Archive for PS3

50 Cent: Blood On The Sand (PS3, Xbox 360) Review

July 22, 2008 at 7:49 pm · Filed under PS3, Xbox 360 ·Tagged , , , ,

Details
Format: PS3, Xbox 360
Origin: UK
Publisher: Sierra Entertainment
Developer: Swordfish Studios
Release: Q3
Genre: Action-Adventure
Players: TBA

“50 Cent: Blood On The Sand will have everything my fans are looking for in a 50 Cent game,” explains former king of US hip hop Curtis Jackson – ‘Fiddy’ to his friends.

An ambitious boast, perhaps, but when you consider the phenomenal sales that greeted the release of its execrable predecessor, 50 Cent: Bulletproof, it becomes clear that Fiddy’s audiences are hardly the most demanding of individuals. Evidently, the only thing that 50 Cent fans are “looking for” is that the man himself is in it. After that, all sins are forgiven.

So, is 50 Cent: Blood On The Sand the proverbial dead horse – flogged, knackered, and ready for the glue factory? The intelligent reaction is an immediate yes, and more studied observation only supports our suspicion. Take the plot (and we use the term in the loosest possible sense): Fiddy and G-Unit are playing a show somewhere in the Middle East -with any luck Sierra will sidestep a public relations disaster and keep the location non-specific – but the promoter refuses to pay. After threatening said promoter with violence, Fiddy is instead given a valuable, diamond-encrusted skull as payment, but just as they are about to fly back to America, Fiddy and G-Unit are ambushed and the skull is taken. Never men to let a show of such flagrant disrespect pass without seeking bloody vengeance, Fiddy and G-Unit begin a minor war to uncover the mystery of a skull they never really wanted in the first place.

Blood On The Sand developer Swordfish Studios is taking over where Bulletproof left off – by very wisely starting from scratch. This isn’t a sequel; it doesn’t follow the story of Bulletproof, and is, according to its producer, Aaron Blean, “More exotic, more Hollywood blockbuster.” It is an immediately more appealing angle than the inner-city grime and squalor that went before, and Blean revealed to MTV that improved gameplay is top of the agenda. “The first thing people are going to notice is not only the visuals and how incredible the environments and the game models took,” he claimed, “[but also] the controls and the artificial intelligence will be much, much better than the first game.”

That may be far from an Olympian challenge, but with drop-in drop-out co-op vehicle sections and a gameplay philosophy that has been rather crudely branded ‘Gears Of 50′, there is a definite chance that 50 Cent: Blood On The Sand won’t be the abomination that the sensible part of our brain insists it will be. A sly, self-aware satire, or a horribly misjudged, borderline racist monstrosity? To be honest, we’re happy either way.

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Dark Mist (PS3) Review

July 22, 2008 at 5:10 am · Filed under PS3 ·Tagged , , ,

Details
Format: PS3
Publisher: Sony
Developer: Game Republic
Release: Q3
Players: 1

There’s something to be said for the dungeon-crawling games of the past. The type where the hapless hero stumbles upon a multi-tiered labyrinth and then embarks upon some quest to retrieve whatever mystical trinket resides at the bottom – usually around level 150 near the center of the planet. And in essence Dark Mist pays homage to his archaic style of top-to-bottom level design but with an added degree of flair and originality.

As Althemis the warrior of light, you’re tasked with pushing back the evil dark mist that has spread across her beautifully realized world. Thankfully, Althemis isn’t expected to attempt this bare handed as she brandishes a rather potent ‘Bow of Light’. Curiously, the game plays out like a traditional 2D shooter – a held fire button consistently unleashes a barrage of arrows and the shoulder buttons can be used to classically fix direction and pivot. Further depth is added via three powered attacks and an all-purpose smart bomb. But the game’s strongest point is the challenge offered by fighting the enemies and dark mist in tandem. Too many games add difficulty by lazily increasing the volume of projectiles. And although the variety and numeracy of the cutesy dark legions increases steadily as Dark Mist progresses, the ever-present threat of being swamped by the enemy-concealing mist asks the plater to do more than dodge purple bullets.

But my main gripe with Dark Mist was the method employed in clearing the mist. For a game that, especially in the later boss encounters, demands accuracy. How could it have seemed like a good idea to make the player shake the pad to execute the mist clearing melee strike? This is another fine example of bas Sixaxis implementation. But if you often get sucked into these deceptively uncomplicated PSN distractions you could end up trawling this misty dungeon all night long

Rating: 6/10

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