Posts tagged PS3
Co-op Review: Borderlands (Xbox 360)
Nov 16th
Editor’s note: Just like in our last Co-op Review, our goal here is to offer two viewpoints on one title; a title that’s explicitly meant to be played with friends. Borderlands is a fast-paced co-op lovers’ dream, and as such Aaron and Nick worked through the game multiple different times with varying numbers of participants. Enjoy, and let us know in the comments what you think about this review.
The Backlog: We’ve Reached the Border; What a Nice-Looking Land edition
Oct 24th
Mmm, Backlog-y
What legends of game-playing intrigue do we, the stewards of Silicon Sasquatch, bring you this week?
There’s more of the same (Titan Quest) with a nice lime twist of newness (Borderlands); there’s the late-to-the-party-but-enjoying-it-anyway epic (Brütal Legend); and then there’s the dreaded blackness of managing grad school responsibilities (Portland State University — rated “M” for mature). Read the rest of this entry »
The Backlog: Scribbling Sporty Beatles edition
Sep 18th
This, metaphorically, is what the release calendar looks like for the next few months
It’s been a busy week for all of us here at Silicon Sasquatch. Doug’s been camping in the cold-yet-wait-it’s-hot-again Oregon weather, and enjoying the rebirth of his broken Xbox 360; Nick’s been playing through five or so games at once while writing, writing and more writing; I’ve been composing an extremely long review of Batman: Arkham Asylum in addition to enjoying a social life and trying to forge videogame industry public relations contacts.
Oh, and that feeling creeping down the back of your spine and into your pocket to make your wallet tingle with fear? Well, that’s the start of the Great Game Goldrush of 2009 — this previous week had quite the prodigious release schedule. Among the horde of games were NHL 10, NHL2k10, WET, Mario and Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story, Scribblenauts, Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 and Need for Speed Shift.
Next week, Halo 3: ODST releases. You can discuss (your praise for or condemnation of) that fact in our comments section.
See what we’ve been up to, game-wise, after the break. Read the rest of this entry »
Review: Batman: Arkham Asylum (Xbox 360)
Sep 17th
It’s hard to believe that, at one time, Adam West in his campy 1960s Batman television show was the best portraiture of Batman creative minds had to offer.
Even then, when “Biff! Pow! Zing!” became a clever way to spice up awkwardly choreographed fight scenes, the tragedy of Bruce Wayne was a much darker affair than fluorescent purple and cheese-ball dialogue. A boy witnessed his parents’ cold-blooded murder and, once grown, pledged to annihilate the evil in his city. The Batman rose from the ashes of a once-spoiled life to be the protector of a seedy metropolis called Gotham.
Spandex doesn’t sound like a good idea under those circumstances.
Yet over the last few years the concept of what and who Batman is to a mainstream audience has experienced a revolution in reassessment thanks mostly to director Christopher Nolan’s two movies, 2005′s Batman Begins and 2008′s The Dark Knight. Both films washed away a decade of popular culture nay-saying after the franchise hit a lull in the mid-1990s because of two awful movies by Joel Schumacher et al. Thanks to Nolan, Batman’s been given a clean slate for a new generation of consumers.
Unfortunately, the Caped Crusader’s forays into videogames haven’t assisted in improving his image. A plethora of developers and publishers have been handed the property over the last few decades to produce titles vacillating from mediocre to awful. It’s easy to think there would never be a quality Batman game available, especially after seeing the most recent films and realizing how great a Batman project can turn out.
Well gamers can officially chill and count their blessings in batarangs, as Rocksteady Studio‘s Batman: Arkham Asylum is not just the unequivocally best Batman videogame to ever sit on store shelves — it’s also one of the most engaging titles released in a very long time, let alone 2009. Arkham Asylum treats its source material with the utmost respect, and successfully blends the comics with a cinematic atmosphere to create an exciting and near-perfect interactive experience. Read the rest of this entry »
The Backlog: It’s Like E3 Again Edition
Aug 21st
Why hello there, future purchase
What a week it’s been. The inaugural Gamescom in Cologne, Germany opened on Wednesday and guess what: Sony kindly unveiled the new PlayStation 3 Slim. Media outlets weren’t exactly surprised by the announcement, but I think we’re all glad the rumor mill has finally ceased its incessant turning about the damn console. Looks like I finally need to go get a PS3.
Oh, and a little event in Anaheim, California called BlizzCon flung its +10 Doors of Nerd Barricading open to the (literally) unwashed masses of Blizzard fanatics today, and so far we’ve already been made privy to the next World of Warcraft expansion, a new Diablo III class and StarCraft II being confirmed for release in 2010.
You know, as a gamer I like it when these big gaming-related events run back-to-back with one another. The ESA might as well wedge E3 2010 between next year’s Gamescom and BlizzCon to mentally and physically destroy every games journalist in existence. That could be Silicon Sasquatch‘s in! Read the rest of this entry »
Review: Fallout 3: Mothership Zeta (XBL)
Aug 20th
Here we are, dissecting the final downloadable addition to the Fallout 3 universe.
Throughout the year, Bethesda Softworks has given gamers a grand total of $50 worth of extra content to one of 2008′s finest games. The finale, Mothership Zeta, is certainly a bold move on the studio’s part to try to go out with an edge-of-your-seat bang. Putting Fallout in space, even with the series’ trademark exorbitant scenarios, is definitely a head-tilting decision. But cosmic setting aside, don’t expect any climactic end to the story of the Lone Wanderer here; the developers are smart enough to realize that after rectifying Fallout 3′s ending with Broken Steel, setting a finite conclusion to the mythos would kill the immersion.
Unfortunately, the end is nigh…and not that great. Zeta is a linear and uninteresting bookend to a fairly massive collection of expansions. It’s not as bad as Operation: Anchorage, but that’s not saying much.
Thanks to Zeta, most gamers are going to feel like their wallets have been probed. Take me to your refund counter, please. Read the rest of this entry »
Review: Fallout 3: Point Lookout (XBL)
Aug 18th
It’s comforting to trek through the swampy bogs of Fallout 3′s fourth downloadable content pack — it’s just like the Capital Wasteland, only with (slightly) more inbreeding.
That feeling of being at home within the game is Point Lookout’s strongest asset. Unlike the uneven experiences in both Operation: Anchorage and The Pitt, this DLC effort takes a page out of the core Fallout 3 experience. Players are given a familiar set of rules and goals: explore, scavenge, kill and quest. Even Broken Steel, which was a remarkably solid piece of extra content, timidly reproduced the basics of Fallout 3. But with Point Lookout, Bethesda Softworks has created a real sidestory to remind us why its rendition of the Fallout franchise is so supremely addictive.
Review: John Woo Presents Stranglehold (Xbox 360)
Jun 22nd
Although the details are fuzzy, I know for a fact I saw my first Hong Kong heroic bloodshed movie a couple of years ago.
My buddy Dan had invited me over for a few drinks and some general indolence, and we sat down to watch a movie he revered: John Woo’s Hard Boiled. I can’t remember a damn thing about it, but I know there were guns, and doves, and shooting, and jumping while shooting . . . it was grand.
Today, I asked Dan to remind me of the specifics of Hard Boiled to help me construct this review. But even after having seen the movie dozens of time, there are only four solitary details that he can recall:
- A teahouse: dude gets killed from a banister
- A warehouse: dude gets nailed by a motorcycle
- A boathouse: dude gets shotgunned
- A hospital: baby pees on Chow Yun-Fat
It might sound crass or irresponsible to paint the movie in such simplistic terms, but that’s really the beauty of the movie. John Woo wasn’t setting out to break new ground in character development in the already-crowded cop-action genre; he was only trying to stage the best combination of over-the-top shootouts and exhilarating stunts that could possibly be crammed into a mere two hours. He succeeded.
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 »
E3 2009: Welcome!
Jun 1st
Today’s the big day, folks. The annual and mega-flashy Electronic Entertainment Expo starts in less than an hour, and Microsoft dutifully kicks this PR party into high gear with its press conference at 10:30 a.m.
Now let’s be honest: every other website has some kind of intimate E3 coverage planned for videogame fans and followers of the industry. You have your liveblogs, live video, exclusive interviews, previews, hands-ons and podcasts. We, a fresh and puerile (but not juvenile?) website without access to E3, can’t provide the coverage like bigger media entities can. However, what we can do is offer our analysis and summations of big E3 press bombs and try to cut the fat the best we can.
So stay with us throughout E3 and think of our content as the delicious Andes mint after a filling dinner — a complement to a main course of news from the hundreds of other videogame journalists doing the real work this week.
We’ll be posting our recaps of each big press conference and attempting a few interesting things this week in terms of feature articles. Next week you’ll see more thoughtful content, as post-E3 lends itself well to in-depth analysis and status reports of individual genres — even the consoles themselves.
I’ll leave you with the times and dates for the five major press conferences.
Enjoy E3…we’re besieged like this only once a year, or twice depending on how interesting the Tokyo Game Show will be come September.
Press conferences for Monday, June 1st:
- Microsoft: 10:30 a.m.
- Electronic Arts: 2 p.m.
- Ubisoft: 5 p.m.
Press conferences for Tuesday, June 2nd:
- Nintendo: 9 a.m.
- Sony: 11 a.m.