PixelJunk Monsters kills it. I bought it on the PS3 a few months ago and while I loved the first few levels, there’s a steep cliff where the difficulty curve should be, and I failed to climb it. For some reason during a hard month I revisited this game and I fucking LOVE it. It got me through some tough times. You have to embrace the cold hard truth that you will be playing the same levels over and over, you have to LOVE this. This is something old school, it is out of place with the low amounts of challenge we face in modern, casual-friendly games. However, the environment of the game is so pleasant:

You are moving back and forth, dancing, collecting gold and gems, building a system, and the replaying of levels is what is required to make the system PERFECT. Incidentally, this is surely by design; the game requires you to unlock harder areas by collecting rainbows, which you only get with a perfect score on a level, aka you didn’t let one monster through (you have 20 in your village, each monster you let through kills one, and normally you can win with only one villager remaining, BUT AT WHAT COST I ASK YOU? Save them all).

The environment is pleasant, the gameplay is well calibrated, with a few elements that perfectly compliment each other, and the levels and tower progression give you a great variety of play and strategy.

Incidentally, I balked for a while at buying the PSP version, which costs $20 compared to the $10 of the PS3 original. It is absolutely worth the money, however. The PSP version includes two add-on islands which represent a great deal of play time. The game is well-suited to the portable device and that’s where I’ve played the most of it.

Just assuming I won’t get around to writing up PixelJunk Shooter, the most recent release in the series, let me just add that it is awesome as well.

44 days, to be exact, when I was still evaluating the PS3. Since then it basically went Demon’s Souls – Uncharted 2 – Dragon Age – Little Big Planet (PSP). I didn’t finish Demon’s Souls, but hope to someday. I totally loved it, and would consider it one of the better games of the year. Many have said that of Uncharted 2, and I can see why, as it has great writing, excellent pacing, and plenty of gameplay variety. However, it seems a little old-fashioned. Perhaps it’s me personally rather than the industry as a whole, but I feel like we’ve moved on from linear story-based games that are trying to be like movies. The game does not allow you to make any choices other than which order to shoot the bad guys. I realize this was the case with Halo as well, and many other A-list games. But my tastes have gradually shifted.

Oh yeah, Halo ODST. Almost forgot about that one, as it was a bit of a flash in the pan. It’s interesting to note that said linear storytellers Bungie actually shifted to a non-linear, architectural model for the sections of ODST. It was certainly well-made, but short, and not really worth a full game price. Had a few epic sessions of firefight though – one game lasted two hours. Damn.

Not that it’s much different from what Bioware has been doing for years, but Dragon Age is more where I see the future of games, where every aspect of the game (gameplay, story, etc.) changes based on the player’s choices. It’s a party-based action RPG with excellent writing, mission design, and an extremely detailed world to explore. Sure, it’s elves and wizards which is a little played out, but despite that the material is strong. I’m nowhere near finished it, but still plugging away.

I rarely buy full-price PSP games, but I made an exception for Little Big Planet for some reason. I’ve never played more than the demo of the big boy PS3 version, so I don’t know how the portable game compares, but I’ve really enjoyed my few hours with this one. It’s generally a pleasant, relaxing experience playing through the story missions – I’m not a huge platformer fan but this is good stuff. I’ve played very few player-made levels, and haven’t tried to create them yet myself, but I aim to, and that’s all that counts, innit?

All the while I can never resist buying and barely playing iPhone games. The iPhone is an amazing games platform, blah blah. Great, your game uses all your batteries and then your phone is dead. A phone call interrupts your game and when you go back, it didn’t save. Or the game takes five minutes to load. Or the touch controls suck, again. Or it’s a dumbed-down version of what would be decent on another platform. I’ve definitely played some great iPhone games, but most of them I never spend more than half an hour with.

Not sure why I keep buying them.

The latest is Rogue Planet, gameloft’s attempt to rip off Advance Wars. Gameloft is like the iPhone’s Asylum studios, churning out cheap knockoffs of well-known franchises. Some of them are good in a workmanlike, the-gameplay-is-engaging sort of way, but they all feel soulless, with no originality or inspiration to be found.

It’s december – there are a million games out, and no time to play them. I’m hoping to try out the new Zelda, Assassin’s Creed 2, Borderlands and even Modern Warfare 2, but I probably can’t do everything I want to between now and the release of Mass Effect 2 and whatever the latest Final Fantasy is. But whatever – when it comes to video games, too much of a good thing is still a good thing.

Everyone’s favourite games conference aka press release orgy is here! The most concise way to catch up on E3 press conference porn is to read three posts from Offworld:

• Sony
• Nintendo
• Microsoft

Sony and MS are both trying to catch up to the Wii’s motion-sensing Wiimote, and MS’ Project Natal seems most interesting, as it’s a controller-free system, relying entirely on cameras to sense your body position and even recognize faces. That said, until practical questions can be answered (how much? how many games will support it?), it’s best to consider it as a rhetorical salvo in the PR wars and not an actual, tangible thing. Sony and MS both trumpeted their lists of exclusive games, most vague and ages from shipping. Some of them no doubt will be good, but neither could get through their presentations without showcasing some cross-platform games as well.

Nintendo, meanwhile, renewed its license to print money. No, they tried to make nice with the hardcore by announcing a truckload of Mario games.

A few things caught my eye. On the Microsoft side, more details of Halo 3 ODST are welcome (sounds like The Killing with space marines), and I’m happy that Bungie is doing another game in Halo Reach, but I was kinda hoping they’d give the Halo thing a rest for a while and try something new. Alan Wake looked cool, and I really hope Natal works and doesn’t cost a mint, but judging from MS’ track record, that’s unlikely. How much for that 160 gig hard drive again….?!

Sony’s PSP Go! was of course no surprise. But it looks slick, and it sounds like Sony is doing all the right things (woo developers, improve media experience, ditch UMD) to keep the PSP alive. And boy are there a lot of games coming for it, including a new Metal Gear, Assassin’s Creed, and Little Big Planet. But I’m of two minds about Sony. They’re currently fighting two losing battles and I wonder if they shouldn’t just cut their losses on the PSP and concentrate on overtaking MS for 2nd place in the living room. They’ve got so many first party developers tied up with PSP projects, it’s hard to see the logic. I was also really hoping for a price cut on the PS3. Why, why, why, are they not doing that. It’s insanity. I say that selfishly, because I’m looking to get one of the damned things, but it also seems crazy that Sony is sitting in third place with a console almost twice as costly as the competition, and not slashing their price.

Man, so much media has been consumed since the last time I posted one of these. I can’t possibly keep up. I was sick for a few days last week and that meant extra media doses while trapped in bed.

I will single out a focus, then: my rediscovery of the PSP.

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I seem to have gone off the console (in my case, the 360) for the portables (DS and PSP). The only game I’m playing on the console is Rock Band, and I’m not sure for how much longer. I’m trying to complete solo drums on hard and I’m held at the “nightmare” level by “Don’t Fear the Reaper” and the damned prog intro to the Boston song. It’s probably something about my brain that makes these two so hard; I had few issues with the other tracks at this difficulty level. But right now the gameplay is what could be described as brutally punishing, so I’m not sure how much longer I’ll hold onto this vain hope of completing the tour.

God of War: Chains of Olympus is mostly what I’m button mashing on the PSP. It’s pretty slick, i.e. well-produced, good difficulty curve, very similar to the PS2 experience of the original game. This isn’t my sort of game, but when something’s well done, I can deal with it. The PSP seems to provide a console experience, except portable, whereas DS games are more typically idiosyncratic thanks to the touchscreen and/or retro thanks to their 2D graphics.

I’m looking forward to Too Human when it comes out in a few weeks, and also to trying some iPhone games whenever I can actually find an iPhone.

The big three’s announcements were a little underwhelming. The least underwhelming was Microsoft’s; besides the stream of sequels that were all the rage for all three, they had a couple worthwhile things to announce – the Netflix deal, the Final Fantasy coup.

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Sony! Sony! Sony! Announcing shit, dude!

Let’s see here: video rental and purchase coming to Playstation Network as of tonight (US only I presume), and the PSP will be supported (but will it require a PS3?); the low-end, $400 PS3 will have 80gigs as of September; God of War III announced, surprising noone; Little Big Planet will be released in October. SOCOM devs Zipper are making a game called MAG (Massive Action Game) that features 256-player battles.

Jeez, not much of a thrill ride.

For every article that’s positive about the PSP (like the previous post), you’ll find one that’s negative. Take this interview with a Sony rep at IGN. There’s four pages of optimistic-yet-vague PR speak, then the final page, in which the IGN editors get pretty goddamn negative on the poor ol’ PSP.

In This Reporter’s Opinion? Yeah, Sony is messing a lot of things up. They claim the PSP is a multimedia machine, but getting movies onto it, especially if you’re a Mac user, couldn’t be much harder without requiring you to pitch a perfect game and then split the atom. And frankly, who’s going to want it for that when the iPod experience is so seamless? It has so much potential, but Sony takes months if not years to bring out new features. Meanwhile, homebrew developers run free being all awesome, giving people all the more reason to run custom firmware, and at that point, why would they pay for games? Which just makes software sales worse. The fact that it’s as expensive to develop for as the PS2, without the benefit of the massive install base, must make it even harder to get third party publishers interested.

That said, it has enough great games in its back catalogue to warrant a buy. And it’s great hardware, with a great screen. For most people, I’d recommend a DS, but there are reasons to get the PSP instead. Or hell, get both!

Honestly? I think its troubles get a lot of ink because we can’t pretend any other console has any troubles right now. People especially like giving Sony a hard time, and you can’t really do that over the PS3 at the moment.

The Monster Hunter Portable games are generally understood to be the reason why the PSP sells so well in Japan. This WSJ article explores the monster hunter craze, the appeal of face-to-face social play, and how the game ain’t just for teens. It also points out that Monster Hunter might be singlehandedly responsible for doubling the PSP’s sales. Doesn’t mention that Capcom puts out a new DLC quest once a week.

Man, now I feel like grilling some monster meat.

Beat “Vaseline” finally. To all you bitches who said I couldn’t do it, to all you haters out there, y’all can eat a warm di —

Oh wait. No one cares.

More Rock Band, again, mostly Band Tour, this time with occasional AR contributor Mags. We both foresook challenging difficulty levels for the larger cause, which was to win some roadies in some manner of rock-off. I didn’t know roadies were chattel, to be gambled away like so many head of bison. I’m also starting to realize that drumming is pretty good exercise for something that’s actually fun.

Flow on PSP. Have I mentioned this? It kicks all kinds of ass. I mean you can just play it on the web for free of course, and I know I’ve mentioned that before. But it’s perfectly suited for mobile use. I also love how it controls with one stick and one button. You can effectively control it with one hand while eating Cheetos™ Crunchits with the other.

I think Crisis Core may be losing me. I’ve put a few hours in now, and that might be all I have for it. It’s pretty good, just not awesome, and there are such games out there – too many, in fact.

To ther nearest game rental/purchasing venue you can get to! If you have a PSP and any sense of fun or happiness you will find this game, you will play this game, and surely you will feel the power of a god!

I can’t wait to get my grubby PSP lovin’ hands on this game!

Everyone here knows I’m gaga for Ratchet and Clank so I’ve been waiting for this for a while and I am just so tickled about it….my weekend is now complete.

And yeah you can Vader that if you’d like…

Like I was saying I was all awesome drum tour on hard until I get to motherfucking “Vasoline”. I see it in the list, I’m like “aw yeah, I love that song, great break,” and then FAIL in the first 8 bars. That break did not like me. It just wouldn’t let me in. I practiced for an entire hour and still no MFing joy.

I hereby vow to not cut my hair until I DOMINATE Vaseline.

In other news, I’ve been toying around with some PSP games, which of course is postponing my completion of a swath of DS games including the excellent The World Ends With You. I’m a few hours into Crisis Core, which is pretty okay, and then I stop by EB Games again and pick up the Armored Core PSP version cause no one wants it and it’s only $15. About a half hour of play reveals it to be a long way from an A-list title and a long way from the mythic Great Mech Game that I know will be made someday but hasn’t been yet. Points off for not calling mechs “wanzers” like Front Mission, but extra points for the crazy deep garage. That’s what these games are all about – you can’t just slap a giant robot in a game and call it a day; if you can’t spend hours swapping out radiators and shoulder guns, might as well walk away with your head hanging low. Unlike Front Mission, the Armored Core series definitely transmits the might and majesty of these giant beasts, and both games give you the gearhead tweaking you crave, but Armored Core yawns when it comes to combat. It’s arena-style head-to-head tournaments and that’s it, no real campaign to speak of. If they could slap a proper story onto one of these games they could have a winner.

Like Sherman through the south I cut a swath through the videogame market, leaving the scorched and chapped husks of partially completed games in my wake. Is this article right? Is my attention span devastated by the internet? Isn’t it enough that I managed to put four whole hours into Crisis Core? Not continuously, though, I suppose…. sigh

What’s up with the PSP? Is it riding the boxcars, bindle on shoulder, swilling rat whisky? Recently an article cropped up titled Ubisoft Urges Sony to Act on Directionless PSP, claiming publishers are abandoning the platform since Sony can’t provide a clear direction. Sky is falling! Except the quote comes from Ubi’s UK managing director, and yes, sales are weak in Europe. But they are far from weak in Japan, where the PSP regularly outsells the Wii. In April in North America, the PSP sold more than the PS3 and Xbox 360 (although they all lagged far behind both Nintendo platforms).

More interesting, perhaps, is this article, which spells out Sony’s, er, direction for the platform, while also filling in some of its background:

When Sony first launched the PSP it had targeted mostly professionals, 28 to 40 years old, who would take it to work every day on subways, trains and taxis. Since then, the purchase demographics have slowly evolved, getting younger and younger, said John Koller, Sony Computer Entertainment PSP senior marketing manager.

The audience has also become more multi-ethnic, with heavy use among urban teens, 15 to 16 years old, from Hispanic, African-American and Asian communities.

That said, Sony seems to have trouble making up their mind about what direction to take. At one point “Sony’s forthcoming marketing efforts will start to put more emphasis on women,” but then the big marketing pushes will include the God of War bundle, a NFL film bundle and a GPS add-on, which are hardly things women are clamouring for. It does seem that emphasizing the system’s non-game functions distinguishes it from the DS, but then that’s hardly the sort of thing that will make game industry folk like Mr. Ubisoft very happy. Oh well.

Bottom line: the system is doing well, so nobody panic.

I was not aware of EB Games’ vigorous used games policy. I stumbled in with a stack of 360 games that I had come to hate, and strutted out with a PSP, barely a dollar changing hands. I’m glad it happened, if only because there was no way I’d convince myself that I needed to pay for two different portable game consoles.

The little bastard is certainly a great gadget. I’m disappointed that the homebrew scene is waaaay weaker than on the DS, but then the PSP does a lot more out of the box. I don’t think I’ll use the browser much, or skype, but the video capability might come in handy. The screen is sure nice.

That said, the part that really gets me excited: games. There are a number of Sony-affiliated franchises that I miss from my PSone / PS2 days, and I see they’re all well represented on the PSP. I only have FF Crisis Core right now, but my shortlist of games I want includes: God of War, Syphon Filter Dark Mirror and Logan’s Shadow, Final Fantasy Tactics, Armored Core, Disgaea, Field Commander, Flow, Patapon, and Echochrome. It’s awesome that I can probably find the lion’s share of these for less than $20 each.

Pretty much all my friends and family who are gamers are currently addicted to GTA IV. That’s super cool and all, but for me no dice. Instead, I’ve melted into the frustrating, confusing, and utterly beautiful world of echochrome and I could not be a more happy addict.

This game is super tits peeps. Super.

echochrome is, for me, a perfect game. It combines seemingly simple lines and imagery with profound spatial problems which can be solved in a variety of ways, you just have to think of them. When I played the demo I was entranced by the music, the gameplay, and the beauty. But all my going gaga over how it looks and feels means nothing without explaining the whole point of the game.

It’s connect the dots, well, connect the Avatar with the Echoes. In this world there are five laws of perspective. Perspective Traveling dictates that if you can line up one pathway with another than they are actually connected and your character can move between them. A slight rotation can change an entire pathway, even if one level is high above another. Perspective Absence, which means that if you can’t see something it does not exist. If there is a gap in the pathway simply move the field of vision to block the gap and then your Avatar will walk across no problem. Perspective Landing, which means that if there is a black hole in the ground your character will fall directly below the hole. Place the hole above where you want to fall and you will fall there. Perspective Jump is exactly what is says and means when the character walks across a white circle on the ground they jump directly above (I still haven’t mastered this one yet). And Perspective Existence, which means that if there is a jump pad or hole in the ground if you block it by changing the view than it does not exist.

The laws determine what you can do in each level. There are fifty-six levels ranging from A level to G level in difficulty. I’m still in the middle of the Bs myself but man they’re already getting hard. Of course, I say that not having exactly the most spatially organized mind in the world. For those of you who love spatial puzzles this game is like the Holy Grail.

If the difficulty range isn’t enough to satisfy you, then create your own level! A level creator usually means nothing to me. D and Toku are the Dungeon Masters in this crew, but I tried it out just playing around adding holes and jump pads, making irregular shapes that don’t make sense in reality and stringing them around one another in an asymmetrical pattern (which annoys me to no end since I love symmetry). Then I played my seemingly impossible and random dreamscape. Huzzah! Success! Within a short period of time I had reunited three Echoes and won my map. I actually didn’t believe it. What I had thought was nonsense became sense. The unreal solidified in clear cut lines of logic. Really the only word that can describe my surprise is “agog”. I was agog. I was delighted.

For the same reason I feel I can’t play chess, I don’t feel I’m very good at design or map making. This game proved my insecurity was without merit. I truly believe that a newbie like me or a master like Toku can create maps that will work because this game engine’s sole purpose is to make sense out of nonsense. The five laws of this world defy your own senses and understanding of physics and open your mind to another reality. That is excellent game play. That is excellent game design.

I’ve spent hours focused and concentrated on this game, some times getting frustrated and having to move on to another map before finally figuring out another. But that is amazing to me, that wonderful brain workout that you’re not even aware your mind is going through because you are so entangled with the play. I actually feel really good each time I finish a map. Like it’s almost like a rush of adrenaline. I get a rush figuring out a “simple” puzzle! Brilliant.

This game is one of my favourite games so far this year. While all my friends are off being Niko Bellic I’m perfectly happy to stay a faceless, nameless, colourless Avatar. The game is available on the PS3 and PSP, I have both versions for home and mobile play. The PlayStation Store recently realigned their prices as well, so now Canadian prices are an exact match with American ones. Awesome. Both versions retail at $9.99 and I have to say, at the price of two Venti Soy Chai Lattes, that’s a perfectly fair trade for me. I spent way more on Brain Age and I never play that anymore. Math can suck it when I have to actually do it.

Spatial problems with no multiplication necessary?

Brilliant.

This is my new fav game right now, and that’s just from playing the demo.

The simply beauty of the game makes me weep, the gentle tutorial swept me off my feet and I was hooked. I’m not really a puzzle game person but this one is so relaxing and yet challenging.

The point of the game is to move your character across the playing field to connect with its echo (a black version of the character). The playing field itself is a simple line drawing that can be rotated in various ways. For instance, the character may be headed for a gap in the pathway, but with a slight rotation you can cover the gap with another part of the map and the character will walk across because you’ve changed the perspective and it can no longer detect a gap. Amazing! I know it sounds simple and it is, but it can get tricky and there are also obstacles like holes and jump pads. Drop down a hole and you will end up directly below so you line up the map to reflect where you want your character to fall. Same with the jump pad only you go up instead of down. Fascinating!

The game uses the Object Locative Environment Coordinate System created by Jun Fujiki. The pathways/maps are all based on Oscar Reutersvärd’s “impossible constructions” which are mind tingling to look at on their own anyway. Once you add all that perspective manipulation, well, you can see why my brain is very happy at the moment.

The music is a violin melody that is very soothing and also motivating. It’s like your brain is gently swimming though maths…If that makes any sense. The loop is fairly short, only a few minutes long, but I can’t really tell, it’s all so seamless in my ears. The music makes me ache inside.

Check out the trailer and play this game as soon as you can!

The game is PS3 and PSP exclusive and I’m getting the full PSP version as soon as it’s out. Pretty much gonna be my PSP game for the foreseeable future I think…

Prequels CAN be interesting. But the idea of what comes before isn’t relegated to just movies. Video games can also be expanded on in this manner, and that is the idea behind Square’s latest FF installment… Final Fantasy: Crisis Core for the PSP.

For those not familiar, Crisis Core is a prequel to Square’s epic and most popular role playing game, Final Fantasy 7. In this game you take control of Zack to fight as a 1st class member of Soldier and act as mentor to Cloud, FF7’s main hero. The game features cameos from younger versions of FF7 characters, but what really makes the game shine is the way they connect this new game to a game they created 11 years ago. I remember playing FF7 and think that Cloud and Zack were the result of some kind of cloning experiment. They seemed so similar back then. But now smart storytelling in Crisis Core helps to give Zack’s character some much-needed dimension.

The combat system is also something new. Square seems like one of those companies that liked to hold on to the old turn based style of RPG play – after all, they built an empire out of it. Crisis Core shows that this sentiment is slowly changing. The game operates more like an action RPG with you controlling only Zack in a combat environment with free movement. Materia works much in the same way it did in FF7, but now there is also a new addition in the form of a lottery slot system called Digital Mind Wave. The DMW looks very much like a futuristic casino slot machine with key characters from the story rotating in three slots. Aligning these characters can initiate special attacks but they can also implement status changes like strength and health. Though this new system is different, it kinda becomes a double edge sword. Nobody likes to fight bosses based on the luck of a slot machine to get special attacks or summon magic.

Compared to previous Final Fantasy chapters, this game was surprisingly easy. I suspect they did this because of the casual gaming nature of the PSP audience, but for those familiar with the FF series this chapter will be a quick read.

Square’s venture into feature filmmaking with Final Fantasy 7: Advent Children can also be felt in this game. FMVs look like deleted scenes from the DVD, giving the game some great eye candy to match some great game play.

Fans of the series will find this a nice side story to Final Fantasy 7, and newbies to the series will find this a great place to jump on board and experience FF7 at its true beginning.

Why do all the games come out right now? Kyle Orland’s got an article in the Escapist exploring that question. Short answer: it’s the time of year where non-gamers by games (for gamers), and publishers consider a small piece of a big pie better than a big piece of a much smaller, springtime pie.

While I’m at it, there’s also an interview with a Sony guy in MTV Multiplayer about the new, relatively unknown PSP download store.

OK, here’s a problem: the PSP download store doesn’t support Macs.

Wow, get a load of this AV Club review: “blunt, dumb, ridiculous, and almost never funny.” We totally didn’t play the same game. Sure, it could be a whole lot better; its shoddy camera nearly wrecked the thing for me. And I’ll admit that the first few levels are probably the weakest. That Lard Lad level is a little too early in the game, and a little too close to the intersection of hard and tedious. But later levels more than make up for it. The Overlord-style controls for Marge (who uses a megaphone to recruit angry mob members) were a great change-up, and who can argue with the boss fights towards the end: Matt Groening, Shakespeare, and God?

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Just in time for Halloween, the good people at Konami have released a PSP compilation of one of their best franchises, “Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles”. So you’re probably wondering: is this blast from the past a trick or a treat? The answer is both.

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There will always be always a special place in my heart for Sony’s PSP. The reason for this is because it allowed me to experience something that any self-proclaimed tech junkie dreams of.

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