In June of 2000, gamers the world over were introduced to something, that at the time was just a Dreamcast game, but would later be revered as a transition for the medium. Gravitating away from just being simply entertainment, but being appreciated as an art form; Jet Set Radio was that turning point and to this day remains one of the most important games released on any platform–and also the main reason why you should play it.
JET SET RADIO!!!! That’s right folks Jet Grind Radio and all the funk that accompanies it will be rolling out to XBLA and PSN this summer in glorious HD. Sega had announced this last week and confirmed it this week so all JGR fans can rejoice. JGR is one of my favorite games of all time so I am really excited for this game to hit both marketplaces (HD+Trophies/Achievements+Already Awesome= More Awesome). The game is said to have the same amazing soundtrack and will have new graffiti for players to perform all over Neo-Tokyo in this HD release. If you missed this game on the Dreamcast definitely check it out for your system of choice. Also if you were part of the majority that didn’t like or wanted something different from Sega’s last Dreamcast effort this generation (the DC Collection) support this game when it releases and get Sega to bring more of our favorite titles to the current gen systems (or completely new iterations). Keep your eyes out for Jet Grind Radio come summer time and as always you can follow us on Twitter @GamersAbstract and like us on Facebook for more content.
The XBLA House Party has kicked off and the first game on the table is none other than Warp. When I first heard about Warp I am not going to lie it looked like an isometric clone of Portal. While it shares some similar sentiments in regards to “warping” Warp stands on its own stubby little black legs.
Warp is a crossbreed between a platformer, action and puzzle game and puts you in the role of Zero an alien who unknowingly becomes the victim of a research experiment in a secret underwater facility. Seeing how I have only played the trial version of this game I do not have much more information about the narrative, but what I can tell you is that this game isn’t one you should pass up.
Zero is initially put through some silly tests which serve as an interactive tutorial for you learning the controls (which are painfully easy). Then Zero stumbles across what looks like to be a giant magenta booger with honeycombs in it and without the slightest hesitation shoves it down his hole. I say hole because doesn’t have any discernible mouth or receptacle for nutrition. Anyways; after Zero eats said giant magenta booger things get interesting real quick because shortly after his snack he becomes reacquainted with a donut shaped octagon that gives him the ability to warp (no way!!). This event puts the lab into frenzy with alarms and all other manners of security implementations to stop Zero from escaping. Lucky for you they fail miserably and this is where the trial really kicks off.
From here on out you have rudimentary access to Zero’s powers, but what they highlight in the demo will either turn you into one of two players. One that will be stealthy and avoid turrets, guards and scientists or the polar opposite and be a blood thirsty alien hell bent on killing everyone and everything (I choose the later). The way you kill people is what’s most interesting and you can probably deduce what I will say next. You “warp” into a suspecting or unsuspecting enemy’s body and gyrate the analog stick until the host explodes (done with objects too), spilling entrails and blood everywhere (remember how Neo jumped into Agent Smith and he jiggled around then exploded, nearly identical). Also that is why this game isn’t cute (just for clarification purposes). This binary approach also gives you the opportunity to mix it up a little bit if you so choose. Well you might be wondering about some other details so let me fill you in on those real quick.
Warp has a great visual style utilizing the Unreal Engine so you get a sleek looking game that didn’t glitch or hiccup at all during my time with the trial. The sound effects were not anything too incredible, but nothing about the audio diminished the experience either, so that’s good right? The controls like I said earlier were painfully easy to grasp and once you unlock more abilities I don’t see the controls becoming an issue, so another check for Warp in the awesome department. In addition to the main quest of the trial it gives you a small taste of the challenge rooms that are in the full version. These are time based objectives that I can only assume will vary from point to point rooms and fragging enemies in an allotted amount of time (the two ones in the trial, I’m sure there is more variety, so don’t fret). Overall Warp is a solid downloadable experience that for either 800 MSP or $10 will surely keep you entertained until you have gotten your money’s worth. Warp is available for both XBLA and PSN so give it a spin and let us know what you think about it in the comments section. As always you can follow us on Twitter @GamersAbstract and like us on Facebook for more content.
I played the trial of Warp on XBLA for approximately 35 minutes. The game is available on XBLA for 800 MSP and the PSN for $10.
Did you pass up on checking out Fight Night Champion because you had no interest in anything other than its story mode? Or maybe you couldn’t justify spending $60 on another boxing game that would only hold your interest for a few hours. Well I think EA has a remedy for those problems with one unique solution. EA has recently dismantled Fight Night Champion into various pieces of downloadable content and they are all available on PSN for $5 a pop. So if you were only interested in FNC for its story or maybe another feature, but didn’t quite want to put up $60 for it you now have the option to choose your FNC experience a la carte.
I have always been a big fan of the Fight Night games, but unfortunately never got around to playing Champion for one reason or another. It was never about the price as I usually get my money’s worth from every Fight Night I have played, but now I have a chance to sample a full feature of the game for $5 and will probably satisfy my fix for the game without having to drop full retail on it.
I think this is a great idea from EA and maybe more of their titles will receive the same treatment down the road. Maybe other publishers will follow suit and try this too. I don’t know if this was done because with FNC because of poor sales or EA just needed a test dummy, but I think if implemented well this could become the standard for most games after they have been on the market for certain amount of time.
So what do you think of this latest maneuver from EA? Do you think it’s a good idea that will catch on or is it just another ploy to milk a dying game? Sound off in the comments section as we would love to hear what you think. Stay tuned for more news and as always you can follow us on Twitter @GamersAbstract and like us on Facebook for more content.
Sony announced this week that the PSN will be reducing the device count for PSN users from 5 down to 2. The new change will go into effect November 18th, but will not affect content that had already been downloaded prior to the 18th (Hooray!!!). This serves as a another major blow to PSN users because one of the major draws to Sony’s digital content was the ability to “game” share with either multiple devices you owned personally or with friends. Sony must be getting some serious pressure from publishers in order to make such a drastic move (maybe digital sales are not doing so well?). This news couldn’t have come at a worse time in my opinion especially with the biggest shopping season right around the corner. It will not affect everyone who decides to purchase a Ps3 this holiday season, but for those who had plans of game sharing might become a little jaded.
The game sharing community is a strong one and this move by Sony will not be met with favorable criticism. I know many PSN users that didn’t flee after the PSN attacks earlier this year exclusively because of the ability to game share and now some of them are thinking about spending their hard earned coin elsewhere. I know game sharing isn’t the best thing for the industry for obvious reasons, but it was good for the gamer, mainly the PSN gamer. So my only advice for those who are still game sharing, go ballistic over the next couple of days and scrap up anything you and your friends want while that “discount” is still sweet.
What do you think of this most recent change from the PSN? Are you a game sharer that is being affected? Let us know your sentiments about this in the comments section and stay tuned for more news. As always you can follow us on Twitter @GamersAbstract and like us on Facebook for more content.
Since the attack on Sony’s PSN most haven’t felt safe trusting their credit/debit card information to Sony (for good reason). So people took to purchasing PSN credits from online retailers like Amazon (and brick and mortar stores) to get content they wanted on the PSN while reducing the risk of information theft.
In a sudden change of events Amazon has removed all PSN Digital content including monetary credits and full game downloads. I had heard about this a couple of days ago on Twitter, but waited to see if it was just a minor issue with Amazon. I checked again today to see if the issue had been resolved and to my disliking it hadn’t been. There are still product listings but they just say “Currently Unavailable”. Who knows how long these codes will remain unavailable to consumers, but hopefully this issue is rectified sooner than later. If and when there is an update to this I will be sure to post it. As always stay tuned for more news and follow us on Twitter @GamersAbstract and like us on Facebook for more content.
Its coming coming, back back, to Online Online
The PSN has been down since April 20th due to a “data breach” and has caused distress amongst the gaming community. Also according to a Bloomberg report I read it has cost Capcom hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue (I am sure they are not the only ones losing out). But there is light at the end of the tunnel people (it will just take a few weeks to reach it).
Sony has announced that all PSN and Qriocity services will be fully functional by May 31st. This comes as good news to all even including myself who had previously said I didn’t care (which I still don’t, but would like to try out MK online). This blackout has been pretty bad for those who had purchased games like Socom 4 day one and maybe had 24 hours to enjoy it before the servers went down. Also PS3 DCU Online players have missed out on some valuable playing time (and when you are paying a subscription fee it stings even worse). Things haven’t been great this month or last for Sony, but time has healed their digitally insecure wounds.
You get this free for a month
This has been low point for Sony, but all major players have their mishaps (Microsoft and the RROD, Nintendo and The Virtual Boy). Also as a part of their “Welcome Back” program they are awarding a free month of Playstation Plus to all PSN users including those who already subscribe to the premium service. Sony will recover and continue to deliver quality products, but one can only hope this incident doesn’t deter people from purchasing future Sony products. This will go annals of videogame history as a major blunder, but Sony has the resources to leave this in their rear view and will hopefully do so.
Since Wednesday of this week the Playstation Network has been offline due to an “external intrusion” (a.k.a. We got hacked again) and serves as a major inconvenience for loyal PSN users and those who happened to have purchased Mortal Kombat, Portal 2, or Socom 4 this week (sorry folks). People are genuinely pissed off about this and in some articles I have read people are demanding money for their PSN wallets or a free game as consolation for the PSN being offline. I guess I am taking the outage a little better than most, because to be perfectly honest I really don’t care.
It only does 80710A06 - Penny Arcade
The PSN has always been a second rate service to me and I am not surprised that something as obnoxious as this has happened (remember the clock fiasco last year), but sitting around and making foolish demands will not light a fire under Sony’s ass to rectify the issue any faster. While some things people were asking for were foolish, most just wanted answers and that I believe is a completely valid request for Sony to respond to. Some of the questions that sought answers like “Were PSN users’ personal information compromised?” is a great question because I don’t want some hacker douchebag to know where I live and or have access to my other personal data; but to my knowledge these questions haven’t been answered by Sony (which is fucking lame).
The PSN is a free service to most of its approximately 70 million users, but does that make this situation okay to most? For most it doesn’t sit well, but for me it does, because it an attempt to sound uber-cliché “you get what you pay for”. Most factor in the price of the PSN into new titles they purchase or even factor it in to the price of the unit itself, but lets be honest people, it is a free service because Sony taxes the publishers instead of the gamers. Which is moderately commendable on their behalf, but when something like this goes wrong they can take their dear sweet time because 99% (random statistic, don’t judge me) of PSN users don’t pay shit to use the service. As for Playstation Plus subscribers, you have an argument because while you might not pay for your actual connection to the PSN you pay money for discounted content and other wonderful things provided via a PP subscription (I am a PP subscriber, but that is irrelevant at this point and I don’t want anything from PSN for the record, I am just speaking on behalf of others who might feel differently). Those who have PP subscriptions should be given something in return for this inconvenience, but everyone else just needs to deal.
Like I said things could be a whole lot worse. For example if your PS3 wouldn’t turn on or your games wouldn’t work at all (I know some PSN games are not functioning, but thankfully there are hundreds of games for PS3, so check some of them out), but that doesn’t seem to be the case. Before I finish this up I will add a quick neutral segment saying that if this had happened to Xbox Live I would be complaining vigorously too (so please don’t chew me up Sony Fanboys), but also with that being said an Xbox Live outage would pretty much render the system useless. So loyal Sony users keep your heads high and the dust will clear soon enough (well I hope so for you at least). Stay tuned until next time and as always don’t forget to follow me on Twitter @GamersAbstract and on Facebook. Also feel free to comment on how you think Sony should handle this “debacle” in the comments section above.
(I also found this Penny Arcade strip to be quite comical as well, check it out if you would like)
(http://art.penny-arcade.com/photos/1261596481_3Fw2MnJ-L.jpg)
The Gamer's Abstract 
