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.”
A lot can happen over the years and boy do things improve at the same time. We have a brand new trailer for Two Worlds II from Southpeak and Topware and it is looking great to say the least. There’s plenty of action going on between humans and orcs murdering each other on a battlefield. There is even an intense battle between a head orc and someone who appears to be Sordohan. That is until he starts to lose the battle and the big guy up upon the hill decides to summon spikes on the battlefield and punch a hole through that orc’s chest.
Two Worlds II is coming out some point in January of 2011 for the 360, PS3, and PC so better hurry up and finish all the other games in your library before the New Year rolls around because it looks like fans of 3rd person adventures are going to have their hands full of action when this one hits shelves.
“Challenge your mind in the wondrous depths of The UnderGarden. Plunge into a unique new world exploring large underground caverns, encountering mysterious creatures to befriend or avoid. Solve mind-bending brainteasers and puzzles as soothing tunes accompany you on your journey through 14 distinct levels of state of the art 3D graphics. The UnderGarden offers a mental challenge and aesthetic experience like nothing else.” (Xbox.com)
The UnderGarden does not really have a story. I am not sure if it even has a point, other than the obvious, “get to the end of the level” game mechanic. As with many games, this game does not rely on a story to carry the game. Rather, it tries to do it all with atmosphere and gameplay. And this atmosphere is psychedelically colored awesomeness. One way to think of it is playing through an ocean/tropical reef IMAX documentary, without commentary. To get to the end of the level, you must grow plants in an underwater paradise and solve puzzles. You are, as best I can describe, a Teletubby like creature that can jet around the water like a penguin. Yes, that does sound extremely bizarre, and it is. The fact of the matter is,this bizarre and curious design translates into the whole game and that is a good thing.
Gameplay
As previously mentioned, you can swim around an under water garden. However, this garden is basically dead. That is, until you distribute some pollen and make it come alive. This part of the game is hardly challenging. But it is somehow very relaxing and very atmospheric. There are puzzles aplenty to be had though. By making flowers or tress grow, you also get to harvest their produce. You can then use that produce to your advantage and solve puzzles with the varying types of fruit. Even the fruit follows the insane rules of the land of The UnderGarden. For example, some banana looking fruits are are really heavy and weigh a ton! They can push down blocks obstructing your way.
Unfortunately for the game, puzzle solving is just not that fun. Sure, the first few times are interesting. The different types of fruit do keep it fresh for awhile, but the puzzles are, quite simply, dumb. Also, the controls for the game are awful. Making you feel like you are actually underwater and having to slog through it may add to the general feel of the game, but in practice it left me jamming the analog sticks every which way. All that being said, the real strength of the game is the way it makes you feel.
Although the controls and puzzles struggle to perform, the vibrant colors and the relaxing task of just growing flowers make up for nearly all of it. I really can’t explain it, but it IS, for lack of a better word, therapeutic. You may have read in books that gardening is said to be a healing agent. I never really believed them, but I can see how that might be possible now. Not to say that this game is exactly like gardening, but the emotions that crazy colors bring out are fascinating. Maybe that sounds like an exaggeration, but it is just so exciting to see a game developer try something different. So many games are focused on fast reflexes and instant death as a punishment. That is fine. I love games like that. But video games are still entertainment and entertainment can mean a lot of different things. This game is, at the very least, an original idea that brings some slight innovations to the table. At the very most, The UnderGarden dispels the notion that the only video games are about is violence. And it does that in a very cool way with some intriguing elements and, of course, some weirdly awesome colors and characters.
Graphics and Audio
Graphics are nothing short of spectacular. They really draw the player into the game and that is great. Each garden was full of each hue of the rainbow and you could also change them up with certain actions. There are some quibbles to be had though. Take as an example, the explosions (yes, even a peaceful game like this has explosions. If you are worrying, stop; no one dies. 😉 ) The explosions are possibly the most boring explosions ever seen. Maybe that is to take add to the general emotion of the game, but wow, they are dull.
Audio in the game is not something to fawn over, but it is acceptable. Sure you have a basic soundtrack, and you can capture little musicians that play a beat. Generally though, the music and audio merely provide a background noise and an obligatory emotional backdrop to the rest of the features in the game.
Overview
The UnderGarden is advertised as an alternative to the many shooters of this generation of consoles. Its message is “Make Flowers; Not War.” Judging by the stats on Major Nelson’s blog, this will not appeal to some. But if you are looking for a different type of game, this is for you. It may not have the most exciting gameplay, or the latest explosion special effects, but sometimes entertainment is not meant to enthrall, but merely to entertain. Looking for a relaxing day? Look no further than the wildly original UnderGarden.
So the entire premise of NeverDead is the fact that your main character simply can not die. He can get torn to pieces and thrown all around a room and still just roll himself back together. He can even throw his own body parts for the sake of a strategic advantage. Now when you put all of this together, how do you lose such a game?
Well it turns out that there are a few ways. NeverDead itself is Konami’s upcoming 360/PS3 shooter that is being developed by Rebellion and also people who used to work for Kojima Productions, and one of those people reported on how players will stumble upon a Game Over. Metal Gear Acid ex-director, Shinta Nojiri came up with the original idea of an immortal protagonist.
He goes on to tell Gamasutra one way that the player can see the Game Over Screen. It is something that I expected a few weeks ago when we last heard about the game as it involves the fact that your AI partner doesn’t share the same benefits of immortality and can die just as easily as any normal person.
“He has an AI character partner named Arcadia, who is a normal lady. She can die. When she’s dead, it’s a kind of Game Over for the player, but we have other cases; she’s not always along with him. The player will also have other cases of failure, but it’s not death. This doesn’t happen to him.”
It’ll be interesting to see how there will be other ways to fail. Maybe players will have their various pieces taken away from each other and locked away separately so that they can not recombine again. Wouldn’t really kill him but it would cause him to never escape and result in a Game Over too. Or even something we can’t even fathom yet.
We’ve covered bits and pieces of information involving The 3rd Birthday which is the third installment of the Parasite Eve franchise. We also know that Aya will be able to use the Overdive system to enter into friendly troops and take over their bodies as her own so she can use them to help defeat the Twisted and advance her mission. Well it turns out that she isn’t limited to only diving into her allies, but is able to dive into her enemies as well.
Famitsu explored the move and detailed even more of the game’s actual customization system. We will get to that in a moment. The move in which she dives into her opponents is called the Overdive Kill and is usable after Aya has nearly killed a Twisted with gunfire. When the player sees a triangle mark appear by the enemy they will be able to lock onto the opponent and then press triangle to enter into the Twisted’s mind and allow Aya to destroy it from inside of it’s own mind. Twisted way to kill the Twisted huh?
It isn’t all about killing though is it? Well maybe so but The 3rd Birthday also allows players to customize Aya’s abilities by placing DNA chips on something called the Over Energy Board. The board consists of nine different squares that link together, and with different chip sizes players may not be able to use nine chips at a time. This means that not only will you have to make some tough decisions, you may have to play a bit of Tetris to get every chip you want to fit on the board. In a bit of a Bejeweled feel players who line three of the same chip next to each other cause them to combine levels and create one more powerful chip. Enough references to other games though
Another thing we see is that an old face from the first game makes a return in some screenshots. That face is Kunihiko Maeda and looks to be helping Aya from within a laboratory inside of Manhattan. Not too much more information on what role he will play though so we will keep you updated as we learn more.
