SingStar ABBA review
SingStar ABBA is an expasion of a competitive Karaoke franchise. The ideas is simple, you collect a few videos, their lyrics, program a pitch meter, and get kids to sing into mics and compare their notes, and highs with that of the song, and depending on closeness give them a score.
Nothing really that spectacular afterall.
The ABBA version, doesn’t add anything new to the idea, in fact the only thing it does add area 20 or 25 if you play it on the PS3 songs. Though the sound quality is good for a PS2 Title, and the pitch meter is good, the point of it all, isn’t clear.
Of course if you’re a fan of ABBA or just like singing, the game might engage you, but with just 20 songs, anyone would get bored of it soon enough. I mean imagine a Karaoke night with only 20 songs, and then imagine just those 20 songs forever…
Of course its not really that bad, you could just put in another game disk!
Videos which usually tend to balance out the blandness of the game, in the case of ABBA aren’t all that bright to start with.
The worst part is, the game doesn’t even include the SingStar mics you need to play the game.
All in all, I’m wondering, “what’s the point?”
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POP on the PS3 concluded
So carrying forward the last review…
The PS3 POP has changed the way the fighting works too. Instead of the basically button punching, in mindless patterns bit, you now have more delicate combos to aim for. While this makes the game more challenging, it’s not quite as much fun, something I find a little irritating, in a very real way. The game, during combat seems to slow down, and the prince looses almost all his powers. Apparently it becomes somewhat linear based, what ever that means. He’s actually better at blocking than at attacking, and much faster, this is supposed to foster a more precise sort of attacking strategy. It also makes the game run longer and slower. The combat is definitely one of the fames weaker points.
Apparently the amount of combat too has been lowered, and you fight in very predictable patterns across similar parts of the world. And have to combat the boss of each level multiple times, which also makes the game a little repetitive.
There are fewer puzzles though, something I appreciate, and more run and jump, death, and gravity defying feats, a definite plus as far as I’m concerned. Though the way in which they work has changed a little too, its not quite as structured or fixed as before, and apparently, those moments in which you were suspended in air, wondering what to do next, and then watched yourself fall into the pit, have been eliminated, or atleast, you have other options. But with the game being so elaborate, the tutorials etc. are very long too.
The environment and effects, as I’ve said before are a real USP, and anyway, anything tha the PS3 magazine rates with an 8 on 10, has got to be good. If you like POP buy it, if you like Fun, I’d suggest the same course of action.
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PS3 POP I
This too is a secondary source piece. I’ve not played the game, I don’t like the PS3, but the game seems interesting, actually pretty good, good enough to get an 8 on 10 from the PS3 magazine. But that is not supposed to be its greatest achievement.
The game is slightly new, and has done away with the old time warping system, something I found really irritating. On the other hand, one of my favourite parts of the game, the lady is far more prominent. She appears right at the start, and plays a really imp. Part in the game, actually, as his guardian angel. Everytime you make a mistake that should cost your life, she very coolly put him back on safe ground. A bit of a hit for our egos, but a convenient substitute for all the time wasted redoing bits of the game, and watching that LOADING screen.
The story is based as usual on the prince having to save the world. And blah blah… its been corrupted by some bad magic, or whatever….
But what is cool is the world itself. Apparently its huge, with really well done everything, and if PS3 says it you better believe it. I’ve not yet seen it though.
The prince has some pretty cool new moves too, as well as all the old ones. He can slide down walls with his iron claw and use the woman to make extra long jumps, and a few other nifty moves. This has also changed the way in which the game reacts to things, its no longer quite as linear, both in geometry and in story line.
But more on that later.
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Gamstop has good news for gamers!
Gamestop, the world’s biggest Game retailer has declared a 57.2 Million dollar 2nd Quarter profit. The retailer is predicting a sales rise of over 23% during the remaining part of this year. Its prediction in taking into account a $50 reduction in the prices of both the Xbox 360 and PS3. Chief Operations officer, Dan DeMatteo, said in a conference call “Our guidance continues to assume the hardware price cut we talked about at the very beginning of the year, assuming there is about a $50 price cut on both the [Xbox 360] and PS3 going into the holiday season.”
The statement that confirms the rumor earlier this month that stealthgamers reported.
Dematteo also mentioned that the sales rise would continue through 2009, “because most likely what will happen is the manufacturers will begin lowering the price to keep the velocity going.”
That is some great news for gamers who currently don’t have the money to buy either one of the consoles, and best of all it is coming from a very reliable source.
If Sony or Microsoft announces a price cut it will be the first this year, since throughout the year both producers have upgraded their hardware or software to boost sales, and now it looks like they have to cut the price.
Faizan Zakir, Stealthgamers.com
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Infinite Undiscovery Unveiled!
Triace has just unveiled its latest fantasy RPG called Infinite Undiscovery, the game is set in a real-time world consisting of countless threads, each of which will spin an untold discovery.
The players action with each discorery will have a real-time effect on the world.
Players will face a range of spectacular “situational battles” such as carrying out an audacious escape while a mammoth ogre follows in hot pursuit, or engaging in combat amongst soaring tidal waves. The dynamic environments alter and respond instantly to the players instructions, creating a completely new experience never prior to seen in the genre.
Real-time action combat, exploration, all in a seamless world, in the same enviroment. The live battles bring the vibrant fighting episodes of the STAR OCEAN series out of the traditional battle feild into a beautiful and lavish environment.
Created with the combined expertise of oth Square Enix and tri-Ace, promising an unforgetable experience.
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Naughty Dog: only utilizing 30 or 40%’ of PS3’s power
Naughty Dog designer Richard Lemarchand has confidence in Sony’s new low-level programming tools, which are targeted at encouraging encouraging coders to utilize the machine’s SPUs, or Synergistic Processing Units. This class of mini-RISC processors are capable of carrying out a multitude of tasks simultaneously - in order to allow a more effective computing architecture, developers have just recently started utilizing them. In Lemarchand’s viewpoint Sony’s PS3 posses the answer. Speaking in an interview with Threespeach he said:
“There’s a set of tools called Edge that were developed on the Naughty Dog premises, actually, by a group of very, very senior games programmers, some from Naughty Dog and some from elsewhere. I think it’s tremendously visionary of Sony to make these tools, which are largely low-level libraries. It’s code that runs on SPUs, and it’s to do with things like animation compression, generalized compression and rendering optimizations. These guys are really old-school programmers: guys who are always looking to shave another cycle off an operation. And part of the skill of developing for the PlayStation 3 is getting the GPU to farm jobs out to the six SPUs - seeing which SPUs are idling and can take up some of the slack in a frame-to-frame kind of way. That’s why we think we’re probably only using 30 or 40 per cent of the power of the PS3 right now, and there’s this great, untapped potential. All third-party developers can get the Edge libraries for free and are going to be able to use them in their own ways, to get more and more and more out of the PS3 over the years.”
With such unexploited potential it appears like we can anticipate from new games in the years to come.
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New Wolfenstein Shown at Quake Con!
Quake Con is currently underway and with it comes the completed promise by Activision Blizzard to dish out new assets for the anticipated remake of Castle Wolfenstein for next-gen gaming systems.
The work is being done at Endrant Studios, Raven Software. Endrant Studios is primarily working on the multiplayer aspect of the game so we know there should be both single player and multiplayer action in it.
Players will return to the boots of B.J. Blazkowicz to foil those gosh darn pesky nazis once again. Hollenshead also revealed that the new game will allow the player to recruit fighters to join in and help out with the foiling.
Also on display is the Shrell, or the other dimension Nazis are so keen on tearing open a hole to explore. The green tint is reminiscent of The Matrix while the otherworldly creatures the Nazis are likely trying to enlist bring back memories of Hellboy.
Lastly, that badass massive weapon with a blue energy blast is called a particle gun. Chances are you’ll want to snatch one up immediately upon sight.
Wolfenstein naturally will be released “when it’s done” for the PC, 360, and PC.
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Madden 09 demo released!!
Electronic Arts has announced a playable demo for Madden NFL 09 is now available for Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 via free download from Xbox Live Marketplace and the Playstation Network, respectively.
At the start of the demo, players can get a sneak peak of the new Virtual Trainer mode as they are immediately dropped into the Madden Test - used to assess a players Madden IQ. Throughout the game, a player’s Madden IQ is constantly updated and adjusted, as are the difficulty and play settings which are based on the Madden IQ. The Madden Test consists of four core game play mechanics: Passing, Rushing, Pass Defense, and Rush Defense.
Players will take over the reins of Eli Manning and the Giants with about two minutes to go and attempt to score and walk away with the NFL championship. The madden moments feature allows you to a replay a team’s golden moments in the NFL 2007 session. In the demo, the Giants Super Bowl-winning drive is the featured Madden Moment.
Celebrating 20 years, Madden NFL 09 features over 85 new features and enhancements, including the all-new Virtual Training Center, EA Sports BackTrack and the Adaptive Difficulty Engine, which tailors the experience to your individual playing style and football IQ.
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Nintendo Wii Outsells PS3 3-to-1 in Japan
The Japanese gaming magazine Enterbrain reports that the Nintendo Wii outsold Sony’s PS3 by a ratio of three to one in Japan during July.
Nintendo Wii continues to remain the best selling current generation console in the Japanese market along with several other international markets.
The report claims that Nintendo sold 171,851 units of the Wii last month compared to 54,823 units of the PS3. These figures are for the four weeks which ended on July 27.
Sony however had a lead over Nintendo in the handheld gaming console market. Sony PSP sold 256,765 units compared to 217,639 units for Nintendo DS.
The electronics giant will retail a new $399 PS3 80GB SKU this fall, representing a $100 price cut from the current 80GB model.
Sony this month recorded a Q1 profit of $50.5 million (5.4 billion yen) profit in its game division compared to a loss of $273.3 million (29.2 billion yen) one year prior.
Nintendo this week reported a 32 percent jump in quarterly operating profit, driven by the runaway success of the Wii, which is enjoying strong demand thanks to its easy-to-learn motion-sensing controller, low price and innovative titles such as the “Wii Fit” exercise game.
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PS3 Set to Cash in on Blue-Ray advantage!
Could the Xbox 360 version of id Software’s Rage look worse on the Xbox 360 than on the PlayStation 3? Speaking at the ongoing QuakeCon event in Dallas, Texas, id Software co-founder John Carmack warned that two-DVD compression - as opposed to a single Blu-ray disc - could degrade the the forthcoming action title’s look.
According to Shacknews Carmack noted three DVDs will be needed for the Xbox 360 version, although royalty fees to include a third disc would rule out this option. Unless Microsoft makes a concession, id will be forced to release the game on two DVDs with heavy compression, thus making the game look worse than the PS3 version.
Carmack stressed that the issue is entirely related to storage and has nothing to do with the Xbox 360 hardware. However, he added that the PS3’s Blu-ray does give the console an advantage.
The worst thing is that this s coming at a time when the PS3 closing in on the gap in Xbox sales. Microsoft will have to find a solution quick enough to prevent the PS3 from being the most profitable console for game makers.
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