40Gig PS3 Official

Those of you who can't afford to get your hands on a PS3 but have enough money for an Xbox 360 should stop crying now as Sony just officially announced the 40gig PS3. Set to be sold in europe for €399, this version of the PS3 will definitely bring those who have yet to get their hands on this big black behemoth.

Note though, the 40gb unit no longer includes its PS3 backwards compatibiliy and the multiple memory card slots. Plus, it only has 2 USB ports instead of the usual 4. But hey, it's cheaper now! Although, I'd still recommend you get the 60gig soon before it runs out.

See What Will Be Your Home

The PlayStation Home's avatar creation tool has been claimed to be very deep and not until recently do we get a video on how this tool works. The following videos show how you can really customize your character in Home in the Beta version as well as how you can fill your Home space with pictures and furniture.

Halo 3 Tops Jap Chart

One of the most interesting jump in Japan is Halo 3's number 1 sale on the Japanese Chart. Interesting how this is happening in Japan, the land where Microsoft is thriving hard to get on top. Halo is no RPG nor is it a quirky game but to achieve number 1 in top sale in the land of their weakest console sale is not short of amazing. Seems like the Halo 3 superhype is really world wide.

Congratulations Microsoft!

Level 1 Uncharted

Here's another video of Uncharted: Drake's Fortune. Ever since it really got my attention, I went around the Internet searching for it. The video at the bottom of this post is taken from one level of the game.

As I mentioned two posts ago, the graphics look beautiful. Stone walls look old and overgrown with vegetations, looking just like how it would in real life. The lighting looks real, dropping only on certain areas as shadows cover the ground on certain areas covered by trees and buildings. Explosions look different. When a grenade explodes on soft grounds, you'll see earth skyrocketting high towards the sky. When it's on rock solid floor, you'll see little dust flying but a medium size mushroom cloud forming. My favourite thus far from what I see in the video is the blur effect. You make a turn, parts of your surrounding blurs. You enter the shade from the bright lights, the bright areas blur. You get into a large area, the distant area blurs. You get into melee combat, everything blurs but you and your opponent. It's so hollywood! Oh and btw, melee combat looks hot!

Another thing worth noting, you don't get a health bar. When you get shot, blood images show on your screen ala Gears of War style. And when your health is low, the colour on your screen starts to fade. Because of this, you'll see less things on your HUD. Actually, there isn't much of a HUD. Which is great. Then you get to see the environment better.

But, what's the deal with the character animation? It looks good most of the time but when he's jumping from ledges to ledges, it seems so... fake. It looks too fast. I mean, who jumps tenths of ledges and do not get tired? Who jumps ledges to ledges and still get to do it pretty quickly? Tomb Raider's latest adventure did the jumping animations perfectly. I think this game would do good to look at that game. Also, it's not just the jumping animation, the way he walks need some work too. He walks a bit, it looks like he's being pushed. That's old style animation.

Also, I was looking forward to a destructive environment like Heavenly Sword but you don't see it here.

Otherwise, this game looks promising, even despite those little animation problems. Have a look at the video yourself, enjoy and let us know what you think.

Halo 3 is 640p?

I'd like to get my hands on a Halo 3 but I'm extremely broke and I haven't got enough kaching! to spare for another 360. Not right now. Not with the amount of games on my wishlist that's coming out soon for the PS3. Still, I'd go over to my friend's house just to get my hands on Halo 3. But the only friend of mine who owns a 360 is all the way in Malaysia. Even then, the last time he was here, he told me his 360 broke. But I hope to God that when he comes back next week, he'll have fixed that and get himself a Halo 3.

Speaking of Halo 3, there's been a huge amount of talk lately about the game being a 640p native and upscaled to 720p. Apparently, those people who have too much time in their hands at Beyond3D forums figured it out. The reason for all the chaos? The fact that the box said 1080p. Now I've seen 1080p. If you are used to it and you've seen the difference between 1080p and 720p, you'll notice something is funny. But thank God the game is fun - or so I've heard. Halo - oh my old love. I'd like to re-love you again one more time. But I'll stay with Warhawk for now.

The Jungle Is Alive

When Uncharted was first revealed, I never really was into it like everyone was. Re-creating the jungle environtment in a game has never been made great by anyone. There was always a lot of things missing that you would find in the trees. I'm a big fan of hiking and I go through the jungle a lot - heck, walking to Niah Cave showed a good deal of environment that I thought games wouldn't be able to replicate. Note, I thought.

Came Uncharted: Drake's Fortune. I'm not sure whether its the fact that the game is in Blu-Ray that gives it enough space for textures or the great talents at Naughty Dog but the jungle just looks so full of trees and plants and - it just looks like a jungle. It feels like a jungle. Heck, the water in the game looks better than any water I've ever seen in any games, period. Add that to the amazing looking gameplay. Melee combat looks so fun and the transition from gun shooting to hand-to-hand combat just looks so fluid. This has definitely jumped itself onto my wish list.

Here's an inside the game look from GameTrailers for you to wow at it as well.

LBP Character Creation

Finally, something I've been waiting for - well, other than the game itself. I've always loved LittleBigPlanet's videos. They just make you want... more. They just make you want to have the game... now! It's taking too damn long Sony!

Anyway, last time I posted a video of the level creation tools. Now, Gametrailer released a video of the character creation. Check it out!

Cheaper PS3?

Now, I don't usually post rumours because they're not facts and they're just not news worthy but this one's different just because I know some of you wants a PS3 but can't afford it or just can't resist the fact that the xbox 360 and Wii can be *ahem* y'know.

Anyway, this rumour has been around for awhile but apparently, proof has been shown all over the Internet that a US$399 PS3 is bound to be released before or on November 16th. It is up to you to wait until then if you want a PS3 but I am telling you, I am not waiting for you guys on Wahawk. I am flying high baby!

Warhawk in the skies

Sorry for the lack of news lately. Warhawk's been filling up my time and I haven't really been doing a lot of reading on the vast universe we call the Internet. Yes, Warhawk's that good and addicting. And mind you, points don't matter anymore in Warhawk once you've played a heck of a lot of it. It's not about the ranks these days for me, it's about medals, ribbons and badges. Yes, those damn things need to be mine!! *insert evil laughter sound effect*

Anyway, I thought I'd mention to you guys that we've started a Bruneian Warhawk group in Multiply since that hasn't been exposed to the BruGamers.com crowd (I know some of you know not of our multiply group or you just don't want to join) but if you are a Warhawk player or would like to know about Warhawk, please, feel free to join us. It would be great to know other Bruneians in the Warhawk battlefield.

Is Killzone 2 really Halo 3?

Well, well. It seems like some people in the "news" section needs to get their news correct. That or at least put up an effort to try and get to know the Gaming Industry much better.

In the video below, BBC is using Killzone 2's video to talk about Halo 3. How ignorant is that? Not only are they confusing the videos, they're actually combining two "rivals" from two rival consoles. Talk about idiots. In this case, international idiots. Have fun watching!

TGS07: MGS4 with Dual Shock 3

Last week, the Dual Shock 3 was announced by Sony for the PS3. They claimed thet the Dual Shock 3 is no different than the Dual Shock 2 other than motion sensing. But Apparently, 1up seems to say otherwise.

In their preview of MGS4, 1up mentioned that "As explosions rattled around Snake, we could actually feel the direction from which they were coming based on what part of the controller virbated" confirming speculations you find all over the internet about the new PS3 controller.

So who's telling the truth here? And if what 1up claimed is true, why didn't Sony advertise that?

PS: Also, did you know that MGS4 is set in Medina, Saudi Arabia?

Warhawk, A Story of A Respawning Soldier

You find yourself on one side of a battlefield. You look around and you see more people, teammates, joining in on the fight. Everything is silent as everyone runs towards their tactical positions. Picking up ammunitions, weapons, gears. Boarding 4x4s and tanks. Commanding turrets, machine guns. Piloting a Warhawk. The silence only lasted for a few seconds when the first explosion is heard.

You run, looking for something. Anything to survive. Picking up weapons and gears, you see an empty Warhawk at a distance. You get on and the Warhawk starts to hover. You switch into flight mode and a few seconds later you are zooming in the skies of Eucadia. All of a sudden, red lights start to flicker everywhere. Even before you realise what the warning sign meant, your Warhawk obliterates into a million pieces.

You respawn. This time, thinking you are better off driving a ground vehicle. You see a tank parked. You board and you start driving. You look at the digital map and find your enemy's base. You plan to capture their zone so your teammates have more place to respawn. But your thoughts didn't last long. You see a Nemesis flying through the sky, shooting at you. You see your enemies throwing grenades at your tank. And before long, before you can see what's coming at you, your tank explodes, bringing you down.

You respawn. You see a 4x4 and start to drive it. It's fast. It's light. And you think that you can easily outrun all the other vehicles, including soldiers on foot. You see an enemy in front and you ram into him. You see a Nemesis flying towards you, you outrun it between the trees. And finally, you reach an enemy base. And you drive towards their flag. But at the corner of your eyes, you see the shadow of a tank. Next thing you know, you've respawned.

You tell yourself, this is not the end. You respawn yourself next to a turret. You board the turret and start to aim at everything in the sky and the ground. Warhawks, Nemesises, tanks, 4x4s. They fall down to your missiles. You laugh and feel that you have finally conquered it all. But before success was reached, a foot soldier plants a rocket launcher at you.

You respawn. This is war.

The end.

Like my little story? That's the experience you get in Warhawk. Everything is fast. You don't get time to think much. You have to think in advance. Go plan fast. Know where you are going. Know what you are aiming at. Because if you don't, you die. And you will keep dying. And you will keep standing up. And you will try to find that last son of a bitch who just made you cry out fowl in your room.

Get Warhawk. I absolutely love it.

PS: Thought I'd include an old and new Warhawk videos. Look at how long you can survive in the old one compared to the latest Warhawk.

TGS07: That Cowgirl Zombie Hunter

Remember Onechanbara? That girl with the cowboy hat? The one that fights zombies on the xbox 360? In bikini? Yeaahh, now you remember? Well, apparently, as crappy as the games were, somehow it's making another round of zombie slashing, this time for the Wii. Yes, still in bikini.

At TGS, a model was dressed in the heroine's clothing (as seen at the photo above). Famitsu took a lot of shots of the model which you can find here. Personally, I think she's got too much feather on her compared to the heroine in the game. I'm sure you'd agree too.

Anyway, someone at DailyMotion.com managed to grab a video of the game in action. Hmm, I don't know why I'm posting this really...

One Chanbara R TGS 2007

Your Next F.E.A.R.

Not so long ago, the creators of F.E.A.R. held a 'Name Your Next F.E.A.R.' contest at their website. Welcomed by so many, they came up with 3 final names for the sequel to the game and the public gets to vote which one they choose. One of them was Project Origin, which is now the official name for the next F.E.A.R.



PS: I voted for Dark Echo (which was one of the final 3). Project Origin just sounds so... normal. Don't you think?

Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days

Welcomed by an enormous long line at the Tokyo Game Show, the Square Enix's booth was packed with a lot of Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts fans. We all know what's coming up for the next Final Fantasy project but what about our beloved Kingdom Hearts?

Fear not, Square Enix announced Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days for the Nintendo DS at TGS and God knows what that title really means. I'm betting that the title will change once it gets out of Japan or at least to the US.

Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days will feature, not Sora, but the other hero of KHII, Sora's Nobody Roxas. And instead of Sora's friends, you get the Roxas' from Organization XIII. This game also features four player co-op gameplay so you can play through the game with your buddies.
No release date has been announced so we'll have to wait on this one for now. Let's hope the trailer shown at TGS will make its way to the Internet soon.

Let's Loco Roco!

Loco Roco Cocoreccho was released a few days ago on the American PSN and listening to the song just reminds me of how fun it was to play that little puzzle platformer on the PSP last year when I was so addicted to it, downloading all the demos of different holiday seasons. Note though, I think this "interactive screensaver" is overpriced at USD6.99 but I bought it anyway because I love Loco Roco.

Anyway, I haven't really played Loco Roco Cocoreccho since my hands are full with Warhawk (and trying to play Oblivion in between) but I will try it as soon as I feel like stopping playing Warhawk...

So... I thought, with the release of Cocoreccho, I'd dig up an old post of last year and paste it here. Ladies and gentlemen, the Loco Roco song.

Oh btw, if you are looking for the lyrics, you can view the old post here.

TGS07: Afrika

Remember Afrika? Yeah, that trailer from last year that no one knew what it was all about but beautiful looking rendered animals and environments. Well, another Afrika trailer was released at TGS 07 and it looks - well - still gorgeous and still no idea how it's going to be played. Anyone have any idea what it'll be?

TGS07: PSP Store

You've been waiting for it for so long. You've been wanting it since you got your hands on your little black handheld. And finally, it's here! A PSP Store!

While not as great as its big black brother's store, the PSP Store is open for business accessible via the PC - but only for those lucky Japanese. But, rest assured, the people at PSP-Vault.com didn't sleep for you and me to write a great article on how to navigate through the store. And by the looks of it, there are a lot of things you can start downloading.

Now, when will the rest of us get this?

TGS07: Kingdom Hearts : Birth By Sleep

Been waiting for some Kingdom Hearts news? Me too. But here's what's been released so far in this Square Enix and Disney world. Kingdom Hearts : Birth By Sleep for the PSP.

It may not be Kingdom Hearts III but Birth By Sleep seems to be showing some incredible looking characters. KHIII is a prequel to the KH we love thus far and it seems to tell a story of someone who resembles the recently introduced Zack of Crisis Core. This game, looking to be darker than any of the KH games, will most probably follow the gameplay of its PS2 original.

Anyway, here's the trailer.

TGS07: Devil May Cry 4

Devil May Cry's been around for quite some time and I know there are a lot of followers out there who just can't have enough of DMC. So for those of you who still can't have enough, here's a new DMC4 trailer fresh out of TGS.