Well, looks like the month of December is quite the iPhone/iPod gaming month. Check out http://appventcalendar.com/ for a free game on the App store each day of the month! From the easy and cute finger swiping Snorkeling, to the puzzle game Totem, there are some creative and interesting apps to be had here. Enjoy!
So I finally broke down and bought an iPhone. Which of course means I get a new gaming platform that lets me sneak in sessions at work. Hey, some people go outside to smoke, I like to relax with a little touch and shoot gameplay.
The first game I bought was Metal Gear Solid Touch. So far I'm very pleased with this game. The story is just a rehash of Metal Gear Solid 4 Guns of The Patriots, but the gameplay is intuitive enough for using your fingers and the product quality is top notch as well. I'll start another post once I've finished the game for my impressions, but in the meantime here are some screenshots.
Tap anywhere on the screen to show off Snake's trusty M4 to the PMC troops.
Pinch the screen to zoom in for a sniper view.
Yup, (Frank) Drebin points are back. And seriously, a picture of Sunny is 100,000 points. Sunny? She's the most expensive image? Why not a Meryl and Mei Ling make out or something?
I'm a big Doom fan so I also broke down and paid $10 for Doom Resurection. A bit expensive for an iPhone game, but the quality from just the first few levels is superb.
You get your own Navi in Doom, how cute.
I wish I was joking, but this guy seriously wants to give you a big squishy hug.
We are not special enough to go to E3 because we're not a game developer or member of a game publishing company, but a lowly consumer who can only watch from the sidelines and fantasize. Thankfully, there is enough coverage on the 'net to allow us to vicariously experience the show.
Antoninus' Top Five Picks:
LEFT 4 DEAD 2 No. 5
Left 4 Dead 2 already? Valve, creating a sequel just one year after the release of the first game? What's the matter with these people? We're still busy trying to enjoy the first game, dammit!
MASS EFFECT No. 4
Fourteen years ago, no one would have probably guessed that two Canadian medical physicians, Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk would become highly successful game developers. Their previous games, which were mere cult PC followings in the late 1990s and early 2000s, have now become highly successful console games with a growing fan base. Mass Effect, released in 2007, was a representation of just how far they've come as gaming visionaries. The game provided a cinematic experience, the character advancement of role-playing games, and action on par with shooters, thereby providing the ultimate knockout combination of a game. Despite these features, fans were disappointed with some of its weaknesses, including a lack of different types of weapons within each weapon category (e.g. "different" assault rifles all seemed identical to each other and "different" shotguns all seemed the same, with the only differences being in their statistics). Fans were also disappointed with the "cookie-cutter dungeons" - many of the blueprints for these dungeons were identical and merely featured different props to distinguish between them. It seems BioWare has taken all these criticisms to heart and have decided to create an even better experience in its sequel.
DRAGON AGE: ORIGINS No. 3
Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk's BioWare are a busy bunch. In addition to Mass Effect, they are creating the "spiritual successor," as they call it, to the Baldur's Gate series. The game will only be available for the PC and the XBox 360, which is highly unfortunate because this looks to be a very epic game for all you Lord of the Rings lovers out there. Trademark BioWare features will exist within the game, including romance, epic battles, treacherous plots, and decisions that you make which result in complex consequences. The PC version will include a toolset that allows players to create their own campaigns and dungeons - similar to their Neverwinter Nights PC franchise.
GOD OF WAR III No. 2
God of War III "picks up where God of War II left off" as Steve Caterson, the producer for the game states. And it looks to be just as bloody, lusty, and gloriously fun as its predecessors. The game footage shows many juicy clips of Kratos doing what he does best - kicking ass. And the best part is that it's easy to get into the game and is "accessible," as he says in the video. While I have yet to play the previous two God of War games (you can begin throwing rocks at me now) everyone I know has stated their love for the series, and it looks to be amazing. And for you PS3 owners, the game will arrive exclusively for the PS3 only. Take that, Microsoft!
MODERN WARFARE 2 No. 1
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare was probably my all-time favorite single player first-person shooter, with a simple but hyper-realistic plot, high quality presentation that almost fools you into believing you're a main character in a movie, and situations and firefights that immerse you in immense tension. And, for a change, it doesn't take place in World War II. The sequel, which is in development, continues to create a lot of hype, and this video shows us why.
Well, not really. I suspect it's only the beginning. We sat there, furiously clicking the refresh button only to see that thousands+ others were frustratingly eating away at the bandwith. Apparently Phil thought opening 6 tabs trying to download it in each one would help the issue.
Well, some are speculating that the "e" is an "@". I say nay, good sirs. Though it makes more sense than the "5E3e" or "SE3e". Either way, guess we have to sit in suspense until E3 to hear any more about the Kojima project.
So what new games have got you salivating and marking days down in the calendar?
1. Heavy Rain - PS3 Exclusive Have you played Fahrenheit (Indigo Prophecy in the US)? How about Omikron: The Nomad Soul on my good old friend the Dreamcast? Quantic Dream delivers more than just a series of images on the screen; they have the power to excite your imagination and create unique relationships with characters. Heavy Rain is a must buy for me and I seriously can not wait for this release.
Just...freaking awesome.
2. Trine - PS3 and PC A little known title I want to shoe horn into the newly created Little Big Planet genre, but I think Trine has a unique touch for co-op platforming. With a mix of Dungeon and Dragons class types and puzzles requiring real cooperation, I think this game will be fantastic for the adventurous gamer.
3. Fat Princess - PSN Exclusive Here comes a PSN exclusive that I've been dying to play, more so since the insecure chubby ladies of the net (with no sense of humor) have raised a stink about it.
The game creates a unique cute atmosphere, a design to make the game stand out, then throws buckets of blood and destruction into the mix for a dark comedy effect. Mix that with team play, voice chat and classes for an instant win.
4. Uncharted 2 - PS3 Exclusive The first Uncharted kicked ass and this one is bigger and better, instant buy. Uncharted was one of the first games for the PS3 that truly had that next-gen smell to it. I know I can not expect a whole new experience like the first one, but the much more intricate environments alone looks to add a new sense of wonderment and adventure worth my time.
5. Ghostbusters - PS3, Xbox360, and whored out to everything else Could this possible be the first movie tie-in game that I am interested in buying? I think it helps quite a bit that the movies are from an era of break dancing and a number of the original cast became involved. (Except for Sigourney Weaver, who by internet rumors passed up the chance only to become intrigued when she heard Bill Murray was on the project - but her role had already been filled.)
Now, I am a Little worried. The only version of the game given the green light for true co-op is the big headed Wii version. I'm not sure why the PS3 and Xbox360 are not including anything more than skirmish, but Terminal Reality is keeping things quiet.
6. Batman Arkham Asylum - PS3 Xbox360 & PC
Action fan? Sold. Batman fan? Holy $hiT that looks AweSome!
Honorable Mentions
1. Bayonetta Loved DMC1, hated DMC2. So it's a good thing that Hideki Kamiya (神谷 英樹）, the DMC1 director, is taking the helm for this title. Challenging game play with over the top boot stomping, hair wiping, and dragon sufflexing have me watching this title very closely. It would be an instant buy, but well, it IS Sega. Were-Sonic. WERE-SONIC, nuff said.
2. Army of Two: 40th Day Made for Co-Op games can be tons of fun with a bud. The aggro system and number of improvements to moral choices and money from contracts makes AoT:40th Day a refreshing update that might just get me preordering. Maybe.
3. Bioshock 2 The first was quite delicious, apart from the expected and way too easy final battle. The game play video for the second recently surfaced and looks very, very nice. It also does not look like much has changed from the first one as well. The major difference I saw was the ability to use plasmids in conjunction with your weapon. It just wasn't enough to sell me on a full $60 purchase, and is currently in my expansion category where I'll wait for a price drop before picking it up.
It looks REALLY good, but so did the first one. Not just sold completely yet.
4. MAG: Massive Action Game Instant Award for least effort when creating a game title. The idea of a 256 player game sounds astonishingly difficult to pull off. Little has been shown in actual game play or mechanics, so I'm going to make some assumptions. 256 players per match means 4 groups of 64 players in different "zones" where they can win certain objectives that match them against other battalions of 64 player groups. I just do not see the hardware and network capability to produce 256 players on a single battlefield currently possible. I'm excited they're putting something like this together, but, I once paid for Planetside. It can go downhill pretty quickly.
So Sony is planning to make a movie based on Shadow of the Colossus. It's being produced by Kevin Misher of The Scorpion King fame. Being a spin off from The Mummy, that movie was a huge disappointment. Whose the writer? Justin Marks. The same person who wrote Street Figher: The Legend of Chun-Li. Why yes, that is a metacritic score of 17 out of 100.
Shadow of the Colossus is one of my all time favorite games, and one that showed me countless time that I have no idea how to spell Colossus without google.
If you're unfamiliar with the game, it has a well drawn out formula that creates a unique sense of awe throughout its iteration. You play Wander, a young man who takes a lifeless milky white skinned girl named Mono to an alter where you hunt down and murder 16 Innocent colossi as sacrifices to demigod Dormin who promises to resurrect your love in a wonderful zombie revival. Yes, it IS that good.
What sets the game apart from other sacrificial zombie like stories is that each colossi is a unique puzzle, only to be defeated once the player finds their special weakness. This ruins any replay value, but the depth of each boss fight and discovery of these weaknesses is a triumph in itself. The game also has a loose tie in with ICO, another game that deserves to be played and praised for wonderful story development and personal attachment.
The Killer chooses his next colossi victim.
As wondrous as SotC is, transformation into a movie has all the marks for a horrible never ending dvd of disgrace. The game has very little dialog which puts emphasis on the solidity of the main character as he battles colossi in a unique way to save Mono for some unknown reason. Where will the dialog come from? How will you translate the epic colossi visuals when you feel disconnected from Wander? No horse will ever be able to live up to Agro! (If I ever do own a horse, you can bet I will name him Agro and train him/her to come when I whistle and gallop in the direction of light shining off my huge forehead.)
Transforming video games into the big screen has brought new lows into the world, I'm staring at you Uwe Boll. The medium to tell the story is vastly different and the main audience you're presenting to will either have no clue where to grasp the foundations from or they'll be overly disappointed at the lack of game connections.
In closing, I hope this movie never gets made. The story of Wander, Agro, and Mono was one of the few gaming experiences I'll never forget and always enjoy. I don't think a team of movie makers will every exists who could do it proper justice. And if it does get made, I'll have to be a lemming and show up opening night just because of the name. You won't be able to miss me, I'll be in the back row crying into my popcorn from the disappointment.
Damn you Hollywood, damn you. Now pass the extra salty popcorn.
So if you check out the Playstation Store today, you'll notice a new download item, Resident Evil 5 Versus. There has been a number of internet boardsablaze with the new multiplayer content for a number of reasons.
1. The content is already on the Disc In other words, what you pay $5.00 to download, is just some programming rules to reuse all of the materials you already paid for.
2. This is being released only a few weeks since the initial launch. So even though Capcom PR screams bloody murder about the release window for this being on a different schedule, they knew from the get-go where this was going and how they were going to sell it.
3. The amount of content for $5.00 is pretty pathetic. For your money, you get Mercenaries (again) with the only difference being two players are rated against each other as they kill zombies. Sounds like a mod someone could whip up in half an hour. You also get, PVP for 1v1 or 2v2. Now this sounds interesting, even with some control issues at hand. But really, Five dollars for something that would honestly take half a day to mod up with the right tools?
Capcom saying they allocated time and a budget for this content is a miserable excuse for money. There are NO NEW assets to the game, it is a simple logic update that is rudimentary at best. The worst part is the $5.00 price point. Yes, some of that pays for the internet costs over the PSN, but this is not a MMORPG with a server and database system. This is four PS3s communicating, at best, in half hour sessions at a time.
For such a great co-op game experience, Capcom blunders with an add-on that gives too little for too high a price. I am not spending my money on this sham, and I recommend you don't as well. When Capcom wants to release worthy content, I'll be ready to head back to Kijuju.
Just wanted to post a quick picture from last night early this morning.
Yes, that is 54 deaths. 54 times of pressing 'X' to begin another session of torture. 54 times of wondering when will the pain end. This is one of the last bosses on Resident Evil 5 on Professional difficulty after a full day of work and a morning of no sleep but more determination than a wall street executive trying to suck as much money as possible from a stimulus bill.
Here are two new Japanese commercials for the upcoming action RPG on Wii, 黄金の絆 Ougon no Kizuna or Golden Bonds. The first one with the golden fish isn't too interesting. The second one with the golden bikini couple is a bit more, well, different. Let's just say I'll never ride the bus the same way again.
This seems to happen pretty often since no one on the bus takes any notice.
Here is some more information and screen shots from Famitsu last year (click for the screen shots, this is a Japanese only web page). Looks like a cross between Shadow of the Colossus and Zelda Twilight Princess.
In case you did not know, QuakeLive is, well, live. Well, at least for anyone on a windows computer. *grumble*
:( Me and my mac are going back to newgrounds.com, where all computer types are accepted. -iMac slowly cries in it's sleek aluminum shell, without anti-virus software, and kick butt Unix internals-
What is NOBY NOBY BOY? It's a cool casual game where you take BOY, and stretch him anyway you wish. It's kooky, quirky, and pretty fun actually. Aside from stretching you eat up just about anything you can see and fart it out if you are not stretched long enough, like a snake, to hold it. Yes, I realize how bizarre this sounds.
One neat feature is the ability to create movies inside the game. You can create regular movies and also link up directly to a youtube account and upload with no hassles. Check out one of my first movies playing the games,
Another interesting feature is the relationship of BOY, SUN, and GIRL. As the player takes the role of BOY, you stretch him as far as he can and report your progress to SUN (which you can reach by flapping your arms and flying high enough!) SUN then tallies your length AND all the other players of NOBY NOBY BOY that are signed onto the PSN network and updates a world wide length. This length stretches GIRL and when she gets long enough, GIRL will be stretched far enough to reach the Moon and eventually other planets as well. Each new planet gives the player a new area to explore in. I'll write some more feedback as I get more into the game. That's going to be hard though since I have Flower on my to do list as well.
If you're looking for something simple and easy to play you can't go wrong with NOBY. It's a quick five bucks in the States and that can't even buy you a movie ticket anymore.
Why is that? Truck fulls of Chimera (the alien looking bad guys with six eyes - could you imagine how silly they look in glasses?) to shoot, explode, and gib. Not to mention an above average single player campaign, cooperative class online play, and some deathmatch throw in for flavor.
So why the title about hating Resistance 2? Well, this is the ending of a typical game for me,
16 wonderful kills in that game!
I still don't get why you hate Resistance so much? Ok, let's look at my all time stats here,
2,106 total kills. Which means, I only need, 10,000 - 2,106 = 7,894 for the final fraking 10,000 kill trophy! It's the last one I need for platinum.
In other words, if I made 100 kills each day, it would take me 79 freaking fraking days to make that quota! Now the game IS good. But it is NOT 79 days good.
There are also a number of issues with online competitive play that just strip the fun out of your day. You have auto aim turned on in multiplayer and without a mouse you're pretty much screwed if someone comes from behind you; you can bet that's going to happen quite a few times in large games. Also, most of the weapons only marginally help in some levels so I haven't switched from the carbine/rocket launcher combo for weeks now. Lastly, you have a meter that you must fill to trigger a special ability. You would think it would fill up faster when you are killed in order to give the player a small boost back into the game. Of course not. Those who do most of the killing, get to select the rocket launcher sooner and kill you just that much faster.
Did I mention you can't select the rocket launcher (which is a one hit kill weapon by the way) until after you hit level 15 in competitive play? In other words, any n00b who tries to join now will enjoy eating a rocket with a healthy dash of frustration until they get killed enough times to level up.
I know trophies are not mandatory. Personally though, I take a lot of pride in thoroughly finishing a game. Having one last trophy sit out there is a frustrating thing for me.
The online play is fast and easy, but it's just too easy and the game is setup to reward those who have been playing in excess of days instead of forming a team ensemble. So if you're like me and want to hit up every trophy available, save yourself some pain and look elsewhere. I fraking hate Resistance 2 and its unreasonable many month expected playtime for average competitive online play.
Previously I posted on my less than enthusiastic impression of the new Splatterhouse 4 trailer. It seems some people agreed with me. According to Kotaku, last Friday Namco Bandai strolled into BottleRocket's office and began savagely beating people with prosthetic limbs. (ok not really, but that would have been a nice show of irony for next time Namco!) Apparently, BottleRocket was missing deadlines and handing over less than stellar material . Really? I couldn't have guessed by the generic rock trailer they posted from the Comic-Con.
Read more here, but only click if you think I'm lying and have to check my sources. ouch! you clicked!
It's late at night, everyone has gone to bed and you're alone in your room with the lights off and a pair of headphones. Laying back on your cheeto stained chair you start up your console and enter a macabre world of gaming delights.
Well, that's how it is supposed to get done. But the latest trailer for Splatterhouse makes me want to mosh more than wet myself. The first games were created back in the early 90's for the 16-bit generation, but their sense of mood was nothing to laugh at. Music that bled pain into your ears, images of your girlfriend being sucked into hell, and a teddy bear that, well, let's just say I burned all the teddy bears in house after I played through the game.
How to create an eerie atmosphere in 16-bits or less Splatterhouse 3:
How to create a mosh pit in the new Splatterhouse 4:
End result - what happened to my Splatterhouse?! After watching the new trailer I don't feel like turning off the lights and huddling in the corner, I feel like cranking up the music and jumping around!
The game developers, Bottlerocket Entertainment, have a lot of work ahead of them. Their repertoire consists of a so-so teen fighting game and a poorly received translation of a cartoon series. Now they have to create a house that, well, should splatter blood and pain in all directions. (Think of holding a huge packet of ketchup in your hands, were the ketchup represents blood, and squeezing it will all your might - kind of like that)
So as much as I want to welcome a new Splatterhouse game, I'm gearing myself up for disappointment. If the latest Silent Hill and Resident Evil have shown us the future, it's that horror games have either gone bland with repetition or been replaced with buckets filled with testosterone being dumped over player a-la winning the game coach style. Mmmmm, testosterone, the thirst quencher!
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