Masem’s Gaming Blog

Heavenly Sword, produced by Ninja Theoy and distributed by Sony, has been called by many “God of War Lite” for the PlayStation 3; I certainly can’t disagree with this assessment as while the game has many of the combat elements or ideas from that title, it lacks the puzzles or power building aspect that are present in God of War. That doesn’t necessarily make this a bad game, but after button mashing through the rather short title, there’s not much memorable about this game, though does give promise of what God of War III could offer should it be made on the PS3.

Review Helpfulness: (2 votes, average: 4.5 out of 5)
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While Naughty Dog’s more recent Jak and Daxter series was generally met with good reviews, the last few games in Naughty Dog’s series have been rather lackluster. While certainly I’d love to see PS3 version of the franchise, it is understood that, just like Insomniac Games before them, Naughty Dog has attempted to bring new IP to the PS3 in the form of Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune. Naughty Dog did not miss with this one: the game is a strong contender for being one of the top PS3 games, doing an excellent job of mixing strong gameplay elements among plot development to give one of the more entertaining titles I’ve played this year.

Review Helpfulness: (3 votes, average: 5 out of 5)
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Ratchet and Clank Future: Tools of Destruction is the first installment of the Ratchet and Clank series to be made for the PS3. Developed by Insomniac games, the game continues exactly what the previous titles did: a fun platforming-shooting game that incorporates a variety of odd and exotic weapons. On its own, the game it outstanding, but considering where the series has been before, there’s a few elements that suggest that the number of ideas for new weapons and gadgets may be winding down, and some decisions on the approach to the game design are a bit disappointing to experienced players, though certainly are far from detracting from the overall enjoyment of the game.

Review Helpfulness: (2 votes, average: 5 out of 5)
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Played through the first couple of levels of this.  The first level is basically the level from the demo, but I had originally played the disk-based demo which had just enough slowness to it to feel off, but I’ve come to learn that that was an earlier build; the demo presently on the PS Store is supported to be speedier, and of course the game itself definitely is at the right pace.

I haven’t gotten too far to get all the new improvements, but there’s two major additions that seem to feel right.  The first is that some objects are considered more like “gadgets” though they have one-shot uses (this includes the Disco ball) — that is, they’re almost like special grenade types instead of the usual weapons in the game.  The other feature is the ability to advance the increase in power in weapons outside of the experience levels used in previous games by using raritanium in a “tree” of possible improvements, almost like FFX’s sphere grid to a much smaller extent.

Gameplay is otherwise straight consistent with the rest of the games, and doesn’t feel too heavy on using weapons.  So far so very good.

I’ve heard people say that MotorStorm is going to be the system seller for the PS3.  Unfortunately, I really beg to differ, so far, despite it being one of the two better games for the system to date (along with Resistance: Fall of Man).  The concept is sound: dirt/mud racing in the mesa valleys of the southwest in 5 different types of vehicles (motorcycles, ATVs, buggies, stock cars, and trucks), and the graphics look really nice and all, getting the muddiness and griminess of the race down well, but…

Things seems a bit more sluggish than expected for dirt racing - while I wouldn’t hold the game “FlatOut” as a prime example of a great dirt racing game, I felt I had more control there.  And you can’t go too easy on the track lest you get overtaken quickly.  Of course, I’m just starting so it may get a bit easier, but I’m not impressed.  While you can switch on the Sixaxis to use it as a motion control (like with the Wii), it seems even worse — and here’s where the lack of rumble really screams out.

Add to this that the menus and other parts of the game are just really slow — we’re talking close to PSP loading times, which there is no reason for that here.

I need to give it more time to give it a more fair assessment but as it stands now, I’m not impressed at all.

Well, let’s say, it’s a Sonic game (more in line with Sonic Adventures as you have a main area where you talk to people and get your missions), but… the graphical power is rather unimpressive (there’s non-negliable slow down in parts of the main area!)

Add to the fact that when you are actually running fast, it doesn’t feel like you’re running fast — certainly not the same impression I got from the past 3D Sonic games.  A few of the other ’standard’ moves feel off as well, and camera control also seems to have some of the same problems as well.

Worst, when you get a chance to play as Tails, it’s completely changed from past games - Tails can’t spin attack but instead, ahem, “lays” egg bombs that he then throws at foes.  It feels completely wrong from what I’d expect.

The promise of the final boss character hinted at the opening cinematics seems something similar to the final Chaos form from Sonic Adventure 1, but don’t know if that type of payoff will occur yet in the game.

Man, this game is a button-mashing fest.  There’s almost no skill in it, yet, beyond making sure to upgrade your armor at save points.  Plus for a PS3 game, the camera control is poor and the graphics are rather bland.   I have a hard time classify this even as an RPG despite it having some elements.  Mind you, I am finding I’m to a point I need to use magic a bit more, but still, it just feels like a quickly done buttonmashing game.  And while I’ve got but not finished the previous Untold Legends for the PSP, I know the style is very different there, and I think I preferred that more to the PS3 version.

Being one of the few console-exclusive games for the release of the Playstation 3, Resistance: Fall of Man, created by Insomniac Games, was heralded as one of the top titles for the system. While the game graphical flexes the muscle of the new console, the game itself falls flat, providing a somewhat above average FPS game with a few interesting weapons and online play, but really not breaking any new gameplay foundations, particularly in light of other recent titles for other systems.

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Ok, I’m starting to like this game a bit better, but it still has, as best as I can call it, timing problems.

The story is somewhat engaging - imaging that instead of the Axis starting WWII, that instead some alien parasite took over Russia and much of Eastern Europe, converting humans into their own foot soldiers and trying to take over the rest of the world.   This leads to an interesting mix of architecture of traditional English (UK) cities and alien architecture.

The good: Insomniac Games, known for the weapon-happy Ratchet and Clank series, take just enough of their weapon innovations into R:FoM to make it more than just a normal FPS.  There’s a standard automatic rifle and sniper gun, but when you start getting the alien guns things get interesting.  The first one is called a Bullseye, and while it’s main mode is a more powerful machine gun, it’s secondary lets you fire a tracer, such that, like Zerg’s weapon in the Fifth Element, makes all bullets you fire go to that target until it’s down.  Then there’s the Auger, which allows you to shoot through walls and objects, with the bullet gaining more power the more stuff it passes through.  Add in the Hedgehog grenade (which shoot out high velocity needles when it explodes) and some explodable objects about the levels, and combats just a step above the usual FPS.  The environments are all pretty good too.

The bad: Timing, not so much within the game, but when this game came out relative to a lot of other titles.  The plot details and a lot of the alien architecture feel like Half-Life 2, and battles against alien invaders is done more recently in Gears of War.  While you can use cover and the like, it’s still done much better in games like Gears and Call of Duty 3.   And because the only innovation is really the unique weapons, there’s no much else there after you strip these away.

I know I’m somewhere between a 1/3rd and halfway through the game, so hopefully there’s going to be more weapons and the like, but right now, it’s unfortunate that this game’s release was in the middle of a whole bunch of other games that feel just like it.

Got my PS3 without major incident and set up without major problems. The short USB cord was somewhat of a problem, but it was helpful I had a USB hub as well as a keyboard for entry of all the details for the PS network.

So I had basically the only 3 ‘unique’ games to the PS3 that (to mean) were interesting:

Resistance: Fall of Man - An FPS set in the time frame of WWII, but with a sci-fi bent. The combination of traditional weapons with the sci-fi ones (such as one that you can shoot a tracter shot at a foe, which causes all bullets to home in on that target until it’s down). However, given that Call of Duty 3 and Gears of War just came out, it’s hard to see how unique this game is.

Genji - Days of the Blade - A third-person sword-wielding action game, something like Omishua. Interesting so far, hoping that you get combos later or the like. But nothing seemingly inspired yet.

Untold Legends: Dark Kingdom - Like Genji, though more based on an RPG-type setting from the PSP games. Again, nothing inspired yet, maybe to make up for the lack of a good Japanese RPG-type game for launch.

I also tried a few PS2 games without problems. It’s nice that you can shut down from the controller as well as quit out a game and change games without having to shut down all the way. The interface is nicely like the PSP one, so there’s consistancy there.

I guess I’m excited to get it, though it will only be nicer once I can get my PS1/PS2 games there as to replace my PS2 completely, but maybe I’m also still excited about the Wii (which will be here Monday, but I do have my games for that).