|
|
             |
|
|
|
|
Support AE! Buy Games Here:
Be notified of site updates. Sign-up for the Newsletter sent out twice weekly. Enter E-Mail Address Below: |
Playstation Holiday Party 2004
For the first time since I joined up with the Armchair Empire, I was actually asked to go to a function. The function: Sony’s Playstation Holiday Party held in Toronto, Ontario and to sweeten the deal us guests would get to attend a concert by The Roots as a part of the party. Thanks
to the miserable fog that socked in Toronto on the morning of the event,
my flight was delayed and I ended up missing half of the event
(including the cocktail mixer… damn), but in typical Tazman fashion, I
was on-time for the main party. The main party was quite an event, a
series of big screens were set up to showcase this season’s coming
games and a ton of consoles were out to let people get their game on. What
Tazman saw: Ratchet
and Clank: Up Your Arsenal
Publisher:
Sony Computer Entertainment America Developer:
Insomniac Games Genre:
Action Platform ETA:
November 2004 Target
Age: 13+ You
know that the formula has got to be working to make it to the 3rd
game, and from what I saw they haven’t gone to the well too many times
yet. Ratchet and Clank are once again heading back to Planet Veldin to
battle Dr. Nefarious and his newly created army of Tyhrranoids. To help
defeat this group, Ratchet and Clank will be able to recruit Captain
Qwark and once again control him through some specific levels. Up to 15
new weapons with up to 4 levels of upgrades will be available, and some
of the previous weapons from Ratchet
and Clank: Going Commando will be given for free using a memory card
from the predecessor. Besides the single player game, a multi-player
features are included both on-line and stand-alone. The on-line features
include headset compatibility. The playable demo was very cool – once again the game is very bright and well animated (at least the levels that I played and saw). The game animation was very fluid and didn’t stutter even when a high number of enemies were on screen. Looks like it will be a very popular game this winter.
Jak III (left); Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal (right) Jak 3Publisher:
Sony Computer Entertainment America Designer:
Naughty Dog, Inc. Genre:
Action Platform ETA:
Holiday Season 2004 Target
Age: 13+ Jak
3
is being labeled the final game in this series, which surprises me with
its’ success up to this point. A year after the events of Jak
2, Jak has been banished from Haven City after an attack left much
of the city destroyed. Now living in the unforgiving Wasteland with his
friends Daxter and Pecker, he will have a much larger terrain to explore
and as such there are some really cool vehicles to pilot. The demo
featured an all-terrain buggy that was darn fun to muck around with. As
with all of the previous games, the highlight is probably the dialogue
of Daxter; he’s still got the best one-liners in gaming. From
what I saw, it’s pretty much the same game as before but with a few
new tweaks; worth it for those that liked the predecessors. Gran Turismo 4Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment America Developer:
Polyph Genre:
Racing ETA:
November 2004 Target
Age: 8+ Dear
Lord! Too many pretty pictures! This game looks freakin’ awesome,
especially the glare off of all of these showroom quality vehicles. The
shear number of available cars is staggering, especially when you start
to get into the really obscure ones or European release cars that we
don’t know much about in North America. The racetracks feature a whole
assortment of nasty turns and curves – Initial-D wannabes are going to
be in their element here (not that I could get any one of the cars to
drift properly once) The
driving physics are as punishing as college physics – if you aren’t
practicing, you aren’t going to progress. First timers will be
spending a whole lot of time either slamming into other cars or coming
off the corners into safety barricades. Gretzky NHL 2005Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment America Developer:
989 Sports Genre:
Sports ETA:
Winter 2004 It
just seems weird to be playing a hockey game during a lockout, and
somehow I had managed to not play any of this years’ offerings until
the show. The game did feature some really nice integrated replays and
overlays during intermissions – apparently trying to make the game
look exactly like an US televised hockey game. (Not as though making the
game a Canadian one would be a drastic improvement, I can’t stand
Chris Cuthbert – “You know Dick, the next goal in this overtime
period will be a crucial one…”).
Gameplay
was decent, but not great. Scores are being lowered by much improved
goaltending – but defense still sucks. If I ever let a player get that
open, I’d be skating laps and in the NHL you’d be packing your bags
for Europe or the minors. Looked and played above average, but certainly
not a mind-blowing experience. KillzonePublisher:
Sony Computer Entertainment America Developer:
Guerilla/Sony Europe (SCEE)/SCEA Santa Monica Studios Genre:
First Person Shooter ETA:
November 2004
Amongst
all of the family oriented games was this lone-wolf, a gritty FPS that
had some pretty intense action. Under the guise of being “in the
future”, the action is not being limited to existing weapons, and as a
matter of fact almost all of the guns don’t much resemble anything in
current use (although that’s not to say the weapons don’t look
realistic) but all the ones in the demo were ballistic. The surroundings
are definitely one of the high points for this game – the developers
have done an excellent job of recreating an atmosphere of wasted cities
and landscapes. And with all of these blown out buildings and pieces of
assorted material to hide behind, enemies will now hide and snipe at
you. If
it weren’t for the ridiculously high amount of health that you start
with, this game would be a much more realistic game. (It takes about 20
shots to die.) That’s not to say people who like to experience a
realistic game but aren’t ready for ultra-realistic sims will be
disappointed, in fact they will probably like this game best. Random
Notes: The new Playstation 2 is tiny! The new console is about the size of a small hardcover book. Specs are: 230 mm W by 28 mm H by 152 mm D and weighs only 900 grams! With the new design, there are two minor compatibility issues: the existing multitaps will not work with it, a new one will be required; the hard-drive will not be usable with this console, so no Final Fantasy On-Line.
The
new game Antigrav was being
shown on some of the TVs. It’s specifically an eye-toy game and it
looked darn trippy and cool. Very appealing, I wish that they had a copy
on the floor to demo or a fact sheet for it in my packet. (I don’t own
an eye-toy so snagging a demo copy wasn’t going to do any good) Geez,
the media that Sony invited are sure a good-looking group. I certainly
hurt the average with my arrival. Next time: suit and tie, not just a
collared shirt and jeans (which Omni will testify is an amazing upgrade
from my usual outfit). Gaming sure has changed… I feel old again. The
Roots are really good live. I wasn’t a big fan of theirs from what I
heard on the radio, but their live show was very impressive. They
certainly kept up their energy for a 2 hour set and they kept the crowd
entertained. Drinking 6 Red Bulls will make it difficult for you to sleep. You’d think that I’d know something like that without having to say it aloud, but apparently I need to remind myself from time to time. I’ve also discovered that Toronto TV at 5:00 in the morning is pretty bad.
- Tazman (October 31, 2004) “What
was the name of the bad guy from Tron?
Aww, this is going to drive me nuts.” - Peter (The Family Guy) |
