The original Motorstorm was a solid launch title that really showcased the true-to-life potential of modern landscape in games. The opening cinematic looks like you are watching the Nature channel in HD. Developer Evolution Studios is ditching the sun-drenched arid landscape of Monument Valley for a Hawaiian-inspired island getaway with tons of water and a lush setting. The new locale will be no less forgiving to the gladitorial racers than their previous offering, adding monster trucks to the lineup of available vehicles.
The crashes are truly spectacular in the original title, and this one should be no exception. There is a new gameplay mechanic involving controlling your character flying through the air after a crash. Possibly avoiding the other vehicles will give you a bonus multiplier, or maybe the other way around.
With the news last week that the PS3 demo of Echochrome was on the Japanese PlayStation Store, my interest had been piqued to create a Japanese account on my system and visit the Store of our far East friends. It was pretty simple. I found this great YouTube video to help with the process. I won't waste your time with a step-by-step process, simply follow the video and you will be browsing the Japanese Store in no time.
What I found over there was quite compelling. The Echochrome PS3 demo looked beautiful on my TV, and there was more narration in the demo than the PSP version. It was interesting to see that all of the narration was in English, instead of Japanese for the Japanese demo.
Then I searched around for a new experience on the store. It's quite similar to the American Store, but just organized a little different. If you are familiar with the American Store, then you should have no problem navigating it. After a little digging, I came across the Yakuza 3 demo, called Ryū ga Gotoku Kenzan!, which was gorgeous. The game is set in the Ye Olde Japan of the Edo period in 1605, instead of the modern setting of the previous Yakuza games. It's very beautiful, and throws you into the sandbox environment of a street festival with confetti filling the air and people performing in the streets. Your objectives are clearly noted on a map, so just go up to the people the markers point you to and talk to them.
After playing with the demo for a while, I recognized the white cat Mainichi Issyo that frequently appears in Japanese PlayStation ads, so I downloaded the "game" to see what he was about. The title is not so much a game, but an RSS reader. The cat invites his friend over to read you the news feeds in an impromptu news program. It's hilarious, I had no idea what they were saying, since it's all Japanese text, but they set up cardboard boxes as their desks and talk about general topics of the day. One such news program I came across was a cooking show where they talked about making a barbecued pork vermicelli bowl, which looked delicious, so I ordered some Chinese food to stave off my hunger pains.
I would recommend starting yourself a Japanese account to check out all of their regionally-exclusive content we will never see Stateside. It was a wonderful experience, to immerse myself in their language and culture by checking out the games that are specifically targeted to the Japanese audience.
Taito is pulling out all of the stops to celebrate the thirtieth anniversary of Space Invaders by revisiting the franchise with a fresh perspective. The definitive shooter classic tore up the arcades in 1978, and is about to invade the DS and PSP this summer with Space Invaders Extreme, and the upcoming Wii title, Space Invaders: Get Even. The portable games will feature similar gameplay to the original where you shoot the aliens, but with greater weaponry and tons of modern sparkle. Space Invaders: Get Even, turns the tables on mankind where you control the aliens attacking Earth. You can control up to 300 pixelly invaders at once for a symphony of destruction. That that puny earthlings!
Welcome back for another update to the PlayStation Network. The Store has a great lineup of content this week, much better than the paltry offerings of the previous update.
First up there is a new demo available for Rocketman: Axis of Evil, brought to you by Capcom and the letter R. Rocketman is a dual analog shooter that's more Smash TV than Super Stardust HD. With the rash of duel analog shooters that came out this past year, I'm surprised that there were none done in the Robotron, Smash TV style. The demo is free and recommended for download, the full game clocks in at $9.99.
Break out your Tie-dye, pooka shells, rose-tinted glasses and that tray of green brownies you have sitting in your closet, because it's the summer of '69 and The Dead is playing on Rock Band. Six Grateful Dead tracks are available at $1.99 each, or a Pack for $9.99. Groovy guys, really.
"Casey Jones" -Grateful Dead ($1.99)
"Sugar Magnolia" -Grateful Dead ($1.99)
"Truckin'" - Grateful Dead ($1.99)
"Franklin's Tower" - Grateful Dead ($1.99)
"I Need A Miracle" - Grateful Dead ($1.99)
"China Cat Sunflower" - Grateful Dead ($1.99)
There's a great Lost Planet theme that's been added to the growing list of promotional themes available. Might I recommend going to PSU.com to grab some great themes that don't feel like a commercial. I've enjoyed the themes they have been supplying, but when they began releasing themes there was the nature one, the pixel theme, and classy pink. What happened to releasing some slick streamlined themes for the hell of it?
There are three Condemned 2: Bloodshot wallpapers for free, dripping with gory goodness.
The video content is not so stellar. NBA Ballers: The Chosen One has a trailer, along with the new Wil Smith movie trailer for Handcock and a trailer for 21. Yawn.
I followed Tiny's sage advice and downloaded the demo for Echochrome, and to my delight, it's even more rewarding to play than it is to watch. We have been keeping our collective eyes on this inventive game here at the Castle because of the striking presentation and innovative gameplay.
The demo is in Japanese, but fortunately it has very intuitive controls that are simple to grasp, but applying them to complete a stage is a test of perception.
The stage starts with a flyaround and your character is standing still. This is a good time to check out the angles where you can connect all of the arms of the stage and plot your course of attack. Then simply press a button and your character begins walking. The analog stick is for flying the camera around, and is the main input to complete the stages. The face buttons control the character somewhat. Press the triangle button and he stops to "think", really this is time for you to line up your next route for the character to walk. Press the square button to make him move again. If you are feeling impatient, press the X button to make him march at double-time.
After completing the demo of about 5 stages, I was left wanting more, which is the sign of a good demo. I will definitely add this to my collection when it hits the PlayStation Store.
The folks at RetroSabotage.com have a hilarious collection of retro parodies of classic arcade franchises like Pac-Man, Tetris, and Space Invaders. Each week they create a new flash version of each game they are targeting and rip them to shreds. The results are really funny. Might I recommend Pac-Man's The Morning After. It's a trip.
Jonathan Blow's Braid is getting as much attention as other superstar indie developers such as Jenova Chen of flOw fame and Jonathan Mak of Everyday Shooter. These breakout developers have heralded the mainstream revenue possibilities of small indie games, and have shown that audiences want unique titles that shine with the care of a small development team.
Braid is a platformer coming to the Xbox Live Arcade, where manipulating time is the main gameplay mechanic that dictates the level design. Here you can see where his inspiration came from, our own dear Mario. Check the Mario reference at the castle in the first video, and the very obvious Donkey Kong setup in the second video that's posted after the jump. Even the startup screen says 'Jumpman', which was the original name for Mario, but was later switched to the Italian plummer we have all come to love.
Earlier this week, Phil Harrison took his newly appointed position with Atari to help guide them and repurpose their brand for the current generation. Here we see Mr. Harrison addressing some folks as the president of Infogrames about his new role and Alone in the Dark. Atari was once the defining name of videogames. Nearly every home had an Atari console. Can Phil bring the company back, and make them a cutting edge brand once again? One can only hope.
What better way to brighten up the work day than with this precious Mario desktop? Spend the long hours filing, filing, filing your nails whilst gazing at Mario soaring across your monitor wearing the raccoon tail from Super Mario Bros. 3.
GameIndustryMap.com is a growing Wiki resource for game development studios and publishers for those interested in working their way into the game industry. Dave Perry explains his reason for creating the resource:
This project was inspired by the 'Wiki' concept, letting communities of people build websites of great use together. It seems almost an essential tool when job hunting, to be able to easily see which companies related to the video games industry are in your area. The same goes for finding colleagues or visiting developers, at some point we can all use this resource. We appreciate any help you can give to make this database more accurate. My team has added over 8,000 companies and 20,000 games to get it started.
This would be a great starting point for any GayGamer who would like to join the masses of game devlopers, in one of the largest growing work fields. Opportunity abounds, check it out.
Those of you who didn't jump all over Atlus' bizzare PS2 title Persona 3 last year, may want to reconsider passing up Persona 3: FES. The new release will offer the original game and somewhat of a sequel. The original quest called "The Journey" has all of the content from Persona 3 with added quests and dialog, making it a "Director's Cut". Also, there will be another quest called "The Answer" which will feature a different protagonist and about 30 hours of extra gameplay. Expect this puppy to hit stores on April 22nd. I'll be waiting for this one.
Miss the days of sitting cross-legged in front of the warm glow of the console TV for hours playing the NES? How about that painful first step afterwards, shaking off the pins and needles that creep all the way up to your cranium? If the NES holds it's place in your heart as warm as a summer's afternoon, check out this compendium of NES screenshots, to relive the joys of console generations gone by.
Are you gay and working in the games industry? If you are interested in networking with other folks like you within the industry, try joining the Gay Game-Industry Professionals mailing list.
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