Games – Page 10

Test Drive Unlimited

I’ve not mentioned 360 games for a while and there’s one that has come out recently that has been a major surprise – Test Drive Unlimited. I’ve never been a big fan of the Test Drive series….too arcadey, not enough challenge – just never sat well next to other racing games. The first demo released over Live didn’t promise too much either – ok graphics and pretty average handling. Demo 2 however was a big improvement but I still wasn’t sure.

I’ve now been playing this for the last week and it’s just great. Basically the game lets you do what you want on the island of Hawaii. There is around 1000 miles of road to explore and race on. The single player challenges allow you to earn money, buy houses and cars and test yourself against AI racers through a variety of challenges. Most of these have been excellent so far especially as the challenges involve weaving through and avoiding police – think a deeper Burnout and your almost there. However as you drive around the island you are permanently online with players from around the world and on your friends list racing alongside. You can challenge anyone at any time or be challenged yourself, take part in events set up by other users or join a car club and race fellow members or other clubs online.

The best part of this is that the races are fairly random. In challenge mode you can race from your current position, through traffic to any part of the island. The GPS guides you and it can get frantic with two or more weaving through traffic watching the map at the same time. The car choices are pretty wide ranging and although the game offers tune ups they are fairly limited with most opting for the highest tune up setting available.

Handling can still feel a bit iffy on some cars and I think the motorbikes are a waste of time but there are a massive amount of cars that are worth owning and racing. There is also some graphical pop up but not enough to make you stop playing and to be honest the graphics are good so it’s a minor gripe really.

The game really is a joy to play and has delivered one of my gaming wishes – a free terrain to race anywhere on with friends online. Due to the freedom allowed there is also no chance of ever learning ‘a track’ as you decide the start and finish points and if you can’t be bothered with picking a end point there are a couple of purpose built race tracks tucked away on the island. Surprisingly this is a must have title for the 360 – buy it.

This is Living?

Thats the official PS3 slogan for Europe but I’m sure there’s something missing. This is living on the breadline? This is living in a world where the 360 does not exist? This is living in a world of crap fonts and 3d renders? (check out the launch video for Spiderman and clothes label fonts – quality). Firstly the price of the PS3 looks expensive at Â£425 and the launch games are looking average with no exclusive OS3 title standing out as a must have. Launch titles are never the best judge of a platform but with the 360 titles coming along over the next 6 months the PS3 looks weak in comparison.

Now there’s news that there will be no HDMI cable included in the box and also confirmation that the lower end PS3 will not play copy protected Blu-ray discs at 1080p due to lack of HDMI port. Add in the lack of 1080p screens, the dismal launch of Blu-ray and HD-DVD outperforming the Blu-Ray movies so far and thats a far from appetising console. Add in a non-rumbling pad that isn’t a patch on the 360 design and an internet service that in my experience hasn’t been a patch on Xbox Live and I’m struggling to find reason to part with the cash. Where is the next gen Wipeout? That game alone sold me on the PS1 and truly differentiated the PS1 from other consoles of that period. There seems to be nothing of that ilk on the PS3. Maybe the Tokyo Game Show will tell a different story later this month.

In fact the only reason I can see me buying one is that there will be a shortage at launch which usually means a profit on Ebay. Oh, there is another. My ‘habit’ of needing the latest and greatest which after all these years I’ve not managed to break. Yet. Maybe the PS3 will be my cold turkey.

Nintendo DS Lite

Last year when Sony and Nintendo brought our new handhelds I plumped for the PSP. The system had games I wanted to play (Wipeout Pure, Ridge Racer and in the future Pro Evo and GTA), looked to have great multimedia potential and the hardware looked great. In particular the hardware design in comparison to the DS was night and day. The DS was like a relic from the 90’s – clumsy, flip screen and the touch screen concept just didn’t click with me. No media playing ability either – just games.

Last week I picked up a DS Lite. I had an itch to play something fresh and new, Shakeel was raving about it and at just Â£99 it sounded a bargain. After a week of use I can only say I wish I had bought a DS sooner although in retrospect the Lite is such a better design/platform it’s a blessing in disguise that I only got one now.

I picked up a white one as I was warned the black one was a grease and fingerprint magnet. Even with the white you can still see the marks. However it looks great – very Apple esque and smaller/neater than the original. More importantly the screen brightness has been much improved and is as good if not better than the PSP. However this was bought for one reason – the games. It also shows that Nintendo still understand the games market better than anyone else.

Mario Kart DS is sublime on the DS. So many tracks that are known and loved with some originals thrown in as well. It’s also the best Mario Kart I’ve played since the SNES original – a real credit to the developers. The online mode is amazing – select from continental, worldwide or friends list to play online with up to three others. Every game so far has been lag free and when you think of who you may be playing with round the world on such a small hand held…fantastic achievement by Nintendo.

Dr Kawashima’s Brain Training highlights the unique nature of DS games. Using the touch pad or your voice you play a series of small mind games daily that help stimulate and work the brain. I’m loving this right now and while the actual science behind it maybe questionable it’s so enjoyable that I want to play it each day. This games also highlights one other aspect – how Nintendo get people to play that aren’t your typical gamers. My mother is loving this more than me – I’ve created a game addict. I may have to purchase another DS so I can get a shot.

There are plenty of others games available but these two alone have shown what a great platform this is. In some ways it’s a shame that Nintendo didn’t launch with the DS Lite against the PSP. They would have captured even more sales although it is trouncing the PSP at the moment so it’s not that big a deal. I do wonder about Nintendo designers though. Compare American SNES with Japanese/Euro SNES. There has been so many other bad examples through their history although the Wii doesn’t look like being one of them.

Back to the DS Lite – it’s great fun…and that’s really what games should be about, no? Highly recommended to everyone, not just hardcore gamers.

LocoRoco

Shocking – a new game for the PSP that isn’t a racing game, doesn’t involve killing people with an assortment of weapons and if you didn’t know better you would have thought you were playing a Nintendo console. The game is LocoRoco.

The aim of the game is to guide the LocoRoco to the end of the level. The controls are simple, the level designs are great – colourful and imaginative but it’s the animation that really stands out. Amazing. There are also lots of secret areas (think Mario) to explore so it’s not simply about getting to the level end in the quickest time. Music is just right – makes you smile which is pretty much the whole point of this game. I wish there were more like this on the PSP. Games that you can quickly pick up and play for 20 minutes without getting bored or spending most of that time creating characters, going through training modes etc. If you’ve got a PSP try out the demo – well worth it. Full Flickr set here.

Guess The Gadget

Well…can you?

360 Dashboard Update

Finally the update has been released. The full list of what has changed can be seen in this MS article. Notable features for me are:

Can now boot to dashboard rather than auto launch game
Background downloading. Download up to six files in the background. Playing online game switches off downloads smoothly with them resuming as soon as the game is finished. Playing video during download caused some slight stutter though. Game playing was smooth though (Table Tennis and Geometry Wars tested).
Music you select to play now works from dhas to game and vice versa.
Forward and reverse in video’s. At last!!!
Marketplace now easier to navigate

Also good was how quick the update was to install. The blades are also quicker to animate. Negatives – DVD playback still poor but maybe I’m expecting too much and/or comparing to far superior source so looking for more.

Rockstar presents Table Tennis

Just out on the 360 this game came from nowhere and attracted some interesting press. Most couldn’t believe that the developers behind Grand Theft Auto had picked of all sports Table Tennis to be there next game. It was also pretty unique in that it focussed mostly on online play with very little for the solo player. To be honest it was picking up fairly average press. Now that it’s released it’s quickly become one of my favourite games for the 360 so far.

It focusses clearly on the game of Table Tennis so has none of the fluff that other sports games have – character creation, career modes, upgradable characters. There are characters that you can unlock playing the off-line tournaments but that is about it. The controls are simple yet offer tremendous depth during both off and online play. This can be summed up with the length of the rallies – my highest so far is around 80 strokes. Each point can take a long time to win and it captures the feel of Table Tennis – it’s hard to tell when you’ve got your opponent beat especially with the different spins that can be applied to the ball. Online play is excellent and there is very little lag. Playing Graham online provided one of the very few ‘in the room’ experiences we’ve had – there was nothing to suggest we weren’t playing on the same machine. The little lag I have seen was due to my opponent having an average connection.

Graphics are good but limited in that there is very little to see. Sound – great for what there is but again there’s not a lot there. Presentation – I think it’s slick and it has the usual Rockstar stat collecting options so you can see fastest shot, length of time played etc just like in GTA.

It’s the ease in which you can pick up the game and just start playing – no need for endless character face building options, career setup’s, money buying/training which can get pretty tiresome. It’s also very fast and requires a lot of concentration – if you like Geometry Wars you’ll love this. All at a bargain Â£25 if you order online means it’s a must buy for 360 owners. The official website is great too.

360 News

So…..Microsoft’s announcements. Again the Jostick write-up contains all the details but my thoughts are…

Good

Halo 3….but no release date. Trailer on Marketplace and it does look very good especially as all the content is in game and rendered on the 360 although there is a bit of Sony style ‘should’ make it to final game in the Bungie announcement.
Forza 2 for Christmas, Gears of War this year, Pro Evo next gen debut is the 360
Grand Theft Auto releases same day for PS3 & 360 so good in that there is no wait…whether the 360 is the best platform for it (Xbox GTA was far better than PS2 GTA) remains to be seen
New hardware – Wireless headset, wheel and the camera – all in the run up to Christmas. HD-DVD too but not much said. IGN have some great shots of the hardware. The headset will be a purchase.
Live Arcade getting lot’s of new content but a lot of it is in the shape of arcade classics
Live Anywhere – voice chat between Vista and 360. Play game on 360 and/or PC or Windows Mobile. Smart. Use same gamertag on ANY (MS) platform

Bad

Marketplace can’t cope with the demand – downloads are verrrrry slow
Need background download update – pity this wasn’t available for this week
Lot’s of talk about Xbox Arcade but little or no additional content for the last few months
There’s a hungry market out there looking for games – how do I know? See image below – never have I seen the friends list busier with no one playing games.
No killer blow, no shock announcement, nothing to dent the Sony hype.

Overall a good amount of announcements of hardware and software but I can’t wait to see how big a lead the 360 has with regards user base this November…and what it will be like on Nov 2007.

PS3 Thoughts

Sony finally gave up some real details of the PS3, first hyped about in E3 2005 with some additional stretching of truths round about the 360 launch at the end of the year. The specifications and announcements are covered well at Joystick so I’ll jot down my initial thoughts.

Good

Blu-Ray – this is my number one reason for getting a PS3 – an affordable way of getting a Blu-Ray player while at the same time picking up a next generation console
Hardware looks to be very capable and everyone will have a hard disk – no mention of Linux or the PS3’s multimedia capabilities in the networked home
There will be a central online network which I’m guessing will have all the features of Xbox Live (still not clear whether it’s free for just basic features or the whole thing). While Sony will say more people play online with PS2’s the service is appalling compared to Xbox Live.
The controller. Finally that boomerang has gone to be replaced with the old faithful dualshock. However it’s now wireless (Bluetooth) and it no longer rumbles but instead has six degrees of movement. You can pitch and yaw the pad to control a character or vehicle on screen and it also understands acceleration. Think Nintendo Wii but in a clunkier form.
PSP linkage although cost will be the biggest factor as there looks to be a service to play old PS1 classics – Live Arcade however is one of the better aspects of the 360 so there is a market
Released this year and like the 360 worldwide at the same time give a week or two. Roll on November 17th – remember to get those preorders in

Bad

2 sku’s (2 different price points for two different PS3). Not good. Unlike the 360 where you could upgrade the core to the premium pack, there will be no upgrade path for the PS3. Surprisingly the cheaper PS3 will have no HDMI socket, no wi-fi, no memory stick slots and a reduced hard disk. The lack of HDMI seems surprising as surely it will limit Hi-Def playback from the Blu-Ray player?
Cost – a lot more expensive than the 360 – factor in second pads and a couple of launch titles and your looking at Â£600 or more
Will Blu-Ray playback be as good from the PS3 as it would from a dedicated player? DVD playback on the 360 is shit compared to an average DVD player so there is a niggling doubt about how good the HD content will look
Sony hype – emotion engine, 2 HDMI ports, 1080p gaming – what do you believe?
Where’s the original content? Looking at the list of games at E3 there’s precious little that is unique to the PS3 – Gran Turismo, Metal Gear Solid? Not enough to justify a new console on it’s own.

So it’s a mixed bag – the E3 presentation didn’t contain any wow factor and in many ways backed up the ‘hype’ accusation that can be easily thrown Sony’s way. I don’t like the arrogance that the next generation of gaming doesn’t arrive until the PS3 is launched and that they are the only party in town. If it wasn’t for Nintendo and Microsoft I’m sure we wouldn’t see network gaming and motion detecting pads in the PS3. Competition is good and ultimately should deliver a better end product. Saying that I’ll be ordering as soon as I can. If worst comes to worst EBay will deliver a pre christmas profit but I doubt it…unless I order 2.

Early E3 Snippets

HD-DVD add-on for the 360 will link via the USB ports. No word on price or launch (maybe tomorrow after PS3 details tonight)
Unreal Tournament 2007 and Virtua Fighter 5 (both PS3) developers confirm they are targeting 720p and not 1080p. Interesting but need to see other E3 announcements before laughing at Phil Harrison’s 1080p quote which could still be argued for Blu-Ray movies and indeed looking at the quote again he doesn’t specifically mention 1080p games.
Lots of new content on the 360 Marketplace. Test Drive Unlimited demo and loads of trailers – details here. Well done MS for getting the E3 content out to the masses – shame the download service is as slow as a day in Barrow which makes getting the content a pain.