Posts tagged PlayStation 3
Review: Bayonetta (Xbox 360)
May 3rd
What, exactly, is going on in Bayonetta?
That question has weighed heavily on me throughout the last few months, from the moment I launched the game to the present day, where I find myself in the middle of my third playthrough. And, frankly, that question is a big part of why this review has taken weeks to write.
While I’m still not convinced I’ve distilled the core theme or purpose of Bayonetta, I am confident it can be defined in just a few ways:
- Bayonetta is a stylish, fast-paced action game
- Bayonetta is a dynamic, fluid and intricate combat game
- Bayonetta is a hypersexualized and exploitative commentary on the role of women in games
If you’re considering buying a copy, it’s my firm belief that almost anybody is guaranteed dozens of hours of great entertainment with Bayonetta. Although it might simply look like a prettied-up rehash of a modern character-action game like Devil May Cry or God of War, a few minutes with a controller in hand will prove otherwise. Like Guitar Hero and Wii Sports, it’s the sort of experience where the main appeal rests in the actual, tactile feeling the game evokes; it’s one of those things that can’t be described, but you know it when you experience it. In this case, the player is treated to a surprisingly natural and empowering sense of control over the protagonist that steadily grows in complexity and escalates in lunacy throughout the game’s dozen-plus levels. It’s a wild ride that’s simultaneously brilliant and befuddling, and it’s required literature for anyone with a taste for adrenaline.
Review: Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time
Feb 10th
by Tyler Martin
Sony came back in a big way in 2009. The PlayStation 3 had an unmatched first-party line up of titles that included Killzone 2, Infamous and Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time. While the console’s most successful title was Game of the Year award winner Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, the latest Ratchet & Clank was no slouch. If it wasn’t for Nathan Drake’s amazing sophomore adventure, A Crack in Time would have been the exclusive selling point for the platform last year.
Demo Impressions: Brütal Legend
Sep 23rd
Tim Schafer (left) watches as Jack Black does something with a ridiculous expression on his face. Jack Black is a funny man.
What’s in a name? In the case of Brütal Legend, a whole hell of a lot.
- Jack Black stars as Eddie Riggs, the world’s best roadie who’s transported to a dimension of awesome metal-inspired brutality.
- Rob Halford, Lita Ford, Lemmy Kilmister, Ozzy Osbourne and…Tim Curry all have been tapped to lend their voice talents to the game. From what’s been shown so far, each looks to be perfectly at home in his or her element.
- Tim Schafer is the game’s creator; his previous credits include Full Throttle, Monkey Island, Grim Fandango and Psychonauts.
Schafer’s games all have an expected pedigree of quality when it comes to establishing setting, story and characters — in that regard, Brütal Legend won’t disappoint. But what about the game’s design? How well is it implemented?
After romping through the demo four times, there’s little doubt that the game itself does an admirable job of wrapping all this larger-than-life, metal-soaked goodness into a tasty little love burrito.
Daily Recap: June 8, 2009
Jun 9th
Ubisoft's James Cameronstravaganza really was the most boring thing about E3 — but we promise to post the older (and much more interesting) info later this week
So that whole triple-E expo thing is over, right?
We still have our Nintendo and Sony conference impressions on-tap and ready to be served, but we’re simply terrible at sliding that frothy information down the counter to you, the frustrated consumer.
Look for those articles later this week with a comp for your first few Jägerbombs.
Yesterday’s news ran quite the gamut of topics: Sony’s trophy system isn’t happening on PSP, Satoru Iwata “scuttles” when it comes to new handhelds and playing a game might just help lower your car insurance rates. Read the rest of this entry »
Daily Recap: May 26, 2009
May 27th
The long Memorial Day weekend is now behind us (I know I have a bit more color on my skin to show for being in the beautiful Northwest weather!) and E3 is just over the horizon, with press conferences starting in just under a week. Whew. Time certainly flies, and the news mill has definitely been churning.
Unless this is the greatest prank Hideo Kojima has pulled in his life, it looks like the konami.jp teaser site that's been counting down for over a week is working toward a Metal Gear announcement next week at E3.
The big pieces of news have come from Kojima Productions and Rockstar, respectively. Starting with the Japanese developer, its teaser site – which has seen multiple countdown clocks on top of ever-changing imagery, all the while focused on a field during a thunderstorm – has now left little question as to what Metal Gear Solid creator Hideo Kojima will be working on next. Today, the image of a young Big Boss – replete with eye patch – joined the flashing numbers and letters that have been on the site for well over a week, seeming to imply that a new Metal Gear game of some sort is due to be announced soon.
The other piece of news related to the teaser site and Kojima’s next project comes from scans of a leaked copy of the newest issue of Japan’s Famitsu Magazine, the TIME of Japanese gaming. There’s a feature story with lots of self-editing by Kojima, and accompanied by another image from the countdown that hasn’t been seen yet: Raiden, circa MGS4. It’s good news for Metal Gear fans and, with a bit of elementary math, it looks like the timer will run to zero early next week.
Retrospective: Assassin’s Creed
May 26th
Just as Assassin's Creed protagonist Altaïr overlooks the city below, we take a landscape look at the game
Editor’s note: We here at Silicon Sasquatch don’t think new games deserve all the attention. To illustrate that point we’re introducing our new Retrospective features: articles that focus an analytical eye on older releases in a non-review format. Our inaugural Retrospective takes a fresh look at Ubisoft Entertainment’s 2007 action-adventure game, Assassin’s Creed. This particular title made games press headlines at release — for reasons both good and bad. Scant details about Assassin’s Creed II have trickled out over the last month, and considering the goodly amount of time since the original was released, it seems like a perfect opportunity to look over Altaïr’s adventures with 20/20 hindsight. Enjoy.
Read the rest of this entry »
Daily Recap: May 14, 2009
May 14th
Today Nick posted his review of Fable II’s second downloadable expansion, See the Future. He wasn’t exactly impressed.
The criticisms largely echo mine in reviewing the first add-on, Knothole Island, and it’s an overall shame to again see Lionhead botch its DLC. Costumes and potions will only get your game so far, you know.
You got all excited for nothing, pup
It’s also unfortunate that my predictions of See the Future being more worthwhile turned out wrong–that’s what I get for speculation, I suppose.
News for Thursday: Sony loses cash, a lack of funding shutters another development studio and Telltale Games sells a lot of Strong Bad. It’s all very money-oriented today. Read the rest of this entry »
Daily Recap: May 13, 2009
May 14th
I’d like to apologize to our readers for a late Daily Recap. Our goal is to post these summations of the day’s news in a timely manner, but sometimes that doesn’t always happen. Yesterday a plethora of Windows Update-related problems and a strangely spotty Internet connection got in the way of my non-paying job.
Also, the two-hour season finale of Lost didn’t help much.
Hurley certainly isn't happy with the lateness of this post
Thankfully, it seems, Wednesday was relatively calm as far as news goes: DICE learned from its console prejudices, Blizzard reaffirmed its next MMO is not World of Warcraft: Part Deux and Microsoft bolstered its Platinum Hits collection.
Review: Resistance: Fall of Man (PS3)
May 6th
Resistance: Fall of Man can be thought of as a modern first-person shooter captured in its adolescence. It arrived on the tailwind of the best and brightest PlayStation 2 and Xbox shooters, and it follows their lead with panache, sporting engaging firefights, creative weapon designs and exciting combat. But unfortunately, it suffers from last-generation conventions that leave the player feeling beleaguered too often by mazes of corridors, uneven pacing and a sorely missed online cooperative play mode.
Yet in spite of feeling a bit frayed around the edges and worn with age, Resistance is an undeniably fun and engaging journey that’s still worth taking.
DEMOlition: Red Faction: Guerrilla (XBL)
Apr 30th
Editor’s Note: Welcome to our first DEMOlition article here on Silicon Sasquatch! Our hope is to analyze recent game demos and offer a preview of the content presented in a given title. While we’d never pass a final judgment on a game based only on its demo, the fact is game companies hand the general public a piece of their work to recruit consumers still on the fence about a pending, or newly available, release. Because demos might be the only opportunity for many gamers to get a hands-on experience with the game, what’s in the demo matters quite a lot. Thus, we’ll be offering our professional comments, criticisms and questions of just what gamers might expect a complete game to offer based on its demo content. We hope you enjoy the format and find these to be genuinely useful. Feel free to send us your comments and criticisms via the comment system.
Let's call this a "Coversplosion"
Red Faction: Guerrilla (RFG) is a third-person action title set on Mars and the third entry in THQ and Volition, Inc.’s Red Faction series. It’s been nearly seven years since Red Faction II, the last game in the series, and since then Volition has been hard at work perfecting its new game engine in an attempt to revolutionize environmental destruction in videogames.
Players enter the 10 minute-long demo as protagonist Alec Mason in a rather spacious but sectioned-off demo map — straying too far will invoke the wrath of a game over screen.
Even so, the assorted set pieces, ranging from granite buildings to explosive metal tanks, fit the Mars aesthetic well. This certainly is a large demo to explore, and subsequent play-throughs nearly always result in discovering something new to blow up. To think this is just one tiny slice of the full game is quite encouraging. Read the rest of this entry »