Kratos is stunned: there isn’t a flock of identical zombies…

After the short and sweet opening cinema detailing the you-whomp-‘em-Persian-guards objective, you’ll become immediately aware that the tried and true hack-‘n-slash formula is in full, familiar force in Ready At Dawn’s God of War: Chains of Olympus. Fortunately, that means loads of enemies on screen to catch the business end of Kratos’ blades in the neck, eyeballs or frequently bisected torso. In true God of War fashion, Chains of Olympus flows at a smooth pace as players progress through mythological Greece as a tormented and violently angered, hopping from one legendary location to another.

Unfortunately, the amount of backtracking required to progress to a new setting limits the amount of scenic routes to about a half dozen. Puzzle solving on COO, while equally satisfying and tedious, requires hiking it through entire temples or caves, which are shockingly huge and completely devoid of load times. Navigating Kratos from one end of a city to another, through buildings, over bridges and vertically towards rooftops, is seamless and without framerate drops.

The scope of this game is as impressive as its art style and visual design. Epic views of a crumbling town, complete with a look-out of your future path, compliment the great character models and beautiful textures. Facial and combat animations are spot on, and the dialogue – while irritatingly pretentious – is well delivered throughout the entirety of Kratos’ six hour, vengeful adventure, which will requre you to do nothing but rapidly beat the hell out of your square button to succeed.

Oh, there they are.

The length of the game might seem too short, but the repetition of the square-square-square combat and overpowered magic attacks will have you thankful that it’s over when it is. The story is almost non-existent – perfect for those who just want to get their killin’ on – focusing exclusively on Kratos trying to, you guessed it, rid himself of his torturing memories in this prequel to the console predecessors.

Because this has no reference to the original games, anyone who’s been avoiding the franchise until now will be completely at a loss as to what’s going on, and the limited insight COO offers to fans is practically worthless, with a mere taste of satisfaction in the final moments of the game.

Until that point, you’ll be mashing away on the square and triangle button – with little deviation from square – to deal with the identical mass of undead baddies. It makes for boring action when you’re smacking the same action button repeatedly until everyone falls down, and when you consider the complete absence of enemy AI outside the monstrous enemies, it’s even less of a satisfying experience.

The complexity offered is in the magic, adding a press of the R button in sync with an attack as Kratos brings on the fury of flames in punching and throwing form, and holding L while attacking to make the angry fella spin in circles, making him an almost invincible death dealer in an already too-easy game.

Adding a Gauntlet as a secondary weapon is, for the most part, useless. Intuitively tied to the Down d-pad key, Zeus’ Gauntlet costs you limited attack range in exchange for an unnoticeable increase in attack damage and loss of speed. You’re best off if you stick to the Blades of Chaos, since the aforementioned square tapping will get the job done in no time.

If you want the job done even quicker, combat can be completely eliminated by the Circle/ grab move. The insta-kill shaves off seconds of time and mounds off effort. Without having to weaken soldiers down, you’ll avoid the need to execute enemies, which consists of tapping buttons at the correct time that rarely correlate to anything that’s happening on screen, save for the inaccurate analog-nub rotation for decapitation. It’s annoying to have beaten the snot out of a mini-boss, such as a Cyclops – of which there are too many, eliminating bigger bosses and, in turn, crazy-awesome memorable moments – or bigger-than-usual minotaur.

The Mini-Taurs [sic]. A quick press of Circle drives it home instantly.

Sound familiar? That’s because new enemies are nearly non-existent. I don’t know if they skipped town at the beginning when Attica is being burned by a gigantic Basilisk in the opening scene (one of the best fights in the series) but if you’re looking for anything resembling even a pallet swap, you’ll be disappointed to see the same sword wielding, helmet donned zombies eating your sword over and over.

Still, despite the lack of “holy crap, that was awesome” moments, God of War: Chains of Olympus is still fun. The combat never struck me as entertaining, but fans of the franchise will appreciate the similarity to the console versions, including the same controls and attacks, as well as an intuitive R+L+Move replacement for the right-analog-roll. This feels like a God of War game from front to back, inside and out. Epic battles may be scarce, but if you’re in to cutting up legions of faceless baddies in a batch of new, beautiful scenes, Chains of Olympus is absolutely worth your time. This probably won’t convert the haters – though it did kind of impress this one – it’s definitely one of the most impressive titles on PSP, with a ton of replay value if you feel the need to wreck more cow-men and single-eyed monsters. The ending pulls everything together in a pretty emotional set of decisions made by the loathing Kratos, but everything leading up to it is just more of the same.

But hey, if you’re in to that, this is the stuff from the heavens. If not, just hold Earth on your shoulders for all eternity – it’ll be more exciting.

[Rating: 7.5/10.0] 7.5/10

7.5/10

So you really want to play God of War on your PSP, huh? Maybe you don’t have the money to buy it, the parents cheaped out, or perhaps you’re just incredibly cheap. Lucky for you Nukoda and PGRevolution are here to hook you up like two topless and randy Greek vixens.

We’re giving away a free copy of God of War: Chains of Olympus because we liked it so much and want to spread the love. Our review copy was so good to us that we want it to share its gruesome, gritty Greek-God action with the readers and listeners of the Bmashers network. How do you get in?

Check it after the jump.

• Leave a comment below (make sure you’re e-mail address is tied to the comment so we can get a hold of you!)
• Visit the Forum Thread and comment
• E-mail us

It’s that easy. Follow these simple rules, make sure we can get a hold of you, and you’re a sure-shot in our random drawing! Anyone 17 and older can enter – sorry kids, this is an M rated game, and unfortunately we’re going to limit this contest to North America.

(Give us a break, EU! This is our first ever give-away. If you’re clever enough, maybe you can get one of your NA buds to hook you up.)

If you want to increase your chances, visit the forum after you leave a comment, then e-mail us to triple your odds of winning our random draw, but try to avoid leaving 40 comments and e-mail spamming us – that will cripple your chances (you’ll be disqualified). Get the entries in before the March 31st deadline and you’re gold!

Thanks guys, and good luck!

Everything sounds like it’s on the right track, and we here at PGR are eager to see how multiplayer works aside from the co-op campaign, be it top-down or sidescrolling…

What modes could be included? Capture the flag would be really difficult in a straight 2D plane… Deathmatch would be insanely fun though and we can’t wait any longer. BRING IT ON KONAMI!

[Via Press Release]

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. – June 20, 2007 – Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc., today announced Contra 4 (working title) for the Nintendo DS™. Marking the 20th anniversary of the quintessential action franchise, the game pushes 2D side-scrolling action in an all-new direction with gunplay that spans two full screens, original gameplay mechanics that grant players deadlier abilities than ever before, and frantic multiplayer functionality.

Contra 4 takes place two years after the events of Contra III: The Alien Wars. After saving earth from invasion by Red Falcon, Bill Rizer and Lance Bean are confronted with a new extraterrestrial menace: the terrifying Black Viper. Joined by hard-boiled mercenaries Mad Dog and Scorpion, the warriors must once again wage war against an entire army of invaders.

Refining the 2D side-scrolling genre the series established 20 years ago, Contra 4 delivers pure action at a fever pitch as players jump, shoot, and dodge oncoming hazards. Utilizing a new dual screen presentation, the action spans both screens of the Nintendo DS, giving players the opportunity to battle across expansive environments in which death can come from any direction. The use of both screens for the game’s core action also allows for massive boss battles as players try to seek and destroy the weak points of sky-high enemies. A first for the series, Contra 4 introduces a grappling hook accessory that lets players grab onto elements of the environment directly above them. Whether using it to avoid oncoming dangers or attack from a strategic vantage point, the grappling hook allows for new combat situations and dramatic set pieces that underscore the game’s adrenaline-soaked pedigree.

Continuing the multiplayer tradition of previous games in the series, Contra 4 lets two players battle together against Black Viper’s army of vile alien forces and reclaim Earth for mankind.

Developed by WayForward Technologies, Contra 4 is planned for release on the Nintendo DS in 2007. For more information on the game and the Contra franchise, please visit: www.konami.com .

Brothers in Arms DS
Full Metal Alchemist Trading Card Game
Sim City DS
Time Ace
Transformers: Autobots
Transformers: Decepticon
Zendoku

Who knew Sim City DS existed? Not me. I think I’m looking in to that one as well.
What are you picking up? I know you Aussie readers will finally be getting Pokemon this week, so we’ll see you online.

[Thanks DS Fanboy]

If you hit up YouTube you can certainly find videos for the game, finally released this week, but don’t get your hopes up. While the first person elements seem to work fine, and the third person mechanic looks just fine, the visuals and action are a little… lackluster. Textures are totally absent and the firefights look too simple, however, the game still looks like some kind of fun, especially online. Hit up the link and there’s a ton of related videos for you to check out. What do you think? Did anyone buy it? Leave us a comment!

Hopefully after Brothers in Arms: DS comes out.

Shooters on the DS have been VERY hit-or-miss (heavily weighted to ‘miss’) but this months release of Brothers in Arms for the Nintendo DS looks like it might shake things up a bit. Gameloft and Ubi are heading the project and it looks like their aim to please is being taken very seriously. Simplifying the controls to a mere two buttons sounds like something we can really work with. Movement of your soldier, – who is not a war-hero running some super-squad for once… he’s a grunt – consists of d-pad presses in the corresponding directions, and shooting is directed by ‘L’ button taps – there’s also an option for lefties. Cover is a huge part of the game here (Big surprise, these days) and it seems to apply really well. It only makes sense you’d hide from a behemoth tank cruising by, or cower in fear out of harms way, so positioning yourself against a stack of sandbags or a church wall is as simple as moving up to it. Leaning around corners to deal out some fire really lets those Nazi’s know you mean business… from behind a wall. Sissy. Using the touch screen you’ll be able to look around and pull off some actions, like reloading, hopping in vehicles (so you can rest those feet), and chucking grenades. Frag out. Events such as planting bombs will be associated with the touch screen as well, which isn’t very intuitive, but it just seems right. Instead of a combination of button presses, items are selected with all the ease of a single tap, and zooming in for pinpoint accuracy has an appropriate double tap. The controls really sound like a breath of fresh air, and look to be less ‘tacked on’ than most DS titles.

Aside from how the game plays, the game simply looks good. It’s not gorgeous, but with the DS’ hardware, this is exactly what you want. It passes expectations in the texture and model department which makes for some really awesome looking characters and environments. The heated action is intense, and we’re really excited to jump in to it and earn the unlockable medals (Achievements?). Multiple on-screen enemies provide some heavy fire against you and your squad, and when your commander shouts orders (Via real voice over) you’d better follow them. It seems that Brothers in Arms is a very team based game, both in the single player campaign, or in the four player multiplayer. 2v2 Deathmatch, or a straight up free-for-all are the only options thus far for the multiplayer portion of the game, and here’s hoping it supports single cart download play. It’s a shame there’s no Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection, since it’d really be awesome to set up some bmashers tournaments when this incredibly solid looking objective based World War II shooter comes out later this year.

Will Sega include any PS3/PSP cross-connectivity? If a PSP/PS3 owner owns both titles, one would wonder if they could carry on their PS3 career on the go, a la Madden. The potential for unlockables and bonus features is tremendous, and another awesome PSP Racer is nothing to complain about.

[Source]

Puzzle Quest

A rich, deep RPG for your PSP that’s actually really good? What’s the catch? The snag here is that it’s Bejeweled! Now hold on, it’s likely you know about this one but shrugged it off, but reconsider here. It’s a legitimate RPG with a story, multiple classes, and the puzzle element is genuinely fun. Lining up 3-5 colored orbs for mana to activate your list of unlockable spells sounds simple, but you will get sucked in. The game has a vast amount to do and has incredible depth that anyone can lose hours of their lives to.

Ratchet and Clank: Size Matters

Ratchet and Clank are some of Sony’s most memorable and recognizable characters, as their humor is continually amusing. The gameplay is always right on, and the PSP iteration is no different. Action packed, funny platforming and more can be found in this decent length, gorgeous shooter follows the dynamic duo through their trials and tribulations enveloped in a fun story. Multiplayer in both local and infrastructure forms is here if you get lonely in the single player game, but you shouldn’t – it’s totally radical.

Look for more game recommendations to come in the summer days! Feel free to comment and send in suggestions!

Care to join us? Simply join the forums and let us know your name, so we can send out the invites.

Online supports voice chat, and eight player matches in a variety of modes. Capture the Flag, Assault, Deathmatch, the gang’s all here! As the host, you have the option to mix things up by starting the match with any weapon available. Sniper, or rocket rounds make for some great fun.

Also, the Killzone Command Center that Victor Zuylen helmed, has been revamped again – it takes a while to load, but it’s a mighty fine reward.

This is available for download in the Downloads option in your Killzone Liberation main menu. It’s lengthy, and make sure you’ve got a charged PSP.

To coincide with this, Sony released a new firmware update. 3.50 is out for your downloading… I don’t want to say ‘pleasure’ since it’s such a minute update, it’s almost worthless, but it’s here nonetheless. Available at Sony’s website, or through your Network Update Option in the XMB.

• Support has been added to allow remote play over the internet in [Remote Play]
• [RSS Channel Guide] has been added as a feature under [RSS Channel]

[Thanks, Michael Haddox!]

You can pick up Carnival Point right now. EA Describes it as such:

“As the late afternoon sun shines overhead, drift around long mountainous bends, hurtle past the sandy beach and wreak havoc in the downtown traffic of a South American metropolis.”

American? Click here.

European? Click here.

Look forward to another download in June. Hit the link to find out more.

[Source]

Gurumin
Airport Hero sounds more fun that it looks, but apparently Sim games are huge in Japan, so there are 2 downloads available for this odd looking title airport managing simulator.

If babysitting an airport isn’t quite your peak interest, perhaps Role-Playing-Games are. Also recently available are downloads for the delightfully quirky and cute RPG Gurumin, or the simply generic, yet entertaining Legend Of Heroes III: Song of the Ocean.

This group of games is sure to please many, but if you absolutely refuse to read Japanese, there is indeed a PQ2 demo in English available as well.

Head over to PSPImages for the full list and downloads and instructions. 

      Syphon Filter: Logan’s Shadow puts you once again in the shoes of Gabriel Logan as he searches for his partner Lian Xing, who’s gone suddenly and mysteriously missing. Load up your guns because you’re back in the fray of an array of environments from desert locales, sea freighters, and even underwater. Resident Evil 4 like quick time events (which seem to be all the rage in new games these days) should keep gamers on their toes in the search for Lian, and take cover as they engage terrorists all over the globe! Improved AI seems present, as difficulty has clearly been increased since this titles predecessor and Sony is also utilizing the Havok (ragdoll) physics engine.

Gamers can look forward to Syphon Filter: Logan’s Shadow later in 2007.

Thanks to PSP Fanboy, Gamespot, and the 1up Network 

Star Wars Battlefront®: Renegade Squadronâ„¢ is the previously untold story of a ragtag ensemble of battle-hardened rogues and scoundrels assembled by Han Solo. Gathered to execute some of the most secretive operations in the Rebel Alliance’s war against the Galactic Empire, the Renegade Squadron participates in battles spanning the galaxy. From the Valley of the Sith on Korriban to a dogfight in space through the remains of Alderaan, Solo directs the team on missions of sabotage, rescue and retrieval. 

• Beginning with the evacuation of Yavin 4 (end of A New Hope) and ending with the Battle of Endor (Return of the Jedi), the original story features 11 battles as seen through the eyes of a clandestine Rebel team personally selected by Han Solo.
• Millions of possible customizations directly affect gameplay to an even greater degree than the predetermined character classes of previous Star Wars Battlefront games.
• Earn credits to upgrade and customize soldiers’ attributes (health, speed, agility), equipment (weapons, items) and appearance (species, body, insignia, uniform colors).
• New maps include Ord Mantell, Boz Pity, Korriban, Sullust and Saleucami, plus new space battles at Kessel, Hoth, Bespin, and the remnants of Alderaan. Renegade Squadron also adds a second Hoth map, plus a new interpretation of Endor.
• For the first time, fly as heroes in space aboard the Millennium Falcon, Darth

This confirms that it’s the only Battlefront game of 2007… Looks like it could be a hardcore system seller.

]]> http://pgrevolution.com/2007/05/11/star-wars-battlefront-sequel-for-psp-infrastructure-orgasm/feed/ 2 http://pgrevolution.com/2007/05/09/happy-mothers-day-almost/ http://pgrevolution.com/2007/05/09/happy-mothers-day-almost/#comments Wed, 09 May 2007 07:45:14 +0000 MitchyD http://pgrevolution.com/2007/05/09/happy-mothers-day-almost/

Stuck on what to get mom for Mother’s Day? A nice Pink DS Lite sounds spiffy to me! DS Lite’s are selling a ridiculous amount, and Nintendo would love for you to add ink in to their money printer by picking up another one. Mother’s Day is on the 13th, and if you’re strapped for a gift… Ahem. Yeah.
Too bad my mom already has one. What am I going to do?