Liviu's blog

It’s finally out. Perhaps racing game’s most promising title was released today.

Gran Turismo – a symbol of the Sony Playstation consoles, a racing simulator developed by Polyphony (Internal Sony game studio) is now out in the 5th game in the franchise.

Originally announced a full year ahead of the Playstation 3 – this title for me is one of the reasons I bought the Playstation.

Due to the delays and date changes – I decided not to write about it until it’s out and released, and today it happend.

Further more – Today I already got my copy and will be spending more time with it – some further impressions – next week in the upcoming games article.

First impression is very good. The game includes a lot of game modes , 1000 cars and over 70 tracks. It also looks amazing and the driving is very fun. Also there – 16 players online , 2 players local split screen , kart racing , weather , damage model and night time racing.

I hope it holds the same depth previous titles in the franchise were known for.

More details on the ever updating Wikipedia page.

So until next time – Get it!

Liviu

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This month is big on titles that for me mostly are not that interesting, but I’m sure some of you will disagree, so here we go:

Call Of Duty: Black Ops – Nov 9th – PS3 / Xbox / PC

This years iteration of perhaps the biggest FPS game franchise ever.

This time coming from Treyarch is definitely bound to make some noise and sell millions of copies and spawn an online madness.

This time the story is set in the cold war era  as (you guessed it) a Black Ops soldier.

The Sly Collection – Nov 9th – PS3

Sly cooper is returning in an HD remake of the 3 games that were originally released for the PlayStation 2 platform. Sly is a 3rd person view action platformer with stealth elements and a comics / film noir kind of aesthetics. Although it’s not on my radar and didn’t mean a lot to me as a PS2 game – I’m happy to see this kind of things happening so maybe more good games I like would be updated.

Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood – Nov 16th – PS3 / XBOX / PC

A direct sequel to Ezio’s story in the second iteration of the series. This 3rd person action adventure will bring more of  the loved action. This time a big emphasize was put on the multiplayer side with all kinds of new game modes and an expirience system.

NBA Jam – Nov 17th – PS3 / Xbox 360

Another classic franchise returning to the consoles. NBA Jam is perhaps one of the more fun outrageous basketball games and it just got remade. Originally coming out as a full game for the WII and a partial version bundled as a download code in NBA Elite, EA Sports decided to make it available as a full 50 dollars game to both HD consoles. In my opinion this is kind of a steep price point for what should have been a 20$ downloadable game.

Disney’s Epic Mickey – Nov 30th – WII

A Mickey Title? Yup – and a really good looking one.

Seems like our favorite mouse made a huge fuck up causing the world of the things forgotten to become a ravaged wasteland when playing with the world created by the sorcerer Yen Sid. Oswald the lucky rabbit (Mickeys brother and the first on that world) tries to fight the blot Mickey created but fails and his world is turned dark and sinister and he is forced into hiding. Many years later Mickey is pulled into the world of forgotten things and he has to stop the blot, earn Oswalds trust and save the land.

It’s a platformer action adventure game that looks great – If only it would have came to an HD console as it deserves…

Notable mentions:

Splatterhouse – Nov 26th – PS3 / Xbox

A remake of an old Beat Them Up game with the same name – Lots of blood, Jason like protagonist – what can go wrong?

Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom – Nov 23rd – PS3

Third person action adventure game that looks really nice in it’s design and upcoming videos on the PSN network.

Featuring the player accompanied by a huge creature (Majin) as an action platform adventure kind of game.

Although it seems like a lot of titles are coming out this month – I am really disappointed that GT5 was postponed to sometime next month probably, but I’m sure most of you have at least one “Must Buy” title on this list.

Till next month (or untill I remember titles I didn’t include in the list)

P.S.

Found another list on GamesRadar with a bit longer summery of the games this month – Check it out.

Liviu

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War, War never changes…

Well if the sentence above doesn’t remind you of Post apocalyptic RPG games – Shame on you.

Last week – Obsidian (together with Bethesda) released Fallout: New Vegas, not a direct sequel but another game in the Fallout universe after Fallout 3.

2 Years ago when Fallout 3 came out, I was excited and afraid at the same time. A new company got the fallout franchise and after almost 10 years – they are introducing the third chapter to one of the best role playing games ever. Bethesda seemed to succeed in capturing most of the spirit of Fallout – but somehow – it had the Bethesda touch that for whoever played an Elder Scrolls game – will notice easily. The simplistic quest structure, the less humor more serious theme – Something was not there entirely.

Sometime at the end of last year Fallout New Vegas was announced. This time Obsidian (composed of most people who did Fallout 2) was to take Bethesda’s work and perfect it. And back to today – after about 10 hours into the game – I found it again. It’s not perfect – but it’s got the same feel in my opinion. This time it’s much closer to the original titles.

I can’t put my finger on it – but many of the quests and the slight change of design of certain things just makes it feel right – or better said “righter”..

Very fun - Definitely a must title. The main thing I hope they take from Fallout 3 – is the amazing DLC that came following the titles release.

Perhaps I’ll add more impressions later.

And till then – War… War never changes …

Liviu

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2 Very interesting titles are coming out this month (In my opinion – I’ll note a few major ones at the end) and one that is already out.

The first game which is already out is Lara Croft and The Guardian of light. Originally out for the XBOX 360 as a timed exclusive – This is a major revamp of the Tomb Rider Franchise. Instead of a 3rd person view of the previous games – This game is created as an isometric view puzzle and action. Another change is instead of a full disk game – this is a downloadable game that cost only 15$. 15 levels and 2 playing mode – single player and a co-op 2 player are bound to keep you interested for a while.

So far I played the single player campaign and it really worth the price. It’s nice to see the franchise re-imagined.

The second game is a based on one of the best Anime series in my opinion – Naruto and is Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 2 Oct 15th on the Xbox and PS3. This game continues the story of Naruto returning to the leaf village after a long absence. He carries on his quest to return Sauske back to the village and become the next Hokage. This mix of fighting, RPG elements and Anime parts promises to bring to life the Shippuden part of the story . As along time Naruto fan who enjoyed the last game a lot – I am definitely looking forward to this game.

Last on my Must list for this month is Fallout: New Vegas – PC/Xbox/PS3 – Oct 22nd. I’ve been sold on this title since the moment the rumors started coming out. Using Bathesda’s Fallout 3 engine – Obsidian (Same guys responsible for Fallout 2 as Black Isle, Neverwinter Nights 2 and KOTOR 2) are building a new entry in the Fallout Universe. This time starting as a new story – not as a Vault Dweller – You find yourself as a messenger – shot and left for dead at the outskirts of New Vegas – one of the only towns that stayed intact at the Nuclear war.

Few more titles coming out this month (This is a bussy month) are:

• Enslaved – A Third Person story of 2 people in a futuristic world trying to get through NY. Platforming and puzzle based looking – Check out the demo on the PSN.
• Castlevania – The first true HD Castlevania game – Looking a bit GOW like.
• Star Wars: Force Unleashed 2 – At another time of the year – perhaps it would have been one of this month’s must games. What can beat Jedi warriors and Force powers? Well by the previous game in the series – I would have to say – short game.
• WWE 2011 – This years THQ wrestling game. I kind of lost the flare for them. Sure I played all the previous ones and enjoyed it especially when friends come over – but unless it’s going to be a complete revolution – I don’t see myself picking the series up again for a while.

Well that’s It – Great month with Great games.

All I have to say – is save some money for next month when GT5 promises to come to town,

Liviu

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Well, it was bound to happen.

Something really good is actually coming out this month – on September 21st for the PC – Sid Meier’s Civilization V, the 5th PC iteration of this wonderful game.

For whoever doesn’t know what I’m talking about – first of all shame on you.

Now that we established that point … Civilization is a turn based strategy game in which you start your own path in history as an ancient leader raising a civilization from the first step of the first settlement to some kind of victory – Diplomatic , Militaristic or Space conquest. This is done through carfully planning your expension, what to build, what technology to research, who to bond with, which goverment type to choose and many more parameters.

I remember the first time I saw the first civilization game – It was one of the games I played and my dad played as well, and came with it’s own mini encyclopedia with all the tech tree and units info (Yes, I know – very geeky of me ). It was definitely a game that totally changed my view on gaming and on the possibilities with game design.

I’m especially waiting for this iteration, since the last version (Revolutions – both for home consoles and the DS and iPhone) was kind of strategically weak and more of a casual game.

Liviu

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Well, enough with all this Survivor and reality stuff,

This month is going to be one of the more boring months in gaming for a long time.

The highlights are:

Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep – September 7th – PSP: The 6th iteration of the Kingdom hearts franchise is coming to the PSP.

For those of you not familiar with the series - Square Enix together with Disney created an hybrid Action RPG based on Final Fantasy and Disney universe characters. This series first saw light on the PS2 – with an amazing first title, a very slow starting second title and for me – only went south from there.

When factoring the fact its a PSP game as well – which by now is a kind of a barely legitimate gaming platform for me – I guess I’ll pass this one (ad least until Sony will give me a phone with PSP capabilities – that would be cool )

Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light – September 28th – PC & PSN: A lot of Tomb Raider games came and go and since the first one – Most of them have been unremarkable.

While Lara as a character was nice and gave some interesting story parts, the game-play seemed to repeat itself endlessly and the environments - just weren’t good enough and with elaborate enough puzzles. An Uncharted predecessor with same potential of a character and half the success of achieving that level. This Downloadable game however is a major step sideways from the series – giving up on the 3rd person viewpoint towards a top down isometric view and introducing 2 player (online and local) modes – this seems to be hitting the mark. The 360 Version has been out for 2 weeks now getting extremely positive reviews and I’m definitely looking forward to trying it. This time Lara meets an old Mayan warrior named Totec and together they try to get an artifact and fight an evil spirit. Well the story probably wont be Mass effect – but it would do.

Since it’s such a slow month, I decided to bring up 2 games I missed on the launch dates and put my hands on lately:

Darksiders: Out for a few month now – Darksiders tells the tale of War – one of the 4 horsemen of the apocalypse, He is called to duty just to find out he was tricked and be killed. This however does not conclude our story, rather then just begin it. The council ask War to go back and face the Destroyer – both to prove his innocence and restore the balance between heaven and hell. From here on the game begins – In style it moves between God of War (or perhaps Ninja Gaiden?)  to Zelda type puzzles. So far I spent around 12 hours on the game and I highly recommend it. It’s perhaps one of the better Zelda clones of the last few years. Especially at this price point at TheHut.com.

Joe Danger: Released back in June – a PSN game which I think was kind of lost on most people on it’s release. Made by only 4 people – this Excite bikes influenced bike game is tons of fun. The demo (downloadable on the American PSN for 2 weeks or so already) showcases the game better then I can explain – You have to ride through the levels, perform tricks and meet objectives. This is tons of fun and I found myself glued to the game.

Perhaps 15$ is a bit of a steep price point for this – but it’s a must try demo.

One last item on my list today is the Sega version of Shining Force Which hit the iPhone this month.

Shining force is one of the first turn based strategic RPGs, Originally released to the MegaDrive / Genesis platform.

For those of you who love Advance Wars , Final Fantasy Tactics, Disgaea and those kind of tactical RPGs – this is a great chance to see how most of them started. Although a bit primitive by today’s standards – the game still proves to be hell of a lot of fun and gave me a great time this time around as well.

A few words worth mentioning – I’m not currently writing about the current PS3 Jailbreak since I find it kind of pointless to write about something that wasn’t proven or sold yet.

So OK, about 3 videos and a few “Reviews” appeared online (going back to about 2 sources – which sell them), but until more credible news pop up – I wont waste my time on writing about it (learning a bit from past “PS3 is hacked” news).

So let’s wait and see for more news on this end.

Liviu

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A bit late and short entry this month.

Seems like this summer is kind of slow on new games (great time to check out some of the titles you might have missed in my previous article regarding cheap games and places to get them).

Still 2 major titles are due  this month:

Mafia 2 – PC, PS3 ,XBOX – Aug 24: A sequel to Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven is going to be a new Sandbox game.  The first Mafia was kind of a pleasant surprise and gave GTA 3 at the time a good run for it’s money, so this time around I’ll definitely be prepared to take a look at the current evolution of this franchise. Set in the 40s and 50s in fictional version of a big American influenced city (10 Square miles, based on NY, SF, Chicago and Detroit) it will tell the tale of Vito – an immigrant making his life between the big crime families. I’m definitely looking forward to this one – as it seems to have a lot of potential to be a sleeper hit.

Metroid: Other M – WII – Aug 31: Coming from Team Ninja (Ninja Gaiden series and Dead or Alive series creators). Telling another part of the story of Samus (between Super Metroid and Metroid Fusion). This title is suppose to bring up some original control schemes for the classic Metroid abilities (Like for turning into the morph ball and moving between third and first person modes using the wiimote pointing abilities). If your a fan of Meteroid – be sure to check it out.

‘Till Next month,

Liviu

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Well, Lately I’m seeing more and more used games sold for more then they would actually cost new with shipment. And I’m hearing friends buying new games at ridicules prices.

This is for me kind of annoying, So I decided to make a list of all the places to get games from at decent prices in Israel to share the knowledge and experience I gathered in these manners.

This is kind of a work in progress so it might be updated from time to time or maybe even make a followup article.

International Internet Shops:

Shopto.net – UK based Store – has really great game prices and shipment cost is 2.5 GBP. Usually arrives in a week. Each game is separately packaged in a very good method. Currently in my opinion – the best game shop.

TheHut.com – Another great UK based shop. Has great sales and a very wide selection of Blu ray movies.

VideoGamesPlus.ca – Canadian store – Prices are not as good as the previous two stores usually but games are region 1. So if you are looking specifically for an American game – this is the place.

Israeli Internet Stores:

ZolGames.co.il – Mainly deals with older titles but with great prices and good Customer service.

PcGames.co.il – A great store with a very big collection of games. Only choose from what’s in stock. Also has some nice deals on used games from time to time.

Real Stores In Israel:

Freak – Herzlia: Located at Star (Currently Cinematek) Complex in Herzlia City – this is in my opinion the best Israeli games store. Phone – 099589077. Always has the most current games – most of the time at launch date. If you want the games immediately and the best treatment – this is the way to go.

Media Game - Givataim: Another Great store with great games – worth a check. Great place for repairs.

VGS.co.il – Tel Aviv: A good store at the north of Tel Aviv. Brings lots of consoles very fast and have great repair service.

Steam and PSN Cards:

Two more stores that deal with a more specific niche are:

Steam – An online game service for the PC and Mac (Which will in the future go on the PS3 as well). Some pretty good deals for older games and a great online infrastructure.

Maximus Cards – An online shop for all kinds of PSN Codes and Xbox Live Codes. If you don’t have an international credit card to buy stuff from the PSN network (Due to their new checks – almost no cards work anymore) – this is the place to buy American cards. It may not be the cheapest way – But it’s the most reliable (and works with pay-pal) and the fastest (You get the code by mail immediately rather then a bit later or worse – by regular mail).

Well, I think that covers all the basic scenarios.

So before you take your wallet out and pay too much for the games you want – just remember to check this list and see that you are indeed paying a fair price.

Liviu

P.S. This was written in עברית As well and can be found in one of the following 2 places:

http://www.carsforum.co.il/vb/showthread.php?p=2635982#post2635982

http://hwzone.co.il/community/index.php?topic=468744.0

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Since I kind of neglected the blog for a while – decided to do a short post combining all kind of stuff.

Friday Apple decided to address the iPhone 4G reception issue. To those of you not up to date on the issue – basically – due to the exterior antenna design – when you hold the iPhone a certain way – it’s reception drops and it might even disconnect – due to short circuiting between the cellular and Wifi antennas. Steve Jobs talked at a press conference Friday regarding this issue saying they are not perfect and so are their phones. Emphasizing on the fact the return rate is low, the complaints are relatively numbered and it’s not as big of an issue as it is presented to be. Just to be “fair” – Apple decided to give Bumper cases free (and return the money for previously bought ones as far as i understood) – which are practically fixing the problem.

Second story – is Lego Harry Potter. I don’t know how I missed talking about it but don’t miss it. It’s the current Lego universe iteration following the first 4 books of Harry Potter. This is done in a very comic and nicely and originally presented. I got it as a birthday present and it’s definitely a fun one for whoever liked previous Lego games.

Last but not least – Birthdays, Me and my wife recently had our Birthdays – So Happy Birthday to us – and may we have many more – Sivan – I love you.

And my parents celebrated their 29th anniversary (occurs same day as my birthday – only a year before) – So happy anniversary and may you have many more years of love and joy.

Liviu

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Since it’s a rather weak month – I decided to add the PSN+ details in the same post.

So this month two interesting titles are coming to us.

The first one for the PC is Monkey Island 2 Special Edition: Le’chucks Revenge, Released July 7th.

Carrying on the heritage like the last Monkey Island special edition – this is the original game again with some great graphical and sound enhancements. The story continues Guybrush’s tale from the last game – still a pirate, still trying to get the gouverner in perhaps one of the best quest games ever. For me this is very nostalgic since I played MI2 before 1 and it is the game that really got me hooked on quests (yes – I’m a Lucas arts guy – not a Sierra). The port looks really great and is going to be released through Steam for only 10$ – a steal for whoever loved the original as much as I did.

The second title coming out this month is Dragon Quest IX for the DS – on July 11th.

This is the 9th installment of the series (at least with main titles and not derived titles like Joke, Swords etc.) which was Final Fantasy’s biggest rival in japan. A bit of history – Square Enix was created by the merge of 2 companies (3 including Taito) – Square Soft & Enix Soft. Each one of them had a hit RPG series in Japan at the time – Square had Final Fantasy, Enix had Dragon Quest (Or Dragon Warrior in the states up to a point). This is the first major title in the series to be introduced to a handheld console and without random battles. It was already released in Japan last year and was a great success (and even got a 40/40 score from Fumitsu). The last title was for the PS2 – and perhaps one of the better RPGs for that platform so I definitely will be looking forward to it.

Now that were done with the games – Onward to PSN Plus.

Playstation Plus is the new PSN service Playstation introduced at E3 – Subscription based – 50$ a year. Unlike the XBOX Gold Live member – It’s benefits are not in the online infrastructure (which will continue to be free) but rather on the content end.

Each month a user will get the following (First month offering in the brackets):

• 1 PSN Games (Wipeout HD)
• 2 PSN Minis (for PS3 and PSP, I remember Zombie Apocalypse and another one)
• 1 PS1 game (Rally Cross)
• Free avatars (Fat Princess)
• Free Playstation Dynamic themes
• Free DLC
• Full game 60 minutes demo (Infamous – available for 30$)
• Automatic patch and update management.
• Automatic Demo Downloads
• Qore magazine
• Store discounts (there are a couple this month – I remember 50% on Midway titles – Someone said 2.5$ on Mortal Kombat 2?)

And more stuff coming as it progresses.

Also for the first month – If you join you get 3 month free.

For me it sounds like a great deal and I’m happy to get more content (rather then online play options) which is way more important for me.

More updates will come later as I will enroll for it.

Liviu

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