Tag Archives: gaming

Playstation Phone – Truth or Fiction? {Technology}

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I always get a bit worried when too much hype surrounds forthcoming products. However the rumour mill has been churning for some months now around a Playstation Phone and I have to admit it’s getting hard to sit still, especially when, over the past few days, a couple of videos have hit YouTube showing off the gaming phone and its Android interface.

Check out the videos below, and decide for yourself whether they are the real deal ‘happy meal’ or nothing but ‘fan made’ fantasia.

According to sources it will have 512 MB of RAM, a 1GHz Snapdragon processor and a touchpad designed for gaming. Its biggest feature though is that will run Google’s Android OS, as well as Playstation games.
With all fairness though, as many techno heads know, most phones can run PSP type games albeit at lower resolution through things like emulators etc. Another thing that concerns me is the amount of RAM. Being in mind it will have to run your entire phone’s apps and games, is 512 MB really going to be enough? Sony are going to do something about the size as it looks like a brick and let hope they do something about that control pad too – it looks nasty! One thing is for sure – Sony are keeping it on a ‘real down low’ for now and saying nothing on whether it actually exists. However if it does, a Playstation phone could be one of the most innovative pieces of hardware of 2011 and a real contender to other touch screen phone rivals on the market – you all know who you are!

Gran Turismo 5 by Junior Smart. {Gaming Review}

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Gran Turismo 5

You can call me a bit of a cynic if you want but I always get just a tad bit worried when things are over hyped. Take my friend for instance; there we were both on the tube and he just stands there clutching his copy of Gran Turismo almost like he would a new born baby, looking at it so earnestly with love in his eyes.
“Yes…” he manages to say at last “there is a God! Heaven knows just how long I have waited for this…” In response all I can manage to do is just look at him pitifully, watching as a lonely tear rolls down his cheek before I say slowly “please man, just get a grip before I call in the Shame Squad!”

Mind you, I am sure that his response is fairly typical of many gamers around the world, Gran Turismo 5 is perhaps one of the most eagerly awaited titles since the Playstation 3’s launch almost 5 years ago and yes, gamers have been waiting that long. I remember when the first title came out on the Playstation one way back when I was in my teens. Here was a title that considered itself so good that it wasn’t just a racing game; no, it was a ‘racing simulator’. True to the hype being circulated, playing it provided an unbeatable ‘kid in a car showroom experience’, and indeed such was the sheer quality of graphics that many people rushed out and got their Playstations ‘chipped’ just so they could play the Japanese version of the game; a game I might add that they probably couldn’t even read. And guess what? If you were to ask any of them they would probably say that it was money well spent.

So here lies the critical problem with probably the longest awaited, most eagerly anticipated game of a generation – the issue of expectations. Just imagine going out to eat at a fine restaurant owned by say Gordon Ramsey. Yes you may have had to wait as long as it took to get Wagner booted off X Factor; but my gosh when that food get puts in front of you, you want it so badly and appreciate the hands that have cooked it so much that even if it comes short or doesn’t taste as nice as you expect you just accept it and brush the faults under the carpet and say ‘that was the best rabbit’s testicles I’ve ever tasted!’. Is it little wonder that all over the globe, so many reviewers have scored it 10 out of 10?

Well, no senor, I regret to inform the millions of racing enthusiast out there that it is not a 10 out of 10. I hate to say it but it is true. It is however still exceptional at what it is and that is providing a unique experience, good solid fun and breathtakingly detailed graphics.
From the start it seems that waiting is what this game is all about. After the endless teases that have come in the form of demos, screenshots and the Prologue; Gran Turismo 5 keeps up the trend from the moment you insert the disc. One of the first decisions you’ll face is whether to opt for a full install of the game’s data or get straight to the track and endure some drastically longer load times. I’d definitely recommend the full install as we found out to our peril loading happens for each menu screen you enter. But beware the install takes around 40 minutes. I found this really annoying as basically you are caught between a rock and a hard place. Owners of the older PS3’s will regret the day they bought the cheaper 40 GB machines as it takes a whopping 4GBs of space. Every time Ihad to wait I ended up looking at my PS3 and the more I had to look at it the more I thought it looked like an, erm…steak grill.
Once in the game though it is business as usual; that is race, open more tracks, race open more cars and more events etc. It is pretty formulaic stuff, but hey, if it isn’t broke don’t you dare try and fix it. For creators Polyphony, it is evident that they spent the last 5 years perfecting the detail. Take any one of Gran Turismo’s 1000+ vehicles out for a spin on the Le Man’s track at night and you will see what I mean. My mate ran out of ‘Ooohs’ and ‘Ahhhs’ and I have to admit there is an undeniable feeling of quality about the game. The reflections that glisten, the breathtaking backdrops, even the sounds of the engines come together in a beautiful entourage and are just so obviously meticulously rendered.

The original career structure of the Gran Turismo series is there, for example License tests, A-spec events, and car dealerships. There are some notable new additions as well like the B-spec Events, which give you the chance to create a team of drivers and coach them through a series of races. I thought that this would be an interesting concept but was immediately disappointed. It turns out all you can do is issue commands whilst you view from different angles. One serious question is why this is even in the game. Lets be honest the whole point of buying the game is because you want to be behind the wheel and not a spectator – if you want to watch a race you can just watch it on TV, so this is just worthless.

In contrast the Special Events are a nice touch and presents the opportunity to try out different types of events for example kart racing, which delivers incredible speed and requires different driving techniques compared to racing the regular vehicles. I found this part to be largely entertaining and a thrilling aspect to the franchise.
When it comes to handling I am pleased to report that the Gran Turismo driving experience is back. Tweaked a bit from the original, yet as fine as ever, the feel of the cars on the road is practically faultless, The trick is it knows what it is, it is a racing sim pure and simple, which means unforgiving turns, tight racing lines, acceleration balanced with brakes. The cockpit view has also been refined and whilst not as good as say Need for Speed: Shift’s cockpit view, it is still effective.

A subject of criticism lies in your competitor’s difficulty level. Early on in the game they are just a joke to be honest, however once I had increased substantially to a higher driver level, they weren’t just aggressive they became unpredictable. I understand that this is all to do with the learning curve but I think it gets ramped up too quickly, too high.

Another area of criticism lies in the much-talked-about damage modeling for the cars. I was frustrated to find that this didn’t fully come into play until later in the game and when it did it was laughable at best. When I opened the option I decided I would go all kamikaze and hit a barrier at 160mph, the result; only the bonnet and bumper was slightly damaged, I couldn’t help but think – are they kidding me? Fair enough the car manufacturers or games developers may not want to see their impressive beautiesdamaged in Hi Def but I do, and if you create an option for damage then expect it to be used. It should work and not be a downright con.

My last area of complaint lies in the faults created by the developers. For a game that took so long to complete I didn’t expect so many re-cycled tracks and that’s not the only area that lets this title down. There are some vehicles that seem to come from the GT4 era that just aren’t given the same ‘spit polish’ as the modern ones. On the track, in the heat of a race, admittedly it is difficult to tell, but close up and in replays it is obvious that their polygon count is lower and their shadows are jagged and kind of Playstation 2-esque. They just feel very ‘undeserving’ to be in this game.

So my final verdict – It is great to see the ‘racing game of excellence’ return after so many years. Yes, it is beautiful and also incredibly realised but like it or not, it does have its faults. Compared to other modern day race games I just couldn’t help but think that they could have put more into this, also it is worth noting that besides racing there is very little else to this game, to be completely honest there is only so many times a corner or a bend or another driver can be challenging, so this title is one for the enthusiasts only.

Kinect {Gaming Review}

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After calling the Playstation Move controller a Wii remote look-alike, I had a sense of apprehension picking up a Playstation eye-alike from my games store. Cries of ‘Traitor’ ‘Turn coat’ and even ‘Defector’ awaited me as I picked up the Xbox Kinect system.

Whilst these words might seem a little strong and perhaps a little un-warranted, everybody knows my devotion for the Playstation 3 Console. I’ll put myself out on a limb and say what most games players know – that on paper at least – the PS3 is the most powerful console. No one can deny that; the Playstation Systems for each step of the way have rejuvenated gaming and given new meaning to the term ‘Home entertainment system’. First redefining the CD, then DVD, then the Blu-ray HD gaming medium. Who can forget that prior to that we had games cartridges and then the awful loading times of Sega Mega CD and 3DO. But I am a techie, and word on the street is that the Kinect System not only rocks but takes it to the next level. So despite devotion I just couldn’t resist booking myself a room at the Xbox hotel.

Given my love for the PS3 I soooo badly wanted to report back that the Kinect System is rubbish, that it contains crap technology and is a waste of money. The truth is whilst I found that it certainly has its faults it is a remarkable effort and offers a taste of something promising to come through its hardware.

Out of the box the Kinect System looks like a sausage squeezed Playstation eye and there are two other cameras which are reminiscent of the earlier surround sound systems of the 90’s that you arrange on either side. They work together to build up a 3D picture of the room and your position within it. The idea is that Kinect knows how close you are and that sense of depth allows it to judge things like whether your hands are behind your back, or whether you’re kicking your legs out in front or behind, for instance.

Kinect comes with its own menu system, accessible from the Xbox 360’s dashboard. Inside this menu, you are able to access all of the Kinect-compatible entertainment features that are available to you. Microsoft wanted user interactivity from the get go and it is surprising how quick and intuitive it is. The Kinect experience begins as soon as you switch on your 360 allowing you to browse even the basic features of the Xbox 360 without a controller. Holding your hand out in front of you creates a hand icon on the screen. Moving your hand the onscreen icon moves with you to select the option you desire, then to select and you hold it there for a couple of seconds until it activates it.

Another innovative use of technology lies in the Kinect’s voice control command system. Using the onboard microphone you can control your Xbox using your voice alone.
Saying “Xbox” alone is all you need to get the Xbox’s attention and its there like an eager puppy. Once said a list of commands then pops up from the top of the screen. These commands are context sensitive so for example if you’re playing music or watching a video, these commands include play, stop, or rewind. A well nice touch.

his is much the way you interact with many of the games; either by using hand gestures, voice commands or body movements to make your on-screen character move or to interact with objects, animals or characters on the screen.

So on to performance and playability. There’s no denying that there’s some fantastic technology inside Kinect. Yet as incredible as it is, shortcomings soon arise in terms of limitations. If you’re expecting to play a game and have your on-screen character do exactly as you do with your body, quickly, and completely in-time with you – you’re going to be sorely disappointed. You just can’t do that in most games. I blame the marketing for this, because in every advert I have seen it appears as if the people playing the game and their on screen characters are moving synchronously with them. The reality of this just isn’t so; in every game I have played there is lag and copious amounts of it.

Take a game such as Fighters for example. It’s a 3D Beat ’em up game where you control your fighter by performing fighting moves in real life. Now this was the game I was looking forward to the most as what it bodes for future fighting games such as Street Fighter and the like could be incredible. However I soon realized that this was a delusion of grandeur as such was the significant delay between me unleashing my punches, and them being mirrored on screen that often I completed my move in real life well before the character did so. Not good.

To be completely fair though this delay is dependent on how fast you move. A slow movement, for example those in dance games rather than shoot-em-ups, has almost no noticeable lag at all. The faster you move, the more pronounced the lag is. A real question to this lag lies in what types of games will we be expected to play. It remains to be seen if and how shooting games will emerge on this platform. As I doubt most gamers will want slow moving titles or cuddly little animal games.

Talking of games there were a whopping 12 different titles available at launch – two words: triple wow. Compare that against the paltry 6 or so games offered at the launch of the Playstation Move. Indeed Sony should be ashamed.

Another area of concern for me is with the sensor. In the marketing campaign it said that the Kinect is capable of working out up to six players movements at the same time. The reality is far less – it didn’t take much effort for me and just four of my friends to ‘confuse’ it and during our games session, we also noticed a few glitches and moments of weirdness when the sensor had lost our position or just wasn’t registering our actions. Tut-tut. This is something that should have been ironed out long before release because if this had happened in the middle of a frantic game it would have added to our frustration.

Another issue is space – fortunately for one of my friends two thirds of his ground floor is a front room, but for some on affordable housing (like me) (also known as housing bunker options) will quickly find themselves in problems. Kinect requires plenty of playing space. The instruction manual recommends having 6 feet of clear space in front of the sensor for single-player games, and a whopping 8 feet of clear space if you’re playing with two people. Yep – it’s time to move your granny out of the way at Christmas, oops and the tree, and the in-laws, oh yes and the sofa. With all honesty I cannot see the average UK bedroom being big enough to accommodate Kinect. This removes the bedroom games players out of the equation and could see people relocating the Xbox to the garden.

The last area worth covering is cost; The Kinect Sensor isn’t cheap, costing £125 on launch. It comes with a free copy of Kinect Adventures – a title with lots of mini sub-games designed to showcase the various capabilities of the Kinect system. Tut-tut Sony for just including a demo disc with your Playstation Move – Shame on you.

However, if you think of it like this – Kinect can detect up to six people in a room, and supports two active players at a time. So that £125 brings with it two-player gaming from the get go. That compares favorably to the £127 you’d have to pay for the equivalent PS Move setup (with PlayStation Eye, two Move controllers and two navigation controllers). With that in mind in a weird way it does represent value for money.

So my final verdict?

It is really hard not to like or to appreciate the Kinect system, yes there are lag issues with some games and dealing with aforementioned space issues as well which could relegate some gamers. However it is impossible to deny Microsoft really did their homework with this and have delivered a solid piece of hardware which equates to a real swift kick to the shins of Sony’s mighty Playstation console. It is sad because in my opinion without the likes of Halo and a couple of exclusives the Playstation still had the higher ground and was still the technically superior machine. However, the hardware that Kinect brings changes the game. Like it or not, faults or not, Kinect holds futuristic possibilities. My verdict is that it is an ‘innovative’ rather than an altogether ‘intuitive’ piece of technology. Keep that in mind and keep your eyes open for future games and lets see what happens. I get the feeling you won’t be disappointed.

Call of Duty – Black Ops {Gaming Review}

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Call of Duty – Black Ops exploded into computer games stores all over the country last night with as much with build up and lengthy queues as would be expected at a premiere release of a Hollywood blockbuster.

Considering the build up to this much eagerly awaited title who could blame people joining in line from as early as 5pm? This was of course for a game being released at midnight. Stapelines such as ‘are you ready’, trailers featuring soundtracks such as “Gimme Shelter” by The Rolling Stones got games players all over the world excited.

Do you think it was just a little bit more than by chance that the game was released just days before Remembrance Sunday the day that many war heroes are remembered? What about the infamous release date 9/11/ a date that brings to mind one of the world’s biggest tragedies and the start on ‘the war on terror’? Indeed this is Call of Duty, probably the most eagerly anticipated game of the year. The latest in a multi million pound franchise and they are intent on handling every aspect from publicity to the product with military precision.

From the get go everything about Call of duty – Black Ops just screams attention. This is a call to arms. For the first time in the new call of duty franchise for the majority of the game you play Alex Mason, a man who knows much more than he originally lets on to and the game opens with him strapped to a chair in an interrogation room endlessly grilled about a mysterious series of numbers that only he can apparently decode.

Through Flashback sequences we get to uncover more about the numbers and more about Alex Mason and the roles he played in several missions all over the world during the cold war era. This is all I can say because to reveal too much more about the game is like revealing a storyline to a movie; and a movie is just what you are playing; because at times this game is very reminiscent of those all too well remembered movies such as platoon Apocalypse Now and The Deer Hunter; topless soldiers with bandanas laying out body bags in the sun to the Good Morning Vietnam type deep south soundtrack

Developer Treyarch has done a terrific job in incorporating a movie experience into a game, which in many ways supersedes Modern Warfare 2.  The game play at times is too tight for it’s own good. For example when you are knee deep in the jungle (and trust me the graphics are gorgeous) often you want to go off and explore within the wider range than the game permits, in a way this highlights the faults as some of the levels are almost too compacted for their own good and way too short lived. They are however well-signposted and highly-scripted. But like a one night stand – wham bam and it is over. I completed a game that I waited almost a year for in just over 6 hours – shame

Black Ops though was never meant to be put in any type of league that offers exploration – It is a high intensity First person shooter and it delivers exactly what it says on the tin. Its slick, polished highly cinematic, and it throws every type of war experience from that era as fast as it can. Online game play is where this game was meant to shine – The multiplayer component is beautifully constructed and breathtaking. 14 maps greeted me, designed to explore and on my first play I was already looking at places I could sniper opponents from. “Jungle”, with its winding paths, tree houses and hanging vines, to the brilliant, “Nuketown”, designed to resemble one of those simulated neighbourhoods constructed by the US to test the effects of nuclear hardware. These are aspects that show a lot of thought has gone into the design.

The frame rate remains fast – 60 frames-per-second and the basic shooting mechanics remain as good and refined as they did in modern warfare 2. which was never going to be a bad thing.

My only gripe with these types of games is that often when you have played one you have played them all, I mean c’mon you know you are just going to be shooting; from cover, from a helicopter, from within a team. The principality of it rarely changes. But this said Black Ops does bring something new to the market in the terms of enough varying challenges and online multiplayer action to keep most games players busy.

Well worth a shot.

Rock Band 3 {Gaming Review}

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The Guitar Hero and Rock Band franchises – are considered by many to be the most influential video games of the first decade of the 21st century. First released in 2005 it seemed as if air guitarists of a generation could finally unite. I remember the first time I picked up my plastic guitar and fretted along to a track. The whole idea of being a mini rock god in my bedroom just seemed to work.

However, that was a long time ago and a long time before they decided to milk the cash cow dry. Over the past number of years it seems as if we have been inundated with rock games. If I bought a new guitar each time a new game came out I reckon I would own about ten by now. To make things worse this year we have not one but two releases and you better believe it both are aiming to reach the number one spot on your Christmas list. I managed to get my hands on a copy on an early edition of Rock Band 3 to find out if I should still be rocking on.

As mad as it seems there is a reason for all of these games; Rock Band and Guitar Hero (and their sequels) are in fact the creations of separate rival software developers – Harmonix and Neversoft; and in numerous ways they have their own distinct diverse approach on how to make a rock and roll video game great and how to sell it.

Take Rock Band for example. Rock Band has always aimed for maximum playability with a large selection of pop rock type tracks. When they have gone for serious rock they usually pick tracks that are well known and they provide strong online support. Also in my view on the easier difficulty level the player is never actually really tested. Contrast this with Guitar Hero and Neversoft who seemed to cater mainly for the serious rock fanatics. Anyone who has played Band Hero will recognize their disappointment at going online and finding out that there was little if any online tracks to support their foray into popdom. Try too tackling Band hero on easy and your wrists will be sore. It might be a game but it doesn’t play nice.

Check out their titles too, once Neversoft and their publisher Activision realized that they had a market in plastic guitars they seemed almost like a bat out of hell-bent on riding the rock train until the wheels came off; delivering a new title almost every year – often with just new tracks and tweaks being the whole USP. Thank heavens for the term ‘market saturation’ because when the rock train was about to terminate at the next stop they turned their hands to the Vinyl and came up with the admittedly very polished DJ Hero. Out went the classic rock and in came the classic Hip-hop. Contrast this with Harmonix and the very incredible looking Beetles Rock Band – they always seem to go for quality over quantity.

To be fair to Neversoft they do have a flair for spotting innovative design because each new release of a ‘Hero’ has brought something new, however small and Rock Band 3 has capitalized on each and every aspect that they brought that worked. They also listened to their many fans

Game Play remains the same as before; successfully complete a song by using your controllers to strike the correct notes in time with note tracks shown on the game screen; or, in the case of the vocalists, to sing in the relative pitch to the original artist. Each player has a performance meter, which increases when correct notes are hit and falls when notes are missed; a band performance meter represents an average of all players. If a player’s meter should drop to zero, that player will temporarily drop out, silencing their part, and the band’s performance meter will start to drop. If the band’s meter hits zero, the band will fail the song and be booed off stage, and can either restart or change their difficulty level.

Rock Band 3 allows for several players, locally or for the first time online, to play the roles of lead guitar, bass guitar, drums, and vocals. I was pleased to see that Rock Band 3 had support for backup vocal harmonies with the lead singer (a feature previously introduced in The Beatles: Rock Band), and one playing an electric keyboard. (Yes it’s not just a new guitar you will need to buy this time).

Talking of which, it has often been a personal criticism that to plough the amount of time that you need to in order to get good at this game you are far better learning to play the guitar or drums in real life. Well this is a criticism put to rest because although this game is compatible with existing guitar controllers from previous Rock Band and Guitar Hero games. Mad Catz has just produced a new guitar controller, based on the Fender Mustang with real strings. Instead of five colored buttons, there are 6 buttons across 17 different frets, culminating in a total of 102 buttons to play. This idea is quite exciting me, as this game could redefine the whole term ‘fun learning’.
So on to playability. The game features a more in-depth career mode; and as before you can design your own character.

Reportedly the career mode includes over 700 career goals. The game also includes some 83 songs, ranging from Evanescence to Bob Marley and I was pleasantly surprised to see that all of my original downloaded content from previous Rock Band games transferred quickly and without additional cost. This gave me the feeling that this title is all about consolidating your Rock Band music. And that can only be a good thing. Tracks from the actual titles though such as Rock Band 2 required the purchase of a key but the transfer was quick and simple. I am always taken aback by Rock Bands online support and at time of writing there was over 2,000 songs available in the store for download. One word: wow. Developers of Guitar Hero should take note.

I found the game play to be rounded and a decent enough internet connection is all you need to ensure online play. Although, personally I found many tracks lacked sufficient challenge. The storyline was literally non existent – we all know the score: group of gang-banger wannabes decide to form a band and you have to help them scale to heights of success.

I do have a few gripes. Firstly the graphics – I was disappointed. Whilst functional they are no where near as polished as they should be, even if you were to take Band Hero which was out over a year ago and put these titles side by side graphically it would be stronger.

Secondly for me the sound mixer could have done with some refinement. For example I found it hard hear the vocal track if you are singing or vice versa. Guitar Hero 5 eradicated that problem ages ago. I couldn’t help but wonder why it is still here.

So what’s my view? – Well, despite its faults if you are going to get a Rock Band game then this is the title to get. In terms of game play and online support it has a much stronger, richer library. It is also the game you will return to and download tracks for and complete. More importantly it will keep you entertained without doubt through Christmas.

By Junior Smart

Playstation Move {Technology Review}

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I am one huge fan of Sony’s games machines. There you go I’ve said it. That’s because I work hard and I play hard. When I play hard I want an interactive, fun and exciting experience. I have had every single incarnation of their Playstation – yes including the original formidable black Playstation – the one where they gave every nerdy individual the somewhat futile chance in hell of developing and testing games for themselves in their own front room. In my time I have been called a games player and a games technician – work that one out. But don’t ever get me started on the amount of times they have missed opportunities.

Take the Playstation Move for example – Tempting, all so tempting. Waiting in the queue inside my favourite games store I had all that anticipation a young child feels going into a bakery but then upon seeing it I felt unsatisfied and like that kid out of that famous fairy tale ‘The Emperors New Clothes’ – you know the one, the one who spoke up with brutal honesty and said to the emperor “Your naked!”. Because there I was standing amongst people who were going oooh and ahhh and emailing their mates ‘OMG’ at the Playstation Move demonstration only to pipe up and say “But it looks like a Wii control for god sake!”

Stunned silence ensued. “Oh” but the techie with the Matrix style jacket said sternly, “It’s got true 1:1 motion control and a glowing end”. ‘Right,’ I thought out loud ‘so that’s where I got it wrong – how silly of me’
Lets be honest, such is the strikingly similarities between the Wii and the Move remotes that you almost feel like you are being conned. Yes, it does have a round glowing end – an end very reminiscent of an Ambi Pur air freshener which changes colour at regular intervals but true 1:1 technology is nothing new; in fact it is the same technology pushed forward by Nintendo in their recent range of Motion Plus. Arguably where Nintendo have gone wrong is that their games have been made too much for the younger casual gamer, so where Playstation ultimately needs to pull rank is in the games and in the graphics.

To be fair to Sony the Playstation Move has a whole different set up to the Wii; although again very similar. The Playstation Eye camera tracks the movement this time, (those of you who have owned an Eye Pet will know just how sensitive it can be) and with its own on board mic what this brings to the games is a whole new level of interactivity as you can be the star and hear your voice in your own games. Huge thumbs up.

The controllers whilst similar in design to the Wii’s are lighter – thanks to built in lithium rechargeable – which, much like the Playstation 3 controllers are quick to charge yet take ages to run out. This is another plus as games on this machine tend not to be casual affairs – they last for hours compared to minutes and to make it worse you often want to just get stuck in. The controllers are also much more ergonomic too and ‘just feel right’. They also have Sony’s trademark rumble feedback as opposed to mini speakers which you get on the Wii controls which, let’s be honest are pants.

There is however a number of issues that easily emerge. You see, with exception of the Tiger woods game I made a concerted effort to avoid any Move Sports games, purely because I had been there and done it many times with the Wii already and, to be frank, I am sick of it and what’s more I am sure I am not the only games player to say this. Sony has almost left it too long to capitalize on this technology. So failing the sports games how many games are left at launch? Well not many, Start the Party, Eye Pet Move and Kung Fu Rider. Things that make you go hmmm eh? In fact I had to wait until this week to get my hands on Move editions of Resident Evil 5 and Heavy Rain. I just hope every game is not going to be updates of old classics.

Also the technology does need some final tweaks. Whilst the Playstation Eye camera picks up speed and movement very quickly, I spotted that detection of the force behind a gesture is relatively non-existent, and this could cause problems in fighting games. I’m also not sure about so many buttons being positioned on both controllers, this could cause problems against the more simplistic approach offered by the Wii and could prove to be a nightmare should games require lots of button combination.

Another thing is the price – it will cost you around £59.98 for both halves of the Playstation Move controller and Playstation Eye camera and all this comes with just a demo disc. Let’s get this in perspective this is one third of the cost of a complete Wii system – which comes with a game as standard. Tut-tut indeed.

So what’s my final verdict? Well no doubt for many serious gamers and kids this will be the pressie at the top of their shopping and impending (dare I say it) Christmas list however I would advise that you wait to see whether time brings about better games and improved technology. Xbox and the Kenect system are just around the corner…

1:1 Technology – what is it?

In a nutshell – 1:1 Technology is the reading of precise movement. In the earlier days of the Wii you would move your arm and the sensor would pick it up and would play what was essentially an animation for your character on the screen. This could be for your character to punch, jump, move etc in the game and it was a standard animation; that means it didn’t register degrees of movement. (Yes, you were probably flapping your arms about for nothing.) Motion plus and Playstation Move took it to the next level so now not only does the computer recognise that you have done a movement in real life but it also senses how much and transfers this animation to your character on the screen in a 1:1 way. You move – it does it exactly. Hence the term 1:1 Technology.

by Junior Smart

I'm a Sega Mega Drive, and being AWESOME was my idea! {Ceri's Column}

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They really don’t make video game systems like this anymore! Sure, games these days are flashier, more expensive, have better graphics, cooler music and snappy writing and have more storyline-based sexiness blah blah blah…but I can’t help but feel…I LOVED THE SEGA MEGA DRIVE MORE.

Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 is all very well and good but I don’t feel like I’m “playing” anymore. The Sega was like…a toy…you remember…fun? Escapism?

Most of my school mates circa 1995 were still playing the pantsy little SNES. Seriously, this console makes Hello Kitty look positively mantacular. I was too busy fighting Doctor Robotnik as my speedy blue hedgehog alter ego to care about the mushroom killing exploits of a beer-bellied Italian plumber.

The one all-conquering ultra game that proves beyond all possible argument that the Mega Drive roolz (yes I spelled it like that, fucking deal with it you square):

Toejam and Earl!

For you unenlightened few who are yet to bask in the glory –

In 1991 Johnson Voorsanger Productions made a game about two space alien rappers who crash land on earth. In this 3D roving, birthday present collecting, elevator finding, wise cracking super-game, 1 or 2 players control either red three-legged Toejam or Hawaiian short-wearing slightly obese Big Earl. You walk about the randomly generated worlds trying to recover bits of your broken spaceship. On the way you encounter troublesome Earthlings like the lil’ devils, hula girls, phantom ice cream trucks and marauding bands of tomato-cannon firing chickens.

YES! It is this insane. YES! It is that good! Get on eBay and buy it. Seriously now. Buy a Sega Mega Drive to play it on as well…I probably should have mentioned that first… You can get the console for £30 or thereabouts and Toejam and Earl (the 1st one, the sequal was wank) for a few quid, but they probably cost much less on eBay!

This game is the bollocks! I guarantee that within 5 minutes of playing it you’ll be quoting it for years. I have…

God I need a life…JAMMIN’!

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33iYLYRMLSk