• 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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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?
3. The ’surface deformation’ is a pretty good feature:
   Sega were very proud of the fact that when you skid through the muddy parts of the track, your wheels will churn up the track surface. These tyre troughs will persist through the whole race, potentially destroying the traditional racing line. You can really feel the difference in the track on laps two and three, through the magic of force feedback. (Or not, if you’re stuck with a sixaxis controller). This brings the game much closer to the spirit of rally racing, forcing you to negotiate unexpected lumps and bumps. MotorStorm tried to do the same thing but, as we have noticed ourselves, track marks would disappear and reappear for no obvious reason. Gouges stay where they’re supposed to in this version of Sega Rally.
4. The race cameras are all useful:
   There are four in-race camera views: Two rear views, one bumper cam and one on the bonnet. Certain touring-car games which shall remained unnamed seem to think that filling half the screen with a dashboard is a good idea. No, it’s a big waste of time when your opponent has a full-screen view. Say “No!” to pointless camera angles.
5. All the locations play differently:
   We raced in three different locations (Tropical, Canyon and Alpine) with (probably) Safari and two others making up the six that will be available. Each location has its own particular feel to the track surface and there are several tracks in each location. Those in the alpine region were snowy and had noticably less grip, the dry canyon track was good for newbies, the tropical one is wet and muddy - all is pretty much as you would expect.

6. None of the cars will be stupidly overpowered:
   I hear that when you play Virtua Tennis 3 online, everyone is using Duke or King because those two unlockable characters are so much more powerful than the rest. We were assured that this will not happen in Sega Rally as the cars are carefully balanced. This doesn’t mean that all the cars will be the same, although to be honest, we didn’t really notice any major handling differences between the cars during our short session.
7. There is no car damage:
   This was a highly-unfashionable decision, judging by most recent racing games, but I think it was reasonable. Contending with the churned-up track is probably enough challenge without having to drive with broken front suspension as well. For any mud-lovers reading, if you drive through lots of muddy areas, your car will get progressively muddier and, get this… feature at least three different shades of caked mud!! Um… yeah. Okay. You can sort of wash it off in the puddles, too. They made it happen right there before our eyes.
8. Sixaxis tilt control will (probably) be used:
   We didn’t play with it but were told that it is in there, for now. No confirmation on whether it be in the final version. If it’s anything like in MotorStorm, I wouldn’t miss it - far too unnatural-feeling to be any good. On the other hand, some people like to drive like that so we’re mentioning it anyway.
9. You can turn off the track info:
   As we said in point 2, there are simplified, arcade-friendly pacenotes in the form of a verbal warning with associated orange HUD icons. Some people may find these distracting. If you don’t like things flashing onto your screen then have no fear. They are easily removable through the options.
10. The AI is adaptive:
    No matter how good or how bad your driving is, Sega Rally will modify the AI to give you a decent challenge. Allegedly. It still needs tweaking as, according to the marketing team, none of the bloggers last week finished higher than third place. Only two came close and one of those was TheFluffyFist, rally-driver extraordinaire. He won a jacket and everything. He’s wearing the jacket prototype in the photo below and has done a remarkably good job of hiding all the giant SEGA logos. We didn’t get to take the giant trophy home. They told us that they’d have his name engraved on it at some point, not that he’ll ever get to see it or show anyone. Uhh.. back to the point, the marketing team assured us that the AI is still in development and will be much better in the finished version.

As much fun as the game was, there are some additional things we should mention. Firstly, it’s named Sega Rally on this side of the Atlantic and Sega Rally Revo in the US.

Next, the track surface deformation is a good feature but is crippled by the current maximum race length of only four laps. In such a short race, you don’t really get to appreciate how the changes to the track’s surface will affect your lap times. This lap limit may change between now and the game’s impending release. We certainly hope it does.

Downloadable content will be available but has not yet been finalised. The current thinking from the development team is that if things are built, they should be in the game, not held back for later release or sale. No horse-armour from Solihull’s Sega Racing Studio.

There will be offline and online multiplayer support. Unfortunately, we forgot to ask if “offline multiplayer” means “split-screen multiplayer” or “bring your console and TV to a mate’s house multiplayer”. I really hope it’s the former. You can have up five online opponents or two-to-four split-screen offline multiplayer competitions.

Finally, we did play the game in Sega’s London offices. They provided dedicated racing pods complete with a huge flat-panel screens, Sparco racing seats, foot pedals, gearsticks and force-feedback Logitech steering wheels. All games seem better when you’re two feet from a 28-inch screen. We’re probably completely biased, but we don’t care. It was a really fun game. With any luck, it’s just as fun with a normal console controller.

Sega Rally will be released in the UK on 28th September on PS3, Xbox 360, PC and PSP. Oh, and mobile but I’ll be extremely surprised if that bears any resemblance to the version we played. Thanks go to the Sega Rally team for inviting us.

Related Links

Other bloggers who visited Sega:

• Simon from Zath - He was at our session!
• Ben from Binary Joy
• NekoFever.com
• Mark at British Gaming Blog
• James Woodcock’s blog

SEGA

• SEGA Rally’s YouTube site
• Sega Rally Official Website
• Sega Rally Blog

Edit: It definitely does support offline split-screen multiplayer.

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.