PlayStation’s new motion controller, which looks more like a microphone with the top part being a coloured ball. I really don’t quite like the thing looks, it doesn’t fit in with the other PlayStation products at all.
That aside, I’m not a huge fan of motion gaming using a general peripheral, so I don’t really see the point of this and Xbox’s Natal (Kinect, whatever it is called now). That said, Nintendo Wii seemed to have gained a huge following despite having less advanced motion controls than this.
For one, I doubt that this PlayStation Move in a shooter could be as good as say a dedicated gun in Time Crisis 4. Another thing is Xbox’s Natal and driving games. Touching air is not going to be quite the same as turning a wheel with force feedback. And the Nintendo Wii got things right for motion gaming if you ask me. Since the motion detection isn’t super precise, it makes the games easy to play, and with widespread appeal. If I need to do the correct motion in the PlayStation Move to hit a tennis ball for example, I don’t think it would appeal to as wide a range of players, although it would cater for certain players better.
At $98 for the PlayStation Eye and a Move controller, I think it’s reasonably priced. I won’t be getting it however.
I saw this posted by a person on Facebook, and I’ll post it here. It’s from Channel Nine’s election coverage. I didn’t actually see it on the night, because I was watching Seven’s coverage.
This clip is great on a number of levels. It could have been improved however. I really wanted to see the Labor members on the panel getting physical with those Liberal members.
While few people would doubt Gran Turismo for its visuals (at least for the cars, the environments could still use a bit of work), I thought to look into the accuracy of Gran Turismo’s tracks. Now I should have just looked at some of the real tracks in the world, such as Suzuka or Fuji or Indianapolis, but I decided to look at one of Gran Turismo’s fictional tracks.
By fictional, I mean a track, I mean a track that actually exists in real life, but one that actually isn’t a racetrack. For those who are confused, simply put, the roads for this city circuit exist in real life, but the roads have never been used as a racetrack.
The track I picked as comparison is called Tokyo Route 246. This is a track based on some roads (presumably in Tokyo) next to an off/on-ramp for the highway of Japan Route 246. Inside for the comparison videos.
Well, it was rumoured for some time, and is now confirmed to be true. I don’t like the addition of this though, I’m sorry, but go karts are just not part of a car racing game. Now, I’ve never driven a real go kart before, so I can’t tell how accurate the physics are, but the physics are clearly a lot different to driving a car, and I just don’t like what I’m seeing. I hope this go karting feature isn’t fully fledged and is just put in as a bit of an extra afterthought, that you can play around with when you’re bored.
The reason why I’m so against this is that I’d rather more development time be spent on the core bits of the game. I heard that around 4/5ths of Gran Turismo 5′s cars won’t have an interior view (200 premium cars and 800 standard cars), and if true, that’s a bit disappointing. There is certainly a lot more things that can be done rather than chucking in go karts.
Now this is looking a lot more promising than the videos of one racer versus one police car before. I’m not a big fan of the stop frame bits, but it does seem to have captured the essence of Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit 2.
Also, who can complain about ludicrous police cars? I wouldn’t mind to be part of a police department that runs Porsche Panameras as regular police cars and Pagani Zondas as interceptor vehicles.
Another thing that seems weird is the day seems to progress from sometime around noon to dusk in the space of a few minutes.
Well, can’t wait until later this year. This, Test Drive Unlimited 2 and Gran Turismo 5 are buys for me. Going to be very busy in the summer with these three games.
I don’t know how many of you guys have actually heard of this game, but the vehicular combat genre was not non-existent back in the day (as it pretty much is now). When the PS2 generation came along though, the genre really diminished. However, one series remained, and that was the PlayStation series of Twisted Metal, in the form of the game Twisted Metal: Black. I had Twisted Metal III for the PS1, but I never bought Twisted Metal: Black for the PS2.
However, the game is actually pretty distinctive. Apparently, all the character movies in the game were removed from the European release of the game, as some of the character movies were too violent.
Twisted Metal: Black definitely has a creepy feel to its characters though, as one would expect from the setting of the story. For those that don’t know, Twisted Metal is a car combat contest, where the winner of the contest gets to ask for a single wish to be granted from the host, Calypso. It has been a theme throughout the Twisted Metal series of ‘be careful what you wish for’ as there is always some twist at the end when the characters when they are granted their wish.
I’ve put in a couple of the Twisted Metal: Black character movies below. The next Twisted Metal, coming exclusively for the PS3, is also now in production.
I found this on Engadget. Now I don’t know what the video is saying, but the video footage make enough sense.
Essentially, it’s a ‘bus’ on stilts, where the ‘wheels’ go along the lane dividers, and cars can drive underneath the ‘bus’. This should theoretically alleviate traffic jams, as the only space the ‘bus’ is taking up are the lane dividers.
This sounds like a great idea, but considering the quality of driving in China, I’d think there would be a heap of problems. For example, driving underneath a moving object is probably highly disorienting with regards to your speed and position. Secondly, I can see HIDEOUS HIDEOUS accidents when this thing turns, and some car is underneath it.
Most of you probably don’t watch F1, but last night’s Hungarian GP had a pretty dangerous move by Michael Schumacher against Rubens Barrichello. I’ve embedded a youtube video below showing you the incident and the interview with the two drivers below, I apologise for the annoying music at the start – this was the best video I could find.
For those that don’t know, Schumacher is in the Mercedes silver car, while Barrichello is in the Williams blue/white car.
The night racing looks completely spectacular. Also, it’s nice to see that you can flip your car now, though the underbodies of the car look disappointingly undetailed.
I can’t wait to get this game. On looking at the video, the graphics aren’t the best – the textures aren’t the most terrific I have ever seen, particularly the road, but the game has some nice details.
What interests me most in the video is the environment. Looks like there will be a diverse range of immersive environments in the game, which will be good. I also like the music.
It’s going to be a busy year later for me and my driving games. This, Gran Turismo 5, Need For Speed Hot Pursuit…
