Hmmm so time goes by, E3 is months gone now. Whatever happened to the 3DS? How much will it cost and how long until we can get it in our eagerly waiting hands? Well this tad bit of news will at least tell us when we can expect to find out, but not much more.
Nintendo has told Bloomberg Japan that they will not be releasing a single peep of information about those two burning questiosn until September 29th. They definitely are getting a kick out of taunting us with this info, but for the most part a lot of predictions are placing their newest hand held at a price tag of $250 American. Will this be right? Or will we be pleasantly surprised/horrified when the announcement does come out.
It seems point and click adventure games are enjoying a successful run at the moment and this October brings a real Halloween treat when Gray Matter finally debuts on both the PC and Xbox360.
Originally announced in 2003, Gray Matter reunites the acclaimed husband and wife team behind the 1990’s Gabriel Knight series, writer Jane Jensen and composer Robert Holmes, for a supernatural based scare-fest set to spook and delight adventure fans of the in equal measure!
Since losing his wife in a terrible accident Dr David Styles has become a virtual recluse rarely leaving his English manor home, the aptly named Dread Hill House. It seems Dr Styles has gained quite a reputation for his neurological experimentations on the human mind and is now on the lookout for a new research assistant. Enter Samantha Everett, an Oxford University student and part-time street performer with a keen interest in magic and trickery. With a perpetual lack of cash and an interest in the macabre Sam land the job as the mask wearing Doctor’s new assistant and is immediately asked to track down six volunteers at Oxford to take part in one of his experiments. Everything seems innocent enough, well as innocent as one might imagine working for the 2010 version of the Phantom of the Opera in a creepy English manor house, until inevitably it all goes wrong and mysterious and unexplained events begin to occur.
As Styles spirals further into madness haunted by visions of his beloved dead wife it is up to you, alternating between both Sam and Dr Styles, to solve the mysteries surrounding Dread Hill House!
As a fan of all things spooky and adventure games I am really excited about what might well turn out to be the spookiest adventure of the year. Although still some months away from it’s release it would appear that Gray Matter has a plethora of fascinating characters and a superior plot courtesy of Jane Jensen with enough twists and turns to keep buyers engaged over the Halloween holidays.
Barring any mysterious delays or unforeseen circumstances, fans of the Gabriel Knight series, would be adventurers and ghost hunters can get to grips with Gray Matter, developed by WizarBox and published by dtp entertainment, in October 2010.
Casual players will have it extremely easy if they wish to play Platinum Games’ Vanquish coming on October 19th. That is because they have announced that there will be the difficulty known as “Casual Auto” selectable for a difficulty within the game. Think of it as being something similar to what you experienced in Bayonetta’s Easy Auto mode.
Shinji Mikami the director of the game was quoted saying on the mode:
“Before we started work on it, I can’t say that I had high hopes; however, once we got it up and running, I was pleasantly surprised to see that I was wrong,”
“Once you get your target on the enemy, the rest is easy as pie. I’m sure saying it that way makes it sound totally uninteresting, but when you actually give it a shot, the tempo it gives the game play will make you jump up and say, ‘Woohoo!’”
Mikami had even more to say about the also announced God Hard mode:
“This mode is only for the chosen few (you can’t select it on your first play through). If you are a bit of a masochist, I think you will have a good time. It is something for our fans to look forward to.”
It’s good to see that Platinum Games is extending their hand out to the more casual player that won’t be able to handle such heavy twitch shooting mechanics and allow them to enjoy themselves, while not forgetting about the hardcore players at the same time and giving them a nice punishing difficulty to go through.
One thing that isn’t a mystery is how successful crime solving and mystery games have been on the Nintendo DS. Professor Layton, Hotel Dusk, and many other titles have provided hours of gameplay for many fans of the genre. Now one more will be added to the mix with O-Game’s newest title Mystery Tales Time Travel.
Mystery Tales puts players on the trail of a French writer who has stumbled upon an old diary of a long lost relative. Along the way players will have to solve puzzles and riddles to gather clues while trying to solve the mystery while exploring some of the world’s most exotic places.
Features are set to Include:
With various story modes to choose from, players can search for the Hidden Objects before time runs out, locate the Hotspots, and complete Logic and Reverse levels in specific order
Mini-games challenge players to exercise their mind with Memory and Decryption games
Use Magic Spells to travel through time, Dimension Gates to enter new worlds, and Spirit Sights invoked by the witch
Mystery Tales takes you to 30 unique locations across the world in China, Italy, France and Egypt
Train your brain with memory games, puzzle games, and interesting drawings
Search for over 1,000 Hidden Objects
Five years ago I would have never thought I would be so hooked by a genre which is why I am pumped to see another new mystery game on the Nintendo DS. Magic Spells, time travelling, and many puzzles to solve all in the same game sounds great. Mystery fans can get their newest fix when Mystery Tales Time Travel releases in September of this year.
Announced at E3 this year, High Voltage and Sega’s Conduit 2 had some nice box-art released. Based on the art, it looks as if the main feature that will be the centerpiece of the new game is the much hyped multi-player mode which allows up to 12 people to go at it over the Nintendo Wii’s Wi-Fi mode. The game also promised to use Wii Speak and make full use of the Wii Motion Plus for even sharper and more precise controls.
Building upon the success of the original, Conduit 2 takes players to the far reaches of the world to stop an alien invasion which can be fought in single-player, online multi-player battles, and all-new off and online co-op modes. Armed with advanced and powerful weapons, players can expect massive action in large, multi-tiered levels featuring dynamic environments, cinematic battles, giant adversaries, and deep customisation features.
Conduit 2 introduces Team Invasion Mode, the new co-op mode where players will be able to battle side-by-side with up to four friends on the same screen. Additionally Team Invasion Mode can be played online.
Shooting fans will get to try the sequel to one of the most loved new franchises on the Wii when it is released Fall of 2010. Check out the Boxart and tell us what you think about it in the comments below.
Explodemon! is a 2.5D platform action game brought kicking and screaming into the HD era. Influenced by classic Japanese games from the golden era of the SNES, players use Explodemon’s self-destructive nature to combat enemies and fly through the air, all while solving a huge variety of physics-based puzzles (and, naturally, causing incalculable collateral damage).
When the peaceful planet of Nibia is attacked by the malicious Vortex forces, the fate of the star system is thrust into the one pair of hands it shouldn’t be: the malfunctioning Guardian Robot, Explodemon. His comic quest to repel the onslaught and restore peace will take him across three distinct planets over 12 levels, with new abilities and gameplay mechanics introduced throughout.
“We’re really excited to finally be able to reveal Explodemon! to the world,” explains design director Jonathan Biddle. “The game is chock full of gameplay nuggets carefully mined from the greatest titles ever to grace our joysticks. Whether you’re experiencing its intense combat, head-scratching puzzles, or classic platforming, you’ll find we’ve combined all of these elements into an addictive and elegantly balanced package.”
Explodemon! is unrelenting, hard-core brain-tickling action for those who grew up playing platformers, as well as those who’ll discover just how awesome they are an will be hitting the Network during Q4 of this year.
In a random personal tweet I lamented the fact that Explodemon! would only be appearing on the Playstation Network and not also on the Xbox LIVE Arcade. Not to get anybody’s hopes up, but Curve Studios intercepted my tweet and responded with the following: “D’awww. Who Knows? We aren’t ruling it out!”
Our beloved worms are back with Worms Reloaded for the PC, a game that merges some of the best 2D Worms features in an all-new game.
Worms Reloaded sports a large amount of new additions to almost every facet of the gameplay experience. Over 60 single-player missions (including new Warzone Campaign and Bodycount Mode), a fully featured landscape creator, Steam Achievements, Leaderboards, 45+ plus weapons spanning the entire Worms series and a huge currency based customization system – all wrapped up in HD quality visuals – means that Worms Reloaded will be a highly enjoyable experience, whether playing alone or with friends. The game main features are:
EXTENSIVE SINGLE-PLAYER CONTENT:
Campaign mode. Play through 35 single-player missions as well as 30 more in the Warzone Campaign that is tuned for advanced players.
Bodycount mode! How will you survive with having just one worm pitched against never ending spawning enemy worms that get increasingly tougher? Compete against friends in the scored leaderboard.
Training Mode. Comprehensive tactics tutorage that includes 3 tutorials and 3 different firing ranges.
ONLINE AND LOCAL MULTI-PLAYER:
Up to 4-player online and local multiplayer action – with full Steamworks support, for pain free game updates, friends-lists, leaderboards, achievements and chat.
Leaderboards! Multiple different leaderboards to track different game types and stats. These can be sorted globally or by friends enabling and encouraging competition between friends.
MASSIVELY INCREASED CUSTOMISATION:
Wild customisation and personalization – change appearance of worm skin, choose victory dances, gravestones, voices, HUD, title and over 70 different cute, funny and downright stupid hats!
Shop ‘til you drop! Players can buy hats, landscapes, weapons, missions, forts and gravestones with currency awarded for completing single player campaigns.
Over 70 speechbanks – 50 re-mastered from the classics and over 20 new speech banks including the insane Cheese sound set!
A range of great classic and new custom levels to play on, plus make your own!
NEW FULLY FEATURED LANDSCAPE CREATION TOOL:
Fully featured landscape editor including the welcome return of bridges and the ability to import your own custom levels into game so you can share your creation with friends and play online. Add your own start positions, mines and scheme to effectively create wild new play modes and styles of game.
All new vertical landscapes – to take the battle to new heights!
The scheme editor enables the changing of all aspects of the game to fit your own style, including new random objects such as the sentry guns and electro magnets, and a new fire hazard.
WORMS™ WEAPONRY AND UTILITIES:
47 weapons and utilities including classic weapons from Worms™, Worms™ 2, Armageddon, World Party and the recent Open Warfare series as well as 14 brand new weapons!
New weapons include Super Bunker Buster, Ferrets, Poison Strike, Worship, Sentry Gun, Electromagnet, Buffalo of Lies plus new persistent fire and surprise Easter Eggs!
Classic Weapons returning include Armageddon, Concrete Donkey, Napalm Strike and yes, the Holy Hand Grenade!
GAME MODES:
Select from a range of classic Worms™ game modes and new modes for this edition – Crate/Shopper modes, BnG (Bazooka and Grenade), Forts and Rope Racing.
Use the customisation tools to make your own mode!
HIGH DEFINITION VISUALS:
13 HD graphical themes for millions of random levels – never play the same game twice!
Worms™ has never looked this good with all new High Definition landscape artwork – based on the most loved Worms™ game ever made.
Widescreen support, optional blur effect for backgrounds, 16 specially designed forts for the fantastic Fort mode.
PC SPECIFIC CONTROLS:
User defined controls with classic settings as standard.
Function key support for fast access to common weapons.
Works with compatible USB gamepad.
It also runs on all modern Windows Operating Systems.
“Worms Reloaded has been a labour of love for the team given the legacy of 2D PC Worms titles such as Worms 2, Worms Armageddon etc. It has been almost 10 years since the last 2D game was released on personal computers. In bringing Worms Reloaded to PC, we’ve reintroduced so much of what gamers loved about the good old days, and it’s fitting that it is also the first Worms game we’ve self-published since the early games. We are very much looking forward to supporting the game through the community on Steam as well as our own Facebook page.” – Martyn Brown, iconic figure in the world of Worms and Business Development Director at Team17
We all know that this week everybody’s hyped up for Starcraft 2. And it’s normal, but that doesn’t mean you don’t have to check out Creative Assembly’s new RTS game, Shogun 2: Total War.
The action is taking place during the 16th century in Japan, the player taking control of a daimyo clan lord with a burning wish: becoming a shogun.
Let’s not forget the good times we had with the first Shogun: Total War. This sequel seems to step on it’s brother’s footsteps, because the trailer is very good-looking, with gameplay footage ONLY! So by the looks of it, we should get ready for some epic battles…
With the release date coming closer and closer each day, Microsoft and Bungie released their new Halo: Reach trailer, for our viewing satisfaction.
If you were already hyped up for the game, you will be even more now, because this is one of those really well-made trailers, showing in-game content and a choice of music that will make you scream “I AM THE ONE !
Sega’s remake of their classic RPG from 1992 has made its way onto your portable iPhone, and it definitely has made the jump of 18 years well. Sure the game has seen remakes before both on the Dreamcast and on the Sonic’s Ultimate Genesis Collection that came out in 2009. But now you have the chance to carry it around on your person and jump into the action whenever you wish!
You will be playing as a young swordsman that must lead your allies to battle against the dark forces of Runefaust and bring peace back to the world of Rune. Thousands of years in the past the Dark Dragon was defeated by legendary warriors and driven from this dimension. Could these evil forces be the Dark Dragon returning to the world to attempt to take over the world again? It all falls to you to save the world.
Expect to see the following features when your playing the game:
Select from 29 unique characters to form your team of 11.
Explore eight intriguing chapters and fight in 30 turn-based strategy battles.
Defeat 43 monsters and 10 fearsome bosses.
Find or buy 34 weapons, equip seven magical rings, collect items and cast 32 magical spells.
Unlock two secret costumes for the MAGE characters Tao and Anri.
Play either the US or Japanese version of the game by switching your device’s language
If this happens to fit your fancy then you can buy it now for the price of $4.19! The fact you can create such a large fighting force and do battle at one time is definitely a plus for me, as recruiting soldiers to fight alongside me is always one of my favorite parts of an RPG.
