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!

I recently had the opportunity to sit down with a preview build of FlatOut: Head On for the PSP. I have to say that I was genuinely impressed with how this racer is shaping up for it’s March 11th release date.

Racing games can basically be distilled down into two key types; the Arcade Racer and the Simulation. FlatOut thankfully has always accepted that it was the former and pushes that envelope. Any game with a driver high jump event as a challenge can’t be taking itself too seriously after all.

Head On is the latest in the series of games that started out on the previous console generation and most recently made an appearance on the Xbox 360 as FlatOut: Carnage. FlatOut: Head On was based on that 360 version and places heavy focus on its predecessor’s Carnage mode. Carnage is a perfect fit for the quick pick up and play gaming habits that us portable gamers tend to develop. Instead of trying to finish first in a race your goal is to cause as much damage as possible while running the race. Think of it as a cross between Burnout’s crash mode and a smash up derby and you’ll have a good idea what I’m talking about.

I personally loved the heck out of this mode and spent most of my time trying to bash, crash, flip and total everything in my path. It is indeed a perfect game to play after a long and stressful commute home.

When you finally need a break from the intense action in Carnage mode you can take on the game’s huge career mode. You start out with just enough cash to buy a clunker of a car, but by placing well in races, events, derbies and mini-games you earn cash that can be spent to soup up your ride or to buy a bigger and badder machine. This adds a level of depth to this title that will no doubt add hours upon hours of replayability. Even more so when you are a completionist like I am and simply must unlock and buy every car and upgrade in the game.

Making an appearance Head On is of course the mini-games. The mini-games are probably the most recognizable parts of the FlatOut series, as it’s quite hard to forget the joy of launching your first hapless driver hundreds of feet through the air into a large net. Thankfully these mini-games are every bit as fun on the go as they were on the games’ bigger cousins. Your driver still flies out of the car flopping away with the ragdoll physics, and the landings are as bone-cruncingly satisfying as ever. Human bowling FTW.

You can’t have a racing title without multiplayer and Head On will include all the multiplayer options that you would expect. Unfortunately since this was a preview build I was not able to mess around with any of these. I’ll be sure to cover all of the multi-player modes in my review once the retail game hits.

I have to say that I am very impressed with how Six By Nine was able to squeeze all of the fun of the big console versions into my PSP. The graphics are gorgeous with particle effects and debris flying everywhere, and the controls are spot on.

FlatOut: Head On is shaping up to be a killer title for the PSP. If Six By Nine can keep things as quick and brutal as they are in this preview build, this will be a must own for any arcade racing fan with a PSP and a few spare months to waste. I’ve included some more screenshots and a preview trailer below.

Reblogged from our sister site Nukoda.com

With weapons-based combat titles such as Devil May Cry and Ninja Gaiden largely coming out of Japan, it was great to see a western touch on the genre when SCEA dropped God of War for the PS2 in 2005. The differences in these games were quite noticeable, most poignantly that God of War required less skill and encouraged heavy amounts of button mashing as opposed to learning combos, parries and evasion, as Japanese action games did.

Despite this, the game was a roaring success, and with the third iteration of the God of War franchise hitting PSP’s in early March, the series looks to be embracing its success.

God of War: Chains of Olympus, the third edition of the gruesome Greek gore-fest, is one of the most impressive handheld titles ever created.

Even critics of the game’s simplicity and ease will be converted at the immense technical capabilities that the game offers. While it still retains its square-square-square method of fighting, Chains of Olympus manages to be an impressive and fun button masher, and an absolutely incredible tribute to the console series.

Kratos, the franchise’s superstar hero, returns in his pasty-white, sword slashin’ glory. Controlling the buffed out Spartan feels tight on the PSP’s analog nub, and his attacks, found on the square and triangle buttons, are responsive and feel great.

Executing combinations is as simple as ever - mashing the square or triangle buttons randomly result in badass looking combos – and the right-stick roll is intuitively replaced by holding the R and L keys and nudging the left thumbstick, making for smooth beat-‘em-up action that most have come to expect from the God of War games.

Unfortunately, the painfully easy combat of the console game and brainless puzzles returns, and while this isn’t a technological error that halts the enjoyment of the game, being able to wreck hordes of identical Persian baddies with the tap of the circle button – grab-and-stab – or mashing the attack buttons makes the game incredibly straightforward. Crank puzzles are in full force, which was one of the more annoying portions of the first two games.

There’s nothing more infuriating than endlessly spawning soldiers whose sole goal is to poke Kratos in the ribs in order to make the poor guy restart his crank turning, or ballista pulling. Again, they’re easily dispatchable, but it’s a chore dealing with them.

… and more rapid-fire circle stomping.

To its credit, the bosses in the handheld title are equally as cool as its console cousin, but gamers who are bored by the tired quick-time-events (Tap circle to escape/stab/parry!) will find no love here. Kratos’ brutal method of taking out gigantic enemies has always been a highlight, but timing a random button press - or a series of them - is a less than exhilarating way to gouge the eyes out of a humongous, city burning Basilisk. Simple actions such as opening doors and crates correlate to mashing the circle key as well, and pounding your portable rapidly is going to make for one awkward bus ride, and a very uncomfortable gameplay experience.

The magnitude of Chains of Olympus is incredible. Levels are detailed, character animation is smooth and everything looks sharp. Minimal framerate slowdown and fluid combat make this a worthy and authentic God of War title, and even if the game is more of the same, its scope is astounding and it’s a technological wonder.

How Traveler’s Tales managed to fit all of this awesome on a UMD is a mystery, and even those who doubt the franchise will be impressed by the game, even if the combat is so easy it hurts, enemies are brain-dead to the point that they forget why they’re where they are, or the puzzles were created by the kids at the local daycare. It’s still wicked fun.

So while it fails to live up to the depth and skill progression of Japanese sword slashers, this really feels like a God of War game, so if that’s your bag, there’s nothing not to like.

God of War: Chains of Olympus is going to kick ass all over the place on March 4^th.

Reblogged from our sister site Nukoda.com

At the recent Destination Playstation event held by Sony in Arizona two new bundles were announced. The one announcement that peaked my interest was of course, the God of War PSP Entertainment Pack shipping in June. This bundle contains a new blood red PSP and a copy of the God of War: Chains of Olympus game (full package details below). I so want this bundle, but there is one odd thing about it. The bundle hits in June, but GoW:CoO hit the streets on March 4th!? If you can hold off on picking up God of War: Chains of Olympus until then you will be able to play it on this sweet new PSP, but if you wait you’ll end up with a second copy of the game. Also announced was a 80gb PS3 bundle shipping with MGS4 and a Dualshock 3.

Still cool, but I really don’t understand the method to Sony’s madness on this one. Package details follow from the official press release:

In June, a new PSP Entertainment Pack will be hitting stores, featuring the famous face of the Ghost of Sparta — Kratos. Here’s what you get in the bundle, which will be available for $199.99 (MSRP):

• Limited-Edition “Deep Red” PSP with Kratos silkscreened on the back
• God of War: Chains of Olympus
• Superbad on UMD video
• Voucher to download Syphon Filter: Combat Ops from PLAYSTATION Store for free

God of War: Chains of Olympus still arrives for PSP on March 4, 2008

Reblogged from our sister site Nukoda.

At Sony’s Pre-E3 press conference Sony spent an unusual amount of time talking about our favorite little handheld, the PSP. Announced at the conference was a new version of the PSP (nicknamed the slim, but no official name was given). This new version of the PSP will be 19% slimmer and 33% lighter, but still have the gorgeous 4.3″ screen. This new version will have greater battery life due to new battery technologies, and feature video out!

During the conference Kaz Hirai demoed this video out and it looked pretty simple. To output your games, movies or images to your TV you just have to plug in the video cable to the headphone jack and hold down the display button for 5 seconds. This is a feature that we were all begging Sony for when UMD videos were still viable, sadly it took Sony this long to do it since the UMD video format is nearly dead.

Also announced were a pair of new coloured systems releasing as bundles. The first bundle contains the PSP, a 1GB memory stick, the game Daxter, and the UMD movie The Family Guy Frickin’ Sweet. This bundle will sell for $199 US. Chewbacca joined Jack Tretton on stage to show off the second bundle, The Star Wars Battlefront edition. This bundle will come with a sweet looking white PSP that has a nice Darth Vader image on the back, and will come with a copy of the exclusive PSP title Star Wars Battlefront Renegade Squadron. This bundle should drop in October for $199.

All in all I was underwhelmed with the new PSP. The new size and built in video-out is nice, but I was really hoping for built-in flash memory and a tie in to the Sony Online store. The rest of the great PSP game announcements at the show left me feeling better though.

People are skeptical when they downgrade as they fear of making their PSP “bricked” or non-functional. Well the Noobz team have made sure this downgrade is as simple as simple can be. At no point should you feel stuck in downgrading. As long as you can read and understand English, own a PSP with firmware 3.50 or below and a copy of Lumines (Any version such as platinum ETC), then you can downgrade. You may also want to try out the ‘Illuminati Hello World’ homebrew that you can try on a 3.50 PSP to get the feel of downgrading. You can see ‘Illuminati Hello World’ below:

With this new downgrader, it detects which motherboard your PSP has and downgrades it to that type. This way, its safer than just guessing. You may want to ask, ‘But all this downgrading must break PSP’s?’. Well thats were you are wrong. The Noobz team say that if your PSP breaks then you either didn’t follow the instructions 100% or you are one of the unlucky percent that just break.

Overall, I think anyone who has a PSP should take a look into the homebrew scene as it offers a wide scale to view your PSP from. I know that everyone that I helped to downgrade said that they fully enjoy their PSP’s now and it brings a whole new life to the PSP area.

Hope you enjoyed this as I am really exited for you guys as I want you to join me into the homebrew scene and take full advantage of your lovable handheld’s

Cheers
-Matt

A Take-Two representative reveals, “We continue to stand behind this extraordinary game. We believe in freedom of creative expression, as well as responsible marketing, both of which are essential to our business of making great entertainment.”

Lets just hope this game will be on our shelves soon.

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!

Earlier this year we heard that Jackass would not only be a series and a film, but also a game. Skeptic’s said that it would never happen, but now new screenshot’s have been released, Jackass: The Game may be closer then we thought.

Jackass: The Game includes over 30 different stunts you can compete at. These include games such as Whack-a-Weeman and the famous Trolley Racing as you can see below:

Multiplayer has also been talked about and we hear that you can save your best replays to upload onto the internet for the whole world to see. Head to Head mode is the top favorite as you can challenge your friends but no Infrastructure mode has been heard yet.

Overall, Jackass: The Game is getting more popular as gamers discover more abouts its concept. I hope this game is worth buying and not just a rent.

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!