News That Made Me Unleash My Force All Over The Place!

And I'm not the only one!

Lucasarts are also throwing off huge, sticky wristfulls of force in all directions, including to Wii owners.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, all I really want to do with my wii-mote is be a kid with a lightsabre again. So the great god of gaming has smiled upon us and declared that Star Wars: The Force Unleashed will be making it to the Wii and will have an exclusive 'Duel Mode' to satisfy our collective craving.

My only concern (why is it I always find myself becoming suspicious of Wii games? Have I been burnt that many times already?) is that without the physics stuff that the 360 and PS3 can handle, will this game be any good? I expect there will be 'some' of the physics that the Wii can manage (see Eledees) but they'll have to change the game a great deal.

That could be a good thing however, as the last thing we need is another Wii game ported over from a more powerful system with hilarious results.

I think this will make a lot of people that own a Wii and a 360/PS3 buy both copies of the game if it truly is quite different to play. Which I'm sure Lucasarts will be fairly pleased with.

It's all Jedi mind tricks if you ask me...

The Real Warthog Video

Next Tuesday at midnight, I, like many others, will be buying Halo 3. If you haven't heard of it, it's the third part in one of the best videogame series ever. But, I digress.

The following video is the best thing ever if you're a Halo fan. Please stand, for the REAL Warthog.




Why are these not for sale?

Why I Love Public Beta Tests

For the last five days, I've been playing the Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare multiplayer beta on my Xbox 360. The day it was released, I said that I'd write some impressions up at some point. And I have been meaning to do that ever since I first played it, but, to be honest, I'd rather be playing it than writing about it. Whenever I want to write something about it, I just find some time to squeeze in one more game...

The beta for COD4 has been out in America for some time now. It's been here in the UK for almost a week, too, and I feel like there's not much else to write about. Yes, it's the best multiplayer FPS I've ever played. It truly feels like a new Counterstrike game and not just a cheap sequel. The best thing about it, for me, is that it hasn't made Call of Duty 3 obsolete. They're two very different games and I guess it just reinforces what a fantastic multiplayer experience COD3 was, and still is. I can't wait for the full release in November. I'll definitely be picking it up at midnight on release day, even though I'll have the the THAT other FPS by then.

Which brings me to the point of this post. Public Beta tests. They're great! I've been involved in three on my 360 and they're, without a doubt, the best downloads I've had from the Xbox Live marketplace. You see, they're more than demos. You actually feel like you're helping and achieving something by playing them. You only have to look at the changes made to Lost Planet, after the public beta became the most downloading thing on the marketplace, at that time. Using feedback from the public domain, Capcom made some very important changes to the multiplayer portion of the game before release, helping it become a better experience for everyone.

And I surely don't need to mention the Halo 3 Beta. You even got a free copy of Crackdown with it. :-p

And the Call of Duty 4 Beta. I was pretty sure that I was going to buy it before. As I've said LOADS of times, I loved Call of Duty 3 multiplayer. And Call of Duty 2 had a fantastic single player. But I was also 100% buying Halo 3 on release. Call of Duty 4 could have waited seeing as I would be playing the most anticipated FPS of the year. But, seriously, I'm just as excited about COD4, now. The multiplayer is IMMENSE. Sure, there are a few hiccups, but that's the point of a beta. The stages are genius, the leveling up system is the best thing since Halo 2's matchmaking, it has party systems in place, the weapons are BRUTAL and there's a million more things I could say.

But instead, I'm gonna go and play it.

Sega Rally Demo Impressions

Now THIS is exciting. Sega Rally Championship is one of the all-time greatest racing games. The arcade version is one of the last games that I can remember truly making a stir in British arcades. And the Sega Saturn version was a brilliant conversion. I couldn't tell you how much of my life was spent perfecting every little movement on the Desert track at home. Sega Rally 2 kinda came and went for me. I played it a little on my Dreamcast, but it didn't hit me like the original did. And it had HORRIFIC frame-rates.

And now, Sega Rally. Coming to the Playstation 3, Xbox 360, PSP and PC from the 28th September. By my calender, that's two days after Halo 3, which means I won't be able to afford it. But if you opted for a Playstation 3, you'll be ok.

It's fucking awesome. Absolutely everything I wanted it to be. And I can't go any further without mentioning the skies. They're so blue! Only Sega do skies like that. When I play this demo, I feel like I'm on holiday. In fact, everything looks great. The environments are detailed and lush and the cars are... well, cars. There's no damage to the vehicles, unfortunately. To be fair, that's a big loss to me. But it IS an arcade racing game, I suppose. And that's the point.

By all accounts, the full game features just five tracks. That doesn't sound like many, but if the three that aren't featured in the demo are as well designed as the two that are, I'll be SO happy. Typical Sega, every little detail on the tracks is there for a reason, and within a few days of playing, you'll be memorising those details in order to thrash your way to victory and shaving milliseconds of your times as you do it.

One of the big things about Sega Rally is the track deformations. As you bomb it around the courses, your tyres leave tracks in the mud/sand/whatever. As the race goes on, the tracks start to look more and more knackered due to all the vehicles power-sliding around every corner. But these deformations aren't just aesthetic. They actually affect how your car handles on the track. You can feel each little bump through the vibration of your pad (which leaves me wondering about the Playstation 3 version which, famously, doesn't support vibration in it's SIXAXIS) and you have to learn to react to this changes in surface to aid you in winning the race. It's PERFECT.

And the music! It's like a Megadrive gone mad. Brilliant!

One thing, though. The demo features two tracks, and two cars. The original Sega Rally Championship (the best one, obviously) featured only THREE tracks and two cars. So, by just playing the demo, you've kinda got a bit portion of the game. Obviously with the full version you'll have a championship mode, online play, the other three tracks and more vehicles, but, until I can actually afford it, I'll be more than happy playing this demo every day. :-)

The demo is available now on the Xbox Live Marketplace.

"Game Over yeeeeeaaaahhh....."

Yoshi's Story On Virtual Console

This CERTAINLY warrants it's own post, as I've been praying for this game to appear on my Wii since launch. It's one of my absolute favourite platform games ever and all the critics can fuck off. It's beautiful, has the best music ever, and is rock hard to finish 'properly'. Amazing replay value and none of the emulated versions I've ever tried have worked properly. I now don't have to plug my N64 in ever again! Hooray! It's 1000 Wii points, like all other N64 games and it's worth ever single one.

There's some other games out today, too, but that doesn't really matter.

Goal Scoring Superstar Hero - On the rag

Sensible World of Soccer Trailer

Codemasters have announced that SWOS on XBLA will be here by the end of the year... It's all gone very quiet on a confirmed release date considering it was originally planned for August. Here's a trailer for now, looks like fun right? Oh yeah Skate has now been delayed by a month as well.

Greatest Game Franchise Ever™: New Bosses Unveiled

Many people love the Final Fantasy games with a passion.

Others religiously buy each and every version of Pro-Evo.

Some can guide you through start to finish of every Resident Evil game in turn.

I worship at the altar of Solid Snake. I heart Metal Gear.

So therefore I'm going to be posting regular updates on the Greatest Game Franchise Ever™. Hell, it's pretty much the sole reason I bought a PS3. That and I can't bear to give Bill Gates my money. And here's one that's actually a week or so old, but was chronically unreported on this blog (Matt, go sit in the corner and think about what you've done...).

So Hideo Kojima has been keeping the traditionally, er, 'eccentric' bosses secret up until now for MGS4, with only Liquid Ocelot confirmed to be a) in it, and b) definitely a baddie. There's loads of rumours doing the rounds at the moment that Raiden may actually be carrying on the work of the La-Li-Lu-Le-Lo as well as obviously taking on the mantle of the Cyborg Ninja and looking generally badass. This means that due to his fight with Vamp in the trailers that Vamp could be a good guy in this one or at least acting under his own rules, and then Eva's back but 70 years old, and... oh, you all seem to have scrolled down past this bit. I'll shut up now.

But ANYWAY, Kojima recently revealed the all-new bad guys for MGS4. Or should I say bad girls? No, that makes me think of a sub-par Drew Barrymore film. So the world has said Konichi-wa to the Beauty and the Beast unit, 4 supermodels who have been scarred by the horrors of war and now go around in cybernetic BDSM costumes killing helpless minority groups. There names are all linked to some of their FOXHOUND forebears from MGS1. There's Raging Raven (instead of Vulcan Raven), Screaming Mantis (Psycho Mantis), Crying Wolf (Sniper Wolf), as well as Laughing Octopus (Decoy Octopus). Mantis and Octopus are jointly my favourites already, just for looking the weirdest. But I like how they tie into the first MGS game, with the codename mantels being passed down.

You can see images of the entire unit over at IGN (like the one above) or in the HD trailer.

"Why you try to get crazy with me essee? Don't you know I'm Loco (Roco, out on Playstation Network next Thursday for £2)?"

You heard the man, LocoRoco Cocoreccho will arrive as part of Sony's PSN update next Thursday (Sept 20) for the bargain price of £1.99. As an added little sense of 'gee-golly!' for UK gamers, the UK release is on the same day as the Japanese version, is half the price, and is actually released before the Yankke Blue-Jeans get theirs! European gamers in appreciation shocker!

It's not a fully fledged LocoRoco game, it's actually a screengamething to have running in the background of your PS3 as kinda like an interactive screensaver, but it's essentially got the same goal as the classic PSP game- Eat flowers, grow fat, gather your blobs, squeeze through some damn fun and fine puzzle lands, and headbutt the flying octopusses (octopi? not sure). An interesting difference is that instead of using the L and R buttons, you'll use the sixAxis function of the controller to tilt the world about.

The PS3's sixAxis function has worked best when used simply I've found so far. It's great in Super Rub-A-Dub and Warhawk (quite possibly the best online multiplayer game right now, so much fun), but tragically horrible in games like Marvel: Ultimate Alliance and GRAW2 (though to be fair both games stand-up really well despite this). But the sixAxis should work great for this, and pleasantly brighten up my PS3, though I'll be love to drop Keeley Hazzel's breasts for it. Maybe they could combine the two to form a game where you use the sixAxis to jiggle her breasts around? Maybe I've gone too far....

Call Of Duty 4 Beta Available Now!

If you were lucky enough to get a Beta code from Activision, then your Call of Duty 4 beta will be waiting at the Xbox 360 Marketplace now!

I'm downloading it now. Impressions soon! If I can tear myself away from it...

Beautiful Katamari Playstation 3 Rumours, False

A few websites have been posting screen grabs of the Bandai Namco website, apparently showing that their forthcoming game, Beautiful Katamari, will see a release on the Playstation 3, Nintendo Wii AND the Xbox 360.

Bandai Namco famously dropped the Playstation 3 and jumped ship to the Xbox 360 due to problems with developing for the console and poor hardware sales. The box-art even features the little 'Only On Xbox 360' logo.

However, within a few hours of the stories hitting the web, it seems that the boys and girls at Bandai Namco have noticed the mistake (or slip?) and changed it to Xbox 360 only. It remains to be seen if this was a genuine mistake or if it wasn't supposed to be seen by our eyes just yet.

:-)

Ninja Gaiden 2 Images

Not to be confused with Ninja Gaiden II: The Dark Sword of Chaos for the NES, images of Tecmo's Ninja Gaiden 2 have been leaked to the web. While the shots at IGN have been labeled as Xbox 360 shots, it's somewhat important to note that a platform has not been announced for the game as of yet. While Ninja Gaiden Sigma has received praise on the Playstation 3, a multi-format release of Ninja Gaiden 2 would not be surprising.

UPATE: Ninja Gaiden 2 has just been confirmed to be an Xbox 360 release.

PSP Slim Hacked Already!

Brilliant news! Coming via engadget.com, news that the PSP Slim firmware has been hacked after THREE DAYS of it's release is to be very well received. :-)

As they know more than I do about hacking, homebrews and the like, I'll just copy and paste what THEY say about it...

"Team M33 have just released their do-it-all custom firmware (version 3.6, for those keeping score at home), thus confirming Pandora's Battery as a "go" (amongst other things) on the new systems. If you understand what we're talking about, you'll be pleased to know that homebrews from the GAME, GAME150 and GAME360 directories load fine, though some homebrews written specifically for the 1.50 kernel won't run properly (due to some hardware and screen problems on the Slim)."

Aceness! :-D