Sega have announced the development of the next Sonic game, Sonic Generations. To be released on both Xbox 360 and PS3, Sonic Generations will bring both past and present Sonic's together for the ultimate race against time.
Appealing to the generation who grew up with Sonic, Generations is half classic Sonic 2D platforming action, with the unique 3D twist the Sonic 4 introduced us to. Classic Sonic has his trademark spin dash and spin attacks to fight off enemies, and has lush 2D style environments to explore.
Appealing to the younger audience, Generations is half modern 3D sonic, with beautiful 3D environments to explore and Sonic's latest abilities; targeted attacks and jump boosts.
According to Sega:
"Sonic’s universe is thrown into chaos when a mysterious new power creates ‘time holes’ which pull him and his friends back through time. As a result he encounters some surprises from his past history including Classic Sonic, Sonic as he appeared in 1991. Modern Sonic and Classic Sonic must defeat this strange new enemy, save their friends, and find out who really is behind this diabolical deed... "
The release announcement trailer looks absolutely stunning and I hope the gameplay is as good as the trailer looks. Sega's recent Sonic releases have been below par so they need to pull a gem out of the hat for this one. Especially because this game is being released to celebrate Sonic's 20th birthday. This needs to be some birthday present for someone as famous as Sonic!
Check out the trailers here and the recent press release here on Sega's website.
Thursday, 28 April 2011
Tuesday, 26 April 2011
Nintendo Announces Wii 2
Nintendo has officially announced that it will be demonstrating a successor to the Wii at this year's E3 Expo in Los Angeles. Apparently it is going to be more powerful than the PS3 or Xbox 360. As a big Nintendo fan I'm excited by this news, but I'm also curious if they are going to continue down the 'everyone a gamer' route that the Wii took or if they are going to mount a serious challenge for Sony and Microsoft. I own a Wii and I think there are some great games on the console, but I had to get an Xbox 360 in order to play some of the more serious titles that I used to play like Resident Evil 5.
Having been introduced to the Fable series of games on Xbox I'm looking forward to a glorious HD Legend of Zelda game on the next console, as I think Fable is the strong competitor to Zelda that there has never been before.
Check out the link on Yahoo! for news on Nintendo's big release.
Having been introduced to the Fable series of games on Xbox I'm looking forward to a glorious HD Legend of Zelda game on the next console, as I think Fable is the strong competitor to Zelda that there has never been before.
Check out the link on Yahoo! for news on Nintendo's big release.
Monday, 11 April 2011
Rockband Network Downloadable content unavailable
So who's clever idea was it to release an app for the Xbox 360 that doesn't work properly? I've been after a copy of Rockband for some time now because the tracks available to download are far better than rival Guitar Hero offers. Before I got a copy of the game I found an app to download for the Rockband store, and spent ages browsing through and making a list of songs that I wanted.
So when I got a copy of Rockband 3 for my birthday I was straight onto the Rockband Store to download my favourite tracks only to find that all the RBN content is 'unavailable to download'. For three consecutive days this content has been unavailable and it's only today that I did a Google search and discovered that the tracks are there to download IF you load up the Rockband game and go to the music store through the game! But these tracks aren't available through the downloadable music store! What's the point in the downloadable app if you can't actually download any songs through it?
Anyway, I'm going to check the in-game music store later and see if I can actually get hold of some of the tracks for the game. If anyone wants to check the office Rockband forum for more information, I got the news from here.
So when I got a copy of Rockband 3 for my birthday I was straight onto the Rockband Store to download my favourite tracks only to find that all the RBN content is 'unavailable to download'. For three consecutive days this content has been unavailable and it's only today that I did a Google search and discovered that the tracks are there to download IF you load up the Rockband game and go to the music store through the game! But these tracks aren't available through the downloadable music store! What's the point in the downloadable app if you can't actually download any songs through it?
Anyway, I'm going to check the in-game music store later and see if I can actually get hold of some of the tracks for the game. If anyone wants to check the office Rockband forum for more information, I got the news from here.
Tuesday, 29 March 2011
World of Warcraft Account Stolen!
My WoW account has been inactive for quite some time now but only just today I received an email from Blizzard informing me that my Warcraft account had been merged with my battle.net account as part of their centralized management of accounts. Firstly, I don't have a battle.net account and secondly the email address that the account was registered to was not one of mine, being that it was x***@yahoo.com.
My concern was obviously raised at this point so I took to the Warcraft forums to confirm that:
1. Blizzard are definitely consolidating all accounts into one battle.net account
2. That this email was a phishing attack
Unfortunately for me it appears that number 2 didn't apply. This appears to have been a genuine email from Blizzard regarding my account. So I decided that if they thought my WoW account should be linked to a battle.net account then I should go ahead and create one.
And that I did. Except when I came to add my Warcraft account I was informed that I couldn't do it because it was already registered to a Blizzard account!! So someone has stolen my Warcraft account!! Now I know I haven't been using it much recently, but that's no excuse for anyone to steal what is essentially my property. Not only that but it is also identity theft as my account holds email, password, address and billing information. Lucky for me that I stopped playing before I moved house and that my debit card has recently been replaced. So any information on my WoW account is pretty much useless!
I've submitted my request to Blizzard for help, provided a photo of my driving license, the original activation code for my WoW and various other security details to verify my identity. Now I have to wait and hope that they can recover my account and that nothing sinister has happened to it.
This is the full email from Blizzard. If it ever turns up in your inbox and you haven't requested any change get straight in touch with their customer support.
---------------------------------------------------
Hello Willie,
This e-mail notification is to inform you that the World of Warcraft account, **********, has just been merged into a Battle.net account. If you were not the person who performed this account merge, please contact Battle.net Support immediately.
You have successfully merged the following World of Warcraft account:
**********
into the following Battle.net account:
x***@yahoo.com
From now on, you must use the above Battle.net account name and its password to play World of Warcraft and to access World of Warcraft Account Management for billing and subscription services. Your World of Warcraft billing information has not been affected by this merge.
Important! Please note that any existing recurring billing on the merged World of Warcraft account will continue uninterrupted.
In addition, you will use the above Battle.net account username and its password to log in to other Blizzard online services such as World of Warcraft Account Management, the World of Warcraft Armory, and the Blizzard Store.
A similar notification of this account merge has also been sent to the email address registered to the Battle.net account.
For more information, click here for answers to Frequently Asked Questions or to contact the Blizzard Billing & Account Services team.
Sincerely,
The Battle.net Account Team
Online Privacy Policy
My concern was obviously raised at this point so I took to the Warcraft forums to confirm that:
1. Blizzard are definitely consolidating all accounts into one battle.net account
2. That this email was a phishing attack
Unfortunately for me it appears that number 2 didn't apply. This appears to have been a genuine email from Blizzard regarding my account. So I decided that if they thought my WoW account should be linked to a battle.net account then I should go ahead and create one.
And that I did. Except when I came to add my Warcraft account I was informed that I couldn't do it because it was already registered to a Blizzard account!! So someone has stolen my Warcraft account!! Now I know I haven't been using it much recently, but that's no excuse for anyone to steal what is essentially my property. Not only that but it is also identity theft as my account holds email, password, address and billing information. Lucky for me that I stopped playing before I moved house and that my debit card has recently been replaced. So any information on my WoW account is pretty much useless!
I've submitted my request to Blizzard for help, provided a photo of my driving license, the original activation code for my WoW and various other security details to verify my identity. Now I have to wait and hope that they can recover my account and that nothing sinister has happened to it.
This is the full email from Blizzard. If it ever turns up in your inbox and you haven't requested any change get straight in touch with their customer support.
---------------------------------------------------
Hello Willie,
This e-mail notification is to inform you that the World of Warcraft account, **********, has just been merged into a Battle.net account. If you were not the person who performed this account merge, please contact Battle.net Support immediately.
You have successfully merged the following World of Warcraft account:
**********
into the following Battle.net account:
x***@yahoo.com
From now on, you must use the above Battle.net account name and its password to play World of Warcraft and to access World of Warcraft Account Management for billing and subscription services. Your World of Warcraft billing information has not been affected by this merge.
Important! Please note that any existing recurring billing on the merged World of Warcraft account will continue uninterrupted.
In addition, you will use the above Battle.net account username and its password to log in to other Blizzard online services such as World of Warcraft Account Management, the World of Warcraft Armory, and the Blizzard Store.
A similar notification of this account merge has also been sent to the email address registered to the Battle.net account.
For more information, click here for answers to Frequently Asked Questions or to contact the Blizzard Billing & Account Services team.
Sincerely,
The Battle.net Account Team
Online Privacy Policy
Tuesday, 8 March 2011
British Academy Video Game Awards
It's BAFTA time again and there's a whole host of exceptional games up for the award for Video Game of the Year. If you haven't already voted or didn't know you could then here's your last chance to check out the nominees and cast your vote:
http://www.baftagameaward.com/awards/index.html
http://www.baftagameaward.com/awards/index.html
Monday, 28 February 2011
Another Sega Megadrive collection?
Is it me or is the Megadrive collection growing stale? There was a collection on Xbox and PS2, that eventually ported to PC. Almost the same collection appeared on Xbox 360 and PS3. And now there's a GOLD EDITION arriving on PC shortly.
As quoted from Sega's website "This special edition consists of all 45 titles from the previous Mega Drive Classic Collection™ Volumes 1-4". What? So this isn't a new collection? In fact there aren't ANY new titles on the disc?! If you owned any of the previous collections on PC or on any games console, then you've pretty much already got these games. And whilst I agree that the MegaDrive was an amazing games console with a massive list of exceptional games, why would anyone want to buy the same games again and again and again?
These collections are supposed to be 'Classic' or 'Ultimate' or whatever buzz word sells, but I can think of plenty of MegaDrive games that haven't been included in any of the collections I've seen. How about Flashback? Now that was a classic that pushed the limits of the console. It had a fantastic story and excellent gameplay. Not to mention the lush graphics. Or how about NBA Jam? My brother and I loved that game as kids.
I understand that there may be some developers who refuse to let Sega use their games in these collections. It's their creation after all so why should Sega make extra profit from it? But to have no new games in this Gold Edition collection just feels like they haven't even bothered trying.
Read the full list of games at Sega's site here.
As quoted from Sega's website "This special edition consists of all 45 titles from the previous Mega Drive Classic Collection™ Volumes 1-4". What? So this isn't a new collection? In fact there aren't ANY new titles on the disc?! If you owned any of the previous collections on PC or on any games console, then you've pretty much already got these games. And whilst I agree that the MegaDrive was an amazing games console with a massive list of exceptional games, why would anyone want to buy the same games again and again and again?
These collections are supposed to be 'Classic' or 'Ultimate' or whatever buzz word sells, but I can think of plenty of MegaDrive games that haven't been included in any of the collections I've seen. How about Flashback? Now that was a classic that pushed the limits of the console. It had a fantastic story and excellent gameplay. Not to mention the lush graphics. Or how about NBA Jam? My brother and I loved that game as kids.
I understand that there may be some developers who refuse to let Sega use their games in these collections. It's their creation after all so why should Sega make extra profit from it? But to have no new games in this Gold Edition collection just feels like they haven't even bothered trying.
Read the full list of games at Sega's site here.
Tuesday, 22 February 2011
Review: TMNT
TMNT, not to be confused with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (it's a different game), follows the crime-fighting turtles on yet another adventure. This time retold by the turtles themselves as we play through the story from each of their perspectives. The story of the game is told through a series of comic strips with narration from each of the turtles. Their story is of an event in their lives that almost tore the gang apart, but ultimately leads to them growing closer as a family and stronger as a crime-fighting quartet.
Initial impressions of the game is that the developers have gone for a cel-shaded cartoony style. Everything has quite strong black outlines and feels very much like a comic book or the original cartoon series. However, it's done with style and doesn't at all detract from the gameplay. Different levels are given different shades of colour to add atmosphere to the game. For example in the first level you play as Leonardo as he navigates his way through a lush green jungle full of beautiful natural colours. In the next level you take to the city streets at night and suddenly the city takes on much darker shades of gray, with the little colour around being the red streak left by Raphael's mask as he runs through the streets.
TMNT is made by Ubisoft and feels a lot like their Prince of Persia games. The turtles can run, jump and perform combinations of attacks as is standard in most platform/fighting games. However they also have the ability to swing from pole to pole, run short distances along walls to navigate holes, and wall jump to gain extra height. The Prince of Persia games do pull these manoeuvres with a touch more finesse than TMNT but then TMNT does feel like it's been slightly toned down to appeal to a younger audience. Not to say that it is in any way an easy game to complete. TMNT proves challenging to novice and expert gamers alike. Using the wall running ability to navigate holes takes some work as it's all too easy to overshoot the platform you are aiming for and end up falling into the next hole.
TMNT distinguishes itself through the special move that each turtle has and the team attacks that can be performed. Leonardo can phase through certain walls and doors (not sure about this ability personally, it doesn't really fit in with the reality of the turtles). Raphael can use his sai to climb certain walls. Michaelangelo can spin his nunchucks to fly short distances. And Donatello can use his staff to launch himself across gaping chasms. Team attacks depend on the active turtle but can be very useful in boss fights, in fact some bosses can't be beaten without them.
Perhaps this is my only criticism of the game; that some bosses can only be defeated by using the turtles combined attacks and it's not always obvious which ones. I may have missed the moment when team attacks were introduced but I went all the way through the game without understanding how they worked or what purpose they served, until I came face to face with a boss who could only be defeated with a combined attack. Of course once I knew what I was doing everything made sense!
The game doesn't take too long to complete. I finished in about 6 hours but I'm sure it can be done in less if you know how to defeat the bosses. There are some extras to unlock, mostly the in-game videos and some artwork, but there's a couple of unlockables to invest in: the Weekend Weapons and the Halloween Enemies. I won't spoil the fun by telling you what they are, but they are the best unlockables that I've found in the game. There are also challenge levels that are unlocked by achieving A ratings on each level.
Overall, TMNT is a great game for younger games and fans of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. It's a well made game without any major flaws but it is relatively short, even with the unlockable content. If you are looking for a more challenging similar game I would recommend trying any one of the Prince of Persia games, I'm currently playing through Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands. But if you happen across TMNT in a bargain box or at a car boot sale then definitely pick it up.
Initial impressions of the game is that the developers have gone for a cel-shaded cartoony style. Everything has quite strong black outlines and feels very much like a comic book or the original cartoon series. However, it's done with style and doesn't at all detract from the gameplay. Different levels are given different shades of colour to add atmosphere to the game. For example in the first level you play as Leonardo as he navigates his way through a lush green jungle full of beautiful natural colours. In the next level you take to the city streets at night and suddenly the city takes on much darker shades of gray, with the little colour around being the red streak left by Raphael's mask as he runs through the streets.
TMNT is made by Ubisoft and feels a lot like their Prince of Persia games. The turtles can run, jump and perform combinations of attacks as is standard in most platform/fighting games. However they also have the ability to swing from pole to pole, run short distances along walls to navigate holes, and wall jump to gain extra height. The Prince of Persia games do pull these manoeuvres with a touch more finesse than TMNT but then TMNT does feel like it's been slightly toned down to appeal to a younger audience. Not to say that it is in any way an easy game to complete. TMNT proves challenging to novice and expert gamers alike. Using the wall running ability to navigate holes takes some work as it's all too easy to overshoot the platform you are aiming for and end up falling into the next hole.
TMNT distinguishes itself through the special move that each turtle has and the team attacks that can be performed. Leonardo can phase through certain walls and doors (not sure about this ability personally, it doesn't really fit in with the reality of the turtles). Raphael can use his sai to climb certain walls. Michaelangelo can spin his nunchucks to fly short distances. And Donatello can use his staff to launch himself across gaping chasms. Team attacks depend on the active turtle but can be very useful in boss fights, in fact some bosses can't be beaten without them.
Perhaps this is my only criticism of the game; that some bosses can only be defeated by using the turtles combined attacks and it's not always obvious which ones. I may have missed the moment when team attacks were introduced but I went all the way through the game without understanding how they worked or what purpose they served, until I came face to face with a boss who could only be defeated with a combined attack. Of course once I knew what I was doing everything made sense!
The game doesn't take too long to complete. I finished in about 6 hours but I'm sure it can be done in less if you know how to defeat the bosses. There are some extras to unlock, mostly the in-game videos and some artwork, but there's a couple of unlockables to invest in: the Weekend Weapons and the Halloween Enemies. I won't spoil the fun by telling you what they are, but they are the best unlockables that I've found in the game. There are also challenge levels that are unlocked by achieving A ratings on each level.
Overall, TMNT is a great game for younger games and fans of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. It's a well made game without any major flaws but it is relatively short, even with the unlockable content. If you are looking for a more challenging similar game I would recommend trying any one of the Prince of Persia games, I'm currently playing through Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands. But if you happen across TMNT in a bargain box or at a car boot sale then definitely pick it up.
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