Much to comic book fans’ dismay, the hugely anticipated DC Universe Online has suffered a delay in it’s release date. Instead of receiving the proposed November 2nd date, instead the game will be reaching customers sometime in Spring of 2011. The reason for this delay has been stated by Sony Online Entertainment President John Smedley to address feedback and fix any bugs discovered during the beta:
“As the game heads into external beta testing, this extra time will allow us to address community feedback in a meaningful way. When we get deeper into external beta, we’ll be able to share more information regarding the new launch date.”
This is also a blow not only to PC users but PS3 users as well due to the fact that this MMO was also to be released for the PS3, bringing the console it’s first MMO experience. However just as before with Bangai-O, there is a small ray of hope in most fans’ darkest hour. And that is the fact that Beta access to the game will start beginning on November 30th in America.
How would one obtain a beta invite you may ask? The guarenteed path to success is if you were to pre-order DCUO before November 15th and you will receive a beta invite with the instructions included in the game. However if you so happen to not pre-order by that time, you will still receive a beta invite a week prior to the game’s official launch.
Whenever people hear about a game being delayed it is usually met with sighs and the feeling that it was delayed simply for better release date sales without anything added to the game itself. Well this time around D3 and Treasure have unfortunately delayed Bangai-O HD: Missile Fury until Spring 2011 on the XBLA. But the silver lining to this dark cloud is that they are also taking this time to incorporate co-op mode and an online multiplayer mode that otherwise would not have been included in the Bangai-O.
From early appearances Bangai-O HD: Missile Fury places the player behind the controls to a gundam-style mecha warrior that is in a side scrolling shmup. This shoot’em up style will include hundreds of bullets and enemies all over the screen as they try to destroy your robot and put an end to your fight. We’ll know more as time goes on, but at least it is good to see that while the game has been delayed, more features are being added.
Upset with the news that Gears of War 3 has been delayed by a collosal 5 months? You’re not alone, there are many others that feel the same way, but never fret for recent announcements may be more to your liking.
Over the weekend, both lead designer Cliff Bleszinski and Epic Vice-President Mark Rein hinted on their Twitter that the delay wasn’t all bad news. To reward fans of the franchise and cheer them up after the news of the delay, Bleszinski promised a pleasing announcement coming next week via his Twitter feed: “Yep. Gears 3 has been moved to Holiday 2011. News incoming shortly that will be quite the silver lining. Have faith.”
Mark Rein added on his Twitter: “Re: Gears3 coming out in holiday… there are some nice silver linings hiding in this cloud. More news next week.”
Personally, I think the double mention of ‘silver lining’ was no coincidence. Anyone have any ideas what this could be about? We’ll have more on it as it progresses.
All of the WoW fans out there can now have an official date on the highly anticipated expansion, World of Warcraft: Cataclysm. Blizzard has officially announced the expansion will be available in stores on Dec. 7th of this year. The expansion will be available on DVD-ROM for Windows XP/Windows Vista/Windows 7 and Macintosh and will also be offered as a digital download from the Blizzard Store. A special collector’s edition packed with bonus items will be available exclusively in retail stores.
“Cataclysm includes the best content we’ve ever created for World of Warcraft. It’s not just an expansion but a re-creation of much of the original Azeroth, complete with epic new high-level adventures for current players and a redesigned leveling experience for those just starting out,” said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. “With the help of our beta testers we’re putting on the final polish, and we look forward to welcoming gamers around the world to enjoy it in just a couple of months.”
In Cataclysm, the face of Azeroth will be forever altered by the return of the corrupted Dragon Aspect Deathwing. Players will explore once-familiar areas of the world that have now been reshaped by the devastation and filled with new adventures. In an effort to survive the planet-shattering cataclysm, two new playable races – worgen and goblins – will join the struggle between the Alliance and the Horde. As players journey to the new level cap of 85, they’ll discover newly revealed locations, acquire new levels of power and come face to face with Deathwing in a battle to determine the fate of the world.
For those who still can’t wait to December 7th, you still have a chance to get into the closed beta.Visit the official Battle.net website at eu.battle.net to set up a Battle.net account and sign up for a chance to participate. To learn more about World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, visit www.wow-europe.com/cataclysm.
Story
“Threatened with becoming just another failed superhero, Captain Smiley is rescued by the fine folks at Twisted Pixel who provide him with a base of operations and Comic Jumping technology allowing him—and his back-talking “chestkick” named Star—to leap into other comic books and save misguided plotlines, so that they may earn enough cash to catapult their superhero careers back into the limelight. From the creators of the award-winning titles Splosion Man and The Maw, Comic Jumper is the team’s most ambitious game yet.” [ Via Xbox.com]
Captain Smiley is on the verge of being washed out of the Comic Super Hero business. Out of money, and out of villains; Comic Jumper must find a way to reboot his career. Twisted Pixel helps him out (yes they are in the game, literally) by supplying him a device that lets him jump between comics. It is now Captain Smiley’s job to enter other comics and help the heroes in those comics with whatever they need help with… for a reasonable fee, of course.
Gameplay This is not a kid’s game. The art style may seem cartoony, but a huge chunk of the humor is intended for an older audience. There are many jokes within the game from old movies, such as “Total Recall”, “Bloodsport”, and many more that I can’t recall the films’ name; there are even jokes placed in there from other games both their own, and not their own. There are even a few jokes at the expense of their own games, such as The Maw. Simply put, there are a whole bunch of jokes. The humor is spot on and I laughed during the entire game. Sadly, since the entire game depends on the jokes, there isn’t much replay value located in the game. If you do replay it, you will just hear the same jokes over again; and if you are lucky you might catch a few that you missed the first time around.
The gamestyle is a sidescrolling arcade shooter. This gamestyle is also a throwback to the older generation. You know, the ones that actually grew up playing these types of games, and not the ones who are used to “More Modern” Shooters. The arcade shooters that were intended to be really hard, and almost impossible not to die in. Comic Jumper is primarily a sidescrolling shooter, where you jump, slide, and climb all while shooting at everything that pops out to kill you. Not getting hurt in this game is almost impossible, as there are tons of things trying to kill you. The bosses are also a lot of fun, with patterns to memorize and tons of health to slowly dwindle down.
Freebies are abundant in this game. Twisted Pixel loves to give away as much free stuff as they can, and they have broken boundaries on it before. There are free gamer pictures, a free theme, and even free DLC for their previous game: “Splosion’ Man”. If you thought that wasn’t enough, there is tons of in game concept art, videos, comics to read, and much much more. I say it is all free, but it actually costs in game money that you get by beating levels and challenges; but this is just a small price to pay for so much free stuff. It also adds a small amount of replay value, if you can’t manage to get all the money in one playthrough.
Audio & Graphics
There are actually four unique art styles in this game. Even though the overall gameplay style stays consistent throughout the whole game, the art style freshens up the game at regular intervals. Every time there is an art style change, it is like getting a fresh new game to play. It isn’t just the art that changes either, the jokes and the audio change as well.
The game’s music was composed by a few different guys, and this gives a unique sound to every different comic. There is even more comedic original music located in this game. More of the awesome funny that only “Chainsaw” can provide. Yes, the same guy that composed “Donuts Go Nuts” from “Splosion’ Man” is back with even more original epicness! Just wait, till you hear Brad’s Theme song, or the other various songs by “Chainsaw”. Also, on a side note, the lipsyncing in this game is horrible; no attempt to even do it at all. On the plus side, the game was so much fun, I didn’t even notice it until I was almost done with the game. It seriously, isn’t that big of a deal.
Achievements The achievement list in Comic Jumper is actually extremely easy. A large chunk of them can be achieved in one playthrough of the game. You could actually get all of them in one playthrough if you are really good (or bad, in the case of the bullets fired). There are a few tricky ones, however. For instance, “Shut Star Up” only has two locations in the game where you can get it, but you can always go back to those levels and replay them. “Collection of a True Fan” and “I Took Performance Enhancers” both require you to spend your in game money on unlockables and upgrades. If a normal player goes immediately for the upgrades, you can’t get it in one playthrough; on the other hand, if you buy the unlockables, you get a bonus multiplier which keeps adding up based on the unlockables you buy. If you keep buying unlockables, you’ll eventually get a huge amount of bonus cash after each level for simply owning those unlockables. Finally, “Pressed X a lot” is actually missable; and you do not want to miss this achievement. If you don’t go through the base after each mission, you will run out of chances to do it and have to start the entire game over; and you do not want to do that. So make sure to talk to everyone and everything within the base after each mission, until you get the achievement. It does add more funny lines to the game, which is a bonus; and there are also some easter eggs that you might miss unless you talk to them.
Below is the achievement list:
Neural Net Processors – 10 – Destroy 25 of Brad’s BradBots.
Two Stood Against Many – 15 – Complete three sections of the first comic genre.
Hero of the Silver Age – 15 – Complete three sections of the second genre.
Brad’s Savior and Best Friend – 15 – Complete three sections of the third genre.
Job Well Done, Faithful Reader – 25 – Complete the game.
Pressed X a lot – 10 – Earn some cash by talking to people in the base.
Collection of a True Fan – 25 – Spend your hard-earned money and buy all the unlockables from Dr. Winklemeyer.
I Took Performance Enhancers – 25 – Max out all of Captain Smiley’s abilities.
Violence Solves Everything – 10 – Fire 125,000 total shots.
Eugene’s Protégé – 20 – Play every reaction sequence mistake-free.
He Ain’t Even Married – 20 – Survive a specific section without getting hit.
Shut Star Up – 10 – Let your feelings guide you.
There are also three avatar awards available in the game
Star Shirt (Male Shirt) – A shirt with star on it, for males only.
Gerda Shirt (Female Shirt) – A shirt with Gerda’s Face on it, for females only.
Captain Smiley Giant Head – Wear it on your head, and you can be Captain Smiley too.
Overview Comic Jumper has a huge emphasis on the in game humor. The player really determines how much they get out of the game. If a player doesn’t catch any of the references, and just runs through the game; the game is in turn going to seem like a stupid piece of junk. On the other hand, if the player takes their time and catches a huge amount of references; the game will be an awesome piece of pure gold comedy! It is as simple as that. In my opinion, the game isn’t really meant to be played, but instead it should simply be enjoyed. Sadly, this also means there is almost no replay value in the game, since you will only hear the same lines over again and see the same things again. I can say that there were a few things I missed the first time through, that I caught the second time but I don’t think I need a third replay at all. If you like Twisted Pixel and like their sense of humor, then you will probably enjoy this game. Sadly, if you don’t have speakers on your TV and aren’t old enough, you won’t like this game that much. Twisted Pixel has even hinted within the game at possible future DLC that they would like to have. This isn’t a guarantee, but DLC supported games are always nice.
I give Comic Jumper
Story The Hyperion Corporation is tired of all the treasure hunters running around and doing their “treasure hunting” all over Pandora. They decide to deal with the “problem” by sending an Interplanetary Ninja Assassin, a stealthy CL4P-TP robot (known as claptraps) designed to wipe out all the treasure hunters. Anyone who has played the game completely, knows about this little guy already.
This claptrap doesn’t do what it was intended to do; however, and after arriving to the planet things change. After seeing the terrible working conditions of his fellow claptraps, he gathers the other claptraps together and creates a rebellion.
Gameplay Claptraps. Lots of Claptraps. From the beginning you will run into a whole bunch of claptraps, and throughout the entire add-on you will face claptrap themed enemies. Since the Claptraps are hosting a rebellion, it makes sense that you will run into a lot of them. These claptraps aren’t all the cute kinds you see everywhere during the main game either. During this add-on you see altered claptraps that look more menacing than then normal -friendly- types. The rest of the enemies are also themed around claptraps, with both human and claptrap bits stuck on to make humanoid type beings.
The regular humor found throughout Borderlands continues to be seen throughout this add-on. The claptraps themselves aren’t dangerous, but the sheer number of them cause problems. It is kind of like the zombies from a previous add on. There is even a mission that requires you to collect claptrap parts, and this one is also just as annoying as the one where you collect brains. Other missions in the add-on fit the generic Borderlands missions, such as going to a certain location, or collecting stuff. Even the places where you travel too look familiar, though they are unique in their own way.
Achievements Tons of collecting, everyone loves these! Yes, I was being sarcastic. These collecting ones actually require you to kill a lot of claptraps. You can’t just find these lying around, you have to get lucky enough to get these as a drop and currently they are glitched. What is better than a glitched achievement that is based on luck? Nothing! Luckily, there will be an update soon that fixes the glitch and unlocks the achievement if you by chance already collected the required stuff. Then there are the boss fights, that are just repeats of bosses you already killed, but this time they have been claptrapified (I’m sure that is a real word). These battles aren’t actually that hard, but at least there are multiple boss battles this time (kinda…). Below is the achievement list:
Tourist – 10 – Find all 6 Claptrap Statues
Muerte la robo-lución – 70 – Kill the INAC
The Collector – 50 – Complete a crazy request for Tannis
What a party! – 30 – Collect 3 panties, 5 fish in a bag, and 15 pizzas
~~Secret Achievements~~
Knoxx-Trap – 20 – Knoxx is at rest…finally
Ned-Trap – 20 – Killed Ned…again and again and again
Steele-Trap – 20 – The Commandant is dead-trap
Overview Fans of the game are going to have a really bad case of de’javu from this add-on. While the add-on is actually pretty massive, with a healthy helping of places to travel to and missions to do, there isn’t really anything new by means of the definition. Most of the missions reuse previous mechanics extremely closely, and a majority of them are heavily based in collecting more junk. While the premise is still there, with weapons to collect and bad guys to kill, there isn’t really anything new in this add-on; which isn’t totally bad in this case, it just would’ve been nice to have more “new”. This add-on would have been perfect with a few new levels to gain as well (especially for people already at the max), but those don’t come out for another week or so (Free title update). So, in my honest opinion, I would just wait for the increased level cap update to come in and then play it. Also, since the achievements are currently glitched (as of writing this) it is simply best to wait a week, and then pick this add-on up.
You know you want it. I know I want it. Then lets Get Fit with Mel B. Coming this month for Wii, Playstation Move and Xbox 360 Kinect, Get Fit with Mel B features individualized training and social network integration. So get out there and get fit.
The Duke Nukem Forever official site is now linking to stores where you can pre-order the game. What else? Those retailers are also listing a release date for the longly awaited title of February 1, 2011.
Gearbox has not yet confirmed the release date but one thing is for sure, Duke Nukem Forever is finally around the corner.
As some of you may have heard, famed director of Katamari Damacy, Keita Takahashi, left Namco a little while ago. I, myself, was a bit dismayed at this fact as I am quite the fan of the Katamari Damacy series and its signature level of Japanese crazysauce. Fortunately enough, however, Takahashi (and his wife) has uneviled a new company via japanese (they have disjointed Engrish for us non-japanese folk) website, Uvula. Quite the weird name, but one wouldn’t expect anything less from the creator of Katamari Damacy. Instead of solely being a games company, Uvula’s “About Us” page claims that it will be a coagulation of music and videogames. One can only imagine what will come forth from this studio, especially if any indication is what you can find on the site’s “others” page which consists of presumably self made, functional works of art. Just goes to show what a true visionary Keita Takahashi is. Here’s to hoping that his next game is as good as his art is weird.
October is a crazy month for gamers and many will be out looking for a title that looks unique and fun. Southpeak’s latest Wii title Sled Shred seems to offer just that. You must take control of a Jamaican bobsled team and lead them to victory at the The World Snow Games in this odd title. You really don’t see many games based on bobsledding which is why this title caught my attention.
Coach Mon has embarked on a mission to find those rare individuals that have what it takes. Are you fit enough? Are you focused enough? Are you brave enough to jump on a bobsled and rocket down that tube of ice at break neck speeds? In Sled Shred featuring the Jamaican Bobsled Team, prove yourself to the legendary Jamaican bobsledders and learn the ropes of downhill sledding in order to join the coolest team in the world!
Features Include:
Exhilarating downhill sledding using Wii Balance Board™ controls, Wii Remote™ with Nunchuk™, or Wii Remote™ and Classic Controller
Unlockable characters, vehicles, and super special abilities
Shred up the slopes with one of nine entertaining characters
Take sledding to the extreme by executing tricks to boost your speed or score
Dash down the hills in inner tubes, giant discs, toboggans, classic steel runners, and bonafide 2-and 4-man bobsleds
Race with friends in a single race, choose from a variety of circuits, or create your own customized race
Pelt your opponents with snowballs to knock them off course
Use in-game achievements to track your sledding accomplishments
At a nice cool as ice price of $19.99, Sled Shred looks to be a great single or multi-player experience for anyone looking for a new experience. You can find Sled Shred in stores come October 12th.
