Gran Turismo Review

A collective holy sh*t has probably dropped from every last one of you guys reading this. Or maybe not. Yes, you're looking at a Gran Turismo review that has scored, for the first time ever, nowhere near the practically perfect grades we've graced this franchise with since day one. Okay, maybe some of you have read some of the other reviews out there and are aware that something has gone really wrong. Well, first off, allow me to preface the remainder of this review by stating that Gran Turismo for the PSP has, allegedly, been in development for five years. I say allegedly, because I'm certain that the development cycle for the game had been temporarily sidelined numerous times in between all of the work Polyphony had to do for the PlayStation 2 and PlayStation 3. Gran Turismo's development was most certainly not a continuous effort of five years...and unfortunately, it shows.

Now, after re-reading this review, it definitely comes off harsh, but with good reason. Gran Turismo PSP is a flawed game. But, on the other hand, I still had a lot of fun with it, as at its core, GT PSP is still very enjoyable, accessible, and fun game. I put in tons and tons of hours into the game just making money and collecting cars, which is one of the purposes of GT PSP. Many of these cars are transferable, allowing you to sync GT PSP to GT5 and transfer cars you've bought or won into your PS3 game. Again, GT PSP is a very fun game. But a "fully specced Gran Turismo", Kazunori Yamauchi said, this is not.

The first major disappointment came when I realized the tiny little size of the game file Sony had forwarded me. 937MB? Gran Turismo 2 was a PlayStation 1 game and it boasted two separate discs, essentially making it a game worth 1.2GB. Okay, so I held out hope. So the game boots up, and immediately I run to the dealership to look through the list of amazing cars, only to realize I can only choose between Bugatti, Bentley, Chevy, and Polyphony. "Oh," I said, "Sony must've sent me a demo file accidentally. Oh, those crazy guys, I'll just contact them agai...what? This is normal?" You see, as the days cycle in-game, the dealerships you can browse through change, as do the cars you can buy.

Allow me to explain in a bit more detail. When you boot up the game, you'll have four dealers to access and 100,000 credits to spend on a car, which is a gracious sum. Once you buy a car, you can participate in a few events. As the days roll on in the game, a new set of four dealerships will be made available to you. But, just because you can access a Nissan dealer, doesn't mean you can have the ability to buy any of their cars. No, no. If you don't see a GT-R or a 300ZX TT, you have to wait until the next time Nissan becomes one of the four dealers you can shop at and see if the assortment of cars features the ones you want. Yes, it's that complicated, confusing, and stupid.

Some of you may say, "but Arnold, why didn't you mention this in your GT PSP hands-on preview? Why is this such a shock to you?" Because when I played Gran Turismo PSP a few months ago at a New York City event, I recall being able to sort through a complete listing of every car in the game, through every single make; none of this four dealers only bullcrap. So to see this absolute lunacy on my PSP, in a game I had so long waited for made me livid, quite frankly, as I'm sure you can tell by the tone of this diatribe.

But things get worse, as GT PSP commits the ultimate sin, in my eyes. No customization. Sure, you can enter the game's Quick Tune menu and adjust suspension components such as camber, toe, ride-height, spring rate, and damper, but that leaves the other half of the gearhead spectrum (the straight line guys) alone in the dark. Yes, you can add some horsepower to your car, but you can only do it for drift trial mode. And you're not actually adding any components, you're just increasing a little slider that adds up to 20% more power to the car you're in.

Honestly, I could sit here and ramble about how utterly stupid this is. GT has always been about taking a car and making it faster, in some cases, absurdly fast. I've spent dozens and dozens of hours in GT4 just taking random cars that I like in real life, buy every little component for them to see just how much of a difference it makes around a specific track and in the 1/4 mile. GT PSP has taken all of that away from me, and has left me with an open-ended single-player mode that allows me to choose a car, track, set the number of laps (1-120) and race on it against three others. Yes, the total number of cars per track is not eight or even six, it's four, including you. And once you win a race, you earn prize money, and then you have the ability of racing that same track three more times. You see, the first time you race, you race it on an easy difficulty rank called D. Once you win, you can race against C-rank racers, then B, and then A.

The game boasts a total of 800 cars, but only 200-250 of those are actually unique models. And there are 35 tracks, with a total of 70 different layouts and variations. Unfortunately, there are some key tracks missing, most importantly, both Special Stage Route 5 and 11, series staples. I've also noticed that no aesthetic changes have been made to real life tracks such as New York City, to reflect their modern day changes. For example, the New York City track in GT4 depicted an area of Manhattan known as Columbus Circle (the roundabout portion), back when GT4 was developed and released, the area was under a lot of construction, so understandably the in-game track reflects that with cranes and such all around the area. But, five years later, Columbus Circle is brimming with beauty as the Time Warner building has been long finished...but unfortunately, the in-game track shows none of that detail, and instead looks precisely as it did in GT4. This tells me someone was forced to take away Polyphony's attention to detail and, in turn, forced to maybe...rush the game in time for the PSP Go launch?

I'm not quite done, yet, though. You see, beyond the standard races are also the Driving Challenges, which are nothing more than License Tests in disguise, and are not a requisite here. Although, taking 15 minutes and completing a few set of challenges will unlock the custom soundtrack feature, and they are strangely addictive, as well. Moreover, they're good for accumulating a ton of money in a relatively short time-span. And if you really dig the challenges, upon completing them, the game will reward you with a whole new bonus set.

Lastly, the multiplayer here is...well, disappointing. There is no online to speak of. None. Not even a meager two player battle. You're limited to four-player Ad-hoc, which is great and all, but finding someone, let alone three others, with a PSP and a copy of the game directly next to you is very unlikely. And I highly doubt you'll be making an event on Facebook inviting any would-be competitors to a multiplayer session at your house. Beyond a few new tracks and Professional physics loosely based on GT5's, Polyphony added little-to-nothing to make this GT feel fresher and revised.

Visually, the game looks really great. It's running at 60 frames per second and boasts some really nice car models for a handheld title. It's not quite Gran Turismo 4 caliber stuff, but if the framerate was brought down to 30, it probably could've been. Regardless, beyond the slick car models and super framerate, do lie some visual issues. Seams break up and textures and polygons all over the screen frequently, and it's more noticeable in some stages than others. These seams are white lines that run across various parts of the stages, flickering about. Also, there is no light emitting from the brake-lights of cars, as it's just a red and flat texture that gets drawn on when you hit the brakes...cheap. Moreover, the rims are two-dimensional and paper-flat when in a race, which I thought ended with GT4, but I guess PD couldn't get even that going on the PSP. Again, all in all, this is a very good looking game, but it does fall short in a lot of places I didn't expect it to, and it kind of takes a lot away from the overall look and feel. Shame.

The audio is acceptable, and you can hear that Polyphony put in a decent amount of work into the sound, especially when the PSP is running through an external speaker of some sort. The standard soundtrack is pretty good stuff, but the ability of a custom soundtrack is what I love most. Sound effects such as tires screeching and crashes are pulled right out of GT4, which is good and bad. It's good since they weren't that bad sounding to begin with. But it's bad because, well, not being bad doesn't mean they couldn't be improved on or made to sound a bit newer or fresher. Also, I noticed that a lot of the cars don't quite sound like their actual counterparts, as their engine and exhaust notes don't roar like they should - I mean honestly, a Ferrari Enzo sounds like a wind-up car in the game. The American V8s sound burbly and nice, but a lot of cars with defining characteristics in their engine/exhaust notes are missing said characteristics.

As you can see, I'm one of the few critics who isn't annoyed with this game for its lack of an expansive Career mode. Quite frankly, to me, the career is there with the open-ended single-player races. What bothers me is the lack of the fundamentals, the very basic and general things that have made Gran Turismo such a superb game. Yes, the physics are great, yes there's a ton of cars and tracks, and yes, despite all of these drawbacks the game is still quite a bit of fun. But this is a game that could've been perfect, it could've been the epitome of handheld to console ports, but instead it continues the age-old pessimism of handheld iterations of console blockbusters being nothing more than stripped down quick-flings. If there was one brand, one developer, one game franchise to end that stereotype, it should've been PlayStation, it should've been Polyphony, and it should've been Gran Turismo.

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Geoff Keighley announces The Final Hours of Mass Effect 3

Geoff Keighley, host of SpikeTV's GTTV, has officially announced his next project, "The Final Hours of Mass Effect 3." Keighley tweeted today, "I'm excited to announce my new project, The Final Hours of Mass Effect 3. Sign up at http://www.me3finalhours.com to be notified of release."

According to the website, The Final Hours of Mass Effect 3 will take you behind the scenes at BioWare to unveil all of Mass Effect 3's mysteries. In addition, the project will include interviews with various spokespeople at BioWare, including the notorious Casey Hudson:

Take a trip inside BioWare to experience The Final Hours of Mass Effect 3, one of the most anticipated video games of 2012. Reporting from Edmonton, Canada, journalist Geoff Keighley (The Final Hours of Portal 2) was granted unprecedented access to document the creation of this epic sci-fi trilogy, with insights from the team, led by executive producer Casey Hudson.

By entering your email address, you will be notified of the project's release date when it becomes available. Mass Effect 3 has been a thrill ride thus far, and we're excited to see the work that it takes to create such a vast galaxy with in-depth characters and races. Will you be joining Keighley in The Final Hours of Mass Effect 3? Let us know your thoughts on the upcoming project by commenting below.

Source: [The Final Hours of Mass Effect 3]

Shoot Many Robots Review

ndie developer Demiurge Studios cuts right to the point with the title of Shoot Many Robots. Blowing away mechanical hordes of bad guys is what this simple-yet-addictive actioner for Xbox Live Arcade and the PlayStation Network is all about, so there is no mystery as to what you get. You may not get anything like originality here, but you do get a lot of robot-shooting action for the $10 asking price, along with such amenities as a huge range of weapons and gear, full co-op support in the campaign, and a great sense of humor.

You take on the role of P. Walter Tugnut, an amiable hick who manages to deal with a robot apocalypse just fine until the metal bastards blow up his truck. From that point on, it's war. So you hop into your RV and head off on a kill-crazy expedition to make the walking toasters pay for wrecking your ride. And, uh, for destroying all of humanity. That too.

That's it for the storyline. From there, the gameplay is all about shooting many thousands of robots. The RV serves as a command base where you trick yourself out with various weapons and other gear in the bathroom before hitting up a map by the steering wheel to select a destination. Standard platform carnage ensues. You tromp, stomp, jump, slide, and brawl across well over a dozen levels in the campaign, either solo or with up to three buddies in co-op. Combat plays out from left to right, with you blasting everything that moves with two weapons: a shooter with infinite ammo and a cannon with limited shells. Kills result in leveling up. Dead bots explode into nuts that you collect to buy new weapons and armor. If you kill fast enough, you trigger combos that multiply nut numbers up to five times. Bottles of beer (juice in the oddly alcohol-free PlayStation version of the game, which seems otherwise identical to the Xbox 360 one) are chugged to earn health. Movement is handled with the left stick, while everything else is done with the face and trigger buttons.

Yes, you've seen it all before, but Shoot Many Robots has a certain flair to it. The game has a great sense of humor that isn't confined solely to the hillbilly stuff that could have been abused to beat you over the head with one-liners. Instead, you get a surreal Serious Sam vibe to everything, mostly courtesy of the huge selection of bizarre weapons and gear. Items get progressively more absurd as you go, with Walt soon able to use his nuts to buy automatic weapons like the 110 percent American assault rifle, a blunderbuss, a beer (juice) helmet that lets you hang onto more brewskies (juiceskis?), shiny chaps that increase sliding skill, a Tam o' Shanter hat that boosts damage, and so forth.

Every item is given an appropriately weird description, as well as absurd stats, such as the Scottish hat's supposed ability to increase brogue. Gear greatly customizes what you can do out on the dance floor. You can go for fast shooters or slow blasters, headgear that buffs damage or increases health, a backpack that adds ammo or lets you hover in midair--that sort of thing. Gear can be switched up in dramatic ways to favor a personal playing style.

The action itself doesn't vary much, although there is a blend of all-out speedy insanity and more measured shooting. There are just a few robot types in the game, but they feature enough differences among them to keep things interesting. You have to contend with masses of rushing grunt troops that look like robot scorpions with chainsaws in place of stingers, krush-kill-destroy humanoid bots, charging automatons with armored fronts that demand rear assaults, and a range of gun turrets. Sometimes, you need to hit them hard with concentrated fire; sometimes, you need to sit back and deflect larger turret bullets back at targets with flicks of your wrist; and sometimes, you need to jump all over the place to avoid attacks. Levels come in Standard mode, where you fight to the end and then kill a boss to move on, as well as a Survival mode, where you try to outlast a wave of robots. There is some repetition here, though. Level art is regurgitated a fair bit, as are boss fights like a foundry battle that you go through over and over again, with the only difference being the steady escalation of having to kill more robots.

Shoot Many Robots becomes monotonous with time, but there is a hypnotic quality that sucks you into it. Pulling yourself away may be hard, especially when playing in co-op. The pace is steady; the killing is gratuitous, as well as suitably explosive with loads of boomy sound effects; and the range of weapons along with other goodies are varied enough to keep you going. Just seeing what sort of whacked-out murder device you uncover next has a perverse appeal all of its own. Checkpoints are well placed, saving your progress before big fights without forcing you to repeat tough battles often.

All of the mayhem unfolds before handsome cel-shaded levels with varied, mostly destructible landscapes, such as Walt's rural countryside, a bombed-out city, and a Sonic-like foundry with molten steel or whatever else it might be that flows everywhere. The only visual problem is that the interface gets in the way too often, especially when dealing with flying foes that get lost in the meters and other stats at the top of the screen. Levels also have replay value because you are given a star rating based on the number of nuts collected that is impossible to max out the first time you complete one. Also, you need a certain number of total stars to unlock new levels, which pretty much forces you to backtrack at some point.

It may be mindless and repetitive, but it's still easy to get drawn into Shoot Many Robots. The one-trick gameplay has enough humor and weapon variety to make it a good buy if you're looking to shut your brain down for a while.

Source : asia.gamespot.com

Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown preview

When Sega first released Virtua Fighter 5 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, it entertained the masses with its slick animation engine, quality 3D backdrops, and elegant fighting style. The 360 version came with extensive online fighting options, making it a clear-cut winner — for the time being — with players who earned their skills in the arcade. Since that time, fighting games have moved on extensively, between Capcom’s crossover brawling affairs and Midway’s rebooted Mortal Kombat. Now Sega is eager to get back into the ring with a new version of Virtua Fighter — one that offers a number of new options and a much cheaper price. We recently got a chance to try it out at the company’s Digital Day event in San Francisco.

First off, most of the options that were in the original game are present in the Final Showdown expansion. You’ll find all the modes included, along with a Practice Dojo. Here, you’ll attempt to complete objectives and master moves using one of the game’s numerous characters. It’s a great mode to simply pass the time with or perfect your skills before you head online to take on the world.

Yes, for the first time in the series (the original game didn’t offer it), Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown will bring online play to the PlayStation Network. (It’ll be compatible with Xbox Live Arcade as well.) The game will introduce a great new matchmaking feature, where you won’t always be paired up against those who could thrash you in a heartbeat with the drunken Shun Di. Instead, it carefully examines your skill level and pairs you up against someone with an equal set-up, so you stand a better chance of winning the match. You’ll still have a fight on your hands, though, so be ready.

Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown’s cast of characters is quite the delight. A lot of old favorites return, including the leather-clad Sarah Bryant, still as sexy as ever; the traditional brawler Akira, who also appears in Dead Or Alive 5 (obviously, he’s much more natural here); the crazy Shun Di, who powers up with a new move every time he takes a swig from his bottle; and the returning Taka-Arashi, a Sumo wrestler who first debuted in Virtua Fighter 3. A new character, Jean Kujo, also joins the fracas, bringing a number of charge moves that make him devastating.

For a downloadable fighter, Virtua Fighter 5 looks razor sharp. The environments are somehow better than in the previous retail version, though the animations continue to be spot on, from Sarah’s spin kick to some of Shun Di’s more ridiculous grabs. It’s a polished engine, and the best Virtua Fighter we’ve seen to date. The audio is still what it is, with voices that either fit a character or make them sound worse (at least Sarah sounds nice) and decent background music.

But gameplay is the main draw here, and we’re happy to report it’s completely intact. During the demonstration, Sega broke out the deluxe fighting sticks to show just how dedicated the game is. It feels just right, between setting up Sarah’s lightning kick attacks and Wolf’s crazy wrestling moves. We didn’t have a problem executing any of the moves, even in the thick of a versus battle. Granted, your performance may vary if you’re using a regular Xbox 360 controller, but fighting fans will feel right at home here.

Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown is yet another awesome release in Sega’s digital library, and one that fighting fans will definitely want to save some time for when it debuts this summer.

Source : www.gamezone.com

Ninja Gaiden 3 review

Not everyone is going to be accepting of the fact that Ninja Gaiden 3 exists without the assistance of former Team Ninja leader Tomonobu Itagaki. For the longest time, this producer defined what the hardcore ninja experience is supposed to be, and since his hasty departure from Tecmo Koei’s camp, many were wondering how the legendary Ryu Hayabusa would fare without him. Well, now that the game’s here, we can honestly say that, yes, it is a different venture for him, but that doesn’t mean it sucks. In fact, this ninja is still as sharp as ever, mind a slight misstep or two.

The third chapter follows Ryu as he carves his way through an enemy army, before coming face-to-mask with an evil alchemist who has a trick up his sleeve in the way of sorcery. Following a fierce battle, Ryu finds his arm infected with a strange demonic force. Desperate to get back to his normal self – and save the world in the process – Ryu sets out on his most difficult task yet, stopping this madman and his mutant army.

Yeah, the story goes off the rails at times, but that’s just part of the fun. One minute, Ryu finds himself in a test facility, facing off against mutating creatures and narrowly escaping death by jumping across chasms; the next, he comes face to face with a robotically enhanced T-Rex, charging at him from all directions and then, just when you think he’s disposed off, popping up again. This is probably the most lively we’ve seen the Ninja Gaiden series be, even if it’s slightly unbelievable.

To make the gameplay feel a little more fleshed out, Tecmo added a few things to the sequel. For instance, you can now climb up walls using your daggers, and while it takes a bit of practice (one hand needs to be firmly planted or you’ll lose grip), it’s an interesting new technique. You can also call upon occasional dragon ninpo to clear the screen in an explosion of brightly lit fire, or use your demon arm to cut some enemies to shreds in a hurry. There are quick-time events too, though they aren’t nearly as annoying as we’ve seen in previous games. In fact, some are pretty damn slick, particularly when you’re getting the jump on a surprising enemy, stabbing him without looking.

The controls retain the same hack and slash action we’ve gotten used to. While we’re a bit sad that you can’t chop off limbs like you could in Ninja Gaiden II, there’s still plenty of blood to spill, which is a good thing. And while things do get slightly repetitive (you’re stuck with the main sword at first, though more weapons are coming via DLC), it’s still quick, ninja-enabled fun, so if you’re a fan of that, it’s still intact.

Graphically, Ninja Gaiden 3 may not have evolved much from the previous game, but parts of it still look quite fantastic. Both the indoor and outdoor environments look great (particularly the dusty deserts of Saudi Arabia), and the animation is razor sharp, right down to Ryu’s cool little “ghosting” ability with some attacks. There are times the frame rate drops a bit when the combat gets somewhat heavy, but never to the point that it becomes lackluster. And the camera manages okay, though there are slight occasions it gets stuck behind a wall. No biggie.

As for the dialogue, it’s acceptable. Not to say it’s not cheesy at times, as enemies repeat the same thing over and over (“Damn ninja!”) and the alchemist is a little too show-offish for his own good, but we’ve heard worse.

Along with a main story mode, which will take you a few hours (maybe longer on Hardcore difficulty), you also get some pretty good online content. A co-op mode has you team up with a fellow ninja for various Spec Ops-style missions, relying heavily on teamwork. There’s also a cool little four-on-four team deathmatch kind of mode, which may not be heavy on strategy, but still packs plenty of bloodshed. Nothing wrong with that.

So maybe Ninja Gaiden 3 doesn’t raise the bar like some fans may be expecting it to be, but overall, it’s still a worthwhile sequel, especially when it comes to its crazy boss battles (I'm telling you, that T-Rex is NUTS), great online compatibility and an above-average presentation. What it lacks in the “Itagaki touch”, it more than makes up for with some impressive “slice-and-dice”.

Source : gamezone.com