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	» Limited Edition Yellow Simpson PSP Slim & Lite Bundle Launches in Europe and Australia 16th Nov 2007 @ 1:08am RRP: $299AUD From Thursday 15th of November, the Limited Edition Yellow PSP Slim & Lite will be available bundled with a copy of EA's The Simpsons Game. The PSP Slim & Lite is 33% lighter and 19% thinner than the original PSP and also supports a video-out port allowing users to view their PSP content on their TV's. It also contains 32mb of extra ram for UMD caching and faster loading times. The new bundle looks nice, but I can't agree with the back of the PSP. Why isn't the UMD drive yellow as well? Still, the front looks nice, which is where you'll spend most of your time looking and it is a decent bundle. The Simpsons Game doesn't suck either, so that's good news too. For Simpsons fans, this bundle will be a must. -- Comments (0)
	» Folklore PlayStation 3 Game Review 11th Nov 2007 @ 10:28am It all starts in the Irish village of Doolin. Two people are called to the village. A young woman named Ellen receives a letter from her mother, long presumed dead and Keats, a journalist for an occult magazine is phoned to investigate a mysterious attack. Initially unknown to them both, the village of Doolin holds a secret gateway to the Netherworld and both Ellen and Keats must solve a 17-year old mystery by traveling to the Netherworld and harnessing the power of the nightmarish "Folk" to survive. Folklore is basically an action RPG and allows you to play as both Ellen's and Keat's. While both Keats and Ellen's game and story are intertwined, they will capture different Folk and do different tasks in the village of Doolin. As the story slowly unfolds with comic book style animated cut scenes, you'll be required to enter the Netherworld by offering mementos of the deceased from Doolin and speak with the dead in the Netherworld to find out just what is going on. You'll need to capture the power of the Folks', which are creatures living in the Netherworld by using the Sixaxis controller and reeling in their "souls" once you have dealt them enough damage. It feels like Ghostbusters or fishing, in a very good way. This in turn allows you to use the Folks' power you captured. The Sixaxis mechanic works really well and really enhances the gameplay. For the bosses, you'll need to do a lot more movements with the controller to reel them out of their bodies once you have beaten them to a weak state. As you collect the power of the Folk, you can summon them to fight for you in the real time battles. Most of them feel like an extension of your body, as if you were attacking yourself. Different Folk have different abilities and elemental attacks. It's great fun to figure out how to open up a new path or defeat a boss with the Folk you have acquired. Luckily, you'll never be able to face a boss without the necessary Folk powers to defeat them. A turtle like creature with tentacles and a machine like crab with a fuel tank on it's back, these are just two of the fantastic looking bosses in the game that are exceptionally fun to fight against. The graphics and sound in Folklore are both top notch. In fact, the music deserves a special mention as it really brings the atmosphere of the Netherworld and Doolin to life. While it's not the best looking game out on the market, it certainly has a lot of style and the Netherworld really does look like something from a fairy tale. The CG movies are also worth noting and look fantastic but the comic book cut scenes lack voice acting, which is a shame. In fact, there's not much voice acting in the game at all, with the majority of the game being text based. This is one of the biggest sour points of the game. There are some other small niggling issues. The menu load times, which can take a bit of time going to and fro when switching your Folk powers. Having to play the same Netherworld level and fight the same boss with both Keats and Ellen can start feeling repetitive. Fortunately, you do get different Folk powers and fight the bosses slightly differently with each character. Folklore is one of the most fun RPG's I've played in a while and is definitely a necessary purchase for PS3 owners. Superb combat and a story you actually want to know more about make for a very entertaining and exciting experience. It's one of the best PlayStation 3 exclusives this year. Graphics: 8.9 Sound: 8.5 Controls: 8.9 Gameplay: 9.0 Overall: 8.9 -- Comments (4)
	» PlayStation 3 40GB Review 03rd Nov 2007 @ 11:24am PlayStation 3 40GB System Review Digg it! Price: $399USD, 399 Euro, $699AUD Buy Online: Play-Asia.com Another PlayStation 3 hardware revision from Sony enters the consumer market. This review aims to inform newbies and those interested in knowing what's different or new about the 40GB PS3 which is aimed at shifting many units for Christmas. Open the Box Dammit! Upon opening the box you'll find the following items: PlayStation 40GB console (hah! I never would have suspected) Sixaxis Controller USB cable (for charging the controller or other devices) Power Cable Manual AV Cable (Composite) The Spider-man PlayStation The PlayStation 3 in my opinion is one of the better looking consoles this generation, although the Spider-man font always makes me think of my favourite webslinger instead of the PlayStation brand. Anyway, the PS3 is quite big and heavy with the AC Adapter making it's home inside the system. However, since the aim is of the PlayStation 3 is to wage war with your other electronics products and take the sole spot in the living room, this isn't much of a problem. The PS3 can be placed vertically or horizontally and works well either way. You can even move the PlayStation symbol for the vertical position. Nice touch. It's very quiet and both the hard drive and the Blu-Ray drive make little noise. It feels very solid and well built as you'd expect for the admission price. The system can get fairly hot at the back where it vents heat after extended use of play, but it's not as bad as the Xbox 360 and there isn't much fear of using the system in higher temperatures, it's a reliable machine. You won't be able to fry an egg on it for those who are wondering. It Ate My Disc! Upon turning on the PS3 for the first time, you'll be greeted with a new OS which is very similar to the PSP's XMB interface. After setting up the date, clock and other options, you're all ready to go. Of course once you look at the optical drive in the PS3 to put in a disc, you'll be chuffed. No longer a motorised tray, the PS3 incoporates a funky new Blu-Ray disc drive which simply eats your disc up after you push it in slightly. It's just like the car CD players and it's very cool. A nice change from the motorised trays of yesteryear. Why isn't my controller rumbling? Much has been said about the Sixaxis controller. It's slightly disappointing that the new 40GB model doesn't ship with the Dual Shock 3, which was announced recently. No doubt the Dual Shock 3 will be bundled later with another hardware revision. Anyway, the Sixaxis is a very comfortable controller and does not have rumble if you didn't know already. It uses Bluetooth wireless technology and you can use the USB cable to charge the controller or "wire" it to your PS3. At it's core, it's basically a PS2 controller with some slight modifications. The L2 and R2 buttons have now been turned into analog triggers, which are much better for accelerating and braking in driving games for example. The controller is lighter and feels very responsive. The motion sensing of the controller is a mixed bag. In some games, it's completely unusable (Motorstorm), while in other games (Folklore), it makes the game even more fun. As developers put more effort into the motion sensing control, it should be quite a nifty feature in gameplay. Though, it will make you sometimes look like an idiot waving your controller around. Out With the Old The 40GB model has been designed to reduce production costs and slash the price of the PlayStation 3 to make it that much more affordable. First thing you'll notice is the 40GB hard drive. It's been reduced from the 60GB and 80GB models. Let me just say, that 40GB is still plenty of space, unless you're going to be downloading games, demos and movie trailers like crazy. No complaints here. Apart from that, a bigger change to the hardware is the removal of backward compatibility of PlayStation 2 games (PS1 games are still compatible). Yes that means you're brand new 40GB PS3 will not play any PlayStation 2 games at all. Now before throwing a hissy fit, let's put this in perspective. Are you buying a PlayStation 3 to play PS2 games? Now let's look at it from another angle. The 40GB unit price has been slashed across the board in every region. For the money saved compared to the 60GB model which does play PS2 games, you could easily buy a new PS2 system with many games. So if you're not ready to move onto the PS3, I recommend picking up a PS2 and playing it until you're ready to move on to this generation or buy both systems and some extra games to boot! Finally, a couple of USB ports and the card reader have been removed as well, leaving two USB ports at the front for all your equipment and charging needs. You'll need to use your own USB card reader if you choose to. Two USB ports should be enough for most, but you won't be able to charge or wire more than two controllers at the same time for example. The Games Sure the PS3's game library is sorely lacking, but it is steadily improving and buying a PS3 is a good investment. Sony isn't just going to give up any time soon and once there are more PS3's in households, there will be more quality games. Visuals are a mixed bag, but some games already show the power of the PS3 and there will be much more in the years to come. If after this review you decide to gleefully dance to your local store to buy a 40GB PS3, I have some recommendations for you. These are some great PS3 exclusive games that you should consider picking up: Resistance: Fall of Man (First Person Shooter) Motorstorm (Racing) Folklore (RPG) Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction (Platformer) Warhawk (Online Action) The Movies Playback of DVD and Blu-Ray movies is an easy affair and works great. The PS3 can also upscale your old DVD movies to 1080p, making them look so much better on a HDMI enabled TV. It's highly recommended you only start buying Blu-Ray movies if you have a decent sized TV, preferably with a HDMI input to fully utilise the benefit of the increased resolution and quality of Blu-Ray movies. Will Blu-Ray win the video format war? I don't know, but I do know that it is stupid having two different formats and only consumers lose out on the deal. Hopefully one of the formats will emerge victorious in the near future. Currently, Blu-Ray is dominating over HD-DVD and I think it's a good idea to buy the movies for your PS3 if you want to experience high definition movie goodness. Online With Your PS3 After setting up a PlayStation Network (PSN) account on your PS3, you'll be ready to play online and access the PlayStation Store which has plenty of free and pay downloads. There's currently only one PlayStation 3 available for download (Warhawk), but it's half the retail price of the disc based version. With these kinds of prices, digital game distribution may become popular very quickly. There are plenty of demos and movie trailers to download and there are quite a few PSN-only games for you to purchase. Browsing the store with a controller is very intuitive and you'll be downloading and buying in no time. Web browsing also works well, but is a chore with a control pad. Finally, unlike Xbox Live, there is no cost to play any of your games online against other PSN users. It's part of the great service. The Verdict The PlayStation 3 is a cool piece of hardware, there's no doubt about it. It's loaded with the latest technologies to propel you into the future even though it's not fully utilised yet and a bit difficult to program for. The cheaper 40GB model is a welcome addition and will provide many potential buyers with an affordable PS3 and Blu-Ray player. Indeed, it's cheaper and wiser to buy a PS3 just to play Blu-Ray movies instead of a standalone. While the couple of USB ports could have been useful, they aren't a necessity and neither is the backwards compatibility considering the amount slashed off the retail price. It looks like a bright Christmas for the PlayStation 3 and once more AAA titles start rolling in, the sales of units should increase rapidly. Gamers Galaxy Verdict Overall (out of ten): 9.0 Tech Specs PLAYSTATION®3 40GB Specification Product name PLAYSTATION®3 CPU Cell Broadband Engine Processor GPU RSX Sound Dolby 5.1ch, DTS 5.1ch , LPCM 7.1ch, AAC, others 1 2 Memory 256MB XDR Main RAM, 256MB GDDR3 VRAM HDD 2.5" Serial ATA 40GB I/O USB 2.0 x2 Communication Ethernet x1 (10BASE-T, 100BASE-TX, 1000BASE-T) IEEE 802.11 b/g Included Bluetooth 2.0 (EDR) Included Wireless controller (Bluetooth) Included AV Output Screen size 480i, 480p, 720p, 1080i, 1080p HDMI OUT x1 3 AV MULTI OUT x1 DIGITAL OUT (OPTICAL) x1 BD/DVD/CD Drive (Read Only) Maximum Read Speed BD 2x (BD-ROM) DVD 8x (DVD-ROM) CD 24x (CD-ROM) Dimensions Approximately 325mm (W) x 98mm (H) x 274mm (D) Weight Approximately 5 kg 1 A device compatible with Linear PCM 7.1 Ch. is required to output 7.1 Ch. audio, supported by Dolby TrueHD or a similar format, from the HDMI OUT connector. 2 This system does not support output from the DTS-HD 7.1 Ch. DTS-HD 7.1 Ch. audio is output from a 5.1 or lower channel. 3 "Deep Color" and "x.v.Color (xvYCC)" defined by HDMI ver1.3a are supported. -- Comments (7)
	» Syphon Filter Logan's Shadow Mini Review 30th Oct 2007 @ 11:28am What you need to know: Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror was the best game on PSP and the sequel had a heck of a lot to live up to. I mean, sequel to the best game? You've got to make the new game, the best game. You catch my drift? The good: Nice FMV and graphics. High production values. Very fun gameplay and the controls work really well....really! Multiplayer has been improved with many more option. The bad: AI is typical Syphon Filter affair, that is, do stupid stuff. Needs a big improvement in this area. The new: Logan's health recharges after taking cover for a while, ala Halo, it's very useful. The Verdict: We have a new winner here folks, Syphon Filter does everything better than it's predocessor. Get it....NOW! Graphics: 9.1 Sound: 9.3 Gameplay: 9.3 Controls: 9.3 Overall: 9.3 Logan... Logan? LOGAN!!!!!!!! -- Comments (0)
	» We are back 30th Oct 2007 @ 4:48am Hello, it's been a while, thanks to all for your continued support of Gamers Galaxy. Now where was I, oh yes, we will start by posting reviews and previews of games and systems. I will be reviewing the new 40gb PlayStation 3 and Folklore. Regards Prime -- Comments (6)