I hope you all opted-in for the StarCraft II Beta at Battle.Net, because Blizzard is getting ready to roll. We received an email from Blizzard PR preparing us for the much anticipated Beta, which was not given a release date yet.
With the gaming press being invited to sign up before June 19th, it’s safe to expect a public release before the end of the month. The best part is that there’s no NDA associated with the Beta, so we can bring you our thoughts on how StarCraft has evolved. It’s Blizzard, so I’m expecting them to bring the fire.
If you don’t subscribe to Qore, this might be another reason. All subscribers will get access to the Uncharted 2 multiplayer beta. If you don’t have a one year subscription yet, you have until May 15th to get in on the action. Or, you could just pick up a copy of inFamous, which I recommend doing as well.
You all know by now that I enjoy Qore and think it’s worth the money. I may not be in the majority with that feeling, but that’s my take. Check it out if you want to see how Nathan Drake fares against other real players, check it out with the Qore subscription.
Pre-order case shots were leaked, people broke embargoes, and all kinds of info came out early. Sony finally dropped the hammer and officially confirmed all the details of the multiplayer modes in Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. You’ll be able to rock out with 10 player (5-v-5) competitive or up to 3 player cooperative play.
The competitive modes will include your standard Deathmatch as well as a Plunder mode where you race to collect the most money. Teamwork will be essential in navigating the levels, which will be largely vertical, so communication will be key. I have a feeling that won’t happen too well, as most people online with the PS3 don’t have a headset.
Sony also confirmed the beta, which runs from June 3 through June 28. Picking up inFamous will score you a beta code, so I have a strong feeling that game is going to sell pretty well. It’s a good way to garner interest for the game which may have been overlooked by the masses otherwise.
I’m still strongly on the fence about multiplayer in Uncharted 2. While Plunder sounds very intriguing, I have to wonder if the game really needs to add competitive play?
It’s been over four years now since the original release of City of Heroes for the PC but late is better than never when it comes to great games being ported to the Mac platform. NCsoft has announced that City of Heroes is now available as an open beta for the Mac.
The Mac Special Edition will include City of Villains along with a mission teleporter power and an exclusive Valkyrie costume set. The mission teleporter will allow players to directly teleport to their active mission. The Valkyrie costume set will include two varieties of wings, a cape, skirt or kilt, pants, boots, shoulder, chest, gloves, belts and helmet.
The system requirements are fairly usual, requiring an Intel based Mac. The kicker is the game doesn’t support the Intel GMA 950 graphics core. So if you own an older Intel based Mac you are out of luck. Check your system profiler to make sure you meet the requirements before signing up.
What are you waiting for? Go sign up for the open beta, you have waited long enough already.
That’s right, Sony is actually releasing Home to the masses tomorrow, December 11th. It’s not final, but just an open Beta globally. Are they going to keep it in Beta forever like Gmail? Who knows.
I personally wouldn’t be too excited about this one, if I were you. I’ve been playing around with Home for a while and it’s pretty boring. Maybe now Sony will add a lot more content, because that’s been the major problem. Give me a reason to be there.
Fire up your PS3 tomorrow afternoon and grab Home. You’ll just have to reboot your PS3 once it goes live and you’ll see a Home icon under Network on the XMB. Hit it up to download the client. Maybe I’ll mess around with it again, who knows.
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In terms of hype, I’m not sure there’s much on the PlayStation platforms that comes close to the Killzone franchise. From the CGI trailers to being called the end-all-be-all of console shooters, there’s a lot to live up to with Killzone 2. By now we’ve all seen the amazing in-game videos and no one can deny the game is flat out beautiful. But more importantly, how does it play? I’ve had a chance to spend a good deal of time with the Killzone 2 Beta on the PS3. Read on for how it stacks up.
Like I said, graphically the game is top notch, even in the multiplayer beta. Character models, animations, and the environment all look fantastic. In the same breath, sounds are done equally as well. Various gun shots, explosions, and environmental effects are some of the best I’ve heard in a shooter recently.
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Upon receiving my Home beta invite this week, I couldn’t wait to finally get a glimpse at what the Home experience was all about. After a quick install and a bit of trouble getting in, I got my first look into Sony’s new world. My first impression was that it was pretty unreal. I’ve pretty much played only console games my whole life so I’ve never played an MMO, I’ve also never been on Second Life, so this was my first time to see that many people in any online arena at once. The layout is somewhat of a Sony utopia where huge screens playing ads for video games dominate a very pleasing landscape. A theater, mall, and bowling alley all with fully interactive or soon to be fully interactive pieces give me the feeling that Home, while pretty cool now, has the potential to be great. They have made a cool online world where there inhabitants all have at least one thing in common, they all own a PS3, and are, therefore, easier to advertise games to than any other group in the world. I’m not at all saying that’s a bad thing, in fact, more power to them. If a company can come up with something that is beneficial to themselves and the consumer, then kudos. In short, I think Home will be huge for Sony and for many, many PS3 owners.
However, my initial jubilation was soon cut short by a sad realization for me. You see, with the NXE and my Home beta invite arriving in the same week, I realized something, I’m an anti-social gamer. It dawned on me that I had no interest in my friends’ Xbox Avatars and I tended to spend a lot of my time in Home running from people that might try to talk to me. It’s not that I’m an asshole, in fact, I think it’s the opposite, I just didn’t feel like talking and I didn’t want to be a dick to anyone by not responding when they tried to start a chat. And, then came another sad realization as I wondered why I didn’t want to talk to these people and thought, “Am I too old for this?”
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Swipe Interactive recently had a beta sign up for their new game Quick Draw and I was able to pounce on the opportunity in time and snag a copy. Before we get into this, I would like to remind everyone that this is a beta copy. Only 100 people are participating in the program, so play is somewhat limited. The beta version of Quick Draw only has four categories of about 40 words, but the finished version will have many more than that to keep things interesting.
Quick Draw is a Pictionary-style multiplayer drawing game that uses the iPhone/iPod Touch’s wireless internet capabilities beautifully. There has been a lack of games in the App Store that use the wireless capabilities of the iPhone/iPod Touch for anything other than scores and leaderboards. If you are in the market for a multiplayer game, this is shaping up to be a good one.
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I’ve had the pleasure of spending the past few days with the Resistance 2 beta with both online multiplayer and co-op. While I played the first game briefly, I never got deep into either the single or multiplayer aspects. But after spending a good deal of time with the beta for the sequel, I can see this taking up a lot of my multiplayer gaming time this Fall.
It’s not the best experience graphically, but it’s not bad either. Character models and the environments all look good, but I’ve seen better. You can chalk this up in the “it’s a beta” category. Sounds, on the other hand, are terrific. Various weapon firing, human and Chimera screams, and environment sound effects are done very well. You’ll want to turn up your surround sound system on this one.
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A few podcasts ago, I questioned the importance and reach of LittleBigPlanet. At that time, I had only seen and touched a few short demos of the game. But after spending a great deal of time with the Beta on the PS3, I am eating my words. LittleBigPlanet is utterly fantastic and will win Game of the Year for 2008.
In the Beta, you get access to the game’s Story mode (but not all of it) and level creation tools. The presentation of everything is beyond amazing. As you start the game, you go through a small level where it gives pictures of all the developers and introduces the game. Everything is narrated by a British man that completely reminds you of Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (one of my favorite books/movies by the way). [Update - turns out it is the same guy]. He’ll crack some jokes and keep the mood light, which is very pleasant. You then get to access your Pod, which is a cardboard box that allows you to look out onto the various worlds.
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