Gaming Inbox (k3nshi)

God of War 2.

After waiting all this time for it to come out, I'm not quite in the mood to play it yet.

still.... HURRY KRATOS

This is a number... (k3nshi)

09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0


Can numbers be copyrighted?

You cant stop the signal mal!

Uwink: Pizza + Game (k3nshi)

Nolan Bushnell returns.

Sony Playstation 3 (Steve)

I stumped up a small fortune for a new PS3, along with Motorstorm and Resistance:FOM last weekend. I've had a few days with the beast now and feel compelled to air my thoughts so far*

First impressions are very good. It's a very slick looking machine, and feels sturdy and expensive (which it is). It comes with a whole host of cables to get you up and running, but NO HDMI cable, which I find unforgivable given Sony's continual blathering about HD. Alas the quality feel of the product does not extend to the controller, or the SIXAXIS as they insist on calling it. It feels cheap, light, and it still has crappy analogue sticks. The new analogue triggers also feel very flimsy and are poorly positioned. I've only had limited time with the 360 controller, but the general consensus is that it is a far superior pad.

The games are a joy though. Motorstorm is absolutely stunning to look at, huge fun to play and has a cracking 12-player online mode that never gets dull. Resistance is also a great hit. It's no Halo beater, but the single player game is absorbing and the online modes are expansive, with a good number of levels, FORTY-player online matches and a great set of weapons.

The online stuff is not bad so far. It doesn't match up to what I've heard about Live on the 360 - it's probably closer to Live on the original Xbox at the moment, but with the ability to download smaller games, game demos and movie trailers, all in HD glory. And on that point, the video output of the PS3 through HDMI on my Panasonic plasma is STUNNING. Truly gorgeous. Both games and Blu-Ray movies look the business.

Chuck in a load of extra connnectivity (USB, multiple memory card/stick ports, ethernet, wifi, all sorts of video/audio outputs) and this does seem to be the ultimate living room hub. It's certainly a neater solution than the 360, and much quieter (and less unreliable so far, but time will tell). The cost is going to be the killer if anything - £425 gets you a lot, but are the extra features worthwhile for everyone?

It's a good machine, and there's a lot more to come. PS Home, Little Big Planet, and a lot of exclusive games. It gets a big spanx thumbs up.

*Sucker Kenshi in to buying one

Blu-Ray wishlist (Steve)

Aliens
Bullit
The Last Waltz - The Band
Star Wars - Original Trilogy
Superman 2
Terminator 1 & 2
Lord of the Rings Trilogy
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Blade Runner
2001: A Space Odyssey

Next month please

List of HD DVD's that I want (Wickedkitten)

Children of Men
Nine Inch Nails: Beside you in Time
The Mummy
The Mummy Returns
The Scorpion King
The Departed
The Prestige
The Deer Hunter
Superman: The Movie
V For Vendetta
Batman Begins
Unforgiven
The Last Samurai
Dawn of the Dead
Seven

Planet Earth
The Road Warrior
Blade
Conan the Barbarian

What happened to Peter Moore @ GDC? (k3nshi)

So yeah Eurogamer et al reported how Reggie was at the Sony announcement, and how Phil Harrison was there for the Miyamoto keynote.

Which kind of makes me wonder, where was the MS 360 figurehead person?

I'm sure MS sent their spies.

New Nintendo Console... (k3nshi)

...a higher spec Wii, with 100% backwards compatibility and gfx horsepower simillar to the 360 and PS3.

Within 3 years.

Carmack speaks (k3nshi)

Carmack:

Like Prey, there's a lesson to be learned, something a lot of companies don't really ever learn. You hear it from the fan base a lot. "Do it right. We'll still be here. We'll wait," and it's tempting to just let things slip. But that's really not OK. If you're doing something cutting edge, you're making fundamental decisions about your architecture, and if you let it slide for a year or two, then it's just not the right decision anymore. Even if you pile on all these extras, it's not optimal. It's not targeted at what you're doing. So I have some concerns about Prey coming out this late.

Source

God of War coming to PSP (k3nshi)

Damn

Why I don't want a PS3 quite yet. (Steve)

She'd kill me. The wife that is.

£425. For a games console. It's insanity isn't it?

Sony. Call me when it's £299. I might have a chance.

Excitetruck. Wins (Steve)

Excitetruck is one of those games that had completely fallen off my radar. "OMG THE GFX ARE CRAP". "OMG IT'S SO SHORT". "OMG OMG OMG" or some thing else like that. That's what it was like after the US launch. Oh well, I thought, shame. Next.

Still, it came out here a couple of weeks back. I'd had a bad day and wanted to buy something. This seemed to fit the bill.

Annnyyway... it's bloody brilliant. Surprisingly brilliant given the hatred. The graphics are actually very good - a bit plain, but very solid and with an enormous draw distance. The steering controls with the remote are initially jarring, but kick in after a couple of races. Then you realise it's not really a racing game but in fact an exercise in making huge jumps, taking risky shortcuts and doing tricks to score points, where you incidentally get some extra points at the end if you finish first. It's a proper arcade game and enormously good fun. Still, it's definitely a game that needs a sequel. Online racing would be great, some more depth to the tricks system, a bit of a tart up on the graphics wouldn't hurt, and the music. Oh the music has to go.

I love it. It's the best Wii game I've played aside from Wii Sports

8/10

Wii. The bad stuff (Steve)

OK. Everyone know the Wii is AN AMAZING SUCCESS, and rightly so. It gets a lot right. Small, quiet, great controller, some nice games and some interesting features.

BUT. All is not well in the world of Wii. Nagging doubts hinder my initial joy.

1. The Wii Remote is superb. But it doesn't work properly all the time. The sensor in the remote that detects its position in relation to the "sensor bar" cannot cope with a third source of infra-red... the F**KING SUN! Alas my living room back wall is a huge great sheet of glass. Afternoon gaming on a sunny day (if you require the pointing features of the remote) is out.

2. The Virtual Console is flawed. The shop itself is slow and clunky - it needs to be a proper client application rather than web-based. And it is overpriced. Heinously.

3. The games aren't fulfilling the potential of the controller, yet. Wii Sports is genius, and possibly the most important launch game since Halo, but that aside we're not really seeing much that feels really new. This is probably a short term problem, but disappointing nontheless

4. The online stuff is crap. Friend codes, no online games (again, yet), poor support for online gaming. It feels tacked on. An afterthought. I still don't think Nintendo care.

5. Zelda needs a refresh. Seriously, I've had enough now.


However, to countenance the misery, these are reasons why I think the Wii rocks. It's beautifully designed, Wii Sports is amazing, the Remote is a joy to use, Zelda is still a great great game despite it's... reluctance to move on. I'm glad Nintendo did their own thing (not that they really had a choice). I certainly can't see me buying the broken one or the gimped one just yet.

Backwards Thinking: You've been GIMPED. (k3nshi)

Ho hum. I cancelled my PS3 preorder, due to the Backwards Comaptibility farce being played out by Sony with the European models of the PS3.

Do I really care that much about backwards compatibility? No.

Do I care about paying a lot more money for less capable hardware? Yes.

And many other gamers, feel the same way judging by the reaction to on the "semi-official blog" of the PS3: Three Speech. Making things so, so much worse is the insane PR policy Sony is adopting to deal with the fans. Because lets face it, if you are considering paying £425 to get a PS3 at launch, you are a BELIEVER in what the PS3 is meant to represent (state of the art gaming hardware).

This whole thing could have been handled so, so much better.

This Is Living (k3nshi)

OMG MEGATON

PS3 Pre-order placed with Amazon.

...

Crackdown Demo on XBOX LIVE (k3nshi)

So I downloaded the 1.something GIGABYTE Crackdown demo and gave it a whirl on single player mode. It's pretty much GTA meets Demolition Man, with nice 360 visuals of the environment. So that's progress at least. Meanwhile I found the gameplay pretty unsubstantial. The AI is rubbish - I mean you play the part of some kind of supercop, and yet gangbangers decide to get out of their vehicles and fight it out with you? Please.

As far as I'm concerned the best rendition of a city environment in a game is still Syndicate Wars.

So everyone's talking about the Pope and how apparently he said games are perverted.
But at the same time, everyone is quoting this:

"Any trend to produce programs and products -- including animated films and video games -- which in the name of entertainment exalt violence and portray anti-social behavior or the trivialization of human sexuality is a perversion,"

which is in fact, completely reasonable and very true. It's stuff like this that makes me thinks games journalists are either malicious rabble-rousers, or just complete thickos.

MS Points are rubbish... (k3nshi)

Prices should be in pounds.

Sony's PR Saviour... (k3nshi)

...and perhaps the most refreshingly honest commentator in gaming today. David Jaffe interview over at 1UP. Show.

Blast From the Past (k3nshi)

I was clearing out some files in Kenshi HQ, when I came across some old print outs of articles from various websites. Amongst a load of programming related articles, I found a gaming one from a great games website from back in the day. A games website which I had almost completely forgotten about. The site is still up with archives of all its former issues.

So without further ado, please point your browsers at www.loonygames.com and take a little trip back in time.