R.U.S.E. has received another injection of DLC goodness and it is now available from the Xbox Live Marketplace. The DLC called, ‘The Pack of the Rising Sun’, introduces the Japanese Army with 28 new units and 3 exclusive new operations where you play as the Imperial Japanese Army.
The Japanese have cheap production costs, have pack pack flamethrower units to burn enemies out into the open. Zero fighter planes can patrol the skies and the Shinden place a menacing shadow over the battlefield with four 30mm cannons ready to kill anyone who opposes them. There is also prototypes like the AOV recon and the Ha-To long-range gun to take out your enemies from a distance.
Details of the three new operations for The Pack of the Rising Sun are below:
Gold For The Brave: In this fictional challenge, gamers will play with the Kentucky National Guard, protecting the Fort Knox Federal Reserve gold until reinforcements from the 1st Armored Division arrive.
Ostfriesland: In this challenge, players will lead a Japanese strike force in Germany. Their objective will be to prevent the British XIIth corp. from establishing a bridgehead into their defense line. Gamers will be able to use infantry, artillery, armored forces as well as prototype weapons, but will have a limited aircraft.
For Honour: in this challenge, take command of a renegade division of the Imperial Air Force who refuse to lay down arms and decide to join the Japanese garrison in a desperate and hopeless fight on the island of Java. All around, US, British and Soviet forces are gathering for the ultimate offensive…
Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part 1 Platforms: Xbox 360 (Reviewed), Wii, Playstation 3, PC Publisher: Electronic Games Developer: Bright Light Genre: Third Person Shooter Release Date: 19/11/2010 Price: $36.99 US. BUY NOW – $79.99 AU BUY NOW
Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part 1 (wow that’s a mouthful!) is the latest instalment of the Harry Potter franchise, and home consoles now have received a video game based on the movie. This game however is quite different to the usual Harry Potter video game title, as it is presented as a third person shooter. An interesting choice no doubt. With the series at it’s darkest point yet, putting Mr. Potter in a more action-based game is arguably a very smart direction for the series. However, while all these ideas sound awesome on paper, unfortunately this game isn’t as ‘magical’ when put into practise.
Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part 1 is a bit of a mouthful, so let’s abbreviate it to: ‘HPATDHP1’. Damn it! It’s still heaps long!
Story &Presentation: At first glance, Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part 1 appears very well presented, as expected from any Harry Potter video game, staying true to the film franchise and appearing quite stylish. The music sounds like it has been taken straight from the film and the character models look like the actors. One really nice touch is the presentation of health within the game. The more damage Mr. Potter takes, the more colour is lost from the screen, and you reach game over when everything is completely black and white, a very artistic touch. However while these things are nice, there are a few deal breakers for the game in the aspect of presentation, especially with the story. For a game based on a film based on a book, one would assume that the story would be a main feature of the title but instead it is presented in rather a very poor fashion. The story is barely understandable unless you have seen the movie or read the book. Besides that, your never really sure why your doing anything or where you are, causing the player to feel apathetic towards the characters. Cut scenes while plentiful, don’t really flesh out the storyline or advance the plot much at all, but rather have NPC’s telling you to do some of the most silliest objectives that have very little to do with the story and aren’t even slightly rewarding. Presentation is still flawed with even how the game is set out, constantly switching between third and first person, for what seems like no reason at all, which doesn’t even effect the gameplay.
This is a video game based on a movie based on a book based around magic. Take that Inception!
Gameplay
The gameplay is based mostly around a broken third-person shooter with a terrible ‘duck and cover’ system. Taking cover is the worst as there is nothing to indicate what you can hide behind and what you cannot, creating a few frustrating situations. Half the time though, the game works as a button masher where your just standing still firing at an enemy until it dies and if it fires back it won’t usually kill you at all, so nobody really seems that threatening. Sometimes you may die, but instead of feeling challenging, it’ll feel frustrating, until you realise there is no strategy required, just cycling through spells and finding out which spell kills which enemy the quickest. Speaking of which, changing spells is a pain as well, as you need to pause the game and go to an entire new menu just to select which one you’d like to use, which really slows down the gameplay. This is a disaster as the game already feels very slow. That’s right, while this is an action game, everything feels very slow-paced. From walking to the next area to moving the target and locking on onto enemies, the game never really gives you an adrenaline rush or any sense of risk making every objective feel like its a chore to do. The inclusion of a spell called ‘four square’ is a noteworthy one, as it will always show you where to go once it has been cast. It’s nice to have when you can’t find someone or something or don’t know what to do, but on the other hand it kills any hope of a challenge or puzzle in this game. So it’s both a pro and a con really. I just used it a lot so I could hurry up and get through the game. Level design is another poor aspect of the game, as all levels are quite plain in the way they are set out and are very uncreative, usually just you needing to walk in a straight line and defeat enemies in the way or talking to people. Not very fun at all.
*Insert sexual innuendo type of joke regarding broomsticks and wands here*
EA’s Bright Light Studios at leasts tries to mix things up by adding rail-shooter styled levels and stealth levels, but they just don’t cut it either. The rail-shooter levels have the same problem as the normal level although they aren’t as slow-paced, but the stealth levels which require sneaking will often have you getting caught without not knowing how, and sneaking around to complete objectives that you couldn’t even care less about. Xbox 360 owners get an extra Kinect mode, where they can pretend to swing wands to shoot. It’s fun for a little bit, but gets old quickly and you’ll soon realise just randomly waving your arms about in random directions with more than likely get you through the level, making the entire thing seem stupid. However, the game has no visible bugs, the controls are responsive and the camera is decent, it’s just the game feels slow and boring most of the time. It’s not that the developers did anything wrong, it’s just they didn’t do much that was right.
Waving your arms around as Harry screams “Stupify!” is fun for a few minutes, but then it feels really, well…stupid.
Graphics & Audio
Graphics are a highlight of the game, but they aren’t anything spectacular. The character models look like the actors and animation is fluid, so it’s nice to see they got that right at least. There are some very uncreative graphical sections though, like one level your on a street, and you can clearly see a sign on a shop saying ‘The Shop’ and a bar with a board saying ‘The Bar’, which doesn’t exactly look like they put much thought into these little details. Much dialogue is very uncreative as well, as you can hear people on streets saying the most unbelievable things, and NPC’s telling your objectives sounding more like they are being read off a to do list rather than a classmate from Hogwarts taking to you. I would love to say at least the voice acting saves the horrible dialogue, but this is only true half the time. Some voice acting is done really well, and some are done terribly, making it a bit of a mixed bag. On the bright side sound effects are spot on and are done well, and the music really captures the theme and sounds like its straight from the movie, with very high quality pieces of music in the soundtrack. However, while the music is good, it isn’t always presented well in the sense where it’s been included. Sometimes the music while walking around is too quiet, and sometimes in combat you’ll be fighting at enemies without music. If there was always the intense soundtrack during combat, Im sure it would get you in the mood more, but sadly this isn’t always the case. A action game like this one needs lots of this, not just in key scenes. Scenery and backgrounds for the most part look quite beautiful and do look like sets from the movie, staying true to the Harry Potter experience, but it doesn’t save the game.
No Quidditch in a Harry Potter game?! WHAT THE H??!!
Conclusion
As mentioned before, I think going for a more action-based title is a smart direction for the Harry Potter series, its just that this game probably isn’t the good example of that. The gameplay feels slow, the cover system is flawed, the objectives aren’t interesting at all, the story is told horribly, the level design is uncreative, voice acting is only good half the time….honestly its hard to even keep track of all the things that are wrong with this title. It’s such a massive shame too, as the ideas behind this one have a lot more potential. Hopefully EA addresses these in future games.
PROS
-Characters and settings look like actors
-Decent graphics
-Foursquare helps you get through levels faster
-Health system is stylish
CONS
-Slow gameplay
-Broken cover system
-Boring objectives
-Uninspired level design
-Half the time the voice acting is terrible, and he dialogue is even worse
-Music is good but doesn’t always capture the mood
-Storyline is told poorly
In a galaxy where men kill aliens and one man is king, video games come out in super duper special editions. In addition to the ‘Balls of Steel’ extras already written about here, Australia and New Zealand will be getting exclusive collectibles for Duke Nukem Forever ‘Balls of Steel’ or regular edition pre-orders. Check out the lists below to figure out where to spend your clams.
Australia:
EB GAMES – Duke’s Big Package – Unlocks in-game EGO boost, Big Head Mode and T-Shirt pack
GAME – Duke Nukem Forever ‘speaking’ key ring.
JB HIFI – Duke Nukem Forever ‘bottle-opener’ baseball cap.
New Zealand:
EB GAMES – Duke’s Big Package – Unlocks in-game EGO boost, Big Head Mode and T-Shirt pack
MIGHTY APE (online e-tailer) – Duke Nukem Forever ‘bottle-opener’ baseball cap.
JB HIFI – Duke Nukem Forever sunglasses.
Pre-orders at EB Games will get Duke Nukem Forever First Access Club pass. This pass grants you access to the demo of the game before everybody else.
The Duke Nukem Forever Balls of Steel Edition can be purchased on the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC for $149.95 AUD ($159.95 NZD) and $139.95 AUD ($149.95 NZD) for PC. In addition to the copy of the game (aren’t you glad they included that?) this edition will have special cover art and the following:
Collectible bust of the greatest alien ass-kicker of all-time
Numbered, limited-edition certificate of authenticity
100-page hardcover book: The History, Legacy & Legend: Duke Nukem Forever Art from the Vault
Gameloft has taken the reigns with the new Playstation Phone, the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play, announcing 10 games to be launched with the new device. Two of those games, Asphalt 6: Adrenaline and Star Battalion, are revealed here.
Asphalt 6 looks to be an arcade-style racer. Very reminiscent of games like Burnout, Extreme-G and Cruisin’ series, Asphalt 6 looks like it will not only be a blast to play but a great start for the Xperia’s library.
Star Battalion is a 3rd person space shooter complete with local and online multiplayer. Star Battalion looks to be fairly reminiscent of the Star Fox and Star Wars series with it’s selection of ships, barrel rolls and missiles.
The Killzone 3 single player demo, which was only available to those with Playstation Plus last week, is now up and available for all to enjoy on the Playstation Network. With Killzone 3 coming out next week, gamers who are on the fence about whether or not to buy what is potentially going to be this years best shooter for the Playstation 3 might want to check out the demo.
If you aren’t interested in the single player, don’t forget to check out the open beta that has been going on since the start of February and is likely to end soon. Original plans were that it would end on the 14th, but that has passed and the beta is still going strong, so get some playtime in while you can!
Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Revelation is now available in the states, and fresh off the release Nintendo have a brand new trailer out, introducing players to what will be their main party within the game. The trailer shows off the main hero of the game as well as Carver, Milly, Ashlynn, and Nevan. As well as the cast being shown off, the clip also gives players a brief confirmation of vocations and new abilities that are in the new title.
I have been working my way through this title for a bit now and I must say these characters are all welcome additions to the franchise and the trailer really isn’t long enough to show off how much personality is in the game. I will be putting up a detailed review in the coming days to explain what I mean by that statement and much more, so keep an eye out for that. For now you cab check out this trailer for yourself below and if you are on the wall about picking Dragon Quest VI up, I will go ahead and say it is definitely worth the price of admission so do yourself a favor and check it out for yourself.
For those of you who haven’t heard, DJ Hero will be receiving no more downloadable content after February. Thankfully though, that date has not approached yet and fans can get the new Pendulum Mix Pack as of today for the music title. These tracks are of course from the electronic music group, Pendulum, who are currently on tour with Linkin Park.
Tracks Include:
· “Watercolour”
· “Set Me On Fire”
· “Salt In The Wounds”
This mix pack will be 640 points on XBLA, $6.29 on the PSN, and sold seperately on the Nintendo Wii for 300 Nintendo points each. As for if this DLC is the final nail in DJ Hero coffin, that is still to be determined as we still have another week that potential content could pop up. I do hope that this is not the final horrah for the extra content, as going out with a bang rather would be better than just a three track pack, but for now though DJ Hero fans have at least a little something extra to keep them busy as their series draws to a close.
The developers that brought us everything from Brutal Legend to Costume Quest are now working on quite a unique game. Announced today by Warner Brothers we now know that Double Fine Productions has been working on a game they are calling Sesame Street: Once Upon a Monster which will be a Kinect game for the Xbox 360.
Apparently the game will have players playing alongside the likes of Elmo and the Cookie Monster to explore a storybook and meet other Sesame Street characters. As you can see it looks like the Kinect will place players in control of their own character and will have game mechanics based around childrens’ learning. Much like Sesame Street itself. Expect to see Sesame Street: Once Upon a Monster some time in the Fall season.
Even though Marvel vs. Capcom 3 just came out on store shelves today, that doesn’t mean that DLC isn’t already coming down the pipeline. Of course we already know that there will be a Shadow Mode which will be available on March 1st, as well as the DLC pack of Jill Valentine and Shuma Gorath. But what we didn’t know was that on that same day a full costume pack will also be released for 400 MSP or $5 depending on the console purchased.
This costume pack which hasn’t received an official name, though could just be called Costume Pack 1, will provide new costumes for a variety of male characters on the roster. The characters that will be getting new outfits are Thor, Iron Man, Dante, Captain America, Chris Redfield and Ryu. Look below to see a plethora of screenshots which show off each of the characters’ new outfits.
Gamers wanting a taste of Grand Prix motorcycle racing should get their hands on the MotoGP 10/11 demo which hits Xbox Live and PSN today. MotoGP 10/11 is the latest in the long line of realistic Grand Prix motorcycle racing games from Capcom. In this demo, player can either race as GP legends Danny Pedrosa or Andrea Dovizioso, in a single Championship race or in Time Trial against the clock on the famous Mugello circuit.
The full game will of cause feature many more motorcycles, circuits and racers as well as, the brand new feature that allows players the ability to fully customise their own bike set up allowing both fans of arcade and simulation style racing the best of both worlds in an authentic MotoGP gaming experience.
