(January
18) A Blurb for Blur
This
is looking like a busy year for the racing genre. Gran Turismo is coming
soon and several other contenders a lining up at the starting line. We
talked about Split Second last week, and another major release set for
this spring is Blur. From Bizarre Creations, the people behind Project
Gotham, this looks to add a few twists on things to create a viscerally
exciting racing title. Living up to its name, the game looks to blur the
lines between action and sim racing. It’s car models and environments
look incredible in terms of realism and fidelity. However, there will be
some interesting arcade-style twists in the game. The cars will take a lot
of damage and each crash is looking to create something spectacular in
terms of vehicular mayhem. Another interesting addition to the genre are
power-ups. Several of these will be available including Nitro and Shunt
which will allow you to turbo-charge your vehicle and cause damage to
rival vehicles. Blur is also aiming to create a more intense experience by
allowing up to 20 vehicles on the course simultaneously, which should make
for some truly intense racing battles.
Another
area where the game is going to set itself apart are in two key elements.
The first of these is an innovative social networking aspect that’s
going to come into play. As you compete in races and meet new people, it
will change the dynamics of your racing experience. This will work in two
ways – first, it will give you the abilty to interact with others as you
play through the game. Blur will also innovate in its online mode which
will add some of these features to its online experience as well. This
should give players several new ways to interact with the game and might
be a portent of the online future of console gaming, which will most
likely evolve in this direction as the years go along. Blur is facing some
stiff competition not only from the above mentioned titles, but Sony’s
casual themed Mod Nation Racers as well. It’s already been delayed a few
months, but whether this is due to polishing up issues or merely an
attempt to get out of a crowded market remains to be seen. However, it
must be noted that Bizarre’s consistently excellent performance with the
Project Gotham Racing series should inspire confidence. Blur looks like an
interesting and innovative title, so it will be interesting to see whether
its able to break out from the pack when it arrives in a few months.
(January 15) December's
big numbers
According to NPD, December’s holiday sales for hardware and software
were better than expected, considering the tough economy and lack of
killer apps this year. Despite sluggish sales in the months leading up to
the big holiday rush, things rebounded enough so that it was a record
shattering month for the game industry. Year over year sales dropped, but
there was a huge increase for the month that made up for the sluggish
performance earlier on. The end result is a a mixed bag for the industry
overall. As you might expect to see at this point, the order didn’t
change too much this holiday season. Nintendo was the big winner selling
more than 3.8 million Wii plus more than 3 million DS consoles for a
whopping total of over 7 million units combined. The Wii actually
surprised a lot of analysts and broke its own record for most consoles
sold, which is an impressive achievement by any standard. Many Wii titles
led the charts with a mix of hardcore titles like New Super Mario Bros.
and casual appeal software like Wii Fit combining to create a broad appeal
that contributed to the massive, record-breaking sales of the Wii.
Nintendo deserves credit for its strategy that Microsoft and Sony are
trying to copy. There's been a lot of speculation about a bubble, but
Nintendo have stayed on top consistently for the past three years. While
many have questioned whether Nintendo would be able to maintain their
momentum, the final proof is in these figures.
Now,
for the race for second. Sony’s PS3 had a marginal win over the Xbox 360
with both consoles very close in the 1.3 million range. Modern Warfare
seems to have driven 360 sales, though the console’s other highly touted
titles didn’t seem to tear up the charts. It looks like Sony’s
redesign of the console and price drop paid off, but on the other hand,
PSP sales were much worse, selling only 600K units during the month.
That’s roughly around 20% of what the DS moved. It doesn’t look like
the PSPgo is catching on and, despite some good software support over the
past few months, it doesn’t seem like the system will revive. As you
might expect, the biggest seller on both of these systems was Modern
Warfare 2. Were there any surprises in the numbers last month? It looks
like Uncharted 2 failed to chart in the top ten, which is sort of strange,
but most holiday shoppers aren’t hardcore gamers, so this was almost
expected. These figures were fairly in-line with the expectations over the
past few years, so while its interesting to look on from the sidelines,
nothing really changed. While the numbers are bigger than normal, it looks
like December was business as usual for the game companies, with very few
surprises.
(January
14) Split Second's explosive racing
Even though more traditional sims like
Gran Turismo and Forza Motorsport have taken most of the spotlight lately,
one upcoming racing title might steal some attention from these
long-standing franchises. Taking more inspiration from high-octane arcade
racers than traditional sims, Split Second, published by Disney
Interactive and developed by Blackrock Studio, wowed gamers last year with
an impressive trailer and a cool twist on the genre. While the Burnout
series focuses on creating spectacular vehicle crashes and explosions,
Split Second promises to take this approach to another level entirely. Set
for release in a few months on 360 and PS3, Split Second takes place in a
futuristic television show inside a city rigged with explosives, players
will have more to worry about than navigating a corner. As players race
through a course, they trigger events called power-plays that cause
opponents to explode and put up obstacles to other vehicles' paths.
Players build this up over time and when their meters are completely full,
they can cause massive objects such as buildings on the course explode.
These include causing large towers to collapse, buildings to fall on the
road, and more, causing massive amounts of environmental chaos along the
way. Split Second's cinematic approach to these events makes for some
dramatic and exciting hyper-real action. The game's presentation looks
spectacular and very exciting. It probably won't have licensed vehicles,
but the models included in the game look fantastic with shiny paint jobs
and excellent designs with a range of sports and performance vehicles
available.
When the power play events are triggered,
they also have the added effect of changing the course layout completely.
This means that the courses don’t repeat, giving the player an
additional challenge of not being able to anticipate what lies ahead. The
cinematic production values look superb and should go a long way in
creating some intense racing. Its primarily going to appeal to
solo-players, but there’s the promise of multiplayer action as well,
which should create some intense online battles. Split Second has been
delayed a bit since it was fist announced, which was disappointing but
this has hopefully given the developers extra time to polish things up.
Another factor that’s working in the game’s favor is the lack of
competition. It’s been about 2 years since Burnout:
Paradise
came out and this new title might fill
the void for action racing fans looking for some excitement. On the other
hand, this is a new franchise and despite the attention it’s received,
Split Second might have a little bit of trouble attracting the casual
racing crowd. However, gamers today are fairly intelligent and if the
final product delivers the goods, it should do fine, even in a relatively
crowded market this spring. We’ll be checking out the game when it comes
out and we’ll let you know if it delivers on its promise.
(January
13) Capcom's uphill battle
With the imminent release of Tatsunoko vs. Capcom, the legendary
company once again enters the cross-over realm it pioneered with its
Marvel series. This time around, the rival company characters won't be as
familiar to western gamers as before, but for those who grew up on classic
anime back in the 80's and 90's, many of these characters will be cool to
play in a video game for the first time. TvC seems to mix the style of
Street Fighter IV in as well, with 3D polygonal fighters battling on a 2D
plane. More than 20 characters from both companies will be present, and
its looking to deliver a slightly more casual experience with 4-button
controls and those massive combos that made MvC so popular with gamers
about a decade ago. One interesting fact about this version of the game is
that its actually the second revision from the original arcade release in
Japan last year. The version we're getting includes additional characters
and other gameplay tweaks, so it's probably been worth the wait.
Trying to play the game with the
standard wii-mote probably won't yield the best results, but players who
own a classic controller or even a joystick are definitely in for some
impressive action. The elements are definitely in place for what's looking
like a good cult following, but the question is whether this cross-over
title actually cross over to the Wii's mainstream audience. Of course,
sales numbers are important, but what we're actually wondering is whether
the hardcore gamers will embrace this title, even though it's on a
platform that hasn't (at least in terms of perception) been met with much
respect. Those gamers smart enough to ignore the negativity have been
treated to an abundance of hardcore delights, including a number of
impressive 2D releases like Muramusa and New Super Mario Bros. Wii. Those
gamers who are attracted to these types of games will probably love adding
this to their collections, but there's a broader audience that seems to
have migrated to the PS3 and 360 that might overlook this excellent
release.
Fortunately, it looks like Capcom seems
to have realized this and visits to game stores over the past month have
seen over-sized boxes promoting the game. It's also getting so buzz among
gamers who read web sites. Unfortunately, the first quarter release
schedule looks busy this time around, with major releases like Bioshock 2
and Final Fantasy XIII coming around, it might get lost in the seas of
hype. While it might be well known in anime circles, the Tatsunoko brand
isn't exactly casual and may cause less-knowledgeable gamers to pass on
it. This would be unfortunate since Capcom has such an excellent
reputation for these types of games. There are definitely many barriers
that stand in its way, but it will be interesting to see if Tatsunoko vs.
Capcom can successfully re-establish Capcom's versus brand for the current
generation of gamers.
(January
12) King of Fighters takes flight
About nine months ago, SNK Playmore
announced the latest installment in their long-running King of Fighters
franchise. This version will include six playable characters including
Iori, Terry Bogard and others. As usual, each one will have their own
special attacks and moves. However, the twist in this new edition is that
it isn't a fighter at all. KOF: Sky Stage is actually a vertically
scrolling shooter. Yes, you heard that right. It has more in common with
Donpachi than the traditional fighting games. It's definitely something
that's come out of left field and most gamers in the hardcore arena were
probably left thinking this was some kind of joke, but KOF: Sky Stage is
definitely a real game.
Originally announced as a title for Xbox
Live, SNK has actually decided to release the game in Japanese arcades
starting this month and its already on test in several locations as we
speak. As odd as it sounds, the initial screens and videos we've seen
actually point to what's looking like a decent shooter. All the usual
bullet-hell conventions are here, with some impressive looking bosses and
power-ups available to play. It looks like a fairly good title for the
genre, but this is an unexpected diversion for the series to say the
least. Now, normally the release of a new KOF title is usually an occasion
for gamers to see how they've tweaked the familiar formula. The odd thing
about KOF: Sky Stage isn't that it's a shooter, but takes these familiar
characters and placing them in an entirely different genre is an odd move.
We're actually kind of surprised that such an innovative idea hasn't drawn
more attention from the media, but it's probably a lateral move from one
legacy genre to another. Neither 2D fighting games or traditional shooters
are seen as cutting edge these days, so its probably not that surprising
considering that most mainstream players probably won't have much
interest.
Those who follow this little niche
probably won't be entirely surprised, since there's a history of
cross-pollination between fighting games and other styles. This is mostly
in the form of characters appearing in puzzle or strategy games, not
shooters. There's also a few shooters, notably Castle Shikigami that put
characters in the center of the action instead of the usual space ships,
so Sky Stage isn't as entirely odd as it might sound. What's going to be
interesting to watch is whether players enjoy the game or if they find
it's mixing of genre expectations a bit too odd for its own good.
Regardless, SNK deserves credit for trying something different with this
release. Unfortunately, nothing official about a release date has been
announced on this side of the ocean, at this time. Hopefully, after its
Japanese arcade run, Xbox owners here in the west will be able to check it
out on their consoles sometime soon.
(January
11) Gran Turismo revs up
After several years of anticipation, 2
demos, a PSP appetizer, and one "Prologue", Polyphony Digital is
finally ready for the main event. Coming sometime this year, this
highly-anticipated racer is probably either going to be a new standard for
the series or proof that it's peaked. It won't be an easy task, with
Microsoft's Forza series appearing in the rear-view mirror, this is
definitely not going to be a case where coasting on the series' reputation
will make for a certain victory. However, with such a long development
cycle behind it, there's little wonder why gamers have become a bit
skeptical if this installment will deliver the goods. So far, the
reduction in expectations seems more tied in with the disappointing
performance of the PS3 hardware which seems to have run over to the games
themselves. This lack of confidence seems a little bit overstated in many
ways, since it looks like Gran Turismo 5's development is finally nearing
its conclusion. No formal release date has been announced, but the last
week's release of the cover art is probably a sign that you'll be playing
this sooner than expected.
Of course, one of the things that can
happen with long lead times is that developers can grow stale or get out
of touch with the market. Polyphony has definitely been listening to their
fans and this is evident in Gran Turismo 5's biggest change. Many players
have long felt that the game was too technical and dry. It's physics were
great, but the long desired damage modeling system will bring the forces
of actual contact and damage to vehicles for the first time in the series'
history. This will add more realism to the game and make mistakes feel
dangerous, instead of the usual bumping that made the game feel a little
too technical for some tastes. GT 5 won't have the extreme crashes of
other games, but it doesn't need to go over the top in this department. As
those who've grown accustomed to the franchise know, subtlety goes a long
way. Gran Turismo 5's online component is also looking quite impressive in
a number of ways, and the community features, downloadable video content
and multiplayer competitions seen in GT Prologue will probably be just the
beginning. However, these things might not materialize the way you hope,
so you never know what to expect.
As you might expect, GT 5 should include
dozens of high-end sports cars, prototype vehicles and dozens of licensed
tracks. However, it's looking to expand its appeal beyond these audiences
and will include both NASCAR and INDY circuit vehicles for the first time.
The huge NASCAR fanbase has gone without a decent sim for too long, and
including these vehicles and tracks in the game should increase its appeal
to the casual gaming market. It's a fairly good move that hopefully means
the developers will add some spice to a series that can seem a bit too
technical at times. The traditional Gran Turismo tracks and vehicles
should be present and you are looking at an ambitious driving simulator
with a scale and scope. Gran Turismo 5 is looking impressive from a
technical standpoint, too. Judging by the visual quality of the engine
seen in the Indy time trial demo released recently, it looks like GT will
make the transition to HD beautifully. The consistent 60 FPS rate shows
promise and Polyphony's fastidious attention to detail maintaining a
stylish look with this iteration. The vehicles look fantastic in the demo,
and its controls offer modes for both casual and experienced players,
which should help bring the game. Previous GT titles began with accurate
recreations of both the exteriors and now this expands to the interior
dashboards of each vehicle as well. Each has been recreated flawlessly,
giving more immersion to the gameplay in this view.
While the past is not always an
indicator of what's to come, its hard not to be impressed by Polyphony's
long-standing commitment to accuracy and realism. GT 5's incredible depth
and huge licensed content should give players plenty to look forward to.
As for those other titles looking to unseat the title from it's throne,
here's the one key statistic: last year's Forza Motorsport 3 on the Xbox
360 featured 400 cars - Gran Turismo 5 will include over 1,000 vehicles.
Of course, numbers alone won't make much of a difference if the
performance doesn't deliver. In this department, it looks like Polyphony
has listened to their fans, and while the game will still emphasize its
realism and authenticity, this one looks like it won't be as dry and
technical as previous installments.
(January 8, 2010) A surprising
CES
This year's edition of CES wasn't exactly E3 in January, but there
were enough interesting announcements that it was worth paying attention
to. Microsoft and Sony had some interesting news, and there were also some
surprising related info released that gamers should know. As usual,
Nintendo seems to have skipped the event. Sony started things off by
promising some interesting changes to its structure. The most significant
this year is going to be the expansion of the Playstation Network to other
devices, which should add more users, and hopefully additional content to
its under-performing service. As you might expect, there were many
announcements regarding 3D televisions, which seems like its set to arrive
in a big way this year. It looks like Sony is jumping onto the 3D
bandwagon with both feet since the PS3 will be able to support this
emerging technology later this year. Technically, you'll only need to
download a firmware update to take advantage of this but, you'll need the
expensive set to actually view any of the 3D movies and games coming out.
On the gaming front, there wasn't really that much information released,
and there was no real details on the company's motion controller. Sony's
presence seemed to be more a tease as to what's to come and while thin on
details, added some excitement to what might come out later this year.
However, it was Microsoft that stole
most of the headlines this year by detailing more information about
Project Natal. There was an impressive demonstration of the device and
Xbox owners will be happy to know that the device will be available
sometime this fall. It seems like it might work as advertised but the key
question is what kinds of games will be available for it and how much its
going to cost. Microsoft didn't reveal these key elements, so this is
probably the first teaser announcement about the device. This generated
plenty of attention in the mainstream press, with many articles talking
about how revolutionary the device will be. However, the lack of actual
games and developer information is a bit worrying, and there's always the
chance that the technology won't pan out or that developers won't harness
it properly, so gamers shouldn't get too excited just yet.
To fill this information void, Xbox
owners will probably be most excited about the announcement of Xbox Game
Room. This is a very cool idea that melds elements of Nintendo's Virtual
Console and Sony's Home service. This is focused almost exclusively on
classic arcade games and will initially launch with a variety of titles
from Atari and Namco. Initially, the titles will cost about $4 each to
play, and there will be about 30 released at launch. This sounds great,
but a bit underwhelming until you read deeper and discover that the
company plans to release more than 1,000 games for the service over the
next few years. While its cool enough, the main attraction here is its
virtual arcade that allows you to relive your wasted your. In the Xbox
Game Room, you can take your Xbox avatar and walk around a multi-level
arcade. There will be several types of these available and players will be
able to customize their look. Microsoft is also promising some new
additions to these older titles, such as achievements, so it looks like
there might be some compelling reasons to play through these titles. This
is definitely an innovative approach, though it might get pricey if you
want a complete arcade.
For both companies, CES served as more a
pre-launch of the initiatives they plan later this year than a place for
concrete information, which was slightly disappointing, but its nice to
see the general outlines emerging so early on for a change. However, with
the Game Developers Conference and E3 on the way, the really big
announcements are yet to come.
(January 7, 2010) The Dreamcast
lives again
It's been kind
of a busy couple of days over here at the Laser. We're slowly
transitioning to our new format for news and working at building our
gaming archives. While last year's focus was on the PC Engine and Saturn,
this year is moving forward to start finishing up the Sega Dreamcast
collection. This remains one of our favorite systems and despite
completing the collection of US releases, there's still plenty to play and
review on other fronts. Specifically, we're looking at the Japanese
shooter releases that never made it out over here. For those unfamiliar,
the Dreamcast had some impressive shooters that came out during its
lifespan, but there were a number of others that never made it out. In
addition, the system's homebrew scene thrived for many years after Sega
pulled its official support. Many of these titles were classic Japanese
shooters in the mold of R-Type or Strikers 1945. Suffice it to say, that
these are highly sought-after releases by many collectors and building up
this library is not a cheap or easy task. The first few games have finally
arrived after a few weeks and while we're not ready to post full reviews,
a few impressions of these games are definitely in order.
One of the most storied developers of
the classic shmup era was Psikyo, who specialized in these hardcore
bullet-hell titles. Zero Gunner 2 was an excellent follow-up to their
brilliant Strikers series and the Dreamcast edition's great visuals and
interesting gameplay, where you can change the direction of the ship made
it an interesting idea. We liked the level design and its traditional
vertically scrolling design makes it fit right into the genre. Psyvariar 2
is an interesting game that takes a little bit of Radiant Silvergun and
adds its own interesting twist. Instead of trying to avoid bullets, the
object here is to get as close as you can to enemy fire and build up your
power-gauge that way. The techno music and buttery-smooth visuals make
this a joy to play, and its responsive controls make this an excellent
shooter for your library. It's a bit more difficult than we expected, but
its still an enjoyable game and one that should pose some interesting
challenge. We liked the way its elaborate between scenes animation mixed
with the actual stages. A more traditional shooting experience comes in
the form of Trizeal, which blends 2D gameplay mechanics with 3D backdrops
to make for some an impressive appereance. While it doesn't have the extra
gimmicks of other shooters on the Dreamcast, its more straightforward
approach makes it easier to pick up and play. We enjoyed the music the
most, since it fits the genre flawlessly.
While Dreamcast owners never received
the excellent R-Type Final, a pair of homebrew developers filled the void
nicely. Last Hope was released by German developers NG Team and wasn't
actually inspired by R-Type, but Pulstar on the Neo-Geo and Pulstar itself
was a derivative of R-Type. Anyway, Last Hope is a notoriously difficult
game and its level of difficulty requires plenty of memorization and
concentration if you have any hope of winning. Its visuals are quite
reminiscent of Pulstar and it uses 3D pre-rendered visuals to make an
impressive look throughout. There's only a few levels, but you'll need a
lot of skill to make it through to the second, so there's plenty of depth.
We've actually only played the first version, which like its Neo
counterpart is very hard. There's a new version out there called Pink
Bullets that is supposedly easier, and this is on the way. The other
R-Type inspired game recently released for the Dreamcast is called Dux and
instead of the dark and techno look of most other shooters, this one has
large, brightly colored sprites and a more upbeat trance style of music.
However, don't let the sugar-coated visuals fool you, it's as hard and
challenging as any of the other R-Type-derivatives we've played on the
console to date. Dux was only released last year, and as such is probably
one of the cheaper releases for the DC collector, so its definitely
something you'll want to check out. These couple games are only the
beginning of what's available on the Dreamcast, and we'll be back with
more detailed reviews of these and other games as the year goes along.
(January
6, 2010) Blu-Ray's blue days
As the decade turns, its seems fairly obvious that the days
of physical media are rapidly drawing to a close. The rise of Apple’s
iPhone and Xbox Live have proven that the world has already begun to
embrace digital content. The market for apps is already massive and it
seems like its only a matter of time before most people go digital only.
While it might take awhile for this trend to overtake games, its already
happened with movies to a large extent. A key case in point is Sony with
the PS3 (formerly known as Playstation 3). While one of the key components
that made the console so expensive at launch was its much vaunted ability
to play blu-ray discs, the company itself seems to have cut themselves off
at the knees. Blu-Rays offer very impressive picture quality and some have
nice packaging but, Sony’s own online store offers a vast selection of
downloadable movies available on demand. Many of these are even in HD,
which almost seems to make the format redundant on its own major platform.
Some people say that the format already ‘won’ when HD-DVD was pulled
off the market, but now in hindsight, it feels like the companies
supporting HD-DVD were smart enough to see that demand for high-def disc
movies was never going to come close to the penetration seen by DVD.
Apple’s success and online services like Hulu and Youtube make sure of
that.
Cinephiles will probably disagree, but for most people the difference in
picture quality and performance isn’t worth the extra money – BD
movies are much more expensive than their physical DVD counterparts and
usually don’t offer many extras. There are some half-baked attempts to
give the format extra juice, such as BD Live, which allows you to download
extra content or navigate through menus while a movie plays. However,
these don’t offer nearly as much incentive as you might think and are
usually fairly dull. The most interesting attempt at melding a Blu-Ray
release with an actual game, last year’s Watchmen combo pack for the PS3
was probably one of the least impressive releases last year. The game was
unimpressive and the extra ‘go through the movie’ section felt more
like a glorified commentary track. As it stands right now, the format
already looks obsolete – despite its technical performance. It’s a sad
fact that even Sony itself seems to have little confidence in it. So, here
we go again. Despite the media frenzy, it seems like this format will be
another disappointment for Sony, following in the footsteps of the
mini-disc and UMD. Obviously, BD will continue to serve as the primary
storage medium for the PS3 console, but as a format for movies, it already
looks obsolete. Unfortunately, it looks like Blu-Ray might survive as a
niche format for a few years, releasing titles for a cult of followers.
However, most of the world has already moved on to the digital download
space.
(January 4, 2010) Examining
the new Gamepro
With much fanfare, the long-running
US
title Gamepro has finally released its
much heralded relaunch with former EGM editor John Davison running things.
The February 2010 issue has finally hit newsstands and after reading it,
we can say that the transplant has been successful. The new layout is much
cleaner and delivers a more sophisticated approach that feels more mature.
Gone are the pages of screenshots that gave the reader no context or
information. Instead, there’s loads of new features and columns. The
magazine’s tone has been improved right from the beginning with new
editor John Davison’s expansive editorial that points the magazine in a
new direction while honestly addressing Gamepro’s long-standing
reputation as a kids’ magazine. Gamepro’s news section has undergone a
significant change, and the offers more in-depth feature-length pieces on
a number of topics. Most interesting is a piece that goes behind the
scenes of One Big Game, a charity-driven development that’s attracting a
lot of attention from indie developers. The front section also gives a
look at upcoming games like Red Dead Redeption and Super SFIV, along with
other cool nuggets. One of the best additions to the front of the book is
Joe Rybicki’s Plastic Axe, with gives the music genre a much-deserved
focus and explores whether the genre has become over-saturated or if its
merely a case of expectations being too high.
After
these initial features, its on to the main event, which encompasses two
cover stories. The first is quite appropriate – a feature length preview
of Heavy Rain, a much-anticipated PS3 title that’s attempting to bridge
the gap between interactive gaming and film-making. An extensive interview
with creator David Cage gives plenty of insight into the what motivated
him to make this gothic thriller, while also giving the reader some
background into what influenced the game, its unique approach and why it
should stand out from this year’s releases. Another extensive feature
takes a look at the writing behind games, with a specific focus on comedy
writing that explores the difficulty and joys of developing titles with a
sense of humor. Gamepro then moves along to its feature-length reviews
section, which is surprisingly insightful. This issue sees Gamepro
abandoning it’s long standing Fun Factor scores for a more
straightforward star system, which is a welcome change. There’s a long
review of New Super Mario Bros. Wii by Tae K. Kim does more than just
describe the game and instead, looks at the reviewer’s ambiguity about
the game’s approach and its attempt to meld hardcore play mechanics with
casual features. This is followed up by an equally interesting review of
Bayonetta, that’s also quite interesting and illuminating – and much
more adult in tone than most of Gamepro’s readers are probably likely to
expect.
It’s a fairly interesting read overall and while there are a few layout
kinks, there’s still a noticeable increase in the amount and quality of
content included overall. It’s fairly obvious that a big part of
Gamepro’s new direction is in response to the deluge of 24-hour
information available on blogs and the net. Instead of trying to keep up
with this information overload, Gamepro has firmly planted its foot in
delivering longer, more interesting behind-the-scenes pieces. There are
numerous developer interviews in this issue and their perspective makes
for an interesting and engaging read. Its overall tone is more
sophisticated than Gamepro has been given credit for over the years and
also more consistent. Many
observers have questioned the viability of print game magazines, but this
first issue of the new Gamepro shows that the old form can still deliver
context and analysis in an entertaining format that offers gamers a deeper
look inside the industry.
