Tuesday, April 29, 2008

New Prince of Persia site

By now you should know that Ubisoft released the news that a new Prince of Persia game is in the works. If not, I don't know why you have chosen to live under a rock. I personally loved the Sands of Time Trilogy and had PoP3 easily make it to my top PS2 games. So I am quite looking forward to this.

Today they made the official homepage of the new game, along with that came the new logo for the series. As you can see above.

The last thing that should be noted was that there is a feature on the main page where you can register your Ubisoft.com account so that you will add this game's info/news to your mailing list. This basically means that you will get news about this emailed to you. Also, registering yourself allows you to be able to get linked to have Prince of Persia widgets for your personalised google sites or facebook. Yay? I encourage you all to register your accounts (for the emails), or if you don't wish to, your in luck. I just signed my account up a few minutes ago and when I get new info on the game, I will be sure to share it with you all.

Darkrai Update!

It has just been officically confirmed that Canada is getting the shaft from Nintendo. Pokemon.com's Mailbag said that it will only be United States Toys R Us' that will be getting the Darkrai event. The specific question confirming all this was:
"Will the Darkrai giveaway even be held at any Canadian Toys "R" Us locations, or is it strictly U.S.A.?
The Darkrai distribution on May 31st and June 1st will only take place at Toys "R" Us stores in the U.S."
Well that really sucks for me, I was quite looking forward to being able to go down and check out one of these events. If any American readers are heading to this, let us know.

Sunday, April 27, 2008

Darkrai Encounter

I've been in such a Pokemon mood this weekend, actually I've been in quite a DS mood lately. I've realized how many great games it has compared to the other systems I have. It is defiantly one of my all time favorite gaming platforms. Like I said though, I've been really wanting to play my Pokemon Diamond recently.

My Empoleon is all the way up to level 99 now, so I'll be getting it to 100 very soon. It's been a while since I've gotten a pokemon to 100. The last time I did was probably before Ruby came out. I also finally figured out how to get to route 224, so there were finally some new trainers and stuff for me to do, which was good.Anyways, while being in this pokemon mood I came accross some interesting info.

So for those of you still enjoy your copies of Pokemon Diamond and/or Pearl, this post is for you.

The legendary pokemon Darkrai will be available to you in about a month. On May 31st and June 1st from noon to 4pm you will be able to go to Toys R Us' and download him to your game file. It hasnt been confirmed yet that it will be anywhere outside of the states. Though I'm highly doubt that us up here in Canada will be able to get it. I will though go down to my local TRU and take a look on the 31st. If it's there, yay me and I'll make a post here about how it went, I'll try and take some pictures of how things are. If not, then that will really suck.

For those of you who need proof, check out the Pokemon.com page.

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

The Nintendo Channel

A new Wii channel will be launching next month for everyone here stateside. The channel is called the Nintendo channel (creative). It was released last November in Japan and we will finally be getting it sometime next month.

Like the other Nintendo channels, it will be up for free download on the Wii Shop channel. This new channel will allow you to download DS demos wirelessly, the demos will stay on your DS until you turn the hand held off. It will also have videos and news about upcoming things and whats going on with Nintendo. For example, one of the videos on the Japanese channel now is of Shigeru Miyamoto talking about their new exercise game: Wii Fit. Or it will list upcoming games coming to the Wii and DS which you'll be able to sort by release date, publisher, genre and so on.

The channel will work with the new WiiWare service also releasing next month. When you download one of the new WiiWare games, after a certain time, you will be able to post a review of it on the channel.

Expect a review of the channel soon after it is released.

Thursday, April 17, 2008

It Speaks


So I finally decided that I would try out this 360voice.com thing that's been on the web for quite a while now. I choose to bring it up now, because like I said, I just set up an account. This wont be so much as a review of the service, and more of just my general take on it.

For you who don't know 360voice is a website that let's you "give your 360 it's own blog." This basically means that each day there will be a small post on your account's site about what you did the say before (strangely titled with the current day though). It will talk about thing like what games you played, how long you played or the achievements you gained while playing. It also has several add on services and goodies that you can get/partake in.

With the introduction now past, I'll get into what I like about it, and what I don't.

Positive Points:
  • Keeps track of your top 10 most played games.
  • Tells me how many achievements I just got and how many that adds to my total. Also tells me what I had and now have after that play session.
  • You can earn special 'badges' by completing specific things such as "Play for 10 days in a row."
  • They seem to enjoy having a lot of competitions to see who can earn the most points in a certain time, they also let you host your own competitions.
  • My 360's personality.
Negative Points:
  • It tells you what you did the day before, be titles the post as today's date making it seem like I did all that stuff today instead of yesterday.
  • If you make an account after you have played a game and gotten achievements in it, then load that game up, the site will announce that you got all those achievements at once. So let's say you gained 8 achievements in a game, then made your 360voice account, then put in that game. The site will say that you gained those 8 achievements today. Also, it doesn't say how many points this got you, it makes it seem like they were worth nothing.
  • For the top 10 games, it's the top 10 since you made your account. Which I really don't like since I'm sure Rock Band is one of my highest (especially since going through the endless setlist) and yet I have Turok as number one since that's all I've played since making my account on the weekend.
  • My 360's personality
So this site seems pretty cool, but the big thing you'll want to do it seems is make your account right when you get your 360, it's a little annoying having this after I've had my 360 for a few months but I'm sure some of the registering problems (ex: top 10 problem) will eventually smooth itself out after a while of playing more games. This service is free and I recommend making an account because it's always a cool thing see what your 360 has said about you.

Hey I got a PS3

The first question that will most likely be asked is why would I choose to review the PS3 now? The answer is that the PS3 seems to finally be picking up steam having started to beat the Xbox 360 in sales as well as some great games coming out soon (some examples include Metal Gear Solid 4 and Killzone 2). So with this knowledge of future potential and the reluctance of knowing that eventually I would have to buy a PS3 anyways I went to the local store and succumbed to the pressure of the PS3 along with the games "Uncharted: Drake's Fortune" and "Resistance: Fall of Man". I had to pick up the 40GB PS3 as the 80GB's are being phased out in place of the MGS4 PS3 coming out in later June along with the game so expect no review on the backwards compatibility.


So the first thing I did was set up my account in a mainly streamlined process that seemed simple enough and then proceeded to revel in the vast glow of what I've just decided is quite an impressive interface. For those readers unaware the PS3 has basically the exact same interface as the PSP using Sony's XMB software which I find looks a lot more unique then the 360's interface which reminds me of an older website except without the stupid gif's everywhere. I then proceeded to look through the various options which although seems kind of daunting at the time with what seems like a bunch of icons you really don't need but I guess that's alright although I'm still kinda pissed that each CD you put on it has it's own icon under the music tab but I digress.


My next goal was to set up my online account, Once again a streamlined process although the need for a number in the password is a new feature in most sites so I feel I can't bitch about it too much but dude seriously I'm not that retarded that I don't understand the process of a stronger password to protect my oh so valuable account. I then added my friend which was easy enough but he has yet to accept so I am still a lonely PS3 user (blown-speakers add me). With the basics down let's get into the games.


I guess now would be the time to discuss the controller. The first thing I truly noticed was how damn light it was, it feels like nothing (although I hear the Dualshock 3 is a lot heavier) but besides that it's basically the PS2 controller with more trigger like R2 and L2 buttons.


I first tried out Uncharted which looks absolutely amazing expect a review once I finish it but this is a review of the PS3 so this article will focus on what it can do. I'd like to state that saving is the exact same as what you do on a PSP. Once you get into the game it looks and sounds impressive, I guess this is the true power of the PS3 and so far I think it's pretty good I tried to find a section where I could use the SIXAXIS functions but the only one I could really find was when you throw grenades which was mad broken just because the time it takes to aim with the SIXAXIS will be more then enough to get taken to bullet rape town from your friendly enemies. After a bit I decided to try out Resistance to get a feel for online and hopefully some more SIXAXIS action.


My first reaction to Resistance was since when was it still normal to have a health bar in a FPS? I guess the evolution of games has slowly weeded that little gameplay idea out but I've never really realized how much more difficult games are with one, but also expect that in a review of the game. After about an hour of playing I found the SIXAXIS still used minimally which I'm debating if that is a pro or con. My basis is that over use will be seen as a gimmick but under use makes the player question why it was included so far I think they have been successful in this middle ground. The online was something I found fairly impressive mainly because within seconds (alright after a LOOOOOOONG downloading patch time) I was in a game with 40 players something I'd never experienced before. The game ran smoothly with minimum lag although I don't like how the microphone of other players blare through your speakers at a volume much louder then the game itself.


I guess that is the end of my impressions so far, some other complaints are the fact of how many damn updates they have that take forever to download as well as the other stuff on playstation store which can take a lot longer then the 360. All in all however I'm fairly impressed with the system which can also be shown by the fact my 360 has remained unplugged for the past few weeks while I have been playing with the PS3. My final judgment is this system is pretty powerful with many cool features but the games so far as mainly mediocre however the upcoming games are more then enough to entice any game player.


PS It also has a Blu-Ray player, expect a review on that once I get a movie for it.

Friday, April 11, 2008

Time to get your chess on!

True Story.

Wednesday, April 9, 2008

Wii's new GC controller


The Nintendo Wii will be getting a new GameCube controller sometime this month. Yes I said GameCube controller. Our guess is that this release date is for Japan only. Do you think Nintendo will even bother with releasing it over here?

This one will be nice and white, just like all the Wii controllers and will be going for ¥2000 which is around $20 US. As the image says, it'll have a 3 meter long cord, which is weird since isn't corded stuff a little old? Well it seems Nintendo is brining this out in just the right time so consumers can use it for Super Smash Bros. Brawl and the upcoming Mario Kart. Once again Nintendo has it's marketing down pat well, I'm sure this thing will sell quite a bit. If this comes up to Canada here, I could see myself picking one up since my old GC controllers seem to be not working. I conveniently found this out when I bought SSBB and some friends were over.

Do you think this will end up selling well in Japan?

I don't like Call of Duty 4

So this probably wasn't the best choice for my first post on this site, because now everyone hates me. So before you start throwing your hands in the air and going "bah!" towards this site, let me tell you: I'm not very into shooters.

CoD4 was one of the best games of last year and is still being played by many many MANY people. Especially with the new maps now out. I just don't usually enjoy shooters to much, especially first person shooters. Actually, I don't think I like the first person view at all. With that being said though, I did very much enjoy The Orange Box and found Half Life 2 very fun to play and I can't wait for the third. I'm assuming the reason I dislike shooters so much is that I might be bad at them and I'm just not playing them enough to get any better, so its an endless spiral that leads to me not enjoying myself when I'm playing a shooter. I also find the first person view to make things harder, since I can't see stuff around me. I really like being able to see what's around me, I would have liked to see the grenade fall beside me, instead of some icon saying "Dude! Grenade!" Though, I also didn't really get into Mass Effect, which was a third person shooter, though had other reasons besides, it's a shooter.

I didn't really enjoy playing CoD4 because it's just not my thing, since I'm generally into RPGs or action/adventure type things, it just doesn't fit. I prefer to be able to just mash the "Attack" button and kill things that way and do lots of damage fast, I don't really like having to line up my shots and shoot someone, who at the same time is running around shooting me. This is why I like the Metal Gear series, I could take as long as I needed to kill the guy, because he can't find me. CoD4 was just nerve racking to me since so much was going on, and at the same time, I need to slowly move my scope over to the guy who is causing havoc. Putting this and the fact I'm awful at these games together just doesn't come out good. Also, I'm into those 360 achievement points, I didn't like how there were no online achievements. Since I'm already not really enjoying this game, what on earth is bringing me to play it online?

I understand it's a good game and I can see why and why so many people like it. I'm just not one of them.

Tuesday, April 8, 2008

An Introduction

Gotta Jet! is the greatest fad about to hit the world, it's a website based around video games reviews, news and hopefully some of this "Web 2.0" garbage bloggers go crazy about including video footage and a (hopefully) weekly podcast once we get the site up and running! Sean Booker and I Christopher Brown started up this site to help get our opinions out there as well as have a good time messing around in the world of video games, so enjoy as we try to get some content up here as quickly as we can produce it anyways, Gotta Jet,
Christopher