Microsoft Replaces Don Conyer as Project Lead for Xbox 720
Conyer is credited for helping launch both the Xbox and Xbox 360.
11/29/2011
— Filed under: Games,Hardware
Tags: Microsoft, Xbox
The Sims 3: Pets Review
The Sims 3: Pets doesn’t add much to the series aside from cats and dogs, but it’s hard to resist the charm they bring with them.
Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games Review
The cross-over rivalry that no one ever thought would happen is happening for a fourth time. They first met up and competed against one another in 2007’s Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games. After that they fought it out on the battlefields of 2008’s Super Smash Bros. Brawl, then hit the slopes for 2009’s Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games. Now Nintendo and Sega’s heaviest hitters are once again going head-to-head on Wii — and this cross-over’s feeling a little weary.
11/20/2011
— Filed under: Games
Tags: Mario & Sonic, Olympic Games
Tekken Hybrid Review
The Good
Tekken Tag Tournament is a fun game.
The Bad
Lacks online support
Unimpressive visual overhaul
Tag HD lacks any original content
The demo and movie add little value to the package.
Tekken Hybrid looks impressive at first blush. This three-part collection includes Tekken Tag Tournament HD, Tekken Tag Tournament 2 Prologue, and the movie Tekken: Blood Vengeance. But spend a little time with it and you find a disappointing trio of products that make this frail collection fall flat.
The first, and most substantial, inclusion is Tekken Tag Tournament HD. This rerelease of a PlayStation 2 favorite slaps on a high-resolution texture update and calls it a day. For better or worse, nothing else has changed. The classic gameplay is still intact and holds up surprisingly well after 11 years. Naturally, some characters lack the tricks their modern versions have, but it’s still interesting to see your favorite fighters’ early years and appreciate what they have gained (or lost) since. You can duke it out in Arcade, Survival, or Time Trial mode, but the most unique is still Tekken Bowl.
This goofy minigame takes the fighters out of the ring and into a bowling alley. Instead of throwing punches, Tag’s stylish scrappers throw crystal bowling balls into golden pins molded to the likeness of Heihachi Mishima. Each character has his or her own bowling style, which is reflected in the behavior of the power meters.
However, even with a new coat of paint, the game’s visuals haven’t aged well. The character models shine with a waxy, inhuman sheen and seem to be lit by a static spotlight pointed right on top of them. There’s also a recurring graphical issue from the original that persists here. It has to do with the way the arena is rendered against the background. To give the illusion of distance, the foreground area rotates at a faster rate than the background. You can see this split between the two occur, which makes it look as if you fighting on a dirt-colored disk.
Compared to the improvements seen in Street Fighter III: Third Strike Online Edition-which had online support and additional practice modes-Tag HD is a disappointment. Online support of any kind is absent, as are any additional modes or content. It’s a shallow release and is not the sort of treatment this great game deserves. And as Tekken Hybrid’s anchor, its bare-bones delivery doesn’t bode well for the rest of the package.
Playing as Eddie can get a little crazy if you’re not careful.
Next is Tekken Tag Tournament 2 Prologue. In the same vein as Gran Turismo 5 Prologue, this game is a demo for the upcoming fighter of the same name. It brings together four of the primary characters seen in the Tekken: Blood Vengeance movie-Xiaoyu, Alisa, Devil Jin, and Kazuya (also in devil form)-and gives you a painfully limited taste of what’s to come. The game feels every bit as quick as its predecessor and even includes a few new tricks you can perform with your tag partner. But while the lack of other modes is expected, the lack of a character move list adds unnecessary confusion.
Tekken: Blood Vengeance is the third and final item on the Tekken Hybrid pile. Unlike Hybrid’s other two offerings, this is a CG movie set within the Tekken universe. And in keeping with the bar set by Resident Evil: Degeneration and Final Fantasy VII Advent Children, it’s completely terrible. As you may recall, the Tekken universe has a slick, cyberpunk style centered on corporate warfare and a global fighting tournament. The movie spends most of its time fleeing from these elements and instead follows schoolgirls Xiaoyu and Alisa as they become best friends and talk about cute boys.
A conspiracy plot involving an immortal teenager and the infamous Mishima family skirts around the edges of the film but is never fully developed. That is, until the film’s climax, when a massive battle royal breaks out between several characters we’ve hardly seen and care nothing about. From a technical aspect, it looks stunning and makes us excited for the cinematic quality of Tag 2. But as a movie, it’s flashy and shallow, and is a thin excuse to throw a bunch of fantasy kung fu on the screen.
Prologue also includes a model viewer if you’d like to spend some quality time with Alisa.
Tekken Hybrid is a weak offering that attempts to mask three shallow items under the veil of value by rolling them all into one release. Tekken Tag Tournament HD is the only real inclusion of note, but its sloppy graphical overhaul and complete lack of online support hardly make it worth a downloadable release, let alone a $40 retail product. If you simply need a Tag fix before the sequel’s release, you’re better off dusting off your PlayStation 2 and picking up a used copy of the original Tekken Tag Tournament.
Jurassic Park: The Game Review
The Good
Interesting story that smartly expands on that of the film
Good use of locations, sound effects and music from the movie
Intuitive, unobtrusive interface enhances the cinematic presentation.
The Bad
Most puzzles are too easy to be satisfying
Absence of consequences diminishes sense of danger during action scenes
Frustrating lack of context for conversation options
Frame rate hitches and control quirks interrupt the flow.
Few who made the journey to Jurassic Park via Steven Spielberg’s 1993 film have forgotten the island attraction and its prehistoric inhabitants: the spitting dilophosaurus; the swift and intelligent velociraptor; the towering tyrannosaurus. Now, Telltale Games has planned your return trip to Isla Nublar, and it’s an authentic Jurassic Park experience through and through. Like the film, the game balances moments of awe and wonder with moments of terror, and its story finds an intriguing link with that of the film by using the movie’s all-important Barbasol can as a branching-off point. This cinematic adventure is so rigidly linear that you’re much more of a spectator than a participant, but it captures the film’s atmosphere and excitement effectively, making it a worthwhile journey for those eager to see dinosaurs up close again.
Jurassic Park is a story-driven game, and it benefits a great deal from its diverse cast of characters. Happening concurrently with the events of the film and beginning before all hell breaks loose, the game introduces you to park vet Gerry Harding, who is showing his teenage daughter Jessi the unique wildlife of Isla Nublar. You also meet Nima, a Costa Rican mercenary hired to ensure the safe return of the dinosaur embryos the ill-fated Dennis Nedry stole and placed in the Barbasol can. Eventually, the cast expands to include two soldiers of fortune hired by the InGen corporation to safely get people off of the island, and Dr. Sorkin, a scientist who is fiercely committed to the ethical treatment of the creatures InGen has brought back from extinction.
The often conflicting motivations of these individuals give rise to a fascinating dynamic as they attempt to work together for survival even as they sometimes try to undermine each other’s goals, and it’s absorbing to see the ways in which they sometimes pose as much of a threat to each other and themselves as do the deadly predators roaming the island. Strong dialogue gets you invested in these people; warm banter between Gerry and Jessi quickly gives you a sense of their history, for instance, and the ideological arguments that flare up in the group help you understand what drives characters to take certain desperate actions, even when you object to those actions.
The game is broken up into scenes, some of which have you playing as a single character and others that let you switch between characters. Most of the time, you can pan the camera around your current environment, and objects that you can examine or interact with have unobtrusive button prompts on them. Strongly reminiscent of Heavy Rain, it’s an intuitive and seamless interface that aids the game’s cinematic presentation. When you’re trying to solve environmental puzzles and move forward, this arrangement also keeps you focused on only the things that are pertinent to your situation, and because your options for how you interact with those things are extremely limited, these puzzles tend to be quite easy.
The psychological trauma of being stuck on a dinosaur-infested island would have you talking to cars, too.
Unlike in most of Telltale’s previous adventures, you don’t have an inventory here, and if your character picks up an object, he or she typically knows what to do with it. For instance, in an early scene in which Nima is hunting for the Barbasol canister, if you pick up a soda can, she automatically drops it down a slope and uses its trajectory to attempt to discern where the canister might have fallen. This keeps the action moving, but also makes you feel more like an actor hitting a predetermined mark than like a character in an unfolding adventure, and it means that Jurassic Park rarely offers the satisfaction that comes with untangling a tricky conundrum.
Further reinforcing the feeling that you’re an actor playing a part rather than a participant in this tale are Jurassic Park’s action scenes. During these quick-time events, you respond to prompts to make your character perform his or her predetermined actions. You hold or mash or rhythmically press buttons to do everything from swimming stealthily to scrambling out of reach of a velociraptor’s snapping jaws. Comparisons to Heavy Rain are unavoidable, but whereas in Heavy Rain your errors could have lasting implications, resulting in the deaths of characters or other consequences, in Jurassic Park, there is only one way for things to play out. If you fail to respond to an input in time or otherwise fail the sequence, your character might meet a grisly end, but you’re then returned to an earlier point to try the sequence again.
The only potential consequence of flubbing a scene is that you might receive a silver or bronze medal (or no medal at all) rather than a gold medal for your performance in that scenario. Still, these sequences are choreographed effectively and presented from dramatic, frequently shifting camera angles, making them fun to watch. The velociraptor chases, T. rex pursuits, and other deadly situations the characters find themselves in are suspenseful, with plenty of narrow escapes, and the characters are complex enough that, although you may not like all of them, you’re interested enough in all of them to want to know what fate has in store. Unfortunately, on the PlayStation 3, frame rate hitches and sound stutters frequently interfere with the cinematic flow of these sequences, diminishing their impact and sometimes interfering with your control inputs as well. The suspense of a life-or-death situation turns to frustration when you’re playing it for the third time because your responses failed to register.
Although the dialogue between characters is generally well written, those times when you take an active role in conversations often make you feel less connected to the game’s characters. When talking, you’re presented with a number of options for what to discuss, but it’s often not clear what these options mean. For instance, in one conversation, you might see the option «Those things.» You might have an inkling as to what the «things» in question are, but no idea what your character is going to say about them, and since you’re in the midst of trying to defuse a tense confrontation between other characters, the lack of context is frustrating. In most games, you might ask other characters about things to elicit expository information from them; in Jurassic Park, you’re just as likely to choose a conversation option («Alpha Lizard,” for instance) to get such information from your own character. It makes it hard to feel a connection to the character you’re playing when you’re choosing dialogue options blindly like this.
Telltale’s engine is no technical powerhouse, and it’s better suited for the stylized look of games like Back to the Future than for Jurassic Park’s more realistic visuals. But although the human characters look a bit rubbery and unconvincing, the dinosaurs look nearly as fearsome as they did on the big screen. They also sound terrifying, since the game uses the same sound effects heard in the film, from the throaty clicking noise made by velociraptors on the prowl to the unforgettable roar of the tyrannosaurus. The locations you visit that appeared in the film, like the visitor’s center, are detailed duplicates of their cinematic counterparts, and the new locations, like an aquatic exhibit that houses a previously unseen predator, fit right in with the film’s aesthetic. The occasional use of John Williams’ theme helps make this about as authentic a return to the film’s world as you can get without Jeff Goldblum showing up and chatting about chaos theory.
The opportunities to experience places not seen in the film and narrative strands not explored by it make Jurassic Park an enjoyable return to Isla Nublar. Unlike earlier episodic adventures from Telltale that were doled out over a period of months, all four Jurassic Park episodes were released simultaneously, so you can experience the entire game immediately. Completing the $30 game will probably take you around six hours. Despite the ability to jump to any scene you’ve completed already and try to earn a better medal, there’s little appeal to going through the motions again because things play out in exactly the same way each time. Unfortunately, like the cars that shuttle people around the island, this game is on rigid tracks and offers you no control over where it goes or how it gets there. You’re just along for the ride.
Extending the lifespan of PS3 and Xbox 360
As Nintendo prepares its Wii U console for release in 2012, Sony and Microsoft continue to extend the lifespan of the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 by adding new functionality.
The six previous console generations have averaged five years each, but Sony and Microsoft look determined to ensure their current machines have a significantly longer lifespan, even with competitor Wii U coming soon.
Microsoft is finally expected to announce an Australian release date for Xbox 360 voice control via Kinect this week, almost a year after the peripheral was first released in this country.
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At a media event tomorrow, Microsoft says it will share its «vision for entertainment featuring natural user interfaces» and the first Australia media preview of voice control on Kinect for Xbox 360.
Microsoft angered many Australian Xbox 360 owners at the Kinect launch last November by making no mention of the delay and heavily promoting Kinect’s ability to control the Xbox dashboard and applications like movies with your voice.
At this year’s Electronic Entertainment Expo in June, Microsoft’s 90-minute press conference was dominated by Kinect, with many games presented that players can control with their voice, including Mass Effect 3 and Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Future Solider.
Earlier this month Microsoft announced two new Australian television partners will be coming to the Xbox Live service with ABC Iview and SBS On Demand. YouTube, Crackle and The Daily Motion will also be accessible via the Xbox 360 console before Christmas.
The streaming video services add to the Foxtel on Xbox 360 subscription service and Microsoft’s own movies on demand service available to Xbox 360 owners.
Microsoft’s David McLean says over 215,000 Xbox 360 owners have tried the Foxtel service and Microsoft expects the ABC and SBS content also to be popular.
«Couple that with the unique experience that comes with Kinect through the wave of a hand and soon to be voice command, we are creating brand new ways for people to interact with their entertainment,” Mr McLean says.
«The Xbox Live service is growing rapidly, as is the demand for digital content. Last year we saw 51 per cent growth in overall Xbox Live subscriptions year-on-year in this market. Australians really have an appetite for using their Xbox for more than gaming, and these partnerships are just the beginning on delivering on our entertainment vision.”
Meanwhile, Australia’s leading online movie rental subscription company will soon offer movies on demand via the PlayStation 3 console.
QuickFlix entered into a streaming agreement with Sony in July to deliver content direct to Bravia television and Vaio computer owners , and now the partnership has been extended to the PS3.
«Over 1,3 million Australian consumers who own an internet connectable PlayStation 3 will have access to Quickflix’s on-demand movie streaming service,” says Quickflix chief executive officer Chris Taylor. «This is a significant moment in the evolution of IPTV delivered entertainment in Australia.”
In the US and UK, PS3 is estimated to account for over 30 per cent of the rapidly growing movie streaming market.
The price for a subscription to the new Quickflix service has not yet been revealed, but the company promises unlimited movie viewing from a constantly updated catalogue.
PS3 owners are already well-served for movie-watching options. In addition to the console’s capacity to play Blu-ray and DVD movie discs, Sony launched its own movies-on-demand service in Australia in May 2010. The PS3 service features movies available to rent or buy from studios including Fox, MGM, Paramount, Universal, Warner Bros, Disney, Roadshow and Sony Pictures.
The MUBI online film library is also accessible via PS3, offering independent, international and classic cinema.
Sony Computer Entertainment Australia managing director Michael Ephraim says that movies-on-demand is the future, although he admits it is relatively «early days» yet.
When asked by Screen Play whether Sony’s own movies-on-demand service is paying its own way, Mr Ephraim says «we haven’t announced numbers. I think like any digital movie service right now, it is early days.”
But Mr Ephraim says Sony does strong believe that digital distribution is the future for movies. «We are improving on the service every day, the range of titles are as competitive as any other movie service you can find.
«But it’s a long-term plan. We’re still in a transitional period. I think for the next three years disc-based movies are still going to sell as digital movies grow. I think we’re on par with the growth that other services are providing, whether it is paying the rent right now, it’s never meant as a short-term revenue, it’s a long-term strategy.”
Mr Ephraim does not believe there is demand from consumers, developers, publishers or retailers for a successor to the PlayStation 3.
«Not at this point,” he says. «We’re just starting to hit the mass market with the price. We’re adding more and more functionality to it every couple of months with firmware upgrades.
Mr Ephraim says sales of both disc-based games and digital content on the PlayStation Store were continuing to grow. «It’s thriving right now. There’s no need for another console. In fact, I think retailers are looking for rationalisation of the console market. ”
09/26/2011
— Filed under: Games,Hardware
Tags: Nintendo, Xbox 360
Bit.Trip Saga Review
Bit.Trip Saga is an engrossing compilation of six inventive games bound together by vibrant visuals and dynamic soundtracks.
FIFA Soccer 12 Review
FIFA 12 is the definitive football game: challenging, addictive, and with more excellent features than ever before.
The Good
Defensive improvements make matches more balanced
Player impact engine creates a range of realistic animations
Compelling online modes
New online matchmaking makes games fairer
Excellent presentation.
The Bad
Single-player modes remain largely unchanged.
Distilling the world’s most popular sport into a video game isn’t an easy task. Aside from capturing the atmosphere of the game-the satisfying thump of boot on football, the on-pitch dramas created between player and referee, and the ferocious roar of the crowd as the ball sails into the back of the net-there are other considerations too. Some players want to manage their teams. Others want to live out their dreams of football stardom. Still others want to put their skills to the test against the best in the world, all the while clamouring for as realistic an experience as possible. FIFA 12 lets you do all of these things and more. A new tactical defending system, player impact engine, and head-to-head seasons are just some of the excellent new features it offers. But it’s the new EA Sports Football Club that’s the real draw, bringing with it an addictive levelling system that pits you against the world’s players, keeping track of your own progress and that of your favourite team too. Not only is FIFA 12 the best game in the series, it’s also one of the most exciting, accurate, and complete sports games around.
If you’re a longtime FIFA player, then the changes to defending in this year’s game might come as a bit of a shock. A new tactical defending system has been implemented that drastically changes the way you play. In previous versions of FIFA, a common tactic when defending was to hold down the two «pressing» buttons, which sent players in to close down attackers and win the ball, requiring little in the way of skill. That tactic no longer works. Instead of rushing in to take the ball, your player now just tracks the attacker and remains a few feet away, keeping him held back. This system of containing the opposition requires more thought than simply sticking a leg in and hoping for the best. You have to actively time when to tackle or decide if it’s better to simply hold a player back, rather than rush in for the ball, miss the tackle, and have the opposition pass.
If the opposition does get past, you now have the option of jostling them-that is, pulling on their shirt or using your player’s arm to hold them back. This is a neat feature that brings the game closer to how the real-life sport is played, with new player animations making it look more realistic. Be warned, though; pull too many shirts, and the referee won’t hesitate to throw a yellow, or even a red, card your way. Other improvements to the animation lie in the new player impact engine. This adds a physics system that simulates the impact between two players during tackles or other forms of contact. If you go in for a particularly aggressive tackle and slam into the player, the resulting animation is rarely the same twice, depending on the build and strength of the two players in question. Both or just one of you may end up in a heap on the pitch, while passing players leap over fallen bodies to get past. On the whole, the system works well, adding another layer of realism to the game. It’s not infallible, though, and there are times when you see some comical rag-doll-physics-like animations as players flop over the pitch.
Sending one to the back of the net is as satisfying as ever.
More tweaks to the controls come in the form of precision dribbling, which enable you to control the ball more accurately in close quarters. For example, when you get near the touchline, your player automatically knows he’s there and retains tighter control of the ball to keep it in play. The system also affords you the ability to use small, quick touches to control the ball, letting you perform sharp turns and making it easier to beat the opposition’s defence. You can shield yourself from other players while dribbling too, rather than being rooted to the spot like in previous games, giving you another way to get past defenders. These enhancements make FIFA 12 the most realistic representation of the sport yet. Scoring goals is trickier, with teams working together to implement strong lines of defence, but the game is all the better for it. You have to work harder, with a greater amount of skill required than ever before. These changes make those moments when you manage to score all the more satisfying.
You can break out your newfound dribbling and defending skills in a number of modes, many of which have carried over from last year. These include Career mode, which lets you compete as a single player working through a 15-year career; as a player manager, where you manage your team’s lineup and compete on the pitch; or as a manager, where you take a backseat to the on-pitch action and instead focus on tactics and building up your squad. There’s something for everyone, and if you tire of one mode, you can easily switch between them at any time to mix things up. There’s also an array of tournaments to play through, from the F.A. Cup through to custom leagues and knockout tournaments.
A combination of new and returning online modes make FIFA 12 the most feature-packed version of the game yet. New this year are Head to Head Seasons and Online Friendlies. Head to Head Seasons is an online league, split into different divisions. You start in division 10, and at the end of each 10-game season your results determine whether you get promoted or, at the very least, avoid relegation to a lower division. You get three points for a win and one for a draw, with the number of points needed for promotion getting increasingly higher as you progress. Each division also has its own cup to win, starting with the EA Shield for lower divisions, through to the Premier Cup for the top tier. Tournaments for cups take place every few weeks, so you’ve always got another chance to compete for some silverware if you miss out the first time. Your performance is tracked too, so you can see how you compare to the rest of the online community, with a table showing you how many players are in each division.
Online Friendlies is an evolution of unranked matches from FIFA 11. While you still play friendly games against your friends, the results are tracked. Every friend you play against creates a new season, with the two of you having 10 matches in which to earn more points and beat each other. At the end of the season, the winner receives another trophy for the cabinet. This makes playing against your friends all the more exciting, particularly if you’re competing in regular matches, giving you all the excitement of the ranked leagues without having to play with strangers. If you do delve into playing with random opponents, though, things have been tweaked so matches are fairer. Instead of searching for a match and then picking a club-which usually results in everyone playing as a five-star team-you now pick your team before searching for an opponent. The game automatically finds an opponent with a similar level team and takes into account your division, skill, location, controls, and Did Not Finish percentage (rage quitters beware!), ensuring that most matches are even.
Whichever mode you play in-online or offline-all your hard work is kept track of in FIFA 12’s excellent EA Sports Football Club. At its simplest, the mode keeps track of your experience points, which are awarded to you in any game mode, giving you an overall level that you can compare to others worldwide. It’s only when you delve deeper that the real fun begins. You can choose to support any real-life club from around the world, with your accomplishments and experience going toward them, regardless of what team you’re playing as. This gives your favourite real-life team an overall position on global league tables, with the league resetting each week to allow for fresh competition. Fans of smaller clubs aren’t at a disadvantage either, as scores for each team are based on averages, so even if you team’s fan base is outnumbered when compared to the likes of Manchester United or Real Madrid, you’re still in with a shot.
Competing to progress your favourite team up the table, even if it is a virtual one, is very compelling. Seeing your team slip down even one notch on the leaderboard is enough to spur you on to play more matches. There are also plans for EA Sports Football Club to incorporate real events from the world of football. These will include different challenges and storylines to play through. For example, if Liverpool beats Everton in the real world, that could be turned into a FIFA challenge where you could replay the match and try to avenge Liverpool. It’s an interesting concept, and how well it works depends largely on any drama going on in the real world, and the ability for EA’s dedicated writing staff to turn that into an interesting challenge. Integration with other FIFA games, such as on mobile devices and social networks, is also promised, letting you earn experience points regardless of which version of FIFA you’re playing. And if that’s not enough for you, the FIFA Ultimate Team mode that was released for previous games as DLC is now included for free too, letting you build a team of players by competing in matches and trading player cards.
Whichever mode you play in, you’re treated to the slick presentation that the series is famed for. Menus are easy to navigate, the commentary is exciting and well delivered, and the visuals are as crisp as ever. It’s easy to recognise your favourite players as they line up on the pitch, with official licences ensuring they sport the right kit too. And with the addition of the player impact engine, animations are more realistic than they’ve ever been. Excellent online modes and improved player handling further cement FIFA 12 as football at its best-gloriously deep, rewarding, addictive, and as close as you can get to the real thing without donning a pair of boots.
09/10/2011
— Filed under: Games
Tags: FIFA Soccer 12, Review
Gears of War 3 review
Last month Mike Capps, President of Epic Games, creators of Gears of War 3 — the first of the Christmas blockbuster videogames to be released this year — addressed a roomful of fellow game developers in Germany. In his speech he articulated frustration at the fact that review scores for the series had failed to increase in step with, what he felt, were significant strides forward in quality from game to game.
