System Fail News

It's something that I've been working on for a long time now and I'm glad to say that it's finally here > my new site! It's a proper site with a '.com' name and everything and if you liked the stuff on System Fail News, you'll love the posts on the new site.

Please go and check it out, it's over at http://jstationx.com
and it's called J Station X

Please visit the site!

What's Going On

2010-05-30T02:32:00.000+01:00

Wowee! It's been quite a while since I posted anything worthy of reading on the site (about 2 weeks) and for that, readers, I am really sorry. Late Spring/Summer is always rubbish time for blogging, for me anyway, as I end up with thousands of exams and then I have to revise and prepare so that I don't fail them all. Epically.

While exams, revising and just general school stuff has been taking up all of my time, that's not the real reason that I've been AWOL from the site. If any of you reading this follow me on Twitter, you'll know that a few weeks ago, my parents gave me the go ahead for a new site, about video games, just like SFN, that will have a proper '.com' web address and have a half-decent theme! It's going to cost a bit of money, hence the reason I've been asking you all to look at the ads etc. but I've been planning and anticipating the creation of said new blog for quite a while so hopefully all goes to plan!

I know that my About Me page says that I'll never leave the blog but strictly speaking that isn't what's happening, I'll just be making the site a heck of a lot better, as well as making it way more professional. Right now I'm trying to come up with names for the site, with no luck whatsoever as all of the generic names have been taken and my ability to be creative seems to have evaportated like a jug of water on a hot day! :(

The brainstorming process for the new site is going quite well but if you want to see anything in particular on the new site, please check out my Contact page and get in touch!

I'll be keeping you all posted about the new site as I get closer to launching it so keep checking out SFN, but for now,

Keep On Gaming!

From Jasmine :D (Jasmino924)

5 Big Changes in Little Big Planet 2

2010-05-16T21:10:00.001+01:00

Little Big Planet 2 Announcement Trailer via me on YouTube

Before you ask, the amazing music in the trailer is Sleepyhead by Passion Pit!

Do you own a PS3? Raise your hand. Do you also own Little Big Planet? Actually, that’s a stupid question, because if you own a PS3, of course you own Little Big Planet! Although it was out way back in 2008, everyone still plays it and as of their May issue, the Official PlayStation Magazine (UK) has titled it the 3rd most essential game for PS3, after Uncharted 2 and Modern Warfare 2, both of which were sequels so it certainly says something that an original IP is that awesome!

We’ve been hearing snippets of info and rumours for months now (oh, those pesky rumours!) but it was finally confirmed the other day by Sony and Media Molecule that the game that all PS3 owners loved and that all Xbox 360 owners were jealous of, is getting a sequel. Not convinced that there should be another outing to the wild world of all things creative? Well, to convince you, I’ve gone to the liberty of rounding up the 5 biggest changes to Little Big Planet 2, a game that will not only be better than the original, but will blow all the other games out of the software sea.

1. Creation On a Bigger Scale

What made most of us buy the first game, was that Little Big Planet allowed us to “Play.Create & Share” and anyone who bought the game could design levels, outfits and even bad guys to go against. We were given full creative reign with people designing levels in which you could ride snowmobiles, get set on fire and I even played a level that was a game show from TV! Obviously LBP (1&2)’s developer, Media Molecule is eager to allow us gamers to be more creative and design even more outrageous things and with an improved ‘Popit’ (Sackboy’s inventory) we will now be able to make our own music, direct cinema masterpieces as well as create bigger, badder enemies to face-off against. Imagine going into an art studio and being given a blank canvas and all of the art tools in the world to work with, that’s what I envision Little Big Planet 2 to be like.

2. Massively Improved AI

The game’s website cites that LBP2 will feature “Intelligent Machines, Bosses,Puzzles & Vehicles” , not so different from the original Little Big Planet in which you could create any gizmo or ‘creature’ (now called Sackbots) each with its own ‘brain’ too. It seems that what Media Molecule has done, is that they’ve taken the system used to create the ‘brains’ as well as the mechanics that went into building vehicles etc. and they’ve simplified it to make it easier for us all to be more creative! This is a welcome change in my opinion because while I, like most people, did try my hand at level building in the first game, I never attempted to build any bots or cars because the whole system of how to do so baffled me. I guess you could say the “System Failed” ha! Do you get it?! Sorry, that was terrible…

3. The Game Itself Is Bigger

The first game was a blank slate. It’s taken up to now, almost 2 years after its release for users to come up with 2 million levels for each other to play but now that the first game has shipped and a sequel is on the way (Winter 2010) we will have not only the millions more levels to be created but we’ll also have every single one of the user created levels from the original Little Big Planet to play too! Not only that, as the announcement trailer above showed, we’ll be able to build whole entire sagas which means that we cannot just create fun but we can create great stories too. The kind of story that you’ll want to read to your child at night “…and then Sackboy jumped up and defeated the evil Sackbot and the entire Sack kingdom was saved!” Or something like that.

4. Hugely Game-Changing Power-Ups

To quote the song ‘Oh My God’ by the Kaiser Chiefs - “come back faster than a powered up Batman” it seems that that’s exactly what Little Big Planet 2 is aiming to do, with actual power-ups! So far, Media Molecule has announced that LBP2 will feature : a grappling hook and jump pads, to give Sackboy a spring in his step! The Little Big Planet 2 website says, on the subject of power-ups, “We’ve also got a few surprises up our fashion-conscious sleeves, so watch out!” which is a confirmation, straight from the MM team that LBP2 will feature even more nifty power-ups which shall be revealed soon. Personally, I am eager as ever to find out what other power-ups the MM team have in-store for us because with these cool in game tools, we can really change the way a level plays out as well as what our fellow gamers can do with it. Unlike some power-ups that just feel tagged on at the end of development, it sounds like LBP2 will actually bring us some awesome things to play with that actually make sense!

5. Colossal Amounts of Potential!

As the trailer that is posted at the top of this post says that Little Big Planet 2 won’t just but a ‘platform game’ but will actually be a ‘platform FOR games’. In the video there’s footage of a few in-game, in-games (!) that the MM team have created to show us the types of things that we’ll be able to make in LBP2. With the knowledge that we'll be able to create OUR own games, it suggest that there’ll be a massive amount of potential as not only will each game created have a story, it will also be unique, as created by the player. Even if you get bored of Little Big Planet 2 (which is not likely to happen) you’ll still be able to create your own fun, just the way you want it. Plus, the level designer in the original Little Big Planet, was said to be ‘an open door for young developers’ in which young people, like myself, who are interesting in the games industry could try their hands at level design. Well now, budding game developers, have a go at building your own games too!

By Jasmine Henry (Jasmino924)

*NOTE* – would you like to see more cool trailers and more great features like this one? Please look at (and possibly click on) the ads on the site to help SFN become even better and to keep it alive!

April Poll Results, Competition Winner Announced & More!

Modnation Racers Zooms into View again with its 3rd Dev Diary

Comment Questions

1. What did you love/hate in the first game?

2. What power-ups would you like to see in LBP2?

Call of Duty : Black Ops Teaser Trailer , I Was Right!

2010-05-15T01:39:00.002+01:00

COD Black Ops Teaser Trailer via me on YouTube

For any regular readers of SFN or those of you who’ve read my About page, you’ll know that I’m 14 years old, which means that I am still in school and at the moment I am studying my backside off trying to prepare for all of my exams. As a result my schoolwork takes up most of my time which equals a lot less blogging but never fear (!) as I am still here ready to bring you gaming content that will knock your socks off and rock your world!

Today, I bring you the teaser trailer for the game that everybody, including me, is talking about, Call of Duty : Black Ops! This trailer wasn’t released too long after my article revealing the game’s plot and I hate to be big-headed, but I think it was all down to my investigating and all that… I’m very glad to see that this isn’t just another ‘generic 1940…’ game because we all know how fun they are! Seriously, if a developer releases another WW2-era shooter in the next 12 months, I’ll probably buy it, however, I will promptly smash it to pieces, burn the fragments and throw whatever’s left out the window! Ahem , mini-rant over, it will be really interesting too find out if Treyarch can become the new ‘Alpha-Dog’ and take over the huge incredi-sized gap that Infinity Ward left behind.

*NOTE* – As I’ve already said on Twitter, I have great idea for a gaming website. It will be even better than SFN and will be community driven (it will help gamers and ask for your input etc…). My problem is that I don’t have enough money to set up the site, so if you want to see more excellent gaming videos and read some more awesome articles on gaming, please look at (and possibly click on) the ads on the site. Thanks!

Written By Jasmine Henry (Jasmino924)

My Predictions : Infinity Ward Staff “Situation”

5 Top Tips : How to Pwn n00bs in Modern Warfare 2’s Online Modes

Comment Questions

1. Do you think Treyarch can become the next Infinity Ward

2. Will Call of Duty: Black Ops be a slice of gaming heaven or an utter and total disaster?

April Poll Results, Competition Winner Announced & More!

2010-05-08T18:54:00.002+01:00

(<— Look, it’s me, Jasmine, in cartoon form!)

Here’s a thank you note before I kick off this post: I’d just like to say thank you very much to anyone who entered the Modnation Racers competition or voted in the monthly poll, I love it when readers interact with the site, it’s nice to know that some of you care enough to participate!

Last month I asked you avid readers of SFN whether or not you’ll be buying Nintendo’s latest handheld gizmo, the 3DS, which is set to be like the original DS but with some super special 3D graphics that will make our jaws drop and put money in Nintendo’s pocket. April’s poll got more votes than March’s which I was glad to see because I was really curious of the outcome of this one, and I have to tell you that I was rather surprised.

Since 2004 Nintendo have released the original Nintendo DS, the DS Lite, the DSi as well as the DS XL all of which have left more than enough holes in our pockets, you know that space where money should be but isn’t? Most of us have bought at least one DS in its 6 years of release, maybe even more if the screen popped off (which was prone to happen) and I had thought that you’d all be eager to buy the next instalment of the console but as the poll results showed, more than half of you (60%) voted ‘NO’ to say that you wouldn’t be buying the Nintendo 3DS though the other 40% of you who voted ‘YES’ to say that you would be buying a Nintendo 3DS can have fun with your terrible 3D-induced headaches and your blurry eyesight!

This month I’m asking you “What do you think about Sony’s Motion Controller?” You’ve probably read about ‘Sony Move’ everywhere, on Twitter, on TV and maybe even in the newspaper! Vote on your opinion of it in this month’s poll, over there –> –> –> –> –>

Next up I’m announcing the winner of the contest I held on SFN to win a Modnation Racers (PSP) Demo Code! Basically, I got sent an ‘early access’ code for the demo of Modnation Racers on PSP, however, I couldn’t redeem it because I live in the UK. Being a good sport, I offered readers (and Twitter users) in North America a chance to win. After using Twitrand (a very useful website) to randomly choose a winner, @koone23 won! Congrats, I shall be DMing you the demo code shortly and for everyone else who entered and didn’t win, I’m sure that more codes that are useless to me will show up in my E-mail inbox soon!

For a heads up on all of the latest SFN happenings as well as lots of ReTweeted, gaming goodness, you can follow me @Jasmino924 on Twitter!

Ok, ok, I’ll admit it, the “&more” featured in the post title is that I need your help! If you want to see more awesome posts about gaming and if you’d like to have the chance to win more cool gaming prizes, I’m going to need you to look at the ads on the site. The ads keep SFN running and while I love writing for you all, it may become difficult if I don’t have ‘.com’ web address instead of the’.blogspot.com’ site that I’m working with. By looking at and clicking on the ads on the site (if they catch your eye) not only can you help me to improve the layout of the site as well as motivate me to write even more great articles, you could also ensure that your favourite video game blog (is it?) never goes away (at least, not for a while) as I’ve heard about ‘.blogspot.com’ websites being randomly deleted for no reason! I would really appreciate your help readers, even if you only click on one ad, it would still mean a lot to me, I mean for crying out loud (!) it makes me happy when you leave comments! (<—the way to my heart if anyone cares ;D )

Keep On Gaming!

Written by Jasmine Henry (Jasmino924)

*NOTE* – Don’t have a Twitter page but want to contact me? Go to my Contact Page to find out how!

The Results Are In (March Poll)

Random Ramblings : Is The Avatar Game Actually Quite Good?

Modnation Racers Demo Code Competition!

2010-05-01T00:55:00.002+01:00

I buy a red car. Hmm, wrong shade of red… How about a more rosy colour? Aah that’s better! Now what about me, I need to change my hair, my clothes and even my accessories! The chances are that none of you have conducted a whole wardrobe change just because of the colour of the car you’re in, for a start, most of us don’t have the time. It takes me 15 minutes just to pick a pair of shoes! Which is worrying because I only have 3 pairs to choose from…

With Modnation Racers, the new racing sim for PS3 and PSP, you get the chance to customise everything. It combines the best of Little Big Planet’s customisation and level design with Mario Kart's weapons and wackiness. It has the same old boost pads and jumps that you might see in any other cartoony kart-racer and then just turns it up to 11 (maybe even 12 on a good day!). If Gran Turismo 5 isn’t for you and you’d rather play a more laidback game, then Modnation Racers is for you.

It was officially announced for PS3 but it has been confirmed for release on the smaller-screened PSP too. I got sent a beta code from Sony for an early access code the the demo, though being in the UK, the code doesn’t work for me so I thought that I’d host a competition for any readers in the US of A to get a chance to win it!

All you have to do is first, follow me on Twitter @Jasmino924 and ReTweet this message:

“RT @Jasmino924 ReTweet this for a chance to win a Modnation Racers demo code! Visit http://bit.ly/6VyntS for more details! #SFNComp”

I’ll be announcing the winner on the 7th of May and I’ll DM the winner the code so remember to RT before then.

US Readers only! Sorry folks :(

Get ReTweeting!

*NOTE* – Modnation Racers will be released for both PS3 and PSP on May 25th, you can pre-order it from Amazon using the widgets in the sidebar –> –> –> –> –>

New Modnation Racers Dev Diary Shows Us How To Get Sticky

SFN EXCLUSIVE : First Details of the New Call of Duty!

2010-04-26T20:50:00.002+01:00

As I have stated both here and here, I am always on the hunt to bring you the latest and greatest info from the wonderful world of gaming, as well as all of the hottest exclusives that I know you all dream about! Today I have the biggest exclusive that you awesome readers of SFN have ever read : the very first details of the new Call of Duty! Rumours about COD games float about more frequently than the cold, but this time I can bring you this bit of juicy gossip that I am 85% sure is correct. I know, I know that leaves a 25% chance of error but my knack for investigative journalism as well as my gut, tells me that this is a bona fide piece of news that you will love!

If you’re a frequent reader of the site or if you follow me on Twitter (if you do, thanks!) then you’ll know that I read the Official PlayStation Magazine (@OPM_UK on Twitter) every single month and the very first games that I ever played were demos on PS1 which came with the magazine plus, I’ve been buying the mag for years. In this month’s issue which features EA’s Medal Of Honour on the cover (now on sale!) they have a full page poster ad stating that they’ll be revealing the new Call Of Duty, which will be developed by Treyarch, next month. Not wanting to wait until next month for the info, I scoured every page of the mag, from cover to cover, hoping for a tidbit of news about the new game. However, my search was unsuccessful until I went right back to the ad for next month’s issue.

The ad shows a simple image of a grenade, with no other suggestions about the game. So, using my instincts I headed to Forestle (an eco-friendly search engine) and did a few searches for “Grenades” , just to see the look of similar grenades. As expected, my search came up with tons of grenades that looked just like this and so I refined my search to “Vietnam Grenades” (because I’d heard the rumours) and by George, did I nab this exclusive!

My searching turned up an image form the site ioffer , which was offering a lot of war memorabilia for sale, including guns and grenades. The grenades that were shown were described a being used “during the Vietnam War” which, if you didn’t know was one of the battles fought during the Cold War between 1959 – 1975 and took place in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. You can see that the grenades form the mag and the site are almost identical and they both have long ‘scratch-like’ indentations going from the top to the bottom which only helps to prove my point even further. Also, these types of ‘lemon hand grenades’ were used by the US Army at the time which could indicate the chance to play as a US Army soldier for the umpteenth time (!) when Treyarch’s new take of the Call of Duty series is released.

Thank you for reading this, and if you’d like to support the site and encourage me to search for even more awesome exclusives, please take a look at the ads on the site (above the heading). I really do appreciate it!

Related Posts

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System Fail News (New Feature) > Topic Round-Up!

Comment Questions

1. What other places would you like COD to be set?

2. Are you excited for the new COD game?

Skate 3’s Improved Hall of Meat is Brutal!

2010-04-17T04:17:00.003+01:00

Skate 3 Hall of Meat video via me on YouTube

Just when you all thought that you’d got lucky and I’d abandoned the blog, here I am back with a kick-ass trailer for Skate 3’s improved (and upgraded) Hall of Meat mode which is back from the original games. I’ve been playing a lot of Skate 2 recently as playing the ‘prequels’ is something I like to do before a sequel is released, just to remember why I loved (or hated) the series in the first place! What I’ve noticed from some footage I’ve seen of Skate 3 not just in my, admittedly poor quality videos, but in the screenshots floating about the interweb too, is that the graphics have improved from the 2nd game by a heck of a lot. It frustrates me that EA does this quite often, release a game with pretty rubbish features, release a sequel the following year with everything from the first game miraculously fixed but yet the sequel has brought with its release a whole host of new problems that can be fixed with another sequel. It’s what me and some of my fellow gamer buddies have labelled as the “sequel cycle” (patent pending) where publishers release sequel after sequel and so on. EA have a history of doing this with games such as the Need For Speed series but I feel that with Skate 3 everything has improved, the graphics, the physics and the career and multiplayer modes in which you have to sell loads of your own skateboards and create teams of skaters with your friends, these are all drastically ‘redone’ and the game looks all the better for it. The Hall of Meat is practically a different mode all together though the bails and the bone-cracking madness are still at the core. I really like what they've done, creating designated areas for Hall of Meat challenges as well as the option to rearrange your skeleton with a friend. I’m planning on writing a 7 questions review later in the week for the demo which I am downloading as I write this (a review that I might not get round to) but at the moment it looks like Skate 3 is going to be a recipe for delicious skating mayhem as opposed to just, plain, mayhem.

*NOTE* – at some point over the week (maybe next week) I will be posting a HUGE REVEAL about the upcoming Call of Duty game. You seriously don’t want to miss it. Keep visiting SFN for the next week to find out more.

Related Posts

Skate 3 = Skating + Creating , This Dev Diary Shows Us Why

Team Up.Throw Down. Skate In A Quarry?

7 Questions Review : Battlefield Bad Company 2 – Multiplayer Demo

Comment Questions

1. Are you fed up of sequels or do you absolutely love them?

2. Do you think Skate 3 will be an epic fail or an epic win?

Have You Voted?

2010-04-11T00:00:00.001+01:00

This is just a quick reminder, nothing big, but I just wanted to post this so that if you haven’t already, please vote in the poll over there –> –> –> –> –> –> –>

This month, in SFN’s monthly poll I am asking you whether or not you plan on buying the Nintendo 3DS. I am really looking forward to finding out the results to this one so please go and vote!

Also, I have now put up both an About page and a Contact page for the site so now, if you want to find out more about the blogger behind the blog (that would be me, Jasmine) or if you want to ask me a question or have any feedback, you now have a way of getting your thoughts across.

I recently asked you all to take a look at the new ads that I have recently put on the site as they will help me to make the site into a real ‘.com’ website. By looking at the ads you can help keep the site running so I would really appreciate it!

Thank you so much for being such great readers, for now,

Keep On Gaming!

Jasmine (AKA Jasmino924)

[SITE LINK] Red Redemption Multiplayer + Online Guitar Hero

2010-04-09T23:58:00.001+01:00

Okay readers, once again, it’s that time of the week where I post links to some of the Internet content that I think you’ll find of interest. Posted for you today, I have a video detailing the awesome-ness that is Red Dead Redemption’s seriously,ridiculously, good-looking online multiplayer , which is, of course in glorious HD. I have also linked to an extremely fun, online version of Guitar Hero. Only it’s way better than GH and it’s everything that Guitar Hero should be. I must say that if you do decide to visit the sites, be sure to come back to SFN, I’ll be waiting!

The first link is to a YouTube video from GameZone (Online), which shows off why Rockstar is (one of) the best developer(s) of our time. Is it not enough that they’ve already created loads of fantastic Grand Theft Auto games? But now they’re making another great game that we already know is going to be excellent and on top of that they’ve now gone beyond all of the footage we’ve already seen by showing off RDR’s superb online multiplayer too? Damn, I’m running out of adjectives. Now, I’m going to steal a phrase from an advert I once saw : if Rockstar was a dinosaur, it would be an Awesomesaurus!

Red Dead Redemption Free-Roam Multiplayer Reveal - YouTube

The last link I’m going to give you is to my favourite game on the internet. Ever. It’s to JamLegend, a Guitar Hero themed music-rhythm game that I’ve spoken about in the past…

I love the site to be honest, and I think it’s miles better than the actual Guitar Hero games. JamLegend features songs from the well-known band All American Rejects as well as some other famous bands such as the (god-awful) Tokio Hotel. There are also some incredible covers to rock out to, for example, electro-pop sensation SuperPowerless does a really cool cover of Lady Gaga’s Poker Face. If all of that musical goodness isn’t enough to get you to visit the site then how about the fact that you can upload your own MP3 tracks to play? I think you just found your new favourite music game, didn’t you?

Go forth and rock out! - JamLegend

Have fun watching the video and being a legend, I’m off to take a look at the first official edition of First Play, but for now,

Keep On Gaming!

By, Jasmine (Jasmino924) :D

Related Posts

Hands-On : First Play (The New Interactive Service for PS3)

System Fail News EXCLUSIVE! New Feature of Red Dead Redemption Uncovered?

An Online Alternative to Guitar Hero

My Predictions : Infinity Ward Staff “Situation”

2010-04-08T16:44:00.003+01:00

The other week I mentioned some of my goals in life (it was a little off topic but you should read it anyway) but one thing I forgot to add to that list is that I never want to be sued. Please take note of this if any of you reading this are lawyers! This same goal is the primary reason why I haven’t posted anything about this ridiculous Activison/Infinity Ward thing that’s going on. You see, me and you just like to play a little Modern Warfare 2 online, just to chill out, but behind the scenes at Infinity Ward a whole host of things have been going on. People have quit, some have been fired and a lot of poop has hit the fan. That Video Game Blog (TVGB) which is a favourite site of mine has got some pretty good coverage of the situation if you want to read up.

The big debate is whether or not another Modern Warfare game will ever see the light of day. IW were already rumoured to be working on a “top secret” Modern Warfare MMO (Massively Multiplayer Online) which I suspect was going to be revealed at E3, but the question on everybody’s minds now is ‘what will happen to the Modern Warfare brand?’ Activision have all the legal rights and all that jazz but I wonder if they would ever make a new MW, with no input from Infinity Ward whatsoever? You can talk about that in the comments but for now I want to put my 2 cents in and say my predictions.

A lot of Infinity Ward staff members have left the company, including one member who’d been working there for 8 years (TVGB have got the details) and a couple of CEOs have also left (read : been fired) and I predict that because so many people have left IW, most will go on to create a brand new studio with a great FPS as their first game. There’s no doubt about it that they could get a big company such as EA to work with them because which company is dumb enough to turn down an opportunity to publish a game made by the team behind the totally awesome, badass and as I’m a girl, hunky (!) ‘Soap’ Mactavish?

Another idea in this big ol’ brain of mine is that the ex-IW staff members will join the team at EA who are working on Medal of Honour. It’s blatantly obvious that EA only chose to develop MOH to take a slice of Modern Warfare’s delicious, gazillion dollar pie and so it would make sense if the ex-IW guys wanted to get back Activision by creating a game to rival theirs!

What I most likely suspect will happen is that Activision will be all like “oh crap, what have we done letting these guys quit (or get fired) ,however will we pay for our golden toilet paper now without a third Modern Warfare game? (said Bobby Kotick, Activision CEO) < See this is how I’m going to get sued! Anyway, Activison will pay a chunk of money to get the ex-employees back at Infinity Ward and so, peace will be restored. Or at least until IW piss Activison off again…

*REMEMBER* – Please take a look in the sidebar –> –> –> –> –>

to vote whether or not you will be buying the Nintendo 3DS.

Related Posts

Dr Jasmine’s Surgery : 5 Must Have Downloads

5 Top Tips : How to Pwn n00bs in Modern Warfare 2’s Online Modes

5 (More) Modern Warfare 2 Online Gameplay Tips

Comment Questions

1. What do you think will happen?

2. Will you be disappointed if there’s no Modern Warfare 3?

Hands-On : First Play (The New Interactive Service for PS3)

2010-04-07T16:26:00.003+01:00

So you’re probably all going to start asking “what is First Play?”. Well, readers, if you’re too lazy to click this link and read up on my post for when First Play was originally announced, I’ll quickly summarise it here. Basically First Play is a brand new interactive service that will be coming to PS3s in the UK on April 8th (that’s this Thursday folks!) First Play will provide screenshot galleries, HD reviews & previews as well as featured downloads, which will be handpicked from the PlayStation Store by the First Play team plus there'll be network highlights featuring the best things the PlayStation network has to offer. This could range from the best LBP level, the best PSP Minis or even the best content in the video store. Simply put, First Play is pretty awesome.

I was one of the lucky people who got sent a beta code because I signed up for updates via their website which is how I got to do this hands-on article before Thursday’s release date. Anyway, read on and find out exactly why you need to download First Play!

When I first found out about First Play I was unbelievably excited. I knew that it was being led by the team behind the Official PlayStation Magazine (OPM_UK on Twitter) and that’s a magazine that I’ve been reading since I was 8 years old! Needless to say I’m 14 now and I’ve spent countless hours being captivated in OPM’s glossy pages full of bright pictures and well-written articles. Articles so good, I’d like to say, that they can even rival the quality of mine (gasp!) My time with First Play started yesterday after I’d spent even more hours downloading the 1GB+ file from the PlayStation Store and I have to say that it was well worth the wait.

What stood out to me most was the interface. Slicker and glossier than any of the pages in the mag, the ‘home-page’ of First Play is easy to use and easy to navigate, I had no problem searching through the heaps of gaming goodness that the First Play team had put together. From the main interface of First Play I headed straight to the most appealing part of the service and probably the best ; the HD Reviews & Previews. On offer they had previews for both the upcoming titles, Lost Planet 2 and Super Street Fighter IV (SSFIV), a chance to look at the ads (more on those later), a review of the film Cracks on Blu-Ray as well as a HD video review for Battlefield Bad Company 2. I found all of these pieces of content particularly amazing because not only are they in beautiful and rather stunning HD, they highlight one of First Play’s key features. Insider info. I know that many journalists do have access to exclusive knowledge but First Play takes this to all new heights. Because they are so closely affiliated with Sony they get news and other content before anybody else. Now I’m not saying that you should stop visiting the likes of SFN because frankly, who else will give you these great tips for MW2’s online modes? However, what I am saying is that they can help you to get a lot of gaming gossip before the whole world has even caught the slightest whiff of it! Anyway back to the content…

After marvelling at the impressiveness of First Play’s logistics for a little while, I selected the Lost Planet 2 preview video. I had tried to get into to the LP2 multiplayer beta myself so to see footage of the game in action was pretty cool. The OPM team have always had a knack for knowing what their readers want. What makes this video so special is the quality of the footage, all in crisp HD, as mentioned, but it’s also the voiceover work. Everything in First Play from each and every screenshot to the main interface is all voiced over by Lucy Porter, a comedienne with masses of funny things to say. In the LP2 preview vid she explained the back-story of the game, explained why the climate had changed between the first and second games from frosty snow to a more jungle like atmosphere and she even talked about the set designers interesting use of HDMI cables! All of this was very funny and her voice brings something extra to the already jam-packed table.

Next on my list of things to visit in First Play was the HD screenshots. Remember how I mentioned that all of the images were voice captioned? Well, they were, and it was pretty cool, I tell you! Images from Brink, Mafia 2 , 2010 FIFA World Cup and Red Dead Redemption were some big games to choose from but having already jumped on the RDR hype rollercoaster I selected those images. One example of an image was of the main character, John Marston, shooting at a buzzard. A seemingly uninteresting picture don’t you think? That’s what I thought too until Lucy’s voice started playing with something to say about Red Dead Redemption's hero/rebel choice system (something I talked about here). Her voice added something more to the image and wasn’t just a humorous little caption, it was something that actually expanded on what we already know about the game and it really does help if you don’t know much about a particular game.

As I headed to the Network Highlights section of First Play I was greeted by an advertisement for Assassin’s Creed 2. Now I don’t mind ads at all because they help to keep a service (or website) cheap or entirely free. Plus these ads are particularly great because they’re not full of the worthless crap that you find littered between TV show breaks and they’re also skippable (that’s a made up word by the way) and (yes there’s more) if you really take a liking to the ads, you have the option to press select and visit the product’s website, another useful feature. I really like the Network Highlights section because it will feature content made by users such as kills in Uncharted 2, awesome Sackboy costumes, or, as the beta showed, the 10 best Singstar videos. I thought that these videos, showing user input, are what sets First Play apart form Qore, a similar online magazine-like service available to PS3 owners in the US. Well there’s that and the fact that First Play is way cheaper too…

Featured downloads are also one of the things featured in First Play, a great round-up of the other things that PS3 owners in the UK should download. Besides every episode of First Play that is! Though there’s not much to say about it despite the fact that it’s a great addition to First Play’s already excellent list of features.

And so, readers, I shall leave you with this… First Play is a must download. No doubt about it. It’s released on April the 8th (this Thursday) and is 99p for one episode or £8.99 for 12 EPISODES which is 30% off the usual cost (bargain!). The service is currently only available in the UK (for once we get something first!) but will be made available to other countries in the PAL region (Europe) soon. If you live in the US you can download Qore instead.

System Fail News (New Feature) > Topic Round-Up!

First Play UK Announced

Comment Questions

Are you angry or annoyed that First Play isn’t available in your region?
What do you think could be added to First Play to make it better?

System Fail News (New Feature) > Topic Round-Up!

2010-04-04T23:07:00.002+01:00

(Hi, I’m Jasmine!)

First things first in this little round-up of sorts : HAPPY EASTER! I hope you all had fun celebrating the miracles that are, of course, chocolate and bunny rabbits! Just kidding… Second things second (secondly) here’s a list of all the posts that I lovingly created for you dedicated readers this week.(Counting from last Sunday)

I posted an exclusive article uncovering a (possible) feature in the Western/Spaghetti shooter, Red Dead Redemption.

System Fail News EXCLUSIVE! New Feature of Red Dead Redemption Uncovered?

System Fail News got its own ‘promo post’ when I posted what would be on the site this week
This Week On…System Fail News
As promised in the ‘promo post’ (damn alliteration!) you could watch a cool dev diary from the makers of Skate 3 (EA Black Box) of why player creation is so darn important! (You totally read the word “darn” with a country accent didn't you!)

Skate 3 = Skating + Creating , This Dev Diary Shows Us Why

I then went on to post the (maybe shocking) results of last months poll where I asked you (totally awesome) readers “Which Technology is your favourite” as well as informing you about the upcoming April poll (now up)

The Results Are In (March Poll)

Today I posted the potentially heart-stopping, amazing, and of course EXPLOSIVE live action trailer for Ghost Recon : Future Soldier

Ghost Recon : Future Soldier , The Movie?

Ok, recap done and the next piece of business is this > the ads…

Please do keep reading because I have something else to ask you but what I want to say now is this. I feel that SFN isn’t like any other site on the net that just provides video game news. SFN also provides helpful tips and features that not only give gamers good advice but makes you think too. However, I don’t have the funds to make SFN an established site with a real “.com” web address or a cool layout which is why I’m asking you to help me out and take a look at (and possibly click on) the ads I’ve recently put up on the site. Please help me out, I would really,really,really appreciate it!

And finally, the April poll. This month I’m asking you if you will be buying Nintendo’s recently announced ‘3DS’ (or 3D-DS). I’m really keen to get your opinion so please vote!

Thanks folks and once again…

Keep On Gaming!

From Jasmine (Jasmino924)

Ghost Recon : Future Soldier , The Movie?

2010-04-04T19:07:00.002+01:00

Ghost Recon Future Soldier Live Action Trailer via me on YouTube

I absolutely love movies. If I haven’t spent all of my money on the latest video games (of course) I’ll go to the cinema or beg and plead with my parents to rent me a film from Blockbuster. After reading that you can probably guess that 2 of my favourite things are films and games, and together they go hand in hand (have you seen the awesome Resident Evil films? Just saying). Sometimes I am strongly against making films out of games, (in fact, I once signed a petition against making a Guitar Hero film) though I give a big thumbs up to video game developers who can make a game so good that it runs like a movie (though less scripted). E.g. Quantic Dream with Heavy Rain.

Ubisoft have released a new trailer for their upcoming title, Ghost Recon Future Soldier that is set to feature some futuristic technologies such as an invisibility cloaking device and an exo-skeleton for soldiers (to help them carry heavy accessories etc.), the entire trailer is live action, using real actors and some wicked special effects, which is something they tried out with Assassin’s Creed 2. I am pronouncing this trailer as the greatest trailer of all time, Super Mario Galaxy 2 trailer imma let you finish but the trailer for GR:FS is amazing!

The main hook for the game is that the game features tech and guns that are being created RIGHT NOW and I recently read that someone who is working on the game said that with the last Ghost Recon game they featured really hi-tech gadgets and weaponry but about 5 years later all of that stuff in the game had become a reality.

Modern Warfare 2, prepare to get knocked off the top spot because Ghost Recon Future Soldier is about to become the most realistic shooter that we gamers have ever seen.

You can pre-order the game now from Amazon for Xbox 360 and PS3 using the widgets in the sidebar –> –> –>

Related Posts

Why Heavy Rain Is the Best Movie I’ve Ever Seen

System Fail News: It's Official! A Movie Based On Uncharted ...

Comment Questions

1.Do you think that more developers should use live action trailers?

2.Are you looking forward to Ghost Recon Future Soldier?

The Results Are In (March Poll)

2010-04-02T21:46:00.001+01:00

This month I asked you what technology you readers are most looking forward to. The choices were between 3D TVs , Microsoft’s Natal and Sony’s Motion Control device, which, after many months of debate we now know is called ‘Arc’. Well the month of March is now over and we are into April, thankfully past the horrible “April Fool’s Day” traditions! The final results of the poll are this > both 3D TVs and Sony’s Motion Controller only received 20% each, which was the same as 1 VOTE! Surely you guys want to experience your games in crisp 3D with surround sound? Or was James Cameron’s Avatar too much for you? Anyway, I digress, the overall winner, the top dog, the champ of the 3 tech choices was *drum-roll* Microsoft’s Natal! Congrats to Microsoft, Bill Gates you shall be receiving your prestigious “SFN Polly Award” on the 15th of well… Never.(hehe)

To vote in April’s poll keep visiting System Fail News where I’ll also be posting some great gaming articles!

Keep On Gaming!

From Jasmine (Jasmino924) :D

Skate 3 = Skating + Creating , This Dev Diary Shows Us Why

2010-03-30T21:25:00.002+01:00

Skate 3 Dev Diary - User Creation video via me on YouTube

I love to skate. I haven’t picked up my board in a while though because I’ve been too busy playing Skate 1 & 2 to recap before the 3rd game is released. Plus, skateboarding video games offer all of the tricks with none of pain, or the pressure to ‘own that sick gap’ (bro’!). Most skaters skate for the thrill of skating and for the community as skateboarding is classed as one of the most social sports in the world, I mean, it really is no fun to bail by yourself, especially when you can hang around with a bunch of mates who’ll laugh at you when you (literally) break a leg! See, you’re having fun just reading about it! (Eww…)

The Skate games have often encouraged users to team up with the multiplayer modes being a lot of fun to play as every match was never the same but the multiplayer modes were just there. This time around, with the sequel, it really feels like EA Black Box are forcing players to team up with friends. Frankly, if you don’t have online available on your console you’re going to be quite disappointed with this game as you’ll miss out on some excellent and maybe even key features.

*NOTE* – The graphics in Skate 3 are looking a lot better this time round, with noticeable improvements. Also, the skating seems to be more refined and flows more freely throughout the new map of “Port Carverton”.

NOTE #2– The demo for Skate 3 will be released on Xbox 360 and PS3 on the 15th of April – mark your calendars folks!

Related Posts

Team Up.Throw Down. Skate In A Quarry?

Comment Questions

1.What creation feature do you like the look of the most in Skate 3?

2.Do you think the game has improved a lot since Skate1/2?

This Week On…System Fail News

2010-03-29T21:46:00.002+01:00

Don’t you just love the things at the beginning of TV shows that say “This Week On…” , yeah me too, they’re so helpful because those little ‘mini-promos’ tell me exactly what’s coming up on the show and whether or not I should keep my eyes glued to the screen. Hence the title for the post. This week on… System Fail News!

I have a brand new dev diary from the team behind Skate 3 highlighting the massive effect that user creation will have in the game >>> (You can find the post here).
A live-action trailer for Ghost Recon : Future soldier. The game looks amazing and the trailer plays out like a real hi-spec movie trailer. Great work Ubisoft.
You can witness the awesomeness that is the trailer now
The results to March’s monthly poll where I asked you wonderful readers “Which technology is your favourite”. (Just posted the results!)

Also, because I have a few days off from school this week (as well as an extra 2 weeks holiday for Easter!) I will be able to post some other fabulous gaming goodness, provided that I find it!

So stay tuned to, err… I mean keep reading System Fail News for some of the totally awesome (must-read) posts that I’ll be posting on here soon!

Keep On Gaming!

From Jasmino924 (Jasmine) :D

Related Posts

Skate 3 = Skating + Creating , This Dev Diary Shows Us Why

The Results Are In (March Poll)

System Fail News EXCLUSIVE! New Feature of Red Dead Redemption Uncovered?

2010-03-28T19:46:00.004+01:00

For a little site like System Fail News, exclusives only happen every one in a million posts (rough estimate) but I’ve been doing some digging and I’ve been scouring every inch of the gaming world to bring you a new bit of 100% EXCLUSIVE info about Rocktar’s upcoming Western-shooter, Red Dead Redemption.

Red Dead Redemption is one of THE hottest upcoming games right now because it has been titled by some as a Grand Theft Auto/Western hybrid and holy mother of Kratos does it look good! So good, in fact that recently, when I was watching the brand spanking new trailer for the game (which can be found here) I may have discovered a brand new feature that will be included in the game.

For a moment, please direct your eyes to the screenshot I took of the trailer which features a tiny bit of text (enlarged underneath) that for you glasses wearing readers like myself, says “you are now an enemy to both sides” . As there’s action in the screenshot it does suggest that this is part of a mission however, I have a hunch that making friends and enemies could be a huge part of the game.

We already know that the main character, John Marston will have a moral compass that will affect the game, e.g in one side mission a police chief needs help rounding up some escaped prisoners; you can either be a good guy and round up them baddies or be a rebel and aid their escape. Perhaps by being a hero or a rebel you will indeed be able to alter which groups of people you will be involved with i.e will you hang out with the “Gentlemen” or the “Vagabonds” ? (the homeless people). I would just like to point out that “Gentlemen & Vagabonds” is the very title of the game's latest trailer.

Do you have a bit of exclusive gaming gossip? E-mail me at GamingLowdown@hotmail.co.uk with “SFN” in the subject line to tell me what you know :D

Rockstar's Red Dead Redemption Rears Its (Rather Attractive) Head

Hold Onto Your Cowboy Hats and Prepare For Some Serious Heat

System Fail News: SFN Exclusive! Alan Wake Release Date Confirmed?

Comment Questions

1.What do you think about this new feature?

2.Are you looking forward to Red Dead Redemption?

You can pre-order Red Dead Redemption from Amazon using the widgets in the sidebar today, ready for its May 18 (North American)release date

[SITE LINK] F1 2010 + Coolest Video Game Character…

2010-03-27T15:02:00.003Z

It’s starting to become a recurring theme here on System Fail News ; me ranting on about how SFN isn’t a big,well-name blog and to be honest if you guys are anything like me, you’re pretty fed up with my ranting! To be honest I really don’t care, although I’m a little bit jealous, that larger sites like That Video Game Blog (TVGB) are more famous than mine and I don’t even mind linking to them. Earlier this week they posted a hands-on article for the Xbox 360 version of Codemasters’ upcoming Formula 1 racing sim, F1 2010. Words can’t describe how excited I am for this game so I definitely think that you should visit the site.

Hands-on / F1 2010 (Xbox 360) – Via That Video Game Blog (TVGB)

The other excellent post is from the blog that SFN is partnered with, Split Screen. It’s a big world here in the blogosphere so it’s good that all of us bloggers can be friends. Recently the guys have kicked off a series of posts called “The Coolest Game Characters of All Time” featuring some of the most awesome and well-respected video game characters of our time. They always write excellent posts (we have that in common :D) but these posts really show how great a blog Split Screen really is. And I’m not even biased, despite the fact that Split Screen is the first site System Fail News has been partnered with…(See the note in the sidebar about them)

The link to the latest entry in the series is posted below.

The Coolest Game Characters of All Time: Gordon Freeman (Half-Life series) – Via Split-Screen

Related Posts

Split Screen

Army of 2 :The 40th Day TVGB Update

Hmm Funny That….

Are you fed up of me ranting about SFN’s popularity? Use the Share This widget below (the little green button thing) to tell your friends about System Fail News! Please?

Dr Jasmine’s Surgery : 5 Must Have Downloads

2010-03-24T21:03:00.002Z

I’m always looking for new ways to improve my (mad) blogging skill(z) and so I always read up on how to do so and one of things I read recently was that I need to be more “personal”. WTF?! I write about video games for crying out loud I could post awesome gameplay videos with a tiny,tiny description and you guys would still watch it! Anyway I like to stay true to my blogging roots so here’s something to kick off this new post.

My 2 main aims for the future are to

Become a doctor (hence the pic of me as a cartoon doc…)
Become a successful blogger

Let’s just say that I’m working toward no. 2 but no. 1 is a long way off as I’m only 14 and my name’s not Dougie Howser (brownie points if you get the reference :D ) however while I can’t sew up your cuts, mend your broken bones or diagnose you like a Dr.Gregory House (bonus points again!) I can recommend a healthy dose of download-a-rama!

Download 1-Heavy Rain-(PS3 Only)

First off, the cream of the download crop. Sorry non-PS3 owners! In the demo you get to play as Private Investigator and asthma sufferer Scott Shelby, experience the incredible graphics and see exactly why I love the game so much. If any demo showcases how great the final product is, it’s this one.

Download 2-Splinter Cell Conviction-(Xbox 360 Only)

Get your own back now 360-only owners, this one is only available from the Xbox Marketplace and is highly regarded as a must-download. That’s right, as if brutal executions, over the top action and getting to play as Sam Fisher, the original badass (after Chuck Norris of course!) weren’t enough to make you download the game, tons of video game journalists (like myself) recommend it :D

Download 3-Just Cause 2-(PS3 and Xbox 360)

Here’s a game for all of you people who have finished GTA IV and are looking for a game in between to quench your gaming “thirst”. JC2 lets us run around attach EVERYTHING to your grapple hook, blow stuff up and jump off cliffs.

With the help of the main character's nifty parachute!

Download 4-Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing-(PS3 and Xbox 360 and Wii too)

This is by far one of the best demos I have EVER downloaded, EVER! What I look for in a demo is something that I can play over and over again. The demo for this is absolutely amazing, I actually played it for over an hour even though only one track was available so if that’s not an indication that this is a fantastic demo, I don’t know what is.

Download 5-God Of War 3-(PS3 Only)

As far as PS3 owners are concerned this is THE demo to download. In fact I already bought the game on Saturday (read about it on my Twitter page) but if my entire PS3 hard drive got wiped, this would be the only thing that I would re-download. Yeah, it’s really that awesome.

Why Heavy Rain Is the Best Movie I've Ever Seen

Comment Questions

1. What great demos have you downloaded?

2.Which is your favourite demo on the list?

So, Hey Guys..

2010-03-21T19:37:00.000Z

So guys, you know that my main aim at SFN is to make the world more awesome one post at a time but that can be a little difficult and my power to make the world totally awesome is runing out. It's been a whole week since I posted anything and you're all probably mad at me. Don't hate, I can't help it. IT'S IN MY GENES! Ok, so maybe not, but I do find it really hard to maintain the site all the time. I'm only one woman so cut me a little slack, love the posts that are already up and I'll add more content when I can, k?

From Jasmine :D

Mafia 2 GDC Trailer, Will Make a Made Man Out of You!

2010-03-13T03:31:00.002Z

Mafia 2 GDC Trailer via me on YouTube

Ok readers, let’s take a minute to think back to when we were younger…

Some wanted to be an astronaut when they grew up, others wanted to be doctors and well, some, namely Mafia 2’s Vito Scaletta wanted to be in the Mafia. As the Game Developers Conference (GDC) trailer above shows, being a “made man” isn’t all fun, games and enemy shoot-outs (ok so maybe the last one is frequent) and it takes a man with a strong stomach to do the job well. Why have a half-cooked lasagne when it could be belissimo?! Sorry, that was a really bad Italian joke.

From the look of this trailer, the 2K Czech developed game is shaping up quite nicely. I have concerns with the ‘snap to cover’ system that you can see in the video, I think it could be more fluid and could be ‘snappier’ and also where are the guns’ crosshairs? Apart from those little issues I’m really liking the look of Mafia 2.

Pre-order- you can pre-order Mafia 2 from Amazon ready for its release (there’s a link in the sidebar)

System Fail News: Mafia 2 E3 Trailer

Comment Questions

1. Do you like the look of Mafia 2?

2.What would you like to see in the game?

The Results Are In! (Feb Poll)

2010-03-06T17:42:00.000Z

Last month, in the monthly poll I host in the sidebar>>>>>
I asked you which console is your favourite and now after a full month of voting the results are in!

It seems that most of you who visit SFN are Xbox 360 fanboys with about 66% of you voting for the console. In second place was the PS3 which recieved 26% (about a quarter) of the votes. And finally, in 3rd place, none of you showed much of a love for the Nintendo Wii which only recevied ONE VOTE, poor guy...

This month the new question is : What Technology Are You Most Looking Forward To?

You've got till the end of the month to choose so go vote!
The poll is over there>>>

Keep On Gaming!

Jasmine :D

Why Heavy Rain Is the Best Movie I’ve Ever Seen

2010-03-06T03:42:00.002Z

It’s March now. Although I’m writing this and it feels like the very beginning of the year and I’m still a little tired from that killer New Year’s Eve party last night[*see footnote*], I am going to address one of my goals for 2010 > to get out more. It has been said many times that I don’t get out much, I’m the type of girl who would rather hoover up trophies and achievements like nobody’s business than go outside and bust up my knees playing sports, however this year I aimed to go shopping all the time and hit the movies at least once a month. Let’s just say that it’s March now and I have been to the cinema a total of 0 times, though I can be found cooped up inside chomping on Blockbusters bought popcorn, watching a rented Blu-Ray film almost every other week. So all in all, while I may not be a movie expert I have seen my fair share of epic and not-so-epic movies.

Simply put, Heavy Rain is not a movie. Don’t get confused. It plays like a game, looks like a movie and uses drama like a TV show, which exactly why I love it. I sort of rambled on a little bit about my lack of a social-life but I had to do that in order for you to really understand how little I go out and have non-video-game related fun but it will sort of prove my point… Graphics for one, are sort of expected to be at a high standard for the current generation’s games and anyone who has played Alien VS Predator will know that even in this day and age the animation isn't always up to scratch but the graphics in HR are SO good that I can compare them to a movie. A shot in real-life MOVIE! for crying out loud. Why on Earth would I spend a ton of money going to a place full of frustratingly long lines, foul-tasting popcorn and rude staff just to watch a movie when I could experience the same Hi-Def visuals in the comfort of my own home by playing Heavy Rain? Plus everyone knows that Orville Redenbacher's microwave popcorn is delicious!

Have any of you seen the film Year One? That caveman-themed film featuring Jack Black, Michael Cera and Olivia Wilde? That movie is atrocious! I would rather be put in a human-sized microwave than watch that film again, which needless to say would be rather painful. The film is about as funny as being water boarded and is a prime example of how films SHOULDN’T be made. I don’t care how great or funny the director, Judd Apatow is and I really don’t give a flying monkey about how awesome Olivia Wilde is in House. The movie SUCKED.Big time. What I don’t understand is why a video game is a better representation of what a film should be than AN ACTUAL FILM. The game conveys drama like a conveyor belt of tears and :( faces. Heavy Rain was by far one of the most uplifting and depressing things I have ever played. I felt pure emotion when it came to rescuing Shaun Mars (Ethan’s son) and I wanted nothing more than to rescue him alive. I even found it difficult to babysit a 9 year old because I had just finished playing Heavy Rain (in which Shaun Mars is around the same age). I felt genuine heartache when Shaun was captured by the Origami Killer, joy when I got one step closer to finding him and most of all I felt connected to the characters and to the game, which is something that I have never experienced with a movie.

I admit, I don’t know everything or even a lot about films though I do know this : Heavy Rain is how every film should be made and film makers should definitely take note.

*FOOTNOTE* I spent my New Year’s Eve eating pizza from Domino’s while watching the disastrous Year One. Let’s just say my start to 2010 wasn’t a happy one!

Related Post

A Good Nintendo Wii Game? Wait, what?!?

Comment Questions

1.What game has made you feel emotion?

2. Did you enjoy Heavy Rain? (DON’T POST SPOILERS!)

A Good Nintendo Wii Game? Wait, what?!?

2010-02-28T19:28:00.003Z

Super Mario Galaxy 2 Trailer via me on YouTube

When it comes to consoles, I’m a pretty unbiased gal, whether or not this or that console releases some really great exclusives (*ahem* Heavy Rain) I still have love for all 3 next-gen platforms. Personally, I love Wii Fit, Wii Sports and Imagine Babyz on the Wii (just kidding about that last one) but I think that recently Nintendo has definitely dropped the ball with their games : Cooper Bilbaud over at Platform Nation clearly agrees with this. For quite a long while now, I (and I’m guessing all of you) have been waiting for an awesome game that we can enjoy for the Wii and we all know that Super Mario Galaxy was a FANTASTIC game and finally we can look forward to an extremely worthy sequel. Check out the trailer above.

Comment Question : Do you like the look of Super Mario Galaxy 2?

First Play UK Announced

2010-02-21T00:12:00.003Z

First Play UK Walkthrough video via me on YouTube

Being the only blogger at System Fail News is hard, I am the only one who runs and writes for the site and sometimes it can be really difficult to keep up. I don’t have the privilege of having lots of people on my staff the way other sites do although I do my best to bring you as much gaming goodness and as many exclusives as I can. You may have already heard about First Play, the new digital gaming news service coming to PlayStation 3s in the UK, it’s being led by the team behind the Official PlayStation Magazine UK (OPM_UK on Twitter) and so will surely be great. Wanting to go that extra mile and not just do the generic ‘copy and paste’ thing that loads of other sites do, I waited out a little while for the new edition of OPM to be released so that I could give you some extra info about the service. However, as much as I love the mag, this time it let me down, failing to mention First Play even once and therefore left out the snippets of info that I wished to tell you all here. Alas, do not be disheartened as I have posted the trailer/walkthrough video for First Play and below I will bullet point the service’s key features.

Is a brand new paid interactive PS3 service that will give its users heap loads of PS3 news and insider gossip before anyone else
Will only be available to UK PS3 owners for the meantime but apparently if it does well, the rest of Europe, followed by other parts of the world will be the next ones to get it!
Features HD Screenshot galleries ,HD Video Reviews and Previews , HD Trailers and all of the best user uploaded content from the PlayStation Network.
First Play comes out every Thursday (starting Spring-time) of every week, downloadable via the PlayStation Store
Prices are 99p per episode or £3.99 per month if you subscribe (approx.) – a pretty good deal if you ask me!

You can check out the First Play website @ www.firstplay.co.uk

I promise to keep you updated when I hear anything about a set start date for the First Play service

UPDATE - it has just been announced that First Play's first episode will be available to UK users by the PlayStation store THIS THURSDAY. Mark your calendars, - April 8th. I'll be posting a hands-on of their beta issue sometime this week :D

Comment Questions

Do you think First Play looks good?

For those of you who are Xbox 360/Nintendo Wii users, would you like to see a similar service come to other consoles?

Don’t Take Offense Paladins…

2010-02-18T17:29:00.001Z

No proper posts for today folks, sorry. However you can take a look at this pie-chart to have a laugh!

*It’s just a joke

Also, remember to vote in the poll over there >>>>>>>>

to vote for your favourite console. The poll runs until the end of the month so get your votes in now people!

Keep On Gaming!

From Jasmine :D

Team Up.Throw Down. Skate In A Quarry?

2010-02-16T17:46:00.002Z

Skate 3 Dev Diary #2 via me on YouTube

There’s really not long to go before Skate 3’s released – March,April and then May , so yeah, there’s only a few months to wait until the game is in stores. So far we know this a)Skate 3 will encourage us to Team Up & Throw Down (that being the game’s tagline) and create epic teams of awesome self created in-game skaters with our friends and b)we’ve been able to customise our boards, our characters and even our surroundings in the past, and now be can even customise our pieces of clothing and create original logos for our “epic teams”. There’s hardly anything that you CAN’T make your own.

That’s what we know already and so far, so great but now we actually get to find out WHERE we can show off our team’s custom gear, grind our freshly designed boards to wood chips and rack up crazy hospital bills courtesy of one “Bailey the Bailster” in this new dev diary. Also featured in the new Skate 3 video is the behemoth of a grind palace > the quarry. Because everyone wants to bail into a pit of sharp and pointy rocks, right?

Comment Question : What locations would you add to Skate 3, if you had the chance?

Which Console Do You Like Best?

2010-02-14T14:47:00.002Z

Each month I hold a video game related poll in the sidebar of System Fail News. This month I want to know which console is your favourite, what console do you love, what are you a fanboy for?

The options are between Xbox 360, PS3 and Nintendo Wii - the battle of the next-gens.
There have been 10 votes already but in order to make the poll work really well and for the results to really mean something, more of you will have to vote.

So go vote for your favourite console over there>>>>>>>
I look forward to seeing the results at the end of the month.

Also - Happy Valentines Day!

Keep On Gaming!

Jasmine :D

Ethan Mars & Alan Wake – Twins?

2010-02-14T00:19:00.002Z

Have you all heard of that site I Can Has Cheezburger? with all the pictures of the cute cats? Well they have a whole host of random sites in their “Cheezburger Network” and one of them is Totally Looks Like . TLL has loads of comparisons of people and stuff and is one of my favourite sites so I thought that I’d have a go at making a comparison myself. So what do you think, Ethan Mars and Alan Wake are secret brothers? Nah, just kidding, but it was worth a try, right?

Ethan and Alan may not be brothers but there are loads of other characters that look like each other. Leave comments with some ideas of who.

7 Questions Review : Battlefield Bad Company 2 – Multiplayer Demo

2010-02-12T14:43:00.004Z

The year has barely begun but already there are some great games for us to buy on the market. So far we’ve seen the release of Mass Effect 2, BioShock 2 , MAG and a whole host of other games that this girl can’t afford! And so, with all of the free demos out there that are, well, free, I saw my opportunity to get to play an extremely capable game a)for nothing and b)I get to play it with millions of other gamers around the world. For those of you who don’t have the time to download such a demo, I have taken it upon myself to ask 7 Questions about the Battlefield Bad Company 2 Multiplayer Demo to show just how great the game is.

(To see how my 7 Questions Reviews work, take a look at the review I did for the MAG Beta > here )

1.What’s In The Demo?

When we play most demos, particularly multiplayer ones, the developer is always sure to ram the fact that the demo “is not the final product” down our throats. This warning was present in BFBC2 as well but with just over a month to go until the entire game’s release, this is pretty much the final thing aside form a few little alterations.With that in mind I’m going to tell you what was actually in the demo. In the demo of the game there’s one map, one type of gameplay match and four types of load-out. The game places you at the centre of Port Valdez, a snowy harbour compound set in the side of a mountain. The beautiful graphics literally took my breath away when I first loaded up the demo, yeah they’re THAT good! In this stunning location lies your goal : place charges at the pinpointed sites and wait for them to blow up. Easy. Not quite. The enemy are there to defend the plots (and vice versa when you’re a defender) and they make your life a living hell. You can choose 1 of 4 load-outs to “sort ‘em out” and get rid of them to allow you to do your job, they are : Assault (your average soldier) , Engineer (the guy who fixes tanks and blows stuff up) , Medic (the almighty healer) and Recon (AKA the sniper). See, there’s something for everyone!

2.With All That Action,How Does It Play?

The game plays fantastically well to be honest. Battlefield Bad Company 2 doesn’t have the epic 256- player battles that MAG does, but it captures the essence of the classic, smaller skirmishes that we’re used to in an amazing light, giving us the tools to not just play a game but to have fun with it, allowing us to be creative. Although the demo only allows us to play on one map, each battle is never the same. Not only do you get to use the guns and artillery that other games allow (such as the stationary machine gun) you also get to drive tanks around the critically designed map, quad bikes and heavily armoured trucks can also be used to flank a position. It isn’t all good though, the variety is great but sometimes the objective can feel a bit linear and I’m growing tired of the same structure. I also saw that without the ability to make a team work together as well, the orchestrated matches of “sabotage” (as I’ve nicknamed them) did eventually fall into chaos and despair, leaving the game to descend into a run-and-gun , kill everyone match, which is the definition of Team Deathmatch and not “sabotage”.

3. We Want To Know About The GUNS!

Strictly speaking that’s not a question.. (Hehe, I’m so crafty).But it is a valid statement and I know that you’re ALL thinking it. The best class for these almighty pieces of punchy metal is the engineer class, you get to load-out with a SCAR machine gun (that one from MW2) , a rocket launcher (RPG-7 – that other one from MW2) and a pistol. I know that I shouldn’t compare BFBC2 to other games as they are completely different but games such as MAG and Call of Duty have set the bar extremely high for competitors such as Battlefield Bad Company 2 and I can’t help thinking like that. If you’ve played Battlefield Heroes on PC (the WW2 version of the game) then you’ll understand that guns have never been DICE (the developer’s) strong point. Their guns are jumpy like they’ve been ripped from an old cartoon and don’t match up to the rest of the lovely graphics in the game. Not to say that they’re not GOOD they’re just not the best.

4.What's So Great About The Graphics?

EVERYTHING! I’m seriously not joking. You all heard about Codemaster’s pathetic attempt to make a realistic shooter? Operation Flashpoint 2 : Dragon Rising? Well it was “sour milk” type of bad anyway but in comparison to this it’s as if a really big man came and did a poo on it. Battlefield Bad Company 2 is the most realistic war game out there. MW2 is an excellent game but it just isn’t very realistic. In BFBC2 your bullets can make or literally, break the scenery around you, take this example… I generally load-out as the engineer class in the game, purely for the rocket launcher, before we go on to set charges at the target and so when I get to the building/structure that the bomb site’s held in, I help my team out by OBLITERATING IT. Blasting super-fast rockets at the side of a building in most games means a few smudge marks can be seen on the side but with Battlefield Bad Company 2, buildings actually fall apart. The way they crumble like a delicious chocolate chip cookie is enough to make any gamers' mouth water in astonishment, it’s that cool. I also loved the snow. This particular map is set in the side of a mountain so of course there’s snow. Beautiful, beautiful snow that’s just a little bit too perfect.

5.Can I Hear About The Ve-Hick-Ulls?

Tanks.Quad bikes.Heavily armoured trucks with machine guns mounted to the back.Oh, and a chopper. I know that as a gamer, having played many games over the years, it is basic practice for developers to metaphorically get some sticky glue, a bunch of powerful guns, a few things that can move and then throw them into a mixing bowl and voila! portable death machines are created. Some developers don’t take the time to refine these “reapers on wheels” but instead just mash them together out of play-doh (and sticky glue). With Battlefield it really feels like the peeps at DICE HQ sat around a table, together, and talked about them. They feel polished refined and unique. For example, there are 3 types of tank. 3! I thought that only ‘slow and blasty’ tanks existed before this game! Each tank has a different type of weapon which means that they are 3 times as deadly. Tanks also allow you to have 3 other team-mates on board to rain bullets all over the enemy. Quad bikes in the game are for 2 people only and can be really useful for flanking as you can bounce around the map on one (seriously the suspension is amazing!) before ditching it to go sprint to the objective, the enemy probably will have been following the bike and not you, and so you can get away unseen! The heavily armoured trucks sort of speak for themselves hence the name “heavily armoured trucks” but if you still don’t get it they’re like smaller,weaker tanks with a little less firepower. Also featured is the chopper, DICE’s poor attempt at flight which is seriously hopeless and is too difficult to control. Plus, it really annoyed me so, it doesn’t deserve a mention.

6. What Was Good/Bad?

So far this review has been a bit long winded and so I’m really surprised that you’ve read down this far but anyway here’s the bad : the chopper (aargh!) , most of the guns, and the rubbish aiming (just like in MAG). The good : the vehicles, the visuals and the errm… ve-load-outs (as well as everything else that isn’t mentioned in the “bad”).

7. What Do I Think Overall?

It’s a lot of fun to play and I could really see myself playing this all the time. I really enjoy playing it but it needs to be refined so that a)the characters and the guns don’t flail around like a fish out of water and b)it needs to be a bit more polished. This is truly a fantastic game but I can’t help thinking that Battlefield Bad Company 2’s multiplayer mode is trying too hard to be MAG’s little brother. Chin up little buddy, maybe next time you’ll be great like your big bro’ MAG, but for now, stay at home with Mommy, k?

You Can Also Read My “7 Questions Review” of MAG > here

I Ask the BioShock 2 People A Question + Gameplay Footage!

2010-02-09T21:22:00.002Z

2K Marin Q&A Video courtesy of me on YouTube

It’s highly likely that you may have heard of this wonderful thing called Twitter . If not you've probably been living under a rock for the past few months. I like to roll with the trends (I Can Has Cheezburger?) and so I have a Twitter page, the Official PlayStation Blog (EU Link)-(US Link) has one too. A regular occurrence on their Twitter page is asking followers to submit interview questions to ask various developers. As both a follow of the PS Blog and as a budding journalist, I seized the opportunity and asked my question (as Jasmino924).

“Was it difficult to come up with a concept for BioShock 2?”

Hear their answer a few minutes in or watch the whole thing for gameplay footage.

Follow me on Twitter @Jasmino924

BioShock 2 Is Out Tomorrow! Also, Games Are Expensive

2010-02-08T20:56:00.002Z

As gamers, we harbour an expensive habit that requires us to splash out on our beloved video games, spending up to $60 (or £50) a pop to fuel our “needs”. We use up most of our time debating whether or not this or that game is worth our hard-earned cash and we are always frugal about which games to buy. Personally, i hate to hear hype about a game that is biased because the magazine or website has been paid to do so, it leaves me disappointed, unhappy and broke when the game is a load of rubbish. This is why, I, as an unbiased, unpaid blogger will say this…

BioShock 2 is out tomorrow, we all played the first game, it was ace and although it may not be the best game this year it will be extremely close. If you can only afford one game in these couple of months, buy this. I promise you that you won’t regret it!

*HEADS UP* – If you check back on SFN tomorrow you can see an interview with the BioShock 2 developers, featuring game play!

The Results Are In!

2010-02-05T20:29:00.000Z

So, the results for that poll that I was holding over in the sidebar >>>>>
are in, and it seems that most of you would like to play either God of War 3 or Red Dead Redemption . Just 2 people voted that hey would like to play games on Xbox 360 that use "Natal" ,so clearly Microsoft need to have a little think about that... Though with just 1 of you saying that you would like to play MAG , I'm guessing that all of you are only interested n MW2's online modes, right?

I plan on putting up a new poll in a litle while so check back if you want to have your say.

Keep On Gaming!

Jasmino924 (Jasmine) :D

Hold Onto Your Cowboy Hats and Prepare For Some Serious Heat

2010-01-30T16:37:00.004Z

Red Dead Redemption Weapon video via me on YouTube

*WARNING* – The video above contans lots of guns

Ok, so we know that the guns in open world games aren’t as good as those found in first-person shooters such as Modern Warfare 2 and with Rockstar’s spaghetti Western world-roaming shooter, Red Dead Redemption, the case is no different, but my word, does the game look good! I’m really loving the “dead-eye” targeting system (featuring for the first time in this video) that allows the protagonist John Marston to seamlessly paint tiny red crosses (or targets) on his enemies. It will surely bring an interesting dynamic to the game which is already looking wonderful. Shooting aside, did anyone else marvel at the graphics in the game? I swear only Rockstar can make killing cowboys look sexy. Sorry Clint Eastwood.

Red Dead Redemption releases in North America for PS3 and Xbox 360 on April 27th.

You can pre-order the game for either console via the Amazon widgets in the sidebar.

P-p-p-poll!

2010-01-28T20:43:00.001Z

Hey guys it's Jasmine here, just a tiny update to say there's a poll over there >>>>
It's asking you what games you are looking forward to this year so go check it out and vote vote vote!

Seriously there are only 3 days left to vote so if you want have your say VOTE NOW!

Keep On Gaming (or voting in this case!)

Jasmine :D

SFN Exclusive! Alan Wake Release Date Confirmed?

2010-01-26T20:22:00.003Z

Eat my shorts Joystiq! Taste the pain Kotaku and as for you 1UP you can bite the dust because guess which amateur blogger/writer did a bit of reading and nabbed an exclusive for SFN? Me! I don’t want to toot my own horn but I really pulled it out of the bag this time…

So folks, let’s get down to the the actual news. Have you heard of that game Alan Wake? It’s that upcoming Xbox 360 exclusive about a writer in a mysterious setting. As of recent it’s dropped off the radar a little bit and has even had its release date pushed back but when I was reading a shopping catalogue I noticed a little nugget of information lingering under the box art. On the pictures the aforementioned info is just under the box art in a tiny pale blue box. It’s hard to read in the pic (I snapped the pictures from my phone!) but it reads as “Releases April”

It could just be an accident but fingers crossed fellow gamers that this game will be out in these upcoming Spring months because we simply can’t be arsed to wait for this game anymore!

**UPDATE**- I just read on these here interwebs that Alan Wake does now have an official release date (about time). It’s been confirmed that Alan Wake will be available for all in May!

Got a scoop or some video game news that you’d like to share with me? E-mail me at GamingLowdown@hotmail.co.uk with ‘SFN’ in the subject line with the news.

I Have A Perfectly Valid Excuse!

2010-01-25T20:39:00.002Z

I don't know if you noticed the date on the last post on the site but I haven't actually posted anything in over a week! I do apologise though I do have an excuse. For one I am in the midst of doing some VERY important pieces of school work and so I have been rushed of my feet trying to keep track of everything (including the site). All of the hard work has really got to me and for the past 4 days I've been really ill, I've been bedridden for how many days with illness.

However, illness and schoolwork aside I can say that I have a fantastic "EXCLUSIVE" coming up for the site. I can't tell you what it is so you'll have to wait until I post it so all that I'm going to say is that I put my investigative journalism skills to the test (just kidding, I have no skills!) and I found something out about a game that seems to be fading away from our view.

Make sure that you keep checking up on the site

Keep On Gaming!

Jasmino924 (Jasmine) :D

Tweet tweet!

2010-01-17T02:07:00.000Z

If you really want to you can follow me on Twitter :D

Here's a link > Jasmino924

Random Ramblings : Why Original IPs Are The Best

2010-01-17T01:47:00.002Z

When you’re at high school it’s said that the best way to get through it is to blend in and try not to stand out. I am one of those teens in high school but unfortunately for me I stick out like a sore thumb wearing a neon sign that says “look at me, look at me!”. I stand tall with my 5 feet and 9 nine inches towering over my peers, my hair is bird’s nest messy (which is actually somewhat of a compliment) and I am a nerd by everyone’s standards. I am also left-handed, black and a girl which means that there is no one else like me in my school of over 1 thousand pupils. In short, I am different, in all respects of the word.

Just like original IPs I stand out when my shelf in the store is crowded by first person shooters and RPGs, with my differences making me interesting. However, instead of shunning them for being weird, unusual or ‘quirky’ we should celebrate these games' unique features. Developers who make these creative IPs have produced them from scratch, for example, you will never find another Super Mario Galaxy because it just can’t be done, it was Nintendo’s personal brainchild. You can always guarantee that the development team behind an original game tried their best to make the game absolutely perfect because it was their idea which, for the most part, they were allowed to have creative reign over. Let’s face it, we tend to do jobs half-heartedly unless they will benefit us in some way.

Next time you wander into into GameStop or browse Amazon.com , think about how much fun you’ll have playing an excellently developed original video game. Ignore the sequelised clutter that clouds your vision and instead choose to buy that game that just that little bit different.

*Btw I made the word “sequelised” up.

Please share this with your friends using the Share This widget below.

Modern Warfare 2 Exclusive PS3 Features On The Way?

2010-01-13T19:48:00.002Z

On PS3, my online friends list consists of approximately 16 people ; half of them are people from school and the other half are random people I added in games ,simply because they have cool usernames. So I got a message from one of the ‘randoms’ yesterday that said, word for word:

“Dear Gamers,

On behalf of Infinity Ward we are pleased to announce that ‘Call of Duty : Modern Warfare 2’ on the PlayStation 3 platform will receive exclusive content such as weapons, perks,maps and a game mode similar to ‘Nazi Zombies’ from the predecessor. Those who send this message to all gamers in their friends list will only be eligible. We will track the sent messages , and if successful you will receive a message on the game’s release day with further information.

Best Wishes

Sony PlayStation”

I didn’t pass the message on, as I didn’t know if it was the whole truth and nothing but the truth or if it was just a load of rubbish. I’m about to contact the Modern Warfare 2 developers “Infinity Ward” to see if this is in fact the case and I’ll keep you posted on the outcome.

If anyone has any information regarding this please contact me at GamingLowdown@hotmail.com.uk with ‘SFN’ in the title.

I Can Haz Votes?

2010-01-13T11:47:00.001Z

There's a poll over there -->
asking you what games you are looking forward to this year.

It will be up till the end of January so I'll post the full results then.
Please vote!

Keep On Gaming!
From Jasmine :D

7 Questions Review : MAG Beta

2010-01-12T17:04:00.001Z

Recently I announced a new type of post that I would be launching here on System Fail News called “ 7 Questions”. 7 Questions will be my way of reviewing the different games that journey into my little corner of the gaming world. The very first game that I will be putting on the hot seat is MAG, which stands for “Massive Action Game” if you didn’t know already. Read this post to hear my thoughts on the beta for the game.

1.What Is MAG?

What is MAG? If you don’t know the answer, because a) you live in a hole in the ground or b)you’re an Xbox 360 fanboy (why are you reading this?) then I will help you out by explaining what on Earth I’m going on about! Massive Action Game, or MAG for short, is a 256-player , online First Person Shooter (FPS) and although it may sound absolutely bonkers, the game is actually quite good. It was announced by Sony to be a PlayStation 3 exclusive way back in 2008 (omg last decade!) and has been in development by Zipper Interactive ever since. The game asks players from all over the world to choose a team ; the very hi-tech Raven (my team) , Valour who are very much like our military today and S.V.E.R (pronounced se-vur) who are like the ruthless mercenaries you find in most games. The story behind the game is that in the future (it’s not sci-fi) these 3 PMCs (Private Military Corporations) are all fighting each other to decide who should protect the world as countries no longer have their own individual armies. Once you’ve picked a side you must play in many different game modes attempting to defeat the enemy team by completing objectives. It gets more complex than that, but for now, that’s all you need to know.

2.What Are The Game Modes?

“Sabotage” is the first mode that you get to play and in it you have to either defend to sites “A and B” from the other team who have to plant bombs there or vice versa. MAG also uses a levelling up system in which you can get to the next level and earn ranks, for example level 1 puts you as a “Commando”. The higher your level the more game modes you get to play. I am only level 5 but I know that reaching level 10 will allow me to play “Acquisition” where you have to steal vehicles or resources from the enemy team and they have to steal from your team too. There’s also your average team deathmatch mode (though it’s not called Team Deathmatch in MAG). The different modes in the game are very extensive and they manage to bring everyone together as a team, which is a difficult thing considering that the game has matches of up to 256 players.Sometimes it allows you to bring the team together by giving you the option to ‘request backup’ form other team-mates and also to call for a medic or for someone to repair something (such as a bunker for example). You can choose your respawn location on the map , there are 2 places with the additional paratrooper options. I saw on many an occasion that a group of 10 or so players from my spawn point would go left and another 10 would go right, it was never a coordinated split it just happened because the game made people work as a team to go to the different objectives and it worked really well, better than in MW2’s online modes.

3.What About The Characters?

I already mentioned that you can level up but what I haven’t yet told you is that you can customise your character. And I’m not just talking about your average, run-of-the-mill load-out scheme either (though you can alter that too). Right at the beginning when you very first download the beta you choose your PMC (see question 1 for a definition) and you also get the option to choose your character’s face, with the beta giving you 15 options ranging from your average All-American type soldier to being Afro-Caribbean to being an Asian character. You could even choose their voice too. The customisation only gets more extensive from then on; you get a certain amount of points to spend on your load-out choice, with each weapon/piece of equipment worth a certain amount for example you can loadout with a sniper rifle and a pistol with a medi-kit and a frag grenade if you have enough points. (These are just examples, they're not set in stone). On top of that (yes there’s more!) you can choose what type of armour your character wears : light,mid or heavy and then you can choose what that looks like too. I’m guessing that Zipper Interactive were like “Yo Dawg, I heard that you like customisation so we put customisation in your customisation so you can customise while you customise!”. Basically there’s a LOT to customise in the game.

4.So, Is It Any Good?

In short, Heck. Yeah. Everything about MAG is refined and well thought out, right form the slick & glossy graphics all the way to huge, colossal holding base structures it’s all amazing. When I typed out these questions I actually thought to myself ‘oh crap, I have nothing bad to say about the game’. It’s a lot of fun to play, and if you’ve got a few friends to play against/with then it makes it all the more worthwhile. I found myself actually smiling every time I snuck up behind someone and pumped a load of bullets into them (no, I am NOT a psycho people!) but it was just a great feeling to see “5 XP” flash up on the screen to reward me with some extra experience points for the kill. Speaking of experience points, I find that they are quite possibly the best thing about the game. The fact that you have to level up to unlock game types makes you want to try harder plus with being a higher level comes the option to command a squad, a platoon and then finally the whole entire team! You don’t do jobs for someone if you don’t think you’re going to get anything out of it and MAG doles out the 2 things that we gamers love the most : fun and a hell of a lot of firepower!

5.What Makes Us Want To Play It?

As I just mentioned, it’s so much fun! From watching various trailers and dev diaries about the game I knew that it would be awesome but to be honest the thing that made me want to play it wasn’t the 256-player online game modes or the fact that it all runs smoother than melted chocolate (I’d just like to add –> nom) but it was the guns. The reasons for playing the game will differ for everybody whether it be for a change of pace (Little Big Planet can drag on) or even to pwn your friends but for me it was the way the guns worked, even after the game brought internet connections from all of the different continents together everything about the game worked well, the bullets never stuttered and I still haven’t experienced lag at all like I have with other games and to hear the bullets of an assault rifle ricochet off a wall in the game is just plain beautiful.

6.What’s Wrong With It?

There were only a few things that annoyed me in the beta and that was the respawn times and the aim of the guns. The respawn times could range from a 5 second countdown to a 30 second countdown: the latter of which I experienced in many a match. The idea behind the frustratingly long countdowns is that it allows more players from a team to respawn together so that we can trundle off and go to the same objective together. That’s all well and good and I do enjoy staring at the luscious scenery in the game while I’m waiting to respawn but how is it my fault if no-one else on my team gets blown to smithereens as often as I do? Now, about that aim. It’s pretty much an unspoken rule of the gaming industry that assault rifles must have a shoddy aiming ability equivalent to squinting your eyes up at the sun, but it sort of takes the biscuit when I fire almost 100 bullets in the general direction of my enemy and not one of them hits him! Yeah, Zipper Interactive, please sort that out.

7. Is It Worth It?

This week I’ve been tweeting my little heart out about the frustrating download of the MAG Beta. The entire process of downloading it must have taken over half a day in total. It’s a fair enough point that downloading the oh-so-pretty visuals and what not may take a long time but even I thought that 1.8 to 2.3 GBs (depending on your area) was a but much for us to download in the week that the beta’s open considering the fact that we have to go school/work or the dole office (do other countries have “dole” money or is it just the UK?). Anyway, for all of the painstakingly long hours that I stayed up to download the bloody game it was entirely worth it. I seriously wouldn’t give up an hour of download time if it meant that MAG would be playable anytime later. It’s too late to download the beta now but you can buy the game on January 22nd.

Follow me on Twitter here > @Jasmino924

E-mail me at GamingLowdown@hotmail.com with “SFN” in the

subject line to tell me what you thought of my first ever “7 Questions”

type review :D

OMG! A Poll, Rly?

2010-01-08T01:07:00.001Z

Hey you guys! There's a poll over there -->
asking you what games you are most looking forward too this year, please go vote :D

By the way, at some point tomorrow I will be posting my "7 Questions" Review of the MAG Beta so make sure you check back on the site if you want to know if it's good!

Also as a favour to me for writing all of the (moderately good)posts that make SFN what it is, please check out the ONE AND ONLY ad that I have on the site(it's up there ^^^^^^^). Make sure that you click on it if it interests you!

Keep On Gaming :D

From Jasmine

Dark Void Demo Out Now For PSN and Xbox Live

2010-01-07T18:30:00.002Z

As you may already know I am the only one who writes for System Fail News and well, to be frank it’s been an extremely busy week for me. I am currently studying for some seriously important exams and so I've not had much time to blog in between revision and such. Anyway, most of you probably aren’t in the same predicament and I’m guessing that you all have an hour or 2 of free-time in which you can play video games or surf the web (and read SFN!). If you’re one of those people, I strongly suggest that you download the demo for the highly anticipated game Dark Void . The demo’s out today for PlayStation Network (download it from the PS Store for free) and was out yesterday for Xbox Live users.It’s supposed to give an introduction to the game and also provides a little taster of what you can epxpect from the game when it’s released. Apparently Brad Pitt wants to star as the main character in a film about the game. What?! A guy has to have a day job in between running a free day care centre! Oh wait, they’re his kids. My bad…

Official Dark Void Website – Dark Void

Dark Void will be out later this month but you can pre-order it from Amazon today.

Split Screen

2010-01-06T09:48:00.001Z

Witty, opiniated and all about video games, Split Screen is the video game blog that SFN is now partnered with. I always have a lot of fun reading the entertaining posts that make Split Screen such a great site and if you too want to smile at their posts too, you can visit Split Screen via the link in the sidebar -->
Be sure to come back to SFN though, for even more great gaming posts!

DJ Hero 2 Confirmed by DJ David Guetta

2010-01-03T20:29:00.002Z

Oops, I’m pretty sure that this wasn’t supposed to happen! David Guetta the DJ most famous for working with Akon to make the UK No.1 hit “Sexy Chick” and who also produced some DLC for the first DJ Hero has said in a recent interview [about DJ Hero 1]

“I think it’s amazing, this game, and I’m going to work on the No. 2 version,”

he also proclaimed how much he liked the first game and revealed that he’s not that great at it either.

“It’s a really crazy game. After 10 minutes, you get the rush that a DJ gets after 10 years of practising. I have fun with it, but you know what? I can’t go to the maximum level. It’s too difficult for me. It’s crazy.”

No other details have been revealed about the sequel to Activision’s music mash-up/rythm matching game but I’ll keep you posted on SFN when I have more news.

What would you like to see in the new DJ Hero game? Leave a comment below!

Poll & Questions

2010-01-03T00:42:00.000Z

Because I know that you're so forgetful (at least I am) once again I'm reminding you to go vote in the poll over in the sidebar -->

It's asking you what game you are most looking forward too this year, it will be there from now until the end of January (29 days left!) so go and vote :D

Also remember that you can submit questions for "Say What?" - the new type of article where I answer your random gaming questions. Just send me an e-mail at GamingLowdown@hotmail.co.uk with SFN in the subject line.

You can also use this e-mail address to send me any feedback or suggestions for the site, both would be very much appreciated ^__^

Keep On Gaming!

From Jasmine (Jasmino924)

New Trailer Explains Story Behind Just Cause 2, Featuring Parachutes! (and Explosions!)

2010-01-03T00:36:00.002Z

Just Cause 2 Story Trailer courtesy of me (Jasmine) on YouTube

Shoot some dudes,blow a bunch of stuff up, have fun doing it all over again. Obviously Just Cause 2 isn’t going to be that repetitive but damn! you know that it’s gonna be a whole batch of awesome if this trailer’s anything to go by! Watch this video above to understand the story behind Avalanche Studios’ new game, Just Cause 2. You know, amidst all of the action and adventure…

You can pre-order Just Cause 2 for PS3 & Xbox 360 right now from Amazon, ready for the game’s release date of March 26th later this year.

Vote in the Poll!

2010-01-01T23:42:00.001Z

Just a reminder that I am hosting a poll over in the sidebar –>

that asks you what games you are looking forward too this year :D

It runs from now until the end of January.I’m really curious as to what everyone’s anticipating so please vote!

Keep On Gaming!

From Jasmine (Jasmino924)

Modnation Racers Zooms into View again with its 3rd Dev Diary

2010-01-01T23:19:00.003Z

Modnation Racers Dev Diary #3 courtesy of me on YouTube

Recently I’ve felt that United Front Games’ new creation-centric kart racer, cleverly titled “Modnation Racers” hasn’t been getting much love. Sure, there have been a few posts by the developers that have featured on the Official PlayStation Blog (US link)-(EU link) but I really like the look of this fun and quirky title from Vancouver-based UFG , which is, by the way presented in a lovely cartoony style. This is why I present to you, this brand new developer diary to you, showing off exactly why this game should hold a place in your video game collection.

If you like the look of Modnation Racers as I much as I do you can pre-order the game, exclusively for PS3, from Amazon today!

Happy New Year!

2009-12-31T18:24:00.002Z

Just a quick post to say Happy New Year to all of SFN’s readers. Thank you for visiting the site and reading the posts on here, I really do appreciate it ^__^

Also, as a little update, I thought that I should tell you about what’s happening with the site in the new year, are you ready?

Well first things first, I am launching a couple on new types of articles, the first is called “Say What?!” and will answer some questions (random or otherwise) about video games. For full details on how to submit a question see the widget in the sidebar titled “Got A Scoop?”. Using the e-mail in that widget I seriously encourage you all to send me any feedback or questions about the site (you must put SFN in the subject line of all of your e-mails)

The second post type that I will be creating is called “7 Questions” – which is where I will ask 7 Questions about a game to review it. For example with Assassin’s Creed 2 I might ask Worst Feature? or Biggest Improvement? and Is it worth buying? and questions that evaluate the games quality etc.

Those are the new post types that you can look forward to however, without the support of the ads on the site SFN wouldn’t exist so please take a look at the ad at the top of the site, please do click on it if it interests you because that’s what it’s there for!

And lastly, to finish off, please check out the poll in the sidebar asking you what games you're looking forward to in this new year. It runs from now through till February so go check it out :D

I hope that you will come back and visit SFN soon, please feel free to look at all of the posts that are already on the site. Have a Happy New Year!

And remember,

Keep On Gaming!

From Jasmino924 (Jasmine H.) : D

5 (More) Modern Warfare 2 Online Gameplay Tips

2009-12-31T16:31:00.002Z

I wrote a post last month giving you 5 tips to getting a high killstreak in Modern Warfare 2’s online modes,which you can find (here) and so, to help you out even more and because I know that you all want to deploy a tactical nuke (!), I have put together another wonderful list of “5 Tips” to kill even more people in MW2 online.

1.Cross the Road

I’ve decided to start you off with something simple and easy to remember : “Cross the Road”. Crossing the road is something that most of us do everyday (though many have not left their houses since MW2’s release!) When you cross the road, you look left and right, this is a tactic that you should employ in MW2 as well. While looking left & right in the real-life is to watch for passing cars, in both the real and MW2 worlds, the general purpose is not to get killed. Not only should you do it to save your skin, you should also do it to look out for crazy enemies sprinting like panthers around the course. The chances are that they won’t see you in their haste and bang! a glorious kill, could be yours.

2.Reload,reload,reload.

To unlock the extended mag attachment in the game, in most cases you have to complete 10 challenges all requiring you to kill between 5 – 40 people (approx.) with a bunch of different attachments all of which, in turn require their own separate challenges to unlock them! As if killing people wasn't hard enough, you have limited bullets too! So until you unlock the extended mag attachment for your gun, it’s important to reload! That one reload could mean that for your opponent, the line between life and death is crossed. No one wants to hear the dreaded ‘click’ signalling an empty mag, especially in the midst of a potentially fatal fire fight. Just make sure that you reload at every available opportunity to ensure that you get a few extra kills.

3. Know the Map

If you’re not familiar with a particular map in the game, then the 30 seconds (maximum a minute) at the beginning of a game, where everyone is spreading out in the map, are a perfect time for you to explore, to have a look around and to find your nook or cranny (see here for a definition). Knowing your way around a map can give you the upper hand in any game type, for example if you look around and find a few spots where the enemy might hide, then you’ll be able to ‘extinguish’ them when they wander into said, prime hiding spot and like 3 strikes in baseball, they’ll be out!

4.Stay Still

This tip’s good, particularly if you’re a sniper, but it generally works for whatever type of soldier that you are. Me,personally prefer to run around wielding an assault rifle. A funny example of this tip in action is a personal experience, that happened to me yesterday—> I was playing domination in the High Rise map, I sprinted to Area B, which gets a lot of foot traffic, from both teams, I shot the enemy player who was guarding the base and promptly lay down next to the aforementioned enemy’s lifeless corpse (disgusting I know!). Anyway so there I was laying still capturing the base, as you do, when an enemy soldier sprinted towards me, I thought for sure that they would kill me, but no, laying their still as a doormat, I survived. I had gone undetected, successfully capturing the area! Staying still helps you to blend in with the scenery (or the dead bodies and can cause the enemy not to spot you, but if that doesn’t work : RUN!!!

5.Be Invisible

I’ve already talked about staying still and laying prone but being invisible’s a little different. If there’s an enemy near you, who hasn’t noticed you yet, add “another one to the pile” by stabbing them in the back. Literally. Unless you’re using a silencer, your bullets will show-up the mini-map (as little orange/red dots). Other player could see this, get suspicious and come and pwn you! Gasp! Shock! The horror! Another way to be “invisible is to stay low, I mentioned it in the other pwn n00bs post but as extra I’ll give you this advice – crouch as much as possible and get prone behind low walls because a) it makes it harder for them to see you and b) you can move without being seen and you can’t pwn any n00bs if you’re dead!

*BONUS TIP*

Get a headset! Even if no one else has one, at least let the rest of the team know about that pesky sniper up in the second floor window. And plus, you never know, if some one returns the favour you could be the one to kill that guy who just pwned your team-mate and start the beginning of a blossoming killstreak.

Related Post

5 Top Tips To pwn n00bs in MW2

Like the sound of this game but don’t own it yet? Check out the sidebar –> –> –> for a link to Amazon where you can buy it ^__^

Alternatively, if you do have the game you can add your top tips for the game below, in the comments box! No profanity please!!!!!

Merry Christmas

2009-12-25T15:00:00.001Z

It's that time of the year again ; the air is filled with happiness and joy and freshly fallen snow lays crisp and undisturbed on the ground. It must be Christmas! To all of the System Fail News readers, I, Jasmine, wish you all a Merry Christmas! I hope you all got what you asked for from Santa, I know I did! While I'm off to play some Assassin's Creed 2 (a present from my loving parents ^__^ ) I am warning you NOT too eat too much turkey ,your bowels will pay for it later (if you know what I mean!) The blog is going on hiatus till the new year to give all of you readers (and myself) a chance to sleep and rest off all of that turkey and chocolate! See you in the new year but for now, Keep On Gaming!

From Jasmine :D

P.S if you're wondering why I'm posting this via my phone it's because I can't physically get up to fetch my laptop because I'm so full, lay off the turkey!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

What On Earth Is Sodium?

2009-12-23T14:20:00.003Z

Screenshot of SodiumOne.com

So you wanna know what Sodium One is do ya? Well,I have the answer…

If you’re unaware, Sony set up a social-gaming hybrid called PlayStation Home on PS3. Home allows PS3 users from all over the world to meet-up , interact and play games together. Up until about 6 months ago, there wasn’t much to do besides chess,bowling and doing the running man like nobodies business and so, to combat the boredom, Sony launched Xi , an Alternate Reality Game (ARG) that required users to use their brains as well as their gaming prowess to take part. It involved real world places and events as a result , Xi was a huge hit.

That was some time ago. Now, the boredom is slowly creeping its way back into Home and so once again Sony have come up with a way to fight back : by starting up a brand new MMO called Sodium.

There are set to be many stages to the Sodium game, this first one being aptly titled ‘Sodium One’. To get involved you have to download & enter the Sodium space in PlayStation Home where there are many things you can do. As of now, you can read what Twitter is saying about Sodium, order virtual drinks , blow up spaceships (in a game called Salt Shooter) and most importantly, you can take part.

Once you’re in the Sodium Home Space go and speak to VICKIE (the big robot chick) at the entrance for more details and tasks to complete for the much needed Sodium points. Also you can get you special 4 digit code which can be entered in the just released Sodium Website.

One more thing – Salt Shooter is actually a demo. The game in the Sodium Space only offers 5 levels and to unlock all 50 levels you have to buy ‘the jacket’ (in PS Home) for £4.99 (UK).

Slow News Day

2009-12-22T15:14:00.001Z

So guys, today has been a really slow news day like jumping in a sack race sorta slow! This update is just to say that you can all follow me on Twitter here > Jasmino924 (that’s my username). Also I’m running a poll over in the sidebar –>

asking you what games you are most looking forward too next year.

I’ll post something as soon as I can but for now,

Keep On Gaming!

Jasmine :D

Random Ramblings : Is The Avatar Game Actually Quite Good?

2009-12-21T22:38:00.001Z

Avatar Gameplay screenshot via jeuxvideo.com

Movie games. Blergh! They are by definition : games that are based on or around a specific box office film, that’s the general idea anyway but most of these games are generic pieces of fluff that have been put together by developers who seem to be incapable of conjuring up any creativity whatsoever! James Cameron’s Avatar is the latest blockbuster smash to get its own ‘movie-game’ and by George! I think it may be quite good!

I know what you’re thinking “Jasmine, how much were you paid to say that?” well, the answer my friend is absolutely nothing. I genuinely like the game. What we find most intriguing about our games is that they find a way to be different, even if it’s only in a small way from other things that are out there which is why we might choose Tony Hawk’s Ride over EA’s Skate games (or vice versa) ; they’re both the same game in theory but in reality they’re completely different.

The reason I say that the Avatar video game is quite good is that it is, by all means, extremely different. For example, it’s the very first game to use 3D, ever! Sure, you’ll have to spend a few thousand dollars (or pounds if you’re in the UK like me ^__^ ) on a 3D TV but the point is that it’s there. The developers wanted to make the game just like the film by allowing players to experience it in all of its fabulous 3 Dimensional glory.

As I said, a movie-game is, by definition a game that is based on or around a specific box office movie and it seems that between the awe-inspiring 3D specs and the literally breath-taking graphics, this is a true movie-game executed the way it should be.

*By the way* – the 3D version of the game is only available on PS3 because Sony’s Blu-Ray allows the 3D specs to work. However you can pick up a copy of the game for either PS3 or Xbox 360 (or both????? if you really want to) form Amazon today. (Also availabe on Wii,DS and all the typical others!)

Army of 2 :The 40th Day TVGB Update

2009-12-20T19:34:00.001Z

TVGB Logo courtesy of That Video Game Blog

Since I relaunched the site approximately a month ago, I have made it my goal to provide you with the most up to date news,features and trailers of video games that’s out there and in my role as the only writer and founder of the site my duties sometimes include sending you along to other sites *sniffle* , but only if they have some really exclusive stuff.

TVGB has a couple of posts on Army of 2 : 40th Day which are an interview and a preview of the game’s multiplayer modes. Because my blog is not as well-known as that site I don’t get offers like that to do interviews but they do so go check their posts out!

Army of 2 : 40th Day Preview of Multiplayer Modes – That Video Game Blog (TVGB)

Interview of Eric Chartrand, Lead Multiplayer Designer, Army of 2 : 40th Day – That Video Game Blog (TVGB)

System Fail News – Keep On Gaming!

From Jasmine :D

Packed With Action : Red Dead Redemption Screenshots, In HD

2009-12-20T09:09:00.002Z

Click on the pictures for the bigger, HD image.

In the last post that I wrote about Rockstar’s Red Dead Redemption I said that the developer is known for keeping relatively ‘hush-hush’ about their games, recent release Grand Theft Auto IV being a prime example of this. Well, with this new production of theirs it seems that they have pulled the ol’ switcheroo on us (!) as they seem to be pulling out all of the stops on the publicity front to show off their game, not that I’m complaining though! With two trailers already out I guess that releasing these fantastic HD screenshots was the next logical step, unless they wanna let me do a hands-on (hehe, so not gonna happen)….

Anyway, take a look at the images above if you want to see some screenshots of Red Dead Redemption in action.

Check out the Official Red Dead Redemption website for more HD screenshots (I only picked a few of the “action-filled” images)

If you like the look of the game you can pre-order it today at Amazon ready for its April 27th release date next year. (Available for PS3 & Xbox 360)

This Army of 2 : 40th Day Video Exhibits What You Can Do With A HUGE Explosion!

2009-12-17T20:25:00.001Z

Army of 2 : 40th Day video via me (!) on YouTube.

When you’re trying to publicise a game, what better way to do it than with a big explosion? That way you can really kick-off with a bang. EA’s Army of 2: 40th Day, sequel to the original game, Army of 2, is the latest game to get the “trailer treatment” which isn’t as trashy as it sounds. This little video shows off what EA does best, going BIG! with their game and while this video doesn’t really tell you much about the game’s story (besides the fact that it’s set in Shanghai) it does however, pack one hell of a powerful punch!

Watched the video and want to pre-order the game? Pre-order it now from Amazon

Random Ramblings of a Video Game Blogger : Do Video Game Developers Need to be More Interactive?

2009-12-13T01:44:00.001Z

FIFA 10 Screenshot via Google

The Yanks (USA) have American Idol while us in the UK have X Factor. Every Saturday night everyone tunes into iTV 1 in preparation for the talent show to air. The cell phones (mobile phones) come out and people log onto Twitter to chat with their friends for free, about the show’s events. Aah Twitter. Most of us have a Twitter page (including me) because they’re a great way to communicate with people all over the world. So it really is no surprise that the show, X Factor, has one too. Right now it’s a Saturday night, the latest X Factor episode has been and gone and like always I’m looking at the official Twitter for the show and it makes me think : Do Video Games Need to be More Interactive? Seriously, if one person can communicate with millions of people all over the world, why can’t developers and publishers, some with hundreds of employees, stay connected to the fans?

Developers proclaim it all the time that it’s the “fans feedback” that helped them to make such an excellent game, for example, in the latest issue of the Official PlayStation Magazine (on sale now ; D ) David Rutter from the team behind FIFA 10 says that the game is “something that resonates with fans and delivers the experience that they want” but it is enough?

When GTA IV was released, the Rockstar team could be found in the online modes running around pwning n00bs with the rest of us and there was even a trophy (PS3) or an achievement (Xbox 360) available if you killed a Rockstar employee. It’s nice to see that quite often developers and publishers stay connected with players long after their game’s release such as with Little Big Planet team Media Molecule and their blog. The PlayStation Blog regularly features guest posts from members of development teams with upcoming games and it’s a marvellous way to interact with video gamers everywhere. Now, not to sound like a Sony Fan Girl (which I’m not) but when I get corporate/automated e-mails from the Xbox website I think to myself “how many people visit the site?”.

So, once again I’m doing my bit for the gaming community ; I say this to developers and publishers alike – start interacting with gamers before your user-base drops off entirely!

Question Time! #1

2009-12-12T02:25:00.001Z

As I mentioned, quite a few posts ago now, I have recently relaunched the site as I (whisper it) neglected it. One of the reasons that I did so was because I had too much to handle with school work etc. but now I’m a little older and can handle the pressure! The other problem was that the site just wasn’t interactive enough, I had a fair amount of readers, great,great readers in fact, but I just wasn’t interactive enough with them. However, with the “sort-of new (ish) site I have chosen to be interactive so that I don’t fall back in to my old ways. So with a big boost of 2 am energy (the current time here in the UK) I will ask my first question :

“What Games Are You Looking Forward to

in 2010?”

I have posted a poll box over there----------------------> in the sidebar with a few suggestions for your answers but if you want to choose something else just post a comment in the box below. Also, please click on the Share This widget underneath so that you can share this post with your friends and we can get a real discussion going!

That’s all for today but I’ll have a new post for your sometime this weekend (maybe today :D)

From Jasmine

New Modnation Racers Dev Diary Shows Us How To Get Sticky

2009-12-10T21:07:00.002Z

Modnation Racers video courtesy of Me (Jasmine) on YouTube.

You know when you’re a kid, and you’re running around and just mucking about,being silly? Well, when you’re young you get that chance to just get really creative, fir example when you’re a toddler no-one will yell at you for colouring over the lines and more often than not you’ll be commended for just having a go! The team behind Modnation Racers understands that not everyone can paint like Picasso or draw shapes like Matisse and so, as you can see, in the video above, they have made it unbelievably simple to customise pretty much everything. While this game has been categorised as the “Little Big Planet Racer” the game is much more than that. However this video does show us how to get creative with the stickers!. But, you know what they say, if you like it then you should’a slapped a sticker on it!

ModNation Racers will be available on PS3 sometime next year but you can pre-order your copy from Amazon today.

Random Ramblings of a Video Game Blogger : Ads In Video Games, How Far Is Too Far?

2009-12-08T19:34:00.002Z

As I mentioned on Twitter earlier (for you planks who aren’t following me !) , today I was off sick from school (AKA the educational prison). So, I’m sat on the sofa all ill and tired, just watching T.V when an ad pops up and for some reason it irritates the heck out of me! I spent hours trying to figure out why it had annoyed me so much, when it hit me ; I’d seen that ad before, many times before in fact. This scenario from earlier made me think about how many gamers have complained about advertising in video games and why nothing is changing. The image above (via blogs.indystar.com ) is an example of in-game advertising that has caused an uproar (in 2008) but more recently Joystiq featured a post stating that there are plans for A LOT (trust me, I meant the capital letters) of ads to be put all over the in-game world of the new Splinter Cell video game. So I ask “How Far Is Too Far?”.

While us gamers realise that sometimes ads are used to cover the expensive developments costs and in this futuristic day and age they are generally guite high, but like many of you reading this, I played through Call Of Duty : Modern Warfare 2 , a game which cost approx. $150 million (!!!!!) to develop by the way, and I didn’t find a single advertisement in the game ! So to any money-hungry video game companies *cough* Activision *cough* EA *cough* out there who are reading this, consider us, the consumers and the avid video gamers and our hatred of ads in the games that we love because one day, when your average game consists of 10 Coca-Cola banners and a McDonalds mini-game , no one will be buying your games anymore.

Are you for or against in-game ads? Post your thoughts below via the comment box.

Dead Space 2 Confirmed!

2009-12-07T21:20:00.003Z

At the mo' I'm working on a new "Random Ramblings of a Video Games Blogger" post but for now here's a little tidbit of gaming news.

Dead Space 2 confirmed!

At tweet (with a link) via the @opm_uk Twitter page said

Dead Space 2 just got real. http://bit.ly/7cqLUj Guess we can confirm it's on our next cover, on sale 22 Dec. @leonHurley went to see it

So, there you have it!

Hmm Funny That….

2009-12-07T19:24:00.001Z

Read this article on That Video Game Blog (TVGB) about EA’s Plan to Create More Original IPs

Hmmm funny that, didn’t I say just a few days ago that developers would continue to make new IPs?

I guess I was right!

Rockstar’s Red Dead Redemption Rears Its (Rather Attractive) Head

2009-12-05T23:43:00.003Z

Red Dead Redemption "My Name Is John Marston" trailer via Me!(Jasmine) on YouTube

The team behind the Grand Theft Auto games, Rockstar, are renowned for keeping hush,hush about the game that they happen to be working on. But now ("!), after seeing just a trailer, which was to announce the game, like a cowardly prisoner prisoner in questioning, they’ve sung like a sweet,sweet songbird with the release of this brand new trailer “My Name Is John Marston” , that shows us a bit of what the game is about.

In other Red Dead Redemption news, the Official PlayStation (UK) Podcast (available on iTunes now) discussed which wildlife would feature in the game, revealing that : bears,coyotes & rattlesnakes would all be present.

Will you be getting a copy of the game? Pre-order it from Amazon now to ensure that you get your copy on release, April 27, 2010

Deals of The Day (4/12/09)

2009-12-05T01:08:00.001Z

So I’m sorry that I haven’t posted anything in a little bit, I guess I’ve been a busy. And, I know that you may be looking for the latest in video game news etc. but for me at least, it has been a slow news week and so instead I’m gonna help you out by posting these video game deals (via Amazon) that I’ve found so that you can treat yourself at Christmas by buying these bargain priced games (that are totally worth it). Cheaper than GameStop! (GAME).

UK – In the UK? Don’t worry, me too, I got ya’ covered!

Today’s game is the brotherly Western shooter Call Of Juarez: Bound In Blood (Xbox 360) for just under £15

Also see that the PS3 version (Call Of Juarez: Bound In Blood (PS3)) is on offer for round about the same price : D

USA – There are some good deals for you guys across the pond too!

The game for you today is the exclusive to Xbox 360 racer Forza Motorsport 3 for under $35!

Have fun searching for more deals! Be sure to e-mail me at GamingLowdown@hotmail.co.uk with “SFN” in the subject line with any good deals that you find.

By the way here in the UK it’s 1am so I’m about to go to sleep but when I wake up (later this afternoon) I will be posting the new trailer for Red Dead Redemption AND I will be featuring some brand new gameplay footage of Splash Damage's new game, Brink.

Random Ramblings of a Video Games Blogger : Are New Games All The Same?

2009-12-01T20:32:00.002Z

Being 14, I am still in full time education and when I'm travelling to and from the place I've nicknamed "Beelzebub's Lair", I have a lot of time to ponder random thoughts (much like Russell Brand's Ponderland but with less euphemisms and WAY less hair!). Today, I was sat on the epically slow bus that I catch to school everyday and I was staring out of the window (with a blank look on my face of course!) when I happened to see 3 of the same make of car zoom past. All 3were different colours but it did get me thinking, "are we seeing the same video games all the time but with miniscule variations?". There's a reason that Call of Duty: World At War was such a commercial flop in comparison to its predecessor, it was because developers Treyarch didn't bring anything new to the table. Modern Warfare was innovative and imaginative and that's why it was so successful. The likes of DICE's Mirror's Edge really pushed the boundaries of video game development as a "first-person free-running combat" concept had never been made before. While the game didn't do as well as DICE and publishers EA had hoped it did give many other developers the courage to create original IP's. So, as gamers we can only hope that more of there "out-there" games are produced in the future.

5 Top Tips : How to Pwn n00bs in Modern Warfare 2’s Online Modes

2009-11-30T20:50:00.009Z

Image courtesy of Kotaku

Like many of my fellow online gamers, I have spent approx. every waking hour (besides school etc.) playing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2! Within one day after release I had completed the game's main story mode but from there I headed online, where the real Modern Warfare's at. Now I'm gonna be honest, I'm no "l33t" player when it comes to MW2's online modes but having been ruthlessly killed by so many other players so many times means that I have picked up some great tips & tricks on how to rack up a huge killstreak! Check 'em out below.

1.Get Low

Do you know how many times I was killed by the same guy today? 6! Within a space of 3 minutes he had made me respawn 6 times! Now you're probably thinking to yourself "why on Earth didn't she just kill this crazy fool!?" well I tried and failed. Each and every time I set up my aim to look around pump a few rounds into this n00b I was killed! But then, the 6th time that I respawned, it hit me, the reason that he'd been able to avert my beady eyes was because he'd been lying down. This simple feat can keep you easily hidden and provided that you lay fairly
still you can kill your enemies, undetected.

2. Stay Frosty

If you completed the story mode, chances are that you have, you will have heard one of your trusty comrades tell you to "stay frosty". Now there's no literal translation for the saying (so don't Wikipedia it) but what it basically means is that you should keep an eye out. Every step you take, every move you make, take a look around as you never know who might be running around like a mad-thing! Seriously, this really works,the amount of times I've watched the kill cam playback to see that I was killed by a player who was just randomly aiming down his sights was unreal!

3. Find Your Nook & Cranny

In every game, online or off you will find that games often have a series of "nook & crannies". If you're reading this and are confused then it's OK, you don't understand because you're not British. In the UK, particularly in England, we use the phrase "nook & cranny" to categorise a small gap or space. By "find your nook & cranny" what I mean is that you should find a place to hide in different maps, a place where you can easily kill people without being seen and is difficult to gain access to without the proper know how. Your own little hide-out!

4. No Distractions!

Trust me. Got an annoying little brother or a delicious packet of Cheetos that is in your hand, just begging for your undivided attention? Just ignore it! When you bought MW2 from your local GameStop or GAME store (Steam?) little did you know, you enrolled. In the fictional "army" , it's not the real army of course, but you still fight wars (against hackers?). There is no room for distractions and you will find that you will kill more d00ds when the game has your full attention.

*HINT* ~ look for enemies that are standing still with a blank look on there face = person on the other end has got the munchies and abandoned them for packet of crisps (chips to you lot in the U.S).

5.Jump,Duck & Weave!!

Yeah that's two exclamation marks so you know that I'm serious! Being shot at?RUN! No you idiot! Not in a straight line! Do you know how easy it is to shoot people running in a straight line?Answer~Very. If someone is popping caps in yo' a** run like hell, jumping about like a mad thing will make it impossible for them to hit you as will weaving. However, if all else fails find that nook or cranny (see above) and duck!

*HINT* ~ the Marathon perk will help with the whole "running like the wind" thing.

*BONUS TIP*~ if a pop up shows up on screen saying "Nuclear Bomb at Base in x amount of seconds" there is LITERALLY nothing that you can do!!!!!! Don't duck, don't dive , don't even head for that nook or cranny (srsly just read the whole article!). There's no solution. In "x amount of seconds" every player on the map will be obliterated and it will be announced that your team has lost. Dramatically. But don't worry the nuclear bomb is worth a 25 killstreak and is virtually impossible to get.

Happy Holidays!
X Jasmine :D

MAG Beta Code Competition!!!!!

2009-11-29T14:23:00.002Z

MAG Paratrooper Screenshot via Joystiq

Have you ever heard of a little game called MAG? Sony’s little online gem is online only and boasts 256 player matches of FPS warfare all for your enjoyment. As of current the game is in beta and everyone wants a slice, including myself. A competition on the video games website Platform Nation was offering a chance to nab one of these much wanted beta codes and what do you know I entered an won(: D)! However, when I logged onto the PlayStation Network and entered my code I was told that it was invalid ( :( ). Anyway, I did a bit of research online and discovered that codes to the beta only work if you are a resident of North America. Now, being a resident of the UK I thought “what use is this code to me?” but then I had a fantastic idea! I could offer you guys the chance to win my beta code!

It’s a very simple competition and there are only a few things you have to do to be up for a chance of winning:

You can either

Leave a comment below saying why you should win

Head on over to Twitter and leave me a tweet saying “I want to win that MAG Beta Code” with the hastag #SFN and the @ reply of @Jasmino924 (my Twitter username)

Alternatively, if you’re feeling a little low-tech you can always send me an e-mail at GamingLowdown@hotmail.co.uk with “SFN MAG Beta Code” in the subject line.

Good l uck!

RE: Relaunch of System Fail News!

2009-11-29T02:24:00.001Z

Hello everyone, my name is Jasmine, but you can call me Jasmino :D I first created System Fail News at the beginning of the year, as you can see from the archives. However, since then I have left the blog and gone on to create 2 more. Now you’re probably thinking “why should we believe that she’s not going to leave the site again?” , well I’ll tell you why ; because after writing for my other two sites (both of which I have deleted) I have seen how I can improve my blog writing completely and now that I am back at System Fail News I know exactly what I want for the blog and how I can make it better . This why I have chosen to relaunch the site with even better posts and features to wow you all!

Now that the formal introduction and what not is out of the way let me explain to you what the site is about!

I plan to make System Fail News a hub for all things to do with video games ; news & reviews , cool gaming products and previews of new games too , so check up on the site regularly to see all of the great posts that I will be putting on the site soon!

From Jasmine.

?????

2009-08-17T16:09:00.000+01:00

I'm curious, what games are you readers looking forward to? Leave comments!

What are YOUR top picks?

2009-07-16T07:07:00.003+01:00

The other day I said that I would be relaunching the site with increased interactivity being one of SFN's new features. Thiseans that want to know what YOU the READERS are thinking. I want to know whatthoughs are about video games, past or present, your favorite video game character, basically whatever! Right now I'm kicking this brand new wave of interactivity by asking you guys what games you are all looking forward to. Leave comments to tell me your thoughts on some upcoming titles :D

What games are you looking forward to?

Leave comments!

I Just Couldn't Stay Away

2009-07-15T11:23:00.002+01:00

I know that I said I was shutting down the blog, well I am a woman of many words and I have an awful lot to say and so I will post something new from time to time.

Though having said that I will need you guys to go all in :D Post commments and the like take a look at ads. Remember this isn't just a blog it's a community where gamers acrosss the world can discusss whatever the feel like (as long as its video game related!).

If you have something to say about games, send me an e-mail at gaminglowdown@hotmail.co.uk with System Fail News in the subject line and maybe I might post it!

Keep an eye for new posts comming soon

Jasmino924 :D

Got Some Bad News

2009-07-05T02:51:00.002+01:00

I'm ahutting down the site.

I know it sucks but frankly I just can't keep up with the site. I'm a teenager and I'm still at school preparing for exams and that's tough enough as it is without having to worry about a blog too.

I'm really sorry about this :(

I will still leave the site up and you can read some of the earlier posts, plus I will still reply to people's comments from time to time too.

Who knows? Maybe in a few years when I've left school I'll keep blogging again!

Over and out :D

Jasmino924

It’s Official! A Movie Based On Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune Is Coming To Cinemas

2009-06-29T06:49:00.002+01:00

Image Courtesy Of MyPS3.Com.Au

An actual movie based on the best-selling PS3 exclusive, Uncharted Drake’s Fortune is in production. Apparently the film has a writer and they are drumming up ideas as I write this! No word yet on who will play Nathan Drake or his female sidekick from the first game yet, but who knows maybe we’ll have more info in the days to come… Keep checking System Fail News for more news and updates on the film!

Who do you think should play Drake? Leave a comment!

Let your friend here about the film too! Share this post with them using the Share This button below.

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New Site!

What's Going On

5 Big Changes in Little Big Planet 2

Call of Duty : Black Ops Teaser Trailer , I Was Right!

April Poll Results, Competition Winner Announced & More!

Modnation Racers Demo Code Competition!

SFN EXCLUSIVE : First Details of the New Call of Duty!

Skate 3’s Improved Hall of Meat is Brutal!

Have You Voted?

[SITE LINK] Red Redemption Multiplayer + Online Guitar Hero

My Predictions : Infinity Ward Staff “Situation”

Hands-On : First Play (The New Interactive Service for PS3)

System Fail News (New Feature) > Topic Round-Up!

(Hi, I’m Jasmine!)

As promised in the ‘promo post’ (damn alliteration!) you could watch a cool dev diary from the makers of Skate 3 (EA Black Box) of why player creation is so darn important! (You totally read the word “darn” with a country accent didn't you!)

I then went on to post the (maybe shocking) results of last months poll where I asked you (totally awesome) readers “Which Technology is your favourite” as well as informing you about the upcoming April poll (now up)

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BioShock 2 Is Out Tomorrow! Also, Games Are Expensive

The Results Are In!

Hold Onto Your Cowboy Hats and Prepare For Some Serious Heat

P-p-p-poll!

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I Have A Perfectly Valid Excuse!

Tweet tweet!

Random Ramblings : Why Original IPs Are The Best

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I Can Haz Votes?

7 Questions Review : MAG Beta

1.What Is MAG?

2.What Are The Game Modes?

3.What About The Characters?

4.So, Is It Any Good?

5.What Makes Us Want To Play It?

6.What’s Wrong With It?

7. Is It Worth It?

OMG! A Poll, Rly?

Dark Void Demo Out Now For PSN and Xbox Live

Split Screen