PS3SA Jan 2010 by Johannes Wilke

New NExt-Gen wars section Why does ICO cost ÂŁ68?

4 reviews to get started 14 Previews including: Bayonetta Darksiders Dante's Inferno

Volume I - Issue 1 January 2010

How to read PS3SA This plaque indicates that the title is a PS3 exclusive.

This award is given to the Best game of its genre at the time of review.

This award is given to a game that introduced something new to help the genre evolve.

PEGI Ratings PEGI ratings are only applicable to the EU and UK. Some countries use it to enforce law, while others only use it as a guideline. If your location does not form part of PEGI territory then please contact your local rating authority to find out what the rating for the specific game is. PS3SA tried to get permission from ESRB (USA and Canada) and FPB (South Africa) to use their rating labels also, but unfortunately failed to get sufficient response from them.

Player must be 3 years or older

Game contains violence

Player must be 7 years or older

Game contains discrimination

Player must be 12 years or older

Game contains references to drugs

Player must be 16 years or older

Game may induce fear

Player must be 18 years or older

Game contains references to gambling

Game contains bad language

Game contains sexual/nudity content

Editor's Talk 102 pages and 92 of them are PS3 content, I hope you like to read but if you don't we have included lots of pictures to keep you amazed. Thanks to everyone who participated in our December 2009 Launch Edition market research. We got some feedback and tried to shape the first official PS3SA issue according to your comments. On that note do not hesitate to inform us what is wrong with the magazine and what is spot on, or what you would like to see in the magazine. This is a community magazine and therefor we rely on the input of the PS3 community to shape this magazine and keep it alive. We start this magazine with 14 previews of soon to be released games. Unfortunately only 4 reviews of classic titles, but to make up for it we will have full reviews of Bayonetta and Darksiders for the next issue. There are also some websites who have their own feature columns in PS3SA to serve you information with a different touch. I am looking forward to hear from you even if it is only a casual chat, or if you want to rant you are more than welcome, I won't take it personal, but I will take it serious.

rebytes@ps3sa.co.za

General info

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Letters

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Magazine Content Editor ReBytes Layout & Graphic Design ReBytes Writers ReBytes Preview Team ReBytes Review Team ReBytes 3rd Party Columns www.egamer.co.za www.ps3blog.co.za

ReBytes

All images, logos and text are the property of their respective owners and may not be copied, re-distributed, modified or used in any way before written consent have been received from their owners. ÂŠ 2010 Elixir Publishing CC (2009/190026/23)

Aliens vs Predator screenshot

Page numbers are hyperlinked, just click on them to go to the page.

Contents Community

6 8 10

News Headlines Letters and Complaints Columns: Market Research

Previews 11 Preview Intro MAG, Star Ocean The Last Hope, BlazBlue, Aliens vs Predator, Vancouver 2010, ModNation Racers, HISTORY: Great Battles Medieval, Dynasty Warriors: Strikeforce, Dead Rising 2, Dark Void, Bioshock 2, Dante's Inferno, Darksiders: Wrath of War, Bayonetta

Reviews 43 Review Intro Ratchet & Clank: Tools of Destruction, Burnout Paradise, MGS4, Eye of Judgment

Features 67 71 78

Battle of the voices Part I eGamer Section PS3blog section

Extra Gaming 79 Extra Gaming Intro PSN: Minis - Echoes, PS2 Of the Month: ICO, Next-Gen Wars

Extra Knowledge 90 Extra Knowledge Intro Know your PS3: Media Servers, PS3 Desktop: GIMP Part II, Blu-ray Movie: Final Fantasy The Spirits Within

NOTE: Not all PS3s can play PS2 games.

News Headlines

Salem and Rios are on their way to London for the Army of Two: 40th Day launch. Watch their video clip, http://www.youtube.com/eavision#p/c/ 03615CBB3593E06F/0/OG8irFwNqoo , as they are scrambling to catch their flight. They will be addressing the press, sign copies of their game, ride on an Army of Two battle bus and mingle with some celebrities. They will arrive in London early January, so if you live near London you might want to try and find out where this world famous duo act will be signing those games.

Braid is that fun game which the XBox Live blokes were bragging with. Finally the bragging ended when it was released on PSN on the 17 December 2009 for EU. Not going to say much since I don't want to spoil next month's PSN review of the game, but with innovative gameplay you control your character and time to solve some really weird puzzles. Go grab it from PSN for â&#x201A;Ź9.99 or if you live in South Africa it is only R95.

Bootlat Games is celebrating the festive season and dropped the price their PSN title Topatoi from $9.99 to $4.99 until 6 or 7 January 2010. Don't know if it is only a US celebration cause the game is still R75 in the ZA store.

Vagrant Story the famed PS one RPG from Square Enix is now available on PSN in the PAL territories. At â&#x201A;Ź5.99 anyone can afford it, but if you live in South Africa you only pay R55, you save R10 according to the current exchange rates. This is another one for the PSN review section in one of the future magazine issues.

Tron: Evolution is coming to PS3 thanks to Disney Interactive Studios. It is scheduled to arrive early 2009 before the TRON: Lecacy film. The story for the game will be the era between those of the two films.

According to VGChartz 2,983,429 PS3s were sold from 22 November 2009 to 19 December 2009 while XBox 360 only sold 2,073,534 during the same period. In comparison with the 4 weeks before that, 25 October to 21 November 2009, the PS3 sales increased by 240% while the XBox 360 only had a 194% increase. The last strong hold for the XBox 360 is the US so I am glad to report that during the weeks weeks of 22 November 2009 until 19 December 2009 the PS3 outsold the XBox in the US according to VGChartz. We will have to see when the festive season ends if the PS3 will retain its title or if the XBox 360 will outsell the PS3 in the US again.

News Headlines

You will be able to buy the London Pub personal space in Home from 7 January 2010 for only €4.99. Don't know who wants to live in a pub, but at least you won't run out of beer. You will even be able to play darts. I wonder if you will be able to sell the beer to buy other goodies in home. Home has potential to drive a new virtual economy.

Last year's Nissan GT Academy helped spanish student Lucas Ordoñez realise his dream by becoming a member of the Nissan team in the 24H Dubai race. It is now time to find the next lucky gamer who wants to race the real thing. Go to PSN right now and download the one track time trail for your entry to become one of the world's best drivers.

my-liga.com is throwing a Modern Warfare 2 party. The first rounds was held on 30 December, but you might still be able to enter if you hurry. If you are too late then you can keep track of the fun at least. Head over to http://mw2.my-liga.com and see who is winning. The winner will get a Collector's Edition copy of the game plus some night vision gear to the value of €150.

Sodium One launched on Home in December 2009 and you can play the first five levels for free. Home is becoming a true social gaming platform with this MMO title. Levels can be unlocked by buying goodies for between €0.99 and €4.99. This is more than just gaming since there will be community events as well.

PSN Home is celebrating their 10 million user mark. With recent game space additions Uncharted 2 and Ratchet & Clank: a Crack in time Home is shaping up to become probably the leading advertising tool for PS3 games. This is the place of choice where gamers and developers meet to conduct that vital market research as the competition between developers gets tougher by the hour.

December saw the rise of a new god, the champion of the Tekken 6 championships for Europe and Australia. The event was held in London during December and the winner... wait for it... Norman 'GenN1us' Chatier from France. He will we flying to Japan sometime this year to participate in the grand finals for Tekken 6. I hope this is Norman in the picture, none of the event photos was tagged and this dude is holding a gold something in his hands.

Letters and Complaints

Letters and Complaints Unfortunately we do not have any letters to publish since this is the first official issue of PS3SA. We would like to hear from you, write us about anything and if it is note worthy to publish to the community we will do so. Let us know how you feel about the magazine, PS3 gaming or anything related. If you have a problem regarding your PS3 tell us and we will try to figure out the solution and write a Feature Article detailing the solution. We will try our best to read all the letters and respond to those who need answers to something. Also tell us where you are from and what your name or handle is.

Your letter could be here

Email us: letters@ps3sa.co.za

Your letter could be here

Letters and Complaints

Your letter could be here

Columns

Market Research ReBytes December 2009 was PS3SA's launch with a 34 page Launch Edition. We have received lots of feedback, some people were very critical and others were very supportive, just too glad that PS3SA finally got some wings. It was all those critical remarks we were after in the first place. Before one can create a decent product you need to do your market research. I came up with the idea of creating a PS3 exclusive magazine for South Africa just over 3 years ago. At that time the only magazines we got in South Africa was the imported back issues from the UK at a horrific price tag. Not to mention that the info was almost 2 months old. I went through numerous business models to see what would be needed to bring a PS3 exclusive to life. The traditional magazine model proved not to be useful to me since magazines usually break even after about 12 months, or kill over after 6 months. This is due to the fact that you need to produce a magazine at high cost with minimal advertisement revenue. I then briefly investigated the possibility of a community sponsored magazine. If you can get enough pre-orders for the magazine you would be able to print, deliver and have revenue from day one. Numerous PS3 owners was keen to signup and get the thing rolling, but unfortunately even more was skeptical and thought it as a scam. Sad to say that I could not procure the initial 2,000 subscribers to get the magazine to print. Now we are here, moved away from the print idea and beginning of 2009 decided that a digital distribution is the last resort to get this mag out. This meant that unfortunately the coveted Blu-ray companion disc would have to fall away, but to make up for that I decided to give the mag out for free. This way I could have some great fun producing a magazine without loosing too much money, you know there is still a recession going on... The idea of PS3SA is to be a community magazine, giving information in one small package in a format that the community would enjoy and this is where the Launch Edition comes in. Create a magazine with various writing styles, layouts and put in some content that is sure to raise critical response and put it out there as a market research tool. I must say I actually learnt a lot from the responses. The Launch Edition was very minimalistic with graphics in a plight to save printer ink. Seems like most people would rather have the more traditional gaming magazine look with pages filled by hi-def images. We also found out how to present the information to the readers. Seems like there are two types of readers, the ones who want to read the core info and make conclusions from the pictures and those who actually want as much info as they can get. This is

why PS3SA have 2 different types of previews, but read the preview section's intro to find out more about them. I have a dream to make PS3SA a complete PS3 lifestyle magazine from gaming, to multi-media to programming. At the moment the gaming sections are still dominant and will most probably always be, but we are working hard to expand the magazine with alternative sections that will teach the interested readers new skills. We also want our readers to not only experience articles from PS3 fanboys, but also from the other camps. I am so grateful that eGamer, a multi-platform gaming website contacted me to write articles for the magazine. They will give information in a much more objective fashion than what us PS3 fanboys can do. I am still trying to get ahold of an XBox 360 fanboy to write some stuff for us, who else would be better to give us inside info on what the latest techs and game experiences are for the XBox 360 platform. Market research is not a one time investigation, but rather a continuous process. This is why we urge you to write us if you want to see something in the magazine or if you are irritated by something. We are here to serve the community and hopefully for a very long time.

Previews PS3SA's Augury

Probably going to be a killer title. Might be great, might be average

PS3SA's Augury

Not enough info to make a call at this time.

PS3SA's Augury

We were not impressed by info previewed.

PS3SA's Augury

Previews

Game's Omen

Author Game plaques/awards Please read the front inside cover for info on the various plaques.

Game Title Key info ETR - Estimated Time of Release. NOTE: ETR's were the best we could source and might have changed.

During our market research Launch Edition we got some interesting feedback. Seems like there are two main groups of readers. Group A seems to like short previews with lots of screenshots and graphics. They don't want to be tied down with too much details and opinions. Group B seems to like to have a little bit more technical info and enjoys discussing games and debate different opinions. We do not try to box any of you readers into one of two boxes. These two groups are only the endpoints of the reader 'stick' and you are welcome to sit anywhere on the stick you like. We hope you will enjoy these previews no matter what your preference. PS3SA decided to try and cater for everyone. Therefore you will find two types of previews in PS3SA. The first couple of previews will be 'lowdown' previews. PS3SA just reports on the facts without any discussion at all. Then we will have a couple of 'comprehensive' previews. The preview will start with a quick lowdown section, for group A's benefit, and then the technical and opinionated stuff will follow.

LOWDOWNS 12 15 18 20 24

MAG Blazblue Vancouver 2010 HISTORY: GBM Dead Rising 2

14 16 19 22

Star Ocean Aliens vs Predator ModNation Racers Dynasty Warriors: Strikeforce

COMPREHENSIVE 27 30 32 35 39

Dark Void Bioshock 2 Dante's Infernno Darksiders Bayonetta

PS3SA's Augury

Genre FPS MMO

ReBytes

Previews

Publisher SONY Developer Zipper Interactive ETR 26 Jan 2010

Big Battles

Background It is 2025 and the world is in turmoil. The people of the world saw how billions of dollars were pumped into military operations while they were left struggling to survive. Enough was enough and worldwide riots forced the democratic nations to create a Millennium Accord, world peace had come... Since governments still needed to stake their claim in the world, private military companies (PMCs) were used to battle it out across borders. Due to the high competition the PMCs turned on each other and the Shadow Wars began between the three biggest PMCs, Raven, S.V.E.R. and Valor.

Up to 256 players will be competing online to further the cause for their faction. Numerous squads of eight players each will have to work together to win those critical battles. You will have the choice in becoming an Elite Operative and excel in many different skills to be that key player for your squad. Alternatively you can go the leadership route and work your way up to squad leader, platoon leader and finally officer in charge (OIC) and take charge of the whole army. There are 16 squads per side each with a designated squad leader. Four squads will form a platoon with a designated platoon leader. At the start of the War each squad will have to complete its own objective and as objective are completed bigger objectives will be assigned where more than one squad will be involved. Gradually the battles will grow bigger until the ultimate battle where 256 players will battle it out.

PMC Factions

MAG will not be very strong on classes. When you start out for a faction you will choose one of three 'classes', assault, marksman or heavy, and with experience you will unlock more weapons. There are different comms channels to ensure a structured chain of command with a squad channel, platoon channel and command channel.

Raven is the more hitech elite faction with the polished aesthetic look.

Previews

Gameplay

The OIC will have a Command Network Interface which shows the entire map and objectives. Additionally the OIC will assign special abilities to squads like speed or strength. There are a couple of game modes like training, team death-match and objective based missions. All game modes will be part of the War which means anyone can join any War and work their way up.

Va l o r i s t h e traditional military faction, but just a little more casual.

A bit of reality What makes Zipper Interactive qualified to bring us MAG? Zipper Interactive is responsible for some of the best multiplayer tactical FPS's like the SOCOM series. But 256 players on one map is a huge feat, how were they able to design this new tech? Many of Zipper Interactive's core dev team worked on SIMNET, the first large-scale military networked training simulation program, sponsored by DARPA. SIMNET is used to train military personnel from pilots to armored vehicle teams. Clearly Zipper Interactive have the right inside info and know-how to make MAG the best online FPS.

S.V.E.R. is the edgy improvised faction. They are the hardcore fighters who fight for the love of fighting.

Genre RPG

PS3SA's Augury

ReBytes

Previews

Publisher Square Enix Developer tri-Ace Inc. ETR 12 Feb 2010

Star Ocean: The last hope-International Background It is the year S.D. 10 and after World War III humans voyage to the stars in search of a new home ... and hopefully will get it right the second time round. About the Game The PS3 version will boast English and Japanese voiceovers. Localized subtitles will be available in French, German, Spanish and Italian. It will be a prequel with a blend of sci-fi and fantasy elements to recount the origins of the Star Ocean universe. The combat will expand on the franchise's real-time battle system. Four party members will partake in team oriented combat. Breathtaking CG movies will be done by Visual Works who did the cut-scenes for the Final Fantasy series.

Publisher PQube Developer Arc Works Systems ETR 26 Feb 2010

Genre Fighting

PS3SA's Augury

ReBytes

Previews

Background BlazBlue is the No.1 2D fighting game in Japanese arcade malls and was also one of the 10 games at the Super vs Battle International fighting tournament this year held in London, UK. The winner for BlazBlue was Kaworo from the UK. This 2D fighting with weapons title is taking the world by storm and numerous reviews had been given of well into the 90% About the Game The European version will be localized in English, German, French, Italian and Spanish.

Some additional content will also be added like a character strategy guide, music soundtracks, character themes and enhanced moves. The game will be easy for those new to the genre and increasingly you will need to acquire new skills. A full story mode will ensure that there is more to look forward to than just beating an opponent. A whole arsenal of moves and strategies to choose from will ensure that the game will have a bit more depth than the ordinary 2D fighter. Counter Assaults, Rapid Cancels, Barrier Bursts, Ukemi Tactics and Distortion Drives are mentioned, but the review will have to show what they really mean. To finish your opponent off each character will have its own Drive Attack.

Previews

Publisher Sega Developer Rebellion ETR 26 Feb 2010

PS3SA's Augury

Genre FPS

Aliens vs Predator

ReBytes

Background Aliens vs Predators (AvP) is the remake of the 1999 PC version. This time round it will be released for PS3, PC and XBox. The technology is there for Rebellion to make an AvP game they always wanted to make. Awesome graphics and real innovative online gameplay. "On planet BG-386 a colonist mining group discovers an ancient pyramid containing a dark and horrible secret. Across the stars a race of warriors is alerted to the discovery of their pyramid and a hunting party is dispatched to ensure that it remains sealed at all costs, whilst deep inside the ruined pyramid a malevolent intelligence awakes from centuries of dormancy" 1

1. 20 May 2009 Press Release

Previews

Gameplay AvP is an FPS boasting some interesting game modes. From the usual Death Match, to a new Species Death Match, Species Team Play and Survivor. There is also a Predator Hunt mode where one player (the Predator) goes solo against all other players. The one who kills the Predator becomes the Predator. Might seem a little one sided, but being able to cloak is a huge advantage. The new innovation in FPSs is to have multiple enemy groups fight each other. AvP will see the Aliens, Predators and human Marines fight each other to become the dominant species or just plain survive.

The unique abilities of each species makes for some interesting gameplay. As the Marines you will be armed with an arsenal for WW III and you will need every bullet you can lay your hands on. Aliens are very agile and they need to be since your weapon of choice will be your teeth. This species is all about stalking your prey and killing him at the most opportune moment. As a Predator you will have some far fetched weapons and equipment to kill your enemies. To get those trophy kills you will need to get up close and personal with some gory butchering action.

Genre Simulation/Sport

PS3SA's Augury

ReBytes

Previews

Publisher Sega Developer Eurocom ETR 12 Jan 2010

About the Game Details about the game is scarce. There will be a first person view to get that adrenaline rush as you corner your bobsled. There will also be a challenge mode but we will have to wait and see what exactly it is. Online game play is also supported although we will have to see how the realtime competitiveness is going to be implemented. Something Extra If you cannot wait to get going then you can go the the website and participate in some mini-games to stand a chance to win some prizes. www.olympicvideogames.com/vancouver2010

Events Alpine Skiing Ladies' Giant Slalom Ladies' Slalom Men's Downhill Men's Super-G Bobsleigh: Two-man Freestyle Skiing: Ladies' Aerials Ladies' Ski Cross Luge: Men's Singles Short Track Speed Skating: Ladies' 500m Ladies 1,500m Skeleton: Men's Skeleton Ski Jumping: Men's Individual Large Hill Snowboard: Men's Parallel Giant Slalom Men's Snowboard Cross

Publisher Sony Developer United Front ETR 26 Feb 2010

Genre Racing/ Create & Share

PS3SA's Augury

ReBytes

Previews

About the Game With the Next-Gen processing power this kart racer includes dynamic objects on the track for that little extra fun. You can race against enemy AI karts or against your friends on the PSN. The story campaign will see you rise up from the dust and become an elite racer, all with a humorous narrative.

share your masterpiece tracks for all to enjoy on PSN. The best of the best tracks will hopefully filter up by the use of the user voting system.

This game is not just about racing, it is about creating. Create your own vehicle, characters and tracks. Creating a track is as easy as driving your kart. As you drive your kart you will see the track being created behind you. When you are done you can

Previews

Publisher Slitherine Developer Slitherine ETR 19 Feb 2010

PS3SA's Augury

Genre TBS/RPG

ReBytes

History: Great Battles Medieval

Background You will be playing general for either the English or the French forces in the 100 Years War. As an English general you will be fighting under the Black Prince. and as a French general you will be fighting for Joan of Arc. History GBM aims to recreate the 100 years war for you to conquer and also contains video clips from the HISTORY programs. All characters from French Knights to English Longbowmen are represented in the game, are historically correct. History GBM is the second game title in the series which debuted with History Great Battles of Rome.

Previews

What to Expect 70 Medieval battles, including 26 historical encounters from the Hundred Years War More than 20 different units all accurately modeled. Units are upgradable with shields and weapons. Units are modeled according to their upgrades Over 100 skills to customize your troops Special ambush missions It will be multiplayer over LAN and internet (still need to confirm if LAN is also intended for PS3)

Gameplay The developer calls it a Role Playing Strategy gamer. It will definitely be a turn based strategy game, but we will have to wait and see to what degree role playing will be supported in the game. A freeform quest map lets you decide where to fight in the historical framework. Historical events will also influence the game itself, which means you will be playing the Hundred Years War and not create a completely new war of your own. A battle card system will give bonuses and penalties to the players for those little "that's life" moments.

PS3SA's Augury

Genre Action/Tactical

ReBytes

Previews

Publisher KOEI Developer Omega Force ETR 16 Feb 2010

What to Expect Command up to three AI officers in offline play Background Dynasty Warriors: Strikeforce takes place in ancient China where warriors possess the power of "fury". This power grants warriors superhuman strength, lightning fast speed and the ability to fly.

Complete cameo character challenges to unlock the use of cameo signature weapons

Dynasty Warriors is a KOEI franchise and have been developed over the last 12 years. What started out as a beat-em-up genre slowly turned into a fully fledged tactical action game.

Build and modify weapons by using supplies you gather.

Strikeforce will feature cameos from Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 exclusive to PS3.

Play 40 console exclusive missions

4 player co-op for online play

Meng Huo will be a playable character Battle heavily armed fortresses and colossal beasts

Previews

Gameplay Strikeforce is a Tactical Action game and coordinated assaults is the key to victory. With the "Fury" power comes new battle scenarios. New aerial attacks is introduced which means you will be able to fly around and take on enemies in aerial attacks. Enemies will also be able to attack you from every side, even the skies. The "Fury" power replaces the "Musou" attack of the previous games. Previously the "Musou" gauge enables the player to perform a vicious attack sequence on the enemies when full. The "Fury" power will only give the player special abilities like lightning fast speed or flight, it is still up to the player to fight the enemies with these enhanced abilities. Due to the fast gameplay you will be able to lock-on to enemies in the air and the lock-on marker will give visual feedback on how effective your current

weapon will be against the enemy. Building CHI will give the player abilities like hovering in midair. By collecting ORBS the player will be able to customise more than 250 weapons. Enemy officer will reach a "hyper" state from time to time then each co-op player needs to deplete a hyper gauge on the officer to collect a special item. When commanding officers you can instruct them to attack foot soldiers, armories, large weapons or enemy officers. From within cities you will be able to take on new quests and customise your character using CHI and ORBS. Fortune tellers brings a mini-game of roulette to Strikeforce, but you first need fulfill some conditions before they will appear in cities. Extras Additional quests will be available for free from PSN.

Genre Action Adventure

Previews

Publisher Capcom Developer Blue Castle ETR 29 Jan 2010

Background The zombie outbreak of Dead Rising was not contained in the first game and the outbreaks continued. Dead Rising 2 is set several years after Dead Rising and this time you will explore Fortune City, the gambling paradise. Dead Rising introduced a wide variety of weapons to fight off the zombies, everything that a human can pickup. Dead Rising 2 will see the same innovative weapons system plus more. You will be playing Chuck Greene and is driven to zombie killing to save himself and his daughter.

PS3SA's Augury

ReBytes

Gameplay

Since there is an abundance of zombies to be killed an in game TV show "Terror is Reality" allows you to slaughter zombies at your leisure with innovative weapons like the paddle-saw, two chainsaws tied to a canoe paddle. The aim is simple, kill more zombies than your opponents to advance, and don't get killed. Dead Rising 2 will be laced with the same type of humor and action which won Dead Rising some awards like Gamespot's "Best ActionAdventure game" for 2006 and "Action Game of the Year" at the TV Video Game Awards.

Previews

This action adventure game allows you to pickup almost any object and use it as a weapon. From traditional weapons like guns and swords can be used to the more unconventional ones like stuffed marlins and roulette wheels.

4 players can compete against each other via online play in some "Terror is Reality" challenges. Innovative weapons like motorcycles with chainsaw handlebars and giant hamster wheels which acts as a lawnmower will make for some interesting gameplay. To make things even more competitive you will be able to prevent your opponents from scoring and the occasional dirty trick can be used. To keep adrenaline pumping the crowd will urge you to use over the top takedowns where you will be rewarded with slow-motion replays and applause.

Caution: Excessive Blood

Previews

How many ways are there to kill zombies?

Publisher Capcom Developer Airtight ETR 22 Jan 2010

PS3SA's Augury

Genre Action Adventure

ReBytes

Previews

Background "Something is consuming our universe, a vast and ancient force almost beyond our comprehension. Millions of years ago, the minions of that power found their way to the 3rd planet of an unremarkable yellow star. Ours. The race they created came to call their masters “The Watchers.” For millennia we knew them as gods and served their dark purposes, but a few humans developed extraordinary powers. They were known as the Adepts and they rose up, banishing The Watchers into a parallel universe, where they’ve manipulated and schemed from afar. Until now."1 You will be playing as Will a cargo pilot who crashed in the Bermuda triangle which resulted in him being trapped in "The Void". Will heads up the "Survivors" who was caught in "The Void" and battle the alien race who threatens earth.

Gameplay This 3rd person action adventure will allow you to combat in mid-air and on foot. Since your levitation powers are all due to a jetpack the transition between ground and air will be seemless and fast to ensure you stay in the action. The new grip system allows the player to scale walls and hijack UFOs in mid-air. The responsive jetpack combined with special in-air moves allow players to fly with excessive recklessness and perform hair raising stunts. While dangling from thousand foot drops and attacking the enemy from below brings a whole new gameplay to the table. 1. 17 October 2007 Press Release

Previews

Win with Dark Void (only USA) Capcom and Tesla Motors partnered to give away a new Tesla Roadster. The Roadster is an electric sports car and faster than a Porsche 911. The partnership is due to the ground breaking technology Tesla is using to create electric cars. The in game character Nikola Tesla is a brilliant inventor whose passion inspired technology far ahead of its time. Visit http://www.darkvoidgame.com/tesla to enter the sweepstakes and stand a chance to win the Roadster. If you enetered before 7 December 2009 you also stand a chance to win a test drive in Las Vegas, all expenses paid. Unfortunately only US entries.

Something Extra For those who like shiny new toys, if you pre-order your copy of the game you will get access to a golden jetpack. This is not just aesthetics for the jetpack since you will get infinate thrust in hover mode. Brad Pitt's Plan B Entertainment has signed film rights for Dark Void. A theatrical version of Dark Void is being developed to create the Dark Void franchise and might have Brad Pitt as cameo.

Opinions Previews

The game was initially supposed to be released in 2008, then 2009 but will finally be here in 2010. Do not think this means the game is going to bomb out, some of the best games used to slide their release dates. Looking at what have been released this game will certainly bring something new to the table, just like Jericho, but I think this time the overall game will not disappoint. The story telling of the game also seems to be a winner and the soundtrack is going to be composed by Bear McCeary, who composed for Terminator and Battlestar Galactica.

Opinions Airtight is a new development studio but some of its team worked on Crimson Skies who was said to be an innovative game with superb graphics, but unfortunately the game was littered with bugs which annoyed a loot of people. Do not know if Airtight crew was on that particular game, but the push back in release dates tells me that they learnt from their mistakes. When the first press releases was made I was not very excited but I think this game is going to turn out OK. The big marketing strategies they employ by forcing pre-orders and giving away cars might be because the game is going to be a let down, but I think they realized the communities sentiment about the game and they worked hard to create a great action adventure for us.

PS3SA's Augury

Genre FPS

ReBytes

Previews

Publisher 2K Games Developer 2K & Digital Extremes ETR 9 Feb 2010

Background Bioshock took the world by storm in 2007 and was one of the few envies some PS3 gamers had towards XBox 360. A year later and it was out on PS3 but it did not stop there, October 2009 the Mac version was released. Bioshock 2 builds on this great success of the franchise and the setting will be 10 years after the happenings of the Bioshock events. Some monster is snatching girls from the Atlantic coast to take them to Rapture, the underwater city. You will be playing the first Big Daddy wandering the fallen city to try and uncover the mysteries of Rapture.

Gameplay This time the FPS will allow you to dual wield weapons and Plasmids to make for some interesting gameplay. By playing Big Daddy you will battle powerful new enemies and experience the raw strength of Rapture parenthood. Online The online gameplay is set as a prequel for the original Bioshock and you will get a chance to see what Rapture was like in its heyday. You will step into the shoes of some of Rapture's citizens to uncover the history of Rapture while playing this fast paced FPS. Geysers which acts as launch pads will make for some interesting gameplay.

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Opinions 2K partnered with Digital Extremes to help out with the multiplayer gameplay for Bioshock 2. 2K decided to bring in multiplayer due to a cry out from the Bioshock community to add it in. FPS and online gameplay goes hand in hand, but it seems like 2K want to tell a little story along the way instead of having only battle maps. It would be interesting to see how well they pull it off and if they end up with a generic online gameplay by just shooting a lot of people. If you wondered how fast the online gameplay will be let me give you a hint. Digital Extremes was responsible for the EPIC franchise Unreal Tournament. So if a little of that enthusiasm flows over to Bioshock then you might just end up

running for your life. It would be interesting to see if the story telling approach will aggravate runnin & gunnin players or if it will open up a new gameplay to them. Seems like the multiplayer mode took a lot from the Unreal success but there will be some new innovative gameplay by hacking turrets for your own use. Bioshock was also plagued with a few delays, but no word on what caused the delays. Lets hope it was to fix the final few bugs or to get the online gameplay 100%.

Genre Action Adventure

Background The setting for the game is the mind of Dante Alighieri, more specific his poem "The Divine Comedy". Written in the 14th century, and one of the great Italian masterpieces, the poem consists of three parts, Inferno, Purgatorio and Paradiso. Inferno represents the Christian soul and its association with sin. The three beasts represents the three types of sin, self-indulgent, violent and malicious. Dante represented Hell as 9 circles, first 5 for self-indulgent sins, circles 6 and 7 for violent sins and circles 8 and 9 for malicious sins. Enough with the history lessons, Dante's Inferno will allow you to play as Dante is an epic descent through the nine circles of Hell - limbo, lust, gluttony, greed, anger, heresy, violence, fraud and treachery. Dante undertakes this journey to reclaim the soul of his beloved Beatrice after she is dragged through the gates of Hell by Lucifer.

PS3SA's Augury

ReBytes

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Publisher EA Developer Visceral ETR 9 Feb 2010

Extras

EA and Starz Media is making an animated feature film about Dante's Inferno. The feature will expand on the game and give better insight about the characters in the game. Multiple studios was commissioned to give each circle its own distinct atmosphere. The feature will be released on the same day as the game.

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A six series comic book deal was signed with DC Comics and the debut comic was distributed at Comic Con in July last year.

The Demo for Dante's Inferno was released in December so if you are interested to see what the gameplay is going to be like, go and download it now. We will report on the demo, and the gameplay, in a special preview in next month's magazine since the Africa PSN (and EU) only got the demo on 24 December. Since gaming is broadening its horizons you can go checkout the "Go to Hell" application. Its a little app which you can use to send anyone you don't like to one of the 9 circles of Hell. If you are socializing on facebook then checkout http://apps.facebook.com/gotohell If you have an iPhone you can get it from the AppStore. Otherwise you can use the web app at http://gotohell.dantesinferno.com Go see the developer diaries for the Anger, Gluttony, Lust, Limbo and Greed circles on PSN. Don't forget the demo if you want a preview of how good the game is actually going to be.

Screenshot from the Demo

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Opinions In the past when a publisher attached some gimmick to a game the sentiment was "What is wrong with the game that they need to buy me". These days the gaming industry is getting more and more competitive ... which game should I get Dante's Inferno or DarkSiders ... It is a ruthless business and publishers need to protect their territory. Some publishers will say that a movie deal is on the table and others will give you early access to some online features. EA went all out with Dante's Inferno, almost feels like they are trying to protect their territory and buy you at the same time.

I already mentioned that the movie and comic book deals are already signed. The 'Go to Hell' app they released is another innovative marketing tool to get the people talking about the game. These days business is all about the vibe. Now to get to the buying part. Publishers start to throw around big names involved with games, from composing the music to great writers. Garry Schyman will be composing for Dante's Inferno and Will Rokos, known for Monster's Ball, will be transforming the poem to a great storyline. I might sound negative, but I am not, it is only because the use of big names have not yet made the impact it should. There is still a steep learning curve that game publishers, developers, directors, writers and composers need to learn. How to live in each other's world to make great interactive entertainment. This is why I am so excited about Dante's Inferno, I think this will be the best we have seen so far from cross-pollinating the different entertainment sectors.

Publisher THQ Developer Vigil ETR 8 Jan 2010

PS3SA's Augury

Genre Action Adventure

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Background "Featuring the unique art style of legendary comic book artist Joe Madureira, Darksiders puts players in the role of War, one of the four horsemen of the Apocalypse. Gamers will explore a world set 100 years after the biblical Apocalypse, traveling through expansive dungeons, battling demons and angels and striking deals with unsavory characters in an epic quest to restore the balance between Heaven and Hell."1 "Deceived

by the forces of evil into prematurely bringing about the end of the world, War - the first Horseman of the Apocalypse, stands accused of breaking the sacred law by inciting a war between Heaven and Hell. In the slaughter that ensued, the demonic forces defeated the heavenly hosts and laid claim to the Earth. Brought before the sacred council, War is indicted for his crimes and stripped of his powers Dishonored and facing his own death, War is given the opportunity to return the earth to search for the Truth and punish those responsible. Hunted by the vengeful group of Angels, War must take on the forces of Hell, forge uneasy alliances with the very demons he hunts, and journey across the ravaged remains of the earth on his quest for vengeance and vindication."2

1. 21 October 2009 Press Release 2. Overview from Darksiders website

Gameplay This 3rd person action adventure will have you exploring the vast terrains of the Overworld with open world exploration. Your character, War, will have a huge arsenal of angelic and demonic weapons as well as almost anything in the environment from lamps to cars. You will be able to choose how your character progresses with some simplistic RP qualities. Increase or unlock new abilities, by collecting soul cores, to match your gameplay style, and buildup War's Wrath power to unleash explosive attacks on your enemies. There will even be some puzzle solving in dungeons. You will even be driving some vehicles, well horse to be exact, but no ordinary horse this is an apocalypse horse, named Ruin. Vigil set this title up to give you the ultimate action adventure experience with a strong storyline.

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Watcher The Charred Council is not averse to evil. If anything , they embrace it as part of the balance they're sworn to protect. The Watcher is a troubling example of such tolerance. Spiteful, fast-talking, and cruel, he is one of the Council's most trusted servants. The Watcher delights in the suffering of others. Empowered by the Council, he flagrantly tortures and humiliates his charges, dripping poisonous insults and sarcasm onto their prostrate forms.

SAMAEL Samael is a demon of terrible power and warped beauty. His black wings are hideously inverted, a cruel mockery of the Angels he has battled for so long. To look upon Samael is to know the true face of evil. Samael rejected the Destroyer's rule. For this, Samael was imprisoned for eternity. Now, his every thought is of vengeance. His rage throbbing from the heart of the Scalding Gallows, could the redemption of this bleak world lie with one so utterly consumed by fury?

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WAR

The Horseman War has charged into countless battles astride his spectral steed Ruin, leaving a trail of blood and bones in his wake. His eyes and hair are as white as the chill he casts on angels and demons alike, for the fury of his massive sword is unmatched in combat. As unyielding as time itself, War is both honorable and savage. When summoned to the Final War, the Horseman's task was to purge the earth and bring the Kingdoms of Heaven and Hell into a new era. But he was betrayed, and his actions wrote the end to the chapter of man.

Ulthane Ulthane is an Old One, with a unique perspective on the endless machinations of Heaven and Hell - they don't concern him one bit. He greets demons and angels alike with a wink, a merry whistle, and the business end of his black hammer. Through the dark lens of his twisted humor, all is lark. The only thing Ulthane takes seriously is the shaping of steel. Among the ranks of legendary weapon-makers, he in unmatched. His own strength manifests in every line and curve of his craftsmanship - a sword that could kill a god.

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Opinions Darksiders definitely has an interesting group of characters and the intriguing story almost certainly spells success. But the question is if you have money for only one game, would it be Darksiders or Dante's Inferno. These two titles are currently battling it out with release dates only 1 month apart Darksiders seem to have the upper hand, but

I was always one to wait a little bit longer for something since it shows dedication to get a great product out, but the screenshots of Darksiders says it all. I mean a horse with lava feet and if this is your type of story you would definitely love wielding a sword as long as you are tall with one hand. This sword is better than any Final Fantasy sword and it can kill gods. Luckily for me I am getting both titles for review. Check out for the March issue to see which one I would recommend if you only have enough money for one game.

Publisher Sega Developer Platinum ETR 5 Jan 2010

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PS3SA's Augury

Genre Action Adventure

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Gameplay Bayonetta certainly has some interesting gameplay options. The basic action adventure options are available like jump, kick, punch and evade, but all of them have something extra on top. Perform a double jump and Bayonetta will get some wings for that extra boost, after all she is a witch. If you perform an evade at the last possible moment your enemies will go slo-mo for a couple of seconds so that you can get that extra 5 hits in.

Background "BAYONETTA is a cinematic, stylized action game from the famed creative mind of renowned game developer, Hideki Kamiya of PlatinumGames. Bayonetta, the gameâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s protagonist, is a graceful, gun-wielding witch who awakens after being entombed in a coffin at bottom of a lake for 500 years with no memory. As players embark on this quest with Bayonetta, they will begin to unfold the mystery behind her past and her purpose in the game, such as why she fights against angels and other countless fantastic enemies. In combat, Bayonetta uses weapons, magic, acrobatics and her larger-than-life hair to redefine the look and feel of the action genre."1

Bayonetta's hair plays a vital role in her arsenal. Perform a repetitive punch/kick with a lock-on and you will activate some of your magic power, if you have some left, which will conjure up a fist/foot made of hair out of nowhere to perform a massive hit on the enemy. You will also be able to made finishing moves, torture attacks, on normal enemies. When you have defeated a boss you can perform a special keystroke to activate climax and suddenly Bayonetta's black suit is ripped off, since it is made from her hair, and one huge hairy dragon is conjured up to take a bite out of the boss. When you kill an enemy wielding a weapon you will have a chance to pickup the weapon and use it in the most innovative of ways. The animations are spectacular, everything from a simple jump to the attack combos. When Ninja Gaiden came out everyone was amazed cause of the animations, well be ready to be amazed all over again, just to the power of 10. The presence of Bayonetta is definitely felt on screen and she almost feels invincible, this is definately not a button basher and you will need to find out which is the best way to take out the enemy.

1. 3 September 2009 Press Release

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WizardUniverse Competition Recently Sega and WizardUniverse held a Bayonetta Re-Envisioned contenst. Artists could submit original drawings of Bayonetta, the lead character. From over a hundred submissions and after carefull deliberation in which the community could also vote to influence the judges the winner was declared, Niccolo Balce who received an XBox 360, 50" Panasonic Plasma, and a developer autographed copy of Bayonetta for XBox 360. The 10 runner ups were Darren Geers, Jamine Tyndall, Jason Meek, Jessie Lam, Levi Somerville, Eric Huang, Feliciano Mario Mora, Jessie Elliot, Autumn Lorne and Salvador Samano. They will each receive a developer autographed copy of the game for XBox 360 when the title is released. I just wonder if the prize was a PS3 if they would have received more entries...

C o u r t e s y o f w w w. 4 c o l o r r e b e l l i o n . c o m s i n c e WizardUniverse deleted all traces of the competition from their site.

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Maxim Search for Bayonetta Competition Sega and Maxim.com, a leading mens magazine, teamed up to try and find the real life Bayonetta. Only US and Canadian entries was accepted and all entrants must have been 18 years or older. The winner was Andrea Bonaccorso. The judges looked for someone to capture the essence, personality, style and appeal of Bayonetta. As the winner she will be spotlighted on Maxim.com and receive the standard winners package of an XBox 360, 50" Panasonic Plasma and a copy of the game for XBox 360, no mention was made if its autographed or not. Visit Maxim.com to see the pictures since we did not receive a response from them to publish the fotos. http://www.maxim.com/gaming/articles/84545/ choose-hottest-bayonetta.html http://www.maxim.com/gaming/bfg/85229/ bayonetta-contest-winner-announced.html

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Opinions New Games Cross, a Japanese gaming magazine, scored Bayonetta 40/40 for XBox and 38/40 for PS3. This was only the 12th time a game received the perfect score in the magazine's lifetime since 1986. The publishers wants this to be the first AAA title for 2010 with a 5 January release date. Some of the screenshots are not very interesting like the one above, but if the demo is anything to go by Bayonetta has a lot to offer and then some. Q1 2010 seems to be the action adventure spectacular and you will have to choose between Bayonetta, Darksiders and Dante's Inferno. Almost seems like each one has its own strongpoint to bring to the

table, Bayonetta has new innovative gameplay, Darksiders with some real strong character set and graphics, and Dante's Inferno with an interesting story background and distinct visualisations for each level. Bayonetta's graphics might not be the best there is, but the animations certainly make up for it. Since it got an almost perfect score for the PS3 version I am sure the storyline will be something to look forward to. You can prepare to move out of the realm of God of War and Ninja Gaiden and into the realm of Bayonetta. The cutscenes in the demo was more of a comic book style presentation with narrated stills although the traditional animated cutscenes were also present, but a little less impressive than Ninja Gaiden's

Reviews PEGI rating We tried to secure rights for the use of the ESRB (US and Canada) and FPB (South Africa) rating icons, but we could not get sufficient response from the relevant authorities. Please use the PEGI ratings only as a guideline if you are not in the EU.

Author Game plaques/awards

Reviews

Please read the front inside cover for info on the various PEGI icons.

Please read the front inside cover for info on the various plaques.

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Point score for the section

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Point score for the game

This month we have 4 reviews of some clasic titles. This will hopefully give you a good indication of how we do reviews at PS3SA. For each genre we score certain aspects of the game to get the final score, this will hopefully help you to be able to adjust the final score according to your preference. The weights assigned to each section is according to what the reviewer believes a fair distribution for gameplay experience would be for the genre. If graphics is more important than the storyline you can adjust the weights for each section to get that tailor made score for yourself. At PS3SA it is easy for a game to please us, but the game must work real hard to get a score above 90%. Anything above 90% is a must have game for the genre. Anything above 75% is a top class game. From 60% to 74% is an average game while 50% to 59% is just acceptable. Anything below 50% has frustrating elements to the point that the gameplay experience is totally ruined.

Publisher Sony Developer Insomniac Genre Action Adventure Casual

Good storyline with lots of diverse gameplay. If you are open to something not so hardcore, you will enjoy this game.

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ReBytes

Background Let us start with the genre definition. I did some research and some websites classify it as a 3D Platformer, others only go as far as saying it is an Action game. The official press releases call it an Action Adventure. In my mind it is an Action Adventure, but not the type that can compete with the likes of Uncharted and Bayonetta. Therefore we classify it as a Casual Action Adventure game. You will be playing for most part as Ratchet, the last Lombax in the universe, and some parts as Clank his trusty backpack robot. The universe is under threat by Emperor Tachyon and it is up to Ratchet to save the day. The story is littered with humorous jokes and remarks and the boss battles are fun. The star of the game is not Ratchet, but the tagline "Tools of Destruction".

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Storyline

It has a strong linear storyline consisting of several missions, most of them taking place on a new planet and the humor helps you not to take the game too seriously. Every mission you do is nicely integrated into the story and best yet, the story is compelling for younger players as well as older. The first cut scene when you start the game explains what Ratchet is and the tone of the whole game is set then and there. During your missions you will visit several planets and each planet has its own background and set of characters. You will go up against Tachyon forces, Pirates and some mechanical machines. To make the storyline more engaging some RPG elements have been integrated like asking people questions about something, although these questions does not help you much in the game, it is a nice fill-in to the story. In the beginning of the game you will wonder what your goal is it the game, "Why am I shooting fish?". As more of the story unfolds you will see that Ratchet himself are searching for his mission in life, since he is the last Lombax.

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Gameplay

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The basic Action Adventure gameplay of experiencing a compelling story while shooting your way through the hordes of enemies is the basics of the game. To ensure that the 10 hour experience does not become boring some Platforming and RPG elements have been incorporated. Platforming The platforming consist largely of the rail grind, which is used heavily in the game, where you hop onto a rail and start grinding. By jumping from one rail to another you can avoid oncoming objects like trains. The rails also have some electric discs on them which you must jump over and from time to time you must just jump a plain gap in the rail. Other parts of platforming is the Gyro-Wheel which you must maneuver through obstacle ridden tunnels and over narrow pathways. RPG Ratchet gets experience points (XP) as you progress through the levels. Your weapons also gain XP the more you use them and will upgrade to more powerful equivalents. You can also collect Raritarium crystals and use them to upgrade your weapons. Body armor can be bought from armor vendors which will give you that extra edge in battle. As you defeat enemies you will collect nanomites which basically increase the size of your healthbar. From time to time you will be able to speak to characters in the game for information and new missions. Arcade Shooter While traveling to different planets you might be thrown into an arcade shooter minigame. They are not too difficult and mostly rely on you being able to dodge quickly enough. Since it is a mini game it is watered down in you having only 2 types of weapons.

Reflex/Strategy mini games Some of the mini games require good reflexes like the Pirate Dance where you must follow the dance moves which is shouted out. Others include Skydiving and flying with Clank's newly acquired wings and a few others. The mini games where you need a little strategy is the Decryptor mini game. The Decryptor is a device you use to hack into the system to open doors. The game consist of a circuit board with some gaps in the circuitry. As the electrical spark runs through the circuit you must maneuver an iron ball to fill the gaps so that the spark can jump. The decryptor exercises get progressively harder and later you need to lead the spark to various endpoints. AI The AI in the game is not too bright, enemies spawn at fixed points so if you fail the first time you will probably beat the group the second or third. I cannot fault the game for this since it is a Casual Action Adventure. It happens quite a lot that enemies will run off a cliff and sometimes they will get stuck or don't activate until you hit them the first time. Up to then you think this is a near flawless game, but alas it is not.

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Controls

The basic controls are fairly straight forward using the left stick to move and right stick to orientate the camera. The basic action keys are also defined and are the same for Ratchet and Clank. There are various combination keys like the hyper-strike which maps very intuitively to the actions of the single buttons. Only problem I have is the boost jump R1 + X. It did not do anything while I was playing, but using R2 + X performed a crouch and then a jump normal the usual. You also have strafing controls that lets you move Ratchet from side to side. Since Tools of Destruction was almost a launch title Sixaxis just had to be incorporated. Insomniac was able to integrate it into many of the mini games, some good and others not so good. When you use Robo-wings to fly you maneuver with the Sixaxis which feels great and with no problem. The skydiving on the other hand does not play very well as you glide Ratchet from side to side or up and down while avoiding missiles. For the Decryptor mini game you tilt the controller to orientate the box to allow the ball to roll which works very well. During the game you will receive a Geo-locator and you use the Sixaxis to burn a laser from keypoint to keypoint in a limited amount of time. This actually shows you how well the Sixaxis works when you practice until you get it right almost flawlessly. You are gradually introduced to the controls with onscreen hints and a synthesized narrator voice. Sometimes the hints are a little short and you miss them, but it makes it easy for anyone to pickup the controller and start playing.

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Graphics/Sound

The polygon count for some objects are a bit low and is clearly noticeable but they are just a few. For the most part the characters and objects are rendered and animated superbly. The environments feel alive and vibrant with colour. Even if you go walking in the ferns you see them move. Textures are also out of this world, from Ratchet's fur to the scenery. Only with vast landscapes did the textures not match up to the rest of the game, but if you perform a flyby with Clank's Robo-wings you will still be amazed.

Sometimes boxes hang in the air if you destroy the box underneath, so there is a minor flaw in the physics engine. Otherwise the physics engine is in tact tracking hundreds of on screen objects consisting of characters, bolts, boxes and various objects. Also found a Helipod bridge disappear when you move into over the shoulder view. It was only one bridge but it happened every time in over the shoulder view if you get too close. In defense you will struggle to find a place where collision detection will disappoint you. Character voice overs are excellent, some of the best work I have seen in games and the background music helps to set the mood of the fast paced action in the game.

Reviews

Extras/Replay Once you finished the game you can play the game in Challenge Mode. The enemies will be harder to beat, but you start the game with all the weapons you have gathered in your play through. To make sure that the game is worth more than 10 hours various secrets have been scattered on the various planets, from Hologram pieces to big Golden Bolts. Some of the bolts are easy to spot, but not so easy to get. When you beat the Captain Pirate boss battle you will receive the Treasure Mapper which will indicate all treasures on you map. The extended play value is huge because of the detailed environments.

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Summary

Ratchet and Clank: Tools of Destruction is the perfect adventure for young and old. You can run through the missions in 10 hours or you can explore the huge maps for weeks and be amazed every 30 minutes. If you only like Hardcore Adventure Gaming you might not like this. But for most people the humorous events in the story will keep you in the game until you have finished. I don't know much about XBox or their games, but the Ratchet and Clank series is one PlayStation exclusive the XBox fanboys should be envious of.

Publisher EA Developer Criterion Genre Action Driving

Hardcore action driving with steep learning curve. A l s o u s e d fo r c a s u a l Sunday driving.

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ReBytes

Background Burnout is about driving, but it is not a driving simulator. This is all action and about two things, taking other cars down and super jumps. When the franchise started in 2001 it was an eye opener that showed the world driving does not have to be boring.

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Gameplay There are also two events which you can partake in at any time. If you find a busy street, get some speed and press L1+R1 and enter Show Time mode. You need to see how much damage you can cause in total. Whenever you find a suitable parking spot you can perform a handbrake turn into it and get scored for how well you do it. Another reason to know the city like the palm of your hand is the drive thrus. There are mechanics that will repair the damage, filling stations that fills up your boost and paint shops. As you earn money you can buy better cars to give you a little edge in the races. But the best way of getting costumed vehicles is with Shut Down. Perform a take down on certain special racing vehicles speeding by and you will take that vehicle home. For that extended play there are various extras to complete just for the fun of it, or actually getting some awards. Try and find all the Burnout billboards and break through them or try and find all the drive thrus in the game. There are even Super Jumps hidden in the game, some of them are really adrenaline rushing jumps. There is a map to help you show the way for your races, but the action is just too fast to be useful in a real race. You will end up starting the race and cruising through with the map guiding the way. As soon as you know the route and found some shortcuts you will be ready to really race it. Paradise city is huge and there are some hidden areas with stunts to complete also. From inner city driving to freeway shortcuts, enjoy the seaside and the mountainous passes.

Reviews

Paradise is the first hardcore release for the franchise. With a really steep learning curve you need to spend about 2 hours with the game before you can think of winning races. It has nothing to do with controls but rather the nature of the game. There is no more marked routes which you have to win, instead all races are open world. You will need to learn every street and turn in Paradise city to be able to play the game properly. Luckily you can start in a district, learn it and then start to broaden your horizons. To start an event you stop at a traffic light and hold down L2 + R2. The description of the race is given and then its all action. Unfortunately you cannot restart a race quickly when you made a balls up of it all, you need to drive to the starting point, if you can find it, and start over from there. Sometimes it can be irritating, but it really helps you to get to know the city. Each traffic light is marked with a colour so that you know beforehand what type of race it will be. In "Road Rage" you need to take down a specific number of vehicles. "Marked Man" you need to survive the onslaught of your competitors trying to take you down. When you know an area very well with all its jumps you can try the "Stunt Run". If you are tired of too many competitors messing it all up for you, try the "Duel" where it is only you and one competitor, but still lots of city drivers.

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Graphics/Sound

The graphics of the vehicle models are not as good as that of Gran Turismo, but the feel of the environment and vehicles are better than that of Gran Turismo. The action is too fast to worry about precise rendering, but the fact that the city is alive gives the vehicles that real world feel. The main thing to look out for in driving games is the rendering of the road. Burnout has almost no artifact rendering. Artifacts usually manifests as annoying flickering of lines or roadsigns. Slo-motion action of take downs and wrecks are done very well, from sparks flying to windows shattering. There are instances when collisions will cause some collision detection problems and parts of two vehicles will intertwine and produce flickering. The roar of your engine and the nitro's firing ads to the excitement of the game. There is rarely an instance when your adrenaline won't be pumping. If you start out with the game your heart might even stop once or twice when you have a big collision. The in car radio will be voicing DJ Atomica on the Crash FM station. He will give you some advice from time to time, but for the most part just play some awesome music. If you don't like a track he is playing just hit R2 and you have the next song on the list. DJ Atomica sounds like a real DJ and for the most part you won't mind his voice breaking in, it is all done very naturally.

Controls

The controls are easy to learn and you don't get your hands all tied up in a knot at certain points. You can even try Sixaxis driving, if you practice real hard you will win some races, but it is not as smooth as Motorstorm's Sixaxis driving. Sometimes the corners are just too tight in this game and the fact that you have constant oncoming traffic means that those fast reactions translates into really wreckless, or should I say wrecked, driving. As for the normal controls they are almost perfect and you will quickly learn how far to push the left stick for those subtle weaves. When using the menus you sometimes struggle to get to the next section, cause out of habit you press the wrong button. Over time you will start to learn to press the right buttons, but menus should always be as intuitive as possible.

Extras/Replay

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Summary

With the standard play of the game is nothing wrong. Just some annoyances to get quick restarts of events and the menu system for the beginning. But in its defense the Paradise City soundtrack with the opening cutscene just works so well together. You will need to go hardcore with this game or go home, there is no quick action driving in this game. This game is also great for just mindless casual driving, you might find some super jumps. Wrecking a car have never felt so good and it is with no consequences.

Reviews

Unfortunately I have not tested the online gameplay, but should be as much fun as the one player AI competitors. When you perform a take down online and the other player has a PSEye a takedown snapshot will be taken and sent to you. A little more than a year ago bikes have been added and can be downloaded for free. Around the same time the Big Surf Island expansion pack was released, but it is no freebie. Just to get to know paradise city will take you half a lifetime, then to find all those hidden billboards, super jumps and areas might take you another 2 lifetimes. My verdict is you can replay this game for the next 10 years, it all depends on when you are going to give up hunting for those extras.

Publisher Konami Developer Kojima Productions Genre Tactical Espionage

Review:MGS4

A tribute to what MGS stands for. You might be disappointed if you just want to play a game, but it's great entertainment.

Reviews

ReBytes

Background MGS is the franchise that redefined the gameplay of war games. Introducing the true tactical espionage genre where you can decide if you want to kill the enemy of just sneak past. The story of MGS has always been key in the games and this time round Hideo pulled out all the stops to give you an entertainment experience never seen in games before. MGS4 is not a game as much as it is a tribute to what MGS stands for. The opening scene almost seems lifelike except for the aliasing of some fencing. It plays in the style of a movie and Hideo did an excellent job playing director. Tribute is also given to Assassin's Creed with Solid Snake wearing Altair's cape. The intro scene ends with the movie transitioning into the start of the game and you realise you are in for a spectacular "Graphics Fest".

MGS 2 screenshot

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Storyline

Reviews

Solid Snake has aged rapidly and is an old man now, yet he is still the only one worthy enough to stop Liquid. Wars are run by PMCs and weapons are restricted to soldiers by use of ID tags. Liquid Ocelot plans to create the perfect world where soldiers will not become obsolete. By taking over control of Outer Heaven, the five largest PMCs, Liquid plans to control war. Since the wars are out of the hands of government Solid Snake is assigned to investigate the situation. The game is about 60% movie (cutscenes) and 40% actual gameplay, but from time to time the story feels a little disconnected. As per usual MGS recipe the story is told using cutscenes and in game commentary via the radio link to the base which has a seamless transition. You never feel as if the radio feed or cut scene is ripping you out of the game. During the game Solid Snake will take on interesting enemies which makes you wonder what is in store next.

MGS 3 screenshot

Reviews

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Gameplay

MGS has one of the most involved gameplays for an action game ever. You can really play the game the way you like. It is up to you whether to kill someone, hold them hostage, knock them out or just sneak past. If you play the game like an FPS you will soon find out there is not enough bullets to go around. On the other hand if you try and sneak past every enemy soldier you will need lots of patience. Luckily the octocamo, camouflage suit, helps you to stay out of sight. No need to go to the menu anymore and select your camouflage for the hour, just lie still and see how your camo-suit does its job. Unfortunately most of the gameplay is short stints of getting from A to B with the occasional boss battle. Every boss battle is distinct and you will never feel like you are doing the same thing twice. It is only the getting from A to B that is a little pointless, but most of the trip is filled with cutscenes to help you fill in the story. Solid can also perform almost any action imaginable, from hanging from ledges to climbing into trash cans. The gameplay is enhanced dramatically by the usual MGS alert system. If you make a noise the enemy will have a look around and if you stay out of sight he will give up his search after a few seconds. If you are spotted he will report you in and all the soldiers in the vicinity will start to look for you and an alert timer will count down. Once you get out of sight long enough the caution timer will kick in, meaning the enemy is not searching, but is still on guard. This really gives you that adrenaline rush and places you right into the action. There are lots of things to gather on the battlefield, from medic packs, to food, to weapons and magazines. Early in the game you will receive the Solid Eye which is an electronic eyepatch. From then on objects of interest are highlighted which makes it easier to find weapons and food. You will also have access to the Mk. II, which is a little robot companion. The robot can be very helpful by turning invisible and electrocuting the enemy, but it is to much of a hassle to activate the thing. Which brings us to the equip system MGS uses. Only a few objects can be equipped at any given moment and by using the menu you can decide which items or weapons to equip. This gives it a little of an RPG feel to the game, but at first it feels stupid and it wastes times going to the menu to equip different items. On the other hand it brings a little more depth into the gameplay itself.

Reviews

To try and stay out of sight Solid can crawl around or press up against walls. The camo-suit will activate making snake a little less visible. If snake performs a slow crawl the camo-suit will keep the camouflage, but as soon as you crawl too fast you will loose the camo and give yourself away if an enemy is near. You need to be aware of the enemy at all times, even your footsteps can give your presence away. When crawling or when in closed quarters it might be difficult to see where the enemy is, but the hi-tech equipment of snake produces a ring around him when crouched. This ring will give the bearing and distance of enemy soldiers. As soon as it turns red you better run because you have been made. AI Unfortunately the enemy AI is not very good. Enemies patrol fixed routes always the same way and they will take a long time before they start to shoot. They will even take long pauses between shots, which means if a battle ensues there is not much pressure. There are more action in trying to flee successfully than in killing the enemy. Even if you flee the enemy and hit a cut-scene point the enemies will disappear. This breaks the whole gameplay from time to time, I would have preferred that the cut-scene only activate when the alert timer is not active. The boss battles is a little more challenging but it is still fairly easy to figure out the pattern of the enemy, the biggest problem is to figure out what weapon to use and then not to waste ammo. Tribute If you want to play MGS as a full game you WILL be disappointed. As I said this is not a gaming experience, but an entertainment experience. This is a tribute to what MGS is and Guns of the Patriots only allow you to experience a little bit of MGS.

Reviews

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Graphics/Sound

The graphics for the cutscenes are mostly great and sometimes spectacular, but then there are times when things does not seem that great especially with the voice overs. Half the game seem to take on photo-realistic art direction while the other half seem to have an animation art direction. Problem is that half the time the two different art directions feature in the same scene. Mostly the vehicles and clothes are rendered spectacular, but some faces and mostly hair are rendered at a quality less than average. The gameplay animations are superb even when Snake turns a knocked out guy around to drag him. When you run into another NPC you might see some character piercing, and sometimes if you drop a person too close to a wall. Otherwise the in-game animations are almost flawless. The sound is also fitting to the game, from the radio comms with Otacon to the enemy comments. MGS4 produced a catch 22 with the scoring for this section. Usually tactical espionage will have a lighter weight for the graphics section because of the depth of gameplay usually found. Cutscene priority would be minimal, but in this case more than half the game is cutscenes, which means it need to be weighted little heavier.

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Controls

MGS3 introduced the Close Quarters Combat (CQC). MGS4 took the actions in CQC a step further, but you will need to consult the manual each time you want to use it, at least for the first hour of gameplay. To grab someone you press R1 which is simple enough, but the left stick is used to determine the resulting action. For this reason the actual usability of the CQC controls are flawed. If you have the left stick slightly titled you will perform an immediate knock down, which makes it difficult to perform some of the actions. You will need to learn to release the left stick as you press R1 to have some sort of controlled action performed.

Reviews

Due to the complex gameplay the controls are not easy to take up, but the basics can be learned in 5 minutes and you should be well on your way. This is one game where you need to read the booklet before you will be able to play the game. Standard movement controls are used and it is easy to select the different stances. It will take some time to use the action button since it is context sensitive, use it close to a wall to hug the wall, or climb into a garbage bin. To help you know what the action would be an onscreen icon is displayed as soon as you move near something.

The control system is so extensive that you will even be able to lie on your back throwing grenades and dish out some of your supplies to the militia forces to gain their trust. You will need to enter the menu regularly to perform some extra admin tasks, but at least you won't need to select your camouflage from the menu anymore.

Reviews

Extras/Replay You will run through the game quickly enough but there are thousands of extras in the game to be found. From iPod recordings to listen to, to that weapon that might make a difference. To investigate every corner of the map will take you a good few days. MGS4 Online came out with the game which is the online multiplayer game. The different forces' teams are connected with the SOP system and if you hi-

jack an enemy's SOP you will get valuable info on where all the enemy forces are. Once again you are able to play the game the way you like. Go sneaking around or speed up the action and go for the kill. MGS4 Online brings a new tactical side to multiplayer gaming, but it is easy enough to ignore it and go in guns blazing. The Time Bomb add on was released January 2009 and gives MGS4 Online a little more depth, but it is not a new game mode to online FPS modes. For those who never played the previous installments of MGS and wants some history

Reviews

lessons, MGS4 Online DB is a free PSN downloadable app. As you complete sections of MGS4 parts will be unlocked in the DB which will give you background and new information about everything related to MGS, including MGS, MGS2 and MGS3.The DB can be browsed by timeline, relationship or type of interest. There are a lot to read and you will get a better understanding of what happened when and why it happened. This is a must companion for any MGS fan.

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Summary

Some issues here and there that might irritate non MGS fans. For MGS fanboys this is a must have and also the DB. This is not a gaming experience, but an entertainment experience and when it came out it set the benchmark for what PS3 graphics could be in 2008. We have seen much better graphics since then, but MGS4 still has the most involved control system and gameplay of all the PS3 titles. For this reason the MGS franchise receives the BoB award for the Tactical Espionage genre.

Publisher Sony Developer Sony Genre Strategy Board

Seems like a simple strategy game, but the rules have real depth.

Reviews

ReBytes

Background The EyeToy was renowned for its innovative use of new exercise games. The PSEye is no different except is started out with exercising your brain. In the fantasy medieval world of Eye of Judgment kingdoms don't battle with large forces, but instead with mages playing a round of Judgment.

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Gameplay

Reviews

This game sees you playing on a board with 9 tiles (fields), 3x3. Each tile has an element, but also an alternative element and spells can be used to interchange the current element with the alternative element. By taking turns with an opponent you must place warriors on the fields. Each warrior has an element of preference which will give it extra abilities when played on a field of its preference, like gaining extra health points. This is where the field element interchange comes in, by changing the element of a field you can either enhance your warriors or you can actually destroy an opponents warrior which looses the extra ability when the field is changed. For each element is a negative counterpart which might degrade a warrior when played on that field and take away some of the health points. So be careful where you cast your warriors because you might end up killing it before it could take action. Each warrior has a cost associated with it which you must pay in mana to cast the warrior. If you don't have enough mana you might have a spell card which will give you extra mana. The orientation of the warriors is also important since the warrior might only attack in a certain direction. If you place it incorrectly you might end up facing a wall or empty square rendering the warrior useless to fight. In addition there is a defense indication showing from which directions a warrior will defend itself. When attacked from a defense direction the attacking warrior will deal it's damage first and if you are still alive you will be able to deal damage. There are some exceptions to the rule like the Hellfire Spitter who has an ability to attack first even when it is attacked. When a defense indicator has a B on it it means that it cannot be dealt damage from that direction. You will loose the first 5 games or so until you figured out what all the special abilities are for the warriors and then you are ready to be fairly competitive against the computer. The first player who owns 5 fields in the game wins.

Reviews

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Graphics/Sound

The graphics is pretty good and the textures, but it seems like the character models are missing something. The animated battle sequences are awesome at first, but you quickly realise that there is nothing special about them and in fact they are a little lacking. After the first few games you will probably turn it off because it makes the game too long. The animations for the board is pretty good, from casting warriors to playing spells. Everything around the board seems polished and it makes for a great experience. The sound is also spot on, with the deep dark narrator voice telling you what to do next to the swooshing of the spells. The dramatic background music does not distract from the thought process but gives you the right inspiration to hopefully kick some warrior ...

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Controls

The controls are almost the best part of the game. You only press the 'START' button to start the thing and then it is all cards. This is a lifesaver because with a controller the game would have ended up feeling like Sudoku, irritating. With the cards you can easily decide the orientation of the card and where to play it. It does have a little of a learning curve, so I suggest you view the helpful videos which is part of the game. Reviews

The only problem is that as soon as your lighting dims the PSEye struggles to read the cards, so I suggest playing with ambient sunlight or in a room with fluorescents or halogen lamps. Sony showed us yet again that the interface devices for the PS3 are going to be ground breaking and fun, therefore Eye of Judgment gets the Evo award for interface peripherals.

PSP screenshot Extras/Replay There are some investigative modes where you can play a few cards on the floor and ask the PS3 to judge who is the winner. There is no spectacular fight scene or anything, but it is a good way to see how all the models look like. There is also a short history mode where you can view a map and see who is coming from where with some short history behind them. Strategy game, need I say anymore about replay value. Maybe just one thing, if you are bored of the computer kicking your ... you can get some online players to do just the same thing.

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Summary

If you like board games this one will appeal to you. The input cost is a little high since you need the PSEye, but since you can get the PSEye with EyePet for a steal I suggest you go and get Eye of Judgment as well. You will feel freed when you realise you are playing a console game without a controller.

Battle of the voices ReBytes

Battle of the voices

These days there are a few sing-a-long games that will tell you how good or bad you are singing. One thing is for sure, if you dreamt that you will be a Rock-Star when you were younger you will most probably enjoy these games. But which of these games are the best? We will look at SingStar for PS2 and PS3, Disney's Sing It and Karaoke Revolution for PS3. Unfortunately we are still struggling to source a copy of Karaoke Revolution so we will break this article up in two parts. This month we will look at SingStar the PS2 and PS3 versions and next month, or when we get Karaoke Revolution, we will have the second part with Disney's Sing It and Karaoke Revolution. The last article will have a comparison chart showing the features of each game and we will try and pin down age groups for each game. TIPS When you sing keep the mic about 10cm from your mouth and sing hard otherwise you will get distortions in your audio track on playback. Sit or stand up straight and sing with an open mouth, it is all about projection. If you project well enough you do not need to keep the mic on your lips.

For our PS2 roundup we tried Rock Ballads and 80s. Both interfaces were the same except for the color schemes. The interface works well and is easy to navigate. The PS2 versions have some interesting game modes. The solo mode is for a single player. Freestyle allows you to sing without the pressure to perform and works great just to practice the songs. You can also turn the pitch bars on or off for the freestyle mode. If you have some friends over the party mode can be used to get everybody involved and with three modes it makes for some interesting fun. The battle mode sees you go head on head against another singer to see who gets the highest score. If you found that perfect singing partner then duet mode sees the two of you working together to try and get the highest score. The real party starts with the pass the mic mode. Two teams with several players sing rounds of mini game songs to see which team is the best. There are seven different mini game modes to setup for the pass the mic and this is where the adrenaline gets pumping to try and out perform a member from the other team. A difficulty level can be set for the singing modes of either easy, medium or hard. The easy level is for those who struggle to get the right pitch and you actually realise that this level is a cheat. You can keep the same pitch for notes close to each other and get points for them all. The medium level is for those shower singers. If you are a little off you will still hit the note, but the cheating of catching notes will not work. If you get a good score you will

Battle of the voices

think you mastered your voice, until you replay the audio just to find that the only parts you are actually on key is the chorus parts. The medium mode is the mode to use to practice your singing until you get a half decent score, only then should you move up to hard otherwise you might get deterred and give up on your singing career. The hard level is the one to practice your singing to become a master of the art. SingStar works very well to translate your pitch even if you sing an octave higher or lower. The gameplay also has golden notes which are notes on which you can score extra points if you hit them. For every line that you sing you will get some feedback on how you are doing by a 'good' or 'awful' tag being displayed. Your overall progress are shown by a bar at the top of the screen. You can also select if you want to sing the full song or a shortened version of the song. When you think you had an awesome performance you can save the audio track to disk for later playback. You can also add some sound FX to your voice. Unfortunately PSEye does not work for the EyeToy functionality of the game.

You can change your voice volume but if you sit too close to the speakers you will get loop feedback. So it is difficult to get your voice volume up to act as a monitor.

Pass The Mic mini games Battle A player from each team battles for a song to see who gets the most points. First to the post A player from each team battles it out. The first to 5000 points win. Medley A player from each team sings a medley. Micro-Medley A player from each team sings a micro-medley. Duet Each team sings a duet. Keep it up A player from each team sings a song. You must get your progress indicator above a certain point otherwise the song ends. Pass the mic The mic is passed around on que between team mates.

Battle of the voices

For the PS3 I checked out the Pop Edition. I only used the ABBA pack-shot on the left cause no Pop Edition pack-shot was available. The PS3 interface is a little different than the PS2 version's and take a little time to get used to. You can use the controller or voice recognition to select your song to sing. If you have difficulty selecting a song by name it is because you first need to say "Show Songs", otherwise you must select songs by saying the artist name. I also struggled to find out how to get the high scores and just as I thought they forgot to put it in I saw the ticker tape on the bottom of the screen change and you must say "Charts" to get the high score for the song. Another disappointment was the quality of the videos in the game. I would have hoped for hi-def videos, but it is the normal TV videos that is used, maybe just as well otherwise the online store downloads would have been much larger. The gameplay is very similar than the PS2 version's with the same game modes and use of golden notes. When you have a PSEye 10 snapshots will be taken during the game and also a highlight videoclip. Just like the PS2 version you can sound FX the audio clip and save it, but you also have the option to save a full length videoclip of your performance. While singing a song you can also decide whether you want to display the music video or the PSEye video feed as the background video. When you select the player name you can add a photo shot for the player, but seems like it is useless, since after each performance you are asked to take a new photo for the scoreboard. If you skip the scoreboard photo your player photo will not be used.

If you use an HD TV you might find that your singing does not match up with the on screen feedback. Go to options and do an auto calibration for the sound latency. This might fix the problem. I also found that when singing an octave lower the matchup is not as good as for the PS2 version, even after the 1.34 version upgrade. This might just be because I am not well trained with the Pop Edition songs. There is also a voice reduction option which will reduce the voice on the track, but it only seems to work for Human by The Killers. The other tracks seem to have more or less the same voice level. The problem to get a decent monitor feedback for your voice is still there. I would love for SingStar to implement the use of headphones together with your primary sound output so that you can get your voice boosted through the headphones. You can also theme your PS3 version with different background music and animations for the menu. You can even buy some extra ones from the SingStore. The final scoring, just like the PS2 version, give you a points breakdown and some encouragement tagline from "Tone-deaf" to "Hopeful" to "Superstar" and a few categories in between. It is easy to go from "Wannabe" to "Superstar". I got "Wannabe" on hard, "Rising Star" on medium and "Superstar" on easy levels for the same song. Some might consider it cheating, including me.

Battle of the voices

SingStore The SingStore is an awesome addition to SingStar. You can buy the songs you want, unlike with the Blu-rays where you will sing 5 or 8 songs on a disc and the rest you don't even care about. But my SingStore experience was not without disappointment. I bought "Sloop John B" and then start to download the thing and "What!!!! No progress indicator.". Read the manual and they state you will see a progress indicator on the bottomlefthand corner of the screen. My eyes must be deceiving me, but as hard as I tried I could not find any progress indicator anywhere. So I decided to sing some songs, Livin on a Prayer, while the 50MB download completes. "What!!!! Who is eating my processor power". The song actually got stuck 2 times for a few ms. I mean if this was a live performance the crowd would have killed me. A little while later I realised my network connection was idle so my Sloop John B must be done, but alas I was capped and only 30MB was downloaded. I guess I should have refueled my internet tank before I started the download. Not to worry refueling is easy. Got another GB into the tank and resumed the download and I was expecting the download to restart with all the problems I already encountered, but it actually resumed. Finally got the thing downloaded and it showed the song was on HDD. Went to solo mode and got the "Updating songs..." screen and start searching for the song. Nowhere to be found, but the sleuth in me sterted investigating and found the option to view "Online Songs". Ahh it must be that and how cool that you can buy new songs directly from the song selection screen. "What!!!! My Sloop John B is not on HDD. Went to the online store and yes the download history icon changed back to not downloaded. @#$$%@#, I guess I must download the thing twice after all.

Luckily all my disappointments are covered now. The online store navigates very well and you can also download extra apps to edit your video playbacks with, for free. Only problem is that there is NO search bar to search for songs. You have to navigate to them. Songs are cheap R15 a pop and the downloads between 50MB and 100MB it seems. The online community is also a great addition for those who want to gloat with their talents. You can post your clips to it for all to see. But wait there is more, it is for those people who wants to be part of the music social community as well. You can customise your profile with your favourite genre of music and your favourite songs. Now you can meet up with like minded want-to-be or hopefull musicians. Part II Next time we will be gunnin with Sing It and Karaoke Revolution.

Disney's Sing It

Welcome to the eGamer column http://eGamer.co.za

Tody - The Super C junkie and obsessed dedicated gamer Nitrate - The guy that forces n00bs to work Slobber - His cleft pallet keeps the drool flowing Of course all of our news pieces were customized for PS3SA, but if you feel that you got what it takes to tank the real thing, check out our site at: http:// eGamer.co.za Us eGamer-fanatics/writers try our best-est-best to cover the gaming scene whenever possible. PlayStation is simply just a single category, and we do offer lots more. For any questions, comments, ideas or the big F-U, please feel free to email mag@egamer.co.za

eGamer Asks You -- Yes, Question Of The MonthÂ

eGamer

PS3SA were kind enough (..or brave enough?) in allowing us to use their information super-portal to deliver semi-subjective gaming news for the PlayStation console. This column was written, and edited by a highly trained eGamer magazine team which sleeps in a dark dungeon filled with radiation and other toxic waste. Please excuse our simple and chaotic mindset when reading our rants as we cannot help what our sixfingered hands type. Expect to read pieces from the following self-titled lunatics:

Welcome to Q&A, where the propeller heads at eGamer answer questions ranging from overcoming tricky obstacles in games, to getting your warden (mom) to let you play more games for "educational" purposes. We're going to take this opportunity to ask you, the gentle viewe... errr readers what you'd like to see. The top reader questions, and answers, will be in next months edition. However this month, the said propeller heads were so busy setting up that they forgot to get any questions to answer. Please, help us out for next month and ask a few questions! Got a question and need someone smarter than Dexter (the scientist not the serial killer) to help? Mail your question to qotm@egamer.co.za or snail mail to Fooseball table number 9, Buckley's, Cape Town

A bit of FYI: We'll hopefully be doing this in upcoming mags (if PS3SA don't give us the boot). We hope you enjoyed our column, and please, join us for another ride read -- whether it be on our site or right, over, here!

eGamer

The PS3 & Xbox Saga Continues! We’ve decided to incorporate a “Haharang”, or Harangue (which simply means rant). Now now, before you worry that we’re going to make you think too hard, the hardest part of this article is the title. To keep it interesting, we’ll try our best to focus on a worthy subject. Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 Instead of deciding which one is better, we’re going to talk about the differences. After this we will see if we can conclude with a totally opinionatedfanboy assumption based on these facts. Upside To Each Console Simply put, the whole eGamer team agreed that they are both better than the Wii. Alongside this they both trump the predecessor consoles which old men used to play. Of course Wii would be more social, and physical, but that’s lame. Why would you want to run when you’re gaming? The PonyStation Three is apparently a lot more resistant than the Not-So-X-Looking-Box which overheats and explodes after too many hours of gameplay. However, Microsoft built this feature in to protect over-playing and the loss of real-life stimulus and movement. The PS-Free does not die on you as much as the Not-So-X-Looking-Box. Despite this, neither consoles are safe from Fatbob’s (lack of) Nandos induced rage. The Machine Design The Xbox has some funny concave curve thing. This makes it look slightly unattractive and bulky, however you can immediately see what it’s all about. Especially when it proposes with that awesome Red Ring… Of Death. Sony’s PonyStation Three has a space-ship design which shines and attracts children. The Spiderman 3 font on the machine further proves this point. Kiddies dig Spiderman, and Batman. The Microsoft product comes with easy-to-identify colours. Variation is key to success. The pink Xbox. In fact, the Xbox is like the Volkswagen of the console world. Once you open it, you’re a mechanic. It’s just, that, easy. The PEE-EISH-THREE on the other hand is a tad more complex as opening and understanding Japanese products is tougher than counting pixels on a 30″ monitor. By hand.

The controllers The Xbox remote fits into the hand quite nicely (Ed: If you are 12 with spastic hands), opposed to the PS3 controller that screams boring. This remote almost requires you to use the button controllers to move around, as the joysticks want to dislocate your thumb. Continuously. Oh, the triggers on the PS3 remote suck as well. Fatbob did contest this, but seeing as he’s never used a PS3 controller (he only fails at Guitar Hero) you shouldn’t really take this into account. (Ed: He thinks that he’s a star in Nickelback) On the other hand, dyslexic people will have massive problems with Xbox remotes, and this generally means that 85% of its owners (Americans) suffer with this dilemma. Graphics To the untrained eye they seem the same. To us, they seem the same. The Game Boxes Many have commented about square boxes, but who cares. If they don’t fit into your old vintage lounge suite they will land up in a box anyway. Therefore the shape is pretty pointless. However, some would say that game boxes mean everything. The squareness of a box allows it to be ’square and awesome’, opposed to the structural integrity of stacking rectangular Xbox games. Think of it this way, if you have a lot of PS3 games and you just happen to create two towers, what happens next? I’ll tell you. 2001, September 11 happens next. Xbox doesn’t allow terrorist attacks. Piracy yes, but that’s not the point right now. Some would also argue that the Xbox rectangleshaped boxes destroys the entire concept of a game “box” – for the only true box is a square box. Furthermore it’s cheaper to create a rectangular box, therefore PS3 owners are essentially charged more for nothing. Pricing More expensive than the Wii. However if you’re stupid enough to buy a Wii, you’d probably move onto the next cheapest, the Xbox.

White Knight Chronicles International Due February! Sackboy -- The Most Powerful Assassin... In The Whole Damn World!

eGamer

Most powerful assassin? Okay, so we might have pushed the truth, but hey -- we were overwhelmed with cute-ness. This my friends -- and foes -- is the new addition to LittleBigPlanet. This awesome (and cute!) costume is going to cost you $1.99 (R14.52) on the PlayStation Network. Personally, if I still had LittleBigPlanet, I'd buy this in a heartbeat! And for more reasons than just being an Assassin's Creed fan. It should be available on PSN now. About LBP: LittleBigPlanet is a [cute] sidescroller/platformer for the PlayStation 3. You'll play through loads of fun, interactive and awesomely designed levels, single player or multiplayer, completing them and unlocking goodies. Tons of DLC and the level creator constantly expands this unique and lovable experience.

PlayStation owners outside of Japan will finally have their chance to play White Knight Chronicles, the popular PS3 JRPG, on the 2nd of February 2010 (North American release date). The European/South African date will most likely be on the 5th of February, three days later. White Knight Chronicles: International Edition includes the original game, localised, plus additional features and content such as voice chat, live talk and the party system. Check out the official box art below (US):

Please Note: No racism was planned during the naming of this game.

Finger Food For Good Old Pac Man

STOP! PSP Time! Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker Out in May 2010 Upcoming Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, exclusive PSP sequel to MGS3: Snake Eater and Portable OPS, will be released in Japan in March of 2010 and in North America, two months later, on the 25th of May. For us in South Africa and the guys in Europe, the game will only be out on the 28th of May 2010, three days after the North American date. We're still awaiting news on the PSP Go downloadable version of the game.

If you're into both finger jewelry and Pac-Man then you have found your own Christmas present. For around R800 you'll be able to pick up these devilish money makers which restrict the freedom that your fingers once had. Outright good ideas are always lurking around the corner, and we bet you didn't think of this. (If you did think of it, then the bet is off -- and we're sorry for calling you out on it) The obvious ring collection is an international item for now, but we're thinking that this will soon replace knuckle busters on the Cape Flats... Or so we hope.

eGamer

Max Payne 3 Pushed Back to Second Half Of 2010

Take-Two have announced another reason to slit your wrist delay for Max Payne 3, this time pushing its release toward the second half of 2010, now making it a fiscal Q4 of 2010 release. You can expect the game to arrive only after August of 2010. We'll let you know when we have a confirmed release date for Max Payne 3 - which will appear on PC, PS3 and Xbox360. Despite this delay, the rest of Take-Two's titles, namely Bioshock 2 (9 February 2010), Red Dead: Redemption (30 April 2010) and Mafia 2 (3 May 2010, although this might not be the final release date), will all be sticking to their current release dates. More Than 4.5 Million Console Fans Will Boot A Ball Around In Fifa 2010

That's right, EA Games has dropped the figures on us and they are pretty darn beautiful. The Fifa '10 game has received over 4.5 million sales worldwide - since its release in October this year. Before you get ahead of yourself, please note that the South African world-cup host has nothing to do with this. Fifa is known as the world's fastest selling sports game, ever. The game was sold 1.7 million times in the first week, and it beats Madden so bad. So, so bad. EA Games has added a few extraordinary achievements into the game, along with some DLC. Expect to see some new 'Ultimate Teams" which add to a brand new unique experience. Sales figures show that EA's Fifa '10 has a 26% increase in sales when compared to Fifa '09 for the same period of time. This means that soccer is the most played game in-real-life, and on console!

New Medal of Honour Will Be “The Most Authentic Modern War Experience” It was revealed back in November that the next Medal of Honour game, currently in the works, will be set in current day warfare, to rival Call of Duty: Modern Warfare of course. The game plans not only to revive the series, but it also promises to deliver the “the most authentic modern war experience” for fall 2010, which is round about October for us South Africans. According to EA, this title will give gamers the chance to “step into the boots of these warriors [National Command Authority soldiers who take on missions no one else can handle.] and apply their unique skill sets to a new enemy in the most unforgiving and hostile battlefield conditions of present day Afghanistan.” Battlefield Developer DICE will develop the multiplayer component of the game, which is great news. Time for Vietnam veterans to sit down and shut up, 'coz Afghanistan is the new battle ground. Check out the box art below (gameplay video can be found on the eGamer site)

Ready for more American "heroism" and slaughtering of different racial groups? Then get ready for the new Medal of Honour game, a reboot to the entire series, which is now called Medal of Honour!

Dead Space 2 Coverage! PSP Stuff: ESRB Rates Eye of Judgment PSP Game

Disney Puts Fans To Bed With The Prince Of Persia Movie Poster Remember when you were still a children busy playing around in Prince of Persia -- pixel version? Running, jumping, dying, and using that white stick called a sword? Well, those days are long gone, and we're off to a better place with 3D graphics and bad game-to-movie ports. Okay, so not every movie port is bad, and we're hoping that Prince of Persia would be fan-tab-ulously awesome. In fact, the trailer was so thrilling that it almost made us go outside and almost jump from roof top to roof top. I say almost because once I got up I realised the energy required wasn't worth the hospital bills. Back to the issue at hand. The outrageously boring movie poster. While we understand that faces are usually the top choice for a new-age movie poster, we cannot help to understand why the designers did not add cool effects to the eyes, or cheeks. Perhaps some sword fighting action or even a couple of seductive ladies to convince newcomers would be a good addition.

Dead Space 2 was recently officially announced (Who could have seen this one coming?) to be on its way to the PC, PS3 and Xbox360 in 2010. In Dead Space 2, Isaac Clarke will once again be the protagonist, except this time he will be up against the Necromorph horde in a story that will apparently see him “calling the shots”. On the list of promises are new weapons, a “huge cast of twisted, disgusting monsters” and plenty of plot twists and pants-wetting scares. Isaac himself will get some updates, such as his new Space suit. Word is that he will be able to actually speak this time around - so we won't have a moving brick as a main character anymore. Dead Space 2 will take place on a Space Station, called “Sprawl”, built upon the husk of one of Saturn’s moons. Word is that it’s big: a lot bigger than the Ishimura, the Space Station from the first game. The Sprawl will apparently come equipped with whole themed wings, such as residential quarters, public spaces…..alien invaded areas – yeah you get it! Gameplay wise, we’ve heard that you’ll not only be able to both walk and jump in zero gravity areas, but also fly/float and shoot your weapons throughout. It’s finally been confirmed that Dead Space 2 will contain a multiplayer mode, although there are no details on that. All we have right now is a small teaser, from one of the devs, that reads as follows: “All I can say is it’s really fun, and you’ll get to strategically dismember your friends.” Personally, I don’t think multiplayer is what the game needs, but hey, that’s not going to stop them from adding it in. Dead Space 2 is on its way to the PC, PS3 and Xbox360 in 2010 - you can expect to see it in the second half of the year

eGamer

Sony’s PS3 Exclusive, turn-based card game will be making its way to the PlayStation Portable – and the ESRB has rated it. Eye of Judgment, for PS3, was released back in October of 2007 and the game used the PlayStation Eye camera as well as real trading cards made specifically for the game to create a unique experience. The PSP version of the game, while we’re not sure how it’s going to deliver the same experience (it will probably end up being solely a trading card game), has been rated Everyone 10+ and contains references to alcohol and tobacco, fantasy violence, mild language and suggestive themes. No word on a release date yet. Rated 10+ for a daily occurrence to South African kids just turning 3? Shame on you ESRB!

Got 50 To 60 Hours Of Time? Get Ready For FFXIII -- Now With A Giant Turtle!

eGamer

Holland Psycho Says No To Lights

What Square Enix call a turtle, we might call a halfbreed elephant that boasts a funny face which has been deformed by various alcohol-relatedpregnancy-problems. Our deformed friend is called Blastoise Adamantoise. We however, are settling for Adam

Adam The Giant Turtle aside, Square Enix have claimed, somewhat boldly, that Final Fantasy XIII will be a damn long game, taking you roughly 50 to 60 hours to complete the main quest. Wow, that's actually quite difficult to believe, when taking into account how short games are these days in general, with the whole 'next-gen' (mostly referring to graphics) thing. Hopefully this is true, because damn, that would really be awesome! The questions to ask yourself, before proceeding, are: Are you prepared to delete 50-60 hours of your life? And do you have what takes to take on Adam A Giant Turtle like no other?

Here's the scene: Your lying on a hospital bed where doctors are trying to keep you alive. Your medication starts running dry and all of a sudden one of your eyes open. Before you realise that you are awake, and doctors are busy working over your half open body -- the lights cut. Following a cut in power comes the F-Bomb, alongside some screams and natural panic. Far-fetched? We think not. A psychopath in Holland decided to make nightmares become a reality after he needed to solve a puzzle for Silent Hill. The man known as Jan H cut the lights to an entire hospital in an attempt to finish his quest. The power cut saw many stuck in elevators for about 45 minutes, along with doctors having to resort to manual labour when trying to keep intensive care patients breathing. We'd like to say that the best part about this story would definitely be the part where no one was hurt in this horror-experience. Just how did this happen? Well, Jan H needed to solve the next puzzle in his Silent Hill life-game, and this would be puzzle-disaster number two because about two months ago he did the same thing in an attempt to acquire a toothbrush in order to move 'stages'. Funniest part about this serious-business-story: The court rules Jan H not guilty as he had “no idea of the true consequences of his deeds.”

game announcements

Batman - Arkham Asylum 2 (PC, PS3, Xbox360)

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2 (TBA platforms) New Medal of Honour (PC, PS3, Xbox360) Spec Ops: The Line (PC, PS3, Xbox360) Tron: Evolution (PC, PS3, Xbox360) eGamer

Halo: Reach (Xbox360) UFC Undisputed 2010 (TBA Platforms) Transformers: War for Cybertron (PC, PS3, Xbox360) True Crime Sequel: Hong Kong (PC, PS3, Xbox360) Crackdown 2 (Xbox360) Prince of Persia – The Forgotten Sands (PC, PS3, Xbox360, PSP, Nintendo Wii, DS) All additional info, video content and trailers can be viewed on the eGamer website.

Video game awards

The Video Game Awards are over and the winners have been announced. The 9th annual Video Games Awards were held by Spike TV and it goes without saying that thousands of gamers were involved in the voting process to determine 2009’s winners, according to VGA of course. This year has really been a great one for gaming, but I have this good feeling that 2010 will be one of the most awesome years we’ve seen so far.

We said that about 2009 initially, but unfortunately a lot of the most anticipated titles, such as God of War III, Final Fantasy XIII and Bioshock 2 were delayed to 2010. Anyway, check out the VGA awards below in full – eGamer’s Awards are coming soon, so look out for them! The best is yet to come. Best Voice Actor – Jack Black for Brutal Legend Best Action Adventure Game – Assassins Creed 2 Studio of the Year – RockSteady Studios Best Teen Sports Game – NHL 10 from EA Sports Best Performance by a Human Male – Hugh Jackman as Wolverine in X-Men Origins Best Cast – X-Men Origins

Best Independent Game – Flower Best Individual Sports Game – UFC Undisputed 2009 Best Role Playing Game – Dragon Age Origins Best PC Game – Dragon Age Origins Best Performance By a Human Female – Megan Fox in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen Best Downloadable Game – Shadow Complex Best Downloadable Content – The Ballad of Gay Tony Best Wii Game – New Super Mario Wii Most Anticipated Title 2010 – God Of War 3 Best Shooter – Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Best Multiplayer – Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Best Fighting Game – Street Fighter IV Best Handheld Game – GTA Chinatown Wars Best Driving Game – Forza Motorsport 3 Best Soundtrack – DJ Hero Best Xbox 360 Game – Left 4 Dead 2 Best Original Score – Halo ODST Best Game based on TV Show – South Park Lets Go Tower Defence Best Music Game – The Beatles Rock Band Best PlayStation 3 Game – Uncharted 2: Among Thieves Best Graphics – Uncharted 2: Among Thieves Game of the Year – Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

Firstly I would like to thank PS3SA for this opportunity to write in their magazine and I am looking forward to many more articles with them. Please bare with me as this is my first time writing an article, so it's a learning curve for me as well. 2009, what a year for gaming and what a year for the PS3. Some could say that this was the year the PS3 needed after it's slow start, lack of games and generally over priced in comparison to it's competitors. Well it sure has grown and slimmed down a little, with an excellent game catalog, the price cut it needed and it even became a slim. But we are here to talk about the games and which ones made you scream out, "Oh Snap" and "Holy Shit", the ones that planted your jaw on the ground the first time you saw it. Hell the ones that just kept on planting your jaw on the floor. The games that you would want to show off to your buddies, brothers and even your grandmothers. The most anticipated games and those that would become classics. I must say that this short list of games was fairly hard to come up with but were the games that stood out for me the most. They were the ones that made me twitch at work thinking about them, wanting to play them more, the features in the games, the gameplay and graphics that stumped me. They were the games, for me, which were simply mind blasting! So in no particular order here are PS3blog's top 5 games of 2009:

Batman: Arkham Asylum One of the most anticipated games for the PS3 year and probably the most delayed! When it did reach us it blow our minds away with brilliant graphics, intelligent AI and a new multiplayer experience. Guerilla Games gave us a taste of what the PS3 could do. With 3 DLC map packs to add to this excellent game. Check out our review at www.ps3blog.co.za

The game that made you become a super hero and gave you the choice to go the good route or the evil. Placing the decision in the player's hands made you more involved in the character and story. Wonderful comic book style cutscenes. Electrifying gameplay, open world environment submerging you deeper into the story. A great exclusive for the PS3 and a must play for any owner.

This game simply blew me away with the story and the amount of detail in it. Developed by Rocksteady, their first major game brought the Batman universe to life. The combat system was pure excellence and the stealth missions were the cherry on top. The game never became repetitive and was pure enjoyment to play. This was the Batman game, fans an everyone was waiting for. Check out our full review at www.ps3blog.co.za

Purely for the multiplayer! The single player was very weak compared to the previous game. This was the most anticipated game this year and it broke records on release day. Get online with this game and you'll be hooked instantly. The excitement you get from playing against other locals and the fast paced action delivers pure online bliss. See our full review at www.ps3blog.co.za

So there you have it, PS3blog's top five games of 2009. These are recommended to any PS3 owner and for their collection. The most anticipated PS3 exclusive game of the year! This game pushed more PS3 systems as it came bundled with the 250GB slim. Housing some of the best visuals on any platform to date. The story is like a Spielberg action Hollywood blockbuster movie, perhaps even bigger. Now throw the same into multiplayer and you have a pure winner. A must have for any PS3 owner.

These were the games that people talked about before they came out and they are still talking about them as well as playing them online. Other mentions go to Prototype, Assassin's Creed 2, Dragon Origins, Borderlands, PES2010, and more. Be sure to check out www.ps3blog.co.za for the latest PS3 news, previews, reviews and competitions, for everything PS3. Claudio Cecchi (Freak_c)

Extra Gaming 80

PSN: We look at the new mini games that came out. Play it on the PS3 or PSP

Extra Gaming

PS2 of the month: ICO the best adventure game ever made when it comes to emotional involvement

Next-Gen Wars: We compare the pricing of the PS3 and XBox 360.

PlayStation Network Publisher PSN Developer Gameshastra RRP R33 (ZAR) $2.49, â&#x201A;Ź2.99

Genre Arcade Puzzler

PlayStation Network

Minis!!! I am not talking about the Mini Cooper or the short skirt minis. I am talking about PSN minis. Those small (less than 100MB) games you can buy on the PSN. That is not all, you can play the game on your PS3 and PSP, so you pay once and play all the time if you own a PSP. And the things are cheap, sort of, with the recession everyone is counting pennies I guess. Echos is one of those minis and pretty awesome for some mindless fun. About the Game The idea is simple and the gameplay is fun, like most simple games. You play a girl who must collect crystals. An echo will appear a few seconds after you picked up the crystal and start to walk to path you walked since you picked up the crystal. If you run into an echo you die and with only 4 lives you better walk carefully or fast. The first few games you only need to get a few crystals, no big deal. Wait until you must pickup 21 crystals in total. The place can get very crowded with echos. If you think you can just make a dash for the 21 crystals you are mistaken. Only a few crystals are present on screen at a time. As you collect one a new one appears somewhere. Only problem I have with the game is that it does not save your progress when played on the PS3, but it is a quick 5 minutes to unlock all the game modes.

ReBytes

With a host of game modes this game will certainly last you awhile. The Arcade Mode is what I described above. The Clockwork mode is interesting, the echos appear but stand still, so you can take your time maneuvering around them. The problem is some maps are narrow corridors and you can quickly echo yourself into a corner. In survival mode you start with 10 seconds on the clock. For each crystal you get some time is added, and every echo you hit time is subtracted. As soon as the clock strikes 0 its game over. In Jackpot mode you start with X seconds on the clock and just run to collect crystals, if you strike an echo some time is subtracted. You need to decide if it is best to just run through an echo or waste some time to go around.

Just for some extra fun the people at Gameshastra threw in a couple of other rules also. Gather a saw blade crystal you'll be spinning around slicing up echos. TIP: If you get one don't worry about the other crystals if the place is overcrowded. Cut some echos down to clean up the place.

When you collect a red crystal you get an extra life. Definitely helps for those overcrowded spaces. PlayStation Network

If you collect an hourglass crystal time stands still for awhile. This means there is no echos chasing you, but you still need to be careful not to run into them. They might be in stasis but they are not dead.

When you get the purple crystal you become a magnet for awhile. So crystals in your vicinity gets drawn to you.

If you get the green crystals you instantiate a pulse chain. The crystal explodes and all echos in its shockwave will explode. Then all echos in the exploding echo's shockwave will explode. Then all echos ... you get the point ... chain reaction.

PS2 of the Month Publisher Sony Developer Sony Released 2002

Genre Action Adventure

NOTE: Only the first line of

ReBytes

PS3s can play PS2 games

PS2 of the Month

Intro I wanted to do something totally awesome for this first PS2 of the Month article. I needed a game that what a classic, shook the world with something new and must have been one of the best PS2 titles. I had a long list but narrowed it down to three, Okami, Shadow of the Colossus and ICO. Then I thought why not add artistic to the list and that left me with Okami and ICO, but since I cannot find a copy of Okami let's go with my favourite, ICO. It was most probably biased reasoning that I used cause I would have found a way to let ICO be the winner anyhow. The Curse "Ico's nightmare began on the day he drew his first breath. At the moment he was raised up to the light, a scream rang out into the night. For there, in plain view, was the Sign - two horns, quite small but quite distinct, protruding from either side of the newborn infant's head

There was no joyous celebration of Ico's birth, no proud expression in his father's eyes. His arrival brought only suspicion and fear. The villagers had hoped against hope that the curse might skip their generation. But here was the Sign, and it could not be ignored. Nor could the plagues that struck their children, or the failure of the harvests year after year. They prayed desperately for the day when the tribulations would end. That day, as tradition decreed, was the day of Ico's twelfth birthday. At dawn, a faceless horsemen came for Ico. His family did not try to resist, nor did they weep for the loss of their child. Ico's fate had been decided long long ago. The horsemen rode deep into the dark, twisting forest. Although Ico did not know what his final destination was to be, he could feel his fear rising with every moment that passed. After many hours, an ancient fortress ruin came into view. It stood vast and foreboding against the stormy horizon. Ico could hear the sound of waves crashing against the rocky cliffs below. His heart began to pound in his chest as he searched desperately for a way to escape, but found none. His time had come. Ignoring his desperate cries, the horsemen dragged the terrified boy through the fortress gates and into a vast stone hall. Its walls were filled from floor to ceiling with rows of strange stone caskets. It was at that moment that Ico realised what his fate was to be. The horsemen bundle him into a casket and pulled the heavy stone lid closed, shutting out the light forever. Ico was left alone in the darkness, sentenced to spend the rest of eternity in silent torment.

1. Introduction from the game booklet.

However, they will quickly discover that the entire castle is a prison, a fortress from which escape will not be easy. Shadowy spirits emerge from the gloomy corners, desperate to drag Yorda back into the darkness. Every twisting staircase, creaking door and towering pillar is part of a larger puzzle. Each torch and shaft of light only serves to illuminate another mystery. But together, if the pair persevere, they will surely find a way out, a way back to the light..."1

This is a pretty accurate description of the intro movie, except for the desperately trying to escape part. The intro ends with Ico rocking the tomb and toppling it over, but as he fell out he knocks himself unconscious. Ico fell into a dream about rescuing a girl and that is when he decided for you to go find this girl. As you play the first five minutes you notice the first few rooms is just to help you get acquainted with the controls like jumping, swinging and climbing. Then you end up in a big hall with a huge staircase and not much else except Yorda hanging in a cage. You know you must rescue her but how so you run up and down, back and forth to try and find that hidden lever, and this is when you realise how vast the room is. Every aspect from the render style to the music to the animations and interactions is just plain AWESOME in this game.

PS2 of the Month

But now, fate has granted a reprieve. Ico will discover that he is not alone in this mysterious place. A young girl named Yorda has been held captive in the fortress, consumed by loneliness and sorrow. With Ico's encouragement, she will begin to have hope once more.

Meet the Family There are only three main characters in this game. Ico, Yorda the princess and the Evil Queen, Yorda's mother.

PS2 of the Month

Ico is different to the other members of his village. Through the inheritance of a set of random genetics - the legacy of generations of his people - Ico has been born with a set of horns jutting from his head. Viewed as a curse by the other villagers, Ico is fated to fulfill an unhappy destiny whereby he is taken from his home at the age of 12 and banished to an eerie fortress to die of hunger and cold. But Ico has a strong spirit and innate sense of survival. Both inquisitive and industrious, Ico has enough strength for two people - it is this stamina that must ensure his route to freedom. Yorda is a princess, elfin and waif-like, and bathed in an almost supernatural looking glow. Her fragility immediately captivates Ico who vows to help Yorda escape from her evil mother. Raised to become a spiritual vessel for her mother who intends to rob Yorda of her youthful body, Yorda is destined to remain imprisoned in the fortress for the rest of her days, watched over by a brood of malign and shadowy spirits. Unable to communicate with Ico in the same language, Yorda decides never the less to place her trust in him. And while her meekness and physical weakness may make her totally dependent on Ico at times, she too has powers that will help the two of them in their journey to freedom. The fortress is ruled by a vicious queen who controls not only the destiny of her daughter, but can overpower any body or soul who enters her kingdom. An unknown quantity, the Queen can magic herself into the form of both a spirit and a human. Her minions take the form of shadowy beasts - squat, bloated figures tasked with shackling Yorda to her hostile prison. Gameplay Ico brought together so many different gameplay aspects and it all feels natural. After you rescued your damsel the two of you must find a way out of this fortress. Yorda will not follow you by herself so you need to persuade her. You can either stand right next to her and use R1 to take her hand and lead her around. Beware she runs like a girl and will fall after a few steps. So be the gentleman and push the left stick forward gently until the two of you are on a nice romantic stroll. The second method is to run where you want to be and hold in R1, this will call Yorda and she will take her leisurely time to walk over to you. Just don't run away to far especially when there is shadow creatures around. If they catch Yorda alone they will drag her into the shadowy ground and it is game over. So if you see her disappearing into the

ground you better make haste and go beat that shadow creature to a pulp with your stick. So for the most part your primary duties are to protect your newly found friend. From time to time you will find that your acrobatic skills are a little better than Yorda's and you will need to part ways for awhile until you can go pull some lever somewhere to open a door or something for Yorda to pass. Let me tell you those moments are the most nail biting you will ever experience. You are so used to protect her, just the thought of leaving her makes you wonder "Am I missing something here maybe, what if it is a trick and when I leave the shadow creature comes again?". How did they manage to get you so addicted to Yorda. In retrospect it is easy, by using good animations her frailty is made clear and every time a shadow creature grabs her she gives this hair raising scream. It is not like a horror scream, more like a I am in trouble and don't know what to do type of scream. But do not be fooled by thinking later on that you must always leave her, sometimes all she needs is a little persuasion. If you call her enough times she might get encouraged and take that leap of faith into your arms. The puzzles require you to move objects around, pull levers, think of less obvious routes, all the usual Lara Croft stuff. But this time you do it all while whacking your stick around to keep the shadow creatures away. In the end you will actually realise how close you came to become a shadow creature yourself. ICO has one of the best dynamic camera implementations I have seen. The camera movement feels like if the game was directed by a Hollywood director and helps with the atmosphere. You almost never get frustrated because all you see is a wall or something. You can also move the camera around to have a look around.

The character descriptions comes from the ICO website - www.icothegame.com

Summary

This is where the artistic part comes in. The game plays very strong on the effect of light. You will always see very strong light against very dark shadows, which gives the game a feel of an old movie. Yordas animations conveys very clearly how frail she is, and this is the key why you get so overly attached to her.

I have not since Ico seen a game that comes close to make you care about a computer avatar. I mean Fable for XBox is good with the dog and all, but if the XBox fans ask me what PS3 game comes close to Fable, I just look them calmly in the eye and say "I don't need to, PS2's ICO kicks Fable's ..."

The graphics is nothing special compared to what we see on the PS3 today, but it is the artistic style which makes its graphics so relevant, even today. Ico did with light what Resident Evil 5 wanted to. Even the way how the screen is washed out with light when you leave a dark room will make you appreciate the detail the developers put into the game. During the game all you hear is the patter of your feet, the deep breathing when you run around and that frightful cry for help which Yorda perfected.

If you are an action adventurer, I mean real adventurer not just someone after the thrill of fast kills and high action - that is what Unreal III is for, and have not tried ICO then you need to. If you live in EU then you can still get it from amazon.co.uk, ÂŁ67.50 new (5 left) and ÂŁ34.55 used. It is no typo, ICO is a collectors item now. In the US you can grab it from amazon.com for $157.95 new (10 left) and $37.89 used. Unfortunately South Africa you need to do what I did, run through every trade-in or second hand shop that sells PS2 titles and maybe if you look hard enough you will find one.

PS2 of the Month

Graphics and Animations

PS2 of the Month

Extras/Replay For a treat we got permission from Sony to do a few screen grabs of the game. If you have the EU edition of the game you would need to play it through at least twice. The first time you play Yorda's voice is subtitled by glyphs so you have no idea what she is saying. But if you play the game through for the second time it is a whole new experience. All Yorda's subtitles will be in English and you will finally understand what is going on in her head, sort of. That is not all, the second play through also allows you to control Yorda as a second player. Press 'START' and select 'Options'. Set the game for 2 players and now she won't come to you when you call, but instead your buddy needs to guide her to your location. Don't worry you can still hold her hand and pull her where you want her to be.

Remember the secret room with the Mace weapon. On the second play through you will not receive the Mace anymore, but instead you will receive a Star Wars lightsaber. Just be careful when grabbing Yorka's hand because the lightsaber will give away your intentions and you might put someones eye out.

SPOILER ALERT: On the first play through after the credits rolled, you get control of ICO again for a special suprise. You walk down a beach and suddenly find someone lying in the water. Wow Yorka is still alive and you two have a nice chat. On the second play through you will be able to pick up some watermelons and carry it all the way down the beach and share it with Yorka.

The options menu will also allow you to select the Film Effect level. Level 0 will render the graphics as usual, but Levels 1-4 will add some grain to the graphics.

Level 0 Film Effect

Level 4 Film Effect

ICO wielding lightsaber

ICO wielding lightsaber and holding Yorka's hand

When you take control again after credits go get a watermelon just behind the marked rock.

PS2 of the Month

Once you have the watermelon make your way down the beach

Just remember to share, girls don't like pigs

Next-Gen Wars ReBytes There is still a war out there, or at least for some of us, and it will most probably never end. Only because we are a competitive breed and that is why we play games. This column is not about bashing the XBox to prove that the PS3 is better, instead I will report on some facts and make my own conclusions at the end. I urge you to make your own conclusions because that is what objective reporting is all about. The only contenders in the Next-Gen console race is PS3 and XBox 360, I will not be looking at the PC market or Wii market for obvious reasons.

Next-Gen Wars

For this first article I will start at the beginning, the pricing of the two systems. From the start it was believed that the XBox is cheaper than the PS3, but is it really. When the PS3 came out I did some market research and if you bought the XBox core system with optional Wi-Fi, HD-DVD player and hard drive the PS3 was about R50 more expensive, but then you got HDMI and some SD card slots for free. For this article I will rerun my research and see what the situation with pricing is these days. Let's go for broke and compare the latest models. The pricing are all done according to the RRP of Amazon and I will use USD and British Pounds for the comparison to make things easier for me. The reason for the two different currencies is that the US and EU prices do not scale. For people in Africa and rest of EU, you should scale with the Pounds more or less. The 250GB XBox bundled with a game will set you back a cool $399 (£249), and that is without Wi-Fi. If you wanted Wi-Fi you need to fork out an additional $99 (£59). This brings you to a total of $498 (£308). The new 250GB PS3 Slim bundled with a game will set you back a cool $369 (£299). But how does the two options compare ... the Xbox 360 comes with a wired headset and 2 controllers. I am going to ignore the wired headset since it defeats the purpose of wireless controllers and they are cheap, but the controllers cost a pretty penny. So let us add $55 (£40) for a Dualshock PS3 controller then the PS3 250GB will cost you $424 (£339). This means the XBox is $74 more expensive than the PS3 in the US and £31 more expensive in the UK. Before UK starts a war over the discrepancy the actual RRP for 250GB PS3 in the US was $499, I guess the distributors struck some deal somewhere to bring the price down to be more competitive. Then we need to remind ourselves that the PS3 actually has a Blu-ray player bundled with it. If you are only interested in games it does not matter that much except that the PS3 game titles will have richer content, potentially.

This is not the end of the pricing war, let us go see what games and peripherals cost. In the beginning XBox 360 games was a good 10%-15% cheaper than PS3 games, but I guess Microsoft saw that us gamers were paying the ridiculous high prices for the PS3 games so they upped the XBox game prices. Currently new titles for both consoles will set you back $60 (£55). Looking at controllers the PS3 Dualshock is about $55 (£40) where the XBox controllers will cost you $49 (£33) or if you wanted to go cheap you can get the wired controller for $39 (£25). So if you need to get a couple of extra controllers then the PS3 will set you back a bit. You might get some old stock Sixaxis controllers for cheaper, and they are at least still wireless.

Those of you who cannot afford a keyboard or whose hands are permanently clamped around the controller from too much gaming, you might be interested in the keypads for the consoles. The PS3 keypad will cost you $50 (£25) while the XBox keypad costs $30 (£25). So in the US the XBox lovers will get their keypads for almost half the price, while the UK does not really matter, both console keypads are expensive.

Next-Gen Wars

Since we are talking keypads there are some evaluation to do here. The PS3 keypad mimics a PC keyboard far better than the XBox keypad. You have the bigger ENTER key, the backspace and escape buttons sit where they are supposed to be, but functionality wise they are the same for both consoles. The XBox dudes will need to practice just a little harder than the PS3 chatters. Another distinction is that the XBox keypad mounts onto the bottom of the controller while the PS3 keypad mounts on the top. Since the PS3 analog sticks are in the way it is a little awkward to type with 2 thumbs, while the XBox 360 will be easier to thumb type but you need to stretch your thumbs sideways because of the low mounting. Personally I would not prefer either, but if I had to I'll choose the PS3 keypad because after the annoyance of the sticks you can still thumb type with your thumbs pointing upwards. For the last bit of hardware we will be looking at the PSEye and Natal Project. Both hardware pieces are the same, a camera and multiple microphones. the PSEye will cost $40 (£25) and the Natal Project seems to be $80 (£50). Difficult to say if the Natal Project is worth the extra bucks since everyone believes Microsoft that Natal will replace controllers. If your idea of gaming is to talk to a boy and put on some water goggles then yes I believe them. Controllers will never be replaced, we love to hold something while we are stressing and there is no better device to relay movement than a controller. The use of gesture tracking using a camera will only be incorporated in games to play mini games or solve puzzles in the game. As soon as the running and shooting starts you will have to grab your controller. Verdict I might be biased, but I prefer the PS3 since I love movies and already have a little Blu-ray collection I enjoy, so I had no problem paying the R50 for my Blu-ray player. Peripheral wise PS3 is still tops, XBox is only starting with their innovation, but then EyePet already ran away with the prize. The Motion Controller (Wands) is the thing I am looking forward to next. This will enable Sony to fight the Wii frontier. PS3 has sixaxis from the start and what a pleasure it have been. I don't need to fork out $90 for a steering wheel, I just use my PS3 controller. There are still plenty of hardware I did not discuss like guitars and microphones, but they are all more or less on par with each other. I just wish I could

play Darksiders and Dante's Inferno with the "Wands" Just to keep things South African on the pricing front you can get the PS3 250GB with Wolverine and Dark Night and Blu-ray Remote for R4,299.95 from take2.co.za. The XBox 250GB with extra second controller and Forza will set you back R4,499.95 according to BT games.

Extra Knowledge 91

Know your PS3: Learn how to setup a media server to serve media to your PS3

PS3Desktop: Step by step guide to cutout and overlay photorealistic objects

Extra Knowledge

Blu-ray Movie: Final Fantasy - The Spirits Within review. Learn some things you should know about animated movies.

Know your PS3 ReBytes

This month's article is all about media, music to be more specific. Ever noticed that 'Search for Media Servers' option under the Photos, Videos or Music menu option on the PS3's XMB? A Media Server is a hardware device which serves media content, like photos, videos and music, to other hardware devices over some sort of network. I will show you how to setup your home PC, if you have one, to act as a media server. Then you will be able to serve pictures, videos and music on your PC to your PS3, meaning you save valuable PS3 HD space for those all important PSN downloads. Hopefully you have already connected your PS3 to your PC with some sort of network. If this is the first you heard about connecting your PS3 to a PC and don't know how, you can google it, or please write to us and tell us you don't know how and which OS your PC is running on. We will be glad to help you.

PC Media Server

Wi-Fi

Linux. Although it is a Java app, which should be OS platform independent, there are still 3 different versions to download, one for each OS. Note the number of downloads in the table is only for the 1.10.5 version of the application. OS

stating that the PS3 cannot be found do not despair. Before hitting the troubleshooting guide, go to your PS3 and select 'Search for Media Server'. If your network is setup correctly the PS3 Media Server will quickly change its mind. If you go to the 'Traces' TAB you will see that your PS3 IP sent a

request to PS3 Media Server. If you do not see a request from your PS3 IP you may casually peruse the troubleshooting guides. Just for a heads-up the 'General Configuration' tab allows you to force a network connection and IP address for the server to use. If your PS3 and PC is not talking then setup the 'Force networking on interface' to en0 if you use your ethernet card to connect the PC and PS3. Set it to en1 if you use Wi-Fi to connect the PC and PS3. Set 'Force IP of the server' to your local IP address.

Know your PS3

I will be using an application called Java PS3 Media Server and is freeware downloadable from http://ps3mediaserver.blogspot.com/ It is available for Windows, OS X (Only Intel Macs) and

If the application shows the big red ball with an X,

Download Size No. Downloads

Windows

14.6 MB

802,042

OS X

23.0 MB

123,333

Linux

6.4 MB

53,437

Now that you have downloaded and installed Java PS3 Media Server I will show you quickly how to use it. The application also has a handy troubleshooting FAQ in case you fail to get the PC and PS3 talking. When you launch PS3 Media Server you will see a window with lots of tabs.

PS3 Media Server will not just automatically scan your hard disc for all media content and publish them. That would be a little irresponsible. Oh wait it actually does that. You use the 'Navigation/Share Settings' tab to tell PS3 Media Server in which directories/folders your media content is you want to publish. I mean there might be sensitive content of your hard drive you might not want to publish.

Now it is time to see if it works. If you have not yet searched for your new media server on your PS3 then do it now. Select 'Search for Media Servers' under the Music option of the XMB.

In the screenshot above the Add Folder, Remove Folder and priority buttons are circled in red. Here you can add which folders on your PC must be searched for media content to publish. Lets click the green ADD button and add a folder for sharing. You will be presented with an Open dialog. Navigate to the folder with all your music MP3's you bought off the internet and click on the 'Open'

The PS3 will be searching for a little while and then come back with a result. Hopefully it will state it found your media server.

button. Another reason why its good to setup share folders is because if PS3 Media Server is going to start scanning all your local drives for content its going to slowdown your PC.

If your media server was found it will be displayed right under the 'Search for Media Servers' option.

Inside the folder you will find all the media that is playable through the PS3 Media Server.

Click on a song and that is about all there is to it. Select the Media Server on the XMB and you will see the folders you shared appear.

Next Month Have you ever been frustrated to install themes on your PS3 with that complex list of instructions you need to follow. If you have a PC at home we will show you how to setup your PC (once with a list of complex instructions) so that your PS3 can download PS3 themes from your PC.

PS3 Desktop ReBytes Lets move on to some more serious selecting. There are various tools one can use to select an object, like a person, in a photo. I will quickly run through them with examples of how they work. We will be cutting out a person from a garden setting and paste him into an ocean setting. For a final touch we will GIMP Part II Last month I showed how to install Yellow Dog Linux on a PS3 and how to add alpha channels to images using GIMP. This month I will continue with the GIMP lessons and will show how the GIMP selection tools work. The main GIMP window has a couple of sections. First the menubar is at the top of the window. The next section contains the basic tools you can use.

Then you will find the active color, brush, texture and gradient section.

You might find that your layout of icons and properties differ from what is presented in this article. GIMP is quite prone to change their interface from one release to the next, but the basics should be very similar. You can also customize your interface of GIMP to suit your working needs. This article will use GIMP 2.2 since it is the version that is packaged with YDL 6.2. The first six tools are used to perform region selects from an image. The select is actually done on layers, but I will tell you in a moment what layers are all about. The first selection tool is used to select a rectangular section. Click on the tool to activate it an then drag two opposing corners on the image. Then you can choose Edit from the image window menubar, and then copy or cut depending on what you want to do. The second tool is for elliptical selection regions and works pretty much the same as the rectangular select tool.

for a cutout and you will need to do some touchup cutout work. I will show you in a moment how to do touchup cutout work without much hassle.

PS3 Desktop

The property section will change depending on which basic tool is currently selected.

add his shadow also in the ocean scene. The screenshot above is from the image window in GIMP after the image was loaded, use the File option under the GIMP window menubar. The third selection tool is used to select a freehand region. Just freehand draw the border for the selection. It is easy to see that the selection is not very effective

The fourth cutout tool is used to do magic (fuzzy edge) selections. You click on an area of the image, like the t-shirt and the tool will try and detect the borders of the object. It works well with simple images with clear objects like logos. As soon as you try it on photos where you have shadows the tool will not do what you want it to. Luckily you can hold down the SHIFT button and click on another area and that will combine the new magic select with the current selection. In the photo above we will perform a combined select on the area circled

in red. The picture above shows that the selection did combine, but unfortunately the green t-shirt and the green grass seemed like the same object for our new selection. You can spend hours just to try and select the t-shirt, then the rest of the person must be done also. Clearly this is not the tool for selecting objects from photos, unless the objects are clearly bounded.

The fifth tool is to select a region with a specific color. In the photo above I selected a pixel on the brown trousers and all pixels with that same color in the photo was added to the selection. This tool is not very valuable when used with photos, but very useful when working with simpler images like logos.

The sixth tool is the scissors selection tool. You select a couple of points all around the object you want to cutout and the tool will perform intelligent edge fitting to cut out the image. As you position the markers the mouse cursor will show a pair of scissors and a + (add) sign. If you placed all the markers you just click on the first marker again. Make sure that the mouse cursor over the first marker shows a move sign (arrows in 4 directions) instead of + sign. If you move the mouse cursor to the middle of the object the mouse cursor must only display a pair of scissors, then click once with left and the cutout selection will be made. Before you make the final selection you can move the previous markers around to get the best fit. You can use the

drop down box as circled in the previous image to zoom in, and check how good the fit is. The scissors selection tool seems to be the right tool for the job, since you can quickly place markers and adjust them if some where placed incorrectly. But even with this tool you might find that extra touchup work needs to be done. After you selected the your object press CTRL+C or select Edit from the image window menubar and then Copy. Now the selection is copied into memory and you can paste it where ever you like.

We are going to paste it into a new image. Select Edit from the image window menubar and then 'Paste as New' (newer versions of GIMP uses Edit / Paste As / New Image). You will see a new image window with your selected object in it. Remember the checkered background is the transparent colour. In the image above are some glitches. Some parts of the grass came with and some parts of the t-shirt and top of the head stayed behind. As long as the missing parts is minimal we will be able to correct the problem. First a little more about layers. There is a Layers, Channels and Paths window which will look like the one on the left. There are 4 tabs as circled in red. The first tab is for layers. Currently there is only one layer which contains our man we just cutout.

The eye next to the layer (in our case called Background) is used to toggle the visibility of the layer. The layers are also drawn from the bottom of the list to the top of the list. You can play around with some of the properties for layers to see what the effects are, but we won't be using them today. In the layers window select 'Create New Layer'. It is the button circled in blue in the Layers screenshot. Make sure that you use white or black for the background color and not transparency. You will see that the new layer is at the top of the list, but we want it at the bottom, since it is going to be our backdrop while we perform touchups. Make sure that the new layer is selected in the Layers window and then click the 'Lower Layer' button (The down arrow to the right of 'Create New Layer' button). The image window will now show the person with a white/ black backdrop. You must always remember that if you perform actions with the basic tools on an image it is performed on the active layer. So always make sure that you have the right layer active before editing the image. If your backdrop is in a separate layer as we have, you will be able to change its color quickly by using the Bucket Fill tool. This means you can quickly select a good contrasting backdrop for the piece your working on. For instance while working with the green t-shirt edges you can use black, but around the dark trousers you might want to fill the backdrop with white or red. Now we are setup for touchup work. Make sure you have the layer active that contains the person. Use the zoom drop down box and zoom into 200% or 400%. Now select the Eraser tool. Under the tool properties select a solid circle. We do not want a fuzzy circle, you might think the fuzzy will help to blend the picture but is does NOT. Make sure the circle is big enough. Now trace all around the edges of the object where touchup work is needed. For the parts where some of the head stayed behind, take off the rest off the head until it is all s m o o t h e d . Remember you want to remove all fuzzy edging from the picture.

If you use a program that does not have the scissors tool to intelligently fit the selection, you can use the eraser tool to cutout the whole object from an image. At first it might be difficult, since you need to change the size of the circle, but after an hour you should be able to cutout a person in 10 minutes. The reason why you MUST use a circle is because it makes smooth edges while you move the mouse. Edged brushes will make hard edges while you move the mouse on touchup. When you are done you should have a clean cutout, remember no fuzzy edges anywhere.

GIMP have some basic tools to rotate, scale and shear the currently active layer if you need to adjust the size and angle of the image to fit into the new scene. The new image looks pretty good with the new scene, all without fuzzy edges. There are some smudge and blur tools if your new image stands out too much from the rest of the scenery. It usually only happens when your object is a closeup shot that is inserted. For shots from a distance like the one above it seems pretty natural as is.

When you are done you can save the object (person) by using File / Save under the image window menubar. When you save the file make sure you save it as .PNG because you want the alpha channel (transparency) to be saved in the file as well. If you save it as .BMP or .JPG you will loose the alpha channel and will not be able to add it to a new backdrop at a later date. You can close the image window of the cutout now. Now we open a nice ocean backdrop. Select File / 'Open As

The person has some sunlight from behind him and left. If you had other people in the original ocean photo you must make sure that the new object's lighting is from the same angle more or less. If the sun was actually from behind and to the right you can just flip the person horizontally if he had no text on his t-shirt. Now we need some shadows. Select the Dodge/Burn tool and set its properties so that the Type is 'Burn' and the Mode is 'Shadows'. Select a brush which is a fuzzy circle about the width of the person's legs. The shadows will be on the backdrop so make sure the ocean image is the active layer. Remember you need to do the whole shadow in one draw. If you release the mouse button and press it in again you will double burn parts of the image. Draw where you think a shadow should fall and you are done. It will take some practice so work on it for about 10 minutes.

Layers' on the ocean image window menubar and select the .PNG file you just saved of the cutout.

Blu-ray Movie This month we will be reviewing a DVD. You might ask why, and the answer is simple, there are some things we can learn about the upscaling capabilities of the PS3. You can get DVDs for less than half the price of Blu-ray movies, but it is worthwhile.

ReBytes

Blu-ray Movie

DVDs that is shot in real life exhibit some artifacts when upscaled to 1080p so if you can get the Bluray I would suggest that you do. This is the reason why they bring out movies on Blu-ray discs, but what about animated movies? Some of them upscale pretty good like Toy Story and you get limited artifacts. This is because of the nature of the shader algorithms in such movies, so you can get the DVD without worrying too much about artifacts spoiling the movie. With this said one would assume that Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within would also be a good candidate for upscaling. The truth is that it is and it is not.

Closeup shots of persons faces upscale particularly well, so much so that you might think you are looking at a Blu-ray movie. As soon as you get a medium or distance shot some artifacts start to creep in. In some of the scenes it seems like the characters have a ghost image surrounding them which is really annoying. So why is this, cause its also an animated movie using shader algorithms. Animated movies, like Final Fantasy, try to give a photo realistic experience and use very complex shaders and also a variety of shaders in a single frame. This is where the upscaling power of the PS3 ends, so do not overestimate your PS3's power, after all it still is just a bunch of hardware with some awesome software running on it. Therefore if you are thinking about buying Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within go for the Blu-ray, its about double the price, but you will regret it if you don't.

Enough about the technical stuff let's get to the artistic stuff. The Spirits Within is about a scientist, Dr. Aki Ross who is having some recurring dream about an alien invasion and she knows it must be the answer to solve the problem the earth has. Set in 2065 earth is invaded by some "Phantom" invaders and the human population have to burry themselves in different barrier cities around the world to keep the "Phantom" invaders out. Her mentor, Dr. Sid, have some theories of his own about fighting the invaders and this leads Dr. Ross to hunt for 8 different spirits to make a weapon to neutralise the "Phantoms". This is all I am going to say about the

storyline. You will see some amazing render work of characters that makes you wonder if the character is a real human. The animation work is overall superb allowing you to enjoy the movie, well as a movie. Only here and there will you realise again this is an animated film and be blown away again by the realisation that for awhile you actually forgot about it.

Square Pictures really upped their abilities in this movie. Their Advent Children movie was great, but if they remake it with the technology used in The Spirits Within (2001) I will most definitely buy it. All scenes are motion captured by real actors and one of the voice over characters you will definitely recognise. Talking about voice overs, this is done remarkably well. As gamers we always search for those cut-scenes where the lip syncing is 100% accurate but always seem to only get 80% in the games. Dare I say that The Spirits Within got it right 99% of the time. If you are a Final Fantasy fan I don't need to say go buy it. If you are not but enjoy a great romance drama with a victorious but sad ending ... buy it.

Blu-ray Movie

There are some real emotional scenes in the movie and they are all rendered in a way which makes you cry, almost. The emotions really show in the character's body language and eyes, except for one scene where you will say "I know what they tried to covey, but they failed". The main characters are all rendered to almost photo realism except for Captain Gray, who for the most part you will notice is an animated character since his jaw is out of proportion. The Hollywood tricks tell you that lead

male characters needs a strong jawbone, but this one is just a little too strong.

PS3 Releases 5 Jan 2010 Bayonetta Darksiders

Screenshots from BLUR, coming Q1 2010

12 Jan 2010 Army of Two: 40th day Vancouver 2010 22 Jan 2010 Dark Void 26 Jan 2010 MAG 02 Feb 2010 White Knight Chronicles 05 Feb 2010 MX vs ATV Relfex 09 Feb 2010 Bioshock 2 Dante's Inferno 12 Feb 2010 Star Ocean: The Last Hope International 16 Feb 2010 Aliens vs. Predator Dynasty Warriors: Strikeforce 19 Feb 2010 HISTORY: Great battle Medieval 26 Feb 2010 BlazBlue ModNation Racers 02 Mar 2010 Battlefield: Bad Company 05 Mar 2010 Quantum Theory 09 Mar 2010 Final Fantasy XIII 26 Mar 2010 Just Cause 2 Mar 2010 Alpha Protocol Blur Dead Rising 2 God of War III Gran Turismo 5 Greed Corp Heavy Rain MOTOGP 09/10 Prison Break: The Conspiracy Quantum Theory RUSE Sonic & Sega All-stars Racing The release dates are the most accurate which PS3SA could source but might be different from your release region. PS3SA accepts no responsibility for any mistakes or titles/hardware that have not been listed.

PS3 Charts The game sales are taken from 22 November till 19 December. The numbers are sourced from weekly top charts, therefore the numbers may be inaccurate as titles drop off the chart.

Americas December Game Sales Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Assassin's Creed II Madden NFL 10 Uncharted 2: Among Thieves God of War Collection Little Big Planet Ratchet & Clank: A Crack in Time Batman: Arkham Asylum Dragon Age: Origins Tekken 6

751,057 567,354 369,012 327,386 303,119 243,484 190,290 176,000 142,567 142,442

Japan December Game Sales Final Fantasy XIII Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Assassin's Creed II World Soccer Winning Eleven 2010 Dragon Ball: Raging Blast Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare Need for Speed: Shift Bayonetta Tekken 6 Ratchet & Clank Future 2

1,508,558 132,974 77,145 68,211 24,988 16,845 14,740 13,057 12,756 11,541

Other December Game Sales Assassin's Creed II Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare 2 FIFA 10 Need for Speed: Shift Uncharted 2: Among Thieves Tekken 6 Pro Evolution Soccer 2010 EyePet WWE SmackDown vs RAW 2010 Batman: Arkham Asylum

742,859 686,414 481,176 338,595 288,346 273,742 201,251 145,364 135,172 124,335

World December Game Sales Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Final Fantasy XIII Assassin's Creed II Uncharted 2: Among Thieves FIFA Soccer 10 Need for Speed: Shift Tekken 6 Madden NFL 10 Pro Evolution Soccer 2010 Little Big Planet

1,570,445 1,508,558 1,387,358 616,685 607,540 457,098 428,940 382,227 329,178 303,845

The TOP 10 charts look at the total game sales from the release of the game until now.

Americas TOP 10 Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Grand Theft Auto IV Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare Call of Duty: World at War Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots MotorStorm Assassin's Creed Madden NFL 09 Resistance: Fall of Man Madden NFL 10

2,71 mil 2,62 mil 2,45 mil 2,01 mil 1,95 mil 1,53 mil 1,52 mil 1,52 mil 1,43 mil 1,37 mil

Japan TOP 10 Final Fantasy XIII Metal gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots Gran Turismo 5 Prologue Minna no Golf 5 Biohazard 5 Ryu Ga Gatoku 3 Shin Sangoku Musou 5 World Soccer Winning Eleven 2009 Shirokishi Monogatari: Inishie no Kodou World Soccer Winning Eleven 2010

1,51 mil 0,69 mil 0,55 mil 0,52 mil 0,49 mil 0.48 mil 0,41 mil 0,38 mil 0,36 mil 0,36 mil

Other TOP 10 Grand Theft Auto IV Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 FIFA 10 Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare Resistance: Fall of Man Gran Turismo 5 Prologue Assassin's Creed MotorStorm FIFA 09 Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots

3,16 mil 2,44 mil 2,23 mil 2,45 mil 2,07 mil 2,01 mil 1,97 mil 1,90 mil 1,89 mil 1,76 mil

World TOP 10 Grand Theft Auto IV Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare Metal Gear Solid: Guns of the Patriots Call of Duty: World at War Resistance: Fall of Man Assassin's Creed MotorStorm Gran Turismo 5 Prologue Uncharted: Drake's Fortune

6,09 mil 5,28 mil 4,87 mil 4,40 mil 3,74 mil 3,64 mil 3,58 mil 3,51 mil 3,39 mil 2,87 mil

Information sourced from VGChartz. The information is not guaranteed to be correct or accurate. PS3SA suggests that you use it as a guideline.

Next Month's Heads-up

Reviewed

Previews Singularity

Just cause 2 White Night Chronicles Final Fantasy XIII