A savePoint at storpi.com

Yesterday was fun. E307 continues today, though I don’t really expect too much big news to come out of the show. Still, I’ll let you know about anything that catches my eye.

1. According to PS3 Fanboy, a rumbling SIXAXIS, (which they’re calling Rumblaxis) will be released in September. However, their source, a release from Immersion, makes no mention of Sony releasing these controllers, and instead states that a company called Katana is the one releasing rumbling controllers for the PS3 for North America in that month. I think PS3 Fanboy just misread the release. After all, Logitech recently released rumbling controllers for PS3 as well. Still, an employee of SCEA did confirm to a writer at Kotaku that a rumbling SIXAXIS is coming. We just don’t know when yet.
2. Gametrailers.com is now hosting a whole bunch of developer walkthrough and other gameplay footage. The look at Killzone 2 from the SCE press conference is up, offering a little better look at the game. I might have to get that one up for download directly onto PS3’s later today. In addition, Rock Band, Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles, Army of Two, Medal of Honor Airborne, and more!
3. An addition, make sure to watch the first Heavenly Sword gameplay video. Simply amazing graphics. The second video shows a bit of something that I think is a major improvement since the game was last shown, impact. It’s important that in an action game, your attacks feel like they have impact. In previous videos, the blades just seemed to cut right through and never looked like they were making contact. I can’t wait for this game.
4. I missed this one yesterday, but they announced Silent Hill V for Xbox 360 and PS3. Not really any details on the game except that a western developer is making it. Just like Silent Hill Origins for the PSP, which looks pretty good. In the end, it’s the music that counts.
5. Ooo, Burnout Paradise has some interesting features I haven’t read about yet. It’s kinda like Test Drive Unlimited, in that all the races and such take place in one big city, and there are other players online, up to 8, that can drive around in the city with you. Another neat thing is that whenever you takedown another player, that person’s PS3 or 360 webcam will take a picture of him or her at that moment and plaster your screen with it. It’s a neat idea, but… this game is rated Teen, right?
6. A reminder I just saw, Entertainment Tonight is going to be airing the first public trailer for the upcoming Star Wars: The Force Unleashed for PS3 and 360 tonight at 7:00pm EST. The Force is strong in this one. Really strong. Joystiq has heard that not only will you Force push people into walls, you’ll push them through walls. One of the earlier concept arts actually shows what appears to be the aftermath of a Star Destroyer going up against a Force user down on a planet. (The Star Destroyer loses.) It’s Force powers, TO THE MAX!!
7. Sorry about the Killzone 2 hyping, but I just think that, like the Halo 3 trailer, the Killzone 2 trailer jumped a bit too much to really get a good look at it, so here’s another gameplay segment over at IGN.
8. One thing Wii fans have been hoping for since Red Steel was shown is some sort of one to one directly controlled sword fighting game. IGN’s interview with Shigeru Miyamoto suggests that something like that might already be in the works. In fact, it might be part of Mario & Sonic At the Olympic Games, coming out at the end of the year, in the form of a fencing game. There’s a couple links over there too with other points of interest from the interview, including the possibility that Twilight Princess will be the only Zelda game for the Wii and the possible return of Pikmin.
9. Coool. Want the music from the E307 Halo3 trailer? Here you go, courtesy of Marty O`Donnell and Bungie. There’s been some buzz on spotting new grenades and equipment and stuff from the trailer, but to that I just say, “Well, of course. They’ve never shown the single player before.” Yeah, not really into pulling trailers apart myself, but I do like to watch the fruits of someone else’s labors.
10. A video interview with Codemasters on Dirt, over at Gamespot UK, claims that the PS3 version will be the best version. Better graphics and 7.1 channel uncompressed sound. Is this 7.1 thing the future? Do I need a new receiver? Well, it’s certainly nice to see some good ports coming, like the upcoming port of Virtua Fighter 5 for 360 including better graphics and online play.
11. By the way, a demo of Dirt will be up before the game comes out for PS3 in September. Yay, demo!
12. New music for Rock Band every week? Single track, multiple tracks, and full albums? So says Harmonix CEO Alex Rigopulos (from Xbox 360 Fanboy). Sweeeeet, but I don’t want to get nickeled and dimed to death.
13. The Halo 3 edition, I’m sorry, Special Edition 360 is actually kinda cool. I guess it was just less than people were expecting when the “gray 360″ rumors first started. Here, it says that it’ll have a 20GB harddrive, but it’ll also have the HDMI port. Not bad.
14. Co-op in the Wii version of Geometry Wars.
15. A Ratchet & Clank demo coming to PSN! [unconfirmed by me, yet]

Well, that’s it from me for today. Work is letting out, so you can probably find your own news. Go, surf. I might see you later.

Microsoft’s press conference ended a while ago. While we thought they might announce price cuts or another Peter Moore tatoo, we didn’t get any of that. Here’s some things that stuck out.

1. Great show. It was like a rock concert at first, with a fan band playing the Halo 3 theme song live, and Peter Moore playing Rock Band. Peter Moore, respect. That was cool. The conference died out a little at the end with the announcement of a limited edition Halo 3 360, and a strange live action trailer for that game.
2. Gears of War coming to PC. (”Surprise”) It moves so, so, smoothly, but what kind of PC are you going to need? Also, looks like Viva Pinata is coming to PC as well.
3. Speaking of Viva Pinata, a new one called Viva Pinata: Party Animals is coming out. It’s basically a multiplayer, party game, for the little ones. Scene It! also comes to 360. One game, four controllers (new controller, looks like a remote), same $59.99 price. Cool for the casual players, and I think it’s cool too.
4. Downloadable content is getting a boost from all the Walt Disney movie companies, starting tonight. Plus, Marathon’s gonna be on Arcade!
5. Call of Duty 4 looks incredible, and Assassin’s Creed is looking much much better. Can’t wait. They also showed glimpses of Mass Effect, PGR4, Lost Odyssey, Naruto, and Resident Evil 5.
6. Halo 3 single player looks really exciting. Graphically? Some scenes looked amazing. Others, not so much. Guess we’ll have to see.

There were also a bunch of stats on how the 360 is the driving force of growth in the industry. I didn’t pay too much attention to that part since stats can be made to say anything. All in all, a good show, but besides Scene It! and Viva Pinata: Party Animals, not many surprises. In fact, every game mentioned is going to come out this year (except Resident Evil 5, a trailer of which will be on Live starting July 26th.). What’s coming after that? We need something to look forward to.

We also saw the effort Microsoft is putting behind making the console a bit more family friendly, with stuff like Naruto, and some other licensed games.

I also got the feeling that people in the audience didn’t know how to react to another Xbox 360 variant being released so soon after the Elite. Kinda killed the mood at the end, as I’ve said.

So, not too much new, but it was fun. Can’t wait for tomorrow.

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.

I listen to a lot of podcasts these days, so I can’t remember on which one I heard it on, but on the topic of Microsoft wanting to branch out into the casual market, with Rare leading the way, someone said something to the effect that Rare is not exactly a family friendly game studio.  They have a strange sense of style.  Take Viva Pinata.  It was heavily marketed towards kids, but the people really enjoying it are adults that “get” the game, if you know what I mean. 

The other argument I hear is that Xbox Live Arcade is the vehicle to get casual gamers onboard 360.  Well, that just seems silly to me.  I mean, who’s going to buy a $300 system to play Hexic HD, and if Hexic HD is targeted towards the mothers and sisters of hardcore gamer, how does that expand the installed base?  That guy was going to buy the system anyways.

Getting to the point, I don’t generally consider myself an anti-Xbox, pro-PlayStation gamer.  In fact, if you were to bash the 360 in front of me, I’d be perfectly capable of standing up for the system.  Yet here I am, writing a blog almost entirely on PS3.  It might have something to do with the fact that there’s just a lot of PS3 hate out there, so I feel like I have to defend it, but mostly, I’m just more excited about the games coming to Sony’s machine.  (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…)

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.

I love that this new era of game consoles lets us try before we buy. Crackdown is going to rock! If open-world games (Grand Theft Auto, Saints Row) are all about freedom, then Crackdown adds a whole new level of it, namely, freedom of movement. I’d say this game is Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction with guns and then some. A skills level up system lets your character eventually leap over buildings and such, like:

Agility: Run like the wind and leap skyscrapers. Yeah. Awesome.

Strength: Chuck trucks around. Think about it.

Marksmanship: I guess you can target specific body parts faster. Not that exciting, yet. (Probably)

Explosives: Ever see a game that lets you actually stun people by hitting them in the head with a well thrown grenade? It really makes it harder for them to run away. Blast radius increases as you level up.

Driving skill: Agent(that’s you) cars get faster and easier to handle. What’s cool is the cars physically change, like Transformers or Cyber Formula cars, as you level up, right before your eyes.

Check out the trailer by hitting the, “read the rest of this entry,” link, and if none of this peaks your interest, don’t forget that the initial shipment of Crackdown comes with Halo 3 beta invitations.

(more…)

The drought sure ended fast with Lost Planet: Extreme Conditions coming out so soon after the holiday season. It seems that the old model of only releasing blockbuster games in the last months of the year is slowly becoming less and less relevant.

So why are we excited about Lost Planet, you ask? First of all, it’s a really good looking game. The details in everything are just amazing. The snow looks especially nice, which is good since you’ll see a lot of it. See, the game takes place on a frozen planet inhabited by these bug like creatures that secrete this stuff that your protective suit can use for heat energy to heal you and keep you from freezing to death.

If that strange sci-fi setting doesn’t excite you, the gameplay will. (more…)