NTSC-uk.com Forums - First Play

Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep (PSP)

saturn-gamer — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 17:53:56 GMT

Simply put: its absolutely brilliant. And I hated KH1 mind you.

There is talks about long load times etc, i'm about 4 hours in and they don't annoy me at all (I chose the biggest install, which weighs about 600mb). I would say that Peace Walker has longer loads. You can even overclock the PSP's mhz in the menu, and put the colors on 32-bit. Will sap more juice ofcourse (and, according to the menu, will cause minor slowdown here and there but haven't experienced that yet), but it looks better.

Last KH I played was 1. BBS seems to ditch most issues I had with KH1. I haven't encountered a platform gameplay section yet, KH1 failed miserably there. Also, this battle system is a joy and the enemies seem to attack in lesser numbers. I enjoy the fighting in here. There is no gummi ship lameness too. This all might've been fixed in 2 already, i donno, have skipped that.

What I like is the skill system, the D-link system, the secrets.... The levels are not too big, and luckily not all that complex (as of yet). They are kind of right for handheld usage. It seems to be game with a nice pacing overall. Much faster than Crisis Core's lameness.

What I hate is the board game. And the camera can be a nuisance at times. But I like this even better than MGS PW and VC2 so far.

Oh, and the soundtrack, its ridiculously good. I figured its by Yoko, that explains a lot. I love her work.

Kurohyou: Ryu ga Gotoku Shinshou (PSP) Demo

Phar — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:51:49 GMT

Anyone else been playing through the Demo, played it for the last week or so and Sega have done a really good job of squeezing the PS2 Yakuza style game onto an handheld.

The game starts off with a few cutscenes, this time your a young man called Tatsuya who breaks into a Chinese loan sharks office to steal some cash, once inside your confronted by Toda Naoki who's associated with Tojo clan of the Yakuza, a fight breaks out and Tatsuya ends up killing him. Toda was the righthand man of a guy called Ryutaro Kuki and when he catches Tasuya rather than killing him he sees his potential as a fighter so makes him fight in an underground league called Dragon Heat.

Graphically it's excellent, character detail on the various enemies you fight is a big step up from the PS2 games it also has some great animated cutscenes similar to MGS:PW, think they are actually done by the same company as well, only small let down is that Kamurocho is now prerendered similar to the old RE games, probably due to the PSP's limitations, still it works quite well. The music in the demo is also excellent during the fights, sort of a cross between rock and techno.

The demo gives you a small area of Kamurocho to explore along with a tutorial, the main mission of the demo just involves you getting to the hostess bar JeweL which ends in a small boss fight involving a wave of enemies to fight through. Theres also one of two small quests you can run into along the way.

Most of the stores are accessible but you can't do much in them other than buy health items, places like Club Sega just allow you to go in and view a video of the various mini games and features that will be in the full game, looks quite varied though, theres the usual baseball, UFO catchers, Karaoke along with one that looks like your serving fast food.

The fight engine in this one does differ slightly from previous games, the demo gives you 3 fighting styles which can be levelled up, you have Kenka (brawling), Boxing & Pro Wrestling, before each random fight you get a menu where you can switch between styles. Each style has a positive and negative outcome as well, boxing will increase you punching power by 20% but reduce kicking power by 20%.

You can still run around like in previous games while fighting but when your punching an enemy the camera zooms in, it feels a lot more like VF or Tekken because of this, they've also added a cool counter move as well, if you time pressing the L button and the D-Pad at correct moment you can grab a kick or punch.

Heat moves are still here although I can't work out if you can do them with objects in your hand, so far it only looks like you can do them while grabbing, not sure if this will change in the full game once levelled up. Theres also no visible energy bar either, you can only see it if you pause, the screen does start going red when your low though.

Controls are good despite less buttons, probably works better than most games seeing as the PS2 games never really used the second analogue, one really odd choice though is that you now have to hold L1 & O to pick things up, you soon get used to it though.

One cool feature of the fights now is that when they end your also given an option of either taking more EXP or Money.

Overall it's looking like they've pulled off Yakuza on the PSP quite well, just looking at the videos in the game theres a ton of content as well as multiplayer, you also get a code at the end of the demo to unlock extra items in the full game, really looking forward to picking this one up on the 22nd of this month.

Quantum Theory - PS3

Sketcz — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 17:18:42 GMT

Gears of War clone for PS3, demo on US PSN.

Anyone else played it? A bit short, but it shows all the mechanics. I hated GoW so thought this a bit meh. It even copies the shaky cam.

Big muscle-bound guy walks around like he's got the 'roids, and shoots his gun very slowly at a bunch of ugly enemies in a HG Geiger styled environment. Variety of weapons, plus some melee combat and a special move where you throw your female partner. You're supposed to be able to set up massive combos, but I could never get it to work correctly.

Massive boss ends the demo. I was supposed to shoot his weak spot but fired blindly mostly, and then he went down. The environment later on appears to change in real-time.

The most blatant attempt by Japan to copy the west I've ever seen.

God Of War - Ghost of Sparta

Davy Boy — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 20:54:25 GMT

Anyone else get a code for this?

Downloaded the demo earlier today. Please bare in mind that I haven't yet played GOW3 (still working my way through number 2!)

Thoughts:

Graphics are superb - definately a step up from the previous GOW psp game. The glow from the red powerups looks superb when you open treasure crates.
Audio is up to the usual standards.

The demo starts on a boat and progresses through an old building. There is a nice boss fight early on, which continues throughout the demo.
Some old favourites to fight; such as a minotaur (mid level boss) and some new mixed in: You can find these for yourself though.

+
New shoulder charge move (not sure if this was in previous games).
New lance/spear with shield (this looks great!). It is possible to throw the spear as well :-)
You can use the shield to protect Kratos.

You can now open chests that are underwater.

A new power up that shoots electric bolts - similar to one seen in GOW2 on ps2
Much easier to move objects now - Kratos pushes the blocks much quicker.

-
Kratos' animation when running looks a bit wierd, the way his arms swing doesn't look correct.
Same old gameplay - not much new (in the demo anyway). I love the God of War games so this isn't a problem for me anyway.

The demo ended at the exact point where I was getting into the game - it is a day one purchase for me without a doubt.

Sengoku Basara 3 DEMO (Ps3)

saturn-gamer — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 16:39:50 GMT

Awesome, awesome game. I finished both stages, and its really fun.

Graphics are powered by MT Framework Lite. Since its also on Wii. But on Ps3 they are still way better than those found in DW6, and there doesn't seem to be any pop-up and the framerate is rock solid 60fps. I like the bloom effects myself.

Gameplay takes some getting used to, the camera seems to be ropey at first. But I don't mind it anymore. You can block a lot, counter and smash away. Especially the Basara special grants some awesome fireworks and slow mo effects.

This demo is probably the best hack 'n slash I've played, I think it absolutely destroys N3 and DW on these gens consoles. Have not played Hokuto no Ken yet, but I doubt it'll be better.

Amnesia: Dark Descent (PC/MAC/Linux Demo)

Family Fry — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 23:49:24 GMT

Had seen the teaser for this a while back...

Game is released on 8th September (pre-order on steam for £10.39) developed by the people who brought you the Penumbra Series, Frictional Games.
Now lets just say if your in a dark room, headphones on with the PC monitor glaring in your face this game will shit you up, it's tense stuff especially near the end of the demo :o
It suggests at the beginning before you start to simply play the game as you explore at your own pace, there are no cut scenes, everything that happens happens in realtime and is to be experienced by you first hand.
Game starts with your main character, Daniel rambling and awaking in a castle not knowing how you got there, you have to follow a trail of blood to retrace your steps, this is where the fun begins and the light mechanic comes in to play. The main character seems to have issues with darkness, the more time you spend in the darkness the more scared he becomes and the worse his scenario/vision/health gets, light seems to be your only friend/weapon but also in short supply via an oil lantern that has to be filled as you roam these dark castle environments. I won't explain too much on how it all goes down as you have to experience it but the § Flooded room section, when you can't touch the water and there is an invisible enemy swimming around, that's creepy. Also horrible when you step close to the bloody things and it sprays blood on your screen, I did jump in my seat a few times. The sound does make things tense, just hearing footsteps literally walk up behind you and you turn, nothing there eek! §
If people like an FPS horror mechanic with no combat, try out the demo, see what you think.
Pre-order got for me and I cant wait for it to unlock :) now to change my pants....
http://www.amnesiagame.com/#demo also on Steam.

Ys 7 - PSP

abigsmurf — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 19:26:43 GMT

There was a lot of excitement when this was announced as coming to the west so I decided to check it out.

It's an action RPG featuring up to 3 characters at once ( you can switch between them ). They each have different types of weapons and some weapon types are ineffective against certain types of enemies so you're constantly swapping between them.

The story apparently follows on from the previous game but it doesn't really matter if you haven't played it. The main character doesn't have a personality of note (his actions and conversation choices are narrated in third person) and the companion is a typical 'everyman' brawler.

The plot is fairly laughable, you travel around seeking out 5 dragon shrines for the flimsiest of reasons and the characters you meet are all stereotypes (mute orphan - check, flower girl - check, kid who steals from you and you have to chase him - check).

Ultimately it's the combat that keeps you playing. It's fairly fast and fun and there's a simple crafting system tied into it. The dungeons themselves are fairly typical of PS1 era RPGs being bland mazes.

The boss battles are especially fun, it's just a shame they become rather easy after a first, incredibly challenging one.

The graphics are ok but it features some nice town designs. Everywhere feels like it's a real place.

Overall, enjoying it. It's a nice little game to keep me busy until KH:BBS comes out.

Gunblade NY & LA Machine Guns (Wii)

CMcK — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 00:50:29 GMT

My copy arrived from Amazon yesterday morning and I played through both games tonight using the freely available credits.
I was a big fan of Gunblade in the arcades and pumped many a coin into it back in the day.
The port is spot on as far as I can remember. I was playing with the HOTD hand cannon peripheral. Yes the game does look old now but the monochrome textures on the model 2 board don't seem to be a problem under closer scrutiny. The music is very reminiscent on Virtual On and the SFX are suitably chunky. The gameplay is probably about as simple as a light gun game gets but the pacing and swooping camera angles make it seem so much more involving.
It's certainly aged better than I thought it would.

As for LA Machine Guns I'm a newcomer to this particular title and already I'm a fan. It takes the existing formula from it's predecessor and just adds more of everything. The model 3 hardware allows for loads more action on screen, better visuals, similarly catchy tunes and a combo system for chaining shots. Also now your accuracy means a bit more as there are some hostages and civilians to avoid hitting.

Seeing how far i can get on one credit is going to provide serious replay value here i think.

�12 for this pair is an absolute bargain. Come on Sega lets see a Virtua Cop pack next.

Vanquish Demo PS3/X360

Kongster — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 11:58:18 GMT

Downloaded the PS3 demo from the US PSN store this morning, and I have to say that the game looks great on the PS3. From what I (briefly) played of it so far the gameplay seems rather uncompromising but rewarding at the same time, and not to mention insane! :D

I'm liking the Turbo boost feature. I think it's fantastic as it allows you to speed up the action, close in on your enemies and hit 'em up with some melee attacks if you wish. Spamming the Turbo boost, however, will get you killed in no time.

Will play a bit more later in order to try and fully get to grips with the system. That's where the tutorial mode comes in handy!

Metroid: Other M

jimtendo — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 11:17:17 GMT

First off, it requires a system update to 4.3

Now about an hour or so in and just basically getting used to switching from 3rd to 1st person. In the words of Borat "It's nice". I have had it spaz out a few times when trying to go back to 3rd person (where it would go briefly in 1st again) once I've moved the Wii remote back to the horizontal position.

First thing that strikes you is that there's cutscenes ahoy! and a lot of them at the beginning. Mainly briefing you on what happened at the end of Super Metroid and some background exposition into Samus and what she's all about. You know, girl things. It kinda feels like some sort of kids programme in the form of 'Clarissa explains it all' in that she's constantly talking to herself and what emotions she's going through, and what she feels about this particular scenario etc.

Also some of the dialogue feels like it's lost in translation... "Baby's Cry"
Kinda reminds me of Ace Combat 6 and their constant abuse of "Fly with the Angels"
Indeed.

The blend of CGI cutscenes (they do look nice) merging into gameplay is very well done. Especially the run up to the training mode.

As for regular 3rd person controls. Very responsive. Metroid May Cry, or Metroid Gaiden if you like. Satisfying leaping about and spraying buckshot everywhere.

Dead Rising 2: Case 0 (XBLA)

Shakey_Jake33 — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 16:07:55 GMT

Some very quick impressions.

Based on first impressions, I'm pleasantly surprised, it seems very much like the Dead Rising I know and love. The characterisation seems to be on par with the original - the main character actually comes across as more interesting than Frank West (surprisingly, given what we've seen), and it plays pretty much the same. Some nice touches are demonstrated quite early on, like the weapon customisation.

Case 0 seems to be a tad more linearly structured than the original, but they do seem to have made an effort to keep the 'time pressure' element of the original by requiring you to do certain things at certain places at a specific time. Case 0 doesn't offer the simultanious events that featured in the original, but it may feature in the full game.

Graphically, the game is a notch below Resident Evil 5, but does look nice nonetheless. The charater models themselves are nothing to write home about (and certainly not even Resident Evil 5-quality), but the trade-off seems to be that the hundreds of zombies on screen are all quite high quality models, everything looks consistant.

Too early to guage the full game, and this isn't exactly groundbreaking, but I was left feeling a bit more positive about the full game.

Hyperdimension Game Neptune [PS3]

briareos_kerensky — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 19:33:35 GMT

I thought I should at least give this game a try before forgetting about it until a more understandable version arrives...and I really need a quick translations on controls and menus because I haven't figured out how to heal my characters.

The game starts in media res, with the White Heart, Black Heart and Green Heart (humanized home console, respectively Wii, PS3 and X360) making boob jokes while battling Neptune, apparently a normal human girl sucked in into a world of videogames.
Neptune loses the battle and then Histoire, a talking book, pops up, probably breaks the 4th wall and rewinds the story to the beginning, where Compa (humanized avatar of Compile Heart, the makers of this game) tends to a seemingly unwounded Netpune by stripping her naked and applying bandages.

And when a game makes boob jokes and shows scantly clad ladies within the first ten minutes, you know it's gonna be a Great game.

And so Compa and Neptune go off to the tutorial dungeon, where the game explains the battle system.
There's a maximum of three player-controlled characters active per battle, and battles are turn based. Turns are shown on the upper right hand side of the screen with the left portion showing selected enemy's health and guard points. Breaking down the guard allows to score more damaging hits.
Actions are controlled by the four face buttons: triangle and circle are for light and heavy physical attacks while X is for long-range attacks. L1 and R1 swap between elemental bullets for the gun. Square is used to push the escape button (an actual item), to pass turn or to end a combo and switch enemies.
All attacks consume action points, which are fully replenished at each turn. Player controlled characters attack in four hits combos which can be repeated as long as characters have action points.
Enemies have one attack per turn icon present on the right progression bar.

Combat is strictly by the book, a close-range attack has the enemy jumping right in front of the enemy to deliver damage and the rhythm is very slow. There aren't many options either and attacks look limited to three face buttons; items play a very limited role in battle, with probably a lot of emphasis on equipment.

Defeating enemies bring the usual load of XPs and money. Items are rare, almost entirely limited to key objects; all defeated enemy parties drop however green bottles that are used in battle to automatically heal characters.
From what I've gathered, players can set at how many hit points their party members will heal, and such action will automatically take place after an enemy attack that didn't kill a playing character. Healing consumes said green bottles but not action points.
It works great in theory, but it removes some depth to the combat system, as characters are always able to attack without sacrificing a turn for healing purposes. Also this action is limited to self healing in battle...I know it' my lack of knowledge in the fine language of Japan, but I still need to figure out how to heal characters when I feel like in and outside battles: Compa is at 1 HP and gets killed at every battle during the first turn because the healing action is triggered by a non-lethal attack. Auto-healing threshold can be changed during battles by accessing the main menu, so this feature feels more like a chore than anything else.
It's great the first few times it's triggered, but then to save up green bottles you need to access the main menu, navigate to a character's healing sub-menu, set the threshold and exit.

Crawling around dungeons is nothing to speak of, textures are bland and repetitive, corridors and rooms are large but there's almost no decoration and elements repeat themselves way too often. Interactions are limited to rare treasure chests and even rarer hammer times with Neptune.
Compa can summon monsters to turn off encounters for a short time while If-chan (from Idea Factory) points toward the nearest hidden item, which, as you can imagine, are rare indeed.
Characters can be swapped on the fly by pressing L2 and the d-pad; loading times are almost instantaneous but equipped accessories disappear before the main model does, like guns do in battle: let's say that Neptune fires and the gun she's holding disappears before the attack animation ends, leaving Neptune menacingly swinging an air gun.

There's a sharp contrast between character and enemy models.
Standard enemies are forgettable; some of them pay homage to videogame staples like Slimes from Dragon Quest and Space Invaders, but most are from the usual bestiary you would expect from a fantasy-ish JRPG.
Even big bosses aren't particularly inspired.
Characters on the other hand are nice, greatly modeled and with good textures that forsake detail for a more cel-shaded look. They essentially have a style on their own, as everything else tries to go for a more "realistic" look.
All animations are kept to a minimum, with no transition between them.

Music is meh. The tutorial dungeon goes for a 8-bit tone style but everything else just plays a forgettable 30 seconds loop.
Dubbing is nice but expect a lot of high-pitches voices and lines delivered during battles are as limited as animations.

Hard to say if it's a total wreck, but first impressions confirm that it's mostly a game based on moe ladies and a lot of hype.
Menus hint at a somewhat good degree of customization, (combos, equipment, emblems created from images found on the PS3 HDD) but it just doesn't feel like a solid game. The lack of proper presentation aside from good 3D models and illustrations further lowers the quality of the game...I'd wish Sega and the other companies lending their characters stepped in for a more substantial help rather than leaving everything in Compile Heart's hands.

And if someone with a bit of Japanese knowledge can help me out in figuring how to heal outside battles...

Valkyria Chronicles 2

saturn-gamer — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 14:26:08 GMT

The PSP is on a roll isn't it? I was just done with the excellent Peace Walker. Now VC2, and then i'm looking forward to BBS and Ace Combat within a week.

VC2 can be removed of the 'to get' list as I bought it today. I was surprised it was even the EU version as its supposed to be out in September. Manual is B/W, but the inner casing has very cool artwork.

The game is a lot like the first, the music has the same vibe and the graphics aren't even far off. There is an optional install which will cost some 450mb of data. There doesn't seem to be a Japanese language track this time around though. There is also an Extra menu that contains Link Data, Passwords and Content list. I guess this is for DLC, or trade items of some sorts.

The game itself, it starts off with an Easy or Normal select. Ofcourse I'll go with Normal, beaten VC1 and all.Gallia's at stake yet again, a country that reminds me of something familliar. Gameplay is much like it is on the Ps3, but slightly watered down. Also, the analog nub suffers yet again. Its therefore harder to place the crosshair on someones face for headshots (well, d-pad works for that too). There seems to be some changes like Morale which increases/decreases your CP when you do things in battle, but otherwise it really seems to be the same, which is good. I do like the new Armored class. You can make them, while your shocktroopers etc go head on, travel towards the back of enemies and smack them with melee.

If you loved the Ps3 version, go out and buy it right away.

DoDonpachi Resurrection (iPhone/Pod/Pad)

rmoxon — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 12:05:37 GMT

Managed to get this early this morning after staying up half the night waiting for it to be avaliable and it never showed up.

Have to say though, I now forgive it for making me tired today. Its easily as good as EspGaluda. Much like that game there is an iphone mode and an Arcade mode, the later is a port of the arcade version while the former has its own unique features. Those unique features are quiute strange and I'm not sure if i particuarly like them, but they do alter the game quite a bit.

The main difference from the Arcade Mode seems to be that in iPhone mode your ships powerups work differently. Theres a double sided bar, as you kill enemies one side of it fills up, and you power up your ships guns. However if you take some risks and graze up against the enemies bullets your ship powers back down and then the other side of the bar fills up, this lets you unleash a massive attack that you can fire in a full 360 degree motion. Also, once you spin this attack around a few times you will then unleash an even more powerful beam. Its basicaly all a bit mad and overly complicated (and quite hard to keep your gun power up to maximum in later stages) and while it works to alter the way the game plays I certainly dont feel it imrpoves on it in the slightest. I also havent been able to work out how the multiplier works either so far, as it seems different to in arcade mode unless I'm imaging things?. One thing though is that both modes feature different music and I actualy like the "super happy" music featured in the iPhone version more than the tracks used in the arcade mode which i would describe as simply "happy".

Although I have never played the original version I would imagine that the arcade mode remains very faithful too it (and it seems to run perfectly on a 3GS), the only real fault is that in previous Donpachi games when you switched to your laser it slowed down your ships movment, becuase of the touch screen controls this doesnt happen here and as a result it does feel a bit too easy (at least on normal difficulty).

It plays great though, looking back Ive only really mentioned the negatives here but the fact is its a fantastic game that everyone with a device capable of playing it should get as overall its as brilliant as anyone was expecting really.

Mafia II [PC/360/PS3]

mekanor — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 11:42:16 GMT

Picked this up today and have managed to put a couple of hours in. Initial impressions? It's good.

The opening is suitably cinematic and the voice work/sound is very impressive. Gameplay is also quite good. I'm not a huge fan of cover shooters, but this works far better than something like GTA4. The city so far is also quite beautiful and should be good to explore. Still, I'm not convinced it's going to take the original game's crown. Just thinking back to the main menu with the theme playing in the original makes me think that there's something lacking in atmosphere from the sequel, or perhaps this will be come in time.

Very highly recommended so far.