PUBLIC MARKS from mrongos with tag "PS3 News"

Not too bad is about the extent of it. While one price shouldn’t be indicative of any other game prices, there’s at least a little comfort in the recently announced pricing of Resistance: Fall of Man, Motorstorm, and Genji. 5980 yen. Roughly $50 US. That’s really cool, should the prices remain the same upon the North American release. Will they? Maybe. Maybe not. No use guessing, but we can pray to the almighty lords of gaming to make it so. Let’s not forget that Sega also released some prices a few weeks ago: Sega Golf Club and Sonic are both being priced at 7140 yen (about $60)… the expected next-gen pricing, but didn’t someone see Sonic for cheap somewhere? Maybe that was a dream. Seems the pricing will be stuck around $50-$70. Oh well. Is anyone unnaturally bent out of shape about this?

Don’t even bother saying it! Yes, this is a personal favorite, but it’s still a PS3 game and it’s going to get hyped up. Let’s see what’s been updated on the official DMC4 site since the closing of the Tokyo Game Show… ah, how about that. Lots. We’ve got five new screenshots of Nero doing what he’s shaping up to do best: being awesome. Check ‘em out, background image them if you feel the need. Ooh, what’s this? We’ve also got some stages to look at. Interesting art style on them (very Breath of Fire IV), but hey, who wouldn’t want to run down a long, impractically large cathedral hallway? Or take in the view of a pretty, pretty town before slaying some demons? There’s also the video they showed at the Tokyo Game Show if you missed it… it’s fantastic. So excited for this game. So excited for many of the games. Just… excitement. Who’s excited? Yeah.

It’s not quite “running” yet, since there is only a neat backdrop, lots of Japanese, and six works of art (two game screens, four concept arts), but Level 5 has still given us a White Knight Story website. The two screens are both of the hero — as a gorgeous CG-anime manboy, and then as the giant knight of white, in a classic Power Rangers megazord (right? It’s been like… 10 years since I’ve seen that show) stance. What’s amazing, though, is the concept art. It’s something to frame and put on your wall. Just look at the above screen. It’s a giant turtle. With a town on it. Look, look at the ship docked above its head. We can only imagine what that’ll look like in the final game. A beautiful castle is also depicted, as is… an outfitted fellow doing some sky-driving? Finally, a castle hallway. After that, the website tells you to Go Home. Enjoy!

All right, so the fellows at Joystiq did not think Devil May Cry 4 was all that (yet they simply won’t shut up about the mediocre hack fest that is Dead Rising, also by Capcom), but we here at PS3Fanboy love a good argument (and a seemingly unrelated comparison). Let’s strip down the problems they had with the game and give ‘em our two cents. * “…feels neither new nor exciting.” It’s a sequel. It’s supposed to be a familiar scheme, but with different content (weapons, etc… like Nero’s arm. Of course, that wasn’t commented on at all). If games were judged by how new and exciting they felt, how many times would Madden have to reinvent their franchise? If it’s game #213523 (MegaMan, we’re looking at you) then okay, but this is a pretty new franchise and deserves its familiarity. * “Nero felt particularly clumsy in this build, going from a standstill to a full sprint with almost no transitional animation, a far cry form the series trademark fluidity.” We disagree. Dante always busted into a full sprint with hardly any animation transitions and that’s fine. If you want him to walk, hold R1. Otherwise, you’re busting ass. How does that detract from gameplay, again? * “The enemies were also repetitive and uninspired and, perhaps due to the controller’s lack of rumble, pounding on them lacked the visceral oomph the series is known for. The experience felt particularly detached.” Again, let’s compare to the Joystiq-ly hailed Dead Rising. Because you know, hordes of zombies don’t grow repetitive and uninspired at all. Even so, it’s a demo. They aren’t going to throw a multitude of baddies at you yet — they want you to survive the demo. But the rumble thing? We agree. Everything is going to take a hit from that crucial missing feature. His other reactions were cautiously optimistic and understandably so. Still, Joystiq’s spin train seems to be following a different set of rails than the PS3fanboy track. We’re still excited for this game and all lovers of previous entries should be, too — with the gameplay videos and reactions popping up, it seems few can deny the beauty the PS3 is putting out.

First, Crytek wanted people for it’s PS3 version of Crysis. Then, they said the consoles can’t handle their oh-so-perfect game. Now they say that they can easily port the game to consoles? Now, just as a personal moral standpoint, one may feel this game should be ignored since the creators obviously can’t decide what they want to do with their creation, but let’s give them another chance. Lead artist Michael Khaimzon said this tidbit: “I don’t think there would be any problem to convert anything we work on to the next-gen consoles if we decided to…We have enough power here, with programmers and artists, to be able to do such a thing. It’s just a matter of making the decision.” So it could be done, there just hasn’t been an official word on it yet. Sort of. The wanting PS3 programmers is fairly… well, it’s something to think about. We’ll keep you posted if any more “official” announcements are made.

Sony can’t catch a break. This time the rumors and innuendo have cost them. Literally. Earlier this week, Macquarie Equities analyst, David Gibson, put the hurt on Sony by apparently stating that “he had heard” that several PS3s on the show floor at TGS “operated erratically and had to be repeatedly reset.” According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, “The problem seems to stem from consoles running too hot and then shutting down. Sony has claimed that it was simply a case of not having the proper ventilation at the kiosks where the consoles were played. It’s possible, but Sony stock was down almost 3 percent by Wednesday from the revelations.” To put that into perspective, a 3% drop in Sony’s stock price on the NYSE represents a drop in Sony’s value by more than $1 billion dollars! Yes, I said “billion.” Of course, stocks rise and fall everyday… sometimes by less than 3% and sometimes by much, much more. What’s interesting is that with this drop attributed to PS3 overheating “news,” it appears that shareholders (specifically, institutional investors), are watching the PS3 launch very, very closely. Everyday, my appreciation for the PS3’s potential to make or break Sony grows. On the bright side of things, and based on the picture to the right, the PS3 can double as a mirror! That should drive Sony’s market cap up a few hundred million.

According to Michael Denny, VP of SCE Worldwide Studios Europe, the ability to personalize, customize, and download extra game content is an essential part of next-gen gaming success. To quote, “We face more than just a console generation transition. An 18-year-old today has never known a world without broadband, mobile phones, or MP3s.” That’s stretching it. This blogger is older than 18, but only by a few years and he can easily recall life without any of those devices. Heck, before 56k even. Life was nice and ignorant. Another interesting quote: “Today’s games are competing for time share even more than cash.” This is actually pretty true. When I, personally, plan on what games to buy, I limit myself to a certain number because of the time they’ll take to beat, not because of their cost. So much time passes that sometimes entire games will go unpurchased because of the length of time put into other games. If anyone watched South Park last night, you’d see that World of Warcraft is pretty much the lord of “time share”, game wise. Finally, “Today’s gamer wants to customise their games to fit their own personality and style and [wants] games to be more interactive than ever before. Today millions of ordinary people have the tools and the role models to become amateur producers… It is the desire to participate and create that becomes the enduring entertainment experience itself.” So there’s another hint at Sony’s home-brew campaign — if only we knew anything about the dang online service! Still, the thought of finally upping those RPG Maker 2003 games for others to enjoy… bliss. Also mentioned was the ability to alter actual games… the best way to think of that is probably The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind. Making your own towns, dungeons, etc, and upping them for others to download and enjoy. Good stuff.

Or is it? Says Nina Kristensen, Ninja Theory’s co-founder, “We’ve always been a launch window title so it hasn’t affected us at all,” referring to the PS3 delay in Europe. However, lead animator Guy Midgley said “No, it’s going to be next year…but we haven’t announced a specific date yet.” So… it’s a launch window title (which should be before 2007, right?) but it’s not coming out until next year in the US? Oh. Launch window for Europe! Well, if you put it that way, it makes sense. So, for those of you wondering, Heavenly Sword hasn’t been moved forward in the launch frame, nor has it been delayed. The difference between Japan/North Ameria launch window and the European launch window might have caused a few rumors to spark into existence, only to be snuffed out by a little bit of common sense.

God of War’s David Jaffe had dropped hints on his blog a long time ago about not wanting to make just epic titles, expressing also his desire to make more casual games. What he meant, nobody knew. Initially, he had a game titled HL in work for the PSP, but it got shelved for now. Jaffe expertly drops a few hints on the new casual title he’s working on: “It’s totally NOT a game like HL was going to be, or God of War for that matter. It has stuff in common with Twisted Metal, Bomberman, and…well, a few other things that I ain’t gonna talk about yet!” So… it’s like a destructive party game? The game wasn’t at TGS, but it’s supposed to be floating around the “air waves” in the next couple of months. Let’s piece this together. It’s a smaller, casual title. It’s like Bomberman and Twisted Metal meets “other things”. It’ll be floating around the “air waves” this holiday season. Jaffe is a Sony employee. The game runs in 1080i. Can you say: launch title for Sony’s e-distribution? Let’s hope so, since we’ve seen very little on the online experience from Sony.

This time, we’re hearing from analyst P.J. McNealy who claims the PS3 is in the final stages of production and will be able to ship 2 million units by the end of the year. Chew on this hefty quote McNealy uses to back his thoughts: “It is our opinion that given the 13 weeks or so of production time, SNE can still come close to its forecast of 2MM units worldwide by the end of December. We believe this likely means a split of 60/40 (1.2MM/800k) for North America/Japan for shipments, which are counted when invoiced off the SNE factory floor. Our research indicates that typically 10-20% of the unit shipment forecast will likely still be in the channel (en route) at the end of December and not installed in homes yet. The low end of that range is more likely simply because SNE will likely still be air-freighting and not tanker-shipping PS3s at that point.” Is it safe to say the 10-20% spread en route will be more focused on North America? Even if Japan has production in other Asian countries, Japan is still closer. Whatever. Math. The article at GameDaily also mentions the (rolling eyes whilst typing) overheating PS3 units, but we all know that’s a bunch of biased media crap. Go ahead — turn off your air conditioning and put your 360, GameCube, or PS2 into an unventilated plastic box and let it run a game for two days. If nothing happens, congratulations. Your system has no soul… and neither do you, for doing such a thing to it. Does it follow then, that Sony has no soul? Sure, because Sony is a legal entity, but not an actual one. It doesn’t need to have a soul.

Recall the horror game, Siren? Kinda sorta? It was one of those games this clever blogger always had a plan to buy, but never had the budget or the properly operating memory to get into. Supposedly, it was pretty good. So good, there are actually two Siren titles in Japan. Well, guess what? A third/second one is in the works for the PS3. There will be more details later this week… so if you liked Fatal Frame but didn’t exactly love the whole taking pictures thing, perhaps Siren is worth seeking out at your used game store. This guy’s going to look for it online right now.

Maybe that last phrase was unnecessary, but it doesn’t matter. There has been so much eyebrow-raising at Sony’s stuff at the Tokyo Game Show that all the bad news prior seems to be fading into, er, oblivion. Anyway, Heavenly Sword has a few high-res screens up here, and also a video to download. Just navigate around the question marks and the video’s under the blue question marks next to the “mpg”. If that doesn’t work, you can always look for another video… there’s a few over at IGN. It’s more arena brawling, but it doesn’t matter when the game looks this fun. November is so far away… not that this is a launch title, but even so, we want our PS3. We knew the Tokyo Game Show would change many people’s minds! Hooray!

Some may say that 50GB of space for a single movie is way too much and is completely useless. Some may be right, but that doesn’t make such things cease to exist. Face it — 50GB Blu-ray movies have arrived. Which can you expect to be bundled with your PS3 upon launch (hypothetically)? Well, Click comes out on October 10th. A more likely contender (although a little more violent… just a little) is Black Hawk Down, releasing on November 14th. Then the fan favorite, Talledega Nights, arrives on December 12th. The movies boast high interactivity, using the new Sony “Blu-Wizard” authoring environment. It should have been called Blu-Mage, then it could learn other movies’ abilities (anyone? anyone? Ah, it’s so lonely being an RPG nutcase). Anyway, cool on the Blu-ray movies. If the interactivity and added features really enhance the experience of owning the movie compared to a “lowly” DVD version, perhaps we will find more people welcoming the format.

Imagine a giant turtle carrying an entire town on its back. No, this isn’t a rip from Terry Pratchett’s “Discworld” novels (the giant turtle carried the whole world, if memory recalls correctly), this is an example the scale being delivered in Level 5’s new RPG, White Knight Story. You’ll remember that Level 5 was in charge of Dragon Quest VIII and the soon-to-be-stateside-after-a-ton-of-delays Rogue Galaxy, so you’ve got to expect quality from these guys. WKS is the tale of a boy who can transform into a 7 meter tall knight thanks to an ancient artifact. Enough of that! Let’s get technical. This game is about scale. Texture limitations prevented a title of such, er, magnitude to come into existence on previous consoles. Now, however, we can show such small details on large objects that it’s entirely possible! In fact, Level 5 has to make its own capture studio for this game since it is using an incredibly complex animation blending studio. The battles themselves stray from the typical JRPG and almost sound like a single-player MMO experience, with a palette of skills to set up for each character. You can only control one character in battle at a time like in the ill-received Magna Carta and use only the skills you’ve equipped. It sounds further along in development than expected and we’ll get more details as it’s unveiled over the next couple of days. Awesome!

Every Nintendo console since SNES comes with a new iteration of its high-speed racer, F-Zero. Sony may have their answer to the “hovering cars racing at dangerously high speeds” game niche in Fatal Inertia. While the game itself isn’t new or “this just in”, we do have some new screens for you to look at. It’s hard to tell how the graphics really look since the blur on the ground is so intense (can’t see texture all too well, etc), it’s pretty amazing just how much these hovering heaps of badass can reflect. Initially, we thought this was camouflaged, but no… it’s just reflecting a ton of trees and such. Plus some bright lights! Is this a game that’ll put up a fight with F-Zero and other such games? Maybe. We’ll keep you posted. Just remember: this inertia will be fatal.