Written Journalism Still Exists

Octopus with another of our brief summaries of the latest issue of the UK Official PlayStation Magazine, coming round every four weeks like a mildly interesting menstrual cycle.

The cover story this month is the review of Killzone 2, which recieved a wonderful 9. Say what you want about the honesty of an official platform magazine reviewing a key exclusive, but their review hyped me up possibly more that I already was - now I'm foaming even more at the mouth! Features in this issue of the mag include a rumour-mongering look at this year's secret games including Assassin's Creed 2, COD: MW2 and the new Team Ico game; a couple of new details on Uncharted 2 (Elena is back); an interview with Kaz Hirai; a peek at this year's upcoming awesome games; and the top ten games of 2008 according to a reader poll. The list is as follows: Dead Space, Bioshock, Resistance 2, Mirror's Edge, Burnout Paradise, COD: WaW, Fallout 3, GTAIV, LBP and good old MGS4 coming top.

The rumour machine (obviously the best feature) reads as follows: EA is to hold an auction that will be open to every player in the NFL for the chance to be Madden 2010's cover star (thought there was a supposed curse on that?); developers are already working on games for PSP2, which is tentatively scheduled for release in 2010 (heard this one elsewhere too, but why are MotorStorm and LBP not then PSP2 launch games?); Tetsuya Mizuguchi is looking to make a sequel to Rez, the rights for which are currently owned by Sega (yes please); Square Enix will unveil a 'different from Final Fantasy' MMO at E3 (wahey?); a PSP version of brilliant off-road racer Motorstorm is in the works and may be released before the end of 2009 (yep); despite the fact that FEAR 2 isn't even out yet, Monolith is already working on FEAR 3 (unsurprising, bad economy is leading developers and publishers into focusing more on sequels and established franchises); and Indiana Jones and Batman weren't the last film favourites to be tuned into blocks - Lego Harry Potter is on the way (I was pretty sure they denied this?).

Previews are of new racer Fuel (awesome), FEAR 2: Project Origin (not scary), Gostbusters (disappointing), and Supercar Challenge (super), and even Hydrophobia makes a tiny appearance, stuck to a March release date. Besides Killzone 2, reviews include Skate 2 (8), Patapon 2 (8), Savage Moon (7), LOTR Conquest (5), NPPL Champtionship Paintball 2009 (only 4), Madagascar 2 (3), Bolt (6), Way of the Samurai (6), History Civil War: Secret Missions (3), Age of Booty (6) and Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm (5). There are also online reviews of PES09 (5), FIFA09 (9) and COD: WaW (8). Oh and next issue is going to have an exclusive Resi 5 review.

PlayStation Official Magazine UK Issue 28 (February 2009) should on shop shelves today, and already in subscribers hands, and has a menacing looking Helghast soldier on the front.

Christmas Roundup

And its the end of the Christmas holidays. Rubbish. Well, actually we all go back to learnings on Tuesday. But still. Rubbish. Needless to say, we've been using our non-school time wisely, and have got in a significant amount of gaming. So here goes for our special post-destive edition of the Roundup!

I managed to complete Bioshock, which was so unbelieveably awesome, and I shall be jibber-jabbering on about quite soon here. Following that, I decided against returning to Uncharted to platinum it good, instead avoiding heavy story-based games and going for something a little easier on the mind. Mirror's Edge probably wasn't the best place to start then, its been driving me slowly insane, but I have completed Chapter 6 now. SingStar and Pain got a fair amount of play from my family over the holiday period, and I bizarrely jumped into a bit of Assassin's Creed too. Forgot I hadn't finished that off. PSN-wise I've been playing bits of WipEout here and there and I completed the Metal Gear Solid pack for LBP recently too.

Aquatic in his unworking ways (but that's cool, I want a new TV) has understandably got a lot more gaming done than me. He has managed to finish off Resistance 2 and Mirror's Edge (which he only got for Xmas), and has been dipping in and out of Left4Dead, Everybody's Golf and Final Fantasy Tactics A2 (which he tells me he has put 72 hours and 49 minutes into). He also got MotorStorm 2 and Bioshock for Xmas and has been indulging himself in fits of both of those. Neither of us have any idea what Armadillo or Fryingpan have been doing due to them apparently disappearing off the face of the earth, bar that Armadillo got his PS3, so has likely been playing that to death, and Fryingpan pops up on Steam every so often playing CounterStrike Source. So there.

Xmas done.

Roll on 2009.

Moshi-moshi*

I do wish I could be saying that live from Japan, but unfortunately prior engagements (homework, job, hit-and-runs) have kept us from attending the Tokyo Game Show once again this year. One day, we will make it *shakes fist*.

Anyway, it’s been a good few days game-news wise, although nowhere near as good as E3 or Leipzig from a Sony point-of-view. The loss of Tekken as an exclusive is a downer (but not particularly a relevant point for me as I don’t really play fighters), and the non-presence of Kingdom Hearts III (whether it is a Wii- or PS3-exclusive) and the next big thing from Team ICO.

And that really leads onto the main point I have about TGS: It’s completely at the wrong time. Hardware announcements? No – too close to Christmas, making old product irrelevant just before the biggest shopping season of the year, and an inability to distribute whatever is announced console-wise in time for Xmas means that many will hold out until next year for their buys, which means less monays for everyone in game development. Software announcements? Aside from teasers or more general announcements (“It’s coming” – looking at you Tekken and FFXIII), it’s not really the right timing. We’ve just had E3, the largest stage for developers and publishers to show what they’ve been working on, and for those projects that just didn’t make a playable state in time, there’s also recently been the Leipzig Game Conference. Also, those studios with fall/Christmas releases are winding down (or have wound down) development now and so are either taking some time out or working on ridiculously early (read: unshowable) versions of their next projects.

What all this amounts to is a strange mish-mash of hands-on sessions for imminent releases (LittleBigPlanet, Fallout 3, Far Cry 2, Dead Space and so on), early showings for the few Xmas 09 games we know about (See Nobi Nobi Boy), and the only games with great presentations (Spring’s Resident Evil 5 and inFamous) are dwarfed by those out this side of new year. not that I have a better solution as to where a games show should go between Leipzig and GDC in the new year. Anyways, enough ranting; on to the games, which I shall discuss in a brief bullet form!

• LPB: OMGIHEARTYOUCOMEOUTFASTER.
• Dead Space: More and more interested.
• Fallout 3: What happened to colour in games.
• Far Cry 2: Anything with a level editor is win.
• Nobi Nobi Boy: WTFWANTMOREINFO.
• Resident Evil 5: Tempting.
• inFamous: Looking lush.
• FFXIII: Show me some hands-ons.
• FFXIII Versus: Ditto.
• LocoRoco 2: Deep and adorable? HEARTYOUTOO.
• Patapon 2: Anything new here?
• Mirror’s Edge: Seriously intrigued by new level vids.
• Resistance: Retribution: Hmmmm… *undecided*.

And yeah, I know I’ve missed many games here, but these are they ones I’ve been checking up on. In other news: R2 and Retribution is nifty, very similar to how the SOCOM PS2 and PSP games linked up – love it. Intrigued to find out more about how exactly ‘Infected’ mode affects RR gameplay. PlayStation Store for PSP? FINALLY. I’m looking at getting a 3000 to replace my smashed 2000, and plan to invest in a 16GB Memory Stick and download games instead of buying the UMD versions. I meant legally, I’m not the Wanderer. Oh and here’s some pure beauty. Home coming soon? When I have it on my own PS3, I’ll believe it’s real. No Team ICO makes me cry.

The Wanderer’s still on a break, but you should hear from me on a daily basis this week providing I manage the time to get a post up.

See you soon!

FO

PS: To those of you here from the PlayStation Forums, hello!

*by the way, this is ‘hello’ in Japanese, but only in the context of answering the phone. It’s also quite casual. Japanese is so complicated. I only used it ‘cos it sounded like something from LocoRoco.