Check out the new digs at rentalgamer.com ;D
For the record: along with Little Big Planet, Killzone 2 is one of those games that defines a system. Great presentation, solid singleplayer experience, great multiplayer for dedicated players.... Another hit for Sony after so long. This should have been a launch title. But I keep hearing about 'control issues'.
Even the Sony Fanboys are up in arms about the controls in this game.
Their forums have been a cess pool of angry posts, whining, finger pointing and name calling. Oh wait, thats most gaming forums anyways these days - but to make it worse you're seeing a lot of "blahblahblah I want my $50 back because there is no option for turning on/off free look acceleration".
Here's the kicker: the controls, once you're used to them - are solid. Yes you will spend quite a while aiming at peoples heads in the beginning, the multiplayer is hard if you haven't done a lot of the campaign to get used to things, but overall the controls feel right, like your character has weight, unlike most shooters where no matter how big the gun or armor you can just spin freely and not worry about it.
At any rate, I will assume they will patch the game to have some of the options their community is calling for; personally I'd like to see keyboard & mouse support. Hit me up on PSN if you want to play some K2. JunoTPN8R
-A
(oh and on a completely unrelated note: Check out the guest post at East Coast By Choice: Confessions of a fashion-inept geek by @junomrpb
http://tinyurl.com/amnkj4 )
After several days of playing SFIV, we've got some quick notes for you all:
-This game will punish you if you're not paying attention. This is just as technical as Virtua Fighter. Austin spent most of his arcade time with Mortal Kombat and Virtua Fighter - Street Fighter has a learning curve and it reminds you every second about it. Reversals, counters, cancels, EX, Super, Ultra - there is a serious lexicon attached to this game that requires you to study it and learn it.
-The new characters are cool, though we bought this for Ryu, Blanka, Zangief and the rest of the returning cast. Unlocking other characters is sometimes difficult but overall the roster feels right from the moment you pop the disc in; you have lots of options out of the gate.
-Difficulty: as we mentioned earlier if you're not of the 'Street Fighter Generation' that grew up with arcade and console versions of the title, you're going to be punished for a while until you start to learn tricks. There are people online that have been playing SF2 literally forever, and will make no mistake in reminding you that you've had your copy of SFIV for 10 minutes and were only being born while they were still dodging Hadouken fireballs in 1992. The CPU is equally unforgiving, and the game has a training mode that will more or less show you each characters special moves, yet it doesn't explain all the mechanics in detail (cancelling, counters etc)
-Online is slick, though you still see latency issues like most fighting games. Make sure you're picking players you ping well with!
-Animated cutscenes? Hell yes.
-We haven't played the PS3 version, but we can say for sure that the 360 Controller doesn't do the control scheme justice. Hopefully you have an arcade stick.
-Lasting Power? If you're a fan of fighting games, this is one you should own. SFIV pushes the series into the current generation, the animation is fresh (yet rehashed to 3d from 2d sprites) the sounds are solid and the experience so far has been a good one.
We give Street Fighter IV a 5 out of 5.
So GTAIV's new Downloadable Content was released on XBL this past week. New music, vehicles, characters, cutscenes - this feels like a 'spin off' title, until you get into the meat of the missions where you start crossing paths with other Liberty City hooligans that you might know from the original storyline. Overall from what we've seen so far we don't feel like we've been ripped off (see Fable2 DLC where you get a magic eraser for all the things you did in the original game and a handful of new quests) and anyone who enjoyed GTAIV, will enjoy TLAD.
FEAR2 is out now as well, the multiplayer is pretty standard, nothing really fancy or earth shattering, but the singleplayer is something to experience whether or not you've played the original. Lots of creepy, uneasy moments make FEAR2's singleplayer campaign one of the best shooters in recent memory, but the unfortunate problem is that once you've finished it there isn't much else to do except the lackluster multiplayer. Rent this one folks, get through the campaign and look forward to other titles this year like Killzone2 on the PS3.
We also took some time and dug into Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection, reliving a lot of good memories from our childhood (Sonic, Ecco, Vectorman) and then remembering some of the junk that was out at the same time (Alex Kidd doesn't hold up at all). Overall for ~$30 the amount of titles is worth it, if you still haven't picked up one of the MANY Sega collections out there, this is worth it.
Work continues on the site relaunch. More details soon.
Jil and I snagged iPhones from Rogers yesterday; we were excited to finally get our hands on the shiny new toys and I quickly dove into the app store to find out about the gaming scene on the iPhone. Having no clear idea what to expect (other than Super Monkey Ball) I picked a few titles and was plesantly suprised. The amount of available content at the low pricing makes this platform viable for gaming for sure.
Touchgrind: A fingerboarding game that is simple to pick up and play, easy to learn and a heck of a lot of fun. Ollie, fliptrick and grind your way around virtual environments. Worth the $4.99 for sure.
Ocarina: A simple musical app, this $0.99 was an interesting few mins of attempting Zelda tunes and Journey - sheet music available at ocarina.smule.com - I think the best part is wirelessly snooping on what everyone else is playing!
Trace: "Magic Crayon"-esque game where you maneuver your character to an exit - by drawing pathways with your finger! Very cool and free.
Topple: Another free game, this one is made by the same team that recently released Rolando. Stacking game that makes good use of the tilt feature. Quirky art and way to fill time.
We'll be digging around for more good iPhone/iTouch apps, in the meantime: Whats your favorite iPhone/Touch game? Let us know!
-A
Hey Everyone!
Its been a long 6 months away from continual posts here at Rental Gamer, but that doesn't mean we haven't been busy! With one of the craziest Christmas release schedules in years the whole crew has been up to our necks in games. We've been Twittering about games and tech in general; but when it comes to our bread and butter - Where do we start?
LittleBigPlanet: If you own a PS3 and haven't played this yet, you've wasted $399+ on a box of circuitry. This is the game you must own.
Fable 2: While some would contend other games on our list for Game of the Year (GOTY), we have been happy to say Fable has been good to us and the newly released DLC makes us even more content to delve back into its fantasy depths.
Fallout 3: If Fable2 is the 3rd person action RPG of the year, then Fallout 3 is the #1 FPS RPG for the year. Simply put if you have a computer that can run it, or want to play it on your PS3/Xbox you will need a few days to recover from how awesome this game is.
Left 4 Dead: Get 3 other friends and play this. Its Zombies, guns and a hell of a lot of fun.
Chrono Trigger: Austin might hunt you down if you don't own this classic SNES port on the DS.
WoW: Wrath of the Lich King: Northrend puts in enough extra content for endgame players to be happy. Prepare to grind dailys ... NOW!
In regards to PodcampHFX09, Austin (Juno) is planning on checking things out with Jil from CraveMyHeart with his Flip camera. Make sure you say Hi!
Mark and Austin have been doing some rebuild plans and are currently working on a series of Video content releases for sometime in the near future. Keep your eyes peeled for more on Twitter.
