New Games |
- Ni no Kuni arriving on PSN next week as a digital release
- Gratuitous Space Battles: The Outcasts impressions
- Grab Persona 4 Arena on sale for just $20 at Gamestop
- Win a Ghost Destructoid Bobblehead! Also, limited sale
- Corgis cosplaying as your favorite videogame heroes
- The Daily Hotness: DualShock is Dead?
- Derrick the Deathfin makes the jump to PC and Mac
| Ni no Kuni arriving on PSN next week as a digital release Posted: 19 Jan 2013 11:30 AM PST Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch is almost finally here. The long-awaited game may be arriving exclusively on PlayStation 3 next week, but that doesn't mean players won't have a choice of where to grab it. The PlayStation Blogcast has confirmed Ni no Kuni for a digital release on PlayStation Network. Environmentally conscious and plastic-adverse gamers will be able to download the title on Tuesday for $60. Until then why not while away a few minutes by watching Level-5's developer diary series. PlayStation Blogcast 059: Devil May Cave [PlayStation Blog] |
| Gratuitous Space Battles: The Outcasts impressions Posted: 19 Jan 2013 10:00 AM PST Intergalactic wars are not the sort of conflicts one expects to finish up in an afternoon, or even a plethora of afternoons spread across multiple years. Positech Games' Gratuitous Space Battles is a war seemingly without end, with countless short battles constantly playing out on would-be warlords' PCs. Adding to the war-torn milieu is a new expansion, pitting the cybernetic conquerors known as the Outcasts against the battle-hardened veterans from the base game and its copious amount of DLC. They have a chip on their mechanical shoulders, and a shedload of firepower to back up their hostile intentions. They fit right in.
For the uninitiated, Gratuitous Space Battles is a strategy sim that allows prospective space commanders to build and customize a fleet of vessels ranging from tiny fighters to titanic cruisers before sending them off into a 2D scrap against a myriad of alien foes. The battles are nail-bitingly intense, as players can do naught but sit back and watch their fleet go out in a blaze of glory, or come home victorious conquerors. The base game came out over three years ago, but has been expanded upon by several DLC packs that add new races, ships, and modules to the already filled to the brim list. The latest race, the Outcasts, might seem like bad eggs to most -- inspired as they are by the likes of the Borg and Cybermen -- but I can totally sympathize with their crusade against fleshiness. People can be pretty gross, and when they aren't secreting fluids all over the damn place, they are trying to wipe out really cool cyber-guys and gals. After having a rough time on their homeworld, the Outcasts took to the skies and blasted their planet and its meatbag residents from space. Right on! In terms of aesthetics, the Outcasts are galaxies ahead of the rest of the races, with their ships looking like a mash-up of the Millennium Falcon and an old-school UFO. Bright lights of varying colors pulse hypnotically on the ships' hulls, promising an intergalactic disco inside, or maybe they are just trying to communicate -- most likely through "your mum" jokes. The Outcasts have some pretty neat toys to go along with their groovy look, most notably a holographic decoy projector and a multi-target tractor beam. The former is a great tool for sly fleet commanders and for those who like to watch their enemies waste energy on shooting lasers and missiles at empty space. It projects a transparent, flickering image of a cruiser, but still manages to trick the enemy pretty consistently. Eventually it does disappear, and the vessels of the opposition will tire of seeing their weapons do absolutely no damage to the ghost ship, so it's not a win button, but it's one of the handiest modules in the game right now. The multi-target tractor beam is a worthy addition to any frigate, specifically ones set up to be anti-fighter frigates. This class of ship gets no end of flack from players, due to its many perceived weaknesses and the fact that it can't stay on the front line for more than a couple of minutes without getting blown to smithereens. It's much better behind the front line, protecting the more important cruisers, and shooting down those pesky, spry fighters. With the new tractor beam, it can now hold several fighters in place, making them even more vulnerable to anti-fighter weapons. There's nothing quite like seeing a swarm of rocket fighters -- no doubt piloted by irritating hotshots -- confidently speeding towards a group of frigates, only for them to become surrounded in a beam of blue light, unable to move at all. I like to gleefully wave at them before they become space dust, because I'm just that kind of friendly chap. While the new modules cater to many different play-styles and offer tons of possibilities for all ship classes, it does seem like this DLC was designed to make frigates more prominent. The Outcast frigate hulls have some nice boosts to speed and defense, and the new sniper laser is a boon to any frigate hiding behind the damage-soaking cruisers, able, as it is, to take shots at foes from a great distance. Although The Outcasts doesn't provide anything that drastically changes the game, it's a more than welcome addition to an already highly entertaining and content-rich experience. The new race manages to have a lot of character despite the lack of any narrative, and the new vessels, weapons, and systems just beg to be experimented with. Now we can look forward to checking out what the modders do with all these extras. The DLC can be picked up directly from the Gratuitous Space Battles site or Steam for $5.99. I also had the opportunity to chat with Cliff Harris, creator of the game and founder of Positech Games this afternoon; so keep an eye out for the interview next week. |
| Grab Persona 4 Arena on sale for just $20 at Gamestop Posted: 19 Jan 2013 09:00 AM PST Have you been sitting on the fence when it comes to Persona 4 Arena? Ouch! Maybe you should stop doing that. It sounds really uncomfortable, and besides, Atlus is throwing a pool party. Why not hop on over and join in the fun? Okay, so I lied. There's no party. However, P4A is on sale for a measly $20 at GameStop and that's cause enough for celebration. If you've yet to experience our favorite fighting game of 2012, now would be a good time to take the plunge. Persona 4 Arena [Gamestop via Atlus USA] |
| Win a Ghost Destructoid Bobblehead! Also, limited sale Posted: 19 Jan 2013 07:20 AM PST Want one? Just leave a comment and I'll pick a random winner to give Bobble #16 away, my lucky number. While cleaning up our Dtoid HQ (an event that is the equivalent of a full moon) I came across one last crate of Destructoid Bobbleheads, which were sold out years ago. It was loosely modelled after Mr. Destructoid's appearance in Bomberman on the Xbox 360 and PS3 by a sculptor in the US (Thanks Hito!) and manufactured by Horizon Toy Group. They're about as heavy as a coffee cup full of gravy and sturdy enough to defend yourself against pigeons. This seems to be part of a special batch that we ordered unpainted so that we could dip them in gold paint and award them as prizes, give them to friends who wanted to do custom paint jobs, use in blood rituals, and so on. Unintentionally, they look pretty cool as a minimalist art piece in a white room. Note: There *may* still be a full color one in this box, but I'm not sure. I'm opening them up to sign and number each one, and won't tell if I find one. Let's have an old fashioned blind box for hardcore collectors, shall we? SOLD OUT! The rest are on sale via Paypal at their original price of $20 with $4 domestic shipping within the US or $10 worldwide (I'll pay the difference, New Zealand dudes). I'll choose the winner once they sell out and are all packed and ready to ship. There are only 25 of them on sale, so they may go quick. Good luck!
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| Corgis cosplaying as your favorite videogame heroes Posted: 19 Jan 2013 07:00 AM PST Corgis are one of the cutest animals in the world. Fact. So what's cuter than a corgi? Corgis dressed up in outfits! More specifically, corgis dressed up as your favorite videogame hero. And that's just what we've made happen with the latest t-shirt to hit the Destructoid store. Corgi Video Game Heroes was designed by the one and only Thomas Truong and depicts over a dozen corgis ready to save the day. Can you name all of the corgi heroes? Corgi Heroes comes in both black and purple colors for $19.95, and like all our designs, it's available in both male and female sizes. As always, buying over $60 worth of designs from the store will get you free shipping worldwide too. |
| The Daily Hotness: DualShock is Dead? Posted: 18 Jan 2013 03:59 PM PST Well, not yet. But if Sony has its way, the controller for the PS4 -- I'm sorry, "Orbis" -- will be something completely different. Last time Sony tried that, fearful gamers threw a hissy fit, unwilling to break out of their comfort zone. Five bucks says we see a repeat of that. That wasn't even the biggest story of the day. Today was simply packed to burst! Congress introducing videogame bills? Sony selling its US HQ? Monster Hunter 3's servers shutting down as the MH3 Ultimate servers go up? Silicon Knights' troubles piling up even further? Damn! On the Originals front, Jayson Napolitano has a new Note Worthy music roundup featuring Twilight Symphony, Halo 3: ODST, Saturday Morning RPG, and more; Allistair Pinsof interviews the chief creative officer behind Disney Infinity, and Patrick Hancock spends time with the indie title A Fistful of Gun. Destructoid Originals: Community: Events: News: Offbeat: Media: |
| Derrick the Deathfin makes the jump to PC and Mac Posted: 18 Jan 2013 03:30 PM PST Back in October, PlayStation Network got a neat-looking arcade-style game called Derrick the Deathfin that seemed to go under a lot of radars. I was hoping to see it release and do really well on Steam, but that hasn't happened quite yet. This really should happen, though! While we wait for Derrick to gain a following on Steam Greenlight, the game has become available for Windows and Mac via the Humble Store. $7.99 gets you DRM-free access to downloadable copies for these two platforms. As someone who loves games set underwater -- well, most of them -- and the papercraft aesthetic on display here, this is going to require further investigation. For what it's worth, co-creator Gordon Midwood seems like a stand-up fellow. Surprise Release: Derrick the Deathfin chomps his way to PC [IndieGames] |
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