Playstation Move
For those of you that live in a barn, PlayStation ‘Move’ is Sony’s motion based control system designed to compete with Natal and Wiimote. Officially unveiled yesterday the device is a wireless wand-like item that uses a light-emitting orb and a PlayStation Eye to track motion and body movements. Not unlike the Wiimote this device comes with a ’sub-controller’ that acts like the nunchuck. Out in the fall.
WARNING: This video may make you sick-up on your shoes.
More here.
KingSpray
‘Graf-up’ the streets and subways from the comfort of your own couch.
ViaCartelle
Face Tracking 3D & DSi Camera
Using the front camera of the DSi to track your eyes’ position in relation to the angle of the DSi screens Rittai Kakushi e Attakoreda enables you to move your face/tilt your Nintendo DSi to find hidden shapes inside a 3D scene.
Sweet.
Via Todd.
Heavy Rain | PS3 | Quick Review
Heavy Rain is an experience that is difficult to categorise. A good summation of that is observed with one of the first trophies a player receives: ‘Thank you for supporting Interactive Drama’, it state – which kind of sums it up. This is not a conventional video game – but it’s not really an interactive movie either. Right from the off, that lack of convention and protocol is evident, both in the narrative and in the way you, the player, interact with that narrative. Heavy Rain isn’t an A to B affair, it’s a tale that carefully unfolds across multiple story threads each revealing plot details and story lines that attempt to enrich the experience and create a connection between you and the characters you play.
Those characters are four individuals drawn together by the the Origami Killer – a psychopath whose victims are all young boys. Each character is fleshed out in a way that makes them difficult to compare with most other traditional video game protagonists. They are all normal folk plunged into extraordinary situations. All have much more in common with films like 28 Grams or Babel that they do with any game. They are not superheroes with massive guns or special powers, they are ordinary people whose choices and actions are human and are grounded in their (your) reactions to the individual situations. The choices you make as those characters determines the path a story takes and ultimately the outcome of the experience. At no point does the game question the choices or actions you make, it merely locks or unlocks doors based on these decisions. It’s an impressively varied model, to the point that any of the the four main characters can die and the game will continue – adjusting accordingly. This not only makes for a unique experience but it enables players to attach their own moral uncertainties to the characters and narrative which, very cleverly, adds depth to the relationship. Of course, it’s not easy to create or feel empathy for a 3D model – but if you can suspend your disbelief a little and share the pain and anguish of the likes of Mr Ethan Mars, you’ll probably find the experience all the more engrossing. Quantic Dream have gone out of their way to give you as much of a head start as they can with that.
In terms of the actual on screen experience the visuals, score, controls and dialogue are all equally impressive. From a purely graphical point of view this is the most rich and real environment ever created for a console and is for that reason peerless. The animation, mostly filmed with motion sensors and green screen, is some of the best I’ve seen in any game and the majority of the voice acting and face-tracking is equally as good. Of course, this isn’t celluloid, so it’s not perfect, but the fact it’s being compared to such a medium is enough of a recommendation. As for the controls, R2 acts as an ‘accelerator’ to your character’s motion and the right thumbstick is used to interact with the environment and the various objects within it. Other interaction and action sequences are controlled by commands like QTE’s and a smart approach to the motion capabilities of the SIXAXIS.
Heavy Rain is a game you need to jump into and accept for what it is if you are to gain the most enjoyment out of it. To say that it’s an ‘awesome gaming experience’ implies that you can compare it against its contemporaries, which is difficult at best. It’s a game that takes massive risks in design, narrative, and mechanics – luckily for us everyone involved has executed on those risks and ideas in a truly masterful fashion. On top of that, no matter how little, this game gets under your skin. You will care about the impact of the decisions you make and you will find yourself somewhere else, idly wondering if you made the right choice.
Yeah it’s flawed, but it’s audacious and for that I salute David Cage, Quantic Dream and ultimately Sony.
Fuuter AR FPS
Obviously the head mounted display will be replaced with goggles/glasses/contacts.
ASCIIvertising
Dante’s Inferno ASCII art has been planted in the source code of some internet sites on the pipe, including Digg, IGN and Kotaku. The art links to this Dante’s Inferno website – pretty dam smart if you think about it.
Gamester Rap
There are several game-raps doing the rounds at the mo – this is the best I’ve heard.
CODMW2 Here.
Visual Videogame Timeline
YouMe | Servants Vs Gaming
YouMe offers paying subscribers the ability to control real world characters. Each character is a person somewhere else in the world, the user gets to pick their character based on several demographic fields such as age, location, sex, height, weight and so fourth. Every ‘me’ is equipped with a camera to record and stream their movements live to their ‘you’, as well as a bluetooth headset for receiving instructions. You can effectively ask a ‘me’ to do anything, just so long as it’s not against the law.
Find out more and apply - here.
Consollection | Historical Gaming Systems
Bayonetta | Multi | Quick Review
Created by Hideki Kamiya of Devil May Cry fame, Bayonetta is the apex of a flamboyant creative journey he began with that game. A third person hack and slash game that takes the best of its peers, mashes that up and spits out a stunning, stylish and hugely entertaining video game. An almost flawless exhibition of proper gaming awesomeness – which can make even the most sausage-fingered of gamers feel like they’ve got them skills.
The main reason for that is that the combat system is piss easy to grasp – but has a huge big (an I mean huge big) amount of depth. Three buttons handle guns, melee weapons and kick attacks, while the right trigger is used to dodge incoming blows and attacks. Those well timed dodges activate ‘bullet-time‘ which as you can imagine slows down the action, meaning you can, for a limited time, twat the hell out of the baddies with no fear of retaliation. That simple mechanic surprisingly spawns loads of combo’s. Obviously linking combo’s together creates increasingly ridiculous/enjoyable brutality. If you can keep those links flowing you’ll gain magic energy for stuff like torture combo’s, guillotines, spiked wheels, iron maidens and other antediluvian instruments upon the bad dudes – including some awesome ‘hair-death’ type action.
As you’d expect the game looks pretty dam sweet as well. Hideki has crafted a super-stylish Japanese fantasy world that never fails to dazzle. Whether you’re stalking winged angel/eagle style creatures in the sun-soaked streets or slashing your way through floating fat-faced babies in storm-blown ruins and temples – it looks stunning. Character and creatures are equally as impressive, with enormous villains in enormous (brilliantly orchestrated) scenery smashing boss battles (like those you’d expect to finish most games) happening continuously throughout the entire 10 or so hours it takes to complete.
Of course there’s no plot – why would you need one? Your job is simple, just get the Bayonetta woman through a series of increasingly fun/finger numbing fights with the odd bit of platforming and puzzle-solving style activity in between. Sounds simple, only it’s a bit like Devil May Cry 4 & God of War on ‘weapons-grade’ crack. And that’s pretty much it: Bayonetta is a ‘best-in-class’ barnstormer of a game that will make your hands numb and your eyes bleed.
You should go buy it now.
Video Game Statistics
First Person Tetris
CinemAtari 2600
Nice.
Penny Design link.
New Super Mario Bros Wii | Quick Review
New Super Mario Bros Wii game is essentially a follow-up to the 2006 DS version, which is a follow-up to the 2003 GBA version, which is a follow up to… etc. It has the same 2D/3D graphical style of all other Super Mario games, mostly very colourful, beautifully designed and simply animated. The game, of course, has an identical construct too. You run through a series of world maps all strewn with collectables, baddies, shortcuts, secrets and multiple routes to completing your mission and rescuing the ditzy Princess Peach.
So what’s new?
Well, one of the finest single-player game series of all time has, not unlike most of the rest of the world, become more social. Mario, Luigi and two Toads can now all bounce, jostle and bop their way through the same levels together – dropping in and out as desired. There’s a tag-team system that offers many more chances for those players to stay alive and keep the level going. As you’d expect, the camera zooms in and out to accommodate all the action, question blocks dole out as many power-ups as there are contenders, and the games only up if all of you perish. And… that’s pretty much it. Everything else much as I said it was, with the addition of you mates – and it works. It’s a different proposition agreed, but a welcome one, and one that adds a whole new dimension to a SMB game. The clever bit is that since nothing has really changed, when you take the other players out you’re still left with a Super Mario Bros game.
That game, played solo, is routine in its execution and yet fantastic as a result. It’s pretty difficult (compared to more recent iterations) but it has all the character and charm that gives you the blissful deja vu as you run, jump and slide your way through more impeccably crafted Mario World levels. Played with friends New Super Mario Bros Wii has all of that X 4.
And in case you were wondering: The Switch Palace and Yoshi return.
Super.