Anxious to be the first person to play the demo of Duke Nukem Forever? Especially now that the game has finally seen the light of day and is confirmed for a release in 2011? Well if you happen to be a fan of Borderlands then now is the time for you to get double the fun with the Game of the Year edition coming out on October 12th.
This is because Gearbox is hoping to include membership to something they call the First Access Club. This club will allow those who join to be the first to download the demo to Duke Nukem Forever before it is available to everyone else. There is no date for the demo’s release, but just know that if you happen to get Borderlands, you will eventually also be getting the demo.
Beyond the Duke Nukem Forever Demo, the First Access Club will supposedly provide members with many different bonus features, though these were not announced. One can speculate special themes, videos, screenshots, and who knows what else.
Borderlands: Game of the Year edition will cost $60 USD and will include all four of the DLC packs that have been released for the game, these include Zombie Island of Dr. Ned, Mad Moxxie’s Underdome Riot, Secret Armory of General Knoxx, and Claptrap’s New Robot Revolution.
Capcom is releasing some of its classic arcade titles from the days of yore in the form of a downloadable game for the iPhone this November! This will come in the form of 4 titles (at the start) with new ones released every month.
The 4 starter titles are Ghouls ‘N Ghosts, Commandos, Street Fighter II and 1942. What’s so amazing about this announcement is that the games will be totally free…with a catch. They are free up until your 3rd life, requiring you to buy “tokens” with real money to continue playing, no price point has been given yet on how much these will cost. You may also purchase the “cabinet” at a higher price to be able to play the game to your hearts content. Fear not however, as Capcom will be replenishing tokens daily, allowing you to get that small fix if you are just content with that.
At launch, the games will not support online multiplayer or leaderboards, though Capcom says that there will be future updates to add these features. I must say, this is quite the tempting offer, the ability to play some of Capcom’s iconic arcade titles on your Iphone…for free…with the addition of online sometime in the near future. Sounds like I need to get myself an iPhone.
Rockstar has announced it will be releasing a Hunting and Trading Outfits pack for Red Dead Redemption for free. It features two previously unreleased outfits and their respective challenges – The Savvy Merchant and The Expert Hunter.
There are also added benefits for each costume with the Savvy Merchant outfit giving players the ability to purchase guns and ammunition for half price. Meanwhile, The Expert Hunter allows you to collect double the hides and skins than you can normally carry. Practical and stylish.
The pack itself will be released on October 12 on PSN and Xbox Live Marketplace.
Kinect exclusive Dance Paradise has now got a teaser trailer showing some of the games features gracing those who decide to buy it when it releases this Fall.
The game features a top-notch choice of dance tracks from artists like Akon, Daft Punk and Lady Gaga, just to name a few. As you will see if you decide to watch the trailer, the game features real-time dance gameplay, similarly to Harmonix’s Kinect exclusive dance title Dance Central, and adds to the already bulging line-up of games accompanying the Kinect Launch.
It’s worth a watch just to have another look at Microsoft’s Kinect technology, let alone see a male avatar dancing in the most feminine way possible. Enjoy.
Peggle Nights™ Comes to the iPhone™ and iPod® touch Via New Game Upgrade
PopCap Games, the worldwide leader in casual video games, today announced it is offering a game update to Peggle™ for the iPhone™ and iPod® touch, which will include the non-stop action of Peggle Nights™.
With this update for Peggle iPhone, new and existing players can enjoy five levels of Peggle Nights for free, and can then unlock the entire Peggle Nights game via an in-app purchase. The Peggle Nights content is included with any new purchases of Peggle for the iPhone and iPod touch.
For international players, the Peggle update also adds localization for the French, Italian, German, and Spanish markets.
Ready to settle for Peggle? No? Play Peggle Nights or play both and get Peggle Nights via an in-app purchase!
Call of Duty: Black Ops will be available in stereoscopic 3D when it launches November 9th this year. It seems the 3D buzz will never die, Publisher Activision said that the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC Versions of the shooter will be compatible with 3D-Ready HDTV’s and PC’s using active shutter glasses.
Treyarch studio head Mark Lamia said “Development of stereoscopic 3D began as an R&D project, but once we saw what the technology brought to the Call of Duty experience, what a great fit and how immersive it was, we knew that we had to develop it for Black Ops”
Lamia went on to add “We made sure the experience is seamless for gamers to use with a simple menu option to enable stereoscopic 3D or disable it at any time whether playing in the single player campaign, multiplayer or Zombies.”
The Xbox 360 has 3D capabilities, however Microsoft decided not to market this feature as much competitors. Xbox Global Marketing boss has previously said “For us, it’s more going to be let’s see what the consumers say. Let’s see what happens on the TV side and the sell-through side. It’s something I think we’re going to follow on and that we’re fine to follow on”. He also claimed there’s nothing the PS3 can do in terms of 3D that the Xbox 360 can’t emulate.
I recently sat down with Michael Wilford CEO of Twisted Pixel Games the masterminds behind their latest smash hit COMIC JUMPER on Xbox Live Arcade !! We go through and ask Mike everything you need to know about this fantastic title from it’s development to its crazy humor.
Enjoy the interview :
1. “Where did the inspiration come from?”.
Our co-founder and CCO Josh Bear created the characters back when he was in grade school. He always wanted to make it into a comic book, but when we founded Twisted Pixel we convinced him to make it into a game instead!
2. “How hard was it to keep the art styles separated while in development?”.
This did prove challenging during development. We had to do spurts of development on each style where we focused entirely on that style, and then switch to another one. It was too hard to have the team try and work on multiple styles simultaneously.
3. “Which came first: the story or the idea?”
We had the idea for Comic Jumper for years, and a vague idea of what the story would be like. But story really came together when one of our designers, Sean Conway, outlined the whole script and invented the characters, which we then handed off to some professional writer friends of ours Matt Entin and Ed Kuehnel who have a lot of experience bringing characters to life.
4. “You have always been generous with giving stuff away in your games. Do you feel this helps a lot in selling your games?”
It probably doesn’t help that much, but we don’t think of it like that. I think giving away freebies is one of those cool things that downloadable games can do pretty easily, so why not do it? It’s a great way to say thanks to your fans.
5. “How did you decide the art styles?”
We wanted to invoke comic books that most anyone would recognize, not just the hardcore comic geeks. Everyone has seen what a silver age comic looks like, and most people know that manga is weird. So we chose to hit the broad strokes, but for the fans that really are into comics, there are a lot of nods in there that they will appreciate too.
6. “Will the free DLC for splosion man, have achievements? Or is it just extra levels?”
No achievements, that would have been a lot more difficult to pull off, but it was important to us to provide new levels.
7. “Will Comic Jumper have replayability? Like Extra difficulties, and maybe secret areas and easter eggs that people may miss on the first playthrough?”
Comic Jumper comes with over 200 unlockables that require lots of playing to unlock them all. They kind of chronicle the making of the game with behind-the-scenes videos and commentaries about early concept art and animatics. And yes, there are lots of easter eggs / obscure references in the game that would be impossible to find on one play through. I myself continue to hear new lines of dialog that I never knew were in there.
8. “Where do the jokes come from? Do you have one giant think tank of a writer, or does the entire team input lines and jokes as the game gets developed?”
It’s definitely a team effort. Just like Splosion Man, we have a lot of fun working on the game so there’s no shortage of crazy ideas that we try out by anyone and everyone on the team. Between the designers, the writers, the voice actors that have lots of ad lib in the game, and the rest of the team, it’s impossible to pinpoint where the jokes come from.
9. “In some of the gameplay videos, I’ve noticed a few references to your earlier games. Can we expect a whole bunch of those subtle references and do they ever take a bigger role then just background billboards for example?”
You’ll just have to see for yourself. =)
10. “The title is ‘Comic Jumper: The adventures of Captain Smiley’ does that mean we can expect other heroes for Comic Jumper even though you have stated that you don’t like making sequels?”
The game lends itself very well to the idea of doing DLC down the road where you get to jump into other comics, and we made sure the game supports that feature, but we’ve been focused on the content in this game and don’t have anything else in the works at this time.
11. “Did you ever get to the point where you felt the joke was simply too crude to actually use it?”
Many, many times. Damn you ratings boards!
And there you have it. Another fantastic interview completed. Special thanks goes out to Michael for taking the time to answer these questions. We wish the team over at Twisted Pixel Games the best of luck with Comic Jumper and we hope you all try it out. If you’re not sure whether to pick up this game then have a read of our review of Comic Jumpere here. Then click on the BUY it now link and download it directly to your Xbox 360 from marketplace.
Assassin’s Creed is a fine example of realised potential; the last entry was the epitome of what a sequel should be and one of the best games of 2009. Ubisoft took constructive criticism to a new level and fixed the repetitious flaws of the first game, whilst improving upon the already impressive graphics with solid art direction. What can they do next? A quick story recap: Assassin’s Creed brotherhood continues shortly after where the last game ended. Ezio has returned to his villa, and bounces out of bed to the Templars turning his town into a mess.
Ezio ensures the villagers get out safely, and then a new foe is introduced. Our hero becomes wounded and a murder occurs. Then the story continues with the theme of revenge, but instead of attacking immediately, Ezio bides his time and moves to Rome to recruit new assassins. Once he is healed, Ezio is ready to start seeking revenge once again. Speaking of Rome, Ubisoft has mentioned that the city is three times bigger than any city seen in previous games, which is pretty impressive considering their scope. Considering how quick this game is being turned around since the last, it wouldn’t be a crime to think this might be Assassins Creed 2.5, but rest assured that isn’t the case. The single player game is set to last 10 hours to complete, and much longer for the extras.
As mentioned before, Ezio is out to recruit new assassins to plot his revenge. This is where the idea of “brotherhood” comes into play, a new mechanic called “BAM” is being introduced into the game to manage recruits. Now this may not seem very “stealth” like, but it makes for an interesting concept to have aids in assassinating people. The strategic side this adds to the game gives the impression that the scope of the gameplay, as well as the new cities is larger than the last instalment. Whether this is positive for the game remains to be seen, but the idea of leaving students behind to pursue another target is a good idea.
Playing as Ezio you can mark targets for your minions to kill in various ways, a cool addition to these students is that they level up and learn skills. Ezio as a character is about 40 years old in the story; therefore it makes sense for this to come into play. These additional characters come in varying forms, such as size, shape and gender. Also if they die you have to recruit again and start over, which means you, might actually care about your students. There is a limit to how many students you can recruit, and the exact number hasn’t been confirmed.
Another Major element in single player is toppling Borgia Towers, the obviously corrupt Borgia family has taken over Rome and it’s your job to give the city back to the people by burning the guard towers keeping watch. Once you’ve done that merchants will come in and set up shop. Another search and destroy factor comes into play with Borgia flags across the city, they’re often in hard to reach places and for every flag you find and remove you’ll reduce Borgia’s hold on the city. You’ll also be able to use a mini-hand glider to break falls from high up, which seems pretty cool. I’m guessing Leonardo has something do with it, as he’ll be making another appearance in this game.
MULTI-PLAYER
Finally the major innovation to the new Assassin’s Creed is the multi-player aspect, which if you play the BETA you’ll find is pretty darn fun. It could be described as “death from above”, the most fun of all Assassination’s. Ubisoft has learned from multi-player with Splinter Cell and we’re better off for it. If you’re a fan of the kill animations in Assassins Creed, then the multi-player is your forte, because that’s where the satisfaction comes into play. It’s one button assassinations, no real melee combat, and the variety in death styles is vast and fulfilling. The only modes available are wanted and alliance, but this has proved enough fun. The rank system and game mechanics are addictive and compelling enough to keep you busy.
Wanted is basically hunting targets and being pursued by someone else at the same time. You spawn and the player you’re targeting pops up in the right hand corner of the screen. A blue indicator points towards the target helping you find the player, but running directly for the indicator sometimes ends in death as you’re giving yourself away. Stealth becomes key in some situations; however it all depends on the quality of the people you’re playing with. Many times I’ve just run around like a clown popping people off, it only gets hard once you’re in the lead and the game automatically sets more people after the leader. That’s when paranoia sets in and being careful comes into play. It’s a nicely balanced system and makes for some close call matches.
It’s also possible to counter someone who is pursuing you with the circle button, however you can’t kill them. This makes escaping your pursuer all the more satisfying, timing the counter move will result in the assassin being stunned, giving you ample opportunity to bolt. This excitement escalates when you’re close to your own target but are running from someone else. The game basically becomes like a frantic train of people chasing each other to the death, you can escape by either losing your pursuer or hiding in some leafs etc. Stealing other people’s targets is possible as well. While countering can be fun if timed right, this is one mechanic where your latency can become an issue, resulting in lag rage.
Alliance is the other mode available for now, which is basically coop by setting three teams of two assassins against each other. This mode requires coordination between team-mates in order to win, watching your mates back and working together to kill targets is always fun.
As you level through the ranking system you’re rewarded with more abilities (level cap will be 50), such a smoke bombs, disguises and turbo sprints. This levelling system is similar to something like Modern Warfare, but this game is vastly different to other online games on the market, which makes for a very unique experience. Characters and classes are customisable and I’m looking forward to what the full game will offer.
All positive things aside, this is a BETA so obviously there were some issues and hopefully they’ll be fixed by the time of release. Depending on when I was playing, sometimes it was quite difficult to find a game, sometimes up to 15 mins. However it’s possible to stick with people once you find them by rematching. Another issue I ran into was random freezing of my PS3; I haven’t heard anything of this by other people. It may be I’m the only player with the problem, but it was still frustrating. Other issues included clipping problems with animation during kills, some strange behaviour with models floating in the air and issues with countering my pursuer. Yes, this is the BETA, but they’re worth mentioning.
If you have a PS3, I suggest you pay the dollars to become a PlayStation plus member and get access to this BETA. Even if it’s just for the BETA, you’ll enjoy levelling up before the game comes out. Especially if you’ve become jaded by FPS online games and are looking for something different, then this is the game. Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood is set to release in November 2010 on PS3/Xbox 360, watch out for the review right here before release.
Game Name: Zenonia Platforms: Nintendo DSiWare Publisher(s):GAMEVIL USA, Inc. Developer(s):GAMEVIL USA, Inc. Genre(s): Action RPG Release Date: September 27th, 2010 Price: 800 Points ($8.00 US)
Developer Gamevil bring Zenonia to the DSiWare after the title’s huge success on the mobile market. Zenonia is a top-down action RPG with nearly 40 hours of gameplay and attempts to recreate the classic RPG as we know it. How did Zenonia fare? Here is my review.
Story
Zenonia starts off much like other RPG titles, with a nice long cutscene to get you acquainted with the characters and story. You then take control of a 17 year-old by the name of Regret, the game’s main protagonist who after his father’s demise, is looking for answers. There is a world full of supporting non-playable characters as well that really are all easily likable and make the world come alive with depth.
The overall story may sound a bit typical, but it is all intended. Zenonia feels like it knows that it is an RPG with a rather generic story, and that is the charm of it all. While the story stayed interesting the whole way through for me and there were many serious moments, Zenonia was also was full of pop culture and video game references bringing the somewhat aged setting into modern times and even cracking the fourth wall. The humor in the game is literally the icing on the cake and not only made Regret and all of the other characters within likable, but highly memorable.
You start with three classes to choose from being Paladin, Warrior, or Assassin. Each class has it’s own strengths and weaknesses which effect the way you fare against certain enemies. On top of the different classes is the Good/Evil meter which measures your in-game decision making. Depending on choice, the storyline can shift and you can go down a different path which makes for more incentive later to go back through and try different choices and see how each story ends up when you are finished.
As well as the story mode there is always side-quests for Regret to complete for various characters within the game. Most of these consisted of fetch quests or simply beating a set number of enemies but the way these worked into the story actually helped me keep balanced within level for the next boss as you get experience for each enemy defeated.
Gameplay
Zenonia is an action RPG and it plays the part with near perfection. Control is simple to use with the standard D-Pad to move Regret and the “A” button for standard attacks. Other buttons are used for different techniques which can be learned as you level up. The menu system can be activated at anytime. The menu is simple to use and is great for on the go access to upgrading your stats, using items, or saving the game at any point. The bottom screen serves no real purpose except for the option to display your map and menu from time to time.
If you are not a fan of grinding, this game might annoy you a bit on that front as a lot of grinding is needed to get prepared for the many challenging enemies ahead on your main quest. Each enemy you defeat gives you experience and money which you can use to gain new techniques, better equipment, ect. The enemies are always different though and with the side-quest missions, grinding was actually fun in this title. Each enemy or encounter usually felt completely different than the next and if the challenge was too great, a simple strategy change worked wonders to get the job done. If your main character dies you have the choice of taking a hit to Regret’s stats and restarting the battle or you can simply give 3000 gold (or whatever gold you may have left if less than 3000) to jump right back in the game without having to restart at all.
Attacking is also easy and never a chore, but you must be lined up quite accurately to use attacks to their full potential. With practice I got better at this method but there was a slight hiccup from time to time with fighing multiple enemies at once as I felt gravitated towards an enemy that was closer rather than to the original target. Besides that one mishap, the gameplay engine is solid and extremely nostalgic and has a lot of the same qualities that made the older Zelda titles and classic rpgs of the past so great.
Graphics/Audio
The graphics in Zenonia looked a bit like a SNES title, but that is not a bad thing at all. Each sprite is detailed and the character model’s anime appearance worked well with fitting in to the overall world. As far as the land of Zenonia goes, each location is different and made me want to explore every crevice. I never once got bored of looking at the sheer beauty of the 16-bit locations once. To top off the graphics is a soundtrack that could easily be a contender for some of the best video game tunes in years. The combination of both really brought the whole game to life for me and kept me playing for hours on end.
Overall
Zenonia more than lived up to my expectations and then some for a DSiWare title. As I was playing through I felt like I was playing a cartridge as the game is so jammed pack full of content and hours and hours of gameplay that was simple yet addictive. The charming cast of characters and engaging story shatter any of the minor flaws in the game and set this title apart from your typical RPG to a fresh yet nostalgic experience. At only 800 points, this title not only puts out one of the best portable RPGs in recent years, but sets a bar for all future DSiWare titles which is a feat all to it’s own.
In an interesting story on ESPN, it was revealed that NBA Jam will feature President Obama, Hilary Clinton and other Democrats as unlockable characters. A Republican team will also be available. If politics is not your style, you will be happy to know that an unlockable Beastie Boys team will be included. It is currently unknown how these caricatures will be unlocked. Read the full story here. I’m kinda looking forward to dunking on any one of these politicians when NBA Jam releases on Wii, Xbox 360 and PS3 this holiday.
