The E3 2010 Microsoft Presentation review – from a “Hardcore gamer’s” perspective

I’m writing this article right after watching a live stream of Microsoft’s presentation at E3 2010, which was a let down apart from Hideo Kojima’s new title Metal Gear Solid: Rising, which looks very promising. Nothing new to show actually; just a thorough playthrough of Microsoft’s Kinect.

The presentation started off with Activision’s Call of Duty: Black Ops, with same kind of gameplay as the previous CoD titles, and slightly better graphics. Epic’s Gears of War 3 looks a bit promising. The new affiliation between Microsoft and Crytek, who is developing a new game for Microsoft’s project Natal which is renamed Kinect. Bungie’s Halo: Reach was also shown with it’s first worldwide gameplay demo. And furthermore, a new Forza racing game for Kinect. Read more

Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker dated for North America

Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker on the PSP, the sequel to Snake Eater has been dated for release in North America on May 25th, 2010.

The game based in the 1970′s, 10 years after Snake Eater, follows the continuing adventures of Naked Snake as he fights an unknown military on the shores on Costa Rica. You can team up with 4 friends and play co-op together.

You can also download the game to your PSPgo.

Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker Demo is out NOW

Yes today its the day you can grab your PSP and download it now! The demo will go live on the game’s official page at 6:00 PM Japan Time. Oh and the demo is the same demo that was playable at this year’s Tokyo Game Show. Isn’t that nice. Read more

Final Fantasy VII & Metal Gear Solid released on the Playstation Network

Sony has recently released both Metal Gear Solid and Final Fantasy VII on the Playstation Network in North America for download on both the Playstation Portable and Playstation 3 consoles for $9.99 a game.

Sony has also begun to add many different Playstation games in their Classic Games section on the Playstation Network. Including games like Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Mobile Light Force, Resident Evil, and many more.

Sony has also revealed it will be releasing at least 80 Playstation Classics by the end of 2009

The great news is that almost all the Playstation Classics will be available for under ten dollars. No more going on eBay to buy that one rare Playstation game for $100, when you can buy them without the hassle of disc loss and scratches for a great reasonable price!

GekiritZ: LittleBigPlanet – SACKBOOOOOY!

LittleBigPlanet has to be the most hyped PlayStation3 release since Metal Gear Solid 4, and that says a lot for a game that’s aiming to please the hardcore gamer ánd the casual familyfriendly gamer, lucky as I am, I was able to get my filthy paws on the retail version a few weeks prior to release to compare the final thing with the many previewclips and downloadable demo’s floating around out there. In the wake of past year’s fairly nice release schedule and the things yet to come, LittleBigPlanet has stood out from the day it was announced by Sony, and has since then begun to shine like the bright star that wil reinvigorate gaming. I only have to say one thing; It will.

Storywise, LittleBigPlanet is about a small “boy” made out of burlap cloth, simply called “Sackboy”, whose adventures take him and other Sackboys on a trip around the world. The Sackboys meet bizarre and otherworldly characters, like Uncle Jalapeño and The King, who give them all kinds of strange and humoristic missions, ranging from blowing up the prison where the evil sheriff locked up Uncle Jalapeño, or trying to hang on to a rollercoaster as long as humanly, or sackboyingly, possible. By completing these missions, other parts of their world and their subsequent stories are unlocked, allowing the player to advance. A nice addition to this, is that many levels have multiple solutions unlocking different pathways, adding some non-linearity to the game.

It’s major selling point is not the story, though, it’s the interactivity and physics that make this seemingly basic game shine like a sophisticated well-cut diamond.

Everything in LittleBigPlanet is either movable, customizable, destructible, grabable, pushable or dropable, or a combination of those traits. The physics are brilliantly done and respond very vivid and lifelike, and function very well as a core gameplay element rather than a gimmick enhancing gameplay. Many puzzles and obstacles are overcome by applying physics to the world around you. Bashing a tower can create a bridge, blowing up a wall can create a cave, bundling blocks can build a flight of stairs. And the physics don’t apply to just the game world, they also apply to the Sackboys. When playing with three of your friends, you can actually form a chain of four Sackboys grabbing on to eachother to send the lower Sackboy across a chasm to start building a way across.

As far as customizability goes, LittleBigPlanet also takes the cake. Every level is customizable on the fly; Don’t like the scenery? Change it! Don’t like your Sackboy’s appearance? Change it! Don’t like your friend’s Sackboy creation!? Change it! The possibilities are seemingly endless as you frolic through the game world and collect new parts with which you can keep playing around. The full version also comes with an extensive level editor, in which you can create entire levels by yourself, using almost all tools and elements you see in the singleplayer mode of the game. You can even go as far as creating your own campaign or storyline, including characters with dialogue and levels created entirely in your artistic vision.

There’s even some form of competition in the whole multiplayer aspect of the game. Aside from being able to go through the singleplayer experience with up to four players simultaneously, you can also decide for yourself to either help or harass your fellow Sackboys. The best performing Sackboy will get rewarded at the end of the level, so thwarting your fellow Sackboys whenever you won’t be needing their help to get those extra points to help is encouraged. You could even go as far as helping the team build a staircase for you to climb to get those precious score orbs only to have it collapse on them as you reach the top so you can reap the rewards all for your greedy little self.

Controls can be bit tricky at times, but as soon as you figure out how to do what, everything starts to feel very natural and logical, such as grabbing things and switching between arms to swing or toss objects (or smack fellow Sackboys), and the responsiveness feels very precise and fluid, making the game stand out in a much overlooked aspect of games.

The game at it’s core revolves around renewing the concept of a sandbox-game, much like GTA3 was in it’s own respect when it got out on the market, but by confining players to a multi-leveled platformer environment and increasing the flexibility and freedom, the entire idea would be better off with a whole new industry term of it’s own. Combining advanced physics with a completely customizable environment and a control scheme that promotes intuitive reactions from players, you get an entirely fresh gaming experience that many of us have missed in the past few years.

I can tell you one thing, the hype is strong and it’s going to be satisfied fully, LittleBigPlanet will be a breath of fresh air through the industry for certain!

Author: GekiritZ / Stijn van den Corput