I’ve broken cover from my well deserved holiday to bring you a little mission report from my time at PlayStation Access Live event that took place in Birmingham on Thursday night. Whilst at the Rainbow Warehouse I got to try out a number of upcoming PlayStation 3 titles that are due for release later this year which included Classic HD collections of God of War and the ICO Collection, Resistance 3, Ratchet & Clank All 4 One, Dark Souls, Journey and a number of PlayStation Move titles including the surprisingly ace Medieval Moves.
Anyhoo here we go with a little preview round-up of what I played at PlayStation Access Birmingham.
Ratchet & Clank All 4 One
Ratchet & Clank and PlayStation have a long history, but even after all these years the Ratchet & Clank games still deliver. When All 4 One was first announced I must admit I was a little wary of the multiplayer route it was taking. However after 5 minutes with the game all fears have been evaporated. I played it in singleplayer which was just like previous R&C games but it really came into it’s own when played with friends. I bought along my mate, who although a massive gamer like me, he doesn’t really play on his PS3 much, but he was super impressed with All 4 One.
Classics HD – ICO Collection and God of War PSP Collection
Firstly the ICO Collection – I tried out Shadows of the Colossus, and boy did it look good. The Colossi filled the whole screen, which in widescreen looks even more impressive, not much more can be said as these games have already passed into legend. If you played the PS2 originals you’ll know both ICO and SotC are fantastic games and experiencing them HD is a must. If you missed them first time round, now if the perfect time to play apart of gaming history. Next we have the God of War PSP Collection, I played Chains of Olympus in 3D, textures were a little iffy, but being able to play it with a Dualshock 3 on a TV was fantastic. The God of War PSP games are some of the best titles to appear on PSP so expect nothing less than gaming experience now in glorious HD.
Resistance 3
I’ve already played the ‘Boat’ demo and I’m currently kicking ass in the Multiplayer Beta, but managed to try an extended play though of Resistance 3 in both 3D and also with the PlayStation Move Sharpshooter. Resistance 3 looks great in 3D really added an extra layer of immersion. However the Sharpshooter control was a little cumbersome, I have a feeling this was because I was dumped into the middle of the demo by the Access crew person and it needed to be calibrated. But I enjoyed playing Killzone 3 with the Sharpshooter so I have every faith Resistance 3 will be equally as impressive. A battle ravaged street was set up to house the Resistance 3 demo pods, which really added to the atmosphere.
Medieval Moves
I picked up the Move motion controller to play Medieval Moves with very little expectations. It looked ok when revealed at E3 by the now infamous Jeremy (great job by the way), but it wasn’t on my ‘to buy’ list. Within 2 mins of the demo I was hooked – Medieval Moves is amazing fun, and makes perfect use of the PlayStation Move. Don’t be fooled by the ‘on-rails’ nature of this game as you’ll be switching between your bow, throwing stars and grappling hook without a care in the world. In Medieval Moves you play a young knight tasked with dispatching the evil skeleton forces ransacking the kingdom. Armed with a shield and sword, you make your way around the castles, taking out the enemy with 1:1 accuracy. Swinging the PS Move perfectly translates on screen. With simple button presses or gestured actions you can instantly switch to using a bow and arrow, throwing stars or a grappling hook. The nearest game Medieval Moves can be compared to is Sports Champions, which incidentally was developed by the same team. Medieval Moves is a must buy, if you have a Move this is the game you have been waiting for to truly show off what the it can do. Hopefully Sony will create a Medieval Moves bundle as it will surely move a few units.
And the Rest
I also played FIFA 12 from EA, watched a little Assassin’s Creed Revelations Multiplayer from Ubisoft, checked out Journey which looked great, Dark Souls which really doesn’t demo well and finally tried out the upcoming LittleBigPlanet Move pack, I would go into further detail but a few minutes into the demo, the PS3 crashed, however the few minutes I got with the newly Move-enabled Sackboy, were great fun. It’s going to be interesting to see what the Creator Community can come up with using the new Move-based tools and gameplay elements.
These PlayStation Access events are great fun and it’s great to see SCEE connecting with the PlayStation community in such a direct way. If you want to be a part of future PlayStation Access events and competitions, be sure to ‘Like’ PlayStation Access on Facebook and follow PlayStation Access commander-in-chief Musterbuster on Twitter.
Lastly thanks must go to Jason over at Sonyfanatic form supplying the images you see above.