On Gear Live: Samsung S95C: The OLED TV You Can’t Afford (to Ignore!)

  • STICKY POST

Find Our Latest Video Reviews on YouTube!

If you want to stay on top of all of our video reviews of the latest tech, be sure to check out and subscribe to the Gear Live YouTube channel, hosted by Andru Edwards! It’s free!

Check out the video featuring footage and interviews with developers of the upcoming spook-fest sequel, Silent Hill V. Development of the game has been handed off to The Collective, but they seem to be determined to return the game to territory more akin to Silent Hill 2 than the mixed reception of IV. They’ve got a pretty solid looking engine running that features a lot of the familiar effects now rendered in real-time plus they’ve worked to enhance the combat which was always kind of a series weak point.

Unfortunately the interview doesn’t dive too deeply into how well The Collective can manage to retain the creeping psychological unease Silent Hill is famous for (versus rival series Resident Evil‘s shock and gore approach).

Silent Hill V is due sometime in 2008 for PS3 and Xbox 360.

Click to continue reading Silent Hill V Video and Developer Interviews


Advertisement

Multiplayer, Globe with Halo 2 Lobby

A research paper from Electronic Entertainment Design and Research has been released that suggests that games with online support can be crucial to a game’s retail success. Not surprisingly, another way to boost sales is to create a quality game (defined as those with a 90+ score on Metacritic), with these well-reviewed titles outselling the average release well above 5-to-1.

While making good games typically means making good money, naturally, it is a bit surprising to see the report indicate that sales can be doubled by dropping in an online mode. With online games selling twice the number copies that offline titles do, it’s curious to note that over half of games released don’t offer even basic online support.

Click to continue reading Games With Online Multiplayer Sell More

Read More | Ars Technica

Sony’s PS3-exclusive Heavenly Sword hits stores next week, but if you really can’t wait that long, check out this new GameTrailers video.  We realize that video footage is no substitute for the real deal, but this one shows off some more of the counter-heavy arena fighting you saw in the demo.  Even better, you get some crisp direct feed footage of the big showdown with evil King Bohan’s slow-witted blob of a son.  And yes, the game still looks gorgeous.

Read More | Playstation.com

Latest Gear Live Videos

Kaz HiraiSony Computer Entertainment President Kaz Hirai has been speaking out about the including the reported development troubles some studios have had and ‘s commitment to the Japanese market.

Regarding the difficulty in development Hirai said he’s seen this before when the drew similar criticisms early in its lifecycle and that it doesn’t concern him. He said to The Official PlayStation Magazine that, in fact, he welcomes the news:

If they came back and told me, ‘PS3? We can do this in a heartbeat,’ that would be worrying because what it is telling me is that we’re not pushing the envelope from a technology standpoint.

In another interview with a Japanese website he said that developers working on cross-platform games ought to take advantage of the PS3’s extra capability to give PlayStation owners extra value. For example, “[W]ith the PS3, you’ve got the controller, or you could utilize the extra capacity provided by Blu-ray to add more levels, put on interviews with the developers or have your videos able to play in .” He said he understood why developers were choosing to work cross-platform considering the cost of making modern games.

Later in the same interview he tried to reassure Japanese gamers that they weren’t being overlooked:

Just because the foreign market is bigger than the domestic one, we don’t intend to take strategy of just making what would have been considered previously as ‘Western games’ and saying ‘We’ve got no choice but to do this’ to our Japanese users. If we did that, there’d be no point in having the Japan Studio.

Read More | Develop via Game | Life


Wii in Japan

In what has become a regular occurrence, Nintendo’s Wii handily outsold its closest console competition three-to-one in Japan for the month of August.  However, it is interesting to note that the gap between the Wii and PS3 has lessened.  In June, Nintendo’s console outsold the PS3 six-to-one and four-to-one in June and July, respectively.

Bloomberg reported the final August numbers as follows: Wii at 245,653, PS3 at 81,541, and the Xbox 360 lagging behind at around 11,000.  The Wii’s August numbers bring the console to a whopping 3.4 million units sold in that country since its launch last year.

Read More | Next Generation

Burnout Paradise Screenshot

Tom Bramwell has a preview for the upcoming that is surprisingly thoughtful and critically considered as far as previews go. He discusses the challenges faced by in re-inventing a popular series practically from the ground up and asks some pertinent questions where they ought to be asked. For example, when the topic of the Crash mode comes up and Criterion mentions that they have scrapped the original concept of the popular mode, Bramwell presses the point, getting Criterion rep Matt Webster to confess they don’t yet know exactly how it will all work out:

Asked whether they’re opting for a Burnout 3 approach of trying to manoeuvre the car in slow motion between power-ups and Crashbreakers, or a Burnout Revenge “golf swing” of perfect start and target cars, Webster admits it’s not all there yet. “We’re still throwing ideas around. I think we’ll be talking about it more in the coming weeks.”

The preview isn’t about sticking it to the Burnout devs, though, it reads more like a fan of the series seeing drastic changes and slowly coming to the realization that if executed properly, these could make for a remarkable game. Among the more exciting aspects of Criterion’s open-world approach to Burnout is the focus on seamless online play that works the way most gamers prefer, by putting the folks in your Friends list first.

Burnout Paradise is scheduled to hit shelves early next year for and .

Read More | Eurogamer

A and owner has discovered that Liar is playable via the PS3’s Remote Play feature on the PSP. This is the first time a based game is able to take advantage of the feature and is reportedly quite responsive and playable. It has even been suggested that in light of all the flak Lair has taken over its controls, the use of the PSP’s analog stick is actually preferable.

What’s most curious about the revelation is that it is a revelation at all. This sounds like something would have jumped all over, especially once the disappointing reviews started pouring in.

Read More | PSP Fanboy

New videos for the upcoming game show some interesting footage of the game’s combat including some idea of how the epic boss fights will unfold. The game has a remarkable style and art direction that is visible here especially in the brief pre-combat cinematics.

Folklore looks a little like crossed with and as players control one of two characters who use the game’s “folks” as summoned creatures to do the grunt work of fighting foes. A follow-up to Genji, developers Game Republic are promising better controls and an online mode.

Folklore is scheduled for a North American release on October 12.

Click to continue reading New Folklore Videos Show Gameplay and Story Bits


The video above, showing some of ‘s shooter , reveals some of the combat tactics in play later in the game once your character has joined against his former employer.

While the video looks nice and showcases some of the game’s more intriguing facets, even more intriguing is the announcement that the game is now slated to be a exclusive. Originally haze was to be a timed exclusive, hitting the PlayStation 3 first and then coming later to the and . Now it seems that developer is only working on the PS3 version, although Ubisoft isn’t conting those version out completely, saying only, “The official statement on PC and Xbox 360 is that these platforms are not confirmed.”

Read More | GameSpot

PlayStation Store
The has some new content, possibly due to the flood of owners hitting the service looking for their download. Among the other new items are Turbo HD Remix for $9.99 (comparable with the download of the same game made available last week) and online add-on for $9.99 or the whole game and add-on for $29.99.

Sony is also putting up some new demos for NASCAR 08, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2008 and All-Pro Football 2K8 plus additional videos and trailers. Warhawk is available from the PlayStation Store for $39.99 or as a retail box which includes a bluetooth headset for $59.99.

Read More | PlayStation Blog

Advertisement