The National Institute on Media and the Family has just released their annual Report Card, and are advising parents to avoid buying certain games for their kids. All of the titles feature "M" ratings, but meh... parents are too busy to actually look at ratings! Here are the games to avoid, with PSP titles bolded:
Gangs of London * The Sopranos Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories * Reservoir Dogs Mortal Kombat: Unchained * Scarface: The World is Yours The Godfather: Mob Wars * Saints Row Dead Rising Just Cause
This list tells me one thing: the PSP really is for the mature crowd. Four of those titles are either exclusive, or enhanced on the PSP, making this system easily much more evil than the childish DS counterpart. At least the Institute recommends Loco Roco for the holidays, which should distract the kids from downloading porn onto their systems.
Unfortunately, my beloved Aussies let me down this week by not buying enough PSP games like they did last week; none made it into the top 10. However, they still bought enough to have a top-10 PSP list.
1. Tekken: Dark Resurrection
2. GTA: Liberty Cities
3. Gangs of London
4. Star Wars: Battlefront II
5. Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror
6. Daxter
7. WWE SmackDown! vs. RAW
8. NBA Live 2006
9. NFS: Most Wanted
10. Burnout Legends
Well, it seems like the Aussies love their violence as the top-five games are all about hunting down and killing your opponent in violent fashion. You gotta love it!
Kids these days enjoy blowing up stuff. YouTube is filled with kids pretending to be cool by destroying things that they bought with their parents' hard-earned money. Here are two videos that act as proof that Americans really aren't the brightest people in the world. The first video features a kid blowing up Gangs of London (with firecrackers). This is somewhat forgiveable, maybe even acceptable, considering how awful that game is.
The second video truly frightens me. We've seen our share of PSPs being destroyed, but there's something truly hideous about the genuine glea these kids seem to be exhibiting. The video's after the cut, and features some harsh language.
Gangs of London is the biggest release for PSP this week. Sony's been hyping the game through extensive advertisements and elaborate contests. They even printed tons of demos so that people would pick up, play and think "man, this game is a winner." Unfortunately, the plan backfired as I got tons of comments from readers trashing the game. Chris Powell asked me what I thought and I called it "laughably bad." It looks like our negative first impressions of the game were right as the game has been ridiculed by critics the world over. Let's check out some reviews from all over the world:
Pocket Gamer UK (40/100) - "Don't put Gangs of London on anyone's Christmas list. Whether it's stealth, driving or shooting, the game feels limited and unengaging, is hampered by unresponsive controls and completely lacks the necessary polish of a modern production."
Sydney Morning Herald (60/100) - "With such clumsy controls, the limited intelligence of both friends and foes, and a lack of mission variety, most players would have a lot more fun with GTA Liberty City Stories."
GameZone (50/100) - "Gangs of London is a pretty dull game that can border on frustrating due to the clunky controls, lame missions and weak AI. Definitely more 'Swept Away' than 'Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels'."
I'm somewhat disappointed at how this game turned out. If Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories wasn't around the corner, I'd be pretty upset.
The UK branch of Sony seems to have a lot of fun. This unique promotion for Gangs of London encourages you to find clues hidden in the real world to find a real diamond worth £10,000! This has the potential to be a heck of a lot cooler than the actual game itself. You're going to have to go to Nick the Diamond's website to register and start the hunt.
It appears that Sony's been making a lot of demo UMDs lately. The Killzone: Liberation UMD seems to be sent to random PlayStation Underground members and will also be available on newsstands in the next Official US PlayStation Magazine. But there are two more UMD demos to be clamoring for now: Gangs of London, which we assumed would no longer arrive after the game's website stopped taking orders for demos. SOCOM: Fireteam Bravo 2's demo UMD can be secured by pre-ordering the game at GameStop. That seems a little dumb (aren't demos supposed to help uninterested people in purchasing the game?) but maybe you can hassle your local GameStop employee to give you a disc for free, sans pre-order.
My Gangs of Londondemo hasn't come in the mail yet, but I'll just throw it away considering the foul early reviews it's been getting. While the game looks like it had potential, the end product is littered with flaws. One in particular is that you can't actually explore the city freely, a la GTA, unless you're in Free Ride mode: the game wants you to go down its fairly linear, and restrictive story otherwise. Most of the missions seem to be driving from point A to point B, and even doing so might be a bit rough:
Simple actions, like strafing and shooting at enemies, require near-bionic dexterity - four buttons at once seems a tad extreme - and that can only be put down to poor design. When essential functions like 'crouch' randomly decide they can't be bothered to work at critical moments during (the almost unplayable) stealth missions, it's simply unforgivable. Throw in a targeting system which, much like the PS2 games, favours locking on to enemies so far away they may as well be on a different continent, or - even more excitingly - enemies standing behind objects your bullets couldn't penetrate if they were actually lead hippopotami, and frustration becomes your closest friend.
Ouch. You can read the entire IGN review, but I think it's safe to say that when you want some street violence on your PSP, you better look square at Vice City Stories. (P.S. Why are there zombies in this game?)
Every month, Sony offers an EXE file they call the "Content Pack" which contains a variety of files, like videos, music and wallpapers for your PSP. This month is no different. This pack arrives late as usual (so I guess mid-month is the new time for these things), this month's content pack features an explosive FlatOut 2 (PS2) trailer. In addition, you'll get some really hot Gangs of London wallpapers (pictured), Ratchet and Clank: Size Matters wallpapers, and the World Tour Soccer 2 demo. But, be warned: the media on this month's pack is formatted for PSP users that have 2.80 firmware or above.
As evidenced by the numerous YouTube videos of people playing "complete" versions of the upcoming Gangs of London, a leaked ISO of the game has been making the rounds on the internet. Stealing is wrong, and Sony spokesperson David Wilson wants you to remember that:
"We are wholly opposed to game piracy. Even if people have no sympathy for games developers losing money (though in the end that damages our industry and hurts gamers) - there are proven links that exist between counterfeiting and organised crime and that has some serious consequences (and victims) that people should give due consideration."
There you have it. Downloading an illegal copy of Gangs of London may, in fact, help criminals. But, if Senator Lieberman is right, playing games like Gangs of London will turn you into a criminal anyways.
Gangs of London seems like it'll be the next big hit Sony will be hyping for the PSP system. They're already offering free UMD demos of the game, and now this new lengthy gameplay video has surfaced. It shows some of the cooler features of the game, like the command system, where you can have a fellow squad gang member follow your bidding. You might notice that the game map appears to be huge, and the graphics seem like they're on-par, if not better, than Liberty City Stories. The video seems to show off some clunky controls, so hopefully that'll be fixed before this game debuts in November.
Sony's official Gangs of London website doesn't have too much on it right now. It only has two things: an absolutely amazing trailer and a completely free UMD demo disc. All you need to do in order to grab a demo of this incredible looking Grand Theft Auto clone original game is stop by the site and have an official PlayStation.com account, which I'm sure you guys already have.
The National Institute on Media and the Family has just released their annual Report Card, and are advising parents to avoid buying certain games for their kids. All of the titles feature "M" ratings, but meh... parents are too busy to actually look at ratings! Here are the games to avoid, with PSP titles bolded:
Gangs of London *
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