playstation 3

Game Design Talk: Exploding Barrels and Other Video Game Clichés

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I’m on pace to finish Uncharted in the next few days, and I’ve had a really good time with it. If my queue of PS3 games to play wasn’t so big right now, I would have likely jumped to the sequel immediately. There are however, a few very specific gripes I have with this game, and one of them I wanted to use as a jumping-off point for a bigger discussion. For a game that at times tiptoes into the realm of realism, there are some very specific video game clichés that really take me out of the moment. In particular, I can’t help but shake my head every time I see strategically placed explosive barrels in the environment.
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Girlfriend Gaming: God of War Collection

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For the last few months, my girlfriend has made it clear to me that she’s wanted to play God of War. Each time she’s said that to me, I’ve given her the same puzzled look. When I think about video games she likes, I think of stuff like Just Dance, Crash Team Racing and the Raving Rabbids series. Based on what I knew of her taste at the time, I thought a series where players kill thousands of monsters in brutal fashion wasn’t up her alley.

I picked up God of War Collection recently for two reasons. One, because I’ve been curious about this series for a while now and two, because I wanted to see if my girlfriend would actually get into it. I’ve yet to start this game on my own, but she’s already killed Medusa and can’t wait to play more.

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I Just Discovered Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune From the Depths of 2007

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Long before I owned a Playstation 3, I was excited to play Uncharted. All of the preview coverage of this game made it look beyond everything else out there. Alas, I was not about to drop upwards of $600 on a video game system at the time, especially when I had just gotten an XBOX 360. My excitement to play this series grew with the release of Uncharted 2, which many hail as the best game from 2009.

Now that I finally have a PS3 in the house, Uncharted was one of the first games I picked up. I just stopped at level 6 to write my impressions so far, which for the most part, are great.

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Pick Up Post: Little Big Planet

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I know I’m late to the party on this one. With Little Big Planet 2 set to drop in a few weeks, I’m only giving the game a fair shake now. I’ve played it a few times at demo kiosks, but playing it that way hasn’t really grabbed me for some reason. However, now that I’ve been able to start the experience from the beginning and play it as intended, I’m liking it a whole lot more. I haven’t dived into the creation tools or user-created levels yet, but I can talk about my early experiences in the story mode.
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I Got a Playstation 3. Now What?

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It’s been a few weeks now since I got my hands on a Playstation 3. I’ve got it all hooked up, got my PSN account set up and I’ve got a few games to start me off. So far I have Little Big Planet, Uncharted, God of War Collection, Super Street Fighter IV, 3D Dot Game Heroes and Street Fighter Alpha, which I picked up on the Playstation Network.

My question to you, In Third Person readers, is what do I do now?

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Pick Up Post: I Bought A Playstation 3 That Supposedly Does Everything

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During the final day of Fan Expo, I came across a deal I couldn’t refuse. 20% off PS3 consoles, 30% games and 40% off accessories. I’ve been eying the PS3 for some time now, and initially had plans on waiting for the new SKUs to drop so that I could get the soon-to-be old 120 gig version for cheaper. However, 20% off would actually make it cheaper than what I was expecting the price drop to be, and the discounts on games and accessories only sweetened the deal. Before Fan Expo was over, I walked away with a PS3 Slim, an extra controller, an HDMI cable and Little Big Planet.

I’m not going to use this post to talk about the software lineup. I just wanted to share with you my experiences with the hardware and my first impressions of the Playstation 3 experience.
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Fan Expo Day 3: Victory Lap

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Unlike the first two days of the show, there weren’t any must-do events or things we needed to do driving us to the show. Having completed all of that stuff in the last two days, we figured our final day at the expo would be a victory lap of sorts. We’d take on the day as it comes and enjoy what was left at the show.

Because of this, we didn’t rush to get there. We arrived just as the doors were opening. Not the best move. This time, the lineup literally wrapped around the block, and was more than double the length of the line we stood in the day before.

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Street Fighter Concepts That Made Me a Better Basketball Player – Part 4: Exploiting Weaknesses

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This is an on-going series where I discuss the thinking involved in Street Fighter that I’ve applied to basketball. If you want to see earlier entries in the series, hit the link: Part 1: Spacing, Part 2: Punishing Mistakes, Part 3: Resource Management

Exploitation of Weaknesses

When I play the computer in Street Fighter IV as Akuma, regardless of difficulty, I can almost always land a Raging Demon. I don’t know what the guys at Capcom did about the AI, but 99% of the time when I input that command, the computer just stands there and eats it. Human opponents in general are tougher to fool, but virtually everyone has weaknesses of some sort. When I play an opponent, one of the very first things I check is my opponent’s ability to block a cross-up. It’s a tactic that most casual players don’t understand and won’t figure out how to counteract it within the span of one match. When I notice that my opponent doesn’t have an answer for that, or any other tactic that I throw at them, I will repeatedly use that tactic until I win or until my opponent finds an answer.

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Excited for Rock Band 3?

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When it comes to my level of excitement for the release of a game, not many games in my life matched the hype I felt the original Rock Band. I was in the apex of my Guitar Hero love around the time when rumblings of a full-band music game from the developers of Guitar Hero II appeared on the Internet. When the rumblings finally turned up this initial video for the Rock Band proof of concept, I was sold. So sold, that I was the first person to pre-order the full Rock Band kit at my local EB Games and was even the first to pick up my kit because I showed up at the same time as the guy who was delivering the Rock Band kits to the store.

Three years, four Rock Band branded games, hundreds of hours played and hundreds of downloadable songs bought later, I’m kind of burned out on the plastic instrument formula. I forced my way through Lego Rock Band for the achievements and can’t find the motivation to even begin the career mode in Green Day: Rock Band. Rock Band 3 looks to revive the genre with new features, new songs, and for those who want it, a pro mode that takes the genre into realistic new heights. Are these changes enough to bring me back in?
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Pick Up Post: Join the Darkside

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Back in January, this THQ game caught a lot of people by surprise. People who were expecting it to be a God of War clone were surprised at how Zelda-like it’s gameplay was. It reviewed well and as far as I know, sold above the company’s expectations.

For a number of reasons, I kept tabs on it until it came down to a lower price. A few weeks ago, it hit $20, and I grabbed my local Best Buy’s last copy.

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