New Games |
- These Akuma and Cammy figures are fantASStic
- Street Fighter on Virtual Console goes online [UPDATE]
- The Alone Sword is a Zelda-lite set underwater
- We need your questions for the TtWaV finale!
- Skyrim's giants go up against some very poor guards
- The sad reality of Dark Souls
- Have some Zelda orchestra for your face
- DCUO: Live free or die (in tights)
- Half-naked dancing in this Sonic 3 music video
- Preview: SOL: Exodus
- Get your fight on! Namco X Capcom Fight Club
- Metal Gear Rex figure will send you to the poor house
- Skyrim bags 231,593 Steam users in 24 hours
- The Daily Hotness: Dragonf***er
| These Akuma and Cammy figures are fantASStic Posted: 12 Nov 2011 02:00 PM PST Brian Szabelski of sister site Tomopop brought to our attention these Street Fighter figures from Square Enix's Play Arts Kai toy line. He seems really excited to get his hands on these little guys, and I'm wondering if certain ASSets are drawing his focus. Seriously, though, the Akuma figure looks great, but the joints on Cammy stand out way too much for my tastes (which are thankfully balanced out by another stand-out feature). If either of these babies get you nice and hard, you can plunk down 5200 yen (about $67) plus shipping when they arrive in March. Street Fighter Play Arts Cammy and Akuma coming in March [Tomopop] |
| Street Fighter on Virtual Console goes online [UPDATE] Posted: 12 Nov 2011 01:00 PM PST [Update: According to Capcom Unity, this is also coming to Europe and the States. I still think it's a case of "too little, too late," but at least the West isn't getting completely screwed over again.] Son of a less than classy lady. Those Japanese and their damn preferential treatment. What has been the biggest complaint with the Wii's Virtual Console? That the games released for it are untouched? That no effort is made to enhance them for greater accessibility in today's interconnected world? Sure, other platforms like PSN and XBLA have added online play to several pieces of legacy software, but their retro library is not as expansive as the Wii's. It's a shame more wasn't done to freshen up these old classics. Well, guess what? The VC release of the Genesis version of Super Street Fighter II has Wi-Fi capabilities in the Land of the Rising Sun. So did Puyo Puyo earlier this year, in fact. Are either of these games coming to the West? Of course not. Western devils don't deserve more than the bare minimum of effort. Street Fighter will. Not that anyone is still buying Virtual Console games anymore for this to matter. This is so stupid. Why couldn't stuff like this happen earlier in the console's life and on a global scale? It could have possibly grown the popularity of the Virtual Console and resulted in publishers' offering even more of their back catalogs. Why wait until the Wii is effectively dead? I just don't get it. Japan Gets Super Street Fighter II with Online Play on VC [Nintendo Life] |
| The Alone Sword is a Zelda-lite set underwater Posted: 12 Nov 2011 12:00 PM PST Happy weekend, everyone! If you've got a few minutes to kill, why not give The Alone Sword a spin? The Alone Sword is exactly as I described in the header -- a Zelda-lite set underwater. You take control of a sea star creature (which heavily resembles an Octorok) as he / she / it swims around looking for hidden keys and fighting aquatic bosses. The controls are not what you'd expect from a typical Zelda clone. Underwater traversal leaves you at the whim of forward momentum, sliding around as though running on ice. Your sword points opposite your direction of movement, and attacking will swing it 180 degrees, propelling you in reverse. It sounds odd and difficult to get the hang of, but it makes sense considering your liquid environment. It's a decent time-waster that shouldn't take more than 20 minutes to clear. There's a pretentious back story about alien visitors creating a virtual memorial based on the dreams of the planet's departed souls, or something or other. Whatevs, man. It's about a starfish that kills ocean life with a cheap sword made from wooden garden posts. That's all you need to know. The Alone Sword [Kitty*Lambda] |
| We need your questions for the TtWaV finale! Posted: 12 Nov 2011 10:00 AM PST [Talking to Women about Videogames is a series where Jonathan Holmes talks to different people who are women about the biggest videogame news of the week for some reason.] Next week, the Talking to Women about Videogames written editorial and video are both going to be a little different. They mark the end of what we're calling "Season 1" of the show, which feels like as good time as any to answer your questions about this thing. Since the show first started 10 weeks ago, it's gotten an amazingly wide breadth of reactions, but almost all of them were tinged with some element of uncertainty. Some people hate it, some people like it, but either way, almost everyone who has talked to me about it has asked "is that what you were going for?" I hate to lose that ambiguity, but I also don't want to be one of those jerks who wont answer questions about the stuff that he's doing. That's why I'm promising to answer as many questions about TtWaV as possible, assuming you guys have anything you want to ask. even if it's a really mean. Actually, I'll make sure to try to answer just as many mean questions as nice ones (again, assuming you guys have anything you want to ask at all). Mean questions are sometimes the best questions. So yeah, ask me things! Right now! In the comments of this post! I want to talk to you about talking to women about videogames. Oh, and there is another teaser after the jump. Just couldn't resist rescuing that conversation from the trash can, regardless of the bad audio. Past Episodes: Talking to Women about Videogames: 3DS 2nd nub panic Talking to Women about Videogames: Gears 3 isn't perfect? Talking to Women about Videogames: Sexy vs. sexist? Talking to Women about Videogames: What makes you want? TtWaV teaser: Sony's online sucks now? Talking to Women about Videogames: I'm not a real gamer? Talking to Women about Videogames: Fear for the future Talking to Women about Videogames: Going mainstream TtWaV teaser: Battlefield 3 Vs. Modern Warfare 3 Talking to Women about Videogames: You! Like what I like! |
| Skyrim's giants go up against some very poor guards Posted: 12 Nov 2011 09:00 AM PST The giants of Skyrim are people you simply don't want to mess with. You can kill all the damn dragons you want, but nothing can prepare you for the sheer power of a giant. This video serves as a testament to that. You see the above image? Yeah, that's a couple of giants surrounding an extremely unfortunate guard; a guard just trying to do his job, you know. You might think that the moments after this will see said guard dead on the floor, but no. This guard's planet needed him, so he flew. Flew like a bird. Oh, and the other guard that gets hit is just weird, that's why he flew. |
| Posted: 12 Nov 2011 08:00 AM PST I dreaded Dark Souls in the weeks before its release. I really did. This was mainly due to a couple of inescapable realities: 1) Demon’s Souls was probably the most mentally grueling experience of my life (grueling even to the point where this very site infamously refused to comprehensively review the game, due to the reviewer essentially throwing up his hands in surrender). I swore, if there ever was a sequel to that game, I’d have no part of it. 2) When I defeated Demon’s, I was single. Now I’m newly married. Sure, she’s seen me dump some sad amount of hours into gaming, but I had no doubts Dark Souls would subject her to depths of depravity that wouldn’t even scratch the surface of what she had witnessed prior. Of course I’m writing this, so you know what direction I decide to go in. And it was a decision that has corrupted the very fiber of my being. To what extent you ask? Well, that’s what I’m here to painfully lay out for any of you smart enough to not go out of your way to play Dark Souls. Now, I’m not going to sit here and spend this whole article obsessing over the ravenous difficulty level of Dark Souls. It merits more than a passing mention, and I will certainly not try and avoid a topic so fundamentally intertwined into the DNA of a game like Dark Souls, but I’m going to dwell a bit deeper into this thing. I’d like to really paint a picture of what DS turns a normal gamer into. And believe me when I say, it’s not a pretty picture. I’ve gamed since I was a young kid, always owning every system available, and never taking any real break from playing. This isn’t to say I’m a hardcore, incredibly skilled guy -- I’d like to think of myself as generally good at pretty much any game thrown my way, but rarely great. No, I save that description for people who destroy Disgaea 4 without breaking a sweat, or play through Doom II on Nightmare mode just cause they’re bored. But I do really like tough games, going back to completing Devil May Cry 3. From there it was stuff like Ninja Gaiden Black, God of War III on max difficulty, that sort of thing. Then came along Demon’s Souls. I heard the stories, and, while they may have been brutal, I thought my resume was strong enough that I wouldn't get too overwhelmed. I was right. I did, eventually, get through the game, but what I wasn’t prepared for was the systematic annihilation of everything I held dear in my life. And now, goddamnit, it’s happening again with Dark Souls. People who don't play the game just don’t understand. They don’t. They know it’s hard, and probably are fleetingly impressed when a Dark Souls player emerges victorious, but they really can’t ever know how deep into your mind this game plunges itself. In a way, Dark Souls is the perfect title; until you complete it, your soul is horribly contaminated. Only moving on to another game after claiming victory will purge it. There’s the beautiful cathartic argument that comes with successfully navigating Dark Souls from start to finish, but what those message boards don’t really mention is the disgusting underbelly. It’s a vicious cycle, and for those who are peering in from the handsome outside, let me give you a glimpse into the twisted reality. If you’re playing Dark Souls right now, you’re at one of these points: 1) Stuck at a bonfire right before boss. 2) Stuck trying to reach boss. 3) Tediously farming easy areas to build up your character to have a chance at either 1 or 2. The problem is, whichever number you’re experiencing, you desperately want to be at one of the other two! Sound bad? Well, it’s not ... it’s worse. Let me give you a prolonged, but incredibly realistic example. It doesn’t take long in Dark Souls before you’re grabbing your cell phone on your coffee break at work and killing the battery Googling shit like “Anor Londo archers.” (We’ll get to those shitheads in a bit.) And from there you see a poster saying something annoyingly coy like “Oh, rofl, if u have the poison arrows you’ll pwn them”. Then you’re sitting there in the staff room realizing you don’t, in actuality, have any poison arrows, so then what’s next? Google search “Where do I get poison arrows?” Invariably, a merchant comes up in your search, but then it’s an area you haven’t been to yet. Fuck! Now it’s a Google search for the specifics of this area to acquire the arrows to kill the Anor Londo archers, and it’s just always the worst example of the most painful trail of breadcrumbs known to man. Then what happens? You get back to the Anor Londo archers and end up erroneously shooting the arrows you got in the first place. Back to delightful Plan A, whatever the hell that might be. Incidentally, Anor Londo is the section that inspired this article, and it’s not an exaggeration to say I died over thirty times on the archers part alone. If you’re reading this, and you don’t have poison arrows, take it from me ... when you get to the top, turn right and ROLL. If I can help just one person -- just one! -- then it’s all worthwhile. Another reason that Dark Souls is totally different from the rest of the gaming world is the sense of community it builds. People always talk about the in-game summoning community, but, to me, it’s the outer world. I love games like Uncharted and Gears of War. But when I meet someone who mentions that they just finished one of those, my response is usually along the lines of “Oh cool, me too. Fun game." Now, if I’m out somewhere and someone mentions they just finished Demon’s Souls, I inevitably start blabbering shit like “Really? Oh god, I remember that like it’s yesterday. Hey, so did you want to quit when you died twenty times on the Armored Spider before you even got a hit on him? What about Flamelurker, please tell me you didn’t glitch out on him ... or Maneaters either while we’re on that topic. What was your class? That couldn’t have been easy when you were in 5-2 ... ” And if they let me, I’ll go on for hours, I don’t care if it’s at a funeral -- partly because it’s so rare to meet someone who actually went through the same harrowing ordeal as me, but mostly because there’s that bond that screams to the world “Fuck that Gears of War 3 ‘Brothers to the end’ bullshit, that’s us!” The picture I’m trying to paint for you is this: Demon’s/Dark Souls are known for their difficulty, but it’s actually much worse than its reputation suggests. For normal gamers like me, I literally have to let it overtake my life just to stand a chance. Countless hours of in-game repetition, research when I’m not actually playing the game, and seemingly infinite examples of when I lay in bed thinking “Maybe I just cannot do this part”, only to set my alarm for 6:15 when I normally would set it for 7, just so I can get a couple tries in before I start my morning rituals before work. Dark Souls is the best game I’ve played in a very, very long time, but at what price? I do take solace in the fact that I’m not too far from the end, but that excitement was dealt one fatal blow just today: my friend, who was also pushing through Dark Souls, finished it about an hour before I finished this article. His triumphs, his hilarious failings (to me anyways, certainly not to him) are now a thing of the past. So now I’m depending on any of you who read this. Drop a comment and let’s talk about how low Dark Souls has made you sink to. Until you finish it, talking about it is the only thing that helps. Come to think of it, it helps after the fact, too. Godspeed. |
| Have some Zelda orchestra for your face Posted: 12 Nov 2011 07:00 AM PST Alright, Skyrim had its time in the sun. Now to switch hype trains and get pumped for Skyward Sword! Fans who were unable to attend the 25th Anniversary Symphony will still be able to get their jam on with the special CD packed into all copies of Skyward Sword. The above video, which originally ran on Nintendo Video on the 3DS, takes you into the orchestra's recording session. Enjoy! The Recording of The Legend of Zelda 25th Anniversary Special Orchestra CD [YouTube] |
| DCUO: Live free or die (in tights) Posted: 12 Nov 2011 06:00 AM PST (If you need to catch up, here are the first and second parts of Zentarim's heroic adventures) It has been some time since we followed the exploits of the cosmically sexy Green Lantern reservist, Zentarim. The last time we saw him he had been given the honor of joining the Justice League as a full member and he was busy training to be the best space cowboy a moon man can be. SOE's promise of an October launch for its free to play service fell through, but finally, on November 2, DC Universe Online went free to play. Has this move made much difference to the game? Will Zentarim make some new, poor friends? Read on and find out. Heroes can't spend all of their time fighting. Even Superman needs to get some R&R every now and then. In fact, that lazy bugger seems to spend most of his time just hanging out in the Watchtower or getting his arse handed to him by Lex Luthor. After destroying an army of sinister toy robots, our humble hero -- Zentarim -- decided to take a cue from his work-shy Kryptonian pal and chill out in the Watchtower, perhaps even do a spot of shopping. Easier said than done. Everywhere he went he was bumping into new heroes, quite literally, many of them seemed a tad lost. While the ever expanding list of heroes were likely to make the world a safer place, Zentarim wondered at the integrity of his new comrades, with their names being thinly veiled sexual innuendo and racial slurs. But he's no snob, he'll work with anyone. As expected, and hoped, SOE's decision to make DCUO free to play has caused a population explosion. It's still early days, so it might not last, but right now the game is busier than it has been since early last year. For the first time ever I actually had to queue to get into the game, I didn't have to wait for long though. The moment I got into the game the difference was immediately noticeable. The frequently dead chat was now bursting with conversation. Questions, insults, pleas, it felt like an MMO again. Flying over mission areas I could see a whole plethora of new heroes and villains competing and cooperating. For the time being, the population problems seem to be over. This new player boom hasn't had such a drastic impact on the end game, however. While I'm sure there are some former max level players who have returned to see what's changed, most of the new players are still getting to grips with the game and haven't made it to my neck of the woods yet. The queues for high level alerts were not much shorter and the same goes for PvP. That said, I expect this to change in the next couple of weeks. I decided to hop onto a low level alt, Colonel Killinger my cyborg villain, the population difference was a lot more obvious then. Queues were quick, there were lots of people to team up with and in general the game felt more lively. About a week before DCUO went f2p, SOE updated the cash store, which had previously been seriously lacking in content. Unfortunately the new additions have not done anything to make spending real cash seem desirable. The majority of the premium content are just hideous reskins of a handful of older costume styles. If you are in the market for a sequined top hat or some fluorescent boots, then this might be right up your street, if not, then you will probably hold onto your cash. In general, the limitations imposed on f2p players are fairly minor. At the bottom of the ladder are the free players, those who haven't spent any money at all. They get a pretty small inventory and cannot receive items in the mail, among other small limitations. However, a free player just has to spend $5 and they get premium status. That triples their character slots from two to six, doubles their inventory size and allows them to receive items (but not cash) in the mail. You can see the break down of the differences and limitations here. The only pill that has been hard to swallow is how SOE have severely limited players' bank accounts. Before the change to f2p, I was pretty poor. I wasn't really using the auction house or saving money, so I only had about 15k. In DCUO that's chump change. But even for premium players, the maximum you can have in your account is 2k. To put this in perspective, that's little more than two purchases of healing drinks. The rest of my money didn't disappear, though. It was placed in escrow. Initially I had assumed that when I drained my account the money from escrow would replace it, but it didn't. The only way to access that is to purchase access to it from the cash shop or to upgrade to legendary status. SOE have to make their money somewhere and they have stated that this limitation may be reworked eventually. But this feels a lot more like a stick than a carrot. As a fully fledged member of the Justice League, Zentarim was getting sent requests for aid from all over the world, and indeed the universe. He thought he had reached the pinnacle of his career when he defeated Lex Luthor and rescued Superman, but apparently that's something that happens all the time. Although he had earned his accolades and his position in the League, this is still a league that gives Beast Man a position of authority. To really make a lasting impression he'd have to pull out all the stops. For his troubles he was promised a variety of incredible power suits inspired by his idols, he may be a hero, but that doesn't mean he can't have a mercenary attitude. Zentarim traveled to Ace Chemicals, to deal with his old adversary, Doctor T. Moro, and the deadly toxic creation, Chemo. It was his toughest challenge yet and that was before the laws of space and time went haywire. While he and his team managed to halt the Doctor's plans, they were deeply disturbed by what they had seen. There's a massive variety of challenges available for players who reach 30. Two tiers of hard alerts, two player co-op missions, raids and a whole bunch of new group missions can all be accessed from the get go. However, without the appropriate gear, you will get squashed rather rapidly. Successfully completing these nets players marks which can be exchanged for powerful iconic gear. These items aren't cheap and it can feel like a bit of a slog, especially when you have to spend so much time queuing just to get into these missions. As more new players work their way to max level, this will no doubt change. The copious amounts of bugs and massive server lag are less forgivable, however. In Ace Chemicals my group had a lot more trouble fighting the lag than we did the mission's various enemies. We'd get trapped behind locked gates that we initially appeared to be in front of, all of my team mates appeared to be KO'd even when they were at full health and fighting (which made our healer's job very difficult) and we'd roll out of the way of aoe attacks only to get snapped right back into the attack. These particular attacks essentially KO'd us straight away, which made several fights a complete mess. I had foolishly hoped that SOE's delay of the f2p launch was so that they could optimize the servers and fix any glaring bugs. This does not appear to have been the case. I only managed to play through a few of the hard alerts before I simply gave up. Not because I'm lazy like Superman, but because there's only so many hours in a day which I can spend queuing for broken alerts. The alerts are not the only part of the game which seems to be suffering since the relaunch, as PvP seems to have been hit as well. I played through several PvP matches, both Legends and Arena, only to find that people couldn't respawn. Sometimes it would only effect one team, sometimes only an individual, but every time it ruined the match. Nobody ever said being a hero was easy. Zentarim had traveled all over the world and beyond it, fighting the good fight. But he was weary and his cosmic sheen had worn off. There were still battles to win and the threat of Braniac still overshadowed everything. But hanging up the tights and knocking back a stiff drink seemed a lot more tempting to this particular moon man. I've had a lot of fun revisiting DCUO. There aren't many options for people who want to play Action MMOs and when the game actually works it's a real blast to play. But sadly all the problems that plagued it at launch are still present. The plethora of bugs, the end game grind for marks, the crappy chat features and the frequently unbalanced PvP all make it hard to recommend. Hard to recommend spending money on, that is. As an f2p MMO it is one of the better ones. If SOE focus on fixing the bugs and making the cash shop worthwhile I might even return. But right now, I'm happy to go back to being a mild mannered videogame blogger. |
| Half-naked dancing in this Sonic 3 music video Posted: 12 Nov 2011 05:00 AM PST The Ice Cap Zone theme might be the most covered song from the Sonic the Hedgehog 3 soundtrack, but how many of those covers have an accompanying music video with a dude in his underwear, snowboarding and dancing the whitest dance known to man? Not all that many, by my last count. Way to stand out, Carson Mauthe! Speaking of Ice Cap, did you guys know that before it was cut from the game, Flying Battery was supposed to precede Ice Cap? The door Sonic busts through after beating Robotnik's machine was supposed to become a makeshift snowboard for the first segment of the next level. Yep, random trivia! Sonic The Hedgehog 3 - Ice Cap Zone [Server Crashers] |
| Posted: 12 Nov 2011 04:00 AM PST Space used to be the place for PC gaming. Space combat games like Wing Commander, Elite, and the X-Wing series ushered in new technology and design ideas that made the genre one of the most important of the medium. SOL: Exodus (PC)
Seamless are planning for a Steam release (around $10) early next year, but they are looking into the possibility of a console release afterward. |
| Get your fight on! Namco X Capcom Fight Club Posted: 12 Nov 2011 03:00 AM PST On Saturday, December 3rd at the Namco Station in London, Capcom and Namco are teaming up for an extra special UK Christmas Fight Club, featuring an extra special guest: producer of the Tekken series, Harada-san!! He will be there throughout the day to watch over the glorious fighting not only from some of the best in the UK but from you guys as well, if you think you can handle it that is... The day will consist of two sessions of 300 people each and entry is free, so make sure you arrive early to avoid disappointment! Sessions will take place from 10:00am to 1:00pm and 2:00pm to 5:00pm. Ok, so for the hardcore part: there will be an eight-person, single-elimination tournament running in each session for Tekken Tag Tournament 2 Arcade and SoulCalibur V. The winners will receive prizes and some of the matches will be streamed live. There will also be various exhibition matches where the UK's top players will go head to head, so get ready for some extreme trash talking. Other games available to get angry with will be:
For the more passive person, who thinks there is too much hate in all the fighting, there will also be bowling, pool, arcade machines, music and refreshments. It sounds like its going to be an awesome day! You can find the Namco Station in Westminister, SE1 7PB. |
| Metal Gear Rex figure will send you to the poor house Posted: 12 Nov 2011 02:30 AM PST Metal Gear Solid fans who want their own little bipedal robot tank to terrorize the bookshelf ought to look forward to threeA Toys's impressive model of Metal Gear Rex from the PS1 classic. The photos below show an unpainted model, but already it's looking quite fantastic. You know that this figure is going to be quality when knowing that Ashley Wood, threeA co-founder and artist, was responsible for several official MGS comic adaptations, including PSP's Metal Gear Solid: Digital Graphic Novel. This beast stands 42 cm (about 16.5 inches) tall and features a spiffy light-up rail gun attachment. This quality comes at a hefty price, however. Word is that Rex, which goes on sale in January, will cost over $400! Holy bejeezus! I... well... you don't really need car insurance, do you? F*ck that little gecko, right? New images of ThreeA's Metal Gear Rex revealed [Tomopop] |
| Skyrim bags 231,593 Steam users in 24 hours Posted: 12 Nov 2011 01:20 AM PST Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 may be the biggest game to hit this week, but the most talked-about is definitely The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. In fact, Skyrim might be an even bigger hit than Modern Warfare 3 -- at least on Steam, where it nabbed 231,593 users within twenty-four hours! By comparison, Activision's mass-marketing powerhouse welcomed 78,161 players within the same period. Bethesda's RPG has completely eclipsed Call of Duty on Steam, and one can only assume it'll be getting more and more users over the coming weeks. That's absolutely ludicrous, but I cannot say it's not well deserved. Skyrim is, hands-down, my game of the year so far, and with a little over a month left of 2011, I can't see that changing. Skyrim reaches nearly 250,000 concurrent Steam users on day one, topples MW3 [PC Gamer] |
| The Daily Hotness: Dragonf***er Posted: 11 Nov 2011 03:59 PM PST We've all been thinking it. We review Saints Row: The Third and its over the top antics, Skyrim had a kickass launch party, Japan had the balls to censor Saints Rows dildo bats, and more happened on 11/11/11. Destructoid Original: News: |
![Street Fighter on Virtual Console goes online [UPDATE] screenshot](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_tKkkgh0eGcTj1WyvrMjZU3HFSxswngtwMThDqGNm4brq0hC_tNvidEZV6t6tRbOewv6XEDkt7ZkSRD_gk_kKKIGnWV9zKvP-gL_o0BVXprei21D9mtH8uOduBTkNrw2lG6=s0-d)
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