Yakuza 3 might have been a long time coming, this game is going to be release later this month, but it’s another great PS3 swansong. And it’s easy to see why Sega took its time bringing the game to Europe. On the one hand it’s a very good beat-em-up packed with cool gangsters, the sort of stuff which translates easily but on the other it’s basically an upperclass Japanese lifestyle simulator, which is understandably a much harder sell. You play, Kiryu Kauma, who spends his life alternately brutalizing thugs and dosing around swanky Japanese towns. This is a set against a relentlessly paced mob story that sees our man – the former head of the Tojo clan, now retired called upon a crisis hits his old gang.
Another night, another marathon Call of Duty session. You have finally scoped out the hateful sniper who’s been pwning your team with a cold eye and withered husk of a heart, and crept into position inch by painstaking inch. He’s toast. Your finger slowly depresses the trigger and…Eh?! One moment he’s crouching, helpless, under your crosshairs, the next he suddenly, impossibly, flits out of harm’s way, safe to kill another day. The dreaded lag strikes again.
Beauty is only skin deep when you are nose to the screen, thumbs deep in God of War: Chains of Olympus, all that matters is the code chugging away within the system. You are probably oblivious to what your Playstation Portable is wearing. But when your bus swerves to avoid a jaywalking squirrel, the right outfit could save you from a disfiguring scratch across the back of your system, and a bucketful of tears.
World domination comes to those who wait. As do other good things, like the console adaptation of Sid Meier’s turn-based Civilization series, aptly titled Civilization Revolution, as the latest offering departs from its PC-focused predecessor in two significant ways. First it’s quicker. Whereas a multiplayer round of Civilization IV could take eight, 12, even upwards of 20 hours before it reached a resolution, a match in Revolution only takes two or three. But that doesn’t mean the game’s been stripped of its depth. The 16 civilizations, four time periods, randomly generated small-ish maps featuring varied terrain and hosts of barbarians, and an assortment of Wonders and Great People, can make Revolution quite intimidating to new comers.
The PC gaming community has made modifications that turn San Andreas and Vice City into multiplayer games, and Crackdown had great online co-op, so we know a multiplayer GTA on Xbox 360 is technically feasible. And we can’t think of anything more satisfying than pushing through GTA IV’s missions and fleeing from the cops with a friend in tow. Think of the potential! One player drives, another shoots. One goes into the bank to rob it while another heads off to get the getaway ready. Or maybe one parachute from the top of the building while another drives a truck for them to land on.
This year’s PS3 gaming superstars, Metal Gear Solid and Grand Theft Auto, are both only on iteration number four! Somewhat out there are a lot of people who are no longer satisfied with singing into their shampoo-bottle microphones while showering. And thanks to Sing Star’s new online features, they’re rinsing off their bath-time anonymity for a shot at the big time. Yup, they’re bad as Hell and they’re not going to hide it anymore!
Here’s the most important lesson I learned from Overlord: Raising Hell: having an army of goblin-like demons bows to your every whim changes a person. Raising Hell supplied me with four minion types: browns (brawlers), red (fire-flingers), greens (backstabbers who can stealth), and blues (swimmers who can resurrect dead troops). I led my rampaging army through disgustingly sunny meadows, smoothing graveyards and beautifully decaying castles to slaughter parodied versions of fantasy creatures.
