Retailer exclusive bonuses are the bane of some game buyers existence. Should I buy from this retailer and receive this different outfit or should I buy from that place and get a different car? Well Bethesda is looking to avoid any hassle for people looking to pre-order their upcoming FPS Rage. Rage pre-order bonuses will be the same regardless of what retailer you decide to give your money to.
GameStop, Amazon, Steam and Direct2Drive have been listed by the company to receive a handful of bonus content. The bonus upgrade to the Anarchy Edition from these companies will include four bonus items which you can see above. The Double Barrel Shotgun, the Crimson Elite Armor, the Fists of RAGE which are knuckles with knives on them and a Rat Road Buggy.
Alongside all the pre-order information Bethesda also released the Dead City trailer which shows off plenty of gameplay footage and you can catch it below!
Seems like every other week some retailer is letting information leak out before the publishers want them world to know about the existence of said information. Amazon is guilty this week, more like Amazon UK as earlier today they posted up a new version of Fallout: New Vegas on their website, a Game of the Year Edition. The price was set at £20.62 which was down from £29.99. The listing has since been pulled from the site but it hardly revealed anything surprising.
Bethesda often releases their games a second time with all the DLC contained in one package but at the moment there has only been one piece of DLC released for Fallout: New Vegas which was Dead Money. Nothing else has been officially confirmed from the company yet and the listing did not have a release date so, other than the knowledge that a Game of the Year Edition is coming, nothing else was revealed.
American McGee’s Alice, released all the way back in Y2K, is considered a classic amongst many PC gamers who are grizzled enough to remember dial-up modems. However, Alice: Madness Returns, set to release for Xbox 360, PS3, and PC this June, is probably going to be many players first entry into the twisted mind of Americna McGee. Given that the original PC game currently fetches a pretty penny on sites like Amazon and eBay (when it’s available at all), this probably won’t change any time soon. Lucky for gamers who missed out on the heyday of PC gaming, however, is the news that the second entry of the series will include a code for a downloadable version of the original. Amercian McGee has announced that the original Alice will be released for consoles as a downloadable game and that gamers who buy Madness Returns will be able to redeem the game free of charge. This is an amazing opportunity for gamers who missed out on Alice the first time around to catch up on American McGee’s older work. For those who haven’t seen the gameplay trailer for Alice: Madness Returns yet, check it out below.
Gears Of War 3 online multiplayer BETA has finally been unleashed upon the world. So far Team Deathmatch (Ranked and Public are only available) but this is keeping us all very busy. There are currently only two available maps Thrashball (football field) and Checkout (small shopping mall) – both a relatively small. The video game play runs you through two rounds of Thrashball.
So far searching for matches especially ranked ones take quite a long time as the game does some sort of quality check to make sure your matched up with players in your area /country to eliminate any possibility of lag. Unfortunately at the moment matching you up with players of similar level and skill is not possible, so you might end up in a game with a group of level 25’s that run around destroying everyone with one shot kills with their shotguns and are near next to impossible to take down. This happened a few times and our pitiful little group of level 1 to 5’s were destroy 14 respawns zip.
Team Deathmatch on both maps starts both teams off with 15 re-spawns a piece. Die and you draw a resource point from the re-spawn pool. Once you deplete your re-spawns, the remaining players on the team are left to survive in a sudden death situation where if you die you’re out of the game /round. When the final player is eliminated the round ends and the fun starts all over again. Team Deathmatch is first to three and from playing approx 40+ games so far the first few games took a while, but now as the players get better and better a rounds can be finished in less than 3 mins.
The video gameplay below will give you a greater understanding on how everything works from gameplay to also the Stats and Award / Challenges that you can unlock by performing specific kills etc within the game. Sit back and enjoy the video game play of MasterAbbott getting owned. (at least I didn’t end up last) 😉
Nordic Games has delivered free new app on the App Store for iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad, We Sing Superstar Quiz. It’s a music trivia title based on their Wii game, We Sing.
There’s over 2000 questions and players have three single-player modes to choose from, which are: We Sing Superstar Quiz, Classic Mode and Sudden Death. The further people get the harder the questions become.
“We Sing Superstar Quiz is a great way of extending the We Sing brand onto other platforms and keeping it entertaining for fans of the We Sing series,” said Nik Blower, sales and marketing director, Nordic Games. “It gives players a fun and interactive way to learn about their favourite artists, as well as challenging them.”
We Sing Superstar Quiz is available for free on the App Store HERE
While this isn’t huge news, it might interest those who have yet to pick up either Wii Party or Wii Sports Resort as Nintendo have now decided to lower the MSRP by $10, making each $39.99. This isn’t a huge drop by any means, but considering that Wii Party comes with a bundles in Wii Remote with Motion Plus and Sports Resort comes with the Motion Plus attachment, it certainly might make those who have been on the fence with either make the plunge.
Wii Sports Resort as it stands has already sold 10.7 Million units so this cut in price is sure to make that number rise even more throughout the year. As for Wii Party, since it just debuted last holiday season a drop comes as a bit of a surprise as most first-party Nintendo titles keep their value for years, so ten bucks off is definitely something and makes this title nearly free if since the Wii Remote values at $39.99 by itself.
October just can’t here fast enough as that is the current release month for Silent Hill: Downpour. Thankfully though, Konami have been generous enough to release a few new screenshots today which show off the small town of Silent Hill in all it’s creepy glory. These screens take place after the main protagonist Murphy Pendleton wakes up alone in the woods after his prison transport bus crashes near the town of Silent Hill.
The visuals for this title are looking rather impressive as you can see and I am really liking the detailing that has went into environments for Downpour as the setting seems like it will provide an eerie world to explore. You can check out all six of the new screenshots below and rest assured we will bring you even more updates as the release for Silent Hill: Downpour grows near.
As many Portal fans are probably aware (or at least those who plan to get it on Steam) there has been an intricate alternate reality game going on related in some way to the release of both Portal 2 and Valve’s Potato Sack bundle of indie games. At the beginning of the weekend, the ARG finally concluded and it was revealed that if fans bought and played enough of the indie games included in the pack, then Portal 2 would release earlier than its scheduled Tuesday morning release date. A website called GLaDOS@Home began tracking the community’s progress towards unlocking the release of Portal 2, which required computational processing power to be gathered for the game’s HAL-like villain. Here is what that site looked like as of 8:00AM EST on Monday Morning.
As you can see, the game is predicted to release in almost 21 hours. This would place the Steam release at almost 5:00AM EST on Tuesday Morning, only 4 hours earlier than its intended ~9AM release. While progress towards completing Glados@Home was speedily moving forward for the first 2 days, with help from heavy community coordination including Steam groups, Reddit conversations, and even a wiki, by Sunday night it has slowed to a crawl. Several days worth of playing indie games by the community has failed to produce any significant results towards releasing Portal 2 early, and some fans are upset that they won’t be able to play the game until several hours after the console crowd who will buy it at midnight launches.
Hopes are now being placed on the completion of all of the progress bars at GLaDOS@Home leading to some kind of Half Life announcement, such as the reveal of either Half Life 3 or a release date for Episode 3. However, it seems that Portal 2 will in fact not be releasing early. I can’t say if this move by Valve was genius or ill-conceived. On one hand, they organized an excellent ARG, got tons of people to buy 13 indie games which they probably wouldn’t have otherwise, and sparked some real fan cooperation towards a goal. On the other hand, that goal seems to have been unattainable and I’m sure this will leave a slightly bitter taste in the mouths of more than a few fans.
Opinions are varied, and some still defend Valve, saying that supporting indie developers is important or that a few hours earlier is better than nothing. The slightly earlier release will especially be more beneficial towards those outside of the United States, where the game will launch some time earlier in the day rather than during the evening. Many American players however feel that Valve screwed the pooch with the ending to this whole event. Ultimately, there is still some time to go on the countdown clock so I guess we’ll see whether Valve can find a way to make everyone happy (although this is the Internet, so you can never please everyone).
If anyone remembers at little game called Sniper Elite from 2005, then this follow up to the succesful simulator will probably excite you. Sniper Elite, an action/adventure game is being released on the Wii this June. It’s a tactical shooter set in the Battle of Berlin in 1945. It’s based on sniping (more like camping!), which puts you in the shoes of an American OSS agent, Karl Fairburne, disguised as a German sniper, with the objective of obtaining German nuclear technology before the Soviet NKVD does.
Intense storyline aside, the accessory (picture below) included with the game looks crazier and is the whole reason I wanted to show it off. It has options for enabling realistic ballistics, such as bullet drop, wind strength and breathing while attempting to fire. A game a like this wouldn’t be complete without bullet-time and it just happens to be included. The accessory (may look suss in your lounge room) is made by Bluemouth Interactive, the top distributor of gaming accessories across Australia and New Zealand. I may be getting the chance to review this game and look forward to updating you on the success or failure of my camping skills. Whether or not the game will see a major graphical overhaul is unknown, but hopefully this is the case.
It has been 30 years since the original Yars’ Revenge was released for the Atari 2600. The original title portrayed a Yar, a creature which resembled an insect of sorts, trying to break a shield and destroy a cannon on the other side. With such a simple concept, one might think it may be hard to actually reboot a series just on that premise alone. Fast forward to today and Yars’ Revenge has seen a brand new reboot which completely changes what we know about the game with a whole new take on gameplay as well as a new plot that aims to introduce players to a brand new experience as a whole. So how does this reboot stand up by today’s standards? Here is my review for Yars’ Revenge for the Xbox Live Arcade.
Story
Yars’ Revenge starts out with a nameless Yar being informed by an elder that she has been brainwashed by the Qotile, an evil empire who have pushed her species to near extinction. This Yar then sets out on a mission of revenge to take down the Qotile and rescue the few remaining Yar while there is still time as she alone is their only hope for survival.
While the new plot is interesting, I must say I really had a hard time following it. The story is told through a few cutscenes which take place in certain points after or before levels, but sadly these scenes lack voice acting and animation that could have really added depth to each character. This alone is a true shame due to the stunning art design that is portrayed with the stills used for these moments. I didn’t ever feel anything for this Yar in particular as I struggled to keep up with the story. During each in-game level, a majority of the plot also unfolds through a small box which pops up in the corner with a sprite and dialogue depicting a conversation. Again, this is hard to keep up with as the box is rather small and you are expected to read these small conversations while you are heavy in the game’s action. Instead of voice acting for these sequences, we simply hear a few sound effects added in that don’t do a thing to actually portray emotion or any sort of feeling towards the dialogue displayed.
I found this personally to be a huge upset as I really wanted to be more involved as a player with what seemed to be an interesting portrait that the writers painted for this tale, but it was nearly impossible to follow it all as the cutscenes presented text which ran by too fast and faded in with the artwork as well as the the in-game sequences which can easily get you killed if you take the time to try to read the small text bubbles.
Gameplay
While the story is a bit of a mess to follow, Yars’ Revenge fully redeems itself in terms of actual gameplay. This title is a full on-rails shooter and really captures a nice true arcade style feel as swarms of enemies are presented at once that the player must take out with a vast array of weaponry and power-ups that are collected throughout a stage. When I first started though, I quickly found out there is a huge learning curve if you are used to the more automatic approach that has been presented with titles such as Sin & Punishment. In Yars’ Revenge however, each button on the 360’s controller is utilized for a different purpose and it takes a bit of time to fully tackle the controls. While it was a bit complicated though at first, this method does do wonders to add depth to the overall experience.
As far as controls go, players must use the left stick to actually control the Yar on the screen with targeting reticle being controlled fully with the right stick. This means that the player must simultaneously control each as they battle through a level. Shoulder buttons also come into full play as they are used for firing different attacks at enemies. The left bumper acts as a quick dodge, the right bumper is a charged laser, the left trigger is used to highlight enemies and fire missiles, and the right trigger is your standard shot. As I mentioned, it does take some time to take all this in, but everything works well and is all useful for just about every stage in one way or another. The face buttons on the controller also come into play, as they are used for activating different power-ups and attacks which are collected after certain enemies have been defeated. I went from feeling pure frustration trying to get used to all of this to a feeling that it was brilliant in an hours time, so patient gamers will be rewarded by one of the most in-depth control schemes an on-rails shooter has seen in a long time if they just stick with it.
Each level is laid out with a different batch of scenery that you are taken through and as you progress, different swarms of insect-like enemies rear up their heads to try to destroy your Yar so you must constantly be prepared for a full on offense (as well as defense) at all times. Shooting works well for what it’s worth, but your Yars’ much more vast arsenal is where the meaty element of gameplay is found as it adds a thick layer of strategy for dealing with the much more intense combat. Small enemies can fall at an instant with one bullet from your standard shot but other enemies simply take more to defeat. To do this, you are equipped with a laser which requires a small charge before use that can be controlled to take out a few bigger insects at a time if you pull the reticle fast enough. Missiles are also very useful as several foes can be targeted at once and finished off in one shot if performed correctly. Power-ups come in handy and add in an upper advantage when collected. Some of these perform actions like wiping out a mess of the Qotile at one time, an attack that destroys enemy fire, a shield that regenerates health, and a pick-up that deals extra damage. An added in multiplier rewards the player a much larger score for taking down several enemies in bursts and also provides an extra incentive to eliminate enemies in quantity and speed.
Each stage actually can be a lengthy affair, and with that checkpoints are assigned for a nice safety net if you happen to fail during a mission. The combat is a bit repetitive to be honest, but with the many techniques and strategies given as well as the constant action at hand, I can easily say I was never bored once as Yars’ Revenge provides an intense setting in just about every level that is both rewarding and fulfilling. The greatest part though is that every stage ends with a boss battle that acts as a fantastic swan song to each level as each boss requires a different strategy to eventually take down, with a distinct feel for every one of these encounters. After completing the game, there is still a moderate amount of extra content to complete such as a challenge mode which has you tackle different tasks such as aiming to take down as many enemies as possible or take on the game with different stipulations such as unlimited ammo and no shields. For the competitive, there is also an online leaderboard where can compete for that top score against a world of other players.
Graphics/Audio
Each level in Yars’ Revenge is set in beautifully drawn backdrops which fit well with both the sprites as well as the actual theme for the game. Textures are rich and full of color. Models are also a visual treat as enemies and the nameless Yar are all very detailed and it is very evident that a lot of time went into every aspect of design. In my opinion an on-rails shooter of any sort should take let players explore with their eyes since they are guided through each stage, and that is exactly what Yars’ revenge accomplishes with it’s stunning presentation.
The music in Yars’ is also fitting for each stage and keeps the game upbeat and captures the atmosphere for each level. The sound effects are also nice with a hint of the older 80’s version of the game thrown in that better capture the essence of the original. The only downside of the audio though is what it is lacking, voicework. I know I already mentioned it, but that alone would have brought out the true depth of the story and is the one thing that keeps this title as a whole from accomplishing greatness.
Overall
Yars’ Revenge is a fantastic title which offers both rewarding and fulfilling experience that fans of on-rails shooters or simply older arcade games will love through and through. The story is there but due to poor execution, it is simply too hard to actually follow and this does hold this game back from achieving on it’s narrative. For just 800 points though, the intense and strategic gameplay that each stage presents as well as the stunning scenery that is seen along the journey makes Yars’ Revenge one reboot that should not be ignored.
