If you have not played Ken Levine’s dystopian shooter Bioshock, you are missing out. Fear not, Gamefly is offering Bioshock for free for gamers from the United States, Canada, and Mexico. You will need to provide your credit card information to get in on the deal, however you will not be charged. The game will be downloaded through Gamefly’s own game software. Download your free copy of Bioshock here.
In addition, Gamefly is running a 75% off Valve Week. Left 4 Dead 1 & 2, Portal 2, Half Life 2, Half Life 2: Episode 1 & 2, Counter Strike: Source, Counter Strike: Condition Zero, and Team Fortress Classic are all %75 off. You will need Steam to play these games. Check out the sale here.
Indie Royale has the new bundle released, The Harvest Bundle. This bundle follows the usual moving minimum, pay what you want format Indie Royale has traditionally followed. All releases are available as DRM free downloads and some games are available on Desura and Steam.
The Harvest Bundle contains seven games. Renegades retro platformer Mutant Mudds arms players with a water canon and a jetpack, RichMakeGame’s procedural top down twin stick shooter Pineapple Smash Crew, Spaces of Play’s critically acclaimed Lemmings inspired action puzzler Spirits, Spiderweb Software’s retro RPG series Avernum: The Great Trials Trilogy, and Studio Bean’s experimental 2D basketball platformer BasketBelle. Those who pay more than $8.00 will receive a chiptune album from Data Airlines especially compiled for Indie Royale. Check it out here.
Pangalore released it’s multiplatform social RPG. Available for iPad 2 and newer, iPhone/iPod Touch 4 and Facebook, Knightly Adventure provides players to build their kingdom, cultivate crops, and craft items as they quest for fortune and fame. There are over sixty quests to complete and tons of equipment for players to arm themselves with. “Our goal is to expand social gaming for the growing group of mid-to-core gamers by combining fun ‘Build’ elements and social connectivity with dynamic “Battle” gameplay with hack and slash style combat and quests for continual engagement,” said Doyon Kim, Pangalore co-founder and Chief Product Officer.
Facebook players can check out the game here, iOS users can download the game for free here. An Android release will be released next week for Samsung Galaxy SII, SIII, and Tab with more device support planned for the future.
The Walking Dead for iOS released Episode Four – Around Every Corner today. The episode is written by Gary Whitta, screenwriter for The Book of Eli and After Earth. The Walking Dead game has been released to rave reviews from both the public and the media. In addition, a new launch trailer was released to celebrate the arrival of Episode Four on The Walking Dead app.
The Walking Dead app is priced at $4.99 for the first episode. The rest of the episodes can be purchased separately or a Season Pass can be purchased for $14.99, a 20% discount compared to purchasing the episodes separately and much cheaper compared to other platforms. Check out our review on The Walking Dead Episode Four – Around Every Corner here. Purchase the first episode of The Walking Dead game here.
Today Game Informer revealed the cover art for their December issue of the magazine and it is none other than Grand Theft Auto V. The cover art can be seen to the right (click the image for a larger version) and it reveals that there will be three different protagonists this time around.
These protagonists are apparently called, from right to left, Franklin, Trevor and Michael. The game will be returning to Los Santos and the main protagonist will be moving there in an attempt to find a fresh start. Unfortunately for him he is quickly drawn back into the mob. Expect more details to be revealed when Game Informer’s December issue goes live.
Today ZeniMax, parent company of Bethesda, released a new video which, while presented as a developer diary, is the first gameplay footage ever shown to the public. While we may have seen the MMO in action back at E3, our impressions of the footage can be seen here, the company has not shown the game off to the public until now.
In the below nine minute developer diary you will be able to learn about some of the basics in the game as well as the team’s vision for creating an MMO based off of one of the most successful RPG franchises. Currently The Elder Scrolls Online is set for a release some time in 2013.
It looks like Sega themselves have finally decided on releasing a little bit of news concerning Anarchy Reigns, a finished game delayed over six months with no explanation given. Today it was revealed that European gamers will be able to pick up a special “Day One” edition of Anarchy Reigns when it is released on January 8th.
Anyone who pre-orders the game will receive an instant upgrade to the Day One edition which will include two extra gameplay modes in the form of Dog Fight and Mad Survival, with the former being an aerial battle mode and the latter being a horde mode. Also included in this version of the game is a code that will allow players to access Bayonetta as a playable character.
Currently it is unknown how the North American version of the game will be released, as Sega made sure to say this version of the game was for Europe only. However with the US version also set for release on January 8th, we should expect some sort of news concerning Bayonetta and these two stages soon.
Star Wars: The Old Republic was seen by many to be a possible WoW killer, what with the immensely popular Star Wars franchise and setting helping push sales. Unfortunately it seems that EA’s venture into a Star Wars MMO has fallen to the lowest level an MMO can go, free-to-play.
Today it was revealed by Game Informer that Bioware has announced exactly when the title will be going free-to-play and that date is closer than you may think, in fact it is next week on November 15th. If you already are a member of the game community and have been paying for a subscription then you will be given a number of complimentary Cartel coins that an be used in a microtransaction shop. The amount you receive will be based on how long you have played the game.
Remember that Game of Thrones RPG that came out not so long ago? It was a so so effort, with a strong enough story that was hampered by less than stellar gameplay and production values pitched towards the bottom end of the scale. Despite it’s shortcomings the game nonetheless held an appeal for fans of George R R Martin’s universe, so some DLC is not entirely unwarranted.
Happily the new downladable content explores the history of Mors Westford, one of the two playable characters in the game who easily took the title of most interesting new character. The events of the “Beyond the Wall” story take place long before the events of the main game, which took place somewhat parallel to the first novel in the Ice and Fire series.
The new quest adds “up to” 2 hours of additional content, taking in a quest that sees Mors flung into the heart of Wildling territory. Details on the plot are lacking, but a handful of screenshots have been released that provide a sneak peek into the new adventure. Mors has got his chest hair out for his venture into Wildling territory, and there are enough snowy huts in there to inspire some hope that established Wildling characters from the Game of Thrones universe may pop into a pixelated existence.
“Beyond the Wall” is available now on PC world wide and on Xbox LIVE in Europe, for €4.99/£3.99/400 MS points. It will be available on the PlayStation Network in the near future.
Zone of the Enders HD Collection Developer:Konami Publisher:Konami Platforms:PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 (Reviewed) Release Date:October 30, 2012 Price:$39.99 – Available Here
Overview: The PlayStation 2’s library of games was not only vast but also packed full of quality titles, many of which fans continue to play to this day. One such set of titles was the Zone of the Enders series. The first game in the franchise hit stores around the world over eleven years ago in 2001 and a follow up game in the form of The 2nd Runner arrived in 2003. Now that a third game in the series has been mentioned by series creator Hideo Kojima, Konami has chosen to remaster both Zone of the Enders and The 2nd Runner and release an HD collection containing both games. Is it worth revisiting these two classic titles now that they have a new coat of paint? Let’s find out.
Story: The original Zone of the Enders takes place in a futuristic world where humans have entered space and live on colonies orbiting planets. A young boy named Leo Stenbuck happens to live on one of these colonies, but when it is suddenly attacked by a strange force consisting of Orbital Frames, which are basically giant robots, he must run for his life as everyone he knows is about to die. Leo manages to stumble upon a unique Orbital Frame called Jehuty. With the help of an onboard AI Leo must do what he can to fight off these mysterious attackers and try to save those close to him.
As for Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runner, the story takes place after the events of the first game where a new protagonist named Dingo has found Jehuty hidden away on a planet. However when the same force that attacked Leo’s colony appears to try and capture the Jehuty orbital frame, Dingo must try and survive against an even stronger set of enemies than before.
It is worth noting that both Zone of the Enders titles are rather short, especially with the first title only lasting roughly five hours. That being said, both of these titles actually feature some rather strong story telling with a nice set of characters, although many may be annoyed at the protagonist for the first title as he bears a number of personality quirks that align himself with a certain anime pilot named Shinji.
The stories are also a lot stronger now than they ever were before, because gamers can now experience The 2nd Runner’s storyline immediately after Zone of the Enders. This means that players should be able to instantly recognize a number of plot points and characters that carry over between both titles as the story is told throughout the collection.
Visuals: Whenever an HD collection is created, the biggest focal point a gamer would be looking for is just how the graphics of a game have improved. Thankfully all Zone of the Enders fans can rest at ease, because Konami has done an excellent job making the graphics of the game look more modern day. In fact, most of the enemy crafts you fight against look like something created only a few short years ago while the main Orbital Frames are even more impressive.
Now it is worth noting that the original Zone of the Enders still doesn’t look the greatest and this is especially evident with the cutscenes in the first game. They have been cleaned up a bit, but with their 3D character models they still are rather subpar. However The 2nd Runner has seen a massive improvement in visuals, not only in gameplay but also in the cutscenes themselves.
You see, the various anime cutscenes in 2nd Runner have been remade courtesy of Sunrise Studios, a relatively famous animation studio from Japan. Sunrise has brought new life to these cutscenes and they are just gorgeous. It is also worth noting that a brand new opening sequence was created by Sunrise and this opening is stunning in more ways than one, with such an impressive level of quality that gamers shouldn’t simply skip past it to play the game.
Audio: Zone of the Enders HD Collection contains only the original English dub which means that there are a number of sequences which still have the same overacting voice actors from the original release. If you can forgive the rather poor dubbing, the voice work has held up at least in age, but not in quality. Unlike the voice work, Zone of the Enders’ background music is still absolutely wonderful. There is a nice set of background music spread across both games included in this HD Collection and they sound great when you are fighting through a number of enemies.
Gameplay: Both Zone of the Enders titles play very similar to one another and these fighting mechanics still seem as fun as they were over a decade ago. Players fly Jehuty through a free-roaming stage where they will encounter a number of enemy squads that have to be defeated to either continue on or to obtain a special password.
These enemies can be defeated either in close range with attacks that use Jehuty’s blade or at a distance with blaster attacks and special weaponry acquired from defeated enemies. Jehuty can even perform various dash attacks and charging attacks as well, giving players a number of options for taking out enemies. All of this creates some fast paced hack and slash action between a number of robots as they fly through the sky.
As mentioned before, this combat is still wonderful and this is all the more apparent in The 2nd Runner which improves upon every aspect of the original game’s fighting system with more fluid combat that allows for some precise controls and dodging of enemy attacks. 2nd Runner also sees a number of additions to the combat system such as throwing environmental objects as weapons, better lock on capabilities and an expanded set of melee attacks
It is worth noting that the first Zone of the Enders title does play a bit rigid with players following a mostly straight path involving flying around a colony, defeating x amount of enemies and flying to another part of the colony. It also doesn’t help that most of the areas you fight in in the first game are rather basic, with repeating objectives and repetitive enemies.
Again, this is all improved in The 2nd Runner which features a variety of areas to fight in and better story integration with mission objectives more varied than in the first game. This means that while the original Zone of the Enders is fine in its own right, it plays more as a simple introduction to the enhanced gameplay mechanics and superior experience found within 2nd Runner.
Overall: Konami has taken a series of games that were considered classics back in the PlayStation 2 era and done what some may have thought impossible. They have made them better than ever before. While the more recent The 2nd Runner sees the biggest improvements in visuals over the first Zone of the Enders game, Konami has breathed new life into both of these games with crisp visuals and by doing so they have brought some of the most intense aerial combat you will find in a mech game. Zone of the Enders HD Collection is a must have for a fan of the series and any newcomers would be doing themselves a disservice to pass this release up.
