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Tag Archives: PS3

Resistance 2 is more fun than expected

I’m not a big fan of shooters; I’m more of an RPG player. But I have to admit that after digging into Resistance 2, the sequel to Sony’s huge shooter hit that launched around the same time as the PS3 itself, that I enjoyed my experience.

Maybe it’s the cool creature designs, maybe its the solid action, maybe its the intriguing storyline and maybe it’s just that I played the game on the easiest section where I wouldn’t end up dying constantly (since I’m not a big shooter fan, remember?) or what, but I have ended up really enjoying my time with the game so far.

Searching out aliens to blast is less healthy, but more fun, than searching out the best diet pill. I can’t imagine anyone who loves shooters not loving this game.

Silent Hill: Homecoming looking good

Just read a preview of Silent Hill: Homecoming for the PS3, and I have to say that even though Team Silent isn’t involved in this one, I’m really looking forward to it. The new game features a more proactive, combat-ready hero, which means that perhaps standing and fighting might become as legitimate an option as running and hiding this time out.

The screens I’ve seen are definitely in the spirit of the earlier titles, but also seem to make a generational leap, sporting a lot more detail than previous Silent Hill titles. The new, US-based team working on this one is the same team that handled Silent Hill: Origins for PSP, but that title received a port-up to PS2 and really isn’t a good indicator of how awesome the work they’re doing on SH:H is looking.

I’m glad to see that, in the absence of Team Silent, the series is still in good hands and isn’t likely to devolved into a Resident Evil clone any time soon. With Silent Hill: Homecoming, Alone In the Dark, and a new Resident Evil all announced for this year, it seems like a survival horror renassaince is in the making on next-gen platforms.

Now all we can pray for is that Tecmo’s Fatal Frame series soon makes the leap to PS2 as well. Those progesterone-dependant Japanese gals with soul-cameras in tow are always great at delivering the chills!

Siren 2 will be episodic

As the sequel to Sony’s first-party survival horror title on the PS2, Siren, Siren 2: Blood Curse has been announced officially for the PlayStation 3 system, and will be distributed in unique fashion; rather than arrive on a single Blu-Ray disc at retail, the game will be delivered in 12 distinct episodes over the PlayStation Network.

The intial release is scheduled for this summer, although Sony’s press release did not detail whether all 12 episodes would be released simultaneously, or whether they would arrive over an extended release schedule. One thing’s for sure, though, you won’t be able to get it on your laptop, as the title is a PS3 exclusive.

Review: Gran Turismo 5 Prologue (PS3)

In most Gran Turismo titles, about the only thing missing is car insurance. That’s because it’s not any simple “select a car, a track and start racing” formula racing title, but, as the series subtitle has often boasted, Gran Turismo is “the real automobile simulator.” An international obsession ever since its PSone debut, Gran Turismo has often been referred to as a CarPG, due to its RPG-like depth of play.

In the PS3 era, the series has kept up an almost constant, but not yet fully complete, presence on the platform. About a year ago, the PlayStation Network introduced a freebie download version that only had a handful of cars and, if I remember right, only one track. Now, Polyphony Digital and Sony have introduced Phase 2 of bringing Gran Turismo into the next generation of gaming: Gran Turismo 5 Prologue.

GT5P would, for most publishers, constitute a complete game experience. Stocked with around 70 cars and maybe a dozen tracks, however, GT5P is merely an appetizer. That’s because the last full version of the game, which appeared on PS2, contained over 700 cars and over 60 tracks. And rest assured, Polyphony Digital isn’t stopping with Prologue; in fact, the company has publicly admitted that the game, while satisfying in and of itself, is merely a test platform with which they intend to work out all the online racing bugs so that when the final version of Gran Turismo 5 is unveiled, it’ll be a true, deep mindblower of a title with at least as many cars and tracks as GT4 had on PS2.

In the meantime, what is GT5P like? Well, let’s start with the graphics; the game looks better than ever, especially on HD displays. The cars shine and gleam and, along with the backgrounds, are often nearly indistinguishable from live TV footage of car races. Of course, looks have always been a strong point of the series.

A traditional weak point, however, is still hanging in strong in GT5P, and we can only hope Polyphony Digital corrects it before they unleash the final version of Gran Turismo 5, and that’s opponent AI. In GT5P, once you pass an opponent and put him a little distance behind you, they never threaten you again, unless you goof up bad and lose a lot of time correcting your error. That means that if your car has a clear horse-power advantage, you’ll blow out your opponents in C-class races by quite a distance, not just a minor margin.

What would be truly satisfying is if each opponent were made as cagey and challenging to beat as a human opponent. Horsepower is on aspect of winning a race, but it shouldn’t be the only determining factor; too often, with as little as a 25-50 horsepower advantage, you can drive sloppy lines and endure minor miscues on turns and still finish well ahead of the pack. Similarly, if you’re at a horsepower disadvantage, unless you take advantage of the fact that there is no damage modeling in Gran Turismo and treat each race like the demolition derby on the early turns of the first lap, you’ll never get close to the lead cars that are way more powerful than yours.

The lack of damage modeling is once again a serious sticking point in GT5P, and considering that over on the Xbox 360, Forza Motorsport 2 is able to get many of the same car licenses AND an agreement to allow damage modeling, the failure so far of the Gran Turismo series to include this aspect of racing gameplay into the game is becoming an increasing drawback.

In fact, the challenge level (traditionally, Gran Turismo is excessively hard to succeed at) has been scaled way back for GT5P, and plays more like an arcade racer than a real driving simulator. Part of this is the ability to choose from standard and ultra-realistic driving physics, as well as a new ability, which is oversteer assistance. This feature can be enabled as a preference and seems mostly to be there for newbies, to make the game more playable in the early going. This assistance has three settings; off, which makes the game like previous installments, putting complete control of the car in your hands; mild, which only corrects your biggest oversteering errors; and strong, which can pretty much eliminate all but the biggest errors in oversteering.

Set on strong, the game becomes considerably less challenging to beat, especially due to the AI deficiencies already at work. This can rob series veterans of a good portion of the challenge, and so in online play, all drivers are made to use the same, identical setting for this, which is predetermined before the race begins. Intended to make the game more accessible for newbies, it can make experienced players almost as flawless as computer-controlled drivers, only more dangerous since the average human opponent drives way more competitively than the average AI opponent.

On the interface side, many elements are missing, such as posting times for all finishers at the end of a race. Also, front end boasts dealerships and garages, but lacks the Parts Centers that allow you to upgrade your care with after-market parts. Once you reach a certain level of achievement in the game, a Tune-Up shop is unlocked so gear-heads can tweak their cars for better performance, but for the non-mechanics who just like racing, that can become a bit challenging and the absence of Parts Centers is definitely felt.

While boasting a wide variety of car makers in GT5P, many of them only have one or two cars in the game, which is a disappointment; apparently Sony will be releasing more cars and perhaps even more tracks through expansion packs via the PlayStation Store in the near future, but for now, the 70 car roster has some favorites, but nowhere near as much depth as series fanatics are accustomed to enjoying.

Finally, online play is loads of fun, but does need some spit and polish to smooth out lag times, blips and clips. The potential is definitely there for online play to really push Gran Turismo to the next level, but I’m sure most of the kinks will be worked out by the time the full-release Gran Turismo 5 appears at last with a lot more cars and tracks than the current installment allows.

In the end, Gran Turismo 5 Prologue is nowhere near as complete nor as satisfying as a full-on release and the much greater depth of play that 700+ cars and 60+ tracks can bring, so you’ll want to hold on to your copy of Gran Turismo 4 for PS2 for a while longer. But for series fans who can’t wait for the full release, just keep in mind that even in this current, abbreviated form, Gran Turismo 5 Prologue is still far deeper than 95 percent of full-release racing games currently on the market.

Review: Dark Sector (PS3)

For my money and speaking completely on a personal level, Dark Sector is everything I was hoping last holiday season’s The Darkness would be, but without all the profuse profanity. Set is a slightly more military setting, rather than an urban underworld, Dark Sector is a disturbing tale of a deadly … something that seems bent on taking lives and destroying property.

The game begins with a story sequence set in Russia, in which a submarine surfaces mysteriously and, when the military investigates… oops, the screen goes dark and jumps forward in time, so exactly what happened is a bit of a mystery, at least for a while. The future jumped ahead to begins at a military base that looks like the site of post-nuclear devastation.

You are on a mission to find and eliminate some folks captured by enemy forces; you’re more of a black-ops guy than a hero, because you eliminate friendly targets more often than rescue them. In the early going, my favorite sequence has you quickly eliminating some human targets, but then scrambling to bring down a seemingly-unstoppable helicopter attack.

The game also seems to have some random weirdness; at one point, as I was attacking some enemy units, suddenly this big … I don’t know, energy monster … struck and cleaned house on them for me. Of course, if I attacked it, it was perfectly happy to eliminate me, too, but I found out that if I could dodge and hide long enough, it would lose interest and disappear. Either that was a huge hole in the AI, or something the developer tossed in just to see how different approaches to the threat would work out, if it wasn’t too tightly scripted.

While you initially get access to traditional weaponry, soon you become “infected” with something that seems both viral and alien; it turns you part cyborg and gives you a kick-butt bladed weapon that rips opponents to shreds in a fairly bloody manner. The origin of this infection remains a mystery for a while in the game, so it’s not clear whether it’s really alien technology, something mystical, or perhaps even a case of Phentermine overdosing. Also note that the sound effects guy on this title is one twisted puppy; every time you kill an opponent with the blade, there are some extended and very painful-sounding death-rattles sprinkled into the mix.

The battle system is a mild variation on the standard action-shooter formula and is quite effective. The damage system is not communicated through a HUD, but when you’re getting near death, the screen goes red around the edges. Fortunately, if you can take cover and avoid additional damage for a brief period of time, you’ll soon heal up.

Brimming with action and energy, Dark Sector is one of the few action-shooter-stealth games that captured my attention. The dialog isn’t as profanity-infested as The Darkness, which is a good thing, because the game is both playable and addictive. While not quite on the same level as Metal Gear Solid 4, Dark Sector is an enjoyable diversion with some sharp graphics.

Review: Hot Shots Golf: Out of Bounds (PS3)

It was inevitable, and now it’s finally reality, despite a nearly six-month delay; the newest entry in the Hot Shots Golf franchise has arrived, and this time it’s on the PlayStation 3 for the first time. Thanks to its depth of play, cartoon-cute characters and sharp sense of humor, Hot Shots Golf has always been the sports game you give to folks who don’t normally life sports games; like MP3 players filled with only your favorite songs, it’s a package that’s hard not to like.

As the debut entry in the series on Sony’s next-gen platform, the courses look gorgeous and are as fun as ever to play, ramping up in challenge as you go. The level of detail has been amped up quite a bit, but other than that, the series maintains its classic character design sense and is probably not pushing the PS3 hardware very hard or far.

So what’s next-gen about the game? Well, believe it or not, the control scheme, though completely new, is very accessible and playable, even for a series veteran. Rather than the by-now-cliché click-meters, you can decide when to hit the X button at the apex of your stroke and again at the point of contact, simply by watching your character’s swing. If you wait too long and go beyond 100-percent at the apex, you get to swing again after your character resets. It’s all quite easy to get the hang of, and although it doesn’t exactly take advantage of motion sensitivity inherent in both the SixAxis controller, and the new DualShock 3 with SixAxis technology.

About the only real complaint I have is that adjusting the point of contact with the ball, as well as where you want to aim for down the fairway, is surprisingly a bit harder to do this time out. In previous chapters, it was easy to get to an overhead shot of the course to precisely pinpoint where you were aiming, and that’s now harder to do.

Another minor problem is that the game, while still deep, is nowhere near as deep as the last installment in the series, on the PS2. There are fewer golfers to unlock and fewer items to accumulate, even though the list is still impressive. However, word on the street is that Sony is planning to make more golfers and items available via the PlayStation Store, either via microtransactions or perhaps even some free inter-promotional downloads.

Does this mean we could see a golfer from LittleBigPlanet or something along that line? Early indications would be in the affirmative, and count me among those who’d like to see Sony strike a deal with SquareEnix to make a couple characters from Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII available at some point; who wouldn’t want to hit the greens with Aerith, Cloud or Sepheiroth?

In the meantime, anyone who has been missing their cartoon sports fix after maxing out on the previous Hot Shots Golf title can finally rest easy and play hard; Hot Shots Golf: Out of Bounds is sharp-looking and infinitely playable … as always.

Review: MLB 08 The Show (PS3)

It’s ironic … and shocking. It wasn’t that long ago that Sony’s in-house sports development team, previously known as 989 Sports and now just referred to generically as SCEA, was an industry laughing stock. But as the PS2 era wound to a close and the PS3 era dawned, Sony reinvested in reinvigorating their sports game lineup, and the results have been increasingly improved reviews, although none of their games have yet eclipsed the industry big boys, 2K Sports and EA Sports. Until now.

MLB 08 The Show has finally broken through; although it has turned out to be an off-year for 2K Sports “third-party exclusive license” MLB competitor, MLB 08 The Show nevertheless deserves recognition for finally pulling off the unthinkable and besting one of the two main third party sports developers. This year’s Sony baseball sim is just simply better than 2K Sports’ MLB 2K8. How? Let me count the ways as we open the books on MLB 08: The Show.

First is the new, deeper Road to the Show mode, which boasts new advancements, career goals, and position specific situations to play through. No longer restricted to a single season of play, the game allows you to track your players’ career from the rookie leagues on up to the majors, gaining experience and new skills along the way; the mode is basically a baseball RPG, which is a good thing that lends both depth and replay value to the game. To be honest, this is what won me over. I’ve seen similar features in Sony’s basketball franchise, but it is here where the concept has finally come together to create a solid experience in single-player mode, one that is not limited or limiting.

The new progressive batting system is also a welcome innovation; the game rewards players for consistent hitting, but penalizes them for failure, which helps keep the stats realistic and reflects the ups and downs all hitters go through as a 182-game season plays out. There is also a lot more stat-tracking this year, right down to a batter’s history against specific pitchers, which should satisfy the stat fanatics out there.

One feature I treasure, as a busy person, is the ability to save your game right in the middle of a ballgame; many sports games do not include this feature, which means either pausing the game and possibly getting caught up in something that causes you to forget the system is on with the game paused, or perhaps quitting and having the play the game over; neither option is particularly appealing and by allowing the user to save their progress in the middle of the game, MLB 08 The Show gets heartfelt gratitude for their consideration of an adult gamer’s schedule. While such a feature will rarely be needed on the pause-friendly PSP, it is a boon to PS2 and PS3 gamers.

Other convenience features include the ability to create a folder called My MLB Music on either the PSP or PS3 versions of the game, and import your favorite MP3s into that folder so they can be played in the game. This is worlds of fun for folks who want to game and hear their own favorite music playing at the same time. The feature, however, is not available for PS2 owners.

The game’s graphics are nothing too world-changing, but they are decent enough to get by with on the PSP and PS3; on the PS2, however, the graphics are starting to look dated. At least MLB 08 The Show on PS3 comes with out-of-the-box compatibility with the upcoming DualShock 3 controllers. Of course, since Sony made both the game and the new controllers, that one was a given.

The fielding controls are the game’s biggest flaw; the controls are as wonky and un-crisp as ever, and certainly make it worth turning on fielding assistance or auto-fielding whenever possible, though that’s not an option, really, in Road to the Show mode. The pitching controls are improved and the batting mildly improved, though, so at least the results on controls vary from position to position. And anyway, I’ve never liked the fielding controls in any baseball game I’ve ever played, so maybe that’s a wash.

In the end, no matter whether you’re playing on PlayStation 2, PSP or PlayStation 3, MLB 08 The Show is good enough that folks who own Xbox 360s and Nintendo Wiis may just start wishing Sony would make their franchise available to platforms other than their own, especially with this season’s surprising drop-off in quality on 2K Sports’ MLB 2K8.

Review: Lost Planet: Extreme Condition (PS3)

Although Lost Planet: Extreme Condition is published by Capcom, playing through the game brought an old SquareSoft game to mind; specifically, Xenogears of PSone fame. Just as in Xenogears, you begin Lost Planet as an amnesiac young man who remembers little of his past, but knows how to pilot giant mechs. Of course, there are many differences. Xenogears was a PSone title by Square that delivered turn-based RPG epic storytelling that, today, would seem awfully dated; Lost Planet is a PS3 title (originally Xbox 360) that is anything but turn-based, delivering all-out shooter action in full HD quality visuals.

Yes, Lost Planet: Extreme Condition is a game that’s over a year old on the Xbox 360 and can be obtained for about $10 less than the full retail of the discounted PS3 version (roughly speaking, about $30 on 360 these days, compared to $40 on PS3). So are there reasons to buy this version? Sure there are.

First, the PS3 version is more like a director’s cut, offering all 16 of the downloadable multiplayer maps that Xbox Live users had to shell out points to obtain; additionally, players can unlock two new characters that can be used in both single and multiplayer mode, as PS3 exclusive characters; namely, Frank West of Dead Rising and Megaman. There are others as well, although those may be more familiar to veterans of the Xbox 360 version of the game.

The story is essentially unchanged; you are Wayne, part of a group of snow pirates who are trying to run the planet E.D.N. III of a savage, bug-like alien race known as the Akrid. Wayne’s dad was killed by one such Akrid, named Green Eyes, and shortly after that, Wayne was injured, lost his memory and rescued by the snow pirates. As one of his only memories remaining is the memory of how to pilot the giant mechs that are particularly effective at ridding the planet of Akrid, Wayne soon becomes key to the battle against the Akrid.

One problem; the Akrid carry this glowing orange goop in their bodies that turns out to be a great energy source, so total annihilation of the monsters may not be the ultimate goal, here; harvesting their goop is apparently a great way to deliver low-cost energy to the galaxy, so… well… you can imagine where things might get dark from that point on.

E.D.N. III is, by the way, an ice planet full of blizzards and howling winds, about as far removed from a Royal Caribbean atmosphere as carrots are removed from bicycle shorts. In other words, it’s a very atmospheric game that delivers action-based horror and chills in the same spirit as horror classic The Thing, only louder and with a lot more action and shooting and explosions. And it definitely delivers that sense of being on a lonely, nearly lifeless frozen planet, kind of like a trip to Lambeau Field.

If you like shooters, Lost Planet: Extreme Condition’s not a bad choice. The story segments are nowhere near as extended as a more RPG-style shooter title like last November’s Mass Effect, and there’s far more action at a far faster pace. Gamers who appreciate a shoot first, ask questions later approach to their gaming will find a friendly experience in Lost Planet: Extreme Condition.

The single-player campaign mode is initially the heart of the experience. Lasting a decent amount of time for an action-adventure shooter title (12 to 20 hours, depending on how you play), Lost Planet has a terrific storyline with plenty of surprises and a shocking end that still has the Xbox community buzzing a year later. This is one of Capcom’s better but less-heralded efforts of the past couple years, so it makes a welcome addition to the growing PS3 library.

Yet what gives the game lasting appeal is the online mode, in which you can team up with, or fight against, up to 16 players at a time; and since this game is now on the PlayStation Network instead of Xbox Live, you don’t need a Gold subscription to play online; on PSN, the online gaming is free, a nice bonus for those PS3 gamers late to the Lost Planet party.

The game looks sharp in both standard definition and in HD; however, this is where the port-over exposes some of the game’s shortcomings. Little was done to take advantage of the uniqueness of the PS3 platform; those playing with the SixAxis controller are offered no motion-sensitivity, which makes the loss of force feedback even more noticeable; although the DualShock 3 will be released soon, there’s no word yet on whether Capcom will support the new controller, once released, with a patch adding force feedback back into the game.

Furthermore, even though the game is now on Blu-Ray disc on the PS3 format, Capcom did not take advantage of the extra space to offer the game in full, true 1080p HD resolution. Sure, you need a HUGE HDTV in order to appreciate the 1080p difference, but gamers who have that sort of set-up will be annoyed that the game looks no better on PS3 than it did on the Xbox 360, thanks to the lack of 1080p support.

Still these are details, not deal-breakers. Designed by members of the teams that brought such Capcom classics as Onimusha and Devil May Cry to life, Lost Planet: Extreme Condition is an incredibly fun title that excels at kick-butt boss battles and levels featuring the Akrid. Levels featuring evil snow pirates are less engaging due to flawed enemy AI, but the AI on the Akrid and bosses are much better. The only disappointment is that most Akrid opponents all have the same weakness; shoot them in the orange glowy part of their body and they are easily dispatched, even though getting clear shots in on that part is not always easy; it’s just disappointing that it’s variations on the same strategy for nearly all the Akrid opponents.

That said, in the balance of things, Lost Planet: Extreme Condition is a fun game; there’s absolutely no reason to buy the game again if you already own it on Xbox 360 and also happen to own a PS3. However, if you only own a PS3 and missed out on this action-horror classic, this is one game that’s not quite as spendy as most new PS3 titles, yet delivers the goods.

Review: Guitar Hero III (PS3)

Let me be up-front about something right away: I am a late-comer to the Guitar Hero phenomenon. How late, you ask? Well, Guitar Hero 3 for the PS3 is actually my first exposure to the title, in terms of owning it. I played some GH2 on PS2 in a videogame store a couple times before, and that was it.

So how am I qualified to comment on the third installment in the series? Simple. I’m approaching it as the first PlayStation 3 appearance of the franchise, and judging it on next-gen terms. Simple. And if ever you wanted to hook a game up to an HDTV, but were waiting because you lacked the proper HDMI switches, now’s the time to get that squared away, because this game looks quite a bit better in high-def.

A lot of the reviews I’ve read of GH3 have commented on the song list, critiquing the title for overlooking contributions by their favorite artists. I can understand that, but when the bulk of a review is spent grumbling about what I title doesn’t include rather than what is included, perhaps it’s time for a fresh perspective.

Now, I’m blessed. I was able to experience Guitar Hero 3 with the benefit of the Les Paul wireless guitar controller for PS3. Although it’s a bit on the smallish side, it has the look and build of a real guitar, which is completely kosher in my book.

Once I’d hooked everything up, I was pleased with how natural it was to find the PS button to turn both the controller and the PS3 on. The rest of the controls were easy to find as well, so long as I was just trying to start up the game.

After I began my adventure in the tutorial, though, I found that mastering the controls was a bit harder than expected. It wasn’t from a lack of orientation; it was more from a simple training of my brain to move the proper hand and fingers in response to the proper screen prompts. Initially I was making rookie mistakes like tapping the chord buttons and holding down the strum bar. By the time I was done with the tutorial, I had most of the initial kinks worked out.

It was a different story for my wife; when she adjusted to the game in the tutorial, her big hurdle was to avoid the temptation to strum with her right hand. As a person who plays some guitar, her muscle memory gravitates toward strumming constantly, but if you do that in GH3, you’re ending long notes early by initiating new strums. However, she also adjusted quickly.

My wife observed that the key to adjusting to the game is to think of it more like playing keyboards rather than playing guitar, and I found that analogy to be a good fit. Learning the game is a slow process and even after a trip through the tutorial, it’s easy to be overwhelmed in the early going, so that, for example, even when you have a long note, you’re initially hesitant to use the whammy bar because you need so much concentrating to make sure you’re not missing too many notes.

The game does have a decently deep song list to explore, a solid career mode with plenty of blister-inducing challenges and bosses to overcome, and an online component that adds value to the experience. When training up, I was quite grateful for limited-note, heavily-pattern-based songs to warm up with, like Foghat’s Slow Ride and Pat Benetar’s Hit Me With Your Best Shot.

Of course, the better songs are deeper into the game, and thankfully there are plenty of song packs adding to the total game experience, whether available separately, via download, or otherwise.

After several sessions playing the game, I am still a long way from being a Guitar Hero myself, but I am improving. And my wife, though she initially struggled a bit more than I did, has quickly learned how to string together impressive 40-plus consecutive note streaks without an error; I still max out at about 20 or so. But I’m working at it.

One feature I suspect is new to the series this time around is the “star power” ability that seems to take advantage of the PS3’s tilt sensitivity. When you hit certain note progressions without an error, you are granted Star Power in your Star Power meter. Once that’s filled up, all you have to do is tilt the neck of your guitar toward the sky and you enter Star Power mode where, so long as you keep hitting good notes, you have a chance to really rack up the points.

I suspect this feature was absent from earlier versions on PS2, since the tilt recognition may have been hard to utilize back then, unless they had wireless guitar controllers and a proprietary tilt recognition function built it. I could be wrong, but it just has the feel of a new feature for the next-gen title.

The online scoreboard and ranking are also nice features.

In the end, Guitar Hero III is an enjoyable and unexpectedly addictive addition to the still-young PS3 library. As the first PS3-native Guitar Hero title, GH3 comes out not only with the look of a rock-n-roll superstar, but the depth of talent to make sure it’s not a one-hit wonder.

Review: WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2008 (PS3)

If at first you don’t succeed, try and try and try again.

That is the maxim that has built THQ’s WWE SmackDown vs. Raw into a winning wrestling game franchise. When the franchise first appeared after THQ outbid Acclaim several years ago – and initially appearing on the PSone platform – the game was a pale imitation of Acclaim’s game, which at the time was pretty impressive.

Times have changed, though. After two outings on PSone, about six outings on PS2 and now the company’s debut effort on PS3, WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2008 is a smooth, slick, deep and detailed pro wrestling sim that gets better every year pretty much off the virtue of listening to user complains and responding to them with surprising flexibility.

This year, one of the main roster twists is that the game finally acknowledges the ECW brand. The show, which airs on SciFi, is now part of the game’s WWE schedule in 24/7 mode, and their superstars now part of the roster. Yet, like so many features that have become part of this game, there’s still work to be done to fully integrate ECW into SmackDown vs. Raw.

For one thing, you cannot play through Smackdown vs. Raw’s 24/7 mode (more on that in a bit) as an ECW superstar on the ECW broadcast. Perhaps that’s due to the far more detailed and varied storyline mode; the developers may not have had time to incorporate a complete set of ECW storylines into the mix, although that’s just a guess. At any rate, hopefully the 2009 edition will correct this oversight and fully integrate ECW into the mix, so that ECW stars and the ECW show are a complete and equal partner to the Raw and Smackdown brands.

One major change to the game this year is the complete elimination of two modes from the past two or three seasons; gone are both Manager Mode and Career Mode. Given the shortcomings of both these modes over the past 2-3 editions, that’s not a huge loss because what replaces it is a much more complete and comprehensive mode called WWE 24/7.

Named for their On-Demand PPV site, WWE 24/7 mode is the new storyline mode and it marks a big upgrade in gameplay and appeal. It marks the first time the game has offered gamers a chance to simulate more of a realistic schedule that WWE superstars have to fulfill, even though some niggling details are still overlooked.

In the mode, you either select an existing WWE star, or create one. Which brings up a great chance to mention the Create-a-Wrestler mode, as an aside. On PlayStation 3, the create a wrestler mode has finally become a refined and subtle tool for creating a realistic and convincing superstar to play as; gone are the days of uncustomizable, wacky, butt-ugly mods and in are a set of features, from head-to-toe, that look convincing. It is a noticable upgrade, especially when playing in 720p high definition. (Unfortunately, the PS3 version lacks a 1080p True HD mode this season … another area for improvement in the future.) Most of the costumes are solid, and do not consist of ridiculous things like baby clothes.

Anyway, if you select an existing WWE superstar, you’ll start out on the brand they were in when the roster was finalized; if you create a superstar, you can identify him with either Raw, SmackDown or ECW, but even if you select ECW, he won’t get to compete on that show, which is a shame.

If you begin as a created superstar, your first concern will be making the WWE roster, which means wrestling a set of Heat matches to show the GMs of SmackDown and Raw where your skill levels are; of course, this is tough, even in easy mode, because unless you’ve accumulated some upgrade first, most superstars you create will start out at a skill level of 36, competing against a roster of superstars ranking at skill levels of 70-95. That’s just tough.

Of course, over time, you can overcome this, but expect to lose a lot along the way.

The 24/7 mode has plenty of out-of-ring features as well as a wide variety of in-ring match types and challenges, and solid story variety. The mode is a true career mode that lasts several seasons and not just one. It is as well done as it has even been, and finally realizes some of the potential of what such a career-type mode ought to be.

One way in which the 24/7 mode could be improved is if THQ were to pay attention to the dialog and interaction system created by BioWare for Mass Effect; if a similar system were implemented for the storyline mode in SmackDown vs. Raw, it could offer gamers an even deeper level of immersion and a feeling they are affecting the course of their storyline.

The controls for this year are standardized across all platforms and on PS3 do not take advantage of the SixAxis’ motion sensitivity, which is a shame, especially since the Wii version does incorporate that – although the game is significantly different on Nintendo Wii.

The grappling system is less complex this year, and an all-new struggle and submission system adds some drama to those submission hold and escape maneuvers. The system is now pressure-based and responds on PS3 to how much pressure you apply to the control sticks – just don’t break ‘em, homey!

Graphically, the game is a step forward, especially in 720p, although the lack of a True HD 1080p mode on PS3 is a sore spot for Sony fans who want to get the most for their HD money, which is why many early adopters probably bought a PS3 instead of a 360. Still, the game has a long way to go to achieve next-gen refinement; next to a true masterpiece like Mass Effect, the graphics still have quite a way to grow.

SmackDown vs. Raw, over the years, has overcome many obstacles. When THQ first took over the WWE license, the company was determined to do a different style of wrestling videogame for each hardware platform. Some of us still remember WWE Raw for the original Xbox, WWE Royal Rumble for Dreamcast and WWE WrestleMania for the N64.

Yet with most of those games, a more arcade style of game play predominated and eventually it was the sim-style of SmackDown vs. Raw the proved most popular with wrestling fans, leading to THQ eventually narrowing the franchise to one game appearing on all platforms.

While THQ’s stewardship of the WWE license was shaky at best for the first four or five years, the company has really grown into its role as a group passionate about capturing a true-to-WWE experience for fans, even if they have a prominent and annoying habit of releasing modes and features that are, at best, works in progress.

However, in the end, THQ has proven adept at continual improvement or, as Vincent Kennedy McMahon might term it, ruthless aggression. The ECW element of the game, as well as the lack of 1080p resolution on PS3, are the most obvious examples of this, this season. But as time has proven, we can now count on THQ to come back next year with noticeable improvements to these shortcomings, as well as a handful of new ideas that, likewise, will be rough and in need of refinement.

And so it goes.

Review: Folklore (PS3)

Billed by Sony as “the next generation in dark fantasy games,” Folklore, like so many action platformer games, tried to bill itself as an action RPG but the truth is the game more honestly has more in common with Rachet and Clank than it does with Final Fantasy XII. Although filled with gorgeously detailed graphics, the designers sometimes went overboard in artistry and didn’t think enough about legibility for game elements like the bits of dialog that have to be read on-screen instead of being spoken.

The game has two playable characters, a young blonde girl named Ellen, and an older male character, a journalist named Keats. Both end up traveling to Doolin, Ireland and entering a dark fantasy world where they must fight individually, and ultimately together, to survive in a world filled with monsters known as Folk.

Sounds a bit more intriguing than it becomes in execution, however. The unique gameplay element is supposedly how you defeat monsters using the motion-sensing SixAxis controller. Basically, after beating them down to where they are stunned, you rip their souls out of their bodies by … waving the SixAxis up and down. A lot. Not as innovative as it sounds, and it grows kind of boring and repetitive, fairly early on.

The story is somewhat interesting; Ellen is searching for her dead mother, which draws to mind the plot set-up of Silent Hill 2, while Keats is tracking down a lead springing from a call by a mysterious woman. While such is the stuff true dark fantasies like Silent Hill are made of, Folklore is far less dark, belonging more to the world of Papa Smurf than to the living dead. And while it’s a nice framing sequence, the story just isn’t all that deep or intriguing once they toss you into the game itself.

As for depth, there are over 100 creatures to encounter in the game, which plays out over seven different realms. The real problem is repetition and tedium; once the novelty of the game’s battle system wears off – which happens quickly – you are able to step back and realize just how simplistic the combat actually is, which destroys the charm. There is also not much in the way of minigames, such as Mizuno golf or fishing or anything like that, which keeps the focus too much on the maps and areas which respawn enemies at a rather annoying rate of frequency.

It’s too bad some of the lovely graphics are adorning such a gameplay- and story-lacking package. The look of the game itself is well done if a bit polished and idealisitic, but it gives one a solid idea of what can graphically be achieved on the PlayStation 3. While I’m certainly awaiting even better examples, like White Knight Story, Silent Hill 5, and Final Fantasy XIII, Folklore is at least an eye-catching showpiece.

Unfortunately for gamers, it’s not much more than that.

Heavenly Sword ok, not heavenly

If scantily clad women in HD is all it takes to please you as a gamer, then Sony’s forthcoming Heavenly Sword for PS3 will make you dress up in an animal costume. However, for the more discerning gamer, it might not end up being quite all it’s cracked up to be.

The game casts you in the role of a Xena Warrior Princess-style hero and has you play out a very God of War-style plot. The story’s OK, the graphics are solid, but the game play feels no different than God of War or any other top action game.

Actually, it doesn’t really feel at all, per se; with the PS3 controller lacking the Dual Shock 2 tactile sensation that both God of War games afford on the PS2, God of War actually is a bit less immersive.

But hey, it’s a pre-release build and sometimes these games turn out better than the preview code makes them appear. We’ll know soon enough.