Avatar Creation The Avatar creation process is full of many unique options. You have full control of your in game Avatar from every feature of the face to the body. There is even a Monster Hunter type voice option where you can chose how he or she will grunt and grown. The story still centers around Leonard, but your Avatar will be with your party from the begging just like the first game. For those of you new to the series, your Avatar is your main character that will be used in Multilayer. The game still allows you to use whichever character you want during single player, but who’s going to pass up on changing into the White Knight? Graphics and Sound The game is gorgeous and the amount of detail to the bugs around plants and the ambiance of the sky is simply amazing. The vibrant color pallet brings the world to life. Drop in a killer musical score and a very nice opening song and the world which you spend a good 33hrs in becomes very believable. This is the best part of White Knight Chronicles 2 without a doubt. MMO Feel The game from the very start of character creation feels like a free to play MMO. You can pull up a gesture menu at any time and wave and greet and so forth. The items found and looted from chests appear in a news ticker of sorts in the upper left of the screen. The game feels like World of Warcraft and you can see where the team got their inspiration from. Its just such a mix up of stuff that makes nothing work here. The Japanese RPG is there underneath what is obviously an attempt to cater to the Western market. A shame to be honest. You can still make your own town and upload it to the servers for friends to visit and it can serve as a basis for setting out on a long list of mediocre Quests. Let the Problems Begin Where do I start with this one. The inclusion of White Knight Chronicles (the first one) International Edition is a great bonus, because if you haven’t played the series before you almost have to start with the first one. You will begin 2 in the level 30+ area and will have no tutorial at all to aid you. This leaves you having to manage hundreds of skills and attacks which must be assigned to your in game attack menu. I spent 2hrs here alone before even setting out on a quest. Major issue for newcomers of the series if you chose to start with 2. You must assign every single skill and attack which will be chosen via an in game menu during battle. The battle system was supposed to be improved and more fine tuned, but all they did here was speed up an already boring battle system and add a few options like where to hit an enemy while attacking. Your attacks are chosen as stated before and you must wait for a circle to become fully illuminated before hitting X to initiate the attack. Boring doesn’t begin to explain it. While all this is going on, you have total control over your character, but for what reason? None, to be completely honest. You can try to run around an enemy while charging your attack, but if the enemy is going to hit you, it wont miss if you’re running away, making me wish the battle was turn based even more. They are trying to fake real time battle here and it simply doesn’t work. The ability to create combos is still here and works much the same way. You add your attacks however you see fit and they use up AC points. These combos are almost pointless, as a decent air combo will use up enough AC points that you’re better off waiting to get a few more to turn into the White Knight and decimate everything in a few whacks. The option to command your characters to attack how they see fit, or defend, etc, is there to more or less say, “Hey you can do this”. I found it much easier to simply set it to attack what I am attacking and that is how I left it during my play time with no issues. More Confusion Imagine starting a movie that you have never seen half way through and you have a general idea of what to expect with White Knight Chronicles 2. There is no character involvement at all. The game assumes you have played the first one and remembers every detail that has occurred during Leonard’s previous escapade. Then you have the politics of this person and that person trying to take over and without no solid story behind it you lose any sort of commitment to the cause. Add in a bunch of fetch and kill quests and you have a very boring title on your hands. Running around in the forest destroying cores is as fun as it sounds. Find the core and hit it until its gone, all the while backtracking and spending way too much time in one area. While trying to locate your objectives, you will encounter a bunch of smaller enemy types with the a big beast in the center. You simply attack the smaller ones until you earn up enough AC points to transform and smash the big beast in a few unsatisfying whacks. Shoot me now please. Releases in the states on 9-13-2011. Review Pros Cons Musical Score Graphics and detail Boring combat No tutorial Overly Complex menu system No character involvement Tries to be too many games Rating 48%

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White Knight Chronicles 2 Review

I really like it when publishers are kind enough to sum up their game so everyone can know what they’re getting into: NormalTanks is a fast-paced multi-directional arcade shooter featuring classic run’n’gun gameplay with 3 difficulty settings. There are 8 challenging, dynamic and hazardous environments to tackle and inside every enemy base or forests and mountains, you have to choose your battle tactics carefully to survive! Over the 30 dangerous enemies types on your heroic way, including various tanks, heavy war machines and helicopters, robots and biomechanical creatures, pillboxes and SSM missile sites and every level ends with its own, unique boss to defeat. Crash, kill and destroy them all to move forward! By using special power-ups, you can upgrade your tank abilities: cannon, machine gun, and armor to help you progress. Some levels transform you to tiny bot to stealth pass near the enemies and deactivate energy fields or to giant walking robot, which demolish everything on his way to the alien’s hive! Now it’s reviewing time! Review Liked the video? Ok, now let’s find out how to engage in this action packed roll around the dirt stained warzone. Since this is a minis, dual analog controls are out and we must use the following setup: Move with D-Pad, rotate turrets with right side buttons, autoaim by hitting the analog stick, fire with R and, finally, switch weapons with L. Controls take about 5 minutes to sink in since this is one of those games where dual analog control WOULD have been welcome… but that has more to do with the hardware itself and how it doesn’t have said control input available. As soon as you’re dropped into the action you’ll notice an ammo counter on the upper left part of the screen for your two available weapons and this in turns helps you KNOW you must always be on the lookout for ammo pickups and not go around firing like crazy all over the place just for kicks (well, at least that’s true when playing on the higher difficulties, especially if you’re going for a single life speed run). But wait, what is that next to your ammo counters? Why, it’s a Health bar! Get hit X amount of times (X = Health Bar minus Health Square Lost divided by being too slow to dodge) and you’ll be vanished from this earthly plane and must pass the rest of eternity surrounded by the dark flames of… what? Wrong game? Oh, my bad! You just continue right were you got destroyed if you have extra lives to spare on you. To make things interesting, you can actually power up your weapons, health bar, total amount of lives left, current health level or tank speed thanks to pickups that become available as you go along each level or that are placed when they pop out after shooting down and enemy. Died? Then you just lost all your power ups! Since the game isn’t a “one shot and your dead” type of game you can plan accordingly and be more cautious when low on health as loosing all your power ups would certainly put you at a disadvantage. Don’t know about you, but the game reminds me of the Contra/Ikari Warriors franchises which, as a child of the 80′s and beyond, is always great news. Once you find your second Cannon power up things get even more fun and the “run, blast and crush” feeling from back in the day comes to life in many, many colors and shades of said colors that are colorful… color! Be careful as trees (color coded green!) and other elements can provide cover for your enemies and you won’t be able to spot them until it’s too late, just like in the old days! As it has been said, you only have two weapons available: * Cannon: Stong but a bit slow and it has low ammo. What can it take out? EVERYTHING! * Machine Gun: Lots of ammo, very fast but does about 1/10th of the damage the cannon just got us used to. It’s better for smaller, weaker or faster moving enemies or to take down missiles that are making their way towards you. You don’t just run into the usual enemies here and there and call it a day as some of them pop out of the ground below you, and try to be as sneaky as possible about it, with the only goal of exploding once they’re touching your beautiful “jungle green” tank finish and take down your health along with them. What is very fun is spoting one of them damn spiders and racing backwards while your frantic self tries to shoot it as it zig-zags and wobbles on it’s way to your awesome killing machine. Another great thing is how there’s actual Boss battles sprinkled around the game that test you every now and then. Bosses are usually big, wide and powerful… but they also tend to not only get weirder but crazier as you progress on and on. What is the easiest way to defeat them? Lots of power ups, lots of extra lives, slurpee, practice, perfection, non-aspirin and a will of steel. Stay alert! There’s three difficulty settings to choose from with Easy being very, very easy, normal taking things closer to the extreme and hard running the difficulty dial off a cliff, past the extreme and onto the masochistic realm of NES games… and we like it like that! Level 4 introduces another element to the mix: park your tank and take control of one of those annoying, burrowing spider mines! Use your new found “friend” to take out barrier generators so your tank can continue to make some progress and help enemies go BOOM! Eventually actual mines start popping up everywhere which forces you to take things slowly and watch were you step… or force you to just go forward like crazy and hope you have enough health left as to not go BOOM yourself. NormalTanks is a fun, old school, fairly priced, addictive and fast paced game you should add to your collection if you own a PS3 or a PSP. I’ll leave you with this final comment: That Contra vibe I talked about earlier? Tooooootally off the charts once you get to level 8. I smiled oh so much once I got to that final point that it made my day. Review Pros Cons Fun, pick up and play game Old School! Great price Only two weapons available Rating 81% Published by Beatshapers Cost – $2.99 Available on PSN (for PSP or PS3) Want to get this game? The you can: Buy a $20 PSN Card! Buy a $50 PSN Card! Other Information Disclaimer – A copy of the game was supplied by the publisher for this review. – Game was completed before writing this review. – Total amount of time played: 3 hours. Giveaway We also have a US PSN Code to giveaway to a lucky member from PS3Blog.net. Just a FYI you can play the game on a PS3 or PSP. It will be simple to enter this giveaway. You have until midnight on June 29th to enter. Winner will be picked at random on June 30th. Details below: Worth 1 Entry: Just leave a comment below on what you would do with a tank. Worth 1 Entry: Tweet this message and include a link to your tweet with your comment below. Follow @ps3blogdotnet @Beatshapers & retweet for a chance to win NormalTanks! Then post a link to your tweet here http://bit.ly/jTdXod To find a link to your tweet, just click the date under your tweet Worth 1 Entry: Leave a reply on this Facebook Status update with a link to your PS3Blog.net Profile Good luck!

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NormalTanks Review (minis) + Giveaway

Here’s a trailer with the latest zombie dlc coming for Black Ops. “Zombies are back in “Annihilation”, as players unearth the mysteries of “Shangri-La,” a legendary shrine lost in an exotic jungle, where new undead species lurk within a treacherous labyrinth of underground caverns. Navigate through deadly traps and solve the dark secrets buried within the shifting walls of this zombie infested temple.” There is still no official release date for this on the PSN.

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COD: Black Ops Annihilation DLC Shangri-La Zombie Trailer

Great game! Beatshapers, enlighten us! StarDrone is a high-speed action thriller with a mix of arcade action, pinball, breakout, physics and collect-the-objects. PlayStation 2 version is compatible with PlayStation®Move motion controller and playable with normal DualShock or SixAxis controllers and created for HDTV and stereoscopic 3D (coming with separate patch). The game features over 50 levels of unparalleled gaming experience and extraordinary replay value. Cause your attackers to crash with rapid speed while collecting gems and power-up enhancements. Overcome perilous hazards and elude zillions of enemies in an effort to complete each stage with a record score. With simple gesture controls and unique, intuitive game play mechanics, StarDrone is friendly to beginners, at the same time challenging enough to bring you back for more and more. What you really want to know RIGHT NOW is… how do you play? You can control the action with the Dualshock 3 by moving the analog stick to choose the beacon you want to use as a traveling aid and press a button to go round and round, like a record . Star Drone is also PS Move compatible. How compatible? You point at the screen to highlight the beacon you want to use as an anchor point so you can orbit around it and press a button to lock your on it. Letting go of the button will send you flying depending on at what angle and direction your unit was before being sent on a journey through the stars. This video will help you understand how the game works: I like the music and so will you! StarDrone has some fast paced and exciting music to go along with all the bright colors and effects displayed on screen. Said music had the advantage of never feeling dull, repetitive, shallow, unnecessary, “just because” or all of the above at any time during my many hours of game playing. The levels start out very small and take just a couple of seconds to be completed but this is mainly to allow you to get the hang of things. Said threshold is reached once you’re at either level 3 or 4 at the latest. Then you like, totally, like, find your groove at level 6. You even get to see a map for the level you’re currently hovering over on the level select screen which helps you get an idea of how difficult said map can be once you go, go, go! Want some extra motivation? You can obtain medals for your fast paced effort… which is a bit hard at first. You see, medals are tied to your completion time for each level and since you have to finish them very quickly to make the grade. You might be a bit annoyed when you don’t get a medal on your first try. It pretty much seems like the game is asking for perfect, synchronized runs but eventually you get “in the zone” and find yourself obtaining silver or gold medals on your first try. There’s four levels types available: – Collect all stars: Get ALL stars on the level to progress onto the next one. – Destroy all enemies: It’s payback time! – Collect all star shards: You see, there was this big star that got shattered so we would like you to go and gather all the pieces and bring them back. Thanks! – Get to the finish line: Race for the giant green GOAL circle at the end of the path. Easy, right? Oh, you’re so, soooooo wrong. The fact that collecting stars isn’t the main objective of the level doesn’t mean you shouldn’t go out of your way to obtain as many as possible. First of all, they add up to your score total for the level and that in turn allows you to go up on the leaderboards as you shoot for the number one spot. Second of all, collecting enough stars will allow you to enter Comet mode so you can start to sparkle and grow spikes that help you destroy your enemies simply by saying hello to them as closely as possible. Eventually you realize you actually have a health bar that needs to be carefully managed. Hitting a Creeper (creepy spherical baddies), being blasted by a rocket or thinking mines are your friend (they’re NEVER your friend, ok? Not even when they bring a bottle of wine or some sweet, sweet cake to a small get together) takes some of that away which is why you must then start to take into consideration that there are health recovery items sprinkled around each level that will prevent you from ending your tale oh too soon… restarting the level is what it is called. FYI: as Mega Man has taught us, spikes are a one hit kill so you must avoid them or else suffer the wrath of the pointy tyrant! There are three power ups available to help you out on this endeavor: Berserk: You go crazy! Watch as rage and anger enter your unit and suddenly transforms it into a lean, mean killing machine. Any enemies near you are instantly taken care of as you dash into one after the other until either they’re all gone or your Berserk time runs out. Magnet: Having trouble reaching for the stars all around you as you fly? Grab a Magnet and then stars will want to be near YOU. Any stars even remotely near your unit will be drawn closer and added up to your collection with the greatest of ease. Invisibility: Sneaky move! Enemies will be unable to see you which makes each trip easier on your thumbs BUT if you, for some reason, decide it’s a good idea to crash into them without having entered Comet Mode… you’ll get hurt, and pain is not something you want right now. Avoid floating mines, rockets and the turrets from which they spawn, Creepers and other hazards to fulfill your destiny and complete all 53 levels included with your purchase, just as the prophecy had established all those centuries ago! Just be careful of level 39. Had to do that one over 100 times before finally being able to bid it adieu. It was the ONLY level I had a problem with so maybe it was just me being “off” for a moment but ooooh how I never want to see good old 39 again. Still, one level out of 53 that gave me a hard time isn’t something to dock several points out of a game that carries around lots of Fun-Fun with it. Review Pros Cons Very fun and fast paced game Great music Lots of content for the asked price Damn you 39! Rating 92% Published by Beatshapers Developed by Beatshapers Cost – $7.99 Available on PSN Other Information Disclaimer – A copy of the game was supplied by the publisher for this review. – Game was completed before writing this review. – All trophies obtained. – Total amount of time played: 5 hours.

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StarDrone Review

I picked a winner at random and the winner is jwhyrock ! We had 114 entries, so thanks to all that entered. Looks like the new lottery system worked great. We have more giveaways planned soon. So keep an eye on PS3Blog.net! If you haven’t read the review for the Roxio Game Capture Unit check it out here .

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Winner of the Roxio Game Capture Unit!

Monster Hunter Portable 3rd is one of the better looking PSP titles out there. The amount of detail from the village to the maps is really a step in the right direction. The steam from the kettles to the flags blowing in the wind really add to the cheery atmosphere the village aims for. The color palette in the game is bright and cheerful and is prominent throughout the few hundred hours of game play. Monsters are extremely detailed and show real time damage as the battle progresses. The game looks so good that revisiting previous titles will cause you to cringe. The areas take on a completely new look from night and day with small details like stars and mist only adding to the feel of the game. The armors and weapons have hundreds of small details showing other players immediately that you have crafted an armor piece from said monster. They still haven’t managed to clean up the HUD, which ,in my opinion, has way too much going on. I often find myself not grabbing the map so I don’t have to stare at it taking up the right side of the screen. Take into account other players’ health and names are displayed on the left below the stamina and health bar and you have a lot going on. Story and Gameplay Lets get one thing out of the way here, Monster Hunter has never ever been about a story. The typical scenario is you’re a Hunter and your job is to hunt. You move up the ranks fighting harder and harder monsters while crafting better and better gear, which sometimes requires you to kill a certain set of monsters numerous times to do so. They typically end with a scenario of a great monster invading and you must repel or kill it to save the village. That is the same scenario here. So if you want story you wont find it in this title, or any other Monster Hunter title for that matter. I found 3rd to be much too easy for previous fans of the series. What should have taken me a solid 100hrs in single player I blew out in 32hrs. The team behind 3rd is obviously trying to make this entry more appealing to first time players, and in that sense they have succeeded. Only until the later Monsters will you begin to let out a couple of curse words at your PSP screen. Nothing that will make you decide to quit, as the 3 chances you get is always enough. The camera is debatable. You need to constantly adjust the camera while fighting to keep your target in sight. This is done with the left D-Pad and L trigger. The L trigger centers the camera directly behind you and the D-Pad controls like a right analogue. I enjoy the constant battle with the camera as I feel it adds to the intensity of a big battle. We’re going to knock some points off here as I am probably a small percentage of people with that view. Felynes Monster Hunter 3rd brings over the ability to hire a felyne, with a few minor changes. You can now hire 2 and equip them with custom armor and weapons from scraps left over by your gear creation. Having 2 helpers is what makes the game so much easier in my opinion. The Monsters you hunt wont be focused on you, constantly allowing more breathing room to heal and craft traps and bombs while they pummel your hired mates. Felynes will also be able to be sent out on hunts and mining quests, allowing you to gather more materials while you quest on your own. This is a welcome addition, as it cuts down on the time required gathering rare materials. The guild hall returns for multilayer and recycles many of the single player quests but with harder monsters for the first few ranks. The higher ranked quests become extremely hard, throwing 2 monsters at you simultaneously. The higher rank you are, the harder the objective becomes and better gear becomes available to craft. The G rank level quests will have you fighting subspecies of previous monsters that are 10x harder. So if you thought the Barroth was hard the first time, wait until you meet his little brother. You can import Monster Hunter 3rd from here if interested, or wait for the import version of the PS3 to be released from the same site. A North American release has not been announced for the PSP or the PS3 at the time of this review. Look for an update to the review on the differences found in the PS3 version when released. Review Pros Cons Gorgeous Game Replayability is high Great for beginners to the series Not as deep as Freedom Unite Seems too easy Lack of infrastructure Constant camera work needed Rating 90%

The rest is here: 
Monster Hunter 3rd Import Review – PSP

Welcome back! Or did you just get here? Mmm, I could have sworn you were here 10 minutes ago… didn’t you take Einstein for a walk? Anyway, please start over here so we can get back to work. The space time continuity is at stake! It’s hard to review Back to the Future:The Game without making this a huge spoiler post since I can’t make sure you’ve all played episode 1 (which you should since you can get it for free on PC legally from Telltale themselves to get a taste of the series). Ok, here it goes: the things Marty did in Episode 1 have altered the timeline, which has now become compromised, and he and Doc must return to the past and try to fix everything before it’s too late. Vague enough for you? If not, here’s a spoilerrific description of episode 2: Short but sweet! After giving his grandfather a subpoena to testify against Kid Tannen, Marty returns to 1980 and realizes that the timeline has been greatly changed thanks to the Tannen crime family rising to power unopposed for decades… and Marty is at a huge risk of being erased from existence! It’s up to him and Doc to go back in time and make sure that his grandfather is safe and Kid Tannen is brought to justice for there to be a tomorrow for the Mcfly! And to top that off, a spoiler protected trailer: Time traveling… what a concept! Since you’ve already read the Episode 1 review (you DID follow that link, right?), we can get on with the show, and oh what a show it is! This is a very, very fun game. I love point and click adventure games and to prepare me for this review I played all five episodes of Tales of Monkey Island as well as Episode 1 of Back to the Future on PS3 during a 2 week marathon… even if I had already played Ep. 1-3 of Monkey Island (own the Collector’s Edition) and Ep. 1 of Back to the Future on the PC (buy them multiple times to support Telltale so they can get more licenses and we get more games!). Seeing Young Doc interact with Marty and then have him interact with Doc right after that is very interesting since you can see how many of his traits as an adult had already developed at such a very young age… even if his father had other plans for poor Emmet. Edna Strickland is a great character presented to us in the Back to The Future Episodes since she helps move the story along while bringing something new to the table. She fits right in with what was going on back in 1931 (she’s pro-prohibition which means booze is a huge no-no on her book) and she talks the talk and walks the walk. The fact that she’s related to Gerald Strickland is even better and it allows us to see how much care and effort has been placed into this new take on the Back to the Future universe. Writing is spot-on and everything feels just right. Really makes you wonder what would have happened if we had gotten a 4th movie in the franchise.. maybe in 10 years CGI can deliver it to us with the original actors providing voice-overs? Just look at what Tron: Legacy was able to do for Bridges and tell me it’s not possible. Telltale has definitely gotten better at this since all the puzzles and their solutions instantly make a lot of sense. Having this be set on the Back to the Future universe also helps since a crazy universe makes for a crazy, but fun-fun game (hellooooooo Sam and Max!). Episode 2 is about 2 to 3 hours long but we’re used to it by now since it’s an episode that is part of a larger story arc and playing it one episode at a time allows us to really appreciate each installment since smaller bursts of entertainment are always more fun (right? Let me know if you favor longer game sessions or shorter ones of about 20-40 minutes at a time). Being a fan of the franchise isn’t a requirement but it reaaaaally adds value to your purchase since knowing the ins and outs (well, just the ins might be enough) of the movies will help in bringing a smile to your face at every turn thanks to the great care that was taken to provide such a special experience. Buy the Trilogy, now on Bluray! Just a reminder. Only way to get this on PS3 is to buy a season pass which gets you the already available episodes and then you’ll be notified of when the others are available at the PSN Store just for you (and for everyone else that also bought a season pass. Making a game for one person is not economically viable). Review Pros Cons Point and click brought to a console environment again… and we want more! Great artstyle Episode means we have to wait for the next one to be completed and I want to play them all NOW Rating 90% Published by Telltale Games Developed by Telltale Games Cost – $19.99 (Full season pass) Available on PSN Other Information Disclaimer – A copy of the game was supplied by the publisher for this review. – Game was completed before writing this review. – Total amount of time played: 3 hours.

Read more from the original source: 
Back To The Future Episode 2 Review

“Who’s up for some FREE new maps for Dead Space 2 Multiplayer? The team has been working hard to bring you new and exciting maps, and they’re proud to bring you their latest and greatest for FREE. Return to The Sprawl in the two new multiplayer maps; The Academy and The Concourse. This new Outbreak Map Pack will be available May 31st on XBOX Live and June 3rd on PSN.” Source: Official Dead space Facebook Page

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Free Maps Coming for Dead Space 2 Multiplayer

Greetings true believers! Your lil’ pal FooBear408 once again has hopped on the old soapbox to audition for position of town crier. Basically, I’m willing to talk for anyone who’ll listen. This being my first serious review of a game that isn’t all that serious to begin with.  Whether you’re playing as a raccoon who sports a black lone ranger mask complete with newsboy/berét, or my personal favorite: the low budget and not so smug version of Bender from Futurama – Clank – you’ll be kicking ass and taking names in no time. And in conclusion to this first riveting paragraph: there’s good news and bad news. The bad news is that this game gets repetitive – fast. And the game, as a whole, leaves something to be desired for the hardcore fans. The good news is there’s no more bad news. Beginning this game on a school night (which is a weekday night in the adult world), my time was precious and I was hoping against hope for a not-so-long-and-drawn-out tutorial before I actually got to play. Not the case; controls are simple and easy to understand. There’s some announcer that has a booming voice like Elaine’s boss from Seinfeld, so instruction is clear, cut, and understood quite easily. And after the quick and even easier to do calibration for the navi controller and move controller, what was to follow would be a relief. The first level I was thrust into was quite challenging at first, but after several tries, I became pretty proficient. First things first, though; what hero suits you best? There’s Ratchet and Clank, Sly Cooper and Jak & Daxter. PlayStation Move Heroes is little more than a series of repetitive mini-games that utilize the not-so-expansive range of the PlayStation Move peripheral to begin with. Point. Pull. Spin. Shoot. Rinse & Repeat. This game seriously reminds me of a motion controlled Spyro the Dragon game, and Spyro was ten times more fun. PlayStation is kind of grasping at straws with the piecemeal gameplay and the shoddy graphics; tons of motion blur abound when action gets fast, and to be honest, it’s not something to be admired when you plunk down 40+ dollars on any game title. Actually, the whip-based games are probably some of the most mind-numbing fun mini games on this title. You get to destroy monsters with ease and just go plain crazy on them at the same time. All the meanwhile defeating objectives and getting points for critical gameplay progression and level unlocks. The controls get a little sloppy sometimes, but you can usually make up for it by just waving your move controller around like you’re having an epileptic fit or recalibrate your controller if that still doesn’t help. Now, aside from the general gameplay/graphics/repetitiveness of the game,interesting side note: none of our beloved heroes’ original developers have been involved with this title or the making of character development for the game. It’s like Sony went into a grab bag and picked at random what heroes they were using and told everyone “deal with it.” Kind of disheartening, but I guess Sony owns the rights, so blah, blah, blah. Overall, not a completely terrible purchase for the retail asking price of $40 USD, but I think we have to hope for some sort of learning curve when it’s applied to “Move” games. Let’s face it, how many games out there that are worth playing for the PlayStation Move? Three? Maybe four? I can respect what Sony tried to do here, but as far as the branded “Hero” game goes…gamers may want to plunk down some of their hard earned cash and something else and skip this mediocre title all together.

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FooBear408 Reviews PlayStation Move Heroes

First of all, I’d like to make an apology to Zipper Interactive & SONY for taking longer than expected on this review. A few reasons for that, but the majority of the time was spent waiting for PSN to come back up as I was looking to give the multiplayer a test drive. Now, before I go ahead to give you an overview of the game, I’d just like to clarify that this review is purely based on the single player campaign. As briefly mentioned above, before I got around to give the multiplayer a chance, PSN was taken offline. Hopefully, once PSN is up and running, I’ll be able to give the multiplayer a whirl and give you my thoughts on that too. So, where were we? Ahh…yes. I decided to play the single player campaign on normal mode. The introductory video certainly kept me glued to the screen, but once the game got started I wasn’t quite sure about the initial impression the game was giving me. You start the game in an office building, along with an additional squad of 2 – whom you can control by simply pointing your gun and selecting tactical positions, which they take place and either gun the opposition down while you sit back or cover you when you decide to go all gung ho. The concept of the game is to work as a team, and even in the single player, you find yourself in situations where you cannot progress unless you decide to distribute your squad members into specific positions where they can clear the road for you to proceed. However, if your tactical positioning fails, they’re very likely to get shot down. The first stage provides some very average experiences and a very slow start. The 1st stage felt like it was merely created for you to simply get used to the controls, all due to the fact the continuous prompts that kept popping on screen to advise you of the weaponry you can use at that particular moment in time. Gameplay The gameplay also felt a little dated, and at times, it felt like I was playing the game on a PS2, but with much better graphics and with the added functionality of the Move wand. Even though new technology features have been added, a little attention to detail where gameplay & storyline is concerned couldn’t have gone amiss. Even though I do have PlayStation Move, I’ve always preferred to play games like SOCOM using the sixaxis/dualshock controlller. I guess I should’ve given the Move wand a try before writing this review. Heck, I’ll do just that and update the post at a later date. So, the review so far does sound a bit harsh, doesn’t it? The game starts slowly, but I do have to advise that it does start to pick up gradually as you move through the levels. However, I just didn’t feel that urge to pick up my controller and play this game for hours on end. This game had a more casual feel to it. So, you’ve moved past the 1st level and you’re used to the controls; your squad then gets increased from a squad of 3 (including yourself) to a squad of 5 as soon as you complete around 2% the 2nd level. Even though I only managed to play through majority of the single player campaign, I couldn’t help but get a feeling that the multiplayer for this game was the main focus point – in fact why kid myself – multiplayer these days is the main focal point on 99% of the games that are released. AI The AI could be improved. At times, right in the middle of gun fights, the AI simply ran into my gunfire. There were times when I managed to walk past the enemies, whereas, if I attempted that same level again, the enemies easily spotted me and my squad and completely battered us with bullets. Graphics The cut scenes look great. When the initial single player campaign video came on, I was amazed by the quality of the character texture and facial expressions. The actual gameplay graphics are also good. Due to most of the gameplay taking place over the shoulder (maybe I’m missing a point here – camera views? I think I should look into this), the background scenery on my 37″ Full HD TV looked colourful, but pretty standard. I mentioned above, once PSN is back, I hope to review the multiplayer aspect of the game. I do think I may have been a little harsh whilst doing the review, but I may be proven wrong once I get to taste the multiplayer portion of the game. Review Pros Cons Cut scenes look great The ability to command squad members into tactical positions Total gameplay exceeds 30+ hours (including cutscenes) AI needs to be improved. You can either get your hands dirty in gun fights or just sit back and let the AI do the work (maybe that’s a Pro as well?), and the AI needs to realise when it’s getting shot at rather than run directly into gunfire. Single Player Campaign plot is too weak, and, at times, boring Rating 68%

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SOCOM 4 (a.k.a SOCOM Special Forces) Single Player Review