New Games |
- Sesame Street's Once Upon a Monster is now out
- The DTOID Show: Mass Effect Co-Op, PSN Hackers, and Cake
- Impressions: Rusty Hearts open beta
- Lineage II goes free-to-play in Europe
- Perry: Next consoles 'insane' not to support cloud gaming
- Tribes: Ascend closed beta on for early next month
- This year's Xbox Live preview program now taking sign-ups
- Live show: Fatshark comes to play with Mash Tactics
- Review: Max and the Magic Marker: Gold Edition
- Burnout CRASH! making its way to iOS, with screenshots
- Crossdressing and cross gamers
- Sonic 4 drops price forever, now costs $10
- KIRBY IS MADE OF CAKE
- Dead Island PC patch arrives, still no Bloodbath DLC
- Review: Aliens: Infestation
- Halo Anniversary dev: PS3, 360 are creatively limiting
- Preview: Battlefield 3 (multiplayer)
- Online pass confirmed for Mass Effect 3
- EEDAR's list of top 20 most influential game media sites
| Sesame Street's Once Upon a Monster is now out Posted: 12 Oct 2011 03:30 PM PDT
Double Fine's newest game, Sesame Street: Once Upon a Monster, is out today, which means if you know someone with a kid (or an adult who still acts like a kid), and that kid's parents just happen to own an Xbox 360 and Kinect, you now have the perfect Christmas present for that child. Like the tv show the title is pulled from, there will be an emphasis on learning, except that it is interactive. I may not be as pumped for Sesame Street as I was at the tender age of five, but I like the idea behind this, plus its made by Double Fine, which is good for any and everyone. You can pick up Once Upon a Monster for $49.99 now, and it's okay if you buy it for yourself. I won't judge you. |
| The DTOID Show: Mass Effect Co-Op, PSN Hackers, and Cake Posted: 12 Oct 2011 03:00 PM PDT
Today, we tackle some hard-hitting video game news: Mass Effect 3 has four player co-op multiplayer, and if that wasn't enough -- it also has an online pass system! In other news, Microsoft has assimilated Twisted Pixel studios. Hopefully we continue to see cool stuff from them. The PSN was almost hacked again, or uh, Cereal. Or something. Blizzard decided to get Tara's attention by putting baby animals in World of Warcraft. Ugh. Finally, Battlefield 3 gets a new trailer and a lovely preview. For the second half of the show, we brought on Jesse "Tactix" Cortez, Destructoid's west coast community-wrangler, to talk about the 24-hour Extra Life marathon we'll be doing this weekend for charity. We also announce some of the winners of Monday's contests, and announce a few new ones. We've got a copy of Battlefield 3 to give away, along with a great Razer keyboard, three copies of Serious Sam 3: BFE, and our kickass grand prize of kickass A40 Astro gaming headphones. Watch the show for the full details. Also, be sure you're following us on Twitter and Facebook because we're going to be throwing out some codes for free games and DLC on there for the rest of the week. |
| Impressions: Rusty Hearts open beta Posted: 12 Oct 2011 02:30 PM PDT It's been a little while since we last talked about Perfect World's free-to-play MMO beat-'em-up/hack-'n-slash game Rusty Hearts. Now though, a couple of months later, it's been released in an open beta format, but has it kept on the same track? Is it worth looking into as a game to keep, or is it something that you might download for a quick game to kill with your friends while waiting for the next big blockbuster release? Rusty Hearts (PC) For the most part, the gameplay of Rusty Hearts is unchanged. You still choose one of three characters: Frantz, Tude, or Angela. The game is still about running dungeons either alone or in a group, and trying to stylishly clear them for a higher score and reward. I have played a lot more since the game released, reaching level 20 with Angela, just five levels short of the current cap, and have cleared the first set of dungeons with Tude. The character's playstyles seems varied enough to warrant a play through, or at least a partial play through with each one. Angela is quite ranged-based for being a melee fighter, her basic attacks having the most range, and having projectile as well as area of effect specials. Tude is a lot more “in your face,” his dodges blocking damage, and able to lead into his attack combos right from the start of the game. Frantz appears to be a quick hitter, with a bit more range than Tude, and more of an emphasis on juggling his opponents. Of course, the gameplay has been talked about quite a bit before, so I won't go into as much depth with the basic mechanics here. I did get into the higher-level dungeons though, and the gameplay does get somewhat repetitive until you get about midway into the second set of dungeons. Usually, it seems like mastering a single combination of normal attacks and specials can easily allow you clear a room of enemies. The enemy types they throw at you start to become more varied, evolving from just the standard soldier and archer combinations, which puts more emphasis on placing yourself in relation to a group, as well as taking out specific enemies first. For the most part, I found the difficulty to be fairly easy, even on the third difficulty mode, “Very Hard.” It takes a bit longer, but I found all of the dungeons I encountered so far to be able to be run solo on most of the settings. The difficulties are nicely laid out; instead of each higher difficulty just making enemies tougher and able to do more damage, they start mixing in more varieties of larger -- almost mid-boss-like -- enemies into each room. These enemies are usually more resistant to attacks, such as not flinching from a special that knocks other enemies into the air, and have much harder-hitting attacks that may knock you out of a combo yourself. There is a fourth difficulty, deemed “Blood Mode.” The requirements to unlock a single run in this mode are much higher, involving item collection. The enemies are significantly more threatening, not only by including the larger mid-bosses in each room, but also making all of the enemies tougher to deal with in general. I feel that this mode warrants a party to clear. In addition to the numbers and types of enemies, the rewards also go up in value and amount with each higher difficulty level. When I originally previewed the closed beta, it felt really good to play, but the game was still plagued by a few nagging little bugs. Input lag when interacting with the menu interfaces and, especially, when using text chat was an issue I encountered the whole time. This bug was squashed, and I have not noticed any major input lag from interacting with the interface or typing. I also noticed that there was also lag, freezing for a second or two, when loading enemies in new sections of dungeons. There is still a bit of a stutter when large groups are being popped in, especially ones with bigger special effects to their entrances, but it's a lot less of an annoyance now, and much shorter each time it happens. The bug fixes were not the only things that are new and changed from the beta. One key element in the beta was removed, for the better, from the released version. Gone is the stamina bar, which would limit how much progress you could make each day. I considered the rate of stamina drain in the beta to be very fair in relation to many other games, but not having any limiter like that is a huge plus. The cash item shop is also fully integrated. I got to look in it, and nothing sold seems like it would break the game's balance. The items are mostly cosmetic, offering small stat bonuses as well, but nothing too overwhelming. There are also experience booster packs, and items to change an existing equipment's bonus stats if it has one, and little things like that as well. The game tries to tell a cohesive story as well through its main questline. The basic premise is that Gold Seal Team, consisting of Angela, Frantz, and I think Tude as well, are helping the militia occupying the town to stop Vlad, an evil sorcerer vampire who has cause all manner of things to go bad quickly in the area. The game follows the week leading up to the raid on the castle Vlad is held up in made by Gold Seal Team and the militia. The story feels like it's something more fitting for a single-player, offline game. For most of what I've played, only two of the main characters ever seem to have any showing in the cutscenes or in the dialog. Tude is MIA at this point -- as is stated in his bio, he doesn't join up until the team enters the main level of the castle. There is also very limited voice acting for the characters, so far only having really noticed any on Frantz and Angela, and only during a few scenes. It makes it feel odd at times when one of them is talking, with voice, to someone else who only has text. On the other hand, it's actually nice to see an MMO attempt something like this. It may feel a little weird at times, especially when playing as Tude, but the production values put to the story side seem higher than similar MMOs. There are fully animated cut scenes dispersed here and there, both in town and in dungeons, that break up the monotony of just reading text boxes from quest givers. The dialog is also well written. Characters, especially main ones, seem very self aware of the world around them, at times poking fun at tropes usually associated with this type of story, as well as ones associated with games of related genres. It rings heavily of a Japanese anime influence, which I know may turn some people away, but I think it's still enjoyable. The story helps to liven up the dungeons as well. The main goal will always be to beat all of the enemies, including the boss at the end, but there are times through the story where other NPCs will start showing up in them. Occasionally, they'll just be there briefly to help move along the plot, whereas other times, they can be quest givers that you'll be inclined to go back and routinely visit. The story also gives you reason to keep revisiting dungeons. Depending on what story quests you have, you may take different paths through a dungeon, or even encounter different enemies and bosses. Lastly, there is also a player vs. player arena. I talked about it briefly before, and it's mostly the same from what I could tell. It's still as fast and furious as it was the first time I dove in. The game does an admirable job trying to compensate for the level differences between characters, but just having different skills unlocked or even using a different weapon type than another person using the same character can make a fight harder. It seems like something that you can learn to compensate for, but that would require a good bit of time in that mode learning the nuances of the character and weapon combo. Overall, I was very pleased with Rusty Hearts. The content seems somewhat lacking in comparison to some other games in the similar combination of genres, but what content is there is mostly used to the fullest. Luckily, this is only the beginning, and more content is promised, starting with the “Awakening” update that is live today. As long as such content can continue being pushed out at a consistent and reliable rate, then this game will have a lot of staying power. Currently, I think the game is worth checking out, and playing through with at least one character. It's free, fun, and though it can seem repetitive at times, it feels really satisfying to play. |
| Lineage II goes free-to-play in Europe Posted: 12 Oct 2011 01:30 PM PDT NCSoft, who is well known for its wide variety of MMOs, is trying a new business model when it comes to players on the other side of the Atlantic. It's decided to make Lineage II free-to-play in Europe, and you can thank Russia for it. Innova, a game publisher who has been working with NCSoft to keep the official Russian Lineage II servers up and running, has agreed to service the Lineage II free-to-play servers for Europe. What could this mean for Western Lineage II players? NCSoft has stated that it is in the middle of retooling its current western business model to "...an order of magnitude greater than those of a conventional subscription model..." as well as to bring in a new audience by creating "a new way to play." Cutting through the PR speak, it looks like NCSoft might scrape its old subscription system to go with the "Free-to-Play until X Level" model that many MMOs are adoting, and Europe might just be the testing ground for its theories. Along with Lineage II's Goddess of Destruction content update, hopefully coming out before the holiday season, it could really help entice new players to give Lineage II a try. So far no other details have been released on the subscription changes coming to Western Lineage II players. |
| Perry: Next consoles 'insane' not to support cloud gaming Posted: 12 Oct 2011 12:30 PM PDT Speaking at a GDC Online panel, Gaikai CEO David Perry has been quoted as saying next-generation consoles would be "insane" not to include cloud gaming functionality. "You don't want to be a console that doesn't," he commented. "This future is coming, trust me. We're well-funded. This is going to happen. OnLive is already making it happen. You need to be prepared for that." Perry also mentioned that gaming has to "fundamentally" get back to being accessible, something he feels the cloud can help address. I could see cloud streaming support offered as an alternative method of accessing console games, perhaps later on if not at launch, but much like shifting entirely to digital distribution, I think this is one of those concepts that's going to get pushed back again and again by the usual forces. GDC Online: Cloud Gaming's Fast-Approaching Future [Gamasutra -- Thanks, de5gravity] |
| Tribes: Ascend closed beta on for early next month Posted: 12 Oct 2011 12:00 PM PDT Hi-Rez Studios has pinned the Tribes: Ascend closed beta for a November 4, 2011 commencement. As the name would imply, this is going to be rolling out on an invitation-only basis, though anyone who pays for the VIP Starter Bundle ($29.99) is promised an open spot for this and any future beta phases. Got questions? Hi-Rez has answers, in the form of a convenient FAQ section. We're so trained at this point to sign up for official-game-site accounts that I don't even need to nudge you in that direction. |
| This year's Xbox Live preview program now taking sign-ups Posted: 12 Oct 2011 11:00 AM PDT With the imminent launch of the new Xbox 360 dashboard comes bearing a chance to be part of the Preview Program Microsoft has been putting on for the past few years. Major Nelson confirmed via his Twitter that there are even more spots available this year than last, so basically anyone who signs up will probably get in. The sign-up doesn't take long at all as they don't even ask for your console information on the initial sign-up this time around; just a few simple questions and you'll be well on your way to getting in. All the information you need can be found on Major Nelson's blog. Before you sign your life away and agree to Microsoft's Terms of Service, there is a little disclaimer that can be found tucked away between the finer points of the agreement. It reads a little something like this:
Is getting the new dashboard a bit early really worth the slight chance that your Xbox might become a very expensive paperweight should you sign on the dotted line and agree to Microsoft's terms? Xbox LIVE Preview Program [Major Nelson] |
| Live show: Fatshark comes to play with Mash Tactics Posted: 12 Oct 2011 10:30 AM PDT  [Not sure what Mash Tactics is? I've included a clip from a recent episode 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 being visited by Swedish developer Fatshark to play its PSN/PC action puzzler Hamilton's Great Adventure. The minds behind Lead and Gold will be giving us some info on their current projects, as well as subjecting Jon and Wesley to strange Swedish candies. Mash Tactics airs Monday through Friday at 4pm Pacific. Watch Jon Carnage and Wesley Ruscher 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. |
| Review: Max and the Magic Marker: Gold Edition Posted: 12 Oct 2011 10:00 AM PDT Max and the Magic Marker has had a handful of releases on various platforms and it’s back again, this time on the PlayStation Network under the prestigious moniker Max and the Magic Marker: Gold Edition. Critical reception for the game’s previous releases was generally positive, so the title has come to PSN to strut its stuff, boasting new levels since the original release and PlayStation Move support.
Gathering all of these orbs awards you two of the three possible stars, while earning the third star requires you to complete the level in under a set amount of time. However, most of the levels are fairly linear and don’t require you to go too far out of the way to collect everything.
Sometimes, I would drop a tiny fragment of a drawing from right above an enemy's head and it would disappear, yet other times I would drop a hulking mass from halfway up the screen that would just bounce off of them. The game’s three boss fights against the mustachioed eggplant monster at the end of each section fall victim to the same problems; they’re simplistic and unrewarding. |
| Burnout CRASH! making its way to iOS, with screenshots Posted: 12 Oct 2011 09:30 AM PDT There's nothing quite like the sensation of causing almost cartoonish levels of destruction to other vehicles in a city devoid of pedestrians, especially when you can take those vehicular shenanigans on the go! EA Games is working on bringing its top-down physics-puzzler Burnout CRASH! to iOS devices. The gameplay will remain the same as it's PSN and XBLA counterparts, asking to the player to try to take out all cars while doing it in the most explosive manner possible to rack up as many points as they can. They have also included the Autolog social network, a way for players to track and compare there scores with friends. Autolog will also give players the opportunity to issue direct challenges to other friends or rivals. No word yet on a verified release date, but EA Games is looking to push Burnout CRASH! iOS for a holiday release. What better way to celebrate the holidays then with the sounds of shattering glass and gasoline-fueled explosions! |
| Crossdressing and cross gamers Posted: 12 Oct 2011 09:00 AM PDT Earlier this week, Chad Concelmo revealed that he had taken offense to a line in Space Quest IV in which a man buying female clothing is reprimanded as a "sicko." A portion of the Destructoid community dogpiled on him, hurling a litany of insults his way for daring to be offended by something. This is to be expected from any online community. When somebody reveals a sensitivity to something, they must be ready for that weak spot to get attacked by the army ants of the Internet. After all, when we saw the evil brain's shield go down in Shinobi, we hit that raw meat for all we were worth. That instinct seems to carry from games to reality with some people. Fair enough, but is Chad wrong to be offended? Is crossdressing a "sick" thing that should be mocked? Have other games handled the situation better? I find it all pretty interesting, so I felt like jotting down my own thoughts. I used to be very bullheaded about offensive humor. My line of thinking (and you can likely find Destructoid articles that state it) was that offense is pure choice. Human beings can choose when they're offended, and anybody who gets upset at a joke should grow up and shut up. The more I experience the world, the more I realize that was simply a way of dodging accountability. Offensive humor is one of my favorite things, and I tell some pretty horrible jokes -- be it on Podtoid, via Twitter, or on the pages of Destructoid itself, and I've learned one thing -- when you tell an offensive joke, you need to accept that people will be offended. You can't act hurt or shocked when you tell a potentially insulting joke to find that you've insulted part of the audience. I have grown to realize that getting offended isn't always a choice. Due to experiences, ethnic or social backgrounds, and simple emotional wiring, some people are going to find themselves upset by something. However, choice does come into play when reacting to anything offensive. You can choose to walk away. You can choose to accept that a joke is a joke and leave the joker to his laughter. Many choose instead to attack with the full force of emotional rage driving them -- which is often a very self-destructive path that encourages others to grow less sensitive. Chad Concelmo chose a route I found very respectable -- he didn't attack Space Quest IV, he didn't demand an apology or accuse the writers of being bad people. He said, "I have a problem with this, and I might even be a little overdramatic, but I wanted to share." I thought that was quite productive, incredibly respectful, and a nice jumping point for debate. It's a shame many chose not to follow his lead. The crux of the issue is this -- is it wrong to call a crossdresser a sicko? Personally, I am quite sensitive to the subject matter, and very sensitive to alternate lifestyles in general. Hell, I've even defended furries before, despite having no interest in that particular activity myself. I'm very much of the "If it harms nobody, do what you like" mold and believe that if you can't offer a reason for disliking somebody's way of life outside of, "I don't like it," you probably shouldn't judge them. With Space Quest IV, I can't say I am exactly offended, but I definitely find it sketchy and I don't think anybody would be wrong if they took offense to it. The choices a person makes after getting offended could be wrong, but simply taking offense to something isn't inherently bad. If Chad, for example, had screamed and wretched and told the Space Quest developers to die in a swarm of acid wasps, that would have been histrionic and I would probably join the readers in mocking him. I noticed some comments earnestly agreeing with the Space Quest IV joke -- not actually taking it as humor, but sincerely expressing the opinion that crossdressers are sickos. At the risk of disappointing you, many crossdressers -- whether their reasons for doing it are for sexual or comfort reasons -- are pretty ordinary people. Let us not forget that clothing is by its nature a rather unnatural thing, let alone the designation that some clothes are for boys and some clothes are for girls. There are people who just feel more comfortable wearing women's clothing, and if I'm to make a confession, I think I probably would be as well. I wouldn't do it right now, because nobody wants to see John Candy in a dress, but if I were a better looking guy, I'd bound up to E3 in a miniskirt and military boots. In any case, I think Eddie Izzard at least demonstrates that fans of crossdressing can be intelligent, witty, very successful people. To bring this (thankfully) back to videogames, I wanted to point out that a few games have tackled the subject and managed to do a far wittier job than Space Quest IV. My biggest problem with Space Quest IV's little joke is that it simply wasn't funny, and when evidence of humor is lacking, a joke comes across as far more spiteful. I doubt the developers do have much of an opinion on the subject, but such an unfunny, lazy little jibe looks hateful. Strangely, however, that famous hub of naive cultural insensitivity -- Japan -- has provided one of the best alternatives I can remember. Final Fantasy VII involves a very similar plot thread to Space Quest IV, as protagonist Cloud Strife needs to dress like a woman in order to infiltrate a sleazy nightclub and rescue his friend Tifa. Aided by Aerith, Cloud partakes of a fun little fetch quest in order to get materials, makeup and a wig from various denizens of Midgard, and he encounters a range of reactions from non-player characters along the way. The tailor making the dress expresses surprise that such a "tough looking guy" like Cloud wants to look like a girl, but considers it an interesting challenge. There's a joke about the local gym being full of guys "like Cloud." People laugh about how "cute" Cloud looks, and the whole thing is played for laughs, but it's completely different from Space Quest's handling of the topic. The genuinely lighthearted and affectionate nature of this sidequest makes it far more funny than the offhanded insult seen in Space Quest IV. The NPCs are all genuinely accepting, even if they're a little weirded out, and that in turn makes the game itself look very open minded. While it might not be realistic that Cloud's fictional alternative lifestyle would be so readily welcomed, it at least makes for a very fun plot element that shouldn't offend anybody at all. It's a beautiful moment in a classic game, one that has stuck with me for a very long time. It's clear the writers had genuine fun, and cared to craft something entertaining. That's why Space Quest IV's joke looks malicious, and Final Fantasy VII looks surprisingly progressive. Another great example, to me, is Saints Row II. This game has actually received praise from more feminist-minded gamers due to portraying female custom characters exactly the same as males ones. While this does impose latent lesbian tendencies on the character whether the player intends it or not, it's still a fantastic example of a game with an open mind, because as well as men and women, players can make both crossdressers and transgendered characters by playing with the in-game settings. Want to slap a dress on your thugged out gangster? Feel free! Want to create a female character with a male voice? Go wild! You can approximate almost any lifestyle that reflects yours, and Saints Row II won't judge you for it. That such a crass and tasteless game could be so culturally open is pretty encouraging, I think. Am I saying all games must accept crossdressing as a perfectly acceptable way of life? Of course not. Developers are free to make whatever they like. However, if they insult a cross-section of their audience, they need to be prepared for some people to take that insult personally. If they want to crack offensive jokes, they need to understand that people will get offended. How those offended people process their feelings is up to them, but the simple act of saying, "I am offended" is not a bad thing. When approached sensibly, the expression of offense can be used in a productive way, to help change minds and evolve our cultural understanding. When used wrong, it can simply inflame communities and encourage others to be even less sensitive than they were before. Space Quest IV's little crack at transvestism wasn't very good. It's probably not worth getting upset over, either. However, it should be used as a nice debate point and an examination of how crossdressing, transgenderism, and wider lifestyle issues can be used in videogames. As games grow up, there will be increasing opportunities to explore all manner of cultural issues, and I sincerely hope we're all grown up enough to accept that and deal with it intellectually, if for no other reason than the potential for some fantastic and enlightening discussions. And if you don't like that, you're a sicko. Obviously. |
| Sonic 4 drops price forever, now costs $10 Posted: 12 Oct 2011 08:15 AM PDT Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 1 is lowering its price on Xbox Live Arcade and PSN permanantly, now costing $10/800 MS Points. How's that for fancy? The price cut will first hit XBLA today, and then go into effect next Tuesday on the PlayStation Network. From then on, all your dirty blue fantasies can come true! I thought the game was pretty damn good, although I am apparently wrong because the physics were designed by EL DIABLO himself! |
| Posted: 12 Oct 2011 07:45 AM PDT AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH Kirby's Return to Dreamland cake pops! They're so cute! Far too cute to eat, right? I mean, I should freeze these forever and crawl into the freezer every night to hang out with them ... and tell them stories ... and build a glacial fortress of gelatin and yarn. Nevermind, let's devour them after the Destructoid Show tonight. A video is coming soon. God bless Golin Harris. |
| Dead Island PC patch arrives, still no Bloodbath DLC Posted: 12 Oct 2011 07:30 AM PDT A new patch has arrived to fix a number of outstanding issues with Dead Island on PC, including corrupted save files. The long-awaited "Bloodbath" DLC is still unavailable, due to Techland working on all these fixes. Oh, Techland! Most of the issues stem from inventory problems, so the patch fixes a lot of problem with items, including accidental duplicates, storage capacity, disappearing equipment and item stacking. In addition, the game no longer freezes in four-player co-op and zombie bodies no longer levitate. Oh, Techland! Check out the full list below. There are quite a lot of fixes detailed, because OH TECHLAND!
[Patch list via VG247] |
| Posted: 12 Oct 2011 07:00 AM PDT Videogames owe a lot to Aliens. The movie classic gave us the archetypal space marine, then pitted them against a nest full of drooling Xenomorphs, the titular Aliens that have served as a blueprint for so many videogame enemies. It seems poetic, then, that Aliens has finally reclaimed the gameplay it inspired. Both Contra and Metroid have liberally stolen from 20 Century Fox's franchise over the years, and I can think of few things more fitting than to see the developer of Contra 4 producing an Aliens game with a retro Metroid flavor. Aliens: Infestation is the game I've wanted for years. I am not disappointed by the result. Aliens: Infestation (Nintendo DS) Set on Lv-426 in the aftermath of Aliens, Infestation puts players in control of four marines as they search the remnants of the Sulaco and uncover yet another shadowy plot by the sinister Weyland-Yutani corporation. While each Marine has his or her own distinct personality and dialog, do not get too attached to them -- they likely won't survive to see the end of the game. Aliens: Infestation is a game about loss, taking the depressing spirit of the Aliens movies to heart and presenting a game where anybody can die ... and probably will. There are 19 Marines to discover and collect throughout the game, and when one of them gets killed off, they stay killed. Players have a chance to rescue fallen comrades from Xenomorph nests, but if the escape attempt fails, they're never coming back. To ensure that players feel the dismal sting of death, WayForward Technologies has made Aliens: Infestation a damn tough game. Taking an old-school scrolling shooter approach, players investigate the Sulaco and wider areas of LV-426, facing some incredibly stiff resistance along the way. Health bars are not huge, a stamina gauge limits the ability to run or dodge, and bugs are very tough to put down. This difficulty can sometimes border on the unreasonable, especially when facing fast-moving monkey-bugs that deal damage by touch alone or when Xenomorphs suddenly jump at you from several feet away. Sometimes, enemies are strategically placed below elevators and ladders so that taking a hit is inescapable. When the game wants to hurt you, it will hurt you no matter what. While this keeps the game incredibly tense, it can become annoying when every hit you take knocks you down, the dodge roll is ineffectual, and Xenos can close the gap between themselves and you without recourse. Despite these grievances, however, Aliens: Infestation is an incredibly intense shooter experience, one that makes the Xenomorphs genuinely threatening for the first time in years. Not only are the regular Alien Warriors deadly, the various boss creatures lying in wait are utterly brutal, more than capable of taking out an entire squad of Marines if players aren't careful. Memories of Castlevania are evoked when players are down to a sliver of health and desperately trying to get back to a save point in order to find sanctuary, knowing that failure truly puts something on the line. As noted, Aliens: Infestation borrows heavily from Metroid. Backtracking is a big part of the experience, as some areas are closed off until players return later with new equipment. Sealed doors need to be opened with welding equipment, bug resin needs to be burned away with flamethrowers, and broken steam pipes need to be closed off with wrenches. The backtracking can get a little overindulgent, especially when players are only given a vague clue of where to go, but it's otherwise a very good take on classic gameplay. There is a range of iconic weaponry to discover throughout the game, from the unforgettable pulse rifle to shotguns, flamethrowers, and smart guns. While the flamethrower is disappointingly weak, the smart gun is a beautiful weapon that becomes crucial as soon as it's discovered. Each gun can be upgraded three times by items hidden throughout the game, improving their ability to dish out death. Unfortunately, only one main weapon can be carried at a time, which I find inconvenient, especially when you need the useless flamethrower to burn open doors. I'd like for at least two weapons to be equippable alongside the emergency pistol. Another disappointing element to the game is the lack of rewards for exploration. There are many hidden air vents leading to secret areas, but very few of these areas contain anything useful. While health pickups and ammo drops are welcome, these things are replenished in save rooms, meaning that running out of essentials isn't a huge issue. Also, if you already have four marines, any new ones discovered refuse to join your party and stay where they are, meaning that discovering them can be rather pointless. With only weapon upgrades on offer as tangible, lasting rewards, it often feels like a waste of time to explore, especially when you fight your way through an infested air vent only to discover an insultingly empty dead end. These disappointments aside, Infestation is the most satisfying Aliens experience in years. From its retro visuals (including some great Xeno animation) to the authentic sound effects and fittingly subdued music, this is a game with a lot of respect for the franchise that fans ought to adore. The slow pace and knowledge that Xenos can creep from scenery or burst from grates in the floor lead to a surprisingly thrilling experience, something that's very hard to successfully achieve on a handheld system yet looks effortless in the hands of WayForward. Of particular note is the cast of Marines. As previously mentioned, each one has a distinct personality, original dialog, and stylized character portrait complete with gritty comic book aesthetic. Every Marine has a defining pose in save rooms, and quite a few of them are genuinely funny, affable personalities. Losing a favorite character is painful, especially when they've been with the player a long time. I just wish less likable ones could be swapped out for freshly discovered recruits when the squad is full. Aliens: Infestation could stand to offer a lot more rewards in respect for the risks players take, but ultimately this is a game that makes Xenomorphs intimidating once again and provides a stiff challenge with lasting consequences for failure. Packed with references to the Aliens movies, including Power Loader battles and an intense APC escape scene, this is a game made by fans with the fans in mind. After recent disappointments from the Aliens franchise, Infestation brings it all home and makes for a thoroughly captivating adventure. |
| Halo Anniversary dev: PS3, 360 are creatively limiting Posted: 12 Oct 2011 06:30 AM PDT Saber Interactive CEO Matthew Karch has joined a growing number of developers who are ready for the next console generation, stating that the boundaries of the Xbox 360 and PS3 are "creatively limiting." Saber is currently working on the single-player portion of Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary. "The next-generation of consoles will do great things," he said, writing for CVG. "We're limited in what we can do right now in terms of games and that comes primarily from the power of the processors. The best way to put it is it's kind of like being given a Lego set with 100 block and a set with 1000 - you can do a lot more with the second set. You have more wiggle room and more blocks to make something big and great. "If you can generate real dynamic crowds doing real things, you can't do that on the current generation of consoles. If you can have liquid simulations and better cloth simulations, and instead of rigid body animations have soft body dynamics, flexible joints... think about the type of gameplay that could be created with technology as an enabler." It seems almost certain that new hardware announcements will come from Sony and Microsoft soon, possibly as soon as E3 2012. Developers are officially getting sick of this generation and are ready for that upgrade. Are their budgets? Xbox 360, PS3 'creatively limiting' - Halo Anniversary dev [CVG] |
| Preview: Battlefield 3 (multiplayer) Posted: 12 Oct 2011 06:00 AM PDT In our earlier single-player preview of Battlefield 3, I found a few points of contention within the slice of the game's campaign that I played. Most notably, I disliked control taken away from me in different ways, from quick time events to on-rails levels that relied mostly on my appreciation of the graphics over the actual gameplay. However, for everything that that the campaign seemingly lacked, the multiplayer portions that both Hamza Aziz and I got to try left us pretty highly impressed. Hamza gave us some of his impressions of the multiplayer in a recent Destructoid Show episode, but to learn in detail how Battlefield 3 has improved upon past games in the series, read on.
Battlefield 3 (PC, PlayStation 3 [previewed], Xbox 360) Though I got a chance to play a wide variety of multiplayer modes and maps, in this preview I'll be covering only the two that I can discuss for now. Every one of the modes that I played was impressive, with maps that included many different wide-open expanses and strategic choke points for an awesome Battlefield experience. Before I begin, let me reassure you -- EA wasn't kidding when they explained that the Battlefield 3 beta was in no way representative of the final product. I wondered why they decided to go with the relatively linear, vehicle-less Operation Metro map for the beta, and in a quick interview with Battlefield 3's producer Aleksander Grondel I asked if it had anything to do with bringing in FPS fans who are typically more interested in other modern shooters (i.e., their largest direct competitor, the Call of Duty series). He laughed a little at this and told me, "Well, that's one angle to it, I think. Another angle is that this is something new for Battlefield. I think that most people knew that Battlefield would still be Battlefield, even though we had a map like that. It would be cool to show something a little bit different." Furthermore, the Battlefield 3 beta was mainly released in the interest of catching and fixing as many bugs as possible before release. DICE plans to continue to improve Battlefield 3's gameplay as they release new content for the game, as has generally been the case for Battlefield: Bad Company 2. Rush on "Grand Bazaar" The most immediate improvement in Battlefield 3 comes with the graphical fidelity that the Frostbite 2.0 engine brings. As I turned a corner and ran down a sun-dappled, arched hallway in search of the opposing team, I watched as two enemy soldiers ran by and was taken aback for a moment at just how realistic it all looked and felt, even on the PS3. Character animations are more fluid and realistic than ever before, and the excellent lighting effects carry over impressively in multiplayer. After rounding a corner and stalking the small squad, I managed to take one down with a knife attack to the back and then opened fire on the other one, nearly getting myself killed before taking off through a few other alleys and going prone behind a dumpster. Soon, the enemy pursuing me passed by and got sidetracked by one of my teammates driving a tank through the main street in the map. When the coast was clear, I booked it to one of the two M-COM stations and armed it, sticking around just a little while longer to take down any nearby opposition before the rest of the opposing team converged on my location. In general, the core gameplay of Battlefield 3 is the same as veterans have come to know and love, with the largest changes being in general gameplay tweaks such as combining the Assault Class with the Medic Class, and of course with a generally slicker graphics engine powering the whole thing. While destruction isn't at the same level as the Bad Company series, it really varied from map to map and in Grand Bazaar, I appreciated how the main plaza areas became more filled with debris and downed trees as more players started to test out their rocket launchers. A lot of building corners and facades crumble realistically and expose enemy cover as well. One thing I noticed was how different the points distribution system is in Battlefield 3. Even though my kill/death ratio tended to be rather low (at one point, it was something like 7/25), I managed to bring Destructoid (my name for the event) to the top of the leaderboards among my team of journalists for many of the different modes I played. It seemed like I generally got the most points for varying my gameplay throughout my session, whether it was helping my squadmates with suppressing fire, successfully sniping the opposing team, disabling a tank, destroying an M-COM station, or going on a killing spree. Though the multiplayer maps do encourage snipers to hunker down and camp in certain areas to provide support for their team, it awards many more points for actually moving around and generally doing more than camping and getting sneaky kills. Conquest on "Operation Firestorm" For anyone worried about the sizes of the maps, especially in the supposedly scaled-down PS3 version, worry no longer. The desert map in Operation Firestorm is absolutely huge. When I first spawned into the map I got ditched by my teammates and even my squadmates (other journalists from other gaming sites, natch) as they all ran for the many vehicles in the map. These included carrier helicopters, tanks, jeeps, and, of course, jets. I started hoofing it to the first zone to take over, Alpha, and realized that it would take quite a while to make it there on foot. Instead, I turned back and decided to wait for a new vehicle to come my way. Fortunately, no one knew how to fly a jet very well and I watched in amusement as a one soared erratically overhead and then plummeted to the ground in a fiery explosion. A minute later, a new jet spawned near my location and I jumped in. If the on-rails jet section of the single-player game made me feel a little worried for the linearity of the campaign, the jets in the multiplayer made me incredibly excited for the possibilities and sheer freedom of mid-air dogfights. I managed to wrangle just enough control of my jet to be able to soar high above the map and flip vertically and horizontally a few times before I caught another jet headed in my direction. I noticed that I wasn't nearly as bound to the map while in the jet as I was on-foot -- instead, I had more freedom to fly around. I took off, admiring the scenery of burning oil fields, and then crested dusty mountainous regions. I decided to get a little more daring and I took my jet closer into the midst of the battlefield to try to take down some land vehicles. Unfortunately, I still didn't have the best control at slowing down and maneuvering the aircraft, so I found myself getting stuck in a tree before I bailed out of the imminent explosion. As far as the vehicles go, I noticed that the tanks and jeeps handle pretty similarly to other Battlefield games, and that familiarity helped me take a tank and blast an entire squad of enemies that was defending Alpha. As can be expected for the series, the vehicles and their weaponry have real weight behind how they move and how they sound when firing off rounds. The overall impression that I got from the main multiplayer modes is that Battlefield is back, plain and simple. The maps are generally huge and varied but the gameplay is still frenzied and focused enough to feel like all-out warfare. The squad-based gameplay feels even more refined than before, with so much emphasis put on helping your squad and staying together as a unit to capture points, destroy M-COM stations, or simply get more kills. This is both the Battlefield on consoles that gamers have come to love, and an entirely new beast with a better and more accurate destruction engine and a far grander sense of scale. After getting an extended hands-on session with the multiplayer in Battlefield 3, I am incredibly excited to pick up the game on the 25th of this month. The gameplay is much more polished than the beta would have ever suggested, the graphics are very pretty on the PS3, and the support for fixing glitches and stopping hackers is definitely there. Also, just for the fun of it, I asked Aleksander Grondel about the much-rumored "dinosaurs" in upcoming multiplayer DLC. At this, a mischievous glint shone in his eye and he gave an enigmatic smile while fumbling a little and trying to choose the best words to answer the question. "I would leave that with... We'll see." So yeah, dinosaurs CONFIRMED. Journalism! |
| Online pass confirmed for Mass Effect 3 Posted: 12 Oct 2011 06:00 AM PDT Well, what a surprise. No sooner is it confirmed that online multiplayer has been shoehorned into Mass Effect 3 do we get the real reason for the mode's existence ... an online pass. Yep, a redeemable code will be included with every new copy of the game. You can set your watch by this shit. As always, used consumers will need to buy a code from EA if they want to play the tacked-on co-op mode that was detailed this week. I am going to hazard a guess and say that used consumers won't even be missing much this time around. Just a guess. On a personal note, I was accused of trolling when I had the gall to suggest that Mass Effect 3 would cram in an online mode in order to justify an online pass. Well ... look what happened. I think I'll cash those "I was right" chips in immediately and use them to buy a boat. Mass Effect 3 Online Pass detailed [Videogamer] |
| EEDAR's list of top 20 most influential game media sites Posted: 12 Oct 2011 05:45 AM PDT EEDAR asked HD-owning console gamers in America what were their most influential videogame media outlets. We have the top twenty from their data. I'm very happy to see that Destructoid makes that list. We're not at the top yet, though. That honor goes to these top five:
EEDAR says that this survey was part of a much larger survey that they conduct every year to measure trends in the DLC markets. We have some really nice infographics after the jump for you from EEDAR. They show fun information: I love how PC Magazine completely owns Alaska. |
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