Tag Archives: PSP

Games, Reviews, Technology

The Illicit Fantasy – Need for Speed: Carbon “Own the City” (PSP)

1 Comment

Note: Certain racing terms have been linked to explain concepts to those not automotively inclined. Credit goes to Wikipedia for that.

As gamers, we love the idea of fantasy. Be it something simple as being a skilled hero versed in magic to the wanton killing machine, it’s a concept that has move gamers towards certain titles. Role playing and simulation make the gamer feel like they are part of the game. The popular media has had a bit of an infatuation of using games as a scapegoat for society’s ills. Like the occasional stories that some kid that played a little too much Grand Theft Auto III decided to murder someone or how a kid who died crashing into a toll booth was a rabid player of Gran Turisimo 4. But many gamers are able to separate the lines of fantasy and the real world.

The Need for Speed franchise originally was a computer game line for the PC gamer that was a simulation like the Gran Turismo site. Once Gran Turismo came out, EA Games had to take a new angle to entice gamers to their series. Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit would come out and EA would just quietly release titles… Until the tuning and tweaking community really got steam around 2003 in the real world. EA would then revamp the entire franchise as Need for Speed: Underground. The idea was to make a game that encompassed the underground tuner culture with the flashy cars, tweaked and gassed engines, glory, and cash. The first foray into this direction got a lukewarm reception, though EA would listen to the gamers and quickly work on the sequel to make it the racer’s paradise and being able to cruise on the streets instead of being stuck in bracket racing. That would lead to Need for Speed: Underground 2 which was a leap forward in EA’s new life for the Need for Speed franchise. The “Most Wanted” sequel afterwards would reincorporate the police chases from Hot Pursuit and even give a slick little Matrix-esque “bullet time” effect for intense stunt work to evade the cops on free roam. This brings us to the Carbon sequel, finally.

Need for Speed: Carbon mainly takes to the racing movement in America with the obsession of the Japanese touge with the “Canyon Race” competitions. The game includes things like your normal fare of lap races, sprint races, eliminators, and all but it does have some influences from the drift culture. The portable rendition for PSP with the subtitle “Own the City” does not have the the canyon races, but just focuses on a story where someone from a mysterious race gang crashes into your brother killing him and hospitalizing you for a good while. The motive to race? Revenge and vengeance for your late brother.

With Own the City, there is no “manual transmission” option by default unless you choose to play the game with the analog stick. You can summon during races. The gang members of your gang can be recruited from defeating rival gangs to add a better selection. In addition to that, the gang members have their talents. Here’s a break-down:

  • Brawler – Their main purpose is to crash into the target and disable them from the race temporarily.
  • Drafter – They fly by you so you can catch into their slipstream so you can build top speed and push to the limit.
  • Assassin – They do a flyby to get ahead of the target and lay down a spike strip to blow out the tires of the competition
  • Fixer – A subclass of gang member that can boost your pay-out provided you win a race.
  • Mechanic – A subclass of gang member that secretly enhances your car to push even harder.

The henchmen/women can be helpful but also can botch a race too. I have had occasions, for example, where the brawler’s fly by while they are hitting the NOS and crashing into you during a turn. At the same right, they have saved my bacon from losing a race. The gang members can “level-up” depending on your performance in a race on technical metrics; with better performance and use of them, their abilities increase.

The game is in a free roaming mode or you can hop in and out of races with the race map chooser. The open world does have police that will engage you for misconduct on the roads, I have not had the pleasure of it, but I have gone pretty wild. The city will have the graffiti tags of the gangs in control of the territory. Once you begin taking over, your gang’s tag will replace the defeated gangs. Throughout the map, there are crates you can find in the open roaming mode which will unlock promotion art when found. They are hidden pretty well as I have only found only 1 of 30.

The customizations are pretty basic. For under hood performance, there are engine, suspension, chassis, turbo, and nitrous oxide for parameters. Cosmetically, there are body kits, spoilers/wings, tint, wheels, paint, and vinyls. If you want your gang members to be emblazoned with your paint and vinyls, you can apply them over their cars. Particularly, the body kits, wings, and wheels do not do anything to modify the car’s performance with regard to aerodynamics or traction from what I have noticed. This is different from the autosculpting feature of the console versions. I will provide my disclaimer here: if you’re hoping a mobile version of the console experience, this is not it. It’s not an easy game either, the game does require skill and finesse on some races. I know I have barely won some races just from nitrous getting me a split second ahead of my competition to the finish line.

The game fares well as a mobile racing game. The sensation of speed is very real… You almost can feel the intensity of the velocity when you’re in 6th gear and firing the nitrous while hitting 170+ mph. The sounds could have been better, but they aren’t bad at all. Graphically, the game is not quite as polished as say, Ridge Racer 2 (PSP), but it looks good no less. Although I have experienced an odd graphical image glitch where the game will have the race track’s graphics disappear yet other details like road block offs, billboards, cars, and backgrounds are intact… The worst part is this bug will lock up the entire game when you try to exit the race and try to save progress.

With respect to that glitch, I have done everything EA Games Customer Support has asked me. PSPdemon of Gamecootie has also tried to help me with the glitch, but he too is baffled. Especially as loading should not be an issue for the PSP slim from the extra RAM it has to cache graphics head of time. It has not afflicted me lately, so I am counting on my prayers.

Own the City has come a very long way from the shoddy likes of Need for Speed Underground Rivals and 5-1-0 for PSP. It really has me curious about the new Need for Speed ProStreet game that was delayed for a PSP on February 19th of this year. ProStreet looks impressive on the high end consoles, but it just has me wondering why there’s a delay on the PSP version. If the delay is to address things like game enhancing details, it could lead to a promising sequel.

Zero’s Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Zero’s Closing Thoughts: With the game being sold as a Greatest Hits title, the price is not bad. It is a bit difficult and it can be plenty fun if you don’t take the game seriously like Ridge Racer.

Games, Reviews, Technology

Memories of Yesteryear – Guilty Gear Judgment (US/PSP)

Leave a comment

Take a trip back in time with me. The era is the early to mid 1990’s. An era where the most advanced popular systems were 16-bit and you finally had stereo soundtracks or multiprocessor audio synthesizers. A time when games were challenging, fun, and (most importantly) 2D. This was an era that games like Contra 3, Streets of Rage, and Final Fight reigned as kings in their prime. These games still continue to be cult classics with gaming enthusiasts and fans alike! As history has shown… there are always competitors that tried to steal the thunder away from the original product. The market would eventually just see titles trying to saturate the market, such as the Splatterhouse series et al. I remember as a child that these games were almost as good as the arcade versions. One of the offshoots from the “beat ’em up” genre that I am sure many of the 1980’s born children remember is the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles arcade game that supported up to 4 players on the arcade edition. When the late 1990’s finally set in, these games would slowly fade from the lime light and the focus became “3D is the in thing! 2D is so lame!” with many developers. There would be some companies like Capcom who to merge 3D with a beat ’em up flavor, but that didn’t pan out so well (ps2.IGN.com – Final Fight: Streetwise – PS2). I have always had a place in my heart for the classic beat ’em up games, but with most of them disappearing I just left them as a memory. Fighting games still have a vestige of a place in the world in 2D form, but with pretty 3D effect work for things like special fighting moves. The new Street Fighter games and the Guilty Gear series are (in my mind) canonical definitions of the new era of fighting games

Do not take this above preface as an attack on 3D games, let me make this clear. I don’t mean to offend those who love 3D games, but I will say that there are quite good 3D games out there.

I love the Guilty Gear series as it blends a fresh fighting experience to the scene of games with characters that aren’t just composed of a color change and minor pixel art changes. I have played the original Guilty Gear for PlayStation and even up to the last recent title, Guilty Gear Isuka. (For those readers of my blog who wonder about my endearing nickname for my cousin is Sol, it’s a “throwback” to Sol Badguy from the Guilty Gear games as that is his favorite character.) From the series, I have much love for Ky Kiske, Millia Rage, Chipp Zanuff as my “picks” of characters. From the series, I loved Guilty Gear XX #reload the most. When the Japanese market was getting a Guilty Gear beat ’em up game titled “Guilty Gear Judgment” for PSP. I remember lamenting that it may not make it to the American market. I had contemplated getting it, but at the price of $45 for the UMD… I was not too keen on it. About a week later, the Japanese market got another announcement that they were getting Guilty Gear XX #reload for PSP with wireless play for roughly the same price ($45). Again, I was a bit angered that the American market was going to miss out again. My disappointment would just eventually come to pass when Majesco would announce that they would be publishing “Guilty Gear Judgment” for the US that my interest would pique.

The American release of Guilty Gear Judgment is a little unique to the Japanese/Asian release, as it merges both Guilty Gear Judgment and the Guilty Gear XX #reload discs into one. This is one of the few titles that the American gamers got a break on versus those who paid for the import copies. I personally could never fathom paying $90 and shipping for 2 standard edition Guilty Gear games when this American release goes for $19.99. (Note: I understand paying $90+ for limited edition games, that’s something for the die-hard fan.) The only thing about this game is that most normal retailers won’t have it in stock, which leads me to believe that this game may be a limited print. The going price is about that range, so don’t fret about the price skyrocketing any time soon.

Guilty Gear Judgment plays pretty well for a beat ’em up game. The story is a bit varied from the original plot of the War of the Gears, but it does give more flavor to the Guilty Gear story. The game play looks just as great as Guilty Gear XX #reload with the anime style animations with a hint of 3D effects for things like special projectiles or dust being kicked up from dashes. These are things that make the most discriminating Guilty Gear fan will be at home in. The characters do have their “handicaps” just like they do in the fighting game that are applied to Judgment. Things like Chipp’s triple jump, Ky’s 1.2 damage ratio, or Potemkin’s 0.8 damage ratio are all here which make the game an additional challenge. The characters are unlocked through story modes to give more background story to them with access to most of the cast.

The characters do still have their trademark moves and overdrive attacks, but some of them are performed differently due to the button map change to allow for a jump button. The maneuvers are not easy to perform for a casual gamer and take heed not to blister your thumbs from it. The control scheme works alright and serves for a tolerable Final Fight/Streets of Rage experience, but you will find that relying on special moves will become a staple later in the game. In my opinion, I feel this takes a little away from the experience. However, I understand why… It is to go hand-in-hand with the combo counter system in the game which rewards you for racking up hits together. The issue with relying on the special maneuvers is that the game quickly becomes a tiring experience, almost to the point that the game becomes a chore. The other side of the combo counter and special moves are things like the Tension Gauge and the Burst Gauge are integrated to the game to make things a little fair. The Tension Gauge doing the same thing as in the original games and the Burst Gauge functions as a corner trap escape with HP regeneration equal to the amount of damage outputted from a Burst attack. The jumps can be a bit of a sensitive topic as being just a simple pixel off will have you plummeting to a penalty of life loss. The character differences can have a definite bearing on how hard some fights can be sometimes. I have had times where there’s a stage where Ky just simply cannot dish out the pain, while Sol or Chipp are just slaying anything and everything. This can be a bit of an issue to some, as the frustration may inspire you to throw your console around from sheer rage. Other than this game being a blister busting, rage inducing beat ’em up game, it can be great for getting your fix for classical style gaming. I have not been able to try the wireless co-op mode, but I’d imagine that could be a little more of a fair experience.

As far as the Guilty Gear XX #reload game on the disc, it’s nothing new to write home about. The good part is all of the “unlockable” characters from the game are already accessible from the get-go, instead of having to unlock them through normal means. The main difference is wireless play and I don’t have another friend to try that one out to test out latency or lag for the game. Unfortunately, no internet play is available on the game.

Kudos to Arc System Works for releasing these two games for the PSP. There could have been some minor improvements, but at the price of $19.99 it isn’t too steep. Majesco did a great job on combining the two games into one disc, making this a great buy! However, they could have given better documentation and presentation of the game’s instructions and details about the wireless game play.

Zero’s Rating: 3 of 5 stars
Zero’s Verdict: For the Guilty Gear fan who would like to do battle on the go either in story or competitive modes. It would definitely not hurt the casual buyer.