The SIXAXIS Report 10.02.07
Posted by Mark Salmela on 10.02.2007
The 20 GB PS3 is back? Plus news on the PlayStation Eye, MGS4, Tekken 6, Final Fantasy XIII, Unreal Tournament 3, hands on impressions of all the 2008 NBA games, and much more in The SIXAXIS Report!
Come one, come all, it's THE REPORT! Well I don't know about you guys, but boy, did this week fly by for me. Halo 3, halo 3, and Halo Tres took up every last second of my spare time. Now, what people really need to do is make a national survey to see just how far the national grade average dropped because of Halo 3. There was a lot of homework I decided not to do because I was finishing the fight. Hell, I even told most of my teachers I couldn't do the homework because "I was finishing the fight". But sadly, that excuse doesn't fly in our public education system; I wonder what old President Eisenhower would say about that?
But, I digress, this is a Sony column, after all, and talking about Microsoft exclusives is like talking about Fight Club, it just doesn't happen.
So kids, after a week dominated by Microsoft, I am going to have to do a lot of digging to find some good Sony news to dissect for all of you guys, but I'm sure Sony will bounce back with more interesting news in the coming weeks after all this dust on that unmentionable game settles.
Paid for in part by Sony Computer Entertainment, it's NEWS OF THE WEEK!
PlayStation Eye to ship with Eye of Judgment
The PlayStation Eye, the successor to the EyeToy from the PlayStation 2, will be coming October 23rd, and will ship with the card battle game The Eye of Judgment in one package. The PlayStation Eye is not only an HD camera, but also includes a built in microphone for voice communication. Apparently the game has been received well by the Japenese and at the Tokyo Game Show, but the camera reportedly is not the best HD camera out there. Either way, look for the PlayStation Eye and The Eye of Judgment on October 23rd for $70.
Credit: Sony
Wait, the 20 GB PS3 is back???
What the hell? Well umm… This won't be easy to explain, but uhh… Apparently this won't be permanent, but as for now, the 20 GB PlayStation 3 has started appearing in stores again for sale, and even on EB Games' website, which you can buy right now, costing $450, $50 more than the heavily rumored 40 GB PS3. So if you really thought 20 GB was more than enough for you, I guess you have a last chance to pick one up, it's just so surprising with so much information building towards a new 40 GB PS3 model coming that the 20 GB pops back into stores. I guess I don't even know what's going on anymore.
Well the PSN was updated again this week, featuring no new games, but instead demos for both Clive Barker's Jericho, as well as NBA 2K8 *look for hands on impressions bellow*. There's also a new car available for download for $0.99 for Motorstorm, as well as a downloadable add on pack for Ninja Gaiden Sigma. There's also some new videos but I recommend you all just try out Jericho and see whether or not you like it.
Credit: Sony
Ratchet and Clank Future: Tools of Destruction goes gold
Well Insomniac, makers of Resistance: Fall of Man, and the previous Ratchet and Clank games, has just completed their next game. Ratchet and Clank Future: Tools of Destruction has officially gone gold, and the game will ship exclusively for the PlayStation 3 on October 30, 2007. This is Ratchet and Clank's first adventure on the PS3, and judging from the demo which I recently had the chance to play, the game is just as awesome as the other Ratchet games. As for the demo I got to play, don't worry, as the demo will hit the PlayStation Store on October 11th for everyone to try before the game is released.
Credit: Insomniac Games
Tekken 6 to sport over 40 characters
A new screenshot from the PS3 exclusive fighter Tekken 6 was leaked, showing the character selection screen. What's impressive about this is the 40 character roster, which for next-gen fighters is a pretty big list. The picture is included below, showing all of your favorites including new-comers like the giant Bob, who strikes fear into the heart of all you can eat buffets across the nation. Look for Tekken 6 late 2008, featuring online multiplayer and a 40 character roster. You can get Tekken 5 right now for the PS2, PSP, and now PS3, including a new downloadable online expansion pack for the PS3 version.
Harmonix has officially confirmed the price of the new game, Rock Band, coming to the PS3/360 *I believe a PS2 version is coming, but price and date are not officially known at the time of this writing*. As for the PS3/360 prices, the bundle including the game, 1 guitar, 1 drum set, and 1 microphone will cost you a cool $169.99 for everything. Rumors are still circulating, but at this point it looks like the PS3 guitars will be wireless while the 360 will be wired due to Microsoft's lack of licensing of its wireless technology *though as you will read later in the column Guitar Hero 3 has gotten Microsoft's approval for wireless*. There are still tons of rumors going around about the guitar being wired or wireless, but this looks to be the safe bet. The game will ship for PS3/360 on November 23rd, 2007.
Credit: Harmonix and Amazon.com
The next game to venture a versus title is… Mortal Kombat?!
This is still a big rumor, but according to sources who follow Mortal Kombat as an official religion have been stating they've been able to confirm from Midway that the next Mortal Kombat game, coming to next-gen consoles in late 2008, will be a versus title, in the same fashion as Marvel vs Capcom and SNK vs Capcom. Midway has gone on record saying the next Mortal Kombat game will take a much darker and more serious twist, with creator Ed Boon saying he wants to make it look like Gears of War. Heavy rumors for the other fighting side will be DC comics, with DC also taking a darker turn in their recent comic franchises like Batman and Superman. Another heavy favorite is Killer Instinct, a Rare property. I would love to see Mortal Kombat vs Killer Instinct, which would be one hell of a fighting game even if it's not the deepest ever. The only problem I could see with that is Microsoft owns Rare so the game probably would be a 360 exclusive if it was ever made.
It slices, it dices, it's Sony Quick News *some assembly required*
Guitar Hero 3 controllers will be wireless for all consoles. The PS2 and Wii versions will come at $80, and the PS3/360 versions will be $90.
Sony has put up an official hiring for a "content producer" for its new Home service on the PS3. So put in your applications now, I've already sent a full resume, and I think we can all safely assume if you don't hear about me getting the new job that my resume just got lost in the mail. Oh well, it'll just be Sony's loss, I've got quite the vision for what Home should be, and no, it's not family friendly.
Well I knew Kojima read my column, as just last week I mentioned that the Metal Gear Solid 4 and Metal Gear Solid Online bundle should not cost $120. Well it's official now, as Konami made the statement that MGS4 and MGSO will be together in a bundle, but will not cost $120. I for one am a happy camper.
Speaking of MGS4, according to assistant producer, Ryan Payton, the trailer we saw at TGS 2007 *which can be found in my column last week*, may be the last trailer for MGS4, as the entire team is working on finishing the game now according to Ryan.
Sony is taking a look at bringing back the Jet Moto franchise from the PS1. They already brought back WarHawk, and they are brining back Twisted Metal for PS2, so I will have no problem if they decide to bring back Jet Moto. Jet Moto, for those who don't know, is a futuristic racing game kind of like WipeOut.
In a follow up from last week, Square Enix has made the official announcement for non-believers; Final Fantasy XIII is running on PS3 hardware now, so hopefully we'll see FF13 released before 2009.
A new flight combat Tom Clancy game is in the works, with an emphasis being on multiplayer action. The game is still in early development and will see a 2008 release for next-gen consoles. It'll be interesting to see how much of a simulation this new air combat game will be, since most of the Tom Clancy games are usually pretty damn accurate.
More Gran Turismo 5 Prologue details are available, as the game will feature an online multiplayer with 16 cars per race. This will be the first time GT will be online, and players will be able to choose from over 30 cars in the Prologue, including Mitsubishis, Ferraris, and Nissans. There will also be a photo feature where you can go back and take snapshots of your races and upload them onto your hard drive.
Well seems Epic Games has gone back on their word, as now they've made confirmation that Unreal Tournament 3 will not feature online play between PC and PS3 users at launch. The feature may be included at a later date, but not at its launch date, which as of this writing is still November 2007 only on PC and PS3 *a 360 port will come in 2008*.
Jack Thompson is at it again, as this time he made his 15-year-old son buy Halo 3 from Target. We get it Jack, retail stores don't check always check for age verification. Can someone please shut this guy up? He's always trying to get video games banned and taken off the market and every single time this guy has lost. He'll never win, and just makes more and more people mad at him.
Video B3yond!
The new Assassin's Creed Templar trailer, the game looks impressive, let's just hope they can make the 2007 release.
A trailer for MX vs ATV Untamed, coming this December exclusively for PS3.
Well this is a funny little trailer, showing the new PS3 rumble controller and comparing it to the upcoming first person shooter Haze exclusively *at least for this year* for PS3.
The One Man Water Cooler~!
Well I know I keep switching what I want to talk about every week, so I might as well not even bother previewing what I'm going to talk about the following week. As for this week, we're going to talk some basketball.
Over the past 2 weeks on the PlayStation Store there have been 3 new NBA demos, NBA '08, NBA 2K8, and NBA 08 Live. I had the chance to play them all this past week and I'm going to give my hands on impressions with each of these games.
The first game of the 3 I got to play was NBA 2K8 by Visual Concepts. I was a huge fan of the 2K series back in the Dreamcast days, I bought basically every game they made with the 2K name on it. So needless to say, I was expecting this one to be my hands down favorite, and boy, was I wrong. All I really have to say is "what happened?" First off the graphics were terrible, the characters looked choppy and muddy, the court looked uninspired, and the game overall felt half-assed. Now for all I know the default difficulty may be called "impossible", but boy, was this game insane. I haven't followed basketball as much as I used to, but if my mind serves me right, Lebron James is a good, if not great basketball player, so why does he suck worse then my local high school team in this game? I mean come on, I couldn't sink the most basic of shots and lay-ups, it's like the game tried to piss me off. I couldn't even make it through one game; I was already down 20 points and just said screw it, onto the next game, DO NOT PLAY THIS GAME.
The next game on my list was NBA '08 by Sony themselves; I guess if you want it done right you got to do it yourself. The first thing I noticed about this game is how pretty it is; it truly looked stunning on my HD TV. Hell, the graphics alone already make it worth more of a recommendation from me then NBA 2K8. The gameplay is also very well done, I was hitting shots, making passes with ease, and generally had a fun time. The game wasn't without its flaws, as there were a couple of control errors. Plus, since I like to hold the controller tilting up, the players seemed to walk like crabs most of the time around the court, which was due to the SIXAXIS controls *plus was pretty funny*. See, tilting the controller up made them hold their arms up and walk like crabs, and tilting the controller down made them hold their hands down like they were about to play grab ass. The problem is that it can get pretty annoying having to watch how you're holding the controller since I don't like to hold it with my hands tilting down. Any who, the game still kept a fun atmosphere and out of the 3 I enjoyed playing this game the most. Once again I was King James and needless to say Duncan and his crew didn't stand a chance against the King. Good graphics, awesome gameplay, high recommendation.
Finally on this list is EA Sport's NBA 08 Live, which for a second had my jaw drop at how stunning the graphics are, or at least they did until I started playing. It took me less than 20 seconds into the game to get my first major graphical error, as the game took a major graphical crash and the game basically stopped for a noticeable 2 seconds. After that, I was plagued with frame drops and more graphical errors, the players look amazing and the game does look insane when everything is at a stand still, it's just too bad the game completely drops all of its beauty when playing. The gameplay is just fine, rivaling NBA 08, maybe even controlling slightly tighter then its counterpart. I was able to control Lebron with ease, though I couldn't pull off some tight jukes and it didn't have that complete basketball feel. Overall it's a fine game, and followers of EA won't be disappointed other than the frame rate. Which reminds me, I think this is another one of those EA game where they pull that "the game runs twice as fast on 360" crap, and the PS3 version runs at 30 frames per second. If that's true, not only is the game 30 FPS, but it doesn't even stay at a clean 30 FPS, it dropped all the time.
So overall, if you only have a 360, get EA's NBA Live '08, as NBA 08 is a Sony exclusive. NBA 2K8 is an abomination of a game, no where near what the old NBA 2K's of the Dreamcast era were. NBA 08 looks damn impressive, and definitely gave me the overall best experience, and I definitely had the most fun with NBA 08. I'd love to write a full review for NBA 08 *hint, hint* on the PS3, and I'm going to give it my early pick for best basketball game this year.
Where was The 411mania empire this week?
Man, where the heck was everyone this week? Either I missed something, or most of the writers were absent this week.
Well not much to say this week, Halo 3 is awesome, and I've got a lot of work building up that I need to get to. One positive though is I bought Ms. Pacman on XBLA this past week, and boy is that pretzel salty, a little too salty. Any who, now that you're all confused and creeped out, see you guys next week.
