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PSP Gone?
When was the last time you heard anything about the PSP Go? Introduced last year, Sony’s digital only experiment has been conspicuously absent from monthly sales reports and the mainstream media’s attention pretty much ever since. Even Sony themselves have kept quiet, barely mustering the courage to dare show the doomed device amongst its promotional materials at this year’s game shows. Not even bundling it with 10 – yes TEN free games in the UK seems to have ignited the platform’s future.
It’s probably no coincidence that the first mention of the PSP Go I’d heard in a long time came from a rather damning but thought provoking article from Ars Technica. What went wrong?
On the Perils of Over Anticipation
This last week my family and I were camping in the woods at Farragut State Park in Idaho. We had planned to go check out the shopping for house stuff in nearby Spokane and take the kids to Silverwood amusement park to give them a taste of a real roller coaster. The land is very similar to the terrain around where we live and since the water in Pend Oreille is very cold and immediately turns my three year old’s lips blue, logistically it would be simpler to just take sleeping bags outside on our lawn but… my partner and I have a modest but unquenchable streak of consumerism running through us. I like my trinkets and baubles, my partner her building supplies and house materials and in this new age hippy vegan lovefesting town we’re in people look at us like we have untreated facial gangrene.
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Diary Of A Call Girl: Chapter 2
“We’re off to see the wizard, the wonderful wizard of Oz!” one merry man sings as he gallops around me dizzyingly.
I’m in the Land of the Dead (an appropriate title for a desert filled with skeletons and token scorpions) and I’ve joined a party lead by a rough looking Warrior Priest. ‘Sigmar’ is scrawled across his forehead. I’m unsure whether its carved into his skin, or written on in blood, but either way he’s kindly agreed to lead our motley crew on a guided tour. Thankfully he’s saving us the usual spiel of “and on your left is a sarcophagus,” and instead it’s straight down to business…
Starcraft 2: Wings of Liberty
Review by Steerpike
Starcraft 2: Wings of Liberty
Developer Blizzard
Publisher Activision/Blizzard
Released June 27, 2010
Available for PC (version played), Macintosh
Time Played Finished (single player) – about 20 hours
Verdict: 
3/5 Middlin’
“Perhaps the most important question: will I buy the next game? I will not. And neither, I suspect, will the vast and quiet majority of gamers out there who have no interest whatsoever in Starcraft 2′s multiplayer. The single player game… it is what it is. A study in mediocrity, and a shameful display from a company once revered for its storytelling.”
Alien Breed: Impact & Alien Swarm
A few weeks ago I finally decided to buy the Alien Breed: Impact double pack for myself and a friend. For those of you who aren’t aware, Alien Breed: Impact is the PC version of Alien Breed: Evolution which in turn is a reboot of a classic franchise by Team17 originating on the Commodore Amiga in 1991. The main reason I purchased Impact was simply because of one thing: Alien Swarm. Actually make that two things: Alien Swarm and a Steam mid-week madness half-price sale. Up until the release of Valve’s new bug hunt I’d not given Alien Breed: Impact a second thought due in no small part to its lukewarm reception on release. Alien Swarm, however, had piqued my interest in Team17’s underdog.
First Impressions: NHL 11
Summer. It’s a beautiful time of year, isn’t it? Well, on the northern slice of the planet, I should say– sorry Aussies, et al. It’s a time to hear the laughter of children playing in the streets (well, not in the city; I hear drunkards in the streets, mostly), a time to visit beaches and canyons (must confess I haven’t done much of this either), and a time to sample summer beers at your local pub, patio or festival (check).
Most of all, however, it’s the time of year when EA Sports releases demos for their Big Two franchises (in North America): Madden and NHL.
Elemental May not be Fundamental
Ouch.
As strategy buffs may know and others should learn, Stardock Systems’ Elemental: War of Magic was released upon the earth yesterday. And apparently, it’s a disaster.
PC Gamer has described it as “broken to the point of being unplayable,” and urges gamers to “stay well away.” RPS goes a bit further, accusing Stardock of violating its own Gamers Bill of Rights (now removed from the Stardock website) – specifically Right #2: “Gamers shall have the right to demand that games be released in a finished state.”
UPDATE: Stardock hasn’t so much removed the Gamers Bill of Rights from their site as they have relocated it to www.gamersbillofrights.org.
Sexy Beast: Atlus Preps Catherine
Sexually-charged or erotic horror lurks with its brethren among the thousand offspring of the horror genre, that monster umbrella that gives us everything from slasher’s teenage morality to torture porn’s revolting screams and arterial sprays. All in all horror is the most diversely subgenrefied (and among the most studied) categories of fiction. And among the least commonly used subgenres within it is erotic horror, because it’s hard hard hard to do. So we’ll have to see if Atlus succeeds with Catherine, a game that so far appears to play to all of Atlus’s strengths while adding a major dallop of “suggestive” to the pot.
Looks Like Someone’s Angling for a Job at Valve
Valve has a history of slurping up talent from the fan/mod community – Adam Foster, creator of MINERVA, now gets his paychecks from Valve. So does the team that created the popular Warcraft 3 mod Defense of the Ancients, a game I never really got into. Also scribe Erik Wolpaw. And we’d be remiss not to mention the jewel in their recruitment crown, the DigiPen Institute student team that created Narbacular Drop, a senior project that would eventually become a game called Portal.
Today sees the release of a new machinima called The Jacknife Chronicles, and danged if it doesn’t look hand-made to attract Valve’s attention. Behold its 12 minutes of gore and running around beyond the click.
Diary Of A Call Girl
“Has anyone got any Golden Scarabs spare?” I ask mid battle, as we bound across Dragonwake from Eataine. Our band of merry men plough through the lush green fields as one hulking mass of armour and death. In ancient times Dragons would heed the call of Princes to defend the lakes, but I get the impression it is their day off today and it’s down to us, instead…
Portal 2: Johnny & Bonnie 5
I’ve been playing more co-op games recently than I ever have and when you’re playing with the right people they’re the most fun you can have with your clothes on. If you play with your clothes off then that passion could have no boundaries, so be careful. I’ve got two words to sum up my thoughts on this Portal 2 video posted over at RPS this morning:
Oh my.
The Last Bastion About to Fall?
Uh-Oh.
Sony have made plenty of mistakes with the PlayStation 3, but one area where the system has experienced almost unanimous success over the last few years has been in the fight against piracy. Although other consoles have become fraught with widespread problems relating to pirated software, including Sony’s own PSP, the PlayStation 3 has long been regarded as the last safe haven against such activities. There have been warning signs before, and Sony had to upset plenty of people to remedy them, but they always got the job done. As things stand right now, the PS3 remains safe from the world or pirated games and homebrew.
That could all be about to change courtesy of “PSJailbreak”, a USB dongle that claims to unlock your PS3′s security features without opening up the console or even voiding the warranty, which could enable game back ups, homebrew software and even the restoration of the previously removed custom firmware option. The dongle allegedly works with all PS3 models both fat and slim and even claims to be able to bypass future firmware updates. At $150 though, PSJailbreak doesn’t come without risks, and you can bet your bottom dollar technicians at Sony will already be trying to patch this out of existence. Ars Technica have a video of the hack at play, but Joystiq have raised questions relating to tests only being carried out on debug machines at present. This probably goes without saying, but this could be something to keep an eye on. Particularly if you happen to be Sony Computer Entertainment.
Email the author of this post at matc@tap-repeatedly.com
A Chance at Karmic Reclamation
No shooting, maiming, or blowing things to bits. No beating anything to death with a shoehorn and arms will not be used for bludgeoning.
Codemasters is releasing F1-2010 on 22-September for all the major platforms (PS3, XBox 360, PC, Wii, PSP, Mac) which is in itself notable coverage and must have taken forever to get working. While there have been mods for F1 in rFactor, this is the first major purely F1 branded product since EA in 2002 and it contains all the 2010 teams and drivers.
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That is Whack, Yo
APB creator Realtime Worlds be leavin’ the hizzle, dawg. Various outlets report that the company has entered administration, which I guess is kind of like bankruptcy but politely British. Despite a reasonable amount of pre-release interest in the gang-banger MMO, the game imploded almost immediately upon hitting shelves, thanks to a disastrous public beta and lukewarm reviews.
Karma, We Have a Problem
I’m screwed. We’re all screwed. We’re coming back as dung beetles and fruit flies and those parasites that swim up your urine when you pee in the Amazon. Why?
The Karma Police.
Alan Wake
Murder In The Abbey - Review
Take-Two vs. The Lord of Hosts
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