New Games |
- EverQuest 2's Skyshrine update goes live on April 17th
- DCUO: Brainiac's long overdue eviction begins today
- Gunstringer gets 'El Diablo's 'Merican Adventure' add-on
- Preview: RED Frontier features insect tanks
- MechWarrior Online: Mech on Mech on Mech action
- Preview: A Game of Dwarves has you digging out a kingdom
- How Double Fine used their creative juices to survive
- Preview: Showdown Effect promises 2D action movie clichés
- Resident Evil Chronicles HD collection coming to PS3
- Preview: Dungeonland has cute art and delicious violence
- Sonic Team has no plans for Sonic 4: Episode 3
- Live show: Silent Hill Downpour on Mash Tactics
- Guild Wars 2 Collector's Ed., pre-purchase offer detailed
- Interview with Kim Swift, creator of Quantum Conundrum
- Preview: Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 2
- Captain's Log: Tribbles drank all of my Earl Grey
- Win Ninja Gaiden & Dynasty Warriors PS Vita games!
- Team Fortress 2sdays: I think you got him
- Preview: Battlefield 3’s Close Quarters DLC
| EverQuest 2's Skyshrine update goes live on April 17th Posted: 13 Mar 2012 04:00 PM PDT EverQuest II is back with game update 63 coming April 17th! Sony Online Entertainment is adding content to two different expansions: Destiny of Velious and Age of Discovery. In the DoV updates, players will see the level cap increased to 92, a new zone with over 100 quests and raid content, different difficulty levels for the Skyshrine instances, new builds and skills, and a Drake mount. As for the AoD content, we will see Poet's Palace Dungeon Maker theme and items, new Dungeon Maker adventures, tradeskill apprentices with more recipes, and Beastlords will have new warders to tame. Oh, and just in case you forgot, EverQuest 2 is free to play and you can try it out here. |
| DCUO: Brainiac's long overdue eviction begins today Posted: 13 Mar 2012 03:30 PM PDT It's time to kick Brainiac in the brainpan and show him the door. DC Universe Online's latest DLC pack -- The Battle For Earth -- went live today. Heroes and villains will finally be able to defeat Brainiac and his invasion force including the Prime Avatars. It's certainly taken longer than it usually does in the comics. The DLC pack also introduces the new Earth Powers which will allow players to construct rocky allies and protect their chums. The pack will set you back $9.99 and you can pick it up on the PlayStation Store, the in-game Marketplace or the website for PC. |
| Gunstringer gets 'El Diablo's 'Merican Adventure' add-on Posted: 13 Mar 2012 03:00 PM PDT
Okay, Twisted Pixel. You got me with your apostrophe placement. I can't not crack a smile upon seeing the name of the new downloadable content for The Gunstringer, "El Diablo's 'Merican Adventure." In this add-on, El Diablo hopes to find his queen with a little help from his wicked shotgun. It looks like more of what the core game was about, which was decent fun and a good excuse to use your Kinect beyond hands-free menu navigation. For 320 Microsoft Points, you'll get four new playable levels. And if you don't have a copy of The Gunstringer yet, it's now available from Games on Demand for $29.99. |
| Preview: RED Frontier features insect tanks Posted: 13 Mar 2012 02:30 PM PDT At the Paradox Interactive preview event I attended during GDC, ZEAL Game Studio showed me an interesting active real-time strategy hybrid game called RED Frontier. It fuses the strategy of RTS games with much more action-oriented combat play RED Frontier is a multiplayer RTS with a focus on accessibility through drop-in/drop-out online gameplay and a respawn system that lets you continue to battle even if your initial strategy failed. During some hands-on time with the game, I could see how the generally slow pace of RTS games has been slightly evolved to make this particular game feel more engaging and fun to a larger audience. RED Frontier (PC) In RED Frontier, you can choose between a variety of different types of Commanders (such as Assault, Engineer, Infiltrator, etc) for different play styles, though you have three main forms of contract choices to use for battle. These choices include Independent, Mox, and, my personal favorite, the insect-like Arachron units. Though each choice has the same basic types of units such as a tank type or smaller and faster attack drones, the art style and way of attacking vastly differs between them. The game features large maps with up to 12 players simultaneously engaged in combat. During my hands-on time I went up against Rasmus Davidsson, Lead Designer for ZEAL Game studios on a map where the sole objective was to capture points while battling off your enemy by strategically choosing your units every time you respawn. In terms of strategy, it was a little difficult for me to get a peg on how different gameplay sessions may play out. I generally stuck to surrounding myself with small bee-like drones while sending in a heavy worm-like unit to deal the massive damage against my enemy's tanks. This strategy seemed to work pretty well, after awhile the developer found ways to tear through my defenses and take me down though. The action did seem generally fast-paced and frenetic, though I couldn't tell if this was necessarily a good thing, as the game was still in a pretty early stage and with only two players on the map it was difficult to tell how changing up my strategy would influence the game at large. Truthfully, I came away from my time with the game really wishing I could see it being played on a much grander scale, as I have a feeling that the faster pace is better suited to a bunch of players battling it out over capture points. In terms of art style and the general gameplay idea, I found RED Frontier to be interesting, though not entirely innovative. With some polishing and perhaps a bigger pool of players, this title may be great for the RTS fan looking for a game which tries to modernize the genre. |
| MechWarrior Online: Mech on Mech on Mech action Posted: 13 Mar 2012 02:00 PM PDT
It's the simple pleasures in life that I enjoy the most. Getting a free meal, breaking wind without anyone noticing and watching giant Mechs tearing each other to metal shreds. In this explosive MechWarrior Online trailer an Atlas, Jenner and Hunchback duke it out in the wilderness for your entertainment. You sadists. Lasers and rockets are two of my favorite things, so it looks like it has everything I need. I'll be the fellow in the pink Mech squealing with delight. |
| Preview: A Game of Dwarves has you digging out a kingdom Posted: 13 Mar 2012 01:30 PM PDT While at Paradox Interactive's loft apartments for a preview event during GDC, I had a chance to look at a pre-alpha build of A Game of Dwarves, a game that features relatively simplified resource management and a whole lot of digging. Hamza covered this game earlier in the year, and from what I saw it seems like A Game of Dwarves still has a bit of way to go before succeeding in following it's inspirations. A Game of Dwarves (PC [previewed], PSN) A Game of Dwarves is about protecting a dwarf king while using an ever expanding team of dwarves to develop an underground kingdom through building items and collecting resources. Much of the main gameplay I saw involved digging through blocks of dirt and stone to create underground pockets for your dwarves to turn into rooms for sleeping, gardening, or further looting. In this way, the game so far is very much like a simplified hybrid of Minecraft and The Sims (and more vaguely, Dwarf Fortress). I was told by the developer on hand that the game features around 80 levels of Earth to dig down through, with randomized pockets where enemies appear or large stores of resources can be found. My dwarves ran into a small dungeon where an orc rested, and my two military dwarves made short work of the orc and looted the place before we continued digging further into the Earth. The four main resource types I could collect/harvest were gold, food, stone and wood. As you collect resources, you're given the ability to build items for functional or purely cosmetic reasons. When I had collected enough resources I built a little dwarf room with sad cheap little stone beds and a couple of wall torches, while the developer tiled the main throne room and made it look a little more stately. Gold is one of the most important resources, as collecting enough of it allows you to spawn more dwarves to do your bidding, whether that be to continue digging, to farm, or to fight off enemies. Of course, as you gain more dwarves you need to make sure they are properly fed and well-rested, otherwise your kingdom will go nowhere due to your own negligence. Though what I saw of the game was just the very beginning and more of a tutorial than a demonstration of the full game's progress, I could see how it could be addictive on a very fundamental level. It combines resource management with looting in a way that keeps the player engaged enough to want to see just how large they can make their dwarf kingdom. If ZEAL Game Studio can create interesting and challenging objectives to accomplish, diverse enemies and enough new items to come across, A Game of Dwarves may be a great fantasy-inspired addition to the few resource management games left on the market today. |
| How Double Fine used their creative juices to survive Posted: 13 Mar 2012 01:00 PM PDT In their GDC session "Creative Panic: How Agility Turned Terror Into Triumph," Double Fine's Tim Schafer, Brad Muir, Lee Petty, and Nathan Martz talked about how they used a two-week break during Brütal Legend's production to focus on something entirely different, and regenerate their creative resources while doing so. This process of Amnesia Fortnight led to the creation of various prototypes, four of which later saw the day of light as Trenched/Iron Brigade (Brad Muir), Stacking (Lee Petty), Once Upon a Monster (Nathan Martz), and Costume Quest (Tasha Harris, who couldn't make it to the session). As Tim Schafer put it, it's becoming harder and harder to sign big games with publishers. Publishers are averse to new IPs, they want to own their IP -- which Double Fine learned the hard way with Brütal Legend -- and they tend to want to remove unknowns. At the same time, it's exactly those unknowns that drive Double Fine to create their games in the first place. Amnesia Fortnight was inspired by director Wong Kar Wai's infamous production of his film Ashes of Time. The extended shooting period of this film, which was shot in the middle of the desert, exhausted both the crew and the actors. Eventually, Wong Kar Wai took a break from production to allow everyone to restore their health and minds. During this break, he conceived Chungking Express and Fallen Angels -- originally intended as a third story for Chungking Express -- which ended up becoming some of the director's most beloved work. For Double Fine, their 2007 Amnesia Fortnight session (a second Amnesia Fortnight followed in 2009 after Brütal Legend shipped) consisted of two weeks where small teams would create working prototypes for complete experiences, using the adaptable Brütal Legend engine. They could go nuts with whatever they thought of, which lead to a morale boost for the teams and allowed employees to tackle new roles for a change. Little did they know at the time that this process would end up saving the studio. After Brütal Legend shipped, work began on Brütal Legend 2. Because Double Fine had expected a sequel to be a safe bet, the sudden cancellation of the title by Activision meant that the studio's future had suddenly become very uncertain. However, they still had all these working prototypes from Amnesia Fortnight sitting around, which were already functional enough to demo and pitch to prospective publishers. Stacking Lee Petty, art director for Stacking, talked about how German expressionist film (e.g., The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Nosferatu) inspired him to create the odd little title. These films were known for using highly stylized stage design to get the most out of their small budgets, and the genre's silent film treatment even ended up being used in Stacking to save on voice acting costs. Eventually, Petty settled on the Russian dolls concept. They were a little bit creepy, but not too creepy to be useful for an ageless audience. The problem was, what can those dolls do in a game? One of the ideas was to allow them to perform Hat Combat, something that according to Petty had "clearly been done too much already." Another idea was to have them fight nut crackers of a German invasion during an industrialist era. In the end they settled on the stacking mechanic to keep things manageable. The small budget the team had to work with meant they had to focus on the core idea of stacking, and relate everything in the game to this mechanic. It also meant they had to focus on creating a lot of personality for something that is hard to create a personality for, and to keep in mind that expectations for such a title would be high because of the Double Fine name. In a nutshell, they had to be as economic as possible with their resources and try to get the most out of what they had. One of the ways they did this was by having one character model for the entire game, the Russian doll, and rely on different textures to create personality. The power of accessories came into force by adding things like hats and canes to characters to make them distinguishable from one another and add personality. Still, it was hard for the team to create personality for a wooden object. They played around with facial animations for a bit, but it ended up being way too creepy on a doll. Petty's advice to other designers was to torture your animators, because they are really clever. At one point, he asked them to create a dog doll who could scratch his ass on the carpet, and the animators pulled it off. There were other challenges for Stacking, such as how to add replayability and accessibility to an adventure game. The focus on their small budget and having to be economic with their decisions led to the multiple solutions of the puzzles in Stacking. They allowed players to have multiple ways to solve a puzzle, so they wouldn't be denied progress by doing something that would make total sense within the game to do, and the option to unlock things by finding all the solutions added replayability for those who craved it. One of the lessons the team learned from the Stacking prototype was that you should embrace limitations, as they ended up leading to creative solutions. Another lesson was to find the essence of your game, and to stick with that core essence no matter what. Something that was also a driving force for Once Upon A Monster. Once Upon A Monster Nathan Martz was inspired by Tsutomu Kuomo's LocoRoco, a game about music and happiness. It made him think about his childhood heroes, such as Bill Watterson and Jim Henson, and about making a game centered around the joy of making music and tapping into your inner self. It ended up becoming the prototype Happy Song. Happy Song was to be an interactive musical toy where you could create your own personal happy song with the help of monster friends. Besides, Martz wanted something joyful to work on after all the time he spent on writing dismemberment code for Brütal Legend. After that title shipped, Happy Song was picked to develop further alongside Brütal Legend 2. However, when the time came to think about how to pitch such a game to "the suits," he felt it wasn't commercially viable enough as it was. The challenge became to adapt the prototype enough to get it signed with a publisher, without losing its core essence. By this time, Kinect had released. A new platform with new opportunities and a strong demand for new mechanics, and a family oriented product to boot, made it the perfect match for Happy Song. The question became how to make that work for a game centered around the joy of music. In order to do just that, they changed it from the joy of music to the joy of interacting with others, but still with monsters. This led to a renewed focus on interacting with characters. Multiple physical activities would let you interact with the monsters, while "the magic of Kinect" allowed for things such as monsters being able to see and interact with the player through the camera. Eventually they decided on turning this interaction into a cooperative experience as well, making all activities for two players so that parents and kids could play with each other while playing the game. Happy Song became Monster Party. A short while later, Martz read about WB Games entering a partnership with Sesame Street in 2010. Of course, this was an almost perfect match for what Monster Party was already about. The idea of focusing on the joy of interaction was changed into the joy of helping others, to match the educational aspect of Sesame Street, and the game itself was turned into a collection of stories in a storybook to provide context for players. While Monster Party previously had a disembodied narrator who would provide exposition and instruction, Once Upon A Monster turned Cookie Monster and Elmo into narrators players could interact and connect with more easily. However, they didn't want the game to become a pure cash grab or a game version of Tickle Me Elmo, but at the same time Sesame Street's educational aspect would be boring in a game if they focused too much on numeracy and literacy training. Instead, they focused on the show's emotional curriculum and the joy of helping others. The lesson the team learned throughout the process was to know your vision for your game, to keep it simple enough to communicate (the product's experience), and to stick with it no matter what. Although the road from Happy Song to Once Upon A Monster was full of slight changes, the vision for what kind of game they wanted to make remained the same. Trenched/Iron Brigade Brad Muir's inspiration for Trenched came from the core mechanics in other games, like Mech Assault and the tower-defense genre. At the time, co-op also became increasingly popular, so they wanted to do something with that as well. For their prototype, they envisioned a third-person action game in a steampunk Britain setting with mobile factories and some sort of metallic zombies, and it had a title so awful that Muir asked everyone in the session to never repeat it. This posed a problem, though, as other Double Fine games are all very unique in their approach while the Trenched prototype was a mashup of existing mechanics and genre conventions -- not very Double Fine at all. It raised the question of what actually makes a Double Fine game unique enough to be identifiable as a Double Fine game. In other words, what makes it fit the Double Fine brand? Muir initially came up with three important aspects that people expect from a Double Fine game: story, funny cutscenes, and characters. For the story (and setting), originality is key. As a team effort, a lot of the ideas for the prototype were pretty out there. The artists came up with Castle Robots (giant castles that were also robots), Bosch Bots (inspired by Dutch painter Hieronymus Bosch), and even Founding Fathers who would pilot robot heads based on their heads. Eventually they settled on a makeshift World War I stetting with television set smoke monsters as enemies. And a boat with legs, because it's awesome. The WWI setting led to the creation of the mobile trenches, while the TV smoke monsters were later turned into the monovisions we've come to know and love/hate. For the funny cutscenes aspect, Muir found that it's not the cutscenes per se, but the personality that matters the most, so he involved the whole team to add more personality to the prototype. One of the inspirations was found in the Man's Life magazine covers, where burly men fight for survival against tiny animals and some of the artists' own versions ended up in the game. Someone came up with the idea of creating an interactive version of the aircraft carrier deck, where people could run around and salute with a button. Despite his initial reservations, Muir let the team member create it within a few days and so many people ended up having fun with the silly saluting mechanic that they kept it. The aspect of characters remained the same: characters are simply important. But how do you add characters to a game where you pilot mechs, which generally are just hulking robots with very little personality of their own? To this end they opened up the top of the mechs, scaled down their size a little so you could see your character on top of it, and as a result they could show your character doing little animations. Frank Woodruff, the commander of the Mech Brigade, was to be confied to an Iron Lung. At some point they even had him in a Warhammer 40K Dreadnought or StarCraft Dragoon type of mech, but he ended up being a resident on the carrier he commanded. What became evident to Muir in the process was that another aspect of the Double Fine brand is to surprise your fans. Nobody expected a shooter, so the act of actually making one fit the surprise aspect of other, less conventional titles, that the studio released. Conclusion The Double Fine folks at the session recapped their experiences of the Amnesia Fortnight experiment by stressing how the agility of their workforce led to the survival of their studio. By producing the prototypes which could later be pitched to publishers as demos, and turned into full games relatively quickly, Double Fine essentially managed to create multiple streams of revenue and stayed afloat instead of being forced to close when Brütal Legend 2 was cancelled. For them, diversification created opportunity instead of a sense of aversion towards the concept, and it taught them how important it was to clearly see, and stick to, the core principles of their games -- creativity being paramount among them. This begs the question of how many other amazing little prototypes they still have lying around, awaiting the chance to find their way into the public's hands. Now that the Kickstarter success for Double Fine Adventure has been so tremendous, that game will become a far bigger enterprise than the studio had initially expected. Since Double Fine was able to release four downloadable titles in the same year, however, I wouldn't be surprised if we'll see some more Amnesia Fortnight games before Adventure is released. |
| Preview: Showdown Effect promises 2D action movie clichés Posted: 13 Mar 2012 12:30 PM PDT While at GDC, I had a very early first-look at a game called The Showdown Effect which revolved around playing as an action movie stereotype. What I was shown was more of a very early prototype (almost still even an idea pitch) of a game, though I did have a chance to actually play some of the pre-alpha build. Based on what I saw, I could easily see how the ideas being thrown around by the developers could be well implemented into The Showdown Effect. The Showdown Effect (PC [previewed], Mac) The very early build of The Showdown Effect I was shown provided one map of a "Neo-Tokyo" environment that had stuff actively going on in the background while your player and one other runs and leaps about the environment in dramatic action-movie style. Though I didn't get to see it in action, I was told by the developers that one of the main ideas behind The Showdown Effect involved using one-liners at opportune moments as you fought other players across the (admittedly pretty large) 2.5D maps. The idea is that you choose a character among several action movie stereotypes gleaned from movies like Rambo, Alien, or Die Hard. As each character battles, you have a button that spews forth a one-liner that grants you extra points when successfully done, such as after a kill. From what I was told using a one-liner is a risk, as you may be killed by another player in the middle of your sentence and receive no bonus from it while looking like a total fool. In the map that I ran around on, weapon pickups were numerous with SMG's and shotguns as well as a rocket launcher and a katana. The art style was reminiscent of Shadow Complex, with large side-scrolling levels and random stuff happening in the background. I struggled a little with the controls simply because I'm more of a console player, but I was told by the developers that gamepad support was going to be implemented as well. One of the mechanics still in an early implementation is bleeding damage, where a character who is hit by bullets begins to spout out blood and has to find a safe spot to bandage themselves in order to fully heal. The graphical effect of this was neat, though I wasn't sure how much of an effect on gameplay it would have in a regular session. I really dug the style of The Showdown Effect, but I couldn't get a good feel of the final product from the very early pre-alpha build I was shown. As is the case with early previews of games like this, a whole lot might change before the game is released. I can say that the developers are certainly headed in an interesting direction for the game, and I look forward to a preview of a more finished product in the future. |
| Resident Evil Chronicles HD collection coming to PS3 Posted: 13 Mar 2012 12:00 PM PDT
This summer, Capcom is offering a double dose of remastered Resident Evil on the PlayStation 3. Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles and Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles, formerly Wii-exclusive, are coming to PSN as a two pack. Both in part a rehashing of past RE events, the games have been visually upgraded to high definition and now come with optional PlayStation Move controls. The evil takes up residence on PSN in June 2012. No word yet on pricing, but each game will be available as an individual purchase at a later date. |
| Preview: Dungeonland has cute art and delicious violence Posted: 13 Mar 2012 11:30 AM PDT During GDC I had a chance to spend some time over at Paradox Interactive's loft apartment, hanging out with various developers of upcoming downloadable PC/Mac games. One of the games that impressed me quite a bit despite its early pre-Alpha build was Dungeonland, presented to me by the Brazilian developers of Critical Studios. I sat down with the guys behind this colorful and fun Gauntlet-style game for a lengthy hands-on, and came away rather impressed. Dungeonland (PC [previewed], Mac) Dungeonland takes much of its basic gameplay mechanisms from classic hack'n'slash arcade games like Gauntlet, supporting a top-down isometric view of your characters as they battle their way through a colorful theme park that has been built by the Evil Lord Dungeon Master for the sole purpose of giving heroes something to do on their downtime. The game features a total of three huge, colorful themed maps with randomized locations, enemies and loot so that no two experiences are the same. I played through a map that felt very much like wandering around inside of a brightly colored theme park, attacking enemies that were both adorable and vicious. The art design of the enemies is purposefully cute and cuddly, though their deaths are emphasized by a splattering of blood all over the playing field. In the regular co-op mode, up to three players can join a game, with drop-in/drop-out gameplay in the same vein as Left 4 Dead, and the game has a heavy emphasis on teamwork as the difficulty level can be very high if you're not properly helping your team out. One instance of this sort of gameplay came through the mage class of player that one of the developers chose to use, who could effectively make teammates invulnerable with a Team Fortress 2-style beam of light while the player attacked large enemies or groups of smaller ones. Beyond the normal co-op mode, I was told there is also an "Infinite Dungeon" mode that continues to throw harder enemies and varied loot at you through an infinite amount of randomized dungeons. Additionally, there's the "Dungeon Master" mode where one player among a total of four gets to be the Dungeon Master and strategically chooses the enemies and loot to throw at the other three players. During my playtime, I played as both the Rogue and Warrior class of characters. I noticed a bit of difference between each, as the Rogue class is best used when keeping a distance from the enemies while throwing daggers or bombs at them. In contrast, the Warrior class is all about charging in and trying to do as much damage as possible before retreat. The experience was quite fun with other players, as the developers goaded me on about my propensity to viciously kill harmless sheep (They could turn evil at any moment, right?), and later helped me take down harder enemies by granting me invulnerability from afar as I rushed into battle. Though no plans have been made to carry this game over to consoles (possibly due to complications arising from using a more computer-friendly Dungeon Master mode), I played it using an Xbox 360 controller and could easily see at least the main co-op gameplay translating well to consoles. Keep Dungeonland on your radar, as it may turn out to be a rather fun co-operative multiplayer experience. |
| Sonic Team has no plans for Sonic 4: Episode 3 Posted: 13 Mar 2012 11:00 AM PDT If you were looking forward to a lasting, multi-episode relationship with Sonic 4...consider this a Dear John letter. In an interview with DigitalSpy, producer and head of Sonic Team Takashi Iizuka says that we'll likely won't be seeing an Episode 3:
My sails are now windless. You can't give the people Tails and then take away all opportunity for Knuckles. It's just not fair. What say you Dtoiders, will you still be buying Episode 2? |
| Live show: Silent Hill Downpour on Mash Tactics Posted: 13 Mar 2012 10:30 AM PDT It's going to get spooky on today's episode of Mash Tactics! King Foom will be delving into the fog of Silent Hill: Downpour for this week's "New Release Showcase". Konami has gotten tepid reactions to many of their Silent Hill games, but it seems this one may have hit the mark. Tune in and get a nice, long look 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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| Guild Wars 2 Collector's Ed., pre-purchase offer detailed Posted: 13 Mar 2012 10:00 AM PDT Fans eager to toss a wad of cash NCsoft's way for Guild Wars 2 will want to hear about the publisher's pre-purchase plan -- it grants access to all beta weekend events, a three-day head start at launch, and an exclusive in-game Hero's Band that comes with power boosts. This offer applies to all three versions of the game and kicks off on April 10. A mere pre-order, on the other hand, gives a one-day head start. The Guild Wars 2 Collector's Edition ($149.99) includes a 10-inch statue of Rytlock Brimstone, five art prints, a 112-page "Making of" hardback book, a "Best of" soundtrack, and five digital items shown in the attached image. For those not so into Guild Wars 2, there's also a $79.99 Digital Deluxe copy and a standard $59.99 version. |
| Interview with Kim Swift, creator of Quantum Conundrum Posted: 13 Mar 2012 09:45 AM PDT
You guys have heard of Kim Swift, right? Creator of Portal, former designer at Valve, and all-around badass? I interviewed her last week after getting some hands-on time with Airtight Games's upcoming downloadable title Quantum Conundrum, and tried hard to withhold my giddy fangirlism until after the interview. (Whether or not that was successful remains to be seen.) I also got a chance to speak with two of Quantum Conundrum's designers, Kasey Quevedo and Chris Madden, about the art style and direction they chose to take with the game. Spoiler alert: It's adorable! |
| Preview: Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 2 Posted: 13 Mar 2012 09:30 AM PDT I haven't committed much time to playing a Sonic the Hedgehog game since its first sequel, which would normally make me feel somewhat disqualified to talk about what the blue hedgehog is up to in modern days. But playing Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 2 at GDC, I didn't feel as if I'd missed much of anything, particularly as our demo had a focus on Sonic's sidekick, Miles "Tails" Prower. Tails was my favorite part of Sonic 2 (which I wholly admit may affect my judgment here) and I always wished I could have approached stages in that game using only the little freak of nature. But an inability to play him solo and the design which limits the viewable area of the level to what's around Sonic meant I'd never get quite what I wanted, even if I had a second person to hold controller one. Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 2 (Android, iOS, PC, PlayStation Network, Xbox Live Arcade) Players still won't have total freedom to explore the game as Tails this time either, but some allowances are being made to make playing with the pair a little easier. The screen will zoom out to some degree when they are apart, then rubber-band the player lagging behind forward to the player in front. As Sega described it to me, levels are being designed which takes this mechanic into account for the purpose of cooperative speed-running, whereby two players can work together to collect all secrets in a level while constantly moving forward to the end of the stage for a fast time. Tails brings a few new abilities to the game as well. He can pair up with Sonic to perform special moves together. This includes Tails' signature flight ability, which allows him to grab Sonic in mid-air and carry him a short distance in any direction. While on the ground, the pair will roll together to do massive damage, necessary to eliminate some larger enemies. The physics are also more of a return to form, with Sonic properly maintaining his momentum during jumps and spins, as well as gaining momentum on hills without player interference. As such, I didn't have any problems adjusting to the controls and it feels much more like a proper Sonic game than what I've seen in the last decade. Sega promises that they have more to reveal, including some new features and abilities, but the game is promising. It's a little hard to imagine Sonic fans still managing get their hopes up about the series by this point -- particularly when every single release just results in a barrage of complaining. Maybe having that enthusiasm up is where they've gone wrong all along. What I played today, I enjoyed but didn't feel like a revelation. It felt like a solid Sonic the Hedgehog game. Things seem to be going along the right track, leaving me cautiously optimistic that this will at least turn out to be a fun title. |
| Captain's Log: Tribbles drank all of my Earl Grey Posted: 13 Mar 2012 09:00 AM PDT Despite its rough development, back in the beginning of 2010 I really did have high hopes for Star Trek Online. Lots of customization, being able to fight the Borg, playing a Klingon, I was giddy with anticipation. Then it launched and I slapped myself for getting excited. There was a good game in there, somewhere, but it was hidden under terrible ground combat and a plethora of repetitive missions. Ship customization was also pretty dire and my dreams of creative ship designs were dashed on an asteroid belt. But a rough launch was not enough to keep Cryptic Studios down. They diligently updated the floundering MMO, adding lots of new content including new "seasons," which came with a series of episodic missions and special encounters. Then, early this year it made the move to free-to-play, which was probably for the best considering how it helped Cryptic's other MMO, Champions Online. Since I'm such a good fellow -- and because I don't really need an excuse to waste hours and hours of my life playing F2P MMOs -- I'll be taking a look at the state of the game. Welcome to the Captain's Log. Captain's Log: Stardate... I don't know ... February? March? At the very least I know it's dawn. I have my own ship now, it's not very good. The Borg killed all the other officers and some cowboy decided to make me Captain of this rust bucket. Not bad for an alcoholic Lieutenant. Apparently they are handing out field promotions like unwanted puppies after Christmas, all I had to do was put up with an uppity hologram and not die. I just hope they don't expect me to save the galaxy or something absurd like that. Lieutenant Horatio "Claymore" Zentarim, Captain of the USS Indefatigable. I'll admit, I like the sound of that. Other than the addition of some awkward cutscenes, not much has changed with the start of the game. You make an officer from the set races like Vulcan, Human or Bolian, or you can just make your own unique alien with the very robust character creator. Some of the races have unique perks that set them apart, but there's tons of other perks to choose from when making your own freaky alien. I actually bought the game a long time ago, so I get a few bonuses not available to free players, such as the ability to play as a Joined Trill, other players can make Borg characters too. But they look a wee bit silly in Starfleet uniforms, I must admit. There are only three "classes," but thanks to a variety of skill combinations, Bridge Officer abilities and ships, there's plenty of configurations. Tactical Captains are the damage class, at their best when zipping about space mocking the slow cruisers. Engineering Captains represent the tanking class and use a variety of powers to mitigate damage while they captain iconic ships like the The Original Series' Constitution class ship or The Next Generation's Galaxy class vessel. Finally, Science Captains heal and have a large number of buffs and debuffs at their disposal while using -- often bizarre -- science vessels. While any ship can be captained by a player regardless of class, a cruiser doesn't necessarily play to the strengths of a Tactical Captain. Regardless, there are plenty of builds that use these less traditional Captain/ship combos and plenty of folk favor them. The fairly quick tutorial is unchanged, but it does a reasonable job of teaching you the basics without spending too much time boring you to death. Unfortunately you still have to put up with Zachary Quinto simply not giving a shit. I have no idea why they would get the voice of the new Spock, make him a hologram and only use him in a short tutorial. I imagine Quinto was wondering the same thing as he phoned in his lines while drinking expensive wine -- perhaps a Chateau Picard -- out of a solid gold goblet. Just turn down the volume. It's over quickly. There's a lot of stuff going on in the galaxy and even for someone who once played the game a couple of years ago, it could get a bit overwhelming. Thankfully, Cryptic added a bunch of extra optional tutorial missions and every time a new concept is introduced it's explained pretty clearly. It's not that it's a particularly complex game, it's certainly no EVE, but there's a lot to take in. Captain's Log: I still don't know what date it is. Regardless, things are going well. I really don't know how I do it, but Starfleet keeps promoting me. On top of that, they don't seem to care that I'm all about work place discrimination. I mean, every single one of my Bridge Officers is a busty broad. Even Kirk didn't get this much action. Inexplicably I keep finding myself in really odd situations, Klingon conspiracies, Romulan conspiracies, lots of time traveling and something about a part-Klingon savior. It's all a bit much, really. It wouldn't be so bad if it didn't always end with everyone trying to kill me. Don't they realize I'm just doing my job? Levels go by in a flash, it feels like every few minutes Leonard Nimoy is congratulating me. Not that I'm complaining, I've always wanted Spock to tell me how proud he is of me. Leveling has been somewhat simplified as well, there's less choice when it comes to selecting skill to pump points into, but also less room to make some terrible mistakes. Since F2P players don't get free respecs every time they get a new rank like the Premium folks, I can see the logic. Claymore is a straight up DPS guy and it's completely obvious where I need to assign points for that, so I barely had to think about it. Things will get a bit more complicated for raids and PvP, though. To compliment your own abilities, you are assigned Bridge Officers. BO's can be gained through missions, leveling or purchased from a vendor. Your ship has a set number of BO seats with escorts offering more tactical officer positions, cruisers have more engineering openings and science vessels are all filled with Beverly Crushers. As you gain more ranks you can promote them, which gives them access to other abilities for both space and ground combat. You can also use them to train other BOs. There's a lot of room for experimentation, however I made an effort to not take any new BOs unless they were beautiful women, because that's the kind of ship I run. The decision didn't cripple me, though, thanks to being able to train them in new abilities. Additionally, players now get a whole bunch of extra crew members to abuse. Duty Officers are one of the newer features. The Duty Officer mechanic is a wee bit like a CCG. There are over thirty thousand unique crew members, each with their own positive and negative traits, careers and ranks. They can be assigned to work on board your ship, augmenting your space and ground abilities or sent on assignments where they might bring back items, buffs, commendation and dilithium. Every sector of space has a long list of missions and there are generic assignments which can be performed on the ship itself. It's an easy way to get more rewards and it goes a long way to making you feel like a Starfleet Captain. The episodic content is what makes up the meat of the enjoyable parts of STO. They are missions centered around classic Star Trek tropes like time travel, war with the Klingons and Romulans being shifty. Each season brings loads of new missions, launched each weekend. While individual episodes can sometimes be a bit hit or miss, the seasons themselves usually end up being pretty damn good. At the end of a season your inventory will be full of unique rewards like an homage to the proton pack from Ghostbusters or weapons from The Original Series. Cryptic have tried to inject a bit of cinematic magic to these adventures, but atrocious animation and abysmal voice acting mars their effort. However, they are generally lots of fun and a much better motivator to continue playing than "exploration missions," a travesty I'll be looking at later. Captain's Log: Stardate... I DON'T CARE, TRIBBLES HAVE DEVOURED EVERYTHING! After a trying week of harassing Klingon Birds of Prey and stalking Romulans in the Neutral Zone, I thought I'd do something nice for my lovely Bridge Crew and buy them all murkins. At least, I thought they were murkins. It turns out they were actually tribbles, they ate all my food and drank all my tea and proceeded to multiply. They do make good pets though, at least that's what the ladies tell me. I'm far too busy for such things though, I've blown up thousands of enemy ships and stopped the Federation from being destroyed ten times over. They are bloody adorable though...okay, I'll keep two. Tribbles are weird. They squeak, multiply rapidly and star in one of my favorite silly episodes from The Original Series. Cryptic have a bit of a thing for tribbles and they feature quite prominently in STO. You can collect and breed the furry wee buggers. A good tribble breeder keeps an eye on what they are feeding the creatures so they can create rare, more powerful tribbles. Yes, tribbles aren't just odd looking furballs, they also confer buffs and heals to squad members during ground combat. I usually scoff at such things, but I confess that I've gotten quite into tribble breeding. I'm not proud of myself. I'll just pretend I'm being practical and only breed them for the combat benefits. Talking of combat, I'm a bit split on the matter. Space combat is exactly what one would hope for with a Star Trek game, it's all firing arcs and turning really slowly. That's not a complaint, I bloody love it. The USS Indefatigable is an escort vessel though, so it's able to run rings around the slower cruisers, but it's a bit of a glass cannon. While there's not much aesthetic customization to be had with the ships, there's a huge number of weapons and components that really allow you to have a very specific set up. Battles can frequently end up taking quite a while, especially if you are in a cruiser, but it feels just right. Space itself is surprisingly busy, with lots of enemies, asteroid belts, planets, moons and space stations. Unfortunately there's not a vast amount of variety and the slow pace of space battles can start to become a bit frustrating. Ground combat is a different matter entirely. While some away missions have you solving puzzles and doing some actual roleplaying, most of them come down to shooting lasers at some really stupid guys. That's not to say it hasn't improved, it most certainly has. For instance, your squad actually bother using their abilities and they don't appear to be suicidal anymore. Enemies will very occasionally patrol, not that it makes a difference considering how close you can be to them before they actually notice you. Generally they are just stationary cannon fodder. There's just nothing about ground combat that's remotely interesting. I find myself cursing out loud the moment I realize that the away mission is combat focused. The locations in which you fight are often rather alien looking, and most of them look like sets from the show and films, which can be good or bad depending on how much of a fan you are. Unfortunately they tend to be barren of content and rarely inspire exploration. Buildings tend to be even more stark, and assets are reused with alarming frequency. Captain's Log: Stardate... promotion time! Another day, another rank. They tell me I'm a Commander now, which means I need to grow a beard and put more effort into my flirting. No complaints. I also have to approach chairs by putting one leg over them in a nonchalant manner. With my slick new ship the galaxy is my oyster, time to explore new star systems and chat up a bevy of green women. On the next Captain's Log I get in some PvP scraps, learn how to be a proper Klingon, get down and dirty with dilithium and tackle dreaded "diplomacy." Live long and ... yeah, I'm not going to do that. |
| Win Ninja Gaiden & Dynasty Warriors PS Vita games! Posted: 13 Mar 2012 08:45 AM PDT Take pictures of yourself in the best costume you can make of: A) a ninja or B) a Dynasty Warrior. Email them to Cookies@Destructoid.com by this Sunday, March 18th, at 11:59 PM Pacific Time. Now, let me clarify that we're not looking for a super-accurate homemade replica of Ryu Hayabusa's outfit, or anything like that. Have fun with it, get silly. Put on a bathrobe and a scarf and make some epic poses with a broom or wrap a teeshirt around your head and make some tinfoil shurikens. Common sense would dictate that if you want Ninja Gaiden, dress like a ninja, and if you want Dynasty Warriors, dress like whatever the hell Dynasty Warriors are. Mongol lampshade wizards or whatever. Winners will be picked based on creativity and originality, and bonus points will be awarded if you're holding a PS Vita. That way we know you're not just gonna trade in the game and buy Poképark 2 or something. Once again, it pains me to say that this contest is US ONLY. If you have access to a US address, that works too. (I seriously feel like a jerk every time we do a US only contest, because I know you guys are scattered all over the world. It's not because I don't love you. There's some legal/tax BS, and we honestly don't have the budget for shipping or a matter-teleporter.) |
| Team Fortress 2sdays: I think you got him Posted: 13 Mar 2012 08:30 AM PDT Welcome to another exciting edition of Team Fortress 2sdays! Every Tuesday, a bunch of us Dtoiders hop online and play Team Fortress 2 on the official Destructoid server; you should join us! Tonight we make the move from "all Payload, all the time" back to a more varied maplist. Hell, I even threw in a CTF map just to piss everyone off! Hit the jump to see what we're playing! Here's tonight's schedule: Server Early Match Late Match Maplist As you can see, we've got a little bit of everything on the docket this week, which means that somebody is sure to hate something. If you have any suggestions for next week's match, sound off below! Also, we'd love to recap this week's events during next week's post, so take lots of screenshots and email them to andydixon[@]destructoid.com! Thanks to Swishiee and Tarvu for providing this week's pics! We'll see you online! |
| Preview: Battlefield 3’s Close Quarters DLC Posted: 13 Mar 2012 08:00 AM PDT
I’ve played about 20 minutes of Battlefield 3. I was with some friends and they handed me the controller during a multiplayer match. We were playing on a TV from the early 90’s that would occasionally, randomly, flip the display upside down, requiring someone to hit the thing to right the picture. It was rather brown, I shot a guy or two, got shot a bit more, got blinded by a flashlight as bright as the sun, and spawned in a jet piloted by a teammate that would awkwardly crash into the ground seconds later. Then I gave up the controller, presumably to go do more fun things. Battlefield 3: Close Quarters DLC Pack (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PC [Previewed])
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