The better part of my teenage years were spent with a PS2 controller in-hand, and over the years I built up a pretty decent collection. Inevitably, though, there were a huge amount of games that I simply never got around to playing.

The Bloodrayne games fall into that category. From what I’ve heard, great games they weren't, but considering that these games centered around a female cahracter giving a good kicking to a vampire arse, and my being a consummate Buffy fan, the series was always prominently featured on my radar.

About ten years after the original game first hit stores, I find myself knee-deep in the awesome Bloodrayne: Betrayal, a downloadable title which hit PSN and Xbox Live a few months ago. A strong departure from the previous games in the series (3D action games), Betrayal is a 2D, side-scrolling extravaganza of a platformer, filled with gorgeous animation and old-school challenge, reminiscent of the great Castlevania games. Betrayal has been an incredibly pleasant surprise, not only because of its high quality, but also because I had all but given up hope in a new game in the series being developed.

Let us not forget that videogames, after all, are a business, and developing and releasing a fully-fledged disc game and putting that game onto store shelves is pretty expensive. As a result, whether or not a game gets made is mostly a matter of numbers; all that the big head-honchos at the top of the videogame food chain want to know is whether their investment will yield any profit. It’s a strategy that keeps the industry making money, but its also the reason we get a 'brand new' Call of Duty each year which isn’t really very 'new' at all. But when developers can eliminate all the costs incurred through the use of the DVD and Blu-ray formats, risks can be taken. In a nutshell, the lower the cost to make the game, the less return those pesky head honchos will be expecting; this means that the developer is free to shy away from the run, shoot, cover, rinse and repeat gameplay formula of most games, and can try a less conventional idea, whilst also retailing for a lower price, enticing gamers to take the risk too.

Rocket Knight, which we'll talk about later, is one IP given a second chance by the advent of downloadable games.

The digital medium has allowed indie developers to throw their hats into the ring and provide us with games that are new, exciting and inventive (Flower, for instance), but it has also allowed established publishers and developers to revisit some of gaming's greatest classics. Most publishers have taken the easy route and ported games from previous generations; you will find PlayStation Store, Wii Store and Xbox Live Marketplace laden with old-school classics now made easily available to the gaming public at large, and whilst I appreciate the opportunity to download Final Fantasy VII and Chrono Trigger directly to my PS3, I think most developers are missing out on a great opportunity; revisiting the classics via new, original games.

Bloodrayne, a so-so franchise to begin with, was given a second chance thanks to the comforts that digital marketplaces provide, and it isn't the only forgotten franchise to be given a second lease of life. Everyone from Megaman to Sonic has felt the love of the digital download in the last couple of years, but the really interesting games have been those which have taken a chance on much more obscure games of the past. Case in point: Rocket Knight. A platformer featuring an opossum dressed as a knight with a rocket pack and fighting off a bunch of moody pigs was the bread and butter of gaming in the 90s, but is certainly a tough sell in the current gaming landscape. Yet the valiant opossum made a return to consoles not two years ago, with a gorgeous looking 2.5D plaform style and engaging and challenging gameplay. Old-school fanboys rejoiced.

Squaresoft's Threads of Fate, yet another game that could be reimagined through digital distribution.

There are many forgotten franchises out there which 'older' gamers, such as myself, would love to revisit. Can you imagine finally seeing a sequel to Squaresoft’s quirky action-RPG, Threads of Fate? How about a brand new Crash Bandicoot game; I’ve always thought we should bring the little critter back as the PlayStation’s official mascot, so why not? Even more recent games such as Prince of Persia (2008) or Folklore, which were somewhat polarising, could be revisited with minimal cost and effort (at least compared to what producing a disc based sequel would entail). Ninja Theory: I know Heavenly Sword wasn’t the huge success everyone thought it would be, but how about a 2D platformer featuring Nariko? Gorgeous art, engaging combat, and a chance to control Nariko again; where do I sign? There are dozens of interesting characters, stories and worlds just wasting away into nothing, and I believe the digital gaming marketplace is the boost that they’ve been waiting for.

How about you, gamers? Do you think more classic franchises should be revisited, or should the past be left out in the cold? Should digital games strictly offer new experiences, or is a reimagined classic enough to get you involved? We want to know, so sound off below.

Oh, and one more thing. Picture this: Psychonauts 2 on PSN. Awesome? Oh, hell yes.

Labels: Bloodrayne, Bloodrayne: Betrayal, DLC, Downloadable games, Feature, Joey Núñez, Opinion, PlayStation Network, PSN, Wii Store, Xbox Live Marketplace

After a reasonably active June for game launches, the summer drought is finally in full-effect, with nary a major triple-A title in sight. Fortunately, 2011 has seen the rise of several quality downloadable titles for Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network, and even WiiWare, providing options for even the most play-starved of gamers.

To celebrate the recent release of Ms. ‘Splosion Man (which seems to have garnered a decent critical reception), Gamer’s Guide to Life.com has a list of ten must-have downloadable titles guaranteed to carry you through these game-depleted months.

Editor's Note: The prices contained in this article refer to the cost of the games in the North America region. Prices worldwide may vary.

The Dishwasher: Vampire Smile

The sequel to James Silva’s previous indie darling, The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai, Vampire Smile ups the ante on the previous title’s stylish, bloody action with more weapons, new enemies and a second playable character. Players can also team up to tackle Vampire Smile’s brand new co-op mode, controlling the eponymous Dishwasher and his step-sister Yuki. Unchanged are Vampire Smile’s tight, responsive combat controls, oft-times punishing difficulty level, and unique, Johnny-The-Homicidal-Maniac-meets-Kill-Bill art direction. Fans of Devil May Cry and God of War’s furious, combo-driven action, and old-school beat ‘em ups like Golden Axe or Streets of Rage, should schedule The Dishwasher: Vampire Smile for a double shift.

Xbox Live Arcade: 800 Microsoft Points (MSP)

Magic: The Gathering – Duel of the Planeswalkers 2012

With the release of the Magic: The Gathering’s new 2012 core set comes Magic: The Gathering – Duel of the Planeswalkers 2012, a refinement of Stainless Games’ 2009 adaptation of the popular card game from Wizards of the Coast. Duel of the Planeswalkers 2012 retains the previous iteration’s pitch-perfect Magic: The Gathering play mechanics whilst adding new decks; a new, smoother interface; and several new campaigns and modes. Gamers wary of Magic: The Gathering’s prohibitively expensive play costs would do well to give Duel of the Planeswalkers 2012 a look.

PlayStation Network: $10
Xbox Live Arcade: 800MSP
Steam: $10

Gatling Gears

Ever since Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved first graced the Xbox Live Arcade in 2005, the twin-stick shooter has seen a renaissance in the downloadable space. Gatling Gears adds to the roster, placing players in a steampunk, bipedal mech and asking them to blow up anything that moves. What separates Gatling Gears from a host of contemporaries - other than the obvious appeal of piloting a steampunk, bipedal mech - is its drop-in, drop-out co-op play, complete with scaling difficulty. Of course, the usual mainstays of the bullet-hell shooter genre are along for the ride, including massive bosses, continually-upgrading weapons and more firepower onscreen than can reasonably be kept track of.

PlayStation Network: $10
Xbox Live Arcade: 800MSP

Fluidity

A rare entry for the shortlist of quality WiiWare titles, Fluidity is a quirky blend of 2D sidescrolling and puzzling. In Fluidity, players control a sentient mass of water, and attempt to cleanse the land of the ooey-gooey Influence by collecting various Rainbow Drops. Control in Fluidity is handled by using the Wii Remote to tilt the environment, similar to games like Super Monkey Ball or Marble Madness. Additionally, players can change states to solve puzzles, by freezing to become a block of ice or evaporating into a cloud of steam. Tasks range from transporting gears in water form, to activating switches in ice form, to blowing balloons around as a steam cloud, and many challenges require juggling between the three forms. Inventive and enjoyable, Wii owners will be all wet if they miss this creative downloadable title.

WiiWare: 1200 Wii Points

Stacking

A product of Tim Schafer’s Double Fine studio, Stacking is a cross between point-and-click adventure games of yore (Secret of Monkey Island, Maniac Mansion, etc.) and modern gaming sensibilities. As Charlie Blackmore, a Russian stacking doll, you must rescue your family from the clutches of the evil Baron. Charlie is able to stack inside other dolls, gaining their powers and using them to solve the many puzzles posed by the game. Each puzzle has multiple ways to solve it, letting impatient players cruise through the game with a single solution whilst still giving meticulous gamers a chance to search for every possible answer. Coupled with the charming 19th century setting and silent movie cutscenes, Stacking offers gamers one of the more unique, amusing experiences of 2011.

PlayStation Network: $15
Xbox Live Arcade: 1200MSP

Outland

Making its second appearance on a GGTL list, fans of 2009’s Shadow Complex take note: if you can buy only one game from XBLA or PSN this year, make sure it’s Outland. In true Metroidvania fashion, players are tasked with platforming through an expansive, interconnected environment, earning new abilities and discovering new areas with them. Outland adds a new component to the mix, implementing the light/dark shifting mechanics from Treasure’s Ikaruga. Players are able to switch between light and dark polarities, absorbing projectiles of a similar colour, whilst only able to damage enemies of the opposite colour. The polarity mechanics even extend to the platforming, only allowing players to land on same-coloured platforms, and creating opportunities for mid-jump polarity shifts. The game’s colourful, nearly-tribal art style is positively breathtaking to behold, and the controls are smooth and responsive. Those pining for an HD Super Metroid- or Castlevania: Symphony of the Night-esque experience should waste no time in booking a ticket to Outland.

PlayStation Network: $10
Xbox Live Arcade 800MSP

Section 8: Prejudice

Gamers with a penchant for online FPS' have several months before the release of either Battlefield 3 or Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, but clanners and campers alike may find a bit of respite for their itchy trigger fingers in Section 8: Prejudice. The original Section 8 was a promising concept mired by poor execution, but developer TimeGate Studios have made several mechanical improvements that turn Section 8: Prejudice into a playable and surprisingly fun experience. Players still airdrop onto the battlefield, à la Starship Troopers, vying for control points and buying high-tech weaponry with points accrued during gameplay. Since its launch, Section 8: Prejudice has seen the release of a new game mode, as well as a smattering of new maps. If this level of post-launch support is upheld, players could potentially be playing Section 8: Prejudice well into the shooter-heavy holiday season.

Xbox Live Arcade: 1200MSP

Torchlight

One of the many success stories of the Steam platform, Torchlight - Runic Games’ little dungeon crawler that could - has made its way onto the Xbox Live Marketplace. Torchlight is a loving homage to the Diablo school of action RPGs, with players infiltrating old, forbidden tombs in order to gather sweet loot, strengthening the player and enabling them to progress further into the dungeon for even sweeter loot. Lather, rinse, repeat. The game’s light, cartoony art style helps it stand apart from many standard 'dark' fantasy titles of today, and there’s something primordially appealing about grinding through waves of giant spiders in the hopes of netting epic gear.

Xbox Live Arcade: 1200MSP

Hard Corps: Uprising

Speaking of homages, Hard Corps: Uprising is an homage to Contra’s brand of 2D, sidescrolling shooters. Actually, it basically is Contra in everything but the name. Frantic co-op play? Check. Arsenal of powerful weapons, including the almighty Spreader? Check. Borderline-masochistic level of difficulty? Ohhhhh check. For players less inclined to brutal levels of challenge, Hard Cops: Uprising offers Rising mode, which allows players to use points earned during play to buy new weapons, health power-ups, and extra lives, making the game slightly more manageable. Arc System Works, developers of the Guilty Gear and BlazBlue series of fighting games, give Hard Cops: Uprising a beautifully-animated look, perfectly capturing the animé feel of the game’s story. Gamers who can recite the Konami Code by heart should look no further than Hard Corps: Uprising for their 2D shootin’ needs.

PlayStation Network: $15
Xbox Live Arcade: 1200MSP

Beyond Good and Evil HD

Beyond Good and Evil HD is fairly self-explanatory: an up-res port of Michel Ancel’s cult classic from 2003, giving players who missed it another opportunity to experience one of the more imaginative titles from the PS2 days. Beyond Good and Evil casts players as Jade, a photojournalist bent on uncovering a conspiracy from the local, tyrannical government. Gameplay is an odd, appealing mixture of The Legend of Zelda dungeon-crawling and Pokémon Snap picture taking, with smatterings of open-world free-roaming. One of Beyond Good and Evil’s major charms is its characters, specifically Jade, a strong-willed, well-characterised female protagonist - the likes of which are often unseen in gaming - and Pey’j, an anthropomorphic pig who refers to himself as Jade’s "uncle": it makes sense when you play it. The quirky, fully-realised world is also incredibly charming. The game is hardly less unique now than it was when released almost eight years ago, and still holds up quite well, making it worth players' time to experience this hidden gem from last generation.

PlayStation Network: $10
Xbox Live Arcade: 800MSP


Are there any favourite downloadable titles from the past calendar year that I've missed here? Sound off in the comments, or tell us on Twitter, via @ggtl.

Labels: 2011, Andrew Testerman, DLC, Feature, PlayStation Network, PSN, Steam, summer drought, WiiWare, XBLA, Xbox Live Arcade

Editor's note - the experiences relayed by Greg in this article are based on a short period of two days when the Netflix application on his PS3 did not function during the PSN downtime. Most people have not had this problem, and have been able to use Netflix normally despite not being able to login to PSN. Please note that this is not a news article, but an editorial based on Greg's short period of not being able to use Netflix via PSN, and that it is not meant as an announcement that Netflix is broken for all PSN users. Thank you.

The PSN downtime has transformed the internet into a circus.

Chairs are flying in forums, angry citizens of PlayStatantia are grabbing pitchforks and torches and and marching on their frantic daimyo, and Xbox connoisseurs are high-fiving in champagne-baths whilst lighting cigars wrapped in money. What was once an arena commented on by jeans-and-tee-shirt-clad games journalists, has now escalated into a anarchic street brawl covered by CNN, the BBC, and even Al Jezeera. Somewhere in Alabama, a firebrand preacher is probably pointing to the Book of Revelations with one hand and slamming his fist down onto the pulpit with the other, whilst bellowing words like "Horsemen", "Babylon", "Music Television", and "That Great and Terrible Day of the Lord". In Arkham Asylum, the Joker is smiling.

Until four days ago, I really didn't care that the PlayStation Network was down. It didn't affect me. My life went on, unaltered.

And then they took away my Netflix.

Much to the chagrin of my roommate, who abhors the invention called 'television' in all its incarnations, Netflix has become a staple of my apartment. I've watched it in the kitchen. I've watched it in the shower. I've watched it smoking hookah on the porch. Terrible shows, good shows, historically accurate shows, genuinely frightening shows caused my eyes to bleed and erased my unshakable belief that there is good in this universe... I've seen them all. Netflix is an unofficial member of the Mengel clan.

Though I can - and do - watch Netflix on my desktop or laptop, my preferred method of viewing has to be through PSN on the PlayStation 3. Like all Americans, I am required by law to purchase a new flat-screen television of at least thirty-five inches in width, regardless of personal income, once every three years, and to use it with extreme frequency. When I watch a movie, I like to feel it. I don't care whether it's Die Hard or Art School Confidential - a home movie experience must strive to meet the standards of a cinema experience as often as possible. The PS3 allows me to connect the Netflix instant queue with my television, instead of limiting me to a computer. Given my need for cinematical gratification, this is a good thing.

When the PlayStation Network originally went down almost two weeks ago, my Netflix application was still mysteriously able to function. I would load it up, be asked to punch in my PSN username and password, and receive the bad news that I could not log in to PSN. But while PSN was telling me no, Netflix would tell me yes, sneakily continuing to load in the background. Pressing circle then allowed me to skip on to Netflix, completely unharassed. It was like being a tourist, told by a border patrol agent that I could not enter Mexico as it was currently undergoing a political uprising, only to have the roadblock suddenly lifted and the agent thrust a margarita in my hand and chuck a sombrero onto my head.


This freedom to wander the deserts of Netflix without PSN supervision ended late last week, when watching Netflix suddenly required a PSN login once again. On one hand, I'm perturbed by the sudden need to move my Wii into the living room and watch Netflix on that. On the other, I imagine that it's much safer for me to not be roaming PSN's echoing, abandoned halls when they've been compromised. What was most eye-opening about having Netflix abilities on my PS3 suddenly pulled out of reach was how reliant I had become on them for entertainment in my daily life. It made me feel sort of sick, actually, to realise that I spent truly unnatural amounts of time inside, embracing lethargy.

I'm not much of an online gamer. I have spurts when I want nothing more than to challenge gamers in Europe or Australia to digital combat, but I'm more of a fan of solo play. I'll take Gordon Freeman over a random Second World War-era private nine times out of ten. So when the PSN first went down, I shrugged it off and finished my sandwich. It was no big deal. Once it affected my ability to watch Netflix, however, I felt the void conveyed across forums and comment sections internet-wide. Something I had relied on for daily entertainment was suddenly gone, and for the first time, the PSN downtime had negatively affected my life.

Now that the initial shock has passed, I'm actually thankful that Netflix is difficult to reach, as it's forced me to look outside my comfort zone in search of fun. Instead of a film, I took in a walk last week. When before I may have just looked up a baseball-themed movie, last Friday I went to a Rockies game. I don't even like baseball, but without Netflix to fall back on I thought, "Why not?", and had a genuinely fun time. Instead of watching Battlestar Galactica, I'm re-reading A Game of Thrones.

As long as Netflix is down I'll likely continue to live outside my comfort bubble and find new activities to entertain me on a daily basis. Maybe I'll take battle-axe lessons, or learn Japanese. There's an instructional drawing book on the shelf with my name on it. I could always learn to play the ocarina and gain nerd rep at parties. Soon enough, the tangled PSN mess will be figured out, and I'll find myself instinctively navigating my PS3 controller to the Netflix icon whilst sprawled on my living room couch. I love free movies too much to not go back. But while PS3 Netflix is absent, everyone who normally relies on it has a terrific opportunity to enrich their lives before they fall back into a pattern of stagnation. Hopefully, new experiences explored during the PSN drought will be rewarding enough to remain a part of my life (and the lives of my fellow Netflixians) long after Sony rights the ship and brings its online network back to life. If that happens then, for many, the lack of PSN will actually have been a blessing, and not a curse.


PSN scalawags? For using the credit cards of people you've never met, you're jerks who deserve an eternity of creative and unique punishment in the deepest layers of Hades. But for forcing me to break free from Netflix for a few weeks?

Many thanks.

Labels: 2011, Greg Mengel, Netflix, Piracy, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Network, PS3, PSN, PSN 2011 downtime

Please note: This article is a reflection on the North American version of PlayStation Plus, and the features or opinions mentioned here may not necessarily apply to its counterparts in the various other PSN regions.

Last year at E3, after many rumours and much hype, Sony debuted its new premium membership program: PlayStation Plus. PlayStation Plus was to be Sony’s answer to Xbox Live, promising premium content to subscribers for a nominal yearly fee. Many gamers balked at the announcement, loudly wondering what the point of the service was. "Multiplayer is already free," they said. "What else could they possibly have that you would want to pay for?"

After subscribing to PlayStation Plus for the past nine months, I’m here to offer up some impressions of Sony’s much talked-about stuff service.

Sony’s largest bragging point about PlayStation Plus was its promise of free games, and this is perhaps the most value-centric aspect of the service. Every month, PlayStation Plus offers its subscribers a free classic PSone game to download, akin to a book-of-the-month club. The initial selection was pretty shaky (2Xtreme? Seriously?), but the selection has expanded to include a fair few gems, such as the original Syphon Filter, Crash Team Racing, and all three Spyro the Dragon games. As a gamer who missed the original PlayStation entirely (my Nintendo 64 was just fine with me, thank you very much), PlayStation Plus' monthly game offers a decent way to catch up on some of my history. Each game normally costs between six and ten dollars, making PlayStation Plus a decent bargain for folks who want to build their library of digital classics.

PlayStation Plus isn’t only about classic games, though, and also offers a new service called Full Game Trials. PlayStation Plus subscribers are given the ability to play through the first hour of certain games in Sony’s 'Games on Demand'-style distribution service. This works better on paper than in practice, however, because while it’s cool to have the option to play through the first hour of Assassin’s Creed, the time required to download its 7.7GB of game data is ridiculous, and takes away much of the appeal of casual browsing.

Perhaps the coolest weapon in PlayStation Plus' arsenal is the ability to download open betas for games like Killzone 3 and DC Universe Online. Goodness knows if the feedback gathered from the beta actually makes any difference to the final build of the game, but the betas are certainly effective as advertising units; my roommate upped and bought DC Universe Online after immensely enjoying himself during the beta, and I’m sure a healthy taste of Killzone 3’s online component urged many a player into adding the title to their game repertoire.

PlayStation Plus also offers a series of discounts on digital content, slashing prices on items like downloadable games, multiplayer maps and certain PSOne titles. The discounts can be fairly paltry, but sometimes the service goes nuts (for example, when it offered Stacking as a free download during its first week of release). Sony offers several of its 'Minis' for free, too, though these are often underwhelming, get-what-you-pay-for PSP puzzle titles. Still, they’re another bit of free content to throw onto the stack, and I’m sure there are many who do enjoy them.

In addition to discounting games, PlayStation Plus offers price markdowns on avatars and PS3 themes. Again, I’m sure there are folks out there who appreciate saving a few bucks on a ModNation Racers avatar picture, but they’re a drop in the content bucket for me, and I rarely bother with them.

Media is the definitive reason why I purchased PlayStation Plus. I don’t have cable in my apartment, and after E3 Sony announced that PlayStation Plus subscribers would have first access to Hulu Plus, Hulu’s new premium content service that - amongst other things - lets users watch their programs on an actual television, as opposed to a computer monitor. Being the old fashioned, curmudgeony sod that I am, I leapt at the chance to no longer crouch over a keyboard in order to catch the latest episode of 30 Rock. Since then, Hulu Plus has opened up to all PSN members, but I still used the hell out it during the six months that it was a PlayStation Plus exclusive, and I am not sorry I did.

PlayStation Plus subscribers also get access to Qore, Sony’s monthly 'digital magazine'. Like a typical magazine, Qore features exclusive looks at new games and interesting developers, but all the content is presented through videos. I’m not sure if it’d be worth the $12-per-year subscription fee it normally costs, but as a free download, it’s reasonably satisfying.

There are a few other features that round out the PlayStation Plus experience. The first, and probably least deserving of fanfare, is PlayStation Plus' ability to automatically download patches and updates for games you own. In my experience, this works most of the time, but there have been a few instances where my roommate has fired up DC Universe Online and, after being notified that the system automatically downloaded a patch for him, found himself staring at another update download screen. Some, like Patrick Klepick (formerly of G4) have wondered why this isn’t integrated into the regular PSN functionality, which is a view I share. It is what it is, though, and I’d rather have automatic patch downloads on PlayStation Plus than not have it at all.

The newest feature to grace PlayStation Plus is online, cloud-based storage for game saves, which gives players the ability to save their games to the cloud and resume their progress on another PS3. I cannot, for the life of me, think of an instance where I would want to commute between two different PlayStation 3s and continue to unlock cars on another person’s copy Burnout Paradise, or something to that effect. This says more about my own social life than the actual online storage feature, but I do have to wonder how easy it is to access said game saves. Retrieving a GamerTag on Xbox Live is a royal pain in the rear, and I greatly hope that - if I do decide to continue my progress in Darksiders while visiting a friend’s house - I won’t have to jump through too many hoops.

Ultimately, the value you get from PlayStation Plus depends on how often you use your PS3. Gamers who use their PS3 as their primary game system will find plenty to love about PlayStation Plus; the multitude of free games, discounts, and other amenities make it an attractive option, and the savings can easily outweigh the initial cost of entry. Multiplatform gamers or players who don’t use their PS3 that often may want to stay away, though, as many of PlayStation Plus’ features reward gamers who invest a good amount of time into their system, and casual gamers who barely find time to use their PS3 at all may not be able to take advantage of everything PlayStation Plus has to offer.

Still, for what it’s worth, PlayStation Plus is a far cry from the redundant, money-driven service it seemed to be when Sony first announced it last June, and whilst it’s far from an Xbox Live-esque necessity for the system, it’s a great value for those who put in the time.

Labels: 2011, Andrew Testerman, Feature, PlayStation Network, PlayStation Plus, PlayStation3, PS3, PSN, Review