UFC Undisputed 2010 trailer debuts at VGAs : how about some southpaw?

Anyone that played UFC Undisputed 2009 on the PS3 and XBOX 360 knows that, although it wasn’t perfect, it was the closest representation of MMA that any videogame has achieved thus far.  It also happened to be a damned fantastic game in its own right.  And chances are you’re still playing it .  I know I am.  Unlike Stubbsy I’m not usually one to buy into annualised sporting franchises – but UFC Undisputed will more than likely change that.  Which is why I’m so excited to see the trailer for UFC Undisputed 2010 debuting at the VGAs. To be honest it doesn’t show a whole lot – but all it really needs to do is fix some of the stilted animations and maybe some minor alterations to the Career mode to make it slightly more involved, and we have ourselves a perfect fighting simulation. Oh yeah, and as a lefty, how about showing us some southpaw lovin’ Yuke’s?

Check out the trailer for UFC Undisputed 2010 below, and tell us what you want for the next installment in what I personally hope is an evergreen, constantly evolving franchise for THQ.

UFC Undisputed 2010 reveal trailer, Yuke’s/THQ

Christmas Buyer’s Guide – Global Financial Crisis special (Part 1)

It has been a tough 12 months, with the global financial crisis hitting hard.  People have lost their jobs, their homes, their families and in some cases probably their lives.  While it looks like we’re at the tail end of the downturn, it certainly isn’t over – this Christmas will be a difficult one for many people who still face financial strain.

Here at Piranha Poodles we’re in the business of not only cracking a few jokes and waxing lyrical about videogames, but also trying to help the people who just don’t know anything about games. And Christmas is a treacherous time for those people. That’s why I’ve put together a buyer’s guide of sorts.  I say ‘of sorts’ because it doesn’t recommend the latest and greatest videogames to buy for a loved one.  Not everyone can afford that.

Instead here is a list of the year’s biggest games and similar substitutes. Games which are a little bit older, or just fell under the radar but which can be enjoyed in place of a full-price, big-name title. So here’s a Special GFC edition Christmas buyer’s guide that helps you and your family enjoy a fun and fulfilling Christmas no matter your situation. Merry Christmas everyone, and look for Part 2 of the buyer’s guide coming soon with a number of other ways to save money this season.

Brutal Legend:

What’s not to love about this one? Legendary game designer Tim Schafer teams up with some of the greatest ‘minds’ of all time in the metal world. And Jack Black. And apparently it plays alright too -  part real time strategy, part action adventure and a whole lot of Sandbox goodness. Oh yeah, and it’s funny as hell. But it’s also new, shiny and pretty damned expensive.

TRY:

Psychonauts:

I guess the obvious comparison here is that Psychonauts is also a Tim Schafer game, which means humour and wacky characters in strange scenarios abound. If you’re looking for something with humour, Psychonauts is your man. Or girl. And best of all, it’s available on XBOX Live Arcade (and the original XBOX), which means no trips to the shopping centre to fight through swarms of rude, arrogant and likely ignorant shoppers.

Robocalypse:

Okay, this isn’t on the XBOX360, but given the huge freakin’ sales of the DS, chances are you have one of these babies around. If your loved-gamer was hoping to sink their teeth into the real time strategy elements of Brutal Legend, Robocalypse is a nice replacement. Icing on the cake is it’s also got some humour in the mix. And because it’s portable, they’ll be able to play it at those horrible family gatherings.

Little King Story:

Arriving with little fanfare earlier this year, Little King Story is (apart from being almost too cute for its own good) a Japanese take on real time strategy. Call it real time strategy-lite. Or the classic Nintendo game Pikmin on a small dose of steroids that has been taking Harvest Moon supplements. Whatever it is, if you’re buying for a Wii owner Little King Story is worth considering. And best of all it can be picked up cheap.

Borderlands:

Chances are if you know someone that wants this game they are either a loot whore, a sadistic character who loves post apocalyptic worlds or are after some frantic first person shooting. Unfortunately all of this comes at a premium price these days.

TRY:

Diablo 2 Battlechest:

Scary story this, but I have never played Diablo. But from all accounts, and from Stubbsy’s commentary the game is pretty much about the loot. Which means that two of the games (courtesy of the Battlechest value pack) are double the amount of loot. And because it’s cheap, it’s more loot for less money. And the fact that game developer Blizzard still supports these games is testament to their quality. I love logic.

Fallout 3:

It’s first person and it’s post apocalyptic. And I guess it has character level progression. While not cut from the same cloth as Borderlands, you can’t go far wrong with Fallout 3. Chances are, they’re still be playing this one next Christmas. Even better value – a Game of the Year edition has been released, adding dozens more hours of gaming. But even if you can’t afford the extra money, the original edition can be found cheap pretty much everywhere and is still great value.

Batman: Arkham Asylum:

A surprisingly great game based on an incredibly solid premise, Batman: Arkham Asylum should be on top of everyone’s Christmas list. Stubbsy says it “screams Game of The Year” and I can probably be found at some point saying “it’s pretty much an Igarashi-produced Castlevania in 3D” (see below for explanation). But it’s expensive – if your loved one doesn’t already have it, chances are they can’t afford it. Luckily a similar gaming experience can be found in other titles.

TRY:

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night/Castlevania: Dracula X Chronicles:

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night is quite simply one of the greatest games ever made. And you can imagine it inspiring the developers of Arkham Asylum. This game can be picked up on Xbox Live Arcade for a bargain, and also as part of the Dracula X Chronicles on PSP which is great value. If your gamer doesn’t mind 2D.

Thief III:

An underrated game released for the PC and XBOX five years ago, Thief III will definitely satisfy anyone looking for that stealth/problem solving experience of Arkham Asylum. It also has a dark and brooding atmosphere that ramps up as the game progresses. While I’m not suggesting Thief III is better than Arkham Asylum – far from it -  I still stand by Thief III as a great game in its own right and one that any gamer would be lucky to receive this Christmas.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2:

Call of Duty, in particular the Modern Warfare ‘offshoot’ has become pretty much the benchmark of first person shooters. It may even have surpassed the Halo games in the popularity stakes. It is known for a fantastically frantic online multiplayer mode that extends the life of the game. If the money is there, it’s hard to recommend anything as better value than Modern Warfare 2; but that’s not to say there aren’t alternatives…

TRY:

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare:

It’s cheap. It’s pretty damned similar. And if it wasn’t for Modern Warfare 2 being released, it’d probably still be at the top of the first person shooter pile.

Half Life 2: Orange Box

A whole lot of game for not a whole lot of money. The Orange Box is great value. It has the original, famous shooter game Half Life, plus the puzzle game Portal and a team-based shooter, Team Fortress 2  – all for less than the price of one game. If Call of Duty is the king of the single player setpiece, then Half Life 2 is the god. And with Team Fortress 2 being one of the most frantic online multiplayer games of the last few years, chances are they’d forget they didn’t have Modern Warfare 2 soon enough. Portal is just an added bonus, really.

Uncharted 2: Among thieves

The critics are hailing it as a potential game of the year, so chances are any PS3 owner that hasn’t already taken Nathan Drake through his latest adventure wants this game.  But it’s not the only action/adventure game around – even if it is the current darling of the gaming world.

TRY:

Tomb Raider Anniversary/Tomb Raider Legend/Tomb Raider Underworld

Tomb Raider gave birth to the action/adventure/exploration game in the mid-90s with a beautifully designed world (and heroine) that gamers would remember for years to come. It didn’t age well – but was re-made a couple of of years ago to provide gamers with a great experience using more modern technology. It still holds up today, and is arguably a better game than both its predecessor Tomb Raider Legend and its follow up, Tomb Raider Underworld.  But you couldn’t go far wrong with any of the games on the 360 and PS3, and it’s definitely a decent alternative to Unchartered 2.

So there you have it, Part 1 of our Christmas buyers guide.  Check back soon for Part 2 which suggests more ways to save money and get a gift the gamer in your life will really appreciate.  For all of you that had a difficult year as a result of financial woes, our thoughts are with you and we hope that you can still have a great Christmas in the company of family and friends.  And some great games.

Halloween 2009 – Piranha Poodles v Camera Obscura

We here at the Piranha Poodles are big fans of being terrified.  On a number of occasions we have even hosted nights purely to worship that one great human emotion: fear.  While I would consider myself somewhat of a survival horror veteran, Senor Tubbs is somewhat wet behind the ears when it comes to the genre in its video game form.  But not even my experience could’ve prepared me for what I would go through upon putting that disc in my PS2s.  Needless to say, Stubbsy had no hope.  He was like the new kid in a slasher film that is unceremoniously murdered by a masked serial killer.  Unfortunately, I don’t last much longer.

That disc was the first Project Zero game. And contained within are personal tales of blood-curdling horror and our demise at the hands of this cursed video game.  Open.  If you dare.

Senor Tubbs tells of  flashbacks whenever he hears the sound of a camera discharge…

This was my second week with the PS2. My first survival horror experience. Not one that I will forget.

One summer. On a quiet night, just past 2 in the morning, I saw it,  sitting. A disc. I always knew it was there, but I hadn’t really taken much notice of it before. But now, strangely, I was drawn to it. I took it out of the sleeve and put it into my PS2. How was I to know that the little blue disc could contain what it did.

It was a demo disc, trailers and advertising materials mainly. But a couple of playable games mixed in there too. One of them was particularly unusual. Called “Project Zero” it had an icon of a typical Japanese schoolgirl. I don’t know what draws young men to that particular cliché, but that particular night I heard the siren calling
and I selected it.

It wasn’t what I expected.

From the moment the game started up the atmosphere changed. The living room, already unlit, suddenly felt dark. The volume was down, and the game quiet in any case, and yet I felt surrounded by its sound. I watched as a girl wandered through grainy black and white woods towards a forboding mansion. Talking about how important her brother was to her. How he was her only family. How he was missing? This was creepy.

Five minutes later and I was in the middle of that house, holding a camera and trying to aim the thing at ghosts that were coming from every knook and cranny. The controller pulsed in my hands like a heartbeat, it took a while to register that it was being caused mechanically, it felt so natural. It was the epitome of a haunted house experience, I was already in too deep. Much further than I had intended to be. I was only being curious. I headed towards the exit, but the ground already trodden offered no reprieve, doors shut, more ghosts.

This was my second week with the PS2. My first survival horror experience. Not one that I will forget.

Knowing well what would become of him, knowing the fate of those before him, Old Gaulian put in the disc.  This is his account of the horror.

“…and then I came home and there were a child’s handprints of blood on my television screen…”  Sounds like a horror movie right?  You know the type, stupid guy in a stupid suit running around killing stupid teenagers for some stupid reason.  Don’t pretend you haven’t seen Scream.  But I’ll let you in on a little secret; this story is not an Urban Legend.  It is real.

Well, kind of real.  Yes there were children handprints of blood on my screen.  But they were virtual handprints made of virtual blood – which is something that at the time just did not register in my mind.  And so for a split second there I thought that I had been visited by some little ghost child trying to tell me to find their killer.  I hadn’t of course, it was just that I had paused Project Zero while I went out to get some groceries from the store down the road.  I guess we could call this the first reason that Project Zero still remains the most terrifying and haunting video games series ever created.

The interesting thing is I had entirely dismissed Project Zero as the stupidest premise ever for a game.  I mean really, a chick running around a mansion taking photos of ghosts in order to kill them. That is supposed to scare me?  I’ve survived Pyramid Head, but that just sounds ridiculous.  And it kind of is.  But after being introduced to this by my girlfriend I realised something, this really is horror.  The kind that gets into your brain.  The kind that makes you check twice for an apparition kneeling next to your bed as you fall asleep.  The kind that gives you an adrenaline rush that keeps you wanting more.  And so I submitted myself to the torture three times over.

And one point in the second game, Crimson Butterfly, it had me in submission.  It was an absolute sonic abuse method of torture that sent me reaching for the ‘OFF’ switch.  I just couldn’t take it – the screaming sound emanating from the television was all around me and I just couldn’t escape.  The ghost girl on the television, who turns out to be central to the plotline, was in obviously writhing in pain on the screen, with hundreds of ghosts hands grasping at her feet and ankles.  But for all I knew she, and her posse of hands, was suffering underneath my bed.  I didn’t want to know at this point – but all I knew was that I never wanted to see this apparition again.

Then I realised that I hadn’t saved in a while and had to do it all again at some point.  At least I knew it was coming the second time around.

The pages are torn, and on the last page something is written in blood….

The curse will only be broken when the MASK OF THE LUNAR ECLIPSE is placed on store shelves in Australia….

Happy halloween 2009.

The Piranha Poodles