Note: This is a continuation from my MGO beta impressions.
On Monday, the folks at Konami unlocked a bit of content for the Metal Gear Online Beta: Sneaking Mission gameplay mode and the Midtown Maelstrom map. After spending a bit of time with it, here’s some of my thoughts on it.
The details were nice to say the least. The wait? Tolerable. Well, Valve thought it would be a good idea to release their Medic update today, the day of GTAIV.
Fearless move.
Anyways, boot up Steam and have that update install itself. It’s a hefty download so in the meantime you can checkout the official changelog page.
My is on its way here– it’s in the hands of the Canada Post. If I had to garner a guess, I’d say it’s coming anytime this week. In the meantime, I’ve had the pleasure of reading reports of GTAIV freezes. Imagine going to EB Games or Best Buy at 12 AM only to come home and play a freezing mess.
For both the Xbox 360 and the PS3? That’s according to Kotaku.
According to some PS3 owners, they could fix their problems if they re-install the game data. Good advice, if it works, but if it doesn’t: Rockstar can’t help you yet. I have no idea how widespread this problem is, but if it is indeed a problem, I hope Rockstar fixes it before I get my copy.
I also hope they fix the PS3 online issues which have risen.
It’s out folks. Windows XP Service Pack 3 is now readily available from Windows Update. Expect bug fixes and even a slight performance boost.
Details of some of the changes can be found here.
It’s a bit light on the feature side, though. It’s too bad they didn’t add at least 1 of the 18 features Windows doesn’t have. Sure some of them are already available via third party apps, but it’d just be nice to have them baked into the OS already.
I loved the first Prince of Persia for its faint hearted nature and lack of blood. It felt like Aladdin for me minus the Robin Williams Genie appearances. I’d never played a game like it before and it was just very refreshing. The sequels? Not so much. I hear the gameplay improved, but the darker tone didn’t resonate well.The new Prince of Persia looks to be a complete reboot with new art style and new direction in game design altogether. I commend this step. Not many developers/publishers would put something out like this, but I’m so pleased to see it happening.
Here’s some cropped scans from the latest Joy-pad, a French magazine, courteousy of Pro-Gamers.fr:
Metal Gear Online is not Call of Duty. It’s not like Gears of War. Or is it like Warhawk. Metal Gear Online is its own thing and the sooner you can accept the game’s rules and mechanics the better. I made the mistake of believing this game was Call of Duty 4 in the third person and how wrong I was. MGO has its share of quirks and unorthodox conventions, but after putting in approximately 7+ hours into it: MGO is growing on me.
Metal Gear Online is now live for everyone meaning I’ll be spending time with it – the amount of time will depend on its quality. So expect something written up about this. As for the game, I have some idea what to expect, but it’s all very vague. Hell, I wouldn’t be surprised if I just don’t get what MGO is all about.
Grand Theft Auto 4 is just around the corner and reviews are beginning to crop up. IGN’s review is lengthy, but I didn’t bother reading it since it’s just a lot of anecdotes which you shouldn’t be reading, but experiencing for your own. IGN gave it a 10/10. Shocking? No. As for the differences between the PS3 and XBOX 360 versions, it appears that speculation of the PS3 version being “technically superior” appears to be true:
It was quite shocking to hear that Sega decided to close their Sega Racing Studios. I understood the financial reasons, but it was still a damn shame to see such talented developers be shutdown. Their most recent work was Sega Rally Revo which is a solid arcade rally racer. Fortunately, GRiD, Dirt and Colin McRae developer, Codemasters were kind/wise enough to snap up these guys. A happy ending.
Not so happy news comes with reports of several big wigs leaving Retro Studios. Retro Studios brought the Metroid franchise, not only into the 3-D world, but into first person view as well. Most importantly, it was a successful transition. Hopefully, they will continue to flourish without those key folks.
It’s lookin’ bad. I was going to say “lookin’ Hazy”, but the game doesn’t even deserve a terrible pun. The world looks sterile and clear cut with little to no soul. It’s like Free Radical opened up the book on how to make first person shooters and followed it step by step.
This is the update of the night. Some of the QSF5 crew played Brawl tonight which sidetracked me.
Time for another one of them summary posts!
Ubisoft’s Prince of Persia website has a mysterious logo being consumed by black goo. It probably has something to do with the new Prince of Persia coming. Next month’s issue of Edge Magazine will probably have the scoop. I’ve only played the original and I hear this is a reboot of the franchise and not a dark and bloody sequel.
There will be an Earthworm Jim 4 with accompanying cash-ins. (A movie and TV series). I can picture EWJ 4 as a 3D platformer much like Insomniac’s Ratchet & Clank which already incorporates all of the earthworm’s basic moveset in some form or another. Thus, I’ll be very disappointed if this game falls short of the Insomniac’s quality. That’s how high (unfair) expectations works, folks.
And finally, AudioSurf is apparently coming to XBLA. Yay for the folks who cannot play it on PC, but meh for those like me who cannot play it via controller or even keyboard; mouse is the only way to go if they’re doing a mere port. It’s a shame they’re not releasing it for PSN, because motion controls may actually work better for this.