Musings from the Void - Weekly Update 25/02/2010

Project Natal - On Monday (22/02) a secret preview party was held to unveil Project Natal and give a lucky few the chance to get their hands on Microsoft's new high tech equipment.In attendance was the BBC's top entertainment host, Jonathon Ross. He let slip that it was scheduled to be released in October and that he found it "impressive". However he did say that he thought that it wasn't "quite there yet" though. I am assuming he was referring to the much discussed lag issues, which some people present said that was on average a 1/10th of second. Anyway check out the short video below and make your own mind up! I must say it looks like it has potential...

Lost Planet 2 - After it was announced that Lost Planet 2 was to be chopped down due to the storage restraints of DVD, stories instantly started popping up around the 'net stating that the PS3 version (due to it being Blu-Ray of course) would infact contain additional content. Of course PS3 owners are never that lucky and it has since been confirmed that both platforms would receive the same version - Brian Keltner of Capcom stated that

"The major content for both versions will be identical and ensure an enjoyable experience for consumers of either platform.” Going on further to say “the development team has kept the most important elements of the game and we are confident that consumers will not be disappointed with Lost Planet 2 and the variety of massive Akrid, powerful vital suits, beautiful environments and deep level of customization included in the final product.”

After playing the demo and hearing that the final version will have off-line co-op I am keeping a close eye on this one...


DLC Overload - The last 7 days has seen the release of 3 hefty slabs of DLC goodness for some of the biggest games of 2009

Assassins Creed 2 - Bonfire of the Vanities - $4.99/£3.19

Missing Sequence 13 - Work with Machiavelli to free the city of Florence from the grip of the mad monk Savonarola by targeting influential citizens under his control. Battle, sneak and free-run your way through more than ten challenging new memories. Discover a new district of Florence, and utilize Ezio’s brand new move: the spring-jump.


Resident Evil 5 - Lost in Nightmares - $4.99/£3.99

This first of two additional chapter chronicles Chris Redfield's and Jill Valentine's journey through the Spencer Mansion on their way to their showdown with Wesker. Some vintage Resident Evil scares are present in this polished yet short additional content.



Borderlands - The Secret Armory of General Knoxx - 800 MS points/$10/£6.29.

Gearbox have stated that "...[this is] the largest DLC for Borderlands to date..." and it will provide "...new challenges and opportunities for growth for characters from around level 34 to level 50." Check out this link to Borderlands Wiki for a list of confirmed features. I personally cant wait to revisit Pandora. Bring it!

Killzone 3 - Sources close to Sony have mooted Killzone 3 for a possible Christmas release.Also, following on from this year's firmware updates and the release of Sony's new motion controller, Killzone 3 will support both 3D and motion controls.Killzone 3 will apparently join the list of high profile titles such as Heavy Rain and LittleBigPlanet to boast motion controller support. Please note that while Sony have recently bought up the domain name killzone3.com there has been no official announcement. If this is true then I'd expect some serious info come E3.

MGS Peacewalker = MGS5: A posting on the Kojima Productions developers blog from PR Jiro Oishi shows the game was seen as the next main canon title in the series while in the planning stage. Only time will tell if Hideo should have released this on PS3/360 rather than MGS: Rising.

..and last but certainly by no means least is...


Heavy Rain Spoilers! - With the UK release of this high anticipated game only hours away it is a shame that some one/people have decided to selfishly bombard numerous websites with potentially game ruining spoilers. A user (read idiot!) going by the name of Joe Laptop (according to TheSixthAxis) has decided to go rampaging through many high profile websites, including Facebook and Youtube, leaving comments that describe how the games ends. I don't know about you guys but I really don't see why people feel the need to ruin games (or films, TV or books for that matter!) for anyone else, what do they get out of it? It reminds of similar story that I heard when The Usual Suspects was released - Someone decided to scrawl 'It's Him!" above Kevin Spacey on numerous posters advertising the film in the London Underground. I don't know what must be going through their heads...cretins. The strange thing is that I'm assuming that 'Mr Laptop' must have bought the game (via a broken street date) or got hold of a preview copy and had to have played it through at least once (which is 10 hrs if the rumours are to be believed). This to me indicates that he wanted to play the game and had an interest in this, groundbreaking, new type of game genre. However by leaking the ending then the people who were unlucky enough to come across some of the aforementioned spoilers may now feel that there is no point in buying the game. If this happens in large enough numbers, resulting in relatively poor sales, it could mean that game developers/publishers may not be as willing to take a chance on exciting, fresh, story driven titles in the future, which would be terrible for ALL gamers, regardless of the platform you own. Therefore while he (or she) may have done this for a bit of fun, or to get 'kudos' from his friends I really think that it could have consequences. While many game site moderators have stated that anyone posting spoilers will get banned I think the damage has already been done. The final thing I will say about this is that surely this is a perfect example of why games should have synchronised global release dates! The annoying thing is that I came across a massive spoiler via a Killzone 3 story on N4G, so be vigilant gamers as you never know when a nasty little spoiler may strike! However if you do buy the game and want to lets us know your feelings then head over to our Facebook page and leave some comments under the Heavy Rain Discussions Thread. Till next time, game on!

Tips N4G