2009 PlayStation preview – part one

So, we’re looking forward to 2009 more than any other year. 2008 was probably the best year for gaming in history but we’re not going to bother listing the highlights here as it’s really the time to be looking forward, forward to a future of brilliant games.

So here goes – we’ll start with the big hitters…

uncharted2.jpg

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves Sony/Naughty Dog

October

While details, much like the first game early in development, are pretty scant, Nathan Drake is making his return late this year. The first trailer shows Drake stumbling through some arctic tundra, sporting what looks like a rather nasty gunshot wound. The tone, from these very early impressions, appears to be a good deal darker than we’ve seen previously, something we wouldn’t be too happy with. With the critical acclaim and sales success of the first title, despite a rather muted release, expect Sony to make Drake’s second outing more of an event. We have to say that this is one title in which we’re not expecting to see a great deal of graphical improvement. That would be no terrible thing though, as long as Nathan’s characteristic charm, wit and ability to seek trouble are all present.

Click here to read our exclusive Q&A with Naughty Dog game designer, Bruce Straley.

god.jpg

God Of War III Sony/Santa Monica Stuidos

November

Y’know, for once, garrulous foulmouth David Jaffe might be right. In between the numerous expletives posted on his blog, he mentions how he got a peek at his former baby in Santa Monica. After some sweary rambling he then went on to say just how great it is. Despite the departure of Jaffe and Cory Barlog from the team, there are still over 30 staff left from the first game, so we’re expecting Kratos’s first appearance on PS3 to be true to the original. Sixaxis, rumble and 1080p/60fps have been hinted at, but little has been confirmed yet. Interestingly, though, the developer had, for some time, a vacant job posting for an online gameplay programmer, suggesting the possibility of glorious multiplayer.

gt5.jpg

Gran Turismo 5 Sony/Polyphony Digital

December

While we’re still waiting for Prologue to be patched to oblivion, and as Polyphony continues to piddle around with showing off 2160p/240fps resolutions, some of us are getting a little miffed at just how long it’s taking to create a real, full Gran Turismo experience. Failing that, even a PSP version would do, but even that’s been held off until GT5 has been finished. So when can we expect it then? We’re looking to the end of 2009 for a near-final model.
First up on the giant patch-a-thon is damage modelling. This is likely to come in numerous additions to the code, and if we see a full game delivered piecemeal like this, and succeeding, it could herald a new era in how game delivery works. Prologue has shipped 2 million units so far – some feat for a game that isn’t really a game.
Next up will be more AI modifications, which reduce the supermarket-style queues we still encounter on occasion. To what level the damage-modelling patch extends to is still a bit of a mystery, but with each car taking 180 days to create, we’re starting to feel sorry for the Polyphony artists.

Assassin’s Creed 2 Ubisoft/Ubisoft Montreal

November

We didn’t like Assassin’s Creed. Sorry, that’s just the way the world is sometimes. That didn’t stop it from selling a cartload of copies, though, nor did it prevent an obsessed fan base from trying to figure out the frankly odd, JJ Abrams-esque ending to the story. Well, here’s what happens next – Assassin’s Creed 2 comes out at the tail end of 2009. It hasn’t been confirmed for this date by Ubisoft, but there’s no reason the game should miss the holiday rush, given the frenzy surrounding the first in late 2007.
Ubisoft head Yves Guillemot announced the sequel at the publisher’s second-half fiscal year report: “What we can say is that we are working hard on the product.” Great. We imagine that Assassin’s Creed 2 will be set in an entirely different period of history, but that some elements of the game remain the same – abandoning the iconic look of Altair would be counter-productive, for example. To reverse our opinions this time around, we hope Ubisoft Montreal will structure assassinations a little better, perhaps offering more ways to investigate the target and eventually take them out.

bioshock_02.jpg

BioShock 2 Take 2/2K Marin

October

Xbox 360 owners may have got to play BioShock over a year ahead of those patiently waiting for it to emerge on the PS3, but who got a peek at BioShock 2 first? Eh? Eh? Yeah, we did. The BioShock 2: Sea Of Dreams teaser revealed at the end of BioShock on the PS3 might not have been a huge peek, but it was enough to get us wet. Or at least make us want to get wet. Y’know, under the sea in Rapture. Where it’s wet. What did you think we meant?
Of course, no one’s confirmed that BioShock 2 will be set in Rapture, but it would surely be madness to leave the first game’s incredibly atmospheric setting behind. It’s a big city, right? There must be plenty of places within it that we never saw in the BioShock. However, the teaser isn’t set in Rapture, it’s set on a beach on the Atlantic coast and features a young woman holding the hand of a small Big Daddy rag doll. The implication is that she’s a Little Sister that is now all grown up. Maybe you get to play as her. Well, that’s fine by us… as long as she gets guns and plasmids, of course.

ex_chainsaw-2.jpg

Resident Evil 5 Capcom

March

Capcom’s long-awaited zombie-fest is still running high on our ‘most-wanted’ lists, but it’s now got to the point where we want it so much that seeing new screens or video or hearing new details just isn’t doing it for us. We just want to shut the door, turn out the lights, place the security blanket out of sight (but within immediate reach) and just play the bloody thing. And bloody hell if ‘bloody’ isn’t the right bloody word for it, mate. We hope you feel the same way, because that’s all we’re saying about Resident Evil 5 for now.

sfiv.jpg

Street Fighter IV Capcom

February

We don’t mean to gloat, but we’re not sure we even need the finished version of Street Fighter IV now that we’ve got a preview version to play with. Sure there are going to be more characters and stages and modes in the final version, but Street Fighter’s never been about the trimmings. We have a good selection of characters at our disposal, all of whom are functioning correctly, so what more do we need?
Of course, we still reckon that anyone who doesn’t have a trial version of the game at their fingertips on a daily basis should be excited about the release of Street Fighter IV, even if you’ve never played a game from the series before. If you haven’t, then this will be a great place to start. It’s the most accessible version of Street Fighter there’s been for years. The learning curve’s a bit steep at first, but once you’re past that you’re in beat-’em-up heaven.

ffxiii.jpg

Final Fantasy XIII Square Enix

December

Well, we’ve been here before. Back in issue 149 we even anticipated that Final Fantasy XIII would hit in time for the tail end of 2008. That optimism has been drained of us this year, but even if Final Fantasy XIII doesn’t make it in 2009, it will be possible to sample a demo of the game through the Advent Children Complete Blu-ray in spring. This demo has been confirmed to be over an hour long – we’d expect it to hit the PlayStation Store at some point or another.
As for the game itself, we know it returns to the turn-based combat of yore, but still does away with random encounters – good news for those that disagreed with XII’s polarising real-time system. The important point to remember is that no main Final Fantasy instalment has scored below 93% in Play, so, you know… have faith. Hopefully, the game can claw itself into the latter half of 2009, along with PS3-exclusive spin-off Versus XIII.

killzoneteaser.jpg

Killzone 2 Sony/ Guerrilla Games

February

After visiting Guerrilla Games in November for our colossal Killzone 2 reveal, we’ve never felt more assured that a game will live up to its potential. Packing a multitude of multiplayer options that could potentially dethrone Call Of Duty as the PSN king, as well as a gimmick-free and challenging single-player campaign, Guerrilla has created a game that should sail the PS3 through the first half of 2009. The extensive clan options, managed through central hub Killzone.com, show that Guerrilla has geared Killzone 2 for the long-term – if you were expecting something as softcore as Resistance 2, this will utterly surprise you.
Killzone 2 is hard. Rock, shit and bloodily hard. We wouldn’t exactly call ourselves champions at playing games (Nick can’t even complete Mirror’s Edge, the wimp), but the pressure the AI puts you under is intense. It’s a dynamic, tough slog of an FPS, made difficult to conquer due to the ever-increasing numbers of enemies, but also thrilling as a result. Technically, Killzone 2 is probably the best-looking game on the PS3, as well. Basically, if you can’t register our anticipation at this point, we’ll make it very clear: pre-order this now.

Yesterday we had a look at the biggest games of the coming year, the games that you probably already know about. Today, we profile those games that you might not know so much about but are probably going to be awesome, what we could term as ‘dark horses’.

alphaproto.jpg

Alpha Protocol Sega/Obsidian

April

The mix of RPG and espionage action doesn’t seem a natural one, but that’s probably because we’re so dreadfully jaded, our imagination having been gradually leeched from our marrow by MTV, successive years of reality shows and beauty-is-on-the-inside fashion programming. Either way, Alpha Protocol may not be the most attractive title, and, judging by what we’ve seen, developer Obsidian is concentrating far more on making it a unique prospect. Inspired by the likes of Bourne, and… well, Bourne, you play Mike Thornton, a blob of ass-kicking Play-Doh for you to fashion your very own spy from. The level-up system is totally classless, so you’ll have freedom to progress down any route you like at any time. Let’s just hope the level grinding doesn’t involve masses of filing and typing up notes.

bayon.jpg

Bayonetta Sega/Platinum Games

October

Bayonetta will almost certainly attract the attention of a large chunk of the pubescent gamer demographic. Even in the first real trailer of the game (which we’re guessing will appear as a cut-scene in the final version) we’re treated to a gratuitous gusset shot of the titular witch. Hideki Kamiya has clearly drawn on experience with creating male characters such as Dante and Viewtiful Joe, and included skill sets you’ll have seen before from those Capcom greats. In addition to the bullet time and outrageous combat manoeuvres, Bayonetta has her hair to use in combat. Some of these moves are rather odd, and have a distinct feel of God Hand about them, such as a giant stiletto heel, guillotine, or dragon. The rub here is that using her more ostentatious moves will render the poor thing completely naked, as her magical barnet also seconds as her clothing. Surely some kind of thermal would have been a worthwhile purchase.
Similarly worthy of note is the weapon system, which will enable you to place weapons in various slots on the witch. This means you can blow apart your enemies with guns placed on your feet and hands. Again, there are shades of the customisation offered by that unsung hero, God Hand, which is something we heartily welcome.

mag.jpg

Massive Action Game Sony/Zipper Interactive

After an absolutely insane concept trailer at E3, which depicted a full-on war taking place between an unruly amount of players, the tentatively titled Massive Action Game thrust itself to the forefront of the PS3 line-up. Sony has commissioned a new server system that enables 256 players to wage war in the same battlefield at any one time. As a central idea alone, it’s pretty exciting. The SOCOM franchise has dried up in recent times (especially with the deplorably broken Confrontation on the PS3), so Sony’s online presence needs a flagship title, just like the first SOCOM was on the PS2. We acknowledge that this type of tactical shooter is niche in the UK, but in America it has a good chance of becoming a runaway hit. The game breaks up the 256 players into squads of eight, as to ensure that there’s structure to the unprecedented size of these battles. The most experienced player in each is automatically selected as party leader. Expect many different types of vehicles too, including tanks, armoured jeeps and all manner of military aircraft. The maps designed to fit this many players must be unbelievable – will this be the closest gaming gets to recreating war? Sure, why not?

heavy1.jpg

Heavy Rain Sony/Quantic Dream

November

David Cage is one of the most notable personalities in gaming. We love him for his single-minded pursuit of something unique. You always get the feeling with the French-born videogame maestro that he very much means what he says. If we believe what he says then, we’re definitely looking at something unique. We’re looking well past the release here, but in much the same way as Fahrenheit is one of the most individual console titles we’ve ever played, Heavy Rain will almost certainly be fondly remembered as something that moves the medium of videogames on in some sense. We always found it a little strange that Fahrenheit never saw any kind of copy-cat rip-offs, and with the expense and effort that’s gone into Heavy Rain, it’s unlikely that we’ll see much of a similar ilk on the PS3.
Heavy Rain is an exercise in the art of storytelling. If anything’s likely to advance narrative in videogames, it’s this. With 2,000 pages of script, over 50 actors, and easily the most impressive motion capture ever put into a game, there are plenty of reasons to see Heavy Rain as one of 2009’s most important titles. One to get very, very excited about for sure.

white_knight_chronicles-playstation_3screenshots15399img0036.jpg

White Knight Chronicles Sony/Level-5

October

Assuming we actually manage to finish Disgaea 3 some time this year, we’re going to want another massively time-consuming Japanese RPG to pour our lives into, and White Knight Chronicles looks like it’s going to be just the ticket. It’s going to have everything you could possibly want from a JRPG. For starters there’s an incredibly long, convoluted story that doesn’t make much sense and, at its bare bones, is identical to every other JRPG story anyway, but you stick with it because it’s just got so much goddamn charm. However, an epic narrative means nothing if it doesn’t have a set of bottomlessly deep character and equipment development systems backing it up. Fortunately, White Knight Chronicles has that too.
One character in your party is 100 per cent customisable, and can even be taken online to play four-player co-op quests and earn rewards that can be transferred back to the single-player campaign. Rewards come in the form of items, equipment and currency, as you’d expect, but there will also be an abundance of raw materials that can be used to create all kinds of other things. But the customisation doesn’t end there…
You can even customise the combat commands available to each member of your party, tailoring them to your preferred playing style and/or top the strengths and weaknesses of specific enemies. Battles then play out in real-time, requiring careful timing of your actions in order to take advantage of your enemies’ vulnerabilities and combine your character’s skills effectively.
All this customisation might seem like it could get a bit much, but we’re not intimidated. We’ll have been playing Disgaea 3 for several months by the time White Knight Chronicles arrives, so it should be a piece of piss by comparison.

lanoire_01.jpg

L.A. Noir Rockstar Games/Team Bondi

December

Feel like playing a Rockstar game with crime in it? You do? Even if it’s not a Grand Theft Auto title? You do? Really? Okay, then L.A. Noire should be right up your street, assuming your street is dark and smoky and has trams on it and there’s jazz music coming from somewhere but you can’t figure out where. All these things will be familiar motifs if you’ve ever seen a film noir, but if you never did any kind of film studies course at college then you almost certainly won’t have seen one because basically they’re mostly really old and normal people don’t take much of an interest these days.
However, game noire is a completely new genre, and that’s what makes L.A. Noire so intriguing. Next time you’re in a game shop you can impress staff and other customers by casually mentioning that you, “Mostly play game noire these days.” They’ll be terribly impressed with how intellectual you are.

iamalive.jpg

I Am Alive Ubisoft/Ubisoft Montreal

November

When Destiny’s Child sang, “I’m a survivor, I’m gonna make it, I will survive, keep on survivin,’” they weren’t talking about the struggle to stay alive after a cataclysmic natural disaster laid waste to the city of Chicago. No, they were singing about not needin’ no man and sistas doin’ it fo’ theyselves, or something. However, in the aftermath of such a catastrophe, the sentiment would still very much apply.
In I Am Alive you play as Adam, a Chicago office worker and, subsequently, earthquake survivor. Your main objectives during the game will be to “keep on survivin’” and, if you will, to “make it”. As far as we can tell, none of the lyrics to Bootylicious will apply to I Am Alive, although earthquakes are renowned for making stuff, booty included, shake about, so you never know.
Anyway, with or without booty, I Am Alive is an intriguing prospect. With many survival horror franchises taking their focus away from problem solving and a feeling of vulnerability, and shifting it towards relentless, bloody combat, there’s something of a gap in the market developing. I Am Alive isn’t a survival horror game, but it does share the same underlying mentality as all the best early survival horror titles. Your resources are extremely limited and you need to figure out ways to avoid confrontation and conflict if you are to stay alive for more than a few hours. That’s what we loved about the first two Resi games, and that’s what Ubisoft is hoping we’ll love about I Am Alive. We’re already loving its refreshiingly different setting. Now all Ubisoft has to do is make it work.

Yesterday we looked at the sleeper hits of 2009, the games that have the potential to surprise and be as big as some of the more established franchises. Today we’ll be looking at rumoured games, some brilliant PlayStation Network games and what the future holds for PS3 in 2009. So without further ado…

PSN 2009

Games coming to a Store near you soon.

flower.jpg

Flower Sony

February

Flower is supposed to show us what happens when flowers dream. Starting the game in a grey cityscape, Flower actually tells a story through music and the movement of your petals as you guide them toward other flowers and explore the environments in an attempt to brighten up the world.

ragdoll.jpg

Ragdoll Kung Fu Sony/Media Molecule

March

Media Molecule has seen a great deal of attention regarding LBP, and rightly so, but what many of you may not know is that prior to that killer PS3 app, the company produced a magnificent title called Ragdoll Kung Fu. It’s a completely free-form fighting game, from which you can see the earliest rumblings of LBP. Perfect for the Store.

halflife.jpg

Half-Life 2: Episode Three EA/Valve

November

Episode 3 will be the last in this story arc. Much of the artwork released for this final addition seems to be set in a citadel environment, with plenty of the ghastly advisors floating about menacingly. Rumours abound that it’ll also feature the Portal Gun from Portal in some way. We certainly hope so.

burnout.jpg

Burnout Paradise Island EA/Criterion

March

Burnout’s going to see a massive amount of downloadable content in 2009. Big Surf Island, for example, (which won’t be offered free, as previously expected) concentrates on stunts rather than racing. Then there’s a bunch of new toys, plus legendary and boost motors coming from Criterion. Surf’s most definitely up, dudes.

ratrace.jpg

Rat Race Super Ego

April

Developed by New York-based Super Ego games, Rat Race is a comedy adventure title set in an office much like yours or ours. The adventure could best be described as lewd, incorporating numerous dodgy goings on such as a mad scientist’s obsession with the lab monkey, office stationery theft and sordid use of the photocopier.

fatprincess.jpg

Fat Princess Sony

March

Simple but wonderful is the name of the game here. Fat Princess sports 16 versus 16 online multiplayer. The idea is a kind of ‘capture the flag’ affair, only your flag is a morbidly obese member of royalty. Change classes at the change of a hat and make sure all 16 players work together to rescue that princess.

PS3 in 2009

What does the year hold for your beloved console?

The PSN movie store is the polish on Sony’s iron fist in the US, but there’s still no announced launch date for its UK counterpart. Still, David Reeves did say it’ll arrive in 2009 at E3, so it’ll have to surface eventually – it’s all just a matter of obtaining rights and sealing deals at this point. With Sony’s extensive movie library leading the charge, though, it’ll be worth the wait.
As for firmware updates, it’s been rumoured that PS3 owners will be able to take screenshots of their games, next year, but Sony can’t confirm or deny this for the time being. Something on its way in February is VidZone, a service announced at Leipzig that enables users to stream music videos through their PS3s, choosing from a selection of thousands. Already a popular online destination, Vidzone will be reformatted before it makes the leap to the console, as to fit the PS3’s controller-centric interface. These videos can be streamed to the PSP through Remote Play, so it sounds pretty sweet. Sony must have plans beyond this, though. Just remember what cool additions we received in 2008: PlayTV, Trophies, the in-game XMB, custom soundtracks, themes… there’s definitely going to be some impressive add-ons in 2009.

Rumour Mill 2009

What’s rumoured to be coming out this year?

team-ico.jpg

New Team ICO game Sony/Team ICO

December

Until it’s announced, we can’t specify exactly what we’ve seen of this. Officially, the only image released is this one here, with a chain. It will be the best game ever made.

graw.jpg

GRAW/Rainbow Six Ubisoft

November

We reckon new entries in both these Ubisoft franchises are on their way, but, in light of the fact that Rainbow Six Vegas 2 was released last year, GRAW 3 is the most likely for 2009.

ratchet.jpg

Ratchet & Clank Sony/Insomniac

September

At the end of Quest For Booty, Insomniac confirms that Ratchet will be back during autumn 2009. We hope it’ll be a full Blu-ray release… and better than Tools Of Destruction.

cod4_03.jpg

Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Activision/Infinity Ward

Could also be called Call Of Duty 5. This from Infinity Ward game is speculated to be a sci-fi-tinged FPS, but with 11 million copies of COD4 sold, the team might want to stick with the modern context.

lbp.jpg

LittleBigPlanet PSP Sony/Media Molecule

Supposedly leaked to dpadmagazine.com by a Sony employee, Media Molecule has apparently been working on a PSP version of LBP for four months. Sounds ace.

battlefront-3.jpg

Star Wars Battlefront III Activision

When LucasArts culled loads of its staff, last year, some revealed that Battlefront III was in development. Free Radical and LucasArts struck a development deal in 2006 – they’re making it.

mass-effect.jpg

Mass Effect 2 EA/BioWare

The first one (pictured) was a 360 exclusive, but with EA calling the shots on BioWare, it may be pressured into making this outstanding space RPG series multiformat.

bizarre-creations.jpg

Bizarre Creations racing game Activision/Bizarre Creations

Activision bought Bizarre in 2007. The Project Gotham developer has presumably been creating a new racing franchise, using the Kudos system from PGR.

motorstorm-psp.jpg

MotorStorm PSP Sony/Evolution Studios

Leaked, as above. This seems the likelier of the two, given that Evolution’s offshoot studio, BigBig, is working on an unannounced project.

spore.jpg

Spore EA/Maxis

Successfully launching on PC last year, this ‘everything’ simulator, focusing on creativity and, to a lesser extent, micro-management, is likely to extend its reach to next-gen consoles in 2009.

twisted-metal.jpg

Twisted Metal TBA

Hinted at by the Twisted Metal: Head-On PS2 port and later confirmed by David Jaffe, it’s almost certain that a new entry in the series will come from his Eat Sleep Play studio.

the-sims.jpg

The Sims 3 EA/Maxis

Only announced on PC at the moment, but sure to crash the PS3 with a bunch of Network features, The Sims 3 promises open neighbourhoods and unique personalities for each resident.

nice found but for me in ps3 world it goes lkike that : 2007 =2009 let me explain best games 2007 = uncharted , bioshock,assassin's creed,cod 4 modern warefare and 2009 =uncharted 2 among thieves , bioshock 2 ,cod modern warefare 2 ,assassin's creed 2 ''that's looks familliar for me ?''ehheh

cool!
nice bit of info kk!

you always write tons of info.

bLuE-_-FuSiOn wrote:

you always write tons of info.

I am a part time secretary and i type fast

More like copy n paste

Excuse yourself I wrote all of that myself