Punch-out is Nintendo’s latest attempt to appeal to the game-hungry hardcore fans that have followed the brand since the NES days. But will this game live up to the wishes of those rose-tinted-spec wearing gamers? Maybe.

The game uses the same perspective as the hit NES boxing games of the same franchise. This is good in concept, but could present a few problems in the gameplay front – as games and the people that play them have moved along in the past 22 years.

However, fortunately, the game may differentiate from the original games through usage of two control schemes. One of which is a so called “Classic Control” scheme, and one of which uses the motion functionality. While at first I was glad to hear this, normally one of the control schemes in games that feature two schemes sucks really badly (see motion control in Motorstorm).

I hope that isn’t the case here however as this game could just be a sleeper hit of 09’ if the developers don’t rely too much on nostalgia and focus more on effective, modern, but still classic gameplay.

Matt

Labels: Matthew, Matthew Meadows, Month of Hype, Punchout

MONTH OF HYPE POSTS

Punchout

It’s 2009, and…well, things have been a little quiet. Although there have been big releases in the form of Killzone 2, Resident Evil 5, Street Fighter 4 and of course 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand, there hasn’t been a lot in between. However, fear not, as this year still has potential to be a memorable one.

GGTL’s month of hype aims to educate you, the reader, about what’s coming in 09, and why you should be pumped for it. Over the next month you’ll be seeing post after post on games ranging from Modern Warfare 2 to Pro Evolution Soccer 2010.

Later on today or tomorrow I’ll be starting the month off with a preview post of Punch-out which looks to add to the Wii’s catalogue of retro remakes.

Matt

Labels: Matthew, Matthew Meadows, Month of Hype

The thought of cars that can fly, midget drivers on midget motorcycles and generally messing about on the roads with your mates are ones which might not be the most pleasing. However, if you add virtual onto the beginning of each of those sentences, things begin to look a whole lot brighter.

Criterion, being an intelligent developer, chose to keep these driving manics within the confines of their latest title, Burnout Paradise. With the release of new DLC vehicles – their ‘Legendary’ and ‘Toy’ cars packs – on the PlayStation Store and Xbox Live Marketplace, Burnout shows no signs of stopping it’s reign of racing quite yet.

The Legendary cars, on first look, tend to impress. Including the Jansen 88 Special, the Manhattan Spirit, the Carson Nighthawk and the Cavalry Bootlegger, the Legendary Cars pack can be downloaded from the PlayStation Store for £6.29, or individually at £1.59 each (that’s about 734 and 186 Microsoft Points, for you Xbox users).

The cars are all impressive in their own way. The Jansen’s amazing flight capabilities, the Spirit’s blaring sirens and stunt agility, the Nighthawk’s strength and speed and the Cavalry’s wonderful horn. Each of their individual attributes is fun and quirky, with each of the cars feeling responsive and fun to drive.

The Toy Cars pack includes nine downsized versions of original Paradise classics, including (but certainly not limited to) the Carson GT Concept P12 and the Hunter Manhattan. In fact, the pack comes stuffed with nine mini versions of old favourites, which can be yours for £9.99 from the PlayStation Store or 1000 MS Points.

The main advantage to having the toy cars pack is the fact that you are almost guaranteed bucketloads of fun. However, for those of you who are a little more bothered about the mechanics of your driving, response times are going to be much quicker than in larger vehicles, and you’ll be able to pull off stunts you couldn’t before, just because of the amount of speed you can get from one of these tiny beauties.

However, both packs have their downfall, which is the price. For what you get in each pack, the prices don’t really seem justified. If you are desperate for a mini version of your favourite car or are just someone who likes to have everything a game can have, then you might feel prepared to hand over the cash for these packs, but for those of you who merely play Burnout Paradise for an hour here and there, there is no real reason to get these two expansions – you can have just as much fun in one of the default cars.

Linford

Labels: Burnout, DLC, Review

The trailer for Codemaster's upcoming free-roaming race-em-up FUEL was just released, and well...it looks amazing. Sure, you might argue that it looks a little like Evolution Studio's Motorstorm, but let me ask you this: is Motorstorm set in a quasi post-apocalyptic world with very little fuel? No. Does Motorstorm have 100,000 miles of roads? No. Does Motorstorm have a 40km draw distance. No.

All in all this is one of my most anticipated games of 2009. It genuinely looks like it could deliver a fun, and gorgeous racing experience, one that I haven't seen since Burnout Paradise.

For God's sake the game world is the size of Northern Ireland! This game is gonna be awesome!

Labels: FUEL, Matthew, Matthew Meadows, Trailer

Fallout: New Vegas will be released by Obsidian Entertainment - a company made up of developers that left Black Isle studios (the makers of much adored Fallout 2) - in 2010.

Labels: Bethesda, Fallout, Matthew, Matthew Meadows, Obsidian

Well, I'm proud to officially announce the launch of our new GGTL layout! There's still a few bugs to iron out, but that shouldn't be too much of a problem for you. Enjoy, and keep us posted if you find anything that's niggly via the comments form on this post.

Linford

Labels: New colours, New Features, New Layout

Gamer’s Guide to Life will be down for scheduled maintenance from 6:30pm BST on Thursday 16th April 2009, running through the night into Friday 17th April 2009. The site will be available again after work is completed.

We apologise for any inconvenience caused.

EDIT: Maintenance has now been completed (5:33pm BST, 18th Apr). You should be able to access the site as usual. Thankyou for your patience.

Linford

Labels: Maintenance

New Final Fantasy Versus XIII footage has been unveiled on the Japanese Blu-Ray release of the popular CGI flick. The game will be released as part of the Advent Children series. More…

The PSP version of the acclaimed Devil May Cry series, announced back in 2005, has been dropped - according to Famitsu magazine, the game has been well and truly cancelled. More…

A debut trailer for Tri-Ace’s upcoming fantasy RPG, End of Eternity, has been released. The game seems to favour DMC-style gunplay instead of spiky hair and swords. More…

Ninty’s latest, the Nintendo DSi, was released on the 3rd April. It has been revealed that, in it’s first weekend, the DSi sold 92,000 units in two days of retail. More…

Sony’s singing sensation, SingStar, will be recieving new updates over the next few weeks. New features for crooning users include trophies and voice recognition. More…

Notoriously-underachieving semi-sorta-official-but-not-quite blog ThreeSpeech is to close to make way for an official EU PlayStation Blog, confirms MusterBuster of the Official EU PS Forums. More…

Labels: News, NewsBites

Gamer's Guide to Life will be down for scheduled maintenance between 4:00pm and 6:00pm GMT (1:00pm and 3:00pm EDT) on Thursday 9th April, 2009. The site will be available again after work has been completed.

EDIT: Maintenance has now been completed. You should be able to access the site as usual. (6:43pm GMT)

Linford

Labels: Maintenance

Pro Evolution Soccer - a favourite franchise for me, and I’m sure many readers out there - will be expanding its game roster with…PES 2010. Sure the name isn’t original but what is in this new football game? Take a look at some of the standout points on Konami’s press release:

• New zonal marking system.
• Better referees and goalkeepers - hopefully a huge improvement over 2009.
• Improved animations, player likeness and visuals. If that means no more cardboard fans, then count me in.
• Commentary altered. Maybe I'll be able to go 2 matches without turning it off as opposed to 1?
• Revamped Master League, with more details to be announced soon.
• Better AI
• New penalty system, a game seller for sure.
• Enhanced online...which you will need 50 different Konami IDs and passwords for!
  

Labels: Matthew, Matthew Meadows, PES 2010

An official website for upcoming MMO ‘Massive Action Game’ has been revealed on Sony PlayStation US’ Twitter account. The site, found here, isn’t really very interesting – it’s more a teaser site than anything.

Although, one thing that’s interesting about the site is the mouse hover. The circle, seen in the picture above, only highlights whilst over central Europe and the very top-left part of North America. When these highlighted areas are clicked for the first time, a picture of some sort flashes up for less than a second, before disappearing. Could this be a hint at where the game will take place? Could it be a hint at which factions will be involved in the game? We don’t know.

Take a look and see what you can find. If you find anything we haven’t, or have any theories as to what the mystic site might mean, comment and let us know.

Linford

Labels: MAG, Massive Action Game, MMO

The team behind the Mortal Kombat series are apparently in talks to leave publisher Midway Games due to pay arguments. The next game in the series is already under development. More…

An update for Sony’s PlayTV, version 1.10, is now live to download. Features include HD upscaling via the PS3, which brings better results than TV upscaling and Blu-Ray remote volume change. More…

Early footage of Pandemic Studios’ Saboteur has been leaked on blog site Supperannuation. The footage, although poor quality, hints at several parts of the gameplay. More…

Sony have revealed 20 new films which will be released on Blu-Ray, including popular flicks such as Labyrinth and Ghostbusters. However, only a few of the titles have release dates. More…

Konami have confirmed that Silent Hill: Shattered Memories will be released for PSP and PS2. The game will follow the storyline from the original and will be developed by Climax. More…

Capcom have confirmed that the Resident Evil 5 Versus Mode DLC will be released on Xbox Live and the PlayStation Store this week. It’ll cost £3.99 or 400 Microsoft Points. More…

Harmonix Studios has confirmed LEGO Rock Band on a blog by Dan Teasdale. The game will probably be released in 2009, sometime between Rock Band Unplugged and The Beatles: Rock Band. More…

A leaked Flickr account has provided gamers with early alpha screenshots of upcoming MMO Massive Action Game, or MAG. The shots can be seen on GGTL’s MAG Hype Train. More…

Labels: News, NewsBites

Instead of just releasing a teaser trailer in the normal way (via GameTrailers, or something), Ubisoft has chosen to release the teaser trailer for the latest in a very well-known series via a viral website.

The Assassin’s Creed 2 teaser site can be found here and resembles the Animus system (from the first game) loading up before playing the teaser trailer (which takes famous images such as Da Vinci’s ‘Vitruvian Man’ and puts an… original take on them). The trailer doesn’t reveal… well, anything about the game, but it’s definitely enough to get Creed fans hyped up before anything else is revealed.

Current details which we know about Creed 2 are that Altair will be even more beautiful than last game (yes, I know that sounds so weird, but bear with it) and he’ll also be able to swim this time round – possibly some underwater assassinations to look forward to?

Linford

Labels: Assassin's Creed, News

It’s been a long time coming, and now it’s here. The new PlayStation 3 firmware, version 2.70. It’s been ages since there’s been a firmware update which can be described as landmark, and Sony know that – so is the latest update going to be enough to satisfy your cravings?

The simple answer: I highly doubt it. However, that isn’t to say it’s a completely pointless update – it’s brought some clever little options and some really nice new features with it; I just doubt it’s enough to class it as a milestone for PS3.

So, new features. There isn’t a huge amount this time, but they’re done relatively okay and integrated well into the existing system. However, they aren’t going to revolutionise the way you use your PS3 – far from it – but they are going to make the experience that bit easier and just a tad high-tech.

The biggest addition to the system is the new ‘text chat’ feature. Allowing up to 16 people to chat using a controller or keyboard, the new text chat feature is, essentialy, the MSN of PlayStation 3. It works in the same way as MSN – you type your message in the input box, hit send and it appears in a reading pane above for you and your friends to read. If you’re in a game, new messages in the chat room appear as message alerts in the top right-hand corner of the screen. You can even participate in up to three chat rooms at once.

However, there is one big weakness to the feature. If you’re halfway through a game and get a message, you have to access the in-game XMB and go into the chat room to type a message. This lengthy and clunky process can be frustrating if you’re in the middle of an attack online, and could cost you precious online XP if you miss something while typing a message. A Home-esque message box and input system would work much better; if you could type a message using a keyboard whilst in-game, the system would be much more fluid to use.

The dynamic normaliser for music is pretty useless, if I’m honest; it prevents sudden volume jumps when you’re listening to music. However, if you’ve bought an album, all the tracks should already be of a similar volume anyway, so really there’s no real scope for the future. However, if you’re someone who uses ‘free’ download websites to get your music, you may find yourself using this feature out of pure necessity.

Use of internet on the PS3 has been improved, giving much more flexibility to the user. By highlighting a game disk and going into the ‘triangle’ options menu, a new feature called ‘Internet Search’ will allow you to immediately search for that game via the PS3’s inbuilt search function. Good if you’re looking for news on that game, bad if you already know or you like playing your games and not researching them. Furthermore, Sony have added language fixes to the browser, meaning that Polish, Greek, Czech, Slovak, and Turkish languages now have the full sets of characters required for reading foreign-language sites on the PS3’s internet browser. You can also copy and paste text now, but it’s slow and taxing on the system. Both features are done well, but seem more like additional features than actual firmware features.

The best of the features has to be the new text-chat function – if you don’t want to talk over camera or headset, or you have friends who don’t own a headset, you’ll find yourself using the text-chat function more and more regularly. Whether it be for organising games, fighting talk or just general chit-chat, this’ll be one feature which will probably be used more than all of the others put together.

Overall, however, you won’t find yourself gaping in awe at the new firmware.

Linford

Labels: First impressions, PS3, Update

It’s the game that’s been on everyone’s lips but not quite in the ‘hypescape’ for a while now. Since it was first announced at E3 last year, details on Zipper Interactive’s ‘Massive Action Game’ or MAG have been pretty thin on the ground. That is, until there’s a massive leak of images on Flickr.

That’s right; famous image-hosting site has played host to some of the screenshots which every gamer this side of Christendom has been searching for. Like gold dust, leaked shots always turn up in the least likely of places. And, like gold dust, they always cause a bit of a stir (understatement, much?).

Here’s the gist of it. MAG is an MMO shooter from Zipper, the same lovely people who brought you the SOCOM series. Squad and faction based, MAG will play host to – wait for it – 256-player, ongoing online matches, which is sure to make for some manic Saturday-night matches. “256-player deathmatch, anyone?”.

I have it on good confidence (in other words, extensive late-night forum browsing, screenshot hunting and general rumour gathering) that the gameplay will be the classic FPS genre. Players will be divided up into 8-player squads, many of which make up the three factions which will be at conflict in the game. Each squad will be led (yep, a full command structure) by a player who has advanced through the game’s ranking structure. Each basic battle will make up part of an ongoing campaign mode for each of the three factions.

For those fond of polygons, MAG is shaping up to be a rather sleek and stylish production. From leaked screenshots, textures seem very realistic, weaponry is shiny enough to pass as looking nice, and cloud and smoke effects are gorgeous. My only criticism is in the bullet trails – they just look like lines. However, I’m sure that, by the time MAG releases late this year, they’ll have the graphics absolutely spot on.

Online is bound to be epic. With a full command system, matches will have some sort of feeling of organisation and tactic to them. Furthermore, 8-player squads will make organising offences much easier to handle for those in charge.

If the original E3 trailer is anything to go by, MAG will feature huge landscapes, vehicles (apparently there’ll be tanks, APCs and planes) and parachute troops. Also, it has been said that the game will feature many classes for players to specialise in, from demolitions experts to field medics.

MAG is currently slated to hit shelves late this year.

Linford

Editor’s Note: Please bear in mind that screenshots shown here are not only very early alpha testing shots, but are also leaked shots. As such, they may not be in any way representative of the finished product. You can find the full Flickr screenshots set here.

Labels: Hype Train, MAG, Massive Action Game, MMO

When you hear the words ‘the future of gaming’, what instantly springs to mind? The PlayStation 4? The Xbox 720 (or whatever the hell it’ll be called)? Whatever you think, I doubt you’ve ever thought that gaming in the next decade was entirely void of disks, did you?

Me neither. Turns out that I was wrong. I would like to introduce you, with a great sense of pride, to what is being tagged as the killer of consoles – OnLive.

How it managed to remain under the radar for so many years of stealth development, I’ll never know. OnLive is a gaming service. Obviously. However, it’s unlike any you’ve ever seen before. OnLive users connect to the servers using either an entry-level PC or Mac, or a ‘console-style’ box plugged into the TV to find and play on almost any game imaginable. Streamed from the internet. I know, that’s what I was like.

Announced at GDC last month, OnLive will apparently run on broadband connections of as little speeds as 1.5Mbit/s, although speeds between 1.5 and 4Mbit/s will reduce the image quality to that of the Wii, in order to preserve speed and allow users with slow connections to still access the service with relative ease. 4Mbit/s and higher will provide users with 720p, 60fps HD visuals.

The innovation, apart from the fact that ‘FFS, It’s on-demand gaming!’, lies in OnLive’s image compression methods. For the ultra-geeky, like me, OnLive will provide the HD visuals at only a 1ms latency. For the much less geeky, this means that visuals will be sent across the internet at blazingly-fast speeds and displayed on your monitor almost immediately. Which means literally no lag.

However, some concerns have been voiced over OnLive’s concept. For one, due to all the data being kept on OnLive’s servers, the mod community would not be able to bring out homemade mods for any of the games. Also, if OnLive went under, it’d take all the games and access to the games with it.

Big developers and publishers are already sitting up and taking notice of what is bound to be the biggest event in the gaming industry since… well, ever. EA, Take Two Interactive, Ubisoft and Atari are amongst the ten gaming companies already signed up to have their games made available on the service. Which means that, when the service launches, games such as EndWar, the Battlefield series and GTA will be available for you to play to your heart’s content.

The idea is ambitious, even with seven years of development already behind it. However, the fact that the service is already in closed beta, with plans for an open beta this spring/summer shows to us just how optimistic and confident the developers are about this service.

The service is currently slated to launch towards the end of this year. GGTL will keep you up-to-date on all the latest developments and news as OnLive is gradually rolled out to an already-gagging public.

Linford

Labels: GDC, Hype Train, OnLive

Street Fighter Alpha has been announced the best-selling PSone game on the PlayStation Network. It came in just after Castlevania: Symphony of the Night and the original Crash Bandicoot. More…

Konami have said that they are looking for the newly acquired Saw game license to rival survival-horror games such as Silent Hill. Saw will be released for PS3, PC and 360 this autumn. More…

SCEA hardware marketing head, John Koller, has claimed that the upcoming 256-player MMO ‘M.A.G’ is only possible on PlayStation 3. The game was originally revealed at E3 2008. More…

Origo Games has released the debut trailer for upcoming action-stealth title, Data-Fly. Origo CEO, Adam McClard, mentioned that the team is ‘aiming for PS3’ as the main platform. More…

The (rather ambitious) future of gaming, OnLive, was announced at GDC ‘09 last month. Steve Perlman from the OnLive team spoke to Joystiq about the (un-disk-based) console. More…

Sony Pictures Television have plans to turn many major TV and film productions into iPhone games. Amongst the planned games are an iteration of James Bond, Ghostbusters and Q*Bert. More…

Labels: News, NewsBites

A new PSN/XBLA/WiiWare game from Curve Studios of Buzz! fame is coming sometime in 2009. Apparently the point is you have to explode to get extra charge? I don't know, maybe you can make more sense out of it than me from this trailer.

Matt

Labels: Explodemon, Matthew, Matthew Meadows, PSN, WiiWare, XBLA

New logo: The more observant amongst you will have noticed the new GGTL logo. It's based on the old one in layout, but the style is completely different. The font is Hand of Sean, and is freely available from Dafont.com.

Comments: We at GGTL like it when people comment on our posts. Which is why we've made it easier for you to comment on a post you like. At the bottom of each post on the main page, you'll see a little link which says 'Add a comment... # so far'. Click it to add a comment.

Related Posts: At the bottom of any post page, you'll see a 'related posts' section with links to posts we think you might like based on the ones you're reading. You won't see this feature on the main page, though. You can find it by clicking on the post title on the main homepage.

Twitter: Gamer's Guide to Life is now on Twitter! The Twitter page is automatically updated whenever there's a new post added to the site, plus there's occasional updates from the GGTL team. Follow us for the very latest from GGTL, at http://www.twitter.com/ggtl. Me, Matt and Grimmy have also got personal Twitter profiles which you can use to get closer to the team - you'l find links on the sidebar.

Linford

Labels: New Features

The PlayStation Network sure likes it's more... experimental downloadable games. First there was flOw, a zen-like experience in which you played as a glowing bio-organism in the midst of other, bigger creatures. Next, there was PAIN, a game dedicated to throwing cartoon people into buildings, with painful-sounding cracks. Echocrome, Flower, LocoRoco, The Last Guy - need I go on?

But now, it seems, there is another addition to the weird world of the PlayStation Store. Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to Savage Moon; a planet where insects (yes, insects) try to prevent mining. Yep, I thought it sounded ridiculous too. That is, until the moment I began playing...

Available from the PlayStation Store, Savage Moon is one downloadable game that you can't afford to miss. Impressing from the start, Savage Moon is one of those games that will remind older gamers of their golden days, and make younger gamers yearn for more of the same.

Graphically, Savage Moon is one of the better PSN titles. The blend of realistic textures and lighting and cartoon-like, erratically-moving insects only serves to make the whole game more appealing. The 'high-tech' feel to the graphical interface (menus, etc) will be more than enough to please the 21st century gamer and his HD television, whilst the unrealistic-looking insects are perfect to make even the biggest kid (for example, Dad trying to look cool) cry with pleasure.

In terms of gameplay, the concept is pretty simple - use the menu commands to place various heavy weaponry to eradicate those irritating insects. However, simple does not mean bad - the system is well implemented and easy to use, and is intuitive too. Quirky commands such as 'perks' (for example, credit bonuses or damage bonuses) and 'advance wave' buttons (to allow you to kill those insects without waiting) bear well for the game. On the other hand, the placing and selecting system can be jittery at times - on more than one occasion I ended up with a machine gun in the wrong place.

Online features are one essential area of next-gen gaming which Savage Moon seems to have entirely forgotten. Bar leaderboards - and since when do you play those? - there are no online options at all. However, to be honest, the single player will be enough to keep you entertained, and for just under six quid you can't expect a fully featured, class based online experience, can you?

Savage Moon's good visuals, entertaining gameplay and good learning curve are a blend which will keep you addicted for hours. My suggestion - warn the missus that you might be a while, close the curtains and pick up the Dualshock - Savage Moon is one PSN title that is definitely worth a look.

8/10

Linford

Labels: PSN, Review, Savage Moon