Gamesugar

May 10, 2010

Persona 3 Portable Is Streamlined

Filed under: Features — Tags: Atlus, P3P, Persona, Persona 3 Portable, PSP — Jamie Love @ 9:21 pm

As far as Persona 3 Portable is concerned, the word of the day is definitely streamlined, and legitimately so because the game moves from screen to screen swiftly, even without the optional install.

I got the chance to view a demo of the title today when Atlus harnessed the power of the Internet to give an overview of the game’s most notable new feature, the ability to play as either gender.

The trade off is that “anime” cut-scenes have been replaced with more character portrait interactions, and that players now navigate the world with an icon rather than running around loose in it – well except for the dungeons of course.

Pressing square brings up a quick menu that allows players to jump to different locations now, admittedly making P3P a more ideal game on the go. Whether or not that’s a huge loss is debatable. One could lament that loss of immersion, but at the same time locations are freshened with a new 2D art perspective, keeping the game focused on character interchanges and battling with Persona.

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May 3, 2010

May 2, 2010

Lazy Sunday – Nostalgia Trip

Filed under: Editorial Rants — Tags: Classic, Collecting, Lazy Sunday, Nostalgia, Retro — Jamie Love @ 9:38 am

Nostalgia Trip
Yesterday I took a road trip to Kitchener to meet up with some good friends and a few of my favorite game collector’s at CGCC’s annual videogame swap meet. I’m fairly certain that checking out stacks of classic videogames and shooting the shit for hours about collecting and playing them is what “good times” is all about.

It’s also earnestly refreshing to escape the new release cycle for an afternoon and remember where so many of us came from – there really aren’t that many places to soak in the nostalgia of the games that ruled my childhood and also talk with people about the titles that stood out for them. Every game has a story for someone, and picking up a copy of Megaman X or Castlevania IV and hearing how it came into someone’s collection is the kind of bonus you’ll just never get at a store. We even got to meet two very young kids that were collecting classic Mortal Kombat titles even though they had the newest consoles.

It’s also a great chance to catch up on filling some holes in one’s collection.

I can remember when my own collecting habits were guided almost entirely by the rarity of titles, grabbing them up to sit like fine jewels on the shelf. Lately however, I’m every bit as content finding a few common games that simply bring back good memories or offer a chance to play a game I missed altogether when it originally released. From the title picture it’s clear I have plenty to keep my thumbs busy today, but I did want to share two finds from yesterday that make me ridiculously happy, which is pretty much the guiding principle for any classic game I pick up these days.

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April 29, 2010

Turn on, Tune in, Drop out

Filed under: News Feed — Tags: Activision, Bungie, Nintendo, Sin & Punishment 2, Star Successor — Jamie Love @ 2:38 pm

Word of Activision and Bungie dating made it awfully tempting to go back to bed today, skipping approximately 50,000 posts about nothing – with liberal sprinkles of complete bullshit, yum yum! There are already posts speculating about online being a major element of a game we don’t even have the working concept to yet – I shit you not.

But why should I let that ludicrous circus of predictability ruin my day? There’s a new dawn on the horizon, where waves of awesome titles wait to lead us to the promised land.

So let’s turn it all around by watching over eight minutes of video for one of those games, namely Sin & Punishment 2 – now with 100% more English!

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April 27, 2010

Gamesugar Spotted in Dotnia!

Filed under: News Feed — Tags: 3D Dot Game Heroes, Atlus, From Software, PlayStation 3, Silicon Studio — Jamie Love @ 5:27 pm

Gamesugar in Dotnia
From the images I’ve just received it’s clear that someone around here is playing games without me, and possibly needs more practice with the 3D Dot Game Heroes’ character editor.

More images of our heroic sugar cube after the break.

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Review – After Burner Climax

Filed under: Reviews — Tags: After Burner, After Burner Climax, AM2, Arcade, Review, Sega — Jamie Love @ 2:13 pm

After Burner Climax has finally made the migration from the arcade to the consoles, serving up visuals in shiny HD that make me use silly two-string words like “retina-melting,” along with twitch reflex action that couples some nostalgic memories of the series with a new trick that really makes the game less of the trip down memory lane you might expect, and much more of a 21st century arcade love song.

The view from the cockpit is a mix of familiar Top Gun styled vistas and arcade fantasy that leaves players buzzing by volcanic islands, city skylines, and through mountainous pathways – all of it at speeds that seem ludicrous at first sight.

On my first run through I felt a bit like a high school lover again, wondering how I’d burnt out so quickly after all the pent up anticipation.

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Demo Report – Split / Second

Filed under: Editorial Rants — Tags: Black Rock, Demo Report, Disney Interactive, racing, Split/Second, Xbox 360 — Jamie Love @ 9:27 am

Split/Second Demo
So I was more than a little disappointed that the demo for Split/Second only offers up a single-player track – three laps around the airport is all I’ve got to work with here. And let me state the obvious – this makes absolutely no sense, specifically with the goal of “selling the game” via the demo. I’m not handing anything over to Activision’s Blur, but I know plenty of people switched their interest off in the absence of a comparative multiplayer glimpse into Split/Second.

Split/Second is scheduled to release on May 18, only one week ahead of Blur on May 25 – which has had a multiplayer demo hit the press and gamers weeks ago. It’s not impossible to imagine some racing fanatics buying both, but economics makes it one or the other in my world – where the x-factor in making that decision involves how much fun it becomes wrecking my friends online and reveling in that jerk factor. A little bit of mystery is the spice of life, but I can’t help feeling that Split/Second threw in the towel in the fight for more attention.

Again, I’m not handing anything over to Blur just yet. I still prefer what Split/Second has to offer in its approach, a game focused entirely on racing across exploding tracks, with players earning power-play attacks by drifting, drafting, and jumping, rather than tedious item management. The trick often becomes using power-plays without destroying yourself, and there’s plenty of “oh-so-satisfying” moments in wrecking an opponent and watching their auto corpse spin in the air and over your head.

And while I only have that one track to work with, a few dozen laps last night has helped shape some talking points for how the game feels so far.

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