One of the best arcade games ever made

Last November I mentioned the announcement that the Simpsons Arcade Game would be coming to XBLA, and with that being said, I assumed it would come to PSN. I have heard no new information since then, such as a release date for the XBLA version, the confirmation of a PSN version, or anything else. Then today the PlayStation Blog broke the news. Not only is The Simpsons Arcade Game dropping on PSN next week, it’s going to be FREE to PS+ members!

I was initially going to purchase it on XBLA simply because I wouldn’t have been able to wait around for the PSN version. Now that it’s coming out next week, at no cost to me, I’ll be all over the PSN version. You can bet your bottom dollar I’ll be online Tuesday night taking on Mr. Burns’ well-dressed goons and gigantic obese wrestlers as I fight to bring Maggie back home.

Better than the original

I enjoyed playing Trine, but with it’s lack of online co-op I was forced to play it single player. When Trine 2 came out, I was hesitant to make the purchase even though I liked the first game and the sequel sporting a shiny coat on online co-op. However, when two buddies of mine from Co-Optimus purchased it and told me they needed a third, I gave in to the peer pressure and made the purchase. I’m glad I did, because Trine 2 is definitely one of the best downloadable titles of 2011.

Let’s get a few things straight. Firstly, it is a sequel to the original game, so the knight, thief and wizard return to once again save the kingdom. As I already mentioned, Trine 2 supports online co-op, so up to three players can meet up online to take on the puzzles that the game throws at you. In case you’re not familiar with the Trine series, let me give you a brief rundown: there are three characters who each have several distinct skills that are needed to get through the puzzles littered about each level. Along the way you are on the hunt for XP potions which will enable your characters to level up and unlock addition skills that are needed to get through levels. The knight has a sword, hammer and shield and is good for blocking projectiles, breaking down walls and beating down the baddies. The thief has a bow which can be used to take on enemies safely from a distance and she also has a grappling hook which can be used to access areas that other characters cannot. The wizard is not what you would expect, as his spells are limited to creating wooden objects (boxes and planks) and levitating objects, including obstructions, other players, and enemies. The three characters have to work together to make it to the end of a given level, and often times a single puzzle may require several different abilities from each character. A great example I encountered when playing is that the thief (me) had to grapple onto a platform of water to make it spill to one side. Then the wizard player had to levitate a box he created to angle the water flow off to one side. Finally the knight had to use his shield to further direct the water onto a tiny little plant that then grew, allowing us to climb it to the next section.

The game is much prettier but this is the best image I could find with three players

Trine 2 doesn’t just improve on the regular formula by allowing you to play long distance (and supplying top-not voice chat quality) as there are several key improvements over the original game. One of the first things I noticed was the visuals and audio. Trine was one of the best-looking PS3 games out there, but Trine 2 even blows that away. The character models are nice and crisp and the environments are extremely sharp and colorful. It’s really quite an artistic treat and you will find yourself taking a break from the puzzles to take in the scenery. Another great improvement is that there is no longer a magic bar. In Trine the characters, especially the wizard, were limited in what they could do by having a magic bar that was expended as they used their skills. This bar is gone in Trine 2 so the wizard can make as many boxes as he is able to without having to worry about running out of magic. Also, there is A LOT more combat in Trine 2 which gives the game some exciting moments that were missing from the original game. Luckily all three characters can hold their own to some degree, even the wizard; he can levitate enemies and either move them in front of enemy archers or other environmental hazards to finish them off. Oh, and there are a number of boss battles in the game also, which is never a bad thing. One of the only things I can say that I missed from the first game are the artifacts that you could find to boost character stats and abilities. These collectibles have been replaced by concept art and weird poetry, which are great and all, but not as cool as finding something that helps you play the game better.

The colors, Duke, THE COLORS!!!

I already mentioned how the co-op is improved with the online capabilities, but I also have to give kudos to Trine 2 for making co-op trophies. These aren’t trophies like “complete x levels in co-op” or “you and a partner do this.” Instead, most of the trophies require only one character to do something, yet will reward all players with the trophy. For example, there is a trophy for doing a 360 degree grapple spin with the thief. I did it at one point, and as I got the trophy my two friends also received the trophy, even though they weren’t playing as the thief. Not only does this make the game a great co-op game, but I would have to say it’s one of the easiest games to Platinum on the PS3.

“You get that trophy, I’ll get this trophy, and we’ll all live trophily ever after”

Trine 2 is an example of a game that improved on a formula that seemed to be top-notch during it’s previous outing. The attention to visual detail, the inclusion of online co-op, the end of a magic bar and more combat are all the ingredients that Trine 2 needed to surpass the original. I’ll admit that it is a bit steep now at a price of $15, but if you have two friends to play it with I would say it’s totally worth it. It may not be the longest campaign (we probably finished it up within under eight hours) but it is a heck of a lot of fun if you’re playing with two partners that you know and get along with. If you want an artsy fartsy puzzler (with a ton of gold trophies and an easy Platinum) then Trine 2 is the game for you.

]]> http://www.bigbadbob113.com/2012/01/11/psn-review-trine-2/feed/ 0 http://www.bigbadbob113.com/2011/11/09/the-simpsons-arcade-game-finally-being-ported-to-xbla-probably-psn/ http://www.bigbadbob113.com/2011/11/09/the-simpsons-arcade-game-finally-being-ported-to-xbla-probably-psn/#comments Wed, 09 Nov 2011 23:07:35 +0000 Rob http://www.bigbadbob113.com/?p=5787 The Simpsons Arcade Game FINALLY Being Ported to XBLA…Probably PSN

Post from: BigBadBobs Wild World of Stuff

Within the past few months, more and more games are requiring an “online pass” to play online. Granted, the code is provided in all new packages of the game. So you run into this problem when you either buy a game used or rent a game, in that you will have to pay $10 (every one I’ve seen has gone for $10 so far) in order to play online. Is this fair to gamers? The game companies think so.

The Defense:

Game developers believe they have a right to charge people who did not purchase the physical game $10 to access the online co-op and multiplayer features. They argue that they should be properly compensated for the time and effort they put into creating and maintaining these modes.

My Argument:

This is complete and utter malarkey. I mean, do these companies really believe I’m buying this bs? Sure, they’re case sounds “fair” to the developer, but the fact is that it’s not the truth behind it. This is really just the developer’s way of snagging a portion of used game sales, pure and simple. Stores like Gamestop aren’t going to come right out and start charging consumers a “used game fee” that goes directly to the developer. Instead, the developers get their kickbacks by requiring owners of second hand games to pay to play online. This doesn’t happen with other items in the world today. If I sold my crappy Ford Focus to some guy, or even if I traded it into the local dealership, Ford isn’t going to see a drop of that money.

Let’s look at it this way too. I purchase a game new on release day for $60. I play it, enjoy it, and then trade it in a few months later to Gamestop for $18. They put it on the shelf and sell it for $30, and the guy who decides to buy that game for $30 is going to have to pay $10 more in order to play with his buddies online. How the hell is that fair?!  Oh, and don’t get me started on if you purchase a used copy of a new release from Gamestop. They will charge you from $45-55, and then you will still have to buy the online pass. You’re better off buying a brand-spanking new game!!! The developer got his money when I bought the game new…just because someone bought it used doesn’t mean they have the right to collect a “fee” for a third party sale. No way, Jose.

How This Has Affected Me: 

This online pass issue has already hit me close to home and ruined my gaming style. When Resistance 3 came out I rented it from Gamefly and couldn’t wait to play the campaign online with a buddy. I was shocked to find that Resistance 3 required one of these foul online passes in order to do that. Mind you, I wasn’t playing a separate competitive mode…I wanted to play the single player campaign through with a friend. There was no reason whatsoever that I should have to pay $10 to do that, and I didn’t. Did I enjoy Resistance 3? Heck yeah I did, but I guarantee I would have enjoyed it a bajillion times more if I had a buddy by my side the entire time. And don’t try arguing with me that this is different because I rented the game…the developers get their money when Gamefly or Blockbuster purchase the copies they rent out.

Now that this is becoming a regular fee to play games online, it’s going to really impact my future gaming. I was going to rent Lord of the Rings: War in the North to play the three-player online campaign. But guess what…you can bet your bottom dollar EA is going to require an online pass, and I am not spending $10 to play a game online for just a week before I send it back on its way. I’m going to be less likely to rent a particular game now knowing that I won’t be able to play the online features.

So game companies think they are entitled to receiving a percentage of used game sales. They can’t come right out and charge a fee for it, so instead they restrict what you can do with a used copy of their game. This is 100% unfair to the consumer. I for one am boycotting online passes just as I have been, and that is something that will never, EVER change. If I want to play a game online in the future, I will either purchase the game new or I won’t play it online at all. Simple as that. Is it going to hurt me? It sure as hell will. But I’m letting the gaming companies know that I will never condone this horrible online pass idea.

I’ve been on a gaming spree the past two days. With Batman: Arkham City coming in either today or tomorrow from Gamefly, I wanted to finish up my quest for the inFAMOUS 2 Platinum before it got here. So I put a good chunk of time into the game yesterday morning, afternoon, night, and then finished it up this morning. It was a lot of fun, and was one of my easier Platinums.

I took my time with my first playthrough, as a good guy, on easy. I did all the side quests, found every one of the 320ish blast shards scattered around the city, unlocked all the powers, played a bunch of the user-created missions, collected all the dead drops…I did it all. Since I played it on easy it was quite the cake walk, and I had a real blast running around and exploring the city stress-free. Oh, and back to blast shards…they are nowhere near as annoying in the first game. One of the last powers you can unlock is called “blast shard sense” and when you search for blast shards now the nearest one shows up on the map, regardless of how far away it is. So once I unlocked that I spent about two hours running back and forth through the city picking up the last few shards I had missed, but at least it was a sure-fire way to find them all painlessly. This is something I wish they had for the first inFAMOUS game…

My second playthrough was as a bad guy, on hard difficulty. This one was a bit more challenging, as enemies not only took more hits before they died, but they inflicted massive amounts of damage on to you. Of particular concern were rocket launchers and the ice guys who would skate up behind you with a sawed-off shotgun, and I suffered many cheap deaths at the hands of these two types of enemies. I played through about half of the side missions on this playthrough…just enough to unlock all the evil story trophies and to fully upgrade my rocket power. After that, I just plunged straight into the main campaign and went from one story quest to the next. Once I did that the game started flying by quickly, and eventually I was rewarded with the Platinum goodness.

inFAMOUS 2 was a great game, and I really have to sit down and write up a review of it. Even though its Platted, I’m not through with it yet. There is some DLC coming out next week called “Festival of Blood.” It has something to do with vampires invading the city and you have to deal with them. It should be interesting and I’ll look forward to getting even more trophies.

As for my next Platinum, I’m not really sure. One of these days I’m going to print out a map and spend hours in the first inFAMOUS tracking down the fifteen missing blast shards I haven’t found yet. But that probably won’t be for awhile. In all likelihood the next Platinum will be from WWE ’12, though I don’t know when that’s going to be since I probably won’t pick that up until after Christmas.

My new PS3 came in from Amazon today, and I’m already in the process of getting it back to normal. There are a couple of things I want to note:

• With the credit from my fat PS3 trade-in, as well as previous game trades I had saved up, I was able to pick up the 320GB inFamous 2 bundle (sure blows my old 80GB away)
• While I love inFamous and couldn’t wait to play the sequel, I didn’t want to own it. I was planning on returning the game to a local retailer for credit I could have used towards Skyrim or something, but the game has a big ol’ “NOT FOR RESALE” sticker on it, so that ain’t gonna work
• The new slim system may be a tad uglier (I like the fat PS3′s shininess) but it is sooo damn small and light. Amazing!
• The controller feels a little lighter, but I don’t know if it’s because they improved it or if it’s missing three years worth of gamer sweat
• I love that the USB cable that is now bundled with the system is 3x longer than the old one. That thing was way too short

I have already registered my PSN profile with the new system and I am currently in the process of re-downloading everything I had on my old system. At first I thought it was going to be a pain in the ass since the download history section of the PSN store had 538 files that I have downloaded, and presented them in no particular order. At first I thought I would have to wade through this entire list of demos and programs just to find my games. Then I realized I could just go through all the game listings and the ones I have already purchased would have the little store icon next to them, so that’s making life easier. I’ve got games A-G downloading now, and there are about fifteen of those. I’ll just keep doing this over the next couple of days until I hit them all up. I’ve also got to re-download all my save files from the cloud, but I’ll worry about that on a “as needed” basis.

While I was PS3less the past week, I got to spend some quality time with my 360. I played through about five campaigns of Left4Dead in a ‘cheevo hunt and picked up quite a few…I was also happy to get my Gamerscore up to over 5000! I wonder what my Gamerscore would be if all my trophies were converted to achievements. Oh wait, I can get a random estimate! I’ll just plug in my trophy info on trophycalculator.com. Let’s see, I have 1681 Bronze Trophies, 390 Silver Trophies, 84 Gold Trophies and 11 Platinums, so when I enter that into the calculator I get a Gamerscore of 32,390, which is actually closer to 37,440 when you figure in my current Gamerscore.

Sorry for that little rant, I guess I got a bit sidetracked. Long story short: I have a PS3 again!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I received an e-mail from Microsoft this morning notifying me that my XBL Gold account would be expiring next month, which makes sense since I got a 360 last August. However, now I had to pose myself a question…do I want to spend the $50 to renew my Gold account? Not only do I rarely play 360 games online, but at the same time I’m paying for a PS+ account. Thing is, my PS+ account will be coming due soon too. Seeing how I’m currently unemployed and times are hard, I don’t want to be spending money I don’t have on things I really don’t need right now. So I got to thinking about the perks of both, and whether they were worth the price of admission or not.

What I get with a XBL Gold Account:

• The ability to play online. This is arguably the best perk to having a Gold account, simply because you cannot play online without it.
• Superior online experience. The 360 does offer a better online experience than the PS3, from the awesome and comfortable headset that plugs in right to your controller to the ability to have cross-game chat. I do believe there are more 360 players than PS3 players as well, so it’s easier to find a game to play online with the 360
• Exclusive content. Gold members do get access to exclusive betas and demos before the general public.

What I get with a PS+ Account:

• Free games. On average, PS+ users get one free game PSN game a week. It’s not just lame shovelware games either; I’ve gotten some pretty great games like Magic the Gathering, Sonic the Hedgehog, Streets of Rage II and others.
• Discounted games. This is the biggest advantage to PS+, as I can buy games over PSN for less money than it costs on XBLA. Often times, many games are discounted from 33-50% off, particularly in the first week of release. I’ve gotten a ton of games on the cheap from PS+, and it has paid for itself many times over.
• Exclusive content. I received early access to betas for DC Universe, Uncharted 2, and Uncharted 3, as well as early access to demos and other PS-exclusive content.

So I can pay Microsoft $50 to be allowed to play games online, or I can pay Sony $50 and receive free and discounted games (remember, it’s free to play online with the PlayStation). Some may argue “it’s not free because your paying $50 for the service”…this is true, but the value of the free games offered through the year is greater than $50, and then throw in the money you save on the discounted game prices, and it becomes clear that PS+ is more than worth the money.

Seeing how I rarely play the 360 online, I do not think I’ll be renewing my Gold account. What I’ll probably do is once I rent Gears of War 3 I’ll look into getting a three-month subscription or something along those lines so that I can play that online, but until then I don’t see myself paying $50 for something I’m not going to use. PS+, on the other hand, is something I use weekly as on Tuesdays I rush to my computer and wait for the PlayStation Blog to announce what free and discounted games are available that week.

It’s hard to say, in the end, which is “better”. XBL Gold is required to play online, while PS+ is a discount program. I do think that XBL Gold gives a better online gaming experience, but PS+ gives you a return on your investment, so it doesn’t feel like I’m just pissing money away for something that is free on the PS3 (though at a lower quality of service.) Seeing how I can afford one, I’ll be renewing my PS+ account. Once I get back on track, I’ll renew my XBL Gold subscription, but for now it looks like I’ll be doing my online gaming strictly on the PS3.

I am only a few trophies away from “Platinum Paradise” in inFAMOUS. I had a little time to kill today so I dedicated it to finishing up the stunt list, which was a pain in the arse. I had some trouble with the “Have a Nice Fall” and “Right Back at Ya” stunts, but with a lot of patience I finished them all up and got the “Stunt Master” trophy.

The only trophies I have left are:

• Good Finish
• Hard Finish
• True Hero (just one upgrade away now)
• Good Sphere
• Rockhound

The top four trophies are all story-related, and I’ll be snagging them shortly, once I finish up my current campaign (I’m currently playing a good guy on hard difficulty.) Once I finish up the campaign, I’ll head back into the city and finish cleaning up the shard collections, which I’m sure will be a time-consuming process. I can’t that having to collect 350 shards is only worth a bronze trophy! You can count on me cheating a bit with an online guide for all those shards for sure! Once that’s done, I’ll be sitting pretty with my 12th platinum.

When the PSN got revived a couple of weeks ago, Sony decided to put forth some positive PR by offering PS3 owners two free games. The two games could be chosen from a list of five, which included two PS3 titles (that were downloadable) and three PSN games. The choices were:

• inFAMOUS
• LittleBigPlanet
• Dead Nation
• Super Stardust HD
• Wipeout HD

Seeing how I already owned LBP and Dead Nation, and I’m not a huge fan of racing games, I went with inFAMOUS and Super Stardust HD. Even though I had played through inFAMOUS a couple of years ago when it first came out, I realized that with one more playthrough I could get the Platinum trophy, so that’s what I’m currently working on.

My first playthrough was on the “evil” path, simply because I like playing the bad guy. For my current playthrough, and to get the Platinum, I need to play through the game on hard difficulty while following the “good” path. This is more of a challenge, as you need to watch out for collateral damage from civilians and cannot steal their life to regain health, both which make the game a more challenging, especially when playing through on hard difficulty. I’m rocking through it right now and have gotten quite a bit of the way through so far. inFAMOUS is definitely one of Sony’s better exclusive game franchises, and I’m having a blast reliving the game again.

Now I’ll just need to wait for Gamefly for the opportunity to check out inFAMOUS 2.

It’s been a tough twenty-three days, but the PSN returned (for the most part) yesterday. The online play, chat, friends list, and trophies are the important features that returned, and the only one missing is the PSN Store, which will hopefully get back into service soon (I just want to sync all my RB songs to RB3.) It’s been a long time coming and I’ve been itching to get online for two main reasons:

• To play Dungeon Hunter Alliance online
• To Platinum WWE All Stars

I’m currently nine online wins away from getting the Platinum in All Stars, and when I downloaded the new firmware and got the PS3 going again, I had a friend request from a guy who wanted to boost All Stars. Pretty soon this guy and I will be sitting back and basking in the glory of our new Platinum trophy! After I get All Stars out of the way, I’ll probably take a break and get some stuff down around the house, then I’ll see if I can’t get a game of Dungeon Hunter Alliance underway.

I missed being able to play online, and I’m so glad I can now. Welcome back, PSN!