If you thought that receiving only one music CD with your purchase of a video game then you are definitely going to be happy when you hear this news. King of Fighters XIII will contain a 4 CD set simply for pre-ordering the title. This news comes from Atlus as they say it is their biggest pre-order offer in their history.
Anyone who reserves KOF XIII will receive 4 CDs containing not only the game’s soundtrack but also music from all fifteen years of the franchise’s history. This pre-order is available at any participating retailers but you may need to act quickly because these are only “while supplies last.” If the CDs have the same artwork as shown in the picture then that certainly is enough reason to want to pre-order the title before its release on October 27th in North America.
There has been some mixed news lately for Nintendo regarding their Nintendo 3DS handheld. First they had poor sales out of the gate and just a short while ago they had to announce that they would be dropping the price significantly. But not everything is going bad for the company and its handheld, because The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D has sold 1.08 million units worldwide.
Siliconera reports that the game has sold 810,000 copies in the West and 270,000 locally in Japan which means it is currently the second game to ever reach the mark of one million units on the 3DS. The sales period began on June 16th and ended on June 30th which means the sales have most likely went up from this mark. This milestone means that The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D joins Nintendogs + Cats on the one million seller shelf.
Good news everyone in North America, the NFL lockout is over which means football will be continuing as usual this year in the United States and what better way to commemorate this announcement than having EA Sports say that they will be releasing the demo for Madden NFL 12 on August 9th for the Xbox Live Marketplace and PlayStation Network.
The demo will be a recreation of the NFC Championship game of last season between the Chicago Bears and the Green Bay Packers. Players will get five minute quarters to play and can even change history by having the Bears not choke and lose to the Packers this time around. Madden NFL 12 the full game will be out August 30th on the PS3 and Xbox 360.
SNK has been releasing quite a few of their classic games on Playstation. Athena is one of them. Published in 1986, it has found a new life on the PSN by being released as a Mini. Available on the PS3 and PSP, Athena doesn’t appear to have too many changes from the original version of the game. There is no high definition graphics, enhanced gameplay mechanics or other improvements.
The gameplay centers around basic platforming, combat and collecting. As Athena falls from the heavens to the earth below, she loses all her clothes (yea, don’t get too excited. Its still 1986 graphics.) After you reach solid ground, Athena must kick the enemies that try to kill her. After awhile, you’ll find some weapons, and then you will begin finding her armor that bestow different abilities to her. If you get hit, her armor begins to shed in addition to her health bar.
Platforming is quite fun, and there are multiple floors of the environment that you can explore. Each floor has different enemies and requires different strategies to beat, very much like Sonic or other games in the platforming genre.
The biggest problem with this game is that the mechanics and difficulty are, to put it kindly, outdated. Fans of retro games will have a blast with this game, and they will love being able to take it with them on the PSP or play it at home on on the PS3, especially for such a low price. Most gamers will have more fun reliving their memories of playing the game though, as the controls and basic gameplay are floaty and unreliable. For example, hit detection is awful. When I would swing my sword multiple times, it was about a 50/50 chance that I would actually take down the enemy. No matter how many times I tried, I was only able to get about ½ way through the 1st level, even after I turned the difficulty to easy and put CONTINUES on. Part of that may be that old school games are not my forte, but a lot of the reason I had trouble with this game comes down to one simple fact: This game was designed to be a quarter eater, and nothing has changed about that in this port of the game, even though there are no quarters involved. That being said, I was very impressed with the level of detail in the game, especially given that this was a game that was produced before I was born. It was very interesting to see where modern games have come from and how game design has evolved. For instance, collecting pieces of armor and the like reminded me of collecting different armor add-ons in Shadow Complex.
Overall, if your desperately bored and need a cheap game, you could do worse than this game. However, I would recommend Castle Crashers or Shadow Complex to those gamers looking for a 2-D adventure game. Those games capture the feelings of retro platformers, but they add in modern gameplay mechanics and HD graphics. Perhaps if SNK releases a HD remake of Athena, I would be be more impressed, but as it stands, this game will likely only appeal to those gamers old enough to remember playing the original in the arcade or those who like an extreme video game challenge.
I know a certain member of the staff that is going to probably run out and spend as much money as he has to to acquire this piece of merchandise when it releases next month. I’m talking of course about Gears of War: The Board Game. Esdevium Games has created this little oddity that takes the action of Xbox Live and transfers it onto a kitchen table.
Destructoid found some extra information about this board game. Players can team up to complete randomly created missions with over 200 cards, 75 tokens and 30 plastic figures that can be used as little avatars. Cards are used to perform actions like chainsawing an enemy and more. Unfortunately there has been no news as to how much this game will cost when it actually is ready to ship out.
Despite what nearly all media shows Batman dressed like now, he wasn’t always a black and grey wearing dark knight of Gotham. He used to wear at least a little bit more color than that. Those of us in Australia will be happy to know that they can dress as the ’70s styled Batman when they venture around Arkham City because EB Games has the exclusive skin that shows Batman with a blue cape and cowl.
Besides this awesome skin, buyers of this “Steelbook Edition” will receive a fancy metal game box, acess to the Joker Carnival Challenge Map DLC as well as a copy of the “Batman: Under the Red Hood” animated film on DVD or Blu-Ray if you buy the PS3 copy. The package will cost $98 AUD, which is the same price listed as other basic versions of the title.
In case you’ve been paying attention, you may have remembered the Brink was supposed to have received a piece of downloadable content sometime earlier this month. But despite missing this release window Bethesda and Splash Damage haven’t forgotten about the package. The DLC “Agents of Change” will be available on August 3rd and it will be completely free to download for the first two weeks its out. After that it will cost $10 or 800 MSP.
The content will be available across all platforms and will add five new abilities, two new outfits, two weapon attachments and two new maps to play on. Also players will be able to level up to 25 compared to the previous level of 20. Those two pristine maps won’t be new for too long with all the shoe scuffs from free running.
Pet Society Vacation is a game where players are out on a tropical island with a houseboat of their own decoration. While on the island, players can interact with their own pets or pets of other players, as well as go shopping or scooba-diving for treasure.
Transformers follow through the story of Transformers: Fall of the Moon and players take on the roles of The Autobots or The Decepticons in what could be their final battle. Fall of the Moon should be out now.
As well as these two titles, EA have also reminded us of their top sellers, which are as follows –
Today, independant game developers Spiderweb Software announced ‘Avernum: Escape from the Pit’ for the Windows, iPad and Macintosh operating systems. The game is a top-down RPG, reminiscent of more classic titles, such as Baldurs gate.
In Avernum, the overworld is ruled by a Tyrant and anyone who acts out of line is banished to Avernum, which is a small locale at the bottom of a volcano. Of course, not everyone has been broken by this system and some are taking up arms against this tyrant.
Avernum: Escape From the Pit is an epic fantasy role-playing adventure in a unique and deadly world. Fight to complete up to three game-winning quests. Explore a massive nation of tunnels and caverns, seeking out eighty towns and dungeons. Master over 50 spells and battle disciplines and hunt for hundreds of magical artifacts. Avernum: Escape From the Pit is a total, ground-up rewrite of the last century’s Indie hit Avernum. It will be ready for adventurers in Q4, 2011.
The Summer 2011 release schedule of new downloadable content for Yoostar 2 has been announced and will become available for purchase through Yoostore, Xbox LIVE Marketplace and PlayStation Network. Scenes from blockbusters such as “His Name was John Conner” from The Terminator to the more child friendly “I Love You” song from Barney (brings back childhood memories people?) are included in this batch which will hopefully add more enjoyment and variety to your interactive ‘acting’ experience for you and your friends. New individual scenes and scene packs will become available every Tuesday.
In conjunction with Kinect for Xbox 360 or PlayStation Eye for the Playstation 3, you can act in your favourite movie or tv scenes and portray your favourite characters. With 80 scenes presented in the game and hundreds more available online, you can put on your best award winning performance and tackle movie greats such as The Godfather. If ‘serious’ isn’t your strong point then why not do an ad-lib from a scene in the Hangover? Done correctly, this will surely give you plenty of laughs and get the party rolling!
The Summer 2011 release schedule includes:
Individual Scenes
· American Graffiti – Drag race
· Anchorman – Squirrelly newscast
· Animal House – Bluto impersonates a zit
· Barney – I Love You (song)
· Being John Malkovich – A metaphysical can of worms
· Being John Malkovich – Gender-bender
· Being John Malkovich – I’m a puppeteer
· Being John Malkovich – Job interview at Lestercorp
· Beverly HillsCop – You eat a lot of red meat
· Coming to America – A woman who will arouse my intellect
· Ferris Bueller’s Day Off – Voodoo economics
· Kick-Ass – Shut up and pick your weapon
· Kindergarten Cop – Anatomy lesson
· Kindergarten Cop – Mrs. Hagley’s a lot better than you
· Matrix Revolutions – Lock and load
· The Princess Bride – The promise of a woman
· Some Like It Hot – Fuzzy end of the lollipop
· Some Like It Hot – Real hot!
· Some Like It Hot – You own a yacht?
· Star Trek VI The Undiscovered Country – My response would be, ‘Go to hell’
· Star Trek: The Next Generation – Live long and prosper (Season 3 – Episode: 23 – Sarek)
· The Terminator – His name was Connor – John Connor
· Trading Places – Broken vase
· War of the Worlds – Bombs don’t unscrew
Video Backgrounds
· Fast Ride Through a Tunnel
· Fireworks Over Cityscape
· Shallow Ocean Floor (free)
Scene Packs
Eddie Murphy Pack
· Coming to America – My job is garbage
· Norbit – That fine, skinny girl
· Nutty Professor – Grandma’s crush
Star Trek – Jean-Luc Picard Pack
· Star Trek: The Next Generation – The first duty of a Starfleet officer
· Star Trek: Next Generation Season 3 – It is a good day to die
· Star Trek: Next Generation Season 6 – Q, you are not God
· Star Trek: Generations –I take it the odds are against us
· Star Trek: Generations – The death of Kirk
Three Stooges Pack
· Brideless Groom – 500,000 bucks
· Disorder in the Court – Take off your hat
· Disorder in the Court – Thanks Courty, you’re a pal
