Best Buy customers will be able to check out Hudson Entertainment highly anticipated Wii title Lost in Shadow from December 26th to January 8th at participating stores ( check bestbuy.com for more details)
Lost In Shadow, sets players in an alternative world with a mysterious tower. The tower is filled with moving shadows yet at the same time, casts a large shadow on everything beneath it. With the help of a winged sylph known as “Spangle,” players can move lights in the foreground to create new shadowy walkways to previously inaccessible areas. Unaffected by gravity while traveling through this medieval landscape, the shadow boy solves mysteries and fights off enemies who stand in his way. The game’s combination of light, shadow, background and foreground creates a unique blend of novel gameplay features, morphing landscapes and artistic visuals.
Lost in Shadow will be available on the Wii on the 4th of January 2011. For more information check ou the official website : http://www.lostinshadow.com/
Within less than 2 months of the games release, fans of the strategy game R.U.S.E have been blessed with FREE downloadable content earlier this week, known as “The Manhattan Project Pack”, available on Playstation Network®, Xbox Live® and Steam® . This is the first add on package to game by Ubisoft, which expands on the multiplayer aspect of the game.
“The Manhattan Project Pack” includes three new multiplayer maps: “Guns and Tulips” for 3vs3 matches, as well as “Twilight of the Gods” and “Vesuvio”, 2vs2 maps. These maps will have players facing off against armies in North Africa, Italy and Holland.
On top of these new maps, two additional multiplayer modes have been added as well. The first of which, “Nuclear War” provides gamers with all prototype factories, researches and upgrades right from the beginning to speed things up. “Total War” will have the player start in 1939 with the units and specificities of the time period, with 1942 and 1945 units as unlockables, which will have to be done one step at a time.
These new modes will have a change both the strategy and pace of the game, and with all this bonus content being available now for free, R.U.S.E players are definitely going to get more bang for their buck.
Just a little heads up to everyone still stuck in a trance from Christmas and the holidays, Dead Rising 2: Case West went live exclusively on the XBLA just a few short hours ago and is available for purchase right now. Costing 800 MSP ($10) this DLC expands upon the Dead Rising 2 story as an epilogue that features not only Chuck Greene, but Frank West as well. Also as you can see above, the camera feature from the first Dead Rising makes its return.
While this standalone DLC may be a bit more expensive then Case Zero (which was only 400 MSP) not only does it offer more zombie killing fun, but it also brings to light what exactly has been happening with Frank West after his trials during DR1. Rather than navigating the Dashboard you can simply download the trial or buy the game and add it to your download queue here.
While Pokémon fans in Japan have had their hands on Black and White since September the rest of the world has been wringing their hands waiting for even the slightest hint of when exactly these two titles will be making their way outside of Japan and into stores worldwide. Well my friends, that wait is over. Nintendo announced today that Pokémon Black and Pokémon White will be released in North America on March 6th next year.
As has been standard with Pokémon game releases both Black and White will be released on the same day but there should be some thought put into exactly which version you purchase. There are 150 new Pokémon to capture and some only appear in certain versions of the game, in areas exclusive to that version. For example the Black version above will offer the legendary Pokémon Reshiram on the boxart in a special setting called Black City, while the White version will offer the legendary Pokémon Zekrom inside of White Forest. I guess it is a good thing that the holidays are over and everyone has plenty of new things to entertain themselves with until Pokémon devours their free time.
GAMEVIL will release three new games onto the Droid marketplace. And, as a thank you, they are discounting all their old ones! Here are the prices:
ZENONIA: $5.99->$2.99
Baseball Superstars 2010: $4.99->$2.99
Soccer Superstars: $4.99->$2.99
ZENONIA 2 will be coming soon and it will feature four customizable character classes, skill effects, an extensive storyline and asynchronous online PvP multiplayer.
Baseball Superstars 2011 will include six different modes including My League, Season, Exhibition, Homerun Race, Mission and Match Play. New & updated visuals, and customization will also be in there.
TouchMix is a rhythm action game that will challenge gamers to choose combinations of multiple instruments and play them via finger tap game play. The title will later be expanded with new songs for the global audience.
“Google Android is one of the fastest growing mobile platforms, so the demand for high-quality titles continues to grow as well,” said Kyu Lee, Head of GAMEVIL USA. “We hope to reach a broader audience in more genres and markets than ever before.”
Electronic Arts and developer Maxis are developing a twin stick shooter with a hint of nanotech. And, if you look closely at the trailer, it will also remind you of that episode of Family Guy where Stewie first meets his arch-nemesis brother. Yes, it features sperm.
However, going back to the game, “what you can’t see can save you.”
“We wanted to take gamers to a place they have rarely visited before — the world inside the human body. The fluid dynamics of the world and the customization of the MicroBot come together to create a unique take on the arcade shooter genre”, said Jason Haber of Electronic Arts. “MicroBot is an energetic and addictive game that is perfect for anyone that plays games on Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network.”
And so, you play as a mini bot that has phasers that can destroy those bad virus and bacteria. But! Are you a good guy or an impostor? Find out next year.
Pokémon Ranger: Guardian Signs Publisher: Nintendo Developer: HAL Laboratory Platform: Nintendo DS (Reviewed) Release Date: October 4th 2010 Price: $29.99 US, £34.99 UK, $69.99 AUS
Overview:
Pokémon is perhaps the largest game franchise over the past decade. Every time that a new Pokémon game is made that focuses on capturing Pokémon and training them to take out the gym leaders it is a guaranteed best seller all over the world. The Pokémon series has been so successful that it has branched out to encompass different aspects of the Pokémon Universe. The Pokémon Ranger series has received another addition to its library in the form of Pokémon Ranger: Guardian Signs. While it may not be part of the main series, does the Ranger series still have what it takes to live up to the Pokémon pedigree?
Story:
Now the first thing to take notice of is the fact that you are going to be playing as a Pokémon Ranger. Rangers differ from trainers as instead of capturing and training Pokémon, a ranger only temporarily catches Pokémon so they can assist them through various obstacles and issues within the story that require that Pokémon’s abilities to help them out.
In Guardian Signs you take control of a rookie Ranger who is just arriving in the Oblivia region. The reason that you were assigned to this region is because a group of criminals known as The Pokémon Pinchers have been capturing Pokémon illegally and using them to further their criminal careers and committing crimes using these illegally captured Pokémon.
The Pokémon Pinchers have a much more devious secret behind their crimes however and it is up to you to put a stop to them. To do this you are given a Pokémon partner that will be along your side to put a stop to this evil plan, a Ukulele Pichu. This Pichu who carries a Ukulele around with it will be your partner nearly from the beginning of the game and puts a bit of a humanized twist on the Pokémon that you work with.
Unfortunately the storyline for Pokémon Ranger: Guardian Signs is very flimsy at best. Once the story does start to develop past the initial bad guy image it starts to move at a steady pace and develop nicely. However the build up to this point isn’t handled well and the overall narrative just feels tacked on to the gameplay to offer some structure to the experience.
Graphics:
One thing that Pokémon Ranger: Guardian Signs does excel at is showing off just how great the Pokémon themselves look. You will see over 300 different Pokémon completely animated for the first time as before we only witnessed them in 2D battle screens. This is evidenced by the fact that any Pokémon that you capture to aid you can be seen following behind your Ranger if choose to.
Besides the Pokémon the rest of the game looks very well done as well. Every environment you experience is very well drawn and nice to look at, especially the battles themselves. There are times within the battles that you can experience a drop in frame rate due to lots of attacks happening at the same time. However this is usually only the case when handling Legendary Pokémon, or more difficult boss battles.
Gameplay:
One of the most noticeable differences that players will experience right off the bat is the fact that Pokémon Ranger: Guardian Signs is more than a little different from your standard Pokémon titles. Instead of capturing Pokémon in the middle of battle with Pokéballs, you instead will use something called the Capture Styler.
The Capture Styler makes complete use of the DS’ stylus (straightforward name and all) and requires that the player draw circles around the Pokémon that they want to join them temporarily. Pokémon will be weakened for every circle that you complete, and when the player makes more than one circle in a row it does extra damage. If the Pokémon however were to hit the lines of the circle before it was completed then the circle would be broken after a period of time.
The stylus itself is treated as something of a Pokémon itself, as you capture Pokémon to help along your journey your Styler will level up as well by receiving Ranger Points. You can use these Ranger Points to customize your Styler’s abilities to your liking. There are a handful of different customizable options such as making the lines stronger which causes circles to raise the “friendship” meter faster to simply being able to make it have more HP. While this is a neither complicated nor in-depth feature it does give the option to customize your Styler to your gameplay style instead of having to deal with a structured level up system. There are other ways of obtaining Ranger Points up as well, such as finishing Guardian Signs plethora of side quests. These side quests, while not important to the gameplay, are interesting enough and can be used for a small grinding session in case you need more Ranger Points to customize your Styler.
The reason that I mentioned friendship before is the fact that all Pokémon within this game are only temporarily with you. These Pokémon do not become yours once you become friends with them. They will follow you around as long as you need them, but will leave immediately after they help you or their amounts of helping are used up. The Pokémon themselves are also able to help out in battle as they will deal certain amounts of damage to the Pokémon you are trying to befriend and make it easier to obtain. They do not disappear when they are used in battle in such a manner which is a nice touch, they still happen to vanish after use outside of battle.
One of the biggest parts of Guardian Signs and all Pokémon Ranger games is the fact that you have to use the abilities of the Pokémon following you to make your way through each dungeon or path. This is accomplished through having not only the Pokémon of the right type, but sometimes even the species as well. The puzzles themselves all wrap around this fact which can create tedious gameplay at times due to the fact that if you do not have the right Pokémon for the job, you must go get one and come back simply to advance.
Now we mentioned the fact that there are circles that should be drawn to become friends with all of the different Pokémon you can find and use them to make the world a better place. But the game is named Pokémon Ranger: Guardian Signs. The reasoning for this is the fact that the game includes something known as Ranger Signs. These Ranger Signs range from a variety of outcomes and designs that the player must draw on their screen with the stylus.
Some Ranger Signs are used for simple reasoning as to summon an older Pokémon to help you out on your journey. But they can also summon different Pokémon to help you out which is a useful feature if you happen to find yourself stuck with no Pokémon able to make their way through the problem. The interesting bit to summoning different Pokémon through the Ranger Sign is the fact that you can even summon a legendary Pokémon to help out with your quest which not only is a helpful feature, but also a nice surprise at the same time as you never know who may show up.
Overall:
Now fans of the classic Pokémon series may find themselves in a whole new world as far as Pokémon Ranger: Guardian Signs goes, but that does not make it a bad thing either. Fans of the Ranger series itself will find more or less of the same game that they love inside as well. The reason that it isn’t a bad thing to try the new series of Pokémon games is simply because it allows players to see the Pokémon world in a whole new light. Sure the story may not be worthy of praise and can easily be forgotten as you slog through a dungeon the gameplay is unique enough to keep the player wanting more.
Happy holidays! On my time off I decided I would do a little stream. I’ve recently gotten back into playing Sengoku Basara (I love me some good hack and slash games) and it’s fairly actiony so I figured why not. Later on if the stream is still going I might put up some Monster Hunter Portable 3rd if I can get my friend on or maybe even some Silent Hill: Shattered Memories if I’m in the mood. Come join me in the stream chat, those who stop by and hang around and participate in the chat will have a chance to get a free PC (Steam) game (I assure you, this is a good game, popular game. None of this $2 indie game stuff). Alright, enough typing, I’ma get to the streamin. Gimme 5-10 minutes to get it setup, so don’t worry if you see a black/blue screen for a bit.
Steam Holiday Sale is going on now, and we already saw a lot of great deals this last week on Steam. But don’t worry if you’ve missed anything, everyone have a new opportunity as they are running today a “Best Of” deals for their top selling games, check it out:
And remember, it’s not over yet, there’s still one week left for all-new daily deals to show up on Steam, so keep checking Steam’s website to see those!
An Awesome addition to the well anticipated series we all know and love will be among us all too soon. Diablo 3 is not only known by the fans that love the volumes that have hit the market over the years, but also by your average person. The highly awaited third addition to this series includes original characters aswell as a few new ones just for flavour.
The good old Barbarian is back for more action, as well as the Wizard taking the place of the Sorceress. For extra measure, blizzard has delightedly given the player some delicious new characters to fight the dark evil denizens of Sanctuary, which include the Witch Doctor, the Monk as well as the dark and foreboding Demon Hunter. Most classes can be customised for either male or female play except for the Demon Hunter class which is only female for now (Blizzard might add a male component in the future).
Many of the good old Beasties that you all know and love will be returning in this chapter of diablo for your hack and slashing pleasure. The Fallen Ones, the Unburied, the Scavenger and many more creepy crawlies will be roaming the country side, dank dungeons and dark sewer smelling alley ways. Be careful or you might find yourself in an early grave.
There are many areas to diablo 3, a lot of the old areas like Tristram will be available for play as well as many new areas never before seen such as the Borderlands and Caldeum. Dekard Cain is once again your light at the end of the tunnel that leads you along your journey.
There is a new Health system that blizzard has implemented into Diablo 3. The good old vials of potions, scrolls and skills are not what they used to be. Blizzard has given the player an alternative to the various means of healing in the game, they have given the player the ability to collect ‘Health Orbs’ from the creature that they dispose of. Depending on the level of the enemy that is killed the character will be able to pick up an orb of varied size, being from small to large.
Diablo 3 offers a new Crafting aspect very much upgraded from the previous games. You will meet and get friendly with a range of artisans that specialise in different types of crafting. The blacksmith can craft and modify weapons and armour adding sockets to items, allowing for those items to be enhanced. The Mystic can create and mould a wide variety of scrolls, potions, runes and many charms, with the option to break down undesirable runes for a shot at the right one you want for your gear. The Jeweller can remove and re-socket gems from any socket in your gear, allowing you to reuse gems over and over again, and can also combine gems to produce the higher quality gems you desire.
To top things off blizzard has introduced a beefed up version of online play for PvP. For those out there you can play against other players in an arena type area to battle and test your skills and ability to survive the wastelands of Sanctuary. Do you have what it takes to survive..?!
