While Final Fantasy XIII-2 may not be coming out for a couple of months… January 31st to be exact, we’ve heard a few things about the game’s combat system which has seen a few tweaks as well as one brand new mechanic. As you can see in the video below Square Enix has provided a full focus video on the various combat mechanics in the Active Time Battle system that was used in FFXIII which allows for Paradigm Shifts to change character roles.
Plus in this video we see the brand new Cinematic Action sequence which is more or less a quick time event in battle which will pull off an amazing looking move or action during the battle. Plus, if you pay close attention you can even see Snow fighting alongside Serah and Noel temporarily, though he won’t be a playable character.
Warhammer 40k: Space Marine Developer: Relic Entertainment Publisher: THQ Platforms: Xbox 360 (reviewed), PS3 and PC Release Date: September 9th, 2011 Price: $59.99 Available Here
Overview:
Several months back, I reviewed Warhammer 40k: Kill Teamfor the Xbox Live Arcade. That game was a great arcade style shoot ’em up that honestly felt at home within the Warhammer 40k franchise.
Unfortunately that brings me to the very sad news, that when put besides the game that was brought into existence to promote it, Warhammer 40k: Space Marine, is an absolute disappointment in every bleeding sense of the word. It stands amongst the great titles under the Warhammer 40k franchise as a point of utter shame.
If only Relic Entertainment had aimed more for the spirit of Dawn of War instead of Gears of War, Space Marine may have been something more than an utterly mediorce shot in the dark.
Story: Space Marine has a story like Pokemon has a story. It’s kind of there but doesn’t really matter at all. I mean both games are about fighting monsters. At least Pokemon has variety in enemies and more diverse gameplay. Space Marine instead lets you take control of… yes you guessed it; a Space Marine. That is literally the entire story in a nut shell.
The characters are as bland as you could possibly imagine. They are blank faced zombies with no other facets of their personalities besides being ‘noble’. It’s such a poor attempt at crafting characters that when there was something that was supposed to be a plot twist turns out being a moment where you gaze at your screen confused and say “And I care why?”
This lack of any real story causes the campaign to be nothing but a completely boring experience. There is never any feeling that you are working towards something. It just feels like you keep killing orcs until it’s over, any cutscene that does appear either makes no sense or doesn’t progress anything forward. More time was definitely needed in crafting this story, there is no doubt about it.
Gameplay:
If you thought the gameplay could atleast make up for the lack of a coherent story, then you thought wrong. Like the plot, the gameplay is just one big shot in the dark. It is almost as if Relic pulled a genre from a hat and then slapped the Warhammer name on it.
From the first few moments of the campaign you will instantly get the feeling that you are playing a watered down version of Gears of War. There is no two ways about it. Space Marine is a Gears of War clone that doesn’t even succeed in at least being as good as the game it clones.
The game is sluggish and extremely repetitive, without enough variation in gameplay to keep it interesting. Things quickly disolve into a bore, which is always a bad thing. But that is the very core of the problem with Space Marine. It is just straight up Gear of War minus a cover system but plus the Warhammer name. They may as well have called the game Gears of Warhammer 40k: Space Marcus Fenix, it certainly would’ve been a more accurate title.
Even the multiplayer lacks even the smallest bit of entertainment. Part of the fun of Gears of War is strategically using the cover system to your advantage in intense fire fights. Since Space Marine doesn’t bother to completely clone Gears of War, it’s combat is so disappointingly scattershot in composition.
There is no way to cover in Space Marine, thus giving you no other option but to try and run in and melee attack an enemy. Which in online multiplayer is always a matter of whoever strikes first wins. After playing for a couple hours I do not see myself venturing back in to the online mode as not only was the combat a mess but the power between high and low levels is so unbalanced that it is virtually impossible to even stand a chance against higher level players if you are just starting out.
This brings me back to the combat difficulty of the multiplayer. It is essentially futile to even bother with using firearms as more often than not the enemy will just run up and impale you on his chainsaw before you have even made a dent in his health. It’s a broken system that gears play towards a melee fest that destroys any semblance of hope this game had to be that ‘killer online shooter’ this year.
All in all, Space Marine is a poorly constructed mess that can’t even pride itself on being a half way decent clone. Everything about the title is so painfully average that there is very little fun to be had here.
Visuals and Audio:
Space Marine’s art direction seems to be quite clear: to put Warhammer characters in Gears of War. That is the product we are given in the end, a haphazardly splashed together baron wasteland that it constucted so deliberately that it doesn’t even come close to replicating the unique environment design of Gears of War, no matter how hard it tries. If it achieves anything that Gears did, it’s that it manages to show off just about every shade of Brown known to man. Which for fans of the colour Brown is certainly some great news, right?
Put simply the game aesthetically does not stack up. So how does the audio fare? Well not much better. It features the expected ‘epic-scale’ orchestrated soundtrack which proves to be nothing more than forced and unnatural. What’s worse is the horrible stiff voice acting. It appears that Relic used American voice actors to do British accents, which in the end comes across offensive more than anything. The voice acting is pretty much a complete mockery of the accent to the point that I’d consider the accent to be ‘slaughtered’ more than the Orcs in this game.
Overall:
In conclusion, Warhammer 40k: Space Marine is an uneven shameful attempt at a Gears of War clone. If you want to play Gears of War, go buy Gears of War. If you want to play a Warhammer game, this is probably not the right place to be looking. Which is honestly truly sad, especially when considering that the game made to promote this game was just so much better.
If anything Space Marine proves that Relic should be making RTS games, it’s what they are good at and it’s what Warhammer is suited to. Space Marine fails as both an attempt for Relic to branch out as well as being a decent Warhammer title, it even fails at being a half way decent game.
We’ve heard that the Chocobos will be playing a larger role in Final Fantasy XIII-2 than they have in past games, but we have yet to see a whole lot about them, until now that is. Square Enix has released a bushel of new screenshots which you can see below and especially the one you can see above. It seems that a certain shopkeeper may love the Chocobos a bit too much, and her name is Chocolina.
She will be a traveling merchant throughout the game so expect to see her quite often as she sells a wide variety of things including weapons, accessories, normal items and monster training items. You can see plenty of the Chocobos themselves below as well as a new area that is called Archylte Steppe and even a Live Trigger event in the middle of a conversation.
GAMEVIL launched the Sale Online developed World War II strategy-RPG game on the app store for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch earlier today.
In Last War, players take on the role of either an Allied or Axis general and must train and command troops for land, sea, and air to achieve the best strategic advantage. Players can unlock special items and abilities to help in their conquests by recruiting key historical figures and generals, and, of course, better weapons and troops can be researched and upgrades are readily available to players with the resources.
As players play through the game, they’ll have the chance to relive some of the great battles of the WWII campaign, or, if they so choose, change the course of history. A global network also allows players to battle each others troops, trade with friends, and even form alliances.
“Last War has a place for casual text-based RPG fans and history buffs alike,” said Kyu Lee, VP and Head of GAMEVIL USA, Inc. “We hope to give players the thrill of command and military warfare as a WWII general.”
Last War is available for free on the app store, right now.
While most players on consoles are sitting playing The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim happily without any extra bonus content, PC gamers are biding their time in the game while picking up moderately interesting mods for the game that have been crated using non-optimal tools. They are waiting for the development tools to be released by Bethesda, or as it is more commonly known, the Creation Kit.
Bethesda has finally given a rough release window for the Skyrim Creation Kit and are expecting to have it out in January. To make things even easier, Skyrim’s Creation Kit will work with Steam Workshop which will allow players to “browse, rate, and flag” various mods for download and installation making it easier than ever to improve or modify the title as you see fit.
Those eager to see a bit more of Resident Evil: Revelations’ storyline or see some more of the new characters that are going to be introduced into the canon of the series will be happy to see that Capcom has released a trailer for the storyline of Resident Evil: Revelations. You can catch the video below and learn a little bit more about the story and see a number of new characters, including members of the BSAA.
These characters include Clive R. O’Brian, Jill and Chris’ commander, Morgan Lansdale head of the FBC and Raymond Vester who apparently will help Jill and Parker on the ship, but Capcom has not went into any detail about who he actually is. They will all be playable in Resident Evil: Revelations’ new Raid Mode as well.
We got a chance to have a chat with Ian Frazier, the lead developer behind Reckoning: Kingdoms of Amalur.
Donning a Reckoning shirt and speaking with a real sense of pride about the game, its clear that what we have here is a labour of love which made sitting down with Ian a real pleasure. His excitement about the game is infectious and in a mere five minutes he can convince you that the game will really bring the RPG genre to a new place that hasn’t been explored properly yet. But don’t take my word for it, take a look for yourselves.
Check out the interview with Ian below and take a look at the hands on preview articles HERE and HERE
What do you guys think? Are you interested in Reckoning? Do you think it’ll bring an interesting angle to the well-explored RPG genre? Or is it just another giant sandbox that takes too much time for you to get into it?
Check out the legion of pics we took at the preview event as well!
Konami had originally slated NeverDead to be released sometime in February, but they have decided to go with a bit of a different launch window. To be more exact, they are moving out of the month of February to one day before January 31st. This means that before the first month of the new year is up you will be able to rip off your own head and throw it at enemies while exploding the body you left behind.
This is all possible because you play as an immortal main character that is impervious to death. If that doesn’t catch your interest then I don’t know what will. Also Konami has revealed that they will be developing DLC for the title, but did not go into any further detail as to what to expect.
In perhaps one of the bigger surprises in recent memory, it appears that South Park is going to be getting a full retail title released in the second half of 2012 on the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC. While we already knew that the XBLA-exclusive South Park: Tenorman’s Revenge is arriving soon, we had no knowledge that another South Park video game was in development.
The developers of Fallout: New Vegas, Obsidian, will be working on the title while THQ is handling the publishing. Currently the game is being called South Park: The Game and is being described as an RPG set in the South Park world. As you can see by the exclusive cover of next month’s Game Informer, this title already looks amazing. Expect to learn much more next month when the issue is released.
You may have heard a little bit about All Zombies Must Die! from our site as doublesix has done their best to try and handle releasing their title themselves on consoles. However, being that the title missed its initial launch window of July, and has released a few pieces of information since then, things weren’t looking the best. That is until now as Square Enix is going to be helping these developers bring their game to consoles later this month.
The founder of doublesix, James Brooksby himself had this to say about Square Enix’s assistance. “The studio has been working very hard on All Zombies Must Die! for some time; it is our most ambitious project to date and we are thrilled it will be in the hands of the public very soon. We are delighted to be publishing the XBLA version with Square Enix and look forward to working with them on the game’s launch.”
