The Slim is hitting stores September 1 in North America and Europe and will cost $299 (or for those who live in regions, 299 euros or 29,980 yen). Hirai says the device has the same features and functions as the “old” PS3 but is 33 percent smaller, 36 percent lighter, and comes with a 120GB hard drive. (See photo comparison here).

Sony says that to achieve the new form factor, the internal design architecture of the new PS3 system has been completely redesigned–”from the main semiconductors and power supply unit to the cooling mechanism.”

The PS3 Slim is powered by a new 45nm version of the Cell processor, which runs at the same speed as the 60nm processor in the “old” PS3 but is smaller and more energy efficient. According to company reps, power consumption for the Slim has also been cut to two-thirds, “helping to reduce fan noise,” which is important.

Kaz Hirai unveils the PS3 Slim in Cologne, Germany.

On the cosmetic front, this model has a textured surface finish that gives the PS3 a fresh, casual look that the company hopes will make it more appealing to a wider audience (read: casual gamers). As previously rumored, the PS3 logo has undergone a redesign and Sony’s changing the PS3 brand name from “PLAYSTATION 3″ to “PlayStation 3″ (we’ve actually been calling it the PlayStation 3 for a while).

Like the 80GB and 160GB models, the 120GB PS3 Slim has built-in Wi-Fi and two USB ports (sorry, Sony didn’t add IR or backwards compatibility for PS2 games). You can also upgrade/replace the hard drive without voiding the warranty, though Sony has moved the hard drive from the side of the unit to the front for “easier access.” (To remove the hard drive, you simply unscrew two screws). The one feature missing from the Slim is the ability to install another operating system (i.e., Linux)–Sony is doing away with that feature.

With earlier PS3s, you could prop your unit up vertically or lay it down horizontally. Out of the box, the Slim is only designed to be used in a horizontal position, but Sony will sell a $24 stand that allows you to stand it up vertically.

In making the move to the PS3 Slim, Sony will be upgrading the firmware to 3.00 and phasing out its legacy 80GB and 160GB models, selling them for $299 and $399 respectively.

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John Koller, director of hardware marketing for Sony Computer Entertainment America, says they’ve been able to run down inventory of older models, but he didn’t have the best answer as to why someone would buy an old 80GB model over the new 120GB Slim. “Some people want a unit right away and they may like the look of the old unit,” he said. “People will have their reasons for wanting one.”

We’re expecting our review sample to arrive tomorrow. But GameSpot’s Ricardo Torres and Sarju Shah were lucky enough to already get a Slim.

Source: Gamespot & Cnet

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At a glance, Flower is a difficult game to explain. It’s hard to recommend compared to other games that are longer and are packed full of more unlockable content. But Flower does one thing incredibly well: It manages to capture the hypnotic movement of nature and then harness it using a motion-sensitive controller. The natural controls, along with the artistic visuals and beautiful soundtrack, make Flower enthralling–and something you experience as much as you play. Some people will still dismiss it as pretentious folly, but Flower delivers on its intentions, and it’s a beautiful ride while it lasts.

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You control the wind using the motion-sensitive controller, although there are times when you’re pushed through certain areas.

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The idea behind Flower is to collect petals by steering a gust of wind through idyllic pastures. You guide the wind using the motion-sensitive controller and use any button to accelerate, which lets you take the game at your own pace. In fact, you’re encouraged to lose yourself in this digitally created nirvana, and the time slows down to help you take it all in whenever you’re not accelerating. There’s no incentive to collect every petal in each level, but key flowers return the environment to its natural vibrancy. It’s a serene experience, and though it’s engaging, prolonged play will lull you into a deep state of relaxation.

Although most people will enjoy the simple mechanics of Flower, the reward that you get from the game depends on your appreciation of the audio and visuals. The game’s beautiful graphics and excellent score shouldn’t make that too much of a problem, but you should be aware that the game offers no rewards for skill or speed. Though a time counter or points system would arguably be at odds with the game’s pristine aesthetics, a speed-run feature would certainly have added greater longevity to the game. As it stands, the one- to two-hour completion time feels like an adequate length, but some bonus features, such as new colour schemes or unlockable extras, would have certainly encouraged repeated play. Thankfully, the game does offer trophies, and in keeping with the theme of the game, they reward you for taking breaks between plays.

To call Flower abstract would be an understatement, but you can read as much or as little into the dreamlike cutscenes as you want. We read the story to be one of nature torn apart by man, and each level expresses this theme via the repressed memory of a single flower. There are also allegorical references to global warming, sustainable power, and other environmental issues, but they’re used solely for visual cues rather than for preachy messaging. The moment when you’re torn from dusk into a nightmarish industrial disaster is genuinely affecting and one of the most memorable points of the game.

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Each level has its own visual identity, such as this psychedelic fusion of purple and green.

Basement Jack move Flower is endowed with absolutely top-class audio and visual production. From a technical level, the game throws around thousands of individually modeled blades of grass, but it’s the overall artistic quality that really impresses. Each level has its own distinct style, from natural to psychedelic to industrial, and though we preferred the first levels for their sheer natural beauty, there are some incredible set pieces toward the end. Flower’s greatest achievement, though, is the audio design, which is not only impressive from a technical perspective, but also has an impact on how you play the game. Each petal has a distinct audio cue, be it a string instrument or chorus song, and creating beautiful waves of sound is probably the greatest incentive for perfecting your path through each level.

At an asking price of $9.99 or £6.29 on the PlayStation Network, Flower will ultimately satisfy people who appreciate innovation more than a long-lasting experience. Flower is a small and focused game, especially in terms of length, but it certainly delivers a unique and relaxing experience. If you’re looking for an antidote to the many sequels and franchises on the market, then Flower offers something unique and while it lasts, it’s a great game in its own right.

Source [ GameSpot ]

Sports management simulations have finally hit the big time. After years of indie obscurity, at least in North America, the genre has finally been hauled into the mainstream by EA Sports and 2K Sports. But don’t schedule a parade just yet. EA’s NFL Head Coach series has gone through some growing pains over the past couple of years, and now 2K Sports’ MLB Front Office Manager is off to a shaky start. The biggest problem with this latest attempt at taking management sims to the masses is a gamepad-oriented interface that makes even the most routine tasks about as irritating as trying to throw a curve ball while wearing oven mitts. Clunky controls and a near-total lack of feedback make it hard to feel like you’re in control of anything, let alone a $150-million big-league ballclub stocked with equally extravagant egos.

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Everything looks good on the surface, but good luck digging into the nitty-gritty of the player database.

The basic approach on display here, however, is time-tested. The game follows in the footsteps of independently developed baseball management sims like Out of the Park Baseball and Baseball Mogul by putting you in the shoes of a Major League general manager. You start off by naming your virtual head honcho, selecting from a few face and clothing options (are you Joe Suit or Johnny Polo Shirt?), and picking a personal background that determines your skill at specific duties. If you set yourself up as an ex-manager, for instance, teams on the field get a leadership boost. If you take the low road and choose the legal profession, you receive a helping hand when it comes to contract negotiations. As time goes by and you chalk up wins in the Majors, you gain experience points that can be spent on bulking up other skills.

There is no option to work your way up to the Show from the minors, so following this brief character creation you simply pick a Major League team and grab the reins. You have pretty much total control over your club from this point on. Budgets, lineups, pitching rotations, allocation of scouting dollars, trades, and so forth are all under your watch, although you can flip over to automatic and let the CPU take care of the more mundane jobs. The team owner sets a player budget that serves as a de facto salary cap, but beyond that you’re free to do whatever you want. If you have a bad run, though, you can find yourself bounced to the curb and awaiting job offers from other clubs. Virtually all of the hardcore stuff serious baseball fans expect is present here, including the Rule 5 draft, player arbitration, and bidding on Japanese prospects.

Careers can be played as straight single-player campaigns, as a fantasy variation that employs a rotisserie-style scoring system, or in online leagues with up to 30 players. Just about nobody seems to be playing the game online, however, so finding an open league for your team is tough. It’s still only the start of February, but the lack of players isn’t good news considering that real pitchers and catchers are reporting to MLB training camps in just a couple of weeks. This is also the first baseball game to hit stores in 2009, so you would expect a little more online excitement around it.

One of the few things that MLB Front Office Manager has going for it is its good-looking manager screen.

At any rate, the foundation of MLB Front Office Manager is solid. It looks very good, as well. Big, bold letters and numbers splashed on the screen have a strong visual impact. This is a real plus in a genre where, at least on the PC, most of the competition comes from indie developers and looks more like spreadsheet programs for the office than something you would want to relax with at home. 2K Sports makes great use of its MLB license, loading the game up with a wealth of player photos and an attractive manager’s screen where you can watch the action unfold on the diamond and make calls from the dugout.

White Christmas dvdrip Implementation is where everything falls apart. A good sports management sim needs to have a database at its heart. This sounds like a dreadfully dull way to present a game, but it is an absolute necessity in this genre since you need to be able to easily sift through stats and sort players by the numbers. Yet here you’re working with screens almost entirely taken up by visual chrome and player photos, save for a relatively small area filled with a couple of columns of players and the barest minimum of stats. Player lists are abbreviated so that you can see only eight names on the screen at once, forcing you to tediously scroll through multiple menus. Information is presented in an almost nonsensical manner. The player negotiation screen, for instance, covers just six core stats for batters and pitchers, like AVG and W-L. So you’re forced to go rummaging around elsewhere in the rosters to dig up thorough information regarding essential data, like at-bats and hits allowed.

Vital data, such as overall player ratings and potential ratings, is often tucked away in layered information screens, necessitating a ridiculous amount of searching whenever you take on even the most rudimentary task. It’s tough just gathering the information needed when setting up pitching rotations. And it gets even worse when it’s time to sort through the dozens of players who need the protection of a 40-man roster prior to the Rule 5 draft every winter. The menu screens aren’t linked to one another either, meaning that you can’t zip from one screen to another. When you’re trying to re-sign a player, for instance, and he tells you he wants more years on his contract, you can’t move directly from the e-mail telling you about this demand to his negotiation screen. Instead, you have to scroll down the main menu to Transactions, open its submenu list, scroll down to Payroll, open it up, and then scroll down that list to the player’s name to pull up his contract offer page. It’s the same deal with CPU-offered trades. They are a bit more user-friendly in that you at least have the ability to instantly go to a comparison screen where you can check out the players on the block. But leaving this screen strands you back at the main menu, and you have to access your e-mail again to accept or reject the deal (which, incidentally, cannot be altered). Even the simplest roster-management tasks require five or six steps when they should necessitate just one. You spend more time chasing your tail than making baseball decisions.

Menu navigation takes a lot longer than it should.

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A lack of feedback makes MLB Front Office Manager even more confusing. Although you have Oakland A’s GM Billy Beane on tap providing tips about contracts, along with memos that keep important dates on the top of the screen so you don’t forget about something like the arbitration, much of what you do takes place in a vacuum. This is a particularly huge problem when it comes to handling players. While you’re kept well informed about looming deadlines, offers to free agents, to pending free agents, and to other teams during trade talks are dealt with through pretty much absolute silence. There is no back and forth with player agents or rival GMs, or any chance to counter an offer from another team. All you get is a flat acceptance or denial with an occasional personal observation, such as that the money being offered is “laughable.”

Signings aren’t even properly noted in the e-mail screen that covers all league communications. You would think that losing Manny Ramirez to free agency would be enough of a big deal to the Dodgers to warrant more than an e-mail buried among all the other league news of the day. A successful signing never gets much press, either. If you ink somebody like K-Rod, you don’t even receive so much as a cheesy “I’m looking forward to playing for you this year!” blurb. The only indications that your bid has been accepted are a one-line e-mail, maybe a follow-up note saying that the fans are excited, and notice that the player in question has been added to the Pending Transactions list and must be assigned within 10 days or released.

Most other sports sims would offer a lot more player stats for you to base your managerial decisions on.

Finally, some of the decisions made by computer GMs are beyond bizarre. Every team in the game seems to be working under the same management philosophy. Each offseason, everybody appears to go after the same big-name free agents no matter what sort of budgetary restrictions they may be operating under. So this leads to ridiculous scenarios where poorer clubs like the Kansas City Royals waste $16 million a year on a washout like Jason Giambi, or the Cincinnati Reds dish off $21 million a year on Mark Teixeira. Sometimes these single big-name signings fill up nearly a third of a team’s overall payroll. Team budgets are also all over the place. The LA Dodgers start off with a budget of $111.6 million, while the cheapskate Toronto Blue Jays begin 2009 with a whopping $139.2 million. Somebody either hasn’t checked the lowly value of the Canadian dollar lately or has a hate on for Dodger blue. Some trades come from the dark side of the moon. While most are nondescript affairs shuffling minor leaguers around, the game hits you with a Bizarro World blockbuster on a regular basis, like when the Red Sox trade away Jonathan Papelbon during spring training for some guy named Nate McLouth. There may be some kind of bug in the game with Papelbon though, since the Sox seem to ditch him for a lower-rated nobody in the first spring training every time you start a career.

MLB Front Office Manager needs a lot of work to be ready for the big leagues. The game offers an impressive amount of depth and great support for online leagues, especially for management-sim-deprived consolers. But playing it is such a chore that anyone seriously interested in such simulations will quickly move on to a more serious, if PC-only, effort like Out of the Park Baseball.

Source [ GameSpot ]

In the WWE, it’s not uncommon for seemingly vanquished superstars to return at random, handing out fresh beatdowns and earning back their former glory. After a disappointing showing last year, THQ’s long-running SmackDown vs. Raw series has returned to the ring, having spent the year slimming down and focusing on its core strengths. The work has paid off: a lot of extraneous elements have been removed, the creation toolset is better than ever, and there are two modes that offer satisfying single-player arcs. Though it is still hampered by a number of lingering issues, WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2009 manages to recapture some of the glory of its younger years.

Head punches are a perennial classic.

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The most notable improvements are in the single-player realm. The lackluster 24/7 mode has been ditched in favor of a lengthy Career mode and the scripted Road to Wrestlemania. In the Career mode, you choose a superstar (existing or created) and enter a bracket to make a bid for the title belt. Each bracket has five opponents including the current champion, and you’ll have to earn stars by winning matches in order to get a shot at the title. You win up to five stars for each match by earning points in three areas: match results, technical, and excitement. These categories encourage you to get into the WWE superstar mindset by rewarding you for both pummeling and mocking your opponent. At the end of each match your attributes will increase and your health will replenish based on how the match went–no micromanagement here. You’ll also earn amusing awards for things like striking your opponent 35 times or breaking a barbed-wire-wrapped plank over his or her back. It only takes a handful of successful matches to earn you a title shot, which is great because it keeps your career moving along at a good clip. This action-packed Career mode is the perfect complement to the Create A Superstar mode, and winning belt after belt as you bulk up your created character is satisfying and fun.

The other single-player mode, Road to Wrestlemania, features six unique story arcs that let you play as WWE superstars like The Undertaker or John Cena and defeat numerous foes (and a few nemeses) on your quest for Wrestlemania glory. Matches are interspersed with story scenes packed with typical WWE action and voiced by actual WWE superstars, so fans of outrageous melodrama will be well pleased. In keeping with traditional SmackDown vs. Raw strengths, the superstar models, entrances, and arenas are all excellent. While the character animations are good (despite occasional clipping problems), the wrestlers still lack fluidity when maneuvering around the ring. This feels like a result of staying too true to the source material: though WWE wrestlers do often move slowly, it’s not very exciting to actually plod around the ring in a video game. The audio only further detracts from the excitement factor. Four-hundred-pound men hit the mat with all the impact of a child shutting a car door, and the strongest punches sound like a raw chicken breast being dropped on the floor. It dampens the supposedly hard-hitting action, and while the once-dismal announcers from years past have been improved quite a bit, the sound design is in serious need of a shot in the arm.

Despite how it may sound, the action is indeed hard-hitting. It’s easy to perform powerful moves using the analog stick and a few buttons, and the breadth of things you can do in and out of the ring is impressive. From removing the turnbuckle cover to slamming your opponent through a burning table, there’s no shortage of satisfying ways to deal damage. Specific match types have their own nasty additions, from rubbing your opponent’s face against the elimination chamber to the powerful hot tag, which allows a tag team partner to build up momentum so that, when tagged in, he or she will get the quicktime chance to unleash two unblockable attacks followed by a finisher. Enabling such a wide variety of moves is one of SmackDown vs. Raw 2009′s chief strengths. Like previous games in the series, it too relies on relative position to increase your repertoire, and your wrestler is still prone to miscues as a result. However, missing a move because you aren’t quite in the correct position is less frustrating than missing one because your opponent is in an uninterruptible animation. This usually crops up in matches with three or more players, when one player is performing a move on another. In these realistic-to-a-fault situations you get a good feeling for just how exciting it is to stand passively aside while other wrestlers battle it out.

In addition to the Career and Road to Wrestlemania modes, the competent AI and unique wrestler abilities make playing single-player much more appealing in SmackDown vs. Raw 2009. No longer content to stand around drooling, computer opponents will actively attack you, tag their partners (you included), and use environmental elements reasonably well. Though the Road to Wrestlemania and early stages of the Career mode will seem easy to experienced players, it won’t feel like you’re playing against brainless apes. Last year’s fighting style system has been removed, and in its place are unique wrestler abilities that existing superstars have and created superstars can earn. The effects range from attribute boosts (able to remove belt in ladder match faster) to enhanced abilities (can regenerate a small amount of health). While these abilities aren’t particularly powerful, they can come in handy during tight matches.

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While you might not have tight matches against the computer, you are sure to find tough competition online. You can use SmackDown, Raw, ECW or created superstars as you face off in ranked or unranked play in any of the match types that support one to four players (six-man matches and royal rumbles only available locally). Agai

When Alone in the Dark came out for the Xbox 360 about five months ago, its dramatic story and unique gameplay mechanics were hobbled by its pervasive technical shortcomings. For the PlayStation 3 release, the developer has made a number of improvements that make the game much less frustrating, and chief among them are the vastly improved character movement and camera controls. Though many of the graphical oddities and some control clumsiness remain, Alone in the Dark: Inferno is a much better way to experience this unique and rewarding action adventure game.

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The dramatic action sequences do a great job of conveying large-scale chaos.

As the gruff, amnesiac protagonist, you make your way through a disaster-struck New York City into Central Park, where you begin to unravel the many mysteries before you. Maneuvering through the various environments is much easier now that the main character moves with a light jog instead of a lumbering plod. Though he is significantly nimbler, he is still a bit clumsy; you’ll still have to do some funky maneuvering to interact with oddly positioned objects, and you’ll have to tread carefully during the precision platforming sequences. Fortunately, even this is much easier thanks to the easily controlled 360-degree camera that replaces the restrained over-the-shoulder camera of the Xbox 360 version. Driving controls are the same, and you can still do some neat stuff such as check behind the visor for car keys or slide into the passenger seat to ransack the glove compartment. The big improvement here is the car handling. Gone are the goofy motorboat physics of the Xbox 360 version, replaced with weightier, more down-to-earth mechanics. This makes driving much easier, though the still-finicky collision detection occasionally treats small cracks like major impediments. Despite the lingering limitations, the controls in Alone in the Dark: Inferno make locomotion much easier and let you more fully enjoy your adventure.

One of the most intriguing and well-executed elements of Alone in the Dark: Inferno is the inventory and item system. The game allows you only as many items as you can fit in your belt and jacket pockets, and, in a move that visually subverts the convention of the vast yet unseen inventory, you literally open up your jacket and look down to see what you’ve got. Although it’s never quite groundbreaking, this subversion does appear in myriad ways throughout the game, and it creates the feeling that there is something novel about Alone in the Dark. You experience this feeling of novelty the first time you look down at your limbs to heal your bloody wounds with medical spray, an action that’s a good deal more satisfying than just using a medkit and seeing your life bar grow.

The limited array of items that you can pick up as you move through the world belies the complexity with which they can be combined to serve your purposes. The explosive power of a plastic bottle filled with flammable liquid is obvious, but what if you wrap it in double-sided tape, stuff a bandage in it, light it, and stick it to an enemy? Then you’ve got a slow-burning Molotov cocktail perfect for blowing up the hive that your spidery foe is returning to. Tape a box of bullets to the bottle, chuck it at a cluster of enemies, and shoot it in midair to unleash a decidedly nasty explosion. Poured out all of your liquid while immolating downed demons? Grab your knife and puncture the gas tank on a car for a quick refill. There are multifarious possible item combinations, and though you’ll generally stick to a select few for killing enemies (flaming bullets, midair explodables, spray-can flamethrower), the game makes you flesh out your repertoire by demanding specific actions to solve certain puzzles.

Smacking enemies with a burning chair is a fun and effective way to vanquish them.

Most of the puzzles in the game involve vanquishing the evil beings that are now the main inhabitants of Central Park. Since your enemies can only be permanently offed with fire (unless there is a crevasse nearby), you’ll have to find a way to make them burn, baby, burn. The most straightforward method is to grab a flammable object, such as a chair or a broom, and then walk over to any open flame and set fire to the object by inclining the analog stick toward the flame. Wielding the blazing object, you target your foe, set up your attack by tilting the stick in one direction, and then strike by flicking the stick in the opposite direction. It’s a lot of fun to smack monsters with chairs, shovels, baseball bats, tree limbs, and so forth, and the analog-stick actions you must perform to do so are a fun approximation of your in-game actions. Alas, this fun is hindered by finicky controls and inconsistent hit detection, so you’ll often find yourself merely repositioning your weapon instead of striking, or clanging it off of a wall that you could have sworn wasn’t so close.

For practical reasons, you’ll end up taking on most of the evil legion with your trusty handgun. Throwing an explosive bottle and shooting it midair is a cinch, thanks to the aim assistance in the form of a glowing trajectory arc and the slow motion that kicks in whenever you throw something. Alternately, you can pour flammable liquid on your bullets and fire flaming rounds at your foes. Sure, this combo is a bit improbable, and the gun should probably explode in your face, but flaming bullets will be the keystone in your monster-battling strategy so it’s best to suspend your disbelief. However, firing these babies into monsters won’t kill them unless you hit their fissures. These are the livid scars left on monsters by the evil that corrupted them, and hitting them can be a real pain. The combat certainly isn’t anything to write home about, but there’s definitely some satisfaction to be had in scourging your enemies with flame or smacking them off of a cliff with a heavy pipe.

The few non-combat-related puzzles are clustered early and late in the game. Some of these creative platforming sequences are part of larger, dramatic set pieces, such as your escape from a burning, collapsing building. It’s generally pretty clear which path you need to take, but figuring out the necessary actions and carrying them out is still entertaining. Puzzles in which you set fire to things are particularly fun; the fire looks gorgeous and spreads realistically while the textures on the burning wood change accordingly. Indoor and outdoor environments are well-detailed, especially the vast and varied Central Park. The scenery is at its best when integrated with the aforementioned dramatic set pieces. During these events, the camera will often pull out to a wider angle, giving you a greater sense of scope and harking back to the fixed-camera roots of previous Alone in the Dark games. There are some missteps here as well, and the dynamic lighting can occasionally turn an immersive environment into a something’s-not-quite-right environment.

Improved car handling leaves you free to worry about the toothy monsters who are trying to rip you apart.

These visual inconsistencies carry over to the numerous cutscenes, yet despite the occasional pop-in and imperfect facial animations, the cutscenes do a great job of adding weight to the already dramatic storyline. Playing as an amnesiac man who wakes up in the company of men who mean him harm, you manage to escape and make your way to Central Park, where the dark, far-reaching story begins to unfold in earnest. The story is well scripted and provides a few intensely dramatic moments, which are enhanced by mostly on-point aftereffects that imbue them with a filmic quality. The whole game is segmented into chapters and sections, so you can skip around to them as if it were a DVD, though feature will probably appeal only to folks who get stuck on a tough patch or want to go back to play a favorite sequence. Skippers need not fear too much missed content: Every play session and every skip treats you to a “previously on Alone in the Dark” segment that rehashes the pertinent story elements.

Alone in the Dark: Inferno is an ambitious game that features a lot of cool gameplay and bucks a lot of gaming conventions. Many small improvements eliminate points of frustration (enhanced AI assistance, an explosive new sequence, and a few other pacing tweaks), but it’s the character movement and camera updates that really help the game hit its stride. Although it’s definitely not without its stumbles, Alone in the Dark: Inferno is no longer hamstrung by the issues that plagued its predecessor, which means that PS3 owners can experience this adventure the way it was meant to be played.

Source [ GameSpot ]

Bolt doesn’t know it’s just a movie-licensed game. Sure, it has a few of the telltale weaknesses: the plot is thin and the game gets repetitive toward the end. But just as Bolt the dog confounds your expectations in the film by becoming the hero you thought he wasn’t, so too does the game overcome its licensed nature. Though this action platformer may be a lesser offering than many other games on shelves this holiday season, Bolt is more than a cash-in.

The bad guys’ sissy cat nails are no match for your laser eyes!

Bolt’s premise is perfect. Rather than trying to jam square-peg game mechanics into round-hole movie scenes, Bolt takes place completely outside of the movie’s storyline. Or rather, it takes place within the context of the action movie that Bolt and Penny star in–the one that makes him think he’s a superdog. It’s a great idea, so it’s too bad that the story is really, really boring. The gist is that Dr. Calico is forcing Penny’s dad to build a weapon, so Bolt and Penny are trying to save the day, and the dad. There’s no story arc, just chapter after chapter of Dr. Calico narrowly escaping your clutches. And there’s almost no dialogue. Bolt (the superdog, mind you) can’t speak. Sure, he can shoot lasers out of his eyes, but he can’t utter a single syllable. The result is a very long, quiet spin cycle of dialogue that begins with “There he is! Get him!” and ends with “He got away! After him, Bolt!”

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Fortunately, the “Get him!” parts are pretty good, and so are the “After him!” bits. You play as both Bolt and Penny, though the two aren’t interchangeable. For the most part, you sneak into an evil lair as Penny, hack a computer or two, kill a bad guy, and then get caught. Penny’s sequences mainly involve platforming and puzzle-solving with her nifty wheelbar. This lets her travel along pipes and up crevices, and thanks to her handy Vision mode, she always knows where to go next. She can also hack into computers by playing a Geometry Wars-like minigame that is hectic and kinda fun.

More than anything, though, Penny’s sequences serve as palate cleansers between Bolt’s taxing battles. In a fight, Bolt has light and strong attacks (he hovers and hurls his whole body into an enemy), several super attacks, and then a Super mode that can clear a whole room. Regular foes can be felled with regular light and heavy attack chains, and killing them gives you energy, which you can turn around and spend on super attacks for stronger villains. Meanwhile, all of your attacks feed into a combo counter, which in turn charges up your Super mode meter. At first, you’ll have a good time just bouncing back and forth between enemies, shooting one with lasers here, and super barking at a group there. But this whole system comes together toward the middle of the game, as the difficulty really ramps up and you have to fight waves of enemies. You’ll bounce off the easy ones, use supers to slay the tough ones, and then unleash your Super mode to completely annihilate the next wave.

Penny uses her wheelbar to infiltrate a den of evil.

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The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause full The only issue with this is the fact that the difficulty peaks too early. As soon as you’ve won a fight against three whip girls and two mine guys in the middle of the game, it’s hard to take a batch of regular enemies seriously, and yet you’ll still have thousands of them ahead of you. So though the combat is fun, it can get pretty repetitive, and that’s where the game’s decent pacing comes into play. For the most part, right when you feel like you’d rather not fight another ninja girl, the game wisely switches to a Penny sequence. This exchange, with a few special events thrown in, keeps things rolling for about eight hours. Unfortunately, the game is longer than that, and it really runs out of tricks toward the end. If you finish it, you probably won’t want to replay it (it’s long enough the first time), and the only extras to really fool around with are a bunch of the shooter minigame levels. Though there are no PS3 trophies, there are lots of achievements in the Xbox 360 version, and some of them even offer tips. For instance, if you get killed by a mine thrower, the achievement you get will slyly reveal the secret to beating him.

The graphics are strong from start to finish. Most stages in the game have beautiful, soft visuals, and others feature epic vistas. The Xbox 360 version seems to look a little bit better than the PS3 version, and it’s definitely more stable. The PS3 version skipped a scripted event and left us hanging about 15 minutes in, while the 360 version never had a problem like that. The music was never good or bad, and was only occasionally noticeable. Lastly, the voice acting was fine, even though the dialogue itself was incredibly limited and infrequent.

Bolt does several things right, and about as many things wrong. It has great graphics and genuinely entertaining mechanics, and it can keep you entertained for hours. On the other paw, it gets pretty repetitive, it has no storyline, and it isn’t a very good value. Bolt the game is just like Bolt the dog: somewhere between super and ordinary, and likeable all the same.

Source [ GameSpot ]

Girl, Interrupted movie full

Ghost Ship move

Loosely based on the same Greek myth that inspired the 1963 movie Jason and the Argonauts The Devil’s Own movies , Rise of the Argonauts is an action-oriented role-playing game in which you assume the role of King Jason of Iolcus and go in search of the legendary Golden Fleece. All manner of monsters stand between you and your prize, and doing battle with them is a lot of fun. The same can’t be said for all of the time you have to spend wandering around and talking to other characters, unfortunately, and the wildly inconsistent frame rate makes even the stop-motion special effects in the aforementioned movie look silky smooth by comparison.

Tragically, you spend more time conversing than you do in combat.

Rise of the Argonauts gets off to a shaky start. The assassination of Jason’s bride on their wedding day in the intro sequence ensure that the story is instantly compelling, but poor voice acting, awkward camera angles, questionable animation (Jason negotiating stairs is a must-see for all the wrong reasons), and numerous visual quirks waste no time in conspiring against it. Furthermore, there’s not much combat early on, so much of your time is spent trying to navigate Jason’s labyrinthine palace and conversing with guards who, save for their different-colored uniforms, all look identical. Iolcus, like the handful of other locations you’ll visit after acquiring the Argo, affords very few opportunities for exploration, but it still manages to be confusing enough in its design that you need to refer to the crudely drawn map to locate mission objectives in a timely fashion.

The high point of Rise of the Argonauts is undoubtedly the combat; Jason is skilled in the use of swords, spears, and maces, and he carries one of each as well as a shield at all times. The controls are uncomplicated and responsive, and it’s good that they’re the same no matter which weapon you’re wielding, because you’re encouraged to switch between them on the fly. None of the enemies are particularly intelligent, but they’re varied enough that you need to employ different weapons and strategies to get the better of them. Your spear can be used to keep overly aggressive enemies at a distance, while your mace is a good choice for destroying the shields of enemies attempting to hide behind them, for example. Putting your own indestructible shield to good use is crucial early on, but as you progress you become much more powerful and can spend more time on the offensive.

Interestingly, you need to go into the options menu if you want any kind of heads-up display for your health during combat. By default, you’re supposed to look for visual clues such as blood on the clothing of Jason and his allies to know when they’re in trouble, but the combat is so fast-paced that this isn’t always possible. Adding the HUD makes it much easier to know when Jason’s health is low, though it’s not always important because, in keeping with his mythological status, he’s a tough guy to keep down. When your health drops to zero you don’t die; rather, you enter a “state of grace” in which the screen blurs and you have 10 seconds or so to avoid taking any more damage before you regenerate around half of your health. You’ll die if you sustain a single hit during that time, but there are very few enemies who can keep up as you frantically run and roll around.

Aspects are a great way to customize Jason’s abilities according to your play style.

There are a number of ways in which you become a more formidable fighter as the story progresses. You’ll be joined by a handful of allies who will fight alongside you two at a time, you’ll be able to add more powerful weapons and armor to your arsenal, and you’ll learn new abilities by gaining favor with the gods Ares, Apollo, Athena, and Hermes. Each of the four gods has a skill tree composed of around 25 different “aspects” arranged into tiers so that more powerful ones become available only late in the game. The aspects vary a great deal and include both passive abilities and god powers that must be triggered manually in combat. Passive abilities include things like regenerating health anytime you kill an enemy, doing more damage to shields, and making your allies more powerful. God powers, which are fun but rarely needed outside of the most challenging difficulty mode, include temporary effects such as increased damage, explosions, and the ability to turn enemies into stone.

To purchase any given aspect you need to earn enough favor with the appropriate god to unlock it, which can be an interesting challenge in itself. The most obvious way to earn favor with gods is by dedicating to them any deeds you’ve accomplished. You can do this at shrines scattered throughout the world or, less elegantly, via an option in the pause menu. When you dedicate a deed to one of the gods, you earn an amount of favor proportional to the scale of your accomplishment. Settling a dispute among two traders is unlikely to impress in the same way that lopping off the heads of 25 enemies is, for example. The second way to curry favor with a god is by selecting dialogue choices that are clearly labeled as being appreciated by them. This can make the act of choosing dialogue a mechanical one if you care more about pleasing a specific g

SingStar is back for a fourth instalment on the PlayStation 3, and the series gets its first artist-exclusive title in the form of SingStar Abba. Agnetha, Bjorn, Benny, and Anni-Frid require no introduction in SingStar’s heartland of Europe and Australia, where they have endured as one of the most successful pop acts of all time. The Swedish group has also received a revival in recent years thanks to the Mamma Mia! musical, penned by Bjorn and Benny. Your enjoyment of SingStar Abba depends entirely on your love of the band, and of karaoke; if you love Abba you’ll be in for hours of disco-tastic fun belting out their classics in your living room. It has a great mix of songs (all in English), cheesy video clips from the ’70s, slick presentation, and superb online support–just don’t expect anything new or innovative.

With SingStar Abba you are the Dancing Queen. Ghost Ship buy

Given the series’ heavy slant toward pop, an Abba title makes perfect sense. SingStar Abba includes 25 tracks–five less than the other PS3 titles–as well as access to hundreds of downloadable tracks on the SingStore which sell for around �0.99 ($1.52) each. SingStar Abba features a strong lineup including all of their UK, US, and Australian chart toppers. Classics on the disc include “Dancing Queen,” “Fernando,” “Mamma Mia,” “Money, Money, Money,” “Ring Ring,” “Super Trouper,” “Take a Chance on Me,” “Waterloo,” and many more. Given that the girls were the lead vocalists on all of the tracks, you’ll have to feel comfortable singing as a Swedish songstress.

The harmony mode that debuted in SingStar Vol. 2 is back, although it only features in “Does Your Mother Know” and “Super Trouper.” If you’re used to singing the melody it might take you a bit to get used to singing harmonies, and you might even feel as if you’re singing out of tune, but with a bit of practice you should be able to pick it up. Unfortunately, SingStar’s microphones are still wired and need to be plugged into the USB port on the front of your PS3 via the included adaptor, and trophies are completely absent from the game. Given the exclusive deal Sony has struck with Abba, it’s also a shame there’s no bonus content included for diehard Abba fans, such as behind-the-scenes videos or documentaries on the band.

Despite those few omissions, however, what SingStar does, it does well. The core gameplay is identical to previous versions and is plenty of fun to play, especially when you’re accompanied by a few friends. If you connect a PlayStation Eye or EyeToy, the game will take a series of snapshots and a short video during each song for you to cringe, laugh, or cry at afterwards. You can also save these to the PS3 hard drive and, if you’re bold enough, upload to My SingStar Online for others to watch online.

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SingStar Abba is great, provided you can sing like a Swedish girl.

All of the regular modes return, including Sing Solo, Battle, Duet, Practice, and Pass the Mic, which support up two teams of four battling against each other. There’s still no online play, but the community features in My SingStar Online make a great addition to the offline experience. With a community of thousands of karaoke fans you can easily waste hours browsing through submitted photos and videos with often hilarious results.

While SingStar Abba receives a budget price of �24.99 in the UK without mics–roughly equivalent to 25 songs from the SingStore–Americans are lumped with a hefty $39.99 pricetag. It’s also worth bearing in mind that while you can cherry-pick individual songs from the SingStore at 99p each, Abba’s library is only available on disc for now. Whether you’re considering it as an addition to your existing SingStar collection or as your first foray to the series, you’ll be guaranteed a fun night if you like Abba. That said, it’s a shame the game offers nothing new to fans of the series, especially in the way of online play.

Source [ GameSpot ]