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The Sly Collection Review

January 16, 2011

The Sly Collection
Developer: Sucker Punch
Publisher: Sony
Platform: PlayStation 3 (Review)
Release Date: November 16th, 2010
Price: $39.99 US, £29.99 UK, $59.99 AUS

Overview:
Ever wish for the old days in gaming when not everything was about the best graphics, and cel-shading was just becoming a hot trend? Then The Sly Collection may just be the thing that will scratch that itch of yours. The Sly Cooper games were some of the best platforming games that you could find on the PS2 and have aged so well that Sony decided to put them all together into one package. Plus with the upgrade to HD the gang is going to look better than ever. Is it enough to justify a new purchase, or a purchase at all for newcomers?

Story:
The storyline varies depending exactly which game you are playing as they do not share consecutive storylines but overall each one shares similarities with one another. Throughout the games you play as anthropomorphic animals in the form of Sly Cooper in every one of the three games. In the last two games you will be given the option to play as Bentley the turtle and Murray the hippopotamus.

Each of these characters has a specific skillset that the crew uses to advance the storyline, though on average you will be using Sly to sneak around, steal things, and handle the bulk of the work. Plus you will constantly be pursued by the cop Carmelita Fox who serves mostly as an antagonist but also love interest to Sly.

A quick rundown of each storyline will find players of the first game controlling Sly Cooper in his quest to retrieve the Thievius Raccoonus from Clockwerk and the Fiendish Five who all have pieces of the book and serve as the main antagonists. The second game Band of Thieves will place Sly against the Klaww Gang in their quest to reassemble the villainous Clockwerk and bring the mastermind back to life. With the final game we see the team expanded as Sly and the Gang look to crack open the Cooper Vault. Each of these story lines are very unique and with the many venues you’ll be visiting each is very refreshing and even though you can experience each story back to back there is enough variety that you will not find anything stale.

Graphics:
Sly Cooper and the rest of his gang have always looked great, you can revisit the classic PS2 titles and still be more than happy with the way that the game looks. With the transition to HD the gang looks even better. The cel-shaded graphics that Sly Cooper sports are some of the best that you can find, with the upgrade comes a crisper picture, smoother character design and even better looking characters.

Each area that you visit as you travel across the world feels quite life-like, if life was overlaid with a cartoon. The streets of Venice, the dark dank jungle, an airship flying through the sky, or even snow covered mountains all are on the places that you will be visiting with Sly and the gang. These areas are very complex and quite beautiful to explore as you search around them.

Now the Sly Cooper games for the PS2 took advantage of old school 3D graphics. This means that when you purchased one of these games they often came with red and blue 3D glasses that could be worn to produce the 3D effect. The Sly Collection sports the more modern 3D effects that utilize the new 3D TVs that are on the market today. I noticed that with 3D mode on the images were darker which required an increase in brightness but otherwise provided an immersive experience.

Audio:
Those who have played the original Sly Cooper games will immediately recognize the voices of Sly, Bentley, Murray, and even Carmelita as all the voice work is the same as the original titles. The voice acting is very memorable and fans of the series are coming back to exactly what they know and love. The characters slide slightly into your average character archetypes such as Bentley having a more nasally sounding voice but they settle well enough without being generic.

Gameplay:
Each Sly Cooper builds gameplay around the fact that Sly is a master thief and therefore must sneak around and avoid open confrontation. Now stealth games were not new when the original Sly Cooper was released but they took an entirely new spin on the mechanic by stripping the complexities away and allowing players to venture around self-contained levels and gather collectibles. Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus epitomized the stealth gameplay by making it so Sly would die simply from one touch by an enemy and provided linear storyline progression.

Now the linear storyline never did change as the games were developed, but one thing did. In Sly 2: Band of Thieves there is no longer a one hit kill system, but a health bar that allows Sly to be damaged a few times before failing his mission. Also introduced is the fact that you can now play certain levels as Sly’s allies Bentley and Murray for a variety of different missions. Sly Cooper himself is still the star however as he has noticeably more time and care placed into his missions than the other two.

The self-contained levels return including a money mechanic. The money mechanic is used to buy different equipment that Sly, Bentley and Murray can use to help them beat/avoid guards and is a nice touch to mix up the monotony that players may experience. The reason I mentioned monotony is because there will be lots of time in Sly 2 where you will be forced to run back and forth from your main base to switch characters around which would have been easier to do on the fly.

Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves is extremely similar to Sly 2 in most regards but has seen an update in overall gameplay and provides even more diverse missions to mix things up. Also with players going around the world to gather a large crew together there are plenty of playable characters that join the scene and flesh out the band of three. Again collectibles return in the form of bottles and the levels are still self-contained.

Now you may notice that the box up there says PlayStation Move Compatible, the reason for this is that there are certain additions to Sly Cooper that have Move support. Thankfully the Move use was not forced into the game and is not required in the slightest. If nothing else some players may not even notice that there is Move support within the game due to its implementation.

The Move is usable on four brand new mini-games that were created for the Move and take advantage of the Move’s capabilities. The mini-games are all more or less arcade games styled after shooting galleries as you attempt to reach the highest score you can. These additions at best are worth a small distraction but nothing more. There could have been more Move support added in, but as it stands the Move Compatibility is just taking advantage of the hype.

Overall:
If you have never played a Sly Cooper game before then there is literally no reason to not pick up this game collection. If you have played them before then this is a great chance to get the remastered version of each game all for a convenient price and in one package. The PS3 trophies for each game are individual and quite easy to collect; especially considering the fact that each Sly Cooper game looks even better than you will remember and has lost absolutely nothing in translation.

I give The Sly Collection:

Buzz: The Ultimate Music Quiz PS3 review

Zachariah Blue

January 16, 2011

Title name: BUZZ! The Ultimate Music Quiz
Platform: Playstation 3
Developer: Relentless Software
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment
Genre: Party
Release Date: Oct 22 2010 (EU), Jan 14 2011 (US)
ESRB rating: T or 3

Have you ever tried out to be on one of your favorite game shows? You have to send in an application and/or essay of why you should be on this game show. Millions of people send in one of these. We all hope that ours gets picked to move further down the process of game show glory. Why bother doing that when you can just play a game on your Playstation 3?!

The BUZZ series has been one of the few game show games to have more than 10 games and it has been five years strong. The orginal first BUZZ was just a simple music quiz. For the fifth anniversary, Relentless Software is going back to its roots. BUZZ! The Ultimate Music Quiz comes back with more customization options, better questions, and new Playstation Move functionality that makes it one of the best BUZZ games out.

Gameplay

The game play is the most similar to Jeopardy. There are panels that have general themes on them. Choose the theme you want to answer questions on and it goes from there. This is where your basic knowledge of random things comes into play. There are twists to the gameplay though. I’m not going to spoil it for you, but they make the game to be a blast with other people. The questions have a lot of variation to them. I found myself scratching my head quite a bit trying to figure out where they got this question, and how I am supposed to find the answer. Some of the music clips where not original songs or had no words to them. I would have no clue what the song was, then I would find out I knew exactly what the song was. The format is really simple and easy to use. I have not played any BUZZ games before this one, but from the research I have done, this format has been slightly improved on.

One minus to the game, however, is that the game is quite hard to play with only one person. I rarely have many friends over to my house. I play alone and by myself most of the time. Even though this is meant for party play, what if somebody wanted familiarize themselves with the game before people came over? The game just does not cater well to being by yourself. It does have online play though. I found that I was waiting quite a while to find some players online sadly. It is a nice feature to put in; if there were a bigger online community, it would be great.

The Playstation Move sections are fun, but not integrated with the whole game. They are mostly like any other Move game out there; A section of mini games that are fun for about an hour. But, it adds new ways to answer the questions. Instead of just pressing a button, your Move controller will act like a magnet while you answer questions. As mentioned, these were amusing but not very deep.

Another new feature is the ablilty to make your own BUZZ quiz and publish it online for other people to download and play. While you are able to buy new quizzes and sets of question from the Playstation Store, downloading other peoples quizzes or making your own is a great way to extend the life of the game and you do not want to shell out for the extra questions.

Audio and Visual

It is not all about the gameplay though! It is also about the funny and cool way to customize your characters. You can use your Playstation Eye to capture a picture of your face and put it on your avatar. Your face can then be pasted on TV screens, stretched and squeezed, and many other different options. The heads have the look and physics of paper. It is quite funny to see what the game does to the faces. Another cool feature is you can add custom sounds to the press of your buzzer.Using the Mic on your Playstation Eye you can record any sound you want and it will loop back every time you press the buzzer.

The host BUZZ has been using since day one is still here. While he may have new lines for the game, it gets a little old. The host’s punchlines cycle pretty frequently. I would hear the same lines in a single quiz. You can choose to turn his banter off so that is a plus. The backround music it plays is also pretty goofy. They are the type of tracks that would belong to a game show. You can also decide to turn off the music.

Overview

Compared to the greatest game show on earth, BUZZ! The Ultimate Music Quiz would not stand up. It is a great game for you and three of your friends to gather around the TV and have some fun. Extensive amount of questions and greatly customizable options make this game a blast to play. The option to play alone and more implementation of the Move controller would have put this game over the top. It essentailly is just another BUZZ quiz game though.

BUZZ! The Ultimate Music Quiz gets

Bulletstorm’s weaponry skillfully detailed

Travis Bruno

January 16, 2011

Eager to learn just what you will be using to get all of those skillshots and rack up the points in Epic and EA’s upcoming Bulletstorm? Then you are in luck because in the newest dev diary for Bulletstorm we are given a nice detailed explanation for many of the weapons we will be seeing. Cliff Bleszinski, Tanya Jessen and John Liberto give us the rundown of a variety of weapons plus talk a bit about multiplayer.

Apparently when the demo for Bulletstorm drops on January 25th we’ll be able to play the gameplay mode called Echo which will give you just a taste of the epic killing that you will experience when the game drops on February 22nd. I think out of all the guns they talk about my favorite is the Flail Gun, even though the one-liner attached to said gun is a bit of an epic flail.

Two Worlds II has changed much in this Dev Diary

Travis Bruno

January 16, 2011

Simplicity can sometimes be the best thing you can ask for. Sure some people enjoy the more complex mechanics such as alchemy and weapon crafting, but what if you want to have an easy and enjoyable experience? That is what Two Worlds II is aiming for. In the latest developer diary released by TopWare we hear from Creative Director Scott Cromie about just how complex or simple Two Worlds II can actually be.

From what was shown in the video we see how much has changed since the first Two Worlds. Practically everything that was customizable before has been redone and made easier to understand. Plus players can also just ignore the different customization options and go through the game normally if they wish to by making new potions and gear readily available as they advance through Two Worlds II. Don’t take my word for it however, take a look at the video below and catch Two Worlds II when it releases on the PC and Xbox 360 on January 25th.

Harmonix Drops Rock Band Network Support for the Wii…

Dustin Spencer

January 15, 2011

The main thing that separates the Guitar Hero franchise from Harmonix’s Rock Band is of course the constantly updated Rock Band Network which has kept songs flowing out for fans to download and has made the catalog the largest and most varied of any music game series to date. With that said, over on the Rock Band Forums, Aaron Trites, the Rock Band community manager posted a statement that Harmonix will no longer be supporting the network for the Nintendo Wii.

Here is the official statement:

Next Tuesday, 1/18/2010, will also be the last scheduled batch of Rock Band Network songs brought over to the Wii. With the smaller online install base, limited demand for releases so far and the significant amount of work it takes for our producers and audio team to convert and process these additional tracks we’re no longer able to continue submitting RBN content to the Wii. Regular Wii DLC, and RBN releases for the 360 and PS3 will continue uninterrupted.

Trites in indeed correct as I personally do not have a problem with them pulling the Network from the Wii, and this is coming from someone who enjoys the system fully. The Wii just is not made for true online services at the moment aside from Netflix and the well crafted Nintendo made channels, and with no hard drive or true storage system aside from SD cards, it is much easier to keep a full catalog of downloads on systems like the 360 & PS3. Hopefully next generation’s Nintendo console will be more storage and download friendly when it comes to things like the Rock Band Network, but as it stands this decision seems to be the right choice from a business and technical standpoint.

Zombie Runaway hands on video preview

Philip Federico

January 14, 2011

RUN ZOMBIE !!! RUN !!!

I know we all like shooting, bashing, bludgeoning, slicing, smashing poor defenseless zombies around as it seems like it’s the normal video game thing to do nowadays, but this time around Com2us have come up with a different take on things. Why not control the poor Zombie as he’s running away from all the crazy people wanting to kill him. Will you make it out of the cemetery alive errr well not alive but undead or will those pesky tombstones, spiked barriers and stone walls put an end to your lifeless existence once and for all ?

Zombie Runaway is a casual pick up and play game that’s certainly very easy to play and quite addictive but very hard to master. You play as a chubby looking gluttonous zombie running away as fast as he can, from what – who knows but it’s your job to guide him through the cemetery as far as you can collecting as many power-ups and coins as undeadly possibly. Gameplay is very simple, you have three control buttons – Move left, Move Right and Jump. You start off running at a casual jog, gradually picking up speed the further you progress through the cemetery, along the way there are obstacles such as tombstones, spike barriers and stone walls that you need to dodge or jump over. You also have gold, silver and bronze coins that you pick up along the way that will increase your score and also unlock specific achievements as well which in turn unlock cool looking costumes for your zombie. There are also power up that Mr Zombie can pick up that will allow him to smash through any tombstone or wall in his way. Once you pick up a power up it is encouraged to hit as many tombstones as possible as that too will give you bonus points towards your overall score.

You start with a health bar consisting of three hearts, you can collect more hearts along the way that can replenish your life so you can run away that little bit further. The game does end when you’ve smashed through one too many tombstones or if you run into a spike barrier.

As we’ve fully previewed Zombie Runaway click on the play button below and watch the game in action as I discuss in further detail everything there is to know about the game.

[pro-player width=’530′ height=’253′ type=’video’]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j95Fhw-lTVs[/pro-player]

Zombie Runaway will be running into the App store in not to distant future.

Bulletstorm Demo Available January 25

Roger Ma

January 14, 2011

Epic Games, the makers of the Gears of War and Unreal series, have just announced today a demo for the highly anticipated shooter Bulletstrom. Giving players an early taste of what the game has to offer, guns, action and everything in between. The Bulletstorm demo will be available for download January 25 on the Xbox Live Marketplace Worldwide and the PlayStation Network on January 26.

The retail version of Bulletstorm will ship with three massive game modes, a pulp sci-fi single-player campaign, multiplayer and Echo mode – An arcade twist on the campaign in which scores are tracked and compared whilst player progress through the campaign. The Bulletstorm demo will give players a small tasty slice of Echo mode, in which players traverse a collapsed building on the deadly paradise planet Stygia as ex-Dead Echo leader Grayson Hunt.

Bulletstorm’s unique “Skillshot” system encourages players to “Kill with Skill” finding the most stylish, imaginative and over the top ways to take down enemies, more than 45 skillshots have been included in the demo. Players will find more and more creative ways to kill and rack up points by uses of their powerful arsenal, from a futuristic assault rifle called the Peace Maker Carbine, to the Flail Gun, which fires two grenades linked by a chain, and the Screamer, a powerful revolver that turns enemies into human fireworks.

Bulletstorm certainly looks to bring something fresh and new to first person shooter genre poised to be one of 2011’s most original games. Bulletstorm will be available on Feb. 25, 2011. Bulletstorm Epic Edition for the Xbox 360 will grant players early access to the Gears of War 3 beta as well as additional bonus in-game content included in Bulletstorm Limited Edition for the PlayStation 3 and PC.

For more information on Bulletstorm visit www.bulletstorm.com, www.facebook.com/bulletstorm and www.twitter.com/bulletstorm

SEGA Dreamcast Collection: Out In February!

Matthew Vella

January 14, 2011

The Sega Dreamcast console was released in 1998 and revolutionised gaming as we know it, being widely hailed as ahead of its time. It was the first console to include a built-in moden and internet support for online gaming, and its graphics were some of the best of it’s era. It was the final console from the company Sega before they began focusing on software.

Now four of the most popular Dreamcast titles are coming to Xbox 360 and the PC as the Sega Dreamcast Collection available this February. Games on the collection will feature Sonic Adventure, Crazy Taxi, SEGA Bass Fishing and Space Channel 5 with enchanted graphics, online leader boards and most importantly-achievements!

Gary Knight, VP of Markets at Sega America and Europe announced that “The Dreamcast console is still remembered as a pioneering console for online gaming, we are delighted to be able to offer to our large community of dedicated fans a collection such as Dreamcast Collection for them to enjoy old favourites on this generation of consoles.”

The SEGA Dreamcast Collection will be out on February 25th in Europe and February 22nd in North America. I don’t know about you guys but Im excited to play some Space Channel 5 again!

Xbox 360 Reaches New Heights

Matthew Vella

January 14, 2011

Xbox 360 has hit a few new milestones recently, and Microsoft couldn’t be happier. Microsoft recently announced that 2010 has been the biggest year in Xbox history, and the figures have been more than impressive:

-Microsoft predicted they would sell 5 million Kinect sensors by the end of the christmas holiday. In the 60 days, they sold 8 million Kinect sensors worldwide.

-The lifespan of 360 isn’t over yet, and it has already sold over 50 million consoles worldwide- double the amount of the previous generation console.

-Xbox 360 has been the best-selling console in North America for the last six months.

-The Xbox LIVE community now has 30 million Xbox LIVE members, and a new member joins every two seconds.

Kinect is also breaking boundaries of home entertainment, with recently showcased new forms of controler-free entertainment, such as:

–Netflix and Hulu Plus: coming Spring 2011, where one can watch thousands of movies and TV shows, controler-free.

–A new partnership between Xbox LIVE and ESPN: owners will be able to watch over 3500 live and on-demand sporting events from ESPN3.com and highlights from ESPN.com.

–Avatar Kinect: Coming in Spring for FREE to Xbox LIVE Gold members, Avatars will come to live where Kinect users will be able to control their Avatar’s movements and facial expressions.

2011 is sure to be an exciting year for Xbox 360 owners

Lost in Shadow – Review

Dustin Spencer

January 14, 2011

Game Name: Lost in Shadow (aka A Shadow’s Tale in Europe)
Platform(s): Nintendo Wii
Publisher(s): Hudson Soft
Developer(s): Hudson Soft
Genre(s): Platformer, Puzzle
Release Date: January 4th, 2011 (US) October 15, 2010 (EU)
Price: $39.99 (US)

Lost in Shadow is one of 2011’s first big releases in North America and was developed by Hudson Soft as a fresh take on a platformer. The thing that makes Lost in Shadow interesting though is that while platforming in the game, many puzzle elements come into play. Both genres blend with each other with a visually and emotionally captivating setting to pack quite a punch on the Wii and open up the system’s new year with a bang. Here is my review for Lost in Shadow.

Story
When I first heard about Lost in Shadow last year, I was drawn to the visuals instantly, as this title seemed to pack quite an emotional story. After a full playthrough of the game though, the story was not all that deep plot wise but instead rather simple. You start out watching a cut-scene of a young boy who has his shadow severed from his physical body and quickly the shadow is thrown off a huge tower. Now you must make your way back up the tower and find answers.

I can’t really go into much more on the story as it could very well spoil the game, but what you do learn is very interesting about who exactly the lead character, known as simply “the boy” really is. You are accompanied on your journey by a creature known as “The Spangle” which is basically a sylph or fairy like creature that flutters beside you at all times (we will touch more up on this in a moment).

Without a huge overall plot and no voice acting as well as very few cut scenes, you would think it would be hard for Lost in Shadow to convey anything at all but that is truly what made this title stand out for me, as the game’s world mixed with the little bit of plot thrown in really paint a picture as you move through and can hit an emotional chord quite often. I could probably best compare this to Majesco’s remake of A Boy and His Blob or Ico, as the story may not be too complex but the gameplay, visuals and whole world in general give off a vibe where it is easy to use your imagination and actually engross yourself in the game itself, trying to uncover every last detail just to peel off layers to a mysterious world. It truly is that sense of mystery that kept me going in Lost in Shadow which makes it a superb example that you don’t have to turn a video game into a cinema to create a character that players can actually connect with.

Gameplay
The overall game of Lost in Shadow is mainly a 2D side-scrolling platformer but as I mentioned there quite a few puzzle elements mixed in as well. The game is made up of floors which you must slowly make your way up to get to the top of the tower. Each floor has three Monitor Eyes which you must collect to be able to break the shadow barrier blocking the path to the next level. The boy you play as has an HP gauge which is made up out of weight, which can be increased by collecting “memories” scattered throughout the floors of the tower. Equipped with a sword, you can also take out some of the mysterious creatures which block many paths as well. This formula is pretty much the main theme of the game throughout, collect the eyes, gather memories, move on to the next floor. Well, that is before we add in the puzzle elements of course.

Remember “Spangle” character I mentioned earlier? The Spangle is pretty much follows behind you as you jump and platform with the WiiMote and nunchuck control, but you can also point the WiiMote at certain objects and it will quickly become a cursor, letting you flip or move certain structures in the foreground to create a new path in the shadows. The whole game of course is made up of moving around and climbing in the shadows of the foreground objects, but this method is actually a genius addition that adds a lot of strategy and thinking into the game. While you are jumping from one platform to the next, sometimes you hit roadblocks where you must Spangle to change up the stage to progress. Sometimes this method is as simple as moving one pillar, and other times it can involve quite a bit of backtracking to activate a full path in various ways such as pulling levers or smashing items which can activate doors and openings for you to fully progress. As interesting and well structured as this concept is, it can get tedious after time as backtracking through areas will have you meet enemies which you may have already battled, pillars and platforms you must move again and so on.

On each floor you will also find doorways known as “Shadow Corridors” which you enter usually about halfway through each level. These are kind of like a dream-like version of the standard stages and a bit more atmospheric, but with a different method of gameplay. The goal behind the corridors is to make it to the end by using the standard Spangle control but with the added element of points which let you flip the whole world horizontally, putting a new perspective of your whole environment to reach different areas. These were some of my favorite parts of the game as completing each held a sense of accomplishment and each one felt a bit different from the next.

Some points of the game actually possess a light source which can be seen and you can use your spangle to pull the source back and forth, which pulls the shadowy platforms closer to your character. Considering the setting and shadow concept, this further use of manipulating the light source was yet another perfect fit into the game’s overall offerings.

The game honestly plays quite smoothly and beautifully for the whole experience, but there was one gripe of how the overall layout was executed which added a bit of frustration. The first thing to mention of this would be the length of the overall game. Now there is nothing wrong with the game being long as there is well over 50 floors to explore, but things start feeling more of the same about halfway through due to the pacing. Each stage looks and feels different from the next, but with very few boss fights or moments of true completion when going from one area to the next, it can leave the game feeling like you are climbing up a ladder with no end in sight at times.

About a little over half way through the game though, an element is added (which I don’t want to go into detail too much about as it is a bit of a spoiler in my opinion) which changes the gameplay completely and makes that tedious climb worth every second. I almost wish this was added earlier on but I felt it was nice to have a brand new way to experience the game so far in and reaching this feature where the game hit it’s shining moment and kept me playing until the very end. This element of gameplay also opened up many doors and answers all the questions you may have had about certain areas which is of course why I think the developers introduced it so late. After you finish the game there is plenty for completionists to go back and collect as well as backtrack through so overall, many hours can be lost in the shadows and the overall experience as a whole is truly exceptional.

Graphics/Audio
Since environments are made up of shadows from foreground objects, it is important that the visuals actually weave all of the correct textures together to create perfect symmetry, and I can easily say this is done perfectly. At times just playing the game can make you sit down the controller and admire how it almost appears that you are running through a painting. The boy also flows in nicely with the environments, but the cursor or spangle can get a bit in the way at times. Creatures within the game also are all made brilliantly and retain the mysterious charm that pours in on each floor.

The music is also orchestrated wonderfully to each setting you come across which gives the graphics a soul and set the mood for whatever situation you are in. Sound effects are also well done with enemies each getting their own appropriate cries as well as the environment itself coming alive with creaks and grinding as you move platforms to progress.

Overall
Lost in Shadow is a brilliant concept that was executed correctly. The game plays smoothly and brings new life into the platforming genre while also getting the player to observe the beauty of each area by throwing in some puzzle elements which award you for further engrossing yourself into the setting. The only problem I encountered was the pacing, but the reward for patience is great and the game completely reveals it’s true self upon reaching this point. Throw in the feel of mystery that is very present from beginning to end and Lost in Shadow truly captures the essence and promise of it’s name and concept, which makes this title one not to pass up.

I Give Lost in Shadow:

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