Posted by Metallian on August 21st, 2008 at 5:43 pm
Fulfilling my role as a nocturnal manchild, I lurked on Live marketplace until 0400 ET then downloaded the hell out of The Force Unleashed demo. Here are my completely scientific findings. Basically the thing plays like God of (Star) War(s) and feels completely different than every SW game ever, in that your only goal is to trash stuff as violently as possible.
PROS:
-Really over-the-top, in a good way. The Apprentice's powers are wackily strong to begin with so it plays like Star Wars as directed by John Woo or something. Lots of explosions and crushing deaths.
-The Lightsaber combat is very arcadey and not at all like Jedi Outcast from what I can tell, but it works well. The emphasis has really been switched to force powers, but there are several saber/force combos that are really fun and actually Make Sense.
-For the first time, they got doors right. Why would a jedi trek halfway across a military installation to find a key to a locked door? Screw that, just blow the door open with blunt Force trauma (damn, that was clever. props to me).
-Stuff shown in the old trailers is acutally doable. Push them, zap them, toss an explosive at them before they notice it. Or just pick them up and mess with them a little.
-Looks really nice and while the framerate is not rock solid, it keeps up.
-Some really clever gimmicks to take out big enemies. As long as they keep it varied and don't use the same few in the full game it's going to be heavily amusing.
-Difficulty is really good. You don't feel like a wimpy little girl with a lightsaber starting out, but if you get sloppy and let yourself get heavily outnumbered you get get in trouble quick.
-Controls are good, you can control gripped objects in every axis and toss them wherever, and pretty much every damn button on the controller is mapped to a different way to kill a guy.
LESS PRO:
-Camera is pretty lame.
-A really strong emphasis on throwing stuff at people meant there was simply TOO MUCH loose junk sitting around in the environments. Hope this was just for the demo.
-Quick Timer Events for enemy fatalities. Thanks God of War.
-No dismemberment to speak of. I can throw a guy half a kilometer into a bulkhead and into a void but I can't lop his arm off? Come on now.
-Blocking is pretty weak, and should be on a bumper instead of a trigger for something so time-sensitive, hopefully this will be upgradeable and remappable.
TOTALLY NOT PRO:
-Why could Soulcalibur IV spring for James Earl Jones, but this game that features Vader as a main character, can't? Impersonator is just Bad.
IN SUMMARY, the demo was not without flaws, but very impressive and has actually excited me enough to want to buy this. I can't remember the last time that happened. As long as the full version keeps it up, it should be a hoot. It feels like this is a game that the developer wanted to make and is proud of. Which doesn't happen enough anymore.
If you've got XBL Gold, go get it now. PSN comes later today, and it will eventually show up on XBL silver if you're one of Those Guys.
Posted in 360, Microsoft, Nintendo, PS3, Sony, Wii
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Posted by inpheaux on August 6th, 2008 at 12:46 pm
In an announcement no one saw coming, Take 2 and Rockstar announced today that Grand Theft Auto IV will be gracing PCs this fall, on November 18th.
No comments on if - similar to the GTA:SA PC release - we'll see some of the more annoying aspects of the game fixed up, but hey, at least we know you won't have to worry about your Rock Band controller freezing the game on boot. At the very least, if the game is anywhere near as moddable as its previous-generation predecessors, someone should be able to release a "make the cars all stop handling like ass" patch and a "make your cahzin stop bugging you every 15 minutes" patch.
Not quite the October some people were predicting, but well, here they are, right about on schedule with a PC release about 6-7 months after consoles.
Posted in Mods & Addons, PC Games
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Posted by inpheaux on August 1st, 2008 at 2:29 am
I finally got off my ass and upgraded us to Wordpress 2.6. Go me. It looks and works exactly the same for you, but it's ridiculously different for us.
As soon as the nice people over at Punbb release 1.3 we'll be upgrading to that too . . after I spend a few days bashing my head against a wall to force our lovely cross-posting plugin to work again.
Posted in Metaposts
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Posted by inpheaux on July 15th, 2008 at 8:11 pm
Nintendo's offering was pretty disappointing. Let's get this out of the way:
Animal Crossing - City Folk
- Platform - Wii
- Release - Later this year
- Looks and plays like previous installments
- Send text messages to friends or the message board with the usual mail system.
- Makes use of the new Wii Speak peripheral, which isn't a headset but a room microphone.
Wii Sports Resort
- Full sequel to Wii Sports, includes the Wii MotionPlus.
- MotionPlus is a new Wiimote plug-in (with pass-through for the nunchuck) which brings even more precise motion control to the Wii, specifically advanced positional and rotational data.
- Beach-resort themed, features tons of new minigames. Three were shown off:
- Disc Dog - Frisbee mini-game. With a dog. Sorta like darts.
- Jetski - Hold the Wiimote & nunchuck like handlebars, twist rapidly to accelerate like real throttle controls
- Swordfighting - Like boxing, but with SWORDS. Controls look really tight.
- Launches next spring
Wii Music
- Makes you look like a complete spaz in BRAND NEW WAYS.
- Far more laid-back than Guitar Hero or Rockband, you just sorta do whatever you want vaguely in time and something resembling music happens.
- It has a cowbell. COWBELL HERO LIVES.
- Unfortunately, it looks like it would only be enjoyable if you're really young or really drunk.
- Launches later this year
Miscellaneous Wii Games
- Shawn White Snowboarding - It is what it says, relies on the Balance Board for primary input. Fall/Winter 2008.
- Star Wars: The Clone Wars - Looks great for a Wii game, will probably give us the proper Wiimote Lightsaber control we've always wanted, even moreso than The Force Unleashed. Winter 2008.
- Rayman Raving Rabbids: TV Party - Yet another Rabbids party game, now with Balance Board input. You have one of those, right?
- Call of Duty: World at War - Coop war stuff, P1 uses the zapper, P2 helps out with the Wiimote
Miscellaneous DS Games
- Guitar Hero On Tour: Decades - Yes, we're getting a sequel this early. No we don't know much about it, but it'll be compatible with the current version and you'll be able to trade songs back and forth.
- Spore Creatures - Stripped-down Spore is still coming, it's got a reworked creature creator and an analog to the early portion of the full game. The ability to trade critters with your friends is still in, just with the usual hoops you'll have to jump through for a DS game.
- Pokemon Ranger: Shadows of Almia - Sequel to 2006's Pokemon Ranger. Like most Pokemon games, it's like those which precede it directly, with some minor upgrades and more things to enslave. Out on 10 NOV 2008.
- Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown - We have no idea what this will be. Top-down old-school GTA? Third-person new-school GTA? It is a mystery. Later this year.
- Cooking Navi - IT'S A COOKBOOK. A COOKBOOOOOOOOOOOK.
No Megaton, Nintendo? Nothing from Square Enix's remake-machine? No real new hardware? No Mother 3? No retooled less-lame online system? For shame.
Posted in DS, E3 2008, Nintendo, Wii
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Posted by inpheaux on July 15th, 2008 at 4:29 pm
Skipping Nintendo's lackluster conference because I was taking a lovely Automata Theory final exam while it was taking place. So we'll move straight into Sony's.
PS3
- Resistance 2 - Sony's big focus this time around. Unfortunately, to me, it just looks like more of the same stuff. It's a shooter. There are aliens. Big aliens. Who cares?
- Little Big Planet - Now a suitable replacement for Powerpoint! Sony's usual "HERE HAVE SOME NUMBERS" section was presented via a Little Big Planet level. It was neat, but I just don't see how it'll be fun.
- Greatest Hits: They're $29.99 . . but, if you have a PS3 you probably already have all these games. Motorstorm, Resistance, Warhawk, COD 3, Fight Night, NFS: Carbon, Assassin's Creed, Rainbow Six Vegas, Oblivion, Ninja Gaiden Sigma.
- YET ANOTHER FUCKING SKU. New 80Gb model coming in September, identical to the 40Gb model but with a larger hard drive. Sorry guys, still don't have it right. We need backwards compatibility, Wifi, and a user-upgradable hard drive. Give us that at $300 - or hell even $350 - and we'll consider it.
- God of War 3, no surprise whatsoever. No gameplay, just a trailer. Still quite a ways off.
- Infamous. Superhero sandbox, reminds me of Crackdown, but moderately less goofy. Spring 2009.
- Hilariously named "Massive Action Game", large-scale multiplayer shooter, supports up to 256 players, character growth, ongoing campaigns, squad-based combat, PS3 exclusive. You know, like Planetside, but hopefully not terrible.
PS2
- LOL 130 TITLES COMING THIS YEAR, CONSISTING OF NOTHING BUT EXCITING SHOVELWARE AND LOW-RES PORTS!
- STILL MORE SKUs! Lego Batman Bundle coming later this year for $199, features a PS2, Lego Batman, and one of the Justice League DVDs. Who the hell is still buying the PS2 at retail?
PSN
- Ratchet & Clank Future: Quest for Booty - $14.95 short sequel to R&C Future.
- lol trophies lol
- Gran Turismo TV - Racing videos. From PSN. We don't have Gran Turismo 5 for you yet, but we DO have a trip to the Ferrari plant hosted by one of the guys responsible for GT! That's . . sorta the same, right?
- HOME IS SERIOUSLY COMING GUYS OK. REALLY. SERIOUSLY. IT'S GOING TO BE AWESOME. WE MEAN IT. PLEASE DON'T LEAVE US.
- Video content: Like XBL, you've got movies, TV, etc. HD, SD, rental options, streaming preview, tons of stuff. Not as amazing as Netflix integration but the content is portable. You can take anything you get from the PSN Video Store and transfer it to a PSP.
PSP
- Ratchet & Clank pack, $199, includes Ratchet & Clank Size Matters, 1Gb Memory Stick, PSN voucher for Echochrome, and comedy-option UMD of National Treasure 2.
- Resistance Retribution - Third-person over-the-shoulder portable Resistance, developed by Bend Studios
- Also coming: Force Unleashed, Madden 09, Loco Roco 2, Super Stardust Portable, Patapon 2, etc.
Non-Game PS3 Stuff
- PS3 Branded Youtube
- "Life With PS3" coming later this month. Some kind of . . news . . thing? I don't know, Tretton didn't really explain it.
SOE! HEY GUYS, REMEMBER SOE?!?!
- DC Universe Online - PC/PS3. BIZARRO AM LOVING THIS INNOVATIVE GAME.
Conference Shockers
- No showing from Square Enix
- Only 15 seconds of Killzone 2
Posted in E3 2008, PS2, PS3, PSP, Sony
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Posted by inpheaux on July 14th, 2008 at 3:44 pm
Super-condensed Highlight Reel Time!
Games You Care About
- Fallout 3 . . . turns out it's Fallout 3. Shocking. I mean, it's good and all, but it isn't really news.
- Gears of War 2. See above.
- Banjo Kazooie 3 & Viva Pinata 2. Rare makes sequels, film at 11. Ok, no, seriously they look pretty good. Winter 2008.
- Guitar Hero 4 - 85 master tracks, lame stuff we already knew about ("make your own tracks!!!"), lame stuff we don't care about ("WHOAAA GUYS! SUPER SPECIAL TREAT FOR 360 GAMERS . . YOU GET 3 REM TRACKS! NOT FREE OR ANYTHING . . JUST LIKE . . AN EXCLUSIVE PACK. TO BUY.") Also the new Metallica album will be available as DLC for GH3 and GH4 whenever it actually gets released.
- Rockband 2 - 84 tracks on the disc (the leaked list was mostly right), all RB1 content is compatible and transferrable, 360 exclusive at launch (which will be worldwide this time for reals). Shooting for 500 tracks available for RB2 by the end of the year.
Dashboard Refresh
Remember a few months ago when there were leaks from inside Rare saying "Uhhhh, guys, Microsoft is making us rip off Nintendo in a Big Way and it makes us feel dirty." Totally true. The new dashboard coming this fall is all social crap all the time. It's got fake-Miis, fake-photo-sharing-app, fake everything. I would not be surprised if they make us pay a quarter for a shirt like they do with gamerpics right now.
Good news: they're expanding their video stuff. Not only will there be new partnerships for normal video content, but the new dashboard will bring Netflix streaming capability to the 360. It'll work just like That Roku Thing, except you already have one.
Games You Don't Care About
- Scene It Sequel, bleh.
- Lame Camera Stuff, bleeh.
- Partnership with the tools responsible for 1 vs 100, Big Brother, Fear Factor, etc to produce "Live" versions of shows like 1 vs 100, ultra bleh.
- Lips. It's a Karaoke game. From iNiS, the guys responsible for Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan! and Elite Beat Agents. Unfortunately it isn't innovative. It's just Karaoke.
XBLA Stuff
- Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved: 2: Colon: The Game: The Sequel: JUMP IN. It's Geometry Wars, with 4-player MP, and extra crazy stuff.
- Galaga Sequel from the same team as PacMan CE. May be sacrilege. I am reserving judgement until a demo is out.
- Portal - Still Alive. It's a level pack, and if it isn't being released on Steam I will go on a rampage.
Super Secret Bonus Stuff
Square Enix dropped a bomb: Final Fantasy XIII is no longer PS3 exclusive. Sucks to be you, Sony Defense Force. Also, inexplicably, they are releasing Last Remnant on the 360 and PC. Why? No one knows.
That's all for today, Nintendo and Sony are tomorrow. Get your press conference bingo cards ready.
Posted in 360, E3 2008, Industry News, Microsoft, PC Games, Square Enix
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Posted by inpheaux on June 28th, 2008 at 3:06 pm
Welp, it looks like the one time I decide to sleep through a Blizzard announcement (I was dead-set convinced all the people saying "NO GUYS LOOK, THE EYES IN THE ICE IMAGE TOTALLY LINE UP WITH THIS DIABLO III BOX ART I MADE" were complete crackpots, and was sure that all the ice was going to mean "aces, more crappy Wrath of the Lich King news"), it turns out to be one worth getting out of bed for. Yes, after eight years of speculation Diablo III is here, ready to consume our social lives and destroy our mice.
Here's what we know so far, mostly condensed from Blizzard's great big Diablo III FAQ:
Diablo III
Genre: 3D Isometric Action/RPG
Release Date: When It's Done
Platform: Simultaneous PC/Mac release
Setting: Still on Sanctuary, the setting of Diablo I and II, 20 years after the vanquishing of Baal in D2X. Only returning character we know of is our good friend Deckard Cain (though he won't be sticking around long enough for us to stay awhile and listen, he's apparently the first casualty of the new wave of hell beasts . . and anyway, shouldn't he be like 90 or something by now? What the hell is the average life expectancy on Sanctuary?). It's unclear right now who our actual enemy will be, but Hell will obviously be involved to some extent. Probably also that glowy bitch Tyrael.
Classes: Five classes total, only returning class we know for certain right now is the Barbarian. The only new class right now is the Witch Doctor, who sounds a lot like the Necro. If they replace the Necromancer outright I am going to get mad on the internet. To make those five classes feel a little less constricting, you'll get to pick between male and female versions, though the difference will be purely aesthetic. This means things aren't looking too good for the Amazon, cause . . uh . . why would you have a male Amazon?
Engine: Brand new engine, fully 3D, features Havok Physics. Will this mean no more randomization, making the game like Titan Quest? We don't really know, they're sorta tight-lipped about that right now, but the handful of screenshots don't look very randomized. Instead they just look like a lot of bridges.
Media: Everything's over here. Blizzard's got about 50 concept art scans, 30 screenshots, 3 different trailers (cinematic, gameplay, artwork) and some random wallpapers for you to examine.
Posted in Industry News, PC Games, Weird
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Posted by inpheaux on April 29th, 2008 at 9:29 pm
And of course, we're all too busy playing GTA4.
However, if you're one of those few people who isn't playing GTA4, you can enjoy your shiny new medic achievements / weapons and new map for Team Fortress 2. It's out now. Just restart Steam.
Also, if you're one of the like two people who haven't picked up TF2 yet, TF2 is free this weekend starting this Friday at noon PDT. So hop on Steam now and get it preloaded so you'll be ready to go on Friday.
. . but we'll probably still be playing GTA4.
Posted in Mods & Addons, PC Games
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Posted by inpheaux on April 9th, 2008 at 10:20 am
The latest game in the Gyakuten Saiban / Phoenix Wright series has been announced. After the first DS-from-the-ground-up excursion with Apollo Justice, Capcom is back (like clockwork!) with yet another one. This time you'll get to take on the other side of Magic Super Future Law, since you'll be playing as Miles Edgeworth.
We don't know when it'll be out, or even if it'll be coming stateside, but we do know that you'll be playing as Edgeworth with Dick Gumshoe as your sidekick. Also from the screenshots in this week's Famitsu we can discern that there'll be an even further expanded investigation portion, where you'll be actually walking around crimescenes looking for clues.
We don't yet know if you'll be required to completely botch the case so the charming underdog defense attorney can completely own you in court, but hey, Edgeworth can't suck that much, can he?
Famitsu Article, Page 1
Famitsu Article, Page 2
Posted in DS, Nintendo, Weird
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Posted by inpheaux on April 8th, 2008 at 12:39 pm
After months of delays (six of them, in fact), EA has finally announced all the details of the PAL release of Rock Band.
You might want to sit down.
Here's the good news: It's actually finally being released! For reals this time! Also you get nine "exclusive" songs, though you might only actually care about one or two.
And the bad news. . well . . damn, where do you even start? The date they've set is 23 MAY 2008, a smooth 6 months after the North American release. Why'd it take so long? Who knows. Probably the stand-by excuse of "TRANSLATING THINGS IS HARD!", but it probably also has something to do with Licensing Hell.
Then there's bundles & prices. Unlike the US release where you had options of "Everything" or "Just the game", Europe gets to pick from a ton of crap. There's an "Instruments" set which just has all the controllers, there's drum and guitars sold separately, and there's just the game.
And then the real fuck-you from EA: the pricing.
Instruments Bundle - GBP 129.99 / EUR 169
Wireless Guitars - GBP 59.99 / EUR 79.99
Drum Kits - GBP 69.99 / EUR 89.99
Game-only - GBP 49.99 / EUR 69.99
This might not have sounded too bad back when the dollar was, you know, actually worth something, but look at the conversion now: 180 GBP is about 360 USD, over twice what the whole shebang retails for over here.
No firm dates or prices are set yet for the PS2 or Wii versions, the best we've been told is that they'll be out "later this summer", which in EA-speak could mean pretty much anything.
Source: Eurogamer
Posted in 360, Industry News, Microsoft, Nintendo, PS2, PS3, Sony, Wii
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