New Games |
- The DTOID Show: LEGO Minecraft, Blizzcon, & Xbox 720?!
- 'Must-Have Games' line-up for Window Phones detailed
- Netflix doesn't have any plans to rent out videogames
- Japanese pop culture icons as Street Fighter IV cast
- Office Chat: Anarchy in the R.C. (Raccoon City)
- Look at all the cool sh*t to do in Final Fantasy XIII-2
- Terraria is about to get physical
- Insanely Insane Rumor: Next Xbox won't play used games
- Paradox: DRM is a waste of money
- Preview: The roads are empty in Ridge Racer for PS Vita
- The Videogame Show What I've Done: MW3 Black Ops
- Persona 4: The Golden has a new town, moped travel
- Review: Oil Rush
- Resident Evil 6: Hoping for evolution, fearing conformity
- Enjoy old-school delights with the Mutant Mudds OST
- Riders of Rohan expansion coming to LOTRO
- Review: Mutant Mudds
- Death is EVERYWHERE in this terrifying Darksiders II vid
- The Destructoid Show LIVE in San Francisco on February 3!
| The DTOID Show: LEGO Minecraft, Blizzcon, & Xbox 720?! Posted: 25 Jan 2012 02:41 PM PST
Hey gang! We're back with our usual tri-weekly revelry, and today the news is all hot and stinky. Er. Exciting. For starters, Blizzcon is cancelled. Blizzard is gonna have a big pro-gaming tournament in Asia, but no. No night elf dance contest this year, sorry kids. I'm angry that LEGO Minecraft sets are actually a thing, because I like my digital blocks digital and my analog blocks analog. Some wacky new rumors are flapping around in the night, including the Xbox 720's specs, as well as Microsoft's plans to phase out Microsoft Points. In other news, Zynga is The Devil and Marc Pincus would be drinking your neck juices right now if they weren't safely stored inside your neck. Also, does our ridiculous show cause you to get a moistness in your loins? Well, if you're in the San Francisco Bay Area, bring your moist lil' loins over to our LIVE show, with Playstation Vitas everywhere, next week. Details here. |
| 'Must-Have Games' line-up for Window Phones detailed Posted: 25 Jan 2012 02:30 PM PST Mimicking its approach to special release schedules on Xbox Live Arcade, Microsoft has gathered up five impending Windows Phone games and prepared them for a weekly roll out next month.
Dubbing this "Must-Have Games" might be pushing it a bit too far, though I have admittedly never touched this selection before. They've got Achievements, which is presumably a selling point for some of you. I suspect any attention to Windows Phone, game-wise, is good attention. |
| Netflix doesn't have any plans to rent out videogames Posted: 25 Jan 2012 01:30 PM PST Back when Netflix was still pushing to split up its streaming service and physical-media rentals, the idea to rent out videogames was kicked around. We weren't pleased to hear that first part -- and its death was celebrated by many a Netflix subscriber -- but hey, games aren't so bad! For better or worse, the company will not be further pursuing game rentals, according to CEO Reed Hastings. I suppose that would explain why there hasn't been much talk regarding the subject as of late. It's disappointing, but expanding to offer games now seems like the wrong strategy as we increasingly move away from discs. If Netflix was going to do it, and do it right, they should have already started by now. Netflix abandons video game rental plans [The Verge] [Image] |
| Japanese pop culture icons as Street Fighter IV cast Posted: 25 Jan 2012 12:30 PM PST I love this collection of Japanese pop culture icons as Street Fighter IV characters. Artist Kei Suwabe did a killer job in nailing Capcom's style for these portraits, and you can see them all in one collection over at The Errant Cluster, and a few more can be found on the artist's series page. I'm with them -- I'd play the sh*t out of this game. You may not recognize all of the people in the individual portraits, but there's plenty you'll be able to pick out from games, television and the product mascot world. I'd kill to see a match between the Michelin Man and Bob Ross. Who is with me on the feeling that Waldo and the Boss Coffee guy would make a great team. If you know your Japanese sh*t, you probably laughed as hard as I did at Pon de Lion. As I write this blog post I am still bubbling with laughter over Colonel Sanders' pose. Fantastic stuff. Japan Pop Culture as Street Fighter 4, Full Roster [Reddit] |
| Office Chat: Anarchy in the R.C. (Raccoon City) Posted: 25 Jan 2012 12:00 PM PST Destructoid's editorial staff are at it again with another casual conversation from within their virtual office. In this episode, Jonathan Holmes has a friend with some ethical standards we find questionable. And Resident Evil has many different forms, but they're starting to all feel the same (what with their similarity to Pac-Man and all). All this, plus a peek into Holmes' collection of VHS tapes. Capital! |
| Look at all the cool sh*t to do in Final Fantasy XIII-2 Posted: 25 Jan 2012 11:30 AM PST
Moogle tossing! Item collection! Sidequests! Puzzle solving! Quiz games! Gambling! Motherf*cking Chocobo Racing! If you see someone's total play time coming in at over 80 hours, now you'll know what they've been up to. Final Fantasy XIII-2 is packed with fun diversions to break up all the fighting and time traveling. Actually, the above video doesn't do the game justice, as it opens with one of the least interesting diversions. Some of the puzzles are fun, but others are a bit dull. There's plenty of fun stuff left, though. I really enjoyed hunting for items that let me tweak some of the switches under the hood. The gambling is great, though I lost thousands of Gil trying to acquire rare items. Leveling up a wild Chocobo to race is just as fun as you'd imagine. I had a blast even with my two crappy birds. Look for our full review of Final Fantasy XIII-2 this weekend. |
| Terraria is about to get physical Posted: 25 Jan 2012 11:15 AM PST Terraria has been keeping its players amused with mining, building, fighting and treasure hunting since May last year. It's a pretty significant amount of players as well, most likely, with Re-Logic managing to shift over a million copies so far. Surprisingly, Terraria will now be forged into a physical state (probably requiring several hard to find materials) for those with digital distribution phobias. Merge Games has announced that Terraria will be added to their site on March 16th in the form of a Collector's Edition which you can grab for £19.95. And what do you get for spending three times as much as you would for the digital version? Well you get a physical copy, don't you? Is such a treasure not good enough? If not, there's also a special in-game item, a key-ring, poster and trading cards. I'll be the first to put my hand up and say I don't get it, but perhaps it will strike a chord with a particular type of rabid fan. Mind you, I wouldn't turn down a free Terraria poster. |
| Insanely Insane Rumor: Next Xbox won't play used games Posted: 25 Jan 2012 11:00 AM PST Yep, it's another "Next Xbox" rumor, and it is quite possibly the most outlandish hardware rumor we've had in a long time. A source close to Kotaku claims that not only will the "Next Xbox" adopt Blu-ray, it'll also refuse to run any games bought secondhand. The source admits that he doesn't know how the console would do that. Microsoft responded to the rumor by saying that it's always trying to "push the boundaries" of technology, but would not comment further on this, or on the rumor that Kinect 2 is going to be introduced along with the new console. This is one rumor that should be taken with a veritable ark full of salt, as I find it difficult to believe that even Microsoft would be so bold as to go this far. Platform holders still rely heavily on GameStop to market and sell systems, and a snub of this magnitude would prove an immense risk without a worthy payoff. It's also worth noting that we had similar rumors before the PS3 launched, and nothing came of it. While I'd not say that Microsoft definitely won't implement an anti-used system, I find it incredibly unlikely. |
| Paradox: DRM is a waste of money Posted: 25 Jan 2012 10:30 AM PST Paradox Interactive has slammed the digital rights software of other companies, calling such anti-piracy measures a waste of money. "I’m so surprised that people still use DRM. We haven’t done that for seven or eight years, and the reason is that it doesn’t make sense," said CEO Fred Wester. "No one should have to purchase a product that they’re unable to install because of the DRM. There might be other reasons, like the compatibility isn’t correct, or whatever. But people who purchase a game should have just as easy a time as those who pirate the game, otherwise it’s a negative incentive to buy a legal copy. "And I just can’t see why people are using DRM still. If you take something like Sony’s DRM, SecuROM -- it’s a waste of money. It will keep you protected for three days, it will create a lot of technical support, and it will not increase sales. And I know this for a fact, because we tried it eight years ago, and it never worked for us. Two major reasons: it costs money and it makes you lose money, and the other is that it’s so inconvenient to customers." Thing is, DRM is only a waste of money if you sincerely believe it's about piracy -- which I don't. There's enough evidence to demonstrate that DRM does not work as advertised, but what it does do is allow publishers to exert even greater control over their paying consumers, and keep tabs on their habits. When you remember that publishers think like jealous boyfriends, then DRM makes perfect sense. Paradox CEO Calls DRM a 'Waste of Money' [Industry Gamers] |
| Preview: The roads are empty in Ridge Racer for PS Vita Posted: 25 Jan 2012 10:00 AM PST Another PlayStation machine is about to launch, and with it comes another Ridge Racer, of course. The new installment for PlayStation Vita is somewhat of an oddity. I can't remember a time when my opinion of a game had ever been influenced by the business model used to release it. Already out in Japan, and already taking plenty of heat in the West, Ridge Racer for Vita is a bare bones experience out of the box, as most of its content is planned to be released later on via download. While at its core, Ridge Racer remains a solid racer, you have to ask yourself, how much can you enjoy a game when there isn't much of it to enjoy? Ridge Racer (PlayStation Vita) Ridge Racer on Vita is an interesting conundrum because, as I said, it remains as solid a title as past entries. Like previous iterations, Ridge Racer forgoes any notion of real-world physics, bringing instead its patented drifting mechanic. Drifting has always been the defining feature that separates Ridge Racer from other racers, and it remains equally important here. Either you learn how to drift properly or have fun ending up in last place. It's not too difficult, thankfully. By releasing the throttle and moving the analog stick in the direction you want to go, players can send their cars into impossible-looking turns to speed around tight corners. This simplistic approach to drifting has served the series well in the past, and it works just as well on the Vita. It's for the best to that the drifting is so easy to pull off, since mastering the mechanic is key to performing well. The tracks in Racer Racer emphasize this the most, since they are all built with their fair share of hairpin turns and sharp corners. The draft and boost system -- and your effectiveness with them -- also rely on how well you perform, since you need a good drift going before you can build up your boost meter or draft efficiently. Multiplayer will allow up to eight players at launch, though our demo consisted of a standard race with four players. Online players can compete in standard races, of course, but one of the more interesting features is the ability to record, save, and upload ghosts which you can download (over either a Wi-Fi or a 3G connection) and compete against. It's certainly more intriguing an idea than just competing to shave seconds off a static leader board, and it could get more interesting when you compete with and against custom cars. Another staple of the franchise, car customization, is back and in full effect. While it's not yet certain how deep the customization system goes -- past Ridge Racers have boasted upwards of 300k unique variations -- if this can be matched, expect to swap out tires, paint jobs, and engines to your heart's content. Sadly, there is a chance that the customization (among other things) may be at its shallowest in series history, because Namco Bandai has elected to ship the game with a lackluster amount of content. Like I said, Ridge Racer on Vita is a solid racer at its core. But no matter how much fun the drifting still is, despite whatever positive aspects the game may carry, they all fall under the shadow of one huge caveat: the game is shipping with a bewildering five cars and three tracks. That matters. It really, really matters when talking about racers. Granted, the game will be retailing for less than other Vita titles ($29.99 versus the standard $49.99), the goal being to charge for DLC and let people craft their own experience, but there's no reason for the game to be so dry out of the box. Namco Bandai is promising free DLC to people who buy the game at or around launch. No word on what this DLC is, though, so it could be cars, tracks, or music packs. In any case, it's a little ridiculous to ship the game and then ask people to be patient as they release enough content to make it a complete experience. Ridge Racer for Vita doesn't set out to reinvent the formula. If you know Ridge Racer then you know what you're getting, or not getting, rather. The decision to ship the game with so little content is personally more of a reason to let it fly under my radar. If you're the type who is willing to stick with a game as content is trickled out over time, then keep an eye out for this one. |
| The Videogame Show What I've Done: MW3 Black Ops Posted: 25 Jan 2012 09:45 AM PST
Allow budding videogame journalist Rory Fingers to take you by the hand and introduce you to a world of gaming insight beyond your wildest imagination. The Videogame Show What I've Done is one man's epic journey through the greatest interactive art that humanity has created. This week, the hit 2012 game Modern Warfare 3: Black Ops is up for appraisal. Feels good man. |
| Persona 4: The Golden has a new town, moped travel Posted: 25 Jan 2012 09:30 AM PST My body is ready to replay Persona 4 on the PlayStation Vita. I've played the other three Persona titles twice via re-releases, so why stop now? This new version, Persona 4: The Golden, features a new town and beach that you can visit. Siliconera says that Yosuke suggests that the gang take a trip to the new locales. He would. You'll take this trip on a moped! One of the new features of this release lets players get a moped license so that they can travel to new areas. It's also used in battle in a special attack. What the hell? |
| Posted: 25 Jan 2012 09:00 AM PST Late last year, Anno 2070 tried to explore the post-apocalyptic setting of an Earth flooded by drastically risen sea levels, where Kevin Costner would have to drink his own filtered pee. If you just wanted a new Anno game with shinier graphics and a new, futuristic setting, it offered a fun way to dabble in a rather depressing dualistic future in which you tried to out-build hippies and evil industrialists. If you wanted to use naval units to wage war on your enemies, however, it was not the game to play. Enter Oil Rush, a strategy game that focuses purely on naval warfare in a similar setting and manages to both look and run better than Anno 2070 in the process. Oil Rush (Windows PC [Reviewed], Mac, GNU/Linux) With the Anno 2070 comparison out of the way, Oil Rush is truly its own game and quite a unique one at that. In a world where oil is predominantly sought after by almost all of the surviving human factions, you take on the role of a young commander who uses the precious resource to send countless sailors and pilots to their watery graves. The easiest way to describe Oil Rush might be to imagine a strange crossover between Z, Sins of a Solar Empire, and a pinch of the resource node system of Company of Heroes and Dawn of War II that cuts the map into strategic sectors. So imagine that, but on water. Each map features platforms that either generate oil -- your only resource -- on a regular basis, or pump out units of a certain kind until a platform-specific unit limit is reached. Contrary to most strategy games, the units you create cannot be directly controlled. Once created, they will circle the platform they were spawned from until you move them to another platform. By selecting individual platforms or groups of them, easily done by clicking and holding the mouse button as you move the cursor over the platforms you want, you move all units to strategically important platforms and form a small fleet. Except for the oil rigs and oil storage platforms, every platform can support up to five different turrets to be built around it. Machine gun turrets destroy weaker jet ski units and act as flak cannons when upgraded, artillery turrets counter the more powerful ships, and anti-air does what you'd expect it to do. In most levels in the campaign, the goal is to capture all the platforms on the map. Capturing a platform is as easy as destroying any naval defenders and turrets that surround it, but this is also where things become complicated. Some enemy platforms are well-defended, meaning you will have to move most of your units to one or two platforms and create a force that can deal a forceful blow to punch through, rather than merely tickle, the continuously self-repairing enemy defensive emplacements. Since any unit-producing platform can only create so many units, you inevitably have to leave a few platforms undefended until you have saved up enough oil to build turrets around them. This leads to a fast-paced type of gameplay where you try to amass units quickly, break through defensive units and positions, take over a platform, and immediately focus on dealing with potential enemy counter attacks. Playing through Oil Rush's campaign, you'll constantly find yourself in a position where you need to balance the benefit of sending a large fleet of your units to take over a platform that will give you even more units, with the risk of losing half your fleet and being unable to defend multiple counters by the AI. Because you can't directly control your units, you can't just place them in strategic places to close off paths to your key platforms. They are either en route to another platform, circling a platform, or they can be recalled to the platform they came from. If you ordered them from one place to another and the enemy attacks the platform next to the one they started out from, there is no way to just redirect them to that one platform that is going to come under attack. You could intercept the approaching enemy units by moving another nearby fleet to a platform alongside the enemy's path and sending it away at the right moment, but that takes a great deal of micromanagement. While this can be annoying, it's also a matter of adjusting to the type of gameplay that Oil Rush's design encourages. It takes a few missions to get used to, and a fair amount of instances where whenever you take one platform, the enemy sneakily takes another one. As your oil rigs cannot support turrets, you always need to be on the lookout for enemy movement on the minimap and move units to protect your income before you lose momentum. Meanwhile, destroying more enemies will give you more experience to unlock perks in the tech tree. These upgrades range from increased firepower and armor for your units and turrets, to being able to summon a repair vessel and cast buffs and debuffs on platforms. These "spells" you unlock costs oil to use, though, which forces you to decide between a brief tactical benefit and building or upgrading another turret to help you in the long run. Once you get into the mode of play that Oil Rush expects from you, it's one of the freshest takes on the strategy genre in a while. It also looks far more beautiful that it ought to on my three year old rig, thanks to the relatively unknown Unigine Engine. Supporting DirectX 11, OpenGL 4.0, and all the graphical wizardry you'd expect from an engine like CryEngine 3 or the latest iteration of Unreal Engine 3, the technical skill we've come to expect from Russian programmers is evident in the way the Unigine Engine manages to display impressive graphics at a frame rate I didn't even know my old graphics card could still handle. A side effect of the Russian display of skill is that the game currently has a tendency to crash randomly, sometimes requiring a ctrl-alt-del to get back in control of your desktop. This might be a memory leak issue for the Windows version that hopefully will be patched after launch, but it occurred too many times to ignore. Still, the game boots and loads very fast and auto-saves work well enough to quickly get back to where you crashed. Slightly less worthy of praise than the graphics is how the fast-paced platform-hopping gameplay trains you to keep your eye on the mini-map at tall times. The engine wants you to enjoy your fleet as it majestically cuts through the water to engage the enemy (there is even a dedicated cinematic camera key binding that is explained in the tutorial), but the gameplay encourages you to look at the little map in the bottom-right of the screen. It is in that area that instead of enjoying a graphical showcase of naval power, you watch dots scurry around like ants with you as the hive queen overlord in control of it all. From time to time you'll be tempted to watch the result of sending all your units to attack a well-defended platform, enjoying explosions that shoot out plumes of smoke and send out debris to sink below the surface of the seas. Then you look on the mini-map and see that two of your platforms are about to be overrun while your own units are half a minute away from coming to the rescue. It would also have been nice if you could set rally points for your platforms so that any new units will automatically group up at a staging platform. There are options to send 25%, 50% or 100% of your units when selecting any platform, as well as the option to deselect units you'd like to stay behind regardless of what percentage you are sending away. But if you want to split your fleet in two, you'll have to first click the 50% icon, send the fleet away, and then click the 100% icon again lest you split the remaining 50% of your units in half. Likewise, you can assign any platform or platforms to numeral keys as shortcuts, but it's just far easier to manually click on everything in a micromanagement fashion. For a budget price, Oil Rush offers one of the first strategy surprises of the year. The simple design of hop-skip-jump platform fights hides layers of depths that make it an easy-to-learn, hard-to-master arcade naval warfare experience. However, the true depth and tests of skill are more likely to be found in multiplayer than in the decently sized campaign or the good amount of skirmish maps available to the player -- although the singleplayer components will entertain you for a while. The small team behind the title did a good job creating a story campaign out of the core gameplay, but never hides that Oil Rush feels made for fast-paced multiplayer. Because you may not even have heard of this game until you started reading this review, the availability of online opponents or partners for a team-based match may be a point of concern. Oil Rush did have a pre-order beta that seems to have had a fair amount of interest, but it wouldn't hurt to coax a friend into buying it with you. At the time of writing I was unable to find any online opponents, but it is the type of RTS that will make for quick ten minute rounds and longer drawn-out matches, depending on both your own skill and the skill of your opponent. Currently, the game can only be bought through the UNIGINE Online Store, but you will be allowed to activate your key on Steam and Desura when the game releases on those platforms in a few days. Hopefully the larger presence and easier accessibility will lead to a larger online playerbase as well. What could have been a messy title merely created to showcase the Unigine Engine has turned out to be a surprisingly polished and deep strategy game. Oil Rush isn't just a joy to behold in action, but manages to make an old genre feel fresh while looking the part. |
| Resident Evil 6: Hoping for evolution, fearing conformity Posted: 25 Jan 2012 08:00 AM PST When Resident Evil first hit, it was like nothing the home console market had ever seen. George Romero-style zombies in a videogame? Cinematic camera angles? Finite ammo and health? Constantly being forced to choose between fighting and fleeing from your enemies, without ever being sure which path is best? An overarching theme of distrust and claustrophobic entrapment? Sure, some of those design choices had leaked their way into Alone in the Dark and a few other previously released titles, but Resident Evil was the first game to stir all those ingredients together and plop them into the laps of an eager audience starving to experience something new. As the series has moved forward, it has taken equal steps towards evolving its unique voice and conforming that sound to the ever changing preferences of the gaming world. With Resident Evil 2, auto-aim was introduced, making the player feel more empowered (and therefore, less scared). In turn, the game also introduced a nearly indestructible monster that would stalk you no matter where you ran, making the player feel constantly endangered (and therefore, more scared). Overall, the balance between evolution and conformity felt right, so the series never lost its original vision of a "world of survival horror." With Resident Evil 6, I'm worried that the series might finally lose that vision. Remember when Kiss recorded this song? I'm really hoping Resident Evil 6 doesn't turn out like that. Most of that worry comes from how Resident Evil 5 turned out. That game was overflowing with attempts to conform to modern "AAA" standards, exemplified by its welcoming difficulty, forced co-op play, a general aesthetic adhering to the action movie "blockbuster" style, and many other out-of-character traits. While RE5 suffered in the eyes of many fans due to these concessions, it certainly didn't hurt its sales -- it's currently the best-selling title in the series. It stands to reason that RE6 might go even farther in that direction, and the game's initial trailer doesn't tell us enough to be sure either way. There are a lot things about the RE6 trailer that have me concerned. If two-player co-op in made RE5 less scary, I can only image what six-player co-op will do. There is also a lot of Uncharted-style, action movie fun that doesn't seem too scary. All that could still work in the "Resident Evil" way, as what's really important to me is that the series sticks to the philosophy on limitations that have defined it from the start. The occasional peeks at moving-and-shooting coupled with the superhuman, slide-on-your-knees dual wielding action doesn't have me feeling too hopeful. Maybe that stuff wont be as "wrong" as it seems -- they could be from QTEs or cutscenes, or they might not even make it into the final version of the game at all. If that's not the case, my current cautious optimism for the game is going to take quite a beating. I'm sure a lot of people are loving the trailer, though. So many gamers today seem obsessed with the idea that every game should offer as few limits as possible. It's an understandable way of thinking, but in the end, it's totally self-defeating. Not only would removing all limits result in every game's playing exactly the same way, it would also result in the game designers' presenting nearly no original ideas of their own. Game design is the design of limits. These limits are in place to give players a direction to seek rewards and avoid danger. A game designer's job is to devise limits, rewards, and threats that force players to make (hopefully) interesting choices. For instance, in Pac-Man, you can't eat ghosts whenever you want. You can only eat ghosts for a limited time after you've consumed a power pellet tucked away in a corner of the board where it is most easy to become trapped. That's basically the essence of Pac-Man. Okay, let's talk about Pac-Man for a while. Over Pac-Man's history, there have been attempts to alter this design to help to cater to changing standards. For instance, in Pac-Mania, Pac-Man can jump over ghosts, giving the player a constant sense of empowerment over his enemies. Sadly, that level of empowerment only made the game more dull by requiring less interesting or exciting player choices. Empowerment is almost always fun for the first few seconds you experience it, but after that, you take it for granted. Then the dullness sets in. More recent titles like Pac-Man Championship Edition and Pac-Man Championship Edition DX have been anything but dull, largely in part because they made little effort to conform to what gamers think they want. Instead, they maxed out on the traits that made Pac-Man what it is: getting in as dangerous a situation as you can for as long as you can, with as many ghosts chasing you as possible, then eating the power pellet and turning the tables on them at the very last possible second. All the limits, punishments, and rewards in those two games are rooted in the old Pac-Man principals, only turned up to 11. Even the aesthetics of the games are like Pac-Man on steroids. They are the Pac-Manliest Pac-Mans ever Pac-Manned. Resident Evil actually isn't that different from Pac-Man in an abstract sense. With Resident Evil, the limits, punishments, and rewards have traditionally been focused on making the player feel disempowered, limited, claustrophobic, outnumbered, and conflicted between their own fight or flight instincts. Pac-Man's central conflict -- should I run and stay safe or grab a power pellet, turn, and fight? -- is the same as Resident Evil's. They both force the player to constantly make difficult, dangerous choices that may end in entrapment, loss, and death. The difference is that Pac-Man is fast-paced and sugar-coated while Resident Evil is slow, plodding, and creepy. While Pac-Man is pure survival, Resident Evil is true survival horror. What exactly is survival horror? To me, it's basically horror Pac-Man. As in Pac-Man, Resident Evil forces the player to constantly question the best method for survival. "Do I stop moving so that I may defend myself from incoming enemies that can only harm me at close range, or do I continue moving, keeping my distance from my enemies but doing nothing to thin out the horde?" The horror derives from the elements added to the equation that are meant to constantly tear at the player's sense of control and safety, be they graphics, sound, controls, narrative, etc. That formula has so many potential variables and applications that it has been able to sustain the series for over 10 years, despite consistently dumb stories, an arguably stale premise, and ever-growing competition in the "zombie" market. That said, that series has required revitalization over the years. Thankfully, game design genius Shinji Mikami was there to make that happen. Resident Evil 4 took the series' signature design choices and extrapolated them with incredible results. The game not only asked you to stop and shoot, but it took auto aim away, forcing you to stop and carefully aim a laser pointer at incoming enemies, giving even greater potential rewards (more accurate hits) and risks (greater likelihood of missing). You have to battle against groups of enemies that are potentially powerful enough to kill you in one hit and are smart enough to surround you and/or move out of the way of your attacks. Mikami also moved the camera to behind the back, making it easier to be surrounded and all the more tempting to run in fear. That's just the tip of the iceberg of what it did to bring Resident Evil to its fullest evolutionary level. To me, the true stroke of genius in RE4 is the way it rewards the player for doing exactly what the series had trained us to NEVER DO. If you hit enemies in one of their harder-to-pinpoint areas (head or knee), they will become stunned. This gives you a few seconds to close the distance between you and them (effectively rejecting all your instincts to run and hide) then hit them with a powerful melee attack, scoring more damage and potentially smacking other surrounding enemies around in the process. It's basically the Pac-Man power pellet of Resident Evil. Just as this is the basic mechanic that made Pac-Man so compelling for 30+ years, it's also the reason why so many people can play RE4 and all the games that have followed for years without ever getting sick of them. The constant risks and rewards that they offer are pretty much endless. This mechanic simply would not work if you could run at full speed and shoot at the same time. The whole idea revolves around the fact that you are making yourself vulnerable in the act of running towards the enemy that you were previously trying to keep far away from you. What if you could keep them far away from you at all times by walking backward and shooting? What if you could run towards them and shoot them in the face at the same time? What was previously a stroke of genius in design has just turned into a game about leisurely dispatching nearly defenseless enemies in just about any way you choose. Besides, people already have the option to not one but two Resident Evil games that allow you to do that. Resident Evil: Revelations is largely a traditional Resident Evil experience, but it does allow for some limited movement while having your gun drawn -- if you dig into the options menu, you can enable this ability. It's still pretty disempowering, as your aim is controlled by the 3DS' gyroscope, but still, the option is there if you want it. Then there is Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City, which plays like a fully featured, co-op-focused, war-styled shooter that allows you to run your ass off at full speed while simultaneously firing in all directions. You can even hug zombies in the game! It doesn't get much more empowering than that. So for those of you who want that kind of Resident Evil experience, you've got it. Can't we leave the "real" Resident Evil games -- the numbered entries in the series -- to stay true to what made the series great in the first place? Wouldn't it feel more appropriate for RE6 to instead evolve that survival horror science by offering even greater rewards for putting yourself in danger and even more detriments for playing it safe? What if you had to rush through a crowded mass of human NPCs only to find that there are zombies in the crowd, ensuring that you'll never know where the threat lies amidst the deafening crows, forcing you to risk harming civilians in your attempts to dispatch the infected? What if you had... I wish I could come up with more (and better) ideas than that, but most of them have already been done in the series at some point or another (RE3, REmake, and RE5: Lost in Nightmares had some particularly amazing new ideas). I don't claim to be a great game designer, but I do know that a bright and sunny, co-op-focused, adventure movie-styled, run-and-gun shooter doesn't sound anything like a Resident Evil game to me. Pac-Man didn't need a jump button. Sonic the Hedgehog (or more specifically, his grumpy doppelganger Shadow) didn't need a gun. Street Fighter didn't need fatalities. Jennifer Grey did not need a nose job. Resident Evil does not need run, aim, and shoot controls and action movie pomp. I'm all for evolving the series; what I don't want is for evolution to compromise its identity in order to fit the arbitrary standards of gamers who believe that any game that doesn't make them feel instantly empowered has "broken controls" and "artificial difficulty." There is nothing "broken" about controls that are highly effective at presenting choices to the player that will consistently evoke intense emotions. In my book, that's the definition of "brilliant" controls. There is also nothing "artificial" about the difficulty presented by a game that challenges you to resist your own natural survival instincts and make nail-biting, dangerous decisions in order to persevere through what feels like impossible odds. In fact, that's my definition of "real" difficulty. These are the things that mean "Resident Evil" to me. Without them, a game would be Resident Evil in name only. If that happens with Resident Evil 6, it may be the end for my long love affair with the series. |
| Enjoy old-school delights with the Mutant Mudds OST Posted: 25 Jan 2012 07:30 AM PST You read my Mutant Mudds review, right? It's a pretty good game. You might want to get your money ready for when it goes up on the eShop tomorrow. In the meantime, anybody up for grabbing the soundtrack? I only lightly touched upon the music in the review's closing paragraphs, but rest assured that it is every bit as tight and pleasant as the game itself. You have musician Troupe Gammage to thank for this collection of retro-flavored soda pop. It carries an open price tag, so grab it in preparation for the full game's release. After the jump, I've embedded one of the themes heard in the sky world. Light and airy, it's my favorite song on the album. Mutant Mudds OST [Bandcamp]
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| Riders of Rohan expansion coming to LOTRO Posted: 25 Jan 2012 06:30 AM PST If you were impressed by Lord of the Rings Online's last expansion, Rise of Isengard, then you're in for a real treat! A new expansion, titled Riders of Rohan, is set to release in the fall of this year. Turbine claims that this new expansion is expected to be twice the size of Rise of Isengard. There are two major content updates included:
It does seem like a good chunk of content is coming to the free-to-play MMO. No word yet on pricing or exact date, but we'll be sure to keep you updated. |
| Posted: 25 Jan 2012 06:00 AM PST Renegade Kid does not give up easily. The developer's latest title, Mutant Mudds, had a long, rough journey, first as a polygonal third-person shooter for the DS that never found a publisher and then as a DSiWare hopeful that likewise never garnered enough support. Only when Renegade Kid returned to the drawing board and remade Mutant Mudds as a basic 2D platformer for the eShop did the game get greenlit. When I say "basic," I mean basic. It is not innovative at all. The hero is not gaming's next major icon. His weapon couldn't be any more utilitarian. The platforming couldn't be any more straightforward. There are no sudden play style departures. It is, in every sense of the word, archaic. Why should you play Mutant Mudds? Because it's a damn fine game. Mutant Mudds (Nintendo eShop) A quick glance at Mutant Mudds and you instantly think "retro." It would be easy to dismiss the game as trying to capitalize on nostalgia, but that isn't its goal. It doesn't just look retro, it is retro. This isn't a bad thing, because it allows the game to stand on its own merits without relying on gaudy presentation or cheap gimmicks. You play as a young boy named Max as he tries to save the world from the titular aliens with nothing but a water cannon and a jet pack. You enter a stage, jump over pits of spikes, pick off a few baddies, collect some diamonds, reach the goal, then move on to the next stage. This is the routine; it never changes. How can a game with rarely threatening enemies and an entry-level assortment of floating platforms and lava pits possibly succeed? By ensuring that those barest of platforming challenges are as tight as they can possibly be. It literally cannot rely on anything else, so its success hinges entirely on how well Renegade Kid has mastered base platforming mechanics. Mutant Mudds nails them big time. The challenge curve is spot on -- the pattern of platforms and hazards is mixed up just enough from level to level that you never feel mentally unprepared. It's plain ol' satisfying -- there is no way else to describe it. Though the adventure can be challenging, it is never frustrating. Mutant Mudds is a fair game. With the exception of a single stage, there are no instances of blind jumps, near-unavoidable obstacles, or demands of pixel-perfect accuracy. Every hurdle lies in plain sight, allowing you to devise a strategy that best suits you. When you die, it will be because you were less than careful. The "retro" ideal is demonstrated not by cheap deaths or game-length padding but by pure platforming goodness. The one allowance that Mutant Mudds makes in regards to gimmicky tomfoolery is the oft-touted plane traversal. When Max jumps off special pads, he is launched either into the distance or towards the screen. By populating the fore, middle, and backgrounds, the game is able to pack more action per level than it would if you were merely running from left to right. Because of how basic the sprites and environment appear, it can sometimes be difficult in 2D mode to determine on what plane an object sits. With the 3D effect activated, the confusion is erased. And because the art is so basic, the game is especially easy on the eyes for any length of time. I had previously complained that art of Mighty Switch Force was so complex that the 3D had the adverse effect of actually breaking the illusion of depth. Here, there is no such issue. Within each of the 20 main stages is a door that you typically can't access until you collect enough diamonds to unlock gun and jet pack upgrades. These doors take you to secret challenge levels sporting color schemes reminiscent of Game Boy and Virtual Boy software. Yes, I said Virtual Boy. Though we may try to suppress the memory of Gunpei Yokoi's failed "portable," it's nonetheless an important milestone in Nintendo's 3D gaming development. At least it gave us the stellar VB Wario Land, which obviously served as an inspiration for Mutant Mudds. There really isn't anything to hate about this game. Even the chiptune soundtrack is delightfully peppy and infectious from beginning to end, though I wish there was slightly more thematic variety from one world to the next. I guess that's not much of a complaint, is it? If I had to mark Mutant Mudds down for anything, it would be because of the same simplicity that makes it so refreshing. Had this game appeared over two decades, I guarantee it wouldn't have made any waves. It would have been viewed as another bare-bones platformer in a sea of me-too software. But it wasn't released over two decades ago. It's out now, during an era when developers regularly invest so much time and effort into flash and presentation that the core mechanics often suffer due to negligence. It's a game that came out at the right time and said, "I don't care about being the best dressed dude at the party! I just want to dance!" You have to respect that attitude. Mutant Mudds is platforming distilled to its essence. It cuts the fat in order to deliver a pure, satisfying experience. More than anything, it demonstrates that "retro" should not just be pixel graphics and chiptunes but rather a thorough understanding of the basics that made a genre popular in the first place. |
| Death is EVERYWHERE in this terrifying Darksiders II vid Posted: 25 Jan 2012 05:30 AM PST
Yesterday, THQ released a new trailer for Darksiders II, showcasing Death's presence and influence throughout human history. A few people thought that the trailer was funny, since Death's mask had been stuck onto a bunch of pictures to make them look silly. Those people were wrong, and this new, alternate take on the trailer show you just how epic the concept is. Death's iconic mask makes everything terrifying, as this horrific, ambitious, epic new video shall demonstrate. |
| The Destructoid Show LIVE in San Francisco on February 3! Posted: 25 Jan 2012 05:00 AM PST It seems like only a year ago we were stumbling over our words and wiping the sweat off our palms in preparation for our very first live Destructoid Show... and now, almost exactly a year later, we'll be hosting our first ever taping in front of a LIVE audience. Just typing that word brings a bead of sweat to my neck. On Friday February 3rd, Revision3 will be taking over the Vita Hill Social Club in downtown San Francisco for a local meet-up, where Max and I will be hosting an hour-long taping of The Destructoid Show with special guest appearances from other Revision3 shows like New Challenger, Tekzilla, and AppJudgment. Any and all Destructoid community members in the Bay Area are encouraged to join, as there will be plenty of non-alcoholic beverages and high-fives to go around! This event is open to all ages. Doors will open at 3pm and taping will begin at 4pm. We have the venue until 7pm, so attendees will have plenty of time to socialize and try out the latest Vita games. Those of you 21+ are also welcome to join us at a local bar after the event. Hope to see you all there! |
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