New Games |
- This DmC trailer is hiding a secret
- The DTOID Show: Tara Long's Pokemon Nightmare
- King of Fighters XIII patch still coming, new details
- Listen to Me, Girls. I Am Your Father! is a PSP game
- New releases: Star Wars: TOR, Postal III and more
- Blame Mario Paint for brentalfloss' career
- PS Vita bilinear filtering makes PSP games look better
- Mega Man #12 comic cover is... I see what you did there!
- Is Battlefield 2143 next? Possible hint found in BF3
- OMG: Jetpack Joyride free on iOS devices right now!
- Watch us play All Zombies Must Die! with Anthony Carboni
- Nintendo is bringing Wii U to CES 2012
- Review: Bug Princess
- How to make GBA games on your 3DS not look like ass
- The winner of Destructoid Game of the Year 2011
- 25 Days: Win ten PlayArts Kai videogame figures!
- Alan Wake's American Nightmare's arcade mode, Q1 '12 date
- Half-off your last minute games at Amazon
- The Jimquisition: Taking Videogames Seriously
| This DmC trailer is hiding a secret Posted: 19 Dec 2011 02:00 PM PST
This trailer for DmC is the third (and final) of its kind, showing us a secret area Dante can gain access to using portals throughout his journey. I've long been a fan of floating, decayed worlds, which the game seems to deliver on. If absolutely nothing else, Ninja Theory sure can create a stunning environment (see: Enslaved). As for the combat -- yeah, I'll never be able to pull that off. |
| The DTOID Show: Tara Long's Pokemon Nightmare Posted: 19 Dec 2011 01:10 PM PST
Greetings, travelers! The Destructoid show is back for its regularly-scheduled Monday episode, and boy, have we got news for you! (The answer is yes, in case you were wondering.) First up, Alan's Wake's American Nightmare is shaping up nicely and inching ever so closely to a February-ish release date, while Star Wars: The Old Republic isn't even out yet and already seems to be having server issues. On the other side of the internet, Steam's annual holiday sale has officially begun and Pokémon + Nobunaga's Ambition is totally a thing that is happening. Lastly, in Sony news, it looks like the PS Vita will be roughly the same size as the PSP, but not without its own set of problems. Best of all, we announced a winner for our limited edition Xbox 360 Halo: Reach giveaway! A hearty congratulations to Marcelo Laborda for his (absolutely incredible) drawing. In fact, we were so impressed by all the entries that we made a separate post just so we could share them with you guys! Expect to see that up on the front page tonight. |
| King of Fighters XIII patch still coming, new details Posted: 19 Dec 2011 01:00 PM PST Still waiting on that King of Fighters XIII online patch to go live? Here's some details on the patch to hold you over. Atlus and SNK Playmore say that the patch will make the network infrastructure more consistent for players. They say that the evaluation given connections is more accurate to the actual play experience. The patch will also bring ranked host-side filtering. Some glitches reported since the game's release will also be fixed. As of now there is still no release date for the patch, but they're aiming for "as soon as possible." Also, the next DLC for the game, NESTS Kyo, has been delayed for PSN. You XBLA folks are fine. "We apologize to our PlayStation 3 system KOF XIII fans for the slight delay of the next downloadable character," stated Aram Jabbari, Manager of PR and Sales at ATLUS. "In gratitude to our fans for their patience, we will be discounting the NESTS Kyo character to $2.99 for a limited time when it is finally released in the North American PlayStation Store on 1/10."
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| Listen to Me, Girls. I Am Your Father! is a PSP game Posted: 19 Dec 2011 12:30 PM PST Here's a trailer for a game that someone in the comments of this article first brought up. I thought about the best way to phrase the title of this post, but in the end, the name of the game itself says it all. Listen to Me, Girls. I Am Your Father! is a light novel and manga series that Namco Bandai has seen fit to adapt to the PSP as a visual novel. Despite the title, you aren't actually these little girls' father. They are your sister's kids, and in fact, only one is her biological daughter. Whatever, though. You can cut it however finely you want; it's obvious that the humor is derived from the incestuous and borderline pedophilic undertones. The special edition even comes with a bonus "Sleep with Dad" pack. Make of that what you will. Does it bother me? Nope! I can only laugh. Cultural differences: what a riot! Listen to Me, Girls. I Am Your Father! First Trailer [Andriasang] |
| New releases: Star Wars: TOR, Postal III and more Posted: 19 Dec 2011 12:00 PM PST
The biggie this week is Star Wars: The Old Republic for the PC. We don't do reviews for MMOs but we did give you a look at our initial thoughts. Other than that, it's kind of a dead week. Did you know Postal III was still happening? Yeah, I was surprised too. What's looking sw33t to you? Postal III (PC) |
| Blame Mario Paint for brentalfloss' career Posted: 19 Dec 2011 11:30 AM PST brentalfloss took a step back from his usual foul and obscene antics to musically honor a "game" that inspired his creativity as a young child. I don't think I ever had the patience for Mario Paint myself. I could never compose a song that sounded as awesome as the built-in demos. Of course, if this saccharine reflection is not your thing, you can hit the jump to watch another recent brentalfloss video that is literally sh*t. Mario Paint WITH LYRICS [YouTube]
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| PS Vita bilinear filtering makes PSP games look better Posted: 19 Dec 2011 11:00 AM PST PSP games played on the new PlayStation Vita will see a bit of a visual upgrade with the system's bilinear filtering option. Sony Japan says that it smooths out the roughness in PSP games. I'd imagine that the big, brilliant Vita screen would show the rough edges of PSP games easily. Tapping and holding down on the Vita screen during play of a PSP game will bring up an options menu, and in there you'll be able to select this filtering option, along with options for right analog stick use and others.. 4Gamer says that once they found this somewhat hidden option, they noticed smoother graphics and text, though they said it didn't have a huge effect in Monster Hunter Portable 3rd. This video shows both the option menu and the filtering at work on PSP game Final Fantasy Type-0. There's an image that has been going around, and it gives a detailed look at the effect of this option. You can see part of that image above. Left, you'll see the unfiltered image; the right shows the effect applied. Another Japanese blog highlights the changes in text, as you'll see below the jump. What do you think? Will you be using the bilinear filtering option on your Vita when you play PSP games? Left: Filter off / Right: Filter on |
| Mega Man #12 comic cover is... I see what you did there! Posted: 19 Dec 2011 10:30 AM PST Anybody remember the monthly Mega Man series that Archie Comics started earlier this year? Well, SURPRISE! It's still running! After news that initial sales had been less than stellar, I was worried that it would get that ax early on, but Archie has faith in the property and will soldier onwards. Lesson to be learned here, eh, Capcom? Anyway, the ninth issue should be hitting newsstands next month, but already we have cover artwork through the twelfth. The story arc for these next four issues will be an adaptation of Mega Man 2, so the covers naturally contain imagery from that game. The cover for #12, however, is super special and deserving of a little extra exposure. The full cover, which you will find below, should be incredibly familiar to European NES gamers. It is, in fact, a recreation of the Euro Mega Man 2 box art, only with more game-faithful art versus the source's sleek Heavy Metal-ish style. I've also provided a side-by-side comparison in the gallery so you can see the similarities for yourself. Once again, Spaz delivers! ARCHIE COMICS FOR MARCH [Comics Continuum] |
| Is Battlefield 2143 next? Possible hint found in BF3 Posted: 19 Dec 2011 10:00 AM PST It could be nothing substantial, but a person can dream, right? A nod to the next Battlefield game might have been found in Wake Island. Granted, it's just text that says "2143." But as BF3Blog reminds us, a similar tease for Battlefield 2142 was found in Battlefield 2: Euro Forces. I know some people who would be extremely pleased for a return to the future with the current tech powering the series. If you have the "Back to Karkand" content for Battlefield 3, go take a look for yourself. Battlefield 2143 hinted at with Easter Egg [BF3Blog via Eurogamer] |
| OMG: Jetpack Joyride free on iOS devices right now! Posted: 19 Dec 2011 09:45 AM PST Jetpack Joyride is free for a limited time right for the iPod, iPhone and iPad! The runner style game sees you avoiding obstacles and collecting coins through the use of a jetpack that happens to be a freaking chain gun. Seriously, Jetpack Joyride is stupidly addictive and you're a horrible stupid face if you don't even try the game. You jerks. |
| Watch us play All Zombies Must Die! with Anthony Carboni Posted: 19 Dec 2011 09:30 AM PST Today's edition of Mash Tactics is going to extra special. Starting at 4 p.m. PST, we are playing the upcoming XBLA and PSN game All Zombies Must Die! live, early, and with some very extraordinary guests. All the way from the United Kingdom, via Skype, All Zombies Must Die! lead designer, Dave Dow, and designer, James Chew will be hanging out and taking questions directly from our live chat audience. And if that wasn't enough, host of Revision3's New Challenger, Anthony Carboni, is joining in on the zombie blasting festivities with us. It's a show that's going to be full of many surprises, so make sure you don't miss out. At the very least, stop by to wish Jon Carnage a very happy birthday! He's a little sad that the death of a certain dictator stole some of his birthday thunder. Mash Tactics airs Monday through Friday at 4pm Pacific. Watch Jon Carnage and myself, 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. Watch this space for the livestream embed starting at 4 p.m. PST! |
| Nintendo is bringing Wii U to CES 2012 Posted: 19 Dec 2011 09:15 AM PST The Consumer Electronics Show is the biggest trade show ever, but Nintendo doesn't show up. Everyone else does, but they hang back, as usual. Thankfully, that's not the case this year, as they'll be bringing the Wii U to CES 2012, says CNet. Destructoid will get their grimy hands all over the Wii U and its tablet-like controller as we will be in Las Vegas next month to cover the show. This will be our first true hands-on session, as the Wii U shown at E3 2011 was a prototype. I'm glad Nintendo has decided to join in the fun. I can only imagine what the lines will be like to get some hands-on time, though. Over 140,000 attendees got their hand grease and foreign viruses on the hottest consumer electronics at last year's show. |
| Posted: 19 Dec 2011 09:00 AM PST I've been a big fan of shoot-em-ups ever since my mother bought me Silpheed for the Sega CD on my 13th birthday. It wasn't my first experience with the genre -- that honor goes to playing Galaga with my father at the local pizza place -- but it was the one that made me fall in love with the intense, twitch gaming thrill that only shoot-em-ups can deliver. Bug Princess (iOS) The greatest amount of strategy comes into play with the support beetle attachments that are collected throughout. With a simple tap in the left corner, the proximity of up to four beetles can switched from an "open" to "close" arrangement. Also, depending on how long one waits to collect a beetle attachment, its tendencies will change from a trace type (following your every movement) to a formation type (imagine the Blue Angels in all their glory). I found the formation style the most useful, and depending on the situation, would switch between proximities. The open style is best used for quickly taking out large groups of enemies, while close packs a much more needed and concentrated punch for bosses. Over time, one develops a sweet rhythm from switching back and forth. For me, Maniac Mode features the perfect balance of bullet-dodging nirvana. In Maniac Mode, the game ups the challenge considerably and also presents a fun scoring system that brings an extra layer of strategy to the game. A shot counter is added; it boosts a player's score for consecutive enemy hits, which really tests one's skill in both bullet dodging and enemy pattern memorization. Ultra mode is doable on the easiest setting, but only the most skilled or masochistic types will find enjoyment in playing Bug Princess' most challenging mode at its hardest difficulty. Regardless of the mode or difficulty, I'm still amazed at how well Bug Princess controls on a touch screen. I played the game using my iPhone 3GS and it handled the task flawlessly. The fidelity in moving swiftly from one side of the screen to tediously crawling though some of the most hellish bullet patterns later on is a testament to touch design. My only complaint comes from my thumb occasionally obscuring upward enemy spray from view -- something I imagine is less of an issue on an iPad. To compensate for this, CAVE has implemented a few different screen sizes to chose from, with the smallest offering more finger space. At its default settings, everything in Bug Princess is set to auto when it comes to delivering the action. Auto-fire is enabled, and bombs -- which serve as a screen-clearing last line of defense -- act more like a shield when a bullet connects by, detonating instantly. Strangely, taking these two actions out of a player's hands doesn't at all affect the skill needed to enjoy the genre. CAVE does allow players to enable a more traditional play style. But between dealing with the insane bullet patterns and organizing the tactics of the attachment beetles, there is more than enough going on to satisfy the most hardcore shoot-em-up enthusiast. |
| How to make GBA games on your 3DS not look like ass Posted: 19 Dec 2011 08:30 AM PST It was really nice of Nintendo to give us Ambassadors all of these free GBA games, but man, they looked all stretched and washed out. I remember these games being beautiful. Is my memory fading, or is it the 3DS pulling some funny sh*t? It's the 3DS, of course. Nothing's wrong with the top screen, but something is up with how legacy games are stretched to fit it. Here's the easy fix: Hold SELECT when starting a 3DS game. That's it! The system will change the display mode to show the title in its original resolution. This also works with Game Boy games, and the system displays a cute Game Boy frame graphic around your title. The only drawback is that the original resolution is much smaller. Still, I'd rather enjoy the game in its non-stretched form. |
| The winner of Destructoid Game of the Year 2011 Posted: 19 Dec 2011 08:00 AM PST Winning the award for Destructoid Game of the Year is probably more important than winning the Nobel Prize. And I am not being overdramatic at all. Think about it. Who won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry last year? Can’t think of the name, can you? But when someone asks who won the Destructoid Game of the Year in 2010, the answer is simple: Super Mario Galaxy 2. You see? Winning the big prize on Destructoid is a much quicker route to instant Internet fame than the Nobel Prize will ever be. It’s a completely reasonable argument. So which game will join the ranks of past winners BioShock, Left 4 Dead, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, and Super Mario Galaxy 2, and win the highly coveted award for Destructoid Game of the Year 2011? As a reminder, the nominees are: Batman: Arkham City And the winner is ... Out of all the incredible videogame adventures this year -- and, my word, there have been a lot of awesome ones -- Portal 2 is our favorite. From the perfect (yup, perfect) single-player campaign, to the addictive, challenging co-op mode, Portal 2 is an absolutely extraordinary videogame experience. Obviously, going into too much detail about why we adore the game would ruin things for people who haven't played it yet, so ... wait, if you are reading this and haven't played Portal 2, stop everything you are doing and play it already! Seriously. It is one of the best videogames of all time and JUST WON OUR GAME OF THE YEAR AWARD! Go. Play it. Now! Okay, now that those people are gone, let's get into what makes Portal 2 so amazing. Portal 2 does everything right. There really isn't one aspect of the game that is not done well. In fact, there is not one aspect of the game that any other videogame did better this entire year. The overall design is unrivaled, containing puzzle-centric levels that should be listed in every "How to Perfectly Design a Videogame" book. (If those actually exist.) While the first Portal revolved entirely around the use of the magnificent portal gun, Portal 2 feels like a massive, deep, surprising adventure that just so happens to feature the already classic portal gun. And that says something about the bravery and confidence of the people at Valve. Portal 2 is the perfect sequel that doesn't just ramp up the gameplay with new modes and levels (although those are there as well). Instead, Portal 2 takes players on a journey full of breathtaking, memorable moments, shocking plot twists, mysterious and unexpected locales, and one of the greatest scripts and voice casts to ever grace a videogame. Think back to how unbelievably perfect the pacing is in the game. Think about some of the wonderfully memorable moments: the opening, with a moving apartment; the descent into the retro bowels of Aperture Science; the potato; Cave effin' Johnson; the ending! AHHHHH! THE ENDING! No other ending in a game this year was as memorable, outrageous, or just plain fantastic. Portal 2 is an extraordinary game and a more-than-worthy winner of Destructoid Game of the Year 2011. Congratulations, Portal 2 ... and congratulations, Valve! You made one heck of a good game.
----- What do you think? Did the right game win? (Answer: OF COURSE!) What is your favorite videogame of 2011? Oh, and if you haven’t watched the header video, definitely check it out. It stars Tara and Max of the Destructoid Show. Both of them are ridiculously attractive, so just the sight of them is sure to make your upcoming holiday that much merrier. Here’s to a fantastic 2011 and an even better 2012! Until next year ... |
| 25 Days: Win ten PlayArts Kai videogame figures! Posted: 19 Dec 2011 07:45 AM PST We're at the home stretch for our 25 Days of Giving and this week is all about Square Enix! We'll be giving away a bunch of game codes everyday but starting today it's all about Square Enix's PlayArts Kai videogame toy line! One lucky winner will be getting themselves TEN of the PlayArts figures which will consist of Deus Ex: Human Revolution's Lawrence Barrett, Adam Jensen and Yelena Fedorova, Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker's Snake and Kazuhira Miller, Super Street Fighter IV Arcade Edition's Chun-Li and Ryu and Dissidia Final Fantasy's Cloud, Squall and Gabranth. In order to win this set, just leave a comment below telling us your favorite moment from either Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Metal Gear Solid, Street Fighter or Final Fantasy series. That's it! We'll be picking one person at random after the contest closes on December 24 at 11:59PM CST. Limit one entry per person and contest is open to anyone with a US based shipping address the prizes can be shipped to. Good luck! |
| Alan Wake's American Nightmare's arcade mode, Q1 '12 date Posted: 19 Dec 2011 07:30 AM PST Alan Wake's American Nightmare sounds like a good time, and this newly announced arcade mode sounds like an even better time. The "Fight till Dawn" mode of AWAN has Wake stuck in a battle where he has to survive a full night of enemy attacks, working toward a high score as you do your best to survive until dawn. Remedy promises new enemies, so it's good that you'll be able to pick up and use old and new weapons along the way. Armed with unlockable weapons, I'm sure you'll put up a good fight, but you'll have to catch a breather or two, so the mode's safe havens will come in handy. And online leaderboards will show all of XBLA how bad you were about watching your ass out in the dark forest. Sounds like a blast. In related news, we have something closer to a solid release date. Remedy says that the game will be released in middle of the first quarter of 2012. |
| Half-off your last minute games at Amazon Posted: 19 Dec 2011 07:15 AM PST I have a tendency to put off my holiday shopping until the last possible minute. Like, today, for example. I have to run out to the post office later today to get some gifts shipped and there are still a few people I haven't even picked up stuff for. If you're in this boat and still have some games to gather for your loved ones, Amazon does have some great 50% off bargains. Deus Ex: Human Revolution "Augmented Edition" for Xbox 360 is only $30, which ought to make anybody happy on Sunday morning. For the same amount of scratch on the PS3 side, you can grab Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One or LittleBigPlanet 2. And in the category of, "You Really Have No Excuse Now," Enslaved: Journey to the West is a pitiful $9 on either PS3 or Xbox 360. Buy one for everyone you love, for Christ's sake. It's a great game and I don't know why everyone hasn't played it yet. There's a lot of other titles at half off (or even cheaper) over on Amazon's sale page. Time's a-wasting. |
| The Jimquisition: Taking Videogames Seriously Posted: 19 Dec 2011 07:00 AM PST
When will games be taken seriously? Why isn't anybody taking videogames seriously? How many times can Jim say the word "seriously" in a single video? Does any of it matter? No. None of it. Ever. |
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