New Games |
- New Destructoid Episode: Butt Saints Hacked!
- Team Fortress 2 gets its most ambitious update this week
- Live Show: Backlog takes shelter in Parasite Eve II
- Rumor: Grand Theft Auto V is 'well under way'
- Podtoid records tomorrow, get yer questions in!
- Lets see how many streetpasses I got at E3
- New releases: Shadows of the Damned, Zelda 3D and more
- Juanito says: Go watch this Tropico 4 trailer
- Tim Drake Robin in Batman: Arkham City with pre-order
- Live show: Mash Tactics plays Alice: Madness Returns
- Armored Core V beta coming soon to Japan
- Let's hear it for Lon Lon Milk
- Review: Akimi Village
- NCAA Football 12 live stream happening tomorrow
- The Jimquisition: Accountability
- Shadows of the Damned gets a launch trailer
- GOG's Interplay sale will make your wallet cry
| New Destructoid Episode: Butt Saints Hacked! Posted: 20 Jun 2011 04:08 PM PDT
Good evening, gentle readers. Come in, make yourself at home. I'll throw a log on the fire and crack open a bottle of wine. Why don't you slip into something a little more comfortable while I run down the day's news? First up, Sega got hacked, and for once it's not that pesky LulzSec to blame. Also, Saints Row 3 has pimps and chicks in bikinis, Halo Anniversary will have Kinect support, and Capcom has a weird obsession with big butts. Last but not least, a Danish studio is currently in the process of developing an HD remake of Duke Nukem: 3D. Let's hope it's better than Duke Nukem Forever. |
| Team Fortress 2 gets its most ambitious update this week Posted: 20 Jun 2011 04:00 PM PDT On Thursday, "the biggest, most ambitious update in the history of Team Fortress 2" will go live. Valve is calling it, appropriately enough, the Über Update. In addition to the Medic finally getting his own "Meet the" video, day one -- otherwise known as Mobster Monday -- revealed some of what's in store with this update: expanded gear for both the Heavy and the Spy, plus a Payload map dubbed Barn Blitz. As per usual, Valve will be dishing out more secrets leading up to Thursday. |
| Live Show: Backlog takes shelter in Parasite Eve II Posted: 20 Jun 2011 03:00 PM PDT [Backlog is the ongoing quest to rid Conrad Zimmerman's collection of unfinished games. As voted on by the Destructoid community, Conrad plays each game from start to finish live on Destructoid's Justin.tv channel every weeknight at 8pm Pacific] At least, that's what I'm told this place is: a shelter. It will probably be the spawning point for all manner of hideous hellbeasts. Those camels have been giving me nightmares all weekend and I'm looking forward to facing a fresh new hell as we continue playing Parasite Eve II. Come join me as I play live and hang out with all the goons in our chat room. We'll be laughing and crying at my ability with tank controls coupled by the inventory hole I've dug myself into. It promises to be a rollicking good time and it's all happening right now over on Destructoid's Justin.tv channel! |
| Rumor: Grand Theft Auto V is 'well under way' Posted: 20 Jun 2011 02:00 PM PDT I know, I know -- they're supposedly making another Grand Theft Auto title? What are they, some sort of business or something? According to GameSpot's sources, pegged as being close to Rockstar Games, Grand Theft Auto V is coming. In fact, it's reportedly "well under way." A release in 2012 is also said to be "pretty likely." Oh yeah, and one more quote, because having three looks better than two: "it's the big one." You don't say! Now that the Saints Row series has taken a distinct direction and run with it, I'm curious to see where GTA will go next. What are you hoping for? |
| Podtoid records tomorrow, get yer questions in! Posted: 20 Jun 2011 01:00 PM PDT It's almost time again! Jonathan Holmes, Tara Long, Max Scoville and myself will be convening for another round of banter tomorrow afternoon, and we need your questions to help us pad out the running time, as per usual! We'll probably chat a bit more about Ocarina of Time and Shadows of the Damned, but otherwise it's been a slow period for big news so the contents will be anyone's guess! |
| Lets see how many streetpasses I got at E3 Posted: 20 Jun 2011 12:30 PM PDT For those of you that don't know, the 3DS has a feature called Streetpass that allows you to swap some data with people you pass by who are also carrying their 3DS. You can collect other people's Miis, rate them, use them to battle monsters and collect hats in a turn based mini-RPG that's built into the 3DS, swap 3D puzzle pieces, and that's just with the built in software. If you have retail titles like Super Street Fighter 4 and Nintendogs + Cats, you can get some game-specific Streetpass action as well. The problem with Streetpass is that not that many people own a 3DS yet, and those who do seldom seem to carry them around. In fact, I rarely see regular DS's in the wild, despite the fact that Nintendo has sold tens of millions of the things in the US over the years. I was hoping that wouldn't be the case at an event like E3. I brought my 3DS to the event to see how many Streetpasses I could get. Here's what happened. |
| New releases: Shadows of the Damned, Zelda 3D and more Posted: 20 Jun 2011 12:00 PM PDT The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D is out this week and that's great! But I'm way more excited for Shadows of the Damned. I've been hearing mixed things about it, but I don't care. I want that Suda 51 goodness! Otherwise for this week we got F.3.A.R which might be good. What's looking sw33t to all of you? PC: Gods & Heroes: Rome Rising, Dungeon Siege III, Cars 2: The Video Game, DS: Cars 2: The Video Game Wii: Cars 2: The Video Game Shadows of the Damned (X360, PS3) Dungeon Siege III (PC, X360) Cars 2: The Video Game (X360, PS3, Wii, PC, DS) F.3.A.R. (X360, PS3, PC) Trenched (X360) |
| Juanito says: Go watch this Tropico 4 trailer Posted: 20 Jun 2011 11:30 AM PDT A new trailer for Tropico 4 confirms one thing: it's more of what Tropico 3 gave us. Which is really all I need to know to make it my third most anticipated game for the rest of this year after Deus Ex: Human Revolution and Arkham City. Why? Because I put around 80 hours total into Tropico 3 on the Xbox 360. Not because I hated the PC version, but because the control scheme worked well on the console and you could manage the slow-moving life of a banana republic island with your feet up, lying down on the couch. It was the ultimate exercise in laziness! So here's to 80 more hours of laziness, and I hope we get to kill Juanito again if he makes a reappearance. |
| Tim Drake Robin in Batman: Arkham City with pre-order Posted: 20 Jun 2011 11:16 AM PDT We already got word that Robin would be made available at Best Buy as a pre-order incentive for Batman: Arkham City. Now Warner Bros. has confirmed it, along with an image and some fresh details. |
| Live show: Mash Tactics plays Alice: Madness Returns Posted: 20 Jun 2011 11:00 AM PDT A little know fact is that I have a degree in Psychology. Lay out on the couch and tune in to Justin.tv as we start a session at 4PM PST to expose all of those repressed memories by playing Alice: Madness Returns. Safety is not guaranteed, but madness is. [Join us for Mash Tactics every weekday at 4PM PST on Justin.Tv/Destructoid to watch live streams of new game releases and crazy antics with industry guests. Come join us on the chat and see what all the fuss is about! Want to get involved? We are always looking for community content to showcase. If you would like us to read your C-blog post or show off your original Dtoid art, we would love to see it. Get your voice heard by guest starring on one of our many community focused shows. Still want more? With a little bit of consistency, dedication, and responsibility, you too can have your own show on the official Dtoid channel! Join us in chat on Justin.Tv/Destructoid to find out how you can be a part our great expanding community.] |
| Armored Core V beta coming soon to Japan Posted: 20 Jun 2011 10:40 AM PDT Invites went out from From Software to Japanese gamers today for the beta for upcoming title Armored Core V. According to The Daily DL, this beta will give a taste of the final product, offering team play, story missions, customization of mechs and a look at the new Mercenary System. There's actually two betas for AC5 running through the month of July. The first is for PS3 folks (July 1-14), and the next is for the Xbox 360 kids (July 18 through August 1). Japanese gamers will get the finished game a couple of months later, on October 20th. Us? You'll have to wait a bit, I'm sure. |
| Let's hear it for Lon Lon Milk Posted: 20 Jun 2011 10:20 AM PDT Lon Lon Milk. We've all carried a bottle of it with us at one point or another. The hearty flavor, the nutritious healing properties, there is little to be said in favor of Lon Lon Milk that hasn't been said already. It's past time that the delightful dairy product had itself a round of applause, though. Remember, when you drink a delicious bottle of Lon Lon Milk, you'll be energized in seconds! After you drink it, you can bring back the bottle and buy a refill, anytime you want! Your normal milk that your out-of-touch mom or dad might buy can't claim such wonderful properties. Get with the times, mom, you stupid old square! You too dad, you prick! Ladies and gentlemen, let us applaud Lon Lon Milk, please! |
| Posted: 20 Jun 2011 10:00 AM PDT Ninjabee's Xbox Live Arcade hits A Kingdom for Keflings and A World of Keflings are like digital crack. If you ever spent hours on any Settlers game, the Keflings games let you do the same kind of thing -- but from your comfy couch -- for hours on end. Sadly, PlayStation 3 owners have had to do without with the fun gameplay that the XBLA exclusives provided. That is, until Ninjabee's latest Akimi Village arrived for PlayStation Network. But is Akimi Village an Asian themed spiritual successor to the Kefling series, or simply a mere reskinning of the XBLA games?
If you are unfamiliar with the Keflings games, they put you in control of a giant-sized avatar who constructs buildings by placing components on the ground while following a simple schematic. Components get constructed in manufacturing buildings and cost resources of a varying kind. And of course, those resources need to be harvested by your tiny minions and later refined into the more advanced resources required for advanced building components. What sets it apart from traditional building sims like Settlers or Anno 1404 is that you can walk around as the avatar giant, and move around the map to place new buildings, help with resource gathering, and manage your minions. Minions can be picked up and dropped on a resource to turn them into harvesters, or on buildings to set their drop-off location. You can also do the same to turn them into transporters that take one processed resource from a factory to a component manufacturing building. It works really well with the consoles' controller scheme and you find yourself walking around to slowly build your little city from scratch. Akimi Village follows the gameplay of A Kingdom of Keflings almost to the letter, but there are a couple of changes that set it apart. Whereas in A World of Keflings you had to build houses that required elusive "hearts" you had to earn in order to create new Keflings, Akimi are created through numerous buildings and can now be recruited from "the Gloom." The world of Akimi Village is a magical floating island governed by a weird and self-conscious elder raccoon man-creature thing. The island has fallen under the spell of a dark gloomy aura, which also limits the protagonist's ability to return home after having woken up in the village. By constructing buildings you earn Culture which, when accumulated, can give you a magic acorn that you place at empty Spirit Wells inside the Gloom. That sounds more complicated than it is, because you just pick up the acorn and drop it in a hole to remove an area of the Gloom. This in turn doesn't only give you more space to build in, but Gloomy Akimi will turn into regular Akimi that you can put to work, and it reveals more resources and hidden goodies in the process. Unfortunately, there is only the one island to play on -- just like A Kingdom for Keflings only had one big map. A World of Keflings on the other hand had multiple yet smaller maps and a story that progressed you from location to location. World also gave you the ability to push buildings in four directions after you completed them, instead of having to "destroy" the building and pick up and place every single component all over again at another location. And while the last game gave you a couple of "hero" class helpers that would automatically construct any building you started to build as long as the components were around, that element is absent here. As such, it feels like Akimi Village was either created by a different team at Ninjabee or was designed sometime between the two Keflings games. However, it provides its own improvements on the formula in the process as well. Akimi -- who are basically like little Asian Zoidberg Pikmin -- get a different color skin and clothes depending on their job. Transporters use a rickshaw which also helps a great deal to set them apart from other wandering Akimi. You can also build a Dojo to increase the efficiency of harvesters, which gives them a little basket on their back to set them apart from other harvesters, and a Rickshaw School to make your transporters move faster by giving them wings. It's not always easy to see which Akimi you've upgraded and not though. The basket is easy to spot once you know what to look for, and although it might take a while to spot the wings on their back, they cannot be unseen once you do see them. Because you'll play Akimi Village from a zoomed out perspective most of the time, it does get really hard to see some of the other Akimi upgrades -- like the colored feathers that the Akimi receive on the top of their heads if you place them in education buildings. It's odd that as colorful as the game is, these Akimi upgrades can be so hard to spot because their colors match the used palette a lot of times. Thankfully this never becomes a real issue, as you only educate an Akimi to immediately place it in a finished building that requires a certain educated Akimi. Still, I used to lose trained Keflings in the Keflings games before and I might have been looking for a long time in Akimi Village if I didn't already know how to play the game. Other changes are the inclusion of portal buildings that can speed up transport between two regions on the map immensely, and a focus on a lot more "filler" buildings than before. There really are a lot of cultural buildings that don't seem to do anything, but which still need to be constructed in order to progress through the build tree of the game. This gives players a lot more customizability to create their ideally laid out fantasy village, but it can also feel make Keflings veterans scratch their head. If you are among the latter group, you'll probably just dump them somewhere in a corner where it doesn't interfere with the Akimi's harvesting and transport routes. These culture buildings also project an area of flowers on the ground, but the game never tells you properly what the different types of flower auras actually do. It makes things look lively, but some buildings upgrade Akimi efficiency in certain regards and project the same type of flowers as other buildings that seemingly don't do anything. The only hint of the flower function is that huts and houses make nearby Akimi work harder if they touch the flowers. On the gameplay-centric side -- and this will please Keflings fans to no end -- all manufacturing buildings now share a common resource pool. So no longer do you have to direct Akimi to transport resources to different buildings, and neither do you have to manually move resources from one building to the other just to construct building components. Building construction is also a lot clearer this time around, with geometric shapes that indicate where a component should be constructed. The whole building process feels more accessible and easier to understand than before, even if it was already pretty clear in the past games. Some other head-scratching occurs when you start to think about what it is you are doing. Keflings had a medieval theme with gnomes who just liked to work and worship you. In Akimi Village however, the Akimi appear to be productive Asian critters who only live to work. You can build houses that slightly improve efficiency through a flower aura, but because you will quickly have flowers all over your economic zones you'll probably only build one of each to progress the build tree. That means you keep grabbing Akimi from the dark regions that is the Gloom, and put them to work without pay, food, or proper housing. In a nutshell, you are a slaver overlord that is pushing the traditional Akimi society through a fantasy version of fast-paced Asian capitalist development. And not the best kind either, as you are encouraged to strip mine all stone and cut down all trees without a single thought towards sustainability. You do all of this as efficiently as possible for only one reason: so you don't have to wait, work, and walk around as much yourself. Basically, you are applying Ford-style scientific management to the poor creatures to save them from the darkness of underdevelopment. Despite all that, it's also a game you can play with your child to teach it how to set up supply lines, build an economy from scratch, and marvel at the well-oiled machine at the end of the game. It at once provides educational benefit and a critique on the inescapible nature of production cycles and continuous economic development. The Akimi can change their careers by swapping jobs, but in the end they are entirely dependent on the benevolence of the player as the supreme leader. That is, if you don't kick them all over the place for fun. And in the end, the Akimi island encapsules its entire population in an eternal cycle of work without personal progression for as long as the island's natural resources last.
If you did play the other games and own both consoles, Akimi Village sits between A Kingdom of Keflings and A World of Keflings. Some of the big improvements from World are lacking in Akimi, although you won't miss them enough to let it detract from the overall fun you will have with it. And despite the games being very similar, Akimi Village offers a fresh enough experience to take yet another plunge into Ninjabee's world of console sim games. Hopefully Ninjabee can incorporate the best of the three games to create something like A Dimension of Keflings, in which you travel back and forth between the games' worlds and set up supply lines between all of them. I'm pretty sure I'd die of an overdose if that game existed. |
| NCAA Football 12 live stream happening tomorrow Posted: 20 Jun 2011 09:40 AM PDT Next week is when EA Sports will drop the demo for NCAA Football 12 on Xbox Live and PlayStation Network. Ahead of the demo's June 28 launch, the company has plans to interact with fans via live stream. This is going down tomorrow at 10:00 AM PDT, if you're looking to participate. The online event is said to have a preview of the upcoming demo and a Q&A session with the development team that'll also go into the Road to Glory mode. NCAA Football 12 hits PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on July 12. |
| The Jimquisition: Accountability Posted: 20 Jun 2011 09:00 AM PDT With Call of Duty Elite and EA's Origin service both kickstarting this year, the number of online accounts that the videogame industry expects me to possess is reaching ludicrous levels. This week's Jimquisition is a bit of a vent against the outrageous amount of accounts and subscriptions that companies think we want. Or at least want us to want. Seriously, just looking at the list of accounts I already have makes me fume, especially considering how many I needed last generation (spoiler: none). |
| Shadows of the Damned gets a launch trailer Posted: 20 Jun 2011 08:40 AM PDT Make no mistake, Shadows of the Damned is a silly game. One of weapons available to protagonist Garcia Hotspur is called, quite simply, "Boner." Yeah, they went there. The marketing for this game has taken a similar over-the-top approach, but with today's launch trailer, we're shown a more serious tone, which I thought was interesting. I know a fair few of you are pumped for Shadows of the Damned, so tomorrow should be a delight. |
| GOG's Interplay sale will make your wallet cry Posted: 20 Jun 2011 08:00 AM PDT Good Old Games is having a 50% off sale for all the 32 Interplay games in their library. Each game is now only $2.99 until July 4th, and you can buy all of them for $95.68 although the only benefit of that not clicking 32 times. What games did Interplay release again, you might ask? All the Descent, Redneck Rampage, Earthworm Jim, Fallout, MDK and Freespace games for starters! Other notables include: Screamer, Shogo: Mobile Armor Division, Kingpin: Life of Crime, Jagged Alliance 2, Messiah, Sacrifice, and last but not least Giants: Citizen Kabuto. If for some reason you never played any of these, then first of all: what is wrong with you? Second, buy Freespace 2 right now! And grab Giants: Citizen Kabuto and Sacrifice next, as those are still among the most creative games in PC history. And Shogo. And Fallout. And.... just go look at the entire list yourself, and breathe in the nostalgia that brings you back to the time where you pointed and laughed at your friends with their N64s and PlayStations. [Thanks mrandydixon!] |
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