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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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 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...
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Yes. The day has come when Microsoft realizes that it will take advantage of its superior online interface by charging its customers even more for Gold access on Xbox 360. As of November 1, Xbox Live goes up $10 for a yearly subscription that used to cost $50.
The Xbox 360's closest competitor was the PS3 with its free online multiplayer access for everyone but, unfortunately, that console's been taking its sweet time matching anything as close to the functionality of Xbox Live.
Of course, this will mostly affect those gamers who played full price for Xbox Live in the first place. Everyone else, make sure to continue stocking up on the regular $35-40 a year deals that pop up every now and then. 
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Friday morning, Capcom lit up the inter-tubes by announcing Mega Man Universe, upcoming for Xbox Live Arcade and Playstation Network, but have thus far spoke little of what the game actually will be.
The teaser trailer leaves even more questions to be answered (believe it or not, that's an official teaser), spotting appearances from 3 different Mega Mans (Mega Men?), two box art and one 8-bit, as well as Ryu from Street Fighter and Arthur from Ghosts and Goblins. An interview with Mega Man creator Keiji Inafune over at Gamespot discusses a heavy 80's inspiration, while at the same time attempting to push the series forward by relying on imagination and creativity.
Personally, what that sounds like to my ears is an 8-bit styled, Mega Man-themed Little Big Planet-type game creator, which is about the most pants-wettening exciting thing they could throw at Mega Man fanboys. In the Inafune interview, he's not even allowed to state whether this is a platformer or not yet, so if the game creation options begin to approach LBP proportions, color me a happy shade of blue bomber.
No word on release date or such yet, but the Capcom-Unity Blog is discussing Mega Man Universe related swag for Comi-con this week, so maybe lucky attendees will get a little more preview into what's happening with this newest edition of a classic series.
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The highly anticipated downloadable action RPG from Hothead Games is available on the PSN Network (Demo too), but is mysteriously absent from XBLA. There was no sign of the game first hing this morning, but now the trailer is listed under featured items. What's the deal MS? Was anyone out there able to get it on 360?
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So, if you were like me, you snatched up Activision's Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 late winter after all the retailers started cleaning out their leftover holiday stocks, picking up the game at a very reasonable 20 bucks. Then, if alos like me, you're a Marvel nut you hit your console's respective online store to pick up bonus characters like Magneto and Psylocke and the like, only realize that you missed the boat--the DLC characters were long gone. The Character Packs, adding great Marvel characters Magneto, Psylocke, Cable, Carnage, and Black Panther to the mix, were set to a very limited time availability, and in the holiday crunch most news outlets missed covering the notice that window was only about a month-and-a-half. We missed it here, at HAWTwired, as well, but since we didn't launch the site until after the DLC was removed, I'm going to ask for a little amnesty on this one. Scanning One of Sword's blog over the holiday, I noticed that fan outcry has paid off, and Activision has reinstated the Character Packs, as well as adding a download for Juggernaut, a character that was originally only available though pre-order. O-of-S reports that the Xbox Live packs are live, and though not solid date for the PSN packs has been stated, this Tuesday (July 6) seems the most likely culprit. If you're looking to get a little extra mileage out of your MUA2, snatch the packs up while you can, as the DLC is on a timer again, only this time with the more realistic cut-off of December 31, 2010. If nothing else, it will give you a good excuse to go through the game again and play the other faction (I'm looking at you, Anti-Reg heads...)
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In a surprising turn of events, SEGA actually decided to push back one of their premiere titles and instead of rushing it out the door will delay and polish a bit more. Sonic 4, Episode 1 has been pushed back from its previous "Summer 2010" release to "Fall 2010" to implement fan suggestions and time enough to create an iPhone and iPad version, as well.
"The additional time will allow the development team to focus on ensuring overall high-quality throughout the game by continuing to tune, balance, and maintain the kind of polish that an important title like this demands," the release reads via 1up, "and ultimately providing fans with an unrivalled classic Sonic feel."
Now, I was hoping that I'd be playing a new 2D Sonic to coincide with Xbox Live's excellent "Summer of Arcade" program that features worthy downloadable titles (i.e. Braid, Shadow Complex). But all is well, that just means Microsoft will need to dig up another triple-A title to fill Sonic's shoes this year. Shadow Complex 2, maybe? No, as a matter of fact, I don't think it's too soon! 
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Here's a hot little rumor going around the Interwebs: cross-game voice chat might be coming to a PS3 console near you at a premium. Sony has been more than obvious about toying with the idea of having a subscription-based PlayStation Network so it doesn't come as a huge surprise to see a quote in the latest issue of Official PlayStation Magazine about the subject:
“Sony’s current service is one of the PS3’s best features, so we’d begrudgingly welcome a revamped PSN with extra subscriber functionality, like cross-game-chat and exclusive PSN downloads.”
The quote comes from a rumor section in the publication, so I'm guessing the magazine is just breathing substantial hot air or they've recently come into new, concrete information regarding a future PSN update. Possibly in Spring.
If Sony charges for such a feature, are you guys in? 
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