Baseball is a polarizing sport. Either you love the drama of every at-bat, every line drive and double play, or you think it's boring as all get-out. It's a tough experience to translate into a game, especially in a manner that's, you know, something you'll want to keep playing.
The MLB: The Show series by Sony's San Diego Studio has been the top baseball sim for several years and a solid exclusive to Sony's platforms. But this year is a big one: Sony's launched a new handheld, the PlayStation Vita, and it's debuted MLB 12: The Show on the platform, hoping to achieve parity between the handheld version and the PS3 game, the latter of which certainly hasn't been neglected this season.
Once again, Sony's knocked it out of the park.
The MLB: The Show series by Sony's San Diego Studio has been the top baseball sim for several years and a solid exclusive to Sony's platforms. But this year is a big one: Sony's launched a new handheld, the PlayStation Vita, and it's debuted MLB 12: The Show on the platform, hoping to achieve parity between the handheld version and the PS3 game, the latter of which certainly hasn't been neglected this season.
Once again, Sony's knocked it out of the park.
Headlining this week's PlayStation Store update is Closure, the winner of the 2012 Indie Game Challenge at DICE. It's joined by PS Vita game Supremacy MMA and the free video editing app, PlayMemories Studio.
This is the final week of the Spring Fever sale, so if you're looking to snag some Tom Clancy games on the cheap just about all of 'em are on sale. Hit the source link for the full list of this week's goodies.
This is the final week of the Spring Fever sale, so if you're looking to snag some Tom Clancy games on the cheap just about all of 'em are on sale. Hit the source link for the full list of this week's goodies.
The Amazing Spider-Man will support Move on the PS3, Beenox confirmed after a stray piece of box art spotted by iWaggle3D got questions churning.
The box -- check it out to the left -- features the final art for The Amazing Spider-Man, Beenox said, but it doesn't specify how the Move will function with the title. Its insert shows two Move controllers and the PS Eye: If it does use two Move controllers, The Amazing Spider-Man will be the first third-party title to offer the dual-controller option, iWaggle3D noted.
The Amazing Spider-Man is hitting Wii and Xbox 360 as well, and while the Wii will use its own brand of motion-controls, there is no word yet if we'll be able to Web Rush with the Kinect.
The box -- check it out to the left -- features the final art for The Amazing Spider-Man, Beenox said, but it doesn't specify how the Move will function with the title. Its insert shows two Move controllers and the PS Eye: If it does use two Move controllers, The Amazing Spider-Man will be the first third-party title to offer the dual-controller option, iWaggle3D noted.
The Amazing Spider-Man is hitting Wii and Xbox 360 as well, and while the Wii will use its own brand of motion-controls, there is no word yet if we'll be able to Web Rush with the Kinect.
Sony may be on the verge of closing down its shooter studio, Zipper Interactive. According to Kotaku sources, there's been "chatter for several days" about an impending closure and the possible cancellation of a current project. Sony has not commented on the situation.
Those with short memories may recall Zipper Interactive for it PS Vita shooter, Unit 13. But the company's roots go much deeper -- Zipper Interactive was founded in 1995 and spent the remainder of the '90s making Windows games. In 2002, Zipper created a little PS2 game for Sony called SOCOM: US Navy Seals and, after spending the next few years pumping out sequels, it was acquired by the publisher in 2006. The developer completed work on the large-scale multiplayer shooter, MAG, in 2010.
Those with short memories may recall Zipper Interactive for it PS Vita shooter, Unit 13. But the company's roots go much deeper -- Zipper Interactive was founded in 1995 and spent the remainder of the '90s making Windows games. In 2002, Zipper created a little PS2 game for Sony called SOCOM: US Navy Seals and, after spending the next few years pumping out sequels, it was acquired by the publisher in 2006. The developer completed work on the large-scale multiplayer shooter, MAG, in 2010.
"'Breakdown' is a good word for it, actually," he joked. "The internal team size at Junction Point is about the same as it was on the first game. To have any chance [with an AAA game] -- I'm not saying we did succeed or will succeed, that's for you guys to decide -- you need 150-200 people these days. You just can't do it with less."
The Mad Doctor makes a dramatic return to Os Town, amidst rumbling earthquakes (thanks for physically making my seat rumble in the theater, Disney), claiming to be reformed and seeking a hero to help him save the people from some unknown calamity.
And all this claiming and seeking is done in song. "Help ME, help YOU!" he sing-talks in heavily accented English. It works to convince Oswald to join him, and it worked to convince me that Warren Spector is all about the principles of Disney. I guess I didn't need much convincing there anyway.
Wait, there's a second Epic Mickey game? It's got colors! And a second dude (Oswald)! And ... did we mention colors? Go grab a friend and watch this together. ...
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The Move support is optional, however -- you're free to control Mickey's paintbrush with the right analog stick of the DualShock 3 as well. The regular controller even retains a bit of motion control, allowing you to shake the DualShock to do a spin attack.
Junction Point reps told me that Kinect support wouldn't be part of the Xbox 360 version, so don't expect to wave a real paintbrush around.
Us and the Game Industry's common dreams ltd squeaked by its deadline with $20,256 of its $20,000 Kickstarter goal -- not that raising tens of thousands of dollars from 373 people is exactly "squeaking by." Us and the Game Industry will officially be able to continue production, complete shooting and edit its footage of successful indie developers into a complete movie, its Kickstarter page reads.
Us and the Game Industry began filming in March 2009, so this isn't a bandwagon response to the success of Indie Game: The Movie; it's merely a different approach. Where Indie Game featured a host of relatively (and previously) unknown developers working on unreleased titles, Us follows more established powerhouses, including thatgamecompany as it builds Journey over three years, Johann Sebastian Joust's Douglas Wilson of Die Gut Fabrik, Jason Rohrer of Inside a Star-Filled Sky and "more," common dreams promises.
At GDC, Sony officially unveiled Plastic Studios' Datura, a Move-based adventure game that puts you in control of a spooky floating hand in a richly detailed forest. I had the opportunity to move through the forest, touch trees, and crack ice, but you need this video from PlayStation Blog to help understand the oddity of Datura.
Datura seems to trade adventure game logic for dream logic, and gives you bizarre choices that result in unexpected effects. For example, picking up an icepick (in a hollowed out statue) transports you instantly to an ice field, where you must decide whether to get a trophy -- or a frantic person -- out of the ice. Seemed like an easy choice for me, but apparently not everybody does the same thing. Your actions result in alterations to the main forest environment, which may include ... different insects? Told you it was odd.
A new Sega arcade shooter comes home for the first time next month, when House of the Dead 4 hits PS3 on April 17, for $9.99.
House of the Dead 4 gains a few augmentations in its trip to PSN, including HD graphics, Move support, a slew of new Trophies to unlock and additional levels found in House of the Dead 4 Special. It's no Overkill, but it's a nice bonus for franchise fans who never tracked this one down in the arcade.
BioShock Infinite's version of Big Daddies sometimes resemble George Washington, and other times they're terrifying giants with exposed hearts and enormous porcelain hands. Take a look at the latter group in the latest trailer, just above. ...
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Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles and Darkside Chronicles, the two Wii rail-shooter retellings of Resident Evil events, will be re-released for PS3 this June in North America and Europe. It's being released as a single collection at first, called the Resident Evil: Chronicles HD Collection. but you'll have the option to buy separately later.
The PSN-only release will come with optional Move compatibility, allowing the same point-and-shoot gameplay found in the Wii games -- but, like, in HD, with trophies this time. In any case, there is a bit of new Resident Evil storyline in these two games, so good luck making sense of the whole series if you haven't played it. Really, good luck making sense of it even if you have.
"My understanding of what happened with that was some marketing person at Sony said, 'Oh, I think there's a Move peripheral for this.' And they put it out there and we saw it and were just like, 'Uh. Really? We never heard of that before," Ken Levine told me last week.
Levine admits that errors like this happen "a lot."
The PlayStation Move has shipped 10.5 million units, according to statements made by Sony during a panel at GDC. The Move had shipped nine million units as of last November, and around 8 million last April, making the peripheral's Holiday-shopping performance slightly better than the seven months prior.
"Shipped" and "sold" mean very different things, of course, but we imagine Sony is pleased with breaking 10 million either way. We're pleased as well, because it means 10.5 million real, actual human beings may strap Move controllers to their butts at some point. If we can get them all to do it at the same time, world peace will be an inevitability.
"Shipped" and "sold" mean very different things, of course, but we imagine Sony is pleased with breaking 10 million either way. We're pleased as well, because it means 10.5 million real, actual human beings may strap Move controllers to their butts at some point. If we can get them all to do it at the same time, world peace will be an inevitability.