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Archive of "Preview" Category
Dead Runner Hands-On
Distinctive Developments brought me one of my favorite line drawing games, Heli Rescue, and the surprisingly mesmerizing Pool Ninja, among a handful of other app delights. Notably different from other Distinctive Developments apps on tap, Dead Runner is eerie, really eerie. There’s no cute hopping imperiled civilians in need of rescue, no austere Japanese pool room, instead you are dropped in the middle of the worst part of a horror film: the run from imminent peril.
Quick and Dirty at E3: Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light
Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light is going where no Lara Croft has gone before – downloadable. Due out mid-year on PC, XBLA and PSN, this adventure goes gameplay centric, for the win. Be advised: this isn’t your Tomb Raider. Abandoning the Lara blueprint, Guardian of Light takes the savvy archaeologist and gives her a game worthy of a fearless heroine.
Lara’s camera is stuck on isometric as you explore the platformer and its puzzles. One stick fires while the other moves, twin stick shooter style. The simple control scheme made jumping into the co-op demo on the show floor a breeze. Arsenal-wise, you’ve got Croft’s pistols as well as other heavy firepower – even spears. Getting into the game the weapon menu’s counter-intuitive screen prompts did give me pause, but after that it was smooth sailing.
Tomb Raider fans really need to be reminded: this doesn’t look like a Tomb Raider game, this doesn’t play like a Tomb Raider game. Sure you will find some of the familiar, like Lara making use of her grappling hook, but overall this is a wholly refreshing and fundamentally gameplay centric re-imagining. If you’re thinking of complaining about the relative lack of pixels devoted to Lara’s bosom, bite your tongue and give the lady another shot at being part of a good game.
Gameplay focuses on crowd control, clever platforming, puzzling and, in the case of co-op, teamwork. Lara joins forces with Totec, a really old Mayan warrior dude – that means 2000 years of old. Totec can use his shield to boost Lara up, and it’s also a handy defense against enemy fire that can protect Lara while she interacts with the environment. In the demo Lara and I were deposited near a temple and the enemies started pouring in. Rapid mow-em-down gameplay is punctuated with teamwork platforming and some theatrics, like a collapsing bridge that Lara and Totec must cross in tandem.
If, however, Co-op isn’t your thing then there is a single player campaign. Absent from the single player is the option for co-op with AI which is, frankly, a great omission. The environment-based puzzling and gameplay in Guardian of Light just isn’t suited to AI teamwork. It would either frustrate or cheapen the experience, so kudos for not shoehorning that in.
For online types, headsets would be needed to properly enjoy this co-op. Lara and Totec can revive one another, if one of you dies then you respawn next to the other player and puzzles require coordinated teamwork. With no limit on lives, the only penalty is a return to checkpoint if both players die.
Despite its dungeon-crawler appeal, there’s no loot proper – but you do receive points for kills adding a competitive element to the co-op. There are health, ammo and gems to find, but Lara’s pistols never run dry. Mini-achievements add to the fun, and in the demo rewarded feats like crossing the river without touching the water, or collecting ten red skulls. The bounty for your efforts ranges from ammo and health to artifacts, and the significance of the last hasn’t been revealed yet.
The environments are alluring, and while the temple seemed to have some extraneous paths and areas the progression was pretty linear with all detours optional. Those are the nooks that hide the rewards like artifacts, and it seems that players disinterested in those bonuses can just plow through the primary puzzles, a deft handling of the downloadable format.
Guardian of Light puts a safe distance between Lara and less admirable forays. Stamp this one as a day one purchase, Guardian of Light is a fresh start for Lara – and her fans.
Quick and Dirty at E3: Rage
Go take your favorite post-apocalyptic open world game, pick up the crafted universe of Bioshock, make some smoochy sounds and out comes a beautiful screaming baby – with guns. We’ll name it Rage! At E3 we were taken through two different sections of the game, and both supported all the bold claims of the id Software staff on hand to show off the game. The environments are beautiful, the gameplay is badass, and I most fervently want to get my Rage on.
A meteor destroys the planet, and something called The Authority has buried people in arks so that the human race can rise again. When your personal ark goes faulty you escape to the surface to rejoin the mutated insanity that remains. The first section focused on an encounter with an old, slightly off-his-rocker guy in a shack and a combat-heavy ride in a makeshift vehicle, heavily outfitted with weaponry. Your vehicle has to be upgraded and outfitted, and the employees made it clear that our breezy trip from shanty to Wellspring was only the result of some hard work and modification.
The drive, fraught with gunfire, concludes in Wellspring, a major city in the game. Wellspring’s signature underwater fresh water spring makes it an oasis in the desert-y wilderness. It’s here that we dive into the well to stop the Ghost clan from poisoning the supply and get a real taste for the arsenal.
You’ll find familiar weapons like a sidearm and an AR, but I was most pleased when the id employee playing the demo pulled out a crossbow loaded with electric bolts and electrified some enemies in puddles. I was downright giggling when he used the spider turret (a bot that takes down enemies in range, Agents of Doom, anyone?) and then a remote control car loaded with explosives. For that back-to-nature feel use your wingstick, a boomerang barbed with knives. As you progress through the game you learn how to build different items, like the turrets or a gadget that picks locks. Once learned, all you need are the requisite parts for construction and you can build it on the spot.
The wasteland is littered with mutants for you to dispense with. The Ghost clan, just one of the game’s factions, are nimble. They like to adhere to the ceiling and pull of bullet-dodging acrobatics, so it was especially gratifying to see the effects the hits you do land have on them. Nailing the guy in the chest caused him to stagger just enough to slow down his speedy assault.
For the grand finale, we were treated to the ruins of Dead City. Since Dead City is largely abandoned and apparently more deep in the apocalyptic wasteland, the mutant types were very different from those previously encountered. They looked, well, further gone. After a few mutated nasties migrated up from the sewers for an attack, a giant, enormous, gargantuan hulking baddie lumbered out into – no, over – the space. As the id guide began to unload all the firepower he had on him, the Rage logo appeared. If that conclusion isn’t testament enough to the cruel genius of id Software, just wait until you see the game.
Quick and Dirty at E3: Vanquish Preview
Some games just aren’t attention grabbers. They exist in the background, somewhere outside the blinding glow of words like “Halo” and “Motion control”. Games like Vanquish whose creator, Shinji Mikami, had something entirely other in mind while he was crafting this Western shooter through an Eastern lens.
In this imagined future, Russia and the US are superpowers duking it out over the energy of the sun. Story goes that Russia has laid waste to San Francisco with a US-built space station, originally made to harvest solar energy. You play as Sam, an agent with a cybernetic battle suit and a team of soldiers. It’s all a bit Flash Gordon era with a retro style, Russian enemy, and our hero, Sam Gideon, who was the star football player. Dreamy!
The demonstration highlights a furious battle with the Russian robotic force. There is a lot – a lot – going on onscreen, and Vanquish doesn’t flinch (the engine is a modified version of the one used in Bayonetta). As you progress across the surface taking out emplacements and enemy forces, the environment is coming to pieces around you. While the environment attacks, you can use the environment, exploding barrels around the station to take out enemies.
The controls are almost as intense as the graphics. Heavy Rain style, you’ll be pulling off finger Twister holding down both bumpers, face button while moving a stick. The control scheme is probably best suited to someone that has never played a shooter before: Square controls cover, X is evade, O is melee, Triangle for grenade, L1 is boost (a power slide), L2 aims/slow motion, R2 fires and R1 reloads.
Cover is critical, and so Vanquish makes use of a boost element to speed up gameplay and significantly shorten the time getting from cover to cover. Cover-based paired with fast-paced, it seems you’re only supposed to take shelter for mere seconds. The speed has some Gears of War style (roadie run), but this is more nimble, more satisfying.
Weapons have great variety. While Sam is only equipped to carry three firearms at a time, he gets a number of options across the game and the weapon you carry is swapped out through a sort of onscreen morphing. Basically, as you encounter weapons throughout the game, Sam learns how to create them and you can change your weapon on the fly, like during your approach to an enemy.
Weapon variety takes a back seat to Sam’s duds, however, as his super-suit allows him to perform some impressive slides and flips as well as speed up his perception. Special moves like sliding, slow-mo bullet-time, evasion and even melee require energy and using them too much causes Sam’s super suit to overheat and then it’s back to cover.
Sam is part of a squad and being a man of many talents can heal his teammates, which is advisable as they seem to be genuinely useful. Because your suit’s primary powers are related to speed, not armor, things like cover and keeping your team healthy are a huge part of gameplay.
The action is consistent with Bayonetta and MadWorld, and what I saw and played at the show made Vanquish one of the more memorable titles of the week. I hope Sam uses his perception-altering powers to launch himself nearer the forefront of gamers’ minds this winter.
Quick and Dirty Hands-On at E3: Rock Band 3
Rock Band 2 was a fun game. It found a place in my home for a week or so, and I may have even played all of the songs – but that was it for me and the sequel that had little of the magic of the first game. My bandmates and I weren’t showing up to work on Monday hoarse from singing all weekend, tapping out drum beats on our keyboards, and so it was with that same ambivalence that I went to my Rock Band 3 appointment at E3.
The nitty gritty: you can import your songs from Rock Band, Rock Band 2, Green Day, downloads and track packs. Keyboard and vocal harmonies will be limited to the disc tracks and future DLC pending any possible, but unconfirmed, future updates. Where previously there wasn’t a clear-cut way to “win” at Rock Band, this edition includes over 700 challenges and positions your band at the bottom of the musical cesspool with the task of rising to the top.
Another new feature is the ability to filter – extensively – by anything from song length to rating to genre, even attaching labels to songs you don’t want to hear during a party or creating track lists at work for when you get home. Also helping eliminate party fouls is the ability to choose a band leader. This member is in charge of things like picking tracks, which means that when a friend gets overly enthusiastic on the drums while you’re getting ready to rock the bass you won’t be bounced back through the menus. Also party-friendly is the ability to drop-in and out of a song, but since you still have to pause for this to happen it’s not quite seamless.
Those are all nice additions, and certainly improve the Rock Band experience, but none of them is revolutionary enough to really transform those feelings of music peripheral apathy. No, that is where Pro Mode comes in. Honestly, it wasn’t until after the presentation when we got to talk to the guys behind the hardware that my icy feelings were globally warmed. The instruments are there, some work in the same way, but now they are something new and entirely game-changing.
For starters a keyboard, with keys – though you can use the five colored sections for a simpler approach. In Pro Mode however, users will have to play the keys as the instrument is a MIDI controller. What that also means is that if you have a MIDI-capable keyboard you can buy an adapter and hook that up. Just like in traditional Rock Band, the easy mode is a pared down version of a song with Expert getting you to play the songs note-for-note. On keys, the difficulty increases as you use more of the peripheral/instrument, even moving across the note scale in-game. The keyboard is available on its own for $79.99 or bundled for $129.99. Pro-Mode is also compatible with drums, which always seemed brutally true to life to me, only now they incorporate cymbals.
Squire in the foreground, Mustang in red
The guitars, oh the guitars! Stay with me, because this gets really good: On the Mustang Pro guitar from MadCatz (sold separately for $149.99) every string of 17 frets is a button, with six strings over the strum bar. The notes coming at you onscreen will have a color as well as a number to tell you which string and which fret. Later on, like when you aren’t rubbish, there will be chords. It is connected directly to the console as a wireless controller, and is some sort of mutant hybrid between the Rock Band controller and the Fender Squier.
Originally I assumed the Squier (pricing still unannounced) was merely a MIDI and, therefore, lame. How wrong I was. The Squier does use a MIDI translator to connect to the console, but each fret is divided across the six strings so that the strings complete circuits, allowing the game to know the notes and chords you are playing. The game software does not require direct tuning, and a perfectly tuned guitar is not needed for success – but since the Squier can be plugged into an amp and be used as a real electric guitar, you’ll probably want to give some attention to the tuning.
Previous MIDI instruments have used pitch detection, which doesn’t track quickly enough for the purposes of playing Rock Band (which needs to be very precise). Neither the Mustang nor the Squier uses pitch detection, which theoretically means that you don’t have to be playing the right notes, just the right strings on the right frets. Thanks to Todd Baker, Director of Hardware Development at Harmonix, for this concise explanation:
Success in the game requires that you fret the correct fret and strum the correct string (as communicated thru the game interface). Because of the technology we use in the Mustang and the Squier, we detect your fret hand and your strum string independently. This allows us to give more effective real time information about your fret hand positions as you change fret positions up and down the string.
Oh, think of the children! If you don’t believe that having a game to learn an instrument will get more kids playing music, then you’re crazy.
Guitarists may find it interesting, or they might wonder why they aren’t just playing the real thing, but for someone like me (with novice musical skill at best) this is a game-changing opportunity. Now I can play, with the potential to truly rock. Think of it: the next time someone obnoxiously asks you why you don’t just play real guitar you can now retort, “I fracking am!”
At the Sony Booth: Hands-On Move, Eyes-On 3D
Much to my eyes’ chagrin, Sony’s conference focused heavily on 3D offerings and things upstairs at the booth weren’t much different. With statements from Kaz Hirai like, “What PlayStation did for Bluray we’re now ready to do for 3D as well”, I shouldn’t have been surprised that while I stewed in my dislike for 3D Sony emphasized that with twenty titles created natively in 3D by March 2011 it would be remembered as “the year PlayStation brought authentic 3D to the industry.”
I recognize that my dislike of 3D is largely a personal preference and that plenty of people think it’s cool – but will they think it’s cool enough to warrant the purchase of a new, top of the line television and glasses to boot? The cost of a 3D television plus glasses is prohibitive, but Sony needs the software to sell the hardware, and that is what we saw at E3: first party developers investing resources into using 3D technology. That I think the technology is unpleasant and impractical makes the scene at E3 a little frustrating.
The games I saw in 3D are Sly Cooper, EyePet, Gran Turismo 5 and Killzone 3. Of the bunch, EyePet and Sly Cooper were the least successful to view. EyePet in 3D made the pet float above the floor, versus appearing on the floor. EyePet is an adorable game with cheery and crystal clear graphics in 2D, I can’t say that trying it in 3D makes it any more immersive. Your kids will get a kick out of playing with the little furball as is, without the 3D investment. It is worth noting that the delayed release in order to incorporate the Move controller was a wise move, it makes far more sense and works better than the card demoed with the game last year. It’s a great title, and I look forward to picking it up on release.
GT5 and Killzone 3 pack more graphical oomph to begin with, and in the case of Killzone 3 I was impressed by how great the game looks this far out from launch. Still, it was difficult to fully appreciate the gameplay, the destructible environments, and the combat when I was trying to wrap my eyes around the 3D presentation. Judging depth in game is improved in 3D, as is the ability to pinpoint a target, but the Helghast have bright glowing lightbulbs on their faces – picking them out has never been much of a struggle. 3D or no, it’s easy to be wowed by how much the team at Guerrilla Games are doing with their engine.
Killzone 3 picks up at the end of Killzone 2. Visari is dead, but now there is infighting among his generals. The demo focuses on the fourth level in the arctic north and features a lot of Helghast tech. Very industrial, the level shows off the game’s fierce aesthetic and destructible environments. These environments are much more expansive, and this one showed snow blowing around and impressive water crashing against rocks effects. Presentational polish and tight gameplay this far from launch is incredible.The addition of the “brutal melee system” adds a visceral touch to those close combat encounters, but can be difficult to pull off. Punch the Helghast down (or kick, or nail with the butt of your rifle) and once they’re on the ground use another strike with your rifle to finish them off. It’s hardcore, it’s intense, it’s beautiful in its relentless brutality.
1000. There will be more than 1000 cars in Gran Turismo when it hits store shelves November 2 (yes, that’s November 2, 2010), and since GT5 includes rollovers you will get to see Polyphony Digital’s attention to detail all the way through to the underside. 800 some of those cars are Standard and will show physics-based damage modeling. The cars falling into the Premium category will feature true damage modeling in addition to fully rendered interiors. Nine of the cars are NASCAR, though you’ll be able to race them on the non-NASCAR tracks. Of course, being a huge Top Gear fan I was most excited to check out the Top Gear test track, though the Toscana rally track also made it into the mix.
The addition of high and low beam settings make the day/night shifts in game even more realistic. Additionally you can use the PSEye and 3D for some head tracking that alters your view in the car, which is really cool. Incidentally, the 3D glasses in conjunction with the camera position and booth lighting interfered with the head tracking. The 3D didn’t introduce any serious graphical issues, but it didn’t really enhance the game either. When I asked the GT5 rep what his favorite feature was for GT5, he couldn’t tell me. That’s right, the man’s favorite feature for the game had yet to be announced, and I’m placing my bets on it being the track editor.
Titles like EyePet and Killzone 3 will not only be available in 3D, they will be compatible with PlayStation Move, the motion control system Sony is debuting this September. During the conference the game Sorcery, built natively for Move, showed off the motion controls to great effect. However, it was in the Sony booth that the most telling Move experiences went down. The casual games played with Move have been seen and played before on the Wii, and are essentially rehashes featuring sports and swordplay. What is wholly unexpected is the precision and effectiveness of Move, particularly in core games.
Heavy Rain uses Move to great effect. Already immersive the addition of Move controls (available to pre-existing owners via patch) amplifies the game’s intensity. Similarly, the demonstration of SOCOM 4 with Move controls was not only fun, it was precise, something I didn’t think was possible in motion control. Additionally, I was able to play all of the Move offerings while seated, which is critical for the extended gameplay preferred by, well, me (and I’m guessing most of you, too).
SOCOM 4 may well be the first core game that players play with motion control of their own volition. The title looks fantastic, and you are dropped into the middle of a ravaged Shenghai. The responsiveness of the controls, the ease of aiming the reticle and taking out enemies, it’s like we have a motion controller that finally works how core gamers want – no, need – motion control to work. It’s simple, it feels natural, and the precision will make your head explode like a headshot. Essentially, the controller gives you the feel of firepower in your hands without forcing you to even lean forward on your couch. This is technology that improves the gameplay experience, and it is those tangible steps forward that will engage the core consumer, and their dollar.
Quick and Dirty Hands-On at E3: PixelJunk Shooter 2
PixelJunk Junkie that I am, early on in E3 I nabbed myself a slot in front of PixelJunk Shooter 2 to demo the two available stages. The unassuming 2D beauty builds on the first game, luring unsuspecting players into its clutches and then crushing them with surprising and challenging gameplay.
That it feels like a robust expansion and not a sequel is more compliment than criticism. The good news for those that didn’t play through the first one is that you can always pick up here, guiding your spaceship through caverns and monster viscera on an elaborate rescue mission. Left stick steers, right aims, and use your hook to save those trapped miners.
Enemies and environment alike are pitted against you as clusters of the former open fire and the latter pours on acid. Acid, the bile of the beast whose innards you’re navigating in “Inner Space”, is one of the additions in Shooter 2. Never forget that water is your friend, cooling your ship and hardening lava into destructible stone. Even more fascinating to me was “Lights Out”, a foray through light and dark. The shadows prevent you from rescuing miners, and traveling through prolonged darkness puts you at risk of being swarmed by strange new enemies. You have to locate light sources and funnel them to the right areas, or even carry glowing orbs with your grappling hook.
Shooter 2 features that same multiplayer co-op as the first, as well as an arena mode that was not available for demo at E3.
It’s easy to write 2D off as merely “retro”. Q-Games excels at showing remarkable restraint in their design, and Shooter 2 is no exception. A beautifully crafted 2D wonder, the sights and sounds of Shooter 2 show yet again what Q-Games is capable of.
Quick and Dirty Hands-On at E3: LittleBigPlanet 2
Snuggle up with Sackboy, it’s time to get cute. While the little guy isn’t required for his own sequel (that’s right, you can play and create without the bundle of adorable), there’s still a whole lot of fun squished into the title from Media Molecule.
The big change from the first game, however, is the ability to make more than your own level: instead of a platforming game, LittleBigPLanet 2 is a platform for games. You can now craft your own games, and rather than having to tweak components into game-like features within levels, you actually get to make games with scores and AI. Or, for those like me that prefer to reap the fruits of others LBP labor, you get to play games with scores and AI, from shooters to strategy games.
The hands-on play featured two of these games, the same they showed at the conference. One was a hand-eye speed test against three other players that has you tapping sequences of buttons. The other was a collection of mini-games. In the first each player is sporting a deadly hat that fires missiles in fixed directions and another has them trying to bump each other into the perimeter.
Want more? There’s a movie mode in which you get to cast Sackfolks, give them lines and shoot. It strikes me that Media Molecule has put in a lot of thought and effort to make the sequel something entirely new. LBP 2 goes to great lengths to enhance the toolsets, making environment and mechanical creations more accessible to the creatively challenged, so much so that I actually think I might be able to make a functioning level this time around.
Kinect Demo
Microsoft has been demoing a little thing called “Kinect” this week. I don’t want to waste your time, so here it is: underwhelming. If this is the final product, if this is what we get on ship date, then gamer types like me will be disappointed. Who won’t be disappointed? Kids.
While Kinect is less precise than the Wii controls and suffers from latency issues, it will be far easier for young kids to play than the Wii. My niece and nephews struggle to play with the WiiMote (but excel at using a mouse for PC games), and they will have a blast playing Kinect. Similarly, anyone you just wants to goof around but won’t be frustrated by the motion-result disconnect will enjoy the freedom Kinect offers.
As the game works better for certain gamer types, it also works better with certain games. Dance Central, for example, makes good use of the product by focusing on broader movements instead of specific gesture tracking, which is where Kinectimals failed. It was a truly disastrous demonstration, with our guides telling us what to do and what the little lion cub’s response should be. The low point was when they instructed one of our companions, a good sport from EA, to lie on the floor on his back, hands and feet in the air so that the cub would “play dead”. Which it did. Eventually. In the meantime I was in a room with a guy lying on the floor limbs extended wondering how long this was going to go on, and really feeling for him.
Somewhere between Dance Central and Kinectimals is Kinect Adventures. In the mini-game River Run you lean, jump and crouch to raft through an obstacle course. Originally instructed to “lean” to steer, the guides told us about midway through the course that stepping to the side is actually more effective.
Here’s a video for Kinect Adventures, River Run. There is, as you will see, a lot more jumping than I’d like…
One interesting feature not seen in the video is how Kinect handles the absence of buttons. While swipes will progress you through a menu, selecting a menu option entails hovering your extended palm over a specific space to charge a wheel. Once charged, the menu progresses with that selection.
The titles we were shown are relatively simple, and I think there’s still a lot to be seen from games and what they can do with the technology.
Trauma Team Preview: Forensics Mode
Earlier this week Atlus treated me to a look at Trauma Team’s new forensics mode. One of six disciplines featured in the Wii title, Forensics lets the player out of the lab. Playing as Dr. Naomi Kimishima you examine the body, search the crime scene for evidence, interview witnesses and ultimately piece together the clues to reveal how the crime was committed. It’s a lot of fun, particularly for any CSI, Bones or other forensic types. (more…)
ZTGD Review Wrap-Up 13
This week I return after a long winter’s nap with the latest video review wrap-up including recently released games such as Bayonetta, Darksiders and Sky Crawlers.
Hands-on with Dream.Build.Play
Sometimes technology lets us down. I’m not talking about red rings, yellow lights or even the great white unicorn of failure sightings: a busted Wii. No, this time it’s my recording of my time at the XNA booth at PAX. After spending one great big jam-packed hour with the reps, six games and one of the game finalist developers, the whole thing is lost to the tech ether. My time there, however, was way too much fun to not relive, even if it lacks the punch of quotes and footage. Indie games just rock too hard to be confined by such things. The Dream.Build.Play Challenge is for independent and hobbyist devs, and gamers dreaming of bring a game to life. Using XNA Game Studio they create a game for the chance at a piece of the $75,000 cash prize and having their game published on XBLA. This year’s competition saw over 350 entries spanning over 100 countries, and I can hardly imagine the depth of quality in that submission pool after seeing what the finalists delivered.
Age of Conan: Rise of the Godslayer Preview
While at PAX I got a second chance to visit the most ill-conceived meeting booth of all time – you know, the one next to the Harmonix booth. This time Funcom’s Craig Morrison, Executive Producer, soldiered on to tell me about the Age of Conan expansion, Rise of the Godslayer. Godslayer is set in Khitai, a Far East location from the imagination of Robert E. Howard, though Howard didn’t leave much to go on. The Tower of the Elephant survives as a very memorable tale, however, and so the framework for Godslayer was born. The story goes that the young, thieving Conan went in search of the Elepahnt’s Heart, a fabled gem kept in an ivory tower. He discovers not a gem but an alien, Yag-Kosha, controlled and bound by a sorcerer. Imprisoned for several hundred years, Yag-Kosha has been worshipped in the jungles of Khitai as a protective and beneficial deity but the creature is suffering and begs Conan to put it out of its misery. When Conan (rather uncharacteristically) obliges Khitai spirals into chaos and he earns the hatred of the residents of Khitai and the shiny new title of Godslayer. Basically, lots of people are very cheesed off at King Conan. (more…)
Hands-on with Fairytale Fights
Fairytales, the cleverly disguised horror stories that kept kids of yore in line is the stuff Fairytale Fights makes comedic fodder of. In a land of fairy stories gone awry, the game emulates the Adult Swim side of things with a saccharine paint job over some Naked Emperor carnage. At first reluctant to view Fairytale Fights as more than a game caught in the wake of Fat Princess fervor, it didn’t take much gameplay to convince me that the cheeky title carves out its own turf. (more…)
Hands-on with Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time
In the Sony room at PAX, a man tries to introduce himself to me. That man is Brian Allgeier, and it’s all I can do to keep from stuttering as I less than gracefully blurt out “I know who you are.” I love Ratchet and Clank, more than most games, so I was practically shaking with geek excitement that not only was I playing Ratchet and Clank Future: A Crack in Time, I was playing it with Brian Allgeier. Actually, the whole thing still makes me geek out. For my fellow fans, I really want to keep this spoiler-free so I will address plot points only in the broadest of terms and instead focus on the game’s other elements. (more…)
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I’m Community Manager and Admin for the NewsBoiler Network, home to N4G, TechSpy, AnimeShinbun, FilmWatch and 11×2. I also write for network editorial site, ZTGD.
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