I saw a flyer in the city center a couple of weeks ago about something called “Playstation Hub” happening in the city center itself sometime soon. I decided to go home and search it up a few days later and found out that Playstation had brought a taste of the PS Move to Dublin for a number of weeks and I was stoked. We rarely ever get anything here in Ireland like this and I was looking forward to having a chance to play these new games that were listed and in trying the PS Move.
I decided to pop in today, if only for a short while, to see what it was all about. I happened to get there just 10 minutes after it opened and so the place was pretty empty which gave me a good chance to play all that I wanted to.
First up was Motorstorm Apocalypse (and in 3D!). I found it really, really fun I must say. I was never a big fan of the past Motorstorm games (granted, I barely played more than a demo of them) but this really appealed to me. The driving was pretty pacey and ferocious, car crashes really took apart your car at times. The boost system meant that if you power up your car too much it’ll catch on fire soon enough and have you off the track (or at least that’s what I interpreted was happening!). As for the 3D itself, I have to say I couldn’t really notice it that much. Maybe I didn’t have my glasses on properly as I rushed them on, or maybe it just takes some time to get used to.
Next up I gave LBP2 a shot, the game I was most looking forward to. I began in your pod as normal and had a selection of 4 levels to play from. I chose the first which threw me into a futuristic-looking level where a creature greeted me. I jumped down a chute and went on with it from there. I eventually stumbled on an in-level arcade which gave me a chance to play a game like Pong (although I can’t remember the exact name for this exact version of it). I continued on and found use of the jumping-pads and had a bit of fun with those and looked forward to learning how to use the grapple-hook. Unfortunately, the beta then froze (3 times) which I found to be a bit much, so I left it. But I’ll be back!
I saw a free spot at the Killzone 3 tv so I decided to give it a go. I was looking forward to Killzone 3 for a fair while this past year, but I’ll admit it’s fizzled out. Well, that was until I played this demo.
Superb graphics, much improved shooting mechanics, and quite frankly kick-ass scenery and battles and I’m psyched up for it again. You begin on a ship, shooting down a number of Helghast standing on platforms. You eventually crash and have to continue your journey on foot, but this is where it gets most fun. You continue on to a battle in the middle of a snowy field, blasting your way through and then continue on. Here I fount an enemy staring out a window so I thought I’d give the melee attack a go. My character whips out his knife, pins the enemy up against a wall and cuts him by the throat. All that in stunning HD grapics on a 40′ inch tv – yeah, it gave me goosebumps. The jetpacking action will have to wait unfortunately as I let another few guys play their way through the demo, but I’m in no doubt about Killzone 3 whatsoever now, this game is gonna be a blockbuster.
My first attempt as using the PS Move came with the Time Crisis booth. Thankfully no-one was around to see me flap around wildly trying to get the cursor on the menu move up and down, until I eventually realised I had to hold down a trigger button! I unfortunately couldn’t find any control menu, and so when I went into the game my aiming was all over the place. I couldn’t figure out how to aim my gun with decent accuracy at any enemy, and every time I thought I was finally getting somewhere, I realised that I was actually the one getting hit.
I gave Gran Turismo 5 a shot too. Bare in mind I hadn’t played a racing sim since the early PS2 era and have never been a big fan of them. The graphics were superb, as were the amount of options for customising your car for each particular track. There were 5 different tracks to choose from, along with about 10 different cars, of which I tried the Mercedes-Benz and the Ferrari Enzo. I found it pretty fun despite my horrible driving sim skills. I didn’t notice much car damage when I crashed (which I did, a lot) but maybe it was just the lack of a big impact that made that so. The only downside to that demo I found was that everything seemed so set and a bit dull admittedly during races. Each car went to the exact same side, slowed down at the exact same spot, turned in the exact same line, etc. But these sort of things are gonna happen with early demos like this, the main thing is that this demo serves it’s purpose – showing the GT fans how the game can play (with the added extras and tweaks that will come with the full game) and showing you what the full game can offer you.
All in all, I only spent about an hour at the Hub, but I’m certainly glad I went. With college and other things I won’t have too many chances to go, but the next time I do, I’m gonna make sure I get that grappling hook level on LBP2 and I’m gonna jetpack my way around the KZ3 world as much as I can!
The Nerd Stash: “The PS3 marked a turning point in the industry, and among the sea of popular titles came the rare games that are worth more now than ever.”
Ex-Rocksteady directors' Hundred Star is collaborating with Xbox Game Studios Publishing for its first-ever AAA game.
Highly doubt it'll be an actual Batman game that IP belongs to WB Games along with other DC property.
They're making an action adventure game. IMO I think it needs to be another Marvel game despite MS already have Blade as that action Marvel game. Dead Pool? Punisher?
Realistically it'll probably be a new IP entirely.
I agree with you. I think I'll be a brand new IP. Now it could be a superhero themed, kind of like infamous. Speaking of which, Suckerpunch needs to make one after Ghost 2.
I definitely think it'll be super hero themed game 100%. Something MS needs in their portfolio.
I hope these devs needed support to start/finish (like Stalker 2), vs are basically done with the game but wanted to secure an exclusivity-bonus because they know Xbox needs a system seller (like Titanfall).
It’s a bit strange that they’d rather invest in this game than Tangoworks’ TWO canceled projects; or just trust a single dev from their existing massive stable of talent to emerge with a system-seller themselves anytime soon.
Either way, it is just cool that we’ll likely get a new IP from the geniuses behind the Arkham Trilogy. I wonder how creative they’ll get now that they aren’t married to an established franchise.
This is about the former co-founders of Rocksteady and their new studio. So naturally it makes people think its Batman related with the way its worded, even though its not.
Exclusive? Sure
This year alone Microsoft has changed their plans so much with Xbox regarding multiplatform releases as they step closer to just being a full blown third party publisher and it's only been 4-5 months, imagine where we'll be once this game is finished. It will be a completely different landscape.
Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2 launched last week to solid reviews from both fans and players. But its playercount? That's another story.
That's awful. This combined with the really low Steam numbers paint a disastrous picture imo. Really bad timing too because Tango was closed down for a similar thing. Great reviewed game, and low sales and/or player count. Hi-Fi Rush reviewed a hell of a lot better and it was widely loved by everyone, Hellblade 2 nowhere near that.
I know the rumor is that the studio has their next game already green-lit, but if I worked at Tango, I would be furious. "Why do they survive while we get binned?" I'd be telling myself.
But the suit woman will have you believe "Oh we have different metrics for the success of one studio compared to another studio. We judge each studio and game on their own set criteria" or something like that, I'm paraphrasing here but you get the idea. But no one who works there knows what the hell that even means. I mean the DLC for Redfall was getting worked on days before they even got the news their studio was getting dumped in the trash. So what are these mysterious metrics to let studios survive and others perish? I bet this is all hogwash, I bet MS don't even really know. They just had to make cuts and certain studios just found their way on the chopping block. Someone had to bite the dust, why not you?
Well I bet all this does nothing for the confidence of other employees in other studios. The truth is you have no idea where your career will be in a year from now working at one of their studios that aren't the mega big ones. MS just have too many studios to manage efficiently. "We'll just throw money at them and buy them and worry about the details later on. I mean we can do it, we're Microsoft."
...have you seen what the top 10 consists of? Its things like fortnite, roblox, CoD, apex... etc. This being a new game that has a niche appeal is actually surprising to see at 23. Its also the 33rd top paid game on the PC through the MS store.
Those are dreadful numbers any way you slice it dude. They hyped this game to hell for the last 4 plus yrs. It was supposed to be xboxs big game this yr. Ninja Theory is probably sweating right now.
And it's already slipped out of the Top 100 on Steam. Meanwhile a port of the 4-year old Ghost of Tsushima is sitting comfortably at #8.
One of the biggest games of the year, a multi million sequel and heavily advertised game, at 23 most played? There's no way to justify those numbers.
^^heavily advertised game...?
I mean, I knew the game was coming but outside of a boot screen ad for it, there has been little to no marketing. And yet it still managed 23rd. Make of that what you will.
Here in the East Coast on NY/NJ on cable tv Hellblade 2 has been advertised pretty well. I see the commercials every day at least 3 times a day for the past 3 weeks. It's even advertised as YT commercials.
What an idiotic comment. Let me guess the next comment would be GTA V outsold everything so....
Absolutely terrible numbers all round for this game. Ghost of Tsushima at number 8. Good games going to sell regardless of excuses
What a disaster, 2 failures in a row for Ninja Theory, first Bleeding edge, now Hellblade 2, any way you slice it these are not the numbers the most awaited game of the year for Xbox should show (before Activision purchase), also player numbers is extremely low and even more surprising considering is day 1 on gamepass.
If this game cost more and took longer to develop than Hi-Fi Rush, then I would worry if I were Ninja Theory. Projects may have been greenlit, but the increased scrutiny over at MS may very well put them on the chopping block. The incredible irony here is that it was PlayStation players that pushed the original game passed its 1 million copies sold milestone. With that purchasing power cut out, and the Game Pass effect having trained Xbox players to not purchase games, it seems that the sequel may have been set-up for failure.
And that's exactly what pisses me off about Hellblade 2 not being on PlayStation, Sony promoted the original game and I bought it basically on D1 back in the day because I liked what I saw and ended up really enjoying it!
I really hope Hellblade 2 is next on the porting list because I would buy it in a heartbeat, asshole microsoft robbed me of this game!
I agree, the game is a bit static looking. It's very much a showroom game. Whatever that means.