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September 2011 - Posts
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Welcome to the New Video Game Releases List for the Week!
The video game release highlights on Xbox 360, Playstation 3, Nintendo Wii, Sony PSP, Nintendo DS and PC/Mac include FIFA Soccer 12, Pro Evolution Soccer 2012, X-men Destiny, Oblivion Game of the Year Edition, The ICO and Shadow of the Colossus Collection, plus a few more gems...
Current Amazon Pre-order Deals:
Our recommended new release of the week will go to:
FIFA Soccer 12 is the 19th game in Electronic Arts' popular video game soccer series. Continuing with the franchise's unique blend of realism and innovative features that bring the authenticity to the video game pitch that fans crave, FIFA Soccer 12 is an exciting title for longtime and existing fans of console sports gaming. Game features include: 500 officially licensed clubs and more than 15,000 players, improved self-awareness and aptitude of AI players, a redefined defending mechanism, more true-to-life injuries, precision dribbling and new commentary teams.
FIFA Soccer 12 brings to the pitch the game-changing new Player Impact Engine, a physics engine built to deliver real-world physicality in every interaction on the pitch. Revolutionary gameplay innovations inspired by the real-world game make FIFA Soccer 12 deeper and more engaging. All-new Precision Dribbling delivers a higher fidelity of touch on the ball for attacking players, while Tactical Defending fundamentally changes the approach to defending by placing equal importance on positioning, intercepting passes and tackling. Plus, AI players have been infused with Pro Player Intelligence, the next generation of player intelligence and performance.
Check out the full list of new video game releases (USA) for the week of September 25, 2011 on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Nintendo Wii, Sony PSP, Nintendo DS, and PC! As always, release dates are subject to change, slip, slide, and be fairly unpredictable.
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In an interview with OXM last week, Cliff Bleszinski (producer of the Gears of War series) described the general direction of videogame trilogies.
“There's the original breakthrough, the magic formula that makes the megabucks. Then the developer builds in a bunch of wacky new features for the sequel. Fans of the first game are displeased, regarding the new bits as blasphemy, the developer takes that displeasure on board, and the third game is ‘the compromise that hits that sweet spot’.” [link]
As a Gears fan from release day in November of 2006, I agree wholeheartedly with this assessment. The first Gears game was an incredibly entertaining introduction to the dystopic and damaged world of Sera. The second Gears game was just as entertaining, but focused more on set pieces (how many times did you fall into the water in the Centaur tank?) and pageantry instead of improving the core mechanics and gameplay. So, we reach Gears of War 3. By combining the same strong gameplay with some new twists and a surprisingly emotional storyline, you get a Gears game that is fulfilling, entertaining, and fresh.
Continue reading
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Amazon is back again with another All Video Game Gold Box Event!
The Gold Box Events kicks off Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2011 and features one deal of the day, in addition to lightning deals every few hours...
We were greeted with the following message:
The video game deals will start flowing promptly at Midnight and features one deal of the day, in addition to lightning deals every few hours...
Hopefully the selection will be very good based on previous Amazon video game deal events, but be quick with the mouse as the good ones can go quick (especially as the word spreads)! Perhaps some deals on this week's release of Gears of War 3 will be in the cards...
Check it out: Amazon All Day Video Game Gold Box Event
About Gears of War 3:
Published by Microsoft Game Studios, the Gears of War franchise has won over 30 “Game of the Year” awards, sold more than 12 million copies worldwide and redefined the third-person shooter genre for this console generation. The game has also inspired a full line of toys and collectibles, apparel, an upcoming film, graphic novels and a book series by New York Times best-selling author Karen Traviss. The Gears of War series is exclusive to the Xbox 360 videogame and entertainment system and its riveting multiplayer action makes it one of the most popular titles on Xbox LIVE. More information can be found at www.gearsofwar.com.
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Welcome to the New Video Game Releases List for the Week!
The video game release highlights on Xbox 360, Playstation 3, Nintendo Wii, Sony PSP, Nintendo DS and PC/Mac include Gears of War 3, F1 2011, Child of Eden (PS3), Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 2 Innocent Sin, Kirby Mass Attack, Harvest Moon: Tale of Two Towns, plus a few more gems...
Current Amazon Pre-order Deals:
Our recommended new release of the week will go to:
Gears of War 3 is the spectacular conclusion to one of the most memorable and celebrated sagas in videogames. Developed by Epic Games exclusively for Xbox 360, Gears of War 3 plunges players into a harrowing tale of hope, survival and brotherhood. In Gears of War 3, players fight on as Marcus Fenix, the grizzled war hero and leader of Delta Squad. Eighteen months after the fall of the last human city, the war against the Locust rages on. Meanwhile, deep beneath the surface, a fearsome new threat is infecting the planet from within. With survivors scattered and civilization in ruins, time is running out for Marcus and his comrades as they fight to save the human race.
Check out the full list of new video game releases (USA) for the week of September 5, 2011 on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Nintendo Wii, Sony PSP, Nintendo DS, and PC! As always, release dates are subject to change, slip, slide, and be fairly unpredictable.
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Gears of War 3!
The highly anticipated release date of Gears of War 3 is Tuesday (September 20th) on Xbox 360 in the US!
Gears of War 3 is the spectacular conclusion to one of the most memorable and celebrated sagas in videogames. Developed by Epic Games exclusively for Xbox 360, Gears of War 3 plunges players into a harrowing tale of hope, survival and brotherhood.
If you have been procrastinating getting your pre-order in, you still have time to take advantage of the many retail special promotions and coupon codes!
Check out the full run down of current Gears of War 3 deals, coupons, codes/freebies and midnight launch details:
Amazon has the regular version of the game available with a FREE $20 video game credit!
Get a $20 Video Games Credit
Pre-order Gears of War 3 and get $20 off a future video game purchase. The promotional code will be placed directly into your Amazon.com account within 2 business days after the product ships. Additionally, receive the exclusive character skin Savage Kantus. The Savage Kantus code will be e-mailed within two business days after the product ships. Offer valid when shipped and sold by Amazon.com. Limit one per household. Amazon reserves the right to change or terminate this promotion at any time.
$0.99 Release day shipping or free super saver shipping is available as well...
Get your pre-order in to lock in the deal now, as they may pull the promo at any time (certainly on release day).
Steps:
Buy.com is currently offering the following deals on Gears of War 3 editions (all with Free shipping)!
Check it out:
 
BestBuy is offering Gears of War 3 for retail at $59.99.
Order online, and select In-store pickup to get the game on release day.
Steps:
BestBuy.com - Gears of War 3
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Select 'In-Store Pickup'
Midnight Store Openings:
BestBuy.com has just posted the interactive list of midnight store openings for Gears of War 3.
Click here: BestBuy.com - Gears of War 3
Reserve your copy of Gears of War 3 and receive exclusive DLC skin for Don!
Steps:
Midnight Openings:
- We have not received official word from Gamestop regarding Midnight Launch events! We will update with the list of stores if announced...
Kmart is offering a $20 gaming credit on all versions of Gears of War 3 (in-store Rewards Members).
Check it out: Kmart.com
Walmart.com is offering a bonus $20 eGift card on Gears of War 3 Regular edition (online only).
Free shipping as well...
Steps:
If you happen to run across other deals, by all means send us a deal tip!
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When you've been gaming as long as I have (I won't go into specifics, but that wood paneled Atari you've seen in retro gaming articles--had it), you see a lot of strange things. One thing that I find interesting is the full-circle that gaming has taken so far as what is considered "bragging rights". In the arcade era, it was the high score. As the NES made home gaming more commonplace, bragging rights became tied to which and how many "game tapes" you had conquered. The 16-bit era diverged into two paths--how bad-assed you were at fighting games and how many hours you had logged on your RPG game save. When games moved to CD's it became weird, suddenly it became about if you played the hottest titles before your friends (a trend that modern marketing refuses to let die, but that's for another day...). Then, games moved into the online realm and, holy cow, we're back to jockeying for high score again! Xotic rides this pony and rides it hard. A first-person shooter with a twist, Xotic forces you not only to survive as you gun down the bad guys, but to rack up multipliers and combos to boost your score up as high as you can in the process. 
The story is relatively simple: An evil supreme life called The Orb, tired of living it's life as a being of pure energy, travels from world to world around the universe, taking over physical life forms and causing them to rip the planet and all its occupants apart. You, as the being destined to stop The Orb, take to battle with your symbiotic arm cannon to eliminate it and undo all the harm it did. The levels are laid out with a mix of enemies, targets, and secrets. Hitting red orbs in the scenery, called scabs, will cause them to explode, and cause a chain reaction if near enough to each other. The more scabs you can chain. the more points they're worth and the more points they drop for you to collect. Scabs will also drop power-ups like health bonuses, faster movement, and (duh-dah-dah-DUH) point multipliers. More points are gathered by finding hidden Orb Brains, finishing the level quickly, eliminating all the scabs, keeping your accuracy up, and a variety of little tweaks and gimmicks. The end result is you twisting your brain around to try to figure out how to exploit these possibility to soak the maximum points out of a level. 
And it works. The graphics are visually stimulating, and the score hunting will keep you replaying missions. Experience points are earned through campaign progression that allow you to upgrade your weapon's power and add elemental effects, boost your health and resistance, and place stronger shields for protection from baddies, and the boosts to your stats are good incentive to give a level another go. The only qualm I had with the game was a non-game qualm, in that I would have liked to see more performance tweaking options in the game's configuration. That's not to say that it's a particularly taxing game to run, but with all the lighting and particle effects, it would be nice to see a little charity taken towards gamers with older systems. In the end, changing the configuration load out is a patch, at worst, so if it really becomes a problem for people it would likely be resolved pretty easily. All-in-all, Xotic is a fun and addictive take on the first-person shooter, blending old-school point-obsession with modern gaming sensibilities. It releases on Steam later today, for interested parties.
Grade: B
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In case you weren't familiar with the BloodRayne series when it first came around, it was a game mostly focused on the premise that game systems were powerful enough to render polygonal boobs, and by God the industry was going to find a reason to render every conceivable possible type of them. BloodRayne was our adolescent introduction to vampire-styled boobies, as Rayne, as sexy vampress, roamed the world sucking blood out of ***, which, in all fairness, is more story than a game about vampire boobies needs, so points for trying. They put out more effort than the movies did.
The game industry as a whole has gotten over their need to render boobs for boobs sake, so I was excited to see where BloodRayne would head in a modern gaming environment. The answer is somewhere between Castlevania and Super Meat Boy. The game follows Rayne as the secret international conspiratorial organization she works for sends her to break up a meeting of a secret international organization of vampires. Or something. You get about two sentences of back story before you're dropped into the game--Bad Dudes has a deeper story. And dropped is literal. You move between most levels by way of a rocket powered coffin drill that always enters from the sky and exits into the ground, which is almost as awesome as it sounds. In between coffin rides, Rayne slashes, shoots, and sucks her way through levels of the same three enemies over and over, as well as the occasional sun lamp, which vampires hate but apparently surround their fortresses with to keep other vampires away. When you're lucky, a level will add a new enemy type to the mix, up until the game gives up on new enemy types and decides on complex gauntlets of environmental hazards instead.  The controls are too mushy for any of these tasks to be pulled off well. The computer will decide sporadically that you're not allowed to attack because an enemy is about to do an attack animation that will hit, meaning you'll spend most of your combat sucking enemies' blood, since that's the only animation you can do that won't be interrupted for nonsense reasons. Platforming is worse, as it often requires you to do the most frustrating reverse-direction backflip since Mario 64 tried to teach us how to do it from scratch. When you add in the complex death traps the game throws at you later on, the frustration will increase exponentially, as you try to dance around Super Meat Boy style hazards with a sprite sporting the size and grace of China Warrior. The real shame here is that a game so bland an frustrating can look so good. The characters are just 2D sprites in a mild anime style, but their animations are the most fluid you'll see this side of BlazBlue. Maybe it was a memory issue that in so few but gorgeously rendered characters in the game, because it's almost criminal that a game can move so fluidly in video but be so staunched in actual play. In any case, the care in animation doesn't make up for the lack of effort in the other aspects of the game, so I'm going to have to give BloodRayne: Betrayal a GRADE: C+
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Welcome to the New Video Game Releases List for the Week!
The video game release highlights on Xbox 360, Playstation 3, Nintendo Wii, Sony PSP, Nintendo DS and PC/Mac include Dead Island, Warhammer 40K Space Marine, Resistance 3, Driver San Franscisco, Rise of Nightmares, Star Fox 64 3D, plus a few more gems...
Current Amazon Pre-order Deals:
Our recommended new release of the week will go to:
NHL 12 is EA Sports annual hockey video game that puts players on the ice with the ultimate goal to become the next great superstar of the hockey world as you lead your team to a Stanley Cup championship. Features include a new full contact physics engine, Anticipation AI, the ability to take control of a team in 'Be a GM' mode, a comprehensive career mode, all-new dynamic goalie interaction that includes the ability of goalies to fight, the NHL's Winter Classic game, multiplayer support and more.
Check out the full list of new video game releases (USA) for the week of September 5, 2011 on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Nintendo Wii, Sony PSP, Nintendo DS, and PC! As always, release dates are subject to change, slip, slide, and be fairly unpredictable.
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We played a lot more games than we've written on at PAX Prime, but a lot of them just didn't show us enough to really warrant a whole article, so we decided to do a quick hit list here and get most of them out of the way, so strap in. This will be quick enough, and then we'll never speak of it again. That's what she said. Jurassic Park (360, PS3, PC)
A non-fun version of Dragon's Lair, essentially. Telltale was leading a modern Reanaisance of adventure titles, so why they decided to make an extended quick time event out of a CG movie that's even more boring than the third Jurassic Park movie is beyond me. And this is from someone who liked the SNES Jurassic Park game...
HAWTwired Hype Level - 4/10
X-Men Destiny (360, PS3) Champions of Norrath with mutants. The demo didn't really excite, but since it was only the first few maps of the first few levels, there really wasn't enough to make an accurate judgement. The Champions of Norrath assessment was the quickest point of reference I could come up with such limited exposure. You beat up bad guys, you advance your skill tree, you min-max your abilities. We'll have to wait till release to say any more about it. HAWTwired Hype Level - 6/10
Spider-Man: Edge of Time (360, PS3) There was a lot happening in Edge of Time, and it was hard to keep track of it all. Combat appeared to be deep, but since there was no primer on what the control scheme was, it was frustrating and lead to a string of hard-attack-light-attack combos while I played. Like X-Men Destiny, the short demo didn't really showcase the game's selling mechanic (altering events in Spider-Man's timeline to affect Spider-Man 2099's timeline), so again, it will be hard to judge until release. HAWTwired Hype Level - 7/10 
SSX (360, PS3) I'm still addicted to SSX3--at one time or another I've owned it for Xbox, PS2, and Gamecube. This ended up hampering me a bit on the new SSX, as the control scheme has been modeled more to the sticks than to the buttons (the demo rep compared it to Fight Night's punching mechanics), so it took me some getting used to, but yes, it is still SSX (and not that crappy SSX On Tour nonsense). EA's "Mountain Man" program that generates courses based on real world mountain slopes works, and in a big way. I'm looking forward to tackling the slopes and meticulously trying scoping out the best lines when this game drops in January. HAWTwired Hype Level - 8/10
Forza 4 (360) There are two major problems with a Forza demo--first, if you're playing it right, the demo (a single race) shouldn't take longer than about two minutes. Secondly, if you're properly focusing for a driving game, the details in the graphics and sound are the last thing you're concentrating on. But in it's own way, that's a compliment--if I hadn't been consciously trying to examine the graphics and sounds of the game, I never would have noticed them, which means that they are, in effect, creating a world complete enough that it doesn't distract with things that don't belong, and "enough, but not too much" is a damn hard target to hit with any creative exercise, so hats off for that. I was hoping John Q Public would have a chance to get their hands on the Kinect controls for the game, but the demo ran with gamepad only. HAWTwired Hype Level - 8/10 
Batman: Arkham City (360, PS3, PC) This was the same demo that WB Games brought to E3, so nothing here was exactly Earth-shattering. The combat as Catwoman was fun, possibly more fun than playing as The Bat, and her voice acting didn't annoy me as much as it seems to some other people. Granted, it's not a voice that people are going to associate with "strong, positive heroine figure", but realistically, with all the bad puns an innuendo Catwoman has delivered as a character over the years, I think she's probably a bit more sex kitten than progressive women's advocates want to admit. Outside of Catwoman, the demo didn't really show anything that you didn't see from Arkham Asylum, but even if left at that, is more Arkham Asylum a bad thing? HAWTwired Hype Level - 8/10
Capcom Booth (360, PS3, 3DS, PC) We didn't play anything at the Capcom booth, and I want to tell you why. I don't know if they were Capcom employees or PR representatives, but the folks working the booth kept turning people away from lining up for demos because they didn't want their lines to get over an hour long. This is PAX. People waited in line over an hour for Citizen Skywatch, and they didn't even know what the hell it was. I waited two hours for Uncharted 3, and I don't even own a PS3. Turning away people so your booth has a better aesthetic sends a message to your audience that your games are more important than they are. Of course, so does re-releasing all your most popular games a year later, so I guess that just kinda tells us where Capcom sits these days. HAWTwired Hype Level - 2/10
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This is the last call for writing submissions! We've gotten in some great submissions so far, and I want to give everyone one last chance to get in. If you've already submitted but haven't heard from us yet, don't worry, we haven't made any decisions either way yet. We'll make our final selections by the end of next week sometime, and let everyone know what we decided then. Thank you all for your submissions, and good luck!
Hey! Who wants to write for HAWTwired?! Early
last year, GamerDeals.net took an ambitious step and decided to expand
into gaming news. A year-and-a-half later, we’re still holding on, but
just barely. People move on, start new projects, and the only people
left today are the two people who, frankly, never wanted to be left
holding the bag. Not that we don’t love what we do, but we have too
much on out plate to give HAWTwired the proper attention it deserves. So we need warm bodies! We need more writers! Here’s WHY you should write for us: - Access: HAWTwired writer have in the past received Press access to events such as E3 and PAX!
- Games: From time-to-time, we get games to review, free-of-charge, and are always trying to get more for our writers to cover.
- Exposure:
HAWTwired articles are shared not just on HAWTwired, but also on the
entire GamerDeals network, giving you the opportunity to be seen and
make a name for yourself.
What do we want in return?
Content! Industry news, game reviews, fanboy rants… We want stories
from people who have something to say. We get access to the industry by
garnering readers, and we need content to garner readers. It’s pretty much that simple. If you’re interested, drop us an e-mail. Be sure to include: - Who You Are: What’s your name, where do you live, what do you do outside of gaming?
- Game Habits: What consoles do you own? Which ones do you actually play? What’s your level of game literacy?
- Contribution Expectations:
What kind of content do you plan to provide, and how much? (This is for
our reference--the amount of content you expect to produce won't have
any weight on our decision, so don't panic if you don't think you can
write a ton of articles)
- Geek Quotient: What other geeky pastimes do you engage in? Would we know you from anywhere else on the web?
- Some writing samples (links are fine if you don't want to sen them directly)
- Anything else you think we should know!
Send your submission, or any questions you have, to info@hawtwired.com. You can also tap me for quick questions on my twitter account. Can’t wait to hear from you! 
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Hey! Who wants to write for HAWTwired?! Early
last year, GamerDeals.net took an ambitious step and decided to expand
into gaming news. A year-and-a-half later, we’re still holding on, but
just barely. People move on, start new projects, and the only people
left today are the two people who, frankly, never wanted to be left
holding the bag. Not that we don’t love what we do, but we have too
much on out plate to give HAWTwired the proper attention it deserves. So we need warm bodies! We need more writers! Here’s WHY you should write for us: - Access: HAWTwired writer have in the past received Press access to events such as E3 and PAX!
- Games: From time-to-time, we get games to review, free-of-charge, and are always trying to get more for our writers to cover.
- Exposure:
HAWTwired articles are shared not just on HAWTwired, but also on the
entire GamerDeals network, giving you the opportunity to be seen and
make a name for yourself.
What do we want in return?
Content! Industry news, game reviews, fanboy rants… We want stories
from people who have something to say. We get access to the industry by
garnering readers, and we need content to garner readers. It’s pretty much that simple. If you’re interested, drop us an e-mail. Be sure to include: - Who You Are: What’s your name, where do you live, what do you do outside of gaming?
- Game Habits: What consoles do you own? Which ones do you actually play? What’s your level of game literacy?
- Contribution Expectations:
What kind of content do you plan to provide, and how much? (This is for
our reference--the amount of content you expect to produce won't have
any weight on our decision, so don't panic if you don't think you can
write a ton of articles)
- Geek Quotient: What other geeky pastimes do you engage in? Would we know you from anywhere else on the web?
- Some writing samples (links are fine if you don't want to sen them directly)
- Anything else you think we should know!
Send your submission, or any questions you have, to info@hawtwired.com. You can also tap me for quick questions on my twitter account. Can’t wait to hear from you! 
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I think everyone is aware that it's no cakewalk writing for an independent game media site, and if you think otherwise, save some denial for the rest of us, would ya? Game PR people generally don't want to talk to unless they aren't getting the desired speed from bigger sites, you end up largely having to cover the costs for reviews out of your own pocket (unless you get lucky enough to win a contest for a game from time-to-time), and, unless you want to walk around largely with your computer strapped to your wrist, by the time you're able to post news everyone and their brother has already beaten you to the punch. Independent games media is an everyday struggle for legitimacy. You have to badger PR people constantly to remind them to include you, because, realistically, there's only so many hours in the day, they're trying to cover more projects than they can handle, and wasting time with a site that gets a fraction of the hits the big guys do just isn't time efficient. Gaming events, like E3 and PAX, create weeks of e-mail trading as you try to convince the organizers that you can be more than "just some dude that likes games". And sometimes, like in the case of E3, you get denied because they don't think you generate enough traffic, only to watch every freaking person and their brother send non-journalists as contest prizes. When you do finally get coverage, you become drown out in the sea of game sites. You attend panel, hoping to get some new, exciting information, only to find out that G4 or IGN has already bought coverage rights to live-stream the panel as it happens, meaning that they've already delivered the content to their audience before you even had a chance to make a mark in your notepad. Or you wait in line and hour to get into a panel, only to see more noteworthy and well known media personalities already sitting up front when they open the doors. Then at a public friendly event like PAX, you stand next to the public in line and answer 20 questions about your Media Pass: "You have a Media Pass?" "Yeah." "What's that do for you?" "Not a ton, otherwise I wouldn't be here in line with you." "You can't just jump to the head of the line?" "I dunno. Maybe, depending on who's running the booth. But then I'd have to be 'that guy', and you'd all beat me up in the parking garage." It's a frustrating task, but it's one that we've accepted willingly. And we are everywhere. You know how easy it is to start a website, these days? From what I gather from TV commercials, Danica Patrick sells domains for less than most trips to the drive-thru. Which means literally everyone with ten bucks and a keyboard can start one, and sometimes it shows. But the chaff separates from the wheat pretty quickly (the frustration level and time commitment make for a great attrition rate), so without a ton of searching, you can probably find a good independent game site not too far out of your zip code. Since diving in, I've found a ton of quality ones, and made some friends out of some of their fellow struggling, labor-of-love, unable-to-quit-their-day-job writers. So, why have I groused on for so long in this sycophantic pity party? To appeal to you, the readers. The big games media companies, there's no reason for them to change what they're doing--it's a "we should all be so lucky" scenario. The game developers and PR folks? Well, of course we'd love them to be a bit more open handed, but, as I mentioned earlier, they're just as understaffed as every company in the country right now (not to mention that if they were too free with the information, the enthusiast press wouldn't exist at all--take that how you will). In the end, there's only two parties that can shift the tide: the readers, that is, you guys, and the independent games press themselves. And it's mostly OUR responsibility. We have to innovate, we have to find the gaps in the market. We need to out-think the big guys and provide the public with something they didn't even think of. And if we build it, they, uh, you will come. So let's make a promise. Us here at HAWTwired, as well as the rest of the independent games press, will constantly twist our brain boxes inside-out trying to come up with something new and exciting for the audience, and you, said audience, will promise to not settle for one-stop-shopping game news, using a single site for all your information. Run a search for a game--search engines all list the parent domain of the stories now, so click on a domain you've never heard of. You may be pleasantly surprised.
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If there was one thing that was utterly unexpected about PAX it was the Citizen Skywatch booth. The innocuous booth sat in the edge of the 2K Games area, largely taunting the PAX-goers. The most entertaining aspect was that people kept lining up for it, even though most of them had no clue what it was. Some thought they were in the Borderlands 2 line, some thought they were lined up for Bioshock Infinite. Others walked by, asked the folks in line why they were there, and then left in a huff when no one could give them a straight answer (my personal favorite to watch).
What the line was really for was for Citizen Skywatch, an ARG (alternate reality game) designed to run with upcomer 2K title X-Com. If you're unfamiliar with alternate reality games, it's essentially a multimedia driven scavenger hunt for players to scour the globe in search of info related not just to the ARG, but to the title it's promoting as well. The game industry is no stranger to ARG's, ilovebees being the most famous, but it was nice to see such care being taken on a first-hand level.
The booth was populated with actors who improvised McCarthy-era paranoia as they dealt with the public. Doctors prodded PAX-goers, non-descript men in ties interrogated people about their involvement with communists, and nerdy engineers talked faster than they could think as they dealt with the public. As a theater person, it was truly wonderful to watch a team of actors do such tireless improv for so many straight hours, and the cast members deserve huge acclamations for their effort. The booth was decorated with a plethora of maps, memo, and coded information (many of which people took photos you can suss up online). I was particularly pleased to see that they employed an era appropriate 48-star flag in the booth (though they used a 50-star one in the looping film reel they played--I noticed). After observing the bulletin boards of information and suffering an intense interrogation session, booth attendees were signed up as honorary members of Citizen Skywatch, given ID cards, and sent off to look for more clues on the PAX floor and surrounding areas.
Citizen Skywatch appears to be extending beyond PAX, and you can still sign up if you want in. It will be interesting to see where this game takes its players.
HAWTwired Hype Level: 7/10
Personally, ARG's are most fun for me in retrospect, going back and looking at the aftermath, but the more inquisitive and curious should definitely check it out and start digging.
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I've noticed two trends in gaming, recently. First is the resurgence of the loot-whore dungeon crawl, which I'm going to attribute to the success of Torchlight and Borderlands, plus the knowledge that once Diablo 3 hits that market is going to be impossible to break into, so get in now. The other is the free-to-play, team driven, class-based drop-in/drop-out shooter, which Team Fortress 2 is largely responsible for, despite only going free-to-play earlier this year. Wrath of Heroes in an entry into the latter. Based on the scenario combat from the Warhammer Online MMO, Wrath of Heroes features 3-team combat, 6-on-6-on-6. Rather than generic classes, Wrath of Heroes uses named characters (each representing classic Warhammer classes) to duke it out, and BioWare Mythic is hoping to have as many as 25-characters when then get to launch. Still a game largely in progress, the BioWare Mythic is designing the characters on two principals: "What is needed?" and "What is fun?" As such, the development is seeing characters designed on the premise of awesome-to-play, potentially overpowerd character types, and characters who focus on grieving a potentially overpowered character. The combo promises to help keep the battle field evolving as teams continue trying to rock-paper-scissors each other into submission.
Combat plays similar to MMO combat, for those of you who are familiar. For those who aren't, each character has a basic attack and four unique powers. The powers each feature individual cool down rates to keep them from being spammed, but the main attack will always be available. Players can change characters on respawn, keeping the evolving battle I mentioned earlier constantly flowing. There's not a ton of outside details yet, largely because the game is still in early, early stages. There's been discussion of collectible costume pieces and weapons, unlocking favorite characters (free-to-play characters will be on a rotated schedule, so your favorites can be unlocked for constant play via monetary or time commitment), and such, but nothing is set in stone yet due to the early development stage. The good news is that BioWare Mythic is taking submissions for the closed Beta, so you can rush over to the Wrath of Heroes web site to get your name on the list. HAWTwired Hype Level: 8/10
So much promise in a game still far away, plus the free-to-play doctrine, may make this title a dark horse success.
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Sometimes, standing in line at a demo station, you watch the players ahead of you, and you think you’ve seen all you need to see. Skyward Sword pleasantly surprised me by showing me I could be wrong.
The controls took a little getting used to, coming off the essentially digital waggling of Twilight Princess and into the modern world of Wii Motion Plus. I felt that, although the sword tracking was accurate and impressive, it wasn’t exactly functional (don’t go thinking that your high school fencing lessons are going to carry over). I’ll admit that it’s been awhile since I spun Twilight Princess in the ol’ Wii, but I’m pretty sure the controls were a lot more intuitive than Skyward Sword’s. Switching between items and drawing your shield took a lot more conscious thought than on-the-fly action gaming should call for, but take that with a grain of salt. The Zelda series has a bountiful history of easing players into its mechanics, so being dropped into the action with half an inventory of new toys is bound to be misleading.
Speaking of toys, we got a chance to play with a couple of the old stand-bys: potions, slingshot, bow, and a new, Predator-drone-like scarab, that you control remotely to grab items and explore otherwise impossible-to-reach locations. Several different shields were also available to try out (wood, iron, and such), but no word on if these function as the traditional shield upgrade, or if they had different attributes that look for switching between play.
The only thing I don’t totally get about Skyward Sword is the art direction. I suppose that the goal was to make is a lighter, friendlier affair than the dark gritty art direction behind Twilight Princess, but the lack of detail in textures just makes the graphic quality feel like a higher-ploygon count version of Ocarina of Time. Even worse, it feels like Nintendo is admitting they did something wrong with Twilight Princess’s grittiness, like they followed that path just to prove they could.
If it sounds like I have a ton of problems with Skyward Sword, I really don’t. It’s a Zelda game, and like other Zelda games, it was engrossing and exciting. Also like other Zelda games, you have a pretty good idea of the jist of what you’ll be doing, so it’s hard to discuss much that you haven’t already seen. But like the saying goes, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” HAWTwired Hype Level: 8/10
Zelda game is Zelda. Which means it's still one of the better games ever put together.
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Hey! Who wants to write for HAWTwired?! Early last year, GamerDeals.net took an ambitious step and decided to expand into gaming news. A year-and-a-half later, we’re still holding on, but just barely. People move on, start new projects, and the only people left today are the two people who, frankly, never wanted to be left holding the bag. Not that we don’t love what we do, but we have too much on out plate to give HAWTwired the proper attention it deserves. So we need warm bodies! We need more writers! Here’s WHY you should write for us: - Access: HAWTwired writer have in the past received Press access to events such as E3 and PAX!
- Games: From time-to-time, we get games to review, free-of-charge, and are always trying to get more for our writers to cover.
- Exposure: HAWTwired articles are shared not just on HAWTwired, but also on the entire GamerDeals network, giving you the opportunity to be seen and make a name for yourself.
What do we want in return? Content! Industry news, game reviews, fanboy rants… We want stories from people who have something to say. We get access to the industry by garnering readers, and we need content to garner readers. It’s pretty much that simple. If you’re interested, drop us an e-mail. Be sure to include: - Who You Are: What’s your name, where do you live, what do you do outside of gaming?
- Game Habits: What consoles do you own? Which ones do you actually play? What’s your level of game literacy?
- Contribution Expectations: What kind of content do you plan to provide, and how much? (This is for our reference--the amount of content you expect to produce won't have any weight on our decision, so don't panic if you don't think you can write a ton of articles)
- Geek Quotient: What other geeky pastimes do you engage in? Would we know you from anywhere else on the web?
- Some writing samples (links are fine if you don't want to sen them directly)
- Anything else you think we should know!
Send your submission, or any questions you have, to info@hawtwired.com. You can also tap me for quick questions on my twitter account. Can’t wait to hear from you!
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Welcome to the New Video Game Releases List for the Week!
The video game release highlights on Xbox 360, Playstation 3, Nintendo Wii, Sony PSP, Nintendo DS and PC/Mac include Dead Island, Warhammer 40K Space Marine, Resistance 3, Driver San Franscisco, Rise of Nightmares, Star Fox 64 3D, plus a few more gems...
Current Amazon Pre-order Deals:
Our recommended new release of the week will go to:
The island of Banoi is a lush, tropical paradise in the South Pacific where its flagship Royal Palms Resort serves as the ultimate getaway for vacationers with money to burn. However, all good things must soon come to an end - and the picturesque resort falls into madness, carnage and chaos after a mysterious and contagious zombie outbreak claims its once peaceful atmosphere. Cut off from the rest of the world, only four individuals who strangely find themselves immune to zombification have the power to protect the remaining survivors from the horrors of the island, to discover what's really going on and find a way to escape before their own fatal ends.
Check out the full list of new video game releases (USA) for the week of September 5, 2011 on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Nintendo Wii, Sony PSP, Nintendo DS, and PC! As always, release dates are subject to change, slip, slide, and be fairly unpredictable.
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| Price: |
$99.99 & this item ships for FREE with Super Saver Shipping. |
We have the latest details regarding the just announced Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 Hardened Edition...
This edition will be priced at $99.99 and comes with exclusive packaging (duh), a bonus 'field journal', avatar/theme DLC for PS3 and Xbox 360, in addition to a 1 year subscription to the COD Elite service.
Amazon has the hardened edition available for pre-order! Apparently the $99.99 price point is not discouraging gamers as the game is currently topping the Amazon Movers & Shakers List.
Check it out: Amazon Movers & Shakers List
About Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3:
Modern Warfare is back. On November 8th, the best-selling first person action series of all-time returns with the epic sequel to the multiple Game of the Year award winner Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.
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| Price: |
$399.99 & this item ships for FREE with Super Saver Shipping | |
The just announced Limited Edition Call of Duty MW3 320GB Xbox 360 Console Bundle is available for pre-order at Amazon!
This limited edition bundle includes a custom console, two wireless controllers, a copy of the game and has a list price of $399.99.
The Limited Edition Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 Xbox 360 console is scheduled to release on November 8, 2011. Amazon is currently offering $0.99 Release Day Delivery as well...
Check it out: Amazon - Xbox 360 LE Call of Duty: MW3 Bundle
About Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3:
Modern Warfare is back. On November 8th, the best-selling first person action series of all-time returns with the epic sequel to the multiple Game of the Year award winner Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.
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