Heavenly Sword (PS3)

April 28, 2008 | By Doug In Playstation 3 |

In a nutshell:
Amongst all the games that were actually playable on the PS3 at the recent E3 event in Los Angeles this was the most impressive, both in terms of gameplay and graphics. Not only that but it’s a completely original game, not a sequel or a remake.

The lowdown:
Already nicknamed by some as Goddess of War, due to its apparent similarities to PS2 game God of War, the storyline of the game is unclear but it features a typically attractive and super skilled martial arts heroine as she knocks seven bells out of a stream of ninja like bad guys. The various moves look stunning, in particular an eye-watering groin attack aimed at the male enemies (the game features motion capture by Gollum and King Kong actor Andy Serkis). The E3 demo level takes place in a small, and completely destructible, arena but other test footage shows an expansive and impressively realistic looking game world to explore and demolish.

Most exciting moment:
Towards the end of the demo the game segues into a QTE (quick time event) sequence where you have to tap the buttons according to icons flashed onscreen, which sees you performing even more outrageous stunts and attacks.

Since you ask:
Developers Ninja Theory used to be known as Just Add Monsters, under which name they made comedy beat ?€˜em-up Kung Fu Chaos for the Xbox.

The bottom line:
The best looking, and playing, game so far on the PS3.
HARRISON DENT

Customer Review: A turning point for gaming
People have reported on the production values of games for some time now, but Heavenly Sword sets a brand new benchmark in quality. Before going into all of the that, though, the thing you really want from a game is that it’s fun to play. Heavenly Sword has a reasonable learning curve, but it’s not necessarily as well thought out as a Mario game, for instance. You can make your way though with some judicious button bashing, but you can also put time in to learn all the moves and really be expert in your adventure. There is no doubt that you will complete this game - it’s not one of those huge sprawling games, but to me, I like that and especially for this game where the story is so important. If this game took 100 hours to complete, there would be a lot of people who never got to the end. The game is a journey, and you WANT to reach the conclusion. Usually, the stories for games are poor and there is very little depth to the characters. In Heavenly Sword, there is real emotional engagement and character depth which goes much further into your personal investment into the storyline developments than any other game I can think of.

So, the characters are well defined and resolved. In addition, the landscape is awesome. Brilliantly designed and executed, as is the music and even the extras. Usually, I would say that none of these things make a great game in themselves, and while it’s true that without all of those things, Heavenly Sword would be no more than an average game, it is the attention to detail, the scale and well resolved story and characters that make this a 5 Star game.

I hope that this sets a benchmark for future PS3 titles as to date, I’ve not been thrilled with much of what’s been released. Heavenly Sword is an exceptional title and a great game to play.

I don’t mind that it’s short - I can play it again and again, just like I’d watch a great film again and again. Try the game - it’s the best I’ve played on the PS3 so far.

Customer Review: A Must Have For Your PS3.
It’s that simple. It’s one of those games that should be in your PS3 collection.

I’ve had this game since release but after playing it through again i’ve decided to let anyone who’ll read know what i think about it.

When Heavenly Sword came out it looked stunning, but it’s since been beaten in the graphics department by newer games. Not to say they’re bad, it’s still a very shiny game.

The gameplay - to a certain extent - can be as complex or as simple as you want. You have the ability to switch styles on the fly and will need to change it up a little to defeat some enemies. But there’s not real incentive to break an effective combo, there’s no style points or ranking system to speak of. Those expecting a system like Devil May Cry could be a little dissapointed. A word of advice, this game does have what i believe to be termed ‘Hero Sequences’? Maybe ‘Quicktime events’. Either way, during an event or boss battle you get a cutscene and be prompted to push a button at the right time. My advice being, if you miss these during a boss fight the game is very punishing. So be on you toes.

As well as playing as the main character Noriko, you get a few missions to play as the archer, Kai. I actualy preffered these missions if for no other reason than you get to play as Kai as i found her a brilliant character. It’s a bit of a change playing as Kai, you can’t attack at close range and most of her missions will be sniping or dodging enemies and running away far enough to get a decent shot. Her after-touch shot, though tricky at first, is a nice use of the SIXAXIS as it doesn’t feel like it’s been put in the game for the sake of useing the feature.

One thing that really sets this game appart from others are the cutscenes. The acting is better than most films these days and you never feel like skipping them purely because they’re a joy to watch each time. The story - though arguably a little short - is a good one.

That’s one quarrel people might have with this game is that it only takes a few hours to complete. But i didn’t think it took anything away from the game. Any longer and it would have been extending the game for the sake of it and would have been able to add little, if anything to the story.

Heavenly Sword is easily worth your time and money, even if you only rent it.

Cars: Mater-National (PS3)
List Price: ?39.99
Amazon Price: ?22.96
Used Price: ?26.44
Customer Review: Great Sequel
After the great success of ‘Disney Pixar Cars’ game last year, comes a sequel for next gen consoles. What’s great about that is it takes (almost) full advantage to the PS3 capabilities letting the player explore Radiator Springs & 2 other locations; Ornament Valley & Tailfin Pass. Now the reason why I said “almost” is the 3 locations are some what short, it’ll probably take less than 20mins to explore the whole area (of 1 location). But still, if you seen the film ‘Cars’, it plays closely to the layouts of the little town, so in other words, you’ve already familiar with the place. The graphics are stunning, everything is like the real world (surroundings and environments) yet kept the magical Pixar quality in the cars. The sound is great, especially the music. Some you’ve already heard if you watched the film or played the 1st ‘Cars’ game, but they also include a few energetic songs making it more a fun experience whilst racing. However when 1 song ends & another starts, that’s when a small glitch occurs. The game pauses just a slight whilst the song is changed, barely a second. The sequel, they introduce a heck alot of different stuff, many mini games, they are the following: - Ramone’s Rhythmic Rumble - which is very similar to dancing games, pressing corresponding buttons at the right time to make Ramone dance. - Tractor Tipping - much like the movie have demonstrated, honk at the tractors and tip them over whilst avoiding Frank. If you’re very good at stealth games, this is a synch for you guys. - Doc & The Law’s Race ‘N Chase - its basically the classic playground game tag, where you’re “it” & you gotta tag the other car & race back to your “home base”. - Fillmore’s Fuel Frenzy - it’s like a normal race, but you got to pick up fuel canisters & not let your gas run out. Its not about who finishes 1st place, its about who would survive the longest (with the amount of laps achieved). - Ghosting Mater - your task here is to scare Mater home, by directing him towards light spots (which boosts his speed temporarily) & not let him come to an halt. Simple? The trick is that the directional button is opposite; left = right & right = left. - Mike & Sulley’s Last Laugh - this mini game lets you use Mike (from ‘Monsters Inc.’) vs. fellow pal Sulley (in ‘Cars’ form) to beat each other in collecting laugh canisters scattered around the place. The best thing about this mini game is how close they manage make everything relevant to ‘Monsters Inc.’, for e.g. there are garage portals which leads you to another section in the area, this is paying to the homage of the closet doorway in the film. Want to play as Sulley? Don’t worry, there’s a race (in actaul fact, there’s 3) where you can use Monster Truck Sulley (only during arcade mode, not story mode). As for the race types, there are 5 types: - Town Race - Stadium Race - Rustbucket Race (racing against rusty cars) - Relay - Monster Truck Race Every game has a bad part, & the bad bit is that Sally the Porsche isn’t in the game…at all. Why is this bad? Well, since Sally is 1 of the most famous characters in last years film, you would expect she will be in it (the only thing that relates to her that’s in the game is her hotel cones). If you played the 1st game, such characters as Chick Hicks, Boost, Wingo & DJ isn’t in the game either. While the likes of the Sheriff & Snot Rod is in the game, but you either see them in cutscenes or during 1 or 2 rare races. With the lack of familiar characters, I guess they make it up for introducing new 1’s with Emma (small English rally car), Otto (German race car), Gudmund (Swedish mud rally car), Koji (Japanese drift car) & Geovanni (Italian Ferrari). So here are the playable characters (outside story mode): - ‘Lightning McQueen’ - ‘Doc Hudson’ - ‘Tow Mater’ - ‘Ramone’ - ‘Flo’ - ‘Luigi’ - ‘Sarge’ - ‘Fillmore’ - ‘Gudmund’ - ‘Geovanni’ - ‘Emma’ - ‘Otto’ - ‘Koji’ - ‘Mike’ (only in Mike & Sulley’s Last Laugh) - ‘Sulley’ (only in Mike & Sulley’s Last Laugh & Monster Truck race) - Monster ‘McQueen’ (only Monster Truck races) - Monster ‘Mater’ (only Monster Truck races) Powersliding in the 1st game proves to be too effective, but in this game proves a bit more harder & seemingly frustrating as you have to press way in advance before the turn. It’s quite hard when you get a left bend then a right bend after another. I think that’s why they introduce the tilt control but it only helps you on sharp bends. All this makes it increasingly hard to perform a 180 degree spin on right aways (which you need during Race n’ Chase mini game). A minor disadvantage is you’re unable to look behind you, actually, you can, but it’s hard & maybe not worth doing. To look behind you, to see how far you’re opponents are, you have to rotate the right analog stick, from top to bottom, sometimes it feels like you’re fighting the camera as it tries to reposition itself to view forward, & sometimes you just lift the camera to a birds eye view of your car. & finally, this isn’t ‘need for speed’ difficulty, so compared to other racing games, it’s pretty darn short in comparison (it took me 4 days to complete the game 100%, & I play it 3hrs a day). But if you take your time on the challenges & explore the area (admiring the view of the landscape), it should keep you pretty occupied for a few more hours. All in all, with these little niggling problems, there’s no reason why this game isn’t as good as the 1st. It really capture the essence of the Pixar quality.

Vivo Branded HDMI to HDMI Cable 1.8 metres for PS3

AV Composite Cable for Sony PS3
This AV Cable provides composite video & audio [L/R] output for viewing on a TV / Monitor. Dock connector plugs directly into the game console Ultra thick and flexible jacket with color coded connectors to simplify installation Length: 7 ft / 2.13 ms Color: Black Compatible with: Sony Playstation 3

NBA (PS3) Customer Review: nba
this is not a bad game but even on easy setting u still end up losing by 20 pts the computer scores every time
Customer Review: Not by EA Sports so that’s gotta be good!!!
I’m not usually the kind of person that would buy a basketball related game but, on one Saturday afternoon I did and I haven’t regretted it.

I’ll concentrate on the gameplay more than anything else because I think we can all accept that the graphics of practically all games these days is top notch.

The menus are easy to navigate, exhibition games are easy to set up and there are four difficulty levels ranging from Rookie to All-Star to keep you interested in the longterm. So far I’m a few games into a league and I’ve had a few friends over to take advantage of the four player game options. So far I’ve had no problems with either.

The only thing I found a bit confusing was identifying the abilities of the teams. Not being familiar with basketball teams it took me a little while to figure out that the teams with the lowest numbers were the best as opposed to the usual highest numbers being best.

Once you’re in the game the player controls are easy to get to grips with and the games are just as fast and frenetic as the real thing. Even the dribbling tricks and tactics are easy to pull off and set up respectively. The commentary is also effective in providing some added atmosphere and hasn’t yet become annoying unlike some of the commentary on the EA Sports sims.

All round it’s a solid game that has well rendered graphics and is really playable. I don’t often write game reviews but this one deserves some attention. I’ll recommend this game highly to both fans of the sport and those looking for something different. 5 Stars

TIP: Watch the timing of your tackles or you’ll give away ‘reach in fouls’ which your opposition will score from for fun.