Wu Tang Clan- Triumph

Greatest Wu Tang track ever. Deck destroyed it with his verse. His part is one of the most memorable in hip hop. I bomb atomically. Come on. Everyone did amazing on this track. The track is an ultra classic and I am positive everyone heard this track. If you haven’t, damn……I got nothing to say to you.

Kazuma Kiryu from Yakuza 3 (below) is checking this track out.

Hey guys, I got my hands on with the Yakuza 3 demo available on the Japanese PSN. Not a lot of people are trying this game or even know about this game. I am posting this to give the game more exposure

Lets start off with what kind of game Yakuza 3 is. It is a beat-em up game. It sticks to the classic beat-em style but adds more weapons, and combos. This is solely for those looking for a great beat-em up. Like God of War but a lot less bloody. I can’t say anything about the story since it is all in Japanese and I can’t read Japanese.

Liked
Now on to the game itself. In the demo you receive 3 weapons. Nunchucks, Brass Knuckles, and an Iron Staff. The weapons were awesome. Each one of those weapons had their own unique move list. It was amazing. The brass knuckles does crazy damage on a single person. You will literally destroy anyone with the brass knuckles. The Nun Chuks and Iron Staff is amazing when you are dealing with plenty on enemies around. Now you can carry your own weapons, but the environment is your weapon as well. You can use practically anything in the environment to beat the crap out of enemies, including bikes. Anything can be picked up and used to destroy enemies. Now certain objects will have the same move list, but that is not a big deal..just being able to use that weapon is good enough.

The Controls are solid. The camera never gets to be a problem because you can easily hit one button and change the camera to see what is in front of you. Blocking is awesome and not over powering. You can’t block everything. Your block can be broken and it kind of discourages blocking completely. Instead they are trying to get you to use the dodge feature more. It is all about timing and you can use that dodge a move and throw a counter. It will take a while to master because you will not be able to predict every move. You can even grab people and use them as a device to space yourself. You can grab somebody and chuck them in the direction of other enemies in order to get some room. It can become really handy.

Something that the game does amazingly is Heat attacks. You build up heat by beating up a lot of people constantly and soon you will get heat. You can use that heat to beat the crap out of one or multiple opponents. You have to time it right though. If you are near a wall and you have heat, you can grab an enemy and smash his face into the wall. If a guy in on the ground, he will stomp on him. When the “boss” is about to go down, you go into this quick time event. You basically choose what kind of take down you want to do. In the demo you get two different attacks. A quick time event and a quick attack where you do nothing. Now the quick time event is like God of Wars quick time event. You press the button and you have a limited time to do so. If you fail, the move will be reversed on you and you gotta redo everything. The whole heat system is just amazing and really makes the game shine. It was in Yakuza 2 and it was fucking awesome.

The graphics for the game are tight. I mean it looks nice, especially the faces and you will notice that during cutscenes. Now it is not Killzone quality but it still looks nice. The hair looks impressive, and you can see practically every pore on the face. The bodies where kind of unrealistic, but it stuck with Yakuza 2 style so you come to expect it. Textures were very good, and audio was very impressive. The voice work was amazing as well even though I did not understand what was happening. You can kind of understand what is happening just by listening to voice work and the facial movements.

Now this is not an open world in which you can beat anyone you want. You can only fight during places you have to fight. There are situations that I have seen where you can start a fight, but you can’t beat up pedestrians or anything like that. Everything was lush and impressive. The streets are littered with people, but there is not a lot of variations, but then again it is a demo. you can do a lot of things in the demo. You can get into random fights in the street alleys, where pedestrians form the ring and you beat the shit out of your opponents.

Not liked
Now on to things I hated. The cutscenes where amazingly well done. I mean it looks awesome and I really wanted to see more, but what they do instead is give you a 2 minute cutscene with voiceover and everything and then all of a sudden you get a bunch of textboxes. I hated that. I would much prefer listening to voiceover and good cutscenes rather than reading some fucking text. That shit got annoying because you really can’t understand what they are saying. Yakuza 2 is guilty of that too as well as the original Yakuza, but they were long games and it was the PS2 era, and disc space was limited. This is on the PS3, there should not be a big disc space issue. They should be able to do all cutscenes with voiceover, but nope. I mean that is what pisses me off the most.

Now the world is lush filled with a lot of people but the people are not that responsive. I mean it is the same 10 different animations when you bump into someone. Plus the reaction when you bump into to someone is really delayed. You will bump into someone and it will take like 2 seconds to realize they got bumped into and then they go into their animation.

Overall
The game is out in Japan now and I for one pray this game will come to the states. By what I played so far, this is one of my most anticipated games of the year. I just can’t wait for this game to come out to the states. The game is an insane beat-em up. It will keep anyone busy until God of War 3 comes out. The came is easy to play, hard to master, and the amount of things you can do in the game is just insane. I did not mention, but you can talk to chicks in clubs, you can go to a market, and more. The story will be awesome because Yakuza 2 had an insane story. I know the game got a great score on Famitsu, so there is no doubt that this game will do very well. If you have not tried it out yet, I strongly recommend you try the demo out, or even buy Yakuza 2 and try that out. You can find Yakuza 2 for the PS2 for about 20, so it ain’t that expensive and I will promise you will get into it quick. Yakuza 2 improved a lot and the cutscenes are just amazing. Everything about the game is amazing, and I hope anything that I did not like in the demo is fixed in the game. If not they are not a big problem that they would really spoil the game. Overall go check it out.

Today, The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena demo was released on Xbox Live. The game which comes out on April 7th, for both Playstation 3 and Xbox 360, is hoping to follow up on the success of the previous game in the Riddick series, Escape from Butcher Bay. For those of you who don’t know, Butcher Bay was considered one of the best games last gen. The new game will include a complete makeover of the previous installment in the new game.

Now to the demo. It’s short, but decent. You can probably finish the demo in under ten minutes if you wanted. You play as Riddick, but also spend time as a drone being controlled by Riddick. The game has an interesting twist on first-person shooters, but while it’s decent nothing shouts, “Game of the Year” candidate to me. The controls are different from most first person shooters, so some people should take their times getting comfortable with the controls. While the graphics are decent they are no Killzone 2 or Resident Evil 5.

After playing the demo, I got to say it’s good, but not a 1st day buy. It wasn’t high on my must buy list before hand, and the demo did nothing to change my opinion. If you were fans of the original game then I say you should definitely check it out, and if you are a fan of FPS’s it is worth a look. The ulaks, Riddick’s blades, are fun to play with and the ability to sneak around with them and his night vision could be fun for those fans of stealth FPS’s. While nothing was bad in the demo, nothing was great. For me I’d consider it a rent candidate. With other first-person shooter’s such as Killzone, Half Life, and Call of Duty raising the bar. I don’t think the developers did enough to make it stand out.

Remember this is just a demo, and plenty of things can change between now and the game’s release. Play the demo, wait for some reviews, and then make your choice on the game.

Note: For PS3 owners, the demo is expected to be released later this month on the PSN.

Demo Score: 7.75/10

For as long as gamers can remember they have been going to their local game or electronic shop to buy games. There was nowhere else to go, but now game companies and the idea of digital distribution have come to change that.

Currently, gamers have digital distribution on all their consoles. For the most part though this is limited to demos, movies, and smaller sized games. Though, companies like Microsoft hope that in the future that all your game purchases, including new AAA title releases, will be on stores such as Xbox Marketplace. This is one of the main reasons Microsoft has not accepted Blu-Ray this gen. They feel that digital distribution is the future of gaming, and that eventually it won’t matter how many GB’s your disc can hold because you won’t need discs.

Now why are they doing this? Simple, to combat used game sales. Game companies don’t make money off of used games and this is the best way to accomplish it. There is no disc, so there is nothing for the gamer to return. The positive for gamers is that the price of games should drop due to no manufacturing costs on the dics, cases, and manuals. Many industry insiders expect digital distribution to be the main game buying platform when the next-gen consoles come out. The game developers want it, the console companies want it, and it would actually give gamers a lower price on the games; but there are still some question marks surrounding this.

Well, while on paper this may sound like a good thing, can video game companies pull this off in time for the next gen console? There are some issues that seem to hurt the digital distribution model. Currently, games are getting bigger and bigger every year. Some PS3 games take up the entire 50GB Blu-Ray disc and most Xbox 360 games are close to 9 GB. Now many gamers have downloaded demos in the past. For some of us, this can take close to an hour or even longer. Now thats just a 1 GB demo. Imagine how long that would take for a 20GB-30GB game?

The internet is getting faster, and more productive so this could help speed up these downloads but will the speed necessary to make these downloads be available and mainstream within the next five years? If not, you are really limiting the amount of consumers who wants to buy game’s digitally. Do gamers want to wait over two hours to play their game, when they could drive five minutes to their local Gamestop and have it ready to go.

Then the bigger issue is memory. Currently the console with the largest hard drive is the 160GB PS3 for $499 dollars. Now for digital distribution to succeed game companies would need to lower the prices of these hard drives, and put much larger ones in the next gen console. Imagine how much a 500GB PS3 would cost right now? Too much. Count how many games you have right now. Do you think you could fit all those games onto a 160 GB hard drive or even a 320 GB hard drive? Now this is not including the music, movies, game saves, etc you have on your hard drive. This is just the game itself. Obviously, hard drives need to get bigger and cheaper for digital distribution to work.

A way for this to work would be having two built in hard drives. One large one that you can switch in and out at anytime. This will be the hard drive where you keep all your games, movies, music, etc. When you run out of space you can simply go to the store, buy another one, and pop it in. Now the second hard drive is not removable. This will be there to keep your gamer profiles, game saves, so no matter what large hard drive you have in there you will always have access to your game saves and gamer profile for online gaming.

Now while the whole idea of digital distribution is an interesting proposition, I personally don’t like it. I like having my game, in it’s case, and not having to worry about memory or hard drives. Home consoles are moving closer and closer to computers, and while that may be good in some aspects, I think home consoles need to stick with the disc format for now. Unfortunately, game companies want to make as much money as possible, and the future points towards digital distribution as the way to achieve that.

NOTE: It is reported that in the future we will see 200 GB Blu-Ray disc’s. Wouldn’t you rather have a game take advantage of this technology and take up no room on your hard drive?

Killzone 2 faucet design

Yanko Design

Look at both pictures. Killzone 2’s faucet design is identical to Yanko’s faucet design. I was playing the single player, and when I seen the sink I knew I seen it somewhere. After some hard searching I finally found it. This design was posted a year ago on February 27, 2008. Coincidentally 1 year before KZ2 is released. I am posting this because nobody else noticed this yet so far. It is something interesting I found in the game and it is worth mentioning. Did Killzone 2 jack Yanko’s faucet design, or is it the other way around (which I highly doubt). Yes it is only a faucet but still…..it looks a lot similar to Yanko’s faucet. What do you guys think?

Ohh this faucet is visible in the beginning of the campaign mode. It is when Sev gets up and goes toward the sink and looks in the mirror. He looks down into the sink and you will clearly see the faucet right there.

*UPDATE*
Yes Guerrilla could have bought the design, that is a possibility, but we do not know for sure. They could have just used the design assuming nobody would notice, or they could have bought the design, but that just seems troublesome for just a sink design.

^One of the many control options already available on Killzone 2

Since the release of Killzone 2 many owners of the mega-hit game have been complaining about the basic control scheme. Some don’t like the fact that they have to press down R3 to use the scope on their gun. Many users are calling for the ability to fully customize their controls. Most of the gamers calling for change want this to happen because they are unable to make the adjustment from Call of Duty to Killzone 2.

At first, Guerillia Games director, Seb Downie recently said, ““[Guerrilla Games] have come to the conclusion that there are no changes required to the [control] system.” Though, after continued complaints from Killzone 2 users, Downie had to change his tune. He was quoted on the Playstation message boards as saying, “ We have not decided if we are going to do anything to the controls.  We are investigating. If we change them, we have not said how.  No reason to get upset.  We are not going to turn them on their head.  It would not be sweeping changes. Any potential changes made will be carefully analyzed and tested to ensure they do not negatively affect players who do not experience any issues.”

To be honest with you guys, I’m perfectly content with Killzone 2 controls. I understand that different games have different controls, and you know what some people should adjust. Killzone 2 is not Call of Duty 4. It doesn’t play like Call of Duty, so the controls should not necessarily be the same as Call of Duty 4. I hope this doesn’t get the guys at Guerilla Games down because they released a great game.

While, I think the controls are fine, and don’t need any fine tuning I can see why Downie made another statement on the controls yesterday. He wants people to enjoy the game, and if that includes making more control schemes then I bet he would consider it. The important thing to remember is that this game was in production for nearly five years, and over that time they tweaked the controls dozens of times. If they just rush out a patch then it may give some schemes advantages or disadvantages that the other versions wouldn’t encounter.

My question to you guys are:

1. Do you like the present control settings in Killzone 2?

2. Do you think Guerilla Games owes it to the consumer of their game to create more options, or has Guerilla already done more than enough?

Like I said above, this game isn’t Call of Duty 4, but it is a great game. Different games have different controls, but if people are too lazy to learn new control schemes then we got bigger problems than the R3 issue.

How long has it been since the public learned about Final Fantasy Versus XIII? Oh yeah, the first trailer of the highly anticipated Square-Enix game was revealed to the world at E3 2006. It’s now March 2009, and still no word on when the game will come out; and gameplay? Haha, I hope you enjoy 5 seconds of in-game engine every 3 years.

For those of you who don’t know, Final Fantasy XIII Versus is a sister game to Final Fantasy XIII. It’s being led by Tetsuya Nomura’s, Kingdom Hearts team. The two major appeals to the game are the action battle system it is adopting from Kingdom Hearts, and the fact that many inside sources consider it to be the darkest Final Fantasy game ever made.

After 3 years, we barely know anything about Final Fantasy XIII, so what does that mean for Versus? If Square Enix’s past history holds up, don’t expect this game to come until 2011. There were rumors in the summer, that Versus was put on hold so that members from that development could come over to Final Fantasy 13 and speed up it’s development. Although, Square tried to debunk these rumors, it’s hard to think that there has been no hiccups along the way for this game. Besides a trailer released in January there has been no update on the game since 2006. No word on a release date, and as long as Final Fantasy XIII isn’t out don’t expect Versus out for a while.

Currently, most expect Final Fantasy XIII to hit the Western market in 2010. Although some are hoping for a late 2009 release, don’t count on it. The game still has no solid release date for Japan, and after the release there it usually takes Square 6 months to import the game. Add that onto the fact that Square Enix CEO Yoichi Wada recently came out and said that Final Fantasy XIII may be delayed because of the delays to Dragon Quest IX.

Why does Square Enix delay one good gme because of another? That’s simple, it’s all about money. Release your AAA titles apart from each other. If they release them both at the same time then people will end up buying one and not the other due to financial issues.

This all hurts Versus because with Final Fantasy XIII coming out in 2010, then chances are Versus will come out in Japan in 2010 and the West in 2011. That would be 5 years after announcing the game at E3 2006! Haven’t game companies learned that it’s better to not say anything and then deliver instead of making huge promises and then making the people wait? It becomes more head scratching when you consider that this project has been in development since 2003-2004 in conjunction with the main title.

Square, get on the ball! Your fans enjoy Star Ocean, Infinite Undiscovery, and the portable games you guys put out, but we want the franchise that is your company. Take a note from the guys at Epic. They announced Gears of War 2 last spring and less than a year later the game was on the shelves. Also, why is it that a company like Capcom can release a game like Resident Evil 5 worldwide within a week of each other, but it takes Square 6 months to do the same? Now you can’t rush perfection, but hopefully these games are something else. If they are like the games you have released the past 6 months then the fans really have to wonder if Final Fantasy died when Squaresoft became Square-Enix, and more importantly if Final Fantasy lost the “it” factor it used to have when Sakaguchi left.

Well unfortunately guys, we probably won’t see Final Fantasy XIII until 2010 and Final Fantasy Versus XIII until 2011. Remember when Final Fantasy games came out every couple of years? Ah, those were the good ole days. Oh well, time to go dust off Final Fantasy VII.

Most Recent Trailer of the Game:

Apple is an amazing company with amazing products but most importantly they are successful and the best in there genre. Apple has had a lot of hype, attention, and press surrounding their products, that we couldn’t help but talk about this.

Apple’s iPod has been a hit since day one and has revolutionized what we use as an on the go media device. Unfortunately, it was always missing captivating games. Apple has proven to be able to successfully manage their business line which includes Macs, iTunes, iPods, iPhones, & even Apple TV, all of which are very successful in their own field. Aside from being successful, they are also reliable so they can back up their hype; they are on top of their competition so what will be the next project they go after. Apple has accomplished something that Microsoft couldn’t do so far in this generation guess what it is? Apple has managed to secure a Metal Gear Solid game; Apple has plenty games which all look amazing for a handheld entertainment system (though not on par with PSP, they easily top Nintendo’s line of handhelds). There are tons of games to play on the iPhone and many console developers are paying attention and are now trying to jump on the bandwagon. It’s working for Apple as of now since they have many revolutionary items that they make money on many little features they get.

Sony and Microsoft are big money making corporations but at the same time they are beatable and Apple is the company to do it. Apple has the money, the products, and the overall resources to launch a console right now that will literally blow you away. There has been plenty rumors going around about Apple releasing their own console now and it would be fantastic. Apple Mac computers are designed for amazingly great movie details and effects, high end gaming graphics, & is very reliable as it rarely eve crashes on you. Even though the PSP is an amazing piece of hardware it’s still missing the hard drive space out the box and apple has been able to utilize this feature on a super small device. With all these goods, Apple also gives you iTunes which is easily one of the best sellers for music on the net. All these features implemented into one product would be amazing and it would surely be a top of the line product. By now, many people know however, Apple isn’t cheap. This console would probably launch for about $600 – $1200. Apple isn’t afraid though and they would quickly drop a price. However this will give Sony and Microsoft a run for its money and being that apple already has the motion sensing method of gaming then they are already set to battle Nintendo as well. Four consoles cannot survive on the market so if Apple decides to join one of the biggest money making corporations, who would disappear? My professional opinion would be Apple itself as seeing how the economy can’t handle another expensive item on the market, but they would defiantly last. Aside from that, it would probably get few games seeing how it would most definitely use a different type of development process.