Blog de Dyer

The launch of the Playstation 3 (PS3) in November of 2006 was a lackluster effort for Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE) While the initial units sold out entirely, it wasn’t long before the console was readily available on store shelves, and not being sold. As of this writing, the Playstation 3 has sold approximately 3.2 million units since the November launch. While 3.2 million units sold seems to be a lot, the rivaling Nintendo Wii system has sold a staggering 7.3 million units in the same time-frame, and Microsoft’s X-Box 360 has sold nearly eleven million consoles in 18 months. The sales results for Sony are, without a doubt, appalling. The install base for Sony’s Playstation hardware is quite limited, despite launching during the holiday season. The problem with it was that the amount of physical games that people would buy the system for was insufficient. Resistance: Fall of Man lead the software launch as the must-have-game for the Playstation 3, already a disheartening $600.00. Obviously, one game can’t push consoles to the point of breaking records or meeting a satisfactory sales quota, so Sony relied heavily on its promises of phenomenal features and titillating titles to come.

Killzone 2, the sequel to the underwhelming Playstation 2 First-Person-Shooter (FPS), was showcased at the 2005 Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) and stunned the press and gamers alike with the demonstration video that was played to coincide with the titanic announcement. The visuals left watchers in awe as the environments and characters shown were stupendously realistic - however, skeptics began to pick apart the demonstration, claiming it was a pre-rendered video, and not in fact gameplay which Sony had claimed. While it’s yet to be confirmed, many media sources have hinted heavily that the video was indeed, a fake. This has left many Playstation owners and skeptics wondering what Guerilla (Killzone’s developer) can accomplish and present at this years down-sized E3 media summit. Killzone 2, should it meet the high expectations of anxious Playstation owners, could be Sony’s stepping stone of the year to get it above the competition.

Killzone 2 (Above)

Now what about that ghastly price tag?

Hypothetically, let’s say that Killzone 2 is a horrid flop - the game sells horrifically, slandering Sony and Guerilla’s names across the industry spectrum. Sony could theoretically drop the gargantuan cost of the system (A gaming console and Blu Ray Disc player) to induce sales to outside consumers who might not have even looked in Sony’s direction. However, SCE’s amount of Triple-A software titles coming in the next 12 months is so bewilderingly breathtaking that consumers will think twice about purchasing the behemoth machine.

Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune follows an adventuring couple in search of a mystical treasure. Taking elements from huge name titles like Tomb Raider, Prince of Persia, and Gears of War, Uncharted is a very promising looking game. Visually astounding in its models and character animation, this title looks to easily impress and sell a boatload of units. It’s a Sony exclusive game, so it could easily push consoles along with its massive sales. Slated for a Fall ‘07 release, PS3 gamers have at least one must-have title this year.

Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune (Above)

Along with Uncharted, Sony presents another exclusive game for 2007, Heavenly Sword. The game seems to be a bizarre derivative of God of War with a female character in an adventure/arena style battling system. The developers are working with WETA, the company most would find to be affiliated with the CG imagery found in King Kong, and Lord of the Rings, so the animation and general graphics are gorgeous and are some of the best to be seen on any console, ever. The game is more of a mystery, so it’s all that more appealing to an anticipator.

Further off are the Aces-In-The-Hole. Sony’s surefire sellers: Final Fantasy XIII and Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. While FFXIII is the further off of the two titles, Kojima Productions, the company behind MGS4 has stated that the game will come out in 2007 - rumors speculate that the long running, predominantly Sony smash hit franchise, will launch in the ‘fiscal year’ and to expect it closer to March of 2008. No matter when Metal Gear Solid launches, it works out to Sony’s advantage. With the amount of AAA titles coming out before Christmas, such as Heavenly Sword, Uncharted, Ratchet and Clank Future: Tools of Destruction (Exclusive to the PS3) Assassins Creed, Grand Theft Auto IV, and Ninja Gaiden (Cross Platform) Sony has no reason to lower the price of its console. The amount of sales these games can generate around the holiday season leave Sony with no justifiable reason to drop the price.

Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (Above)

Consumers who want these games will buy the PS3 despite its price. Gamers are a very passionate crowd and invest a large amount of money in the video game industry, so Sony can expect that the fall and winter seasons will be good to them regarding console and software sales. If MGS4 does launch in ‘07, Sony can count on an asinine amount of console sales to coincide with the launch of said game. If not, and MGS4 launches in March of 2008, then Sony can afford to wait until the sales begin to drop after the public release of the game. If the game sells well until holiday ‘08, why would they shrink the console price if it’s still selling well? The attachment rate of MGS games to PS3 consoles will be a significant number, guaranteed to be well over the fifty percent margin. It’s a huge game that will help Sony sell consoles. If it doesn’t come out, however, there is no game big enough to fight Microsoft’s juggernaut, Halo 3.

Halo 3 (Above)

No Playstation game has the amplitude that Halo has like Metal Gear , or Final Fantasy does. Can Sony afford to lose out to Microsoft this holiday season because of Microsoft’s exclusive FPS titan? Halo will sell 360’s this September, and further in to 2008, so if Sony doesn’t have Metal Gear to combat against a release of such size and importance, they could really be losing out on a lot of numbers. This will be the second holiday season that Sony will lose out to Microsoft, and whether or not FFXIII and Metal Gear Solid 4 come out in 08, or 07, will really be a beneficial or detrimental factor to the amount of hardware Sony will sell. Nintendo has promised enough big name titles for holidays, and has sold enough units in the last six months that they aren’t even on the other two big companies radar.

It’s really a competition between Sony and Microsoft, and while the PS3 has a shining future, Microsoft can put it in the shade with one title if Sony can’t compete against it. Uncharted and Ratchet and Clank are a couple of Sony’s few big titles this year, as mentioned. While these games are big, they won’t sell hardware in the capacity that Halo 3 will sell 360 hardware. They’ll simply satisfy current owners, and have part in a smaller boost in sales.

These consumers will slowly begin to sing praises about the games, and word of mouth is a powerful and easily accessible thing these days, and that alone could boost unit sales for SCE.

Anyone waiting on a Playstation 3 price drop will be waiting a long time. While sales thus far have been less than stellar, Sony’s blinding bright future holds a lot in store for consumers. Games that may or may not come out this year can really help Sony get ahead. Killzone must deliver on its promises, and if it does, sales will rise.

When sales rise, why diminish your own price tag? If Sony can keep these huge name titles coming out over the next 18 months like it looks like they will, price will stay high, but the console looks to satisfy. Only when sales drop because the colossal titles have been out for so long, and the majority of the install base has had them for however long, will the price begin to sink.

Don’t count on it being within the next 12-18 months - If Sony can prolong the release of a lot of its must-have titles, people will wait to buy units, and the units will be sold in excess when the games that people have been aching for are finally released.

Don’t wait for a price drop, consumers. Join up, and get on the band-wagon. There’s plenty coming, and the games are more important than how much the system will cost you in a year and a half’s time.

Play Beyond.

Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror

Syphon Filter is a long running Playstation series where players undertake the role of Gabe Logan, super-agent for “The Agency”. Gabe’s job is to take out any international threats via brute force… He’s a less smoothe talking James Bond, with a hard on for intense action. He makes his PSP debut in Dark Mirror.

The Good

To start, this is easily the best looking game on the PSP. Not necessarily when compared to the artistic puzzle games, but it nails human likenesses with formidable merit. Character models look fantastic, Gabe, and his enemies alike. Not one character is toned down because they are generic; all look just as good as the main characters. Environments as well, ranging from desert habitat, to snowy plains, also have a very heavy aesthetic feel to them, and really comfort your gaming experience. Cinematics are done as if someone was with them, holding a camera. A shakey camera makes for a more life-like effect, as you gaze wondrously into the PSP screen during the glorious cinemas.

How on earth can a third-person-shooter work with the PSP’s single analog nub? Wonderfully, in fact! Move forward, back, and strafe with the nub, and aim with the face buttons, or Vice-Versa, depending on your preference. R shoots, L aims/locks on, depending on the gun, as well as your settings. The D-Pad serves as the weapons hub, so weapon access is quick, and easy. These controls work astoundingly well in both the moderate length single player campaign, as well as online.

Single player has you blaze your guns in over 30 missions, as well as some bonus ones, as you find out more and more about a mysterious terrorist cell known as RED SECTION. The generic “terrorists seeking world domination” serves well here, and some added drama between Gabe and a new character adds to the intensity of the story. Recovering “Hidden Evidence” unlocks features, such as level and character art, behind the scenes, and music; doing well in missions will unlock more weapons for single player, and even more bonus missions, so there’s a ton to do. The score itself is fantastic, helmed by Mark Snow of X-Files fame, you’ll be happily gunning down foes to some orchestral sonatas, of wide variety. Voice overs are great, as expected, and there’s a lot of them, so they really push the story and realism on you.

Online play is loads of fun, with tons of weapons to find, as well as unlock as you rank up. Levels are memorable, and huge, so there’s lots of hiding places, and iconic points for epic gun fights with allies and enemies in 4 different modes, including deathmatch, objective, and the highly original Rogue Agent. You can form cells of your own to keep a tight knit group in tact, and annihilate others over both ad-hoc, and infrastructure.

The Not-So-Good

The only bad things to mention here are the lack of levels online… although the maps are great, there are very few (5) maps… they don’t get repetitious very fast though, considering their size, and different modes they offer.

Another thing is some of the online. Starting off is tough, as you get the worst possible weapons, and need to bust your ass to rank up, and get better ones. On top of that, this game has been out for some time, so it’s hard to find beginners to play with… Stacking is a problem, but mostly because you’ll be playing against cells. Only 8 to a room isn’t a huge problem, but more would have been nice. People online aren’t nice a lot of the time either… they whore grenades, and sawed off shotguns, making for a frustrating experience.

Conclusion

If you’re up for a great single player game, this is a great shooter. Find some friends online, and you can almost certainly avoid the minuscule problems that the online mode has. Tons of replay value is offered through unlockable missions and weapons, as well as a great online mode. This is a must have for any PSP owner.

9.5/10

The oldest of my PSPTribune pieces. I recall writing this one about a year and a half ago or so. It was a lot of fun.

Mitch

Let me get this out of the way: I am Canadian. Being Canadian, I should automatically give this game a ten out of ten for being what it is: Hockey! Being a writer, however, I am obliged to write a non-biased critique of the certain title or product, so I will indeed write a non-biased critique of EA Sports classic hockey game, and its first instalment on the PlayStation Portable.

First things first. I know that people focus on visuals more than anything in a game, so have no fear when regarding NHL 07. It might not live up to the console iteration, but it looks damn fine. Slick player models, great looking ice, crowd reactions and so on are quite easy on the eyes. Animation more importantly, is mind boggling. EA promised the best player animation, the most realistic in the series, or any other, and they don’t disappoint. The skating animation is incredibly fluid, shots look smooth, hits feel hard etc. Watching a player scramble to rise back to his blades after a devastating hit is just awesome. Sometimes a player will lose his stick, and depending on how far away it is from him, he will either hussle over, pick it up and rush back to the play, or simply hussle to his bench. Little things like this make the game really fantastic. EA has added a bunch of little things that just make it feel all the more real. In prior titles of the NHL series, when you ripped the wee rubber disc off your stick you were treated to a preset animation of the goalie making a prerendered save, or a pre-rendered goal - not so in ‘07. Making the puck go to the net all depends on your skill, and indeed the goalie’s AI. No more (or quite rarely) will the puck ‘just go’ to the glove of the goaltender, as the tender will need to make a decision on which one of the many saves in his mind he will be using to try and stop your gliding slapshot. If he decides a glove save is the best opportunity, he’ll use it, but won’t always catch the puck. Quite often the goalie will drop, or fumble the puck from his glove leaving it for you to take your next shot. Having a really smart AI in that goalie helmet makes for some incredible games, and is all the more satisfying when you do score.

Of course, being an EA game, there’s not much to say in terms of gameplay. The most simple way to describe this game is as such:

It is JUST Hockey.

Forget anything you’ve heard about ‘Skill Sticks’ or a new passing mode. It’s not here. You can deke manually while holding the left shoulder button and the nub, as well as use the ‘big hit’ with the triangle button, but you won’t find anything else the ‘right stick’ may have offered you. This however, is not an issue, and it’s not the Canadian blood bubbling as I make negative comments (trust me, there’s more to come). No matter what you might expect in the gameplay arena, you have to know you’re going to be shafted being that this is EA, who fails to bring anything new to the table in their sports titles, and it’s on the PSP. Leading up to its release there was literally NOTHING on the PSP version, and no information was to be found.

Perhaps they were trying to cover up the load times. Seriously, if I am playing a portable game, I don’t want to spend more time loading it up than playing it. A lovely 10 second wait from the team selection menu to the jersey selection menu will accompany you to the big mother: From the time you hit “GO!” until the time you start the game, you will be looking at the EA TIPS for a grand total of FIFTY FIVE SECONDS. That’s right. A ONE MINUTE loading screen. Everything before that takes up a ton of time… Getting a decent game started will take you about 5 minutes, which is near unacceptable when you’re on the go.

Sound quality isn’t the best, but it’s there. The crowd, the grinding of the ice, the slapping of sticks, the hits, and Jim Hughson. The announcing is present in full, which was a shocker, and it’s great to have. The EA Trax, which are usually painful, are less so this year. With a focus on punk (more new punk, unfortunately) you really get pumped for some hockey!

There is online multiplayer via Ad Hoc, and Infrastructure, but it’s a pain to set up. EA forces you to sign up for EA Nation, where you will either pay for your online, or sign up for ESPN spam… Nothing an address block can’t stop. The game itself is great online. The majority of matches I’ve played have been lag free, and there’s even a feedback center for players where you can grade how sportsmanlike and such that someone is.

All in all, this is just plain hockey. Nothing more, nothing less. Which when you’re on the go should be just perfect, if not for the awful load times. Regardless, playing online and in bursts is a ton of good ol’ time hockey FUN.

Worth it for someone who wants good hockey on the PSP (that isn’t Gretzkey Hockey) or a new sports title.

7.5/10

I love digging up these old articles I’ve written. I like to critique them to myself to learn how to improve on my writing skills.

-Mitch

I found this bit that I wrote for a magazine called the “PSPTribune” a while back. I’ll be posting a lot of these in the next bit

Portable Gaming Throwback Vol. 1
By Mitchell Dyer

Although ‘The Trib’ is a PSP magazine, even we can admit that portable gaming (that means us!) would truly be nowhere without the seeds that were planted by Nintendo, back in the day of the Game and Watch, the Gameboy, and so on. Looking back on the history of portable games, there sure were some classics, and we at The Trib feel the need to share an assortment of great portable games over the following months with you, the readers. Thanks for reading, and we hope you all enjoy this feature.

Cosmo Tank (Gameboy)

One of the most under rated, and overlooked action games on the Gameboy was most definitely ‘Cosmo Tank’. It’s galactic battles across assorted alien worlds provided a perfect portable past time as a youngling. With a birds eye camera, you guided your heavy-duty, alien whollopin’ tank with the D-Pad’s six directions, fired your cannon with the A button, and dropped devastating bombs with B in all the third person missions. The first person objectives, however, would take you into enemy hives and caves, where you would dungeon crawl your way to the final boss, where you would deal out the Earthly devastation via, again, your cannon and bombs. Enemies swarm you from every direction, be they Giant Crabs, Centipedes, Flies, and other such creatures, in an all out battle for the galaxy spanning vast worlds with all the rich detail the Gameboy could provide. Nooks and crannies were visible in the gaping canyons, mounds and craters clearly visible to give each planet a spice of life! But of course, where would you be without the help of your Commanding officers, who chime in with helpful advice every time you make a pitstop at the convenient stations to revitalize your health and ammo, or begin a mission. The beloved MIDI music graces this title, of course, with sound effects and suiting music to coax you along your epic adventure.

Why Cosmo Tank was never expanded on, and made into a full blown franchise is completely beyond me. Although a simple tank shooter, it was a fantastically fun game, which provided me hours of enjoyment in my childhood, and still does to this day. Blowing up five Giant Crabs at once with a bomb makes for one of many wonderful experiences in what I find to be one of the greatest portable action games of all time. Let’s all pray for a console, or even better, a PSP title in the future! Happy hunting!

David Jaffe, creator of the extremely popular God of War, and Twisted Metal Black has finally released his latest creation: A quirky multiplayer downloadable game for the Playstation Network (PSN). Calling All Cars is available for ten dollars in the Playstation Store, but is the wait, and your wallet worth it?

What is Calling All Cars (CaC)? Jaffe has taken the concepts of yesteryear and mish-mashed them into a bowl of delightful treats. As a renegade police officer you will take your hottest hot rod and hit the road in pursuit of criminals who are up to no good, or seem to be escaping prison more often than they should be. The game is totally devoid of a story aside from “Catch that Crook!” but in all honesty story’s vacancy can be forgiven. Pick a patrol car before hitting the beat in four very diverse environments and get to it! The object of the game is to race 2-3 more players (human or bot depending on your online gaming situation) to a criminal on a map. An indicator on the screen shows you where the hoodlum can be located, and a simple ramming of your car should knock him up in the air for a smooth steal. Once he lands in your car it’s off to the races, or the jail, rather, so you can score points. Points work in a varying manner of forms: The primary way to score is to return the convicts to the huge prison center at some point in the map, usually near the top of the map. The easiest entrance is a simple arch that the players can just drive through to score a single point. Next up is the two point mark, achievable by launching from a ramp to the second floor through a more difficult to reach door, and to score yourself a whoppin’ triple-pointer, you’ll need to access the hardest-to-reach door at the prison, be it up a winding ramp, launching off a hydraulic ramp or hoping to hop off a train at the right moment. Aside from these ‘basketball-esque’ methods of gaining points to win the timed match there are also two vehicles you can return the criminals to once you catch them: The chopper, which carries the crook from your car after a few seconds of cruising under it for a very decent four pointer, and the “Paddy Wagon” (Likely derived from the predominant Irishman theme of the game) which appears as a blue police van, three points, and the super-rare-red-paddy-wagon which will adorn the scorer with a stupendous FIVE points.

Now, CaC sounds simple in its core gameplay, but whether you’re playing single player or multiplayer, you’ll find plenty of challenge and chaos to endure in Jaffe’s whimsical and vagarious world that is Calling All Cars. The first thing you will notice when you start up the downloadable title is the distinct art style. A classic cartoon style really gives the game its own distinct, fun flavor to relate to the varying amounts of ‘Hot Wheels’ wannabe-cars and charming characters. Both the unseen announcer and the various antagonists, the criminals have a really great set of fun personalities and remind me of old cartoons such as Popeye and Looney Toons. Once you get passed the visuals and learn how to play, it becomes more evidently

clear that this game is so much more than ‘Catch criminal, go to prison, get points’. Playing the (semi-lackluster) single player offers a small challenge and various difficulties, but the online multiplayer truly is where this game shines. Catching the crook when the “GO!” buzzer goes off becomes a difficult task in itself, and once he’s caught, chaos ensues. Pandemonium explodes as the players battle for the criminal, which is stolen by crashing in to your opponents, or using one of the few weapon-pick-ups as soon as he’s picked up, and you will find that the prominent amount of gameplay takes place around the primary jailbird drop off. You will find yourself having a ridiculous amount of fun as you duke it out online, or off, with 2 or 3 other players for the criminal all for the sake of a menial amount of points directly in front of the prison.

Heartbreak ensues when you lose the criminal and see the “POINT SCORED!” icon blaze across your screen.

Four levels and over a dozen cars are available at your crime-crushin’ disposal, however, cars are plentiful but none are unique in physical attributes. The vehicles are clever and look like a lot of fun to drive around, but there is not one car that is better than another, but this provides for some really excellent balancing during matches. Regarding the four maps, while they’re all very different and all extremely fun, it just doesn’t feel like there’s enough of them. With that in mind, it doesn’t take away from your experience, but it would just be nice to have a couple more maps, at least. Each map requires you think of a unique strategy, which is really nice. Each one has different risks where you’re unsure if you should risk the two or three pointer, or just use the nitro and haul-ass to the chopper or paddy wagon! This becomes very fun online, as voice-chat is included, and it’s a humongous amount of fun to chat with someone about different strategies, as well as the amount of “Oh no!”s and “Oh! Gah! Ah?! Jeez!”s that come up provide tons of laughs. The only negative things that can really be said about this game’s online mode is that four people becomes almost too much, and too chaotic to have a great time. It’s still fun, but three people is premium and ideal for CaC online. It becomes insanely difficult to bring a criminal to a prison/jail point to the point it becomes frustrating if it goes on for a long while. Also, Peer-To-Peer online connections always leads to the odd laggy experience. A trio of weapons (missile, magnet, hammer) will aid you in your just cause as well. Why this title, a first party, Sony Santa Monica game, does NOT use dedicated servers, is simply mind boggling.
Calling All Cars is a very solid game with little flaws and incredible style. It’s the most beneficial game for you to purchase on the PSN yet, and the multiplayer is an astounding amount of fun. Just try to stick to the multiplayer (3 people is prime!) as the single player is kind of lackluster, and consists strictly of semi-fun, but satisfyingly difficult tournaments. At ten bucks, this game is a steal and reaches back to the good ol’ childhood memories of Cops’n'Robbers, and Saturday Morning Cartoons. It’s hectic and just outright fun, with slick controls, great menus and a great amount of cool looking vehicles, you can’t really go wrong with Jaffe’s long awaited title. Download NOW.

8.0/10