Waiting in Line for Online: Street Fighter III: Third Strike Hands On

Street Fighter III: Third Strike Online Edition is pegged for an August 23 release, and as such the build on display seemed almost final. Of course, much of the retail release's allure lies in some of it's secondary attributes such as GGPO-enabled (see: no lag) online battles, replay sharing, and countless adjustable options, which I wasn't able to play with. I just got to fight, and it was good.

It was just like the old days where I sucked at parrying and couldn't remember any non-Shoto moves. Aw yeah, memories! I got to play a few matches in full HD and a few with the original sprites, complete in 4:3 display mode. Of note was the Trial Mode side bars which took up some of the unused screen real estate, and tallied numbers for both myself and my opponent. Things like particular attacks used, parries, combos completed and so on. Not sure what all these numbers will net at the end - probably points to spend in the game's shop - but I can confirm their existence!

Do you foresee yourself dropping the required $15 entry fee for a throwback to yesteryear? 

Bullet Points: Uncharted 3 Multiplayer Beta

When the Uncharted 3 multiplayer beta dropped on PSN for PlayStation Plus users (see: everyone) last week, I cleared my schedule to assure I'd have time to spend with an early look at Naughty Dog's upcoming opus. While I thought I would take Drake and Sully against groups of human controlled mercenaries, in actuality the battle was against constant lag, frequent freezing, and frustrating system reboots. After hours of fruitless attempts, I gave up and my schedule viciously repopulated, leaving no time for treasure hunts and fragging. Though as the greater United States spent the weekend celebrating the independence of our country, I chose to celebrate the independence of my SIXAXIS controller from wires. With network integrity restored and a stable run of the beta queued up, I had an explosive time with Uncharted 3.

+ Deep: Several play modes offer great variation
+ Unlocking customization pieces is not as easy as ranking up
+ Active maps offer dynamic, cinematic action
+ Power Plays to assure no match is a lopsided blowout
+ Two player split screen and in game party system
+ Buddy system literally rewards team play
- Inability to change base clothing on Drake and Sully models
- Characters lacking Uncharted's signature personality

The beta is available to the entirety of PlayStation Network as of today, so why not give it a shot yourself? Though the retail release is still 4 months out, Naughty Dog has sculpted an enjoyable experience thus far. A little tweaking, a lot more weapons, boosters, and kickbacks, and we have what may be the sleeper multiplayer title of the year. And though I'd like to see more writing and personality in the multiplayer (of story characters specifically,) that wont make or break the game I'm sure to have in heavy rotation, even long after the campaign has been completed.

Bullet Points is a stripped down review of a stripped down release, usually in demo or beta. Why spend precious moments reading about what you should be out there playing?

Uncharted 3 Multiplayer Beta Goes Live Today

You will discover what Drake's Deception is all about on 11/11/11. In the meantime, experience first hand how Drake, Sully, and an army of nameless mercenaries go about fragging each other, as early as June 28!

That's right folks, today is the big release of Uncharted 3's multiplayer beta, available only to owners of Infamous 2 and PlayStation Plus members, which is just about everyone, innit? After the PlayStation Network debacle, free PS Plus was liberally handed out to all parties affected by the outage, and thus Uncharted 3 multiplayer is about to face one of the greatest first day stress tests a beta has ever come up against. For the general public without PlayStation Plus or Infamous 2, your time will come on Tuesday July 5. The beta will conclude on Thursday July 14, so make the best of your time with Drake and friends while you can!

If you, like me, have been waiting all day for your fix of Uncharted 3, your patience is about to pay off. The beta will hit PSN for download at 2pm Pacific, 5pm Eastern; aka the only time zones that matter. If you're somewhere outside or between the two, Naughty Dog's Twitter will let you know when its baby has gone live.

You can find much more detailed info about the Uncharted 3 beta at PlayStation.Blog, which I suggest you hit up so you know exactly what to be prepared for. Rotating maps and gametypes, stereoscopic 3D support, split-screen with a friend, and rank up to the max level of 25 to secure some nice bonuses!

You have about an hour to catch up with what you need to know before you can queue up the near-two gig download. And after that, you'll have another hour to say your prayers while the download completes. I'm gunning for you, sucka!

via PlayStation.Blog

Warhammer 40000: Kill Team Brings Space Marines to Twin Sticks

So apparently, the Warhammer world is this hugely popular fictional universe that spans decades and is the source of inspiration for many of today's popular ideas in gaming. If you're like me, and don't have the patience for lore, literature, and tabletop games, you probably could care less for this world. All that is about to change very soon, with the introduction of Warhammer 40,000: Kill Team, two-player twin stick shooter.

Kill Team will compliment Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine, which I'm not as excited for in comparison. It's due out this July for PSN and XBLA, and priced at $10 (800 MSP). Love me some twin-stick action. Pause.

Sooner Than Expected: PSN Begins Phased Restoration

Well, it's been almost a month, but Sony has finally begun their "phased restoration" of the PlayStation Network. For those of us in the States and Canada, odds are your service is already up and running. 

In a video addressed to Qriocity and PSN uders affected by the attack, Sony Computer Entertaint president Kazuo Hirai details a bit about what the first phase has restored:

• PlayStation Network and Qriocity sign in
• Restoration of online game play across PS3 and PSP
• Enabled third party services such as Netflix, Hulu Plus, MLB.tv, etc.
• Access to PlayStation Home
• Access to 'Friends' category, including Friends lists, chat, and trophy comparison
• Restoration of Sony Online Entertainment games

Upon your initial log in, you'll be prompted to change your password, which you must do. Also, PSN Store has yet to be activated, so for those of you hoping you'd be able to buy the latest downloadable game or content, you'll have to wait for a later phase. 

Kaz attempts to soothe PSN users by detailing the security upgrades Sony has put into place to prevent an issue like this from arising again: increased encryption, added firewalls, and some other security services that most big corporations should already have in place. Welcome to the party, PlayStation. 

The 'Welcome Back' program - see: free compensatory shit - has yet to be detailed, but more information will be released in the coming days, so stay tuned.

Head over the PlayStation.Blog for the full rundown, as well as Hirai-san looking cool, calm, and sharp in his expensive suit sans tie, to give the impression he's been hard at work. 

Starhawk Knows What We Want

Explosions, fast action, destructible (and buildable) environments, and mechs that transform into planes and fly away at mach speeds while firing swarms of missiles. Yes please! The long overdue successor to the PlayStation 3 hit Warhawk looks like a mix of Red Faction and Macross with a bit of the old west splashed in, something I welcome with arms wide open.

Developers Lightbox Interactive held an event in Texas to show off their project. Head over to PSNation for an in depth preview of Starhawk, which looks and sounds to be the next hotness. For those of you with a more limited attention span, the five minute video below tells you most of what you need to know. Treating the battlefield as a canvas, where you can drop structures and defenses wherever you please, and your opponents can destroy them at their whim, in both single and multiplayer. Count me in!

Starhawk is like a flirt at the bar; it looks good and it's saying all the right things, but will it deliver when you bring it home? Fingers crossed.

REVIEW: Outland

Every once in a while, an idea comes along that makes you ask "How has this never been done before?" Though the idea of bullet-hell combined with a 'polarity' system was very successfully implemented in the cult hit Ikaruga, the idea was hardly heard from again, until Outland.

Click to read more ...

Sony Details 'Please Don't Leave Us' Program

In the wee hours of my New York morning, several Sony Computer Entertainment big wigs held a press conference on the other side of the world, discussing the well documented troubles with PlayStation Network. Security, free content, and Anonymous, oh my!

I hear you guys. What do we get for our hours of lost online play? It's a perfectly fair question, but let's start with something a little more pertinent: when will the system be back online? Sony is calling it a phased restoration, with some of PSN's features returning sometime this week. Which features exactly, I'm not sure, but some is better than none I suppose. Sony states PSN should be fully operation by the end of May. You might be thinking that's a hell of a long time, an you're absolutely correct, it is. However it's unavoidable as Sony makes the proper upgrades (see: measures that should have been put in place years ago) to assure a fiasco like this will never occur again. To that end, a new Chief Information Security Officer position has been created, which coincidentally, sounds something like the type of job GeoHot was pining for when he opened the PS3 hacking floodgates.

Now the good stuff. What's in it for us, the near 100 million users who are affected by Sony's ludicrous debacle? All PSN users who are not currently subscribed to PlayStation Plus will receive a free month of the premium service. Current PlayStation Plus subscribers will receive one free month of service. PlayStation Plus allows PSN users early access to demos and beta tests, as well as certain free downloadable games and downloadable content. Needless to say, I'm sure PlayStation Plus will not see any free game releases during this time, as Sony surely wants to lose as little money as possible.

The PSN faithful will be rewarded with some free content, which values at a couple thousand yen ($20 - $40, most likely), which could end up being Warhawk, a few premium themes, and some PlayStation Home content. Don't be surprised. In addition to the above, existing Qriocity users - anyone out there? - will get a month for free.

Sony execs and press threw around the name Anonymous a few times at the conference, and though no fingers were pointed, Kaz Hirai didn't rule the Hacktivist group out, especially considering that Sony has found Anonymous' ire as of late. Stop snitching, Kaz.

Hopefully, the end is in sight for Sony's nightmare and our deprivation of fulfilling online interaction. What say you about the whole ordeal? Is the security of your information worth an addition month of service downtime? Is 30 days of complimentary PS Plus access reparation or a marketing ploy? Does $20 worth of content right countless lost hours of online playtime?

PlayStation Network, WTF Mate?

If you're a PlayStation 3 owner who enjoys online gaming, odds are you've already experienced PSNs downtime first hand. PlayStation's online network has been FUBAR all weekend in what most thought would be a service blip, but has turned out to be a failure of catastrophic proportions, with no end in sight. WTF mate?

To be honest, I don't think anyone has a clue to what's ailing PSN. Sony is blaming hackers for disabling the system, which is plausible seeing as how hacktivist group Anonymous had threatened Sony and PlayStation with action as retaliation against their persecution of Geohotz (great hacker, horrid rapper). Anonymous, always ones to soak up the limelight, would never shy away from accusations this large. Though they haven't claimed responsibility for the latest attack, they haven't ruled out the actions of other off-shoot groups. WTF mate?

The latest on the topic comes from Joystiq (via Reddit, of course) where some dude who claims to be someone he may or may not be - a mod at PSX-Scene - has the whole scoop. "The truth is, there was a new CFW (custom firmware) released known as Rebug (link omitted). It essentially turns a retail console into a dev console (not fully, but gives you a lot of the same options that usually dev's only have access to)." No big deal right? The redditor continues, "well, it also turns out that some people over at NGU found out that you could provide fake CC# info and the authenticity of the information was never checked as you were on Sony's private developer PSN network (essentially a network that Sony trusted). What happened next was extreme piracy of PSN content. Sony realizing the issue here shut down the network." He also states that personal information is not in jeopardy, so don't go canceling your mom's credit card yet.

It doesn't sound unlikely, but Sony, WTF mate? If true, why couldn't you say something along those lines instead of spewing garbage about hackers attacking PSN. If this is the case, hackers did take anything down, they found their way into the network, and with no real security in place, Sony has taken down the network themselves. 

This whole ordeal is frustrating for me, and I don't even use PSN that frequently. I can only imagine what the Killzone 3 faithful are going through right now. I don't know what the underlying cause is, but I do know that PlayStation needs to make good on this outage one way or another, especially to the people who are paying $50 a year for a service you can't render due to the inability to provide a secure network.

Get a Bullet Overload of Outland's Co-op

Don't tell me you've forgotten about Outland already, have you? Housemarque's visually stimulating, projectile-laden platformer is due out soon. The last week of April in fact! Get yourself reaqcuainted with Outland via the following trailer, which spotlights cooperative play elements.

There's really not much to go by, so it's not known how intricate the co-op system will be. However, it looks like a worthy purchase even as a single player affair, so the addition of multiplayer is gravy baby. I came away from PAX East impressed with how Outland looked under player control. Smooth, sexy animation is a great compliment to lovely visuals, unique style, and the omnipresent hell of bullets, wouldn't you say?

Mark it on your calendars, April 26 on PSN ($9.99), April 27 on XBLA (800 MSP).