New Games |
- E3: Insomniac to unveil multiplatform game on Monday
- Preview: Deus Ex: Human Revolution (Xbox 360)
- E3: The rubbish MS will announce for Xbox 360
- Review: Frozen Synapse
- Silent Hill 4: The Room deserves some respect
- Weekend Destructainment: Transfarring!
- Review: Hunted: The Demon's Forge
- Live Show: Saturday Morning Hangover something something
- The Question: Your ONE most anticipated game of E3?
- Thor, Destin Legarie and Jim Sterling discuss E3
- The Daily Hotness: Lara Croft is back
| E3: Insomniac to unveil multiplatform game on Monday Posted: 04 Jun 2011 01:26 PM PDT Oh boy, it's one of these stories; I blame your rampant thirst for knowledge. (And mine too.) During EA's E3 2011 press conference, Insomniac Games will announce its latest title, which so happens to be an Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 affair. Interestingly, the studio is saying this game has a new universe. Makes sense, considering the relationship with Sony. What's the next step for the team behind Resistance and Ratchet & Clank? We will find out soon enough -- EA's conference kicks off tomorrow at 12:30 pm PDT. Catch it on Spike TV or online. I'd also like to point out that some Internet-going folks are angry that Insomniac is reaching out to a larger audience with this project. The eff is wrong with you guys? Can't we all have nice things? | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Preview: Deus Ex: Human Revolution (Xbox 360) Posted: 04 Jun 2011 12:00 PM PDT This is the part where I’m supposed to speak, generally, about other Deus Ex games and say things like, “Deus Ex is the greatest game of all time and you’re stupid if you didn’t like it.” Then, I would smoothly transition to the subject of Deus Ex: Human Revolution and mention that Eidos Montreal is attempting to re-establish the series as an all-time great after the creation of the laughable Invisible War. Maybe I’d also tease you with a line suggesting that Human Revolution appears to be well on the road to picking up the pieces of the series that Invisible War left behind. For now, I’d like to just say that my sessions with its short, one-mission preview build were phenomenal. It was entertaining, the shooting was surprisingly sharp, the choice presented to me was cool, and the stealth was forgiving and satisfying. I’d say that this is well on the road ... oh-ho, caught myself. Deus Ex: Human Revolution (Xbox 360, PS3, PC) In the opening hours of Deus Ex: Human Revolution, a political war is morphing into an open, organized, and violent one. Cutting edge human augmentation that melds man and machine is on the verge of becoming attainable to all. For the Purist movement, this is a revolution that demands blood in order to stop. Science, then, must coddle its invention and defend it against these puritanical aggressors. We see shades of the intellectual part of this fight in our actual world. Science can now fix man with screws, plates, and cadaver meat. Someday, it will be able to address woes on a genetic level, and perhaps, even enhance the human experience. For some there’s a real fear that these next level discoveries are stumbling into creation territory, and we see and hear the discussion between figureheads, politicians, and others all around us. It’s much more complicated than that, but suffice it to say that there are multiple levels of discourse and several ‘groups’ out there vying to be heard. For better or worse, Human Revolution cuts to the marrow by featuring just two teams, one of which is bad and the other a bit better: the Purists and science -- specifically Sarif Industries in the opening. I didn't get a great sense of this in my hours spent with Human Revolution, but it appears as if it wants to say something through the medium. Whether any kind of commentary will happen remains to be seen, but I like the setup and the ideas swirling around. You play as Adam Jensen, a futuristic sell sword living in the game’s world of 2027. In the initial hours, you get a sense that Jensen is an asshole with a checkered past. He was a SWAT officer once. Now, he’s gruff contractor working for Sarif Industries as the world implodes around it. Sarif is the creator and apparent driver of this augmentation junk. Just beyond the introductory cinematic revealing that some sort of conspiracy is afoot surrounding the announcement of this science, you tour Sarif as it tests. Soon after, you’re in the shit as a group of bad dudes augmented to high hell invade the plant and put the boot to the white coats and set fire to the labs. It’s of note that during this section Jensen is completely human. He doesn’t have cyber shades or the other augmentations you’ve seen in teaser footage. The HUD and feedback systems are limited, so you’re given an up-front taste of the combat as a naked dude. Human Revolution reminds me of a modern Rainbow Six joint. It’s presented in a first-person perspective, but most of the action is spent in third-person behind cover. It’s made clear from the get-go that it’s unwise to go gun blazing; bullets in Human Revolution hurt as much as they do in a simulation shooter, so after a couple of shots you’ll go down. The same can be said for the enemies you’ll face. The AI is smart in addition to brittle. Like in the FEAR series, enemies map out their immediate surroundings and take advantage of flanking positions. Sliding between pieces of cover, then, is a necessity as much as a clear head and good aim are. Later in the lab scene, Jensen is murdered -- or at least, maimed to the extent that he needs to be reassembled and refitted. Sariff takes it upon itself to augment Jenson with its tech, stripping out some of the remains of his flesh and adding machine parts. For you, this means you now have access to a generous HUD that holds vital information, a generous mapping system, and other useful information-gathering elements. Jenson’s body can now be fitted with upgrades, too, when he earns enough experience points from killing and hacking to do so. In these first few hours, I was hopeful that I could get a sense of what Jenson thought of his new machine-laden body, but I didn't catch any discussion of it. I also wanted to be able to give upgrade system a spin, but I never earned enough points. There are, however, a bevy of upgrade paths and options, the majority of which seem to serve the two key action components of the game: stealth and assault. I’ll also note that you can upgrade whatever, as Human Revolution doesn’t lock you into a “class.” But, it’s obvious that assault people will want the armor and strength upgrades, while the stealth-minded folks will want to focus on hacking and enhancements on the legs which can, say, remove the sounds of footsteps and such. Each upgrade seems to add a power to the mix of action. Armor fixes, for example, can add catastrophic area of effect attacks. A hack upgrade can add to the utility of virus injections. Since I didn’t get to see how meaningful these actions are, though, I’ll hold my tongue for the moment. Six months after his operation, you again take control of Jenson who is still under the employ of Sariff Industries. Your first mission is to... investigate some bad stuff going down at a plant owned by the company. A group of Purists have invaded and taken prisoners. In the plant, you get a good sense of the alternate ways you can approach combat. You can, if you desire, go head-on with the foes patrolling the hallways. If you go this route, you’ll encounter a lot of enemy conga lines. A dead dude triggers a response from others and people tend to pile up around the first kill if the environment is tight. There are a few set piece firefights, though, that keep the action fresh. There’s also a surprising amount of stealth options that can be made, as the plant is riddled with ducts and multiple pathways to be explored. Oddly enough, I came away thinking that this specific mission was more fun to do in stealth. The mapping system is generous, so you’re always plugged into updated enemy movements, which kills the big bugbear I have with stealth in general, the accidental discovery when I round corners. It’s hard for me to reign in the anticipation that I have for Human Revolution after this demo. I think the shooting mechanics, which rival a lot of simulation FPS games, is perhaps the key reason. If you play smart, you’ll live. If you blow a hole in dude’s face, he dies. That’s simple stuff, but satisfying. I also think the dialogue system and the story have a lot of potential. When you talk to people, a Mass Effect scroll wheel pops up, allowing you to be, for example, a space jerk, sentimental, or intelligent about a topic. This wheel also crops up in situations that can alter how a plot point shakes out. In the plant, for example, I was given the opportunity to kill a Purist, save the hostage he was holding, or attempt to save her. I chose the former, but regardless of what you choose, that’s a meaningful choice that could, I hope, have some bearing on who Jenson is and how the narrative shakes out down the line. I get the feel, regardless, that Jenson isn’t a ‘good guy,’ but rather a dude who sits in grey area about what’s going on around him despite his augmentations. If this is an accurate takeaway, then Jenson has the chance to be a compelling character. A lot of the people I encountered seemed to have dual-interests and differing intentions, so I think that’s a valid bit of speculation on my end. Feel free to revoke my nerd card, but I never finished the original Deus Ex or its, by all accounts, terrible follow-up. But I’d like to add, based on these limited experiences, that Eidos seems to be doing this franchise right by demonstrating a reverence to the source material while iterating on a lot of the outdated design. Deus Ex is only, like, one of the greatest games of all time, so no pressure or anything, guys. But, seriously, if the full game is as sharp as this two-to-three hour slice was, I don’t think we’ll be lamenting the fact that this was yet another failed game in the series. There, I said it. Human Revolution hits stores on August 25, 2011 for the PC, Xbox 360 and PS3. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| E3: The rubbish MS will announce for Xbox 360 Posted: 04 Jun 2011 11:00 AM PDT Microsoft has been pretty quiet in the run to E3, and it was speculated (by me) that we'd get a lame press conference from the Xbox 360 maker, for the third straight year. According to the list of games it's due to announce, the speculation is dead-on.
Like last year, Kinect seems set to be the main focus, with at least three of the five titles being connected to the devices (and XCommerce is likely going to involve it too, whatever that is). While Nintendo and Sony gracefully step away from motion control and the gimmick finally starts to fade, you can count on Microsoft to try and beat a dead horse. The only game of note so far is Fable: The Journey. Of course, this is not a final list, so better announcements could be in the works. So far it's looking like yet another humdrum showing for the Xbox, unless Microsoft's got something really special hidden under its hat. @supererogatory [Twitter] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Posted: 04 Jun 2011 10:00 AM PDT Indie games come in all shapes and forms, but while many offer creative designs and experiences to those who are willing to look for them, just as many can be a bit derivative of old designs. That isn't the case with Frozen Synapse, a game that could be shoehorned into a "chess meets Rainbow Six" description although that doesn't do it justice. This game does something more than just mix existing genres: it encourages a new form of strategic and tactical thinking.
When you've run your nightmare scenarios and think you've accounted for most possibilities, that is when you prime a turn. And usually that's where see your plans reduced to ruin as the enemy does exactly those things you didn't account for. That might sound frustrating and it often can be, but it's the good kind of frustration. The kind that makes you go "Damn, how did I miss that?" rather than it make you go "What? That's bullshit."
Missions are randomly generated up to a degree, which means no restarted mission will play exactly the same. While there are a few exceptions where the majority of a map is the same whenever you restart, randomized unit positioning makes it feel novel enough that old plans that worked before can't be used again. The things that really make Frozen Synapse shine on the long term are its multiplayer component and game editor. Because it's still a turn-based game, don't expect multiplayer matches to be very fast. But, your opponent's over-thinking notwithstanding, the game's modes do allow for quick matches (i.e., less than 10 turns). Each player plans his or her actions, and after both players send in their actions you can load the result. This approach also allows you to play one game over a number of days whenever you have time, or to play multiple games at once. Multiplayer modes are one on one affairs where the goals can be plain old killing, escorting hostages, or gaining and keeping territorial control. Each mode has a Light and Dark variant which either shows all units on the map all the time, or only shows them when they are in your line of sight.
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| Silent Hill 4: The Room deserves some respect Posted: 04 Jun 2011 09:00 AM PDT Just days before E3, Konami held its own special press conference and dropped a few goshbombs on us. The story that really jumped out at me was the Silent Hill HD Collection. This is something I've wanted for a long time, if only to play Silent Hill 2 in high definition. Now, while I understand the reason for not including the PlayStation One Silent Hill (just like the first MGS is left off the Metal Gear Solid Collection), I'm a little more perplexed by the other omission. If these HD remakes are focused entirely on PlayStation 2 games, then there's one Silent Hill game that's being deliberately left off the package -- Silent Hill 4: The Room. Nobody loves The Room. Not even Konami. Yet, if any game in the series deserves a second chance, it's that one. Silent Hill 4: The Room was never going to get a fair shake. Original games that are shoehorned into an existing series never are. The Room wasn't planned as a Silent Hill game until corporate meddling saw KCET roping it into the series. Publishers are yet to learn that this strategy doesn't always work out for the best. That said, I would like to suggest that The Room is not a bad game. As far as Silent Hill games go, it's nowhere near the best, and is easily the weakest of the three PS2 offerings, but it boasts several meritorious points and utterly deserves a place in the franchise. Silent Hill 4 tells the story of Henry Townshend, a man who wakes up one day to find that he's trapped inside his apartment with no escape. That is, until he finds a hole in the wall that transports him to dark and terrifying places. As Henry visits abandoned subway stations, creepy forests, and rusted child prisons, he unravels one of Silent Hill's most disturbing stories and delves into the past of the notorious local serial killer, Walter Sullivan. As a Silent Hill game, The Room is certainly different. A significant portion of the game is played from a first-person perspective, as players investigate Henry's apartment. The sections outside of the apartment are played in a more familiar third-person perspective, but the increased focus on combat and the inclusion of unkillable ghost enemies that frequently harass the player lead to a game with a very different feel from past installments. Silent Hill 4 earned criticism for a shoddy combat system that was more frustrating than compelling, due to imprecise attacks and weapons that frequently broke. This criticism is most definitely reasonable, as is the assertion that the puzzles were fairly simple and boss encounters were missing despite the increased focus on fighting. However, as much as history casts judgmental eyes upon The Room, it received more than a little praise at the time, and it's praise that holds up today. For a start, I'm going to lay my cards on the table and say that Silent Hill 4 is perhaps the creepiest game in the entire series. While Silent Hill 2 has the best story and Silent Hill 3 has the best simple scares, neither game managed to be quite as disturbing as this one. From the way the apartment slowly corrupts and is overtaken by ghostly sillouhettes and life-draining fetuses, to the horrifyingly implacable ghosts and fast-moving, visually unnerving monsters, Silent Hill 4 runs on pure nightmare fuel. One of the scariest moments comes if you regularly spy on your neighbor. Each time Henry returns to the apartment, you can do a few things, such as look out the windows, check outside the door, and peer through a hole in the wall into a neighboring woman's apartment. Most of these activities provide a few story hints or interesting details, and over the course of the game you'll get to know the female character quite well through her interactions, activities, and your own sense of isolation. The most notable thing in her apartment is a Robbie the Rabbit doll that sits on the bed. It spend most of the game slumped down, doing nothing at all. Until you check back later in the game, and it's sat bolt upright, looking straight at you ... and pointing. Oh, why did it have to point? I'm not lying when I say that it still gives me the chills. A subtle and superbly executed psychological scare, which is what Silent Hill has always been about. As well as the overbearing sense of dread, the game is great at inducing panic. The victims of Walter Sullivan are unstoppable ghosts that stalk the player throughout levels, passing through walls and dealing damage just be being nearby. These floating ghouls are particularly scary, and get worse as fresher characters die and come back in twisted forms. One character's ghost, afflicted with the properties of a broken videotape and frequently speeding up or rewinding, is particularly chilling. It should also be noted that the game features one of the most complex narratives, surprisingly steeped in Silent Hill lore despite the game's origins as a totally unique intellectual property. While at times the story can be convoluted, the tale of Walter Sullivan, his terrible upbringing, and the lives he claims in a desperate, rather sad, attempt to reunite with his mother, makes for one of the most original and absorbing plots in all of horror games. As someone who played Silent Hill 2 more times than is healthy, I've become pretty intimate with every piece of backstory the game contains. One of the most striking bits of flavor is the story of Walter Sullivan, a man who killed two children and then himself. It was only a very small, optional detail in the game, but it became my favorite of the many included backstories. For KCET to take that rather obscure detail and flesh it out in a full game has always impressed me, and I think they did a fine job of making Sullivan an interesting character with the kind of motivation and modus operandi that stands out among videogame villains. The cult of Silent Hill is tied very well to the main plot, and there are even a few resolutions concerning Silent Hill 2. The story is given weight thanks to some excellent and memorable cutscenes, with a deft use of music that really drives the point home. The first murder scene at the end of the train station is still particularly vivid in my mind thanks to the audio/visual presentation. As a game, there's much to be desired. Alongside the broken combat system is the galling fact that every level is rehashed, with players having to go through the same areas twice per game. The muddy visuals are also a far cry from Silent Hill 2's excellent (at the time) graphics, and there are moments where more polish is thoroughly required, such as the disappointing final encounter with Walter. However, despite the game's many flaws, it's still an engrossing experience that deserves more than to be thought of simply as the harbinger of Silent Hill's decline. It tried several new things, even if not all them were successful, and is still one of the spookiest games around. That it has been left off the Silent Hill HD Collection is a real shame. It would not have hurt anybody to throw it in, and I think it could have earned a little fresh appreciation. With the Silent Hill series in an undeniable rut, The Room has often been used as a scapegoat, looked at as the beginning of the end. People forget that, in spite of its problems, Silent Hill 4 was still a critically well-received game that sold rather decently. It's considered failure now, but it really wasn't in 2004. Silent Hill 4: The Room is an under appreciated game that will forever carry a stigma, and it's disappointing to see Konami itself contributing to that stigma by pretending it never existed. We know Silent Hill 2 is a masterpiece and that Silent Hill 3 is a stylishly paced horror festival, but what people really need to know is that Silent Hill 4: The Room isn't half as dreadful as people think it is. It's pretty damn good in its own imperfect way. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Weekend Destructainment: Transfarring! Posted: 04 Jun 2011 08:00 AM PDT
This is a live-action Portal skit done at Fanime 2011 recently. It's pretty damn good! Plenty of good stuff in this Destructainment! Check out some Warthog tricks, see another Portal inspired fan film and then rage at the Super Nintendo urinal. After that, we see that Cole Phelps is a horrible detective, laugh at some Modern Warfare/Metal Gear Solid outtakes and see that saving animals in Sonic the Hedgehog 2 isn't always such a good idea. The Destructainment finishes up with a fresh trailer for the original Half-Life and the Mega64 gang announcing "Transfarring." Warthog tricks in Halo: Reach.
Portal fan film sees Chell outside the lab.
The Super Nintendo Urinal. Yes, piss on old shitty games. EWWW PEE!
Cole Phelps is a horrible detective.
Bloopers and outtakes from the Modern Warfare/Metal Gear Solid mashup. Thanks, Linz!
It's not always a good idea to free the animals in Sonic the Hedgehog 2. Thanks, Tim!
The original Half-Life gets an updated, fan created trailer.
Mega64 reveals Transfarring.
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| Review: Hunted: The Demon's Forge Posted: 04 Jun 2011 07:00 AM PDT The last time inXile graced the world with a console roleplaying was with The Bard's Tale back in 2004. Since then, the studio has been quietly working away on a number of mobile games, so it's certainly interesting to see the company return to full-scale RPGs after making games like Super Stacker, Super Stacker 2 and Super Stacker Party. Hunted: The Demon's Forge has nothing to do with stacking, super or otherwise.
Hunted: The Demon's Forge (PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 [reviewed]) Much has been made of Hunted's unique blend of two different but equally well-worn genres -- roleplaying games and cover-based shooters. In fact, a popular way of describing the game has been to dub it Gears of Warcraft, due to its very obvious modeling on two highly successful franchises. In truth, the game has very little in common with roleplaying games outside of its aesthetic qualities. There's no leveling up, no inventory, and very little in the way of loot. While there are a selection of weapons that appear with increasingly powerful attributes, characters are restricted to one melee and one ranged weapon at any time. You also get a shield and one piece of armor. That's it for your equipment. So, Hunted is not so much World of Warcraft. The thing is, it's not much like Gears of War either. While ranged combat with bows is a central focus of the game, and a cover system is in place, it won't take you long to work out that using cover is a bad idea. In fact, even manually aiming is a waste of time as it's far more useful to run-and-gun -- or run-and-bow, as the case may be. If you're looking for a game that truly mixes shooters and roleplayers, you actually won't find it here. That's not to say Hunted is a bad game. In fact, despite failing in its central objective, Hunted is a surprisingly fun action title that gives you a choice between ranged warfare and hack n' slash brutality, managing both with respectable adequacy. The Demon's Forge stars two antiheroes, Caddoc and E'lara, a pair of mercenaries who find themselves working for a mysterious woman on a particularly shady quest. The story is pretty forgettable and your mileage may vary in terms of whether you find the protagonists charming or irritating, but it's a relatively inoffensive narrative with a lighthearted edge to it, in spite of the dark visuals and a handful of grisly concepts. There's also an intriguing method of getting alternate endings, something that could have been truly outstanding if the developers had fleshed it out a lot more. Although both characters are equipped for ranged and personal combat, Caddoc and E'lara are each suited to a particular role. Caddoc, with his ability to unleash a powerful physical attack and equip more powerful hand-to-hand weapons, is the fighter, while E'lara uses a wider range of bows and unique projectile attacks to provide support from afar. The two characters compliment each other quite well, though I find that E'lara is much more fun despite my usual gravitation toward melee characters. It's not that Hunted's melee combat is particularly bad, it's just not very well refined. Enemies tend to crowd the player and it's much more effective, not to mention fun, to circle them and repeatedly fire arrows (tip: Always use the weaker, "Fast" type bows, as they are misleadingly more deadly than stronger, slower ones). As well as general attacks, players will use collected crystals to enhance a variety of character-specific and general magic attacks. E'lara can charge her arrows with unique properties, such as ice and armor-penetrating arrows, while Caddoc gains offensive charges and whirlwinds. There are three battle spells that either character can use -- lightning, fireballs and area-of-attack sigils. Each skill and spell can be further upgraded by using more crystals, with benefits including greater damage, less mana cost, and wider areas of effect. Although they don't level up, Caddoc and E'lara can fulfill certain gameplay objectives to improve their attributes. These requirements are naturally earned through the course of play -- for example, earning a certain number of ranged kills can increase the damage done with arrows. These extras are cool, and the health and mana extensions are very welcome, but there's not much to the character development that will dramatically alter the gameplay. As well as combat, the game serves an occasional puzzle, mostly centered around the co-operative powers of Caddoc and E'lara. As with so much in this game, the attempts at brainteasing are shallow at best, usually consisting of simply "push this wall" or "shoot an arrow here." The more puzzling elements are often completely voluntary, hidden off the beaten path and often bestowing optional rewards -- usually a weapon with a powerful charged attack that, when out of charges, will become much weaker. Until you unlock a secondary weapon slot, these "rewards" are pretty worthless, as any player will foresight will keep a permanently moderate weapon over a temporarily powerful one. Hunted is a pretty decent game at its core, and the mix of fighting styles works better than one would expect, especially from a company that has never been known for action games and has spent over half a decade working on very small titles. While there's a definite lack of polish (for instance, players can perform executions on weakened enemies, but the animations never sync up properly), The Demon's Forge is a fun ride with combat that mostly remains quite tight. However, Hunted is let down by the fact that it consistently reinforces one's belief that it could have been so much more. The bare bones approach to storytelling and character development is surprising, when a little more depth could have made this game a real keeper. Nowhere is this more apparent than with the boss fights, most of which are built up as large, epic encounters, but end up as rather short, underwhelming, unchallenging fights. Every time Hunted threatens to make a leap from decent to great, it seems to sink back to complacency, afraid to risk aiming above its station. Playing with an AI partner brings its own set of frustrations, since your allied character seems intent on making life difficult. It will steal your kills, frequently stand in the way of your ranged fire, and run to weapons racks to steal the loot before you. If you accidentally swap your shield for one you don't want, it'll likely pick up your superior equipment before you can correct your mistake. The AI is unhelpful, greedy and selfish ... and in that way, inXile possibly deserves praise for creating a partner that perfectly mimics a random Xbox Live partner. As far as the vaunted two-player option goes, I'm going to tell you right now that I wasn't able to try it, but that my inability to play adequately matches the experience players will have. The game does not feature drop-in/drop-out co-op, something that I would've thought was obligatory for a campaign-driven game like this. With that in mind, I tried to find a game over several days, at different times, and came up short. Usually the game found nobody online, but sometimes I'd get a "game session full" message. If I had been able to play the game while keeping it open for a player to drop in, I may have had luck, but no player should be expected to sit in an empty lobby, hoping that another lost soul will wander through Hunted's desolate servers at the same time. I am absolutely baffled that a game so reliant on co-op gameplay offered such a pathetically lackluster matchmaking system. The same can be said for Hunted's "Crucible" mode, inXile's answer to a map making system. To call it a map maker, however, would be to heap grossly undue praise upon it. In reality, Crucible mode offers potential level editors a selection of pre-packed arenas in which they get to control the type and number of enemies, the available weapons, and various other simplified gameplay modifications, all of which are unlocked by collecting gold in Adventure mode. The actual potential for individuality is rather sparse, and players can't even keep their developed characters from the campaign. Yet again, what could have been an incredible and differentiating option comes up incredibly short. If I sound harsh, it's because I genuinely like Hunted and enjoyed the majority of my time with it. However, to see a game do itself such a disservice and offer so little in comparison to its significant potential is exasperating. It's obvious that Hunted was never going to be a triple-A smash hit success, but that doesn't mean it had to willingly underachieve. Instead of getting a uniquely special game, players will get a relatively fun little action title with an overwhelming sense that many things are missing. I want The Demon's Forge to be a success because I want inXile to make a lot more games and Hunted to become a series that fulfills its promise. However, I have to be honest and say that you will miss nothing at all if you choose to ignore the game. I'd definitely recommend you try it out if you're bored and looking for a good time waster, but playing Hunted is just not essential, especially in a period where bigger and better games are looming on the horizon to snap up your time and money. A solid experience let down by the fact that it never strives to be more than a solid experience. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Live Show: Saturday Morning Hangover something something Posted: 04 Jun 2011 05:00 AM PDT It's the last Saturday Morning Hangover before E3, where the real hangovers begin. I haven't even begun to pack and we're still going to find time to share a couple of hours with you this morning. Aren't we swell? As always, we will be playing the week's Xbox Live Indie Games releases for better or worse. Afterwards, Jordan and I will continue our slow progress through the co-op in Portal 2. Good times will be had. Come join me, Jordan and Katrina for shenanigans as we hang out, play some games and chat with you. It's all happening on Destructoid's Justin.tv channel! Watch live video from Destructoid on Justin.tv
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| The Question: Your ONE most anticipated game of E3? Posted: 04 Jun 2011 03:30 AM PDT [Every Friday, Destructoid will pose topical a question to the community. Answer it if you want!] The Question is a day late this week because I had a power cut, but it's not like anybody cares. With all eyes on E3, there's little room for much else, so the question this week has to be -- what's the one game you can't wait to learn more about at E3? We have some serious big funs in Battlefield 3, Modern Warfare 3 and The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim. Then there are less huge, but no less intriguing titles like Metro: Last Light and Anarchy Reigns. As if that's not enough, we have the rumored reveal of Grand Theft Auto V and the mystery collaboration between EA and Insomniac. These titles are but a few of the many on offer, so the question to rule them all is ... what one game are you anticipating the most out of all next week's software? | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Thor, Destin Legarie and Jim Sterling discuss E3 Posted: 04 Jun 2011 12:00 AM PDT
God damn it, ScrewAttack. I love you guys. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The Daily Hotness: Lara Croft is back Posted: 03 Jun 2011 07:00 PM PDT
So I'm in L.A. and working on a laptop. Cool story, I know. Thing is, I forgot my mouse and it is HORRIBLE doing The Daily Hotness using the touchpad on a laptop. Anyway, here you go. YOU HAPPY? Also, the new Tomb Raider looks amazing! Nick reviewed Red Faction: Armageddon, I previewed Journey, XCOM got a release date, Dark Souls got a release date too, EA launch a Steam competitor called Origin and more happened on 06/03/11. Destructoid Original: E3: |
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