Today is Halloween and it seems like Capcom found it the best day to release some zombie related news for their hungry fans. Today Resident Evil producer Hiroyuki Kobayashi announced that they will be making a new Resident Evil title exclusively for the P layStation 3. Before you get too excited however, these titles are more like Resident Evil 4 HD than a Resident Evil 6.
The game that was announced is Resident Evil Chronicles HD Selection and it will bundle Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles and Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles for the PlayStation 3. These two titles will see an HD graphic upgrade and have upgraded their Wiimote support to PlayStation Move support. Currently there is no news of a Western release, but considering it is Resident Evil, I wouldn’t worry too much.
Tetris/Tetris Axis Developer: Hudson Publisher: Nintendo Genre: Puzzle Platform: Nintendo 3DS(reviewed) Release: 2/10/11
Overview
Throughout my gaming life, I’ve run into Tetris over and over again. Tetris on the GameBoy, Tetris Sphere on the Nintendo 64, click-wheel Tetris on my old iPod, hell even Tetris on an arcade machine in Japan. Needless to say, I, much like many people, am a fan of Tetris. I’m sure everyone knows the story with Tetris. That is, there is no story. It is one of one those games that’s a blank slate for stories, and can have anything applied to it. Tetris is almost all about game mechanics: the alignment and breaking of tetrimino. So, with no delay, let’s set the bricks in motion and hard-drop into the gameplay.
Gameplay
Tetrimino fall into the matrix, twisting and rotating as they drop, making their way down into lines and eventually exploding in a glorious accumulation of points. Tetris for the 3DS is still Tetris. At least to some extent. There are fifteen different game modes within Tetris 3DS, all of which hold the Tetris-essence fans of the game love.
Marathon is probably the first version of many Tetris you’ll encounter when powering up your 3DS. This mode doesn’t deviate from classic modes of Tetris, perhaps with the exception of a hold button and the completion of the game after 150 lines. Hudson has done a terrific job developing the controls for the 3DS however a few things strike me as odd. The delegation of the circle pad to rotate the camera seems a little odd and means that I’ve had to get used to the D-pad yet again. I can understand this choice, as Tetris has seen the use of the D-pad over its many console transitions. That being said, after very few plays of the game the controls delegated by Hudson to this version of Tetris become natural and racing through marathon is no trouble at all. I should note that there is also an augmented reality version of Marathon, and one of the party modes, Climber that use the 3DS AR cards to play Tetris in physical spaces. While it doesn’t add all that much more to the gameplay (except that you can move around the card to get different views) it is an amazing little function, even if just a novelty.
Fever is a little different to the Tetris people are accustomed too. For one, the matrix is much narrower, and there is a time limit of 60 seconds. Not only this, but the way of playing is completely different. Coins are earned within the game, and can be used to purchase items to use in game. More items can also be earned using SpotPass, which sadly I have yet to come across. Items include cascade: filling spaces between blocks, colour change: changing all the colours to the same colour and colour bonus: adding individual checkmarks to colours granting higher scores when cleared. Another feature in this version of Tetris is “colour attack” where all the tetrimino are the same colour, and you are given just a few seconds to clear the matrix for a rather hefty bonus score. While this at times isn’t as challenging as normal Tetris, it’s still an incredible appealing game mode.
Survival doesn’t deviate too far from the original Tetris mechanic, with the exception of rising lines and a narrow matrix. This version provides a perhaps little more of a challenge than Marathon, while staying nearer to the traditional form of Tetris than Fever. If a more traditional approach is up your ally, you can always test your Tetris skills battling the CPU, facing off against 10 different Bomberman style Tetris experts in Computer Battle.
If you thought that Tetris already had a lot of game modes, then you are yet to click on the Party Modes section. With nearly 10 different game modes, there isn’t much point describing them all. If you are a fan of Tetris, and I mean a really hardcore fan, these might come across a little silly, or even completely irrelevant wastes of time. But if you are a little more lenient, then some of these can be fun. I particularly enjoyed Tower Climber, which as you using tetrimino to build steps for a little character to climb. I also found Stage Racer Plus to be a rather interesting idea, which uses tetrimino to emulate a racing track and car. While they all seem to lack the general mechanics of Tetris, they use the restrictions of the game matrix and tetrimino to create some rather innovative new gaming modes, which cannot be overlooked by an owner of the game. Even just testing all these modes out will give you hours of play time, and are worth the time even if just to alter your perception of what can be considered Tetris.
Graphics and Audio
We all know what Tetris looks like, right? Tetrimino are bricks, and there are a variety of different shapes and sizes. Given that this is for the 3DS, there is obviously the option to view the game matrix in 3D. I however, tend not to as I feel like it takes away from the hypnotic zen-like playing of a heated Tetris marathon. While the game graphics have been updated dramatically from the original version of Tetris, this isn’t the only visually redeeming quality. During game play, the matrix board floats over some amazing visualisations that add a little something extra to the game. If that isn’t enough of a graphical boost for you, then check out the bottom screen to watch your Mii dancing around in some ultra (un)fashionable clothing. There is always the option to alter clothing, dancing style and even your Mii. I had a dancing Jesus in a white gown to accompany my Tetris playing. In terms of the audio, there is a re-recording of the original Tetris music floating around, as well as a few other tunes that tend to get on my nerves when playing. It is the typical puzzle or casual game music that accompanies repetitive modes of game play which I tend to always mentally block out, or in extreme cases, literally block out when playing.
Overall
All and all, Tetris for the 3DS is not just another brick in the wall. All the modes of play fall together in line, and TETRIS! Some of the newer game modes are a little lame, and don’t warrant repeat plays. However, I am willing to forgive Tetris due to the amazing quality of this 3DS remake. The controls work fantastically, and there has been a real push to integrate all the capabilities of the device into this game, especially in battle modes where some of the attacks require you to blow into the microphone or tilt the device. While the 3D doesn’t add much to the game, the graphical overhaul makes for a sleek playing experience, which is much needed for a game like Tetris. If you are a fan, this is an essential buy. If you haven’t had much luck finding love with Tetris perhaps this, with its plethora of different gaming options, will finally turn you.
Name: Snap Escape: The Epic Swing
Developer: GAMBIT Game Lab
Publisher: GAMBIT Game Lab
Genre: Casual
Platform: iPhone (reviewed), iPad
Release: 28 October, 2011
Price: FREE – BUY NOW
Overview
So I don’t really get why, and there isn’t any real explanation, but for some reason a whole bunch of your caveman buddies (you see, you’re a caveman) are stuck and you have to save them by swinging. I don’t know, don’t ask, but let’s see if the game itself makes more sense than the plot!
Gameplay
Snap Escape: The Epic Swing (henceforth, Snap! With or without the exclamation mark, depending on how fun I’m feeling) has a very basic gameplay that you might be able to guess from the title alone. So, you basically swing by tilting your device.
There are two modes, campaign and survival. Each campaign stage has seven levels, which you won’t find terribly challenging, to move forward with each level you have to at least pass with one star (which can mean saving as many as 16 or 17 out of 20 cave people). Survival mode for each stage is unlocked when the stage is finished in campaign mode. You are given four lives in survival, losing one every time you miss a cave person. You can also link this to Facebook, either using it to brag about your score or connecting with other Facebook friends who have the app.
So Snap! is a scrolling screen game, which moves at a decent rate that doesn’t change for the whole game. To save a cave person you swing around on a rope attached to a friendly purple flying dinosaur. Here is where the reason behind the game kind of confuses me and it’s one of those situations where you just do it and don’t question it. There are a bunch of cave people chilling out on little ledges, screaming, crying and stamping their feet at their situation. First you swing past them, knocking them off the ledge which makes them realise they have a parachute and then they start drifting slowly down. But they don’t want to land on the ground, oh no, they want you to come swinging back across and tapping them. Then they teleport out. Cos… Yeah.
There are three campaign stages, going from caves to treetops to a volcano. There is the promise of more stages, although to be honest these won’t be too great unless more aspects are introduced to the game. As it stands there are ‘spirits’ and dinosaurs. There are three different spirits, the spirit of time, attraction and invincibility. The time spirit slows down time, attraction means that any parachuting cave people will automatically be drawn to you, even from below, and invincibility protects you from the T-Rex. In terms of dinosaurs there is the T-Rex that bites you and makes you lose some of your ‘saved people’, the triceratops has the ability to make all parachuting cave people blow away with his super loud call, brontosaurus makes rocks fall so you can’t see as well, and then there’s this black dinosaur that jumps on you and makes you lose control.
The screen is set up with a meter up the top telling you how far there is left to go on the level, as well as a count down warning that pops up and lets you know when you have two or three people left to go until your first, second or third star.
The thing is, I got through the three stages really quickly. Each stage took me extremely little time and I wasn’t ever really drawn into the game because it never supplied the challenge. It felt like the first three stages of a twenty-stage game that had a very gradual learning curve. Sure, the staggered introduction of dinosaurs was good, but the new dinosaurs didn’t really add to the challenge.
I think you’d have to really make your own challenges in this game, such as if you are an achievement whore and want to get all the stars. I didn’t do that, but I really don’t care about that. Like at all.
Visual
There’s not much to the game visually, there’s your cave people, your set identical background, your dinosaurs, and your rope. It certainly isn’t a bad looking game, it works well for what it is and has a certain style to it, but don’t expect to get blown away or overly impressed with anything
Audio
The backing soundtrack is sort of a weird mix of island xylophone with something meant to symbolise cave people. While you’re playing you can barely hear this though, over the sound of your dinosaur’s wing flapping, the effect of saving a cave person, or when you miss one and they give a cry out as they disappear off the bottom of the screen.
Conclusion
Snap Escape: The Epic Swing is perhaps a little bit of a goal rather than an achievement for the game. I mean, sure this guy is swinging around for ages and whatnot, but the game just sits on the same level for the entire time.
In a new video released by 2K Games and Irrational Games, BioShock Infinite Creative Director (and all around developing legend), Ken Levine, introduces us to the people behind the characters of the upcoming game.
The player character, Booker DeWitt, is voiced by Troy Baker, who most recently played Two Face in Batman: Arkham City. And the player’s companion, Elizabeth, is voiced by Courtnee Draper, who has a long pedigree of guest appearances in various television shows and who performed “additional voices” for the anime film, Ponyo.
These two detail the thoughts and backgrounds that went into creating, voicing, and fully fleshing out their respective characters.
You can check out everything they have to say in the video below.
I think every nerd alive is keeping one eye on the upcoming release of the new animated feature “The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn.”. As children we read the comics and sat glued to the screen for the TV show, now new younger audiences can once again feel the magic. Ubisoft are adding another dimention to the loveable franchise with the release of the video game based from the upcoming film.
It is always expected that animated movies nowdays come out with their own game, its just tradition. However these games are not the masterpieces that they could be. Yet this game actually looks pretty decent. Below is the interview with the famous filmakers Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson about the movie and its transition to the video game genre. Enjoy!
Flick Tennis: College Wars is a sports RPG adventure game developed by Rolocule Games for the iOS. The game centres on Kevin, a tennis sensation whose goal is to be the best college tennis player. Players follow Kevin’s development in the world of college tennis through a comic book where he faces opponents of different playing styles and proficiency on different courts.
Opponents can be classed into 4 different playing styles; Defensive Baseliner – players try to return every ball with efficiency, relying on opponents to make a mistake; Aggressive Baseliner – hard-hitters, trying to win points by hitting winners from the back; Serve-and-Volleyer – fast servers and proficiency at the net; and All-Court Player – versatile players who switch between styles making it hard to read their game.
Flick Tennis: College Wars’ other features include:
motion-captured animations, realistic physics and controls, singles and doubles matches, ‘swipe gestures’ and touch controls to play various tennis shots and move the player, and 11 unique courts on 3 different surfaces. Besides Story Mode, the game also includes an Exhibition Mode and a Head to Head Multiplayer Mode to play with your friends and family.
Tennis season is ending. With the Women’s End-of-Year Championships over and the Men’s being contested in about 3 weeks’ time, tennis fans will be left with a void until tennis season kicks off again at the Brisbane International next year.
If you suffer from tennis withdrawal during the off-season, Flick Tennis: College Wars may help fill the emptiness and help keep you tennis-sustained for the rest of the year!
Flick Tennis: College Wars is available worldwide at the App Store in the Games category for $1.99USD but is priced $0.99 for a limited time due to Rolocule Games’ Halloween Scary Sale!
Check out Flick Tennis: College Wars’ trailer below and for more info, visit the official Rolocule Webiste
Seeing as it’s Halloween, Warner Bros have released and new trailer for the game Lollipop Chainsaw, rather fitting considering it’s a game where you wield a chainsaw, with ‘more blood than a slaugterhouse’. The trailer offers gamers their first glimpse at Morikawa, a second-generation zombie hunter who looks after his apprentice, Juliet.
Available in 2012, Lollipop Chainsaw is the ‘un-deadly’ story of sweet and killer zombie-hunter Juliet Starling and her quest to uncover the root of a colossal zombie outbreak. With her wickedly awesome chainsaw in hand, Juliet slices, dices and splits her way through hordes of the undead, but soon realizes the horde is only the opening act to a festival of zombie rock lords determined to kill the chainsaw-wielding cheerleader.
Are you F1 fans keen for some more tracks to fly around in your F1s on? Well you’re in luck because Codemasters has released a exclusive preview video for a brand new circuit in Delhi, the Buddh International Circuit, which is the venue for this weekend’s 2011 Formula 1 Airtel Grand Prix of India. And it is looking smooth.
The trailer cuts together some of the awesome stats of the track as well as showing off some sexy turns and the great racing graphics that make up F1 2011. Make sure to check out the trailer below! How’s about it guys, are you keen to get your hands on some of those sexy curves?
F1 2011 is available on Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and PC.
Disney has released a set of twenty new levels titled ‘Change is Good’. There was a review of the app we did here, and I have to say, the upgrade is good news because after finishing the levels I’m definitely keen for more.
Along with the new levels, there are also new collectables and a new way to play called the Fluid Converter. Given the inventive and interesting little gadgets in the game, I’m keen to give this one a go, this converter has the ability to transform polluted water, ooze to fresh water and back again.
Make sure to grab the app if you can (especially since, with the update there are now 100 levels), or update your current app! Where’s My Water is currently available for $0.99 – BUY NOW
One of the biggest mechanics that a game developer can throw into a game is one that can provide an extensive amount of replayability. It appears that EA’s Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning will be a title that will try and provide constant variety through multiple playthrough, especially with all of the factors they have explained in the latest gameplay trailer for the title.
You can check out the video below, where we learn that players don’t need to focus on one class, but can vary their skills to create a well rounded character as well. Plus if you don’t enjoy playing as a certain class anymore than you can wipe your slate clean through Fate Weavers who will allow you to redistribute your statistics for a price.
