EA Sports is also has decided to follow in their footsteps making players buy an “EA Sports Pass” to use the online features of the very popular sports games they make.

But the question I’m asking is, what do you think?

Many people are against this idea for the reason that they think multiplayer should be free, because it always has been, but if it is a one time payment to get access to all the online features and maybe more (in the case of COD:Elite) and will help the company recoup any losses during the general release and help to fund future DLC’s, though I doubt Modern Warfare 3 will have to worry about any losses.

Feel free to leave your opinion in the comments below!

Graphics

Gran Turismo 5 has great graphics, in my opinion better than any game so far. Since it took 6 years for the company to make the game, they have spent a large portion of time adding details to the cars. The graphics from this game are set apart from others because they include fine details such as the design around the headlights. In my opinion I can not believe the car in the game is not real, that’s how great the graphics are.

What type of cars are you able to play with?

Gran Turismo has always had a variety of cars to select from, from luxury to Japanese racing cars. For example, you are able to use the Acura Integra Type R which is a car that is manufactured in Japan. On the contrary, you are able to play with the BMW Z4, which is also fast but more of a luxury automobile. If you’re interested in getting a full car list you can check out gran-turismo.com

What is the game play like?

The game play is very realistic, which I believe many gamers love. Throughout the race your car can become damaged, unlike some other racing games. In addition when you win a race you receive more money, and you can spend that new cash on another car. Additionally the games controls are flawless, when playing every time you move the joy stick the car follows with precision. Furthermore, Gran Turismo allows you to play the game with a driving wheel, which means the driving just got even more realistic.

Conclusion

Overall Gran Turismo 5 is an incredible game, and truly is one of a kind. It’s top of the line graphics truly shows the Playstation 3 at its finest. If you are thinking about purchasing Gran Turismo, my advice to you is buy it because you won’t find another game like this on the market.

Gran Turismo 5 earns 10 out of 10 zips!

———-

Author Bio: Cole is a blogger and writes for cash for cars San Diego, a cash 4 cars online specialist.

I downloaded this humble demo and got right to work. Right off, you are prompted to create your avatar, which is, of course, the look and name of your character. Then, you’re tasked with picking an assortment of weapons. Your options are: Sword (1-handed), Mace, Battle Axe, Sword (2-handed), and then, something that looks like an axe, but is actually a ranged weapon. Each weapon has it’s own advantages and disadvantages. Although its damage is light, a one-handed sword will allow you to equip a shield and block, whereas a two-handed axe does NOT allow you to block, but with it’s sheer brute force, it won’t take too very long to dispense enemies.

The game starts with a brief cutscene which looks quite crisp. You are charged with a dungeon crawl where you will enter battles with an assortment of monsters. The game uses the “Break-Away” battle sequence akin to games like Star Ocean and the “Tales” games. In battle, you’ll find yourself in a very large, circular area where the bloody battle takes place. The battle area is marked by a red line. To try and escape a battle, you’ll hold the analog stick in whatever direction you are facing that you run against said red circle.

After your romp in the cave, you’ll find yourself in a bit of a camp town. Here, you can talk to characters and get quests from the guild. There are only two quests in the demo, but they seem to represent a fine game from Square-Enix.

Although I haven’t tried it, the game does support both Ad hoc and Infrastructure multiplayer.

All and all, I am pretty pleased with the demo. The game follows in the footsteps of games like Monster Hunter, only with the ability to level-up your character in RPG fashion. Best of all, by downloading the demo, you can feel free to play the two included quests over and over, leveling up as you see fit, as the demo does allow you to save your game and transition it over to the final game.

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

Although Tanner has the ability to roam freely around the streets of San Francisco, this latest installment of Driver will focus on the movie style car chases. Reportedly, there will be upwards of 100 vehicles to chose from, and plenty of road to keep the chases flowing. There will also be a large amount of classic vehicles thrown into the action, and this should make for some never before seen chases.

This latest version of Driver will also include the option to play online. This mode will offer fans some pretty exiting chases as well. The screenshots from Driver: San Francisco detail some excellent graphics, and these new added features will offer some unbelievable game play. Driver: San Francisco will be available for Playstation 3, X-box 360, Wii, PC, and Mac.

Driver 2 was an early precursor to the Grand Theft Auto series, which went on to become more successful then the Driver series. Hopefully Ubisoft, the publisher of Driver 1999 will be able to capitalize on their latest endeavor. Like many other fans of the Driver games, I have always anticipated the next installment. Ubisoft revolutionized the video game industry with Driver 2, but was unable to capitalize on the concept they created.

The trailer for Driver 1999 looks great, but it doesn’t showcase any actual game play footage. As of now, the features that are offered by Driver 1999 are sketchy. Ubisoft will be offering new details this coming week at E3. I hope that the publisher can revive the Driver franchise. Fans of the series have been awaiting the release of a new Driver game for years now. Only time will tell if the wait was worth it. Zippygamer will be following Driver 1999 during E3; we will keep you posted as these details become available.

Teaser Trailer

This has been an exciting week for Mortal Kombat fans. On Tuesday, a video that seemed to be a trailer for a new MK movie was uploaded to YouTube by a user called MortalKombatRebirth. The almost 8-minute long trailer was like nothing we’ve ever seen in the Mortal Kombat universe before. It was a darker, more realistic with a Saw feel to it. The video starts out with officer Jackson “Jax” Briggs as he begins to interview an inmate named Hanzo Hasashi. He begins to tell him about the backgrounds of known serial killers such as Reptile and Baraka. But these aren’t the same fighters we all grew up with.

Reptile was born with a birth defect that gave him scaled skin and inverted eyes, much resembling that of a reptile. Oh and he’s also a cannibal. Baraka was once a surgeon who accidentally killed a patient which gave him a thirst for murder. He then performed various operations on himself, altering his appearance. Officer Briggs brings up how the police hired the washed-up actor, Johnny Cage to go under cover and dig up all of the info he can on these psychopaths. After a 2-minute fight scene between Baraka and Johnny, Baraka ends up decapitating the action star. Jax continues to mention a mastermind behind these killers, Shang Tsung. He doesn’t say much about him other than he holds an underground tournament where the world’s deadliest killers fight to the death. We aren’t really told if he is an immortal or not.

Jax goes on to make an offer to Hasashi that he can go back out on the streets, but he must find out where this tournament is being held. Officer Briggs continues to tell him to kill all of the others and win the tournament; but the prisoner has no interest. Soon after, Officer Sonya Blade enters the room with files on Sub-Zero. We soon learn that Hanzo Hasashi was once the greatest assassins in the world. Sonya then tells him that he killed Sub-Zero’s brother and the real Sub-Zero is still very much alive. By this point, we start to realize who this Hanzo Hasashi really is. (If you didn’t already know.) This little bit of information get’s Hasashi interested and he gets up in a rage and walks to the door. As Jax calls his name, Hasashi turns around and states that Hanzo Hasashi is dead and demands to be called Scorpion. The trailer ends with the classic Scorpion catch phrase, “Get over here!”

Now I was very excited upon seeing this trailer. Mainly because I thought it was for an actual movie. But according to Jeri Ryan, the actress who played Sonya Blade and from Star Trek: Voyager fame; the trailer was nothing more than an idea from director Kevin Tancharoen. The trailer was made as a pitch to Warner Brothers, but we are not yet sure if they have accepted it or not. As a long time fan of the series, I really hope they do. I’m sure will make quite a few Mortal Kombat fanboys pretty upset, but I think a reboot is just what this once great franchise needs.

Check out the video for yourself!

A New Game

Speaking of Warner Brothers and Mortal Kombat, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment has acquired the rights to the franchise and plan to bring it back to it’s former glory. The new game, simply titled Mortal Kombat is scheduled to be released in 2011 and is being developed by series creator Ed Boon with the newly named NetherRealm Studios. The new Mortla Kombat is said to be “the most brutal installment of the landmark fighting game to date for release on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360,” and it will have a Mature rating said to be pushing the boundaries just enough to keep from receiving an Adults Only rating.

The new Mortal Kombat is going back to the series’ 2D fighting roots with a brand new graphics engine. The game is said to have even gorier Fatalities than its predecessors and even Tag Team play as well as other yet-to-be-announced gameplay modes. This new chapter is also said to feature a deeper Story Mode than any other fighting game to date.

Official Quotes About the Upcoming Game

“We are bringing the Mortal Kombat franchise back to gamers with the talented NetherRealm Studios team creating the game fans long to play,” said Martin Tremblay, President, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. “Re-establishing the brand with Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, Mortal Kombat innovates on past games while staying true to the brand’s legendary characters and fighting style.”

“We can’t wait for players to get their hands on Mortal Kombat,” said Ed Boon, Creative Director, NetherRealm Studios. “This game really is a response to what players have been demanding: mature presentation, reinvented 2D fighting mechanic and the best, most gruesome fatalities ever!”

Confirmed Characters

• Johnny Cage
• Kung Lao
• Mileena
• Nightwolf
• Raiden
• Reptile
• Sektor
• Shao Khan
• Sub-Zero

And I’m sure there’s many more to come.

Announcement Trailer

The Handheld Battle

It seems so long ago, but in the 8-bit era we were lucky to have the LCD dot-matrix Game Boy. No one was crazy about monochrome, but it worked. The competition’s handheld gaming used a static, painted backdrop.

We saw pre-molded LCD caricatures in which movement was defined by disappearing from one part of the screen to appear on another part; comparatively, the 8-bit yellow-and-green dot matrix LCD screen of the Game Boy worked.

Not only did we now have a handheld video game system that actually created its own backgrounds and allowed for actual fluid motion, but we got a handheld that had interchangeable games (as novel as that sounds)!

Still, it was only monochrome, or as Sega called it in their Game Gear ads, “creamed spinach-colored”. So, many of us – myself included – could only wonder what Super Mario Land would’ve looked like in color form on our NES.

We waited, hoping Nintendo would be generous and give us an enhanced port of the game, but it was for naught.

Sega ramped things up substantially when they delivered their Master System in the form of a handheld: a device known as the Sega Game Gear. Full color and a built-in backlight! Sure, it sacrificed battery life, and ni-cads offered HALF the life of alkaline batteries, but it was full-color.

16-bit Era

The years moved on. Nintendo moved on from the NES to SNES, and Sega moved on from the Master System/Master System II to the Genesis. The handheld market stagnated. So many systems fell by the wayside. Among them were the Turbo Express, Atari Lynx, Neo Geo Pocket, and ultimately, the Sega Game Gear.

In 1998, Nintendo decided to take a big leap forward. Even though they had total dominance over the handheld market, they recognized the need for handheld gaming to go live with color. The GameBoy Color came into the world.

It was fully backwards-compatible with all previous GameBoy games, allowing button-combinations to change screen pallet color, and boasted a specially light-reflective screen. Unless you were in total darkness, chances are you could easily see games on your GameBoy Color screen without much trouble.

Nintendo also gave new life to two classics: Super Mario Bros. and Link’s Awakening in the form of Super Mario Bros. DX, which had some additional content added rather than a straight port of the old game, and The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening DX, which added new content and was backwards compatible with the old Gameboys!

Nintendo Innovations

Nintendo wasn’t done yet. Far from it, in fact. Just a few small years later, the GameBoy Advance came to life. Yes, it was incredible. SNES graphics in handheld form. In fact, it was so incredible, even Nintendo didn’t realize its full capabilities! Around its release, Nintendo stated the system was lacking the Mode 7 technology and wouldn’t be able to handle 3-D graphics the way the SNES could.

They had to admit they were wrong when games like Star-X, Top Gear Rally, and Hotwheels Stunt Challenge came to be. Star-X came very close to Nintendo’s Star Fox. The graphics were quite close. Actually, one who didn’t pay attention to the fact none of Nintendo’s trademark characters weren’t anywhere to be seen could think it was Star Fox.

Alas, time marches on. While the GBA could give gamers SNES-level graphics, Nintendo moved from the Nintendo 64 to the GameCube, Sony moved from the PSX to the PS2, and Microsoft unleashed the XBox. Some looked at the GBA as being “antiquated”.

Whilst the consoles were boasting the fully 3-D Grand Theft Auto III, the GBA could only replicate the old-style top-down GTA gameplay. Some of us didn’t mind; we liked the classic “back-to-your-roots” gameplay. Others weren’t so pleased. It seemed that as with previous eras, no handheld could ever come close to console-level graphics. It was like the comparison of a home console to arcade machines in the 1980’s. It seemed as though every time a new console hit the market, the arcade world just reached its next level.

Dual Screen’s Bring New Success

It was time for a revamp to the handheld market. At E3 2004, Nintendo unleashed its “third pillar” known as the Nintendo DS. Not so much a “handheld portable” as a system that just simply did more than previous handhelds had done.

With dual-screen action, a touch-screen, a microphone, and Nintendo 64-quality graphics all made this a system worth looking into. I remember watching Nintendo’s press conference at E3 2004. While I was also quite excited about the new games they’d shown coming to the GameCube and GBA, I was mostly excited about the DS.

I didn’t know what was bubbling down below in the Sony world. It would be the biggest change to hit conventional handheld gaming since the original GameBoy: the Sony PlayStation Portable, or PSP. It wasn’t an alternative, per-se, to the DS, but an augmentation.

I’ve always felt that, to get the most out of handheld gaming, one must own both a DS and PSP. The DS provides a unique gaming experience, whilst the PSP can emulate the console experience, albeit a little stripped-down in some cases. The PSP has managed to pull off a solid replication of console gaming. It’s not perfect, but many of the current-generation games released for the PSP have come off without a significant hitch.

The Sony PSP

In the year of the PSP’s launch (2005), Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories came into being. It actually looked like Grand Theft Auto III and, more importantly, it manged to play like Grand Theft Auto III.

Since this time, the PSP has had many more multi-system games released on it, and in more faithful translation than previous handhelds. Resistance: Retribution is remarkable. It puts the game in third-person view instead of first-person, and it’s not a “port” as a parallel story to the PS3 games. Assassin’s Creed: Bloodlines has a few minor flaws because of the lack of a right analog-stick, but it holds up in gameplay.

Even more incredible is Dante’s Inferno; the maps are identical to the console version’s maps. The layout is exactly the same. The only difference being the PSP game’s gameplay graphics are a little stripped-down, and the non-playable cutscenes have been simply recorded, and play in a digitized manner instead of relying on the system’s hardware to render the cutscenes, resulting in a small loss of quality and the inability to perfectly segue from gameplay to cutscene and visa versa.

There’s No Time Like The Present

So, here we are now. The DS is an excellent system, and I recommend it to all, but for anyone looking to capture the world of console gaming in handheld form should really give the PSP a try.

Sony has some excellent bundles on the market, and included in said bundles are all the things you’ll need to get started. Standard bundles usually include: game (based on your bundle), 1GB memory stick, a special-edition PSP, and the essential AC adapter and rechargeable lithium-ion battery.

The only DS bundle that is currently on the market is the DSi bundle which includes a white DSi and Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story.

How do YOU feel about the progress of handheld gaming? Discuss it below in our comments section!

[Editor's Note: If you liked Bone Meal's short history on the handheld, read his Top 10 Games for the PSP.]

Image credits: Damien Lopez, broccoli, cinefil, xcassiegotto, diodoro

Buxom, upper-class brunette lady looking for a smart, attractive and eligible male.

My hobbies include: scuba diving, archaeology, gymnastics, globetrotting and slaughtering endangered wildlife.  I have been through some tough times over the last 10 years, but I’m back on form again recently and I feel ready to explore again.

Devoted single father with a large build looking for a woman to share my life with.

Interests include swimming, aquatic life, power tools and self-defense.  I share a wonderful property with a few oddball characters that are always arguing but it has a great ocean view.  Love of children is important, because as part of my job I am always looking after them. E-mail steve@rapture.com

I’m a 30-year-old, sunglasses wearing, 6ft tall,  ripped guy.

I’m a big fan of kicking ass and chewing bubblegum (but sometimes I run out of gum). I have a hatred for pigs who dress like police officers and extra terrestrials as a whole. Looking for a woman who doesn’t mind if I start something and never finish.

Chubby Italian plumber, 29 years of age.

I run my own plumbing business with my brother.  Looking for a blonde lady I can treat like a princess.  My old GF was constantly leaving me for the slimy, cold-blooded sort.  Hobbies include go-karting, golf, and basketball. I’m very open minded am willing to try any activity at least once. Please send all correspondence to the Mushroom Kingdom.

Spiky, blue hedgehog looking for a new group of friends to hang out with.

My current group is a bit of a handful.  I’m looking for friends with attitude that won’t run from a fight – I have a bit of a beef with a  morbidly obese egg-shaped man.  I enjoy sports and I’ve recently started racing cars with my workmates.

Abused and exotic yellow-coloured creature looking to be rescued.

My current master is a right bastard and pits me against other animals (well at least until I faint). He fights against anyone who looks at him funny and I’m at my wits end.  I am kept in cramped conditions against my will and only let out when he needs me.  I have an electric personality and just looking for a new owner so I can grow and evolve.

Overworked and underpaid South American currently working for the US government.

I’m looking for a new job because my current workload is too chaotic.  I get to travel all over the world and get to meet some very interesting characters.  Seeking a new career as my co-workers are obnoxious and I don’t think my insurance covers all that my job requires of me. I’m desperate for a new job. I could even do window cleaning too because I’m quite good with heights.

The trailer comfirms that the Hulk, Iron Man, Ryu, Morrigan and a certain character from Resident Evil. Watch the trailer to find out who it is.