PS3 Archive

Bargain Alert: Sainsbury’s To Sell Modern Warfare 2 For £26!!

Words by

Russell Maher

Posted on November 9, 2009

Bargain Alert: Sainsbury’s To Sell Modern Warfare 2 For £26!!

There has been posts-a-plenty on the forums of money saving and bargain websites this past week concerning this news and was conformed this morning with ads in the papers. It looks like Sainsbury’s will be selling Modern Warfare 2 for the Xbox 360 and PS3 for just £26, which is a huge saving on the £54.99 RRP!!

Obviously, Sainsbury’s have seen what price cutting on videogames has done for Tesco and Morrisions and have decided to get in on the action by offering a mega discount on the most anticipated game this year!!

Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Launch Trailer!!

Words by

Russell Maher

Posted on November 5, 2009

Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Launch Trailer!!

Noticed this trailer last night on FX. A little voice in my head was going “I want this game” all the way through it!!

Anyway, this really is the most revealing trailer yet for Modern Warfare 2!!

Available worldwide on November 10th, 2009.

Review: DJ Hero (PS3)

Words by

Jamie Butcher

Posted on November 2, 2009

I remember the first time I heard of Guitar Hero. Why on earth would I want to stand in front of a TV playing a plastic guitar?! Well a few years on and I now own the whole band set, and almost all of the Rock Band & Guitar Hero games. There’s something strangely rewarding about feeling like you’re playing songs. So when I heard of a DJ Hero, I was in two minds – was this genre going to be restricted to band instruments. The answer is a categorical no.

DJ Hero is the next step forward in rhythm games and is certainly not a release to be ignored. Let’s talk about the peripheral before anything else. The turntable is very well made, sturdy, light and easy to tuck away somewhere unlike a guitar.

As for the game itself, it’s not as easy as you’d expect it to be. Depending on the difficulty you choose (medium is a safe bet to start with) you have to deal with button pressing, scratching and crossfading. Crossfading in particular is an art which takes a lot of perfecting especially with songs that require quick slides with the fader. It’s a lot to take in to start with but once you get settled into how the gameplay works the game really stretches its legs and comes into its own.

As with any game in the ‘Hero’ series you work through set-lists to win stars and open new venues and new songs. Onto the music itself, and as with the last Guitar Hero release Activision have taken a great approach and included a real blend of music both past & present. Songs like ‘Want You Back’ by the Jackson 5 and ‘Heard It Through The Grapevine’ by Marvin Gaye believe it or not work very well mixed in with Gorillaz tunes and Black Eyed Peas as well as a couple of Jay-Z, Tupac, and Cypress Hill tracks. It seems like the developers are really making an effort to appeal to a wider audience which makes a lot of sense.

Also, as with any ‘Hero’ game you can expect cameos and this game is no different. We get to see appearances from the late DJ AM, Daft Punk and the long lost Jazzy Jeff (although unfortunately there’s no sign of the Fresh Prince Will Smith).

The game also allows cross compatibility, if you have a guitar then you can co-operatively play a track with the turntable and the guitar. This is a great idea but unfortunately it doesn’t work very well. They are very different styles and don’t fit into the normally seamless game and it feels a little awkward to be honest.

Once you’ve unlocked new set-lists and songs you can create your own set-lists to perform which is just a jazzy way of saying quickplay. Online play is also available for you to test your crossfading skills against some undoubtedly well practised kid who will humiliate you!

The songs are fantastic. The developers have produced some really funky mixes with some of the most random artists imaginable. With any rhythm game, there are some songs which won’t appeal to everyone but the majority of them are pretty good – the Daft Punk set-list being a particular highlight.

As you progress through the game you unlock new venues to play at, these don’t necessarily affect the game in any way but the further in you get the grander the venues become with dancers, pyrotechnics and crazy lights galore which do add to the atmosphere as lights often change to the beat of the song.

The customisation to the characters which you use to DJ is also very in depth, admittedly you can’t create your own DJ but there are a lot of characters to choose from. Once you’ve picked a DJ, you can then choose from outfits they wear, decks they use and even the headphones they wear. The game definitely misses the ability to create a DJ from scratch though.

We have to remember that this is the first effort that has been attempted into this genre of rhythm game – there are games (or pieces of software for consoles) to create beats but they are developed with real DJ’s in mind. This game is about having fun & there will be holes just as there was with the first guitar heroes but they really have set themselves an excellent foundation to springboard from with the inevitable sequel.

The biggest stumbling block this game will face is the hefty price tag it carries, originally scheduled to cost £114.99 on release it was reduced by retailers to around the £90 mark but even so that is still a lot of money when other rhythm peripherals have dropped so much in the last few months. There is also a limited edition version called ‘Renegade’ which gives you a stand for the turntable as well as a limited edition CD featuring Jay-Z and Eminem. Is a CD and stand really worth paying an extra £50 for?

Looking past the pricing issue, DJ Hero is definitely worth a look. It’s a really polished game with something that will appeal to everyone. It’s challenging to the point where you will steadily improve over time so gives a good sense of longevity. It’s also ideal as something to play with friends around. With downloadable content available on release as well, it is something which will keep becoming your interest as long as the mixes released online to download are as fresh sounding as those in the game.

VideogameUK verdict: 8/10

Review: Brütal Legend (PS3)

Words by

Jamie Butcher

Posted on October 26, 2009

Brutal Legend is EA’s latest release and in a nutshell it’s like Jack Black’s dreams have come to life. Let’s get this point out there right away – if you don’t like Jack Black then you won’t like this. You play Eddie, a roadie who tragically dies at a concert while trying to save a teenage band member – magically he is transported to a mystical world of… you’ve guessed it – rock. Here, he must defeat the mighty Emperor Deviculus and his many minions to restore metal to the land!

It could easily have been a Tenacious D album or a film.

As for gameplay, you won’t be disappointed. The graphics are awe inspiring, the designers have really been allowed to go to town in a Lord of the Rings style world. There’s ice, fire, grass and just about everything else you can think of as well as random animals wandering around.

Eddie has two weapons that he can use, his giant axe and his guitar which for some strange reason electrocutes bad guys in the near vicinity. You can also purchase upgrades to the weapons and vehicles which I’ll mention shortly.

It has to be said that EA have really given you quite a lot to get on with in Brutal Legend, within an hour of playing you’ve driven a car, a motorbike, flown around, taken on giant monsters – it’s a computer game dream in that sense!

The game surprised me in that it allowed free roaming play, with no pressure to complete missions and also giving you the opportunity to have a go at plenty of side missions – normally I’m all for free roaming but with this game it felt slightly unusual, really you want to progress the story rather than explore this world the way you would in a GTA style environment and the getting to and from mission starts does become a little irritating after the first few times.

Don’t let this detract you too much though, the game itself is a lot of fun, the storyline is quite interesting and there are some nice sub-plots which develop to keep you on your toes. On top of that, the voice acting is absolutely top notch. Jack Black is at his funniest while other characters also chip in with their fair amount of drama & jokes. Black has also been flicking through his contacts book and managed to get in some rock icons/gods to appear in the game, not just in brief cameos but actual meaningful characters! Lemmy from Motorhead is a healer who follows your army around on a motorbike, to purchase upgrades you have to go and see a very foul mouthed Ozzy Osbourne, even Blacks Tenacious D bandmate Kyle Gass makes brief appearance as a henchman – that’s not mentioning Rob Halford being involved as well! It really is a rockers paradise!

Another nice little feature in the introduction video is the choice as to whether you want to hear swearing in the game, and then if you’re happy to see blood and guts (as well as occasional decapitations). It’s a thoughtful addition which prevents maybe a younger audience from the verbal assaulting of Jack Black!

In between missions while you’re in free roam mode, you can go and speak to any character who always has something relevant to say about the current situation which is a nice touch rather than the usual generic dialogue that goes on in platform games.

While the combat in the game is very fluid and a lot of fun, there are moments when the game seems to jump out of its depth. At certain points you have large battles with the enemy and the game will suddenly switch to a strategy type game where you need to build ‘merch booths’ on ‘fan geysers’ to build extra warriors and then protect these from attacks. It’s a strange contrast from the first few levels where you’re encouraged to hack and attack through vast amounts of enemies.

The warriors which you spawn are all equipped with their own ‘rock’ abilities. Headbangers do literally that to enemies, while roadies carry large amps on their back and girly rockers shoot guns from long range. The strategy type moments kind of detach you from the game and the story and to be honest prove a bit of a pain if you’re not strategically inclined (like myself).

Don’t get me wrong though, this game provides a lot of entertainment, it looks great and feels great to play, it’s a very specialised game though which wouldn’t appeal to anyone unless they were big rock fans. The soundtrack is made up of completely metal songs.

There is a multiplayer mode which is made up of the strategy scenarios, which can be fun if playing against friends but certainly doesn’t provide much longetivity.

A note should also be made about the main menu of the game, it’s possibly the best menu I’ve ever seen in a game! The game starts with Jack Black walking into a record store (these were the ones before cassette tapes for younger readers) and finding the Brutal Legend LP, then the whole menu is made from an LP cover and the record itself with Jack Blacks hand physically taking the record from its sleeve.

Overall, this is a game which will hold huge appeal to rock fans, Tenacious D fans and Jack Black fans – and so it should. This is a game which has been nurtured to be the best it can be in that genre. It’s a fun game with great depth in the story – there are moments when it feels like the developers have tried to cram just a little too much into the game but it’s best to look past these little flaws and enjoy it for what it is.

VideogameUK verdict: 7/10

Review: Heavy Weapon (PS3)

Words by

Jamie Butcher

Posted on October 19, 2009

Heavy Weapon is a real blast from the past – or at least it feels like it! It’s a modern effort at the type of games that were rife in the 80’s before the ‘invention’ of 3D. The idea of this game is that you are the last line of defense against the Red Star forces, you are ‘Atomic Tank’. You control the tank by moving left and right using one analog stick then with the other control the direction of the guns taking on hundreds of planes, trucks, choppers and whatever else the Red Star forces throw at you.

Each level ends with a boss which is paying a real homage to the old 80’s & 90’s arcade games – they are normally super style battlecruisers or planes.

As much as it sounds quite bland & boring, there is actually a real element of fun to this game and it’s hard to point out why. You collect nukes throughout the levels which basically allow you to blow up everything on screen (best saved for bosses though). At the end of each level you can also upgrade your Atomic Tank with lasers, homing missiles and shields among other things. This is all well & good, but by the time you’ve got to the fourth of fifth level the screen is getting quite full with all the bad guys and your upgrades.

The main qualm I had with this game is how easy it was – it could really have done with a difficulty option. I got through the first two levels of the game without being hit once which can detract from the experience as there is no challenge!

The presentation of the game is excellent and the graphics even during the moments where the screen seems overtaken by missiles & bullets the gameplay stays really smooth.

There are several different modes of play, the campaign, survival and another mode where you see how far you can get with just 3 lives. There is also an online mode, where I imagine you play co-operatively with others, however the 3 times I tried to join an online game, there were no other users.

This game is good fun, there’s no doubting that, but after you’ve done it once (which may take you anything up to 2 hours – and that’s pushing it!) you won’t really want to play it again. That reason alone makes the price tag of this game (6.99) completely unjustifiable. If the game was priced a little more reasonably then I may have advised taking a risk on this game just to experience its quirky features, however, I’d probably say this game would lose its novelty value within an hour or two.

VideogameUK verdict: 5/10