All the PS Vita information from E3 2011
Sony’s E3 2011 presentation has just ended and with it came a wealth of information for its next generation successor to the PSP, the PS Vita.
That’s right, it has been confirmed that the NGP will now be called the PS Vita. Whenever people will complain, prefer it or just not care remains to be seen.
Before the games were shown, Kazou Harai talked about the features of the PS Vita, going through what most of us know (slide pad, dual analog sticks, sexy shape) to explaining some of the more fun features such as Party where you can communicate with your friends and see what game they are playing and the Near app, which tracks your location and shows you where you;ve travelled. It also connect with other PS Vita users to show you what popular games are being played, what else is being played. It will also allow you to buy the games that are being shown. Handy if you bumped into a Monster Hunter group and wanted to join in (you know a Monster Hunter game for the PS Vita is inevitable).
Of course it was the games most of us wanted to know about and only a few were shown more then briefly but they looked promising. Not surprisingly, they began by showing Uncharted and demonstrated now just how smooth it ran but how the touchscreen controls enhance the game. Those worried about that not being the case can take comfort that traditional controls can still be used. Sony must see Uncharted as one, if not the, key demonstrations as to why the PS Vita is an essential purchase and you can’t blame them for pushing the media to check it out at every opportunity.
Next came Ruin which is a an action RPG. It does look like PS Vita’s answer to Diablo which is no bad thing as long as they get the looting aspect done right and make sure the combat doesn’t become too repetitive. The developers, San Diego Studios, were keen to point out that other players can suddenly appear and not just help you but instead become your rival. It seems you’ll be able to influence the level design and thus a dungeon you went through could be different for another player and vice versa. It also sounded like you would have a lair and successful defending of that lair would allow you more loot and expereince. Finally you can resume gameplay on the PS3 thanks to cloud technology. Ruin looks like the game for those with a dungeon crawler itch to scratch.
Modnation Racers was also shown and while at first it may have looked to be a port or remake, we were told that this was not the case at all and instead it was a new Modnation Racers game built up from scratch. The main selling point was the touch controls being used to make track creation more efficient and quicker and it really did look like it would do the trick. Now if the power-ups are improved then Modnation Racers could become an essential purchase.
The last game to be shown was quite a surprise as it was Street Fighter X Tekken with Yoshinori Ono himself providing a demonstration. We know this was being available for the PlayStation 3, but we got a shock when it was announced that a PS Vita version was also being made, which included simple command inputs allowing for the quick and easy way of launching special attacks. But that wasn’t the only surprise as Ono announced that thanks to a deal with inFAMOUS creators Sucker Punch, Cole MacGrath would be an exclusive character! So I guess that means Blanka won’t be included this time. Cole looked pretty badass and fitted well with the characters in Street Fighter X Tekken.
Other games being mentioned included LittleBigPlanet, which hopefully the PS Vita version will be just as comprehensive as its PlayStation 3 brethren (and judging by the trailer we saw, That will be the case) as well as Wipeput 2048, which will have a feature called crossplay which will allow 8 players to face off against each other using either the PS Vita or PS3. Sony announced that 80 titles were being developed for the PS Vita. This should mean that soon after launch, we’ll be seeing an impressive amount of first-party and third-party games.
In terms of availability and price, the PS Vita will be available this holiday season (hopefully a worldwide release) and pricing is $249.99/€249/¥24,980 for the WiFi only model and $299.99/€299/¥29,980 for the 3G/WiFi model.
The PS Vita is shaping up to be one hell of a portable games machine and hopefully we’ll get a lot more details on the games that will be released at the same time or just after it’s release. As more information comes, we’ll keep you posted here at Push-Start.
PSN Welcome Back – Winners and Losers
The ‘Welcome Back’ package from Sony was finally made available late last week, to thank PSN users for their patience and support while Sony tried to steady their corporate ship. It’s a nice gesture, though many will be less than pleased with the lack of newer content, considering there’s a decent chance most Playstation owners already own many of the games. They are quite good however, but some gamers will benefit more than others from the package, depending on what they enjoy. Here’s a quick rundown of which games are the best choice for a few types of gamers, and who benefits most from the PSN outage.
Final Fantasy VI comes to the PSN
Final Fantasy VI is now available for PlayStation 3 and PSP owners to purchase via the PlayStation Network at £7.99 (€9.99) in Europe and other PAL territories.
Well let’s face it, it wouldn’t be Square Enix if they didn’t re-release a Final Fantasy game on a different platform and for those who have missed out (or decided to hold out) on the PSOne, Game Boy Advance and Virtual Console versions, well here is your chance.
The more observant ones among you will have noticed that Final Fantasy VI has been released before Final Fantasy V, with the latter only available in Japan. Why this is the case remains to be seen.
The PSN version is a port of the PSOne Final Fantasy VI, which is the same as the SNES version except that it included full motion videos for the opening and ending sequences, new effects for the start and end of battles, loading times (yay!), bug fixes and a bestiary and an artwork gallery and the infamous “memo save” (allowing players to save to the PlayStation’s Ram). Feel free to comment if any noticeable changes/features have been included (or taken out).
While this may not be the definitive Final Fantasy VI, it’s a good start if your curious about past Final Fantasy games or just want to re-live nostalgia. Again.
Playstation Network attacked again?
A group of hackers have claimed to have attacked the already down and beaten Playstation Network, gaining access to over a million passwords, e-mail addresses and other information. This comes a day after the PSN was finally completely restored and will no doubt add more insecurity to it’s customers.
Kojima Announces Metal Gear Solid HD Collection
Here is some news that will put a smile on the faces of every Metal Gear lover out there. All of our prayers were finally answered, as Kojima announced the Metal Gear Solid HD Collection.
MGS mastermind Hideo Kojima revealed the news during Konami’s pre-E3 conference.
The HD bundle will contain Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater and Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, and will be available for both PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. With this said, all rumours can be put to rest, as its official now that Peace Walker, originally a PlayStation Portable exclusive, is to evolve into a port not only for the PS3, but for the 360 too.
All three games will be revamped with HD graphics, improved audio, redrawn art, and brand new Trophies/Achievements. The control system will also be reworked to compliment the platforms that the collection will be ported to.
Kojima pointed out that while Peace Walker is part of the Metal Gear Solid HD collection, it is not part of the PSP Remaster series.
A feature that will be exclusively available to PS3 fans as part of the bundle is “Transfarring”. This allows gamers to play Peace Walker and transfer the save data between their PS3 and PSP, giving you the opportunity to play the same PS3 data on your PSP if you need to be on the move. Although an awesome idea, scepticism still circulates, particularly amongst Trophy hunters, as no word has being given to what would happen if you earned a Trophy while using the PSP (considering it’s a system that does not support Trophies). Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker is the first ever game to possess this “Transfarring”.
The Metal Gear Solid HD Collection will be available this November.
May MCM Expo 2011 Gaming report
Another year, another May MCM Expo, the biggest annual nerd gathering in the entire United Kingdom! And of course where there’s nerds there’s bound to be video games, and where there’s video games there’s an excuse for game journalists to do overly descriptive write-ups in order to make up for a slow pre-E3 news week. So we at Push-Start present to you the 2011 May MCM Expo Gaming report!
Just as a forewarning though, I apologise profusely if some of these photos I took ain’t of the best quality; as anyone who’s been to the MCM Expo will attest to, the event hall fills up to well over maximum capacity very quickly. This little nuisance gave me no room for a tripod and a very limited amount of time to get some photos before it became too crowded to do so. Also I suck at photography; that possibly didn’t help.
If there’s one thing you’re going to see more than anything else at the MCM Expo, it’s questionable and deeply disturbing instances of cross dressing. However, the next most common spectacle is mouthwatering (or sometimes cringe worthy) merchandise of every possible shape or form. A vast majority of it is aimed squarely at anime addicts who apparently need to buy the stuff in order to survive, but as there’s a rather large crossover between those guys and gaming fanboys, it meant that there was still more than enough gaming loot to go around too.
Only a few stalls were selling actual games however, and usually it was rare (but reasonably priced!) SNES/N64 titles or GameBoy bargain bins. The rest of the gaming stuff was mostly action figures of varying quality and value, many of which could easily be obtained from larger gaming stores these days, that is if you don’t include the stuff from…..
The Square-Enix stall! It seems rather than showing off any new software (possibly because they don’t really have any at the moment), Square instead opted to showcase and sell items from their Play-Arts Kai range of gaming figures. As you might expect, a lot of the stuff on show was indeed Final Fantasy related, but there was also a huge amount of high quality merch based on popular 3rd party IPs such as Halo and Metal Gear Solid! Utilising both my inhuman self control and the looming threat of an expensive trip to L.A for E3 next week, I was able to resist bankrupting myself at this point; allowing only an inexpensive Metal Gear wall scroll from a nearby stall as my soul extravagance of the day.
As with every nerd gathering like this, cosplay (dressing up as fictional characters) plays a big part of the show. There’s not barrier for entry or anything, you could throw on a cowboy hat and call yourself John Marston if you wanted to. As a result most of the costumes tended to vary between: “ok”, “Bought on eBay” or “JESUS CHRIST BRO, PUT SOME DAMM CLOTHS ON!” For the sake of your sanity I shall not elaborate on that last one.
Of course there were a few rare standout instances of brilliance that were no doubt the result of genuine dedication and some fairly deep pockets, but the only one that made me stop in my tracks and whip out my camera was this incredibly authentic looking Duke Nukem impersonator in the photo above, who came complete with double babe accessories! And yes, I think the one on the right is going to give the Duke a bit of a surprise if he takes “her” back to Duke HQ tonight.
But enough of that silliness, now it’s time for what really matters: what games could you actually PLAY at the Expo? Well I take my hat off too Nintendo for putting together what was easily the most impressive booth at the show, ominously titled Nintendo UNLEASHED. “Man, I can’t wait to show you all the pictures I took of this sick Nintendo booth!” is what I wish I could say at this point, however after taking the above picture I was then informed by Nintendo event staff that there was to be ABSOLUTELY NO PHOTOGRAPHS WHATSOEVER. Yes that’s right, Nintendo didn’t want a certified member of the press taking pictures of their elaborate demo both (complete with blogging desk for journalists) at a publicly accessible event. So rather than using pictures of what games they had on show, I shall instead paint beautiful mental image within your minds eye using only the almighty powers of written word! Or you could do a Google Image search; it’s up to you really.
Xenoblade Chronicles (Wii)
This one was probably the most interesting of the lot, although sadly not for good reasons. Back when it was first announced it held the not so prestigious distinction of being literally the ONLY RPG on the Wii that wasn’t a sequel or a franchise extension, although I have heard that it’s in some ways intended to be a spiritual successor to the prematurely ended Xenosaga series on the PS2. Those of you either gasping with horror or jumping with joy at that thought should probably calm down; if there were really any similarities between Xenoblade to that convoluted Sci-Fi space opera then I was sadly unable to notice them. Instead it appears to be a much more down to earth run of the mill fantasy JRPG, full of spiky hair and adolescent boys with cartoonishly massive swords. The combat system was equally cliche; a free-form open world MMO style affair that’s very similar to Level 5’s surprisingly popular White Knight Chronicles.
The only thing about it that I found really striking was the graphics, and I don’t mean that in a good way. I’d seen a fair few screenshots of it every now and then over the past year, so I had a general idea of what to expect. However it wasn’t until I saw the game in motion that I realised something: the graphics are absolutely hideous. Yes, I realise graphics aren’t everything and that the Wii isn’t exactly a powerhouse, but honestly the amount of aliasing and the ultra low-poly environments were deeply reminiscent of low tier PSP games, or at the very least some mid range PS2 titles. If “Project Cafe” really is as powerful as the rumours say, then Xenoblade is going to paint an extremely harsh contrast to whatever first generation JRPGs end up on that thing.
Dead or Alive: Dimensions (3DS)
A curious choice considering this game is already wildly available. Either way, I won’t bore you with outdated but still very bouncy details, that’s what reviews are for.
Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3Ds (3DS)
For once I’m actually forced put my cynicism aside, I’m still extremely annoyed that Nintendo would rather remake an old game than work on original projects for the content starved 3DS and all that, but they’ve really done such a bang up job on this title that I can’t help but be impressed. From what I’ve seen, It’s immediately evident that a lot of love and care has go into updating this classic for modern sensibilities without losing the experience that made the game so iconic in the first place. What’s more, the massive graphical overhaul looks extremely smooth yet subtle, providing a fabulous showcase of the 3DS’s capabilities as a high end handheld gaming device; something that it sorely needs at the moment. I think without a doubt this will be the fledgling platform’s first “must have” title for both returning fans as well as those (such as myself) who missed out on Ocarina the first time. And second time. Oh, and the third. Yeah, and that fourth time to.
I would’ve loved to have some juicy hands-on details to go with that sales pitch I just gave, but in true Nintendo tradition there were only a handful of active demo units of it available, and unsurprisingly a prohibitively long queue quickly formed around them. Yes, Nintendo tend to make a habit of this sort of thing; the 2 hour line up for the single curtained off demo of Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword at last years Eurogamer was a testament to that.
Wii Play: Motion (Wii)
If when reading the name of this title you instantly assume it’s just another soulless collection of crappy minigames that Nintendo will then bundle with something useful in order to ensure that it climbs up the sales charts on no merits of it’s own, then you are a deeply pessimistic individual that really needs to chill out. You’re also totally correct by the way, so let’s not dwell on this one.
Solatorobo: Red The Hunter (DS)
It was a bit of a weird choice by Nintendo to showcase this thing; I think they might have been running out of ideas at this point. Solatroobo is a spiritual successor to an obscure PS1 game called Tail Concerto, and much like that game it seems to be a very bare bones action-adventure game where you play as an anthropomorphic dog riding a giant robot of some kind. The graphics and art-style are fairly impressive for a DS title, but combat seems rather limited; consisting of nothing but picking up and throwing enemies at each other over and over again until they explode. Judging by that, I’d say it’s quite possibly aimed at kids rather than people like me who are old enough to actually remember what the hell Tail Concerto was. Interestingly enough, it’s actually developed by CyberConnect2, who are more commonly associated with stuff like this or this rather than furry shenanigans.
Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D
I’ve been told this was playable at the booth somewhere, but I somehow managed to miss it even though I walked through the booth on several occasions. It makes me feel kinda dumb considering it was probably one of the most significant games of the show in many respects, and easily the one I wanted to play the most!
</Nintendo games>
Why Warner Brothers Interactive felt the need to built a gigantic booth to promote a game that’s been on sale for ages (by video game standards anyway) is anyone’s guess. Again, if you want to know more, then just read our review.
Wow, at least they also set up this cool looking Arkham City stand surrounded by other Batman related apparel! This must mean they had the game playable right? Nope! Instead they had Green Lantern: Rise of the Manhunters, which I’m sure you’re probably thinking is just as good if not better! Well sorry to burst your bubble, but I regret to inform you that it’s apparently nothing more than a mediocre God of War style character action game, much like Marvel’s Thor: God of Thunder. The only interesting gimmick it had going on was the drop-in multiplayer co-op, so unless both you and a friend have a massive hard-on for the lantern, it’s probably worth avoiding.
Making it’s official debut in the UK, SUPER Street Fighter 4 Arcade Edition made it’s presence known with one of Capcom’s signature huge open booth/lounge things, which I’m fairly certain contained several people playing Marvel vs Capcom 3 instead. I know this probably goes without saying and stuff, but SSF4AE (to give it it’s “short” name) looks a hell of a lot like SUPER Street Fighter 4. In fact it’s fair to say anyone who isn’t a fairly serious practitioner of Street Fighter would struggle to tell how it’s any different at all besides the addition of 4 “new” characters, two of whom are mealy alternate versions of Ryu and Akuma (because there just ain’t enough of those ya know?).
But that’s to be expected considering many of the major enhancements in SSF4AE are distinctly under the hood jobs such as minor balancing tweaks or extra options for online multiplayer battles. Obviously if you’re part of the competitive Street Fighter scene then Arcade Edition is a must buy as it will likely be the new torny standard from here on out, however I’d advise the more casual players to just wait around for the next full-on title in the series rather than get involved with this stopgap entry. However if you’re still interested in upgrading to Arcade Edition then don’t go rushing out to trade-in your vanilla version of SSF4 just yet; in addition to a stand alone retail title, Arcade Edition will be available as a relatively inexpensive DLC pack for owners of the …uh… Un-Arcade Edition. You may also be interested in the little sneak peak we managed to get of the achievements!
I think Red Faction Armageddon was both a pleasure and a disappointment really. The awesome Geo-Mod technology that allows you to pull apart your surroundings bit by bit looks even more awesome than it did in Red Faction: Guerrilla, and now many of the new abilities and weapons leverage that tech by allowing you to turn just about any piece of nearby junk into improvised projectiles. However the gameplay seems to now be confined to dark narrow corridors instead of the bright wide open sandbox world that Guerrilla used, and what little narrative the series had has now been forced down the rather generic humans vs aliens route. Unfortunately without a much more extensive session with the game it’s still too early to tell if this new direction is a good or a bad thing for the series.
[Sadly that random ghost guy in the photo isn't part of some elaborate special effect they had going on; the place was getting rather crowed at this point so it proved exceptionally difficult to get a clean shot of the booth.]
In a moment of raw stupidity I totally forgot to actually go inside this booth after getting a photo of it, but that might be for the best as I only have a very limited amount experience with the series and am thus not exactly the most qualified person to comment on how Fea- sorry I mean F.3.A.R compares with it’s predecessors. However from what I can tell the basic premise seems to be the same as before; it’s a first person survival horror shooter that relies VERY heavily on tightly scripted events to spook the player when they’re not busy unloading lead into something fleshy and/or bullet time diving across the room. The only major new feature that I know of is that former antagonist Paxton Fettel is now playable, and he relies on less conventional combat techniques such as demonic possession and telekinesis in favour of just more dakka. Wow that actually sounds pretty cool now that I think about it…….. dammit!
The GameSpot UK booth near the centre of the convention hall was for some reason almost entirely full of demo units for games that were playable at other the other booths I’ve mentioned so far. However, tucked away in one corner I did find a playable build of Shadow of the Dammed. Considering it’s the latest game directed by developer mega stars Goichi Suda (AKA Suda51) and Shinji Mikami, you’d think they’d make a bigger deal about having it there, but I guess that would’ve meant less room for another Mortal Kombat unit. Anyway, it was a pretty unique game; a Resident Evil 4 like 3rd person shooter, but with a wild Devil May Cry sort of punk motif and a heavy dose of cheesy grind house horror styleings. Defiantly one to keep an eye on!
In a more obvious position they also had an Xbox 360 Kinect version (also available for PS3 Move) of Child of Eden. Sadly I didn’t get a chance to play this as it was being hogged by a 3 year old in a Thor costume, which I think everyone nearby silently agreed was far too adorable to interrupt but would also look far too creepy to photograph. But anyway, it’s an easy enough game to describe as it’s essentially the same as it’s PS2/Dreamcast predecessor Rez; a first person on-the-rails shooter with an extremely funky art-style and music that changes dynamically to what’s happening on screen, only this time it has gimmicky motion controls that will make you appear rather silly when playing it. It certainly looks very nice indeed, and I imagine fans of Rez will be instantly drawn to it, however I think the more typical gamer might find it’s simplicity a little bit off-putting. Although that’s not to say they’re exactly spoilt for choice when it comes to decent Move/Kinect stuff at the moment, so perhaps they might bite the bullet on that one.
As per tradition, hack’ n slash specialists Koei had a huge presence at the show, once again demonstrating their inexplicably strong fanbase in the UK. Unsurprisingly the first title of theirs that caught my eye was the one about giant robots, namely Dynasty Warriors: Gundam 3. Now I’ll be the first to point out that not much (read: almost nothing) has changed on the gameplay side of things since previous version; you still just chose a character then mash the square button while stuff explodes on screen, but by God does looks a hell of a lot better than it did before! They finally decided to drop the rather shoddy looking CG art style and have instead gone for a far more appropriate anime like cel-shaded look. I was so impressed by this new art direction that I may indeed give the series a second look, even after Dynasty Warriors Gundam 2 turned out to be a boring grind fest even by Dynasty Warrior’s lofty standards.
Then again I’m sure there’s plenty of Gundam fans out there who only care about who’s playable in this edition rather than what it looks or plays like, so hopefully they’ll be pleased to hear that the roster has been significantly expanded with new mecha from more recent iterations of the Gundam franchise such as Unicorn and 00, as well as previously overlooked classics like Stardust Memory and Wing. To be honest it’s still about as niche a game as you can possibly get, but I think they’ve done a much better job of properly appeasing that niche on this occasion!
Koei’s other big showpiece was their new PS3 exclusive title Bleach: Soul Resurrección (yes it’s really spelt like that, I have no idea why) and, to the shock absolutely no one on the planet earth, it has more than a passing similarity to Dynasty Warriors. Again, all you do is chose a Bleach* character then button mash your way though hundreds of enemies while some crazy J-Rock blares away in the background. Childishly simple? Yes. Satisfying? Also yes. Koei should probably just make that their official slogan.
*For those of you that are 19th centaury time travellers or something to that effect, I’m referring to the absurdly popular Japanese anime/manga franchise, and sadly not the chemical solution.
Uh.. yeah. They also had demo units of Champion Jockey open to the public, which I have to say was truly a sight to behold. In fact, so overwhelming was it’s magnificence that none could find the strength within themselves to even approach close enough to actually play it. Even then, I dare not even try to describe what I saw from my distant vantage point for fear that I would mealy sully it’s divine majesty with my crude mortal words. What I’m trying to say here is that is was a game about riding horses, so no one gave a toss.
Although this isn’t really a game in itself, I don’t think I could ever talk about a Koei MCM Expo booth and not mention the ungodly amount of flyers they hand out here every year. Sadly I forgot to pick any up for myself this time, but I kid you not that my bounty from previous Expo visits decorate my wall in a manner not too dissimilar from this image of the booth itself.
Another traditional Expo participant, members of DDR UK where out there strutting their stuff on some obscure Japanese import rhythm action games with their usual brand of reckless abandon. That is, except for one booth that seemed to be playing some kind of Smash Brothers style party game simultaneously on 3 separate TVs. I didn’t ask why, hell I’m not even sure if real time communication is possible with whatever plane of existence DDR maniacs call home.
While not technically available just yet, I think a large amount of the people who actually care about this game have already been in the beta test or at the very least have been binging on footage from it. If not, then there’s always our beta impressions article to get you up to speed. If even that proves too arduous a journey for you, then here’s the lowdown: you still play as a brown space marine who hides behind brown chest high walls in order to shoot at brown stuff in the brown distance with your brown guns in a much better looking but still predominantly brown environment.
Relative newcomers Zen United had quite a small (for a publisher) booth, but it was rather hard to miss due to the… “interesting” colour scheme they had going on. Since stepping onto the scene they’ve more or less acted as the European representatives of fighting game developer Arc System Works, and as such are mostly known for handling the European localisations of the Guilty Gear and BlazBlue franchises. However, as I’m sure you can probably tell by this photo, they had their hearts set on hyping up the lesser known Arc System title Arcana Heart 3 that day.
It’s essentially your standard anime fighting game, only with an entirely female cast designed around various “moe” stereotypes, as well as a unique gimmick where your available special moves are determined by a combination of which character chose and what elemental “Arcana” you select to support them in battle.
Oh, and bizarrely those PSP demo stations housed the soon to be very irrelevant port of BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger rather than its upcoming (as in, it’s out today in the US) successor BlazBlue: Continuum Shift II; not sure what that was about.
Atari’s booth was a bit of a sorry sight as it only had two very minor downloadable titles on display. The more interesting of the two, not that that’s saying much mind you, was Dungeons & Dragons: Daggerdale. It’s a fairly mundane but functional dungeon crawler action RPG that I can tell was defiantly trying to do an impression of the long forgotten Dark Alliance PS2 games. But unlike those games of yore, just about every aspect of its combat system, user interface, setting and overall design can easily be filed under “painfully bland”. Supposedly it’s the first in a trilogy of titles, but judging by it’s current critical reception I wouldn’t be surprised if this district of the Forgotten Realms stays forgotten.
The game next to it was called Warlord, which, unless you’re either quite knowledgeable or pushing your mid 30s, you probably won’t recognise as a remake of an old school Atari 2600 title. It seems to be yet another part of Atari’s recent initiative to make poorly received XBLA remakes of every retro IP they haven’t lost during one of their many financial crises, so I hope you’ll understand why I chose to invest my time elsewhere rather than get some hands-on time with it.
And finally we finish off with Konami, who just like every other year were very busy drawing in new addicts for their long running Yu-Gi-Oh! trading card game. The only actual game they had on show was Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D’s Decade Duels, which to cut a long story short is very similar to the fantastic Tag Force Yu-Gi-Oh games on the PSP, only with all the good parts taken out and a bunch of overpriced DLC packs thrown in to take their place. While crappy games are never a good thing, Decade Duels is especially depressing for fans of the recently expired “5D’s” series of the Yu-Gi-Oh! anime, as this will almost certainly be the last game to bare that title before it gets replaced with the comparatively rubbish looking Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL.
And so there we have it! That’s just about all video game stuff I was able to lock my eyes on at the event. Tune in again later this year for the October edition of the MCM Expo Gaming Report, where hopefully we’ll see some as of yet unannounced E3 titles take centre stage!
This week’s new releases! May23rd-29th
Whoa boy. Looks like this schedule’s a bit later than normal this week, to the point where most (if not all) of these titles will already be on store shelves by the time you read this. Not that it matters much though. Why? Because there’s ALMOST bugger all worth getting exited about for the time being, unless of course your totally stoked about paying £30 to simulate flying a A10C Warthog or have an insatiable desire to Dance with Mel B. Man, if only there was a game that could combine both experiences; that would certainly give CoD a run for its money.
Highlights
DiRT 3 (PC/PS3/Xbox360)
This is more or less the only game on the schedule worth much of a mention (in a non-ironic fashion) this week. Some of you might know the DiRT series as the latest iteration of the long running Colin McRae Rally games; this one unfortunately being the first title in the series to drop the signature “McRae” moniker outside of North America, representing both DiRT’s shift away from the more traditional forms rally time trails as well as McRae’s untimely passing in 2007.
Regardless, it’s still the same core driving experience as before, but now with YouTube support, a punishing Hardcore difficulty mode, some sort of crazy obstacle course thing called Gymkhana, weather effects and…..ugh….. a “zombie” mode. I guess having one of those is a rule in game development now; should make the next Cooking Mama interesting. But anyway, it’s already garnered significant praise from many popular gaming outlets such as GameTrailers and IGN, so if you found yourself getting a kick out of any previous DiRT outings then it’s a safe bet that this one will tickle your fancy.
Full Schedule
Multiplatform
DiRT 3 (PC/PS3/Xbox360/DS)
Let’s Dance with Mel B (PS3/Wii/Xbox360)
DS
Paws & Claws: Pampered Pets 2
PC
Family Farm
DCS: A10C Warthog
The Hidden Mystery Collectives: Mystery Age 1 & 2
Playrix Triple Pack: Around The World In 80 Days / Rise Of Atlantis / Atlantis Quest
Sherlock Holmes: Hound Of The Baskervilles
King Arthur Collection
Wii
Exerbeat: Gym Class Workout
Musiic Party: Rock The House
PSP
Gladiator Begins
Mega minis: Volume 2
Mega minis: Volume 3
Will Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker Arrive to PS3?
With the sheer lack of information on Metal Gear Solid: Rising, Metal Gear fans could really do with some news on their favourite long-running franchise. Well, this could be just the thing they need.
According to French gaming site Jeux Video Network (JVN), there is indication that Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker will get a high-definition makeover, and resurface as a PlayStation 3 port, as part of the PSP remasters series.
Sony recently announced in Japan that a line of popular PSP titles will get the upgraded treatment, which will see us playing some of our favourite portable games on our PS3′s, complete with added features, improved controls to adapt to the Dual Shock 3 controller, and full trophy compatibility, all in beautiful HD and 3D. The only game to be confirmed as part of the PSP remasters series at this moment in time is Monster Hunter Portable 3rd HD.
Peace Walker portrays a very significant part of the complex Metal Gear timeline, which puts the players in the role of the legendary soldier Big Boss, as he establishes the legacy that would live through Solid Snake’s saga.
More confirmed titles are sure to arrive at this year’s E3 in Los Angeles, and this also means we’ll find out whether the rumours that surrounds Konami’s critically acclaimed title is in fact true. With this said, since Peace Walker is heavily regarded as one of the best PSP titles ever, it seems like a no-brainer choice to make.
So, will Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker resurface as a PlayStation 3 title? We will find out for certain at E3 from June 6th. Can’t wait? No, neither can we.
Source: jvn.com
E3 2011: Sony will run the Longest Press Conference in E3 History
It is fair to say that 2011 has not exactly been Sony’s year of triumph up to now; the lawsuit controversy with Geohot, the online attack from infamous hacker group Anonymous, and not to mention the month long outage of the PlayStation Network due to an illegal intrusion made by hackers, who have to this day kept their identity hidden. However, things can only look up for Sony and their fans for the forthcoming future, as it seems that E3 2011 is the start of that.
E3 is like Christmas for gamers, and it looks as though Sony is really going to deliver the goods this year, after it is confirmed that their press conference will last for a record breaking five hours. This is due to the brilliant array of games that are sure to be covered by Sony officials and third-party developers, as well as a major focus on the PSP’s successor, the NGP (Next-Generation-Portable). Sony’s E3 website also hints at games that are yet to be announced.
Many other predictions have been swirling around on the web in regards to what the press conference will mention, including;
- Information on another God of War title
- The release of a Metal Gear Solid Collection bundle, as well as a PS3 port of MGS: Peace Walker
- The PS3 system and the PlayStation Move both seeing a price drop
- Development of a partnership between Sony and Google
We can speculate all we want, but at least we don’t have to wait long now for what is arguably the biggest gaming event of the year.
It is also being noted that Sony has a “special event” to reveal as part of the conference. What exactly this is referring to is yet to be made certain.
The Sony E3 2011 press conference will commence from 5:00pm until 10:00pm at the Memorial Sports Arena in Los Angeles on June 6th. For us in the UK, thats 1:00am until 6:00am on June 7th, so get your cans of Red Bull ready.
Push-Start will keep you updated as the news arrives.
Final Fantasy Type-0 Gameplay Presentation
Earlier this week, Square Enix held a Dissidia 012 [Duodecim]: Final Fantasy tournament in Japan where the producer of the highly anticipated Final Fantasy Type-0, Hajime Tabata, gave a 20 minute presentation, outlining the game’s many features that will be shown on the games eventual release.
If you manage to sit through the entire 20 minutes, you can clearly make out the stunning battle scenes where Tabata has kindly scrapped the whole turn-based idea and given you the freedom to pick your fights and move around the battlefield as you please. You also see the world map where the player moves from each location within the game. And if you stayed till the very end you catch quick glimpse of the air fights in which the player flies around in a small airship destroying enemy planes.
Final Fantasy Type-0 is due for release in Japan this summer which will be released on two UMD’s.
