Pre-Play: ModNation Racers

ModNation Racers is an upcoming Playstation 3 exclusive that blends the racing action from games such as Mario Kart with the insane amount of customization options Little Big Planet offers. Just last week the developers of the game, United Front Games, opened a beta to subscribers of Quore.

When I jumped in, I found myself in a hub type area that reminded me of Playstation Home. I wanted to get straight to the racing so I practiced a little in the time trial section, and found myself at the starting line of a fairly simple in-game track. The controls are intuitive, and comparable to most driving games; the right trigger is the gas, while the thumbstick directs your driver. The levels have various power-ups, boosts, and even fun shortcuts. The games visuals are pretty unique and fun, with the driver’s kind of reminding me of Munny Dolls, and cars that look like Hot Wheels. The environments are stylized, but without looking so cartoony.

After feeling comfortable with my racing skills I decided to hop online for a few competitive races. They took quite a while to load up(I would guess the first race took close to ten minutes to finally start, with the second only taking about 2 minutes), but once they finally did, the race went smooth and they had no noticeable lag.

On to the mod center I found there to be an overwhelming amount of customization options for both the avatars and the cars. I dabbled with that for a little while and found it to be quite a bit easier than Little Big Planet, but I’m really not into that kind of thing so I only spent a few minutes with both the avatar and the car. I moved onto the level editor and that had to be the best part of the game. They made it so easy, all you do is drive and the track is laid. You can lower the terrain and raise it to make all kinds of cool effects. Once you connect the track you can have the track auto-populated. What this means is that boosts, power-ups, trees, houses, and ramps will be placed where the game thinks is appropriate, and let me say it does a very good job. On the other hand, if your one of those OCD types, or just have a specific layout in mind, its simple to do, and all the options are there for it.

Final thoughts: ModNation Racers is full of potential and is looking to be quite a fun game. Although the comparisons to Mario Kart are inevitable the game really does stand out on its own because of its own distinct identity. What I’m looking most forward to is what the community will come up with. ModNation Racers is quite possibly one of the most promising games of 2010.

Title: ModNation Racers

Platforms: Playstation 3

Release Date: Spring 2010
ESRB: TBD

Kotaku Talk Radio

Our brother site Kotaku.com's radio podcast. I make several appearances throughout the year.

News: PSP Digital Comics now LIVE!

So, for all you PSP owners and comic book readers, like myself, the Playstation Network has finally launched its Digital Comic Service. The process is to simply download the reader through the Playstation store, then browse through the comics, and purchase the ones you'd like to read. For my experience with the reader, I found it to be pretty efficient, with several settings to make the reading experience a little smoother. Several major players are on board for the service, including Marvel comics, and Disney, with more to come later. Unfortunately, still no word whether or not DC comics will be joining the line up.

News: The Force Unleashed 2 being developed in house

President of Lucas Arts, Darrell Rodriguez, has spoken recently to Joystick.com about the development of the sequel to the wildly successful Star wars: The Force Unleashed, The Force Unleashed II. While the game is also being developed with other partners, the studio's internal team is still "made up of TFU veterans who are all bringing their hard earned muscle memory to the development process"

Video Games | The Force Unleashed II | Spike VGA 09: Exclusive Debut Trailer HD

XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii

Spike VGA's 2009 Game of the Year: Uncharted 2

Congratulations to Naughty Dog, and their incredible game Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, for being the 2009 VGA's best game of the year. The Playstation 3 exclusive was released on October 13th in North America to critical and commercial success. A sequal to the hit 2007 adventure game Uncharted: Drakes Fortune, Uncharted 2 continued  the cinamatic experiance not seen in many games today.

One of my personal favorite franchises, Uncharted 2, was up against some pretty stiff competition. Other games in the prestigious category were Batman: Arkham Asylum, Left 4 Dead 2, Assassin's Creed 2, and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. All very deserving games, but ultimately not enough to be that extra something that makes a game like Uncharted 2, Game of the Year. For the rest of 2009's winners, follow the link provided.

http://www.spike.com/event/vga2009

Pre-Play: Dante's Inferno (PS3)

With the demo out now on Playstation 3, later to follow on Xbox 360, I figured I would make it our very first "Pre-Play" feature. Pre-Play is our impressions of a game before release or full review.

Dante's Inferno, based on the first part of Dante's Divine Comedy starts out simple enough, placing you in the armor covered soles of Dante, the game's main protagonist. Your goal as Dante is revealed through the story cut scenes explaining that Dante must find redemption for his soul, if he is to escape the depths of hell and save his beloved wife Beatrice from a marriage to Lucifer in an attempt to dethrone God.

Gameplay, borrows very much from God of War, and seems to bring a bit more of an art style to its combat system. For instance, when grabbing enemies, you must first decide to "Punish" or "Absolve" their soul by either performing a final visceral blow, or praying for them before sending them to their maker. This being the game's morality system in motion. You can choose to walk a forgiving path, or destroy those in your journey to save your lover from the depths of hell.

Another key aspect of the game is its upgrade system, which acts as a bullet point ladder, allowing the player to upgrade Holy or Unholy weapon combos, grabs, counters, and deadly finishing moves. Unfortunately, the Holy upgrades were locked for the demo, so any impressions of those will have to be put into the final review of the game.

The demo takes Dante to a city overtake by the Crusade, to a graveyard on death's doorstep, to finally the first circle of hell, where demons and monsters alike will try and end Dante's quest to free his love.

Final Thoughts: There have been many comparisons of this game to God of War, and in truth, it is very much like it. I thought Dante's Inferno was a very interesting tale and the art style pushes the boundaries of what is allowed in games. This game has its own style of story telling and its gameplay is very addicting and fast paced. So far, Dante's Inferno is shaping up to be a very good adaptation of the Divine comedy as far as videogame interpretations go. All in all, Dante's Inferno looks to be if anything, a unique title, and an interesting attempt at an action/adventure game.

Title: Dante's Inferno
Platforms: Playstation 3, Xbox 360, PSP
Release Date: February 9th, 2010
ESRB: M (17+)

Progress

The first review should be up in the coming weeks. I've just got down the method on video editing and capturing for our reviews. Now its just a matter of time before we have a template to work with.