Article Archive for December 2009
Huge. Epic. Ferocious.
Three words that could equally be used to describe God of War III or its Spartan god-slaying protagonist Kratos.
Of course, we could spend all day coming up with other superlatives to express the majesty of God of War III.
Groundbreaking, relentless, eye-popping. We’ll stop there, not because there’s any chance of running out of adjectives, but because words have a strange way of not living up to the grandeur Sony Santa Monica Studio’s legendary tale of Greek mythology and gratuitous violence will deliver next year.
There have been a few sea-change moments in gaming since the fledgling days of bouncing an oddly square-shaped “ball” between two elongated digital paddles.
Polygons, online gaming, 3D – all are viewed as monumental markers in gaming history; bright and effervescent signs of progression and creativity.
We believe Heavy Rain will be another of these moments.
Heading full-steam ahead into our Top Three Most Wanted games of next year, it’s no surprise to see some of the huge AAA titles coming out to play. And they don’t get much bigger than Final Fantasy XIII.
With its darker, off-kilter variant already capturing eight spot in our list, you could say Final Fantasy – as a series – is due for a massive year in 2010. For us fans, it’s truly a treat: two FF games in the space of twelve months.
SquareEnix, you must absolutely love us.
Call us suckers for Mario Kart. Accuse us even of being bedazzled by the majesty of LittleBIGPlanet. But what you can’t do is claim that the team here at PS3 Attitude don’t recognise or admire innovative new IPs that challenge the norm.
United Front Games’ ModNation Racers represents yet another groundbreaking title in the “Play. Create. Share.” collection Sony hopes will expand and entice new gamer. It’s a simple and endearing motto; almost a new sub-genre that began with Sackboy’s platforming antics and now expands into the racing arena.
After spending the last five years with microphones up mufflers and photographing cars like a Peeping Tom shutterbug, Kazunori Yamauchi’s Gran Turismo 5 will finally make its long awaited appearance in 2010.
It’s been a long journey for the AAA real-driving simulator; a road fraught with delays, criticism aimed toward its precursor Prologue product for being little more than a glorified demo (we wish all demos were this comprehensive), and what has become a level of fan anticipation many fear is impossible to live up to.
Fumita Ueda is one of the greatest artists working today.
It’s a bold statement, but if the “Are games art?” case were to ever go to trial, we’re pretty sure Team Ico’s Ueda-san would be called as a key-witness. In fact, he might even be the defendant.
Ueda-san is one of the rare few in the gaming industry who bows to no man. A visionary with shows impeccable patience on the path toward an ultimate goal. The creation of a videogame that not only entertains, but engages a player on the most emotional of levels.
Next year, after five years since his last project, The Last Guardian will launch on the PlayStation 3. And when it does, after hopefully being experienced by as many people that it deserves, there won’t be a dry eye in the house.
Here’s one that might take you by surprise.
When the votes were cast for this year’s Most Wanted Games of 2010, there were a few titles that were tossed around that many of us probably wouldn’t have even dreamed mentioning a few months ago.
During this long and arduous process, over thirty games garnered nominations, but when the dust settled and the arguing stopped, no other game received more knowing nods among the staff here at PS3 Attitude for making a surprise appearance on this list than Batman: Arkham Asylum 2 (though it’s unlikely to retain such a title).
Never before has a game been both simultaneously hindered and yet inherently blessed by its source material than James Cameron’s Avatar – The Game.
On one hand Avatar suffers from the recurring hex almost all movie tie-ins bear; an immovable launch deadline thanks to the movie it is so intrinsically bound to, matched only by the difficulty of imparting interactivity and freedom into what is – at its core – something both passive and finite.
Of course, the other hand in this equation belongs to one of the master craftsmen of his generation. A visual maven who has birthed some of the most memorable and well-loved science-fiction characters ever. Hence there is a complex duality to Avatar that raises an interesting quandary; how much of what works in the game can be attested to the source material, and how much that doesn’t work is because of that very same property?
While some may focus on mega-title Final Fantasy XIII, it’s its darker, more sinister twin that takes 8th spot on our Most Wanted Games of 2010 list.
It’s quite amazing that it made the shortlist at all really, especially considering practically nothing is known of SquareEnix’s surprise package, and it’s only recently that we’ve even seen some gameplay footage. It’s simply a testament to the game’s alluring appeal and apparent departure from the norm that it garnered so many votes from the staff here at PS3 Attitude.
PS3 Attitude will be taking a break from providing you, our dear readers, with the latest PS3 news and articles for the next few days.
Whilst the team will no doubt get bored with their presents and put up a story or two, the official line is that we’ll be away on the 25th through to and including the 28th December, and we’ll fall silent once again on the 1st January (just for a day).
But before we go, we’ve got something to tell you…
Assassin’s Creed was an interesting game for so many reasons.
Whether it was the incessant hype machine that rolled into every town, the column inches gained by the (mostly) bulletproof Jade Raymond, the promise of new and interesting game mechanics or the simple fact that it was the second fastest selling brand-new IP in video game history, everything that surrounded the game was intriguing.
Ultimately, however, the game itself didn’t deliver fully on all these promises and was labelled ‘repetitive and monotonous’ by many. So how has the sequel, backed up by a much lower-key but more focused marketing offensive, measured up?
Patrice Desilets, creative director of Assassin’s Creed II, has revealed that the downloadable content due for release in January and February were originally due to be in the actual game.
But due to time constraints, it had to be cut from game to avoid delays.
This week is pretty random. Battle Fantasia finally came out and it’s only $20. Europe got Vagrant Story for their update, but NA gets Wing Commander IV. That’s… unfortunate. It’s ok though, LittleBigPlanet has water now so it’s easy to forget about everything else.
This week is more about the deals anyway. Tons of deals for a lot of great games. Bomberman Ultra, Gunstar Heroes, and even the all Valkyria Chronicles DLC are sale! Definitely pick those up if you haven’t yet.
If you aren’t a PixelJunkie already, now is your chance to join in on the addiction. For $19.99 you can get Racers, Monsters, and Eden in this new 3-in-1 bundle. There really is no reason to not get these games.
Happy Holidays everyone and enjoy all your new games!
The End of Eternity demo is out in Japan and we have a gameplay video that shows the combat system in action.
Is the latest RPG from tri-Ace worth your time?
It’s a testament to the allure simple yet compelling gameplay has over us here at PS3 Attitude that a game like 3D Dot Game Heroes could even make the short-list of our Most Wanted games of 2010 – never mind feature in the top ten.
Something of an homage to the games we played in short-pants, Silicon Studios have quite blatantly approached what is regarded as one of gaming’s all-time classics, The Legend of Zelda, and created what can only be seen as a new-age blocky reverence to the seminal title.
There are other references of course but – if you’ve already played The Legend of Zelda – prepare to play it again, this time with blocks.
VidZone, European’s online music video on demand service, has reached 2 million fans who have watched over 200 million video, making it the biggest dedicated music video streaming application in the world.
It’s the last update of the year and there won’t be another one until the 7th of January. It seems like a long time, but the content in this update is quite delicious and should hold you off until next year.
Aside from Vagrant Story, what more could you possibly want this week? Well, if for some reason you haven’t bought Warhawk by now, the game is on sale. In fact, a lot of games are on sale, so be sure to check the list out and get some games you may have missed out on. Don’t forget Trine!
Welcome to the latest in our exclusive CelebReview series.
Instead of being written by the awesome volunteers that help run PS3 Attitude, these reviews and stories have been created by various well-known public figures, world-renowned gamers and media personalities.
Today, the world’s #1 ranked PS3 CoD4 Pro Gamer, Dennis ‘zDD’ Dozier, gives us a two part review of both Modern Warfare 2 and the new SplitFish FragFX Pro controller.
This was unexpected. The HK PlayStation Store just updated and it contains LittleBigPlanet Premium Avatars to purchase. Could this be a sign of things to come for other regions? Yes, at least for Europeans.












