The SIXAXIS Report 03.18.08

Posted by Mark Salmela on 03.18.2008

This week I go hands-on with the new DualShock 3 controller. Also look for news on the Metal Gear Online Beta, Motorstorm 2, Hot Shots Golf: Out of Bounds, Rainbow Six: Vegas 2, PS3 outselling 360 again, Grand Theft Auto 4 multiplayer modes, Gran Turismo 5 Prologue, a new Street Fighter 4 character, and more in the SIXAXIS Report.




Hey everybody! What's going on? I'm back again for your pleasure *and hers* to deliver all of the latest and greatest Sony news. Once again the news is on the light side but thankfully I am making up for it by writing a hands-on report with the DualShock 3 controller. Rainbow Six Vegas 2 comes out this week and I'll be all over it for sure. But on the bad side it's been a busy week for me and it's going to be even busier next week *I'll probably end up taking the F in homework in favor of R6*, so let's cut the small talk and get to the news.

P.S. If I win one more Apple i-Phone I'm going to hurt something.



Sony News of the Week

Hot Shots Golf: Out of Bounds to be released this week on PS3



This week will see the release of Hot Shots Golf 5, which has been renamed Hot Shots Golf: Out of Bounds for the US release. Hot Shots Golf has been my favorite golf game, with Hot Shots Golf on the PSP being one of the best titles released on the PSP * a PSP sequel is coming later this year as well*. As for the PS3 release there is a new 3 button swing system, which promises for more accurate shots. Basically you'll tap a button to start the swing, and then have two timed presses depending on how hard you want to hit the shot and how accurate the shot will be. From what I've seen in gameplay videos this new shot swing system works much better than the classic shot system, although you can change back to classic style if you want. The online mode is vastly improved from previous versions, as players no longer have to wait for other players to take their turn before you can go. There is no SIXAXIS control support *which is fine for me since I prefer not to use SIXAXIS* but there will be rumble support. Look for Hot Shots Golf: Out of Bounds this Wednesday in stores as well a review by me sometime in the next week or two, see you on the course!




The graphics are actually really good despite the cartoony style.

Credit: Sony


New GTA4 multiplayer modes revealed?



The official Spanish PlayStation magazine revealed quite a few details about Grand Theft Auto 4's multiplayer modes. We've always heard GTA4 will have multiplayer but up until now we have heard nothing about what it will be. Well according to PSM there will be 15 online modes that will support up to 16 players online. Here are 14 of the 15 announced modes:

• Hangman's NOOSE
• Car Jack City
• Bomb da Base
• Bomb da Base II
• Mafia Work
• Team Mafia Work
• Deathmatch
• Team Deathmatch
• Turf War
• Cops N Crooks
• Race
• GTA Race
• Deal Breaker
• Free Roam

The race modes are pretty self-explanatory, with GTA race allowing for Molotov cocktails as well as other cool weapons to be used against one another. The classic deathmatch and team deathmatch will allow the host to set things such as number of pedestrians, the use of cops, ECT. Cops and Crooks will allow for a team of cops to battle of team of crooks, while Hangman's Noose will see players escorting a criminal to a location while avoiding a swat team. In Mafia Work and Mafia Team Work players will be given orders to be carried out and the first person or team to accomplish the task wins. All of the multiplayer modes are accessed via the cell phone, and players will be allowed to do a certain amount of character customization for online battles. Look for GTA4 on the PS3 and 360 on April 29, it's shaping up to be a truly awesome experience *it also looks to make me fail every class I have*.


GTA4 will absolutely crush everything at retail.


The calm before the storm.

Credit: GTA forums


New Street Fighter 4 character



Well Street Fighter 4's roster sure is filling out isn't it? Basically the entire original Street Fighter 2 roster is in it, and so far we have Crimson Viper and Abel as the newcomers. Well this week we saw the latest newcomer, El Fuerte added to the roster. With the popularity of luchador characters such as El Blaze in Virtua Fighter 5 I'm not surprised at all to see one pop up in Street Fighter IV. While I don't know what his moves are I'm hoping they're similar to El Blaze, as he was probably my favorite character in VF5 on the PS3. I'm still hoping for Street Fighter 4 this year, but it looks as if the game will be released in early 2009.

Credit: Evilbore


Sony PlayStation Store update for the week of March 13



The PlayStation Store received its typical half-assed update this week. We saw a release of a Toy Home expansion pack *a mediocre game gets a mediocre expansion pack*, as well as new characters for Pain. I must admit Pain is still overpriced but I've started to enjoy the multiplayer modes. Playing against other people in Horse and Bowling can be pretty fun at times, although both of the new characters are just over inflated bimbos.

In addition to those two expansions we saw an MLB 2K8 demo *inferior to MLB 08* as well as all of the other Rock Band and Guitar Hero expansions we're used to. I'm still waiting for more games to come to the PSN, as I'm getting sick of waiting 3 weeks for a new game. The PC Store saw a demo of Wipeout Pulse for the PSP and the PS3 got a firmware update that basically beefed up PS2 backwards compatibility for consoles that support it.

Credit: Sony



Sony Quick News!

The Metal Gear Online Beta has been rescheduled to take place on April 14, not April 21 as previously advertised. While no reason has been given for the jump in release, my guess is Sony didn't want the MGO Beta to be running during GTA4 since the beta is only going to be two weeks long. Any who for those who aren't aware starting in April there will be a pre-order pack for Metal Gear Solid 4 on the PS3 and users who pre-order will be allowed into the Metal Gear Online Beta which will take place for two weeks starting April 14. Metal Gear Online will ship with Metal Gear Solid 4 on June 12.

The PS3 outsold the 360 once again this month in America. Last month the PS3 outsold the 360 in America for the first time and according to the NPD numbers the PS3 outsold the 360 again for the month of February. Sony's getting on a hot streak, and I am predicting that Sony outsells the 360 again in March. I think Sony might lose April and May but starting in June they'll start winning by bigger margins because of games like Metal Gear Solid 4.

BioWare is claiming that Mass Effect 2 will probably end up being a timed exclusive on the 360, with ports coming to the PS3 and PC at a later date. If you don't remember EA bought out BioWare and with that Microsoft lost the Mass Effect license so it's up to EA which consoles Mass Effect appears on. I wasn't too big on Mass Effect so this news means nothing to me but I'm sure there are plenty of PS3 owners dieing to get their hands on some Mass Effect.

Epic announced that their popular Unreal 3 engine will last the entire current console generation, with the Unreal 4 engine being developed for the next generation of consoles *PS4 and next Xbox 360*. In another interesting note Epic made it sound like the Unreal 4 engine will be made exclusively for consoles, although it's not 100% confirmed. Don't expect to see Unreal 4 appear for at least another 4 or 5 years at the earliest; Unreal 3 has a long lifespan ahead of it.

Valve claims that Sony and Microsoft will determine the pricing for the new Team Fortress 2 downloadable content. Valve wants the content to be free, but they claim they don't have the final say over the matter. I personally call BS, as Criterion is set to release a bunch of free maps for Burnout Paradise, and if Criterion can get around it, I'm sure Valve can too.

Sony Online Entertainment will be working directly under Kaz Hirai and Sony's gaming division from now on. Before SOE worked with their movie department for what-ever reason, this is basically just correcting an error in politics. SOE will still focus on making games for PS3 and PC.

Just because Konami likes to rub it in people's faces, Ryan Payton of Kojima Productions sent out another press statement saying they are releasing Metal Gear Solid 4 on a 50 GB Blu-Ray disc and that it's still jam packed even without the Japanese voice track on the American disc.

A new GTA4 trailer will be coming at the end of the month, hopefully it will include something about the rumored online modes *which sound pretty sweet*.

The Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo HD Remix beta will be a XBLA exclusive, being included with Wolf of the Battlefield: Commando 3 on XBLA. Commando 3 will also be released on the PSN *as well as SSF2 Turbo HD Remix* but will not include the timed beta of Ken vs. Ryu. I still plan on picking up Street Fighter HD Remix on the PSN because of the improved d-pad *and I have an arcade stick for the PS3* but I'll probably pick up Commando 3 on XBLA to tide me over with SF2.

In very shocking news Gran Turismo 5 Prologue has already broken over 1 million preorders in Europe alone. I knew Gran Turismo was popular but to break 1 million in preorders for one territory is damn impressive. Hopefully we'll see similar sales in America. PS $40 for all of the content you're getting is not too much for GT5 Prologue. There's enough in there for it to be its own $60 full game.



Video B3yond!



Here's the new Motorstorm 2 trailer I promised you guys. It's totally awesome. 4 Player split-screen and new terrain will be awesome.



Rainbow Six Vegas 2 will rock your socks off. You can pick it up for PS3/360 this week.



Here's a clip of the new Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo HD Remix coming this summer to the PSN and XBLA.



The One Man Water Cooler~!

Here is the link to last week's article where I explained how to install Linux onto the PS3.


Well this past week I finally got a hold of my own DualShock 3 controller, imported fresh from Japan. For those of you who don't know the DualShock 3 controller has been out in Japan since late last year and controllers will work on any system *they're region free*. I would have picked one up last Christmas but the import rates were outrageous *near $85 after shipping* so I was much happier to find a couple of good eBay auctions this week *paid $60 after shipping*. I picked up the white DualShock 3 controller, since all my other SIXAXIS controllers are black and I wanted to try a different color. Needless to say, white is pretty sexy. The white PS3 and controller has been out in Japan for 6 months now, hopefully we'll see an American release soon.

The first thing you notice on the DualShock is the weight, as the controller is nearly twice as heavy as the SIXAXIS. Now don't panic, it's no where near too heavy. The SIXAXIS controller was way too light and felt uncomfortable at times because of it. The DualShock 3 feels about as heavy as a wireless 360 controller, and is much more comfortable to hold. The second thing I notice is the improved shoulder triggers. Don't get me wrong, they still look the same as the SIXAXIS triggers, but they fold back much easier than the SIXAXIS. The SIXAXIS triggers *L2 and R2* are universally agreed to suck, so to see improvements *it's far from perfect, but much better* with the DualShock 3 are more than welcomed. Also the battery life of the DualShock 3 is around 15 hours, so anyone worrying about battery life has nothing to worry about. The battery life is shorter than the SIXAXIS controller, but the DualShock 3 battery still lasts longer than double A batteries or any of the 360 or Wii charge kits.

The final thing about the controller is of course the rumble, the whole reason Sony made the DualShock 3 in the first place. While rumble is far from revolutionary, you have no idea how happy I am to have it back. Rumble has breathed new life into games such as Motorstorm, and it has made the game much more fun to play. So far I've only tested a select few games *Uncharted, Motorstorm, Resistance, WarHawk* and so far rumble has definitely made the games more fun to play. Rumble on the DualShock 3 works pretty similar to rumble on the DualShock 2, and it doesn't interfere with using SIXAXIS controls at all.

So if you can still sell your SIXAXIS controllers at a decent price or you've been holding off on picking up extra controllers I highly recommend waiting for the DualShock 3 controllers. The DualShock 3 controller comes out in North America on April 15 for $55 and is definitely worth the $5 increase over the SIXAXIS controller. I have sold 2 SIXAXIS controllers myself and have picked up a white DualShock 3 and just bought one of the new Satin Silver DualShock 3 controllers *neither color confirmed to be coming to America, so far it's just the black*. I plan to sell my final two SIXAXIS controllers soon and pick up 2 black DualShock 3 controllers once they reach America next month. You'll see rumble functions added to a lot of games within the next month, and it's a feature that should have never been taken out of the PS3 in the first place.

Once again thanks to my HANDY-DANDY PLAYSTATION EYE~! I can capture pictures of my hot DualShock 3 controller. So feast:


What a sexy beast!


Exciting, isn't it?


Edit: Satin Silver Controller is in, hurray!

As a final note no I will not be changing the name of the column from the SIXAXIS Report to the DualShock 3 Report. Stop asking! Although if someone does come up with a better name for the column let me know and I will take it into consideration, a name change wouldn't hurt at all now that SIXAXIS is inferior to DualShock 3. I am thinking about changing the name of the column and will likely discuss it next week.



The 411mania Empire~!

The 411 plague must be going around or something, weekly news reporters are dropping like flies around here.
Nintendophiles by Theo Fraser, who is now my new arch rival since Mike Minotti dropped off the face of 411 games. I'm going to get you Theo!
The Select and Start News by Vincent Chiucchi.



Signing Off

Well wasn't that fun kids? As I said before these next few weeks are going to fly right by for me. Rainbow Six Vegas 2 and Hot Shots Golf: Out of Bounds come out this week so my wallet will be hurting, as will my grades. I just put up a review of MLB 08: The Show for the PS3 and am planning to do a review of Hot Shots Golf: Out of Bounds within the next week or two *depending on how busy I am and when exactly I pick up Hot Shots*. I've also got my Saturn light guns coming this week so I plan to blast through House of the Dead 1, 2, and 3 within the next week *HoTD 1 on Saturn, 2 and 3 on the Wii*. If there's anything left I'll be back for the SIXAXIS Report next week, but if I take a week off I apologize in advance. Cya in 7 *I hope*.