B3yond the Report 05.27.08

Posted by Mark Salmela on 05.27.2008

This week I announce the winners of my Echochrome contest. Also, news on Resident Evil 5, Final Fantasy Versus 13, Metal Gear Solid 4, BioShock coming to the PS3, why the voice of GTA4's Niko Bellic is a greedy man, OddWorld Inhabitants, Guitar Hero: World Tour, Killzone 2, and more when you go B3yond the Report!




Well how are all of my favorite readers doing this week? I've been hard at work with my Metal Gear specials, so be sure to check out my look back at Metal Gear Solid from last week in case you missed it. B3yond the Special: A look back at Metal Gear Solid can be found here . I'll be back on Wednesday *tomorrow* with my look at Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty; hopefully you guys will enjoy it. I had always meant to do this look back special with the GTA series leading up to GTA4's release, but I just never found the time. So hopefully you've been enjoying the Metal Gear special, because there isn't a whole lot of news for me to cover. Hopefully I can blow threw these news stories quickly, so I will have at least one column that won't break 10 pages in Microsoft Word. *Edit: Dammit, I did it again. Once of these days I swear I'll do it.*



Not an advertisement for MGS4, it's B3yond the News of the Week~!

Would you kindly produce a PS3 version of BioShock?



Well the highlight of Sony's news week has to be the announcement from 2K that BioShock will indeed be coming to the PS3 this holiday season. BioShock was one of the best games released on the 360 last year, and it received many game of the year awards *I even considered it one of the best games last year*. The atmosphere that BioShock creates is a second to none experience, and I'm more than happy to see that PS3 users will finally be able to get their hands on this Big Daddy slugfest. Now while this is good news that PS3 users will be able to get their hands on BioShock, unless PS3 users will also be receiving BioShock 2 whenever it comes out I will be taking this with a grain of salt. Like I said BioShock is a terrific game but I also feel that it is highly overrated, as I hated the second half of the game. I thought BioShock really fell apart after the major plot twist and the story never recovered. This is something that I hope that 2K Boston will fix with BioShock 2 and I hope that PS3 users will be able to enjoy the game at the same time as everyone else, not over a year later. But as I said before this is great news for PS3 owners who never got to play the original BioShock, and while there are no major details yet the PS3 version will be receiving some sort of exclusive content. I'll report back with more information as it trickles in within the upcoming months *probably E3*.

Credit: CVG


Michael Hollick is a greedy man



Ok, we all know GTA4 made a lot of money. GTA4 so far has made well over $600 million dollars in sales. It's a financial success, but we already knew that. Well this past week we found out quite the interesting news piece, as Michael Hollick, the voice of Niko Bellic *the star of GTA4* received a mere $100,000 for his 15 months of work on the game. Now if you look at the simple prospect of receiving only $100,000 out of a $600 million dollar blockbuster, the voice of the protagonist of GTA4 did in fact get screwed. Now if this were a movie, I would feel that Michael would be more than in the right to ask for a raise, but here's the fact, GTA4 is not a movie. Let me put this in a very simple way, GTA4 is a video game. I don't know if Michael ever watched the credits of the video game he stared in, but let me tell you there were quite a lot of people involved in the production of GTA4. Now while some could argue "yeah, but a lot of people were involved in making the effects of Star Wars" let me point out that once again this is a video game. In a movie the people who make the computer generated effects are expendable, as no one goes to see a movie because their favorite "CG guy" was involved. Video games are a different brand, and the programmers of a video game are far more important than the voice actors. In a movie people will go to see it because their favorite actor is in it *like Tom Cruise*, where in a video game people are more likely to buy it because their favorite programmer was involved *Miyamoto, Kojima*.

The programmers are the people who are really getting screwed in GTA4, as the last time I checked the average wage of a programmer was $70,000 a year which is less than what Michael made in his 15 months working on GTA4. A programmer also does a lot more work than someone who just records their voice in a video game, as people would be a lot less forgiving if GTA4 had bad gameplay compared to subpar voice acting. I guess what I'm trying to say is that with so many programmers at Rockstar receiving $87,500 in 15 months for their work on GTA4 that Michael should be more than satisfied with his $100,000. As far as I know Michael is probably nothing more than a C-list celebrity *and they are a dime a dozen now days*, and he has no right to be asking for more money when the real creators of GTA4 got much less.

Credit: NY Times


An update on Resident Evil 5



A new preview of Resident Evil 5 went up last week, and it revealed some awesome new details. First off Chris Redfield won't be alone on this journey, as he will be accompanied by a new female mercenary *Claire Redfield will also be involved in the game in some form*. This new female mercenary will also be playable in the form of an online co-op mode, which is a first for Resident Evil. In addition to this new female companion the Mercenaries mini-game from RE4 will return, and a new cover system similar to ones seen in games like Uncharted and Gears of War will be used in RE5.

For players who are unaware Resident Evil 5 will be taking place in Africa and will feature Chris Redfield fighting off the local natives who've been infected with some sort of virus that turns them into "zombie-look-a-likes" much like what happened in Resident Evil 4. Series favorites Albert Wesker and Sherry Birkin will also return in RE5, and playable flashbacks to previous RE games will be featured in RE5. RE5 will be released for the PS3 and Xbox 360 sometime in 2009, and I honestly can't wait for it, as the game looks so awesome. Wesker was a total badass in Umbrella Chronicles, and I can't wait to see what he does in RE5.


Umm… Holy Shit?

Credit: 1 Up


PlayStation Store update for the week of May 22



Well I should have known this was coming. Just when I thought that Sony may have finally turned things around and was constantly putting up awesome updates to the PlayStation Store, they finally bring me back down to Earth with a solid punch to the mouth. I let them slide last week with two crappy demos, but this week it's just plain ridiculous. When the highlight of your update is a downloadable game album, you know you're in trouble. I mean seriously, the only noteworthy thing from the PlayStation Store update this past week was the Pixel Junk Monsters album which you can download for $3. While the album isn't bad by any means, I've already heard all of the music *it's 24 songs* from the Pixel Junk Monsters album while playing the game, so I don't need to pay to hear it again *not to mention I'm sure someone will upload the music as a torrent any day now*. Speaking of Pixel Junk Monsters, fuck the expansion pack. I've tried and I've tried but I just can't get rainbows on some of the harder levels. While I cruised through the original Pixel Junk Monsters and got rainbow on every level in both single player and co-op, I just can't do it in Encore. I've officially given up on Pixel Junk Monsters Encore, it's too dammed hard. I might go back and play it later in the summer, but for now I consider myself done with PJM. Besides, I just got Dr. Mario Online Rx for the WiiWare, and holy shit is it awesome. I think I just found a new addiction.

In addition to the PJM album, we were also treated to a couple of PS3 themes. There are 3 themes uploaded for High Velocity Bowling *not a bad game at all*, and a theme called "Graffiti" which is actually pretty cool as well. After that there were some random game videos put up, and the typical Rock Band update. To be honest after looking at the Rock Band update *9 songs* the only songs I recognize are "Rock ‘N' Roll Star", "Beetlebum", "Hysteria", and "Countdown to Insanity", none of which I am typically fond of. I would say that 9 songs for one week's update for Rock Band is pretty good *as opposed to the normal 3 songs*, but considering SingStar will be uploading a consistent 25 – 50 songs a month means that Rock Band has been trumped. Any who shame on you Sony, I'm expecting more from you in a PlayStation Store update. Isn't Elefunk supposed to come out soon? At least the PC Store received a PSP demo of Hot Shots Golf: Open Tee 2 *who says I don't comment on PSP news?*.

Credit: Sony



B3yond the tabloids!

While nothing is confirmed yet, heavy rumors are suggesting that Konami will be putting up their classic PS1 RPG Suikoden for download on the PlayStation Network for PS3 and PSP users. While I never got the chance to play Suikoden the game does have a bit of a fan following, so I'm sure there are some people who would love to play this PS1 RPG one more time.

After several teases Konami has finally confirmed that Coded Arms: Assault for the PS3 has officially been cancelled. There have been rumors about the cancellation of the title for over a year now but Konami has just finally confirmed it. I didn't really care for Coded Arms on the PSP so I don't have a problem with seeing the PS3 version cancelled.

In some awesome news, OddWorld Inhabitants will be making video games once again. I have always enjoyed the OddWorld games, and have missed them since they left the video game industry in 2005. OddWorld: Stranger's Wrath was a pretty solid title and OddWorld's next video game promises to have "CG movie like quality" in their gameplay. At this time there are very few details about OddWorld's next project although I am excited. I also wouldn't expect to hear more about this game until 2009 at the earliest.

According to Gamestop the upcoming Guitar Hero: World Tour will cost PS3, 360, and Wii users $190 for the total package. By total package I mean the game, the drum kit *wireless*, the guitar *wireless*, and microphone *I don't know if it's wired or not*. Gamestop is also listing a PS2 version for $180 and claims that the game will be released on all platforms on October 27. While I've said many times that I hate Guitar Hero once again I'm sure some people will care so I'm stuck reporting it to you guys.

Heavy rumors are suggesting that on June 5 the PlayStation 3 version of Guitar Hero 3 will be releasing a God of War themed track that will be free for users to download. Ever since the Halo theme went up on the 360 side I've been waiting to see if PS3 users will receive anything cool and they finally will be apparently. Too bad I still hate Guitar Hero.

In case you didn't get enough last time, the PS3 version of Echochrome will be uploading 20 more user created levels for players to try out. This will bring the number of levels in the PS3 version of Echochrome up to 90 levels. I am about to post the results of my own user-created Echochrome contest and I must say there are some talented people out there creating Echochrome levels, I can't wait to get my hands on the next batch of levels.

Apparently according to Sony the reason Killzone 2 has been delayed until February 2009 didn't have to do with problems designing the game, but rather it's a market strategy. Sony says that neither Killzone 2 nor Resistance 2 will be ready until November 2008 and Sony didn't want the two games to compete for sales since both titles are PS3 exclusive. Considering Resistance 2 will probably be pretty good and the fact that SOCOM Confrontation will be out in the middle of September and I think PS3 users won't have to worry about a lack of FPS' this holiday season.

According to Yoichi Wada, one of the head honchos at Square Enix, Final Fantasy Agito 13, a cell phone RPG in the FF13 universe, might be cancelled. While nothing has been confirmed, I wouldn't mind seeing the game cancelled. I honestly wouldn't want to play an RPG on the cell phone, I'd rather see the 2 PS3 versions of FF13 *Versus 13 and FF13* get produced first.

Finally, to clear up any rumors, there are no cut scenes in MGS4 that stretch 90 minutes long. We've received confirmation from journalists at multiple publications who've all played MGS4 and can confirm that there are no cut scenes that come close to approaching 90 minutes long. I know MGS is known for having long cut scenes but thankfully none are 90 minutes long. And to clear up one more rumor: Metal gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots and Metal Gear Online are the same game. There will not be a separate MGO game released. It is called "Metal Gear Online: Starter Pack" because Konami will be releasing updates and expansions via the PSN.



B3yond the Cinema!

*warning, this video is loud*



Here's a video of my new favorite Unreal Tournament 3 mod for the PS3. This mod turns Unreal Tournament 3 into a snowboarding game, and a pretty fun snowboarding game at that. Here's the link to download the mod for the PS3. Just put the file *.JAM* on the root of your memory stick and upload it through "my content" in Unreal Tournament 3.



Here's a video showing off the drums of the upcoming Guitar Hero: World Tour. While I hate Guitar Hero and am sick of music rhythm games *hopefully they'll all kill themselves just like DDR did*, I'm sure some people will be excited for this.



Here's one of the new viral marketing ads for MGS4. While I don't get what they're trying to accomplish, I must admit that this one is pretty cool.



The One Man Water Cooler~!



Well as I had previously advertised, this week I will be handing out the award for the best user created levels in Echochrome. Echochrome is an awesome puzzle game for the PSN, and there have been some really cool user created levels. While it is hard to upload levels onto the PSN, there have been a number of individuals who have managed to do it, so here are the winners. Please note that I couldn't use my handy dandy PlayStation Eye to take pictures of the levels so I was regulated to using my mediocre cell phone camera. Also sorry if I mixed a name up, I did a poor job of keeping track of the level titles *I'm pretty sure I got them all right*.

Special Mention: "Ushi" by Saboten.


Ushi is a very simple design that gets complicated when trying to move between the two horizontal platforms. While the level is relatively easy due to the holes and jumps on each of the walkways, players will have to watch out to make sure that they do not over jump the platforms or fall through the bottom one. Am I the only one that sees a cross in "Ushi"? Maybe "Ushi" is some sort of foreign language for "crucifixion"? Or maybe I'm just crazy…


Special Mention: "Take your Time" by Jupsi.


Take your Time is another simple level that is pretty straightforward. Use perception to your advantage and you can pretty much solve this puzzle with ease. Like "Ushi", "Take your Time" has a few tricks hidden within the jumping platforms but it's nothing players can't easily overcome.


Special Mention: "Simple Jumps" by Bootaaay.


"Simple Jumps" was probably the hardest level out of the Echochrome contest, as I was nearly stumped by this level. "Simple Jumps" is very complicated and it will take a skilled Echochrome player to beat it. The hardest part of the level comes when trying to get the shadow underneath that archway in the middle of the level. Also watch out for the staircase, as the hole at the top of the right staircase will throw unsuspecting players for a loop. If this contest were based on difficulty, "Simple Jumps" would easily be the winner.


Special Mention: "Drop the G" by anonymous.


The final "Special Mention" comes from an anonymous user who submitted a level called "Drop the G". While I have no idea what the name means *I'm pretty sure I didn't mix this one up with "Simple Jumps"* this was probably the most fun I had with a level in the Echochrome contest and I nearly awarded this one as the winner. "Drop the G" basically sets up a bunch of straight towers and lets players fly around to their liking. If you can't see due to my bad camera phone all of those thin towers have a jump pad on the top of them, meaning your little wire head frame guy will be jumping around in the air for much of the level. It's very fun and if it wasn't for the fact that you can shift the level around and can basically keep your wire head frame guy freefalling forever than I probably would have awarded this one the winner of the contest *it would have also made the level infinity harder*.


And the winner of the Echochrome contest is "Sky" by Mugiou.


While not the hardest or most complex level to be submitted into the contest, Sky has one thing that makes it shine above the rest. And that's creativity. While most of the levels in Echochrome are hard and complex, Sky maintains the simplicity of Echochrome without ditching the difficulty. While Sky may look like a very simple puzzle on the outside, solving it can prove to be more than meets the eye. Playing levels like Sky reminded me why I fell in love with Echochrome in the first place, and I have to applaud Mugiou for his creativity, well done good sir!

I hope you've enjoyed the Echochrome contest, feel free to tell me what you think the best levels in Echochrome are, and feel free at any time to send your user created Echochrome levels to "Fester" on the PSN. If it's good I will have no problem putting up a picture of it in this column as well as sending you some of my user created levels *wait until you see "Gatr", hint, it's an alligator*. Echochrome is one of the best titles on the PlayStation Network, right up there with Pixel Junk Monsters, WarHawk, Calling All Cars, and Super Star Dust HD. Be sure to pick it up.



B3yond the Mail!



To Brad (Guest): You're basically right Brad. Kojima has stated that Metal Gear Solid 4 will be the end of the story for Solid Snake, but that the storyline as a whole can continue in further games if Konami wishes to make them. Whether or not Kojima will be involved is anyone's guess at this point. I would say it's safe to bet that there will be another Metal Gear game at some point in the future, although I don't know who it'd be about *Raiden maybe?*.

To Supro (Guest): Sorry to hear that you don't agree with my opinions. I don't try to be biased against any one system. If you've read my columns you'd have noticed that I own all 3 current-gen consoles and love them all equally. While I do tend to favor Sony I do show favoritism towards Microsoft and Nintendo as well. For example I bought R6 Vegas 2 and GTA4 on 360 because I thought they better suited what I wanted out of the game. I also picked up WiiFit on launch date last Wednesday. I don't write this column with the intention of putting down the opposing consoles. I just take the news of the week and interpret them the way I want. If I think someone messed up I'll call them out on it, and it doesn't matter who it is. I've honestly been called out for being both a Sony hater and a Sony fanboy, so people have differing opinions of me *and I'm perfectly fine with that*.

To Toddo (Guest): I do not have any sort of inside information on Resident Evil 5. The reason as to why I will pick it up on the PS3 is because I prefer the DualShock 3 to the 360 controller and because I feel that having the hard drive will boost performance on the PS3 version of RE5 just like it did for Devil May Cry 4. I've always stated that I will pick up the superior version of a multiplatform game. If the 360 version offers some sort of exclusive like GTA4 does with the downloadable content than I'll change my mind, but otherwise I'll probably pick up the PS3 version.

To calem (Guest): The difference between Final Fantasy 13 and FF Versus 13 are the development teams. While FF13 will basically be a traditional FF game and will be made by the traditional FF team, Versus 13 will be made by the Kingdom Hearts team and will feature a much darker storyline. Versus 13 will be taking place in the same universe as FF13 *previous FF titles have all taken place in different universes* but both games will be completely separate and independent of each other. FF Versus 13 will also have a much more current and modern look compared to FF13's futuristic utopia world. I've included trailers of the 2 games in my December 18th edition of the old SIXAXIS Report which can be found here. While I have yet to see a whole lot of either game I can easily say that I'm looking forward to FF Versus 13 more than I am FF13. Versus 13 just looks so much more badass. In fact I will honestly say that I think the FF Versus 13 trailer is one of the best trailers that I have ever seen in a video game. It's so awesome that I'm going to repost it here.



To Bell (Guest): Don't worry, SOCOM Confrontation was considered to be on my list of the top ten most anticipated PS3 games, and I'm still very pumped for the game, but I still haven't seen enough of it to make the best judgment. I never played any of the PSP SOCOM games so I'm a little worried about Confrontation. If we actually knew anything about Zipper's upcoming PS3 SOCOM game than that would for sure make the list, but I have yet to play any of Slant 6's SOCOM games so I want to wait before claiming Confrontation to be the best game ever. I guess I'm trying to say that I'm pumped for SOCOM on the PS3, but since 2 of them will be coming I don't know which one to be more excited for *hopefully both turn out to be awesome*.

To Shockmaster (Guest): Mercenaries 2: World in Flames will be released for the PS3 and 360 on August 31, 2008.


As I said before I always read what you guys send me and I appreciate the comments, even if they're sometimes filled with hate. If you wanted a response to your comment and I didn't respond I apologize.



The 411mania Empire~!



The Full Circle by Joe Roche. Good to have Joe back, be sure to congratulate him on graduating law school *my reputation as being 411 hustler won't allow me to*.
Nintendophiles by Theo Fraser. Why does Nintendophiles go up on the same day as The Negative Edge?
The PC Centric Extravaganza by Chris Evans.
The Select and Start News by Vincent Chiucchi.
The 10th Hour by Derek Robbins. This week Derek counts down the top ten things that are wrong with the Sonic franchise. As a fellow Sonic-a-holic I can testify this list is 100% legit.



Signing Off!



Well that's all for me this week. There wasn't a whole lot of news, but hopefully you guys were somewhat entertained by pictures of Echochrome levels. I've been hard at work with the Metal Gear specials, so hopefully you've been checking them out. I'll be back tomorrow with my next B3yond the Special, which is taking a look back at Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty *I promise I won't call it Guns of the Patriots this time*. Sometime within the next few weeks I'll be picking up SingStar on the PS3 and putting up a review, be sure to let me know if you have any song requests. If everything goes according to plan I'll record myself singing in SingStar and put it up for all of my users to listen *and criticize*. Let the embarrassment commence! Any who, I'll be back tomorrow with more Metal Gear, and again next Tuesday with more B3yond the Report. Cya later!