New Games |
- EA reported to FTC over Mass Effect 3 ending
- Sup Holmes? talks disturbing trends with Octodad dev
- Battlefield 3 is a totally different game with NES sounds
- Heroes of Ruin has an impressive amount of customization
- Flixist X Dtoid to host a post-PAX East viewing of The FP
- Weekend Modder's Guide: S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Complete
| EA reported to FTC over Mass Effect 3 ending Posted: 18 Mar 2012 12:00 PM PDT The Mass Effect 3 ending controversy has easily become one of the biggest brouhahas in recent history, but it might not have even peaked. Proving that some Mass Effect fans will take this thing to the sky, one of them went so far as to report Electronic Arts to the Federal Trade Commission. BioWare forum member "El Spiko" accused the publisher of not delivering on its promises to consumers, stating, "it was clear that the product we got did not live up to any of those claims." Spiko has also filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau, and says he will return his copy of the game if its conclusion has not been addressed within thirty days. Other fans have been directed to FTC.gov if they wish to follow suit and lend more weight to the complaint. If gamers did this for every single game that failed to deliver on its hype, GameStop would be empty and Peter Molyneux would be clapped in irons. What a beautiful world. Fan filing FTC complaints against EA after Mass Effect 3 ending [GamePur, thanks Vallanthaz!] |
| Sup Holmes? talks disturbing trends with Octodad dev Posted: 18 Mar 2012 07:45 AM PDT
[Destructoid's Director of Communications Hamza Aziz asked Jonathan Holmes to make a show called 'Sup Holmes?' so that Destructoid could later sell a t-shirt that says 'Sup Holmes?' on it. Pick up past episodes in podcast form, subscribe to the podcast feed, and find more episodes here.] On this week's Sup Holmes? we have the one and only Phil Tibitoski from Young Horses (developer of the brilliant, award winning freeware title Octodad and it's upcoming sequel Octodad: Dadliest Catch) to talk about the today's most bizarre and disturbing trends in gaming. From fans forming activists groups to demand that developers change their games to meet the will of the audience, to devs charging $20 for on-disc DLC, to PBS claiming that Super Mario Bros. is surrealist art, we'll be keeping it hot. I guess that last one isn't all that "distrurbing", but I'll find a way to make it disturbing. I promise. So jump in the chat and join us for an hour of good times, great people, and amazing conversation. If we fail to deliver, feel free to report us to the Federal Trade Commission.
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| Battlefield 3 is a totally different game with NES sounds Posted: 18 Mar 2012 05:00 AM PDT
What composers did with game music 20+ years ago is a lot different than what they do now. We're talking full-on symphonies, ambient noise, punctuated silences, and a concerted effort to use the audio to envelope players as though they were right there in the heat of battle. Now, we can debate from dawn to dusk on the strength of melodies in modern orchestrations versus old-school chiptunes and so on, but no one can deny that things are vastly different, for better or worse. That said, it's amazing what something as simple as swapping out music and sound effects can do to the feel of a videogame. YouTuber Omega52 thought it would be a fun experiment to make Battlefield 3 sound like an NES title -- explosions and gunfire are replaced with the blips and bloops of Contra and Top Gun, and the nearly silent soundtrack is replaced with bass-heavy Sunsoft jams from Journey to Silius and Batman. It's quite the fresh twist! The realism of the original audio may be appealing to some, but those bitty old effects have a weight all their own. Contra gunfire just sounds like it makes a bigger impact, ya know? Battlefield 3 NES Edition [YouTube] |
| Heroes of Ruin has an impressive amount of customization Posted: 18 Mar 2012 03:00 AM PDT
Heroes of Ruin is the exact kind of game I've been craving for my 3DS lately. I've been wanting a fantasy co-op action-RPG that's all about looting for weapons and armor to make your character as badass as possible. And as the trailer shows off, there's a ton of customization. I also really like that there's choice between using blades or guns. That's always a nice touch. I'm a bit curious to find out how the looting will work with your online co-op partner though. Like, if the loot will be split or it will all be first-come first-serve for example. I'm sure we'll find out soon enough. I'm a sucker for these types of games though. Especially when all the environments are all colorful and one enemy type looks like a character out of the show Street Sharks. Hopefully we'll get a more concrete release date for Heroes of Ruin other than "sometime this year." |
| Flixist X Dtoid to host a post-PAX East viewing of The FP Posted: 18 Mar 2012 01:00 AM PDT
After a long weekend of hardcore partying with the Destructoid gang at PAX East, the first thing you'll want to do after the doors close on Sunday is crawl back to your hotel rooms and curl up under the covers, right? Well... f*ckin'... WRONG! You are going to party with us some more because we are a pleasant bunch of motherf*ckers! Remember that Dance Dance Revolution-themed, dystopian future movie The FP we talked about the other week? Want to come see it with us? Sure, you do! At the Boston Common 19 theater on April 8 at 8 PM, the lovely Matthew Razak and Andres Bolivar of Flixist along with the huggable Jonathan Holmes will host a special screening followed by a post-film discussion. All you gotta do is head on over here and reserve a ticket for $9. We need at least 100 reserves to make this a reality. This promises to be a fun-filled evening, the perfect cap to the PAX festivities. The movie looks to be pretty damn solid as well, according the glowing review Alex and Jenika Katz gave it on Flixist. Whether the movie is good or not is irrelevant, however. Don't you want to spend more time with us? We're really nice people once you get to know us! |
| Weekend Modder's Guide: S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Complete Posted: 17 Mar 2012 09:00 AM PDT S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is a shooter, an RPG, a trading simulator, and a survival horror game all wrapped up in one. It has a rich and deep game world, but its depth has probably scared away most people from trying to tackle this ambitious series. Other games, like F.E.A.R. or Dead Space use the same tactics as horror movies to try and scare us. They build moments of tension and spring monsters out of closets to make us jump out of our seats. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. builds a terrifying world and abandons you in it, fighting for survival. It doesn't attempt to create scary moments, it just has a scary world. The payoff isn't immediate -- and you won't be immersed in the world in five minutes while hanging on to the edge of your seat -- but if you give it a little bit of time and effort, you'll be richly rewarded. The world exists with or without your intervention. Gun battles don't start every time you show up, and people don't sit around waiting for you. NPCs have shit to do, and they don't need you there to do it. Caravans travel around buying and selling, and monsters will roam around eating people. You can interact with all of this detail, or you can just ignore it and let it provide you with a fantastic backdrop for your adventures. If you are looking to jump into S.T.A.L.K.E.R. for the first time, I've got some sweet mods that will make your experience much better. Artistpavel has compiled all of the best mods for each game in the series into easy-to-install .EXE files. The S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Complete mod series aims to enhance the games without changing the gameplay, story, or core elements. It simply makes them better. The graphics are enhanced insanely, bugs are fixed, the translation to English is improved, and you can keep playing the game after it ends. Trivia:
Time: Less than an hour If this is your first time playing any of the games, you will want to start with either Shadow of Chernobyl or Clear Sky. Shadow of Chernobyl is the first game released, but Clear Sky comes first chronologically. I love Call of Pripyat but it's not a great one to start with since it just drops you into the world without explaining much. Those of you not using the Steam versions will want to make sure that you have the latest patches; otherwise, your game won't start. Clear Sky Shadow of Chernobyl Call of Pripyat If you have over three gigs of memory and you experience any sort of crashing, there is a patch on each of the Complete download pages. This should clear up any issues, but only install it if you are having problems. Extract it and copy all of the files into your game install folder. Run START.bat and hit "A" to add the three-gig fix. If you love modding games, check out more of The Weekend Modder's Guide. Have a favorite game that you would like me to cover or a cool mod to suggest? Go ahead and post it in the comments. I promise that I read all of them, and I try and respond as much as I can. |
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