Making a very, very underplayed appearance at Eurogamer Expo this year is Starhawk, the spiritual successor to online-only PS3 sleeper hit Warhawk. In development at LightBox Interactive — itself comprised of a large number of developers from former Warhawk dev Incognito — Starhawk aims to combine the ground/air chaos of its forefather with real-time strategy elements and a solid single-player campaign to compliment the pre-existing multiplayer model.
The good news is that, from the 15-minute mission that both CapnAverage and I experienced on the show floor, LightBox have succeeded on all counts. Starhawk is guilty of being pretty darn good.
As has been previously documented, my cynicism about the PlayStation Vita is something I was willing to let slide should the system impress me enough. As luck would have it, my first hands-on with the system happened to be with Sony Bend’s marvellous blockbuster accompaniment Uncharted: Golden Abyss, a game that excels in innovative, non-invasive control design as well as it does in looking the absolute bomb.
The demo level pitches Nathan Drake, he of average hunk physique and Nolan North voice, against a motley crew of thugs attempting to raid a temple before he does. It’s essentially an excellent way of showing off all of Golden Abyss’ Vita-oriented features in a 20 minute showcase of both software and touchscreen goodness.
Alright, we’ll be fair. Despite the amount of scepticism we’ve rained down on the PS Vita since it was launched, Sony made pretty clear at Eurogamer Expo that they’re serious about making this thing a success. The new handheld was given its first public UK airing at the Expo today and between seeing the presentation and holding the device for myself, I’m finding it difficult to keep being mean.
That’s not to say that there isn’t a balance to be struck between admiration and understandable doubt.
Take a look at the picture above, snapped from the EU PlayStation Blog. Today’s PlayStation Store update features Driver: San Francisco as a digital download for the sum of £57.99. That’s ninety dollars. And publishers wonder why we shop online?
Publishers are still struggling with how to approach the digital market. Ambush pricing like that is not the answer, especially when digital copies require none of the hard-copy manufacturing processes boxed games have to go through: there’s no case, no manual, no sleeve art and no disc. Somehow, like lightening a sports car and calling it a special edition, taking away parts seems to increase the price.
Games, as well all know, are pretty ace. These days, with the lots of graphics and loudness of sounds that they have, they can replicate a ton of stuff with relative ease. From Battlefield to Grand Theft Auto, there’s a lot of titles out there that do a great job of simulating real life. But what would happen if the derivative became the inspiration? What if we used videogames to train people for everything, and not just flight simulators?
The following is a transcript from something I’ve just made up. Therefore, you should read it, and enjoy.
Stocks and shares: they’re usually a boring thing responsible for causing financial meltdowns across the world and occasionally bringing in a small fortune following a timely gamble. Very, very occasionally I’m pretty interested in watching them, the investor predictions and seeing how they affect stuff. Generally, they’re a good marker of how exactly a company is doing, if they’re floated publicly (i.e. stocks and shares can be traded).
So, uh, with Nintendo’s Tokyo Game Show presentation over, let’s have a look at the history of Nintendo’s shares over the past decade or so. It might be interesting, and will contain some speculation of my own.
Oh hey, internet! If you’re from the UK and you watched a programme called Rude Tube on Channel 4 on Monday night, you might’ve seen a man called Doc singing about his killstreak (or a lack thereof) in Call of Duty: Black Ops. That song right there, above these words, actually. That was a parody song done for this very website: SarcasticGamer.com.
If you’ve found us through Rude Tube then hello! Sarcastic Gamer’s all about poking fun at games: occasionally we’ll go all serious and speak our mind about what’s happening in the gaming world but most of the time we make fun at the latest titles, record a bunch of podcasts about them and joke around with our dedicated forum community. Oh, and we make other parody songs too. And game for charity.
The budget PlayStation Portable system announced by Sony at Gamescom last month provoked a bit of healthy discussion amongst a couple of people on Sarcastic Gamer, most notably handheld superfan PacManPolarBear. PMPB and I sparred over Twitter a few days ago about the omission (one which he eventually caved in on, as you’ll note if you read on).
I acknowledge PSP multiplayer. I know that it exists, but I also know that nobody uses it. The loss of Wi-Fi, the budget price and the last minute burst of support from publishers means that the PSP’s last gasp might just be one of its finest moments.
Resistance 3, the latest episode in Insomniac’s alternate timeline sci-fi shooter, makes very clear from the get go that it’s a very different tale from the games that have come before. Whereas Fall of Man and the 2008 sequel had you playing as tooled up part-alien super soldier Nathan Hale, 3 sees you adopt the role of Joseph Capelli, a former soldier giving up the fight against the Chimera. The gun-toting ETs have overrun Europe and the US has fallen: with practically all hope lost, Capelli has raised a family literally underground in Oklaholma – until the Chimera make a house call in 1957.
With nothing to lose, Capelli and his surprisingly archaic Russian (really?) scientist friend start a long and deadly journey across Eastern America in hope of bringing the Chimera down a peg. It’s a journey that never hints at success and will only reward you with a mild sense of accomplishment throughout: but it’s also the best shooter on the PlayStation 3 this year.
Dead Island hit stores today! The much-hyped freeform zombie title can be picked up on the shelves now or, if digital is more your thing, downloaded from services such as Steam. I downloaded the game from Steam today and was pleasantly surprised at how much fun the game is, especially since the zombies aren’t the only supernatural beings hanging about: Dead Island‘s PC version is unique in that you can play as a ghost.
