New Games |
- Scarface is the highlight of these Arkham City figures
- Rhythm Heaven Fever special edition unboxing
- FFXIII-2 levels up, equips Facebook
- Test Drive: Ferrari Racing Legends gearing up for spring
- PS Vita now playable at over 3,300 GameStop locations
- Recap: 1st Annual NY Videogame Critics Circle Awards
- This weekend on Twitch TV: Sup' Holmes?
- Xbox 360 is now the top-selling console worldwide
- LOL SPORTS: Why I don't like sports games anymore
- Friday Night Fights: The Simmmpsonnnnns
- Game changer: NPD to receive Walmart sales data
- Madden NFL 13 cover opened up to 64-player fan vote
- This is exactly how you're supposed to play Saints Row 3
- Here's the arcade opening for Persona 4: The Ultimate
- Review: The Simpsons Arcade Game
- Wow: Check out these Gravity Daze whiteboard drawings
- Dance Central 2 Facebook app lets you track your scores
- The Last of Us takes place in Pittsburgh
| Scarface is the highlight of these Arkham City figures Posted: 03 Feb 2012 02:00 PM PST Metal Gear Solid isn't the only series getting some action figure love from Square Enix. The Rocksteady Batman games are also marching in the Play Arts Kai toy line parade. To celebrate the recent release of Arkham City, Batman and Joker figures made their debut. Next in the set comes a battle armor Batman and Harley Quinn -- you can check out their action poses in the gallery below. The battle armor Batman reminds me of those goofy action figure-exclusive costumes that manufacturers concocted to sell more merch, a sentiment share by Jonathan Tubbs of Tomopop. Then there's Harley, looking positively slutty. Her original skin-tight spandex suit from The Animated Series was a lot sexier, I think. But never mind that! There's one more character rounding out the lot -- Scarface! Scarface has always been one of my favorite Batman villains. The manifestation of a psycho ventriloquist's id inside a puppet modeled after Al Capone? Brilliant! The regular Batman and Joker go for $59.99 each, and I assume the next figures will run similarly (Scarface comes bundled with Harley) once they're released in May. That may sound like a lot of cheddar, but Scarface is worth it. Batman and Harley Quinn admitted to Play Arts Kai [Tomopop] |
| Rhythm Heaven Fever special edition unboxing Posted: 03 Feb 2012 11:00 AM PST
Did you know that Rhythm Heaven Fever was getting a special edition? Neither did I. Then I got this box in the mail this morning. I'm pretty sure that this special edition won't be sold in stores, but if Nintendo decides to change its mind on that, they're sure to make a killing when the game hits stores on February 13th. Check out the video and you'll understand what I mean. |
| FFXIII-2 levels up, equips Facebook Posted: 03 Feb 2012 10:30 AM PST In a bizarre twist of events, Final Fantasy XIII-2 is getting Facebook support. By inputting your social network credentials in the game's settings, you'll be able to update your friends on your party structure, story progress, and other useless statistics. Does anyone else think this is kind of backwards? Personally, I think this idea is far better suited for leaderboards. I like the idea of in-game information staying in-game, and not having to use an additional step to compare stats. It's much more convenient to see how my friends are doing by using a simple seamless menu while playing, than it is to leave my console and go check a third party website to see what my friends are up to. But hey, at least it's better than Final Fantasy's other "2", which only really offered super stylish outfits. For more information, check out the official press release after the break.
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| Test Drive: Ferrari Racing Legends gearing up for spring Posted: 03 Feb 2012 10:00 AM PST The Ferrari fanatics in attendance will want to keep an eye on Test Drive: Ferrari Racing Legends. The game revolves around this single brand and is due out on PC, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360 in spring 2012. What got me to take a serious look was finding out who's developing it: Slightly Mad Studios. Formula 1, GT, and rally will all be covered in Ferrari Racing Legends, and you can expect to see approximately 50 cars and 36 tracks. This might be a cool way to go through the history of Ferrari, but I'm always one to appreciate variety. Hit the gallery for some car porn. |
| PS Vita now playable at over 3,300 GameStop locations Posted: 03 Feb 2012 09:00 AM PST I am telling everyone to get their hands on a PlayStation Vita before passing judgement. Nothing kills me more than hearing that "it's another PSP." It's not -- it's so much more. My personal mission has had me handing off my own personal unit to what has to be near 100 people now. I've wiped this baby down so many times that I'm surprised that the paint hasn't worn off yet. Save the wear and tear on my personal system by going to GameStop. The company says that they'll have Sony's newest portable available for play at more than 3,300 of their U.S. stores. Many games will be available for play, including Uncharted: Golden Abyss, Hot Shots Golf: World Invitational, wipEout: 2048 and Escape Plan. If their demo unit pushes your buttons, they'll let you trade in your older portables for an extra $25 in trade-in value toward the Vita. Or you can keep them and make a cool system stack like I did (above). Check here to see if your local store has a Vita open for demoing. |
| Recap: 1st Annual NY Videogame Critics Circle Awards Posted: 03 Feb 2012 08:45 AM PST The American videogame industry, and the majority of the people writing critically about it, has coalesced largely on the West Coast. But the New York scene has been ascendant in recent years, and the growing number of critical voices on this side of the country spurred longtime videogame critic Harold Goldberg, author of All Your Base Are Belong to Us: How Fifty Years of Videogames Conquered Pop Culture, to start a local group for those critics. I had the honor of presenting -- along with new Kotaku recruit Tina Amini -- the "A Train Award" for Best Mobile/iOS Game, which went to Superbrothers and Capybara Games' Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP. (I should note that, as one of the Critics Circle's newest members, I did not vote on any of the awards given out last night.) Manhattan Award for Most NY-Centric Game |
| This weekend on Twitch TV: Sup' Holmes? Posted: 03 Feb 2012 08:30 AM PST There's an exciting weekend in store on Destructoid's Twitch TV channel, starting with Foom having a few rounds with GameOn founder Swiftor on Mash Tacitcs, and ending with another unconventional episode of Also Talks. The most remarkable part of this weekend's programming is the premiere of new live talk show, Sup' Holmes? Destructoid's own Jonathan Holmes debuts his new live "call-in talk show" this Sunday at 1p.m. PST. Sup' Holmes? has the titular host sitting down to chat with professionals in the videogame industry, and correspond with the viewers themselves. Tune is as the new show kicks off with Tyrone Rodriuez of Nicalis. Get your voice heard by sending your questions to be read on the show. This week marks King Foom's first 'Community Collaboration' under the Mash Tactics name. Today at 4p.m. PST, Foom will be sitting down with livestreaming icon Swiftor for some talk, and some Modern Warfare 3 custom games. Tune in to pick the brain that created the GameOn community. Saturday Morning Hangover with Conrad Zimmerman and Jordan Devore airs from 10a.m. to 12p.m. PST. Come watch as they play the latest Xbox Live Indie Games demos for your enjoyment, and revel in the beauty of Conrad's mustache! Chill with Phil airs this Saturday at 4p.m. PST. Host Philanthr0py is continuing through Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, coming ever closer to the end of his MGS playthrough series. Join for the flurry of CQC's, stay for the David Hayter impressions. 321Go Cast is Destructoid's only live show/podcast hybrid airing on Sunday, from 2-4p.m. PST starring JohnnyViral, Pangloss, and Ryu89. This week, the guys are joined again by their trusty stream host Sterling Lyons. Destructoid's live talk show, Also, Talks, starring Bill Zoeker and Johnny Luchador is committed to bringing interesting conversations about videogames, Destructoid, and random nonsense on Sundays at 4p.m. PST. This week, Philanthr0py is substituting for Johnny Luchador and playing SoulCalibur V with some of the other live show hosts and community members. This isn't the first time there have been videogames on the so-called talk show. Could this be an omen of some kind? Catch all of Destructoid's livestream shows at Twitch.TV/Destructoid! |
| Xbox 360 is now the top-selling console worldwide Posted: 03 Feb 2012 08:15 AM PST Microsoft has always pushed to be near the top, but this year they take it. A good year of solid games and great holiday sales has the Xbox 360 taking the title as the top-selling game console in the world for the first time. Earnings reports that came out this week show that Microsoft's 8.2 million Xbox 360s easily tops Sony's 6.5 million PS3s and Nintendo's 5.6 million Wii systems sold for the Q. Yearly grand totals put Microsoft and Sony a bit closer, with Xbox 360 selling 14.9 million over Sony's 14.1 million. They both beat Nintendo's 10.33 million for the Wii. If you want lifetime numbers, Nintendo still wins, with 95 million Wiis sold, beating 66 million Xbox 360s and 62 million PS3s. GeekWire reminds that Microsoft's Don Mattrick said at last year's E3 that the Xbox 360 would become the #1 console globally. Nice call, Don. |
| LOL SPORTS: Why I don't like sports games anymore Posted: 03 Feb 2012 08:00 AM PST I am not a huge sports fan. Sure, I will watch the occasional college basketball game (GO TARHEELS!), and will never pass up a trip to Dodgers Stadium (GO DELICIOUS HOT DOGS!), but I will definitely be tuning into the Puppy Bowl this weekend rather than the Super Bowl. Sports are just not my thing. But I used to love sports videogames. Love 'em! Just looking at my collection of older games, I own (and used to religiously play) Bases Loaded, Double Dribble, Tecmo Bowl, Baseball Stars, Ice Hockey, NBA Jam, and RBI Baseball, to name a few. Despite my lack of interest in actual sports -- and complete lack of athletic prowess -- I used to adore sports games. So what happened? In college, I used to play sports games all the time. In between marathon sessions of Mario Kart 64, I would play games like International Superstar Soccer 64 and Madden NFL '95 for hours on end. It was great. But after college, during the birth of the PlayStation 2/GameCube era, something changed. In fact, I think I can pinpoint the exact moment I started losing interest in sports videogames. I was visiting my cousin's house and his eight-year-old son wanted to play me in one of the MLB games. He knew I loved videogames and was excited to play someone who would actually give him a challenge. Sounds great, I thought! I had never played an MLB game before, but I was awesome at baseball games and knew I could pick it up quickly. Being a competitive person, I immediately had to decide: Am I going to destroy this sweet, innocent kid in his own game, or will I take it easy on him? I didn't even think twice. I chose to destroy him. After he booted up the game on his PlayStation 2, we jumped right in. Immediately, I realized something was odd. I was having trouble even playing the darn game. I couldn't hit anything for the life of me. My outfield skills were a joke. Instead of throwing to second, I would randomly toss the ball to third. I'm just a little rusty. No worries, I thought to myself. By the end of the first inning, I was losing 16-1. I am not kidding. And before you give me a charitable "Aw, at least you scored one run!", let me offer full disclosure: At one point, my eight-year-old cousin grabbed the controller from me just to see if it was working. He hit a home run. Ever since that day, I just haven't liked sports games. Of course, it is easy to think I was so ashamed to lose so badly to a little kid that my competitive side refused to go back to a genre that so humiliated me in the past. But I'm not that stubborn. Or, at least, I don't think I am. For me, that humbling moment with my cousin was the first time I never really had fun playing a sports game. Outside of the fact that there was something extra-challenging about the interface and controls (seriously, I remember when I only had to hit one button to pitch), I just wasn't a fan of how realistic and unbelievably stat-heavy everything was. For some people, this is probably really cool -- seeing famous stadiums and even more famous players so beautifully recreated in a videogame. But since I was never a sports fan, I think I loved the fact that the sports games I used to play felt more like videogames than virtual recreations of the very thing I am terrible at in real life. And there lies my disconnect. That moment at my little cousin's house was the moment I knew I would never be into sports games again like I used to be. At first I thought my newfound distaste for sports games came from the subject matter itself. I have never loved sports, so maybe I just didn't care for anything that had do with them. I don't think that was the case. When I was younger, I didn't like sports that much either, yet I played every sports game on the market. I loved videogames so much that as long as they were fun, I would play anything! And that included sports games. But these new sports games -- and, more specifically, these new simulation sports games -- have completely evolved from fun videogames ... to complicated simulations that only a major sports fan could love. And that is okay! I respect the people who play and love sports games, and, honestly, may be a little jealous of how good they are at them. I just never expected a genre I once loved and embraced would one day feel so foreign and unappealing. Over the years, I have tried to get back into sports games. Once in a while I will pick up a recent Madden or try out the NHL games that I hear everyone is in love with. But it's not the same. I don't enjoy playing them like I used to. I also tried to get into some of the more "arcade-style" offerings like The Bigs, NFL Blitz, or even something like Backbreaker: Vengeance. But even those I can't connect with. It is to the point where I won't even give a sports game a chance unless Princess Peach and/or a Piranha Plant is on the box. Maybe sports games were never for me. Maybe my love of them as a child was just a fluke. Maybe it was never the sports part of the sports games I loved, but the competitive aspects of the game itself. Or maybe it is just because I got demolished by an eight-year-old. |
| Friday Night Fights: The Simmmpsonnnnns Posted: 03 Feb 2012 07:30 AM PST The Simpsons Arcade came out on XBLA today! (PSN users get it next week. Some of you, for free!) If you Xbox crowd haven't already, click here and go buy it, then come back. No really, it's OK. We'll all wait for you. Got it? Good. Now hit the jump and let's all go play it! Also, Marge cleavage is the best cleavage. New to FNF? Read this! Each week, a bunch of us Dtoiders get together to play videogames online! It's a 100% community-run event, so feel free to join in or even host something yourself! The planning for FNF starts in the forums, where community members volunteer to host matches and post their pertinent details (game, time, Gamertag, etc.). Then, every Friday, reminder posts go up in the community blogs followed by a recap post here on the front page for last-minute planning. To join in, simply send a friend request to the match host! (Don't forget to say you're from Dtoid!) If you'd rather host something yourself, sound off in the comments section below! We hope to see you online! Tonight's Games:
Tonight's Games:
Check out the 360 FNF blog for more details! Tonight's Games:
Check out the PS3 FNF blog for more details! Tonight's Games:
Check out the 3DS FNF forum thread for more details! Tonight's Games:
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| Game changer: NPD to receive Walmart sales data Posted: 03 Feb 2012 07:15 AM PST The games industry has looked to NPD game sales data for their reports and analysis, but we could never put too much stock into the numbers as they did not include the data from the world's largest retailer, Walmart. That changed later last year when Walmart said that they would publish some sales data. Today NPD confirms that they've reached an agreement with the retailer to receive point-of-sale info for both their stores and website. According to IndustryGamers, NPD and Walmart are working together under this new agreement to monitor game sales as well as sales of other industries we don't care about. NPD calls this agreement a game changer for the industry. I'm just glad that their data will now finally show accurate game sales information. |
| Madden NFL 13 cover opened up to 64-player fan vote Posted: 03 Feb 2012 07:00 AM PST 2011 was the second year in a row in which EA Sports let fans choose the Madden NFL cover athlete, and the people voted 13 million times to whittle down a field of 32 options to put Cleveland Browns running back Peyton Hillis on the cover of Madden NFL 12. This time, EA is expanding the voting to a group of 64, bringing in two choices from each of the 32 NFL teams. The first round will serve as a team-by-team popularity contest to determine the one nominee per team that fans want on the box. |
| This is exactly how you're supposed to play Saints Row 3 Posted: 03 Feb 2012 06:45 AM PST Egoraptor just pooped out a new animation based on Saints Row: The Third. It's a lot shorter than his more recent vids, clocking in at a mere 11 seconds. However, you'll probably agree that he successfully managed to condense the key highlights of the game in such a small span of time. Saints Row 3 Has A Lot of Outfits [YouTube] |
| Here's the arcade opening for Persona 4: The Ultimate Posted: 03 Feb 2012 06:30 AM PST
Persona 4: The Ultimate in Mayonaka Arena's opening movie was posted on Atlus' YouTube channel today. It's not much more than the Persona characters being announced and posing, so don't get too excited. Teddy does look like a badass on the main stage, and the music is great, so you can at least enjoy that. Rise? Persona 4: The Ultimate is coming to the Xbox 360 and PS3 sometime this summer. I predict that I'm going to suck at this game, but will continue playing it anyway. |
| Review: The Simpsons Arcade Game Posted: 03 Feb 2012 06:00 AM PST Any gamer of a certain age will be able to bore you extensively talking about two particular arcade games: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and The Simpsons. The classic TMNT game arrived on Xbox Live Arcade years ago, but as with many licensed arcade games, it seemed unlikely we'd ever see The Simpsons hit a digital platform. Sometimes, however, the legal red tape can be cut through, and nostalgia wins the day. The Simpsons Arcade is back, and gamers of a certain age can once again bore the world. The Simpsons Arcade Game (PlayStation Network, Xbox Live Arcade [reviewed]) The Simpsons Arcade first hit bowling alleys and leisure centers in 1991, back before the TV show got legitimately funny. The highly contrived plot sees Maggie replace her pacifier with a diamond, which Waylon Smithers is trying to steal for Mr. Burns because of reasons. Rather than remove the diamond, Smithers decides to steal an entire baby, prompting the rest of the Simpsons clan to give chase. Part of the joy of The Simpsons Arcade is in just how ridiculous it is. When we were children, nobody considered the implications of a bespectacled man (wearing an inexplicable cape) joyfully kidnapping a child, or the randomness of Mr. Burns having an entire army of goons that try to kill a whole family -- including an eight-year-old girl -- for want of a diamond that he could likely have easily afforded. In fact, with the amount of money he wasted on trying to actively murder one of his employees, Mr. Burns could have bought the diamond outright for a lot less. Not to mention the fact that both Smithers and Mr. Burns sound like Peter Lorre as opposed to themselves. Oh, and Marge's weapon -- a vacuum cleaner -- looks woefully sexist in a modern light. It's a true highlight of this game to examine just how insane it actually is, despite us all taking it for granted back in the day. Using the same engine as TMNT, Konami's classic coin guzzler is a straightforward, simplistic beat-em-up, and some players may be surprised by just how rudimentary the action is. Playing as either Bart, Lisa, Homer or Marge (who is still the best character, thanks to the reach of her vacuum), the only real commands are walking, jumping, and hitting. Pressing jump followed by attack creates a diagonal kick, while pressing the two buttons together causes a more powerful maneuver. If two players attack together, they can perform team attacks. There are also rare weapon drops, such as a slingshot or bowling ball, and a few trash cans to pick up and fling, but otherwise the eight stages consist of walking, punching, and getting punched a lot. It almost seems redundant to say that a twenty-year-old game has aged, but it's a warning players need to be reminded of. This was a game designed around killing the player as cheaply as possible in order for an arcade machine to grow fat on quarters, so the simplistic combat is married to frustratingly overwhelming odds that were designed to test patience and pockets instead of skill. To counteract this on a console, Konami has allowed players to customize their own virtual credits. The default is forty, which is more than enough to beat the game, and a team of players can either share a single credit pool or have their own. There are also difficulty settings and a one-life survival mode, and a stage select screen is added as new levels are unlocked. Other extras include sound tests and character screens, as well as the ability to unlock a Japanese ROM of the game once the American version has been beaten. There are also options to smooth over the traditionally blocky graphics and toggle the screen size, though I much prefer the defaults. The game is nicely presented in a virtual arcade cabinet, which looks better than the screenshots in this review imply, and you can choose to remove it if you wish. Once you add online play and leaderboards into the mix, you've gotten a definitive version of a game still beloved by many gamers who fondly remember it. Fondly remembering The Simpsons Arcade is the caveat, though, as nostalgia is a key component to enjoyment. Objectively, by today's standards, The Simpsons Arcade is not very good. It's a brainless button-masher that is beaten through sheer attrition, and is so numbingly repetitive that one's thumb will feel arthritic despite the incredibly short length. To anybody playing this game for the first time, it's not going to be looked upon favorably in the least. However, Konami didn't release it for people new to the game. This is for those who lost their pocket money trying to get past that infuriating Krusty balloon, who made it all the way to Smithers before being obliterated by one of his thousand bombs, and who still remember Princess Kashmir as a legitimate Simpsons reference. For them, this is a loving HD re-release of a game that's very dear to their hearts. For such people, playing The Simpsons Arcade is a joy that no amount of aging can quite take away. |
| Wow: Check out these Gravity Daze whiteboard drawings Posted: 03 Feb 2012 05:30 AM PST A Japanese press event for Vita game Gravity Daze (Gravity Rush in the US) could have been one of those dull game office visit affairs, but the devs did their best to keep attendees engaged with some cosplay, cute drinks and some really nice whiteboard drawings. On 4Gamer you can check out some of the images they snapped at the event. It seems that one of the staff members was pushed to cosplay Kat with a homemade costume. Nice work! Further down the page you'll see the yummy looking snacks the press were served, and they washed those down with cappuccino topped with cute Kat paws. The best images are of the whiteboards covered in Gravity Daze art, shown above. I really like the dual-board work with the giant octopus. 4Gamer says that they were erased by day's end. |
| Dance Central 2 Facebook app lets you track your scores Posted: 03 Feb 2012 05:15 AM PST The new Dance Central 2 Facebook app lets you check your high scores, compare leaderboard rankings and see how you stack up against your friends (or the world) on individual songs. Go here, get the app, link your gamertag, and then check the charts to see how bad of a dancer you are. If you get ballsy, you can issue challenges to your friends from the app. Below you'll find that I've created a computer rendering of motion capture of my moves using a complex Kinect hack to show you why you will not find my scores among those at the top of DC2's leaderboards.
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| The Last of Us takes place in Pittsburgh Posted: 03 Feb 2012 05:00 AM PST At least part of Naughty Dog's upcoming game The Last of Us takes places in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Gross. Popular Science magazine ranked Pittsburgh at #3 on their list of the 10 dirtiest cities in the world. GQ magazine called it the "third worst-dressed city in America" last year. Google it. This poor city ranks on on several other worst lists, though it somehow also ranks on America's "most livable" cities. Still, some call it "Shittsburgh." Game Informer says that a screenshot with a yellow bridge in it confirms that Pittsburgh is at least one of the post-apocalyptic backdrops for the game. They also say that combat includes both gunplay and melee attacks, and that weapons will break after some use, so you'll have to hunt around for new ones. In related news, The Last of Us is not about escorting Ellie around. GI reports that her AI is one of the dev team's main areas of focus, and that she managed to keep up and stay out of the way during their play session. |
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