Nothing is true, everything is permitted

Assassin's Creed
Image via Wikipedia

I’ve finally completed the story of Assassin’s Creed, even though I’ve had the game since Christmas.  However, I can tell you that it is not easy trying to complete a game when you only return home about once a month, and have studies to attend to.  I only completed Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune itself about a week ago.

Yet what I want to explore is the issue of using walkthroughs, and to what degree.  In recent memory, I have only used walkthroughs very rarely.  Generally I’ll only turn to a walkthrough to get past a bit in a game which has actually stopped me progressing any further.  After I get past a tricky bit, I’ll then discard the walkthrough and continue to enjoy the game at my own pace, and deal with the challenges ahead myself.  I’m sure that most people would agree with me in this respect.

However, a much more controversial use of the walkthrough in my opinion is finding all certain extras in order to complete the game “100%”.  In Uncharted, there’s 60 treasures to find and I admit that I have used a walkthrough to find a few after completing the main game the first time round.  The way I view Uncharted is that the levels are linear, and that entails being able to enjoy the story and gameplay once more, whilst being able to grab the extra treasures.  If you’ve missed a treasure in Uncharted you’ll have to start that particular chapter again.  However Assassin’s Creed is more of an open, free-roaming world in which you can go back to any city and look around for flags or Templars for as long as you want.  I am therefore more reluctant to use a walkthrough in this case.  I find a particular thrill in finding a Templar, hidden in a remote place and adding him to my tally.

That brings me to the case in point, as I see it: such items, be they flags, treasures, coins etc- are put there by the developers for the skilled or explorative gamer.  Not for a lazy gamer to simply collect by reading a walkthrough, else why bother?  I’m intrigued to hear any other voices or viewpoints on this matter.

Getting to grips with Patapon

With the amount of coverage on PlayStation.Blog, I was intrigued and decided to give this game a go; especially with its low price point of £25. Now, Patapon isn’t your ordinary game. No sir. It breaks the mould of game design just like LocoRoco did. And like LocoRoco, it is a 2D game yet still packed full of gameplay, charming graphics and a catchy soundtrack.

If I was to sum up Patapon in four words, I would do so like this: pata-pata-pata-pon. What exactly am I trying to get at? My rather crude explanation is that as the gamer, you fulfil the role of the god of the Patapons, ‘Almighty’. It is your job to beat the drums for the Patapons to follow and obey. You take turns between beating the drums and hearing the Patapons chant. You’ll eventually unlock four drums which map to to the buttons: X (Don), O (Pon), triangle (Chaka) and square (Pata).

Patapon

Different ‘chants’ or combinations tell the Patapons to do various things such as march forward, attack, and defend. If you keep the rhythm going and don’t miss a beat, your army will build up into a frenzy which increases attack speed, power and all-round impressiveness.

I’m still struggling to get to grips with the game as a whole as sometimes I might not be pressing a button hard enough and therefore ‘missing’ a beat. Also, you’ve got to beat the drums at a steady pace; not too fast, or again you will be losing the rhythm. Furthermore, in frenzy mode it can be easy to lose track of the beat, so I’ve found it useful to tap the beat out with my foot. It makes things a lot easier!

Related reading: PlayStation.Blog’s ridiculously good Patapon coverage

And more specifically: How to cross the desert without burning your Patapons to a crisp!

Home has great potential

From Kotaku:

Sony is apparently pitching features like these to developers to extend the lives of their titles, using strong first and second party development showcases to prove that Home can effectively market outside of traditional means. We hope they take them up on their offer, because we’re definitely excited about the prospects.

Kotaku has examples of extra Home integration with Warhawk, Resistance: Fall of Man and Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune.  If developers add this extra functionality into their titles then the PS3 could leap ahead of the Xbox 360 for sheer richness in online offerings.  As of yet, the Xbox 360 is quite far ahead.

Europe getting 40GB PS3 bundles packing Gran Turismo, Blu-ray movies

Europe getting 40GB PS3 bundles packing Gran Turismo, Blu-ray movies– Sweet.  Not that it’ll affect me, but it is exciting to know that Sony are pulling out all the stops to entice consumers to sample in the delights of the PS3.  See also stories on: PS3 Fanboy and The Sixth Axis.

The making of Uncharted: In-depth

The making of Uncharted: In-depth– Absolutely fascinating read; especially to an Uncharted fanatic such as myself.  Check out the video at the end, it offers a real insight into the development process.  Of course, there’s more goodness like this to unlock on the game disk.  Completely worth it.

Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune is amazing

Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune is amazing- I’ve been playing it quite heavily over the past weekend, and it just rocks my socks. At first I wasn’t so sure about the plaudits of best ever graphics and cracking gameplay, but it’s true. Looks like everyone else agrees that it is awesome.

Patapon Demo on the PlayStation Store

Patapon Demo on the PlayStation Store– I’ve been waiting for this in anticipation for quite some time.  I’ve now found out that my PSP is hosing anything I download onto it- be it demos or updates.  I need to find out whether it’s my PC or my PSP that is actually causing the problem.

The Empire Strikes Back

Back when the PS3 launched, I practically screamed at Sony’s stupidity. Why price the damn thing out of the reach of most consumers? It meant that people like me, Joe Consumer, could not get a piece of the next-gen gaming action… at least not on the PS3 anyway. One year later, look how things have changed. I’m going to be bold and just say it- Sony has proved us all wrong. Sure, they may have had early poor performance with sales, but Sony has adapted to the market and fought back.

So, how has the situation improved? Well, Sony have steadily been reducing the price of the PS3 to more acceptable levels, (unfortunately) going so far as to remove PS2 compatibility to get the PS3 to be profitable. However, this cloud might have a silver lining in the form of potential PS2 compatibility via software emulation at some point in the future.

Also many gamers have complained that there just has not been a great selection of games. Having got a PS3 last Christmas, I would have to disagree. I would even go so far as to say that Sony got ‘the must-have game’ fairly early on in the form of Resistance: Fall of Man. I’m sorry, but it’s just amazing. Something bizarre has been happening though; I’ve noticed in discussions on the internet that a lot of Xbox 360 gamers have claimed that they have great games such as The Orange Box, Burnout Paradise and Assassin’s Creed which demonstrates why the Xbox 360 is the best- completely forgetting that such games are also on the PS3.

The PS3 has released notable exclusives such as: MotorStorm, Resistance: Fall of Man, Ratchet and Clank, Heavenly Sword, SingStar, Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune etc. PS3 gamers also have a lot to look forward to with regards to exclusives: Gran Turismo 5, LittleBigPlanet, Metal Gear Solid 4, Haze, Killzone 2, Resistance 2 etc etc etc! It’s time to crack open the champagne; 2008 and beyond is set to be an amazing time for PS3 owners.

Darth Vader and PS3

There’s been a notable flurry of welcoming PS3 news indicating that things are getting better. I’ll share a few that I’ve read about on PS3 Fanboy:

So it seems the PS3 is finally hitting its stride and may soon become the console of choice. From news reports and personal experience I know the PS3 is very popular in the UK, and also throughout Europe and Japan. The exception to the rule is in the USA. They sure love their Xbox 360.

Well, that just about wraps it up. I’ve said my piece, now it’s your turn. If you disagree with me- even better! Feel free to comment and I’ll reply as soon as I can.