It was inevitable that gamers would compare PlayStation 3 trophies to the Xbox 360's achievements. While it's true that both reward systems add a considerable amount of replayability to games, it's still unclear which is superior.
The main thing that Xbox 360 fans can boast is that achievements are mandatory for every game available on the Xbox 360 and it has been that way since the launch of the system. It is a shame that the trophy system Sony implemented in many of its games were not available at launch and was not mandatory throughout most of 2008.
Hopefully, trophy support becomes mandatory in 2009, so that gamers aren't torn between buying games based on whether or not they support trophies. Regardless of which was around longer, trophies and achievements are very similar, and are in direct competition for gamers attention.
Here are the reasons why trophies should motivate more gamers to collect them all rather than collecting achievement... More »
Recently, I showed my Sony PlayStation Portable to my friend, Jeff, who's 38. He never had seen the hand-held game system up close.
He gazed in wonder as this 6.7-ounce "toy" played the movie "National Treasure 2" vibrantly on a 4.3-inch screen, then we toured a video game that looks and moves as impressively as any PS 2 game.
I showed him photos of Charisma Carpenter stored on the PSP. We surfed the Web (albeit slowly) using its internal WiFi. But he didn't get a chance to listen to music on it, iPod-style, though it has that capability.
All this, I told him, costs $200. And this new version, the PSP 3000 (released in October), comes with a built-in microphone so you can make Skype phone calls on it. Plus, the 3000's new LCD screen features less glare and much more screen detail than before.
Jeff experienced mild consumer surprise, or what I call PSP Envy. He asked if he could buy my PSP from me. No, of course not.
Another year has passed and in 2009 promises an amazing round of games from each platform and we are likely to see mobile phone gaming finally crack the North American market (whether it is through a Symbian, RIM, Windows Mobile, Apple, or Andriod powered phone), but before we can look to 2009 we have to evaluate 2008 and see how it matches up to the so-called Best Year of Gaming; 2007.
2007 was a year where there was no shortage of quality on any platform. With the DS sporting heavy hitters like Zelda, Puzzle Quest, Hotel Dusk, and Contra 4, the PC reclaimed top honors with amazing experiences like Call of Duty 4, Bioshock, and Crysis, but the Xbox 360 was the platform that took the crown with some of the PC offerings as well as it crown jewel, Halo 3.
Not to be discounted, the Sony platforms could not be forgotten either with titles like Uncharted, God of War 2 and Syphon Filter: Logan's Shadow. With such a heavy field of courter vying for our attention, wh... More »
Red Faction: Guerrilla is one of the marquee releases of early 2009 and easily one of The 60 Hottest Games of 2009. We caught up with producer Rick White to talk about life, the universe and well... everything Red Faction.
Gameplayer: How important is Red Faction in general, and particularly Red Faction: Guerrilla, to Volition?
Rick White: I think for me personally it extends a brand that a lot of Volition is known about, and so for us it’s been important to kinda go back to that root, of where Volition came from, and bring that IP back to life in a big way. I think strategically at THQ it’s as important as any other project, but I think it’s of more personal importance to the team at Volition.
Gameplayer: You’ve left one competitive genre to enter another, going from a linear first-person shooter to an open-world third-person shooter – how has the team responded to this challenge?
In this feature we’re going to leave all the fanboyism at the door.
Despite the fact that this is a PS3 Web site I do take some pride in knowing that we don’t pander to Sony and certainly don’t pretend Microsoft don’t exist: I personally keep both consoles (and a Wii) at the side of the television and of late it’s the 360 that has seen the most playtime, my recent acquisition of PlayTV notwithstanding.
Why? Perhaps it’s just a case of catching up with all the Xbox games I’ve missed whilst hammering the hell out of the PS3 for the last 12 months, catching up with Gears or getting involved with the whole Community Games angle, or perhaps it’s just nice to have the option to play all the games released.
But such whimsical fence-sitting doesn’t help with this article, which is intended to do just one thing: decide the victor of 2009. Yes, there’s going to be an awful lot of educated guesswork here, because naturally we don’t kn... More »
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