Ubisoft is releasing a Splinter Cell: Conviction demo onto the Xbox Live marketplace tomorrow! Leading up to the game’s upcoming release on April 13th.
The demo will only spoil a small amount of the game so I would really recommend giving the demo a download. For it has been told that the demo will show many new features added to Conviction that are different from the past Splinter Cell games.
Alex Parizeau, one of the producers for SC: Conviction was quoted saying:
“The biggest thing you’ll see when playing the demo is the change of pace. The stealth-action dynamic is fast paced and very different from the past.”
It seems that the game has been given an extreme reboot and will involve much more action, and less stealth. With combinations of the two coming into play. Let us know what you think of the demo when you get it guys? Do you like the way the series is going, or do you prefer how it used to be?
Part three in the Red Dead Redemption Gameplay Series of videos, “Life In The West” takes a deeper look at the struggle for survival on the frontier, from the everyday activities of life on the land such as breaking horses and herding cattle, to the use of stagecoaches and trains for fast travel.
The video tours you through life in the rapidly expanding town of Blackwater in the North, to the forts across the frontier of New Austin, to the towns of a Mexico rocked by revolution in the border territories of Nuevo Paraiso.
Watch and discover the people, places and activities that populate the vast and beautiful world of Red Dead Redemption.
Let us know what you think of this cool video. Who’s excited about Red Dead Redemption
Did you buy the normal version of Alien vs Predator only to realize that the special edition came with four special DLC maps that were only included in that edition? Well we have some good news for you, tomorrow March 18th these maps are going to become available for download, though the price is going to be 560 Microsoft points, or $7.
The map pack will include 4 different maps. Two of these maps, called Docks and Machine, are incorporated in the six competitive battle modes. While the other two maps called Outpost and Hive, will place a team of human players fighting against a hoard of Aliens attacking the base, and then inside of an Alien breeding hive. Sounds vaguely like hoard mode for GoW2.
This seems to be a common trend now, though the price may be more later, bonus DLC is being released for everyone, not just those that sprung for the special edition of the game. This is a good thing, but also hurts the consumer that only bought the basic copy, because if they were to want the full experience, they would still have to purchase these maps for more money than they were willing to spend in the first place.
Many people are conversing with this twitter account and Sam Fisher has responded to a few, albeit vague and confusing responses. What mission is so secretive that you tweet about it? (I’m pretty sure there is some form of irony present here)
Follow him if you have a twitter account, and enjoy his ramblings about a mission. Hopefully his phone’s backlight doesn’t give away his position as he wait for the enemy to pass by.
Also, Splinter Cell: Conviction demo comes out tomorrow in North America, enjoy yourselves and join Sam Fisher in his mission.
Perfect Dark Publisher: Microsoft Game Studios Developer: Rare Platforms: Xbox 360 Release Date: March 17th, 2010
Story “Agent Joanna Dark hit the ground running in Perfect Dark, an epic tale of galactic conspiracies in 2023 America. Now this classic shooter comes to Xbox LIVE Arcade, rendered in greater definition and detail and sporting a silkier framerate than ever before. Fire up your Farsight and prepare for assignment—the Dark returns…” [via Xbox.com]
The year is 2023, you play as agent Joanna Dark and must unveil the conspiracy that is surrounding the artifacts. Go through levels with guns blazing as you take out humans, aliens, and everything in between.
Joanna Dark is the perfect operative, hence the name Perfect Dark. With an arsenal of weapons and gadgets at your side it is up to you to save the world.
Gameplay This XBLA game is an exact port of the original Perfect Dark, so everything in the original is exactly the same in this port. There are a few extras, but the overall gameplay is exactly the same. Perfect Dark is a first person shooter that relies heavily on auto aim. Due to Perfect Dark originally being released on the N64 precision control wasn’t easily achieved and thus auto aim was mandatory. If you want you can turn off the auto aim, but the game becomes even harder if you do.
Every level has three different difficulties, but unlike a normal game you must play all the other previous levels at the harder difficulty in order to unlock that difficulty on later levels. Harder difficulties increase the speed at which an enemy reacts as well as the damage they do. Extra objectives are also added that gives you extra things to do. This makes the game even harder when the description of the objective is extremely vague. There is no radar or nav point to tell you where to go, so every objective must be completed by using your exploration skills as well as your skills of deduction.
Even the unlockable cheat codes have been ported over, all those codes that you played so hard to unlock in the original are available for you to unlock again in the XBLA version. 4J studios have added 31 new unlockable awards for you to work towards. These awards are like in game achievements, but are extremely difficult to get unless you look them up on the internet. The reason they are so difficult is because there isn’t much clue as to how to unlock them other than their name. Some examples are the “Magnum P.D.”, “Tick Tick…Boom”, and “Can’t touch this” awards. All you have is the name, and you must figure out what to do to get them.
There is also many multiplayer gametypes to play with your friends or the world. The Co-op enables you and a friend to go through the levels together. Counter-Op enables you to go through the level, while your friend plays as the enemies to try and stop you. Finally there is online multiplayer, where you can go against up to 8 people over Xbox Live. Sims are also available for local multiplayer, but unlike the original you no longer have to play only locally.
GamePlay Video Some Notes on the video Below:
I start off going through Carrington institute; everything has been ported including background info, cheats, and simulation training.
Due to time restraints I have to pretty much run through the first level on the easiest setting.
As you can see, I ran through all the other levels in order to get all the avatar awards. This did help show that in order to get the achievement for beating the game on every difficulty; you will have to beat each level 3 times. I got the achievement after beating the first level again on the easiest setting, since I did that level initially on the hardest.
As you can see, auto aim was enabled; you can turn it off in the options.
Each weapon has a secondary fire mode, the pistols secondary fire is a pistol whip.
On the easiest setting the game is quite easy, but the more difficult settings are quite hard since they add more objectives and harder enemies.
Graphics The game has been ported to the XBLA with everything from the original game intact, gameplay, secret areas, unlockable cheats; as well as a hand full of new Xbox live features. The game has gotten a graphical overhaul though. Everything visual has been redone. The original full game beautifully restored and back in full HD, 1080p at 60 frames per second!
Achievements – 20 achievements for 200 gamerscore.
The achievement list is almost completely comprised of random achievements. There are 4 achievements related to the missions but they are only worth 55 of the total 200 achievement points. The rest of the achievements will require you to do specific tasks that are not part of the story. Such as completing the challenges and getting all bronze at the shooting range. Then there are a few multiplayer achievements but they can all be done local with another controller. The hardest one is the new crown system which comprises of 31 miscellaneous in game achievements that have no other hint of how to complete it other than the name. The achievements list comprises of a whole bunch of random achievements that should keep you playing for a long time to get them all.
Perfect Dark also includes 2 avatar awards:
Perfect Aim – Kill any enemy with a headshot (This will happen by accident)[Perfect Dark Shirt]
Top Secret – Complete any Special Assignment on any difficulty. [Alien (Elvis) Doll Prop]
The Achievement List is:
How’s that for starters? – Complete dataDyne Central – Defection.
Both Barrels – Kill an enemy when dual-wielding.
Act your age, Joanna – Destroy Carrington’s wine collection.
Double 64 – Kill 128 enemies using secondary fire mode.
Camera Shy – Destroy 5 security cameras.
Deadly Laptop – Kill 50 enemies using the laptop in sentry gun mode.
Paci-Fist – Complete any Solo Mission on Special Agent or harder using only your fists.
Tools of the Trade – Get a Bronze rating or better with all 32 weapons in the Firing Range.
Versatile – Complete a Combat Simulator game using each of the six Scenarios.
Golden Days – Complete a Combat Simulator game on Felicity, Complex or Temple using Classic Weapons.
Prime Target – Complete every Challenge up to and including 29, the 10th Prime number.
A Friend Indeed – Complete any mission in Co-operative Mode.
…Who needs enemies? – Complete any mission in Counter-Operative Mode.
dataDyne Specialist – Kill at least one enemy with each of the dataDyne weapons.
Carrington Institute Specialist – Kill at least one enemy with each of the Carrington Institute weapons.
Maian Specialist – Kill at least one enemy with each of the Maian weapons.
Agent – Complete the Solo Missions on Agent.
Special Agent – Complete the Solo Missions on Special Agent.
Perfect Agent – Complete the Solo Missions on Perfect Agent.
Crowning Glory – Earn all the Leaderboard Crowns.
Overview
Perfect Dark on the XBLA is a blast from the past that any Perfect Dark fan will love. All the extra touches you came to love are still included within the game, such as the unlockable cheats. There is so much in this package and for the price of 800MSP it would be hard for anyone to pass up; 2 gamerpics, 2 avatar awards (3 if you count the different genders of shirt as 2), and a theme. I give Perfect Dark for the XBLA 9 capsules out of 10.
Pros
This Classic Port is very well done, and keeps all the stuff that was great about the original while making it HD.
2 gamerpics, 2 avatar awards, and a Perfect Dark theme to unlock; all within an 800MSP game.
Tons of Replayability, with 3 different difficulties, fun extras, side missions, and online multiplayer.
Cons
The AI acts extremely stupid.
The game is dark, really dark. I had to mess with my settings because I was unable to see where I was.
No sense of direction. Without a radar you can easily get lost within a level if you aren’t good at remembering landmarks within a level.
Optional
It is a port of a the classic Perfect Dark but in HD. Some people might like this, while others will not.
No checkpoints, you must beat a level completely without dying. (This could be a Pro for people who like a challenge, and a Con for those who don’t)
Even the Classic glitches were ported, for fans of the original this will bring back memories, but for newcomers it may seem like sloppy work.
Capcom’s 1942 : Joint Strike will be 50% off tomorrow (March 18th) on the Playstation 3 Network Store for only $5.50 !! THATS A SUPER BARGAIN !!
1942 has and will always be a classic, I remember playing this in the arcades back in the day. Nothing will come close to its originality and amazing gameplay for its time it was the king of the vertical shooters.
Another note : PSN store also has AGE OF BOOTY at half price as well. But this will end tomorrow. So make sure you grab it before it goes back to its normal price.
Stay tuned for the weekly Playstation Store update tomorrow for the rest of the cool deals, demos and movies 🙂
Hi everyone, DuraRoc here with a bit of a change of pace.
We needed something to keep the kids occupied as there was nothing on TV and it was raining. Checking out the Wii store, we decided to pick up Family and Friend Party for 1000 Wii points. It has been available since March 2009.
This game is full on multiplayer – don’t even bother trying to play single player, though you can, there really wouldn’t be much use in doing so. Up to 8 players can play, I think you need a minimum of 4 to have some fun.
There are 6 mini-games which you play to win coins. These coins are then used to buy the full mini-game or to play it once more during the rounds – they aren’t used to play one off mini games whenever you want.. Let’s go through a few.
Telepathy
In this mini-game you have to have the same answer as your partner. For example – Names a National newspaper. You then enter in whether you got it right or not.
Act
This is similar to Pictionary, where you have to guess the word what your partner is trying to act out.
Draw
This was a lot of fun, though it’s pretty hard to draw with the Wiimote – it was funny trying to figure out what a 4 year old is trying to draw! This is one of the games where you partner has to hide their eyes whilst the word comes up on screen.
Spell…
This one is a bit hard, especially for the younger people – the word comes up and in a time limit you have to spell the word backwards using the WiiMote. The first word we had was obscenity. Well I failed! Spelling with the Wiimote is not the easiest thing.
Act
This mini-game is similar to charades – again your partner has to hide their eyes whilst the word comes up.
Guess…
This is like hangman, except there is a time limit and you only get 5 wrong answers.
PSIMON
This was my personal favourite. You have to match the flashing lights in sequence.
As I said above, two of the games require the players to do the said actions and then click Yes or No as to whether it has been completed correctly. This makes me think – are we playing a computer game or a normal board game? I think the programmers should have developed games where the answers, whether correct or not, are left to the game itself to decide.
There is also a Duel Mode, which is quite cool. They happen during the game, either against the CPU or another team. There are 3 Duels.
Maths – where you have to pick the number to get the equation right.
Duck Shooting – shoot those little yellow ducks!
Paper,Scissors, Rock – the age old decider!
Audio in the game is next to nothing. Your host says Hi! and Hello! alot, and some yays! but that is about it. The music is catchy, but during the mini-games there is nothing. All the instructions for the mini-games are on screen.
Graphics are what you expect from a Wii game – the developers did hit on a winner with the easy menu navigation and ease of use (maybe this was for the those who have had one too many!)
What would have made this game the best value for money and alot more fun is Wii Play! This definitely is a game that could be played with people across the world – though who isn’t going to cheat and say Yes to some of the mini-games? 😀
Conclusion
I can see this coming out at parties after a few drinks have been had. The game is as fun as what the participants make it, so a noisy lot would most probably love it.
As you may have seen, I occasionally post some information about the latest things happening in the anime world, and though most of these are Japanese anime only. This one may appeal to everyone here. Viz Media has launched Viz Anime.
This website allows you to view streaming episodes that are already subbed even though the show has only just aired in Japan. Fans of the new Inuyasha or Naruto: Shippuden should greatly enjoy this new feature. The shows are shown via Hulu, so expect some commercials sporadically placed while watching anything.
You may or may not have noticed, but Dice and EA have been Mocking Modern Warfare 2 every step of the way. The video above demonstrates an example of the mockery.
You may remember the MW2 PSA that had to do with random grenade spamming. (which sadly was removed from the internet).
For those of you who have play BF:BC2 you have most likely noticed the mockery within the game as well. Although BF:BC2 lost the sales war, the developers have won all the internet fans with their humor, and isn’t that all that matters?
EA has finally narrowed down the release day for Skate 3.
On May 11, everyone in North America will be able to live out their dreams once again as a pro skater while not getting the fame or fortune.The game will be available May 14 everywhere else.
Skate 2 was widely excepted and loved, how many of you will be getting Skate 3?
