A savePoint at storpi.com

News! Tuesday, July 10th (Last Update 4:20 PM):

1. USAToday has the first ever in-game screenshots of Killzone 2! Looking pretty good. The background textures seem a bit simplistic and flat, but it might have been done so they could cram in all the effects goodness. The unveiling’s tonight!
2. Square Enix has opened a US branch for their store. Yay for swag!
3. Kotaku’s got highlights from an interview with Jack Tretton talking about a video and other media download service that’s being worked on for the PS3. The news was almost an aside to the announcement of the 80GB PS3, so it kind of got lost yesterday. Other sites guess that the service will probably be mentioned at E3, but not shown.
4. [UPDATE] Trama Center: New Blood is revealed for the Nintendo Wii. Looks about the same, but now there’s two player co-op. All right! When do we get a brow mop attachment for four player action? The new game follows two new characters and features a brand new story. In additon, it’ll also be fully voiced and run at 480p in 16:9 widescreen. Look for this one before year’s end.
5. The Playstation Network was down a little while ago [update: for routine maintenance, says the official blog]. While it has been restored, the Playstation Store is still undergoing some work. Massive updates coming? [UPDATE] Well, the Playstation Store is back up with a little bit more user feedback, ie. the tabs have rollover effects now, and a bit easier navigation with L1 and R1 enabled as back and forward, respectively. Hopefully to allow us to better browse the massive updates tomorrow. Yeah.
6. New units are being featured on the Starcraft II website: the Colossus and the Warp Ray. The site really needs to be seen by oneself, so I’m not going to describe it. While Starcraft II won’t be playable at E3, it will be shown. It’ll be playable for the first time at Blizzcon in August.
7. The news isn’t coming as rapidly yet today, so… news from Smash Bros. Dojo. A new stage from Twilight Princess was revealed this week, in addition to a new supporting character, Dr. Wright, from the Sim City game on SNES. Screenshots of the new stage and Dr. Wright’s supporting attack are below.
8. According to Playstation Universe and confirmed on the Playstation Underground boards, there will be a lot more Killzone 2 screens released in the coming days. What’s more interesting is that there’ll be a Killzone 2 gameplay trailer on the Playstation Store. No word on when, but exciting news nonetheless.
9. A link has emerged via Threespeech to a slightly higher quality version of the Gamer.tv Heavenly Sword feature. It’s the same as the one I have embed at Storpi.com on the right, so it’s worth checking out. Internet Explorer required.
10. IGN’s got a hands-on report on Assassin’s Creed. Click here to read it for yourself.First of all, Assassin’s Creed is an action game that has stealth elements. You character is almost always on the move, and it seems that quick reflexes will be a must. However, there’s no platforming as movement throughout, whether it be climbing walls or bounding across rooftops, is automatic as long you’re holding down the right buttons and tilting the analog stick in a direction that Altair can move in. So if there’s a place to step or a ledge to grab onto, just point the analog stick, hold the buttons and off you go.Fleeing from guards involves only breaking line of sight, either by hiding or blending in with the crowd. The guards are smart though, so once they know you’re around, they’ll be more suspicious of any situations you might precipitate. Animations are fluid and natural looking. In fact, the whole world seems that way as IGN didn’t run into any situations in which they felt limited by the game world. Everywhere they wanted to go, they could go (except indoors). There’s some bugs, but come November, hopefully they’ll be fixed. Watch for this one.
11. New details on GTAIV from Destructoid.com
    

    - The cell you saw in the trailer appears to be a big part of the game. Instead of buying weapons at Ammu-Nation you can call “Little Jakob”, a Caribbean weapons dealer, who will provide you with guns.
    - There is a men’s wear store called “Perseus”
    - The “Tw@ Café” internet Café from GTA III is back. You can surf the Internet from every computer in the game.
    - You will be able to use taxis to get around. You can watch the drive from the ego-perspective or you can skip the whole thing by pressing the proper button.
    - Every crime committed increases the wanted level. As soon as you reach a certain level a search area appears on the radar. If you escape from such an area without being spotted by pedestrians/cops, the wanted level falls back. If you are spotted by a witness, the area changes to the place where you were last spotted.

12. Like Lego Star Wars? Lego Indiana Jones might get announced.
13. The brand new Metal Gear Solid 4 trailer will be up on the Playstation Store immediately after the Sony press conference tomorrow morning. Sweet! I think I’ll be using Remote Play tomorrow.

Check back for more updates throughout the day.

Crush.

Actually, I have nothing to say about Crush, because I don’t have it yet. I pre-ordered it, and it’s out, but my local GS/EB hasn’t gotten it in, even though it was released two weeks ago. Apparently, the solution is to refund me and tell me to buy it elsewhere. Seems fair, but when you pay money to guarantee yourself a copy when the game comes out, shouldn’t that mean something? Maybe the pitch should be, “Five dollars down and if we get the the game, we’ll hold it for you.” Eh, I guess that’d be a hard sell then.

(more…)

Another week of great deals for the Xbox 360. This week, Play-Asia.com brings us Dead or Alive Xtreme 2 for only $17.90. This is the Asian region version so it contains both English and Chinese subtitles; however, it’ll only work on Japanese or other Asian region systems. Shame. When are they going to give us some non-region specific deals, eh?

A lot of people say this game is too easy. Others call it soft-shell prawn, if you get my meaning. Both valid, but my biggest problem with the DOA Xtreme series is the treatment of the characters. These are cool girls; ninjas, assasins, billionare empire heiress, etc. Sure, they’re some more carefree girls, but for the most part I find it really unlikely that a women would stay to lounge around and play beach volleyball with her mother’s killer. (more…)

Did you know that you can watch episodes of Heroes on NBC.com? It’s pretty neat, and if you haven’t seen this series, you should check it out.

Calling All Cars wasn’t exactly the pick up and play experience I thought it would be. First of all, for a game to be totally pick up and play, you should never have to look up the controls and be able to figure out how to play it. My first round, I couldn’t figure out how everyone was driving around so fast. After a while though, you get the controls, you get the pacing, and then the game is just really fun. Haven’t played single player yet though.

2.00? Already? Well, according to Wiki’s chart, the Playstation 3 has had a firmware update just about every month. If these rumored improvements are in the release pipeline, I can’t wait. XMB access from in game, anyone? Next time someone asks me how Calling All Cars is while I’m in game, I might be able to answer. I guess we’ll (maybe) see at Sony’s Gamer’s Day tomorrow. (more…)

It’s been a long time since I’ve strayed away from the safe confines of the six or seven sites I see eveyday.

Venturing forth today, into the unfamiliar, I find that Blizzard has some of the best fan artists I’ve ever seen. They’ve got some pretty amazing stuff on their fanart page. Just look at the sample thumbnail I “borrowed,” and while you’re there, click on it to check out the Blizzard Fan Art Program pages.

Play-Asia’s deal for the week is Blue Dragon for $20.

Yeah, that Blue Dragon. The Xbox 360 game that actually brought up system sales in Japan. The game from the creator of Final Fantasy, the creator of Dragonball, and the composer of the Final Fantasy games.

It’s too bad that the game is only compatible with Japanese, Asian or “suped up” (read: modded) 360s, otherwise I wouldn’t be writing this right now. If you have a special 360, hit up Play-Asia by clicking the picture. Your welcome.

So it’s not actually the middle of April, but it’s pretty close. Somehow, I always thought that “April Showers” refers to rain, not 10 inches of snow. Here’s some fun stuff you can do on a day like this.

Listen to the new Insomniac podcast, the Full Moon Show: The third episode came out last week and they’ve have a new one up on the 19th. While it may be a bit dry for the folks who aren’t Insomniac Games fans, or aren’t interested in getting into game development, the ravings of a disgruntled Englishman are usually pretty provocative. Interested in Resistance updates or Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction? Click on the image to go check it out.

Open your windows (especially if it’s windy) and play SSX: I used to do this quite a bit. Surround sound move over, this gives you that “surround feel” feeling. You probably should bundle up a bit though. The hands don’t work quite as well when they’re frozen.