In EA’s The Saboteur you play as a tough-as-nails boozing Irish brawler in Nazi occupied France who joins the local resistance when his best friend is killed. The game has elements of Assassin’s Creed in that you can scale buildings and traverse the rooftops or blend in with the crowd so not to arouse suspicion. It also resembles Grand Theft Auto with the hijacking of vehicles, adult dialogue and content.
The look of The Saboteur is brilliant with its film-noir colouring with splashes of red to symbolise Nazi occupancy. When an area is liberated the colour comes back to realistic hues, which makes it easy to see where you have been.
The vehicle, climbing and shooting dynamics are all excellent, but there are many times where you’ll need your fists to fight your way out of a situation and this is where the game trips itself up. The hand to hand combat targeting is clumsy at best and proves a major frustration. This, along with some shoddy AI leaves me longing for what could have been one of the better games of last year.
War – the fourth Horseman of the Apocalypse stands accused of inciting a war between Heaven and Hell. Dishonoured and stripped of his powers, War must return to Earth in search of vengeance and vindication.
In this hack-n-slash RPG you take on the guise of War as you battle your way through seemingly never ending hoards of demons – many of them small, but ranging in size up to gigantic and ferocious beasts the size of a city block. With every kill you harvest souls which can then be used to purchase new attacks, weapons and upgrades.
The gameplay is much the same as the God of War series but with that added RPG element. Fight some minions, then some mid-level enemies followed by a boss. There’s plenty of puzzle elements along the way and the boss fights require you to figure out what hurts them and what doesn’t. This isn’t helped by the lack of a health bar on bosses, so there can be a lot of trial and error involved.
The game looks fantastic and plays remarkably well. I’ve barely been able to put it down over the holidays, which speaks volumes when I’ve got bigger titles needing to be played.
It’s been a long time between drinks for the city simulation and in Cities XL, newcomer Monte Cristo has entered the genre with a stunning simulation that looks incredible (if you have the PC with enough juice to handle it), has deeply involved gameplay, reasonably easy to follow controls and menus, and solid online options.
There’s a great deal of realism involved in creating your city’s infrastructure. First you are charged with laying down a road network which can take any form you wish. Dividing the city into zones is next, followed by the placement of buildings. Citizens will come, live their lives, work and expand your city if you’ve set it up right.
But the main difference between others in the genre and Cities XL is that you are restricted to playing the game the way it’s designed to be played if you are to succeed, where in the likes of SimCity 4 you have the freedom to play in an unorthodox fashion if you see fit.
Ultimately, Cities XL will divide simulation fans. As pretty and involved as it is, it won’t be everyone’s cup of tea.
Modern office desks come constructed in many different materials in this day and age but desks made of glass or with high-gloss veneers pose a real problem when it comes to mouse tracking. Optical mice just don’t work on them without a mouse-pad.
I hate mouse-pads. They’re ugly things that I always end up fiddling with, peeling or picking at. For that reason I haven’t used one in years.
Logitech has been the leading innovator in mouse technology for many years and have yet again broken new ground with their Performance Mouse M950 and its Darkfield Laser Tracking technology.
Regular laser tracking technology relies on the ability of the mouse’s sensor to detect the textural derails of the surface. The more irregularities a surface exhibits, the easier it is for the sensor to identify reference points that it can use to accurately measure motion. However, because high-gloss surfaces such as glass are almost completely flat, there are not enough details for a typical laser mouse’s sensor to detect.
To track on glass (that’s at least 4mm thick), Logitech Darkfield uses dark field microscopy to detect microscopic particles and micro-scratches on these surfaces., rather than tracking the surface itself. Similar to the way our eye sees the clear night sky, the mouse’s sensor sees the clean areas of the glass as a dark background with bright dots – the dust. Then, the sensor interprets the movement of these dots to track exactly where you’ve moved the mouse.
The sculpted, right handed shape of the M950 gives you the comfort you need while four customisable thumb buttons put your most important controls – like application switching, opening a favourite folder and zooming at your fingertips. Force-sensitive side-to-side scrolling (software enabled), which is a first in any Logitech mouse, lets you quickly navigate around webpages.
The supplied rechargeable AA battery can be charged either by plugging the mouse into the mains cable or using the USB cable and plugging it directly into your computer. You can then carry on using the mouse as it charges. Three green lights on the mouse itself indicate the charge level and begin flashing when your charge gets low.
I use the M950 for 8 hours a day in my graphic design job and find myself recharging the mouse once a week – and can stretch that out to a week and a half if I turn the mouse off overnight using the on/off switch on the under side.
The wireless mouse speaks to the tiny USB dongle called the Logitech Unifying receiver. This is small enough to safely stay in your computer or notebook and can receive up to five other compatible Logitech keyboards and mice simultaneously.
I’ve been using the Microsoft Wireless Laser Mouse 6000 for a couple of years and with its natural ‘handshake’ shape, it has become a natural extension of my right hand. I absolutely love it, despite some of the gel thumb padding having leaked its liquid filling. So when the Logitech Performance Mouse M950 arrived on my desk I was scoffing at how it would have to be something very special to knock my favourite off its perch.
It did, and almost immediately at that. My old Microsoft Wireless has been banished to the drawer ever since, and it would take an unexpected hardware malfunction on behalf of the Logitech for me to pull it out again.
Using the M950 and a stylish glass mouse pad I’ve found the mouse to be incredibly precise and flawlessly smooth to move. All the buttons and features are perfectly placed and fully customisable which increases my productivity by having frequently used tasks at my fingertips.
At $199.90, the M950 is what you would call a premium product on the office peripheral scene and I personally wouldn’t have given it a second glance after seeing the price tag, but having used it for several weeks now, I have no doubt that the M950 is worth every cent.
For laptop users, Logitech have also released the Anywhere Mouse M905 which is more compact and uses the same dongle and Darkfield technology for the cheaper price of $149.95.
Seeming as it’s party season, I thought I would review a couple of the best new party games on the market at present. The first of which is the latest instalment in the excellent Buzz! franchise.
Buzz! Quiz World is easily the most polished Buzz! game to date. With over 5000 trivia questions, the chances of repeats appearing are slim. After several hours gameplay I haven’t come across any double-ups as yet. There’s all your old favourite characters as well as several newcomers to choose from, each with their own style. One great addition, and it might seem small but somehow makes a huge difference to the gameplay, is the inclusion of a huge database of preset names. Most regular names are in there along with some generic nicknames and titles. Choose your name and Buzz will address you personally and direct his accolades and sarcasm to you by name.
You can customise quizzes and take on players from around the globe individually or as a team. If playing by yourself though, Buzz! Quiz World doesn’t have a lot to offer, and understandably so, as this is meant to be enjoyed with others.
For the first time the MotorStorm series takes a hiatus from the PS3 and makes an appearance on Sony’s PSP and PS2 consoles. While there are still dirt, desert and mud tracks available, the theme this time around – as if you hadn’t guessed from the title – is snow and ice. This opens up the door for a whole new set of handling dynamics, environmental characteristics, vehicles and pitfalls.
The secret to succeeding in MotorStorm is finding alternate routes to take. Whether the route is quicker all depends on what vehicle you’ve chosen to drive. Big heavy cumbersome vehicles are best suited to the main drags where they can power through the mud or snow and the lighter rides can easily divert down narrow shortcuts. The snow and ice allows for new classes of vehicle to be introduced – Snowpluggers the giant Snowcat also Snow Machines make an appearance and each have their own characteristics.
MotorStorm hasn’t suffered a bit from the switch to the portable format, in fact it seems to suit it quite nicely. There’s plenty of race modes to keep solo players happy for hours on end, but the online multiplayer is a hit and miss affair.
I never got the opportunity to play Guitar Hero World Tour, and with the reported problems that the hardware suffered, I’m kind of glad. Band Hero is very much the same thing, but the drum kit has been given an all important upgrade to make it a little more durable. The yellow and orange ‘cymbals’ are full discs which makes them far more solid and the foot-pedal slots onto the crossbar a-la the Rockband kit which keeps it from moving around. However you don’t need a the new kit to play Band Hero as the GHWT kit will work just fine, as will only a guitar or any combination of instruments you want to use – you can even play with 4 microphones if you wish.
The gameplay resembles the latest Guitar Hero 5 but the mix of songs is purely pop this time around. You can play as your Xbox Live avatar if you wish as well as Taylor Swift herself, No Doubt and Adam Levine from Maroon 5 along with a myriad of weird and wonderful characters.
It’s a fun game, even if it does feel like a bit of a Christmas cash-in in the whole scheme of the Guitar Hero series.
The original Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune was hailed as a cinematic masterpiece and for the most part lived up to the praise. But it suffered from some fatal flaws that initially seemed insignificant but went on to prove incredibly frustrating. Its sequel, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves takes everything that the original did right and improves on it in every way possible.
I’m not entering into the epic storyline here, but Uncharted 2 is about as close to taking part in an interactive action movie as any game has ever got. Despite being a third-person viewpoint, you get a genuine feeling of being in Drake’s shoes and experiencing everything he does.
The action flows like a thrilling theme-park ride from start to finish and keeps you on the edge of your seat. Then, when the ride is over, there’s online co-op missions for up to 3 players and online 5-on-5 team battles that play brilliantly.
There’s no doubt in my mind that Uncharted 2: Among Thieves is the “killer app” that the PS3 has been waiting for. This game alone is worth owning a PS3 for.
It would be easy to write a review of Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars filled with cynicism and comparisons. It is afterall, more or less a direct port from the most successful DS game ever and it is also very typical of the GTA series from a gameplay perspective.
In a world where time is money, I could end the review right there and you’d have a decent idea of what to expect. 9/10. Must have. Thanks for coming.
But for those of you who have already played the game on the DS, there lies the question of why you should even consider picking up the PSP version, and there are a number of reasons.
Firstly, let’s take a look at the game from a newcomers perspective. Chinatown Wars takes the GTA series back to its roots and tilts the players’ viewpoint from a 3rd person perspective to an almost top-down view, but none of the street-smart violence, cutting humour and underbelly atmosphere from recent releases has been omitted.
Set once again in Liberty City, the same world displayed in GTAIV (with the exception of one island – Alderney), you play as Huang Lee whose seedy, prostitute-loving crime-boss father has recently been murdered. So Huang jumps on a plane from Hong Kong and jets to Liberty City to avenge his father and deliver a precious sword to his uncle. Within minutes of arriving, Huang is abducted, thrown in a car and driven off a wharf, presumed drowned and his sword stolen.
From here the story begins as Huang infiltrates the Triad gangs and discovers a power struggle within the organisation.
The main quest, if you choose to play it by the numbers will take you around 9 hours, but in true GTA style there are a bevy of distractions and side missions that bring longevity and ultimately replayability to the game. These side missions are dependent of the type of vehicle you hijack and your ability to take on the occupation of its previous occupant. Steal a taxi – become a taxi driver, steal an ambulance – become a paramedic etc.
Main storyline missions usually consist of driving fast from A to B, killing person C to appease person D, evading the police at all times and delivering item X to person Z. However the main mission requirement that runs parallel to the story involves buying drugs in bulk and reselling them for a profit – this is how you earn most of your cash in the game. It’s a questionable ethos to include in a game, but hey, this is GTA and an R18, not Spiro the Dragon, and if you have trouble discerning between fantasy and reality then you shouldn’t be playing games at all, let alone GTA.
Story missions are only required to be played once, but one of the redeeming features in Chinatown Wars having the choice to play them again if you want to beat your time or earn a higher score. Along those lines too is the “trip skip” option – which allows you to skip the initial travelling and jump straight back to the action should you get killed.
Many missions are dished out to you via your PDA. Where the DS utilised the touchscreen for this feature, the PSP uses buttons to navigate and suffers from a short load time from the UMD each time you open your PDA. The lack of the stylus/touchscreen combo also means that all of the mini-games play differently too. Like stealing cars (jamming a screwdriver in the lock and turning it by swivelling the thumbstick), or hotwiring the vehicle, for example. They all work ok, but in games such ad tattooing fellow gang members or making your own Molotov cocktails, where the DS stylus excelled, now just prove to be an annoyance.
Chinatown Wars have had a great deal of thought put into it in terms of making the game as user friendly as possible. It could easily have been ruined by a bad combat system, but aiming your attacks is surprisingly simple, especially when performing drive-by shootings, where an auto-targeting system kicks in. There is even a slight steering assistance which straightens your vehicle on the road so to avoid snaking from one wall to the other.
The map is situated to the bottom left of the PSP screen, and while it’s easy to see where you’re meant to go and which way, because of the top-down view it’s dangerous to take your eyes off the road even for a second. Far too many times I rear-ended slow or stationary vehicles because I was glancing at the map. Or when you drive under a railway overpass, it’s easy to lose sight of your own vehicle let alone any others.
To combat this, and I highly recommend using it constantly, you can switch on GPS style directions which map arrows onto the road surface. All of a sudden the map becomes virtually redundant in missions where you are driving from one point to another.
Other major differences from the DS Chinatown Wars are the grenade selection – previously done using the stylus, but made quicker and simpler using buttons.
Of course graphics is perhaps the biggest difference with the PSP being able to pull off real time lighting and far more detailed texturing. The widescreen is also taken full advantage of and proves invaluable in crowded firefights.
There are also several missions and radio stations unique to the PSP release of Chinatown Wars.
The multiplayer aspect still requires the use of the Rockstar Social Club system but alas only two players can indulge in GTA goodness at any one time.
At the writing of this review I hadn’t tried the multiplayer – mainly because the Rockstar Social Club sound too much like a badly painted hall where Iggy Pop, Keith Richards and Joe Walsh meet on a Tuesday night to play bridge and euchre.
All in all, if you’re a PSP owner, or a DS + PSP owner then Chinatown Wars on the more powerful console with the superior visuals is well worth your money. The game slots in nicely with the handheld philosophy in that you can either sit down and have a marathon session or just as easily have a 10 minute blat while waiting for the pizza to arrive.
Ups: The game oozes style and has thick lashings of dark humour. Fantastic lighting and detail on the bright PSP screen
Downs: Some minigames lose their appeal without the stylus. Short but frequent loading times off the disc.
I remember he very first time I turned on my PSP on release day. When I saw the impressively bright, vivid screen I thought to myself – “Holy crap, Gran Turismo would look amazing on this”.
Shamefully for Polyphony and Sony, it’s taken several years for that dream to be realised. But finally, Sony’s premier driving simulation has shown its face on the handheld format and for the most part, it’s a joy to behold.
If I had to describe Gran Turismo on the PSP in a short sentence then I’d say it has the styling and feel of the original GT combined with the good looks of GT4. But it’s not all beer and skittles for GTPSP (as I’m going to refer to it as from here on in), there are problems, which I shall address later.
The hat-tip to the original GT begins with the remarkably similar cover art and doesn’t stop there. When I first started flicking through the menus a chill went down my spine as the original GT menu sounds brought back memories of countless hours and countless laps of PSX racing 12 years ago.
One of my biggest gripes with the GT series is also one of the major appeals for many racing fans – the License Tests. I hated having to reach a certain skill level before I could progress and I’m personally pleased to see that License Tests are non-existent in GTPSP. That doesn’t mean you don’t have to do a whole heap of driving to load up on the goodies, it’s just presented in a way that makes it a lot less stressful.
The lack of a structured single player mode means that there are just three choices from the single player menu – Mode Selection (Time Trial, Single Race and Drift Trial), Car Selection and Track Selection. You will earn credits from racing based on your performance, the difficult and number of laps. These can then be used to purchase better cars, which is something you’ll want to do in a hurry. Initially you’re forced to pick from a selection of snails-pace vehicles which are nothing short of painful to drive. The speedo maxes out at about 120kph but it feels like you’re doing no more than 50. In about an hour, you’ll be driving something a bit more substantial, even though it might be the longest hour of your life.
Thankfully credits come easily and you’ll quickly catch the car collecting bug and with around 800 cars to choose from, all faithfully recreated in looks and handling, you’re spoilt for choice. It’s a figure that blew me away to be perfectly honest. I was expecting maybe 200 vehicles on the UMD but 800 is an amazing feat.
Add to that 45 tracks, including variations, plus the ability to dive most of them in reverse and you have a comprehensive GT release that can hold its head high amongst its bigger console brothers.
Vehicle handling works surprisingly well with the PSP analogue stick, but with the high-speed cars I found that the D-Pad had better response times, especially on the more complicated tracks. However the analogue comes into its own in the drift races where twitchy movement isn’t as important as feathering the throttle. However neither method seems to help on the dirt and ice tracks, which are far too slippery. Even though they’re few and far between, the game would have been better off without them.
If the single player mode becomes a little tedious, there is an excellent Challenge mode to make things more interesting. Here you are presented with more than 50 challenges (similar to the License Tests of old) where you can earn Bronze, Silver or Gold medals and a whole heap of credits to spend, which alone makes completing them worthwhile.
Car modding and upgrading is also absent from GTPSP, which has never really appealed to me anyway, but you can still tweak your car’s handling in a number of pre-race options such as traction control, tyre type, stability control etc. You can also choose the level of Simulation (Standard or Professional). But you’ll want to be very confident in your ability to choose Professional, as the cars tend to spin off at the drop of a hat.
Perhaps the biggest disappointment in GTPSP is the complete lack of online features and support. Multiplayer is reduced to up to 4 players local ad-hoc only. There isn’t even online leaderboards to upload your best lap times or ghosts to, which is obviously a deliberate decision, but a criminal shame nonetheless. That said, I’ve experienced many wireless latency problems with other PSP racers that would no doubt ruin the whole GT experience. So maybe the developers had this in mind when the decision was made to cut online multiplayer from the game altogether.
Graphically, GTPSP is easily the best looking racer on the handheld, running at around 60fps. There is some visible stitching in places but nothing that suggests shoddy workmanship. The game obviously pushes the PSP to its processing limits and for that we should allow for the occasional glitch.
As for the sound, there’s a quality tracklist as per usual, although the music is usually the first thing I turn off in driving sims as I like to hear every squeal of the tyres. But if you like your sounds playing while you drive then there is also MP3 support so you can make your own playlist.
Ultimately, this is Gran Turismo, and the PSP version is a legit release that’s a must have for PSP owning petrol-heads. There’s a ton of cars to collect and a whole lot of track to race them on. Sure, the lack of online support is disappointing, but if you call yourself a Gran Turismo fan then GT5 will no doubt satiate all your online multiplayer urges.
Pros: It’s a stunning game that both looks and plays beautifully. Truckloads of content will get you addicted in no time.
Cons: No online multiplayer is excusable, but the lack of leaderboard and ghost support is not.
Title: The Saboteur
Title: Darksiders
Title: Cities XL
Title: Buzz! Quiz World
Title: MotorStorm: Arctic Edge
Title: Band Hero
Title: Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
