Only a few more weeks and GTA IV will finally be out! I am sure that countless gamers all over the world are impatiently waiting for the day that they can get their hands on the first copies of the latest in one of the greatest game franchises in the history of video gaming.
Well, here is something more to whet GTA enthusiasts’ appetites – the GTA Social Club. What is this all about? It is basically an online home to anyone who plays GTA. Here’s more information from Gaming Bits:
Grand Theft Auto IV has gone gold for the Xbox 360 and PLAYSTATION 3 . Take-Two CEO’s Ben Feder said GTA IV is “in production and in trucks en route to retailers” during Take-Two’s shareholders’ meeting. We’ll see how tightly retailers can keep the game under wraps. I wouldn’t be surprised that random leaks and early eBay auctions surface.
In addition to GTA IV going gold, the Rockstar Games Social Club has launched and is now taking early registrations. There’s a nice giveaway sweepstakes contest if you register before GTA IV’s release.
From the Social Club: “The Rockstar Games Social Club is now open for pre-registration. This is a members-only destination for leaderboards, statistics, tournaments, ongoing special competitions, virtual events and more for Rockstar titles beginning with the launch of Grand Theft Auto IV on April 29th. Register your membership now to set up your profile and ensure that you will be able to check your stats and participate on day one of game release.”
Register on the Social Club website before the release of GTA IV (4/29/08) and you’ll be entered for a chance to have your portrait illustrated by Rockstar Games in “Grand Theft Auto style.” One Grand Prize Winner will be selected.
I scrambled to pre-register in the hopes that I would be one of the first to do so. Unfortunately, I was way up in the 20 something thousand…still, I have the chance to get my portrait drawn!
As you’ve probably surmised, I have been shopping this weekend. Together with the copy of Skate, which I reviewed in the previous post, I also got a copy of Dynasty Warriors 6 for PS3 – a game which I have been waiting for for quite some time now. It came out a month ago but I have not been able to get it till this weekend. So what’s the dish?
The graphics are awesome – but I already expected that. The attention to detail and the effects will just blow your mind as you play the game! My problem is that my TV does not seem to be good enough for my PS3 games!!! I have a pretty nice Sony TV which performs very well for most anything but when it comes to PS3 games, it just doesn’t have enough resolution. For Dynasty Warriors, especially, I can barely see the map and it makes for harder gameplay.
What happens is that I usually end up just running around not knowing where I am and where I am supposed to go. I didn’t realize the importance of the map until now. It still is fun just going around whacking crowds of enemy soldiers but when I lose the level because I do not know my whereabouts and where to go, it really irks me. Maybe it’s time to get a new TV? A 1080p one, perhaps? 
Anyhow, there are some changes – naturally – with Dynasty Warriors 6 like during the preparation you can choose a weapon but you don’t have your choice of officers – maybe it’s just like that in the beginning. I haven’t really made much headway because of the TV issue. In any case, it still is a game worth buying for yourself.
I have been playing Skate since I was able to download its demo from the PlayStation Home. To be honest, I never really was interested in buying the game. For one, I am no skateboarder in real life. I think that if I even dared to try it I would be the laughingstock of the most average of skateboarders out there. Yet when I tried the demo, I found myself unable to stop playing it. Ever since I started playing the demo, I knew that would buy the game and finally, this weekend, I bought my own full copy.
What can I say now? It has not failed my expectations. Perhaps one of the best things I like about Skate is the fact that you can merely roam the streets and the areas of the map. You don’t even really have to take on challenges – you only have to go around and do your tricks. The open environment is something that I really appreciate. More so, some of the tricks are not that easy to master. You need to learn how to flick the analog sticks and you get a sense of achievement when you get to master a trick. It gives you pleasure – as Joe B says in his blog, you are not merely “mashing buttons” to get the tricks done.
I am really excited about trying out the online venue but unfortunately, my Internet connection does not seem to be cooperating. I have had the game for a day or so only so I am sure that I will be able to figure this out soon enough. If I were you, I’d buy your own copy now.
Gamers who are into sci-fi have been looking forward to the release of Turok – and why not? This game promises to present the best of both worlds. If you have not bought your copy yet, here is the dish – according to various sources all over the Web – to help you decide whether or not you should go ahead and shell out some dough for this game.
Turok has versions for both the Xbox360 and the PS3, so if you have either of these two gaming consoles, the option of purchasing Turok for your system is open. However, what I have been reading up on Turok does not seem to be so good. Ever reliable Gamespot gave it a rating of 7 over 10 – that does not bode good news at all.
They do highlight some good points such as battling with dinosaurs (fun, fun, fun!), a great voice cast, and getting to kill a T-rex with a knife (yeah, we all have had that fantasy). However, the bad points are a bit weighty:
• Set-piece battles go on for far too long
• Few checkpoint saves add to frustration
• Human opponents aren’t dinosaurs.
It seems that Gamespot is not the only one who is showing disappointment in the game. Take Tom Orry’s review in Videogamer, for example. He gave the game a sad 5 out of 10. He even called Turok an “aging franchise”!
I am sorry to say that Turok may not be the game that you want to buy next. Then again, you may want to find out for yourself – and why not, if you have the extra cash to spare?
Tags: first person shooter, New Games, PS3, sci-fi, xbox360
Wii enthusiasts, here is something for you. The hit series Super Smash Bros Brawl is coming to the Wii! It is one of the world’s most popular franchises due to the simple fact that characters from the whole Nintendo world are incorporated into the game. Imagine playing Sonic and Pikachu against each other. Or maybe Zelda and Mario.
Yahoo gives us all the reasons anyone would want this game for himself:
1. Actually, there are over 40 reasons you want it
Link. Zelda. Snake. Mario. Samus. Sonic. Pikachu. Bowser. Kirby. Peach. Wario. Smash Bros. Brawl features a huge list of characters from classic Nintendo games — and for the first time, favorites from non-Nintendo hits like Sonic the Hedgehog and Metal Gear join the party. Each comes with special attacks, props, sound effects and signature moves. Snake has even brought along his all-important cardboard box: no Special Forces agent leaves home without it.
2. Smash yourself
Smash Bros. games usually opt for multiplayer madness over single-player content. Not so with Brawl, which includes a solo Adventure Mode called “Subspace Emissary.” Written by a designer culled from the Final Fantasy games, it’s the perfect way to hone your skills before humiliating your friends, and if you get too lonely, you can even team up with a friend to take on the evil Subspace Army cooperatively.
3. Play with the world
That’s not to say that Brawl doesn’t have plenty of multiplayer content. In fact, it has more than any other Super Smash Bros. game to date. Not only can you enjoy four-player matches on one console you can also use the Wii’s wireless networking to take on players from your Wii friends list or the world at large. You can even capture replay footage of your victories and mail it to your rivals in the ultimate of trash-talking hijinks.
Oh, there’s more – just visit Yahoo’s feature on this and read to your heart’s content. After that, order your own copy.
Tags: New Games, Nintendo, Wii
You probably know by now that I am a big fan of the GOW franchise. Well, here is the moment that many of us have been waiting for – the GOW for PSP is coming out! In gaming lingo, when developers announce a game has gone gold, it means that the development is complete and that it will be ready to launch pretty soon. For God of War: Chains of Olympus, the PSP version of the popular game franchise, we could expect it to hit the stores early next month – that is, at least in the United States.
So what is notable about Chains of Olympus? Here’s Wikipedia’s take on this:
At a God of War II launch event on March 13, 2007, God of War II director Cory Barlog indicated that the PSP God of War game would be a spin-off, side story, or prequel of the main God of War video game series: “It is its own story that connects to the overall story. God of War, God of War II, and then if all the stars align God of War III will be the telling of a trilogy. This PSP story will be a further fleshing out.”
The Island of Rhodes website revealed that God of War: Chains of Olympus is a prequel to the God of War series. It chronicles the various adventures of Kratos throughout the ten years he spent in servitude of the Gods (hence the game’s name which implies a bond between the series’ protagonist and the deities of Olympus) preceding the events of God of War.
The Official UK Playstation site reveals that, “Kratos will journey to lands that no mortal has ever walked upon. With the world plunged in eternal darkness and the gods rendered powerless, Kratos will face the most feared creatures of Greek mythology, and ultimately be forced to choose between his own personal redemption and saving the ancient world from certain destruction.”
No matter what, we are going to find out what is in store for GOW fans in the coming weeks.
Tags: games, God of War, PSP, sony
A lot of fans have been waiting for Devil May Cry 4 and early this month, their long wait ended. So what’s the buzz about the new game? A lot of PS3 enthusiasts have been complaining about the hard drive feature which, unfortunately, turns out NOT to be optional. Here’s what The Sixth Axis has to say about this:
1. The hard drive feature is not optional. Most of us knew this already, but I’ll just restate it just in case you already heard.
2. Upon booting the game, it takes 20 minutes to install 5gb of data to your PS3’s hard drive. Don’t fret though! There’ll be a history of Devil May Cry playing whilst it’s installing, and if you don’t want to watch this, just go and do something else (though not on the PS3, it’s out of action until it’s done). Grab a coke, get a sandwich, complain on forums via PC, whatever. It’s only 20 minutes, it’s not a problem (unless you’re really impatient).
3. There are mixed stories on the decrease in loading times the install is supposed to do. Capcom say that it’ll result in ‘near Super Nintendo’ loading times. All the accounts I’ve seen say that there is only a second or so difference between the hard drive-using PS3 and the DVD streaming Xbox 360 versions.
So which one is better – the PS3 version or the Xbox360 version? Though there are a lot of reactions on the Internet, I guess it is too early to tell as of yet.
If there is one thing that I cannot ever think of associating with the PS3, it would be the idea of budget games. There is no doubt that the PS3 is the best gaming console for the hard core gamer (I know, there will be a lot of arguments against this from fans of the Xbox 360 and the Wii), but the fact is that it does not exactly fit the budget range of gadgets. If you remember, when the PS3 first came out, one of the biggest concerns of consumers was the price. Despite the price cuts on the console, it still comes at a considerable price.
Anyhow, at a surprising turn of things, Sony has recently announced that they will be releasing – of all things – a budget game line for the PS3. This line is meant to be released next month, the 19th of March to be specific and is going to be called “PlayStation 3 The Best.”
So what can we expect from this budget line? Simple – big titles at much lower prices. To give you a sneak peek into the titles:
Resistance
FolksSoul
Ninja Gaiden Sigma
Gundam: Target in Sight
Ridge Racer 7
How much is this going to cost? 3,800 yen – about USD36. Pretty good, huh? The thing is, the line is being released in Japan only. Well, at least that’s the official word. I am sure that sometime in the future, similar versions will be released in the US and Europe.
The more I think about it, the more I liken waiting for a video game’s release to disappointment. I don’t know about you, but ever since God of War came out, I was hooked. Then came God of War II. The game was awesome but the ending was just not enough to be satisfying. I comforted myself with the thought that they would be coming out with the third installment to the series soon enough.
Of course, when the news of Cory Barlog leaving Sony came out, I kind of expected some bad news. However, if you remember that post on Cory Barlog, he stated that GOW III is in good hands. That kind of pacified my apprehensions.
Now someone from Sony has released a statement that the much awaited game will not be out till December of 2009 – and that would be the earliest possible time! For us who have finished GOW II and cannot wait to play the next installment (possibly the last, too), this piece of news is so not welcome. As we all supposed, there was something more to Cory’s leaving Sony. Whatever it is, it is affecting the development and release of GOW II.
Well, there you have it. No more of Kratos till Christmas next year – at the very earliest! This really sucks. Well at least we can look forward to some other games like GTA IV and Dynasty Warriors sometime this year – I hope!
There is no doubt about it – countless GTA fans have been disappointed time and again because of the numerous delays that the release has encountered. I don’t know about you but despite the frustration and impatience that we have all experienced, I am quite sure that you couldn’t wait to get your hands on the latest trailer and screen shots that Rockstar Games released last week. There is just no denying it – we want the game and even a mere peep at it is enough to get our interests once again.
Rockstar Games did not really release much by way of information. There have been some rumors that Seth Green is the voice behind the tattooed skin head in the game. Other information that one can glean from the video comes from the snippets of conversation and car chases in Liberty City. Other than that we have nothing. Were you satisfied? I need the game – that is all that I can say.
Here are some screen shots for eye candy:
