All about your PSP
วันเสาร์ที่ 30 เมษายน พ.ศ. 2554
วันศุกร์ที่ 29 เมษายน พ.ศ. 2554
วันพฤหัสบดีที่ 28 เมษายน พ.ศ. 2554
วันพุธที่ 27 เมษายน พ.ศ. 2554
วันอังคารที่ 26 เมษายน พ.ศ. 2554
Sony PSP System Tips and Tricks - Tweaks for Your PlayStation Portable
The PSP is the hottest little handheld around right now. The PlayStation Portable Handheld system is very impressive and plays great games, music and movies. Additionally, the system does have a few tricks as well. Here are a couple of things you can try, some are fairly simple. Please note you must be careful with some of these tricks and they will be marked by a * before the “how to” area. Due to the price and the sensitive LCD screen always use caution when trying anything below.
While these tips are listed here, please do not attempt them if you are uncertain about any aspect of them.
The PSP's sound goes through your car's antenna. No extra wires are needed nor are any other adjustments. Your games, music and movies will now play through your car's stereo speakers. Please note: take care when trying this and make sure you know how to use the modulator and know the right way to hook up the wire to the fuse box and ground wire. If this is not done right, this can damage or even short out the PSP. This one is for parents!
First Connect your PSP to your PC. Then locate the save file you want to change. All saves are located in the PSPSAVEDATA folder, divided into separate sub folders to keep necessary files together. Once you've found the save icon you want to change, add .ori to the end of the file name, in case you ever want to change it back to the original. Resize the image you want as you're save icon to 144x80 and save it as a .PNG named ICON#.PNG - “where # was the number found on the file you renamed”. Then move the new picture into your save folder.
Now, whenever you see your save files on your PSP, its icon will be the picture you changed it to. Use the same method to change PIC 1.PNG files to your own custom pictures, but remember that the resolutions must be at most 480x272. *Please note this is a bit complicated and could result in losing all saves if not done correctly. This tweak is really for those who have knowledge of using these types of files. Please use caution when attempting this or have someone that knows how to work with these files help you.
While these tips are listed here, please do not attempt them if you are uncertain about any aspect of them.
Jam to Tunes Using Your Car Stereo System Speakers
* Use the following instructions to play your PSP games and movies with your cars audio system. You will need a FM modulator, a cable with a male stereo 1/8" headphone connector at one end and split left and right RCA connectors at the other. The red wire with the 'in' line fuse goes to your car battery or switch. The ground wire grounds to the frame. Set the car's CD or tape deck to the FM frequency that is on the modulator. The frequency is usually 88.7 or 89.1. Plug the RCA connectors from the cable into the RCA jacks on the modulator. Plug the headphone end of the cable into the PSP. Turn on the PSP with the volume set at half way.The PSP's sound goes through your car's antenna. No extra wires are needed nor are any other adjustments. Your games, music and movies will now play through your car's stereo speakers. Please note: take care when trying this and make sure you know how to use the modulator and know the right way to hook up the wire to the fuse box and ground wire. If this is not done right, this can damage or even short out the PSP. This one is for parents!
Changing the Save File Images
* Whenever you save a game, one or two pictures are created on your memory stick: ICON#.PNG - the 144x80 icon displayed when you select your saved file. The #, normally 0, may be higher if a game places multiple saves in one folder. PIC 1. PNG - the 480x272 background that's displayed when you cursor over your save or game disk. Knowing this, you can customize your save icons and backgrounds by simply replacing them with new . PNG files. However, make sure that you keep the new file less than or equal to the original file's resolution, or the PSP will cut off sections to make it fit.First Connect your PSP to your PC. Then locate the save file you want to change. All saves are located in the PSPSAVEDATA folder, divided into separate sub folders to keep necessary files together. Once you've found the save icon you want to change, add .ori to the end of the file name, in case you ever want to change it back to the original. Resize the image you want as you're save icon to 144x80 and save it as a .PNG named ICON#.PNG - “where # was the number found on the file you renamed”. Then move the new picture into your save folder.
Now, whenever you see your save files on your PSP, its icon will be the picture you changed it to. Use the same method to change PIC 1.PNG files to your own custom pictures, but remember that the resolutions must be at most 480x272. *Please note this is a bit complicated and could result in losing all saves if not done correctly. This tweak is really for those who have knowledge of using these types of files. Please use caution when attempting this or have someone that knows how to work with these files help you.
Choosing a Background Color and Keeping it the Same
The PSP will change colors of the background screen every month automatically. You can pick a color that you like and have it stay that way. Simply go into the settings and select the month that has that color, when it changes, reselect the month. Note: Your date will always be wrong, but if color and style is your concern, this simple tweak does the trick.วันจันทร์ที่ 25 เมษายน พ.ศ. 2554
วันเสาร์ที่ 23 เมษายน พ.ศ. 2554
Gamers How Can you Help the Japan Quake Relief?
Unless you've been living under a rock for last few days, then you'll be fully aware of the devastating and unprecedented triple tragedy in North Eastern Japan. A disastrous combination of earthquake, tsunami and the hazardous nuclear incident, have wreaked havoc upon the Japanese region. Totally wiping out infrastructure, lives and whole communities.
Now Japan has long given us endless hours of pleasure with wonderful hardware technology such as the PlayStation 3, and Nintendo Wii, and exhilarating games software titles like Final Fantasy and Street Fighter. The least we in the games community can do in return to help out, is to continue to support our favourite Japanese titles and buy Japanese. However, some in the games industry are providing fun and ingenious ways to pitch in.
You can view a round-up of various relief efforts throughout the games industry below the break.
Now Japan has long given us endless hours of pleasure with wonderful hardware technology such as the PlayStation 3, and Nintendo Wii, and exhilarating games software titles like Final Fantasy and Street Fighter. The least we in the games community can do in return to help out, is to continue to support our favourite Japanese titles and buy Japanese. However, some in the games industry are providing fun and ingenious ways to pitch in.
You can view a round-up of various relief efforts throughout the games industry below the break.
Sony NGP Price Could Reach as High as $350 USD
The Ubisoft survey, conducted by French market-research firm Toluna, confidently states that "the retail price of the Sony NGP is expected to be around $350", and asks respondents to rate their likelihood of purchasing the device at that price. It is unclear why a third-party software publisher is so interested in the price of the hardware, since their primary concern ought to be the price of the games that they are developing for the system. Personally, I think that $350 is a bit steep for a gaming handheld, no matter how awesome it is.
Nintendo, which is currently accepting pre-orders for its 3DS device, has priced its next-generation handheld at $249.99 USD.
What's our prediction? We're going to say $299 for a Wi-fi only bundle on launch day, with the 3G device coming in at a heftier $350. Are we prepared to pay that much for more Sony handheld action on launch day? Probably.
วันศุกร์ที่ 22 เมษายน พ.ศ. 2554
How to play free ISO/CSO games on PSP 3000 HD
1. Download the files you need: 987662f5.thesefiles.com
2. Check if you have Sony’s Firmware 5.03
3. Connect your PSP to the computer.
4. If you don’t have Sony’s Firmware 5.03 copy copy the UPDATE folder (you’ve downloaded) to the GAME folder of your PSP.
5. Run the ChickHEN easy installer program you’ve downloaded and install ChickHEN.
6. Cut or delete the SYSTEM folder of your PSP (you can restore it later)
7. Copy CFW Enabler to the GAME folder of your PSP
8. If you don’t have Sony’s Firmware 5.03 go to game and install it.
9. Now restore the default settings of your PSP
10. Go to Photo and open the folder ChickHEN Check if your firmware it must be 5.03 ChickHEN R2, if it don’t, format your memory stick with your PSP and go back to step one.
11. Go to Game and open CFW Enabler 3.50.
12. Press Flash and Start.
13. Press select in the XMB (Top menu of the PSP)
14. Set the UMD ISO Mode to M33 Driver
15. Download a CSO or ISO PSP game and put it in the ISO folder in the Root of your memory stick. 16. Play Games for Free!!!
2. Check if you have Sony’s Firmware 5.03
3. Connect your PSP to the computer.
4. If you don’t have Sony’s Firmware 5.03 copy copy the UPDATE folder (you’ve downloaded) to the GAME folder of your PSP.
5. Run the ChickHEN easy installer program you’ve downloaded and install ChickHEN.
6. Cut or delete the SYSTEM folder of your PSP (you can restore it later)
7. Copy CFW Enabler to the GAME folder of your PSP
8. If you don’t have Sony’s Firmware 5.03 go to game and install it.
9. Now restore the default settings of your PSP
10. Go to Photo and open the folder ChickHEN Check if your firmware it must be 5.03 ChickHEN R2, if it don’t, format your memory stick with your PSP and go back to step one.
11. Go to Game and open CFW Enabler 3.50.
12. Press Flash and Start.
13. Press select in the XMB (Top menu of the PSP)
14. Set the UMD ISO Mode to M33 Driver
15. Download a CSO or ISO PSP game and put it in the ISO folder in the Root of your memory stick. 16. Play Games for Free!!!
วันพฤหัสบดีที่ 21 เมษายน พ.ศ. 2554
PANGYA: Fantasy Golf Review
This colorful golf game offers so much great single-player content that it'll be weeks before you notice the lack of any online functionality.
The Good
- Plays a good game of golf
- Loads of characters and collectibles to unlock
- Lengthy Story mode is a lot of fun
- Nine 18-hole courses that range from realistic to ridiculous.
The Bad
- No online functionality
- Inconsistent AI opponents.
Here on earth, the origins of golf are still up for debate, but on Pangya Island--a world of dreams and fantasies that exist in an alternate dimension--the sport's history is well documented. Known as Pangya by the island's inhabitants, golf was invented as a way to pay tribute to a hero who, not too long ago, defeated the dark lord by hitting a ball into a hole. Clearly Pangya: Fantasy Golf is no ordinary sports game, but regardless of how you feel about its colorful characters and fantastical fairways, there's no shortage of good golfing here.
Early courses look a lot like those in conventional golf games
If you've ever played any golf game before, you should have no problem getting into Pangya. You select clubs with the shoulder buttons; aim your shots using the D pad; and with the benefit of an overhead map, you take differing elevations and weather conditions into account; then, you click the shot button three times to start your swing, set the power, and strike the ball as cleanly as possible. As you progress through the Story mode, you're introduced to more advanced techniques, such as a topspin and backspin, power curve (applying exaggerated draw or fade to play around corners), and shots with such names as tomahawk, cobra, and spike. The controls for performing some of these spectacular shots are more demanding, though remembering when to press which buttons is more difficult than actually doing so.
On a regular golf course, shots like these would be considered overpowered, but they're practically a requisite for playing some of the holes on Pangya Island. Early courses have a conventional feel and pose few problems outside of the bunkers and water hazards that you'd expect. It doesn't take long for realism to give way to fantasy, though, and fairways atop narrow columns of rock, greens situated on small islands, and obstacles that include everything from windmills to volcanoes become commonplace. There's certainly no shortage of variety as far as the course designs are concerned, and while the visuals are the most obvious difference between courses that are covered in snow rather than volcanic ash, the environments have some impact on how the holes play as well. On a frozen fairway, for example, your ball will travel a little farther after its initial bounce than it will on a sun-drenched one, and when water hazards freeze over, they become targets as viable as the fairways and greens--there isn't even any penalty for playing your subsequent shot from the ice.
but later you'll feel like you're teeing off in the bowels of hell
Even shots played from the rough suffer a distance penalty of only 5 percent, so provided you steer clear of water hazards, bunkers, and areas that are designated out-of-bounds, Pangya: Fantasy Golf feels very forgiving. With the default settings, the effects of the wind are negligible, the hole cups are much larger than in real life, and mistakes made on the power gauge while attempting to strike the ball result in shots that are only slightly off target rather than in dramatic hooks or slices. If you take a trip to the options screen and turn off the "Beginner Mode" option, though, the level of challenge rises significantly. There's no option to tinker with the unpredictable AI of Story mode opponents, who will play like geniuses one moment and gorillas the next, but they at least become more formidable and consistent as you progress. Incidentally, in one-on-one games, you get to watch your opponent taking his or her shot with a welcome option to fast-forward through it, whereas in tournaments, all players take their shots simultaneously and small portraits show the positions of their respective balls.
Monster Hunter Freedom Unite Review
Even with tens of hours of new content and welcome improvements over its predecessor, Monster Hunter Freedom Unite has yet to hunt down a few critical annoyances.
The Good
- Great visuals and audio
- Significantly more content than its predecessor
- Data install significantly improves load times.
The Bad
- Camera control is inexcusably awkward
- Continued lack of lock-on control exacerbates the poor camera
- Too much time is spent wading through menus.
When looking at a checklist of features, it's easy to see why the Monster Hunter series has garnered such a cult following. With scores of monster species to hunt, classes of weapons to learn, and special items to craft, any Monster Hunter game is almost guaranteed to provide dozens of hours of gameplay even in a loose play-through. Monster Hunter Freedom Unite for the PSP, an enhanced version of 2007's Monster Hunter Freedom 2, is most certainly the epitome of the series thus far with its scads of additional content and advancements to its predecessor's core. Even so, there are some things that have not changed with this "upgrade," which leaves Unite with the same frustrations that series veterans have been putting up with for five years.
From the introductory cinematic that shows you getting knocked into the snow by a gigantic monster to the town in which you wake up and the people with whom you interact, Unite seems like an exact replica of Monster Hunter Freedom 2. The structure of the game is very simple: You reside in a single town that acts as a hub for many activities, the most significant of which are quests that send you out into the field. Among these quests are hunting expeditions, where you must take down a large beast; slaying quests, where you must take down multiple monsters of a certain species; and gathering adventures where you're asked to bring someone herbs, mushrooms, or monster parts. There's no shortage of variety to your encounters because the monster roster is a healthy mishmash of dinosaurs, swine, sea creatures, gorillas, and more.
There are some sweet-looking beasts roaming the land around Pokke Village
Though Unite is an expanded edition of its predecessor, its additions and enhancements are substantial. They come in many different flavors, with the most obvious ones being the addition of several monster species and well over 50 new quests. In case you're keeping score, that potentially amounts to more than 25 five hours of additional content over the previous game, depending on your play style. For those who were already sucked in by the Monster Hunter aura--and desperately want more--you can import your Freedom 2 character, which makes this seem like a no-brainer purchase.
"Bigger" might be enough for those fans, but "better" is, well, even better. Unite fixes a few more significant problems, fixes that will be welcomed by both fans pleading for improvements and newcomers who might otherwise be intimidated. First, the excessive loading times can be dramatically cut down by utilizing the data installation option. This will reduce many of the load times by two-thirds, and in some cases, even more. Second, the race of Felyne helpers--those anthropomorphic cats that helped tend to your farm and cooked delicious meats for you in the previous game--can now come to your aid in battle. Monster Hunter games have been notorious for their awkward and difficult combat, and having a companion to help wail on your assailants or pick away at them from afar makes the game a little more accessible for single-player adventurers.
Though Capcom succeeded in improving load times and throwing you a companion with whom to fight monsters, it did not adequately address other frustrations. The most egregious miss was with the game's camera system because it still gives you a very poor vantage point for dealing with the speedy, agile, and powerful monsters that will either surround you in groups or dash to your immediate vicinity in the blink of an eye. Unite's camera is third person and primarily behind the back, but it can be rotated left or right with the D pad and reset with the L button. Pressing up or down allows you to change its height, but this is handled so oafishly that you'll never quite get the height you need to see the battlefield most effectively. Though you can contort your hands in such a way to move with the analog nub, pan the camera, and access the reset button simultaneously, the bottom line is that players should not have to employ such an awkward workaround to compensate for poor usability.
but they can be incredibly annoying to fight solo thanks to wonky camera controls
Lock-on control could have been used to alleviate at least some of the camera's problems, but yet again, it's nowhere to be found. Because you're supposed to attack different parts of a monster's body to achieve different results it's true that lock-on control might remove the challenge of and pinpoint control needed to, say, aim for the head versus the front leg. There have been variants of lock-on control employed in other games that still allow for body part targeting though. Further, the "challenge" here is turned into frustration thanks to the initial problem of a poor camera system. That this--the third installment of the series for PSP--still hasn't addressed some of Monster Hunter's most fundamental flaws is disappointing.
The silver lining is that, as with its predecessor, Unite allows you to tackle multiplayer adventures via ad-hoc play. With up to three friends watching your back and teaming up to take down the most ominous of wyverns, this has always been the way to fly, especially given the issues with the series. Multiplayer can lead to some great moments of camaraderie and elicit fond memories of games such as Phantasy Star Online. If you can manage to get accustomed to the awkward camera and controls, as well as remain a diligent player, you'll be able to scratch your loot-scrounging itch with some truly spectacular, rare gear.
That's a very big if, and while it's one that many longtime Monster Hunter fans are sure to satisfy, others might not be so patient. Yes, the improvements made here are much appreciated, as well as a decent start to enhancing Monster Hunter's playability (which is an important distinction from simply making it "easier"). But the series still has a few hurdles to clear before everyone who's interested can enjoy all the content it has to offer, and Monster Hunter Freedom Unite simply hasn't made those jumps yet.
Dissidia 012: Duodecim Final Fantasy Review
This sequel is slow to show off its best features, but once it does, you won't want to stop playing.
The Good
- You're constantly earning new rewards from every battle
- New characters and features enrich the fun fighting system
- Lots of different modes
- Creation feature lets you exercise your imagination
- Gorgeous graphics and soundtrack.
The Bad
- The story is all fluff, no substance
- Camera is a problem in confined spaces
- The overworld feels like unnecessary padding.
When you first start playing Dissidia 012 Duodecim: Final Fantasy (a mouthful, that title), you might be struck by how little progress has been made since the first Dissidia fighting/role-playing hybrid was released. If you give it time, however, Duodecim reveals its unique strengths, building on the original in meaningful ways without sacrificing its cinematic energy. New characters, a new single-player structure, and new features (including a robust create-your-own-adventure toolset) make this another rich package, brimming with hours upon hours of colorful battles in gorgeous environments. Like in the original, every success also results in a showering of rewards in the way of currency, equipment, moves, and more. The promise of more is Duodecim's key asset, and it's a big part of what keeps you enthralled for hours on end. The obstacles hindering the joy are familiar ones: a camera that performs poorly in claustrophobic arenas and a self-indulgent story that plays out like embarrassing Final Fantasy fan fiction.
Vaan does his best Whirling Dervish impression
The story is, unfortunately, a key element of Duodecim, which tosses together well-known Final Fantasy heroes into a melting pot of one-on-one battles, leveling up, and inventory management. There are multiple story modes, with the primary one focusing on the heroes new to this edition: Lightning (FFXIII), Vaan (FFXII), Yuna (FFX), Tifa (FFVII), Laguna (FFVIII), and Kain (FFIV). The tale, such as it is, focuses on the continuing conflict between the forces of Cosmos (the good guys) and Chaos (the bad guys). The proliferation of enemies called manikins further complicates the heroes' efforts to bring an end to the conflict. The setup is simple enough, but the storytelling is often an excruciating mess of superficial conversations in which every character is reduced to a single personality trait. Everyone uses a lot of words to say nothing at all ("I took a risk to believe in a chance"), and they drone on about the nature of friendship as if they were quoting from Chicken Soup for the Shallow Soul. You can skip cutscenes, though doing so brings the long-ish loading times to the forefront.
Some of the changes that have been made to the story mode are immediately obvious; others are revealed after many hours. The most apparent addition is that of an overworld. You still move from battle to battle on overhead grids, but now, you navigate to those grids by trotting through fields and deserts. This new structural element adds little, muddling the previous game's already Byzantine story structure without much benefit. Nonetheless, trekking to your destination gives you time to enjoy the outstanding soundtrack, which remixes beloved Final Fantasy tunes into light piano ballads, brass fanfares, and minor-key reveries. There are roaming manikins to battle out there, as well as treasure chests to open. There are also shining spheres to attack; if you slash four, you earn a chain skill. On battle grids, these skills allow you to string multiple battles together, which earn you better rewards
Jecht is always so cranky
Party battles are another new feature, though it takes a while for Duodecim to introduce them. Eventually, you aren't just in charge of a single character but a group of them. In turn, you may face enemies also grouped together in parties. You can either fight parties in a round-robin format, in which you control a different character in each round. Or, you can do battle in a tournament format, in which you use the same fighter until he or she is defeated and replaced by the next one on the roster. It's a great addition that grants extra freedom and diversity by letting you use multiple characters on a single grid. Once you move to the second story mode, you must also consider such aspects as emblems, which are grid pieces that offer bonuses to you or your opponent when you initiate a battle from one. There are a lot of mechanics going on at once, but Duodecim introduces them at such a measured pace that you aren't likely to feel flooded by a deluge of information.
The fighting system has also seen some tweaks, though the basics are the same. You face your opponent on an expansive battlefield; many of them allow you to race up columns and walls, as well as grind on rails. You run across terra firma and dart through the air, and attacks differ based on whether your feet are planted on the ground or you are hovering above it. There are two attack types: bravery and HP. Bravery attacks increase your bravery point total while subtracting from your opponent's. The higher your point total, the more damage you do when landing an HP attack. Most battles are a blast in which you and your opponent dance around each other; you fire off ranged attacks and slide around rails and then come in for a few choice slashes when you see the right opening. EX attacks have returned too, halting the action and initiating quick-time events that not only do a great amount of damage, but also show off Duodecim's extraordinary good looks. 
Summons can completely change the course of the battle
One major addition is that of assists. Landing bravery attacks fills your assist meter. When it's filled, you can call in a support character that stays just long enough to land (or miss) a few blows and then disappears from the battlefield. It's a good distraction that enables you to come in for some additional damage, though should your opponent strike your assisting fighter, your assist meter will be shut down for a short period of time. You can also initiate an EX revenge by activating EX mode while under attack. Time slows down, the screen's color washes away, and you get a limited period of time to bash on your competitor unabated. These and other tweaks make for great additions to the combat, adding some tactical complexity without convoluting the fighting system. And then, there are the new fighters, all of whom play in remarkably different ways from each other. Lightning is the most versatile and the most complex; she can switch among three different modes (ravager, commando, medic), which have their own unique set of attacks. Laguna is a weapons expert, tossing grenades or going in close for a shotgun blast. Each of these characters brings something new to the experience, and the story mode smartly has you switching among them, which goes a long way toward keeping the battles fresh.
วันพุธที่ 20 เมษายน พ.ศ. 2554
PSP Go
PSP Go
The PSP Go was revealed on May 30, 2009, in the June episode of the PlayStation Network online magazine Qore and was later officially announced on June 2, 2009, at E3 2009. The PSP Go features Bluetooth functionality, a smaller 3.8-inch (97 mm) screen and weighs 43% less than the original PSP. Instead of the UMD drive as found on previous models, the PSP Go has 16 GB of internal flash memory and a Memory Stick Micro port that accepts cards up to 16 GB. Currently, the PSP Go has a max memory of 32 GB, but the M2 memory can be increased in firmware updates. Games must be downloaded from the PlayStation Store. The sliding mechanism on the screen hides the main face buttons and the analog 'nub' when not in use. With the release of the PSP Go, most future PSP games will also receive a PlayStation Store release, whereas only a handful of games were available before.
PSP Go Video Unboxing
วันอังคารที่ 19 เมษายน พ.ศ. 2554
Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition Review
All told, it's a flawed but fun street racer, and genre enthusiasts will certainly enjoy it on some level.
The Good
- High-energy arcade racing that's usually quite exciting
- A superdeep career mode, complete with three full cities to race through
- Great visuals
- More than 60 licensed cars and a ton of ways to customize them.
The Bad
- Occasionally serious frame rate problems
- Some of the arcade mode games aren't all that great
- Voice acting is still pretty hammy--thankfully, there isn't a lot of it
- Multiplayer is merely functional and not especially interesting.
Rockstar Games released Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition a couple of months back to both fan and critical acclaim. Eschewing the overly commercialized, hokey, and downright stereotypical stylings of the street racing genre, it was a most welcome offering. Now, developer Rockstar Leeds has cranked out a PSP iteration of its console racer and has managed to cram nearly the entire scope of the console game onto one of those tiny Universal Media Discs. Unfortunately, a few serious liberties had to be taken to make that happen. Some ugly load times, minimal damage modeling, a few periodic sound bugs, and one unpleasant frame rate all conspire to make the PSP version of Midnight Club 3 a weaker overall effort. Sure, it's still a mostly fun and sometimes exciting street racer, but when put up against competition like Ridge Racer and Need for Speed Underground Rivals, it seems a lot more ordinary.
Like the Midnight Clubs before it, Midnight Club 3 offers up a huge, open-ended city for you to race in. Well, there are actually three cities. You'll begin in San Diego, but you'll eventually be able to open up the cities of Atlanta and Detroit as well. Unfortunately, it takes an exceedingly long time to load up each of these cities--upward of 70 seconds in most cases. The in-game loading times are also annoying. During gameplay you often have to switch between racing, cruising, and visiting the local garage, and jumping from spot to spot always results in some lengthy loading. The console versions weren't exactly quick when it came to in-game loading, but they were an absolute breeze compared to the PSP iteration.
Each city is chock-full of back alleys, hidden shortcuts, and special jumps that you'll be hard pressed to discover until you've spent ample time driving around. Thankfully, the game provides a cruise mode where you can just drive and explore, which isn't nearly as boring as it sounds, because there are also some hidden Rockstar logos strewn about that will earn you goodies when you collect them all. It's also useful to get familiar with all the nooks and crannies of the city, as knowing your way around is immensely beneficial come race time, since most of the races in Midnight Club 3 are checkpoint races. These checkpoints are scattered all over the place, and oftentimes there are multiple paths that will take you to each one. Half the challenge of the game is trying to find the best path to each checkpoint. The one problem with this methodology is that it can be quite frustrating the first few times you engage in a particularly challenging race because you won't know where all the required turns and potential obstacles are. This leads to a fair amount of trial and error that isn't altogether detrimental (especially since using the free-roaming mode gives you a good idea of how the city is laid out), but it definitely has its annoying moments. Fortunately, there are also point-to-point races and timed races to provide some variety to the action, and they're far less taxing to boot. Midnight Club 3 is an arcade racer through and through. If you're looking for even a modicum of realism from this game, you might as well forget it. The physics are geared toward big jumps, taking tight corners at ridiculous speeds, big, exaggerated crashes, and frenetic action. The controls are generally tight and easy to pick up, though it will probably take you at least a little time to get accustomed to the different car classes. With more than 60 licensed cars available, there's a lot to choose from, including tuners, muscle cars, trucks and SUVs, motorcycles, and luxury automobiles. H2 Hummers, Cadillac Escalades, Mitsubishi Lancers, '64 Chevy Impalas, and Kawasaki Ninjas are just some of the many vehicles you can race with. Though nearly all the cars are fast and loose, every car type has its own strengths and weaknesses, which come in to play with the game's unique special moves system.
Yes, that's right. The cars in Midnight Club 3 actually have special moves. While that might sound a little wacky, it's not so bizarre. There are three types of special abilities assigned to the car classes. Big, intimidating cars can use an ability that knocks all the traffic around you out of your way; others can use an "agro" ability to inflict extra damage to cars you hit; and the speedier vehicles can use an effect that slows down time, letting you simply maneuver around any traffic that gets in your way. These abilities are handy, though perhaps not as well implemented as they could have been. The slow-down ability, for instance, slows down time almost too much, and it doesn't last long enough to be useful. Similarly, the intimidation ability the big vehicles use sometimes doesn't do anything except push the car in front of you farther ahead. Still, when the abilities do work, they're satisfying. And when you couple them with the preexisting nitrous and slipstream speed boosts, things can get pretty crazy.
Perhaps the best thing about Midnight Club 3's racing is that the difficulty never feels artificial. If you wreck once, or even twice, you still have a perfectly solid chance to catch up and win the race, as your opponents are prone to wrecking and spinning out as well. Similarly, if you catch the lead and can avoid wrecking or doing anything stupid, your opponents won't just magically overtake you.
There are multiple types of races to engage in during the career mode, all of which are structured around the basic checkpoint, point-to-point, and time trial races available throughout. Basically, you start by getting together with various hookmen who will challenge you to a short series of races. Impressing them will get you shots at longer series of races with assorted car clubs, each of which revolves around specific car types. So if there's a club that races with nothing but trucks, you'll need to have a truck or an SUV in your collection to participate in the races. While this might seem like a chore, it isn't, thanks to a number of tournaments that seem to ever so conveniently pop up right around the time a new car club challenges you. In these tournaments, you can win new cars. And they're almost always the precise kinds of car you need to move forward. Apart from all these main races, there are a number of side races available in each city that don't help your career but do provide you with extra cash. That's good, because you'll need it to fully trick out your whip
Need for Speed Underground Rivals Review
Fans of the Need for Speed Underground series will feel right at home with Rivals.
The Good
- Great blur and shake camera effects
- Delivers a firm sense of speed
- Good controls in all modes.
The Bad
- Drift attack is dull
- EA Pocket Trax is a bad idea
- Song names get in the way of the on-screen map.
Electronic Arts' Need for Speed line has produced a lot of great racing games over the years. The theme of the games has changed here and there, and recently, the Need for Speed name has been squarely attached to import tuner-style street racing games. The subset of the series, known as Need for Speed Underground, has done a good job of capturing the thrill of late-night illegal street races while including all of the parts and customization. Now, EA is bringing its nitro-powered racer to the Sony PSP and its stripped-down take on the series fits nicely onto the new handheld.
As you play through these different races and win trophies, you'll earn upgrade points and unlock visual add-ons for the cars in your garage. Unlike the previous games that bear the Underground name, in Rivals, there's no benefit to tricking out your car with spoilers, vinyls, rims, neons, or hood scoops beyond simply making your car look as crazy as you want it to look. There is a great deal of available visual upgrades, so you'll always be unlocking something new. Performance upgrades are the meaningful enhancements. Your car is broken down into 10 different categories of upgrades, including engine, drivetrain, chassis, brakes, and suspension. These upgrades are kept pretty simple, as well. You'll drop into a category and see a few upgrades you can make in each area. Each one boosts a meter that is devoted to that category closer and closer to 100 percent. Also, you'll only have to purchase each upgrade once to use it on all of your cars, but unfortunately, you'll still have to wade through multiple upgrade menus to get each car up to speed with your latest changes. The upgrades should have been automatically applied to all cars.
You'll encounter more than 20 licensed cars in the game, like the Dodge Neon, Toyota Celica GT-S, Pontiac GTO, Mazda RX-8, and more. Each car must be unlocked by winning events, but even after they're unlocked for use, you'll still have to spend a pile of upgrade points before they're yours to trick out. The variety of cars is good, and the cars feel different enough to make your vehicle choice meaningful. The artificial intelligence that you'll race against is generally good, but the cars do seem to occasionally ignore you in favor of a rigid racing line. That can be a little annoying, but it doesn't happen all that often.
Steering in NFSU Rivals can be done with the D pad, but you're going to have better results with the analog control disc. The steering and handling is well programmed, and you'll really feel a difference in your control over your cars when you sink some upgrade points into handling-based enhancements. In addition to steering, gas, and brake, you have an emergency brake, which doesn't come in handy all that often until you get into the really fast cars. You'll also have a nitrous button, which boosts you up to high speeds and is accompanied by a great-looking blur and shake effect.
While the car models themselves look a little flat, the environments in NFSU Rivals are excellent. The buildings are detailed, the streets look appropriately slick, and overall, the game looks great. You'll also notice little details, like neon reflecting off the street, and the reflection of the sky and nearby buildings in your car's tinted windows. But when it comes to the racing genre, all of those things take a backseat to how well a game can convey a sense of speed. The blurring and shaking that occurs at high speeds is something that the Need for Speed Underground games have been known for and that effect translates to the PSP very well. You'll run into some random spots where the frame rate takes a serious dive, but for the most part, the game runs smooth enough to make you feel like you're flying down the pavement, especially in drag races and nitrous runs.
Rivals also contains wireless multiplayer for two players. If you want to race against your friends, this mode works, but without many of the available options of the single-player game, it's not nearly exciting as it could have been. If you're limited to one PSP, you can play four-player games by passing the PSP around to see who can finish the fastest or score the highest in street cross, drift attack, nitrous run, drag, or circuit races. If you have a lot of competitive friends, these options will offer some additional value, but they really don't add much to the overall package.
Sounds like squealing tires and throaty exhausts are key to good racing game sound, and Rivals does a good job with this stuff. The soundtrack consists of music found in the console and PC releases of Need for Speed Underground 2, so you'll hear tracks from Fat Joe, Ministry, Freeland, Chingy, Queens of the Stone Age, and yes, the musical atrocity that is Snoop Dogg featuring The Doors performing a duet from beyond the grave with "Riders on the Storm." The music fits the action well, but one part of it really gets in the way. Whenever a new song starts (like at the beginning of a race), a little window pops up in the lower-left corner to tell you the name of the song and what album it's from. This window covers the onscreen map, which is very, very key in street cross races. This boneheaded design decision should have been rectified before release.
Also on the subject of music, NFSU Rivals uses something that EA calls EA Pocket Trax. This mode is just an overblown music player that lets you listen to the songs in the game. In one case, you can actually watch a music video for one of the songs, which is a neat bonus. But for everything else, you're treated to some incredibly lame visualizations, such as...a spinning Need for Speed logo or an equalizer that has a speedometer graphic behind it. These visualizations are pretty weak, and considering the fleeting nature of the PSP's battery life, it just seems like a real waste. It would have been nice if you could just access the game's soundtrack from the PSP's music menu instead.
Fans of the Need for Speed Underground series will feel right at home with Rivals. It gets rid of the overblown, big-city atmosphere of the recent console release and puts the focus on getting into races--the best part of the series--very quickly. Though a few minor tweaks would have made Rivals a bit better, there's enough fast-paced driving action here to satisfy race fans.
สมัครสมาชิก:
บทความ (Atom)