Sony To Launch Playstation Phone in 2010?

Are we finally going to get a smart phone that can deliver top gaming as well as phone and web services.... well the answer looks to be yes! Sony have released more details of the Playstation Phone tentatively scheduled for release in 2010 and it looks like they could be onto a winner.

According to engadget the phone is still in prototype mode and a little buggy, so a 2011 release is probably more likely than this year. However the Playstation phone looks set to be a real gaming Smart Phone. Likely to be shipping with Google’s Android 3.0 operating system and boasting a 1GHz Qualcomm MSM8655 processor with 512MB of RAM and 1GB of ROM, the Playstation Phone will have its own bespoke Playstation Marketplace where you can download games designed for use on the system.

The Phone itself will be a landscape slider with the game pad sliding out where you would normally expect a keyboard on other Smartphones. The gamepad itself looks like it will be based on the PSP and will include shoulder buttons. The one noticeable difference being that the Playstation Phone will sport a long central multi touch touchpad and support for Sony’s Memory Stick will be dropped in favour of the Micro SD standard.

I will of course bring more details as they become available.

Zombie Multiplayer for Red Dead Redemption

Rockstar Games are releasing a new extesion for their hit game Red Dead Redemption. The new DLC will see a zombie nightmare hit together with multiplayer gaming that will pit you and your friends against hoards of swarming zombies. Check out the video below for a sneak preview, this looks like a cracker!!

Dead Rising 2 - Soldier of Fortune DLC

I’ve yet to buy a copy of Dead Rising 2, but given my recent disillusionment with the latest left 4 dead 2 DLC (Sacrifice) I’m sure a copy will be landing on my doorstep very shortly to fulfil both my wife’s and my own zombie slaughtering lust.

In the meantime I’m already eying up the downloads in preparation. Whilst Dead Rising 2’s emphasis on melee weapons and the ability to combine weapons to make bigger and stronger super weapons looks to be a standout draw, I can’t help feeling that I’m going to be hankering for a decent gun to help lay waste to the hoards.

Well look no further; check out the video trailer below for a sneak preview of the new Soldier of Fortune DLC for Dead Rising 2, which promises to make firearms a viable alternative to melee weapons as you make your way through the game.

Left 4 Dead 2 Sacrifice - A bit of a let down?

Whilst I like to think of myself as a serious gamer, the reality of life means that I’m probably not. I’m married, with kids, a full time job and addicted to bad reality TV, so the time I get to spend playing video games is limited. I don’t have endless hours to spend finding every last power up and completing all then achievement and collecting all the trophies, I mainly just complete a game and sell it on. So on the rare occasion that a game comes along that motivates me to go hunting for trophies I get really excited, especially when the game has an engrossing offline co-op mode and my wife joins in.

There is something endlessly satisfying about blowing the heads off zombies with the person you love, at least until I take too long to rescue her from a Jockey and receive a kick to the leg as a reward! So when The Sacrifice was released I was elated, two new campaigns for us to wade through together it was going to be so much fun. But, here I am feeling completely underwhelmed. We’ve played twice in the last 5 days – we recently hired the original Left 4 Dead and completed it all with most achievements in four days together – and I don’t have that burning desire to go back for more.

I’m not sure I can work out what is different this time around, we downloaded the Passing and loved it, so where has the magic gone? The Sacrifice has the same great game play and the same clever level design, but the fun seems to have gone out of it! Maybe that is the answer, it’s the same. Whilst the level design is different, the game play is exactly the same; the zombies are the same and so are the Special infected. I think after a few years of completing the base game and then moving on I’ve just had too much of Left for Dead and that is a real shame.

Happy Birthday Nintendo

I can't think of a better way to start a new video gaming blog than to pass on birthday celebrations to the game cosole that got me into gaming!! 25 Years ago today Nintendo launched the Ninetendo Entertainment System (NES) and alongsie it probably the most famous video game character of all time... Mario.

I can still remember the day I got my NES, the futuristic grey box, with it’s frontloading cartridges. Until then I’d only really played Space invaders on my tape loading Amstrad computer with its green screen, so to suddenly have a chubby little Italian plumber jumping around the screen was an absolute marvel.

I went back and played Super Mario Bros recently and yes it does now show it’s age, but the intelligent level design and addictive game play is still there. I t reminds me of an earlier day of gaming with less bloodshed and a much more charming and pleasant outlook. Whilst gaming will never go back to the innocent days of the Nintendo Entertainment System we can only hope that as today’s current game designers think back on their own gaming heritage and the games that got them hooked that they get a spark of that early ingenuity of game design that was born out of the technical limitations of the machines of the day.

Anyway, enough of this longing for the innocent gaming of yesteryear and back to Left for Dead 2 Sacrifice, I will complete it on Expert… I will… I will.