Feature: Hands-On Nintendo DSi XL

Perhaps I should’ve known better, but after launching the DSi I didn’t expect Nintendo to be releasing another version of their ultra successful NDS range of handhelds so soon. Counting up the various revisions brings the current total up to four, including the latest DSi XL, and exceeding variations available for both the original GameBoy and the GameBoy Advance. Whilst most of these updates have resulted in a smaller, more compact edition being released, with the DSi XL Nintendo have gone down the opposite route and given us the biggest DS yet.

Surely people aren’t going to fall for yet another version of the same thing, especially one which is simply larger than all the others, and features a small amount of built in software?


Well judging by sales of the new console in Japan, and by the pre-order numbers here in the UK, it looks like Nintendo have another hit on their hands, albeit a much smaller one that with the DS lite. At the same time with the XL, Nintendo don’t seem to be aiming the system at everyone - how many times have you heard grandma, or one of your aunties talk about using ‘that’ touch screen handheld at home; “I’ve just finished the Professor Layton game” or “that new brain game is what I’m going to be after next” along with “never thought I’d be into this, but it’s really quite fun” type scenarios - these are the kinds of people that Nintendo are pushing the system towards, ones that spend more time playing their DS’s at home rather than taking them out anywhere.

With that idea in mind, Nintendo have made the DSi XL the largest version of the DS yet, with what they are calling 93% bigger screens, though the logic isn’t quite so sound, but more on that later. Also, they’ve seen fit to include two bite-size pieces of software to keep the masses entertained for a little while after they first turn on the system. For Europe we’ve been given Dr. Kawashima’s: Little Bit of Brain Training: Arts Edition and Dictionary 6 in 1 with Camera Function, along with the enhanced DSi Browser, all of which come pre-installed on the machine. Again, showcasing the intended target audience outside regular gamers, and younger folk.


Nintendo’s DSi XL is available in two different colours here in the UK, with the options being a two-toned Dark Brown system, or a red one, referred to as Wine Red. The red XL lacks the two-tone coloured appearance of the brown but does feature the dual glossy top, shiny matte sides and bottom surfaces.

The overall look of both XL’s is immediately much sleeker than with the previous DSi models, featuring a stylish, glossy and smooth reflective finish on top, with shiny matte finish around the screen and on the undersides of both systems. However the Dark Brown model features a two-toned appearance, using a slightly lighter colour for the matte finish around the sides and underneath. This choice is slightly odd, but in my opinion makes the Dark Brown version appear more like a premium product, looking rather stylish, though some people at work strongly disagree, thinking it looks cheap as a result.

The XL measures 161 x 91.4 x 21.2 mm, and weighs 314 grams, compared to the DS Lite's 218g and the original DS's 300g, so it’s sizably weightier in addition to being a noticeably larger handheld.

The screens measure 4.2 inches diagonally across (3.36" x 2.52"), whilst the DSi's screens are 3.25 inches, and the DS Lite's screens are 3 inches respectively, making the XL screen size 93% larger than DS Lite's. However this official measurement uses an eschewed but legitimate method when working out the increased screen size, as the XL’s screen isn’t nearly twice as large as the DS Lite’ s, but instead being more like 50% physically bigger, which is exactly as it looks on the life-size comparison picture on the XL’s packaging, and when both machines are side by side.


The resolution of the XL’s screen is exactly the same as the ones found in all three of the other DS’s, a mere 256×192, which unfortunately due to the much larger screen size, creates a noticeably blockier look to games running on the XL when compared to the DSi or DS Lite. Effectively the pixel size is larger and more noticeable than before, giving off a screen-door effect to everything that is being displayed. What this means is that although things are larger and sometimes easier to see, they aren’t always as sharp or as clear. However this isn’t likely to be a problem for older audiences who mostly play titles such as Brain Training, or the Professor Layton style investigative type games, in which text is easier to read and the overall sense of scale increased, making it a more comfortable affair for longer sessions.

At least the screens are still native resolution, as having a higher resolution would require upscaling of all DS software, and the effect of this would be much worse than what we are seeing with the XL. To be honest, the DSi also suffered from the same problem due to having a larger screen also, however the issue was far subtler compared to what we are seeing here, and in the end most people won’t notice, or really care all that much. For pure clarity and sharpness though, nothing beats the good old DS lite.

In terms of d-pad, face buttons, and placement, the DSi XL features the same sturdier buttons and pad found on the DSi, feeling more plasticky than the ones used on the Lite, although they do seem slightly looser and more responsive than before, which is a nice improvement and makes playing the likes of Mario Kart easier, whilst not quite reaching the DS Lite level of comfort. All the buttons and d-pad sizes are exactly the same as with the DSi and DS Lite, although the DSi style power button has been given a smooth and shiny finish, which feels good when you press down on it.

The only complaint that comes to my mind with the current design, is that given the much larger size of the XL, the buttons feel so small in comparison to the rest of the system and would have benefited from being just a tad bigger. Doing this would have made the system even bigger, and I’m not sure that anybody would want that.

Despite a few issues and improvements, the DSi XL feels pretty comfortable to hold, and the larger screen size makes playing certain games a lot more fun, even with the blockier look, which I have to say has the opposite effect some games. The XL doesn’t feel like it weights too much, and given its size is perfect to rest on the edge of a sofa whilst playing if it becomes too heavy. I can see this being perfect for casual gamers who want something larger and easier to use at home, whilst still having their DSi or DS Lite for when out and about.


Like all the other DS’s that have gone before, the DSi XL features a stylus that slots into the unit itself, which is 4mm longer than the stylus on the DSi; so pretty much the same overall, in addition to a much chunkier, 129.3mm-long pen-shaped stylus, which can be tied onto the back of the XL if need be.

The DSi XL also comes with the same AC adaptor that changed the standard DSi, the first time that any of the NDS models have shared the same charger. Also Nintendo claims that the battery life in a fully-charged DSi XL with out last the DSi on both the lowest and the highest brightness settings. You can expect around 13-17 hours of playtime on the lowest brightness setting, compared to 9-14 on the DSi, and around 4-5 hours on the highest setting, one hour more than the DSi.

Overall, the DSi XL is a very nice addition to the NDS family of systems, weighing the same amount as the original DS, whilst looking considerably sleeker, packing more built-in features, and at the same time, increasing usability for anyone having trouble before due to the more compact nature of the handheld. There are some negatives though; mainly the blockier looking picture you get with the bigger screen, which looses some clarity in the process, and the fact that having the pen stylus attached to the back of the system feels a little awkward. However these concerns aren’t likely to be felt by most, who arguably just want something larger and easier to hold for prolonged sessions around the house. In which case the DSi XL succeeds.


For those looking to upgrade from an old DS Lite, that has maybe seen a little too much use, then I would probably recommend picking up the DSi instead, seeing as that particular system has similar screen quality to the Lite, whilst being compact enough to easily take with you on short notice journeys. The DSi XL on the other hand, represents a good investment for those looking to have two DS systems, one for extended home use, and one for travelling and outdoors, but not as a replacement for a standard DS system.

Either way it seems that Nintendo have once again caught the public’s imagination via another incremental upgrade to a now aging five year old handheld. Though I’d argue the point that maybe it’s time for them to be taking the next step, showing off a true successor to the NDS at some point later this year, one which has full backwards compatibility with the current systems, whilst bringing in a new style of gameplay and much better graphics. It’s not like they can get way with ‘another’ revision of the existing DS’s, especially since they have practically covered all bases.

Review: Heavy Rain (PS3)

There are a few games out there that aspire to becoming art, trying out new things in the aim of being seen as ‘different’ or ‘serious’, whilst at the same time there are games which are developed and made solely for our entertainment, as games, different due to the sheer imagination and creative brilliance of the team behind it, pushing boundaries in order to deliver something unique and fulfilling to gamers everywhere. These are the ones also considered by many to have entered the world of art, rather than just the confines of being innovative videogames.

Heavy Rain for me at least, is one that belongs in the former. A game which cries out to be recognised as more than just a videogame, as an interactive tale, a computer generated drama going beyond the shackles and conventions of the modern day videogame, a title which so desperately wants to be seen as some else, but in which by trying too hard, may perhaps not be seen as neither. Certainly whilst you could argue that all games are a form of art – they all have designs, inspirations, and are trying to tell us something, or make us react to them in some way – Heavy Rain definitely seems like it’s deliberately trying to step into those realms, rather than achieve this kind of status simply through original game design and a individualistic look.

Saying that, the game takes it’s blueprint firmly from those old early nineties laserdisc games, such as Dragon’s Lair or Space ace, along with a whole host of Mega CD FMV games, basically boiling down to a series of interactive cut-scenes and some set-pieces. There are parts in which you can walk around freely in the scene, examining and picking up various objects whilst looking for clues to find the killer, or to simply make progress by moving on the story. The ideas here are not wholly original, taking inspiration from newer games in the same genre. But where Heavy Rain does decide to do something different is to attempt to create a tightly directed narrative, whilst allowing the player to change fundamental parts of how it all plays out - or at least that is what your are meant to be able to do, being a tad too restrictive through the whole endeavour.


The game centres around four characters whose individual stories are all connected in some way to each other through the murder case surrounding the origami killer. You’ve got Ethan Mars, an architect constantly troubled by the death of one of his sons, now in turmoil due to losing a second to the origami killer; Scott Shelby, a private detective looking into the murder personally for the victims of the killer; Norman Jayden, an FBI profiler and relapsing drug addict; and finally Madison Paige, a photojournalist suffering from insomnia. Each of the characters stories may cross each other at some point in the game, depending on what you do and what the game wants you to know, whilst at least one of those is left almost completely redundant at the end of the experience.

Most of these characters are written with every cliché in the book, taken from various detective thrillers, horrors, and a few generic Hollywood cop movies. It’s hard to talk about why one of the characters is so much more interesting than the rest without breaking any spoilers on the story, suffice to say, that they make up the most interesting and sometimes involving parts of the game, though not the most exhilarating. Having said that, the story and overall narrative of the game does try – and occasionally succeeds – into drawing you in, making you actively question each of the characters motivations, their desires, and just how they fit into the piece of the puzzle that is Heavy Rain. At one point I thought that one of the main character’s plotline might be integral into how the endgame would eventually play out, a gelling factor into combining all four stories cohesively together. I however was very wrong, and it’s this character that in my opinion get the short end of the stick, especially when so much of what they do helps form the partially immersive experience the game provides on a few occasions, without it stumbling along the way.


This immersive experience is almost exclusively provided by the memorable musical score in conjunction with the unique controls the game presents you with. Heavy Rain effectively plays like an interactive movie, moving players through the game scene by scene, each time presenting choices for them to make, along with two distinct plays styles. The first has you walking around your environment interacting with various objects, talking to people, and picking up clues to further progress the story; the second sees you taking challenges and fights using the QTE style on screen prompts system found in games such as Shenmue and God Of War. However the system found in Heavy Rain is far more advanced, expanded upon with multiple button presses and use of the right analogue stick.

On screen prompts tell you which of the four face buttons or four shoulder buttons and triggers to press, in addition to moving or rolling around the right analogue stick, varying the speed and complexity at which these movements occur. Sometimes you will find yourself holding down all manner of combinations, whilst at the same frantically pushing down on another button struggling to complete the QTE, whilst feeling the sense of frustration shown by the character on screen.


These moments are utterly brilliant, and serve to completely connect you into the game world, and provide an almost tangible link between your actions and your characters. It’s cleaver stuff indeed, even though the game tends to re-use and repeat the same types of encounters all the way through diluting its impact the further on you go. However when you are presented something new, which uses this same system, it works to regain your attention sucking you back in, such as having the icons on screen shake and become semi transparent when your character is stressed or under pressure on screen, making the choice that much harder for you, or when using the method of making you button presses and holds more difficult to do when tackling a completely new obstacles which stand in your way.

Even with these revitalising moments there are still issues with the control scheme, and how the game uses it; far too often does it try out the same tricks but in a different skin. In addition with sections in which the player is free to move around and select which objects he or she wishes to interact with, the game almost always actively controls what it wants you to do, and in what order to do it. It’s only in the last third of the game does the experience fee up a little, making you decide which things to look at or investigate, the outcome being different if you miss out something, or choose not to do it. At the same time even in these scenarios, objects that you have interacted with in one scene are often ignored completely in another, leaving you with an illusion of choice and realism, whilst at other times the game will direct you to look at particular items without giving off a reaction when you eventually do. These items can be looked at over and over, but not once did the character I was controlling react to their presence. It seems that items used in this manner are simply to help the player in guessing who the origami killer is, and eventually influence their choices later on in the game.


Outside the QTE’s, the game will often present you with a number of choices in the form of options with regards to either speech or an action on screen. It also allows you to select and hear your characters thoughts, though this is largely superficial and only on one or two occasions did selecting my thoughts change what dialogue options that were available. In fact the choices you make during the first half of the game have virtually no impact outside the scene they are selected, minus a few cosmetic or superficial changes and dialogue inclusions. It’s not until the latter parts of the game – around the last third – that your choices begin to seriously impact the game’s conclusion, and start to branch off the story in different directions; characters can die for example; parts of the story may never come to light, and the killer might never be revealed. Quite why the game couldn’t have allowed for noticeable choices to be made whilst working to the different conclusions is beyond me. There was many times in which things could have played out differently without needing lots of new scenes or characters, which then arrive and end up going nowhere.

In the end, the much vaunted feature of choices and freedom amounted to very little until the end of the game, in which case the stage had been set and the journey had largely been directed tightly up to this point. This is done mainly to set up the narrative for the obligatory plot twist, which when it hits, has all the subtlety and refinement of a Steven Segal detective flick. The thing that I’m getting at, is that sometimes it’s the not the end that is all that important, but how you get there and what you do along the way.


This is perhaps the biggest issue I have with Heavy Rain, for a game so dependant on story and cinematics to succeed, it fails to put together an intriguing and concisely delivered narrative to the player, leaving many questions unanswered, and numerous gaping plot holes left wide open. Plenty of potentially interested leads and side stories are left on the sidelines, simply used to justify the twist near the end of the game and steer the narrative in one particular direction. At the same time the game becomes a cliché of various thrillers made in the last fifteen years of so, borrowing heavily from at least three films in particular - which ones I won’t say as that would certainly spoil the story.

Heavy Rain goes from presenting us with a fairly grounded thriller, to a Hollywood b-movie fantasy, taking away from what we believed to be a much more serious affair, which certainly, if director David Cage wanted us to cry, and feel with the characters, that’s not the approach needed for the player to fully believe what’s going on. At least near the end, the game actually allows you to make some real and meaningful choices, some of which will have one or more of the main characters die, the failure to reveal who is the origami killer, and of course to either save or not save your son. Other more subtle outcomes are present, such as what happens to one of the secondary characters if you choose to save her, or not.


Voice acting and dialogue throughout most of Heavy Rain is surprisingly poor for a game with such high production values, and for one which strongly aspires to be something else, a movie or, as Mr Cage would put it, an interactive drama. In scenes in which the player has no control, the voice acting ranges from very good to laughably bad, heading down the depth to Shemue-esque levels of cheese and ridiculousness. At other times the dialogue in combination with the characters, story and gameplay sequences can combine together to form a truly compelling experience. I found that the gameplay kept on sucking me back in despite the problems with the clichéd script and wooden acting.

Another area holding up the game in terms of believability and connection with the player is the game’s beautiful visuals. Heavy Rain is easily one of the best-looking games this generation, creating a lovingly crafted stylised realism through the use of art design and technology. It’s not as polished or as technically proficient as say, Uncharted 2, Crysis, or even Killzone 2, but it does feature some intricately crafted modelling work for both the characters and environments, finished off with superbly detailed textures, dynamic shadows which cast themselves from the characters onto the environments, and some trademark bloom via the use of HDR effects. It’s really quite stunning to behold, sometimes let down by occasional screen tearing, with a few bouts of slowdown, and some texture pop in when the game zooms in on various items.

Animation and motion capture work is also exemplary. Movements are incredibly realistic, and at times frightfully faithful to how you’d expect these characters to move and tussle in real life. The illusion is only broken when certain walking or running animations are repeated, or when two sets of motion capture work aren’t blended as well as they should have been.

You will also notice that the game’s collision detection occasionally falters; at one point my character was supposed to be cleaning out another’s lacerated wounds on their arm, but instead they appeared to be touching the bed sheets, whilst the other character was still reacting as if I was touching them. When these things happen they are not only laugh out loud funny, but also in turn only harm the stellar work the game does to draw you in to the experience.


It’s hard not to be critical when talking about the experience Heavy Rain provides. On one hand it’s a game which attempts to redefine the boundaries of creating an emotional connection between the player and the virtual world, through a compelling veil of choices and plot points, with a uniquely successful control system. On the other hand, it also takes so much inspiration from tired and tested movie formulas, that it becomes a simple cliché of what has been done before, at the same time trying to be cleaver and push the user into a thrill ride that doesn’t always make sense, stretching believability to the point of making the game seem like a cheap Saturday Night DTV spectacular.

That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy my time with Quantic Dream’s interactive drama, as there were various points which had me utterly hooked, compelling me to play on, and gripping me in a way only a few games have ever done. The controls for me, stood out as a way of really immersing you in a world in which, although a little too disjointed, had the desired effect of creating tension, panic, and the sense of struggling against potential failure. I would argue that the story, voice acting, and delivery is far from the most involving I’ve seen in a game, and the central question that Heavy Rain asks of you: “How far would you go to save someone you love”, becomes at times something more like “How far will it actually let me go”, reflecting the smoke and mirrors method of delivering choices to the player for most of the game.

Most of the game’s issues seem to be the same as with those of Fahrenheit, a title which starts off relatively grounded, before descending into the realms of stupidity with paranormal activity and bizarre hallucinations, and whilst Heavy Rain doesn’t go that far down that road, it does try to turn an interesting little thriller into a Hollywood blockbuster.


Despite all these criticisms, David Cage’s stab at creating a compelling interactive movie is well worth a go, if only to sample the potential for something which at times is so involving and quite unique. It may not be to everyone’s taste, with some people being absolutely captivated by the overdone story filled with plot holes and unexplained situations; or with some like me, who feel that the heavy handed direction and lack of freedom – until the end, along with the mundane voice acting, ultimately subdues a potentially ground breaking experience.

I’m all for developers trying out new things, taking risks and attempting to find other ways of interacting with the user, even if in some cases they don’t turn out as you’d expect them to be. That’s why Heavy Rain deserves at least one solid play through, because although it does fail in many ways both as a film and as a game, it does at least try very hard to make the two work together, whilst providing scope for the player to tell their own story.


Heavy Rain may not live up to all the hype, but it will certainly be remembered for trying to at least bring something new to the table, even if the end result is what could be described as flawed genius, let down by a sense of a self serving nature, perhaps attempting to create a work deliberately recognised as an art piece, rather than just a game, which through it’s unique design and original way of thinking, transcends being referred to as just a videogame, and into something more along the lines of a contemporary art form.

VERDICT: 7/10

EA Sports Digitises Modern Consumer

Last week IQGamer brought to you an editorial surrounding the hotly debated issue of preowned software and the issues it presented to the videogames industry. At the forefront of this debate was EA, who with their new Project Ten Dollar scheme were effectively trying to reduced sales of second-hand games, whilst finding ways to expand the shelf life of new titles and increase their return on the sales made at the till.


The main counterpoint against preowned software sales of new releases, was an increase in the amount of DLC that all EA games would be receiving, featuring sizable chunks of enhancements to new titles, that when activated, would provide gamers a few more hours of fun after they finish the main game, or something that would simply complement it. At the same time questions were raised about how this course of action would affected the trade in market for older games, especially last years annually updated sports titles. Surely by EA having exclusive DLC for those titles would harm their resale down the line and devalue them even further a year on down the line?

Well yesterday, at the Morgan Stanley Technology conference in San Francisco, EA Sports president Peter Moore addressed at least one of these concerns in addition to outlining future plans by the company. He first talked about how successful the uptake has been towards the recent DLC additions with some of this year’s key sports franchises, sighting Madden 10 as a prime example.

"I think we need to move much quicker, in particular with Madden, through a digital world," Moore stated. "You're going to see more announcements there how we digitise our Madden consumer."

Moore also stated that whilst discontinuing the PS2 of Madden has hurt overall sales of the title, it has helped to grow sales of its Xbox 360 and PS3 versions at a faster rate than seen before. Effectively, he was presenting the notion that many people would upgrade to newer hardware specifically to get their sports fix, if it became unavailable on their currently owned consoles.

In addition he stated that the digital plans seen in other key EA releases could also become part of Madden and other sports titles as well, referring directly to their very own Project Ten Dollar without going so far as to giving it an actual name.

"What we're starting to do now is actually start to see growth on next-gen platforms, and perhaps more importantly you're going to see digital subscriptions, digital microtransactions; all those things that we seem to be able to drive hard against all our franchises, against the Madden consumer."

He then went on to add:

"What you should be looking for from me is 'How do I get an extra $4 or $5 dollars?', which is high margin digital revenue from that install base rather than continue to sell more packaged goods," he said.

Afterwards Moore finally addressed the issue of how its (EA) plans for DLC in new sports titles would affect the retail market, and how they understand the importance of the ability to still have a large percentage of people trading in older sports titles for the latest instalment. They also addressed how they hoped to keep a current sports release active for longer with the consumer, discouraging them from trading in the title straight away after they appear bored or to lose interest in the title. This was particularly important, as in last week’s debate and retail spat against ‘Project Ten Dollar’, various concerns were raised as to how this would affect the already struggling retail business, and the value given to any software the consumer wanted to trade in.


In a interview with gamesindustry.biz, Chips managing director Don McCabe voiced his concerns on the issue surrounding not only the second-hand market, but particulary the resale of old sports titles:

"The person you're pissing off the most is the consumer," McCabe told GamesIndustry.biz. "This affects [them] directly - they pay the same amount of money and yet the resale value is much reduced. From a retailer's point of view, they'll just readjust [the price] bearing in mind you have to buy the voucher."

"They are effectively what I call a franchise software house in that they upgrade their titles; FIFA, Madden all of these are effectively the same title upgraded each year. And people trade in last year's for this year's. You go anywhere and you'll always find second hand copies of FIFA 07, 08, 09 - it's one of the ones we get the most of."

Peter Moore seemed to at least recognise these concerns, and that he and EA were looking to still find away making it attractive to trade in older sports titles for the latest instalment year on year, respecting that a huge amount of sales come from people replacing last year’s one (sports title) with this year’s latest, whilst also growing the revenue made from the latest sports releases through DLC.

"It keeps the disc in the drive longer, it stalls trading the game in, it allows me to be able to take further advantage of that consumer over a longer period of time," he said. "Even if we do get second sales, we see that as an opportunity to drive digital margins."

"Sports games, because their seasonality runs out, are always something tempting to trade in. We've got to be able to build business models around allowing that consumer to trade it in and then monetize them," he added

"We're certainly going to do a lot of that this year."


Ultimately it seems like EA’s sports division have some weighty plans for digital content to be at the forefront of all of their titles, and whilst they do recognise the importance of trading ir certain titles to get a hold of the latest releases, they also want to fully maximise not only sales of the initial game disc, but also post retail through the route of downloadable content, keeping gamers from trading in their titles for longer. Perhaps at the same time, EA will at least for now, let all major features be fully accessible in their sports titles without the use of download codes. Certainly, in order for a worthwhile trade price to be around when a new instalment arrives, they do need to do something which doesn’t completely alienate those customers, whilst at the same time taking advantage of them after they have the game.

As time goes on we expect to see more similar announcements by other publishers, especially if EA’s solution actually works, and does provide a more stable retail platform for new software sales. What we have here is only the beginning of perhaps a market in which preowned and new sales are balanced out accordingly, with margins being more controlled and DLC expanding the revenue stream allowing publishers a little more room to breath in today’s hostile gaming climate.

God Of War 3: Demo Impressions

On Thursday, Sony released the first publicly open demo of God Of War 3, making it the first time since the Eurogamer Expo that anyone outside the press in the UK has managed to see the game - and of course the first time since the event that we at IQGamer have had a chance to play it. What comes next is our hands-on impressions of the title, in which we originally had hoped would amount to a progresses report on how the game is coming along. Or so that was the idea, if it wasn’t for the fact that this recent demo release is in fact a nearly year-old build first shown off to the press at E3 2009, and then used once again for the public showing at the Eurogamer Event in London.


When I first played GoW3 at the EG Expo I came away particularly unimpressed with the whole thing. Visually the game appeared to look rather flat, with simplistic texturing and a distinct lack of bump-mapping bringing depth to the proceedings. The game also seemed to use only basic pre-baked light maps for shadows, and the much talked about dynamic lighting system was only partially on show. In addition the framerate was pretty poor compared to other competing titles, running at 30fps during any battle scenes with just a hand full of enemies on screen, and only ever hitting 6fps during scenes in which nothing was going on.

However having the demo at home and seeing it running on a properly ISF calibrated Plasma screen, it is apparent that much of what I observed with regards to textures and visual effects was simply down to the HDTV’s being used at the EG Event left in an un-calibrated state. The actual game looks much nicer at home away from all the poorly set up, dynamic mode, upscaled 1080p disasters that showed off the game so badly before.

The framerate still hinges on fluctuating between mostly 30fps and 60fps – which is the kicker for me personally, but the texture detail and various visual and artistic effects come through much more nicely than before. For example you can you can see the finer details found in the ground and wall textures, the pre-baked shadow maps actually add a good sense of depth to the proceedings, whilst the dynamic lighting – albeit used sparingly – comes off as quite a nice touch. The hand-painted skyline and two-dimensional background parts also blend well into the environments and create a sense of fantasy in a dark foreboding realm.

Despite this, the build used for the demo feels completely outdated, having none of the additional complex graphical effects seen in recent footage and screens. Shame, as it really doesn’t look too bad initially, and there are parts of the demo which were quite impressive, like when the Molten Stone Titan smashes through half the temple, making it fall apart before your eyes, and partially revealing GOW3’s dynamic lighting system, or when using your Blades Of Chaos in the caves, with the flames lighting up the walls, floors and ceilings around you. Sadly, these moments are too few and far in between.


This demo is of course just an old build from last year’s E3, and things have come on leaps and bounds since then. It’s just a shame that Sony couldn’t have shown off a more up to date version of the game, and we at IQGamer would have liked to see how much progress has been made in the flesh, as small internet videos and compressed screenshots make it hard to ascertain just how much has actually changed technically rather than artistically.

Of course with the game finally going gold, and due out in stores in a matter of weeks, we won’t have to wait long to see the results of Santa Monica Studio’s hard work, and in the processes seeing if they’ve crafted another PlayStation 3 technical success story.

Under the graphical surface though, lies the same old God Of War that many have come to love, and in which I’m still not yet sold on. The combat still ranges on you mixing various moves and specials together, changing weapons to deal with different enemy types and varying boss encounters, whilst having to dodge and counter numerous attacks and obstacles. These are the parts that for me require a good amount of skill and mastery to them, the part which most attracts me to the game, and provides the most fun. However there is also a whole lot of button mashing to be done, with even the smallest of enemies taking a seemingly huge amount of hits before dying, which is not only unrealistic, but also turns the game into one long combo fest.

With the demo, you start off with Kratos about to breach into a mountainside temple fending off Zeus’s skeletal army along with various undead warriors from the underworld looking to have your head on a plate. Your first encounter against the skeletal foes reveals no surprises; it’s a simple case of playing and feeling much like GOW2. However as you progress through a few doors, going through the caves into the main temple area, and killing a few more enemies, you start to notice some of the subtle, but effective changes which have taken place.


Disposing of your foes is effectively the same as in GOW2, using the square and triangle buttons for light and heavy attacks, vertical and horizontal respectively, whilst using the circle button from grabbing hold of enemies before spilling their guts out. Holding L1 acts as your defence, whilst holding it down and pushing square or triangle has you do some more powerful special attacks. Lastly R1 is used for opening doors, chests, and for other specific context sensitive operations.

This is all pretty standard stuff seen in the last two games, and is all I was using for most of the demo. However there are important changes to the combat system. The most significant of these is the ability to change weapons on the fly, even during combos if you’re quick enough. This is done by simply pushing down on any of the four directions on the d-pad, which one depends on how many weapons you have available to you. Doing this creates more openings for using strategy against bosses and large groups of enemies, rather than button mashing a few normal and special attacks together. It also makes taking on the larger foes a much more manageable affair without lowering the difficulty level.

In addition to this, the demo showcases a new method of attack along with a brand new weapon. By holding square whilst in a group of enemies you can pick one of them up and use them as a battering ram against the others, after which pushing circle with see Kratos discarding his living weapon by smashing their face in a fury of blood and guts up against the nearest wall.


The new weapon first seen in this demo is called the Cestus Gauntlets, two bulky metal gloves that look like the head of a Lion. Using them is a slower, prepared affair, but one which allows you to smash through the defence of most large enemies in the demo, allowing an opening for some serious combo damage if you quickly switch back to your standard Blades Of Chaos afterwards.

This is perhaps the best part about the ability to switch between weapons on the fly, is that it allows you to try things out using a different tact if normal button mashing isn’t working for you. There is also a lot a of skill and timing involved, especially as you will have to quickly let go of the left stick to switch weapons using the d-pad, whilst moving around and avoiding taking damage.

When fighting against larger enemies and bosses, you may remember the various QTE sequences that come up in order for Kratos to be able to finally finish them off. Well, in GOW3 these no longer just appear above the enemies directly, but now appear in all four corners of the screen, each relating to a face button on the controller. Essentially, you no longer have to look out for the symbols of the face buttons on the pad, but rather what position they can be found in. So for example if an icon appears at the top of the screen, you hit triangle, or on the right side, you hit circle. It makes things easier and the combat during the QTE’s more fluid.

Lastly, the fire bow first given to you in GOW2 is no longer a limited use weapon; instead it occupies the yellow bar below your health meter, and becomes exhausted after about ten shots or so. When depleted, the bar quickly fills up again when not in use, which means it’s now possible to run around the larger enemies firing off flaming arrows whilst evading attack, briefly going back to normal attacks after the ten shots waiting for the bar to fill up again. Once this occurs it’s a simple matter of firing off more arrows and repeating the entire process until the QTE icon appears on screen to enable a finisher. This, like with the instantly switchable weapons, makes boss encounters and tough foes easier to take down.


The various gameplay improvements definitely seem to make GOW3 a better game than its predecessors, and we can certainly see how it might become a bit more fun for those who didn’t feel quite so taken in by the first two. However, the erratic framerate and unfinished visuals don’t really help matters in this regard, and is the main offence that I took to when first playing it at the EG Expo in London. Hopefully Sony can sort this out, as if they were to at least achieve a near constant 60fps, with only a few dips in heavy action-packed areas, it would make all the difference. It definitely did with Platinum Games Bayonetta, in which the gimped 30fps PS3 version felt sluggish and visually much less impressive as a result.

To be honest whilst I’m still not completely sold on the title, it could potentially turn out to be an awesome experience if those niggling graphical issues were taken care of - a game like this needs 60fps as much as a good 3D beat’em up - and if the final game looks as good as in the latest press screenshots, whilst maintaining 60fps and playing as solidly as it did in the demo, we could be looking at another superb must have PS3 exclusive.

We’ll be taking a close look at God Of War 3 when hits stores on the March 19th, bringing you our trademark in-depth technical analysis and the definitive verdict on whether it lives up to all the hype.

Nintendo's Summer Sensations

Nintendo’s media summit in San Francisco on February 24 provided gamers around the world with a taste of what to expect from the company in 2010, and it’s certainly shaping up to be a good year.

For far too long, Nintendo has failed to provide core gamers with a line-up of any real interest, but summer 2010 is looking like the season to set things right.

First up, is the rather sumptuous looking Super Mario Galaxy 2. Not since October 2007 when the original Super Mario Galaxy hit the Wii has the console seen such an incredible game, so it’s only fair that almost 3 years later, such a game should come in the form of its sequel.

Since it was first announced at E3 in June 2009, details of Mario’s new intergalactic adventure have been pretty thin on the ground, and we were expecting an announcement at this years show, but it turns out that we’ll actually be playing it come E3 2010. Nintendo has announced a European release date of June 11.

Super Mario Galaxy 2 is looking spookily similar to the original, but more of the same is no bad thing for this sequel. This time around, Mario will be joined by Yoshi, who looks set to feature quite heavily throughout, and we’ve no doubt that Mario will have a slew of new caps to aid him on his journey. We’ve already seen the new drill tool in action, but that’s probably just the start of things to come.

The sequel has retained the art style and feel of the original, but judging by the new trailer and screens, enemies are looking more impressive in terms of scale, and bosses look set to take on much larger forms with more devastating effects than before. IQGamer is also pleased to announce that the glorious 60fps platforming action will continue for Mario once again.

Details of the interesting Metroid: Other M have also been revealed. Produced in collaboration with Tecmo’s Team Ninja, Samus’ first console outing since Metroid Prime 3 looks set to feature a mixture of gameplay styles, whilst still retaining a distinctive Metroid feel.

Screen shots show Samus in action in both first and third person mode, with most of the action taking place from a 2D perspective, but all the while in full 3D. Simply pointing the Wii remote at the screen will enable you to enter first person mode, though you can’t move around. This mechanic will likely be used for exploration rather than intense fighting.

Graphically, the game is shaping up well. It almost looks like a 3D version of Super Metroid, and in typical Tecmo style, the fully rendered cinematics look gorgeous. We’ve only seen a space station environment so far, so it will be interesting to see where else Samus winds up in her latest adventure.

Metroid: Other M has been given a European release date of Q3 2010. Nintendo has announced a more specific release date for America on June 27.

Other key Wii titles for 2010 have also been given European release dates. The crazy looking, and nicely titled Sin & Punishment: Star Successor is set for June 7, and Capcom’s massive Monster Hunter Tri will be gracing stores on April 23.

The DS certainly hasn’t been overlooked either, and with a new hardware iteration about to hit stores in Europe and America, Nintendo’s super successful handheld is set to gain yet more momentum throughout 2010. The DSi XL is coming to Europe next week on March 5, with America following closely on March 28.

Big titles arriving on the DS in Europe over the next few months include Pokemon HeartGold and SoulSilver, coming March 14, WarioWare: Do It Yourself on April 30 and Dragon Quest IX coming sometime in the summer. The DSiWare service will be receiving further support from shooters X-Scape and Metal Torrent, Photo Dojo, Art Style: light trax and Art Style: Rotozoa.

Summer is looking bright and very colourful for Nintendo fans right now, and with some solid release dates and tantalising details having been revealed so early in the year, let’s hope Nintendo has a few surprises in store for E3 in June.

SNKP Announces New King Of Fighters!

Yesterday SNK Playmore revealed the existence of The King Of Fighters XIII, the latest instalment of the long running series of 2D fighting games, which started out way back in 1994, and featured yearly updates up until the release of KOF 2003. No other details about the game were given out, although it has been confirmed in the past that the series is to remain in the realm of hand drawn pixel art, along with lush 25fps animations and enhanced visual effects.


The game is being developed for the Taito Type X2 arcade board, the same one which powered predecessor KOFXII. Also SNKP have stated that a proper unveiling will take place at what they’re calling a premier event, due to be held in the Tokyo electronics capital Akihabara on 25 March.

In other related news, SNK Playmore have opened up a website in anniversary of the much-loved Neo Geo platform, which features a brief history of both the home AES system as well as the MVS arcade variant. In addition the site features a list of pretty much every title to be released on the format, and is available to browse in a full Engrish (I’m mean English) language version.


For those who aren’t completely aware, the Neo Geo was the birthplace for pretty much all of SNK’s flagship titles, including The King Of Fighters, Metal Slug, Fatal Fury, Art Of Fighting, Last Blade and Samurai Shodown. It out lasted two full generations of consoles (16 and 32bit), and was laid to rest near the end of a third due to growing piracy issues, and outdated technology, which had been pushed as far as it could go.

- SNK Neo Geo Anniversary Site

Editorial: Preowned & Project Ten Dollar

The debate over the second-hand (preowned) market has been a thorn in the side of both retailers and publishers. With supermarkets selling games at below cost price, retailers have responded by pushing preowned further into the public eye, and publishers are left feeling short-changed by the lack of any income via sales of used games, determined to claw back some of the money they have lost, which once would be found in selling brand new releases of older titles at cheaper prices. All the while retailers are constantly upping their prices of preowned games whilst reducing or keeping the trade-in price low. Consumers on the other hand are buying more games than ever, playing through more, and exchanging them more regularly as to keep being able to purchase new titles as soon as they are released.


It’s all a bit on the messy side, with different views held up high by all three parties, and a behind the scenes battleground between retailers and publishers, consumers caught right in the middle. As always with such complex matters, it’s neither simple, not elegant finding a solution, and sometimes perhaps, requires all individuals concerned to give up a little in order to do what’s best for everyone in the long run.

At the forefront of this is something EA like to call ‘project ten dollar’. It is a policy which entails the company providing a sizable chunk of downloadable content for a game at launch, for no extra cost to the consumer, redeemable via a download code contained inside the box. The first release to feature this was Mass Effect 2 with a code for the ‘Cerberus Network’ included in the box, and this will be repeated with the forthcoming Battlefield Bad Company 2, which is said to include a large chunk of DLC available from day one, all included for your standard £39.99 when you buy the game. Like with most DLC codes it can only be redeemed once, so anyone buying the game used will have to fork out $10, or what will probably be around £10 in British money, to get the extras.


Sony however, seem to be taking things a step further, by actually making standard features locked out on the actual game discs, until the gamer uses a redeem code inside the box to enable access. The game in question is the latest Socom title for PSP, in which the multiplayer mode is locked out until you activate the code contained in the box online. For users who purchase a preowned copy, they are expected to pay up a fee of around $20 to get the code from Sony. Now seeing as Socom is a primarily online title it isn’t as bad as it sounds, although not allowing people to play what is arguably the point of the game just because they bought it second-hand, is perhaps just a bit too unreasonable for many consumers to accept.

The EA system however doesn’t sound too shabby, and actually provides a good reason for you to pay up a few quid extra over a second-hand copy for the privilege. Certainly for people like me who only buy new (unless it’s sealed) can feel rewarded for supporting developers, and hopefully which will lead to new IP and more niche titles being made - though I’m sceptical on this front. It’s almost a win/win situation, except for the fact that not everyone can afford to buy a new game at launch.


There are many gamers who rely on trade-ins to be able to afford new releases, and part of that appeal is a reasonable trade in price, one which brings down the cost of the game to that of a much older title. For example, after playing Bioshock 2 I could trade that game in for around £22 and get the money off something like Heavy Rain, paying only £18 rather than the full £40 if I were just to buy the game outright. For younger games, students, and people who aren’t on a high income, it allows them to purchase a greater number of games per year than if they couldn’t trade their old ones in. The publisher’s still get their share of the profits by the retailer buying stock of the game in the first place, and the gamer goes home happy because they’ve saved some money. It could be argued that more people trading in equals more people buying games. In addition it also means that more people are likely to spend their money on unproven titles rather than just the big AAA releases, which surely benefits new IP to an extent.

However the grey area, and the one that is offensive to so many publishers, is the fact that once a game is traded-in and sold by the retailer, they make absolutely no money from that sale. In addition if a consumer trades-in their old games for a preowned title, the publishers make no money. The worst cases are when gamers are trading in a copy of last week’s new release for a preowned version of this week’s newest hit, traded in only a few days after release and sold for a huge mark up by the retailer. Again the publishers don’t see any of those profits. Also an added problem with this, is that they cannot judge how well a game that didn’t do well at launch has sold later on down the line. Titles like Mirrors Edge and Dead Space have become cult classics (especially Dead Space) through strong sales of cheap preowned versions, brought on by via word of mouth recommendations, and good reviews about the game by the press. Of course, it would help that publishers were at least getting a cut of these late sales, as it would help in funding future new projects based on new ideas, or niche avenues.


The big issue here, is that many publishers and people inside the industry believe that preowned games de-value the price, and perceived worth of new releases, especially when the mere notion of trading-in week on week for new titles incites that your hard-earned work, costing millions of dollars, becomes effectively nothing more than a disposable item, rather than something for people to keep and enjoy over a long period of time. This is something the likes of EA and many other publishers are trying to reverse. You only have to look back as little as seven or eight years ago, when new versions of games were still selling quite well as a brand new item months after release, yet at a reduced price which still gave the publisher back some income, whilst providing a cheaper alternative for consumers. Effectively you could keep selling a new version of the game for much longer than you can now, benefiting all of the industry whilst at the same time allowing games to consistently pick up older titles without the lottery of seeing if they had been traded in.

This is something that I myself would like to see, a greater selection of new stock available in store when compared to the huge selection of used available, not always in good condition. Indeed, when browsing non-specialist stores there seem to be many back catalogue titles available new, whilst at the big specialist chains you mostly only have the option of buying an alternative second-hand copy.

So what if ‘Project Ten Dollar’ does become a success for publishers, what will that mean for the industry?

For retail, initially it would have the effect of reducing the selling price of preowned games; in addition the trade-in price would also be lowed to maintain the sometimes-ridiculous amount of margin retailers make on, to keep profits up so new releases can be sold for less than RRP to compete with supermarkets and other discount happy outlets. It would also mean an even harder push towards the cheaper preowned alternative as well as accessories sales, damaging the once good customer service even further into the hard sales culture it has become.

Consumer wise, they would benefit by getting extra content previously reserved for quick release DLC a few months down the line, an added extra to say thank you for buying new. Although some publishers and developers may try to cut down the game intentionally to promote this ‘benefit’, when in reality you could be ending up with exactly the same product before this whole ‘Ten Dollar’ idea came to market. It might also become harder for certain gamers to be able to afford new releases, instead choosing to wait until the price goes down on the new version, or instead just buying a cheaper preowned copy after a price reduction, sans later buying the DLC. Alternatively people may be turned further towards piracy and illegal downloading, chipping their consoles to get their fix. Of course most will simply, I imagine, be more than happy to pay up the full £40 more often, especially if it means that they will see the money being channelled into new ideas and IP in addition to the usual AAA blockbuster releases (I know that I would).

Publishers will naturally get a greater slice of the retail pie than with what there getting at the moment, so long as sales of new titles don’t slow down as people may decide to hold off buying, or simply may no longer have the money to do so. In effect publishers could go back to having a new copy available in the shelves for longer, gradually over the year reducing its price in small increments allowing more gamers to pick up the title as an alternative to preowned, thus making more income from the same title over and over. This potentially would mean the end of selling large AAA titles such as Call Of Duty for the full £40 some two years after its release, especially if they don’t want customers picking up the cheaper used alternative.


These however, are only some of the changes which might take place in our much loved, but often-contradictory industry. It’s far too early to accurately gauge just what will happen, how retailers, publishers, and consumers will react, as well as to how far reaching the implications will be. One thing’s one certain though, it will make for a long and interesting debate, one which is sure to spurn on a wealth of ideas, along with an obligatory backlash and leaving many confused as to just what is going to happen.

With piracy, price discounting and preowned all presenting the industry each with its own set of problems, each interlinked with one another, it’s only fair that the industry finds new avenues to explore profit and self-preservation, whether it be with DLC, bonus code incentives for new games, or simply by thinking outside traditional consoles altogether.

Either way we at IQGamer will be following these events closely.

For more thoughtful discussion and insights into other issues surrounding the gaming world as a whole, be sure to check out gamesindustry.biz for another informative read.

Yakuza 3: Demo Impressions

It’s rather ironic that a few days after I posted my Heavy Rain impressions, whilst also making some obviously valid comparisons to Sega’s Shenmue, that Sega should release a demo of the very Shenmue-like Yakuza 3 on PSN. How utterly weird that must feel, especially since there was also some interesting news on the forthcoming Sonic 4 revealed last week, making IQGamer seem for like IQSega.


The demo that was released on Thursday allows you to explore only a very small part of Tokyo City, giving you very limited access to which shops or arcades you can go in, and people whom you can speak to. It’s really just a tiny taster of what’s on offer in Yakuza 3, and for the most part bares only a passing resemblance to Sega’s other epic. You could in fact describe it as a Shenmue Lite of sorts with the limitations present in the demo. It’s also true that the very first game in this series also felt this way compared to how much stuff the second game allowed you to do.

You start off the demo playing as Kazama, a once prominent gang member long since retired, pulled back into action after hearing that your two closest friends have been gunned down, interestingly, by a man who is said to look a lot like your deceased father. You find yourself starting out in the heart of Tokyo, wondering down a bustling, neon-lit street after just arriving back into the city to follow up on some leads and to hunt down the killer. As you casually stroll down the street, you are greeted by a group of screaming girls hastily being thrown out of a club by some ugly looking Yakuza types. It’s a this point you get your first task of the day, to find out what’s going on, and possibly to kick some arse along the way.


It soon transpires that there is a brewing Mafia war between families, with one such family known for unleashing sporadic violence having run into a sizeable amount of money, and are now using it to influence their grip on another families turf. Really, at this point the club owners – two friends of yours - have no choice, it’s either accept the money or get re-educated on how this business actually works. With a fight about to go down, Kazama challenges these guys, and the game sets you up with your first action scene.

The combat here is pretty much like every side-scrolling beat’em up ever released, or more specifically Virtua Fighter Lite, with button mashing and well timed counters being the order of the day. The face buttons are used for attacks and throws, the d-pad for changing weapons, and the shoulder buttons for both blocking and locking-on to enemies. As you are kicking the crap out of the various thugs the game presents you with, a meter called the heat gauge fills up. When it’s completely full you will start glowing with blue flames surrounding you, allowing you to unleash a brutal weapons-based finisher on whoever is left standing in your way. In addition, when squaring off against the boss character of these fighting segments, you have the option of performing a stylish QTE finisher to take them down permanently. This is another Shemue-esque trait that Yakuza has inherited.

Disappointingly, the animations when fighting in the real-time sections are rather stiff, lacking the fluidity of the Virtua Fighter games, or even those found in the Tekken Force mode of Tekken 6. Everything looks extremely last-gen, from the basic punching and kicking animations, to how characters get up after being floored, or even how you just run and move around the environments. It seems like nothing has really been improved upon, or reworked to any great extent from the first two games on the PS2.


The same could be said for the visuals overall, with basic texturing lacking detail found in many western AAA titles, and average looking character models, all running at thirty frames-per-second with a noticeable amount of aliasing. Certainly, it looks very much like an enhanced PS2 game, without the polish needed to really immerse you into the world you are thrown into. Heavy Rain this is not.

Anyways, back to the gameplay itself. After beating the seven shades out of those Yakuza guys, you become informed that the life of an ex mafia colleague of yours is in danger (aren’t you mr popular), after which conveniently, he contacts you in order to arrange an urgent meet up.

This now opens up a wider area for you to explore in the demo, most of which there is very little to do other than to fight it out with the local punks and street gangs, or to enjoy a spot of arcade gaming, before stopping off for a quick Karaoke session with a girl who blatantly sees you as her love interest (oh Nozomi I should’ve noticed you).

After leaving the club in which I’d just disposed of those pesky Mafia scum, I’m told that the police are everywhere, and that I should find another route down the back streets to avoid arrest, whilst heading to meet up with my contact at the Millennium Tower. Instead I decided that I would rather meet up for a quick date with Rina, and go sing it away with her in the Karaoke first for a few hours, seeing as I’d just arrived in town almost having my arse handed to me, and am now expected to dive in head-on into who knows what. No, I needed some time out.

This is perhaps the best thing about Yakuza, that you can just go off tangent and do your own thing, completing side missions you find whilst exploring the streets, or simply stopping off to have some fun with the local nightlife. In this case Karaoke, which brings up a bizarre mini-game in which you have to push the correct face buttons as a coloured circle moves over them on screen. Results range from clapping, to Kazama shouting hey whilst Rina belts out her vocals. Of course you have the option of going alone if you really want to humiliate yourself.

Naturally, I failed miserably, and Rina said that she wasn’t ‘feeling it’ as a result, so my chances of getting in there with her were busted right down. With all this negativity it was time to get back on track and head for the Tower.


Now back onto completing my second mission, the game has you walk around the city avoiding the numerous police roadblocks that have been set up – though walking up to one simply results in Kazama saying to himself how he should avoid any contact with the police – at the same time having to fight off potential muggers and more street punks, before finding that elusive back alley you need to avoid any law enforcement.

Once you find this alley, it’s time for another real-time battle, but this time against some FBI Men In Black wannabes. This one plays out exactly the same as the fight in the club, with several henchmen to take on followed by the identikit looking, group leader. Again, it’s simply a case of combining those face buttons to perform combos, whilst alternating between whatever weapons you have left until all these guys are down, before taking down the leader with another QTE finishing move.

The demo ends after this battle, giving you only a glimpse of the type of things you will find yourself doing in the final game. You can’t venture into most of the shops and bars found in the game, and most people on the street will just give you a sly comment rather than open up a basic conversation with you. In some respects Yakuza has never been as in-depth as Shenmue on this level, and with Yakuza 3 it seems Sega have done very little to move the franchise on since the first two games. However, what you have here isn’t representative of all of Yakuza 3, just the opening few minutes of an early chapter of the final game.


One thing that is going to be the same is the voice acting and dialogue. The UK and US releases of Yakuza 3 are both subtitled with no English language option for voice acting. In addition, only the most important of scenes are actually acted out. Most are simply text based, having you move on the conversation by pushing X, and with more text appearing afterwards, rather than fully voiced dialogue present in almost every area of Shenmue. It was the same for the first two PS2 games, though the first one did have full English voice acting with regards to the dialogue, along with using many text heavy segments.

From what I’ve seen so far, Yakuza 3 is looking rather dated and less interesting compared to Quantic Dream’s Heavy Rain. Not surprising, given that it has been available in Japan for over two years, and since then, things have moved on significantly. However despite the stiff animations, unimpressive graphics, and familiar gameplay, Yakuza 3 may still be worth picking up, especially for fans of the last two games, and for people looking to at least try something different.

Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing: Demo Impressions

With the recent announcement of Sonic 4, we thought things were starting to look up for Sega’s flagship mascot. That was up until we played through the recently released demo of Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing, both on the Xbox 360 and PS3.

The stupidly named game (did they really need the “Sonic?”) sees Sega’s biggest franchises come together in a Mario Kart style racing game, complete with various weapons, traps and character specific power moves. The game also features Sega’s famous drift mechanic to make navigating the courses a faster, more enjoyable experience.

The demos available on the Xbox 360 and PS3 are console specific, with the 360 version taking a Sonic Heroes inspired course, and the PS3 opting for a rather drab Billy Hatcher inspired course. The 360 version also features Banjo and Kazooie as an exclusive racing duo. Other courses seen on the selection screen, but unavailable on the demo, take their inspiration from such Sega gems as Samba De Amigo, The House of The Dead, Super Monkey Ball, Jet Set Radio, Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg and various Sonic titles.

After booting up the demo, you’re presented with a mildly enjoyable, fully rendered opening sequence, after which you can choose your character and course. Waiting on the starting line, I expected to shoot off at 60fps, but that definitely didn’t happen. The opening few seconds of the 360 version suffers from some disappointing slow-down, as does the rest of the demo. The 360 demo never rises above 30fps either, but things are a bit smoother on the PS3. Much like the PS3 version of Sonic Unleashed, the game actually manages a few moments at 60fps, but quickly drops back down to a regular 30fps.

For a racing game, this is disappointing news. The speed of the vehicles and the fast paced nature of the courses and action would have really benefited from a faster frame rate. It’s even more disappointing when you consider that overall, the graphics aren’t really that much more impressive than Sonic Heroes on the original XBox.

Lighting throughout the courses is all pretty standard and the character/vehicle models feel too small to have any kind of visual impact. The various powers up feel very similar and flash by too quickly to leave an impression, as do the character specific power moves.

Ultimately, the core racing gameplay experience doesn’t live up to much either. The game races along at a fast pace, and staying in the lead proves quite tricky for such a simple game. Power sliding has been simplified and watered down in comparison to the likes of OutRun, and lacks any skill to give you a sense of accomplishment when navigating the courses, though the speed boost gained from a successful slide is a welcome addition. Tricks can be performed in the air with a simple tap of a shoulder button, and if successful, you’ll once again be rewarded with a handy speed boost. Traps are laden throughout the courses and in the demo, these included badniks from Sonic’s world, wooden boxes as well as seawater and snow patches to slow you down. These obstacles are easy to avoid and rarely get in the way of racing.

A certain amount of enjoyment can be gleamed from the appearance of Sega's most popular characters, even if they don't all fit into the roster successfully. As expected, Sonic and his companions take up a lot of the slots, but some less well-exploited characters are also thrown into the mix. Shenmue's Ryo Hazuki joins the cast, complete with his borrowed motorcycle. Successfully triggering Ryo's power move will enable you to take his trusty forklift truck for spin and flip the opposition out of the way. Other Sega favourites making an appearance include Ulala, Alex Kidd, Jacky and Akira from Virtua Fighter, AiAi, and Billy Hatcher. It's an impressive line up and certain to please most Sega fans out there.

For such a simple and proven concept, as well as being able to choose from such a rich selection of franchises, Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing should be a nostalgic trip through the history of Sega, but instead, the demo has left us feeling like we'll be presented with yet another messy, technically flawed and unenjoyable experience. The demo never rises above mediocre, leading us to believe that the final game is destined to join the ranks off all the other Mario Kart pretenders that have come and gone over the years.

Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing is released on February 26, and is available on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Nintendo Wii, Nintendo DS and PC.