– Posted on December 1, 2010Posted in: Video Games
And here’s your rumor of the day. It’s a leaked slide from a probable internal Blizzard presentation a few months ago. Other than a Diablo 3 release date of Q4 2012, most of the upcoming release schedule is fairly predictable.
Well other than this:
Titan
Yeah, that’s Blizzard’s new MMOFPS and I might have hinted at that in the past but I don’t have a lot of extra information about it and the release date is just an estimation. Don’t assume that it will be released by the end of 2013 based on that document, it would be very stupid. (Edit: Titan is a new game by the way, not an existing IP. But I’m really not sure what’s the plan with it, I just know that the FPS bit is most likely here to stay)
– Posted on December 1, 2010Posted in: Video Games
It’s pretty ridiculous that games are shipping on consoles with egregious bugs still at large. Fable 3 was released around October 18th and it took 6 weeks for this patch to come out. I’ve held off playing this and Fallout: New Vegas because I don’t want any part of hard lockups, especially in a long game.
**Updated 11/11 with fix for the mirrored video from the previous embed. Plus a neat little title!
So you may or may not have heard that Microsoft is putting out a new controller for the Xbox 360 on November 9th. It’s got a nice silver finish and has newly contoured joysticks and a magical transforming d-pad that will help you pull of shourykens a lot better.
I got my hands on one last week and have put together a mini-review video below.
TL;DW – It’s a nice improvement and worth the money if you were planning on getting a new controller or need one with a good d-pad. It’s not a ZOMG BUY THIS NOW purchase, but you won’t want to go back to the old one once you’ve gotten it.
Shame on you if you aren’t already click-clacking your way to plastic musical instrument heaven today. Harmonix’s Rock Band 3 releases today on the Xbox 360, Playstation 3, Nintendo Wii, and Nintendo DS and many reviews are already calling it the “best rhythm game ever.”
If you’re the poor soul that hosts your circle of friends’ Rock Band get togethers, there’s at least a $129.99 investment you have to make today to buy the game and new keyboard peripheral. On the bright side, it’s an actual MIDI keyboard so you can justify it by saying you got a “real” musical instrument, but we all know you’re just going to use it to hit five colored notes while getting drunk with your friends.
It’s alright. No one’s judging you. Except maybe your mom.
To celebrate a return to the best home karaoke platform ever, I’ve put together a Grooveshark playlist of 82 of the 83 songs in Rock Band 3. (The only song not on here is John Lennon’s Imagine, which i “imagine” is not on Grooveshark because of licensing reasons.) Enjoy getting to know these songs! It’ll be especially fun if you don’t know Spanish and get roped to sing the Juanes song. My heart goes out to you.
It’s started a little later than usual for me this year, but this past Tuesday marked the official start of the “every week there will be an awesome new game released” season. (Yes, Halo Reach was released in mid-September, but there was just such a long gap between that and this week that I’m going to consider that like having dessert an hour before the buffet line opens.)
This week we had three solid retail titles come out: Fallout: New Vegas, DJ Hero 2 and Vanquish. Next week we’ll see Fable 3. The week after is the Kinect launch week as well as Call of Duty Black Ops. Then the storm really comes with Donkey Kong Country Returns, Goldeneye, Epic Mickey, Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood, Gran Turismo 5, World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, then OH MY GOD THIS IS NEVER GOING TO END.
Even though I’ve yet to visit Shibuya, its name will always have a positive mental association in my head with visions of bright neon colors, modern architecture, large crowds of fashionably modern people, and upbeat music. Yes, my mental picture of Shibuya is comprised entirely of the arcade/karaoke scenes from the movie Lost In Translation and the general eccentric awesomeness of the Nintendo DS game, The World Ends With You, but so what? It works for me.
Nevertheless, that positive vibe got me interested in a recently released iPhone game unsurprisingly titled Shibuya. It’s a puzzle game inspired by the aesthetics of the real-life place in Tokyo. Think Tetris meets your favorite color matching game with some delicious special sauce that you haven’t quite tasted before. Oh, and it was also named a finalist of Penny Arcade’s PAX 10 indie games.
It’s got the “easy to learn; hard to master” learning curve going for it. Plus, developer Never Center has structured game progression utilizing achievements in a manner I can get behind. You can ignore the achievements completely if you just want a quick game. But if you’re a goal-oriented person like me, you’ll appreciate the bite-sized checklists of achievements to accomplish. Basically, there are 11 “levels” in the game broken up into groups of 4 achievements. Complete the current 4 achievements and you’ll get the next set of achievements. These can range from surviving Endless mode for a certain amount of time or for completing a 2 minute Quickplay game on a certain difficulty level. It’s simple, but effective way to motivate players to play an otherwise endless puzzle game.
“How do I play this wonderful game?” you may ask. Well, you know what they say about pictures and videos and words.
Here’s the president of Never Center explaining how the game is played:
– Posted on September 23, 2010Posted in: Video Games
Alright, I’m officially onboard the Sky-o-Shock Bioshock Infinite train after watching this enthralling gameplay video.
Seriously, if you have or had any interest in Bioshock whatsoever, you need to see this video.
I admit to being a bit nonplussed by the announcement last month, but seeing the game in action goes a long way to mollifying my concerns with the game. Frankly, I just needed some space between this and Bioshock 2. By the time Infinite comes out, I bet people will be frothing at the mouth if this video is any indication of the finished game.
The floating city of Columbia looks to have just as much, if not more character than the underwater city of Rapture did. The interactions with Elizabeth add a little more human drama to the proceedings. As great a device the voice communiques in the original Bioshock were, I’m looking forward to actually getting more face time with my allies in Infinite.
Oh, and apparently some people on the internet are complaining about the linearity of the gameplay in the video. To which i say ptooey. I couldn’t care less if a dramatic and story driven game leans toward the more linear side. As entertaining as you, the player, are, there’s a reason why we pay Irrational $60 to play their game.
But if you lose sleep over that sort of thing, check out this tasty quote from Ken Levine from his interview with The EU Playstation Blog:
“You might choose to take on enemies at extremely long range while traveling on Sky-Lines, or you might engage in close combat,” he says. “You might do both in quick succession. You can jump between criss-crossing Sky-Line routes, allowing you to instantly change direction and evade or outflank enemies. Sky-Lines are there to expand your tactical options, not dictate them.”
(One final suggestion: If you can wait until you get in front of an Xbox 360 to watch it, I recommend grabbing the video from the Xbox Live Marketplace. It’s in hi-def and will look the same on your TV as if you were playing the game itself.)
– Posted on September 16, 2010Posted in: Video Games
Tokyo Game Show is this week and that invariably means tons of wacky game announcements from creative Japanese game developers. Microsoft’s keynote at the event yesterday was comprised almost solely of Kinect titles and I have to say, they’ve trotted out some talented developers.
Here’s a short list of exclusive titles announced at TGS via Major Nelson’s blog:
codename D (Grasshopper Manufacture, Microsoft Game Studios). From the famed markers of “killer7” and the “NO MORE HEROES” series comes “codename D” from SUDA 51 for Microsoft Game Studios. You must fight for your life to survive an evil amusement park filled with twisted and eerie creatures. With “codename D” for Kinect for Xbox 360, you are the controller as you unleash devastating effects to destroy enemies and objects.
Project Draco (Grounding, Microsoft Game Studios). The director of the cult hits “Phantom Dust” and “Panzer Dragoon,” game director Yukio Futatsugi, brings you an epic 3-D flying shooter. With the magic of Kinect for Xbox 360, you will be able to nurture and learn to communicate with your dragon as you develop its skills and train it as a partner in combat. Then join friends on Xbox LIVE to feel the rush of flight as you take to the skies together and experience breathtaking vistas and engage in thrilling battles.
Haunt (NanaOn-Sha, Microsoft Game Studios). Gather friends and family to delve deep into a haunted house dripping with mystery — you’ll need every ounce of your wit and cunning if you hope to unravel the veil of rumors that hide its darkest secret. Dodge traps and outwit ghosts, ghouls and frights that lurk with glee around each and every corner. Take a deep breath and immerse yourself in “Haunt,” spooky fun for Kinect for Xbox 360. (FYI: NanaOn-Sha was the creator of Parappa The Rapper)
Steel Battalion Heavy Armor (Capcom, From Software). This all-new game revives the fan-favorite “Steel Battalion” series. With the support of Microsoft, Capcom and From Software join forces to bring this groundbreaking collaborative project to Xbox 360. Manhattan, 2082: In a world where computers and almost all modern technology have been lost, the greatest nations of the world continue to battle for supremacy. The American army lands in New York to begin its first big offensive of a long ground war. Soldiers fire from the trenches as scorched bunkers belch black smoke. As comrades continually fall to the unrelenting crossfire of bullets, the Vertical Tanks make their relentless advance. Experience the battlefield as never before with Kinect for Xbox 360.
Rise of Nightmares (SEGA). “Rise of Nightmares” offers a spine-tingling horror experience that uses the innovative new controls of Kinect for Xbox 360 to give players the ultimate fright. Using their whole body, players will experience fear and tension as never before in this exclusive Kinect horror adventure.
While these were all just announcements (They’re all supposed to come out in 2011), I have to admit that every single one of these games at least sounds intriguing. Plus, with the track record these developers have, gaming connoisseurs can’t dismiss these titles (and by extension, the Kinect) outright. Combined with Mizuguchi’s upcoming Child of Eden, I’d say there’s a bunch of reasons to give a long hard look at motion gaming.
I’ll reserve judgment until I’m actually playing some awesome games with the Kinect, but Microsoft has made a big step forward in showing that the Kinect is not just a useless $149 addon to play Wii Sports knockoffs.
Normally, I wouldn’t give a crap about some ancillary fan-fiction comic, but I noticed that the co-creator and artist of Powers, Michael Avon Oeming is involved with it. (Powers, if you didn’t know, is one of the best current comics, written by Brian Michael Bendis and drawn by Oeming. It’s a gritty cop story set in a world where super-powered people exist.) Doing a little more digging on Oeming’s site revealed that the game writers over at Valve handled the scripting while he handled the art for this project.
“The Sacrifice” starts right after the end of the original Left 4 Dead and tells the story of what happened to that crew. We even get some flashback sequences from before the outbreak really hit the fan and learn a bit more about Louis’s life before he became a “survivor.” It’s actually a pretty compelling story and a recommended one if you’ve played the games or like zombies.
– Posted on September 8, 2010Posted in: Video Games
OMG GUN GAME MONEY WAGER BETTING OMG GUN GAME.
Sorry about that, sometimes I get the douchey meathead version of Tourrette’s Syndrome.
Anyway, even though Infinity Ward has long left the Call of Duty franchise, Activision is still planning on releasing new CoD titles like clockwork. Developer Treyarch unveiled the multiplayer portion of the upcoming Call of Duty: Black Ops last week and it looks like it’s taking the “earn xp in a gun game” mechanic to the next logical step – wager battles.
That’s right, instead of simply being content by earning the first person gaming equivalent of participation medals, you can now bet all those hard earned points you’ve built up from playing Call of Duty on blood matches.
Personally, I’m a bit sick of the grindy leveling up mechanic for multiplayer shooters, but you do have to hand it to Treyarch – no one’s done what they’re doing here before.
Watch the developer walkthrough video above for more info on the new gametypes in Call of Duty: Black Ops.
