Sony just dropped the bomb at GDC this year! It’s time to turn your Playstation 3 into another platform, The Playstation Move platform!

The combination of the Playstation Eye, the motion controller and the ‘sub-controller’ you will be able to entertain yourself in 3D space in-front of your TV. You can now officially look like an absolute pillock on the PS3 at sometime this Christmas! – so buy some curtains until then.

The combination of the PS3 system and PlayStation Eye camera detects the precise movement, angle, and absolute position in 3D space of PlayStation Move motion controller, allowing users to intuitively play the game as if they themselves are within the game. PlayStation Move motion controller delivers unmatched accuracy through its advanced motion sensors, including a three-axis gyroscope, a three-axis accelerometer, and a terrestrial magnetic field sensor, as well as a color-changing sphere that is tracked by PlayStation Eye camera. Through PlayStation Move system, both fast and subtle motion can be detected, whether the user is swinging a tennis racket, or painting with a brush. With PlayStation Move motion controller, users can provide direct input through action buttons and an analog trigger, while receiving physical feedback from rumble functionality and visual feedback from the sphere’s ability to display a variety of different colors. Furthermore, PlayStation Eye camera can capture the player’s voice or image, enabling augmented reality experiences.

The newly announced PlayStation Move sub-controller is a one-handed controller, developed to further expand the game play options that PlayStation Move games can offer^*2. PlayStation Move sub-controller features a sleek curved design that pairs with the motion controller and comes with an analog stick and directional buttons that allow users to easily control the game when moving characters or choosing a direction. Like all other Wireless Controllers for the PS3 system, it comes with a built in lithium-ion rechargeable battery as well as Bluetooth® technology, enabling the controller to transfer the input information wirelessly to the PS3 system without a cable. PlayStation Move motion controller and sub-controller will further broaden the gaming experience on the PS3 system for all genres, from games that use one motion controller to games that use both controllers.

We just can’t wait to “Move it!” – uh god.

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Xg News This Week: Are you suffering from Mapathy? Bad Servers, Portal 2 gets announced and we save F1.

Sam, Paul and John pull through once more for another entertaining podcast! Lots of new announcements this week, including debuts of new games, thoughts on: the current Blur Beta, Toy Soldiers, Final Fantasy XIII and this week’s Scrap Metal. How about we fix the sport of Formula 1 while we’re at it? Tracks + Fire will truly fix the sport!

The new Cerberus Arc Projector

EA and BioWare have gifted fans of Mass Effect 2 with some new DLC, The Arc Projector heavy weapon. Here is a brief outline of the weapon’s capabilities:

The Arc Projector ionizes targets with a non-visible laser to ready them for a high-voltage electrical attack. As the lightning-like bolt hits its first target, a sophisticated auto-targeting system paints succeeding targets with the ionization laser, allowing the electricity to take the path of least resistance and arc between them. An entire enemy strike team can be shocked to death with a few pulls of the trigger. Careful aiming will also allow the user to arc shots to nearby explosives as well.

A welcome addition to your arsenal I’m sure you’ll agree. This is the first of the heavier guns to utilise an electric attack, with a quick reload time and massive damage dealing capabilities. It’s strengths lie in destroying kinetic barriers and eliminating synthetic barriers. I for one will soon be jetting around the Milky Way shocking the living daylights out of any mercenaries I may have missed the first time round. To give you even more of an indication of how it works here are a few screenshots of this bad boy in action.

Myself, Dave and Kieran headed down to HMV Oxford Street for yesterday’s launch of the latest Final Fantasy.

We watched Alex Zane hype the crowd, people who have amazing cos-play confidence oh and we spoke to the most important people at the event, you guys of course!

Available in High Def on the Tube!

Alex Zane ‘rocked the mic right’ last night at London’s Oxford Street hmv store, in front of 2,000 Final Fantasy fans! This making it the biggest game launch ever in hmv launch history!

Tim Ellis who is the head of the games department at HMV was thrilled:

“Last night’s Final Fantasy XIII signing at HMV’s flagship store on Oxford Street was the biggest game launch the store has ever seen. With thousands of fans queuing up round the block it even beats our stores previous best game launch event which was for World of Warcraft.

“They say games are the new rock and roll, and this incredible turnout certainly proves the point. We could organise album launches and DVD signings by major stars but I’m sure none would come close to attracting the size of crowd and enthusiastic response that we saw last night.

Well if they say games are the new rock and roll we truly rocked up! Our video coverage will be up sometime later today!

Is the above picture a representation of you? Is Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 causing you to become frustrated, angry and possibly Mapathetic? Here is a full description of what you may be experiencing, courtesy of Infinity Ward:

“Mapathy (n.) [map-uh-thee] (often expressed as, “How the hell did you know I was there?!”) is a state of indifference to the same old maps one has been playing for the last several months. The Mapathetic individual no longer derives pleasure from blowing up people hiding in the cockpit or on top of the crane. More than 20 million people may be at risk for Mapathy.”

Well fear not my fellow FPS addicts and fellow Mapathy sufferers, a cure is at hand. On March 30th 2010 a map pack is coming for COD Modern Warfare 2 on Xbox 360 shortly afterwards  for PS3 and PC.

Details are sketchy at the moment but check back soon for more info as it arrives. More people around the globe are currently suffering from Mapathy than swine flu, and tamiflu can’t help you… only more maps can.

More info at mapathy.com

Formula One will be racing its way into High Def’ this September! Pitting in on the Xbox 360, PS3 and then later on it will be arriving on your Personal Computer!

For you guys who didn’t pick up the Formula 1 Wii-entertainment last year you are going to have to wait until September for a fully fledged high-def F1 experience! phwoah.

The September launch will see F1 2010 become the first official FORMULA ONE game to appear for Xbox 360 and marks the return of FORMULA ONE to PC after an eight year absence. The arrival of the HD editions of FORMULA ONE follows Codemasters’ extremely successful launch of F1 2009 for Wii and PSP, which became a top five best seller throughout the past holiday period.

In F1 2010 gamers will take on the full, expanded grid in a variety of game modes including GRAND PRIX, Championship, Time Trial and an extensive, innovative Career mode. F1 2010 will also feature a highly advanced damage model, fully dynamic weather system and extensive competitive multiplayer options.

The last time we saw an attempt at a decent looking F1 game was way back in 2007 – so hopefully 3 years has been a good lesson?

[Available Now for 1200 MSP – Xbox Live Marketplace]

Drift around corners with guns blazing and take out legendary competitors in the fast-paced, top-down racing game Scrap Metal™. Fight your way through explosive, action-packed missions and defeat cunning bosses to add their vehicles to your garage. Customize your newly-acquired cars and then return to the track to blast through more enemies. Jump online with Xbox LIVE ® to race against your friends and crush their cars with the wheels of your monster truck in pulse-pounding online multiplayer matches.

• Racing action: It’s fast-paced, top-down racing action with beautiful HD graphics and fantastic racing physics.
• Story mode: Take on all the cunning villains and defeat the tricky bosses.
• Awesome, customizable vehicles: Drive everything from muscle cars to monster trucks to air boats and even tanks.
• Multiplayer: Try split-screen or Xbox LIVE multiplayer modes.
• 3-D support: Scrap Metal has full anaglyph 3-D support.

Today, our thoughts are in regards to 3D gaming. It’s not as much a debate in my eyes as it is an acceptance of the in-evitable. Its critics quickly coined on to the fact that, wearing 3D glasses whilst gaming is going to make us look un-cool. This makes me laugh, no really, if someone thinks that they are going to look worse than you already do, you need to record yourself and watch it! We already make daft facial expressions, lean with our driving, speak into headsets ripped of universal soldier and much more that frankly doesn’t exactly gamers “cool”. That’s when we’re playing on a none-motion controlled game too. Looking like an idiot is part of everybody else’s “fun” when you play games. Learn to love it.

As a method of entertainment as well, Gaming is going to have to follow the trends in order to keep up. Films are going 3D and having seen Avatar in 3D, which was made to take full advantage of 3D technologies, 3D really does help the immersion you feel when experiencing entertainment. Sure after a while the novelty might wear off but then we’re just left with the after effect of a better gaming experience overall.

As with most things though, initially it’s going to be expensive and the results are probably going to be sub-par with downsides. Alas this is the period of time we have to put up with to get the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Endure now and we will get the benefits at the end of the day. Once it’s integrated, that’s when the “next big thing” will start being worked on even more. Progress works better if we accept the smaller changes to get us to the momentous ones!

It’s time to accept what moaning isn’t going to stop. 3D is coming, time to get used to the idea. Click on the break to hear other editor thoughts and videos.

Gametrailers had the opportunity to interview Adam Scraba product manager for Nvidia regarding the technology. Click on the video for a preview and explanation of the technology.

Thrungus & Fishwick recently were lucky enough to play Metro 2033 in 3D at a London press event.

Metro 2033 Screenshots

Fishwick Thoughts On 3D Gaming……..

Firstly 3D gaming technology is available right now with Nvidia pioneering the way and an increasing number of titles are supporting  “3D vision” and “Active Shutter” glasses. After viewing the technology at Centre Point I have no doubt it will be adopted by mainstream gamers, particularly FPS fans. Metro 2033 simply looked amazing, gamers out there may ask “how can it look that different from HD graphics?” Simply the environment looks 10 times better and I felt much more immersed, I wasn’t simply looking at a flat image but rather a window into the Metro 2033 world. Gameplay doesn’t really change however the levels were so much more atmospheric and it may sound strange but your character positioning felt different. 3D vision added depth to your view which is why I describe the experience as looking through a window.

Despite this amazing experience I think 3D gaming is a long way off for two reasons THQ kindly provided the equipment for us to have a quick play, if we were to purchase the same hardware for home usage it would cost close to a thousand pounds. I doubt many gamers will spend that much just to experience 3D vision titles.

This leads onto the second issue, the lack of demand, both Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 are both capable of supporting 3D vision games so why aren’t manufacturers and developers striving forward in the hope of gaining a competitive advantage? well a number of obvious reasons; return on investment is very low and not everyone has 3D television sets in their home. Aaron Greenburg summarises the industry view quite nicely in an interview with G4.

“As consumer interest for 3D grows, we’ll grow with it,” Greenberg told G4TV. “From the technical standpoint, we are fully 3D capable. We have 3D games running today.

“I think right now we’re unsure what level of interest there is from consumers to really want a 3D experience in the living room. Many, many years from now when it becomes a reality, we absolutely can support it, we do support it today. If developers want to make more 3D games, they can.”

“I think 3D is a great experience in the theater and I thought Avatar was fantastic, but there’s a lot of challenges about 3D in the living room,” Greenberg explains.

“I don’t know about you, but when I play games or watch TV, I’ve got my phone, I’ve got all kinds of things going on. I get up, I get down, I’m looking outside at the weather and it’s…I’m not in a dark theater, wearing glasses, staring at a screen. I think it’s just a different environment.”

Simply Xbox 360 and PS3 are both capable of 3D gaming but the audience isn’t quite there yet….

Thrungus Thoughts On 3D Gaming……

I found it didn’t really make a difference to the way you played games, some effects were atheistically pleasing such as the glare from the moon and and depth of the gun position when you aimed but overall it didn’t really alter or increase my gaming experience.

Video of NVIDIA 3D Vision using three screens at CES 2010…..the future of gaming?…….

So will 3D gaming make it big, if so when? Agree or disagree with our editors? Drop a comment and tell  us!

Time to take the soldiers out of the box, and they don’t require assembly and painting!

With the Kaiser dealt with and the toy’s safely back in their box, it’s time to take a closer look at this XBLA game and see if the House Party has been kicked off in style. So with gun’s at the ready, we wait for the whistle to send us over the top, either to glory and victory or to certain death at the hands of the German guns. Even in a toy war there can be on only one winner, is Toy Soldiers a glorious success? Or a whimpering death rattle…

Gameplay – 9

Toy Soldiers is, at its heart, a tower defence game. But it’s an exceptionally good one with a few lovely and unique touches. The aim of the game is simply to place your towers at strategic positions to protect your toy box from enemy invasion. After a pre determined number of enemies have entered your toy box you lose, or if you repel every wave you win. Simple yet gripping stuff. The single player levels are varied too with some having you just using towers (you can select them and take full control, mowing down the Hun yourself!) while others have you controlling a variety of tanks and planes to deal death upon your foes. You earn money for destroying enemies and you then use this cash to upgrade and build your defences!

The maps also vary in size and the types of enemys which will come running at you. You will have to able to switch tactics quickly to deal with all threats and win each round. There are 12 levels in total and they are all hugely entertaining and challenging as well as different from each other, as well as 4 different difficulty levels adding a lot of replay value. Add to that a selection of achievements and ‘Ration Tickets’ (goals to complete on each mission such as kill 10 enemies with 1 explosion) and this is a much bigger game than your average Arcade title. Considering that the game costs only 1200 Microsoft Points (about £6) you do feel as though you are getting your monies worth. Once you complete the Campaign mode you also unlock a survival mode in which you see how long you can last against wave after wave of the German war machine, another few hours worth of play at least.

The weaponry at your disposal is wonderful, and all fully upgradeable from level 1 to 3 with the higher levels granting you a far superior and much more devastating arsenal. There are machine guns to mow down infantry, mortars to send them flying across the map, chemical weapons to burn and choke, artillery to rain death on vehicles and opposition buildings, AA guns to blast planes from the sky and barbed wire to slow the German advance toward your position. Each is controllable if you fancy dishing out the punishment yourself, or (on all difficulty levels except elite) you can just leave them to it as you nip around the battlefield upgrading and monitoring your progress. It’s all easy to control and fun to play around with. Then you throw into the mix the previously mentioned planes and tanks as well as the as the masses of fun you can have with the controllable sniper towers and you have a truly remarkable little game! It’s all easy to control and fun to play around with.

The sniper towers are devilishly good fun

Graphics and Sound – 9

This game has a lovely sound track, the menus have great authentic early 1900’s music and it actually sounds as though it’s being played on your grandparents gramophone. It sets the scene nicely right from the opening menu and conjures images of a different time, a time when technology and weaponry was developing at an amazing rate and young men were leaving there homes all over Europe to fight in what would become known as the Great War. The sound effects in game are equally as good and atmospheric, this may seem strange for such a ‘cartoony’ looking game but it works really well, from the rattle of gun fire to the exploding of shells and whine of enemy aircraft as it swoops over your base unleashing it’s deadly payload.

Graphically this game is beautiful, each model is rendered superbly and the opposing sides have a different and unique look to there arsenal’s. The toy soldiers look and move like you’d expect plastic miniatures to whilst retaining authenticity, it never looks or feels silly or childish or disrespectful to the time period in question. The explosions and gunfire are great to, you can really feel the recoil as you pull the trigger and you practically find yourself ducking as the German horseman leap through your defences with sabres and lances drawn. This is a well polished and incredibly good looking game. It has a grainy and old fashioned look to it which also helps maintain the ambiance and authenticity the rest of the game strives to deliver. The only mild criticism I have is that perhaps a little more could have been added to the death and destruction animations, but this isn’t even noticeable until you’ve played the game for quite some time and certainly doesn’t detract from the enjoyment and stylishness of it.

The big guns go BOOM in a big way. You can almost hear Blackadder’s faithful sidekick Baldrick’s poem. . .

Multiplayer – 8

Going head to head on this game is a slightly different challenge to the single player campaign. As well as repelling the enemy you need to organise and send out your own troops, selecting the right ones to send against your foe at the right time is a tricky business and adds a new layer of depth to the game. It means you need to take stock of what your enemy has deployed and is sending against you, exploiting a weakness can literally mean the difference between victory and defeat. You can still take control of any tower at any time to take a more hands on approach and the tanks and planes are there too. The different maps give you access to different towers, vehicles and troops making it just as varied as the single player mode. There is a hell of a lot of fun to be had engaging in a dogfight with the Red Baron whilst below you seeing your troops clash and the guns roar. It’s a truly enjoyable experience.

The options when choosing your game are also interesting and add a layer of depth. You can choose which country to be, how many troops must enter the toy box to win the game, the amount of cash you start with and which units to use and whether the AI will control them or you will have full command. It play’s very similarly to the single player, except when you call your enemy a git for taking out your AA guns they can hear you and respond. There are 5 maps to choose from and again, each offers something a little different in size and strategy. The one downfall the multiplayer has is people seem to quit very easily and you don’t gain rewards or levels for victories, making it a tad hollow.

Mowing down the Hun has never been so entertaining!

Overall Then. . .

I was genuinely enthralled and blown away by this game. For an Arcade title it has wonderful depth, replay value and is also great value for money. A must have for any fan of tower defence and a must have for anyone who wants a great game for their six quid.