At this moment I cannot think of another Movie based game that went straight to being a small little downloadable title; this could actually work.
Konami announced their upcoming XBLA, PSN and PC game Battle: Los Angeles. This Downloadable first person shooter will be based on the Columbia Pictures film of the same name. There is no estimated time of arrival yet, nor is there a price; however, we do have 4 screenshots, which you can see in this post. Below the screenshots we have the full press release.
I honestly think a small 800MSP game based on a movie will actually sell if it is fun; make it only 400MSP and it will definitely get a lot of attention; make it free and this movie will become incredibly popular. Unless of course the game just sucks, but that rarely happens with movie based games. Right!?
The game will include FPS action, with destructible environments and doesn’t sound half bad.
I could throw the actual movie trailer in here if it will comfort you at all? It might do the opposite actually.
In advance of the nationwide release of Columbia Pictures’ action film Battle: Los Angeles, in cinemas in March, 2011, Konami Digital Entertainment GmbH today announced Battle: Los Angeles, the video game will be available on the PlayStation Network, on Xbox Live Arcade and Windows PC download. Players will have the opportunity to relive the thrill of the movie as they assume the role of Corporal Lee Imlay and fight alongside characters from the film and defend the city of Los Angeles from attacks from unknown forces.
“KONAMI jumped at the opportunity to team up with Columbia Pictures and publish the Battle: Los Angeles video game,” said Careen Yapp, Vice President of Acquisitions and Franchise Development Konami Digital Entertainment. “We love the movie and it was a great experience working with Saber – there were some great ideas about how to expand the story into a game. It’s a great chance for gamers and moviegoers to play out the world of the film.”
“Battle: Los Angeles is a tremendously thrilling game and a perfect complement to our film. Saber and KONAMI have creatively entered the world of the film and used it as a canvas for a rich, exciting game,” said Mark Caplan, Vice President Consumer Products, Sony Pictures Entertainment.
Developed by Saber Interactive and powered by the Saber3D Engine, Battle: Los Angeles is a high-end fast and frantic first–person shooter game that will take players through a single player campaign that mirrors the upcoming feature film. Players will assume the role of a Marine fighting against a worldwide alien invasion that has the city of Los Angeles as the major battleground and focal point for the game. Players will battle unique and varied enemies using an arsenal of weapons throughout the game like an assault rifle, sniper rifle, rocket launcher, frag grenades, and a turret gun as they navigate the streets of Los Angeles avoiding fierce and relentless attacks.
Aside from high-caliber fire fighting combat, destructible environments have been included using the Havok Destruction Module which will allow players to destroy scaffolding structures, vehicles and overpasses to eliminate enemy forces. With unlockable content, trophy support, and 5.1 surround sound, Battle: Los Angeles will pull players deep into the heart of the battle to save mankind.
Game: Worms 2: Armageddon Developer: Team 17 Publisher: Team 17 Genre: Strategy Price: $14.99 Platform: Xbox 360 XBLA – (Reviewed), Playstation 3 PSN Release Date: July 1, 2009 (Xbox 360) September 8, 2010 (Playstation 3)
Worms 2: Armageddon is a sequel to Worms on XBLA. Worms is a pretty recognizable franchise that has existed for well over a decade, getting its start on the PC. Not much has changed since then, but as the saying goes, “Don’t fix what isn’t broken.”
Gameplay
You may have heard of this franchise but may not necessarily have played it or know what it’s about. Put simply, it’s a turn based, strategic combat game that tasks you with controlling a team of cartoon style worms against another team of worms. Yes, that sounds crazy and weird, but that’s part of its charm.
This is how a typical game of Worms will play out. You pick a level, your team of four (along with the enemies team) will spawn in randomized locations across a 2D map. A random Worm from your team will then be chosen to be controlled. Depending on the match type selected, you will have some amount of time for moving around and selecting a weapon, let’s say the average is 60 seconds. Within that time you can move around (very slowly), jump (only meant for clearing very small obstacles) and select and fire your weapon of choice. After you have fired your weapon (or taken damage, such as falling too far or stepping on a mine) your turn ends and a random worm from enemy team is selected to do their bidding and so on and so forth until one team is left standing.
One place where Worms shines is the weapons. A good understanding of how each weapon works as well as a little knowledge in physics (for eyeballing trajectories) will make the difference between a successful hit or a complete miss. Also depending on the match type is what your arsenal will consist of. If your map has a ceiling then all airborne weapons are unusable, such as airstrikes and bunker busters. The classic default weapons are the bazooka and grenade. These normally come with infinite ammo and are the basis of Worms combat. The bazooka will launch a rocket in whatever direction you aim with whatever amount of force you allow it to charge up for. You simply point, hold the fire button to designate how far you want it to go and let it fly. This may seem simple, but know that under normal circumstances you will not have a direct indicator as to where it’s going to hit, you simply have a small crosshair directly in front of you to tell you where it’s pointing. That’s where the skill comes into play, knowing exactly how to aim and how long to charge it for it to hit it’s mark. The rest of the challenge comes from not hitting your teammates (friendly fire is a big factor here) and counteracting wind. Wind can and will change between each turn, blowing either left or right with varying levels of strength. Balancing all of these factors is a key component to the Worms franchise.
That was just detailing the bazooka, however. Each and every weapon handles differently, as I’ve said. A complete newcomer will have a tough time stumbling through their first few battles without having any idea what the weapons do, which is why I strongly suggest going through the training mode (which is as helpful as it is simple) and trying out a few quick battles while you fool around with the weapons. Some weapons are affected by wind, some have delays on their deployment, some are designed to alter the landscape, basically what I’m saying is there are a bunch of varied weapon types that do require intimate knowledge on how to use them.
One can’t talk about Worms without mentioning it’s comedic factor. While Worms is a franchise revolving around strategic combat, it is very lighthearted and can serve to make you chuckle on occasion. Worms will do silly dances or motions during idle team or upon defeating an enemy such as bounce up and down or make a big, goofy smile. They make themed remarks and one liners with tiny, high pitched voices with an example being, “I’m in my zone, Holmes” or will scream if a grenade lands near them. Even the weapons themselves have great comedic effect, especially the animals. A few of the animal weapons are the sheep (which will prance around until you tell it to explode), the ferret (which will scurry around the landscape until it comes into contact with a wall, object or player) and the devastating buffalo of lies (which continuously runs forward for a little while, exploding each time it hits a player). These weapons are only made funnier when you unleash them upon a friend, allowing you to rub it in that a mere sheep killed them.
What’s new
So far I’ve only talked about how the Worms franchise in general works. But this review is about Worms 2: Armageddon specifically, so let’s get down to what is new to this release. Normally, Worms has just been a multiplayer only sort of game. It’s always had computer controlled teams, but in this game there is a campaign mode consisting of over 35 battles and missions. I use the term campaign lightly as campaign usually refers to a mode with some semblance of story, which this game attempts to do in some sense but it isn’t much. You basically go through each “area” defeating the various enemy teams that inhabit them. You start out in the city area, then move on to the medieval area, etc. Some missions actually are not battles and are more like a challenge mission. Sometimes you are tasked with getting to a teleporter with whatever limited resources you have while other times you must use a grapple to navigate a maze-like level in a race against the clock. These add a great deal of variety to the game and make this campaign mode stand out amongst the rest of the game. Also to note is that completion of each mission will result in a reward of some money (more on that in a second) giving you some reason to try it out as opposed to just fighting random battles against friends or computers.
Serving as a bit of an aid to differentiating your worms from the enemies is the new customization options. You can now customize your team with various hats, victory dances, skin colors and voice options
Another new feature, the shop, is where you spend your hard earned money from the campaign. Within the shop are 6 tabs; customization, landscapes, weapons, missions, forts and gravestones. Customization is where you can buy more hats for your worms (I should also note that the PSN version of this game comes preloaded with unique hats based off of some games on the PS3 such as Helghast helmets, motocross helmets, a sackboy mask and more). Landscapes consists of a few other maps that you can choose from to use in multiplayer. Weapons is just that, some weapons that you can’t use until you unlock, mainly consisting of animals and super weapons like the Holy Hand Grenade (produces an extremely large explosion). Missions consists of 5 special missions that exist within the campaign that require your purchase to be unlocked. Forts is for a special gametype called Forts where your team is perched on a themed fort such as a castle or a giant chicken and you must take out the opposing team who sits on a differently themed fort on the other side of the level. Finally is gravestones which is simply more customization to your own worms who turn into a grave upon death.
Also new to the game is a pretty in depth landscape generator which will generate random levels for you to use in multiplayer. You can choose from a handful of parameters such as basic make-up of the level (indoors, two hills, one tall hill, etc), how many objects, mines, napalm tanks litter the battlefield, how high the water is (water is a hazard as worms cannot swim) and what the theme of the level is (city, castle, sports, etc).
Fans of the series will notice that there are a handful of both new and old weapons who haven’t been in previous games making up your arsenal. Returning weapons include napalm, super sheep, holy hand grenade, petrol bomb, concrete donkey, Armageddon, parachute, drill, baseball bat, earthquake and poison strike. The new weapons include a sentry gun, electromagnet, lightning strike, buffalo of lies, bunker buster and the super bunker buster.
Finally to note is the inclusion of leaderboards that track leaders for every game type.
Final thoughts
At its heart, Worms 2: Armageddon is a pretty enjoyable game. Its combination of combat, comedy and challenge is a great mix and is only made better when you play it with a friend. The fact that this game is fully playable online is also a great feature, though the invite system could have been implemented better (you need to access the invite from in game to accept). The leaderboards are there for those who care about such things. The game’s randomized levels ensure that you won’t ever experience the same game twice which is a good thing given this game’s multiplayer only (essentially) status.
One thing I must note, however, is that the game can and will become repetitive. There are a handful of game types to play to counteract this, but most of what you will be doing is playing out battle after battle. If you like this style of gameplay then you won’t be disappointed, but know that there isn’t much else beyond this save for the race mode.
If you are a fan of multiplayer games you will probably enjoy this game. Due to its style of gameplay it essentially never “ends” and so it has colossal replay value, especially when taking into consideration it’s online and local multiplayer.
Game: Back to the Future The Game – Episode 1: Its About Time! Developer/Publisher: Telltale Games Genre: Point & Click Adventure Consoles: PS3 (Reviewed), PC, Mac, iPad
I have been a fan of the Back to the Future trilogy since the moment I first saw the original movie. Classic characters, hilarious situations and a fantastical story made these movies famous. In addition, they are one of the few movie franchises that had a third movie that actually DIDN’T suck (although the first Back to the Future is still the best.) Hence, when Telltale announced they were bringing the series to life in video game form, I was ecstatic, albeit skeptical. Could they bring the series to life? How could they possibly continue the story?! Would the space time continuum be wrecked?!?
If you have not seen the movies, I highly suggest you do so. The game may still make sense, but if you have seen the movies, you will understand the game much better.
Marty McFly is at the Twin Pines Mall, just as Doc is about to send Einstein crackling into the future. The car revs up, and speeds toward you. Suddenly, it vanishes. You then select what you want to say to the Doc. Now, you may be expecting the car to show up momentarily. However, it never returns! And Marty starts to disappear. GREAT SCOTT!
Suddenly, Marty wakes up, and you find out that he has been dreaming. Yes, this game is actually set a few months after the events of the third movie. Doctor Emmett Brown is still gone, and Marty is left with no adventures left to uncover. Fortunately, about that time, he finds out that an illegal estate sale of the Doc’s stuff is being conducted. And that is about where you actually start the game. There are many references to the movies inside the house, and many surprises that will warm your little heart.
However, soon enough, the DeLorean shows up with only Einstein inside. But, didn’t it get destroyed?! How come only Einstein is left? Why is there a smelly shoe in the passenger seat? Those are the questions. Only your massive puzzle solving skills can answer them.
I was shocked and overjoyed at how much I liked, or rather, loved the story! Telltale did not try anything too crazy. The Back to the Future series is admittedly a little zany anyway, but Telltale really respected the franchise and did not try to make it their own. Even the way they handled the DeLorean’s abrupt reappearance was well done. They continued the story with an amazing story filled with interesting characters, hilarious dialogue and the usual hi-jinks. Many great homages to the films show up once again, like the Tannen’s odd fascination with manure. 😉
Its About Time is a point and click adventure game. However, Telltale has gained a reputation for making what may seem like a boring mechanic and turning it into a fun filled, full throttle exploration of an engaging world.
Most of your time though will be spent in the 1930’s version of Hill Valley. You will get to walk or run around these places, talking to all the characters and trying to solve the challenging, arresting puzzles. Most puzzle games are very rote. But this game’s puzzles will take you all over the place. Sometimes the same objects are used, but usually, there are different pieces that must be completed in a specific order. For example, on one puzzle you need to see a special newspaper. But first, you need to find out which newspaper to get, and how to get the old lady out of the room so that you can read the paper without her prying eyes looking at you. Most of the challenges are not to taxing, especially if you explore every nook and cranny, or talk to all the characters. If you get stuck though, there is a hint system to help you along, or outright tell you the answer. The problem I had with the hint system is that it was not nearly as well implemented as the system used Monkey Island. Instead you had to go a menu screen every time you wanted a hint.
If there is one thing that needs to be changed in the game, that would be the graphics and animations. Mouths are often way off sync with voices. The artwork on the characters are blocky and uneven, and that takes you out of the experience. Some of the backgrounds are unusually bland too, which is a real shame because Hill Valley is an integral part to all the movies.
The game also had a plethora of times where it would freeze. I was constantly afraid that it would just shut down and lose my progress. There is absolutely no reason why a system as advanced as the PS3 should have a problem running this rather simple game. For some reason it did, and that is inexcusable.
WHOA! WHO IS THIS?!
Another problem with the game was an awful control system. This game was designed for a computer player, and it definitely shows up in the control system. To illustrate, I had to go down an L-shaped street. As you approached the corner, the camera would go wacko, and the analog stick would not allow me to control the person. When I finally did manage to get him to go the right way, it was a relief. I thought I had figured out that the way to go down the street was to hold the stick in the UP direction. The next time I approached the corner, I held the stick UP, and Marty turned around in the OPPOSITE direction. So, every time I hit a corner in the game, I would have to wrestle with the controls. Other camera problems also turned up. Nevertheless, I suppose that the presentation of the game would have suffered if it weren’t for the 2.5 dimensional set-pieces
Even though the animations are not that great, at least the voice acting is solid. Christopher Lloyd reprises his role as Doc, and as usual does an awesome job. The other voice actors do their job pretty well, especially the one who played Marty. There was only one time where I felt he didn’t sound like Michael J. Fox. Otherwise, it was spot on.
For $20.00, you will receive access to all 5 chapters in the game. This first episode lasted about 4.5 hours, and I can not wait for the next one, due out around the middle of March.
In conclusion, if you are looking for a sublime story with sweet gameplay and only a few faults, give this game a try. You will not be disappointed. However, unless you really want easy trophies (I got 85% without even trying) you should go with the easier controls that the Mac & PC counterparts have. Plus, these consoles will have each episode released a month earlier. If you only own a Playstation 3 though, you need this game.
Gears of War 3, the third chapter in EPIC’s Gears of Wars saga, is going to be coming out later this year. In order for games to have a smooth multiplayer component at launch, many game developers include a public BETA program for people to partake, enjoy and report bugs within. EPIC are including such a scheme for all pre-ordering players who get their game from EBGames and they will be able to get into the program on April 25th.
The pre-order can be for any of the Editions of Gears of War 3 (Standard ($99.95), Limited ($129.95) and Epic ($199.95)) with the BETA scheduled to begin for pre-order players on the 25th of April, 2011. Though for the players who purchased Bulletstorm: EPIC Edition, the date is a little earlier, which is on the 18th of April, 2011.
Key Beta Dates:
Bulletstorm Preview, April 18-24 Owners of “Bulletstorm: Epic Edition” are eligible for a one-week beta preview period featuring the new Team Deathmatch mode on four new maps (Thrashball, Checkout, Trenches and Old Town).
Gears of War 3 Beta, April 25-May 15
The full public beta period begins April 25. Players can look forward to special events and playlists throughout the beta period. Two additional competitive game modes, Capture the Leader and King of the Hill, will be added over the course of the beta period.
May 15 – Beta concludes.
Players of the BETA can look forward to unlocking some exclusive content to their account and/or full-game’s save file upon release, depending on their statistics based on the BETA. The unlockables are as follows:
Unlockables:
Beta Tester Medal – Complete one match in the beta to unlock the Beta Tester medal, which will carry over to your gamer profile in the final game. The Beta Tester title will be featured in the Gears 3 multiplayer lobby as well.
· Thrashball Cole – Complete 50 matches in any game type to unlock the Thrashball Cole character variant in the beta. Once unlocked, complete 10 matches as Thrashball Cole during the beta and the character will carry over to your gamer profile in the final game.
· Gold-Plated Retro Lancer – Show your ultimate Gears of War fandom by unlocking the Gold-Plated Retro Lancer. Complete 90 matches in any game type to unlock it for the beta, and score 100 kills with it once unlocked to carry the exclusive weapon skin over to your gamer profile in the final game.
· Flaming Hammerburst – Complete one match by Sunday, April 24 and unlock this weapon variant.
· Flaming Lancer – Complete one match during the week of April 25 and unlock this weapon variant.
· Flaming Sawed-Off Shotgun – Complete one match during the week of May 2 to unlock this weapon variant.
· Flaming Gnasher Shotgun – Complete one match during the week of May 9 to unlock this weapon variant.
Of course, the Multiplayer BETA isn’t just going to be Team-Deathmatch or some variant on it. EPIC looks to be releasing three brand new multiplayer gametypes and four new and exclusive maps to the program. Two such maps will be ‘Trenches’ and ‘Old Town’.
It should also be noted that owners of the Bulletstorm: Epic Edition will require the disc and BETA access tokens to join in on the Gears of War 3 BETA.
To everyone thinking of joining the world of Telara in RIFT, I present to you a series of videos. Videos designed to inform you of the basic mechanics of RIFT as well as show off some pretty graphics and gameplay. The video was recorded by me (LinkageAX) and will take you through a few core pieces of gameplay as well as the character creation process.
The Video is narrated by me, which is pretty much just me talking about what’s happening on screen, what I’m doing, what things are / do and etc. This video is not all comprehensive and there will probably be another video down the track. Enjoy the video, leave a comment below and let us know your thoughts.
We hope that this assists in your decision as the whether you would like to play RIFT or not. It was a joy to film and I hope that it is informative, entertaining and enjoyable for all viewers.
For those who wish to contact me in-game or run a dungeon or close some rifts or some-such, I can be contacted on the Wolfsbane server by any Defiant player; I go by the name ‘Ayexe’.
Part 1 – Character creation and a little bit of early game footage.
This bit of news will probably only really matter to a select few, but it is still some rather gloomy news for fans of Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker. After four years of service, Square-Enix are finally pulling the plus on the World Cup Wi-Fi function on the game, which let players’ monsters compete online with players all over the world in a tournament style bracket.
Square have now listed this statement on the official DQM:J site to further elaborate:
WILDCARD WORLD CUP INFORMATION
Notice re: Wildcard World Cup Service
Thank you for your support of Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker.
We will be concluding our Wildcard World Cup service effective as of Thursday, March 31, 2011.
We appreciate all of your support for the past four years since the launch of this title.
Please see below for the details.
Final Registration for Wildcard World Cup
Wednesday, March 30, 2011, 6:00 PM PST
Discontinuation of Service
Thursday, March 31, 2011, 7:00 AM PST
As of, 7:00am PST, on March 31, 2011, the ranking page will no longer be available for viewing.
You will still be able to enjoy the single player mode and DS Wireless Play even after the Wildcard World Cup service is terminated.
Once again, we would like to thank you for your support.
I just recently started playing Joker, so this news is a bit depressing, but the online mode should still not be a big enough of a reason for players to check out this awesome little title in the series, especially if you are a Pokemon fan as it shares many similarities such as battling and training monsters. There has been a sequel released in Japan a while back, so hopefully that will see the light of day overseas to make up for the loss of this function, but for now players will have to stick to wireless battles to put their teams to the test.
Hey! Don’t blame us! We journalists are only on the look out for false news when it is April 1st; Bungie was a month too early with their prank.
We covered a bit of news revealing Bungie’s Supposed new project which was an MMO. Yeah, they were making a joke that was clearly not perceived as a joke and literally every single news website out their fell for it. Once the real news came out that it didn’t exist most news sites frantically started trying to cover up their mistake; however, we are different! We point the blunder out for all the world to see. Are we sorry? No! Because it isn’t April Fools day!
A post on Bungie’s official site reads, “After the childish tears, gelatinous gibs, and acrid smoke cleared, an industrious journalist noticed the final slide from David’s GDC deck which apparently proclaimed that we were hiring for a “massively…multiplayer action game.” Ruh oh.”
“Now, in rehearsal Aldridge was convinced that everybody got the joke. It was all in the delivery, he assured us, and he was certain it was clear that he was playfully riffing off of the recent rumours. Unfortunately, most people can’t figure David out – they can’t process him. And we don’t expect them to. You can’t process David Aldridge with a normal brain. You’d need tiger blood and Adonis DNA.”
Yeah, it seems we totally missed the “subtle humor”. Were your hopes up for such a project? Well don’t fret to much, because rumours are still floating around that Bungie and Activision’s game will be a shooter entitled ‘Destiny’, which currently exists under the working codename of ‘Tiger’. Not exactly an MMO; but who knows, it may still happen.
It seems that the entire population went gaga when Charlie Sheen’s exploits were revealed. And when he joined Twitter, news stories popped up faster than the Millennium Falcon. Plus, he reached a total of 1,000,000 followers in near record time.
Apparently, Lady Gaga (another of Twitter’s most popular people) just couldn’t take being shunned by the press for so long a time. I mean, come on! A meat dress will only titillate the people of the world for so long. So, away she went to the legal system. Lady Gaga is now threating to sue an ice-cream distributor in London. But wait! It gets better!
Now why would the worlds most popular pop star want to sue a company that makes ice cream? For starters, this particular ice cream was made of human breast milk. Yes, ‘Baby Gaga’ is an ice-cream made from human breast milk, mixed with a delightful combination of vanilla pods and lemon.
Thankfully, inspectors from Westminster council’s food standards department confiscated the remaining ice cream a few days ago, citing that “selling foodstuffs made from another person’s bodily fluids can lead to viruses being passed on and, in this case, potentially hepatitis”.
Of course, the owner of the establishment, one Mr. Matt O’Connor disagrees, saying that the donor of the milk, “is a registered blood donor. So she has been screened both by us and a clinic.”
He goes on saying that he feels like a man “wielding two spoons engaged in hand-to-hand combat. (Lady Gaga) described me as the ‘controlling mind’ behind the ice-cream, which makes me sound like Blofeld, in a James Bond movie, bent on global domination. A global superstar has taken umbrage at what she describes as a ‘nausea-inducing’ product. This from a woman with a penchant for wearing rotting cows’ flesh. At least our customers are still alive when they contribute to our ‘art’. She claims we have ‘ridden the coattails’ of her reputation. As someone who has … recycled on an industrial scale the entire back catalog of pop culture to create her look, music and videos, she might want to reconsider this allegation. How can she possibly claim ownership of the word ‘gaga’ which since the dawn of time has been one of the first discernible phrases to come from a baby’s mouth?”
It is hard to believe that a single news story could incite someone to hate both parties with a passion. However, both of the people in this dispute are nothing but bone headed fools who need a good smack in the head. Someone please call Master Chief 117 (and with that, this article has a videogame reference.) Winning!
Square Enix has announced both a release date and special edition details for third-person shooter action role-playing game ‘The 3rd Birthday’, the next installment of the Parasite Eve series exclusively for the PSP. The special Twisted Edition retail version of the game will include exclusive in-game items, a copy of CTI Confidential (a 44 page hardcover artbook), two deluxe Aya Brea Lithograph art prints and an exclusive Lightning in Aya Brea costume for use in the upcoming PSP fighter Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy. As well as a discount voucher offering 50% off the purchase of the upcoming re-release of Final Fantasy II available soon on the Playstation Network.
The 3rd Birthday is set to be released in Australia on April 7.
Awhile back we mentioned that Atlus was working on a patch for the Japanese version of the game that would allow players to have an easier time accessing Catherine instead of putting it on the shelf and never playing it again/never buying it in the first place. The difficulty patch is primarily set to make easy mode even easier than it was before (it wasn’t).
The demo of Catherine was not very challenging and provided some players with a false security about the game’s overall difficulty but that has been changed according to Katsura Hashino. The easy mode will allow players to have an “assist option” to help you make it through the game’s more difficult areas and even give you more retries than was previously allowed. The patch itself has yet to make its way onto the game but players are hoping it will allow them to even make it past the first few levels without having to start over from their last save.
