Hideo envisions using the exact same game on the PS3 and the NGP. You play the game on your PS3 at home, and out and about you play the same game and same save on your NGP. A beautiful dream, indeed. “This dream is going to come true in the near future, and right now I’m working on this project. I’m sorry right now I can’t disclose further information, but I’d like to present what we’re doing at E3.”
I think I just soiled myself with delight. That would be so goddamn cool.
It’s a free demo bonanza today on the Xbox Live Marketplace!
I will say, though, that I am very excited for Epic Games’ Bulletstorm. We need a good arcadey, lightning-paced first person shooter and this looks like it fits the bill perfectly. If any developer can do it it’s People Can Fly, who earned their chops with Painkiller earlier this decade.
Play through the incredible ‘Collapsed Building’ level in Bulletstorms high scoring ‘Echoes ‘ mode. Arm yourself with the PMC, Flail gun and Screamer pistol and unleash Bulletstorms unique combat mechanics and skillshot system to annihilate your foes and, more importantly, top the leaderboards! Fight your way through a towering high rise hotel that has fallen on it’s side, providing you with a unique and beautiful canvas to splatter with your enemies insides! Utilise Gray’s kick, leash and sliding abilities in combination with outrageously large guns that feed into Bulletstorm’s distinct ‘skillshot’ system to produce unprecedented levels of frantic gameplay and yell-inducing satisfaction.
I’ll give this a shot, but Crysis to me has always been about the unbelievable visuals more than anything. The fairly open world gameplay of the single player campaign is what’s made the series stand out.
That being said, Nanosuit deathmatch could be interesting…
Aliens are decimating New York City, with a full invasion force bent on the annihilation of mankind. Neither paramilitary law enforcement nor the might of the US military can stand against the invaders. Only you have the technology to survive: with the unique Nanosuit 2, tackle the alien menace in ways a regular soldier could only dream of. • Nanosuit 2: Customize your Nanosuit and weapons then adapt your combat tactics in real time using Stealth, Armor and Power abilities. • New York, New York: Crysis® 2 is set to redefine the visual benchmark for console and PC platforms in the urban jungle of New York City. • Amazing Aliens and AI: Lethal enemies employ best-in-class AI with unique group coordination and behavior for realistic, challenging responses to your actions. • Multiplayer: The next big leap in multiplayer gives you nearly unlimited ways to approach the dynamic combat environment
Great piece by John Comes from Uber Entertainment breaking down why a mouse and keyboard feels so much better than a console controller for playing first-person shooters:
It all comes down to how each input mechanism affects your ability to turn. On a console, the angle in which a player can turn is a function of both time and displacement of the thumb stick. No matter how far players want to turn, they have to pay a time cost. Even at the highest controller sensitivity, there is a time cost to be paid. On a PC the angle of turn is a direct mapping of how far you move the mouse. The time cost is variable and the better players get that time cost to approach zero.
Just in time for last week’s release of Littlebigplanet 2. Very cool video of a handmade Littlebigplanet level in the real world.
YouTube – Un niveau de Little big planet en papier papercraft.
This piece was originally posted on Lalawag here
Yesterday, Nintendo announced that their latest handheld console, the 3DS, will be available on March 27th for $249.99. We’ve got the quick and dirty rundown of what you need to know about the system and also our take on whether you need to buy one.
Well shit. This is a pretty cool bonus for people who own multiple platforms. Why shouldn’t I be able to play a game on my PC, Macbook, or PS3 after I’ve purchased it once? It’s kind of like an early version of UltraViolet for games.
If I’m reading this right, you’ll be able to start a game on one device and be able to pick up wherever you go because the game saves are stored in the cloud. How awesome is that?
Obviously, the Playstation 3 version becomes the one to buy for everyone. Kudos to Valve for making it easy and convenient for the consumer. I hope more publishers utilize this option for their multiplatform games. It’ll certainly give me a reason to choose the PS3 version of a game for once.
On top of that, anyone who buys Portal 2 for the PlayStation 3 will be able to unlock a Steam Play copy of Portal 2 for the PC and Mac for free by linking their PSN and Steam accounts. Portal 2 project lead Josh Weier explains that Valve has designed the cross-platform experience to be hassle-free: “PS3 gamers will be able to simply drop the Blu-ray disc in the PS3, link to their Steam account from inside the game, and all their Steam friends (on PC and Mac) will be visible and accessible for chat and game invites.”
Read: Buy Portal 2 PS3, get PC/Mac version free & Steam support- Destructoid.
Playstation Blog has an interesting interview with Jenova Chen, creative director at thatgamecompany and creator of flOw and Flower.
On multiplayer games being social:
If you really wanted to stimulate a social activity, you need to re-think it from the ground up. What is the skill they’re supposed to acquire? Accuracy? Or is it the ability to convince others? If the skill is social, it’ll be very relevant and useful. People still play poker. Why? Because the skill of deception is useful for real life. Look at online games. How many skills are based on social elements? Most games are based on grinding, accuracy, physical dexterity. They are not social games. They’re just old games with online features.
Yeah. I like fighting games too.They’re fun. But as I get older, what’s the point in pulling off another infinite combo? What does that do for your life? It’s not useful. People still play chess because strategic thinking is useful. Brain training games, fitness games…these have relevance. People don’t have much time to waste, so they want relevance. Whether it’s emotional relevance, like experiencing joy or sadness, or intellectual relevance, or social relevance.
Journey looks like it’s going to be an beautiful original title and an interesting social experiment to see if Jenova’s notion of social relevance actually takes hold with players.
Read: Jenova Chen Explains Journey: Social Relevance and Artistic Inspirations – PlayStation Blog.
Very interesting article from Jamie Madigan on why shooter games are so popular.
I’ve found that I generally don’t give a rats ass about the gore content in a shooting game. Sure, it can be entertaining sometimes, but I’m more interested in outmaneuvering and outaiming my opponents. That, and the cathartic release of just blowing things up.
It’s why I’d rather play something like Quake or Monday Night Combat, which have little to no gore, to satisfy my shooting game craving than, say, Grand Theft Auto. Ironically, GTA to me has become more about storytelling and character development than the “violence.”
But how important is the “violent” part of “violent shooters?” To help answer this question, Przybylski, Rigby, and Richard Ryan (professor of psychology at the University of Rochester), concocted a series of experiments designed to disentangle the violence of a game from its ability to satisfy our desires for competence and autonomy. In one study, they modded Half-Life 2 so that some participants played a violent and bloody game replete with firearms and death. Other people played a non-violent version of the game with the same mechanics and map, but framed as a game of tag where opponents were gently teleported to a penalty box when highlighted with an in-game tool.
The results were both versions equally satisfied those basic psychological needs, which predicted how satisfied people were with the game and how much they wanted to play more of it. The researchers concluded that it’s not the violence per se, but the degree to which the games met players’ desires for competence and autonomy.
Read: The Psychology of Shooters, Feature Story from GamePro.
Uh oh.
Perhaps I take back what I said yesterday about Kid Icarus: Uprising. Control issues tend to point to fundamental problems with game deisgn that rarely get fixed in time for launch.
We can always hold out hope though…
From IGN’s preview of Kid Icarus: Uprising:
The controls proved to get in the way during our sampling, though. You control Pit through a combination of button and stylus controls. You move Pit via the analogue pad (the “3D Slider,” as Nintendo calls it), aim by moving a curser around with the stylus, and fire with L. You can hold down L for a continuous stream of fire, or you can release L momentarily to charge up a more powerful shot. On the ground, you can perform a melee combat attack by getting close to enemies. You can also make Pit do an evasive dash by tapping the analogue pad in a given direction.
Our problems centered on the fundamental control system: it’s just tough to move Pit around while consciously pressing the L trigger and also thinking about aiming. It almost feels like the game would be easier to control with a Wiimote and nunchuck pair.
Read: Kid Icarus Soars on the 3DS – Nintendo 3DS Preview at IGN.