Author: Adam

In Brief: shades of grey

I’ve thoroughly enjoyed playing through inFamous and being the hero.  But all those pleas for help… so many civilian casualties… all crying out for a hero.  To be perfectly honest it got a bit too much at times and I had to get away from it all.  Yet to get maximum-strength superpowers, the game forces you to either be worthy of a halo, or otherwise be downright evil.  There are no shades of grey.

So as I’d already played through the game once as a hero, it didn’t really sit well with me playing through again being evil just for the sake of it, it seemed.  I’d like a sequel for this franchise to be a bit more morally ambiguous.  Give me shades of grey.  Something substantial that I can really sink my teeth into.  Though I won’t deny, the dynamite combination of great controls and gameplay, and the immersive comic book storytelling has probably affected me more than I’ve realised.  Fantastic game.

Back on the streets with Burnout Paradise

I have to admit that I’ve had a fairly intense love/hate relationship with the whole Burnout franchise.  When times were good, Burnout was a sumptuous slice of gaming heaven.  When times were bad, Burnout was just another game I couldn’t be bothered playing.  It all started with the original Burnout on the PS2.  If I recall, I thought at the time that it was a steaming pile of… well, rubbish.  Burnout 2: Point of Impact though, changed everything.  In my mind it was perfect: the graphics were the best I’d seen in a racing game since Gran Turismo and the gameplay was spot-on.

I dabbled with Burnout 3: Takedown on the original Xbox and found it to be great fun, but the gaming experience didn’t feel as pure as its predecessor.  After that, I totally skipped the next instalments in the series, Burnout: Revenge and Burnout: Dominator (which was not even developed by Criterion).  You see, Burnout had got rid of the gameplay feature that gave its name; the burnout.  In Burnout 2: Point of impact, you could drain your boost meter without stopping which would cause the meter to refill, meaning that as long as you didn’t crash, you could chain as many boosts together as you wanted.  It melted your eyes.

Continue reading Back on the streets with Burnout Paradise

PlayStation Network expands to other devices

This should be interesting.  At CES 2010 Sony announced that the PlayStation Network is going to be available on other devices such as BRAVIA TVs, Sony Vaios etc.  This will give consumers an alternative to the Apple TV/iTunes synergy, but it leaves me feeling lukewarm.  Maybe more details would peak my interest?

Measuring Difficulty in Games

How do you measure difficulty levels in games? Can you measure them?  I suppose what I’m really asking is who says what games are classified as being: difficult, tricky, mildly taxing, relatively easy or a cake walk?  I hope by now you’ve figured out that it’s really each and every single one of us.  It’s totally subjective.

Some will have you believe that game difficulty is measured solely on consensus of opinion by the hardcore gamers.  A good example is Modern Warfare 2.  Consensus of opinion says that it is easier than it’s predecessor.  I’ve found it quite challenging on normal settings thank you very much!  I’ve often found myself holed down in a relatively safe spot before hearing a loud THWACK and either seeing another inspiring quote or reading the sage words of advice such as ‘vehicles on fire may explode’ and  ‘it might be an idea to stay way from grenades going off’ from what I call the game’s hindsight detector.

Ok, so I ad-libbed those pieces of advice.  But what I’m trying to get at is that sometimes before I knew it, I had died more times than Bill Murray in the space of a minute!  The Gulag level springs to mind, for instance.  This may sound like I’m complaining, but I’m not.  In this case, the controls are spot-on, gameplay is realistic, and the challenge is set at such a level that the appetite to try just one more time never diminishes.  I’m looking forward to another run through of the game on hardened and veteran.

I can say that Modern Warfare 2 has been the most challenging game I’ve come across for quite some time.  Looking at other games I can say that yes, Uncharted 2 is easier than the first game, Burnout Paradise really is easy, Arkham Asylum’s main story is easy enough but the challenge rooms are tough and Assassin’s Creed II is easy.  But those are just my words which may seem empty if your experiences have differed.  I’m only speaking for myself here.  The bit I love about this topic though, is that everyone’s opinion is valid.

Does anyone want to share some of their experiences with different games?  The only people I don’t want to hear from are unemployed teenagers who do a 9 till 6 shift gaming.  I just can’t compete with that.  😉

Details Of Premium PSN Subscriptions Leaked

Details Of Premium PSN Subscriptions Leaked– TheSixthAxis asks ‘would you pay?’  Seen as it is just a survey, they’d need to have a clearer structure for the final product to even tempt me, as each option seems to have features that every other option doesn’t have!  Even so, I’d probably go for a package with more bonus content features as opposed to greater multiplayer features.  Would these packages tempt you?

Uncharted universe expands with Eye of Indra

You all (should) know by now that I love the Uncharted series.  So when a new four-part motion comic series called Uncharted: Eye of Indra hit the PlayStation Store, I was all over it.  What’s strange is that apart from a couple of mentions, Eye of Indra has been relatively under-promoted.  Maybe Naughty Dog is just testing the water at this stage?

For Uncharted fans Eye of Indra is a must buy.  The motion comic series is a prequel (note: yes, its canon) to Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune containing some enlightening back story for Nathan Drake, a plot twist, and at least one person you’re not going to expect.  Apparently this particular series is just the first of many, which is a decision I applaud.  This means that Uncharted fans can quench their thirst with an Uncharted game every couple of years with extra multiplayer DLC and motion comics to flesh out the Uncharted universe in-between games.

I got the Uncharted: Eye of Indra Multiplayer Skin Pack which includes all four parts of the motion comic and two Uncharted 2 multiplayer skins, although you can get the episodes separately if you really want to. The skins pack contains Rika for the heroes and Pinkerton for the villains.  Go check it out!

I’m not usually one for speculating, but what the heck.  Time to move on to a bit of speculation: maybe all the motion comics will simply fill in the gaps between each Uncharted game?  That leads me to guess that another series could fill in the pieces between Drake’s Fortune and Among Thieves, with another series set after Among Thieves, rather like a sandwich.  A very tasty sandwich.

I’ve dismissed the possibility of Naughty Dog taking the Uncharted series into the ahem, mostly ‘uncharted’ waters of episodic gaming.  Sure, GTA IV’s episodes seem to have worked out all right, Criterion went purely down the DLC route, but Half-Life 2’s episodes are taking a long time to deliver.  I think the DLC/episodic content for Fallout 3 is probably the best example of this sort of idea done right.  However for Uncharted’s linear gameplay, in my personal opinion it isn’t worth Naughty Dog’s time and money to go down this particular route.  Their current setup seems to be working out well so far.

Have you bought any DLC?  If so, was it worth it?

Naughty Dog adds free DLC for Uncharted 2

This coming weekend, Naughty Dog will be adding a few treats for gamers in Uncharted 2: new, free multiplayer map ‘The Fort‘, in-game player card, and leaderboards.  Just for the weekend itself, there’s likely to be Double XP according to TheSixthAxis.  Might be enough to peel me away from Assassin’s Creed II hmm.