After the announcement of the PS4 on 20 February I’ve been seen a lot of talk about backward compatibility. The ability to play Playstation 3 games on the new Playstation 4 seems to be a big deal and I just can’t see why.

I understand the logic, we’ve all invested thousands in PS3 games over the last couple of years and we’d like to know our collection still means something but you have to ask yourself – “Will I still be interested in these old games while there are a bunch of sparkly new PS4 games.

The answer is NO. Can you even remember the last time you wanted to play a PS2 game? We reminisce about them and smile but given the chance we won’t actually sit down and play it again because we are far to distracted by all the superb new games that have become available.

Sony have said that the PS4 runs on a whole new hardware architecture (X86 processors) and so PS3 games will not be compatible. If they were to allow PS3 games to be played on the PS4 it would involve an emulator which would no doubt tax the hardware and wast valuable development time that could be put in to other things.

My recommendation is – don’t worry about the past and look forward to all the wonderful games to come. Move whole heartily to the next gen and take with you all the great experiences from the last one.

Playstation 4 games to look forward to

- inFAMOUS: Second son
- Deep Down (Working title
- Killzone: Shadow Fall
- Knack

Back to Pandora? Yes please.

When Borderlands first released we were all a bit sceptical about the ideas being put forward, the promises made and the choice of artistic direction. Well as we now know Borderlands turned out to be one of our favourite games this gen, delivering or exceeding all of the promises made and certainly blowing our expectations out of the water.

Accordingly we adjusted said expectations for the follow up. We wanted more of the same, but better in every way; as is the way with gamers in general. A tough bunch to please. Gearbox however did not shy away from the challenge, themselves promising “a bazillion guns” and mayhem of the highest order. Once again Gearbox delivers, and then some… and then some more.

Graphically Borderlands 2 utilizes the same cell-shaded antics of the first and again it works magnificently well; smooth, creamy visuals blended with the harsh landscape of barren earth and broken wastelands. Though this time there seems to be more colour and life to the places you visit. Character models are impeccable, funny and sometimes downright absurd. It must be a joy to be a character or level designer at Gearbox because it seems that anything goes.

Nice doggy.

For us the gamers it really makes you want to explore every location, which for a semi-RPG helps a lot with the grinding and looting. The amount of detail is staggering, rooms are filled with items and graffiti, humour abounds and everything is well thought out. Go and visit one of the mission-giving NPCs and take a look around their immediate area and you will find personal things put there just to make the connection deeper, but solely at your discretion to find.

The sounds of Pandora are equally impressive, going one step further this time by making everything voice-acted. The standards (very high standards) are there as expected: guns, bombs, creatures, vehicles etc. It’s immersive and violent, when a battle goes full force the chaos is in your face and ears. The only drawback is during the often frenetic action the game tries to carry the mission forward with dialogue which you have no hope of hearing or understanding so a lot is missed, which is a great pity because there is an endless amount of real humour in Borderlands 2. So much so that much time is spent chuckling to the rantings of some or other NPC.

Our favourite sound however have to be the weapons which tell you what they are doing in a voice that makes fingernails scratching a blackboard sound like Beethoven’s 5^th: “Reloading!”, “Changing Weapon!”, “BANG! BANG! BANG!”.

Another welcome improvement to the game is the story element. Things are a bit smarter, a bit deeper, just as wild but now there’s more connection not only to the current characters but Gearbox has intelligently woven the characters from the first into this one. This gives the game an instant nostalgic feel and running into the initial batch of Vault hunters is exciting. Working with and for them is even better.

Not your average barbershop quartet.

Side missions carry as much intrigue and fun as the first and we believe this is a key aspect to taking away any laborious feelings that often accompany RPGs. Side missions are not simply bland fetch-and-give affairs, nor are you tasked with cleaning out dungeon after dungeon. Every side mission contains some or other character or bizarre situation, filled with fun and humour and each one makes you want to complete it and then search for more.

None of the above mentioned facts would be of any use if the gameplay wasn’t solid, the first game was nigh perfect and this time things are at least as good. It’s fast, it’s manic, it’s accurate in perfect harmony with the stats each weapon presents and your specific abilities. Finding an awesomely powerful weapon that has a dreadfully poor firing rate makes the weapon almost useless, unless your stats boost firing rate. Using the right elemental against the correct enemy determines your success, working on your powers in a way that suits your gameplay can make you truly formidable.

Gearbox’s take on the RPG elements is another master stroke; you cannot upgrade everything, in fact you probably can’t even get half way. So you have to make critical choices about how you build your character, what things you like to use and what they are good at, a weapon may be useless for you but perfect for your friend, and when you are playing with others all these things combine to an even greater degree.

There’s no point having two players who are doing the same thing; in some instances you will combine to be overly powerful and in others things will be very tough. Balance is the key. We have been going through the game as opposite characters building our strengths to each other’s weaknesses, this adds another element to the game. Aside from the obvious co-op interaction; the game forces you to really become a team. Along with that we often get other friends randomly joining in, bumping up the difficulty level and certainly the fun factor too.

Gearbox have made something very special in this aspect.

Looting is as much a factor but this time we’ve found coming across really great weapons is rarer, which makes earning them in other ways more important. They claim there are a “Bazillion” weapons, I have no idea just how much that is, but I believe them. Grenades are also much improved and the desire for bigger, faster, more powerful never seems to end. This time Gearbox have also brought in other social media aspects into the game by giving away “shift” codes on Facebook which gives you keys to certain chests in-game, these often contain decent weapons.

Zero Cool

Customisations to your character (and vehicles) are another welcome addition, although some will tell you that dressing up your character is distinctly not hard-core we’re willing to bet these same people are changing clothes and heads like the rest of us.

Overall there’s nothing bad we can say about Borderlands 2. It’s the best online experience we’ve had this gen. The only thing better than playing an awesome game is playing that same game with your friends, Gearbox understands this better than anyone in the industry at the moment. Gearbox are also heavily invested in this franchise and like the first there will be a plethora of DLC, from our experiences with the first game we have no doubt that the DLC is deserving of your money. In fact there are few games that deserve your money more than Borderlands 2.

If you have not played the first Borderlands yet then we envy you, get it, get one or two or three friends and endeavour to play through it together, when you have finished do the same with Borderlands 2. Never before has a game’s rating or score mattered less (although in this case that score would be immense), when a game is this much fun just stop reading and head on out to Pandora.

Angry Birds is a franchise that needs no introduction. The bird-catapulting physics puzzle game skyrocketed to success soon after its release and its characters became a craze among kids and adults, spawning everything from toys to pencil boxes. How was developer Rovio going to live up to the success of it’s Angry Birds games with something fresh, something new, while still being instantly recognizable? Well, by creating Bad Piggies of course.

King Pig and his green minions have found a map to the bird’s eggs but, as their luck has it, the map gets torn into pieces and blown away. It’s up to you to build all manner of car and flying machine to help retrieve the pieces of the map and steal the coveted eggs.

Yeah, so the story has never been the strong suit of mobile games but that’s not at all important here. What you need to know is that Bad Piggies is an excellent physics puzzler that goes way beyond the simple fling-a-bird mechanic of the original series.

It starts out simple, see?

In Bad Piggies you have to construct a vehicle on a building grid using only the objects given to you, be it wheels, umbrellas, rockets etc. Then it’s again up to you to help pilot your little pig to the end goal by timing activation of its engines and rockets and other attached devices. By completing optional goals such as finishing the level in under a specific time, collecting star boxes or not using a specific object increases your star rating. These optional goals can be completed in separate runs though, as long as the end goal is reached.

Like it’s predecessor, the goal is easily understood and initial puzzles require no more than attaching three or more pieces together. However, the game gradually introduces new gadgets to you as you progress, as well as putting the end goal in increasingly difficult places. In this way Bad Piggies teaches you the basics of its vehicle building mechanic and in no time you’ll be creating some elaborate flying machines, powered by diesel engines, propellers and helium balloons.

Separate from the main chapters there is also a sandbox mode in which you can stretch your engineering imagination. In this mode you’re on a massive level with star boxes scattered throughout. A large building grid and all the pieces you’ve unlocked through the main game are available to you. Here you can really start building some crazy contraptions with little to no restrictions.

Bad Piggies retains the simple yet colorful aesthetic from Angry Birds, making it instantly recognizable. The characters and environments are bright and cheerful and the pigs are lovingly animated, cleverly expressing excitement and fear as they are raced, flown or flung across the levels.

Five wheels, two bottle rockets and a V8 engine? Pff, that’s childsplay.

What makes Bad Piggies so satisfying is how great the physics engine is. All gadgets and objects react and interact with each other in a very realistic way. Placing a heavy engine at the back of your rear-wheel drive box car will make it backflip the second you start the engine. Placing three rockets at the bottom of your box airplane will make it pitch upward and crash into a rock ceiling. Wooden frames and wheels break easily but are lighter and steel parts are more robust but heavier. This careful balance of power, weight and weight distribution forces you to carefully consider the placement of each of the objects given to you. It’s a very clever system and the limits to what is possible is only dictated by the player’s imagination and understanding of the parts available.

With optional goals and the super elusive silver skulls hidden in some levels, the sandbox levels and promised expansion levels ensures that there’s lots to do here. Some goals and star boxes will be easily obtained, while others will bend your brain and test your skill as budding engineers. Even though playing through the current chapters might not take too long, the game has been designed to be messed around and experimented with adding lots more hours of entertainment.

Ultimately Bad Piggies is a very clever, rewarding and genuinely fun physics puzzle game. It’s easy to understand goals, steady learning curve and great use of physics make it a fantastic example of what quick-satisfaction games are all about.

There are many reasons console gaming has become so popular over the last ten or so years. Least of which isn’t that the three console giants spending billions of dollars on marketing, exclusivity deals and movie and TV-show tie-ins. Factor in the success of motion and touch gaming with the Wii, Kinect and iDevices and it’s easy to understand why people turn to their living room for their gaming fix.

These are not the only reasons though.

Console games have always been associated with “trouble-free gaming”. Pop in the disc or cartridge and game away. It wasn’t until the Xbox 360 arrived when patching was introduced and subsequently the PS3 game publishers also adopted the same “release now, patch later” way of thinking. However, for the most part pop-in-and-play is still very much at the heart of what makes console gaming so attractive to the biggest percentage of users.

2012 on the other hand is widely being described as the last year of the current generation. Nintendo’s Wii-U will be the first of the new generation of consoles to hit store shelves and no doubt Sony and Microsoft will have unveilings for their new consoles within the next six months. But until the time we have PS4s and Xbox 720s in our living rooms gaming enthusiasts like myself with a little extra cash seeking thrills of cutting edge gaming have again started to turn to ye old personal computer.

I bought a new gaming PC about a month or so (admittedly to play that new Blizzard game) but was delighted to see how Valve has almost single-handedly simplified and networked PC gaming with their Steam service. This is not even mentioning the incredible deals that we console gamers have been missing out on.

However, my excitement quickly subsided when I couldn’t get one of the games bought off Steam to work immediately. I was frustrated to learn I had to reinstall the game and do some file editing for it to work. It’s possible that it was just my bad luck but that was just the start of my problems.

The DayZ craze was just about at it’s peak by the time my rig was up and running and after a bit of searching I managed to get copies of the ArmA2 and the expansion needed to get the mod working. Many hours of patches later I ended up in a server, knowing only the basics of what I was supposed to do. A few days went by of me screaming at my PC everytime I broke my legs opening a door, being killed by a hacker or having my character reset for no reason. Yes, the game is very much still in alpha phase and bound to be broken in some ways, but with the amount of hype going around it I was shocked to see exactly how broken it was.

Playing League of Legends has also added to my PC rage. The ridiculous frequency of the patches have made me get up from my chair and turn on my PS3 on more than one occasion.

Okay, so maybe I’m being a little overdramatic and using DayZ as an example is a tad unfair. My observation remains true though. Console game developers have had stricter quality control over their games than their PC counterparts for years. It’s been quite a culture shock, and even a little nostalgic, extracting patch archives and deleting config files to get a game working. But without people to hype these kinds of mods and put up with its initial brokenness there wouldn’t be success stories such as Counter Strike, DOTA and Minecraft.

Am I going to throw in the proverbial towel on PC gaming? Of course not! PC gaming provides the kind of flexibility other platforms can only dream of. Factor in things such as 4-way SLI and overclocked quad-core processors you’re pretty much at the highest point of the technical ladder. However, it’s been a humbling experience this last month. It has made me realize that for better or worse, gaming on PC hasn’t changed that much from 2005. Now where’s my UE4?

 _____

Johan is a gaming and tech enthusiast from South Africa currently residing in Taiwan. He graduated in 2007 with a bachelors in computer science and has been writing and arguing about games since before the Y2K disaster. You can follow him on the twitters @ twitter.com/jevous

May Payne made its debut in July 2001 and was only available for Windows. It has come a long way since then, with two game sequels and a movie. We take a look at where it all began and at some the ingredients that made the game such a huge success.

The original game was developed by Finnish developers Remedy Entertainment back in the late 1990′s. The rights to the game were later sold to Take-Two Interactive in 2002 shortly after it hit the shelves in 2001. The rights to the game earned Remedy $10 Million. Later in 2012 Max Payne 3 sold over 3 Million copies in its first week, a figure that completely overshadows the $10 Million they earned from the sale.

The game originally drew inspiration from hard-boiled detective novels by authors like Mickey Spillane who’s books lead character was Mike Hammer, a detective who was fueled by rage and viewed the law as an impediment to justice. Max Payne bears a strong resemblance to him as he was originally portrayed in the graphic novel – I, The Jury.

Max Payne was the first game to make use of the Bullet Time effect. Development of the game began long before The Matrix was released, a movie that popularized the Bullet Time effect.

May Payne was lauded by gamers and reviewers alike for its original narrative story telling and captivating gameplay. Its sold 7 Million copies.

Development of Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne began shortly after the release of Max Payne. Development was split between Remedy who handled Windows development and Rockstar games for Playstation 2 and Xbox. Released on December 2nd 2003, it received generally positive reviews but sold badly, earning the blame for Take-Two Interactive’s poor 2004 financial results.

Max’s appearance was remodeled after actor Timothy Gibbs, for Max Payne 2, a shift from his original likeness of Sam Lake the games writer. Neither of whom look anything like Mark Wahlberg who went on the star as the hard boiled detective in the film, Max Payne.

In an interview Lake said that in Max Payne 2 he wanted to “to keep what’s good and fix what was not so good” and to take the story in new directions. That he did by giving Max a love interest, Mona Sax and so it was written as a film noir love story.

After the success of the first two games Hollywood tried their luck. Mark Wahlberg stared as Max Payne and Mila Kunis as Mona Sax. Filming began in early 2008 and it was released later that year to a slew of negative reviews. Many said that the films storyline differed too much from that of the original. Despite this, the film managed to take the top spot in the box office on its opening weekend and went on to earn $110 million dollars worldwide.

May Payne 3 was originally scheduled for release in 2009 but was pushed back to 2010 to allow the game to benefit from “further development”. It was then pushed back again to 2011 and then to 2012. Max Payne 3 is unique in that it is the only title in the franchise to not be developed by Remedy and was not written by its creator Sam Lake. Instead it was developed by Rockstar games and written by Dan Houser who also wrote Red Dead Redemption and most of the Grand Theft Auto games.

Max Payne 3 dropped the film noir theme that the previous games donned but maintained a dark and gritty feel. Rockstar conducted extensive research into vibe, culture, weapons and every other element of São Paulo, the games setting, to make it as authentic as possible.

Max Payne 3 game was released to relatively positive reviews with the biggest criticism being the games departure in tone and style from the original games. The New York Times praised the games soundtrack and The Guardian called it “A masterpiece of underworld carnality, depravity and violence.”

Shortly after the release of Max Payne 3, Rockstar re-released the original Max Payne on the Playstation Network as well a mobile version for iOS and Android.

The word game genre has exploded over the last few years, mostly thanks to the quick on-the-go gaming that mobile platforms have created. Today we review the latest game in the genre called Words in 30 Seconds.

Available for the iPhone4(s) and iPad the game immediately impresses with its usage of retina display graphics, it’s gorgeous to look at and is more along the “business” design lines; animations are slick and fast, buttons are clear and concise, help menus are actually helpful and basically everything works just the way it should.

The game itself is refreshing in it’s genre thanks to the focus of completing objectives using words, rather than just simply making words. There are 7 rounds, each increasing in difficulty, within each round there are 8 challenges and each challenge lasts 30 seconds. Your objective is to go as far into the rounds as possible and score as many points as possible.

Here’s the kicker: if you make one single mistake it’s game over, thanks for coming, start again. Yes people, we have our first hard-core word game here. If Demon’s Souls had a mini-game based on words, this would be it. The challenges themselves vary in type, you might need to create the longest word possible, or find the anagram to a certain word or swap 2 letters to find the correct word etc.

There is also the bonus of being able to go head-to-head in a Wi-Fi challenge of 5 rounds against a friend or spouse, it’s a very nice addition and we hope later on they can add the ability to do this online against friends.

Ultimately Words in 30 Seconds gives you a fun and challenging word game that will keep you coming back to try and get to the ultimate goal of completing all 7 levels. On platforms that allow for quick, short gaming stints the lack of loading times and 30 second rounds means this title hits the right spot. For the cost of a single dollar we’d say it’s a dollar extremely well spent.

Words-in-30-Seconds iTunes

Now that we know the release date for Arkane Studios upcoming, adventure game – Dishonored (9 October), we thought we’d dig up a few interesting facts about the title to get you all as excited about it as we are.

1. Dishonored is a steampunk themed game which incorporates elements of science fiction and alternate history which is associated with advanced mechanical technology,steam power and alternate history. Previously successful games that fit into the steampunk genre are Bioshock, Damnation and Resonance of Fate.

2. Arkane Studios, located in Lyon, France was tasked with design, animation and art work by 2K Marin for Bioshock 2. It goes without saying that they know what they are doing when it comes to the steampunk genre. Arkane Studios also worked with Valve Software to develop a game in the Half-Life series called “Return to Ravenholm” that has since been cancelled.

3. Dishonored is being developed by a top billed team. Raf Colantonio founder and co-creative of Arkane,who worked on Arx Fatalis and Dark Messiah of Might and Magic. Viktor Antonov, the talented designer of Half-Life 2′s splendid City 17.

4. “The Outsider”, the being responsible for the protagonist, Corvo’s new magical powers is described as “part angel and part devil” which bares resemblance to the story of “The Crow”, where a dark angle (the crow) resurrects a victim of an un-justful death so that he can exact vengeance on his wrongdoers.

5. Dishonored is set in a fictional Londonesque city. The designers chose London because of it’s dark, oppressive feel. The city is also filled with old brick buildings that menacingly lean over passers by. V for Vendetta was also set in London for the same reason, pitting V the protagonist against an oppressive, totalitarian government.

It looks like Dishonored has the makings on something great and with only a few months to go until its release date, what’s not to look forward to?

In each stage you’ll need to navigate your stunt bike rider through a set of obstacles by controlling his speed and tilt. Stars are awarded for completing certain challenges like; finishing within a specific time limit, collecting all the coins and finishing without crashing. All of which do not need to be accomplished in one go. This makes it a whole lot more fun, allowing you to focus on challenge at a time.

The controls are easy enough and don’t get in the way of having fun. Arrows on the left are used to control tilt while two buttons on the right are used to accelerate and break. The levels start easily enough but their difficulty does increases rather steeply as you progress with some stages taking a good 10 mins to perfect. Whether it becomes for fun or frustrating depends entirely on your personality. Perfectionists will love it while the impatient will be hitting the home button more often than not.

Bike Baron comes with its own comprehensive track editor which definitely prolongs the life of the game. After you have created a custom track it is assigned a 4 digit code that can used to share your level with friends. The best of other gamers levels have been selected by the developers and are available to play.

At $0.99 a purchase is a no brainer, you get a great game, plus a well crafted track editor to set challenges for your friends and the entire Bike Baron community. The game may be a clone but it’s a darn good one with some unique features of it own.