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Preview: Binary Domain

Is Binary Domain just a regular sci-fi third person shooter?

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The Next Assassin's Creed

Why Ubisoft needs to tread softly when it comes to balance.

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Modern Warfare 3: Suppressing Fire...

OPINION: Shellshock has left me wanting to roll with DICE.

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L.A. Noire Review

So, do we really want to play as cops?

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Brink Review

Parkour paradise or paradise lost?

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Dead or Alive Dimensions review

How does Team Ninja's greatest hits package stack up?

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Wii 2, realistically speaking...

7 things to be pessimistic about Project Café.

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Review: Is Portal 2 the best sequel of 2011?

VGD awakens from hypersleep to discover why it's special.

Hype

Verdict

More Reviews

Hot new Japanese release: Zaxxon (Virtual Console Arcade)

Something to keep you entertained until FFXIII.

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Posted by J.D. on 15/12/09 in Japan, and tagged with , , , , , .
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Heavy Rain Hands-on Preview

The cautionary tale(s) of Scott Shelby. VideoGamesDaily dissects a pre-release copy of Quantic Dream’s dark, daring PS3 adventure.


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Scott Shelby just won’t bloody die. He’s had ample incitement to do so – broken bottles across the gut and nose, a chair over the back of the head, an intimate encounter with a sinkful of dirty crockery – but the likable old git refuses to snuff it, even given some considerable native disadvantages: the waistline, complexion and jowls of a serial doughnut pilferer, the lungs of an antique vacuum cleaner. God and I do not want this man to live, and yet somehow each brutal re-run ends the same way, with Shelby limping heroically off into the fade-to-black.


The first time I played through Shelby’s introductory chapter, the fourth in our Heavy Rain preview build, I played to win. That’s the way you’ll want to play it, in all likelihood, the way you’ll feel it “should” be played. That the game appears to agree with this assessment is revealing – but more on that point anon. Here’s how it goes.

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Posted by Edwin Evans-Thirlwell on 14/12/09 in Previews, Spotlight, and tagged with , , , , .
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First in-engine Halo Reach footage

“You picked a hell of a day to join up.”

Among the... more

Posted by Edwin Evans-Thirlwell on 13/12/09 in Videos, and tagged with , , , , , , , .
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The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks Review

Nintendo’s evergreen hero doesn’t veer too far off track in this spectral sequel.

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Critics of Nintendo’s love affair with their new casual audience are quick to claim they’ve been abandoned by Iwata and company, yet here we are only two years after Phantom Hourglass with another fully-fledged Zelda outing. Much like the speedy two year turn-around between Ocarina and Majora, Spirit Tracks reuses many of the assets of its prequel, which given the popularity of chibi Link’s handheld debut, is no bad thing.

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Posted by Rupert Higham on 12/12/09 in Reviews, and tagged with , , , .
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Mass Effect 2: Gamestop ad shows off badass gun

This is my BOOMSTICK. For preorders only.

What̵... more

Posted by Edwin Evans-Thirlwell on 10/12/09 in News, Spotlight, and tagged with , , , , , .
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Will FFXIII bring the JRPG back in the West?

Final Fantasy is back in the headlines, but is it the last and best of a dying breed?

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The eagle has officially landed. Final Fantasy XIII dragged in its first review this week, earning a highly commendable 39/40 from Famitsu Magazine. Will those accolades translate into towering sales figures in the land of the rising sun? Definitely. Will the game see similar success when it hits Europe and North America? Probably. But will the Japanese role-playing genre at large get a boost in the process? Will it ride back to relevance in the West on Square Enix’s coat-tails? The jury, as they say, is still out.


Here’s a bit of passably informed hypothetical wrangling to keep the discussion going. Five points for, five points against. (Oh, and you might want to check out our interview with series producer Yoshinori Kitase and Square Enix corporate director Shinji Hashimoto.)


Without further ado…

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Posted by Edwin Evans-Thirlwell on in Features, Spotlight, and tagged with , , , , , .
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Final Fantasy XIII Elixir spills into Japan’s conbinis

*Drink not guaranteed to Restore faith in series.

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Posted by J.D. on in Japan, and tagged with , , , .
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Gaijin Gamer’s most wanted Japanese PlayStation Classics

On J-PSN please, ’cause discs are minging.

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Burn calories with No More Heroes 2

The Desperate Struggle to lose weight.

No More H... more

Posted by Edwin Evans-Thirlwell on 09/12/09 in Videos, and tagged with , , , , , , , .
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New IP can take “years of iteration” to get right – Singularity producer

Don’t count your chickens before they’ve been blown to bits with plasma grenades.

Activisio... more

Posted by Kikizo Staff on 08/12/09 in FPS Gamer, News, and tagged with , , , , .
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The first LEGO Harry Potter vignette

Harry Potter must not go back to Hogwarts… or he’ll be MERCHANDISED.

Warner Br... more

Posted by Edwin Evans-Thirlwell on in Videos, and tagged with , , , , , .
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Dark Void Preview

We fly into the void with an Xbox 360 build of Capcom’s jet-powered action-adventure.

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“For ages we were told we can’t call it the jet pack game because that didn’t convey the sci-fi conspiracy plot aspect, or the cover-based shooting stuff. Then we delayed the game a bit and added in the hover functionality and you know what. Now it’s DEFINITELY the jet pack game.”


So reads the cover letter which accompanied our Dark Void preview code. We’re glad Capcom’s Powers That Be changed their tune about the way the game should be presented. Dark Void can do without its sci-fi conspiracy plot, and it could probably lose the cover-based shooting stuff, but it wouldn’t be worth a sausage without the jet pack.

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PlayStation Awards 2009: big win for Mohan as SEGA’s Nagoshi leaves audience temporarily blind

Dark glasses essential.

[caption i... more

Posted by J.D. on in Japan, and tagged with , , , , .
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Professor Layton’s cinema debut approaches

Get down to yer local Toho Cinemas on December 19th, fellow gaijin!

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Posted by J.D. on in Japan, and tagged with , , , .
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Mass Effect 2 Interview

Game producer Adrien Cho on BioWare boozing, pushing Unreal Engine 3 to its limits, comparisons with Star Wars: The Old Republic and a “holistic” approach to development.

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Will it be on the PS3 or won’t it? Will Shepherd be in one piece by the finale or won’t he? Will you be able to jump twixt the sheets with the entire cast, or just its female members? Questions hang round Mass Effect 2 like bits of shrapnel in zero-G. Here are answers to a few of them, care of game producer Adrien Cho.


VideoGamesDaily: So, Mass Effect 2. The first one was obviously a highly acclaimed game, but it came out in the midst of a lot of exclusive content on Xbox 360. Do you think it got a fair share of the attention?


Adrien Cho: I thought actually Microsoft was a really good publishing partner, they really supported us, and they recognised what a unique IP Mass Effect became. And they helped foster that, and allowed us to do a lot of different things. And with a sequel now I think we’re able to branch out more with EA to an all-new audience. So I felt that we’re only going to be able to reach out to more people with the new game, hopefully people who didn’t get a chance to play Mass 1. One of the goals was to say “hey, give it a try – we’ve made everything a little more accessible, combat, the shooter aspects of it.” We want people who’ve never even played an RPG, who don’t consider themselves RPG players, but are maybe drawn towards the sci-fi aspects of it, the shooting aspects of it… This game will hold up with the best shooters out there, and you get some real cool role-playing elements as well.

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Posted by Adam Doree on 05/12/09 in Interviews, Previews, Spotlight, and tagged with , , .
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New Brink gameplay footage is boss

Pushes our expectations right to the… well, you can probably guess.

You can't catch me, I'm the gingerbread ma-

"You can't catch me, I'm the GINGERBREAD MA-" BOOM.

Oh come now, you remember Brink. Made by multiplayer shooter specialists Splash Damage? The guys who did Quake Wars? Published by Bethesda? On Xbox 360, PC and PlayStation 3?


Got some gameplay footage here. A big “huzzah” for damage splatter which doesn’t block out the whole screen (yes Infinity Ward, I’m looking at you). The SMART system – Mirrors Edge’s free-running for idiots/the impatient, basically – seems to be shaping up nicely.


That’s Splash Damage overlord Paul Wedgwood doing the talking.

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Posted by Edwin Evans-Thirlwell on 04/12/09 in Videos, and tagged with , , , , .
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Mass Effect 2 producer: devs “pamper” gamers

Bioware’s second sci-fi shooter will have “serious”, “delicious” consequences, like in Demon’s Souls.

So it see... more

Posted by Kikizo Staff on in News, Spotlight, and tagged with , , , , , , , .
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The secret to Mass Effect 2′s textures? Beer

Game producer to get lead cinematic animator wasted if technical issues are overcome.

How do yo... more

Posted by Kikizo Staff on 03/12/09 in News, Spotlight, and tagged with , , , , , .
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It’s… the Video Games Daily scoring system

More arbitrary numbers to violently disagree with.

"Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's first-party exclusives..."

"Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's first-party exclusives..."

Welcome to our official scoring guide. If you’re here, chances are it’s because we’ve pissed you off and you’re stockpiling ammunition for an unholy comments thread rant. You might also be a developer or PR person, or (snigger) somebody who respects our judgement deeply and needs, NEEDS, to read more. Whatever your motives, I hope the following makes sense. If it doesn’t, give us a yell.

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5 game settings I wish Rockstar would steal

“He’s got the whoooole world, in his hands…”

 


The new Red Dead Redemption trailer officially unveiled yesterday is fresh evidence of one thing: when it comes to turning an awesome setting, imaginary or otherwise, into an awesome game, Rockstar has no rival.


It’s a gift that should, nay, must be shared among less talented members of the development community. Many’s the time I’ve said, or read, or written a variation on the phrase “love the world, shame it’s no fun to play”. Here are five existing game settings that could benefit from the Big R’s magic touch. At least one of the choices is going to make you facepalm, but hey – horses for courses, and all that.

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James Cameron’s Avatar: The Game Review

Failure is Alien to James Cameron’s nature, but is the Xbox 360 adaptation of his upcoming Avatar a Titanic success, or something you should Terminate on sight? Time for our verdict.

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If you want to be taken seriously in the business world, it pays to keep one eye on the Next Big Thing – or rather, whatever you think the Next Big Thing might be. According to Microsoft, it’s Project Natal and the chance to high-kick Fulgore and your prized IKEA floor lamp simultaneously. According to Sony, it’s Blu-ray, or Home, or CELL, or telling your PS3 to put the kettle on over a PSP wireless connection. Nintendo is doubtless pinning its hopes on Wii Motion Plus 2 Multiplied By 3.41 To The Power Of 7.


And Ubisoft? Ubisoft thinks the future lies in making a computerised Sigourney Weaver’s wrinkles look like they’re protruding from the surface of the TV. That’s right folks, it’s the magic of three dimensions. The 1980s officially never happened.

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Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles Review

Capcom turns to the Darkside as two more Resident Evils get the York Notes treatment.


One gets the impression that the early success of the Wii took Capcom by surprise. At least that’s perhaps the most favourable tale that could excuse the all-round shoddiness of on-rails gun game, Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles.

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Posted by Rupert Higham on 30/11/09 in Reviews, and tagged with , , , .
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10 reasons to put a Wii on your Xmas list

They’ll prise these nunchuks from our COLD DEAD FINGERS.

Hot stuff, coming through.

Hot stuff, coming through.

Most of you don’t like the Wii at the best of times, but there’s been the most unholy level of whinging lately thanks to a certain Doug Cruetz of Cowen Group, who thinks the “Wii bubble could be deflating” – pierced by the wicked thorns of sagging third-party software sales. Or something like that.


Lay your fears to rest, Mr Cruetz – VideoGameTV has a bike pump. A bike pump filled to the nozzle with killer software. I’ve jotted down some pros and cons for each title on the list, partly to maintain the pretence of considered judgement but also because I wanted to make lots of lame jokes.

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Posted by Edwin Evans-Thirlwell on 27/11/09 in Features, Videos, and tagged with , , , , , .
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Killer Instinct 3 fights for Natal outing

New chat with Rare chief suggests Killer Instinct could make a return – but not with a traditional controller.


One of the coolest fighting game franchises of the nineties was Killer Instinct. The original 2D brawler offered bold, sexy character design and production values light years ahead of other fighters, at a time when only the crude, untextured polygons of the original Virtua Fighter represented the emerging “proper 3D” beat-’em-up.

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Posted by Adam Doree on 26/11/09 in News, Spotlight, and tagged with , , , .
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Killzone 2 look-back: sorry, still needs co-op

As Guerrilla’s sometime Halo-killer reaches the grand old age of half a decade, we kick a little post-coital dirt at the sequel.

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The Killzone franchise is five years old today, and Eric Boltjes, Mathijs de Jonge and the rest of Guerrilla Games are accordingly sinking into mattresses of purest purple cotton-candy nostalgia over at the official site. The grimy shooter series has returned to headlines for other reasons of late, with the second iteration swiping a Golden Joystick and no less than three nominations for Spike’s Video Game Awards 2009. An appropriate time then to slip off those rose-tinted goggles, strap on some glowing Helghast varieties and do a little retrospective whinging.

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Why Left 4 Dead shouldn’t be left for dead

Left 4 Dead 2′s out. Is it all over for Francis, Bill, Louis and Zoey? Not on our watch.

I'm too young to die!

I'm too young to die!

Poor old Left 4 Dead. Just over a year old, and already consigned to the backseat of history by Valve’s uncharacteristically headlong rush to sequel-dom.


Well we’re not quite ready to let go, chaps – as befits the PC version at least. Here are some reasons to put off uninstalling the original zombie co-op FPS for a few months longer.

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Posted by Edwin Evans-Thirlwell on 24/11/09 in Features, FPS Gamer, and tagged with , , , , , .
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Left 4 Dead 2 Review

Another adrenaline shot in the arm for the co-op scene. FPS Gamer’s take on the Xbox 360 version of Left 4 Dead 2.

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Like its predecessor, Left 4 Dead 2 is a sort of hyper-violent personality test masquerading as a cooperative zombie survival shooter. If you want to know which of your mates you should trust with the water bottle after shipwrecking on a desert island, simply invite them over for a bout and let the game’s dynamic challenge factor weasel out hidden traits and flaws, profiling each player in sickly green strokes of undead gore.


Where other shooters are static, unreactive structures, brittle sandcastles awaiting the casually lobbed football of human intervention, the Left 4 Dead games give exactly as good as they get, altering the quantity, quality and positioning of enemies, weapon drops and obstacles in response to player behavior. Lone wolves will be pounced upon by terrifying cat-like Hunters, cowardly hangers-on showered in Horde-attracting vomit by repulsive Boomers, layabouts lassoed and dragged off by elusive Smokers. After half an hour’s play, you should have a lot of stories to tell and a couple fewer names on your Christmas card list.

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Posted by Edwin Evans-Thirlwell on 23/11/09 in Reviews, and tagged with , , , , , .
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New Super Mario Bros. Wii Review

Nintendo showers us with enough brotherly love for quadruplets. Does the first 2D console platformer staring Mario since 1991 live up to the legend?


New Super Mario Bros. Wii (NSMBW) may look like nothing more than an expansion of the wildly popular DS title baring almost the same name, but when Nintendo’s ever-quotable Reggie Fils-Aimé predicts that the Wii game will outsell the all-conquering colossus that is Modern Warfare 2 (only on 360, mind), it’s clear Nintendo have high hopes for their ever-versatile mascot.

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Posted by Rupert Higham on 20/11/09 in Reviews, and tagged with , , , .
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Feature: FPS Cult Classics

With Modern Warfare 2 fever gradually dissipating, it’s time to mull over the shooters you might have missed.


Simultaneously the best and worst thing about the First Person Shooter genre is that there are so damned many of them. And because there are shooters appearing with such alarming regularity, the truth is that sometimes it’s difficult to keep up. You know what it’s like. Three games come out in the same week that you like the look of, you pick one of them, and by the time you’re ready to go back, something else shiny and new has distracted you.


Over a period of time, it’s inevitable that we’re all going to have missed out on some great games – maybe the ones with a quirky premise that never quite got the recognition they deserved. So that’s where we come in with a round-up of some of the bona-fide Cult Classics of the genre that you may have missed out on the first time around.

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PSN Video Delivery Service goes live in UK

Complete with the following promotional deal: get Transformers free if you register in November.


Sony Europe’s new video rental and download service is yours for the plundering on PlayStation Network this side of the Atlantic. Fancy catching up with X-men Origins: Wolverine on your PSP? Jump in. Oh wait, that’s the other one.


You’ll find the new features under “Video Store” on the PS Store. There are reportedly over 2,000 flicks on offer, with rentals priced from €1.99 (good for a fortnight, or for 48 hours after beginning playback) and full purchases from €7.99. Launch titles include Pirates of the Caribbean 3, Valkyrie, Bruno, Dead Space: Downfall and the new Star Trek film.


No complete series of Spaced = no sale, Sony.

No complete series of Spaced = no sale, Sony.



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Posted by Edwin Evans-Thirlwell on in News, Spotlight, and tagged with , .
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Nintendo re-manufactures, re-releases the original Game & Watch machine

…And gives it away for “free” to its Club Nintendo friends…

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Posted by J.D. on in Japan, and tagged with , , .
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Weapon Drop: Left 4 Dead 2′s Chainsaw

I came, I saw, I chainsawed…

Care for ketchup?

Care for ketchup?

Weapon Drops are short, sharp homilies to new, old and upcoming FPS weapons. If it blows shit away plenty good (and sometimes even if it doesn’t), you’ll find a corresponding entry here.


There’s a certain psychology to playing a survival horror game. It’s not enough merely to kill your foes – you have to truly butcher them, dispose of them in a manner vastly more unpleasant than the manner in which they might dispose of you, and thus in some way “cancel out” their scariness.


Good workmen shouldn’t blame their tools, but not every weapon is up to the task. Pistols are like little ice picks upon the alpine cliff of a zombie’s horribleness. Shotguns are agreeably messy, but it’s over in seconds. Sniper rifles are far too detached. Chainsaws though? Chainsaws fit the bill nicely…

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Posted by Edwin Evans-Thirlwell on 18/11/09 in Features, FPS Gamer, and tagged with , , , .
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PSN Video Delivery Service goes live in UK and Europe

Complete with the following promotional deal: get Transformers free if you register in November.

No complete series of Spaced = no sale, Sony.

No complete series of Spaced = no sale, Sony.

Sony Europe’s new video rental and download service is yours for the plundering on PlayStation Network this side of the Atlantic. Fancy catching up with X-men Origins: Wolverine on your PSP? Jump in. Oh wait, that’s the other one.


You’ll find the new features under “Video Store” on the PS Store. There are reportedly over 2,000 flicks on offer, with rentals priced from €1.99 (good for a fortnight, or for 48 hours after beginning playback) and full purchases from €7.99. Launch titles include Pirates of the Caribbean 3, Valkyrie, Bruno, Dead Space: Downfall and the new Star Trek film.


Naturally, SCEE is celebrating the service’s first birthday with a promotion or two. Already got a PSN account? You can pick up The Da Vinci Code for free if you buy Angels and Demons. Not on PSN yet? Register between 19th and 30th November and a complimentary copy of Transformers will hit your digital doormat. Swimming in riches, us PlayStation Networkers.


Full press release below. UPDATE: Sony’s released a trailer.




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Assassin’s Creed 2 Review

New century, same creed. Our take on the PS3 version of Ubisoft Montreal’s ornate Renaissance action epic.

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There’s a tension in every open-ended game (or even every game, period), a tension between avatar and surroundings, figure and backdrop, between the simplifications which allow players to interpret and act upon the world they’re given and the fertile, vital unpredictabilities of that world – in short, between the rules of ‘gameplay’ and the ruled-upon ‘setting’. Faced with so challenging a dichotomy, many developers lean one way or another. The randomly generated ASCI landscapes of cult hit Dwarf Fortress are famously more than a match for their colonists, for instance, while Jak II’s capaciously chunky steam-punk environs are quite passive, sterile, despite their graphical liveliness.


Ubisoft Montreal’s Assassin’s Creed series tackles this tension head on, and therein perhaps lies its claim to greatness. Where other third-person sandboxers cloak the enmity between order and chaos in make-believe, Assassin’s Creed transforms it into a component of the make-believe, a premise. Your character, Desmond Miles, springs from a long line of assassins, each engaged in a shadowy war with the Illuminati-like organisation known as the Templars. To penetrate the centuries-old mysteries of Abstergo, the vast military-pharmaceutical corporation the Templars have become, Desmond must tap into the “genetic memories” of his ancestors – 12th century Arabian backstabber Altair in the first game, Renaissance nobleman Ezio in this one – reliving their thoughts and deeds with the aid of a high-tech VR machine termed the “Animus”.

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Posted by Edwin Evans-Thirlwell on 17/11/09 in Reviews, and tagged with , , , , , , .
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It’s the hardwired Pikachu choir from hell!

This man has a wife and kids.

[caption i... more

Posted by J.D. on in Japan, and tagged with , , , , .
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Modern Warfare 2 shockers – a history in videos

Our quick, clip-driven retrospective on all the big reveals and upsets.

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Soap isn't shedding any tears over missing mod tools.

Has Modern Warfare 2 had the most SHOCK and SCANDAL-ridden development period EVAH? Of course not. That honor can be accorded to one game and one game only – the unforgettable Pac-Man World (Three dimensions? Back-story?! A pet dog?!!).


Still, Infinity Ward’s magnum-opus-till-the-next-one has stirred up a fair bit of fuss between unveiling and release. Let’s review the key dates and events with the aid of a few choice video clips…

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Posted by Edwin Evans-Thirlwell on 16/11/09 in Features, Spotlight, and tagged with , , , , .
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Yahoo! Auctions watch: game music and copying device edition

It’s hammer time!

Yes, it’s time for another look at Stuff on Yahoo! Auctions That Could in Theory Be of Interest to Someone Out There™! This week, I’m thinking games. Music. Music from games. And how to copy old games/play ROMs of old games on archaic console hardware. My search through ヤフオク lead me to find lots of interesting stuff in these categories. The most interesting lots were these three:


Lot 1: Super Wildcard DX


superwildcard


This fine piece of bric-a-brac is a bit of a steal, marked as it is with a Buy It Now price of just 5,000 yen. It’s also a “steal” in another sense of the word: the whole point of the Super Wildcard DX is that it enables you to play Super Famicom/BS games on your Super Famicom … FROM FLOPPY DISKS! I’m sure you can imagine the possibilities. Only slight hitch is that the SWC is probably not capable of running that Star Fox 2 beta, what with it being a Super FX game and all, and this being a dodgy piece of back-up/piracy hardware built in a shed in Hong Kong circa 1992. But still.



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Posted by J.D. on in Japan, and tagged with , , , , , , .
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Just Cause 2 Preview

A well-deserved second outing for the vertigo-inducing tropical terror? We check out an early Xbox 360 build.

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Blame the insipid Mercenaries 2: World in Flames, if you will, or Vin Diesel’s wrecked-from-birth Wheelman, or even Far Cry and Crysis, but I’m sick to the rear molars of games in which over-clocked Western secret service bruisers are slam-dunked into post-colonial scenery in order to flog their militaristic hard-ons in the name of international stability. It’s less a question of pinko liberal sympathies as familiarity-bred contempt: the old sub-equatorial geo-political sandbox is positively heaving with unshaven one-man-armies and their flaccid punchlines. Next time, developers, try rural Dorset. The weather’s not too pleasant, but they make wonderful cream teas.


Such whinging aside, there’s always room for a game that’s utterly, spectacularly, triumphantly stupid, whether it’s set in Borneo or Birmingham, and Avalanche’s third-person pacification spree Just Cause 2 is certainly that. This stupidity hinges on two elements: a parachute, and a grapple line.

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LittleBigPlanet PSP Review

The littler they come, the better they get. Our verdict on SCE Cambridge Studio and Media Molecule’s portable Sackboy.

littlebigplanet-review-440


I love LittleBigPlanet PSP. It also depresses me. Let’s go into the “love” bit first – quite simply, you couldn’t ask for a better executed, fuller-featured port than this one. It’s not perfect, but it’s only a point or two shy of the mark. The dual-era gameplay – classic, twitch-driven platforming meets present-day physics sandbox – is no less infectious on a screen the size of your wallet, the level creation mode equally powerful and the craft-shop aesthetic just as winningly self-conscious.

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Demon’s Souls Review

It’s got soul. And it’s super bad. Richard Walker cuts open From Software’s diabolically hardcore dungeon crawler.

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As a genre name, ‘dungeon crawler’ doesn’t sound particularly enticing, but as games like Diablo and Baldur’s Gate have proven, spending time trawling through dark and dingy dungeons can actually be a rather pleasant experience. Enter Demon’s Souls – a game so harsh and unforgiving it makes Ninja Gaiden seem tame, yet running through its gloomy and oppressive tunnels is never less than entertaining.

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Posted by Richard Walker on 12/11/09 in Reviews, and tagged with , , , , , , , .
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Four more PlayStation classics arrive in PSN-J’s Game Archives

And by “classic” we mean Neko-Zamurai!

It’s... more

Posted by J.D. on 11/11/09 in Japan, and tagged with , , , , .
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The very best of Japanese chiptune, pt. 3: USK

“Just a Gameboy musician in Fukuoka, Japan.”

Arguably ... more

Posted by J.D. on 10/11/09 in Japan, and tagged with , , , , .
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New invention informs Japanese parents of the time their children spend gaming

Introducing the “Kids Timer” – new worst enemy of Japan’s young gamers!

[caption i... more

Posted by J.D. on in Japan, and tagged with , , .
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Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Review

It’s the biggest release of the year. Will it get the biggest score? FPS Gamer’s Kristan Reed takes on Infinity Ward’s Modern Warfare 2.

modern-warfare-2-review-vgd-440


Much has been said about the price tag of Modern Warfare 2 in the build up to its release, and not much of it publishable. But if a videogame’s worth can be measured by how much of it stays with you after you’ve put the pad down, then even the most indignant will have few complaints if this hugely anticipated sequel ends up delivering as much as the original did two years ago.


Perhaps the most impressive thing about the original Modern Warfare was the fact that most people didn’t put the pad down, devoting untold hours to mastering its thrilling online component long after they’d come down from its monumentally brilliant, if brief, single player campaign. Having mastered such a winning formula, the last thing you expect are radical changes, and so it proves.

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Posted by Kristan Reed on in Reviews, and tagged with , , , , .
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Opinion: MW2′s genius shouldn’t blind us to controversies

Price hiking, airport massacres, Activision’s miserly attitude to review code – Modern Warfare 2 has a fair few blotches on its mark sheet. FPS Gamer takes stock.

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A quick disclaimer. Modern Warfare 2 is, in all probability, going to be one of the best-executed and most substantial shooters you play this year. I was very impressed by the game when I previewed it last month, and the fact that my name won’t be gracing our review when it goes live tonight is the cause of many a flung teacup at Kikizo Towers (the honour falls instead to FPS Gamer’s veteran duelist Kristan Reed, with whom I’m currently not on speaking terms).


Not every aspect of the game or its titanic marketing putsch is above question, however, and as the first pre-orders blast through letterboxes and all-night-queues sprout from the doors of HMV, we should take time to reflect on the controversies Activision and Infinity Ward have ignited in the run-up to release.

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Posted by Edwin Evans-Thirlwell on 09/11/09 in Features, and tagged with , , , , , , , , , , .
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SEGA Japan choreographs horrific Puyo Puyo 7 dance routine!

Disturbing on so many levels…

Japan is o... more

Posted by J.D. on in Japan, and tagged with , , , .
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The very best of Japanese chiptune, pt. 2: YMCK

Shibuya-kei reborn through the cassette slot of a Famicom…

If Xinon ... more

Posted by J.D. on in Japan, and tagged with , , , , , , .
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James Cameron’s Avatar: The Game Preview

Will James Cameron’s space epic make us feel right at home on Pandora or alienate us like an out-of-body experience? We catch up with Ubisoft’s Kevin Shortt to find out.

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The cinematic version of Avatar may well have collapsed under the weight of its own colossal hype machine if it weren’t for the fact it comes from the man that bought us Terminator, Aliens and Titanic (don’t laugh, it cleaned up at the Oscar’s). This man deserves our trust.

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Posted by Rupert Higham on 07/11/09 in Previews, and tagged with , , , .
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Last week’s hottest headlines – 6th November

Don’t mention the (Modern) War(fare 2).

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Last week’s spicy news nuggets laced with the bittersweet herbage of half-arsed cynicism.


Cast a leisurely eye over the last seven days and you could be forgiven for thinking that all consoles and PC were designed exclusively to run Modern Warfare 2, all retailers founded in order to sell it, and all of human life ejected from the womb in order to play it.

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Unreal Engine 2 mod Out of Hell hits web

One-man attic coding endeavor puts majority of big budget shooters to shame.

[youtube]h... more

Posted by Edwin Evans-Thirlwell on in Cheats & Strategies, and tagged with , , , , .
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Yahoo! Auctions watch: rare book/magazine edition

Out of print but still in demand.

As you’ll know from having read last week’s “Yahoo! Auctions watch”, Japan’s not about eBay: it’s about ヤフオク. This is where Japanese collectors, otaku and gamers alike search for cheap games, rare games and random game-related junk. Last week I introduced some coin-ops for sale at decent prices – this week I’ll go in the opposite direction: tremendously expensive Japanese game books and magazines!


Lot 1: Complete collection of Gamest magazine


Gamest


This complete collection of 200-odd issues of Gamest magazine – a specialist arcade games title that ran from 1986 through to 1999 – has an opening price of, wait for it, 399,000 yen! That’s £2,650/$4,400. Delivery anywhere within Japan costs another 10,000 yen or so, and if some maniac is anxious that he might be outbid, he can of course choose to cough up the slightly higher Buy It Now price of 447,000 yen (£3,000/$5,000).



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Posted by J.D. on in Japan, and tagged with , , , , .
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Tekken 6 Review

The King of Iron Fist goes multi-format, as another generation of Mishimas fetch the hair gel and gloves. PS3 version reviewed.


As 2009 has now been officially recognised in Chinese astrology as the year of the beat ‘em up, Namco Bandai’s Tekken 6 is most likely the last entry of the year. It doesn’t have the status as the long-lost grand master as Street Fighter IV did, or as the hungry challenger as was the case with BlazBlue. No, Tekken has remained relatively mainstream, even throughout the more strained years of beat ‘em up popularity, and while it doesn’t push hardware sales in the way it did in the nineties, you’d be hard pushed to find a gamer that wasn’t familiar with King, Law and Paul Phoenix.

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Posted by Rupert Higham on in Reviews, and tagged with , , , .
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Cheat Sheet: Issue #1

First of our regular code overloads.

cheat-sheet-5-november

Walking tall with the aid of a cheat or two.

Hola, bonjour and welcome to the inaugural issue of Cheat Sheet, in which we lump together a bunch of codes and exploits from recent or upcoming games for your breathless perusal. In this episode: Grand Theft Auto IV: The Ballad of Gay Tony, Borderlands, Modern Warfare 2, Uncharted 2 and Tekken 6. Go crazy with gratitude and relief.

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Posted by Edwin Evans-Thirlwell on 05/11/09 in Cheats & Strategies, and tagged with , , , , , , .
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Left 4 Dead 2 Clutch ad

Pop those rotting tops to the happening chords of “Electric Worry”.

Morning, ... more

Posted by Edwin Evans-Thirlwell on in Videos, and tagged with , , , , .
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BOOM – it’s the Modern Warfare 2 launch trailer

Shocking twist: contents abundant in explosions, gunfire.

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Posted by Edwin Evans-Thirlwell on in Videos, and tagged with , , , , .
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The very best of Japanese chiptune, pt. 1: XINON

Mr. 8-bit Awesomeness!

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Posted by J.D. on in Japan, and tagged with , , .
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Do certain games really make the Japanese feel nauseous?

Anecdotal evidence suggests a 50:50 split, as well as some funny anomalies…

Japan loves the FPS (just not this one).

Japan loves the FPS (just not this one).

Among my FPS-playing Japanese chums, most of whom are male and in their 20s (Japanese girls don’t really seem to dig the FPS genre), only one has experienced mid-game motion sickness. He was playing Crysis on his PC. The rest of them just give me funny looks when I explain the gaijin (mis?)conception that Japanese gamers puke at the mere sight of a first-person perspective. And for a genre that they reportedly “can’t get on with”, an awful lot of Japanese players have been buying Halo and other FPSes in recent years.


So maybe it’s a generational thing. Perhaps the FPS of the late 1990s (which seems to be when this myth was first propagated) was not compatible with the majority of Japanese gamers from that era, or perhaps the poor sales of GoldenEye in Japan can be attributed, not to its first-person-ness, but to its “Why is the screen smeared with Vaseline?” visual quality.



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Posted by J.D. on in Japan, and tagged with , , , , .
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Quickfire Q&A: Alien vs. Predator

Predator. Survivor. Prey. Potential? Rebellion’s revamp of the classic sci-fi horror franchise is appropriately conflicted.

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The Quickfire Q&A is our schizophrenic antidote to over-worded, boringly constructed articles, giving you all the key info plus a joke or three in snappy question-answer format. Next up, Rebellion’s Alien vs. Predator for PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.


Give us the feature breakdown on Alien vs. Predator.


You’ve got three single player campaigns for three different organisms: spindly, slavering Xenomorph, high-tech head-hunter Predator, and small, squishy, terrified, soon-to-be-limbless Homo Sapiens. On top of that, there’s online multiplayer for up to 18 players.


Three multiplayer modes have been announced. Deathmatch needs no explanation. Predator Hunt casts one player as the Predator while the rest don the soft, pink bodysuits of human Marines. Kill the Predator and you become him. Infestation pits just one Alien against Earth’s finest, but any human players killed respawn as Aliens.

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Posted by Edwin Evans-Thirlwell on 04/11/09 in FPS Gamer, Previews, and tagged with , , , , , , , , .
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Multi-Clip: goldfish, Rubix cubes, stress

Our choice of up-comers on Xbox Live Arcade, WiiWare and DSiWare.

The eyes. THE EYES.

The eyes. THE EYES.

If you could just tear your eyes away from that Modern Warfare 2 pre-order for a second, I’ve got some downloadable games to pimp.


Stop Stress: A Day of Fury is about anarchic average Joes destroying the physical emblems of a high-pressure urban existence, like toilets, shelves and security guards. As such, it’s going head to head with PlayStation Network’s PA!N.


 

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Get a Porter case for your PSP Go

You won’t regret it. People will be impressed.

[caption i... more

Posted by J.D. on in Japan, and tagged with , , .
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Doom II gets fan-crafted Skull Tag expansion

Old dogs, new tricks, no price tag.

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Posted by Edwin Evans-Thirlwell on 03/11/09 in Cheats & Strategies, and tagged with , , , .
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And the best part of Modern Warfare 2 is…

Infinity Ward studio boss spills the beans.

“Two dumpsters and a piece of garbage,” according to Infinity Ward’s studio head Vince Zampella. “Cracks in the sidewalk” also rank among his favourite visual touches in the biggest game of the year – and one of a very few games to make the British look manly.


Vince Zampella, studio head of Infinity Ward

Vince Zampella, studio head of Infinity Ward


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Posted by Edwin Evans-Thirlwell on 02/11/09 in FPS Gamer, Interviews, News, Spotlight, and tagged with , , , , , , .
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Mainichi Issyo subscription SCANDAL

Sony’s beloved PS3 service Mainichi Issyo goes subscription-based – pay 800 yen a month, or lose the right to have your PS3 news presented to you by cats…

toro1

Toro: the gormless cat that has been delighting Japanese PS3 owners with daily news since launch.

Sony’s mascot in Japan isn’t Sackboy, or Nathan Drake, or Crash sodding Bandicoot, oh no – it’s a cheerily braindead white cat called Toro, star of Dokodemo Issyo and Mainichi Issyo. He’s been around for just over a decade, starting life on the Pocketstation, and he is officially a Big Deal. He’s INSANELY popular. For the tenth Toro anniversary, they ran a nationwide train promotion where kids had to run around between different stations collecting stamps for gifts. They even got two people to dress up as giant cats and welcome people. Anyway, he and his slightly less gormless pal, Kuro (a black cat), have been the stars of the PS3 since launch in Japan with Toro Station. It’s a free download from the Japanese PSN store – every single day, Toro and Kuro present an adorable little news programme about… something. Sometimes it’s new happenings in the world of Playstation, sometimes it’s about a coffee shop in Tokyo that’ll draw cats on your coffee foam, once it was about toilet paper with maps of the galaxy printed on it. It’s awesome. But if you’ve never experienced the wonders of Toro Station, your chance is up. They’ve changed it.





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Posted by Keza MacDonald on in Japan, and tagged with , , .
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American McGee teases second trip to Wonderland

“Alice, are you all right?”

A site ha... more

Posted by Edwin Evans-Thirlwell on in Videos, and tagged with , , , , , .
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Left 4 Dead PC mall campaign goes live

Or should that be “un-live”?

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Posted by Edwin Evans-Thirlwell on in Spotlight, and tagged with , , , , , , .
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Classic Minsc and Boo quotes

Every hamster has his day.

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LEGO Rock Band launch trailer

LEGO of my childhood, Rock Band!

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Posted by Edwin Evans-Thirlwell on in Videos, and tagged with , , , , , , , .
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3D Dot Game Heroes appealing to Japan’s “lost” Famicom generation

Something old, something new…

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Posted by J.D. on in Japan, and tagged with , , , , .
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Quickfire Q&A: Battlefield: Bad Company 2

Hands-on time with EA Digital Illusions CE’s second big native console Battlefield. Let the question mark bombardment commence!

bad-company-2-quickfire-qa-preview-440


The Quickfire Q&A is our schizophrenic antidote to over-worded, boringly constructed articles, giving you all the key info plus a joke or three in snappy question-answer format.


Next between our cross-hairs is the follow-up to the fun but flawed Battlefield: Bad Company, in which men in padded camo helmets fire RPGs at walls to knock them on top of other men in padded camo helmets.


So what were you playing?


A 10-man round of Capture the Flag on an arid seaside map called “Flag Map C”. Probably a provisional title, yes. It was an Xbox 360 build.

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Posted by Edwin Evans-Thirlwell on 31/10/09 in FPS Gamer, Previews, and tagged with , , , , , , , .
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DJ Hero Review

More bass! MORE BASS!

dj-hero-review-440


In preparation for reviewing DJ Hero, I bought a pair of pink Calvin Harris-style fly-eye glasses and read a copy of Mixmag cover to cover. Really, though, I ought to have spent a little time with Amplitude. DJ Hero has far more in common with Harmonix’s early rhythm-action games than with Guitar Hero, Rock Band or anything that has come since.

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Posted by Keza MacDonald on 30/10/09 in Reviews, and tagged with , , , , , , , , .
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Introducing… the Osaka Game Show 2009!

Well, kind of.

Just as t... more

Posted by J.D. on in Japan, and tagged with , , .
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Yahoo! Auctions watch

Let the bargain hunting begin!

If you’re in Japan and have even a slight interest in the murky terebi gemu underground, chances are you’ll already have a Yahoo! Auctions account set up and fully operational (if you haven’t and you want me to guide you through the whole tedious process, just ask). With no eBay in Japan, ヤフオク, as it’s commonly abbreviated by the locals, is the place to get sorted for curios, retro stuff and useless crap. Every week I’ll be introducing a few current auctions that have caught my retro-trained eye. Think of me as David Dickinson on tour in Japan looking for some “real bobby-dazzlers” and trying to escape from a sea of similarly Tango’d Shibuya gals…


Anyway, let’s begin the hunt with some (completely-impractical-for-your-Japanese-apartment) choice arcade machines:


Lot 1: Virtua Racing twin coin-op


Virtua RacingThe asking price for this classic SEGA racer is 50,000 yen (about £330/$550), which isn’t bad, especially considering it’s the Twin version of the cab and therefore facilitates head-to-head two-player action like the year is still 1993.



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Posted by J.D. on in Japan, and tagged with .
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Ratchet and Clank: A Crack in Time Review

VGD joins the well-armed Lombax and his mechanical sidekick for a third and final outing on PS3.

ratchet-and-clank-future-crack-in-time-review-440


There comes a point in a developer’s career when you know they’re going to carry on producing decent games till electronics go out of fashion. Insomniac isn’t quite the platinum brand Bungie or Valve is, but the California-based independent has seldom put a foot wrong, quietly washing its hands of Spyro the Dragon before the series nose-dived into mediocrity, and treating PS3 owners to an uneasy but enjoyable marriage of realism and ridiculousness in the form of the Resistance shooters.


The Ratchet and Clank franchise is the studio’s longest-running success story, with nine releases (including the High Impact spin-offs), seven years and over 10 million sales under its belt. In the course of that lifespan high definition graphics have flourished, digital distribution has cast its shadow over brick-and-mortar retail and online functionality has become the norm, yet somehow this lean, lovable action-platformer is the same as it ever was, toying with new possibilities but subordinating them firmly to the age-old thrill of smashing stuff with a novelty wrench.

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Posted by Edwin Evans-Thirlwell on in Reviews, and tagged with , , , , , .
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1-on-1: Modern Warfare 2 vs Left 4 Dead 2

Can Valve’s grab-bag of southern comfort and zombie goodness overturn Infinity Ward’s steamroller of an action blockbuster? Click on for our pre-release feature face-off.

fpsg-one-on-one-l4d2-vs-mw2-440


The once populous combat arena of Winter 2009 is an echoing shell. A few notable action franchises still circle in the shadows, IPs like Assassin’s Creed 2 and Pandemic’s plucky original The Saboteur, but the vast majority have migrated to the over-subscribed stomping grounds of Spring 2010. There in the centre of the unspoiled, uncontested sand stands the usurper, M16 dangling absently from one hand. Despite contentious server support and pricing decisions, Modern Warfare 2 seems to have won the struggle for Christmas revenue before it even begins.


But has it? There are inhuman shrieks from the auditorium, a confused surge of rotting bodies against the barricades. Left 4 Dead 2 has had its own battles to fight on the road to release, against Australian ratings boards, disgruntled fans and over-sensitive US newspapers, and the Infected are in no mood for further upset.

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Posted by Edwin Evans-Thirlwell on 29/10/09 in Features, FPS Gamer, and tagged with , , , , , , .
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It’s PRINCESS ROBOT BUBBLEGUM!

We love her, obviously.

Rockstar&... more

Posted by Adam Doree on in Japan, and tagged with .
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Arcade Adventures: Music GunGun!

We hit the game centres to see what’s out there beyond forty million Tekken and Street Fighter cabinets, gambling and walls of Answer X Answer quiz machines populated by smoking middle-aged men.

musicgungun


You see lightgun games galore in game centres, obviously, but when Music GunGun! started appeared on the Coming Soon lists it piqued my interest. I’m unhealthily obsessed with rhythm-action, you see, and fairly interested in any lightgun game that doesn’t just involve shooting an endless parade of men in the face (which is a surprisingly high number in Japan). The name conjured awesome images in my head of a game that combined the two. I was not disappointed.

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Posted by Keza MacDonald on in Japan, and tagged with .
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Game Center CX returns to our screens!

Season 12 of the awesome Shinwa Arino-presented “Game Center CX” programme kicked off on October 13th – tune your TV to Fuji Terebi TWO now!

[caption i... more

Posted by J.D. on in Japan, and tagged with , , , .
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5 essential PlayStation games to download from J-PSN

If you nip along to your local conbini and buy a 3,000 yen PSN ticket, what will you spend your credit on? Stuck for ideas? Here are five absolutely sublime 32-bit PlayStation games available in the Game Archives area of the Japanese PS Store for just 600 yen each…

1. Rakugaki Showtime (Treasure)


This mega-expensive, ultra-limited disc (I seem to recall Treasure only manufactured a dozen copies for their friends and family, or something…) is, at 600 yen for a download, undisputed Bargain Of The Century. It’s also a brilliant, unhinged take on the 3D beat ‘em up/brawler subgenre, kind of a paper-thin Power Stone 2 – it even has a terrific four-player mode. Goran kudasai:



2. Gussun Paradise (Irem)


This is what happened when the world-famous R-Type developer turned its gifted hand to crafting a series of single-screen platformers. I’m not saying it’s as good as Bubble Bobble (that would be blasphemy), but it is mighty fine. Paradise, even:




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Posted by J.D. on in Japan, and tagged with , , , , , , , , .
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GTA IV: The Ballad of Gay Tony Review

Is the Grand Theft Auto IV series finale enough to maintain our interest in Liberty City? It’s time to come out of the closet.


“As if people buy CDs anymore!” This line, spoken by the eponymous Tony Prince in The Ballad of Gay Tony, seems ironic in light of the game’s inevitable release as a physical boxed product in addition to digital download through Xbox Live, and is also a good example of how unashamedly blunt and with-the-times some of the themes in Rockstar’s latest (and final) instalment in the GTA IV series is.

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Posted by Adam Doree on 28/10/09 in Reviews, and tagged with , , , .
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It’s the all-new Kikizo

We’re back with an improved look, a new name, loads of new content, as well as four ALL-NEW game sites and a new business site too! Full details…

My god, we’re actually on schedule! Ahead of schedule, even: we’re officially live at 6pm UTC today, and the press release on the next page is dated tomorrow… (and er, previously we said “November”).


After we bailed on you about one month ago – freezing all updates on Kikizo to focus on this relaunch – it’s been pretty much non-stop around here, and finally, we can give you guys an explanation.

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GTA IV vs creepy misogynistic anime

Japanese adult cartoon industry gets serious ribbing.

Rockstar&... more

Posted by Edwin Evans-Thirlwell on 27/10/09 in Videos, and tagged with , , , , , , , , , .
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Brütal Legend Review

Gleaming tempered metal or just a cheap alloy?


One of the games industry’s few auteurs, there’s no mistaking a game that’s had the benefit of Tim Schafer’s golden touch. From his early forays in the Monkey Island series to the under-appreciated genius of Psychonauts, Schafer’s games are rich with memorable characters, wonderfully-woven stories and a genuinely twisted sense of humour.



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Posted by Rupert Higham on in Reviews, and tagged with , , , .
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Demon’s Souls item cheat (needs two players)

Inventory running low? Phone a friend.

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Posted by Edwin Evans-Thirlwell on in Cheats & Strategies, and tagged with .
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Borderlands Review

Gearbox’s Loony Tunes riff on Fallout 3 is bordering on greatness.

borderlands-review-440


Fallout 3 was last year’s towering success. It’s no surprise, then, to see later games mimicking its barren, dystopian, desert styling. Borderlands borrows a huge amount from Bethesda’s epic roleplaying/shooter crossover hit, and reviewing it without mentioning this incredible debt is akin to forgetting that the Life of Brian may have been influenced by the Bible. Borderlands is not the Messiah, it’s a very naughty game!

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Posted by Stuart McAndrew on in Reviews, and tagged with , , , .
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Ubi releases Assassin's Creed – Lineage Pt 1

There’s stabby-killy shenanigans afoot in Renaissance Florence.

Ubisoft&#... more

Posted by Edwin Evans-Thirlwell on in Spotlight, and tagged with , , , , , .
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Forza Motorsport 3 Review

Forza 3 gets a free holiday season as a certain Sony racer gets stuck in the pit lane. Does Turn 10′s finely tuned beast have the BHP to take first place?


Getting started with Forza Motorsport 3 is an unintentional advert for Blu-ray. Before you boot up the game you are presented with the usual optional install (though this one clocks in at an unusually large seven GB), a second content install disc containing a further two GB of content, then finally a DLC scratch card to download just under another GB of content.

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Posted by Rupert Higham on in Reviews, and tagged with , , , .
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BOOM. It’s the new site for FPS fanatics!

This scene-setting intro is entirely skippable.


Welcome to FPS Gamer. Round here, we mostly shoot stuff.


Not in a because-I-had-to, point-of-last-resort sort of way, but in a cackling, dropped-a-cheesy-punchline-afterwards sort of way.


We’re slightly mental like that. So are lots of you people, if sales of games like Call of Duty 4 are any indication. The FPS is big business nowadays. Why, then, the absence of a fully-fledged FPS-focussed editorial site? Did Rupert Murdoch skip that part of the marketing report? Is Future Publishing too peaceable to step up to the plate? We don’t know. We don’t care. We’ve come, we’ve seen and – given a handy ammo cache or two – we’re going to conquer.

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Posted by Kikizo Staff on in FPS Gamer, Spotlight, and tagged with , , , , .
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Weapon Drop: the sticky grenade

Stick around.

"Can you smell burning?"

"Can you smell burning?"

As the title pretty bloody obviously implies, Weapon Drops are short, sharp homilies to new, old and upcoming FPS weapons. If it blows shit away plenty good (and sometimes even if it doesn’t), you’ll find a corresponding entry here.


Halo is remembered for a lot of reasons. FPS Gamer history buff Kristan Reed has been known to gibber about its “groundbreaking AI and dynamic combat system”, while others might talk fondly of upwardly curving vistas, chunky physics-enabled vehicles or the way Covenant buildings shatter like lumps of purple meringue when you fire a rocket at them.


For my part, it was all about the Covenant plasma grenade, or “sticky grenade”.

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Posted by Edwin Evans-Thirlwell on 26/10/09 in Features, FPS Gamer, and tagged with , , , , , .
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Gaming Idols: Top 50 We Ever Interviewed

Interviews have long been a strong passion for us at Kikizo. Today, in celebration of our relaunch into Video Games Daily, we name the 50 best interviewees of the site to date.

In my ear... more

Feature: The History of First-Person Shooters

As FPS Gamer clears leather, Kristan Reed turns in the ultimate retrospective: the evolution of the first-person shooter genre from Maze War to Modern Warfare 2.


It’s a painful admission, but I was a late recruit to the guns ‘n’ ammo brigade. A shameless fantasy buff, most of my juvenile computer time was devoted to classic Middle-Earthly shareware RPGs like Spiderweb’s Exile series. On the console side, it was all about Sega, Sonic and the platformer at large.


But one day I got my hands on a simple 3D flight shooter, homely ancestor to the likes of G-Police. Curiosity piqued, I proceeded to delve into LucasArts’ Dark Forces, died frequently, learned the importance of looking up and fell for the genre hook, line and sinker.


There was a lot I’d missed – my first stab at Doom was on the GBA, for crying out loud! And there still is. Which is why it’s fortunate we have devastatingly well-informed people like Kristan Reed knocking around.


What Kristan doesn’t know about machine-gunning Nazi demons in the face isn’t worth knowing, and you certainly won’t be reading about it in the following, formidable, five-part FPS retrospective…

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Nanikore? – Boku No Natsuyasumi 3

Welcome to Nanikore? – an occasional series where I pick something random that I don’t understand off the shelves and hope that it turns out to be good, funny, or both. This time…

…Boku no Natsuyasumi 3: Summer Holiday 21st Century!


From the box art, all I can make out is that it’s a game about a boy going to a rural paradise for his summer holiday. Kids’ game, or heart-rending fake childhood simulator for depressed Japanese people stuck in horrible jobs in an oppressively huge city? We shall see!


The box - always the first point of call for Nanikore

The box is the first point of call for Nanikore!

Well, first impressions – the character models are extremely creepy. Their vacant stares recall pod people. It’s like they remembered to model everything except the face, and scrawled blank smiles on with crayon as an afterthought.



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Posted by Keza MacDonald on in Japan, and tagged with .
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How to find the Nintendo Building!

Every Gaijin in Kyoto’s top pilgrimage is to the proud white HQ of Nintendo Co. Ltd. Here’s how you get there…

Other than raping your credit cards in neighbouring Osaka’s Den Den Town and discovering if they really do sell dirty panties in vending machines, every Gaijin in Kyoto’s top pilgrimage is to the proud white HQ of Nintendo Co. Ltd. Here’s how you get there…


how-to-find-ncl-1b


From the gigantic Kyoto Station you need to take the JR Nara Line to Tofukuji Station, which shouldn’t cost you more than 140 yen. From here, you should disembark the train and follow the signs towards the Keihan Line, which for the measly price of 150 yen will take you to Tobakaidou Station – our final destination. From here you should exit the station and turn right…

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Posted by Kikizo Staff on 23/10/09 in Features, Japan, and tagged with .
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Gaijin Gamer’s instant guide to… the conbini!

You’re at the conbini. That’s convenience store, to the common gaijin. You like games. WHAT DO YOU DO?

Lawson: probably the best conbini chain in Japan (Daily Yamazaki is the worst)

Lawson: probably the best conbini chain (Daily Yamazaki is the worst).

Can I buy games at the conbini?


You certainly can, but it’ll cost you – conbini prices for PS3/Wii/360 titles aren’t bad, but they’re not as cheap as you’ll find games at Amazon.co.jp or Yodobashi Camera. Also, the range of titles stocked on-site at conbinis tends to be limited to the select flavours of the month…

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Posted by J.D. on in Japan, and tagged with .
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Uncharted 2: Among Thieves Review

Off the charts, off the scale. Naughty Dog’s latest PS3 action-adventure is one to treasure.

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The last boss is a bit rubbish. There, that’s my single most damning criticism of Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. It’s not the only bone I have to pick, but I’ll hand in my reviewer’s badge before any of the other niggles keep this sun-and-snow-beaten, vertigo-inducing panorama of an action-adventure from a perfect score.


As joyous a romp as it was, the original Uncharted had a depressing “me-too” quality which forbade excessive rooting around in the adjectives bin. Whatever its audio-visual glories and beguiling references to throwback action flicks, it was a cover-based third-person shooter at a time when cover-based third-person shooters were all the rage – a critical darling, yes, but an assault on well-trodden territory.

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Left 4 Dead gets Tellytubby zombies

Time for Tubby bye-bye.

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Posted by Edwin Evans-Thirlwell on in Cheats & Strategies, and tagged with , , , , , .
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Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising Review

Is Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising worth signing up for?


Life in the military isn’t for everyone. For us, the fresh air, vigorous exercise and ruthless discipline required were primary turn-offs, not to mention being thrust onto the frontline dodging bullets and explosions from all directions. Thank goodness, then, for games like Operation Flashpoint that allow us to look down the ole’ iron sights in a realistic battlefield situation without the risk of our heads popping like overripe melons.

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Posted by Richard Walker on in Reviews, and tagged with , , .
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Snazzy terebi gemu fashion at UNIQLO

Official game t-shirts at daft prices! Bring it on, UNIQLO! (Article not sponsored by UNIQLO.)

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Posted by J.D. on in Japan, and tagged with , , , , , .
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Sony Australia fires PS3 at Bravia TV

Easier than selling them, apparently.

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Posted by Edwin Evans-Thirlwell on 21/10/09 in Videos, and tagged with , , , , , , .
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GTA: Chinatown Wars PSP Review

Having crashed out on DS, Rockstar gets back behind the wheel of Sony’s handheld.


In perhaps the most startling illustration yet of the gulf between Nintendo’s core consumers and those of Sony and Microsoft, the original Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars has shifted 700,000 copies worldwide since launch. According to thumbnail calculations, that means rather less than 1% of DS owners have picked up a copy – excluding an (in all likelihood) sizeable proportion of pirate players, anyway. Quite the misfire, I’m sure you’ll agree, for a franchise whose fourth home format iteration had film-makers fearing for the prospects of major Hollywood blockbusters.

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Posted by Edwin Evans-Thirlwell on 20/10/09 in Reviews, and tagged with , , , , , .
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New Chinatown Wars PSP trailer – ‘Out for Revenge’

Huang Lee as you’ve never seen him before unless you bought the DS version.

FYI, ladi... more

Posted by Edwin Evans-Thirlwell on in Videos, and tagged with , , , , , , .
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