New Games |
- Kickstarter for Ouya Android console surpasses $3.5M
- Promoted blog: I love what you hate
- Greg Bear's Halo: Silentium novel coming January 8, 2013
- AC III Liberation may be the best looking Vita game yet
- The DTOID Show: CodBlops, Deus Ex Movie & Arkham Prequel
- The Network Roundup: Tentacle Love
- The Last Story comes to North America August 14
- Live show: Quantum Conundrum
- Review: DiRT Showdown
- Meet Lara Croft's actress in new Tomb Raider documentary
- Insurgency 2 is a thing you can help fund
- Activision's Comic-Con lineup includes Hit Monkey game!
- EyeToy Kama Sutra game could have been a reality
- Ubisoft making a game based on the Spartacus TV show
- New Mass Effect 3 multiplayer DLC welcomes you to Earth
- Review: Thomas Was Alone
| Kickstarter for Ouya Android console surpasses $3.5M Posted: 11 Jul 2012 03:00 PM PDT The buzz for the upcoming Android-powered game console Ouya has been out of control lately, and much of that has taken the form of contributions for the system's Kickstarter campaign. At the time of writing, it has brought in $3,564,131 with a whopping 28 days left to go. In the project's first update, the Ouya team says it's working hard to figure out how to handle the issue of all that extra money; talk about a wonderful problem to have. "Now we want to blow you away. The biggest thing for us right now: we are working on our stretch goals, what we can do if we raise more money. It might take us a few days to figure that out, and we want your help." Personally, I really like the open spirit of the Ouya, but I'm skeptical that the games will be able to deliver in the long term. That's not as much of a concern for many of the Kickstarter contributors, clearly, though it's a concern I have seen expressed elsewhere and one I'd love to see proven wrong. |
| Promoted blog: I love what you hate Posted: 11 Jul 2012 02:00 PM PDT [Dtoid Community Blogger RenegadePanda shares his strange fascination with the absolute worst videogames ever made. Want to see your own words appear on the front page? Go write something! --Mr Andy Dixon] Many months ago, I came to a realization about myself. I started looking at the games I played, noted which I enjoyed, determined why, and found that my entire gaming collection is pretty much divided into four parts. Of the first three, you will no doubt notice at least one in your own collection: AAA titles, B titles, and niche Japanese fare. But the fourth is something I've never really understood my attraction to, something that makes me constantly question just how the hell my brain works... I love crappy games. I don't exactly know when this started, but it's definitely been most prevalent during the current generation, and it's become a part of me. I'm that guy who walks into a store, picks up a copy of a universally panned game, and pays far too much for it. All the while getting a confused look from the cashier as he or she finally hands me the game and says, in a serious tone, "You know this game is awful, right?" To which I respond, "Yes, that's why I'm buying it." I then leave the store with an odd sense of misplaced pride in my purchase. And yet, I still don't know why. I just spent $20 on a used copy of Blackwater, a game that was widely accepted as one of the absolute worst shooting games of this generation. Shouldn't I feel ashamed? Stupid? Why am I so excited to go home and play this game, which I'm fully aware is a steaming pile of crap? Because I'm going to love every second of it. In fact, I chose Blackwater because it's the most recent example of this phenomenon. I've played it quite a bit, and I even cleared out my Kinect space just to play it. I've kicked in dozens of doors, capped hundreds of poorly textured terrorists in a country painted exclusively in brown and darker brown and chock full of dialogue from people who redefine the word "monotone". I've beaten the game multiple times, and legitimately enjoyed the experience every time, despite knowing that the experience I'm enjoying is painfully bad. So what draws me to this? That's what I've never been able to figure out. What strand of my DNA causes me to absolutely love Onechanbara to the point where I have beaten it four times now to the tune of 500+ Gamerscore? What sane person would legitimately name this game their second favorite Xbox 360 game? Even as the person typing this, I know how insanely stupid that sounds. It's to the point where you probably think I'm making this up just to be dramatic. Even beyond that, some of the games I've enjoyed most this generation have been critically panned by both critics and gamers alike. Bullet Witch? I bought that at full price the day it came out. Otomedius Excellent? I bought two (count 'em) copies of the Special Edition. Duke Nukem Forever? I own two copies of that, too. Blades of Time? You better believe I ran out and bought that the day I read about it here on Destructoid. In fact, it's become an addiction of sorts. I actively seek out and purchase the kinds of games that other people are actively seeking to get rid of. My brain is wired for it. When I see a mediocre game sitting on a shelf, usually at a discounted price, I almost have to buy it. When someone traded in a sealed copy of Crash Time: Autobahn Pursuit at my old Play N Trade, I immediately jumped and said "I'm buying that." I didn't even hesitate. Think about that. This game looked so awful that the previous owner didn't even bother to unwrap it. And I paid $10 for it. And I played it. I played four hours of it, and it was beyond mediocre. Hammy British voice acting, wonky car physics, completely asinine (and sometimes impossible) missions, and glitches galore. But it's still sitting on my shelf, right next to my copy of Nier. And that four hours was, from start to finish, filled with a completely strange sense of satisfaction, knowing that if anyone ever looked at my achievements, or my gaming shelf, they'd have no idea what the hell that game actually was. Even as I sit here typing this, I know the only thing holding me back from buying Bomberman Act: Zero (with its completely misplaced colon) is that the GameStop near me doesn't have the original case and book for it. That's right, I can't buy it incomplete. I treat it like it's a copy of Radiant Silvergun or Earthbound, because in my mind, this thing has value -- even though it's completely worthless and would struggle to sell for a dollar on eBay. Raise your hands; how many of you actually went out and searched specifically for a copy of Target Terror on the Wii? I did. And I found one, and I played it, even though the IR aiming is atrocious and the game is practically unplayable because of lag. I paid $15 for a game that would have sold poorly as a $5 downloadable title. And all because I get some kind of sick, perverted enjoyment out of how bad the game truly is. And how many people in their right mind bought a Sharpshooter and Navigator controller with the sole intent of playing Heavy Fire: Afghanistan? How many people spent three hours trying to unlock one glitched achievement in Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard just to say, "Yeah, I 1000'd that game." Or got excited when Jane's Advanced Strike Fighters dropped to $20? So now, as I sit staring at my imported copy of Gal*Gun, I still don't understand why I'm so in love with these games. I look back at all the money I've spent on them that could have gone torwards anything else and think, am I weird? Am I just blind? Has some kind of genetic defect caused me to enjoy something I technically am not enjoying? I suppose I may never understand why, but I embrace my condition with pride. So the next time you see a guy buying Secret Service, tap him on the shoulder and make sure, with a smile on your face, that you tell him, "You know that game is awful, right?" |
| Greg Bear's Halo: Silentium novel coming January 8, 2013 Posted: 11 Jul 2012 01:00 PM PDT The final chapter in the Forerunner Saga of novels by Greg Bear is set to arrive on January 8, 2013. Halo: Silentium will detail the final hours of the Forerunner conflict against the Flood, which as Halo nerds know it, will end with the Forerunners triggering the Halos and cleansing all life in the universe. The press release makes mention that the Flood are being aided by an unexpected ally, and based on the cover art of Silentium, makes me believe these allies are the Prometheans. See that black and orange glowing sphere? It looks like the one from the Halo 4 gameplay debut trailer. San Diego Comic-Con attendees this week will also get a chance to meet Greg Bear on Saturday at 2PM during a special giveaway and book signing at the Tor Books booth. Yay books! |
| AC III Liberation may be the best looking Vita game yet Posted: 11 Jul 2012 12:30 PM PDT
One of my favorite surprises at E3 this year was seeing Assassin's Creed III Liberation on the PlayStation Vita. I know the Vita is a powerful handheld, but nothings really blown me away as much as Liberation has. See for yourself in this latest trailer for the upcoming handheld game. In fact, Assassin's Creed III Liberation won our E3 award for Best Portable Game among some powerful contenders, like Persona 4 Golden and Epic Mickey: The Power of Illusion. You definitely don't want to miss out on this one, Vita owners. |
| The DTOID Show: CodBlops, Deus Ex Movie & Arkham Prequel Posted: 11 Jul 2012 12:30 PM PDT The big news is a new trailer for Call of Duty: Black Ops II, because it's about how poor people are evil and will steal your robot helicopters. But it's okay because Trent Reznor's doing the soundtrack. Next, Rocksteady's working on a new Batman Arkham game, and this time it's allegedly a silver-age prequel. I'm so stupidly excited about this. Assassin's Creed III: Liberation looks like a contender for "best Vita game ever," though that's really not saying much. Another thing got the crap kickstarted out of it, and this time it's an Android console. In the second half of the show, we talk about the horrible prospect of Deus Ex: Human Revolution and God of War movies. Burn, Hollywood, burn! |
| The Network Roundup: Tentacle Love Posted: 11 Jul 2012 12:00 PM PDT Been wondering where your Network Roundup had wandered off to? Japan Expo in Paris, France to be exact. Anime, manga, and video games action aplenty, and of course, cool French people, and like minded comradery. I couldn't pass up the chance to get an ever so innocent looking drawing from The Legend of the Overfiend and LA Blue Girl creator, Toshio Maeda while there. Who doesn't need a little tentacle loving? Keeping with the spirit of Japanese entertainment, the network had some amazing Japanese news going on. Destructoid took on the forbidden combo of American RPG and Shojo manga. Japanator is going to drag you through the aisles of the convention floor all week. Flixist is making sure you don't miss a detail about the Japan Cuts film festival. Finally, Tomopop reminds us how all these Japanese toys just have it out for our wallets. Who's hungry from some squid? Japanator
Flixist
Tomopop
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| The Last Story comes to North America August 14 Posted: 11 Jul 2012 11:00 AM PDT Few headlines have been more satisfying to write than this one. Mistwalker's The Last Story finally closes the book on the long-running localization saga on August 14, when XSEED brings it to North America. Yep, we've got a date. XSEED made the announcement on Twitter, where it also revealed it would be giving away soundtrack CDs as a pre-order bonus. It's been years since the game was originally revealed, and the will they/won't they drama concerning Nintendo and localization has been quite an adventure. I'm glad it ended well, and I will now impatiently await August. Yippee! |
| Posted: 11 Jul 2012 10:30 AM PDT [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.] After releasing in June on Steam, Quantum Conundrum has now hit XBLA and PSN, and I couldn't be happier. I've been waiting patiently all month to get my hands on this unique, puzzle based, platformer for my console of choice, and today we finally get the chance to dig into it on Mash Tactics. |
| Posted: 11 Jul 2012 10:00 AM PDT The DiRT series is well-known for its Rally-style racing, accurate and realistic physics, and bare-knuckle driving action. Spawned from the Colin McCrae series of Rally games, DiRT took off on next-gen consoles for fans looking for something a little different than the regular slew of gearhead and arcade racing games available on the market. This is not your father's DiRT game. DiRT Showdown (Xbox 360 [reviewed], PlayStation 3, PC) For fans out there looking for DiRT 4, this simply isn't it. In fact, this title bares absolutely no resemblance to the games in the series' past. Gone is the Rally career mode, dirt tracks, and racing career. Sadly, gone also are the realistic car physics as well. When you're able to do donuts by simply laying on the accelerator -- "Look, mom, no hands on the analog stick!" -- you know you're in for some floaty car behavior. So what is left? Well, from jump, DiRT Showdown is actually more of a destruction derby title, with occasional Gymkhana events thrown in. There are traditional races too, but honestly they're peppered throughout with the focus on wrecking other cars in derby or figure-8 races being the main focus. This is further hampered by not only the car physics being so off kilter, but also by the cars themselves. The majority of the vehicles are all non-licensed generic cars that, for the most part, handle and accelerate the same. There's no real "tuning" involved, but you can upgrade your cars' performance with money earned in events -- though, to be frank, even after doing so, I only noticed a small change in acceleration or handling. At least everything looks nice. The floating sponges you'll be driving all appear sleek and sharp, with excellent particle effects as you hurtle over jumps, boosting with your constantly renewing nitrous meter. Damage effects are especially nice as you lose doors, fenders, and more smashing about each course. The menus are also sleek, but the constant "Look how extreme we are!" feel of every menu option falling from the sky as a giant metal block gets old after three or four screens. The same can be said of the unavoidable announcer, who spouts off such gems as "T-bone-arama!" as cars slam into each other. The Gymkhana events have a separate challenge mode, where players are tasked with increasingly difficult moves, such as drifting under scaffolding, clearing jumps, performing donuts, and the like. However, the word "challenge" is used loosely here, as once again the bizarre physics allow you to unintentionally complete these moves before you've realized what you've done. There is an online mode, which the developers would have you think is the main meat-and-potatoes of the title, but sadly, this seems slightly broken as well. The RaceNet matchmaking servers don't allow for much customization or choice over who you compete against or how you want to race, and the load and wait times are excruciating. Even once you finally get into a match, you can't select what you want to play -- you just keep downvoting what appears until hopefully you land on an event you want to actually play. It's like the developers only made this title to keep the license alive while they worked on the next "real" iteration of the series. DiRT Showdown is not a broken game; it's just very slap-dash, seemingly thrown together from pieces of ideas but never made fully whole. Courses repeat over and over and the difficulty never gets too high where events become a challenge, thus leaving the player almost bored with the task of completing each event. It looks nice, but it's clearly a shell of its former self, with no real connections to the series that everyone knows past the name itself. |
| Meet Lara Croft's actress in new Tomb Raider documentary Posted: 11 Jul 2012 09:30 AM PDT
In anticipation of next year's Tomb Raider release, Crystal Dynamics has partnered with games journalist Geoff Keighley to bring us a new installment in his Final Hours series. Presented as both an app for PC, iPad, and Kindle as well as episodic documentary shorts, The Final Hours of Tomb Raider will give new insight into the development of the game leading up to its 2013 debut. In this footage, hosted by the charming Zachary Levi, you'll get to meet the new Lara Croft actress Camilla Luddington and get a glimpse of the motion capture process. Square Enix promises more to come later, including interviews with key players behind Lara's reinvention at the Crystal Dynamics studio. The app is due to launch in March 2013. Tomb Raider comes out on Xbox 360, PS3, and PC on March 5, 2013. |
| Insurgency 2 is a thing you can help fund Posted: 11 Jul 2012 09:00 AM PDT
Insurgency, the acclaimed, semi-realistic modern military mod for Half-Life 2, came at a time when Medal of Honor and Call of Duty were still set in World War II. Today, the creators of the popular mod formed a Kickstarter for a sequel. Though modern military shooters are far from scarce in 2012, the developer has plans to make it standout from other shooters on the marketplace. The developer says the game will closely resembles the early days of the mod and is influenced by Rainbow Six: Rogue Spear and Day of Defeat. These are two of my favorite games as well, but I don't really see the similarity in the above video. What I see is another fast-paced tactical, class-based shooter set in the Middle East. Then again, I don't have a fondness for the original Insurgency that others might possess. The game is being developed by much of the original core team, many of which have been picked up by Gearbox, Crytek, Blizzard, and other major studios. If you are looking for a more realistic shooter or are a fan of the original, you can help expand and expedite the project by contributing to the game's Kickstarter page. The developer is asking for $180, 000 but has stretch goals going as high as $800,000. |
| Activision's Comic-Con lineup includes Hit Monkey game! Posted: 11 Jul 2012 08:30 AM PDT Hit Monkey! You know, the one-off assassin that appeared during a story arch in the Deadpool comics? Yes, it's horribly dumb and I love it. High Moon Studios, developer of the Transformer games, is behind the project and it will officially be announced at the Marvel Video Games Panel this Saturday at 1:45PM. The news got leaked a little early thanks to the teaser site (which has since been taken down.) Speaking of Transformers, Activision will have both Transformers: Fall of Cybertron and Transformers Prime to show off at San Diego Comic-Con this week, as well as 007: Legends and The Walking Dead. Destructoid will be at Comic-Con all this week bringing you coverage on all these game. |
| EyeToy Kama Sutra game could have been a reality Posted: 11 Jul 2012 08:00 AM PDT I'm always surprised by the lack of porn on modern consoles, especially with all the, err, "input possibilities" that motion controls give the user. It's not for a lack of trying though, if Sony Computer Entertainment executive producer Pete Smith's recent interview with Eurogamer is any indication. Smith detailed a Kama Sutra game for EyeToy that he rejected, calling it the weirdest game he was ever pitched. "We were talking about it back at the office. Obviously we didn't sign it and it never ever saw the light of day. But we were going, how exactly would we QA it?" Smith said. "You can imagine these two big hairy testers going, 'No, you're the bitch tonight.'" Sounds like a good time to me! Unfortunately, we will never get our hands or genitalia on what could have been an EyeToy unit seller. Smith isn't a total corporate prude, however. Like of all us, perhaps he sometimes likes to unzip in front of his PlayStation 3 and enjoy himself. Or am I alone in this? ... awwwkwwwaaaard! "In one sense I think, God, I wish it would have been done," Smith said. "We could have maybe got some celebrity endorsements and stuff like that." You know, because celebrities love hot, virtual sex as much as the next lonely, virginal game enthusiast! At last, we will never be able to unlock the sex-related PS3 trophies that we have longed dreamed about. Here's hoping Sony wises up and publishes a Kama Sutra Wonderbook title in the future. EyeToy Kama Sutra - the game Sony rejected [Eurogamer] |
| Ubisoft making a game based on the Spartacus TV show Posted: 11 Jul 2012 07:45 AM PDT Ubisoft has announced Spartacus Legends, a fighting game based on the Starz TV show. Yes, a fighting game from Ubisoft. It will feature thousands of weapons, a skill system, and a character creation system. You'll also be able to play as Spartacus, and other characters from the TV show. Liam McIntyre, star of Spartacus, provided creative feedback during development on the project for whatever that's worth. Nothing like getting "creative feedback" from an actor! The game will be out sometime in 2013, and will be playable at San Diego Comic-Con this week too. No platforms were specified in the press release, but we'll update you as soon as we find out. I'm sure you're dying to know. I only watched the first season of Spartacus because of Lucy Lawless. What? I loved Xena: Warrior Princess. DON'T JUDGE ME! |
| New Mass Effect 3 multiplayer DLC welcomes you to Earth Posted: 11 Jul 2012 07:30 AM PDT "Mass Effect 3: Earth" is an appropriately titled upcoming add-on for the game that brings multiplayer to Firebase Rio, Firebase Vancouver, and Firebase London. Fatigue might be kicking in by now, but this content will be free to download when it arrives on July 17 in North America and in Europe a day later. In addition to those locations, "Earth" includes a selection of N7 characters -- the Demolisher Engineer, Destroyer Soldier, Fury Adept, Sentinel Paladin, Shadow Infiltrator, and Slayer Vanguard -- plus new modifications and upgrades. The N7 Piranha Shotgun, N7 Typhoon Assault Rfile, and Acolyte Pistol are being added to the weapon list. Perhaps more interestingly, this DLC introduces a Platinum difficulty to Mass Effect 3's multiplayer and also a new mission objective centered around protecting and escorting a designated target. That'll appear randomly on waves 3, 6, and 10, going forward. Are you still enjoying this stuff? |
| Posted: 11 Jul 2012 07:00 AM PDT Thomas Was Alone contains a lengthy narrative, a colorful and varied cast, and a story of cooperation, conflict, and epic questing. It meditates on sentience, love, friendship, loss, rivalry, and the basics of beginning a superheroic career. It packs into itself more heart, character, and drama than many triple-A titles. That's quite a lot for a game that looks initially like an Adobe Flash object-creation tutorial, starring a series of colored quadrilaterals. Thomas Was Alone (PC [reviewed], Mac) Thomas Was Alone is not by any means a mechanically complex game. Controls consist of moving and jumping, and not much more. If not for its unique storytelling hook and endearing characters -- an achievement not to be understated, mind you -- the game would be otherwise indistinguishable from the glut of indie puzzle-platformers that make up much of the scene. Complexity rears its head in the game's party of rectangular adventurers. Each has unique characteristics, speed, jumping height, and occasionally special gimmicks. The red one can jump high and move fast, but is just the right size for the weaker jumpers to vault. The tall yellow one can jump really high, perfect for reaching far-off switches. The blue one can float in water, ferrying the rest majestically over deadly pools. The pink horizontal one can barely hop, but can serve as a trampoline, boosting everyone else's airtime. And so on. As such, the game's all about building stairs and cooperation, each piece helping each other piece make it to appropriately shaped portals to move on to the next of one hundred total levels, divided into ten chapters. Players hoping for a more rigorous mental workout may be disappointed, for most of the game's puzzles are a bit too simple to engage fully (a couple of exceptions aside). As the cast grows, players may end up traversing an area multiple times, which can annoy folks looking just to get to the next bit of story. A level-select or way to skip puzzles after several failures would be welcome. When I mentioned that the game looks at first glance like a Flash title, that shouldn't surprise; it began life as a Flash game. It's now powered by the Unity engine, but curves are still nowhere to be found. Levels are constructed of plain black shapes, and every character is a square or rectangle of some sort, distinguished only by shape, size, and color. Closer examination reveals a deeper, more considered art style, though. Subtly animated backgrounds, moody, dynamic lighting and shadows, and a haunting, melancholy soundtrack courtesy of composer David Housden (available on Bandcamp) cast Thomas Was Alone as a deliberately minimalist game, its spare aesthetic not used as a compensation for limited resources. The game looks simply good, put plain. This all helps to enhance the game's true star: its brilliantly-written story and unique approach to storytelling. Told through plummy-voiced narration by Danny Wallace (who voiced Assassin's Creed II's Shaun), the game weaves a tale loaded with charm and personality, and manages the feat of giving heaps of character to simple mute, barely animate shapes. As you play, you'll start to think of each little block as a person, with a name, history, and attitude. Thomas' irrepressible positivity, John's ego (as big as he is tall), squat Chris' constant whining and cynicism (a trait that's touchingly tempered by a first romance), and Claire's burgeoning superhero complex (because she's waterproof!) endears and inspires emotional investment amidst a backdrop of artificial intelligence and the travails of newborn sentience. Thomas Was Alone tells a story that's more complex than games orders of magnitude more expensive and difficult to develop. It's also a triumph of narrative's ability to convincingly superimpose human qualities onto nonhuman objects, telling the audience what's what (who's what?) and letting the imagination take over. It proves that you don't need tens of millions of dollars and hundreds of staff to make a game story worth telling, just a good hook, an engaging vision, and a whole lot of heart. [Thomas Was Alone is currently available DRM-free directly from the developer, as well as on Desura and IndieCity.] |
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