Nathan Blades looks at the polarising RPG for PS3 & 360.
Jason Rose brings us a buyers' guide to smartphones available this Christmas.
Nathan Blades covers some console and industry-defining titles for the Sony PlayStation
Nathan Blades burns rubber in Mario kart 7.
Monday:
Ubisoft has confirmed the existence of the sequel to last year’s reboot of the Prince of Persia series. The new cel shaded approach and addition of a sidekick put a lot of people off the last game, but they need not fear, as Ubisoft has commented that the new entry to the franchise, The Forgotten Sands, will feature many of the aspects that made the series great in the first place. Could this mean the return of the deadly mechanical traps and the grand battles of the Sands of Time trilogy? Let’s hope so.
Tuesday:
More news from Ubisoft today, as the boss of Ubisoft Montreal, Yannis Mallat has stated that he is confident that the future of gaming lies in 3D technology. Ubisoft’s game adaptation of James Cameron’s film Avatar can be played in 3D, but you will require a special television which projects polarised light and special 3D glasses as well. The big question is that will people actually want to splash out all that extra cash for something for a new TV set up and some funky eyewear? Guess we’ll have to see if any other game companies are willing to make the leap into the third dimension.
Wednesday:
A Taiwanese boy has completed the in-completable, the massively multiplayer online role-playing game World of Warcraft. The level 80 Tauren Druid by the name of Little Grey is the first and only player to get all 986 of the achievements in WoW. Perhaps he’ll go outside now he has some free time on his hands.
Thursday:
In a very unsurprising turn, the Australian Classification Board has refused to classify Aliens vs. Predator, meaning that the game will be completely banned from being sold down under. The reason they gave for the refusal is as follows: the “first-person perspective, close-up depictions of human characters being subjected to various types of violence, including explicit decapitation and dismemberment as well as locational damage such as stabbing through the chest, mouth, throat, or eyes.” One option that SEGA and Rebellion now have is to produce a censored version, in a similar fashion to EA and Valve after they were refused classification for Left 4 Dead 2 by the ACB a couple of months ago. It’s such a shame that a few old guys in suits can stop an entire country from playing an awesome game in full.
Friday:
Bioware has confirmed that the sequel to their awesome 2007 RPG Mass Effect will ship on two game discs when it releases next month. For PC owners, this will mean a simple two disc install. Xbox 360 owners will have to swap the discs over once during play, but according Bioware’s community co-ordinator Chris Priestly it will occur at a carefully planned point in the game which won’t interfere with gameplay. The reason Priestly gave for using two discs for Mass Effect 2 – “because you cannot fit this much awesome on one disc.” Sounds good to me.
Saturday and Sunday:
As if we needed an excuse to play Modern Warfare 2, publishing giant Activision gave us a charitable incentive this weekend with the Game for Good event. They pledged to donate £150,000 to the charity War Child if a minimum of 600,000 unique Xbox Live members played MW2 this weekend, with an additional £25,000 for every 100,000 players after that, up to a maximum of £250,000. War Child helps to keep children away from the dangers of war. This is perhaps a little ironic considering the controversial nature of a game which simulates modern warfare and features scenes of civilian slaughter. However, it shows that the games industry has more social awareness than some give it credit for. No confirmation yet on the final amount donated but, given the popularity of the game, War Child is unlikely to be disappointed.
You must log in to submit a comment.
