Loading ...
- Summary
- Introduction
- Unboxing / Accessories
- Guncon 3
- Calibration
- Note to Reader
- Review
- Conclusion
- Areas of Improvement
Summary [6.5 out of 10]
Time Crisis 4 can be a blast; a lot like having one of the arcade machines in your house.
No wireless and lack of 2nd controller combined with the $90 price point was a disappointment.
UPDATE: It seems Amazon.com actually carries this game for $75 with free shipping, which negates my problems with the $90 price point. I have adjusted the conclusion accordingly.
UPDATE: I wish I were smarter… it looks like Amazon had Time Crisis 4 on sale, some have reported it’s back up to $90… which negates my negation of the price… or something.
UPDATE: A few people have asked about buying a 2nd gun, and it looks like the Guncon 3 will be going on sale at retailers by itself in a couple of weeks, you can pick one up then. I’m not sure what the price point will be, but I imagine in the $20 ballpark, maybe more since it’s SIXAXIS compatible.
Introduction
I remember walking into arcades 10 years ago and pouring quarters in all the cutting edge games at the time. I had a special love for gun-based games that provided a gun controller, like the Terminator game and especially the Time Crisis series.
For the folks that don’t know, the Time Crisis series have always been about 1 thing: shooting. The games have typically played “on rails” meaning you control firing the gun and ducking behind cover, but the game actually moves you forward in the level as you ice terrorists in the face.
Time Crisis 4 breaks this mold a little bit by including a “FPS Mode” which can double the length of the game and is actually more fun than I thought it would be. Getting a second person into Arcade mode for co-op play is a sweet addition.
Unboxing / Accessories
Time Crisis 4 comes in a decent sized box; maybe about the size of a router box or something on par with that (pictured above). Once you crack the box open you are presented with a slew of directions, a diagram of the Guncon 3 controller, the game box, and the tip of the gun peaking out:
Taking everything out of the box reveals the magic of how the Guncon 3 works, seemingly very similar to the Wiimotes for the Nintendo Wii:
The two “watch band” looking things in the middle are actually LED light sources with these soft rubber bands mounded against them, and weighted on the far right side. At first I had no idea what was up with the design, until I actually put the things up along the edge of my TV… it’s a pretty smart design to be honest as the rubber has a good “hold” against most surfaces and the weighted back-side of the band just hangs down the back of the TV while the LED portion dangle infront. You don’t have to use any adhesive or engineering, it “just works”:
UPDATE: A user asked below how long the LED cable is because he has a projector setup. The cable that comes off the LED that connects to the PS3 is about 6′ long, but it’s a standard USB cable, so you can get a USB extension cable if necessary and hook it to the LEDs. Again, a nice design touch.
Something you might have noticed right out of the gates in the picture of the accessories above was the really long cable attached to the bottom of the Guncon 3… this sucks. While they were smart enough to put a really damn long cable on the Guncon 3 (approximately 10′), it just sucks that this thing isn’t wireless; especially given other light-gun games like Umbrella Chronicles coming out for the Wii that enjoy the freedom of the Wiimote.
That being said, as bummed as I was when I saw that, actually playing the game with the Guncon 3 at a 9′ distance from the TV didn’t really yield any complaints from me.
If you are in an environment that lends itself to both wireless and wired controllers easily enough, you’ll be fine. If you are in a crazy frat-house environment where you have someone running by the TV every 2mins drunk… you might want to rethink the controller.
Guncon 3
Holding the Guncon 3 for the first time I noticed two things:
- It felt cheap
- It’s not wireless
- It’s a little on the light side
- There are a ton of buttons on this thing
- The buttons are hard to see/find because they totally blend in with the same solid color of the gun.
Update: The Guncon 3 does not offer vibration support.
The lightness of the gun came off as giving it a poor weight in my hand at first, but after playing with it for a few hours I actually noticed that I liked it wasn’t heavier. I don’t know about you, but the last time I was in a save-the-world-firefight in real life, I wasn’t holding a gun to my face for hours straight… if this gun was any heavier it would likely be uncomfortable to use for long gaming stints.
Another thing I noticed was that the trigger has a nice feel/design to it. It’s not how it looks, but how it feels… almost like a rifle that has some give to it until the trigger is almost all the way down, then the last few degrees of motion are what actually *click* and cause the firing pin to drop. This gun has a similar feel to it which made it a little more enjoyable to fire… I’m not sure why and this is a totally subjective comment. You mountain-crazies that live in camps with tool sheds full of real guns will likely think I’m an idiot.
Another thing I was slowly noticing as I flipped the gun around in my hand were the buttons… buttons everywhere:
I counted 9 including the trigger, so my hope is that some more games that use the Guncon 3 come out as it seems perfectly capable of adapting to other titles. Honestly all the buttons were a bit daunting at first as I thought “Holy hell, Time Crisis 4 is going to be a bit more complex than the arcade”, but it really only uses 2 buttons, the remaining 7 all do the same thing: Reload/Raise you from cover.
NOTE: In FPS mode, you need to use all the buttons. Luckily the placement is fairly straight forward and you can get the hand of it just about as fast as any other FPS title with a dual-analog controller. More on this later.
In arcade mode, if you want to feel like you are firing a real gun (holding it with 1 or 2 hands), since you need to hold down at least one of the two buttons on the front, or two on the back to pop up from cover to fire, I found using my thumb to hold down the left-most button on the back (3rd image over above) allowed the gun-interaction to feel the most real.
Calibration
After firing up the game and plugging in both the LED lights and the Guncon 3 controller:
… the game will boot you right into the calibration sequence… which was a lot like a very pretty version of the old Palm Pilot calibration sequence. You shoot the top left corner of the screen, then the bottom right. There is a more advanced 5-point calibration mode you can choose as well. I used both calibration modes to see if I could tell a big difference between the quality of the tracking I was getting, and really couldn’t tell much of a difference during the gameplay itself, but I did notice when I did the 5-point calibration the aiming reticule on the screen “jumped” around less when trying to hold it still aiming at something. For purists out there, I’d suggest using the 5-point mode to calibrate.
I noticed when I was aiming around the screen really slowly the cursor would sometimes jump for maybe 100ms to an erratic position on the screen, then re-align with where it should be. This was totally random and sometimes didn’t do it, so I chalked that weirdness up to the giant Christmas tree I had next to the TV. It’s important to note that even with this “jerkiness”, it never impacted the gameplay… I just kept shooting stuff and never felt like it was misfiring.
After the calibration you are taken to the main menu of the game:
and I jumped right away into “Extra Games” looking for some Mini Games to test out my metal with… luckily that’s exactly what I found.
After spending about an hour running through random mini games, shooting disks, I came to the conclusion that I was impressed with the accuracy of the controller. It felt satisfying to aim down the “iron sights” and was spot on with some shots, and the ones I felt it was a little of with were no more than say a 5% margin of error.
As I mentioned above the aiming was never jumpy or an issue to the point that I felt it was inaccurate. Infact I felt like the speed of the tracking was pretty good, I don’t know if it was the same performance of the Wiimote, but I chalked that up to the difference between a 480p signal being mapped to coordinates on the TV and a 720p signal.
Here’s a movie of me waggling the controller back and forth so you can see how it performs:
One stupid thing about calibration is that the game makes you do it every time you start it up. I understand why the developer decided that (incase the LED lights move or something), but given the most common scenario of them staying in exactly the same position every time you play, it’s just obnoxious to keep redoing the calibration.
Alright, hopefully most of your questions about the Guncon 3 controller, how it works and feels have been answered… now it’s time to dig into the game.
Note to Reader
First and foremost you have to consider what Time Crisis 4 is and what it’s not.
- IT IS: A game about shooting stuff using a light gun and making you feel like you are doing cool stuff in the process on the screen.
- IT IS NOT: A story-driven game that will last 20+ hrs and make BioWare cry with envy.
I am taking this time to make this point, because if I had someone come up to me and say something like “OMG this game is so short” or “The story was stupid”… you’d have to kick them in the eyes because that has never been the point of Time Crisis.
It’s like you going to Costco, then asking for a manager and complaining that all they serve for food is Pizza and Hot dogs. If you want something else… go somewhere else. If you want to use a light gun to shoot dudes in the face like you used to in the arcade and had a blast doing it, your question should be “Does Time Crisis 4 give this to me?”. If you want a game that is 25hrs long with a twisting and turning story, deep characters and insane world physics with vehicles… it’s not this game.
Review
Time Crisis 4 has two ways to play it:
- Arcade Mode: Arcade gameplay where you play either Giorgio or Evan and the entire game is on rails. This is the mode you play in the arcade only.
- Story Mode: In this mode, the game is almost doubled in length by injected FPS segments of the game where you actually play Captain William Rush as he goes on his own investigating what is going on with the terrorist attack. In this mode you use all the buttons on the gun.
Since the FPS mode of the game is only in the story mode, and only injected in a few parts of the game before and after normal arcade-gameplay segments, I’ll give my comments about the FPS mode specifically first.
The FPS mode is fairly well done for how complex the controls become. Ironically enough getting used to mode requires unlearning of standard dual-analog stick controls for a shooter… you don’t realize you can aim the gun anywhere on screen and shoot and might be tempted to use the analog sticks to aim your reticule at the bad guys even though you can just point. You can see in this movie at the very beginning how stiff I was using the controls:
But once you get the hand of the controls in FPS mode, it starts feeling pretty natural and you can have some fun:
NOTE: FPS mode is the only mode you can turn on an aiming reticule for (using the rear-side button). In arcade mode you cannot turn on any aiming reticule, so your only indication of where you are shooting is by watching your bullets. I almost dinged the game for this because it was really annoying to not have in arcade mode, but after discussing it with another player we agreed it didn’t ruin the shooting experience in arcade mode as the gun is fairly accurate and was always shooting where we were aiming… so we let it go. But just be aware of this if you need reticules in your shooters.
The graphics in FPS mode tended to be a bit crappier and I believe this is because in a lot of these scenes the world itself was much bigger than the on-rails arcade segments where ever texture and thing you looked at can be controlled by the game. Here are some shots from the FPS mode:
The developers were also very generous in FPS mode with your life. If you stand still your life regenerates; almost identical to how it works in Halo with your shield regeneration… in fact I even think it was the same sound used. Either way, I found myself able to continue playing without restarting thanks to that dynamic.
Other than that, I think they did a great job making the FPS mode work for a game that has for so long been a traditional on-rails arcade game. It’s not going to be unseating Crysis anytime soon, but as far as a nice addition to the game, I definitely felt it was.
Ok with that out of the way, let’s dig into the review. For starters the game looks pretty good during the arcade portion of the game, I was actually pretty happy with the graphics. Everything is colored brightly and has nice clear textures applied, no muddy or blurry coloring or crappy textures that I saw. The environments are pretty detailed but not as physical as I would have wished. For example, can you blow out glass from windows and such, but you cannot mow down everything in the scene.
Shooting feels good and the Guncon 3 serves to be an accurate controller. One of my favorite parts of the arcade game was a scene where you are fighting your way through a cave, and your gun becomes a flashlight as well, and you can shine it around to see the bad guys hiding in the cave. The flashlight effect looked cool, and it tracked with the gun really well. Here’s a movie of me in that scene (there are a handful more scenes like this in the game):
Shooting dudes in the face with a shotgun or juggling them for a few moments with the machine gun is just as satisfying as it was in the arcade with previous Time Crisis games. The game does carry a T-rating, so there is no blood or anything adult themed in the game. If you are OK with your kids firing plastic guns around the house, then I’d say this game could be fun for kids around the age 9 and up; especially if you got a second controller and a parent hopped in there with them.
A design decision that has been true for most of the Time Crisis series is that bad guys take a single shot to kill on easy difficulty settings. This makes the game much more accessible for folks that may not be the most acclimated to light-gun games or the best at aiming. I tested this by asking my wife to play the arcade mode for an hour or so and she actually did better than I did the first time I played through it, and I noticed she went through all the continues and looked like she was genuinely having a good time with it.
The game can be hard if you try and blow through it even on the easiest setting; meaning you rarely duck and just try and go as fast as possible without thought. You need to take advantage of your cover and not stay popped out all the time. In FPS mode because of the regenerating health and generous use of med kits around the level, dying wasn’t so much of an issue I noticed. In arcade mode, on normal or harder be prepared to reload a lot and start over from scratch a lot because of how the game is structured. The game is broken up in to the following formation:
- Stage 1
- Chapter 1
- Chapter 2
- Chapter N
- Stage 2
- …
- Stage 3
- …
In arcade mode you are given 3 life “units” per continue and a certain number of continues. Something like a direct hit from a gun or grenade or axe will remove a life-unit, so you can pretty much get hit 3 times before you need to use a continue.
NOTE: For all the hard-core folks out there, all of this can be adjusted before you start playing (number of life units, difficulty, etc.)
The more you play the game, the more continues you get. So for starters you get 3 continues, but as you play more and more the game eases things up on you increasing your continues to 4, then 5 and so on. I thought this was a nice touch, because if this was in the arcade you would just pump more money in the game, but at home you can’t, so the game cuts you some slack by boosting your continues the more trouble you have with the game (by dying).
If you use up all your continues or boot up your PS3 to play, you can only start from Stage beginnings. So, for example, if you never finish the last boss at the end of Stage 1, every time you start the game, you will start over from the beginning of that Stage (which in the case of Stage 1 is the beginning of the game). This was only obnoxious to me when I was trying to blow through the game. After I turned it off and took a break and tried again later, and calmed down a bit, I didn’t mind that I was covering the same ground I had covered before. The game is fast paced and arcade-like in nature, it’s not meant to be a 20hr journey, but rather more like a 3 or 4 hour shoot-em-up fest from end to end if you can make it without needing to start over. It actually took me a few days to even get done with the game as I had to chisel away at it; and like I said at the beginning of this review, this is the type of game you play to shoot and have fun… like trying to beat your own high score, it’s not the type of game you buy to replace Assassin’s Creed or Mass Effect.
So keep that in mind… if you are buying this game for story and only play games once; skip this title. If you can relax and enjoy the process of shooting, similar to something like a golf game where the holes are the same every time, but the process is the fun part, then you’ll enjoy this game.
The premise of the game is that you are 1 of two guys, Giorgio (Brunette) or Evan (Blond) and you are sent in to figure out what is going on with some terrorist activity. Along the way you meet Captain William Rush, the guy with the dreadlocks that looks like Blade from the Sin games. The story is goofy as you would expect with an arcade shooter with your typical “Terrorist group undermines American government” business. Here’s a scene from a boss fight:
As you play the game the three of you are mostly together, except for a few sequences where the Captain needs to go take care of business or the like. In the boss fight introduced above, part of the fight Captain jumps out and starts scrapping with the boss while Giorgio and Evan are tasked with backing him up with covering fire. The only problem I noticed is that regardless of how much you shoot the boss during this sequence, his life doesn’t go anywhere, and from what I could tell you cannot prevent him from attacking the Captain during these sequences. I also couldn’t figure out why some portions of the action freezes for a moment (like right before a body slam), acting like it’s giving you a chance to change the outcome… I even tried shooting the Captain during these sequences with no change in the result:
For the most part, the computer-controlled characters are totally worthless for taking down bad guys. If you just stay in cover and don’t fire, from the scenes I saw very few, if any, bad guys actually ended up getting shot (it’s possible that was just wishful thinking and NO ONE got shot unless I shot them, I wasn’t sure). So I think it’s mostly smoke and mirrors to make it seem like you have friends on your side, but you need to do all the heavy lifting. Fair enough though, that’s always been the way Time Crisis games roll… you can’t just sit in cover and let the computer pull you through scenes. Also from what I saw your friends can’t die… either they aren’t getting shot when I play, or the game is really all about you shooting/living/dying and the rest is just to create a facade of “commando group fighting together”.
I did notice that on easier difficulty levels the bad guys miss a lot and fire at your friends a lot more often… so if you want some of the heat taken off you, it’s a nice change.
The pacing of the game is solid and actually a little on the relentless-action side. You do get rest spots while a cutscene plays to introduce a new boss or show you a new part of the level, those are welcome chances to relax.
One problem I had with the game, and I am not sure if this was a bug or not, there are parts of the game where it’s not clear if you just succeeded or failed. Multiple times during boss fights, I would kill the boss only to be presented with the “Chapter End” screen where it tallies your score, then immediately get shown the High Score enter-your-initials screen then be told right after “Game Over”… umm come again? I just beat the boss, before the timer ran out, and had continues left… why is the game over?
This actually happened to me 3 times, at which point I had to start the entire stage over again and beat the boss again, at which point it seemed to “work” that time… but I saw this happen often enough that I was totally lost as to why it was happening. Other than that 1 gotcha, the game was pretty much bug-free for me; no glitches with characters, shooting or scenes. Everything played really smoothly.
Conclusion [6.5 out of 10]
Overall Time Crisis 4 delivers on exactly what it advertises to deliver: An arcade experience in your house. The addition of the FPS mode helps make the game about double the time in length with some interesting game dynamics (if you have ever wanted to play a normal FPS with a light gun, this gives you a taste of that).
I keep belaboring this point, because when you review a game like this, you can only compare it to other games like itself, because that is what it’s competing with. So right now likely the closest match to Time Crisis 4 is Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles for the Wii. Given that, I think Time Crisis 4 delivers a really fun, arcade-like experience that pulls off a lot of things really well.
That’s not to say the game is perfect. There are some omissions that I felt were a bit lazy, namely online support. This single omission really kept this game from being in the 7s for me, but thankfully doesn’t detract from it still being a fun single-player experience.
Areas of Improvement
This section is used to somewhat justify the score, more or less saying what needed to be better for the score to be higher.
- Wireless Guncon 3 controller (Medium Importance)
- In FPS mode, the camera should have tracked the gun’s movement and not a 2nd analog stick (Medium Importance)
- Online Co-Op play (Important)
Lower $90 price OR include a 2nd controller for the $90 price (Important)UPDATE: See note in Summary at start about Amazon carrying it for $75.- UPDATE: That was only a sale price on Amazon, doh!
To be clear on the points above, if the game had online co-op play AND the gun was wireless I would have rated this game in the 8s. If the environments were more physical and the game a bit longer (more content to burn through with a friend) I probably would have pushed the 9s. So those last two points didn’t make/break the game, just “nice to have”, but the first two were important.
I don’t have any complaints about the story line or length of game… that’s not why you play a game like this. The story is campy and goofy which is typical, but for an arcade shooter it has to be… you have no time to develop characters, you just need shit to look cool, and get out of your way while you shoot dudes. As for the game being longer, the shooting gameplay-mechanic is not one that lends itself to a long game. After an hour or so your arm can start to get tired and in my case I rested it on my knee while I shot stuff. If this game was any longer I would be paying more attention to it’s length, than me having fun. It wouldn’t hurt to extend the campaign with downloaded content or more characters, but what is there out of the box is a decent length I felt.
Because of the story not really being important and the length of the game not being important, the most important way the developer could have added more value to this game, to justify it’s price and existence, would have been to add online co-op play. There is offline co-op play, but given the already high price point for the game + Guncon 3 controller, I’m not in any rush to run out and buy another Guncon 3 controller… I’d much rather hop online and play with someone else that paid for it already.
Update #1: Reader Lee Wren sent in some shots of him playing Time Crisis 4 on his 105″ screen, check it out and drool (Thanks Lee!):
November 23rd, 2007 at 10:04 pm
This was very informational because i went to see about it. the guy at game stop said that something was wrong with it and i left to see if i can find any reviews and this review gave me the best review i could about this game. i will get it so thanks.
November 24th, 2007 at 7:42 am
Mike I appreciate the kind words. We really tried to convey what the game was so folks looking for the right game would know what to expect.
After you get it, let us know what you think if you get a chance; we’d love to know.
November 24th, 2007 at 5:35 pm
Sick review, i got the game, its great, the only negative is the non wireless controller and non wireless LED sensors…this is 2007, wireless is key…game is still ridic though…get it if you have a big tv
November 24th, 2007 at 6:11 pm
Avin, totally agree. Really enjoyed the game, wireless and online co-op would have been icing on the cake, but not necessary.
Big TV is a ton of fun with this puppy
November 26th, 2007 at 8:40 am
Can anyone tell me where to get an additional guncon?
November 26th, 2007 at 8:44 am
Vonda,
That’s a good question, I have been unable to find it anywhere for sale on it’s own.
November 28th, 2007 at 6:43 am
I just love light gun games so TC 4 is reat news - vampire night and virtua cop and are my favourites also end-game was ot too looks like i dont have a choice i will be playing time crysis 4 though - will be great on projector - Will have to set screen size to 50 inches though.
Also i hate playig FPS games with thumbsticks so what i will do is hacksaw off that stupid thing on the side and then smash it with a sledge hammer and take photos to show what i will then call the guncon 3+.
There was absolutely no need for these thumbsticks the gc3 can detect rotation and offscreen aiming so either of these could be used to allow the player to dive or move left-right etc no need for thumbsticks at all seems like the designers forgot they were supposed to be making a light gun and got side tracked into making a thumbstick controller instead.
Also i could definatly go retro light gun games how about a package with Virtua cop, Vampire night, end game, and time crysis updated to use the gc3 and all on one blu-ray would be very sweet Yes the graphics would not be next-gen but the gameplay matters more sometimes.
November 29th, 2007 at 11:56 am
hello, good review, i was looking for videos of using guncon… have you tried to use guncon in another game like Resistance? (This guncon seems to have all the sixaxis buttons)
November 29th, 2007 at 1:35 pm
Et,
Actually no I haven’t yet, I was wondering that exactly same thing… my guess is that the controls will work, but the light-gun/firing/aiming part won’t work… in which case it’s just akward as hell.
I’ll try and do it today with The Darkness, and see what happens (I don’t have Resistence)
November 29th, 2007 at 11:12 pm
how long are the led cables? i have a projector and my ps3 is not close to my screen.
November 30th, 2007 at 7:25 am
Great question Lee, the LED cable is 6′ long, but it’s a standard USB cable, so you could get an extender for it thankfully.
I will add this to the review, it’s a good question.
November 30th, 2007 at 11:57 am
Guys, just a heads up, it looks like you will be able to buy a 2nd controller when they go on sale in a couple of weeks individually at retailers. So just a bit longer to wait.
November 30th, 2007 at 12:38 pm
Have you already tried with Darkness?
December 1st, 2007 at 10:01 am
i hooked the game to my projector and it worked great on 105 inch screen i just had to put the LEDs the same distance from the center of the top of the screen.
December 1st, 2007 at 10:05 am
Lee,
Hot-damn that sounds fun… are you using the 2-point or 5-point calibration?
Would you be able to post a link to a picture of your setup? Would be kinda cool to see just how big that all looks… at 105″ are the bad guys life-sized?
Also did you need to get USB extension cables for the guns so you could sit far enough away, or was the PS3 oriented in a spot far away from the screen anyway?
December 1st, 2007 at 10:52 am
i guess it is two point i had to shot two spots on the screen. i just did what it said. is five better?
i have never put anything on youtube but i will try if not i email you some pics.
no, the ps3 is near me but i had to get one for the LEDs.
also thanks for the page it helped me alot. i almost didn’t get the game.
December 1st, 2007 at 10:58 am
Lee,
When you get to the calibration screen, I believe you can hit one of the B buttons (B1 or B2) to switch to the 5-point calibration mode. And yes, in my testing, it was a bit more accurate for me and tracked a little better. You might try it, it doesn’t take that much longer to calibrate in that mode.
Actually that would be great if you could email me some photos of the setup. I can host them and add them to this story with full credit so folks can see what a sweet-ass TC4 setup looks like
My email address is rkalla at gmail dot com and is also on the About page, just don’t want to post it for spam-reasons.
December 2nd, 2007 at 3:36 am
Hello, can you try plugging in the led’s usb cable into something other than the ps3 (like a laptop etc…) as my ps3 is far away from my projector screen. I just want to see if the usb is for power only…
Cheers.
December 2nd, 2007 at 7:21 am
Sevan,
The good news is that it is. It’s like the Wii, where you have that little IR bar planted under your TV but you can get the same effect by setting up two candles infront of the TV as well (Because they emit IR).
December 2nd, 2007 at 11:04 am
i have a 106in projector screen and it works awesome.
you dont need the leds pluged in to the ps3 for it to work. i got a outlet to usb adapter.
December 2nd, 2007 at 11:14 am
Trav you have to send us pictures… can you post a picture of your setup with TC4 running on it, or email it to me (rkalla at gmail dot com) and I’ll host/post it?
December 2nd, 2007 at 2:13 pm
Lee,
I got the shots and added them to the end of the story… it looks drool-worthy.
Out of curiosity are the two “light spots” at the top center of the screen dim lights, or are those the LEDs?
December 2nd, 2007 at 2:55 pm
they are the LEDs. it is like that only on pics and video.
December 2nd, 2007 at 4:37 pm
riyad,
check this out.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ht2ceXJyKXE
December 2nd, 2007 at 4:44 pm
Lee that looks freaking sweet. Thanks for posting that movie.
Also a quick tip, in that last part with the terror bits, if you select the grenade launcher and wait for them to swarm down the *right* wall, then fire it directly into the middle of the right wall, the explosion kills all of them at the same time.
I haven’t tried it in the office yet when they come in from the cieling because you are such close quarters with the other NPCs.
December 5th, 2007 at 11:32 am
Great review. I was hoping this would work on my projector setup, & it does! But because the sensors are not wireless . . . it does NOT. I have my screen 15″ away from my projector w/ the PS3 next to the projector. It would be even farther if my living room was larger. Running 2 16″ USB cables along my ceiling is just too ungainly. Hopefully the hardware will be updated (wireless sensors/gun)but i’m not holding my breath.
December 5th, 2007 at 11:53 am
Riyad Kalla this is for you…did you happen to see a release date for the individual guncon?
December 5th, 2007 at 1:10 pm
@L1F3:
For the LEDs you can connect them to any power source, not necessarily the PS3… so if you have power near the top or bottom of the projector screen, you can simply run the LEDs to a USB->Power converter.
Also, the gun needs to connect to the PS3, you said the PS3 is 16′ back by the projector, which is close to where you are standing when you play. The gun also has a 10′ cable on it, so assuming you are standing back away from the screen you should be able to play without any problem.
@Vonda,
I didn’t see an exact release date, just the phrase “in a few weeks”, but that’s pretty vague. I would guess that they want to hit the Christmas release date, but I really don’t know, sorry.
December 5th, 2007 at 3:40 pm
Thanks for the nfo Riyad! that is good news. I project onto a wall from ceiling to floor, my screen is much smaller so i mixed up the “silver screen” paint to do this. Does anyone have experience w/ this? I am wondering if the IR will need a more reflective surface to bounce it back. I imagine i could mount the LEDs to the wall near the floor & run that to a USB power converter.
December 5th, 2007 at 4:20 pm
Well, it seems that my idea have having my friends come over & play is a pipe-dream:
http://consumerist.com/consumer/video-games/namco-bandai-wont-sell-accessory-separately-330121.php
I really wanted to be playing this over the holidays, but without 2 players . . . what’s the point?
December 5th, 2007 at 4:35 pm
L1F3 nice find! What a total pile of crap that response from Namco is… hopefully they change their tune… that’s just retarded.
Sounds to me like the game isn’t selling enough and they are trying to “force” more sales of it.
December 5th, 2007 at 5:30 pm
“Sounds to me like the game isn’t selling enough and they are trying to “force” more sales of it.”
Agreed; too bad the gamers get screwed on this. In the end they will lose MORE sales because of this decision.
Perhaps i will be able to find a used one in a couple months . . .
December 10th, 2007 at 1:10 pm
Reader Don Shellings just sent in some links to the two viral ads that Namco/Bandi put out for Time Crisis 4, I like the scarface one the best:
Scarface
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISZ3HtwkAJs
Terminator
http://youtube.com/watch?v=xf5kj-bvBlU
December 12th, 2007 at 3:40 pm
Would it be also possible to place the LEDs not at the top of the screen but below the screen, this would make it easier for me in combination with my projector screen?
December 12th, 2007 at 3:47 pm
Harald,
Absolutely. All the two points do is give points of reference for the gun to calculate motion from. You can put them above, below, wherever you want.
December 13th, 2007 at 12:47 am
yeah, great, looking forward to then play on my 120″ projector screen. I will post a photo after christmas
just another question, if the wii even works in combination with candles, so would it be maybe also possible to place two battery driven lamps???
thank you very much for your help.
great to have such a great review with all the details here, especially with guncon 3 it is not easy to get that detailled information elsewhere which is a shame…
December 13th, 2007 at 8:07 am
Harald,
Thanks for the kind comments.
As far as the lamps go, you just need a source that generates infrared light, which fire does. I don’t know that much about IR unfortunately, so I don’t know if you can pickup little lamps that do the same…
anybody else know if this is the case?
December 16th, 2007 at 5:07 pm
“# In FPS mode, the camera should have tracked the gun’s movement and not a 2nd analog stick (Medium Importance)”
You can change the setting so it tracks the gun’s movement and not the analog stick
December 16th, 2007 at 7:07 pm
Hi Riyad, this is a great review, thanks so much. I have book marked the page for reference. Just placed an order for TC4 from Hong Kong as its not available in the UK until March. Been very interested to see how it differs to time crisis 2 that i had. Sadly I had to retire the game for a while due to buying a plasma TV then bought the RGT T1 gun http://www.xequted.com/articles/121.html
it works on plasma TV’s using similar technology with the new gun but two sensors on the gun and still works with my PS3 on TC3 although its a nightmare of wires and setting up. The gun feels great and is loaded with 9 buttons
but getting the camera to sit study on a flat panel TV is pointless and relies heavily on blue tack and good balance. I know this gun color is PANTS! and take on board the blending-in of buttons with the same color to the gun was not a great development. I think whatever comes next will need be bluetooth. It there is one things we dont need is usb wires across the living room, its embarrassing when you invite your Wii friends over!
December 17th, 2007 at 8:12 am
@Bob,
I haven’t gotten a chance to check this out yet… can anyone else confirm that you *can* set the camera to follow the gun’s cursor in FPS mode? If this is true, I’ll adjust the score.
@Tim, thanks for the kind words! I totally agree about a BT controller. Namco has said they won’t release the Guncon 3 separately, but I think they are just saying that for the Christmas season to push more sales of TC4. I hope come ‘08 they release an optional wireless version of the gun, my guess is that they *have* to have had at least a prototype of it in the labs, but maybe due to the cost didn’t include it in the bundle.
Oh yea, and the gun color is totally pants, but I guess with everyone getting shot and tasered for the stupidest things, Namco didn’t want to be responsible for *any* civil issues incase someone decided to take this “gun” to school or something.
I still have my old laser tag guns from the 80s, and they look dead-real… I think if I carried one of those around I’d likely get shot in under 20mins
December 27th, 2007 at 11:47 am
nice review! non wireless is annoying but it’s even worst without online play. however arcade mode is awsome. i also got the game over screen the first time i killed the boss
December 29th, 2007 at 2:20 pm
Great review and I’m glad to see some fellow projector owners playing with success. My question is this: if the IR emitters are similar to that of the Wii, a wireless Wii sensor bar should work on this too, right?
I’ve got a Nyko wireless one for the Wii below my screen. You guys might want to look into it since it’s only like $20.
December 30th, 2007 at 10:38 pm
Wil, I’m glad to see someone else getting the retarded game-over glitch as well… I really thought it was just me.
Chad, That’s a good question and I’m not sure. The ones that come with the Guncon are signifigantly brighter, and farther apart… so I don’t know if the Guncon *needs* that to “See” properly. It’s certainly worth a try.
January 5th, 2008 at 2:31 pm
Good review, but one problem I’m having is that with the gun, when trying to calibrate the led stays on, this apparently indicates that gun is out of range, but it remains on at all times no matter the range, I basically have to put it point blank at the led sensors. Any suggestions?
January 5th, 2008 at 3:10 pm
Red when you say ’stays on’ do you mean they emit that faint red color?
As far as I know that is normal… Mine do the same thing.
Does the gun work just fine? Might not be anything to worry about.
January 5th, 2008 at 9:36 pm
Has anyone had luck with this game on a 65″ or larger TV? I had a 65″ DLP and haven’t tried out the game yet since I’ve been stuck on Rock Band since xmas. I may have to resell the game if it’s not going to work, so I just want to know if you guys recommend trying it out anyway or not. Thanks!
January 6th, 2008 at 8:30 am
Jeff,
Actually yes. The entire review was done on a 65″ DLP (Mits WD-65831).
January 6th, 2008 at 1:40 pm
Riyad, Thanks. Great news. Got it for xmas and didn’t want to have to figure out what else to do with it. Only frustration is having to disconnect the rock band accessories — this is sooo last generation. heh.. Great review and great updates by the way.
January 6th, 2008 at 1:59 pm
Jeff,
Thanks for the kind words.
Out of curiosity, how come you have to disconnect the Rock Band accessories? Is it lack of USB connections or some sort of hardware conflict?
If it’s just USB connections, I think there are more somewhere on the PS3 (side or back) and you can just use a USB hub if you have one handy since it’s all standard stuff.
That’s one of the things I really dig about the PS3 so far, you can just treat all peripherals are normal devices, no proprietary stuff anymore (like with PS2 or XBox).
Anyway, I digress
January 7th, 2008 at 8:07 am
Haha. True. True… It just starts to get really messy. Lots of wires everywhere and lots of accessories everywhere, but you bring up a good point. BTW, the TV I have is the Mitsubishi WD-65731. I’ve been pretty happy with it since I bought it last year along with the PS3. Later.
January 7th, 2008 at 8:16 am
Oh. Rock Band has the drums plug in, the mic plug in and a receiver for the guitar plug in - leaving just one usb port free. No biggie though. You’re 100% correct about how great it is that Sony’s supporting good standards on this box. I love that too. I’ve thought about upgrading my HD, but there really hasn’t been much of a need yet.
January 26th, 2008 at 4:33 am
Has anyone tried using wii wireless sensor bars instead of the infrared things they provide? I don’t have any power sources next to my (projector) screen >.<
January 26th, 2008 at 10:07 am
Alex, the sensor bar included is very good and it just plugs in via USB - powered by the PS3. There’s no need for any other power sources.
January 26th, 2008 at 10:10 am
Alex: Ohhh. I think I misunderstood your comment. If you’re using a projector, maybe you have the ps3 near the projector — thus you’d have to have a long cord to power the time crisis leds. heh.. well, i dunnno, maybe you could make a little usb battery powered charger like this — http://lifehacker.com/software/diy/make-your-own-portable-usb-charger-165289.php — to power the thing
January 26th, 2008 at 1:00 pm
Thanks Jeff.
Could you do be a huge favour and tell me how far apart the sensors can be? I looks like they’re both connected to a single usb cable…
January 26th, 2008 at 1:07 pm
I’ve found the answer in the comments! It seems like it will work on a 105″ screen.. so I figure 110″ is probably alright..
January 27th, 2008 at 3:36 pm
Alex,
Sorry for the delay in getting back to you, Jeff was spot on though. All the LED sources have to do is be powered so they can turn “on”, you can plug them to a USB Power Plug, something like this:
http://www.amazon.com/Apple-MA592LL-iPod-Power-Adapter/dp/B000IK5XWW
and then just put them under the 110″ screen. Your gun is the only thing that needs to be “near” the PS3, cause it plugs into it and sends back all the positioning signals it’s reading to the PS3.
Then again if the 10′ lead on the gun isn’t long enough, I’m sure you could throw a USB extension on it to make it longer.
I think you’ll be fine though… keep us posted on what you end up doing!
February 19th, 2008 at 8:56 am
Is there a bug on stage 2? I killed the boss, and “Game Over” That is just stupid.
February 19th, 2008 at 8:57 am
Thien,
There *totally* is… I ran into that bug 4 times when playing, it was really maddening, but I don’t see any other folks reporting it. Not sure why.
But yes, for your sanity sake, I killed boss and saw the immediate “Game Over” many times… it sucked balls.
February 19th, 2008 at 9:08 am
Riyad Kalle, I’ve tried it 3-4 times on hard now. Can’t get to Stage 3. And the fps mode is very boring. haha Just got this game and after 20-30 min of shooting, I’m stuck. Stupid bug
March 2nd, 2008 at 1:38 pm
yeah boys im gettin the game over after beating the second boss its pissing me OFF is there any way 2 fix it?
March 2nd, 2008 at 1:41 pm
You can’t get to stage 3 if you start from stage 2? Could that be it?
Try again - start from the beginning of the story.
–
Managed to get it working, but the LED lights have to be above the screen, which is a bit of a PITA as there’s no natural place toleave them up. I stick them on with white-tac when I want to play
March 19th, 2008 at 4:02 pm
Great Review. Im from Australia and i was wondering
If i have a 40GB playstation with only two USB ports. Can i play multiplayer?
March 19th, 2008 at 6:39 pm
tommy, if you pick up a USB hub you should be set
March 20th, 2008 at 4:41 pm
cool thanks. can’t wait until it comes out on the 24th of april!
April 1st, 2008 at 4:21 am
I got that annoying Game Over bug in Stage 2 about four times until I started right from the start again.
And if you live in Australia you can already get it online from playasia.com for about $100AU. I’ve had my copy for a while now, its pretty good fun but I really hope namco bring out some other titles utilising the gun (such as point blank… love that game)
April 1st, 2008 at 6:31 am
guys, it’s not a bug. If you’ve ever played the other games they’re the same way.
April 1st, 2008 at 8:25 am
Top Shelf,
How are you suppose to pass Stage 2 then? I’m seriously confused
April 1st, 2008 at 9:05 am
You pass it by playing through the whole game in the regular arcade mode… Picking the stage to play is just that — picking a single stage to play… When I first played Time Crisis 2 on PS2 I thought this was hokey as well but it keeps it more true to the arcade I suppose.
Add me — Top_Shelf — on PSN if you’d like.
April 1st, 2008 at 9:55 am
mother of god… the only way to *finish* the game is to play straight through it without stopping?
Dang… well atleast thanks for the heads up Jeff, now I know to stop starting Stage 3 over and over again trying to finish
April 1st, 2008 at 4:04 pm
Fark, I can’t remember that rule
Though I never go to arcades and last time crisis I played was the original on psx.
April 19th, 2008 at 8:26 am
fantastic review. this is the fourth review i have read and the only accurate one. i love the game . thanks
April 21st, 2008 at 8:12 am
Gordon,
Thanks man, very nice of you to say so.
April 24th, 2008 at 12:00 am
I got the game two days ago. It is so much fun especially the FPS stages.
I got the game over thing at the end of stage two but now we know why.
Very happy with this game.
April 24th, 2008 at 4:33 am
is it in australia yet
May 2nd, 2008 at 4:22 am
great review,
got the game in front of me, waiting for my son to finish watching his cartoon.
thnx again.
May 2nd, 2008 at 4:35 am
Rush,
Glad it helped, there has been some awesome input from folks here in the comments as well (and 1 or 2 of those lucky souls who have 110″ projection setups.)
Have fun!
May 5th, 2008 at 2:37 pm
Can the gun be used on PS2 and PS1 gun games?
I have a 60GB PS3 with backward compatability and wondered if the older games will play fine with the Gun?
July 8th, 2008 at 5:58 am
Renchi.com for an additional control
July 31st, 2008 at 12:34 pm
there is a mode where the cursor moves the the camera.
select missions mode, and choose one-stick mode in the menu where you set the difficuty. =)
August 1st, 2008 at 6:01 am
Can anyone else confirm this? I can’t find my damn TC4 case and now I’m really curious about this. It would bump up the score of the FPS sections and the first time I went looking for any setting like this I didn’t see it.
I’ll feel really bad if it’s there staring me in the face…