Video Game Pulse

Anyone who owns a PSP and knows what DVD’s are probably was excited to hear that movies would soon be available on a format called UMD. Soon after the hype ended we realized a problem, and it wasn’t anything small. These UMD Video’s don’t come with any extras, they can’t play on a regular DVD, and you are paying more for it then you would a DVD. Anyone who has a 2GB Pro Duo card is lucky enough to be able to just purchase the DVD and put it on the card for viewing later on.

In a not so rash and completely predicted move by Sony, they have decided to cut back on production of UMD Videos. It really makes a lot of sense, these companies aren’t selling enough of these things, and it costs to much to make them. Later on down the road when the format is cheaper to make, it will probably be more feasible. Articles such as that on Defunct Games reported on this when the system launched, their feature is titled “How the DVD killed the UMD“.

This news should not be a surprise to anyone, but what is news is that Sony wants to make the format playable on a TV, and what a better time to do it then with an addition to the PS3. Nothing has been confirmed about this speculation, but it makes enough sense. There was early rumor of a UMD burner inside the PS3, but when E3 2005 hit, and we didn’t see it that rumor kind of died off. If Sony wanted, they still may unveil a UMD player for the PS3, or a stand-alone unit.

Eventually it will become so cheap to manufacture these UMDs that the cost won’t matter. No more then 4 years ago, a DVD-R for a consumer cost anywhere between $2-5, now you can get them for pennies. A 1x DVD Burner In 2001 cost $600, a 4x in 2003 cost $300, and my brand new 16x DL-DVD Burner from 2005 cost me $30. Times change fast, and things get cheap, UMD Videos will probably be a logical step in two to three years.

All the good stuff is coming out next month, so you better gear your self up for what may be the most expensive month of the year so far. If you have a PSP, then you are going to be in bliss playing some long awaited and well deserved good games. You may have noticed my very first preview on this site was for a game called Pursuit Force. Pursuit Force is a game that even the most hardened Nintendo fan will want to play. Some may shunt this off as yet another racer, but I assure you it is not, it is more of an arcade shooter then anything else, and since when could you get out of a car in a racer? Expect this game March 7.

Pursuit Force isn’t the only game hitting the block come March, you can expect to see Daxter on March 21, which may be and so far from the demo, looks to be the very first solid and very enjoyable 3D Platformer on the PSP. If that isn’t your bag, then you may want to pick up Metal Gear Ac!d 2 on March 28, it is one of the very first sequels to hit the PSP. Hell, if you don’t want any of these games, then maybe some senseless sticky ball rolling will do you some good. Me & My Katamari is the very first appearance of the Katamari Series to hit the PSP set to release March 21 along side Daxter. Some may ponder about the lack of two joysticks as did I, according to the people who played it TGS they thought it was awkward. A few months ago the game was actually released in Japan, and people changed their tune and now praise the control.

If you are looking for some good FPS action, then maybe the new Splinter Cell Essentials is for you, which releases the same day as Pursuit Force on March 7. If it is some puzzle/adventure games you are looking for, then the wonderful Worms series is what you are looking for, Worms: Open Warfare may be one of the best things to hit the PSP yet, coming March 13. If it’s sports that is up your alley, you can pick up MLB 06: The Show on February 28, which really isn’t in March at all, but its pretty damn close!

Well, that is about it for the exciting releases coming up next month, some others that you can look forward to are listed below.

Bounty Hounds, Payout Poker and Casino, World Poker Tour, Ys: The Ark of Napishtim, Dragon Ball Z: Shin Budokai, Untold Legends: The Warrior’s Code, Samurai Warriors: State of War, From Russia With Love, Stacked with Daniel Negreanu, Neopets Petpet Adventure: The Wand of Wishing, Astonishia Story, Mega Man Powered Up, Brothers in Arms, Capcom Classics Collection Remixed, Def Jam: Fight for NY: The Takeover, Mortal Kombat: Deception Unchained, Viewtiful Joe: Red Hot Rumble, Pilot Academy, OutRun 2006: Coast 2 Coast, Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror

Lately we have been pretty harsh with Sony, and the fact that they are letting their PSP fall in with the likes of many handheld consoles of the past. We bitch and gripe about them not putting out first-party games, and buying up the people putting the good games out. Well, none of that has changed as of yet, but good games are on their way.

Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories is one of the best games for this little portable, even people that aren’t fans of the series can’t debate how well it controls, and how much depth it has; especially for a portable game. We have just survived decades of 2D graphics, and wonderful console counterparts, that is all going to change, and already has begun.

The PSP had a pretty lack luster year in 2005, its key big releases being Wipeout Pure, GTA: LS, and Burnout Legends. Mind you there were other good games, but nothing as spectacular as those previously mentioned. In March of 2006 you can add Pursuit Force to the list of must-own games.

Pursuit Force is such an action-packed game, that it will soon become the best PSP game you own on your PlayStation Portable. It’s got some of the elements of racing if any, and a lot more elements of a rail shooter. Pursuit Force will have your adrenaline pumping, waiting to take on the next perp.

The game starts as simple as any other racing game, you are in a police car, and you must track down the targets on your radar. Once you track down your target, you can either lean out the side of your window and shoot at them, or jump into their car and take it over! There are no finish lines, and technically there is no timer, you must stop the criminals before they reach their destination; most of the time it’s a city, or a specific building.

Some of you may have miss-understood my original intentions when I spoke of jumping into their car. I’m not talking about just getting out of your car and hi-jacking another like in a GTA game, I’m talking about jumping from you car and onto their car while shooting out the driver and passengers while going 100+ miles per hour!

The control involved in doing such feats as jumping between cars and attacking the enemy at the same time is quite stunning. Once you get close enough to an enemy vehicle or any vehicle for that matter a icon will pop-up, all you do is press the circle button and your matrix like jump begins. If you don’t kill all the perps while in mid-air, you will still be able to take them out while hanging onto their car for dear life!

Take special consideration, you aren’t the only one with a gun. While driving next to the enemy, or while hanging on their car, you will start to take damage. If you’re taking too much hits, you can always move to other parts of their vehicle, all of which makes for a kick-ass fire fight. This kind of action is what Pursuit Force is all about, and will play a major part into the gameplay.

The preview copy of Pursuit Force only includes three diverse levels, but enough to get a fell of the game. In the first level you must take out some bad guys who have loaded their trucks with toxic gas and are headed towards the city. You have a couple miles to take out all the trucks, all while power sliding and flying through the air over huge jumps. Make it and you will get a snide comment from your commander and a harsh grade.

The second level is a little different; it takes place on a river in a high-speed boat chase. The boats controlled a lot better then I originally gave them credit, taking turns beautifully. The same rules apply here also, you must “capture or destroy” the enemy; not that it ever gives you the option to capture! The third and last level is a boss fight with the crazy Wilde’s boys, this is where the game goes from Sea and Land and straight into Air! You start off chasing and taking out some enemies like usually, and eventually lead up to a roadblock in which you jump out of your crashing vehicle Sin City style and into a helicopter. While in the helicopter, you must use a rail gun to rain bullets upon the convict who all the while is throwing Molotov cocktails at you. This is where the game takes all the wonderful aspects of arcade shooters and puts it into a portable experience. It was a unique change to the rest of the gameplay and the first time something like this has been done.

Most of the levels in the demo involved you solving the case by taking out a certain amount of enemies, but don’t fret, this isn’t the only mission type in Pursuit Force. The video’s that are available at GameSpot.com specifically show different game types, including some that don’t take place in a vehicle at all!! Keep in mind however, this isn’t the first release of this game, it came out in Europe, welcomed to a mixed reaction. The controls and difficulty of the game made this not such a hot title. Big Big Studios obviously didn’t want to drop the ball on this one, so we will be introduced to a completely reworked game with new voice acting and even more upgrades.

If you have a PSP and you don’t get Pursuit Force, then you are wasting technology, this is a very addictive racer/shooter that all must own on the PlayStation Portable. You can expect to see Pursuit Force in stores at the beginning of March 2006. I’ll bring you my final thoughts on the full version of the game at that time.

Anyone who has played the Dynasty Warriors series knows that they can expect yet another sequel in a few short months, probably at least 3 a year. The PSP is now getting towards the end of its first year on the market, and the sequels are due to hit anytime! On March 28 Metal Gear Acid 2 will hit shelves, along with Dynasty Warriors: 2nd Evolution. Koei actually only sent me an email about their “other” release on March 28th, Dynasty Warriors 5: Empires, I had to dig around Magic-Box for the PSP game info; now a word from them.

The game features a new Stage Divergence element, you can select multiple branches after completing each stage. There are also twice as many stages than the previous work, the game supports up to 4 players simultaneously over WiFi.

The Secondary Officer System is further strengthened, there are close to 300 characters in total, you can perform dual combo attacks with the partner officer. There is a new Stable system, you can customize the appearance of your horses.

Overall, this PSP version looks to strengthen the series on the PSP, but it will probably be no time before we get bi-annual or tri-annual sequels for this series. As for Dynasty Warriors 5: Empires, it marks the 7th game in the series released since last March. There are more games though from Koei that will be released in March ‘06, you can expect to see a sequel to Warship Gunner for the Playstation 2 and Samurai Warriors: State of War for the PSP.

Dynasty Warriors 5: Empires adds one major improvement to the series. The game now gives you total control of the kingdom. You can now issue direct orders to each officer or signal general commands to the officers in the field. No longer will you just rush with your army behind you, now you can order them to take the offensive, defensive, or gather for an ambush. Now you can even entice the captives to join your army, or even kick people out of your army!

The standard fare of pick-ups still apply in this game, but overall it seems like it may be a much welcomed addition to the series, we will find out all the juicy details of whether or not this game is nothing but a rehash, or a push forward!

Awhile back we did an exposé called “Dawn Of A New Era”, which was about how Sony was letting their PSP fall into the ranks of so many others that have dared to wage war against the machine known as Nintendo. The Lynx, WonderSwan, Sega Nomad (does that count?), Game Gear, and many others have felt the pressure of not being able to compete with the Game Boy.

In our article, we talked about how Sony isn’t releasing their own first party games, and how they are leaving it up to the third parties to support the system; we mentioned how Sony doesn’t even have a first quarter line-up! None of that has changed since then, but Sony has made a move.

Instead of making first party games that take advantage of the features and capabilities that only the maker of a system can show the full potential of, they have taken a different route. Sony has been acquiring quite a bit of developers lately, the most recent is military developer turned video game developer; Zipper Interactive. You probably have heard of Zipper Interactive, they make the XBOX exclusive MechWarrior and Crimson Skies series. Most notably though is their SOCOM franchise. It is no doubt that a company that has been making training software for out troops in the field would be able to accurately portray it in a game setting, but will their other titles lack, will they stay XBOX exclusive? Or will they simply disappear?

Some, if not all debate why on earth Sony has not adopted an online community similar to XBOX Live, and some still ponder why they still won’t have it in the PS3! There was however one shocking statement made during the acquisition. Jim Bosler, Zipper Interactive president and CEO talked about online functionality in a recent statement. “As a part of the Sony Computer Entertainment group we can look forward to introducing innovative titles that push online functionality and community experiences even further.”

There you have it, “online functionality and community experiences”, word for word out of the horse’s mouth. Will Zipper Interactive be able to show Sony the light? As mentioned before, they have done a lot of military networking projects; maybe they can bring that to the table for the PS3. As for the PSP, it doesn’t count if you buy up all the people making games for the system! We are looking for games developed by SCEA, SCEE, and SCEJ, not published!

While acquiring Zipper Interactive will probably be good for Sony, I certainly don’t want all the game makers in the pocket of a magazine publisher, or a console maker. The sad fact is that smaller publishers just won’t be able to survive on their own in this next generation. Majesco last year at E3 had a huge booth, contests, and tons of scary people in make-up advertising their game Infected for the PSP. This year they have closed up shop on almost all their games, it looks like the only one we will be seeing is Jaws Unleashed! A game I wasn’t even remotely interested in.

Have you ever wanted to play as a crash test dummy, you know the guys with the yellow and black symbol on their foreheads. Well our press contact from Schanz Gaming has just informed me that this has become a reality with the newest game from Twelve Games. Their newest addition to their line-up of games is “Crash Dummy vs. the evil D-Troit”. Yes, that is a burn on the city of Detroit.

You play as a Crash Dummy as you would expect in a 2D world with a 3D twist; in the same fashion as Viewtiful Joe. The game has destructible environments, and interaction with objects such as boxes, barrels and weapons. The game looks quirky and fun, all while reminding me of Oddworld: Abe’s Exoddus and Alien Hominid. As far as an action game, it looks to have the key elements such as coin-like pickups and more. When it comes to the Music, this game has its groove on, the soundtrack features a pop/rap/jazz like undertone which can be downloaded from their website.

The Weapons are pretty interesting looking too, nothing too violent, just your standard fare of Freeze Rays, Glue Guns, or Flame Throwers (ok, maybe that last one is a bit violent). Schanz also promises for Movie like Effects using the graphic library PYRO. Below is a quote from Schanz describing a bit more of the technical aspects of the game and a little recap of what was just said.

… thanks to the use of the incorporated HAVOC physics engine you can fight with many different styles in an unique and interactive environment against evil D-Troit´s prototypes-dummies – move cases, throw barrels, climb walls, swim and use weapons like the Liquid-Bazooka to freeze, glue or burn the bad dummies. In other words just have fun, fun and more fun with the character and the gameplay!

-Schanz International Consultants

You can expect to see “Crash Dummy vs. the evil D-Troit” sometime in 2006 on the PC, XBOX, PS2 and PSP

“The Revolution will not be televised. On March 24, the foundation of handheld gaming was forever changed with the arrival of the PSP-not only Sony’s first piece of portable gaming hardware, but also the first serious assault on Nintendo’s dominance. It was be [sic] a three-pronged attack, with games leading the charge.”

-Pocket Games, Issue #17 – Page 11

That was Pocket Games response to the PSP launch; in fact it was almost everyone’s reaction to the launch of the PSP. Everyone seems to forget a time when other big companies tried to stand up against Nintendo and lost, The Sega Nomad, and Game Gear tried once to vie for the Portable handheld market, as did SNK with their Wonderswan and Atari with the Lynx.

It is becoming more and more difficult to try to hold onto the belief that the PSP will continue on and lead up to the PSP2. Sony didn’t have that strong of a line-up for 2005, and barley made it with one game into the top 10 selling games. Nintendo on the other hand isn’t having a problem placing close to 8 games in the top ten each month. It is even harder to stand up for Sony and give them support considering that they don’t even have a line-up for 2006. To make matters worse, third party companies are starting to pull support for the system, and putting more financial backing behind the Nintendo DS.

Games like Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories failed to hit projected sales, and while there have been some hit games; a lot of them are misses. If Sony were John Edward the misses would be considered hits and everything would be fine. Unfortunately the world doesn’t work that way, Sony has to get up off its lazy ass and actually give the PSP the first party support it deserves. Bring us a Harmonics’ game, bring us anything… just support your own damn system Sony.