It has been announced that Nightwing (a.k.a. Dick Grayson, the first individual to work with Batman as Robin) will be a playable character in the upcoming Batman: Arkham City game.
A special Arkham City Nightwing bundle pack will be available November 1. The character will come with his own unique utilities and moves, as well as Main Hall and Wayne Manor challenge maps. A special skin for the character based on The New Batman Adventures will also be available.
The pack will be offered on Xbox LIVE® Marketplace for 560 Microsoft Points and PlayStation Network for $6.99.
TITLE: Ico & Shadow of the Colossus Collection PLATFORM: PlayStation 3 DEVELOPER: Team Ico, Bluepoint Games
PUBLISHER: Sony Computer Entertainment ESRB: T RELEASED:September 27, 2011
By Justin Polak Co-founder, Ambassador to the Mushroom Kingdom
I remember the first time I played Shadow of the Colossus. I received it as a Christmas present back in 2005, the year the game was released, and one of my first thoughts was how crazy the game would be if it would be released on the PlayStation 3. Sure, the console wasn’t available then, but I had a good idea how powerful it would be. Don’t get me wrong, SotC looks amazing on the PlayStation 2, but what always bugged me was the obvious framerate issues. They didn’t render the game unplayable of course, but I still let the choppiness get under by skin. I was left wishing there was a way to play the game a perfectly smooth frame rate.
I finally got my wish with the Ico & Shadow of the Colossus Collection. Not only do I get to experience one of my favorite PlayStation 2 games on my HDTV, but Team Ico’s other masterpiece, Ico, got the same spiffy treatment. I like the idea of rereleasing blockbuster games in HD, but frankly, Ico and SotC are the first games where there is truly a clear difference in visuals, aside from the expected clarity and proper resolution.
Ico, originally released in 2001, is an action adventure game with many puzzle solving elements. You control the titular character who is a small boy being placed in an enormous fortress as some sort of sacrifice; apparently that’s what his village does to boys that grow horns. Luckily, the boy escapes his predicament and comes across Yorda, an extremely pale girl who Ico must lead to safety and defend from shadow creatures attempting to take her away.
Ico is very minimalistic, with no life bar or other information on screen. The only way you’ll see the Game Over screen is if Ico falls too far to his death, or Yorda gets taken away. Many platforming elements are present as many puzzles involve moving Ico around obstacles that usually has a long drop to doom nearby. In addition, not too many cut scenes are shown and the story merely gives you vague hints on the game’s backstory.
To be honest, Ico took a bit to grow on me, but once it did I happily trekked through the adventure many times. The game’s quiet, but foreboding nature immersed in the best way possible. I even had dreams where I was stuck in the fortress after several playthroughs, for example. In HD, the game’s scope really shines through and could even pass for a modern game, which only goes to show me how well it has aged within the past decade.
While Ico was quiet and subtle, SotC is loud and elegant. Sharing the same look as Ico, Sotc still managed to feel like a different world thanks to the insanely huge landscape and the task of slaying sixteen Colossi. Needless to say, I was hooked from the get go with Team Ico’s second outing, and it still stands as tall as ever. The HD treatment works absolute wonders with SotC. As implied earlier, the framerate issue is completely gone. After six long years, it’s nice to see the game the way it was meant to be played. Even the draw distance and rendering are improved by quite a margin.
Much like Ico, the storytelling is minimalistic, only giving small hints on how the world works. It is heavily implied that SotC is a distant prequel to Ico, for example, but the game’s story could stand on its own. Even though there is nothing to fight but the sixteen Colossi, traversing the game’s world is breathtaking, for lack of a better term. Plus, even if you know what to do, taking down each Colossus is no simple matter, and no two Colossi are exactly the same. Throw in an experience that is drenched with rich atmosphere and you get an unforgettable game. To pit it simply, this collection is worth picking up just for SotC. I’m not knocking Ico, but the greatest difference between this and the PlayStation 2 version sticks out more here.
There is also fascinating bonus content from key creators of both games. Even the biggest fanboys of each title will learn something new. It’s also nice they included early footage of each game. I remember reading about an upcoming title called Nico, which eventually turned into SotC. While taking down Colossi was still a central part of the game, Nico was originally envisioned as an online multiplayer game where you and a few others work to kill these beasts. It’s tidbits like these that make the bonus material worth checking out. Also, you’ll see previews from their upcoming game The Last Guardian, which the developers described as a mix between Ico and SotC. I have to say that I agree.
Whether you have played the original incarnations of these titles or are a fresh face, Ico & Shadow of the Colossus Collection is unquestionably worth picking up. The only bad thing I have ever heard anyone say about either of these titles (besides Ico’s horrible US PS2 box art) is the controls to these games may seem a bit odd. Personally, I never had a problem with either game, but I can sort of grasp why certain players might have a problem.
Anyway, yes, buy this collection and enjoy playing two classics that are well deserving of the amazing HD makeover!
Innovative games tend to come in two varieties: hardware based games like Trauma Center and Wii Bowling that use elements like touch screens and motion controls to do things that had previously never been done, and games that are just plain clever and different unlike most of what is available.
Indie games like Crayon Physics and World of Goo fall into this category. One of the things that defined the Sega Dreamcast was having a catalog that included a lot of those “clever and different” titles that were innovative, in many cases ahead of their time, and for some, just plain weird. In any case they were loads of fun, and very memorable. This year marks the Dreamcast’s 12-year anniversary, it seems like a good time to reflect on some of the more innovative titles available for the Dreamcast.
Before delving into games, let’s take a look at the system itself, especially for the benefit of anyone who hasn’t seen one. The Dreamcast was released on 9/9/99, which was pretty cool, or at least about as cool as a release date can be anyway. It was the first major 128-bit console, which means that at the time it had graphics unlike anything we had ever seen and was capable of things that no current generation console could do, like connect to the internet. In the late 1990s all that was available for most people was dial-up, and the Dreamcast’s built in 56k modem allowed for online play and it wasn’t anywhere near as robust as services like XBox Live and Playstation Network, but many games could be played online.
The Dreamcast also had connectivity with the Neo Geo Pocket Color through a link cable. Most of the games that supported this were SNK games, and the features were very limited, but it was an interesting idea.
Finally there’s the Dreamcast’s memory card. The “Visual Memory Unit” or VMU, plugged into the controller. It had an LCD screen which was viewable through the controller and displayed graphics, animations, and helpful info while you played. When the Dreamcast was off the VMU could be used for other things. It had a D-Pad and two buttons which could play games downloaded onto it from Dreamcast titles. VMUs could also connect to other VMUs to copy save files which was useful if you needed to save but didn’t have enough free blocks on the card you wanted to use. Some games even had little apps the VMU could run, for example Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 let you use in-game points to purchase characters which would be unlocked the next time you played.
All these features are great, but hardware means nothing without a great line up to play on it, so let’s take a look at some titles.
Jet Grind Radio / Jet Set Radio Future This was a game where graffiti taggers on roller blades skated around a fictional Japanese town spraying their tags on walls over their rivals’ graphics while avoiding the police all set to the soundtrack of a pirate radio station. Saying that it was “different” might be an understatement, but it was a lot of fun. It was one of the first cel-shaded games which gave it a very cartoony feel, and the only thing that came close to it’s gameplay style was it’s sequel Jet Set Radio Future. There were many playable characters and you had to prove your worth by doing some fancy skating to win challenges to impress these potential allies in order for them to join you and become playable. The rival gangs weren’t violent street gangs, but rather cartoony caricatures. The police used rubber bullets and tear gas, but were never out to kill, so it was pretty non-violent given the subject matter. Jet Grind Radio is without a doubt one of the most unique games released for the Dreamcast.
Shenmue This was originally going to be a trilogy, but the third game was never released. When it came out it was one of the most detailed games ever made. Shenmue is a sandbox style RPG that takes place in 1980s Japan. You play the role of a teenager named Ryo who is on a mission to avenge his father’s death. Time passes, and days go on, but what you choose to do with those days is completely up to you. The weather changed with each day, and the game developers went out of their way to match the game’s weather with the actual forecast for that day in the 1980s. Day gradually turned into night and you could watch the whole transition take place which added to the realism.
On a given day Ryo could play with a kitten, talk to townspeople, play real emulated 1980s Sega arcade games, buy a soda, collect figurines, train to become a better fighter, or actually play detective and advance the plot. The fighting was very similar to Virtua Fighter, and whether you wanted to train or not was up to you. In fact whether you did anything or not was up to you, and the freedom was a fairly new experience given the lack of sandbox games at the time, let alone one where every detail was carefully created. You would reap the benefits or consequences of your actions and overall it was a very immersive experience.
Phantasy Star Online PSO was a great departure from the rest of the Phantasy Star series, and it’s a lot of fun but quite honestly it’s bland by today’s standards, especially when compared to the newer games in the series. However being one of the first online RPGs for a console it’s pretty impressive. It has various classes and follows the standard hunter/gatherer “kill things to collect things so that you can kill more things” model which can be addictive albeit a little repetitive. It also had a single player campaign which consisted mostly of fetch quests and other tasks that have you going from point A to point B. In a nutshell this game is what the Phantasy Star Universe, and Phantasy Star Portable games were in their infancy.
Illbleed This is a very different take on survival horror. You rely on your senses and use a set of goggles referred to as a “horror monitor” to find items and mark traps to disarm them. You need to take your time marking the traps so you don’t fall victim to them, and watch your adrenaline levels. As the name implies, you will bleed when you fail to avoid a trap, and the more you bleed the slower you can move. The items you collect are things like relaxation CDs to bring your adrenaline down, and health items to stop your bleeding. You also avoid enemies which is very common in survival horror games, but this is one of the few where the environments are just as scary as the enemies, if not scarier.
Crazy Taxi / Crazy Taxi 2 These were fairly popular arcade titles, and they have been re-released several times. For anyone unfamiliar with them, the Crazy Taxi games let you pick a cab driver, then pick up fares and drive them to their destination. By itself that may sound a little boring, but the faster you get them to their destinations the higher your fare will be, your taxi is completely indestructible, you can use speed boosts, “jump” high with hydraulics, and the city has things you can plow through with your taxi. Fueling the driving mayhem was a soundtrack with bands like The Offspring and Bad Religion that the re-releases don’t have, possibly due to licensing restrictions. There were also challenge modes and mini games to added to the replay value.
Typing of the Dead One of the accessories the Dreamcast had was a keyboard which seemed like it was mainly used to aid communication in Phantasy Star Online. Typing of the Dead uses this keyboard, and the game is based off of the rail shooter House of the Dead 2. The difference is that instead of using a light gun to shoot at the zombies and other creatures that are trying to attack you, each enemy has a word over their head, and typing the word fires at them. Type correctly and you hit with every shot, but make a typo and you miss. Bosses have goofy words like “yummyumyuumyummyummy” or whole sentences full of puns and Sega references. This might be the only “M” rated typing tutor ever made.
Seaman In 1998 Nintendo released Hey You Pikachu! a game where you use a microphone to interact with a Pikachu on the screen. Then a year later Seaman was released on the Dreamcast. You use a microphone to interact with a sea creature that has a creepy human face. Over time your creature evolves into something new. This really needs to be seen in order to be believed, but I must warn you, if you are inebriated in any way, please refrain from watching this video. It is the Japanese commercial, and it’s some serious nightmare fuel that cannot be unseen. Consider yourself warned.
ChuChu Rocket! This was a puzzle game that didn’t use blocks, gems, crystals, interconnecting pieces, or any kind of pattern matching. Now there are loads of Flash puzzle games, tons of puzzle games for cell phones, and a massive casual games genre, which wasn’t the case in the 1990s. This game was about “ChuChus” or space mice, and as the name implies, you need to get the ChuChus to a rocket by placing arrow tiles down. You set your tiles then the ChuChus march in a line. When they hit a wall they turn right, when they hit an arrow they turn in the direction of the arrow, when they hit KapuKapus (space cats) or pits they die, and when they hit a rocket they win the stage. That’s about it, and it’s a very simplistic but enjoyable game. It also had an online mode and great multiplayer where a flood of ChuChus are released and up to 4 people place tiles down, with each player trying to lead the mice into their own rocket while preventing the other 3 players from doing so. There was a puzzle mode level editor, and Sega saved all of the levels that were uploaded online. Later on when ChuChu Rocket! was re-released for the Gameboy Advanced they included 2,500 user created levels. Talk about replay value.
The 2K Sports Games EA didn’t support the Dreamcast with sports titles. That would have been a major blow for Sega had it not been for the first ever 2K games in the year 2000. Back then EA didn’t have exclusive rights to every sports license under the sun, and the 2K games would attempt to make a series of games that would directly compete with EA. The ambition was outrageous, but the fact that these games were actually able to hold up to franchises like Madden and NBA Live was very impressive. The graphics were more realistic due to the Dreamcast’s hardware, and the gameplay was solid. Some people would even go so far as to say that they surpassed their EA counterparts of the same year. They weren’t innovative in the sense that they were new types of games, but in a genre dominated by one company, they were certainly a breath of fresh air. One more thing worth noting was that these were some of the earliest sports games to be played online on a console thanks to the Dreamcast’s modem.
Space Channel 5 The rhythm genre was just starting to take off with games like Dance Dance Revolution, but this was before Frequency which also means that it was before Guitar Hero and Rock Band. There weren’t a lot of games being played with instruments, although the Dreamcast did haveSamba de Amigo: a rhythm game played with a special set of maracas. Space Channel 5 was a different kind of rhythm game featuring Ulala, a space reporter who uses dance to mesmerize aliens, then shoots them in rythm. You mimic steps after you see them, and an example set would go something like “left, right, chu, chu, chu” where you hit the directions in rhythm, then “chu” shoots in time to zap the aliens. Ulala frees, and is accompanied by other characters including Space Michael who is based upon, and voiced by, Michael Jackson. It was another very unique Dreamcast title.
The Dreamcast was a great system, but unfortunately it didn’t last very long. The PS2, XBox, and Gamecube buried it in the marketplace. Nonetheless it had a lot of great games, far more than I could ever list here. That isn’t to say that it didn’t have shovelware titles, but the games that Sega published along with third party games like SoulCalibur and Street Fighter III were classics. Most of these games still hold up since the graphics are comparable to the Wii, and believe it or not you can still buy brand new VMUs on ebay. Really, if you love video games, do yourself a favor and hit ebay to pick up a Dreamcast if you don’t already own one. The games and accessories are fairly cheap, and there’s something for everybody. Just about everything listed here are family friendly without feeling like “kiddie” games. Despite the “M” rating, even Typing of the Dead and Illbleed are and closer to modern “T” rated games given the new level of realism that modern games have. It’s exciting when a new generation of consoles comes out because of the potential for new and innovative titles. Most of the time there are a few competing systems that each have unique titles on them, but for at least a little while the Dreamcast was the only system of it’s generation, and instead of just making sequels of successful Saturn games they came out with these incredibly unique games which is pretty amazing if you think about it.
Front page image from uni.edu. Image 1 from world-of-games.co.uk
TITLE:Fallout: New Vegas: Lonesome Road PLATFORM: 360, PS3, PC DEVELOPER: Obsidian Entertainment PUBLISHER: Bethesda Softworks ESRB: M RELEASED: September 20, 2011
By Steve McCarthy Staff Writer, Evil Genius
It is now the end of the line for New Vegas DLC. The final installment, Lonesome Road, is a mixed bag of an overly linear excursion into a place known as The Divide. There are a lot of buildings and caves to explore, but you are always moving forward with little choice in where you will go next. The only places to go that are not on the basic straight line path are either after the story has been completed (more on this later) or an area that opens up halfway through. The one aspect that shines through is the story, and it is completely enthralling right up to the very end.
This time you are called to come to The Divide by another courier named Ulysses. He was supposed to be the original courier to deliver the platinum chip, but he turned down the job. He promises to tell you why if you take on one last job. Throughout the journey, you learn that you and Ulysses share a past despite never having met previously. He explains it all as well as what he ultimately learned from you many years ago right there in The Divide.
It all eventually leads you to a decision with a lot of weight in terms of what would you really choose to do. After all the experience throughout the rest of New Vegas, the “right” choice is one that doesn’t seem to exist, and that is just the way it should be. During New Vegas, it always seemed as if Caesar’s Legion was completely evil and just a monster. However, after talking to Caesar I understood why he did what he did and what the Legion is all about. It is still a hard position to get behind but I always felt like I was viewing it through a present day lens instead of what might work best in that time with the way the world of Fallout is. Then I started to pay more attention to the corruption of the NCR. This is just an example of how New Vegas has been built upon choices that are shades of grey with no clear cut “right” choice and the final decision exemplifies this through and through.
And yet, there is a right choice from a gameplay standpoint and this is a bit of a drawback. I initially made a different choice at the end before I went back to choose a different option, but the right option is the one where I think the player is the huge remorseless asshole because it is only by being the biggest asshole that you can unlock two bonus areas to explore after all is said and done. This is one of those aspects that lessens the decision to be made. The extra areas encourage a particular option to be chosen. They could have offset the extra areas by giving you special items, stat boosts or something else, but I guess in this case, it is what it is and as a true role player, such bonuses should not get in the way of embodying your character.
There is one aspect of this DLC that got me to think as to what it might have been. I own the Collector’s Edition of Fallout New Vegas and one of the items included was a deck of cards. The pictures on the cards or that of factions or characters encountered throughout the expedition in the Mojave. The three of clubs is that of Ulysses, and considering the story that has been told I can’t help but think that this is something that was originally intended as a quest in New Vegas. Given the open nature of the main game, how would this have been structured and would decisions made have a bigger impact on how the game plays out or was this planned all along?
I doubt that this was planned all along, as there seem to be bits that point to Obsidian having run out of time. One of the achievements simply requires you buy upgrades at the store instead of having to hunt for them. Doors in the final confrontation require a key to open that have no key, and the final two areas after the aforementioned option have characters names with nothing to them other than a name.
However, in the end I am satisfied. The story was gripping and is easily the best told of all the DLC packs. The linearity works to help tell the story in the way that it needed to be told and still allowed for exploration and side areas. The complaints that I have had are fairly insignificant and come from a place of “what if?”. This is a great end to a fantastic journey in the Mojave. I cannot wait until Fallout 4 in the years to come.
Rating: 9/10
Front page image and screenshots from fallout.bethsoft.com.
I’ve been on a Ninja Turtles kick since I saw Polaris Banks’ fan film Casey Jones. Mind you, I’ve always been a Turtles fan, but Banks’ film really brought it to the surface again. I happened to be wearing a Ninja Turtles shirt at work the other day, and one of my colleagues saw it. Interestingly enough, he didn’t want to talk about the old cartoon or any of the movies. He immediately started talking to me about Turtles In Time. This 1992 Super Nintendo release seemed to be his most prominent memory of the Turtles. In the game, the Turtles chase the Foot Clan through various periods in history, as well as their own time. My colleague talked about the “Sewer Surfin” level with great fondness.
And why the hell not? In a lot of ways, the Ninja Turtles video games were better than the TV show. Have you ever gone back and watched a few episodes from the original series? After you get past the first season, some of those shows can be hard to watch. Mind you, I say that as somebody who loves the Turtles. The video games on the other hand, Turtles In Time in particular, hold up great to this day. I think what we loved about them as kids was that they were straight up action, whereas the TV show was mostly about comedy, with a bit of action thrown in. There’s was only so much you can do on a kids cartoon show in terms of violence, but the games had no such limitations. It was pretty awesome.
1. It’s Fun, Though Sometimes Difficult, To Throw People Around Turtles In Time introduced some new fighting mechanics to the Ninja Turtle games. It allowed you to grab a foot soldier by the arm and slam him against the ground repeatedly. The Turtles could also charge their enemies. But what was probably the most notable new maneuever in this game, was the player’s ability to take a foot soldier and throw him out of the playing field. It actually looked as if you were throwing him head on into the screen. The game requires players to use this new technique when battling Shredder in level four. He’s using some kind of control panel behind a glass monitor, and you need to throw foot soldiers at him to bust it up.
When I was a kid this was one of the toughest fights in the game, because I could never figure out what the trick was to throw the foot soldiers. As an adult, throwing the henchman is easy, but there’s a bigger question on the table: What exactly is it that big machine Shredder is using? As a kid, I pictured it as sort of a big walking tank. But that can’t be it, as it doesn’t actually walk anywhere. So was Shredder just chilling in the Technodrome’s skybox when the Turtles happened to barge in? Was he watching Full House on that big TV/portal in the background? If I were a supervillain with a huge Technodrome, that’s what I’d do. Who the hell needs blu-ray when your TV is THAT big?
2. It’s Always Good To Smack Things With Your Wood Staff Aside from his love of the “Sewer Surfin’” level, my colleague also talked about how Donatello was always the Turtle you wanted to be in Turtles in Time, because his weapon had the longest reach. That’s a pretty accurate statement. It was accurate in a few of the other Ninja Turtle games too. The one Turtle I NEVER wanted to be in this game? Leonardo. Somehow having two swords made him seem awkward.
One thing I’ve always wondered: Does any of this mechanical stuff actually apply to a video game released in the early ’90s, or are we all making this up in our heads? Did Donny really have a longer reach than any of the other characters, or does it just seem that way? Raphael also seemed to be the fastest…
Donatello was sort of the soft spoken bad ass of the team, wasn’t he? He’s a ninja, just like the others are. But while the others seem to only have personality traits (the leader, the hot head, the party dude), Donny’s got brains. He can kick your ass, and then invent some kind of wacky time machine so he can travel into the past and watch himself kick your ass. In retrospect, maybe I should have wanted to be Donatello more often.
3. Animals In Costumes Are Adorable Bebop and Rocksteady never got called “adorable” on the show, which is more than understandable. But somehow, I just find them irresistibly cute in their pirate getup. What’s interesting is that none of the other bad guys wore period appropriate costumes. They all pretty much wore their usual get up.
I think what happened is before Shredder told the guys they were going to be in the pirate era, he ribbed them about having worn basically the same clothes in the three previous games, and jokingly advised them to change it up. ”I’m sending you guys on a pirate ship! There’s a hell of a chance to do something different!”
Then they actually found pirate costumes big enough to fit a mutant warthog and rhinoceros, and Shredder probably said: “You guys found costumes? You morons! I was just joking! What is this, an Errol Flynn movie?”
4. If You Whine And Cry And Piss And Moan Enough, You’ll Get To Be The Lead Villain In Turtles In Time, Shredder and Krang steal the Statue of Liberty, and it’s up to the Turtles to get it back. Per usual in a Ninja Turtle game, Shredder is the final boss, and Krang gets the penultimate spot. To me, this is backwards.
Shredder was kind of a whiner in the original series, wasn’t he? I watched a few episodes from the second season yesterday, and Shredder spent way too much time whining to Krang, pestering him for Dimension X resources and the like. On that show, Krang is clearly the more powerful of the two. Heck, it’s Krang that actually steals the statue! In this game, somehow he’s learned to grow giant-sized, and he simply picks up the statue and leaves! How gigantic do your balls have to be to pull THAT off? He even flashes his guns to April O’Neil’s news camera before he picks up the damn thing (shown left)!
In the movies, and later the 4Kids TV show, Shredder was a sick villain. He was a sadistic ninja master and a modern day monarch of the underworld. In the cartoon he was basically a conniving weasel wearing cheese graters who would occasionally karate chop something. If I’m Krang, the ruler of Dimension X and the guy who owns the friggin’ Technodrome, I’m thinking: “What exactly are you contributing to this partnership?”
SHREDDER: “The foot soldiers are mine! I brought them!”
KRANG: “You mean those robots that just got their asses kicked through 10 levels? And it was about 10,000 to four, so the odds were in their favor.”
SHREDDER: “Bebop and Rocksteady! I hired them!”
KRANG: “And what did they do this time around? They dressed up as pirates. That was it.”
SHREDDER: “Uh…but I’m an idea man! I’m always bringing new ideas to the table!”
KRANG: “I’m a talking brain. Do you really think I’m short on ideas?”
5. Impersonations Are Rarely As Good As The Original The same year this game was released on the Super Nintendo, a VERY similar game was released for Sega Genesis. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Hyperstone Heist featured most of the same mechanics that Turtles In Time had, only the levels, boss fights and story were tweaked. In the game, Shredder and Krang shrink Manhattan Island instead of stealing the Statue of Liberty. There are also only five levels, but they’re much longer.
Among the few notable difference between Turtles in Time and Hyperstone Heist, is that in the latter you fight Tatsu, Shredder’s second-in-command from the movies. Also, at the end of one of the levels you fight Rocksteady, but Bebop isn’t in the game at all. My personal favorite difference, and quite frankly, the only improvement this game made on the content from Turtles in Time, is that at the end of the last level after Super Shredder falls over the guard rail, we see a little cut scene of him falling, and then the screen shakes as he hits the ground. A pretty satisfying moment after you’ve been getting kicked around by his cronies for five levels.
The game is fun in its own right, but it’s certainly not on par with Turtles in Time, which had more extravagant levels and locations, and a larger cast of baddies.
6. It’s Funny When A Game’s Acronym Spells T.i.T. Well, it’s true.
Front page image from cjpwrites.blogspot.com. Image 1 from gameguru.com. Image 2 from videogamesblogger.com. Images 3 and 7 from mobygames.com. Image 4 from bigandbob113.com. Image 5 from casualtygamer.com. Image 6 from screened.com.
The newest trailer for Batman: Arkham City surfaced online this week. It spotlights The Joker, voiced by Mark Hamill. We also get appearances from Harley Quinn, voiced by Tara Strong, and a new henchman called “Mr. Hammer.”
Batman: Arkham City comes out in North America October 18 for Playstation 3, Xbox 360, Wii U, Microsoft Windows and OnLive.
Batman: Arkham City comes out October 18 for Playstation 3, Xbox 360, Wii U, Microsoft Windows and OnLive.
When I first heard that there was finally going to be a new BloodRayne game, I was super excited. I own the first two games in the series, both of which were so much fun. The games were about a Dhampir (half vampire) killing Nazis and other vampires for a secret society called Brimstone. As silly as that sounds the games had a pretty good story line and really fleshed out (get it?) the character so you got to know why she did what she did. The games also featured some unique gameplay, using guns, various weapons from the gaming environment and crazy entertaining fatalities.
The game opens with a little story: “The Brimstone Society has intercepted news of a vampire gathering, but mere soldiers are no match for the preternatural army. Desperate, they make an uneasy call for support.” Hope that was enough for you, because you will get basically nothing for about six or seven levels, which explain nothing more!
Rayne has a decent variety of attacks, with aerial assaults, dashing slashes, and feeding kills to regenerate health, along with a gun that packs five or six shots. You can also infect enemies then use them to bomb other enemies. That is about as diverse as this game gets. The predecessors had more killing options with abilities like roping in characters and flinging them into others, and so many gloriously violent ways to end the miserable existence of your foes. Sadly, there is not much of that in this game.
The game moves at a great pace for the old-school side-scroller style adventure, throwing in some good platforming challenges and bosses requiring different strategies to overcome. Still, a bit of story would be nice. Maybe the fact that they rushed this game out after initially delaying it left us with some things to be desired. There’s a definite drawback in terms of story and voice acting.
During level 13 you will encounter the most aggravating platforming ever! I lost it SO MANY times trying to get through that level. It has been a while since anything triggered that kind of gamer rage in me. I take issue with this because it just destroys the pace of the game and derails it completely. Don’t get me wrong, I like a good challenge, but when it gets to the point where I spent as much time on this one level as the rest of the game, it kills the fun. The occasional obscene difficulty spikes in this game are annoying, but only drove me up the wall with level 13.
Overall, I enjoyed the game for what it is: A side scrolling hack and slash, which let’s be honest, is pretty much a Castlevania game. The music has that feel too, including a sappy-sounding credits song like in Symphony of the Night. BloodRayne: Betrayal also has pretty good art and graphic style, with nice backgrounds and character models, including an enemy that looks like a steam-punk Lucca from Chrono Trigger chucking bombs at you. But with almost no story and a scaled-down arsenal of attacks and fatalities, this game just felt like a footnote. I hope they get the chance to do another full-scale BloodRayne game, and I would recommend the first 2 games to anyone, but when it comes to BloodRayne: Betrayal, wait for a price break; this game isn’t worth more than 800 points on Xbox Live.
RATING: 6/10
Front page image from gamingtruth.com. Interior image from thebuzzmedia.com.
TITLE: Star Fox 64 3D PLATFORM: Nintendo 3DS DEVELOPER: Nintendo EAD, Q-Games
PUBLISHER: Nintendo ESRB: E 10+ RELEASED: September 9, 2011
By Justin Polak Co-founder, Ambassador to the Mushroom Kingdom
The original Star Fox 64 was a game I was hyped for on a ridiculous level. Although I found the promotional tape Nintendo sent me unintentionally hilarious back in the late ’90s, I was still enthralled by a game with rumble support — a new idea at the time — and how it seemed to be a beefed up version of the original Star Fox. Bad acting in the promo tape be damned, the game footage made me wish Nintendo’s shiny new product was in stores at that moment.
From there, I’m sure my story plays out similarly to those who played the hell out of Star Fox 64. I got good enough to get the medals quite easily, even on hard mode, and the game became a dick measuring contest between my friends and I on who can get the highest score.
Though I enjoyed the game thoroughly both on a personal and technical level, over time it faded into obscurity. For whatever reason, I simply stopped my adventures with Fox McCloud and maybe played the game a half a dozen times to this day.
Fourteen years later, I find myself with a copy of Star Fox 64 3D, a remake of the Nintendo 64 classic. Much like theOcarina of Time remake, the game now supports the use of 3D, obviously, along with other new features.
One of those new features is the use of the 3DS’ gyroscope by moving the actual handheld to control the game. Personally, I found this mode a bit of a mixed bag. While I like the fact that there is a way to realign the sensor on the fly and that you can still use the circle pad while in this mode, having the 3D on only causes the screen to blur as you weave the 3DS all around you. To be fair, I did notice that the game was balanced differently while the motion controls were on. However, even with the 3D off, I found these controls to be a bit of a chore to play the game with, and I am kind of resentful that Nintendo is subtly forcing players to use this mode by having to earn separate medals for both motion and classic controls. For those of you who need a reminder on what I am referring to, you earn medals on each stage by setting a certain score with all wing men active.
At the same time, Nintendo isn’t putting a gun to your head. As I just alluded to, you can play SF643D with good old button controls. While I think the game still feels the best on the Nintendo 64, the controls here aren’t bad, and you can choose between two different types. I also like how you can invert up and down no matter which control type you use. Though classic controls may feel a bit weird at first, you’ll get used to them if you opt to run through the short training mode.
As for the game itself, SF643D feels nearly exactly like the original with one hell of a face lift. While I was impressed with how much effort was put into the Ocarina of Time remake (graphics wise), it seemed that even more attention to detail was put forth in this remake. In addition, from what info I could gather on the internets, it seems that most of the original voice cast has returned. The important thing is that if the voices don’t sound like the original, they are damn near perfect, unless you are super picky about it. Throw in the ability to save between levels (the game autosaves for the record), and you got yourself a satisfying, single player portable experience.
If you are a rusty Star Fox 64 veteran like I am, you’ll find that the challenge remains exactly the same as on the Nintendo 64, and getting those pesky medals are still quite fun and rewarding. Once again, when all medals are obtained, you get to do it all over again on expert mode!
What I really love is the score attack mode. Finally, if there is a level you really love, but don’t feel like trekking through the whole game to get to, go right ahead and select that level (provided you beat it in the story mode, of course). SF643D also adds even more replay value by having separate medals to obtain in this mode. Instead of one set score to get like in story mode, you can earn the standard bronze, silver and gold here. Personally, I also look at this mode as a great way to practice to get the medals in the story mode.
While the multiplayer is revamped with slightly different physics, new levels and power ups, I feel the experience as a whole is rather ho-hum. While I think it’s awesome that you need only one game card to engage in 4 player multiplayer, there is no online mode. There are additional multiplayer hooks like the ability to play against the computer, and integrating your image using the 3DS camera, it’s still kind of disappointing that I can’t randomly connect to a match online. If Nintendo was overworried about online privacy issues like the company has been known for, they could have simply disabled the use of the camera online. I was never a big fan of the multiplayer in the original, so it’s not a HUGE deal to me, but I know many others will be left shaking their heads in confusion.
As usual with any kind of port or remake, how you feel about the original product will remain basically the same here. Although I have somewhat grown out of Star Fox 64 itself, I find myself enjoying SF643D the more I play it. I may not bother to go for 100% completion like I did in 1997, but I still feel my purchase is justified. Speaking of which, even hardcore fans might want to wait for a price drop before picking this one up. While the extra content mentioned above does make the game feel a little fresh, Star Fox 64 isn’t as deep of a game as Ocarina of Time. In other words, you might have a hard time justifying a $40 purchase here.
For me, I am happy with this remake for the most part. While the lack of the online multiplayer irks me, I largely viewed Star Fox 64 as purely a single player experience. SF643D keeps what was fun about the original and adds just enough new perks to keep up the fun factor.
TITLE: Deus Ex: Human Revolution
PLATFORM: 360, PS3, PC,
DEVELOPER: Eidos Montreal
PUBLISHER: Square Enix
ESRB: M
RELEASED: August 23, 2011
By Seth Miller Staff Writer, Part-Time Ninja
The first Deus Ex was the video game that truly dominated my life. By that, I mean it wasn’t a game like Mario or a shooter that I could casually play for awhile, quit, and then get back to doing other things. Deus Ex consumed my life; I didn’t leave my family computer for hours and pretty much blocked out almost everything else in my life until I beat that game. It was an amazing combination of shooter, stealth and RPG with a great story and the sense that I could beat the game in any one of a dozen ways, which was incredible.
The sequel, while not horrible, was a huge disappointment compared to the original; so with a mediocre sequel that failed to live up to the original, what was the next way to revive the series? I give you the prequel (possibly a reboot), Deus Ex: Human Revolution. The year is 2027, the world is in a state of chaos with corporations gaining more power than governments, the environment is deteriorating rapidly, and society is divided over human augmentation, which fuses mechanical limbs and computer technology to the human body.
The main character, Adam Jensen, is a security consultant for human augmentation developer Sarif Industries. On the verge of a huge announcement, Sarif Industries is attacked and several scientists are killed, including Adam’s former lover, Megan Reed. Adam must sort through a vast conspiracy across the globe to find out the truth behind the attacks and stop them before it is too late.
So is my faith in the series restored, is it back on track to being a premier game series? It’s not perfect, but it is a good game and a step in the right direction. The varied gameplay options that made the original such a success are back and just as great in this game. You can go stealth, guns blazing, or whatever way you prefer; Deus Ex: Human Revolution will complement that style almost all the time.
The world building that goes into the game is incredible and sucks players into this future on the verge of collapse. The story isn’t the most original I’ve seen, but it progresses well, asks questions about the morality of your decisions and doesn’t make the final choices in the game easy; you’re always presented the pros and cons of what your actions will do and there is never a simple answer about which one is right. The augmentations in the game are fun and truly make you feel like an augmented super soldier.
While most aspects of this game are great, there are a few problems that hampered the game. Boss battles have been consistently brought up as a point of contention with this game; while I don’t have as big a problem with it as others, players who try to get through by not killing enemies or avoid fighting altogether will find themselves unprepared for fighting the bosses.
The level designs are great, but you are limited to a few locations that you go back and forth from; playing in the same locations for the majority of the game even with different missions drags the gaming experience down. The map system needed a lot more work; the environments are big and complex, and require an effective map system to find your way around that the game barely provides. The cinematics are gorgeous, but the character animations look dated. The story is one of the strongest aspects of the game, but it feels slightly rushed towards the end.
This is a great introduction to the series for people who are new to it and a welcome reminder of what was great about the original to those that played it before. I can’t wait for a sequel and hope it improves over the parts that needed work because I’m dying to get back into this world.
The following is a new trailer for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 which surfaced online this week. It gives viewers a look at the game’s multiplayer mode.
Developed by Infinity Ward and Sledgehammer Games, with assistance from Raven Software, the game comes out November 11, 2011.
Front page image from callofdutymodernwarfare3.info.
By Rob Siebert
