Other games offer you new kits, outfits, purely aesthetic downloads that do nothing to alter the game in any meaningful way. No More Heroes: Heroes Paradise let players purchase clothes and beam katanas for Travis to wear and use, yet neither altered the game in any way. Most famously of all was the extortionate price of Horse Armour in TESIV: Oblivion, something that Bethesda have tried very hard to get away from; in fairness to Bethesda they were the first to deal with DLC and so no pricing structure had really been set up yet. Needless to say was that really even a necessary piece of DLC to create?

A Muscle Car DLC pack for Forza Motorsport 4

On the other side of the spectrum you have the lazy DLC releases. These do add something to the game, but they add what should have originally been there, or indeed what was once there and then taken out, Fallout 3′s Broken Steel shows this perfectly. Adding the endgame part to the story, allowing players to continue exploring the wasteland, and allow for the changes of the main story to begin to take shape, it is strange that it had to come as DLC and wasn’t something included in its original release. The DLC that provides a full unlock for a games content seems to have replaced the now seemingly archaic cheat code, meaning that now companies can charge those too lazy, unskilled or busy to complete the game fully. Some games, like Crackdown and Crackdown 2, offer these unlocks for free (Keys to the City) so players can enjoy and explore what the game has to offer without being penalised for not being able to finish the game themselves.

For a reviewer, and massive gameplayer like myself, DLC is a double edged sword. Its offerings are tempting, but the graft to enjoy everything on offer for all the games is near impossible. With the exception of Oblivions DLC I have not finished a single piece for any other game. Fallout 3 I managed to complete 2 of the 5, having left one entirely untouched; Borderlands offered 4 packs alongside its already lengthy and impressive main game, and yet not a single pack has been finished due to sheer lack of time. I find myself skipping the more instantly enjoyable packs of DLC that would provide content like cars and multiplayer maps/levels as they don’t seem meaty enough, yet picking up a beastly expansion to an RPG tends to end up with an unfinished offering.

A slightly more substantial DLC package.

Ultimately DLC may be toted as content that is developed in the fans favour, but most of the time it is weighted completely in the publishers interests. Short development times, low publishing costs and high returns all shouts that it DLC is an essential component to any games portfolio. Adding to this is the hype they can generate around DLC to make it instantly marketable, people clamber over each other for the latest Call of Duty pack, despite it essentially being the same as before but with a new visual coat of paint. Most annoyingly is the announcement of DLC before the game has even launched! It seems that DLC will forever be a part of the industry as players find that new t-shirt, extra grassy knoll or virtual weapon just too enticing for their wallet to resist.

Fallout 3 surprised the gaming world with its in-depth story and drastic new approach to the Fallout franchise. In fact it even revolutionized the RPG genre by implementing a RPG with a first person shooter. Not to mention it featured one of the most in-depth and open world we have ever seen. Remember the first time you stepped out of your prison, a.k.a. Vault 101, and saw the Capital Wasteland? Of course you do! Well Fallout: New Vegas will have you reliving these moments all over again in a different world, the Mojave Wasteland and New Vegas!

Fallout: New Vegas takes place 3 years after the events of Fallout 3 and if you are hoping for a direct sequel to Bethesda’s most previous game you may be slightly disappointed.  First the game is now being developed by Obsidian the guys behind Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2 and Alpha Protocol. Second the game will have no direct tie to the Fallout 3 and the Capital Wasteland; it will be mentioned every now and then. Hell you might even run into a few Easter Eggs, but besides those simple things you won’t see much.

I didn’t get to see a chance of the famous Vegas Strip, but I did get a chance to run around the eerily accurate Mojave Desert. The one thing I will point out is that the world is enormous I probably was able to only see about an eighth of the world and I spent a good hour playing the game. My exploitations led me to a few firefights and here I used the games new crosshair shooting mode.  The new viewing mode was needless to say not helpful, for me at least. Unless you’re using a sniper rifle the rifles do not do enough damage for the crosshairs to aid you at all times. I started using the cowboy repeater and using the new updated VATS system. There is not much new to the actual system so why they call it new is weird to me. The animations for the VATS are still as gory as ever so no need to worry about that.

The raiders were shooting from everywhere and they were killing me fast, I had to do something. That’s when I opened up the new menu and scrolled over to take a stimpack. While I was in the menu I thought I would just scroll around the weapons and armor section for a bit and that is when I fell in love with a weapon that was revealed to me in two simple words: Grenade Machinegun. I had to whip it out and teach those raiders whose boss!

Well you can simply imagine I dealt with them no problem, and went on to continue my journey that later led me to the Primm Casino. Which is an actual casino located outside of Vegas pretty close to the Stateline.  A Brotherhood of Steel soldier later came up to me and implored that I stay away from the casino turned prison. A riot has just taken place and the prisoners have just taken control of the facility. I told him that this would no longer be a problem and would take care of it right away.

So I took a stealthy approach to taking back the prison and eliminated every enemy in my path one by one, until I reached the top of the broken down roller coaster. Once I got here I brought back out my grenade machinegun and rained down explosives onto the facility. The poor cons didn’t stand a chance against the hellfire that was being brought down upon them. Once I took care of all the inmates I returned to the Brother of Steel and let him know that the facility was officially under control.

He thanked me and I went on my way. Some of the most fun I have ever had within a Fallout game happened at the Primm Casino.  How often do you get to a high point in Fallout 3 and rain down grenades onto an evil bunch of dudes? Not often unless you count going to the top of the Washington Monument and just throwing stuff off of there, but that’s probably not a good idea still.

Look forward to wiping out the raiders October 19^th, 2010!

Each of the titles is well known to almost any gamer and with no doubt, both games will be brilliant.

For either of the games there is little information, meaning its hard to choose between them at this present time.

Fallout New vegas released a video which is shown underneath:

Although this may not show much, it gives a certain atmoshere about the game and what it will be about.

Fallout lovers would have realised and understood who the figure was at the end of the trailer, as it states on the flag: California Republic.

Fable III have also released a trailer but again it is not that informative.

Information has been told about the new game at X10 and can be found in one of our recent posts.

Here is a link if you have not seen it.

http://thegamershub.co.uk/2010/02/x10-fable-iii-details-revealed/

Now, basing your opinion on this to whether games will be better than each other isnt exactly worth doing.

For now though, I suppose basing it on your experience with each game and there predecessors you could make a reasonable prediction on which will be the greater game.

The videogame has been around for a little while now, and it’s evolved considerably from its roots in the arcades. Games of today are mind-bogglingly complex compared to what they were even as little as ten years ago. Who knows where they’ll be in another ten years? Well, no-one, but I’d like to put forward a few ideas as to why the future of video games may be very closely tied in to the RPG. Current trends suggest that games are trying to be more “cinematic.” This to me makes no sense: why try to be like an existing media? Especially one as established as the cinema. Surely, the videogame industry needs to take what separates games from other media and expand on those elements, elements which I believe are mostly present in the RPG genre.

Other genres

Firstly, I’d like to point out a growing trend, which is that many other game genres are borrowing liberally from the RPG. Most visibly is the RTS, with games like WarCraft 3 and Dawn of War 2 including persistent characters in both single- and multi-player, with earnable experience, upgrades and weapons. Even shooters have had their share of RPG elements, with games like Modern Warfare 2 incorporating experience-based rewards within the multiplayer suite. Games like Batman: Arkham Asylum use an experience-based progression system to gradually improve the character’s abilities, and even driving games like DiRT and Forza use an experience and level system for recording progress. These RPG systems have multiple uses, but generally the idea is to provide a sense of progress, as well as allowing the player to have a level of input towards that progression.

Conversely, RPG’s often incorporate elements of other genres, demonstrating a hybridisation of genre which is increasingly necessary to keep games fresh. Examples are Oblivion and Fallout 3, both RPG’s played from the first-person perspective. A very relevant example is Mass Effect, particularly Mass Effect 2, which, more than incorporating third-person shooting elements, basically is a third person shooter. While RPG players may complain that the RPG elements have been “dumbed down” for shooter players, ultimately the important stuff is still there: characters, quests, conversations and choice. These are things which, I believe, may eventually be present in the majority of story based games.

Open Worlds

The open world game is becoming increasingly popular as hardware is getting powerful enough to support it. Games like Oblivion and Fallout 3 in particular are essentially one huge level that the player can explore at will. The classic mission structure native to most games obviously still has a place: individual missions offer far simpler replay value (easier to replay a mission than to play through 40 hours of open world RPG to get to the bit you actually wanted to play again). Further, these missions bring to mind classic arcade games, as players try to top previous scores. However, open world games definitely increase immersion, and games like Batman: Arkham Asylum demonstrate that the system is feasible outside of RPGs and Grand Theft Auto.

However, open world games will never fully replace a level structure: can you imagine Modern Warfare 2 as an open world game? FarCry 2 was an admirable attempt to create an open world FPS, but unfortunately fell apart due to the lack of structure. This is the biggest problem with open world games: by giving the player the opportunity to what they want, when they want, the narrative loses any sense of urgency. Oblivion suffered from this, as well as Dragon Age: there is an approaching apocalypse that must be stopped by the player at all costs, yet there’s plenty of time to clear rats out of old ladies basements. Hmm. Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter is interesting in that it cleverly creates the illusion of an open world by helicoptering you and your team between missions, this generates the immersion of an open world while driving the story forwards using a linear structure. Mass Effect 2 seems to be the closest to proper balance, giving players a mix of exploration and urgent missions, built around a solid structure. As you can probably tell, structure is the important factor here, as a good narrative needs a solid structure to function. Ultimately, despite a few shortcomings, a living, breathing world that you, the player, are free to explore, is something that cinema, television and literature cannot offer.

Choice

As games become more and more cinematic, they must conversely distinguish themselves more from the cinema. The nature of the videogame means that the player has an input, and consequently can change events. Very few games actually make the most of this most basic function: games like Call of Duty, as fun as they are, are nothing more than shooting galleries. Modern Warfare 2 came painfully close to offering a genuine choice in *that* airport level, but ultimately just didn’t. On the other hand, games like Dragon Age and particularly Mass Effect 2 offer something that is more unique to each player, where important choices affect the game in different ways. Mass Effect 2 especially takes that to the next level, offering the chance to import the players choices from Mass Effect 1, so that the galaxy in ME2, from the outset, is unique to the player.

Conclusions

Overall, what I’m trying to get at is that there are elements of RPG’s which I believe will eventually make their way into all story based games. Games are increasingly becoming a legitimate way to tell stories, but developers and gamers need to aim higher than just “cinematic.” Modern Warfare 2’s story mode, for example, while fun, and certainly cinematic, doesn’t really amount to much. Of course, there are different kinds of games, and Modern Warfare 2 is really all about the multiplayer, but even here we see elements of RPG’s. As for story modes, games need to do things we can’t see in the cinema, or see on TV, or read in novels. The ability for players to truly change the story and game world based on important choices is the ace up the sleeve, as it were. Hopefully, that’s the next element of the RPG to make its way into other genres – upcoming PS3 exclusive Heavy Rain is evidence that this is, indeed, the case.

10- The Saboteur: Simple game and all the collectibles and stuff you have to blow up can easily be found by buying a map for the specific region and using it to get everything. A simple joyride online can find you the rest of the trophies with guides for specific sections, prolly around 20 hours to Plat tho.

9- Fallout 3: Not as bad as people make it out to be, just make sure you FOLLOW the path. I ended up messing up and by passing a section of a mission by transporting and it glitched the trophy and i didn’t get credit for it till the point i had to redo the whole game. Be safe, and when in doubt, google it.

8- Burnout Paradise: My first Platinum, “you never forget your first” as they say. Great game and play enough of this addicting racer and you will get the platinum in no time. I did it in 6 hours. Then again, I’m cool like that, remember though, it requires a PS Eye.

7- X-Blades: Your typical 3rd person DMC clone, you follow the trophy instructions and you’ll beat it, you gotta beat it twice one for each side, Light and Dark, Light first because its harder so do it on a lower difficulty. Most of the kills trophies are stacking, beat the game in like 4-5 hours, prolly Platted in 12.

6- Terminator Salvation: Shortest trophy list ever, 12 trophies INCLUDING the plat. Only problem is the difficulty and any seasoned gamer would know to take cover, and just SHOOT. Thats really all their is. 5 hours max, one playthrough on hard.

5- Godfather 2: Another amazingly simple platty, just go through the game and keep looking at the stats and the types of finishing moves with every weapon and, pick up every weapon you find and take over ever business and you should be done.

4- Eat Lead: The Return Of Matt Hazard: Seriously, beat the game, then again on Maximum Hazard Difficulty not very hard and follow the directions in the trophy descriptions for the level specific ones and the kills trophies. Bam Plat.

3- inFamous: Follow the game, beat it on Good first then another playthrough on Hard, alternately you could play through it on Hard, first then do your second playthrough on easy. Depending if your good at open world games. As for the shards, theres a button to press to send a ping to show you where they are on the map, it takes some searching but its the most time consuming trophy.

2- Trivial Pursuit: Game + Computer= friend. Remember it saves after every question…so if you fail just turn your ps3 off before you see the save icon and you can restart if your going for the perfect game trophies. Simple.

1- Hannah Montana: The Movie: WOW, seriously. It was expected to be number 1 because only the saddest of sad trophy whores play
this. Only the most dedicated have this on their trophy list. Other than that, just yea…have fun getting a plat in about 2 hours.

There you have it, OUR list of the easiest Platinum’s ever. You tell us your list on the forums and the comments below! Lets see who’s got what, compare in our trophy forums! Peace. (Note: Sorry about the alignment of the Eat Lead and Terminator Plats, they kinda big, sorry.)

Imagine, a blank black screen fills up your television set. As you patiently wait for some kind of sign to let you know that the game has indeed started strange noises of early morning announcements for the Black Mesa employees travel from the stereo and to your ears. Onto what was once blackness upon your screen a title emerges, it simply reads, Half-Life.  This was the only thing that was separating you from total immersion into an eerie, strange, and virtual world.

The title disintegrates along with the emptiness of the screen, and appearing is the inside of what seems to be a shuttle to a research facility.  As your avatar transit through locked out security guards, nuclear missile tests, radioactive sludge facilities, and underground caverns he finally arrives at his final destination, the research lab.

As my character exits the transit work shuttle he walks across a cold metal bridge connecting the train to the lab. Guarding the door to the facility are two security men dutifully standing at their posts. “Hey Freeman how’s it going?” one of the guards ask, as I wait reply for over a minute I say to myself in an upset fashion, “This game is freaking broken!” To my surprise the guard responds, “Whoa, whoa, whoa take it easy! What are you talking about Gordon?!”  Thinking that the game has finally responded to its aggravating glitch I speak to myself yet again, “That’s better.” The guard responds and looks almost confused, “I still do not understand what the hell you’re talking about?”

Shockingly I realize that the guard is responding to me and what I am saying to myself. Just to test my theory out I respond to the fictional guard, “Are you talking to me?” “Well who else would I be talking too there is no one else here, except for Joe, and he never talks to anybody,” the guard affirms. Amazed at the technology that has been placed before me I respond with my jaw dropped, “I’m sorry I just don’t know what to say? I’ve just never experienced something like this.” The guard replies, “Something like what?”

Now collecting my thoughts and throwing my sense of awe into the past I acknowledge the guard in a more sensible and astute way, “Never mind what I said. Do you think you can open up the door for me?” The guard, with a confused look about him, replies with a long drawn out response, “Sure did you need anything else?” My reply being, “No thank you,” as I quickly march into the Black Mesa Research Facility, which has been renovated in beautiful HD graphics. I walk up to the counter using my Xbox 360 controller, and the guard informs me of an experiment that requires my attention, and little did I know that this experiment is to start the abnormal and astonishing journey that has been placed before me.

This is the future of gaming, this is Half-Life adapted for the Natal technology.

During CES when Microsoft was presenting Project Natal, and assuring us that this is a technology that hardcore gamers will fall in love with. I couldn’t help but think that, “they may be right.” Think about it for a second how many RPG’s have you played that have restricted you to only 6 sentences, what if you could respond with what you were actually going to say in reality.

Let’s take another example, Star Wars: Knight of the Old Republic. Remember when Darth Malak, the ruthless Dark Lord of the Sith, revealed that you were the once his master and former Dark Lord, Darth Revan. What would you have said to Malak? What would you say to your companions? How would you deal with that? The scope of the game rises to infinite possibilities, and immerses us so deep into a fictional universe that I may never want to leave it.

Now I’m not supporting the motion control in any way, shape, or form. I hate wiggling and waggling just as much as the next gamer. What I am supporting about Natal is the highly intelligent Milo concept. In my opinion, Milo is the stepping stone in what can be a revolution in the way we play games.

Contemplate the cinematic possibilities you can have with some of the characters using the Milo concept.

How would you tell your father in Fallout 3, that you blew up Megaton and how would you deal with yourself for blowing up a community who could actually respond to you in an all too real way. How would you feel for a little boy who lost his teddy bear in the Wasteland of D.C. Would you endlessly search the Wastelands looking for it, or would you spend some caps to buy the little tike a new loveable bedtime buddy?

This is the next step of gaming, there is no denying it. Natal gives us a technology that immerses us so deep into a fictional world, which Hollywood can only envy. I for one am looking forward to this Christmas when I let myself spend some money on a technology in which I consider the future of gaming.

-Quinn Sullivan (Soulibon)