New Games |
- E3: Hands-on with Final Fantasy XIII-2
- E3: First look at Gears of War 3's new Horde 2.0
- E3: Ridge Racer Vita was teased in a cool way
- E3: Skullgirls footage and screens for you to appreciate
- E3: Rhythm Heaven trailer further proves baboons rule
- E3: Silent Hill: Downpour is exactly what I wanted
- E3: Blades of Time will have more of X-Blades' Ayumi
- E3: Pikmin 3 is officially coming to Wii U
- E3: Double Fine's Once Upon a Monster is my happy song
- Daily Community Hotness: E3 2011
- E3: The Rolling Western is Nintendo's token WTF game
- Oblivion 5th Anniversary Edition prepares you for Skyrim
- E3: Wii U third-party games were actually PS3/360 footage
- E3: Zombie Apocalypse 2 headed to PSN and XBLA this fall
- E3: Here are your special E3 2011 Pokedex 3D AR cards
- E3: Raptr has evolved from stats tracker to social news
- E3: Hitman Absolution first look
| E3: Hands-on with Final Fantasy XIII-2 Posted: 07 Jun 2011 04:20 PM PDT Square Enix is taking us back to the world of Final Fantasy XIII. Lightning is back rocking a new outfit and, well, that's all we really know of the story so far. Something bad is happening. Probably. Story aside, Final Fantasy XIII-2 features a some new heroes and a number of new gameplay features when it comes to the combat mechanic. One of the new features will make you think of Pokemon, in fact. Final Fantasy XIII-2 (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 [Previewed]) The demo Square Enix set us up on started near the beginning of your adventure in Final Fantasy XIII-2. Lightning from the last game is narrating all cryptic-like and talks about her sister, Serah, who comes hurling out of a teleporter just as Lightning finishes up her speech. Along with Serah is another new comer by the name of Noel and a Moggle nicknamed Mog. The trio have arrived to Cocoon, an area that was actually referred to XIII. You can expect to explore a number of locations that were referenced or have direct connection to the last game. The trio don't have much time to sight-see though as a giant hand seemingly comes out of nowhere and attacks our heroes. The hand belongs to a giant monster named Atlas and is the only thing visible as the hand is the only part of Atlas that has made its way through a dimensional portal. There is a body present too, but it is completely transparent at this point in the game. The combat mechanic of XIII-2 have received a number of changes, the first being the “Cinematic Action Sequences” feature and are basically quick-time events that occur during battles. The QTEs happened based on how far down Atlas's health went with the first QTE being a simple quick flick to the left on the joystick to avoid Atlas's giant fist smashing down into the ground. Some other QTEs I witnessed were the rapid tapping of a button or a quick hit of a button as they appeared on the screen. Nailing the QTE will see you succeed with completing a critical hit. Failing the QTE will simply see you take more damage or your attack not causing as much damage. Another new change to the combat was the use of elemental effects. I didn't actually do anything that would take advantage of this, but using spells that sync up with what's going on in the environment (such as rain) will increase your attack's strength. Towards the end of the fight, three air ships came in and provide backup to Noel and Serah and this concluded the first part of the demo. We're then taken a little further into the demo where Noel and Serah have agreed to help an excavation team get rid of Atlas for good. No one knows how or why Atlas has appeared, but he's causing destruction to the Bresha Ruins area and needs to be dealt yet. The way towards Atlas was a pretty linear path. There were multiple routes at some junctures, but it all funneled you towards your end goal. Enemies become visible once you near them and this time you can gain the upper hand before jumping into the battlefield. Once the enemy becomes visible, a dial beneath the creature appears called the Mog Clock. Attacking the creature when the Mog Clock is green means you'll inflict a first strike before normal battles start. A yellow dial under the monster means you'll simply enter the fight as normal. Getting a red dial means you'll enter the battle where the monster will have the advantage. So this is where things start to turn into Pokemon. After defeating a monster, you might get a Monster Crystal item which represents the monster you just defeated and it will join your party. Two slots in your fighting party are reserved for the main characters in XIII-2 and the third is now reserved for a monster you've captured. Every monster will have a different attack style (melee, magic, defensive, etc) and you can switch between monsters by doing a Paradigm Shift, which also changes up the main character's attack styles. Monster creatures also have a power bar called the “Feral Meter” that allows the monster to unleash a strong special attack filled up by fighting. Now this may change later in the game, but the Moggle wasn't one of the monsters you can use in battles. Mog is actually around with Noel and Serah as you explore the the world and one thing he can help players with is finding artifacts scattered in the environment. You can spot an artifact by spying a transparent orb that Mog can make visible with his special powers. Once revealed, the Artifacts contain items for the heroes to use. He couldn't do anything else, but I'm sure Mog will have more powers and abilities to make use of later in the game. KOPPA! Once I was near Atlas, a “Live Trigger” event is, uh, triggered which revealed an item somewhere else on the map that can help you in the boss fight. This trigger gave me the choice to continue straight to Atlas (and get my ass handed to me) or go after this revealed item which will actually give me an advantage against the full form of Atlas. Before making my choice, I was given several responses to the situation where I could either consult Mog and Serah or just kick reason to the curb and attack Atlas head on. Characters will respond accordingly to your response and may give you hints or clues depending on what you choose. For the most part, it seems that the “Live Trigger” events are about giving you an advantage against a boss fight more than anything else. You could easily bypass what gets revealed to you but it just means the fight will take longer, if not outright kill you like what I witnessed before my hands-on. Plus there's more dialogue and cinematics to see if you enjoy that sort of thing. I decided to go for the special item and once I neared it, I was transported to a “Time Labyrinth” where I had to solve a series of puzzles to reach my objective. In this particular set of puzzles, I had to collect a number of orbs on a tile pathway that disappeared as soon as I stepped off them. Once solved, I was transported back to the room and triggered the “killing Atlas easier thing” device as I liked to call it. Which I then did. I killed him. It was really easy. I'm sure you've got questions. Like, can you level up the monsters, what's going on with the overall story and what's up with Lightning's new snazzy outfit? Believe me, I asked but Square Enix wasn't ready to chat about exact specifics just yet. I'm just as curious as you to see what they're doing to fix a lot of the problems and complaints people had with Final Fantasy XIII on top of the newly revealed features. | ||||
| E3: First look at Gears of War 3's new Horde 2.0 Posted: 07 Jun 2011 04:10 PM PDT Epic Games' promised revision for its popular Horde Mode as part of Gears of War 3 was revealed at an event this evening at E3. An event where Ice-T's Body Count will be performing. An event that I left almost immediately after I played about a dozen waves of the new mode, called Horde 2.0, so I could get back to a computer and tell you all about it. Horde 2.0 introduces the idea of fortifications and command posts. The concept was born out of the fact that in Gears 2's Horde mode, most players would steal Boom Shields from Boomers and set up defenses. With 2.0, they're simply building that concept right into the game in a deeper way.
I don't see where this can possibly go wrong. | ||||
| E3: Ridge Racer Vita was teased in a cool way Posted: 07 Jun 2011 04:01 PM PDT Namco Bandai wanted us to know that a new Ridge Racer game was coming for the PlayStation Vita, but they didn't have any gameplay ready. Instead, they brought something really cool. I'd call it an interactive tease, if anything. This 'tease' was running on the Vita. It was like one of Ridge Racer's fancy introduction movies, complete with cool music and sexy car shots. I was watching this video with headphones on when I noticed a finger come in front of my face and onto the Vita's screen. It turns out this finger was the index finger of the right hand of the Ridge Racer audio man himself, Hiroshi Okubo. The guy famous for all the great Ridge Racer music came from Japan to show off his work in this fancy intro. The music and graphics became interactive with all of the Vita's new control types. Touching and sliding on the front screen slowed down the music and the visuals like a DJ's record stop. Tapping on the back screen created a musical delay and a change in the graphics. All the buttons had changed the audio and visuals in some fashion. I was told that this was just a taste of what the game will sound and look like. The visuals had a cool style, with whisps of color streaming past shiny cars, and objects switching to wireframes in slow motion. There were no available details on the actual game other than Namco Bandai is working on one, and that we could expect more drifting and some new gameplay features. Look for more closer to system launch. | ||||
| E3: Skullgirls footage and screens for you to appreciate Posted: 07 Jun 2011 03:55 PM PDT
Skullgirls has been one of those little games to keep an eye on for a while. That is, if you like 2D fighters with handdrawn art from Alex Ahad (who worked on Lava Punch, UDON's Tribute books, and Scott Pilgrim), mixed with game design from fighting tournament champion Mike "Mike Z" Zaimont. The game's engine somehow manages to combine the 2D art with real-time lighting, which is pretty cool. Eight characters make up the roster, and players will be able to share their victories by uploading replays and highlights of matches directly to YouTube and Facebook. Sounds like a promising new entry for the competitive fighting scene, and another game Jesse Cortez can thrash me in. Skullgirls is scheduled for a 2011 release on "high-definition home consoles," which probably means XBLA and PSN. | ||||
| E3: Rhythm Heaven trailer further proves baboons rule Posted: 07 Jun 2011 03:50 PM PDT
Those of you who have been keeping up with the new Rhythm Heaven for Wii will recognize much of this E3 trailer. The footage shown isn't new, except for the final segment. Considering how the single new sequence has one seriously awesome baboon in it, all is forgiven. Look at him, and his equally incredible little buddy! That's enough to leave me satiated for a while to come. | ||||
| E3: Silent Hill: Downpour is exactly what I wanted Posted: 07 Jun 2011 03:44 PM PDT I'm coming fresh from just having spent some time with Silent Hill: Downpour. I wanted to hurry and write this up while it was still fresh on my mind. I wanted to tell fellow Silent Hill franchise fans that I'm feeling really good about how Downpour is looking right now. Really good. Developer Vatra tells me that the game is still in alpha, but I spent a good amount of time with it, and it feels and looks great already. I think series fans are tired of Silent Hill franchise games trying to be Silent Hill 2, but I don't think any of us mind if developers look toward it as inspiration. That is what has happened here. The atmosphere, pacing and exploration in Downpour feel good, in the way that Silent Hill 2 felt good. The best thing I can say about Downpour so far is that it is not afraid to take its time to set the stage and pull you into a good story. It seems to invite exploration, and it's not going to beat you over the head with instant action. I think you're really going to like this one. Even if you didn't like Homecoming or Shattered Memories, I'm pretty sure you're going to like this one.
I had a chance to try out Downpour in 3D. Vatra warned that they still have a bit to go with optimizing frame rates and textures, but I felt like the game was already in a good place, even in the alpha stage of development. Some of the depth effects down corridors toward the end of the demo were quite good. When I was running for my life near the end, the 3D really heightened the tension. The demo took me through the edge area of Toluca Lake as Murphy Pendleton, a guy that was luckily sprung during a transport accident while being transfered to a maximum security penitentiary. The journey takes him into the outskirts of Silent Hill as a convict. My first goal was to find my way into the city. I came across the now classic broken road, which sent me to an abandoned gas station. I had to find something to use to break a lock on a gate so that I could proceed. A crowbar from a toolbox did the trick, but I was told that rocks and other things from the environment would have also worked. All of this was controlled with pretty standard third-person control -- none of that silly backwards movement from the early Silent Hill games. Later in the demo I worked my way into a building to proceed. Things caught fire with a gas pipe accident after a bit. I pulled the fire alarm to start the sprinklers and that's when things got funky. Stuff started floating, walls started warping, and the world became dark. Water flowed, electrical hazards popped up, and soon I was running for my life. Just when I thought i was safe, some unseen, warped darkness began following me. I had to run down corridors with doors shutting in my face. The tension was really high in this sequence where I knew I was prey. It reminded me of some classic moments from one of my many playthroughs of Silent Hill 2. Silent Hill: Downpour is technically a survival horror game, but it felt a lot more open to exploration, and definitely more focused on slowly scaring the sh*t out of you later. The tension in the game seemed to rise naturally and gradually, but I was running for my life before I knew it. It looked great, sounded great, felt great, and had some pretty immersive 3D to boot. And again, this is in the alpha stage of development. Things are looking really good for Silent Hill: Downpour already. It's safe to get excited about this one.
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| E3: Blades of Time will have more of X-Blades' Ayumi Posted: 07 Jun 2011 03:19 PM PDT
Here's some great news for all you X-Blades fans out there. Gaijin Entertainment (not to be confused with Gaijin Games who make the Bit.Trip games) are following up X-Blades with Blades of Time. Ayumi will make her return on an adventure set on a mysterious island (ohhh!) where she has to hack & slash her way to a big bad boss. The game will feature 40+ sets of skills including melee, tactics, combos, as well as Order and Chaos magic. Ayumi will also be wielding gunswords and what looks like plain old guns. She'll also be able to turn back time and leave a copy of herself in place for combat and puzzle mechanics, and she will have a new dash ability to "close the distance between herself and her enemy prey almost instantly." Or as we like to call it: to dash. Surprisingly, the game will also have a co-op campaign and PvP multiplayer action. Blades of Time is scheduled to his Xbox 360 and PS3 in early 2012. | ||||
| E3: Pikmin 3 is officially coming to Wii U Posted: 07 Jun 2011 03:06 PM PDT There's been so much not-talk out of Nintendo regarding Pikmin 3 over the last few years, it's maddening. After hearing nothing at Nintendo's E3 2011 press conference today, I had all but given up hope. The lack of substantial information has caused many of us to believe the third installment would skip a Wii release and jump to Nintendo's new console -- what we now know as Wii U. As confirmed tonight during the company's roundtable session, this will indeed be happening. Pikmin 3 was in development for Wii, but the high-definition graphics and new controller of the Wii U made it the better choice. Progress was far enough along that Shigeru Miyamoto says there shouldn't be too long of a wait for the game. Thank eff for that! Looks like I'll have to buy a Wii U now. Miyamoto: Pikmin in the works for Wii U [Joystiq] | ||||
| E3: Double Fine's Once Upon a Monster is my happy song Posted: 07 Jun 2011 02:27 PM PDT Double Fine founder Tim Schafer sees quite a few similarities between Children's Television Workshop, the folks responsible for Sesame Street, and his own studio. We've previewed Sesame Street: Once Upon a Monster before, so I'll just give you the high-level overview of what it's all about. It's a story book brought to life, where two players enter a magical world of good-natured monsters, each of which is struck with a little problem. Using Kinect, players engage in a series of what are essentially mini-games as they assist the friendly creatures with their plight.
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| Daily Community Hotness: E3 2011 Posted: 07 Jun 2011 02:00 PM PDT Yes, that is Mr. Caffeine. And yes, this has been the first full day of E3. This morning, Nintendo held their conference and finally unveiled the Wii U. With its 6.2 inch touch screen, there has been a lot of praise and disappointment coming from the community. Not only did we bring you news from Nintendo, but all day, the Destructoid team has been blogging non-stop with previews and videos of the show. The Destructoid community has also been on fire today and we have compiled a list of what you have shared on the c-blogs and discussing on the forums below. Cblogs: :: Completing the Big 3: The Last E3 Communicast! by DtoidCommunicast Forums: :: E3 2011: Nintendo Press Conference | ||||
| E3: The Rolling Western is Nintendo's token WTF game Posted: 07 Jun 2011 01:58 PM PDT
Have you seen this curious game? It appears to be a throwback to the many forgotten, ill-fated platformer mascots of the '90s, which I'm not opposed to. If having an armadillo as a leading man in 2011 seems odd, you aren't alone in thinking so. The Rolling Western is skipping retail, instead opting for a much more fitting eShop release. Very little to go on at this point, but I must say, that music is happening. | ||||
| Oblivion 5th Anniversary Edition prepares you for Skyrim Posted: 07 Jun 2011 01:57 PM PDT If you've never played Oblivion and still want to, but never really got around to picking it up with all the DLC, then here is your chance. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion 5th Anniversary Edition is coming to PC, Xbox 360 and PS3 in North America on July 12th, 2011. The collection includes the Knights of the Nine and Shivering Isles DLC, a Collector's Steelbook littered with Daedric symbols, a "Making of Oblivion" documentary, a full color map of Cyrodiil and the Shivering Isles, and a $10 mail-in rebate offer for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and a strategy guide for Skyrim. The full collection will be $29.99 and does not contain horse armor. A missed opportunity. | ||||
| E3: Wii U third-party games were actually PS3/360 footage Posted: 07 Jun 2011 01:42 PM PDT Nintendo announced its next console, the Wii U, earlier today at its E3 press conference. During the show, the company aired a three-minute montage of upcoming third-party PS3/360/PC titles -- core games/franchises such as Darksiders II, Ninja Gaiden 3, and DiRT -- in a move that was clearly meant to prove that it's serious about third-party support for the Wii U (which was sorely lacking from the Wii). | ||||
| E3: Zombie Apocalypse 2 headed to PSN and XBLA this fall Posted: 07 Jun 2011 01:32 PM PDT Backbone Entertainment is releasing a sequel to Nihilistic Software's twin-stick shooter Zombie Apocalypse this fall on Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network. Once again you'll be controlling one of four heroes, who runs around with one stick while shooting zombies with the other stick. A new squad mechanic has been added that gives you full control of each team member, whether you are playing solo or cooperatively. You'll also be able to swap team members' weapons and powers as part of the "innovative class-based action." I never played the previous game, but apparently it was "just ok." Let's hope the sequel is a bit more than that, although so far I've yet to see anything that really sets it apart. | ||||
| E3: Here are your special E3 2011 Pokedex 3D AR cards Posted: 07 Jun 2011 01:30 PM PDT Crap! The media room at E3 is about to close! We've got crap loads of work to do, but before I'm totally buried, I wanted to give you these E3 exclusive Pokedex 3D AR cards. Download your free Pokedex 3D app from the 3DS store, touch the gear, select AR Viewer, then watch them Poke-mans pop out of your computer screen. I love it! | ||||
| E3: Raptr has evolved from stats tracker to social news Posted: 07 Jun 2011 01:21 PM PDT To a games marketer, Raptr is priceless. Through their stats-tracking app they know what nearly 9 million gamers are playing and the kind of stuff they're doing in their games. Thus, they and have a pretty good idea which group of people are most likely buy that brand new super-derivative game your company's been working on. After years of perfecting their data they've not released something pretty unexpected: they've turned their web site into a consumer news portal that's personalized to the player's tastes. You an also submit your favorite stories (from Destructoid!) and vote them up and down. Yes, it's basically Reddit Gaming with personzalization. But there's so much more to it -- the profile pages are actually pretty deep. The site is still in beta and they're hungry for feedback. What do you want from your social gaming site? | ||||
| E3: Hitman Absolution first look Posted: 07 Jun 2011 01:17 PM PDT The Hitman series is finally back. Agent 47 is ready to kill again for the right price and he has some new abilities to aid him in his murderous ways in Hitman Absolution. As IO Interactive showed us in the world premier of the game though, Agent 47 is having a bit of trouble with the law. The hands-off presentation saw the anti-hero in an abandoned library somewhere in Chicago. The place was crawling with cops as there's a statewide manhunt FOR Agent 47 and the best of all, you start off with no weapons or tools to aid you. Hitman Absolution (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 [Previewed] Cops are patrolling the abandoned building, but as this is a library there are plenty of shelves and objects for Agent 47 to hide behind while he makes his way through the place. The first few minutes saw the player silently creeping around as the cops where calling to each other or making small talk with one another. IO stated that the AI is a lot more complex and intelligent this time as well as featuring a lot more human emotions. While 47 has no weapons, he does have the new ability called “Instinct.” Activating “Instinct” gives you an X-ray view of the entire place that highlights all the cops as they patrol the area. “Instinct” can also show you the path a particular person is taking (represented by a walkway made of fire). The ability goes as far as letting you even hear the thoughts of people that are paying particular attention to 47. The new ability reminded me a lot of Batman: Arkham Asylum's “Detective Mode.” After a few more minutes of the Metal Gear Solid-like creeping, 47 started to silently take cops out one-by-one. At first with his bare hands and slowly building up from there with wire and a police baton that he used to snap necks. My favorite of the takedowns was when 47 grabbed a statue of a head, smashed it into a cops face and the force of the impact pushed the cop through a hole in the floor to a level below. Eventually 47 can't make his way out without being seen so he grabs a gun from the corpse of a cop and uses an officer as a human shield. 47 is slowly backing out of the place as several other cops have guns pointed at the player. Once far enough, 47 snapped the hostage's neck and made his way upstairs to make his escape, but not before shooting a chandelier from its chain to slow down the perusing cops below. Once on the roof, the player is greeted by a police helicopter which follows 47 as he went into the closest building for cover. The chopper shortly opens up fire and 47 is rolling and jumping from cover-to-cover to get out of the room safely. This room is home to dozens of caged pigeons so lots of feathers are flying all over the place. Towards the end of the room the chopper stops firing and instructs a nearby officer that 47 is in the building. The cop investigates only to be taken from behind and 47 uses the chance to put on the cop's uniform and calmly walks outside to another building as the helicopter simply watches on none the wiser. Once inside the new building you see that you're in a pot den where a few pot heads are freaking out that the police have found their place of “business.” One of the guys freaks out so much that he tries to cram a potted Weed plant down the toilet to get rid of the evidence. As 47 makes his way through the room, a guy tripped out on weed offers 47 a hit from his bong before a couple of cops come in and question who 47 is. 47 answers by grabbing the bong and smashing it into the cop's face and taking down the other in quick succession. Okay, I lied. THIS was my favorite takedown. 47 then makes his way towards the buildings elevator as cops are knocking on every door trying to find you. You're still in the police outfit so no one pays much attention to you except for one guy just before leaving the building. The cop believes you're an old retried cop to which 47 replies by saying “I never left.” 47 then makes his way outside and disappears amongst the crowd of people. Even in the pre-alpha state, Hitman Absolution was looking simply gorgeous. There was a lot of attention to detail and I really liked the lighting effects. Since there was no hands-on I can't comment on the controls or much else, but I at least can tell you it was looking really good. IO Interactive did promise a lot though and stated at the beginning of their presentation that there will be a lot more freedom of choice that will be “very key” to the experience. Disguises and impersonations have been “taken to a new level” and will also be a key feature. |
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