similar experience but came out with mild addiction. Red Faction Guerrilla’s multiplayer rocks.
The biggest hook of Red Faction Guerrilla’s online component is that you’re constantly unlocking new content. Earning XP will provide you with a number of worthwhile unlocks - which in return help you to maximise XP. The bonus XP system is a wonderful way of rewarding those who have spent time with the game, without penalising those who haven’t. XP is generous, rewarding you for being a team and it really encourages unity within the online component.
The modes on offer range from the standard fare deathmatch and team anarchy, to the more adventurous Siege and Destroyer. Destroyer gives one person on each team the ability to take down a number of buildings in return for points. Alas, the destroyer is marked on the map and will be hunted down by the opponents. Siege is also rather interesting - set over two rounds teams will be tasked with either defending or destroying a set of buildings. Points are earned for destruction but the defending team can use a special weapon that allows them to repair buildings and lower the opposing team’s score.
The whole experience is wrapped up into a functioning system - players can party-up after matches and invite friends. The matchmaking is also fairly speedy, although you do get the impression the servers are a little thin at some periods throughout the day.
Alas, it’s a pretty awesome experience all around, and one you’ll be seeing the PushSquare team in quite a lot over the coming months. In a period when online multiplayer seems tacked on - Red Faction Guerrilla looks to be the first title we intend to spend more than an hour with since CoD4.
Eye Pet looks like it’s going to be massive fun for kids. Drawing objects, scanning them in and taking control of them within the game sounds really exciting. We can’t wait to see how people take to this game because it looks like enormous fun.
European Playstation Store Updates: 18th June 2009
Add-on Content
Videos
Guitar Hero World Tour DLC
Ben Harper Track Pack (£4.39/€5.99)
Rock Band DLC
Evanescence Pack 01 (£2.49/€3.99)
Spinal Tap Pack 01 (£4.99/€7.99)
Grand Theft Auto IV Is Now That Bit Cheaper In Japan.
Remember everyone’s favourite game of yesteryear Grand Theft Auto IV? Well, if you’re Japanese, have a PS3 and are yet to play this game - dude, it just got a bit cheaper. Now a part of Sony’s budget line, GTAIV will cost just ¥3,990 (US$41).
Here’s a quick look at the new inFamous space for Playstation Home which includes a host of new activities including a Reaper zapping minigame. The space also allows you to design your own graffiti, which can be voted on by other Home users.
The space will be available from tomorrow, July 2nd.
Sony Have Sent Out Another Survey Asking For Home Feedback.
A Playstation Home survey has been sent out to Playstation owners in order to help gauge the future of the platform. The survey hints at music sharing, video sharing and trophy support among many others. Recipients are asked to rate the concepts based on how likely they are to get them to return to the Home service. One section asks users to indicate what types of streaming media they’d like to see in the theater, such as full movies and TV shows, indie movies, music videos, developer interviews and stand up comedy.
The survey also hints at interactive demos of Playstation products and minigames. How many of the ideas will make it into Home is unknown but it’s nice to see Sony coming to their userbase for opinion.
Want To Be In This? Forget The UFC Then!
A rumour spawning from the mixedmartialarts.com forums suggests that any fighters looking to join EA’s upcoming MMA release will be blacklisted by the UFC. So essentially, any fighter that signs up to MMA will never be endorsed by the UFC.
Considering the sales of UFC 2009 Undisputed it kind of makes sense. But it all just seems a bit sinister. We’ll keep you posted on any developments. Purely speculation at the moment.
Yeck Entertainment Have Worked On The Likes Of Legend Of Glory In The Past.
Yeck Entertainment are working on an MMO for Sony Computer Entertainment Taiwan according to Siliconera. The team have worked on the likes of Legend Of Glory in the past. Given the size of the Taiwanese market, it’s being speculated that the release will likely be brought to the mainstream rather than just target one small market.
Sadly details are extremely scarce right now so we’ll have to wait for more details on this.
Zuma on Playstation 3 Review.
Zuma is still one of the most addictive puzzlers around but in this instance it’s probably a little overpriced.
What’s It All About?
Zuma is a simple puzzle game from PopCap games. A string of marbles move along a winding path towards a skull waiting to eat the string. Alas, you play as a marble shooting frog, able to match up coloured marbles and clear them away before the skull eats them up. Chains are possible via the magnetic properties of similarly coloured marbles, making high scores possible for experienced players.
Zuma includes an Adventure Mode and a simple Survival Mode for £6.99.
What We Liked:
What We Didn’t Like:
We’re still not used to the subsequent years after a video game franchise not being “oh-something”. Meh, whatever. Here’s the first trailer for FIFA 10. Apparently it’s all using in-game graphics — we presume the slow-down and depth of field effects won’t be present in the final product.
We loved FIFA 09 though, we just hope they can fix the occasional clunky animation. Sure, the game looked good 90% of the time but sometimes you’d see a player stumble and it just looked all wrong. So that’s on our wishlist really. Otherwise we hope they make the menus a bit less cluttered and complicated. We appreciate the games have a serious depth to them but we’d love them to be not so overwhelming.
The Monster Hunter Gathering Hall Has Friggin' Monsters On The Front.
We gave you details on the opening of London’s Monster Hunter Gathering Hall yesterday. But now we have some shots of the building itself. There are some indoor views here, but look at the front. It’s so frigging cool. We’re amazed how far Capcom are going with this Monster Hunter thing. It’s kinda awesome.
European Playstation Store Updates: 2nd July 2009
Playable Content
Add-on Content
Rock Band DLC
Vans Warped Tour 3 Pack (£2.49)
Foreigner Pack (£2.49)
Individual songs
Guitar Hero DLC
Epitaph Punk-O-Rama pack (£4.39)
Videos
Rock Band Unplugged DLC
Grandmaster Flash Will No Doubt Bring A Hint Of Old-School To DJ Hero.
Yesterday we were pretty pissed with Activision. We want DJ Hero but £108!? Needless to say, that’s a lot of money to spend on a video game. We’d convinced ourselves to not even consider matching the ridiculous asking price. Then we got an email about Grandmaster Flash.
Seems the legendary 80’s DJ will be making an appearance and contributing two unheard mixes: Herbie Hancock “Rockit” vs. N.E.R.D. “Lapdance” and Grandmaster Flash “Here Comes My DJ” vs. Gary Numan “Cars”.
And now, as we sit here typing this, we’re sweating over the prospect of having to spend £108 on a video game. But we just have to.
Hit the jump for good times.
Mutha-fudging sold.
More Naked Milla Jovovich Is Probable.
Hey who wants more of Milla Jovovich’s “Alice” character? Well, really, we’d rather the Resident Evil movies had stuck to their original fiction, but hey, whatever. The Resident Evil movies aren’t the worst video game movies ever, and if you detach yourself from the fact that they have absolutely nothing to do with Resident Evil, they’re actually kinda ok.
Regardless, if you don’t like them, we suggest closing your ears now, because website ShockTillYouDrop are reporting the fourth iteration of the franchise, Resident Evil: Afterlife, will launch in September 2010.
After the biggest cliffhanger ever at the end of Extinction, it would be kind of frustrating for them to not do another movie.
Get Ready To Kick It In Battlefield 1943 From Next Week.
The hotly anticipated Battlefield 1943 will see a Playstation Network release next week, July 9th, as confirmed by the official Battlefield Twitter account.
Perhaps you could spend the next week in solitary confinement, ensuring you’ll be perfectly focused on the wars you’ll be fighting soon.
Numblast on Playstation 3 Review.
Numblast is not the easiest game to pick up and play, but once you get a feel for the mechanics, it’s a lot, lot harder to put down.
What’s It All About?
Despite being a puzzle title inherently involved with numbers, it’s with pleasure for us to inform you that Numblast has absolutely nothing to with maths. You rotate quadrants of four numbers aiming to create 4×4 squares of the same number. Doing so will increase the number tally, making it possible to score outrageous combos by placing higher numbers nearby. As you play, number boxes will be converted to black boxes, meaning they become more difficult to rotate and position. Once all the numbers have been converted to black boxes the game is over.
There is a loose plot in Numblast but it is very Japanese. We think it has something to do with maths, science, monkeys and eggs but we’re not quite sure.
Alongside the standard mode there is also a puzzle mode in which the screen must be cleared within a limited amount of rotations.
What We Liked:
What We Didn’t Like:
Playstation 3 Sales Held Fairly Strong Despite A Tough Economy In The Past Year.
Times are hard ladies and gentleman. However, companies still need your money. And money they will get when awesome games are being released. A set of new data released courtesy of British retailer has given us some perspective on where money was spent on video games in the last year.
Nintendo are in the lead with 2.7 million DS’ sold in the last year taking the overall tally up to 9.1 million. As for the Wii, that’s in second place with a lifetime 5.4 million sales, 2.3 million of which in the last year.
The XBOX 360, which has a 16 month lead on the PS3, has sold 3.9 million systems in the region with 1.7 million sold in the last year. As for our beloved Playstation 3, that sits at a respectable 2.2 million, 900k of which were sold over the last 12 months. The PSP managed just 500k in the last year but still has a lifetime of 3.3 million.
It’s nice to see consoles have been sold despite the tight economy. Hopefully a price drop and a kickstarted economy can take Sony higher up the ranks.
It Was Always In Sony's Plans To Move Towards A Digital Download Only System.
Speaking with Gamesbusiness.jp, Sony’s planning division top-man Naoya Matsui has confirmed that Sony always planned to release a UMD-less portable. The announcement of the PSP Go puts that plan into fruition:
“We’d planned to release a PSP model without a UMD drive since the very beginning,” Matsui said. He further makes his case by stating, “But if we’d simply released the hardware, there wouldn’t have been much for everyone to enjoy. We needed to prepare the right environment for it first - things like the transferral [sic] of content with the PS3 and PSN, and PC software to manage content like music and movies such as Media Go.”
A case of “we’ll do it when the time’s right” from Sony then. We’re still concerned about space limitations in the new handheld, but hopefully consumers will take to the Digital Download method.
This is definitely the best thing we’ve seen all week. Michael Jackson may well be sadly gone but the amount effort that’s been put into this amazing Rag Doll Kung Fu tribute suggests he’ll never be forgotten. Kudos to b00bi0 for making this.
Visceral Games have released via GameTrailers this exclusive gameplay trailer of their upcoming horror-action romp Dante’s Inferno. We know it’s just a trailer - and there was no age gate on it for that matter - but we expected something much more twisted from the game. At the moment it just seems like a God Of War clone. Hopefully the fiction gets more twisted away from the trailer.
Want This On PS3? Hell Yes.
Hands up if you played No More Heroes on the Wii. Good, hands up if you want to play No More Heroes on your PS3. Even better. Excellent news because it seems like HD ports of Wii games are something publisher Marvelous are looking into.
We know there already a PS3 game, Rainy Woods, in the works but according to Siliconera that’s not all. They claim Marvelous want to bring their diverse Wii lineup to the HD systems. We lead on No More Heroes because that is the game that would probably generate the most interest in the west, but also the likes of Muramasa would be well received.
With Suda hinting at an HD future for his franchise it would certainly make sense to port the original games. We’re practically drooling over the prospect of an HD No More Heroes.
Valve Are Looking To Hire A Playstation 3 Team.
We’ve been a bit harsh on Valve in the past. We know they’re a small company who make their bread and butter building PC games. And as such we know those games can be ported to the XBOX 360 with ease. It does irritate us when great games don’t get released on a system with an audience waiting to buy them though.
Still, it seems Valve aren’t quite as down on Playstation 3 development than we’d previously thought. In fact, by reading into Joystiq’s interview with Valve’s Doug Lombardi, you’d be safe to assume Valve PS3 games are a case of “when” not “if”.
“If you look at The Orange Box — PC: 96 on Metacritic, 360: 96 on Metacritic, PS3 like… 84 or something. That’s not even close to where we are right now with the 360 and PC and the reason is people.
“We have to get people under our roof who are dedicated, talented PS3 guys and then all bets are off. We can take the same sort of strides and get the quality out of the box and offer the same support post-launch on that platform, as well.”
Doug later goes on to conclude that Valve are always looking to hire. So hey, if you know any talented Playstation 3 coders, get them to call up Valve and start work on a Left 4 Dead port.
PSP Go - A Bit More Power At Your Fingertips.
The original PSP series (1000-3000) have a processor capable of reaching 333MHz. The PSP Go can hit up to 480MHZ.
It’s unknown what the extra processing power will be used for; the PSP Go will have in-game XMB (much like the PS3) and thus the extra power may well be used to make this option possible. Speculation for PSP Go-only applications are rife given the extra processing but unlikely. It seems the last thing on Sony’s agenda is to split the PSP user base.
There'll Be No Need To Unlock Characters In Tekken 6.
Namco reckon that the traditions of unlocking characters in fighting games as you play them are now totally outdated. Speaking with Videogamer.com, director Katsuhiro Harada explained his reasoning:
“Why we locked the characters originally was that in the arcades, it was kind of to extend the life of the game by gradually unlocking characters. And also with the home versions as well, because you can rent games or whatever, it was to protect us against that.
“That’s kind of outdated now though, especially with online play. If we were to have locked characters it would irritate a lot of people, to be playing against others online and to not have all the characters available. So I think it’s no longer useful.”
Tekken 6 will feature 40 characters all available from the start.
American Playstation Store Updates: 2nd July 2009
Playable Content
Add-on Content
Rock Band DLC
Vans Warped Tour 3 Pack ($5.49)
Foreigner Pack ($5.49)
Individual songs
Guitar Hero DLC
Epitaph Punk-O-Rama pack ($5.49)
Videos
Themes
Rock Band Unplugged DLC
Sony's Patent Indicates Real Life Object Tracking Via The Playstation Eye For Gameplay Purposes.
We know all about Sony’s Playstation Motion Controller. But what about using real object in gameplay such as “coffee mugs, drinking glasses, books, bottles, etc.” Sony have you covered as part of a new patent.
The new patent suggests that Sony intend to use the Playstation Eye to allow users to capture real objects and use them as a part of games. To map the object, players show it to the camera and rotate it so that the object is captured and saved as a file. The system can then identify this object and respond to its movements.
You know what, next E3 is going to be crazy. We expect a lot of weird and exciting motion controller announcements.
Skate 3 Is Seemingly In The Planning Stages Of Development.
While not an outright confirmation, a Tweet from Epicly Trife (a skating website) seems to be hinting at the existence of a Skate 3: “I just got told ‘tonight we gotta celebrate,’ one of the bro’s got offered to be in SKATE 3.”
Seeing as Skate has become one of EA’s bigger franchise we’re not surprised to hear a new iteration is in at least the early stages of planning. We’re sure we’ll hear something later in the year if this rumour is to be believed.
This is the debut trailer for Namco Bandai’s upcoming PSP title God Eater. It looks a lot like Monster Hunter to us. What about you guys?
New Content Available Free For Monster Hunter Freedom Unite Owners.
Just as Capcom did with the Japanese edition, Monster Hunter Freedom Unite has been updated with free new content today. There’ll be free content every Friday for the next few months. Todays content will feature a desert quest for the Daimyo Hermitaur, Tigrex and Plesioth.
Just select the download option from the Monster Hunter menu to gain access to the content.
Tecmo Want Sony To Make This Cost A Little Less.
Anyone else bored of hearing the words “price-cut”? Because at the end of the day, we know exactly what’s going to happen. Sony will cut the price and everyone will complain it’s not enough. Thus we’ll have to report a story everytime something to do with a price is mentioned. It’s a vicious circle and an annoying one at that.
Still, you have to feel if anyone can ask for a price-cut right now, it’s Tecmo. With two exclusives in the works - Ninja Gaiden Sigma II and Quantum - you have to feel they’re in a position to ask Sony for something. And at least they didn’t take the Activision threat route.
“Whenever I discuss this with Sony reps I always ask them: ‘Please cut the price’,” Tecmo’s Kenji Matsubara told CVG. “Sony introduced cutting-edge technology in the PS3, that’s why people in the industry accept that the PS3 cost is so high, but we’d welcome a price cut.”
The price-cut is practically confirmed at the moment. It’s a question of “when” and “how much” more than anything.
We Don't Know About You But We'll Be Calling The Ghostbusters.
Well it’s not a confirmation but it’s about as conclusive as you can possible be without making an announcement. A LittleBigPlanet poster is coloured black headed with the text “Who Ya Gonna Call?”.
If it’s not Ghostbusters DLC we’ll eat our computer.
This Is Like The Holy Grail Of Playstation 3 Bundles.
Bundles usually try to represent some degree of value for money. But they’re usually not all that good. This PS3 bundle from Best Buy bucks the trend. For the price of a standard PS3 you’ll not only get a system but you’ll also get two of the absolutely best games for it: Killzone 2 and Metal Gear Solid 4. That’s right kids, for $400 (£250) you’ll get an entire 80GB Playstation 3 with two amazing games.
The bundle sounds almost too good to be true. Which makes us wonder if it’s acting as a bit of stock clearance for the rumoured PS3 Slim. Still, don’t let that hold you off, this bundle is amazing. If you’ve been waiting to buy a PS3 and you’re American, now’s the time!
Telltale Games' Engine Doesn't Work On The PS3 At The Moment.
Ever wondered why us Playstation 3 owners don’t get to play Sam & Max, Strong Bad’s Cool Game For Attractive People and Wallace & Gromit? “It’s easy,” said Telltale’s Dave Grossman, “Our engine doesn’t run on the PlayStation yet.”
Oh. Please can we request some kind of magic porting device so we can play these great games on the PS3. Please. Thanks.
Say No To A Single Platform Future.
In the past few weeks I’ve endured some utter tripe disguised as journalism. “How Activision can kill the Playstation”. “Why Sony should stop producing hardware”. Etc. The usual link-baiting nonsense that I won’t dignify with the hits the authors so desperately crave. The usual tosh that seems to promote a single-system future. Reading such articles makes me wonder though. Why on Earth would anyone want a single system future?
The very root of what drives most industry is competition. People make great products, then others make equally great products and as such the former products have to get better. Gaming is no different. Mario was pushed by Sonic. Nintendo were pushed by Sony. Sony are being pushed by Nintendo and Microsoft. It’s business and it works, without competition we can’t imagine progress.
Imagine a future in which Nintendo holds the future. Or Microsoft, or Sony. It doesn’t matter which manufacturer you imagine as the sole force, just pretend there is only one. That manufacturer would be able to sell their product at a ridiculous price and they’d see no pressure to lower it. As the only system available, people would be forced to buy it regardless. This would be a future much unlike the present we are experiencing now, where Sony are being forced to lower the price of their system because of the lower prices of the XBOX 360 and Nintendo Wii. Who wins? The consumer, because there’s no doubt by the end of this year we’re likely to see lower priced XBOXs, Wiis and, most importantly for this example, Playstation 3s.
And what of the actual hardware itself. Out of the box the Playstation 3 differentiated itself from competitors by offering a wide array of media capabilities. The XBOX 360 provided the excellent Live service and the Wii offered motion controls. What would be the need for any of these features in a single console future? There’d be no need for differentiation, no need for unique selling points, no need for progress. Without the competitor the console can stagnate and wither, because people will buy it anyway. Again, without the option there can be no progress.
The only thing that could ever benefit from a single console future are the availability of games. The consumer could buy whatever games they want, and I can’t find an argument for how the quality would dip on a single platform, I doubt it would. However, the loss of the “exclusive” game would be depressing in the least. Games like LittleBigPlanet would fail to ever capture any imagination outside the boxes of “exclusive”. It’s these games that capture our hearts and shape the console into being a personality. How could this ever come through when every publisher is fighting for prominence on a single platform?
I appreciate people want to be able to play everything that’s released and I understand it’s expensive to buy all the consoles. But the fact is, none of us should be wishing for a single platform future because, while Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo compete for market share and revenue - we, the consumer, are getting the very best they have to offer. Take two of those companies away and we all lose.
“Twiggy” is an anonymous PushSquare columnist who has been spotted in three major cities across the globe. It’s rumoured he’s on the run from the British monarchy who accused him of treason.
Previous entries in the “Twiggy” range:
Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince on Playstation 3 Review.
Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince serves as excellent fan service to anyone with a flitting interest in the Harry Potter universe. The brief campaign and weak story telling may disappoint those who aren’t hardcore fans however.
What’s It All About?
Based on the film of the book of the same name, Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince is the penultimate Harry Potter story which builds into the crux of Harry’s story. The plot essentially culminates in the search for Voldemort’s soul via Horcruxes. If you’re unfamiliar with the book’s plot then you’re going to find The Half-Blood Prince pretty incomprehensible. We read the Harry Potter books at the time of release and still had a tough time fleshing out the plot based on memory as the game gives you few clues. The cutscenes are short and sporadic and do a disappointing job of telling the story.
All in all Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince will take about six hours to complete, however fans will want to spend much more time exploring the interactive world of Hogwarts.
What We Liked:
What We Didn’t Like:
Are You Ready For More Of This Yet?
We really enjoyed Call Of Juarez: Bound In Blood. In fact, we’re kind of craving more. Good thing developers Techland have our backs then. They’ve announced that three DLC packs are in the works for their Western shooter - two will be multiplayer maps and a third with be singleplayer. More Call Of Juarez singleplayer?!? Oh my!
There are no price points or dates announced yet. We just hope the singleplayer pack is lengthy. We love us some Juarez singleplayer.
Killzone 2 Was The Fifth Best Seller In The UK For The First Six Months Of '09.
The UK’s first-half sales (accounting for all the software sales for the first six months of 2009) have been tallied up and show continued dominance from Nintendo’s “evergreen” franchises which continue to outsell any new releases with relative ease. However, Sony’s Killzone 2 has given them a good push, finishing in fifth place - the first game on the list to have actually been released in 2009 and not to have come from Nintendo.
Alas, overall sales were down 5.7 percent, with 29.7 million units sold compared to 31.5 million units for the same period in 2008.
The list can be seen after the jump.
It may not look overly inspiring but well done Killzone 2. It takes a lot to overcome the likes of Wii Fit and Mario Kart Wii.
PSP Go - Still Coming To France.
Despite rumours last week that suggested French retailers would refuse to stock the PSP Go, SCEE have outright denied the claims this morning:
“No French retailers have refused to stock the Go,” we were told by SCEE. The rep added that the story simply wasn’t true.
So hey, if you’re French and you want a PSP Go, looks like you can have one afterall.
Is This A Screenshot Of Uncharted On The PSP?
We all know that Uncharted 2: Among Thieves is heading to the Playstation 3 right? But seeing as the PSP is making a comeback, it might make sense to port the game to Sony’s handheld. A mysterious screenshot discovered by Screwattack.com from the upcoming issue of Official Playstation Magazine seems to suggest that’s exactly what might happen.
Of course, this could always be the Uncharted trailer playing on a PSP Go. Alas the wording above the screenshot, “New screen from Unchar… for the…” begs to differ. But we can’t conclude anything with the writing obscured. Best wait for the word from Sony/Naughty Dog.
Fight Night Round 4 Continues To Dominate The UK Charts.
EA’s excellent Fight Night Round 4 has held the UK charts top spot for the second week running. The boxing game sits just above EA Sport’s other release, Tiger Woods’ PGA Tour 10. Completing a hat-trick for EA, Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince landed in 10th.
Is This The Biggest Playstation 2 Collection Ever? Maybe...
Who wants to see a massive Playstation 2 collection? Ok then, move your browser up a spot. This is Syd from Collectorz Playstation 2, erm, collection. He has over 1,200 games. Blimey.
For interest’s sake, his first game was Jak & Daxter in 2002.
We wonder if they’re sorted into alphabetical order.
Dissidia Will Hit European PSPs This September 4th.
Hey Europe! You’ll be getting Dissidia on September 4th, just a week after the US release of the game. You’ll also be getting extra stuff such as an Arcade Mode and some balanced gameplay. Mark the date on your calendars Final Fantasy fans.
Sony Have Initiated New Developer Relationships In Taiwan.
The Tapei Times are reporting that Sony have made big strides in Taiwan in an effort to boost the PSP and PS3’s presence in the region.
New developer relations will mean six independent companies in Taiwan working on Playstation products. The Tapei Times report PS3/PSP digital content will likely be the result of the partnerships. In addition, the deal will see the Taiwanese government subsidizing development costs by 40%, hopefully making Taiwan a much more attractive place to make games.
We So Hope That The Crossed Circle Is A Part Of The Costume.
Bustin’ certainly makes Sackboy feel good. Do you like Ghostbusters? Of course you do. Do you like LittleBigPlanet? Hell yeah! So you’re going to want some kind of Ghostbusters LittleBigPlanet DLC then eh? Of course you are. And it looks like it’s on its way. The details are yet to be announced but we seriously have our fingers crossed for some Ghostbusters themed levels. Costumes will do nicely though.
We don’t half love you Sackboy.
Admit You Want This Soundtrack Based On Boxart Alone.
Releasing in Japan on July 23, Katamari Forever - the upcoming Playstation 3 exclusive - will be getting its very own soundtrack. It’ll cost ¥3150 (USD$33) for the 2-disc set with 36 tracks.
When the soundtrack includes chiptune, we think it might be worth an import.
The Kind Of Graphics Possible Via Imagination Technologies New Chip.
Did you think that the PSP Go was going to be the end of PSP hardware news for a while? We kind of did. But alas, no. Sources have other ideas. In fact they’re rumouring that the PSP 2 is very, very much in development.
A press release from British company Imagination Technologies Group this week suggested a license agreement with “a major consumer electronics company”. Industry sources are claiming that company to be Sony, and the licensing to be of the SGX55x graphics chip which will slot inside the PSP2. The secrecy on Imagination’s part is said to be because Sony are unwilling to announce a PSP sequel at this point, which makes sense with PSP Go releasing later in the year.
The specs of the new chip are as follows:
PSP GPU Specifications:
166 mhz core speed
2 MB VRAM
Up to 33 million polygons per second
664 million pixels per second (fill rate)
PowerVR SGX530 Specifications:
200 MHz Core Speed
13.5 million polygons per second
1200 million pixels per second (fill rate)
DirectX 9 Shader Model 3 support / OpenGL 2.0
128-bit color precision
Multi-sampling and anti-aliasing
Note the specs listed above are from the SGX530 chip. The under-development SGX55x said to be implemented in the new PSP will apparently be more powerful The screenshot above gives an idea of what will be possible with the new chip.
Team Ico's Fumito Ueda Isn't The Biggest Fan Of Super Mario Galaxy.
We hold no secrets in stating that our favourite game this generation is Super Mario Galaxy. Yes, we’re a Playstation website but to us, Mario Galaxy is perfection. Alas, Team Ico’s Fumito Ueda does not agree. He cites a particular section of Galaxy which was apparently inspired by Fumito’s Shadow Of The Colossus (the giant robot boss) as a basis for his critique:
“Yes I have played it, it was hard to not to since it was rumored that Miyamoto-san was inspired by me. But I had expected more, that segment [SIC], was like the rest of the game not so fun as it could had been. I think the fans made a big deal out of nothing when they said Miyamoto had stolen from me. The thing I am critical over isnt that they didn’t borrow anything that isn’t unique for my game, but that they didn’t make more fun stages out of it.”
Not the biggest Super Mario Galaxy fan then. As for Grand Theft Auto IV Ueda laments the lack of innovation and similarity to previous GTA games.
Ueda is currently hard at work on the The Last Guardian.
Gravity Crash Is Almost Certainly Going To Be Amazing.
Stick it in your PDA. Store it on your mobile phone. Write it in your diary. Tattoo it to your forehead. Do whatever it takes to remember, because this Tuesday (24th November) you’re going to want to be sat in front of your Playstation 3. Why? Just Add Water’s dual-stick shooter Gravity Crash launches. And as far as we’re aware it’s fucking rad as hell.
Gravity Crash is the latest game to be embellished with Sony’s “Play. Create. Share” tag, as it allows you to create your own dual-joystick shooter stages and share them online. The game looks fucking gorgeous to boot.
It’ll cost just £6.29 (€7.99 / $9.99), and there’ll be a day and date demo for those who still aren’t convinced. Just Add Water also announced a PSP version of the game is in development, which is likely to launch in December.
It only takes a minute of footage and the Resident Evil fanboy inside of us comes out to play. In this case, it took just a short trailer for Resident Evil 5: Gold Edition’s “Lost In Nightmares” chapter to get the ol’ hairs standing on end and the hype-meter bubbling.
Oh it’s bubbling alright.
