New Games |
- Concept art and some details for Playdead's 'Project 2'
- 'Potato Sack Reunion' discounts familiar indie games
- The DTOID Show: Pikmin, Dawnguard, and Tomb Raider
- Preview: Killing in motion in Splinter Cell: Blacklist
- En Masse kicks off one-week free trials for TERA
- I'm sad because I wasn't sent a plush Sega Genesis
- Text adventures and flamethrowers with Zoe Quinn
- Checking out the massive universe in Line of Defense
- Mega Man Comic-Con-exclusive variant cover shall be mine!
- Medal of Honor themed merchandise to benefit charities
- Live show: Shadows of the Damned on Mash Tactics
- Are you going to PAX Prime? Let us know!
- Explore the endless frontier in Shnabubula's Starbound
- How $250 could still be too much for a Wii U
- Here are our personal E3 game of show picks
- Review: Li Lian Li PC-B25F case
| Concept art and some details for Playdead's 'Project 2' Posted: 13 Jun 2012 04:00 PM PDT The next game from Copenhagen-based independent studio Playdead sounds like it will be worth a look for generally anyone who dug Limbo, but details have been scarce so far. The project is seemingly years away from completion at this point, and founder Dino Patti has previously commented that the team doesn't want to burn would-be players out by revealing too much information about the title prematurely. Naturally, we're going to jump on any and all info we can find, even if it has to come from a grant listing by the Danish government. As spotted by Kotaku, the listing describes a story about a boy who is up against evil forces attempting to take over the world through experiments on human bodies. In addition to the intriguing concept art above, the site also points to "Project 2" (working title) being a 2D platformer set in a 3D environment. Also, it's in color! The target platforms for the game are PC, Mac, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360. I feel like I know enough at this point to want to not hear any more. |
| 'Potato Sack Reunion' discounts familiar indie games Posted: 13 Jun 2012 03:00 PM PDT It's all coming back to me. That time Valve got me to spend an entire weekend trying to find potatoes in independent games. Those of you who missed out on the infamous sale that morphed into something much more substantial now have another opportunity to nab those games in the Potato Sack Reunion. Presumably there is no alternate-reality game this time around, but that's probably for the best considering how some people reacted to the last one. $19.99 gets you a respectable line-up of games, which I will now include here in the post because one of you is going to yell at me otherwise. The list: 1... 2... 3... KICK IT! (Drop That Beat Like an Ugly Baby), AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! for the Awesome, Amnesia: The Dark Descent, AudioSurf, BIT.TRIP BEAT, Cogs, Defense Grid: The Awakening, Killing Floor, RUSH, Super Meat Boy, The Ball, The Wonderful End of the World, and Toki Tori. Phew! Of course, if you'd rather not purchase all of these titles, you can still get them individually for half price. Steam has also got F.E.A.R. 3 marked down to $8 right now, which seems like the exact type of game one would buy to balance out the aforementioned indie selection. |
| The DTOID Show: Pikmin, Dawnguard, and Tomb Raider Posted: 13 Jun 2012 02:45 PM PDT The news today includes Skyrim's DLC Dawnguard entering beta, the announcement of "arrow to the knee" avatar props, Pikmin 3's lack of online multiplayer, Star Wars 1313, Tomb Raider's rape stuff, and of course, Jim's review of Lollipop Chainsaw.
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| Preview: Killing in motion in Splinter Cell: Blacklist Posted: 13 Jun 2012 02:00 PM PDT I've never been that big a fan of Splinter Cell, or at least the last-gen games that were clearly about stealth. There's nothing wrong with stealth, but a demo of the first game never clicked with me, so it was always a series I ignored. Though I never got around to picking up the full game, a demo of 2010's Splinter Cell: Conviction seemed much more enjoyable, even if it overhauled the game style. I totally understand the fans who want more stealthy Splinter Cell games, but for those who didn't enjoy the classic approach, the new Jason Bourne style is far more interesting. And boy, does Splinter Cell: Blacklist look fun. It continues where Conviction left off, putting you in the shoes of Sam Fisher (now looking and sounding different) as he continuously appears out of nowhere and wrecks up the joint. Several countries have gone rogue, upset at the presence of US in many foreign countries. They've formed The Blacklist, a group of terrorist organizations demanding the withdrawal of US troops immediately. My hands-off demo covered much of the footage shown at Microsoft's E3 press conference, so I'll highlight the new bits you may not be aware of.
The demo begins at the Iraq-Iran border, with Fisher disguised as an enemy soldier carrying a dead body. Soldiers usher him into a tent so that they can treat the body, but one of them glances suspiciously at Fisher. As he walks over, Fisher uses the "mark and execute" system to mark two of the men. When the soldier is about to attack, Fisher takes him hostage and instantly kills the two men he's marked. He tries interrogating the remaining soldier, but when he offers no information, Fisher has the option to kill or knock him out. The possibility of a morality system was intriguing, but those expecting the options to matter should temper their expectations. Apparently there was discussion during development about incorporating morality points or consequences for killing or leaving enemies unconscious, but Ubisoft Toronto decided against it. The team was worried that players would meta-game and chose their actions based on the consequences or point system instead of what they felt was right. As a result, the option to kill or incapacitate enemies is a purely aesthetic choice. Fisher dons his classic outfit and moves through the camp, finding a group of enemies up ahead. This is the moment the player decides to show off the new "killing in motion" system. Taking cover in a tent, he marks three soldiers and dashes out, killing them in slow-motion. With a stab of the enemy in front of him, his "mark and execute" ability is recharged, allowing him to mark and shoot the two remaining enemies as he keeps running. This is something that could not be done with the old "mark and execute" system, which required Fisher to remain stationary. Moving on, Fisher navigates some guards and springs up the side of a building, hanging on to the edge. A soldier patrols on top, and Fisher makes a sound to attract his attention so he can pull him to the ground, knocking him unconscious. The ability to draw a guard's attention isn't just limited to pressing a button. If you're playing Blacklist on Xbox 360, you can use Kinect voice commands to attract enemies. I saw the potential for abuse, and asked if Kinect would require a specific command or if a chatty roommate could set it off by accident. Though they had considered making it sensitive to any sound, perhaps for increased realism, they had wisely agreed that this would be a bad idea. Players will have to use the right command if they want to utilize Kinect. Fisher climbs up the building and waits for other soldiers to find the body, which has fallen in a puddle of water. Thinking quickly, he fires an electric bolt from his tactical crossbow, a new device that has multiple applications depending on the ammo used. Fisher moves forward but a truck with more soldiers and a turret appears. One of the perks of being the leader of the newly formed Fourth Echelon is having air support from his team. A firefight ensues, and once Fisher feels he's in place, he calls in a missile from above to take out the turret and most of the enemy forces. Ubisoft Toronto wanted to incorporate the idea of attacking tactically from multiple sides like in Rainbow Six, but adjusted to work for just one man, something demonstrated by Fisher approaching the room with his target. While he used brute force in the main demo, my private demo showed a much more strategical approach. After peeking under the door to mark three enemies and identify his target, he places an explosive on the door and scales the building, ending up in front of a window on the other side of the building. Before the soldiers even know he's there, Fisher blows the door, drawing their attention so he can smash through the window and execute all three of them. There will reportedly be many moments in the final game that allow for such creative, multi-directional attacks. Fisher closes in on his target, who is enraged and claims to be a planted agent deep undercover for years, another deviation from the original demo. He yells at Fisher for blowing his cover and demands to speak to whoever is in charge. Fisher, being the head of the Fourth Echelon, obliges, grabbing him and getting an eye scan. The man was once an operative but joined the enemy a few years ago. Fisher demands information about the Blacklist with a gun to the man's throat, but the man would rather die, pulling the trigger on himself. My demo continued, with more enemy forces closing in on Fisher's position. Fisher must rely on his team to get him out of there, as the player takes control of an attack helicopter. From a first-person viewpoint, the helicopter proceeds to eliminate every enemy outside Fisher's door. With the coast clear, Fisher runs out, jumps, and the demo ends. This demo may have given the impression that older fans are simply out of luck when it comes to the stealth gameplay they love, but some hints from the team imply that they shouldn't write off the game yet. While Conviction's co-op multiplayer is returning, it is also being joined by the revival of Spies vs. Mercs, the classic mode from the last-gen games. Fisher can drag bodies to hide them, and in general there will be a balance of stealth and action. Earned cash can also be shared between the single and multiplayer modes, something that is always appreciated. So for a guy who has never really cared about Splinter Cell, I came away impressed. Blacklist looks like it will be a satisfying experience when it releases in Spring 2013. In the meantime, it seems that I need to go back and play Conviction. |
| En Masse kicks off one-week free trials for TERA Posted: 13 Jun 2012 01:30 PM PDT Subscription fees got you down? En Masse Entertainment is now offering a one-week trial for its MMORPG TERA that lets you build up to eight separate characters to level 23 on one server. (That makes it sound like a dare.) While there are some other restrictions, it's not like this is costing you anything to try. Patrick has been playing the game and recently shared his thoughts. Despite the more interesting quests being held until just around the trial's level cap, I think it'll be worth the time and energy to download for those of you who have yet to give TERA's combat a spin. On a scarier note, En Masse says that players are averaging "nearly" 4.5 hours of game time daily. "That's more time than the average American spends watching TV each day," notes the press release. We're doomed as a species, aren't we? |
| I'm sad because I wasn't sent a plush Sega Genesis Posted: 13 Jun 2012 01:00 PM PDT Is it possible for cold, hard videogame technology to be loveable and sweet? What do you think, Beemo? I curse the powers that be every night that my Game Boy doesn't sprout legs, go to soccer practice, and make fart sounds with its mouth. Is a living handheld to much to ask for? Let's compromise: I'll settle for a plush Sega Genesis that plays the "Seeeeegaaaaa!" sound bite when you squeeze it. Sonic fangirl Blue-Sonikku made that dream a reality and sent it to Sega of America. It was a very nice gesture, but now I'm mad because I don't have one. I hope you made enough for everybody, little miss! |
| Text adventures and flamethrowers with Zoe Quinn Posted: 13 Jun 2012 12:30 PM PDT
[Destructoid's Director of Communications Hamza Aziz asked Jonathan Holmes to make a show called 'Sup, Holmes?' so that Destructoid could later sell a t-shirt that says 'Sup, Holmes?' on it. This is that show. Subscribe to the podcast feed and find more episodes here.] Sorry for the bad sound this week! I did a bit of yelling because Zoe Quinn dropped so many bombs on me. She's cultivated a program that encourages women to become game developers. She's the designer of a fighting game that uses REAL FLAMETHROWERS. She's working to make the text adventure relevant again. It's hard not to get loud when someone is doing so many incredible things at once. Tune in next Sunday at 1pm PST/4pm EST (either here on front page or on our Twitch channel) for our next live stream podcast where we talk to Damian Sommer about his weird ass games. It will be fun for all. |
| Checking out the massive universe in Line of Defense Posted: 13 Jun 2012 12:00 PM PDT Last week during E3, I met up with 3000AD's president and lead developer, Derek Smart, where he showed me a significant amount of his team's upcoming free-to-play shooter Line of Defense. In all honesty, I was not familiar with title, so Derek had to catch me up on quite a bit in our short time together. In total, he showed me four colossal landscapes, two of the huge space stations, the inside of one of the main space ships, and every other facet of the game you could imagine. Read on to see what I mean. On any one server, 256 people can play in one scene at the same time. Split into two teams, the players' ultimate goal is to take up each of the key points on the map. Once a team has done that, their goal is of course to defend against the other team from taking everything back. This is where things in Line of Defense get truly interesting. Your journey in Line of Defense is really up to you, and how you want it to play out. Derek told me that as soon as players jump into a server for the very first time, he wants them to feel lost, and then venture blindly into the environment. His vision for this game at the most basic level was pure exploration and experimentation. If you want to start up a guild and take up a building, or just wander on your own with a squad of androids you've hired, you can do exactly that. To help achieve this, everything in the game is seamless. If you pick your character class, you're never locked out of changing that class as you progress later on in your career. You can either play in third- or first-person, and you can take your character to any server you want. When you want to get to the other areas through the jump gate, there's only a barely noticeable load time and you're either in space, another region, or in the docking bay of one of the space stations. The first scene Derek showed me was Heatwave, a scorched desert area with a large, open terrain. We started in the main base, where all the key points of the map are located. He entered one of the nearby aircraft vehicles, and flew by the nuclear reactor. He tells me that if this gets destroyed, absolutely everything else in the map powered by electricity no longer works. That means no light (if you have any), and absolutely no text or voice communication, as the radar will no longer work. Right as I was just getting a sense of scale for this area after watching him fly around the map -- letting me see the incredible draw distance and the open spaces around the base just begging to be explored -- we moved right along to the jumpgate that took us out into space. The first thing I noticed was all the junk floating around in space. Before I could ask, Derek told me that all of it was at one point part of ships from former battles that had taken place out there from earlier. I thought was an incredibly nice touch. While going through space, I couldn't help but imagine the possibilities of the battles that could take place out there. In this one area. Before too long, we were at the hypothetical front gate for the space station: a giant red energy field in front of the docking bay. After a couple seconds, it turned green to allow us landing permission. Inside, the incredibly detailed station had a blue aesthetic to it (the other bases have their own, such as a yellow one), with numerous rooms and areas to hole up in to protect the eight capture points inside. To save time, Derek teleported us to the other scenes. Next up, we headed out to Frostbite, which really seemed to me like the ice and snow equivalent to Heatwave in terms of landscape and layout. I truly am a sucker for snow levels, though. After that we headed off to Nightbridge, a tie for my personal favorite map. Nightbridge is the "city map," or, at least, it's the most urban map. Skyscrapers can be seen for miles, and the best part is each and every one can be entered and destroyed. This is probably where a majority of players will wind up battling it out, and I'm excited at the prospect. Derek almost didn't show the last area, as we were running out of time. But he figured I really like this one, so he quickly showed me Gulge. Nightbridge may be the most urban, but Gulge seems to have the most going on. Taking place in a mountainous area, all the bases are on top of huge mountains that have bridges connecting them. These bridges can be destroyed, and only a character with the right certification can fix them. With over 50 vehicles, numerous guns, vast landscapes (which you can build your own base on), space combat, space stations, and ultimate control over your character's progression, Line of Defense is an ambitious and bold title from a team of about thirty people. Derek seems absolutely confident that Line of Defense will be the title to finally break 3000AD out of the niche market when it launches sometime in Q3 of this year. Offering a free and paid client through Steam and as a direct download is definitely a step in that direction. After spending a good hour with Line of Defense and seeing it for myself, I'd absolutely agree with Derek. |
| Mega Man Comic-Con-exclusive variant cover shall be mine! Posted: 13 Jun 2012 11:30 AM PDT Slowly but surely, I'm catching up on all the non-E3 news I missed while I was in Los Angeles last week. And when it comes to Mega Man-related stories, I try to be on top of them like white on rice (as though that wasn't obvious to anyone who has ever read my writing). At the San Diego Comic-Con in July, Archie will be selling a special event-exclusive variant of Mega Man #14 with one of those sketch covers that people love so much. For me, the addition of color seems to soften or outright remove some of the finer details, plus it's pretty cool to see a "work-in-progress" art piece. Archie also offered a variant of issue #6 at New York Comic Con last year, although it was pretty lazy in comparison. It was just art from Mega Man Powered Up slapped on a white background. This newer cover featuring Mega and Rush is a billion times better in comparison, no? Variant Cover for Archie's Mega Man #14 at SDCC [The Mega Man Network] |
| Medal of Honor themed merchandise to benefit charities Posted: 13 Jun 2012 11:00 AM PDT Project HONOR is a program formed by Electronic Arts to benefit families of fallen special operations warriors. Elite weapons manufacturers and the EA's Medal of Honor Warfighter are teaming up to donate to the Navy SEAL Foundation and the Special Operations Warrior Foundation under this project. Weapons makers will have their products featured in game, and partners will create and sell exclusive MoH merchandise, with 100 percent of the proceeds going to the above listed and other charities. Also announced today, Medal of Honor Warfighter Military Edition was made exclusively for active, reserve and former military members. It will include the MoH Warfighter Limited Edition as well as exclusive in-game inlocks, including use of the Project Honor camo pattern. "This partnership with EA and Medal of Honor will raise awareness on the work we do to help the families of fallen Special Operations warriors and facilitate contributions that help provide college scholarships for surviving children and financial assistance to families of severely wounded special operations warriors," said John T. Carney, Jr., Special Operations Warrior Foundation President. "This is a great way to give back to some of our country’s greatest warriors." You can find out more about Project HONOR on the official website. |
| Live show: Shadows of the Damned on Mash Tactics Posted: 13 Jun 2012 10:30 AM PDT King Foom is going on a Suda trip on Mash Tactics! After getting knee deep into Lollipop Chainsaw yesterday, Foom is ready to check out the other games from Suda51, starting with Shadows of the Damned. Garcia Hotspur is out to save his beloved with a giant gun that takes the place of his penis. And now Foom is going to adventure vicariously through Hotspur's gun-penis. Tune in and enjoy the machismo humor. 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.
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| Are you going to PAX Prime? Let us know! Posted: 13 Jun 2012 10:00 AM PDT Dtoiders, it's almost time. With less than 80 days to go, PAX Prime is nearly upon us. In 11 short weeks, gamers from all across the US (or, in my case and those like me, perhaps from all over the world!) will descend upon Seattle for the country's largest consumer-focused games convention. With this year's event selling out faster than ever before, PAX is set to be bigger and better than ever and we can't wait to see you there. Below is just a very early rough draft of who from the community is attending. It's very small, but that's where you come in. Sound off in the comments below if you're making it to PAX Prime, and do let us know what region you belong in too. Here's a list of community members currently in attendance: The Destructoid community has been in attendance in growing numbers since 2007, and this year is going to be no different. Planning for the event, including finding someone to share a room or make the journey with, takes place in our Google Group mailer and you can apply to join here. We’ll also be planning a whole host of awesome community meetups across the weekend, so it’s a great way of staying in the loop. The mailer is also an easy way to get to know some of your fellow community members a little better before the big event, and we’ll also be looking for volunteers to wear the infamous Mr. Destructoid helmet on the show floor, so get involved! |
| Explore the endless frontier in Shnabubula's Starbound Posted: 13 Jun 2012 09:30 AM PDT A few months ago, chiptune artist Shnabubula produced an incredibly sick piano / chiptune mash-up album called NES Jams, and it was good. At the tail end of May, he released a new album called Starbound, and surprise, it's also good! Different in tone, emotion, and style compared to NES Jams, Starbound is a completely original, five-part chiptune space opera. The music alternates from light and spacey to toe-tappingly upbeat -- what I think a shmup on the Sega Genesis would sound like if the number of audio channels were increased and there were no other no restrictions to speak of. This journey of the mind and soul can be yours for the price of free, though I doubt Shnabubula would complain if you tossed a few bucks his way. Starbound [Bandcamp]
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| How $250 could still be too much for a Wii U Posted: 13 Jun 2012 09:00 AM PDT [Editor's note: Alec is from Destructoid's sister site Flixist, and has a few thoughts he wants to share on the Wii U.] We learned a lot about the Wii U at E3 this year, but we didn't learn what is likely to be the defining factor in its success or failure: the price. Recent rumors from reliable sources price it in the $400 range, which could be disastrous for the system's launch. For the purposes of this article, we are going to imagine that Nintendo will be releasing the system for $250, the same price that both the Wii and 3DS launched at. Whether it's reasonable to assume Nintendo would do that or not is up in the air, but I think most people would agree that the price would be more than fair, especially with a pack-in. But even at $250, the Wii U has some major hurdles. In fact, most of these issues would be just as legitimate if that year-old $200 rumor came true. I want the Wii U to take the gaming world by storm. I really, really do. But with each passing day, I become less and less convinced that Nintendo can make lightning strike twice. If you are reading this, there is a good chance that you understand the Wii U. You know that it is the next console from Nintendo, a full-fledged follow-up to the Wii. But there are a lot of people who do not know, and this is mostly Nintendo's fault. With the Wii Balance board and WiiMotion+, Nintendo set a precedent that may very well come back to bite them. But it's not just Nintendo this time. The entire industry has moved towards a potentially confusing sense of iteration. Both Sony and Microsoft have put out new peripherals which completely change the way players interact with them and are continuing to do so (which I will delve into more in a bit). Then there is the name. Logically, "Wii U" should denote something entirely different, but that is no longer the way the market works. Peripherals like Kinect and PlayStation Move have pushed basic naming conventions out of the way, replacing them with vague names that are related to but not indicative of any specific console. It's not "PlayStation 3 Move," for example, even though it's only compatible with the PS3. Microsoft did the same thing -- there's no such thing as an "Xbox 360 Kinect." A couple of months ago, I got together with a friend I hadn't seen in a while, and of course we talked about videogames. I told him that I was excited for the Wii U, and he said he was too, though he wondered when Nintendo was going to announce another console. I had essentially the same conversation with another person not too long after. And these are people who play videogames. They aren't parents who are just trying to make their children happy. They actively want a Wii U, but they have a fundamental misunderstanding of what it is. I expect that when shoppers see Wii U GamePads in Target and Walmart this Christmas season, they will wonder why it doesn't work with the Wii that they already have. [Preface: I don't think that either SmartGlass or the Vita/PS3 connections will be utilized properly in the long run (despite what Ubisoft may think). Of the two companies, I expect more out of Microsoft, because its insistence of forcing Kinect into everything it can shows a level of commitment to its products that Sony simply does not have. I will also not be discussing the price implications of SmartGlass or the Vita either. This is simply about their feature sets, how they could affect public perception, and subsequently, how they could affect the success or failure of the Wii U.] The most compelling PS Vita commercial I have ever seen is the one in which some guy is playing MLB 2K12 on his PS3 when he realizes he has to leave for work. So what does he do? He grabs his Vita and picks up right where he left off. It's a cool ad (even though the narrator is obnoxious), and it highlights a pretty awesome feature. The Wii U has something similar but not quite as good. No one actually knows how far away a GamePad can be from the Wii U base, because no one has played with a wireless GamePad. Nintendo usually does a pretty good job with its range of wireless functionality, so there's a good chance you'll get to the bathroom, but it's not likely you'll make it to your car. Then there's the multi-touch issue. Although Nintendo hasn't come out and said it, it's There's also SmartGlass, which can be potentially utilized by the majority of smartphones and tablets available on the market today. For example, I have a Droid Razr MAXX. It has a 4.3" screen. It's significantly smaller than the screen on the GamePad, but it still has multi-touch. What of the larger scale? I don't currently have a tablet, but that's mostly because I'm waiting for Google to announce the sub-$200 Nexus tablet at Google I/O later this month. When that happens, I am likely to pick one of those up, and then I will also have a 7" screen which is far more capable than the GamePad's. When compared to the Vita or to smartphones, the GamePad only has the size of its screen to keep it worthwhile. Compared to a tablet, it loses on all counts. Where SmartGlass also wins is with battery life. Nintendo has rated the GamePad's playtime at somewhere between three and five hours of battery life per charge, which is in line with the Vita's, but it pales in comparison to many phones or tablets. SmartGlass is very different from the GamePad because it is purely accessory. It can't be used to control games in the same way that the GamePad can, but it turns out that the GamePad isn't always necessary either. In Chad's preview of Pikmin 3, he used the GamePad solely as a map, controlling the game with a Wiimote/Nunchuck combo. In that scenario, a tablet or smartphone would have been just as effective at conveying the information. Perhaps even more so, because it would have had better touchscreen functionality and would have been purely screen, foregoing the in-this-case-unnecessary buttons and sticks. I want to point out those last two sentences. Not because they're brilliantly written or anything, but because they highlight how the Wii U could easily benefit from multi-touch, despite what Reggie says. In a world where there is a single Wii U controller, I understand and could probably accept arguments in favor of single-touch systems. With your hands on all of the buttons all the time, multi-touch functionality on the the screen in the center isn't quite as necessary. I would still argue that it would be beneficial, but I wouldn't fight so hard. As it stands, though, it's not just the GamePad, so the GamePad is officially an accessory. There is one particular gesture that has always solidified the usefulness of multi-touch to me, and that is the pinch-to-zoom. The ability to resize things on the fly is helpful in pretty much any situation, but it's especially useful when navigating maps. Now imagine you're playing Pikmin 3. With the ability to easily scroll around and pinch-to-zoom, you now have significantly improved control over what you can see offscreen. It wouldn't be the most convenient thing ever, because your hands are taken up by the Wiimote and Nunchuck, but if there were a game that was Wiimote only, then even that problem would disappear, and a multi-touch screen would become the completely usable and a superior option for people who wanted it. On the most basic level, that is what multi-touch could allow that would make it a worthwhile feature and why the GamePad should support it. Does it need it? Not necessarily, but the competition has it, so the GamePad will seem dated by comparison It will be years before we know how capable the Wii U truly is. As of right now, we can assume that it is at least on par with the current generation of consoles, maybe a little worse in some areas and a little better in others. But let's say it is absolutely more powerful than either the Xbox 360 or PS3 (and by the end of its cycle, I have no doubt that it will put visual powerhouses like Uncharted 3 to shame). Whatever it is, it may or may not run the Unreal Engine 4, and although some form of Square Enix's Luminous Studio engine will run on the system, it probably won't be the one that showcased that incredible tech demo. What's more important, though, is that neither of those things, whether the system can take advantage of them or not, will be available at launch. This holiday season will be incredibly important for the Wii U. It is likely to be Nintendo's one shot at being the only "next-gen" console in town. It needs to wow people, and it probably won't. Some of the demos showed off at this year's E3 on high-end PCs were really mind-blowing stuff, and most of that is stuff that the Wii U will never be able to reach. It's possible (though unlikely) that not even the Xbox 720 or the Orbis (or whatever they are called) will reach quite that level of fidelity, given the costs that likely went into building those machines. But the Wii U definitely won't. Even if the Wii U versions of Arkham Asylum, Darksiders II, Assassin's Creed III, etc. look better, it won't be by leaps and bounds. Seeing the games side by side on the demo kiosks in GameStop won't convince anybody who already has an Xbox 360 or PS3 that they need to buy another console, and when the time comes that the difference would be truly noticeable, the Wii U will be up against much more powerful competition. When the Wii came out, $250 was an amazingly low price. The PS3 had come out only two days earlier at twice that or more, and the Xbox 360 was still selling for $400. Visually, it didn't quite compare, but it offered something different and cheap. The Xbox was already dead at the time, and the PlayStation 2, although very cheap, had left the limelight. But Sony and Microsoft are sticking to their guns right now. Microsoft announced SmartGlass and Sony announced that book thing it will have forgotten about by Tokyo Game Show. The companies are going to continue to push their consoles for at least another year, and Nintendo will have to fight against that. When the Xbox 360 released, it ushered in the HD era. Its cost was justified by its promise of visuals beyond anything console gamers had ever dreamed. Nintendo will not have that advantage. Depending on how intensely marketed SmartGlass and the PS3/Vita crossplay are, consumers won't see Nintendo's built-in advantage either. So it comes down to price. And again, the assumption is the Wii U is out at $250! All of that new technology for a low, low price. It sounds perfect, but it doesn't have the momentum, thanks to Microsoft. The $99 Xbox is not a good deal, but it looks like it is. Thanks to cell phone plans, consumers are used to paying more in the long run for something deeply discounted on the front end. They see a $99 Xbox 360 with Kinect and they don't necessarily realize that they will need a larger hard drive or that they could get Xbox Live for much cheaper if they do a little digging. All they see is a $99 Xbox 360. It will be interesting to see if the cellphone-esque payment method works out for Microsoft and whether or not we could be seeing the same thing with its follow-up console. But what's important is that next to $99, everything looks expensive. Even $250. The PlayStation 3, on the other hand, starts at $250 for the 160GB model. But as happens every single holiday season, you can be sure that it will be $250 for the 160GB model and two games, probably both winners of some notable awards. As it stands, Amazon has two 320GB PS3 bundles, one with Uncharted 3 and the other with Modern Warfare 3, each retailing for $300. It's not hard to imagine both games being put in the same box with a smaller hard drive, cementing $250 as a price for a console with multiple games. Nintendo Land has the potential to be a good pack-in (if it is one), but it's not Call of Duty. And since we're finally on the topic of videogames... I don't go to brick-and-mortar game stores very often. I buy most of my console games from Amazon because it's cheaper and I'm lazy. But the other day, I went into one and saw something amazing: a used copy of Crackdown was $2.99. Seriously. Three dollars. For an absolutely awesome experience. Dead Rising and Devil May Cry 4 are now $5. Splinter Cell: Conviction, Battlefield: Bad Company 2, Halo 3, and Halo 3: ODST are $10 each. All of those games? $53. Cheaper than the price of basically any new Xbox 360/PS3 game, and likely cheaper than Wii U games, which will probably hit the $60 mark. Even if they stay at $50, though, cut out Devil May Cry 4 and you still get six great games for $48. Yeah, they're old. All of them have sequels out or on the way, but so what? When you get into the $20 category, your options expand dramatically. The same is true for the PS3. People looking to buy a console this holiday season will see a wall of $50-$60 games, and right next to it will be a wall of games as low as $3. There is a grey area, however, thanks to the Wii U's backwards compatibility. Nintendo has the best track record for backwards compatibility of any company out there, and it seems to be continuing the trend. Although the Wii U won't play GameCube games, it will have complete compatibility with all Wii games. That is a really cool feature, but it's not a system-selling feature. A Wii can be had for $150 nowadays, and that's with a game packed in. Plopping down the extra $100 to take advantage of cheap legacy games makes no sense, especially since the Wii U will not upscale Wii games. But even that has some caveats, because Nintendo games practically never drop in price. There is the Nintendo Selects series, which has some amazing games, but then there's New Super Mario Bros. Wii. I bought that game back in November of 2009, but it's still $40 on Amazon and $50 new at GameStop, so that grey area I was talking about becomes a little bit darker. The Wii had some excellent third-party games which can be purchased very cheaply, but they tend not to be the ones that appeal to large audiences. And they certainly aren't games people will buy a Wii U to play. Nintendo has a tough road ahead. What they showed at E3 this year is pretty cool, and I think it has a lot of potential. But so did the Wii, and only a handful of companies ever figured out how to take advantage of it. I, as a member of the Nintendo-relatively-faithful, want nothing more than to see the Wii U succeed and allow Nintendo to continue as both a hardware and software manufacturer. And I think it probably will, at least to some degree. Even though the gaming industry in 2012 is much different than it was in 2006, Nintendo's old-fashioned way of doing things with the 3DS seem to have worked out well enough for them, at least in the wake of the price drop. As far as the market was concerned, $250 was too much for a 3DS but perfect for a Wii. Would it be perfect for a Wii U? Maybe not. |
| Here are our personal E3 game of show picks Posted: 13 Jun 2012 08:30 AM PDT Though we get along well enough once Editor-in-Chief Dale North dopes us and puts us back in our cages, all of us at Destructoid have incredibly diversified taste in games. Some of us love fighting games, some of us love tactical RPGs, and some of just really, really like Nintendo. While we can all agree with Destructoid's official E3 winners, these are the games that spoke to us on a personal level. If we could take one game home, marry it, have 8 children with it, divorce it, claim custody over four of them, and spend the rest of our days eating alone in the dark corner of a Golden Corral thinking of that one game that got away, this would be our pick. SimCity Oddly enough, even among all of the inevitable AAA favorites, I have to go with SimCity. Not only has it been years since I've been interested in a Sim title, but it's been just as long since I've actually bothered to notice a SimCity game. As Destructoid staffer Steven Hanson told me after our hands-off with the game, "I was smiling through that entire demo." I share his sentiment. An intriguing charm resonated within the colorful, well-presented world of SimCity. Not only that, but that game looked incredible, which only adds to the appeal of such a visually and contextually diverse game as a city-building simulation. Actually seeing houses being built, put up for sale, and observing people moving in with their truck full of possession was something we were only imagining back in the SimCity 2000 days. Now, the game is more deep and visually dynamic than ever, and I can't wait to spend hours building up "Dicktopia," only to destroy it via a natural disaster. Borderlands 2 I have to give credit to the guys at Gearbox Software. They appear to be building a hell of a game in Borderlands 2. They produced a really strong co-op demo for the show. It was clearly the same game in terms of combat mechanics and general tone, but brighter, faster and more challenging. Pandora feels more alive than ever before, and a game which needed a fair bit of refinement seems to be getting the attention it well deserves. Runners-up: Injustice: Gods Among Us, The Walking Dead
Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance I have to give it up to Revengeance. I've been looking forward to this game for a few years now and the wait was certainly worth it. I love hack 'n slash games, and this is the first one to actually push the genre forward with its precise cutting mechanics. You can choose how you cut anything, and as many times as you want! Plus it's just so ridiculously over-the-top that I love it. I got to ninja run onto incoming missiles in order to leap towards a helicopter and then slice the helicopter up into dozens of pieces. So. AWESOME.
Hell Yeah! Wrath of the Dead Rabbit My favorite game of E3, if I'm honest with myself, is Hell Yeah! It's such a hidden gem. I actually spent an hour and a half with it and only stopped once my hand cramped up. Comedic violence just slays me. Runners-up: Borderlands 2, whose existence I often try to forget so I don't have to be disappointed at its lack of availability on a daily basis. It's downright depressing. The visuals are so crisp and bright, the distinctive art style no longer just a means to cover up polygon seams. And the abundance of guns and loot is on steroids compared to the original. I cannot wait to play the shit out of this game. Last is Tomb Raider which is, much like its heroine Lara, the whole package. Pikmin 3 I had forgotten just how intense the game's formula is, and how different it is from every other RTS I can think of, including games with relatively similar mechanics like Little King's Story. The difference with Pikmin comes from how the series takes the heavy pill of mortality and wraps it up in an iniquitous-yet-adorable package. This is a game where you lead an army of benevolent aliens, grab them by their heads, and FLING THEM INTO THE MOUTHS OF GIANT BASTARD PREDATORS. People tend to overlook that in the Pikmin series. The only force in the game that could be potentially defined as evil is you. Everything else is an innocent, wild beast. That said, there are definitely ways to be less evil in the game if you choose. Johann Sebastian Joust It might be a little unorthodox, but I going to have to say that Johann Sebastian Joust was my game of the show. There's no screen or monitor of any kind, so it's not technically a videogame, and it most likely will never be available commercially. It's more of a social experiment that invites players to engage game hardware in a way they never thought possible, and on that note, it fucking succeeds. Runners-up: Project P-100, Rayman Legends, and Retro City Rampage. Need for Speed: Most Wanted / SimCity Both games look freaking amazing and the hands-on time I got with NFS really gave me a lot of confidence that the Criterion guys were doing what they do best. SimCity is a more personal thing. I grew up with the series and seeing where it went with SimCity 4 was a bummer. The GlassBox engine is really powerful though and will model everything from resource depletion to real-time crime. I can't wait for either. The Last of Us My favorite game of E3 2012 was The Last Guardian. OH SHIT WAIT! Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance - Cutting NEVER gets old. Dishonored I've had a serious case of 'girl wood' for Dishonored ever since I saw a video presentation of the game at QuakeCon last year. Now, I finally got my hands on it and all concerns I had over playability and presentation have been laid to rest. Arkane Studios has always made unique, challenging, and immersive games that embrace the qualities that studios like Irrational Games, Looking Glass, and Ion Storm once did. With a bigger budget and more experience, the developer is finally pulling off a stunning, original world and concept without the technical hiccups that held back its previous game, Dark Messiah. It's rare that you find a developer confident enough to present an open-ended demo at E3. I died a lot, I learned a lot, and I discovered new ways to complete the demo (I was told there were eight possible). That's a rarity not only on the show floor but in modern games in general. Runners-up: PlayStation All-Stars: Battle Royale, Quantum Conundrum Papo & Yo Papo & Yo was the the videogame-related highlight of my E3; both finally getting to play it, after following it for the past year, and talking with the game's creator, Vander Caballero, while sitting on the floor on the outskirts of the booths and hullabaloo. I've been sold on the premise for a while. The game is an allegory for Caballero's childhood, during which he dealt with an alcoholic father he loved but also feared. The surrogate players in the allegory are Quico, a young boy living in the favelas of Brazil, and his fearsome pal Monster, a giant, reddish mix between a gorilla and a rhinoceros. Actually getting to play it, I was treated to some whimsical, surreal environments and mind-bending puzzle solving. Papo & Yo is something decidedly different, with some lofty goals. Caballero channeled his profound personal experience into this deceptively delightful allegory with the sincere intent to help people cope with life; to give back to the industry that provided him an escape channel when his life was trying. Beyond that, my hands-on time suggests it will be a perfectly accessible, smartly designed puzzle-platformer with a gorgeous aesthetic. It's times like these I wish the PSN had a gifting feature akin to Steam's so I could easily buy five copies of the game when it comes out. Runners-up: SimCity, Rayman Legends, Johann Sebastian Joust Persona 4 Arena I'm a huge fighting game fan and hadn't seen anything at all from this one up to that point. When I went to go play it, I was extremely surprised at just how fun it was to play the huge cast of intriguing characters, the animations were absolutely gorgeous, and, of course, the music is phenomenal. The colossal AAA games are an obvious choice for favorites, but at the end of the week I was most excited for Persona 4 Arena simply because of how much fun I had during my time with it. |
| Review: Li Lian Li PC-B25F case Posted: 13 Jun 2012 08:00 AM PDT Anyone who's heard of Lian Li knows they produce some of the most expensive computer cases. Seriously, they're crazy expensive. Though with all the cool features and chic designs Lian Li brings to the table, some would argue the prices of these high-end cases are justified. Today, I'll be reviewing the Lian Li PC-B25F mid-tower case, which features brushed aluminum plating, tons of removable parts, and a tool-less design. Here are the specs for the Lian Li PC-B25FB:
First Impressions After taking the case out of the box, I thought the case looked nice, but it didn't look like anything special. To be honest, it looked painfully plain. However, I couldn't deny it had that "classic" Lian Li touch to it: minimalistic and light. The case I was transferring my computer from was approximately 3/4 the size of the Lian Li case, but the two weighed about the same, which was nice to feel. However, the weight of a case normally doesn't matter much to me, as whenever I am transporting my computer, it is short distances, like to my car. Otherwise, it sits on my desk -- why should I care about the weight? Of course, one of the first things you look (or in this case listen) for in a new case is the amount of sound it creates when the computer is turned on, and I was pleasantly surprised when I switched the PC-B25F on for the first time. Despite having five case fans, the CPU fan, and the GPU fan, the computer was barely louder than my full tower with liquid cooling. As quiet as it was though, I feel like they could have improved upon this by adding some foam insulation on the inside of at least one of the side panels to absorb some of the sound, but pickers can't be choosers and I couldn't possibly knock Lian Li on the small amount of sound the case is making. Aesthetic Overview Looks can be deceiving, so let's go into a little more in depth on how this case looks and what comes included in this seemingly simple case. As I stated before, the case looked very plain coming out of the box; made of brushed aluminum, it comes in only one color: black. The material looks and feels very nice to the touch, though when I first picked up the case, it left finger prints that I can't seem to wash off. I'm not sure what it was, as it hasn't happened since. Additionally, when I had a CD drive installed on the case, the traditional black plastic that came with the drive didn't match the case, which eventually drove me crazy. If this kind of thing bothers you, I would advise not having a CD drive installed and using USB instead. The case comes with no side ventilation, but it does come with two 140mm fans on top in addition to the two 120mm fans in the front and another 120mm fan in the back. Contrary to most cases where the front fans are exposed through the front panel, the PC-B25F features a solid front cover, with the intake coming from small vents in the front of the side panel. The case comes with two USB 2.0 ports, one e-SATA port, and your typical power and reset buttons on the top. Below them is the Lian Li logo in silver. Below even the logo on the lower half of the front panel lies the true beauty of this case. It's a plain and simple blue ring that really ties the minimalistic theme of the case together. Sadly, pictures don't do it justice and the only thing I can think to relate it to is Iron Man's miniature arc reactor in his chest. Tool-less Design Moving on, the biggest advantage of this case over other cases is the unique tool-less design the case features. I've worked with other cases that claimed to be tool-less, but it didn't seem to work out one way or another. The B25F really took "tool-less" to a T in that everything could be put together by hand; from the more mundane things like hard drives to even the power supply and motherboard. Although I said tool-less hard drive installation is nothing new, I found the way Lian Li went about doing it differently from how other companies chose to look at it. Using thumb screws to screw into the normal holes, the drive bay acts similarly to a train track in that you slide it in. When you get all of your hard drives completely installed into their respective bays, you can simply slide a lever on the side up to lock them all in place at once. I'm going to lump the video card and DVD drive installation into one simply because they really aren't that unique from other cases. Both work in a lever system that secures them just like any other case that features a tool-less design. Not that impressive, to be frank. The motherboard was installed through the use of thumb screws that were actually a lot harder than I had anticipated to get in. Between me having to move the board into place and my fat fingers, I got in the first few without a screwdriver, but just ended up putting in the last few screws with one (although it was definitely possible without one -- I was just being lazy). Lastly, I found the power supply to be the coolest thing, because I haven't used a case that didn't require a screwdriver to install the PSU. The device consists of a simple clamp that secures the PSU down pretty tightly. Even with some effort, I was unable to move the PSU once the clamp was in place, though I would still screw it in if you are intending on traveling with it. Okay, so I lied, the power supply wasn't the last thing I wanted to talk about. This case also comes with three removable dust filters, which are extremely easy to remove and clean. No more having to buy aftermarket filters with these things; they definitely get the job done and are nice and manageable. There are two located in front of the two front fans (you have to remove the front panel to access them), and the last is located on the bottom on the outside of the case, which would be useful if you had a power supply that has a fan on the bottom. 
Is it worth the money? It goes without saying that this is the question at the top of everyone's mind, and I'm going to have to go with a big "no" on this one. I know my review of this product was largely positive, because I really do love the case. However, it's the price that really kills it for me. For a $150 mid-sized tower, the thing better install the computer components itself. While the tool-less design and materials in this case are indeed top notch, I can't think of any reason why someone would need this case other than for bragging rights or they have entirely way too much money. That said, if you do have the nasty predicament of having too much money (yeah, right) or just want the case to say that you own a Lian Li, I full-heartedly recommend this one. While the PC-B25F lacks the flashiness that other cases have, the simplistic beauty of the case shines in its own way. Between the smooth brushed aluminum and the blue ring of power (one ring to conquer them all), I truly do love this case -- I would just love it a lot more if it were $50 cheaper. |
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