Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Biohazard Ø, PSN and Uncharted trophies

Biohazard Ø (Wii)

Back when Biohazard Ø was first announced for the Wii, I was a bit excited to try it. After hearing it was only to be released in Japan, I considered importing it but really the Wii Freeloader is a bit too unpredictable with how the newer versions of Wii system updates basically make it useless (from what I hear). Anyway, I ran across this review of the game just a few hours ago on IGN.

Biohazard Ø IGN review

I must say, I am very glad that I didn't try to import it now. I can't really believe that Capcom actually released it without any sort of improvements or motion controls. The whole purpose to buy a port on the Wii is usually for something different involving the Wii-mote and nunchuk setup (ie. motion controls), right? The fact that it is available on the GC and can be played with Wii backwards compatibility really makes this version nearly pointless in my eyes. Even though this doesn't concern me, since it is not being released outside Japan, I felt the need to rant a bit here.

PSN Gamercard

Last week, Sony announced on their site that you can now link your PSN account with your PlayStation Underground account and show off your Sony gamer card on your own site. I actually found that I have had a PlayStation Underground account since 1998 - had no idea. Well, anyway, here is what the gamercard looks like:



Notice the extremely bare and plain appearance. The "Resident Evil fantatic" portion is actually what I typed out on my "About Me" line under my profile - they only allow about 20 characters. The background and overall design of the card is not bad at all but they should really add what games you are playing, or maybe your current game, or trophies... something. Really I don't think the "About Me" portion even needs to be on there in the first place - I might just delete that off my profile for the time being, would make it look better. If you look really closely, you can see some grainyness around the words and pictures also. Also, if you happen to click on these gamercards (any user cards) you'll be taken to this page instead of a profile page. I suppose Sony hasn't readied the profile pages either.

Hopefully, Sony will touch these up a bit within the coming months. I don't really feel that they are a bad design, but the appearance is rather boring.

You can see what other gamers think of their PSN gamercards in this thread on PlayStation's official site.

Take a look at these third party cards that I made up after visiting that thread on Sony's site.

Berserker_Kev[] - brought to you by TripleTags.com

Berserker_Kev[] - brought to you by TripleTags.com

Now those look pretty awesome to me, especially that last one, though a bit too big for my site. The only main problem is that, being third party, they are not directly linked to your PSN account, so you have to update the details on them manually via the TripleTags site.

Uncharted Trophies

This portion is no rant and this is really nothing that big but Naughty Dog has announced that Uncharted: Drake's Fortune will be receiving a patch for unlockable PS3 trophies. Uncharted was a real enjoyable game for me, so I might go through it again eventually, though not right now.

Uncharted Trophies article

If anyone is interested, you can see what I thought of Uncharted in my full review.

Now (DMC4) if (DMC4) only (DMC4) a (DMC4) certain (DMC4) other (DMC4) game (DMC4) would (DMC4) follow.

Sign the DMC petition for trophies in my PS3 guide if you haven't. Come on, even Xbox 360 owners - PS3 people have love for you too, honestly.

6 comments:

Brian said...

I just buy them off the console--I've figured that at this point it's so easy to rip info that it would have happened already. Though, from my memory you could set whether or not it saves the info. I might be thinking of the Wii though. I always check stores though because they're on sale every once in a while.

And in all honesty you can clear GoW in a day or two of dedicated play if you're determined and fast, at least on Casual. I'm pretty inept so in the roughly 7~8 hours I've played I'm already on the last chapter. There are lots of checkpoints too so the only thing stopping you is putting down the controller :P

Berserker said...

Hmmm. Sounds like Gears might be kind of fun on the harder difficulties if it has a bunch of checkpoints to help you out. From what I have seen, shooters can get incredibly frustrating on really high difficulties.

I have heard that the Berserker enemies can get quite brutal on Hardcore difficulty. I notice that there is even an achievement for defeating one. Very interested to see that enemy.

Forgot to mention it but I actually have Mass Effect here here in my "to play" pile. Being an RPG, I haven't started it because I know it will most likely take quite a while to get through. I'm really looking forward to playing it based on what I have seen from it in trailers and such. It will be my first Bioware title.

Berserker said...

By the way, have you seen the artwork for Mega Man 9?

http://wiimedia.ign.com/wii/image/article/891/891767/mega-man-9-20080717020802013.jpg

Simply beautiful! In that retro sort of way. :D

Brian said...

Oh yeah, it's pretty rad. It's too bad dl'd games are box-less :P I'd love to have that as a box, for retro's sake.

Ah, Mass Effect will take a bit of time, though a big chunk of it is the exploration and going through everything. My first Bioware game was Neverwinter Nights, but I never got past Chapter 2 in that game. I find the idea of 100-hour games a little far-fetched and hard to get in to, along with "watch-a-whack" attacks >_> At least with Mass Effect you're actively attacking.

Berserker said...

I feel the same way about long RPGs though I used to love them. To me, there are usually way too many new games available that I would rather move on to instead of spending numerous hours invested in one game. A lot of times, I find myself hurrying through an RPG just to see the main story and beat the game.

FFXII was the last lengthy game that grabbed my attention, mainly because I enjoyed the gambit system. When it comes to games like Star Ocean and Tales of (insert title), I just can't get into the active battle system presented in those titles. I prefer my command list or in the case of FFXII, a preset group of command lists. :p

Strangely, I did enjoy the active system in Rogue Galaxy however, mainly because it played almost like an action platformer during fights.

Brian said...

Oh really? I personally don't like command lists, and prefer the real-time combat in RPGs. With the newer Tales the abilities system really helps make the combat diverse. It's pretty cool when you can do a normal combo into a special, and you have the option of attempting a parry, doing a backdash, etc.

The only command-list based gameplay I can handle are tactical SRPGs, or the Shin Megami Tensei series. The Press Turn system is one of my favorite in any game, because I like how you are really rewarded for playing smart, or screwed if you mess up. At the same time those games actually want you to use your items, specials and spells (because you're guaranteed death otherwise), as opposed to the mana stockpiling you do with the FF games.