Gamersworldbd Temporarily Closed Until January 2009

It is with a heavy heart that I have decided to close down Gamers World Bangladesh. But don’t fret, we’ll be back in early January 2009. I’ve become very busy with a lot of stuffs and have fallen seriously ill and so, can’t maintain the site regularly. It was going really great and I’m hoping our readers and visitors will endure with patience untill the end of 2008. We’ll be all back in 2009!

Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots - Review

It’s hard to believe, for a franchise running for over 20 years, so many innovations and controversial changes have made its way, but…..it only grew and grew and became the grand daddy of AAA games. Metal Gear Solid series have gone through dramatic changes since it’s debuted in 1988 as “Metal Gear”. Back then, it was the first game of its kind, in introduced a new element to the gaming world…Stealth. Yep… you might say that, if it weren’t for Hideo and his Foxhound team, Sam Fisher wouldn’t have been lurking in the shadows and snapping necks to this day. If I dive into MGS 4, let me give brief intro of MGS franchise; when I say brief, I meant compared to the amount of things you can talk about in MGS. You might notice that I hardly talk about the story, it’s simply because it’s probably the best thing about the franchise, and I don’t want to ruin the experience for anyone.

The majority of the games in the franchise (except 1 in particular) made you play as a Stealth Operative, Solid Snake- The Clone of the legendary soldier, at one time called as Naked Snake, but now known as The Big Boss. The game started its life as 2D game, even then the franchise made a good name for it. But not until 1998, things really started, when Metal Gear turned into Metal Gear Solid; by making a huge jump from 2D action to 3D cinematic experience on the original PlayStation system. Because of new found processing power, Mr. Kojima was able to unleash his vision to some extent. The game comprised of cut scenes which were awesome in both length and quality, had fantastic original score to go with it, the story was way above anything released in that era and the stealth game play we came to know and love are all intact and made a fantastic transition. To many of us, this was the actual “start” of the franchise. Metal Gear Solid is considered one of the two best games of that system.

It wasn’t long until the sequel came in, called MGS 2: Sons of Liberty. It was on the PS2 system, and the bump is visual quality was really apparent. The game took all the stuff which made MGS awesome, polished it and added more to the mix, end result was an awesome experience. The story was made even more complex than MGS, but to those who actually paid attention to the codecs and cut scenes, were rewarded with a thrilling narrative. The only blemish of 2 was the fact that during some point in the game, you had to play as a different character other than Snake, which was not appreciated by the fans, also not me. But the good news is the two other games that followed didn’t make the same mistake.

In 2004 came Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. It was a game with a big twist, instead of moving forward with the franchise, it was moved way back, in fact chronologically speaking it’s the 1^st game of the series. You played as Naked Snake (Who later became Big Boss), is the “father” of Solid Snake of the previous two games. Set in 1964 in the Jungles of Russia, the game was stark contrast to the indoor urban areas of the first two, it was a refreshing change. The game also introduced CQC (Close Quarters Combat) and bumped the production quality even higher.

Finally came 2008, and the final chapter in the Metal Gear Series (Chronologically at least), Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. Again I am saying that, while I won’t spoil the story of the game, but you assure yourself that, its one experience you are likely not to forget in your entire lifetime. The game pretty much ends the story of the legendary hero, Solid Snake indefinitely.

As far as game play goes, it’s been revamped and improved a lot. While this is a stealth game through and through, you can still play with all guns blazing… at least on easier difficulty settings. The game consists of over 70 weapons, most of them are customizable. You can buy off weapons anytime from a guy called “Drebin” by pulling the menu in exchange for “Drebin Points”. While this might sound to make things a lot easier, but actually it makes things even more convenient and fun. Since you can buy weapons and ammos anytime, you can try a different tactical approach to see where it takes you, it also means that you don’t have to start from a very old checkpoint if you run out of vital ammunition during the Boss fight; also you can skip the system all together and go like a true espionage hero, the choice is yours. Speaking of boss, MGS is famous for its quality of boss fights, and MGS 4 is no exception: you will never see such bosses in any game. Since this game takes place in a distant future, there are lots of high-tech gadgets to help you along. Lets start of with Octocam- it’s a suit that just works like a chameleon, it matches with the texture you are leaning against, and makes it harder for enemies to detect, you can also save textures if you want and use it later. Next lets talk about Solid Eye- Its an eye patch like device fits on your right eye (perhaps a tribute to a certain hero?) and have loads of function like Zooming, Night Vision, it can also pin point enemies and which weapons they are carrying to give you the tactical edge. Finally after all these years you got your trusty geeky buddy Otacon in the battlefield….well… sort of in the form of MK II: Its like a miniature metal gear robot with cloaking capabilities, even though its controlled by Otacon throughout the game, Snake can also control it using the PLAYSTATION 3 Dual shock 3 controller and use it in conjunction with the cloaking to procure weapons I the battlefield for Drebin Points.

Being a Metal Gear Solid game, the game is full of cut scenes and some can be quite lengthy. While cut scenes may tend to take you out of the experience of the game, but the thing is, Metal Gear Solid series houses perhaps the best in-game cut scenes with great attention to detail. The cut scenes are the key to drive a game’s story, and Metal Gear Solid 4 has one of the best story in a videogame and the cut scenes are breathtaking beautiful thanks to fantastic graphics and sound.

MGS 4 is a stone cold killer when it comes to graphics and sound. Its hands-down the best looking game out there and more likely in a longtime. The textures are crisp, the lighting is ultra-realistic. The animation is life-like thanks to advancements in Mo-cap technology. The game practically begs for you to view it in a HDTV. The game is equally outstanding in the sound department. One of the first game to boost uncompressed sound data and next-gen Dolby Digital certification meaning its by far the most realistic positional sound there is in any form of entertainment media, you will greatly do injustice to yourself if you don’t have a surround sound setup. The voice-acting is best there is, David Hayter puts an Oscar worthy performance for Solid Snake. As the series tradition, the game has a lot of quality blood-boiling music to accompany this stellar game.

I should mention that the story is so awesome, you feel really sympathetic for Snake that I shed some tears for the old man during some points in the game. Hideo Kojima made an icon out of legendary Snake, as simple as that. He may not be as powerful as…say Master Chief. He may not have more firepower as Marcus, but one thing he has that puts all those to shame….a true hero’s trait, the power of will.

Although like everything in the world, MGS 4 is not perfect. Some of the things I didn’t like is the installation. I don’t mind 1 time installation of games, it just the fact that MGS 4 requires you to install upon every Act (total of 5 Acts in the game), while this is to ensure to take no more HDD than 4.7 GB or so, it’s also more pain in the *** for those of us with bigger HDD. It would have been better if there was an option to install the game completely on the HDD, I would take 8 GB anyway over installing the game every Act, even if its only 3 minutes tops. I also don’t like the fact that the game loads very frequently during some chance instances of the game, some sections like after only 2-3 minutes, it loads for another 5-6 seconds or so and it just takes out of the experience. Last of all, some cut scenes feels a bit…well…cheesy. Those were the only problems in the game for me, but on the bigger scale of things, can be easily ignored.

Well there you have it; I want to end my review here as I don’t want to spoil the story for you. Metal Gear Solid 4 is a masterpiece and will be remembered for years. If you have a PS3 or don’t have a PS3 yet, it’s definitely a time to get one, even only for playing just this game.

GTA IV on the PC confirmed!

Rockstar Games has announced that Grand Theft Auto IV will be heading to PCs in North America and Europe on November 18th and 21st, respectively.

“We are very excited to be releasing the PC version of Grand Theft Auto IV,” said Sam Houser, Founder of Rockstar Games. “The whole team is dedicated to bringing an amazing gaming experience to the PC. The game looks and plays beautifully on PC andwe can’t wait for people to play it.”

Developed by series creator Rockstar North and set in Liberty City, the latest installment in the enormously successful Grand Theft Auto series features a painstakingly detailed and life-like city for players to explore; a rich, immersive narrative experience; an original soundtrack highlighting the cultural eclecticism of Liberty City; and newly expanded multiplayer just for the PC.

For more information please visit: http://www.rockstargames.com/IV

This is awesome news for gamers here in Bangladesh, where more than 90% are PC gamers. Finally you guys will have the chance to experience Niko’s tale and how his dream got crushed in Liberty City

New Details of Id Software’s RAGE And Doom 4

In the recent years, id software games fallen behind many developers when it comes to making AAA games which are non-linear. But one thing they managed to be head and shoulders above others, is creating the technology that powers games. With genius programmer John Carmack behind them, Id engines have always been superior than anything on the market. Their latest engine, Id Tech 5 looks better than Unreal engine 3 even at this alpha point. With RAGE, Id is taking a new direction and rethinking their approach going for extremely non-linear gameplay, which is music to my ears.

They are looking for opportunity to add Co-op, ever since Gear of War, I don’t need to tell you how much fun a Co-op mode adds to a game. Also it seems they are making no compromise, their game will contain such high resolution textures that they are not gonna dumb it down; therefore the game will arrive in 1 Blu-ray for the PS3 and 2 DVDs in the 360 version. Also it should be known that normally 3 DVDs would have been required if the quality was to be maintained across the consoles, but due to economic problem as licensing per Disc cost is high for Microsoft, they will ship it in 2 discs, and thus the quality will be a bit compromised in the 360 version to this point, unless Microsoft has heart and lowers the royalty fee.  Regardless, the game tops the best looking titles easily and finally - the gameplay holds promise from an Id game in a long time.

Also talked a bit about DOOM 4. At the press conference Carmack announced that Doom 4 would have “three times as much horsepower as Rage,”.  The game will run at 30 frames a second and Carmack promises to raise the bar on video game graphics to a level “no one has ever seen before.”

Damn, Rage already looks jaw dropping and its in alpha stage. Imagine three times the fidelity of Rage in DOOM 4, its just scary *pun intended*

Confirmed: Xbox Live Offers Free Online Play For A Limited Time

Rumors of Xbox Live silver members playing online has been confirmed by a Microsoft spokesperson. For a limited time only, all Games For Windows Live titles released on the Xbox 360 can be played for free over Xbox Live. For the complete list of Games For Windows Titles, click here. It won’t be permanent though,  and the promotion will end when the new Xbox experience launches this fall. What do I say? Well, looks like someone messed up the code seriously enabling these cross-platform titles to be played over Xbox live for free (when Microsoft announced Games For Windows Live will be free for all). In other words, keep on gaming until someone at Microsoft fixes the problem. Makes you wish Halo 3 was released on Games For Windows, doesn’t it?

Be Sure To Read

Games For Windows Live Is Now Free, Should Xbox Live Follow Suit?

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed-Preview

The Star Wars universe as we know it may come to a change. Lucas Arts is currently in development of the latest video game based on the Star Wars universe, entitled “Star Wars: The Force Unleashed” and is planned to be released in September 16 2008 for the Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, PS2, PSP and DS. The game takes place between the end of episode III and the beginning of episode IV, and answers a lot of questions about the saga. The story revolves around Darth Vader’s secret apprentice, and his quest to hunt down the last of the remaining Jedi. During the game you’ll study the ways of the Dark Side, harness the power of the force and aid your master in his quest to overthrow the Emperor Palpatine. The goal of the developers was to make you feel like an unstoppable killing machine in the game, and it seems like they succeeded.

The gameplay is simply awesome, allowing you to use your trusty lightsaber and unleash the force in ways you would probably think impossible in a video game. You can use force push, which will hurl your enemies into the air as if some sort of explosion just occurred. The Xbox 360 and PS3 versions make use of the Euphoria technology which makes the AI almost lifelike. Lets say you used Force Grip on a Stormtrooper, which will dangle him upside down. He’ll actually try to break free and set himself right. Or maybe you used Force Push on an enemy, and you’ll be amazed at what you might see. The AI might grab onto a pole or something to stop himself being thrown into the air. These stuff are just incredible in video games.

There’s also the ability to use the famous Force Lighting, which will zap your opponent with electricity. But this technique can also be used to zap your lightsaber, which will give it a boost to its power. Later in the game you’ll be able to combine your attacks into one deadly move. For example, you can use Force Grip on an enemy, and when he’s in the air if you use Force Lightning and throw him, it will create a devastating explosion.

The physics of this game are absolutely realistic thanks to the Digital Molecular Materials system that the game makes use of. In other words, the objects of the game will behave in exactly the way you would think. If you use your force powers on a metal wall, it will bend, whereas glass will shatter, and wood will splinter.

The game also has a special kill move system, which when applied will switch the camera to a cinematic angle, and allow you to relax and enjoy the gruesome scene. The game features will vary from platform to platform, but rest assured that there will be no tampering with the plot. The Wii version will make great use of the Wiimote and Nunchuk. You use the Wiimote for lightsaber attacks, and the Nunchuk for Force moves. The Wii version will also have an exclusive Duel mode, where two players can battle it out with their awesome force abilities and lightsaber skills. The PSP version will have the historic battles from the movies which should be awesome.

The graphics look spectacular for all the versions of the game. The Wii version, though nowhere near as good looking as the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions, still looks beautiful. The game is filled to the brim with incredible amounts of detail, and the visuals are incredible. From what was seen of the 360 version of the game it was undoubtedly one of the best-looking games for the system.

LucasArts has put a lot of effort into this game, trying to make it one of the most impressive and lifelike games ever created. And from what we’ve seen it seems their they’re on the right track. The latest video game in the Star Wars series will probably unleash the force in a way never seen before.

Don Mattrick: Xbox 360 Has Better Titles Than PS3 And Wii Combined, No Seriously

It seems the new Xbox boss Don Mattrick is being flanked left and right. He had been brought to the limelight saying that 360 rivals (namely Sony and Nintendo) was on an “extended vacation”. Also insisting that Bungie had wholeheartedly accepted his decision to pull the plug on Halo Wars in this year’s E3. Bungie totally denied though, saying “Keeping things clean, I certainly didn’t agree with the decision to delay our news until sometime after E3.” More on that in Eurogamer’s chat with him.

So, we decided to put the new Xbox boss to the test. Although claims like “Yes. absolutely [Xbox 360 will beat the PS3 worldwide]” and “[Rival Devs] have been slacking off” can’t be proven, but how true is his words declaring “You go onto Metacritic - and count the number of 90-rated titles on our platform, compare that to Wii, compare that to PlayStation 3: there is no comparison”?

We did just that. Jumped straight into Metacritic and did some simple statisitcs. Believe it or not, his statement actually holds out to be true (it’s not a matter of Halo vs Gears vs Metal Gear Solid, folks). To be precise, the Xbox 360 has a total of 12 90+ rated titles. Compared to the PS3 and Wii tying together for a total of 5 each. But the 360 has the highest library of games, 427 to be exact with the Wii trailing in at 234 titles and the PS3 a 186. If all these number crunching hurts (numbers not my thing too), I’ve compiled the results into an easy-to-understand pie-chart (it beats having to type).

Number of A+ Titles

Total Games Library

The 360 has the greatest library of games (including the Xbox Live arcade games) at a staggering 427 titles. That’s almost 50% of the titles released for these three consoles combined. This also accounts for the greater number of titles that has scored 90+ on Metacritic. The Wii trails at 234 titles and the PS3 has a total of 186 titles.

A+ Titles As A Percentage Of Total Games Library

Even the 360 has the greatest number of killer A+ titles (Metacritic score 90 and up) in relation to the total number of games released for it, but the PS3 is hot on the heels with a small difference of 0.12%. Once again, bear in mind that the 360 has the greatest library of games and hence it’s lead.

Low Scoring Games

Sadly, the Wii has the largest number of low scoring games (Metacritic Score 50 and below) with 52 titles. The 360 is close though, at 46. But that  also includes all the Xbox Live Arcade titles. Only the PS3 has the lowest number of crappy games, scoring only 13.

Low Scoring Games As A Percentage Of Total Games Library

It’s no surprise that the Wii leads the chart with 22.22%. This also signifies that the PS3 has a solid library of games, only 7% of which can be classified as bad. The Xbox 360 is in between with 10.8% of it’s title scoring below 50 on Metacritic.

In A Nutshell

Here are all the results for the Xbox 360 compiled in a table format. Everything points out that the 360 has a solid and the most extensive library of games.

Games For Windows Live Is Now Free, Should Xbox Live Follow Suit?

Microsoft’s decision to make Games For Windows Live free is a step in the right direction, one which should be well received by gamers and developers alike. Paying 5 dollars a month for Xbox Live, however, may seem too much for some, but is it justified?

Before we head right into it, I would like to say that Games For Windows Live was already free. Paying for Gold enabled cross-platform play (PC vs Xbox 360),  and even it was free if you had a Xbox Live Gold subscription.

Something Smells Wrong Here

Dropping the fees altogether seemed to point out something was seriously wrong with this model from the start. For starters, PC gamers have long accepted the fact that online multiplayer gamers are and will always be free - that’s the industry norm. Further, the Games For Windows initiative was not properly executed. Inconsistent features, bad user interface and a lack of support from major developers doomed this program right from the start. To add even more insult to injury, strong competition from rival (and better, free) services such as Steam took up a great chunk of Microsoft’s business.

It’s Different On Consoles

But things are a tad different on the console side. Firstly, we’re paying to play across the same console, it’s not like 360 vs. PS3 players (although that would be wicked awesome!). Still, paying 5 bucks a month for Live is justified in many ways. Facilitating the communication between different consoles scattered all over the globe and ensuring that the service is ‘always on’ take up considerable resources. Live has become so reliable that whenever we turn on the box, we expect it to be there. Always.

To quote Microsoft, much of the revenue generated from Live Gold goes towards paying for the bandwidth used to access content available on Xbox Live marketplace, a large proportion of which is free, including game demos, trailers and movie clips.  In an interview with Gamesindustry.biz, John Schappert, Microsoft’s corporate VP of Live, Software and Services, said “One of the nice things is that if you buy a piece of content from [Xbox Live] you can continue to re-download it even if you delete it off of your hard drive. And the majority of content that we have on our bandwidth is free content”.

Just Because Microsoft Can

Another reason for not dropping the fees is, well, just because Microsoft can. After wrapping up the Halo 3 campaign our fingers are twitching to have a frag match with buddies. And what better way than to cash in on this urge by making us pay for online play? This is perhaps going a bit off topic, but when buying the Xbox 360 (over the PS3), most of us won’t factor the cost of the year-on-year fees of Xbox Live (which adds up to a significant amount if you’re a long-time hardcore gamer). This is a sly way of Microsoft to squeeze the last bit of profit out of every paying customer, as we’re swayed by the extensive catalogue of killer titles and the relatively low price of the 360 (the 360 Arcade retails at around $280). It can also be argued that ads are displayed on the 360 dashboard, irrespective of whether you’re Gold or Silver. but I’ll leave you to that.

But Is This A Dying Business Model?

In the short run, no. The original Xbox Live pioneered the pay for online play structure and Live on the 360 improves it even further. It’s rather the opposite trend, with Live subscribers up from 6 million to 12 million within a year. And Microsoft’s partnership with Netflix, among others, mean we’ll get more bang for our buck.

In the long run, however, Microsoft may face increasing pressures from PSN and Wii online play to make Xbox Live totally free. As we’ve already seen, hardware specs alone play a less vital role in determining the winning console. It is innovative games that take full advantage of the accompanying online services that make up a great gaming experience. Once we’re in the Xbox 720 and PS4 era, one of the deciding factors will be a console’s online strength. And having to pay for online play then will be a great blow to Microsoft. But don’t count on it anytime soon, the current Xbox Live service has no reason to be free, at least not right now.

XNA Gamefest 2008, Seattle

Microsoft is constantly have a stream of conferences and events, sometimes every week. E3 ran by, sure, but Microsoft wasn’t prepared to unveil everything there. And of course, a few days ago was MGX; but that was less gaming focused, and further, a intra-company event. But now, we have the XNA Gamefest. And its for gamers. And Microsoft has lots of stuff to announce. Lots of stuff they didn’t yet announce until now. Lots of stuff they held off announcing.

Microsoft has already strewed a stream of announcements already. Announcements include details of Direct X 11. Users of the XNA Creators Club will now be able to sell games and make a profit. Games for Windows LIVE is now free, and is receiving a Marketplace of its own.

Direct X 11

• Full support on Windows Vista and onwards
• Compatibility with DirectX 10 and 10.1 hardware, as well as support for new DirectX 11 hardware
• New compute shader technology that lays the groundwork for the GPU to be used for more than just 3D graphics, so that developers can take advantage of the graphics card as a parallel processor
• Multi-threaded resource handling that will allow games to better take advantage of multi-core machines
• Support for tessellation, which blurs the line between super high quality pre-rendered scenes and scenes rendered in real-time, allowing game developers to refine models to be smoother and more attractive when seen up close

XNA Creators Club

From the official website:

As a Premium member in the XNA Creators Club, you’ll be able to submit any complete Xbox 360 game you’ve created in XNA Game Studio to the Creators Club community at http://creators.xna.com, for peer review. Other Premium Creators will check to make sure your game is safe to play. If it is, you’ll set a price point – between 200 and 800 Points – that people will pay to download your game.

Once the game is reviewed and the price point set, you’re done. The game is listed on Xbox LIVE Marketplace, and you’ll get a check every quarter, for up to 70% of the game’s total revenue in your own currency. Depending on your game’s success, you may even have your game advertised on Xbox 360 and other Microsoft online properties.

Sounds pretty simple, right?

Creators can code with Visual Studio (Express) and write up some games. If they decide they have made a good game, they can sign up for the Creators Club for $99 a year (think of it as a quality barrier) and start to test and submit games. They get reviewed, you set the price, and then you get a check for up to 70% of the revenue (really high for Xbox LIVE Marketplace) from your game. From time to time, Microsoft may decide to help promote your game, and may deduct an additional 10-30% of revenue during these time frames (meaning the absolute least you can make on sales is 40%).

In a direct jab at Apple, the FAQ that I quoted earlier has a questions about Apple doing something like this for the iPhone first. It then goes on to reply with this:

We’re revolutionizing the way games are created and distributed because we’re not the arbiters of content. The games on Xbox LIVE Community Games will be built by the community, for the community and managed by the community.

That’s right. If you irrationally fear Microsoft, you can rest at peace knowing that they won’t censor you. Unfortunately developers cannot release free games at this time, meaning you have to sell for around 200-800 Microsoft Points. These service will launch later this year. However, one potential deal breaker for some:

Can I give out Achievements and Gamerscore in my community-created title?

No. Achievements are reserved for commercial games.

Its understandable why, but this is a major feature of the Xbox stripped away from the community.

Games for Windows LIVE

Games for Windows LIVE is now free. To Developers, and to Gamers. This raises some very interesting questions (when is Valve gonna start using it?!) and scenarios which we will see unravel over the next couple months. Games for Windows LIVE will also be getting its own Marketplace, and further, its own UI revamp.

The Games for Windows website updated to reflect these changes, and yes, its free. Apparently Microsoft actually wants this platform to succeed.

There are rumors that Microsoft is attempting to compete with Steam, especially with the addition of a Marketplace. Its possible, but I also think that now, without the horrible limitations that Microsoft so foolishly pushed on people.

Xbox 360 Blu-ray, Will It Ever Happen?

Yes, that rumour has been going on for quite some time now. Will the 360 ever be able to us the Blu-ray format. Blu-ray is the new-generation optical disc format from Sony, developed by the Blu-ray Association. It can store 25 GB on single layer, and a whopping 50 GB on dual layer. Since it has so much space it’s mainly used to play high-definition movies and video games.

Xbox 360 Blu-ray player add-on?:

Microsoft invested a lot of money into the HD-DVD format and the loss of it was a very bad blow to the company. Since the defeat of the HD-DVD format, Sony has had a “one-up” on Microsoft. Sony’s decision to have a built in blu-ray drive for the PS3 has really helped them, as many people only bought the system as a blu-ray player (The PS3 is the cheapest, blu-ray player available on the market). Microsoft would be stupid to let their strongest competitor have the leading high-definition media, and not do something about it.

Blu-ray vs HD-DVD:

There were some hints form Microsoft insiders that the company is currently in development of a Blu-ray add-on for the system and that they plan to release it quite soon. Even if that proves to be wrong their there is another rumour that Nyko is developing a Blu-ray player for the 360. But before the 360 can have the format, they’ll have to make the deal with Sony, and I don’t think that Sony will let go of it that easy. [Ed - Sony doesn't own the Blu Ray format, the Blu Ray Disc Association does]. Well these are all still rumours and we’ll just have to wait to realize the truth.

Games I Am Looking Forward To: Adnan

Here are some of the games in my wish list and some of which I am interested.

1: FIFA 09

Even though I was a long devotee of Pro Evolution Soccer franchise for it’s realistic approach to football, fluid motion and and great ball physics, the franchise couldn’t keep up with FIFA since the next-gen systems arrived. For some reason, the games don’t sort of feel….. next-gen to them like the FIFA ever since the eve of Xbox 360, taking away a lot of licenses which FIFA has, its really an unattractive product in the end if you see it. FIFA also has “Be a Pro mode”, sort of like giving you third person view of things and in which you get to control only one player, it sure makes things more realistic and different. Infact, judging from the previous installment I don’t think this franchise can overtake FIFA this year at minimum. So if you like football, I think you should with FIFA 09. Oh yeah did I mention I am just crazy for football, I am a diehard ACMILAN AC MILAN supporter, flame me all you want.

2: Little Big Planet

I must be honest, I never ever though I would buy such a game when it was showcased last year’s E3. I mean judghing by the looks of it, with its sackboy character and overall “Cute” design, I thought it was probably a descent kid’s game for PSN, but hell I was wrong: The game is taking platforming concept to new heights, adding immense level creation system where you easily creat your levels by yourself or with your friends whether online or offline and share it with friends. The overall design is really refreshing to watch, you can customize your character with almost unlimited ways, and can even creat your own design and upload it to your PS3; cant wait to try out a Dark Knight or Solid Snake sackboy! Also its one of those games you can pickup and play and almost everyone can get a hang of it just like that, even if they are not gamers, so if you are looking for something different and unique, get this.

3: Mirror’s Edge

I never thought the guys who are responsible for the gory, gritty Battlefield franchise can come with with a game which is a refreshing take on the aging First Person Shooter genre. Infact, the game doesn’t involve much shooting, its all about running, parkour style. The game plays in such a way than it feels ultra realistic when viewing through the eyes of your character than any FPS you’ve ever played, infact some people have reported to feel some sort of motion sickness while playing the game. The city in which the game takes place is very bright and clean, due to the goverment controlling everything very closely and its upto Faith (your character) and others, who are modern day couriors to transport information the old fashioned way, running and jumping across piplines and skyscrapers. The music should also get a special mention, its techno and it goes fasntically well with the overall theme of the game. So fan of FPS? You must see this.

4: Resistance 2

This game is like a full packaged FPS, sort of like Halo 3. You get a great Single player campaign of human’s against an alien invasion which reached the stateside; with 8 player seperate Co-op campaign; and a resounding 60 player online warefare. So how does this game prevent chaos with such number of players? Well simple, it pits you in squads of 6 and each squad is given a specific objective and pitted against a “rival squad” who will oppose your objective. For e.g, your squad is tasked to destroy the bridge, and your “rival squad” is tasked to prevent you from destroying it. What if your “rival squad” is ery experienced and are really good? The game ackknowledges that your squad is being hammered and sents one of your other team squads to help you out. Its an amazing concept, and cant wait to try it out, even with my 25 KBPS connection.

Some other games I am interested in

1: Far Cry 2

Looks truly like the next step in First Person shooters. The game takes place in Africa and is much more realistic (no monsters) approach to the franchise. The game is extremely non-linear ,you just have on objective in the game, yeah just one, to assassinate an arms dealer. But how you do it its entirely upto you, and you need to form alot of allies if you want even get close to your mark. The game as about 6 hr day/night cycle, so you can plan missions at night for stealthy approach. The fire system is fantastic, you can set things on fire, and it will slowly spread like wildfire. The graphics to this point is looking extremely realistic, not much difference from the PC version in the same resolution, which is a big plus as the game looks better than Crysis to this point.

2: Fallout 3

Even though I didn’t play the original Fallout games, but I am very excited for this game. The game is from the makers of Oblivion, one of my favourite games of all time. And Bethesda recreated a post nuclear world very realistically with lots of detail, the detail to everything is astonishing.

3: Gears of War 2

Even though I no longer own a 360, I still remember the fun moments I had with this game, especially playing the entire game Co-op with one of my buddy. Ever since Gears, want every game to include Co-op. This game is looking impressive technically with an upgraded Unreal Engine 3, destructible environments and”meat” like physics which looks ultra sick….which is great for this game. I cant wait to try this game in one of my friend’s house.

Well there you have it, due to the cost of these games (read original) here at Bangladesh, I will try my best to get most of the games in my wishlist; moments like this I wish the consoles were hacked to play pirated games.  If a review turns bad, I will always shuffle the list, although I doubt it will happen. I cant wait to see the list of my fellow colleagues.

Halo 3 - Review

To Start off, Halo 3 is undoubtedly the best game in the series. The campaign has been improved from Halo 2 and provides a satisfying yet (leaving you wanting for more) conclusion to the Halo story arc. The Multiplayer, considering how great it was feels even more balanced with the introduction of new arsenal and equipment, dramatically changes the face of both singleplayer and multiplayer games while at the same time, feels familiar and tightly integrated.

Lets first start with a brief story from the ending of HALO 2:

Master Chief chases the last of the remaining Covenant Prophets, Truth on a race against time to Earth and stop Truth from activating the Ark, which would activate all the remaining 6 Halos (1 destroyed by Chief as an act of desperate measure in 1st Halo, and would cause suicide on a galactic scale. The Ark is located underneath the earth of present Kenya and the USNC (human) forces as well as the Chief must get there first otherwise its goodbye humanity. Halo 3 starts from here.

Story: The story of Halo 3 revolves heavily around Master Chief and rightly so due to the injustice he received in Halo 2 from his Covenant counterpart The Arbiter. While not spoiling anything, the story is definitely told in a way even more better than Halo 2 with much better cut scenes and with strong soundtrack providing the emotional impact of the game. The game provides the conclusion to the Halo story arc, but expect games to be based on Halo universe in the future, whether tied to the Chief or not. While the story is good in Halo 3, it’s not AAA. Which is quite a shame as the world Bungie created have huge possibilities and could possibly rival and even surpass the world created by George Lucas in Star Wars. In fact, what I mean to say is, the story is good, but not AAA good, not as good as the novels based on the game.

Campaign: The Campaign of Halo 3 is a definite improvement from the other two. The levels are much larger in scale; the transition from indoor battles to outdoor feels smoother and makes you adjust your tactics accordingly. The levels are also varied, like there are jungles, desert and even snow this time around. Now the Campaign can be played by upto 4 players at the same time via Xbox Live!, and Halo 3 is the 1st game to do so. This changes the gameplay a lot and introduces new tactical considerations that were not possible with a single player. Also in the mix is a metagame called campaign scoring, which tracks how many points each player has (by killing the covenant) at the end of the game and see which player was the MVP, if you think you did all the work, now you’ve got the stats to back it up.

But there are still problems from previous titles to be found in Halo 3. For example the indoor levels don’t look as much detailed as the outdoor ones; the copy/paste level design can be still seen in some places which makes the navigation a bit difficult in certain circumstances.

Halo’s philosophy was based on three things: Shoot, Grenade, Melee. Halo 2 introduced dual wielding which was overpowered in some cases and damaged the philosophy. Halo 3 corrects the problem by reducing the effectiveness of dual-wielding and adding several things into the mix like the equipment- which are devices that you drop on the ground like a Bubble Shield, Regenerator, etc. New weapons like the Brute Hammer, Mauler, Spiker are all well integrated and feels perfectly balanced. The AI of the Covenant is easily the best there is, no questions asked. To fully experience the AI, play it at least on Heroic Difficulty. On the other hand, the AI of the Marines are very poor and feels like they are just waiting to ramp up the death count of the Covenant. While it is understandable the reason behind the poor AI is so that the AI marines don’t take away your kills, but it just too poor and could have been better if they were smarter.

This is where it seams a letdown. Halo 3’s graphics is not a giant leap from Halo 2, but that doesn’t mean things don’t look great. There are sharp textures, great HD lighting all-around and great Halo art we came to know and love, and this visual style just fits into the world of Halo. In other words, the graphics is nothing complex like Gears of War or Bioshock, but still looking descent, but not great.

Sound: This is where HALO is 2nd to none. From the ambient sound to the fantastic music of Martin O’Donnel, HALO owns every game in this department. Halo 3 has the best soundtrack in a game yet, and uses it to perfection by highlighting the dramatic moments in the game.

HALO 3 consists of features you’d want to be Standard for games from here on end. Like there is a replay feature which the game automatically tracks up to 25 previously played games and lets you save which ones to save. Since the replay record in-game data, the replays are very small and can viewed from virtually in point/angle on the map for both Campaign and Multiplayer. This feature can prove priceless when you want to study how the Pros tick online. The game is also tightly integrated with Bungie.net and you can see your stats and even screenshots (which is upscaled to 1080) which you took during you game sessions. Bungie Recommends is a section where it showcases interesting things the HALO community came up with and worth your attention.

So there you have it. Halo has everything, from a better than average campaign to outstanding multiplayer. And features you’d wish you will see from games from here on end. The reason its shy of 9.5 is only due to it’s a bit mediocre graphics and the Campaign falling short of awesomeness of the multiplayer.

E3 2008 At a Glance, Part 3: Clash Of The Consoles

Hi to all of the viewers of the blog Gamersworldbd. The thing that’s probably running through your mind at this moment might be: “Who the heck is this dude and what is he doing on this site?”. The answer to that question is quite simple really. I’m the newest editor to this site and you’ll be hearing a lot from me from now on (get used to it, okay). Well enough chit-chat, time to get onto the real deal… E3 2008.

For those of you who have no idea what this so called “E3″ is, i’ll tell you something about it. E3 is an annual video game trade show which takes place every year and stands for Electronic Entertainment Expo. Many video game developers come to E3 in order to show of some of their upcoming games and game-related hardware. But the main thing at E3 is always the press conferences of the leading video game console companies. This years E3 consited of the press conferences of Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo. But the main thing is, which company came out looking the best at this years E3? So without further ado lets dive into the press conferences of E3 2008.

Lets get into the Microsoft press conference and find out what they had planned for the Xbox 360. It seemed that Microsoft wanted their console to appeal to all types of gamers, not just hardcore gamers but also for the casual audience. They started off by giving more news and updates about highly anticipated titles such as Gears of War 2 and Fable 2. This was a good move that really seemed to please the audience at the conference. They also introduced the new Xbox Live interface which shows the use of an avatar for the system. This got the audience really exited, though some complained that the avatar system was a complete rip-off of the Miis that you could create from Nintendo’s system the Wii.

Gears of War 2:

This is year at E3 it was clear that Sony wanted to prove that the PS3 could do anything. They showcased top titles such as Resistance 2, LittleBigPlanet, and Killzone 2. They also gave more news about the Playstation online social network known as Playstation Home. It seemed that Sony had managed to build the hype for Home, which they wanted to do from its announcement. They said that it would be a completley unique experience for both Hardcore and Casual gamers alike. They finished it off by saying that Home would be released some time this fall (let’s keep our fingers crossed then). They managed to keep the audience well entertained with a series of show-floor demos, mini-games and more about their Playstation Network (PSN). They also introduced a new update for the network which was the video store. It allows PS3 users to download full high-defination movies and TV episodes. All-in-all it wasn’t a bad day for Sony at E3 2008.

Playstation Home:

Nintendo showed that they still wanted the Wii to be a console for casual gamers at their press conference. They shoed us an upcoming music title for the system entitle Wii Music. The audience was quite impressed with this idea of Nintendo’s, though some still voiced concerns as to whether this title would be better than top music games Rock Band and Guitar Hero. They also announced the sequel to the top selling Wii game: Wii Sports. The name of the sequal is said to Wii Sports: Resort. The company also introduced a number of new hardwares for the system, one of which was was the WiiSpeak microphone.

WIi Music:

In the end the question remained of who had conquered E3 and the answer to that was Sony. Sony offered a lot of much anticipated updates on hot games, and much needed software updates. They also presented everything in a really fun and innovative way that kept the audience wanting for more. In second place was Nintendo, which offered a number of great new titles and information regarding them. They also revealed new peripherals for their system, which proved to be a right decision for them, as it seemed to arouse even more excitement. In a dissapointing last place came Microsoft, who did manage to give lots of new updates but some of the audience weren’t that satisfied. Still E3 was a blast and its got me really exited about the new updates and has upped my hype for E3 2009.

Grand Theft Auto IV - Review

Back in 2001, the world experienced a new type of game. It’s a game that couldn’t be categorized (as there was nothing similar) at the time. It was a game that was a blend of everything that was out now, with one new addition, freedom to do whatever you want, how you want, when you want, that came to be known as Grand Theft Auto III, or GTA 3 for short. GTA III created the “sandbox” genre, such a genre in which the key gameplay is “freedom”. GTA games allowed you to play as an antihero in fictional city based on real life, with unprecedented freedom, humor on mocking the American culture of that specific era, radio station boasting terrific soundtracks, humorous DJs, memorable downright weird companions, lots of weapons; and of course to hi-jack vehicles to get where you want as fast as possible. GTA III spawned 2 main sequels, Vice City and San Andreas. Both improved on what made GTA III tick and expanded in both depth and quality, although the core gameplay and engine remained the same, it was not a “true sequel”.

However, it was not until April 29^th of 2008, we got a true sequel to the GTA III, appropriately titled Grand Theft Auto IV. The game may not look like another revolution of the series like GTA III, but rather an evolution. But as soon as you put your foot down on Liberty City (no relation to the Liberty City of the first game), you’ll know ”things have changed”.

There are just so many stuff you can talk about in GTA IV, you can’t list them all, and simply you can’t. I’ll try my best to be as detailed as possible. Believe me, the world of Liberty City is unlike anything you’ve ever seen in a videogame.

You put on the boots of Niko Bellic, Eastern European former military personnel who wants to escape his horrific past, and what better way to start a new life than America? After all his cousin Roman sent countless letters and emails of how he made it big. Niko upon the request of his cousin arrived in Liberty City, only to find out that his cousin was in serious debt, the sports car he promised was a mere taxi cab and girls he was living around were just posters. Welcome to Liberty City, where dreams are shattered.

The previous games in the entry didn’t feature any original captivating storyline, heck. The storyline of GTA was always been the weak link of the otherwise, a strong franchise; and because of this, many people didn’t even finish the story missions, also add the fact that how awful the shooting mechanics were and how you were punished when you died. Thankfully all those problems are fixed and improved so much that, now it’s literally became the part of the franchise’s story.

The game borrows some of the best elements of third person shooters in the market, specifically Gears of War. The game employs cover system and over the shoulder view while shooting, unlike Gears of War. The game has also a new semi-auto aim function. Holding down the L2/Left Trigger button goes to auto-aim mode, and slowly moving the right analog stick you can target specific parts of the body, like the legs or going for the head. Holding the L2/Left Trigger half-way engages the in manual shooting, good for targeting explosive barrels and tires. Previous GTAs had been criticized for the lack of shooting from car, well that is fixed in this installment as well. While the game is still all about grand theft auto, stealing vehicles this time around is riskier than ever before, as police are almost everywhere and now you need to kick out drivers who are “unwilling” to lend you their vehicle and sometimes requiring you to break the glass of cars which are parked and hot wiring it to start, during which anything can happen. That’s why it’s sometimes best to go by the taxi, new to the franchise. You can whistle for the taxi using the L1/Left Bumper and go anywhere designated in your GPS by you. While you are in the Taxi, you can tell the driver to switch the tunes and look out of the window and enjoy the living breathing world of Liberty City, you can tell him to put the pedal to the medal or you can pay him double the money for quick transport (teleport), it comes especially handy when you want to retry your missions.

GTA IV is a much more realistic than the previous GTAs, while it still has some arcade flavor to it, but it’s definitely darker than before. The cars physics are much more realistic with real weight to them, the way Niko walks and places one of his feet on a higher level is very realistic, the animation never seams to break, mostly due to the fact that, other than the cut scenes, nothing is pre-canned animation. The game uses a new type of simulated animation technology called Euphoria, which is unexplainable until you see it with your own eyes, because of this; no two animations or “accidents” are the same.

Now integral part of game play is your cell phone, it’s the central hub for communication. Not only you can receive phone calls as before, but you can call your contacts as well, you can for example, ask your girlfriend on a date, call your cousin for a good game of bowling or get drunk (which is really entertaining and fun, especially to drive) or you can call an underground arms dealer for a car loaded with weapons. Its best, though not necessary to keep good relationship with your friends or girlfriend(s), as they often come up with their own perks. Oh yeah, just so you are wondering, it does not include any hot coffee scenes.

The story is far more human this time, unlike previous GTAs, its not but coming to the town and taking over, it’s all about survival. And the way Niko behaves and talks, he will instantly be a very likeable character surrounded by a full cast of interesting characters, like his cousin Roman.

As the game takes place in modern times, so with it comes things which we use everyday, like the internet. Yes, GTA IV has its very own interweb, with surprising debt to it, from blogs, emails to online dating service. There are also usable TVs in the game with good amount of programming, some of them are really funny and amazing, you’d wish they aired it real-life. Like the previous GTAs, the radio stations are back with new DJs. The soundtrack in the radios covers almost all the modern genres, so there is bound to be something you’ll like, although the quality of selection is still not on par with Vice City, it had to be said, then again, its mostly to blame the modern era for its diverse genre. There is also a load of cool min-games, which are almost as good as games on their own right, like bowling, darts, pool. There is even live comedy shows you can attend or watch in the TV.

The graphics is vastly improved with much detailed textures, new realistic lighting that produces great shadows and changes realistically as the day progresses and night falls. When you fly high, the city is indistinguishable from New York City. The character models and animation are as detailed as ever. From an artistic point of view, the developers at Rockstar North did an amazing job to capture the look and feel of New York City. Although the game still have problems streaming content, and pop-ups are still there unfortunately, but it does little to detract from the experience.

The sound is on par with graphics. Backed up by solid soundtrack, the game is also superb in the other areas as well. Just stand your character for a minute, close your eyes, and just with the sound, you can picture what is going around you, provided you have a 5.1 sound system of course.

The game has also immense replayability. So, once you finish the game, you can go for the 100% completion mark, acquiring you to do things like killing all 200 pigeons/ “flying rats”, making all the unique jumps, etc. You can also play the story again, as it never gets old and try to take different paths in the game to see what is the outcome (there is a degree of decision making in the game, like who to kill or not, though not as deep as Mass Effect). Or a very popular practice is to just mindlessly cause chaos with your RPG.

Or you can hop onto the multiplayer. There are loads of modes to choose from and most of them are pretty unique and fun. While the game has some multiplayer issues when launched on the PS3 version, the latest patch as of writing for PS3 (1.02) fixes most of them, and I personally didn’t experience any problems until then. You can also check various stats at Rockstar online stat tracking website, called Rockstar social club, here you can also preview the track marked in the game and buy digital download from Amazon.

Both the PS3 and 360 versions are amazing, this can hardly be said as a lazy port for PS3 (Xbox 360 was the lead platform for the game). Ironically, in some cases the PS3 version tops because of its Initial 8 min installation prior to starting he game for the first time. Because of this, less data have to be streamed from the optical disc, and so when you are driving at high-speed, the pop-up though still there, is not a big issue on the PS3 compared to the 360 version, as on some of the 360s with older Disc Drives, the read speed cannot always keep up. And as a result, you’ll sometimes find a car or a wall suddenly pop in before you can react. However, most new 360 models don’t have much of a difference. Also from Fall, 360 owners can enjoy the benefits of the PS3 owners when it gets the ability to install games to the HDD.

Well there you have it, it’s the longest review I’ve ever done, by a long shot, but this game deserves it. I still left out a lot of details about the game, this game is epic huge. You will soon realize that, all the small things which happen in the world of GTA IV merges, and form a much bigger picture which really pulls you in the game. There is simply no immersive game than GTA IV, but perhaps GTA V will change it all over again.

Stop Hating EA, Folks

EA is akin to Microsoft these days. No matter what they do, one fact remains, they are evil and just exist to spin off franchises and make a quick buck. Sure, I too sneer at yearly sequels like Harry Potter and The Lord of The Rings, but they put out some superb games. Take, for example, The Orange Box. It’s the single best game collection and hands down would win my game of the year award. Take a look at Spore, have you seen anything as fun as that? Then there is Rock Band, it’s getting highly acclaimed reviews.

I know, EA didn’t make those games. But they are publishing them, aren’t they? When EA bought up independent studio BioWare, the whole internet went up in flames. But will it stop BioWare from making great games? I hardly think so. One of my earliest and my most favorite game of all time was Need For Speed II. It was surely a blast to play them in the Windows 98 era, and I still have fun now. The last time I checked, it was developed and published by Electronic Arts.

It’s business, folks. They’ve have to do everything in their power to remain profitable. Unless they can pay a good chunk of profit back to their shareholders, there’s going to be a shake up in their board of directors. Yes, you can complain that their whole Sports line series of games are highly un-innovative, and I agree. But someone must be buying them. If none of us didn’t, they wouldn’t make crappy Madden year and year on end.

The point is this, give EA a chance. And even after they screw up, give ‘em the smackdown. Am I the only one here? Not so. Check out this article.

Nope, MGS 4 Won’t Make It To The Xbox 360. Or Will It?

All right, this rumor is spreading like wildfire all over the internet. After Final Fantasy XIII (13) changed houses and decided to go for a multi-platform release, it’s obvious to think Metal Gear Solid 4 will do the same. Isn’t it? Wrong.

Before I get flooded with hate mails, let me say, yes I only own a 360. And as much as I want to, the chances of MGS4 appearing on the 360 is pretty slim. You see, MGS 4 is akin to Halo 3. If you port Halo 3 to the PS3, the whole internet will be up in riot. If you port MGS4 to the 360, not only will the entire internet end up taking arms, but personal lives (read: Kojima’s) might be at stake.

And even if you require further proof, here’s what Kojima said, “Metal Gear Solid has traditionally been with Sony, and I still believe Sony is the best match in terms of the full complete package as a game software”. A Konami rep also added, “Kojima-san owes way too much to Sony to stab them in the back like this, his honor would be tarnished forever and the Japanese care deeply about their honor”. Well said.

But wait. If anything that Microsoft has aplenty, it’s their bottomless bank account (no honor, though). They managed to pick up (buy out) the rights to GTA, Ace Combat (my personal favorite) and the latest of all, Final Fantasy (if there is any more to the list, do let me know). To give a glitter of hope to Xbox fans (myself included) here’s what caused a storm over at Xbox Family. “Speaking to a Konami rep at an undisclosed distribution meeting, I was told MGS was in development for the 360. The rep stated that Metal Gear Solid will be released for the Xbox 360 between 12 to 14 months after the PS3 version hit shelves. This is not a rumor”. (I have italicized the glaring loop holes to this story for your viewing pleasure).

Wow. A triple A PS3 exclusive title is headed to the 360 and still Microsoft ain’t touting it. Either they too are dumbfounded or still don’t know about it themselves (sarcasm intended). The only reason MGS 4 needed to go for a multiple platform release was to recoup the huge development costs, since the PS3’s fate was uncertain (read:during the early days) in the West. But considering the PS3 is gaining strong momentum and MGS 4 selling well over a million copies, I see no reason for them to do so. Unless there’s even more money to be made.

What do you think? Leave a comment below and I’ll do my best to reply.

E3 2008 At a Glance, Big Three Press Conferences: Part 2, Nintendo & Sony

I will wrap it up on this one, as the Nintendo and Sony Conferences were lacking in content. So much so that is has been rumored that this was the cause for the Bungie announcement being delayed. Advanced apologies for the shortened coverage of these two, but as this is already three days after the fact I want to finish up here.

Haven’t read Part 1? Get it here.

Up Tuesday morning was Nintendo.

Starts off with a video and a promise. "We promise to keep the world smiling."

Apparently Nintendo employees can’t snowboard without breaking their wrists. Solution? A new game, and a Wii Balance Board. This is the thing that came with Wii Fit.

Numbers and generic games talk (i.e. Mario and Zelda games are in works).

Animal Crossing: City Folk. Its visiting function is greatly enhanced using the Wii’s network capabilities.

More numbers and sales talk. Slight game announcements. Like Wii Sports Resort.

Wii MotionPlus. Add on that adds more sensitivity to the WiiMote.

Wii Music. Make music with your Wii. I suppose that Rock Band purchase is making you feel silly now reader?

Wraps up with recaps and then a short bit on denouncing those that call the Wii a fad.

Neat, but lacking on big announcements. Still, the Wii is going strong, so Nintendo doesn’t really need to talk itself up much. They could have probably just walked on stage, announced a price cut, walked off, and shown game videos that have footage from the new games, and had a better keynote with less work. Still, this was decent, if not mind blowing.

Pikmin 3 was announced during the rest of E3. I wonder why it didn’t make its way to the conference?

Next up: Sony’s stuff.

Sony shoots out their stuff:

Generic game video. Talking starts:

"2008 is the year of the PS3."

Actually, do I even need to go on? This comment is a suicide note. It goes in line with "XXXX is the year of the Linux Desktop." Saying it will only make it not so.

Goes on to say more, "We’ve just begun to scratch the surface." Oh my… its another PS3 has ten year life span tirade.

Makes boast that MGS4 only being possible on the PS3, so even though its not exclusive (by contract) its only on the PS3. Note that even though I have doubted MGS4 for the 360 for some time, the possibility of it happening has just gone up in my mind based on this statement.

More talk wrapping up Sony’s arrogance intro.

Resistance 2. What could have been an awesome demo is just video touted to be from gameplay, something which Sony has been known to lie about. It further devolves into a hardware boast. So much for the intro’s talk of this year being about the software.

Goes into LittleBigPlanet. Much touted, little delivered, so its nice when instead of just leaving it to die, they use it to deliver their financials. Best delivery of what is normally boring and useless up talk to demo a game. LittleBigPlanet is a PowerPoint killer. Its very well done, making LittleBigPlanet more then just a tech demo or an overhyped garbage pile.

The LittleBigPlanet demo was so well done that you don’t even need to hear about any of the other PS3 announcements at E3. Screw Home, screw Trophies, screw pre-rendered videos being shown as in-game, screw generic PS3 and PSP game announcements, screw more HD space, screw the new Video Marketplace that is like the 360’s, and screw God of War III.

LittleBigPlanet. That is all you need to hear about the Sony announcements. If it can make financials even remotely interesting, then Sony has a winner.

Update: I think it should be worth noting the Sony’s MAG was all prerendered, not gameplay. However, you can check out some in-game stuff here. This should not detract from how awesome LittleBigPlanet was, so I didn’t post this complaint more in-depth earlier (well, that and I don’t like writing about stuff almost a week after the fact).

E3 2008 At A