What would a WWE Games release be without downloadable content to make the biggest roster in franchise history even bigger? This year’s DLC slate includes contemporary Superstars, WWE Legends, “Attitude Era” luminaries, move packs and more, all available at a discounted price through the Fan Axxess Program.
The “Attitude Era” Superstars Pack will be available October 30th and will feature luminaries Gangrel, Val Venis and more. In December the WWE Superstars Pack, hits with present-day Superstars Ryback and AJ Lee, not to mention the Championship Title Pack, including the WCW n.W.o. World Heavyweight Championship, ECW Classic World Heavyweight Championship and eight other fan-favorite titles. And finally, January 2013 brings you the Five Languages Pack, which gives you present-day Superstar Damien Sandow, “Attitude Era” luminary Brian Pillman and the heavily anticipated moves pack, including Brock Lesnar’s Kimura Lock, Chris Jericho’s Lionsault and much more.
The WWE ’13 Fan Axxess Program, will save 10% over buying everything individually and you’ll get the exclusive characters, Diamond Dallas Page and Goldust.
Check out the trailer and screenshots below and be sure to follow WWE Games on Twitter and Facebook for all the latest on WWE ’13.
Jet Set Radio Developer: Blit Software Publisher: Sega Platform: Xbox Live Arcade (Reviewed), Playstation Network Release Date: September 19, 2012 Price: 800 Points ($9.99) – BUY NOW
Overview
Nearly twelve years ago, Sega unleashed Jet Set Radio onto the world. It was an oddball title on the odd man out of the console wars, but quickly got a huge fan following due to the amount of unique charm that was packed inside. Speed up to today, and Sega have re-released the classic on modern consoles as a digital release with a nice coat of HD paint. The only thing is, we have seen a lot of advancements in the industry since then, and Jet Set Radio may be a gem better left in the past. How does this hip skating romp measure up all over again?
Story
Taking place in the land of Tokyo-to, Jet Set Radio is all about the beats. Music inspires almost everything within the game, as well as the underground rivalries of street gangs and spray paint. After our main protagonist Beat recruits Gum and Tab to form his own crew by the name of the GGs, they must take to the streets and tag their territory. Professor K is our DJ ringleader of sorts, and acts as a bizarre captain when it comes to sending the skaters on their missions.
To throw a wrench in the plan, the maniacal Captain Onishima has had enough graffiti in Shibuya-cho, and has enlisted his forces to rid the streets of all of these harmless yet vandalism-proned teens. Yeah, the whole concept for the game is bizarre, but the characters are all rich in personality and keep the game feeling lively and loud for the entire experience. The story also is rather forgettable as a whole, but Beat and crew make up for that by embracing their roles as “rudies”, donning some awesome gear and careless attitudes to keep everything light and focused.
Gameplay
Skate, tag, and run. Those three things are all you really need to know to play Jet Set Radio. Each stage starts out by throwing the player in a certain district, where you must tag a set number of highlighted areas before the timer runs down to zero. Players can grind along rails, nail tricks, and tag all of the appropriate targets while their inline skates are strapped on, which boosts the number of overall points accumulated before the objectives are complete.
To rain on your parade, Onishima and his men will begin to take notice as Beat and friends tag objects, leading to a game of cat and mouse. Normal goons really do nothing but slow the player down, but Onishima has a pistol at hand, and will quickly diminish your life bar if you don’t quickly dodge and briskly move away from the area. The player can mark Onishima if he stumbles, adding to their score a bit, while leaving an enraged and now painted officer in the dust. The SWAT team and other armed goons also cause a bit more chaos and can deplete your life bar quickly, so constantly moving is a must if you want to survive. It’s all good fun, but the complexity of the game really comes in with the actual graffiti itself.
Some tags can be quickly done while in air or on rails, but larger areas require more effort. When a large wall is in need of paint, the player must utilize the analog to spray in strokes. Move the analog clockwise, then down, then up, and then around again to finish a mural. That’s just an example, but as you spray, the amount of paint cans you have in stock will deplete, which will send you back to gather more that can be found littered throughout the street. With officers always on your tail, a lot of tensity is added to the situation, and marking a large object in time is certainly rewarding for those who can get through with their masterpiece before the foes run in.
When it comes to the tagging, the controls are mostly tight and simple to execute. Skating however is a bit harder to explain. You see, this game is built for speed and is solid to that extent, but jumping can be a bit loose as it’s easy to go over a target due to how precise the inputs need to be. If you go in thinking you are playing a Tony Hawk game, you will quickly hit walls and thromp around like a walrus. With a little practice, this scheme grows easier, but never really feels as fluid as it should be. I know, Jet Set Radio is an older game and was built for the Dreamcast controller. That said, it’s age still shows regardless and new players might find themselves in foreign territory trying to properly pull off all of the flashy techniques and tricks inside.
Visuals and Audio
Back in the year 2000, cel shading was around, but Jet Set Radio was the first to really the first title to truly use it to it’s own advantage. The cel shading makes the colors explode and keeps everything visually stunning, and the HD only furthers that timeless aesthetic. The graphics don’t look too much different, but they didn’t need too much improving. The characters are all full of funkadelic flavor, and the world of Tokyo-to is hard not to want to get lost in. With all of that said, I encountered a few hiccups, with the game lagging out at times after achievements or awards were earned. Now, this may not occur with everyone, but the slowdown can hinder some exciting moments within Jet Set Radio, so hopefully we will see it addressed with a patch in the future.
What can you now say about Jet Set Radio’s audio? The soundtrack is made up of a blend of acid jazz, rock, techno, J-Pop, and several other genres, and still resonates as one of the most original and enjoyable music compilations to date. Hearing Professor K spew his dialogue is still humorous as well, tying into this poppy and chaotic land of Tokyo-to to perfection for one experience that every gamer owes it to themselves to try.
Overall
Jet Set Radio is a legendary gem, make no mistake about it. The controls are not going to win it any awards and the few bugs from time to time lead to a some frustration, but those are easily forgivable those who go in with either an open mind or a set of eyes ready for a nostalgia trip. I planned to speak highly of the art style and boast more about that awesome soundtrack while wrapping things up here, but JSR fans already know about that. While it’s not my personal favorite Dreamcast classic, no one can deny Jet Set Radio it’s place as one of the most influential games of all time and for better or worse, it’s still a one of a kind classic that should at least be played once by all of you rudies tearin’ it up on the streets.
Fans of Major League Baseball will be interested to hear that KONAMI has brought MLB Dream Nine to Facebook. Just what is Dream Nine? A free simulation game where players can collect baseball players’ profiles and upgrade them to make the perfect dream team. Then they can win head to head matches against other online players with their dream team to show off just how great their nine actually are together.
MLB Dream Nine features baseball players from the rosters of all 30 MLB teams, so you can get the who’s who of everyone big in baseball to be part of your own dream team and working together to further your wins. Those interested in trying it out since it’s free or those already hooked can check it out on Facebook HERE.
Today Konami has released the Silent Hill: Book of Memories demo onto the PS Vita’s PlayStation Store. In case you happen to not know about Silent Hill: Book of Memories, then good for you, as this demo will give you a chance to experience the game without any idea about the anger people have surrounding the title and enjoy it for what it is.
The demo itself shows off the first two zones of the game and gives players a chance to use some of the many weapons and power-ups that will be available throughout the game. Silent Hill: Book of Memories offers a fresh Silent Hill experience with role playing elements and online multiplayer. Those intrigued by the demo will be interested to know that the game will be hitting store shelves on October 16th.
If you happen to live in New York then you probably know that the New York Comic-Con is set to kick off a week from now. Well if you are going to be attending the event you will be happy to hear that Namco Bandai will also be bringing plenty of playable versions of their games to the show.
As you can see in the list below, the company is unfortunately not bringing Tales of Xillia to the event, however they are bringing Tales of Xillia director Hideo Baba and CyberConnect2 president and CEO Hiroshi Matsuyama to host an hour long panel on Sunday October 14th in room 1A14 at noon where they will discuss both Tales of Xillia and Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 3. The two will also be signing autographs after the panel ends.
The games that will be playable at their booth #1502 are as follows:
Dragon Ball Z Budokai HD Collection (PS3, Xbox 360)
Dragon Ball Z for Kinect (Xbox 360 Kinect)
Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 3 (PS3, Xbox 360)
Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch (PlayStation 3)
Ubisoft released a new trailer for Assassin’s Creed III today which provides a brief glimpse at some of Connor’s backstory. The video itself can be seen below and we see how he started out as a rather happy Native American child who had his peaceful life ripped away from him and his eventual rise to becoming the assassin we will play once Assassin’s Creed III comes out on October 30th when the game hits the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 consoles. Those hoping to play the game on the PC will have to wait longer unfortunately as said version was delayed as one would expect with a Ubisoft PC release.
If you happen to own the PC version of Bethesda’s latest epic adventure in The Elder Scrolls series then you may be interested to learn that Skyrim’s Hearthfire DLC is now available as a $5 download on Steam. As many of you already know, the Hearthfire DLC allows players to buy land, build a home and customize it with various add-ons that aren’t very customizable themselves.
Those interested in seeing whether this DLC is worth your time can check out our review for the Xbox 360 version of the Hearthfire DLC here. As far as a PS3 version of this DLC is concerned, there is still has been no time-line given at this point in time.
We’ve all seen various trailers that show off gameplay segments, focus on developers talking about their game, etc. However Bethesda and Arkane Studios have created a trailer that not only allows the viewer to see an early level of Dishonored in action (prepare for spoilers) but also gives players a chance to choose their approach.
This is handled by selecting an image (with annotations enabled on the video below) and jumping from video to video as the level is played out exactly how you would want it to. This is certainly a creative way to promote a game that allows multiple approaches to the same mission as it not only shows off the game’s various abilities but how varied things can be from game to game.
Nintendo has announced that the all-white and Pikachu-themed 3DS XLs will be headed to Europe. It was revealed in a Nintendo Direct conference today, Europe will receive the Pikachu-themed 3DS XL in “limited quantities” in addition to the all-white edition pre-loaded with a copy of Mario Kart 7.
The Mario Kart 7 bundle will be releasing later this year on November 16 and the Pickachu bundle will ben releasing “later this year” and will also be in “extremely limited quantities.”
These bundles were first announced for release in Japan in late August and this is the first time anyone has heard of it coming to the West. Though this may be the case, no announcement was given on if it will later come to North America also.
Now that everyone’s had a few weeks to take down some of the biggest baddies Pandora has to offer with the four starting classes, it is time to look out towards the 5th class that will be landing on Pandora in the next couple of weeks.
Today Gaige, the Mechromancer, received her first screenshot which gives us a look at how the character will look in the game when she is made available on October 16th. Those who are members of the Borderlands 2 Premiere Club will be able to download her for free while everyone else will have to pay $9.99/800 MSP for her.
