Having a large library of game adaptations can be considered one of the biggest testaments to a franchise's success. In this regard, only a few can rival One Piece.

But surprisingly, for the flagship of the Shonen demographic, the games based on the series can vary from sleeping hits to entries even die-hard fans struggle to love. Here are all One Piece games, ranked.

All One Piece Games, Ranked From Worst to Best

To be fair in our rankings, we decided to only focus on games that made it to the West officially with an English localization. We also won't be including crossovers such as J-Stars Victory Vs+ and Jump Force.

24. One Piece Grand Cruise

• Available on: PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 (PlayStation VR)
• Released on: 2018

One Piece Grand Cruise is a VR title that allows you to interact with and assist the Straw Hats in two scenarios. But although both will involve battles, you won't be able to jump into the fray directly. Instead, you will be in charge of operating a canon to face either a Kraken or stop a Marine attack. A short experience that offers very little, Grand Cruise feels like a missed opportunity.

23. One Piece: Run, Chopper, Run!

• Released for mobile devices
• Released on: 2015

One Piece: Run, Chopper, Run! was a 2.5D endless running game that put fans in the role of everyone's favorite cotton candy-loving reindeer. The game also allowed players to equip multiple costumes. Once equipped, each costume offered a new ??ability? to Chopper. Unfortunately, the game was not successful, and its service ended in 2016.

22. One Piece Bon! Bon! Journey!!

• Released for mobile devices
• Released on: 2020

One Piece Bon! Bon! Journey!! was a puzzle gacha game. In it, players were tasked with assembling combinations of at least three matching bonbons within rows. Doing that would then allow your characters to perform attacks and damage enemies. The game was a success upon its release, but Bon! Bon! Journey!! was discontinued two years later.

21. One Piece: Grand Battle! (PS1)

• Available on: PlayStation 1
• Released on: 2001 (Japan) / 2003 (United Kingdom)

One Piece: Grand Battle! is a straightforward 2.5D fighting platformer with a roster featuring characters from the East Blue arc. As the first in the series, the game features impressive visuals for its time and follows the Super Smash Bros format. Nostalgia aside, the title did not age well and offers a pret??ty basic e??xperience by today's standards.

20. One Piece Unlimited Cruise SP / SP2

• Available on: Nintendo 3DS
• Released on: 2011 (SP) / 2012 (SP2)

One Piece Unlimited Cruise SP and SP2 are localizations released after the debut of SP's Japanese version. Each game features half of the title's story, as well as some exclusive features. Among them, we have the Marineford Episodes. The mode adapts the arc it's named after and brings many of its protagonists as playable characters. Unfortunately, that is overshadowed by how both SP and SP2 feature considerable downgrades when compared to the original Unlimited Cruise episodes.

19. One Piece: Thousand Storm

• Released for mobile devices
• Released on: 2016

A gacha action RPG, One Piece Treasure Cruise won the hearts of many through its simplistic gameplay and F2P-friendly approach. The latter is seen in how the game did not have a character-pulling system. Instead, players could pull for Cards, which could then be equipped to characters to provide buffs or skills. Treasure Cruise was discontinued in January 2024.

18. One Piece: Grand Battle!

• Platforms: PlayStation 2 and Nintendo GameCube
• Released on: 2005 / Released in Japan as One Piece: Grand Battle! Rush

One Piece: Grand Battle! is the western version of One Piece: Grand Battle! Rush. Unlike the latter, however, the game only adapts the events up to the first portion of Alabasta. The title also shifts from the platform style present in previous entries in favor of an arena fighter approach. Grand Battle! was the ?first title in the series to debut in North America and features 16 playable characters.

17. One Piece Gigant Battle

• Available on: Nintendo DS
• Released on: 2010 (Japan) / 2011 (Europe)

One Piece Gigant Battle is a platform fighting game whose combat heavily resembles that of the Super Smash Bros series. The game also plays very similarly to Jump Super and Ultimate Stars. Here, you can take any characters from its roster of 20 to the field and join up to 4v4 battles. You can also use dozens of supports to get the upper hand. The title was the only game in the Gigant Battle series to be released outside of Japan.

16. One Piece: Romance Dawn

• Available on: Nintendo 3DS (also PSP in Japan)
• Released on: 2012 (PSP) / 2014 (3DS)

A turn-based RPG, One Pìece: Romance Dawn allows you to follow Luffy from the beginning of the OP story to the heartbreaking end of the Marineford Arc. The title features solid combat mechanics, but it's hurt by its map designs and lack of side content. Nonetheless, One Piece: Romance Dawn offers a ??unique experience sure to at least entertain fa??ns.

15. One Piece: Pirates' Carnival

• Available on: PS2 and GameCube
• Released on: 2005 (Japan) / 2006 (United States)

Any successful manga/anime is guaranteed to receive a minigame-centric title at one point. In One Piece's case, that's Pirates' Carnival. The game allows up to 4 players to participate in 40+ minigames. All of which can be played either as standalone experiences or as part of its Board Game mode. A casual experience that follows the formula made famous by the Mario Party franchise, One Piece: Pirates' Carnival brings a niche but fun experience to all.

14. One Piece: Grand Adventure

• Available on: PS2 and GameCube
• Released on: 2006

A direct sequel to Grand Battle!, One Piece: Grand Adventure was released exclusively in North America and Europe. Apart from its versus mode, the game allows you to take part in mini-games and tournaments and dive into a story mode (known as Grand Adventure). Although the latter is geared toward younger audiences. Grand Adventure also deserves a special mention for featuring characters like Zeff within its 24-playable?? characters roster.

13. One Piece: Unlimited Adventure

• Available on: Nintendo Wii
• Released on: 2007 (Japan) / 2008 (North America)

An open-world action RPG featuring an original storyline and set after the events of Enies Lobby. One Piece: Unlimited Adventure follows the Star Hats after they come into contact with a glowing orb. The game brings a good degree of exploration to play??ers. Being able to play as all Straw Hats is also a plus.

Apart from the above, Unlimited Adventure also relies heavily on crafting and building. Both of which would become staples for the series. For fans of fighting games, you can also take control?? of more than 40 characters in up to 7v7 versus battles here.

12. One Piece World Seeker

• Available on: PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and PC
• Release Year: 2019

One Piece: World Seeker is an action RPG that puts play??ers in the control of Luffy after he finds himself in Jail Island. This time, the plot takes place after Dressrosa but before the Zou arc. Players can also play as Law, Sabo, and Zoro through Extra Episode DLCs.

Like the Unlimited series, World Seeker allows you to fully explore its open world map and features a simple combat system. You ca??n also use multiple traversal abilities to cover ground fast and add more flair to exploration.

11. One Piece: Unlimited Cruise

• Available on: Nintendo Wii
• Release Year: 2008 (Japan) / 2009 (Europe)

The second game in the Unlimited series, One Piece: Unlimited Cruise, features a non-canon story that takes place after the Thriller Bark arc. The action RPG was released as two episodes and features many of the mechanics present in its predecessor. All while also benefiting from some quality-of-life upgrades. Like in Adventure, the game allows you to take part in an open-world single-player mode, as w??ell as face friends in Versus.

10. One Piece Bounty Rush

• Available on: Mobile devices
• Released on: 2018

One Piece Bounty Rush is a gacha real-time action game that overcame its troubled launch to become a fan favorite. The game features many modes, with its most well-known being its PVP 4v4. In it, you are tasked with capturing treasures on the battlefield and then guarding their areas from your opponents. A feat you can accomplish by performing explosive combos and characteristic attacks. Bounty Rush also boasts a roster of more than 250 characte?rs going from East Blue to Egghead.

9. One Piece Pirate Warriors (PS3)

• Available on: PS3
• Release Year: 2012

Pirate Warriors is the title responsible for starting what many believe to be the greatest One Piece game series of all time. Developed by Omega Force, the game features the musou style made famous by the developer's Destiny Warriors franchise. On it, you can take a multitude of characters and battle against hordes of hundreds. This was a match made in heaven, as One Piece's ?larg??er-than-life attacks were a perfect fit for the genre.

Except for Skypea and Thriller Bark, players can experience all of the arcs up to Return to Sabaody in Pirate Warriors. Its small roster, however, might cause it to become repetitive relat?ively fast.

8. One Piece: Unlimited World Red

• Available on: 3DS, PS3, Vita, Nintendo Wii U, PS4, Nintendo Switch, PS5, PC
• Release Year: 2013

The latest game in the Unlimited series, One Piece: Unlimited World Red features huge visual u??pgrades when compared to previous titles. The game also features another original non-canonical st??ory, this time situated between Punk Hazard and Dressrosa.

Overall, the core of the Unlimited experience remains almost the same here. Although Unlimited World Red shakes things up by focusing way more on combat. The latter of which is still as straightforward as it was in the Wii installments. The franchise's building and crafting mechanics are also taken to another level. Now, you can upgra?de a wh?ole town.

7. One Piece (GBA)

• Available on: Game Boy Advance
• Release Year: 2005

Sometimes less is more. An action platformer developed by Dimps and released exclusively in North America, One Piece allows players to follow through the events of the East Blue saga. Featuring a solid but simple beat 'em-up ??combat and well-made sprites, this game is a blast. Honestly, the only downsides here are its length and how you cannot battle with any Straw Hat apart?? from Luffy.

6. One Piece Pirate Warriors 2

• Available on: PS3 and PSVita
• Release Year: 2013

One Piece Pirate Warriors 2 further polishes the combat system featured in the original game while also increasing its roster to 37 characters. The former is not an understatement, as the game feels faster, more consistent, and way more responsive. The title also removed QTEs and the divisive platform sections players came to hate in Pirate Warriors. On the other hand, Pirate Warriors 2's most debatable point lies in its main story, where you don't play through the series' arcs. Instead, the game features an altern?ative What If original scenario.

5. One Piece Treasure Cruise

• Available on: Mobile
• Release Year: 2014

One Piece Treasure Cruise i??s a gacha turn-based RPG that allows you to revisit the whole story of the franchise. The title also allows you to take more than 200 characters to the field in various modes. M??ost of the characters must be pulled in true gacha fashion.

The game's biggest differential, however, lies in its combo mechanic. When in battle, the mechanic will allow you to perform sequential attacks by tapping. You can also find a deep team-building system here. This can be seen in how players, more often than not, need to completely rework their?? teams based on the opposition.

4. One Piece: Burning Blood

• Available on: PS5, PS4, PSVita, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and PC.
• Release Year: 2016

One Piece: Burning Blood is an arena fighter that allows you to take part in up to 3v3 battles. The game won the hearts of fans by featuring a straightforward but still entertaining combat system. Here, understanding how to efficiently counter your opponent will be key. Another huge highlight lies in its roster. The version released for the PS4, Xbox One, and PC offers 44 playable characters and 50 supports. That helps make up for the fact that Burning Blood feat?ures?? an extremely compact main story (covering only the Marineford Arc).

3. One Piece Pirate Warriors 3

• Available on: PS3, PS4, PS5, PSVita, Xbox One, PC, and Nintendo Switch.
• Release Year: 2016

One Piece Pirate Warriors 3 goes all out by featuring huge combat and graphical upgrades when compared to 2. Differently from the latter, however, the game's story mode covers the canon of the series until the Dressrosa Arc. As the arc was still ongoing when the game was released, PW3 features an original non-ca?nonical ending for it.

There are very few things not to love here, as the added mechanics —such as the Kizuna Rush?? and Overdrive�made the game as fun as it can be. Its 46-character-long roster also helped.

2. One Piece Pirate Warriors 4

• Available on: PS5, PS4, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PC, and Nintendo Switch.
• Release Year: 2020

Although not featuring a massive jump when compared to 3, One Piece Pirate Warriors 4 builds upon it by offering a massive roster of more than 60 characters. You can find some wild names here, such as Big Mom, Kaido, and Gear 5 Luffy —the l??atter available via a DLC. The game also made significant changes to combat. Among the tweaks, the biggest one lies in how players can now perform aerial combos.

Pirate Warriors 4 also features a bulky story mode. In it, you can go through the Alabasta, Enies Lobby, Marineford, New World, Whole Cake, and Wano arcs. Like PW3 with Dressrosa, the game features a ??unique non-canon story f??or Wano.

1. One Piece: Odyssey

• Available on: PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, PC, and Nintendo Switch.
• Release Year: 2023

In One Piece: Odyssey, you follow the Straw Hats after they shipwreck on the island of Watford. The game brings players a true-to-form RPG experience that takes place between the Whole Cake and Wano?? arcs. Among its highlights, we have a huge amount of explorable areas and activities. That is then paired with a fine-tuned turn-based combat system. You can also control all the first nine Straw Hats while exploring and in battle.

Odyssey also set itself apart for the quality of its original storyline. The latter of which segments the title as the best One Piece game released in the West to date.

The post All One Piece Games Ranked appeared first on Destructoid.

Earlier this week, developer Sumo Digital announced that LittleBigPlanet 3's servers will never come back online. Fans are understandably angry about this because the unexpected closure of the game ??means user-created levels that haven't been downloaded are now lost forever.

Only levels stored on a PS3 ??or PS4 somewhere in the world have survived by some happy mistake, but more could have been done with just a little warning or assistance.

Unexpected LittleBigPlanet 3 server shutdown cuts fans out completely

LittleBigPlanet 3's servers were taken offline in January 2024 due to "ongoing technical issues," though the specific issue was never confirmed. Sumo Digital cites these issues as the reason th??e game's servers are now permanently offline.

With no prior warning or notice period before the servers were shut down, fans and preservationists were unable to download all the user-created levels so they could?? be enjoyed and studied in the fu??ture. Naturally, fans are furious about the years of lost content.

LittleBigPlanet 3 had the most advanced creation tools in the franchise and allowed players to build full game levels, animations, and expe?riences for anyone to download. It was also the last game? in the series that was still live with this sharing function.

In response to this news, players on Reddit have pointed out that there are private servers that all?ow you to? access the game's online element. However, the number of levels preserved is nothing compared to those that are now presumably lost forever.

Interestingly, as broadcast by LBP Union on Twitter, while the game's servers are down, the server specifically responsible for storing user-generated content, the Resource?? Server, is still up and operational. This means that the levels saved on it are still there, but it's not known w??hat will happen to them or the server.

Keeping a game's servers live has an inherent cost for a game developer, and that cost gets harder to justify when the player base gets?? smaller each year. However, providing an endpoint for a game's online functionality, as has been the case with many recent server closures, has allowed fans to relive the experiences they love one more time before they're gone.

The permanent shutdown of LittleBigPlanet 3's servers without notice feels almost as harsh as Ubisoft revoking licenses for The Crew following its server shutdown. It's the end of an er??a for these titles that felt incredibly innovative upon release but always had this destination in their future. In both cases, though, there's certainly something to be said about purchasing a product that's now had much of its appeal actively removed without any offer of compensat?ion.

The post LittleBigPlanet 3 players furious after sudden shutdown blocks access ?to player content appeared first on Destructoid.

A core part of every Fallout game is a colorful cast of companions players can take with them on their adventures. Fallout New Vegas has some of the best, but it's hard to know who are the best a??nd the worst when you've not traveled with them for a while.

As you travel around the Mojave Wasteland in Fallout New Vegas, you'll encounter a wide spectrum of characters, all of whom have unique personalities, wants, needs, weapons, and abilities. While many of them are enemies you must kill or persuade to l??eave you alone, a handful can accompany you for the rest of the game. But you don't want to get stuck with the wrong ones.

Fallout New Vegas companions ranked best to worst

In the list below, I've ranked every Fallout New Vegas companion from best at the top here to worst at the bottom. This list includes permanent followe??rs and only the temporary followers from each DLC. I had to draw the line somewhere, and I'd end up putting The?? Kings at the top if we included everyone who ever helps The Courier out.

1. Craig Boone

Craig Boone is a complicated character in Fallout New Vegas. As a re??tired sniper for the NCR, he's a crack shot and will actually help you spot enemies from ridiculous distance. He's got a pretty tragic backstory that's fantasti?c to explore, adding so much rich history to the game's world once you unearth it from dialogue options and through time spent together.

Something that I think is both good and bad about this companion is his loyalties. It takes a lot to push him too far, but if you push him, he's going to explode and just start killing whoever is around. Don't go into Legion camps with him. To balance ??this out, he has some fantastic quests you can embark on that deal with that story side of things I mentioned, and you'??????????????????????????ll feel like you've seen a lot more of the world if you complete them.

2. Rose of Sharon Cassidy

Also known as Cass, this is one of the most charming companions you'll meet in Fallout New Vegas as you explore the vast open world. She's the owner of Cassidy Caravans and is the daughter of John Cassidy, an NPC from Fallout 2. She, similar to Boone, is a ranged specialist, but has had a much less harrowing life. Her quests are enjoyable and you'll ?end up coming out of them with a buff to your health and a companion who deals a lot more damage with guns.

It helps that Cass has a great voice actor in Rachel Rosw??ell. She's a great character to have around, thanks to the way she chats about the environment, the enemies you kill, and just the idle chatter you'll have when you're venturing around the Mojave.

3. Rex

After playing through most of Fallout 3 and only discovering Dogmeat towards the end of my 200-hour first playthrough, I put in every effort to unlock Rex as a companion as soon as I found him in Fallout New Vegas. He's a cybernetically-enhanced dog with false limbs and a robo-brain all of his own. He loo??ks like the best boy you could ever hope to have with you.

Few things are better in Fallout games than having a dog companion to help you out in a fight or quest.?? Rex can sniff out enemies, making one quest in particular much easier, and is a great way to distract groups of foes when they all try to gang up on you. The number of?? times this dog has saved my hide is more than I can count.

4. ED-E

ED-E is absolutely one of the best companions in any Fallout game, as far as I'm concerned. It's a prototype Dualframe Eyebot you can find on your journey around the Mojav?e Wasteland and recruit it once it's been repaired. ED-E has its own quest for your to tackle, and you'll find unique interactions around the game world with various people or factions who either want data from it or have seen it before and will fill you in on its backstory.

This companion is particularly use??ful because it acts like an early-warning signal for enemies. ED-E will start firing before you've seen the danger and asks no questions. In some cases, this is a detriment, because you might need to speak to certain foes it starts blasting. It can also be upgraded while you play, adding more benefits to keeping it around.

5. Dean Domino

You'll find Dean Domino in the Sierra Madre. He's a famous pre-war lounge singer who was Ghoulified and, when you meet him in the Dead Money DLC, is a pretty nasty person, all things considered. He's actually responsible for the vocal surgery that Christine Royce was subjected to, all in the?? name of chasing the treasure a?t the heart of this expansion.

The Perk Domino bestows on the player during the DLC will delay the damage that clouds inflict for a brief moment, enough to get out of them. It might not sound like much, but it's the journey of acquiring him that's so much fun. I love having him around, but he really is one of the meanest characters in the Fallout universe. If your character is low-intelligence, they can enrage him through dia?logue because they simply won't be able to speak to him.??

6. Raul Alfonso Tejada

The second Ghoul in our list, Raul is a mechanic when y??ou meet him and a former gunslinger of the Mojave Wasteland. He's a pretty interesting character, because you find him after he's been captured and downtrodden for years. He's tolerant of both the NCR and Legion, so he's a pretty good character to have with you if you're not sure which side you're going to lean into when the time comes in the main story.

When following the player, he has a few Perks that will benefit everyone in your party. These are all themed around his life,? so he boosts repair skills, repairing a lot?? of stuff himself, and will offer a bonus to sharpshooting, which is such a massive help in a pinch when you get ambushed out on the road.

7. Lily Bowen

Few companions in Fallout New Vegas are as memorable as Lily Bowen. First of all, she's a Nightkin, which is an elite Super Mutant variant created by The Master in the original Fallout. As with many characters in this game, she has a tragic backstory that saw her ripped away from her family and ultimately forced to choose betw?een memories of her grandchildren or madness. She chose a bit of both, and that's when you meet her.

Bowen is a powerful ally, increasing the duration of Stealth Boys by 200%, but she's also a little bit of a liability. She can be completely crazy, rushing into battle with her custom weapon to rip enemies to shreds, even if you're trying to sn??eak around. If you're going out with her, just be aware that you might need to do some damage control.

8. Christine Royce

Christine Royce is another companion you can only have with you during the Dead Money DLC, though she will also appear in Old World Blues. She's had an incredibly rough time b?y the time you encounter her in an Auto-Doc, having b??een operated on for two weeks solid. Still, she comes out of it determined to see out her goal.

Her Perk specifically helps you with your Bomb Collar in the DLC, so it's not going to be useful outside of it. However, it's a useful one to have at ??the time, and her added firepower is always welcome on your journey through the expansion. The reason to keep her around is, of course, her story, which you can't help but want to see through far more than the main quest.

9. Arcade Israel Gannon

Arcade Gannon is a great character, one you've got to speak to quite a bit before you'll figure out who he really is and why he's happy hiding awa?y and d?oing a job he isn't necessarily thrilled about. His past means he's actively hunted by the NCR and doesn't like talking about himself. However, he's one of those characters you'll keep going back to see for various reasons, and each time it's worth chatting to him to uncover just a little more.

The main benefit to having Gannon as a companion is his Perk, which improves the healt?h regeneration you get from all sources. It's a small improvement, but an important one you'll notice through every combat encounter and intense V??ault. Swapping other companions out for him if you're having a hard time in a certain quest is a good move if you want to live.

10. Dog/God

Dog/God are two personalities in the same Nightkin. They were created by the mental instability that followed the destruction of the creature's former owner: The Master. Dog is a subservient personality who serves only one person in the Dead Money DLC, Fath?er Elijah. However, the God personality can be triggered by playing a Holotape of the character's voice, and this personality wants the character to be freed from their enslavement.

The? most interesting part about this character is that y??ou can gain either personality as a companion. They each have their own Perks that will help you out in a way that's beneficial within Sierra Madre. I just really love the lore of this Nightkin and having them around, so I can explore every part of it through conversations and quests. They make the DLC much more worth playing if you can get them.

11. Veronica Santangelo

Veronica is a Scribe fo the Brotherhood of Steel an??d partner to Christine Royce, though the faction split them up as soon as their relationship was discovered. She's dedicated to her cause but is conflicted about those ??in leadership. Ultimately she stays, but you're able to get her to leave and join the Followers of the Apocalypse if they're who you want to save.

Veronica allows you to craft items through her dialogue, and c?an even offer you a new Perk if you provide her with some pre-war attire. She's a great character to talk to and learn about the world from. You'll also benefit from the added connection of her past when meeting Royce in the DLC, which will definitely make it feel like a much larger experience.

12. Waking Cloud

Waking Cloud is an Honest Hearts companion and one of the first Sorrows converts. She's got a? potentially troubling problem for you, in that you can learn about her hu??sband's fate and decide if she gets to find out the truth or not. It's a a great dilemma that fleshes out the DLC. As a companion, she provides a Perk that makes it much easier to sneak past the White Legs, which is incredibly powerful for the expansion's story. Outside of this, though, she's nothing special.

13. Follows-Chalk

Follows-Chalk is a very sweet character because he's quite naive of the world outside of his small region and tribe within the Honest Hearts DLC. Through talking to him, you learn he's still not earned his chalk, hense his name, and just follows the tru?e hunters in the tribe. In truth, he just wants to see the world, and there's nothing I love m??ore than telling him he should leave and go and do that.

However, in his brief time as your companion, he's super useful. When you reach a high point in the DLC's map, you'll unlock more of the surrounding map markers because he's such a great scout. This is amazing if, like me, you enjoy uncovering the entire map in Fallout games and knowing nothing is left undiscovered.

14. Joshua Graham

Graham is also known by a different name: the Burned Man and a former member of Caesar's Legion. He survived the initial failure at Hoover Dam, was coated in pitch and burned before being thrown into the dam, and somehow survived. He is a living legend, but a questionable soul given his past as the founder of one of the worst factions in Fallout history.

He can take and repair every weapon in the game, and he's a lot of fun to talk to if you've got Legion affiliation or a high Speech skill. He's also possibly the hardiest character in the Fallout universe. Immune to chems, he removes his bandages every day to replace them with clea??n ones, feeling the same intense burning pain every time he does. What a?? trooper.

The post All Fallout New Vegas compani??ons, ranked best to? worst appeared first on Destructoid.

In March 2024, user Flimsy-Zebra3775 posted about an eBay listing for a PS3 development kit. One of the images for the console showed a game that never made it to market or even close to the light of day. TimeSplitters 4.

Initially, they checked in with the PS3 community. After all, the developer of the TimeSplitters franchise, Free Radical, all but disappeared after its PS3 launch title Haze failed to impress. It’s? since completely closed as a result of the Embracer Group layoffs. However, it seems as though this development kit managed to make it through both events relatively unscathed.

“I asked the seller a lot of probing questions without giving it away, they indeed had a friend who worked at Free Radical until November 2008 a month before the studio shut down. They are going to boot the game up at the weekend to see what it is and send me a video, if it's legit I'll buy it and if someone who knows hdd dumping helps me I'll upload the drive.�/p>

Flimsy-Zebra3775 took the risk and purchased the console, where they found a working partial build of TimeSplitters 4. After working hard to get it running, they streamed what pieces of the game would run and dumped? the files for anyone to use on their own dev kits.

Timesplitters 4 prototype is a bittersweet discovery

Obviously, this is a huge win for game preservation and one that’s close to my heart. I grew up playing the TimeSplitters franchise, but that’s why this discovery also brings ??with it a tinge of melancholy.

The TimeSplitters 4 prototype consists of a multiplayer match in a classic-feeling arena shooter map where bots spawn, and the player hunts them down. Other footage has surfaced online showing that the game had a third-person camera and played much more like Fortnite, but it’s this first-person gameplay that shows the core experi??ence fans know and love.

Half of me is happy we all get to see what the passionate team behind TimeSplitters was cooking u?p next, but the other half of me is sad because there’s nothing like this out there today, and there probably never will be again.

The TimeSplitters series consists of three games that share a core set of values as their DNA. They’re single-player focu??sed but are built to be incredibly enjoyable in local or online multiplayer. That multiplayer can still be accessed solo and without an internet connection, and players have a plethora o?f unlockables to work through that will take them longer than most JRPG runtimes to collect.

These games each feature campaigns with zany charac??ters that ooze persona??lity. Even those that are made up of a skin and flavor text have more personality than most characters in modern free-to-play shooters.

Every campaign mission has three difficulty levels, and the objectives change across them all. You don’t get the same experience playing Neo Tokyo in TimeSplitters 2 on e??asy as you do on hard. This is also true for co-op, meaning every level has six variations to complete for six separate unlockables.

Diving into these games when I was younger saw me lose weeks to them. I poured what feels like a thousand hours int?o the main trilogy with my best frie?nd, and we still had things to unlock.

A good chunk of that time was spent in the arcade and challenge modes, too. Arcade is a mix of multiplayer modes, of which there are several, with medals to earn based on your performance. Challenges are, as you might e?xpect, specific mini-missions with tough objectives, like throwing bricks through windows within a time limit to earn even more medals.

Seeing a modern version of these absolute gems makes me want someone to remaster the trilogy right now. I don’t even need remakes, but those would be nice. The breadth of content to dive into rivals every major multip??layer shooter out there, and these games were all released for th??e PS2. That’s three console generations ago, and there’s still nothing that even comes close to beating them.

A new Timesplitters makes perfect sense in today’s gaming scene

Nostalgia is a powerful drug, a?nd I’m willing to admit that the graphics and some gameplay elements haven’t aged well. But while some game??s are great because they hit at just the right time, these ones could have dropped at any point, and they’d still be amazing.

I continue to be genuinely shocked when I hear a TimeSplitters game was canceled or forgotten or that someone hasn’t even heard of the series. I would happily connect online with anyone, any day of the week, and walk hand in hand with them through the TimeSplitters 2 campaign so I could hear the joy in their voice as they snuck around cameras, set the tree dude on fire, or get frustrated with the final showdown against UFOs??.

This irks me even more when we get remakes and remasters of games that don’t need that treatment. I’m confident that if TimeSplitters 4 had been completed and put up for sale, we’d have seen it smash concurrent player numbers just like Helldivers 2 is right now.

The game could easily justify a battle pass for more quirky character skins. A TimeSplitters take on battle royale would almost certainly make it desirable, just like how Apex Legends was at launch.

Ultimately, we win. We’ve seen this game against all odds, an??d I mean all the odds. I don’t even know how this PS3 made it out of the office in 2008, but I’m so glad I did. I was crushed back then when I realized I’d likely neve??r see a new game for my favorite franchise, and I’m crushed again now that reality has come back around.

If you’re curious as to why I’m so damn passionate about these games and why the existence of a prototype has had such an impact on me, do yourself a favor and find a way to play TimeSplitters 2 from start to finish with a friend. Play it side by side, and then play some arcade matches. Revel in th?e art style, play as Mr. Underwood, and shock yourself with how different every mission plays when you up the difficulty. You won’t regret it.

The post The TimeSplitters 4 prototype is a stark reminder of what we’ve lost appeared first on Destructoid.

[Update: The full song has been released! You can fin??d it on Yo??uTube as part of this Game Changer album playlist, as well as via the embedded video below. The album can be found on iTunes and BandCamp. And you can find the full music video here.]

The Grammy award-winning The 8-Bit Big Band and Lawrence are releasing a new cover of the Marvel vs Capcom 2 song "I Wanna Take You for a Ride." It's been covered many times by the VGM community, ??but in this instance, new verses and a bridge accompany the admittedly repetitive? tune.

Marvel vs Capcom 2 jam gets taken for a ride

Despite the original release from Marvel vs Capcom 2 repeating the same line over and over again, it's one with a special place in fan memories with a funky beat too delicious to ignore. Thankfully, The 8-Bit Big Band and Lawrenc?e bring their own vision? to the bop with a full song based on the loop. This version adds new lyrics, verses, and a bridge next month on November 10.

The 45 seconds released on social media from The 8-Bit Big Band has an outstanding suite of brass instruments and thrilling vocals. Almost time for MAHVEL, baby.

Last year, the 8-Bit Big Band (and Button Basher) won a "Best Arrangement - Instrumental or A Capella" Grammy for its cover of "Meta Knight's Revenge" from Kirby Super Star. Since its release in 2021, the theme recei??ved over 1 million views on YouTube.

Perhaps with this upcoming Marvel vs Capcom 2 cover, they'll get another Grammy. Nevertheless, The 8-Bit Big Band has an upcoming show in New York on December 15. Its fourt??h album, "Game Changer,"? accompanies the Marvel jam on November 10.

The post The 8-Bit Big Ba?nd and Lawrence transform popular Marvel vs Capcom 2 song (Update) appeared first on Destructoid.

Hideo Kojima's Metal Gear Solid franchise is one of the most iconic in gaming, and within it, Quiet remains one of the most controversial characters. As Stefanie Joosten prepares for the launch of her album on November 10, she sat for an interview with IGN where she reflected on playing Quiet in Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain.

In the interview, she discusses her experience working with Kojima. She describes ?how dedicated Kojima was to the project and how he would attend many of the motion capture sessions. He is also described as an amazing visionary with ideas "so large in span that the ??actors, including me, would often ask for more input on the characters' motivations and the world we were in."

Though many fans felt that MGSV was incomplete, Joosten feels differently. She argues it had "a really beau??tiful conclusion," though she wouldn't be opposed to unraveling Quiet's story once again and perhaps exploring the character's past. The overall motion capture process for the game was enjoyable, though it was a long process that lasted? years.

The controversies of Quiet

Quiet is a character in Metal Gear Solid V who helps Big Boss. She can make herself invisible,?? and she is mute, though she likes humming. She also appears in incredibly revealing clothing.

At the time of MGSV's release, the character drew controversy, and many argued that her muteness was misogynistic, which is an understandable position to take when female characters have consistently been relegated to secondary roles in gaming. Quiet's sexualized depict??ion was also criticized.

Joosten is aware of the controversy that surrounds t??he character, but she claims she still respects "the choices Kojima made and his team in designing the character." She argues that she sees video ??games as fantasy worlds, so it's no surprise that you find a "character that's visually appealing."

This doesn't mean she doesn?'t sympathize with opposing viewpoints. She states: "people are looking for more representation, and I really get it." She also isn't convinced by Kojima's explanation for Quiet's skimpy outfit.? It is revealed that Quiet breathes through her skin, requiring her to keep her clothing to a minimum, though Joosten points out that "there were so many other options you could have gone with."

Metal Gear Solid has a legacy that has endured even after Kojima and Konami parted ways. Konami has attempted to capitalize on the franchise's popularity with remakes but they haven't been well-received.

The post Stefanie Joosten r?eflects on playi??ng Quiet in Metal Gear Solid V appeared first on Destructoid.

The best menu screens in gam??es can be articulated in many ways, just like the sheer amount of options you can get from the feature itself. In my mind, t??hey're determined by the music, the visuals, and how unique they can be. You don't want to see a bland introduction to a magnificent game. Here are the top 10 best main menu screens in games, ranked.

Before we start, I have some honorable mentions. While it's too soon to rank this alongside long-standing greats, Sea of Stars' main menu screen is an impressive introduction to its world. The flickering of the flames reflecting on the pixel-based characters, and the gorgeous backdrop is absolutely stunning. Additionally, Rayman 2: The Great Escape's menu features strange, yet enticing music with a view of the world we're about to explore. There's also a cute teensie on the left side, welcoming you to the ??game ??with its hat.

[caption id="attachment_400167" align="alignnone" width="1200"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

10. Super Metroid

During the SNES era, gamers weren't anticipating a cinematic introduction to the game. However, Super Metroid features tense music and neat transitions of scenes that feature the creepy sci-fi world of the game. It then reveals ?a Metroid trapped wit?hin a pipe with the machinery flickering in green light. It's genuinely creepy to see fallen bodies next to the machine as well. It's a perfect introduction to this game.

[caption id="attachment_399796" align="alignnone" width="1200"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

9. Psychonauts

Double Fine is a developer known for its wild worlds, game concepts, and characters. This menu follows that same idea. One of the strangest (and coolest) is in Psychonauts, in which you're Raz running around a brain. The concept of the game is that you're trying to fix the issues of a person by infiltrating their mind. It's a clever main menu concept for a game like this and is certainly unique. I also love Double Fine's record-based main menu design in Brutal Legend, but Psychonauts just edges it out.

[caption id="attachment_399797" align="alignnone" width="1200"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

8. L.A. Noire

This may be a controversial pick, but L.A. Noire has a unique menu design that complements the subject matter. You get the old-fashion?ed black-and-white styling mixed in with a shadowy figure of the text. The light shone from the car gives a wonderful effect on the brick wall, adding to the atmosphere of the scene. While it can be annoying to have a gentleman walking in and out of the menu, it's certainly an interesting take on this classic gaming feature that we haven't seen before.

//youtu.be/cHGF302fBZk

7. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Yes, this is a simplistic menu for such a huge RPG like Starfield, but it more than makes up for it with the theme alone. You hear a majestic choir and triumphant orchestra calling to you. It gets you pumped for the adventure you're about to have. The logo also looks iconic amongst the white mist and the black ?background.

//youtu.be/njoPUWILwpo

6. Pokemon Red & Blue

Despite the limited power of the Game Boy, Pokemon Red & Blue still had amazing intros and menus. You see two Pokemon fighting it out in the intro underscored by a memorable theme song. It then constantly switches between the different Pocket Monsters you'll find in the game like Snorlax, Mankey, and Ditto. It's simple but "super effective"at introducing us to the world of Pokemon. 

//youtu.be/DRgLR-cPMls

5. Xenoblade Chronicles

The Xenoblade Chronicles title screen is super simple. You see the Monado sword stuck in the ground all by itse?lf. However, the beauty of the world surrounds us as day turns to night. You also see the shine of the metal blade against the sunlight, which is a nice touch. The Monado also glows in the dark as the stars shine brightly above. The emotional music is engrossing as you simply stare at this stunning scene. This is one of the best main menu screens just from how stunning it is.

//youtu.be/kAwwQ7dTjRY

4. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

I know, many say that Ocarina of Time's menu screen is better, but the one from The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess holds more prestige f??or me. You see Link riding Epona valiantly across the Bridge of Eldin and the wilderness of Hyrule. In the background is a somewhat creepy choir singing the main theme of the game. Then, the intro transitions to Wolf Link who howls to a strange golden wall in the distance.

You also have a hint of the "Midna'??s Theme" from the music, hinting at how prevalent your partner will be in the plot and gameplay. You're then left with a feeling? of dread as you only have the sound of wind to keep you company. It's a brilliant main menu that pulls you into the intended darker atmosphere of the game.

//youtu.be/IM-r2hxtO8g

3. Kingdom Hearts 2

Possibly with the prettiest main menu theme ever "Dearly Beloved," Kingdom Hearts 2 has one of the best intros in gaming history. The credits roll and the musi?c ??begins to build up. As you begin to see Sora emerge into the title screen, you hear the harp play and the bass strings refer to the protagonist.

It sounds like an orchestra prepping to play before a concert occurs. I??t then calms down for a brief second until the full menu appears. Then, the piano begins to play the main melody, and each wonderful instrument of the piece blends together in a truly "beloved" way.

Seeped with the sound of waves from Sora's home world Destiny Islands, you remember where the end goal lies. The blue streak to the right also has a wave-lik??e gradient ?to it. I just noticed this as I was writing, but the color of the streak goes from navy to turquoise to yellow like a beach. Neat!

[caption id="attachment_399816" align="alignnone" width="1200"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

2. Persona 5

Persona 5 has so much style behind its UI and graphical ingenuity. However, the main? menu stands out as well. The introduction of the t?rain pop art and then the Phantom Thieves at a stop is fantastic. I love the striking red and white style as you see the trains beside them rush on either side.

The music gives you the depiction that this is going to be a cool, suave adventure. When Futaba gets off her seat, you'll see a graffiti mark on her seat. It also shows Haru in the back, showing h?er more shy side.

Personally, I prefer the calmer nature of this scene to the more energetic Persona 5 Royal's, but it's a personal taste, for sure. ?It gives a more underground feel that matches the Phantom Thieves better.

//youtu.be/ZT9DST_M_g8

1. Mega Man 2

Admittedly, I haven't grown up during the NES era, but my goodness, this is one of the greatest main menu screens in a game, bar none. You start with an overview of the city with a brief summary of the story. The music begins slow and pleasant, but as the camera moves up the skyscraper, the music gets faster until you get one of the mo??st badass menu themes ever. You can't help but get hyped.

You see Megaman's hair waving in the air as he readies himself for his tough advent??ure. When you choose a selection, he then teleports away. Despite having better technology today, this main menu still stands as one of the most epic. Let's set out and defeat each of the bosses (or at least hope we can). This is one of the best main menu screens ever just due to the excitement I get every time I boot it up.

The post Top 10 best menu screens in games, ranked appeared first on Destructoid.

With a smile and a song

Over the past two decades, the Kingdom Hearts series has wowed its audience with po?werfully emotional music fitting for the keyblade wielder's grand adventures. From the calming wonder? of "Dearly Beloved" to the rocking "Rage Awakened," composer Yoko Shimomura brings a magical sound to each game.

With this list, we'll discuss the best Kingdom Hearts songs from Sora's beg?innings on Destiny Islands all the way up to his stepping foot in Quadratum. Let us know your favorites in the comments section below as this article is? just scratching the surface.

There will be spoilers for the Kingdom Hearts series within this article. You have been warned!

10. The 13th Struggle (Kingdom Hearts 2)

//youtu.be/dAAnOQxL5HI

"The 13th Struggle" successfully brings the chaos of an Organization XIII battle and turns it into musical form. The threat ?of danger signaled by the constant deep strings, the manic melody, and the ??heavy percussion all make this an epic battle theme that will keep your blood pressure rising until the end of the fight.

9. Edge of Existence (Kingdom Hearts 3)

//youtu.be/yVl3QRNkb8A

In the mysterious new world of Scala ad Caelum, this music piece by Yoko Shimomura heightens the drama unfolding in the story of Kingdom Hearts 3. The combination of brass, strings, and percussion all make for an epic track to explore this final level with. In addition, there is a beaut?iful few seconds of the piano? playing that spins off from the main melody, adding to the mystery of this long-forsaken place.

8. Rage Awakened (Kingdom Hearts 2)

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aa7SyxcKTbs

Epic is one word to describe "Rage Awakened." During the boss fight with the Enigmatic Soldier, the stakes are raised and the music elevates with a rocking backdrop. The strings in this piece tell of the soldier's sad past as the thunderous drumming reflects his might as he strikes y??ou down over and over again.

7. Vector to the Heavens (Kingdom Hearts 3 Re Mind/ Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days)

//youtu.be/g3xFtfdQwoI

In Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days, two friends are torn apart by fate, and "Vector to the Heavens" is an emotional piece that also works as a battle theme. Piano forward in 358/2 Days, this song hits you to your core as the stunning Xion's theme is impacted with drama from the strings and secondary piano backdrop. The central theme of Kingdom Hearts' "Dearly Beloved" is also woven through it as Xion is deeply connected to Sora and decides to return to him. The Kingdom Hearts 3 Re Mind version takes a wholly different approach with a rocking guitar and deep drum basel?ine. Both work well within the context of each?? game.

6. Destati (Kingdom Hearts)

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6zzv2KCcZo

Yoko Shimomura is a master of bringing atmosphere to her music, and "Destati" absolutely nails it. In the deep darkness of End of the World, the chilling vocals of the choir mixed with the dramatic piano all make for a groundbreaking piece. It's absolutely incredible how the pace picks up as the strings and percussion begin to reveal themselves throughout it. The Kingdom Hearts 3 rendition of this song is also striking.

5. Traverse Town (Kingdom Hearts)

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKOXLOsA2tA

If you want to talk about nostalgia, "Traverse Town" is certainly that. It's like a warm hug. The jolly melody embraces Sora and the gang as they explore the characteristic town. While it's not as epic as a  song like "Destati," the song is a wonderful jazzy piece that elevates the world and makes us feel welcome within it. This context also makes sense as Traverse Town is a place many have escaped to, like Pinocchio and Leon (Squall). The charming vibe of Traverse Town's theme makes it one of the best Kingdom Hearts songs in existence.

4. Lazy Afternoons (Kingdom Hearts 2)

//youtu.be/KBvXUIQfcbk

If you want some chill vibes after a long hard day, you can't go wrong by listening to "Lazy Afternoons." This is the song in Kingdom Hearts 2 that sets the tone for Roxas' version of Twilight Town. The beautiful playing of the flute next to the melancholic strumming of the guitar makes this yet another nostalgic-sounding piece. There is a subtle use of the xylophone in the background, calling you back to fonder times. If?? you want a nice Sunday walk, it's recommended to play this while strolling through your hometown streets.

3. Scherzo Di Notte (Kingdom Hearts)

//youtu.be/hk-7eifOh1E

When Sora enters Hollow Bastion, it is a time of uncertainty. He loses his keyblade, his friends, and almost his hope. Ho??wever, he carries on forward with The Beast beside him. "Scherzo Di Notte" carries that brave attitude onward with strong instrumental?s and a marching drum beat in the background. The melody is upward and onward, while the brass instruments add wavering one-off melodies that stray away, representing Sora's struggles. It's an epic piece that is fitting for a late-game world such as Hollow Bastion.

2. Roxas / The Other Promise (Kingdom Hearts 2)

//youtu.be/E_BS8egSU3k

Roxas' story throughout the majority of the Kingdom Hearts series is emotional. He is pulled away from his friends, stuck inside Sora's heart, and holds anger within him. He is the counterbalance to Sora's upbeat attitude, but Roxas holds much compassion within him too. His theme, otherwise known as "The Other Promise," shows that perfectly. The flute playing is absolutely tragic as the melody is beautifully charming while the backdrop of the piano is emotionally strained. The playing mid-way throug?h the track in "The Other Promise" version is then intensified, adding to the drama.

"What I try to remember is not to repress your emotions," Shimomura said in an interview with Hatalabo (translated by KH13). "If you need to cry, cry outrageously [..], especially since music is an expression of emotion." She also mentioned, "the more expressive you are emotionally the more expressive the music becomes." You can certainly hear the emotion in this piece by the legendary game composer, and that is why it's one of the best Kingdom Hearts songs.

1. Dearly Beloved (Kingdom Hearts 2)

//youtu.be/sihC5l_gIak

For any great JRPG, you need an amazing main menu theme, and the Kingdom Hearts series delivers that in spades. "Dearly Beloved" is an awe-inspiring piece that has chronicled Sora's journey up to this point. It's highly adaptable, with each title in the series having an alteration on the piano-led track. Kingdom Hearts 3's version sounded momentous as it was the last entry in the Dark Seeker saga, while Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory has an eccentric jazzy take on the familiar song.

After much consideration, Kingdom Hearts 2's version of "Dearly Beloved" is the one that stands out the most. It has a sensational held string section at the top of the number with a stunning harp elevating the introduction. The piano then hits alongside the sweeping strings, stirring the heartstrings. It's melancholy and has plenty of tones within the piece that revolves around the main piano melody that resembles the adventurous and dramatic spirit of the game. This version of "Dearly Beloved" is simply perfect, and the piece itself has been featured in the ClassicFM Hall of Fame six times, according to KH13.

The post 10 best Kingdom Hearts songs, ranked appeared first on Destructoid.

The best stuff that didn't come with the box

Games and consoles have 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 here 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 playthroughs, making it one of the best gaming accessories you can purchase.

9. PlayStation Move

[caption id="attachment_360486" align="alignnone" width="1200"] Scree??nshot via PlayStation'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 o?ut your wizard dreams with entertaining spell-based gameplay and inventive uses of the PlayStatio??n 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 w??hat Oculus provides with its own controller, the PlayStation Move helped 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, whi??le simple, was a thrill with fun mini-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 hospi?tals.

7. Dance Dance Revolution Pad

[caption id="attachment_361167" align="alignnone" width="1200"] Screenshot via Konami's YouTube Cha??nnel[/caption]

Dance Dance Revolution was a phenomenon back in the early 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 rhythm game that uses a taiko drum as its instrument, is one of the best arcade games you can find. But arcades are pr??etty 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 an??d 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, ho??wever, are pretty 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 headset, like hit?ting 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 m??ight be worth checking out ??the original PlayStation VR headset while it's cheap used.

The post 10 best gaming accessories, ranked appeared first on Destructoid.

The next batch of classics and Game Catalog titles will show up on September 20

After neglecting retro game fans in August, Sony has several PS1, PS3, and PSP classics lined up for PlayStation Plus Premium subscribers i?n September, as well as more games joining the PS Plus Extra tier's Game Catalog. It's not the splashy lineup I hoped to see.

Here are the PlayStation Plus Premium classics coming on September 20:

• Syphon Filter 2 (PS1)
• The Sly Collection (PS3)
• Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time (PS3)
• Bentley's Hackpack (PS3)
• Toy Story 3 (PSP)
• Kingdom of Paradise (PSP)

And here are the Extra/Premium Game Catalog additions, als??o arriving on September 2?0:

• Deathloop (PS5)
• Assassin's Creed Origins (PS4)
• Watch Dogs 2 (PS4)
• Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 (PS4)
• Spiritfarer: Farewell Edition (PS4)
• Chicory: A Colorful Tale (PS4)
• Monster Energy Supercross â€?The Official Videogame 5 (PS4, PS5)
• Alex Kidd in Miracle World DX (PS4, PS5)
• Rabbids Invasion: The Interactive TV Show (PS4)
• Rayman Legends (PS4)
• Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game â€?Complete Edition (PS4)

If you're a PS Plus Essential subscriber, Sony also confirmed the monthly games, following a leak �th??ey'll be claimable from September 6 through October 3:

• Need for Speed Heat (PS4)
• Granblue Fantasy: Versus (PS4)
• Toem (PS5)

For summaries of every game, the PlayStation Blog has you covered.

As I've said before, if you've got the ??money and interest, Essential is where it's at right now. The main limiting factor is time (and maybe storag?e or bandwidth caps).

Some of us were willing to take a chance on upgrading to PlayStation Plus Premium for this first year, but if Sony wants to keep people hooked long-term, it'll have to do better. A lot better. The fact that there's a treasure trove of potential classics to pull from makes it all the more painful to see stuff like Toy Story 3 for PSP instead of, say, Dino Crisis.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFRmr6MNivE

It is nice to see Sly Cooper retu??rn in any capacity, but you're out of luck if you can't (or won't) do streaming, which remains ?the only way to play these PS Plus PS3 games.

On a happier note, I'm stoked to dig into Chicory, Toem, and Alex Kidd. I think September is a pretty good one for th??e Essential and Extra tiers. More fuel for the backlog. It's a shame that the classics side of the equation isn't �or at least doesn't feel like �a priority.

The post PS Plus P??remium is adding more retro games in September, but the Extra lineup is so much better appeared first on Destructoid.

It's surmised that the X/X-2 remaster sold nearly seven million

Final Fantasy X sales (and that's the series itself, including Final Fantasy X-2) have hit the 20.8 million mark since September 2021, Square Enix reports (via Gematsu).

As Gematsu points out, in October of 2013, the publisher noted that all together, the X series had hit the 14 million unit mark. To sum things up, that means that the X/X-2 HD Remaster, across the PC, PS3, PS4, Vita (!), Switch, and Xbox One platfo??rms sold roughly ?6.8 million copies in nearly nine years (the remaster collection came out in December of 2013).

It's crazy to see the amount of love this series has gotten since release. When it came out I silently played it while a ton of people I knew skipped it, wrote it off, or played it and didn't like it: take your pick! All of them were some sort of rebuke of Final Fantasy X in some form, and I felt like I? was the crazy one for ?enjoying it so much.

Fast forward to 2022 and it has the respect it deserves. Many lists of "top Final Fantasy games" put it near the top, or refer to it as a classic. I guess XIII helped codify that classic status a bit, but I'll take the affirmation that I w??as always right ??about this game all the same!

The post Final Fantas??y X series? sales hit over 20 million: it deserves it appeared first on Destructoid.

"DLC and add-on content is not supported when streaming a title," according to Sony

Every day, we're learning something new about what we can �and crucially can't �expect from the tiered PlayStation Plus revamp launching on June 13 in North America. Today, it's a caveat about the subscription's streamable PS3 games: namely, you won't be able to access any of their DLC. This was an issue before with cloud-based games played via PlayStation Now, and?? it'll still be present with? PlayStation Plus Premium.

As pointed out by Video Games Chronicle, Sony confirmed this week that "DLC and add-on cont??ent is not supported when streaming a title."

This shouldn't be a huge surprise given the previous limitation with PlayStation Now, but offering DLC would've been a good chance for ??Sony to increase the value of streamable PS3 games. $120 per year for PlayStation Plus Premium i??sn't exactly an easy sell.

Pour another one out for Asura's Wrath

For me, the big omission is Tokyo Jungle, which had some fun DLC animals, including a salaryman, a saber-toothed tiger, and a fat cat. For the rest of the anime-loving world, the lack of DLC for Asura's Wrath sting??s even worse �the story is incomplete without it?.

[caption id="attachment_323529" align="alignnone" width="1859"] _{[Image Credit: JEUXACTU]}[/caption]In the Americas, PlayStation Plus Premium will have streaming PS3 games like Demon's Souls, MotorStorm Apocalypse, Puppeteer, Resistance 3, Super Stardust HD, and Enslaved: Odyssey to the West, among others. You can preview the streaming PS3 lineup over here.

What about DLC for PS4 and PS5 games in the Extra and Premium tiers?

It's worth noting that, per?? Sony, players "can purchase DLC and add-on content for the [PS4 and PS5] games you download from the games catalog through PlayStation Plus."

"If your membership expires, or if the content leaves t??he service you’ll also lose access to the DLC and add-on content associated with that game. Once you resubscribe to the service or decide to purchase the title, you’ll be able to use your purchased DLC and add-on content again."

Offline play is possible with check-ins

I was also curious about online check-ins. According to Sony, "game catalog titles in the PlayStation Plus Extra and Premium/Deluxe plans" will require a connection to PlayStation Network every seven days for validation, at which point you can continue to play them offline. This rule does not apply to the "monthly free games" offered in ??the (chea??pest) PlayStation Plus Essential plan �no weekly check-ins are needed.

Overall, I'm not sure if or when PlayStation Plus Premium will convince me, but I'll spend a few bucks here and there for piecemeal PS1 classics, most likely. As Dan put it in Slack today, "My PS3 wil?l ?remain plugged in as the PS1-3 machine for another decade, I guess."

The post Bummer: PlayStation Plus Premium won’t include any DLC for PS3 games appeared first on Destructoid.

Buy it again and again and...

Do you think that you've had enough of Warriors Orochi 3? No. According to a new listing on the Australian Classification Ratings Board, publisher Koei Tecmo is preparing to rerelease the rerelease of the original release one more time, in the form of Warriors Orochi 3 Ultimate Definitive Edition.

Originally arriving on PS3, PSP, Wii-U, and Xbox 360 back in 2011, Warriors Orochi 3 was the then-latest entry in the legendary hack 'n' slash RPG franchise. While the release received the same typically mixed reviews that meet most entries in the franchise, fans enjoyed its chaotic warfare, period setting, and huge roster of characters, which also included guest stars pulled from Koei's own Dead or Alive series.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCADiuSwGwg

So popular was the title that it was updated and relaunched several years after release, in the form of Warriors Orochi 3 Ultimate for PS3 and PS Vita, before eventually making its way to PS4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch platforms in 2017. This edition of the game featured new improved visuals and lighting mechanics, stages and side stories, new guest characters (including Sophitia from Bandai Namco's Soulcalibur), and all previously released DLC content.

So, what is Warriors Orochi 3 Ultimate Definitive Edition? Well, we'll have to wait until Koei Tecmo is ready to reveal all to find out. One would naturally assume that it is a port of Warriors Orochi 3 Ultimate for platforms such as PS5, PC, or Xbox Se??ries, perhaps including 4K visuals, 60 FPS gameplay, and other technical upgrades. No doubt we'll be hearing from the publisher this summer, if not sooner. So just keep that poleaxe sharpened and stay tuned.

The post Warriors Orochi 3 Ultimate Definitive Edition pops up on Australian ratings boar??d appeared first on Destructoid.

It's about time PlayStation put games preservation at the forefront

As the games industry continues to get older, and suddenly hundreds of games are being lost to history, the conversation surrounding games preservation has become more and more prevalent. Plenty of fans and academics are willing to take on the challenge, but copyright laws make it difficult. While Xbox and Nintendo have made strides toward preservation (as minimal as they may be), PlayStation hasn't much ventured into the discipline �until now. PlayStation dev Garrett Fredley took to Twitter to announce his new job titl?e of Senior Build Engineer, specifically "working as one their initial hires for the newly created Preservation team."

//twitter.com/SomeC?r?onzaGuy/status/1518616882357571586

Over the years, Microsoft has worked hard to make games backward compatible for its newest consoles, and Nintendo is working on releasing more catalogs of its classic games to the public. Sony is finally catching up a bit by at least allowing fans to get access to PS1, PS2, PS3, and PSP games on PS5 with the new PS Plus Premium subscription, but they're also only doing so after the decision to close the PSP digital store.

I kind of get the vibe that everyone's trying to find ways to make money off of this, and maybe this is a controversial opinion, but I think that game companies should be devoted to making all?? of their games?? accessible to the public, at the very least not making them any more expensive than their equivalent retail price.

Fredley sounds pretty thrilled about the position, stating in the tweet that "games preservation was [his] first career passion." Good for you, guy! Sony hasn't announced any other detail??s about the new department, but I am also pretty excited about this development.

Games preservation is becoming more and more c??rucial by the year as we lose access to old software, or as old hardware is literally deteriorating. Video games are still a relatively young medium, and as we're quickly approaching the point where huge numbers of titles are no longer playable, so it's important that companies that creating pipelines in order to prioritize the preservation of their own history.

I'm with Fredley on this one �this stuff is important. Godspeed, m?y dud?e.

//www.tiktok.com/@destructoid/video/??7094005609313406213?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc&web_id=7052788164067706373

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A few of them lasted a while

Ubisoft online end-of-life status is inevitable for a lot of games from one of the bigger publishers in the industry, and now we have a full list of games that have died off as of this ?month.

Here's the full rundown of what's happening. Online multiplayer for every game below is shut down currently. You can't accrue Ubisoft Connect rewards or credits. As for rewards: on PC, ULC [unlockable content] will no longer be available even if it has been redeemed previously, but on console, the ULC will cont??inue to be available unless y?ou reset your saved game files."

Some of these shutdowns, which happened prior to this month, are a blast from the past. Seeing Haze on the list despite being erroneously deemed a "Halo killer" by some is kind of funny. The shutdowns also span multiple generations and franchises, dipping into Might & Magic, Just Dance, Rainbow Six, Assassin's Creed, and Rayman. It serves as a stark reminder of the? vast amount of IP Ubisoft has ?control over.

Some folks are reporting that not every ??game on this list is fully shut down (despite the page stating "the online multiplayer services for the titles listed below have now been shut down" dire?ctly from Ubisoft), so your mileage my vary.

Ubisoft online end of life April 2022 list:

The post A ton of mostl??y older Ubisoft games are hitting online end of? life status soon appeared first on Destructoid.

June 13 is the big day in the Americas

Sony has narrowed down the launch timeline of its new multi-tier approach to PlaySt?ation Plus. The revamped subscription service will roll out regionally, and the first launch, for "Asia markets (excluding Japan)," is happening in just over a mont??h on May 23.

Sony Interactive Entertainment president and CEO Jim Ryan announced the new PS Plus timeline in a blog post ??today, citing Sony's "fantastic progress with our launch efforts":

• Asia markets (excluding Japan) â€?targeting May 23, 2022
• Japan â€?targeting June 1, 2022
• Americas â€?targeting June 13, 2022
• Europe â€?targeting June 22, 2022

That's all well and good �but w??hat abo??ut the games, especially the fan-favorite legacy PS1/PS2/PSP games that may (or may not) make it in? We'll have to wait for the full list.

What are the different tiers again?

A "q?uick" refresher on wha?t's included in the three PlayStation Plus tiers:

• PS Plus Essential â€?$60 per year with two monthly games, discounts, cloud saves, and online multiplayer, aka what we currently have as "PlayStation Plus."
• PS Plus Extra â€?$100 per year with "up to 400" PS4 and PS5 games.
• PS Plus Premium â€?$120 per year with "340 additional games" including titles from the PS1, PS2, PSP, and (cloud steaming only) PS3 catalog, as well as PlayStation Now-style cloud streaming and "time-limited game trials."

The pricing is going to be too steep for plenty of people, particularly folks who are into Xbox Game Pass or are struggling to find enough value in PlayStation Plus as it is. Tha??t said, plenty more of us are wai?ting to hear about the specific games in the latter two tiers.

Access to hundreds of (hopefully not filler) games in a digital pile doesn't necessarily do much for me �my backlog is big enough! �but seeing certain PlayStation classics lined up together could quickly sway me through brute-forced nostalgia. I mean, hell, I'm subbed to Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack for N64 access. I'm an easy mark!

Curiously, Syphon Filter could be in the running for PlayStation Plus Premium if a recent rating in Korea is any indication. With around a month to go before the subscription becomes available t??o the first players, I'm sure we'll hear concrete details so??on.

The post Here’s the tiered PlayStation Plus launch timeline appeared first on Destructoid.

Commercials don't always have to suck

Sometimes when we're feeling sentimental, my friends and I will pull up compilations of old video game commercials from when we were kids and watch them for? hours. Games have been around for over four decades now, and over the course of that time, there have naturally been some pretty awesome gaming advertisements.

From minimal yet effective print ads to truly bizarre commercials to murals on the sides of skyscrapers �game ads can be anything from puzzling to clever to downright inspiring. Mobile ads may have gone off the deep end, but t??here was a time when companies put a lot of thought and effort into their marketing.

There are plenty of lists out there ranking the best we've ever seen, but there are a few advertisements for video games that really stick out in my mind. Advertisements are always a kind of time capsule of the era in which they were created, which makes it really fun and nostalgic to go back and watch them again as adults. Even after skimming the surface of all the classic ads we have from games, I feel like there could be a whole field of study dedicated just to the way companies sell games to us. In some cases, they've completely altered the course of how we think of games to this day.

//www.redd???it.com/r/gaming/comments/u7lfqs/resident_evil_print_advertisement_2002/

One of the campaigns that always comes to mind is the series of commercials Sony did to promote the PS3 in the mid-2000s. The real kicker there was that I didn't even see any of them in the wild when I was a kid because I was discouraged from playing games as a young girl in the South, but they're so good that even seeing them as an adult, they've stuck with me. First, there's the iconic PS3 baby doll commercial, which captures this really creepy existential dread in a way that you just can't ignore. It's so weird, you can't help but talk about it, and I for one think that makes for a great ad. Then there's the campaign starring Kevin Butler, who was a charismatic fictitious executive character that audiences of g?aming advertisements ?loved back in the day.

Another great ad that comes to mind is Fortnite's "Nineteen Eighty-Fortnite" commercial that Epic released in 2020, at the height of their feud with Apple. I was shocked to learn that a lot of people didn't know that this ad was actually a shot-for-shot parody of an Apple commercial from the 1980s, which is widely c??onsidered one of the best ads of all time. I have to give it props for being so ?clever, and who doesn't love some petty corporate drama?

//www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/rrpewk/probably_the_coolest_thing_i_hav?e_ever_seen_in_a/

Because I am admittedly biased in their favor, I've also been a huge fan of the series of ads that the K-pop girl group Twice did for the Nintendo Switch. They're adorable, the games they're playing are adorable, ??and knowing my favorite console is approved by my favorite musical artists just gives me the warm and fuzzies. I usually don't fall prey to celebrity endo?rsement, but I just can't help it with them.

So we wanna know �what are some of your favorite video game advertisements of all time, regardless of medium? What are the commercials that h?ave really stuck with you over the years? Have you ever felt compelled to buy a game or console specifically because it had a great ad? Let's discuss below!

The post What’s your favorite video game advertisement of all time? appeared first on Destructoid.

Pro tip: Mines can be used to attack people behind you

This Weekly Kusoge comes courtesy of a request from Destructoid’s favorite child, Wes Tacos. I bring this up to drag out the fact that he’s an enabler. When kusoge has reduced me to a bitter husk of a human being, the intervention is going to be really awkward. I’ll point to him and shri?ek, “this is what you wanted, isn’t it!?�before diving out the nearest window and escaping back into the wilderness.

Anyway, I don’t know who Jimmie Johnson is. I thought he maybe made sausages, but then I realized I was just mixing together Jimmy Dean and Johnsonville brands?. Try getting that association out of your head.

Turns out, he’s a NASCAR driver. I am both Canadian and a woman, so my only intersection with NASCAR has been to make the revelatory observation that they’re just driving around in circles. Luckily, Jimmie Johnson’s Anything with an Engine is a cart racer and doesn’t feature many cars of the NAS variety. Unfortunately, the new tracks for Mario Kart 8?? just droppe?d recently and I’d much rather be playing that.

I’ve never really strayed far from the Mario Kart games. I think Wacky Wheels is the only other racer I’ve played, and I didn’t expect to make such a deep cut. I’m pretty sure I own various Sonic the Hedgehog racing games about six times each, but I’ve never played them. And yes, Crash Team Racing people, this is when your monocle pops off an?d falls into y??our wine glass because I’ve never touched them.

So, the closest I’ve come to a bad cart racing game is playing Mario Kart Wii with the motion controls on. It seems like its own little neighborhood of kusoge city. I could explore M&M’s Kart Racing or�Ew, there’s a Woody Woodpecker Racing. That sou??nds like the embodiment of everything I stand against.

James Stephanie Sterling, in their Destructoid days, handled the review of it. Their closing argument was that “Few videogames can claim to be 'good in a bad way,' but Anything With An Engine definitely comes close.�While I respect my senpai, I have to disagree. I find very little in Anything with an Engine that I’d actually consider worthwhile.

Let me back up a step and say that I don’t think Anything with an Engine is a bad game, it just underachieves in every way. There were times during a standard race when I was left thinking, “this isn’t too bad,�and then a time trial or endurance race would come around and I’d think, “this is what hell has in store of my putrified soul.�/p>

The tracks are fine. Some of them kind of suck, and because they’re all built as though they’re tracks w?ithin a stadium they feel flat, but they’re not the worst. I never really gelled with any of the drivers. They’re all just conceptually dumb. There’s a guy who drives a bathtub in an old-fashioned diving suit, but he’s a dope. There’s an incontinent sumo wrestler, and I’m not sure if I’m offended because I’m not a fan of toilet humor or because it’s disparaging sumo wrestlers. I wound up playing as the vampire because she has big tires.

The weapons are similarly fine. They’re mapped to the four face buttons, and each driver has essentially the same ones. They look different, and I think they have different efficacies. However, if you select a new driver, you’re not exactly?? relea?rning everything. You gradually build up your armaments by gaining crowd approval, which is a neat system. However, it doesn’t make for the most chaotic of races.

Where the game starts getting intolerable is with the rubber-band AI. I found ??it amusing that Mr. Johnsonville told me that “every lap counts�in a standard race when you might as well just cruise until the final lap. Opponents stay glued to you, and if you fall behind, you will noticeably rocket back up to the pack. A few well-placed rockets and nitros at the end is all you need.

The worst is when you’re racing Jimmie in the final event of each cup. Anything with an Engine is determined to keep the two of you glued together. I wouldn’t even use turbo on the first two laps, because I’d just gain speed automatically as I got further away from the sausage man. I’d save my rockets, then just make his life miserable for the last lap. Worked? every time.

It’s not the most egregious rubber-banding I’ve seen in a ??racing game, but it is a great deal more brazen than it has to be. It might be necessary because the drivers aren’t that aggressive, but I don’t think it needs to be quite so blatant and easily manipulated.

I mostly hate the time trials, which provide you with an ideal track and a chevron instead of a proper ghost. Then there are the endurance races where you accumulate? points the better you do during each lap. It’s monotonous. There are matador races where half of your opponents run the track in reverse, but this mostly just makes it difficult to tell how close you are to qualifying.

Then there’s the voice acting, which I turned off. They have these announcer people who comment on your racing, and they don’t shut up. Just imagine Mario Kart where Toad’s raspy, chain-smoker voice pipes up to tell you that a mushroom can help you get ahead of the pack. It’s like that. The one dude was very insistent on telling me what mines are for at least twice a lap. I get it, guy. They’re good for clean??ing people off my tail feathers. They deter tailgaters. I was amply aware of this that past twelve races, maybe cool it on the unsolicited reminders.

Oh, hilariously, there’s an anaglyphic 3D mode. I think there’s a standard 3D-TV mode, as well, but my Playstation TV is in storage, so it was time to dawn my Blockbuster Video branded red and blues. Wow, it sucks. I mean, it doesn’t. It works like it’s supposed to, but I found myself unable to make out small details like rockets in that weird color haze my eyes make when trying to reconcile the two colors they’re seeing. Kind of funny, though. Takes me back to my Rad Racer days.

Like I said, Anything with an Engine isn’t awful, I just don’t know why anyone would p?lay it unless Wes asked them to. Who is it for? NASCAR fans? Jimmie Johnson is the only NASCAR driver in it (I think). Is there a lot of crossover between NASCAR fans and kart racing fans? I don’t know.

It’s rare that I feel like I wasted my time playing a game, but this is one of those moments. I have accomplished nothing. I have only learned that Jimmie Johnson doesn’t make sausages. This is time I spent that would have been better put to use on Mario Kart 8’s new tracks. Anything with an Engine reaches this level of unexcitedly, inoffensively bad that I didn’t know it existed. I’m going to put ??this back on my shelf and just be apathetic towards it from now on.

For previous Weekly Kusoge, check this link!

The post Anything with an Engine is anything but fun appeared first on Destructoid.

End of an era for one of the greats

Sony Interactive Entertainment Japan ha??s announced that it is ending after-sales support of its legendary console, PlayStation 3. From April 30, 2022, Sony will no longer be able to repair or refurbish any PS3 hardware or peripherals sent in by its customers, putting a period on the company's relations?hip with one of its best-selling consoles.

"Due to the depletion of parts inventory, we will no longer be able to provide after-sales service for the PlayStation3 CECH-4300 series main unit and all PlayStation3 peripherals on April 30, 2022," reads a short statement on Sony Japan's Twitter. "If you are considering applying for this service, please make your request as soon as possible. Please note that repairs may not be possible before th?e end date due to the exhaustion of parts."

"We sincerely apologiz??e to customers who are using this product and thank you for your understanding."

Launched in November 2006 for a notoriously outrageous $599 USD, the PlayStation 3 was a huge step up (from a technical standpoint) from its predecessor, PlayStation 2. The mighty behemoth took its sweet time building a library of compelling releases but �alongside its Microsoft rival Xbox 360 �would eventually be home to hundreds of great games that truly push??ed the boundaries of graphical fidelity and game design. PS3 was also the first games console to support the then-fledgling Blu-ray format.

It can be argued that we are yet to see the same technical leap experienced from PS2 to PS3 in the ensuing generations. While the PS2 is, undeniably, one of the greatest consoles of all time, the PS3 felt like an enormous step up from a tech standpoint �more so than we experienced when moving from PS3 to PS4, or even from PS4 to PS5. PlayStation 3 would also receive multiple physical redesigns, slim?ming down its painfully ginormous orig?inal form.

While the sales of PlayStation would not surpass those of either of its predecessors or its successors, the console would ultimately rack up over 87?? million hardwa?re sales in its lifetime. While the PS3 has been a little old hat for some years, Sony pulling the plug on the console's repair service definitely marks something of an era's end.

Regardless, nobody would deny PS3 its place in the annuals ??of video game histor?y.

The post Sony Japan is endin??g after-sales support for PlayStation 3 appeared first on Destructoid.

Is it a glitch, or a portent?

Over the past weekend, a small selection of PS3 games appeared, complete with price, on the PS5 version of the PlayStation Network. The appearance of these PS3 titles, as spotted by Jordan Middler for VGC,?? has sparked hopes in fans that backward compatibility could be headed to Sony's shiny new console.

Currently, PS5 users are unable to actually purchase any of the games in question �including titles in the Dead or Alive and Prince of Persia franchises �but while these games are available on the PlayStation Now service, they should not be appeared as priced, purchasable titles within PSN. Dead or Alive 5, in fact, shouldn't even be available as part of the European PlayStation Now service.

Of course, glitches gonna glitch, and this could simply be a coding error providing false listings. After all, there is testimony of similar store slip-ups happening before. Regardless, it's difficult not to find this intriguing, given not only PlayStation architect Mark Cerny's recent backward compatibility patent, but also the rumor that Sony is getting set to launch its own Xbox Game Pass-style subscription service. We're unlikely to hear official confirmati??on either way. So, for now, this is something of a wait-and-see situatio?n. Whether this is smoke or fire, clearly PlayStation has the concept on its desk either way.

Would be great to have that huge PS3 catalog back in action though... Let's go, WWE All-Stars.

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Just a heads up if you need some threatening holiday cheer

Holiday stories are sort of a thing in the Batman mythos, and it's one of the aspects that Batman: Arkham Origins got right. Yep, you too can enjoy an Arkham Origins Christmas if you feel like booting it up again. It even got ?a Mr. Freeze DLC!

For those of you who completely blocked this game out of your mind, Arkham Origins has a troubled history for myriad reasons. It's very clear that WB rushed it, as it was plagued with bugs upon release (particularly PC) that weren't prioritized until after paid DLC was released. Oh, and the Wii U DLC ports were canceled after WB sold people the Wii U edition. This was, in part, because Rocksteady (who had handled Asylum and City) did not work on the game: that honor went to WB Games Montréal, who hasn't had a major project since until 2022's Gotham Knights.

With all that out of the way, Arkham Origins is a decent holiday game that takes place on Christmas Eve, and deals with a younger Batman (voiced by Roger Craig Smith instead of Kevin Conroy) taking down Joker (voiced by Troy Baker instead of Mark Hammill). The cast shift portended the entire feel of the game. It was an "off-brand" Arkham in many ways from top to bottom, but it did maintain a lot of the core that people knew and loved, and has been viewed mor??e favorably over? time.

If you actually want to play it from scratch, the process is incredibly annoying on consoles. It's not part of the re-release trilogy pack, and does not have a current-gen version. Other than PC, your options are PS3 and Xbox 360: the latter is compatible with Xbox One, but you need the disc.

Just saying: it's an option! There aren't that many Christmas games out there. If you want a better open world comic romp, Miles Morales is fairly recent. Plus, there's always Christmas NiGHTS!

The post Batman: Arkham Origins is flawed, but it’s one of the few Christmas games appeared first on Destructoid.

That said, you'll be able to add funds using a computer, mobile device, PS4, or PS5

Sony ultimately decided to keep the PS3 and P?layStation Vita digital stores online (after announcing their closure back in March), which was a surprising and backlash-fueled turn of events �but there are still some caveats to keep in mind, and today, we've got another one to watch out for. Soon, you won't be allowed to use a credit card, a debit card, or PayPal to add funds to your account on the PlayStation Store for PS3 and PS Vita.

In another one of those now-iconic support page messages, Sony said that as of October 27, 2021, users "can no longer use a credit or?? debit card, or a payment method such as PayPal, to buy digital content or add funds to your wallet when visiting PlayStation Store on your PS3 console or PS Vita system." That sounds like a huge deal, right? Yes and no. For some, it'll be an issue??; for others, it's an annoyance that can be side-stepped.

The main factor to note is that PS3 and Vita purchases will still be possible (again, those legacy stores aren't fully shutting down), but Sony is narrowing the op??????????????????????????tions.

Here's what's changing for PS3 and Vita on October 27

• "You will still be able to purchase content (including DLC) via in-game stores, but you will need to use wallet funds to pay for the content on PlayStation Store."
• "You can add funds by redeeming a PlayStation Store gift card, using a credit or debit card, PayPal, or other available payment methods via a desktop computer, mobile device, a PS4 console or a PS5 console."
• "PlayStation Store gift cards can be used on both PS3 consoles and PS Vita systems. Product vouchers and subscription vouchers can also be used."
• An extra note spotted by Siliconera: digital games with a CERO Z rating in Japan require a credit card for age verification, which means they won't be buyable on PS3 or Vita starting Oct. 27.

To add money to your account in the browser-based PlayStation Store, log in here, click on yo?ur account/avatar in the top right, click "Payment Management," then hit "Add Funds."

On some level, I can see why Sony's hand might've been forced with respect to keeping these old storefronts safe an??d secure and compliant, weighing the numbers, and not wanting to invest any more money. No matter how you slice it though, "fewer features" is a tough sell, and it's something PlayStation fans have been dealing with a lot lately.

Maybe I'm being too pragmatic here, but if this was The Compromise, I'm definitely glad the stores are staying online (for now). The longer, the better. It's just a shame that we won't be able to actually see these old games while we top up our accounts since, you know, the current PlayStation Store on modern devices only lists PS4 and PS5 games.

In another reality, it's not a hassle to buy these old digital games, and they still offer deals. Maybe it's too late for these specific titles, and they'll suffer a slow fade-out; maybe it isn't. In general, PlaySt?ation could be doing so much more with its le??gacy games.

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The LittleBigPlanet got Littler

Sony has shut down the PS3 servers for cutesy online platformer/creator package LittleBigPlanet and its two sequels, LittleBigPlanet 2 and LittleBigPlanet 3. Effective immediately, the multipl??ayer, Community Level, and all other online elements of all three titles are no longer accessible on PS3 or PS Vita. The PS4 version of the games remain unaffected.

The s??udden news was announced in a statement by Sony this morning, in which the development team addressed a DDOS attack that saw hackers ran amuck throughout the cutesy woolen universe back in May of this year, whi?ch lead to all LBP servers temporarily closing their doors to all. While the PS4 servers have now been restored, re-opening the world to a huge community of players and some 10 million community levels, it seems that the PS3 and Vita servers will remain offline. The news will no doubt come as a shocking and unwelcome surprise to anybody playing on the legacy platforms.

"First, we would like to apologize for the extended downtime of the LittleBigPlanet server and want to thank you all for your patience whilst we worked on this issue," began the statement, posted on Twitter. "The good news is that we have just launched Game Update 1.27 and brought the LittleBigPlanet server (and all 10,000,000+ Communi?ty Levels!!) back online for PlayStation 4 users!??"

"Unfortunately, we need to permanently shut down our online services for: LittleBigPlanet, LittleBigPlanet 2, LittleBigPlanet 3 (PS3) and LittleBigPlanet PS Vita. We have no doubt that this news will come as a big disappointment to a lot of you, ultimately this is the best way to protect the LittleBigPlanet community and to help ensure that our ?onli?ne environment remains safe."

"T??hank you for being a wonderful community and for your continued love and support of all things Sackboy."

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Konami outlines its plans for the gradual shutdown

All online services come and go, and it looks like its time for another one to fade away as the console generations change. Today, Konami laid out its plans to gradually shutter servers for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, culminating in a full shutdown next year.

Over on its website, Konami lists out the rundown for MGSV and Metal Gear Online. The PS3 and 360 services will be terminated on May 31, 2022, but the schedule kicks off today—Aug. 31, 2021—with the removal of the in-game purchasing system. By the end of November, no Metal Gear Online-rela??ted DLC will be available to buy, and on March 1, distribution will be terminated.

Konami noted that Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain will still be available t??o play of?fline. No refunds will be made for in-game items.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4uSkAACoHc

This doesn't change anything for players on PC or more modern consoles, like th?e PlayStation 4 or Xbox One, who will still have access to these services. Still, it's another story of an online service being shutdown, and it's always a sad little reminder that these virtual gathering spaces are, ultimately, temporary.

Metal Gear Solid V's multiplayer has, for years, been a source of fascinating news as players who stuck with it try to achieve fleeting nuclear peace, activating the secret nuclear disarmament cutscene. It's my hope that maybe this news revives that community, especially since their most successful endeavor thus far w??as on the PlayStation 3.

And it's always heartening to know that fans can carry on their favorite games in their own way, through modding and emulation. The stories we create in online arenas can be so compelling that they can live on long after a server goes quiet, so even though shutdowns like this are commonplace, it's still nice to reflect back on the good fun we had while we had t?hem.

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A community blog by Exber

_{[Destructoid user Exber tells the story of when, where, and how Persona 4 ended up becoming one of their most cherished games. It's a personal story, one that really resonates. -Jordan]}

There hasn’t been a game I have mentioned more than Persona 4, if I am honest. I talked about it twice as a student for some presentations, first in 2012 and then in 2015, and by that time, I had thought I wouldn’t be using the game to convey any kind of message anymore. I was wrong. Game Informer had these blog writing challenges where the subjects at hand were the perfect excuse to talk about my favorite game of all time for the third, fourth time without getting me or my readers bored due to the lack of innovation. I was wrong yet again. Persona 4 has this precise amount of information that when playing one can know its writing, pacing, and narrative are ?top-notch, hence giving myriad debates after playing it. Character study, social critique, you name it.

Fun fact: when I first played it in 2008 I didn’t know any of this, I just enjoyed the game to my hear??t’s content. So, why did it became my favorite and re?mained so after all of the games I have played since? Let’s go back to the Midnight Channel one more time.

2007: My First RPG

If by 2006 I got to play Ocarina of Time and saw the potential of gaming and how much fun I had with the medium, it was only a matter of time before I started to venture into new genres as I only used to play horror, racing, and action-adventure games. Come 2007 and I got a PS2 ready to fulfill that, with my brothers helping me along the way. While most of the recommendations didn’t click with me, there was one that also didn’t but at the same time had me curious. Why is this RPG not based on some medieval times? What’s with this orchestrated music? This looks like anime but it just doesn’t feel like it. And with that, Persona 3 had me hooked by watc?hing my brother play the game and later quitting.

My curiosity led me to try it for myself having no idea whatsoever as to how RPGs work or if I would be able to fully understand the language as I was a 13-year-old native Spanish speaker with no English course behind me, only what I have learned with Ocarina of Time, Resident Evil 2, ??and my dictionary. Guess what? I loved the game.

It took me a long while to get used to this genre and how the Persona series since Persona 3 handles and mixes social simulation within it. Once I finished it, I knew that I wouldn’t be able to play the sequel as I thought the PS3 would be the ideal console to release it, until I watched the trailer for Persona 4 with a release date of December 8 for the PS2. Getting a new exclusive game for ?a last-gen console? So soon? With lots of quality of life improvements upon its predecessor? I was hyped.

2008: Izanagi!

It was December 8 and there I was at the local video game s?tore, sad due to the game not getting shipped until December 12. However, as it was a Saturday, it was the perfect excuse to play late. My family was actually curious as to why I was so hyped and though they didn’t actually understand the game, my happiness was all they needed to see to confirm and be relieved of the purchase. The time was winter vacation so it was game time for me, and yet, I couldn’t finish the game by t??he end of the year, but during the first days of 2009.

Compared to my experience with Persona 3, Persona 4 was a breeze in many regards and a better experience,?? to be exact. The feeling of humbleness the game shows within its Inaba setting caught my interest since the trailer, as I have always been a country boy at heart. The character struggles and their boss fights felt personal, particularly those of Yosuke, Kanji, and Teddy. And finally, the antagonist’s motives had a lot to do with the game’s narrative and how the mystery evolves the more you play it. I got to notice that during my first playthrough and so I decided to play another time on hard and to experience the game yet again t??rying to do more things within my time limit. Needless to say, I enjoyed it just as much and before I knew it, Izanagi was my phone’s wallpaper, Reach out to the Truth was my ringtone, and so on and so forth.

By that time replaying a game was something I used to do with many games but it was only to beat those in hard and get unlockables. With Persona 4, however, playing it again cemented it as something more of a gaming experience. It was a decisive factor in my future life: to study English education. To understand a story-driven game of 70 to 80 hours duration with no previous studied knowledge of the English language? If this game taught me something, it's to pursue one’s true self, and that was precisely what I wan?ted to do: learn more English and make a living out of it.

2011: Persona 4 The Animation

Anime has never been my thing really, but I made an exception with this for two reasons. First, my girlfriend by that time loved anime and didn’t have a PS2 to play Persona 4 as she was interested after listening to me talk about it all the time, so I decided to watch it with her. And second, to see if my memory still remembered that narrative and also, to see how it transl?ates to anime. All of the above was a complete success. She loved it as well and we both confirmed that my relationship with this game was out of this world.

2012: Introducing Shoji Meguro To My Class

As expected, English I started with a bang: to give a presentation about a famous person to evaluate one’s speaking in front of a group of strangers to convey meaning. I talked about him knowing none in the classroom even knew what a video game c??omposer was, but those claps at the end were worth it. Had I, perhaps, used my favorite game of all time to get a grade in college? Yes, I had.

2015: Selling The Game At An English Course

I had been giving another presentation, this time a longer one to talk about anything but with the purpose of getting the audience interested in what I was talking about. Video games were the subject to talk about right away as my classmates wouldn’t accept otherwise. They wanted to see my speaking freely into what has gotten me into English in the first place, and I delivered. Though Persona 4 was not brought to the conversation until the last minutes, the previous explanations I had given about gaming and its side effect, both positive and negative over us, got them interested and when I showed them my favorite game??, many quest??ions were asked such as: Why is the trailer so action-filled when your preview was that of a murder story and waifu dating sim?

And to that I answered: Because the game is full of surprises and twists, and you have a life within it, which for someone with depression like me, is a breath not only of fresh air, but of everything. Then again, claps were heard and their support for me toward gaming hasn’t diminis?hed since.

2020: My 3^rd Playthrough Of The Original PS2 Game

I wanted to get a PS Vita so bad last year to play Persona 4 Golden due to all the hype for the game getting released on Steam, but truth was, I couldn’t afford the handheld at the time. However, I still had my PS2 and my copy of the game so I decided to play? once again during winter vacations, just like when it first released. 12 years later, I was more versed in ga??ming so I was ready to pinpoint every detail to see if had aged well, to look for its flaws and whatnot.

That playthough reconfirmed why Persona 4 stands out above all the games I have played, albeit what faults might hinder the experience especially for those coming from Persona 5. For one, comparing a 2017 game with a 2008 one is out of the question, at least for me. To play games in the order they are released is one thing not many people can do due to not owning certain consoles, but there is one thing every gamer can do: to enjoy a game for what it is as long as the fun factor prevails throughout. Even though this is a game that can’t be recommended to everyone due to how long it is, its pacing and narrative are sublime. The combat system is a step in the right direction, as are some unique additions and the social aspect of the game. The thing here wasn’t only to correct where Persona 3 might have gone wrong, but to make this one distinctive despite having the number four o??n it, and distinctive it was.

Being completely honest, it’s the humbleness the game offers the player that hooks me in every time. High school days are something forever engraved into our memories no matter how good or bad they were, so the setting is easily recognizable, and the character study based on their lives in a rural town resonates with that human factor we often tend to forget. Sure, gay themes aren’t taboo anymore in many countries, as well as social pressure and many of the subjects present within this game, but what about the rest of the world? For a video game, a medium often ignored by many, Persona 4 knows how to speak to the players without wanting to have a big impression but rather, a lasting o??ne. Such has been my case.

As a gay man with depression and anxiety, to play a video game which tackles these situations with an open heart was what I needed back in 2008 to better trust myself and later, to better understand my feelings in many regards. And not only that, as the gameplay quickly reminds you, you are playing a video game to have fun, and fun is guaranteed. This balance of making the players reflect upon themselves while having a blast and laughing is what makes this my favorite game of all time. Granted, some other aspects sure helped but that is for another blog, a review of Persona 4 Golden where I’ll be comparin?g both versions as they both offer a unique experience.

2021: Persona 4 Golden Has Been Played

When this game came out back in 2012 I was happy yet a little worried this version would damage what the original one had already established with flying colors. Wrong again. While Chie’s original voice actress is certainly missed, the improvements upon an already well-thought formula not only make this one the definitive version, but one that is better enjoyed if the other was played first. By this time I was already fresh on the story I hadn’t forgotten even after all these years, and some dialogues I still remember clearly, so I was intrigued as to how the new scenes, interactions, and expanded story would work. I am satisfied. The voice actors remembered their characters very well thus continuing to deliver that Persona 4 experience I lo?ve so much. It is a??mazing how a game delivered so much in its first release and then threw it out of the window on its rerelease.

I?? would like to conclude by saying that no matter what game may be your all-time favorite, the reasons behind that are yours and yours alone. If you like that game so darn much, then those developers did a good job do?ing what they love: to bring fun and a lot more to the players.

Thanks for Reading.

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An excuse to talk about the black sheep again

The Algorithm works in mysterious ways. I don't understand it, and I fear its impact on all of us, but sometimes, it delivers. The first video I caught this morning with my usual half-asleep coffee was this: a focused, no-frills look at Dark Souls II bosses with limbs and tails?? that can be lobbed off. Nothing more, nothing less, and I found that refreshing.

I can't guarantee that it'll entertain yo??u �the video's creator, Ray Dhimitri, summed it up as "just some more useless information for all o??f you" �but I'm willing to take that risk.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZogHFHuyfg

For all the times I've revisited Dark Souls II, I'm not sure I've consciously thought about the fact that, unlike Dark Souls, there aren't weapon rewards for cutting off all these tails. I just innately did it. We've been conditioned to approach Souls bosses in ??a certain way, often with a fair bit of cheesy p?ositioning, and when I see a tail, I start chopping.

The highlight of the video �aside from the f??inal clip with?? the Ancient Dragon, which is my kinda wobbly physics jank �is probably The Rotten, who gets disarmed, literally.

If you've never sliced off the meaty lug's arms, try doing it the next time you get a fresh run going in Dark Souls II. It's an effective tactic, for one, and it's also a way to secure another Pharros' Lockstone. Remember all of those times you wasted L??ockstones on objectively useless shit? Gosh, what a game. I mean that as a compliment and a criticis??m.

Did you know about all of these slice-and-dice opportunities? Either way, I love it when a game is totally willing to let players miss cool but ultimately? rather meaningless moments. They end up feeling pretty special as a result. Collectively, they stick with us.

One last point to dwell on: I wouldn't be mad if From Software had a Bonfire Ascetic equivalent in Elden Ring. There's a deep well to draw from in Dark Souls II.

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This kusoge will give you chest pains

I don’t have much stake in the Alien series. I watched Alien, then I watched Aliens, and then I stopped there. Everyone says it gets terrible starting with the third movie, so why ruin what was great? I did the same thing with Robocop and The Godfather. It's great to have the foresight to discard the bad and just enjoy the influential good. I didn’t buy into the hype with Aliens: Colonial Marines.

I don’t even remember if I saw the original “vertical slice�gameplay demo. The edge of my seat was vacant for the full seven years of its development. It just landed, and I got to see the spectacle. The l??ashing it received. The dirt that was dug up on it. It was juicy! So let’s relive that.

It’s important to note that I didn’t play Colonial Marines at launch. I’m playing it years after when it’s been pa??tched a whole bunch on PC with fancy things like SSAO. While I’m going to get to the fact that it still isn’t super great, its current state probably does have something to do with me not being seriously offended by it.

Colonial Marines is the offensive story of how Alien 3 did happen, but not how it was told in the movie. I guess Sigourney Weaver’s amazing jawline, half an android??, and a child were ejected into space at some point between movies, but now the Sulaco is back orbiting LV-426 for some reason and it’s emitting a distress signal. The Sephora, packed to the brim with marines, arrives to investigate and finds everything infested with xenomorphs.

It’s absolutely stupid. If you want to pull a reset on Alien 3, grab a spine and just retcon it. If you want Dwayne back in your fanfiction, there are ways to do it without insulting our intelligence. Look at The Godfather, then don’t look at The Godfather. Instead, look at Scarface: The World is Yours which needed to tell a?n untellable story, so it just did it anyway.

I want to spoil more because the plot just gets more contrived and stupid as it goes on, but I’m sure you’re just itching you play it and want to go in as blind as possible. So, ??I digress.

The game doesn’t actually start off that badly. You’re a marine sent aboard the Sulaco to see what happened to the last marine team that went in. Guess?? what? Aliens! Apparently, Weyland-Yutani arrived way earlier than your?? militant ass and got back to doing what they do best: screwing with powers beyond their control.

It starts off suspensefully enough, even though you damn well know what is going on. Your default speed is walking, and you just creep through derelict corridors saying, “Oh! I know this setpiece from Aliens!�You have a motion tracker, which I’d swear was jury-rigged in the first movie and wasn’t supposed to be something everyone carries around, and it i??s useful exactly zero times. Just like in the movie! You’re given a pulse rif??le and a bunch of other useless weapons that are not the pulse rifle. It’s time for a bug hunt!

Oh??, yeah. You’re shackled to this guy named O’Nea?l who alternates between pointless bravado and constant complaining. Enjoy.

Weren’t the Colonial Marines already Weyland-Yutani’s private army? You wind up fi??ghting against the evil corporation’s PMC because apparently, one army isn’t evil enough. It makes sense, every human in the game is as daft as a freshly mowed lawn. Their attempts at flanking are laughable and their willingness to leave cover to just toddle across the battlefield is always entertaining. Your own teammates are a riot, as well. They don’t care. They’ll stand in the middle of the action and just spray the odd blast of bullets at w??hatever comes near.

Not that the xenomorph AI is any better. The first one you’re int?roduced to in the game just sat still for me, squatting on the ground. It let me walk right up and shoot it in the back of the head. Not the best first impression.

Really, though, they do their job. They crawl on walls and pop out of vents in a way that can make them a bit more difficult to targe??t. They mostly still just mob you, but the bar is set pretty low by the hum?ans.

It’s just so damned underwhelming. The best ideas Colonial Marines has are just wholesale lifted from Aliens. You start on the Sulaco. Then head down to Hadley’s Hope. Again, visit that mummified alien in that old spaceship. Who are you trying to impress, Colonial Marines? I’ve done this before in video games that made more sense, ??it isn’t new or interesting.

While sightseeing, you enjoy some of the drabbest and boring shooting imaginable. The environments all have the same themes: blue-grey corridors, craggy outdoors, more blue-grey corridors. I know that Alien was basically the first to employ these sorts of environments, but I’m going to say the same thing I do about every boring environment: throw down a damned rug. Where’s the coffee station? Where’s the break room??? Someone hang a painting of God-Emperor Weyland.

But the worst sin isn’t even that it’s so damned boring and uninspired; it’s how the publisher and developers acted about Colonial Marines leading to release. Sega got the Alien license and gave it to Gearbox who slacked off on their work to create Borderlands. When that succeeded, they sure weren’t going back to licensed games, so they shunted all the work over to Timegate Studios who had previously done Section 8: Prejudice. Like, all the work was given to them. Gearbox had done practically nothing. So they built this game whi?l??e getting approval on everything from Gearbox and Sega.

Meanwhile, they had to make a demo for E3 2011. They built it o??n high-end workstations knowing full well that it would never run on consoles at the time. It was a “target�but Randy Pitchford of Gearbox presented it as a “vertical slice�of gameplay. He insisted that it was running in real-time, even though it plainly wasn’t.

Timegate Studios passed their work off to Gearbox to get it to actually work on consoles, and then things get muddy. Gearbox says Timegate handed them a mess and that they had to rescue the project over the next 9 months, Timegate says at least 50% of their work was kept. Sega says Gearbox had breached their contract and spent development money on Borderlands. Gearbox said Randy Pitchford sunk his personal finances in finishing the game. They also said Sega wanted to make the game more like Call of Duty, and that’s why there’s Weyland-Yutani PMCs. Michael Biehn said that everyone on the project was passionless.

That last part is pretty evident in the final product. Everything else is just a lot of finger-pointing; accusations of who pooped on the floor. Or perhaps it’s more accurate to say: w??ho the most floor poop belongs to.

It would be hilarious, but people bought Colonial Marines, full-priced, expecting they were getting what they were ??p?romised. Instead, they got an incredible mess containing publisher overreach, brazen laziness, and lots of lying.

Nowadays, the game isn’t super great, but it’s playable. It feels more soulless than maliciously bad. I’m actually more upset that it became so high profile when it mostly just deserves a spot in the sun-bleached bargain bin next to Turok (2008). It sold over a million copies and its widespread notoriety probably hurt the sales of Alien: Isolation, a much better gam??e that the people developing it actually cared abou??t.

So, seriously, screw this blue-grey, boring-ass game about oorah hero marines fighting the bad corporation that owns them. Burying it isn’t even enoug??h to wipe away its sins. We need to nuke it from orbit. It’s the only way.

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Farewell to Arms

Rockstar has announced that it is putting plans in motion to close down the online elements of its PS3 and Xbox 360 catalog. The chaotic multiplayer world of GTA Online �Rockstar's biggest cash cow �will cease activity on the seventh-gen platfor??ms from December 16.

The publisher will stop selling in-game currency for GTA Online on PS3 and Xbox 360 from September 16. Rockstar has also made it clear that cannot transfer their characters to current-gen platforms. Stat-tracking will also end on these platforms, though the GTA V story mode will remain playable.

Additionally, on September 16, Rockstar will also be switching off the servers for 2011 murder mystery title L.A. Noire, as well as 2012's lead-spewing shooter Max Payne 3.

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Retro console (I said it) gets its 60th update

If your humble PS3 is still plugged in, then you might want to fire it up, as Sony has rolled out a brand new system update for the console, the 60th in its storied lifespan. It's been 15 years since So??ny released the seventh-gen platform, but with a library of fantastic software (and a distinct lack of backwards compatibility), the PS3 maintains a pl?ace of privilege underneath many a TV set.

PS3 System Update 4.88 won't make any noticeable difference to the console, with simpli?stic patch notes simply offering "improved system performance". But hey, you gotta keep your consoles up-to-date, right? At least you do when yo??u have oddly obsessional tendencies such as myself.

It's sort of ironic to see the new patch come in. After all, we're just a month out from the date Sony intended to drop the curtain on the PS3 store. But then we all got mad and they changed course. That's the power of public opinion, at least in this case. At least Sony profited from all that panic-buying, eh? While PlayStation customers will be a?ble to continue purchasing PS3 and PS Vita titles, the store for handheld hardware PlayStation Portable will unfortunately close on July 2.

Still, now sporting a shiny new update, your PS3 will continue to house your niche JRPGs, Japanese pro-wrestling games, dating sims, and all of those other closely held titles that are not currently in the queue to receive a flashy, next-gen re?master. Godspeed, l??ittle PS3.

The post ?Fire up your PS3, it just received a new system update appeared first on Destructoid.

Thanks, Sega, this kusoge was exactly what I wanted

This may sound peculiar, but I don’t necessarily pick games for this column and expect to hate them. Spelunker, for example, I legitimately like, despite its reputation. So I went into Sonic the Hedgehog ‘06 with a little bit of history with the title. I figured I’d mostly be picking it apart for its mediocrity; a disappointing release for the new generation of consoles. I’d probably make fun of the typically daft Sonic plot.

But after I s?at down with the game for a little while, I got this feeling of betrayal. I was warned, sure, but someone should have intervened. The person?? who sold it to me should have first demanded a psychological evaluation. My PS3 should have just obliterated the disc. Why does no one care that I do this to myself?

What I’m saying is Sonic ‘06 is shockingly bad. I thought I k??new what I was in for, and I was wrong.

My first experience with Sonic ‘06 was back in, well, 2006. My best friend in college was a huge Sonic fan. Massive. Sonic Riders, Shadow the Hedgehog, he ate it all up. Don't get me wrong, he wasn’t completely blind to the series’ declining quality. It’s fine. At the time, I was still in love with Star Fox and we were able to comfort each? other while the caskets of our favorite franchises ?were slowly being lowered into the ground.

He kept the faith, though, so he scooped up Sonic the Hedgehog on release. Oh, he knew it was a bad game. He played it quite a bit, but was quick to demonstrate to me its flaws. The one that I remember best was a?? leve?l that starts Sonic out on a grind rail, but every time the level loaded, the blue blur would just blur past the rail and into the awaiting death below. Every. Time. Later, he eventually returned and told me what the problem was: he was pressing a direction on the stick when the level loaded, and apparently you weren’t supposed to do that.

I don’t remember if I ever touched the game at that time; I don’t think I did. I’ve never been much of a Sonic fan. Maybe as a child I had some appreciation for the titles that I’d play on my cousin’s Genesis, but the Sonic Adventure games had me?? scratching my head to see the appeal. Oh, Chao Garden? Yeah, that’s whiz.

The problems with Sonic ‘06 are apparent the moment you start playing it. The camera is locked inverted on both the X and Y axis and there’s no way to change it. Fine, I can get used to it. The framerate plummets frequently, but things don’t just get choppy, the whole game completely slows down. The game controls like a shopping cart that just gained sentience and became aware of the horror of its existence. The loading screens are glacial, and if you fail a task, you have to go through four of them to try again.

Just grabbing rings in the first stage is a pain. When the blue blur is at top speed, it feels like he ignores commands completely. This is at its worst when there are pickups in front of you or the little dunce starts leaning dangerously towards the edge of a loop. The camera doesn&r?squo;t give up any fucks, either. It constantly gets stuck behind scenery, tries in vain to follow the action, and is sometimes preoccupied with showing you something cool happening in the background rather than what’s directly in front of you.

The best parts are when you can take a hand off the controller. Grind rails, boost sections, the little wall jumpy things; they all give yo??u a chance to reach down and pet your dog (or cat, if you’re into that sort of thing). They look cool, I guess, they’re just kind of shallow and pointless.

The story is a nauseating, disconnected mess. It all revolves around Princess Elise, who Dr. Eggman wants for her connection to the Flames of Disaster, which will let him rule the world or something. Most of the plot is Elise getting re-kidnapped and Sonic trying to get her back. Constantly. Oh my goodness, constantly. Sonic turns his back for a second ??and, whoop, she&rsqu?o;s gone.

There’s time travel, the Chaos Emeralds do what they do (which is anything the writer wants), and the story even includes interspec?ies romance. Even if the plot was actually coherent, we’d still have to put up with insipid lines like, “If you have time ??to worry, then run.” At least the cutscenes look nice for a 2006 title.

You can also play as Shadow the Edgehog and Silver, who is also a hedgehog, but from the future. To the game’s credit, each character’s chapter has its own style of gameplay, with Shadow driving crappy vehicles and Silver throwing things. They each tell their own side of the story, and honestly, I almost started liking Silver’s gameplay. The framerate chugs like a train submerged in molasses, but throwing stuff — when it actually works properly — is satisfying and his platforming is mostly inoffensive. Physics based attacks were so popular back in 2006. Just look at Half-Life 2 and that expansion for Doom 3.

Sonic '06 is absolutely excruciating to play. It seems ?that every few minutes it comes up with new ways to break and screw the player over, but there’s sort of a reason for its failure.

Sega wanted this big, new, next-generation Sonic the Hedgehog to revitalize the franchise and celebrate the series’ 15th anniversary. All hands were on deck until Sega decided they also wanted Sonic on the upcoming Wii, and Sonic ‘06 wasn’t going to fit with its specs. So, in its infinite wisdom, Sega slashed the team in twain — with one half staying on the PS3/360 version, and the other half going to work on what would become Sonic and the Secret Rings. Aro????und the same time, series co-creator, Yuji Naka, dropped from Sega and took off with 10 high profile staff members.

Normally, you’d expect a publisher would either extend development time or replenish the ranks of their developer so they could meet their deadline, but no. Sega was insistent that thi??s title get released by the end of 2006 as a celebration of their beloved mascot’s anniversary. This would result in the video game equivalent of suffocating someone with their own birthday cake.

The team had to rush to make a complete game, which meant that they had to forego the typical pleasantries of bug testing and polish, and does it ever show. Most of Sonic ‘06’s problems come down to things that should have been fixed in the final product. I think that if the team was actually given a proper chance, they might have pulled something reasonable together. The pieces are there, they were just put together with a glitter glue stick. I still doubt I’d enjoy the finished result — as I mentioned, I’m not really a Sonic fan — but I probably wo??uldn’t be talking about it like it crawled out of my toilet.

But even if we absolve the dev team of sin, Sega still decided to release this at full price. It even had the gall to release DLC for? the game. Paid DLC for an unfinished game. Classy. This was its attempt to establish the series on a new generation of hardware, and instead it cemented it as a laughing stock.

Both the Sonic franchise and Sega itself has had ups and downs since then. Behind every Sonic Generations and Sonic Mania there seems to lie a Sonic Boom: Rise of the Lyric and Sonic Forces, but even those games don’t reach the nadir of Sonic ‘06. I assume. Please don’t make me play them.

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