The best stuff that didn't come with the box

Games and consoles hav??e lasted for around five decades, and you know what has been with them all this time? Gaming accessories. Many of these devices, like motion controllers and link cables, opened up new gaming opportunities that weren't available before. Others, like the Power Glove or the Sega Activator, were merely expensive novelties. But some of the best gaming accessories make memorable experiences for everyone, and he??re are 10 of them for you to consider.

10. Game Shark or Action Replay

[caption id="attachment_360730" align="alignnone" width="1200"] Image via Amazon Canada[/caption]

Game Shark and Action Replay used to be amazing resources for gamers on consoles like the PS2 and Nintendo DS. They're the ultimate cheating device that lets you gain legendary Pokémon from the get-go and even fight the final boss of Kingdom Hearts 2 in Mickey's throne room. You can even make Mario invincible throughout an entire playthrough of New Super Mario Bros. This kit helped make games easier and allowed for more intriguing playthrough??s, making it one of the best gaming accessories you can purchase.

9. PlayStation Move

[caption id="attachment_360486" align="alignnone" width="1200"] Screenshot via PlayStat????ion's YouTube Channel[/caption]

The PlayStation Move isn't the grandest step in gaming on this list, but it has survived two, technically three, generations at this point. The Nintendo Wii brought a wave of casual gamers into the ecosystem with magnificent titles like Wii Sports and The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess utilizing its motion-based technology. When the PlayStation Move controllers launched in 2010 (four years after the Wii), Sports Champions was surprisingly compelling, especially with its swordplay and table tennis. There is also the highly underrated Sorcery that lets you live out your wizard dreams with enterta??ining spell-based gameplay and inventive uses of the PlayStation Move technology.

The controller also felt more responsive than the Wii remote and nunchuck at the time with its camera-based tracking. The Move then was utilized for PlayStation VR on the PS4. While the gaming accessory pales in comparison to what Oculus provides with its own controller, the PlayStation Move he?lped bring in new fans to the VR medium.

8. Kinect

[caption id="attachment_360660" align="alignnone" width="1200"] Image via Harmonix[/caption]

Like the PlayStation Move, Xbox's Kinect tried to capture the casual audience that Nintendo's Wii brought into the space. To Microsoft's credit, the Kinect succeeded at doing that with over 24 million units sold, according to GameSpot. This is one of the best gaming accessories because it was extremely simple to use. You don't need a controller, eliminating a barrier of entry. The Dance Central series is a blast with flashy choreography, step-by-step instructions on how to pull off each move, and, most importantly, an excellent setlist. The pack-in game Kinect Adventures, while simple, was a thrill with fun mi??ni-games for the whole ??family.

There were some stumbles, like Han Solo cringingly dancing to a spoof version of "Ridin' Solo" by Jason Derulo in Kinect Star Wars and poor body tracking in Sonic Free Riders. However, the Kinect stands tall as an ?excellent motion game accessory that has been elevated into a tool for hospitals.

7. Dance Dance Revolution Pad

[caption id="attachment_361167" align="alignnone" width="1200"] Screenshot vi?a Konami's YouTube Channel[/caption]

Dance Dance Revolution was a phenomenon back in the earl?y 2000s. It took over arcades and the home as well. Laying these mats on the floor, each direction that you input is commanded by your feet.

The goal of Dance Dance Revolution is to get the best score (or at least enough points to survive each song) and move your feet to the rhythm. As with the Kinect and Dance Central, the DDR pad is a great way to exercise and lose some pounds. Dance Dance Revolution was so popular that even a Super Mario spinoff was made exclusively for GameCube! Now, this unique controller is being used in legendary walkthroughs for games like Elden Ring. 

6. Taiko Drum

[caption id="attachment_360729" align="alignnone" width="1200"] Image via Bandai Namco[/caption]

One of the coolest arcade experiences around doesn't involve traveling to the far-off world in Halo or shooting criminals in Time Crisis. No, this game involves hitting a plastic drum in time to some sweet anime tunes. Taiko no Tatsujin, a rhy?thm game that uses a taiko drum as its instrument, is one of the best arcade games you can find. But arcades are pretty sparse these days, which is why it's a good thing Bandai Namco?? created a taiko drum accessory for home consoles like the PS2 and Nintendo Switch.

The concept is extremely simple but entertaining. Like Guitar Hero, you're drumming to the beat with sticks in your hands. Similar to an actual taiko drum, you can play the instrument in-game by hitting the inner circle of the drum (red) or the rim (blue). Hitting the pseudo-instrument, you get the tactile feeling of playing to the beat, and switching between the inner and outer sections of the drum is challenging yet satisfying to pull off. This, plus the addition of Nintendo, JPOP, and anime soundtracks to the song list, makes Taiko no Tatsujin a great rhythm game to sink your teeth into.

5. Wii MotionPlus

[caption id="attachment_361277" align="alignnone" width="1200"] Image via Nintendo[/caption]

On the topic of Nintendo accessories, the Wii MotionPlus was a giant leap from the original Wii remote. You place this upgrade on the bottom of the original controller, and then a deeper level of accuracy is added to your games. Later on, Wii remotes with the MotionPlus technology already installed were released to the public. Wii Sports Resort is the best example of this tech, letting you wield a sword or throw a frisbee with greater precision than previously. It was almost like a leap from the PS4 to PS4 Pro but at a much lower cost. The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword also utilizes the Wii Motion Plus. It tracks the movements of your hand, so you can slice an opponent in a specific ??way with the Master Sword, avoiding a broken shield and hitting the hip, for example. Shooting with the bow and arrow is also satisfying with this accessory. This Wii remote upgrade is easily one of the best gaming accessories in history.

4. Guitar Hero/Rock Band Controllers

[caption id="attachment_361169" align="alignnone" width="1200"] Image via Harmonix[/caption]

Some of the best gaming accessories in existence (that sadly fill the stock rooms of thrift stores today) are the Guitar Hero and Rock Band instruments. The genre was a phenomenon back in the mid-late 2000s and these plastic peripherals were all the rage. It was thrilling to jam out with your mates until the wee hours of the morning, rocking out to songs from AC/DC, The Beatles, Aerosmith, Green Day, and the Ramones.

The guitar requires a level of accuracy as players strum the controller's buttons to play different notes. The drums, just like Taiko no Tatsujin, are satisfying to use and had a pedal that you had placed your foot down to keep in beat. Then, the least wanted role in? the band, the singer, would hopefully provide the bars to get you through the song. It was a grand time as you finished the story mode, unlocked all the songs, and tried to get the best high scores on the leaderboard.

3. Game Link Cable for Game Boy

[caption id="attachment_361170" align="alignnone" width="1200"] Image via Luis Quintero[/caption]

The Game Boy link cable isn't thought about much these days, but before Bluetooth wireless connections and Wi-Fi, this was the only way to trade Pokémon and play multiplayer games with another Game Boy owner. Part of Pokémon's early success was the ability to battle and trade with other players. To get a full Pokédex, you needed the link cable to trade, so Graveler could evolve into Golem, for example. Battling with your buddies was also cool as you could prove to your friends that training your Poémon was your cause. Fighting games like Street Fighter 2 and Killer Instinct also supported this cable on the Game Boy Color.

2. The Fight Stick

[caption id="attachment_361171" align="alignnone" width="1200"] Image via Hori[/caption]

Speaking of Bandai Namco, which has created the Tekken series, arcade fight sticks have helped elevate the competitive scene. Rather than begging your mom to go the arcade after school, you could play these fighting games with an arcade-style stick at your very own house. Decades later, fight sticks are now used at competitive fighting game events like Evo and CEO, among many others. They provide a great amount of precision with every movement of your character. In addition, the buttons are tactile and can help you make those split-second decisions within a match of Street Fighter V or Mortal Kombat 11. Some of them, h?owever, are pret??ty expensive with HORI's Fighting Stick Alpha ranging around $200.

1. PlayStation VR Headset

[caption id="attachment_361172" align="alignnone" width="1200"] Image via Polyarc Games[/caption]

One of the most impressive gaming accessories ever made is the PlayStation VR. It is cheaper than the competition and sweeps you off into different worlds surprisingly well. The screen itself has a lower resolution, but seeing Quill in Moss beneath you in its small mouse form looking at you is something else. The deep perspective you gain from the device is absolutely marvelous. It truly sucks you into the narratives that games like Wanderer or Trover Saves The Universe are trying to tell. You can play the entirety of Resident Evil 7 on this thing, and it's intense. The inventiveness of Astro Bot: Rescue Mission with the VR heads??et, like hitting an obstacle with your head, is marvelous.

The previously mentioned PlayStation Move controllers work well enough as your input as you shoot objects in front of you and strike foes with a sword. The PlayStation VR 2 will likely be an upgrade, but with the price that it's offered at and the poor launch window lineup, it might be worth checking out the ori??ginal PlayStation VR h?eadset while it's cheap used.

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The Shootman Cometh

I must confess: I haven't used my PlayStation VR headset in months. It's not down to disappointment or boredom, but mainly because ??I haven't had the time to just "disappear" for the length of time you need to get a satisfying session out of the hardware. 

The good news, though, is that experiences that people who engage with VR more regular??ly would see as pretty "basic" these days can still really impress me, so long as they g?et the fundamentals down right. 

Lucky me, then, that Space Pirate Trainer can be described as exactly that.

Space Pirate Trainer (PSVR [Reviewed], HTC Vive, Oculus Rift)
Developer: I-Illusions
Publisher: I-Illusions
Release: November 27, 2018 
MSRP: $14.99)

Back in the day, Space Pirate Trainer was almost a killer app out of the first wave of games for Valve's monstrously expensive HTC Vive Headset. I-Illusions' work in putting together an immediately satisfying showcase of why VR could matter as a traditional game experience drove many a VR newbie t??o techno-lust. Later on, many a PSVR early adopter would look at space pirates-in-training with a bit of envy as they scrambled for equivalents or substitutes to get their? shooting on with.

It took quite a while, but now it's here, and the core of it has translated over quite well. ?;

The game is much the same as it is on Vive and ?Oculus, structurally: Players are immediately dropped into a semicircular arena, defending a fancy spaceship on its landing pad from armies of floating robots and their deadly blasters. Aiding in the fight are the player's hands, which can each hold a weapon, be it a modular blaster with six different gun modes ranging from a rapid-fire machine gun to a precise charge-and-fire rail gun, or a combination energy whip that has a sword mode and laser-reflecting shield.

What sets Space Pirate Trainer apart from any number of shooting gallery experiences available on the three platforms is that the weapons genuinely feel good to aim and fire off. Unbound by the contraints of more realistically styled shooters, you end up feeling like Peter Quill playing out a version of this scene from Guardians of the Galaxy, and that feeling has translated fairly well over to the PSVR hardware. That said, there are some noticeable differences, even ?someone like me who has never played a game on the Vive or Oculus, and has only PSVR titles and external footage as a reference point for what VR "feels like". 

For one, the gr??aphics are noticeably less complex, with simpler lighting, models, and textures on a base-model PS4 (and original-model PSVR) compared to even two-year-old footage of the game as it appeared on PC. This does have a minor impact on play, as the higher level of aliasing on the models makes certain styles of aiming sight more difficult to use (I ended up giving up on the "relex sight cross" option). 

That much is to be expected - PSVR has always been the least powerful of? the major commercial headsets - but thankfully the experience itself is intact otherwise. I didn't experience any framerate drops or major issues with tracking the Move controllers as I moved my hands around to shoot at enemies. If there was anything that needed getting used to, it's that the Move controller wands don't quite "feel" like guns in my virtual hands, so I had to spend a bit of time adjusting the angle of the virtual barrels to adapt it to the way I held the wands.

One more potential concern that I haven't been able to test, seeing as I'm not very good at the game, is that the original Vive game used room-scale tech to allow players to move around their play space to avoid shots. The PSVR, with its camera-based tracking, might be less forgiving of players stepping to and fro to dodge incoming fire. I ended up stepping pretty far back from the camera to allow the machine to better track my Move controllers, so the usual prescription of 2-5 meters distance may not be enough for a comfortable experience. Be wa??rned if you don't have much space in your VR area.

Beyond those niggles, though, the game is pretty much as it is when we reviewed it two years ago, additional modes that change scoring and can make the experience more forgiving can change things up a bit, but it's still the same bit of shallow, feel-good shooting fun as before. Every weapon has a different use, and some weapons, particularly the shield and baton, can be used together in fun ways to eliminate the enemies creatively. I particularly liked batting away enemy blasts with the baton in my right hand and a pistol in my left, sort of like I was roleplaying Kirito from a certain story?? arc in Sword Art Online.

Despite the fact that it's a pretty basic experience by modern standards, with just three modes and little variation, Space Pirate Trainer has earned its reputation by handily nailing the basics and conveying the feel of being a sci-fi badass. It may not be as inventive or novel as the likes of Superhot VR or as hardcore as Firewall, but any PSVR owner that has two Moves?? and isn't tired of shooting galleries yet should give it a whirl.

_{[These impressions are based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}

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You can chose who lives or dies!

While Sony had made an announcement about "PlayLink" last night, they didn't share any of the details about the program. I wondered if it was some kind of push into the mobile market for Sony, but the reality is different. PlayLink refers to a new initiative to make games more social, citing Until Dawn as inspiration. Through PlayLink, you and a few friends will use your smart devices to control a?? variety of different games.

In the introduction video to Hidden Agenda, one of the few games that is heading to the service, Will Doyle (director for Hidden Agenda) mentions that Sony noticed how people were playing Until Dawn on streaming sites and wanted to better integrate viewer feedback into a playthrough. Instead of simply asking an audience to makes choices for you??, PlayLink will allow multiple people to use their smart devices to sort of direct the action.

The second game unveiled, a party game called Thats's You!, looks to replicate an experience similar to The Jackbox Party Pack. In this, a group of friends are asked various questions about each other and are given tasks like doodling over pictures of their friends. Sounds l?ike a neat way to spend an evening with some pals.

To commemorate the launch of PlayLink, Sony will also be giving out That's You! to PlayStation Plus members st?arting on July 4th!

By the end of the year, three more games will also be hitting the service. Frantics is an arcade style game that sounds an awful lot like Mario Party. Knowledge is Power is a trivia based game with support for up to five players. Finally, SingStar Celebration will utilize your cellphone's microphone (or you can just use your old SingStar ??mic) to give you a virtual karaoke machine on your PS4.

All in all, this isn't exactly what I was thinking, but it makes sense. The Jackbox games are a huge hit at conventions and with streamers, so its smart for Sony to try to get into that market. While Hidden Agenda looks pretty neat, the other games sound kind of lackluster. Hopefully Sony won't drop this after a few months like all their other ideas (I'm looking at yo?u, PlayStation Move!).

Introducing PlayLink for PS4 [PlayStation Blog]

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Releasing June 27

Having not yet gotten around to Farpoint, it's been a while since I've had a reason to fish out my tangled-up, crammed-in-a-drawer PlayStation VR. The impending port of Arizona Sunshine is next on my list, and that game -- a zombie shooter folks seemed to dig on Vive and Rift -- is now set for a June 27 launch. If you went all in with Farpoint and picked up the Aim C??ontroller, t??his is worth a look.

Lame voice-over aside, I think this should be a lot of fun with the Aim Controller, although it'?s obviously not going to be as sharp-looking as the original PC version. I'm reserving some judgment until I'm actually playing the game in-person -- a rule that has served me pretty well with VR.

Some other good-to-know tidbits: Arizona Sunshine also supports Move controllers and ??the DualS??hock 4, with the ability to teleport around or use free movement if you're comfortable with that.

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This analysis video matches my personal experience

With last week's 4.50 firmware update for PlayStation 4, it seems that Sony has improved its PlayStation Move controller tracking. By now, you've no doubt seen or at least heard about "jitter" problems, in which a person could be playing something like Batman: Arkham VR and h??ave their virtual hand wo?bble back and forth despite holding their Move nice and steady in real life.

It has been one of those minor annoyances I've just learned to accept, and I think that goes for a lot of other PlayStation VR owners. The situation isn't completely fixed yet, but based on findings by YouTube user iWaggleVR, there are noticeable improvements with jittery Move controller?s as of firmware 4.50.

He tested Move-centric PlayStation VR games like the aforementioned Arkham VR, London Heist, and Job Simulator for this well-done analysis video. Sure enough, I booted up a couple of these titles and noticed similar results. I'm still seeing jit?ter with my Move controllers, but it's not as distracting.

That said, it sounds as if the wobble issues? users can experience with their PSVR headset and DualShock 4 (which are also tr??acked by the camera) are the same as before. Maybe one day.

iWaggleVR [YouTube via NeoGAF]

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A virtual singer, at a virtual concert, in virtual reality

I love Hatsune Miku and her fantastic games yet I've never been able to see her perform 'live' unlike some of my friends, so obviously I was excited to give Hatsune Miku: VR Future Live a spin on PlayStation VR; a product that Sega says is in the "virtual live concert" genre, whatever that means.

To me, a "virtual live concert" would be watching a live concert in virtual reality, but this is more like watching a performance from one of the Project Diva games while waggling your controller with a ??glow stick attached alongside a faceless crowd doing the same thing.

As a huge fan of the queen of the vocaloids&??nbsp;and concerts, I think I'm the perfect person to give my opinion on this. So, did it deliver?

Hatsune Miku: VR Future Live (PS4 [played with PSVR])
Developer: Sega
Publisher: Sega
MSRP: $39.99
Released: Stage 1: October 13, 2016, Stage 2: November 2016, Stage 3: December 2016

No. No, it does not. Currently, only?? the first set of seven songs (known as Stage 1) are available for $15 and can be experienced in ??under an hour.

As far as interactivity goes, you can shake your DualShock or Move controller to imitate the glowsticks of the crowd surrounding you, which is an accurate representation of a Hatsune concert from what I've seen. I honestly felt pretty excited at first, having a bit of fun shaking my virtual glowstick to some of my favorite songs from Project Diva X, but after? a couple of songs I grew tired of doing th??e same few motions over and over.

Sure, it felt nice to have my controller vibrate to the music while I performed actions, but I was only required to during certain sections of each song, meaning m?ost of the time I was just waggling for 'fun.' The most fun I had was probably watching as my virtual DualShock 4 floated off into space as the PlayStation VR's tracking of them is apparently not great, at least in this experience. The Move seemed to work as intended, though the in-game controller jitters at all time regardless of the controller you're using, probably due to relying on three- to six- year- old hardware such as the camera and Move.

You're also supposed to chant along with the crowd, but I only saw prompts to do so once or twice and felt weird doing so on my own. I couldn't suss out if any of this mattered. I was told early on that doing well would grant me a one-on-one encore experience, but I don't think there is a way to even avoid it. It did seem like I unlocked different items (such as a maraca and a tambourine) to shake with my controller if I continued to mime the crowd's movements during songs, as well as new outfits for Hatsune to wear? during her encores.

Speaking of the encores, they were only slightly less uncomfortable than Mary J. Blige singing for Hillary Clinton. Hatsune warps you to a  heaven-like environment and tells you she is going to perform a special encore for you at which time she asks what she should wear. This made me slightly uncomfortable, not because I had a boner, but because it was just very awkward. Ms. Miku will then perform a dance and song for you like some kind of classy, mostly clothed cabaret performer. Thankfully the encore included in Stage 1 is one of my favorite songs, "Love Song," with the 'fingers dance' and everything.

While VR Future Live may emulate parts of what it is like to be at a Hatsune Miku concert, it doesn't feel much different than watching a performance from any of the Project Diva games from the audience view, which is something you can actually do now with the PlayStation VR update available for Project Diva X. That is what I'd suggest over ?buying this due to a lack of content and in?teractivity.

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No word on price

According to TechInsider, Sony will release a bundle contai??ning the PlayStation VR headset, a PlayStation Camera, and a Move controller. A Sony rep confirmed the bundle for? North American release, but did not mention a price window in the interview.

The quote came from an interview with Shuhei Yoshida, PlayStation's president of Worldwide Studios. Yoshida also mentioned tha??t Sony did not include a camera because "many people" already own one??.

When Sony announced pricing ($399) and release information (October 2016) for the PlayStation VR earlier today at GDC, the company stated that the head?set would require a PlayStation Camera. PlayStation Move controllers will be optional, but considerin?g that PS VR's competitors have been touting VR-specific controllers, investing in one or two of those seems like a smart idea.

Let's play the speculation game! How much will this bundle cost? I'm putting it all on $449 -- Sony has sold those cameras for practically nothing before, and I bet the company could e??asily take a bath?? on Move controllers.

Don't p??anic: There's a version of the PlayStation 4 VR headset that has everything you need [TechInsider]

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Maybe this one will actually work

One challenge facing virtual reality designers is what they should do with the player's hands. Some games, like fl??ight simulators, have it relatively easy. A joystick and throttle can easily mirror what's going on in a cockpit. But for most everything else, some sort of new controller is needed to avoid creating a disconnect between what players see and what they feel.

Up until now, Sony has utilized PlayStation Move wands when demoing PlayStation VR, and while they work better than a DualShock controller in this circumstance, it seems the company is testing out other ideas and looking to push things further with new? technology.

With that in mind, the electronics giant has filed three patents for a glove controller that would track individual finger positioning, include contact sensors, and send data back to the headset display so what your hands are doing is reflected on-screen in real time. The patents also include notes regarding sensors ??for detecting pressure and wrist movement, as well as haptic communicators (rumble) to provide a sense of touch to pair with the visuals.

Who knows if the gloves will ever see the light of day. Companies file patents for products that never come out all the time, but I for one, think it would be so bad to see VR gloves work like the Power Glove was advertised to in The Wizard, as opposed to the barely functional real thing.

Glove Interface Object [USPTO [1] [2] via NeoGAF]

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PS3/PS4 first, then Steam

It's been a long road to releasing Sportsfriends but this collection of four fun local multiplayer games is almost there. The PS3 and PS4 versi?ons of the game launch May 6 in North America ($14.99) and a day later in Europe and Australia (€13.99), followed by a Windows/Mac/Linux release "some weeks later." This announcement video shows what it's like to have friends. Friends who aren't afraid?? of going shirtless when the situation calls for it.

Die Gute Fabrik has a blog post breaking down the differences between the two PlayStation versions of Sportsfriends. Notably, Johann Sebastian Joust on PS3 allows the use of custom music files and up to seven people can play as compared to the PS4 version's four-player limit. Other titles included in Sportsfriends are BaraBariBall, Hokra, and Super Pole Riders.

Sportsfriends! May 6 on PS3 + PS4 [Die Gute Fabrik]

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Sadly, mine doesn't get much use these days

Sony has filed for a new patent regarding their PlayStation Move controller, and it lo?oks like it's going modular, if the filing is actually going to be acted on at some point. The patent allows for the controller to be shaped by way of moving parts, which would allow it to morph into a gun or a sword.

At one point this could have been a really cool idea, but I don't think enough studios su?pport the Move enough for it to be a real game-changer. Especially when it comes to the PlaySta?tion 4, things are decidedly DualShock oriented, and it looks like it's going to stay that way for at least a short while.

Patent Application 20140015813 [USPTO via Engadget]

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Free for Kickstarter backers

Few games represent that sense of indie pride better than Sportsfriends, a compilation of local multiplayer titles which includes Johann Sebastian Joust. It was already getting a PlayStation 3 release after a successful Kickstarter, and now the collection is planned for PS4.

It's unclear when the next-gen version will launch -- sometime after January's PS3 debut, most likely -- or whether or not there'll be Cross-Buy support. However, there is some great news for those of you who supported the Kickstarter: you're getting Sportsfriends PS4 for free. There's also mention of J.S. Joust working with the DualShock 4, which is a g????????????????????????????reat tease.

Sportsfriends vaults to PS4 [PlayStation Blog]

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Sweet, d00d!

People often love Valve because they're the company that keeps on giving. Today, you'll be able to bottle some of that love in the form of free Portal 2 DLC, exclusively for the PS3 version of the game. The DLC is said to be a "thank you" from Sixense (who developed the Hydra motion and worked on Move support), to owners of the In Motion DLC.

The new add-on itself is an all-new co-op campaign designed for the PlayStation Move, in the form of a free patch -- so just update your game, and go look for it. If you don't have the game or In Motion yet, they're 20% off as of today (40% for Plus owners). While I don't think that Portal 2 is as good as the original, it?'s still a great game, a ton of fun for co-op purposes, and at this point, it has a ton of content.

Portal 2 [PlayStation Blog]

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From releasing into obscurity to retail-specific pre-order bonuses!

Deadly Premonition: Director's Cut comes out next month (4/30) on PS3 and it will offer retailer-specific pre-order bonuses, which is a little bit of an oddity for a game getting its unexpected second life. Almost takes the sting out of retai??ler-specific pre-order bonuses being a stupid and annoying trend.

GameStop will offer US pre-orderers the Espresso Suit, which triples your tolerance toward hunger and tiredness, two stats Deadly Premonition requires you to manage, lest York succumb to fatigue. Amazon (US or UK) is offer??ing a Field Ops Suit meant to up health and attack power. Shopto (UK) will have the Transporter Pack, which is three souped up cars and the amazing-sounding Chibi Chibi Bang Bang Car skin.

Anyone put off by the roughness of the original game should know a few things: visuals have been updated and most textures redone; the game controls a bit less clunky, a bit more like a Resident Evil-style third person shooter; ??and there's a giant, expandable map that overlays the screen while you're walking around or driving, allowing? for easier navigation.  It's good stuff.

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Taking creative gaming to next level

Media Molecule took the stage at Sony's PlayStation 4 event and revealed that their next project will help players cut through the crap, sweep away the techy mess, and put players in the designer's chair. After two yea??rs of research in a variety of fields the developer is endeavoring to realize the full ?potential of the PlayStation Move.

Media Molecule wants to give players the tools to bring their dreams to life. To do this they've created some impressive software to allow players to harness the motion controller to assemble their thoughts and ideas into levels and stories with a flick of the wrist. The video demonstration showed off players using the Move to scul?pt scenery and record the movement of on-screen character??s.

Hopefully it works because it loo?ks almost too good to be tr?ue.

Check out ALL the PlayStation 4 coverage from today's event here. Console specs revealed, new controller detailed, and tons? o??f games announced!

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Many embarassing Facebook images later

If current estimations are to be believed, the current console generation will be the longest we’ve seen in the history of gaming. As of right now, just a little less than one-third of my life fits between?? November 16, 2005 and now.

That’s a huge chunk of time. Think about it. The entire presidency of Barack Obama, the collapse of the global financial markets, and the rise of cellphones (and then smartphones) all fit pretty neatly in that space. Not to mention, things like Netflix, Youtube, Facebook, Twitter, and nearly everything else that the tech savvy among us use on a daily basis did not exist when this generation started. Hell, Destructoi?d wasn’t born until Marc?h 2006. So much has changed that it’s easy to lose sight of the past.

I started thinking about all of this a few weeks ago, wondering what trends and innovations would be influential for gaming. What will forever change the face of this industry as we know it? After some?? discussions with the rest of the staff here, we&rsqu?o;ve got it down to a list of a few things whose impact will probably be with us for some time to come.

Motion Controls

The Wii, Ki??nect and Move. If there’s one development that could really sum-up this generation, motion controls might be it.

It started back in ’06 with the release of Nintendo’s Wii. In??s??tead of trying to keep up with the graphical race between Microsoft and Sony, Nintendo chose to use an innovative control mechanism, banking on the idea that developers would use it to create games that were compelling enough to draw in casual gamers and the core crowd alike.

It worked, more or less. At just under 100 million units, the Wii is still *technically* the most successful console from this generat??ion. I say technically, because Wii sales have been largely stagnant for a couple of ye?ars, giving both the PS3 and 360 quite some time to catch up.

Early on, however, no one knew how the whole thing would play out. Initially??, the Wii wa?s selling so fast that it looked like it was a real contender to surpass the PlayStation 2. The other two companies, realizing the mass appeal of motion controls, Microsoft and Sony moved to produce peripherals that would give their respective consoles functionality that rivaled that of the Wii.

At E3 2009,?? Kinect and Move were shown for the first time. While each unit was met with different levels of success, they were indicative of something more -- a desire to simplify, to cut back on the growing complexity of traditional console controls.

For all of its imperfections, motion controls allowed easy translation of subtle, nuanced movement between player and the screen. Games like Wii Sports and Dance Central rode the wave of popularity and saw pretty substantial success. Kinect showed, for the first time, that a peripheral not initially bundled with a ??console could not only be financially viable, but see inc?redible mainstream acceptance, selling over 8 million units in the first 60 days and setting a world record for the fastest selling consumer electronics device ever released.

While it’s not certain whether the "Nextbox" or the PS4 will keep up with the motion control standard, but the Wii U, the first console of the 8^th generation, has already taken the legacy of its predecessor and built upon it. Microsoft has also been unusually dedicated to Kine??ct, and I honestly don’t see them dropping that support anytime soon.

This is perhaps one of the most pernicious and frustrating new bits of tech I’ve seen i??n some time. I’ve written before about the need for games that are open and accessible to people who may be differently abled, and that sentiment hasn’t changed. Motion controls, indeed, can be very helpful for some individuals, but it seems that more often than not it is a restriction. Playing the Wii for example can be tiring, even if it just means holding your arm in one specific place for extended periods of time. Motion controls, more often than not place an additional barrier between the player and the game.

Standard console controls have been fine-tuned for years and it’s pretty rare to see even the worst games completely screw them up. Anytime a new Kinect or Move game comes out, however, the first and most important discussion that’s had is whether or not the controls are even competently implemented. The simple act of not screwing something up?? is now seen as an exceptional accomplishment because just being okay is the new bar.

Maybe I’m wrong, but within the past few years I haven’t seen anything pull off new control schemes quite as well as games like Wii Sports or Dance Central, and they are meant for very general audiences and are very liberal with what kinds of movements they will accept as being correct. This tech isn't really ready for pr??ime time and probably won’t be for a while- not to the degree required to justify the cost.

When I was young, my mom told me that eventually all games would be ?controlled with the whole body. Even back then, I knew that was a bad idea. I’m not necessarily against change in the abstract, but at no point have I seen anything that justifies two expensive add-ons and an entire console that’s a generation behind.

Creativity on the part of the developers brings innovation. Messing with the most fundamental aspect of a machine (its interface) undoes everything people have learned since gami?ng has… been. People can say what they like, but this is one shift that gives me a lot more stress, physical pain, and hours of frustration than it should have.

At the end of the day, ask yourself- do you want Red Steel or do you want Portal?

_{[image courtesy of SlamDunk! Studios , I'm a Gamer Too, and Kotaku Australia]}

The post Trends of t?his Generation: Waggling with motion controls appeared first on Destructoid.

Gazing into an abyss of hamburgers, eyebrows, and coffee

Destructoid’s love affair with the inimitable, idiosyncratic Deadly Premonition is a point of public record. Jim’s infamous, glowing, 10/10 review turned a lot of people onto the game -- myself included -- and for that we are as thankful as Resident Evil 6 are indignant. Or, if you’re playing along at home, substitute any game that we score low. “[x] gets a [y] when Deadly Premonition gets a 10,” the commenter? scoffs and chortles into his Cheetos.

We’re all aware, of course, that there are some technical issues in the game. Deadly Premonition’s release was a rare one. A Japanese studio was developing, plainly, for a Western audience. The project was helmed by a man, SWERY (or SWERY65), committed to his bizarre vision and allowed creative control. That something so unique and personal got a retail, console release was amazing enough. The team being able to revisit the title to address niggling concerns, beautify it, and add content just seems unreal. Yet, that’s precisely what’s happening with Deadly Premonition: The Director’s Cut.

Deadly Premonition: The Director’s Cut (PlayStation 3)
Developer: Access Games
Publisher: Rising Star Games
Release: April 2013

From the onset, things are looking good. We funnel into a room and shake hands with SWERY and Tomio Kanazawa, who does SWERY’s more laborious translating. Kanazawa is a producer and the Vice President of Toybox Inc., where he works with Harvest Moon creator Toybox founder Yasuhiro Wada. The two know each other from Marvelous, where Kanazawa was a producer and Wada the eventual CEO. Marvelous published Deadly Premonition in Japan. T??here’s more than a little luck to the gam??e’s perseverance and eventual release.

Kanazawa and SWERY have been working together for some time now and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. At first glance the two seem rather juxtaposed. Kanazawa sits uprig??ht in a sensible black blazer and fields questions. SWERY is laid back on the couch as if at a Roman banquet, his eyebrows contorting with life behind ??black, thick framed glasses.

But their great relationship quickly becomes evident. Later in the interview, after talking Revenge of the Killer Tomatoes and even more obscure 80’s flick Gotcha! while driving around in Deadly Premonition, Destructoid video personality and generally debonair gent Spencer Hayes (expect an on camera interview soon) asked if any new in car diatribes were among the game’s new additions. SWERY’s eyebrows emoted further still as Kanazawa explained how SWERY had written a bunch more but, “I had to say? ‘no,’ there was not enough time,” he offered, a tad bereft. “He was so upset,” Kanazawa continued, laughing. “He still co?mplains,” Kanazawa smiled as SWERY, who plans to add those lost dialogue pieces to his blog post release, presumably complained a bit more.

While driving around we were shown one of the new additions, a response to criticism of the game. The minimap caught flack for be??ing too small in relation to the large environment. Though it looked rather massive on the enormous set the game was being demoed on, it was a surprise to see a translucent version of the minimap then expand f?urther over much of the screen while York was still driving. Cool.

The first thing that struck me when I took a look toward the TV was Deadly Premonition’s remarkable sharp, clean title menu. When you start a new game, gone is the difficulty option, the harder iterations of which previously kept some players from completing or continuing with the game. SWERY wants people to play the game, wholly and to the end. The visual upgrade is obvious. As we open up to a mutilated corpse of a girl eerily strung up on a tree, details that were previously lost are for the first time seen, like a clear demarcation of tears on the ghastly face. Mind, it isn’t an entirely rebuilt game. It still shows age and bu??dget, but it also looks damn good.

This is a proper director’s cut, of course, not just an HD rebuild. 3D and PlayStation Move support have both been integrated into the game. In the realm of controls, the default scheme has been remapped to better match the expected third-person shooter scheme (right analog to aim and so on; you’re ?still stuck in one place when shooting). “This game is too unique,” SWERY offered. There’s a concerted effort to appeal to a new audience as well as possible (better visuals, slightly more standardized cont??rols) without compromising the game.

Additional scenes, from SWERY, have been added to Director’s Cut. There is a new prologue, for instance, that then cuts right into the introduction fans are familiar with. SWERY also wrote an epilogue that he says will address certain c??oncerns over narrative elements. “It was not difficult to write the new ending,&rdquo?; he said, noting that after three months of discussion he was able to write it in a week. 

The pair insists that the additional?? content was handled so as to “not destroy the original story.” The DLC will not be story-based, either, though further details are being kept under wraps. There haven’t been too many fundamental additions in terms of gameplay beyond fixes and the like, either. When asked if there were any new weapons, Kanazawa responded with a negative, mentioning there were already so many unique weapons, “like a guitar, like a rock star,” at which point SWERY, behind him, pantomimes Pete Townshend going to town on a guitar.

With a custom moniker like SWERY (or SWERY65), you might expect a bit of the rock star persona in the chap, but there’s no hint of ego here. Just a calm fluidity, a??ffable nature, a penchant for obscure American culture, and those wild eyebrows that add life to every expression. At one point during the demo SWERY gracefully, silently elevated himself from his laid back position and opened the inexplicably closed air? conditioning vent in the slowly overheating room and laid back down. It was strangely cool (pun intended), and relished. Speaking of relish, he loves hamburgers.

SWERY’s simultaneously placid and plucky demeanor are a fit for Deadly Premonition’s peaceful, small town vibes. In talking about the town and wh??y he chose to set the game there, he mentioned how its peaceful nature contrasted sharply with the horrific depravity occurring there. Making the normal seem alien is an effective horror tool. “Something you are always watching in you??r normal life begins turning into horrible things,” Kanazawa translated.

But don’t call it a survival horror game. “Sometimes the game is categorized as survival horror but he did not mean for it fall into this genre,” Kanazawa explained. “Solving the m??ystery is the main part of the game,” he added, likening it to the detective story it is in spite of more otherworldly hor?ror elements. Of course, just breathing in the daily life of the town is a main part of the game, by which you’re breathing in a part of SWERY.

There is a squirrel obsessed character in the game because squirrels are uncommon in Japan, but we’re filthy with them. Similarly, one of the times SWERY was here researching for Deadly Premonition he stumbled upon a scene in which two individuals sat separate from each other at a cartoonishly long table. Tha??t scene made it straight into the game.??

If you haven’t played Deadly Premonition yet -- and even if you have -- you owe it to yourself to pick up the Director’s Cut. It’s unlike anything out there and brimming with personality. That the game even exists defies credulity. Countless times the duo was told to stop making it. It was almost cancelled multiple times. It was almost given a rating that would’ve made it unsellable. It had little appeal to the Japanese audience and did poorly there. In spite of this, Deadly Premonition and its creators have persevered. And now we’re getting a full-fledged ?director’s cut.

Do you feel that, Zach? That’s a he??artwarming success story in an occasionally bleakly unoriginal industry. It feel??s good.

The post Talkin??g Deadly Premonition: Director?s Cut with SWERY appeared first on Destructoid.

Just like heaven

BioShock Infinite begins much as the original begins: a my??sterious man, lost at sea, on a mission that starts at a lighthouse and leads to who knows where. But then, the player ascends up toward the heavens, or at least what a citizen of the flying city Columbia calls, “the closest you can get to heaven.”

It’s as if Irrational is commenting on BioShock’s own evolution. Upon entering Columbia, the story we left behind in 2007 is so far below that you can barely see it. Any lingering memories of Rapture fade away among the bright sky? and lights of Columbia’s floating city blocks. It's a world so detailed that it makes on?e wonder what’s the point of high definition if not all of our games feature a similar quantity of original art assets as this one.

In my three hours spent playing BioShock Infinite fro??m its opening, I have to say that it indeed seems to be the closest you can get to heaven.

BioShock Infinite (PC [previewed], Xbox 360 [previewed], PlayStation 3)
Developer: Irrational Games
Publisher: 2K Games
Release: March 26, 2013

It’s hard not to dip my feet into hyperbole when discussing the original BioShock’s impact. It changed the way I played ?games. Literally.

On my first playthrough, I blasted through it while listening to music on my iPod. Videogame stories are generally trite, shallow, and dull, so why would BioShock be any different? Upon hearing from critics and friends that the story is what makes the game special, I played through BioShock a second time, listening to every audio log and absorbing every environmental detail. It enr??iched the way I digest videogames -- a personal transformation that would mean very little in the nar?rative wasteland that would follow.

It’s 2012 and I still feel like barely any developers have learned from BioShock. Well, barely anyone besides Irrational. BioShock Infinite is everything BioShock was, yet better. But what blew me away from the game’s first three hours is that it isn’t what I expected. How can you expect the unexpected, after all? Infinite’s world is one of pure imagination and wonder. It’s story is much denser and full of controversial subjects that hit close to home. It’s dialogue is much warmer, lively, and?? comfortable with ??comedic delivery. And, its visuals? Oh boy.

Even with some real nasty Unreal Engine 3 texture pop-in (on Xbox 360), Infinite is the most beautiful game I’ve ever seen. On PC, Infinite becomes a portal into another world that speaks to the soul without even a whisper. Anywhere your eyes fall, there is a possible screenshot to be had -- the type of screenshot that Dead End Thrills would painstakingly frame in another game. In Infinite, these wonderfully composed frames simply exist ??all ar??ound the player.

Aesthetics is rarely how I lead a preview, because it’s not often what creates immersion -- what I consider the most important aspect of games. The enchantment has been undone and we now understand as consumers what lazy developers probably hoped we would never realize: Scripted events aren’t enough to create immersion. What creates true immersion in vid??eogames is attention to detail.

Even lacking its final layer of polish, Infinite is a title so rich with detail that it astounds me to think this is a game being released on current gen consoles. Walking the floating city of Columbia’s garish city streets, full of painstaking detail, makes me realize that we’ve been living in the fake HD era. Columbia is something greater. It's a place you can believe in. Virtual tourism has never been better. There is always so much to look at, interact with, and listen to. If Irrational made the next Yakuza, I feel like us nerds would have the cheapest ticke??t to Japan ever sold.

These details extend beyond level design and art direction. There is a ladder that someone expects you to climb. In any other game, NPCs would awkwardly stare at you as you hesitate to act. In Infinite, the NPCs make a conversation out of the player's reluc?tance to climb.

There is a preacher giving a sermon. In any other game, the sermon would go on for a little bit and then end, expecting the player to trigger the next scene. In Infinite, the sermon goes on and on and on, until I started questioning why I was even listening to it and what my role is in this scenario. I won’t say something a crazy person would say, like &??ldquo;I forgot I was playing a videogame.” But sliding into this role and this world is so seamless and easy that i?t’s almost worrisome.

I can list off many more small details, but I’d like to put the lens onto a much bigger part of the game: Elizabeth. Though her dress, acting, and dialogue conveyed a pure innocence in past Infinite demos, Elizabeth’s actual role in the game wasn't clear. There’s a good reason for that: It’s never clear and that’s part of its charm. She serves as a conduit for some battle mechanics, such as summoning support items, cover, and turrets through opening rifts. Sometimes she just wants to hang out, throw the player some money she found in a crate, comment o?n a sign found in the street, or wander off and explore.

If the main protagonist Booker DeWitt supports the player’s bloodlust, Elizabeth supports the player’s curiosity about the world. Locked up in a tower throughout childhood and sheltered from evil, Elizabeth enters Columbia wide-eyed and giddy. She celebrates the blue skies above, other people around her and freedom to explore like we all did upon playing our first Zelda game. I felt good being around Elizabeth.

She’s more than just a chess piece in Infinite’s story.? Elizabeth encourages the player to experience Columbia in a way that they might not without her. There is a scene where she invites Booker to dance with her on a dock at dusk. She spin??s like a Disney princess and rests her saucer eyes on the player. It’s that moment when I think, “I will cut Levine if something terrible should happen to her!”

I’ve talked about the good of Infinite, so let’s address the minor nagging issues I have with the game’s combat. Here’s the deal: It’s too good. Bear with me for a moment. The original BioShock was a rather slow-paced dungeon crawler with a few combat encounters that got a little hectic. Infinite’s combat is much faster and vertically-inclined, in part due to the skylines -- elevated railways that you can hook onto and ride like a rollercoaster; a sensation on par with a stellar racing game. Numbers now pop above an enemy’s head. Vigors, powers that are akin to Plasmids from BioShock, offer strategic depth since you can use each as an offensive projectile or defensive mine. There is now gear and various other ways to upgrade your abilities too.

Infinite’s combat is fast and thrilling, but it creates a dissonance between the exploration and action that didn’t exist in the first BioShock. Whenever a major fight ended in Infinite, I wanted more. Stop??ping to open every crate, explore every corner, and view every silent film (there are audio logs as well) requires an amount of self-discipline that can be difficult to summon. Perhaps the pace slows down a bit as the game goes on. Other than this, I can’t say anything all that bad about the combat. The AI isn’t anything to write home about and I’m v??ery disappointed about the two-weapon limit, but these are the sort of things you can forgive. 

The main thing that separates Infinite from the first two BioShock titles (and damn near every game in existence) is that it’s ??a celebration of life instead of death. No longer are you walking through the broken homes that once existed in Rapture. Now, you walk city streets populated with happy people living their lives. Rapture was a place where inventions served a practical purpose, but, in Columbia, technology is dedicated to novelties that beget amusement. Underneath the firmament and optimism is a story about the freedom to be happy, who deserves it, who doesn’t, and why. The narrative choices may lack depth, but the overall impact of the story should be one that leaves players racing to forums to discuss.

As much as I enjoy BioShock, I never thought it lived up to the promise of wonder that the opening 15 minutes delivered. Even after two hours, I barely scratched the surface of Infinite’s world, story, and combat. There is still so mu?ch to talk about and so much I want players to discover for themselves. Even as the demo came to an end, I couldn’t belie?ve my eyes.

The post BioShock Infinite g?oes beyond our sky high expectations appeared first on Destructoid.

Something about how it looks like testicles

A new patent from Sony has revealed a unique little idea that potentially hints at future PlayStation plans -- a hybridized controller that blends both the Du?alShock and PlayStation Move into one gestalt beast. 

The quirk with the "MoveShock" (you can have that one, Sony) is the fact that it can be split through the middle to create two separate handheld motion controllers. A PlayStation Eye camera would, naturally, be required for use with what Sony's called the, "Hybrid Separable Motion Controller." 

This particular patent was filed in May 2011, and made public in PDF format this week. As always, remember a patent is not a promise, so ??this is all hypothetical stuff. 

What do you reckon? It looks kind of cool at first glance, but then the more I consider actually using it, the more weird and awkward it seems. That said, I thought that of the GamePad and now I'm a big fan. Who knows how this would feel? 

New Patent Points To Snap??-Together Move / DualShock Hybrid Con??troller [TSA]

The post Sony patents DualShock/Move hybrid that breaks? in two appeared first on Destructoid.

Jimquisition happens every Monday!

Over half a decade of frustration is about to be un??leashed with glorious fury.

It's been six years, the tech has been demonstrated, yet still the tech demos come. So few games have found a way to implement new interfaces gracefully, instead forcing players to see how everything simply works, rather than how it works well.

Stop trying to sell us on tech we already bought, and start doing something with it!

The post Jimquisition: Touch Waggle Touch Waggle Swipe appeared first on Destructoid.

Time to dig out the ol' PS Move controller

As announced on the PlayStation Blog, the In Motion content for Portal 2 that was originally playable using the Razer Hydra motion controller will be releasing on PlayStation Network this Tuesday, November 6. You might recall this as having those neat-looking levels revolved arou??nd manipulating the size and rotation of objects.

On the same day, Portal 2 will see a digital release on PSN, supporting the Move controller for single-player, co-op, and naturally the new DLC. In Motion will be $9.99 for regular players and, of co??urse, PS Plus subscribers can get a discount at launch -- in this case, 30 percent off both the full game and the add-on.

The post Portal 2 In Motion DLC arrives on PSN next week appeared first on Destructoid.

Announced at gamescom earlier this year, Until Dawn puts players in control of the cast of characters in what looks to be a classic te??en horror film. It's a PS3 title set for next year, and it uses the PlayStation Move cont?roller exclusively. 

I got a full walkthrough of one parti??cularly horny extened segment of the game here? at New York Comic-Con. It followes characters Jessica and Michael as they head out and away from the lodge. The folks with them on this group trip have had enough of their horniness, and have sent them away to do their thing in a secluded cabin in the woods. 

If you've seen enough horror flicks, you probabl?y know h??ow this goes. 

Jess and Mike are pretty hot to trot by this time, but they're not opposed to taking a little stroll in the woods to find this cabin. They make an adventure out of it, trying to scare each other as they tr?udge through the snow in the dark. Animals moving in the woods spook them a b??it, but they're still having fun. For now. 

The fun of Until Dawn is in its presentation. It plays out exactly like a horror film, complete with the pop-out scares and sharp, snarky writing you'd expect. There's also plenty in the way of funny dialogue and situations, coming directly from well-versed horr?or film writers.

Until Dawn is unique in that it uses the PS Move controller exclusively. Most of the time it serves as a flashlight for the eight game characters. Movement is controlled by pointing the torch in the desired direction, and the analog trigger controls the speed of movement. The main action button on the controller takes care of most of the world interactions and puzzle solving. In the times where a character is using an item, 1:1 movement of the Move controller lets the player take over. Turning a key, pul??lin??g blinds, or firing a gun are done exactly as you'd expect.

The trek to the cabin stays fun until the couple hears a strange noise and soon after finds a deer that looked to be ripped open by something terrible. As they examine it, it's ripped awa??y. Scared shitless, they take off running until they find the cabin, and then they lock themselves inside. 

In the normal world, strange noises and dead animals would have killed the mood. But in the world of horror flicks, the lovebirds ??are ready to rock in minutes. First, Jess insists, the blinds must be closed and the fireplace must be warm. More strange noises hinder their ??progress for a bit, but eventually Michael gets her down to panties and bra. 

Just when the getting gets good, Jessica is violently ripped through the window of the front door by some unseen attacker, leaving a trail of blood out the door and through the snow, leading out to the woods. Mike runs to follow the trail, rifle in hand. This leads him into the depths of an abandoned mining ?operation, where he finds Jessica's maimed body laying in a heap on a lift. Just as the attacker sneaks up on Mike the screen goes black.

If you're keen on this particular kind of teen horror flick, I think you'll really enjoy Until Dawn. It stretches the typical movie story into a 5 or more hour adventure whe??re you'll eventually control each of the eight cast members. They all can die, or you can complete the game with all surviv??ing -- it's up to you.

I could see Until Dawn ?being a great game to play with a small group, with the lights out a??nd cold beers on hand. The group could make calls on how to proceed, and the Move controller could be passed off. 

I'm looking forward to popping some popcorn for Until Dawn.

The post NYCC: Unt??il Dawn is a horny horror flick that you control appeared first on Destructoid.

I don't know how many times I can play Okami and come up with something to say without feeling like I'm repeating myself. I played it on the PS2, then again on the Wii, and today I played it on the PS3 in its latest incarnation, Okami HD. I suppose it's a testament to how much someone at Capcom believes in Okami that they're trying yet again to get the game to sell in the ??numbers that it likely deserve??s. 

This latest version is just as fine as any other, for what it's worth. The PlayStation Move controller works a treat for using Amaterasu'??s painting powers, as you'd expect if you have any experience with the Wii version. Honestly, it's probably better, but I'm not prepared to make that call on the basis of a press room experience (though, in fairness, the demo took p??lace in a busy conference room; hardly the tightly controlled environment which would arouse suspicions). The jump to high-definition visuals is noticeable and everything looks crisp.

Everything except Amaterasu, that is. Maybe it's just t?he godly energy showing through, but the white wolf has a noticeable blur in motion that directly contrasts with the crisp, clean environments and other characters. I found it mildly distracting, but that could also just be down to my seeking of anything new or different about this release. Even the three visual filters found in the? game's options menu failed to give me anything to work with, as I couldn't observe any discernible difference between "Normal," "Light" and "Heavy" filters.

Okami HD is, in all likelihood, going to be the definitive release of a game hardly anybody bought. I'd like to believe that somehow, this time will be different. I'd also like to believe that if I eat Taco Bell every day, I'll never get fat, but reality has a wa??y of disappointing no matter how hard?? you wish for something.

The post TGS: Okami, third time, charm, etc. appeared first on Destructoid.

Wonderbook: Book of Spells will be out on November 13 for $39??.99, just in time for Black Friday shopping madness. There will also be a bundle version available for $79.99 that will come with the game, Wonderbook peripheral, PlayStation Eye, and Move controller.

So yeah, I know a large portion of you don't care at all, but I do think it's something neat for the kids. I'm at least glad to see Sony using the Move for something still.

The post Wonderbook: Book of Spells out November 13 appeared first on Destructoid.

Mini-games. Apparently, they're still a thing. If you own one of those new-fangled motion controllers for your system, invariably you'll discover that ther??e are mini-game collections to be found for your device. PlayStation Move users have one of these collections available now as a download on PlayStation Network.

This is a review of said game, Lights, Camera, Party! Th??e exclamation mark is only pa?rt of the title, nothing more.

Lights, Camera, Party! (PlayStation Network)
Developer: Frima Studio Inc.
Publisher: SCEA
Released: August 28, 2012
MSRP: $29.99 ($14.99 for PlayStation Plus)

The post Review: Lights, Camera, Party! appeared first on Destructoid.

A beautiful cast, a dark secret. A panty shot. Sony announced new PS3/PS Move game Until Dawn at their press conference at games??????????????????????????com today??. 

You'll play as 7 different characters, with relationships that develop over the course of t??he story. Your goal is to keep them alive over a long night, until dawn. See what they did th?ere?

In the trailer they showed, some of the characters are headed to the "love shack" out in the deep woods on a snowy night, getting ready to rock. But, "what was that?!" kinds of noises happen, shotguns are lifted, and blod is shed. Until Dawn looks to have some puzzle solving and other fun e??lements among its screams and panty shots. 

Control uses PS Move exclusive?ly, so? expect to be using virtual guns, knives and flashlights. 

I lov??e the look and style of this game so far. It's like the horny horror movie I've always wanted to make and star in. But with Move controls. And maybe more panty shots. 

The post Panty shot! New PS Move game Until Dawn announced appeared first on Destructoid.

Moonbot Studios teased a Wonderbook title at E3, and today they've revealed Diggs Nightcrawler. It's a film Noir detective story based on children's tales. The video demo showed off a worm detective trying to find the killer of Humpy Dumpty. The poor egg man was gunned off of his wall, and it's up to the player to find his killer. Pretty da??rk, all things considered. ?;

The other game announcement was a partnership with the BBC to bring Walking With Dinosaurs to life. You'll be able to learn about dinosau??rs, dig up ??bones, see them fight, and feed them.

Lastly, the Wonderbook team announced a partnership with Disney where they'll be making games for the se??ries too. 

The post gamescom: New Wonderbook games announced appeared first on Destructoid.

If there's one type of game that I love, it's lightgun games. If there's another, it's specifically the Resident Evil series. If there is THREE...well, let's just stop there. The Umbrella Chronicles and Darkside Chronicles in the Resident Evil series were released fo?r the Wii a few years back and now they're available on PlayStation Network with a new coa??t of paint and not much else.

And I'm ok with that.

Resident Evil Chronicles HD Collection (PlayStation Network)
Developer: Capcom
Publisher: Capcom
Released: June 26, 2012
MSRP: $26.99

If you've played either game on the Wii, you know what you're in for. Umbrella takes the player on a first person frenetic capsulized shoot-fest through Resident Evil 0, 1, & 3, culminating with a new Wesker-centric mission. Shooting background objects reveals unlockables such as background music, character profiles, and documents on Resident Evil lore. Darkside takes a similar approach, but wraps the flashbacks to Resident Evil 2 and Code Veronica in a pre-RE4 mission with Leon and Krauser.

The games, when initially released, were fun diversions that offered a quick recap of key Resident Evil events in a co-op shooter shell. There wasn't a whole lot new there, but it was a new take on familiar stories, with a ??little fan service thrown in??.

For the HD release, textures are smoothed over and everything looks a bit sharper, but not much over the original versions. Character models are still kind of muddy and the grain from the ”??video footage” cut scenes is still annoying, but you won't notice it too much in game, as you'll be following laser site targeting reticules ?? to line up shots.

The titles c?ome with full Move support, and as with any lightgun game, this is highly recommended. However, while the original games offered a set up specified for the Wii Zapper, there is no support for the Move Sharp Shooter peripheral, just the single ”blaster” shell and navigation controller or wireless controller addition option. This means that if you want to use the nav controller (in the Sharp Shooter or not) you have to pair it with the Move controller by pressing Square on the move and clicking in the an??alog stick on the nav). This doesn't allow for reloading using the Sharp Shooter's slide function, but if you want it to recognize your other controller, you HAVE to pair it.

From there, it's business as usual. In Umbrella, the analog stick lets you move the camera to a limited effect to observe a little more of your surroundings. However, that feature is stripped away in Darkside, only used for selecting weapons. If playing one afte?r the other, this can be confusing, as I was used to loo??king around in one, and kept selecting a shotgun instead.

There's the addition of leaderboards for score comparison, but beyond that and the touch-up of graphics, these are the same games from years ago. If you enjoyed them then, you'll enjoy them now, but the?re's nothing to entice you to purchase them again beyond Trophy support or slightly smoother graphics if you already had the originals. If you prefer one game over another, they'll be offered separately on July 17th, for $17.99 each.

The post Review: Resident Evil Chronicles HD Collection appeared first on Destructoid.

Portal 2's latest DLC installment, "Portal 2 In Motion," is being sho??wn on the E3 show floor today. It includes the same levels from the DLC for ?the Razor Hydra controller and offers players a more tactile experience as they manipulate objects in the environment to solve puzzles.

Th??e add-on is coming out for PlayStation 3 later this year and has Move ??support. It's one of the few things that's managed to pique my interest in terms of Sony's peripheral.

Portal 2 gets Move support... [The Verge]

The post E3: ‘Portal 2 in Motion’ DLC supports PlayStation Move appeared first on Destructoid.