Batman 2: DC Super Heroes for PS Vita

… and you get a free Lex Luthor model too.

I really like my PS Vita. I’ll like it even more when the Pinball Arcade people get the Twilight Zone pinball table onto it. However, that will be for a future blog post. Today I picked up a copy of Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes. I’ve always liked the Lego series of games, with their great characterisations and polished gameplay, and this implementation is just as charming as earlier ones.

They make a point of mentioning that the characters now actually speak, which is nice enough, although I always liked the way that they managed to make gestures and sound effects work so well. The PS Vita experience is remarkably like that on the big screen, although each area seems a little bit smaller than the ones I remember from other games. The emphasis is on teamwork, of course, and your computer controlled buddy is just as keen to help as a real one would be. It looks like you can do two player cooperative mode too , which is how the game should really be played.

The puzzles are mildly taxing, and it is impossible to die or get stuck, something which at my age I find really attractive in a videogame. There is also the attraction of being able to play as Superman later on, which will be fun.

If you have  PS Vita and you like Lego games then you won’t feel short changed by this, I’m enjoying ploughing my way through the levels.

Fun Fact: The original physics routines in the first Lego games were written by a graduate from our game development course at Hull, who saved the company a fortune by removing the need for them to buy an expensive physics engine.

Wii U Nintendo Land Coin Drop

The Wii U is growing on me quite a bit. Mostly with NintendoLand. I’ve worked my way around all the mini-games now and they are all fun. The Donkey Kong themed game, where you have to tip the controller to roll a little wagon (containing your head on a spring) over a fiendish obstacle course, is great fun if a bit frustrating. And I’m spending a lot of time on the throwaway mini-game which involves dropping coins (which you win for completing games) into a playfield where they bounce down to targets (the blue bits at the bottom of the screen).  This is determinedly eight bit, even down to the sound and cheesy graphics, but is still tricky and horribly addictive.

Wii U Fun and Games

I swore I wasn’t going to get a Wii U. Of course not. Silly idea. Another console under the telly. Why would I want to do that?

Indeed.

But it is very nice. A lot nicer than I expected. And even better after the enormous update that it insisted on performing just after I’d plugged it in. Actually the thing that got me excited in the first place was the potential for media management that the device brings. The large controller with a screen is a great way to browse for and view media, and you can also use it to turn your telly on and off. If Nintendo play their cards right (historical fun fact – they used to sell playing cards before they sold video games) they could make this into a proper media hub with the benefits of dual screen that the controller brings. Microsoft have “Smart Glass” which is a big step in the same direction, but Nintendo sell you a complete solution all in one, rather than relying on you bringing a Smartphone to the party. If it all comes together, say in three or four enormous updates, I can see folks in the family really appreciating the ability to find and play media on Netflix, Love Film and the various iPlayeresque services.

The hardware is impressive. The remote screen is very good and there is no noticeable lag between it and the main screen. The fact that it is a resistive touch screen doesn’t cause problems, and even makes it easier to use a stylus where required. The worst thing about the shiny black devices is that they really do attract fingerprints and dust. However, we finally have a Nintendo device with proper video output. The HDMI plug just goes straight in and produces nice looking video and surround sound.

The games are great too. If you get a Wii U you must get NintendoLand. No ifs, no buts. You’ll also need to dig out 4 Wii controllers too (preferably with Motion Plus) to get the full five player action, but it is worth it. The “asymmetric” games are great. My favourite is the one based around Luigi’s Mansion where you have a ghost (who uses the big controller see where everyone is) sneaking up on players who have only got there torches to see what’s around them. I don’t think NIntendoLand will have the same long term appeal as Wii Sports did, but it will really make all your Christmas parties go with a swing.

We also had a go at Zombie U, which is quite frankly terrifying, Super Mario which brings Mario into high definition and adds some very interesting variations with players able to use the controller to change platform the environment and finally Tekken, which is, well, Tekken.

One surprising thing about the Wii U is the number of launch games available. The actual arrival of the console has been fairly low key in my opinion, perhaps because they haven’t made a huge number, but the range of games available is very impressive. Some of them (step forward EA with FIFA 13) are just Nintendoised versions of their offerings on other platforms (and in the case of FIFA it’s FIFA 12 too) but some look very interesting.

If you want a glimpse into an interesting video game future then the Wii U is well worth a look.

Angry Birds Star Wars

They seem to be slapping the Star Wars brand onto just about everything these days. We’ve got Yoda selling mobile phones (for YodaPhone – that can’t be a coincidence) and various other droids going round Currys making eyes at washing machines etc.

And now we have the franchise extending to Angry Birds. Getting into the game only cost me 79 pence on my Windows Phone (although you can of course spend more) and I spent the money thinking that worst case it was the kind of outlay that I could walk away from. The good news though is that the game is really rather good. They have the genuine sound effects and you can use the Jedi force and light sabre to good effect in some levels. Well worth the price, and a lot nicer than I expected.

Tekken me back to my youth..

Well, not really “Tekken me back to my youth”, as that was long gone when I got my PSX (Playstation 1) and took part in my first “King of Iron Fist Tournament”. But it was a great game. And now I can play it on my PS Vita. Which is really growing on me. I’ve actually finished Uncharted and now I’ve discovered that a lot of PSX back catalogue is available for tiny prices. I used to love Tekken 1. I liked it so much that I actually got the game music off the game disk (in those days you could do that) and and I still have it lying around on the phone. I did the same for Ridge Racer and also Destruction Derby. In fact with these games you could even swap out the disk during gameplay and have different music accompanying your driving/fighting/crashing action.

If you fancy some nostalgic fun for not very many pennies, you can also get these games, along with the first Tomb Raider from the Playstation Store. And next week we get the Vita version of Little Big Planet, which I’m just about to pre-order.

Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3

Number one daughter reckons that Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 on the PS Vita is good fun. And it is. I bought a copy second hand (or “pre-owned”, which sounds much better) and the first thing it said when I started it was that because the game had been used before I would not be able to get any achievements on my Playstation Network account. Now, since the only reason I do anything is to get achievements (no – really) this was rather irritating.

It was almost as if they wanted to penalise those folks who didn’t pay full price for a new version, in the same way that second hand cars don’t have as many gears as those brought brand new. No, wait, that’s wrong….

Anyhoo, if you find yourself in the same position it seems that there is a way that you can sort this out. Put the cartridge into your Vita and wait for the UMVC3 icon to appear. Then hold your finger on the icon until all the icons start to wobble and have those three dots above them. This is the Vita way of letting you move games and applications around the screens. If you touch the three dots above the UMVC3 icon you will see the menu above. Just select Delete and confirm it to remove the information about this game from your system. Then pop the game cartridge out and back in again for a clean install. Note that this removes all your progress in the game, and so it works best if it is the first thing that you do before you start playing it.

The game itself is hilarious. If you’ve ever wanted to fight as Phoenix Wright (actually he is a bit of a wimp – but his secretary packs quite a punch) then this is a great way to do it.

Nintendo 3DS XL

The Nintendo 3DS is a nice little portable console. The 3D effect doesn’t do a great deal for me (apart from make me slightly queasy after a while) but there are some very good games for it. I rather like Pilot Wings, Street Fighter and Mario Kart 7.

Now Nintendo have released an XL version of the 3DS, like they released a full fat version of the DSi a while back. It works exactly like the 3DS, only with a bigger screen. I really like this. Although the device is a bit bigger to cart around, it is not prohibitively larger and I’ve got much better at games like Ridge Racer as I can now see further into the distance because the dots on the screen are larger.

However, the XL version does have a much less “premium” feel than the original 3DS. That came with a power supply and a docking station. The 3DS XL comes with, well, just a cardboard box. Not even a power supply. This is a bit of a problem if your business model for your upgrade involves selling the old 3DS. Fortunately I have a spare supply lying around from way back.

The original 3DS was made of expensive looking plastic of different colours and levels of shinyness. I don’t think that this added a great deal to the gaming experience, but it did make it feel a bit special. The 3DS XL is not badly made, but the plastics and the finish seem to have been built to meet a price, rather than to make an impression. The large 3D screen is very impressive, but not particularly 3D as far as I’m concerned.  Battery life is no worse than the original device and the transfer from one device to another is painless and fun to watch, as a horde of Pikmin characters carry the information from your old machine to your new one.

If you have a 3DS that you have to squint at, you will appreciate the improvement. I certainly have.

Everybody’s Golf for PS Vita

I think I’ve bought Everybody’s Golf on pretty much every Sony game platform I’ve ever owned. I like golf games, but I don’t like to be too fanatical about them.

The great thing about Everybody’s Golf is that underneath the cutesy graphics and wealth of options there is a rock solid golf simulation with some impressive course design. On the PS Vita it looks really spiffy, with very nice graphics and animation.

If you are after a high quality portable golf experience, you need look no further.

Tony Hawk: Shredded

One of the reasons why some videogame companies are in trouble at the moment is their love of gadgets. Since the original Guitar Hero made a fortune by throwing in a plastic guitar there have been a whole bunch of exotic peripherals thrown at gamers. I reckon they peaked with the Rock Band drum kit, and it has been downhill all the way since. Tony Hawk Shred is perhaps the last big piece of plastic that you will get with a game for a while. It was originally priced at more than 80 pounds, but you can now pick it up, post free, on eBay for around fifteen quid, at which point it starts to look good value. That’s how I ended up with a copy.

The board itself is really sturdy and bristles with sensors that make it able to detect ollies and the like, as well as when you grab the board during a stunt. It even comes with Velcro strips you can use to stop it wearing a hole in your designer wood floor. If you get the Xbox version you should be able to use the sensor signals in your XNA programs, although I suspect the market for skateboard compatible games is probably a bit limited.

The game itself is nothing more than OK though. Rather than give you an environment to explore as you like, instead you are run through some sequences on rails and have to perform tricks and stunts at pre-defined points. This makes the game very restrictive, although the sequences are nice enough to look at. Tony Hawk himself pops up to make comments on your efforts, although they should have added a mini-game where you could work him over with the board after he has said the same inane thing for around the tenth time.

However, if you fancy a night in with some friends doing something stupid (and ideally you live at ground level and have a concrete floor) for fifteen quid you could do a lot worse.

The Gunstringer for Xbox 360 Kinect

When the Kinect was released I was hoping that some games would come along that made use of the things it can do to create different types of game. The sports simulation games are nice enough, as are the dancing ones, but I’ve been waiting for completely new game types.

The Gunstringer is certainly new. You use your left hand to control a gunslinging marionette in his (its?) quest for vengeance against those who done him wrong.  The right hand is used for targeting and shooting. The whole thing is presented in the form of a puppet show with a live audience who cheer you on and boo the bad guys.

There are daft cut scenes, some great voice acting and the whole thing is powered by a 3D engine that seems to be called “Beard”. It is all delightfully silly and great fun. You can download a demo version and have a play with that, and once you have had a taste I reckon you’ll be forking out for the full game.

Christmas Eve with Zelda and Link

I’ve always liked my Wii, in spite of not using it as much as I should do. Today we went up town for some last minute Christmas shopping. And I ended up buying a copy of the “swan song” game for this console, which is due for replacement next year with the Wii U.

Watching number one son play the game I was struck by just how good Nintendo are at constructing things like this. Everything works, everything is charming, and pretty much everything has a purpose. Just a great way to spend time.

Free Xbox 360 with Nokia Lumia 800

I didn’t realise it at the time, but getting a new Windows Phone has other benefits as well. In the form of a free Xbox 360 with every brand new Nokia Lumia 800. I think the offer has expired now though. I’d have got the phone anyway, free console or not, but it is rather nice.

I’ve had an Xbox 360 since day of release. I have fond memories of around 30 of us sitting in the dark playing Condemned when I took my shiny new console in having picked it up on the very first day. I have less fond memories of the “Red Ring of Death” and sending the whole thing back for repair fairly shortly after that of course….

Anyhoo; today the postman brought me a brand new Xbox 360. It is the new design one and almost shiny. It doesn’t have a hard disk, but it works a treat using an internal 4G of memory and is much, much quieter than my previous machine. Number one sun put in a copy of Skyrim and fired it up. Very, very good. I find it hard to believe that this is now a “mature” console.

The new machine works so well that it has now taken over from my original device. If anyone out there wants a “one careful owner” console, give me a yell.

Me, I’m off to buy a hard disk to plug into it.

Uncharted 3–Drake’s Deception

Bought the third in the Uncharted series of video games today. I must admit I’ve not actually quite finished the second one yet. I got stuck taking on some really nasty crossbow wielding goblin thingies that were very hard to kill. But I was very close to the end.

The third instalment of “Tomb Raider with a bloke” is very much in the same vein as the previous two, but very, very well done. One of the best bits for me is that in this one you usually have a partner with you and they are actually quite useful to have around. Unlike some games, where your comrades stand around getting shot while you solve the puzzle and take out the bad guys, these folks are quite engaged and will even give you problem solving tips if you stagger around dumbly for long enough.

The locations that I’ve been to so far have all been excellent. I feel kind of guilty not taking in the beautifully rendered environments while I’m going for a headshot on the rocket launching zombie on the other side of the valley, but it all looks very nice.

The scenario with its strange maps from the past, underground tombs and “Say, do you think that statue might rotate?” moments is very like the earlier ones, but in a good way.

The stern message at the start says that you should take a break of at least 15 minutes in each hour of gameplay. But this is not a game you can really play in 45 minute chunks. Me, I keep getting dry eyes because I forget to blink during the gameplay.

If you liked the earlier ones you’ll love this. If you’ve always wanted to take part in an Indiana Jones movie, you’ll love it too.

Get Portal 2

I’ve spent a reasonable amount of time over the last few days watching number one son play Portal 2. I quite like watching other people play video games. Whenever I play most of my time is spent being dead or otherwise inconvenienced. Number one son does not seem to have these problems, although in Portal the nice thing is that you are not actually under threat of sudden death most of the time. Unless you do something stupid in one of the puzzles that is of course. And there are a lot of puzzles. Along with the sing-song voice of the psychotic computer and another computer who also records adverts for a bank and works with Ricky Gervais. Or something.

The game is really good. Really good. So good I might just invest in a copy myself. Apparently if you get the PS3 version you also get a token allowing you to download a copy for your PC or Mac, which is nice.

I think it helps if you have played the previous version first, you can pick that up as part of the wonderful “Orange Box” compilation for most platforms.  

Boggle Flash Game Review

Found this today on sale cheap and just had to buy a copy (although I prefer the phrase “invest in” rather than “buy”.

Very clever hardware has been shoehorned into five little battery powered boxes. Each shows a particular letter and when you put them in a row that makes a valid word you hear a beep and the game gives you some points. There must be a bunch of little radio serial ports and some RFID devices inside that let the blocks work out where they are, along with quite a reasonable sized dictionary.

Of course number one wife cares little about how it works, but she does enjoy playing the game, as do I. Well worth the investment. Comes with a nice little box you can carry the letters round in, along with some rather good party play modes.

Update on 2011-01-11 09:45 by Rob

One slight issue that we have noticed though is that the game seems to be fitted with an american dictionary. Which means that it is happy to accept words like "favor" and the like. This is a tad annoying, in that we bought what we thought was an english product (in all senses of the word).

Still fun though.

Gran Turismo 5 is Hard Work

Don’t cars have nice headlights these days..

I hesitate to say that I grew up playing Gran Turismo, because that would imply that I’ve actually grown up. But I do remember first playing it on the PS 1 and my amazement in how it looked and handled. And the cars had reflections. I’ve been through all the versions since then and even invested in a force feedback steering wheel that added a lot to the PS2 version.

So it was with some excitement that I fired up the PS3 version this weekend.  The intro video is very impressive and after watching that I was looking forward to going racing. And then it got really tricky – at least for me. GT 5 has a mode where you can pick a driver and then manage them through a racing season. In fact for me that seems to be the only way I can play some parts of the game. This was somewhat depressing. I didn’t get my steering wheel down from the loft just so that I could watch some other bloke drive round a track.

I took all the licence tests (I’d forgotten how boring these are) and still ended up watching Mr. Fernandez drive around in a car I’d just bought.  And the program kept asking me to sign in to the Playstation network even though I already was signed in. This sign-in kept failing, which was also a bit annoying.

In the end I switched to arcade mode and did some rally driving. The good news is that my old steering wheel works fine with the game. The bad news is that the whole thing seems just too much like hard work. I’m sure that for a dedicated petrol head who can obsess about cam belts and marvel at the accuracy of the car images and their handling models GT 5 is great news, but for me I ended up lobbing a copy of Split Second into the drive and driving in a completely unrealistic way through exploding landscapes. Much more fun.

Definitely not delayed

Headed back today, after a very busy week. When I checked in at the airport the girl at the desk made a few phone calls and then assured me that my flight was not going to be delayed.

I took this as a warning sign.

Turns out the flight was delayed, but fortunately for me I had such a long wait for the next one that I arrived home at the proper time.  Bad weather in Holland meant that the landing at Schipol, on the only runway they were using, was a bit more interesting than usual. Suffice it to say that the pilot earned his round of applause at the end.

When I got back we had fish and chips and then shot up town to pick up a Kinect. Had a very quick play. First impressions? It works, amazingly well.

Playstation Move Fun and Games

Of course I got a Playstation Move. I shot up down on the way back from work and had a quick play with the system before packing for Seattle tomorrow.(It is very annoying to be going away just as I get a new toy. I’ve just found out that the Xbox Kinect is released when I’m away in Berlin at TechEd 2010 too. Oh well.)

The controllers themselves are very well made, and feel great in the hand. They use internal rechargeable batteries and you need to have a bunch of mini-usb cables to charge them all up. The ball on the end which lights up is all squidgy, which doesn’t affect the gameplay much, but does make it less painful if you happen to hit anyone with that bit. Each controller is supplied with a sturdy looking wrist strap which you are strongly advised to use.

I happened to already have a Playstation Eye webcam which I plugged in and then spent a while getting lined up correctly. First thing I noticed was that you need quite a big room to play this properly. They say you should stand around 8 feet from the screen, which might be a problem in some bedrooms.

Then I had a go at the table tennis game, which I regard as the benchmark application for this kind of technology. Having lined up camera I got started. It really is impressive. The bat on the screen matched exactly how I was holding the controller. I could twist my wrist and move forward and back and the bat followed me exactly. Better yet, the things I did when hitting the ball (applying top spin and back spin etc) translated exactly onto what happens in the game. I was actually able to leverage my existing table tennis skills and use them to beat one of the computer opponents. I can see myself spending a lot of time with this game. Given the amount of jumping about that I ended up doing  it might even be good for me.

Finally there was just time to have a quick go with the party game. This is a bunch of deeply silly mini-games which are quite engaging for a single player and would probably be a riot for a bunch of people. Again, the on screen rendition of whatever I was holding (my favourite was the mole whacking mallet) was exactly fitted into the picture of my hand on the screen.

Final impressions, very good. It has the controller abilities of the Wii hooked up to the greater rendering power of a PS3. It is a bit expensive though, to get a webcam, two controllers and a couple of games you are nudging up to the price of a complete Wii system. The games that are presently available are OK, but a bit slight. It will be really interesting when some of the more hard core games get the Playstation Move makeover.

Xbox Game: Angry Robot Rampage

Tom has been busy writing a game over summer. Angry Robot Rampage is the result. He has a blog post all about it here and you can find it on Xbox indie games here.

Great stuff. Now Tom, I want a Windows Phone version…..

Update on 2010-09-13 15:46 by Rob

There is a fan page too:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Angry-Robot-Rampage/112880442102923?v=page_getting_started

Red Dead Redemption

Number one daughter texted me to ask me what kind of Father’s Day I was having. “Oh” I replied, “I just learnt to ride and shot a bunch of coyotes. Next I’m going out with the sheriff to round up a gang of rustlers. “

The family had clubbed together and got me the game  “Red Dead Redemption”  (or “Grand Theft Horsey” as some people call it).  Fantastic. It is like being inside a western movie. The thing that impresses me most is the depth of the scenario and the attention to detail. If I was at school and preparing for a test on life in the old west then I reckon a few days of this would probably give me enough of a feel of the place and time to at least get a pass. Particularly if the exam had a section on headshots.

Perhaps people could learn Latin by playing “Grand Theft Chariot” or whatever.  Then again, perhaps not. Either way it is a darned fine game that I’m looking forward to working my way through.

Apparently in the follow up game you take control of a design agency and through a mixture of cold blooded executions and nifty product placement take over the world. It is called “Red or Dead Redemption”.