EG wrote:
Do you like single-player campaigns? I like single-player campaigns, and on the evidence of Resistance 3, Insomniac Games likes single-player campaigns. At a time when more and more shooters are seeing their story modes shrink in size and importance, used only to introduce the assets you’ll be seeing online, the robust solo portion of Resistance 3 is a welcome return to the days when the campaign mode was the main course, not the appetiser.

It also feels very different to the previous games in the series, perversely ditching the aggressive militarism which is now so in vogue in FPS circles in favour of a more sombre tale. This is no longer a war game. The alien invasion that raged through the first two games (and one PSP spin-off) is all but over. Less than ten per cent of humanity remains alive and in hiding, and the Chimera are ruthlessly scouring the globe, exterminating survivors.

In the midst of this grim scenario we find Joe Capelli, a soldier dishonourably discharged after spoilery events at the end of Resistance 2. When we meet him, he’s living in a makeshift refugee camp in Oklahoma with his wife and four-year-old son. When the Chimera arrive, his family flees into the wasteland, leaving Joe to cling to one last hope: that the fact the Chimera are channelling huge amounts of energy to New York means there’s something important there that can end their brutal occupation.

Structurally, it’s like a post-apocalyptic road movie. This gives the game the freedom to introduce (and discard) new locations and new groups of characters as Joe makes his way towards the East Coast. Like the Littlest Hobo with firearms, he stumbles into various human enclaves, helps them with their problems and is pushed a few hundred miles closer to his goal by their gratitude.

Even in levels filled with explosions and firefights, the melancholy mood remains. There’s a general sense of hopelessness to the story that sets it apart from the chest-beating that typifies a blockbuster shooter. Joe is a doubting, desperate man. The people he meets are clearly doomed, if not during his encounter, then surely some time after he leaves.

In most levels, the genre beats skew closer to horror than to the expected sci-fi or action. Lots of games make use of the imagery of desolate Americana, but Resistance 3 never makes its setting self-consciously cool. A sequence in which you take a slow boat ride through a flooded town is downright eerie, with obvious (and presumably deliberate) echoes of post-Katrina New Orleans. This is a game that knows that quiet can be just as effective as sound and fury.

But for all its downbeat strokes, Resistance 3 is very much a shooter – and as with its predecessors, its weaponry defines it. Once again swimming against the tide of FPS design, the two-gun limit popularised by Halo has been cast aside in favour of a persistent 12-weapon selection which gradually fills out over the course of the story.

Old favourites like the Auger, Bullseye and high-explosive Magnum return; combined with dependable genre staples like a rocket launcher, sniper rifle and shotgun, they provide a flexible arsenal that serves multiple play styles. Added to these are outlandish newcomers such as the Mutator, which fires sticky gobs of mutagenic slime that transforms enemies into pustulent, exploding meatbags, a freeze-ray Cryogun, and the Atomizer, which disintegrates enemies up close.

Secondary fire is one area where Insomniac has set Resistance apart, and that trend continues here. The Mutator can lob gas canisters that leave anyone caught in their range vomiting themselves to death. The Atomizer deploys an energy vortex that ensnares all nearby enemies and churns them into quantum mincemeat. The Cryogun has a recharging pulsewave that shatters frozen enemies.

All are huge fun to play around with, and their usefulness is now augmented by a simple levelling system. The more you use a particular weapon, the stronger it becomes. Every weapon has a further two enhancements that can be unlocked in this fashion, a welcome twist that expands your combat options yet further. We’ve become so accustomed to the claustrophobic, prescriptive nature of shooters that returning to a game that lets you pile your plate from a whole buffet table of carnage is liberating.

With recharging shields excised in favour of finite health and sporadic medpacks, that flexibility is constantly put to the test. Time and again you’ll find situations where progress comes from quick thinking and experimentation rather than bull-headed persistence.

This campaign feels designed to win over players weaned on the great story-led shooters of the 1990s, with open-ended encounters in well designed environments where player choice wins the day rather than rollercoaster funnelling. The AI isn’t spectacular, but it’s good enough that a change of weapon or a different strategy can radically alter the flow of a battle.

It’s just a shame that a studio that has proved so canny and imaginative in some areas remains so tethered to the obvious in others. The FPS is crying out for innovation and Insomniac is clearly a developer with the right combination of craft and creativity – so the presence of some hoary old clichés dampens the mood considerably.

How to explain the boss battles against giant creatures with weak spots that are conveniently exposed and glow for good measure? (Note to game developers: evolution doesn’t work like that.) How to justify the use of journals and audiologs as collectable trinkets, a once-clever narrative idea now struggling to be more than background noise? It’s not Insomniac’s fault that these clichés endure, or that they’ve long lost their purpose – but it is a shame to see them so readily deployed.

Strangely, the very things that make Resistance 3′s solo campaign fly make its multiplayer games difficult to warm to. It’s hard to comment on the long-term appeal of the game, given that multiplayer servers have only just been made available at time of writing, but first impressions are both promising and slightly frustrating.

With such an outlandish arsenal, finding the right balance was always going to be tough, and so it proves as new players are thrown into the fray with the bare essentials to be torn to shreds by players of a higher level who have a more robust toy box – including auxiliary abilities unique to online play such as holographic decoys, lightning shields and cloaking devices. Inevitably, starting out with one grenade and a carbine against players who can shoot through walls, round corners and turn invisible means that the climb to level 10 – at which point the playing field becomes much more even – can be a tough and not always enjoyable one.

That’s a pity, as there’s much to admire in the structure of the multiplayer, with 55 competitive medals over and above the Trophies, plus 47 ribbons for in-match feats. In terms of game types there’s nothing here that will surprise, but the same weapon levelling from the solo mode recurs and recharging health is reintroduced online, where it makes a little more sense. It’s a solid package; providing the rather crude matchmaking system keeps the lions away from the lambs, it should offer something for everyone.

It’s the maps which maketh the game in multiplayer shooters, and Insomniac’s work here rivals masters of the form like DICE. Most of the 12 maps are drawn from campaign locations but there are also surprises hinting at the global battle which provides the game’s backdrop, with maps set in Colombia, Chad, Australia and even Wales. They’re all fine examples of multiplayer design, juggling interiors and exteriors, cover points and open ground, vantage points and rat runs. Regardless of the game mode, it’s a pleasure to explore them.

There’s also two-player co-op, now applied to the campaign rather than boxed off into its own procedurally generated mini-stories, as in Resistance 2. It is, as always, a welcome addition, especially as it’s available in local split-screen. Online, it’s restricted to your friends, which feels limiting, but at least it’s there.

Resistance 3 gets almost everything right, yet never quite ascends to greatness. Both single- and multiplayer urges are given equal attention, and all the boxes you’d expect a modern FPS to tick are dutifully filled in.

That sense of obligation is, perhaps, the problem. First-person shooter design has reached an evolutionary ceiling and desperately needs some mutant DNA to push it onwards and upwards. Resistance 3 could have provided that genetic jolt; but Insomniac has chosen to look back to how we used to play rather than grapple with how we could play in the future. As understandable as it is, that cautious approach results in a game that is extremely enjoyable, but never as imaginative as you want it to be.

8/10

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playstationlifestyle.net wrote:

Sound design has become increasingly important in this generation of video games. Music and sound effects can help you to get totally engrossed in gameplay, but this can’t happen unless you have the proper setup. TV speakers just don’t cut it, and pricey surround sound systems consist of multiple components, each costing a small fortune. Many gamers just don’t have the budget for it, or the space, which makes wireless stereo headsets like Sony’s new official PS3 wireless stereo headset all the more appealing.

Priced at only $99.99, the official PlayStation 3 wireless stereo headset is the ideal solution for gamers on a budget looking for high-quality audio. Despite the affordable price tag, the build quality and audio fidelity is top notch. Sound is crisp, clear, and detailed. Don’t expect booming sub-woofer quality bass–you wouldn’t want it that close to your eardrums anyway–but there’s ample bass to give explosions plenty of boom.

These headphones feature 7.1 “virtual” surround sound. Having full surround sound is not only the best way to enjoy the sound in your games, but it can also give you an advantage. You can clearly distinguish an enemy’s footsteps creeping behind you, even if there is plenty of action going on ahead of you. Never let anyone sneak up on you again.

Normally, if you have a pair of headphones on, you can’t use a headset mic to chat. The official PS3 wireless stereo headset does both. On top of featuring stunning audio, you can also use it for voice chat in online multiplayer games. The voice chat quality is just as good as the audio quality, and that’s saying a lot. Along with a master volume control, there’s also a separate control that lets you toggle the voice to audio ratio. Maybe you want the in-game music loud, but you want to turn down the screaming punk in your squad – there’s an easy to reach slider for that.

Both volume controls are on the front and back of the left side of the headband. Turning on and off the device, as well as muting it, is as simple as pressing in the side of the headphone housing. The design is very minimalistic, which makes for a very sharp-looking pair of headphones, while still retaining all of the functionality you could want. The mic is retractable, so it’s not hanging in your face until you need it. Even with it fully extended, it’s more at the side of your face rather than covering your mouth.

Best of all, these last about 7 hours on a single charge, keeping you in the action longer. When the power does begin to fade, they give you ample warning by showing a notification on-screen via the PS3. Simply plug in the same USB cable you use to charge your controllers (note: it doesn’t come with a USB cable) and within a couple of hours you’ll surrounded in high-quality audio.

These headphones are comfortable, too. The length adjusts to fit any size head, no matter how large your noggin is. The cushions are soft, and completely cover your ears for a solid, sturdy feel. This isn’t a flimsy piece of equipment and it screams of Sony’s signature sophistication and sleek design.

As good as this headset is, it’s not perfect. I wish these came with an AC adapter or a charger dock, but that’s only because I’d like to be able to charge them while my PS3 is off. Also, it’s not bluetooth, so you can’t just pair it with your PS3. Instead you must use a USB dongle to connect the device via 2.4GHz RF band. Newer PS3 models come equipped with only 2 USB ports, so needing one occupied to use this headphones is limiting. The headset does work with PCs and other devices, but the manual does state that it’s not guaranteed to work with all PCs. The virtual surround sound only works with the PS3, so it’s value is restricted. And although these headphones do indeed work with Blu-ray movies, the virtual surround sound does not.

Maybe you’re like me – you refuse to play games unless you can fully enjoy the sound. I have a top-quality surround sound set up; receiver, sub-woofer and all. But often at night, I can’t use it, my family is sleeping and I’d rather not play at all than play without the sound. With the PS3 wireless stereo headset, I can enjoy full-quality sound without sacrifice. But even if you don’t have the same issues I have, these are still worth a look. For $99.99, the build-quality and audio fidelity cannot be beat. If you want a headset that can be used on a number of devices for a number of applications, this may not be your best bet. But if you’re looking for a way to get the best audio experience out of your PS3 without bothering others or spending a lot of money on home audio components, I recommend these with the utmost confidence. These headphones rock.

Source

Source: http://uk.ps3.ign.com/articles/119/1192319p1.html

Dead Island is Fallout 3 with zombies. Plenty of people are going to compare it to Dead Rising (as you can create weapons) and Left 4 Dead (as the action is first-person and good for four players online), but when I finally got past the game’s obtuse opening and less than stellar cutscenes, I found a world rife with quests, interesting environments, and a character progression system that had me begging for more hours in the day. In short, Dead Island’s a rough around the edges role-playing game, and I dug it.

On a small island off the coast of Papua New Guinea, the dead walk. The story didn’t set my hair on fire, but everything else makes up for it. When you sit down to play, you’ll choose one of four characters and for the next 20 to 30-some hours roam massive maps, take on interesting side quests, and chop the heads off hundreds of ghouls.

But Dead Island doesn’t succeed because of its gore (though I liked the dismemberment). Dead Island’s strength is in the world it creates. I crept into and through each environment I came to, from beaches to sewers to jail cells. I listened for the screams of the infected or the roar of a damage sponge known as a "Thug." From that perspective, I was on the island; not my character. In the beginning, I’d slaughter every zombie I saw, but by the time I got to the city and found tight alleyways overrun with monsters, I began to just run from objective to objective. No longer was I playing a game — I was focusing on survival as if I were the one running from Point A to Point B.

Objectively speaking — like, right now from my keyboard and not playing the actual game — that’s a stupid thing to say. Dead Island doesn’t really punish you for dying. If you croak, you wait five seconds and respawn with less money. Any damage you inflicted before heading to the great beyond remains. But I say that using hindsight. When I sprinted away from a zombie and heard its growls directly behind me, my heart pounded in my chest. I didn’t think "Oh, I’ll just let him get me and restart back there."

You rarely feel safe in Dead Island, and that’s how a zombie game should be. You have a limited stamina bar, so you can’t run or swing your weapon forever. Med kits were few and far between in my experience, so scavenging for energy drinks and fruit — which have to be used at that moment and can’t be stored — became part of the experience. Weapons degrade as you use them, so finding a "legendary" weapon was exciting, but not as exciting as finding a workbench to keep weapons in tip-top shape.

Dead Island made me my character. I chose the weapons, the enemies to attack, and the side quests to take. When I leveled up, I chose in which skill tree to invest my new point in — so even if you joined my game as the same knives expert I play as, we wouldn’t necessarily have the same abilities.

Thankfully, joining games is easy. When you’re playing, a pop-up message will notify you if a player is close to you and joinable. If I see you sign on, I can invite you in. Of course, experience levels play into this. Players can only join the games of people who are equal or lesser levels. I can’t be level 31 and about to win the game and have a level 1 player join me. It might sound depressing, but there are tons of character slots, so having a character for different sessions shouldn’t be too tough. Plus, you can always switch your game to single-player if you just want to be left alone. Sadly, there is no local co-op.

Is Dead Island perfect? No. Far from it. As much as I lauded it, Dead Island is rough around the edges and that’s sure to turn a lot of people off. First-person melee combat doesn’t feel natural right away. Sometimes textures take their time loading in, I’d describe every cutscene as "stiff," and the visual flaws like hands going through doors and weird mini-game meters made me laugh. Still, presentation doesn’t make a game, experiences do. And they are packed into Dead Island.

Dead Island probably won’t win any game of the year awards. It’s got visual bugs, the controls take a bit to feel normal, and the presentation in general isn’t up to snuff. But the game gets a lot right. There is a huge world to explore, thousands of zombies to kill, and tons of side quests to take. Here on the other side of a 25-hour playthrough — where I skipped a lot of side quests after Act 1 — I’m anxious to get back into Dead Island, and despite the game’s flaws, that’s not something I say often.

7.0Presentation
The story is a bit flat. It’s easy enough to upgrade your weapons and such, but there’s no flair to the menus.
7.0Graphics
Environments and zombies look good, but clipping and texture loading are issues. Cutscenes are stiff.
8.0Sound
Every time I came to a new area, I’d listen for zombie action. I don’t think I’ll forget the cries of a zombie chasing me anytime soon. Sound cuts out every so often on PS3.
8.0Gameplay
There are tons of quests to take, you build out your version of the character, and weapon mods keep combat interesting. The melee fighting is fun but takes getting used to.
8.5Lasting Appeal
If you can get over the game’s stumbles and appreciate what it does right, you have a long campaign with online options to try out.
8.0
OVERALL
Great

GIN wrote:

Having played the original two Deus Ex games, I kind of knew what to expect from Deus Ex: Human Revolution. Then again, I really had no idea what I was getting into. The game pays homage in a lot of ways to the originals, but creates a world and a gaming style that is uniquely its own. I’ve already had many sleepless nights exploring the countless back alleys, rooftops, air ducts, sewers, apartment buildings, offices and shops the game offers, and that’s just when I’m fooling around ignoring the main quests.

The game is set in 2027, which is 25 years before the original title. Humanity is just beginning to experiment with augmentations, with some people embracing them to the point of amputating perfectly good arms and legs to replace with prosthetics, and some people fighting this new science with an almost religious fury. Those of us who have played the other games know that the augmentation sciences win out, but in 2027, the future is pretty murky.

You play an ex-cop named Adam Jensen. Over time we learn that Jensen was a good cop and a member of the SWAT team, but got kicked off the force because of an incident where an unarmed teen was killed. Jensen finds work with Sarif Industries, a Detroit based technology firm. Detroit is a slum, but David Sarif, your boss, is trying to revitalize it with his biotechnology manufacturing. And you ex-girlfriend, who we find out helped get you the job, may have found the way to make Sarif a success. Until now, everyone with an augmentation had to take an expensive drug for the rest of their lives to avoid rejection. But your girl has found a way for augmentations to function without the host body rejecting them. But before she can present her findings to congress, the lab at Serif is attacked, the work destroyed and many scientists including your girl are killed. In fact, Jensen is nearly slain himself and left for dead.

However, Sarif does not let you die. He replaces your broken parts with augmentations. It’s kind of cool that you don’t actually choose to become augmented. That way you can technically remain neutral in the whole "should humans augment" debate. That said, leveling in the game involves improving your augmentations to be more effective in your chosen disciplines, be that stealth, social interaction, hacking or combat. So on some level, you kind of have to embrace your new powers.

There is so much about this impressive game I want to talk about, but I have to start with the atmosphere. Wow. This game looks absolutely amazing. The world has a style all its own, and a feel as well. The first city you get to explore is Detroit, and it’s kind of run down and, well, it looks like hell. But it’s a realistic-looking hell, a dirty urban landscape where the poor scavenge for food in garbage cans beside fashionable clothing stores catering to the insanely rich. Your apartment is in Detroit, and believe me, the first time your security shutters slowly open automatically and your computer welcomes you home as the cityscape edges into view, you are going to be hooked.

But Detroit is small potatoes compared to the second city you visit, in China. A city built on pillars miles above a second city, this is the full-on Blade Runner experience. Here those with money live in luxury in the upper city while the have-nots live below. However, the below city is also the home to many night clubs, brothels and somewhat descent apartments, and I found that I really loved it here. A lot of the characters even speak Mandarin, but your augmentations let you translate what they say into English, which is a really cool touch. I loved exploring the rooftops and sewers of the lower city, which are home to many side quests if you look around and take the time to find them.

It’s not just the overall panoramic views that are impressive, but the small graphical details as well. The artists have gone out of their way to really immerse you in the game world. Inside, pay attention to the small stuff. The bric-a-brac on someone’s desk may give you a clue as to if they are actually good or evil, or if they have your best interest at heart. These are very easy to miss, but it’s amazing that such minuscule details are included in the overall graphics package. Outside, missing person’s fliers may factor into some of your quests. The graffiti on the wall may not just be for looks and the way a pedestrian shifts nervously may indicate that more is going on in that little corner of the dark city than meets the eye.

Gameplay itself consists of the main quest to find out who is attacking Serif, but you could very easily spend much more time doing side quests. Side quests won’t pop out at you like in most games. You have to dig to find a lot of them, which is fine for a completion-nut like myself. For example, when you first get to China, there is a prostitute that needs your help, but to find her, you have to listen to people taking nearby and decide to follow up on their conversation and explore a certain place. If you dismiss people as simple background NPCs, you are going to be missing out on a lot of content. That means you may not earn valuable experience, and then not have some of the advancements needed to tackle the main quest. So explore the world. Not only is it fun, but you will be rewarded. Easter eggs are plentiful here. Go and find them.

In terms of the missions themselves, there are almost always many different ways to accomplish your goals. Most of the methods break down into four categories: combat, stealth, social and hacking.

Combat is pretty self-explanatory. This is for those who like to go in guns-blazing. For them, there are augmentations like dermal plating armor, recoil compensators and even a missile system that shreds everyone in all directions when it launches from within your own body. Even for those who like the action hot and heavy, combat in Deus Ex is more strategic than most shooters. You need to take cover, plant traps and prioritize enemies, or death will come pretty quickly. There are even upgrades for your weapons that give you crazy abilities, like curving bullets around corners to kill targets hiding in cover. So trick out your body and your gear.

Stealth is the way I built out my Jensen. Augmentations for this type of character include the ability to see through walls, suppress sound and even turn invisible for a time. Weapons of the silent variety abound in the game, from the tranquilizer rifle to the silenced 10 millimeter pistol to the crossbow.

Those who enjoy social interaction can often talk their way past guards, or effortlessly move in and out of trouble with a silver tongue. The social enhancement modification is my favorite power in the entire game. It was the first one I bought and I would highly recommend it for RPGers. It reads people’s body language, heart beat, perspiration and pupil dilation as well as how they dress and uses that data to generate a psych profile on the fly about them. As you continue to chat, your social enhancement augmentation will continue monitoring the other person and will feed you clues as to if you are influencing them or if they are probably telling you a lie. You can even spray a pheromone into the air that will make them like you, but you have to choose the right one to match their personality. An alpha type of person will be turned off if you try to cover them in beta pheromones. Anyway, I loved manipulating people to get what I wanted, and have not really seen this type of social interface in any game before now.

The final pillar of gameplay is hacking, and in a technological society, knowing how to hack computers will let you do everything from open doors to disarm security systems to read interesting e-mails (which could lead to side quests or may simply add more character to an already colorful world). Hacking is done as a mini-game where you try to capture modes before a trace program is able to find and kick you out of a system. Advanced hacking augmentations let your fortify nodes you’ve captured against the trace program, or even make it so it’s pretty unlikely the security will trip at all. The best hackers can tear through systems and nobody even knows they are there.

There are also augmentations that work well for anyone. Case in point: one of the best gaming moments I had with Deus Ex so far happened when a bunch of heavily armed guards spotted me on a rooftop where I should not have been. I was trapped and way outgunned. So I ran to the side of the building and jumped off the roof. Suddenly I was in slow motion, bullets flying past me. My slow-fall augmentation kicked in, bathing me in a yellowish glow as machines implanted in my back sent out gravity waves that cushioned my fall. I landed gracefully on the ground, trench coat flapping in the wind, looked back briefly at my dumbfounded pursuers, and disappeared into the nighttime crowd. That’s a movie moment if I’ve ever seen one.

The one gameplay complaint I have is somewhat minor, but involves the fact that boss battles were added into the game. Worse yet, these are often setup where you have no choice but to fight the boss in an arena-style setting. You are moving along sneaking just fine and suddenly a cut-scene will pop up where something happens that is out of your control to put you into the fight. Given that I have a stealth/social/hacker type of build, going toe to toe with a tank-like boss is not what I consider a good time, especially when I am forced into it. The game gives a myriad of choices otherwise, and adding in trite boss battles is disappointing. Thankfully, there are very few of these types of battles, and there are often tricks to help you get past them, like exploding barrels. Certain grenades can also help to alleviate this mildly frustrating situation.

Speaking of frustration, it’s worth noting that I can see Deus Ex: Human Revolution as a challenge for a lot of gamers. This is not Gears of War. If you are looking for a shooter, this is not for you. This is more the type of game where you explore the world for a few hours, find secrets and e-mails and various plots and codes, and then, armed with that information, go into a mission. Some of the main quest missions are very difficult, trying to figure out how peel off one guard from a cluster of several without alerting anyone. In a lot of ways, it reminds me of a Splinter Cell title in those moments, where you have to watch the guards walk and find a hole in their coverage. Thankfully, there is almost always a hidden vent behind a box or a rafter overhead or some way to avoid the difficult situation, but that does not mean you can easily find it. I often beat my head against a wall and finally cleared a room, only to discover a hidden path I could have taken after the fact. Personally, I love the challenge. It makes the game seem realistic. But it’s worth mentioning that this is harder than most titles, so everyone knows what they are getting into.

In the end, Deus Ex: Human Revolution provides one heck of an impressive single player game. I’ve not had so much fun immersing myself in such a beautifully detailed, intelligent, living world for a very long time. In fact, this has got my vote right now for Game of the Year. If you like gritty, intelligent, sci-fi gaming, then you can’t go wrong by joining this revolution.

NOTE: This game was reviewed on: PlayStation 3

5/5

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