Developer: Quantic Dream Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment Available on: Playstation 3
The long awaited and greatly hyped Playstation 3 exclusive Heavy Rain is finally here. Is it as great and game-changing as we’d all been promised? Well, unfortunately no.
It’s just about impossible to talk about the game without spoiling the plot so I’ll try to keep this review as focused as possible on the mechanics and design.
You play as four people, weaving in and out of each others lives, who have all been touched in some way by the Origami Killer. A person who has been gripping the city with fear the past three years and whose modus operandi is to kidnap young boys, drown them in rainwater, then leave the bodies to be found by the railroad tracks with a small origami animal left in one hand and an orchid laying across their chest. Yep, if you hadn’t have guessed it already the world of Heavy Rain is made from pretty grim stuff.
Developer – Airtight Games Publisher – CAPCOM Available on – Xbox 360, PS3,PC Reviewed on – Xbox 360
Dark Void is a refreshing new IP developed by near unheard of Airtight Games and published by CAPCOM. The game takes place during the dawn of the second world war. It follows the story of a cargo pilot William Augustus Grey, who crashes into the Bermuda triangle and winds up in an inescapeable dementional in-between called ‘the Void’ in which a highly technologically advanced species of other-dimensional aliens called ‘Watchers’ rule. Will joins a resistance of people trapped in the void, including Nikola Tesla (father of commercial electricity), and accompanied by a love interest from his past (Eva), he must fight for his survival and search for a way out of ‘the Void’.
The game introduces a number of interesting game mechanics, including a jet-pack, and a strange verticle fighting mechanic, in which you cover behind ledges as you climb up and down cliffs or buildings. The game begins without a jet-pack on a jungle island where your plane has crashed, for the first forty minutes or so you fight against Watcher guards as you are led to a village of surviving humans. During this part the game plays very much like a poor-man’s Uncharted, this is not hurt by the fact that Will is voiced by Nolan North. Once you reach the village you meet with Nikola Tesla and he asks you to help him collect some parts for an invention of his he is working on, he gives you a proto-type jet-pack he has been working on to help you obtain the parts, this is where the game gets interesting.
The Canned Geek Podcast is a monthly geek-culture podcast featuring Will Owen and Kyle Evans from Canned Geek and Myself.
The theme of this month was politics and technology in Australia, starting with AFACTs ludicris lawsuit against iiNet where they attempted to place the blame of users committing piracy on the internet provided. Then we discuss the current media business model and advertising before moving onto the next topic: how the South Australian government placed a ban on anonymous commenting. Then we discuss Good Game’s rather good coverage of the R18 video game issue and then we add our much-needed thoughts on the usefulness or uselessness of Apple’s new gizmo: the iPad.
The Hub Productions will be holding a Stargate event in Melbourne and Sydney with guests from SG-1, Stargate Universe and Farscape.
Guests:
Richard Dean Anderson, David Nykl, Connor Trinneer, Dan Shea, Christopher Judge, Ben Browder, David Blue, Claudia Black, Julie Caitlin Brown, Jason Palmer and Gigi Edgley (Sydney Only).
When:
Sydney – 6th March (Saturday)
Melbourne – 7th March (Sunday) Stargate 2010 schedule
Halo is a multi-billion dollar franchise that’s taken the gaming world by storm and is slowly making the move to film; this animated DVD release is the first step. When Halo: Combat Evolved was released in 2002, I was one of the many to buy it. Hell, if you owned an XBOX you had to own this game, at the very least it was one of only a handful of games out at the time. I enjoyed the game, quite a bit in fact. It was new and exciting, with fast paced first person shooter action that rivalled GoldenEye 007. However even then I found the story lacking, it was hollow and generic and ever since then as each new game has come out they have tried and failed to make the universe even slightly interesting.
When I heard about this series of short animated films, done in a style similar to the entertaining Animatrix and the fantastic Batman: Gotham Knight, I was actually interested. This could have been what got me invested in the Halo characters and want to explore the universe they created… it could have been.
Developer – Rockstar Games Publisher – Take-Two Interactive Available on – Xbox 360
If you were like me and thought that Grand Theft Auto IV was the biggest disappointment of 2008 (if not your life), then it may be useful that you can obtain both expansion packs on a disk, thus allowing you to play them without the accursed original disk to GTAIV that you traded in at your earliest convenience. The two Xbox 360 (timed) exclusive DLC packs add approximately eight hours each to your game-play and both follow new characters instead of Niko from the original title. The Lost and the Damned (tLatD) follows Johnny Klebitz, a prominent member of one of Liberty Cities Motorcycle gangs, The Lost MC. The Ballad of Gay Tony follows the story of Luis Lopez, right hand man to the owner of both Liberty Cities most popular gay and straight nightclubs. (more…)
Fans of gaming, booze, and general socialites will soon have a place to gather when ‘Mana Bar’ opens up this year in Brisbane, Australia.
Currently in the last stages of setup in Brisbane’s night life strip The Valley, The Mana Bar will serve as a great place to meet up. Owned and operated by gamers Yug (Australian Gamer), Yahtzee (Zero Punctuation), and their comrades Prasant Moorthy and Shay Leighton.
Opening up this February the Mana Bar is set to host events such as game releases parties, competitions and trivia nights with a 50 person venue fitted with video games free to play. Imagine a bar like any other night club in The Valley, but instead of a pool table there’s Street Fighter IV or Guitar Hero ready to go.
Check out the official site for all the info in the lead-up to the opening with forums now up and a bunch of photos.
Developer – Vigil Games Publisher – THQ Available on – Xbox 360, PS3 Reviewed on – Xbox 360
Darksiders is the product of every 90s gamers fantasy, being thrown quite literally into the apocalypse. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time has been remade for the current generation and overall it’s a good experience. Darksiders follows the story of “War”, one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse, whose coming signifies the end of days and the breaking of the seven seals, who is called to bring judgment on the three armies of Heaven, Hell and Earth. The game begins with War arriving on earth to discover that the seventh seal has not been broken, but either the armies of Heaven, or the Hordes of Hell have begun the war early. Given that his brethren have not to been called he is defeated by a Demon, “Straga”. The overseers of balance, “The Council”, blame War for leading into the apocalypse early, and he ends up having to find out who are involved and punish them to clear his name, and so begins our journey. (more…)
The Canned Geek Podcast is a monthly geek-culture podcast featuring Will Owen and Kyle Evans from Canned Geek and Myself.
Three Melbourne geeks sit around talking about two films from 2009 you should probably go see (Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs and It Might Get Loud), the surprising news that the Spiderman movie franchise is being rebooted, an account of a Tetris and DJ event at a Melbourne bar and how video games will combine with alcohol at The Mana Bar.
The guest line-up and dates for this years Supanova expo for Brisbane & Melbourne were recently announced, and this year there are a couple of pretty big names in the world of geekdom appearing, most notably Buffy The Vampire Slayer’s Spike himself James Marsters and legendary fantasy artist Boris Vallejo.
BRISBANE
April 9-11, RNA Showgrounds
MELBOURNE
April 16-18, Royal Showgrounds
