Boom! Headshot!!
PS3 Welcomes Netflix
Though this has no effect on the gaming side of things aside from possibly bringing in more PS3 owners, it is always a great thing to add a new service to the PS3. With the announcement and inclusion of netflix on the PlayStation 3, this just adds yet more value on this amazing system that is priced at ONLY 299. While I hope this does not mean the end to the PS Video Store, what it does do is give current PS3 owners and maybe perspective ones yet another reason to pick up the system and another reason to turn it on often. Hopefully the instant streaming selection is expanded but great news for Sony and the PlayStation 3.
Good Camera Work
It’s surprising how much a great camera can improve a game. Conversely, a bad camera can ruin a game, but we’ll talk about that later. After Playing Uncharted 2, I was reminded about how great camera work can be. A lot of the environments in Uncharted 2 have tons of detail, and it could be easy to get lost, but the camera always points you in the right direction. If the camera was any worse, these environments would be unnavigable and the player would always get lost. Some games with mediocre cameras then have to make the environments very simple for players, like many First-Person Shooters, but what can you do with camera that is permanently welded to some guy’s shoulders. The original Prince of Persia also had a good camera. It wasn’t great, but it made it easy to see the different ledges scattered around the room. A good camera seems to be most important in a platformers, but it shouldn’t be underestimated in third-person shooters or action games, either. It’s almost 2010, if a game dev hasn’t figured out camera control by now, then they probably shouldn’t be around in 2011.
Top Notch Voice Work
It’s so refreshing to see a developer hire proper voice actors for their games or for that matter actually have voice actors over scrolling texts. Too many times in games do we see the developer get really bad voice actors that do not fit the part that they are playing. But then you get games like Metal Gear Solid 4, Valkyria Chronicles, Uncharted 2 and Ratchet & Clank Future to name a few where you can tell they put some emphasis on the voice work and made sure that everyone sounded the part and made the gaming experience a better one. Especially in games where there is plenty of voice acting throughout the game, it makes it that much more enjoyable when the voices are top notch, it brings you that much closer to the story being told.
Gamefly
If it wasn’t for Gamefly, I wouldn’t have played half the games I played this year. With Blockbuster charging an arm and a leg for video game rentals, and games costing about the same as 7 meals from Panda Express, I couldn’t afford to play all these games without building up a mountain of debt. Yea, $22.95 a month for 2 games at a time seems expensive, but as long as I play at least 3 or 4 games a month, then I’m renting games for cheaper than Blockbuster would ever give them to me. The added convenience of getting a game a few days after its release and not having to go any further than my mailbox, is much better than driving down to Gamestop or Blockbuster, only to see that they are all sold out.
Well thats it for us this week but def. look out for Round 8 coming out as we own your face!
