Little Big Planet 2 has shown off some pretty extraordinary creations made by the people currently in the beta. Since the game is still only a beta, one can only imagine the amazing stuff that will be created once the full game launches on January 18th 2011.
Below is a video of a fighting game completely simulated within the Little Big Planet 2 beta. Included are Sony, Marvel, and Capcom characters. Check out the video below to get even more psyched up for the upcoming release of the full game.
As someone who just got into the Dragon Quest/Warrior series in the past few years, I can easily say the series as a whole has grew to be one of my favorite RPG franchises period. Nintendo have now announced that the once Japan Exclusive Dragon Quest VI will now be headed overseas and on to the Nintendo DS with the new title, Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Revelation.
This title has a bit of history to it as it was originally released on the Super Famicom over 15 years ago and later ported to the Nintendo DS in Japan with a full overhaul back in January. Now as for story, Realms looks to be more of the traditional Dragon Quest fare with a hero trying to save the world, but of course if it isn’t broke, don’t fix it and that should be great news to anybody who imported this title as it is staying true to the original formula all the way.
Here is a look at the Official Announcement from Nintendo:
DRAGON QUEST VI: Realms of Revelation features a rich storyline that leads players through a multitude of captivating worlds as they gather allies and battle fierce monsters on a quest to defeat evil forces. With updated graphics and more than 15 character classes to choose from, new and experienced players alike can dive headlong into the timeless role-playing excitement of the DRAGON QUEST franchise anytime, anywhere. They can even enjoy special features such as switching between character classes and letting monsters, such as Slimes, join their party.
“Millions of players around the world have discovered the timeless fun of DRAGON QUEST,” said Marc Franklin, Nintendo of America’s director of Public Relations. “The arrival of DRAGON QUEST VI: Realms of Revelation in North America will give fans unique access to a classic game in the series for the first time, offering new ways to explore and enjoy the DRAGON QUEST universe.”
I know I can’t be the only one hyped for this one as there really is nothing like the Dragon Quest games with the classic JRPG formula of grinding and leveling that fans should already know and love. Nintendo have already dated the North American release for February 14th, 2011. As for the rest of the world, the dates have yet to be announced but I am sure we will hear more on that soon enough. For now you can check out the new trailer below and check back as we will bringing you more coverage of Realms of Revelation as it is released.
Today was the start for the crazy Steam Holiday Sales, where gamers can save up to 80% (and even more) on select titles, with special and daily deals, publishers packs, indies pack and other special compilations.
My three favorite deals from today are the ones for Super Meat Boy (75% Off! – $3.75), Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (66% Off! – $10.19) and Oddworld’s Oddboxx (50% Off! – $12.49), this last one is the debut bundle containing all of Oddworld Inhabitants critically-acclaimed classics, Abe’s Oddysee, Abe’s Exoddus, Munch’s Oddysee and Stranger’s Wrath, both available for the first time to PC owners.
Of course there’s a lot more deals to look for, below you can see my selection for some other deals that are current available:
Shadow Guardian Developer:Gameloft Publisher:Gameloft Genre: Action/Adventure Platform: iPhone (iPad) Released:16 October Price:$8.99(AUS), $6.99(US) BUY NOW
In search of the mysterious Prima Materia, a powerful and precious relic has now become a real threat if it falls into the wrong hands. Hidden in a remote temple, it is sought after by a group of dangerous mercenaries that want to acquire its power to enslave the rest of the mankind. Your mission as the saviour of the free world is to get to it before them, or else the world will suffer the consequences.
However, instantly you realise that the protagonist wasn’t successful. In fact he is caught in the clutches of the lead super villain of the enemy organisation, hooked up to a strange machine. This machine forcefully reads our hero’s memories. And this forms the basis of the plot – you are cast into the memories and take control of Jason Call, playing out the proceedings of his memories until you once again return to the antagonists lair.
In Shadow Guardian you take control of Jason Call as he travels the world in search of the supernatural treasure – a bit like Indiana Jones, minus the whip but with the addition of some lethal fighting skills and seemingly superhuman strength. A lot of people have drawn likenesses between Shadow Guardian and Uncharted, coining Shadow Guardian simply a pointy, more angular version of Uncharted. In my opinion, having links with the highly rated Uncharted is no bad thing, and Gameloft would do well to create a game like Uncharted for iPhone through Shadow Guardian.
Thankfully, they pulled it off and with Shadow Guardian they’ve got an Uncharted clone, and a good one at that. Despite being a little “pointy”, its graphics are actually one of its strong points. Quite frankly, it excels in this area and is one of, if not the best looking game(s) on the iPhone. The character models are great for iPhone standards, and there is also a varied range of enemy character models, wach with their own weapons and abilities. Also, given the supernatural story behind the game, not all of your foes that you encounter are human. You come up against a number of creatures throughout the single-player story, as well as some boss-style battles such as blasting a helicopter out of the sky using an RPG. Because you are travelling around the world in your search, the game is able to display a varied, rich load of scenery as you travel between real-world countries on your mission.
You also get a wide array of weapons during the game, ranging from pistols to machine guns to the aforementioned rocket launcher. In addition, the game features hand-to-hand combat too and it is clear your character has been educated in a large number of martial art disciplines by the way he can swiftly deliver fatal blows to the enemy. On the whole, the combat isn’t as engaging as you would have hoped. Auto-assist and auto-aim functions aid you every step of the way, which means that you never feel in full control. However, the auto-aims features do not detract form the gameplay very much and you soon become used to the crosshair automatically locking on and it rapidly just becomes a part of the gun sections. Plus, it is not like the iPhone with its touch screen interface is an easy format to program a set of firearm combat controls into, so to avoid overcomplicating things, I think Gameloft made the right choice with an auto-assist and an auto-aim control scheme.
These combat sections are fairly well weighted, with a steady stream of enemies and usually a couple of different waves. Normally they present a few people with specialist guns in attempt to throw off your balance and put a damper on your stride, but the good thing is, these sections don’t crop up overly-often. Instead, they simply pave the way for the excellent platforming sections. If the combat parts were to be considered one of the game’s weaker points, then the platforming is definitely one of it’s strengths. It is in the climbing sections that his superhuman strength comes into the picture too. The lead character can hurl himself up the various cliff and statues in manoeuvres of pure fantasy and his non-existent levels of agility are unrealistic, but very impressive nonetheless. It really is great fun, and navigating your way through all the climbing-orientated parts is very satisfying. What’s more, Jason provides tips and hints regarding where to go or what to do next through a ongoing monologue which is worded in text along the top of the screen.
All in all, Shadow Guardian doesn’t compare to most high-end console games, although the mere fact that I am comparing it with console games shows just how brilliant it is. The level structure is good and the story is more than adequate for iPhone standards. Visually, it has to be one of the best looking iPhone games around, climbing sections are a joy to play and the combat/shooting sections aren’t bad either. Overall, my verdict is that Shadow Guardian is one of the best iPhone adventure games around and definitely worth the slightly higher price.
Pros
Great graphics
Brilliant platforming
Story is good for iPhone standards
In general, it is just an extraordinary title for the standard of iPhone games
Get your surprise face on. No really, we are about to blow your mind. Ok, are you ready? Call of Duty Black Ops, the “biggest entertainment media launch in history” will be getting five new maps for that magical price of fifteen dollars or 1200 Microsoft points. Yup, for just a 1/4 of the price of the actual game, you get the “Discovery” map, based on the Reznov mission and taking place in an Antarctic research station; “Kowloon” set in Kowloon, on rooftops; “Berlin Wall,” a fight at Checkpoint Charlie; and “Stadium,” set in an American hockey rink. It also includes the Zombie map, “Ascension.” This pack will be called “First Strike.” What will the second pack be called? Also remember that that the pack will be exclusive to Xbox for about a month.
Earlier this month, my fellow editor has this opportunity to get hands-on experience on Gameloft’s first Japanese RPG (you can read his hands-on preview HERE), and he told me it was awesome. I did not quite believe him seeing that Gameloft is not the native JRPG developer, until I see the game myself. The game is fantastic indeed. It is a beautifully crafted turn-based Japanese RPG complete with features that you will rarely see on the App Store. Having played most RPGs on the Apple handheld devices, I’m completely amazed at how good Eternal Legacy is. Words could not describe my amazement, but I will try my best to give you an in-depth review of this game.
Storyline
Storyline is often the most important element in turn-based RPG because the battle is usually of slower pace as compared with hack-and-slash RPG. There is a need of a compelling story to keep players in the game and I would say that Eternal Legacy did pretty well in this department. In Eternal Legacy, you play as Astrian, the shiny warrior who wields a huge blade. Apparently, Astrian is determined to find out what happened to his father when he was captured by the Algoadian guards. As the story unfolds, Astrian will discover its destiny to save Algoad from destruction in its journey with his best friend, Taric. There will be a lot of exploring and fighting to do as he delves deeper and deeper into the truth.
Gameplay
The game puts you right into action as soon as you start playing, along with a tutorial session that introduces its battle mechanics. If you have played final fantasy XIII in the past, you should feel right at home here. It’s combat mechanism is the first of its kind in iOS gaming but Gameloft has executed it so well for the touch-screen devices.
Basically, you get to control a party of three members, and you are given you the option to have full control of each party members or just controlling Astrian. Personally, I would prefer the former seeing that gives me more space in crafting a strategy during battles. Alternatively, you can choose to use the latter option, where you are able to assign one of the four available roles to your party members. These roles will determine the attack/defense behavior of your party members, they range from Berserker, Predator, Defender, and Healer.
During battles, you can preset your future attacks by assigning multiple attacks command into the three slots available, which is shown on the top right corner of the screen. Below the slots, there is an action time gauge where it determines your attack sequences. Your queued up attack will be executed when it’s fully filled, and it fills up rather fast that the battle seems real time, which is great. I like the fact that the battle does not stop even though you did not key in any battle command, as the enemies will continue its attack sequences. This forced you to keep up with the battle throughout. Other than that, you can actually see the monsters running around on the map instead of having random enemies as you move across fields,. This allows you to run away from them if you don’t want to engage into battle. Do note that if they approach your party from behind, you will be ambushed and the monsters get the priority to attack first.
In general, you will be able to roam freely in the world of Eternal Legacy to enjoy the beautiful scenery in game. They even give you a mount very early in game that allows you to move faster than the ordinary walking. (Not to forget it’s a very cool mount too! How often do you see mounts in games on the App Store?) Though, you will probably be busy as you strive to complete the many quests available, which is often accessible through the NPCs with an exclamation mark on them.
Eternal Legacy also comes with an auto save feature, like most RPGs on the iOS devices. However, it does not auto saves your progress every single minute. Instead, it only auto saves your progress when you move into a new area. Not to worry though, there are many crystal spreads across the game world that allows you to manually save your progress into one of the three save slots available. The game also supports the multitasking feature in iOS4, so no worries when you receive a call or a text message while you play as you can always switch back to the game from the multitasking panel.
Graphics/Audio
Let’s just say, I’m completely blown by its graphics, especially on the Retina Display screen. Don’t get me wrong, it looks great on non-Retina Display screen too! The game simply looks fantastic, much better than any Gameloft’s past releases. It has a huge three dimensional world that seems to be the cross between sci-fi and fantasy. Spells attacks are very pretty to look at, character models are beautifully crafted, and the environment looks so lively.
Voice acting is okay in this game, it could use a little more work in the lip-sync part, but it’s no big deal. You could always turn them off in the option and listen to your iPod playlists. We rarely see voice-overs in RPG on the App Store anyway so this shows how much effort Gameloft has put into this game. Apart from that, they have included a great mix of background music and realistic sound effects in this game that helps immerse you into the game world throughout your gaming session.
Conclusion
Overall, It would be safe for me to say that this is probably one of the best turn-based RPG that I have seen and played on the iOS devices. Honestly speaking, I would expect this to be on the Playstation or the Xbox by just looking at how robust it is in terms of gameplay, storyline and graphics. Not to forget Gameloft is one of the few game companies that include so many language translations in its game to serve a larger pool of gamers. This is a game not to be missed, especially when you are an RPG fan like me. It truly redefines what the Apple mobile devices are capable of, and I’m seeing great possibility here.
Yes, it is that time of year again, and Taito are celebrating with some huge discounts on the App Store with many of their most popular titles. Nothing better than to get a fantastic game at a great price, especially if the holidays are pinching your wallet a bit and even better news is that many of these titles are listed for over 40% off.
So, lets list off what sales are taking place, shall we?
Space Invaders: Infinity Gene is down (for the first time ever) from $4.99 to $2.99.
Mikado Defenders is down (also on sale for the first time) at 80% off at just $0.99!
Cooking Mama is down from $6.99 to $3.99.
Finishing up the list is a classic Taito favorite, Bust-A-Move (Or Buzzle Bobble for those of you outside the states) for just $2.99.
Great deals to enhance your Christmas Break for sure, but keep in mind, this Winter sale is only going for a little while so it would be best to grab these titles on the cheap while you still can. It should also be noted that this special price of Space Invaders is only good for the first 100,000 downloads so that might make the decision process a bit easier on what to grab first.
If you thought all the big releases for 2011 were done, think again. EA has Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Vietnam landing this week adding the highly anticipated content to the already hugely popular combat title in just a couple of days (December 21st to be exact). In celebration of the release, EA have put out a new launch trailer up showing off some of the thrills and critical praise Vietnam will offer.
The pack will include new weapons, vehicles, achievements and trophies to make sure you dust off that disc and is sure to put those extra PSN/XBLA cards you get in your stocking this year to good use. With the recent release of the VIP map pack 7 and the Ultimate Edition of the game, there shouldn’t be a problem for fans of the game to grab this on day one. Check out the trailer below and don’t forget to queue this one up this Tuesday when it releases for for 1200 MSP or $14.99 at the PSN store..
DC Universe Online
Developer(s) Sony Online Entertainment – Austin
Publisher(s) Sony Online Entertainment
Platform(s) PlayStation 3, PC
Release date(s) February 15, 2011
Genre(s) MMO
Mode(s) Multi-player Online only
Rating(s) ESRB: T
Difficulty: Medium Rare
"And so... the epic download begins"
Levels 1-10
I finally got my BETA keys just before the weekend and spent quite a few hours on the DCUO PC servers questing, PvPing and hilarious ganking ofcourse. Running around and ruining the general gaming experience of others in latex has never been so much fun. After quite a large download (13 gigs) overnight I was ready to create some sort of anti-villain. Initially I was going to test the BETA on the PS3 (check details below to win a PS3 Beta key), but after a quick twitter search I found people complaining about frequent crashes, so I’ll pass for now otherwise I’d be ranting about my broken PS3 control from throwing it etc etc. However I will be downloading the PS3 version tonight so we can get some comparisons going later on, it’d be nice if they ran off the same servers, but people are already trying to get that happening through a petition directed at Sony. By the way I’m writing this by level and experience as I go on. I rolled a villain, the jokers my mentor; I chose the sorcery powerset (healing) and two-handed weapons! It’s basically a big F off hammer… I look like a Sleazy Paladin!
"What a sleazy looking anti-hero"
Once you’ve started up the game a rather impressive war-torn cinematic is shown to explain the story, whilst this is appreciated and rather well done, I couldn’t help but feel that the time travel concept was a little vague. I’m assuming it’s because I’m not well read in comics, other than that the plot has a nice way of inserting new heroes from the planet into the mix. It’s biological baby, and once Lex Luther has finished explaining the prelude, the character creation fades in.
Obviously this has to be no less than awesome, initially I wasn’t too impressed by the some of the offerings, but it’s the changes you can make in game later that are the real winner. Not once did I see anyone looking similar, and that’s what people are looking for. The creation process is pretty slick, and it took me about 20mins to make my villain, but I imagine people will spend more time with the amount of customization here. You can choose to create your character from other iconic heroes, which act as templates, or customize it yourself. Some of the presets to choose from in custom are pretty lame, and I don’t know why anyone would choose these, but I doubt anyone will keep their initial masterpiece. Mostly because having the option to change your appearance based on any new item is too much fun, it’s irresistable and collecting styles is a neat idea for the players future. It’s quite a versatile way of customizing and provides alot of control over your appearance, all the way through the game. And assuming the “market” which is currently unreleased in game will add to these styles even more, the wealth of options here is impressive.
"THAT'S A HUUUGGE B**TCH"
I haven’t had the chance to play every single class yet, so I won’t pretend to know their differences and game-breaking abilities, but impressions so far seem promising. PvP combat is available in the first 10 levels, it works by letting you play iconic characters such as batman, robin, huntress and superman etc based on your level, you unlock different characters as the game goes on. They come with preset moves and it’s matter of learning their strength’s and vulnerabilities, my first experience was frantic to say the least. This is a fast paced game and it seems alot of it works around stuns, which can be broken out of by holding down shift. Who is the best at stunning the crap out of each other? As I said I haven’t had the chance to play all different characters (only level 10!), but these are the impressions I get, and the pace of combat definitely enjoyable. How this works in terms of strategy is beyond my level of play experience so far, but I wasn’t the only one as everyone seemed to have no idea.
"Leeching off others in latex"
PVE combat was quite addictive, that has to be a good thing right? The first quest to escape Brianiac’s ship was a good introduction and explained the ropes quickly. Based on my experience with previous games in the genre, the combat feels like a mix between Diablo, WoW and PSO. You spend quite abit of your time clicking to timed combinations and other abilities are set to the hotbar below. It might not sound like anything particularly new, but it’s definitely fun because the fast pace and variety of abilities/stuns keeps things interesting. Not to mention the travelling, which gives you three options at the creation screen, flying, acrobatics or super-speed. Thanks to this, moving around cities and questing never feels like a drag, and later on the option to level up movement speed and other combat related benefits is much appreciated.
You could quite easily level solo to the cap, which is probably a good thing, because right now the social implementation isn’t too great. There’s too many presumptions the player has to make to interact with people around them, such as knowing to type /shout to chat to everyone around or /group for the group. It doesn’t help that the text is all the same colour; the lack of differentiation between the channels can be off-putting and requires too much focus. Most people playing the Beta probably know this sort of thing, but a novice MMO player would have no idea (your hot girlfriend for example).
"I'll catch that targeting circle if it's the last thing I do!"
The friend’s list is also something to be desired, once again lacking in simplicity and explanation. None of it feels very user-friendly, however this is the BETA, so hopefully grouping and interacting with other players is streamlined as time goes on. The UI does work well enough, but it can be quite sluggish at times and needs improving, especially if your connections lagging. I know SOE are trying their best to have something that works on both PC and PS3, so here’s hoping it can be pulled off. But right now, I don’t even know how or if I can inspect another player. I could Google it, but that’s cheating.
Performance wise the game hasn’t been running too bad, my PC is decent enough (awesome 3 years ago) and occasionally when things are crazy the game chugs. Considering how good the game looks running on the unreal engine, with solid art direction and detailed environments, it’s not too bad. For instance twice when I’ve been going nuts on mini-bosses I’ve ended up swinging myself upwards and into the air. Either this is a targeting issue or the games having trouble keeping up. I’ve chosen the two-handed weapon option so it could be an issue with that set, or it’s just me. But it was a little frustrating when I’m about to kill a boss, then all of a sudden I’m in the air off target (cue keyboard hulk smash). However later on I was forgiving this bad glitch, as I found a new entertaining one, which all worked in my favour. After playing some PvP as batman I was left with all he’s moves on my hotbar, this resulted in being able to one-shot players/mobs. I was also left with the same amount of HP, what do you think I did? I went straight to the heroes spawn point in Gotham and unleashed hell. I’m pretty sure I started all out war, but it was worth it while it lasted, obviously I’ve neglected to report this bug to SOE yet. Hopefully it happens again, it was very satisfying.
"Much like your first GF, it looks pretty, but looks can be deceiving"
The first 10 levels have definitely been enjoyable, and DCUO has a vibrant charm to the world, a certain something that sucks you in. You’ll notice I didn’t go into too much depth about trees or the way you level skills, that’s because it opens up at level 10 when class powers come into play. It’s being saved for next time, along with PS3 testing, PS3 control plugged into PC testing and much more! Do yourself a favour if you’re a Playstation Plus subscriber, download the BETA and play this fun filled game. I just hope they’ve fixed the crashing. If you’re already playing it on the PC, let us know down the bottom.
Don’t have Playstation Plus? No worries, we’ve got you covered. For your chance to win a PS3 Beta Key for Christmas, post a comment below with your heroes/villains name and why you’d choose that particular name. I’ll pick the weiner… ahh winner before Christmas.
Razer is known for making high end PC-gaming products without a doubt, but the company is destined to take their highly popular Razer Destructor, a high quality mouse mat to the next level with the newly announced Razer Scarab. What makes this interesting is that Razer are actually promoting this product as more of a sequel to the original Destructor mat to better compliment present and future products from the company.
Here is an official statement from Razer on the release of the Scarab:
“With this sequel, we focused on enhancing the Fractal surface coating so that gamers will improve their game even further. It’s all you need to win in life,” said Robert “RazerGuy” Krakoff, president of Razer USA, “And in PC games of course. The Razer Scarab is for gamers who prefer hard surfaces, high performance areas, effortless swipes and absolute tracking.”
Alexey “Cypher” Yanusheuski of Team Serious Gaming, world champion in Quake Live said of the Scarab, “A mat like this makes keeping up with the high intensity of Quake easy. I look forward to further improving my rocket jump technique and upping my frag count.”
Olga “Pachella” Pak, Counter-strike 1.6 world champion with Team Mousesports said, “Razer paid special attention to the needs of FPS gamers when developing this; improving accuracy and now the Scarab is an indispensable accessory to complement my high-dpi gaming mouse.”
What makes the Scarab the awesome mat it is comes down to Razer’s Fractal 2.0 surface coating. It establishes a highly responsive and uniform tracking system perfect for optical and laser mice sensors. It’s been finely-tuned to balance between speed and control to help acquire targets more accurately.
Razer even included a lightweight carrying case that not only protects the Scarab, but is a sweet folio to store documents for your job as a tax accountant by day, l33t gamer by night. It even looks great, guaranteed to turn heads at the next LAN party you destroy.
Features Include:
Fractal 2.0 surface coating for high performance
Optimal performance for both laser and optical
Hard mouse mat providing precise tracking
Improved rubber base for greater stability
Large size suited for most gaming environments: 350(L) x 250(W) x 3(H)mm
Reinforced carrying case for optimal stowing
A feeling of awesomeness during usage
Nothing like another top of the line product from Razer to end the year and for those looking for the perfect (quite literally) mouse mat for their gaming needs, it seems that you can look no further than the Scarab. The Scarab releases on Jan. 1st of 2011 at a AU price of $59.99. For more information about the Razer Scarab, please visit www.razerzone.com/scarab.
