Gamescom - Sony conference

This is an important and exciting week for games as both the Golden Joystick Awards are here GAMEScom has kicked off this week. Gamescom is basically a smaller e3, directed mainly at the European gaming sector. For this reason, I followed it with a heavy amount of interest as it is normally our friends over the waters who get the juiciest gaming events and things of the like, but enough of that.. Let's get under way!

In a shadow of E3 earlier this year, Sony kicked off their press conference with the 'Playstation Vita'. They delved straight into the hardware specs, giving no doubt that the Vita is a serious gaming machine. Sixaxis, dual cameras, dual analogue sticks, but a heavy emphasis was placed upon the 'social integration' the machine offers. Both text and video chat with friends (even if they are playing different games), updates to social networking sites (skype, facebook, twitter where the ones mentioned) and features such as wireless play anywhere due to 3G. All these new features were quick to be kicked into touch with the statement 'Of course at it's core, Vita is a gaming system.' I think this was a nice touch from Sony as that is what Vita is really meant to be. This was backed up by an incredibly bold statement, "We're confident we'll have the strongest launch lineup of a PlayStation launch ever." Personally I hope Sony can put their money where their mouth is and are able to back up these claims.

A new 'Resistance' title was the first game to be previewed at the conference as a brand new Resistance title with new weapons, enemies and mechanics. The story of this game is actually canon and fits perfectly into the main resistance storyline. Mechanics from a new cover system and touch play were revealed, giving just a show of the versatility of both the machine and game.  The next game to be showcased was a Vita installment of the hugely popular 'Little Big Planet' which was being stated as a 'perfect match.' The USP of this game and its combination with Vita is based on user generated content, which with Vita is apparently made easier than ever, the 'sharing on the go' is what's being used as a driving force for the pitching of this one and if what Sony say is true then it has every reason to be a huge success. It was the next title, Reality Fighter, which grabbed my attention. A possibility of playing as 'anyone, anywhere' by utilising the front and rear view cameras the Vita has to offer is something I could imagine having fantastic potential. Unfortunately, seeing the game in action did not live up to it's potential - it looked choppy and childish, more like a Wii game than what the PSV is apparently capable of.  Sony seemed to snatch back some attention  with the dropping of big names such as Assassins Creed, Tekken X StreetFighter, Fifa, Call Of Duty, Bioshock (just to name a few) Sony finished their handheld segment of the conference with the mention of a new PSP system for 99 euros so people can enjoy the PSP titles they may have missed out on.

Sony carried the conference into a different direction with the inevitable mention of Playstation Move. It seems they too are jumping on the fitness bandwagon with the release 'Move Fitness' but this was pushed aside with the jump back to big name titles such as Heavy Rain, Killzone 3 and the new addition of Resistance 3 with Move compatibility. They then went on to showcase some of PSMoves capabilities in the likes of FPS games but then took it right back to the cheesy gimmicks the gaming industry is rife with these days. Dance Star is a new title announced for PSMove including features such as recording your dance routines, downloadable songs, artist videos and a dance fitness regime. Viewers then got a treat from dance sensation 'Diversity' performing a live dance routine which didn't really seem to correlate to anything other than the fact it was a dancing game.. Following all of this move technology was a jump back to big brand titles, featuring a new trailer for blockbuster Resistance 3 and a bizarre new downloadable title, Infamous 2: Festival of Blood, which will see Cole McGrath turned into a vampire. An interesting direction to take.. Both of these trailers were overshadowed however, by the colossal gameplay trailer of 'Uncharted 3' which was admittedly highly impressive. It was met with a room full of cheers and applause, no one hiding their excitement for the massive title.

In the final stages of the conference, the 3D view, split screen television which I mentioned in my Sony E3 roundup was confirmed as being available for purchase in Autumn this year for 499 Euros. It all drew to a close with an 'important announcement.' This announcement was that the price of the Playstation 3 was being slashed, right across the globe to 249 euros, good news for any gamer.

The Golden Joysticks

Just as E3 is synonomous with gaming events, The Golden Joystick Awards are the most well known and popular gaming award ceremony.  Every year the general public vote for their favourite game depending on category, be it sport, shooter, one to watch, or all round game of the year.Year to year the categories and brackets fluctuate and change, seemingly randomly, but that does not stop both the award and ceremony being certainly prestigious. It is one of the only gaming events (minus the likes of E3) to attract celebrity names such as David Mitchell and Frankie Boyle to attend.  It is important to remember that the votes for every award is based only on public vote, making this the true 'peoples award' It is for this reason that developers, publishers and even gamers themselves take such a huge interest in this annual ceremony - ladies and gents this is big business! So here are this years categories and my votes for each category:

Best Shooter: Crysis 2

Crysis 2 is one of the games I picked up a while ago that I have been meaning to review but simply haven't had the.. Well Ok i've been lazy with that one.  It is quite simply an amazing game. Easily the most visually stunning game I have seen thus far, with a brilliant soundtrack, story and with unique mechanics it is a must play from me. Admittedly I was a little torn on this choice, as another game in the list is SEGA's own 'Vanquish'. This also is a brilliant title, aesthetically pleasing, unique mechanics (ROCKET SLIDE!!) and an all round gem of a game, but my gut told me to go with Crysis 2 - easily the hardest decision I made in all of my choices. Unfortunately I believe that both of these games will be horribly overshadowed and lose to Call Of Duty: Black Ops - at leats if the last few years results are anything to go by..

Best Action: Castlevania Lords Of Shadow

Ok now this was a definite no brainer. If you read my VERY FIRST blog and review on Castlevania: Lords Of Shadow here you will know that this is not only my favourite action games, but quite possibly one of my favourite games on all of Playstation 3. This is a well deserved solid choice for me, but heavy competition comes in the form of Assassins Creed.

 

Best RPG: Fallout New Vegas

Again, a rather easy choice for me as I thoroughly enjoyed playing through it and it is a game I invested a lot of time into. Although nowhere near (in my opinion) as good as its predecessor  Fallout 3, this one still took best of show in the RPG category for me. I'll get round to reviewing that too at some point...

 

 

 

Best MMO: World Of Warcraft

Ya know, because there basically isn't any others and I used to be a massive WoW addict..

Best Fighting: Mortal Kombat

Yet again, a fantastically hands down choice for me. Mortal Kombat made my list of most anticipated games and the only reason I haven't got round to writing the 5 star rave review of it yet is that I'm still playing it. Every day. Since launch. Now if that isn't reason for it to be my best fighting game of the year, I don't know what is but just in case.. It's fantastically gory, beautiful to look at (in a sick kind of way) easy for both beginners and pro alike, brings a tonne of new shiny things (like X-Rays) did away with all the genuinely crap characters and did an amazing job of rebooting the story into touch. That's about it I think..

 

 

Now i'm gonna be honest with you here, I didn't feel it was fair of me to vote on many of the other categories as I either:

A) Had only played one of the games or hadn't played any of the games in the category at all; 

or B) Hated them all or only liked one game.

For this reason there are a few categories I did not vote in but If I had to, based off the little of these games that I have played here's what I'd vote.

Best Racing: Gran Turismo 5
Best Sports: Football Manager 2011
Best Strategy: Civilization V
Best Music Based: Guitar Hero, Warriors Of Rock
Best Free to Play: Zuma
Best Mobile: Fruit Ninja
Best Downloadable: Dead Nation

Ultimate Game Of The Year: Black Ops

Now here's the main event. The head honcho. The big cheese. The don. The..Ok i'll stop. Yes this is the ultimate game of the year award, the most coveted of all the golden joystick awards. This was also the category that annoyed me the most. In fact it pushed me almost not to vote. Why? Because of the simply baffling lack of choice. I chose Call of Duty Black Ops for two reasons, one of which was the fact I did not feel any other game was deserving of GOTY, in fact I barely felt Blops is deserving. What swung me to voting however is the fact that, I undeniably have played this game more than any other this year and have in fact enjoyed it. At the end of the day I suppose that is what this award is about. I guess I just would have liked to give this title to a game that had ground breaking mechanics or something like that, not just a record sales breaking blockbuster. I was shocked to see a lack of Crysis 2 up there, and even more shocked to see Bulletstorm which in my opinion is pretty terrible. But I suppose that's just the way it is. At least zombies mode is fucking awesome. 

 

One to Watch: Metal Gear Rising

It's a Metal Gear Solid Game. Is there really anything else I need to say?

 

So there you have it folks, this years Golden Joystick Awards nominations. Watch this space for the results when they happen, and don't forget to cast your vote to see your favourite game win!

 

http://www.goldenjoystick.com

 

The technology of gaming - The future

This may seem a little unorthadox but bare with me and i'll explain. This is the first of a 3 part blog on the past, present and future of gaming technology as we know it. So sit back, relax and let all the scary prospects of the future entice you! 

So what is it exactly that people think of when they look to the future? When it comes to general life certain things become prominent - flying cars, moving pavement / sidewalks, robots doing everything for us. The same is true for videogames, one thing above all plays upon the imagination of technological hopefuls the world over - virtual reality. The very idea of virtual reality has been used for years, over and over again, both in imagination and popular entertainment media. Whether it be the world of anime with Dot Hack (with the VR technology actually being used for gaming purposes) or whether it be the slightly different concept of ARI for the use of finding clues and crime fighting (an idea introduced in Heavy Rain) to countless uses in film such as The Sixth Day, Minority Report and let's not forget - the classic that is TRON.

For the select few of you who by some chance have not encountered the prospect of virtual reality before, let me try and explain. Virtual reality refers to the idea that an individual, through the use of technology, can enter a completely digital or imaginary world, away from the restraints of the traditional physical one in which we live now. Think of it as, sitting in your chair at home with a VR headset on, but seeing yourself running through miles of beautiful green fields, or battling ferocious dragons - you get the idea. The best known indication of virtual reality is the film TRON, which literally sparked the idea and interest in VR as a possibility. 

So, going back to my little introduction - why is it that I chose the future of gaming before the obvious choices of the past then present? Well, prepare to have your minds blown..

This, ladies and gents, is the next step in technology. Sony Worldwide Studios senior director Mick Hocking has confirmed that the device above is a prototype in an ongoing exploration into potential VR technology. He stated that the prototype device also displays high-end 3D. This news got me very excited as ever since I was young I have always wanted some kind of virtual reality gaming experience to exist and that now looks more likely than ever. Imagine a fully immersed world - actually turning and having to look around - put that into a gaming environment. Scoping out enemy positions and relaying feed to ground troops, actually having to watch the road as you speed through crowded city streets - the possibilities are endless and exciting.

With the latest increase into the exploration of 3-D technology, the potential for VR gaming and god knows what other technological advances that are being worked on as we speak - the future looks good. Especially when you consider the fact that with VR comes VR girls - I dunno about you but I wouldn't mind spending some time with Tron girl in my own reality..

A thanks to Koei and my followers!

I would just like to give a big thank you to all my twitter and facebook followers who have been retweeting, linking, reposting and advertising my blog to everyone! One person inparticular has gone above and beyond what everyone else has done to advertise me, so for that reason a special mention goes out to my good friend:

MattCrinos (http://twitter.com/#!/MattCrinos)

As of this morning, a massive thank you also goes out to my friends over at TecmoKoei who published my Fist Of The North Star: Ken's Rage review on both their twitter and facebook page, raking in over 125 page views in just a few minutes!! Thank you so much guys! But it's not me that people should be appreciating - it's you guys. If you didn't make such great games I couldn't give them great reviews - so keep making awesome games and i'll keep reviewing them for you!

An apology and a thanks.

Right then you fine people, where to begin.. I'll start with an apology. I'm sorry I haven't blogged. As you'll soon see I've had a lot of things going on, both on a personal, financial, social and work related front and I simply haven't had the time I would have liked to invest in the blog. This is something I really care about and a lot of you know that this is important to me. But now that everything is settled down again I'll be posting blogs a LOT more frequently. That brings me to a little side point; I just want to thank everyone that is still following me here. It started out with a few close friends and family but you guys have really helped me, it is this small but loyal fan base that keeps me writing.
Now that's out of the way we can get down to business! There's been a lot of stuff going on behind the scenes of TCXS as of late, i've been in contact with some very high profile people in the gaming industry and the gaming website scene and as a result have been asked to contribute to several more sites, so good stuff!

More excitingly however, I have been approached by a friend of mine about a top secret project involving myself and several others. I can't give much away because it's still in the planning stages but it's gonna be great. The people involved are an awesome bunch and are very like minded to myself, and that's pretty much the only hint I can give. It will start out small but with your help and our determination we're hoping it can turn into something great - so watch this space..

Now onto actual gaming matters. The next few blogs are ones that I've been interested in writing for quite some time now, including but certainly not limited to; my opinions on DLC, technology of the future and how it will affect gaming, technology of the present (thats right, a 2 parter!) and my review of Fist Of The North Star: Ken's Rage. The review is one i'm looking forward to as i haven't reviewed since Castlevania Lords Of Shadow way back in my first post. So keep an eye on the site folks, there's plenty to look forward to.

the E3 roundup part 1 - Sony!

So E3 has come and gone for another year, and here I am - late to the party admittedly - with my E3 roundup! I was sleep deprived and laptop hogging for days to make sure I didn't miss any of E3 and can safely say, yet again, it was worth it.

Sony

Okay, let's kick off with the highlights. Understand of course that I won't be covering each conference in depth, going into each individual game - chances are if you are after information that descriptive then you either watched E3 or have already seen what it showcased. So let's get down to it! Sony started the E3 conference exactly how I believed that they should have done - taking head on the PSN outage. They did a brilliant job of tackling this problem head on during the conference, apologising for the outage and thanking everyone for their patience. So with the messy business out of the way Sony could get down to the good stuff - all the games and big announcements.
Now, unless you have had no internet access, have not passed any game magazines of any kind or have just been living in a cave these past few weeks - you'll know what the biggest Sony announcement was. That's right; the Playstation Vita, or what I call; The PSV.

The PSV is Sony's new handheld system - the next PSP. Normally this would not raise any flags of mine as the PSP was for the most part, not very good. Sure it had a few decent games and was graphically nice and all that but it was hacked in the first few months, UMDs did not work and Sony kind of forgot all about it. So what is so different about the PSV? Well let's look at the features; A touch screen, rear touch pad, two analog sticks, two cameras, tilt, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and 3G.. It's jam packed full of em. But having features is all well and good but a gaming platform has to play games well; and I'm happy to say it looks like Vita does that too. 


Showcased on the Vita was Uncharted: Golden Abyss which looked impressive, especially considering it's a handheld console. The demo showed how the touch pad could be used to hurl grenades as well as choose destinations to make Drake jump to and all seemed to work seamlessly. Also announced for the Vita were ModNation Racers, Little Big Planet, and Street Fighter x Tekken - all of which had accompanying demos. With all these high brand names and all this shiny technology, one can be forgiven for thinking that Sony could actually rival Nintendo in their handheld dominated market - but the big question on everyone's minds was, of course, price - and Sony saved their biog guns for this one. They're releasing Vita - THIS Christmas - for 249 euros (just over £219) which made everyone in attendance, and even myself - wow. Whether it dominates the handheld market or not.. This will definitely be a purchase for me.


So as well as Vita, Sony's key point at this years E3, Sony also unveiled several big games coming out soon. The pinnacle of these had to be the latest installment in the Uncharted series. Personally I've not played these much so for me it wasn't that big but it seemed to ring bells for everyone else. Admittedly the graphics were very impressive - this is one to look out for. Also announced was a new installment to an old favourite - a new Sly Cooper game was announced! A few demos were shown and various statements by companies supporting Sony - nothing majorly important to me until one trailer caught my eye. Not only was this FPS trailer stunningly beautiful, it pulled no punches. It opened with a group of hostages, rope tied from their feet to large concrete blocks being kicked off ledges into water to drown. The thick accented, scarred AI character addressing the player (whom the viewers where taking the point of view of) then proceeded to do the same to the protagonist. After escaping and going on what can only be described as a killing spree, I became very excited. Beautiful graphics, what looks to be an interesting story, brutal and interesting melee kills and game mechanics.. Farcry 3 was announced. If the gameplay trailer is anything to go by, it's going to be a lot of fun. 


Now, one more thing the Sony conference threw to my attention.. was this:

  

 'A TV?' I hear you ask? Yes a TV - but this has something quite different about it.. Sony has branded 2011 as the year of 3D. 3D is the latest gaming related trend for companies to pursue and more and more games now are being released with 3D capability. Wow big woop, a TV that plays 3D - but wait. This one is very special..
Think, if you will, about every game you've played split screen. Every time you're eyes have glanced over to your partner / enemies bottom half of the screen and grinned stupidly as you realise exactly where he is - or used insane amounts of profanity because they did it to you. This is now a thing of the past - with Sony's new 3D TV - split screen has been revolutionised. Now, instead of the screen being halved, each player who is looking at the screen will see a screen of their own. Let that sink in for a second - as it sure as hell confuses me how they've managed it. It will be as if you're both playing on your own TV and will make screen watching impossible.

So that's it from me on the Sony conference at this years E3. Admittedly I was quite disappointed as opposed to last year. There was the noticeable lack of Kevin Butler's enthusiasm and nothing really eye popping. That can be forgiven though i suppose - I mean how could they top what they brought onto stage for the finale last year? I got, and still get, goosebumps when I saw this..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMME_GG79MY&feature=related

Now we have twitter!

Just as a tiny temporary post - feel free to follow me on twitter!
http://twitter.com/TriCirXSq
Currently i'm giving snippits of the E3 lowdown! E3 roundup post to follow very soon!