New Games |
- 100-year-old lady rocks the Nintendo DS
- Star Trek Online turns 2, offers you the next Enterprise
- Valve announces updates for Team Fortress 2 in 2012
- Benefits of subscribing to Wakfu outlined
- The Warhammer 40,000 games are 66% off on Steam
- 7th Guest and 11th Hour coming to Good Old Games
- This is the only way a sequel to Snake could work
- Live show: Bonk's Adventure on Mash Tactics
- Review: Double Fine Happy Action Theater
- Offspring Fling is all about throwing babies
- 'Epic Quest' brings XP and loot to Pinball FX 2
- The Destructoid Show LIVE in San Francisco TOMORROW!
- Atlus testing the waters for Radiant Historia reprint
- Nintendo DLC: Sakura Samurai, Undead Storm, more
- Trials Evolution will be out this spring, looks great
- PSN to get first Call of Duty Elite maps on February 28
- Where's the beef? Let me show you it
- Mass Effect 3 demo to include temporary Live access
- Lumines Electronic Symphony's full track list
| 100-year-old lady rocks the Nintendo DS Posted: 02 Feb 2012 03:00 PM PST You go, granny! Kit Connell is 100 years old -- at that age, it's fairly likely that your mind will start to fade. Kit isn't having any of that, so she stays sharp by playing on a Nintendo DS that her daughter bought for her. And boy, does she get in the mood! She gets nice and cozy, has a nice cup of tea, and hops right into a game. Her catalog consists of the brain training / board game fare that you'd expect a sweet old lady to be into, with a little bit of Art Academy thrown in for good measure. Still, how often do you see a friggin' 100-year-old women making time each day for some Nintendo? She ends her interview by saying all children should be using the DS in school. I know she intends for the more educational software to be used, but I heard "videogames in the classroom"! She's alright by me! |
| Star Trek Online turns 2, offers you the next Enterprise Posted: 02 Feb 2012 01:30 PM PST Yeah, you read that right, nerds: The next starship Enterprise (registry code NCC-1701-F). Well, not the Enterprise itself, but an Odyssey-class Federation cruiser, the same model as the Enterprise-F. Players who show up at Star Trek Online's 2nd Anniversary celebration, an event running from today through February 6th, can undertake a special mission that will reward them with the ship. Klingon faction players can do a similar mission to score a Bortas-class battlecruiser, a ship that, from the screenshot below, looks a heck of a lot like the Terran battlecruiser of Starcraft. Veteran players need not worry about seeing newbs running around in super-starships, though, as the virtual gift boxes that contain the ships cannot be opened until the character that received them reaches Vice Admiral rank (level 50). There you go, new players. It's a goal for you to phaser your way towards! Fun fact: Data commands the U.S.S. Enterprise-F in Star Trek Online's alternate future timeline! Season 5 Dev Diary #12 [Star Trek Online] |
| Valve announces updates for Team Fortress 2 in 2012 Posted: 02 Feb 2012 12:30 PM PST If you thought Valve was simply going to put Team Fortress 2 out to the free-to-play ranch in 2012, then think again. A new blog post has announced a wealth of new content coming this year including the last "Meet The..." video in the series for the Pyro. Will we finally have the Pryo's gender confirmed? My bet is on Valve pulling a neat swerve on the issue just to confound us even more. Also announced is the new Steam Workshop blog that allows players to keep up with all the new developments in the Mann Co. Store. Then there's the 2012 Saxxy Awards where we'll see some great replays that will make me jealous of my lacking TF2 skills. The final announcement is maybe the most interesting because it's the one we know the least about. Valve is teasing a secret TF2 project, which is probably not the "un-Godly map/hat hybrid" they talk about in the post. Will TF2 have a new play mode? New characters? Some new ultra-free-to-play mode where Valve pays you to play TF2?!? Speculate ... NOW! |
| Benefits of subscribing to Wakfu outlined Posted: 02 Feb 2012 11:30 AM PST Wafu, currently in open beta, has come out and told us exactly why we should subscribe to the game. When it launches on February 29th, it will have to levels of membership: free and premium. From the looks of it, you'll want to shell out the $6.00 a month if you want the real experience. Oh, and if you subscribe before February 27th, you can get some pioneer clothes. So yeah, there's that. Premium membership imposes no restrictions on the player, so you're free to be and go where you want. On the flip side, the free version seems somewhat lackluster -- some of the key features like the ecosystem and government mechanics are locked out. I've played the beta for an admittedly small amount of time, but so far I'm quite enjoying myself. I'm a huge SRPG fan and Wakfu has done a great job of blending the fighting mechanic into the open MMO world. It doesn't feel forced and battles flow pretty naturally. I'm also looking forward to getting more involved in the politics of the game to see if they actually work like I want them to.
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| The Warhammer 40,000 games are 66% off on Steam Posted: 02 Feb 2012 11:00 AM PST It's Warhammer Weekend over on Steam which means games like Space Marine, Dawn of War, Dawn of War II, and the obligatory expansions are 66% off. I'm not sure if that's enough of a discount to grab those of you who have been holding out for so long, but I hope so. As a part of this promotion, Dawn of War II: Retribution's multiplayer is playable for free. Though I could never get into it on the same level as Last Stand mode or the campaigns, you can't argue with the price. Strongly consider leaving your comfort zone with one of these titles if they're all new to you. |
| 7th Guest and 11th Hour coming to Good Old Games Posted: 02 Feb 2012 10:30 AM PST I hope your nostalgia for FMV titles is still strong because Good Old Games has added to its recent run of new titles with the announcement of the early 1990's classics 7th Guest and 11th Hour, both of which are coming soon for $9.99 each. 7th Guest and 11th Hour were set in the decrepit and haunted mansion owned by toy maker Herny Stauf, as players tried to decipher the mysteries contained within. 7th Guest was so popular it sold 2 million copies in 1993 and help popularize the CD-ROM for home PC gamers. I missed out on both of these games due to the fact that my dad's chunky work laptop, which I used for my early PC gaming, didn't actually have a CD-ROM drive. It may seem strange but there was a time when pre-rendered graphics weren't commonplace -- neither were full motion video or a live orchestrated score. I think it would be interesting to see both of these games for the first time with past 20 years of gaming in mind. |
| This is the only way a sequel to Snake could work Posted: 02 Feb 2012 10:00 AM PST Everybody knows Snake. It has assumed many forms, has appeared on every platform from cell phones to friggin' Gmail. It's a videogame constant like Minesweeper -- it just is. Isn't it about time the formula was shaken up a bit? During last week's Global Game Jam, where small groups of developers whip up complete videogames in under 48 hours, a team consisting of Sebastian Janisz, James Montagna, Liana Sposto, Elliot Trinidad, and Jake "virt" Kaufman pooled their individual talents to create #Snake2. In this much-needed sequel, the titular snake takes to the skies, has a human hand attached to its tail, smashes through buildings, wields a machine gun, and battles a giant Butt King that fires shurikens and lasers from its anus. Naturally. If you want to take #Snake2 for a spin, and I know you do, you can download it from the link below. |
| Live show: Bonk's Adventure on Mash Tactics Posted: 02 Feb 2012 09:30 AM PST Thursdays on Mash Tactics are now 'Throwback Thursdays'. Each week, King Foom will choose one retro game to play through, starting with Bonk's Adventure for the TurboGrafx-16. This journey will pit Foom against the evil King Drool, equipped with the caveboy strength of the titular Bonk. Tune in and see this throwback gem for yourself. Mash Tactics airs Monday through Friday at 4p.m. Pacific on Destructoid's Twitch TV channel. Watch King Foom play a variety of games, each day with its own theme. With a heavy focus on community and viewer interaction, you can be as much a part of the show as anything else.
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| Review: Double Fine Happy Action Theater Posted: 02 Feb 2012 09:00 AM PST Double Fine did a terrific job with Sesame Street: Once Upon a Monster -- so much so, that I couldn't help but be jealous that kids were getting such well-designed Kinect games. For all of the millions of people who own the device, and given the technology powering it, the overall software quality is decidedly not where it ought to be. At the same time, I have to be thankful for developers who want to make games for children and take the job as seriously as any other big-name project. With Happy Action Theater, Double Fine is once again using Kinect to target a younger audience. This time, however, there's some room for us too. Double Fine Happy Action Theater (Xbox Live Arcade) Double Fine Happy Action Theater has more in common with an augmented-reality playground than what many of you would likely define as a strict "game." It's made up of 18 activities, which range from lava you can roll around in (YES!) to a Breakout-style level to a black-and-white scene that could be straight out of Godzilla. What first grabbed my attention was that you're launched straight into the action. By default, "Director Mode" is on, meaning the on-screen activities are cycled through automatically every so often. In other words, parents can totally start the game up and let their children go wild without assistance. Should you have a specific activity in mind, you can either press the start button on a controller or do the standard left-arm-out pose to land on an interactive level-select menu. While in an activity, you can also use a controller to manually skip to the next one. As far as navigation is concerned, they nailed it. It's both intuitive and unobtrusive. As tends to be the case with games that bundle together many self-contained experiences, some are far better than others. Though a few of the activities in Happy Action Theater tread over similar ground -- throwing seeds for pigeons and planting flowers is essentially executed in the same way, for example -- there's more good than bad here. My personal favorites are the aforementioned lava sequence, a disco club where your body is distorted and hops about sporadically, and the silly thing pictured above. In it, your photo gets taken, then you're allowed to move to a different position (while your clone remains stationary) and more photos ensue. Some dude is going to use this to hug himself and make a "forever alone" joke, just wait. Even the less enjoyable activities are still entertaining. For instance, one of them puts you inside of a jelly dessert. That's it! You wiggle around and laugh about the insanity unfolding on your television. Replay value is definitely a valid concern -- less so for younger kids. I wouldn't go in expecting to get more than a few hours of fun out of this, personally. The fact that up to six players can join in with practically no barriers to entry outside of turning on the Xbox 360 and booting the game up shows who the target audience is here. None of the activities are particularly inventive, but I also wouldn't go so far to say they're boring, either. Enough of them are interesting that you probably won't regret buying Happy Action Theater for yourself. On the other hand, it should prove to be sufficiently engaging for kids (and kid-like adults, particularly when alcohol is in the room). |
| Offspring Fling is all about throwing babies Posted: 02 Feb 2012 08:30 AM PST
Do you guys remember playing Depict1 on Newgrounds? It was a puzzle platformer that fed you inaccurate instructions, so you had to ignore those directions in order to clear the game. It was made by indie developer Kyle Pulver, and now he's back with a game about child abuse. Okay, not really. Offspring Fling is the touching tale of a mother bunny-chicken thing on a quest to rescue her children. She does this by picking the kids up... and throwing them across the screen. Okay, so maybe it is about child abuse, but the mother means well! Honest! The full game, which contains over 100 levels of baby pinball, will be available soon on PC and Mac. It's about throwing babies. Sounds like a winner to me. |
| 'Epic Quest' brings XP and loot to Pinball FX 2 Posted: 02 Feb 2012 08:00 AM PST
"Epic Quest" is next for Zen Studios, and it sounds effing awesome. It's an add-on table coming to Pinball FX 2 (Xbox 360) and Zen Pinball (PlayStation 3, Android, and iOS) this February complete with persistent loot and experience points. This is one of the few tables outside of those based on Marvel properties that genuinely interests me. Zen Studios VP of marketing and PR Mel Kirk sums it up: "With a wink and a nudge towards classic RPG tropes, Epic Quest blends frantic pinball action, obsessive character building, and liberally applied tongue-in-cheek humor." If for whatever reason you can't watch the trailer, Zen has provided us with more than enough screenshots. |
| The Destructoid Show LIVE in San Francisco TOMORROW! Posted: 02 Feb 2012 07:45 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! |
| Atlus testing the waters for Radiant Historia reprint Posted: 02 Feb 2012 07:30 AM PST Radiant Historia may be a great game, but is it worth a hundred dollars? The market seems to think so. After going out of print the price of a used copy has ballooned to upwards of $75, with new ones going for at least twice that amount. One of Amazon's more opportunistic highwaymen has the gall to charge a thousand bones for a sealed copy, if you can believe it. If you missed out on the time-traveling JRPG and aren't bursting at the seems with cash, you might just be in luck. Atlus asked fans via Facebook and Twitter if they'd be willing to purchase the game should it ever receive a second printing. Can I just say, as someone who doesn't have an orchard of money trees growing in the backyard, yes please! Take our money and rescue us from those evil supply and demand curves. Anyone Want To Buy Radiant Historia For Under $100? [Siliconera] |
| Nintendo DLC: Sakura Samurai, Undead Storm, more Posted: 02 Feb 2012 07:00 AM PST The eShop is keeping up its momentum with another very promising game, Sakura Samurai: Art of the Sword ($6.99). You might know it by a slightly different name, but it should look familiar. I'll be blind buying it the second I can break away from Zen Pinball 3D. Also out today is GO Series: Undead Storm ($1.99) for DSiWare and the eShop. WiiWare has another Carmen Sandiego game with a humorously long title, Carmen Sandiego Adventures in Math: The Great Gateway Grab (600 Wii Points), and 3DS owners can download a video for "Drown in the Now" by The Crystal Method beginning tomorrow. Huh? |
| Trials Evolution will be out this spring, looks great Posted: 02 Feb 2012 06:30 AM PST
"People have wanted to know the release date for a long time now," says RedLynx creative director Antti Ilvessuo. "They have been poking me on Twitter, calling my cell phone, even following me on the metro! Now I can finally tell them when -- it's spring! Spring is almost here, and so is Trials Evolution!" I may or may not have been the creeper on the metro. But can you blame me? This latest trailer overviews what's new in Trials Evolution, and whenever the game ultimately releases won't be soon enough. Be sure to stay for the pinball table, shmup, and first-person shooter near the end. |
| PSN to get first Call of Duty Elite maps on February 28 Posted: 02 Feb 2012 05:30 AM PST Premium Call of Duty Elite members on Xbox Live have had access to the first two Modern Warfare 3 maps of the Content Season for more than a week now. Today, Activision has announced when "Liberation" and "Piazza" will make it to PlayStation Network: February 28. That's unfortunate. If I were a premium subscriber, it'd be to get this early access to downloadable content, not to see stat-tracking or anything else being offered. For some of you, it's not a hypothetical situation. Is this enough to make you cancel your membership? |
| Where's the beef? Let me show you it Posted: 02 Feb 2012 05:15 AM PST This week Destructoid is sponsored in part by Wendy's, who revived their classic "Where's the Beef?" campaign with a T-Shirt making contest that can land one lucky winner $5,000. Don't vote for mine (pictured above). Vote for someone with a serious student loan or someone who will pledge their winnings to Child's Play. You can be a hero! Also, go buy some square-shaped hamburgers so we can keep the lights on. Were any of you even born when this commercial was airing? Speaking of feisty old people, I'll share an old story. Back when I covered the news beat at Destructoid, one of my favorite things to do was grill industry juggernauts for saying incredibly stupid things they'd soon regret like this quote by walking legend Nolan Bushnell, creator of Atari and Chuck-e-Cheese, extolling that "Video games today are a race to the bottom. They are pure, unadulterated trash and I'm sad for that." Free facepalms for everyone from the father of videogames! I think it's safe to say that's perhaps a more fitting description of Atari's portfolio that calendar year. Mr. Bushnell has long since redeemed himself ten times over, and I think most of us will agree that there's never been a better time for videogames than today. Still, there's just something about those classic games that make us retro-loving old-timers say the darndest things. Still, a small part of me agrees with Mr. Bushnell's bold sentiment. You'll cry yourself to sleep tonight when I remind you that last year's best-selling UK title was Zumba Fitness, not the brilliant Super Mario Rehash 5000 or Zelda: Cool Sky Story Bro. Still, breakout titles like Minecraft, Katamari Damacy, and Angry Birds prove that "the hook" of a pure and fun game can outsell a mass-market budgeted copycat production. It's a reminder that classic games weren't just greatly designed. They were first and unique, and our insatiable appetites for something new is what makes us love and remember those oldies. Classics like Frogger, Donkey Kong, and Space Invaders would seed countless sequels and clones. These games were mind-blowing at the time, but more importantly they were first to deliver a unique gameplay experience you couldn't buy anywhere else. Even the best-selling Wii titles of today aren't sequels: they're games that exploit new gameplay mechanics. Today's jaded gamer can choose a thousand titles exploiting the same root game mechanic, and that is kind of sad. Perhaps the next time I sit down with another game design team whose working another World War II shooter or better-than-Warcraft hopeful, I should just interject: "Stop! It's been done! Where's the beef?"
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Sponsored by Wendy's. Design your own Wendy's(R) Tee on Facebook for a chance to win $5,000! +Amount pertaining to cash prize only **T-shirts sold by Homage LLC under license from Wendy's International Inc. $4.25 of each Wendys Threads t-shirt sold through 3/31/12 will be donated to Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption. |
| Mass Effect 3 demo to include temporary Live access Posted: 02 Feb 2012 05:00 AM PST As many of you may know, Mass Effect 3 is including a multiplayer component, and the demo for said component is set to hit February 14th. Fortunately for people who refuse to pay for Xbox Live, Microsoft is launching a joint promotion with BioWare, allowing everyone to join in on the fun for a "limited time" with Xbox Live Gold access. According to an ambiguous post from Bioware's forums, this temporary deal may also include all Xbox Live Gold benefits, from Gold sales to Netflix/Hulu Plus access -- provided that you download the demo. Details regarding when the actual window of opportunity will take place are coming soon, but if the promotion runs from the date of the demo until the March 6th retail release for Mass Effect 3, that'll be twenty one days of free Xbox Live. If you're wondering "what about the PS3 demo?!" -- well, that's coming February 14th too, and as always, online play is free on the PSN. Ok BioWare, so this deal sounds pretty sweet -- now just give me some actual ME3 Tali pics and no one will get hurt. Mass Effect 3 demo and Xbox Live update [BioWare] |
| Lumines Electronic Symphony's full track list Posted: 02 Feb 2012 04:30 AM PST Q Entertainment has divulged the full track list for Lumines Electronic Symphony. There are 33 songs in total (34 if you count what's played during the credits) including names like The Chemical Brothers, Kaskade, Aphex Twin, Ken Ishii, and even Pet Shop Boys. I'm not familiar with many of the artists, but for a game like Lumines, that's the way I want it to be. I have faith in the people in charge of selecting the music and would rather be introduced to new songs than hear the same beloved ones over and over again. • “4 AM” – Kaskade |
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