So today we’re kind of lazy and super busy and I was busy doing maintenance on the site (see: making a new staff page and nothing else) but nothing super interesting is going on today. Well, almost. Find out some actually exciting news after the jump
Not actual gameplay but pretty goddamn close!
This shit is like being in a Miyazaki film – holy hell! This is looking beautiful. Trailer is after the jump – I don’t know what the fuck this is about, you’re a kid who runs and jumps and shit and he has a cape and looks awesome but holy hell did you watch it yet? What are you doing!? Watch!
A resident considers moving out of Home.
No doubt dozens of PS3 gamers are moderately excited over news that Sony’s social disappointment Home finally coming out of beta. Contrary to popular belief that Home is a waste of time, Veemee’s own Kirk Ewing has come to the game’s defense, stating “Most people think that Home is shit. I’m here to say that it’s not.” This comment has firmly put the gaming public in its place as they realize they were in fact wrong this whole time. Veemee is the developer that has created a large range of content on Home and is likely not happy with the reaction it has received from the gaming community.
Erwing would go on further to defend it by stating that, “One in three owners use Home. There are 1.7 million repeat users each using Home for around 53 minutes on average.” He of course neglected to mention if the 53 minutes averaged over a week, month, or lifetime. If PS3 users are averaging under an hour playing altogether before dropping the control, it’s pretty clearly an abject failure.
There’s no word if the official release will include actual activities for bored residents to participate in.
And I bet you do too! So if you’re like me and you missed out on hours of sleep due to a good 5-6 hours of LOST’s ending last night [bitmob] you are probably pretty miserable.
Here are a few things to make you a little less miserable this morning in the gaming world:
Super Mario Galaxy 2 is out! If you’re into the whole Mario thing you’re probably going to pick this one up.
Tomorrow will see the release of ModNation Racers on the PS3. The reviews are pretty good and having played the Beta I am feeling inclined to pick this up myself.
Link’s Barrel Beat – Courtesy of Newgrounds, a catchy tune but you might NOT want to watch this at work!
And these series of terrifying and yet hilarious Red Dead Redemption glitches:
Big words from a big man [Kotaku] – or so a lot of people seem to think.
The comparison is certainly one that will turn heads in the gaming community when you hear it – immediate reactions ranging from “Gabe Newell is fat and dumb!” to people deriding the PS3 and triumphantly raising their Apple products gloriously. A polarizing statement indeed – but what is the real context?
In Dan Benjamin’s “The Conversation” Gabe Newell discusses the reasons they decided to open themselves to releasing Steam/Valve Games on Macs. Kotaku’s posting, titled “Valve: PS3 is like a Gamecube” caused quite a stir as seen in the comments on the matter, but did everyone miss the point? Kotaku’s article addresses that the heart of the conversation is Valve’s decision and why they feel that releasing their products for the PS3 doesn’t make sense to them.
Whether or not Gabe is correct in his assessment on investing in consoles like the PS3, the whole thing raises some good points about consoles vs. pc/mac gaming and how ridiculous the fan community can be based on the simplest of situations. Kotaku did, however, make the excellent point of addressing that this goes to show how much weight (no pun intended… okay, maybe a little) Valve carries in the industry by making a comment like that toward Sony without much worry.
It is worth mentioning that our own Brian Frobel, who alerted me to the Kotaku piece, is a big PS3 guy and not a huge fan of Apple and therefore his comments fell in line with what most of the fans thought of the comparison. He seemed to retract his statements however when he got the bigger picture about things. He’s still a jerk, but that’s besides the point. His idealistic solution for this is that all games should be on one console. After discussing that this is flat out unrealistic Brian told me “reality is for suckers, that’s why I live in Second life” and then promptly flew away on a giant penis. [NSFW!]
3D Dot Game Heroes is From Software’s journey into Zelda the old school of gaming with a 3D twist. A kick ass tribute to Zelda and other kickass adventure games of old, this PS3 exclusive might not excel in originality for the most part, but if you are playing this you are here for the nostalgia, not innovation. The game comes fit with very familiar game mechanics. Everything from the dungeons, quests, interface, inventory, music and controller layout will seem recognizable. However, for most of us it’s been a long time and these are all welcome things. The game never feels dull for a minute and it’s certainly not tiring going through dungeons on your quest to obtain the six orbs.
The visuals and music are a nice touch too. Maybe I’m a sucker for stylized games but I really dig the “pixelated” look in 3D. The music itself is another tribute going along with the theme of the game (the overworld seeming a bit too much like Zelda) but I don’t think I’d have it any other way. It’s more than suitable for what you are playing.
Any complaints about the game are typically minor, usually directed at the lack of originality, however the game more than makes up for it, not only by being fun and nostalgic, but by adding other offerings to enhance the experience. For instance, you can play as a goddamn robot if you want. The game features a pretty kickass character creation system allowing you to make and animate whatever the hell you want. Personally I went with Travis Touchdown of No More Heroes fame as well as everyone’s favorite Pokemon, Missingno seen below:
(Travis 3D, The real Travis, and some guy who wants to be Travis)
He's real!
The game even comes prepackaged with a ton of hilarious player models ranging from the hero on the cover to Santa Claus to the fairly obscure Metal Wolf Chaos President.
The internet is full of other fantastic player made creations ranging from Final Fantasy characters to dongs of all shapes and sizes. We at GNSU however, will leave you discover those on your own.
Aside from the badass editor is a fairly awesome sense of humor. The game is very self aware and doesn’t take itself seriously for a second. It takes every opportunity to make fun of itself, its inspiration and games of all kinds. There a ton of hidden little references from the very obvious Zelda jokes to jabs at another From Software game, “Demon’s Souls”.
Even with the entertaining dialogue and hilarious possibility for your own hero, don’t take the game too lightly. The dungeons get progressively more challenging and even the side quests can be a bit of a pain.
Our own Brian Frobel had a hell of a time completing the “Dash Circuit” seen here:
I personally suggested he try using the web game QWOP for training but he said that all that did was infuriate him. And that it didn’t even help. What a jerk!
In any event if you were on the fence about this one, let me mention that it’s got a pretty fairly priced $36 on Amazon – so in a world of most new games dropping at $60 what the hell are you waiting for? The game is a ton of fun, a great throwback to games of old and there’s very little to complain about here.
By the way, if you wanted to try your hand at playing as Missingno or Travis you can grab either of them here – I’ve got them ready for download. Just copy them onto your PS3 and get going!
Download Travis Touchdown and Missingno for 3D Dot Game Heroes:
It’s that time again, E3 is less than a month away and all us gaming nerds are excited! But that’s only half the story.
For a few months now there have been rumours of a PSN premium service [SonyInsider] that would enhance the overall usability of the PSN. Premium features could include premium customer service, extended warranty, access to beta games, cross-game voice chat, a token wagering system which can be used to purchase free content, discounts on all store purchases, cloud storage, online music service, 1 hour trials on full games, *deep breath* and a whole crap load more. Sounds pretty good right? The price? $70 a year.
That’s quite a bit of content there for that price. Now as a non-360 user, I’m not sure how this stacks up to the Live premium services but it sounds like a fantastic deal to me. More recent rumours [engadget] have shown that the service may be announced at Sony’sE3 conference. Could this be a bad move for Sony that has stated over and over that their online services would always be free? They’re not taking anything away from the current PSN services, just adding more bonus content onto it. Even more important, what regions would get these services? Up here in Canada, we still don’t have the video network yet. Australia got it before us…AUSTRALIA! But I guess they should get something if they can’t get a violent video game. What I’m saying is that Sony needs to release it everywhere at the same time or not at all.
The Good News Shut Up Podcast
