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Cheap Playstation 3 (PS3 PSP) - GAMER NEWS
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If we have one critical flaw here at HAWTwired that I regret, its our lack of literacy when it comes to the Playstation 3. By which, I don't mean our brain malfunctions and we can't read a screen a PS3 loads into, but we as a group are not very familiar with the little black box and its library. Its not for lack of want; the Playstation family has a great history and the PS3 exclusives number along some if the greatest titles of this generation. But as labor-of-love, unpaid games writers, we can only play what we can afford, and thus far, for our editors, the PS3 hasn't fit into our individual family budgets. For that reason, I always try to expose myself to at least one PS3 exclusive when I hit the game expos, and at PAX I went after what may be the biggest of them all: Uncharted 3. First we were allowed quality time with the multiplayer, which, I know there are a lot of fans of Uncharted's multiplayer, but I'm not one of them. The controls just didn't feel tuned in or precise enough for me. The shooting was a little on the spastic side (I'm pretty sure real AK-47's have less recoil than their Uncharted counterparts), and the movement/platforming felt like a jerkier, airier version of Assassin's Creed. Both features were functional, but neither felt tight and polished. In fairness, this is a demo, remember, but I'm a big fan of the motto, "If you can't make something great, don't show it". I'm sure that to legions of Nathan Drake fans that have been following the series since its inception, the controls were old hat by now, but as a new user, they were certainly not pick-up-and-play friendly. After nose-diving-off-high-rises and tossing-grenades-when-I-meant-to-look-down-the-sights my team to a narrow defeat, the folks from Naughty Dog took us into a small theater space to show us a short demo of the game's single player campaign. It was only then that I truly understood what Uncharted 3 was about. The level had Drake and his blonde lady friend (the interwebz say her name is Elena, but I assume, in typical action hero format, you can tell his lady friends apart by their hair color) trying to break into your typical armed-guarded Middle Eastern airfield to catch a large cargo plane. The plane begins to approach the runway before Drake can get on board, so he quickly abandons any ambitions for stealth and a running, gunning chase breaks out as the player tries to get onboard before it takes off. Stowing away in the plane's guts, Drake decides to emerge, resulting in a heart-pounding action sequence that included, but was not limited to: - A one-sided fist fight against a guard twice Drake's size
- Dodging the majority of the plane's cargo as it was quickly dragged out the hold at 15,000 feet
- Manically climbing debris back into the plane's hold
- And engaging in a running gun battle in-between the shifting freight in the hold as the plane banks back and forth.
It was during this sequence that I was amazed to feel my face lighting up in a way that I haven't felt since watching Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade in the theater as a kid. That was the level of adventure and excitement that merely watching the game instilled--childlike wonder. Every time Hollywood released The Mummy or Flight of The Phoenix or National Treasure or a hundred other such films, this was the magic they were trying to capture--the down-to-Earth adventure sensibilities of Alan Quartermain with the big budget excitement of Jerry Bruckheimer, combined in a golden ratio that audiences have been waiting to see again since the original Indiana Jones trilogy. The multiplayer? That's unimportant. At the risk of making an incessantly long preview even longer, here's an allegory. Years ago I worked in a fine dining restaurant situated inside a casino. Every day, that restaurant lost money, but that wasn't the point of it. It was an amenity to the casino patrons. And while maybe 200 people chose to partake in the restaurant and found it a wonderful addition, the casino's real game was the 20,000 daily that hit the main floor. That's what Uncharted's multiplayer is: an amenity. It's not the reason the majority are coming to the show, but its a nice goody to have waiting for you on the side. The real star here is the single player campaign, and while we can sit here and talk special effects and camera movements and graphical resolution all day, it's how they fit together in the senses if the observer that causes them to cross the line of conscious appreciation of technical skill and into the realm of guttural, emotional reaction and amazement that separates this game from the vast majority of titles out there today. HAWTwired Hype Level: 9/10 
A stomachable side-dish of multiplayer gives way to a gourmet single-player main dish. Uncharted as a AAA franchise is solidifying its position at the head of the pack.
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It's that time again, Post-PAX when we drop a whole ton of HAWTwired handled game previews on you. Last year we had some confusion on our rating system, which lead to misunderstandings, hurt feelings, and misinterpreted judgements, so I wanted to clarify things early, as well as refine the system a bit. Last year we referred to the system as games being HAWTgraded, which was probably an unfair misnomer. You can't grade a demo. It's like a restaurant critic reviewing a restaurant on the font they use on their menu. A demo is a promotional tool, not a finished product, and has always been looked at as such by our staff. Unfortunately, our "HAWTgrading" previews led some to believe that we were laying some sort of final judgement on the title, which wasn't the case. Some games last year we hated the demo and loved the game, while others spectacular demos gave way to utterly mediocre final products. So we've renamed our preview rating, changing it to "HAWTwired Hype". This isn't a judgement on the final product so much as how excited about the game the preview made up. A high HAWTwired Hype score means we're excitedly doing a pee-pee dance while we wait for the release, a low score means that the preview left a sour taste in out mouth for the title. Hopefully, this clears things up a bit, and helps both the players and developers who read our site keep faith in our honesty and integrity. Thanks.
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Bangai-O HD: Missile Fury marks the series debut off the small screen. The critically acclaimed, cult favorite series has already had two previous installments on the DS--Bangai-O and Bangai-O Spirits--and Missile Fury is hoping to make a splash on XBLA this fall. D3 Publishers is bringing this arcade series with puzzle elements…
Okay, I can see by the glazed over eyes that you’re not really sure why you should care. Okay, let me try again…
TREASURE!
Okay, did THAT get your attention? Yes, Bangai-O HD: Missile Fury is the latest release from legendary game developer TREASURE to make it stateside. For those of you in the know, you understand how important a TREASURE production is. For those of you who don’t, freaking educate yourself. TREASURE games are known primarily for two things: being quirky and addictive, and involving white-knuckled, bullet-hell twitch action. Bangai-O HD follows both of these principals to a tee. This game is addicting--seriously, I reverted to my 11-year old self
while playing this game, the company PR guy talking with me only
half-listening, nodding on auto-pilot, while I restarted the level and
tried to reach the end for the twentieth time. The set-up is easy--guide your missile toting robot through a maze space, killing everything in your path, using dashing, shields, and special attack to regularly lift your kiester out of the proverbial fire. The special attack is the real beauty here--combos and pick-ups will boost your special attacks power, releasing with unholy force as many as 1,000 missiles onto the screen to assault your enemies. That’s no typo; one-thousand missiles, fired either directionally at a target or in a circular defensive radius.
The use of special attacks and dashing/shielding work out to more puzzle elements than it may seem on the surface. Pin point timing and strategy is the difference between success and controller snapping restarts, and with over 100 levels in game, and a level editor for piecing together your own personalized bullet-hells for your friends, your masochistic game wishes will get plenty of workout. Overall Demo Hawtness: 9/10 - Hopefully the advent of XBLA demos will help this series bloom on console where it failed on the portable.
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If there’s two things my geeky little heart loves, it’s Capcom games and Marvel comics. It would seem that the Marvel vs. Capcom series would be right up my alley. Unfortunately, my ambition and my abilities are not in par with each other, resulting in my MvC skills being somewhere in-between “miserable” and “the equivalent of tossing marshmallows at a controller from across the room”.
But sidling up to Marvel vs. Capcom 3, something amazing happened: for the first time, I won an MvC match against a real human! And who do I thank? My editor for sending me to PAX? My family for their undying support? The Taphouse Grill for leaving me hung-over and numb to the world?
Actually, I thank whoever it was on the development team that decided to remap the controls. Gone are punch and kick buttons--the control scheme has been simplified to four attacks, one for each face button--Light Attack, Medium Attack, Heavy Attack, and Aerial Attack. And God bless them for it.
Combos flow freely, special moves come out of nowhere, and powerful game saving ultimate attacks are always a heartbeat away. The action is quick and relentless, and the thrill of escaping from an opponent’s offense and mounting a comeback is some of the most exhilarating gameplay I’ve experienced in a long time.
The graphics, as I’m sure many screenshots and videos have shown you by now, are beautiful and crisp. When things get heated, the screen can get a bit crowded with special effects and partner characters coming in for assists, but the distractions are never unbearable, and if I understand the tournament crowd correctly, learning to focus past them are part of the game.
All-in-all a good showing, and I’m excited to see the final product. As a fighting game fan who tends to suck at fighting games, I’m looking forward to this evolution of an industry classic.
Overall Demo Hawtness: 8/10 - Marvel, Capcom, bright flashy lights. How could you go wrong?
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If you’re not familiar with NinjaBee, you’re doing yourself a huge disservice. Since practically the 360’s launch, they’ve been putting together fun, quirky games for Xbox Live Arcade (and later PC and WiiWare), and to people who pay attention to such things, have amassed a small but fervent fan base.
In 2008, NinjaBee added A Kingdom for Keflings to their library, a relaxing city-building game where, alone or with friends, you took the role of a generous giant that helped the mostly simple-minded Keflings build a kingdom to call their very own.
This year’s sequel, A World of Keflings, takes the no rush, fun-and-easy gameplay from the first game and evolves it. More goal-oriented missions are available in the Story Mode, including new environments for the Keflings to populate, like ice worlds and deserts. Also added is local multiplayer, a much requested feature according to their team, that allows people to build up their kingdoms with friends sitting next to them rather than only online.
For those less interested in goal-oriented gaming, the capacity to construct a sandbox kingdom of you own design is more encouraged than ever, as the sequel is adding even more decorative items for construction than the first installment. And layout of you kingdom is also more forgiving, allowing you to push whole buildings out of the way should you need more room, rather than demolishing and reassembling them from the bits.
The Keflings themselves are also getting an upgrade. The AI has been made smarter, so a Kefling that runs out of work in their designated location will search nearby for more work, rather than stand around foolishly looking for something to do. Also, Keflings left to a profession for a while will level up, causing raw material harvesters to harvest faster, and carriers to carry bigger loads quicker.
All-in-all, A World of Keflings is looking to be a great improvement on a game that was pretty darn good to begin with. I worry that the game isn’t likely to attract any new fans into its fold, as it’s not likely to appeal to the blood-and-guts, kill-everything-that-moves crowd, but fans of the first one and people on the fence should find something new to enjoy. Besides, the violence game crowd gets enough games in the year--this one doesn’t have to be for them. Overall Demo Hawtness:  8/10 - Even more fun in the kingdom with your Kefling friends
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Like video games? Like Disney animation? Well, so does Warren Spector, and probably more than you, and he’s out to prove it with Disney’s Epic Mickey. In case you’ve missed the past year of press releases, in Epic Mickey you guide Mickey in a romp through the catalog of forgotten Disney characters, focusing on Mickey’s older half-brother, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, in an attempt to save them from a malevolent glob of paint, The Phantom Blob.
Mickey’s weapon in this quest is a magic paintbrush full of paint and paint thinner, which will both fend off enemies and allow him to manipulate the environment. Paint can restore missing bridges and platforms while thinner can remove rubble and doors from Mickey’s path.
The game looks gorgeous, with the art design and colors evoking the heyday of Disney animation. Portals between worlds take the guise of projector screens showing classic Disney shorts, and when Mickey jumps into them he enters a short sequence based on said classic--I saw a side-scrolling vertical platformer based on Mickey and the Beanstalk in the demo on display.
The gameplay is simple, and that’s a compliment. It falls into that narrow range that Mario has managed to maintain for decades, keeping the play easy enough for young players but engaging enough to keep the experienced gamers interested. But more than anything is the x-factor, that intangible je ne ce quois that speaks to your inner child and your love for games and becomes something greater than the sum of it’s pieces. This thing is going to kill when it hits this holiday season, and was my personal favorite of the show. Overall Demo Hawtness: 9/10 - A heartfelt return to what made so many of use fall in love with animation to begin with
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So I've only been putting up PAX previews for a few hours this morning, and already I appear to have stepped on some toes with some of my comments. It is totally fair to remind our readers that the Hawt Graded scores are ONLY preview scores, based on the limited interactions our writers are allowed with whatever build we have access to. They are not final scores, and will not enter our archives as such. Final review scores will be identified as such, when the time comes. That said, the Hawt Graded score IS our writer's reaction to them at that moment in time, and as our own impressions are the only one that we can truly trust, it is one that we will have to stand by. Thanks, Nick McDonald, Contributing Editor
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If you're like me, you've probably given up on even the thought of demos for downloadable games. Sure, you've bought and played DLC games in the past, but its kind of lost its luster, right? Well, the newly released Hydro Thunder Hurricane hopes to bring that sparkle back.
Mostly by doing what XBLA demos don't: give you online access. That's right, the game let's you take your skills online in the demo...for 10 minutes. A short time, for sure, but that's enough time to let you know if you want to pony up the $15 for the arcade classic.
To the download machine! 
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