Skyward Fire

It was more than a year ago when Sony made it’s acquisition move over the UK-based company Evolution Studios that had the World Rally Championship franchise for the PS2 under it’s belt. It was the first Motorstorm game in the summer of 07, that pushed Sony to go ahead with the deal in hopes of establishing another (off-road) racing genre for it’s current generation console. Motorstorm, in itself, was a very attractive product, and it’s sequel is no less. You can check out the trailer here.

The game impresses on first run, and all the tracks look amazing and are dangerously addictive, with an opportunity to take up more than one route. The game has 16 tracks with 4 different lighting options, and every combination is of an awe-striking diverse design. They left no stone unturned when it came to perfecting the flaws present in the previous game, including major improvements within the vehicle classes.

Pacific Rift Boxart by radoxist

Some of the texture work, the lighting, the motion blur and the water & other dynamic natural elements are just too good. The intensity of geometry & physics within the game has been magnified with some astounding detailing. The sunlight is a subsequent improvement to the lighting, and it’s just as satisfying as the game itself. The track deformation sequences are sophisticated too. The frame rate is more stable than the prequel, and Evolution deserves due credit for that. Technically, the game is more sound than Pure. The vegetation’s interaction & animation deserves plus points too. You don’t have to install the game, but during load times which don’t span to much time, a whole lot of media is cached on the hard disk.

Compared to Motorstorm, it’s easier to choose & play from amongst so many new events. Though the core game play remains the name, not that I was expecting the slightest change. The offline split screen feature was also a stimuli for many gamers that went on to become a purchase decision factor. The multiplayer component allows you to pick a server from over five regions. Unlocking trophies for various achievement eventually unlocks some amazing extras. Somehow, voice chat seems like the gamers’ kryptonite, and there’s scope of improvement there. Since I noticed no lag issues during continuous multiplayer game play, I doubt the weak voice chat had anything to do with my connection. Also, the lack of static pointers is a bit disappointing. Though an update of the game is in the works, which is to supposedly fix issued related to backing up saved data and other stuff about which more information can be found out here.

A major add-on that is crucial in many races, is the brand new Sixaxis tilt. It’s very helpful when it comes to balancing your vehicle and cushioning the jumps without actually having to break the speed. While handling the quad bikes though, switching to analogue sticks is highly recommended. Getting hold of the various controller techniques might take some time initially to understand and get habituated to, but once you’re through that part, they come off as a breeze. The same goes for the various tracks which might seem a little extensive, but once you get the idea of the geography after some exploration, it all comes down as easy. The 5.1 surround support with artists like Death From Above 1979 & David Bowie is fascinating. These artists have hardly been previously featured in various racing games, thus adding to the beauty of Motorstorm: Pacific Rift.

There’s news on a PSP port of the game, and a sequel, which there’s no reason to doubt, since this is a franchise with a lot of room for improvement and there’s a whole lot to be worked upon.

Skyward Rating – 8/10

Deals on Amazon -- PS3

As the date for the release of the last Hideo Kojima directed MGS game nears, the anticipation is just reaching new heights. The customers who had pre-ordered the game were given a chance of play the much awaited Metal Gear Online title. Apparently, the response to the online beta version was a lot more enthusiastic than what Konami had earlier expected. People actually had to wait ages (make that two days on an average) to just register for a Konami ID and a MGS Game ID. The download of some of the upgrade required for the console took a lot more time expected. Even machines with the most speedy connections were made to wait for 2-3 hours. And there’s just no telling how ugly it must have been for those owning connections with lower bandwidths.

The fourth and final Kojima game is apparently the most highly anticipated game for any Sony console ever, well, at least after the ranks of the games from the Grand Theft Auto franchise, and the Final Fantasy franchise. GTA 4 was very recently released, and it was welcomed in the gamer community with open arms. And the street break date for FFXIII isn’t decided as yet. So one game that will keep you busy for quite some time now, is Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots.

In the last 10 podcasts or so, made officially by Kojima Productions Podcasts, Ryan Payton, Kristine and Mark, MGS has been the discussion rage, especially MG Online,and the most basic features of the multi player. This version of the game has taken multi-player tactical gaming to new distances. The gameplay is highly addictive, and has been adored my MGS fans across the world. The only backdrop with the entire deal is the fact that the games are region locked, that is, if you’re from the US, and are willing to play on Asian servers on a US based console, you simply cannot. Well, actually, you can, but then again you’ll have to use proxies and complex third party hacks, which are certainly not recommended if you love your brand new, bitching expensive PS3. Plus, MGO is currently in Beta (the Greek letter for the alphabet B is used in the welcome screen and various windows, which is actually very cool. There are various game modes, where you can either play as Solid Snake (not recommended if you’re a novice), and also as the various teams in the game. But then again, there comes the urgency where you need to be familiar with the plots of the previous MGS games. You know, how deep you get in every time you play an MGS game. In MGS4, you must follow the subtitles and the cut-scenes well enough, or you’ll loose track of everything. No wonder there are gamers who brag about finishing the game, but if you ask them a question from here or there in the game, they start drawing blanks. It’s no fun playing MGS4 without knowing what happened in the prequels. You’ll be shooting arrows in the dark if you try anything close to that.

The Sony PlayStation 3 is a machine powerful enough to render the graphics and sound to the top notch levels. Although Hideo Kojima had said in an interview that he couldn’t exploit the game enough to force it up to show it’s best, the eye candy and pleasure for your ears would still reach new heights. He was actually planning the game on multiple DVDs, but then again, Sony refused to have a PS3 game with multiple DVDs, and that plan went into the pooper. Then a deal was reached where it was decided that MGS4 would be the first ever game to come out on a Blue Ray disc. For Hideo Kojima, that was still not enough. They decided they would have two blue ray discs, which was, obviously, very shocking for Sony. They never expected  the game so big that it would actually be as big as two blue ray discs. They never agreed, and Kojima had to cut down the game to just one disc. Kojima wasn’t satisfied, and neither did he bow down. The storm troopers at Konami decided they’ll have a lot of downloadable content available for the gamers once the game came out. And MGO Beta was supposed to be a subject of test.

The response was over-whelming. The servers went down in no time. As mentioned earlier, the initial registering process was long, and harassing. They never expected this to be so, so huge. A lot of people went for the Beta, and they hogged the servers for some really long sessions, which caused total chaos and ultimate downfall of the servers. This just lets how big this is. This just tells that since the last few years, the craze for the MGS franchise has shot up hard. I myself hadn’t played any MGS game until the last six months. It was all the crazy buzz about Guns of the Patriots amongst a few of my friends that brought me into this. And I am absolutely loving this. The good thing about this is once you get hooked up, there is no going back. The day isn’t far when Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots would finally go live, and gamers across the world would have some sleepless nights to come.

PS: This just in. A score of days to go, and the MGS4 team has just decided they’ll be releasing a limited edition version of the game, that’ll have some voice-overs by Hideo Kojima himself over an MGS documentary, and a full color 64 page art book. Pre-Orders have currently been taken off, but watch out http://twitter.com/KonamiEN for updates.