New Games |
- Put these new Dance Central 2 tracks on Replay
- A contemplative E3 retrospective with I-Mockery's RoG
- Dead Island Riptide is not Dead Island 2, will cost $50
- Marvel Pinball: Avengers Chronicles has a release date
- It appears that Black Ops II will also be on Wii U
- Promoted E3 blog: Help, everybody is killing everyone
- The Network Roundup: Bite me
- Once Shantae is cleared by the ESRB it can hit the 3DS VC
- Rockstar announces Max Payne Mobile for Android
- Impressions: BulletRun is a wacky FPS game show
- All hail Ken Masters with Psycho Crusher's rock cover
- Wargaming's future is bright and ambitious
- Live show: Foom's E3 moments on Mash Tactics
- XCOM: Enemy Unknown is a strategy game I want to play
- Review: Iron Front: Liberation 1944
- Mark of the Ninja is stealth gaming done right
| Put these new Dance Central 2 tracks on Replay Posted: 11 Jun 2012 03:00 PM PDT It's gonna be a good four months or so before we see Dance Central 3 get its swerve onto retail shelves, so settle in and get yourself some DLC while you wait. Starting tomorrow, June 12, download Iyaz's “Replay”, followed by "Hot in Herre" by Nelly on June 19, and "Whine Up" by Kat DeLuna ft. Elephant Man on June 26. As always, they'll set you back 240 MS Points a piece. What it will cost your dignity to dance to "Hot in Herre" while in fact being too chubs to take off your clothes? That I cannot put a price on. |
| A contemplative E3 retrospective with I-Mockery's RoG Posted: 11 Jun 2012 02:30 PM PDT
Roger "RoG" Barr -- founder of I-Mockery, co-developer of Abobo's Big Adventure, and office monkey at The Behemoth -- was in attendance at E3 2012, drinking in the sights and meeting a host of colorful people. He fortunately captured the entire experience on camera and edited it down to three short videos, part one above and parts two and three after the jump. His goal with these videos was to condense the event into manageable chunks and hopefully foster discussion about the pros and cons of such a grand spectacle. Watch them with an open mind, heart, and soul, then share your takeaways with your peers. What did RoG's E3 retrospective mean to you? How does it color your perception of E3? Are you a better person after watching? You should be. Some Things I Saw At E3 2012 [YouTube]
Some MORE Things I Saw At E3 2012 [YouTube]
EVEN MORE Things I Saw At E3 2012 [YouTube] |
| Dead Island Riptide is not Dead Island 2, will cost $50 Posted: 11 Jun 2012 02:00 PM PDT [Update: Aubrey Norris reached out to us to clarify that when she stated "This isn't Dead Island 2," she was referring only to the title of the game and pointed us to another tweet from earlier this morning which states this explicitly. So, Dead Island Riptide does represent the next installment in the Dead Island series, but the series is not using a numbers in their titles. Thanks to Aubrey for helping us find the mix-up! - Ed.] With such scant details surrounding Dead Island Riptide, some Internet sleuths have already taken to hunting down more about the upcoming title, coming up with little more than a suggested retail price. But what a price it is. It appears that Dead Island Riptide, a full entry in the series and not just a remake with different characters, will go for $50. Deep Silver's Aubrey Norris has confirmed the price, saying:
Also worth noting that in another Tweet, she very specifically states "This isn't Dead Island 2". So there's that. Not a sequel and a price point below the current average for a new release. Dead Island: Riptide Not a Remake, Will be $50 Due To ‘End of Console Generation’ [RipTen] |
| Marvel Pinball: Avengers Chronicles has a release date Posted: 11 Jun 2012 01:30 PM PDT After being pushed back a tiny bit, the Avengers Chronicles expansion is finally headed to Marvel Pinball and Pinball FX2 on June 19th and 20th, respectively. As always, it'll be 800 Microsoft points ($9.99). In it, you'll find the "Avengers", "Infinity Gauntlet", "Fear Itself", and "World War Hulk" tables. Above, you can watch the newly released trailer for "Infinity Gauntlet", which truly is as fun to play as it looks. It's great to see Thanos getting so much attention lately, as he's one of the coolest villains ever. His table will also have 139 lines of dialogue, so it will be the most story-driven pinball table Zen Studios has put together. I recently had the pleasure of checking out "Infinity Gauntlet" and "Fear Itself" at E3, so you can look forward to my impressions sometime tomorrow. Spoiler: they were amazing. |
| It appears that Black Ops II will also be on Wii U Posted: 11 Jun 2012 01:00 PM PDT It's becoming pretty clear that Black Ops II is set to become one of this year's biggest games, with pre-orders for Treyarch's slightly-in-the-future-shooter tripling that of the original Black Ops on Amazon. It's pretty much common knowledge that the game will be making its ways onto the PC, PS3 and Xbox 360, but Activision seem to have taken an interest in the Wii U and are apparently putting together a version for Nintendo's upcoming console. All Games Beta has snapped an image of the latest Nintendo Gamer magazine clearly showing that those lucky dogs were able to get a preview of Black Ops II on the Wii U, but held back information on how well the game handled, teasing at the end of the preview that "...the Wii U functionality is a story for next issue." Oh, you tease! As some may recall, this isn't the first time Activision has attempted to make Call of Duty games work on a Nintendo console; Black Ops on DS, anyone? Black Ops II coming to Wii U [All Games Beta] |
| Promoted E3 blog: Help, everybody is killing everyone Posted: 11 Jun 2012 12:30 PM PDT [For his E3 Bloggers Wanted essay, Altum Videtur comments on the lack of non-shooters at this year's show. (Our own Jim Sterling tackled this same topic earlier today.) Want to see your own words appear on the front page? Get writing! --Mr Andy Dixon] Do you like numbers? Here are some for Monday, June 4th, the day Microsoft, EA, Ubisoft, and Sony held their E3 press conferences: Deaths by gunshot: 215 Total kill count for E3 2012, Day 0: 435 And that's not even counting the fifty or so I inevitably missed. I finished Max Payne 3 just a short while ago, and I loved it. I loved leaping through the air in slow-motion, perforating literally hundreds of gangsters. I loved the close-up shots, giving me the best possible angle to watch gruesome tufts of flesh burst from exit wounds. I loved being able to empty the rest of my gun into the last thug before he hit the floor, marveling at the showers of bright, flowing blood that filled the air and coated the floor. The interactive half of the game was just one long stream of violence and death -- one of my favorites this year. I mention this because I'm about to dig at this year's E3 for being more or less the same thing. It's not just a glorification of killing, it's a celebration, presenting dozens of different ways by which to end a life. Headshots, gut-shots, leg-shots, fireballs, shockwaves, shrapnel, knives, arrows, swords, each coupled with a slow-mo close-up. It's almost pornographic. The point appears to be to draw the shortest possible line to our base "kill everything that doesn't have tits" instinct, in basically the exact same way that Naughty College Teens XXX Barely Legal 18 tries to draw the shortest possible line to the boner-instinct. Or girl wood, I guess.
At first I was just fatigued. Halo 4 is a game in which you shoot things. Splinter Cell: Blacklist is also a game in which you shoot things. Here comes Medal of Dutyfield: Black Modernfighter 3; up go the targets, pop, they're back down. Tomb Raider has Lara shooting dudes with a bow and arrow before getting reduced to nature's punching bag. Yawn, sigh, glance at wrist, tap foot, roll eyes -- the works. Around halfway through Ubisoft's conference, though, this turns into good old-fashioned disgust and revolt. Aisha Tyler mentions after the Far Cry 3 demo that she would now very much like to "get a tiger, use it as a weapon, and then shoot it." I couldn't tell whether or not she was being sarcastic. I hope she was. Even -- no, especially -- if the script wasn't. I mean, come on, people. I get that quite a few video game genres and MurderDeathKill go hand-in-bloodsoaked-hand. BioShock, one of my stalwart go-tos when arguing with skeptical relatives about the merits of the medium, is primarily about shooting and being shot at with bullets and magical bee-powers, and its most powerful moment climaxes with a guy getting bludgeoned by a golf club so vigorously that the tip breaks off and remains embedded in his skull. But when (what is supposed to be) the focal point of the gaming year ends up with a kill-count that'd be enough to wipe out the average high school, plus faculty, and the most gruesome highlights are met with cheer and applause, something's got to have gone horribly wrong. Killing is now pedestrian. We've done it before. We've collectively slaughtered more Nazis than were probably ever deployed in World War II. We've slain hundreds of demons, cut down thousands of villains, shot up millions of terrorists. We've sent more wayward souls to whatever afterlife (or lack thereof) you subscribe to than we can probably comprehend. How do new games try to combat this? More blood! More death! Bigger explosions! Slower slow-mo! It's the classic rollercoaster/hard drug effect; the more you get, the more you'll need the next time around.
I keep wanting to use the word "meaningless", but to do that requires defining "meaning", which is territory far too vast, frightening, and dangerous for me to approach as a sub-point in one article. How about "vapid"? Yes, that'll do nicely; the act of killing in 80something% of the games shown here is vapid. Empty, thoughtless, and routine. A narrow, 65 miles-per-hour highway to the next explosion or painful line of dialogue. It's cheapening; not to our perception of the value of for-real human life, of course, but to the ability of the medium to do more with it than stick it up and toss it aside once we've filled it with enough new holes. I don't think it's any coincidence that The Last of Us and Watch Dogs are more or less universally considered the two highlights of the year's presentation. They're both new IP, of course, which certainly helps. But notice that those are probably about the only two games demonstrated in which human NPCs are treated as something more than pop-up water balloons. I could just about feel the giant, five-hundred-thousand-person groan when the latter degenerated into cover-based shooting; those little "HIV Positive" pop-ups and detailed inter-NPC behaviors were doing so much to set its inhabitants apart from the industry-standard walking blood-bags. And Naughty Dog's latest? What a way to make seven or eight guys feel both more believable and more threatening than the hundreds of soldiers darting around 2012's shooter lineup. Except one of those guys' pleading, sobbing faces getting blown off by a shotgun resulted in the most rapturous display of audience approval yet. And we end up full circle.
As long as there are videogames, there will be gory murder. As long as there is fiction, really, we'll be seeing and rejoicing in deaths by the hundreds. I make no attempt to defy or reverse this; Prototype 2 is sailing its way toward my mailbox as I type, and I will likely be having a grand time discovering all the exciting ways in which pedestrians bend, break, and splatter across the pavement. What I worry about is that such a mentality becomes not only the norm and standard -- as it has been since Space Invaders, arguably -- but that it ends up being thought of as the only way to do things outside of a couple of obscure, unlocalized Ukrainian indie-imports. I feel like we've reached a point where we can't push this rollercoaster of slaughter any higher; I picked on Tomb Raider earlier, but the degree to which Lara gets brutalized was truly disturbing, extracting several grimaces and pained facial contortions that I thought were reserved for Super Meat Boy speed-runs. I want to give the game the benefit of the doubt and assume that is intentional -- a subversion of the ubiquitous iron-man-protagonist, who can absorb rifle clips and faceplants as casually as I absorb cheeseburgers -- but part of me can't help but fear that the ramp we're sliding down in search of more evocative violence will become so steep that we'll punch through the boards, crashing down into a flaming wreckage of horrible excess. So what do I want out of this, really? Have your Call of Dutys and your Assassin's Creeds; find some enjoyment in plastering virtual people-fluids all over the walls, because goddamn is it fun. But the rest of you developers? Try more. Do more. E3 2012 seems to indicate just how homogenous our treatment of human life has become, while providing just a couple of glimmers showing how we can fix that. People are some of the most complex, interesting, and variable things in known existence. Treat them like cardboard, and they'll be as fun as cardboard, but treat them like the layered, conflicted creatures that they are, and gaming inherits those wrinkles and nuances: ugly and violent, perhaps, but capable of far more than shooting and falling down. |
| Posted: 11 Jun 2012 12:00 PM PDT Last night celebrated True Blood's highly anticipated return to glorious premium TV service. After the doozy that was last season, I have to admit that last night's episode was pretty darn entertaining. Maybe I'm just a sucked for TV shows with jaw dropping red head's playing Rock Band, but all-in-all, the show seems to have returned to its raunchy roots! How much do you love your sister? The network was full of bite with Destructoid's head honcho getting totally Persona-fied. Japanator kicked off J-Gamer week, which promises to be full of some fun eastern gaming goodies. Flixist started on an amazing Kevin Smith homage. Finally, Tomopop unleashed their hidden weapon, Scarecroodle. Now put on some Walmart pajamas and lay in the dirt. Japanator
Flixist
Tomopop
|
| Once Shantae is cleared by the ESRB it can hit the 3DS VC Posted: 11 Jun 2012 11:45 AM PDT Remember when we told you that WayForward was actively attempting to drop the original Gameboy Color version of Shantae on the 3DS' Virtual Console? WayForward's Matt Bozon recently informed Nintendo World Report that everything is well, and all they're doing now is waiting on the ESRB. Once that business is all sorted out, it will be up to Nintendo to decide a concrete release date. If you're itching to get your hands on a Shantae game right now, go ahead and pick up the amazing DSi/3DS Risky's Revenge -- it's easily one of the best platformers available to date. Thankfully Bozon also dropped another juicy bit of information: WayForward is actively pursuing new iterations of the franchise. Will we see a full retail 3DS release in the future? Shantae Coming to 3DS Virtual Console Soon (Hopefully) [NWR] |
| Rockstar announces Max Payne Mobile for Android Posted: 11 Jun 2012 11:30 AM PDT Bring on the exquisite pain of third person shooting to your Android mobile device. Rockstar has just announced Max Payne Mobile, arriving this week. Play the original Max Payne in updated HD graphics, Social Club connectivity, high res textures, user customizable controllers, and (yay!) select USB gamepad support. Already available in the iOS store, you can get this one for $2.99 in the Android Marketplace this Thursday, June 14. Max Payne Mobile Coming for Android this Thursday, June 14th [Rockstar Games] |
| Impressions: BulletRun is a wacky FPS game show Posted: 11 Jun 2012 11:15 AM PDT Knowing nothing about the first-person shooter BulletRun and its lackluster title going in, I was not expecting to come away with a large grin on my face, but that’s exactly what happened. The game is joining the free-to-play, multiplayer-only movement that is currently invading our PC’s hard drives. There are some interesting mechanics at play, none of which are particularly mind-blowing alone but when combined turn the game into a unique experience. Myself, Ryan Perez, and Daniel Starkey (some of the Dtoid Youngbloods) got to play BulletRun at E3, and we're a bit mixed with our feelings about it. There will undoubtedly be many comparisons drawn between Super Monday Night Combat and BulletRun, and such comparisons are not really wrong. The game takes place in a fictional TV show with an announcer, it’s a bit light-hearted, and there’s plenty of taunting. The biggest difference, however, is that BulletRun isn’t a third-person MOBA game, but is instead a first-person shooter with character abilities. Costumes that you can outfit your character with give the game a pro-wrestling vibe. The art style isn’t too unlike Gotham City Imposters -- there are real guns contrasted with wacky-looking characters. You begin to know people by how they look and not their actual name. There’s also a Nemesis feature, ensuring that rivalries will be born within matches themselves. At the game’s core is your Heat meter. You’ll earn Heat for killing enemies, but you can multiply the Heat you earn if you perform a taunt shortly after you land the killing blow. Naturally, you risk getting smoked while you’re taunting, so you may want to find a seemingly safe location or simply not taunt at all, depending on the situation. Heat is used for your four abilities, which will be completely customizable. My favorite ability from the demo I got to play basically turned my character into Wolverine, with claws and a powerful dash attack. Each ability has a cooldown though, so I couldn’t permanently parade around the level as a claw wielding clown. BulletRun is very much a risk-versus-reward game. On top of the Heat mechanic there’s also active reloading to taunt you into risking your timing skills against a gun jam. Despite all of the comparisons you can make, BulletRun still feels fresh and unique. The free-to-play model they are using only forces you to use real world money for experience boosters and nothing else. It’s crucial that clothes are not real money only, since otherwise that pro-wrestling vibe would be incredibly stilted. The only thing left to see is how slowly you earn in-game credits. Ryan Perez Yet another free-to-play game to add to the list. I didn't even know BulletRun was a thing until we were ushered over to play it, after our lovely hands-on with Planetside 2. It wasn't too bad, though the content I saw was pretty slim. It reminded me a lot of Team Fortress 2 (gameplay and humor wise), but the different "classes" you could choose from didn't seem to have any specific use. At least the gunplay was cool, and I particularly enjoyed the perks system that offered different weapons as rewards; saving up for the minigun was particularly rewarding. Even though BulletRun retained some simple fun, I don't really see much of a long-lasting appeal. Many people use the cliched statement "just another shooter," well, that happens to be the case with this game, it seems. Nothing really stood out to me that at least made it somewhat of a cut above the rest. Then again, we did only play one map and mode. Perhaps the game has something incredibly awesome that we haven't seen yet. If that's so, though, then I wonder why we weren't shown that, instead of some generic deathmatch mode with your typical run-and-shoot mechanics. Surprise me, BulletRun! Daniel Starkey When I played Bulletrun, I immediately thought of the Unreal Tournament series. BulletRun caries the notion of spectator deathsport to its logical conclusion. Players compete not for kills but for the attention of an invisible audience, and everything is built around the spectacle. BulletRun is executed with such a style and sass that is both hilarious and deeply satisfying. I also thought that the free-to-play model was exceptionally well-suited to this kind of flashy gameplay. Most F2P games support themselves by allowing players to purchase alternate skins and costumes. What better way to integrate that than by giving players points for style? There's a unity of focus here that is really nice to see. Everything has one purpose -- absurd fun. BulletRun is slated for a summer release, but you can sign up for the beta here. |
| All hail Ken Masters with Psycho Crusher's rock cover Posted: 11 Jun 2012 11:00 AM PDT
HOW Y'DO, KEN!? SURE YOU'RE KEN! I'D LIKE SOME POUND CAKE! Psycho Crusher has pumped out a new rock arrangement based on, of course, Ken's theme from Street Fighter II. Ken is clearly superior to Ryu in every way, while Ryu spends every waking moment training and roaming the Earth like Caine from Kung Fu, Ken manages the family business and has a wife and child of his own, yet still finds time in his busy schedule for honing his skills. Yet their skills are on par with one another. That's called "time management," son. Oh, and I like how "Dr. Wily Stage 1" from Mega Man 2 was worked in at the 1:32 mark. You thought you could sneak that by us, didn't you! Tricky devil! Psycho Crusher - Sure You're Ken! (Street Fighter II - Ken Theme) [YouTube] |
| Wargaming's future is bright and ambitious Posted: 11 Jun 2012 10:45 AM PDT
Wargaming -- the folks behind World of Tanks, the upcoming World of Warplanes, and the even more upcoming World of Battleships -- is growing at an insane rate. They've been a big company over in Eurasia for a while, but now they're finally starting to conquer the Americas. After my meeting with Wargaming at E3, it was clear that they've got nowhere to go but up. Perhaps the most important part of their future is what I've been calling the Wargaming Umbrella. Their goal is to unify all three of their games so that they all use the same currency and make it easier to switch in between their games. Wargaming is attempting to make their games more accessible to everyone so they can include as many people as possible in their brand of free-to-play gaming. Wargaming is kicking things off with their new update to World of Tanks: update 7.4. This update is finally adding British tanks into the mix, something of relative importance considering it was those slimy Brits that introduced the world to the first tank during World War I. World of Tanks will also receive new maps and modes with the new update. One mode has a team defending a base from the oncoming attacking team, a nice change of pace from the deathmatch-style mode they use now. World of Warplanes is currently only in its closed beta stages, but I got to see the game being played at E3. Warplanes focuses largely on air-to-air dogfights, but the underlying mechanics looked and sounded great. For example, the bigger planes may have droppable bombs equipped that can do some serious damage to structures on the ground, and once the bombs are released, the plane will actually become more nimble. If your plane gets shot and bullets pierce the wings, your plane's lift will be affected. Small details like that are sure to get plane-flying aficionados really excited. In fact, just the manner in which they talked about their games made it clear that authenticity was a priority. Unfortunately, World of Battleships wasn't far enough along for me to see during my time with Wargaming. They mentioned that Battleships will be the slowest paced of the three games, simply because of the nature of the sea. It's also the one that I'm most looking forward to, since the slow-paced gameplay should also lend itself to a more tactical battlefield. I think that what Wargaming is trying to do with their franchise is phenomenal. Linking the games together is a necessity if they want players to try out and experiment with each one. If currency was only tied to one game, players may not want to invest the time in a new game just to start back at zero. Wargaming is hoping to link these games together as soon as possible, though no date (or rough estimate) was given. |
| Live show: Foom's E3 moments on Mash Tactics Posted: 11 Jun 2012 10:30 AM PDT King Foom has returned from his first ever E3, and he's ready to share his excitement on Mash Tactics today! The man is bursting at the seams and ready to show everyone videos, pictures, and and swag obtained from the event. Oh, and he will probably maybe be playing some videogames at some point, Mash Tactics airs Monday through Friday at 4p.m. Pacific on Dtoid.TV. 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.
|
| XCOM: Enemy Unknown is a strategy game I want to play Posted: 11 Jun 2012 10:15 AM PDT Being the resident baby here at Destructoid, I've never played any of the original XCOM games back in the mid-to-late '90s. Of course, I respect the series' legacy and understand its place in gaming history, but I've still never played it. So, I had no idea what to really expect going into the hands-off demo of XCOM: Enemy Unknown that Firaxis put on at E3. Even though the demo was really quite brief, I came away absolutely excited and impressed by a game from a genre I thought I would never be fond of. But I'll be damned, Enemy Unknown is something I truly want to play when it launches later this year. What we're first shown is a point later in the game where a small squad of standard soldiers walk into an utterly decimated city that the invading aliens have ultimately taken over. The soldiers move into an area that contains beaten-down cars and an empty building to the right. They notice a few aliens, which turn out to be horrifying re-imaginings of the Chrysalids. One by one, the marines become sliced up by the legendary foes, but not before a call for back-up can be made. That's when the elite squad you'll be controlling enters the battlefield. All suited up in reverse-engineered alien tech (something you'll invest in throughout your time playing the game), the four soldiers are ready to kick some major ass. And with a telepathic Sid Meier himself leading the soldiers (as a joke put together for E3), you can bet on them doing just that. The fallen comrades from earlier have already made the transformation over to becoming zombies, but it's nothing our saviors can't handle. Sid uses his mind-control power to tell one of the Chrysalids to throw a grenade at itself, and the rest of the team use each of their unique capabilities and expertise to take out the rest of the infamous aliens in no time at all; it's as if they've done this a thousand times before. However, a giant Sectopod comes into play right as the demo ended, leaving me feeling anxious for what's next. Now, I'll be the first to admit that I'm not really into strategy games at all. They were just never able to click with me all that much. Sure, there's the rare occasion that they do, but for the most part it's pretty consistent. Having said that, something can be said of the fact that I absolutely loved what I saw of XCOM: Enemy Unknown. I dug the game's presentation and how fluid it seemed to play out. I can't speak for what the hardcore XCOM fans might think, but just know this is a game I will most definitely be playing come October 9th. |
| Review: Iron Front: Liberation 1944 Posted: 11 Jun 2012 10:00 AM PDT Iron Front: Liberation 1944 is a hardcore military sim set in the eastern front of World War II. It's created from the Arma II engine, so fans of that series should feel right at home. When talking about WWII shooters, it's easy to think of games like Red Orchestra or the Call of Duty series, but Iron Front shouldn't be grouped together with those sorts of action-based games. Iron Front is a slow-paced tactics simulation. Anyone looking for a run-and-gun game where they can brag about their kill/death ratio can just move on. If you are the type of person who enjoys spending half an hour moving a tank into position, then pull up a chair and stay awhile. Iron Front: Liberation 1944 (PC) Iron Front is a detailed World War II sandbox. There are two single-player campaigns, a couple of interesting standalone missions, a multiplayer mode which can be played competitively or cooperatively, and a map editor that allows players to make their own missions. There are tons of accurate guns, realistic tanks and vehicles, airplanes, and a giant map of Poland to run around in. While the single-player campaign is a must if you want to learn how play the game, it's definitely more involved than a tutorial. There's a campaign for the German side and one for the Russian side, and both are interesting and worth playing. Each campaign is available in English or the original languages. I liked hearing them in German and Russian because of the authentic flavor that adds; besides, the English voice actors aren't very good anyway. The English dialog doesn't always match the subtitles, either, and at times it can seem like they were written by two different people. The story is not really an exciting narrative. It's more of a possible string of events that serve as the basis for all of the missions that you play. Players take on the role of an everyday soldier who is just there to complete the mission. It's not worth writing a book about, or turning into a movie, but it's believable and that's important in a strategy game. Designers can come up with the most realistic mechanics, but if they ask me to kill the entire Russian army with a spoon to save a damsel in distress, it won't really feel like a sim anymore. Each single-player campaign takes about 6-10 hours to finish. The player is given a series of goals to complete on the game's giant map, and they can be taken on any way you want. If the goal is to hold a point, it can be done by telling another squad of men to go do it while you sit and watch, or you can run at the enemy with a rifle and kill them all by yourself. So long as the goal is met, the game moves on. Because of how open each mission is, there's a lot of potential for replayability. Once you've finished a mission, you can revisit it at any time from the main menu. The gameplay in the campaigns ranges from being alone behind enemy lines, squad combat where you can order around your men, tank battles, and dog fighting in airplanes. The squad controls are decent, but a little clunky. Individual men can be selected by using the F keys, or you can order around the entire squad by using the "`" key. Once selected, holding "v" brings up a circular crosshair and a context-related menu. Depending on what you're looking at, your squad can be directed to move to a location, attack an enemy, get into a vehicle, or hold fire. Sometimes there are a couple of layers of sub-menus that have to be navigated in order to get to the command you want, but you do have an insane amount of control of your squad. Squadmates don't merely stand around and wait for your orders, however -- they are using the same AI as the enemies in the game, and they'll get down when under fire, run away from tanks, take cover, and shoot back at hostiles. Controlling a tank is similar to controlling infantry. In fact, you can even tell your squad to jump into an empty tank if you'd like. Tanks have positions for a gunner, a machine gunner, a driver, a gun reloader, and a commander. Players can take any of these positions, but if you have a full crew, it's best to play as the commander. You can tell the tank where to go, the gunner what to target, and both when to open fire. It's even possible to command more than one tank, and there are a couple of missions where you have tanks and infantry to control. This changes up the dynamics and makes Iron Front feel like an RTS game more than a straight shooter. The single-player is fun, and I actually enjoyed it more than I thought I would. Usually in games like this, the single-player is little more than a showcase of the game mechanics and how to use them all. This actually has some good situations that were challenging and, more importantly, interesting. One of my favorite missions takes place behind enemy lines; your commanding officer dies, and you have to take charge of your squad to get them all out alive. While a simple goal, it's one that can be identified with and understood. The multiplayer is also well done. There are maps ranging from small team deathmatches that can be played in ten minutes, to giant games of capture the flag that can take hours to complete. In most of the matches I played, players were allowed to buy their own troops, vehicles, and weapons. Points can be earned by killing the enemy or completing goals. This means that a single player can control a tank without having to rely on others to move around and shoot. Not that you can't drive a tank around with your friends, but it is nice to be able to have the choice. The player cap is huge; the biggest matches can easily have 100+ players in them. Now think about how each of those players can have a squad of five men under them, and you have a really freaking huge battle going on. Tanks move down the roads, jeeps full of men try and cut across the forest, the skies are filled with bombers and fighters dogfighting, and infantry will fill up the buildings in a town. All of that is controlled by players. No matter what it is you want to focus on individually, you can probably do it and help contribute to the match. It's awesome. Speaking of infantry standing in buildings, most of the structures are fully modeled on the inside with opening doors and windows that you can shoot out of. So not only is the map huge and expansive, it's also detailed. There is nothing better than moving a squad of men to the second floor of a barn and shooting men passing on the road outside. The map editor is essentially the same as the one in Arma II. You can drop down units and set up objectives and the game takes care of the rest of the details. If you think it would be fun to lead a squad of men on a rescue mission behind enemy lines, you can make that happen. And once it's made, you can play it with your friends, or share it online. While you can make all of the missions you want, you can't make mods. Mods can only work with the game if they are approved by the developer and released as DLC. While that is unfortunate, it does make sense for a realistic sim like this. They don't want people messing with the balance or running around WWII Poland on a unicorn. I would kill to get DayZ ported to this, and it is something that could happen. While Iron Front is detailed and ambitious, it is also very buggy. I had issues with objectives being completed correctly, forcing me to replay missions. Sometimes troops don't quite do what they are told and they die because of it. If an AI teammate is standing behind you and opens fire on an enemy unit, there is a good chance he'll shoot you in the back of the head. Doors can be difficult to walk through, climbing over things doesn't always work, and there are a myriad of other little bugs that can be terribly annoying. I didn't experience anything game-breaking, but I have read about some people having serious issues getting the game to work. My advice is to get the demo for Arma II and seeing how well your computer can run that before you drop any money on Iron Front. Arma II is a modifiable game, and there are already some good WWII mods for it that are free. You might be wondering "Why would I spend thirty bucks for something that I can play for free?" Well, that's a valid question. My answer to you is that Iron Front is worth it -- if you love WWII. The models and units are detailed and the physics are tweaked to match the weapons and vehicles of that era. It's much more detailed than any of the mods available for Arma II. If you don't care for bolt-action rifles and flying around in a Stuka, then you won't care too much for it. If you want to try and experience what it might have been like on the front lines in Poland, you should get Iron Front. My final thought that I want to stress is that this is not a fast-paced action game. I cringe when I look at the Steam forum page for Iron Front and I see people complaining about how unbalanced multiplayer is and how the game is broken because they can't get a good K/D ratio. This is not that type of game. Iron Front isn't about winning or seeing who is better, it's about trying to recreate the WWII experience and it does a pretty decent job of accomplishing this. Despite being rather clunky and buggy, I have to recommend the game. It's enjoyable, easy to create custom missions, and it's fun to see how battles play out. If you're a WWII buff, or a lover of simulations, then you need to grab this one. |
| Mark of the Ninja is stealth gaming done right Posted: 11 Jun 2012 09:45 AM PDT Tony Ponce got to play Mark of the Ninja back at PAX East and he seemed to be just as enthralled by the game as I was at E3. A 2D stealth game might not immediately sound like it should work, but Mark of the Ninja hits all the right notes when it comes to being sneaky. Playing through the first level was a wonderful time, but it wasn't until I attempted to get through it without killing anyone that I really started to get into it. Moments became much tenser when the easiest option of eliminating guards was out of the question. Once I finished the level, I felt like I really had accomplished something. Mark of the Ninja instantly became one of my most looked-forward-to titles of the year. One thing that that Mark of the Ninja accomplishes is informing the player with on-screen feedback. Each time you make a noise, a large circle shoots outs from the source to let you know just how far the sound traveled. When an enemy is alerted to your presence, a timer is displayed that shows exactly how long they'll be distracted for. With all of the information clearly displayed to the player, it always feels like your fault -- not the game's -- when you fail. I was told that the entire game can be completed without ever taking someone's life. The thought of that alone filled me with such a warm feeling inside. It also seemed like a priority for them, since there was one guard that I couldn't get passed without killing or alerting in the demo, but they were already aware of it and a fix was in the works (he had to be moved over a few feet). While each level can be passed without ever killing an enemy, it is by no means necessary. The game will give you a rating at the end of each level depending on your performance. Playing through a level without alerting the guards or killing enemies will boost your score significantly. It's even worth going back to previous levels later on, since you'll bring your new weapons and gadgets with you that you did not have previously. After I finished the Mark of the Ninja demo, I had a huge smile on my face. I knew that this game would satiate my lust for stealth better than just about any other game out there, including Hitman. Mark of the Ninja feels fresh, new, and unique. The 2D gameplay is a perfect fit for the genre, and I can't wait to get my hands dirty with the harder levels. Mark of the Ninja will be released later this year for Xbox Live Arcade. |
| You are subscribed to email updates from Destructoid To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
