New Games |
- La-Mulana guide book coming, proceeds go to Japan
- Live Show: Backlog plays more Ratchet & Clank
- Monster Hunter Portable 3rd HD gameplay video
- New releases: Hunted: Demon's Forge, BlazBlue and more
- Rumor: Europe to receive The Last Story
- Dead Island's box art can leave you hanging
- The Jimquisition: Too Cool To Be Cool
- Dragon's Dogma screens lighten the mood
- Nintendo DLC: House M.D., Super Adventure Island
- The Secret World dev diary talks story and mission types
- Necro-Review: Metro 2033
- Tales of Xillia limited edition PS3 is quite nice
- Podtoid 153 records tomorow, get your Q's in!
- Sony will live stream their E3 press conference
- Certain Affinity announces Crimson Alliance
- Portable Dreamcast is ugly, costs $470
- Duke Nukem Forever: Fully Loaded comes with graphics card
| La-Mulana guide book coming, proceeds go to Japan Posted: 30 May 2011 04:00 PM PDT La-Mulana is the long suffering, indie PC game that's been on it's way to WiiWare for over a year now. It promises to give the player a "Mickey Mouse Vs. Terminator" experience. Therefore, I want it. I was beginning to doubt that the game would ever make it to WiiWare, what with all the terrifying disasters that Japan has suffered this year, and the effect those disasters have had on the country's game developers. Looks like I was dumb for doubting. Not only has "everything been sorted out" concerning the game's WiiWare release, but it's getting an online guidebook as well. The guidebook will be released in two installments, and though the details are a little unclear at the moment, they have stated that the proceeds for at least one of those installments will go to the Japan Relief Fund. As a long time collector of guide books, I'd be happier with a print version of the La-Mulana guide, but I bet shipping costs from Japan would be brutal. I'll happily take this digital facsimile in it's place. Given how notoriously hard La-Mulana is, I'm going to need it. We are making a guide book [La-Mulana.com] | ||||||||
| Live Show: Backlog plays more Ratchet & Clank Posted: 30 May 2011 03:00 PM PDT Tonight on Backlog, we continue with the final installment in the Ratchet & Clank Future trilogy, A Crack in Time. Ratchet and Quark are making slow progress in their quest to reunite with Clank and learn the connection between him and the Zoni. Meanwhile, Clank has escaped the clutches of Dr. Nefarious in the Great Clock. Pretty exciting stuff. I'm playing and hanging out with the goons in our live chat right this very second. Come join the fun over on Destructoid's Justin.tv channel! Watch live video from Destructoid on Justin.tv
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| Monster Hunter Portable 3rd HD gameplay video Posted: 30 May 2011 02:00 PM PDT What to see what a PSP game blown up to HD on the PS3 looks like? Well, you're going to have to work for it. In a recent Famitsu Ustream broadcast you'll find footage of this first of what will hopefully be many PSP-to-PS3 ports. The problem is that the video stream is 45 or so minutes long. Andriasang says that you'll need to jump to about the 21:00 mark to find the game footage of Monster Hunter Portable 3rd HD. You'll have to put up with the voices of a bunch of Japanese onlookers yelling things like "waaah!" during the stream, but it looks great, so it's worth your trouble. | ||||||||
| New releases: Hunted: Demon's Forge, BlazBlue and more Posted: 30 May 2011 01:00 PM PDT
It's the week before E3 so that means not too much is hitting the shelves. Hunted: The Demon's Forge is finally out and that might be promising. The other biggie is BlazBlue for the PSP and 3DS, which I had no idea was actually a thing until just now. On the PC side of things, BioShock 2 and Call of Duty: Black Ops are both finally getting their long overdue downloadable content. That's about it! What's looking sw33t to you?
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| Rumor: Europe to receive The Last Story Posted: 30 May 2011 12:00 PM PDT While in Paris to attend a concert performed by Masashi Hamauzu, the current composer of the Final Fantasy series, Mistwalker president Hironobu "The Gooch" Sakaguchi mentioned that the Wii action RPG The Last Story would definitely arrive in Europe. This info jives well with an earlier rumor from a Nintendo rep in London. If legit, this means Europe has both Xenoblade Chronicles and The Last Story to fulfill their Wii JRPG desires. It also means that the States is still getting stiffed hardcore by Nintendo. Did we offend you in some way? Japan has all but given up on the Wii, and no one in Europe gives a flying fudge about software unless it says "Just Dance" somewhere on the box. The only major region that still somewhat supports the damn platform is the US, yet Japan and Europe are where the most exciting projects turn up. Nintendo reminds me of that kid in school whose ego is so gargantuan that he can't stand it when someone doesn't like him unconditionally. He could be the most popular guy in school, but he won't pay you a lick of attention until you stop paying him any attention. He's trying to gain favor with those who don't want to hang with him while ignoring those who do. Stop being that guy, Nintendo! The Last Story en Europe : Sakaguchi nous le confirme [Gameblog via Nintendo Everything] | ||||||||
| Dead Island's box art can leave you hanging Posted: 30 May 2011 11:00 AM PDT The Dead Island forums revealed the game's box art today, with a normal version for most of the countries that traded slaves in the colonial era and a censored version for the region they were headed to. Makes sense, no? I never saw a problem with the logo, as the game's fictional island has tourists of all colors as well as an indigenous population. A more valid complaint would be that it makes no sense to hang a zombie from a tree by its neck. Anyway, potbelly zombie Platoon! Dead Island Boxart revealed [Dead Island forums via Twitter] | ||||||||
| The Jimquisition: Too Cool To Be Cool Posted: 30 May 2011 10:00 AM PDT
What does Duke Nukem and Sonic the Hedgehog have in common? I studied at the School of Cool for fifteen years and have used my extensive education on the subject to deduce the problem -- they are too cool to be cool. Thank God for me. | ||||||||
| Dragon's Dogma screens lighten the mood Posted: 30 May 2011 09:00 AM PDT Dragon's Dogma wants you all to know about its lighting effects, which is handy because these new screens show off exactly that. Convenient! The latest gallery has a range of scenes at various times of the day in order to show off the range of lighting on offer. From bright sunny vistas to gloomy, shadowy castles, the game has it all. Especially when it comes to fire, since Dragon's Dogma is increasingly looking like a pyromaniac's wet dream. The game's slated for March 27, 2012, on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. [Via andriasang] | ||||||||
| Nintendo DLC: House M.D., Super Adventure Island Posted: 30 May 2011 08:44 AM PDT It may be a national holiday in America, but that doesn't mean that Nintendo is taking a day off. There's plenty of DLC coming our way this week. Here's what we've got: Wiiware:
DSiWare
Virtual Console
What are you getting this week? | ||||||||
| The Secret World dev diary talks story and mission types Posted: 30 May 2011 08:00 AM PDT
Funcom's upcoming MMO The Secret World has always come across to me as a sort of Vampire: The Masquerade type of world except for, you know, vampires. After watching this dev diary, I still don't really know what to expect from the game. But then again, this is from the guys that gave us the amazing The Longest Journey, the disappointing Dreamfall, and the soon to be free-to-play Age of Conan. If anything, they are not short of a history with large and creative game worlds. And that monster at the end looks a bit like a proper Cenobite, so that's a good sign. Are any of you interested in The Secret World, or is it just going to be Guild Wars 2 or The Old Republic if you're not into World of Warcraft? The premise is interesting enough, but I wish this wasn't an MMO because that means I'll never play it. | ||||||||
| Posted: 30 May 2011 07:00 AM PDT Metro 2033 was released on March 16, 2010. As I write this, it is May 30, 2011. You might be asking yourself why there's a review for Metro 2033 over a year after its launch. Well, Destructoid never officially reviewed Metro 2033. I had multiple problems getting several copies to work on both Xbox 360 and PC, while Anthony Burch decided to write a not-review after making it to the third chapter and refusing to indulge it any further. Having finally got the game working on PC, and beating it this weekend, I felt it a shame that we did not review the game. Thus, history is to be rewritten. Metro 2033 (Xbox 360, PC [reviewed]) Metro 2033 is a unique game, despite how its gritty, post-apocalyptic visuals and first-person-shooter design may make it appear. As Artyom, a young Russian man born in the underground home of Moscow's post-nuclear survivors, players must navigate the Metro, a sprawling network of train tunnels and stations-turned-cities that house communists, Nazis, and brigands. Oh, and the occasional person who isn't an asshole. Strangely, for a game based on a novel, Metro 2033's story isn't all that detailed. A narrative is there, and it's quite a decent one, but nothing really feels fleshed out. The idea of a world where conflicting ideologies have been taken out of context by the survivors of nuclear war is a powerful and intriguing one, but it's never explored at more than a surface level (which is a criticism I have heard of the book as well). I'd love for the unique and genuinely interesting world of Metro 2033 to be given more flesh, but you only ever get a taste of the story, never a full bite. On the surface, Metro 2033 is a first-person-shooter, but it has also been quite rightly described as a survival horror and it is perhaps one of the most traditional survival horrors to be seen in years. Enemies are dangerous, to the point where absolutely any encounter in the game is capable of killing the player. Hideous monsters are fast and resilient, while human opponents are heavily armed and often armored. Meanwhile, the player's supplies are consistently low. In fact, the enemy nearly always has the advantage over Artyom, and wits are the way to win, not superior firepower. What this leads to is a game that is perhaps one of the most stressful I've played in a long time. That's not a bad thing, either. Metro 2033 is oppressive, where every battle is escaped by the skin of one's teeth and every step forward could lead the player into a trap or a death-dealing ambush. If you're in the wrong frame of mind, Metro 2033 is not fun at all. It's downright horrible. If you let it "click" with you, however, it becomes obsessively engrossing. There are definite balance issues. It should not require three consecutive, close-range shotgun blasts in order to kill a human being, especially when Artyom himself is incapable of taking even half that much damage. Likewise, headshots against enemies are only sometimes rewarded with an instant kill. Most enemies wear helmets, which seem to require upwards of three headshots. The sniper rifle, for instance, seems like a waste of time, since a headshot rarely succeeds in killing an enemy, and once the entire opposing force is on alert status, you'll never get another chance to pick your target without getting chewed by opposing gunfire. Likewise, the game's attempt to create a cat-and-mouse combat situation doesn't entirely succeed. You can see what 4A Games was going for -- you can blow out lights to create darkness, there are multiple paths in any combat zone to allow outflanking, and you have to avoid broken glass or alarm systems to move and kill silently. Sadly, the enemy AI is not quite equipped to handle this. Enemies always see you in the dark, despite the game telling you otherwise, and your attempts to outflank usually end up with the enemy simply spotting you regardless of your position. These issues make it feel like 4A was cheating in order to make the game more tense, and I think that does a disservice to what the game does right. Metro 2033 didn't need to cheat with its damage ratios and AI in order to create a tense game. Artyom's endurance is low and he is always outmatched regardless. If he is shot, it almost always reduces him to a sliver of life, which can take up to twenty seconds to regenerate, unless you have a quick-heal medkit. The game does not want you to get shot, and if you do, death is more than likely to follow. To any run-and-gun shooter fan, this sounds horrible. If you're in the right frame of mind, however, this approach to combat -- where you need to concentrate on survival more than murder -- is intensely satisfying, and every escape from death is a relief while every victory is cause for elation. The most obvious survival horror elements are to be found with the weapons and ammo. Like all good horror games, your resources are far from plentiful. Even more troubling, weapons are often unreliable, with weak bullets, inaccurate sights and plenty of kickback. As you progress through the game, you can acquire better weapons, but even the best upgrades feel improvised, like tinpot creations from people who have done their best to make a gun that won't fall apart. As far as ammo goes, every bullet feels precious. This is typified by the "military grade" bullets you can find littered throughout the game. Military ammo is more deadly than regular, factory-made ammo, but they're also highly valued because of it. As such, military bullets have become the currency of the Metro, and if you choose to use them in combat, you're effectively shooting money at enemies. Without your military bullets, you can't buy supplies or weapon upgrades. Fortunately (and this may be the result of a patch), there's always just enough normal ammunition to get the job done if you're a thorough looter. Enemy corpses usually have all sorts of bullets strapped to their bodies, and there are various caches littered around any level. The satisfying loot-grabbing of a roleplaying game is evoked in Metro 2033's gameplay, except unlike an RPG, you're not getting cool gear that might boost your stats or look pretty -- everything you loot is vital to survival. Even exploring less dangerous areas challenges your resolve. Your flashlight, for example, needs regular recharging by pulling out a battery pack and pumping it up to generate more power. There are various excursions to the blasted surface of Moscow, which requires the use of a gas mask. As with everything in this game, you're required to survive on essential supplies, scavenging filters to keep the air in your mask fresh. Every second spent on the surface feels like a step closer to potential death, and it's glorious, in a peculiarly nerve-wracking way. Metro 2033 gives you enough to survive, but it only ever gives you the bare minimum. The feeling of "making do" permeates the entire experience, and it all adds to the incredible atmosphere that's been set up. Whether you're fighting neo-Nazis or mutated mole monsters, this is an intense and pretty scary game. You can never guarantee that your next action won't kill you, and even early fights against bottom-feeding bandits can take a very long time to win as you constantly change position and attempt to get the upper hand on an entrenched foe. This atmosphere bleeds into the non-combat portions as well. Throughout the game's linear story, you'll encounter various metro stations, which have formed their own societies and ideals. You can shop for new supplies, advance the story, or just listen to the impressive amount of conversations that NPCs engage in, fleshing out this miserable, pitiless world. The Metro stations really feel like they're bristling with life, albeit life that's desperately hanging on by a thread. It can be difficult to really nail immersion, and few games do it so flawlessly as Metro 2033. It helps that the game looks pretty stunning, too. On PC, there are some widespread framerate issues that can't be resolved using the in-game options (but are fixable, if you root around), and character animation leaves a little to be desired, but the environments are gorgeously detailed and the enemy monsters are particularly loathsome and disturbing. I love the voice acting, too, with genuine Russian accents that do a great job of communicating a grounded sense of character. Use of music is rare, but when it does, it's almost always evocative and poignant. Your enjoyment of Metro 2033 hinges on your willingness to let a game batter you into submission. It wants to be played in a certain way, and if you're unwilling to meet the demands, you'll be thrown out on your ass. More than any other shooter, you're not playing as a powerful hero. You're a young man, unarmored and barely armed, who is constantly, unrelentingly, fresh out of luck. Such a game is most certainly not for everybody. Those that can get into it, however, will really get into it. Score: 8.0 -- Great (8s are impressive efforts with a few noticeable problems holding them back. Won't astound everyone, but is worth your time and cash.) | ||||||||
| Tales of Xillia limited edition PS3 is quite nice Posted: 30 May 2011 06:00 AM PDT Japan gets all the good limited edition PS3 systems. Even the ones that keep the same base color but have some kind of logo screened on it are better than what we usually get. This new one for Namco Bandai's Tales of Xillia is one of the best yet, though. It's all gold and red and pretty. It's all Tails-y. This system will be released on Tales of Xillia's launch date, September 8th. Kotaku says that the bundle (system and game) will be priced at 37,980 yen, or about $470. 4Gamer says that a book and some figures will be limited pre-order bonuses. My guess is that these orders will be quickly snapped up. | ||||||||
| Podtoid 153 records tomorow, get your Q's in! Posted: 30 May 2011 05:00 AM PDT Jonathan Holmes, Tara Long, Max Scoville and myself will once again convene for at least an hour of self indulgence, abstract observations and inane videogame chatter tomorrow, and as always, we need your help! You guys have been awesome with questions, and we really appreciate the support. Send yours in and see if we can spent yet another half an hour trying to answer a single one! | ||||||||
| Sony will live stream their E3 press conference Posted: 30 May 2011 04:00 AM PDT For the first time ever, Sony will be streaming their E3 press conference for all of you to watch. I'm glad. I think they always put on a good show. Some times it's funny (Kevin Butler), and other times it's unintentionally funny (Riiiiiiddddgee Raaaccceerr!), but it's always a good show. And this year will be a big one. They're going to give us the full details on their new portable game system, codenamed NGP. My daydream is that they'll call me up on stage to hand me the very first retail unit, and you all will be online to watch me receive it. You'll need to visit the PlayStation Blog to check out the live stream, set to go down June 6th. The crew there will also be setting up a mini-studio at the PlayStation booth on the show floor, and they'll be bringing you interviews from there. But for the real lowdown, stick with us here at Destructoid. We'll be getting our hands on all the new games from Sony right after the press conference. I'll be all up in that NGP business. | ||||||||
| Certain Affinity announces Crimson Alliance Posted: 30 May 2011 03:00 AM PDT Certain Affinity has announced Crimson Alliance for Xbox 360. Why does it always have to be crimson? There are plenty of other shades of red. Crimson Alliance is a roleplaying game that aims to do away with boring RPG staples in order to create a quicker, more action-packed experience. "It takes everything we've learned about high action from working on shooters like Halo and Call of Duty," claims the studio, "and everything we love about the fantasy genre, but gets rid of all that tedious backpack rummaging, and boring dialog!" It'll feature four player co-op and Certain Affinity says it's exclusive to the 360. [Via NeoGAF] | ||||||||
| Portable Dreamcast is ugly, costs $470 Posted: 30 May 2011 02:00 AM PDT Look, we all liked the Dreamcast. But it's time to get over that sh*t. I have one, in my closet, stacked with all those old games that I loved. The reality is that most of those great games have survived since the death of Sega's last console. I play ChuChu Rocket! on my phone, and there's that nifty DC collection that was recently released on Xbox 360. It's time to move on! Someone in Japan hasn't moved on. They've created this ugly portable that has Dreamcast innards. It may also have the same buttons and logo sticker, but it's not official. No, Sega would never green light anything this chunky and knoby. If you simply can't get over the past, Andriasang says that Pachimon TV will begin selling these things in June. They're asking 38,000 yen (about $470) for one of these monsters. I'd say wait and save that money for Sony's NGP or PS Vitamin Water or whatever it's called. | ||||||||
| Duke Nukem Forever: Fully Loaded comes with graphics card Posted: 30 May 2011 01:00 AM PDT PC games don't often get special editions like their console counterparts, so it's interesting to not only see Duke Nukem Forever get one, but get one that is uniquely designed to the platform. Duke Nukem Forever: Fully Loaded comes with a limited edition GTX 560 graphics card, you see. Here's the full package:
It's unique, I'll give 'em that. Especially when you consider the fact that you really, really won't need a new graphics card to play this game. At least if you're a big enough PC gamer to want this version. |
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