I recently read a very interesting article by Mitch Dyer on IGN.com entitled "12 Innovations We Want fromPS4 and XBox 720" and while I agree with a majority of what the author had to say, including a unified Video service, complete online retail and automatic updates, there was one particular point he made that made me extremely worried.
"We don't need a hard drive. Let's enter a future where all our games and all our saves live somewhere else, instantly accessible on our next-gen console as well as on associated mobile devices.
In an ideal world this would be a fantastic idea. Every console owner on the planet could access their saves wherever they were, whosoever's console they were using. Unfortunately though, we don't live in a utopian world where everyone has reliable access to the one thing that makes this all possible.
The Internet.
A friend of mine recently went two weeks without even basic access to the Web, and while this is in no way the end of the world (although you'd be pressed to find a 13 year old who would agree) he got by. The reason for that was simple, he had his game saves on his hard drive and could access them whenever he needed to.
I'm no enemy of "the cloud" in fact it's a brilliant idea so long as it's coupled with local data storage, like we currently have with this generations pre-installed hard drives. Sony have already taken the first steps toward cloud storage, any Playstation Plus member can store their game saves in the cloud, but they can also keep those save files on their hard drive. Essentially the Cloud is a back up plan in case the hard drive fails, and the reverse is also true. Extending the application of Cloud storage further is certainly where the future of gaming lies, it would be of great use to be able to back up your DLC and other purchases on the cloud, but limiting consoles entirely to using online saves is short sighted and cuts out a great many people who don't have access to the internet.
The Last of Us has taken most people by complete surprise, I count myself as one of them. I honestly wasn't expecting to be so enthused about a "zombie" style game, especially at a time when most commentators seem to be suggesting that the craze for the brain eating monsters seemed to be all but exhausted. Maybe it's the fact that this isn't truly a Zombie game, but more akin to an open world survival experience where some of your foe's happen to be extremely aggressive and have really bad acne, but whatever the reason, Naughty Dog deserve credit for managing to put together an extremely smooth début video that told us everything we needed to know in a short amount of time.
According to the Twitter account of Naughty Dog's creative director Neil Druckmann, the game has already been in development for two years! This makes the fact that they could keep it almost completely under wraps until now even more impressive. Well played Naughty Dog.
During the latest Killer Keyboard podcast we mused over whether this games impressive début trailer could cause it similar problems to those suffered by Dead Island after its début with the reverse time trailer. I can understand the worry, but in all honesty I don't see an issue. Naughty Dog are Sony's premier development studio, they have enough manpower and development experience to ensure that, even with their second team being the primary development team behind the project, whatever they show us now will be a fair example of how the game will work.
With the game reportedly due out next year we don't have much longer to wait until we can play it for ourselves. Probably more than I can say for "I Am Alive"
This seemed to be the week for shock admissions and announcements. First, we had the aforementioned news that Naughty Dog had a second team who had been secretly working on The Last of Us for the past 2 years, and then the admission by Hideo Kojima, that Metal Gear Rising had quietly been dropped from development until Platinum Games showed interest in finishing the project.
Said Kojima: "In the summer of 2010, the team made a presentation for me...I realized the game design still wasn't there yet." He continued "As the young staff said to me, they wanted a good game that just felt good moving around, and we would never get that, so I decided to cancel the project."
"But still, we had a lot of things" [already developed] "Motion capture, a lot of good story, the view of the world inside the game, and I wanted to use that somehow. I wanted Rising to be born again, so that's when I decided to contact Platinum Games."
This is the first Metal Gear game to be developed outside of Kojima's own studio but so far on the evidence of the VGA trailer it looks like Raiden should have a decent game behind him when he next draws his sword in anger.
If you were thinking of using more than one account on your PSP Vita you'd better have more than one of their ridiculously overpriced memory cards to hand. SCEA's associate brand marketing manager Crystal Mackenzie has told Wired.com that "If you wanted to change different PSN users but use the same memory card, you would need to go factory reset," effectively wiping the card of all it's save data. Good news however, you can apparently spread your saves over multiple cards all tied to the same account. Although, why you would want to, and how you could afford such a thing is, frankly, beyond me...
Plenty of 3DS news this week, starting with the announcement that sales of Nintendo's handheld console had their best ever week in Japan with just over 378,000 sold. This was no doubt aided by the release of the fantastic looking Monster Hunter Tri-G branded bundle. It includes the rather snazzy looking Monster Hunter branded 3DS and a copy of the game. Fear not though because it's headed state side soon.
Kid Icarus: Uprising, a game that i had a hands on with earlier in the year, and which caused meto get a nasty cramp in my left hand, will be released on March 23rd. Mario Party 9 goes on sale a little earlier in the month, releasing as it does on March 11th. I have absolutely no idea if either of these games works with the circle pad, you know, the thing that gives you a second control stick that should have been part of the console as standard...
That little niggle not withstanding it turns out that when the circle pad is released in the States (February 7th in case you wondered) it will be a GameStop exclusive. You stupid company Nintendo, why make it an exclusive? Oh, and you'll have to pay an extra $20 for that second stick that should have been included anyway.
I bought Skyrim recently, well it would be silly not to since it was only £22.49 at Game and GameStation. One of the things i like about these games is the amount of stuff you can do which has absolutely no point, like, for example, putting buckets over NPC's heads.
Todd Howard mentioned this little peculiarity when, during an interview with Joystiq, the subject turned to bugs: "I think our favourite really is putting the buckets on the heads," he laughed. "It was like day two, and we went, what? Do we fix that? Our lead programmer is pissed and wants to fix it, and I said I'm not sure we should. That's one of those where maybe we leave it in."
Games developers have a sense of humour too!
Probably helps when you've made the most played game of 2011, that was the news that came out of game tracking service Raptr this week. Not surprisingly Modern Warfare 3 was the most played Shooter, FIFA 12 took the Sports prize while Skyrim was the most popular RPG, but the shock comes in the overall category. Despite being released 3 days after the Activision juggernaut, Skyrim still managed to squeeze more play hours out of it's fans.
That's what infinite Dragons and un-ending quest systems can do for you i guess. Congratulations Bethesda.
Remember that Sorcery game that got shown off at E3 2010? It made fantastic use of the Playstation Move controller and actually looked like it was a lot of fun. Well it's been a little quiet since then, and silence from a developer is never a good sign, but the good news is that development of the game is going as expected and the final product will be due for release in Spring 2012. I doubt i'll be buying a move controller to play it, but if you have the tech already it's well worth your checking it out.
Continuing on the Playstation theme, the next piece of news will shock none of you. Except maybe for Tarquin Jones from Northampton. SURPRISE TARQUIN! #clearlymadeupname
Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 will let players use their Vita as a PS3 control pad. To be honest this was something i expected from the PSP so it's nice to see, but unless it improves the gaming experience somehow this is surely just a waste of your handheld's battery life isn't it?
Time for some nostalgia now. Hands up who remembers playing the original Tony Hawks Pro Skater on their PSOne, N64 or Dreamcast? Well as you may have heard on the Killer Keyboard Podcast there's an HD re-make on the way, and it uses all the original skate parks. No news as to the track listing yet but fingers crossed for the original line up of Goldfinger, Primus and the Dead Kennedys.
Here's your UK Top Ten for the week ending December 10th 2011
1- The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim 2- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 3- Just Dance 3 4- FIFA 12 5- Assassins Creed: Revelations 6- Battlefield 3 7- Professor Layton and The Spectre's Call 8- Saints Row: The Third 9- Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception 10-Mario Kart 7
Not too surprising that the best played game of 2011 is also at number one in the UK. I fully expect to see Skyrim at number one next week too, thanks to the half price Skyrim offer at Game and GameStation. CoD MW3 is at number two thanks to Skyrim's rise from mid-table while Just Dance 3 gets a surprise podium finish ahead of FIFA 12. Another week with no Zumba fitness in the top ten, I must be in Heaven!
Well, thanks for checking in once again, remember to check out the latest episode of the Killer Keyboard Podcast and feel free to contact us either by E-Mail, leaving comments in our stories, or tweeting us your views.
Despite the fact that Spike TV couldn't seemingly be bothered to screen all the award winners at this years Video Game Awards, and while acknowledging my own personal abhorrence for their treatment of living legends such as Mark Hamill, it wouldn't be right to completely ignore an awards ceremony that had as many trailers for new upcoming games as E3.
On a side note, It's worrying that Kojima tweeted yesterday that perhaps he would abandon E3 and make all subsequent announcements at the VGA ceremony from now on, although i think perhaps his tongue was placed firmly in his cheek.
So here's a quick list of the categories and victors at this years Spike TV VGA's
Game of the Year - The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Studio of the Year - Bethesda Game Studios
Character of the year - The Joker – Batman: Arkham City
Video Game Hall of Fame Award - The Legend of Zelda
Gamer God Award - Blizzard Entertainment
Best XBox 360 Game - Batman: Arkham City
Best PS3 Game - Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception
Best Wii Game - The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
Best PC Game - Portal 2
Best Handheld or Mobile Game - Super Mario 3D Land
Best Shooter - Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
Best Action Adventure Game - Batman: Arkham City
Best RPG - The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Best Multiplayer - Portal 2
Best Individual Sports Game - Fight Night Champion
Best Team Sports Game - NBA 2K12
Best Driving Game - Forza Motorsport 4
Best Fighting Game - Mortal Kombat
Best Motion Game - The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
Best Indy Game - Minecraft
Best Adapted Video Game - Batman: Arkham City
Best Song in a Game - "Build that Wall (Zia's Theme)" by Darren Korb – Bastion
Best Original Score - Bastion
Best Graphics - Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception
Best Performance by a Human Male - Stephen Merchant as Wheatley – Portal 2
Best Performance by a Human Female - Ellen McLain as GLaDOS – Portal 2
Best Downloadable Game - Bastion
Best DLC - Portal 2
Most Anticipated Game - Mass Effect 3
Gametrailers.Com Trailer of the Year - Assassin's Creed: Revelations – E3 2011 Trailer
EA Sports NFL Blitz Digital Cover Athlete - Ray Rice
We gave a quick breakdown on our thoughts on the winners in episode 17 of the Killer Keyboard podcast if you haven't already, have a listen for our discussion on topics such as, who really should have won the best Human Male award, and why i was disappointed that Fight Night got a gong.
Also, of equal interest to many watching the VGA's were the many trailers that were interspersed throughout the evening. Games such as Metal Gear Rising were re-packaged and duly put back on our radars, while newer titles such as "The Last of Us" and the somewhat controversial Rainbow Six: Patriots were given their débuts.
For the benefit of those of you who didn't or couldn't watch the awards on TV, here's a few of the trailers that ran that night.
Hitman: Absolution
The Last of Us
Tekken Tag Tournament 2
Tony Hawk Pro Skater HD
Command & Conquer: Generals 2
Mass Effect 3
Rainbow 6: Patriots
The Amazing Spider-Man
Transformers: Fall of Cybertron
Fortnite
BioShock Infinite
Metal Gear Rising Revengeance
Darksiders 2
Metal Gear Rising - Revengeance
That'll do for the VGA Round-up, the regular round-up will return soon to cover the rest of what's happened in the last seven days, along with further details on Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, The Last of Us and news on the most played game of 2011
A friend of mine recently went two weeks without even basic access to the Web, and while this is in no way the end of the world (although you'd be pressed to find a 13 year old who would agree) he got by. The reason for that was simple, he had his game saves on his hard drive and could access them whenever he needed to.
