I’d like to present to you overheard on the ‘net:
I beat a song in Rock Band on expert today while holding a baby. There’s no achievement for that, but there should be.
–via Google Talk.
Making the PSP Better
While checking my daily online gaming news with attitude, I came across an interesting announcement made by Sony at this year’s CES: download movie to your PSP using a PS3 and Blu-ray discs. With the advent of Warner Brothers moving exclusively to Blu-ray (bummer, I just bought an HD-DVD player) and this new download ability, Sony seems to be making some right moves for a change. However, could this mean that Sony is looking at the UMD format as a failure?
Predictions (or what Sony should do):
- Redesign the PSP once again and remove the UMD all together, and release games on memory sticks. The memory stick could even be used to save game progress. Sell the PSP at the Nintendo DS price point.
- Not charge for this service of copying Blu-ray to PSP (some how I think there’s going to be a money making scheme somewhere).
- Release more PSOne games on the PlayStation Network – two a week. (Beats is fun for $5, but it’s pretty much all there is.)
If #1 became a possibility, I’d be all over it like ugly on an ape.
If you want to already copy movies to your PSP (or any device for that matter), check out Handbrake.
Cars: Mater-National [360] – First Impressions
There are two things that are a hit in the vice-buttonmashing household: Thomas the Train and Disney’s Cars. Last year’s Cars release for just about every platform was a top ten seller and may be one of the best quality movie tie-ins ever.
I had purchased the game for the 360 earlier in the year used, and my then four year old son and I found it to be a pleasant surprise. It was easy enough for him to do basic races and there is also a pretty good racing engine under the hood for more hardcore gamers. Oh, and there’s achievement points. However, just because you think it might be a kid’s game these points don’t come easy, but they do come in 75 point chunks.
Because of traveling today we opened our family presents. One of the items I purchased for my son was the sequel (yes, sequel) to Cars called Mater-National. THQ did not disappoint in this version as well. They took everything I didn’t like about the first game (the menus and confusing save system) and cleaned it up. Most of the character voices are still there and every car has a ton of new paint jobs (which actually look surprisingly good). Gone are most of the stock type cars and welcomed are the international racers. What’s actually great about the two games is that they are nearly perfect continuations of the movie. They even have decent storylines.
The game is budget priced on all the consoles, so it might be worth a rental or pickup if you’ve got kids. However, I won’t razz you if you get it for yourself. I think they are that good. Generally, I get our two boys games for the Wii, but the achievements put this into the 360 realm for us.
Oh, and from what I understand the “whitewalled” classic McQueen is in this game. I’m there.
How Many Five Year Olds Could You Take in A Fight?
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I don’t normally pass this stuff along, but this was just too funny to pass up. So how many could you take? Assassin edit: and I have one five year old I can barely keep up with.
Crayon Physics Deluxe
Nintendo, you must hire this guy before someone else does.
Thanks to Dubious Quality for the find. Don’t read DQ? You should.
Game Review – Stuntman:Ignition [360]
Every now and then, I’ll pick up a game just on premise alone. I’ll buy it without a single thought as to its value or without any purchase research. About a month ago, I picked up Stuntman:Ignition from THQ. I had heard of the previous game in the series and the insane levels of repetitiveness and difficulty it presented and I still took the jump. Was I impressed?
Simply put, you are a stunt driver for a movie studio. I’ll let this explain it:
Have you ever wanted to drive the General Lee and experience what it would be like to be on the set of the show?I don’t think this is entirely stuntman profession realistic, but I play this game and seven-year-old fantasies come true. Basically, you drive a stunt vehicle and have to perform various stunts by hitting director markers. Markers are yellow and when you nail them they turn green. Miss five markers and you have to start all over. As you can tell, the director calls out what he’d like to see. I’ll give you a little gameplay experience boost: upon loading the game, go to options and turn him off. The better you perform stunts the higher your score (duh!). However, there’s this wonderful catch that immediately adds replay value to the game. If you can keep performing stunts in a certain amount of time through the whole run (one every two seconds!), you perform what is called “stringing it.” In the video above (courtesy of Youtube and bonersgames.com) you can see how crazy the crew gets when you perform an insane number of stunts. The driver in that video is pretty skilled. Some stunts are easy to string and others, you’ll be lucky just to complete the course. The higher the score, the more stars you earn, and the more stars you earn, the more courses you play..
…
The style of this game is great. Its inspired by many cliched movies and TV shows: 80’s action flicks, Dukes of Hazard, Dante’s Peak, Bullitt, James Bond, and Batman. Completing these movies nets you a fake movie trailer. Most of them are hilarious. There’s also TV commercials that you can perform stunts on and garner more stars to unlock courses. (Armor All is a personal favorite).
Is this game easy? Yes and no. When you first play a track you may not know what stunt to perform or where to go. Some courses you’ll have to learn. However, level load times are instantaneous and there is an easy mode that gives you more strikes but halves your score. So it’s no biggie to replay at times. Also, you need to unlock a high number of stars to play the last movie level or two. In some cases, you’ll have to go back to previous movies and try and earn more points. This can be frustrating if you just want to play new levels. However, because of the difficulty, when you finally string a level, it’s very rewarding. Performing a huge stunt such as a jump moves the game into slow motion and you see the jump from another angle. Jumping through a barn in a Whoopin’ and Hollerin’ II course a la Dukes of Hazard with your car is a real treat.
There are achievements out the wazoo. Some are easy to earn and others are pretty tough. I imagine that very few people have earned the achievement where you string everything. There’s even a large score of sub achievements in the game that they call badges: certain jumps here, time trials there, etc.
There’s a stunt editor that lets you create your own stunt track in a stadium,(When? SUNDAY! SUNDAY! SUNDAAAAY!), and you you can unlock more stunt items and vehicles in the gam to use. Xbox Live users can even upload their stunts for others to play.
Speaking of Live, multiplayer is crazy, fast, and furious. You steal stunt scores during races, jump over your opponents, and overall play dirty all in the confines of a movie set. Of course, records are kept online of each individual course as well. However, it appears that the strong suit of the game is still in the single player.
Bottom line: It’s at least worth a rental. However, in this gamer’s case, it’s a must-buy. This title has probably been lost in the ’07 Fall glut of AAA games. However, I think it’s definitely AAA material. It’s also available on other platforms.
BONUS: Instant replays look great. I’ve never saved replays before on any game, but this was a first.
Looking Forward: Patapon
A game I’m looking forward to. In the future. On PSP.
More to come.
Portal: The Entrance
Probably the most unique, shortest, and downright coolest game to come across my path in the last couple of years is Portal. In order to explain it a little more effectively, I’m going to use the web as an example.
Jump through the entrance.
I hope Tony doesn’t shoot me for this.
Crazy Capcom!
If you’ve been a longtime reader of buttonmashing, you’ll note that there is a lot of love for the Capcom zombie games, most noteably Dead Rising and Resident Evil 4. Today in London Capcom announced the following games at their Gamer Day:
Street Fighter 4
Development has just begun and the release of the game is more than a year away. No platforms are yet confirmed – a highly stylised animated concept trailer of Ryu and Ken fighting was shown, but no game footage.Ace Attorney: Apollo Justice
A new character and new series starring a rookie lawyer. Phoenix Wright makes an appearance but is not the lead character. Made specifically for DS.Lost Planet (PS3)
Available early next year and will include all bonus characters from the PC version and extra downloadable content from the 360 version making it the complete package. Made possible with Blu-ray. 16 player online over the PSN.Dark Void
A new sci-fi action-adventure IP. Trailer showed third-person and air-vehicle gameplay with a character wearing a steam punk jetpack, skydiving and landing in the cockpit of a gyroscopic aircraft, and then jumping and climbing through airbase fortesses.Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo HD (Xbox Live Arcade)
The game will feature a spectator mode and is scheduled for a 2008 while the team try and get zero lag for the online mode. Also features stat tracking and widescreen. Original music from Street Fighter 2 will be used, plus remixed versions of all those tunes.Wii Love Golf
From the Everybody’s Golf team comes a cutesy golf sim, that looks slightly more technical than the PlayStation versions. Players can fade or draw the ball by twisting the Wii-mote when taking a swing.
Notice anything missing? Yep, I don’t see it either. Now, you think that they would possibly want to cash in on one of their better selling games in recent years. However, they see no need (at this time, hopefully) for Dead Rising 2.
Many (heh) of us on the staff here at buttonmashing firmly believe there needs to be a sequel or spirtual successor for Dead Rising. Co-op would be a bonus.
Also, I like Lost Planet for the 360, (On the finish list!) but I don’t see how PS3 gamers are going to be clammoring for it next year. Of course, I may be proven wrong because Resident Evil 4 has done something similar with new platforms and performed reasonably well in sales.
From this list, it’s clear that Capcom views their buttonmashing (ha!) Street Fighter games as the true breadwinners.
Thanks to Evil Avatar and Games Radar for the info.
“Made possible with Blu-ray.” That’s subtle. I wonder how muchthey got from Sony for that?
All Good Things…
Have you played Portal? After exactly one hour and thirty-seven minutes I finished it. I feel inspired. Motivated.
What I’m about to do may be the most difficult thing I will ever do when it comes to playing video games. I’m not going to increase the difficulty, not going to play blindfolded, and not even play with the controller upside down.
I’m going to finish a game. I’m going to finish a couple of games. Actually, it’s a slew of games. A list.
A plethora.
You see, I think most gamers harbor a deep, dark secret. One that’s hardly mentioned in everyday conversation, internet chatter, or even done for video game reviews: gamers don’t finish games. The video game industry itself has created this festering monster. Too many games, too many systems, and too much street cred is at stake for a gamer to fall behind the times. Everybody has to be playing the latest and greatest.
At the time of this writing Bioshock was released just over a month ago. It’s old news. Halo 3? Two weeks. Are you still playing? Regularly? Like most 13 year olds on Live? Gamers jump from one game to another riding the waves of one release after another. In 2007, I was no different. Or 2006, 2005, 2004…
This fall…this next year it will be different for this gamer. I’m going to finish every game I own that I have not finished. Every last one. Tony’s “playing now” post a couple of days ago really struck a cord with me. I have too many games that I spend too much money on that I hardly ever finish. All to often I fall prey to the current fad. I’ve tried this once before and I failed after only 2/3 of a game. One game.
The games I’m going to list cover every game I own that I have not finished. Now, some of these games don’t have an endgame and others have various difficulty settings. I’ll list what I consider to be game finishing requirements for each title. There’s now a moratorium on new games and the battle with old begins. On to the list.