Irregular Columns
Managed to get my hands on tomorrow’s newspaper before it went to print. Interesting front page headline! I’ve had to reduce the size here to fit it in our site’s narrow table but you can click the thumbnail to enlarge it if you can’t read it clearly!
As many will know, Sony has run into some trouble with their PlayStation 3 again. Recently we’ve seen systems crashing and randomly deleting data, trying to comprehend the date February 30. We’ve also been warned of PS3 controllers that may explode, and witnessed the sinking of one of Sony’s own PR representative’s battleships.
PlayStation: It Only Does Single Player
PlayStation Network has been down for a number of days with no official word on when it’ll be back. Due to the unfortunate existence of “online only” single player games on PS3, many gamers around the world are stuck with games they can’t play. There’s also reports of peoples personal information and credit card details being leaked from Sony’s database. It’s a tough world for PS3 fans, one week you’re enjoying mandatory 24 hour patch installs, the next you’re sitting there alone, forced to finally watch the free Blu-ray of “Planet Earth” you got with your PS3. Before dwelling too much on the negatives, we’ve got to appreciate the humour of the situation. The disaster has been called everything from PlayStation Notwork to The Great Collaps3. Microsoft has taken this opportunity to rub salt in Sony’s wounds by unbanning a mass amount of people from Xbox Live. PSN has even been compared to pop-sensation Rebecca Black, both sharing the joy of getting down on Friday.
This Easter all I wanted to do was try out the PSN. This is no joke either, I’ve had a PSP for years but using that for internet related shenanigans is a nightmare. My new housemate has a PS3 though and this Easter he and his missus (my other housemate) were going down south for the long weekend. I was planning to charge up his PS3 and get some Battlefield 1943 action going. Maybe see how it’s movie purchases compared to iTunes, my current digital store of choice.
You can imagine my disappointment at the mysterious error code I received. The ever reliable Penny Arcade confirmed that the PSN network was down. I did however, strangely, successfully manage to download an update to my housemate’s copy of Super Street Fighter II HD Remix. Surprised he owned it really. So with my weekend fun cancelled I had to settle down and read All Quiet on the Western Front instead. I also got to eat a lot of chocolate and play online games on all the other systems in the house so the weekend was alright in the end.
I guess the timing is right to present the sequel to our Conduit/GoldenEye Wiimote Controls – my control settings for the first Conduit adapted to the sequel to The Conduit, which isn’t exactly The Conduit 2, but simply Conduit 2, a.k.a. DUKE NUKEM’s official return to video games. (The previous Note still applies, so keep those conditions in mind) My controls are geared toward an exploration/realism perspective, so it’s probably not the l337 onrine FPS’ing scheme suited to all those childish twitch-turning high-jumping strafe-running genre conventions that you were hoping to employ. I am raging infinity suns, but it’s not how I play shooty games.
Fortunately, this project includes somewhat less ranting and more explanation/analysis. Read on for screens/details and technical issues the gaming press probably didn’t mention in the reviews.
April 4, 2011. My life changed on this day. Nintendo Australia had announced their next connection tour, and it was for Pokemon Black & White. The Battle Competition’s first stop was Sydney, lucky me. I had two weeks to train up a competitive team in time, I knew I was up for the challenge but I also knew this is what would become my next two weeks. I have unfinished business with Pokemon tournaments, making finals and semi-finals in the last few over the years.
Continue reading “Pokemon Black & White Battle Competition – Sydney NSW”
April 4, 2011. My life changed on this day. Nintendo Australia had announced their next connection tour, and it was for Pokemon Black & White. The Battle Competition’s first stop was Sydney, lucky me. I had two weeks to train up a competitive team in time, I knew I was up for the challenge but I also knew this is what would become my next two weeks. I have unfinished business with Pokemon tournaments, making finals and semi-finals in the last few over the years.
Continue reading “Pokemon Black & White Battle Competition – Sydney NSW”
April 4, 2011. My life changed on this day. Nintendo Australia had announced their next connection tour, and it was for Pokemon Black & White. The Battle Competition’s first stop was Sydney, lucky me. I had two weeks to train up a competitive team in time, I knew I was up for the challenge but I also knew this is what would become my next two weeks. I have unfinished business with Pokemon tournaments, making finals and semi-finals in the last few over the years.
Continue reading “Pokemon Black & White Battle Competition – Sydney NSW”
In the spirit of our previous efforts to showcase the horrible atrocities committed to the Wii by third-party developers, we at Pietriots are proud to announce our new 3DS Wall.
The 3rd Party Wall of Shame was an analysis of wrongs committed after the fact. This wall is intended to be a display of the building libraries of every developer for the 3DS, along with aggregated critical scores of each title individually and together as a group.
The original wall was made in response to unscrupulous claims from a few third parties that complained that their games were not selling on the Wii, despite their “obvious quality,” and that people were buying Nintendo’s games instead. The 3rd Party Wall of Shame showed those claims to be totally unfounded, as said third parties published some of the worst titles in their histories. The question was asked, “Who deserves to sell more?” The responses were silence and sudden anger at the creators of the Wall.
This is an ongoing project, which I will attempt to keep up with weekly or bi-weekly, depending on holidays or work. And sometimes just mood.
There were so many stupid comments made recently that I really got overwhelmed and couldn’t do any of them. Oh, and I blame that flop 3DS system thing. Anyway, back to work!
Our latest “Durp!” comes from the mouth of David Cage, known for that Heavy Rain game that is a disgrace to the ADV genre.
“Look at Call Of Duty. How many copies does it sell every year? I’m fine with that. It’s cool. I’m just saying that I’m not happy with an industry that is entirely limited to experiences where all you are doing is shooting. That’s my problem. There is much more we can do with interactivity than just killing people.”
“Hey, what’s wrong with that quote? He’s defending videogames!”
Oh, yes, he’s defending videogames, but let’s look at one line in particular…
Continue reading ““Durp!” – David Cage: “I think I know what interactive entertainment is!””
(DivX video link at end of post; watch the new video here)
A follow-up to my previous The House of the Dead: Overkill videos, this time focusing on the two affordable current-generation last-generation games that handle aiming calibration properly: Ghost Squad and The House of the Dead 2&3 Return. The video is a series of quick gameplay cuts trying to get the point across: with the appropriate gun+game combo, everything works “great”, not perfectly, but sometimes better than I expect. The footage says a lot, but there’s more I want to add.
Continue reading “Wii Sniper Rifle Video – Gameplay Montage”
Today I got the chance to play some games on Game Boy Advance. It was quite fun going back to it after playing so many new handhelds, and finding that it still has its place.
I was supposed to add some Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers videos to my collection a year ago, but didn’t get around to it until this month. Whoops. Ever since finishing the game, I wanted to share some footage to help address a certain aspect of the gameplay. In the link you’ll find some videos demonstrating the primary mechanics as I mess around with NPCs and give monsters “the business”.
(DivX video link at end of post)
Let’s make this clear: the manual camera is a huuuge part of the gameplay.
Continue reading “You’re playing it wrong – The Crystal Bearers (with videos)”
I got to play much more 3DS the other day, and more games including Street Fighter, Resident Evil Mercenaries, Asphalt 3D and Steel Diver. All in all I must have got about 2 hours playtime on various games, so how does the system hold up after that?
Pietriots 