Hands-on with Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit

I like my racing games, and Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit is no exception; I love it!    You certainly feel the sheer speed and power of the licensed motors you’re driving and if anything, it certainly feels a lot faster than Burnout Paradise if that’s at all possible.

Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit has been two years in development by Criterion Games, the developers of the Burnout series.  Whilst this latest title in the Need for Speed series is a homage of sorts to 3DO’s original Need for Speed series in the late 90s, the game also evokes memories of Burnout 2: Point of Impact for me.  It really does beg the question then: where does Need for Speed begin, and Burnout end?

Continue reading Hands-on with Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit

What should I play next?

Following on from looking at the top 5 games to watch out for in 2010, I’ve been giving some thought as to what I should be playing next.  PixelJunk Shooter has been completed, as has Burnout Paradise.  I’m doing one last play-through of inFamous, and that should cover it.  I’m after something that I can get my teeth stuck into.

As far as online multiplayer goes, the extra DLC for Uncharted 2 has me covered, as does the ever-addictive Modern Warfare 2.  That also means that I don’t really want to be playing yet another FPS, so that means MAG is out the window for now.

Heavy Rain has been recently released, but for what it is, I’m rather hesitant to be dropping £40 right now on such a release.  Instead, I’ve turned my attention to games that have been out for a while and have dropped in price quite a bit.  I’m currently thinking along the lines of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed,  DiRT 2, Resident Evil 5, The Saboteur, and Call of Juarez.

What I want to know is, am I missing something?  Also, do you have any idea what you might be playing next?

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

A golden opportunity for Codemasters

I feel that Codemasters are missing out on a golden opportunity.  How so?  I’m referring to Trophy support and downloadable content; what I’m on about will all become clear very soon.

Codemasters are driving game veterans, having developed the Collin McRae Rally series over a number of years now.  They followed up their great series with the launch of DiRT on the PS3.  Then the subsequent development and launch of Race Driver: GRID- essentially the latest game in the TOCA Touring Car series, was a stroke of genius.  I’m only guessing here, but GRID surely reached a large audience.  I was a gamer that had played the TOCA Touring Car games and didn’t particularly like them, but GRID changed that. The visuals, the style, and the sublime handling.  Hey, I liked the handling! (some people would argue the handling was lumpy).

What has made things turn sour for PS3 users, is the fact that GRID won’t be patched to retrospectively support Trophies.  Everything’s been quiet on the GRID front for months, and then a mysterious downloadable content pack is available to purchase on the PlayStation Store.  It’s called the “8-ball pack“, and for £6.29 you get 8 cars.  Yup, for all that money, you just get that.  Let’s have a look what the competition have done…

Criterion Games, the developers of Burnout Paradise, have toiled away at and released Trophy support, and numerous downloadable content packs (all free!), and are only going to charge for their next pack because it adds a whole new island to the game.  It is probably even in the territory of an expansion pack.

This is why I don’t get this comment:

We’re currently not planning to retrospectively support PSN trophies – it’s not a trivial thing to add to a game.

Source.

This is where I believe that Codemasters have missed a golden opportunity.  The fans want Trophies, and the developers want a return on investment (ROI), so why don’t they patch the game for trophies, chuck a couple of cars in to sweeten the deal, then offer the pack up for purchase on the PlayStation Store?

You may think I’m making a big deal out of this, especially because there are many games out there that were released before Trophies came out and haven’t been patched such as Resistance: Fall of Man, The Orange Box, and many more.  But none of those games have just had a downloadable content pack released!  If they’re willing to develop new content packs, then why not Trophy support?

Sure, there will be a development team working on DiRT 2, but GRID is a franchise now in it’s own right and they could have kept interest in the game for far longer than they have done, just by following Criterion’s example.  But I digress.  I’ll conclude by admitting that the main reason I’m so upset about this is that GRID is one of my favourite games, and I’m just irritated by the attitude of the developers in this case.

Burnout Bikes Gameplay Unveiled

Burnout Bikes Gameplay Unveiled– On PlayStation.Blog.  Choice quote: “We want you to know that if you buy Burnout Paradise, you buy much more than the disk we shipped back in January.”  I hear ya’ loud and clear!  I’m seriously considering investing in Burnout Paradise now that I know there is so much cool content constantly being added.  Free!

Burnout Paradise becomes a PSN download this Fall

Burnout Paradise becomes a PSN download this Fall– Cool, the PlayStation Store could do with more full PS3 games (that go to retail stores as boxed versions) as digital distribution is the way forward.  Seriously, what’s the harm in doing both?  Warhawk and Gran Turismo 5 Prologue are great examples.

My driving game of choice: is there a worthy successor?

I’ve been enjoying Collin McRae: DiRT for a while now, but have started looking around for my next driving fix. I’ve totally skipped Burnout Paradise because I don’t like driving games trying to be role-playing games. I don’t want to cruise around a huge city looking for a set of traffic lights which has the event I want. Instead I just want to select the car and the event on a menu and then race. Period. DiRT does this perfectly, as does the entire Gran Turismo series and all previous Burnout games.

Sooo… I have Gran Turismo 5 Prologue. Am I enjoying it? Not particularly. Sure, the graphics are impressive but it’s quite tough and doesn’t ‘feel’ fun. It just doesn’t. Heck- it’s even billed as ‘the real driving simulator’. I want a fun racing game, not a simulator. On the PS2 the World Rally Championship series and the Burnout series satisfied my appetite.

Race Driver: GRID

So what game will be the worthy successor to my current driving game of choice- DiRT? I feel that it just HAS to be Race Driver: GRID. I’ve played on a demo and it is amazing- I’ll be buying it as soon as it is released. Ok, so why am I hyping this game up? The demo I played borrowed certain menu effects from DiRT (which is no bad thing), and seems to have bags of personality (ala Burnout) that seemed sorely lacking in TOCA. The visual style and handling seems to be the result of putting Gran Turismo 5 Prologue, Burnout Paradise and DiRT into a smoothie maker and achieving the perfect blend. What’s surprising is it’s actually the successor to the competent TOCA Touring Car series; a series which I’ve played occasionally on demos, but not actually bothered to buy.

When I get Race Driver: GRID soon, I’m sure I’ll post some more thoughts up here. This game should be on the radar of both PS3 and Xbox 360 owners. Better still, try the demo!

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.

Criterion defend their new baby

I thought I’d give my own take on this story as I have played Burnout right from the beginning and have some good memories from past games in the series.  I’d just like to mention before I go any further, that I have 1) read Criterion’s response, and 2) played the demo in question.

The gist is that players have taken the Burnout Paradise demo for a spin (on both the PS3 and Xbox 360 I believe) and (more or less) universally condemned it.  Kokatu’s rather nicely-worded article ‘Criterion Responds To Burnout Paradise Criticism‘ reveals a rather more accurate summery:

‘The Burnout Team have written a rather grumbly Christmas card to fans who have found one too many things to complain about in the demo version of Burnout Paradise.’

I still think that’s putting it mildly.  The Burnout Team are probably hacked off that they’ve spent so much time and effort on Burnout Paradise, only to have a fair amount of criticism levelled at their beloved.  When reading Criterion’s response I get the overwhelming feeling of despise for the critical gamer out there.  People have good reason- as consumers (in the UK anyway), next gen games cost £40-50 which is no pocket change.  Gamers are more critical than ever these days with good reason.

Next you will see how Criterion gets this totally wrong, and so here’s a choice quote from the Burnout Team themselves:

As to those who can proclaim from a taste of the demo that Burnout 2 was the best game (always nice to see all those Gamecube owners on the internet who haven’t played the game since B2! ) or that B3 is the better game – again, I can only smile. Those of us who have made the games dearly love those games but we’re confident that if you love those games too then you will love Paradise.

And therein I think, lies the problem.  All the Burnout games that have preceded Paradise have gone along the path of evolution- creating a better game with minor changes for the best.  Burnout was the ultimate in arcade racing in my opinion.  However Paradise seems to have taken the revolution approach- starting from scratch, and offering a completely revamped experience.  Whilst this is no bad thing, gamers that have followed the series from the beginning do not like such a great change.

I also totally agree with what Matt Brett has to say on this matter in his post ‘Burnout Paridise, a great franchise ruined‘.  Whilst gamers brand-new to the franchise will love it, it is fundamentally different to what most of us have known and enjoyed playing.