What do you get when you place one of HP Lovecraft’s horrific monsters into an RPG and make him a protagonist in an RPG? Well you will have Cthulhu Saves the World which is being brought to you buy Zeboyd Games. Not only that but these are the same people who brought us Breath of Death VII: The Beginning with the same RPG flare. Zeboyd is an Indie Game developer that puts their powers to good in bringing us amazing RPGs for quite a low price.
Though this is far from your normal Heroic story as Cthulhu struggles to re-obtain his lost powers by saving the world. What happened to his powers you ask? They were sealed away by another bunch of heroes to prevent him from destroying the world. And now Cthulhu is tasked with saving the world to simply destroy it again. Quite the Anti-Hero story eh? You can expect to see Cthulhu Saves the World this August for only $3 on the Indie Marketplace.
Features listed below:
An epic journey of redemption and insanity!
Classic 8/16-bit style combined with the best of modern gameplay design.
720p! Parallax scrolling! Backgrounds!
Use magic and skills to inflict insanity upon your opponents! Insane enemies are more dangerous but also more vulnerable!
More accessible than ever before! Collect Save Notebooks to save wherever you like! Collect 1Ups to retry failed battles!
7 playable characters – Umi the beautiful heroine with an unhealthy obsession with the ocean, Sharpe the sentient floating sword, October the cute necromancer, Paws the alien cat, Dacre a senile old man, Ember the dark dragon, and of course, Cthulhu from the classic horror of H.P. Lovecraft!
A 6-10 hour main quest with multiple difficulties and post-game modes like Score Attack and Highlander to increase replayability!
All of the great features players know and love from Breath of Death VII: The Beginning have returned – fast-paced gameplay, combo system, random encounter limits, unite techniques, branching LV-Ups, and more!
Team Fortress 2 (TF2) just launched for the Mac platform, and like all the titles Valve has brought to the Mac, TF2 features Steam Play (one purchase to play the game on both the PC and Mac) and Cross-platform play (Mac gamers can play against/with PC gamers).
Those who purchase TF2 for the Mac will receive a free set of “earbuds”, a in-game item for your characters. In addition to the Mac release, a new single player training mode has been rolled out for both PC and Mac.
And now for the best part: If you still don’t own Team Fortress 2, there’s a deal running just for you! Purchase the game this weekend and save 50% off the regular price on both platforms:
You shouldn’t, but if you still have some doubts about the game, you can try playing Team Fortress 2 for free, a Free Weekend is happening right now on Steam. Just download the steam client and start playing it!
2K released a new trailer for Mafia II this week in preparation for E3.
Called “Tools of the Trade”, this new trailer represents the big pressure on negotiations during the Mafia era, how tight is the timing between some character’s life or death, and the weapons used during these times.
Epic Games has approached a up and coming hip-hop music star to play the voice for a character in the upcoming Gears of War 3. He is set to release his debut album called “Thank Me Later” on June 15th. Don’t know who it is yet? He has been nominated for a Grammy. Any idea? He is called Drake and he will be voicing the character Jace Stratton which will be a new playable character.
Now you might be curious as to who this Jace Stratton is, but with Epic providing four player co-op campaign options there will be an option for them to reach past the set storyline of past games and pull from the books and comics instead.
Epic’s Executive Producer Rod Fergusson explains a bit on Jace Stratton and why the approached Drake:
“Jace is a central character in the comic books, so he was an obvious choice as a character we wanted to bring into the third game,” “When we began casting for the role, ‘So Far Gone’ had just released, and Drake’s combination of heart and grit was just what we were looking for. Rather than search for somebody who sounded like him, it was clear that we should approach him directly… fortunately he turned out to be a huge fan.”
Look for Gears of War 3 arriving exclusively on the Xbox 360 sometime in April of 2011.
2K Games reboot on the old X-Com PC series is starting to show signs of life as they have now released their E3 Trailer for the game. Fans of the previous iterations of the game may be a bit upset due to the game taking the step into FPS format, but I’d have to say I prefer the game as it is if this will be how it will turn out to be in 2011. The game will be arriving on both consoles and the PC; so expect to see an alien invasion occurring on nearly all platforms.
The Magazines of Dead Rising 2 Get Saucy as Capcom Partners Up With The Legendary Publication to Bring The Bunnies to Dead Rising 2
Capcom, today confirmed that it has partnered with Playboy magazine to have content from the iconic publication featured in its forthcoming title Dead Rising 2, scheduled for release later this year for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC platforms.
Players that discover the Playboy magazine in the game will receive a unique and special upgrade for Chuck Greene, the main character in Dead Rising 2. Furthermore, players will come across Playboy ads and billboards that will feature specially selected issues from the magazine’s 57-year history. The new magazine system for Dead Rising 2, which will feature Playboy along with various other publications, is an evolution of the popular book system from the original Dead Rising game. Along with the special Playboy issue, there will be a variety of different themed magazines that Chuck will be able to pick up for bonuses to use to help fend off the zombie hordes along the way.
“The Sin City-type environment in Dead Rising 2, Fortune City, is a natural playground for the Playboy Bunnies,” said Seon King, Senior Director of Licensing for Capcom Entertainment, Inc. “We have integrated the Playboy brand throughout the game in ways that bring even more life to Fortune City and add to the user experience.”
TWO GREAT BARGAINS FROM FISHPOND GRAB THEM BEFORE PRE-ORDER STOCKS RUN OUT !!
StarCraft II continues the epic saga of the Protoss, Terran, and Zerg. These three distinct and powerful races will clash once again in the fast-paced real-time strategy sequel to the legendary original, StarCraft. Legions of veteran, upgraded, and brand-new unit types will do battle across the galaxy, as each faction struggles for survival.
Featuring a unique single-player campaign that picks up where StarCraft: Brood War left off, StarCraft II will present a cast of new heroes and familiar faces in an edgy sci-fi story filled with adventure and intrigue. In addition, Blizzard will again offer unparalleled online play through Battle.net, the company’s world-renowned gaming service, with several enhancements and new features to make StarCraft II the ultimate competitive real-time strategy game.
Beautiful, compelling, and at times unforgiving, Demons Souls is the hardcore RPG experience PS3 owners have been waiting for since the platforms launch. Revolutionary online features define your adventure like never before, presenting seamless interconnectivity that serves in every instance to enhance the single-player game. Unprecedented in its depth and subtlety, peerless in its relentlessly challenging gameplay, Demons Souls is the ultimate action RPG.
Story “Rediscover the grooviest action game of all time in full hi-def glory with Earthworm Jim HD! For the first time, grab friends and combine your wormy powers in four-player co-op locally or online. Explore all the original levels, experience wild gameplay, and rock to the remastered cult soundtrack. There’s even more to discover with brand new enemies to blast into pieces and never-before-seen locations. Now that’s groooovy!” [Via Xbox.com]
There is a slight story contained within Earthworm Jim HD, but it is miniscule. There was an earthworm named Jim that was being attacked by a bird. Elsewhere there was a space battle, and an alien shot down another alien causing an awesome spacesuit to fall from space right onto the earthworm. The spacesuit causes the earthworm to become awesome and equips him with a pistol. Earthworm Jim then goes around saving the world and the princess. Yes, there is a princess supposedly.
The game Earthworm Jim HD is quite disjointed and the only travel sequence is a repetitive Warp Speed rocket level. At least there is something to signify that you are going to a new level. Randomly appearing inside the lower intestines after being underwater wouldn’t make any sense. You will go from a junkyard to the bowels of hell in a heartbeat, and it is never explained why but that is just part of the charm of Earthworm Jim HD.
Gameplay The gameplay in Earthworm Jim HD is straightforward, but not always easy. The goal of every level is to either get to the end or beat the boss. Each level is extremely weird, but in a good way. Distorted levels and scenery creates extremely interesting levels. From a hi-tech computer lab with robot spiders, to an underwater sea lab with giant hamsters; there is a huge amount of locations that you will explore as your progress to beat the game.
There is a singleplayer and a multiplayer mode in Earthworm Jim HD. The singleplayer campaign can be beat in under an hour if you rush through it and the length of the multiplayer levels are dependent on if your teammates are good or not. Multiplayer is a lot of fun and its addition to Earthworm Jim HD is welcomed. The game will frustrate you a lot, even on the easier settings. A majority of the game consists of running and gunning down enemies, but there are a few levels where you pilot a submarine and a bunch of other levels where you will race through space. The space races actually get pretty annoying, but if you win you don’t have to fight the Psy-Crow boss over and over again.
The developers have tried to keep the fans of Earthworm Jim happy, and in turn haven’t changed much in the overall game. They added a multiplayer and also 3 bonuses levels (which have a special guest appearance which is extremely funny, but I’m not going to tell you what it is); however, the overall experience is exactly the same but on a bigger screen and with better graphics. If you loved the original game this remake won’t disappoint, but on the other hand if you are new to the game it doesn’t compete well with modern platformers. The experience is solid but does absolutely nothing to try to bring in new players.
The major thing that hurts this game as a platformer is the annoying controls that haven’t changed from the original. Shooting your gun, using the submarine, or even using your whip move are all very annoying. They are hard to aim or control and causes a great headache trying to use them. While firing the gun or using your whip move you will miss a lot. The easiest work around for the gun is to start firing it and then slowly move the joystick so that it aims towards someone and hits them hopefully. You also can’t jump and shoot at the same time. The whip on the other hand is a different matter, using it will just require a whole bunch of attempts because it has a mind of its own. You may be aiming one way, but where that whip wants to go is most likely not the same direction.
Audio & Graphics The audio in Earthworm Jim HD has all been remastered for this HD remake. The voice acting as well as the soundtrack will remind classic players about the original version while still sounding good enough for new players to enjoy the experience. The graphics have also been redone in hi definition. While the game looks fancier then the original the levels are still confusing and hard to master. Like the original, it is still difficult to tell what parts are the actual level and what parts are the background. For instance, some spikes hurt you while others are located in the background as scenery, new players will have trouble telling the difference.
Achievements The achievements in Earthworm Jim HD are varied and challenging. A majority of them can be achieved by simply doing a playthrough on normal. There are also a few online achievements that can be boosted or achieved normally. The two hard achievements that will take time are the “Superhero!” and “Earthworm Never Dies” achievements. These two achievements are very hard, and require you to beat the game on the hardest setting in a certain amount of time or without dying. They are possible, but will require a lot of patience and restarting. Other than those two, the achievements are completely manageable and should be an easy 130g at least.
The Achievement List Is:
Bin Collector –10 – Kill Billy the Bin in New Junk City
Atom Raider – 10 – Collect 100 atoms (without exiting the game)
Atom Jefferson – 15 – Collect 500 atoms (without exiting the game)
Groovy Leader – 25 – Be “No.1” in each Xbox LIVE multiplayer level
Canadian Stunt – 5 – Use the whip to swing from any moose head in Single Player mode
Superhero! – 35 – Get through Single Player mode in Original difficulty in one sitting in under 50 minutes
Banker Whipper – 5 – Whip the banker twice in What The Heck?
Space Collector – 15 – Collect more than 100 Blue Orbs (without exiting the game)
Super Space Collector – 20 – Collect more than 300 Blue Orbs (without exiting the game)
Snot an Achievement – 10 – Launch the cow in New Junk City
Earthworm Never Dies – 35 – Clear Single Player mode in Original difficulty in one sitting without losing a life
World Partnership – 15 – Complete all the Xbox LIVE multiplayer game levels
There are also 2 avatar awards in Earthworm Jim HD, see the video below
Earthworm Jim’s Spacesuit – Complete one of the three bonus levels
Earthworm Jim’s Groovy Shirt – Beat the mid-boss in New Junk City
Overview
Earthworm Jim HD is an awesome remake of the original game with some new extras tagging along. Although the single player campaign can be beaten in under an hour; Co-op, Leaderboards, and 4 different difficulty levels give Earthworm Jim HD a bunch of replay value. The only thing that hurts Earthworm Jim HD is the complicated and annoying controls, as well as the difficulty telling what is the level and what is the background. Earthworm Jim HD is still a fun game and if you loved the original you will love this HD remake. There was a lot of trouble put into the game to make it better than a simple remake and it clearly shows. I give Earthworm Jim HD
The trailer below shows off Twisted Pixel’s upcoming game, Comic Jumper.
The trailer does more than simply show off gameplay; however, it also tells us that there will free gamerpics, a premium theme, avatar awards, and DLC to unlock. Everyone loves free stuff!
Comic Jumper is looking better and better.
The DLC that you can unlock is actually for Splosion Man. You’ll get one free single-player and one free multiplayer level for Splosion Man. I wonder if they are adding achievements too? I loved Splosion Man!
3D Realms finally confirmed that Duke Nukem: Manhattan Project would be coming to the Xbox Live Arcade.
The game is set to release on Wednesday June 23rd, the remake of the 2002 title, Duke Nukem: Manhattan Project, will hit the Xbox Live Arcade at a sweet 800 Microsoft points.
