Two great announcements have been made about Activision’s latest music titles, DJ Hero 2 and Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock. The first being for DJ Hero 2. Coca Cola is bringing some free tracks courtesy of DJ and producer, Tiesto to the spinning sequel with the Tiesto Mix Pack. This pack will be free from November 23 through November 29 for the Nintendo Wii, Xbox 360, and PS3 game consoles.
Tracks in the Tiesto Mix Pack Presented by Coca-Cola:
“Traffic” Mixed With “Louder Than Boom”
“Feel It In My Bones” ft. Tegan & Sara
“Knock You Out” ft. Emily Haines Mixed With “Young Lions”
On the Guitar Hero front, Coca Cola has you covered there as well with four My Chemical Romance tracks that are being released in celebration of the band’s new album, “Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys.”
Four songs will be included from the albums “Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge”,”The Black Parade”, and one track of of MCR’s latest. These will also be free for a limited time from the 23rd until the 29th. After that date an official price will be set at 600 Microsoft points for 360 users, 750 for Wii users, and $7.49 for PS3 with each being also sold as singles available individually as well for roughly around $2.
Songs Include:
“Bulletproof Heart”
“Helena”
“Teenagers”
“Welcome To The Black Parade”
Nothing like some free music to get you through the holiday and with some quality tracks in the mix to boot. I honestly recommend anyone who are even thinking of getting either title if you don’t already have it yet to snag these tracks up while the offer is still free and not worry about the regret of missing out on this awesome deal later.
Game Name: Sonic Free Riders Platforms: Xbox 360 (Kinect Required) Publisher(s): SEGA Developer(s): Sonic Team Genre(s): Racing & Flying Release Date: 11/4/2010 ESRB Rating: E (Everyone) Price: $49.99 Demo:Download the Demo and Try it for yourself
Story “Sonic is speeding onto Kinect™ for Xbox 360 in an action-packed experience unlike any other! Become your favourite character as you jump on your board and get ready to compete in exhilarating, adrenaline-fueled races against tough competition. For the first time use full-motion body control to twist and turn your way through a range of visually stunning courses. Hi –octane fun for ‘riders’ of all ages, Sonic Free Riders brings extreme lightning-paced boarding action in a main event you won’t want to miss!” [Via Xbox.com]
There isn’t much of a story located in this game and the only character development consists of the Sonic Characters bad mouthing each other between races. The sonic characters present within the game range from extremely famous all the way to lesser know characters; however, they are all sonic characters and any sonic fan can find a favorite among them. The bare bones of the story includes the Sonic gang relaxing like normal, when the Babylon Rogues start bugging them. Sonic and friends must use hoverboards to teach these rogues a lesson once and for all. Along the way, Dr. Eggman and the emerald crystals come into the game, but that is to be expected in a sonic game. If all of that seems complicated, thinking about it as a simple hoverboard competition sums up everything perfectly.
Gameplay In order to play the game, the Kinect device for the Xbox 360 is required. A majority of the game is played with your body perpendicular to the TV as if you were riding a skateboard. There are some vehicles that have you standing parallel to the TV as if you were riding a bike, and while these are easier to control they don’t seem to give the same enjoyment as the hoverboards when it comes to playing. The game has a bunch of different levels and powerups to give variety to the gameplay. Powerups are all activated by moving your hands in the fashion that you would expect to use the particular powerup. This is a nice addition that makes using powerups fun and simple. Tons of boards and gear to unlock also leads to a bunch of replayability.
The major problem with the game is that there are tons of problems with the controls. The motion controls make it hard to just jump right in and understand what you are doing. Even after a good chunk of playing, I was still regularly bumping into walls and having trouble doing kick boosts. The menus are also a horror to navigate and are only saved by the voice controls. Kinect seems to be poorly implemented into the game, or at the very least not streamlined properly. Of all the games currently supporting kinect this one is pretty low on the totem pole when it comes to the controls, but it is still not the lowest.
There are a bunch of multiplayer modes located within the game for online or even on the same TV. Whether you are with a bunch of friends or just a few friends, there is something for everyone. Up to 4 players can play on the same TV with relay mode, and there is even cooperative modes where two players must work together in sync to get past the levels. Once you get bored of the singleplayer experience, hop online for even more hours of enjoyment with friends or play with the family on the same TV.
Audio & Graphics There are new voice actors for every single character and for once this is a very good thing. All the characters now sound like they should and tails finally sounds like a kid. While the voice acting is the most noticeable audio in the game, there are also a series of sound effects and background music. Sadly, the background audio is kind of annoying after a while, and all the sound effects are dull and not impressive.
The graphics on the other hand are pretty nice. The levels look beautiful and everything is shiny and well executed. Most of the cutscenes are just character stills yelling at each other, but they only make up a small portion of the game and aren’t actually that bad. The game flows well and is fast paced without being intimidating, which is a plus for a kart racing style game.
Achievements
The achievements in Sonic Free Riders can either be difficult or extremely easy depending on how well you can get the controls down. If you manage to master the controls the achievements will come rolling in, one after the other without much effort. Since the AI isn’t actually that good, the only thing that stops you from getting any of the achievements is how many walls you bump into. The achievement List of pretty easy and simply comprises of a bunch of “beat this” achievements. There are eight avatar awards included in the game, but they are all just different shirts. There are three character shirts and then a game shirt, each with male and female variants. They aren’t that difficult to get, but they also aren’t that flashy.
The avatar Awards are:
Sonic Shirt (M/F) – Place 1st on every course with Sonic.
Jet Shirt (M/F) – Place 1st on every course with Jet.
Sonic Free Riders Shirt (M/F) – Watch the Credits in their entirety.
E-10000 G Shirt (M/F) – Place 1st on every course with E-10000 G.
Overview
Sonic Free Riders isn’t actually that bad and once you get past the horrible controls throughout the entire game it becomes quite enjoyable. This is the third iteration of Sonic Riders and it plays like most other kart racing games with powerups, shortcuts, and a bunch of ways to play with friends. While by yourself the game gets boring pretty quickly, friends to play with will extend the life of the game. Sonic Free Riders has a lot of problems but once you get past those problems it offers a bunch of modes and tracks for a lot of fun with friends. Sadly, since the controls are so horrible until you get use to them, it keeps players from being able to instantly jump in and have fun. It will take a while for everyone to get used to the game and get good games going with each other but if you have the patience the game can be quite rewarding.
I give Sonic Free Riders
At least all of their new game announcements won’t be on the PSP because Imageepoch has just announced that they are currently working on a PS3 title that will be available on the PSN for download sometime in the future. The game announced is named Chevalier Tactics. As the game title says it will place players inside of a strategy RPG.
The game itself is set inside of medieval Europe where knights and kings rule with an iron fist. What this means is that that iron fist can easily come down on any country around them and unfortunately that is exactly what happened to the protagonist as his country has been invaded and you are left with a handful of troops to lead to take back your homeland. Prepare for a lot of recruiting it seems like as you may have to build your army to take revenge.
Magazine leaks explained a bit more on Chevalier Tactics as the game will contain two different modes of play, a simulation RPG mode where you will order out groups of units to do battle, while the Network mode will provide large scale battles.
But that isn’t all because they have also announced the game Chevalier Saga Tactics for the PC. This game however will be a browser based simulation RPG, meaning no reason to download this one though not sure on the full details of the browser based formula for the game.
What we do know however is that the storyline sounds different from Chevalier Tactics. Rather than having your homeland invaded, it takes place on an island where humans and dragons have lived peacefully with a treaty to not cause trouble for one another. That is until a group of unknown soldiers invade the island looking for the dragon’s legendary treasure and it causes war amongst the humans and the dragons. Chevalier Saga Tactics however does have a relative release date as sometime in summer 2011 in Japan.
It takes a brave company to even think about developing games in the first place. It takes an even braver company to say that not only will we be developing the game, we will be publishing it ourselves as well. That is exactly what is happening with Imageepoch with their upcoming game Tale of the Last Promise. Announced today for the PSP it will bring Imageepoch’s expertise in SRPGs to the handheld on April 28th in Japan.
CEO of Imageepoch, Ryoei Mikage is working directly as the executive producer, while Yosuke Uda of Persona 3 fame is the producer. We also know that Gaingauge will be composing the musical score of the game, while Chinatsu Kuramoto will be handling the character design.
So that may have been a lot of different names that you don’t know too much about, but what about the game itself? Well a long time ago the world was full of magic, but the world has changed. Machines now are being developed and used to kill all the wizards in the world and an outbreak of war is right around the corner. Unfortunately this is all the information we currently have on the game but expect to hear more soon, and hopefully closer to the release date in Japan, some news of localization elsewhere.
Turns out the rumors were correct, Imageepoch was planning on revealing a Black Rock Shooter game, which is currently very imaginatively being called Black Rock Shooter: The Game. All sarcastic criticisms aside the game was announced today in Japan at Imageepoch’s press conference. The game will be coming to the PSP sometime in the Summer of 2011 in Japan. No news of a localized version of course because it was just announced though fans can start hoping.
But what exactly will Black Rock Shooter: The Game entail? Well it will place players on Earth in 2051 where an alien attack has devastated the Earth. Now twelve different survivors will join together to destroy the invaders that have destroyed their home. The game itself is being described as a third person shooter with a mix of RPG elements thrown in.
Some recognizable names are working on the game from what we heard at Imageepoch’s conference, such as Kazushige Nojima as Scenario Writer and Kazuya Niinou as the game’s Director. Nojima was previously the scenario writer for FFVII and Glory of Heracles, while Niinou has worked on Last Ranker in the past.
Zombies and Pterodactyls 20XX also known as ZP2KX is the upcoming title from Ska Studios (the same developer who brought you Dishwasher Dead Samurai and I MAED A GAM3 W1TH Z0MB1ES 1N IT!!!1).
It seems zombies are coming back, but this time Pterodactyls are hitching a ride on the Zombie Bandwagon as well. Use a large assortment of deadly instruments to kill other players in this multiplayer focused Indie Title, which is going to sell for only 80MSP. The game looks like a lot of fun and is actually kind of hard to explain. Did I mention there were jetpacks as well?
You know what… Let me just let Ska Studios explain it to you, maybe you’ll get the picture a bit better.
“In a dystopian future where humans love guns and zombies just want to be left alone, the pterodactyls have seen to it that everyone has to be miserable together.Take your jetpack online and splatter some fools with blades, guns, grenades, and other instruments of mayhem. Earn XP, level up, unlock features, clothes, and skills! Build awesome classes! It’s ZP2KX and it’s coming to the Xbox LIVE Indie Games channel this December.”
Still curious? Check out this video below to let you Eyes do the understanding for you.
Have you been waiting to buy Super Meat Boy and all of its meaty awesomeness for when it finally released on the PC? Well, Team Meat is so awesome that Pre-Orders on Steam are 33% off the launch price basically following the same example they set when they released the Xbox 360 version.
Also, you can download Runman: Race Around the World completely Free. If you don’t have the game you should definitely try it out. Download it at this link: http://whatareyouwait.info/download.php. This game may help you wait out the time between now and the release of the PC version, it is actually quite fun.
Finally, Team Meat has stated again that the level editor for the PC version won’t be available on release it will come later in a free update. So be patient and just enjoy the game without it until it comes out. (Level Editor is only available in the PC version)
Another flip of the ON switch; another firmware update. This time, everyone’s favorite UMD toting portable gaming system gets the new duds, in a software format of course. Coming soon for the little powerhouse, this firmware will lay the groundwork for the PSP to support the streaming service of Qriocity. You can visit the official website here.
In short, the service allows you to stream music through the cloud. It appears as though you will be able to stream your own music and, in the future, Pandora like streaming will also be added for PSP. No word if the service will come to PS3 or if the video options in Qriocity will function. Our guess? No.
Their is also an update for MediaGo that fixes some UI issues and adds more photo editing options. Look for it soon.
Platinum Games has released some Pre-Production footage of the game recently, and honestly I’m glad we weren’t stuck playing the game in the video. As you can tell the menus are different, but the biggest difference is probably just how slow the game is. I can’t tell if it is framrate lagg or simply the pace of the game. Luckily, Platinum Games stepped up and increased the awesome located in there game before they actually released it.
Enjoy the video below to see just how far the game actually came before being released.
Emphasis on the “Shipped” part. Konami has “shipped” one million copies of the game to various retailers. The total amount sold is a different number, but it is probably really high up there as well.
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow is a really good game and if you haven’t picked it up you probably should give it a shot. Except of course if you are in Japan, in which case you need to wait until December to get your hands on the game. However, once December hits you should definitely pick it up.
Shinji Hirano, President of Konami, had a few nice words to share when the game achieved this milestone, “Castlevania has truly reinvented itself with its move to next gen platforms and we’re extremely pleased at the positive response we’ve seen toward Castlevania: Lords of Shadow globally, mainly due to the dedicated fans who have supported the series for so long, the remarkable sales achieved in such a short time are a true testament of the work and dedication that went into this project, and we’re very grateful to have partnered with such fine talent in the rebirth of one of Konami Digital Entertainment’s most successful franchises.”
