Dark Void PS3 Demo Impressions

No_Style — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 02:27:18 +0000

What do I know about Dark Void? Let’s see.

It’s developed by a western studio and published by Capcom.
The protagonist resembles The Rocketeer and is voiced by the incredibly prolific Nolan North.
It’s a third person shooter.

And that’s about it. Needless to say, I don’t know very much about it. It was interesting enough to warrant a download of the 700MB demo and after going through it, I can see why Capcom isn’t too fond of the idea of having western studios develop new franchises for them.

I found many things about Dark Void to be incredibly distracting. The core flying was fine — I’d even say it is exhilarating — but there were so many little design decisions which drew my attention away. First and foremost is the protagonist. He’s essentially Nathan Drake or a crude clone of him. Nolan North is an incredibly talented voice actor as evidenced by his excellent work in Uncharted franchise. But for some odd reason, developers keep casting him in the role of “generic dark haired dude”. The guy has range and Ratchet & Clank: A Crack in Time proves that. (He voiced Sigmund).

While that was a bit distracting at first, I pushed it aside and began flying around shooting things and going through the “tutorial”. I found the controls responsive enough and thus far the game looked fine with minor screen tears here and there. It was all fine and dandy until I encountered robots which resembled the Geth from Mass Effect. While that was a peculiar design decision, I was able to let it slide. What I couldn’t understand was their decision to change up the tried and true button arrangements for cover. Why did it have to be on the square button? It’s not a game breaker, but it was a bit distracting having to adjust to a seemingly needless change.

After disposing of the robots, the demo wrapped up with a boss tease. I imagine I’d have to fly around and shoot at weak points to take him down. I’ll never know for sure because I won’t be picking this up. Dark Void‘s greatest strength is the flying and while I thought that was well crafted, it was the only unique thing about it. Everything else was either a poor copy off a superior product or a needless alteration. That’s how I felt about it anyway. I’d recommend folks check out the demo for themselves and let me know. At the very least, you could experience some of the best flying sensations in a video game.

Dark Void debuts January 12, 2010 for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC. For more information, visit the official website.

CES 2008 Day 4 Highlights

No_Style — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 01:48:38 +0000

Robots. Will they serve us or will we serve them? I am not sure about the future, but judging by today’s Mahalo Daily, they are serving us today in a very unimpressive fashion.

More high definition format war “news” today. HBO reassured the public that they are going Blu-ray. (Band of Brothers in HD, please!) Paramount is staying on the HD DVD course despite reports. What about Universal Studios? Universal Studios is being hush hush about their future. As for Microsoft? They could support Blu-ray or not.

I am a fan of Dell’s LCD line for their versatility, quality and price. In fact, I have two 20″ monitors from them, but I would gladly get rid of both of them for one of these 30″ Dell 3008WFP LCD monitors. Sexy. However, I would gladly trade in two Dell 3008WFP monitors for just one Samsung 31″ OLED display. Is there anything that can top that? Yes. 82 inches of Quad HD LCD goodness and NEC’s own curved display.

What happens when you combine a high definition display and a robot? You get this:

Check out more pictures from CNET’s CES 08 Slideshow.

Enough about displays, let’s talk waterproof phones and CNET’s Best of CES (in the cell phones and smartphones category), the Motorola Rokr E8. I like it, but text or pictures does not do it justice; watch the video.

As for gaming highlights? How about Star Wars characters in Soul Calibur IV? Sure why not? They did exclusive characters before (ie: Link in SC2 for GC) Vader will be on the PS3 version and Yoda on the XBOX 360. Hey their colors match! Vader would be my choice. $5 says the other character will be available for downloadable content sometime post release though. Check 1UP for more screenshots and other info. Trailer below:

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That’s it for my Day 4 highlights.

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Dark Void PS3 Demo Impressions

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CES 2008 Day 4 Highlights

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