Monday Round-up: Sony gets the F2P bug, COD Elite Beta launches...

Sony Online Entertainment announced today that DCU online would be joining the "Free-volution" by adopting a free to play model at the end of October.

For many gamers the monthly subscription was a sticking point that prevented them from getting on board with the SOE superhero MMO, but with the subscription model abandoned, and the announcement that the game itself will be free to download on the PSN, it's expected that many more gamers will be venturing into Gotham or Metropolis.

The new model will have three tiers of membership (Free, Premium and Legendary) depending on how much money you sink into the game through in game micro transactions, although SOE were at pains to state that micro transactions won't break the game. Items like the Superman Raid suit and extra EXP will not be available for purchase. That's heartening to hear, especially for a cheapskate like me who fully intends to play as a free member as far as i can.

Free membership is, as you can imagine, free. It allows for two character slots, access to current raids and online play in DC Universe Online, ability to join a league as well as many further benefits. Free level players can buy downloadable game packs/updates, additional character slots, powers and more through the aforementioned micro transactions.

Any gamer who has spent $5 or more in-game through either in game items or previous subscriptions qualifies for Premium membership. Premium members will get extra character slots, a greater cash limit and more inventory slots . just like Free members, premium members can also buy extra character slots etc in-game.

Legendary Membership requires a monthly subscription of $14.99 but includes all the features and benefits that current subscribers enjoy, including free DLC and the ability to create leagues of unlimited size. Anyone who already paid for a lifetime subscription will be automatically given Legendary membership as the lifetime subscription still stands.

John Smedley, president of SOE refuted the idea that this move came after a downturn in players. "In terms of 'Is it a result in a drop in subs' – absolutely not, This is the right business model. If I can be honest, the game ended up costing a lot more than we thought it would, and this was our preferred business model from day one."

You do have to question though, if this was their preferred business model, then why not implement it from day one? It would be fair to assume that SOE needed to recoup their money quickly and that the original model was the best option to do so.

DCU Online will be available as a free download in late October. On the subject of PSN, the Call of Duty: Elite Beta finally went live on Sony's console today.

An Activision press release stated that "Beta testers can take their current Call of Duty multiplayer experience to the next level by jumping into the Beta version of the Call of Duty Elite service, as beta access will start to be activated in stages, with limited invitations rolling out effective today," The Beta is currently only for CoD: Black Ops, but once Modern Warfare 3 is released on November 8th the full functions of the Beta will be made available.

To try getting in on the Beta you can head over to www.callofduty.com/elite and register your interest. I for one won't be bothering though...




Next up, Street Fighter IV will be making it's début on android phones sometime in Q4, unfortunately it will only be available on LG handsets for the first 3 months before being available on any Android compatible system thereafter.

I can't decide what's a worse idea, that you'll more than likely be playing SF IV on a phone with no buttons or that you'll have to play it on a crappy LG handset to begin with...




According to Andrisang.com Hideo Kojima, the genius behind the Metal Gear games, has announced that Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater will be released for 3DS in 2012, not 2011 as was originally planned.

Regular readers will remember that i had a hands on with the game at the IGN UK 100th podcast party and i was very impressed with the use of 3D and general fidelity of the graphics. I'm interested if this delay has anything to do with the leaked news of a second control stick add-on for the 3DS system, maybe Kojima-san wants to build in some compatibility with the add-on to rectify some of the control issues i had with the game.

Andriasang also reports that Kojima confirmed an early to mid 2012 release date for the Z.O.E. HD collection. Yay!



Netflix CEO Reed Hastings has announced the formation of a new company which will go by the name Qwikster. It marks the seperation of their streaming and Postal divisions and will require unique accounts to use either service. Going forward Netflix will handle the streaming side of the business while Qwikster will be the company in charge of the DVD/Games by post business.

Hard to say what advantage this move gives Netflix but it's an interesting development which makes sense of the re-pricing exercise of the previous few weeks.



Finally as always, here's the UK's top ten best selling games (all formats) for the week ending September 17:

1 - Dead Island
2 - Warhammer 40K: Space Marine
3 - Resistance 3
4 - Driver: San Franciso
5 - Deus Ex: Human Revolution
6 - Zumba Fitness
7 - Lego Pirates of the Caribbean
8 - Rugby World Cup 2011
9 - Lego Harry Potter: Years 1-4
10-Cars 2

Really? Who hasn't got Zumba yet that could possibly want it?

Rugby World cup is still performing well thanks to its real world counterpart, while Resistance 3 débuts at number 3 just below Dead Island and Warhammer 40k, which maintain their position at the top of the tree.

Right, i'm spent.

Later days!

TGS - Sony spring a surprise or two

The HD remake business is expanding rapidly on PS3, and Vita, with todays announcements of both Final Fantsay X and the Metal Gear HD collection.

In my opinion Final Fantasy suffered a sharp downturn after the tenth instalment of their hallmark RPG series, even today it's a great looking game, so it's nice to see that a new generation of gamers will be able to experience a good looking RPG with HD graphics that actually holds up during extended play.

Metal Gear HD Collection will contain the two Metal Gear Solid games to have appeared on PS2, Sons of Liberty and Snake Eater. Again, on a personal note, Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater was one of the best looking games on PS2 so to see it remastered in HD will be great, i'm interested to see how well MGS2 scrubs up too, since it was much earlier in the PS2's life cycle and so obviously didn't have the same level of polish that Snake Eater benefited from.

With the twin stick set up, and sheer power of the Vita it only makes sense that the HD versions of PS2 classics find their way onto the hardware, and it gives consumers one more reason to buy the console. I'm interested to see how, or even if they use the extra control options that the Vita has to offer, especially in the case of Final Fantasy, where the touch screen could let you interact with the in game menus in a whole new way.

While we're on the subject of Playstation classics heading to the Vita, you may have heard us mention Z.O.E. on a recent episode of the Killer Keyboard podcast. The HD version will be heading to PS3 and Vita in 2012 and will be transfer enabled (or "transfarring" as Kojima likes to say), meaning that if you have both consoles you can transfer your saves and play the same game on the move or at home. Just in case there are any ZOE enthusiasts out there, here's a little nugget from TGS.




Playstation Vita will be released in Japan on December 17th although no official date for America or Europe was forthcoming at today's Sony press conference.

Six of the Best - Game Intro's

I wrote recently about the intro to V Rally 3 and how it introduced me to the band A. That got me thinking, over the years there have been many games that utilised music and video to great effect when introducing the games I've played. Namco's Tekken series has always had excellent intro videos, Tekken 2 especially does an excellent job of introducing each fighter while utilising a brilliant energetic piece of music. It's a real shame that i can't find a video of Eidos Interactive's All Star Soccer, a game that for my money was one of the funniest sports related releases on the original Playstation with an Intro to match.

In essence i think a good game intro should get you amped up to play the game, it should represent everything that the game is about and make you enthusiastic to get stuck in. In my opinion each of the intros I've picked out here do just that.

Fifa 98 - Road to the World Cup



This was the last FIFA game that i owned, partly down to the 5 a side option and partly because Pro Evo kicked it's arse in the years that followed. The highlight of EA's world cup edition of the FIFA franchise was Blur's visceral anthem Song 2, a song that would be good enough to get into this list on it's own. If there's one tune that's guaranteed to get your blood pumping and the adrenaline flowing it's this one. Add to that the fact that the accompanying FMV follows all the rules of video game intro 101 and you have a great sports game introduction package. The cinematic shows you exactly what to expect in the game, the stadiums, the player animations, the gameplay and it even sums up the truly international nature of a world cup, It's all here in a perfect 90 second video package

Pro Evolution Soccer 2



There's only one song that can top Blur's song 2, there's only one band that could create a better football anthem. Maybe it's the stomp-stomp-clap backdrop to We Will Rock You that makes it so right for a football game, whatever the reason, there hasn't been a better Football intro since. The video follows the same rules as FIFA 98 with footballers from different countries all playing, scoring and getting booked. While there was no actual game play in this intro it didn't matter because this was all about telling a story and getting an emotional response from those who watched it.

It worked, They rocked me.

Gran Turismo 5



This intro tells such a fantastic story, the first half shows us the life of a car before it's a car, the ore is dug out of the earth, it's turned into metal, it's made into body panels etc. The piano accompaniment to all this is perfect, it has a sense of organisation, urgency and natural power, something that really compliments the educational material you see in front of you. It's like the soundtrack to a well oiled machine. It's also a welcome change to have a car racing game use a piece of classical music instead of going straight into a hectic piece of rock/pop.

That's not to say that a more energetic piece of music isn't welcome, My Chemical Romance's Planetary Go! kicks in at the start of the second half and it suits the racing portion of the movie down to the ground. It's a well implemented change of pace and shows that game designers don't have to choose one type of music over another when putting together an intro, they can use as many genres as they want.

This is another of those occasions when a game intro has made me go out and buy an album, and a very good album it is too.

Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater



This is Hideo Kojima's tribute to the countless Bond intros that have become as much a part of the franchise as Aston Martins or Vodka Martinis, and it's beautifully executed. Just like Bond the intro actually comes after a short amount of game play, it really is just like playing as 007.

The song Snake Eater, sung wonderfully by Cynthia Harrel is classic Bond fare, trumpets punctuate the sweeping strings and snare drum arrangement at various points giving it a real On Her Majesty's Secret Service feel.

The video is abstract art at its best, but while being great to look at it also serves a function. It sets up the time frame in which the game takes place, in seconds we know that the Cuban missile crisis and US tensions with the Soviet Union form a part of the back story. Credits in the video snake across the screen accompanied by a few real but curiously skeletal snakes. Bomber planes flying over camouflage patterns give it a military feel while you get a few shots of Snake in-game to remind you who the star of the show is.

Every time i watch this intro it makes me smile, not only is it a great tribute to a certain British Secret Agent but it's also one of the finest video game intros ever.

Final Fantasy VII



Come on now, if you've read this blog for any length of time you'll know that i have a massive hard on for FFVII but it's for good reason. Since first watching the intro video for the game in dumb struck awe way back in the late nineties I've been a fan of it's cutting edge (at the time) graphics, brilliant use of FMV, and amazing score by Nobuo Uematsu.

The intro to Final Fantasy VII crystallises everything that was great about the games audio-visual presentation, but more than that it introduces us to the characters and the universe in which the game takes place in such a way that we're instantly immersed in it. It doesn't just show you characters, but the world they live in, it shows the hustle and bustle of the streets, the dingy alleyways, and then zooms out to reveal the sprawling city in all it's gigantic glory. it gives the whole game extra depth.

This game also led me to buying the OST, Uematsu san's stuff really is that good.

V Rally 3



The game that inspired this column to begin with. I was pretty excited to play the game when i first got it anyway, so imagine how amped for it i was after watching the intro posted above!

It had everything. Cars going at break-neck speed on brilliantly rendered dusty/snowy/muddy courses in far flung countries (including wales) and a thumping soundtrack that instantly made you want to bury your foot into the floor. There's something about thrashy guitar led tunes that suits rally games, it just fits. I bought A's album soon after i first saw the intro for V Rally 3, but to think that if it wasn't for gaming I wouldn't have even heard of them.

Great intros make you want to play the game they front up, all of these intros did that for me and there are loads more out there that do exactly the same. So next time you boot up a new game and it has an introductory video, give it a watch, because sometimes they can enhance the experience more than you might think.