Talk about not writing about what I said I would… mostly because I’m playing too much stuff at the same time. I’m still planning about writing about some of the things I mentioned before (and more upcoming stuff), but it may come later.

So what’s coming in May… just a couple things, not a whole lot of high-quality stuff. 1 and a half PC releases (Edit: Now 2 and a half), 2 3DS releases, 3 PS3 exclusives, 2 Vita games, somehow 2 360 releases and 7 multiplatform games, (Edit: and an NES game). Those include either games I’m interested in, or games that may or may not be popular… Well, basically anything I feel bears mentioning, whether I’m personally hyped for it or not.

So let’s see if there’s anything interesting.

*Post updated to include an extra PC game, and an extra NES game*
*Post updated again on May 14th to add a new 360 game, what?*

Read more…

jobocan 3DS, Console, Games, games of the month, Handheld, NES, Nintendo, PC, ps3, PSN, Vita, wii, XBLA, xbox 360

I liked the original inFamous. While, at its basics, it was a standard cover-based TPS, it was very easy to not play it as such (you barely ever needed cover). It felt like a nice action game, and the story was generally pretty nice, with some replay value added through the whole good/evil system that granted different powers.

I was pretty excited for inFamous 2… Did it live up? Read on!
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jobocan Console, Games, ps3, Review

Ah E3, a magical time for gamers where all the hottest new games are revealed, new hardware is shown and, outside of the big keynote conferences, more games are announced and tons of games are playable on the showfloor, sometimes for the first time, for journalists top try out and comment on them.

But the biggest part of E3 is definitely the big keynote conferences, namely the ones by Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo. I have a few things to say about them after watching them, so let’s go! Keep in mind I’m only talking about the big 3 here, so there’s gonna be no mention of the EA or Ubisoft conferences (despite Ubisoft kicking Microsoft’s ass, and that JUST by showing Rayman Origins footage… but I digress)..

Read on! (wow, I wrote a lot more than I thought I would… Oh well)
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jobocan 3DS, Console, e3, Games, Handheld, impressions, News, Nintendo, ps3, Vita, wii, Wii U, xbox 360

Just because I haven’t played enough of it yet, and probably won’t for quite a while, here’s a quick impressions post for Motorstorm Apocalypse.

Just for a quick background. I played the demo for the first Motorstorm; the controls got me out of it fast, those vehicles could barely turn properly. Later I played the PSP Motorstorm. Hated it. Didn’t play the second Motorstorm on the PS3 since I didn’t like the other 2.

So when I saw this one… the idea of constantly changing environments instantly reminded me of Split/Second, which turned out being a pretty bad game with horrible rubberband AI and not much else. I decided to try it out though, hoping that it would actually end up being Split/Second done right.

Was it? Read on and see!
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jobocan Console, Games, ps3, Review

Let’s Bet!

Let’s Bet is a new feature where we’ll speculate on future events and see who gets as close to the truth as possible in the form of a contest. From time to time, it’ll only be for fun, but other times we’ll put something in play. This is all for fun’s sake and nothing more.

Specific rules are set  for each contest and everyone is welcome to try their shot at it from the comments. And if you beat us to it? I guarantee we’ll have a prize for you!

To participate: Post in the comments or send us a tweet @thesavepoints using the tag #NGPbet.

After years of speculations, Sony revealed yesterday in Japan its official successor to the PSP, the NGP (Next Generation Portable). Now it’s obviously an expensive piece of technology that’s going to cost a fortune to Sony to manufacture. Just the front screen seems to be worth $200+ alone  (5 inch OLED capacitive Touchscreen, 16 million colors, 960 × 544 pixels).

Will we have to leave saving our beloved one for another day to buy it? Will we have to sell our clothes? Will Sony get rich over the NGP?

Will it compete with the Nintendo 3DS or will it aim for the iPad/Iphone/Android market?

So let’s play a variation of price is right on this one.

How much do you think each of the Next Generation Portable SKUs will cost?

Since there’s speculations on two different units, one supporting 3G and the other one without 3G, let’s speculate on both prices.

Important: Missing one of the two prices will be taken as speculating the cheaper one will cost $0.

To determine who is the winner, we’ll add up the difference between the guessed price of both SKUs (w/3G, w/o 3G) and whoever has the smallest number wins.

We’re testing waters with this one, so the prize will be on me. (And if I win, no one gets anything!)

Prize for this contest: $30 certificate at the Amazon Online store of your choice (.com, .ca, .uk, etc.)

Note: Entry will end as soon as we’re aware that Sony will announce the price, or whenever they do announce it.

Tie-breaker:  We’ll find a way to settle tie-breakers shortly.

Edit: Tie-breakers will go to the earlier entry if it’s out of the staff. If it’s in staff, I’ll split it up. If it’s staff and public, I’ll give it to the earliest public entry and give something too to the winning staff member.

We’re expecting a price announced during the Sony E3 conference (man I wish I could be there again this year, it was pretty cool being there last year), so entries will be taken until June 4 11:59 PM. If that’s not the case, we’ll review the date.

See what  bets have been made  so far after the jump. Read more…

David A. Handheld, Let's Bet, psp

Well the E3 conferences are done. Some of them sucked, one of them was fucking awesome, and here I am to give my impressions on them.

I’ll comment about both things that were announced, and my impressions about the conferences as a whole. There were 5 big conferences, and I’ll talk about all of them, though I will just skim through the less interesting ones.

And I know that E3 isn’t done yet, more could be announced, but this is just about the conferences.

So read on!
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jobocan Console, ds, e3, Games, Handheld, impressions, News, Opinion, PC, ps3, PSN, psp, Rant, wii, xbox 360

Released last year in Japan, White Knight Chronicles is still on its way to North America.  Even if you’ve played the Japanese version, you might be interested to know that there’s a bunch of new online features coming in the NA version.

The Playstation Blog introduces us to the new features (GeoNet, Georama, and Subquests) today.

GeoNet

GeoNet is a social networking service for WKC online players, where you can meet and interact with other players to get set for multiplayer quests.

Does that mean they’ve added Facebook in WKC so that you can Facebook while you play the game?

Georama

Georama is where you can design your own “HomeTown”, which serves as a lobby for the online mode. There are 3 different fields to build your Georama in with 18 different combinations. You’ll drop in buildings, infrastructure, and even modify the earth itself. A 2D city sim this is not. Examples were shown where players could make hedge mazes or pixel art in the towns. What’s cool is you can recruit NPCs from the story mode to come live in your town. The NPCs have jobs of different levels, which will further change the town. Also, you and others can shop in the shops that you create. Up to a dozen players can enter one Georama at once, and from there you can head out questing. Hundreds (or more) parts and elements were shown – it’s pretty deep. Of note: North American players will be able to visit the Georama town of European friends, and vice versa.

I think just that alone would sell me the game. I assume this is akin to Dark Cloud’s town building system.  I love this stuff in RPG for some reason.  It was my favorite part in Breath of Fire II too.

Subquests

unlike the story mode, which centers around Leonard, you control your own avatar in this mode. As the story unfolds, quests will become available. When you are successful, you’ll accumulate points which will build your guild rank. The higher the rank, the more quests and weapons that are available for you. You can quest with friends or use the random matching system to be paired up with like minded strangers. 50 subquests will be available at launch, and new ones will be added along the way online.

And that should lengthen the game even more for those people enthusiastic enough to do more quests.

Finally, Jeff Rubenstein confirms voice chat and that it’ll be patched into the Japanese version, alongside what seems to be pre-made sentences you can use to communicate. The feature apparently is already existing in Rogue Galaxy (Live Talk feature).  The game will also feature at launch all the updates the Japanese version has seen up to today.

So there you have it folks, plenty of new bonus content for this game. Will it make up for the huge delay? You guys will be the judge.  As for me, this kind of sold me the game, whenever it’ll be out.

David A. News

Just looking at the game’s title you can’t help but wonder what it’s all about. Why a Batman reference anyways? No one knows. But this is a pretty fun game.

Read on and see what it’s all about. And don’t forget to check the Save Factor for the game!

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jobocan Games, Handheld, psp, Review

Well, all has been said and done… The three major conferences of E3 are over. So let’s go over what we saw!

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Wintrale analysis, ds, Games, Handheld, impressions, News, Preview, ps3, psp, wii, xbox 360