Thursday, January 21, 2010

Persona 3, only smaller...but actually bigger.

Ever heard of Persona? Apparently it's quite popular among JRPG fans. Well one of the latter entries in the series is making it's way to the PSP with a new remix. Notice I said "latter" entry, not the latest one, since the game we're dealing with here is the 2+ year old (released August 2007) Persona 3, not the 1+ year old (released December 2008) Persona 4.

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Scarf down some Fat Princess Updates.


Apparently there's still a lot of people playing Fat Princess. Since it always seems to take me awhile to find a game with more than 5 people in it, I'm not sure I entirely believe this claim. But then, the Playstation Blog would never exaggerate the popularity of one of their platform's exclusive titles, would they?

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Monday, January 18, 2010

Survive the Horror of Exaggeration in Demon's Souls

If you've heard of PS3 sleeper hit Demon's Souls, you've heard how hard it is. Well in the opinion of Bitmob writer Tony Capri, this is a problem.

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Friday, January 15, 2010

All Beyond Good & Evil fans: join me in saying "Hip-hip-huh?"

So apparently Beyond Good & Evil 2 is still in development, according to IGN and Ubisoft. This is stark contrast to comments made by Ubisoft president, Laurent Detoc, last July which gave the feeling BG&E2 had been put on indefinite hold or scrapped altogether.

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I agree with the choice but...

Although I've recently been stating that IGN's articles, and writing in general, seem to be getting progressively more immature, this video for overall game of the year (after the jump) completely reverses that opinion. And if you have to ask, yes that was sarcasm.

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Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Dark Void, Murky Combat.


click to biggerize


So the Dark Void demo is finally out and I have to say: I think they could have picked a better section of the game to show off.

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Get your hands on 2 More Heroes. I mean, No More Heroes 2 hands-on

Chances are, if you're a "core" gamer looking for something outside the casual titles the Wii is famous for, you've played No More Heroes. The good news for you is not only is the game getting a sequel, subtitled Desperate Struggle (How did you not already know that? Psh!) but IGN has gotten some hands-on time and even written about it! And now, i'm going to re-write what they wrote! W007, indeed, but try to contain yourself.

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Check out the Super new combatants of Street Fighter IV.

Anxious to see the fighting styles of the three new pugilistic superstars of the forthcoming Super Street Fighter IV? Well GameTrailers.com has you covered.

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Wii watch movies! (Are the Wii puns old yet?)

According to Engadget the Wii will be able to stream movies from Netflix sometime this spring.

This is a much bigger boon for Wii fans than it was when implemented into the PS3 or 360 as the Wii doesn't have a downloadable video library of its own. It will have limitations however. Since the Wii itself isn't capable of outputting resolutions higher than the relatively standard 480p HD movies will not be available. Also, just like the PS3, a disc will be required to stream movies. However, since the PS3 supposedly has a software update in the works to remove the need for a disc we can probably expect something similar from the Wii at some point down the road.

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

More evidence that Google will eventually rule the world through awesomeness.

You may be asking, "Willard, how can I make my blog as awesome as yours by posting pictures without getting sued by somebody?"
Well, you can't. You can't make your blog as awesome as mine. I've filled the quotient for how awesome blogs are allowed to be and, like the Highlander, there can be only one.
Thanks to one of Google's newer features, however, you can post pics without worrying about the legal ramifications or trying to argue fair use. While I think fair use law will protect you in most situations, when you're unsure, or simply don't want to risk it, you can use Google's advanced image search feature.
As you can see from this screenshot here:

click to super-size.

there is now a feature within advanced image search option that allows you to search specifically for images that can be re-posted anywhere free of charge. You can even search for ones that will be used to create a profit for you. Neato, eh?
Now go, copy and paste to your heart's content.

Reviews. Army of Two: 40th Day, Bayonetta and Darksiders.

Alright, I'll admit, I simply do not have the funds to buy the lastest games just to be able to play them, much less review them. (If any game news publications or game studios out there are reading this though: feel free to hire me. I'll even give a you a free "trial period")
What I can do, however, is give you a rundown of the reviews posted on other sites, so here we go. Please note that i've broken down what reviews I can by system so you can check out what, if any, differences exist between the two versions. Ok...this only actually applies to Bayonetta. The rest are either a universal review that doesn't specify system or the same review was copy and pasted for all systems.

Army of Two: 40th Day










-1up.com, all systems
-IGN, all systems
-IGN video review

Bayonetta












-IGN, X360
-IGN, PS3

Darksiders: Wrath of War

















- 1up.com, all systems
-gamershell, all systems

Monday, January 11, 2010

Some bad news for Metal Gear movie fans.



You could always just play the games though. Maybe have some kind of narration while you're playing too. It would just be like a very long movie. I know some of you out there love this kind of stuff.

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Friday, January 8, 2010

For just pennies a day, you too can adopt poor CliffyB

Apparently the Gears of War franchise is broken and needs to be fixed FAST before the series is abandoned by gamers everywhere, according to IGN anyway. Anyone who has ever witnessed a Playstation vs Xbox fanboy squabble (or been involved in one, for shame) might find this hard to believe, but apparently IGN writer, Ryan Geddes -- in his second appearance on the blog today and somewhat in keeping with the same theme -- disagrees.
Mr. Geddes writes up an in-depth article on what's wrong with the Gears franchise and how to fix it. Whether or not you agree with the article it's still an interesting read and makes several valid points. You can check out the full article at the IGN link above.

Supreme Commander 2 details.

Fans of science fiction RTS rejoice! No, StarCraft II hasnt' been released early, sorry. Didn't mean to get your hopes up. However, IGN has details on Supreme Commander II and that's almost as good...kinda.

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Reach for it...

Well if the good people of Joystiq are to be believed, and they usually are, February's issue of Game Informer is going to have a 10 page cover story on Halo:Reach. The magazine's website will also leave a bread crumb trail of details for the rest of January throughout it's Halo:Reach section leading up to the issuess publication. These smaller articles will include details on the new game (obviously) as well as a look at the history of the franchise and profiles on employees of both Bungie and 343 Industries, the heir to the Halo mantle.
You can check out images of the February Issue of Game Informer's cover right here and pore over them for every detail you can squeeze out.

What Wii should be playing.

It seems lists are kind of the thing to do right now, as IGN has taken it upon themselves to assemble blurbs on the Wii's top 25 games to date.

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That is SO chronological.

For those of you that love lists, and especially lists that compare things, CVG has quite the rundown for you. They've got articles up on their site listing the best games of every year of this console generation. In their opinion anyway. Keep in mind this is a European site, so some release dates may not be quite what you remember them as.

Check out their thoughts on each year:
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009

More Optimus, Les Shia.

Whether or not that's a good thing in the movies is up for debate. In a game, however, that victory belongs entirely to Optimus.

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Why, that's a fanboy of a different color!

For those of you out there who are firmly of the belief that IGN has a Microsoft bias, you may want to give this editorial a look. In it, writer Ryan Geddes, goes into his decision to "change teams" to Sony, while also revealing he still owns his 360. A curious article to say the least (why does IGN keep posting these types of articles as of late?) that seems to be the gaming news giant's way of insisting it has no bias. Or perhaps their PS3 section is just taking the Mac route of turning market minority into snooty superiority. Mysteries of the Universe...
Regardless of IGN's actions, this brings me to the main point of this article: The Myth of Website Fanboyism. It's true that some gaming news sites have some type of console/company bias, but these are few and as far between as they are from the same status of respect as the major news sites. This is because a company is not a sentient thing, and therefore cannot have a bias; only people can have a bias. Yes, the writer's for major sites may have a bias, but that's why they work in the news section that corresponds to their console of preference.
So no, IGN isn't an Xbot, Joystiq doesn't hold the PS3 on a pedestal and 1up.com isn't all about the Wii, you get the idea. Maybe if you think they have a bias it's because you're spending time reading articles about your "opposing" console and are mad at yourself for being so curious about the system you're supposed to hate. But that will take us down a route of transference and other such Freudian blah blah blah so we'll lave that alone. Just rest assured that your fanboy brethren will not actually beat you to death if they discover you have an interest in another system, in fact they probably suffer the same affliction.
All that said, does this site, Higher Technology, have a bias? Abso-forking-lutely. It's only got one writer and (terrible) cartoonist. And as much as I'd love to "catch 'em all" I simply can't afford to add a Wii to my collection, much less a 360 instead/as well. I try to keep my PC capable of playing current gen games so I can keep up with some of Microsoft's console exclusives: Halo 1 and 2, Fable, Gears of War, Mass Effect, as well as "timed" exclusives like BioShock and Braid. What I'm saying is; I try. With only the PC and PS3 to work from I do my best to keep a balanced news load for all consoles. But when it comes to thorough reviews of games or even editorials about specific games, PS3 is going to win out every time. I love gaming as a whole, I want to play it all so I play as much as I can.
Which brings us to the point of why I made the decision to go with Playstation in the first place. At the dawn of the modern age of consoles is simply made the most sense. Given the track record I could assume that I would eventually be able to play some of the Xbox's biggest games on my PC, but the same could not be said for the likes of Metal Gear Solid 4, Uncharted (and honestly, I'd probably follow Naughty Dog to whichever console they're on, Crash ftw!), Resistance, Killzone 2, Gran Turismo or Lair at the time when my decision was being made. Blu-ray movies playback was just a bonus and added excuse to buy a fancy new HDTV, so my decision was made. Now, if I wasn't good at tinkering with my PC or interested in playing PC games would my decision have been different? Probably not, but that's just because of my taste in games. To someone else, even someone who doesn't have a feverish loyalty to a particular company, the choice could have been totally different.
It's all about what you like to play. And if you love gaming enough to actually mean those comments you leave on boards all across the Internet, maybe you shouldn't be so afraid to look at what the other guys have to offer because nothing is as valuable in pursuing a career as knowledge of the industry you wish to enter.