Light has been shed. We finally have details on the new medic weapons/abilities and the new Gold Rush map.
First, the medic’s three new weapons/abilities which will be made available once you complete the required achievements:
The Blutsaugher
Achievements Required: 12/36
Description: A new syringe gun which drains health from your opponents with each syringe hit. The drawback is that this weapon will not be able to critical hit.
The new PSN Store was released via firmware 2.30 today. Aside from the slow loading of thumbnail images: it’s awesome. It easily trumps its web-based predecessor and it is arguably better than the Xbox Live Marketplace. Bravo, Sony. You got an important piece of the online experience right.
As for DTS HD Master Audio support: cannot test it without the hardware.
In addition, the rumored Super Stardust HD DLC was released along with an update to Super Stardust HD itself. The addon added three new modes, a remix of the original retro soundtrack and a “new planet”. The update, on the otherhand, added “easy” difficulty and subtle improvements to the visuals.
The addon pack was $6.75 and it was more than worth it. I’ve only tried two of the three new modes, but the “Endless” mode validates the purchase price alone. It turns Super Stardust HD into Geometry Wars on a sphere. Enemies storm in from different random locations, difficulty ramps up a lot quicker and the screen is filled with multicolored explosions of pure bliss.
Love it.
Instead of making to small posts about these trivial things, let’s make it into one.
First, an in-game shot of GTAIV featuring its simplistic HUD courteousy of GTAGaming.com. Pretty simple isn’t?
Next, a screenshot from the latest build of the PlayStation 3 “exclusive”, Haze, courteousy of Shacknews:
Looks pretty good to me, but I won’t get my hopes up until the demo is released in early May. The demo will feature 4 player co-op and a taste of the game’s single player.
It was supposed to come soon, but how soon? Well apparently, July is the month where the GeForce 8800 GT’s successor will debut. The GeForce 9800 GT will apparently be another die shrink of the venerable G92 core which was already a die shrink of the G80 — yeah, it’s not a brand new processor. In addition, it appears that the GeForce 10 name will be put aside. Recent rumors suggest that the GeForce 9900 series will instead be used to represent the upcoming GT200.
Ugh. I’m beginning to lose track of all these video card name changes.
On Friday, a message was left by some dude from EB Games stating that my Metal Gear Saga Vol. 2 DVD is here. It’s part of the Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots pre-order I put down a while back. Not only does it give me a free DVD, but it also gives me access to the Metal Gear Online beta. Sweet.
So I took a snapshot of Volume 1 and Volume 2 side by side. I picked up Volume 1 through the Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence pre-order and despite its shrink wrap state; I did watch the Volume 1. It wasn’t great, but it was free. I don’t have high hopes for volume 2 either, but who knows? Maybe it’ll clarify all this Metal Gear business further.
I also placed a pre-order for Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 FES. Time to see what all the fuss is about.
I realize this “review” is late. Part of it is due to laziness, but the other half is wading through the content Super Smash Brothers Brawl offers. The Smash Brothers series isn’t completely foreign to me; I’ve played every single one of them at limited amounts of time. I’ve always given the series respect for being a good party game, but as a fighter not so much. I simply never understood the depth or the intricacies. What makes Brawl so special, though? Is it the copious amounts of Nintendo content? No. I took me awhile to realize it, but like most successful Nintendo games, Super Smash Brothers Brawl is a game with several layers of depth.
I believe I tried to start doing my taxes about a month ago, but procrastination got in the way. Well, the deadline is almost here which means there’s no more time to procrastinate. It’s time to install QuickTax 2008 and get this over with. I wonder how much I will have to pay this year. Hopefully, not much — there’s much I want to spend my precious digital credits on.
Ikaruga was released for the Xbox 360 earlier this week, but since I was in the shmup mood, I booted up a Super Stardust HD on Tuesday night and ripped through it for the first time. I’m not the greatest shmup player and I never even unlocked the last planet before, but during that session: I was in the zone. Cleared the game for the first time! In classic shmup style, the game gave me its congratulations and looped back to the beginning with increased difficulty.
So while the PlayStation Store is being revamped, Sony decided to show us how the whole store is going to work via a friendly video. It looks simple enough and definitely an improvement over the web based offering. Unfortunately, they did not demonstrate the actual purchasing of content. I want to know if they cut down on the number of prompts.
In addition, Sony confirmed that the PS3 will decode DTS-HD Master Audio after firmware 2.30 is released next week. New PSN Store and additional audio support? Good stuff. More reason to buy my Samsung HT-AS720 which is now available in BestBuy Canada.
It appears Earthworm Jim, the very groovy guy, may be gracing us with his presence once again according to InterPlay’s earnings report. I loved Earthworm Jim 1 & 2 and I was looking forward to the remake for the PSP which was put on indefinite hold. InterPlay would do well if they put remakes of both 1 and 2 on XBLA/PSN. C’mon, Capcom is on a remaking spree with Bionic Commando, 1942 and SSF2T:HDR.
Other possible sequels include Descent, MDK and the possibility of an FallOut MMO.
I haven’t (officially) read a page of Games for Windows: The Official Magazine (formerly known as Computer Gaming World), but I do enjoy their other work. The GFW Radio podcast is one of the podcasts I listen to on a weekly basis. The magazine officially closed up shop today.
I knew this coming. I don’t know why, but I had this feeling that the magazine wasn’t going to be around much longer. They say it’s the changing of the times which forced them to close up shop and I would have to agree. Magazines are the thing of the past (especially for PC gaming); they cannot talk about patches or mods in the magazine without feeling outdated by the time it reaches the readers.
On the bright side, Jeff Green and the major players from GFW’s editorial staff will move onto 1UP.com and continue their PC gaming shenanigans there.
