Sony may be bringing back the PSN some time this week but that doesn’t mean that they aren’t still having some problems. Sony Online Entertainment previously issued a statement saying that there was no reason for their users to worry about any personal information being stolen or credit card information being released but now it seems that they have some troubles of their own.
Sony Online Entertainment’s Station.com has been taken down for now due to an intrusion of some sort. There are little details about the actual intrusion but in light of recent events it is best probably to overreact than to let things sit idle. Currently you can check this page to find out whether or not the service is back and running but SOE has stated they will release more information on the intrusion later today.
El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron has been in development for quite a few years now. And during that time it apparently also had a name change because it was originally called Angelic: Ascension of the Metatron according to a 2007 video of the original prototype of the game. This news comes out of UTV Ignition themselves placing a locked video on their website which was then broken and placed on YouTube for everyone to see.
You can catch the video below and see that actually not a whole lot has changed besides the name. Enoch looks relatively the same compared to now and uses the same type of weaponry to help dispatch his enemies. Its always interesting to see a title change over the years as it turns from an idea into an actuality and this one sure has had a lot of time to become what it is today.
Assassin’s Creed has always been a game that contained a certain amount of mystery inside of it. Whether it is the hidden puzzles that must be deciphered or wall paintings made of blood that can only be seen with Eagle Vision the series loves it’s puzzles. Now Ubisoft has decided that their next Assassin’s Creed game needed a bit of mystery that was supposed to be released slowly over their Facebook.
But it seems a bit of a mistake has let that information slip early and of course the internet was quick to grasp a hold of it. The third in the series of videos shows what appears to be Altair but could easily be another assassin or merely mentioning his existence, but it is very interesting to see such a cryptic way to tell fans what the next game could be about. Either way, you can catch all three currently released teasers below and take your guess as to what they all mean. Besides that another Assassin’s Creed game is coming out of course.
The Gears of War 3 beta has been available for those with codes for quite some time now, and recently BulletStorm owners were allowed in on the action when it was opened up for them. But now, many people are having friends who don’t have BulletStorm or couldn’t obtain a code feeling left out…until now. Epic Games are running a promotion known as ‘Never Fight Alone’, giving you the opportunity to earn up to five codes to distribute to friends so they can join in on the action (at least it’s 5 if you’re in the US – for others you can receive a maximum of one for completing one of the challenges).
It sounds like a great way to get friends involved. Will anyone be making use of this offer? Who has completed which challenges so far?
What is the Gears of War 3 beta Never Fight Alone program?
Starting today, everyone who’s played at least one game in the beta will have a chance to receive a “buddy token” to share with a friend on Xbox LIVE, giving them access to the “Gears of War 3” beta.
In the U.S., beta participants can earn extra buddy tokens by completing the following tasks or challenges (one token for each task), with a chance to earn up to five tokens total:
• Purchase any “Gears of War” content from Xbox LIVE Marketplace (including a “Gears of War” Game Add-on, a “Gears of War” Games on Demand title, or a “Gears of War” Avatar item)
• Play 20 or more hours of the “Gears of War 3” beta (any time already spent in the beta will count toward this challenge)
• Add a 12-month Xbox LIVE Gold subscription to your existing account (purchased from retail or online)
• Play more than 100 hours of any “Gears of War” title, lifetime to date
** Multiple token chances are limited to U.S. residents due to legal restrictions; however, every beta participant worldwide has a chance to unlock one buddy token to share with a friend on Xbox LIVE.
How long do I have to earn extra beta keys?
Players will have until this Wednesday, May 4 to complete the challenges and earn extra buddy tokens.
What do I do after I’ve completed the tasks?
The Xbox LIVE team at Microsoft will automatically keep track of everyone’s progress, so players won’t need to take any additional action to retrieve their tokens.
After completing the tasks, when and where do I receive my extra beta keys?
The buddy tokens will be distributed via e-mail starting May 8 when the “Never Fight Alone” phase begins, giving beta participants and their friends a full week to enjoy the multiplayer mayhem together.
What maps and modes will be available during the “Never Fight Alone” period?
New players entering the beta on May 8 will have a chance to cross chainsaws with their buddies in three new “Gears of War 3” competitive modes (Team Deathmatch, Capture the Leader and King of the Hill) on four stunning multiplayer maps (Thrashball, Checkout, Trenches and Old Town). Additionally, beta recruits can unlock an array of exciting content such as exclusive medals, weapon skins and character variants like the fan-favorite Thrashball Cole, which they can carry over to their retail copy of “Gears of War 3” when it launches on Sept. 20. For additional details, please refer to the official Epic Games FAQhttp://forums.epicgames.com/showthread.php?t=767359.
A new trailer has come to light from Ubisoft for their upcoming next instalment in the Driver series, Driver: San Francisco.
Ubisoft has confirmed that the game will be released in the US on August 30, September 2 in Europe, and September 1 in Australia and New Zealand. The game was originally set to release sometime last year, but was delayed because of “the competitive market at Christmas”, according to Ubisoft.
It will come to Xbox 360, PC, PS3 and Nintendo Wii, and more information on the game can be found at the game’s official website HERE
Is anyone looking forward to this? I have fond memories of the older Driver games so let us hope this is a return to form for the series.
You can always count on Goichi Suda, head of Grasshopper Manufacture, to think outside the box when promoting his games. This is the guy that stood outside of shops in Akihabara waiting to hand out No More Heroes toilet paper to lucky customers. The first developer diary for Shadows of the Damned shows off the typical Suda 51 flair. Both he and Shinji Mikami, creator of Resident Evil, Devil May Cry, and Viewtiful Joe, do their best at putting together a campy, pseudo-spooky video detailing some of the mechanics of Shadows of the Damned. It even starts off with Mikami being strangled by an all too giddy Suda, as if that weren’t reason enough to watch.
Perhaps my favorite part of the video, however, is the use of two incredibly grim and gravely narrators to interpret the two Japanese developers’ words. The guy who translates for Mikami isn’t too over the top, but Suda’s voice over goes just as overboard as the developer, complete with Jack the Ripper cockney accent. To see how darkness and light will affect this horror-action title, or to hears two very out of place voice actors, check out the video below. Shadows of the Damned is scheduled for a June 21 release on both Xbox 360 and Playstation 3.
Gameloft’s EPIC MMORPG for the iPhone & iPad : Order & Chaos Online has been out for a few days already and so far it’s very entertaining and lots of fun to play. MasterAbbott’s been playing around causing all sorts of trouble with his Monk character on the Asia server (Eye Of The Swamp).
Today we have some gameplay from the game and we run you though the BASICS. It’s a 15 min video which might sound feel like a long time, but it doesn’t even scratch the surface. It will however give you a fair understanding on how the game plays and what you can expect if you decide to pick this up.
If you are a HUGE fan of WOW or RIFT and you have an iPhone then Order & Chaos is the game you must own !!
Pick up the game from the iTunes store here. Stay tuned for our official review in next few days.
Check out the video below, leave a comment and let us know what you though of it.
Genre: Comedy/Action/Animation Produced by: AdultSwim Running Time: 220 minutes Available for purchase at: Madman Online Store ($34.95)
Overview
These days, racial stereotypes make for great comedy. Russell Peters, The Simpsons, and pretty much every other film/television show/comedian/human being utilises race as a ploy for some easy laughs. It stands to reason, then, that an animated television series based solely on racial stereotypes should be side-splittingly hilarious.
Perhaps it was my high expectations, but Minoriteam just didn’t seem as spectacularly funny as I had hoped. Instead of collapsing in stitches on the floor and swearing because I was laughing too hard, I found myself saying “what the…?”. Instead of quoting things from the television series to my friends, I found I forgot an episode soon after I watched it…and really, the strongest thing I felt after I watched Minoriteam was disappointment.
Plot
Minoriteam tells the story of Doctor Wang and his team of superheroes who all have their own racial or ethnic stereotype. Using the power of their racial stereotypes, the superheroes have their own superpowers: Dr Wang is The Human Calculator, El Jefe is the master of the Leaf Blower 3000, Fasto is the “fastest man that ever was and is”, Jewcano has the power of Jewish faith and a colcano, and Non-Stop has lead skin after being shot too many times. Together, Minoriteam fights against discrimination in the form of the White Shadow, Racist Frankenstein, and The Corporate Ladder.
Three of the Minoriteam superheroes: Non-stop, El Jefe, and Dr Wang
Yeah, it sounds so great on paper. The storyline was what really drew me to this series: I took one look at the blurb and burst out laughing. However, I think what happened in Minoriteam was the writers put more effort into the humour of the overarching storyline and neglected the individual episodes. The storyline of each episode was a hit and miss: some episodes had me laughing and others really had me more confused than anything else. I really enjoyed “His Story”, where the White Shadow travels back in time to try and stop Minoriteam from coming into existence, but “Operation Blackout” where the White Shadow tries to stop black businesses from gaining power was a dull episode.
From the overall plot and the characters, it’s clear Minoriteam was made for an American audience. So many parts I think were supposed to be funny, but because I didn’t have that background I ended up becoming very confused. I’m a firm believer that any series can be universally funny and AdultSwim really missed the mark on making this series as universally appealing as it could have been.
Characters
The main characters are the superheroes, and of course, their nemesis The White Shadow. The characters themselves are great at conforming to their racial stereotypes…whether or not it’s funny is another thing altogether, though.
Fasto, one of my favourite characters from the series.
One of the great characters that always made me laugh (and was a wonderful representation of a racial stereotype) was Dr Wang. From his accent to his buck teeth and oversized forehead, I have to say that this guy is the winner by far when it comes to my favourite Minoriteam member. It might be my Asian heritage as well kicking in, but I’m also glad that I understood every joke he was making or every joke that was pointed at him. The other great character was Fasto: he swears a ridiculous amount, always has something funny to say, and really just acts like the walking racial stereotype I would expect from this series.
Most of the other characters were all right at times, but it just seemed to me that the writers were trying too hard to make them funny. The White Shadow, in particular, was a terrible attempt at a stereotype: he was flat, dull, and probably the most forgettable nemesis I’ve ever come across in my life. The rest of Minoriteam have their funny moments occasionally, but Jewcano and Non-Stop sometimes tend to take too much of a backseat in episodes to justify their role in the series.
Animation
Minoriteam’s animation looks like someone took a comic book and literally just animated all the characters in it. The series is two-dimensional, and comes complete with the “Boom”, “pow” and “zoom!” splashed across the screen, similar to the way text effects are sprawled across comic books.
The animation is absolutely great and looks like a real comic book series.
In my eyes, the animation was perhaps the best part of this entire series. While everything else was inconsistent, the animation style was original and looked great. I have never really watched another animated series with quite that level of comic-esque intensity: the colours were rich and the characters really did look like a comic strip had just been brought to life right in front of your eyes. The characters were also drawn to represent their racial stereotypes brilliantly: without even being told, I could guess which minority each of them was supposed to represent.
The animation can be a bit too much to take at times (with all the colour and bold lines) but the eyes do adjust. It was confusing for me to watch the first episode just because I was overwhelmed, but I grew to love it.
Voice-Acting, SFX, and Soundtrack
The voice-acting hits the mark in this series, which is a relief considering how important voices are in animation (and in particular, for voice-actors who need to convey races and ethnicities). Fasto’s voice in particular was perfectly suited to his character and it always livened up any episode which was becoming dull. Dr Wang’s was also a great fit, and basically everything he said was made more funny by his voice-acting. The best voice though, was the narrator’s. In comic books, the narration which guides along the story is a vital part of the experience, and Minoriteam translated this perfectly into animation with their narrator’s voice.
One of Minoriteam’s heroes, Non-Stop.
The sound effects were also very well done. As I mentioned earlier, Minoriteam features the use of text like “Boom!” across the screen, but there are also sound effects which accompany this. The effects are well-synced and all suitably chosen for their respective moments. The soundtrack was also great – it had that ‘superhero’ air to it but at the same time it didn’t take away from any action that was on screen.
DVD Extras
The DVD comes with episode animatics, storyboards, concept and production art gallery, the episode scripts, and the original pitch (or the original pilot). It was great to watch the original pitch, but everything else truly was forgettable. There’s only so much time I can look at storyboards and scripts for before they become absolutely tedious, and I think that it would have been much better if the DVD had just skipped all of those and just included the original pitch and possibly some deleted scenes.
Final Comments
While the concept is good, the execution left a little something to be desired. There was nothing wrong with the technical side of Minoriteam – all the animation and sound hit the mark – however a vital thing was missing: that comedic effect. Overall, Minoriteam was a decent experience the first time around, but I can assure you that I will probably never watch this series again.
In an effort to help quell some fears about the PlayStation Network, Sony held a press conference in Tokyo earlier today. This press conference was held specifically to address the public with information about the PSN issue and then allow any questions to be asked afterwords by those in attendance.
First Sony addressed the issue about the credit card information being stolen and stated that they have no evidence that there was any information stolen but has told customers to keep an eye on their bank statements and credit card statements either way.
Apparently the credit card information was stored in a separate location on the system and were encrypted for protection. Sony then claimed that 10 million credit cards are used on the PSN and they are all safe but at the moment no one has any hard facts beyond Sony’s own word that information has not been stolen.
Sony is also creating a position called “Chief Information Security Officer” and the person in that position will be reporting to Shinji Hasejima, Chief Information Officer to make sure that all customer data is given future protection and that Sony is going to be moving the entire data center of the PSN to a separate system for a several months to ensure safety.
With this they also revealed that some time this week the PSN will go back online and will restore online gaming across both the PSP and the PS3. Also going online will be chat functionality, users’ friends list, PlayStation Home, account management and password reset access, music unlimited powered by Qriocity access and finally access to any un-expired movie rentals on the PSP, PS3 or MediaGo.
This does not include the PlayStation Store so anyone waiting to redeem a code or buy new content will still have to wait. Now Sony also outlined their “Welcome Back” program which is set to compensate all of the PlayStation Network users for the downtime and loss of their gaming experience. With the launch of the PSN again, users will receive a 30 day free membership to the PlayStation Plus premium service and anyone already a PlayStation Plus member will get 30 days added to their service for free. Separate regions will also receive select PlayStation entertainment content for free download though they did not go into detail. Also those who use Music Unlimited will be given 30 days of free service if they already were using it.
Looks like I can cross one game of my list ofFive Games That Need a Revival: the long dormant Oddworld series is getting a lot of attention lately, with several projects in development – including a new game!
Oddworld Inhabitants, the original developers, may have migrated to film, but they’ve handed the reigns over to Just Add Water, who are busying themselves on several new Oddworld projects, as revealed at Thursday’s Game City Nights event in Nottingham, England.
First up, as mentioned earlier, there is an Abe HD remake in development, but more details have emerged. Unfortunately, it seems production is yet to begin, with the team still trying to decide if they will remake Abe’s Oddysee or Abe’s Exoddus, or combine the best parts of each into a new game. They have even considered making a completely new title in the same vein, although they have stated that a remake is more likely. All that’s confirmed at this point is that there will be a 2.5D Abe game in HD, hopefully sometime next year.
Before then, the third and fourth games in the series will receive HD facelifts. Munch’s Oddysee is due in October or November, and Stranger’s Wrath sometime in the Summer (meaning, for Aussies, June to August). The Oddboxx compilation of all four titles, currently only available on PC, will also be released onto the Playstation Network, and will include the HD versions of the two later games.
The Stranger’s Wrath remake is shaping up to be quite interesting, as it will support Playstation Move and 3DTV, and can automatically upload gameplay videos to YouTube. An additional feature was also hinted at, but was mysteriously censored at the last minute. Looks like we have to wait till E3 for that one.
And of course, the most exciting announcement: the new game. The Hand of Odd was originally announced in 1998, but was later cancelled. Using the original design document, the team at Just Add Water is remaking this shelved title. Platforms for the game are still to be determined, but the team are reportedly considering PC, Mac, iPad, Android tablet devices, and even Facebook. The original design was to be a Command & Conquer style RTS game, an interesting departure from Oddworld‘s usual puzzle/platformer games. They are looking to modernise the game though, comparing their new direction to a more accessible, FarmVille type of game. I’m not sure how that will pan out, but considering the series’ track record, it can’t be too bad.
