Sony has finally given an update on when we can finally expect our PSN woes to be resolved. For those who still haven’t crawled out of their olympic box, PSN has been inaccessible to certain PS3 models (mainly any non-slim) since yesterday.
In a post by Patrick Seybold, on the Playstation blog, Sony hopes to have everything wrapped up and fixed within 24 hours. Patrick also discouraged using your PS3 to avoid any problems with recording trophies and corrupt data. If there is some sort of data corruption, there will be quite a bit of angry gamers out there.
Maybe its a good time to see if the Wii can still play some games.
Source: Playstation Blog
Most video games based on movies are garbage. They are generally some cheap, hackneyed cash grabber that gets released at the same time as the film, with obvious minimal production effort. The first Godfather game did not fit this mold – mainly because the film had already been out for over 30 years. It was an attempt at recreating art. It was something that did not have the deadlines and pressures of a parallel release with the cinema. Because of that, it turned into a solid product that worked a new storyline into a classic tale that everyone has heard. This was good, because it had big shoes to fill, and the developers realized this.
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Ahhh, Greatest Hits titles. Love or hate the redesigned packaging, Greatest Hits titles are a super way to build your game library for less bank. As of today, a handful of classic PS3 titles have made the less, all now sporting a soft $29.99 price tag. They are as follows:
Army of Two, Electronic Arts
Battlefield: Bad Company, Electronic Arts
Devil May Cry 4, Capcom
Gran Turismo 5 Prologue, Sony Computer Entertainment America
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, Konami
Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction, Sony Computer Entertainment America
One or two of those titles only shaved $10 off its price for this markdown, but the presence of MGS4 is the star of this list. For those of you who thrive on buying used games, these price cuts help you out as well, as it comparatively lowers the value of a used copy.
Looking to pick up a copy of Red Faction: Guerrilla for your 360? The fairly well-reviewed game was released less than two weeks ago, but is already seeing price cuts from major online retailers. And we’re not talking about a dollar or two here; NewEgg has it cut to a super cool $39.99.
Many retailers selling the game at a lower price have received tremendous response, selling out or going very low in quantities as a result. The PS3 version of the game hasn’t been included in these price cuts, as it appears to be a 360-only deal.
The game’s sales haven’t been quite up to par with what THQ was hoping/expecting, so this isn’t super surprising. Price cuts are fairly common these days for monetarily underachieving games, and with the economy as it is, consumers are often quick to respond.
So go hunt down a discount copy and get to smashing the hell out of everything you see.
This year, Microsoft’s XBLA will be running another “Summer of Arcade” lineup. The games set to be included are:
‘Splosion Man
Shadow Complex
TMNT: Turtles in Time Re-shelled
Marvel Vs. Capcom 2
Monkey Island Special Edition
Trials HD
For many, one of the major parts of that list is Turtles in Time. The full title of the remake is Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time Re-Shelled, which is fantastically long, but what looks to be an ultra-cool HD remake of a great Turtles classic.
There will be an online co-op mode built into the game, which is good for replay value, as you’ll probably beat it rather quickly. Reports have it that the game suffered slowdown and crummy performance during E3 demos, and the graphical upgrade done to the game may result in an overly high price tag. Since there is no confirmable information regarding whether or not the bugs have been improved, or the cost of the game, I suppose we’ll just have to wait and see what happens.
Seemingly out of nowhere, gamers were recently given a glimpse of an upcoming Playlogic title called Fairytale Fights. The game apparently takes common fairy tale characters and allows you to control them through a world where you must encounter lots of bloody maiming yuckiness. Sounds awesome.
This doesn’t look like a twisted American Mcgee concept, but something that applies a lighthearted juvenile animation style to adult content. The world is powered by the Unreal Engine, so it’s obviously built on something constructed for rather brutal combat. Weapons include axes and swords, as well as lollipops and carrots. Attacks are controlled by the right stick, and there are plenty of enemies, hazards and other traps to get in your way. It handles like a classic beat-em-up with a little bit of Castle Crashers flair.
Each level is based on a particular fairy tale setting, like Hansel & Gretel – but you know, with giant saws and deathtraps and such. You can literally slice every living creature in the game to bits, even if it isn’t an actual enemy. The slicing mechanism is very accurate, and responds to every body part of the enemy (or other creature) you are attacking. Lob off an arm, and it’ll fall. Just what you’ve always pictured Snow White doing in her spare time – cutting up children and other organisms.
There is co-op play, which is lovely, and the game features over 100 weapons. How can you really go wrong with this? No release date yet, but it’s set for 360 and PS3.
Perfect Dark was an insanely awesome Nintendo 64 game. It gave us a solid FPS solo game, a stellar character with fun weapons, and ingenious multiplayer action with tons of bots boasting their own fancy skills (remember the slapping one that made you blind? Wasn’t that a pain in the ass?) The XBLA port is supposed to jump up several more levels of pure awesome, rendering full HD visuals at 60 FPS. The game is to include all of the original Perfect Dark features and gameplay, along with a few bonus boosts for the 360 release.
The title is supposed to come out in “winter,” according to the always-specific Microsoft. Guess I’ve got a lot of time to kill between gaming and Online Poker until then. Whenever it comes out, it looks like it’s going to be sexy as hell – in more ways than one.
Lots of gamers have it out for the new Left 4 Dead title being released this November. People are blasting the game, the company, and have formed official boycott groups against the sequel.
We’re hearing things like it’s too early for a sequel. It will diminish the first game. Valve is no longer Valve.
A Steam group called L4D Boycott (NO-L4D2) exists with thousands of members, focusing on nine particular issues:
• Significant content for L4D1 was promised, and never delivered
• Valve put little faith in L4D1 since they almost certainly started working on L4D2 right after release
• The fact that L4D2 is nearly identical to L4D1 will decimate the community for both games
• The announced date is not nearly enough time to polish content or make significant gameplay changes
• The new character designs seem bland and unappealing so far
• L4D2 is too bright to fit in with L4D1’s visual aesthetic
• The fiddle-based horde music is extremely disliked, though the differently orchestrated music is otherwise welcome
• L4D2’s release will result in a drop in quality and frequency for L4D1 content, even compared to before
• The community has lost faith in Valve’s former reputation for commitment to their games post-release
Clearly the group feels that a sequel this soon will not only be unjustified and poor in itself, but will harm the quality of and stop any continued development for the first game.
Members are getting reprimanded on Steam, people wonder why this game’s content couldn’t just be a DLC, and many die-hard fans of Valve’s legendary focus on continued development and community respect are second-guessing their favorite company. Thousands agree the timing is off, the characters seem lame, the aesthetics of the new game being in the deep south is not L4D-esque (yet it can’t be too similar or it fuels the pointlessness of the release). Valve seems to be in a tight spot.
Clearly the game deserves a sequel – but are things being handled the wrong way? What do you think?
One thing’s for sure – Hitler is pissed about the news.
Guess who is making the next Castlevania title? It’s not who you’d think – in fact, it’s Kojima Productions. It seems Hideo is addicted to being busy, and Lords of Shadow will become part of his production team’s upcoming production portfolio. Kojima himself will be a “support” to the development team, whatever that really means. The title was originally teased as MASK, but has been revealed as a brand new piece of Castlevania goodness. Koji Igarashi will not be involved with the project at all. This could certainly lead to a very different Castlevania than we’re used to. Hooray for East-West cooperation!
The game is to take on a 3D God of War feel. It is being developed by MercurySteam Entertainment (American McGee’s Scrapland, Clive Barker’s Jericho).
Patrick Stewart will be providing voices, so you Jean Luc Picard fans out there can squee with delight knowing that your favorite English baldie has a new job. The game is slated for a 2010 release on both PS3 and Xbox360.
