New Games |
- Frogger Pinball hops to Facebook and iOS
- Beware: A Fantastic Arcade approaches!
- Ninja Gaiden 3's Hero Mode lets you take it easy
- Extended Resident Evil Revelations TGS trailer intrigues
- Relaxation: Secretly training
- Official Battlefield 3 PC requirements released
- Free EDGE DLC incoming including new race mode
- Live show: More Gears 3 on Mash Tactics
- Diablo III closed beta is underway now!
- Online passes are not necessarily bad for everyone
- Futuremark taking sign-ups for Unstoppable Gorg beta
- Talking to Women about Videogames: Gears 3 isn't perfect?
- These two indie bundles are worth downloading
- Preview: Windows 8 benchmarks and impressions
- LEGO Harry Potter: Years 5-7 set for November 11
- Primal Carnage has dinosaurs and a new video
- Review: Xotic
- Battlefield 3 beta arrives September 29
| Frogger Pinball hops to Facebook and iOS Posted: 20 Sep 2011 04:00 PM PDT Gaming's greats all wind up in a pinball table eventually; Samus, Kirby, Mario, Sonic, and all those Pokémon have all wound up in balls, ripe for the flipping. The amphibious adventurer is once again out to defeat RoboCroc, save the town, and all that jazz. Frogger Pinball, bound for iOS and Facebook later this month, features three tables, two modes, and the promise of competitive leaderboards and unlockable extras. The focus will undoubtedly be the competitive mode, One Shot, where you'll aim to out-score your friends, though the Story mode will take you through the game's three tables -- Swamp, City, and Space Station -- in the aforementioned quest to thwart RoboCroc with the help of some power-up items, attainable by leveling up and hitting the standard pinball fare. All of this, alongside Frogger 3D, is just in time for Frogger's 30th Anniversary. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Beware: A Fantastic Arcade approaches! Posted: 20 Sep 2011 03:30 PM PDT Do you live in the South and love video games? Do you hate that we don't have a PAX or anything other than QuakeCon? Well then you should come down to Fantastic Arcade in Austin, Texas at The Highball this weekend. From Sept. 22 to 25, indie game developers from around the world will be showing off their games and getting (very) drunk. As someone who attended last year's debut, I must say there isn't a better event to meet developers in person, play their games or pitch your own. It's the only event to have the intimacy of a bar and the craziness of a brothel. The best part? It's all free! In return, it's expected that you stroke some of the developer's egos (but nothing else, I hope). Here are some of this year's highlights:
If you do attend, feel free to say hi to the immaculately chiseled Destructoid associate editor Sean "Fantastic" Carey and myself. I am always up for a game of Toobin' at the venue's free-to-play arcade! Be sure to check out previews of games here at Dtoid over the weekend, as well as sister site Flixist for film coverage coming out of Fantastic Fest (Arcade's larger, film companion).
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| Ninja Gaiden 3's Hero Mode lets you take it easy Posted: 20 Sep 2011 01:30 PM PDT In a surprising move, Team Ninja are adding a new, easier difficulty mode to Ryu Hayabusa's latest adventure, Ninja Gaiden 3. Players taking this route won't have to worry about dodging or blocking most attacks as Ryu will do it automatically. This is being done to allow players to experience the story without becoming frustrated by the difficulty, according to director Fumihiko Yasuda.
Yasuda also talks about redefining Hayabusa and exploring the man under the mask. It certainly seems like the team is taking the franchise in a whole new direction with Itagaki no longer at the helm. Ninja Gaiden and Ninja Gaiden 2 remain two of my favorite action games but I honestly couldn't tell you a thing about the story. I can't imagine anyone playing these games for their narratives. However, this might change with the third game. It's certainly going to be interesting to see how these additions will affect the gameplay. Fans of the previous games' challenging difficulty haven't been forgotten, though. Ninja Gaiden 3 will still have a "super hard" difficulty mode and will retain the hardcore aspect of the franchise. If Team Ninja does manage to create an interesting and memorable story and maintain the same level of polish, challenge and fun from the previous titles then I'll be ecstatic. Here's to hoping it doesn't end up schizophrenic. Ninja Gaiden 3's 'Hero Mode'... [Joystiq] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Extended Resident Evil Revelations TGS trailer intrigues Posted: 20 Sep 2011 12:30 PM PDT Capcom has posted the extended Tokyo Game Show trailer for Resident Evil Revelations, and you can be sure that it's fun for the whole family. Rachel has been loathed by many fans, and liked by others. I'll admit, there's something about her hair that's strangely irritating, but I've got nothing against her. Not that it really matters, though -- just watch this video to see what I mean. By the way, who is that in the background at 2:55? | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Posted: 20 Sep 2011 12:00 PM PDT [Last week's Bloggers Wanted topic asked you to tell me how you use video games to relax. Today's blog is from StriderHoang, who lets out stress through the training modes of fighting games. If you want to participate in our Bloggers Wanted topic and see your own blog on the front page, take a look at our current prompt about TGS. -- JRo] Do you consider training mode a tedious reminder of how bad you are? Most people only hit training mode in order to sharpen their skill when it comes to a human opponent, whether it's online or offline. Multiplayer games, specifically fighting games and especially fighting games online, are a mixed bag when it comes to actual enjoyment. Objectively, the online matchmaking may work and you'll have lag-free games, but it means nothing if you play against three opponents in a row who use the same obnoxious zoning strategy. Fair and allowed? Of course. But any person who enjoys playing with raw power or grappler characters fear the match up that involves the character who can throw fireballs all day. I'll deal with it bro, but that doesn't mean I'll enjoy it. But many times, I may end up spending hours in training mode, slapping around a helpless training dummy. And it's more than just practice to me. There's a certain cathartic release when you get into training mode and execute combos, whether they're powerful and practical or flashy and unnecessary. And time only disappears faster if the combo is actually hard. I tell myself, “I'm not going to do anything else until I nail this link!” 3 hours later, I finally get the seemingly impossible link and I haven't had anything to eat. But at least I've figured out a new level 3 combo or a new tick throw set up that I hadn't realized before.
Training mode for me is like a sandbox for fighting games. You have nearly all the tools you could want at your disposal like infinite meter or the ability to change your dummy's state (standing, crouching, jumping, forced counter hit) and a clean canvas in the form of a dummy. I wonder if I can link into ultra in the corner? If I can, is it more worthwhile than perhaps fishing for a counter hit or a hit confirm from midscreen? What happens if call for an assist after the attack? Before the attack? Is this combo safe on block? If I have frame advantage, can I exploit it for a tick throw? In a game as lenient as Marvel vs. Capcom 3, training mode can mean casually exploring new teams and new combos with different approaches to combat, both direct and gimmicky.
In a game as strict as 3rd Strike, training mode can mean exploring what sort of fun moves you can use to punish the plethora of unsafe attacks that are present in the game. Unlike Street Fighter IV, a lot of sweeps in 3rd Strike are really unsafe. So how far exactly can I take my punish? Can I use my own sweep? Maybe a strong special attack? But wait, isn't my super art fast enough to reversal and punish? Take it a step further in a game as complicated as BlazBlue. Jin Kisaragi can freeze his opponents in ice and can refreeze them mid-combo for 25% meter. BlazBlue also encourages counter hit combos with their distinct announcer. There are tons of variations on even Jin's most basic combos depending on how you start the combo, when you use his freeze attacks, and if you decide to spend meter to extend it. Imagine mathematical formulas that go as simple as [freeze, launcher, and knockdown], to something as complicated as [counter hit, launcher, freeze, knockdown, refreeze, and super] (to put it mildly, for those of you not into arcade notation).
This level of casual, undisturbed exploration with no distractions is what I find relaxing for hours. I may boot up 3rd Strike at midnight just to enter training mode to wind down my day without ever touching the online player matches. “I want to practice my execution before going to bed.” I just want to satisfy a simple goal for myself before clocking out. There is of course an incredible rush of adrenaline when the combo or mix-up you've practiced for hours works against an actual, breathing opponent in an actual match that will reflect on your records somewhere, no doubt about it. But training mode to me is like reading a book for you or tuning out on television. My brain just sort of goes on sleep mode and I can relax while mindlessly exploring the possibilities of maybe Taskmaster's f.C, Jin's refreeze corner combos, or what exactly I can do after Makoto's Abare Tosanami.
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| Official Battlefield 3 PC requirements released Posted: 20 Sep 2011 11:30 AM PDT The official PC requirements for Battlefield 3 were finally posted today! Minimum System Requirements In case you missed the memo, the beta begins September 29th, and the game is set for release on October 25. Here's the link for the beta site, and you can pre-order your copy of Battlefield 3 here. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Free EDGE DLC incoming including new race mode Posted: 20 Sep 2011 11:00 AM PDT One of the biggest love/hate elements from this generation of consoles is downloadable content. Some DLC is good (song packs for Rock Band or full-blown expansions in the Fallout games) and some of it is bad, (unlocking things already on a disc or pre-order trinkets made up to entice gamers to pay early). However, free DLC is rarely bad. EDGE developer Two Tribes has announced a big DLC add-on coming on September 28th to the Steam version of its iOS puzzle/platform title. Included in the update are 40 brand new levels, which is a crazy update as the original version of EDGE had 40 standard levels in it at first, with another 8 unlocked at the end of the game. That's almost doubling the content! Also included is a new mode where gamers will race the "notorious" dark cube. As someone who really enjoyed EDGE, this is great news. Free DLC is hard to turn down and when it's going to be a glut of new levels and a whole new mode, it's going to be hard to not fire EDGE up again and keep playing. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Live show: More Gears 3 on Mash Tactics Posted: 20 Sep 2011 10:30 AM PDT [Not sure what Mash Tactics is? I've included a clip from the most recent episode to show you just a glimpse of what you've been missing, you daft fool! You can see all of Destructoid's previously-aired live shows in our archives.] Today, Mash Tactics is playing Gears of War 3 again! This time, we can explore a lot more of the game, but we still won't be spoiling any of the juicy plot developments. You will also get the chance jump online and take a Lancer to Carnage and Pico up close. Mash Tactics airs Monday through Friday at 4pm Pacific. Watch Jon Carnage and Pico Mause let loose with off-the-wall humor and discuss the issues of the day in the live chat on Destructoid's Twitch.tv channel. Also, there are videogames being played. Join us for your chance to win prizes, talk to industry guests, and witness all of the glorious antics.
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| Diablo III closed beta is underway now! Posted: 20 Sep 2011 10:15 AM PDT If you're in the mood for early access to some of 2011's hottest games, then today's your lucky day; not only was the Battlefield 3 beta announced for September 29th, but Blizzard has revealed that the Diablo III closed beta is available, right now! With Diablo III still to be confirmed for release in 2011, this could be the closest players get to Blizzard's long-awaited sequel. A statement released by the developer today says, players will be able to go through half of the first act of the game as any of the five announced classes. The act concludes with a battle against the Skull King, who I presume is the King of the little known Skull region. Or the King of skeletons, it's not really clear. The beta is available to play either by yourself or with online co-op, so it's time to start eying up your Battle.net friends list to see who you want as your teammate. Unfortunately, there's no update on a firm release date in the statement and it's not clear if the controversial auction house will be accessible to players in the beta, but this is still exciting news. Any members of the lovely Destructoid community got a beta invite? Already started playing? Let us know what you think in the comments below. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Online passes are not necessarily bad for everyone Posted: 20 Sep 2011 10:00 AM PDT Earlier this week, our very own Jim Sterling railed against the continued use of multiplayer online passes by game publishers in his Jimquisition series, stating that online passes are "bad for everyone." He makes a very compelling argument and while I don't agree entirely with all of his points, I do believe in his assertion that publishers are using it as a tool to squeeze the used games market in a manner that could be detrimental to their larger business of making and selling games over the long term. Bad for everyone? Not quite. In fact, from where I'm sitting, this online pass thing could wind up being a pretty sweet deal for a class of gamer who has already been hurt significantly by the rise of online multiplayer gaming: the single-player. I am a single-player. I like the occasional multiplayer game, but I don't play more than a few of them a year. I'm a little selective in my choices, preferring to play top-tier, multiplayer-focused titles when I do decide to go online. I lack skills in certain types of games and I'm not particularly competitive unless I feel I have a decent shot at success. While I do enjoy the occasional co-operative game, I'm less interested in playing those games over the Internet than I am on a couch. And, frankly, I'd much rather immerse myself in the experience of a game without the distraction of other people. I know I'm not alone. As the multiplayer gaming market grew, fans of single-player experiences have had to watch one tacked-on multiplayer mode after another be added to games which would have previously focused entirely on the solo campaign. And who could blame the industry? They were only pursuing larger audiences and greater profits, the very reason for their existence. Nevertheless, a solo player in an increasingly massive multiplayer world, I felt a little left out in the cold as I continued to buy games in which a large portion of the content was of no interest to me whatsoever. And that's the beauty of the online pass for the single-player. While the multiplayer audience will perceive this as having something taken from them -- in this case, free online gaming for those who buy from the used market -- I can view this as instead being given something. We're being given a choice as to whether or not we want the multiplayer content to be part of our experience at all. It seems like a foregone conclusion that used game sellers will have to lower prices to accommodate for the increased burden on the consumer. If the industry decides to pursue the online pass as a permanent part of the gaming landscape, they'll likely have no choice in the matter. Those consumers who want to buy used and have no need of online play will benefit from the reduced pricing of used games. Jim asserts that online passes will devalue used games when retailers pass the buck for the new price drops on to folks trading their copies in. It's a valid concern, but the used games market is a very different place than it was just a few years ago. Big fish with lots of revenue streams outside of gaming such as Best Buy and Amazon have been making competitive moves to take their piece of the pie. Services like Goozex are growing in popularity as well. That competition will probably make it hard for a dramatic adjustment of trade-in value, as it only opens the door for one of the retailers to begin enticing customers with newfound wiggle room in their offering prices. If you're the industry's favorite type of consumer, the one who always buys new, you can still benefit here. The very existence of the online pass makes it a commodity ideal for the secondary market. We have long seen swift trade in DLC codes online. Why should the online pass be any different? I'd be perfectly happy to get 70 or 80 cents on the dollar for a code I have no desire to use and I'm sure the money-conscious used gamer wouldn't mind saving a couple of bucks on their multiplayer modes. I won't defend online passes. I hate entering them in. I despise the way their very existence reminds me of how little control we actually have over the use of these products we lay down cash money for. You know what I see when I think about what online passes are to the business of games? A guy holding his left arm in his right hand and using it to hit himself in the face. But it isn't all bad all the time. For gamers who don't want to hop online (and perhaps some savvy multiplayer fans), there's even a little bit of money to be saved on the purchasing end. Even the darkest clouds still have silver linings. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Futuremark taking sign-ups for Unstoppable Gorg beta Posted: 20 Sep 2011 09:30 AM PDT September 20th, 2011 -- A spacewire transmission is sent out of Helsinki, Finland. Futuremark Games Studios is seeking PC gamers to help beta test its new game Unstoppable Gorg. The game is a "thrilling space defense game inspired by vintage sci-fi films from the 1940s and 50s" that builds upon traditional tower defense conventions. Instead of towers, you will place satellites on a familiar grid-like layout as other tower defense games. Unlike a traditional one though, here you will also have to move them, in order to account for their orbit around the planet you're defending. This is being billed as more than a marketing beta. Jaakko Haapasalo, director of defense at Futuremark Games Studio says, "We need enthusiastic players to take part in a proper, old-school beta -- one where players' suggestions and ideas will actually influence the final game." It's slated for iPad, Xbox Live Arcade, and PC, though the beta will only be for the PC. Anyone interested in heeding the call of duty can apply on Futuremark's forums, or by liking them on the Unstoppable Gorg Facebook page. The only minimum requirements are that your computer can run Windows XP and has DirectX 9 hardware. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Talking to Women about Videogames: Gears 3 isn't perfect? Posted: 20 Sep 2011 09:00 AM PDT Gears of War 3 just hit retail, and the reviews were positive across the board, ranging from great to perfect. For most games, that would be more than enough to please both the title's developers and fans, but in the case of Gears 3, there was something of an uproar when the game received "just an 8" by a few select outlets. For a variety of reasons (not the least of which was that the gaming press has cultivated a culture where a game that receives less than a 9 is considered "sh*t" by many readers), many Gears fans came out fighting, claiming that giving Gears 3 an 8 was insulting at best and a "hate-filled lie" at worst. Others went so far as to say that the fact that some reviewers gave the game a score a whole two points lower is proof that review scores should be done away with entirely. They said that if there can't be a 100% consensus on how many "factual points of fun" Gears of War 3 contains, then the whole idea of review scores must be destroyed. Like last week's scene with Nubageddon, I felt that this situation needed an outside perspective, so I went to the park to talk to a woman about it. I made the right move. I came away from our conversation with a fresh understanding of why Gears 3 was getting lower scores than Gears 2 from a few outlets, and a better feeling for what review scores are really all about. Check out the video, then come along with me as I tell you the tale of "The Curse of Three"! When a series reaches its third iteration, standards change. I've often thought that if Resident Evil 3 had been released before Resident Evil 2, then that game would be the most beloved in the PS1 Resident Evil trilogy. It's just a better game than Resident Evil 2, yet it didn't sell as well because by the time it was released, the standards of Resident Evil players had changed. It's not exactly fair, but it's far from uncommon. I'm not expecting that to happen with Gears 3, but that kind of thinking could explain why some reviewers (and gamers) don't seem to be enjoying the game as much. It's the first game in any series that gets off the easiest. It's like your first girlfriend/boyfriend. It doesn't matter if the kissing is too drooly and bitey or if the conversation is dumb and boring. It's kissing, and talking to the person who kisses you. On the lips! For most, that alone is amazing. I think that was true of how fans felt about the first Gears, as well as other first games in now-iconic gaming series like Super Mario Bros., Mega Man, Grand Theft Auto, Tomb Raider, the aforementioned Resident Evil, and many others. With these games, everything felt fresh, exciting, and unpredictable, like you were present for an important milestone in the life of gaming. None of these games were guaranteed hits, so when they all got sequels, fans were giddy, sometimes blinded, with delight. That's part of why the sequels to all of these games shared near-universal success. It didn't matter if they told all-new stories with different characters (like Super Mario Bros. 2 or GTA: Vice City), or if they continued the scenario from the first title (like Mega Man 2 or Gears of War 2). These sequels just needed to do three things to make fans happy: be bigger, be prettier, and be packed with more stuff than the originals. At this stage in a relationship between the series and its fans, they're so in love that they don't need any new toys or tricks to spice things up. They just want more of the game they fell in love with. Not only is that all that fans want out of their sequels, anything more than that will sometimes turn them off. Zelda II is often remembered as the worst Zelda game, not because it's poorly made -- the game is substantially bigger and better-looking than its predecessor -- but because it's too weird. Same goes for Devil May Cry 2, No More Heroes 2, and many other weird 2s. These games usually do well at retail initially, but not long after release, fans start to complain that the sequel is too different and that they just wanted to buy the first game again, except with more content. It's common for these games to become the black sheep of their respective franchises, the ones that fans of the series often choose to forget. As many of us know, it doesn't matter how smart, charming, or funny the weird kid is. They are still always the biggest targets, the easiest to brush off. Now, when it comes to the third game in a series, things get really complicated. Gamers are no longer satisfied with bigger/better/more. They want that "new" feeling back again, but they also want familiarity. By this time, most fans feel like they are "on to" the series and its developers. They analyzed the prior games in the series for years, becoming familiar with the habits and idiosyncrasies of the games' designers to the point where they often feel they know what makes the series great better than its creators do. You see this in film all the time as well, from Spider-Man 3 to Return of the Jedi. What will seem like "pretty much the same thing" to a non-fan will be "a total betrayal of everything that made the first two great" to a fan. One or two little musical numbers or too many villains and/or man-eating buck-toothed teddy bears is all it takes to go from classic to dud. Game developers know this, and as a result, it's common to see a strange combination of playing it safe and loads of new stuff in the third iteration of any given series. Whether the game succeeds or fails has everything to do with how well the new stuff stays true to the original game and how seamlessly it's integrated into the classic content. Super Mario Bros. 3 saw the return of the Fire Flower and the Super Mushroom, but it also received an overworld map, airships, Kuribo's Shoe, and the ability to fly. That's why it's probably the most beloved third game in any series in the history of gaming. Compare that to Ninja Gaiden 3 on the NES, a game that felt both too different from (evil clones of who? ancient ship of what?) and too similar to (same character graphics, same basic level design and gameplay concepts) its predecessors. The survival of a series is sometimes entirely dependent on how well it can balance fresh ideas with the core concepts that define said series. That's especially true if the game in question doesn't have new hardware to back it up. Would GTA IV have been a hit if it had launched on the PS2? Same goes for Resident Evil 4 and the PS1 -- could the game have revitalized the series without having new hardware to help it raise the bar? I don't think so. That's why the smartest time to release a third game in a series is when new hardware comes along. We can only imagine how Gears 3 would have been received if it waited for the next Microsoft console like Halo 3 did. Back to the point: When something is too close to the original but still too different, I call it the "Bizarro effect," named after Superman's powerful but defective clone. It's a bit like the old uncanny valley theory, where a near-human-looking robot is much more creepy than a robot that doesn't even try for a human likeness. When a game (or anything else for that matter) is almost like something you love, but is just different enough to remind you that it's not the one you love, it's incredibly easy to hate. That's why I think N'Sync fans hated the Backstreet Boys, or why I thought my high-school girlfriend was incredibly cute while her slightly greasier, meaner sister was the most disgusting thing ever. It seems that the third game in a series is most likely to suffer from the Bizarro effect. Super Smash Bros. Brawl, the aforementioned Bonk's Adventure 3, and perhaps Gears of War 3 all suffer from it. It's not fair that these games get the shaft, but that's what "The Curse of Three" is all about. So, those of you who've now picked up Gears of War 3: do you see why some people didn't enjoy it as much as Gears of War 2? If so, do you think that it is because of your altered perception and higher standards for the series as a whole, or is it just because the game isn't as fun? | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| These two indie bundles are worth downloading Posted: 20 Sep 2011 08:30 AM PDT This week on Steam, you can -- and totally should -- get five solid independent strategy titles bundled together for $9.99. The games in question are Sol Survivor, Sanctum, Revenge of the Titans, Defense Grid: The Awakening, and Anomaly: Warzone Earth. But wait, there's more! Similarly, Bit.Trip Runner, NightSky, NyxQuest: Kindred Spirits, Swords and Soldiers HD, and World of Goo are in a $9.99 bundle. You know it's a good deal when you feel like you've taken advantage of someone upon completing the transaction. I'd advise you to buy even if these are going to just sit in your Steam library for the next few months. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Preview: Windows 8 benchmarks and impressions Posted: 20 Sep 2011 08:00 AM PDT Microsoft demo'd Windows 8 at the BUILD developer's conference last week, showing off its new GUI and a few dozen features including better support for multiple monitors, a revamped task manager, and significantly less system resource overhead than Windows 7 or Vista. During their keynote speech, it was announced that a free developer's build of Windows 8 would be available to the public for free that night. Alex Bout, Josh Derocher, and myself all took the time to install it and run a few benchmarks to see how it compared with Win7. We would all like to stress that the build that is currently available to the public is pre-beta, so none of this is necessarily indicative of final performance. We will each be providing our own impressions of Windows 8 as a whole then presenting our benchmarking results. Alex Bout Intel Core 2 Duo @2.8GHz T9600, Nvidia Quadro 770 My first impression of Windows 8 was definitely a good one. The user interface had a smooth feel to it that made me want to smile. As smooth as Windows 7 was, this was a pretty big leap up from that. The start menu was clean cut and easy to use, with your applications sending highlights of the articles and updates you choose (be it from xkcd, CNN, Anandtech, or Facebook via the socialite application) in a light fashion that can only be described as artisanal. However, upon closer evaluation of the operating system, seemingly giant gaping holes appear that really show how incomplete this OS really is (a true example of beauty only being skin deep). The first thing that reared its ugly head at me was the lack a way to manually end the "metro" applications. While there is a system in place that "intelligently" ends these applications by themselves when Windows deems I'm not using them anymore, it more or less drives a small stick through my brain knowing it's still running. I don't know if this function is going to be improved upon in the future, but I know right now that I don't like the fact that the only way to end applications is ending them through the task manager. The second thing I wanted to try out were the features I saw the Windows team use on the developer's podcast. Although they were using touchscreen tablets, I didn't think it would really hinder my use of the operating system. Sadly, I was wrong. In the podcast, they showed how you could pinch the start menu to zoom out and move the different blocks at will, though it seems you are unable to do this if you don't have a special mouse (such as the Microsoft Touch mouse or the Apple Magic Mouse), which means that those of us without a tablet PC will simply have to deal with not being able to access all the features for the time being. In addition to not being able to zoom out, it was also somewhat troublesome to scroll side to side in applications without using the horizontal scroll on my mouse. For example, in the "News" application, you have to use your mouse to scroll side to side through your different categories via the scroll bar. I would much prefer a feature to be put in so you can use your mouse to drag the screen to the side anywhere, or at least arrow key functionality. Getting a little more into the nitty gritty, I personally had some trouble upgrading from Windows 7. I know others haven't had a problem, but I was required to make a fresh install, which wiped all of my previous files (this is why I don't have any Windows 7 benchmarks on my laptop... sorry, I forgot to back them up). After the installation issues were resolved, I went to redo the benchmarks I had made before on Windows 7; the Final Fantasy XIV benchmark, and StarCraft II FPS. After updating DirectX and my video card drivers, I was able to successfully play StarCraft II. I had been previously able to play the game with a constant of 20 FPS at 1280x720 resolution with all settings on high. With Windows 8, I was able to boost my performance with those same settings to 40 FPS, which is pretty impressive in itself. However on the FFXIV benchmark (I know hardly anyone plays it, but let's face it... all of us ran the benchmark at one point), I actually scored slightly lower than I had on Windows 7. As I said before, I don't remember the exact number, but I had broken 1000 by a few points. When I ran the benchmark on Windows 8, I saw a result that somewhat shocked me after seeing the performance on StarCraft II: a 963. I had been expecting a number well over 1000, yet it was in fact lower than what I had previously tested. I don't know why this is, but it seems Windows 8 can run some games exceedingly well and others not so much, which is something Windows will have to investigate and look into for consistency. Overall, I feel Windows 8 has a great start. Considering this version is a pre-beta release, it is in remarkable condition. With the sleek interface and the performance boost to certain applications, I feel this will rapidly change the way we look at PC and that it truly captures Windows' idea of having a "metro" feel. However, I cannot recommend Windows 8 to users right now. As I stated before, while I very much enjoy the layout and usability, the bugs and lack of features is off-putting. It's difficult to do basic things because they tried to make it more intuitive for a trained monkey, and that leaves those of us who know how to use regular computers slightly clueless. Daniel Starkey Since Microsoft launched the Zune in late 2006, they have steadily been moving towards a clean, modern, typographic user interface for all of their products. It was refined by the launch of the Zune HD, and codified as the Metro design language for Windows Phone 7. The Xbox 360 dashboard should be getting the update later this year followed by the retail launch of Windows 8 in 2012, and I must say I'm really excited for all of it. As someone who may actually have a fetish for minimalist design, I have been loving the changes. I eagerly await the updated dashboard and have been chomping at the bit for Win8's new Start menu. Unfortunately, I still can't see anything in Steam, and Firefox is using some weird serif font I have never seen instead of the slick, modern Segoe fonts used in Metro. There are at least a dozen minor complaints that are all almost certainly related to the experimental nature of this version. I can't imagine Microsoft releasing Windows 8 without the ability to change the background color on the Start menu. When I started to plan out this post, I had every intention of recommending that readers install it ASAP for the performance boosts alone, but the bugs are getting a bit ridiculous. Though, to be fair, this isn't even beta. Microsoft has a lot of work to do, but with all they have managed to accomplish so far, they have more than earned the benefit of the doubt.
Josh Derocher I've always tried to stay up to date with the latest version of Windows. This has led to many happy moments of being one of the first people to enjoy a new technology (I like new shiny objects), but it's mostly led to some horrifying issues with stability issues (remember Vista?). Windows 8, even though it's just a developer build right now, is the easiest and cleanest install I've ever done of Windows. It took less than an hour to upgrade Windows 7, and all of my personal files were still intact. I had to reinstall all of the software on my system, but that's not really a whole lot of effort and I needed to update everything anyway. The start up time is insanely fast. I could see the desktop and all of my startup software running in less than a minute. Windows 7 took about two minutes to get to this point. Shutting it down is a lot simpler as well. It just turns off without all of the annoying shut down protocol. I hit the switch on the back to see how it handled an “improper shutdown” and it started up like I didn't do anything wrong. The Start screen is really nice. It appears quickly, and the interface is clean and easy to use. Hopefully the release version will let you customize the color of the screen, but if not I can live with lots of green everywhere. Installed programs show up on here, and it makes it simple to organize the software you use on a regular basis. It's like having desktop icons, but it doesn't make your desktop look like a cluttered mess (for the record, I despise icons on my desktop). There is a difference between "apps" and "programs." Apps are part of the new Metro Start page. They can show information in their icons, be a part of your lock-screen, and you can even dock them like a sidebar while you view the desktop. Programs are legacy-based software that continue to work just like Windows software always has. It's a dual OS, or more accurately, it's an OS within an OS. This could be annoying, but they work great together and switching between them is quick and painless. Enough about the features, you can find that information from plenty of other people. I'll just sum it up by saying that I really like the way that it looks, and that it performs well. Now, let's jump into what you all really want to know: how well does it play games? The simple answer to that is, just about the same. We're getting mixed results here on actual performance, and that probably has a lot to do with different hardware and driver issues. I had much better load times, and games launched almost instantly. Sadly though, my overall performance took a hit. Let's get down and dirty here. I have a quad-core AMD Phenom 9850 that's overclocked to 2.7 GHz, 4 GB of DDR2 memory, an overclocked NVIDIA GTX 480 (it's performs just about the same as a stock 580), and a NVIDIA GTX 260 for dedicated PhysX rendering. It's not a crazy beast, but it has solid performance. Now that you know what I have under the hood, let's jump into some benchmarks. I ran everything at 1920x1080, with the games setting turned up all the way. I used Mafia 2, Crysis, Metro 2033, Far Cry 2, and Batman: Arkham Asylum. All of these games, except for Far Cry 2 and Crysis use advanced PhysX. Each of these games has a benchmarking tool, and I ran three cycles (about 5 minutes) to get an average FPS reading.
Now, it's not that drastic of a change (except for Arkham Asylum, which is a huge drop in performance), but it's enough to be slightly noticeable. Now it's still very early, and these issues could be resolved soon. My guess is that since my motherboard and CPU are from the Windows XP era, the new software isn't optimizing with my performance in mind. I'll bet that people with newer CPUs will see an increase in performance. Overall, the new look and feel of Windows 8 is great. The faster loading times are amazing, and I can't imagine going back to an older version of Windows after this. Sure, my FPS took a bit of a hit, but it's no so bad that I can't play anything, and it's something that will improve as new drivers are rolled out. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| LEGO Harry Potter: Years 5-7 set for November 11 Posted: 20 Sep 2011 07:45 AM PDT Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and TT Games are going for the rather typical release window with LEGO Harry Potter: Years 5-7. It'll be releasing on November 11, 2011 for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable, Wii, DS, 3DS, and PC. Where's our N-Gage port, guys?! Strangely enough, I think the prior Harry Potter installment is the only modern-day LEGO game I've played. Sure, it was fun and all, but nothing can touch my fond memories of LEGO Island. Speaking of which, I'm afraid to look up videos of that game knowing full well it probably hasn't aged gracefully. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Primal Carnage has dinosaurs and a new video Posted: 20 Sep 2011 07:30 AM PDT
Primal Carnage will be a multiplayer shooter where humans and dinosaurs fight each other. Humans will be running around in first-person, and trying to avoid being attacked by groups of raptors, or finding themselves alone with a T-Rex. Players on the dinosaur team have a third-person view and are able to hide in bushes and stalk the humans in hopes of a tasty snack. I got a chance to play an early build of this at PAX East this year, and what I played was a lot of fun. It's terrifying to be a human and find yourself cornered by a gang of raptors, and nothing is more fun than playing as a T-Rex who can chew on people. Primal Carnage does not have a release date set yet, but they are planning on having a beta soon. You can check out their forums for more information. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Posted: 20 Sep 2011 07:00 AM PDT First-person shooters are a dime a dozen, but recently this genre has seen an influx of score-oriented types of gameplay. From Bulletstorm to Bodycount, it is no longer enough to just give the player some guns, a few levels, a story, and hope your game will sell some copies to people who aren't already playing Call of Duty. Xotic fits this new trend, but while it is an FPS that is all about scoring big, it shares more similarities with a shoot-'em-up such as Ikaruga than a narratively driven shooter like Bulletstorm. Xotic (PC [reviewed], Xbox Live Arcade) Players who are expecting the usual FPS trappings of traversing from level to level, progressing through a story, and spending most of their time exploring and shooting at enemies can forget about all of that in Xotic. There is a story, told through a few cutscenes, that sounds like it was written by someone who was on some quality drugs. There are enemies that need to be dispatched in order to "clear" a level. But while the story and enemy design evoke the madness of Zeno Clash to a degree, they are both secondary to the game's exotic level design. Everything in Xotic revolves around attaining as high a score as you possibly can. Even though you might start out just screwing around and shooting at everything you see, it doesn't take long until you realize that there are certain ways to get a higher score and more efficient paths through a level to get you there. Each level contains batches and lines of red blobs called "scabs" that, when shot, explode in sequence to keep a "terraforming" chain bar going. The longer you keep this bar from dropping to zero by shooting other scabs, the higher your chain multiplier and the higher your eventual score will be. Do all of this in as little time as possible, and a nice time bonus will await you at the final tally. Because this in itself would make for a pretty boring game, levels are littered with crystals for points, enemies, modifier pick-ups and "brains" that can be shot for a lot of points. The downside is that all these things put together will make you divert your attention from the shortest and most efficient path. When you jump through a batch of crystals, you get an "aerial combo" bonus. But perhaps you should have timed that jump only after clearing a section in run-up to it, and perhaps you should have landed the jump in question to go straight into another jump, shooting a few scabs along the way to keep the terraforming chain going. This makes the enemies more of a nuisance to obstruct your optimal score than the sole purpose of completing a level. You do need to kill all of them to open a portal that lets you exit and finish a level, but in terms of gameplay, enemies are simply there to distract you. It's a good thing too, because while the enemy AI is pretty basic, it tends to focus on walking backwards and behind cover so you'll have to actively chase and kill your foes -- costing you valuable time in the process. As levels become increasingly large and complex, suffice it to say that those who want to keep improving their scores and staying on top of the leaderboards will have plenty to do in Xotic. You might be able to run through all the levels once in under three hours, but that would be missing the point of the game entirely. This is a game that wants you to explore a level, to learn where the enemies are and how to shoot them on the run, to memorize where x2 and x3 score multipliers can be found, and to fine-tune your best path through all the crystals in a level while simultaneously shooting scabs to chain them into one giant combo. As such, you can look at it as a type of Ikaruga, with its enemy pattern memorization and the training required to place shots exactly where they need to be, and nowhere else -- but with Quake III controls and first-person gameplay. It also means that if you're looking for a shooter with a campaign to blast through for a few hours of fun, so you can complete it before moving on to the next game, you should probably look elsewhere. Although Xotic might best be described as a shmup with a first-person perspective, it does lack the wider appeal of its genre cousins. You can play any shmup for a few minutes until you die, accept that you suck at it, but still have fun in the meantime. Doing so in Xotic still offers plenty of fun, but it's not much of a pick-up-and-play game -- although it boots up very quickly and runs well on a lower mid-range PC. There are weapons to unlock and level up, but once you have found the primary and secondary weapons that work for you there's little reason to use most of the other ones. If you are the kind of person that didn't play Quake III Arena for casual fun, but competitively with all the weapon and armor spawn locations hardwired into your brain, then Xotic offers a huge amount of challenge to spend hours upon hours with. Many levels even require you to plan vertically as well as horizontally, by means of "hard holograms" that can be projected to act as shields or mid-air platforms; before long you're placing holograms below you as if you're doing rocket jumps. Unfortunately these holograms can also sometimes get you stuck inside of them if you place them like an idiot -- something I found all too easy to do with my spastic keyboard claws. Despite being a PC game for now, it's clear that Xotic is also developed as an Xbox Live Arcade title. Your Steam ID is called a Gamertag, the menus mirror those of a typical XBLA game, and only graphics option is brightness control. This doesn't really detract from the in-game experience, though, and you're probably better off with the mouse and keyboard twitch controls than using a gamepad if you are serious about getting that #1 spot on the leaderboards in the PC version. The lack of graphics option are not a big issue either, since the game looks good, runs smooth, and adjusts to your desktop resolution. While a small bug may pop up here and there, and it can to be a bit hard to notice when you are close to dying, the core game is a largely fluid and polished experience. Xotic demands a certain competitive mindset to fully enjoy it, to be sure, but for those who want to test their first-person skills with the type of score-based arcade gameplay that is usually found in other genres, it does what it sets out to do and it does so successfully without overwhelming the player. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Battlefield 3 beta arrives September 29 Posted: 20 Sep 2011 06:30 AM PDT It feels almost a bit late in the day for a game that's so close, but nevertheless you have your chance to enter the beta for Battlefield 3 on September 29. I'm assuming that "beta" in this instance means "glorified demo," as it so often is. If you preordered the game on Origin, you get early access on September 27. The demo takes place on the Operation Metro map and uses the "Rush" mode gametype -- where one team attacks and the other defends. For more information on how to get you a slice, the beta page is right here. Battlefield 3 is out October 25 for PS3, Xbox 360 and PC. |
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