Popularity: 9% [?]

Sony Japan has released the PS3 and PSP demos of Echochrome. At the moment theese demos are only available in Japan. However, if you’d like to play them now you can by following these instructions:

For the PS3 version:

• Create a PSN account as shown in this PS3 Japanese account creation video tutorial
• Log in on your PS3 using this account and download the demo from the PSN store (37mb)

The text is in Japanese but the dialogue is in English. I had no problems playing the game, but then again there aren’t many controls!

For the PSP version:

• Download the demo from PSPFanboy (3.8mb)
• Unzip it
• Create a folder called NPJG90019 into the PSP/GAME directory
• Copy the eboot.pbp into this folder
• That’s it. Now enjoy the demo

The PSP demo requires firmware 3.90 and above, so don’t bother trying unless you have this firmware version. Oh, and the triangle button pauses the game and the X button speeds up your character.

You can see a trailer for Echochrome here.

Echochrome is released in Japan on 19th March 2008 on PS3 and PSP. UK release in Q2 2008.

Popularity: 10% [?]

Age rating:

3+ (PEGI)

What is it?

Futuristic racing game, with lots of lovely weapons.

Is it fun?

Yes.

Is it worth the money? £22.99

Yep, every penny.

Why?

Like anything in life, practice makes perfect. So given that Wipeout Pulse is the 8th incarnation of the futuristic racing series does the same analogy hold true? I’m pleased to say it does. Everything that was good about Wipeout Pure has been built upon in Pulse with the following additions:

• More tracks - 12 new ones
• More teams - 12 teams in total
• New Mag-strip track surface - Tracks can now have loops and super sharp turns.
• New weapons - Repulsor, shurikens and cannon
• Team loyalty system
• Adjustable AI difficulty
• Custom soundtracks
• Custom ship skin creator - via wipeout-game.com
• New tournament structure
• Photo mode - Take your own pretty pictures, as I did for this review
• On-line racing

Yep, on-line racing is there for the first time. Now I get my butt kicked on-line as well as off line and I can see just how slow my times are via the wipeout-game.com site Yay, I think. It is a welcome, if slightly overdue addition to the series.

The adjustable AI (easy, normal and hard) opens up a lot more of the game to most people. In the previous games, increasing the difficulty by increasing the speed resulted in few people actually completing all the tournaments. Now, at least, the Wipeout tourist setting (aka easy) allows you to experience the whole game. However, it doesn’t prepare you for the harsh reality of on-line racing though. For that set the difficulty to hard. Well, technically you need an evil setting (aka human) to be fully prepared.

It’s not all sugar and spice and all things nice in Pulse. To my mind the balance of time trials to races during tournaments is a bit off. There are simply too many time trials and not enough races. I like races, time trials are just boring. Also enough with the Zone races. I know this was quite a cool addition to Pure but Studio Liverpool had gone a bit OTT with the number of Zone races you have to complete. Tons of them, again with the boring.

It seems Sony have decided to start squeezing every last drop of coin out of Wipeout. How? Well, the previously free downloadable content for Pure now costs money in Pulse. These expansion packs vary in price from £1.99 to £3.49 (4 have been announced - Mirage and Icaras are available now). It’s another case of micro transaction infestation.

Finally, it’s a Wipeout game without any CoLD SToRAGE music. Bad, bad, bad. At least I can now create a customised soundtrack (something also available in Wipeout HD) with lots of my own CoLD SToRAGE tracks, so it’s not all lost in a savage pit of mire.

In summary: The best Wipeout game so far on any system.

Screenshots:

Wipeout Pulse is available now on PSP

Popularity: 12% [?]

Atlus have just announced that the English language version of R-Type Command will be released in North America on the 6th May 2008. For the first time in the series the action is all turn-based strategy. Tikipod picked up the Japanese version a while back and seemed to like it. Personally, I decided to wait for the English release as the game is a little text heavy.

Some features of R-Type Command:

• Intense strategy gameplay - Almost 100 different units to command
• Control the Bydo forces - Hehe, time to attack Earth!
• Head-to-head local multiplayer - One-on-one strategy battle time

Look out for my review when the US version drops through my letterbox in May. In the meantime you can gaze lovingly at the screenshot below. Ooooh, so pretty.

Popularity: 10% [?]

Hot on the heals of Sony Japan’s Patapon comes this deceptively simple, but quite challenging puzzle game. As you can see from the video it involves moving the camera around so that your character can get from one and of the level/picture to the other. Simple. However, it looks as though there could be some very fiendish levels to solve in the final game, judging by the quick montage at the end of the video.

Anyway, enough waffle. On with the video:

Echochrome is released in Japan on 19th March 2008 on PS3 and PSP. No word on a UK release date yet.

Popularity: 21% [?]

Coming next month to the PSP is this lovely looking game from Sony Japan. It’s a rhythm-based 2D platform/action game. Yep, I think it’s going to be the first rhythm based game on the PSP. According to Sony:

In the game, players are tasked with leading the colorful Patapons, a brave and noble tribe, through a series of epic battles against opposing armies and gigantic monsters. In a distinct gameplay twist, action and rhythm are intertwined as players utilize drumbeats to march, attack, and defend, ultimately leading the Patapon tribe to victory

Sounds all rather noble doesn’t it? All you have to do is bash 4 buttons rhythmically. Pata pata pata pon! The French graphics artist Rolito is responsible for the game’s strikingly good looks. The game also boasts over 30 different missions and more than 100 different weapons and items, so it should last a while as far as gameplay is concerned.

Patapon is released on the PSP on the 22nd Feb 2008.

Popularity: 22% [?]

Way, way back in 1989 on a little known system called the PC Engine, Hudson Soft released Dungeon Explorer. It was a brilliant game and one I loved to bits when I played it a year later on my (imported) PC Engine GT. It was a game very much in the Gauntlet mould and was pretty bloody hard, especially when you don’t read Japanese. However, after many, many hours and hacking and slashing I actually finished it. Currently you can play Dungeon Explorer on the Virtual Console, so here’s a video showing you what to expect.

But there is more (and the point of this post!). Next month sees the release of a brand new Dungeon Explorer game. Well 2 new games actually, as it’s coming out on both the PSP and Nintendo DS. Each version takes place at different times in the Dungeon Explorer universe. Actually the DS version is set immediately after the PSP version (wonder if it will contain some plot spoilers?). From the screen shots released so far it looks very much like Untold Legends on the PSP. According to Hudson Soft we can look forward to 3 player on-line co-op hacking, lots of embarking on epic journeys (in a time of heroes, no doubt) and a spot of weapon and equipment upgrading. Excellent.

Dungeon Explorer: Warriors of Ancient Arts is released mid-Feb 2008 on the DS and PSP

Popularity: 30% [?]

Fancy reading some free monthly PDF gaming magazines written by professional gaming journalists? Of course you do! Well, let me tell you about GamerZines then.

Formats covered by GamerZines:

• Playstation 3 - PS3Zine
• Xbox 360 - 360Zine
• PC - PCGZine
• PSP and DS - HGZine
• Pro Evolution Soccer - PES Fanzine
• WoW, LOTRO, Guild Wars etc. - MMOZine

All the ezines are PDFs (so you need Adobe Acrobat Reader) and vary between 30-55mb in size depending on the format and issue chosen. For example, the PS3zine which has now reached issue 8, weighs in at 41.1mb. In this issue you can find reviews of Sega Rally, Eye of Judgement and FIFA 08 along with lots of previews and a monthly competition (10 copies of PES 2008 up for grabs). There are also various embedded videos thought out the magazine. Most of these videos form part of the full page ads which are dotted though out each issue.

Each ezine has a handy quick navigation menu at the top right of each page (apart from the ads). This allows you to jump quickly between all the various sections (cover, contents, previews, interview, reviews, comp and subscribe). The content navigation in all these ezines is nicely implemented and I found it very easy to quickly find a particular review or preview.

I enjoyed reading these ezines and it’s great to see them published every month. You can also subscribe to the various ezines so they’ll appear in your inbox the moment they are released. However, there is no WiiZine available and I don’t know if there are plans to publish one in the future. Maybe when Nintendo starts releasing some more games for the Wii you might see an issue or two!

Check them out and see what you think.

Popularity: 22% [?]

There’s a new Sega Rally (a.k.a. Sega Rally Revo) coming out this September 28th, 2007. It’s good. We’ve played it.

The Sega customer relations people gave us lots of info - some of it propaganda and some of it plain truth. We’ve filtered out most of the propaganda for you. Here’s what you need to know:

1. It feels like the original arcade game:
   The designers have preserved its fast, close-racing experience - all through the race you’re convinced that if you cut the next corner a liiiiittle bit closer you’ll be in the lead. They’ve also kept the HUD style close to the original arcade design, with the addition of a map. In terms of graphics, the artists seem to have signed up to the Blue Skies Campaign. Yay for happy games! This has not gone unnoticed by the organisers at UK Resistance.
2. It’s a casual rally:
   Colin McRae’s DiRT prides itself on being an accurate recreation of rally driving, right down to letting you adjust your car’s limited slip diffs. Sega Rally… doesn’t. They’ve kept the arcade version’s track notes that warn you of approaching hazards but there is nothing on the level of real-life pacenotes. This is a pure high-adrenaline racing game designed to let you thrash your friends in a quick 5-minute challenge after a night out. Or be thrashed, but that would never happen to you, right?

Continue Reading

Popularity: 21% [?]

Guerrilla Games has recently released the chapter 5 add-on to its rather good Killzone Liberation game on the PSP. This new content adds an whole new chapter (4 levels) to the game which is only playable when you have completed the rest of the game (4 chapters). However, the 2 new multiplayer maps (prison, construction site) are playable straight away.

Downloads currently available:

• Infrastructure patch - 8Mb
• Chapter 5 - 75Mb

You can either grab these files from yourpsp.com or download it via the downloads menu in the game. Personally, I used the download menu as this seamlessly connected to the Killzone website and downloaded the 2 updates. You have to install the infrastructure patch before you can download chapter 5.

The infrastructure patch allows you to connect to the Killzone.com website so it can act as a portal on which you can find and launch your multiplayer games.

The new chapter is damn good too. Lots of running around and driving jeeps and tanks blowing stuff up. Thanks Guerilla. It may have taken a while to release this update but it’s worth it.

Popularity: 14% [?]