As expected, Sony dropped a bomb on journalists at last night’s press conference in the form of the PSP2. Only it wasn’t actually called the PSP2. Perhaps looking to get away from the mild disaster that was the original PSP, a system that was riddled with hacks and generally lacked a compelling software lineup, Sony has nicknamed their newest handheld system the NGP, or the Next Generation Portable.
Remember those Playstation phone rumors that have been circling around for the last few months? Well Sony finally gave them credence at last night’s press conference, but not in the form that we were all expecting. Instead of unveiling a Playstation-branded phone, as many had assumed would happen, Kaz Hirai announced the “Playstation Suite,” which “provides PlayStation content to other devices,” such as Android-based phones.
I suppose it’s Red Faction Day on the internet, because Direct2Drive and Impulse are both selling a different game in that series today. If you want the original Red Faction, you can get it for $2.50 on Direct2Drive.com as their daily offering during THQ Week. If you’re more into new and shiny games, you could opt to get the latest installment in the franchise, Red Faction Guerrilla at ImpulseDriven.com for five dollars. Both of these are for today, Thursday the 27th only. Now let’s take a look at what else is on sale this weekend.
The upcoming shooter Homefront by Kaos Studios and THQ takes place 16 years in the future, after America has been invaded by Korea. With the help of screenwriter John Milius who wrote Red Dawn and Apocalypse Now, the developers have created an elaborate speculative history to explain how this comes about. Part of the marketing strategy for the game deals with faux video footage of these fictional events mixed in with real newsfootage regarding North Korea.
We’ve seen a handful of downloadable multiplayer-only shooter games in the last year, such as Battfield 1943, Monday Night Combat, and the less-successful Blacklight: Tango Down. Now there’s a new entry into this subgenre; Breach by Atomic Games.
Breach is a military game set in the present day. It uses classes, with customizable equipment, an active cover system, unlockable perks, and highly destructible environments. On the whole it feels like a combination of popular elements of other shooter games wrapped up in a new franchise, and well, that’s pretty much what it is. But that isn’t necessarily a bad thing for shooter fans looking for their next conquest.
Crysis 2, the first direct sequel German studio Crytek has done, has been of an unknown quality up to this point. The game looks better than ever, but most people haven’t gotten to actually get their hands on the game and see how well it played. Now EA and Crytek have released a demo (Consoles only), and we can finally tell how the game works in person. The demo is multiplayer only, with two game modes and one map. Quantity isn’t important though, as what players are clamoring for is the gameplay, and what will ultimately be judged in this demo. This may not be a surprise to you, but, the demo is great. The gameplay is satisfying, the upgrades are meaningful, the map design is impressive, and the graphics are incredible.
Platinum Games, the developers of titles such as Bayonetta and Vanquish, are teaming up once again with Sega to present “Max Anarchy,” as they continue their trend of excellent names. Something they won’t continue is the standard singleplayer action, as Max Anarchy will be an “online combat game,” along the lines of titles such as Breach and Section 8, I would suppose.
The oddest thing about this announcement is that Jack, the main character from Platinum Games’ largely forgotten hyper-violent third person action game, Madworld, will be a playable character in Max Anarchy. Leading me to believe there may be some tie-in between the two games’ setting(s). Another odd thing is that Jack will be in full color, though in Madworld
he was purely black and white, apart from the occasional red blood splatter that would fly on him.
