Afrika

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

So cos it was going cheap (fifteen quid) I just bought the new PS3 game Afrika. It's not gonna be released in the UK apparantly but most of the menus are in English though the in-game text speak is Japanese...

Still it's a game where you're a photographer who goes into parts of Afrika to take photos of zebras, giraffes and such like.

It's kinda relaxing actually - I really fancied a relaxing game for when I need to chill out and the thought of taking a hot air balloon ride across virtual African plains before landing to wait to take photos of very very realistic looking and acting wild animals kinda sounded interesting.

And it is.

Still the most stupid thing made me mark out - I was taking photos in landscape view and then by tipping the six axis up on end as if it was my camera, the image tilted around to portrait view. Very very cool and intuitive and now I hold my controller up like a camera and keep rotating it.

It's generally scored decently and reviewed well but I've heard it's not going to the UK so if anyone fancies a copy....Let me know.

Edited October 25, 2008 by ChrisSteeleAteMyThatcher

[Summers]

That looks quality as fuck.

Do the lions hunt other animals and stuff?

[Captain Kirk]

I thought it was going to come to UK. Is there a NA release planned or just Japan? Know any good sites to order it no import?

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

I've only completed the first mission and snuck around, hid in a bush and got the greatest ever close up shot of a giraffe. All the animals interact so far - zebras are real herd animals and if they see you coming they all stop and look at you and if you get closer they all run off. Giraffes are more chilled though.

I can't wait til the hippo and lion levels and see if there is some good interaction with prey and hunters. I hope so.

I thought it was getting released in the UK too but latest word says no.

Real shame, but like I say, if anyone really wants it, I can export a copy to you.

EDIT: It's also got a Jurassic Park style soundtrack so I keep thinking "mmmm that's relaxing but surely all hell is gonna break loose soon and something will eat me"

EDIT 2: My next job is to go and take a picture of hippos drinking for National Geographic or something. I wandered up casually and suddenly the screen zoomed right in on a Hippo which started grunting angrily and the screen flashed red and my character's heart pulsed through the control pad. Those things are vicious - it was obviously getting ready to charge me - lousy dangerous beasts.

AGGGGH IT CHARGED ME! I went all unconscious and woke up in my bed back at basecamp with some woman looking caringly down on me. Brilliant, the nasty beasties attack you if you get too close!

Edited October 25, 2008 by ChrisSteeleAteMyThatcher

[stokeriño]

I think I might interested, actually. All my unplayed games at the moment are either "Hardcore RPG which YOU MUST DEDICATE YOUR LIFE TO IF YOU EVER WANT TO FINISH IT RAWR" or "Oh fgghfhjsk seventy people are shooting at me - HALP! HALP!"...and, well, a lot of the time I'm just not in the mood.

When you say most of the meus are in English but the in-game speak's in Japanese - do you just have to guess what you're meant to be doing most of the time? Because I can just imagine myself going "...I'm in a field. Do I just wander around like a lost fool or what?"

Edited October 25, 2008 by stokeriño

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

I think I might interested, actually. All my unplayed games at the moment are either "Hardcore RPG which YOU MUST DEDICATE YOUR LIFE TO IF YOU EVER WANT TO FINISH IT RAWR" or "Oh fgghfhjsk seventy people are shooting at me - HALP! HALP!"...and, well, a lot of the time I'm just not in the mood.

When you say most of the meus are in English but the audio's in Japanese - do you just have to guess what you're meant to be doing most of the time? Because I can just imagine myself going "...I'm in a field. Do I just wander around like a lost fool or what?"

The menus are English so you can find your way around the game no problem. There's no speaking audio, it's all on screen text. It's pretty hardcore Japanese for that part but you can take your time trying to translate if you fancy that - or I'm getting through quite nicely without reading and with a little bit of trial and error. The contract emails are pretty straight forward as you get little videos with the email to tell you what you want. You then go out into the plains and take photos and then get a lift back to camp, upload them onto the game computer, select the best one for the email and hope that they like it enough to pay you! It's clear and straight forward.

[stokeriño]

Hmm...

And £15 you say? Though postage would add a bit on to that. It's more than £30 on Play-Asia. Not that they're willing to ship the game to the EU, oh no.

Edited October 25, 2008 by stokeriño

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

I think postage would be about a fiver to seven pounds if that interests you.

Lousy zebra just threatened to charge at me while I was taking perfect and amazing uber close up pictures of a giraffe eating from the branches of the tree above me. The swine.

EDIT: I thought that you could only walk around the area where the jeep drops you off but on the way back to camp I just randomly pressed the L2 button and the jeep stopped and I could get out and walk around that area too. Bloody fantastic.

Edited October 25, 2008 by ChrisSteeleAteMyThatcher

[RoyWill Rumble]

I assume this a PS3-exclusive? To be honest, if it can somehow be shipped to North America and work, and not be PS3-exclusive I'd want this. It looks cool as fuck in the most nerdy way possible.

[Tarheels.]

That does look absolutely awesome.

Too bad I don't have a PS3

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

It's PS3 exclusive. All the in-game cameras and stuff are Sony made. It's also made with National Geographic so it's wonderfully nerdy for animals.

Just had two jobs to complete - one took me ages of creeping down the bank near the hippos every time they looked away so that I could get close enough to get a winning shot of one of them giving a monster yawn...

Then I had to take a funky close up shot of a cheeky monkey sitting in a tree which I'd already taken beforehand.

I seem to understand the layout of the game a bit better now. There seems to be three main big areas - I'm still working in the first which seems to currently have hippos, monkeys, gazelles, zebras, giraffes and a bigger caribou style creature.

There are a few hotspots that my cheerful jeep driver will take me too - currently the hippo pool, the busy and beautiful oasis and the dusty slightly deserty area in which the smaller gazelle seem to chill out with the odd few giraffes wandering over for the hell of it.

I think there's at least one or two other specialist areas of interest in this section and I can also wander around the base camp.

You can only wander so far from the jeep (maybe 70-100 metres but it seems plenty) but you can get back in the jeep and as the driver drives you to or from the spot you can stop him at any point to get out and wander and take photos to your heart's content.

I can guess that there's no lions in this area but will crop up in the ones a little further away, cheetas (a mark out moment if I see one of those running past), and there are elephants, jaguars, rhinos (which according to pics in the manual fight eachother), ostriches, flamingos....There are also young for the animals.

You awake at dawn and the time progresses throughout the day as you walk around. Earlier I wandered down to the hippo pool at dawn and the sun slowly rose behind me...Dusk is pretty spectacular too.

Also it seems that you have to take a photo of a cheetah or lion hunting so SumSum that looks like it's a goer.

The only downer seems to be that the main guy is wandering around the African savannah wearing a wooly hat....The crazy fool...

[Guest deknegt]

So is there any predator action?

I would love to see a deer getting mauled by a tiger.

Its the only reason i watch animal planet irl

[stokeriño]

I would love to see a deer getting mauled by a tiger.

Wrong continent.

[Guest deknegt]

I would love to see a Zebra getting mauled by a tiger.

Wrong continent.

Is that correct?

[Cabral_]

The tiger

Game looks and sounds pretty good... not gunna buy a PS3 to play it though heh.

Edited October 25, 2008 by Cabral_

[DoubleX]

I would love to see a Zebra getting mauled by a tiger.

Wrong continent.

Is that correct?

It'd most likely be a lion or a cheetah malowning a zebra or a gazelle.

Although seeing a crocodile getting a buffalo would be pretty epic as well.

Also Wikpedia says TBA for a North America release date, but no source next to it, so I wouldn't hold your breath.

Edited October 26, 2008 by DoubleX

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

WOAH!

Spent a couple of days mooching around while my useless driver took me to the gazelles' main home - horribly boring photos.

Then today he took me back to the cheetah hunting grounds - no cheetah though so he drove me on a lap of the plains then we return and the cheetah is there.

We get a zoom in and then she launches herself after the gazelles grazing.

You're not allowed to get out of the jeep to photo a cheetah so the driver is driving beside the cheetah while you snap away to get the best shots as the beast chases down, kills and mauls a gazelle - bloody brilliant and I got some good photos of it too.

So yeah, the big cats hunt, you take photos and innocent gazelles die. Fantastic.

[Plubby]

Pokemon Snap: IRL?

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

Pokemon Snap: IRL?

That's one of the games it's been compared to yes.

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

I've now moved onto the second area and now I've been allowed to drive! Whoop! I can drive completely freely through the first two areas now, trying to run over gazelles and massacre wildebeast.

I took a fantastic photo of a wildebeast all close up and it was really close, looking at me. I then get told that it's the photo being used in the National Geographic safari guide book and it shows a pretend page about the animal and my photo is there! Grooviness!

I also have a tent now so I may be able to stay out over night! CAAAAAAMP!