Late Night Consoling
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Xbox Live? More Like PlayStation Life Lol
[ps3]An article entitled "PlayStation Live? Try PlayStation Life" in the March issue of (unofficial) PlayStation Magazine claims that Sony will be launching a full unified online service with PS3. This is in line with recent rumors stemming from a Sony marketing survey regarding online gaming, and runs contrary to reports in November from Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine stating that Sony would be sticking to its non-unified online guns a la PS2. Sony officials had also indicated the non-unified direction in the months following E3.
This PSM report is in stark contrast to Sony's last officially stated position. PSM's source was quoted as saying that Sony has in fact been working on this service for years, beginning as soon as the PS2 network adapter was launched. That would mean it's been in production since three months before Xbox Live even launched in November 2002. The source noted that Sony is launching "a 'full-on assault' on the latest version of Xbox Live." The cited reason it wasn't rolled out in the current generation is because Sony realized it had "too little, too late," so apparently it was worked on for over three years instead. The service would also integrate PSP.
PSM claims its source is a U.S. game developer in posession of PS3 hardware, speaking on condition of anonymity. In addition to the quoted source, PSM claims it spoke with "several" other PS3 developers.
With the survey and now this, it's easy to believe that Sony is working on a large scale online service. The company is also known for its aggressive nature in terms of keeping ahead of the competition and coming off as the premium brand in its fields, and the lack of a Live-like service would certainly be perceived as a shortcoming compared to Xbox 360, even if gamers who go online make up a minority of the overall install base. Have they actually been working on it for three years, though? That's slightly harder to believe, given Sony's repeated insistence that the company was pursuing the exact opposite strategy. If true, it seems more likely that development began, then came up short, then restarted after the proven success of Xbox Live.
Of course, there has still been no official confirmation one way or the other. As with so many other many other next gen inquiries, the answer might simply be, "Wait until E3."
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Driver Skidding Onto PSP
[psp]I learned from a well-placed and reputable source today that the PSP will be getting a version of the next game in Reflections' Driver franchise. Reflections is currently working on Driver: Parallel Lines for PS2 and Xbox, but the PSP version of the game is being handled by Sumo Digital. Sumo handled the Xbox port of Sega's OutRun2, and is also currently developing a PSP iteration of that franchise. Let it not be said that the PSP lacks racing games.
Unlike the hugely-hyped but critically savaged (and regrettably named) Driv3r (PS2, Xbox, GBA, PC), Driver: Parallel Lines has received comparably little hype from publisher Atari. The game is expected this March. My source described Sumo's PSP version as being more car-focused than its more GTA-esque home console brethren. He seemed to think that the game could use some improvement from its current state, but also has some confidence in the studio based on its work on OutRun2. Obviously, no release date for the PSP version is available.
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Frame City Killer Still Freshening Up
[xbox360]IGN has translated parts of a Famitsu interview with Kentaro Kawashima and Masaki Kunimori, producer and director respectively on Namco's Frame City Killer. They explain why the assassin-centric action/adventure was delayed past its original February release date, stating that they're still working to exploit the Unreal Engine 3 to its fullest. IGN points out that were the game still on track for February, it would have been the first shipping Unreal Engine 3-powered game. The developers are quick to note that the production delays, which largely fall on the game's currently lackluster visuals, are not any fault of the engine itself but merely part of adapting to the new technology. Oddly enough, the team also seems to be considering a surprising number of additional features given how late in development the game is; Kunimori mentioned the possibility of additional side missions, and even a previously unplanned online component.
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Burnout Revenge 360 Dated, Downloads Offered
[xbox360]The Xbox 360 version of Criterion's Burnout Revenge has received an official release date today. The game will hit shelves March 7, and until that date gamers can visit retail stores (the press release offers some examples: Best Buy, GameStop, Wal-Mart, Target, Game Crazy, Circuit City, and Best Buy) to download an Xbox 360-themed car, dashboard theme, and gamer pic. You'll need to have a memory card, which is inserted into an Xbox 360 kiosk at the retailer to receive the goods. Of course, one wonders who actually owns a 360 memory card? In years of owning an Xbox, I never had a memory card for it. That said, if you're a huge Burnout fan who has a card or doesn't mind picking one up, you can get some free stuff. Pictures of the themed car are here.
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Players Choose Resident Evil 4
[gamecube]As one of the best-reviewed games of 2005 and one of the bestselling GameCube titles of 2005, Capcom's Resident Evil 4 (GCN, also PS2) has been added to the repertoire of Nintendo's Player's Choice games on the Cube. This brings the game's price point down to $19.99 and really gives you no excuse at all not to own it if you don't already. I mean, come on now.
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Misc. Q&As/Features
Remember that fake CG video about the hypothetical Nintendo ON? Its creator, Pablo Belmonte, has returned with a new gaming-related video project: a parody of Kojima Productions' Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. The tagline, if you were wondering is "No place to hide; No place for Uwe Boll."
Console Game Of The Evening [Submit Yours!]
Castlevania Chronicles for the PS1. "Awesome remake in the vein of the first Castlevania, and in the updated mode you get to play as a pink-haired Simon!" (submitted by Conan)
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Serpico74
replyRE4 and Metroid Prime for $20 a piece, even less if used, plus a Gamecube, lord, that's a lot you're getting for your money.
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Why does everyone love RE4 so much? The controls are absolutely horrific. There's not even a tutorial until you're 20 minutes into the game and you learned all the controls by randomly mashing buttons for 10 minutes while running around like a fucktard with Spaniards chasing you with shovels. The chase scenes remind me of a Saturday morning cartoon from the early 90's.
I suppose the boss battles looked nice, but I certainly didn't have the patience to get as far as the first boss battle when I knew I had to wade through the worst control scheme ever created in the history of video games.
I mean, who swings a knife from LEFT to RIGHT when the knife is in your RIGHT hand? Why can't you walk and shoot at the same time? Why do I have to holster a pistol to temporarily pull a knife out and do a retarded generic knife swipe with an effective range of 2 inches? I use herbs to get health? I'm sure the developers were smoking some herbs when they made this game...
Hell I could have really enjoyed the game and not returned it to Gamefly if in the intro video it showed the main character dropping a bunch of acid or some other mind bending drug that would physically prevent him from performing his zombie investigating/girl rescuing job to the best of his ability. But the main character is NOT on drugs and is NOT inebriated in any way shape or form.
So I'll say it again...who the hell would swing a knife from left to right on the first swing when the knife is in your right hand?-
The graphics and atmosphere are amazing. Fantastic, fun gun gameplay. Cool rpg-like weapon upgrade options.
None of the stuff you listed bothered me. I don't care if the inability to run and shoot at the same time is unrealistic. The important thing is that the method you do use to fire a gun is fun and internally consistent.
You leave out two flaws which are much worse than anything you listed - the laughable script and silly storyline. And I was okay with ignoring those qualities because the actual gameplay part of the game was so awesome. -
Christ, did you even try the first game? If you think the controls in RE4 are retarded, you ain't seen nothing yet. Seriously, nothing can prepare you for how utterly cack-handed the game makes you feel.
It's difficult to get used to these sort of games when you've been playing FPS games, which have very quick, usually simple controls (on pc at least - 8 buttons and the mouse). I nearly threw my Dreamcast through the windows when I tried to play Code: Veronica, and then the same thing happened with my GC when I rented Resident Evil 1 for it. ARGH!
Some people even argue that it makes the game more tense. No, it just makes the game fucking annoying. When you are shown a cutscene at the beginning of the game depicting Chris dashing through a forest, shooting zombie dogs as he runs and leaping over logs, it's a bit of a tough bullet to bite when you face the reality of some of the worst game controls ever devised. Chris ends up looking almost as much like a zombie as the fucking zombies. They did the same shit at the start of Code: Veronica too, with Claire dodging a hail of bullets from a helicopter, before taking out a ton of armed guards. What the fuck?
Note: I have yet to play RE4, so my comments on controls are based only on RE1 and Code: Veronica. I will definitely try RE4 when I get a Revolution, as I don't have access to my cube anymore.-
It has very little to do with the earlier games control wise.
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Yeah, I read all the previews and was going to get it, but then I heard that it runs only in widescreen mode. I had a 14" bubble glass tv at the time, and not really enough time to spend playing it, so I cancelled my preorder. I was later tempted to just go and buy it from Game, but it was as if no shop had actually ordered it in, assuming that nobody who owns a Cube would be old enough to play it.
So yeah, it's still on my list of games to try when I get the chance, and I know the controls are supposed to be a whole lot better.-
It's actually not real widescreen mode, just 4:3 with letterboxing, not a true 16:9 signal. =(
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This is one of those matters of opinion. ;) RE games, before 4, were the type of games that featured love/hate relationships; there was no middle ground. You either loved the game enough to deal with the controls, or you didn't deal with them.
Did I find the controls awkward? Yeah, but I got used to them fairly quickly, especially since I've played every RE ever made. I mean, up = forward, down = backward, left/right = turn. Guess I caught on faster than others.
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1) The Resident Evil series is based off of B-movies, specifically, Night of the Living Dead and similar flicks. Of course it's going to be cheesey and campy. What did you expect from a game with zombies?
2) I had no problem with the control scheme. You move with the stick, you hold the R button to point your gun, using, again, the stick to aim. You fire with the A button. I could understand you having problems if you only had one hand, but that would kind of make all control schemes difficult, huh? The reason you can't move and shoot is, surprise, people don't do that in real life. Ever fire a gun while sprinting down the street? If you have, I doubt you were very accurate. Even secret agents need to steady their aim. Also, having to make the choice between avoiding enemies and opening yourself up to attack by stopping to kill them gives a much improved sense of tension. It's called survival horror.
3) You swing a knife from the opposite direction of the hand you're holding it. This is because you actuate your abdominal/lumbar muscles to add extra momentum to the swing while pulling the blade across the profile of your body with your deltoid/tricep. But I guess being an armchair combatant makes you Chuck Fucking Norris, huh? Dumbass.
4) Coming back to the control scheme, I'm just going to make fun of you again: Gamefly has a section on the game info page specifically dubbed, "Controls," so you have no excuse for being too lazy to click it and read because apparently it was so complex it took you twenty minutes to figure out what took me and all my friends about forty-five seconds. Hurr durr.
5) Medicinal herbs can help heal wounds and have been in the game since the first installment. Taking away medicinal herbs from Resident Evil would be like taking mushrooms out of Mario or the Triforce out of Zelda.
I think that about covers it.-
Or... what Casey Smith said. ;)
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Yah the controls at first feel very awkward and it was quite annoying.
But after a while it just felt right for the pace of the game.
It felt like you are forced to snip each character when you really are not.
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I am pro fps fan on pc. The first time I played re4 I was like wtf controls suk ass. After 30 minutes I started getting used to it. The shotgun really got me into the game. The crippled gameplay and movement add to the unusual feeling. Its a game design.
I already finished the game 3 times and I got it in mid december, the last time I played a game two times in a roll was deus ex, doom 1 and dune 2
the game is that good if you give it a go.
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