New Games |
- Super Road Blaster, the impossible Laserdisc-to-SNES port
- EA highlights NHL 13's True Performance Skating system
- The DTOID Show: E3 2012 hopes, dreams, and predictions
- The perfect evening attire for your Baby Blue Bomber
- Quantic Dream's new project to be shown at E3
- Why does New Super Mario Bros. 2 look so bland?
- Jimquisition: The best looking game this generation
- Review: Resistance: Burning Skies
- Review: Velocity
- Binding of Isaac 'Wrath of the Lamb' DLC now on Steam
- Pre-order Max Payne 3 on Steam, get multiplayer DLC free
- Wizorb to be a PlayStation Minis title this June
- Pull out the crack pipe for some witch house game remixes
- Synthpop Phoenix Wright music video is so money
- Pachter: on-disc DLC is 'just plain greed'
- Tokyo Game Show 2012 to connect your smiles through games
| Super Road Blaster, the impossible Laserdisc-to-SNES port Posted: 28 May 2012 03:00 PM PDT
Once in a blue moon, something comes along that defies all the rules -- a technical feat that shouldn't exist. Super Road Blaster is just such a marvel. You guys remember how Nintendo and Sony planned to release a CD add-on for the Super Nintendo? Those plans fell through, and the fallout from the two companies' split led to the creation of the PlayStation. If it weren't for that (admittedly significant) outcome, you could say Nintendo dodged a pretty big bullet. CD-based consoles of the era seemed like the next big thing, but their libraries often consisted of grainy FMV and barely interactive movie-game hybrids. Still, it would have been nice to see what the SNES CD attachment was capable of. Matthias "d4s" Nagler wanted to do the impossible. He took the Sega CD version of Road Blaster, originally a 1985 Laserdisc arcade game with animation by Toei, and somehow ported it to run on Super Nintendo hardware, full FMV animation and all. Dubbed Super Road Blaster, the ROM file is a whopping 6320 Mbit -- the largest SNES cartridges only had a 48 Mbit capacity! Matthias was able to achieve this thanks to the MSU-1, an enhancement device like the SuperFX chip only much, much more powerful. If you want to play it, you'll either need bsnes, the only emulator with MSU-1 capabilities, or the sd2snes, an SD card adapter cartridge that will allow you to play the game on the physical SNES hardware. The game itself is... well, it's like Dragon's Lair. You watch a cartoon and push a button at key moments in order to avoid death and keep playing. You can actually play the iOS port if you really want to, but it's worth seeing the game run on an SNES. What a remarkable console, wouldn't you say? Super Road Blaster v1.1 [dforce3000] |
| EA highlights NHL 13's True Performance Skating system Posted: 28 May 2012 01:00 PM PDT
The NHL franchise has always done well, but some fans still feel that it's getting a bit stagnant as of late. With this next iteration in the series, EA looks to introduce a few new enhancements that should change up NHL 13's dynamics. The trailer shows off EA's new fluid player animation system called True Performance Skating, as well as it's revamped player AI, Hockey I.Q. As far as game feature trailers, go it does a pretty good job pumping up the game with it's rock music, fancy editing and snazzy titles. I always prefer the Rockstar's approach to these types of trailers; they may turn out a little long but the added narration helps to explain the features of the game rather then just blast loud music and shiny buzz words in your face. NHL 13 is going to be hitting the ice on September 11 2012, along with a special Stanley Cup Collector's Edition. Time to strap those skates back on, Gordie. |
| The DTOID Show: E3 2012 hopes, dreams, and predictions Posted: 28 May 2012 12:00 PM PDT |
| The perfect evening attire for your Baby Blue Bomber Posted: 28 May 2012 11:00 AM PDT Gamer parents who were born in the 70s and 80s are continuously discovering new ways to introduce their offspring to the hobby. Best to hook 'em while they're young, I always say! And what better way to instill an affinity for a darling of the digital domain than by dressing your infant up as said character? Over on Knitwit Knits' Etsy shop, you can purchase a hand-knit Mega Man suit for your newborn babe. The complete outfit, which is available in 0-6 month and 6-12 month sizes, is made entirely out of yarn and includes a helmet, arm warmers, booties, and a diaper cover. Each suit is customized to order, so if you don't want Mega's standard blue-and-cyan scheme, you can choose a different color pair. If you want your baby to be packing Metal Blades, better request a brown-and-yellow combo! The whole ensemble will set you back $83, but that's chump change compared to all the lives your child will save when he grows older! Custom Knit Baby Megaman suit [Etsy via Protodude's Rockman Corner] |
| Quantic Dream's new project to be shown at E3 Posted: 28 May 2012 10:00 AM PDT Sony is looking to make a big splash at E3 this year with help from Quantic Dream founder David Cage. The studio will reveal their next major title during Sony's press conference on Monday June 4th. So far, Cage has only revealed that their next game will be running on technology that powered the GDC 2012 "Kara" short. No word yet if Cage or Quantic Dream plan on revealing anything about the two yet unnamed projects that their Paris studio is working on. Cage's idea around game design and player interactivity are very interesting, not to mention the tech powering his visions is on another level of graphical fidelity. The only concern I have is the story; Cage has a tendency to let his plot get away from him and that's when the story goes from strange to mind-numbingly ridiculous. Let's just hope that being under Sony's all seeing eye will help Cage and Quantic Dream stay on track with their project. E3 2012: Heavy Rain studio poised to reveal new game at Sony conference [CVG] |
| Why does New Super Mario Bros. 2 look so bland? Posted: 28 May 2012 09:00 AM PDT When the first screenshots for New Super Mario Bros. 2 were revealed last month, I had this crazy notion that Nintendo discovered a way to add DLC to NSMB on the DS. It wasn't until I saw that big "2" that I realized it was a full-blown sequel. A new Mario game -- not some odd spinoff but a true Mario platformer -- ought to be cause for celebration. Instead, I was deeply concerned that I had trouble distinguishing this sequel from its predecessor. Why should I be? Isn't it typical for a new game in a series to look similar to the ones prior? Well, not when we're talking about Mario. For over 25 years, the mainline Mario series has remained so revered and influential because each new entry is a Madonna-like reinvention. The core gameplay remains the same, but there are so many tweaks that range from the subtle to the overt, not the least of which are the sweeping visual redesigns. Each game's aesthetic is a unique signature, the mark of a self-contained adventure that feels familiar yet wholly unique, a testament on Nintendo's behalf to never cut corners when it comes to its premier franchise. However, if those New Super Mario Bros. 2 screens are anything to go by, Nintendo has gotten lazy.
Three years ago, I wrote an article entitled "Inconstancy in the Mario universe," in which I compared the various Mario platformers and analyzed the themes that I felt each best expressed. The environments have such a beautiful whimsy about them, and that essence trickles down and permeates every other aspect of the games. The original Super Mario Bros. introduces us to the fantastic wonderland that is the Mushroom Kingdom. Super Mario Bros. 2 flips the script and sends us to Subcon, a dream world where all our preconceived notions are challenged. Super Mario Bros. 3, with its checkerboard and wavy line motif, is a stage production littered with props. Super Mario World takes us to Dinosaur Land, populated by tough reptilian baddies yet tempered by very colorful, geometric backgrounds. The Game Boy games likewise stand out in their own way, as do the later 3D-roaming romps. Not even direct spin-offs like Wario Land and Yoshi's Island are content to rehash. In terms of pure visual design, there is no consistent template. Each game features drastically altered sprites, worlds, music, enemies, and so forth, all while retaining that quintessential "Mario-ness." Very few videogame franchises, especially ones that are over two decades old, have been able to embrace variety so effectively. I consider 2005's New Super Mario Bros. as somewhat of an anomaly; as an overall package, its purpose was to reignite the same passion we felt when we played Super Mario Bros. back in 1985. Do I consider it as striking, visually or otherwise, as other Mario platformers? No, but as a reintroduction to the 2D action that had been absent for over a decade, it served its purpose. Certainly, I had hoped, New Super Mario Bros. would be the start of a new generation of inspired variety. Nintendo's E3 2009 conference raised the first red flags. Two new Mario games were presented that day: New Super Mario Bros. Wii and Super Mario Galaxy 2. Let me address the latter first. Not since The Lost Levels has there been a direct thematic Mario sequel -- think along the lines of Final Fantasy X-2 or XIII-2. As amazing as the first Galaxy was, did we really need another one? I must admit, I was quite worried about how fresh Galaxy 2 would feel, considering that it was originally conceived as an expansion pack of sorts. My fears were allayed by the polish of the end product. Mario visited completely new planets, acquired imaginative new powers, and soared the stars to one of the greatest game soundtracks ever composed. This was no retread. Crisis averted. But Galaxy 2 is a 3D game, and comparing 2D and 3D Marios is like comparing two completely different series. For the more classical sensibilities, New Super Mario Bros. Wii was also waiting in the pipeline. And just as Galaxy 2 gave me reason to pause, I wouldn't blame anyone who saw the New Super Mario Bros. Wii reveal and thought it looked like a hi-res port of the DS game. Remember how for months, many gamers, those who consider themselves on the pulse of the industry, honestly thought it was just a multiplayer version of NSMB? Is it really their fault for not paying close enough attention, or should Nintendo shoulder some of the blame for making a game that, at a casual glance, looks exactly like what folks thought it looked like? This was Mario's grand side-scrolling return to a home console, yet it was hampered by its very deliberate association with an earlier handheld title. After playing through NSMB Wii, I was disappointed that, yes, the graphics are indeed higher-polygon, better-textured versions of the assets found in NSMB. There were no sweeping visual or thematic changes, as I've come to expect from a new Mario platformer. The worlds -- Grass, Desert, Ice, Beach, Forest, Mountains, Sky, and Fire -- are identical to those from the DS game and are even visited in nearly the same order. The backgrounds, colors, architecture, it's all the same! Where are the bizarre locales, like Giant Land and Pipe Land from Super Mario Bros. 3, or Pumpkin Zone and Mario Zone from Super Mario Land 2? Where is the imagination? Fast-forward to the present, is New Super Mario Bros. 2 the big update we've been waiting for? With a scant four screenshots to go by, the jury is still out until E3, but the present evidence doesn't paint a rosy picture. I'm looking at the same Grass, Desert, Ice, and Forest environments from the last two games, only now Mario is rocking the Raccoon Tail, a reveal marred by the fact that it was already used as a hook for Super Mario 3D Land. Nintendo must have forgotten that it already played that trump card. Three games in and this sub-series is failing to live up to the "New" in its moniker. I fondly recall the ever-more elaborate sprite work, rich colors, and inspired designs from one Mario to the next, yet modern Nintendo insists on sticking to a very safe, very clinical, 2.5D polygonal style that evokes none of the spirit of the old days. You don't have to be a nostalgia junkie to notice the lack of effort. The above are the four NES-era Marios laid side by side. With the exception of The Lost Levels -- it gets a pass for being the second Super Mario ever made -- each is visually distinct from one another. In fact, if someone who had never played a Mario before looked at these screens, he or she would most likely infer that they are associated with different games. The most remarkable thing about this comparison is the technical and artistic progression. The original may not be the most basic NES game in existence, but it ranks pretty low. In Japan, Super Mario Bros. 3 was released a mere three years later, yet the difference is staggering. It's sometimes hard to believe they all ran on the same hardware. The above are the three "New" titles. Wouldn't even a seasoned gamer have trouble telling the games apart from a quick glance? You'd have to know what to look for specifically, which requires a more careful observation. Oh sure, the original sports a much lower resolution, but the visual uniformity is readily apparent. And unlike the NES games, these all run on different hardware. You'd assume that Nintendo would feel some impetus to mitigate confusion. There is one more "New" game I failed to mention: New Super Mario Bros. Mii. A remixed version of NSMB Wii with the ability to play as (duh!) Miis, it was among the Wii U "experiences" present at last year's E3. How does it stack up visually? Take a guess! Which is Wii and which is Mii? Hard to tell without other Miis running around, huh? To be fair, NSMB Mii wasn't pitched as an actual Wii U title. However, there will be a Wii U Mario title, and it's rumored to be based upon Mii. How different will it be? How much will remain the same? We won't know until E3, but you'll have to excuse me if I'm not brimming with confidence. As much as I lament the visual conformity, I miss the attention to the finer details even more so. There are some elements you don't notice until they are gone or altered, but once they are, you feel a slight disturbance. For example, you would be surprised at how something as simple as the end-of-level markers can have punctuate a game's spirit and ideals. In the original Mario, you jump on a flagpole and get the flag. In 2, you lift a crystal ball and enter a bird's mouth. In 3, you run off the set and grab a flashing card. In World, you jump through a gate, timing it just right to hit the bar and earn the chance to enter a bonus stage. In Land 1, you aim for the higher of two doorways in order to enter the bonus stage. In Land 2, you try to ring the out-of-reach bell to enter the bonus stage. In New Super Mario Bros., you... jump and get the flag. In New Super Mario Bros. Wii, you... jump and get the flag. In New Super Mario Bros. Mii, you... jump and get the flag. Even in the non-"New" Super Mario 3D Land, you jump and get the flag. We have yet to see a full stage run of New Super Mario Bros. 2, but I guarantee that you'll finish a level by jumping to get a flag. We get it, Nintendo. You guys really like your flagpoles. Care to mix it up a bit? When it comes to Mario's 2D adventures, Nintendo doesn't want to push the envelope anymore. I do not deny that the newer games at their core still contain a few sparks of brilliance, but it's almost as though the company is just running through the motions because it can score 20 million sales without a sweat. This is a rant about visuals, but please spare me the "gameplay over graphics" rhetoric. I know, it's odd to hear me say that. Nonetheless, when you are the leading name in a genre, the standard against which all others are measured, it's all the more important to make a good first impression. It's like how we're told to "dress for success" when coming to work -- if you don't take care of your physical appearance, how can anyone be certain that you aren't slacking in other areas? As I said in the beginning, it's a trickle-down effect; it'll eventually take its toll on other key areas, "gameplay" included. In an age when 2D platformers are marginalized as cheaper, less-rewarding products, no one should be allowed to coast on past successes. You only have to see a game like Rayman Origins in motion to feel cheated that the venerable Mario is not being raised to that same standard. C'mon, Nintendo! Step up! |
| Jimquisition: The best looking game this generation Posted: 28 May 2012 08:00 AM PDT
The Jimquisition takes a break from discussing consumer shenanigans to focus a little on the games themselves. What exactly is the best looking game this generation, and why does it look better than the games you're all thinking of whenever such a discussion usually comes up? As always, the best looking man of this generation has the answer (Jim is the best looking man because of his muscles). |
| Review: Resistance: Burning Skies Posted: 28 May 2012 07:15 AM PDT For a long time, Sony has wanted to bring the console experience to handheld devices, and the PlayStation Vita represents its most successful attempt to date, armed as it is with impressive visual capabilities and a wealth of control options. Ironically, the Vita's early games ignored the Vita's strength in this regard, instead focusing on tech demos for touch controls in an industry where touch control has very much been demonstrated to death. Resistance: Burning Skies was the potential jewel in the crown, though, an online-capable first-person shooter to show the world just how close a gamer can come to playing their favorite titles on the go. As the world's first portable twin-stick FPS, Burning Skies had a golden opportunity to set a benchmark for handheld gaming. Instead, it settled on being the new worst Vita game to date. Resistance: Burning Skies (PlayStation Vita) Set in 1951, Burning Skies takes us to the Chimera's initial invasion of North America, as firefighter Tom Riley finds himself caught in the vanguard of the twisted mutant menace. Armed with a sturdy axe and whatever firearms he can find, Riley's only concern is reuniting with his wife and child, who went missing during the early civilian evacuations. The game's poor story, interspersed as it is with vapid attempts at emotional depth, is indicative of what Burning Skies is -- little more than a poor reflection of the original console trilogy, a cheap copy that, had it not been officially licensed by Sony, could be mistaken for some illegal, plagiarizing, knock-off. As Riley fights through five short levels, players will find little more than dull, slow-paced shootouts against small collections of enemies through a range of pointless corridors, utilizing a bland cover system that the opposition will mostly ignore. Most of the fighting isn't exactly terrible, it's just mediocre and predictable. Every battle feels slow and restricted, as a small number of Chimera regularly show up to shoot and die with little fanfare. Thanks to a scarcity of action onscreen, things feel lackluster and uninspiring, a far cry from the atmospheric and chaotic struggles seen in the highly enjoyable Resistance 3. Much of Burning Skies' campaign simply goes through the motions, providing absolutely nothing we didn't see in the genre years ago while adding none of the thrills and excitement we're used to seeing in many modern titles. In many ways, it feels like quite an old shooter from generations past, but not one of the lasting classics.
Touch controls have been forced in wherever possible, but unlike Unit 13's smart use of the screens, Burning Skies doesn't take player comfort into account. Opening doors requires touching a small icon in the center of the screen, while the alternative fire modes for every weapon need enemies to be individually prodded or gun bodies to be slid across, even in the middle of a fight that would require hands to be on the real controls. Being able to touch the grenade and melee icons at the side of the screen is a smart move, as these virtual buttons are conveniently placed and open up the control scheme, but everything else feels contrived, and included at the expense of usability. Things get worse toward the end, where it begins to look like the developers just stopped caring. The closing sections are happy to just keep throwing the player into big rooms without cover and spawning larger numbers of Chimera in a rather embarrassing attempt to manufacture a sense of challenge. The last level in particular straddles the line between exasperating and tiresome, culminating in one of the most insipid and pointless boss encounters I've witnessed in quite some time. Game design doesn't get more basic and uninspiring than Burning Skies. The disappointing campaign could be forgiven if the multiplayer was any good, but once again, it feels like a lifeless shadow of its console brethren. The basics are in place -- three game modes (deathmatch, team deathmatch, and infection), with up to three customizable loadouts and a compulsory experience system -- but basics are where the game begins and ends. Once you get into a match, you're forced to fight in confined, visually unstimulating, ill designed maps, where no care was taken into setting sensible spawn points or providing anything other than a series of rooms in which bored people can shoot at each other. The online experience is laggy, with a framerate that makes everything feel like it's in slow motion, and scoreboards don't work properly (in one match, the enemy team kept showing up as having zero points, when in fact it was winning). I once died thrice in a row, collapsing dead to the ground as soon as I spawned, with the same player shown as having killed me and no indication as to how. Another time, players were frozen in place, and there have already been problems with people getting booted out of a session. As far as presentation goes, in both the campaign and multiplayer, Resistance: Burning Skies feels unfinished. Severely unfinished. Don't believe the screenshots attached to this review -- this is an ugly game, and it doesn't look anywhere near as good as several of the Vita's launch titles (tellingly, this game blocks the Vita's screen capture software). Environment textures and features on NPCs are bland, flat, and lacking in color. The only modicum of effort seems to have been put into the guns, which look relatively nice, and there's a pleasant bit of lighting here and there, but the Chimera lack much in the way of detail and human faces are creepily devoid of texture, making them look rubbery and nightmarish. Compared to a game like Uncharted: Golden Abyss, the graphics found here are despicable and embarrassing. Even worse are those moments where it's just obvious that a feature was left blatantly incomplete. From the mouths of NPCs not moving to environments displaying hideous artifacts along edges and corners, there's a lot missing in Burning Skies that you usually only see left out of obscure budget games. You can sprint, but after a while Riley will stop dead in his tracks. He won't return to a walking pace, he won't slow down before needing a breather, he will literally just stop dead in his tracks and you'll have to take your finger off the stick in order to move him again, since absolutely nothing was added to portray a loss of stamina. In multiplayer, there is no animation or sound effect for melee kills. If you're killed by a melee attack, you'll abruptly die in silence, and it actually took me a few deaths to work out why I kept falling over for no reason. When enemies die, their frozen corpses will slowly glide along the floor before suddenly and sharply disappearing. Cutscenes play at the start of every level and cannot be skipped, even if you're replaying a stage or loading from a checkpoint halfway through, and they're compressed to a disgusting degree. In short, the whole thing feels like some sort of pre-alpha build mistakenly released as a real game. Resistance: Burning Skies may hope that its flaws are overlooked due to the novelty of being the Vita's first FPS, but even with nothing on the system to directly compare it to, any fool could see just how pathetic this game is. The best that can be said is that the shooting itself is fairly competent. It works. However, it works in a pedestrian and insignificant little game that seems as if it was desperately rushed in order to meet a deadline. If, like me, you've been waiting to see how a first-person shooter feels on the Vita, then I can say that this game proves the potential of the genre. However, if you'd like your first Vita FPS to actually be good, then wait for something else, because Resistance: Burning Skies is far from acceptable. It is visually atrocious, interactively vapid and incomplete to a degree that a full retail price is an insult. It's tempting to buy this just to have something new on the system, but good things come to those that wait, and it's hard to imagine anything not being good compared to this mess. |
| Posted: 28 May 2012 07:00 AM PDT We often demand to see something new, yet when we do see something new, we become scared. Original concepts and mechanics have a tendency to make our brains hurt. Velocity made my brain hurt, and not just a little, either. Though I enjoyed the frequently masochistic pleasure of playing this brave little PS Mini, I wonder if there will be others who will join me in celebrating FuturLab's crafty, maddening space shooter. Despite its shortcomings, Velocity's strengths make it one of the most bafflingly original games I've played this year.
Velocity (PlayStation Minis) Trials Evolution is to racing games as Velocity is to shoot-em-ups. You may mistake them for cookie-cutter entries in their genre when glancing at screenshots, but these two games reveal themselves to be much wilder beasts through play. However, some basics of the shmup hold true for Velocity. You fly across a top-down 2D plane, shoot at things, and dodge obstacles. If this was all you did, I wouldn't have shouted in agony over the course of the game's 50 stages. I wouldn’t have been nearly as thrilled, either. Like Trials, you must unlock new tiers of stages through skillful play. Performance is measured in three ways: time, survivors rescued, and points received from defeating enemies. Though beating most of the stages isn't difficult, I had a hell of a time perfecting my time and strategy. Survivors, basically icons you pick-up by maneuvering over them, often conflict with taking the shortest way through a stage. Thankfully, you have some unique abilities to help you out, each of which is slowly unveiled throughout the course of the game. Things start simply enough. Holding down the right trigger makes the screen scroll faster; if you want to earn gold medals, you'll need to use this function generously. In fact, some levels require it, giving you little more than a minute to reach the end. Once you get used to the game's speed, developer FuturLab throws a wrench into the system with teleporting. Holding down the square button brings up a cursor which you can move across the screen; let go and your ship will reappear in its place. Managing the screen acceleration and teleportation at the same time will melt your mind the first couple of tries. You'll need to get used to it; after all, these are only baby steps in comparison to what's to come. Eventually, you'll unlock long-form teleportation which lets you drop a limited amount of spawn points you can return to at any time. This becomes necessary as stages soon turn into mazes with areas that only unlock through multiple treks through a section. Later maps are full of colored lasers locking you out of an area. The only way to get rid of a laser wall is to destroy its generators, spread across the stage, in order. You may find the first generator near the end of the map, the second in the middle, and the third in the end. So careful use of dropping spawn points is key. Luckily, the game suggests ideal spawn drops to the player by flashing blue across the screen. For a game about finding the perfect shortcut, FuturLab has ironically taken a couple itself. Each of the 50 stages share most of the same textures, music, and enemies, making for a rather monotonous experience. Given how exhausting the game can be, it doesn't help that the audio and visuals only add to the repetition. The charm of the recycled Amiga-esque graphics and music that sounds like it came from a Windows 98 key cracker soon wears off its welcome. Though Velocity lacks polish, it's clearly a labor of love. The game offers a wealth of unlockable content: documents that give background on the story, concept art, insanely difficult challenge stages, random two-player mini-games, and Minesweeper, to name a few. If you haven't figured it out by now, Velocity is as much a puzzle game as it is a shooter. If you are up for a challenge for your trigger finger as well as your brain, you may be surprised by how original, wild, and intense a game it is. Though there are better looking and more accessible indie puzzlers to play, there are few that will leave you as bewildered and addicted through its alien concepts. What Velocity lacks in scope and variety, it makes up for in originality. |
| Binding of Isaac 'Wrath of the Lamb' DLC now on Steam Posted: 28 May 2012 06:30 AM PDT I adore The Binding of Isaac. It's one of those games with a bite-sized length which lends itself perfectly to a mid-day work distraction and, as a result, I've played it nearly to the point of full completion. The one and only expansion for Isaac, "Wrath of the Lamb," has arrived on Steam. Priced at $2.99, it adds a ton of content, nearly doubling the number of items, along with new rooms, characters, mechanics and secrets to discover. If you haven't picked up the original game yet (and you should), it's also currently on sale for $2 (for US customers; your region may vary). Just thought you all would like to know where I'm going to be today. |
| Pre-order Max Payne 3 on Steam, get multiplayer DLC free Posted: 28 May 2012 06:00 AM PDT Those who have patiently waited for the PC version of Max Payne 3 can this week get a little bonus for pre-ordering on Steam. When you reserve your advance digital copy, unlocked in four days upon its June 1 release, you also get a hefty batch of multiplayer DLC at launch, including the Classic Multiplayer Character Pack, which adds classic Max Payne 1 and 2 characters; the Disorderly Conduct Multiplayer Weapons Pack, adding Hammerhead Auto Shotgun, G9 Grenade Launcher and Molotov cocktail; the Pill Bottle, allowing you to hold extra painkillers, and a retro Max Payne avatar. Oh and there's a free copy of LA Noire in there too, if that excites you. The game won't, but at that price it's still worth a playthrough. Head over to Steam to get in on this amazing deal. |
| Wizorb to be a PlayStation Minis title this June Posted: 28 May 2012 05:30 AM PDT
Remember Wizorbs, Beatshapers' block-breaking fantasy game that launched last October as an Xbox LIVE Indie title? A few months later, as is normal with LIVE Indie games, Wizorb launched on PC via GamersGate, later finding its way onto Steam. Now the game seems to be increasing its presence even further as Beatshapers and Tribute Games have announced that Wizorb will be made into a PlayStation Minis title and launch on the PSP, PS3 and PlayStation Vita sometime "in June" with a $3.99 price tag. Given Wizorb growing scope across different platforms, maybe we'll eventually see it making its way onto the Nintendo 3DS -- it just looks like it would fit well on the handheld. |
| Pull out the crack pipe for some witch house game remixes Posted: 28 May 2012 05:00 AM PDT Music label and collective Aural Sects put out a choice compilation of game remixes, this week, called Blam Lord's Quest. This free release is done in the murky, distorted style of the musical sub-genre witch house. For those unfamiliar with witch house, imagine Link, Donkey Kong, and Samus. Now imagine them wearing gimp suits in a sex dungeon, dancing in front of a strobe light and pentagram. It's kind of like that.
From what I understand, witch house is like other lethargic, druggy sub-genres of electronica from past decades (think: trip-hop), except in this genre artists ironically smoke crack and are missing most of their teeth. I'm not a big fan of game remixes and don't typically seek this stuff out, but I've been pleasantly surprised by this compilation. This 49 song release features remixes of music from The Legend of Zelda, Sonic the Hedgehog, Donkey Kong Country, and other revered videogame soundtracks alongside some more obscure gems like Shadowrun. Not everything here is gold, but I rather enjoy some of the ghostly ambient tunes here. Regardless, it's nice to see videogame remix artists coming from a different background and perspective. Here are some of my favorite tracks on the compilation:
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| Synthpop Phoenix Wright music video is so money Posted: 28 May 2012 04:30 AM PDT
The Ace Attorney series, other than being damn brilliant, lends itself well (almost too well) to parody. The character portraits, limited animation frames, and backgrounds can be easily arranged in all manner of configurations then enhanced with music and sound bites. Videos like Phoenix Wrong and "Boot to the Head" are so simple in concept, but the addition of AA characters makes them instantly spectacular. YouTuber MysteryBen27 tried his hand at an AA video of his own by synching character movements with the song "Money" by synthpop band Mystery Skulls. I've never heard of the group before, but I'd be lying if I said the beat isn't infectious. It's bumpin', it's hot, it's the perfect jam to nod along to on this fine holiday. The Turntable Turnabout (Mystery Skulls - Money) [YouTube] (Nice find, Robert!) |
| Pachter: on-disc DLC is 'just plain greed' Posted: 28 May 2012 04:00 AM PDT Industry analyst Michael "horse sponge" Pachter has chimed in on the controversial practice of shipping games with "downloadable" content locked on the disc. While he said that he didn't think the delivery method mattered in the long run, he did admit DLC was simply a case of greed, and that unlocking content on a disc without paying for it just might be legal. "Yeah, it's just plain greed," he said on Pach Attack. "The answer is that simple. I think that DLC has been so successful that publishers are trying to get a jumpstart and if you put it on the disc it allows them to unlock it when they feel like it. A few years ago, we didn't see DLC for typically six months after a game launch and I think it was Red Dead Redemption, but Take-Two kind of pioneered and launched DLC like a month after the original title and it was super successful, now you're seeing a lot more guys do it. "The stuff on the disc, some gamers feel entitled to because they bought the disc, so they should have a right to anything that's on the disc, and that's a dicey one, you actually do own the disc and I think, theoretically, if you could crack the code on the DLC you probably would be allowed to access it without paying. And I'm not even sure that's stealing because you did, in fact, buy the disc. That's about as close as you can get to legal piracy." Pachter said that he doesn't believe on-disc DLC will spread much more since gamers will "push back," and he might be right there. Capcom recently backpedaled on disc-locked content after consumers responded furiously, so hopefully that can keep happening when companies try to sell us stuff that we essentially have to buy twice. It'd be nice, anyway. |
| Tokyo Game Show 2012 to connect your smiles through games Posted: 28 May 2012 03:30 AM PDT All the buzz right now is about next week's E3, but I've already started early planning for this fall's Tokyo Game Show, set to take place September 20-23 in the Makuhari Messe convention center. It's never too early. The Computer Entertainment Supplier's Association has decided on this year's theme: "Connecting Your Smiles Through Games." They never disappoint with the goofy themes. Along with this theme comes this year's main visual, as seen above and in our gallery. Artist Ippei Gyoubu is back again for the third year with his freaky looking future girl. He says that "She" is jumping out of a world of games, reaching out to you with a smile in pursuit of making connections with people. In the full visual, "She" wears a variety of devices to represent games, and she's blasting off from her home in cyberspace to deliver the "memory of smiles" to us. You can't make this sh*t up. This year they're expecting 195,000 visitors, 1,550 booths and 180 companies to show up at TGS 2012. I'm looking forward to connecting my smiles there later this year.
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