I'm ashamed to admit that I never played ICO or Shadow of the Colossus when they originally came out for the PS2. When Sony announced that they'd be releasing an HD-remastered collection for the PS3 featuring these two legendary titles, I was excited for the opportunity to finally dive into these games. This is definitely the right time to get familiar with Team Ico's earlier work before their third project, The Last Guardian, comes out next year. After watching this launch trailer, I'm even more excited to make the time to play these masterpieces, and will happily pay the $39.99 for the title.
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Ni No Kuni (The Another World) will be launching in Japan on November 17th. You can't ask for a better collaboration than this one between Level-5 and Studio Ghibli. I can only imagine what the creative minds behind Professor Layton and Totoro have in store for us. Now I'm just hoping this game gets released in the US.
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My first experience with the amazing God Of War series was actually on my PSP. I'm now enjoying the PS3 remakes of the first two games in preparation of delving into the third. God of War: Origins is a new compilation pack that will include remakes of the original portable titles in glorious HD. This project is not a simple upscaling, but will include new artwork, assets in more. Check out this video to see what is in store.
From the looks of it, I think that both players who have never played the excellent Ready at Dawn-developed titles and players who have enjoyed those excellent PSP games will have a reason to open their wallets when the game launches on September 13th.
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Another amazing E3 has come and gone. My key takeaway from this year's show is that the upcoming year will bring the beginning of 3D gaming. Sure we've had some previous forays like Nintendo's Virtual Boy, but you can really see how Sony and Nintendo are going to be pushing the technology hard. After getting a chance to try each company's approach to entering the 3rd dimension, I definitely think Nintendo has it right.
Nintendo's new portable, the 3DS, features some pretty amazing 3D technology that doesn't require the player to wear glasses. Although I was skeptical going into the demo, I came away impressed. While traditional 3D movies create an effect where items pop out of the screen at you, the 3DS feels like their is depth to the screen, where the action is taking place inside of a shadowbox. Nintendo smartly has provided a slider to tweak the amount of 3D present, allowing players to disable the feature so they won't get nauseous when playing on trains, planes, etc. I also imagine the ability set the level of 3D means that games won't require the feature to be enabled. After spending some time playing on the 3DS, I knew I wanted one.
Sony is taking a much more cinematic approach to their 3D implementation for the PS3. A player has to wear powered glasses, and the action comes out of the screen. I played some racing games to experience the technology, and was thoroughly underwhelmed. The glasses are uncomfortable and expensive, the effect blurred the graphics and made them murkier, and after a short time I started to get a headache. I don't see myself going out to spend a fortune buying a set of goggles to allow for multiplayer fun, and I feel the same way about this that I do about 3D TV's: meh. Ultimately, I think Nintendo has come up with an innovative way to add a new dimension to gaming that really adds to the experience while Sony is pushing a technology to get us to spend more money on something that doesn't make the game any better.
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While I do own the first LittleBigPlanet title for the PS3, I never really got into the game. I love the art style and the open-ended DIY philosophy behind it, but I could never put in the time to test out the level creation tools. I mostly just played through the single player campaign, but while the visuals were certainly beautiful, I found the controls a little loose and didn't find it to be that addicting a platformer.
After watching this trailer, I am tempted to revisit the original, and am excited for the new features the sequel will have. It seem they have refined and expanded the core experience to create a compelling game that might win me over in a way the first didn't.
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In light of the recent announcements swirling about Blu-Ray's defeat of HD-DVD, I decided to go out and buy my first Blu-Ray discs. i swung by Amoeba Music and picked up "Paprika" and "Tekkonkinkreet", since I figured that animation would really pop in HD. I made the plunge into hi-def viewing by inaugurating my PS3 with "Tekkonkinkreet".
As I sat absorbing this gritty tale of orphans taking on gangsters, I was amazed at how the cripsness and brilliance helped immerse me in the film. The film centers on two codependent children, Black and White, who challenge rival street urchins as well as the Yakuza in a territorial battle over "Treasure Town". The film deals heavily with the question of finding balance: in the development of city, in the control of the town, in the power of friendship, and within one's own psyche. The ethereal tone of the film highlights animation's power to forge fantastic worlds.
There is no better way to celebrate the imminent demise of HD-DVD and the end of the "Format Wars" than by enjoying some hi-def goodness. Will I repurchase my entire movie collection? No. Is having a single format better for consumers? Certainly. Is direct-download going to replace physical media? Eventually. Is there a better way to handle this migration as well as a more convenient model for content ownership in the digital age? That is a whole other blog post...
