Blogs / BobiRoka
Added by BobiRoka, 08-10-2010
Hot on the heels of last week's rant comes another update. I guess perhaps I've been stowing them up, or gaming fever has well and truly hit home as the winter nights begin to draw in...
Last week I went to the Eurogamer Expo at Earls Court, dragging VW along in tow. We got there nice and early, eager to make the most of it's 11 - 7 duration. It was quite big. A lot bigger in fact that the dingy affair at Truman Brewery a couple of years ago.
The games on show were beyond count. They even had some PC games there, running on actual PCs. Overall, I'd say the way it was set out pretty much resembled the current gaming scene as it were, with the big names like Fable 3, Gears of War 3, Fallout: New Vegas, Killzone 3 & Medal of Honor taking up the most space. M$ were there with their silly kinect thing, which I stood and watched and laughed at as the public insisted on making an arse out of themselves with it.
Playstation Move seemed much more to the sensibilties of yours truly, combining the novelty control scheme of the Nintendo Wii with the precision and high definition of games I'm used to. I tried Heavy Rain with it, mostly because after climbing the mountain of all 3 seasons of Deadwood over the summer, I had finally organised my lovefilm list(s) to start them sending me games. Top of the list was Heavy Rain, which I'd been gagging to play, but had somehow missed amongst the avalanche of titles we've been blessed with all year long.
Anyway, the motion controls seemed to really make sense in Heavy Rain, so I was glad I'd stuck it out, knowing that the 'move patch' had been released a week or so prior to the game landing in the mailbox. With payday around the corner, I ordered the starter pack and navigation controller and they arrived this afternoon, quite out of the blue in fact - I didn't bother paying for 1st class delivery, since the ���£58 it all cost me was quite enough I thought.
It was a breeze to set up, although in truth I only just about have enough room for the camera to be at it's optimum distance away from the controller in my room. It's easy enough to re-calibrate at any time though - and at least I now have the additional excuse for not getting M$ Kinect (the other being that it looks a bit pants and none of the games interest me in the slightest).
What's quite striking about the control system is the level of fidelity and control it offers. It's far more akin to the subtlety of a mouse. Heavy Rain relies almost completely on mime-like gestures, so when your main character is shaving in an early section of the game you really have to be careful not to cut yourself. Trust me, it gets far more exciting later on ;)
I also tried 'Rumble', a jenga-like block stacking puzzle game, which really demonstrated the 1 to 1 nature of it, the on screen controller moving in complete harmony to the one in my hand. Thoughts of lightsabre-wielding definitely came to mind. I also tried Sports Champions, although the demo disc only has discus throwing and table tennis, the latter of which was also most impressive.
So... this evening has been a night of dabbling. Very much looking forward to cracking into Heavy Rain at the weekend.
As an aside, I can't believe I didn't get into this games renting thing earlier. My gaming habit has something of a revolving door thing about it, so it really makes sense for me, especially with the shorter single player focussed stuff that I end up trading in at Game. Sure, if it's an RPG with the promise of further DLC or a MP game I might actually play MP then of course I'll buy it, but with much of the year spent with epic RPGs like Dragon Age and Mass Effect 2 I've found myself with a HUGE backlog of stuff I've yet to play since the start of year and back beyond...
Anyway, just thought I'd blab a bit while I wait for this Tiger Woods demo to install. That should do me for my first evening with the new-fangled motion control gizmo I reckon.
Next week... what I'd like to do with this site, and why I'm so fucking fired up about it atm...
UPDATE: Just played a few rounds of Golf and I found it disturbingly compelling. Might have to take PS3 to the folks at Xmas. Should keep my step-dad pacified at the very least!
The games on show were beyond count. They even had some PC games there, running on actual PCs. Overall, I'd say the way it was set out pretty much resembled the current gaming scene as it were, with the big names like Fable 3, Gears of War 3, Fallout: New Vegas, Killzone 3 & Medal of Honor taking up the most space. M$ were there with their silly kinect thing, which I stood and watched and laughed at as the public insisted on making an arse out of themselves with it.
Playstation Move seemed much more to the sensibilties of yours truly, combining the novelty control scheme of the Nintendo Wii with the precision and high definition of games I'm used to. I tried Heavy Rain with it, mostly because after climbing the mountain of all 3 seasons of Deadwood over the summer, I had finally organised my lovefilm list(s) to start them sending me games. Top of the list was Heavy Rain, which I'd been gagging to play, but had somehow missed amongst the avalanche of titles we've been blessed with all year long.
Anyway, the motion controls seemed to really make sense in Heavy Rain, so I was glad I'd stuck it out, knowing that the 'move patch' had been released a week or so prior to the game landing in the mailbox. With payday around the corner, I ordered the starter pack and navigation controller and they arrived this afternoon, quite out of the blue in fact - I didn't bother paying for 1st class delivery, since the ���£58 it all cost me was quite enough I thought.
It was a breeze to set up, although in truth I only just about have enough room for the camera to be at it's optimum distance away from the controller in my room. It's easy enough to re-calibrate at any time though - and at least I now have the additional excuse for not getting M$ Kinect (the other being that it looks a bit pants and none of the games interest me in the slightest).
What's quite striking about the control system is the level of fidelity and control it offers. It's far more akin to the subtlety of a mouse. Heavy Rain relies almost completely on mime-like gestures, so when your main character is shaving in an early section of the game you really have to be careful not to cut yourself. Trust me, it gets far more exciting later on ;)
I also tried 'Rumble', a jenga-like block stacking puzzle game, which really demonstrated the 1 to 1 nature of it, the on screen controller moving in complete harmony to the one in my hand. Thoughts of lightsabre-wielding definitely came to mind. I also tried Sports Champions, although the demo disc only has discus throwing and table tennis, the latter of which was also most impressive.
So... this evening has been a night of dabbling. Very much looking forward to cracking into Heavy Rain at the weekend.
As an aside, I can't believe I didn't get into this games renting thing earlier. My gaming habit has something of a revolving door thing about it, so it really makes sense for me, especially with the shorter single player focussed stuff that I end up trading in at Game. Sure, if it's an RPG with the promise of further DLC or a MP game I might actually play MP then of course I'll buy it, but with much of the year spent with epic RPGs like Dragon Age and Mass Effect 2 I've found myself with a HUGE backlog of stuff I've yet to play since the start of year and back beyond...
Anyway, just thought I'd blab a bit while I wait for this Tiger Woods demo to install. That should do me for my first evening with the new-fangled motion control gizmo I reckon.
Next week... what I'd like to do with this site, and why I'm so fucking fired up about it atm...
UPDATE: Just played a few rounds of Golf and I found it disturbingly compelling. Might have to take PS3 to the folks at Xmas. Should keep my step-dad pacified at the very least!
This story has been added to the following section(s): Blog, Consoles, Miscellaneous, Playstation 3, Simulation, Sports
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