» 2009 » January

I have not played the original version of GTI Club which was released back in the 90s by Konami for the arcade. I gave this PS3 demo a try and I must say the game was better than I expected. Though I still am not convinced if the full version is worth it or not. Call me cheap but I like to buy games that I think is worth buying, even if its only $9.99!

So just like the original arcade game, this HD version still have that heavy arcade feel to it, from the graphics as well as from the commentator who I find somewhat annoying. The demo is pretty short, you only get to drive one car, a Volkswagen Golfs, with the default color and race around one single map. The race is pretty short, but sweet. I actually played three times non stop. One thing I absolutely hate is the demo doesn’t allow you to restart a race, which is stupid. You have to go all the way back from the first screen, pick everything again and start the race.

 

Forget about realistic car physics, there isn’t any. You hit something? Don’t worry just keep driving. I don’t think you should care much, unlike GT5 because this is an arcade game, its no simulation. Without the real physics, its a different way of driving and boy its fun because you can go out there and drive as reckless as you want. I think that’s the beauty of this game.

During the demo play, I was able to find a short cut as well so I can only assume there will be more hidden places and short cuts for all the courses. AIs DO actually drive into these short cuts.

Even though the graphics are no Metal Gear Solid quality, it doesn’t have to be nor does it need to. I think the graphics are sharp and vibrant. Everything from buildings to reflection from the cars are nicely designed, again for an arcade game.

Again, although I won’t be getting this game, because I just don’t see myself playing this game for more than a day or so, specially with such a short demo. Another reason might be the fact that all my attention AND patience are allocated to Killzone 2 which is coming out end of Feb. But I still think this one is perfect for GTI Club fans as well as those that are looking for casual video gaming, or should I say casual video driving. Not sure how many courses there will be in the full version, there will be more cars (obviously) like Mini Coopers and Volkswagen Golfs etc. The full game also supports up to 8 players online. And there is this game mode called Bombtag which actually sounds crazy fun.

If you haven’t tried it out, get it on PlayStation Network and go for a spin!

Image Source: GameSpot

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This is actually NOT a joke. I just read this from CityNews that Tourism Queensland will be selecting 50 + 1 (wildcard) lucky people from 30,000 applicants. The annual salary is a whooping Cdn$122,000 for 6 months (that’s an average of 20k a month before tax!). In order to apply, you will need to create and submit a no longer than one minute video. They are looking for “someone with an adventurous attitude, passion for the outdoors and good communication skills” and also the following (taken from CityNews):

- Enthusiasm for the role
- Entertainment value (personality and creativity)
- Presentation skills (being media-friendly)
- At least one year’s relevant experience

All applicants will also need to have an in-person interview between May 3rd and May 7th.

You will probably ask no way, what’s the catch? I don’t consider the catches….well catches! First you have to move to Australia for 6 months to live close to a warm beach and almost everything is paid for such as a luxurious three bedroom, two bathroom home with kitchen, state of the art entertainment system, a dune buggy etc.

And what’s your job? Well, you have to blog about your stay everyday, collect some mail once a day, cleaning your swimming pool that has its own filtering so its easy task and finally feeding 1,500 different species of fish.

What’s worse is you have to blog about your tasks like scuba diving, snorkeling, sailing, hiking, picnicking and check the facilities at 25 of the island’s resorts by dune buggy everyday. Oh man, so much “work”! (sarcasm)

Obviously this is PR, a pretty attractive one too by Tourism Queensland. If you are looking for a job or just interested in trying out for a dream of a life time, I mean who wouldn’t? Visit Island Reef Job (the site is down or really slow though but I wonder why). And oh yea there’s no age limit and anyone around the world can apply. The deadline is February 22nd, so better start making that video!

Image and Article Source: CityNews

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Gametrailers.com has released several jaw-dropping trailers for Killzone 2, the long awaited first person shooter that will be, based on both Gametrailers.com and EBGames.com, released on Feb 27th. If all goes well, this will be the first game to get in 2009 for PlayStation 3.

This trailer shows off some amazing game plays as well as giving us a glimpse of piloting a walking tank with rocket launcher and machine gun for some crazy destruction. Although its a “cam” version, you can still no doubt see this game is pretty high quality. From the, in my opinion, realistic enemy deaths, to extremely detailed environments. But one question still haunts me is how good the AIs are going to respond to you and the environments, from what I can remember from previous trailers, the AIs are somewhat dull and stupid. I certainly hope I am wrong!

This one called Ballet of Death, also a “cam” version shows off how enemies die in a very artistic way with classy background music. You can see the death animations are nicely designed in slow motion.

And finally the amazing cinematic intro

There are many people saying Killzone 2 is going to be the Halo killer. While I believe this game is going to be blockbuster, unless something goes wrong….again, where a game cannot live up to the hype it generates. Either way, I won’t quite call it a Halo killer, since Halo its just as amazing and so its more like the PlayStation 3 version of Halo. Come to think of it, then it becomes somewhat insulting to all the PS3 fans in my opinion if I put it that way. Therefore I’m going to simply leave it as PlayStation 3’s own blockbuster and exclusive first person shooter. Can this be one of the signature games for PS3? I guess we will have to wait and find out when the full version comes out or if Guerrilla decides to release the rumored demo.

Movie source: Gametrailers.com

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This month is a bit quite in the gaming section, at least no new releases interest me yet. But today, I was lucky enough and found this game through BuzzFeed – Flash Element TD 2 created by CasualCollective. As you can tell from the title of this post, you might have figured out TD stands for tower defense. It plays just like PixelJunk Monsters, well obviously since both are tower defense games. And even though its free, I couldn’t stop playing it. Its that addictive!

Flash Element TD 2 has three levels of difficulty (easy, harder and ouch) to choose from and each with its own path to test your defense tower skills. I tried harder twice and I didn’t do too well. I was able to get to the 50th level on easy but could never beat the final wave of what the game calls them, creeps. The objective is simple, defend your elements by building/selling and upgrading different types of towers. If one of the creeps managed to steal one of the elements from you, you will still have a chance to kill it before it gets away from where it came from. The element will be dropped at where the creep died, once all elements are stolen, the game is over.

There are 5 main types of towers – arrow, cannon, sticky, sniper tower and fire tower and their corresponding stronger version, so a total of 10 towers. There are also five elements, each will allow you to build the corresponding type of tower. So basically you can build the type of tower by having that particular element. There is also a store where you can purchase three elements which are not given to you at the start of the game. You can pay to have your elements dropped anywhere on the path back to where they are suppose to be and you can increase your interest earned from finishing each battle. Also want to point out that the sticky tower, which is similar to the Ice Tower from PixelJunk Monsters

What this game differs, in a good way, is you can pay to dare which the next wave of creeps will have 2x more HP than normal and double dare, well take a guess, 4x more HP AND move faster! I have yet to try double dare as I have enough problem killing the creeps in the last few stages. I did manage to win a few dares at the start of the level where everything is still easy to kill.

There are two other small, but fun features that I also want to mention. These creeps speaks funny and there is an option to make them explode when killed! The corpse explosion really satisfies my sadistic side as the game puts it!

Flash Element TD 2 is one hella addictive Flash game. Anyone that is to tower defense games should give this one a try. The main concept is basically the same, defend! But some of the features really make this one shine.

If you’re looking for some more flash games there are some pretty addictive puzzle games out there. The Impossible Quiz is a pretty good one. It has a bunch of questions but the answers are not as easy as you might suspect. If you want more tower defense games, Bloons Tower Defense 3 is another good game. Think you’re up for the challenge?

Ever since I saw the Snake and Sephiroth Sackboy plush dolls from Gametrailers.com, I had been wondering where these or any Sackboys are being sold. Play-Asia came to mind immediately and they actually have them but unfortunately they are “Out of print / Out of stock“. And they don’t have a huge selection either and all the plush dolls have the same skin color and differ by a few little things like an eye patch or sunflower hat etc.

The next place was ebay, hoping someone managed to get their hands on some, either through import or from Japan. And I got empty search results.

Come on, I don’t see why Sony and/or Media Molecule, the company that developed this amazing game wouldn’t want to monetize by selling these adorable plush dolls. I don’t want to sound like a girl but I think they are perfect for my car’s backseats or the back of the rear windshield!

Image source: Play-Asia