New Games |
- Killzone HD and Trilogy out now, plus Double XP Weekend
- Review: Punch Quest
- NOW THAT'S WHAT I CALL KULOR! has got the chips
- Defender's Quest headed to Steam and other platforms soon
- Let Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime brighten your day
- Concept art shows off Halo 4's War Games Map Pass
- What I wouldn't give to play this Sega Smash variant
- Unboxing: Forza Horizon Limited Collector's Edition
- The DTOID Show: XCOM DLC, Sim City, Zynga & Warfighter
- Additional content for Hell Yeah! now available
- Shadowgate opens the castle gates once again
- Live show: Hanging out with Katherine Gunn
- Review: Silent Hill: Book of Memories
- New Darksiders II DLC will arrive in time for Halloween
- Exclusive: Ragnarok Odyssey OST with Kumi Tanioka
- Worms Revolution DLC pack out today
| Killzone HD and Trilogy out now, plus Double XP Weekend Posted: 24 Oct 2012 04:00 PM PDT The original Killzone may have been hidden away in a shoebox for the better part of a decade, but the venerable shooter has now safetly made its triumphant return to center stage. Promulgated today over at the PlayStation Blog by none other than Scholar Visari, the Autarch issued a call to arms for this weekend's surge. This upcoming weekend has been declared Double XP weekend and all of your efforts shall be rewarded doubly. To enlist new troops the Killzone Trilogy has arrived on the front lines for $39.99. Should you already own Killzone 2 and 3 and are still interested in the high-definition remaster, Killzone HD is now available for purchase independently on PSN for $14.99. Got it? Good. Now get out there and slaughter some Vektan scum. Death to the ISA! |
| Posted: 24 Oct 2012 03:00 PM PDT I've played a lot of endless runners in my day -- and by "my day," I mean ever since I've seen the iOS and mobile market get flooded with them for the past three years. There's only so many times you can watch a dude run from one end of the screen to the other on an infinite loop before you shut it down and play something else. But not every "endless" title is created equal. Games like RocketCat's own Hook Champ and Ubisoft's Rayman Jungle Run broke the mold with charming graphics and an actual established leveling order, while Jetpack Joyride owned the scene with its unique take on quests. Punch Quest isn't as good as Hook Champ, Jungle Run, or Jetpack Joyride, but it's still worth piling into the "endless runner" folder on your device.
Punch Quest (iOS) Punch Quest differentiates itself from the competition right off the bat, as it's a tad over the top. For starters, there are giant eggs that cause you to explode, then transform into dinosaurs or gnomes. There's special food where, if you eat it, you start seeing gnomes and embark upon a special bonus area. But despite the wackiness, the game is actually very simple to pick up.The left side of the screen triggers a vertical uppercut punch attack, and the right side functions as a forward/horizontal straight punch. There are a few advanced moves you can do, such as pressing both of them (or swiping) to block attacks, or uppercutting first, then forward punching to get extra air and clear some gaps. While there isn't a whole lot of depth here, the control scheme is easy to use, and gets the job done. Another cool thing that sets Punch Quest is the fact that you're going to do a minimal amount of jumping. Although there are spike pits and some platforming segments, for the most part, the game is combat-centric and not hung up so much on traversing pitfalls. Also, the addition of blocking is a great mechanic that's often not found in these types of games, as it adds a small layer of strategy and split-second timing to your journey. Just like a number of other contemporary runners, there are three "quests" to complete during each run -- such as "block three attacks," or "uppercut 20 enemies." The game also has bosses, which is a rarity in the runner genre. Aesthetically, Punch Quest is a good mix of old school retro and RocketCat's signature art style, which comes together nicely. My favorite part is probably the strong focus on customization. If you want to be an African American Punch Wizard, go ahead! If you want to be a heavily armored Phalanx-style Punchette, you can do that too. Personally though, I was fine with the original base character. In terms of other visual options, RocketCat promises iPhone 5 optimization, mainly the addition of more screen real estate -- but since I only had an iPhone 4 on hand for this review, I wasn't able to test said optimizations. So all of the above sounds great on paper, and should make for a pretty varied experience, right? Well, after all is said and done, Punch Quest is still an endless runner game, albeit with few unique mechanics. You're still going to try to go for an impossibly high score; you're still going to have to play it hundreds of times to unlock anything substantial; and you're still going to want to play it in spurts rather than marathons. I was longing for real quests with an actual conclusion. It would have been nice to have an option to play a mode with a payoff at the end -- that's the kind of mechanic that keeps people playing for hours, and something other games in the genre have handled brilliantly.
Given that the app is free, in-app coin purchases are included, should you choose to pay real cash for upgrades, but just know that I never once felt like I hit a paywall. While it may feel like some upgrades are a bit grind worthy, the game doesn't feel like it's withholding content, because the bulk of your expensive purchases are going to be solely for aesthetic value (hats, faces). At the end of the day, I wasn't enamored by Punch Quest, but I enjoyed my time with it, and it has enough content to keep you going for a while. If you like endless runners and punching things, odds are you'll enjoy RocketCat's latest effort. If not, I doubt it'll make any convincing arguments to convert you. |
| NOW THAT'S WHAT I CALL KULOR! has got the chips Posted: 24 Oct 2012 02:30 PM PDT I've got another kickin' chiptune album for your twisted pleasure. You people make me sick! Between 2008 and now, Richard "Kulor" Armijo composed a bunch of tunes based on the NES, Game Boy, Master System, Game Gear, Atari 800, Atari 2600, Commodore 64, and OPL3 FM synth chip sound capabilities. These songs, which are all playable on their original hardware, have been compiled into a super album called NOW THAT'S WHAT I CALL KULOR!, available for free if you feel like being a cheap chump. Sample the album after the jump. Then download it because this kind of stuff is your lifeblood. You know it to be true! Kulor - NOW THAT'S WHAT I CALL KULOR! [Ubiktune]
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| Defender's Quest headed to Steam and other platforms soon Posted: 24 Oct 2012 02:00 PM PDT Every so often, a tower defense title is able to pull me in, utterly disrupting my ability to function as a productive member of society. One of the more recent games to claim that victory was Defender's Quest, which not nearly enough of you played. It has since received a substantial amount of new content, including a new game+ mode, support for mods, additional maps and sidequests, and perhaps best of all, upgraded graphics. I had intended to write up some thoughts on this stuff for a while now, but I haven't yet been able to find the time to even play the new-and-improved Defender's Quest, unfortunately. Why even bring it up? Because the game is coming to Steam, Desura, Impulse, GamersGate, and GOG.com on October 30, 2012. Some of you aren't always so into buying independent releases outside of the ones found on these platforms, which I totally get. Know that this is one to keep an eye on -- especially with all of the free updates that followed our original review. |
| Let Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime brighten your day Posted: 24 Oct 2012 01:30 PM PDT
I don't know if it's the weather or what, but today has just felt like a bummer. I just feel gloomy. But then I happened upon this announcement trailer for Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime. The second title from Asteroid Base, it's a game for two in which players work together to defend their spaceship from enemy attackers by manning the controls for cannons, thrusters, shields and a laser, moving from one station to another through platform jumping. It's bright and energetic -- due in no small part to the music -- but I expect it's also pretty hard. Only being able to control two elements at once, even when coordinating well, seems like it could get overwhelming fast. And that, my friends, sounds like fun to me. Asteroid Base is planning to release Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime on PC and Mac next year. |
| Concept art shows off Halo 4's War Games Map Pass Posted: 24 Oct 2012 01:00 PM PDT Season passes can be a gamble, even with higher-profile games. That's why I've yet to pay up front for content that might not turn out to be great despite the savings associated with doing so. Halo 4 will get in on that action with its War Games Map Pass, priced at $24.99 and included with limited-edition copies of the game (but not the Halo 4 Xbox 360 bundle). This pass gets you three map packs -- due out around December, February, and April, respectively -- at 15 percent off. So, if you aren't the kind of person who gets obsessed over Halo's brand of multiplayer, this one's probably not for you. Concept art for some of the maps and more detailed descriptions can be found below.
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| What I wouldn't give to play this Sega Smash variant Posted: 24 Oct 2012 12:30 PM PDT
No matter how much good press PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale receives, it'll never quite settle with me. The fact that it is a "clone" of Super Smash Bros. isn't what's bothersome -- I personally had a grand time with the game at E3. I just can't get over the bland lineup of grim dark hooligans. Where's the color? Where's the pizzazz? Know which company has a ton of color and pizzazz? Sega. It already has an umbrella label, Sega Superstars, for its range of crossover titles. For instance, the upcoming Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed pulls characters from Sonic the Hedgehog, Samba de Amigo, Jet Set Radio, Golden Axe, Skies of Arcadia, and more. The next logical step would be to take away their karts and tennis rackets and let them beat the living piss out of one another. Chilean artist twins Maximiliano and Leonardo, under the joint pseudonym xamoel, have gone to great lengths to create the most balls-awesome Sega crossover imaginable, Sonic & Sega All-Stars Warzone. Only in this dream fighter can Earl pick up ToeJam and use him to wallop Ryo Hazuki, can Bayonetta and the Space Harrier stare each other down like Old West gunslingers, or can Comix Zone's Sketch Turner pop Billy Hatcher right in the kisser. It's glorious, it's genius... so of course, it'll never actually happen. Bummer. SONIC and SEGA ALL STAR WARZONE [deviantART via The Mega Man Network] |
| Unboxing: Forza Horizon Limited Collector's Edition Posted: 24 Oct 2012 12:00 PM PDT
We've popped open a copy of the Forza Horizon Limited Collector's Edition so that you can peek inside for yourself. While the casing is nice (a steelbook and slip case), the innards of this package aren't much to look at as all the goods are digital. With each Limited Ed. you'll get a shiny ticket with three codes that unlocks a VIP membership and accompanying car pack, a day 1 add-on pack, 5 more car pack liveries, and an accelerator token pack that will give access to new cars, maps and other goodies. So there's a sh*tton of content that comes with this $79.99 edition, though it doesn't look like much in the unboxing video. Forza Horizon is in stores now. |
| The DTOID Show: XCOM DLC, Sim City, Zynga & Warfighter Posted: 24 Oct 2012 11:45 AM PDT |
| Additional content for Hell Yeah! now available Posted: 24 Oct 2012 11:30 AM PDT
Sega has released new downloadable content for Hell Yeah! Wrath of the Dead Rabbit today. Two batches of new material are now available, the "Pimp My Rabbit" pack and "The Virtual Rabbit Missions." The "Pimp My Rabbit" pack comes with new masks and skins for the jet pack driller. There are also skins from other Sega franchises, but I'm not seeing any indication that there is ToeJam or Earl anywhere in this, so I'm not sold. If you want to play dress up with the King of Hell, however, that pack will run you $2.99 (240 MSP on Xbox Live). "The Virtual Rabbit Missions" contains more in terms of game content, containing more than fifty challenges to play through. With that comes a higher price, though, and this content is priced at $4.99 (400 MSP). |
| Shadowgate opens the castle gates once again Posted: 24 Oct 2012 11:00 AM PDT It's not the first time, nor the second, but a timeless adventure such as Shadowgate is always welcome to be remade again and again. At the helm of this new version is Zojoi, a company founded by Dave Marsh and Karl Roelofs who coincidentally are also the original creators of the original game. While they promise to keep all the classic adventure and puzzles intact, they are also stating that they will go further to really kick things up a notch, with high res artwork, tons of new puzzles and rooms, object specific animations and a new dual soundtrack, with the choice between a cinematic score or the original NES soundtrack which is regarded as one of the classic system's finest. The game is planned for Windows, MAC, and iOS. Zojoi earlier had a Sherlock game on Kickstarter and Shadowgate will follow suit, so if you long to enter the castle and play with the wizard's stick, keep up with their Facebook for more news as the Kickstarter launches this Friday. Now bring back Deja Vu and have The OneUps do the soundtrack, kthx. |
| Live show: Hanging out with Katherine Gunn Posted: 24 Oct 2012 10:45 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.] Join us tonight on Mash Tactics, as we sit down with one of the lovely ladies of LT3, Katherine "Kat" Gunn. If you are wondering what LT3 is all about, it's easiest to say that they cover both gaming and cosplay from the perspective of professional women in the industry. Come check it out and learn a bit more about how they roll tonight, while we try to kick each others faces off in some Super Puzzle Fighter II and DOA5 only at Dtoid.TV! |
| Review: Silent Hill: Book of Memories Posted: 24 Oct 2012 10:00 AM PDT Silent Hill: Book of Memories has been a controversial release, despised almost from the outset by fans who viewed it as a betrayal of the series, an abandonment of the survival horror trappings that apparently must be reflected in every single Silent Hill game, spin-off or otherwise. I've been a staunch defender of the game's right to exist, declaring that no sequential game should be bound to the blueprint laid out in the original, provided the game itself turns out to be enjoyable. Having played small sections of the game, I became more confident in WayForward's ability to craft a great dungeon-crawler with a Silent Hill flavor. All I can say is ... what did I do, Book of Memories? What did I do to make you hate me this much?
Silent Hill: Book of Memories (PlayStation Vita) Silent Hill: Book of Memories is not a traditional survival horror experience, that much is quite evident. However, the bold move toward crafting a full-on hack n' slash role-playing game set in the Silent Hill universe is not only intriguing, it's got serious potential, something this title demonstrates time and time again. The potential for the concept is broad indeed. The execution, however, is not quite what it needs to be. The premise sees your personally created character come into possession of a mysterious book by way of series harbinger Howard the Mailman. It turns out that the book is capable of pulling its user into nightmarish dreams that have the power to alter reality depending on the actions taken within them. Thus it is that players venture forth into a realm of creepy corridors and themed rooms populated by classic creatures from the main series.
As fan-service, Book of Memories is a well-researched and loving tribute to the series. Familiar monsters are presented rather beautifully, with unnervingly weird new sound effects. A range of weapons are culled from the entire breadth of the franchise, with steel pipes and knives joined by such macabre arms as the Great Knife, Laser Gun, and Sword of Obedience. The sinister Valtiel from Silent Hill 3 acts as quest-giver, providing a special challenge at the beginning of each level with the promise of a unique item. Even the stat-boosting relics that can be found and equipped make reference to the myriad eccentric items used in puzzles during past escapades. Taking the form of an isometric RPG in the same vein as Diablo or Torchlight, each zone of Book of Memories plays out the same. Rooms of various size and shape are connected by maze-like corridors, and each one contains monsters, treasures, or other curiosities. One room is used as a save point, and another is Howard's store, where new items and weapons can be acquired. Some are Karma rooms, which contain vague "puzzles" to be dealt with in one of three ways. Between four and six of the rooms will contain challenge orbs that must be broken to spawn waves of enemies which, when defeated under specific conditions, will yield a puzzle piece. To clear a zone, the set number of puzzle pieces must be found and a simple size/color matching puzzle needs to be solved at the exit. It is a simple concept, and one that works pretty well at first.
Combat is a fuss-free button mashing affair, with players swinging objects or firing weapons at the nearest targets. Blocking and dodging can be performed with a simple button and stick press, though the animations for doing so are slow and often fail to activate before the swift enemies can get their shots in. In fact, it's close to impossible to attack anything up close without taking damage, a problem that only becomes apparent later, when health kits become harder to find. For the most part though, there's a ton of weapon variety and the basic combat remains quite fulfilling. One grievance is that weapon durability means your favorite gear will break forever after too much use, unless fixed with a wrench. This is not a bad idea at all, but the limited carrying capacity for wrenches, coupled with the fact that every single weapon is flimsy and becomes heavily damaged after almost any single combat encounter, feels a little too much. Either more wrenches or greater durability would have been fine, but having neither makes fighting more ponderous than it ought to be.
One thing Book of Memories does that works really well is the use of a Karma system. Enemies come in several different types, the two most common being "Blood" and "Light." As Blood and Light enemies are defeated, they add to the player's Karma meter, strengthening their attack power against monsters of that type. For instance, the more you attack Blood enemies, the greater your Karma meter swings toward the Light side, making you stronger. Eventually, players gain access to the Karma Flip power move, which turns all Blood monsters in a room into Light monsters, and vice versa. By controlling the alignment of monsters, players can keep themselves dominant, and unlock special Karma abilities that are utilized using the rear touchpad to rain damage on enemies -- Blood Karma uses devastatingly damaging spells, while Light can sap small amounts of health to heal the player. The Karma system is, by and large, a fantastic way of making the game more tactical, and it's implemented incredibly well.
Book of Memories is stuffed with fine ideas and it's hard not to keep coming back to. However, as you may have already guessed, the title suffers from a huge amount of tiny, needling little annoyances that amount to an overall frustrating experience. In essence, Book of Memories is a nasty little game, designed to abuse the player, and not in the fun, Dark Souls kind of way. More in the ambushing, cheap, exhausting way. For a start, the level design is grotesque. Corridors connecting rooms usually go one way, and often amount to intricate map layouts with no shortcuts and only one save room per level. A save room that is randomly generated, found by chance, and can only be accessed along one linear path. What's more, these levels can get huge, taking up to thirty minutes to beat, and if you die without finding the save room, you lose all progress. Keeping the game regularly saved therefore requires immense amounts of backtracking (once you find the room), as does taking divergent paths once one fork in the road has been fully explored. A lot of player time is wasted, which is one thing a portable title really ought not do. Regular saves become crucial as the game expands, because it goes from challenging to simply spiteful a few hours in. Eventually you find monsters that explode for huge health-drains when defeated, numerous invisible traps that, should you not be using a character with a high "Mind" statistic, will detonate to stab you or slow you down. Most infuriating of all are the poison traps, which take you down to one HP for a set amount of time, making the next hit fatal. You can get to a point where almost every room in the zone has a nasty little trap in it, sometimes even two. I reached the penultimate stage of the main game which used a two-hit combo of poison and spikes to kill me after I slaughtered all the monsters. Like I said, it's utterly spiteful.
It takes a long time to level up, there's no ability to re-spec your character, and these factors combined with the weapon durability and Godawful map design make for a game that can easily become an exhausting grind. It's mentally tiring to play Book of Memories, as you desperately search for save rooms to not lose twenty minutes of your life, backtrack through empty rooms, and get kicked up the ass repeatedly by cheaply obscured little traps. Then there are enemies that deal damage-per-second when attacked, or power through your attacks to repeatedly knock you to the ground. Think of a cheap way in which designers artificially bump up a game's difficulty, and you can bet Book of Memories has tried it. The fact that I still keep going back to it, however, is high praise indeed for how well the core concept actually works. When the stars align and you get a level that tones down the bullshit, Book of Memories is a pleasant, even exciting, experience. The simple act of saving up money to buy my own Pyramid helmet or a Robbie the Rabbit mask for my character is joyous in its own perverse way, and when you start really dominating monsters, it feels incredibly gratifying. Book of Memories comes across as a game that doesn't want to be liked, that actively hates its players and will do anything to fight them when they try to have fun. It doesn't always succeed, however, and every time it fails in its mission to turn gamers away, the results are most entertaining.
Multiplayer is a big part of the experience, with up to four players able to team up online. This dramatically reduces the amount of problems found in single-player, not least for the fact that dying is penalized with a drop of recoverable items and a respawn, rather than the total eradication of all progress. Rolling into a zone with other players and laying the smackdown is most rewarding, and one can even hop into a high-level player's game to take on advanced dungeons early and gain a nice XP boost. Of course, as seems to be Book of Memories' modus operandi, the online component is not free of multiple small annoyances. For one thing, keys for locked doors are carried by the person who picked it up, and nobody knows who has what if they're not communicating. Dropping keys upon death can also make them tricky to find. Even worse, players can't share loot, or even use the item shop at the same time, making players essentially line up and take turns to sell or buy gear. The zones can also be cleared by anybody regardless of everyone being ready. I almost lost my Great Knife pickup from Valtiel because someone was solving the end puzzle and I was trying to book it to the exit to pick up my loot in time.
Graphically, this is a beautiful looking title. Avoiding the washed-out look that many PS Vita games seem to be afflicted by, there's a great sense of color and contrast, with some terrific lighting effects. Easily one of the most gorgeous looking handheld titles released to date, there naturally has to be one negative caveat -- levels take an excruciatingly long time to load, even upon death. The joy of dying, only to be punished further with a lengthy reload time. Classic. Control-wise, WayForward mostly makes judicious use of the PS Vita's input options. The touchscreen controls are almost entirely relegated to virtual buttons, conveniently placed at the edge of the screen, while the touchpad Karma powers are sporadic and make sense. My only criticism here is that picking up items requires awkwardly touching them in the center of the screen, something that several hybrid-controlled Vita games do, and I still can't work out why any developer thinks it's a good idea.
Book of Memories presents a fantastic idea and hours of fun content, then surrounds it with bear traps, barbed wire and shotgun-wielding farmers who dare you to take one step towards it. Yet, even as I write this, I'm still in the midst of playing it, and I want to keep playing it. I love it, but I despise it. I'm addicted to it, but after every zone, I need to switch off and walk away drained. Is Silent Hill: Book of Memories good? I'm not sure I even know. It's compelling, it's engrossing, but at the same time its venomous and repellent. Like the town of Silent Hill itself, it draws players in with a promise, before cruelly punishing them on a capricious whim. It commits sins that are simply not forgivable, while performing feats that cannot go without praise.
What I do know is that the game's issues are issues of design, not concept. The core premise of Book of Memories is not only solid, it's openly brilliant. I want there to be more Silent Hill games like this -- I just want them with decent map design, a more balanced approach to combat, and maybe a bit less of a hateful attitude toward anybody trying to enjoy them. It's a solid start for a game capable of excellence, but so frequently squanders the credit it earns on frankly confusing design. I can only hope WayForward gets a second chance to truly build on what it's begun. |
| New Darksiders II DLC will arrive in time for Halloween Posted: 24 Oct 2012 09:30 AM PDT The Darksiders II DLC continues to arrive with a second installment entitled The Abyssal Forge arriving for Halloween. THQ haven't been slow with following up Darksiders II launch with DLC and this new chapter promises to be the toughest yet. Traveling to the Shadow Lands, Death must face off against the creator of the Abyssal Forge, known only as the Mad Smith and an army spawned from his infernal contraption. This new area promises lots of new loot and a a tougher challenge for Darksiders II players. The Abyssal Forge will cost 800 MS Points or $9.99 regular money and is available to download on October 30th on Xbox 360 and PC but PS3 owners will have to wait until the 31st to download the PS3 version. |
| Exclusive: Ragnarok Odyssey OST with Kumi Tanioka Posted: 24 Oct 2012 09:00 AM PDT Ragnarok Online had one of the best soundtracks of all time. For that reason alone, I've since gravitated to anything related to the franchise. However, while soundTeMP (the Korean sound studio responsible for RO's soundtrack) has been out of the picture for some time, Ragnarok Odyssey has picked up another talented artist, Kumi Tanioka, who you may know from her work on Final Fantasy XI and the Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles series. On her approach and impressions of Ragnarok Online |
| Worms Revolution DLC pack out today Posted: 24 Oct 2012 07:30 AM PDT What could be better than worms and ice cream? How about worms, ice cream and a arsenal of crazy weapons that you can blow up your friends with. Team17 has released the first piece of DLC for Worms Revolution, the Funfair Pack. The Funfair Pack includes an array of amusement-park themed attractions for one and for all. Team17 has included five new single player puzzle missions to test your mettle on, as well as four new weapons to dish out even more pain on your wormy companions. Players will also have the new Burger and Ice Cream, along with the Red Nose and Masquerade accessories to clown around with. The Worms Revolution Funfair Pack will be available today on Xbox Live, PSN and Steam; and is priced for at a decent 400 Microsoft Points, or $4.99 for non-banana dollar currencies. |
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