The Last of Us Review

The Last of Us is an Playstation 3 exclusive game developed by Naughty Dog, creators of the Uncharted series, and all the original Crash Bandicoot titles. Naughty Dog are also the developers behind the PS2 hit series Jak and Daxter. The Last of Us, which is a noire game that relies on stealth, skill, and the art of deception, is based all across the U.S., starting in Texas, where we first meet the main character, Joel, and his younger brother, Tommy. From here-on, the story unfolds, unobtrusively through little tidbits on what is happening, and turning the residents of the city and surrounding suburb into killers and monsters. You start the game off playing as Sarah, awaking from bed to find that something seems a bit off, but nothing yet seems out-of-place. Sarah then searches for her father, Joel, and goes about the house looking for him. Like most games of this current generation, you can basically enter every single room in the house, and are rewarded for exploring with little hints as to what you will be expecting later on in the game. T his of course makes it also seem like one continuous tutorial for a good portion of the game, which is eerily similar to what one can expect from most current generation titles. Sarah finds her father as she walks through what appears to be a study, as he just came back in through the glass doors, practically out-of-breath from checking on the neighbors. They appear to have gone hysterically violent for some odd reason, as one of them breaks in, and Joel is forced to put a bullet into him to save himself and his daughter. From here, they both run out the front door, and meet up with Tommy, and peel off to escape from the outskirts of the city. This turns out to be a bad idea, as most of the entire state have decided on evacuating the same way, so they are forced to escape down a more dangerous route. All this time, you are playing spectator as Sarah, as she can turn about in the SUV, able to witness the carnage all around the vehicle, in a deceptively secure backseat. This idea makes the game that much more terrifying, being that you play a young scared child, who is watching all the terror unfold. Truthfully, the whole prologue is more an observation than actual game play, yet it is a real treat to watch the spectacle unfold. After turning around, Tommy, who is driving the jeep/SUV, heads down a side street, trying to find an alternate route, especially after seeing an “infected” person attack a bystander. Cutting through people, a car sideswipes the SUV, and knocks them over. From here-on-out, you control Joel, as you carry Sarah away from the infected, and escape through an alleyway. Joel cuts through a path into a clearing, but is halted by military personnel, that want him to turn back to the quarantine zone. He refuses, as the MP raises a gun and shoots, Joel turns away, as Tommy; who appears just in-the-nick-of-time, and incapacitates the MP. Joel looks down at his daughter and sees that Sarah is hit by the shot, killing her in a very dramatic, heart-wrenching scene.That is where the game officially begins. The Last of Us, which I expected to be a game full of running and gunning, but in-fact is more apt to be based on stealth, and in some cases nearly forces you to use stealth in order to get past particular sections. I was quite impressed by how the game presents itself, as a very original style of game play which I have yet to see much of outside of the realms of the Uncharted series. You can blatantly see where Nathan Drake’s adventure is an influence on the parkour-like game play. Even Joel bares a shocking resemblance to Nathan Drake, who has that very rugged, athletic look. Following the prologue, the game begins twenty-years-after the events of the first signs of outbreak, and Joel finds himself working as a smuggler with a possible lover/compatriot named Tess, moving illegal contraband throughout a Quarantine Zone in Boston Massachusetts. From here on, there is a bit more tutorial, particularly in climbing, moving objects to reach a difficult area, and shooting and melee. There are even parts of the game where you can make moral decision, like help a person trapped under rubble, or put them out of their misery by shooting them in the head. Despite the game having an M rating, which mostly comes from the colorful language used between all the characters, the blood itself is not obnoxious and overly gory…well for my standards, but that doesn’t mean the game isn’t brutish in its kills, which it most certainly is, and why it deserves the M rating. Also, it’s about the gore you don’t see, which makes the game even that much more disturbing for some. After getting down the basics, and chasing down another smuggler named Robert, who has their armaments; Tess and Joel meet up with a woman named Marlene, the leader of a resistance group known as the Fireflies, who are attempting to be rid of the virus that acts very much like protozoan to their host, turning them into mindless zombies. She asks to have Joel and Tess move a young girl named Ellie, who is fourteen, and looks to have a secret hidden away that could play out to be a serious plot point later on in the game. Marlene, who has stolen a cache of weaponry from Joel and Tess, apparently from a man who betrayed Tess, and previously shot earlier on in the scene, that she promises to give up the cache to them if they can safely move Ellie across to the capital building to meet up with another group of Fireflies. Accepting the task, mostly because they want to get their guns back, Joel and Tess take Ellie up to the Capital building, but find that the Fireflies have moved on, leaving them to ponder what to do with Ellie. Suddenly, a group of militants storm the capital building, surrounding the trio, and Tess is left to make the ultimate sacrifice, giving Joel and Ellie just enough time to escape, and head off, in-search to find the Fireflies, because Ellie reveals a major secret to Joel, which could change the fate of humanity, forever. Do they find the Fireflies? Is humanity changed forever? All this and more is answered in the game, and it is an enthralling tale to witness unfold, trumping many of Hollywood blockbusters in the process. Basically the Last of Us is a game that is about the codependent relationship between a middle-aged man who is dealing with the loss of his daughter, and a past that haunts him to the verge of losing his sanity, and a young girl who houses a secret that could be the fate-changing miracle for all of humanity, but it is much deeper than that, it excels as a grand story of survival, morality, and sacrifice. The story itself is nearly flawless, though I felt that writers could have explained a bit more about the plague itself, perhaps and origins point, but then again some things truly just come out of nowhere, without warning, or explanation, but I still felt it was a bit lazy on their part. Granted if you read every single piece of scrap paper and artifact/pendant you can find, it does explain a bit more, but I find reading on a television screen is not really the best way to explain your story. The game is also full of glitches, bugs, and feels more like the beta than the finished product. I am sure that game testers are getting lazier and lazier with each passing game, or they just don’t do their jobs well enough to catch the most obvious glitches. For example, there are times when I have found myself ghosting through walls, or seeing through the code of the world. I understand the game is quite large, and it is like a needle in a haystack for most games, being that none are ever perfect when they leave post production. Yet, I find the ones I have found are so obvious, that they could have been easily fixed without delay before it hit my home console. Granted, patches and updates will surely be out about the same day the game goes to the store, but for people who cannot constantly update their system, especially those without the luxury of Internet, surely they could have made a bit large effort to patch up the giant holes that are so obviously found by more than ninety-nine percent of the people who will play the game. Sure, I am a bit frugal about glitches, but I would feel in a day-and-age of high definition gaming, where it is nearly impossible to distinguish weather patterns from reality and virtual reality, there has to be a way to map out and eradicate most of the major bugs in any software release. Despite the bugs, glitches, and other discrepancies that are even smaller irks to mention, the game is stellar, one of the best games I have played this year, and although it is an exclusive game to Sony, it is one of the best games I have played on any console this year, and I have to say it is on par with some of the biggest game releases, including the likes of Bioshock: Infinite, and Dead Space 3, which had not been as critically acclaimed as it should have been. Nevertheless, I would like to just point out a few more issues before my final verdict: The graphics are amazing at times, and then they are dastardly trepid at others, almost yin-and-yang comparisons, which truly takes away from the experience at times, but it is more vanity than a technical error. The game is not running on fully 1080p, which to me is a drastic no-no for the end of a console cycle, the game should look nearly next gen, rather than earlier current gen. Overall, if you are a PS 3 owner, you are in for a treat if you decide to pick up The Last of Us, a game that is part survival horror, part stealth, and all heart. The game has g rand details, some of which could separate it from many other games of this current generation, becoming a staple in the aspect of details I expect to see further down the road with next-generation software. Most people laughed at me when I decided to go with the Playstation 3, over the Xbox 360 as my console of choice, and that is a fair argument to assume, but I have been astounded by the appeal of so many exclusive titles of Sony software, and know now that I had made the right decision. Sure the PS 3 isn’t perfect, but that’s technology for you: it never works perfect 100% of the time. You’re lucky if it works perfectly 75% of the time, but the games I have played on the PS 3 which have been amazing, and shows the powerhouse Sony has enveloped for nearly a decade. If I were to rate this game, I would do so by saying it was highly addictive, I did not want to stop playing, merely because once I was sucked in, the story enthralled me to the point of playing nearly eight hours straight, and I rarely do that, even with a long-awaited title. Also; I was extremely impressed by the showmanship of the story. It took me a bit to really get indulged, but one I was hooked, I could not believe the rate the story flowed. My suggestions for those who want to play the game, I would suggest turning on the subtitles, because even though I am a bit hard-of-hearing, personally I feel the voice actors speak a little bit low even for acceptably fair hearing to comprehend. Also, it was smart for them to build in the ability to skip the cut scenes, which this game has some long ones, not nearly as ridiculous as say Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, which has a cut scene that last nearly twenty minutes, but they are pretty damn long. I don’t have a proper rating system, but I would give the game a three-point-five out of five, or something like that, mostly because of the minor bugs, and the issues with the graphics, and the fact that there are only presets for the controller, I was upset I couldn’t configure the controls myself, but whatever, again a minor discrepancy as the controls are not horrid. Despite the flaws the game is one of the best, more original games I’ve played in a while, even if it shamelessly borrows from such influences as: The Grey, The Thing, The Walking Dead, Cormac McCarthy’s the Road, and even a bit of Red Dawn. The game is great, and I would recommend it to most fans of Metal Gear Solid, Resident Evil, the original Silent Hill series, and obviously Uncharted. Thank you for reading the Malacast Editorial, all Malacast Editorial pieces are the sole opinion of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Malacast Agent himself, or the opinions of any other contributors to the Malacast Editorial. If you would like to know when the Malacast Editorial is updated, you can find follow the feed on twitter: twitter.com/mcasteditoral, or @mcasteditoral. You can also befriend Malacast Agent on Facebook, at Malacast Agentt, that’s Agent with two ts because Facebook is too stupid to accept the fact that Agent could be a last name. Again, thank you so much for reading the Malacast Editorial, and if you want to leave a comment on a particular post, just click the bottom of that said post and leave your comment. If you have a general comment, you can leave it on Mal’s twitter page, or face book page, and he will attempt to answer back as promptly as possible.

Peripheral Apocalypse My biased outlook on the peripheral phenomenon, and more accurately, my bitching and moaning about the Kinect and Playstation Move being pieces of garbage.

I am old-fashioned when it comes to gaming peripherals, I enjoy some fancy new controller for say, Duck Hunt, which for you kids out there was a game that shipped along with the original Nintendo Entertainment system, sometimes on the same cartridge as Super Mario Bros. and some track jumping game that even had a padded mat that could sense when you ran and jumped. For those of you are too young to remember a cartridge is an old-fashioned medium to play video games on, in-which a block or square shaped piece of carbon holds a motherboard that maintains a video game, and is stuck into the video game console. This came bundled in a second/third wave of Nintendo systems to the U.S., and spawned the age of peripherals to the NES console. Sure, that awesome orange gun was perfect for bringing down ducks, and it didn’t take away from the overall accessibility of the NES controller, if not being far more comfortable than that little rectangular hand-cramping plastic marvel that had killed my thumbs for thousands of hours of my life. Peripherals are now even more accessible on the next-generation consoles, and even this current generation, but they do not always add the comfort seen by peripherals of the past. Some even go so far as to eliminate an entirely fun gaming experience with the lack of any tangible interaction (as if you couldn’t already guess who I mock) but look at it this way: most peripherals are great ideas on paper, and horribly executed in the marketplace. The worst peripherals I have ever seen is the U-force, which is the grand pappy of the Kinect. Sure, it was new-age technology leading full-footed into the digital mainstream, but it was horrendous, and barely worked, and was a solid example of a piece of trash that sucked up money, and gave the player no added value to their games. Wow! You wiped your hand across this over-glorified Xerox copier, and send Mario careening off a cliff like a blind suicide bomber. The system came out for the original NES, and I am not sure if it actually worked for a SNES, but all I know is I sold the damn thing after I found it in a closet years after anyone ever bought it. Nintendo is great at making very stupid peripherals, and sometimes I wonder if that is all they actually do! Gamers do not want a means to play a game that look hip and cool, they want practicality, and really the money spent on R and D, marketing, and selling this peripherals could be better spent in making peripherals like standard controllers, touch screens, and even handless controls better. Nintendo’s Wii U was a smarter move, and it allowed for backwards compatibility with the Wii’s nunchaku, so you didn’t just have to toss them away forever. Nintendo was smart to also incorporate their Wii U touch-screen controller into a second-screen experience, so you can literally use it like a second television, if someone else wants to use the T.V. to play a better gaming system like an Xbox or Sony system, so the grownups can play real games. (Just kidding) Then again…let’s look at these “grownup” systems, and their shellacked peripherals that suck a big one. (That’s an industry term). Xbox is the pinnacle of disgraceful peripherals, they have shoved their ridiculous Kinect down people’s throats so much, that they are now bundling it with the Xbox One, just to insure those who haven’t met this horrific style of gaming, are forced to have an ugly, obnoxious camera that can barely work with any of its ten games. Xbox’s Kinect is proof that making money schemes never backfire, because people like shiny, white or black technology whenever they come across it, and will shell out top-dollar just to make sure they were the first to buy some hyped piece of technology. As a gamer, I sometimes fit that, and many other unsettling descriptions, but I also know when I am being deliberately sold a piece of garbage that will only ruin my experience further. Microsoft is the biggest export of broken dreams, and the Kinect is just a sad, sad example of misplaced technology into a corporation’s greedy, sausage-fingered hands. The Kinect looks great on paper, a sound idea that could very-much revolutionize the gaming world in a heartbeat, but instead, turns out to be nothing more than some Ponzi scheme for making gamers fund Microsoft further, preventing their much-requested downfall. I hate how they marketed their peripheral, as if it was “bad-ass” or “awesome”, which shows that Microsoft is not a company that gives two shits about you as a gamer, but tends to fail yearly on every account when it comes to marketing a global piece of technology that people actually want to buy. They are so desperate to make the margins go up on sales of units for the Kinect, they are sinking low enough to sell it with the Xbox One. Sony would never, ever try to push misguided, mishandled technology onto their consumers in a ruse to move units! Would they? Sony, my openly bias video game company, how I have enjoyed your many, many first party titles over the years. You, truly know how appeal to gamers. Why! You would never sink so low as to market a trashy product/peripheral to the masses of adoring fans would you? So to prove I am not just some sell-out piece of shit talking head/ writing retard, I’m going to tell you about the “fun” peripherals Sony has in store for us in the upcoming years. First, I would like to start with Sony’s ability to make an ice cream cone into a controller. The Playstation Move is a prime example of why peripherals, no matter how technologically superior they may seem at the time are just a ridiculous way of not giving anything back to the gamer, who could easily enjoy the game with a regular controller. The only smart thing they had done was make many of their games available with or without Move compatibility. They did not force their fans to by a Move, and for that they show some integrity, not much; but some. The Playstation Move is not something I would gloat over in the R and D department of Sony, and I understand that with the trends being what they are, they will integrate a touch screen into their console as well, because it is trendy, and forces all other forms of entertainment to conform, but what I find unique to the integration of the handheld peripherals into the market is that none of them truly make you feel as if you are controlling the game! Sure they mimic movement, but none of them actually immerse the player in a way that seems as interesting as Sci-Fi modules for Virtual Reality. If anything, that stupid watch that Sony just released that acts as a communicator is more advanced than these ridiculous peripherals. Secondly, and perhaps leads better into the little tease up top in the last two paragraphs is the Playstation Vita. This handheld is the successor to the Playstation Portable, which was met with wishy-washy acclaim, but it was the only handheld out there that allowed you a clear-vision of playing your favorite games on the go. Basically it was a handheld Playstation 2, which made it the best handheld on the market, but that was before tablets and iPhones and even the iPad were ever introduced into the market, changing the strategy for gaming for the next decade, and possibly well beyond if the current trends stay true. As an adult gamer, one well above the age of eighteen, and even further above the age of twelve, I don’t see a reason why I would be interested in playing games on the go, because I am too preoccupied to do anything involving games when I am outside. I would much rather take in the scenery, go shopping, eat out, or most currently, work. I don’t have time to play games on the run, maybe kids do, but I certainly don’t have a reason to use one of these things. I’m sure many gamers will either agree, surely most will disagree, but I believe the Playstation Vita was just a very bad move for Sony. Microsoft was smart to not build a handheld console, but I can only see limited value from a handheld system. I really just don’t have a reason to use it, and although I am for competition in the market, technology is pretty much an open-and-closed case when it comes to the winners of the handheld markets. The Vita is now selling so piss-poorly, they are now destined to bundle the system with the Playstation 4, which is a great value for gamers, but I ask you gamers out there that would indeed by the Playstation 4: do you really want the handheld? Are you really going to use it so often that it is a legitimate buy? This ploy is mostly to bring down the resale value of the PSV, and not nearly for the convenience of the so-called “two-for-one” console deal. Although the Playstation Vita is a relatively powerful system, and does deserve credit in some ways for its very compelling mechanics in such a small handheld, it will suffer under the fact that it is just another piece of very expensive technology to carry around with you wherever you go. You know are forced to carry your phone and music, games, and this handheld, so why would you carry nearly a thousand dollars worth of technology on you, just so you can have a gaming experience that may rival, if not-equal the Playstation 3’s core game design? Personally, I think it is a ruse like every other damn peripheral, albeit a far better one than most to bundle up to just push units, when really they are losing money, and will legitimately hurt the company more when we go back to the core reason for buying these overpriced, (and let‘s be honest here), over-glorified systems. Now, I am not trying to counter my arguments about Sony, Nintendo, or Microsoft from past posts, but with Sony, I feel this move is a damned if you do, damned if you don’t situation we are always precariously thrown into when it comes the rudimentary understandings of videogame marketing. Even if they push thirty million units come Christmas in America, Sony will have only sold an extended thirty million PSVs, and still have lost money on them. The sad fact that I have to point out that most people can play online, and not necessarily want to play on anything other than maybe a long bus ride will find this product a gimmick, along with the ridiculous load times, and game sticks replacing UMDs. I hate this system, and I’m sure most will agree that the age of handhelds has belonged to smart phones, and probably will for a good long while. If not, then obviously the market trends are not showing the proper data, and the PSV is a gift from God that we have all ignored. Maybe in Sony’s Dreams Department. We learned today that peripherals suck, except for the awesome orange gun for the original Duck Hunt, and very few peripherals will ever replace the dexterity, comfort, and control of a videogame controller. Want an example? The remote control for your television, though it can be a Universal remote now-a-days, has barely changed from its inception, nearly sixty years ago! So stop giving us peripherals we don’t want, and we’ll stop complaining about horrible RPGs that people buy because they look pretty. Also, please stop making Final Fantasy games, I’ve been playing this “last game” by square soft since the 90s! I’m sorry, but I just can’t stand Final Fantasy, and I blame you, all of you, for its continuing success. Especially you! Thank you for reading the Malacast Editorial

Editorial: The Short-sided Opinion on the likes of DLC and Digital Distribution

The last time I checked, it was illegal to digitally downloaded material that was considered by the RIAA as "pirated" software. Recently, I've taken notice that many companies, big and small, are allowing free distribution of certain copyrighted materials, and are using the global marketplace as a think tank for freely marketing original content by struggling artists who are not getting the proper pay and to me this is promoting the very illegal distribution that so many feel hurts the entertainment industry. Sadly, you have to deal with contemporary mediums for outsourcing materials like new albums, digital books, and even podcasts in the form of free samples, which hardly ever help the "little guy/gal" indie entertainer. This mostly relates to advertisers taking hard-working entertainers to the cleaners more heavily than ever before.
In recent months, there have been so many digitally distributed resources for people to manage to transfer via the world wide net, that it is almost impossible to imagine there being any income or capital of any sort for the modern-day musician. The art is thrown around by mega structures, that the artist is starving more now than ever before. I am not talking about the likes of Lady Gaga, although she is digitally downloaded enough that she losses hundereds of thousands of monies from income, but her work is so wildly popular with the demographic, it becomes pennies on the dollar.
Digital Distribution, whether through a source such as iTunes, or Bit Torrent for the illgeal distributer, pirating is now a threat more to the start-up artist, rather than the hit-making machines that are artistic elite. Granted, stealing from any artist who has actually put the thought and heart into their achievements should be wrong on levels from both sides of the spectrum, but I worry mostly for the likes of the classic independent, struggling artist who has no means to survive except for the fruit of their own labor. In this modern digital age, we see the likes of film, music, and even pirated software for videogames going against the developers who try the best to make the most out of what they can. Most monies are made within the first month of release for most games, films, and albums, after that, it's back to the drawing board, and the artist must struggle to rise to the top again.
Game developers use a tatic that sometimes pays off, and that is downloadable content. This is used for most gamers, who spend a lot on new-age technology to support their favorite passtime,to further enhance the gameplay of their favorite games. Developers do at times insult gamers who feel that DLC stands for vapor-ware, or uncompleted software, but in the struggling times, such as is with the music industry, developers and producers simply try to give the best possible experience with their software, in hopes of having gamers and sometimes new gamers to a said genre or series, to come back ravenously for more.
In the spectrum of gaming, the internet has at times allowed for positive conditions to the entertainment platform, considerably in the aspect of updates, and patches to fix all bugs in a game. For some, this is seen as a "lazy" form of developing, but meeting unrealistic deadlines for encoding thousands of lines of information can sometimes be haphazardous to those who try to get the best version of the game on the market. Most people do complain games should be finished before being shipped onto the shelves, but considering that the games patches and updates are usually free, complaints are respected, but not taking as serious as with the prices of DLC.
In the lines of the DLC, this is where games are usually made better with added bonus content that will run a gamer a full $75 to $100 (including purchase of the said game disc) when all content is officially uploaded onto stores like the PSN Store or Xbox Live. Content is not needed to experience the full-fledged game, but what once was included in most games on previous systems, now cost the player extended investments, and is rarely available in another format other than digitally downloaded versions. For some, although a rare minority, DLC is impossible do to internet scarcity, or the sort of connection only available in their area. Believe it or not, some places in the world, even the United States, are without the access to broadband or cable.
The gamers left out of the DLC movement, can at times find certain DLC available to buy on disc format at their local videogame store, but these options are scarce, if ever existant. The worst part is that developers who do deserve the extra services are bound to find, even at the lowest minority, pirating of the above software outlets, hence much money spent to distribution, but more importantly development, is taken out of the hands of those who create these billion dollar titles, and they recieve and even lower portion of the slave wage already the minimum.
Over the years, I have always been pro business to these, and other individuals who spend much of their lives developing the entertainmetns we now take for granted. The monies poured in are never the return, and if only for the love of the job do the individuals who create such entertainments continue to go along, and continue creating these amazing games, albums, and films. Although I do not talk much about the banking industry that is Hollywood here, I will say that even the highest paid director sometimes develops a movie worth his salary.
Thank you for reading the Malacast Editorial, I hope you've enjoyed this short editiorial on the basis of DLC and Digital Distribution, its pros and cons, and why examples of commisions like the RIAA are sometimes right about pirating digital content. I will give a further analysis on this topic, as it's always a blowhard one I deal with and am questioned about on the more-than-rarest of occasions. Thank you again for reading.

Twisted Metal for Playstation 3 Imaginings (Not a full-account of Twisted Metal’s History) By: Malacast Agent

Hello, this is Malacast Agent, from Malacast Editorial at mcasteditorial.blogspot.com, and I am here to give an idea of what the next Twisted Metal game in the series is going to be, or at least, should be close to in comparison to the latest games.
The company Eat, Sleep, Play is the official producers of the title series. Eat, Sleep, Play are the original people behind the first two Twisted Metal games in the series, Twisted Metal Small Bawl, Head-On, and of course, Twisted Metal: Black. Originally called SingleTrac™, then Incognito™ now the company is called Eat, Sleep, Play. Jaffe, being one of the original key designers on the first Twisted Metal, has also gone on to other great titles, aside from the Jet Moto series; there is also the God of War Trilogy.
Twisted Metal, for those who do not know the series, is a car-combat game, assumingly inspired by Death Race 2010(?) which inspired the 2008 film Death Race, which is as close to a Twisted Metal game as one may ever see. If you want a concept of how the game works, Death Race is as close as they get, although the concept of Twisted Metal is not a race to the finish, but the last car left running is victorious. The game is also not made up of prisoners buying for freedom, but for one wish by the always-elusive character Calypso.
Twisted Metal takes place originally in Los Angeles, and after the first game, seeing Los Angeles was left in trash and terror, spread throughout the world, creating a mass destruction on a global level of literally Twisted Metal. Over the fourteen yeas of its existence, the game has evolved from cartoon-ish graphics, to a darker, grimy, metallic feel that is found in the Twisted Metal: Black installment. Twisted Metal: Head-On recaptured that feeling one got from Twisted Metal: World Tour (TM2), which is still considered by fans to be the best game in the series thus far.
The basic concept of the game is that you select a character car driven by a unique character whose personality is reflected in their unrealistic armor-plated ride. Characters from the game that are most often found include: Roadkill, Specter, Hammerhead, Shadow, and of course, the game’s mascot; Sweet Tooth.
The game was originally supposed to be called High Octane, but was switched at the end of production due to a change of heart, or copyright infringement, but this led to the cutting out of actual video endings for each car victorious in the competition. You can catch the endings on YouTube or other video sites that host streaming video.
Twisted Metal holds a very strong place in the hearts of fans, which truly bleed metal and chrome. The game has a nostalgia feel that is not easily found in other games, like a cultural movement found in that era. The feeling is best felt when playing the game than explained in a simple blog post.
Twisted Metal is as of now an exclusive to Sony, and most likely will always be a game expected on the upcoming installments to the Sony Playstation hardware. The original two games have also been sold for PC, but have been seen as lesser games to the console counterparts. The age of the game franchise, and the absolute outcry for a new game stands the test of time to prove this game has social significance in the gaming universe.
This brings me to the purpose of this post: Twisted Metal on the Playstation 3. Some fans are concerned on how this game will play out, some are curious about just what’s going to become of the beloved series. Most fans will concur that Twisted Metal III and twisted Metal 4 were dark days for the series, but that cartoon-ish feel is what gave the game its fun, and its retro feel. Twisted Metal: Black took the series down a darker road, as most game series have fallen suit with that growing trend, but that is what I believe hurt the series: the game was too bland without the colorful look that made it unique. So, the question is, where could this series go? Will it follow Twisted Metal: Head-On, will it be a counterpart to the rarely seen game Twisted Metal: Lost (a re-hash of what was suppose to be Twisted Metal: Black II) or will it be something completely different than any fan expects? I will paint an idea of what we can be expecting this September (Supposedly).
If Mr. Jaffe considers following the classic game, and making perhaps a game that reminds us of Twisted Metal 2, then he may have either a winner on his hands, or an absolute failure. Dave Jaffe will want to mostly appeal more to the series than the fans cry, because that is what honestly has made the series better, and kept it original. Why would I want to play a game I already came up with the idea for, or even practically helped design? Eat, Sleep, Play will most likely not follow this path, but if they do, you’ll have a game that travels the globe to famous sites from countries around the world. I mean, it never gets boring blowing up the Eiffel Tower, but what else can one suspect if they follow suit with this idea?
So expect the colorful cars we love, similar characters from past games, and of course expect Sweet Tooth in some form, maybe even as a final boss, but expect the character in the new game. If Sweet Tooth is left out, although the character may have become stale, the fans may internally riot in a pissy outrage.
Now if the second path is taken, the path more likely to be taken due to the fact we live in such a scared world, and any game showing any vehicles ripping through buildings will just be too “realistic” for “children” to play is just taboo. So instead we may very well see Twisted Metal: Black….2? Or 2.5? Either way, we’ll get that fictional world where the concept will be more true to Death Race 2010/Death Race (2008/9) where prisoners will fight for a wish. The dark, gothic style will surely be bland but it’ll look “pretty” in Next-Gen graphics. The story will likely be set in a similar fictional world found in the past game, or another area of that game, we’ll know in previews to come.
Twisted Metal: Black on PS3, or a game based off that concept will more-than likely carry the M rating, where most other games only had the T Rating M= Mature, T= Teen, we’ll discover that the game will be far more violent, or the wrecks will be far more realistic than in previous games. I have heard fans personally crying out for Burnout-like crashes and explosions in Twisted Metal, but I expect more GTA IV style crashes and burns in the Twisted Metal Franchise. I expect these partly due to the fact the game was never meant to be that “realistic”, as it is Science Fiction-based, and always was a bit faulty and cartoon-like. If developers go down the TM: Black road, expect a darker, shade of grey from the game, and something more set to Goth culture than the nostalgia 90s culture given off by the first two games.
The third possibility I can see happening for Next Generation Twisted Metal for the PS3 is that it will be completely different than anything we’ve seen before, and the rules, and game itself may not even play the same. Granted, some characters may return, some will be new as well, not disinclining to mention new weapons and stages, but perhaps a change in the game entirety. The game may be more open, sand-box style than we’ve seen, instead of closed off courses, the levels may be more open than ever before, more secret passages to get to a main focal point, and I highly expect more puzzles to finish/move onto other levels.
I also expect that despite a change in story per character, that game play may be different for every single car, like if say one chooses the enigmatic Sweet Tooth, the game will play directly to that character through the tournament, where the cars played against will be for that car’s storyline in-particular. So if say the cab Yellow Jacket returns, the player choosing that car instead of say, Sweet Tooth will affect the game play. It’s difficult to explain what may happen, or how I see this new game being played out, but considering the amount of space the Eat, Sleep, Play crew have to fool around with, the game will be difficult, and have plenty of replay value. Most important though, I hope that the game is fun, and I hope that fans out there will expect the same integrity to this game as was put forth in previous titles.
Finally, I believe that if Eat, Sleep, Play decide to junk all past ideas for Twisted Metal, the game will most definitely be established to the now generation, and scrap the entire concept of the Twisted Metal tournament as seen in the 90s and early 00s. The game may even come about as racing style, which may make it too much like Full Auto, or kill the series off for the fans. Whatever happens, the truth is that few know what’s going to happen, and the rest of us just sit patiently waiting for the new game.
Twisted Metal for Next Generation, is set up for possible release in September, if not just at most an announcement on a release date and preview, should be an exciting game. I am hoping very much that the hard-workers at Eat, Sleep, Play release a great game, and hopefully release it soon to the fans starving for some car combat action.
Keep updated on the developments of this game, and previews/reviews of the latest books, movies, music, and of course video games right here at Malacast Editorial. Also, listen to shows being uploaded to YouTube at the Malacast Podcast. As always thank you for reading and supporting Malacast Editorial.

Ghostbusters: The Video Game

CLICK BLOG TITLE TO LINK TO GAMESPOT.COM'S REVIEW AND IMAGES


We all know the song, we all know the characters, and the amazing actors behind those characters. We all know the writers, directors, and producers of the movies, and we all know who we gotta call: Ghostbusters. The movies were great, classics, and were some of the best comedic works of Akroyd, Murray, and Ramis, names that need no introduction. Surely we can see that the Ghostbusters franchise is a dead-set cultural iconic franchise at that, but how does the video game (based off the potential third film's script) measure up to the movies, animated series, and the merchandise that makes all Ghostbusters fans go ga-ga?
Simple, it just does! If you loved the movies, you will love the game. If anything, it will get you psyched for a possible third film, if one ever does occur in theaters. I'd throw in a few ghostly puns here, but at the moment, I just want to give you the hard news on the game, first, Gameplay.
Video games, whether they be rehashes of older games, based off movies, or even original series that grow into crappy movies ( i.e. Silent Hill, Resident Evil, Super Mario...you get the point) gamers all desire one important aspect of all these games: great gameplay. Gameplay is the stone scaffolding to any game, it may be an old model, but it builds up a pretty skyscraper of a game. If I can't get around the controls, or if I can't handle the flow, I just throw the game out, so in a huge, huge, mind you fucking huge line of terrible video games based on movies, does Ghostbusters the Video Game fall in line, or does it cut ahead of the class?
I think the game is honestly far above the par of major movie-to-video game titles, but what I like is that it is easy to fall into the controls, and learn the game. The controls handle well, but it may take a few moments to become familiar with the game. I picked this game up 12 in the morning,a dn played until four, just so I could write this review early, and luckily I can give you an idea of everything that needs to be covered. If you need to worry about anything in this game, controls are the least to worry about. You may need to read the manual though, as I have yet to find a fair customization for the controls. They just have a few defaults that are self-made, and I find that annoying, but I didn't play around much with that, I jumped excitedly into the video game.
Ghostbusters The Video Game, is quite amazing in its graphics, as the characters really do look like the actors that have become the embedded images of Dr. Venkman, Egon, and Stantz. The characters truly look and word just like the characters of the movies. I was absolutely amazed at the detail put into these characters, figuring that Atari would just hash some bad renders, as this game took forever to come out, due to the companies falling out after finishing the game, and Atari swooping in and touching the game up just a bit. I was happy to see that the graphics of the ghosts, although the renders at times get repetitive, follow through with the major ghosts from the movies. Other characters from the films do return, like Peck, the dick-wad EPA Administrator that completely boasted an ugly-ass goatee, and put New York in peril during the first film, he becomes part of a special paranormal investigative corporation from the state government called P-COC becomes tied into the Gozer-themed story that follows the video game.
The story pretty much opens up at the New York Museum of Natural History, and there is a new Gozer exhibit, so you can expect some crazy things to start-up. These sightings of ghosts lead to be something larger than ever seen on the paranormal spectrum, as ghouls and goblins from movies past make a triumphant return, and look very pretty doing it! I especially love how how they made Stay Puft's images looked awesome, and I know awesome may not be a professional term, but come on! You get to fight the Marshmallow man, how professional does it get? This game is sheer satire, it's awesome, and it's funny, and if you don't want to play it, fine, but you're missing out.
The game does get a bit laggy, and yes, a bit repetitive, but what I think is the least-satisfying is that there are not really enough cut scenes that develop the plot enough, although enough of it is done in real-time. The game is actually a bit creepy in some cases, taking a few pages from survival horror, and yet still being a tad cartoonish, it is a game that hasn't really decided what genre it wants to be. Without giving much away, the game basically plays like the next movie, so it's not an combined attempt on both movies, it is literally the next chapter in the Ghostbusters trilogy, and that alone makes it a collector's item. Ghostbusters is available for: Playstation 3, Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii, and PC.
The game also boasts a few minigames to be played online through multiplayer challenges of groups of five. Some of the games include: protecting generators that need to be charged from ghosts, protecting artifacts, capturing ghosts the fastest, and sort of king of the hill style games where you have to move from one point on the other on the game's map. This part of the game is quite laggy, but when it's working, it is just pure amazing, because you can play any of the four original ghostbusters, or the "rookie" from the game, and you play and can even chat to the other players, while you slam ghosts into traps. This can lose its flavor after a while, but you can do some awesome stuff, like dunk slimer, and other fun games that are a little avant-garde, it's still fun to do. For more information on the game, check my link to all the pretty pictures of the game from gamespot, and follow this blog on twitter, just search mceasteditorial on Twitter, and get your tweet on! How lame would that be if that was there by-line?

Capcom's Street Fighter IV Review

SFIV Logo. Image from Google Images.

Capcom is, perhaps, the most famous name in video games today. With award-winning series like Resident Evil, there’s no question that Capcom holds water in the gaming marketplace. Now they unleash a reservoir of fame with the newest title in a 20-yearlong juggernaut that is Street Fighter.
Street Fighter IV, the newest installment in the series, is more of a prequel than a sequel. Taking place between Street Fighter II and III, in the same way the movie Saw IV took place between the second and third film. The game, though not a true continuation, does not disappoint in both storyline and game play.
First thing you notice when playing this game for the first time is that the game play is not so much difficult, but more challenging than the last few installments. I enjoy the fact that the analog joystick on the Playstation 3 version is reminiscent vaguely of the arcade feeling one gets when pulling off specials and combos. Game play is also effective, in-that it feels 3-D. When you’re hammering in on an opponent, the controls feel smooth, but will hurt your thumb after a long while. With the return of the Super Combos, you get a feeling for the “2.5”D as your character is encompassed in the camera, and the look on your opponent’s face is priceless. “2.5”D is an interesting, and rather appropriate way of describing the graphics in the game, as the old-school 2-D movement is taken into a 3-D control basis.
The graphics are pretty much the best I’ve ever seen in the series. I remember Street Fighter 3-D for the PS1, and those graphics were piss-poor pitiful. Here, you get that sort of “cell-shading” but it’s more anime-based than “XIII” or Dragonball Z look. Each character has a distinct look that stays true to the designs from previous games. The facial expressions, and the almost cartoonish look will be a plus to some, and a minus to other fans. I typically enjoy a good fighter, and know that graphics are not normally their selling point, but the anime cut-scenes, the ability to switch languages (English or Japanese), and the detail to the characters are a great add-on, are we finally reaching a period where fighting games can have great storylines and amazing graphics?
Speaking of storylines (cheap lead-in, I know) Street Fighter IV does not fail, as each character helps piece the puzzle together, as if you’re working in the middle, and branching off from all sides dependent on the character you play. Again, the amazing anime cut scenes (A beginning and ending cut scene for each character) are fluid, yet they are short, and as I said, are like pieces of a film meshed up in a disarrayed order. If you are an avid fan, and perhaps know the game’s mythology by heart, it may not be as difficult to pick up on as say a newbie finding the series interesting for the first time.
All the usual suspects are to be found: Chun-Li, Ryu, Ken, Guile, M. Bison, Vega (personal favorite), and of course, Sagat. These are pretty much the standard characters, not forgetting of course E. Honda, and Dhalsim, but new characters have been tossed into the tournament as well. The first, and most oddly designed character I’ve seen since Gil or Oro.



Crimson Viper as she appears in Street Fighter IV. Image from Google Images.


The next newest character to join the fray is Crimson Viper. An agent to S.I.N., she rivals Chun-Li, and attempts to prevent her investigation of the organizations any further. She has a suit that shocks and burns an opponent, and is perhaps the most fluent new character in the series. She seems to stem from a mixture between Jax from Mortal Kombat fame, with a sort of ground pound via electric shockwaves, and Fire kicks from Long from Tekken fame. Although I highly consider her original, her character components seem to match Cammy’s look, although she has red hair, and it’s a bit larger, she actually unlocks Cammy from the game. Her arrogant attitude makes up her character, like before and after winning a match, she’s on her cell phone, sort of an insult to her opponent. I personally found her Ultra to be one of the best in the game: She does a massive-charged “ground stomp” and follows it up with multiple wheel kicks of fire into and up the opponent, sending them in orbit.
Although the boss character is brand-new to the series as well (Seth) the last playable character you start off with is a Mexican luchador named El Fuerte (The Strong/Strength).

El Fuerte as he appears in Street Fighter IV. Images from Google Images

He is another form of mock character, but he is actually a very good mock character as opposed to Rufus. His wrestling/acrobatic style is fast-paced, and makes the character of the most fun to play as and/or against. The character is a wrestler that is honing up on his cooking skills, so he travels the world kicking ass, and taking recipes in hopes of wining and dining his opponents into the ground. The character is almost on speed when fighting on the hardest level, it’s difficult to keep up with him, and this makes him one of the most worthy of adversaries in the game. If you go online, expect and expert to kick the holy hell out you with him, as he’s an almost cracked character, but not as cracked as say Zangief.


The main antagonist/final Boss of Street Fighter IV, Seth. Image from Google Images

Finally, the Boss Seth, is sort of a mesh-up of all the characters in the game. He has Guile’s Sonic Boom, all of Ken,’s Ryu’s, Sakura’s, and Akuma’s moves. He also can elongate his arms like Dhalsim, and teleport like Bison. Not to make a battle with him any easier, but Seth has the power to suck up his opponent’s into his abdomen, which at first looked like a spinning yin/yang symbol. Seth will then fire his opponent into the screen, and it will inflict a nice deal of damage. This move is quite cheap. In-fact I personally hated it most when I just moments away from victory, managing to hold onto the little life my character had left, when I was then sucked into his body, and spat out. The move I believe is his Ultra, which really is the best one of the game, and is pretty much a game-changer. If you unlock Seth, you’ll not have to worry about any other characters, he’s by far the strongest opponent/playable character of the series.


Gameplay from Street Fighter IV. Image from Google Image

As I mentioned above the storyline follows an unset path, and is determined through the character you play as, but it mostly surrounds the Organization S.I.N., and Seth being #15 of 27 of his kind, despite being self-proclaimed trump card of the rest. He’s not as arrogant as other characters, but has pull in almost every character’s story. Despite looking like a Doctor Manhattan rip-off, he’s also part connected through the organization by being Bison’s most powerful weapon. The storylines will tie-up all loose ends thus far, but are still rather short, but very nice to watch, as it seems much detail was put into each character’s plot. If you’re a fan of the series, and still not sure whether or not to pick up this game, I suggest you do, it’s one of the best Street Fighters I’ve played in a while, HD Remix was great as well, so you should definitely try each of these great games. Street Fighter IV will most likely revitalize the series, even though the series was still doing well, this was a much-needed change of pace, and you can bet many people will be honing up their skills in online battle
Through the Playstation Network (another cheap lead-in, I know, sorry), you can create a ranked game, custom with rules and regulations against anyone in the world. The online ranking systems also give you an idea of who’s the best of the best online, and allow you to pick and choose who you fight against. I most-of-all enjoyed the easy access to lobbies, and the ability to set up a game with a friend, rather than search the World Wide Web in order to find someone that lives downtown. That one important online function was missing from the last few Mortal Kombat games, and I am thankful it is as clear as day in Street Fighter IV. Online play, in the few times I was able to try it prior to writing this review, is practically flawless, and has few bugs or glitches that I was able to find, but someone else may have found many that I’ve not seen, so do not take this part of the review as wholly factual, this is just personal experience. The game play was like playing a person; in-that it was as fluid as one could be while fighting a human as opposed to the computer. This made me want to come back and fight online more, and I think most people after unlocking all characters will find excellent replay value in online via the PSN or Xbox Live.

fighting gameplay from SFIV. Image from Google Image.

I would like to close up this review with a mention of the game’s A.I. Although this should part of the review be up several paragraphs in another part of the review, I find that the A.I. on just very easy was smarter than most games on Hard. Not so much because it was able to read my moves with counters as often (I found that countering from the computer on Hard was almost like playing with another person) I saw that the computer would spam and spam, and spam. I was eating so much spam the first few rounds, I thought I’d be in a diabetic coma. After I realized that a few counters and spamming of “Sagat Uppercut” was all the Very Easy setting was going to do, I moved up to Hard, where I was actually given a challenge. Seth on Hard, which is not even the hardest level, is insane, and I don’t even know how the hell it’s possible to win. I mean, on Normal mode, Seth is a spammer, but he’s also spamming some insanely difficult moves to counter or tech hit out of, hence Hard mode was like God mode for other games, I could not believe even reaching Seth on Hardest mode. If you’re into a challenge, or if I just really, really suck at video games, then playing through arcade mode is going to be up your alley, or I just suck, and it’s easier than pie to win.
Street Fighter IV is perhaps the best fighting game out in the market right now, trumping Soul Caliber IV, MK vs. DCU, and all the rest that try living up to their hype. Sometimes it takes the original to show how the genre is supposed to be done. Capcom does not block any hard hits with this game, which will be like “WTF?!” at first, but will finish up with “EPIC!!!” after you get the hang of the game, and you see all the movies unlocked. Hell, even the opening movie was worth drooling over, with an amazing soundtrack blasting in the background, I almost hope you can buy it separately or download the entire soundtrack. If you’re a fan of fighting games, and you want to master and play the best of the best, then I highly suggest, dare-I-say, demand you play Street Fighter IV, it is worthy every penny you spend on it, and it will pay you back in replay value that never gets old. See you online!