Microsoft IPs

Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary Edition

Microsoft confirmed Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary Edition for November 15th. It will contain a remastered campaign of the original Halo: Combat Evolved, online co-op, and 7 classic multiplayer maps.

Fable: The Journey

A first-person adventure take on Fable was announced, specifically for Kinect. You use your arms to steer vehicles, cast spells, and attack enemies. It will be around in 2012.

Forza Motorsport 4

A release date was confirmed for October 11th. The game uses Kinect for gameplay as well as voice commands and head tracking. 16 player online support was also mentioned.

Halo 4

As the send-off for their press conference, Microsoft unveiled a trailer for Halo 4 involving Master Chief and Cortana. It is the first of a “new trilogy” of Halo games.

Dance Central 2

The most embarrassing Kinect game is back, complete with new multiplayer modes and a single player “campaign”. New songs will be added, as well as voice recognition.

Kinect Sports: Season 2

A bunch of folks, specifically the hilariously awkward “football guys”, demonstrated Kinect Sports: Season 2 at the press conference. It will offer voice controls and some new sports, like tennis.

Third Parties

Mass Effect 3

BioWare showed off voice recognition on their new game and confirmed Kinect support for gameplay. It is slated for early 2012.

Ghost Recon: Future Soldier

Ubisoft demonstrated Kinect’s enhancements to Ghost Recon, voice commands for customizing guns, and confirmed Kinect gameplay.

Minecraft

A Microsoft executive briefly touched on how Minecraft will be available on the Xbox Live Arcade featuring Kinect support.

Ryse

There was no true gameplay footage for Ryse, a Kinect title from Crytek set in ancient Rome, the concept video looked impressive.

Dashboard Enhancements

Bing, YouTube, and a streaming TV service were all announced for the Xbox Live Dashboard. Pricing has not been discussed.

UFC Fights were also shown to be available through Xbox Live. You can place bets on the fighters with your friends in addition to watching the fights.

A new Kinect-based dashboard was also announced.

The following games were included:

First Party
Launch Games:

• Extreme Sports Cafe (New IP, Combines 1080 and Wave Race + Other Sports)
• Pikmin Cafe (Interfaces with Pikmin 3DS)
• Endless Ocean Cafe
• Nintendogs Cafe Kennel (Interfaces with Nintendogs + Cats)
• Mii Explore (New IP, Multiplayer Adventure Game)

Launch Window:

• Kirby’s Epic Yarn 2 (Launch Window, Multiplayer)
• Wario Ware Cafe (Launch – Launch Window?)

Future Games

• Super Mario Cafe (Late 2012/Early 2013, Paradigm Shift a la SM64)
• Legend of Paper Zelda (Mid 2012, Paper Mario version of SNES Zelda)
• Fire Emblem Cafe (Late 2012)
• Retro Studios IP (Late 2012, New IP)
• Project Sora IP (New IP)
• Monolith Soft RPG (New IP)
• Miyamoto Game (New IP)

Third Party
Launch Games

• Battlefield 3 (Extra Content)
• Street Fighter X Tekken (Timed Exclusive)
• SSX
• Super Monkey Ball Cafe
• Tony Hawk Cafe
• Ridge Racer Cafe
• Mass Effect 3 (Possibly with ME 1 + 2)
• InVersion
• Dragons Dogma
• Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Future Soldier
• Metal Gear Solid: Rising (Extra Content)
• Silent Hill: Downpour (Extra Content)
• PES 2013 Cafe (Timed Exclusive)
• Trauma Center Cafe

Future Games:

• Modern Warfare 3
• Grand Theft Auto V (Launch, Timed Exclusive)
• Dead Space Spin Off
• Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles Cafe
• Soul Caliber V (Extra Content)
• Sonic Cafe (Sonic Generations)
• Platinum Games IP (Bayonetta 2)
• Phantasty Star Online 2 (Late 2012?)
• SEGA Game (???)
• The Amazing Spider-Man: The Game
• Rockstar Game (New IP?)
• BioShock Infinite (Timed Exclusive)
• Red Steel III
• Beyond Good & Evil 2
• Doom 4
• Madden 2013 (Timed Exclusive)
• Tiger Woods 13
• Fight Night Cafe
• Need for Speed Cafe
• Level-5 Game (New IP)
• Kingdom Hearts Cafe (Possibly KH3)
• Square Enix Game (New IP)
• Square Enix Game (???)
• Grasshopper Game (New IP or No More Heroes 3)
• Valve Game (Possibly a collection set + new game?)
• Epic Games (New IP, Bulletstorm 2 or New Gears of War Trilogy exclusive to Cafe)

While some of the first-party titles seem plausible, some of the third-party titles, such as Mass Effect 3 and Grand Theft Auto V, when combined with other third-party titles launching this year, such as Modern Warfare III and Battlefield 3, make it seem like too much of a good thing . However, NeoGaf has been right with leaks in the past. Keep in mind, it’s all just a rumor at this point. Take each title with a grain of salt. However if this were true, Would it be one of the greatest lauch line-up’s in console history?

Source: 1up

I’ve had a craving to play some Silent Hill recently, which was particularly maddening since I have my PS2 packed away. Between this and always having a few choice Akira Yamaoka tracks on my iPod, I got to thinking about the Silent Hill movie and how I think a Silent Hill movie should be done.

First, the cast needs to be small. Look at how many characters appear in the first three Silent Hill games: 18. Admittedly, the Silent Hill movie only has 7 character, there are many more extras that appear in the movie. Isolation is a big thing in Silent Hill – the horror comes from the fact that you’re on your own most the time. It’s somewhat rare to come across another character – in fact it’s a reward for the player – and you only spend a little time with them each time you encounter them.

This leads me to an issue I feel is pretty big: how is the town is depicted. The movie got the town’s foggy and otherworld looks correct, but the town was merely a setting in the movie. Silent Hill is more than a town in the games. One can think of The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly or the Ju-On/The Grudge series as to how the town should be depicted. In The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly the wild west setting is what makes the events possible; it’s not merely where events happen, but it’s the time and place in history where the events could happen. The wilderness the three main characters live in is not a set-piece, it’s bigger than the characters themselves. In the Ju-On movies the house is not some haunted house, it’s almost a character. It calls and attracts people to their doom. It seeks to perpetuate the curse. Silent Hill needs to be a synthesis of these two sorts of settings. Silent Hill is inherently bigger than anyone that enters the town and it seems to act as a force that not only allow the events we see to happen, but causes them on some level.

It's not unheard to turn a setting into a character in the horror genre

When the role of tarot cards within the series is discussed, Pyramid Head is discussed within the context of the judgement card. How the (in)famous monster is discussed shows that the town of Silent Hill took something from its history to satisfy James’ need for judgement and punishment. On the character of Maria, the same theme comes up: Maria is both a representation of James’ crime and a real part of the town’s history. The foggy and otherworldly incarnations of Silent Hill are not just a hellish resort town, but a character unto itself – this is a town that called Cheryl and the entire cast of Silent Hill 2 (excluding Laura), and is also capable of being exploited and used (such as we see with Claudia bringing the otherworld to the shopping mall in Silent Hill 3).

I would go as far as to say that a good Silent Hill movie needs to be about the town more than the people. The main character of a Silent Hill game is primarily the vehicle in which the player explores the town and its history. The protagonist is mostly ignorant about the town and is lost in the insanity of the situation, like the player is. The main character has a motivation to explain why they press forward with such determination despite the happenings, but the motivation is something that the viewer needs to be able to explain in very simple terms. What’s Harry’s motivation in the first game? To find and save his daughter. What’s James’ motivation in the sequel? To find the wife he thought dead. What’s Heather’s motivation in Silent Hill 3? To avenge the death of her father. The games waste no time is throwing the player into the hellish situations. In Silent Hill 2 we’re just given a brief monologue. Heather’s motivation in Silent Hill 3 is introduced after the player has played the game for a while – after they’ve made their way home from the mall which Claudia has corrupted. However, even then we just have a short cutscene to show us why she’ll go to Silent Hill, why she’ll do as Claudia wants in order to hurt her.

Even the film had the good sense to use the iconic music of Akira Yamaoka!

I think the best way to set-up a character’s motivations, in the context of a Silent Hill movie, would be the use of a credit sequence montage or something similar. Imagine a theme sequence using Promise (Reprise) from Silent Hill 2 in a movie that’s inspired by the original game: the title appears on screen over a black background; it fades to coffee table with photos strewn all over the place of the protagonist, wife, and child, each photo has the date in the corner and appears to be taken from a film camera; photos show them adopting the child, first time the child is at home, and so on; among the photos is the young girls birth certificate, no mention of parentage is on it, but there is other relevant information (if you want to explain how this information is available and correct, you can use a Travis-like character); the camera pans and we see a newspaper clipping, it’s an obituary for the wife; we then see drawings that somehow relate to Silent Hill; the camera zooms out and the father is watching a recent home movie and, for a frame or two, the face of the girl he adopted changes from her own face to the face of an older girl (Alessa), he keeps watching this clip several times, rewinding to review it, but there’s no other attention drawn to this subliminal change; and finally we see him pick up some car keys and leave the room. While this plays there’s no text displayed on screen. The movie then starts in a similar way that the original game starts, with the character waking up in his car after a car accident.

This sort of thing would manage to communicate the motivations of the main character without the use of dialogue. We sometimes forget that movies are a visual medium – they need not be plays with the possibility of big explosions. Movies, as a result, are perfectly suited to tell us all we need to know about a situation with the use of well-selected images. This more subtle approach can also lead to some narrative choices that can foster mysteries. Imagine our father-character, while exploring the famous Silent Hill health facilities, finding a document about Alessa and the document mentions when she was hospitalized – it happens to be the date of birth of his adopted daughter – but there is no attempt to point out this connection other than showing the audience the document he is reading. This would allow the observant viewer to go back and piece the entire narrative together for himself. In fact, this sort of story telling is essential. Part of the appeal of the Silent Hill stories is they invariably feel like we’re a bit left in the dark. When the story is done there should be aspects that are ambiguous enough that the viewer can expand on either by themselves or through the fandom.

The town of Silent Hill is no stranger to insanity

Additionally, a good and faithful adaptation must focus running themes of the games: love and sanity.

The protagonist and antagonist should somehow embody something about love. In Silent Hill you had the love Harry felt for his adopted daughter standing in opposition to the lack of love her own biological mother felt. In Silent Hill 2, James embodies two similar extremes. One part of him loved his wife enough to follow her into hell just to see her again – Laura parallels this side of him (and some suggest that she is another hallucination on his part, which makes sense on a few levels). Another part of him was selfish and full of self-love, as seen with the revelation that James killed Mary because he couldn’t handle nursing her (the In Water ending makes it clear that he didn’t do it to ease her suffering). In Silent Hill 3 it is Heather’s love for Harry that causes her to go to Silent Hill to seek revenge, Claudia’s love for Alessa is the driving force of her character, and the game draws the contrast between the father-daughter relationships that Claudia and Heather were a part of. Love may not be the most unique theme, but it’s a powerful way to get the audience to connect with the action, to connect with some characters and to despise others.

The supernatural and horror elements that the series is known for also goes hand-in-hand with the question of sanity. This is most notable in Silent Hill 2, where pretty much every character is, in some way, struggling with their pasts which have driven them mad. Who can forget the line in Silent Hill 3 where Vincent says to Heather, “they look like monsters to you!” What could that mean, is Heather hallucinating? Perhaps it’s just Vincent committing a nice little mindfuck on both you and your avatar. Either way, the events throughout the film shouldn’t be assumed to be truth. The supernatural must have elements of it that imply psychosis. By the end of it, we shouldn’t be sure what was real and what wasn’t.

I love him too, but I don't want to see him unless a character like James somehow figures into the plot!

Finally, Pyramid Head shouldn’t be shoehorned into the story. That monster maybe iconic, but it makes very little sense to have him show up and wreck shit if he isn’t a character’s manifestation of their own guilt. The purpose of this creature is not even some subtle metaphor to be divined – James Sunderland realizes this himself and it a pretty climatic moment in the game.

Until this happens, perhaps you should just go and watch Jacob’s Ladder. This classic is not just an inspiration to the games, but also quite a bit better than the Silent Hill movie we got.

Street Fighter IV

Street Fighter IV revived the series with its fantastic gameplay and art style. Even if you’re not traditionally a fighting-game lover, you may find something to like here with all the bells and whistles that are thrown in. You can tell Capcom spent a lot of time balancing and paying attention to the details. Easy to learn and tough to master, Street Fighter IV is a new classic.

Average critic score: 9.3 out of 10

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

Considered by many to be the best game in the series, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare is a must-play for all fans of first person shooters. Although many have moved onto Modern Warfare 2, its multiplayer mode was great and challenged Halo 3 as the most played online Xbox 360 game. With an insane amount of action packed in, even the single-player won’t be disappointed, albeit the campaign is a little short. The realistic sounds of guns and explosions really help to immerse you, especially if you’re playing with a nice set of surround sound speakers. Give this one a try!

Average critic score: 9.4 out of 10

Resident Evil 5

Taking a more action-oriented perspective than before seen in the series, Resident Evil 5 (along with RE4) caught the attention of those who had previously ignored the series for many years. Solid game mechanics and a fantastic co-op campaign sets this game apart from the norm, especially if you have a friend to blast your way through it with. Mercenaries mode adds a lot of replayability as you can team up with a friend to kill swarms of enemies and rack up new high scores.

Average critic score: 8.6 out of 10

Rainbow Six: Vegas

If you’re a fan of tactical shooters then you will love Rainbow Six: Vegas. It’s a nice change of pace to the frantic type of shooting we find in games like Halo. The new health system makes the game much more stress free, and could very easily fix the problems you had with the other ones. The campaign is top-notch and the multiplayer modes were considered to be some of the best yet seen on Xbox Live.

Average critic score: 8.9 out of 10

Bioshock

BioShock is widely considered to be an outstanding game and is ranked as one of the best games of all time. The game has a fantastic story and atmosphere that you will not find in 99.9% of other games. Besides that, the game has a great soundtrack and a mix of first-person-shooting and RPG elements combined to make a unique gameplay experience. Be sure to give this one a try.

Average critic score: 9.4 out of 10

Conclusion

You have likely played at least one of the above titles, but be sure to give a try to any that you’ve missed. There’s no need to break the bank on buying the latest titles. Pocket the extra cash or spend it on something important, like pizza. Maybe set aside a little for your girlfriend.

What are your favorite games for under $20? Let us know in the comments below!

The free game that so many of us loved, 1 vs. 100, has been canceled. It was just recently confirmed that there will be no third season for the popular Xbox Live title.

This is a shame, since it was arguably the best free game on the Xbox Live network and was a lot of fun to play with friends if you were in the mood for some relaxing and non-serious gaming. It was also a very unique experience, an online trivia game show with a live host and real prizes.

The developers plan to take the lessons they’ve learned from the development of 1 vs. 100 and apply it to future games.

We knew starting on this project, that 1 vs 100 was completely different and would be an idea we would continue to evolve. We’ve learned a lot from this experience and we’re committed to applying these lessons to the cool, new stuff we’re working on, but can’t yet discuss.

We’d like to thank them for the two seasons we had and we’re looking forward to seeing what’s next.

Welcome to the honeymoon trap.

In most single player games while the second playthrough can never recapture the thrill of discovery and the novelty factor of the first playthough, if the game has good moment-to-moment gameplay that can be enough to keep you going beyond the honeymoon period. If it does not have quality moment to moment gameplay, its stock will drop like a rock on the second playthrough.

No game that I can think of illustrates this better than Batman: Arkham Asylum.

With really good single player experiences, the second playthrough reinforces my high opinion of the game in the first playthough– but with Batman AA I felt like the second playthrough exposed the lack of substance behind the shiny veneer of the first playthrough.

Don’t get me wrong, Batman Arkham Asylum is a really good game and is clearly the best Batman game ever (which is not saying a lot) — but it’s still overrated. However it’s not easy to see why until you make it past the honeymoon period of the first playthough.

A game needs some freedom/leeway in the gameplay to really keep bringing you back– and this is the main thing Batman AA is missing.

Here are some examples of what I mean:

JUMPING

In Super Mario Bros. basic jumping was fun because you completely control the height and direction of Mario’s jump and a mistake can kill you.

You can also do stuff like slick jumping turning hit the ground and slide type moves because of that leeway in the gameplay. And stuff like that is what keeps you coming back (and not the harrowing tale of rescue of the damsel in distress).

In Batman, if you want to jump over a ledge just hold ‘X’ and forward and Batman automatically runs toward the ledge and jumps over it perfectly every time — there’s no technique to employ– no timing, no lining up the jump, no skill necessary.

CLIMBING

Take a game like Infamous. When I climb a building there’s a million different ways to climb the same building (including wrong ways that can result in you falling all the way back to the bottom and thus making you pay attention) — I can climb up a ladder, shimmy across a ledge until I find a handhold to climb up, climb a pole, climb up windows, ect– thus climbing is fun.

In Batman, if I want to climb I need to find a designated spot that allows me to look at it and be prompted to press R1. When I press R1 and Batman shoots his grapple hook thing, he’s always going to climb up the same way– seen it once, seen it a million times.

Thus climbing in Batman is not fun– it’s not annoying either– but not fun– just meh. It’d be nice if there was more variety to it somehow (and/or if they found some other area of gameplay to flesh out to make up for this lost ground).

FIGHTING

In Batman AA, there are a lot of offensive attack moves that are “hotspot” oriented– ie. the vertical takedown, the crashing through the glass, the simplified fighting scheme– that reminds me of Def Jam: Fight for New York.

In Def Jam Fight for New York there was a bunch of “hot spots” (ie. if you press a certain button when the enemy is near a car you’ll do a prearranged sequence where you smash their head in the door of the car) — it was awesome the first time you see each hot spot move but it gets more and more boring and you yearn for the variety and complexity that earlier incarnations of the Def Jam engine (ie the AKI wrestling titles) had.

Likewise in Batman the fighting is fun but you eventually yearn for the added complexity of fighting in games like God of War and Ninja Gaiden.

To be fair, there’s plenty of variety in the gameplay itself, but the problem is the lack of any one gameplay mechanic that by itself is fun to do over and over. The fighting comes closest to this, but it’s not quite up to par with some other games.

To make an analogy– take MLB the Show. The default batting mechanic makes you as the batter have to locate the ball as well as time it to get a hit. If you want to make the game really easy to play so your little sister can play it, you can alter the settings so that all you have to do is press X at the right time– thus making it all timing and taking away the skill in recognizing pitch location.

In Batman, it’s like it’s set up for your little sister with the way that the reversals are all pure timing based (tap triangle and Batman does the rest, no matter where the enemy is), and the striking is all button mashing based. There’s a little bit of skill involved in fighting guys with knives or stun batons in that you need to either hit them with a batarang and then press R2 and triangle to ground and pound, or press x to jump over them and attack from behind, but that alone falls short of gameplay that would keep me coming back.

So a lot of things feel like auto-pilot (ie. the Batarang is auto-aim, reversals are all pure timing as I stated above, the jumping and climbing as stated above).

Like I’m playing Gran Turismo with all of the assists on– which is fine for people that like that, but I wish there was an option to turn these assists off.

It feels like the gameplay in this game is halfway between a game like KOTOR (where it looks like I’m really playing and swinging the lightsaber but I’m really just supervising) and games like Super Mario Bros and Infamous and Twisted Metal 2 and Rainbow Six Vegas 2 (where I really am in full incremental micro level control and not just macro level control).

CONCLUSION

Too many single player games are like a disposable razor: use once and throw away. Granted, lots of games offer things like trophies, treasures, branching paths, ect, to give you a reason to come back and play again, but that stuff, while appreciated, only serves to kick the can down the road. The big factor that extends a game’s replay value indefinitely, the renewable resource you’re left with when the fossil fuels of story and presentation are exhausted, the thing that separates the games that come and go from the true classics is the  gameplay. In Batman AA, the basic moment to moment gameplay isn’t enough by itself to keep the game entertaining– the greatness of the game really depends on the story and presentation and atmosphere (which all lose their novelty on the second playthough) combined with the deceptively shallow, automated gameplay (the shallowness of which becomes much more apparent after you’ve beaten the game).

All the most memorable stuff that happened in my experience with Batman AA was scripted– in a game with deep gameplay you should be able to create your own memories via creative stuff that the game allows you to do– and the prospect of creating new experiences like that on the fly is what keeps you coming back.

What I remember about Super Mario World was how much different stuff Mario could do with a turtle shell (ie. carry it around, kick it up in the air, kick it forward, have Yoshi eat it and gain powers, ect). It’s not the story that sticks out in my mind, it’s the gameplay, and how little things like playing with a shell were fun.

A mega hyped, shiny new video game is like a hot woman in a dark nightclub who starts sweet talking you while you’re drunk– you might be head over heels in love that night– but you don’t really know what you have until you see what you wake up next to in the morning.

Image credit: Tony J. Case

Someone I know from the GameSpy forums is making his own video game documentary titled, You Meet The Nicest People Making Video Games.

Check out the trailer:

Here’s a message from the creator:

Hey, guys! It’s been awhile. A few months ago, I started work on this documentary. Everything I’ve done so far has been with equipment borrowed from a community center here in San Jose. After my first batch of interviews, I decided I’d like to go on the road and speak to some more people, and so I launched a page on Kickstarter to raise funds for this project. I’ll be traveling across the US and speaking to people who make videogames on their own time and dime and finding out what makes them tick. Part of my motivation for this is, as said by Anna Anthropy in the trailer above, to see more people making games.

I’ll be interviewing students and indie game makers and golden age veterans alike, and in the end, the movie will be given away freely under a creative commons license, and all equipment turned over to the community center that has enabled me to film as much as I have to this point, so please take a look at the page, kick in if you’re so inclined, and definitely spread the word so this movie gets made!

If you’d like to learn more about the project, check out his page.

To say that Microsoft went all out this year at the E3 Expo is probably an understatement. Rather than just telling us the new name of “Project Natal”, they hired Cirque du Soleil to put on a custom 45-minute show, which took months of planning and included 76 performers. If you’ve never been to a Cirque du Soleli, let me tell you, it is an unforgettable experience. And I imagine this is what Microsoft was trying to do – stick in your head.

Kinect is Natal’s new official name. There’s a lot of hype surrounding the new controller-free device and many of us are curious to see if it flops, but we hope for the best. Microsoft showed off many games for the Kinect at the show, so let’s get to it.

Kinect: Star Wars

It’s hard to imagine a better use for the technology than a Star Wars game. Honestly, I thought the same thing for the Nintendo Wii announcement. Maybe I’m just a Star Wars freak. The game showed the player as a Jedi going through a stage of enemies and reaching the end to face Darth Vader. Players will be able to control the light saber and use their arm to “force push” the enemies.

Joy Ride

Take your Xbox Avatar for a spin in Joy Ride. Steering is controlled by pretending to hold a wheel and you can also do stunts by positioning your body and hands in specific ways.

Kinect Adventures

In this demo of an adventure game, players were riding on a raft and mind cart. The aim was to grab targets that showed up and you could control the speed by jumping. Kinect Adventures takes photos of you while you’re playing and will show you a compilation of them at the end of the level.

Dance Central

Is this the future of Dance Dance Revolution games? Who knows. The player’s goal is to match the moves shown on the screen. If the player does well, the song plays on like normal. If they screw up, then the music slows down and you receive instructions to redeem yourself.

Kinect Sports

Not surprisingly, Microsoft needs something to compete with Nintendo’s wildly successful WiiSports franchise and Kinect Sports is how they plan to do it. In the demo we saw volleyball, soccer, track, and bowling. Volleyball will support online play, though overall many game journalists are not impressed with this showing. The bowling game looked inaccurate and much of the game is automated, as in your players move on their own and do their own thing.

Kinectimals

This is a virtual pet game where you will take care of your own digital animal(s). In this demo the pet is a tiger, and you could interact with it by petting it, teaching it tricks, throwing a ball and other stuff like that.

This is neat in theory – and Nintendo has already proven the concept is profitable – but this game seems a little sad to me. Wouldn’t it be much better to just go play with a real dog? I know we can say the same thing about many other games – but the point really stands out to me with this game. It’s one thing to play in NBA Live as your favorite team instead of shooting some real hoops, but to pet a virtual dog is very strange to me.

Conclusion

This is just a quick look at some of the games shown. Nothing too impressive yet, but it gives us something to chew on. Personally, I’m not expecting the Kinect to do much more than the Nintendo Wii has already accomplished, but time will tell. Good luck, Microsoft.

The poll is voted for by members of the gaming public, and it makes me worry about the sanity of some them. I mean, Runescape being higher than Goldeneye 007? Really!? Here are the top 50 video game properties as apparently loved by you: the gaming public. If you don’t agree with the way things stack up, what would your top ten be?

1. Halo
2. Call of Duty
3. The Legend of Zelda
4. Guitar Hero
5. Metal Gear
6. Super Mario Bros.
7. World of Warcraft
8. Gears of War
9. Super Smash Bros.
10. Grand Theft Auto
11. Pokémon
12. Resident Evil
13. Fallout
14. Half-Life
15. Sonic the Hedgehog
16. Counter-Strike
17. Runescape
18. FIFA
19. Kingdom Hearts
20. Final Fantasy
21. Pac-Man
22. Madden NFL
23. The Sims
24. Tomb Raider
25. WWE Smackdown Vs. RAW
26. Rock Band
27. LittleBigPlanet
28. Saints Row
29. The Elder Scrolls
30. God of War
31. GoldenEye 007
32. Bioshock
33. KillZone
34. Skate
35. Left 4 Dead
36. Need for Speed
37. Chrono Trigger
38. Gran Turismo
39. StarCraft
40. Ratchet & Clank
41. Pong
42. Tom Clancy branded games (Splinter Cell, H.A.W.X etc)
43. Star Wars: Battlefront
44. Battlefield
45. Diablo
46. Lego Batman
47. Mario Kart
48. Burnout
49. Crash Bandicoot
50. Pro Evolution Soccer

However, come Spring 2008, I bought another PSP. Since 2005 some very great – and even epic - PSP games have come along. Thinking of getting a PSP? Already own one, but don’t know what games to get? Zippy Gamer is here to help!

Here is our list of 10 essential PSP titles no PSP owner should be without.

Super Stardust Portable

Perhaps it was inspired by Asteroids or maybe it’s a completely different game. Any way to look at it, this game comes straight out of classic arcade-style gaming. The premise is quite simple, really. You use the PSP’s analog stick to control your ship and the face buttons to fire at an assortment of rocks, ice, and enemies who will be more than willing to return fire.

At the end of each planet’s stage, you will take on a boss. In the tradition of classic arcade design, bosses become more difficult as you progress through the game. The game features the standard Arcade Mode, Survival Mode, and some more unique game modes. The graphics are crisp and explosions are magnificent. The game is modestly priced for download exclusively through the Playstation Store.

Resistance: Retribution

You may think “it’s a third-person shooter! It’ll never work on a single-analog PSP!” However, if you thought that, you’d be wrong.  Retribution maps turning and looking around to X, Square, Circle, and Triangle, but it is also generous with a refined auto-target assist. Running alongside the storyline of its console counterparts, Resistance: Retribution brings the same gritty story-telling and action to the PSP.

You play as James Grayson, a quick-witted Brit who was serving as a soldier for Britain, but after being court-martialed he’s joined up with the French. Although he does his duty, he doesn’t spare his allies his silver tongue. The gameplay shines brilliantly, taking all that is good about the game, and packing it into a single UMD. You’ll have an arsenal of weapons including shooter staples such as the machine gun (with attached grenade launcher), shotgun, rapid-fire energy weapon, an RPG, and many other weapons. There is action at every turn, and if you don’t keep your eyes peeled, count on repeating much of the game.

God of War: Chains of Olympus

Taking place before the original God of War for the PS2, this game thundered its way onto the PSP in Spring 2008. Of course, you play as Kratos, but not with the intention of going after Aries or trying to ascend as a god. Your quest is to find out what has submerged the land into darkness. The gameplay and graphics match the console games pound for pound. You start out with the Blades of Chaos, and as you progress through the game, you will learn various spell attacks. Just as in the games, you will earn red orbs by killing enemies, opening red orb chests, and breaking anything… breakable.

As previously, the red orbs allow you to upgrade your weapons, giving you more combo attacks, and also upgrade all spells you’ve learned. You will also find Gorgon Eyes which will increase your health bar, and Phoenix Feathers which will increase your magic bar. The game can seem a bit more tedious, as it requires you to hold L+R buttons to evade attacks, but it will become second nature quite quickly. The key to success is to know when to block and when to attack.

Twisted Metal: Head-On

The same great action, brought to you by the same developers of Twisted Metal, Twisted Metal 2, and Twisted Metal: Black, made its debut on the PSP without sacrificing any of the high-energy gameplay of the aforementioned games. As it was a launch title, Head-On didn’t really demonstrate what kind of graphics the PSP could produce, but it certainly wasn’t ugly. Giving you a wide array of vehicles/characters to choose from (plus unlockable characters), Twisted Metal: Head-On puts you right into the action with its various game modes.

There’s the Tournament Mode, which takes you to various locales the world over to battle with other vehicles, Challenge Mode which allows you to pick a character, stage, and your enemies, and Survival Mode which will pit you against one enemy at a time in a location of your choosing for as long as you can stay alive. Also, as with previous Twisted Metals, every character has opening and ending movies, all of which are viewable after completing the game with said character.

Coded Arms

This game slipped under most PSP gamers’ radar too easily. This FPS puts you into a computer-generated world in which you must eliminate enemies in a bizarre simulation. Hacking files is done by exploring every section of the digital world and killing virtual enemies. As with Resistance: Retribution, Coded Arms uses a generous auto-target system that will aid you, but never makes the game overly easy.

That being said, with the sniper rifle you must aim manually. Over the course of the game, you will receive different types of guns and grenades that can be upgraded by finding upgrade icons, which will spawn after killing enemies. The analog stick is for walking forward/backing up and strafing, while the face buttons are used for aiming and turning. L is used for jumping, and R, of course, for firing.

Afterburner: Black Falcon

While maintaining the game’s classic action-shooter arcade roots, Afterburner: Black Falcon puts you behind the controls to take to the sky, while destroying air and ground targets. What is really compelling is the fact the game uses officially licensed jets from Boeing, Hughes, and other manufacturers. Each plane has its own strengths and weaknesses and the game will give you a suggestion of which plane is best for that particular mission. Though, don’t think you don’t have to work for it. You will start out with only one plane, and as you earn money via completing missions, you can invest in different planes as they become available to buy. You can, however, replay any mission you want to as many times as you want. Planes can also be upgraded in terms of gun power, missile payload, and missile enhancements.

Additionally, planes can be upgraded visually with different paint schemes and a few structural features. The only real downside of this game might be there’s just not enough to love. It would’ve been even better with more levels. Still, the ability to replay any mission whenever (and wherever) does add replay value.

Daxter

At last, he finally got his own game! Daxter resurrects many facets of what made the first game so lovable. The original PS2 game was light-hearted enough, but since then the games became too dark for their own good, losing their charm. Of course you play as Daxter, Jak’s furry sidekick throughout the series. Jak gets arrested and it’s up to Daxter to get to the bottom of things in this colorful PSP platformer.

The game holds up well visually and in terms of gameplay. Daxter must collect various types of Eco Orbs just like in previous games, and he also gets to pilot various hovering vehicles akin to Jak II. Daxter is one platformer no PSP’er should be without.

Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories

What can I say, I am a sucker for the classics. Based around Grand Theft Auto III, Liberty City Stories turns back the clock to tell Toni Cipriani’s story back in 1998. You play as Toni, and up-and-coming gangster, working for various iconic characters from GTA III, like Salvatore Leone and Donald Love. The layout of the game reflects Liberty City (in GTA III form) with perfection, while making a few landscape changes – purely to show the city’s progression over the years.

The gameplay is perfect and visuals look like a carbon-copy of GTA III. It is obviously inspired by movies such as The Godfather, Italian Job, and a little bit of Scarface; GTA:LCS maintains that familiar feel of its PS2-based bigger brother. While some would prefer Vice City Stories, Liberty City Stories remains a personal favorite as it was one of the first games to show the PSP wasn’t graphically the “Playstation 1.5.”

Killzone: Liberation

This is not what you would expect after having played the first Killzone. Rather than being a first-person shooter with World War II-inspired gameplay, this game is an isometric third person shooter. Somehow it feels quite natural. You move your character with the analog stick and use face buttons for things like firing guns, throwing grenades, and interacting with the environment.

The action is quite intense and you only have one gun to use at any given time. Still, as you progress, you will have a wider range of weapons to choose from before starting a mission. During missions, you will come across chests that contain anything from health packs to different main and secondary weapons. Some missions even give you control of tanks to drive through the rugged terrain and battle enemies with.

Gran Turismo

I feel I can say that I’m saving the best for last. For a long time this game really felt like vaporware. Originally named Gran Turismo 4 Mobile, the game turned into a no-show for years. Then, throughout 2009, it was mentioned again. It was being developed and fans of the series finally got some glimpses of gameplay and features. It was unleashed on October 1, 2009. I chose to download it to my memory stick, as I wanted it that bad. Built from the ground up for the PSP, the newly-titled Gran Turismo provides a staggering amount of content for any portable racing game and even some console-based racing games. There are over 800 cars and plenty of race tracks of varying types (asphalt, dirt, snow) which will surely please anyone looking for a solid racing game. The graphics are incredible and gameplay is more accessible than in previous games.

There are no license tests, you just race to earn money to buy any car you want… when available. Yes, I said “when available” as only four dealerships are available at a time and for only two days at a time. So, if you want a Jaguar XJ220 LM-edition race car, you’d better get behind the wheel of your best car and earn some cash. Luckily, if you don’t mind an automobile version of level grinding, you can race the same track over and over without exiting to the main menu, and there will be no time progression. This might sound like a bad thing, having to wait for a particular make of automobile to become available, but it actually adds replay value. What if you wanta Formula 1 Ferrari which costs 8,000,000 credits. Well, until Ferrari becomes available again, you can keep earning money for it (as 8,000,000 credits is quite a bit to earn). Although there are no license tests, there is Driving Challenge Mode. This will allow you to hone your driving skills and earn some cash. They are what license tests would be, but they are a side-option. You don’t have to complete them, unless you want to listen to your own custom music on the memory stick. If you want custom soundtracks, you must clear the lowest wrung of challenges.

The bottom line: all tracks are available to race on virtually from the beginning. Your “default” car can’t run on off-road tracks. Though, there is a “car pack” available for free via the Playstation Store. Included in this pack is a Nissan GT-R Spec V in Metallic Blue. This car can run on all track surfaces and, pound for pound, give you a good competitive edge. Some fans are disappointed by the lack of a career mode, but this is a “portable” game. To streamline it, making easier to play on the go, the career mode was not included. Pound for pound and dollar for dollar, this game delivers the most incredible auto racing experience ever on a portable system!

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