In June 2011, get ready to get your swim trunks on. Michael Phelps – Push the Limit is coming to the Xbox 360 Kinect. Unless you have been living under a rock for the past few years, you know that Michael Phelps is probably the greatest swimmer of all time. Are you ready to take him on?
“Push the Limit is a fun, innovative, and physical way to game that is complete with elements that will challenge serious gamers, swimmers and casual fans,” said Phelps. “I’m really excited to help bring a one-of-a-kind swimming video game to the market that is reflective of my competitive nature and passion for swimming. This definitely isn’t your typical video game; much like my training in the pool, Push the Limit is about improving and mastering every race element – from controlling your adrenaline on the block to perfectly timing your finish. In my world, it takes a lifetime of dedication to get one-hundredth of a second ahead and I believe Push the Limit offers players a unique journey inside swimming that will challenge themselves as much as their in-game competitors.”
All I can hope for is that I won’t be laying down in my living room pretending to do the doggy paddle.
The Yakuza are coming to town in the United States on March 15th, but a few of them are sneaking over on the PSN in only a few weeks. They will be giving players a taste of each of the four playable characters in the game while also allowing them to learn how each of them fight and handle the world around them. Now there is a catch however when it comes to getting access to the demo.
Those who are subscribers to the PlayStation Plus will be able to get access to the demo on February 15th. All is not lost however if you aren’t a PlayStation Plus user though. Normal members will be able to gain access to the demo a week later on February 22nd. So everyone will soon have a chance to take a look at the criminal underworld of Japan. Everyone that owns a PlayStation 3 that is.
It’s one thing to say that a game has gone gold, but what about when the game itself has dialogue dirty enough to make even a sailor blush? The game’s official Twitter account stated that Bulletstorm has gone gold today which means that it is all ready to go in a few weeks when the game releases on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC on February 22nd.
There wasn’t any other news in the Twitter announcement besides the fact that they really want you to pre-order from GameStop apparently. So now that we’ve all had plenty of time to give the demo a shot, we can now get a full sampling of just how many of us can kill with skill. Oh and come up with the most inventive way to string together expletives.
Square Enix released a new trailer for Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together yesterday. You won’t find much gameplay (or lyrics, or game audio, or dialogue) here, but it does have that classic ogre battle/tactics ogre style that is sure to evoke some nostalgia. Just watching this brings me back to my days as a kid playing Ogre Battle 64. Good times.
Apparently, the human race is doomed. Without a nano suit, how can we protect the human race from all the aliens?! Well, I guess we can distract ourselves from our predicament by playing Crysis 2. If the demo is still broken for you though, and you are sinking into an even worse funk, then you can watch the trailer below to find out how awesome we could be in the future.
Be stealthy, like a fish. Be as speedy as Speedy Gonzalez. Be strong, like the Hulk. Be the weapon.
Crysis 2 will be coming out on the Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and PC on March 31, 2011.
Twisted Pixel, the famed developer behind ‘Splosion Man, has released a trailer for their newest IP. In the new game, you get to play as a marionette. But not just any marionette. You are a troubled skeleton that is also a cowboy that is also on the warpath for revenge. However, this will not be a drama filled soap opera of a game. By making the main character as a marionette playing in a stage based performance, Twisted Pixel is able to insert original, crazy and wacky ideas. Most importantly, the game is made for Kinect and you can play it SITTING DOWN! Hooray! Twisted Pixel also has promised extremely accurate controls. Check out the trailer below to get an idea on how awesome this game will be.
It’s no secret that Call of Duty is an incredibly successful game. After all, why wouldn’t it be? It has extremely innovative and compelling multiplayer, quite possibly one of the BEST campaigns in the history of video games, there are NO other games even remotely similar and the story rivals that of Avatar. Hell, even if you didn’t know that Call of Duty was great, surely you can assume based on the price of it’s map packs. $15 for 3 old maps, man they must be high quality!
Up until now, no other game or franchise has come close to dethroning what is in all probability the greatest game to ever be made. However, one development studio dares to dream. Check out the game’s official site for a FREE DOWNLOAD of the game that will end the Call of Duty franchise, Duty Calls.
Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment has released more screenshots and a piece of concept art for Batman: Arkham City, sequel to the critically acclaimed Batman: Arkham Asylum. This game’s predecessor was widely praised for its graphics (among other things like being sinister superhero game with great production values) and certainly looks like Arkham City is headed the same way just by taking a peek at these screenshots. Again, it looks very graphically impressive, and now that the game is freed from the bounds of the Arkham Asylum and let loose in the city, it should offer a completely new experience from the first game.
Take a look at the concept art above and the new screens for the game below:
Rio! – upcoming 3D animated movie is the product of Brazillian/American co-operation, between Blue Sky Studios and 20th Century Fox. It is not short on vocal talents department, with Jesse Eisenberg, Anne Hathaway, Rodrigo Santoro, Kate del Castillo, Jamie Foxx, Tracy Morgan, George Lopez, Leslie Mann, Jemaine Clement, Neil Patrick Harris, Jane Lynch, Robin Thicke and Will.I.Am in the cast.
Jessie Eisenberg is playing the voice of Blu, a member of rare species of macaw, who embarks on an adventure to meet a female of his kind. The movie is set to be released around 15/Apr/11 worldwide, with the lucky Brazilians getting a sneak preview ahead of the world on 08/Apr/11. In order to promote the movie, 20th Century Fox has announced a tie in with Rovio, releasing Angry Birds Rio!. Angry Birds Rio! will feature new characters, new music, and 45 new levels based on scenes from the movie. It is available now for iPhone, Palm, Nokia and Android phone platforms.
Swap This! Developer: Two Tribes Publisher: EA Platform: iPhone/iPod Touch Genre: Puzzle Released: 27 January Price: (US)$0.99 – (AU)$1.19
Swap This! for the iPhone is a puzzle game which has you organising stacks of frozen fish (trapped in a surrounding cube of ice) into groups of at least four in order to free them. To call the concept eccentric would probably be a bit of an understatement, and when you take into account that one of the modes known as ‘Fish Fight’ has you launching these newly liberated critters at another larger, more threatening fish to prevent it from reaching the surface of the water, it really does sound a little bit crazy. And while the idea behind it acts only as an excuse to stack these multi-coloured creatures into organised arrangements, it is the game’s simplicity that will really win you over. Although it can offer more depth through power-ups, obstacles that get in your way in an attempt to hinder your mix and matching, and an ever-increasing level of difficulty that gets truly challenging very quickly.
It seems the only instruction needed to play this game is the title itself: Swap This! The controls are straight-forward, allowing anyone to play. It is simply an intuitive system where you touch one tile to select it (and touch it again if you want to deselect it), and following on from that touch the tile you want to swap it with and the game does the rest. There’s no dragging or sliding involved, just quick flourishes of the fingertips that make for a clean switching system. Soon you learn to do this at speed and develop skills for more in-game techniques to create longer chains or simultaneous chains, both of which come with nifty score bonuses. Some unlockable power-ups aid you in clearing the board and getting combos, and enemies which block off parts of the game board also add some variety to the game.
Variety also comes through the choice of three different game modes, each providing slight variations on the Swap This! formula. The first, Fish Fight, which I have already mentioned, is arguably the main game mode. Your aim in this mode is to create the groups of the same coloured fish, which are then used to whack a large, sinister-looking fish down to the depths of the ocean. This motive is represented along the side of the screen with the enemy fish and the ocean visualised in a meter, monitoring it as it creeps up the screen with each attack pushing him further down. Creating larger chains and bigger combos is more effective and will push the enemy fish down further, whereas smaller groupings won’t help to push it down very much at all. There is even videos at the end of each round which change depending on whether you win or lose, portraying your little guys fighting of the large fish or being eaten by it depending on the outcome. Most will find this mode to be the most addictive of them all, as you will keep wanting to see if you can pass through rounds faster and faster each time, and seeing if you can progress past the fish that got you last time round.
The other two modes are ‘Minute Match’ and ‘Puzzles’, with the contents of each being explained quite nicely by their titles. As you would expect from a name like that, Minute Match is a test of speed, giving you a minute to get as higher score as possible. While most of your time will probably go into the other two modes, this one is ideal for short bursts of play when out and about, and also is the mode that makes best use of the Facebook and Twitter support. Although the whole game is high score-based, it is this mode that will bring out the most competition with friends, especially when social network support is utilised.
The final play mode is Puzzles, which provides a more methodical approach to playing the game, ousting the frantic tapping of the other modes for a more slow and steady play style. It does this through removing any time constraints and simply giving you a range of different circumstances with the sole aim being to match everything up in the fewest moves possible. There are three modes to play through -easy, medium and hard- with targets within each puzzle, offering replay value to go back and get all gold medals. Unfortunately, you are forced to play through the insultingly easy first lot of puzzles before you can unlock the others, but as with the rest of the game, it quickly becomes surprisingly tricky in places.
Overall, Swap This! is an excellent puzzler, that’s suitable for all ages. It has been crafted to hold appeal amongst youngsters with it’s cutesy graphical style, but quickly becomes devilishly difficult and can pose a challenge to the most seasoned of gamers. But it’s not all frantic fingers either: the Puzzles mode gives the option of a more thoughtful approach to the game, and some of the harder enigmas really do require a lot of logic. The game’s addictive simplicity makes it an absolute winner, and for the tiny asking price, you can’t really go wrong.
Pros
Colourful design
Simple but enjoyable concept
Addictive gameplay
Logic-based Puzzles mode
Facebook and Twitter support for those who know other people with the game
