Toronto Thumbs

Facebreaker demo hilarious

EA had a massive presence at this year’s Penny Arcade Expo with a giant booth showing off upcoming titles as well as satellite booths for Dead Space and Rock Band 2. As part of their swag grab, they were giving away EA passports that featured a page for each game at the show. After playing a certain game, you could get that page stamped, and people with a fully stamped passport could redeem them for an EA shirt.

Considering the line-ups to play just about anything there, I decided I would only play games that had no lineups at all. Though this might indicate that I played no games there, it’s actually quite the opposite. Sometimes it’s all about the timing. One game that I did get to play a little bit was Facebreaker, EA’s cartoony and over-the-top boxing title. They were even giving out demo discs for this title.

Sadly, I must admit I knew nothing about this game prior to last weekend. I tend to not pay attention to EA titles because in the past, most of them have held no interest for me. This year is looking to be different, with Lord of the Rings Conquest, Mirror’s Edge, Dead Space, and Mercenaries 2 all looking and playing very promising.

Since play time at the actual expo can feel a little rushed at the best of times, I spent a some quality time with the Facebreaker demo last night. It’s not a game I’d actually buy because I’m waiting on the announcement and release of the next Punch-Out!! title. But it is a hilarious game nonetheless. I created a dead-eyes version of myself using the Xbox Live Vision camera but couldn’t get the body build or hairstyle to look quite right, and then squared off against none other than Kim Kardashian (a woman famous for having a big ass and a sex tape - so says Joel McHale on The Soup).

What followed was a mess of a training round that featured a tonne of ridiculous boxing action and ended with me feeling no more confident in my ability to actually play the game. Perhaps it’s just the fault of the demo or the particular mode I was in. I will say, however, that the punches and hits in the game are very intense. The demo disc says for me to not be cheap and to share it with friends, so that’s what I intend on doing.

Posted in Events, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 | 1 Comment »

REVIEW
SingStar PS3

After my introduction into the SingStar series only a few months ago, I was excited to get my hands on the much-anticipated SingStar PS3. It’s not that I thought the gameplay was going to differ drastically, or the graphics were going to blow my mind; I mean, come on, it’s words over music videos, right? No, what I was really stoked for were the enhancements to the online model, and the new community aspect that would come along with it.

The graphical focus of SingStar has never been anything but simple, and that stands true even on the powerful PS3. The music video for the song currently being sung plays in the background with the lyrics overlaid for easy viewing. The exception to this layout comes when the PlayStation Eye peripheral is hooked up, allowing you to be the (Sing)star. Okay - cheesy writing aside, there are some noticeable quality issues with both the music videos and camera feed that need to be pointed out, as neither seem to be as crisp and clear as they should be. Still, the focus of the series has never been on graphics, so most of you (and I’m including myself here) won’t care.

What can I say about the sound? You’d think this is an area that needs to be heavily scrutinized given the type of game this is. Truth is however, it really doesn’t matter what the game sounds like, it’s all about the player taking center stage. That being said, I had no issues with the sound quality of the tracks, with all of them being master recordings. A new feature that has finally been introduced into the series is the ability to completely turn off the vocal track: very cool. No longer do I have to sing along with Rivers Cuomo (not that there’s anything wrong with that), but now I can delude myself into feeling like I am the eccentric Weezer lead.

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Posted in PlayStation 3, Reviews | No Comments »

The Future Is WOW
Pure Will Bring Unrealistically Fun ATV Racing to 360, PS3

Last month Toronto Thumbs was treated to a preview of Black Rock Studio’s upcoming ATV stunt racing, adrenaline-pumping title, Pure. While the game shown wasn’t the actual final build, it was polished enough to be more than impressive and, oddly enough, sent me on a stunt racing games kick lately (hello, Excite Truck!).

While on the surface Pure may look like your standard racing game, it isn’t a typical racing sim. Instead, the game adopts a much more arcade feel and puts a greater emphasis on being able to pull of stunts rather than actually finishing the race in first place (though that’s a good bonus).

The courses are all off-road and there’s no “one set path” to take to get from start to finish. You can come across alternative pathways that take you on more scenic routes or even be sent over crazy, death-defying jumps. There’s a stunt metre that fills up with each successful stunt you perform and ultimately allows you to execute more complicated tricks.

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Posted in PC, PlayStation 3, The Future Is WOW, Xbox 360 | No Comments »

Hooray for America
Top Gun Anthem Free for GH3

The worst movie theme song this side of “Spaceballs” will be available as free DLC for Guitar Hero III on July 3 to commemorate the American 4th of July holiday. It’ll be available for both Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions of the game.

From the official press release: The instrumental, guitar-heavy theme was immortalized in the hit film that inspired a generation of young men to awkwardly serenade women at bars, perform perfectly-timed “flipside” high fives and threaten to “buzz the tower.”

Say there, does your F-14 have air sickness bags?

Posted in Awful, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 | No Comments »

PSN to Gamers: Let’s Be Friends
WipEout HD Preview Hype

Sony’s PlayStation Network has a lot of ground to cover against the success of Xbox LIVE. I probably should have warned you to sit down before reading that, but while you absorb the shock I’ll also mention that the sky is blue before continuing…

While reviewers and gamers alike are anticipating that LittleBigPlanet will add life to a barren landscape, Sony has mysteriously left several franchises out of current plans. Titles like Twisted Metal, Syphon Filter, Jet Moto, and Colony Wars are just some of the legacy series that would thrive on that network. Only Warhawk was given the opportunity, and as well as it works I can’t help but wonder how great the originally planned single-player campaign could have been.

The real task of breathing life into the PSN first has fallen on veteran Studio Liverpool, who will bring a landmark series to the PSN with the anticipated release of WipEout HD scheduled for 2008. And it can’t come soon enough.

The WipEout Series was my introduction to Sony’s PlayStation. And at the time futuristic anti-gravity racing made perfect sense for capitalizing on the entire idea of video games. I’ve no idea how many nights we’d get back from clubs with our brains lit like a 24/7 Neo-Tokyo and run through tracks of WipEout XL. Mastering the speed and control of those ships was the new elite of gaming while Fluke and The Future Sound of London broke haunting and hypnotic rhythms from the speakers. Funny to think that somewhere lesser beings played GoldenEye.

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Posted in Commentary, PlayStation 3 | 2 Comments »