Throughout its development process, Sony Santa Monica kept God of War III closely under wraps. Details were few and far between, and all we had to go by was Stig Asmussen’s quiet assured look during interviews when he talked about the latest (and final) chapter of Kratos’ quest for vengeance. Given how the odds were stacked against him, it spoke volumes of what was in store for us.
The weight of the franchise is a great one to carry; two directors before him had done a fantastic job of taking the franchise and its protagonist to astronomical heights. All this made it very easy to forget that God of War III is Santa Monica’s first game on the PlayStation 3. After three long years of building a bomb from scratch, Santa Monica has finally arrived in style, riding the back of a gigantic titan, with Kratos in tow as he climbs a mountain to begin his final assault on the Gods of Olympus.
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In 1497, the priest and leader of Florence, Girolamo Savonarola carried out the Bonfire of the Vanities. In an act of open hostility towards the Renaissance, Father Savonarola and his acolytes collected objects such as books, art, cosmetics or anything that fell under the category of ‘immoral excesses’ and burned them in bonfires across the city. Had it not been for Ezio Auditore, the golden age of Italian art, culture and architecture would have been lost.
Mixing historical events and fiction with incredible finesse, the downloadable episode that serves as the thirteenth memory block of Assassin’s Creed 2 picks up immediately after the Battle of Forli. Ezio returns to Florence to retrieve the Apple of Eden from Father Savonarola. But the good priest is in control of the city and has his lieutenants (by choice or coerced) running the city. Needless to say, these are dark times for Florence, and if the premise wasn’t bleak enough to get through to the player, the city has a perpetual cloud cover giving it a washed out look to underscore the point.
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Boring!
There really isn’t a better (or nicer) way to sum up Dark Void. It’s a rare example in recent memory of a game which turned into a chore to finish. And when that happens, it pretty much defeats the whole idea behind gaming. You can very well imagine how boring a review for a boring game would be. What would be more interesting, however, is to try and re-construct the meeting between the developer and the publisher, where Dark Void got the green signal for full steam ahead. Before we begin though, it is important to clarify that while Dark Void is boring, as a game, it is technically adequate and playable. With that said, lets get cracking, shall we?
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The PSP has died many deaths in its lifetime. And the commonly proclaimed reason for its untimely demise is the lack of quality software on the platform. While games such as the recently released Motorstorm: Arctic Edge, LittleBigPlanet and Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars chip in from time to time as counter arguments, it is fair to acknowledge that the story of Sony’s handheld isn’t exactly a fairy tale come to life.
At this point, you must be wondering if this is the review of Assassin’s Creed: Bloodlines or an obituary for the PSP. The thing is, Assassin’s Creed: Bloodlines felt like an obituary to the PSP. For all its flaws (which I shall describe to the tiniest gory details shortly), the fundamental mistake lies in the core design model that many developers have attempted time and again on the PSP and failed at it more often than not. Bloodlines goes down as yet another futile attempt at delivering an experience similar to that of the home consoles.
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I remember Assassin’s Creed. I remember how to me, it represented the first true “Next-Gen” game with its revolutionary control scheme and sprawling cities, full of life. I remember the urge to get a new console just to play the game, to experience a new era of gaming. Most of all, I remember a final product with unfulfilled promises which seemed rushed to the market to meet release deadlines. Despite all its shortcomings, the promise that Assassin’s Creed held was far too great to go unnoticed. It brought new gameplay ideas to the table and told an intriguing story. To sum it up, Assassin’s Creed felt like an elaborate “tech-demo”, the potential of which has been finally realised after two years with Assassin’s Creed 2.
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The following is part of IVG’s year-end feature, where each of our writers will highlight their top 5 games of 2009. You too have the opportunity to let us know your top 5 games of the year, and in turn contribute towards picking IVG’s overall Game of the Year for 2009. Click here to participate in the Game of the Year polls.
I’m not really fond of Top 5 lists, or top 10, 20, 25, 50, 100… you get the drift, right? And compiling a list for the top 5 games of 2009 just highlighted my dislike. This year saw some truly fantastic games, and more than choosing five games out of them for this little featuring, putting them in order was nothing less than a Herculean task. However, after putting in more thought than I’m normally used to, I managed to put them in order. A disclaimer here though; I wouldn’t put too much stock in the numbers if I were you. Each of these games is a brilliant experience in itself and your life is meaningless without playing any of them.
Click here for Amit's Top 5 Games of 2009
Since its not-so-distant beginnings in December 2006, the Motorstorm Festival has made its mark at some exotic and dangerous locales around the world. The offroad racer started its journey on the PS3 at Monument Valley before arriving at greener pastures, complete with dense forests and smoldering volcanoes in Motorstorm: Pacific Rift. Now, following the trend set by many major Sony franchises, Motorstorm has made its way to the edge of the Arctic Circle on the PSP with Motorstorm: Arctic Edge courtesy Bigbig Studios.
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While you guys might think there’s no point of ‘This week on IVG’ in the middle of the week, there is a singular point which demands an entry of IVG’s favourite feature. And that point is:
WHERE THE FRACK IS MY FIFA 10?
This is without a doubt the question on the minds on many IVG members. The conclusion of the FIFA 10 offer has turned into a nightmare partly due to the callousness of the distributor in the matter and mostly due to the incompetence of the courier company they are using, which seems to be routing its couriers via Nigeria.
Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall...
Riddle me this: What do you get when you put a hot girl wielding a sword, a pair of guns, and acrobatic shooting in a mixer and hit the switch? A sure shot recipe for success?
Well, not quite. You get the Artifical Mind and Movement’s ticket into current-gen gaming - WET. Another abandoned child from the Activision-Blizzard marriage, the game happens to be the studio’s first foray into HD gaming, and it shows. Having primarily developed games for the Nintendo DS, PS2, Wii and the PSP before this, the studio hasn’t exactly come out with graphics to write home about. The textures are bland with a low level of detail, and the whole game, which predominantly jumps between London and Hong Kong, with some Texas thrown in for good measure, looks washed out with brown and grey.
Click here for the full review
Hellooooo everyone and welcome once again to a brand new edition of ‘This week on IVG’. It’s been sometime so let me remind you all why we do this: Primarily to make fun of immature moderators and members who instigate random fanboy wars, but also to tell you the latest events on IVG.
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves has been setting the gaming world on fire off late, and IVG has been among the first to stoke the flames with our single player review and our multiplayer hands-on. Sam has reportedly been seen walking around the streets of Mumbai in a dazed state ever since he has played the single player campaign. He even says that he wants to be an adventurer among thieves now, just like Nathan Drake. What this does is make the wait to October 16th all the more unbearable. Our Uncharted 2: Among Thieves IVG offer is also underway, so why don’t you save some money and order a copy right now? You’ll even grab a free poster (which will make you very popular with the ladies) along the way.
Fire in the hole!
