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Dead Space Looks Fucking Awesome

There are a ton of video games being released this month so I guess it’s kinda my job to tell you about the ones I deem to be worthwhile reading about/buying/thinking/putting on Christmas lists.

• Disaster: Day Of Crisis (Nintendo Wii)
• LittleBigPlanet (Playstation 3)
• Fallout 3 (Multi)
• Fable 2 (XBOX 360)
• Far Cry 2 (Multi)
• Dead Space (Multi)
• Bioshock (Multi, Playsation 3)

There you have it. You saved up? Good, ‘cos wait until you see November.

You know how I said Fallout 3 was going to be amazing because of it’s presentation values? Well this is probably on a par, if not better. The most retro-sylised awesome trailer I’ve ever seen. Ever. If the actual game can carry across the theme of substandard 60’s horror movie I’ll totally cream and actually buy a light-gun shooter game.

Who cares if the actions thin and short when you have presentation like that? I certainly don’t.

Siren: Blood Curse Coming To Playstation 3 Store Thursday 24th July.

This is probably a game that hovers way off the radar on most peoples release retina but I’m actually pretty damn excited about it. After hearing about the game in such a positive view over on Eurogamer my excitement could only grow and grow.

Allow me to first of all state that I am simply craving Resident Evil 5 at this point. I want that game so much it aches. But given that it’s not out until March ‘09, I’m making do with every little tidbit of information released about horror games coming before it. Alone In The Dark was disappointing and Silent Hill: Homecoming is still a good few months away so Siren is going to have to tide me over.

Set to be released as episodic content this coming Thursday (24th) Siren is an (unfortunately) Americanised survival horror game that pits you in the shoes of 7 film students in the middle of some village filled with zombies. Having played the demo I can tell you that this game is ridiculously dark - and given that zombies are attracted to the only form of light in the game, your flashlight, you will actually spend big portions of the game in the complete darkness. I can announce right here, right now, that moving through a big area, with no light and zombies around every corner is particularly fucking scary.

The game is very objective based and particularly story driven - putting you into the eyes of a different character for each episode. Given it’s story driven nature the presentation is decent but I’m a little worried about the objective based gameplay. In what I’ve played the game doesn’t appear to let the player explore for ones self - instead setting you objectives and keeping you moving.

I’m yet to hear of a price but I am told that each of the four downloads can be expected to last anywhere between 1.5-2 hours and so a price point of £4.99 would seem extremely reasonable to me.

Expect a review of the game closer to it’s release.

Well after all that hyping over a 360 Wii Remote type extension it seems Microsoft were telling the truth when they said it wasn’t in their plans. I honestly thought that was just media spin and I have a great post saved in my drafts where I call for Microsoft’s hypocritical head seeing as they’ve basically spent the last year or so slagging off the Wii’s success.

But they didn’t do it and instead had a pretty decent showing of games. I was a bit bemused by the way a good half of their show was spent showing off games consumers could buy on a rival platform (*cough* PS3 *cough*) but I almost got a good sense of damage limitation from it all. Call me sceptical, call me what you will but throughout Microsoft’s show (and let me clarify I thought it was a good show) I got a sense of “me too”. Almost like, “well you have all these cool games, but guess what, we have them too”. That’s by no means a bad thing for XBOX 360 consumers at all but I’m struggling to find an experience within the 360 environment that can ONLY be had on 360 outside of Live.

Of course the planned Live updates are very good. The new dashboard looks excellent, the new party system and avatars look like a solid innovation to the experience and Live pretty much cemented itself as being a mile ahead of Playstation Network, again. I think the PS3 firmware 2.4 was intended to make up so ground and I think it did, but in terms of online experience Microsoft can rest assure that their £40 price tag for their online gaming is perfectly justified again and Sony need to go a long way to put that question back into the minds of consumers.

I’ll go on the record now as to say that Fable 2 does not interest me one iota but Gears Of War 2 looks solid, as does Geometry Wars 2 and Lips.

Can I just say on record that I can’t believe that got Duffy to perform live. How much cash do you reckon she got paid for that?

Of course the big announcement was Final Fantasy 13,493,291 being confirmed for 360 release. I’m sure Sony feel like their wife just cheated on them but Microsoft should be pretty hyped at securing that. Of course it’s nothing personal - Square Enix just want to ensure their game gets into American homes and I presume they’re pretty stoked about that themselves. A kind of win/win situation for Square and Microsoft and I’m sure Sony are the only people crying over that announcement.

I’ll be interested to see whether Sony present a bunch of multiplatform games in their show tomorrow though? If they do - we might have already seen Sony’s show a day early, if you get my drift.

For those of you who downloaded the PSP demo of Space Invaders Extreme from the Playstation Store last week, you already know you’ve uncovered a gem. The thing is, most experienced gamers know to skip over the remake of a classic franchise because usually the resulting product is utter tosh. You only have to look at the countless Space Invaders remakes to realise that.

Space Invaders Extreme doesn’t fit into that category though. You only have to spend 5 minutes with the game to realise it’s taken the classic Space Invaders formula and breathed new life into it. The graphics are hotter, the music is pumping and the levels come thick and fast. This is Space Invaders at it’s very best.

Essentially a “low budget” game (£17 off Amazon), Space Invaders Extreme’s release celebrates 30 years (yes, 30 years) since the games initial launch. I can’t believe it’s been that long!

Essentially the same game as the original, it’s the subtle changes that make Space Invaders Extreme such a successful game. For example; while most of the enemies move left to right in much the same way as a traditional game of Space Invaders, some will have the ability to divebomb, split into three aliens or even turn to the side (making them tiny targets). It’s an obvious but small change and it mixes up the gameplay well. There are also “bigger” versions of the enemy aliens which are essentially just inflated sprites that require more hits. The enemies come thick and fast without pause between levels which makes the experience a lot more fluent.

The biggest change to the original comes in the form of power-ups. By shooting four or more aliens of the same colour you will gain access to a host of power-ups to your craft: a shield, a laser gun, bombs or broader shots. The power-ups are timed putting you under pressure to make use of the new ability before it runs it’s cause.

The other big new addition is the music. The gameplay is all synced in time to big techno beats and electro squelches. But there is a twist. By firing from your space craft you essentially “uncover” the lead riff to the particular backing track which is not only cool but also does add a little rhythm action to the game. It’s not essential to fire your shots in time but you’ll be rewarded with some extra musical content if you do. Pretty sweet.

Graphically Space Invaders is a simplistic but lush experience. While the main game is obviously kept very simple with basic 2D sprites filling the foreground — it’s in the background that the game pushes the hardwares limits by packing it with disco-esque effects. The effects add colour, energy and life to the game without detracting from the experience.

The main differences between the DS and PSP version are notable: PSP packs the better visuals and audio while the DS offers scoreboards and online play.

All in all though, whichever version of Space Invaders Extreme you pick up is irrelevant, just make sure you own this game. It’s perfect for filling in the odd bus journey or 5 minute void we all have to endure throughout life.

9/10.

If you overlook the horribly “modern” spelling of echoChrome-I’m-too-cool-to-use-capital-letters-at-the-start-of-my-games-name then what you’re actually going to find for £6.99 available in the UK/EU Playstation Store now is a very sophisticated, innovative and difficult game.

Similar to fl0w in many ways, both downloads not only share shit spelling but also a chilling quality. Not “chilling” as in scary, chilling as in relaxing. echoChrome has a very laid back graphical feel (there are two colours in the whole game — we’re not even taling any shading) and appears to be a very relaxed, easy going game. In reality echoChrome is quite the opposite - it’s a frustratingly difficult puzzler, but that’s it’s beauty.

You see echoChrome isn’t your standard block dropping puzzle affair, it messes with your mind. Or your perception more to that point. If you can’t see something, it’s not there. If a path appears to be below another, then it is. It’s with these gameplay mechanics and some clever level design that echoChrome becomes interesting and extremely difficult. You use your right analogue stick to move the angle at which you view the stage and by changing the angle you change the perception allowing a mannequin to traverse the stage and reach his goals.

Some little parts of the game I’ve found a bit fiddly thus far but I’ve overcame the frustration and completed a few levels. It’s hard but rewarding.

I’ll bring you a review soon.

I’ve already been listing my expectations for what I think might be unveiled at this years E3. Online website GameTrailers are turning the hype wheel with their ten most anticipated E3 games.

So without further adieu:

What do you want to be announced? Let me know in the comments.

With Sony’s new Playstation 3 Firmware Update set for a rerelease on Wednesday, here are the reasons (in no particular order) why Tekken 5 Dark Resurrection Online should be patched to support Trophies:

• Tekken is amazing and I want to have another reason (apart from the slightly laggy online mode) to play the game again before Soul Calibur 4 drops later this month. I really need to fill a beat ‘em up void and adding trophies to Tekken 5 would surely ensure a lot of likeminded gamers would revisit this excellent PSN download…
• … And for those that hadn’t already picked up the game (why not?) adding trophy support would surely increase sales for savvy-minded gamers who might have missed out on the initial release of this game. The inevitable Internet hype of trophy support would surely increase sales in much the same way as Super Stardust HD.
• There are tons of trophies they could do: get x amount of wins in survival, complete arcade mode on normal/hard/etc, earn x amount of Gold, complete arcade in a certain time limit, get x amount of wins with any character, etc. etc. etc. The list could go on.
• There is still a relatively large amount of people that play Tekken 5 online but with new players downloading the game and a range of existing owners revisiting it would surely put new competition and life into the Tekken 5 online mode.
• Everyone gets another excuse to perve on Christie Monteiro.

Trust me I feel dirty for posting that final reason.