Author: Grubdog

Playstation Plus – Too Much of a Good Thing

I’ve been on the Playstation Plus bandwagon since April this year and it’s been quite a ride. I’ve played at least 20 new games through it, some crap and some great. The whole idea of “playing games you wouldn’t normally play” is conductive to a bit of open-mindedness, but I found the opposite started happening as the months went on. The little bubble of “Playstation Plus” games became the only thing I played on PS3 without me even noticing. My eyes stopped looking at the shelf of games I decided were worth buying, because I always had a backlog of PS+ games to check out that might be good. The service obviously has many upsides but I don’t think it’s sustainable in its current form, and here’s a few reasons why.

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Forza 5 – Doing It Wrong (The Next-Generation Illusion)

The first next-gen racing simulator is arriving this month, and it features less tracks and cars than the previous game. Why is that? Developer Turn 10 has said in order to be a “next-gen” experience, everything must be up to quality standards of detail.

“We found that we ship a game that has over 200 cars, and they’re all to this level of detail with huge diversity. It’s been a successful program for us, having the paid DLC. Those that don’t want it don’t have to get it, and those that want it can buy it. The season pass allows them to buy it as a subscription.”

That Season Pass costs $50 US and just includes cars, with the first pack arriving Day 1. Connect these two very large dots in front of us right now, and we have a game that is designed to exploit your wallet. The next-gen experience.

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Pikmin 3 DLC – Doing It Right

The second pack of DLC for Pikmin 3 has arrived today and I’ve already spent a few hours with it. I just Platinum’d the second new stage and my brain is in recovery mode because it feels like I conquered the impossible! Each Mission opens with enemies scattered all over the map and assaults you with strategic possibilities from the start, it’s overwhelming and impossible to comprehend how to beat it at first glance. Slowly but surely the progression makes itself clear and little tricks and shortcuts begin to show themselves. “How many Pikmin do I need for this enemy? Can I run past it? Does my butt look big in this spacesuit?” The challenges in the DLC so far have been much harder than the initial 5 Mission Mode stages and I absolutely love Nintendo’s approach of using DLC to expand the gameplay mechanics.

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SwapNote Tribute – The World Wasn’t Ready

1 / 11 / Year of Luigi,

The Nintendo Postman delivered his final SwapNote.

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It was a Friday, the air was warm and relaxed as the weekend drifted into view. Nobody was ready for shocking news, and nobody wanted any. It was going to be a simple weekend of videogames and funny drawings until a shocking announcement changed everything.  Nintendo announced the SpotPass feature of Nintendo Letter Box / SwapNote on 3DS had been discontinued.

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Mario Kart 8 – One Race (DETAILED IMPRESSIONS)

At the EB Expo this year I was lucky enough to drive a race of Mario Kart 8. By lucky, I mean I shot my arm up in the air at the speed of light and almost lost it in the rafters. The Nintendo area had a screen on stage for a number of different game events, including Just Dance and Mario Kart 7. Mario Kart 8 was a special game they only pulled out every few hours, and I was very grateful for my chance to play it.

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Here’s the setup with two random dudes playing, one Wii U GamePad and one Wiimote. Unfortunately when I got up, the other kid (my opponent) wanted to use the GamePad so I let him and took the Wii Remote, because kids always come first. I’d used motion steering in my many hours of Mario Kart Wii so this was no hurdle for me. Let the race begin!

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Tutorials, are you too stupid for them?

I’m 12 hours into Mario & Luigi: Dream Team and the tutorial complaints have been lost in the wind somewhere. A small batcave of manchildren on the internet has been raging about how things are explained too in-depth with endless text, much to the burden of their active lifestyles. Many reviews have also docked the game for this apparent intrusion of text in an RPG. I recently finished Bowser’s Inside Story just before playing this game, and I can say for a fact that Dream Team is flowing much smoother, like a dream is supposed to. The new concepts are easy to grasp, the gameplay is more interactive and it’s a much better designed game all round. The only difference is people complain more in 2013 than 2009.

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Cloudberry Kingdom – No Randomly Generated Pain, No Gain

Welcome to Cloudberry Kingdom, the game that abuses you with unfathomably difficult levels and then cheers you up by letting you die as many times as you want. This is a 2D platformer with an ambitious premise of randomly generated levels, but does that mean level design is thrown out the window? Luckily the other main feature of the game balances this out – customisation. I enjoyed my brief time with it at PAX and it made me curious enough to spend $15AU on the full game, which has just been released on Wii U, PS3, 360 and PC. I’ve spent some solid time with the game now and I’m happy to say Cloudberry Kingdom is the real deal.

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PAX Australia – Games, Games, Games

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Welcome to PAX Australia!  The games had begun before the Expo even opened, with an epic game of “smack the beach ball over the sign“! Each goal was encouraged by massive cheers and an obscure angle shot was rewarded with oooo’s and aaaa’s. The beach ball felt solid yet agile, with several circulating at a time to make sure the gameplay was never predictable. I would give this game a 9 out of 10 for its unique multiplayer capabilities. What’s that, it’s 10am? Sorry, we’re busy playing. Oh alright… Into the Expo Hall!

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Zelda: A Link Between HD and 3D Worlds – Hands On Impressions From PAX

Zelda was playable in two forms at PAX Australia, Wind Waker HD on Wii U and A Link Between Worlds on 3DS. Both games had their own surprises in store that had to be felt in person to believe. Zelda 3DS impressed me with its graphics and Wind Waker HD impressed me with the controls. Did I get that the wrong way around? While Link’s butt does look fantastic in HD, there’s more to it!

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Pikmin 3 – PAX Australia Demo Challenge

I played a lot of games at PAX Australia over the past few days; Mario 3D World, Wind Waker HD, Sonic Lost World, but I’m writing about Pikmin 3 first because it was the best. That’s right, the conclusion is in the introduction. You can stop reading now. Pikmin 3 is out here on Saturday and may already be out in your part of the world, and I never initially planned on playing this demo for that reason since the game is so close. My innocent eyes had not seen much of the game because I enjoy surprise in games, so I don’t much care for trailers or screenshots. Once I caught a glance of Pikmin 3 however I had no choice, I had to play it.

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Mighty Switch Force! 2 – 60 Second Review

OK, LET’S DO THIS, I’m going for a PAR TIME here! I just got through every level of this game and man oh man it’s really GOOD! OK, the first game was good right? But this takes it to a whole new level. Level 2, because it’s the 2 game. 2 comes after 1 and that means this is a sequel. A really good sequel that doesn’t really add much but adds a lot. ARE YOU FOLLOWING?

NO TIME TO READ THIS

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