It will come to nobody’s surprise that there will be another iteration of the WWE series of video games this year. Last year, the focus was on the console versions, which meant no portable iteration for either the Playstation Portable or 3DS. However, with the Playstation Vita having similar features to current generation consoles, it is worth asking whether the game will head to Sony’s next portable.
Well, one fan decided to ask that question on Twitter. The question was asked on the Twitter feed of THQ Tank, which is the official Twitter feed for the THQ Community Manager who takes care of the WWE and UFC games. This was the exchange
Q: are thq planning to make wwe 13 for the psvita?
A: no we are not
For those who wanted the WWE experience on the go, your best bet would be purchasing the PSP (or DS) and buying those games as the Vita will not see a WWE game this year.
In an interview with Game Informer, Sony Worldwide Studios president Shuhei Yoshida has revealed that he would prefer to release fewer first party games in the future so that each of them gets a stronger focus in terms of advertising and marketing. Sony are well-known for releasing an abundance of first party games, but it seems that most have not reached the sales numbers the company had expected. Meanwhile, a Microsoft second party exclusive, Gears of War 3, sold more copies than some of the Sony first party exclusives combined.
This is what Yoshida said when asked about the low sales of Sony first party games:
“It’s a combination of many things. First, we have to be very honest about our games’ quality as well. We love our games, but we can point out many issues when you look at the titles individually.
“Another thing is focus. When you have ten games coming out in a year compared to two or three, how much focus you get from our business and marketing side is very hard. From a portfolio side, we were very excited about the games we had last year, but we probably diluted support for each title.”
Yoshida does have a point. For all of the games that Sony pushed out last year, how many of them received great focus? Uncharted 3 was pushed heavily in 2011, but what about Resistance 3, which failed to pass the one million mark, despite being an excellent game. How about LittleBigPlanet 2? The Move received its second wave of games, but were they pushed to the moon? But is a smaller output of games the solution? Yoshida thinks so to a certain degree:
“It’s easy to say, “Yeah, let’s make three games a year.” But game development is dynamic. You cannot plan to do that. You already have to have a certain number of games in the pipeline hoping they hit in a certain year. We love working on new IPs. It’s really hard to predict when these games get finished.
“It’s a challenge, but I think we could and probably should be focused on a smaller number of titles so each one gets the best support.”
It seems that Sony Computer Entertainment is at a crossroad. They want to increase sales, which means a bigger presence in the field of marketing, which Sony lacks right now. With the amount of games released, that is near impossible, so fewer games would be the path taken. However, if there is a smaller output of games, then games that are considered a big risk (usually more innovative or unique) will never reach production. Take, for example, Heavy Rain. The interactive drama would have never reached the production stage under Microsoft or even Nintendo. Only Sony would take the risk to develop the game. Heavy Rain is now considered a milestone in interactive storytelling.
With that in mind, should Sony produce and develop fewer games or should they continue with their current strategy? Write down your thoughts below. You can also check out what Yoshida said about Demon Souls, The Last Guardian and the Playstation Vita right here.
Sony Worldwide Studios president Shuhei Yoshida has revealed a few things about the handling of Demon Souls, The Last Guardian and his thoughts on the Japanese Playstation Vita launch in an interview conducted by Game Informer. Yoshida’s answers are quite honest and thought provoking, bringing an insight rarely seen in the video game world. Plus, it seems that what he has said is pretty much what everyone is thinking.
First up, he talks about the Playstation Vita launch in Japan. He revealed that, despite the drop in sales after the first two days on the market, where 325,000 units were sold, sales are still within expectations. But, compared to their higher expectation, they are disappointed. He identifies two reasons, which he explains below:
There are two major differences. One is the type of lineup that we had for the launch. Games like Uncharted are not a big name in Japan. Hopefully it’s growing in awareness like Call of Duty or Grand Theft Auto. It’s not like this game will sell a million units. Gamers in Japan want games catered to their tastes. From that standpoint we didn’t have a strong lineup for the Japanese market.
The second is the PSP. We’re advertising PSP on TV while advertising Vita. So it’s three portables in Japan.
Yes, they are two valid reasons why the Playstation Vita isn’t selling in higher numbers. However, he does manage to avoid a third reason: price. With both the PSP and Nintendo’s 3DS selling at a lower price point (and with Monster Hunter by their side), consumers won’t fork out for a system with games they do not want to play. Add in the extra cost of said game/s and the memory stick and it becomes a turn off. Digital sales were also discussed. Yoshida revealed that digital sales are growing, but didn’t give a specific number. He also believes that the digital platform will be the number one choice for games over retail if there are smaller games coming out for the system
The Last Guardian and its director, Fumito Ueda, also came up in the interview. Yoshida revealed that “Ueda-san has never left the team. It’s a change of his work status from being an employee to working as a contract.” So he hasn’t left Team Ico, he just works on a contract basis. Team Ico is part of Sony’s Japan Studios, who are behind the upcoming Playstation Vita game Gravity Rush. They have a new head in the form of Allan Becker. He helped found the Santa Monica Studio, who are behind the God of War series, so he knows his way around the Playstation brand. Yoshida added,
“I asked him to move to Japan to instill his philosophy of making games. He’s also bringing these two different cultures together. He started in April last year as the head of the Japan studio and has already made a big impact.”
So, what about The Last Guardian? Yoshida reveals its current progress:
“It’s making progress. There have been technical issues and the engineering team is reworking it. It’s playable, but not to the level of when we can say it’s coming.”
The interview then shifts to Demon Souls. Sony owns the IP, while From Software developed the game. However, both Atlus and Namco Bandai took care of the publishing in North America and Europe respectively. Why did Sony pass up on the publishing duties. Yoshida reveals his thoughts:
“For my personal experience with Demon’s Souls, when it was close to final I spent close to two hours playing it and after two hours I was still standing at the beginning at the game. I said, “This is crap. This is an unbelievably bad game.” So I put it aside.
“Luckily, third party publishers, Atlus in North America and Namco in Europe [stepped in], and it really became a great hit outside of Japan.
“We definitely dropped the ball from a publishing standpoint, including studio management side. We were not able to see the value of the product we were making.”
So an interesting insight with Yoshida. He makes some valid points, but he does avoid the pricing issue with the Vita. However, considering the tech behind it, I do not know why people would want Sony to drop it even further. Even then, he recognises some problems and wants to rectify the situation. Yoshida also commented on the amount of games Sony puts out and how he believes that it may harm each game. You can check it out here.
Kaz Hirai will take over the reigns over at Sony as head honcho on April 1 after being announced as Howard Stringer’s successor last month. He will inherit a a massive problem as Sony continues to post losses year after year. Sony forecasts a US$2.9 billion loss for this financial year. With problems within the company, including their television division, which is sinking faster than the Titanic, Hirai needs to come up with a strategy. It seems that he will use the Playstation strategy, where both hardware and software is linked via online services, to rescue the Japanese electronics giant.
In a group interview at Sony HQ in Tokyo, Hirai described the Sony Computer Entertainment model as “a bigger concept we can grow into a bigger space.” He also adds that “hardware drives software and software drives hardware,” an idea one learns in the game industry. Profits from a system is usually made on the software side. Without the games to back up a system, how does the system sell? If Hirai can manage such a strategy with Sony’s other divisions, it may pull them out of this downward spiral of red ink.
However, before Hirai can even implement the strategy, he will have to go through the books and make some tough cost-cutting measures, which will affect the company as a whole. Their television division may be the hardest hit, losing US$11 billion dollars over the last eight years. However, the Japanese TV manufacturing industry is in free fall at the moment with the emergence of foreign competition (Samsung and LG) as well as a decline of global TV intake, which is due to on-demand entertainment available on the go.
We have a few codes to give away for BrainJewel on iOS (iPAD Only) courtesy of Tribe Play. To win simply leave a comment on MasterAbbott’s iOS Suggestions #6 and we’ll pick a few lucky winners.
We’ll pick the lucky winners once we have a few entries. Make sure you leave a valid email when you post your comment so we can send you your code via email if you win.
As many experts in information technology will be able to tell you, Cloudflare is a system designed to protect servers from attacks, as well as displaying a cached version of a website whenever it is down.
Some of you may have noticed that we were down for maintenance over the weekend. During our maintenance period, we had cleaned up our database, as well as integrated this solution into our systems. What this means for you is that our site should be mostly available to you while ever the main server is down or overwhelmed.
Now then, as some of you may have noticed, there will be an occasional Cloudflare error that appears. These are caused by a few factors, such as the Cloudflare server not having a cached version of the page you’re looking for, or some other reason. From what I know about the system, it will automatically add pages to the system as well as do a snapshot of the site every four hours or so.
So basically, how to fix this error? It is pretty easy. You can press the refresh button to see if the live version of the site is back up, this will also check Cloudflare to see if a cached version is available. Ultimately, this should bring up some kind of webpage that you can view. If this still does not work, you can go into your internet options and clear your offline files / cache. This should kill the local version of the webpage that you’re trying to view, which could be the Cloudflare error page, and it should try and pull a new version of the site on your next refresh.
Ultimately, if the site is still unresponsive, you can be patient and try back later. We are taking steps to increase the stability of our site and this Cloudflare solution is one of those steps.
Call of Cthulhu: The Wasted Land
Developer: Red Wasp Design
Publisher: Red Wasp Design
Platforms: iPad (Reviewed), iPhone (Reviewed), iPod Touch with iOS 4.2 or later
Release Date: January 30th, 2012
Price: $4.99 USD/ $5.49 AUD Available Here
Overview
It has always seemed curious to me that there are not more video games based on H.P. Lovecraft’s Call of Cthulhu universe. The franchise has grown from its humble origins as a short story written in 1928 into a board, collectible card, and pen and paper role playing game power house. The video game Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth was released in 2005 and did rather well. Three other Call of Cthulhu games started production but were canceled before seeing the light of day. At last, the wait is over. Call of Cthlulhu makes its return to video game, this time taking on the form of a turn based strategy game with strong role playing elements.
Story
The Wasted Land takes place in the hellish trenches of World War I as British forces battle the German army. However an occult organization within the German army called the Cult of the Awakening is setting its nefarious plans into motion. Lacking the expertise to do battle with the Cult, the British government calls upon a diverse group of investigators led by the Professor Brightmeer to counter this new terrifying foe. Supporting the investigators is the battle hardened squad of British soldiers led by Captain Hill. Unfortunately their experience has not prepared them for the horrors they are about to witness.
For the exception of a few short sentences to frame the situation during the loading screens, the whole story is told through in game conversations. This is a great benefit to those who are new to the Cthulhu universe because the soldiers who accompany the investigators on their journeys are being introduced to the Cthulhu lore. Veterans of the Cthulhu franchise will not be disappointed as The Wasted Land spins an interesting adventure. The simultaneous battle against the conventional German forces and the Cult of the Awakened leads for very tense moments that will not disappoint Call of Cthulhu fans.
Visuals
Red Wasp Design hits the mark with The Wasted Land’s graphics. The game is retina and iPad optimized. The art used for menus, icons, and in game portraits are well done. They suit the World War I feel and seem reminiscent of the era’s art style. A good amount of attention is paid to the character models. They even switch the weapons carried in their hands depending what they are equipped with at the moment and the British soldiers are easily distinguishable from one another. The battlefield is rendered in 3d with adjustable camera controls allowing for a clear view of the battlefield at all times.
I would have liked to seen an option to zoom the camera out further as some battlefields sprawl across a large amount of land and scrolling around tends to be on the clumsy side. Even with the largest map there were no visual slowdowns or hiccups on the iPhone 4 or the iPad 2. Although the game is optimized for retina displays, I strongly recommend playing The Wasted Land on the iPad. There are a lot of details and small touches in graphics that are easy to miss when played on a small screen.
Audio
The audio for The Wasted Land is a mixed bag. The menu music is appropriately spooky, though the in game music is better described as creepy ambient sounds. I initially had a hard time picking out the ambient noise for the exception of the odd distant explosion in the outdoor levels. A volume slider in the options and a higher default volume for the ambient noises would have been appreciated.
I feel that the addition of in game music would have done a great deal adding to the horror atmosphere and made difficult moments in the game tenser. Horror games always seem scarier with a well-timed score. I do appreciate the fact that the game does not force players to listen to the game audio exclusively. Unlike some games, players can play music or listen to podcasts in the background.
The sound effects are well done for the most part. The sounds effects used for gunfire and artillery are varied and sound deadly. The noises non-human enemies make are creepy and strange. However I feel the melee sound effects could be improved on. For example, hard hitting blows with a trench club that kill the walking dead sound more like a gentle thud. Overall the audio experience is respectable in The Wasted Land. Because the sound effects is loud enough to be heard clearly with music played, I feel like I am not missing much if I played my own music over top.
Gameplay
The Wasted Land provides for solid and challenging game play as long as you can get over the initial learning curve and sometimes annoying menu and selection design. The learning to the curve is not particularly steep. However, I feel the tutorial in the game could have been improved by covering more than just the extreme basics of the game. It is strongly recommended to read the field manual in the tutorial section before playing. It will fill a lot of the missing gaps not covered in the tutorial and make getting into the game much easier.
Once you get a hang of things, you will discover a well thought out strategy game that is given depth from its role playing elements. The ability to customize the equipment, stats, and skills of your investigators allows for great flexibility in tactics. However, stupid tactical decisions will be severely punished even in normal difficulty. There are almost always certain points in every level where enemies spawn every few turns, so a single bad decision can result in being completely swarmed by enemies with little to no hope in sight.
The menu system works on a tap and hold system which can take a while to get used to. Originally the game used the double tap to select. Double tapping is a pretty natural behaviour for iOS users, so the switch to the tap and hold system can be frustrating for some. The change was most likely done because making selections with the touch and hold system are already difficult on the smaller screens of the iPhone and the iPod Touch. The double tap system would be even tougher. I would have liked to see an option to switch between the double tap and press and hold methods. Although the tap and hold suits the smaller screens, I feel the double tap would still be a viable option for the iPad. Selecting squares and units can be difficult at times on the iPad and the problem is even worse on the smaller screens such as the iPhone.
Due to the cramped nature and the isometric view, the actual clickable area on units and squares seem to be smaller than what is displayed. In a situation such as 9 units cramped together in a 3 by 3 group, clicking a specific unit can boil down to luck. Additionally, navigating the map can be a little clumsy at times. The scroll speed of the map is relatively slow and constant which can be annoying when managing two groups of units at either ends of a large map. It feels like a completely different in experience to say scrolling around a large image in Safari. Nevertheless, these are minor gripes and annoyances that only slow down the gameplay in small manners. The Wasted Land is by and large a pleasurable game to play.
Overall
Newbies and veterans of the Call of Cthulhu series will be pleased with The Wasted Land. It is a surprisingly deep and fun turn based strategy game with well implemented role playing elements. This is most likely due to the fact Red Wasp Design was able to work with the publishers of the Call of Cthulhu pen and paper RPG, Chaosium. Although there are some small gripes and hiccups with the game, these will only be minor annoyances that are easily looked past. If The Wasted Land was available on a dedicated video game platform such as the 3DS, it would easily compete with major games from famous developers and priced at a much higher price point. For $4.99 USD or $5.49 AUD, you cannot go wrong with Call of Cthulhu: The Wasted Land.
2012’s Xbox LIVE House Party is all set to kick off later this week on February 15, and to celebrate Microsoft has released a brand new trailer showcasing all four House Party games. The strong line up consisting of Ubisoft’s long-awaited I Am Alive, the follow up to 2010’s Alan Wake- Alan Wake’s American Nightmare, fast paced shooter Nexuiz and EA’s latest puzzle game Warp.
The pricing and release date schedule has been revealed as goes as follows:
Warp– February 15, 800 Microsoft Points
Alan Wake’s American Nightmare– February 22, 1200 Microsoft Points
Nexuiz– Febuary 29, 800 Microsoft Points
I Am Alive – March 7, 1200 Microsoft Points
Also gamers who purchase all four House Party games from February 15 – March 13 will receive 800 Microsoft Points as an added bonus.
Kodakawa and Grasshopper Manufacture have just unveiled some extras for the Japanese version of Lollipop Chainsaw. The premium edition of the game will come in two different boxart flavours, one for the Xbox 360 and the other for the PlayStation 3, and they both look really hot.
Even better are the exclusive costumes for the lovely main character of the game, Juliet Starling. The PlayStation 3 version gets the cute red maid outfit and the Xbox 360 version gets the sexy skin tight purple leather outfit.
Keep in mind Japan is actually getting two versions of Lolliopo Chainsaw, with one being the uncensored adult version and the other being the mature version. It’s not a big deal, considering that the only reason why the Japan-only Xbox 360 version of No More Heroes: Paradise got an adult rating was because of the red blood.
I know which version I’m getting, which one tickles your fancy?
Star Wars The Old Republic Gaming Headset by Razer Manufacturer: Razer Device: Headset Price: AU$199 Purchase:Razerstore
Razer, being the leading video game peripheral vendor that it is, had released a series of Star Wars related peripherals alongside the launch of the insanely awesome MMORPG, Star Wars The Old Republic. Now, these headphones are incredibly aesthetically pleasing, as is the Razer way. You just can not call any of their devices ugly, even if their performance is sometimes iffy.
Firstly, the headset features fully functional 7.1 channel surround sound that works similarly to magic. However, I found this to be only the case when playing games and watching Blu-Ray movies. When listening to stereo based things, such as music, with the Surround sound turned on, I found that there was a bias to the left ear of the device. However, this will probably only irritate people who listen to music while gaming. You can turn this off though, if you have downloaded the Razer Synapse 2.0 software, which requires registration to run.
To be honest, the additional software is a must to get the most out of this device. You will need it to be able to configure the many awesome bits of the device, such as the lighting effects and game synchronisation which also affects the lighting of the device. This takes us to our second point.
Secondly, the device has lights all over it. Now then, I’m not entirely sure why it is that it needs to light up, it’s not like we can see things that are sitting on our ears. But I have to admit, the thought of having glowing lights resting over my head is pretty cool. Even further, in a dark room, the lighting reflecting off the walls leaves you with a pretty cool impression. What further enhanced these cool lights, which rest at the base of the ears, was that you can configure them to be one certain colour, or to constantly change colours. I’m the kind of guy that likes changing colours, so I went with that.
The Third thing I want to talk about is the logo’s adorning the ears. These face-plates are defaulted to the Republic logos, but can be switched out with Empire logos easily at any time. As a republic player predominantly, I found that I didn’t really have to switch these out anyway. But when I did, I found it to be an easy enough operation that didn’t require any significant effort on my part. These adornments are back-lit, so they glow around when plugged in. This will surely tick-off your Empire buddies when they come over to play.
Now then onto my first major gripe with the headphones, and that is the audio quality of the microphone. Throughout my use of the headset in various forms of VoIP situations, I found that people complained of my voice quality being significantly lower than it was in comparison to my current headset. However, they did also note that there a distinct lack of background noise that I would otherwise be catching. When pressed further, they remarked that I was still audible and clear, I just sounded a bit different than usual and it was a little unsettling. However, upon recording my own voice, I noticed that it was a complaint that sounded worse than it actually was. The headphone works fine as a microphone, but just know that these are very much functional over brilliant.
Visibly though, the microphone is pretty awesome. It looks like an antennae sticking out of the wings of a Tie-Fighter, which is pretty awesome. In fact, the headphones have a very Empire feel to them overall, and even within the earphones themselves, is an imperial design.
What is really cool about these headphones is the stuff that is included with them. When you install the Synapse software and get them to read the headphones, you are given an option to generate a code to download some exclusive in game items for The Old Republic. These come in the form of crystals to be used in the construction of your characters lightsaber. However, the crystals are more of an aesthetic option, considering their low base stats of +4 to endurance. But still, its a cool way to show off in-game that you own this cool pair of headphones. Also, the crystal glows green and black, which is pretty awesome.
Another bonus that I want to talk about are the stickers included with the package. These stickers come in Empire and Republic variants and can be used to stick on most surfaces. I adorned the side of my PC case with an Empire sticker and it looks pretty cool sitting there. I’m saving my Republic sticker for when I get a new PC case for my eventual graphics card upgrade (those things are getting huge). Of course, this being a Razer product, means that there are also a few Razer branded stickers included in the package, so that everyone knows how much a fan you are of Razers products. I currently have a sticker on my portable hard-disk drive and my 3DS (so if you ever find a blue 3DS with a Razer sticker on it in the street, email us about it).
While you may be thinking that these headphones will only work with Star Wars The Old Republic, I assure you that they do work well with other games of varying genres. Games that I have tested these with include: Star Wars The Old Republic, QuakeLive, Driver: San Francisco as well as various movies and youtube videos. Actually, these headphones worked quite well with Blu-Ray films played on a PC, so if you watch those with stereo headphones and you want a pair of Star Wars themed headsets to go with your new Star Wars Blu Ray collection, these might be the headphones that you’re looking for.
Overall, it is hard to recommend these headphones to someone who is not a Star Wars fan, but it is very easy to recommend them to someone who is. They’re a versatile headset that you wont be disappointed with if you currently lack a 7.1channel headset, but if you do, you will probably prefer your current pair. If you know someone with a pair of these, you might want to try them before laying down your money on them. However, if you’re a Star Wars fan, I’d recommend wasting your money on a pair immediately, especially if you’re a player of The Old Republic.
