|
|
Browse by Tags
All Tags » games (RSS)
-
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+
|
-
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
|
-
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.
|
-
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.
|
-
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.
|
-
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.
|
-
The first Toy Soldiers was a whimsical take on tower defense, taking place in a world of wind-up and tin soldiers modeled after World War 1 fighters. It was a delightful take on the “living toys” well that has been milked plenty of times before, but was done freshly enough to keep any thoughts of “I’ve seen this before” from cropping up in your head. Hoping to catch lightning in a bottle a second time, Signal Studios has decided to move their series into a realm a little more familiar to kids of the 80’s and beyond--playing in a world of Cold War and G.I. Joe inspired toys. All the tower defense tropes you’re familiar with are in play, you buy towers with different attack types, kill oncoming hordes, receive money/resources for killing hordes, use said resources to upgrade the current defenses and build more. Toy Soldiers: Cold War brings in a couple of more hands-on features, allowing direct control of turrets and piloting remote controlled heavy vehicles like tanks and helicopters. Direct control gives the player the ability to work up scoring multipliers and even earn special attacks, such as artillery barrages and a Stallone-inspired rampaging commando. 
The execution of basics in this game is excellent. Graphics, sound, and gameplay are all solid. The scoring system awards time management and hand-on play instead of sitting back and letting the AI do the work for you. Unfortunately, this far into the console cycle there’s a ton of solid games out there, and I was left waiting for something in TS:CW to stand out to me. The original Toy Soldiers had a marvelous charm about it due to the tin and wind-up atmosphere behind the “toys”. But Cold War lacks that charm on almost every level. The only reminders that you get that you’re playing with “toys” is from fly-by opening sequences at the beginning of the level and the “battery charge” time-limit on vehicles. Even the screen shots I’ve added to the review make it hard to pick the “toy” from the “soldier”, and I tried to pick some of the more obvious ones out of a sense of honesty. Other than those touches, you’re just playing “generic Cold War tower defense”; if you were playing TS:CW and told me you forgot you were supposed to be playing with 80’s era action figures, I wouldn’t just understand, I’d be surprised if you didn’t. 
So, lacking the polish of the 80’s action figure paint coating, you’re left with a collection of mini-games and a generic tower defense. I feel like judging a game on it’s mini-games is like a food critic judging a meal based on the napkin and after dinner mint, so that leaves us with a generic tower defense. And frankly, there’s better tower defense games out there, and I’m not talking in general, I’m talking better tower defense games on Xbox Live Arcade. You’d be better off taking your money and buying fifteen dollars worth of G.I. Joes (which these days appears to be less than two). 
Unrealized imagination and uninventive implementation, paired with a game that really doesn’t give you a reason to purchase above other selections, are the reason I have to rate this game a
Grade: C
|
-
-
If you haven't ran over to artofvideogames.org to vote on which games The Smithsonian is going to include in their "Art of Video Games" exhibit, the clock is ticking. Voting ends April 17th. The exhibit will be on display from March 16th to September 30th in 2012 (so schedule your vacation appropriately) and will explore 40-years of digital goodness in all its forms. So rush over to their site and vote for your favorite games! It's a democratic process THAT WORKS!
|
-
ZenStudios announced today that their next board, MARS, will be available April 20th, for all of you flipper jockies out there. And I’m going to use that announcement to address an issue that’s a long time in coming.
I was wrong about Pinball FX2, when I blasted it at PAX last year.
In case you missed it, I shot down Pinball FX2 when I demoed it at PAX last year, and almost immediately suffered backlash for it--it was the reason I went back and addended our PAX Preview items to explain that they are not complete reviews; to drive home the point that these were limited access demos I was working with.
Again, I was wrong.
Pinball FX2 is actually extremely well put together. The biggest difference for me between getting it home and demoing it at PAX was actually being able to hear the game. The sound design is apparently a huge difference maker, and adds the visceral feel to the game that was missing on PAX’s noisy demo floor. Also, having access to the bevy of boards that make up the Pinball FX2 universe adds a huge bonus (except Rocky & Bullwinkle--screw you, Rock & Bullwinkle), especially access to all the Pinball FX boards and new content like the Marvel Comics boards (still waiting on that Captain America one, though). And the ability to fine tune every aspect of the board like you could a real machine is simply mind-blowing.
The occasional tournaments are a nifty way to keep the audience coming back in a means other than simply offering DLC or new achievements (which they also do, for those of you who dig that sort of thing). And speaking of Achievements, hey! Achievements that require skill instead of just being awarded for passing checkpoints! You know, like Achievements were touted to be before the 360’s launch! How about that!
I don’t want to go into a full review here, because honestly I’m embarrassed about A) being proven so very wrong, and B) not correcting my error for so long. But they still deserve a grade from HAWTwires, so I’m giving ZenStudios and Pinball FX2 a
GRADE: A-
|
-
Konami announced today that the PS3 version of critically-love/retail-panned Wii title No More Heroes, titled No More Heroes: Heroes' Paradise will indeed be headed to North America. The title will adapt the controls for Sony's Move controller (standard control pad play available, should you choose), and add a couple new features, including the ability to replay bosses or re-watch cut scenes. Interesting to note that Konami names the title as a PS3 exclusive (Japan saw a 360 release). Also of note, the previous two titles were published through Ubisoft in North America, making the Konami publishing a ship-jumping arrangement for SUDA 51 and Grasshopper Manufacture.
Travis Touchdown will be hitting Playstations sometime in 2011--more as details evolve.
|
-
Superhero MMORPG Champions Online will be headed to the Free-to-Play space during the first quarter of next year, according to a press release from developer Cryptic Studios. The game will branch off into two subscriber formats, free Silver membership and pay-to-play Gold service. Silver players will have access to the full game, with Gold members getting access to extra characters slots, customization, and social options (many social options will be blocked to Silver players until they log 20 hours of gameplay). The free-to-play service will go into Beta November 9, though the exact date for full release is still to be determined. You can head over to Champions Online's site for more details on the Gold-Silver member service breakdown, or to scan their FAQ.
|
-
 1up.com reported today that the 1992 classic 6-player X-Men arcade game was being prepped for an XBLA and PSN release, an announcement spilled to them by a representative of Marvel Comics at New York Comic-Con. The original story makes it sound like less than a real announcement, so details are nil at this time, but you can bet we'll be keeping an eye out on this story and awaiting confirmation from Konami.
Now, if we can just convince Konami port The Simpsons arcade beat-'em up and Data East to port The Real Ghostbusters arcade top-down shooter, I can safely recreate my life in the early 90's in the comfort of my own basement...
|
-
Yesterday at New York Comic-Con, Capcom announced that Arthur and Nathan Spencer were joining the MvC3 roster, and this morning they revealed a couple of characters more appropriate for a Comic-Con reveal, the Mutant Master of Magnetism, Magneto, and the Sizable Turd of a Weeble-Wobble, M.O.D.O.K.
M.O.D.O.K.? Really? Not Doc Ock or Phoenix or Silver Surfer or freaking Shocker or someone? *Sigh* Okay. Fine. Check below for gameplay footage of them both, as well as the other four most recently announced characters: Arthur, Nathan Spencer, Spider-man, and Wesker.
|
-
-
Okay, I don't want to be THAT guy, but this one's grinding my gears... Yesterday, Gamasutra ran an article discussing a recent poll sponsored by Common Sense Media, stating that the results found that 72% of parents surveyed support California's proposed violent video game bill. The rest of the game media industry ran with this story, apparently putting as much research into it as Gamasutra did. Unfortunately, Gamasutra did not apparently bother to read said poll, as the poll asked respondents if they would support a prohibitive law on video game violence, not the specified Californian law. Let me quote the poll itself, here: "Would you support or oppose a law that prohibits minors from purchasing video games that depict killing, maiming or sexually assaulting an image of a human being?"
With vagaries like that, yes, or course, most people would support keeping death and violence out of the hands of minors. The poll never asks about the First Amendment questions the proposed bill brings to the tables. This poll is not at all representative of the proposed California bill and should not be taken as such. It's a blanket poll about blanket feelings to minors playing violent games, and trying to attribute the results to a specific bill is first off a bad application of both statistics and scientific method, as well as irresponsible.
This oversight, of course, was unnecessary, as the original post from Business Wire states quite plainly that you can contact Common Sense Media for your own copy of the poll for the price of an e-mail. Or, you can read my copy here, as I did just that. Thanks for getting everyone up in a frenzy, Gamasutra...
|
-
Bangai-O HD: Missile Fury marks the series debut off the small screen. The critically acclaimed, cult favorite series has already had two previous installments on the DS--Bangai-O and Bangai-O Spirits--and Missile Fury is hoping to make a splash on XBLA this fall. D3 Publishers is bringing this arcade series with puzzle elements…
Okay, I can see by the glazed over eyes that you’re not really sure why you should care. Okay, let me try again…
TREASURE!
Okay, did THAT get your attention? Yes, Bangai-O HD: Missile Fury is the latest release from legendary game developer TREASURE to make it stateside. For those of you in the know, you understand how important a TREASURE production is. For those of you who don’t, freaking educate yourself. TREASURE games are known primarily for two things: being quirky and addictive, and involving white-knuckled, bullet-hell twitch action. Bangai-O HD follows both of these principals to a tee. This game is addicting--seriously, I reverted to my 11-year old self
while playing this game, the company PR guy talking with me only
half-listening, nodding on auto-pilot, while I restarted the level and
tried to reach the end for the twentieth time. The set-up is easy--guide your missile toting robot through a maze space, killing everything in your path, using dashing, shields, and special attack to regularly lift your kiester out of the proverbial fire. The special attack is the real beauty here--combos and pick-ups will boost your special attacks power, releasing with unholy force as many as 1,000 missiles onto the screen to assault your enemies. That’s no typo; one-thousand missiles, fired either directionally at a target or in a circular defensive radius.
The use of special attacks and dashing/shielding work out to more puzzle elements than it may seem on the surface. Pin point timing and strategy is the difference between success and controller snapping restarts, and with over 100 levels in game, and a level editor for piecing together your own personalized bullet-hells for your friends, your masochistic game wishes will get plenty of workout. Overall Demo Hawtness: 9/10 - Hopefully the advent of XBLA demos will help this series bloom on console where it failed on the portable.
|
-
If there’s two things my geeky little heart loves, it’s Capcom games and Marvel comics. It would seem that the Marvel vs. Capcom series would be right up my alley. Unfortunately, my ambition and my abilities are not in par with each other, resulting in my MvC skills being somewhere in-between “miserable” and “the equivalent of tossing marshmallows at a controller from across the room”.
But sidling up to Marvel vs. Capcom 3, something amazing happened: for the first time, I won an MvC match against a real human! And who do I thank? My editor for sending me to PAX? My family for their undying support? The Taphouse Grill for leaving me hung-over and numb to the world?
Actually, I thank whoever it was on the development team that decided to remap the controls. Gone are punch and kick buttons--the control scheme has been simplified to four attacks, one for each face button--Light Attack, Medium Attack, Heavy Attack, and Aerial Attack. And God bless them for it.
Combos flow freely, special moves come out of nowhere, and powerful game saving ultimate attacks are always a heartbeat away. The action is quick and relentless, and the thrill of escaping from an opponent’s offense and mounting a comeback is some of the most exhilarating gameplay I’ve experienced in a long time.
The graphics, as I’m sure many screenshots and videos have shown you by now, are beautiful and crisp. When things get heated, the screen can get a bit crowded with special effects and partner characters coming in for assists, but the distractions are never unbearable, and if I understand the tournament crowd correctly, learning to focus past them are part of the game.
All-in-all a good showing, and I’m excited to see the final product. As a fighting game fan who tends to suck at fighting games, I’m looking forward to this evolution of an industry classic.
Overall Demo Hawtness: 8/10 - Marvel, Capcom, bright flashy lights. How could you go wrong?
|
-
If you’re not familiar with NinjaBee, you’re doing yourself a huge disservice. Since practically the 360’s launch, they’ve been putting together fun, quirky games for Xbox Live Arcade (and later PC and WiiWare), and to people who pay attention to such things, have amassed a small but fervent fan base.
In 2008, NinjaBee added A Kingdom for Keflings to their library, a relaxing city-building game where, alone or with friends, you took the role of a generous giant that helped the mostly simple-minded Keflings build a kingdom to call their very own.
This year’s sequel, A World of Keflings, takes the no rush, fun-and-easy gameplay from the first game and evolves it. More goal-oriented missions are available in the Story Mode, including new environments for the Keflings to populate, like ice worlds and deserts. Also added is local multiplayer, a much requested feature according to their team, that allows people to build up their kingdoms with friends sitting next to them rather than only online.
For those less interested in goal-oriented gaming, the capacity to construct a sandbox kingdom of you own design is more encouraged than ever, as the sequel is adding even more decorative items for construction than the first installment. And layout of you kingdom is also more forgiving, allowing you to push whole buildings out of the way should you need more room, rather than demolishing and reassembling them from the bits.
The Keflings themselves are also getting an upgrade. The AI has been made smarter, so a Kefling that runs out of work in their designated location will search nearby for more work, rather than stand around foolishly looking for something to do. Also, Keflings left to a profession for a while will level up, causing raw material harvesters to harvest faster, and carriers to carry bigger loads quicker.
All-in-all, A World of Keflings is looking to be a great improvement on a game that was pretty darn good to begin with. I worry that the game isn’t likely to attract any new fans into its fold, as it’s not likely to appeal to the blood-and-guts, kill-everything-that-moves crowd, but fans of the first one and people on the fence should find something new to enjoy. Besides, the violence game crowd gets enough games in the year--this one doesn’t have to be for them. Overall Demo Hawtness:  8/10 - Even more fun in the kingdom with your Kefling friends
|
-
So I’ll be the first to admit, I’m probably the worst person to be previewing the latest addition to the Ratchet and Clank family, for the simple reason that I haven’t touched any of the other installments of the series. I know, I know--blasphemy. Consider it on my to-do list, but since I was the only HAWTwired cat at PAX, I felt it my responsibility to check the game out, and I was pleased with what I saw.
For those of you that have followed the series up to this point, this game is a direct sequel to the previous episode, A Crack in Time. For those of you worried about why up-to-this-point-villain Dr. Nefarious is teamed with the titular heroes (more on that in a minute), yes, this is a canon adventure in the storyline. All 4 One marks a first for the series with the addition of drop-in/drop-out four-player co-op.
Back to the story. The galaxy is in a relative sense of peace: Ratchet and Clank have retired from heroing, Quark has settled into his role as Galactic President, and Dr. Nefarious is…well…doing whatever it was he was doing instead of being blowed-up and burned to a crisp at the end of the last game (for those interested, it was mentioned that the upcoming six-issue Ratchet & Clank comic books will cover most of the inbetween story, but aren’t necessary for following All 4 One). As always happens when the universe is in apparent safety, an unforeseen threat attacks, and a legion of drones swoops in and kidnaps our heroes and villain.
The drones drop the foursome off on an alien world populated by drones, as well as other beings that have been picked up across the galaxy. Much to the foursome’s dismay, they end up having to work together against their robot oppressors (and there’s your Nefarious explanation--now let’s never speak of it again).
As mentioned above, the co-op is drop-in/drop-out, so you may choose when you start a game session, you may choose if you want to allow online players to come into your game, keep the game all to yourself, or even play locally with three of your friends sitting next to you on the couch. Single player games will have you pick an AI companion, with the game’s puzzles and enemies scaling up and down depending on the number of players currently in your game.
And you will need the help. The level the Insomniac team played for the crowd at the demo showed a lot of team mechanics for navigating the level. Players would toss each other to hard to reach platforms with a vacuum gun, then use a hookshot to snag their partner and be towed over. Many switches and levers depended on teamwork to activate, and deadly enemies are easier dispatched with one player drawing their fire while the others flanked them. A particularly clever mechanic showed a wind tunnel the foursome had to ascend by joining hands in an attempt to build up enough wind resistance to be carried upward in the tunnel. 
Some changes to the series have had to be made to accommodate the multiplayer. For starters, ammo is no longer a worry, as the economy of managing four players’ ammo stockpile would have quickly become a tedious affair. Also, the over-the-camera shoulder is out in lieu of a single, railed camera with a director programming that keeps all players, whether local or online, with the same display, aiding in communication between players and keeping them from getting too far spread apart.
Though ammo may be out, parts and pieces for building and upgrading weapons are still in the game, and competition for prize components is bound to start good natured infighting. Also, there was some allusion to Castle Crasher style character development for people who prefer to play as a certain hero each time, but no details as to what that entails at this time.
Revisiting my comments from the beginning of this write-up, yes, I am a Ratchet and Clank virgin, but what I saw from the Insomniac team while at PAX is making me regret those actions. Hopefully, I can catch up to the rest of you by the game’s release next year. Looking forward to smashing alien robots along side you! 
|
|
|
|