Resistance 2

Hello ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, transgender and ewoks alike!
 
Been awhile since I popped a blog out into the blogosphere (I used that term, shoot me later) and figured I'd do one now. As I sit here in anticipation for the plethora of comments I envision getting. We'll get straight to it then, no waiting about or delaying here people, I deliver the goods and I deliver them on time!
 
PS3 updates!

• Bought Uncharted 2 on release day, finished Uncharted 2 some days later, went to bed each night for a week afterwards dreaming of Uncharted 2. The game is a brilliant interactive, cinematic piece of entertainment that held my attention for the entire time I played it. Its crowning achievement for me is that it does a lot of what other games have done in the past, but it does them to such a higher level of quality and standard. Overall it just felt a lot more refined in many areas compared to similar games in the past and present. Worth putting the money down for I'd say.
• Still playing through inFAMOUS and fairly certain I'm coming close to the end of it. Just about 67% clear in the Historic District and I have to say it's another game I'm really happy with so far. From what I've played I've enjoyed immensely and as far as Super Hero style of games go it is one of the few that actually do things right. I do however imagine the quest to find every blast shard in Empire City will pose a problematic journey for me with hours of grinding cables and jumping across roof tops. But it'll be worth it.
• Got a few other games I'm playing through right now as well. Resistance 2, Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway, COD: World at War. All somewhat enjoyable in their own right if I do say so myself!
  
• I've begun down a dark path I'm not sure I'll ever be able to come back from. I've become a bit of a trophy hunting whore these days. As I said above the quest for the blast shards in inFAMOUS will kill me, but I want that trophy. Same with a number of trophies in Uncharted 2. I'll likely be doing the same with future PS3 purchases as well. Does it ever end? :(
• A little disappointed to see we'll never (for the foreseeable future anyway) be able to link our PSN ID and trophy lists to Giant Bomb. Sort of enjoy being able to show that stuff off, even if I'm not particularly amazing at gathering trophies, achievements and so forth. We can only hope

 
PC version of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2! 
I promised myself I would try to stay as far away from including this controversial topic in any blog I write. But honestly the 'scandal' and so forth about it has got to such a point of hilarity I must now mention it. First things first though is an admittance of guilt for originally overreacting to the announcements made about the PC version of the game. I shake my head in shame at such behaviour coming from myself.  

In all fairness though the PC gaming community should have seen this coming from a mile away. They should have been prepared to hear their version of the game would be heavily changed to the point it feels like Infinity Ward and Activision have catered less to the PC player and more to the console player. And I personally don't see why people are so up in arms over this when in reality, PC gamers are in no real place to question the moral and ethical decisions of a company. Obviously I'm generalising here, not every PC gamer has a dirty moral fiber because we all know PC gamers have no moral fiber. It's why they all pirate games, right? :P  
 
The day when one developer and publisher team up and decide to have a more heavy handed approach to the PC community was bound to happen. People seem pissed Infinity Ward would be behind such horrible evil intentions toward PC gamers. But for crying out loud people have you all forgotten Robert Bowling's comments about COD4 on the PC?
 
It seems like Infinity Ward and Activision are slowly going out of their way to systematically kill off MW2's chances of success on the PC. I get the impression they would rather not release the game on the platform at all but are doing it anyway either out of sheer confidence that sales on the console will mean any piracy of the PC version equates to no major loss in profit. Or because simply they hope by taking such a heavy handed approach it may cause a shift for the better in the way the PC gaming community conducts itself. I'd like to think the latter is something that could happen, perhaps if other developers and publishers take similar decisions as IW + Activision we'll see more game releases on the PC at similar times to their console versions. I take no joy in getting a shoddy PC port almost a year after the console version.
 
If paying for DLC and a higher RRP coupled with things like match making and more account security is what it takes for the industry to consider showing the PC more love. Then I'm all for it. Because to be quite frank the way things are going now, I might as well change my alignment to Sony and just use my PC as a glorified storage device for porn and internet access. Although in hindsight that is really all it has ever been :P 
 
Giant Bomb Stuff!

•  If you haven't seen it already then check out the topic explaining changes to the moderator team on the site. Changes I'd say we're all in agreement are for the better :)
• We are in discussion about new mods as I type this. Well not exactly as I type this but we're discussed it, there may be more on that sometime soon. These things are always slow to finalise as there is always so much to discuss. To increase your chances of becoming a moderator on Giant Bomb, go visit your local Site Rules & FAQs topic today! Check out the guides in that topic, learn from them, put them into practice and become a good, productive and helpful user around the site.
• The Community Spotlight has some great content in there created by users for all of us to enjoy. I suggest you all pop over to it and look through the great stuff on offer and while you're there give ZombiePie a big thanks for keeping that topic in great shape.

 
Cheers for reading folks, as usual comment and critique below. Just remember one thing, if this turns into a nasty discussion just about MW2 on the PC I will weep at having to close down my own blog :(
 
So please don't make me cry!
 
Hamz, XOXO

Yesterday's backlog session left me with a taste for more. I've got 12 PS3 games on my shelf that I haven't started. Only four of these have trophies. 
 
Let's do it. 
 
Game 1: Unreal Tournament III. I found this on sale and decided to get it for PS3 because of the mod support. Not that I'll be using any mods, though. First off, five minute patch download. Yay PS3. 14 minutes in, "Lock and Load" for killing my sister over and over. Apparently, someone felt the need to give this game a story. Really solid, fast-paced shooter action, though. Some Gears of War-looking dudes (Dom, specifically) in the cinematics. Seems to be pretty nice with the trophies, being multi-platform probably helped with that. Had a quick online match, too. Fun. Much prefer this to Halo. Will be playing more.
 
Game 2: Mercenaries 2: World in Flames. Installing Game Data. Five minutes and counting. No progress bar. Don't have my hopes too high for this one. Should be some fun explosions, though I feel Bad Company and, in particular, Red Faction: Guerilla have set the standard in that department. First trophy, "School's Out" squarely at the five minute mark. Not a train wreck so far. The first mission was actually pretty enjoyable. Seems like a good discount purchase. 
 
Game 3: Warhawk. Again, it's gonna take a while to patch and install. I like my PS3, but this is semi-ridiculous. I'm too old for this. I played the Warhawk demo and found it enjoyable up to the final Warhawk air combat tutorial. Also, it failed to connect to any multiplayer matches, which put me off the full-price PSN purchase. When I found it in a bargain bin with the headset pack-in, it was a different story. First impression: The music in the menu screens is awesome. I did a quick online match before I resorted to running the ground training to pick up the trophy. There's a bit of a learning curve here, but I managed to notch up a few kills, as well as getting spectacularly shot down in a Warhawk a couple of times. Kind of a Battlefield vibe, must be explored further.
 
Game 4: Resistance 2. Major title update. I've easily spent 40 minutes waiting for stuff to download and install these past hours. Reminds me of the time that I bought Burnout Paradise for my buddy, went over to his house to surprise him, and promptly stared at an update screen for two straight hours. Oh, well. 17:50 into a very action-packed, scripted start to the campaign, first trophy pops up. This is a quality product. I need to go back and play Resistance: Fall of Man before I play this, I think. 
 
I'd love to do a backlog write-up of my other PS3 games as well, as soon as I find an OK way of doing it. First half hour? First level? Tutorial completed? First in-game reward? That might actually be less arbitrary than going for the first achievement or trophy. I'll come back to that. 
 
These are the other PS3 games in my backlog: 
 
Devil May Cry 4 
Heavenly Sword 
Valkyria Chronicles 
MotorStorm 
Lost Planet Extreme Condition 
Ratchet & Clank: Quest for Booty 
Everybody's Gold: World Tour 
Resistance: Fall of Man 

I just got a PS3 a few days, ive been planning to get one for a while, and I thought id post my thoughts. Perhaps most of them will be the same or similer to others but thats to be expected.

1) Installation

This is a double-edge sword I suppose, in the first instance while it installs its annoying (I loaded up Metal Gear Solid 4 as my first game and sat for 20 minutes looking at Snake smoking) but compared to Xbox 360 games they seem to load faster. Im not sure if I totally hate it, and I understand why it happens, but for a first time player its very anti-climactic to spend half an hour walking home in the rain with a big shiny "steal me now" box and then to sit cold and wet waiting.

2) Online Experience

So far my online experience has been very annoying and lonely. I chose Metal Gear Online as my first online game since I had MGS4 in the drive but I had to update which is fair enough but I sat for an hour and a half and got to twenty percent. This is particularely annoying since it didnt tell me how fast im downloading, how much ive downloaded, how much there is to download or allow me to download in the background. Ive tried to update this game a few times but after giving it a total of 4 hours I got to 79% where it gave me another error and restarted at 0%.

I had a lot more success with Resistence 2 (this time since it was through PSN it told me it was a 350mb download) which updated fine, though sadly not in the background, but it took a lot longer than most games ive updated on my Xbox 360 which normally take at absolute most 10 minutes (if other people are using my connection normally) but once I had it updated I got online and played games with no visible lag which was great. Sadly I havent been able to play Motorstorm: Pacific Rift online since it has a ~700mb update and I'd rather be playing my PS3 just now than letting it update.
My last complaint about online, which ive only been able to try on Resistence 2, is that I bought a headset (Official Sony Headset) and ive heard exactly no ones voices through it, and the Playstation 3 tells me its working and connected.

3) Playstation Store

The store works well for the most part except without going on my PC (or PSN Internet Browser) I cant tell the size of a download unless its free. For me since I have a slow download speed (and technically a download limit) I would like to know this sort of thing before I make a purchase.

The only other complaint I have is that it dosent seem to be sectioned very well, mainly in regards to having a "demo" section like the Xbox Marketplace and Steam.

4) Cables

This for me is a welcome change from other consoles because quite often ive lost the battery pack or charging cable for my Wireless Xbox 360 Gamepad but since the Dualshock 3 has the battery pack built in and the connection is a MicroUSB to USB cable (which is also used for most other things it seems) I have many of them lying around from my PSP and other peoples phones etc.

5) Communication Features

For the most part adding people as a PSN friend is easy and quick the only "problem" is that there is no support for Voice messages which would be a lot faster and easier for me until I get a USB Keyboard and leaving it permanently hooked up in front of my TV. This is mostly a non-issue but its worth noting.

6) Blu-Ray

Having the ability to watch Blu-Rays is awesome. I dont plan to get a Blu-Ray over a DVD (except maybe Planet Earth) but watching The Dark Knight in 1080p on a ~42" TV was a great experience and fantastic film and I love that I now have that option.

Apart from this im loving it, though using the Dualshock for Third/First person shooters again feels odd (and I definately prefare the style of control the Xbox 360 has in this regard) im getting used to it. I need to pick up a few more games like Socom: Confrontation (which is mostly why a bought a headset) and Unreal Tournament 3.

Sorry if most of this information is a re-read for most people but thanks for reading if you did :)

Ok so I got some shit to talk about.

#1
 I hate leet speak. I don't feel I need to explain my distaste for such butchery of the english language. I just felt like saying that.

#2
What I've been playing. The Secret of Monkey Island special edition. I've also been playing Marvel vs. Capcom 2 on live arcade and hitting up Battlefield 1943.

The Secret of Monkey Island special edition:
        I've actually never played MonKey Island before this. I'm 68% done it and I must say I love it. Great sense of humor and the voice acting actually really adds to the jokes. This game actually really makes me wanna check out the new Monkey Island and Sam and Max games.

Marvel vs. Capcom 2:
        Let me just say I suck at fighting games. I like Smash Bros. because it's awesome crazy with all the Nintendo items and characters flying around. Now that craziness I am all for but when it comes to more traditonal fighting games I puke a little in my mouth. However I really came around when Street Fighter 4 came out. Something just clicked and I realized the appeal of fighting games. Back to the point, I've been playing MVC2 with a few friends and I love the whole 3 character chaos thing it's got going on. Captain America tagging in Zangeif is just plain epic.

Battlefield 1943:
        I like this game because it's so colorfull and vivid. I don't even care that I get sniped or bombed everytime I spawn, it's just fun to fuck around and drive a tank into a check point and take it over.

I'm still working on that Resistance 2 jazz and the single player mode is fun, I haven't tried the multi-player out yet though.

I'm writing this at 2:30am so when I wake up it will be Regatta Day! Beer tents for everybody! Regatta day is a day where everyone is free of their jobs and responsibilities.  It is also a day where it's ok to be drunk all day. I plan on going camping which should be loads of fun. I don't expect I'll be playing any games till sunday since I'll spend saturday passed out in my bed.

Have a great weekend.

One last thing. Can someone tell me if it's really true that beer only comes in packs of 6 or 12 in America? No 24? No almighty two-four???

          I geuss I'm gonna start up a blog again, I figure that now is a good time since its been a year since I started and stopped a blog. Maybe I can make it past 3 or 4 entries this time ;) 
         
          Im going to talk about my very first impression of Resistance 2. I actually really enjoyed the first one, playing it co-op with my brother when we first opened our PS3 was a real blast. I really enjoyed a few of the ways it was different from other shooters that ièm used to. Like how every weapon has an alternate fire and you could carry every weapon in the game at once instead of 2 like other FPS's. I also liked the health system. Most shooters I've played use either a normal health bar, when in hits zero you die and it doesn't recharge. Or they use the most common system, screen turns red when you get hit, take cover then it recharges, Call of Duty style. 
        
           Resistance uses a hybrid of these 2 styles. The health bar consists of 4 parts. For example if you get shot and take 1 and a half bars of damage then half a bar will recharge but the other full bar will not. In other words every full part you lose will not recharge but if you only lose a portion of a part it will recharge. So the game gives you some regeneration but not too much.
     
           As I said before I was quite fond of the health system and being able to hold a bunch of weapons at a time.
However for some dumbass reason they changed all this in Resistance 2. The health system works just like Call of Duty and you can only hold 2 weapons at once.
They took out alot of the stuff that makes the first one stand out in my mind.

         They also completely changed the way the story is told. They ditched the more original way of narration and cool cutscenes for a standard through the eyes of the hero style. It just seems to me that made it more like Call of Duty 4 so they could try and sell more copies. I love Call of Duty by the way, I'm just really sad that they decided to change Resistance 2 so much from the first one.

          I know they needed to add new things, which they did. From what I gathered from the menus and my brief time played this game: the rank system in multiplayer is really improved, there are alot of customization options as well and the overall scope of the game is way more epic. All great improvements in my opinion.

           I also tried the new co-op mode where you choose from 3 classes. It actually seemed really neat. I played it split screen with my brother and for some reason it looked like absolute trash for a PS3 game. The textures and graphics were PS2 quality. Not sure what is wrong here because in single player the game looks just fine.

     Please note that these are really early impressions. I played the co-op for about 5 minutes and played through the first level of the single player campaign.
I just wanted to express how disappointed i am that the changed some of my favorite things from the first game. However just because it's different doesn't mean it is bad at all. So far the single player mode seems plenty fun. Whenever I get the time I will finish Resistance 2 and maybe do a video or written review or another blog about it.

We all know the Nintendo Holy Trinity. For those that don't know, its the 3 main franchises that Nintendo is most known for and the reason for their continued success. Those three franchises are Super Mario, Metroid, and Zelda.

I would like to introduce what I feel is the Playstation Holy Trinity. Instead of franchises I'd like to recognise three developers that I feel have consistently given us so many fantastic and iconic games, and have been the backbone of the success of the Playstation from the PSX to the PS3. The three developers who make up the Playstation Holy Trinity are Sucker Punch, Insomniac, and Naughty Dog.

Naughty Dog.
I'm going to start with Naughty Dog because they are my favorite of the three. Naughty Dog started with the Crash Bandicoot trilogy on the PSX giving playstation owners a Mascot and a fantastic 3D platformer for a time when there were none to speak of, even Super Mario 64 was a month away when Crash Bandicoot was released. When the PS2 came around Naughty Dog developed a new IP for a new system, Jak and Daxter. The Jak games are by far some of my favorite action platformers of all time and hold up very well despite their age. Jak and Daxter 1,2 and 3 still have a home on my shelf. Uncharted: Drakes Fortune kicked off Naughty Dogs presence on the PS3 and quickly became a "killer app" for anyone deciding whether they want a PS3 or not.

Insomniac.
Insomniac started on the PSX with the Spyro the Dragon trilogy. Spyro was the playstation game everyone played and everyone has fond memories of, and in some cases was the first 3d platformer they had ever played. The dialog was always funny and the gameplay was always fun. On the PS2 Insomnic developed Ratchet and Clank series. It shared the fun and humour of Spyro, but with a slightly more mature attitude. Continuing with their exponential growth in maturity Insomniac developed Resistance series on the PS3 giving PS3 owners the thrill of "tea-bagging newbs" that was once only available to Halo owners. As well as continuing their Ratchet and Clank series with the R&C Future trilogy.
 
Sucker Punch.
Sucker Punch is the weakest of the three, only because they didn't get into the playstation until the PS2, but they definitely started strong with the Sly Cooper series, Sly 3 still being the closest thing you'll get to an Ocean's 11 videogame. They recently got in on the PS3 with the highly rated inFamous.

Though Killzone, Metal Gear Solid, and Final Fantasy may be the games everyone talks about. Sucker Punch, Naughty Dog and Insomnic have given us IP's that truly define the Playstation past present and future and for that I consider them my Playstation Holy Trinity.

This is of course just my opinion and feel free to disagree.

Starting today, Resistance 2 is on sale at Best Buy for $40. Considering that I never played the first one, would you suggest that the game is a good buy?