Hothead Games and UTV Ignition Entertainment announced that they will be releasing Swarm, a new comedy action adventure, on XBLA and PSN. The release date is still in the air, but early 2011 is the time frame. Swarm is about taking control of 50 fearless Swarmites and leading them through extremely dangerous areas as they “naturally flock and flow around obstacles.” Your only objective is to collect DNA & get a single, solitary Swarmite to the exit.
Swarm is one of the most intriguing games I have ever heard about. The idea is so original and awesome that it is tough to describe. Swarm features mass character control, similar to some robot or insect behavior.
According to Hothead, this is the first game to ever have this type of gameplay and the game is said to have some really unique puzzles that require a lot of creative and clever brain power. It will be amazing to actually try out.
“We’ve been working hard on Swarm for a while now and think it’s our most addictive game yet,” said Joel DeYoung, Director of Game Technology for Hothead Games. “The Swarmites are both lovable and deliciously expendable at the same time—the game’s creation is proof positive of the dangers of excessive exposure to Saturday morning cartoons we were warned about so many years ago. Swarm is exactly the genocidal romp your parents hoped you’d grow up and marry someday.”
Boom Boom Boomshakalaka! YEA! NBA Jam is now out for the PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii. With online play, HD graphics and all sorts of unlockables and extras, this looks like a a really cool remake of a really cool arcade game. Some of the extra stuff includes playable politicians, mascots and boss battles against basketball legends. Plus, you have a sports announcer that says really funny stuff. What more could you ask for?
Don’t take my word for it though. There is a trailer just beneath you. Yes, right there. No, over to the center. Now the right. There you go.
Have you bought or tried the game yet? Give us your thoughts on the game!
Facebook and casual gaming will be taking another leap forward into their symbiotic relationship when PGA Tour from Electronic Arts hits the social media powerhouse sometime this winter. The full name of the title is EA Sports PGA Tour Golf Challenge and it features 3D gameplay and daily challenges that can, when beaten, earn you a top place in the weekly championship. Earn experience points, level up and then unlock some famous golf courses that were developed from the team at Tiburon. Other features include : “accessible, easy to master game play mechanics, including one-click swing, easy aiming with a mouse or keyboard, an assortment of custom clubs, and a variety of shot types.” Although free to play, the EA SPORTS PGA TOUR Golf Challenge will have many gameplay modes and other opportunities to customize or accelerate your career. These can be purchased with micro-transactions.
“EA SPORTS is pioneering new ways to play games online by creating entertaining experiences that resonate with both casual and hardcore gamers alike,” said Andrew Wilson, senior vice president of worldwide development, EA SPORTS. “Our growing portfolio of premium social gaming products, including EA SPORTS PGA TOUR® Golf Challenge, provides unique new opportunities for fans to experience sports games online, while also helping us reach an evolving fan base.”
Back at TGS we heard news of yet another Dynasty Warriors game being released with the number 7 at the end of it. We also heard that it would be a PS3 exclusive when it was released much to the dismay of Xbox 360 hack n’ slash fans everywhere. But it turns out that that Ps3 exclusivity is only within the borders of Japan. This was discovered when Tecmo Koei in Europe happened to mention that they would be releasing the game in March 25, 2011 for both the PS3 and the Xbox 360.
Sort of let the cat out of the bag there huh? But it only ends up making sense, considering unless Sony paid them a certain amount of money to keep it as an exclusive title there is only loss to be had by keeping it on the PS3 and not sharing with 360 owners. This move does not come as to much of a surprise though with PS3 exclusivity still in Japan, as the country hardly favors the Xbox 360 at all.
Dynasty Warriors 7 brings with it the Kingdom of Jin, bringing the total count of warring factions up to four. Plus instead of only having your one standard weapon to bring to battle, you can now bloody up two different weapons. We have yet to actually see a release date for the US, but it will likely be around the European release date.
Well it was bound to happen. Each console of this generation now has a motion control ability, and Japan isn’t far behind with taking advantage of this fact. This becomes evidently clear when we heard the news that Record of Agarest War 2 will be getting a patch in the near future that will incorporate PS Move support. The whole game itself won’t be able to be used with the Move, just a couple of mini games.
But these mini games are far from your standard Wii variety and it is interesting to see that a company was so fast to jump onto this aspect. Record of Agarest War 2 contains two different mini games that the Move will be able to be used for, a bathhouse mini game and a massage mini game. That isn’t all because Compile Heart is also looking to release a new mini-game as DLC after the patch. The patch itself adds more than Move support however, as it also allows the CG Gallery to display animated events as well instead of simple pictures.
So out of curiosity if Record of Agarest War 2 makes its way across seas like the previous two Agarest games have, will it too have this Move Support? And since the other two games also had a 360 version as well, will it be getting a Kinect support as well? Interesting stuff.
You know it is a good sign that Nintendo believes in your game when they put together a Wii bundle specifically for your release. That is especially true in Mistwalker’s case, because their upcoming RPG The Last Story has just gotten a Wii Bundle that was announced today by Nintendo. Sure this bundle comes out only in Japan, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t good news for everyone else.
This bundle will come with a copy of the game, a white Wii, and a white Classic Controller Pro and costs ¥25,800 ($310). Though if you already own a Wii you can purchase the special edition instead, which comes with the agame, a mini soundtrack, and an Elements of The Last Story visual book. The game itself will be hitting shelves in Japan on January 27th 2011, but there has yet to be a release date for the rest of the world.
The reason I said this was good news for everyone else as well is because since Nintendo believes in the product enough to bundle it with a Wii, there is a good enough chance that they also believe in the product enough to take it across the seas to the rest of the world. Time will tell however as we currently have no release date, or even any confirmation that it will be making its way outside of Japan.
Blueside’s upcoming MMO Kingdom Under Fire II has just been announced for the PS3. Sure it may have already been announced for a release on the PC and the Xbox 360 in the past, but now it will be making its way to the PS3. This news comes out of a joint press conference with SCEK (Sony Computer Entertainment Korea) at Pusan’s G-Star 2010 event.
The PS3 version will be coming with exclusive missions and characters as well as an optimized gaming engine that will take advantage of the PS3’s graphical processing power and display graphics at the same level as a PC at max settings. The game itself is set for release in 2012 on the PS3, with the PC and 360 version sometime in 2011.
The reasoning for choosing to release the game on the PS3 as well was stated by Blueside CEO Sejung Kim, saying “because PS3 offers many possibilities considering the aspects of an MMORPG that requires continuous updates.” The game will be seeing a worldwide release, and hopefully will make up for the poor criticism the last Kingdom Under Fire game received, though that one strayed far from the proven formula.
It is hard to compare the PS3 and the Xbox 360 to the Wii as far as sales go, but as far as digital media goes the two former consoles have a much better policy and it is quite hard to deny this fact. Nearly every game on the PSN has the ability to download a demo for it and give players a chance to sample the game before purchase. While with the Xbox 360 every game that is released comes with a demo available for trial, even Indie games.
The Wii on the other hand used to offer a handful of WiiWare demos in the past, but has not for quite some time. This will end next week as Nintendo has announced that on November 22nd they will begin a new lineup of WiiWare demos. But bear in mind that there are only a handful of demos available. The games managing to get a demo version are as follows: And Yet It Moves, Jett Rocket, ThruSpace, and Bit.Trip Fate.
All good games to receive a demo for, however Nintendo also had to put in the following statement with their release which causes their demo policy to still fall short of the mark: “additional demos will be added on Mondays and each will remain available on the Wii Shop Channel for a limited time.” This means that any demos currently available will not always be there to give them a try, and will be cycled out for different games. I’m not sure if Nintendo is worried about the fact that players will give the demo a try and simply pass up the game since they played a few minutes of it? Or are they concerned that it will disenchant players from making impulse buys? Either way it is good news that Nintendo is bringing back demos at all.
Just a month ago many hopes were dashed when news came out that Ignition’s WarDevil had been canceled completely due to excessive production costs and a long development time of six years. But all is not lost because UTV Ignition has decided to resurrect the game now that it has undergone a reassessment of the studio’s assets. It will no longer be called WarDevil anymore however, as it now sports the name of Project Kane.
Hassan Sadiq, group chairman of UTV Ignition had this to say about their decision to bring the long developed game back to life:
“Following a comprehensive audit of the title, assets and internal team, we have decided that a core team responsible for the Project Kane prototype will take the game into full production, led by the key vision holders,”
“There has been speculation recently about this project but our vision has always been to create top quality content both with internal and external partners and this latest commitment combines the best of the DNA behind the original project vision with some of the creative talent available in the broader industry. Outsourcing ensures flexibility and broader expertise that will dovetail perfectly with internal skill sets to speed up the process and ensure a title of true excellence.”
Design Director Julian Glover stated that the team was able to bring with it some of the best in the UK, including names from Burnout 3, Crysis, Little BigPlanet, and Heavenly Sword joining the roster. Plus we now have a release date to go along with the name change. Though it is simply a quarterly release date which means it can change at any time it is currently slated for a Quarter 4 2011 release. I’m curious if Project Kane will end up being the full title name when it will be released or if it is simply a placeholder until a new name can be made?
Developer: ColdWood Interactive
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment
Platform: PlayStation 3 – MOVE Required
Release date: November 9, 2010
Genre: Fighting
Modes: Single player, multiplayer Ratings: ESRB: T
Have you ever wanted to enter an underground fighting circuit? Ever had the desire to take on all the meanest and toughest fighters from the other side of the tracks but your mother never let you because she said it just too dangerous? Well now is your chance to live out that dream by brawling your way to the top and proving everyone wrong in the process…. including your mom! ColdWood Interactive’s The Fight: Lights Out for Playstation 3 MOVE will let you do that and more.
The Fight is a fairly comprehensive fighting game – a lot of work has gone into making the game enjoyable both inside and outside of the ring. An impressive amount of features have been thrown in to keep you busy. Some of the features include the customisable avatar that allows you design what your fighter will physically look like, making him tall or short, fat or thin, heavy or light. ColdWood have incorporated an extensive upgrade system that will allow you build your fighter just the way you like. This is achieved by allocating points which you earn whilst training your characters abilities – such as strength, stamina, speed, chin and heart just to name a few.
There’s a slight RPG feel in The Fight where you can grind to build up your stats in a variety of different training modes, such as punching heavy bags, sparing and endurance and hitting speed balls to name a few. The more time you take to build your fighter’s abilities / stats, the stronger he’ll become in fights and this is especially important later into the game. The only problem with training is that after a while it can get a little repetitive – not to mention that you have to exert real physical energy to grind and pick up skill points to allocate to abilities. Once you do get the hang of it and start performing well in each training session, you’ll end up raking up lots of skill points. Just remember this ain’t no walk in the park – life wasn’t meant to be easy and if you want to make it to the top of mountain – you’re going to have to work hard to get there.
Continuing on the topic of training, pain, abuse, tears and tough love, Hollywood movie star Danny Trejo plays the role of your “tough as nails” trainer. You first meet up with Danny as he sits in a dark and dingy little training gym and it doesn’t take him very long before he starts barking orders at you . You might know Danny Trejo from films such as “Machete” and just recently “Predators”. Danny guides you through The Fights tutorials and clearly explains to you how everything works in a language that you’re forced to understand as I felt at times Danny was going to come thought the TV and grab me by the neck and choke the living crap out of me for not listening. Throwing Danny Trejo into The Fight was just what the doctor ordered – it’s always great to take orders from a bad ass movie star rather than some unknown computer generated trainer. Danny makes you want to work a little harder just to show him that you can be a hard as he is.
The Fight is best played with two Playstation Move controllers in hand. If you only have one Move controller don’t worry, you can still enjoy the game as it also works with one DualShock and Move controller in each hand. This is not the recommended option (Even Danny gets a little upset about it) but you can still enjoy the game as you’re also shown how to hold the DualShock controller and which buttons to press to pull of specific punches.
The Fight has some impressive tracking allowing you to perform some pretty hardcore bone crunching punches. The most important thing is making sure you calibrate the controller(s) and eye camera perfectly at the start of the game and that you follow the instructions given at the beginning – this is crucial if you want The Fight to track the positions of your punches, their trajectory and the force of your blows accurately. One great feature is that the harder you swing, the more damage you can inflict on your opponent. If you don’t, then frustration will most certainly kick in and even if you think your swinging perfectly – nothing will register, and in the end you’ll be the one that’s lying on the ground in a pool of your own blood while the victor collects his big pay cheque.
When playing these types of games, your first reaction would be to bounce around, bob and weave, float like a butterfly and skip around the room showing off your fancy foot work. Straight off the bat in one of the early tutorials, Danny Trejo screams at you and say “KEEP YOUR FEET FIRMLY PLANTED ON THE GROUND” If you move around you’ll need to use the MOVE controller and press the Move button and gently tilt the controller in the direction you want to move in. You can also perform a quick side step by flicking the controller left or right and that will hopefully get you out of harm’s way. From personal experience, punching and not being able to move your feet feels very uncomfortable and awkward and you can’t execute the same amount of power generated from your hips when your feet are stuck in one place.
At certain times during a fight the game might lose focus of where you are making your moves, blocks, punches etc feel a little off balanced. In situations like this you can make use of the recalibration button on the MOVE which will quickly re-align your hands/arms and allow you to get back into the fight. There are also moments in the game where you think you’re pulling off some super punches by following the correct Move gestures but unfortunately your onscreen fighter just doesn’t cut the mustard in landing them. Some punches where you miss your opponent by a long shot will have you scratching your head and wandering what you did wrong. Sometimes getting in really close to your opponent will cause this to happen, giving you the feeling that the game is unresponsive when in actual fact the problem is related to the fighters / game not recalculating its punch distance once the fighters are up close to one another.
Multiplayer in The Fight allows you to bring your own character that you’ve been using in the game online, which can be both good and bad. It’s good if you’re the kind of person that’s been training in the gym for hours and hours and your abilities are through the roof – as you’ll be smashing your opponents left, right and centre. On the flip side if you don’t train and step into the ring with that guy that’s got super high abilities and muscles bulging through his tight t-shirt, the fight won’t last very long and you’ll most certainly be lying on the ground and possibly cursing at the other guy who’s probably on the other side of the world laughing at how pathetic a fighter you are. Personally, I believe that it would have been better to jump in and pick a randomly generated fighter with the same abilities when playing online – that way the fight is fair no one has the advantage.
The Fight has hundreds of fights and over ten hours of gameplay time – even more if you decide to grind in the gym and build up your stats and abilities. You’ll get to unlock some cool clothes, taunts, moves and even bet on your fight to make that extra bit of money while taking on different opponents. Each fight also has you trying to obtain different objectives such as knocking out your opponent before the timer runs out, or sustaining less than 25% damage for the entire fight. While this will keep you entertained and on your toes, not a lot changes after a couple of hours of battling your way through the campaign and unfortunately fighting will get a little repetitive. If you stick it out like a true champion, you’ll end up burning a lot of calories and feeling great about it. And to top it off – you’ll be able to prove to your mother that you can hang with the big boys and make it to the top.
