Home Blog Page 6498

Dead Space Review

Roger Ma
-
6
Dead Space Review

Dead Space
Platform(s): iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad (reviewed)
Publisher(s): Electronic Arts
Developer(s): Iron Monkey Studios
Genre(s): Action
Release Date: January 25, 2011
Price: $8.99 (iPhone/ iPod Touch), $12.99 (iPad)

A few people (myself included) were a bit ‘iffy’ about Dead Space for the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. Rumour had it that it was going to be an on-rails shooter similar to what iD did with RAGE for their iOS conversion. But thank god, my speculations turned out to be completely false. Iron Monkey Studios have done a fantastic job in bringing a complete and fully-fledged Dead Space package and overall gaming experience into the palms of player’s hands.

Story

A good amount of detail has been given to this game’s story. Set as a prequel to Dead Space 2, the story fits in nicely with the events of Dead Space 2. Without giving too much away, you are Codename: Vandal, who is sent on a secret mission into the mines of Titan, however the real truth of your mission becomes very apparent with deadly consequences with an outbreak of Necromorphs. Characters from Dead Space 2 reappear in this version and it’s nice to see that there is a level of crossover between the two games, although both their stories are self-contained and you will not need to play either to fully understand them both, they work well by themselves.

Gameplay

Perhaps the most striking thing about Dead Space on the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad is that is looks and plays exactly like its console counterpart. Apart from the obvious changes eg touch based controls, gameplay and graphical tweaks, this game is a near identical Dead Space experience. Survival horror has probably never played this good on portable device. Players will need to conserve ammo by strategically dismembering Necromorph’s limbs whilst keeping an eye out for useful power nodes, credits and of cause more ammo.

New exclusive weapons have been included in this game for example the Plasma Saw, a nifty melee weapon great for up close and personal kills and the Core Extractor, a ‘BFG 9000’ of a weapon (probably the biggest gun I’ve ever seen) extremely useful in taking out multiple enemies. Whilst the touch controls may take some time to get use to, the first ‘tutorial’ level work very well to sort out any issues no messing about here, but once you get the hang of them you’ll appreciate the superb job Iron Monkey Studios have done with their tight streamlined controls. Manoeuvring, running, aiming and shooting are all just a tap away, not to mention other nice additions such as rotating your iOS device to change the Plasma Cutter firing mode. Try doing that when you’re in a really frantic fight, it’s fun!

Graphics and Audio

I’ve probably said it before but I’ll say it again, this game looks and plays exactly like its console version. Obviously, gamers on the iPad will have the better experience simply because of the larger screen but that’s not to say that iPhone or iPod Touch players are getting a watered down copy either, the game looks great on whatever iOS device you decide to play it on. The graphics in this game look extremely clean and crisp especially in the animations, they look and run very smoothly with no frame rate issues or texture popping.

The game states that ‘its best played with earphones’ and I can’t argue with that. Dead Space features full voice acting, immersive music and of cause high tension noises in the ‘scary parts’. Oh and yes, there’s a lot of them. Audio cues, music and voice acting are all top notch no corners have been cut here, again, it is on par with its console counterpart.

Overall

Dead Space for the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad is definitely a great survival horror game, no denying that. The fact that the developers, Iron Monkey Studios, have literally recreated a fully featured Dead Space experience filled with its intense horror and action into your the palms of your hand is an achievement in itself, the game looks, plays and even sounds like it’s console brother. Funnily enough, speaking of achievements the game also features 40+ achievements to unlock. Great for replayability and the completionists out there but that’s not all, by registering the game with EA.com you’ll also unlock exclusive content for Dead Space 2 and that’s really a cherry on top for Dead Space fans.

I give Dead Space for the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad:

9-0-capsules-out-of-10

Behind the scenes of L.A. Noire

J. Bradshaw
-
3

The amazing L.A. Noire is coming soon.  In the intervening time leading up to release, Rockstar has provided some very interesting data regarding how Team Bondi, the developers behind the game, were able to accurately recreate the 1947 era themes that the the game will feature.  Part One of these “diaries” deals with Locations and Set Design.

The artists and graphics designers at Team Bondi actually used real color palettes from the ’40s to match and create their own colors in the game. Other materials were also used.

“I bought from eBay old House & Garden magazines, along with Architectural Digest, Sears catalogues and Interior Decorating guides from the 40’s. These were invaluable as not only did it show you the best of how they styled their homes, but it showed you how they lived,” says Simon Wood.

The Barclay Hotel in Los Angeles was used to recreate the feel of the 1940s.  This hotel has not changed much in the last 60 years, and so it was a perfect source of detailed design schemes that could be implemented in the game.

“We created ‘Production Bibles’ which are like production design style guides for all the locations in the game,” said Wood, “The bibles have floorplans, material, dressing, graphics and signage, lighting details, and any other reference images that are needed to create the locations in the game.  We made over 140 of them altogether.”

As usual, Rockstar made sure that their game would express exacting details that would really bring each character to life.

“I had a checklist of which styles of architecture and colour palettes would work well with the characters Brendan was writing, so that their persona was reflected in their personal surroundings,” Wood said.

Team Bondi has strived to make this game have very high production values.  As a result of this effort, they researched these wardrobes and sets as one of their first steps in the design process.   Often times, in the movie industry, these aspects of creation are left to do until the end.

Look out for Parts 2 & 3, coming soon!

Tales of Graces F confirmed for United States release

Travis Bruno
-
1

Last week Namco Bandai released a mysterious teaser website that was called A Tale of Two Richards. There was a distorted image that looked vaguely like a Tales game logo but at that point there was no actual confirmation of the rumor and Namco Bandai was not willing to let the cat out of the bag early. Now however if anyone goes to the website they are no longer greeted with a distorted image, but the logo of Tales of Graces F.

There isn’t a whole lot to be said about the logo other than that below it, there are the words “Coming soon to North America.” Oh and you can join them on Facebook as well. There currently is no information as to whether or not the game will be released on the PS3. Who knows they could even make an Xbox 360 version as well but for now all we can do is wait for more information.

Armored Core V to deploy in the West in 2012

Travis Bruno
-
2

Earlier we mentioned that Namco Bandai is going to publish From Software’s Dark Souls when it arrives later this year. Now From Software and Namco Bandai’s partnership doesn’t end there, as they will be also handling the publishing for Armored Core V when it is set to ship to the US and Europe in the early months of 2012.

Armored Core V is said to be focused more around online multiplayer where fighters will form teams with each other and attempt to capture enemy bases. Rather than not allowing players to jump into already running games, the From Software team is now implementing a feature that allows players to jump in and wait for the match to finish so they can instantly begin the next round.

The online multiplayer isn’t the only feature either, as the single player mode will also combine elements of the online multiplayer by allowing players to continue their battles in single player mode if all of their friends leave them before the battle is over. Now Armored Core V has entered the stage where being an easy to play online mech game is the priority. We’ll find out more as the months go on.

Double XP event for Black Ops coming soon

J. Bradshaw
-
3

You love Black Ops.  We like Black Ops.  If you listen to our most recent podcast, you can learn about the First Strike DLC.  And in celebration of the release of the DLC, Treyarch is offering double XP for the weekend of February 4th to the 6th.  So far, the event has only been confirmed to be available on the the Xbox 360.  But other versions of the game may have the same dose of double fun come to them in the future.  How excited are you to rank up and earn those special titles?  I may finally actually have to pick the game up!

Epic unable to add Gears of War 3 unlocks from past Epic games

Travis Bruno
-
2

Apparently Gears of War 3 was supposed to have special unlockable equipment and skins for those who had played previous Epic games. This would have included a special gun from Bulletstorm and a Shadow Complex gun if they had been able to implement these features. Unfortunately due to restrictions on the Xbox 360 itself, Epic will not be able to do this.

Epic Games lead gameplay programmer Joe Graf explained on his Twitter that the Xbox 360 will only read data from inside the publisher and developers own family. Meaning that Gears of War, which is published by Microsoft Games Studios, will not be able to access data from Bulletstorm which is being published by EA. There may be workarounds in the future but as of now these special unlocks are canceled.

The Pink Knight comes to Castle Crashers PSN for a good cause

Dylan Radcliffe
-
2
The Pink Knight comes to Castle Crashers PSN for a good cause

Guess what! The Pink Knight (seen in this popular flash game) is coming to castle crashers on the PSN for $1.99 on February 8th. Not only will it be a playable character for within the game, but 100% of Behemoth’s Revenue will also go towards a good cause! Breast Cancer!

The playable Pink Knight will come packed with the Lollipop and 4 other brand new additional weapons which are all simply adorable!!

Don’t worry XBLA players, The Behemoth loves everyone! They are currently working on a title update for XBLA that will bring the Pink Knight as a playable character to those players as well. They will hopefully have more details on the XBLA DLC and exactly what that pack includes in the near future; but my guess is that it will most likely include everything the PSN version has that the XBLA version doesn’t (this includes the weapons and the bonus modes).

While you save up and wait to donate to this good cause through the purchase of the Pink Knight character pack, you can always play the Pink Knight flash game completely for free. (yes, it is the same link as the top one). Or you could always read all the details on the promotion on the Behemoth blog.

Crysis 2 PC requirements won’t melt your computer

Travis Bruno
-
2
Crysis 2 PC requirements won’t melt your computer

Now gamers may remember that three years ago Crysis was released to PCs everywhere. Now that in and of itself isn’t a very big deal. But what was a big deal was that Crysis required extremely high-end computer requirements to even run properly, let alone at max optimization. There were many people who had to dump 10x the game’s price into their computers simply to run the thing.

Now Crysis 2 is coming out and surprinsgly enough, the specifications that you will need to run it are actually less than what you needed to run Crysis:

  • Internet connection required for activation
  • OS: XP/Vista/Windows 7
  • CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo 2 Ghz, AMD Athlon 64 x2 2 Ghz or better
  • GPU Nvidia GeForce 8800 GT 512 MB of memory or higher; ATI/AMD Radeon 3850HD 512Mb RAM or higher
  • Memory: 2 GB of RAM
  • Hard Drive Space: 9 GB
  • DVD-ROM with 8x speed
  • Audio: DirectX9c compatible
  • Keyboard, mouse or Xbox 360 controller for Windows

The reason for the odd drop in specifications is not apparent, though some may say that since Crysis 2 is being released on the PS3 and Xbox 360 as well that that is the reason that the specifications are smaller. Either that or the developers thought that they would rather not have to force their fans to drop even more money on their computers to run the game.

NGP gameplay trailer shows what it is capable of

Travis Bruno
-
1
NGP gameplay trailer shows what it is capable of

Now we all saw the reveal trailer for the NGP which showed us a whole bunch of very happy looking people doing different things with the NGP itself. But there never was an actual video that showed off the games and the way that they would look like on the handheld. Sure there was a video of Uncharted during the conference where NGP was revealed but what about everything else?

Well now Sony has found the best way to market their newly announced device considering there had been little actual gameplay footage shown yet. In a new video released by Sony there is a multitude of software gameplay shown which includes all of the different games that have currently been announced with big titles like Killzone and Resistance. But the title that I’m most interested in that I saw in the video was Gravity Daze, how about you?

Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky announced for US release

Travis Bruno
-
1

It seems that if you want to get a hold of some of the most popular JRPG games, or Strategy RPGs that you have to own a PSP nowadays. Regardless of that fact however XSEED has announcd that they are bringing Nihon Falcom’s Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky to the United States in March of this year.

Previously Trails in the Sky was only available on the PC when it came out in 2004 in Japan and it never made it overseas at that point. Now the game then saw a release on the PSP back in 2006, but this was only for Japanese audiences as well. But finally fans of the Legend of Heroes series in the US and worldwide will be able to gain access to this installment of the franchise. Trails in the Sky starts the 3rd series of Legend of Heroes and will begin a brand new storyline that can span over 50 hours.

But they didn’t just announce the fact that the game is being released, they also announced that there will be three different versions available. The standard edition and the downloadable edition aren’t much to be impressed about and will cost $30 on their own. But what is interesting is the fact that there is a $40 limited edition which will feature a soundtrack CD, a Bracer Guild replica badge and a 13 x 19.5″ poster that you can put up on your wall if you want to. I know I would.

1...6,4976,4986,499...6,944Page 6,498 of 6,944