Still busy deciding where to buy Starcraft 2? Well look no farther than Kmart! Starting Tuesday and running through July 30 Kmart is offering $20 credit to purchasers of the game. Saving money is always the best idea.
Now the problem is, finding a Kmart that is still open around you. Keep in mind, that it isn’t worth spending $30 on gas to get to a Kmart and save $20 on the game.
Hydro Thunder Hurricane is pretty much the only title in the entire Summer of Arcade that includes water. That water is quite fun and enjoyable.
Vector Unit’s XBLA boat racing game follows Limbo in the Summer of Arcade on July 28th, and will cost 1200 Microsoft Points.
Check out our review of Hydro Thunderr Hurricane here.
Deal of the Week brings us all of Borderlands add-ons for half price, bring down the prices of the Zombie Island of Dr. Ned, Mad Moxxi’s Underdome and The Secret Armory of General Knoxx from 800 Points each, to a mere 400 Microsoft Points.
Citizens of Gotham are to be saved yet again, as Batman: The Brave and the Bold is getting a full video game treatment for the Wii and the DS this fall. Yes, Arkham Asylum is now the Batman experience for most gamers out there, but Brave and the Bold is catching my attention for many other reasons.
First is a full 2D experience. I grew up first playing Batman games on my Sega Genesis years ago, and this game is looking extremely smooth and fluent with beautiful 2-D graphics. Another reason is also the co-op play. Of course Robin is in, but also playable is Green Lantern, Hawkman and Blue Beetle with assists from drop‐in heroes such as The Flash and Aquaman.
Features are set to include:
If you are a hardcore batman fan or just a fan of arcade style beat-em-up games you now have a reason to check out a fresh new title on both Nintendo platforms. WayForward and WB Game’s Batman: The Brave and the Bold hits shelves in September of this year. Check out the trailer below and be sure to check out the greatness that is Aquaman at the end of the clip FOR THE ENTIRE OCEAN IS MY ARMY!!!!!!!
Yen Press, an American Manga publishing company which translates Manga from Japanese to English professionally, has announced at Comic Con that they picked up the latest hit Highschool of the Dead. The Manga itself has suffered some hiatuses due to author and artist problems over it’s own monthly run but it does garner a very large following in Japan.
One bit of sad news is, that Yen Press has fallen under hard times in stores and retail, and has turned into digital distribution. This is good in another way however, as you can now sign up on their website for Yen Plus, which is currently free until August 9th. After that, you can continue your service with them for $2.99 a month which is not bad for a monthly issue of Manga stories. The service will be providing a new issue the first Tuesday of every month, and keep the two latest issues up until the next issue has been released.
Fans of the table top advanced war game Warhammer 40k have probably already been excited enough to hear that their favorite game will be coming to the PS3 and the Xbox 360 sometime in early 2011. But what about those that prefer PC gaming? They should rejoice as well because today THQ has announced that Warhammer: 40,000: Space Marine will be available on the PC as well as the before mentioned consoles.
Travis Plane, the Vice President of Global Brand Management is quoted to say:
“Delivering great content the fans want to play is the key goal in the core games division at THQ so we are pulling out all of the stops to make this the best possible game for PC and console audiences alike.”
Then again it will be quite an interesting experience in my opinion, as THQ is developing the 3rd person shooter which will place the player behind the eyes of a Space Marine. A soldier that has been genetically modified and conditioned for years to create a superhuman fighting soldier. This is entirely necessary due to one of the industrial “Forge Worlds” has suffered attacks from devastatinly powerful Ork soldiers. Not too much is known beyond this point but fans of Warhammer 40k should be ecstatic.
I apologize for the cheesy title.
A few weeks ago, the German ratings board posted ratings for NBA Jam, which has been thought to be a Wii Exclusive, for the Xbox 360 and PS3.
This sparked hopeful rumors that the 1993 classic would be making its way to other platforms.
While no official word has been given by EA, today America’s Entertainment Software Rating Board also listed NBA Jam for the 360 and PS3. It has since been taken down.
Oddly enough, the Wii was not inlcuded.
Personally, as long as it releases (I don’t care WHICH platform) I’ll be happy. I just really need to relive my glorious days as a 5 year old playing virtual hoops.
Modern Conflict
Company: Clickgamer.com
Release Date: July 8, 2010
Price: $.99 for now, will raise to $1.99 soon, so get it while it lasts!
Story:
In Modern Conflict, you are a commander of your nation’s army. At the beginning of Modern Conflict’s story mode, you can choose among three nations to control: America, Russia, and China. The China campaign was the oddball of the three campaigns, which started off with your army taking over drug smuggling territory. The beginning of both America’s and Russia’s storylines, however, center around the nation of Guyaran, whom America has found evidence of the Guyaran government supporting terrorism. However, Russia is supporting Guyaran against America because they believe the evidence was fabricated so America can secure oil deposits in Guyaran territory. So a battle between America and Russia ensues.
Gameplay:
Modern Conflict has a very simple interface: click and direct. The game’s six stage tutorial runs you through all the basics: what units there are, the goal of the game, and how various objects interact with your units. The goal of each level is this: control every territory. It’s as simple as that. Each level you start with a certain number of territories with a certain number of units on each. The enemy also starts off with territories, but you can’t see how many units they have on them. There are also many unclaimed territories on the map that you can take over to get more units also. Each territory you control adds a unit to that territory around every 1-2 seconds, which you can then direct to control other territories. Each territory has a limit to how many units it can have on it before it stops creating troops, so it is always a good idea to conquer often.
There are two basic types of territories, those that spawn tanks and those that spawn helicopters. If a tank tries to conquer a helicopter territory or vice versa, the attacking units will suffer twice the casualities. For example, if you move 15 units of tank to attack a helipad with 5 helicopters, the attacking unit will lose ten units when conquering the territory, double the amount needed to overpower the enemy units on that spot. There are also three different types of territories, fortified, double fortified, and anti-ground turrets. any unit attacking a fortified base, a base with a wall around it, will lose twice the number of troops needed to conquer. Any unit attacking a double fortified base, a base with a wall and spikes around it, will lose four times the number of troops. The anti-ground turrets attached to some bases will shoot at enemy tanks when they get near the base, whittling down their health.
Content:
In Modern Conflict there are two modes: Story and Survival. The Story mode is rather short, the whole game only has 33 missions: six tutorial, and nine each for the China, America, and Russia campaigns. Where the game really shines, however is in Survival mode. Survival mode is an endless series of randomly generated battles that get progressively harder as you advance. As you advance through the levels, you can also upgrade twelve survival skills that you can unlock and use, ranging from larger bases to destroying enemy guns.
Overall:
Modern Conflict is a very simple and polished strategy game. There is no need for a bigger screen, because there is amazingly enough room to fit everything on the screen and still have the game easy and nonfrustrating to play. This game offers plenty aside from the story mode, as the survival mode and it’s ever-randomizing stages more then make up for the lack of story stages. The game also contains three difficulty settings and the hardest one, “Elite,” will challenge even the most seasoned strategy gamers. In the words of Dora The Explorer, I give Modern Conflict a “very good!!” rating of 8.5 capsules out of ten.
If you happen to be a user of Netflix then you know how hard it is to scroll through the various movies and TV series alphabetically to simply find the one you wish to watch on your console system. However it so happens that if you are a PS3 user, you now have the option to easily skim through the various movies and TV series with the help of a search option added in today.
Joystiq managed to get a screenshot of the new update, and has shown that the search is definitely a handly little feature. Though those of us that use the Xbox 360 will still need to wait until November for this update, and the Wii has had zero mention of this being added in.
If you want to play along with some of your favorite DC heroes or villains then your chance is coming up soon. Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) has released at Comic Con that DC Universe Online will be available for purchase to US residents starting November 2nd.
You can even go to the game’s official web site now and sign up to enter into the beta mode for the game, though your acceptance is not entirely guaranteed. If you happen to want to see more about the game, then watch below for a very long trailer from IGN. If I had the spare cash for this one, I would definitely be jumping at the chance. Even though you can not make your own superhero or villain you will be constantly surrounded by their presence within the universe.
Game Name: Hydro Thunder Hurricane
Platforms: Xbox 360
Publisher(s): Xbox LIVE Arcade
Developer(s): Vector Unit
Genre(s): Racing Games
Release Date: 7-28-2010
ESRB Rating: E (Everyone) Alcohol Reference Mild Fantasy Violence
Price: 1200MSP ($15 USD)
Story
“Hydro Thunder Hurricane™ is the all new, full-featured sequel to the legendary arcade racer. Featuring rocket-powered speedboats blasting across amazing dynamic water, gorgeous visuals, and interactive environments packed with shortcuts and surprises, this is the adrenaline-drenched sequel fans have been waiting for. Pit your rocket powered speedboat against 15 opponents in single-player races and championships. Hone your speedboat skills in the new Ring Master and Gauntlet modes. Dive into intense multiplayer races with up to eight players over Xbox LIVE, up to four players locally, or even mix local and online games!”
Hydro Thunder Hurricane doesn’t have much of a story. You race through the levels that aren’t connected, and you unlock a bunch of boats based on the points you collect. Hydro Thunder Hurricane is a time trial game at its heart. The leaderboards and attempting to get the best time is what this game is all about.
Gameplay
Initially Hydro Thunder Hurricane may seem like a standard arcade racing game, but it really isn’t just that. There are multiple modes, multiple unlockables, leaderboards, and an online mode. This game has a lot to offer, it just may not have what everyone wants.
Hydro Thunder Hurricane is still a racing game. The thing about this game though, is that you aren’t really racing the AI. Instead of racing the AI you race the clock. The AI don’t even all start at the same spot as you, a lot of them start way ahead of you within the race. While you technically are racing the people, you just need to beat the time that each person is going to make when they cross the finish line.
There are multiple modes in the game. The modes include: Race, Ring challenges, Gauntlets and Championships. Races are just straight up races to come in first place. Ring Challenges require you to drive through the rings and get the best time on the track possible. Gauntlets require you to go through the level without hitting any of the explosives (this is my favorite game mode). Finally, championships require you to do a series of races one after the other and get good positions in order to move on.
Throughout the game you can unlock more boats, tracks, and skins for the boats. The boats and tracks are unlocked by getting credits which gain by coming in first, second, or third. The better you place and the harder the mode the more credits you earn. Extra skins for the boats are unlocked by doing certain tasks, such as finding all the hidden packages on a level or completing a certain stage in first place.
The game also features multiplayer, where you race against people online. The nice bit about the multiplayer in this game is that it allows up to 4 players to split screen and go online against other players around the world. You don’t see this kind of support very often, and it is a nice touch for people with children or brothers.
Audio & Graphics
The audio is pretty bad. The theme song is repetitive, the announcer is annoying, and the sound effects sound oddly familiar from a really old game. I don’t know if the audio was the last thing on the developers list of things to update or what happened with it. There isn’t really anything good to say about the audio, because it flat out isn’t that good.
The Graphics are nice for a revived classic. The developers seem to have attempted to keep the graphics as true as possible to the original. The levels are pretty cool in design, and there are many routes through each level. As you speed up the world around you blurs and while this is nice to simulate speed, it impairs your vision and makes driving the boat pretty hard.
Achievements
The Achievements in Hydro Thunder Hurricane Reward you quickly and then give you less and less achievement points the farther you get into the game. If you actually look at the achievements, everything seems backwards. The easy things reward huge chunks of gamerscore, and the hard things reward a small amount. It is nice for casual players that don’t like going for all the achievements, but for those that go for them all the work doesn’t seem worth the reward. Aside from a slight reward ratio problem, the overall achievement list is pretty nice and will get you playing everything and playing it all a lot to get all the achievements.
The Achievement List Is:
There are also 2 Avatar Awards. Check the video below for what they look like.
Overview
Hydro Thunder Hurricane brings back everything that was loved about the originals, while adding new levels, modes, and other extras. The game at heart is more of a time trial based game, where you are racing against the clock rather than the other racers. There are other racers in Race mode, but they just get in the way. The game is all about finding the quickest route through the level and getting the best time on the leaderboards. There are things within the game that people will enjoy without the use of the leaderboards, but you will enjoy Hydro Thunder Hurricane a lot more if you are the type that likes to compete for the best time. While many people will enjoy the game at first, the leaderboards are what will keep people coming back.
I give Hydro Thunder Hurricane
Pros
Cons
