When the competition is insanely high, you can’t afford to mess up. One of your competitors will eat you alive. And DICE has a warning for any developer that might trip and stumble: watch out. In speaking to OPM, DICE’s general manager, Karl-Magnus Troedsson, showed great confidence in their upcoming title, Battlefield 3. Remember, the Call of Duty guys have been using the same engine since 2005 , while the Frostbite 2 engine is kicking ass and taking names. “Our competitors are getting lazy. They’re using the same engine, the same recipe for building a game. At some point you need to take that leap. I haven’t seen them take that leap since a long time ago. We are doing that now. They had better watch out. We are coming for them.” Granted, the popularity of CoD may never be topped, but the Battlefield franchise has proven worthy in the past, and, unless the newest CoD effort steps up big time, many are thinking DICE will steal the shooter crown in 2011. Okay, not in terms of sales (that seems impossible), but Battlefield 3 may rule the school, along with the likes of Killzone 3 and Crysis 2. Added Troedsson: “Our competitors keep building very, very high tempo games. We want to tell a story with more drama curves. It’s not about pumping round after round for six hours.” Anybody else getting more and more eager to play?!

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DICE: We Are Coming For You

Sony showed off a very interesting new feature currently in development for the PS3 this week during an event in London that reportedly “shocked” many of the company’s executives. This new technology is a dual-view 3D mode for the PlayStation 3 that would allow gamers to play against each other in the same room on the same TV without having to use split screen. Mick Hocking, SCEE senior director ( and director of it’s World Wide Studio’s Stereoscopic 3D Team ) demonstrated the mode briefly with Killzone 3 to a small number of attendess. A website called PocketLint had some of it’s guys at the London event. Here’s how they described Sony’s new work in progress: The technology works in a similar way to Jaguar’s spilt screen television on its dashboard that displays television to the passenger in the car and a map to the driver, but in this case to gamers at home. Player one will see his movements full screen, while player 2 will see his – i.e., something completely different explained Hocking on the technology that could revolutionise gaming at home, on your TV. Even though the freshly released KillZone 3 was used to demo the new PS3D feature, Sony didn’t elaberate on when consumers can expect to try it out.

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The Days Of Split Screen Gaming May Be Coming To An End

Tim Schafer’s studio Double Fine, which created the innovative adventure/platformer “Psychonauts” and more recently the quirky Russian doll game “Stacking,” released the seasonally-themed light RPG adventure “Costume Quest” to PSN and XBLA on October 19, 2010. The game is a delightful bit of cotton candy fluff that features tongue-in-cheek but innocent humor, a solid if simplistic turn-based battle mechanic, and a healthy respect for the sense of empowerment that role-playing can bring to a kid or even to us, whether in a Halloween costume or through digital avatar. The game is suitable for everyone from a child who has never played an RPG before to an experienced and obsessional gamer (you know the type: the one who has to collect every single one of the five hundred useless doodads scattered throughout a game world). Costume Quest Review The conceit in Costume Quest is that your sibling has been carried off by interdimensional goblins (whom only kids can see!) who have invaded Suburbia, USA with the nefarious aim of stealing all the candy that they can lay their grubby little hands on. (The goblins are called Grubbins, by the way.) You choose at the outset whether you want to play as the brother or sister – a choice that has no impact on gameplay, but allows you to cast either gender in the role of hero and protector. But you need funds to accomplish your quest, and what’s a kid’s Halloween currency? Candy, of course! You must go house-to-house in the neighborhood trick-or-treating, and when the front door opens, you’ll either get a stash of candy or be confronted by a pugnacious goblin. When you enter combat, your little tyke in his/her costume cobbled from bedsheets, cardboard, duct tape, and the like grows into an enormous, superheroic instantiation of the costume type. So the hokey cardboard robot becomes a massive Voltron-like powerhouse. The goblins similarly expand, and you and your opponents face off in turn based battle looming high over the suburban houses. Combat is turn-based and rather simple. Each costume has a generic attack and a special power, which charges up over time. You must pay attention during combat as the mechanics are quite reminiscent of “Paper Mario,” in the sense that attacks have timed button press sequences (which are rather rudimentary) that when properly executed do extra damage or minimize the damage that your character takes from enemy attacks. What spices up the battle is that fact that throughout the game you gather patterns and materials that allow you to construct new costumes (eleven costumes in all), which mean new characters on the battlefield when you don these costumes. You also gather party members over the course of the game, whose costumes you choose and who fight alongside you. Finally, the candy that you collect can be traded for “battle stamps,” which are sort of like items that your characters can equip and which allow for different kinds of buffs and attacks when battling, from increased critical damage to stunning attacks to health regeneration. Different costumes have different special powers as well, from area-of-effect attacks to resurrection of downed allies. It’s fun tailoring one’s party to suit one’s play style. But by about half-way through the game, if you’re like me, you’ll have found a formula that works quite well, and you’ll have little reason to vary it. Also, the outcome of the battles will rarely be in question, especially if you pull of the critical attack button sequence (which isn’t a difficult achievement). Battling aside, much of the fun of the game lies in exploration of the three main game areas, which include the neighborhood, a mall, and country fairgrounds. One must solve various puzzles to progress through the game, which often rely on using the various costumes’ powers. Many costumes have powers that can be activated in the game world, not just on the battlefield. The robot costume has rollerblades, allows you to jump ramps to otherwise inaccessible areas, the knight’s shield protects you from falling rocks, and so on. Some of the puzzles require some thought and experimentation, often they are solved readily enough by hunting down missing components of a necessary costume. Along the way there are side-puzzles, mini-games, trading card collection opportunities, secondary quests, and so on. You won’t be confronted with major challenges, but the puzzles are quirky and fun. The game is quite amusing in a sometimes dopey sort of way. But it does a great job of using humor that is appropriate for kids (and doesn’t even resort to the bathos of potty humor and fart jokes – which is a minor annoyance in “Stacking”), while at the same time offering clever socio-political commentaries that adults will appreciate as well as making occasional popular cultural references. (My favorite is an allusion to the sadly defunct Fox sitcom “Arrested Development.”) The game’s visual aesthetic is unique and charming. It’s cartoony in a rather original way, which is consequently difficult to describe. It might be compared to Tim Burton’s “Nightmare Before Christmas” meets “Southpark.” But ignore whatever associations you might have with either of the above texts: I’m just talking cartoon style here, not message, ethics, or humor. The music is serviceable in a workman-like fashion (it gets repetitive), and there is no dialog. But hey, it’s a PSN title. “Costume Quest” is a fun diversion built on a satisfying and quirky adventuring premise. It’s a fun world to explore and to master, and it is one of those rare games that is rewarding for both kids and adults. A speed run-though might only take a few hours, but plan on eight or so hours if you intend to explore all the crevices, finish all the side quests, and collect all the PSN trophies (of which there are twelve, including one gold and four silver). The main downside is that battle eventually becomes repetitive and is always win-able, except in the rare boss fights, which can provide slightly greater challenge and which sometimes require particular costumes and battle-stamp combinations to win. I would have liked to see a little more variety in battling options and strategic opportunities, but I recognize that the fighting mechanic is designedly somewhat stripped-down for the sake of being accessible to a young audience. Also, it should be said that the game has very little replay value. But don’t think that I don’t like the title: This is a charming game suitable for your entire family. Review Pros Cons Unique, seasonal, and empowering game play Satisfying exploration and collection Eccentric, family-friendly humor Battles become repetitive Little replay value Rating 75% Costume Quest DLC Review – Grubbins on Ice “Grubbins on Ice,” the DLC expansion to Double Fine’s “Costume Quest,” was released on PSN and XBLA on December 21, 2010. In this game, your collection of friends ventures through one of the goblins’ interdimensional portals into their monster land, where you’ll aid in a Grubbins revolution. The format here is much the same as in “Costume Quest”: You trick-or-treat and gather candy just like before, except now the candy funds revolutionary coffers, and the houses are inhabited by goblins – some who are comrades and some who decidedly reactionary. The game offers a new breed of enemy, but the enemy soldiers are all one of four types, just as in the original game: warrior, archer, buffing priest, or damaging mage. You’ll have access to all of the original title’s eleven costumes, and over the course of this adventure, you’ll unlock three more costumes (two of which are necessary to advance the story and one of which is not) as well as eight new battle stamps and assorted new collector’s cards. There’s another apple-bobbing game and another find the hiding children quest: It’s much of the same, but with an eccentric new tileset in this alternate universe. The new costumes are cute: pirate, yeti, and eyeball. The eyeball has a neat adventuring power, which zooms the camera out a bit from the map, allowing you to see more, including hidden places that you might jump to. My gripe, though, is that the eyeball power is actually only helpful in one particular place, and your companions tell you to use the ability there, which sort of ruins the puzzle. Moreover, when I got to that spot, I hadn’t yet assembled the eyeball costume, but I was still able to divine where I needed to jump to reach the secret area – so the eyeball’s adventuring power was never useful to me. It’s a neat idea, but it was woefully underused, and it feels rather tacked on. The puzzles seem easier and more geographically contained in this expansion pack. But even if this game is less intellectually demanding (if that’s not too strong a term for the original title), it still has a great sense of humor. The final boss fight, though, is more challenging than any of the battles in the original game. Granted, one of the main reasons that I lost the battle on my first attempt was that the boss fight took me by surprise, so I hadn’t had time to change my party into their boss-killing costumes and arm them with the appropriate stamps. Still, a fun battle, and more rewarding than most of the battles in the game. My main beef with this DLC is that it is really quite short. I spent somewhere between two and three hours playing it, and I did every secondary quest, acquired every battle stamp and trading card, and won every PSN trophy (five this time, including one gold and three silver). Is the DLC worth 5 USD? It’s hard to say. If you’re jonesin’ for more “Costume Quest,” then yes, this title has all the charm of its parent game plus a few new costumes. But if you want “bang for your buck,” then this isn’t the place to invest your money. Review Pros Cons More quirky fun with costumes Too short an experience Little replay value Rating 40% –

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Costume Quest & Grubbins on Ice DLC Review

This weeks Famitsu has some juicy details for Demon Souls fans. The spiritual successor or sequel of Demon souls has been outed with some juicy details. The game will be multiplatform and co-developed by Namco Bandai and From Software. Check out the info. – This is the official title of what was previously Project Dark – This time they want to increase the amount of field exploration in the game. – All fields are seamless, so whatever you can see, you can reach and explore. If you see a fortress or castle walls in the distance, you can eventually get there. – There will be no map display in the game, just a position display marker. – They aim to make the game just as challenging than Demon’s Souls, but also just as rewarding when you succeed. The sense of achievement is important. – The gameplay will be similar to Demon’s Souls in concept, where it’s about trial and error and learning from your mistakes to play better. – The game does not share the same world and story as Demon’s Souls. – The game will not use the same format as Demon’s Souls in terms of having 5 worlds connected via a hub. – Instead all maps in the game will be linked seamlessly in a connected world. The pace of the game will feel more about exploration and discovering locations, which you can then go inside into a dungeon or whatever and explore the interior further. – There will be more complex level designs in the game using more vertical design in areas and such. – The world setting is based on medieval dark fantasy, and will contain themes like “high fantasy of kings and knights”, “death and the depths of the earth”, and “the flames of chaos”. – The character creation process will not be class based. – The play style of the player character will have much more freedom this time. – There will be many more spells and items, and the animation and uniqueness of weapons will also be increased. – The online elements are very similar to Demon’s Souls. There is cooperative and PvP. – You can still leave messages, and see players who died at various places. – There will be no Soul Tendency this time because they don’t want to have to use dedicated servers to handle that shit again. – Instead this time there will be more features allowing players to engage in “mutual role playing” which they say are still under wraps. They’ll reveal more when it’s time. translation via Duckroll of Neogaf

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Project Dark Will be “Dark Souls” (The Spiritual Successor of Demon Souls)

Here is a live action video of Issac back at the Visceral Office. If I worked there I’d probably do the same thing, lol. Dead Space 2 is out on 1/25/2011 in the US and 1/28/2011 in Europe. Check out these two other videos that they created as commercials for the game after the jump. I think they did a pretty cool job with these, but I can’t help but wonder how many of these mothers are going to run out and get the game for their kids??

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Isaac Clarke Live Action Video | Dead Space 2

Tournament Update The GT5 tournament has been delayed until further notice, since my PS3 decided to YLOD today. With that said, I will get it repaired as soon as possible (by way of Gophermods’ re-balling service, whenever that becomes available). Along with that delay, I decided that the tournament is open for more entrants until further notice. If you’re interested in participating (be sure to read the rules in the tab), feel free to sign up by replying below. The rules and everything are the same, as well as the prizes. If we can get Sony to get us a download code for a rare car to use as a prize car, we’ll throw that in as well (and that is being worked on). Sorry folks. I will also PM those of you who are currently signed up to participate. Hopefully we can get a few more entrants and have two rounds of racing, since a few of you might have gotten the game as a gift. I will post the new date when I know for sure when it will be. Tournament Rules and Information Prizes (subject to change) 500 Points plus the ’09 Corvette ZR1 400 Points 300 Points 200 Points 100 Points Tournament will also have a lot of restrictions in the interest of fairness. For starters, the image above is an exact representation of the car you guys will be racing. So, we will start with the car requirements: 1996 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IV GSR (30,000 Credits at Mitsubishi dealership) Horsepower is limited to 355 Weight is limited to 1220kg Tires limited to Sports Soft Suspension and drivetrain upgrades are open Car was chosen because it’s relatively inexpensive. Suspension/transmission/etc are open because I can’t track those anyway. Given that fact, I would recommend getting a racing suspension and transmission, as others will likely do the same. There will be a total of 5 races. In the event participation exceeds the 10 entrants mark, we will have to set up two different groups and basically have a semi-final and a final (which will result in 10 races total). I don’t really expect to see more than 20 entrants, but if it happens, it happens and I will make adjustments accordingly. As for advancement, that will have to be determined after we have a confirmed driver list. but here is how point standings will go for each place: 100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 After each race, these race points will be applied to the drivers. The driver with the highest accumulation of points will either advance to the next round, or win the tournament (depending on number of racers). Here are the tracks we will be using (at 5 laps a piece): Finals Fuji Speedway F Trial Mountain Laguna Seca Cape Ring Peripherary Circuit de la Sarthe 2009 (with weather and time change) In the event we need more than one round, the first round will be these following tracks (with 5 laps each): If Needed Deep Forest Raceway Cote d’ Azur Special Stage Route 5 Suzuka Circuit Autumn Ring Now, for some other special rules. First, all assists will be turned off. Grip reduction will be set to realistic. Penalties will be set to strong. After the first initial races, race grids will be set to the slowest person first. I will not be participating in the race itself, but I am hosting it, and will spectate the race(s), as well as track winners myself and everything. In order to do this, you need to add me to PSN. My PSN ID is JimmyMagnum . In order for me to know who you are, and for you to be entered into the tournament, just send me a friend request and tell me your member name on this site, as well as leave a reply here with your PSN ID, too. If we do need more than one round, I will let you guys know via PSN Message when your round is ready to begin so you can start joining in.

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Attention: Gran Turismo 5 Tournament Postponed

Last night I played Black Ops with the 1.04 patch, and I have to say that it wasn’t as bad for me as many led me to believe . I played for about two hours. Most of it by myself, and for a couple games in a party of four. Note that these are my experiences. Feel free to post your own as a comment. Does this patch really make things worse than before? The only thing that got worse for me is the amount of time the game spent searching through games. You know when you’re in the lobby and it says “Found 40 Potential Matches” (or whatever)? Then it slowly searches through those matches for a suitable one? That process takes about three times longer than before. Other than that, things seem the same. I got kicked from two games due to the dreaded “Connection Interrupted” plague. But that was there before the patch as well. I was hoping they’d fix that, but no luck. It is quite bad that the host migration does not kick in for cases like this. On the good side, they’ve actually added some handy stuff. The “Load Multiplayer by Default” option is now available on the PS3 (it was formerly on the 360 only). It works great and I love it. They’ve added new contracts and a new camera to Theater Mode. See this Black Ops intel sheet for details. As well, they’ve added game options to local split screen play! (They weren’t there before, were they? I don’t ever remember seeing them.) Now, the options aren’t as plentiful as in MW2, very basic actually. But in those options is the ability to play with bots either on your side or on the enemy side. As in combat training, this is Deathmatch or Team Deathmatch only. I hope to try it with my friends this coming Monday. I will also test the ability to set up classes and killstreaks, which was very buggy before. I’ll see if they’ve improved it any. To sum up: my post-1.04 experience is much the same as my pre-1.04 experience, except it’s faster to get to the menu you want, and it’s slower to find a lobby.

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15dec10: State of Black Ops: 1.04 Patch

SingStar Guitar is currently only available in AUS and EU as a disc, or as a DLC from the PSN. As of SingStar update version 5.0, at least in EU and AUS, the availability of playing a guitar is there, even without purchasing SingStar Guitar. You will, however, need to purchase guitar compatible tracks, or guitar upgrades for songs already owned. With that in mind, SingStar Guitar is basically just a new SingStar title with the standard “30 new songs”, that are all guitar compatible. SingStar has been around since 2004 in the UK and since 2007 in NA, where it got its start on the PS2. Including the newest SingStar Guitar, this PlayStation-exclusive series has had 32 different releases, many being exclusive to certain regions. SingStar, in general, is a Karaoke game, for 1 or more players, with a variety of game modes. The standard singing mode allows one or two people to sing together as a duet, or to sing individually, competing for the most points. There is also a “Pass the Mic” mode, which can accommodate up to eight people, playing a series of rounds in two teams. With the new addition of SingStar Guitar, they have added the ability to use any PS3-compatible guitar controller for 1 or 2 players. This also opened the game up to allow four performers at one time, with two on microphones singing, and two on guitars. If one is so inclined, you can play both the guitar and sing at the same time. Unlike Guitar Hero or Rock Band, you don’t need to create or add two players to do both, but instead add yourself to both microphone and the guitar. I tried it myself on a few songs, and it was quite a challenge, even with the couple songs I know well. It was, however, a lot of fun. Instead of creating your own band members, or customizing an avatar to watch as you play, the SingStar series shows the actual music video for the song you are playing. This was a pleasant change in my opinion. An exception to the music video, is the ability to use a PlayStation Eye. The PS Eye will show you as you play, as well as take photos, record your audio-feed, and even film a video of the whole session. The video can then be partially edited, I believe 30 seconds worth, with special effects and tone changes. Here is a short trailer that shows what it would look like using the EyeToy: The photos, videos, and audio files can then be uploaded and shared on SingStar’s community portal to be viewed online by others. This was also a very welcomed feature, and very popular among my children and their friends. The photos are taken at regular intervals during a song, or you can tell SingStar to take your picture, up to 5 times, by tilting the guitar. The latter will also earn you one of the seven new trophies available for adding guitar capability to SingStar. The guitar play in SingStar Guitar is, in my opinion, the equivalent to playing a simplified version of the guitar play in RockBand or Guitar Hero. There are only three difficulty levels, Easy, Medium and Hard, using 3, 4 and 5 of the guitar buttons respectively. There isn’t any choice of guitar type, lead vs. bass guitar for example. The “button highways”, or tracks do vary with difficulty levels, but that’s it. If two players are playing on the same level of difficulty, they are playing the same sequence of buttons. This does allow for more bragging rights in a competition, however, as the button variation can’t be blamed for lack of score. Here is a complete solo guitar playthrough of “Steady as She Goes” by Cameron (CrazedGeek) from YouTube: There is also no possibility of failing, which is always nice for the children, or allows for a quick drop in/drop out way of playing. Every song has a max score of 10,000 points, whether you play alone, or with a group. This is good in that you can compare how well you play one song verses another. In RockBand or Guitar Hero, you can score more points on a song you actually don’t play as well as a song you play perfect. There is no career mode nor any challenges, with the exception of just scoring the max 10,000 points on a song. The song list for SingStar Guitar is similar to other SingStar titles, in that it leans toward more Pop-style songs than the two Rock centered games. It also has the SingStar standard 30 tracks, which include: – 3 Doors Down – Kryptonite – Bloc Party – Helicopter – Blur – Song 2 – Buzzcocks – Ever Fallen In Love with Someone – Colbie Caillat – Bubbly – David Bowie – The Man Who Sold the World – Elbow – Grounds for Divorce – Florence and the Machine – Kiss With a Fist – Franz Ferdinand – No You Girls – Jamiroquai – Too Young to Die – Kaiser Chiefs – I predict a riot – Kasabian – Fire – KT Tunstall – Suddenly I See – Ladyhawk – My Delirium – Muse – Supermassive Black Hole – Paramore – CrushCrushCrush – Pixies – Debaser – Pulp – Disco 2000 – Queen & David Bowie – Under Pressure – Stereophonics – Just Looking – The Stone Roses – Waterfall – The Clash – Rock the Casbah – The Cult – She Sells Sanctuary – The Cure – The Lovecats – The Raconteurs – Steady As She Goes – The Veronicas – Untouched – The White Stripes – Fell In Love with a Girl – Tina Turner – Steamy Windows – U2 – Beautiful Day – Vampire Weekend – A Punk More songs can be purchased off of the PSN, however the Guitar compatible songs are very limited at this time. On a positive note, if you already own the song without guitar compatibility, you can pay a smaller fee to upgrade the song, without having to re-buy it. As I mentioned above, there are only 7 new trophies added for SingStar Guitar, and I felt that was very lacking. Here are all the added trophies: – Guitar Starter bronze Play Your first guitar song – A Place where deals are made gold Defeat our resident guitarist! Achieve over 9744 on hard mode on any ‘normal’ length song – Duelling…banjos? bronze Play any song with two guitars – Drop the hammers silver Plays 1000 hammer-on or pull-off notes – Hold the line bronze Play held notes for a total of 300 seconds – Shake the house down bronze Use the whammy bar on held notes for a total of 300 seconds – Top the balance bronze Use the guitar tilt to take a snapshot Over all, this game is summed up by saying, “It’s SingStar with the availability to use a guitar.” It was definitely entertaining for a while, however with only 30 songs, I quickly got tired of hearing the same songs over and over. This game has always been for fans of karaoke, however, with the addition of a guitar, it also becomes enjoyable for those who don’t like the spotlight to easily sit back and play along with a guitar. It’s a very welcome addition to SingStar, however it is definitely not a full “Guitar-Band” game replacement. Review Pros Cons Adds a guitar to SingStar for your non-singing friends to join in on the fun. Guitar mode is quick and easy for casual gamers. Availability to make a real live Music Video (although this isn’t a new feature). Load times are almost non-existent. Only seven new trophies that are almost too easy to accomplish. Limited guitar-compatible song choices at this time. No career mode. No challenges. Rating 68%

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Official Review: SingStar Guitar

This gameplay tool allows you to grab large objects and carry and/or throw them. You can also do the same with other Sackboys and sackbots. The example of it’s use at the end, especially, is really cool; a basketball game of sorts. LBP2 is definitely looking more and more promising.

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Grabinator for LittleBigPlanet 2

Hello Activison, Look at Black Ops on the PS3, Now look at it on the 360, Now back at your PS3, Now back at the 360. Sadly, the PS3 version doesn’t look or play like the 360 version. But if you started giving the PS3 version the same priority as the 360 version, they would be the same. Now look down. Back up. Where are you? You are in the game Uncharted 2, looking at a game your game could look like. Now what’s in your hand? Back at me. I have it. It’s the controller in the hands of an irate gamer upset at the console-ism Activision is subjecting us to. Look again. The game is now awesome. If Activision actually cared about making a quality product, it’s customers would be happy. Apple happy. Anything is possible when the game is given the attention it deserves. I’m on a soapbox.

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Activision: Stop Being Console-ist