Several core gamer titles have just been announced for the new Wii U console. Seasoned gamers, prepare to be very impressed. It would seem the extra analogue stick and familiar button options will allow Nintendo to keep up with the rival consoles.
Continue reading Core gamer titles announced for new Wii U console
Q-Games have today announced a new title from their beloved PixelJunk series. What we initially thought might be PJ Shooter 3, has since turned out to be a new IP, PixelJunk SideScroller.
These guys love giving us their take on multiple gaming genres and side-scrolling shooters should be a piece of cake for them. So expect lots of traditional side-scrolling blasting, going left to right and shooting forwards-only while moving around the 2D environment trying to back away from swarms of bullet patterns.
Well it’s nasty o’ clock here in the UK, but before we call it a night. Here are a mighty bunch of links to all our news coverage of the Sony Press Conference that’s just finished.
Look how many articles we’ve written since the Microsoft E3 press conference took place! Here’s a collection of the articles based on that conference to save you a lot of digging.
The big names are really starting to line up now for Sony’s little gem. Capcom just came onstage at Sony’s Press Conference to announce a PS Vita version of Street Fighter X Tekken. Also, as an exclusive to the console, Cole from the Infamous games will be available as a selectable character.
After Capcom’s success with Super Street Fighter IV 3D on the 3DS, we think this will be massive. We’ve just seen similar touch-screen activated combos and we presume the game will try and emulate SSFIV’s many online features.
More for you as soon as we have it.
This is what we’ve been waiting for. Uncharted on the newly christened handheld, PlayStation Vita. Uncharted: Golden Abyss is a full-on third-person action-adventure title that is going to be the hottest property on the new machine.
It’s ridiculously gorgeous. The shading effects and overall detail rival most early PS3 titles and instantly wipe away any thoughts of handheld games being incapable of competing with the big boys. Needless to say, the original PSP is going to dive-bomb out of existence now. This isn’t just huge for portable gaming, it’s huge full-stop.
Continue reading Sony E3 2011 Conference | Uncharted: Golden Abyss on PlayStation Vita
This new action adventure game, Medieval Moves: Deadmund’s Quest, is from the talented folks behind the excellent Sports Champions. If anyone can make another decent game for Sony’s motion controller it’s these guys.
The action sees you controlling an adorable skeleton in a suit of armour, mainly from a first-person perspective. From here you can use a sword, a bow, throwing stars and more to bash goblins, skeletons and other medieval monsters. The weapons can be accessed without going into an inventory screen. Just simply ‘reach’ for them as if they were equipped on your person and the Move controller will work with the PS Eye to equip what you want.
Continue reading Sony E3 2011 Conference | New Move Title: Medieval Moves
After being released on 360 and PC to scathing reviews you have to wonder how much twelve months of bad publicity affects the decision to release the same game on PS3. Especially seeing as PS3 gamers are more used to quality 360 hand-me-downs like Bioshock and Mass Effect 2.
Let’s give this a fair go though. It can’t be that bad, maybe the devs have fixed the problems since the original release. The schizophrenic AI that went from blind to instantly knowing where you are and telepathically informing every soldier on the base being one of the main complaints. Well that’s still there, so not a great start.
This is what we’d like to see more of, good Wii games in HD, instead of violating our beloved HD screens with scart leads. The series has already had its second game on the Wii, but this is just the first game polished up. So don’t fret if you’re new to it, but perhaps feel a bit annoyed they didn’t put both titles on one disc for the asking price.
The story in this bizarre beat em’ up is one of an assassin named Travis Touchdown (see how close they came to making Travis a cool name?). Not happy with always being strapped for cash, Travis decides to take out the Top 10 ranked assassins to become the new number one and score with a hot French chick. Kill Bill, meets Highlander with Suda 51 refereeing if you will.
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.’
Continue reading Killzone 3 Multiplayer Round-up
The legendary Dungeons & Dragons universe has never really had the game to stand tall in its legacy. While the more popular brand, Games Workshop, has the Dawn of War games and soon the very tasty looking Warhammer 40K: Space Marine to keep gamers coming back. So it’s about time D&D had another roll of the dice with us.
Daggerdale takes the Warcraft route for its XBLA/PSN debut and be warned fellow-console gamers, it’s a bit PC-beardy. The best way to go would have been to try to replicate a slick combat title like last-gen’s Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance as this slow style of combat is always going to feel a little stale on consoles.
I recently enjoyed the single-player side of SOCOM: Special Forces and gave it a shiny 8/10 for its efforts. Now the PSN is finally back online I’ve had a chance to get online with the game and see if the multiplayer was worth the wait.
Matches can feature up to 32 players, but many match-types seem to limit the action to 20. Even so, there’s no sign of lag at all, even during busier matches. I suppose the servers get a break seeing as there’s rarely a full field of players alive at once, someone’s always a wrong turn away from having to respawn. At least you only have to wait a few seconds to get back into the fight.
Continue reading SOCOM: Special Forces (Online Multiplayer Review)
Not the best time to release a rally title as Dirt 3 is power-sliding into stores on Tuesday. But if you can’t afford that right now Sega hope you might drop a few points for their bite-sized rally release.
This really is a small game though. Five tracks are all you’ll find here, along with 13 cars and modes. The initial tracks are a tropical jungle with mud and sand, a canyon with dirt and tarmac, and an alpine mountain pass with tarmac and snow sections. The time limit between sections returns, but never actually presents anything resembling a challenge, unlike the older games.
After a brief dalliance with the FPS genre for the 256 players and 5 minutes of fun MAG, Zipper Interactive return to their long-running third-person military shooter series.
Thanks to the recent PSN crisis I was afforded more time to play the single-player side of the game. It was a great surprise to find that there’s a great campaign to be played through along with some addictive stand-alone solo levels.
The last game, which barely made it to UK PS3s, was online only and was the sort of game you were relieved you only rented. Back on the PS2 the first game had too many squad commands, with dodgy voice-commands if you were foolish enough to trust the headset and was a very dry experience for only the most patient gamers. But respect where it’s due, SOCOM was an early success on the PS2’s babysteps into online gaming.
Continue reading SOCOM: Special Forces (Single-player Review)
These games keep surviving, despite never really amassing much acclaim, even after merging the two world of motocross and ATV quad-bike racing, which at least saved fans of both a bit of money. So is there enough here to warrant a purchase rather than another indifferent shrug two laps into the demo? Let’s find out.
There’s no a typical career mode in place, either by label or structure, which is initially off-putting. But at least there’s no terrible story. You can choose to ride an MX (bike) or ATV (quad) around a small handful of tracks while earning experience points for yourself and for each vehicle.
I wanted one thing from this game: for it to be better than last year’s Iron Man 2 game that I gave a 5/10. Thor needn’t worry though as this is a much better tie-in.
Rather than follow the earth-bothering, flannel-shirted nature of the movie, this game simply takes place in the fantasy realms of the Thor universe in a separate story-line, which turns out to be a good move.
Famed comic book writer (and unfortunately the scribe of the afore-mentioned Iron Man game), Matt Fraction, has penned a very basic plot, but it is at least unobtrusive. We’ll presume he saves the compelling material for the comics.
After not quite doing the job Henman and Murray style with Virtua Tennis 3 and VT2009 on this generation’s consoles can Sega’s arcade tennis classic still cut it? Thanks to a long awaited upgrade to the World Tour career mode, they’re in with a fighting chance.
Before getting stuck into the World Tour mode you might want to warm up with a few exhibition matches. The leading names of modern tennis are all present except for one of the Williams sisters for some reason. The PS3 has a few exclusive classic characters too, leaving the 360 version with a comparatively small roster. There isn’t particularly much scope for extra players via DLC either as the favourites of Nadal, Federer, Murray, Sharapova and so on are all present and tennis isn’t exactly brimming with superstars like the WWE.
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.
Sony today announced the most encouraging details so far on when we can expect PSN to be up and running again. That’s great news, but we were more enticed by this statement:
“Our global audience of PlayStation Network and Qriocity consumers was disrupted. We have learned lessons along the way about the valued relationship with our consumers, and to that end, we will be launching a customer appreciation program for registered consumers as a way of expressing our gratitude for their loyalty during this network downtime, as we work even harder to restore and regain their trust in us and our services.”
That sounds like free awesomeness. Click through to read the rest of the story and see what you’re getting and how the PSN will be turned back on.
Continue reading News | Sony: PSN potentially repaired this week and with free gifts
Summary of the News articles I’ve posted at Dealspwn.com in April 2011.
The No Sleep Gamer 