New Games |
- DC Universe Online free-to-play brings 1 million players
- Rayman Origins sales could affect Beyond Good & Evil 2
- Black Friday: Newer releases on sale for $28 at Walmart
- The DTOID Show: Let's Get Drunk In Skyrim
- THQ details the Saints Row Season Pass
- Review: Rayman Origins
- The DTOID Show: Jak & Dax in HD, No DRM For Ezio
- Hex, Dino-Rang and Wrecking Ball available for Skylanders
- IndieRoyale serves up "Difficult 2nd Bundle"
- EverQuest II changing free-to-play in December, expansion
- New Alan Wake teaser trailer is a tease
- Limbo clears a million sales, coming to Mac this year
- Trine 2 PC release, Collector's Edition announcements
- A Steam database has been hacked, warns Valve
- Interview: Hitbox Team on the art and design of Dustforce
- Raccoons are rising in this new iOS game
- It Came from Japan! PuLiRuLa
- The DTOID Show: Let's Slay A Dragon In Skyrim
- Saints Row's Genki pulls a zombicidal motorcycle stunt
| DC Universe Online free-to-play brings 1 million players Posted: 10 Nov 2011 02:30 PM PST Just one week after DC Universe Online made the transition to free-to-play, one million new players have registered to satiate their inner superhero. Lorin Jameson, executive director of development at SOE Austin said, "DC Universe Online's transition to free-to-play has been welcomed by the community and gamers with heroic enthusiasm...1 million new players have joined DCUO with a 50/50 split between PC and PS3." DC Universe Online is joining the ranks of many of Sony Online Entertainment's MMOs that have adopted the free-to-play MMO model, such as Free Realms and EverQuest II in December. As with any recently free-to-play converted MMO, an influx of new players always brings in some of the energy that may have been lost during the months after its release, and that can only be a good thing. If you ever wanted to don the cowl like the Dark Knight or recite the oath of a Green Lantern, now is the time. |
| Rayman Origins sales could affect Beyond Good & Evil 2 Posted: 10 Nov 2011 02:00 PM PST According to Ubisoft, the commercial performance of Rayman Origins could help get Beyond Good & Evil 2 developed quicker, with sales VP Tony Key stating more sales would give creator Michel Ancel more freedom. "Ultimately, Rayman is [Ancel's] original creation, and if all the people that love Beyond Good & Evil understand he is more than a one trick pony ... and that if Rayman: Origins does well, it gives him more leeway for other opportunities because he has to build up his studio," explained Key when asked by Industry Gamers. "Just like how Beyond Good & Evil had a whimsical style but included gameplay for adults, Rayman: Origins will appeal to more than just younger gamers. "Beyond Good & Evil HD is doing very well on PSN and Xbox Live and there's a lot of people coming back, and if they choose to do a sequel the audience is bigger than before." So let me get this straight, Ubisoft. You're going to release Rayman Origins in the same month as Modern Warfare 3, Skyrim and Assassin's Creed: Revelations. You're going to release it on the same day as Saints Row: The Third, and just before Skyward Sword ... and you're telling us that its fucking sales performance may be used as a measuring stick? Fuck you. Oh, and while I have you -- stop using Beyond Good & Evil 2 as a hostage to try and generate sales of other games. It's pretty damn obvious and about as tasteless as a baby with a boob job. |
| Black Friday: Newer releases on sale for $28 at Walmart Posted: 10 Nov 2011 01:30 PM PST Well, here we are two weeks away from Black Friday itself. Pretty soon every retailer in existence will once again be vying for your post-Turkey Day attention with unheard of prices on pretty much everything. Walmart has gotten the ball rolling by already putting its Black Friday ad online. The deals start at 10:00pm on Thursday November 24th and go all day through Friday, Nov. 25th. Walmart usually has some of the better deals in its gaming section and this year already appears to be no different. For $28 each, you can nab Batman: Arkham City, Battlefield 3, Gears of War 3, and Forza Motorsport 4. They're also selling the Golden WiiMote Skyward Sword bundle for $60, saving you $10. Walmart is also pulling out all the stops in the console department. $99 gets you a limited-edition blue Wii, whereas $199 covers a 4 GB Xbox 360 Kinect Bundle with Kinect Adventures, including a $50 gift card, or a 160 GB PlayStation 3 bundled with Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One and LittleBigPlanet 2. Yeah, it's going to take a lot to top a list like that. |
| The DTOID Show: Let's Get Drunk In Skyrim Posted: 10 Nov 2011 01:15 PM PST Hey guys! Here's another thing I did with Skyrim last night. This particular adventure involved getting blackout drunk in The Bannered Mare tavern. Now, I don't know what constitutes spoilers, but this MIGHT CONTAIN SPOILERS. Truth be told, it's a five minute video of me starting a sidequest, making some stupid jokes, and then not finishing it. (I know some hardcore Elder Scrolls fans consider a screenshot of a horse to be a spoiler, but they also consider me their sworn enemy because I haven't performed a bloodletting ceremony of my firstborn to honor Todd Howard's greatness.) |
| THQ details the Saints Row Season Pass Posted: 10 Nov 2011 12:30 PM PST With plenty of downloadable content for Saints Row: The Third planned, it seems only natural that THQ and Volition would come out with a season pass. The Saints Row Season Pass ($19.99) gets you three mission packs and the Nyte Blayde pack. By paying up front, you save around 15 percent versus the cost of buying the aforementioned add-ons individually. This is not a bad system for those who feel confident the DLC itself will be meaningful. It could, however, get out of hand if companies use it irresponsibly and consumers don't put up much of a fight.
Nyte Blayde DLC Pack
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| Posted: 10 Nov 2011 12:00 PM PST So, here's a funny story about my experience reviewing Rayman Origins. Sometimes when we receive a game for review, it's not exactly the final code, but a build intended to run on a version of the console hardware which isn't the standard one sitting in your home. This can occasionally cause some hiccups in the process, as last minute bugs might need to be worked out or some otherwise completely unexpected (and likely non-standard) issue crops up that the consumer who buys the game on launch day will never experience. In this case, I had played through approximately 40% of Rayman Origins when I went back to the console and fired it up for the second time, only to discover that my save data had been corrupted. All of my progress was completely gone. As a reviewer, I realize that this situation is not going to happen to players who buy the game and have to keep that in mind in my assessment, but it can be frustrating from the perspective of working to accomplish the goal of writing the review. Except, with Rayman Origins, it wasn't. I did not care one tiny bit that I would have to play through this entire game again.
The very first thing you will notice upon firing up Origins is its stunning presentation. The opening cutscene does more than merely set the stage for the loose and light story, which sees Rayman and friends saving the Glade of Dreams from encroaching nightmares. It also sets a tone for the entire experience, cleverly demonstrating the elements of rhythm which touch all aspects of the game. Everything from the crisp/vibrant graphics to the upbeat/complex music merges together to create a complete experience that's better than the sum of its individual parts. Nowhere is this rhythm more apparent than in the expert stage design. The goal of the game is to free Electoons, little pink balls with fabulous ponytails whose power allows Rayman greater access to the worlds connected to the Glade of Dreams. Every stage allows the opportunity to free multiple Electoons through achieving goals including stage completion, collecting certain amounts of musical (and sleepy) "Lums" during stages and by finding hidden Electoons in secret areas. Where the rhythmic aspect comes into focus is in the arrangement of these objects within the levels. It's one thing to simply walk through a stage. That will award you with one Electoon at the end. But to collect them all, you'll have to find the stage's specific rhythm and fit yourself into it. Touching certain plants and platforms in a stage will cause Lums to pop out in your path and give hints to how to achieve the proper tempo and direction to follow. Feeding into this design flow are valuable "King Lums" which double the value of all other Lums you collect for a short period of time, vital to achieving the high quantities necessary to free Electoons when the stage is finished. The beat may be faster or slower from one stage to the next but it's always present and finding it will allow you to fly through a level satisfyingly while still achieving a level of thoroughness in terms of collecting, if not on your first run through, usually by the second. It's the kind of pace-based platforming fans of titles such as Donkey Kong Country know all too well, but it also features some of the most gradual difficulty progression I've ever seen for a game which starts out so simple and ends so challenging. This is because, for the first half of the game, you're still unlocking new moves. At the start, Rayman can't even attack until part of the way through the first stage, limited to running and jumping. By the time you're ready to face the game's larger challenges, you'll have become skilled in abilities that include gliding, wall-running and -- for better or worse -- swimming through levels built around easing you into the complexities of using them with the proper timing to traverse quickly and fluidly to the end. That swimming is a bit of a sticking point. Rayman does feature a "water level," dedicating around fifteen percent of the game's stages to a world centered around swimming. While never specifically bad, they feel a bit sluggish because you're incapable of moving quickly through water (holding the run button helps but still feels slow) and it drags down the pacing a touch. That said, Ubisoft Montpellier does use that slowness to its advantage frequently, ratcheting up the tension in some of these swimming stages through some rather tightly timed sequences that keep the pressure on. For all its bright color and charm, Origins gets to be a pretty tough game. Thankfully, while the series has gone back to its roots in terms of design, it's adopted modern conventions as well. There are no "lives" to worry about and death merely returns you to a checkpoint which is rarely more than a few seconds back from where you bit it. But at best you'll only ever be able to take one hit from an enemy or an environment and live, owing to a heart power-up collected in stages which takes that hit for you, so there's still a sensitivity towards old-school design without alienating the player. There is another way of giving yourself a defense against the nightmares plaguing the Glade and all it takes is a friend or three. Rayman Origins features drop-in/drop-out cooperative play for up to four players at a time and as long as one of you stays alive to free injured players from bubbles in which they become trapped when hit, progress through a level remains possible. This is, of course, assuming you don't want to lord your superior ability to collect Lums over your pals and knock them into obstacles and enemies with friendly fire (accidental or otherwise) attacks. Playing with multiple people at the same time can make the game fairly chaotic, mitigating almost all of the advantages of having those players to fall back on to achieve completion, but making the game fun in an entirely different way as you smack (and smack talk) your way through. In addition to the platforming stages, which comprise the vast bulk of the game, most of the game's worlds are concluded with a side-scrolling, shoot-em-up stage where you ride a flying mosquito. They serve a dual purpose for transitioning out of one world and into the next, while at the same time make for a delightful change-up from the rest of the game without feeling out of place. They also feature what is in this reviewer's mind some of the most enjoyable music in the game. There isn't a lot of music in videogames which features the kazoo (probably for good reason) but the light tone and vibrant energy of the game is all the better for it here. Even after you've completed the objectives necessary to finish the story, there are still considerable challenges for you to tackle. Revisiting stages allows you to attempt speed run goals and each world features a forced scrolling stage, unlocked only after you've attained sufficient Electoons, which in turn opens up the secret, "Night of the Livid Dead" world. This area of the game will test your mettle like nothing else you've seen, accomplishable only through exacting jumps, constant motion and full exploitation of enemies and environmental objects. I adored my experience playing Rayman Origins and I'm certain that anybody with a love for 2D platform games will feel the same. It stands tall in the field as being one of the best of its kind in this console generation and supplies ample hope that there's not only plenty of life still in that genre, but in Rayman as a franchise. |
| The DTOID Show: Jak & Dax in HD, No DRM For Ezio Posted: 10 Nov 2011 11:45 AM PST Hey gang! Here's The Destructoid Show's daily (?) newsflash. Not much in the way of news, because uh, Skyrim, duh, but here's what we've got: Jak and Daxter is coming to PS3 in HD. We don't know when, that's just what they said. Dead Island got a new patch, Ubisoft isn't putting their stupid DRM in Assassin's Creed Revelations, and the Final Fantasy XIII-2 special edition actually looks really neat. Also, these Dragon's Dogma screenshots are Dragon's Dogsh*t. Sorry, Capcom, but gimme a break. No dragons? GTFO. |
| Hex, Dino-Rang and Wrecking Ball available for Skylanders Posted: 10 Nov 2011 11:30 AM PST
Activision has announced that three new characters -- Hex, Dino-Rang and Wrecking Ball -- are now in stores, able to be purchased and used in Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure. New images of the toys have been released alongside gameplay vignettes. Wrecking Ball may be my new favorite thing. These toys were already advertised on Skylanders packaging, as have other toys that are not yet in stores. I'm mostly interested to see if it's possible to get entirely brand new toys that we haven't seen before. Would they need to come with DLC? Would they require an entirely fresh game or expansion disc? These are the questions I want to see answered. Skylanders is a fascinating concept as far as business models go, and I still really dig the game. It appears that it sold damn well too, so expect to see much more from the franchise in future.
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| IndieRoyale serves up "Difficult 2nd Bundle" Posted: 10 Nov 2011 11:30 AM PST Okay everyone, IndieRoyale has moved on from the Launch Bundle and is now making available the long-teased "Difficult 2nd Bundle". A bear appears to be serving the platter this time which seems a bit stran-- ooooh I get it! This time around the games bundled together are NightSky, Scoregasm, Fate of the World, Ben There, Dan That! & Time Gentlemen, Please! Of course, there's a price to pay for this bundle; the more people that buy it, the higher the minimum price eventually becomes. You can pay higher than the current price if you wish (that would make you an awesome person), which in turn brings down the current minimum price to pay for the bundle. The Difficult 2nd Bundle [IndieRoyale] |
| EverQuest II changing free-to-play in December, expansion Posted: 10 Nov 2011 11:00 AM PST Hot on the heels of its 7th anniversary, EverQuest II has announced that it will be making changes to the way it handles free-to-play this December. According to producer Dave "SmokeJumper" Georgeson, "We believe the key to meeting your expectations is to provide more flexibility and to deliver what you want when you want it, whether it's basic game content, full subscription access to the game, or something in-between." Georgeson goes on to explain that the subscription model will be changing in a few significant ways. "Bronze" membership will be called "Free," "Silver" memberships will be 500 Station Cash lower, and the "Platinum" memberships will be phased out. On top of the dangers of Norrath that new "Free" and "Silver" members will face, they'll also have to deal with the limitations placed on their accounts, such as restrictions on character class, race and on how much Coin they may carry. Sony Online Entertainment has also detailed the features in the next expansion Age of Discovery, releasing in December as well.
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| New Alan Wake teaser trailer is a tease Posted: 10 Nov 2011 10:30 AM PST Alan Wake Returns Remember the Alan Wake teasers that have been surfacing? Well now there's a trailer to go with them. The full trailer will be premiered during the 2011 VGAs, but Spike has posted a seven second teaser of the upcoming trailer. There isn't much new here, but its still something to get your curiosity started. More creepy adventures, and this time they might take place at Night Springs? Yes please. I enjoyed watching the messed up tv show that was always playing during Alan's first adventure, can't wait to see what's in store this time. Video Game Awrds: Alan Wake returns [SpikeTV] |
| Limbo clears a million sales, coming to Mac this year Posted: 10 Nov 2011 10:00 AM PST Having now reached worldwide sales of one million copies, Limbo will be introduced to Mac users "before the end of the year" via Steam. Development of the game was not particularly fast, but the time invested seems to be really paying off. Developer Playdead has also gone back to being fully independent by paying early investors. CEO Dino Patti says "We are grateful to everyone who supported us over the past few years, and look forward to forging new partnerships that will both let us reach new heights as a studio and give our director, Arnt Jensen, room to grow creatively." Can't say that Limbo is a game I need to play again anytime soon, though I maintain that it is one everyone ought to go through at least once. Limbo sells a million, coming to Mac [Shacknews] |
| Trine 2 PC release, Collector's Edition announcements Posted: 10 Nov 2011 09:30 AM PST In case you haven't heard, Frozenbyte has been in development of a sequel their 2009 fantasy platformer Trine. Steam users who decided to support the game early had a taste of what the game has to offer with the Trine 2 multiplyer beta, but the rest of us needn't wait much longer to get in on the action. Word comes today that PC users can get their hands on a digital copy as soon as December 6th. A boxed version of the game will be launching on December 9th in the UK for both PC and Mac. Players who pick up the Collector's Edition of the new release will also net the original game, a soundtrack, and an art book. If you're planning on picking the game up on PSN or XBLA there isn't any official date set as of yet, but the game's official site says you can expect them sometime in December. Trine 2 PC release date announced [Eurogamer] |
| A Steam database has been hacked, warns Valve Posted: 10 Nov 2011 09:26 AM PST Following talk that the Steam forums had been hacked, Valve's Gabe Newell has issued a response. The official forums were in fact "defaced" on Sunday, and unfortunately, intruders have gained access to a Steam database as well. "This database contained information including user names, hashed and salted passwords, game purchases, email addresses, billing addresses and encrypted credit card information. We do not have evidence that encrypted credit card numbers or personally identifying information were taken by the intruders, or that the protection on credit card numbers or passwords was cracked." The investigation is ongoing, though Valve recommends you watch your credit card activity to be safe. There is no evidence of credit card misuse yet, and the company is only aware of "a few" compromised forum accounts, but you should still change your password(s). As far as Steam accounts go, Valve has yet to come across any that were compromised. [Image]
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| Interview: Hitbox Team on the art and design of Dustforce Posted: 10 Nov 2011 09:00 AM PST After the notable successes of developers like The Behemoth, 2D Boy and Team Meat, more and more gamers are starting to pay attention to indie games. Whether it is for their visual style, their unique gameplay mechanics, or their interesting take on storytelling, indie titles are starting to become ingrained in the general gamer consciousness. On October 8, 2010 at GDC Austin, the independent publisher and gaming site indiePub hosted their 3rd independent game developer competition, with the grand prize of $100,000 going to Hitbox Team for their acrobatic, sweeping platformer Dustforce. One of the past winners of the competition was the particle bending beauty of Auditorium in 2008, which has since been ported to iOS devices, PSN and XBLA. Now, well over a year after winning the competition, I got a chance to talk with Hitbox Team to find out more about their inspirations, the process behind the visual style of Dustforce, and the harder parts of this past year of development. How about a short introduction? Who are you, what’s your background and what’s your role on the team? Woodley Nye: I'm Woodley and I do art and game design. I used to make games in The Games Factory back in high school. Lexie and I made some small projects in GameMaker as well... after that I went to study animation in Brisbane, and then wandered around for a few years before deciding to try giving independent game development a serious go. So, Lexie and I went to live in a shed and make games. The [Dustforce] prototype won the indiePub competition, which allowed us to work fulltime on a proper version of the game. Lexie Dostal: I'm Lexie, I do all of the game code. I started making little projects with Woodley in GameMaker during high school. I learnt the basics of programming using its simple scripting language. After high school I studied game programming at collage. After a year of not learning anything new, I dropped out. A few years later I started making games again with Woodley. Matt Bush: I'm Matt, I write the engine code. I learned to make games in Flash during high school with the help of some friends I met online. After high school, I went to college where I met Woodley and Lexie, but college was expensive and I wasn’t getting much out of it. So after working on a few other projects, I came to be working on Dustforce. Terence Lee: I'm Terence, and I make the music and sounds. I made small games in my free time while I was in college. I won a contest from indiePub with one of those games, and through that I met the rest of the Hitbox guys. Meanwhile, I had always been interested in music production and piano, and had been creating songs on my own. I ended up joining Hitbox Team to do the audio for Dustforce. Could you tell us a little bit about the back story of Dustforce? How did the initial concept for the game come together? WN: I had always been really interested in the idea of challenging, acrobatic 2D platformers. I like the feeling of being in precarious places, and achieving mastery within a system. I played a lot of N in high school and Nikujin in college and I think a lot of the inspiration for Dustforce comes from those two. I actually had the idea for Dustforce while sweeping leaves off the path at my uncle's house. Lex and I were working on another game idea, but switched to prototyping Dustforce when we heard about the indiePub competition. The art style is very unique and really stands out amongst other games in the genre. What were your inspirations when creating the world and characters of Dustforce? WN: I wanted to settle on a style that was fairly simple, allowing for lots of frames of animation. Hard edged shadows have always worked well for me. DragonBall Z is another inspiration actually; they have great poses and also good shapes. Did the characters and environments come together naturally or were they the product of much iteration? WN: All the art since the prototype has been redone, so you could say that version was the first iteration. I learned a lot about animation and producing assets during the development of that first version, so I think the game looks much better now since we scrapped all of that art. Could you describe the process of animating one of the Dustforce characters? What kind of tools or software do you use? WN: I use an Intuos4 tablet and Flash to produce all the art. I usually just sketch the poses by animating straight ahead, instead of doing much planning. Then I divide the character into layers and complete it piece by piece. I used to draw a lot of flipbooks on post-it notes and notebooks when I was younger; so this allows me to still animate in that rough style, and then make it look more complete afterwards. What was the level design process like during the development of Dustforce? MB: I like to start by building a rough level without any visuals to just get it to flow well, testing each part thoroughly as I go. Once I'm happy with that, I'll go through and try to make it look nice. Rapid iteration is really important in game development; it helps being able to instantly switch between playing the level and editing it by pressing a button. LD: I spent many months working on the level editor for the team to use. We wanted to be able to test level layouts quickly. Speaking on the level editor, I remember that you guys included it in the prototype. Will you be adding the level editor to the full version of Dustforce? LD: [laughs] That [level editor] one was pretty simple back then. The new one is pretty complex now. For the final release we would love to make it available. We received some really interesting custom levels from players in the demo. We're excited to see what people can make with this much more advanced editor. Also, ideally we will have some sort of system for sharing levels and replays, but that's not really decided yet. I asked Woodley this earlier, but from a programmer’s perspective, how much has Dustforce changed since the initial prototype? LD: [pause for dramatic effect] Everything got recoded. The movement in the prototype wasn’t that good, [but] it was my first attempt of capturing Woodley's idea for the game. The movement [in Dustforce] is the most important thing, so I want to make sure it's perfect. I have lost count of the times Dustman has been recoded. [When] we started making the prototype in GameMaker, we ended up having a lot of performance issues; mainly due to the amount of high res sprites Woodley had drawn. This [was] where Matt came in. MB: When I started on the engine, my main concern was the sprites. There's over 7000 high resolution sprites now and Woodley is constantly adding more. I didn't want to impose any limitations on how many sprites a character could have, or how much environment art Woodley could draw, so I decided to try a streaming technique similar to what RAGE uses, but much less complex. The engine packs all the sprites into huge sprite sheets then packs those in to a 65k virtual texture space and loads 128x128 chunks as they're needed. This worked out pretty well and because the sprites have lots of solid colors, they compress well enough to keep them all in RAM and not have to worry about hard drive latency or pop in. The music has a very retro game feel to it, as it were coming from a Super Nintendo cart. Could you describe the process of composing the music and effects? Were there any tracks that stand out as personal favorites or that posed a challenge to you? TL: We wanted the music to evoke some feelings of retro games, but done in a modern way that fits the game style. I did this by using some simple electronic sounds, like sine and saw waves that you'd find in older games, but produced with modern effects and samples. One of my favorite songs is the tutorial song, which really captures this style. The tutorial level is a world with simple but modern graphics, and I feel like the music fits that well. I made each song with an idea of what mood I wanted to capture and just worked from there. It was interesting for me because I am always learning as I go, and I feel like I've improved my skills significantly since working on my first few songs, so sometimes I have to go back and rework those songs to get everything at the same level of quality. One of the challenges we faced was giving each track relatively equal playing time. We had an issue where the main world song only gets to play for a few seconds before you jump into the next level. We fixed this by using more ambient, less dynamic tracks for the common areas. Team Meat has made it a staple of theirs to add in characters from other indie game titles into their games. Could we expect to see some cameos from other indie titles in Dustforce? WN: We've been so busy on the game that we haven't really had time to contact other devs. No plans for this at the moment. Are there any plans for DLC or extra content for players? WN: Updates will be free. If people like the game, we have some great ideas for other modes and levels that we'd like to add. I'm obsessed with competitive games like StarCraft and Super Smash Bros. Melee, so a major one for me would be adding some sort of 1v1 versus mode. So far, what has been the hardest part of the whole game development process? WN: For me, it has definitely been inspiration and motivation. I find it really hard to animate if I'm feeling uninspired, so that has been kind of difficult. Other than that, there have been a few design issues to overcome. Various quirks of the movement; implementing slopes and the behavior of the character on them was a lot more difficult than it seems. LD: The hardest part for me is figuring out what to work on next, there is so much code that has to go into a complete game; it's a bit overwhelming at times. MB: I think the hardest part for me is the lifestyle; the combination of not having set work hours, living in our workspace and having something I'm trying to solve constantly on my mind makes it really hard to take a break from work. The worst part is when it creeps in to your dreams in the form of some unsolvable nonsensical problem and you can't even escape work with sleep! LD: Programmer nightmares... MB: So it helps to enjoy the work, if you can't escape from it. [laughs] TL: Sometimes Dustforce is too fun and I keep playing it instead of working on it. WN: [laughs] TL: Finding the right balance between challenge and accessibility is also often a concern for us. When will Dustforce be releasing and on what digital distribution platforms will be seeing it on? WN: At this point it looks like it'll be early next year. So far, just Steam. MB: Mac and PC. Any final words that you would want to pass onto the Destructoid readership? LD: Hmmm MB: Wise words, Lex. WN: "We hope you like Dustforce!" TL: Buy it for the music. MB: "In the information age, the barriers just aren't there. The barriers are self imposed. If you want to set off and go develop some grand new thing, you don't need millions of dollars of capitalization. You need enough pizza and Diet Coke to stick in your refrigerator, a cheap PC to work on, and the dedication to go through with it. We slept on floors. We waded across rivers." - John Carmack |
| Raccoons are rising in this new iOS game Posted: 10 Nov 2011 08:30 AM PST
How would you feel if some angry robots came into your house and started breaking things with their angry robot feet? Probably not very good, just like the hero in Raccoon Rising, who has his home threatened by robots. Instead of crying about it he decides to star in an iOS game by Romper Games and PixelNaughts that will be out November 17th. Enjoy this new launch trailer they made, just for you. These vertical jumping games can get intense and more than a little rough, but this still looks fun. I'm also curious to see how they handle the touch controls, since those can be hit or miss. If I owned an iOS device I don't think I would mind spending $.99 on it. |
| Posted: 10 Nov 2011 08:00 AM PST [It Came from Japan! is a series where I seek out and review the weirdest, most original and enjoyable titles that never left the Land of the Rising Sun.] When it comes to '90s beat 'em ups, there are only a few games worth exploring outside Capcom and Sega's catalogs. These two developers evolved and mastered the genre through dedication to polish, character design, and great controls. PuLiRuLa has none of these things, yet it's still a game worth highlighting due to its gaudy, psychedelic visuals that still look gorgeous to this day. Unfortunately, it's very hard to witness them in the West without turning to YouTube, emulation, or arcade compilation imports. PuLiRuLa (Arcade, PlayStation, PlayStation 2, Sega Saturn, FM Towns Marty) Fan translation: No, but an English version was released for arcades In the early '90s, Taito was known for some terrible game names (Space Gun, Sonic Blast Man, Violence Fight, etc.) more so than developing quality beat 'em ups. In that regard, PuLiRuLa came out of the blue. It's an unconventional entry in the genre not merely due to its visuals and simplified mechanics -- yes, you can simplify a beat 'em up even further. It may not be remembered as being a great game, but it's a memorable experience nonetheless. I'm somewhat cheating with this It Came From Japan! entry because PuLiRuLa actually had a Western release in arcades. However, I've never seen a cabinet nor met anyone who has played one. In other words, most Westerners never got the chance to play Taito's surreal brawler, and all future ports were unfortunately Japan-only. For those few that did play the game in its original iteration, they were met by one of the most terrible Engrish translations to grace a game. Instead of pulling the game down, the baffling dialogue complements the world and visuals surprisingly well.
PuLiRuLa (no idea what this word means) takes place in Raddishland, where time is kept in motion through the cranking of time keys. Each town has a time keeper who is responsible for his key, but some jerk with planet Earth for a face has taken them all and stopped time. An old man gives two young children his "magic stick" in order for them to retrieve the keys and turn the evil robots back into their original animal forms. The game grows even more nonsensical as you progress, but there is a charming Yellow Submarine vibe that makes the lunacy endearing. No narrative framing could make sense out of the locations and enemies of PuLiRuLa. I imagine Taito must've stopped caring and let themselves go wild at some point, because there are things in this game that are so shockingly bizarre that I doubt there was any explanation among the development team. Levitating, bearded squids are one thing, but those prone to acid flashbacks should be wary of witnessing the giant screaming Japanese head and grotesque bosses.
One boss is a wild tribe leader who tries to jump across the screen and pierce the player with his rhino horn/boner. In another provocative moment, a large pair of female legs come out from behind you and kick around. In between the legs is a door you open to meet an elephant friend (yay, elephants!). This elephant bit was the only element removed from the Western release. American audiences just can't handle legs this large, I suppose. The game is played with three buttons: attack, magic, and jump. Your moveset doesn't get any more advanced then a (not very effective) jumping attack, but all enemies can be defeated with one hit, counterbalancing the difficulty. This may be one of the easiest arcade beat 'em ups I've ever played, but you'll still need to memorize boss patterns if you ever wish to clear the game on one life, though playing for high score is a more plausible goal.
Upon defeating an enemy, it reverts back to an animal which will run across the screen; if you catch it, you'll receive some bonus points. The farther away an animal runs, the more points you'll earn. This makes timing and positioning very important, if you ever wish to play for a high score. Otherwise, the combat is pretty dull and the feedback doesn't feel very good. It's also hard to line up your attacks due to the game's large vertical plane and hit detection. PuLiRuLa is a game you play for the spectacle. It's not very long or fun, but it's very, very pretty. The gorgeous pixel art, soft watercolors visuals, and surreal art direction present the player with eye candy of a nature that is very rare in this day and age. From the reflecting crystal floor of Stage 2 to the warped M. C. Escher paintings of the final stage, Taito created a game full of spectacular visual splendor that you'll want to share with a friend.
If you ever want to get stoned and play a videogame, you could do a lot worse than PuLiRuLa. ------------------------------ What games with spectacularly trippy visuals do you love? Did you ever see a PuLiRuLa cabinet? Should marijuana be legalized? (Please include 5,000 word response below.)
[They landed in American West, on Strange Island] |
| The DTOID Show: Let's Slay A Dragon In Skyrim Posted: 10 Nov 2011 07:15 AM PST Hey guys, I dunno if you heard... But Skyrim's out, and it totally kicks ass. In an effort to demonstrate this, here's a video of me fighting a dragon until it's dead. Don't worry, it was an evil dragon, it kept stealing stuff from people. Cows, mostly. I'm sorry, dragon, but you made me do this. If you haven't already, go check out The Destructoid Show's big throbbing scaly Skyrim review show. And go read Jim's epic review. |
| Saints Row's Genki pulls a zombicidal motorcycle stunt Posted: 10 Nov 2011 07:00 AM PST
The folks at THQ have wasted no time getting the word out about Saints Row: The Third. Trailers, demos, and promotional material. They even went so far as to release their own new trailer on GTA5 day (How dare they?!). The game is finally hitting shelves Tuesday, but they're not quite done hyping it. Professor Genki. Zombies. Motorcycle jump. |
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