Playstation 3

Why I like Ratchet and Clank

 I’ve asked myself this question many a time ever since I started playing these games back in the early days of the PlayStation 2 and I still come back to the same answer: simplicity and fun.

There was a time not long ago when simply being fun was good enough for most games, when giant weaving stories weren’t required, when narrative was a secondary feature at most, when all that mattered was whether or not what you were doing was rubbing the pleasure center of your brain in the way only a truly enjoyable experience can.   Now I’m not saying the evolution of gaming as a medium to revolve more around things besides raw entertainment is bad, nor am I saying that a game with a great story and a lot of mature, meaningful content cannot co-exist with a more traditionally fun experience since after all, we have countless titles this generation that demonstrate as much.

Ni No Kuni Annouced for European and US release on PS3

Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White King has all the trappings of being a great game.  Developed by Level-5 (makers of the Professor Layton series) and published by Namco Bandai, the hands that are crafting this game are no strangers to making great and quirky RPGs that not only intrigue, but also enamor with that Level-5 charm.  In addition to Level-5, Ni No Kuni is being co-developed with anime masters Studio Ghibli, who may not have a large video game record to boast, but have many films under their belts that will lend very kindly to the development of this game.

Catwoman Needs an Online Pass

Nope, the title of this news isn’t meant to confuse you. Catwoman does indeed require an online pass to be unlocked in Batman: Arkham City.

While online passes are hardly a new thing; EA has been doing them for years now, and every other publisher under the sun seems to be following in their footsteps, includes Warner Bros.  For those of you who have pre-purchased or are planning to buy Batman: Arkham City new, this news is of little concern to you, but anyone who wishes to wait for a used copy of the game should understand that the feline felon’s segments will be inaccessible to anyone without an online pass.

Uncharted 3’s Buddy System and Treasures

Today, Naughtydog posted on the PlayStation Blog explaining a cool aspect of Uncharted 3‘s multiplayer.

The Buddy System as they call it is an interesting new part of Uncharted 3’s multiplayer that rewards people for playing in pairs in the various competitive team modes of Uncharted 3.  To request someone be your buddy in any online match, you simply need to stand aside them and press the d-pad down.  If they agree to be buddies from that point onwards, any kills or tasks you both are working on will reward extra experience and treasures if you work well together.  Occasionally, enemy players will drop a treasure unique to you and your buddy.  It may be for them or you, but regardless who claims it, extra points and medals will be rewarded.  Likewise for performing something like a high-five (a taunt unique to being paired with a buddy) you are also rewarded more experience and more medals.

PAYDAY: The Heist Official Release Confirmed

After a brief delay PAYDAY: The Heist is finally ready for its big day.  Announced on the PlayStation Blog, October 18th is the day PAYDAY: The Heist
hits the PlayStation Network.  Developer OVERKILL and Sony Online
Entertainment originally delayed the game to further polish the title
and insure you, the gamer, has the best experience while playing their
game.

Vita US Launch Dated and Detailed

In early 2012, sometime before March, Sony will be launching the PlayStation Vita in America following the Japanese launch this year on December 17th.

Sony has now detailed how customers will be able to acquire games for the system, stating it will come with several means of purchase on day one.  In an interview with GDC Online, Chris Norden, senior staff developer support engineer at Sony, stated that all games will have both retail and digital copies available at the same time, similarly to how PC games are now released at stores and through services like Steam.  Price differences, if any, have not yet been discussed.  3G will be available for use when downloading on the PSN Vita service, as is typical with modern phones, though the 20 megabyte cap will prevent many games from being acquired this way. The second option is standard Wi-Fi which no doubt most games will use if bought digitally due to their size.

The Wonderful World of Live Streaming

I was never the best of my friends at video games.  Due to my disability and the increasingly shooter heavy selection of games, if I ever wanted to play, I found myself trying to do with one hand what Mountain Dew filled 12 year olds across the globe were doing with two, which led to a two-fold conclusion; first, my KD ratio would be much higher in the D area than the K, which in turn created the second, which was that I stopped playing shooters for the most part.  But while I stopped playing them myself, I still occasionally wanted to see the top level play that created the intrigue to play the game in the first place, and this is where I found Ustream.tv.  For those who don’t know what Ustream.tv is, it is a place where people can stream what they are doing live, so you can essentially watch an event as if you were there.  Ustream had thousands of streamers that would stream everything from sports to politics, but what I was most interested in was the games.  On Ustream, I could watch top-level players playing pretty much any game that could be played, and while the majority were a lot of Starcraft 2 and LoL/HoN players, if I searched, I could find someone playing whatever game I was in the mood for.  On the release of LA Noire, there were at least 15 channels that were broadcasting the game, and while a large part of LA Noire is the story which could be ruined, live streaming provided that look into the game that you could get before buying to make sure that it is something that you wanted.