EA’s MySims Media Day Coverage

September 22, 2008

This past Friday, I had the chance to head on out to EA’s Campus is Redwood City, CA to check out a virtual cornucopia of new Sims games. Last year marked the jump for the Sims onto the Wii and DS with MySims. This year, EA looks to expand on that franchise with some new games for Nintendo platforms and PC.

Before I get into it, I have to say the EA Campus is pretty amazing. It spans 23 acres and has everything you’d ever want whether at work or home. Between the insane cafes, Starbucks and Blockbuster shops, you get a huge gymnasium with multiple full basketball courts, a top of the line workout center, beach volleyball and basketball courts. There’s even on-site day care, dry cleaning, and dental service. Yep, you basically never have to leave (EA really wants people there).

Hit the jump for more »

By Matt Banks | Tagged , , | Comment (1)

Hands-On Preview: Buzz Hollywood (PS2)

December 14, 2007

Buzz Hollywood

Buzz Hollywood is the latest in the popular Buzz quiz show series, which drunk pandas, myself, and a Sony PR rep got to play a round of at Sony Media Day. Due to my rain-man like ability to remember useless facts I easily took first place (this is not something I’m particularly proud of…). From what we saw, Buzz Hollywood should wind up being a very fun party game.

The game has over 5000 questions and over 100 clips and pictures to test your movie knowledge. Like previous Buzz games, you can customize your player a bit such as choosing your character, what they’re wearing, your buzzer sound, etc. There were 3 rounds in the game we played, the first being general trivia, where the first person who answers correctly gets the most points, the next fastest answer gets less, and so on. The second round was fastest fingers where you had to put 4 things in order (for example put the movies made by a director in chronological order). In the final round you choose a specific category to answer questions in which can range from a category as specific as “Julia Roberts” to something more general like “Disney”. If the person going before you gets a wrong answer their points will roll over to you if you answer your question correctly.

Hit the jump for more »

By Travis Gales | Tagged , , , , | Comments (3)

Hands-On Preview: God of War: Chains of Olympus (PSP)

December 14, 2007

God of War PSP
Don’t mess with Kratos. Its a simple rule that everyone seems to forget, which fortunately for us means another installment in the God of War franchise with the Chains of Olympus. This is the first game of the series set on the PSP and actually takes place before the first God of War game while Kratos is still in service to the gods.

The level we played was a bit further on in the game than the demo released a few weeks ago. In it Kratos is facing some soldiers along with a mini-boss which looked like a giant minotaur. Just like in the previous titles, the regular mobs can be dealt with quickly with a few hits from your blades, and if you choose you can grapple them and do a finishing move that varies depending on the mob. Also you get an all new set of magical attacks to use on your enemies. As for the mini-bosses, after you do enough damage to the minotaur, you can perform the special finishing move on them which requires you to hit the buttons in the order they come up on the screen. In this case you wind up taking the sword away from the minotaur and impaling him through the head with it, and lets be honest…you’d be disappointed if Kratos didn’t right?

Hit the jump for more »

By Travis Gales | Tagged , , , , | Comment (1)

Hands-On Preview: Echochrome (PS3)

December 13, 2007

Echochrome1
Echochrome was one of the downloadable games from the Playstation Newtork that were demoed for us at Sony’s Media Day, and from what I saw it looks to be a very tough, but creative game. The concept is really cool; take a 3-dimensional environment, and using the left and right analog sticks, manipulate your 2-dimensional view of it so that your character can pass through to different checkpoints. How does this work? Lets say for example that there’s a gap in the platform you need to walk across. One way to get across would be to turn the environment so that there is another object blocking your view of the gap. The game is all about perspective – it works based on the Object Locative Environment (OLE) coordinate system – which basically means that if you can’t see it, then it’s not there. If you can’t see the gap in the platform, then your character doesn’t know its there and will walk straight across. This is just one of several interesting mechanics used in the game. This preview has a few more:

Hit the jump for more »

By Travis Gales | Tagged , , , , | Comments (0)

Hands-On Preview: Hot Shots Golf 5 (PS3)

December 12, 2007

Hot Shots Golf 5 Screen

At Sony’s Media Day in NYC, we also got to play some Hot Shots Golf 5 on PS3. I’ve played the Japanese demo quite a bit, so I had something to go off when playing the US version. I was surprised to see the graphics look even better than the demo. The game runs at 720p at 60fps, which Sony had displayed on a nice Bravia XBR LCD. Just wait until you see the blades of grass on the greens as you watch your putt roll into the cup.

The biggest change to the game is a new shot mechanic. The old tried and true method of three clicks on the shot meter at the bottom of the screen is still available. But now you have the ability to set your power and accuracy by watching the swing. You still use three clicks, but instead of the shot meter at the bottom, you control your power by how far you let your backswing go. To set the accuracy, you hit X when you get come down to make contact with the ball. It takes a bit to get used to, but once you do, it’s a lot more fun than the old method. You can to watch your character more while swinging, which is always a plus. Along with the new shot meter, there are a few new camera angles you can choose from while swinging. This can make it easier to see in some cases when making your swing. The only downside is you can’t change your swing style from new to classic (or vice versa) during your round.

Hit the jump for more »

By Matt Banks | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (0)

Hands-On Preview: Gran Turismo 5 Prologue (PS3)

December 12, 2007

Gran Turismo 5 Prologue Screen

One of the last games we checked out at Sony’s Media Day was Gran Turismo 5 Prologue. Running at 1080p at 60fps, the game is absolutely stunning. From the car models to the tracks to the background environments, every aspect of the game looks utterly amazing. The game is set to be released in Spring 2008 on both Blu-Ray disc and as a download from the PlayStation Store. No pricing has been set for North America just yet.

When the game ships, it will include approximately 70 cars and 5 reversible tracks, including Daytona. Like all Gran Turismo games, you’ll have to progress through the races to unlock most of the cars. There won’t be any license tests in Prologue, but will make it into GT5 when the full game is released. There will be more car tuning than what’s found in Gran Turismo HD, but nowhere near the amount you’ll find in the full GT5. There will be no damage modeling in Prologue, as Polyphony Digital didn’t have enough time to dedicate to making it work perfectly.

Hit the jump for more »

By Matt Banks | Tagged , , , , | Comments (2)

Hands-On Preview: MLB 08: The Show (PS3)

December 12, 2007

MLB 08 Screen

MLB 08 follows up on last year’s critically acclaimed title, MLB 07. This year’s title looks a good deal better than the 07 iteration. The development team put a great deal of enhancement into the textures, lighting engine, and facial details. The game is looking very close to a real baseball broadcast. Sony had MLB 08 side by side with MLB 07 running on identical Bravia XBR LCD’s and the difference was night and day.

The Road to the Show mode has also been enhanced this year to give you better control over your progression to the big leagues. You will have the opportunity to see what tasks will give you how much clout in moving up in your career. This caries over into the franchise mode, where playing above of below a player’s expectations will result in an increase or decrease in compensation. Have a great year with your center fielder and get a contract extension. Play like crap with your star third basemen and you might get traded. It’s little things like this that brings the game closer to reality.

Hit the jump for more »

By Matt Banks | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (3)

Sony Media Day

December 12, 2007

PS3 PSP Connected Image

Myself and trev spent a couple hours yesterday with Sony in New York City playing a lot of the upcoming games for the next 3-6 months. We had a blast rocking out the games and getting some answers on what we can expect from the PSP and PS3 in the upcoming months. We’ll have hands on previews coming for all the games we played later today and tomorrow, so check back.

Here’s the previews you can expect: MLB 08, Echochrome, Pursuit Force 2, God of War: Chains of Olympus, Hot Shots Golf 5, Gran Turismo 4 Prologue, PixelJunk Monsters, Buzz Hollywood, and Singstar 90s. Check back later today for more info on each of these games.

By Matt Banks | Tagged , , , , | Comments (0)