Don’t worry about the apocalypse, it’s right at the end of the year. But just in case it’s real, here are some healthy steps to enjoying gaming to its maximum potential.
Here’s a roundup of some of the games I managed to get some extensive hands-on time with at the recent Eurogamer Expo in London. As well as highlighting what was looking good, I’ve pointed out a few that you should definitely beware of before you splash the cash. The Contender category consists of a few games that you might usually overlook due to past form or generic looks, but have a read; you might just change your mind.
After attending a recent developer session at a games expo event, I was invited to a behind closed doors interview session with Nolan North, the talented voice actor behind Nathan Drake of the Uncharted series. During the interview he spoke about how he became a voice actor and about his roles in other games such as the Penguin in Batman: Arkham City and as Desmond in Assassin’s Creed.
Click through to watch the extensive video interview.
We all know Grand Theft Auto V is on its way, although Rockstar have yet to officially announce it. The ‘leaked video’ is in all likliehood a complete fabrication, but that doesn’t mean it hasn’t reignited the fires of expectation and speculation that only GTA seems able to feed. Where and when will GTAV be set?
Sure Call of Duty and Halo might have been taking all the limelight and some serious dollar in recent years, but let’s face it, we all know what to expect with those games. The mere locale for a new GTA game is enough to send fans crazy with desire. On the other hand, Rockstar have been known to recycle their settings, Liberty City being the biggest offender. New York (aka Liberty City) is done and needs to be banned from all GTA titles for at least another ten years. She’s served us well, but too many games are obsessed with the Big Apple: Prototype, Crysis 2 and so on. Unless it’s Spider-Man, stay out.
We’ve had plenty of time to get stuck into Killzone 3′s multiplayer since release although the PSN crisis interrupted our play for a while. Since then there’s been a patch to tweak gameplay and multiple double XP weekends to tempt us back. Missed out? Then check out what you’ve been missing online and offline.
The 32-player multi-mission Warzone matches from Killzone 2 return and will be very familiar to series fans. Newcomers will probably recognise the contents from other shooters. However, unlike the competition, you’ll play all the following modes in one match. With the winning team being those who can win the most modes or ’rounds.’
Read more…
PSN will be back online any day now (well… fingers crossed), but we need a back up plan for how to cope in-case this happens again. Ten important steps to safeguard us from making crazy decisions like going outside, getting sunburnt, or even staying home pressing the ’sign-in’ button, hoping it works for so long that you forget to get your girlfriend an Easter egg and end up getting a kitten from the farm down the road because it’s closer than Sainsbury’s. Her name’s Kairi by the way.
As an avid gamer and film fan, I desperately want to enjoy 3D, but so far it’s been a massive letdown. So where better to try and boost my enthusiasm, than a huge arena packed with the latest TV sets and 3D games? Gadget Show Live, time to wow me. Read more…
We live in the world of the sequel, the remake, the annual release, the safe bet, the lazy rehash. Occasionally a new name might emerge, a new IP (Intellectual Property) that hopes to become the next big franchise, but they’re generally seen to be too risky in the world of the multi-million pound costs of developing and marketing a game.
Some sequels are essential though and 2011 will be no different with Uncharted 3, Mass Effect 3 and Batman: Arkham City already driving us nuts with the wait. Sometimes though, when we see an announcement for a sequel, our hearts sink, we question the sanity of developers/publishers and usually have a bit of a fight around the office to see which poor sod will have to review it.
So here’s a look at the sequels that haven’t been announced yet, but in all probability will be in the near future. Albeit with slightly more marketable titles. Read more…
Busy times on Planet PlayStation with the PS3 doing well, and new additions to the family coming soon in the shape of the PSP2/NGP, the Xperia Play and even rumours of a Sony tablet doing the rounds.I’ve been lucky enough to have a go on the new Sony Ericsson Xperia Play, which hopes to bridge the gap between mobile phone and portable console with even more success than the iPhone juggernaut.
We’ve wanted a PlayStation phone for years, waiting for so long, sifting through rumours and leaked documents, but to no avail. Then we pretty much forgot about it when other mobile phone handsets became real gaming platform presences.
This year’s Dare to be Digital competition by Abertay University saw game developer students compete to create some games and get their names out there in the development community.
One arm of the competition was to make games to be played on Wacom’s Bamboo interactive tablets that are usually used to draw graphics and illustrations on computers. Here’s a look at the three winners from that competition. Read more…
Sony’s record-breaking black monolith turned 10 in Europe today. It’s hard to believe it’s been a decade since the most successful console ever launched. The PS2 wasn’t just important for games, Sony were massively influential in making DVD the film format of choice by slyly slipping a DVD player into millions of homes too, much like they’ve done again with Blu-ray and the PS3. The games are what mattered though. Here’s my Top 10 titles I felt were amongst the most important. Of course there are a few seemingly glaring omissions from this list, I felt like an utter bastard for cutting some titles, but that’s how strong a decade of PlayStation 2 really was. The PS3 and Xbox 360 have a hell of a lot of work to do yet if they want to match it. Here we go then, in order of release date: Read more…
The PlayStation Move has been with us for two weeks now, which has given us plenty of time to get to grips with it. After playing all of the available games and demos, it’s time to give a more considered opinion on the new controller setup. Read more…
Sony hasn’t given us any real indication that a second PSP is on the way anytime soon. But that doesn’t mean the net hasn’t stopped trying to unearth any details via rumours, scrupulous checking of tech trademark registrations or the CVs of every tech developer on LinkedIn every two minutes. But what would we actually want from a PSP2? Here’s a list compiled from my own thoughts and general grumbles from fellow gamers.
*All the images for this article are from fan made/ unofficial concept PSP designs and don’t reflect anything officially linked with Sony. But Sony, if you’re reading this, I’d eat my own face to get a handheld that looks as good as the one above. Read more…
My penultimate piece of coverage of the Sony PlayStation Beta Rooms will recall my hands-on experience with Little Big Planet 2, Gran Turismo 5 and 3D gaming. Get some! Read more…
Well the PlayStation Move games at Birmingham’s Sony’s Beta Rooms have been covered now with Part 1 and Part 2, but don’t worry I didn’t forget about the rest of Sony’s upcoming titles. Today I’ll be going over MotorStorm: Apocalypse, Eat Them and Dead Nation with more to follow soon. Read more…
After Part One yesterday, here’s the second half of my preview detailing my impressions of what happened when I took a trip to Birmingham and got to grips with the Playstation Move. Read more…
I was fortunate enough to get invited to the awesome-packed PlayStation Beta Rooms event for the press preview in Birmingham last night. It wasn’t a hard decision making the hundred mile plus journey down south considering I’d be getting my hands on the likes of Sony’s new motion controller, Move and a slew of upcoming titles such as Killzone 3, Gran Turismo 5 and MotorStorm: Apocalypse. This is part one of my coverage of the event that begins with the PlayStation Move. Read more…
With over 800 games on show at E3 2010, some were always going to fall between the cracks of coverage as we all clamoured over the like of Gears 3, Killzone 3, Halo, Need for Speed, Call of Duty, Zelda, Kinect and Move. We’ve covered our picks of the big games, so let’s have a look at some other titles that we feel deserve a little push too. Read more…
The world’s biggest game show continues in LA with E3. It’s Sony’s turn to take to the stage and stake their claim for bragging rights for the next year of releases. 3D gaming is gets a real push and like Microsoft, motion control is going to be play a big part in the show. But will they be ignoring gamers in favour of the casual market too? We’ll tell you below while also looking at some proper games. Read more…
