Lost between long-range brilliance and shooting itself in the foot
A glitchy but somewhat enjoyable first game had us crossing our fingers for an improved sequel from City Interactive. The sniping genre has intensified of late with stiff competition coming from Sniper Elite V2 last year so they need to hit the ground running this time.
The CryEngine 3 (also used for Crysis 3) certainly gives the game a graphical boost. The game is off to a sunny start in the Philippines with wonderfully bright lighting in the jungle environments being a fine tonic to any gamer fatigued with all the grey corridors and city environments in others shooters.
Review note: This review mainly focuses on the Vita version of the game. A few days ago (after already finishing the game on the Vita), I was also sent the PS3 version, which allowed me to test the Augmented Reality and cross-save features too. All images are my own screen grabs from the Vita version of the game. If you buy the PS3 version, you will get a free digital copy of the Vita game too.
Aside from the excellent HD re-release a while back, we’ve not had a Sly Cooper game since 2005. This has left a gaping wound in the platforming genre that nobody has even attempted to heal. Sucker Punch have long since left to work on the InFamous games, leaving unknowns Sanzaru to take over full-time after successfully overseeing the aforementioned HD collection. While probably not under as much pressure as 343 Industries with Halo 4, there are parallels. Let’s see how they got on.
The boss battles found in Deus Ex: Human Revolution were a major sore point for gamers playing through the otherwise excellent game on the PS3, 360 or PC platforms. Since hearing about the Wii U version a few days ago and the promises of improved boss battles, we’ve been intrigued to hear more. Prepare to be jealous if you don’t own a Wii U. Continue reading Improved Boss Battles Explained for Deus EX: HR Director’s Cut on Wii U→
Maxis are working through the weekend to try and stabilise your SimCity experience. Just four days since the 1.7 traffic pathfinding update they have another one for the much-maligned game. Highlighted fixes and improvements include police station capacity issues, sewage glitches, missing textures, new roads messing up old roads and clearer text alerts.
Carl’s review went up before update 1.7 and you can read that here. Rest assured we plan on revisiting SimCity to check on its post-update progress. Click below to get the full list of 1.8 notes and let us know if you think the patches are helping. Continue reading SimCity Update 1.8 Out Now→
Activision won’t be sending us a review code and from the game’s current 36% rating on Metacritic we can see why they may not be so keen to hand us the knife. So at the moment, it’s looking like a curious rental is about all the encouragement we’re able to muster for the game, which is probably how we’re going to bring your a review at a later date too.
Remember, this game has nothing to do with the Telltale Games titles that picked up numerous GOTY awards last year. This is strictly based on the TV show rather than the comics. You control Daryl in the events before the show started as he’s looking for his racist arsehole of a brother. Great, so we know the ending already, right?
Check out the trailer after the jump to see the game in action. Daryl’s crossbow dominates the footage with lots of messy headshots to be seen. The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct is out now on PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii U. Continue reading The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct Launch Trailer→
Originally planned for a March release date, the game was then delayed to add some extra polish and to probably avoid Bioshock Infinite’s media and sales vortex. Insomniac have just confirmed via facebook (see I was working) that the game will hit EU territories on May 31st, with america getting it a few days earlier on May 28th. Continue reading Fuse Release Date Confirmed→
Following up the cataclysmic events of God of War III must have been a terrifying ordeal for a studio to go through. However, when a series already has a prequel along with another game filling the gap between games one and two I struggled to see how Kratos’ adventures could do anything but go forwards.
In an old panel interview with the other four individual God of War director’s, David Jaffe (GOW1) said that he would have liked to see gods from around the world (think Norse and Chinese) move in on Olympus in a power vacuum caused by the death of the Zeus and his brethren. That would have been an unbelievably hot premise and the only true way to follow up Kratos’ gloriously enraged finale. It’s going to happen; it’s too good an idea to not. But sadly, I expect we’ll have to wait until PlayStation 4 as Sony are playing it safe with this prequel set before even the events of Chains of Olympus.
We’re yet to see a price or even the physical console itself but we can now see what the day-to-day menu screens may look like. The screenshots Sony have just released show a selection of screens that have a heavy emphasis on the social side of gaming. The image above features many tiles informing you of your friends’ activities such as purchases or in game achievements.
Player profile screens have been spruced up and now feature photos and real names of players for the first time. We imagine you’ll be able to tweak the privacy of these features. We can also see what may be the screen that appears upon pressing the new Share button in a menu asking if we’d like to share a screenshot or video, there’s even a screen showing a video trimming feature.
Sony are looking to hook up some of the features to your tablet and mobile device too as shown in other screens. You can see all of them after the break. You can click them to get a full screen version too. So, what do you think? Continue reading First PS4 Menu, Share and Social Screens Revealed→
To anyone thinking of picking up God of War: Ascension to get their hands on the exclusive The Last of Us demo we’d advise some caution. It would seem that the demo isn’t quite ready. There’s a button to access the demo from God of War’s main menu, but it takes you to a countdown page counting down to May 31st. Continue reading Last of Us Demo in New God of War Game Not Available For Over Two Months→
We’ve just heard from EA about how they’re fixing the utter farce that has been the launch of SimCity this week. The game requires an always-on internet connection and they’ve been unable to cope with demand on their servers with gamers losing data or not even being able to activate their copy of the game.
Here’s what they had to say, “So what went wrong? The short answer is: a lot more people logged on than we expected. More people played and played in ways we never saw in the beta. OK, we agree, that was dumb, but we are committed to fixing it. In the last 48 hours we increased server capacity by 120 percent. It’s working – the number of people who have gotten in and built cities has improved dramatically. The number of disrupted experiences has dropped by roughly 80 percent. So we’re close to fixed, but not quite there. I’m hoping to post another update this weekend to let everyone know that the launch issues are behind us.”
Yes, EA, that was dumb. Almost as dumb as designing the game with an always-online connection backbone. But at least the experience seems to be stabilising now, although not enough for us to finish our full review yet. To make up for all the drama, EA will be giving away a free game. Check out the details below: Continue reading EA to Compensate SimCity Players With Free Game→
The YLOD. The Yellow Light of Death. This is the dreaded sickness that PlayStation 3 owners fear. With my PS3 nearing its sixth birthday, it finally happened to me. While hardly as prevalent as the Red Ring of Death in the Xbox 360’s early days, the flashing yellow light is still cautiously feared amongst the PS3 community.
In order to cope with this grim occurrence I’ve incorporated the experience into my regular feature, The Sunday Seven. This isn’t a guide on how to fix the problem yourself, no, no, that’s a different fire hazard for a different day and for someone else to tell. This is what was running through my mind as I tried to come to terms with it and ultimately how to bring it back to life.
Here’s another collection of videos from the Injustice: Gods Among Us Battle Arena for you. This time we get to see Superman square up to Sinestro and Green Arrow attempt to ground Hawkgirl. The variety of moves on show is astounding, giving the game a real feel of getting into the spirit of each character, more than any comic/fighting cross-over I’ve ever seen. Using the environment plays a key part once again with a few jaw-dropping scenes. If this plays half as entertainingly as it is to watch I think Warner Bros may be onto a winner. Injustice: Gods Among Us is out April 19th. Continue reading Superman, Sinestro, Green Arrow and Hawkgirl Get Smashed Up in Injustice Videos→
The long-awaited reboot of Tomb Raider is now merely days away and we can’t wait. Naturally, we’ll have a review for you very soon. Until then, why not check out the final dev diary for the game and witness the ever so slightly over-dramatic music and feeling they’ve tried to inject into the video. We’re also trying to ignore them saying they were still squeezing bugs out of the game just days before submitting the finished version. It’s going to be fine. Yes?
Milestone’s upcoming racer is ditching the traditional rallying for multiplayer shenanigans on PSN and XBLA. Simultaneous multiplayer and even powerups are making their way to the series for the first time. The latest gameplay trailer shows a single race with hailstorms, nitros and shields all playing their part. The regular WRC games have been solid performers over the years for Milestone, but this more fun approach looks to be in a similar vein of games like the surprisingly fun, Dirt: Showdown.
After Duke Nukem’ Forever, you wouldn’t be insane to doubt Gearbox Software’s capabilities. But hold on a sec, they were only finishing off someone else’s mess right? They were just keen to finally get the game out. Even so, pride should have stopped them releasing it in such a poor state.
Then Borderlands 2 came along and was met with great sales and wide critical acclaim. So, maybe their frequently delayed Aliens: Colonial Marines would be ok on the day. After all, it’s been Gearbox’s game since birth and numerous videos clearly show a franchise-adoring staff. So, they wouldn’t f**k it up, right? Cue the angry sobbing.
By now I’m sure you’ve all heard that Sony has a big reveal lined up for a PlayStation Meeting on February 20th. We don’t think Sony would have the nerve to announce anything other than their Next Generation console at the meeting. Next gen rumours are at their highest point and it’s about time we got some answers and not something like PS Move+.
So, assuming Sony don’t just show us a console shell on a podium before cheerily bidding us goodnight and promising a second date at E3, I think we’ll be shown a few more things on February 20th. Don’t forget we still have a big year of gaming ahead of us regardless of the PS4 and Sony will be keen to avoid accidentally killing off the market for the PS3 and Vita by announcing their new machine alone. Instead, I think they will want to strengthen their brand to ensure they move onto the next gen leaving the best final impression of this generation. But yes, we think they’re going to show us some jaw-dropping new stuff too. I’ve already gone into detail about what they should do to rebuild their controller, so here’s my list of seven other things I think we may see at the meeting. Continue reading The Sunday Seven: Sony’s Other Big Reveals for Feb 20th→
Sony’s PS4 reveal event this week gave us lots to look forwards to and get excited for over the coming months. Unlike Nintendo, they revealed the system specs straight away, which in the long run could be a big boost in gaining support from third-party developers at an early stage -the same area that is killing the Wii U right now.
We were always going to have questions left unanswered by the event though. Some for obvious reasons, like Sony themselves not even knowing yet, others a little less clear. We’ll be tapping Uncle Sony on the shoulder for info and leaning heavily on known squealers until launch day, so keep an eye on our news section for all the updates. For now, here’s what I thought were the seven most important items missing from the meeting.Continue reading The Sunday Seven – PS4: What We Still Don’t Know→
We’re yet to see even a glimpse of the physical console for the PS4 yet and now we’re hearing that the design could still change for the DualShock 4 shown at Tuesday’s meeting. Speaking with Engadget, studio head Shuhei Yoshida said that the design of the DualShock 4 is only “near final” there may yet be some “small tweaks.” Continue reading Sony: DualShock 4 Design Not Finished→
Good news gamers, PS4 games won’t be more expensive than what we’re paying for now. Speaking with CNBC, SCEA President and CEO, Jack Tretton, said that games for the PlayStation 4 would be priced from $0.99 up to $60, the same price as PS3 games in the US.
“I think people are willing to pay if they see value there and I think there’s more choice than ever before for consumers. We’re going to welcome free-to-play models; games from 99 cents up to those $60 games,” said Tretton. Continue reading Sony: PS4 Games Won’t Be More Expensive→
If you missed the PlayStation meeting earlier this week or couldn’t find a reliable live stream you can now watch the whole thing right here at Dealspwn. It’s a two hour beast, but essential viewing. We covered all the news highlights individually too, take a look at those articles by clicking this link. Or just enjoy the whole meeting after the jump for coverage of the PS4 reveal, the new DualShock 4, Killzone: Shadow Fall, Drive Club, Infamous: Second Son, Destiny and much more.
Lost between long-range brilliance and shooting itself in the foot
The No Sleep Gamer 