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Pilotwings Resort 3DS Review

Benjamin Webb
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4

Pilotwings Resort
Developer: Nintendo
Publisher: Nintendo
Price: $63AU (Fishpond) / $40 US (Amazon)
Genre: Sports/Simulation

Overview

Pilotwings resort is a game that allows players to fly across an island, completing challenges and taking in a fair few amazing sights, all rendered in immersive 3D utilising the 3DS’ 3D capabilities.

Story

Pilotwings Resort takes place on Wahu island where players are tasked with completing various challenges across the resort island in pursuit of entertainment. Or at least, that’s what I would peg the storyline as, considering the game doesn’t actually have a storyline at all. Though, it isn’t the kind of game to require one. I feel as though it’s the kind of game where you make your own story as you’re gliding along and taking photos of the scenery.

“Hey there [playername], what’re you playing?”

“Oh Scarlette, it’s you. I’m playing Pilotwings Resort.”

“Sounds boring.”

“See that volcano there?”

“No not really…”

“I once flew a jet plane down it and into the lava.”

“I don’t think we should be friends any more.”

Gameplay

The gameplay in pilotwings resort is basic in its scheme, but also hard to master. You slide the circlepad to steer/veer and you use the corresponding buttons to do whatever is needed for that vehicle. For instance, an aeroplane will go forwards automatically, but by hitting A you can utilise the boost function.

When beginning a game in Pilotwings resort, you will be presented with a file select screen. Here you select an empty file and go on to be greeted to the resort by an administraotr at the ‘Wuhu Sky Club’. After being greeted, a player will select their Mii that will be their playable avatar, as well in put a signature for file associative purposes. A lot of this is done on the touch screen, which is a nice inclusion considering that this is one of the few titles to have touch-screen support at the moment.

All the game menu’s are accessed using the touch-screen and from the get-go you will have access to all game modes with the exception of ‘Dioramas”. Dioramas is unlocked as you go through the games “Mission Mode”. All up, the modes are: “Mission Mode”, “Free Flight Mode”, “Dioramas”, “Options” and “Member Card”.

The Member Card mode allows you to view your files membership card to Wuhu island. It keeps track of your Mii and other kinds of play data, such as flight time, stars awarded and your total points. Other than for the purposes of admiring your own work, or bragging to friends, I don’t really see much use for this feature. Though it is definitely something that I enjoy poking at from time to time, so it shouldn’t be removed or anything.

Options mode is your standard games option feature allows you to mess with the games audio as well as other options, such as inverted flight controls, rocket pack camera and the in-game map.

Floating through the air on a hang glider.

Dioramas in Diorama mode are unlocked through completing certain objectives in the free-flight mode of the game. These involve going through information rings, completing trick rings and the like.

Free Flight mode is a mode that allows you to fly freely over the island for a limited time. And by limited, I mean very limited as you only get two minutes to fly around the island and take in the sights. The main appeal of free flight mode is that it allows you to unlock dioramas in the diorama mode. Across the island are various points of interest that will have an information ring above them. There are also trick rings, which involve you completing a trick inside them in order to collect them. Both types of rings accumulate over each play through, so it isn’t necessary to collect them all once, which is a relief because at two minutes of flight time, it’d be quite difficult to accomplish.

Mission mode is the bulk of the game. This is where you have differing tiers of difficulty and you must advance from the lower tiers to gain access to the higher ones. Each tier has it’s own challenges for each vehicle type, so plane, rocket belt and hanglider. The challenges can vary from incredibly easy to as tough as nails. I mainly found this to be the case with the rocket belt as it’s physics seemed to be slighty wrong. It felt a bit too floaty, like, there was too much inertia and not enough friction, you would just float outwards and it always seemed to be a bit further than you intended… expecially when you were using the lighter thruster. The missions generally involve flying through rings (or do tricks through), collecting capsules and landing successfully on a landing platform or in a landing strip. With the rocket belt, there are also refuelling platforms in some of the challenges.

At the end of a challenge, players are rewarded with a score and are presented with stars depending on how well they completed the challenge. The stars are used in unlocking the next difficulty tier and the score is a measure of how many stars you will attain (you can check the score requirements in the mission menu). Though, for some reason, I’ve found that when I’ve done worse at the challenge I seem to get a better score then when I try to complete them properly. I think that time plays a fairly large role in the final score of some events. When I say that I did worse, I mean that I forgot a ring somewhere, not that I did abysmally, so maybe there was some kind of trade-off that worked in my favour?

Graphics

Pilotwings Resort boasts incredible graphics.

The visual style is very similar to Mii related games that Nintendo has released in the past on it’s other consoles (mainly the Wii), games such as Wii Sports Resort. This simplistic style allows for more colourful and clearer renderings of the Mii characters, as well as the island and the vehicles.

Graphically Pilotwings Resort is superior to all 3DS games on the market at the time of writing and it is also the most colourful. It’s hard to put into words how impressed I was with the game graphically; I hope that Nintendo continues to release games of this fidelity or higher in the future as it is just so pleasant on the eyes that it’s really hard to fault.

Do the pretty.

Though, there was one thing I was disappointed with slightly and that was the inclusion of Mii’s. I understand why they’re in the game, and of course it’s easier to connect with ones own Mii than it is to a whole new character, but as someone who has played the previous Pilotwings games, not having those previous characters feels a little strange. Though, it has no bearing on gameplay, it just would have been nice to see past characters rendered in this new graphical foundation.

Visually I am quite impressed by this title. I only wish that free-flight mode was longer than two minutes in length so that I could explore the island properly and take in all the pretty sights. For some reason, whenever I do a mission, I always try to complete the mission… but I could probably do it in one of those. The only thing that I can really fault graphically is the 3D. I’m not sure if it’s my eyes or the 3D rendering of the game, but at 100% 3D it was too difficult to create a fully 3D image, it would just become two slightly different images. Though any percentage below that worked fine.

Sound

Pilotwings resort is more relaxation than menace, and it shows in the games soundtrack and audio.

The soundtrack / background music is not of a pacing that I would ever have considered myself to be into, but when coupled with the gameplay, it fits so perfectly that you can’t help but sit back and feel relaxed while enjoying the sounds projecting from your devices speakers. The background ambiance of birds chirping and waves crashing against the island only continue to add to the superb background score and help shape the feel of the island in the players mind.

The game sounds prettier than this scene looks. Which is incredibly hard to do.

Each vehicle has their own sounds which makes them even more unique. This is even true for the jet plane and the sea plane. The sounds are so fitting that I felt that I could actually maybe be piloting one of these vehicles myself, sometimes. However, the rocket belt is horrible and regardless of how well it sounded, in my personal opinion, it should have its physics reworked (it’s really not that bad, I just can’t get used to it… it’s more a case of the gamer than the game).

In summary; sounds = awesome.

Overall

Pilotwings Resort is an awesome title for an awesome device. It allows players to become a pilot of various flying devices and to complete a vast array of fun and challenging challenges around the Island of Wahu. The game is graphically solid and hard to fault. It also features a beautiful audio track  that helps to immerse and also relax players (especially on those later challenges which can be a pain).

Awesome games deserve awesome scores.

9-5-capsules-out-of-10

We Dance’s 40-strong tracklist revealed

Jack Joly
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1

Nordic Games has announced the tracklist for We Dance, with 40 tracks available from launch day.

There’s hits from different time periods and genres, so there should be something to interest everyone. While some are difficult to picture yourself dancing to, hopefully the developers come up clean with well-organised routines that are fun to dance to using the three styles of play – using the Wii Remote, using the dance mat accessory such as Nordic Games’ “Star Mat” or a combination of both.

Supporting up to four players dancing simultaneously, the game also features warm-up sessions, mini-games, jukebox mode, tutorials and performance statistics and will release sometime later this year in the third quarter.

The full tracklist is as follows:

A.R. Rahman feat. The Pussycat DollsJai Ho! (You Are My Destiny)
Ace of BaseDon’t Turn Around
AgnesRelease Me
Axwell feat. Max’CI Found U
B-52sLove Shack
Baby DLet Me Be Your Fantasy
Barry ManilowCopacabana (At the Copa)
Basement JaxxWhere’s Your Head At?
Basshunter feat. DJ Mental Theo’s BazzheadzNow You’re Gone
BlueOne Love
Carl DouglasKung Fu Fighting
Chamillionaire feat. Krayzie BoneRidin’
Chuckie & LMFAOLet The Bass Kick In Miami Girl
Donna SummerI Feel Love
Fatboy SlimThe Rockafeller Skank
Fedde Le GrandPut Your Hands Up 4 Detroit
Gipsy KingsBamboleo
Jay Sean feat. Lil WayneDown
Jive BunnyLet’s Twist Again
Junior SeniorMove Your Feet
Kid CudiDay ‘n’ Night
Kool & The GangJungle Boogie
Los Del RioMacarena
MC HammerU Can’t Touch This
OK Go!Here It Goes Again
OutkastHey Ya!
PendulumSlam
Pixie LottBoys And Girls
PuretoneAddicted To Bass
Room 5 feat. Oliver CheathamMake Luv
Rose RoyceCar Wash
Sergio Mendes feat. The Black Eyed PeasMas Que Nada
S-ExpressTheme From S-Express
Sister SledgeHe’s The Greatest Dancer
Snap!Rhythm Is A Dancer
Spice GirlsSpice Up Your Life
SurvivorEye Of The Tiger
The SaturdaysForever Is Over
The Village PeopleYMCA
WhigfieldSaturday Night

 

The Witcher 2 Video Presentation and FAQ

Roger Ma
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2

CD Projekt, the developers of the highly anticipated RPG ‘The Witcher 2: Assassin of Kings’ recently held a keynote presentation at CD Projekt Spring Conference last Thursday. The event was live stremed via the internet and showcased many of the game’s new features and gameplay. Right now there are probably some people kicking themselves for missing it. Lucky, the full video presentation, complete with a gameplay demo of the The Witcher 2: Assassin of Kings is now available from CD Projekt official website.

With the release of The Witcher 2: Assassin of Kings now less than a month away, CD Projekt has also been kind enough to through up a FAQ to answer several questions that I’m sure many fan have bombarding them with.

The Witcher 2: Assassin of Kings will be released exclusively for the PC on May 17th

THE WITCHER 2 FAQ UPDATE – APRIL 2011

  • WHAT DRM WILL THE WITCHER 2 HAVE?

The primary reason for including copy protection with internet activation is to address the biggest concern of our publishing and distribution partners, which is potential piracy before release. To do so, we must implement at least a minimal form of protection.

The Witcher 2 will be delivered to external manufacturing plants weeks before release. It is virtually impossible to guarantee absolute security for this entire time. Any leak of the code can gravely compromise the commercialization of the game, and we want to be sure that the first people to play it will be the fans and customers who are waiting for their official copies. That’s why, together with our publishing and distributing partners, we decided to use copy protection. The Digital Premium Edition available from GOG.com will be the sole exception. Since it is our sister company, located in the same building, we are completely confident the code will be absolutely secure.

As a company and also as gamers ourselves, we’d like to stress that we are against any kind of copy protection that might affect the game experience or limit the usability of legally purchased copies. For this reason, we decided to implement a custom version that is the lightest and least intrusive possible. During installation, it will be necessary to connect to the Internet one time – but NEVER while playing.  Similarly, the only time you need to have the disks in your drive is during installation.

While we are aware of some players’ associations with the SecuROM technology, the server infrastructure of its provider, SONY, gives us the highest level of confidence that registering legal copies will be problem-free. Every legal copy can be played on up to five machines at a time.  What’s more, registrations can be revoked at any time; in effect, The Witcher 2 can be installed on unlimited number of machines.  It will also be possible to make backups. Furthermore, we will make every effort to cooperate with our publishing and distribution partners to remove the DRM in a postrelease update.

  • WHY SHOULD I REGISTER MY COPY?

Registration of legally purchased copies is completely optional. To make the process as user-friendly as possible, the same key is used for both installation and registration. Anyone who chooses to register will receive various bonuses (English and Polish language packs, free future DLC and more), and additional promotional materials such as bonus songs. Registered users will also receive automatic notifications of updates via the game launcher. In addition, this will be the only way to update the product – patches will not be available as separate files, making it impossible to update illegal copies of the game in this manner.

  • WHY AND HOW SHOULD I USE MY SAVEGAMES FROM THE WITCHER?

The Witcher 2 will provide a complete story and game experience. It is not necessary to have played the original. As a bonus, those who did will have the option of importing their saved games. The opening of The Witcher 2 is, however, the same for everyone. Events and decisions from imported saves may be reflected later on, but only in ways that can happen anyway. If The Witcher is still installed on your hard drive, The Witcher 2 will automatically detect all saves after the last critical choice point, and either suggest the file to import, or allow you to choose from all the possible ones.

Note: The preview build sent at the beginning of April 2011 did not include the full save game system. The release version will let players save at any time PC gamers expect.

  • WHAT KIND OF PERFORMANCE AND HARDWARE ARE WE TALKING ABOUT?

The Witcher 2 is being developed for one platform, the PC. What this basically means, especially together with our proprietary REDengine, is that we take advantage of the most advanced performance hardware. Our game doesn’t compromise its performance, gameplay, the interface or anything else to accommodate other platforms.

The REDengine is built so players with two-core processors and min-spec machines will receive a fully enjoyable experience. Even more importantly, anyone with the recommended 4 cores and/or hyperthreading will see a visible improvement. 6 cores? 8? Cool! The Witcher 2 will make good use of them all. The game will also scale exceptionally well. It has not only low, medium and high graphical settings, but also an ultra detail level… and even an “uber sampling” mode.

Note: The release version of the game will have an advanced graphical settings menu. It will also support the 16:9 aspect ratio and be playable in 16:10 (non-native) as well as 4:3 (letterbox).

  • WILL THERE BE DIFFERENT VERSIONS OF THE WITCHER 2?

The Witcher 2 will have the same content worldwide. There will be no regional differences aside from the languages. And no censored versions – so no wondering about importing the game, nudity patches, etc.

 

Microsoft 100m Dash World Record Attempt Plus Free Gold

Darren Resnekov
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2

Attention:  Microsoft is calling all couch dwellers to emerge from your cacoon and work up a sweat in their 100m dash Guinness World Record attempt. Join potentially millions of players on April 28th as they login to Xbox Live and help Microsoft achieve this amazing feat.

To participate just follow these 3 very simple steps

1. Logon to your account and locate the Xbox Nations Dash. Download the Guinness gamer pic

2. Load up Kinect Sports, the choose 100m dash from the mini games and select your players

3. At 18:00 run the race as usual with up to 4 other competitors

For their participation, players will receive an exclusive Xbox LIVE and Guinness World record t-shirt

Microsoft have managed to get infamous (I’m Australian) English cricketer Graeme Swann, Olympic medallists Amy Williams and Louis Smith as well as table tennis legend Darius Knight who holds the record, on board hoping for a large response from Xbox Live players. During the week leading up to the race, a multitude of other “Play and Win” Prizes will be up for grabs including the chance to meet and train with boxer Amir Khan, 2 tickets to a premier league soccer game, clothes, Microsoft points and Zune passes.

The event is part of part of Xbox Nations, a free Live weekend offering those who don’t have a Gold membership a chance to try out its features for free from the 21st through to 25th April. Players will be offered free access to gaming and social networks as well as massive discounts (50%), on many games and add-ons. Apparently Sega’s range of classic games will be made available at a very low price to those who participate.

So jump online, be part of something big and take advantage of all that’s on offer.

Hunted: The Demon’s Forge allows you to create your own dungeon in The Crucible

Travis Bruno
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2

Hunted: The Demon’s Forge looks to be one of the best dungeon crawling experiences that you can look for in today’s Western RPG market and with the revealing of The Crucible it certainly is going to make a mark. inXile Entertainment and Bethesda have released a new trailer which shows how The Crucible system works and how the player can unlock things to use in The Crucible.

Players can create any dungeon of their liking and will have complete control of everything inside of it. If you want to change what enemies will spawn and how many will? That is all at your fingertips. There is even the option tochange how much gravity is in an area. You can then enter your created dungeon with a computer partner, a friend online or even a friend on the same TV. Or of course if you don’t feel like creating a dungeon from scratch you can just have it create one for you. Hunted: The Demon’s Forge comes out on May 31st for the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC and is definitely going to be worth a look.

[pro-player width=’530′ height=’253′ type=’video’]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQgvAB2Rpqs[/pro-player]

Sonic Generations The Hedgehog celebrates his 20th Anniversary

Darren Resnekov
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1

 

In celebration of the iconic hedgehogs 20th Anniversary ( yes I said 20 and I feel soooo old), Sega  America and Europe have released some much anticipated information about their upcoming PS3 and Xbox 360 title, Sonic Generations.  The game will appeal to both old school gamers who grew up with 2D classic side scrollers as well as fans of the new 3D Sonic games by melding together both styles of gameplay. Players will be able to relive the feel of the original titles as they take control of the classic 1991 character as well as the faster paced modern day hero he has transformed into, each coming with their own traditional trademark spins and moves. Complete with a new interactive menu, players will unlock their favourite characters and hidden treasures throughout the game.

David Corless, the Global Brand Director for Sonic, comments that “Sonic Generations will certainly be a fitting celebration for Sonic’s 20th Anniversary”, and goes on to say that “By having the classic 1991 Sonic that many fans know and love team up with his modern day incarnation, we are bringing back the nostalgia of the early days of Sonic and combining it with the innovation and stunning HD technology of the modern gaming era. Sonic Generations will bring to life the last twenty years of Sonic’s universe in a truly unique and imaginative way.”

The games premise sees Sonic and his friends battle against an evil mysterious new power that is creating time holes in his universe, pulling him and his allies through into unknown territory.

Uncharted 3 Multiplayer modes and BETA

Darren Resnekov
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2
Uncharted 3 Multiplayer modes and BETA

Just days after a the first showcasing Uncharted 3 multiplayer to only a select group of editors, Naughty Dog have released a flurry of information to the public via the official Playstation blog claiming that the “leap forward in gameplay and technology………….is nothing short of astounding”. A bold claim, but check out the trailer below for a full low down and I’m sure you will also agree that it looks spectacular

On main showcase were the multiplayer levels chateau and airstrip, highlighting the games diverse map design and dynamic ever changing environments. While chateau is a more traditional map, Airstrip actually changes mid-level, as players battle whilst on moving trucks and a cargo plane as well more conventional land base fighting.

Arne Meyer the community strategist for Naughty Dog tells of 2 new competitive modes that have been added to the classic deathmatch. These include Three team deathmatch where 3 teams of 2 battle it out, as well as the much asked for Free for all. Some other key features include Late Join, allowing players to enter tournaments with free slots before they finish, and same console split screen as well as the ability to sign in with multiple PSN accounts.

There is a heavy emphasis on team play, and as such each player will be teamed up with a Buddy with whom they can share progress and collect information and items for each other. Players can also spawn to their buddies location should they be within a safe zone. Another welcome addition is extensive customer and emblem customisation as well as weapon mods that go beyond just being visually appeasing and actually add functionality to the item.

Those familiar with Uncharted 2 will remember the Booster system, which has been modified based on feedback and selection patterns, and extended to include special paid boosters. Players can also choose from multiple kickbacks which are activated by collecting enough relevant medals. There are thousands of customisable options which have been broken down into 4 slots making it easier to configure for each match. Level gain and cash also don’t have as much of an influence in Uncharted 3, as players can now collect treasures throughout the levels and unlock many more items and modifiers through instant and long term mission play. Instant missions pop up during gameplay and are short lived with small rewards. Comparatively longer missions can take days and come with large bonuses.

Meyer explains how a new Power Play system has been implemented adding incentive for both competing teams. The team on top will be given the opportunity to maximise their cash for the round whilst the odds will be evened for the losing team allowing them a chance to come back into the match. Games that are too close to call will go into overtime, and then Sudden Death where only one player will remain standing. There is also a strong social media presence on the game with direct links to YouTube and face book.

Uncharted 3 BETA starts 28th June worldwide or sooner for selected players

Rage pre-order content announced alongside Dead City trailer

Travis Bruno
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1

Retailer exclusive bonuses are the bane of some game buyers existence. Should I buy from this retailer and receive this different outfit or should I buy from that place and get a different car? Well Bethesda is looking to avoid any hassle for people looking to pre-order their upcoming FPS Rage. Rage pre-order bonuses will be the same regardless of what retailer you decide to give your money to.

GameStop, Amazon, Steam and Direct2Drive have been listed by the company to receive a handful of bonus content. The bonus upgrade to the Anarchy Edition from these companies will include four bonus items which you can see above. The Double Barrel Shotgun, the Crimson Elite Armor, the Fists of RAGE which are knuckles with knives on them and a Rat Road Buggy.

Alongside all the pre-order information Bethesda also released the Dead City trailer which shows off plenty of gameplay footage and you can catch it below!

Fallout: New Vegas Game of the Year Edition outed by Amazon

Travis Bruno
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2

Seems like every other week some retailer is letting information leak out before the publishers want them world to know about the existence of said information. Amazon is guilty this week, more like Amazon UK as earlier today they posted up a new version of Fallout: New Vegas on their website, a Game of the Year Edition. The price was set at £20.62 which was down from £29.99. The listing has since been pulled from the site but it hardly revealed anything surprising.

Bethesda often releases their games a second time with all the DLC contained in one package but at the moment there has only been one piece of DLC released for Fallout: New Vegas which was Dead Money. Nothing else has been officially confirmed from the company yet and the listing did not have a release date so, other than the knowledge that a Game of the Year Edition is coming, nothing else was revealed.

Alice: Madness Returns is 2 for 1 deal

Chris Cerami
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5

American McGee’s Alice, released all the way back in Y2K, is considered a classic amongst many PC gamers who are grizzled enough to remember dial-up modems. However, Alice: Madness Returns, set to release for Xbox 360, PS3, and PC this June, is probably going to be many players first entry into the twisted mind of Americna McGee. Given that the original PC game currently fetches a pretty penny on sites like Amazon and eBay (when it’s available at all), this probably won’t change any time soon. Lucky for gamers who missed out on the heyday of PC gaming, however, is the news that the second entry of the series will include a code for a downloadable version of the original. Amercian McGee has announced that the original Alice will be released for consoles as a downloadable game and that gamers who buy Madness Returns will be able to redeem the game free of charge. This is an amazing opportunity for gamers who missed out on Alice the first time around to catch up on American McGee’s older work. For those who haven’t seen the gameplay trailer for Alice: Madness Returns yet, check it out below.

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