Mass Effect 3 "Fight Trailer"

Only a week or so a away from my most anticipated game of all time and here is the brand new trailer.

Call of Duty Coming to Vita

Guy Longworth of Sony's brand marketing has announced that a Call of Duty title will drop for the Vita this "fall", but when pressured into more details would not give up the name of which COD title it will be or if it will be a new title all together. Longworth said that bringing the money spinning series to Vita would be a "game changer" but I'm not too sure.

I suppose bringing the worlds highest selling game to your device can only be a good thing and I'm not deputing that specifically but I still don't think its going to be enough, and the rumours are that it will be a pre-existing COD title which take the shine off the announcement somewhat.

It may seem as if I'm against the Vita in some of my posts but that is not true, I want it to succeed, as I want every console to succeed because I'm a gamer and these consoles succeeding is a good thing for the gaming industry but I just know that unless something changes in the Vita's price structure it ultimately won't be a success and will go the way off the its predecessor the PSP.

The Vita as a piece of kit is impressive, and the way games look on the device is stunning, it has internet browsing, you can watch films, listen to music, there is every reason that it should succeed, but bringing it out at £280 and charging £35-40 per game will sink the Vita's ship, and the saddest part about that for me is that it is so obvious to everyone that this will happen, Sony at some point need to learn how to price a console.

El Shaddai Ascension of the Metatron Impressions

This game has been out for a couple of months now and I'd only heard little bits about the game so I had no real motivation to play it but none the less I put it on my LoveFilm list because my ethos is to play every game that comes out, or as many as I can, it took till the time of writing for them to send it me, I'm writing this after only playing the first two chapters or levels because I think it is worth a mention.

From what I've played so far this game is amazing, as I said before I'd heard little bits about it, mainly commenting on the art style, and I must say the art style is outstanding, the game world is absolutely beautiful, it is a pleasure to traverse the world and so far each level has been varied. The art style rather bizarrely reminds me of Child of Eden, mostly in the vividness of the colours.  

My first impressions of the combat and the enemies are also very positive, the enemies are very well designed and unique, its exciting to reach the next stage of the game to see what new enemies you will be faced with, and this hasn't been the case with a game for me for some time now. The combat is very fast and fluid, you can fight on the ground or in the air and these synchronise seamlessly.

As I stated before I am not far into this game so I will do a full review after I complete the game but I felt this  needed a good word said about it and more people should have a look at this game.

The art style is stunning 

    

Mass Effect 3 Trailer

Not long to go until my most anticipated game of all time is released

South Park The Game

You may be thinking why is everyone getting excited about a new South Park game? haven't there been loads of poor adaptations before? and the answer is yes there has, but this time its different, South Park The Game is being developed by Obsidian (creators of Fallout New Vegas) and published by THQ, this means you can expect a real attempted at making a good game from the popular TV show. 

What do we know so far? we know that the game will be an RPG with character classes including; Wizard, Paladin, Adventurer, Rogue or Jew, we know that you will assume the role of the "new kid" in town and you will be out to impress; Stan, Kyle, Kenny and of course Cartman, along with protecting the town from various "threats". And we also know that South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone are on board and they guaranteed audiences of the TV show that the game will be edgy and funny. 

This gaming is shaping up to be an excellent game that everyone should keep on their radars. The game is due for release some point in the "second half of 2012"

"Jew" is a confirmed character class

Can Handheld consoles be a success?

Do we actually need them and will they make money for the developers and the game industry, this piece comes of the back of the negativity garnered by the general release of the PS Vita (the low sales etc.). What are the problems that handheld consoles face in the modern market and is there anyway they can be successful?

In theory handheld game consoles are perfect, you finish up playing on your own console and you just take your portable with you and carry on playing, sounds perfect right? but yet the sales and critical response to handhelds have been bad and they are often criticised, at the time of writing this the PS Vita has not yet been released in the UK so I am going to base the Sony side of my argument on the PSP and what we know to be fact about the PS Vita.

Original DS

On March 11 2005 the Nintendo DS was born, it included many new, unique features such as the dual screens, touch pad and use of stylus, the DS promised to bring popular franchises such as Mario and Sonic to the handheld realm. For the first couple of years the DS was a success, financially it sold well and practically it opened up the concept of gaming to a wider audience, including children and OAP's, its family orientated games were a massive hit. So what went wrong for Nintendo's originally successful console? well for a start they started to fiddle with the design which resulted in a string of new DS' that were only marginally better than their predessesors yet still had a price hike upon release. Secondly the good games that were being released in the early days of DS dried up fairly quickly, theres only so much Sonic and Mario you can put on one console, along with other small problems the DS sales figures have shrank dramatically in the last few years.

Nintendo's main rival in the handheld market was released 1 September 2005 and was called the Play Station Portable (PSP) and from there on developed one of the least successful handhelds in gaming history, many gamers were fooled into day one purchases by the promise of popular franchise' releasing their top games for PSP and also PSP special editions of these games along with a unseen level of graphical fidelity on a portable console. The first problem that the PSP had was its ridiculously high launch price (a problem with all of Sony's consoles) the first PSP base model launched for around £180, although this didn't initially hinder the success of the console as it proceeded to sell out in most UK stores, but the price of the console was only a small problem compared to the prices of the games, the game prices for the original PSP could be compared to that of Sony's home console the PS3, which leads onto the question, why would you buy a game for the PSP then? and that is the question that doomed the PSP from the start.

Can the Vita stay up with the 3DS

The main problem without a doubt for the PSP was the well known fact that Sony just didn't support it, when the PSP began to get destroyed by the DS Sony didn't respond, they essentially gave up on the PSP and called it a bad job, you can't hope to sell a console if your not releasing top games on a monthly basis. So what of the PS Vita? will Sony actually support this console or will they abandon ship when they release that the 3DS will sell more?

The main problem with handhelds is that they are not better than home consoles but still are as expensive, the price for the new Uncharted PS Vita exclusive is 37.99 which is around the same price Uncharted 3 was when it was released for PS3, so why would you buy the Vita edition which won't be as good, the price is one of the biggest challenges facing handheld game consoles, which is largely down to the price of iPhone games.
So we return to the main question, can handheld consoles be a success? will the 3DS and PS Vita return the concept of handhelds back to glory? well with the initial low sales of the 3DS and poor performance by the Vita in Japan it might be a long time before we see handhelds regain their former glory.

Syndicate Launch Trailer

After playing the recent Syndicate demo I am seriously now thinking about buying it. The style of the combat and fluidity of the gameplay is a very unique aspect.

Xbox "720" Update

Another update on the rumoured Xbox 720 has hit the internet today and this time its in relation to the controller. According to Xbox World Magazine the controller will have a touch screen function, similar to that of the Wii U's controller and the PS Vita, apparently it will be smaller than both of these and more responsive. The controller will have the normal buttons on the left and right hand side of the controller and a HD screen in the middle.

Updates on the Xbox 720 are coming on an almost weekly basis now and I will continue to keep you all up to date with the latest news, if any of the rumours are true the 720 is shaping up to be the best console of all time.

Warp Trailer

Warp is the first of the XBLA House Party games and looks like it can get the party off to a good start 

Warp hits the XBLA February 15

EA bans more Fifa 12 accounts

With all the recent hacking and cheating that has been happening through Fifa 12 EA has been forced into banning yet more Fifa 12 accounts, specifically 2000+ plus. EA have started to become more pro-active in their security after months of problems on Fifa 12 that have gone unpunished, it started a couple of months back where someone from EA said that they had taken notice and where going to do something about it.

This particular bout of hacking in centred on hacking your virtual pro (which essentially is the character you create in Fifa 12) the result of the hacking would mean that your character would have maxed out stats instantly and would offer a huge advantage online but would severely punish people who played the game normally and fairly.

It will come has a huge relief for online players of this game, I don't play this game online but I can still respect how big of a problem this is, and I know there has been an outcry for EA to start doing something about it and it looks like they have obliged, a post on the EA said that, “We’re acutely aware of the damage cheats can do to the rest of the fair-playing Clubs community. For that reason, we spent a lot of time addressing the issue for FIFA 12. It’s disappointing that it has now re-emerged, but an additional function we included in the game was the means to automatically identify and report anyone using such methods. That system has identified those now banned, and will identify anyone who does so from now on. We urge any Clubs players who might be tempted to cheat to think again – the result will be the same.”


It has also been hinted that EA don't plan to stop banning so all you cheaters out there expect your days of having a active Fifa 12 account to be numbered. 

Max Payne 3 Weapon Trailer

Rockstar's Max Payne 3 is getting nearer and nearer, and I can't wait to play this game.

X-Men Destiny Mini Review

X-Men Destiny is one of them low budget games that comes out under the radar and has almost no marketing, I only stumbled across this game because it was on my LoveFilm list from last year, so as you would expect I didn't hold much hope for this game, but as always I gave it a chance, and I was pleasantly surprised.

I'm not trying to kid everyone here, this game does have its problems and is in no way an excellent game but I think that it has something to offer on a basic level. I am a massive Marvel fan therefore I play all these Marvel releases and admittedly some of them are god awful, Thor springs to mind, but every now and then there is a little gem of a game that no one will here about but has good things to offer, such as the Captain America game, and this is one of them games.

The brightness of the colour pallet is a welcome change  

The amount of cameos in this game is definite fan service to any fan of superheroes, you have the big names like Wolverine but you also have less iconic heroes such as Nightcrawler or my  person favourite Gambit. The RPG elements to the game are simply but still add extra depth to the game. There are many problems with this game, the repetitive combat for a start and the shortness of the game but if you are the sort of gamer that can appreciate pure fun then you will be able to get some enjoyment out if this little title, I would compare this to Dead Island, that game had so many problems but the core elements of the game where fun and you enjoyed playing it for reasons not obviously clear and this game is very much the same, I'm not saying buy this game but as a rental it will give you a quick blast of superhero fun


6.4/10                                Buy or Rent .... Rent 

Resident Evil 6 Raccoon City Trailer

Brand new trailer for Resident Evil Raccoon City, coming to Xbox on March 23 (UK) 20 (NA)

In a year of amazing trailers this one does not disappoint.

UFC Undisputed 3 Demo Impressions

This is my first impressions of the demo of UFC Undisputed 3, which will be released Feburary 17 (UK) 14(NA)

Asura's Wrath Trailer

This is a storyline gameplay trailer for Asura's Wrath, which will be hitting the Xbox February 24 (UK) 21(NA)