Ghostbusters is one of those nerdy properties that when reissued, will never please all of its fans. Even in a brief demo with a few other writers, questions — and follow-ups — circled around “crossing the streams” and even geekier topics. I’m not at that level of spirit-stopping enthusiast, but I’m cautious about the new version, probably because it shows so much promise. I hate to get behind something, especially a beloved property, only to see it crumble.
The Ghostbusters animation, graphics, settings, and physics look great. The original cast has reassembled to record for this game. It’s even being written by Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis. But the biggest thing I didn’t see was that story, and that narrative is an important part of Ghostbusters. We’ll find out how well the script and setting hold up with its October, 2008 release.
Grand Theft Auto needs no introduction to anyone remotely familiar with video games. But for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 entry in the series, Rockstar has upped the ante, creating a startlingly realistic reinterpretation of New York City as backdrop to a violent crime epic. In it, damaged goods Serbian war vet Niko Bellic ventures to Liberty City in search of closure, all the while coming to terms with the harsh realities of The American Dream. People die, others find happiness, the dream fails to deliver on its promise, and players join Niko on a journey through a world where everyone is flawed, where it seems everyone is consumed by their own obsessions.
It’s a brutal ride for almost everyone in Niko’s journey from off the boat yokel to mass murderer, but what is the Grand Theft Auto IV experience like for the player?
After receiving the official announcement regarding the PlayStation Store’s impending redesign (details and screenshots here), one of the first questions asked was “will we still be able to access the PlayStation Store for other regions besides our own”. With the new PlayStation Store moving to a native XMB application and away from a web-based system, many have questioned if Sony would take the opportunity to region lock the store. So we passed along the question. The official answer, thankfully, is no. Our friendly SCEA rep “confirmed that no changes to the store will be made as part of this revamp relating to region locking”. So like before, those users with multiple master accounts corresponding to different regions will indeed not be locked out of those PlayStation Stores.
Developed by Ubisoft Shanghai, Tom Clancy’s EndWar will arrive on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 within the company’s next fiscal year, which runs April 1, 2008 to March 31, 2009.
The Blu-ray 2.0 spec (or BD-Live) is just days from launch. Sony just announced that the next PlayStation3 firmware updated — v2.20 — will add the new interactive features to your PS3. As such, PS3 owners should expect downloadable video content, ringtones, interactive movie-based games, and the always intriguing “more” when the software is released in “late March.” In other words, in the next 11 days. The update will also allow you to copy photos and music playlists over USB from your PS3 to your PSP. The rest of the new features after the break.
– “Resume play” will enable PS3 system to start playing a Blu-ray disc
and DVD at the point it was stopped, even if the disc had been
removed.(*1)
– “Audio Output Device” will be a new Remote Play setting, enabling PSP
to serve as a remote control for music played through PS3.
– PS3 system’s Internet browser will be enhanced: Video files directly
linked from a Web page will be able to be streamed, and the browser’s
view speed will be improved.
– DivX and WMV format videos that are larger than 2GB will be playable.
– “Mosquito Noise Reduction” will be added as an AV setting in the
control panel of the DVD/BD player for improved movie playback.(*2)
*1 BD-J format disc is not supported.
*2 BD discs recorded with BDMV format are not supported.
Grand Theft Auto needs no introduction to anyone remotely familiar with video games. But for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 entry in the series, Rockstar has upped the ante, creating a startlingly realistic reinterpretation of New York City as backdrop to a violent crime epic. In it, damaged goods Serbian war vet Niko Bellic ventures to Liberty City in search of closure, all the while coming to terms with the harsh realities of The American Dream. People die, others find happiness, the dream fails to deliver on its promise, and players join Niko on a journey through a world where everyone is flawed, where it seems everyone is consumed by their own obsessions.
