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Video
Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands

Let’s say you love Prince of Persia but just can’t stomach any more soft-focused publicity images of Chesty Jake. Good news! Ubisoft has your PoP fix sans Gyllenhaal.

Check out this gameplay trailer (complete with developer commentary) and prepare to be enthralled by the Prince yet again. What’s not to love about parkour mixed with elemental control and lots of baddies?

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Posted in Awesome, DS, DSi, Microsoft, News Bytes, PSP, PlayStation 3, Videos, Wii, Xbox 360 | 2 Comments »

PEW! PEW! PEW!
LEGO Star Wars III: The Clone Wars Announced

Good news for Star Wars fans: Today LucasArts and TT Games announced that LEGO Star Wars III: The Clone Wars is in development and scheduled to hit all platforms this fall. Awesome.

I’ve been a fan of the console LEGO games since picking up the prequel-based LEGO Star Wars for the GameCube years ago. The human characters actually had yellow faces back then, much like real minifigs! I wonder what happened.

While I’ve only played the LEGO Star Wars games and LEGO Batman, I have the utmost confidence that they’re well-designed console platformers. I can’t speak well for the DS counterparts since LEGO Star Wars II was by far the worst DS game I’ve ever tried to play.

That negativity aside, I’m especially stoked about seeing what TT does with The Clone Wars franchise. I still can’t figure out when this new animated series is supposed to take place, considering the fact that the original 2D highly-stylized Clone Wars cartoon spanned from the end of the film Attack of the Clones right up to the beginning of Revenge of the Sith. Does Lucasfilm wish to ignore the first series as it wishes to ignore the amazing Droids and Ewoks cartoons?

TT Games is promising that this will be the most action-packed LEGO game to date. It’ll feature all the characters from the show’s first two seasons (it’s currently in season two) as well as other characters from elsewhere in the saga. The game’s also said to contain new modes of play, including a battle mode allowing for head-to-head fighting, a level builder, and an interesting-sounding feature called “Lightsabre slicing.”

If you can’t wait till the fall to get some LEGO Clone Wars action, check out this cute Unity-based online game where you play as Anakin on a rescue mission to find R2-D2.

Posted in Awesome, DS, DSi, News Bytes, PC, PSP, PlayStation 3, Wii, Xbox 360 | No Comments »

ZAZZY!
PlayStation.ca Gets a New Look

For the first time since its launch a few years back, PlayStation.ca has received a major overhaul. Kyle Moffatt, Senior Public Relations Specialist, Sony Computer Entertainment Canada, announced the redesign today on the PlayStation blog.

The new PlayStation.ca has a cool new interface allowing visitors easier access to information about not only Triple-A titles, but also about various consoles, hardware, news, and special events. Each game title featured on the site is accompanied by big, bold visuals, including game screenshots and videos.

Apart from the redesign, content has now been grouped in blocks, which help connect similar pieces of connect. SCEC is also planning additional unique content for the site in the near future. With this new look and site information structure update, PlayStation.ca has become the best of the three console manufacturers’ Canadian public portals.

Posted in Canada, News Bytes, PSN, PSP, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3 | No Comments »

PlayStation Holiday Preview Event
If The Burroughes Building Is A Rockin’…

Yesterday we attended the PlayStation Holiday Preview Event at the Burroughes Building in Downtown Toronto. We’d spent a lot of time in the area before, mostly at night to catch rock shows at one of the many nearby historic venues. The Burroughes Building, however, was one we had never been to. As we entered, we were handed plain black scarves with PlayStation branding tastefully embroidered on them before being directed to the building’s third floor.

The open-concept gallery setting felt a little empty at first, but as more visitors shuffled in, it proved to be an excellent setting for mingling, trying out new and upcoming games, and chatting with people who fortunately knew a lot about the games they were discussing. Given the floor plan, it was both well organized and laid back. Several courteous attendants offered hors d’oeuvres, and these included a lot of snacks we’d otherwise never eat, so we not only got to try new and exciting games, but new and exciting snacks!

The spacious setting of the Burroughes Building also let in plenty of light, in direct contrast to last week’s X’09 event put on by Microsoft Canada, which took place in a darkened nightclub. In fact, it’s incredibly difficult to not contrast the PlayStation Holiday Preview Event with X’09.

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Posted in Awesome, Events, PSN, PSP, PlayStation 3, Sony | 2 Comments »

God of War 3 Playable At Toronto’s FanExpo

I’ve been going to FanExpo for the last nine years or so, and over the last few years the gaming component has been getting bigger. To me, it seemed like a tack-on to the main event. FanExpo is a really dorky gathering of comics, science fiction, horror, anime, and game fans. But the gaming portion seemed to be exclusively set aside for pro gaming tournaments. In other words, for a different breed of geek: namely trash-talkers that brought their own, brand-new Xbox 360 controllers to the tournaments. These are the kind of people who would have no hesitation shoving a cosplayer into a locker and locking the door. Talk about intimidating!

Anyhow, the gaming angle looks to be even bigger this year and - dare I say it - a hell of a lot more interesting than watching pro gamers do their thing. We’ve got confirmation that Sony will be showcasing some of its upcoming titles at the event, including PS3 heavy-hitters like God of War 3, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, Buzz Quiz World, Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time, and on the PSP Jak & Daxter: The Lost Frontier.

Posted in Awesome, News Bytes, PSP, PlayStation 3 | 5 Comments »

Chinatown Wars Coming To PSP

DS Exclusivity, we hardly knew thee! Rockstar Games has announced that Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars will be releasing for the PSP as both a retail UMD and digital download this fall. Using terms like “specifically built for,” the PSP release will feature upscaled widescreen graphics, enhances to animation and lighting as well as new story missions. Certainly good news for fans, and the title definitely deserves a second chance at retail after some disappointing results on the DS.

Posted in News Bytes, PSP | 6 Comments »

Holy Invasion of Privacy Badman! - Stage 1

A precious few titles from NIS America were on hand at the Atlus booth during E3. Among them was Holy Invasion of Privacy Badman! for the PSP, which I was eager to spend some hands on time with. If you’re not familiar with the title, players create the dungeons that an RPG villian seeks refuge in when bands of heroes seek to free the land from tyranny.

Acting as the architect of these dungeons, players carve tunnels underground, unearthing an eco-system of monsters that then act, mutate, and evolve on their own to create unique environments - it’s rather similar to creating a good forum really. The graphics of the game are a pixelated throwback to the 8-bit glory days of my youth and really give the game an added layer of charm that had me in the cheering section early on. With the aim of giving gamers a clarification on how the gameplay functions, NIS has offered up footage from the first stage of the game for your viewing pleasure.

Watch Stage 1 from Holy Invasion of Privacy Badman! »

Posted in News Bytes, PSP | 4 Comments »

REVIEW
Rock Band Unplugged

Since Activision has actively deployed their EA strategy regarding music games (that is, cramming the shelves so full that no alternative is visible) it’s possible that Rock Band Unplugged could suffer some consumer neglect. In the spirit of discretion, I’ll confess that I really wasn’t looking forward to another portable adaption of a peripheral-based console music game. I absolutely loathe the DS iterations of Guitar Hero. I simply can’t understand why developers went to the trouble of designing finely crafted plastic instruments only to then work at shoehorning the experience onto a handheld, cramping our hands beyond acceptable levels.

With the genre becoming so overloaded this year, Rock Band Unplugged could appear as little more than another cash grab release rather than an earnest attempt at bringing a unique experience to the PSP. But considering the title comes from the studio responsible for building the foundation on which we all rock out today, in conjunction with Backbone Entertainment, I was willing to give it the benefit of the doubt.

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Posted in PSP, Reviews | 2 Comments »

Persona Pre-Order Bonus

I was wondering when Atlus would announce plans to spoil gamers by adding a bonus to the upcoming PSP release of Persona. Yes, I am greedy, and yes the wait is over. True to form, Atlus will be shipping all launch copies of the game in a premium box that includes the 2-disc soundtrack from the game. Persona fans will agree that the series contains the best music available in any RPG. As for the rest of you, this is going to be your chance to experience both the music and the series from the beginning.

I had a chance to check out the game last week, and the remastered release looks terrific on the widescreen display of the PSP. The game runs a lot smoother from the last time I saw it of course, and new content additions and animated sequences tie the game together with the care Atlus always brings to their Shin Megami Tensei series.

Posted in News Bytes, PSP | 1 Comment »

REVIEW
Crimson Gem Saga

If it wasn’t my job to review videogames, I wouldn’t be surprised to have a title like Crimson Gem Saga pass me by. The RPG genre is so crammed with contenders that it could easily be lost on the shelf. Titles attached to a series tend to get first picks, and anything new to the genre generally aims for an attention-grabbing gimmick or eye candy aesthetics to stand out. Crimson Gem Saga is being portrayed as a classically styled RPG and, while that may be true in one sense, it’s also a terribly generic term that really doesn’t tell gamers anything. After spending a considerable amount of time with the game, the classic appeal is the way in which the game doesn’t immediately grab the player. That might sound incredibly odd, but the game has a subtle quality that invites the player deeper, offering an expansive set of abilities as well as characters that represent classic roles while also revealing individual personalities more naturally as the narrative progresses.

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Posted in PSP, Reviews | No Comments »