PSN Demo Showcase for 8/11/10 (The Mafia II Edition)

This time on the PSN Demo Showcase features a long-awaited sequel to one of the best open-ended action games ever... (The Mafia II video is NSFW for language and violence)

Mafia II will finally be out at the end of the month and so far its living up to be a satisfying sequel to the critically acclaimed original. Even though I didn't play the first Mafia, playing this demo does get a little taste of what the mafia is really like and it won't have any Grand Theft Auto-like shenanigans. The demo is pretty much one simple mission of driving and then a shootout sequence in a distillery. The driving is what you expect out of a game like this with vehicles handling like the good old mafia days. The shooting controls may take a little time to get used to if you have been playing first person shooters on the PS3 as aim and fire are on the L2 and R2 triggers instead of L1 and R1, but they are changed according to your preference. The cover-based shooting does work for the most part, but going guns-blazing without a plan of sorts will get you killed even though there is a health regeneration system. Vito can die in a snap if caught in a difficult situation especially in a mission like the demo above. Graphically, Mafia II looks pretty good as I didn't notice any glaring issues as some people would compared to other versions of the demo. I enjoyed my time with Mafia II as it will be worth a purchase if you love open-ended action games with a deep story.

Been in a La Roux mood lately...

For the past day, I have been in a La Roux mood because its finally time their songs reach on to other outlets like Rock Band with "Bulletproof" now out for download. This is another song I would download in a heartbeat if I still had the game and rock it like no other. There's also an appearance of "In For the Kill" (Skream Let's Get Ravey Remix) during the closing credits of last night's episode of Entourage and it was a fitting song to end on if you seen it.

My Brief Hands-On Experience with King of Fighters XIII...

King of Fighters XIII has been out at Arcade Infinity for about a month already and I was only able to play it three times, but spent more time watching better players than me do work. Once you see the game in action at first glance, it is a beautiful looking 2D fighting game with great backgrounds and sprites for the characters. KOF XII was a start of a new beginning for the franchise and established some foundations like the graphics style seen above while retaining that KOF flavor we have seen over the years with the gameplay. The basics were there for the fighting, but it just needed a bit more to be a deeper fighting game again, which KOF XIII improved on significantly. In addition, the roster got better adding in franchise favorites that were missing in XII ranging from Yuri, Mai, K', Kula, and more. In a nutshell, King of Fighters XIII is what XII could of been, but it looks like SNK Playmore needed a game to reboot things over before going crazy again, which is the case here.

In my playtime with KOF XIII, I haven't grasped some of the newer gameplay additions yet to the game since XII as I relied on tactics I knew from that game rocking my team of Ash, Kim, and Andy. Speaking of Ash, there is actually a story this time around with XIII revolving around her as some evil version of her is the last boss of the game and in typical KOF/SNK fashion, she is tough to defeat being cheap like no other. Along with everything from KOF XII other than the removal of the gimmicky critical counter system, KOF XIII's core fighting remains the same adding in EX special moves a la Street Fighter IV where you both press both punches and kicks along with the direction to execute. Super specials remain the same, but the dream-like supers from XI make a return that sort of remind you of the ultras seen in SF4 even though not as climatic. There is also a drive cancel-like maneuver when you cancel a special move into another special move such as Ash's Flash Kick-like special to her charging hand as an example. The guard gauge is pretty self-explanatory, but also characters enable a white glow to continue combos almost like custom combos seen in Street Fighter, but for a short time. These combos are basically the big damage ones similar to critical counter combos in XII. In traditional KOF fashion, execution is still key especially there are motions for certain moves that are fairly uncommon for the casual fighting game player, but if you know SNK fighting games, you should be used to this by now.

So far, I have been enjoying King of Fighters XIII despite my limited time with it at the arcade. Hopefully, I can come by that place and play around with it more learning the new stuff other than getting owned by players that are already good at the game as seen in the videos. If so, maybe a more detailed hands-on blog will come soon if I spend more time with the game even though I'm still at Arcade Infinity playing Super Street Fighter IV mostly when I'm there. I think XIII is a worthy addition to the franchise and way better than XII easily, so I hope more people get into the game more by the time it comes out on consoles soon as the fighting is more deeper now that SNK Playmore is able to get the ball rolling after how bare-bones XII was. In the meantime, enjoy the videos of high-level gameplay demonstrating the new additions.

Oh Hey... COD Black Ops MP Footage!

So you might be wandering why I would still post Call of Duty stuff on this blog considering I don't really play shooters that much anymore, but here is the new footage of Black Ops multiplayer with a full reveal on September 1. Honestly, I still don't own a copy of Modern Warfare 2 to this day and its arguably one of my biggest gaming regrets of the past year, but I don't mind that moving on to the whole Street Fighter thing. I still played the demo that finally came out on the Playstation Store last week and enjoyed it, but it didn't really make me wanna go back to the shooting business that bad. Despite my current feelings about the FPS genre, Black Ops still looks pretty good retaining that Call of Duty flavor gamers love now and looks like Treyarch is adding some replay system as well. I also recently watched GameTrailers' latest Bonus Round talking about the big fall shooters and it seems like they are still praising Black Ops despite possibilities of franchise fatigue by serious shooter fans. Especially on the 360, it might be hard for those guys of whether to stick with Black Ops or Halo: Reach this fall as the shooter to play and get, but knowing gamers, we would just buy both because both shooters offer different experiences. In the meantime, Black Ops will be out this November and hoping to repeat the same success as Modern Warfare 2 had, but I doubt it.

The Boys are Back and I Can't Wait!!! Bring on Jackass 3D!

Since I watched the first two movies, the show a lot, and bought some of the DVDs, I'm pretty excited for Jackass 3D. Hopefully, a 3D movie that will be truly worth it rather than some epic action movie. There is nothing much I can say other than the boys are back and we'll see what crazy shenanigans they pull off this time.

Also, high five!!!

Music Video Roundup for 8/5/10

Looks like a lot of high profile music videos are out today as this post will be updated as the day progresses.

First up...

Janelle Monae - "Cold War" (off one of my favorite albums of the year, The ArchAndroid)

Eminem - "I Love The Way You Lie" feat. Rihanna (Chances are you heard this on the radio lately)

Kanye's return with his "Power" video and its only about two minutes long!

A Quick Music Roundup for 8/4/10

This time on the music roundup features two albums from a new artist on the rise and one that needs no introduction.

First off is Mike Posner and his debut mainstream album, 31 Minutes to Takeoff. He has made a big splash to the radio waves with "Cooler Than Me," more preferably the single mix than the normal song that is all chill. His album is not that long, but provides lots of chill vibes throughout with songs like the one above, "Please Don't Go," and more. If you're looking for an album to blast on a drive across the summer beaches, this one is worth blasting.

As the one who needs no introduction, Lady Gaga has a remix album out now and its a pretty much a collection of remixes of her famous songs. Most of them are old like the Richard Vission remix of "Just Dance," so chances are you heard them before at the clubs at one point. With the ten on the album, some are hit and miss, but there are indeed standouts out there that I enjoy. I expected it to very house-y and got exactly that since I am still in this house music phase because that seems to be the trend these days with mainstream artists going more on this direction. Since Gaga is apparently releasing any more videos off The Fame Monster and touring like crazy around the states, this is the next best thing we all can get out of her until her real second album comes out and blows everyone away. If only I could watch the Monster Ball in person out of curiosity, but that is not going to happen.

That's it for now... be prepared for a quick music video roundup post tomorrow since Kanye's "Power" video will be out as well as Enimem's new one for that one song with Rihanna I have hearing a lot on the radio waves. Hopefully Drake's "Fancy" video comes out soon too since that has been the song of my Vegas trip last weekend, which was pretty fun.