New Games |
- Wha' Happened: National Goof-off Day
- Today is a fine day for a FREE EarthBound tribute album
- Interview: Darksiders II with Vigil Games' Dave Adams
- Interview: Hiroyuki Kobayashi talks Dragon's Dogma
- Office Chat: Reavers of Dark Souls and social games
- Square Enix's entire Steam catalog on sale starting today
- Dust 514 gameplay, space strikes shown for the first time
- Actions speak louder than words: The advent of anonymous multiplayer
- Live show: Run Saber on Mash Tactics
- Review: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680
- Sniper: Ghost Warrior 2 is deserving of your attention
- Remedy is working on a game for next gen consoles
- Angry Birds Space is now out
- Silent Hill HD Collection seems to be a buggy mess
- Coming soon: A Companion Cube / mutant duck thing
- Far Cry 3 pre-orders come with bonus missions
- Review: Blades of Time
- United Front Games talks LittleBigPlanet Karting
- Theatrhythm Final Fantasy coming to US this summer
| Wha' Happened: National Goof-off Day Posted: 22 Mar 2012 04:00 PM PDT Sometimes I'm upset that I do these posts at night because I don't realize that the day is some holiday and thus I don't celebrate it. Today I totally missed my chance to goof-off at work all day without getting in trouble. I'm positive my boss would have been fine if I had been downing beers and dancing shirtless on my desk all day. This is a totally legit reason to do this. Maybe a less "getting fired" way of goofing off is to read some of these posts. Flixist Review: The Raid: Redemption. Seriously, you have to see this movie. Best kung fu/action flick in years. Tomopop Review: Blazblue Jubei Plush Japanator Annotated Anime. More fun in the land of all your fave animes. |
| Today is a fine day for a FREE EarthBound tribute album Posted: 22 Mar 2012 03:00 PM PDT Any day is a fine day for free music of any kind, but EarthBound is a game that strikes a particularly harmonious chord whenever it is mentioned. Maybe if fans believe in the power of friendship and magic enough, Nintendo of America will finally acknowledge that the Mother series is a thing that exists. Back in January, a collective of web musicians, spearheaded by one sleepytimejesse, produced I Miss You - EarthBound 2012. The artists took sound samples directly from the SNES game to create something new yet still nostalgic and inviting. The album went up on Bandcamp where it can be purchased for a buck. This past week, Ubiktune decided to host the album as well. To celebrate, the siteis offering it for free. After the jump, give the sample track by Joshua Morse a listen, then head on over to one of the links below for the full release. Maybe you'll wanna pay, maybe not. Your choice! Various Artists - I Miss You - EarthBound 2012 [Ubiktune]
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| Interview: Darksiders II with Vigil Games' Dave Adams Posted: 22 Mar 2012 01:30 PM PDT
Earlier this week, Hamza and I went to see Darksiders II. Because I have nicer hair than Hamza, I got to do a video interview with Dave Adams, the general manager of Vigil Games. He was nice enough to answer some of my dumb questions, and the folks at THQ emailed over some new gameplay footage. Go watch! #darksiders2 |
| Interview: Hiroyuki Kobayashi talks Dragon's Dogma Posted: 22 Mar 2012 12:30 PM PDT
Capcom's upcoming action RPG Dragon's Dogma has totally gotten my attention, and I had an absolute blast playing it last week. Afterwards, I got a chance to chat with the game's producer, Hiroyuki Kobayashi. Take a gander! |
| Office Chat: Reavers of Dark Souls and social games Posted: 22 Mar 2012 12:00 PM PDT
Office Chat is back! Seemingly, Soul Reaver is coming back as well and the gang talks a little bit about their memories of the Legacy of Kain series. Zynga's acquisition of Draw Something developer OMGPop leads Conrad to beg for more board game adaptations. And a discussion of a Dark Souls tease is interrupted by the invasion of a black phantom. |
| Square Enix's entire Steam catalog on sale starting today Posted: 22 Mar 2012 11:30 AM PDT Starting today, Steam is having a huge sale on every single Square Enix game that is in their store, which is a surprise to no one. Everything Square Enix is 50% off (including DLC) and there will be even better daily deals through March 26th. Kicking those off are the Hitman games, which are discounted all the way down to 75% off for today only. You can pick up all four Hitman titles for just under $14. That's a deal if I ever saw one. Besides that, Deus Ex: Human Revolution is on sale for $14.99, both Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light and Kane & Lynch 2 are $7.49, and a ton more, which can be found here, are being sold for ridiculously cheap. I think I might hold out and see if Lara Croft will go down even cheaper in a Tomb Raider daily deal or something. Been wanting to pick that one up for a long time now. So, have any more room in your wallet for yet another Steam sale? |
| Dust 514 gameplay, space strikes shown for the first time Posted: 22 Mar 2012 11:15 AM PDT During tonight's keynote at EVE FanFest in Reykjavik, Iceland, fans roared in applause after seeing a destructive strike from space, sent from players in PC MMO EVE Online, come crashing into the world of upcoming PS3 free-to-play MMO FPS Dust 514. This was the first time that CCP Games has shown off gameplay of their new shooter, and from the buzz here at the event, fans are intrigued. The keynote kicked off with CCP's Brandon Laurino and Atli Mar taking the stage with PS3 controllers to show off Dust 514's interface and gameplay in a split screen format, revealing a deep customization and skill system not unlike EVE Online's. A bit later, two more CCP staffers joined the stage on PCs playing EVE to show off these strikes from orbit, opening up the stage for a huge four-way projection. This strike had beams raining down on an enemy gate, opening up the way for the Dust players to proceed with their mission. The fans in attendance liked it so much that CCP called for a secondary strike, which was also met with applause. Calling in a strike is fairly common in shooters, but having that strike come in from people playing a completely different game on a different platform changes so much. This is some futuristic stuff! Look for more coverage on Dust 514 and EVE FanFest later this week. |
| Actions speak louder than words: The advent of anonymous multiplayer Posted: 22 Mar 2012 11:00 AM PDT [Dtoid Community Blogger bbain shares his thoughts on a new trend in multiplayer gaming. Want to see your own words appear on the front page? Get writing! --Mr Andy Dixon] Like any other aspect of gaming, such as graphics and storytelling, the multiplayer experience has been growing and evolving rapidly throughout the years. We've seen local co-op (or "couch co-op"), massively multiplayer online games, and regular online multiplayer, which seems to be a norm for most games these days. All of these multiplayer options have something in common, however. They all rely on communication between players. Whether you're talking with your roommate on the couch next to you, entering text into the chatbox of an MMO, or shouting at twelve-year-olds over the mic during a heated battle in an online shooter, communication has always been the most important aspect of multiplayer. Recently, however, I've been playing a few new games which have shaken up this notion of multiplayer and have gone to great lengths to minimize communication between players as much as possible. The results of these multiplayer experiments have been extremely fascinating to me. Let's begin with a game that was just released this month. Journey is the newest downloadable PSN title from thatgamecompany, the developer responsible for other critically acclaimed titles such as flOw and Flower. What makes Journey such an interesting game is its innovative use of multiplayer. During the game, players will come across other players (one at a time) who will accompany you on your journey. You cannot speak to this other player, however. There are no chatboxes or mic options, and you will not be given their PSN ID (which would allow you to send them messages). These other players will remain completely and utterly anonymous throughout your journey together. All that you know is that they are a human playing the game at the same time as you somewhere in the world. The only form of communication that you can make with your companions in Journey is by pressing a button which makes a sort of musical note sound along with a distinct symbol that appears above your character, which helps to differentiate between players. There are no words, just a sound. Any meaning that you might assign to the sounds that other players make at you is your own interpretation. Maybe they are saying, "Hello! Nice to meet you!" Perhaps they are saying, "Follow me, I'll show you where to find a secret." Or maybe they are trying to say, "Hah, your scarf is so much shorter than mine. You must suck at this game." You'll never know what they really meant by those sounds, but somehow they are comforting and begin to take on meaning. When I play Journey, I typically call out to my companions for several reasons. I'll say hello when I first meet them, I'll sound out a few times quickly if I want them to follow me or if I'm alerting them of something, I'll sound out once to reassure them if we've been silent for awhile or to reply to their sounds, and I'll hold in the button and create a louder sound if I want to say something like, "Thanks!" or, "We did it!" I have no idea if this is how they translate my sounds, but somehow, it seems to work. Seldom have I been frustrated by players not doing what I'm trying to get them to do; they always seem to just know. Of course, the communication in Journey runs deeper than just making sounds at each other. Actions can be a very powerful tool as well. Huddling close to other players will cause you both to glow, recharging your flight ability, but I also huddle close to my companions to try to show them that I care about them. If I run off to go look behind a dune and notice they're not following, I'll try to return to them so that we don't become too separated. Sometimes I'll notice them looking around but not moving, as if they're unsure what to do next, so I'll try to help them out and guide the way. There are any number of ways in which you can communicate something without using words or even sounds. This minimal form of communication creates a very interesting connection between the players in Journey, a connection which I have never experienced in any other game. I grew to rely on other players and trust them. It was comforting to know that I was not alone in the world, I had someone with me. I was happy when we succeeded in accomplishing something together, and I was sad when we would become separated from one another. I'll never know how they really felt towards me, but I like to imagine their emotions ran similar to mine. Another recent game, or series of games rather, that has implemented an anonymous multiplayer component is the Souls series, Demon's Souls and Dark Souls. The multiplayer component works very similarly in both games. You will come across many other players in the Souls games and can interact with them in a variety of ways. Sometimes you will simply see a ghostly figure of another player doing something around you: dodging out of the way of unseen enemies, running down corridors alongside you, or simply standing still. You will also come across bloodstains left by other players when they die, and if you touch these bloodstains, that player's final moments will be reenacted before you, so you can try to learn from their mistakes. These two instances of interaction, the ghosts and the bloodstains, are perhaps the most intriguing to me. You can't actually communicate or interact with these players at all. You just know that they are (or were) there, playing the same game as you somewhere in the world. It becomes a comfort knowing that you are not alone in the hostile, dangerous environments of the games. Other people are dealing with the same things you are. Along with the bloodstains on the ground, you will also find messages left by other players. They may contain a useful hint, a misdirection, or even just useless nonsense ("Praise the sun!"). These messages are created from a set of words and phrases provided to you by the game, so you can't just write any old message you want. I'm glad the developers decided to do this, because reading a message that says "I'm so horny right now," or something else entirely unrelated would definitely lessen the experience and take away from the immersion of the games. This limited form of communication allows players to interact with each other while still remaining anonymous, and helps to keep the game's atmosphere intact. Finally, there is the co-op portion of the Souls games. By using various items, players can summon other players into their game to help them fight bosses, or even invade other players' worlds and fight them in a PvP duel. During these instances, there is no verbal or written communication possible between the players. You are able to use a set of gestures to communicate with other players, such as pointing in a direction where to go, waving to them, bowing before a fight, shrugging at them, etc. These actions provide a very basic set of communication tools, and honestly, they are all that is really necessary. Verbal insults, specific advice and small talk are not really required to play a game together and have a good time. The inability to exchange words makes co-op a lot more interesting, requiring a great deal of creativity to try to plan strategies and get your needs across to your partner. It also makes PvP way more tense than it already is. There's no way to tell what your opponent is thinking; are they just here for a friendly sparring match, or are they out for blood and will pull any dirty tricks they can to take you down? It's difficult to tell, and it makes PvP matches infinitely more exciting than ever before. The one flaw (in my opinion) in the Souls games' approach to multiplayer is that summoning and invading players will yield the other players' PSN IDs or Xbox Gamertags. This allows for players to contact each other through inbox messaging or perhaps even communication over a mic. I feel that this sort of defeats the purpose of the games' proposed multiplayer ideas, as those contacted players will no longer remain anonymous. I've only ever come in contact like this with one player during my time with the Souls games, when an invading player in Demon's Souls sent me a message asking if I was looking for any particular items. I told them I still needed pure darkmoonstone and pure moonlightstone, and they proceeded to drop the items before me, which I greedily picked up, and then they quickly defeated me in a duel and left. Looking back, I kind of regret responding to them. It may have relieved me of a lot of grinding to find those items, but it detracted from the overall multiplayer experience for me. It reminded me of any number of moments from games like World of Warcraft or Team Fortress 2, trading items with other players. That type of multiplayer is not a bad thing of course; I just felt like it didn't belong in the world of Demon's Souls. On the other hand, they could have dropped some items for me anonymously, not knowing what I wanted or needed, just trying to be friendly, and that would have seemed much more appropriate to me. I have found the advent of this new type of anonymous multiplayer to be extremely fascinating and rewarding. It has provided me with experiences and emotions that I've never before felt while playing a game, and which I honestly never expected. I hope more games will attempt to utilize this form of multiplayer, and that it will continue to grow and evolve. Perhaps there are already other games that have used some form of anonymous multiplayer which I am unaware of. If anyone knows of any other examples, please tell me about them in the comments. I'd be very interested to learn about them! |
| Live show: Run Saber on Mash Tactics Posted: 22 Mar 2012 10:30 AM PDT Today is "Throwback Thursday" on Mash Tactics, and we're dashing back to the SNES days. King Foom will be playing Run Saber, Atlus' answer to Strider. Tune in for an action packed look at the past. 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: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 Posted: 22 Mar 2012 10:00 AM PDT For some of us, upgrading our PCs with the best hardware and enjoying the most jaw-dropping games in all their glory is a not-so-distant memory. Even though I've consistently owned beefy rigs my whole life, I've spent less and less time utilizing their full power, due to a slowly dwindling and fluctuating PC market. For several years, my PC gaming life was akin to the Brooks Hatlen character from The Shawshank Redemption -- every day, continuing to feed the pigeons in the park, hoping for his old raven buddy to return. Lately, the PC gods have arisen from their slumber and decided to bless us with some stellar (and demanding) PC-focused games. Now high-end graphics technology is starting to look more and more worth its market value. Over the past week, I've had the opportunity to pilot NVIDIA's upcoming beast of a doomsday machine, the GTX 680, and make obedient subjects of the powerful games that once laughed at my PC's inadequacies. NVIDIA set out to make not only a more powerful graphics card, but a more efficient one that doesn't require a lot of extra tech (such as a whole extra card) to get the best experience possible.
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 Important GeForce GTX 680 specs:
My general PC specs:
I'm just going to get straight to what most of you want to know: How it handles games. The reason I posted my rig's not-so-uber specs above is actually a way of pointing out that my 680 has been taking a lot of the stress with all of the graphically heavy games I've thrown at it. It's all for the card. Believe me, I would have gladly neglect mentioning my specs, as mentioning your lackluster PC to techies is like showing your four-incher to a porn star. The first game I tested -- and the most obvious -- was Battlefield 3. An important note about its Frostbite 2 engine is that it's very efficiently built to run on an adequately powered rig. My old 560 Ti (always overclocked) could handle ultra settings at around 40 to 50 FPS, minus VSync or anti-aliasing. So it's obvious that a 680 would make short work of this game's demands. However, even on powerful rigs, framerate drops are common during heated battles with an abundance of particle effects (smoke and explosions) and game models crowding the screen. To test this out the best I could, I played through several "Conquest Large" matches on BF3's biggest maps available, all on completely maxed-out settings. Even when a team had only one point captured, and the player focus was centered on that entire area, I didn't witness a single drop in smoothness. I mean I literally kept my eyes on the framrate as the sh*t was hitting the fan, and noticed no fluctuation at all. I then tested the 680 on an engine that isn't very efficiently built. The Witcher 2's RED Engine has turned quite a few heads due to its looks, though it's no secret that maxed-out settings require an overall top-end PC. More specifically, the "Uber Sampling" feature is typically what kills the game's performance, as it renders each scene several times over to provide a smoother image quality. Most people turn this feature off, as the slight visual improvement doesn't justify the hardware demands. On my 560 Ti, you could swear I was playing some game I received from ten years into the future; a whopping 15 FPS was the best I got out of it. With the 680, though, it ran at a very stable 40 to 50 FPS, with almost no drops below that 40 (even during combat). Mainly due to the RED Engine's cumbersome features, The Witcher 2 was one of the most technically demanding games I could test on it. A close equal was Crysis 2 with its DX11 upgrades, which ran surprisingly better than Witcher. Out of all the games I tested on the 680 (others include Skyrim, Rage and Just Cause 2), the most rewarding was undoubtedly Crysis 2. The Frostbite 2 engine looks beautiful because of it versatility, but the CryEngine 3 looks incredible because of its cutting-edge features, and the 680 handles them all brilliantly. Displacement maps, high-quality HDR, real-time reflections, and particle motion blur all look absolutely fantastic. My 560 Ti could barely handle Crysis 2 on max settings at around 30 FPS. My 680 laughs at it, with a strong 60 FPS, only dropping to near 50 during moments of extreme action (lots of explosions and particle effects). After all of this, I can't say I'm surprised that the 680 performed the way it did. Many people may remember the Unreal Engine 3 Samaritan Demo from last year's GDC. Well, that demo, mind-bogglingly beautiful as it was, originally required three GTX 580s and a power supply the size of a small child. When I was first presented the 680 at NVIDIA's Editor's Day event during GDC 2012, the same tech demo was shown ... running on a single 680 and nothing else. NVIDIA wants this card to really mean something to the gaming community, not only by being ultra powerful and providing us with longevity, but also via the cutting-edge features that are idiosyncratic to NVIDIA cards alone. A lot of you might have been wondering how I got such close framerate fluctuation with VSync presumably on (it was). Without getting too technical, a big issue people have with VSync is that it forces the framerate to drop by positive integers, based on your monitor's refresh rate (i.e. a 60Hz monitor dropping by 60FPS, 30, 20, 15, etc.) all for the sake of preventing "screen tearing." We gamers can see the obvious problem with this, as the drastic drop in framerate results in "jittering." To combat this, NVIDIA has developed what's known as "Adaptive VSync," which automatically turns off global VSync whenever the framerate needs to fall to anything below your monitor's max refresh rate. No more jitter and no more screen tearing. As another means of providing a smoother gaming experience, NIVIDA is aspiring to do away with MSAA (Multisample anti-aliasing) by providing their own FXAA, which can be activated within the card alone and be applied to any game. They're also providing the upcoming TXAA, a new film-style AA that is at least 4X more effective than MSAA. The result is a welcome addition, as we've been long overdue for an upgrade in this area. Another great feature that we're all becoming acquainted with is PhysX, NVIDIA's proprietary physics engine. PhysX has been steadily appearing in a lot of high-quality titles, providing great rigid and soft body dynamics, as well as fluid and cloth simulations. At NVIDIA's Editor's Day, Gearbox Software CEO Randy Pitchford showed off Borderlands 2 and how it implemented PhysX. Fluids pooled and flowed in complete real-time, and even reacted to explosions -- splashing about into numerous smaller puddles. Cloth materials reacted accordingly to foreign objects, and could even be torn and shredded when fired at. It was quite incredible how these effects could be handled with such relative ease in real-time, when just five years ago it took me several hours to render them for 3D animations on a high-end PC. The last upgrade I'm going to mention is, in a lot of ways, more of a downgrade, but sold me on the card merely due to my living situation. As stated before, the 680 is a very efficient card, and that applies more than anything to its power consumption. The 680 is so streamlined that it actually draws less power than its predecessor, the 580 (see the specs above). What does this mean for me? Well, as a city that desperately tries to retain some sort of bullsh*t identity, San Francisco is adamant about holding on to their Victorian architecture of the 1920s. This includes the f*cked up power distribution systems that came with them. With that said, I can only have about two appliances on at any one time, before I cause a power surge and my place goes completely dark. When it comes to PC gaming, this presents a problem. I actually used to SLI two 560s, but had to get rid of one if I wanted to game with my heater on -- enduring cold San Francisco nights is definitely not worth an extra 560 Ti. So you can imagine that a card like the 680 fairs well for someone with my situation, if not also for people who dig the environment or like saving money on bills. Not only does it consume less power than the best of last generation, but its TDP is only 25 more than my freakin' 560 Ti. After seeing the Samaritan demo and what it took to run it last year, I don't know how they accomplished what they have with the 680. It's like someone sold their ass to the Devil to make this thing. To really explain every notable change and addition with the GeForce GTX 680 would take so much more time. This new line of graphics cards is leaps and bounds beyond the 500 series. This review alone is obviously not going to convince you to throw down $499 on a new card, but I do hope it drives you to do a little more digging into the fine details of the 680 ... especially if you plan on upgrading. PC gaming is slowly but surely making a comeback, and the GeForce 680 is the card to welcome it with open arms. Several games are in development right now with this very card in mind (others shown at the NVIDIA event were Max Payne 3 and The Secret World). If you yearn for the time when you filled your PC with the best of the best tech in preparation for the hottest-looking games to come, then the time is certain now, and the tech is certainly this card. Oh, and before I go, all of you hardcore NVIDIA fans are probably going to want to watch this:
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| Sniper: Ghost Warrior 2 is deserving of your attention Posted: 22 Mar 2012 09:30 AM PDT
The first Sniper: Ghost Warrior holds a special place in my heart. It certainly wasn't without its technical problems, but the prospect of a game focused purely on sniping, my favorite weapon specialty, was intriguing enough to at least capture my interest. Now, just over two years later, City Interactive is stepping things up big time for the sequel and giving it a much-needed makeover on CryEngine 3. Thanks to the new graphics and AI boosts, along with a handful of tweaks and other improvements, Sniper: Ghost Warrior 2 is now officially on my must-have list for 2012. Watch the video above for some snippets and impressions of the game's single-player campaign! |
| Remedy is working on a game for next gen consoles Posted: 22 Mar 2012 09:15 AM PDT Remedy Entertainment is hiring for their next game, which they say is a project 'targeted at future generation consoles.' A posting on Remedy's community forums let members know that more than 20 job openings will open up in the next few months, and that they're looking for "world-class talent" to work on their next big thing. The forum post says tat the first batch of positions will go live later this month. What do you think Remedy could be working on? A new IP? Some more Alan Wake for next gen? |
| Posted: 22 Mar 2012 08:45 AM PDT Today is the day you will always remember as "the day Angry Birds Space was released for iOS, Mac, Android, and PC". At some point in ten years your posterity will ask you "where were you when our great savior released Angry Birds Space?" You will reply with great diginity - "Destructoid, son. Destructoid". Space is indeed the final frontier, as the game adds genre bending concepts such as "power-ups" and "space physics". |
| Silent Hill HD Collection seems to be a buggy mess Posted: 22 Mar 2012 08:15 AM PDT Is it possible to screw up such a guaranteed success as an HD version of Silent Hill 2 and 3? If any company's capable, it's Konami. The publisher just seems to be getting more and more senile, and this latest endeavor is beyond belief. The Silent Hill HD Collection, which released this past week, has been surrounded by a whirlwind of negative criticism from fans reporting all manner of bugs. Sound sync problems, crackling audio, stuttering framerates, and missing textures, it seems this release is running the gamut of shoddy port problems. I received my review copy yesterday, and I can confirm I've run into issues. I've had audio cutting in and out, and there was a cutscene I had to skip because unlocking an achievement caused it to run at a single frame every few seconds. A thread on NeoGAF details an embarrassing number of problems that users have encountered. All told, Konami cut some unforgivable corners with this. Interestingly, some claim the improved graphics have actually diminished the atmosphere of the games. Previously dark, claustrophobic areas are now crisp and clear, while the fog effect has a distinct line cutting across it and is no longer able to obscure portions of the map that were not finished. I'm only partway through Silent Hill 2 so far and nothing's truly broken my experience. I'm hearing SH3 got hit the worst though, so I'm not holding my breath. A patch has been issued for the PS3, but some claim it's done nothing. Even if it did fix something, the idea of a day one patch for a decade-old game should humiliate any publisher with a sense of dignity. As if I needed any further evidence that Konami has thoroughly lost its mind. It can't even do Silent Hill 2 right anymore. |
| Coming soon: A Companion Cube / mutant duck thing Posted: 22 Mar 2012 08:00 AM PDT The other week, threeA Toys announced a partnership for a series of goodies based on Valve properties. As a refresher, threeA has made some pretty sick stuff in the past, like that $400+ Metal Gear Rex figurine. The company will probably come up with something pretty spectacular for Valve, right? Above is the first piece of the partnership, the Companion Square. It's... well... wut? It's got legs and there's a duck face on it. Looks like someone had a run-in with the gene splicer. Probably the same unfortunate accident that created Brundlefly. In truth, it's just a variation of the Square line of robot figurines. I can't say it's not adorable in a disturbing way, honestly. No pricing or availability info yet, but I personally wouldn't mind owning one of these freaks of nature. |
| Far Cry 3 pre-orders come with bonus missions Posted: 22 Mar 2012 07:30 AM PDT
In a blink-and-you-miss-it moment at the end of this trailer, Ubisoft has confirmed pre-order bonuses for Far Cry 3. Those in North America who purchase their copy from Gamestop in advance will receive the Monkey Business Pack, containing four extra missions and two "bonus ways to humiliate your friends" in multiplayer (likely extra modes). Those in the EU region will receive the Lost Expeditions Edition, which includes the missions "Ignition In The Deep" and "The Forgotten Experiment", adding about 40 minutes of new content. A flare gun for use in multiplayer comes with the pack as well. Jungle fever returns when Far Cry 3 debuts in NA on September 4, 2012 and September 6 in the UK. |
| Posted: 22 Mar 2012 07:00 AM PDT You've got to give Gaijin Entertainment some credit. The Russian studio has no reputation for creating good games, and 2009's X-Blades was particularly mediocre. Despite this, Gaijin just keeps on plugging and is even prepared to revisit its prior failures, giving the world a spiritual successor to X-Blades in the form of Blades of Time. It's amazing how much faith Gaijin has in the series' barely clothed heroine, Ayumi, because Konami certainly has none. Taking over the publishing duties from Southpeak, Konami has famously refused to put any effort into promoting the game. It announced a release date a week before launch, and the game itself missed that date in most areas by roughly three days. Let's face facts. Blades of Time is far from a masterpiece. It struggles to be good at all, in fact. Nevertheless, one can't help but feel sorry for it, and at least feel a little charmed by its noble attempts to be taken seriously. Blades of Time (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 [reviewed]) Famous treasure hunter Ayumi, having traded in her thong for some hotpants and her American accent for a British one, is doing some things in a place when something happens, before she gets transported to a place called Dragon Land for some reason. Once there, she has to do some other things to something before something else happens. In case you haven't guessed it, the plot is about as detailed as it is sensible. I still can't quite work out why Ayumi thought the bad guy was a good guy when he was established as her enemy at the very beginning of the game. Perhaps I'm not supposed to understand. The ludicrous story might make no sense but at least it's the first clue that Gaijin is actually trying to make a real videogame this time. While X-Blades was merely a set of vapid arenas with no sense of cohesion, Blades of Time attempts a sense of pacing, with fully designed levels through which the narrative weaves. Such a concept is rudimentary stuff for most videogames, but given Gaijin's prior efforts, it's a dramatic step forward for the series. It feels like more than a series of amateur third-person Unreal mods, which is a nice improvement. Blades of Time's combat system is of the stereotypical hack n' slash variety, with Ayumi dodging, blocking, and button mashing her way through most battles. Simply hammering the attack button will see our outgoing protagonist whirl about at a dizzying pace, while more damaging magical attacks are unlocked throughout the game, performed via simple two-button combos. With a click of the right stick, Ayumi can switch to projectile mode, starting with a rifle and upgrading to a machine gun, which can take down flying opponents and thin the ranks of oncoming monsters before they reach melee range. Finally, there's a lock-on system which allows players to dash straight to an opponent. If it happens to be a flying creature, Ayumi will cling on and attack for a limited while -- a cool idea, though poorly implemented as Ayumi will undefended damage while dashing, and many aerial creatures are positioned over deceptive death drops.
The action is adequate for some shallow hacking fun, but it does suffer from an inelegance that makes the game much harder than it has to be. Ayumi is absolutely terrible at defending. Her blocks are inefficient, she can take damage while dodging, and the enemies are not only numerous, but capable of fighting through the player's combos. Even the most common opponents can chew obscene amounts out of Ayumi's health bar and she has absolutely zero defense against ranged attackers, of which there are tons. It's an outmoded approach to challenge, where difficulty is determined simply by how lucky the player is to survive a ton of garbage thrown his or her way, rather than actual skill. Expect to use the regenerating heal command plenty of times, and don't forget to exploit the pathetic enemy A.I. by standing in any available doorways. Monsters can't seem to understand that approach, and will often harmlessly attempt to trudge through walls while you shoot them to bits. Blades of Time creates an artificial challenge through overwhelming assault, but players aren't completely helpless. Early in the game, Ayumi obtains a "rewind" ability, allowing her to turn back time. Once time is reversed, a clone of Ayumi will appear and recreate her past actions, while the player is free to do something else. This can be done multiple times to create a small army of clones, all doing whatever the player did before their last rewind. You can use clones to distract enemies, tackle multiple foes at once, or simply deal huge amounts of damage to a single target. By far my favorite use of the power is to create copies of Ayumi firing her machine gun at an incoming crowd of monsters, thereby creating a wall of bullets that decimates a force before it can even get near. There are some puzzles that make use of the rewind ability, but they're all fairly simple and repeated far too many times. They mostly consist of cloning Ayumi to stand on various pressure pads to keep doors open or activate platforms. There is one rather cool boss fight in which players must trap a creature in a QTE sequence, rewind the event, and then destroy the regenerating health tank on its back while it's defenseless. It's a neat idea, and highlights the potential of the rewind ability, but it's never developed beyond that one circumstance. The boss later becomes a regular enemy, and further uses of time travel consist solely of pressure puzzles or spamming the power to make fights more fair. Some of the puzzles, while still simple in concept, can be a bit more intricate. However, they'd all be very easy if the game was ever good at telling the player what it wants. Ayumi is followed by a fiery woman who dispenses advice on how to approach certain challenges, but she's so dismissively vague that it's sometimes difficult to work out exactly what the game expects of the player. One of her clues to a puzzle that's stumped a lot of players is -- and I'm not joking -- "Try sorting it out." That is how the game advises the player to approach a puzzle with a concept never seen in the game before or after. Just try sorting it out. The trouble is, once players do work it out, it's always insultingly easy. It's almost as if the in-game advice is purposefully designed to throw players off the scent and trick them into thinking a puzzle's more complex than it is, just to keep them there longer. One other thing I find disagreeable is the lack of fluidity to Ayumi's movements. Every time she stops attacking, whenever she jumps, and following each dodge, Ayumi has to stop and transition into regular movement. I find it quite irritating when games insist on this kind of stuttered shift between attacking and walking, and it's especially noticeable in this case and I felt I had to make mention of it somewhere. Although severely irritating at regularly intervals, there's still a perverse amount of fun to be had with Blades of Time. When luck is on the player's side, battles can be surprisingly engaging and entertaining, especially when the clones behave as intended and humiliate the enemy forces. It doesn't always work that way, as the enemies aren't shy of changing their actions after they've stopped rewinding, but the frustration can be worth it for those times when it works. The campaign, clocking in at your average six-to-eight hours, is pretty good at providing some disposable merriment, and there are some neat hidden treasure items to unlock that boost Ayumi's skills. At the very least, it's nice to see that Gaijin really did try this time. Amazingly, Blades of Time sports a multiplayer mode, which can be played either competitively or cooperatively. Conquest mode is a series of battles between two sides, in which players must defend a series of pillars from attack, while destroying the pillars of the opposition. The game is won when all the pillars, and the team's magical tree, are eliminated. The mode can be played solo, which is a good thing given the fact that literally nobody is online. It's almost adorable how hard Gaijin tried, though. There's a leveling system, multiple characters and unlockable costumes. Conquest really tries to be a fully realized online complement to the package, but all that effort has gone thoroughly to waste. As you may expect, this isn't the prettiest game on the market. Graphics are simplistic, but colorful, and there's some nice designs in both the creatures and environments. The voice acting is universally dreadful, and some of the characters responsible for the most exposition have distorting vocal effects piled onto their speech, making them almost impossible to understand. At the end of the day, it's a budget game, and you get what you expect. Blades of Time isn't a very good game. It's sloppy, cheap, and the one central gimmick is exploited to weary degrees. Nevertheless, it still carries itself with a sense of sincerity that I find utterly charming, and its simplistic combat system is perfectly capable of providing some basic thrills. While I wouldn't recommend a purchase even at its budget price, I'd say hack n' slash fans would do well to rent it for a weekend's pleasure. It might even be worth keeping if you can find a price closer to twenty dollars than forty. You won't fall in love with the thing, but once you've beaten it, you'll at least be able say, "Yeah ... that wasn't awful. Sometimes it was pretty neat." |
| United Front Games talks LittleBigPlanet Karting Posted: 22 Mar 2012 06:30 AM PDT Media Molecule is teaming up with United Front Games (ModNation Racers) on LittleBigPlanet Karting, as detailed by the PlayStation Blog today. The game, due out later this year for PlayStation 3, looks like a natural extension of the concepts behind the studios' prior work. United Front Games senior producer James Grieve says to expect "a new toolbox specifically tailored to allow for building in LBP Karting's 3D world," racing and battle modes, and modifiable rule sets. Responding to a user comment on the post about lengthy load times in ModNation Racers, Grieve says he believes fans will be "pleasantly surprised." Not a bad start! |
| Theatrhythm Final Fantasy coming to US this summer Posted: 22 Mar 2012 06:00 AM PDT And the beat goes on...straight out of Japan! Square Enix has just confirmed that Theatrhythm Final Fantasy will make its way to the NA and EU regions. This 3DS title, released in Japan in February, draws on over 70 musical scores from Final Fantasy to create a series of quirky rhythm based mini-games. It's also the first title to feature the new Nintendo Network, although it's as yet unknown if the DLC will be exported as well. Theatrhythm Final Fantasy debuts in North America and Europe on 3DS sometime this summer. Theatrhythm hitting the U.S. this summer [Tiny Cartridge] |
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