Sonic Riders: Zero Tolerance

Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity - what a crap looking game! I didn't have any idea the original Sonic Riders was popular enough to warrant a sequel. Sega need to get there act together and release a Sonic game worth playing. Since the Dreamcast versions back in the day, there has been fairly little to get people excited about Sonic (and even then, the Dreamcast games were hardly classics).

An appearance with Mario in Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games and an outing in one of the worst Xbox 360 games i've played is not enough to keep the hedgehog running. It looks like he may be dying, ending his life as a cheap novelty character trying to sell a few more units for the company that was once his mortal enemy - you know Nintendo aren't gonna let Sonic get on the same level as Mario, they'll be interested in using him, but not on the same level as there own mascots. Novelty value only i'm afraid Sonic, and boy do Nintendo know how to do novelty.

Sonic Riders is only out on Wii & PS2 - cheap development costs. Sega obviously knew the cost to develop for 360 and PS3 would be too high to have any chance of making their money back. This game deserves nobodies money. Avoid.

Mario Kart & Play.com Live

So Mario Kart Wii won't be supporting online voice chat. Instead, it will sport a rather inferior text chat system. Kinda sucks right? We'll it doesn't stop there. The chat is not a fully working text system, it is instead a system that allows you to select from a number of preset messages and send them to your opponents mid-race. This whole system is pretty much the same one used in Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 ("Winning Eleven” in the US) and it's pretty much pointless in that game. PES 2008 does support voice chat also, however. It's only a small gripe with what will probably be a pretty hot game.

Nintendo are doing OK right now, I see 9 of the top 10 games items on Amazon are Nintendo products. Strong line-up on the way as well, with Mari Kart, Super Smash Bros. and Wii Fit. Not to mention any number of DS games.

Received confirmation that I have a press pass to go to the play.com Live event at Wembley Stadium March 15th & 16th. Looks extremely commercial so I’m not expecting to much in terms of new information or thoughtful insight but, there should opportunity to play some future releases. Soul Calibur 4 is going to be there, as well as Lego Indiana Jones so that'll cool.

So, Lost Odyssey is released tomorrow which I was looking forward to. Since it's release in the states though I’ve heard so many bad things about it, I’m starting to think it might not be so great. Have to rent it first and check it out.

Ported through Portal

Just got The Orange Box! Don't worry though i have played through Portal previous to this - i'm not some kind of heathen. Anyway, so i "ported" my way through Portal last night snapping up the achievements along the way. Such an awesome game, and after the stuff at GDC about it i felt i needed to play through it again with a supposed deeper understanding of the game. I got Orange Box primarily to play through the Half Life 2 games - which i haven't really played much. Currently on Chapter 8 in Half Life 2 and... it's amazing. Each level is absolutely massive and can take well over an hour (sometimes two) to finish, which does somehow add to the involvement but, it can sometimes be overwhelming knowing that any given level will take up such a huge amount of your time.

Retailers in the US have listed that Metal Gear Solid 4 will be available sometime between June 12th and June 17th, depending on which retailer you look up. Look for the PS3/Metal Gear Solid/Dual Shock 3 bundle deals around that time, might be a good time to pick up a PS3 if you don't already have one.

Two new Pokemon games for the DS in April! Don't get too excited though, the games are a follow up to the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon games released on DS and GBA last year. The Mystery Dungeon games allowed you to play as the Pokemon themselves rather than take the role of a Pokemon trainer, the games were rather weak compared to the standard Pokemon games - i'm sure the game will still fly to the top of the chart upon release. The games are Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time, and Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Darkness. Time or darkness, take your pick.

Harrison Hauls Ass

Perhaps Sony's bullish, some might say arrogant, attitude within the games industry that has frustated developers, consumers, publishers and the media alike, may just be starting to rub it's own employees the wrong way. Phil Harrison has resigned from his position as Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide after 15 years on the job, Kazuo Hirai will take over the post.

There was a news story a few days ago, from GDC, that stated Phil was frustated at Sony Japan for being much too slow in recognising the demand for social gaming - an area Nintendo has taken complete control.

"...our Japanese colleagues said that there is no such thing as social gaming in Japan – people do not play games on the same sofa together in each other's homes. It will never happen. And then out comes the Wii."

It's just a bit of a shame as Phil Harrison was always interesting to listen to at Sony's keynotes. He managed to get me slightly excited at Playstation Home, or lack there of.

Maybe he just got bored.

EA Wanna GTA

Electronics Arts have proposed a takeover of, Grand Theft Auto publisher, Take Two. EA are crazy. Not in a bad way, but in an "i love money" sorta way.


Basically all it boils down to, is that EA now want to publish GTA IV themselves. There the big guys and GTA is the big game. It's not such a crazy idea but, it's just come as a bit of a surprise, seeing as the game's release is just around the corner. I think it'll be kinda weird if EA do end up releasing GTA IV, the cover just wouldn't look right with a bunch of EA logos plastered across it. They might even try to add a few last minute real life adverts into the game, a la Burnout Paradise. There's still hope though as Take Two have formally rejected the offer, to which EA announced they have left it open. Check out the whole story here.

Perhaps i'm being a little harsh on EA, they did a good job releasing Orange Box and managed to let the game art own the box cover, rather than themselves.

Been playing alot of Pokemon Link! (Pokemon Trozei in the US) on the Nintendo DS recently. Finally managed to beat the final boss, who looks like a little kid buzzing on some class A's. It was satisfying. Haven't been playing a huge amount of 360 since getting Devil May Cry 4. I got a few achievements on Forza 2 and Undertow, haven't touched DMC4 in a few days. Came to the realisation that i don't look Ace Combat 6 so much. The graphics and flying are cool, the missions however, are just so boring. Also it can be hard to find anyone to play with online at times which sucks, coz the online is actually really good.

Thinking it might be time to get a PS3. Metal Gear and Metal Gear Online, Gran Turismo, Final Fantasy - the game's are finally starting to arrive. Hello Playstation 3.

Clowns, Capes and Customisations

The Game Developers Conference comes to an end today, it sounded like an amazing show, i wish i had been there. From reading around a few blogs, the Will Wright talk seems like it was a big highlight.

The Logitech GT 5 racing wheel looked awesome. Developed as a joint venture between Logitech and Polyphony Digital. The red dial near the centre of the wheel allows you to change the set-up of your car as your racing around the track. So, for example, you could take off traction control when you want that quick burst of acceleration and flip it back on again for the tight corners. As a fan of Gran Turismo and it's in-depth car set-up options, the wheel seems as though it'll be a perfect fit. Changing your settings on the fly is genius, looks like it'll take a bit of getting used to but after a couple of hours I'm sure it'll be second nature, hopefully.




Lego Batman? Couldn't get enough of Lego Star Wars but is this gonna be different enough to warrant playing it? Probably not, but I'll play it anyway! The Joker and gadgets will maybe make it worth it.

I'd advise anyone who hasn't already to download the XNA application from Xbox Live and check out the games there. "The Dishwasher" in particular is probably gonna stay in my mind for a while. For some reason i can't get "Culture" to load on my 360 which sucks.

On a side note i got an figure of the clown boss from Akira for 0.06p! Bargain!

GDC 101

GDC seems to have some really awesome games this year. Capcom are looking strong, with Street Fighter 4, Bionic Commando & Bionic Commando: Rearmed all looking very, very promising. SF4 looks like the 3D version i have been looking for - the visual joy of 3D with the gaming nirvana that is 2D-fighter mechanics. Bionic Commando looks extremely impressive visually, and the environments they showed were far more varied than have been seen in last few months.

Hopefully SNK will announce a release date Metal Slug on the DS soon! Big Metal Slug fan right here! Now i just want Capcom vs SNK 2 on Xbox Originals, or Marvel vs Capcom but i'm a Capcom vs SNK guy. Release it already!

Also, i'm really bummed about Lost Odyssey being released over two weeks earlier in the USA than here in the UK. I'm seeing people on my friends list playing it, and to be honest, i'm kinda jealous! Still a week to go!

Clear For Take Off

Welcome to the EWM blog! I woke up in a cold sweat last night and realised that i didn't have my own blog... i mean, everybodies got a blog right? Maybe not everybody but a whole lot of people do seem to, so i'm kinda joining the ride a little late. Don't worry though i'm aiming to make up for lost time.

In the world of videogames i'm currently working my way through Devil May Cry 4, i've done a couple of Dante's missions so i'm a little over half way i guess. The game is totally awesome, it's alot better than i expected it to be, and it's such a relief that the difficulty rating has been taken down ten or eleven pegs since DMC3. You can now just happily hack and slash your way the game, either at random, or using your finest combo's to dispense of the bad guys. This is to its benefit, i believe, as it allows hardened players to express themselves in the game but doesn't alienate new players, in the way that DMC3 perhaps did.

Bought a copy but Megaman Star Force: Leo a day or two ago, on the DS, to be more precise i got Ryuusei no Rockman: Leo - the Japanese the version of the game. I knew it was all gonna be in Japanese when i bought it and being an RPG i expected there to be alot of text. Still, i thought i could handle it, just go on to gamefaqs and check out a walkthrough for game right? Wrong. The walkthrough was there, and it was very helpful, i think i sorta understood what was going on for a while but, the langauge barrier is just inpenetrable. We'll see how it goes but i doubt i will finish it any time soon. Might have to get the english language version instead, as the game does look interesting and the battle system is pretty neat.

OK, lets save the game and go to bed... erm... hold on a minute...?

Microsofts GDC keynote was interesting yesterday, the whole XNA Community "games democracy" thing sounds interesting and if people take to it like Microsoft is hoping then it would be really cool, have to wait and see if people really latch on. Also, can't wait for Ninja Gaiden 2! Check out the keynote address here.

One last interesting thing of note. Did you know the words videogame and console can be put together to form the word "vidcon" a simple expression for describing a videogame played on a console. It should never be expressed as "vid con", it doesn't make sense apparently. Thank you to makers of Charles Barkley: Shut Up and Jam: Gaiden for that videogame language lesson. Shut Up and Jam: Gaiden is actually a very funny game, check it out here. It's free!

A Beginning

First post...