Author Archives: Junior Smart

New Ico and Shadow of the Colossus HD Videos now online

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Sony are looking to put the nightmare past few months of hacking behind them by putting up two new Japanese trailers for their two critically acclaimed games overnight.

These two critically acclaimed games are none other than the new ICO and Shadow of the Coloussus HD updates and it is clear as day to see that these new videos are there to tantalize, arouse and excite fans new and old.
Personally I have to admit that I never got round to playing ICO but I did play the mighty, mighty Shadow of the Colossus and that game was nothing short of incredible.

From the footage it seems that both HD updates are looking totally gorgeous with all those humongous bosses a release date looking like it will be the end of September. Even better is the announcement that these games will come with full 3D support and a cheaper than chips asking price of £30 for both titles.

Check out the trailer and give us your thoughts.

L.A. Noire – Game Review

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Rockstar Games makes the 1940’s world dark, sinister and not to mention sexy.

I knew it the very minute I saw her; something about the way she made her approach at me, like eyes looking from afar. Her controversial nature shone a reputation like a Rockstar and demanded my attention. Like a woman of your wildest dreams Rockstar Game LA Noire puts you in an incomparable situation where too much is never enough and, more often than not you will be left crying out for more or to get just that little bit further.

I have been talking like this ever since I played LA Noire – the newest release from Rockstar Games and what can I say – I am smitten.

In LA Noire you become Cole Phelps, a hero returning from World War II and now a cop on the LAPD. Murders, corruption and dirty, dirty deceit stand in your way as you attempt to piece together vital clues and discover the truth. During the game you will track and solve cases that include serial killers, rapists, smash paedophile rings and drug rackets. You will also come face to face with the seedy world of 1940’s LA, Hollywood, racism, Domestic Violence not to mention the questionable motives of the police department. Typical of Rockstar Games – whom almost seem to delight bringing you the gritty reality – the game does not shy away from the hard topics, coupled with sharp, period-specific scripts, solid direction and the adoption of Motion-Scan technology, (seen in Heavy Rain and Mass Effect but used with much more proficiency here) LA Noire is the embodiment of Cole Phelps, and you cannot help but develop rapport with him for what he is facing. Like fellow title Heavy Rain there is a strong undercurrent that all is not as it seems and that there is a large area of grey between black and white. Throughout the game there are frequent flashbacks to his troubling tour of duty – some of which concern his colleagues and around the game there are newspapers which show you a gritty back story independent of the main game which are pretty shocking. There are also cases that leave you with a sick feeling in your stomach because you realize the characters in the game have got it all wrong.

The majority of the gameplay lies in solving crimes. These are presented in a lovely ‘Columbo’ Sunday matinee prologue kind of feel; there is a murder, a woman is snatched, a man is shot, a shady dealing takes place or you see someone enter a building and there is a scream. You make your way to the car, drive to the scene and find and examine as many pieces of evidence as you can find. Finding evidence is partially similar to Heavy rain, but rather than technology good old Cole has his instincts. Sometime the pad will vibrate if he comes across something, sometimes if you are searching an apartment you will hear the music change, sometimes you will have to use your saved intuition points and sometimes you will just have to be lucky. It is through unearthing this evidence and speaking to witnesses that you will build up enough of a case to put a suspect behind bars.

It is in these sequences where LA Noire comes into its own. The MotionScan technology truly takes things to a whole new level. Facial expressions, body language, tones of voice all play a part in helping you determine whether a witness is telling you the truth or plain face lying in order to hide skeletons in their closet. In questioning a suspect you can make accusations but if you do you need to refer back to incriminating evidence perhaps located earlier on. Explicit questioning can be a nerve-racking affair especially in the later stages of a case when the pressure is on by your superiors to wrap up a case or when evidence is so slim you have to go with anything you have. In the first few stages of the game the in game tutorial provides quite a lot of support and hand holding but later, when the gloves are off you are expected to do it all and there are quite a few surprises along the way – nothing is as it seems.

Quite often you may not even get as far as questioning a suspect as some will make a break for it and need to be stopped. This begins a chase sequence where you and your partner have to give chase either on-foot or in a vehicle. Whilst these sequences offer a welcome break from the main question and answer routine they fail to be done with as much spit and polish. Some sequences end in a fisty-cuffs or a shoot out – and again whilst these are credibly delivered and the combat and firearms are nicely executed in an ‘Untouchables’ kinda way, sometimes you get the feeling that these were just flung in for extra good measure. It is a bit like when you commandeer a vehicle in the game; although you are taking the vehicle with authority it is essentially no different (besides the mandatory drag to the street or slap to the face) of that seen in ‘Grand Theft Auto’. Not that these sections are bad, the quality of the actions is as you would expect of any other sand box game, they just could be done better.

Sometimes LA Noire is too smart for its own good. Rockstar obviously wanted to cram a great deal into this project and it shows but to be honest at times it is bursting at the seams. Despite being linear in its approach quite often you are encouraged to stray from the path into sheer nothingness with side missions which are just petty and rarely drive the plot forward. In short it just is not becoming of the title. Another gripe would be in the character animation. Occasionally I found annoying glitches when I wanted to manoeuvre the character to do exactly what I wanted him to do. The same happens for your partner’s animations too, which, on more than a few occasions can only be described as erratic. As a games player I found this quite disappointing, however thankfully these were less of the norm. Everything is so beautifully rendered from the vehicles to the buildings that to be honest the minor faults pale in comparison to the appeal and trying to cram so much into a game is almost destined to run into problems of some kind sooner or later.

With 21 primary case missions to solve, along with 40 side missions and countless collectables there is certainly lots to discover wit La Noire, and although you may not wish to trawl through the game for a second play in order to succeed in your gameplay rankings there is a whole host of Downloadable Content to sink your investigative skills into. These include:

The Naked City – a bonus case previously given away to those who pre-ordered the game. Here Phelps investigates the apparent suicide of a fashion model. It also contains the “Badge Pursuit Challenge” where the player is tasked with finding 20 police badges hidden in the city. If you manage to find them all you will gain access to the “Button Man” suit; an in-game piece of clothing that allows the player to carry extra ammo.

A Slip of the Tongue; a traffic case where a simple car theft escalates into a large scale investigation into the largest car fraud racket in the city’s history.

Popping into the PSN Store in the game also give you the opportunity to purchase:

“The Broderick” detective suit; a suit that boosts the fighting ability of the player’s character as well as its resistance to damage.

“The Sharpshooter” that enhances a character’s aim with pistols and rifles.

“The Chicago Piano” an OMG type of Machine Gun as they say ‘favoured for its reliability’ which when purchased is stored in the boot of Cole Phelps’ car throughout the game.

If that isn’t enough more DLC is planned for the future including two other cases: Nicholson Electroplating, an Arson case and Reefer Madness, a Vice case due for release on 12 July 2011.

All of this means that there is plenty of reasons to return to this title and purchasing a RockStar pass gives you entitlement to new content as it is released.

My Final Verdict –

So I turned my eyes to her as she entered the room and smiled as I turned her on…I knew it wasn’t going to be a one night stand, as long as she kept bringing something new to me I would keep wanting to play with her all night long. She was never going to stay on the shelf…not for long anyway…

Sorry…In short – Granted it is not perfect – but it is still gloriously good.

8.9 / 10

How does this game compare to others in its genre?

There are only a few games of this type for comparison…

Equal to: Heavy Rain

Better than: Alpha Protocol

Worse than: None

Microsoft Shows Off New Kinect & Windows Phone Crossover

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If you thought it was just going to be for games, think again. Microsoft was always going to have more special things in the pipeline for their innovative Kinect.

In typical Microsoft style, the following video surfaced showcasing some early features of cross-platform use between Windows Phone and Kinect. It demonstrates just some of the basic features that can be used, and wow! The future does look promising – sending reminders to your phone or even sending directions.

 

While the video shows development testing in its early stages, already the rumour mill is turning about what’s next. Personally, I would like to see if stereoscopic 3D could be added into the mix. Or how about online play between Kinect users? How about Windows being used by the Kinect ‘touch style’ like Tony Stark in Iron Man?

What would you like to see…?

Green Lantern – Rise of the Manhunters: Game Review

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Hey, who turned out the light?

My first thoughts when I got this game were not overly positive. I mean, movie tie-in games tend to be pants and synonymous with rushed deadlines, repetitive game play and pointless plots that neither push the console’s hardware, or push the player on the end of the controller to anything other than utter suicide. And lets face it, there are enough useless games out there without the need to resort to such attempts that are no more than cash-ins on an audience looking to ‘vividly’ re-enact their favourite moments from a flick that will inevitably end up on DVD in a bargain basket somewhere.

Rise of the Manhunters tries desperately to reverse this trend. Gosh, it tries so, so hard. But try as it might, it never comes to the point where it is truly spectacular or ‘an essential purchase’.

Developed by Double Helix – the developers behind Front Mission Evolved, G.I Joe, (yes, I see you laughing at the back), Rise of the Manhunters takes place shortly after the events in the movie. Hal Jordan (voiced almost persuasively by Ryan Reynolds) is the Green Lantern and the story takes place at the centre of the universe on the Green Lantern homeworld, Oa.

For the uninitiated, the Green Lantern Corps is an ‘elite police force’ created by the ancient guardians of the universe in order to protect it from evil. Each Green Lantern carries a ring which can channel and manifest their willpower into any object or mechanism they can think of.

You play as Hal Jordan, the most recent Green Lantern recruit and immediately find yourself tasked with stopping the Manhunters – an ancient race who are sworn enemies of the Guardians – from stealing their powers.

It is sad to see that the plot line from the movie has been thrown out of the window along with any back story. Yes, well, we all knew the big bucks cash-in cow would make some sacrifices didn’t we? What we have here is no back story, no continuation from the film and no ending. So what DO we have?

Well, gameplay-wise, what we have is basically no more than a basic hack ‘n’ slash, button-basher in the majority of the green palette. Yes, you have to time your combos. Yes, you have button combinations. Yes, you get to use your green ring, and yes, you have upgrades, But inevitably, it is wave after wave of the same thing.

The developers failed to work more variety into the missions and as a result, far too many of your ‘duties’ end up as systematically taking down robots or shutting down teleportation gates, and shamefully, besides the odd palette change, the majority of your enemies look continually similar.

There are some nice set pieces though. For example, the boss battles are quite nice, as are the flying sections which really make good use of the 3D effect. You also have the ability to collect XP from your fallen enemies which you can use to upgrade your powers and construct new weapons such as a massive baseball bat to send enemy projectiles back at them, a huge buzzsaw that can give multiple hits on your enemies or even turn yourself into a massive jet in the flying sections.

Another thing that this title brings to the table is drop in, drop out co-op play. So if you have a friend, you can both partake in some ring-blasting action (pun intended). Although the game only supports it offline, I found it really good to see. So many developers go for online play, but nothing quite beats that ‘Streets of Rage’ feeling you get with a friend when you are taking on the best of what the enemy has to offer.

I found the controls and movement to be a little dated. There is no sprint option for instance and even worse, no camera control, so this means there are set angles of play with no way of rotating the camera to see behind you. You do have a dodge button and quick attacks, but the enemies tend to circle round you and if you are caught in a corner, you have no choice but to fight your way out or watch as your life force gets blasted away.

Although it is fair to say you won’t be blown away by the graphics, as mentioned before, the game features 3D visuals and it is pleasing to see that this applies to all formats – the Nintendo 3DS, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. The PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360’s 3D can be accessed in two forms, TriOviz Inficolor 3D – which is usable on any standard TV with the game’s included 3D glasses – and stereoscopic 3D for ‘proper’ 3DTVs. While the 3D effects are not as dramatic as say Black Ops, there is evidently more depth and some nice explosions too. This is something I think that more games should do.

Although I have slated the sheer expense of 3D in the past, the fact is the cost of them is dropping. More movies (including Green Lantern) are coming out in 3D, so they’re bound to be out by Christmas on 3D Blu-Ray. Therefore the only thing lacking is the number of games, which can really make or break the market.

To sum up: How does this game compare to others in its genre?

It is here that I feel a little bit sorry for Hal Jordan and his green ring…

Equal to: Marvel Super Hero Squad: Infinity Gauntlet, Thor.

Better than: Lego star wars the clone wars, Fantastic 4 – Rise of the Silver Surfer.

Worse than: God of War, Castlevania – Lords of shadow, Bayonetta.

My Final Verdict –

For a movie tie-in, Rise of the Manhunters doesn’t do as badly as expected, but is still not worth the money – even on a reduced price tag. There are just so many games out there which do the job better. Granted it is not bad – it is just not that good either.

5.5/ 10

 

Six Things You Didn’t Know About Green Lantern

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1) There have been six Green Lanterns in total.

Although most people have come to know the Green Lantern as being Hal Jordan, there were five others. In the Cartoon Network’s Justice League cartoons, he is John Stewart – an African-American man. But the very first Green Lantern was the World War II-era superhero, Alan Scott, an army engineer who found a magic green lantern and made a ring that allowed him to tap its powers.

The other Lanterns are all members of the Green Lantern Corps. Obviously. you have Hal Jordan who received his from Abin Sur, who was hurt and later died from injuries when his spaceship crashed. Guy Gardner was second as a backup should anything ‘happen’ to Hal, until Stewart replaced Gardner on the sub’s bench. Kyle Rayner became the ‘last’ Green Lantern when Jordan became infected with the Parallax and went on a murderous rampage. And the last member of the Corps who became a Green Lantern for Earth is Jade, the daughter of Alan Scott, who was given one of the spare Power Rings.

2) Superman was going to be in the film at one point making a cameo appearance.

Following on from Marvel’s success at having cameos in movies, DC and the director were intent at having Clark Kent/Superman in the script. Originally, he had a cameo as one of the candidates considered to receive a power ring, but was cut out because the filmmakers didn’t want to depend on another superhero for a success. So much for The Man of Steel’s invulnerability.

3) There is a hidden scene at the end of the credits. Sorry, but I just wouldn’t be a man if I told you what happens.

4) Quentin Tarantino was considered to direct the film.

This is absolutely true and was scheduled as his big comeback film. Question is, could you imagine a Green Lantern film directed by him? A cross between guns, green lights, John Travolta and Samuel L Jackson and let’s not forget blood, exploding heads etc. Hmm. Can Green Lantern dance?

5) There are different-coloured Lanterns.

The Green Lantern’s background has been greatly expanded in recent years, to the point that there are now seven different Lantern Corps. Each is driven by a particular emotion — the Green Lanterns are powered by willpower, the Blue Lanterns is hope, the Red Lanterns represent rage, and so on. Sinestro, a character in the movie and comic books, inherits a yellow ring – driven by fear. Incredibly, in the comics, Blake Lively’s character, Carol Ferris, goes on to inherit a violet ring, powered by love, and later becomes Star Sapphire.

6) The movie could have been completely different.

There are loads of different scripts that they came up with for Green Lantern.. Out of all those, perhaps the one most interesting is the one which contained a cameo by Alan Scott, the first Green Lantern in history (whose powers were magical rather than cosmic). Scott was going to be the United States President, and near the end would reveal his own past as a Green Lantern to Jordan, and give him his blessing. He was later revised to become an agent of the Checkmate agency (the Checkmate membership stayed true to the comics), who would approach and offer Jordan membership. Later drafts finally wrote him out of the film, and replaced him with Amanda Waller. Shame? Yeah that’s what I said…

Green Lantern – Movie Review

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The light  burns,  but nowhere near as bright as it could have.

You can tell it is the summer blockbuster season can’t you? We have had one superhero movie a month so far and still got a couple more to go. None of this is a problem for me. I love a good superhero movie as much as the next child. When I took my Godchildren to see this film, one could almost say I was more excited than they were. I bounced into the cinema with excitement, flung on my 3D glasses with almost wild abandon and had the biggest bag of popcorn the girl behind the counter could create firmly in my lap.

The film started and it wasn’t like I was disappointed, just more like I expected more. You see, when so many films come out with people having special powers, a film needs to be unique to stand above what you have seen before. Otherwise, like quite a lot of the Michael Bay films, everything turns into something you have seen before.

To be fair, it is arguable that the Green Lantern is perhaps the lesser known superhero from the DC World and Martin Campbell, the director behind Casino Royale, does a good job with the opening sequence bringing those new to the Green Lantern world up to date.

Basically, throughout the universe exists a galactic police force known as the Green Lantern Corps. Created by the Guardians, each member has a power ring, which grants the bearer the ability to create anything their mind imagines. When the guardian’s ancient enemy – a huge all consuming yellow cloud known as Parallax – is released and begins to feed on fear, Green Lantern Abin Sur (played by Temuera Morrison), takes on the threat and in the ensuing battle is gravely wounded. He pilots his ship to the nearest habitable planet so he can send the ring off to choose a worthy replacement.

Enter Hal Jordan (played by Ryan Reynolds), a test pilot whose brash and arrogant attitude lands him in all sorts of trouble and whose recent failures almost cause his employers to go bankrupt. In short, he is one step away from being a bum. It is after a bar brawl with some of his ex-colleagues that incredibly, the ring finds him and zap, the real story begins. I say the real story because it takes a whopping 40 minutes to get this far and before this, although there are special effects, things are far from interesting.

Once the film does get going, it does so with gusto and we see some interesting dynamics played out. While the ring chose Hal, Abin Sur’s other pupil, Sinestro (played by Mark Strong), sees only weakness in Jordan. And with Parallax threatening the universe and the existence of the Green Lanterns, Jordan has to overcome his fear and desire to run away from responsibility and commit to being a hero.

Ryan Reynolds does a good job as Green Lantern. He certainly looks the part and I think if anything, the script lets him down. Some of the arguments and some of the things that his character does just doesn’t make sense, whether he is on the road to being a bum or not, and it is these barriers which stop you from empathising with him or feeling anything at all for what is going on.

Blake Lively plays the lovely Carol Ferris, Hal’s co-pilot, co-worker and budding love interest. She is very charismatic on screen, yet strong-willed and feisty. In many ways you believe she is the one to bring Hal round to taking on the responsibly he has been given. I don’t mind saying I could just look at her all day and not say a word, but that would be rather stalker-ish of me.

From the start, there is a great deal of respect for the source material. DC, the producers, and the director stay close to the mythos of the comic book. This is a good and a bad thing. The characters, names, and places are pretty much all there, the effects, whilst not Avatar quality, are fairly decent and it is good to see the realisation of characters such as Kilowog, and Abin Sur looking and sounding every inch their comic counterpart.

The film does suffer from over use of CGI in places. For example, the homeworld Oa just looks like a giant screensaver. Only Parallax looks genuinely scary. As for the flight sequences – well actually, you get no feeling of flight whatsoever and most of the battles just seem average.

3D has its place in the movie and truly comes into its own when Jordan uses his ring and the power of his will is created on screen. Other than that, 3D effects are sparse and to be fair, the special effects are good enough without it. The problem is, that despite all the special effects, I was never truly left in awe by the Green Lantern’s power, I never truly believed in Hal Jordan’s cause and never truly felt like he was up against the odds or that he couldn’t win. If anything, I only felt annoyed by the length of time it took the filmmakers to get to the point where they could create a scenario big enough for him to believe in himself.

I know my Godchildren enjoyed the film tremendously, but compared to the other summer releases I would say that Green Lantern is a lot less involving than Thor and nowhere near as good as X-Men: First Class. Having said that, it might not be the worst superhero movie of the summer, after all Transformers and Captain America are both just round the corner.

My Final Verdict
Go watch it, but only if you really have to.

7 / 10

Three Arrested Over PS3 Hacks – Cyber Group 'Anonymous' Blamed

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Spanish police announced yesterday that they had captured three people suspected of hacking in connection with the recent attacks against Sony’s PlayStation Network, as well as government and corporate websites around the world.

One man, based in the city of Gijón, allegedly had a computer used to attack PSN as well as Spanish banks and other corporate companies. The other two arrests took place in Valencia and Barcelona, but as yet, no further information has been given.

If Spain’s National Police are to be believed, the arrests were made as part of an investigation that began last October after the Ministry of Culture website was hacked, and that the offenders were traced by incriminating chat logs and web pages.

According to sources, the three suspects were part of the hacking group ‘Anonymous’. The group previously denied any official involvement with the PSN hack, although a police statement suggests Anonymous continues to ‘hold a vast membership of people from various countries around the world, organised into ‘cells’ that share common goals’.

An unnamed source said:  ‘These hackers are activists operating anonymously, but in a coordinated fashion. Commonly referred to as ‘hactivists’, this group of hackers has been cyber-attacking networks and websites around the globe and then gleefully advertising their successes.”

If these are true, and let’s be honest, it is not entirely unfeasible, attacks on corporate companies are likely to be a more of a regular occurrence in the future.

Stay tuned to Frost for more information as it happens…

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 Trailer Officially Unveiled

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You read it here first at Frost Magazine – the trailer for most eagerly anticipated game of the year  – Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 – has been officially unveiled.

In the first trailer to actually show ‘in-game footage’, we can clearly see pulse-pounding, First-Person action from four of the key areas of conflict – Germany, France, England and America.

The teaser trailer gives an insight into the games plot. Panning shots show a devastated New York City while elsewhere, a solider descends from a helicopter in full view of the mighty Big Ben, only for the scenes to culminate in an epic, explosive race with a tube train. The widely predicted release date for this title is November 8th.

Is Modern Warfare 3 going to be Heaven or Hell on earth?  Let us know what you think of the trailer below.

 

 

 

http://youtu.be/coiTJbr9m04