Sony has announced PlayStation Network PLAY “a new program showcasing four of the season’s hottest action titles.” If you’re thinking “that’s a terrible title”, you would be correct. However, the idea behind it is pretty cool. In short, it’s ‘Summer Of Arcade’ for the PS3.

After all the recent troubles Sony has faced with it’s PlayStation Network service, it really needs a boost. Microsoft’s ‘Summer Of Arcade’ program has had massive success over the past three years, and it’s about time Sony offered something similar. Sony will be offering fans four games (see below) at $15 (£10) a pop. Buying all of the four will net you a code for Payday: The Heist – a game that can be bought separately for $20 (£15) after the fact, if you don’t want to bother.

The four games are as follows:

• Street Figher III: Third Strike Online Edition – August 24th
• The Baconing (read: A new Deathspank) – August 31st
• Bloodrayne: Betrayal – September 7th
• Renegade Ops – September 16th

Those who purchase all four will receive a voucher code for Payday after purchasing all the games. You have to be 18 or older to use the service (or be willing to lie when you signed up for PSN). Other than this, very ‘Summer Of Arcade’ sounding offer, Sony have thrown in the following. Presumably this has been done to separate it from any similar promotions.

• You can pre-order each game. Pre-ordering will net you a theme.
• “PLAY also offers gamers a separate gift with purchase for each order made throughout the duration of the program” – Your guess is as good as ours.
• PlayStation Plus subscribers get 20% off each game in the promotion.
• It doesn’t look like there’s any exclusivity deals on any of the games, except Payday which has already been announced as a PS3 exclusive title.

You can get full details by looking at the press release.

Jaffe went on to say that, although the game is far from bad in it’s current state, he made sure to assure fans about the state of the project: “If we shipped Twisted Metal tomorrow — going off the response from folks who have played it — I assure you, it would never be a bad game.”

Twisted Metal is set to be a highlight at this summer’s big gaming conventions, kicking off with GamesCom in less than two weeks and PAX Prime. We’ll be bringing you all we can from Cologne, so be sure to look for that.

My original intention was to write a review of Duke Nukem Forever. Going in I expected to be writing some not so nice things about his latest outing, but I was certainly going to give it a fair shake first. The reason I haven’t written a review is quite simple, I didn’t finish it. I didn’t finish it because that game is broken to the point that it made my head hurt.

The opening level was just as I remembered: Vulgar and unfunny, with all the classic Duke Nukem tropes. After tossing around a turd for a while and drawing dicks on the whiteboard, I got on with the mission. After killing my large, cyclops, alien foe and kicking his eye for a long range field goal, I found that Duke had just been playing his own game and, at the same time, getting head from two teenage girls (complete with school uniforms) named the Holsom twins. The game’s humor was already grating on me. Even the self referential stuff wasn’t enough to save it. With a groan, I continued on and actually got quite far. Eventually the ten-year-old textures, bad mechanics and tasteless humor got to me. I was done.

Now anyone that knows me, reads my stuff or listens to the podcasts I do, knows that I can be pretty tasteless when it comes to humor – I did say I drew a dick on that whiteboard at the opening of the game – so that stuff really shouldn’t bother me. The problem Duke suffers with is that everyone in the game thinks he’s awesome. If Duke’s cheesy, vulgar one liners got shot down by everyone it’d be a lot easier to take. The funniest moment in that game is Duke’s reaction to you picking up the turd from the toilet in the first level. “What am I doing?” he asks, as you run around the level, tormenting clueless AI with your little brown friend. This is a problem that a lot of people ran up against, and was quite easily solvable. Instead of making Duke Nukem the most awesome guy in the world, turn him into a hack that no one cares about. Not only would it make the character more interesting, but it’d be more than accurate.

One thing that really couldn’t be helped (not unless you scrapped the game and started over again) is the technical things that make Duke Nukem Forever so awful. It’s clear from playing through three-quarters of this game that some of it was made six months ago, and some of the stuff had been there for years, maybe even decades. I don’t know what 2K or Gearbox were expecting when they agreed to release this relic, but they can’t have been thinking positively. Sure, the nostalgia factor is through the roof – I certainly wanted to see what this Frankenstein’s monster of a game was like – but if they expected a high selling, critically acclaimed, masterpiece, they were clearly deluded. The straw that broke them camel’s back for me was an underwater level. It’s common knowledge that underwater levels are the worst part of any videogame, right alongside escort missions and bad voice acting. So having a stretch of sequences with under water ‘puzzle solving’, in a game that controls like shit, was not a smart option. In all honesty, I really think Duke Nukem: Forever should’ve been left on the scrapheap.

Curiosity was what brought Duke back from the dead. After all this time, people wanted to see what had become of this game. Even after everything I’ve said, from a business and consumer standpoint, releasing this game was certainly a good idea. It gave curious consumers, like myself, a chance to check out a game that ‘s been in development longer than a generation of videogame enthusiasts have been a live. From a business standpoint, 2K could use that curiosity  to try and get back some of that lost cash. They just went about it in the wrong way. Pitching this as a full priced game wasn’t a good idea. A lot more people would’ve tried this out had it been released at a ‘budget’ price point. Even more, in my opinion, would’ve jumped at a chance to download it at the standard PSN/XBLA price point.

Duke Nukem: Forever had nothing going for it, but nostalgia and the morbid curiosity of gamers. It should have been chucked on the scrapheap a long time ago. If you’re one of those people that really wants to play this game, go ahead, but just know that this isn’t something you’ll want to play for long.

There’s something about open-world games that just captures my imagination. I want go everywhere, climb everything and see everything these sprawling locales have to offer. The problem is, with most games of this ilk, the experience tends to get dull pretty quickly. I’m happy to report, that isn’t the case in inFamous 2. Sucker Punch has created an interesting and vibrant game, worthy of superhero status.

If you’ve played inFamous before (if not, then you need to correct that), the sequel will feel very familiar. inFamous 2 is all about evolution. Everything that worked well in the original game now just works better. Cole is more fluid when traversing the world, the way he animates is vastly improved and stringing attacks together works much better. That doesn’t mean there’s improvements across the board. Some of the same problems I had with the first game are still present and they’re annoying as ever; Cole being locked into an animation being my biggest gripe. When a game throws so many enemies at you at once, being able to break from animations is a necessity. I was killed far too many times through not being able to escape from an animation and, after a while, it got a little tedious. The tedium increased when I was repeatedly killed in one hit by a hidden bad guy wielding a rocket launcher. A note to developers: trial and error game play is never fun.

Aside from a few issues with animation and over eager AI, inFamous 2 is a blast. The game is jam packed with things to do. All the side missions, blast shards, dead drops, random crimes, and user-generated content is more than enough to keep you busy. Not forgetting that there’s a full story here too, and it’s one you won’t forget in a hurry. Unlike the first game, the difference between good and evil is not just about preferring red over blue. Your game will be vastly different depending on which path you choose. Not only will your ending be different, but your powers will differ too.

We all know that it’s the super powers that make a superhero (or villain) great. Being able to call down a lightning storm comes as standard in inFamous 2, but your choice of allegiance might come down to whether you want to freeze enemies in their tracks or set them alight. Like a lot of the choices in the game, it’s a fairly binary decision. You choose one side or the other, there’s no grey area. Whichever route you take, you’re guaranteed a good time. It often felt that some of the cooler powers were reserved for the villainous among us in the original game. In inFamous 2, you’re getting a different, but equally fun, experience.

That’s what Sucker Punch have done so well. Not only did they create a great sandbox to run around in, they populated it with enough stuff to keep players entertained and coming back for more. Granted, it’s not the most perfect game in the world: The sound design is a little off at times and the side missions can become a little repetitious, but it’s very rare that a game will grab me in the way inFamous 2 did. I spent hours experiencing everything that the game (and New Marais) and I still want to go back for more. If that’s not a testament to how good this game is, I don’t know what is.

9.5/10

Better late than never, we have Barlow and Ryan talking all things E3. Yes, the duo even delved into a little of what Microsoft and Nintendo had to offer at this year’s show in Los Angeles; though the show was still firmly rooted in Sony-based banter.

Tired and drained from following a week’s worth of industry news, the show is a little shorter than usual, but it’s still one you should enjoy.

Fans Of The Genre #2: Great Job, Jeremy (stream/download)

It’s another year and, yet another, Electronic Entertainment Expo has passed though. It’s left those working the event stressed and overworked, and gamers around the world chomping at the bit. For those who didn’t get chance to see the show in person this year (ourselves included), here’s a time-lapsed video showing exactly what happens when E3 takes over the Los Angeles Convention Center.

Source: LA Times

After a day of excitement and announcements, everything has drawn to a close. Sony closed out the day with, arguably, the best press conference. Though it’s not like Microsoft, EA and Ubisoft were firing on all cylinders. As per usual, Jack Tretton was Sony’s master of ceremonies – guiding us into each big announcement and the occasional bit of filler. Unlike Jack, I’m not going to be here for an hour telling you everything that came out of Sony’s press briefing. It’s far too late/early for that.

Sony Is Sorry

Sony’s first big announcement of the show was that it’s sorry for the recent PlayStation Network outage. Speaking on behalf of everyone at Sony Computer Entertainment, Jack Tretton made it clear that the company want to move past this and deliver quality content on consoles and handhelds.

Sony Provides Cheap 3D

Sony was pushing 3D technology hard at their conference this year, often requiring the audience to put on 3D glasses. Jack Tretton commented on the price barrier on 3D and how Sony wanted to break that barrier down. To do this they’re releasing a PlayStation-branded television. The 24-inch set comes with: one set of 3D glasses, a HDMI cable and a copy of Resistance 3 for $499. As a gamer living in a tiny room, this deal is rather appealing. They also announced that the 3D glasses would retail at $69.99 a pair and would allow players to see separate images with one TV. Madness!

Uncharted 3

Speaking of “quality content”, Jack threw the show over to Evan Wells and Cristoph Balestra from Naughty Dog. Wells showed off exactly what Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception was all about. Though it didn’t quite match up to the massive helicopter battle shown off for Uncharted 2 at E3 ’09, this sequence – in which Drake stealth kills his way through a sinking cruise liner before being consumed by the current – was really impressive and, I’m sure, pretty indicative of what we can expect from the game.

Announced alongside this was a partnership with Subway, which would grant users access to Uncharted 3′s full multiplayer suite before the release of the game. It’s a pretty unprecedented move, but one that could pay off for Sony and Naughty Dog.

Resistance 3

Sony’s other big ‘threequel’, Resistance 3 was also demoed. Having this follow Uncharted might not have been the best of moves considering the reception of the crowd towards the former. However, I was impressed with how good the game looked and the idea of small resistance camps, spread around America, really got my attention. Sony also announced a Move bundle for the game, which includes: The game, a Move want, a Navigation Controller, a PS Eye camera and a Sharpshooter accessory for $150.

More HD Collections

Jack stressed how much people loved Sony’s back catalog before announcing that God Of War: Chains Of Olympus and God Of War: Ghost Of Sparta would be bundled together, remastered in HD and re-released as God Of War: Origins. Team ICO Collection (ICO and Shadow Of The Colossus) were also mentioned. Both of these collections will be released in September.

Speaking Of Move…

A number of new Move games were demoed. All of these demos were pretty awkward, but they didn’t dwell on motion gaming like Microsoft did earlier in the day. Highlights included an NBA 2K12 demo given by members of 2K Sports and, Los Angeles Lakers star, Kobe Bryant. This was the most shambolic of the Move demos. It was followed by a new fantasy action game developed by the team behind Sports Champions. It looks like a re-skinned version of that game with an added story and the ability to move your character around environments. Didn’t look bad, but not all that intriguing.

BioShock: Infinite

One of motion gaming’s biggest critics, Ken Levine from Irrational Games came out to debut a new trailer for BioShock: Infinite. Guess what? It’s awesome. After the short trailer, Levine announced that the game would be getting Move support. He did stress that this would not compromise the game for the ‘core’, but would bring more people to the world of Colombia. Before leaving, Levine also teased a BioShock-related announcement for Sony’s new handheld.

Dust 514

The only, brand new, exclusive game announced for the PlayStation 3 at this press conference was Dust 514. This new sci-fi shooter is being developed by Studio CCP, the team behind EVE Online. This new game will tie into the PC MMO. Move support was also announced. There was a trailer, but no live demo.

PlayStation Vita

After a little more filler content in the form of an inFamous 2 trailer (why?), the original StarHawk announcement trailer (again, why?) and a short Sly Cooper: Thieves In Time teaser, Kaz Hirai took the stage to talk about Sony’s new handheld. The NGP codename has now been replaced with PlayStation Vita and it appears it’s got a lot of backing from both Sony and the third parties. A short sizzle reel showed off some of the previously announced titles. Uncharted: Golden Abyss was demoed live, this was followed by a new ModNation Racers and the announcement that Street Fighter X Tekken would be released on the system. This too was demoed and showed off that inFamous’ Cole McGrath would be added to the roster. LittleBigPlanet – with added touch functionality – was also announced and shown off in a trailer.

After the demos, Kaz reappeared to announce that the base model (WiFi only) of the new handheld would be released for $250/ €250 by “Holiday 2011″. This is a great move for Sony, as it puts it level on price with Nintendo’s 3DS. The announcement of a 3G enabled model was made. That iteration will be $299/€299, with a data plan exclusive to AT&T in USA. Needless to say, the boos ensued. Kaz just stood there, grinning and bearing it.

And that was that for Sony. There was no big ‘wow moment’ like there’s been at past E3′s, but they definitely had a decent showing. The focus on exclusive software is a big plus, the cheap access to 3D content is a great move and the price point of the PSV is certainly the star of the show. Nintendo are going to have to have something big with ‘Project Cafe’ later on today.

No PSN downtime apology

Many out there think that the beginning of Sony’s E3 press briefing will contain an apology for the problems the company has had keeping it’s online doors locked. I, however, do not. Sony has already apologised for the problems caused and the possible damage done to customers and business associates. Dwelling on this during the press conference is not a wise move. E3 is all about showing how things have been improved, about what’s coming next. Dwelling on the latest scandal is not going to do them any favours. I do believe that the issue has to be acknowledged by Jack Tretton in his opening monologue, but a full on apology is not necessary, even with all the mainstream press in the room.

The Last Guardian will be demoed/Team ICO Collection dated for North America

Team ICO’s latest game is perhaps the most highly anticipated game on the PlayStation 3 and, their previous two efforts, ICO and Shadow Of The Collosus are beloved by gamers across the world. Despite it being mostly unknown outside of the gaming enthusiast community, The Last Guardian will move systems. It’s been far too long now, this game needs a big E3 blowout. Following on from this, the Team ICO Collection – HD versions of the developer’s last two games – will be given a release date for North America, following on from the Japanese announcement last week.

The NGP will not be renamed ‘PS Vita’

Though ‘Vita’ was used as a codename during the development of Sony’s new handheld, the console’s official name will not be ‘Vita’. Following the trend of Sony’s other systems, the new device will be named the PSP2. Some say that, from a business standpoint, the ‘PSP brand’ is now synonymous with failure in the West. However, it is a brand that consumers know. Calling this system anything other than a PlayStation Portable could be a very bad move for Sony.

Rockstar will debut the first trailer for Agent

With LA Noire finally finished, Rockstar has only Max Payne 3 for people to be excited for. Sure, that logo for Agent was pretty damn exciting (or perhaps it was just “Rockstar Games” that had people excited?), but a trailer for that game would be a really big thing for Sony. The fact that it’s an exclusive game just sweetens the deal even more. I don’t think we’ll see gameplay, but a trailer along the lines of what we saw at LA Noire’s debut would be enough to get people in a tizzy.

Kevin Butler will not appear

Though Kevin Butler is, arguably, the most recognisable face at Sony, he will not appear at this year’s E3 press conference. A veil of seriousness needs to be applied by Sony this time around, so an appearance from the fake executive might not be appropriate. Not only that, but the joke of him appearing at the conference might just feel like a repeat of last year. He will appear in video form, but an actual ‘personal appearance’ doesn’t seem to be on the cards.

Well what do we have here? Is this a new podcast? That’s exactly what it is! This is Fans Of The Genre a new PlayStation-centric podcast from the editors of ThePlayStatioNetwork. Seeing as we work with a skeleton crew nowadays, it’s been hard to keep up with the masses of news each day, so we decided to start a new podcast to deliver your news in a big chunk at the end of each week. Cool, right? Enjoy!

This inagural episode didn’t exactly get off to a flying start. We were a man down as Ryan had gone AWOL so we (Anthony Barlow and Ian Ball) started the show without him. We talked about the awesomeness of LA Noire, Ian gives us the lowdown on DiRT 3, we discuss ‘Call Of Duty: Elite’ and how great it is to have the PlayStation store back.

We also talked at length about Sony’s plans for E3 and made some pretty bold predictions as to what we were going to see. At this point Ryan had joined us, which was nice of him. Why not listen to three nerds struggle to think of a franchise Sony could bring back.

Fans Of The Genre #1: Lazarus, The Phoenix & All That Shit

(Download/Stream or Subscribe on iTunes)

We hope you enjoy the show and please feel free to submit any questions and queries to anthonyb@theplaystationetwork.com

Clements!

In a world where Call Of Duty and Battlefield dominate the multiplayer shooter market, it’s going to take something fresh and interesting for players to turn to another game. This is where Brink was supposed to step in. A multiplayer focused first person shooter, with an interesting art style and a different take on objective-based gameplay. Although interesting in concept, Brink is a game that fails to deliver on almost everything it had going for it.

It’s clear that, developer, Splash Damage tried to make Brink completely different from all the other hyper-realistic shooters on the market. It was immediately identifiable, it’s caricatured art style and steampunk-esque, futuristic, setting making it stand out from the cluster of other first person shooters out there. It does this pretty successfully, but suffers from major doses of repetition. Whilst the characters and environments differ from other games on the market, they’re not all that different from one another. In short: Everything in Brink looks kinda the same. The missions set in the near-pristine, white utopia controlled by the Security all look like they were set in the same mall, and those set in Resistance controlled areas don’t seem to leave a single, rusty brown, junkyard. Each mission blurred into the next, with boredom increasing with every completed objective.

This wasn’t helped by the tiny amount of story, inserted before and after each mission. The cutscenes did nothing to peak my interest in what was going on and, in all honesty, I wasn’t expecting much. That being said, it would’ve been nice to have a little more motivation than ‘these dudes are the enemy, go and shoot them in the face’. It’s a shame, because the story definitely has potential. The idea of a Resistance movement/trying to suppress a totalitarian regime has a lot of scope, and whilst have been on the generic side, it would have been more interesting than what’s there. The fact you play as a nameless, somewhat faceless, nobody didn’t help me connect to what was going on either. The dual campaign – one which is exact same story told from the two opposing sides – did more to hinder the experience than anything else. Playing through this thing twice was something I didn’t want to do.

That’s not to say that the mechanics are bad. In fact, from a gameplay perspective, Brink is pretty sound. The movement of characters works well and it’s easy to differentiate between the three character ‘sizes’. The smallest character model can parkour his way through the environment with ease, whilst the heaviest of guys will take a little longer. As with almost everything here, this is flawed too. The game is fairly well balanced, but choosing the mid-range character model makes a play through a little too easy. The movement itself is great. I loved the feeling of freedom when running around the environments, clambering over (and under) any obstacle in my way. The main problem lies in the gunplay. Whilst you can differentiate a machine gun from a pistol and a pistol from a shotgun, the weaponry within each category feels exactly the same.

This doesn’t help in a shooter that wants to compete in the big leagues, especially when it comes to online multiplayer. With the whole campaign being playable with and against other players, the distinctions between the weapons needed to be greater than it is. Though I don’t know how many people are going to stick with the game. The objective system is a great feature and I really enjoyed choosing which objectives to take on based on my class. However, I found that teamwork is a necessity if you want to win. This is something I wasn’t getting from my fellow players or from the AI bots.

Brink is a very flawed experience, but it had potential. There’s mechanics here that I’d love to see implemented elsewhere and the art style really impressed me. Had it had a little more time spent on it, it could’ve been really special. As it stands, the gameplay isn’t all that fun, the online is inconsistent at best and the environments get very old, very fast.

6.5/10