Risen from the ashes

When Saw released in stores Japanese Mega Drive in October 1988, Ronald Reagan was President of the United States, the bloody war between Iraq and Iran had just ended with the loss of millions of lives and the Internet had just made the acquaintance of her first virus worms (called The Morris Worm, named after its inventor Robert Tappan Morris).

Since then I've passed the beauty of 23 long years and much changed in the world, indeed ... almost everything. Global crisis between pi or less serious, widespread oil stain d network with social networks and Sega that leaves the world of hardware, we arrived at the year 2011, which will be released a new game for Mega Drive. What is even more amazing that this is indeed the third title created by the American company Super Fighter Team.

They hear the name you could think of a group of young people who gather in the garage or basement and give us in with the coding, but cos. we are talking about a real company, which publishes its titles with packaging and printed manual. The previous titles of Super Fighter Team for Mega Drive have become much sought by collectors pieces.

The founder of the company, Brandon Cobb, explained that the team's name derives from an old taiwanese PC game, Super Fighter, of which he was avid fan. The same Cobb contact the production company, C&E, to ask if they had anything to the contrary regarding the opening of an entity which bears the name of their title.

The President of C&E, John Kuo admitted that perhaps the name would create confusion and some legal issue, Cobb explained. In the end, so I decided to call my company Super Fighter Team to honor the game but to avoid future problems. Start from scratch with a software development company with a company that undoubtedly deserves respect and unfortunately the first problems have not been slow to arrive.

A few years ago we were thinking of creating a sort of sequel to Super Fighter for the Game Boy Advance, but we were all young and inexperienced and there were never placed the problem of the budget until that time, Cobb explained. For pure combination came to know of an RPG that public C&E on Mega Drive only to Taiwan and saw this as a sign, as something that could save our project. The sprites and the wide lateral perspective make Star Odyssey a unique game in the RPG on the Mega Drive.

We thought to translate the game into English and then adapt it on GBA and use the proceeds to complete Super Fighter Advance. The company did not seemed difficult on paper but the same Cobb admits having underestimated the work that needed to be done.

We had to compare with hardware, the Game Boy Advance, which had a screen resolution lower, and we thought that this would ruin the end result ... for this we made a radical decision.

That decision was to bring the game on the same platform for which it was born, the Sega Mega Drive, designing a new cartridge, complete with packaging and manual. Pure madness? Nothing at all and the impossible happened exactly May 22, 2006: a new game for Mega Drive came to a distance of 8 years from the last!

Since then the team has produced a second Rpg for MD, titled Legend of Wukong, along with other minor titles for the Atari Lynx and Nokia N-Gage, but their most ambitious project called Star Odyssey.

Is a Japanese game known as Blue Almanac 1991, a turn-based Rpg with several traits in common with the Phantasy Star series, which was to be published by both cos in the West twenty years ago. Publishing rights in the United States were acquired by the Sage's Creation.

Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time

About six years have passed since the last adventure of Sly Cooper and the gang. Many, too many for a series that has delighted audiences PS2 with games of absolute quality and originality.

Sucker Punch meanwhile has turned his gaze elsewhere and collected with both hands his success with his inFamous. But we knew that sooner or later, somewhere, we would have seen coming out of the snout "raccoon" Arsenio Lupin wannabe.

The announcement of new Sly there has surprised more than occasionally. Really surprising was finding out that the development of the game in the hands of another team, or the Port Games. If you have never heard you understand, but these guys are not entirely unknown as in the past we are busy developing two titles for Wii and PS2 conversion of Secret Agent Clank. The world of Sly Cooper did not entirely unknown, recent Sly Collection indeed work out on their PS3.

"We know what many of you are thinking," said Glen Egan, a founding member of the team. "Who the hell are these and where the hell the Sucker Punch?".

"The idea of working on a new Sly we got when we saw that the guys of Sucker were totally absorbed by inFamous," said Egan during a recent interview. "We thought it would never have been able to achieve a new Sly and we had a craving to do so".

The fact that someone has decided to "resurrect" a franchise is not that important cos to pleasure and the guys of Port are well aware that you have in your hands the chance of life. After purchasing a PS3 development kit, the team is working on a prototype of the game, something very basic but which gives an idea of how he could make Sly in HD.

This prototype was then submitted to the attention of Sony, which was pleasantly impressed. Before you give the official, reliable power for the company to Port development team of the previous chapters collection of HD series ... so much to see as if they took out.

The work done was exceptional, as testified to the great success of the harvest, and so the development of Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time started to great. The new development team has decided to remain faithful to the original style, without attempting to dangerously daring adventures.

The backbone of gameplay will stay so that nice mix of action/stealth/exploration that we enjoyed in the past decade. Sly, Murray and Bentley will make their first real jump to high definition while maintaining contact with their origins. Someone might think that Port has made a wise move not to commit itself in new directions, but frankly their choice, in our opinion, dictated more by passion more towards this saga. Its substance or change it entirely could ruin it forever.

Review - White Knight Chronicles II

Although the first White Knight Chronicles cannot be certainly defined a masterpiece, some of you may remember clearly as its concept, met between a classic RPG and MMO, was interesting.

Defects of the product were unfortunately evident, and in this sense the controversial deployment choices that they make Western market with two years of delay not helped to hide them. At the same time were also its undeniable potential, that perhaps they could forge a sequel to meet the expectations of an ever more demanding and harsh.

Now that this sequel into my hands, ready to arrive on store shelves in a few days, it only remains, therefore, respond to a single, simple question: the guys from Level 5 are really able to improve or White Knight Chronicles II only yet another sequel, questionable for a franchise destined to be remembered more for his slack for its actual quality?

The first thing that catches eyes once inserted the disc into the console is the incredible amount of content made available by developers; as many of you already know, White Knight Chronicles II not only hides a new adventure but, instead, presents the first installment of the series in its entirety. Heh, you got it, two games for the price of one, offered together to enhance a narrative that is the real core of the experience.

WKC events have indeed beginning shortly after the end of the first adventure. How the evil, now in full possession of the power of the Sun King, declared war on the world after he declared himself emperor of the new Kingdom of Yshrenia, and Leonard, still in the company of his old friends, is having to fight to protect not only the Kingdom of Balandor, the archduchy of Faria and Greede free City, but also the rest of the planet from a threat that appears unfortunately unstoppable.

As well as the early history of WKC, also this sequel features a plot in Japanese style that stands out most for its clich that deep narrative, but there does not mean that any fan of the category will undoubtedly encounter in an overall enjoyable experience for over 30 hours of play.

By choosing to start a new game, you put immediately faced with a choice: get started with WKC 1, taking the control of a character from level 1, or directly from the second chapter, acting as a character to level 35.

It is certainly excellent news for anyone who missed the series debut on PS3 that demonstrates, among other things, as the history of this sequel is tied inextricably to that of his predecessor. For us at the same time makes it impossible not to wonder if the developers have decided to take their "opera prima" to omaggiarci or to hide our eyes any shortcomings of this sequel.

Review - Shift 2: Speedhunters Pack

Two or more riders compete over a simple straight in an attempt to push their car engines over the limit. The purpose? Arrive early at the finish line or in the case of Standing Mile events, determine the maximum high speed.

Essentially it is therefore very simple events, but there remains that find their way around it requires patience and dedication, especially as regards the right to use the engine of your car. Thanks to careful how valuable implementation, developers are able to ensure that events potentially boring and too simple are especially rewarding and stimulating ... in some cases even more of the traditional ones.

The key to this success, at least for myself, was the imposition of manual transmission (manageable with the right analog stick like a sequential gearbox) in order to encourage us to "play", in the sense of the word, with the engine of our car.

Speaking about the relationship of the speed we can in fact choose to wager everything on acceleration at the expense of a lower maximum speed, or if you find a good compromise between speed and progression, which can bring us a good boost cos initial and sustained pace throughout the short race that there is going to face.

In most cases our victories will depend on the power of the engine, with cars exceeding 1000CV for a speed exceeding 400 km/h. How to read an old spot, "the power without control": an engine too powerful to be s sbandi your car at the time of departure and that it is more unstable even in the face of light steering wheel movements. We say that, as well as in fact, you'll have to learn to know your vehicle before you can make the most of its potential.

Such speed not only represents a fascinating novelty for the product itself, but at the same time enhances one of the best and most characteristic feature of the experience, i.e. the subjective view, a real must to taste the real charm of these new disciplines.

Travel at an average of 300 km/h shoulder to shoulder with their opponents and their eyes fixed on the odometer, makes the extremely intense and exciting races, by perceiving the mile or, as in Drag, the quarter mile, well more long than it in fact. Do you have any idea how much this distance may be "infinite" if it runs alongside an opponent that doesn't seem to lose ground no matter how we try to push its own engine? an experience worth trying!

Overall, the events are unfortunately numerous (7 for each of the two types of race) but to make it all more interesting there are 14 new cars, including two unlockable cars, 6 unreleased tracks, different stylistically but structurally the same, and of course the implementation of the abovementioned two types of race even in multiplayer online. In short, even after the end of the two new leagues, you will have more constant stimuli to continue experimenting with the car at your disposal and their related structures.

Ultimately the Speedhunters Pack proves to be a content guardstones whose main merit to propose, through two disciplines dedicated experience guide basically unedited except for the old fans of the series (Most Wanted, Underground 2 and Pro Street Drag Racing brought in fact).

The singleplayer there terr unfortunately occupied for more than a couple of hours but there are concrete possibilities that, after dominating both disciplines, you continue to run and experiment in an attempt to get better times, especially, as mentioned, online. Because let's face it, ultimately the motor does not rotate perhaps around this?

The Speedhunters Pack available on Xbox Live for 800 Microsoft points and on the PlayStation Network for 9.99.

Defiance

The peculiar characteristic that Defiance aims much of its hopes of luck been announced well before this MMO would see from the audience.

This is an ambitious project created by the development team Trion, appreciated in recent times to the Great Rift, and Syfy TV satellite channel. Sar in fact the very first experiment in creating a universe of fiction narrated via two different media: television series events will affect the game and vice versa.

As if all this weren't enough, Trion is attempting a feat that has only known failures: succeed with an MMO'S on consoles, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

So far the experiments tempted by other software house in this regard were a failure. In some cases do not even have not even had the honor of having a real departure.Others, such as Huxley and The Agency, perish in hell now all development cycles too long, that presage a fate not exactly rosy.

The only recent example of MMO crowned by output represented by DC Universe Online for PS3, that seems to follow the success obtained by the console version of Final Fantasy XI, remained confined to Japan and United States.

Despite everything there, seem to many that in the near future they are going to attempt this road. The only manifestation of Los Angeles also Dust 514 was announced for PS3, a spin-off of Eve Online that come exclusively on PlayStation 3, and that affiancher Defiance in this risky, new cross-platform adventure.

I will give you any chance not Defiance of cross-platform game. All three platforms will use dedicated servers, as announced by Trion. Once a developer who does not promise more than you can keep: good sign

The earlier work of Trion, Rift, was seen as the usual fantasy game along the lines of EverQuest and World of Warcraft. When released, however, appreciated for its accessibility and the advanced technology used in its creation. Many of his admirers who daily enjoy networking, although the team still has a lot to learn, especially as regards the management of people playing.

For this new effort developers have decided to put to good use the experience gained, crossing some features of Rift with something like Gears of War.

Set on Earth, in the United States of a distant future, Defiance offers typical scenarios of our planet from alien vegetation to dotted. Managed by the player characters are infantry soldiers who control space, with the typical dual-stick shooter.

Looks so clear that creativity is one of the highlights of Trion, but fortunately, as we said at the beginning, this project involved a pool of experienced screenwriters of Syfy TV pointing to transform this game in the Battlestar Galactica MMO.

But let's get right to this storyline that became the backdrop to the game series. The story begins much earlier, in a prologue that sees a myriad of alien civilization to leave their Galaxy, looking for a new home. Of course this country will become the Earth, but it won't be easy.

Binary Domain

If there is such a thing in the future that will definitely hurt, this robotic research. They have produced many cos movies, comics, video games and books about the rebellion of the machines, to the point that if I were to not be in 2040 in a labor camp for humans to extract silicon, there would be almost evil. And just to confirm further that argument, here is another Binary Domain, add the line "My toaster wants to kill me" published by Sega and published by Toshihiro Nagoshi, Mr. Yakuza.

We are in 2080 and despite warnings of a brave reviewer of Eurogamer.it, the society relies almost entirely on the possiblity to robotics. The synthetics are used for any task that humans cannot or do not want more, by collecting tomatoes in writing, the business entirely in the hands of a few industrial giants and rule one, banned build robot resembling humans.

But when this rule is broken and Tokyo falls into hands of an army of robots, you need to quickly assemble a task force to investigate the situation, and nip at its root this revolt, hitting especially the direct responsible: the Japanese robotics company Amada Company.

The leader of this group we'll assault, and of course you will need to decide from time to time which bring companion, choosing between the classic stereotypes that go from silent recon soldier, and equipped with countermeasures, all heavy weapons specialist and little muscles, tactics and then customize its equipment. Every soldier can be customized in their features to maximize the damage, increase health points or secondary skills, or you can mix these features to get more or less balanced characters together.

The first interesting novelty of Binary Domains concerns the management of your relationship with the team. Every soldier has a "confidence index" that grow and cutting deep depending on how you will behave towards him ... as well as Bioware MOM teaches. For example, if you were asked to cover the right side, and you should be able to do so effectively, the confidence of those who I asked will increase, but if you were to take unpopular decisions or act too selfish, soon you will have to fight with people who do not trust you. With all the consequences of the case.

In Tokyo the 2080 earn the trust of a partner not only serves to take him to bed, but fundamental to obtain obedience in critical situations. A soldier with low degree of confidence they will refuse to take care of you if you are under enemy fire, and more generally of risking his life to save yours. Conversely, a faithful brother in arms will be ready to jump in the midst of bullets to offer coverage even in the most desperate situations, then you will do well to respect those who fight at your side.

During the presentation was also possible to see one of the first levels of the game, set in the District of Shibuya, now completely controlled by the enemy forces. Visually, the first thing that strikes are the colors of the game, or rather, their absence. All Binary Domain appears in a gray almost extreme and although there is no know whether this is intentional choice aimed at characterizing the play with tints "futuristic" or if it's just a feature of that level, when one thing for sure: it seems a title designed to meet the colorblind, but not recommended for depressed patients.

Review - The Sims 3: Generations

Over the last two games I found myself often have to review products that belong to The Sims franchise, and every time, that it were expansions or conversions are always amazed in front of the ability of developers to be able to tease the interest of the public while not changing in any way the tradizionalissimo concept of the series.

Generations, the last expansion of The Sims 3, only the most recent example of a philosophy of development is now so ingrained that winning, that is providing for Electronic Arts a success perhaps even higher expectations. The add-on in question, as its name suggests, focuses on the differences of our civilization, generational differences, of course, translate into behaviors, habits, passions, interests and ways to act completely different.

In a nutshell, for the first time in the series, we will be able to pass through, in detail, every single generation with everything that characterizes us. Can we maybe start as children grow, meet a woman and put up with her family, then enjoy old age in peace while our virtual offspring will start to take its first steps in our personal virtual reality.

In short, never as now the motto of the series, "Play With Life", has taken shape in a comprehensive and concrete cos. Activities available to each generation are indeed manifold and besides being very faithful to reality, all prove sufficiently engaging to arouse the interest of fans not to. You want some examples?

Having to do with a fantastic group of kids, for example, we will have to take part in masquerades in afternoons of childish fun; raising a bit of the "target" to make us capiter et jokes to our neighbors, to take part in festive nights made of alcohol and loud music; advancing a further generation covering the role of men or women, we go to Stag/Hen Parties, we will spend the afternoons in the company of any children and, more generally, we will have to behave in the same way our parents behaved, and behave still with us.

At the last stage, finally, to oldness, our days will be much more virtual and, if we had been able to create one before, and we entertain with children, why not, maybe even grandchildren.

Despite the greater importance given to specific generations, enhanced by the expected addition of new branding for all, we must stress, however, and as the content offered is perhaps less revolutionary than those offered by other expansions of the product.

Beyond the possibilities of living in a more detailed the various bands of et and save then maybe share your memories on FaceBook, the add-on in question proposes nothing really groundbreaking, confining itself to enrich the experience of The Sims 3; for some this may be more than enough to justify a further economic investment, but for others it might perhaps not be enough.

Personally I have to admit I really appreciated their Generations in the light of this extreme concreteness-in order to improve everyday life, rather than engaging in activities often ends in themselves, which was expecting a long-but no doubt that perhaps developers could do something extra under different points of view.